By this point in our incredible journey, I had experienced so many surprises and suffered through so many strange illusions that I thought nothing could amaze me anymore.
I had become like a man who has traveled around the world and seen so much that even the most extraordinary things no longer impress him.
But when I saw those two letters carved into the rock three hundred years earlier, I stood there in stunned silence.
They were the initials of Arne Saknussemm.
And what was even more astonishing was that I was holding the very tool he had used to carve them.
There was no longer any reasonable way to doubt that Saknussemm had truly existed or that his legendary journey into the earth had really happened. What I had once believed to be nothing more than an old tale suddenly stood before me in solid rock.
While I was trying to take all this in, my uncle became almost delirious with excitement.
“Great Saknussemm! What an extraordinary man you were!”
“You left clues for those who came after you. Three hundred years later, we have found the path marked by your own hand!”
“You wanted other human beings to follow your footsteps and witness the wonders you discovered beneath the earth.”
“At every important point in your journey, you left your name behind as a guide.”
“And I believe that if someone follows your path all the way to the center of the earth, he will find your initials there too!”
“I will be that man!”
“I will carve my own name beside yours on the central rock of this incredible world created by God.”
“But you were the first to discover this route. You were the man who showed us the way.”
“So this cape, which you saw from the shore of this sea, shall forever be called Cape Saknussemm!”
His words swept me along with him.
A powerful excitement took hold of me. I forgot everything else.
The dangers we had already survived meant nothing. The dangers of the journey ahead seemed insignificant.
If another man had done this three hundred years ago, then I could do it too.
Suddenly, nothing seemed impossible.
“Forward! Forward!” I shouted.
I had already started toward the dark tunnel when my uncle stopped me.
It was strange to see him restrain me when he was usually the one rushing ahead without thinking.
“Wait, Harry. We need to keep calm.”
“Let us first go back to Hans. Then we can bring the raft here.”
I reluctantly agreed, although I was far from pleased.
As we hurried along the strange rocky shore, I spoke to my uncle.
“You know, Uncle, we’ve been unbelievably lucky.”
“You’re beginning to see that now, are you, Harry?” he said with a smile.
“Of course. Even that terrible storm helped us.”
“Bless that storm! It brought us back to exactly the place where we needed to be.”
“If the weather had remained calm, it would have carried us away from here forever.”
“Imagine if we had reached the distant southern shore of this sea. We would never have found Saknussemm’s name.”
“We might have been stranded on some terrible coast with no way out.”
“You’re right, Harry. There does seem to be something almost providential about the way the wind and waves carried us south and then brought us back north.”
“And now we’ve found Cape Saknussemm.”
“This is more than a coincidence. It’s extraordinary. I can hardly explain it.”
“Maybe we don’t need to explain it. Our job is simply to make the best use of what has happened.”
“Quite right, my boy. But if you will allow me—”
“Let me guess what you’re going to say.”
“We’ll take the northern route.”
“We’ll travel beneath northern Europe, beneath Sweden, Russia, Siberia, and who knows where else.”
“That’s far better than going beneath the deserts of Africa or beneath the endless ocean.”
“At this point, that’s all I need to know.”
“Let’s move forward and trust that we’ll be guided.”
“Yes, Harry. You’re absolutely right.”
“We’ve had enough of this horizontal sea. It was never going to take us where we wanted to go.”
“Now we’ll go downward. Down, and still farther down.”
“Do you realize that we have only about five thousand miles left before we reach the interior of the earth?”
“Five thousand miles?” I cried.
“That’s hardly worth mentioning!”
“The important thing is to get started!”
I continued talking excitedly until we finally reached Hans.
Our quiet guide had already prepared everything for departure.
Every parcel was securely packed and in its proper place.
We climbed back onto the raft.
The sail went up.
Hans took the helm and guided our little craft toward the cape we had now officially named Cape Saknussemm.
Unfortunately, the wind was against us.
The raft was not built to sail against the wind. It could only move properly when the wind came from behind.
So much of the time we had to push ourselves forward with poles.
Several times, the rocks stretched far out into the water, forcing us to make long detours.
After three exhausting hours, at about six in the evening, we finally found a place where we could land.
I jumped ashore first.
In my excited state, I was always the first to move.
My uncle and Hans followed.
The journey had done nothing to calm me down. If anything, it had made me even more determined.
I even suggested that we burn the raft so that there would be no possibility of turning back.
