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

Again I turned to the thermometer. The mercury was
rising with less rapidity. It was now but 140 degrees,
although we had penetrated to a depth of nearly four miles.
I told Perry, and he smiled.

"We have shattered one theory at least," was his
only comment, and then he returned to his self-assumed
occupation of fluently cursing the steering wheel.
I once heard a pirate swear, but his best efforts would
have seemed like those of a tyro alongside of Perry's
masterful and scientific imprecations.

Once more I tried my hand at the wheel, but I might
as well have essayed to swing the earth itself. At my
suggestion Perry stopped the generator, and as we came
to rest I again threw all my strength into a supreme effort
to move the thing even a hair's breadth--but the results
were as barren as when we had been traveling at top speed.

I shook my head sadly, and motioned to the starting lever.
Perry pulled it toward him, and once again we were plunging
downward toward eternity at the rate of seven miles an hour.
I sat with my eyes glued to the thermometer and the
distance meter. The mercury was rising very slowly now,
though even at 145 degrees it was almost unbearable within
the narrow confines of our metal prison.

About noon, or twelve hours after our start upon this
unfortunate journey, we had bored to a depth of eighty-four
miles, at which point the mercury registered 153 degrees F.

Perry was becoming more hopeful, although upon what meager
food he sustained his optimism I could not conjecture.
From cursing he had turned to singing--I felt that the
strain had at last affected his mind. For several hours
we had not spoken except as he asked me for the readings
of the instruments from time to time, and I announced them.
My thoughts were filled with vain regrets. I recalled
numerous acts of my past life which I should have been glad
to have had a few more years to live down. There was the
affair in the Latin Commons at Andover when Calhoun and I
had put gunpowder in the stove--and nearly killed one of
the masters. And then--but what was the use, I was about
to die and atone for all these things and several more.
Already the heat was sufficient to give me a foretaste
of the hereafter. A few more degrees and I felt that I
should lose consciousness.

"What are the readings now, David?" Perry's voice broke