idst of some talk about hollow
steel rods, he told Bryce to let the engines run faster; there was no
reason why the car should go so slowly.

The windlasses moved with a little more rapidity, and Clewe now turned
and looked at an indicator which was placed on the side of the car, a
little over his head. This instrument showed the depth to which he had
descended, but he had not looked at it before, for if anything would
make him nervous, it would be the continual consideration of the depth
to which he had descended.

The indicator showed that he had gone down fourteen and one-eighth
miles. Clewe turned and sat stiffly in his seat. He glanced down and saw
beneath him only an illuminated hole, fading away at the bottom. Then he
turned to speak to Bryce, but to his surprise, he could think of nothing
to say. After that he lighted another cigar and sat quietly.

Some minutes passed--he did not know how many--and he looked down
through the gratings in the floor of the car. The electric light
streamed downward through a deep [v]crevice, which did not now fade away
into nothingness, but ended in something dark and glittering. Then, as
he came nearer and nearer to this glittering thing, Clewe saw that it
was his automatic shell, lying on its side; only a part of it was
visible through the opening of the shaft which he was descending. In an
instant, as it seemed to him, the car emerged from the shaft, and he
seemed to be hanging in the air--at least there was nothing he could see
except that great shell, lying some forty feet below him. But it was
impossible that the shell should be lying on the air! He rang to stop
the car.

"Anything the matter?" cried Bryce.

"Nothing at all," Clewe replied. "It's all right; I am near the
bottom."

In a state of the highest nervous excitement, Clewe gazed about him. He
was no longer in a shaft; but where was he? Look around on what side he
would, he saw nothing but the light going out from his lamps, light
which seemed to extend indefinitely all about him. There appeared to be
no limit to his vision in any direction. Then he leaned over the side of
his car and looked downward. There lay the great shell directly under
him, although under it and around it, extending as far beneath it as it
extended in every other direction, shone the light from his own lamp.
Nevertheless, that great shell, weighing many tons, lay as if it rested
upon the solid ground!

After a few moments, Clewe shut hi