Chapter 17.
Passing Through a Violent Storm, A strong wind carried us away from the scene of the great fight.
After that our trip returned to the quiet, rather boring time it had been before we saw those great creatures.
Once again, we were left with very little to do.
The only change was in the temperature.
It was starting to get warmer.
On August 20th, we all heard something.
It sounded like a long roar.
Hans pulled himself to the top of the mast to get a look.
He saw nothing.
Several hours passed and we kept hearing the roar.
Hans climbed the mast again.
This time he stayed up there for a few minutes.
He did not say anything.
His eyes were fixed on one point on the horizon.
You see something, my uncle said.
It would seem so, I replied.
At last, Hans climbed down and joined us.
He pointed and said, There, there.
Over there? asked Uncle Lidenbrock.
He looked through his telescope.
What is it?
I asked nervously.
It looks like a tremendous wall of water rising above the waves, he said.
I wondered if it was another sea monster.
We should move toward the west, then, just in case, I said.
Straight ahead, Uncle Lidenbrock said.
I looked to Hans, hoping that he would argue with my uncle.
Once again, he did exactly what his boss told him to do.
He guided our raft toward the wall of water.
An hour or two later, we could see a large black mass in front of us.
I first thought that it was a giant whale, but then this was a whale like none I could ever imagine.
It would have been a hundred times larger than any other whale.
I was terrified to get so close.
I knew it would not take much to tip our tiny raft.
However, this large black mass did not move.
Hans was the first to notice what it really was.
He called it an island, and he was right.
When I asked about the wall of water he replied geyser.
Course it all made sense.
I was rather embarrassed that i was frightened of an island, so i made sure that i was the first to step off the raft.
It felt strange to stand on land after many days at sea.
I was dizzy for a moment but recovered quickly.
I helped my uncle off the raft then walked to the geyser.
There must have been a tremendous amount of heat below the surface of the tiny island.
Maybe my uncle was wrong.
The center of the earth might actually be filled with boiling gases like I thought.
Uncle Lidenbrock did not care to discuss this with me.
He wanted to get back on the raft as soon as possible.
All he thought about was continuing our journey.
We camped on the island and set sail again the next morning.
As always, we took our measurements first thing.
By my uncle's calculations, we were now directly under Britain.
He noted how many miles we had traveled at our southeast route.
The weather looked like it was about to change.
The clouds were getting lower.
I could feel more moisture in the air.
Very soon it would start to rain.
It looks as though we're going to have some bad weather, I said.
My uncle did not respond.
He was in a terrible mood.
He was angry that our trip was taking too long.
Hans did not understand my words.
He continued to work.
The wind died down and the air felt very heavy.
It was difficult to breathe.
There was so much moisture in the air.
It felt like sea spray across my face.
The temperature suddenly rose.
My clothes were sticking to my body.
Uncle, I said.
I tapped him on the shoulder.
I think a bad storm is coming.
Look at the clouds.
We should lower the sail and bring down the mast.
If we hit a big storm, the mast might be damaged.
No, my uncle said, a hundred times no.
If we take this sail down, we will move even slower.
We will never catch the other side.
I almost expected him to stamp his foot in anger.
I decided it was best to leave the matter alone.
Only a moment later, the sky turned black and storm clouds rolled in.
It started to pour.
The wind picked up.
The raft got knocked around in the powerful waves and we were all soaked.
I never could imagine weather so awful.
There was nothing to do but hang on.
It began to thunder and lightning ripped through the sky.
My uncle was thrown and almost tumbled over the side of the raft.
I grabbed hold of his hand just in time.
The seawater was almost boiling hot.
Hail hit our raft and made a clinging sound as it struck.
The storm raged for four days.
We all managed to stay on the raft.
Thankfully, we did not lose any of our supplies.
The noise was so loud that we could not talk.
Our ears hurt from the crashing of the thunder and hail.
The wail of the wind was deafening.
Our mast snapped in half and we lost our sail.
It happened in a matter of seconds.
There was a loud crack and suddenly the mast was flying away.
We did not have much time to think about it, though.
As we watched the mast soar off, we saw a much more frightening object in the sky.
The great storm mixed with the increasing heat.
It produced a giant ball of gas and fire.
We were terrified.
All the elements were against us.
We ducked as it shot past us and disappeared to the south.
Then another one appeared.
Then another.
They left a smell of burned gas behind them.
This made us all choke.
Our eyes burned.
Tried to move, but I was trapped.
At first I thought something had followed on me.
Then I realized it was the ball of gas and lightning.
They had created a magnetic force.
My boots had steel nails in the soles.
My feet were stuck to the raft as if a large magnet held them down.
I looked over and saw that my uncle and Hans were going through the same thing.
Then the balls of gases started to burst above our heads.
Flames erupted and surrounded the raft.
We were being rained upon by fire and water.
All we could do was hang on and hope it would be over soon.
When the balls of gases and fire died down, the storm continued.
Eventually, I could stay awake no longer.
I fell into a deep sleep.
When I awoke again, we were on land.
We had settled in a small dry nook just off the beach.
It was still raining, but the worst of the storm was over.
Hans had pulled everything and everyone safely from the raft.
Now he was preparing a meal for us.
We ate, then slept.
Tomorrow, we hoped, would be a better day.
We got our wish.
The next day was wonderful.
There was no rain, the sky was bright, and the wind was calm again.
Uncle Lidenbrock was bright and happy.
We had at last reached shore.
He felt much closer to his goal.
He was ready for the next adventure.
But I was feeling sad.
I felt very far away from Grawen.
Every step meant moving farther away from home.
Uncle, I said, can I ask you a question?
He turned to look at me.
How will we get home, I asked.
What?
We haven't even arrived and you are already thinking about the return.
I'm just wondering, I said.
It's very simple.
We will either find a new path or we will walk back the way we came.
He was not concerned in the least about how we would find our way home.
What about the raft?
We'll have to repair it and food.
We don't have enough food to repeat the journey, I said.
Uncle Edenbrock interrupted me.
Enough of this.
We'll decide what to do and how to do it when we get to the end of our journey.
We have no idea what we will find.
You must learn to think on your feet, my boy.
He slapped me on the back.
Then he walked out to the shore.
I followed him.
Hans had laid out the instruments and equipment to dry on the beach.
It looked like nothing was lost.
Even all our food was saved.
We sat down to breakfast.
My uncle and I went over all our measurements.
We figured out that we were about 2,500 miles from where we'd started in Iceland.
This meant we were now directly beneath the Mediterranean Sea.
We also worked out that the Lidenbrock Sea was fifteen hundred miles across.
It was a very impressive body of water.
And now let us find out our exact direction, Uncle Lidenbrock said.
Axel, please hand me the compass.
I found the compass.
It was still in perfect condition, even after the storm.
I handed it to my uncle.
He placed it on a flat rock, then looked at the needle for a moment.
He rubbed his eyes, then looked again.
With a shocked look in his eyes, he turned to me.
What's the matter?
I asked.
I looked down at the compass and was absolutely surprised.
The needle was pointing south when it should have been pointing north.
We must have been turned around during the violent storm.
Rather than landing on the opposite shore of the sea, we were back on the shore where we'd started.
