No More Learning

My body was now inclined toward the side of the car at an angle of about
forty-five degrees; but it must not be understood that I was therefore
only forty-five degrees below the [v]perpendicular. So far from it, I
still lay nearly level with the plane of the horizon, for the change of
position which I had acquired had forced the bottom of the car
considerably outward from my position, which was accordingly one of the
most extreme peril. It should be remembered, however, that when I fell
from the car, if I had fallen with my face turned toward the balloon,
instead of turned outwardly from it as it actually was--or if, in the
second place, the cord by which I was suspended had chanced to hang over
the upper edge instead of through a crevice near the bottom of the
car--in either of these cases, I should have been unable to accomplish
even as much as I had now accomplished. I had therefore every reason to
be grateful, although, in point of fact, I was still too stupid to be
anything at all, and hung for perhaps a quarter of an hour in that
extraordinary manner, without making the slightest farther exertion, and
in a singularly tranquil state of idiotic enjoyment.

This feeling, however, did not fail to die rapidly away, and thereunto
succeeded horror and dismay, and a sense of utter helplessness and ruin.
In fact, the blood so long accumulating in the vessels of my head and
throat, and which had hitherto buoyed up my spirits with delirium, had
now begun to retire within its proper channels, and the distinctness
which was thus added to my perception of the danger merely served to
deprive me of the self-possession and courage to encounter it. But this
weakness was, luckily for me, of no very great duration. In good time
came to my rescue the spirit of despair, and with frantic cries and
struggles, I jerked my body upward, till, at length, clutching with a
vice-like grip the long-desired rim, I writhed my person over it and
fell headlong and shuddering within the car.

When I had recovered from the weakness caused by being so long in that
position and the horror from which I had suffered, I found that all my
implements were in place and that neither ballast nor provisions had
been lost.

It is now high time that I should explain the object of my voyage. I had
been harassed for long by poverty and creditors. In this state of mind,
wishing to live and yet wearied with life, my deep studies in astronomy
opened a resource to my imagination. I determined to depart, yet
live--to leave the world, yet continue to exist--in short, to be plain,
I resolved, let come what would, to force a passage, if possible, to the
moon.

This was not so mad as it seems. The moon's actual distance from the
earth was the first thing to be attended to. The mean or average
interval between the centers of the two planets is only about 237,000
miles. But at certain times the moon and earth are much nearer than at
others, and if I could contrive to meet the moon at the moment when it
was nearest earth, the above-mentioned distance would be materially
lessened. But even taking the average distance and deducting the
[v]radius of the earth and the moon, the actual interval to be traversed
under average circumstances would be 231,920 miles. Now this, I
reflected, was no very extraordinary distance. Traveling on the land has
been repeatedly accomplished at the rate of sixty miles an hour; and
indeed a much greater speed may be anticipated. But even at this
velocity it would take me no more than 161 days to reach the surface of
the moon. There were, however, many particulars inducing me to believe
that my average rate of traveling might possibly very much exceed that
of sixty miles an hour.

The next point to be regarded was one of far greater importance. We know
that at 18,000 feet above the surface of the earth we have passed
one-half the material, or, at all events, one-half the [v]ponderable
body of air upon the globe. It is also calculated that at a height of
eighty miles the [v]rarefaction of air is so great that animal life can
be sustained in no manner. But I did not fail to perceive that these
calculations are founded on our experimental knowledge of the air in
the immediate vicinity of the earth, and that it is taken for granted
that animal life is incapable of [v]modification. I thought that no
matter how high we may ascend we cannot arrive at a limit beyond which
no atmosphere is to be found. It must exist, I argued, although it may
exist in a state of [v]infinite rarefaction.

Having adopted this view of the subject, I had little farther
hesitation. Granting that on my passage I should meet with atmosphere
essentially the same as at the surface of the earth, I thought that, by
means of my very ingenious apparatus for that purpose, I should readily
be able to condense it in sufficient quantity for breathing. This would
remove the chief obstacle in a journey to the moon.

I now turned to view the prospect beneath me. At twenty minutes past six
o'clock, the barometer showed an elevation of 26,000 feet, or five miles
to a fraction. The outlook seemed unbounded. I beheld as much as a
sixteen-hundredth part of the whole surface of the globe. The sea
appeared as unruffled as a mirror, although, by means of the telescope,
I could perceive it to be in a state of violent agitation. I now began
to experience, at intervals, severe pain in the head, especially about
the ears, due to the rarefaction of the air. The cat seemed to suffer no
inconvenience whatever.

