Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 2.djvu/36

16 at the odd expression of my face. Rushing forward, he clutched me by the arm and keenly examined my countenance. His very look was an interrogation. I simply nodded.

With an incredulous shrug of the shoulders, he turned upon his heel. Undoubtedly he thought I had gone mad. "I have made a very important discovery."

His eyes flashed with excitement. His hand was lifted in a menacing attitude. For a moment neither of us spoke. It is hard to say which was most excited. "You don't mean to say that you have any idea of the meaning of the scrawl?"

"I do," was my desperate reply. "Look at the sentence as dictated by you.

"Well, but it means nothing," was the angry answer.

"Nothing if you read from left to right, but mark, if from right to left"

"Backwards!" cried my uncle, in wild amazement. "Oh most cunning Saknussemm; and I to be such a block-head." He snatched up the document, gazed at it with haggard eye, and read it out as I had done. It read as follows:

In Sneffels yoculis craterem kem delebat Umbra Scartaris Julii intra calendas descende. Audas viator, et terrestre centrum attinges. ''Kod feci. Arne Saknussemm.''

Which dog-Latin being translated, reads as follows: "Descend into the crater of Yocul of Sneffels, which the shade of Scartaris caresses, before the kalends of July, audacious traveler, and you will reach the center of the earth. I did it.." My uncle leaped three feet from the ground with joy. He looked radiant and handsome. He rushed about the room wild with delight and satisfaction. He knocked over tables and chairs. He threw his books about until at last utterly exhausted, he fell into his arm-chair. "What's o'clock?" he asked.

"About three."

"My dinner does not seem to have done me much good," he observed, "Let me have something to eat. We can then start at once. Get my portmanteau ready."

"What for?"