The Greatest Tales of Lost Worlds & Alternative Universes. Филип Дик
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were strongly attached to our brave eiderdown hunter; though far away in the remotest north, he will never be forgotten by those whose lives he protected, and certainly I shall not fail to endeavour to see him once more before I die.
To conclude, I have to add that this ‘Journey into the Interior of the Earth’ created a wonderful sensation in the world. It was translated into all civilised languages. The leading newspapers extracted the most interesting passages, which were commented upon, picked to pieces, discussed, attacked, and defended with equal enthusiasm and determination, both by believers and sceptics. Rare privilege! my uncle enjoyed during his lifetime the glory he had deservedly won; and he may even boast the distinguished honour of an offer from Mr. Barnum, to exhibit him on most advantageous terms in all the principal cities in the United States!
But there was one ‘dead fly’ amidst all this glory and honour; one fact, one incident, of the journey remained a mystery. Now to a man eminent for his learning, an unexplained phenomenon is an unbearable hardship. Well! it was yet reserved for my uncle to be completely happy.
One day, while arranging a collection of minerals in his cabinet, I noticed in a corner this unhappy compass, which we had long lost sight of; I opened it, and began to watch it.
It had been in that corner for six months, little mindful of the trouble it was giving.
Suddenly, to my intense astonishment, I noticed a strange fact, and I uttered a cry of surprise.
“What is the matter?” my uncle asked.
“That compass!”
“Well?”
“See, its poles are reversed!”
“Reversed?”
“Yes, they point the wrong way.”
My uncle looked, he compared, and the house shook with his triumphant leap of exultation.
A light broke in upon his spirit and mine.
“See there,” he cried, as soon as he was able to speak. “After our arrival at Cape Saknussemm the north pole of the needle of this confounded compass began to point south instead of north.”
“Evidently!”
“Here, then, is the explanation of our mistake. But what phenomenon could have caused this reversal of the poles?”
“The reason is evident, uncle.”
“Tell me, then, Axel.”
“During the electric storm on the Liedenbrock sea, that ball of fire, which magnetised all the iron on board, reversed the poles of our magnet!”
“Aha! aha!” shouted the Professor with a loud laugh. “So it was just an electric joke!”
From that day forth the Professor was the most glorious of savants, and I was the happiest of men; for my pretty Virlandaise, resigning her place as ward, took her position in the old house on the Königstrasse in the double capacity of niece to my uncle and wife to a certain happy youth. What is the need of adding that the illustrious Otto Liedenbrock, corresponding member of all the scientific, geographical, and mineralogical societies of all the civilised world, was now her uncle and mine?
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea
Translator: Lewis Page Mercier
Chapter III. I Form My Resolution
Chapter VII. An Unknown Species of Whale
Chapter VIII. Mobilis in Mobili
Chapter IX. Ned Land's Tempers
Chapter X. The Man of the Seas
Chapter XI. All By Electricity
Chapter XIV. A Note of Invitation
Chapter XV. A Walk on the Bottom of the Sea
Chapter XVI. A Submarine Forest
Chapter XVII. Four Thousand Leagues Under the Pacific
Chapter XX. A Few Days on Land
Chapter XXI. Captain Nemo's Thunderbolt
Chapter XXIII. The Coral Kingdom
Chapter II. A Novel Proposal of Captain Nemo's
Chapter III. A Pearl of Ten Millions
Chapter VI. The Grecian Archipelago