Chapter 28 Chapter 28 Sound

When I regained consciousness, I found my face was wet with tears.I can't say how long I was unconscious - I have no way of knowing.There is no one in the world as lonely as I am! I bled a lot, blood all over my body.How I regret that I have not died yet, that this kind of torture will still be encountered!I don't want to think about it any more.I banish all thoughts from my mind.The pain was unbearable, and I should have reached the opposite rock face.I felt as if I had passed out again—probably did not wake up this time—and at this moment a loud sound passed by my ears, like a muffled thunder.Its sound waves slowly died away in the distance of this abyss.

Where is this sound coming from?Something must have changed beneath the ground, an explosion of some kind of gas or a collapse of some part of the ground. I was still listening, wondering if the sound just now would ring again.A quarter of an hour passed.But it was quiet again, and I could no longer hear my own heartbeat. Suddenly I put my ear close to the rock I was leaning against, and I seemed to hear the sound of a few words - vague, indistinct, and distant.I shuddered a bit and thought, "This is a hallucination!" But no—on closer listening, I did hear murmurs, but my nerves were too weak to make out what was said.But I'm sure someone is talking.

I suddenly wondered if this was the echo of my own words.Maybe I yelled just now and I didn't know it.I closed my mouth tightly, and put my ear against the rock wall to listen again. I moved a few feet closer and found that I could hear better by doing so.I heard a few whispered words, one of which was "lost," in a sad tone. Who is talking?Obviously Uncle and Hanns.But if I can hear them, they can hear me too. "Help!" I shouted with all my might. "Help!" I listened, waiting in the dark for an answer, a cry or a sigh.But nothing was heard.A few minutes passed.Many, many thoughts came to my mind.I thought it must be that my voice was too weak to reach my companions.

"It must not be them," I thought. "Who else is there ninety miles down here?" I'll listen again.I put my ear against the rock wall and found the place where I could hear the loudest sound. The word "lost" came to my ears again, and I was awakened by the rumbling thunder. "No," I said to myself, "the sounds don't come to me from the rock face; they must come from the tunnel itself—probably some special acoustic effect." I listened again, and this time I clearly heard my name, which was undoubtedly called by my uncle, obviously he was talking to the guide, and this "lost" was called by Hans.

So I understand.I must speak along the tunnel, and it will carry my voice across like a wire.However, I can't waste any time - if they leave this special place, there will be no sound transmission.So I stood by the rock face and called out as clearly as I could, "Uncle Liedenbroek!" I waited with extreme anxiety.The sound does not travel very fast, and the increasing density of the air does not increase its velocity, but only increases its intensity.Seconds passed, like centuries, and then I heard, "Aksay, Aksay, is that you?"... "Yes, yes," I replied. ... "Poor child, where are you?" ... "Lost in this very dark place!" ... "Where is your lamp?" ... "Out." ... "Where is the spring water?" ... "It's gone." ... "Aksai, my poor dear child, don't lose heart!"

"Wait a minute, please. I don't have the strength to speak yet—only to myself."  … "Cheer up!" said the uncle again, "don't talk, listen to me! We have searched up and down the tunnels for you, but we can't find you. Ah! I have shed many tears for you, my boy. In the end, we thought you were still walking along the spring, so I followed and shot as a signal. Now we use the effect of sound transmission, although we can talk to each other, but our hands still can't touch each other. But don't be disappointed , Aksai."... At that time, I thought, a glimmer of hope came back to my heart.One point is particularly important.I put my lips on the rock wall and said: "Uncle!"... "Hey, my child." The voice came within a few seconds. ... "We must know how far apart we are." ... "That's easy." ... "Do you have a time clock? Get it out, call my name, and note the exact second. I When you hear the name, let me repeat it again, and then look at the second when the sound reaches your ears." ... "Okay; the transmission of the sound may take half of the time." ... "By the way, uncle "..."Are you ready?"..."Ready."..."Okay, pay attention, I'm going to call your name."...

I put my ear against the rock wall.As soon as I heard the call "Aksay", I answered "Aksay" and waited. ... "Forty seconds," said my uncle, "so it takes twenty seconds for the sound to travel this distance. If it travels 1,020 feet in one second, it can travel 20,400 feet in twenty seconds. Just under four miles." ... "Four miles!" I muttered. ... "Hey, that's a probable distance." ... "But should I go up or down?" ... "Go down—I'll tell you why. There's still a lot of space between us, and there's a lot of space between us." The corridor. The one you're on now will definitely get you to us, because all these corridors radiate from here. So stand up and walk, shuffling if necessary, and rushing down the steeper slopes , don't be afraid because you have to go to the end to find us. Go, boy, go!"... These few words cheered me up. "Good-bye, uncle; I can't talk to you on the way."... "I can't, but we will meet."

Those were the last words I heard.I prayed to God because only God's mercy brought me to this place where I could hear the conversation above. This strange phenomenon of sound transmission can be explained by the laws of physics, which is determined by the shape of the tunnel and the conductivity of the rock.There are many examples of this kind.It occurred to me that there were many places where this phenomenon of sound transmission had occurred.I have heard of the whispering tunnels of St. Paul's in London, especially the ear--the stone pits of Syracuse, Sicily, where a whisper from one place can be heard distinctly in another , and only there can hear it.

From these examples, it can be judged that there is no obstacle between me and my uncle. I had to walk along the sound path to find them. The descent was also steep; I shuffled, or slid down, and eventually found myself moving at a frightening pace, with no energy left to slow my pace in my exhaustion.Suddenly the ground split beneath my feet; I found myself falling down a straight tunnel, hitting my head on the sharp rock, and losing consciousness.

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