I was rising rapidly, and by seven o'clock the barometer indicated an
altitude of no less than nine miles and a half. I began to find great
difficulty in drawing my breath. My head, too, was excessively painful;
and, having felt for some time a moisture about my cheeks, I at length
discovered it to be blood, which was oozing quite fast from the drums of
my ears. These symptoms were more than I had expected and occasioned me
some alarm. At this juncture, very imprudently and without
consideration, I threw out from the car three five-pound pieces of
ballast. The increased rate of ascent thus obtained carried me too
rapidly into a highly rarefied layer of atmosphere, and the result
nearly proved fatal to my expedition and myself. I was suddenly seized
with a spasm, which lasted for more than five minutes, and even when
this in a measure ceased, I could catch my breath only at long
intervals, and in a gasping manner--bleeding all the while copiously at
the nose and ears and even slightly at the eyes.

The cat mewed piteously, and, with her tongue hanging out of her mouth,
staggered to and fro in the car as if under the influence of poison. I
now too late discovered the great rashness of which I had been guilty in
discharging my ballast, and my agitation was excessive. I expected
nothing less than death, and death in a few minutes. I lay down in the
bottom of the car and endeavored to collect my faculties. In this I so
far succeeded as to determine upon the experiment of losing blood.
Having no lancet, I was obliged to open a vein in my arm with the blade
of a penknife. The blood had hardly commenced flowing when I experienced
a sensible relief, and by the time I had lost about half a basin-full
most of the worst symptoms were gone. The difficulty of breathing,
however, was diminished in a very slight degree, and I found that it
would be soon positively necessary to make use of my condenser.

By eight o'clock I had actually attained an elevation of seventeen miles
above the surface of the earth. Thus it seemed to me evident that my
rate of ascent was not only on the increase, but that the progress would
have been apparent to a slight extent even had I not discharged the
ballast which I did. The pains in my head and ears returned at intervals
and with violence, and I still continued to bleed occasionally at the
nose; but upon the whole I suffered much less than might have been
expected. I now unpacked the condensing apparatus and got it ready for
immediate use.

The view of the earth at this period of my ascension was beautiful
indeed. To the westward, the northward, and the southward, as far as I
could see, lay a boundless sheet of apparently unruffled ocean, which
every moment gained a deeper and deeper tint of blue. At a vast distance
to the eastward, although perfectly discernible, extended the islands of
Great Britain, the entire Atlantic coasts of France and Spain, with a
small portion of the northern part of the continent of Africa. Of
individual edifices not a trace could be found, and the proudest cities
of mankind had utterly faded away from the surface of the earth.

At a quarter-past eight, being able no longer to draw breath without the
most intolerable pain, I proceeded forthwith to adjust around the car
the apparatus belonging to the condenser. I had prepared a very strong,
perfectly air-tight gum-elastic bag. In this bag, which was of
sufficient size, the entire car was in a manner placed. That is to say,
the bag was drawn over the whole bottom of the car, up its sides and so
on, up to the upper rim where the net-work is attached. Having pulled up
the bag and made a complete inclosure on all sides, I was shut in an
air-tight chamber.

In the sides of this covering had been inserted three circular panes of
thick but clear glass, through which I could see without difficulty
around me in every horizontal direction. In that portion of the cloth
forming the bottom was a fourth window corresponding with a small
aperture in the floor of the car itself. This enabled me to see straight
down, but I had been unable to fix a similar window above me and so I
could expect to see no objects directly overhead.

The condensing apparatus was connected with the outer air by a tube to
admit air at one end and by a valve at the bottom of the car to eject
foul air. By the time I had completed these arrangements and filled the
chamber with condensed air by means of the apparatus, it wanted only ten
minutes of nine o'clock. During the whole period of my being thus
employed, I endured the most terrible distress from difficulty of
respiration, and bitterly did I repent the foolhardiness of which I had
been guilty in putting off to the last moment a matter of so much
importance. But having at length accomplished it, I soon began to reap
the benefit of my invention. Once again I breathed with perfect freedom
and ease--and indeed why should I not? I was also agreeably surprised to
find myself, in a great measure, relieved from the violent pains which
had hitherto tormented me. A slight headache, accompanied by a sensation
of fulness about the wrists, the ankles, and the throat, was nearly all
of which I had now to complain.

At twenty minutes before nine o'clock, the mercury attained its limit, or
ran down, in the barometer. The instrument then indicated an altitude of
twenty-five miles, and I consequently surveyed at that time an extent of
the earth's area amounting to no less than one three-hundred-and-twentieth
part of the entire surface.

