In this episode, we delve into the captivating world of Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth," as adapted for the General Mills Radio Adventure Theater. Our story follows the determined Professor Otto Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel, and Axel's love, Vicky, as they embark on an extraordinary expedition inspired by a cryptic message found in an ancient book. Their journey takes them deep into the Earth's crust, where they face numerous challenges, including deciphering a mysterious code, navigating treacherous paths, and overcoming the fear of the unknown.
As the adventurers descend further, they encounter unexpected phenomena and must rely on their wits and courage to survive. The narrative explores themes of exploration, scientific curiosity, and the human spirit's resilience in the face of adversity. With a blend of science fiction and adventure, this episode brings to life Verne's imaginative vision, inviting listeners to ponder the mysteries that lie beneath our feet and the allure of the unexplored. Join us as we journey through this timeless tale of discovery and wonder.
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Unknown:
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No purchase necessary. VW. Avoid where prohibited by laws. Terms and conditions. 18 plus. The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater.
[00:00:44] Unknown:
I'm Tom Bosley. Welcome once again to the magic world of radio. Jules Verne was writing over a century ago. Yet because of his vision of the future, his stories today, a hundred years later, are still science fiction. For although much of what he prophesied has already come true, many of his predictions still await discovery or proof. None more so than the story I bring you today our adventure journey to the center of the earth was adapted from the Jules Verne novel especially for the general mills radio adventure theater by Ian Martin.
I shall return shortly with act one. Welcome. Eddie. Professor Otto Lidenbrock was a man of such determined purpose that when he dedicated himself to some single goal, nothing could stop him. This is the story of him, of his orphan nephew Axel, Vicky, the girl Axel loved, and of a strange old parchment with a cryptic message that catapulted the professor into leading all of them into the burning depths of hell. Come.
[00:02:09] Unknown:
Excuse me, Axel. But the housekeeper asked me
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the professor is not here. No, Vicky. Something must have delayed him. Don't tell me Martha has dinner ready to serve. Almost. What time do you think it is? I really don't know. I was busy studying these rocks, and, in fact, I get busy. I don't notice the time. Oh, you're as bad as your uncle.
[00:02:30] Unknown:
You live in a world apart.
[00:02:32] Unknown:
Not me. Only the world you're in. Axel. Well, if you don't want anyone to hear, close the door.
[00:02:40] Unknown:
What would Martha have to say about that or my guardian? What the professor and his housekeeper don't know won't hurt them. Darling, quick. Kiss me. Oh, Axel. Oh, you're so nice. You'd be even nicer as a husband.
[00:02:59] Unknown:
No. Until you finish your medical studies and I, my apprenticeship, is a mineralogist to my uncle, We just have to wait.
[00:03:07] Unknown:
Oh, it's so long, Axel.
[00:03:09] Unknown:
To me, it seems longer than eternity. Axel,
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should my oh, there you are. Close the door. Close the door. Yes, uncle. Now,
[00:03:18] Unknown:
Don't you recognize your own ward, Professor Linda Brooks?
[00:03:22] Unknown:
Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Of course. What are you doing in my study, Vicky? Martha sent me to tell you that the soup is ready. To the devil with the soup, Ted. I'm busy, child. You go drink the soup. And now, actually Yes, uncle. First, I'll go with Vicky and explain You need do no such thing. You will get that girl out of here and close the door so I can tell you what I have found. It's fabulous. Fabulous.
[00:03:50] Unknown:
My uncle was curator of the mineralogical museum in Hamburg and one of two or three of the most famous men in his field. He was a tall, vital man in his late forties. He was renowned for his enormous intelligence, his monumental impatience, and a horrifying temper, more or less in that order.
[00:04:08] Unknown:
Imagine, actually, to find a treasure beyond price by accident at a book stall. Look at it. Heims Kringla of Snorro Turelson. But but but look at what I found inside it, dear boy. Now what do you make of that?
[00:04:24] Unknown:
A piece of paper? Parchment. Parchment. Okay. Very well. Parchment.
[00:04:29] Unknown:
Read. Read what is written there. I can't. The letters look Icelandic. Wait. Look at this signature. At least that can be read. Arne Sarknusam. One of the most famous alchemists of the sixteenth century. But what's his connection with this book? Don't you see Arnie must have owned this book and his paper? He hid in it. I know enough to know. This is in code. It is a a puzzle, a a cryptogram. And I shall not rest until it is solved.
[00:05:03] Unknown:
I wonder if I had realized then what solving it would mean if I would have accepted the challenge because it was only going to catapult him and with him myself and the woman I loved into an adventure bizarre and mystifying beyond belief.
[00:05:20] Unknown:
A 32 letters of the alphabet in apparent disorder. What is the key? I have tried them in all sorts of mathematical combinations. Look at this sheet where I have written them vertically. Yes. Come.
[00:05:37] Unknown:
Forgive me, but you've been locked in here all day. Martha wants to know. Tell Martha when we are ready for eating, I shall let her know. Yes, professor. No luck with the cipher.
[00:05:50] Unknown:
How did you know about it? Why I told her about it, uncle. There are no secrets between Vicky and me. Oh, how is that? You may as well know. We wanna be married. Well, you may as well know. I don't think either of you are ready for it. You're quite sure of that, professor?
[00:06:09] Unknown:
You know, Axel can solve your old puzzle anytime he wants.
[00:06:14] Unknown:
He can? Axel, how long have you known the answer? For several days. Then why haven't you told me? Because I'm afraid of what it may mean. Never mind that. How long are you going to keep me in suspense?
[00:06:26] Unknown:
Supposing I made a bargain, if the news is worth it, would you agree to Vicky and me being married? My dear
[00:06:32] Unknown:
boy, except that it is too soon. Nothing would be nearer to my heart. But when is is that what you want, Vicky?
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With all my heart.
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Confound it. I alright. Yes. Now let us waste no more time. What is the key?
[00:06:50] Unknown:
You stack the letters vertically. Now read them backwards.
[00:06:58] Unknown:
Great heavens. I can't believe what I think I read.
[00:07:03] Unknown:
It is in Latin, not very good Latin, but it could be read thus. Descend into the crater of Snefels, over which the shadow of Skartarus falls before the Kalins of July, bold traveler, and you will reach the center of the Earth. I have done this, Arnisak Newsom. The Sentos.
