At the Earths Core | Page 9

of our seats? After that the drill was above you instead of
below. We didn't notice it at the time; but I recall it now."
"You mean to say that we turned back in the ice stratum, David? That
is not possible. The prospector cannot turn unless its nose is deflected
from the outside--by some external force or resistance--the steering
wheel within would have moved in response. The steering wheel has
not budged, David, since we started. You know that."
I did know it; but here we were with our drill racing in pure air, and
copious volumes of it pouring into the cabin.
"We couldn't have turned in the ice stratum, Perry, I know as well as
you," I replied; "but the fact remains that we did, for here we are this
minute at the surface of the earth again, and I am going out to see just
where."
"Better wait till morning, David--it must be midnight now."
I glanced at the chronometer.
"Half after twelve. We have been out seventy-two hours, so it must be
midnight. Nevertheless I am going to have a look at the blessed sky that
I had given up all hope of ever seeing again," and so saying I lifted the
bars from the inner door, and swung it open. There was quite a quantity
of loose material in the jacket, and this I had to remove with a shovel to
get at the opposite door in the outer shell.
In a short time I had removed enough of the earth and rock to the floor
of the cabin to expose the door beyond. Perry was directly behind me
as I threw it open. The upper half was above the surface of the ground.
With an expression of surprise I turned and looked at Perry--it was
broad daylight without!

"Something seems to have gone wrong either with our calculations or
the chronometer," I said. Perry shook his head--there was a strange
expression in his eyes.
"Let's have a look beyond that door, David," he cried.
Together we stepped out to stand in silent contemplation of a landscape
at once weird and beautiful. Before us a low and level shore stretched
down to a silent sea. As far as the eye could reach the surface of the
water was dotted with countless tiny isles--some of towering, barren,
granitic rock--others resplendent in gorgeous trappings of tropical
vegetation, myriad starred with the magnificent splendor of vivid
blooms.
Behind us rose a dark and forbidding wood of giant arborescent ferns
intermingled with the commoner types of a primeval tropical forest.
Huge creepers depended in great loops from tree to tree, dense
under-brush overgrew a tangled mass of fallen trunks and branches.
Upon the outer verge we could see the same splendid coloring of
countless blossoms that glorified the islands, but within the dense
shadows all seemed dark and gloomy as the grave.
And upon all the noonday sun poured its torrid rays out of a cloudless
sky.
"Where on earth can we be?" I asked, turning to Perry.
For some moments the old man did not reply. He stood with bowed
head, buried in deep thought. But at last he spoke.
"David," he said, "I am not so sure that we are ON earth."
"What do you mean Perry?" I cried. "Do you think that we are dead,
and this is heaven?" He smiled, and turning, pointing to the nose of the
prospector protruding from the ground at our backs.
"But for that, David, I might believe that we were indeed come to the
country beyond the Styx. The prospector renders that theory

untenable--it, certainly, could never have gone to heaven. However I
am willing to concede that we actually may be in another world from
that which we have always known. If we are not ON earth, there is
every reason to believe that we may be IN it."
"We may have quartered through the earth's crust and come out upon
some tropical island of the West Indies," I suggested. Again Perry
shook his head.
"Let us wait and see, David," he replied, "and in the meantime suppose
we do a bit of exploring up and down the coast--we may find a native
who can enlighten us."
As we walked along the beach Perry gazed long and earnestly across
the water. Evidently he was wrestling with a mighty problem.
"David," he said abruptly, "do you perceive anything unusual about the
horizon?"
As I looked I began to appreciate the reason for the strangeness of the
landscape that had haunted me from the first with an illusive suggestion
of the bizarre and unnatural--THERE WAS NO HORIZON! As far as
the eye could reach out the sea continued and upon its bosom floated
tiny islands, those in the distance reduced to