At half-past nine, I tried the experiment of throwing out a handful of
feathers through the valve. They did not float as I had expected, but
dropped down like a bullet and with the greatest velocity, being out of
sight in a very few seconds. It occurred to me that the atmosphere was
now far too rare to sustain even feathers; that they actually fell, as
they appeared to do, with great speed, and that I had been surprised by
the united velocities of their descent and my own rise.

At six o'clock P. M. , I perceived a great portion of the earth's visible
area to the eastward involved in thick shadow, which continued to
advance with great rapidity, until at five minutes before seven the
whole surface in sight was enveloped in the darkness of night. It was
not, however, until long after this time that the rays of the setting
sun ceased to illumine the balloon, and this fact, although, of course,
expected, did not fail to give me great pleasure. In the morning I
should behold the rising [v]luminary many hours before the citizens of
Rotterdam, in spite of their situation so much farther to the eastward,
and thus, day after day, in proportion to the height ascended, I should
enjoy the light of the sun for a longer and longer period. I now
resolved to keep a journal of my passage, reckoning the days by
twenty-four hours instead of by day and night.

At ten o'clock, feeling sleepy, I determined to lie down for the rest of
the night; but here a difficulty presented itself, which, obvious as it
may appear, had escaped my attention up to the very moment of which I
am now speaking. If I went to sleep, as I proposed, how could the air in
the chamber be renewed in the meanwhile? To breath it more than an hour
at the farthest would be impossible; or, even if this term could be
extended to an hour and a quarter, the most ruinous consequences might
ensue. This dilemma gave me no little anxiety; and it will hardly be
believed that, after the dangers I had undergone, I should look upon
this business in so serious a light as to give up all hope of
accomplishing my ultimate design, and finally make up my mind to the
necessity of a descent.

But this hesitation was only momentary. I reflected that man is the
slave of custom and that many things are deemed essential which are only
the results of habit. It was certain that I could not do without sleep;
but I might easily bring myself to feel no inconvenience from being
awakened at intervals of an hour during the whole period of my repose.
It would require but five minutes to renew the air, and the only
difficulty was to contrive a method of arousing myself at the proper
moment for so doing.

This question caused me no little trouble to solve. I at length hit upon
the following plan. My supply of water had been put on board in kegs of
five gallons each and ranged securely around the interior of the car. I
unfastened one of these and, taking two ropes, tied them tightly across
the rim of the wicker-work from one side to the other, placing them
about a foot apart and parallel, so as to form a kind of shelf, upon
which I placed the keg and steadied it. About eight inches below these
ropes I fastened another shelf made of thin plank, on which shelf, and
beneath one of the rims of the keg, a small pitcher was placed. I bored
a hole in the end of the keg over the pitcher and fitted in a plug of
soft wood, which I pushed in or pulled out, until, after a few
experiments, it arrived at that exact degree of tightness at which the
water, oozing from the hole and falling into the pitcher below, would
fill the latter to the brim in the period of sixty minutes. Having
arranged all this, the rest of the plan was simple. My bed was so
contrived upon the floor of the car as to bring my head, in lying down,
immediately below the mouth of the pitcher. It was evident that, at the
expiration of an hour, the pitcher, getting full, would be forced to run
over and to run over at the mouth, which was somewhat lower than the
rim. It was also evident that the water, falling from a height, could
not do otherwise than fall on my face and awaken me even from the
soundest slumber in the world.

It was fully eleven by the time I had completed these arrangements, and
I at once betook myself to bed with full confidence in my invention. Nor
in this matter was I disappointed. Punctually every sixty minutes I was
aroused by my trusty clock, when, having emptied the pitcher into the
bung-hole of the keg and filled the chamber with condensed air, I
retired again to bed. These regular interruptions to my slumber caused
me less discomfort than I had anticipated; and when I finally arose for
the day, it was seven o'clock and the sun was high above the horizon.

I found the balloon at an immense height indeed, and the earth's
roundness had now become strikingly manifest. Below me in the ocean lay
a cluster of black specks, which undoubtedly were islands. Overhead, the
sky was of a jetty black, and the stars were brilliantly visible; indeed
they had been so constantly since the first day of ascent. Far away to
the northward I saw a thin, white and exceedingly brilliant line, or
streak, on the edge of the horizon, and I had no hesitation in supposing
it to be the southern disc of the ices of the Polar sea. My curiosity
was greatly excited, for I had hopes of passing on much farther to the
north, and might possibly, at some period, find myself directly above
the Pole itself. I now lamented that my great elevation would, in this
case, prevent me from taking as accurate a survey as I could wish.

