Journey to the Center of the Earth

Chapter 5

FAMINE, THEN VICTORY, FOLLOWED BY DISMAY

I had only just time to replace the unfortunate document upon thetable.

Professor Liedenbrock seemed to be greatly abstracted.

The ruling thought gave him no rest. Evidently he had gone deeplyinto the matter, analytically and with profound scrutiny. He hadbrought all the resources of his mind to bear upon it during hiswalk, and he had come back to apply some new combination.

He sat in his armchair, and pen in hand he began what looked verymuch like algebraic formula: I followed with my eyes his tremblinghands, I took count of every movement. Might not some unhoped-forresult come of it? I trembled, too, very unnecessarily, since thetrue key was in my hands, and no other would open the secret.

For three long hours my uncle worked on without a word, withoutlifting his head; rubbing out, beginning again, then rubbing outagain, and so on a hundred times.

I knew very well that if he succeeded in setting down these lettersin every possible relative position, the sentence would come out. ButI knew also that twenty letters alone could form two quintillions,four hundred and thirty-two quadrillions, nine hundred and twotrillions, eight billions, a hundred and seventy-six millions, sixhundred and forty thousand combinations. Now, here were a hundred andthirty-two letters in this sentence, and these hundred and thirty-twoletters would give a number of different sentences, each made up ofat least a hundred and thirty-three figures, a number which passedfar beyond all calculation or conception.

So I felt reassured as far as regarded this heroic method of solvingthe difficulty.

But time was passing away; night came on; the street noises ceased;my uncle, bending over his task, noticed nothing, not even Marthahalf opening the door; he heard not a sound, not even that excellentwoman saying:

"Will not monsieur take any supper to-night?"

And poor Martha had to go away unanswered. As for me, after longresistance, I was overcome by sleep, and fell off at the end of thesofa, while uncle Liedenbrock went on calculating and rubbing out hiscalculations.

When I awoke next morning that indefatigable worker was still at hispost. His red eyes, his pale complexion, his hair tangled between hisfeverish fingers, the red spots on his cheeks, revealed his desperatestruggle with impossibilities, and the weariness of spirit, themental wrestlings he must have undergone all through that unhappynight.

To tell the plain truth, I pitied him. In spite of the reproacheswhich I considered I had a right to lay upon him, a certain feelingof compassion was beginning to gain upon me. The poor man was soentirely taken up with his one idea that he had even forgotten how toget angry. All the strength of his feelings was concentrated upon onepoint alone; and as their usual vent was closed, it was to be fearedlest extreme tension should give rise to an explosion sooner or later.

I might with a word have loosened the screw of the steel vice thatwas crushing his brain; but that word I would not speak.

Yet I was not an ill-natured fellow. Why was I dumb at such a crisis?Why so insensible to my uncle's interests?

"No, no," I repeated, "I shall not speak. He would insist upon going;nothing on earth could stop him. His imagination is a volcano, and todo that which other geologists have never done he would risk hislife. I will preserve silence. I will keep the secret which merechance has revealed to me. To discover it, would be to kill ProfessorLiedenbrock! Let him find it out himself if he can. I will never haveit laid to my door that I led him to his destruction."

Having formed this resolution, I folded my arms and waited. But I hadnot reckoned upon one little incident which turned up a few hoursafter.

When our good Martha wanted to go to Market, she found the doorlocked. The big key was gone. Who could have taken it out? Assuredly,it was my uncle, when he returned the night before from his hurriedwalk.

Was this done on purpose? Or was it a mistake? Did he want to reduceus by famine? This seemed like going rather too far! What! shouldMartha and I be victims of a position of things in which we had notthe smallest interest? It was a fact that a few years before this,whilst my uncle was working at his great classification of minerals,he was forty-eight hours without eating, and all his household wereobliged to share in this scientific fast. As for me, what I rememberis, that I got severe cramps in my stomach, which hardly suited theconstitution of a hungry, growing lad.

Now it appeared to me as if breakfast was going to be wanting, justas supper had been the night before. Yet I resolved to be a hero, andnot to be conquered by the pangs of hunger. Martha took it veryseriously, and, poor woman, was very much distressed. As for me, theimpossibility of leaving the house distressed me a good deal more,and for a very good reason. A caged lover's feelings may easily beimagined.

