CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE RESCUE IN THE WHISPERING GALLERY
When I returned to partial life my face was wet with tears. How longthat state of insensibility had lasted I cannot say. I had no meansnow of taking account of time. Never was solitude equal to this,never had any living being been so utterly forsaken.
After my fall I had lost a good deal of blood. I felt it flowing overme. Ah! how happy I should have been could I have died, and if deathwere not yet to be gone through. I would think no longer. I droveaway every idea, and, conquered by my grief, I rolled myself to thefoot of the opposite wall.
Already I was feeling the approach of another faint, and was hopingfor complete annihilation, when a loud noise reached me. It was likethe distant rumble of continuous thunder, and I could hear itssounding undulations rolling far away into the remote recesses of theabyss.
Whence could this noise proceed? It must be from some phenomenonproceeding in the great depths amidst which I lay helpless. Was it anexplosion of gas? Was it the fall of some mighty pillar of the globe?
I listened still. I wanted to know if the noise would be repeated. Aquarter of an hour passed away. Silence reigned in this gallery. Icould not hear even the beating of my heart.
Suddenly my ear, resting by chance against the wall, caught, orseemed to catch, certain vague, indescribable, distant, articulatesounds, as of words.
"This is a delusion," I thought.
But it was not. Listening more attentively, I heard in reality amurmuring of voices. But my weakness prevented me from understandingwhat the voices said. Yet it was language, I was sure of it.
For a moment I feared the words might be my own, brought back by theecho. Perhaps I had been crying out unknown to myself. I closed mylips firmly, and laid my ear against the wall again.
"Yes, truly, some one is speaking; those are words!"
Even a few feet from the wall I could hear distinctly. I succeeded incatching uncertain, strange, undistinguishable words. They came as ifpronounced in low murmured whispers. The word '_forlorad_' wasseveral times repeated in a tone of sympathy and sorrow.
"Help!" I cried with all my might. "Help!"
I listened, I watched in the darkness for an answer, a cry, a merebreath of sound, but nothing came. Some minutes passed. A whole worldof ideas had opened in my mind. I thought that my weakened voicecould never penetrate to my companions.
"It is they," I repeated. "What other men can be thirty leagues underground?"
I again began to listen. Passing my ear over the wall from one placeto another, I found the point where the voices seemed to be bestheard. The word '_forlorad_' again returned; then the rolling ofthunder which had roused me from my lethargy.
"No," I said, "no; it is not through such a mass that a voice can beheard. I am surrounded by granite walls, and the loudest explosioncould never be heard here! This noise comes along the gallery. Theremust be here some remarkable exercise of acoustic laws!"
I listened again, and this time, yes this time, I did distinctly hearmy name pronounced across the wide interval.
It was my uncle's own voice! He was talking to the guide. And'_forlorad_' is a Danish word.
Then I understood it all. To make myself heard, I must speak alongthis wall, which would conduct the sound of my voice just as wireconducts electricity.
But there was no time to lose. If my companions moved but a few stepsaway, the acoustic phenomenon would cease. I therefore approached thewall, and pronounced these words as clearly as possible:
"Uncle Liedenbrock!"
I waited with the deepest anxiety. Sound does not travel with greatvelocity. Even increased density air has no effect upon its rate oftravelling; it merely augments its intensity. Seconds, which seemedages, passed away, and at last these words reached me:
"Axel! Axel! is it you?"
. . . .
"Yes, yes," I replied.
. . . .
"My boy, where are you?"
. . . .
"Lost, in the deepest darkness."
. . . .
"Where is your lamp?"
. . . .
"It is out."
. . . .
"And the stream?"
. . . .
"Disappeared."
. . . .
"Axel, Axel, take courage!"
. . . .
"Wait! I am exhausted! I can't answer. Speak to me!"
. . . .
"Courage," resumed my uncle. "Don't speak. Listen to me. We havelooked for you up the gallery and down the gallery. Could not findyou. I wept for you, my poor boy. At last, supposing you were stillon the Hansbach, we fired our guns. Our voices are audible to eachother, but our hands cannot touch. But don't despair, Axel! It is agreat thing that we can hear each other."
. . . .
During this time I had been reflecting. A vague hope was returning tomy heart. There was one thing I must know to begin with. I placed mylips close to the wall, saying:
"My uncle!"
. . . .
"My boy!" came to me after a few seconds.
. . . .
"We must know how far we are apart."
. . . .
"That is easy."
. . . .
"You have your chronometer?"
. . .
"Yes."
. . . .
"Well, take it. Pronounce my name, noting exactly the second when youspeak. I will repeat it as soon as it shall come to me, and you willobserve the exact moment when you get my answer."
"Yes; and half the time between my call and your answer will exactlyindicate that which my voice will take in coming to you."
. . . .
"Just so, my uncle."
. . . .
"Are you ready?"
. . . .
"Yes."
. . . . . .
"Now, attention. I am going to call your name."
. . . .
I put my ear to the wall, and as soon as the name 'Axel' came Iimmediately replied "Axel," then waited.
. . . .
"Forty seconds," said my uncle. "Forty seconds between the two words;so the sound takes twenty seconds in coming. Now, at the rate of1,120 feet in a second, this is 22,400 feet, or four miles and aquarter, nearly."
. . . .
"Four miles and a quarter!" I murmured.
. . . .
"It will soon be over, Axel."
. . . .
"Must I go up or down?"
. . . .
"Down--for this reason: We are in a vast chamber, with endlessgalleries. Yours must lead into it, for it seems as if all the cleftsand fractures of the globe radiated round this vast cavern. So getup, and begin walking. Walk on, drag yourself along, if necessaryslide down the steep places, and at the end you will find us ready toreceive you. Now begin moving."
. . . .
These words cheered me up.
"Good bye, uncle." I cried. "I am going. There will be no more voicesheard when once I have started. So good bye!"
. . . .
"Good bye, Axel, _au revoir!_"
. . . .
These were the last words I heard.
This wonderful underground conversation, carried on with a distanceof four miles and a quarter between us, concluded with these words ofhope. I thanked God from my heart, for it was He who had conducted methrough those vast solitudes to the point where, alone of all othersperhaps, the voices of my companions could have reached me.
This acoustic effect is easily explained on scientific grounds. Itarose from the concave form of the gallery and the conducting powerof the rock. There are many examples of this propagation of soundswhich remain unheard in the intermediate space. I remember that asimilar phenomenon has been observed in many places; amongst otherson the internal surface of the gallery of the dome of St. Paul's inLondon, and especially in the midst of the curious caverns among thequarries near Syracuse, the most wonderful of which is calledDionysius' Ear.
Th
ese remembrances came into my mind, and I clearly saw that since myuncle's voice really reached me, there could be no obstacle betweenus. Following the direction by which the sound came, of course Ishould arrive in his presence, if my strength did not fail me.
I therefore rose; I rather dragged myself than walked. The slope wasrapid, and I slid down.
Soon the swiftness of the descent increased horribly, and threatenedto become a fall. I no longer had the strength to stop myself.
Suddenly there was no ground under me. I felt myself revolving inair, striking and rebounding against the craggy projections of avertical gallery, quite a well; my head struck against a sharp cornerof the rock, and I became unconscious.