My condensing apparatus continued in good order, and the balloon still
ascended without any perceptible change. The cold was intense, and
obliged me to wrap up closely in an overcoat. When darkness came over
the earth, I went to bed, although it was for many hours afterward broad
daylight all around me. The water-clock was punctual in its duty, and I
slept until next morning soundly, with the exception of the periodical
interruptions.

APRIL 4TH. I arose in good health and spirits, and was astonished at the
singular change which had taken place in the appearance of the sea. It
had lost, in a great measure, the deep tint of blue it had hitherto
worn, being now of a grayish-white and of a luster dazzling to the eye.
The curve of the ocean had become so evident that the entire mass of
water seemed to be tumbling headlong over the abyss of the horizon, and
I found myself listening on tiptoe for the echoes of the mighty
cataract. The islands were no longer visible; whether they had passed
down the horizon to the southeast, or whether my increasing elevation
had left them out of sight, it is impossible to say. I was inclined,
however, to the latter opinion. The rim of ice to the northward was
growing more and more apparent. The cold was by no means so intense.

APRIL 5TH. I beheld the singular sight of the sun rising while nearly
the whole visible surface of the earth continued to be involved in
darkness. In time, however, the light spread itself over all, and I
again saw the line of ice to the northward. It was now very distinct and
appeared of a much darker hue than the waters of the ocean. I was
evidently approaching it, and with great rapidity. I fancied I could
again distinguish a strip of land to the eastward, and one also to the
westward, but could not be certain.

APRIL 6TH. I was surprised at finding the rim of ice at a very moderate
distance, and an immense field of the same material stretching away off
to the horizon in the north. It was evident that if the balloon held its
present course, it would soon arrive above the Frozen Ocean, and I had
now little doubt of ultimately seeing the Pole. During the whole of the
day I continued to near the ice. Toward night the limits of my horizon
very suddenly and materially increased, owing undoubtedly to the earth's
form, which is round but flattened near the poles. When darkness at
length overtook me, I went to bed in great anxiety, fearing to pass over
the object of so much curiosity when I should have no opportunity of
observing it.

APRIL 7TH. I arose early, and, to my great joy, at length beheld what
there could be no hesitation in supposing the northern Pole itself. It
was there, beyond a doubt, and immediately beneath my feet; but alas! I
had now ascended to so vast a distance that nothing could with accuracy
be made out. Indeed, I estimated that at four o'clock in the morning of
April the seventh the balloon had reached a height of not less than
7,254 miles above the surface of the sea. At all events I undoubtedly
beheld the whole of the earth's diameter; the entire northern hemisphere
lay beneath me like a chart, and the great circle of the equator itself
formed the boundary line of my horizon.

APRIL 8TH. I found a sensible diminution in the earth's size, besides a
material alteration in its general color and appearance. The whole area
partook in different degrees of a tint of pale yellow, and in some
portions had acquired a brilliancy even painful to the eye. My view was
somewhat impeded by clouds near the earth, but nevertheless I could
easily perceive that the balloon now hovered above the great lakes in
North America and was holding a course due south which would soon bring
me to the tropics. This circumstance did not fail to give me the most
heartfelt satisfaction, and I hailed it as a happy omen of ultimate
success. Indeed, the direction I had hitherto taken had filled me with
uneasiness, for it was evident that had I continued it much longer,
there would have been no possibility of my arriving at the moon at all,
which revolves around the earth in the plane of the equator.

APRIL 9TH. To-day the earth's diameter was greatly diminished, and the
color of the surface assumed hourly a deeper tint of yellow. The balloon
kept steadily on her course to the southward, and arrived at nine P. M.
over the Mexican Gulf.

APRIL 12TH. A singular alteration took place in regard to the direction
of the balloon, and, although fully anticipated, afforded me the very
greatest delight. Having reached, in its former course, about the
twentieth parallel of southern latitude, it turned off suddenly at an
acute angle to the eastward, and thus proceeded throughout the day,
keeping nearly, if not altogether, in the exact plane of the moon's
path around the earth.

APRIL 13TH. Great decrease in the earth's apparent size. The moon could
not be seen at all, being nearly above me. I still continued in the
plane of the moon's path, but made little progress eastward.

APRIL 14TH. Extremely rapid decrease in the size of the earth. To-day I
became strongly impressed with the idea that the balloon was holding the
direct course which would bring it immediately to the moon where it
comes nearest the earth. The moon was directly overhead, and
consequently hidden from my view. Great and long continued labor was
necessary for the condensation of the atmosphere.

