hips hurled
into the air and drawn under by the most terrible suction; and then
seismic tremors, more or less marked, cyclones, waterspouts and the
devil's own mischief; and then a cataclysm of an earthquake. And
immediately afterwards, indeed at the same moment, the shooting up of
one lip of the fault, projecting from one coast to the other, over a
width of seventy or eighty miles. And then, on the top of it, you,
Simon Dubosc, crossing the Channel at a stride. And this perhaps was
not the least remarkable fact, my boy, in the whole story."

Simon was silent for some time. Then he said:

"So far, so good. You have explained the emergence of the narrow belt
of earth which I walked along and whose width I measured with my eyes,
I might say, incessantly. But how do you explain the emergence of this
immense region which now fills the Straits of Dover and part of the
Channel?"

"Perhaps the Anglo-Norman fault had ramifications in the affected
areas?"

"I repeat, I saw only a narrow belt of land."

"That is to say, you saw and crossed only the highest crests of the
upheaved region, crests forming a ridge. But this region was thrown up
altogether; and you must have noticed that the waves, instead of
subsiding, were rolling over miles of beach."

"That is so. Nevertheless the sea was there and is there no longer."

"It is there no longer because it has receded. Phenomena of this
extent produce reactions beyond their immediate field of activity and
give rise to other phenomena, which in turn react upon the first. And,
if this dislocation of the bottom of the Channel has raised one part,
it may very well, in some other submarine part, have provoked
subsidences and ruptures by which the sea has escaped through the
crust. Observe that a reduction of level of six to nine feet was
enough to turn those miles of barely covered beach into permanent dry
land."

"A supposition, my dear professor."

"Nothing of the sort!" cried Old Sandstone, striking the table with
his fists. "Nothing of the sort! I have positive evidence of this
also; and I shall publish all my proofs at a suitable moment, which
will not be long delayed."

He drew from his pocket the famous locked wallet, whose grease-stained
morocco had caught Simon's eye at Newhaven, and declared:

"The truth will emerge from this, my lad, from this wallet in which my
notes have been accumulating, four hundred and fifteen notes which
must needs serve for reference. For,