I was provided with a lantern which was to enable me to set fire to the wick of the infernal machine. "Go, my boy," said my uncle, "and Heaven be with you. But come back as soon as you can. I shall be all impatience." "Be easy on that matter," I replied, "there is no fear of my delaying on the road." Having said this, I advanced toward the opening of the somber gallery. My heart beat wildly. I opened my lantern and seized the extremity of the wick. The Professor, who was looking on, held his chronometer in his hand. "Are you ready?" cried he. "Quite ready." "Well, then, fire away!" I hastened to put the light to the wick, which crackled and sparkled, hissing and spitting like a serpent; then, running as fast as I could, I returned to the shore. "Get on board, my lad, and you, Hans, shove off," cried my uncle. By a vigorous application of his pole Hans sent us flying over the water. The raft was quite twenty fathoms distant. It was a moment of palpitating interest, of deep anxiety. My uncle, the Professor, never took his eyes off the chronometer. "Only five minutes more," he said in a low tone, "only four, only three." My pulse went a hundred to the minute. I could hear my heart beating. "Only two, one! Now, then, mountains of granite, crumble beneath the power of man!" What happened after that? As to the terrific roar of the explosion, I do not think I heard it. But the form of the rocks completely changed in my eyes--they seemed to be drawn aside like a curtain. I saw a fathomless, a bottomless abyss, which yawned beneath the turgid waves. The sea, which seemed suddenly to have gone mad, then became one great mountainous mass, upon the top of which the raft rose perpendicularly. We were all thrown down. In less than a second the light gave place to the most profound obscurity. Then I felt all solid support give way not to my feet, but to the raft itself. I thought it was going bodily down a tremendous well. I tried to speak, to question my uncle. Nothing could be heard but the roaring of the mighty waves. We clung together in utter silence. Despite the awful darkness, despite the noise, the surprise, the emotion, I thoroughly understood what had happened. Beyond the rock which had been blown up, there existed a mighty abyss. The explosion had caused a kind of earthquake in this soil, broken by fissures and rents. The gulf, thus suddenly thrown open, was about to swallow the inland sea which, transformed into a mighty torrent, was dragging us with it. Only one idea filled my mind. We were utterly and completely lost!