Chapter 42 Chapter 42 Our Last Meal

I think it was ten o'clock at night.After this last encounter my first sense organ to function was hearing.I feel that silence has replaced the roar of the sea that has been filling my ears for a long time.Then I heard my uncle say: "We're going up." "What do you mean?" I yelled. "Yes, up, up." I stretched out my hand to touch the rock wall; I drew it back and found that it was bleeding.We are going up very fast. "Torch! Torch!" shouted the professor, and Hannes managed to light it with difficulty.As we ascended, the flames flickered downwards, but still gave off enough light to illuminate the whole scene.

"Exactly as I thought," said my uncle, "we were in a narrow hole not more than twenty feet in diameter. The water, having washed to the bottom of the hole, rose again, to the level of its level. We It was brought up with it." "Where are you taking it?" "I don't know. But be prepared that anything can happen. We're going up at ten feet a second, or six hundred a minute, at a rate of ten and a half miles an hour, I reckon. , we can rise to the ground very quickly." "Yes, if nothing stands in our way, and there is no exit from the well. But if the well is plugged at one end, and if the air is compressed more and more under the pressure of the water, we shall be compressed." died!"

"Aksai," the professor replied very calmly, "although we are in an almost hopeless situation, we are not hopeless. I think there will be a way out. We may die at any time, but we may also live at any time." possible. So we must be ready to take advantage of any chance of escape." "What shall we do?" "You should eat something to restore your strength." As soon as I heard these words, I looked at my uncle in horror.I finally had to say what I didn't want to say: "Eat something?" I repeated. "Yes, don't waste time." He said to Hannes in Danish, and Hannes shook his head.

"What?" cried the uncle. "Have we run out of all our provisions?" "Yes, that's all that's left—a piece of dried meat for three!" Uncle looked at me, unwilling to understand what I said. "Well, do you still think we can be saved?" I said. My question got no answer. An hour passed and I started to feel uncomfortably hungry.So did the other two, but none of us would touch the poor food left over.We were still ascending rapidly, almost out of breath, as if we were being drawn by a rapidly rising balloon.We are not feeling uncomfortably cold, on the contrary we are beginning to experience the increasing temperature - it is really 40 degrees Celsius now.

What does this change mean?Until then, everything was consistent with the theory of Dawe and Liedenbroek, and the temperature has not increased.And now, is the theory of geothermal heat that I always thought correct going to be proven again?Are we about to enter a high-temperature environment that can melt all rocks?I was worried and I said to the professor: "If we weren't drowned or crushed, starved to death, we could still be burned alive." He just shrugged and went back to his own thoughts. An hour passed.Other than a slight rise in temperatures, nothing has changed.At last the uncle broke the silence, saying:

"Well, we'd better make a decision." "What decision?" "Yes. Our strength must be restored. If we try to eat this remnant of food slowly, so as to prolong our life for a few hours, we shall be forever weak until the last moment." "Yes, the last moment is not far away." "If we allow our strength to be consumed by hunger, where will we find strength if we have a chance of survival, if we must take action?" "But, uncle, if we eat this piece, what shall we have left?" "No more, Aksai, nothing left; but if you just watch it and don't eat it, won't it grow in abundance? You're talking about a man without determination and perseverance!"

"Don't tell me you haven't despaired yet?" I said a little angrily. "No!" replied the professor emphatically. "What! Do you believe there is any chance of escape?" "Certainly; I think a man of will is never disappointed while his heart is still beating." What words!In this case, the person who said such a thing was not a person of ordinary temperament. "So what are you going to do?" I asked. "Eat all the rest of the food to restore our strength. This will be our last meal. The last meal will be the last meal! At least we can be men again, which is better than dying Be stronger!"

"Okay, let's eat then!" I said. The uncle took out the piece of meat and biscuit, and divided it carefully into three equal parts; nearly a pound of food for each.The professor munched greedily, so to speak, gobbled it up.As for me, although I was hungry, I didn't feel delicious, and almost had no appetite at all.On the other hand, Hannes ate peacefully and restrainedly, chewing small mouthfuls silently, appreciating the taste calmly, only a person who is indifferent to all kinds of dangers in the future can be so calm.Hannes found a half-bottle of gin, which revived me a little.

"That's great!" Hannes said in Danish when it was his turn to take a sip. "That's great!" repeated the uncle. Although we had eaten the last of our food, only glimmers of hope came back to my mind.It was five o'clock in the morning. This is how people are born: when they are healthy, they don't think about the pain of being sick; once they are full, it is difficult to realize the horror of starvation;So when we ate a few biscuits and a few bites of meat, we immediately forgot the pain of the long starvation just now. After eating, everyone was alone in meditation.What was Hannes, who was born in the far West but possessed Eastern fatalism, thinking?As for me, my thoughts are nothing but memories—the house on Koenigstrasse, dear Grauban, and good Martha, and the great roar that shook the earth seems to me now as if it were in a great city. The sound of vehicles.

Torch in hand, my uncle has been observing the properties of the rocks in order to calculate our approximate present position. Such calculations, or rather estimates, can only lead to approximate results, but a scholar always A scholar—and when he could keep his cool, Professor Liedenbroek was certainly an unusual scholar. I began to hear him mention some geological terms, which I also understood, and no matter what I was, I gradually became interested in these terms. "Igneous granite," he said, "is still primordial, but we're on the rise—who knows?" He kept hopeful.He tested the straight rock wall with his hands, and after a while, he said:

"It's gneiss! Mica schist! OK! We're in a transition period, and then there's—" What is the professor trying to say?Can he figure out the thickness of the strata above our heads?He has a way to figure it out?Impossible, he doesn't have a pressure gauge, and nothing else can replace it. The temperature was rising, so I was sweating profusely.This temperature can only be compared with the temperature in the furnace of a steel factory.All three of us had to take off our jackets and vests, and any clothing would only be a nuisance, if not painful, at least uncomfortable. "Shall we go all the way up into the white-hot furnace?" I cried as the heat doubled again. "No," replied the uncle, "that's impossible!" "But," I said, touching the rock wall, "this rock wall is as hot as fire." Immediately afterwards, my hand touched the water again, and quickly retracted again. "The water is boiling!" I yelled. This time the professor only responded with angry gestures. Then an insurmountable terror took hold of me, from which I could not shake myself.I felt that an unimaginable disaster was coming.A certain idea, which at first appeared vague in my mind, then became definite, I wanted to get rid of this idea, but it stubbornly returned to my mind.Some casual observation confirmed this idea; and by the twilight of the torch I noticed a curious vibration at the foot of the rock.Apparently something was going to happen, and electricity, heat, and this boiling water were all going to play a role in it... I decided to look at the compass. It's been crazy!