APRIL 16TH. To-day, looking upward as well as I could, through each of
the side windows alternately, I beheld, to my great delight, a very
small portion of the moon's disk protruding, as it were, on all sides
beyond the huge bulk of the balloon. My agitation was extreme, for I had
now little doubt of soon reaching the end of my perilous voyage. Indeed,
the labor required by the condenser had increased to such a degree that
I had scarcely any respite from exertion. Sleep was a matter nearly out
of question. I became quite ill, and my frame trembled with exhaustion.
It was impossible that human nature could endure this state of intense
suffering much longer.

APRIL 17TH. This morning proved an epoch in my voyage. It will be
remembered that on the thirteenth the earth had diminished; on the
fourteenth, it had still further dwindled; on the fifteenth, a still
more rapid decrease was observable; and on retiring for the night of the
sixteenth, the earth had shrunk to small size. What, therefore, must
have been my amazement, on awakening from a brief and disturbed slumber
on the morning of this day, the seventeenth, at finding the surface
beneath me so suddenly and wonderfully increased in volume as to seem
but a comparatively short distance beneath me! I was thunderstruck! No
words can give any adequate idea of the extreme, the absolute horror and
astonishment, with which I was seized, possessed and altogether
overwhelmed. My knees tottered beneath me--my teeth chattered--my hair
started up on end. The balloon then had actually burst! These were the
first ideas which hurried through my mind. The balloon had burst! I was
falling--falling with the most impetuous, the most wonderful velocity!
To judge from the immense distance already so quickly passed over, it
could not be more than ten minutes at the farthest before I should meet
the surface of the earth and be hurled into annihilation!

But at length reflection came to my relief. I paused, I considered, and
I began to doubt. The matter was impossible. I could not, in any reason,
have so rapidly come down. Besides, although I was evidently approaching
the surface below me, it was with a speed by no means commensurate with
the velocity I had at first conceived. This consideration served to calm
my mind, and I finally succeeded in looking at the matter in its proper
point of view. In fact, amazement must have fairly deprived me of my
senses when I could not see the vast difference in appearance between
the surface below me and the surface of my mother earth. The latter was
indeed over my head and completely hidden by the balloon, while the
moon--the moon itself in all its glory--lay beneath me and at my feet!

I had indeed arrived at the point where the attraction of the moon had
proved stronger than the attraction of the earth, and so the moon now
appeared to be below me and I was descending upon it. It lay beneath me
like a chart, and I studied it with the deepest attention. The entire
absence of ocean or sea, and indeed of any lake or river, or body of
water whatsoever, struck me at the first glance as the most
extraordinary feature in its appearance.

APRIL 18TH. To-day I found an enormous increase in the moon's apparent
bulk--and the evidently increased velocity of my descent began to fill
me with alarm.
I had relied on finding some atmosphere at the moon and
on the resistance of this atmosphere to [v]gravitation as affording me a
chance to land in safety. Should I prove to have been mistaken about the
atmosphere, I had nothing better to expect than to be dashed into atoms
against the rugged surface of the earth's [v]satellite. And indeed I
had now every reason to be terrified. My distance from the moon was
comparatively trivial, while the labor required by the condenser was
diminished not at all, and I could discover no indication whatever of a
decreasing rarity of the air.

APRIL 19TH. This morning, to my great joy, about nine o'clock, the
surface of the moon being frightfully near and my fears excited to the
utmost, the pump of my condenser at length gave evident tokens of an
alteration in the atmosphere. By ten, I had reason to believe its
density considerably increased. By eleven, very little labor was
necessary at the apparatus; and at twelve o'clock, with some hesitation,
I ventured to open the car a little and suffered no inconvenience. I
finally threw aside the gum-elastic chamber and unrigged it from around
the car. As might have been expected, spasms and violent headache were
the immediate consequences of an experiment so rash. But this was
forgotten in consideration of other things. My approach was still rapid
in the extreme; and it soon became certain that although I had probably
not been deceived in the expectation of finding a fairly dense
atmosphere, still I had been wrong in supposing that atmosphere dense
enough to support the great weight contained in the car of the balloon.
I was now close upon the planet and coming down with the most terrible
rapidity. I lost not a moment, accordingly, in throwing overboard first
my ballast, then my water-kegs, then my condensing apparatus and
gum-elastic chamber, and finally every article within the car.

