“Well, good-by,” cried Dick, hurriedly, shaking hands with the Walrus. “Thanks for all your kindness.” And, jumping on the sled behind Marjorie, he pushed off, and they shot over the edge after the others.
They just caught a glimpse of the little dog throwing up his arms in surprise, and as they disappeared into space they heard the old Walrus crying, in an anxious voice—
“Gom back! gom back! I forgot to tell you somedings.”
CHAPTER X.
SOME NEW ACQUAINTANCES.
It was all very well for the Walrus to shout “Come back!” but that was a matter of utter impossibility, for down—and down—and down the children sped at a terrific rate, so quickly indeed that after a moment or two they must have lost their senses completely, for not one of them could remember anything about the marvelous journey through the center of the earth.
“It seemed,” Dick explained afterwards, “as though we were falling through a big black hole for hours and hours, and then, all of a sudden, it was light again, and we shot out into the air at the other end.”
The children were greatly relieved to find that they were not expected to walk on their heads, as they had vaguely feared might have been the case on the other side of the world. “But, of course,” Marjorie explained, “we are not really quite on the other side, or we should be at the South Pole, and that would be as cold as where we came from, wouldn’t it, Dick?”