[00:07:29] Unknown:
We shall do it too, you and I, Oxnard.
[00:07:33] Unknown:
I suppose I cannot refuse that, but you must give me something in exchange. If we set out on this mad adventure, you must give your consent that Vicky and I can be married first.
[00:07:45] Unknown:
Well, I suppose if it is what you both want. Oh, you see, Axel, all it needed was the right kind of miracle.
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When, uncle? Well,
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the sooner the better. Tomorrow. Yes. If you wish.
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Of course, we weren't married the next day, but before the week was out. Poor uncle Otto. He didn't quite know what he was letting himself in for. What do you mean take Vicky with us?
[00:08:15] Unknown:
Do we realize the dangers, the hardships, the inconceivable problems we may face buried deep in the bowels of the earth? If you want Axel along, you must take me too. You want Axel? I need him. I need his fluency in languages. She's a better mountain climber than either of us. She's trained in medicine, and she's no stranger to mineralogy.
[00:08:35] Unknown:
She'd be far more of a help than a hindrance.
[00:08:39] Unknown:
So so very well. I should argue no further. There is not time, but you had better prepare yourselves. We leave the day after tomorrow. There is only one boat service to Iceland on the thirtieth of each month. Unless we catch that boat, we would be too late to discover to discover a realm no man ever has set foot in before, the inside of the Earth, all the way down to the very heart of it.
[00:09:17] Unknown:
That was our honeymoon, that boat trip to Iceland, that cold remote island in the North Atlantic, a honeymoon shadowed by the frightening thought of what was to come, at least for me, if not for Vicky.
[00:09:31] Unknown:
Oh, Axel. Will you stop looking so gloomy? Come and look at the moon with me. I'm sorry, Vicky.
[00:09:39] Unknown:
It's a lovely moon and a nice cool breeze, and I just wish our voyage would go on forever.
[00:09:45] Unknown:
How about our happiness? There won't be much room for that once we reach Iceland. You really think there is such a moment when the sun will cast a shadow that miraculously points to a strange opening nobody else has ever explored? And at once through it, we will all just walk casually to the middle of the earth. No. Then what's there to worry about?
[00:10:14] Unknown:
My uncle was received and entertained in Iceland as one of the foremost mineralogists in the world, and it was a perfectly normal thing for him to request and receive a guide to lead us to the huge extinct volcano which dominates Iceland's skyline. Then came the incredible moment when at last the four of us, Hans Belkie, our guide, my uncle, Vicky, and myself, having scaled the mountain itself and plunged deep into its volcanic crater, found their three chimneys, any of which from their dark and forbidding promise could be bottomless and might well be the passage we were seeking.
[00:10:55] Unknown:
Two days we have sat here in this swirling fog, and there's no sun to cast a shadow to point out our path.
[00:11:03] Unknown:
Is it so important after all, uncle Lotto? Important?
[00:11:08] Unknown:
Only the realization of a life's dream for me.
[00:11:12] Unknown:
Supposing the sun's shadow does point to a place where we could enter and try to get to the center of the Earth, what difference would it really make?
[00:11:21] Unknown:
If we tried it, we'd all be burned to a crisp. Ah, no. No. No. The heat is odd on the surface. That was the theory of the man who is leading us to take this expedition, Armee Sakhnusen, and who lived to prove it. But, uncle,
[00:11:36] Unknown:
if he achieved this, why has no one heard of him?
[00:11:39] Unknown:
Because Arne Sacknussen was prosecuted for heresy. And in 1573, his works were burned by the common hangman at Copenhagen.
[00:11:53] Unknown:
And are we the only ones who know his secret?
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If he had one to preserve.
[00:11:59] Unknown:
But he left no indication of which of these chimneys is our pathway to glory. The sun would tear us if this overcast would just break and die. Where's the sun now? And and the shadow should
[00:12:12] Unknown:
look.
[00:12:13] Unknown:
It is pointing right to the center chimney just as Arnie said it would. You really believe all of this? Oh, yes. There is our route to immortality. When we go down that rock chimney, we will be the first human beings to explore the mystery of inside our planet and to reach at last the center of the Earth.
[00:12:44] Unknown:
Can you believe that somewhere there is a fissure in the earth's crust through which people like you and me could descend 5,000 miles until we reach the very center of this spinning globe? And if you have the chance, since men have opened all the continents, sailed the seven seas, conquered space, and revealed the mysteries of the ocean, since this is the only place left unexplored, could you resist the adventure? I'll return shortly with act two. The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater will return shortly. Four lonely human beings dwarfed by the immensity of the crater in which they stand are frozen at this special moment when the shadow of the great mountain, Skartaris, points directly to one of the three great chimneys reaching downwards into oblivion.
The entrance, according to an alchemist dead for five hundred years, to the passage that will eventually lead them to the very center of the Earth. It looks
[00:14:04] Unknown:
bottomless.
[00:14:05] Unknown:
I doubt it If Arnie Suckdussen went down it and came back to tell the tale. If
[00:14:11] Unknown:
We can repel ourselves down there, but what about the food and supplies?
[00:14:15] Unknown:
They would go down by themselves, Vicky. What do you mean? Watch Hans. He has already roped them together.
[00:14:27] Unknown:
He just threw it over. It'll be waiting for us.
[00:14:30] Unknown:
Listen.
[00:14:36] Unknown:
Good. Out for now. Uncle, we can't go down there. It's it's vertical like a chimney. Oh, not quite. Your uncle is right. No worse than any of the Alps I've climbed.
[00:14:49] Unknown:
I've been talking to Hans. But you don't speak his language. When it comes to mountain climbing, I do. Now look. The rope is hooked around this projection of rock, so it acts like a pulley. Hans will go down first till he finds a ledge or somewhere he can have footing, then he'll signal us to come down. All you have to do is take hold of both ropes and use your feet to push off against the mountain. Then you sort of slide down. Are you ready?
[00:15:17] Unknown:
As ready as I'll ever be, I guess.
[00:15:26] Unknown:
There's no bottom to this. Of course, there is. Listen.
[00:15:34] Unknown:
It sounds like miles. Nonsense. I timed it. Adding the velocity of a falling object to a return speed of sound, I would estimate some 3,000 feet. And how long is our rope?
[00:15:47] Unknown:
400 feet.
