Chapter 42
It might have been, as I guessed, about ten at night. The first of my senses which came into play after this last bout was that of hearing. All at once I could hear; and it was a real exercise of the sense of hearing. I could hear the silence in the gallery after the din which for hours had stunned me. At last these words of my uncle’s came to me like a vague murmuring:
“We are going up.”
“What do you mean?” I cried.
“Yes, we are going up—up!”
I stretched out my arm. I touched the wall, and drew back my hand bleeding. We were ascending with extreme rapidity.
“The torch! The torch!” cried the Professor.
Not without difficulty Hans succeeded in lighting the torch; and the flame, preserving its upward tendency, threw enough light to show us what kind of a place we were in.