But it was all to no purpose. I still fell with horrible speed, and was
now not more than half a mile from the surface. As a last resource,
therefore, having got rid of my coat, hat, and boots, I cut loose from
the balloon the car itself, which was of no inconsiderable weight, and
thus clinging with both hands to the net-work, I had barely time to
observe that the whole country, as far as the eye could reach, was
thickly sown with small habitations, ere I tumbled headlong into the
very heart of a fantastic city and into the middle of a vast crowd of
ugly little people. I turned from them, and gazing upward at the earth
so lately left, and left perhaps forever, beheld it like a huge, dull
copper shield, fixed immovably in the heavens overhead and tipped on one
of its edges with a crescent border of the most brilliant gold.

EDGAR ALLAN POE.


=HELPS TO STUDY=

Describe the balloon Hans constructed. How did he extricate himself
from each difficulty he encountered? What characteristic did this
show? Note the changes in the appearance of the earth as he made
his journey. On what day did he see the North Pole? In what region
was he when he saw the moon? What did he find when he reached that
body?

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

From the Earth to the Moon--Jules Verne.
The War of the Worlds--H. G. Wells.




THE GREAT STONE OF SARDIS[391-*]


This fanciful tale is taken from Frank R. Stockton's _The Great
Stone of Sardis_. In this book the hero, Roland Clewe, is pictured
as a scientist who had made many startling discoveries and
inventions at his works in Sardis about the year 1946. One of his
inventions was an automatic shell. This was an enormous projectile,
the peculiarity of which was that its motive power was contained
within itself, very much as a rocket contains the explosives which
send it upward. The extraordinary piece of mechanism was of
[v]cylindrical form, eighteen feet in length and fourteen feet in
diameter. The forward end was [v]conical and not solid, being
formed of a number of flat steel rings, decreasing in size as they
approached the point of the cone. When not in operation these rings
did not touch one another, but they could be forced together by
pressure on the point of the cone. One day this shell fell from the
supports on which it lay, the conical end down, and ploughed its
way with terrific force into the earth--how far no one could tell.
Clewe determined to descend the hole in search of the shell by
means of an electric elevator. Margaret Raleigh, to whom he was
engaged, had gone to the seashore, and during her absence, Clewe
planned to make his daring venture.

On the day that Margaret left Sardis, Roland began his preparations for
descending the shaft. He had so thoroughly considered the machinery and
appliances necessary for the undertaking and had worked out all his
plans in such detail, in his mind and upon paper, that he knew exactly
what he wanted to do. His orders for the great length of chain needed
exhausted the stock of several factories, and the engines he obtained
were even more powerful than he had intended them to be; but these he
could procure immediately, and for smaller ones he would have been
obliged to wait.

The circular car which was intended to move up and down the shaft, and
the peculiar machinery connected with it, together with the hoisting
apparatus, were all made in his works. His skilled artisans labored
steadily day and night.

It was ten days before he was ready to make his descent. Margaret was
still at the seashore. They had written to each other frequently, but
neither had made mention of the great shaft. Even when he was ready to
go down, Clewe said nothing to any one of an immediate intention of
descending. There was a massive door which covered the mouth of the pit;
this he ordered locked and went away.

The next morning he walked into the building a little earlier than was
his custom, called for the engineers, and for Bryce, who was to take
charge of everything connected with the descent, and announced that he
was going down that day.

Bryce and the men who were to assist him looked very serious at this.
Indeed, if their employer had been any other man than Roland Clewe, it
is possible they might have remonstrated with him; but they knew him,
and they said and did nothing more than what was their duty.

The door of the shaft was removed, the car which had hung high above it
was lowered to the mouth of the opening, and Roland stepped within it
and seated himself. Above him and around him were placed [v]geological
tools and instruments of many kinds, a lantern, food, and
drink--everything, in fact, which he could possibly be presumed to need
upon this extraordinary journey. A telephone was at his side by which he
could communicate at any time with the surface of the earth. There were
electric bells; there was everything to make his expedition safe and
profitable. Finally he gave the word to start the engines; there were no
ceremonies, and nothing was said out of the common.

When the conical top of the car had descended below the surface, a steel
grating, with holes for the passage of the chains, was let down over the
mouth of the shaft, and the downward journey began. In the floor of the
car were grated openings, through which Clewe could look downward; but,
although the shaft below him was brilliantly illuminated by electric
lights placed beneath the car, it failed to frighten him or make him
dizzy to look down, for the [v]aperture did not appear to be very far
below him. The upper part of the car was partially open, and bright
lights shone upon the sides of the shaft.

As he slowly descended, Clewe could see the various [v]strata appearing
and disappearing in the order in which he knew them. Not far below the
surface he passed cavities which he believed had held water; but there
was no water in them now. He had expected these pockets, and had feared
that upon their edges might be loosened patches of rock or soil, but
everything seemed tightly packed and hard. If anything had been
loosened, it had gone down already.