[00:15:49] Unknown:
But it was doubled, so say 200. Which only means we have to repeat what we have just done about 15 times before we reach the bottom of the chimney. We're mad. That's impossible.
[00:16:01] Unknown:
We've got to go back.
[00:16:04] Unknown:
It is a little late for that. Hans has already disengaged the rope to use for the next turn. And I doubt if any of us could climb back up without it.
[00:16:21] Unknown:
My uncle was right. It took 15 times hooking the rope around whatever projecting rock we could find to reach the bottom of that dark, narrow, dreadful chimney in the rock. By the time we reached bottom, exhausted, the last of daylight was fading. And looking up, the hole we had climbed into far above our heads was little bigger than a silver dollar. It was like looking through a gigantic telescope at a tiny star, a star which flickered and then went out as all of us fell into an exhausted sleep. Oxford? Yeah? Oxford, Victor.
Can I? Come come talk. My boy can't do. I'm dizzy.
[00:17:09] Unknown:
I'm seeing stars. Nonsense. It is just the daylight bouncing off the lava, like a shower of sparks. Where where's Vicky? She went up the chimney with arms, you see. They are getting the bundle with our supplies loose where it caught on the rock. Oh,
[00:17:25] Unknown:
yes.
[00:17:26] Unknown:
We're inside the mountain. Right. But so far, we haven't even penetrated the Earth's crust. What do you mean? We started down this tube from the crater of a mountain. We are only back to sea level. Are you sure? Look at the barometer. It shows the same air pressure at sea level. But as we go deeper and leave more air above us, its pressure will increase. And by measuring that pressure, we can calculate how deep we are. If we can breathe by then. Oh, we would descend gradually. And that way, our lungs will get used to the heavier air.
[00:18:05] Unknown:
And out below, we're going to drop the package.
[00:18:09] Unknown:
Get over here, Axel, into the shaft opening. Okay. Let's Hoggle.
[00:18:18] Unknown:
Where does this tunnel lead? Down to,
[00:18:21] Unknown:
to the center of the Earth, I hope. Okay. We're coming down now.
[00:18:26] Unknown:
Uncle, look. Be sensible. We've got to give this up. It it doesn't make any sense anyway. No sense. Why? Because the deeper we go, the hotter it will get. Oh, are you so sure? Well, it stands to reason since the center of the Earth is nothing but liquid fire. Oh, really? You have been there. No.
[00:18:46] Unknown:
But according to scientific theory Ah, some scientists, but not all. For myself, I prefer to believe our sixteenth century alchemist, Arne Sarnoosem, because he has been there. And more important, he came back. Oh, what are you two arguing about? Oh, if we were, my arguments have no weight. Fair enough since they are only speculation. Now, come, let us all have breakfast and press on with our quest. Well, Locksley, how do you find the temperature after these first days? It's quite comfortable. And you, Vicky? Oh, I hadn't even thought about it. But why should you? By the thermometer. It is just under 60 degrees.
[00:19:37] Unknown:
Should it be more?
[00:19:39] Unknown:
My nephew would think so. Me? Why? When we left the surface, it was 41 degrees Fahrenheit. But according to most authorities, there is a one degree centigrade rise in temperature for every hundred feet. So figuring the present rise in temperature by the Fahrenheit scale, could you estimate how deep in the earth we have penetrated?
[00:20:05] Unknown:
Well, that isn't very difficult.
[00:20:08] Unknown:
Less than a thousand feet. Except, my boy. And I promise you that my figures are correct. We are now 10,000 feet below sea level.
[00:20:21] Unknown:
What does that mean, Axel? It means
[00:20:25] Unknown:
we are far below the deepest mines ever sunk in the world and that the temperature ought to be at least 178 degrees. What?
[00:20:36] Unknown:
So much for preconceived ideas about the inside of the Earth. Now do you feel better about continuing with our search? Oh, bottom.
[00:20:48] Unknown:
What did Hans say? He said water. Whatever the temperature may be, we have only a three day supply of water. That's something no figures can change. But as soon as we get below this stage of lava rock, we will find springs.
[00:21:02] Unknown:
So we're going on. But certainly.
[00:21:06] Unknown:
Well, there are two roads.
[00:21:08] Unknown:
Both of them dark and narrow. And there is nothing to be gained by hesitation. So we will take the one to the east.
[00:21:21] Unknown:
The second day in this gallery, we were all breathing with difficulty, and I stopped. No. No. No. Go on. Go on. I have to rest a minute. So does Vicky. Oh, yes.
[00:21:33] Unknown:
I'm tired out. What? Trapping over such easy ground?
[00:21:38] Unknown:
Oh, it was easy till it started to go up instead of down.
[00:21:42] Unknown:
Up? Yeah. The slope has changed in the last hour.
[00:21:46] Unknown:
What? Well, well, it must go down again soon. We're very low on water. As soon as we get deeper, there would be plenty. Perhaps we should turn back. I'll go And we have come this far when we are on the edge of making history.
[00:22:00] Unknown:
There is no turning back. I'm afraid we haven't much choice. Ahead, it's a dead end. The passage is blocked.
[00:22:08] Unknown:
Very well then. We should have taken the other arm of the fork. We must go back.
[00:22:22] Unknown:
I won't drag you through the mental and physical agony of those retrace steps. Before we got back to the cavern, we had to ration the water. And by the time we arrived, we were parched and so weary we were ready to drop. All of us, except Hans, whom nothing seemed to affect, arrived half dead at the junction of the two galleries.
[00:22:45] Unknown:
Now, come. We must pull ourselves together and try the other fork. What? Are you mad? We must go back. And give up this expedition just when success is almost assured. The only thing that's assured
[00:23:00] Unknown:
is that if we continue, we'll all die. Very well then.
[00:23:05] Unknown:
You must take Vicky and Hans to help you climb. Perhaps you can make it out of the chimney.
[00:23:12] Unknown:
What about you?
[00:23:13] Unknown:
I shall go on. And die? I don't believe so.
[00:23:18] Unknown:
The lack of water is the only thing that stands in our way. And as a mineralogist, I have every hope that within ours, we will reach a layer of granite. And there, water should be abundant.
[00:23:33] Unknown:
Vicky? I think we'd better go with him, Axel. Even if we made it back to the bottom of the chimney, we'd never be able to climb out. Wait a minute. What's that noise? Noise?
[00:23:54] Unknown:
There is humps. I don't know. Shh. Water. Water.
