HAPTER 33 OUR ROUTE REVERSED

CHAPTER 34 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY

CHAPTER 35 DISCOVERY UPON DISCOVERY

CHAPTER 36 WHAT IS IT?

CHAPTER 37 THE MYSTERIOUS DAGGER

CHAPTER 38 NO OUTLET--BLASTING THE ROCK

CHAPTER 39 THE EXPLOSION AND ITS RESULTS

CHAPTER 40 THE APE GIGANS

CHAPTER 41 HUNGER

CHAPTER 42 THE VOLCANIC SHAFT

CHAPTER 43 DAYLIGHT AT LAST

CHAPTER 44 THE JOURNEY ENDED

CHAPTER 1

MY UNCLE MAKES A GREAT DISCOVERY

Looking back to all that has occurred to me since that eventful day, I
am scarcely able to believe in the reality of my adventures. They were
truly so wonderful that even now I am bewildered when I think of them.

My uncle was a German, having married my mother's sister, an
Englishwoman. Being very much attached to his fatherless nephew, he
invited me to study under him in his home in the fatherland. This home
was in a large town, and my uncle a professor of philosophy, chemistry,
geology, mineralogy, and many other ologies.

One day, after passing some hours in the laboratory--my uncle being
absent at the time--I suddenly felt the necessity of renovating the
tissues--<i>i.e.</i>, I was hungry, and was about to rouse up our old French
cook, when my uncle, Professor Von Hardwigg, suddenly opened the street
door, and came rushing upstairs.

Now Professor Hardwigg, my worthy uncle, is by no means a bad sort of
man; he is, however, choleric and original. To bear with him means to
obey; and scarcely had his heavy feet resounded within our joint
domicile than he shouted for me to attend upon him.

"Harry--Harry--Harry--"

I hastened to obey, but before I could reach his room, jumping three
steps at a time, he was stamping his right foot upon the landing.

"Harry!" he cried, in a frantic tone, "are you coming up?"

Now to tell the truth, at that moment I was far more interested in the
question as to what was to constitute our dinner than in any problem of
science; to me soup was more interesting than soda, an omelette more
tempting than arithmetic, and an artichoke of ten times more value than
any amount of asbestos.

But my uncle was not a man to be kept waiting; so adjourning therefore
all minor questions, I presented myself before him.

He was a very learned man. Now most persons in this category supply
themselves with information, as peddlers do with goods, for the benefit
of others, and lay up stores in order to diffuse them abroad for the
benefit of society in general