My uncle immediately rejected the idea.
“At least, Uncle, let’s start at once.”
“I’m just as eager as you are, Harry.”
“But first we need to examine this tunnel.”
“We have to find out whether our ladders need to be repaired or extended.”
My uncle then checked our Ruhmkorff lamp and made sure it was working properly.
We would soon need it.
We tied the raft securely to a rock and left it there.
The entrance to the new tunnel was less than twenty paces away.
With me leading the way, we set off.
The opening was almost perfectly circular, about five feet across.
The tunnel had been cut through solid rock and coated inside with material that had once flowed through it in a molten state.
The bottom of the tunnel was almost level with the water, so we had no trouble entering.
For a short distance, the passage remained almost horizontal.
Then, after about a dozen paces, we suddenly came to a complete stop.
An enormous block of granite filled the tunnel.
“Curse this rock!” I shouted angrily.
We searched everywhere.
Nothing to the right.
Nothing to the left.
Nothing above.
Nothing below.
There was no passage and no sign of another tunnel.
I was devastated.
I simply refused to believe that this enormous rock could really stop us.
I dropped to my knees and examined the bottom.
Nothing.
Not even the smallest gap.
I looked above the rock.
The same solid wall of granite.
Hans raised the lamp and carefully examined every side of the tunnel.
There was no way through.
We had no choice but to give up.
I sat down on the ground.
My uncle paced angrily back and forth.
He looked completely defeated.
Then an idea suddenly struck me.
“But what about Saknussemm?”
My uncle stopped.
“You’re right.”
“He could never have been stopped by a rock like this.”
“No! Absolutely not!”
“This block must have fallen here later, perhaps because of some enormous underground disturbance.”
“Maybe one of those forces that have shaken the earth’s crust caused it.”
“Think about it. Saknussemm returned from his journey hundreds of years ago.”
“The rock could have fallen afterward and sealed the passage.”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“This tunnel must once have been an outlet for lava from deep inside the earth.”
“The molten material would have flowed freely through it.”
“Look at the cracks in the ceiling!”
“The roof is made of enormous pieces of stone, almost as though a giant had built an arch with them.”
“Then one day, after a powerful earthquake or some other violent shock, this huge block—the key piece supporting the arch—must have fallen down.”
“It dropped onto the floor and completely blocked the tunnel.”
“So Saknussemm never encountered this obstacle.”
“And if we cannot remove it, then we have no right to follow in the footsteps of that great explorer.”
“We will never reach the center of the earth!”
I spoke with such passion because my uncle’s determination had become part of me.
I had forgotten the past.
I had stopped worrying about the future.
Nothing on the surface of the earth mattered anymore.
No cities.
No countries.
Not even Hamburg.
Not even my familiar street on Koenigstrasse.
And not even poor Gretchen, who by now must have believed that I was lost forever somewhere deep inside the earth.
My uncle suddenly caught fire with the same enthusiasm.
“Then let’s get to work!”
“Pickaxes, crowbars—anything we have!”
“We’ll tear this wall down!”
“It’s far too large and solid for ordinary tools,” I said.
“Then what do you suggest?”
“As I said, we can’t break through it with pickaxes or crowbars.”
“Then what can we use?”
“Gunpowder.”
“We’ll place an explosive charge inside the rock.”
“Then we’ll blow the whole thing apart.”
“Gunpowder?”
“Yes.”
“All we have to do is remove this miserable obstacle.”
“To work, Hans! Get to work!”
Hans returned to the raft and soon came back carrying a huge crowbar.
He began digging a hole into the rock where we could place the explosive charge.
It was incredibly hard work.
We needed to make a cavity large enough to hold fifty pounds of blasting cotton, an explosive much more powerful than ordinary gunpowder.
I was almost beside myself with excitement.
While Hans worked on the rock, I helped my uncle prepare a long fuse.
We used damp gunpowder and packed it into a linen bag.
“We’re going to get through!” I shouted.
“We’re going to get through!” my uncle shouted back, patting me on the shoulder.
At midnight, our work was finally complete.
The charge was packed deep inside the hole.
The long fuse was ready.
All we needed was a spark.
One spark would be enough to set off the tremendous explosion and reduce the rock to pieces.
“We’ll rest now and wait until tomorrow.”
There was nothing else we could do.
I had to force myself to wait six long hours for the explosion.