[00:24:01] Unknown:
Water. Neda. Neda. Come on. He says down below.
[00:24:10] Unknown:
Yeah. Here's the water.
[00:24:13] Unknown:
It's it's behind the wall. A solid wall of granite. No way to get at it. Tons and tons of water. A torrent. A fountain of hope. And no way to get at it. No way. It's all over.
[00:24:38] Unknown:
Are our friends to perish buried alive, dead of thirst, when unlimited water is so near and yet beyond reach? Well, there's a limit to how much suspense I can honestly hold you under. Obviously, if the story is to be continued, they must survive. But how? I'll return shortly with act three.
[00:25:00] Unknown:
This is
[00:25:04] Unknown:
The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater will return shortly.
[00:25:09] Unknown:
Good luck.
[00:25:16] Unknown:
Three of our discoverers are slumped in parched exhaustion deep under the earth, deeper than any human being has ever penetrated before. But the fourth, the quiet man of few words, Hans, the phlegmatic Icelander with his incredible physical endurance, has left the others following the granite wall, listening to the sound of the torrent behind it. And now, faintly, the sound of his effort to save them reaches Vicky's ears first.
[00:25:47] Unknown:
Axel. Axel, listen. What? What's it? That sound.
[00:25:57] Unknown:
A a pickaxe. Where is Hans?
[00:26:01] Unknown:
I I don't know, Uncle Eddie. Pickaxe.
[00:26:04] Unknown:
He must be trying to break away the wall.
[00:26:11] Unknown:
Water. I think he's found water. Come on. Let's go. Water. I'm still looking out at
[00:26:23] Unknown:
it. But, Kim, and we can drink to our half's contents.
[00:26:45] Unknown:
That precious jet stream of water was to be more to us than something to quench our thirst. Like Kublai Khan that we had all read in school, it led us through caverns measureless to man down to a shining sea. But I am getting ahead of myself. On the July 18, '3 weeks after we had left the surface of the earth behind us, my uncle stopped to make some calculations.
[00:27:10] Unknown:
Where are we, uncle Otto?
[00:27:12] Unknown:
Well, by my calculations, we are 213 miles Southeast of Sneeffells.
[00:27:19] Unknown:
But that means we aren't under Iceland anymore. No idea.
[00:27:23] Unknown:
The Atlantic Ocean is now above our heads, but some 48 miles above 48 miles. We must all realize by now that there is no way of turning back.
[00:27:37] Unknown:
You mean you mean this is our life forever?
[00:27:42] Unknown:
Of course not, Vicky. If you have the faith I have. Remember, there was a man who went before and he came back and lived to tell it. I must believe, so shall we.
[00:28:01] Unknown:
I don't think anyone else believed that. The only thing that kept us from going mad was the sense of companionship. And then, suddenly, it happened. We were hoarding our electricity, saving our lamps. And on this day, feeling along in the dark, the nightmare that lurked in the back of all of our minds happened to me. Vicky, will you ask uncle Lotto if we can't stop a minute? Vicky? Vicky?
[00:28:32] Unknown:
Vic uncle Lotto? Hans? Vicky?
[00:28:41] Unknown:
I was suddenly screaming, panic welling up and catching in the back of my throat. Then with an effort, I got hold of myself. What a fool I was being. I had a sure way to find my way back to the others. All I had to do was follow the stream of water. I bent down. And to my horror and terror, I found nothing but dry granite. The stream was no longer at my feet. I went mad with panic, running back in the dark, screaming. Vicky? Vicky? Can you hear me?
[00:29:14] Unknown:
Uncle Otto? Hans?
[00:29:17] Unknown:
Please,
[00:29:28] Unknown:
please. When I came to, I had no way of knowing how long I'd been unconscious. My face was wet with tears and blood, for I'd cut my head when I fell. I was dizzy and half frantic with fear. And suddenly what was that? An explosion? Some subterranean earthquake? Oh, Lord. Please don't let me die. Please don't let me be buried alive.
[00:30:04] Unknown:
No. We won't give up. Fire the gun again. It's Vicky. And, Hans, help. Help.
[00:30:16] Unknown:
That must be the gun.
[00:30:18] Unknown:
Why does it sound so strange?
[00:30:20] Unknown:
Timothy can't hear that gunshot at his heart.
[00:30:24] Unknown:
But I do. I do. Won't give up. Give up. Give up. Why can't they hear me?
[00:30:29] Unknown:
And why do they sound so strange? Wait. I see it. It's some trick of acoustics. Their voices are traveling along the wall, like the whispering gallery in Saint Paul's Cathedral in London. If if I put my mouth close to the wall and whisper, maybe. Vicky. Vicky, my darling. Can you hear me?
[00:30:55] Unknown:
Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
[00:31:01] Unknown:
Listen. At Axel. My darling, darling, darling, my darling, where are you? I I don't know. I'm lost.
[00:31:11] Unknown:
Actually, my boy. How wonderful to know you are alive at White. We have been hunting everywhere for you. Now, because there is a time lag in transmitting messages, let me get us together as soon as possible. I have my watch in hand. At the end of this, I will say your name, noting the exact exactly. Exactly. Exactly. The moment you hear your name, repeat it. Repeat it. The moment I hear I hear I shall check the washing. By dividing the elapsed time, we will know just how far apart we are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:31:51] Unknown:
Now came the agonizing wait. It was unbearable to know that my darling Vicky and the others were so near and yet so. I will see exactly
[00:32:01] Unknown:
twenty seconds. I'm happy that is 10 and at 1,020 feet a second, that makes 10,200 and approximately two miles. Two miles? Now all you have to do, Toxon, is to find a path that takes you down. It is better that you come to us. I will tell you why. We are in a vast cavern and all the cracks on tissues and galleries seem to radiate from here. So so on your way, Bonnie. On your way. On your way. I love you, Anna. Don't don't don't. Just hurry to
[00:32:42] Unknown:
us. If our voices passed back and forth as they had, there could be no obstacle between us. So weak as I was, I hurried along the corridor, guiding myself by touching the wall. But I made one mistake. I was careless of what was under my feet and suddenly, it was as though the ground gave way beneath my feet. And I went slithering on loose rock down, down, sliding out of control, faster, faster, So suddenly the slide became a fall. I was jarred against projections dropping down a vertical shaft till my head hit a sharp rock and all went black.
