"Look, Mr. Munn!" exclaimed the professor, releasing my palm. "We have reached the car."
CHAPTER XVIII.
HOW WE OUTWITTED THE KING.
We had come to a point in the under-world which the reflected rays of the sun reached but dimly. There would have been semi-gloom but for an unreflected glow that fell upon us from above.
The car, as has been brought out in the course of this narrative, had been blown into the crater of a dead volcano. This crater may be likened to a deep basin, pierced with a huge hole at the bottom.
Through the hole fell daylight from the outer shell, bathing the car in a soft radiance. The projectile-shaped house was standing upright, and appeared to have suffered no injury by its fall.
Professor Quinn had already explained to me how this might be possible. The screens of the anti-gravity cubes had been left open by five decrees.
The energy of the cubes lightened the house to an extent that made it offer less than normal resistance to the tempest, and it also buoyed it to withstand the shock of a tumble from the upper crust of the sphere.
How like an old friend that car looked! My heart labored at the mere sight of it. It was to be our bridge through space, if so we could contrive; although it might easily fall out to prove a bridge for the king and the Gaddbaizets to the earth's undoing.
After we had halted at the base of the car, the king approached the professor.