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

Perry had ceased singing and was at last praying.

Our hopes had received such a deathblow that the gradually
increasing heat seemed to our distorted imaginations
much greater than it really was. For another hour I
saw that pitiless column of mercury rise and rise until
at four hundred and ten miles it stood at 153 degrees.
Now it was that we began to hang upon those readings
in almost breathless anxiety.

One hundred and fifty-three degrees had been the maximum
temperature above the ice stratum. Would it stop at this
point again, or would it continue its merciless climb? We
knew that there was no hope, and yet with the persistence
of life itself we continued to hope against practical certainty.

Already the air tanks were at low ebb--there was barely
enough of the precious gases to sustain us for another
twelve hours. But would we be alive to know or care?
It seemed incredible.

At four hundred and twenty miles I took another reading.

"Perry!" I shouted. "Perry, man! She's going down! She's
going down! She's 152 degrees again."

"Gad!" he cried. "What can it mean? Can the earth
be cold at the center?"

"I do not know, Perry," I answered; "but thank God,
if I am to die it shall not be by fire--that is all that I
have feared. I can face the thought of any death but that."

Down, down went the mercury until it stood as low as it
had seven miles from the surface of the earth, and then
of a sudden the realization broke upon us that death was
very near. Perry was the first to discover it. I saw him
fussing with the valves that regulate the air supply.
And at the same time I experienced difficulty in breathing.
My head felt dizzy--my limbs heavy.

I saw Perry crumple in his seat. He gave himself a shake
and sat erect again. Then he turned toward me.

"Good-bye, David," he said. "I guess this is the end,"
and then he smiled and closed his eyes.

"Good-bye, Perry, and good luck to you," I answered,
smiling back at him. But I fought off that awful lethargy.
I was very young--I did not want to die.