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

in the outer shell.

In a short time I had removed enough of the earth and rock
to the floor of the cabin to expose the door beyond.
Perry was directly behind me as I threw it open.
The upper half was above the surface of the ground.
With an expression of surprise I turned and looked at
Perry--it was broad daylight without!

"Something seems to have gone wrong either with our
calculations or the chronometer," I said. Perry shook
his head--there was a strange expression in his eyes.

"Let's have a look beyond that door, David," he cried.

Together we stepped out to stand in silent contemplation
of a landscape at once weird and beautiful. Before us
a low and level shore stretched down to a silent sea.
As far as the eye could reach the surface of the water
was dotted with countless tiny isles--some of towering,
barren, granitic rock--others resplendent in gorgeous
trappings of tropical vegetation, myriad starred with
the magnificent splendor of vivid blooms.

Behind us rose a dark and forbidding wood of giant
arborescent ferns intermingled with the commoner types
of a primeval tropical forest. Huge creepers depended
in great loops from tree to tree, dense under-brush
overgrew a tangled mass of fallen trunks and branches.
Upon the outer verge we could see the same splendid
coloring of countless blossoms that glorified the islands,
but within the dense shadows all seemed dark and gloomy
as the grave.

And upon all the noonday sun poured its torrid rays
out of a cloudless sky.

"Where on earth can we be?" I asked, turning to Perry.

For some moments the old man did not reply. He stood
with bowed head, buried in deep thought. But at last
he spoke.

"David," he said, "I am not so sure that we are ON earth."

"What do you mean Perry?" I cried. "Do you think that we
are dead, and this is heaven?" He smiled, and turning,
pointing to the nose of the prospector protruding from
the ground at our backs.