[00:33:22] Unknown:
Hello, darling. Oh, Vicky. I guess you're alright. You're alive. I hear waves. And
[00:33:34] Unknown:
and we're in the open. The sun is shining. Are are we back outside? Under Godfrey,
[00:33:41] Unknown:
you are now at a depth underground of approximately a hundred miles.
[00:33:46] Unknown:
Oh, and and how far from Iceland? Over 2,000
[00:33:49] Unknown:
miles.
[00:33:50] Unknown:
Then we're somewhere beneath London or perhaps Paris? Approximately. Incredible. What's the hammering? What's the hammering, I hear? Come. Come and see.
[00:34:04] Unknown:
It is Hans. He is building a raft for us. Out of what? Lupine, fir, birch. But there are no trees down here. Somewhere on the shores of this sea there are. Oh, well, at some time. This is fossil wood mineralized by the sea, driftwood. It floats, and it will make a fine raft. What dog, Doc?
[00:34:27] Unknown:
Good dog, Hans. But
[00:34:30] Unknown:
why is Hans building his raft? Well,
[00:34:33] Unknown:
so we can follow the example of that well known chicken and get to the other side.
[00:34:44] Unknown:
I wish someone could explain this this other world to me. If uncle Otto can't, nobody can. Where does the light come from?
[00:34:53] Unknown:
Well, the best I can do is suggest that it's a kind of luminance from electric forces, a sort of constant lightning. What about those clouds? Water vapor and suspension.
[00:35:04] Unknown:
How high are they?
[00:35:06] Unknown:
Oh, a good 12,000 feet, I'd say. How large is the sea? At least as big as the Mediterranean.
[00:35:13] Unknown:
We've been sailing for nearly a week, and there's no sign of the other shore. And all this inside one huge cavern in the deep, severe, it's beyond belief.
[00:35:32] Unknown:
It was two days later that we made land in a heavily wooded area with mountains rising steeply almost from the shore. In one of them, we found a cave and another miracle, the name of Arnie Sapnusam chiseled in granite. But less than a hundred feet into the cave, the way was blocked by a gigantic rock which fitted into the passage like a stopper in a bottle. Hans began to chip at it with his pickaxe.
[00:35:59] Unknown:
Now it is hopeless. Even you could never cut through that, Hans.
[00:36:03] Unknown:
No. But Axel can. Axel? How? Let him answer that for himself.
[00:36:08] Unknown:
What have you got there, Axel? Fifty pounds of our explosive.
[00:36:13] Unknown:
If we can't cut through the rock, we can blow it out of there. Hans, you cut a hole big enough for traffic.
[00:36:21] Unknown:
Yeah. For traffic. Excellent. Indeed. Now set your charge, Axel, while I make a slow fuse. That will give us time to get away from here before it explodes. Everybody aboard my sword. Now I just put you off a head of I I don't think there would be any dings. Better to be safe. I'm sorry.
[00:36:43] Unknown:
Oh, the fuse burned faster than Iceland. It's what I meant if I be What is it? It looks like a bottomless pit. There must have been an abyss on the other side of the rock. The sea is pouring inwards and we are being swept beneath.
[00:37:15] Unknown:
The next forty eight hours were a nightmare not to be believed. With the speed of an express train, the current carried us down on a wave tearing through between the walls of the tunnel. We were tossed and battered about, but held on grimly. Nothing worse could happen to us, we supposed, until
[00:37:32] Unknown:
Who? What is it also? Yeah. We're going up. How? The water has reached the bottom of the abyss
[00:38:30] Unknown:
earth.
[00:38:34] Unknown:
So our four adventurers came back to the surface the same way they had entered, through the crater of a volcano. Burned, bruised, tattered, and exhausted, they were blown out of the volcano Etna in Italy, for that was how far they had traveled through the center of the earth. But they lived to tell the tale. And that is how Jules Verne's book begins and ends. Once again, I remind all of you that there is only time to bring you highlights of a book such as this, to enjoy it fully and to appreciate the genius of Jules Verne, the richness of his imagination, and the scientific knowledge that justifies it, you must go back to the book.
It will bring you many hours of pleasure.
[00:39:39] Unknown:
Our cast included Ian Martin, Don Scardino, and Giada Rolan. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown.
[00:39:51] Unknown:
This is Tom Bosley inviting you to return to the General Mills Radio Adventure Theater for another exciting tale you can hear through the magic of radio. The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater is recommended by NEA, the National Education Association.
[00:41:13] Unknown:
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[00:00:28] Unknown:
No purchase necessary. VW. Avoid where prohibited by laws. Terms and conditions. 18 plus. The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater.
[00:00:44] Unknown:
I'm Tom Bosley. Welcome once again to the magic world of radio. Jules Verne was writing over a century ago. Yet because of his vision of the future, his stories today, a hundred years later, are still science fiction. For although much of what he prophesied has already come true, many of his predictions still await discovery or proof. None more so than the story I bring you today our adventure journey to the center of the earth was adapted from the Jules Verne novel especially for the general mills radio adventure theater by Ian Martin.
I shall return shortly with act one. Welcome. Eddie. Professor Otto Lidenbrock was a man of such determined purpose that when he dedicated himself to some single goal, nothing could stop him. This is the story of him, of his orphan nephew Axel, Vicky, the girl Axel loved, and of a strange old parchment with a cryptic message that catapulted the professor into leading all of them into the burning depths of hell. Come.
[00:02:09] Unknown:
Excuse me, Axel. But the housekeeper asked me
[00:02:12] Unknown:
the professor is not here. No, Vicky. Something must have delayed him. Don't tell me Martha has dinner ready to serve. Almost. What time do you think it is? I really don't know. I was busy studying these rocks, and, in fact, I get busy. I don't notice the time. Oh, you're as bad as your uncle.
[00:02:30] Unknown:
You live in a world apart.
[00:02:32] Unknown:
Not me. Only the world you're in. Axel. Well, if you don't want anyone to hear, close the door.
[00:02:40] Unknown:
What would Martha have to say about that or my guardian? What the professor and his housekeeper don't know won't hurt them. Darling, quick. Kiss me. Oh, Axel. Oh, you're so nice. You'd be even nicer as a husband.
[00:02:59] Unknown:
No. Until you finish your medical studies and I, my apprenticeship, is a mineralogist to my uncle, We just have to wait.
