Page:Clement Fezandié - Through the Earth.djvu/243

Rh trifle longer than this. I am saved! Hurrah! Instead of stopping six hundred miles short of my destination, and falling back to be roasted alive, I may yet reach the New York side safely, if I can only keep ahead of this liquid fire for a few minutes more!"

Curiously enough, now that the danger had diminished the anxiety of our hero had increased. The reason was that, before, hope seemed altogether out of the question, while now there was a small chance of escape.

It was a race for life or death, and our hero did not leave the window for an instant. To his dismay, the liquid mass of fire came every minute nearer, while the telemeter, on the contrary, showed that the car's speed was decreasing every second.

Six minutes of dread suspense had passed in this manner when a phonographic alarm fastened to the side of the car began to speak in loud metallic tones.

"In one minute more," it said, "you will arrive in port. Lie down on the sofa that is fastened to the ceiling, and grasp the handles tightly. You will thus avoid all shock when the car comes to a stop."

But William had other things to think of just then than the means of preventing the slight shock that would occur on his arrival at the New York