At the Earths Core | Page 8

degrees. Now it
was that we began to hang upon those readings in almost breathless
anxiety.
One hundred and fifty-three degrees had been the maximum
temperature above the ice stratum. Would it stop at this point again, or
would it continue its merciless climb? We knew that there was no hope,
and yet with the persistence of life itself we continued to hope against
practical certainty.
Already the air tanks were at low ebb--there was barely enough of the
precious gases to sustain us for another twelve hours. But would we be
alive to know or care? It seemed incredible.
At four hundred and twenty miles I took another reading.
"Perry!" I shouted. "Perry, man! She's going down! She's going down!

She's 152 degrees again."
"Gad!" he cried. "What can it mean? Can the earth be cold at the
center?"
"I do not know, Perry," I answered; "but thank God, if I am to die it
shall not be by fire--that is all that I have feared. I can face the thought
of any death but that."
Down, down went the mercury until it stood as low as it had seven
miles from the surface of the earth, and then of a sudden the realization
broke upon us that death was very near. Perry was the first to discover
it. I saw him fussing with the valves that regulate the air supply. And at
the same time I experienced difficulty in breathing. My head felt
dizzy--my limbs heavy.
I saw Perry crumple in his seat. He gave himself a shake and sat erect
again. Then he turned toward me.
"Good-bye, David," he said. "I guess this is the end," and then he
smiled and closed his eyes.
"Good-bye, Perry, and good luck to you," I answered, smiling back at
him. But I fought off that awful lethargy. I was very young--I did not
want to die.
For an hour I battled against the cruelly enveloping death that
surrounded me upon all sides. At first I found that by climbing high
into the framework above me I could find more of the precious
life-giving elements, and for a while these sustained me. It must have
been an hour after Perry had succumbed that I at last came to the
realization that I could no longer carry on this unequal struggle against
the inevitable.
With my last flickering ray of consciousness I turned mechanically
toward the distance meter. It stood at exactly five hundred miles from
the earth's surface--and then of a sudden the huge thing that bore us
came to a stop. The rattle of hurtling rock through the hollow jacket

ceased. The wild racing of the giant drill betokened that it was running
loose in AIR--and then another truth flashed upon me. The point of the
prospector was ABOVE us. Slowly it dawned on me that since passing
through the ice strata it had been above. We had turned in the ice and
sped upward toward the earth's crust. Thank God! We were safe!
I put my nose to the intake pipe through which samples were to have
been taken during the passage of the prospector through the earth, and
my fondest hopes were realized--a flood of fresh air was pouring into
the iron cabin. The reaction left me in a state of collapse, and I lost
consciousness.

II
A STRANGE WORLD
I was unconscious little more than an instant, for as I lunged forward
from the crossbeam to which I had been clinging, and fell with a crash
to the floor of the cabin, the shock brought me to myself.
My first concern was with Perry. I was horrified at the thought that
upon the very threshold of salvation he might be dead. Tearing open his
shirt I placed my ear to his breast. I could have cried with relief--his
heart was beating quite regularly.
At the water tank I wetted my handkerchief, slapping it smartly across
his forehead and face several times. In a moment I was rewarded by the
raising of his lids. For a time he lay wide-eyed and quite
uncomprehending. Then his scattered wits slowly foregathered, and he
sat up sniffing the air with an expression of wonderment upon his face.
"Why, David," he cried at last, "it's air, as sure as I live. Why--why
what does it mean? Where in the world are we? What has happened?"
"It means that we're back at the surface all right, Perry," I cried; "but
where, I don't know. I haven't opened her up yet. Been too busy
reviving you. Lord, man, but you had a close squeak!"

"You say we're back at the surface, David? How can that be? How long
have I been unconscious?"
"Not long. We turned in the ice stratum. Don't you recall the sudden
whirling