My uncle went on working, his imagination went off rambling into theideal world of combinations; he was far away from earth, and reallyfar away from earthly wants.

About noon hunger began to stimulate me severely. Martha had, withoutthinking any harm, cleared out the larder the night before, so thatnow there was nothing left in the house. Still I held out; I made ita point of honour.

Two o'clock struck. This was becoming ridiculous; worse than that,unbearable. I began to say to myself that I was exaggerating theimportance of the document; that my uncle would surely not believe init, that he would set it down as a mere puzzle; that if it came tothe worst, we should lay violent hands on him and keep him at home ifhe thought on venturing on the expedition that, after all, he mighthimself discover the key of the cipher, and that then I should beclear at the mere expense of my involuntary abstinence.

These reasons seemed excellent to me, though on the night before Ishould have rejected them with indignation; I even went so far as tocondemn myself for my absurdity in having waited so long, and Ifinally resolved to let it all out.

I was therefore meditating a proper introduction to the matter, so asnot to seem too abrupt, when the Professor jumped up, clapped on hishat, and prepared to go out.

Surely he was not going out, to shut us in again! no, never!

"Uncle!" I cried.

He seemed not to hear me.

"Uncle Liedenbrock!" I cried, lifting up my voice.

"Ay," he answered like a man suddenly waking.

"Uncle, that key!"

"What key? The door key?"

"No, no!" I cried. "The key of the document."

The Professor stared at me over his spectacles; no doubt he sawsomething unusual in the expression of my countenance; for he laidhold of my arm, and speechlessly questioned me with his eyes. Yes,never was a question more forcibly put.

I nodded my head up and down.

He shook his pityingly, as if he was dealing with a lunatic. I gave amore affirmative gesture.

His eyes glistened and sparkled with live fire, his hand was shakenthreateningly.

This mute conversation at such a momentous crisis would have rivetedthe attention of the most indifferent. And the fact really was that Idared not speak now, so intense was the excitement for fear lest myuncle should smother me in his first joyful embraces. But he becameso urgent that I was at last compelled to answer.

"Yes, that key, chance -"

"What is that you are saying?" he shouted with indescribable emotion.

"There, read that!" I said, presenting a sheet of paper on which Ihad written.

"But there is nothing in this," he answered, crumpling up the paper.

"No, nothing until you proceed to read from the end to the beginning."

I had not finished my sentence when the Professor broke out into acry, nay, a roar. A new revelation burst in upon him. He wastransformed!

"Aha, clever Saknussemm!" he cried. "You had first written out yoursentence the wrong way."

And darting upon the paper, with eyes bedimmed, and voice choked withemotion, he read the whole document from the last letter to the first.

It was conceived in the following terms:

In Sneffels Joculis craterem quem delibat Umbra Scartaris Julii intra calendas descende, Audax viator, et terrestre centrum attinges. Quod feci, Arne Saknussemm. [1]

Which bad Latin may be translated thus:

"Descend, bold traveller, into the crater of the jokul of Sneffels,which the shadow of Scartaris touches before the kalends of July, andyou will attain the centre of the earth; which I have done, ArneSaknussemm."

In reading this, my uncle gave a spring as if he had touched a Leydenjar. His audacity, his joy, and his convictions were magnificent tobehold. He came and he went; he seized his head between both hishands; he pushed the chairs out of their places, he piled up hisbooks; incredible as it may seem, he rattled his precious nodules offlints together; he sent a kick here, a thump there. At last hisnerves calmed down, and like a man exhausted by too lavish anexpenditure of vital power, he sank back exhausted into his armchair.

"What o'clock is it?" he asked after a few moments of silence.

"Three o'clock," I replied.

"Is it really? The dinner-hour is past, and I did not know it. I amhalf dead with hunger. Come on, and after dinner -"

[1] In the cipher, _audax_ is written _avdas,_ and _quod_ and _quem,__hod_ and _ken_. (Tr.)

"Well?"

"After dinner, pack up my trunk."

"What?" I cried.

"And yours!" replied the indefatigable Professor, entering thedining-room.