Chapter 20 The Journey Ends I looked over the edge of the raft.
I thought we might be caught on a shelf of rock.
Perhaps our raft had blocked the flow of the eruption for a moment.
I could see nothing unusual.
Don't worry, my uncle said.
I'm sure this will be a short pause.
We've only been waiting for five minutes.
Our raft will start moving again soon.
Of course, Uncle Lidenbrock was right.
In but a moment, the raft started to shake violently.
We all lay flat and held on.
I could hear the sound of something rushing toward us.
It was very, very hot.
Even without looking below us, I knew it was not water.
Our raft suddenly shot up.
We moved up through the tunnel so quickly I did not have time to think about what was happening.
Temperature had become too much.
The burning heat hurt my throat.
My skin was red hot.
I had trouble opening my eyes.
Bursts of fire shot past the sides of our raft.
I could hear a deep rumbling coming up below us.
It felt like the entire tunnel was shaking and might crumble.
Around us is lava, Uncle Leenbrock shouted.
We are being pushed to the surface by lava.
We are in the middle of a volcanic eruption.
I cannot remember what happened over the next few hours.
Our raft made stops and starts as we climbed higher and higher.
The ride was rough and frightening.
The heat was strong and made me weak.
I may have passed out during our last quick rise.
The next thing I knew, all three of us were lying on the rocky side of a mountain.
One of Hans' hands was on my belt.
His other hand clutched my uncle's belt.
I was bruised and slightly bloody.
Otherwise, I was unhurt.
I sat up and looked around me.
There was the blue sky.
I could not believe it.
It looked like heaven to me.
It was absolutely perfect.
Where are we?
I said.
Are we back in Iceland?
Iceland, Hans said.
He shook his head no.
What does he mean by no?
My uncle cried.
He must be wrong, I said.
I stood up to look at the other mountains surrounding us.
I expected to see ice caps and the rocky countryside of Iceland.
Instead, I saw rolling hills of green farmland and houses.
I could see small towns in the distance and lush forests.
I looked behind us to see the volcano.
The crater was five hundred feet above us.
Fire and lava were blasting from the top.
Hot lava was flowing slowly down the mountainside toward us.
We had to get moving right away.
We ran down the mountain as quickly as possible, although we were uncomfortable and tired.
We could not stop.
We had to get away from the volcano.
It took us several hours to make our way down.
We were always aware of where the lava was.
We made sure it didn't get too close to us.
Thankfully, it was moving slowly.
After an hour or two, we could not see it anymore.
We did not slow down, though.
We wanted to be off the volcano as quickly as possible.
That was the only way to safety.
We finally reached the green field several hundred yards from the base of the mountain.
Then we decided it was time to rest.
We found a comfortable spot under a tree by a path.
Soon after, a small child wandered our way.
We were very surprised to see him.
You should ask him where we are, I said.
That's a good idea, my uncle said, but we don't know what language he speaks.
The only thing we do know is that he does not speak Icelandic.
So my uncle tried speaking several languages to the child.
He said, where are we in German, Danish, French, and Spanish?
Only when he spoke Italian did the boy answer.
He said, Italia, and then ran away.
Italy, we were in Italy.
We had traveled all that distance underground.
I could not believe our wonderful luck.
We had started our journey in one volcano, thousands of miles away in Iceland.
It was incredible that we ended up shooting out of a volcano in Italy.
We ate a meal of fruit and nuts that we picked from surrounding trees.
Then we headed off to a nearby farmhouse.
We could find someone there to take us to the nearest train station.
We would soon be home.
I have now come to the end of our tale.
We all made it home safely.
We soon went back to our regular lives.
Hans joined us in Hamburg for a while, but he grew homesick.
He boarded a train headed north to make his way back to Iceland.
We hugged goodbye.
I knew I would never meet a man like Hans again.
I was so sorry to see him go.
For me, it was wonderful to see Grafven again.
Surviving our journey in the scape from the volcano was incredible, but it was not as exciting as seeing my love again.
When we finally met, she wept and laughed at the same time.
I hugged her as tightly as I could.
I knew I would never let her go.
A few weeks after our return, Uncle Lidenbrock noticed something strange.
The compass, he exclaimed.
Look, it's pointing in the wrong direction.
It was true.
I took the compass from my uncle and saw that it was pointing south when it should have been pointing north.
So we weren't turned around in the storm when we were on the lead in Brock Sea, I said.
It must have been the electrical storm.
It magnetized the compass and reversed the arrows.
Another mystery was solved.
We had, in fact, crossed the underground sea.
We did not get lost as we had thought.
This brought my uncle new excitement.
The news of our journey was soon known all over the world.
Uncle Lidenbrock became a very famous man.
It was not only scientists who knew his name.
He was known around the globe.
His picture appeared in newspapers everywhere.
The story of our exploration Journey to the Center of the Earth became one of the most popular books in the world.
It was translated into several languages and received rave reviews.
Other people wanted to follow in our footsteps and make their own journeys.
For me, though, I was happy to be home.
I could think of no better place to be.
