CHAPTER XLV.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
Such is the conclusion of a history which I cannot expect everybodyto believe, for some people will believe nothing against thetestimony of their own experience. However, I am indifferent to theirincredulity, and they may believe as much or as little as they please.
The Stromboliotes received us kindly as shipwrecked mariners. Theygave us food and clothing. After waiting forty-eight hours, on the 31st of August, a small craft took us to Messina, where a few days'rest completely removed the effect of our fatigues.
On Friday, September the 4th, we embarked on the steamer Volturno,employed by the French Messageries Imperiales, and in three days morewe were at Marseilles, having no care on our minds except thatabominable deceitful compass, which we had mislaid somewhere andcould not now examine; but its inexplicable behaviour exercised mymind fearfully. On the 9th of September, in the evening, we arrivedat Hamburg.
I cannot describe to you the astonishment of Martha or the joy ofGraeuben.
"Now you are a hero, Axel," said to me my blushing _fiancee,_ mybetrothed, "you will not leave me again!"
I looked tenderly upon her, and she smiled through her tears.
How can I describe the extraordinary sensation produced by the returnof Professor Liedenbrock? Thanks to Martha's ineradicable tattling,the news that the Professor had gone to discover a way to the centreof the earth had spread over the whole civilised world. Peoplerefused to believe it, and when they saw him they would not believehim any the more. Still, the appearance of Hans, and sundry pieces ofintelligence derived from Iceland, tended to shake the confidence ofthe unbelievers.
Then my uncle became a great man, and I was now the nephew of a greatman--which is not a privilege to be despised.
Hamburg gave a grand fete in our honour. A public audience was givento the Professor at the Johannaeum, at which he told all about ourexpedition, with only one omission, the unexplained and inexplicablebehaviour of our compass. On the same day, with much state, hedeposited in the archives of the city the now famous document ofSaknussemm, and expressed his regret that circumstances over which hehad no control had prevented him from following to the very centre ofthe earth the track of the learned Icelander. He was modestnotwithstanding his glory, and he was all the more famous for hishumility.
So much honour could not but excite envy. There were those who enviedhim his fame; and as his theories, resting upon known facts, were inopposition to the systems of science upon the question of the centralfire, he sustained with his pen and by his voice remarkablediscussions with the learned of every country.
For my part I cannot agree with his theory of gradual cooling: inspite of what I have seen and felt, I believe, and always shallbelieve, in the central heat. But I admit that certain circumstancesnot yet sufficiently understood may tend to modify in places theaction of natural phenomena.
While these questions were being debated with great animation, myuncle met with a real sorrow. Our faithful Hans, in spite of ourentreaties, had left Hamburg; the man to whom we owed all our successand our lives too would not suffer us to reward him as we could havewished. He was seized with the mal de pays, a complaint for which wehave not even a name in English.
"_Farval,_" said he one day; and with that simple word he left us andsailed for Rejkiavik, which he reached in safety.
We were strongly attached to our brave eider-down hunter; though faraway in the remotest north, he will never be forgotten by those whoselives he protected, and certainly I shall not fail to endeavour tosee him once more before I die.
To conclude, I have to add that this 'Journey into the Interior ofthe Earth' created a wonderful sensation in the world. It wastranslated into all civilised languages. The leading newspapersextracted the most interesting passages, which were commented upon,picked to pieces, discussed, attacked, and defended with equalenthusiasm and determination, both by believers and sceptics. Rareprivilege! my uncle enjoyed during his lifetime the glory he haddeservedly won; and he may even boast the distinguished honour of anoffer from Mr. Barnum, to exhibit him on most advantageous terms inall the principal cities in the United States!
But there was one 'dead fly' amidst all this glory and honour; onefact, one incident, of the journey remained a mystery. Now to a maneminent for his learning, an unexplained phenomenon is an unbearablehardship. Well! it was yet reserved for my uncle to be completelyhappy.
One day, while arranging a collection of minerals in his cabinet, Inoticed in a corner this unhappy compass, which we had long lostsight of; I opened it, and began to watch it.
It had been in that corner for six months, little mindful of thetrouble it was giving.
Suddenly, to my intense astonishment, I noticed a strange fact, and Iuttered a cry of surprise.
"What is the matter?" my uncle asked.
"That compass!"
"Well?"
"See, its poles are reversed!"
"Reversed?"
"Yes, they point the wrong way."
My uncle looked, he compared, and the house shook with his triumphantleap of exultation.
A light broke in upon his spirit and mine.
"See there," he cried, as soon as he was able to speak. "After ourarrival at Cape Saknussemm the north pole of the needle of thisconfounded compass began to point south instead of north."
"Evidently!"
"Here, then, is the explanation of our mistake. But what phenomenoncould have caused this reversal of the poles?"
"The reason is evident, uncle."
"Tell me, then, Axel."
"During the electric storm on the Liedenbrock sea, that ball of fire,which magnetised all the iron on board, reversed the poles of ourmagnet!"
"Aha! aha!" shouted the Professor with a loud laugh. "So it was justan electric joke!"
From that day forth the Professor was the most glorious of savants,and I was the happiest of men; for my pretty Virlandaise, resigningher place as ward, took her position in the old house on theKoenigstrasse in the double capacity of niece to my uncle and wife toa certain happy youth. What is the need of adding that theillustrious Otto Liedenbrock, corresponding member of all thescientific, geographical, and mineralogical societies of all thecivilised world, was now her uncle and mine?
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