Page:Clement Fezandié - Through the Earth.djvu/246

226 Instinctively he tried to swim up through the air to get as far away from this matter as possible; but he was not able to lift himself an inch. Then he tried to jump up to what was now the top of the car, but was not more successful in this, for he rose only a couple of feet, and then fell back again.

"What a dunce I am!" he exclaimed. "Of course I can't jump or swim around any more, now that I am no longer falling. I have reached terra firma again, and have regained my entire weight, so I must return to primitive methods, and climb up by the straps. No fear now of setting the car spinning!"

This was true, for the car was being rapidly drawn up the last part of its journey by means of an electrically actuated cable.

A few minutes later our hero felt another shock, and the door of the car was hurriedly thrown open, when he found himself face to face with a workman.

It was not, however, at the workman that William looked, but at the sky. To his surprise, it was night-time, and the stars were shining brightly in the heavens. Our hero rubbed his eyes in bewilderment; but rub as he might, the stars