[00:03:07] Unknown:
Oh, it's so long, Axel.
[00:03:09] Unknown:
To me, it seems longer than eternity. Axel,
[00:03:12] Unknown:
should my oh, there you are. Close the door. Close the door. Yes, uncle. Now,
[00:03:18] Unknown:
Don't you recognize your own ward, Professor Linda Brooks?
[00:03:22] Unknown:
Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Of course. What are you doing in my study, Vicky? Martha sent me to tell you that the soup is ready. To the devil with the soup, Ted. I'm busy, child. You go drink the soup. And now, actually Yes, uncle. First, I'll go with Vicky and explain You need do no such thing. You will get that girl out of here and close the door so I can tell you what I have found. It's fabulous. Fabulous.
[00:03:50] Unknown:
My uncle was curator of the mineralogical museum in Hamburg and one of two or three of the most famous men in his field. He was a tall, vital man in his late forties. He was renowned for his enormous intelligence, his monumental impatience, and a horrifying temper, more or less in that order.
[00:04:08] Unknown:
Imagine, actually, to find a treasure beyond price by accident at a book stall. Look at it. Heims Kringla of Snorro Turelson. But but but look at what I found inside it, dear boy. Now what do you make of that?
[00:04:24] Unknown:
A piece of paper? Parchment. Parchment. Okay. Very well. Parchment.
[00:04:29] Unknown:
Read. Read what is written there. I can't. The letters look Icelandic. Wait. Look at this signature. At least that can be read. Arne Sarknusam. One of the most famous alchemists of the sixteenth century. But what's his connection with this book? Don't you see Arnie must have owned this book and his paper? He hid in it. I know enough to know. This is in code. It is a a puzzle, a a cryptogram. And I shall not rest until it is solved.
[00:05:03] Unknown:
I wonder if I had realized then what solving it would mean if I would have accepted the challenge because it was only going to catapult him and with him myself and the woman I loved into an adventure bizarre and mystifying beyond belief.
[00:05:20] Unknown:
A 32 letters of the alphabet in apparent disorder. What is the key? I have tried them in all sorts of mathematical combinations. Look at this sheet where I have written them vertically. Yes. Come.
[00:05:37] Unknown:
Forgive me, but you've been locked in here all day. Martha wants to know. Tell Martha when we are ready for eating, I shall let her know. Yes, professor. No luck with the cipher.
[00:05:50] Unknown:
How did you know about it? Why I told her about it, uncle. There are no secrets between Vicky and me. Oh, how is that? You may as well know. We wanna be married. Well, you may as well know. I don't think either of you are ready for it. You're quite sure of that, professor?
[00:06:09] Unknown:
You know, Axel can solve your old puzzle anytime he wants.
[00:06:14] Unknown:
He can? Axel, how long have you known the answer? For several days. Then why haven't you told me? Because I'm afraid of what it may mean. Never mind that. How long are you going to keep me in suspense?
[00:06:26] Unknown:
Supposing I made a bargain, if the news is worth it, would you agree to Vicky and me being married? My dear
[00:06:32] Unknown:
boy, except that it is too soon. Nothing would be nearer to my heart. But when is is that what you want, Vicky?
[00:06:42] Unknown:
With all my heart.
[00:06:43] Unknown:
Confound it. I alright. Yes. Now let us waste no more time. What is the key?
[00:06:50] Unknown:
You stack the letters vertically. Now read them backwards.
[00:06:58] Unknown:
Great heavens. I can't believe what I think I read.
[00:07:03] Unknown:
It is in Latin, not very good Latin, but it could be read thus. Descend into the crater of Snefels, over which the shadow of Skartarus falls before the Kalins of July, bold traveler, and you will reach the center of the Earth. I have done this, Arnisak Newsom. The Sentos.
[00:07:29] Unknown:
We shall do it too, you and I, Oxnard.
[00:07:33] Unknown:
I suppose I cannot refuse that, but you must give me something in exchange. If we set out on this mad adventure, you must give your consent that Vicky and I can be married first.
[00:07:45] Unknown:
Well, I suppose if it is what you both want. Oh, you see, Axel, all it needed was the right kind of miracle.
[00:07:53] Unknown:
When, uncle? Well,
[00:07:55] Unknown:
the sooner the better. Tomorrow. Yes. If you wish.
[00:08:03] Unknown:
Of course, we weren't married the next day, but before the week was out. Poor uncle Otto. He didn't quite know what he was letting himself in for. What do you mean take Vicky with us?
[00:08:15] Unknown:
Do we realize the dangers, the hardships, the inconceivable problems we may face buried deep in the bowels of the earth? If you want Axel along, you must take me too. You want Axel? I need him. I need his fluency in languages. She's a better mountain climber than either of us. She's trained in medicine, and she's no stranger to mineralogy.
[00:08:35] Unknown:
She'd be far more of a help than a hindrance.
[00:08:39] Unknown:
So so very well. I should argue no further. There is not time, but you had better prepare yourselves. We leave the day after tomorrow. There is only one boat service to Iceland on the thirtieth of each month. Unless we catch that boat, we would be too late to discover to discover a realm no man ever has set foot in before, the inside of the Earth, all the way down to the very heart of it.
[00:09:17] Unknown:
That was our honeymoon, that boat trip to Iceland, that cold remote island in the North Atlantic, a honeymoon shadowed by the frightening thought of what was to come, at least for me, if not for Vicky.
[00:09:31] Unknown:
Oh, Axel. Will you stop looking so gloomy? Come and look at the moon with me. I'm sorry, Vicky.
[00:09:39] Unknown:
It's a lovely moon and a nice cool breeze, and I just wish our voyage would go on forever.
[00:09:45] Unknown:
How about our happiness? There won't be much room for that once we reach Iceland. You really think there is such a moment when the sun will cast a shadow that miraculously points to a strange opening nobody else has ever explored? And at once through it, we will all just walk casually to the middle of the earth. No. Then what's there to worry about?
[00:10:14] Unknown:
My uncle was received and entertained in Iceland as one of the foremost mineralogists in the world, and it was a perfectly normal thing for him to request and receive a guide to lead us to the huge extinct volcano which dominates Iceland's skyline. Then came the incredible moment when at last the four of us, Hans Belkie, our guide, my uncle, Vicky, and myself, having scaled the mountain itself and plunged deep into its volcanic crater, found their three chimneys, any of which from their dark and forbidding promise could be bottomless and might well be the passage we were seeking.
