But this sudden flood was not of long duration. In a few seconds I found myself in the air again, which I inhaled with all the force of my lungs. My uncle and Hans were still holding me fast by the arms; and the raft was still carrying us. CHAPTER XLII. HEADLONG SPEED UPWARD THROUGH THE HORRORS OF DARKNESS It might have been, as I guessed, about ten at night. The first of my senses which came into play after this last bout was that of hearing. All at once I could hear; and it was a real exercise of the sense of hearing. I could hear the silence in the gallery after the din which for hours had stunned me. At last these words of my uncle's came to me like a vague murmuring: "We are going up." "What do you mean?" I cried. "Yes, we are going up--up!" I stretched out my arm. I touched the wall, and drew back my hand bleeding. We were ascending with extreme rapidity. "The torch! The torch!" cried the Professor. Not without difficulty Hans succeeded in lighting the torch; and the flame, preserving its upward tendency, threw enough light to show us what kind of a place we were in. "Just as I thought," said the Professor "We are in a tunnel not four-and-twenty feet in diameter. The water had reached the bottom of the gulf. It is now rising to its level, and carrying us with it." "Where to?" "I cannot tell; but we must be ready for anything. We are mounting at a speed which seems to me of fourteen feet in a second, or ten miles an hour. At this rate we shall get on." "Yes, if nothing stops us; if this well has an aperture. But suppose it to be stopped. If the air is condensed by the pressure of this column of water we shall be crushed." "Axel," replied the Professor with perfect coolness, "our situation is almost desperate; but there are some chances of deliverance, and it is these that I am considering. If at every instant we may perish, so at every instant we may be saved. Let us then be prepared to seize upon the smallest advantage." "But what shall we do now?" "Recruit our strength by eating." At these words I fixed a haggard eye upon my uncle. That which I had been so unwilling to confess at last had to be told. "Eat, did you say?" "Yes, at once." The Professor added a few words in Danish, but Hans shook his head mournfully. "What!" cried my uncle. "Have we lost our provisions?" "Yes; here is all we have left; one bit of salt meat for the three." My uncle stared at me as if he could not understand. "Well," said I, "do you think we have any chance of being saved?" My question was unanswered. An hour passed away. I began to feel the pangs of a violent hunger. My companions were suffering too, and not one of us dared touch this wretched remnant of our goodly store.