ing once more in the dark hole beneath. I suppose the
trials which I had just endured had unstrung my nerves, and that the
solemn hour of the night made the leap seem all the more fearful. And
yet _through I must go_. China was not the place for me to remain in any
longer; and so I stepped down some two or three feet into the cavity,
and stood upon a little projection of rock, feeling that it would
require less effort to drop from this place downward than to leap from
the surface. Seizing the projecting rock with my hands, I then let go,
and down I went. It was a relief to find that I was now fairly under
way; and when, after the lapse of a few hours, I began to see daylight
brightening around me, I thought that all my cares were about to end.
Brighter and brighter it grew, and I had almost reached the edge of the
hole, when, to my horror, I found that the motion of my body was ceasing
altogether. Could it be that I had made a fatal mistake in dropping from
that inner ledge on the other side, instead of jumping boldly from the
surface? It must be so. Oh, what a fool I was! I might have known that
the projectile power would not be sufficient to take me clear through!
What will become of me? For, at this moment, I felt myself beginning to
sink back again into the bowels of the earth. And there through the
long, long hours, I swung backwards and forwards like an enormous
pendulum,--every time that I rose and fell, with a shorter and shorter
range,--until I stopped in equilibrium at the centre of the earth. The
sensation of absolute rest was more terrible than motion. There I was
alive, buried deeper than any other being ever was before. Was there any
possible way in which I could extricate myself? I now made a great
effort to collect my thoughts, and give to this question careful
consideration. At last, a bright idea came into my mind.

CHAPTER III.

HOW JOHN WHOPPER GOT CAUGHT IN THE EARTH, AND THEN GOT OUT AGAIN.

The idea that came to me was at first very vague and indefinite; neither
was it at all certain that my plan could be carried out. It had been
suggested by a peculiar sound which fell upon my ear as soon as I became
stationary, and which had continued to reverberate through the darkness
all the while. As I had been obliged, while in China, to be about so
much at night, I had provided myself with one of those compact lanterns,
which can be folded up, and carried in the pocket, with a good supply
of best