Down, down he went until he came to the eternal rocks, where the inside
of the shaft was polished as if it had been made of glass. The air
became warmer and warmer, but Clewe knew that the heat would soon
decrease. The character of the rocks changed, and he studied them as he
went down, continually making notes.

After a time the polished rocky sides of the shaft grew to be of a
solemn sameness. Clewe ceased to take notes; he lighted a cigar and
smoked. He tried to imagine what he would come to when he reached the
bottom; it would be some sort of a cave, he thought, in which his shell
had made an opening. He began to imagine what sort of a cave it would
be, and how high the roof was from the floor. Clewe then suddenly
wondered whether his gardener had remembered what he had told him about
the flower-beds in front of the house; he wished certain changes made
which Margaret had suggested. He tried to keep his mind on the
flower-beds, but it drifted away to the cave below. He thought of the
danger of coming into some underground body of water, where he would be
drowned; but he knew that was a silly idea. If the shell had gone
through [v]subterranean reservoirs, the water of these would have run
out, and before it reached the bottom of the shaft would have dissipated
into mist.

Down, down he went. He looked at his watch; he had been in that car only
an hour and a half. Was that possible? He had supposed he was almost at
the bottom. Suddenly his mind reverted to the people above and the
telephone. Why had not some of them spoken to him? It was shameful! He
instantly called Bryce, and his heart leaped with joy when he heard the
familiar voice in his ear. Now he talked steadily on for more than an
hour. He had his gardener summoned, and told the man all that he wanted
done in the flower-beds. He gave many directions in regard to the
various operations at the works. There were two or three inventions in
which he took particular interest, and of these he talked at great
length with Bryce. Suddenly, in the midst of some talk about hollow
steel rods, he told Bryce to let the engines run faster; there was no
reason why the car should go so slowly.

The windlasses moved with a little more rapidity, and Clewe now turned
and looked at an indicator which was placed on the side of the car, a
little over his head. This instrument showed the depth to which he had
descended, but he had not looked at it before, for if anything would
make him nervous, it would be the continual consideration of the depth
to which he had descended.

The indicator showed that he had gone down fourteen and one-eighth
miles. Clewe turned and sat stiffly in his seat. He glanced down and saw
beneath him only an illuminated hole, fading away at the bottom. Then he
turned to speak to Bryce, but to his surprise, he could think of nothing
to say. After that he lighted another cigar and sat quietly.

Some minutes passed--he did not know how many--and he looked down
through the gratings in the floor of the car. The electric light
streamed downward through a deep [v]crevice, which did not now fade away
into nothingness, but ended in something dark and glittering. Then, as
he came nearer and nearer to this glittering thing, Clewe saw that it
was his automatic shell, lying on its side; only a part of it was
visible through the opening of the shaft which he was descending. In an
instant, as it seemed to him, the car emerged from the shaft, and he
seemed to be hanging in the air--at least there was nothing he could see
except that great shell, lying some forty feet below him. But it was
impossible that the shell should be lying on the air! He rang to stop
the car.

"Anything the matter? " cried Bryce.

"Nothing at all," Clewe replied. "It's all right; I am near the
bottom. "

In a state of the highest nervous excitement, Clewe gazed about him. He
was no longer in a shaft; but where was he? Look around on what side he
would, he saw nothing but the light going out from his lamps, light
which seemed to extend indefinitely all about him. There appeared to be
no limit to his vision in any direction. Then he leaned over the side of
his car and looked downward. There lay the great shell directly under
him, although under it and around it, extending as far beneath it as it
extended in every other direction, shone the light from his own lamp.
Nevertheless, that great shell, weighing many tons, lay as if it rested
upon the solid ground!

After a few moments, Clewe shut his eyes; they pained him. Something
seemed to be coming into them like a fine frost in a winter wind. Then
he called to Bryce to let the car descend very slowly. It went down,
down, gradually approaching the great shell. When the bottom of the car
was within two feet of it, Clewe rang to stop. He looked down at the
complicated machine he had worked upon so long, with something like a
feeling of affection. This he knew; it was his own. Gazing upon its
familiar form, he felt that he had a companion in this region of
unreality.

Pushing back the sliding door of the car, Clewe sat upon the bottom and
cautiously put out his feet and legs, lowering them until they touched
the shell. It was firm and solid. Although he knew it must be so, the
immovability of the great mass of iron gave him a sudden shock of
mysterious fear. How could it be immovable when there was nothing under
it--when it rested on air?

