A Mystery To Be Solved At Any Price

: A Journey To The Interior Of The Earth

That study of his was a museum, and nothing else. Specimens of

everything known in mineralogy lay there in their places in perfect

order, and correctly named, divided into inflammable, metallic, and

lithoid minerals.



How well I knew all these bits of science! Many a time, instead of

enjoying the company of lads of my own age, I had preferred dusting

these graphites, anthracites, coals, lignites, and peats And there

were bitumens, resins, organic salts, to be protected from the least

grain of dust; and metals, from iron to gold, metals whose current

value altogether disappeared in the presence of the republican

equality of scientific specimens; and stones too, enough to rebuild

entirely the house in Konigstrasse, even with a handsome additional

room, which would have suited me admirably.



But on entering this study now I thought of none of all these

wonders; my uncle alone filled my thoughts. He had thrown himself

into a velvet easy-chair, and was grasping between his hands a book

over which he bent, pondering with intense admiration.



"Here's a remarkable book! What a wonderful book!" he was exclaiming.



These ejaculations brought to my mind the fact that my uncle was

liable to occasional fits of bibliomania; but no old book had any

value in his eyes unless it had the virtue of being nowhere else to

be found, or, at any rate, of being illegible.



"Well, now; don't you see it yet? Why I have got a priceless

treasure, that I found his morning, in rummaging in old Hevelius's

shop, the Jew."



"Magnificent!" I replied, with a good imitation of enthusiasm.



What was the good of all this fuss about an old quarto, bound in

rough calf, a yellow, faded volume, with a ragged seal depending from

it?



But for all that there was no lull yet in the admiring exclamations

of the Professor.



"See," he went on, both asking the questions and supplying the

answers. "Isn't it a beauty? Yes; splendid! Did you ever see such a

binding? Doesn't the book open easily? Yes; it stops open anywhere.

But does it shut equally well? Yes; for the binding and the leaves

are flush, all in a straight line, and no gaps or openings anywhere.

And look at its back, after seven hundred years. Why, Bozerian,

Closs, or Purgold might have been proud of such a binding!"



While rapidly making these comments my uncle kept opening and

shutting the old tome. I really could do no less than ask a question

about its contents, although I did not feel the slightest interest.



"And what is the title of this marvellous work?" I asked with an

affected eagerness which he must have been very blind not to see

through.



"This work," replied my uncle, firing up with renewed enthusiasm,

"this work is the Heims Kringla of Snorre Turlleson, the most famous

Icelandic author of the twelfth century! It is the chronicle of the

Norwegian princes who ruled in Iceland."



"Indeed;" I cried, keeping up wonderfully, "of course it is a German

translation?"



"What!" sharply replied the Professor, "a translation! What should I

do with a translation? This IS the Icelandic original, in the

magnificent idiomatic vernacular, which is both rich and simple, and

admits of an infinite variety of grammatical combinations and verbal

modifications."



"Like German." I happily ventured.



"Yes." replied my uncle, shrugging his shoulders; "but, in addition

to all this, the Icelandic has three numbers like the Greek, and

irregular declensions of nouns proper like the Latin."



"Ah!" said I, a little moved out of my indifference; "and is the type

good?"



"Type! What do you mean by talking of type, wretched Axel? Type! Do

you take it for a printed book, you ignorant fool? It is a

manuscript, a Runic manuscript."



"Runic?"



"Yes. Do you want me to explain what that is?"



"Of course not," I replied in the tone of an injured man. But my

uncle persevered, and told me, against my will, of many things I

cared nothing about.



"Runic characters were in use in Iceland in former ages. They were

invented, it is said, by Odin himself. Look there, and wonder,

impious young man, and admire these letters, the invention of the

Scandinavian god!"



Well, well! not knowing what to say, I was going to prostrate myself

before this wonderful book, a way of answering equally pleasing to

gods and kings, and which has the advantage of never giving them any

embarrassment, when a little incident happened to divert conversation

into another channel.



This was the appearance of a dirty slip of parchment, which slipped

out of the volume and fell upon the floor.



My uncle pounced upon this shred with incredible avidity. An old

document, enclosed an immemorial time within the folds of this old

book, had for him an immeasurable value.



"What's this?" he cried.



And he laid out upon the table a piece of parchment, five inches by

three, and along which were traced certain mysterious characters.



Here is the exact facsimile. I think it important to let these

strange signs be publicly known, for they were the means of drawing

on Professor Liedenbrock and his nephew to undertake the most

wonderful expedition of the nineteenth century.



[Runic glyphs occur here]



The Professor mused a few moments over this series of characters;

then raising his spectacles he pronounced:



"These are Runic letters; they are exactly like those of the

manuscript of Snorre Turlleson. But, what on earth is their meaning?"



Runic letters appearing to my mind to be an invention of the learned

to mystify this poor world, I was not sorry to see my uncle suffering

the pangs of mystification. At least, so it seemed to me, judging

from his fingers, which were beginning to work with terrible energy.



"It is certainly old Icelandic," he muttered between his teeth.



And Professor Liedenbrock must have known, for he was acknowledged to

be quite a polyglot. Not that he could speak fluently in the two

thousand languages and twelve thousand dialects which are spoken on

the earth, but he knew at least his share of them.



So he was going, in the presence of this difficulty, to give way to

all the impetuosity of his character, and I was preparing for a

violent outbreak, when two o'clock struck by the little timepiece

over the fireplace.



At that moment our good housekeeper Martha opened the study door,

saying:



"Dinner is ready!"



I am afraid he sent that soup to where it would boil away to nothing,

and Martha took to her heels for safety. I followed her, and hardly

knowing how I got there I found myself seated in my usual place.



I waited a few minutes. No Professor came. Never within my

remembrance had he missed the important ceremonial of dinner. And yet

what a good dinner it was! There was parsley soup, an omelette of ham

garnished with spiced sorrel, a fillet of veal with compote of

prunes; for dessert, crystallised fruit; the whole washed down with

sweet Moselle.



All this my uncle was going to sacrifice to a bit of old parchment.

As an affectionate and attentive nephew I considered it my duty to

eat for him as well as for myself, which I did conscientiously.



"I have never known such a thing," said Martha. "M. Liedenbrock is

not at table!"



"Who could have believed it?" I said, with my mouth full.



"Something serious is going to happen," said the servant, shaking her

head.



My opinion was, that nothing more serious would happen than an awful

scene when my uncle should have discovered that his dinner was

devoured. I had come to the last of the fruit when a very loud voice

tore me away from the pleasures of my dessert. With one spring I

bounded out of the dining-room into the study.