Page:Clement Fezandié - Through the Earth.djvu/77

Rh The workmen, warned beforehand, had barely time to take refuge in the submarine houses before the flood of liquid fire was upon them.

"Well, Dr. Giles, what can we do now?" inquired the chief engineer, astonished beyond measure at the turn affairs were taking.

"We can wait, out of harm's way, until the eruption is over," replied the doctor, quietly.

"Indeed! And how long will that be, pray?"

"I know no more than you do," answered the doctor. "I have tried to figure out the probabilities; but there are so many conditions of which we are totally ignorant that such a calculation is beyond our powers. If the molten mass is in pockets, and the pocket we have struck is a small one, the eruption will be over in short order—perhaps in a few weeks. If, however, we have been unfortunate, it may be years before the eruption ceases. Many volcanoes have had an uninterrupted flow since prehistoric times, and what we have here is simply a new volcano. All we can do is to keep the tube from melting, by seeing to it that the apparatus for converting the heat into electricity is in perfect working order; and the rest we must leave to time!"