ich had filled the gallery with awful
reverberations, succeeded perfect peace.

After some little time my uncle spoke, in a low and scarcely audible
tone: "Harry, boy, where are you?"

"I am here," was my faint rejoinder.

"Well, don't you see what has happened? We are going upwards."

"My dear uncle, what can you mean?" was my half-delirious reply.

"Yes, I tell you we are ascending rapidly. Our downward journey is quite
checked."

I held out my hand, and, after some little difficulty, succeeded in
touching the wall. My hand was in an instant covered with blood. The
skin was torn from the flesh. We were ascending with extraordinary
rapidity.

"The torch--the torch!" cried the Professor, wildly; "it must be
lighted."

Hans, the guide, after many vain efforts, at last succeeded in lighting
it, and the flame, having now nothing to prevent its burning, shed a
tolerably clear light. We were enabled to form an approximate idea of
the truth.

"It is just as I thought," said my uncle, after a moment or two of
silent attention. "We are in a narrow well about four fathoms square.
The waters of the great inland sea, having reached the bottom of the
gulf are now forcing themselves up the mighty shaft. As a natural
consequence, we are being cast upon the summit of the waters."

"That I can see," was my lugubrious reply; "but where will this shaft
end, and to what fall are we likely to be exposed?"

"Of that I am as ignorant as yourself. All I know is, that we should be
prepared for the worst. We are going up at a fearfully rapid rate. As
far as I can judge, we are ascending at the rate of two fathoms a
second, of a hundred and twenty fathoms a minute, or rather more than
three and a half leagues an hour. At this rate, our fate will soon be a
matter of certainty."

"No doubt of it," was my reply. "The great concern I have now, however,
is to know whether this shaft has any issue. It may end in a granite
roof--in which case we shall be suffocated by compressed air, or dashed
to atoms against the top. I fancy, already, that the air is beginning to
be close and condensed. I have a difficulty in breathing."

This might be fancy, or it might be the effect of our rapid motion, but
I certainly felt a great oppression of the chest.

"Henry," said the Professor, "I do believe that the situation is to a
certain extent desperate. There remain, however, many chances of
ultimate safety, and I have, in my own mind, been revolvin