Page:Clement Fezandié - Through the Earth.djvu/216

196 really regaining their weight! At the start the needle of this balance pointed to zero; the last time I looked at it, it pointed to only half an ounce; while now it shows two ounces. If this balance is correct, and one pound weighs two ounces, then every object in the car must have regained one eighth of its full weight, and I myself must now weigh twelve and one half pounds."

A careful watch on the instrument showed William that his surmise was correct; for the needle of the balance gradually turned more and more, showing that the heaviness of objects in the car was increasing every second.

Our hero was at first unable to account for this strange fact. The whole journey had been a perpetual succession of surprises, but here was one that seemed to promise more interest than anything which had yet transpired.

His astonishment will be readily understood. He was sufficiently well versed in physics to know that a body at rest near the center of the earth would have little or no weight. Consequently, even if the car were standing still, at the point which he had reached the objects it contained should have almost no weight. On the other hand, since the car was falling in obedience to the