Chapter 22 Chapter 22 Still No Water

We descended again, this time down a new tunnel.Hannes walked ahead as before.We hadn't gone a hundred paces before the professor shone his lamp along the rock wall and called out, "This is the original rock! We're on the way to the right! Come on!" As the Earth cooled, it shrunk in size, creating cracks and depressions in its crust.This is how the tunnel we are walking on was formed in this way. Once upon a time there flowed the lava of granite.The thousands of twists and turns of this primitive tunnel form a bewildering labyrinth.Mineralogists have never been so lucky to study nature here.We can see with our own eyes and model with our own hands what the wonderful geological probes cannot bring to the ground.First there are patches of beautiful, green gneiss, interspersed with zigzag strips of glowing metal—copper, magnesium, platinum, or gold.No matter how greedy human beings are, it is impossible to find these treasures buried in the interior of the earth.These treasure-houses, because of the changes that took place in the earth in ancient times, were buried so deep that neither hoes nor picks could dig them out.

We followed layers of gneiss, almost sedimentary, with regular, parallel beds;The light was reflected by a multitude of facets of rock, refracting each other in all directions, until at last it seemed as though only a single man was seen advancing inside a hollow diamond. Towards six o'clock in the evening, this festival of "light" had visibly waned; the rock face, though still crystalline, was dimmed.The presence of feldspar along with quartz and mica means that we have reached the oldest and thickest layer of the rock that bears the weight of the other rocks.We are literally shut up in a great prison of granite.

It is now eight o'clock; there is still no water, and I am in great agony.Uncle walked ahead, refusing to stop, trying to hear the murmur of the brook--but he didn't. My limbs were no longer able to support me; so as not to delay my uncle, I had to endure the pain, but at last, having no strength at all--I cried "Help!" and fell down. Uncle turned back.He folded his arms, stared at me, and muttered, "That's the end." He made a terrible angry gesture, and my eyes closed. When I opened my eyes again, I saw my two companions wrapped in the blanket motionless.Are they asleep?I can't sleep for a moment.I was very sad, and it was even more painful when I thought that there was no cure for my illness.The last words my uncle said just now rang in my ears again: "It's all over!" Really, it's all over, because it's impossible to get back to the ground in my weak condition. thing.

The crust is four and a half miles thick!This big thing seems to be on my shoulders.I felt so heavy and suffocating that I turned with great effort on my stone bed. Hours passed.Even though it's as quiet as a tomb, I can't sleep.Nothing happened inside this rock wall.The rock walls here are five miles thick at their thinnest. However, just as I was falling asleep, I seemed to hear a voice.It was pitch black in the burrow, and I looked hard, and vaguely saw the Icelander walking away with a lamp. Why did Hannes leave?Has he left us?Uncle fell asleep.I want to shout.But no sound came out of my dry mouth.It was getting darker and darker, and now there was no sound.

"Hans has left us! Hans! Hans!" I yelled so silently that no one could hear it but myself.But when the first fright had passed, I felt a little ashamed that I should not have suspected a man who had hitherto been anything suspicious.He didn't climb up the tunnel, but walked down.If he had any bad intentions, he should have gone up.This thought dispelled my doubts, and I began to wonder why the calm and submissive Hanns had risen from his peaceful sleep.Is he about to discover something?In this quiet night, did he hear some small voice that I didn't hear?