"01 - At the Earth's Core" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

For an hour I battled against the cruelly enveloping
death that surrounded me upon all sides. At first I
found that by climbing high into the framework above me
I could find more of the precious life-giving elements,
and for a while these sustained me. It must have been
an hour after Perry had succumbed that I at last came
to the realization that I could no longer carry on this
unequal struggle against the inevitable.

With my last flickering ray of consciousness I turned
mechanically toward the distance meter. It stood at exactly
five hundred miles from the earth's surface--and then
of a sudden the huge thing that bore us came to a stop.
The rattle of hurtling rock through the hollow jacket ceased.
The wild racing of the giant drill betokened that it
was running loose in AIR--and then another truth flashed
upon me. The point of the prospector was ABOVE us.
Slowly it dawned on me that since passing through the ice
strata it had been above. We had turned in the ice
and sped upward toward the earth's crust. Thank God! We
were safe!

I put my nose to the intake pipe through which samples were
to have been taken during the passage of the prospector
through the earth, and my fondest hopes were realized--a
flood of fresh air was pouring into the iron cabin.
The reaction left me in a state of collapse, and I
lost consciousness.



II

A STRANGE WORLD


I WAS UNCONSCIOUS LITTLE MORE THAN AN INSTANT,
for as I lunged forward from the crossbeam to which I
had been clinging, and fell with a crash to the floor
of the cabin, the shock brought me to myself.

My first concern was with Perry. I was horrified at the thought
that upon the very threshold of salvation he might be dead.
Tearing open his shirt I placed my ear to his breast.
I could have cried with relief--his heart was beating
quite regularly.

At the water tank I wetted my handkerchief, slapping it
smartly across his forehead and face several times.