[00:10:55] Unknown:
Two days we have sat here in this swirling fog, and there's no sun to cast a shadow to point out our path.
[00:11:03] Unknown:
Is it so important after all, uncle Lotto? Important?
[00:11:08] Unknown:
Only the realization of a life's dream for me.
[00:11:12] Unknown:
Supposing the sun's shadow does point to a place where we could enter and try to get to the center of the Earth, what difference would it really make?
[00:11:21] Unknown:
If we tried it, we'd all be burned to a crisp. Ah, no. No. No. The heat is odd on the surface. That was the theory of the man who is leading us to take this expedition, Armee Sakhnusen, and who lived to prove it. But, uncle,
[00:11:36] Unknown:
if he achieved this, why has no one heard of him?
[00:11:39] Unknown:
Because Arne Sacknussen was prosecuted for heresy. And in 1573, his works were burned by the common hangman at Copenhagen.
[00:11:53] Unknown:
And are we the only ones who know his secret?
[00:11:56] Unknown:
If he had one to preserve.
[00:11:59] Unknown:
But he left no indication of which of these chimneys is our pathway to glory. The sun would tear us if this overcast would just break and die. Where's the sun now? And and the shadow should
[00:12:12] Unknown:
look.
[00:12:13] Unknown:
It is pointing right to the center chimney just as Arnie said it would. You really believe all of this? Oh, yes. There is our route to immortality. When we go down that rock chimney, we will be the first human beings to explore the mystery of inside our planet and to reach at last the center of the Earth.
[00:12:44] Unknown:
Can you believe that somewhere there is a fissure in the earth's crust through which people like you and me could descend 5,000 miles until we reach the very center of this spinning globe? And if you have the chance, since men have opened all the continents, sailed the seven seas, conquered space, and revealed the mysteries of the ocean, since this is the only place left unexplored, could you resist the adventure? I'll return shortly with act two. The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater will return shortly. Four lonely human beings dwarfed by the immensity of the crater in which they stand are frozen at this special moment when the shadow of the great mountain, Skartaris, points directly to one of the three great chimneys reaching downwards into oblivion.
The entrance, according to an alchemist dead for five hundred years, to the passage that will eventually lead them to the very center of the Earth. It looks
[00:14:04] Unknown:
bottomless.
[00:14:05] Unknown:
I doubt it If Arnie Suckdussen went down it and came back to tell the tale. If
[00:14:11] Unknown:
We can repel ourselves down there, but what about the food and supplies?
[00:14:15] Unknown:
They would go down by themselves, Vicky. What do you mean? Watch Hans. He has already roped them together.
[00:14:27] Unknown:
He just threw it over. It'll be waiting for us.
[00:14:30] Unknown:
Listen.
[00:14:36] Unknown:
Good. Out for now. Uncle, we can't go down there. It's it's vertical like a chimney. Oh, not quite. Your uncle is right. No worse than any of the Alps I've climbed.
[00:14:49] Unknown:
I've been talking to Hans. But you don't speak his language. When it comes to mountain climbing, I do. Now look. The rope is hooked around this projection of rock, so it acts like a pulley. Hans will go down first till he finds a ledge or somewhere he can have footing, then he'll signal us to come down. All you have to do is take hold of both ropes and use your feet to push off against the mountain. Then you sort of slide down. Are you ready?
[00:15:17] Unknown:
As ready as I'll ever be, I guess.
[00:15:26] Unknown:
There's no bottom to this. Of course, there is. Listen.
[00:15:34] Unknown:
It sounds like miles. Nonsense. I timed it. Adding the velocity of a falling object to a return speed of sound, I would estimate some 3,000 feet. And how long is our rope?
[00:15:47] Unknown:
400 feet.
[00:15:49] Unknown:
But it was doubled, so say 200. Which only means we have to repeat what we have just done about 15 times before we reach the bottom of the chimney. We're mad. That's impossible.
[00:16:01] Unknown:
We've got to go back.
[00:16:04] Unknown:
It is a little late for that. Hans has already disengaged the rope to use for the next turn. And I doubt if any of us could climb back up without it.
[00:16:21] Unknown:
My uncle was right. It took 15 times hooking the rope around whatever projecting rock we could find to reach the bottom of that dark, narrow, dreadful chimney in the rock. By the time we reached bottom, exhausted, the last of daylight was fading. And looking up, the hole we had climbed into far above our heads was little bigger than a silver dollar. It was like looking through a gigantic telescope at a tiny star, a star which flickered and then went out as all of us fell into an exhausted sleep. Oxford? Yeah? Oxford, Victor.
Can I? Come come talk. My boy can't do. I'm dizzy.
[00:17:09] Unknown:
I'm seeing stars. Nonsense. It is just the daylight bouncing off the lava, like a shower of sparks. Where where's Vicky? She went up the chimney with arms, you see. They are getting the bundle with our supplies loose where it caught on the rock. Oh,
[00:17:25] Unknown:
yes.
[00:17:26] Unknown:
We're inside the mountain. Right. But so far, we haven't even penetrated the Earth's crust. What do you mean? We started down this tube from the crater of a mountain. We are only back to sea level. Are you sure? Look at the barometer. It shows the same air pressure at sea level. But as we go deeper and leave more air above us, its pressure will increase. And by measuring that pressure, we can calculate how deep we are. If we can breathe by then. Oh, we would descend gradually. And that way, our lungs will get used to the heavier air.
[00:18:05] Unknown:
And out below, we're going to drop the package.
[00:18:09] Unknown:
Get over here, Axel, into the shaft opening. Okay. Let's Hoggle.
[00:18:18] Unknown:
Where does this tunnel lead? Down to,
[00:18:21] Unknown:
to the center of the Earth, I hope. Okay. We're coming down now.
[00:18:26] Unknown:
Uncle, look. Be sensible. We've got to give this up. It it doesn't make any sense anyway. No sense. Why? Because the deeper we go, the hotter it will get. Oh, are you so sure? Well, it stands to reason since the center of the Earth is nothing but liquid fire. Oh, really? You have been there. No.
