on. The officers avoided calling my attention to the unusual
sight, possibly divining I was already fully excited by it.

Never was midnight looked for so eagerly by any mortal on earth as I
awaited the dreadful hour that would either confirm or dispel my
fears.

Midnight came and the sun had not fallen in the sky! There he stood as
high as at noonday, at least five degrees higher than his position
twenty-four hours before.

Professor Starbottle, approaching me, said: "Commander, my
prognostication was correct; you see the sun's elevation is unchanged
since mid-day. Now one of two things has happened--either the axis of
the earth has approached five degrees nearer the plane of its orbit
since mid-day or we are sailing down into a subterranean gulf! That
the former is impossible, mid-day to-day will disprove. If my theory
of a subterranean sea is correct, the sun will fall below the horizon
at mid-day, and our only light will be the earth-light of the opposite
mouth of the gulf into which we are rapidly sinking."

"Professor," said I, "tell the officers and the scientific staff to
meet me at once in the cabin. This is a tremendous crisis!"

Ere I could leave the deck the captain, officers, doctor, naturalist,
Professor Rackiron, and many of the crew surrounded me, all in a state
of the greatest consternation.

CHAPTER VI.

DAY BECOMES NIGHT AND NIGHT DAY.

"Commander," said Captain Wallace, "I beg to report that the pole star
has suddenly fallen five degrees south from its position overhead, and
the sun has risen to his mid-day position in the sky! I fear we are
sailing into a vast polar depression something greater than the
description given in our geographies, that the earth is flattened at
the poles."

"Do you really think, captain," I inquired, "that we are sailing into
a hollow place around the pole?"

"Why, I am sure of it," said he. "Nothing else can explain the sudden
movement of the heavenly bodies. Remember, we have only passed the
85th parallel but a few miles and ought to have the pole star right
overhead."

"Professor Starbottle has a theory," I said, "that may account for the
strange phenomena we witness. Let these gentlemen hear your theory,
professor."

The professor stated very deliberately what he had already
communicated to me, viz.: that we were really descending to the
interior of the earth, that the bows of the ship were gradually
pointing to its centre, and that if the voya