But he must get out of that car, he must explore, he must find out.
There certainly could be no danger so long as he clung to the shell.

He cautiously got out of the car and let himself down upon the shell. It
was not a pleasant surface to stand on, being uneven, with great spiral
ribs, and Clewe sat down upon it, clinging to it with his hands.
Presently he leaned over to one side and looked beneath him. The shadows
of that shell went down, down, down into space, until it made him sick
to look at them. He drew back quickly, clutched the shell with his arms,
and shut his eyes. He felt as if he were about to drop with it into a
measureless depth of atmosphere.

[Illustration: He Put Out One Foot]

But he soon raised himself. He had not come down there to be frightened,
to let his nerves run away with him. He had come to find out things.
What was it that this shell rested upon? Seizing two of the ribs with a
strong clutch, he let himself hang over the sides of the shell until his
feet were level with its lower side. They touched something hard. He
pressed them downward; it was very hard. He raised himself and stood
upon the substance which supported the shell. It was as solid as any
rock. He looked down and saw his shadow stretching far beneath him. It
seemed as if he were standing upon [v]petrified air. He put out one foot
and moved a little, still holding on to the shell. He walked, as if upon
solid air, to the foremost end of the long [v]projectile. It relieved
him to turn his thoughts from what was around him to this familiar
object. He found its conical end shattered.

After a little he slowly made his way back to the other end of the
shell, and now his eyes became somewhat accustomed to the great radiance
about him. He thought he could perceive here and there faint signs of
long, nearly horizontal lines--lines of different shades of light. Above
him, as if it hung in the air, was the round, dark hole through which he
had descended.

He rose, took his hands from the shell, and made a few steps. He trod
upon a horizontal surface, but in putting one foot forward, he felt a
slight incline. It seemed to him, that he was about to slip downward!
Instantly he retreated to the shell and clutched it in a sudden frenzy
of fear.

Standing thus, with his eyes still wandering, he heard the bell of the
telephone ring. Without hesitation he mounted the shell and got into the
car. Bryce was calling him.

"Come up," he said. "You have been down there long enough. No matter
what you have found, it is time for you to come up. "

"All right," said Roland. "You can haul me up, but go very slowly at
first. "

The car rose. When it reached the orifice in the top of the cave of
light, Clewe heard the conical steel top grate slightly as it touched
the edge, for the car was still swinging a little from the motion given
to it by his entrance; but it soon hung perfectly vertical and went
silently up the shaft.

Seated in the car, which was steadily ascending the great shaft, Roland
Clewe took no notice of anything about him. He did not look at the
brilliantly lighted interior of the shaft; he paid no attention to his
instruments; he did not consult his watch, or glance at the dial which
indicated the distance he had traveled. Several times the telephone bell
rang, and Bryce inquired how he was getting along; but these questions
he answered as briefly as possible, and sat looking down at his knees
and seeing nothing.

When he was half-way up, he suddenly became conscious that he was very
hungry. He hurriedly ate some sandwiches and drank some water, and again
gave himself up entirely to mental labor. When, at last, the noise of
machinery above him and the sound of voices aroused him from his
abstraction, and the car emerged upon the surface of the earth, Clewe
hastily slid back the door and stepped out. At that instant he felt
himself encircled by a pair of arms. Bryce was near by, and there were
other men by the engines, but the owner of those arms thought nothing
of this.

"Margaret! " cried Clewe, "how came you here? "

"I have been here all the time," she exclaimed; "or, at least, nearly
all the time. " And as she spoke she drew back and looked at him, her
eyes full of happy tears. "Mr. Bryce telegraphed to me the instant he
knew you were going down, and I was here before you had descended
half-way. "

"What! " he cried. "And all those messages came from you? "

"Nearly all," she answered. "But tell me, Roland--tell me; have you been
successful? "

"I am successful," he answered. "I have discovered everything! "

Bryce came forward.

"I will speak to you all very soon," said Clewe. "I can't tell you
anything now. Margaret, let us go. I wish to talk to you, but not until
I have been to my office. I will meet you at your house in a very few
minutes. " And with that he left the building and fairly ran to his
office.

A quarter of an hour later Roland entered Margaret's library, where she
sat awaiting him. He carefully closed the doors and windows. They sat
side by side upon the sofa.

"Now, Roland," she said, "I cannot wait one second longer. What is it
that you have discovered? "

"When I arrived at the bottom of the shaft," he began, "I found myself
in a cleft, I know not how large, made in a vast mass of transparent
substance, hard as the hardest rock and as transparent as air in the
light of my electric lamps. My shell rested securely upon this
substance.