[00:18:46] Unknown:
But according to scientific theory Ah, some scientists, but not all. For myself, I prefer to believe our sixteenth century alchemist, Arne Sarnoosem, because he has been there. And more important, he came back. Oh, what are you two arguing about? Oh, if we were, my arguments have no weight. Fair enough since they are only speculation. Now, come, let us all have breakfast and press on with our quest. Well, Locksley, how do you find the temperature after these first days? It's quite comfortable. And you, Vicky? Oh, I hadn't even thought about it. But why should you? By the thermometer. It is just under 60 degrees.
[00:19:37] Unknown:
Should it be more?
[00:19:39] Unknown:
My nephew would think so. Me? Why? When we left the surface, it was 41 degrees Fahrenheit. But according to most authorities, there is a one degree centigrade rise in temperature for every hundred feet. So figuring the present rise in temperature by the Fahrenheit scale, could you estimate how deep in the earth we have penetrated?
[00:20:05] Unknown:
Well, that isn't very difficult.
[00:20:08] Unknown:
Less than a thousand feet. Except, my boy. And I promise you that my figures are correct. We are now 10,000 feet below sea level.
[00:20:21] Unknown:
What does that mean, Axel? It means
[00:20:25] Unknown:
we are far below the deepest mines ever sunk in the world and that the temperature ought to be at least 178 degrees. What?
[00:20:36] Unknown:
So much for preconceived ideas about the inside of the Earth. Now do you feel better about continuing with our search? Oh, bottom.
[00:20:48] Unknown:
What did Hans say? He said water. Whatever the temperature may be, we have only a three day supply of water. That's something no figures can change. But as soon as we get below this stage of lava rock, we will find springs.
[00:21:02] Unknown:
So we're going on. But certainly.
[00:21:06] Unknown:
Well, there are two roads.
[00:21:08] Unknown:
Both of them dark and narrow. And there is nothing to be gained by hesitation. So we will take the one to the east.
[00:21:21] Unknown:
The second day in this gallery, we were all breathing with difficulty, and I stopped. No. No. No. Go on. Go on. I have to rest a minute. So does Vicky. Oh, yes.
[00:21:33] Unknown:
I'm tired out. What? Trapping over such easy ground?
[00:21:38] Unknown:
Oh, it was easy till it started to go up instead of down.
[00:21:42] Unknown:
Up? Yeah. The slope has changed in the last hour.
[00:21:46] Unknown:
What? Well, well, it must go down again soon. We're very low on water. As soon as we get deeper, there would be plenty. Perhaps we should turn back. I'll go And we have come this far when we are on the edge of making history.
[00:22:00] Unknown:
There is no turning back. I'm afraid we haven't much choice. Ahead, it's a dead end. The passage is blocked.
[00:22:08] Unknown:
Very well then. We should have taken the other arm of the fork. We must go back.
[00:22:22] Unknown:
I won't drag you through the mental and physical agony of those retrace steps. Before we got back to the cavern, we had to ration the water. And by the time we arrived, we were parched and so weary we were ready to drop. All of us, except Hans, whom nothing seemed to affect, arrived half dead at the junction of the two galleries.
[00:22:45] Unknown:
Now, come. We must pull ourselves together and try the other fork. What? Are you mad? We must go back. And give up this expedition just when success is almost assured. The only thing that's assured
[00:23:00] Unknown:
is that if we continue, we'll all die. Very well then.
[00:23:05] Unknown:
You must take Vicky and Hans to help you climb. Perhaps you can make it out of the chimney.
[00:23:12] Unknown:
What about you?
[00:23:13] Unknown:
I shall go on. And die? I don't believe so.
[00:23:18] Unknown:
The lack of water is the only thing that stands in our way. And as a mineralogist, I have every hope that within ours, we will reach a layer of granite. And there, water should be abundant.
[00:23:33] Unknown:
Vicky? I think we'd better go with him, Axel. Even if we made it back to the bottom of the chimney, we'd never be able to climb out. Wait a minute. What's that noise? Noise?
[00:23:54] Unknown:
There is humps. I don't know. Shh. Water. Water.
[00:24:01] Unknown:
Water. Neda. Neda. Come on. He says down below.
[00:24:10] Unknown:
Yeah. Here's the water.
[00:24:13] Unknown:
It's it's behind the wall. A solid wall of granite. No way to get at it. Tons and tons of water. A torrent. A fountain of hope. And no way to get at it. No way. It's all over.
[00:24:38] Unknown:
Are our friends to perish buried alive, dead of thirst, when unlimited water is so near and yet beyond reach? Well, there's a limit to how much suspense I can honestly hold you under. Obviously, if the story is to be continued, they must survive. But how? I'll return shortly with act three.
[00:25:00] Unknown:
This is
[00:25:04] Unknown:
The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater will return shortly.
[00:25:09] Unknown:
Good luck.
[00:25:16] Unknown:
Three of our discoverers are slumped in parched exhaustion deep under the earth, deeper than any human being has ever penetrated before. But the fourth, the quiet man of few words, Hans, the phlegmatic Icelander with his incredible physical endurance, has left the others following the granite wall, listening to the sound of the torrent behind it. And now, faintly, the sound of his effort to save them reaches Vicky's ears first.
[00:25:47] Unknown:
Axel. Axel, listen. What? What's it? That sound.
[00:25:57] Unknown:
A a pickaxe. Where is Hans?
[00:26:01] Unknown:
I I don't know, Uncle Eddie. Pickaxe.
[00:26:04] Unknown:
He must be trying to break away the wall.
[00:26:11] Unknown:
Water. I think he's found water. Come on. Let's go. Water. I'm still looking out at
[00:26:23] Unknown:
it. But, Kim, and we can drink to our half's contents.
[00:26:45] Unknown:
That precious jet stream of water was to be more to us than something to quench our thirst. Like Kublai Khan that we had all read in school, it led us through caverns measureless to man down to a shining sea. But I am getting ahead of myself. On the July 18, '3 weeks after we had left the surface of the earth behind us, my uncle stopped to make some calculations.
[00:27:10] Unknown:
Where are we, uncle Otto?
[00:27:12] Unknown:
Well, by my calculations, we are 213 miles Southeast of Sneeffells.
[00:27:19] Unknown:
But that means we aren't under Iceland anymore. No idea.
[00:27:23] Unknown:
The Atlantic Ocean is now above our heads, but some 48 miles above 48 miles. We must all realize by now that there is no way of turning back.
[00:27:37] Unknown:
You mean you mean this is our life forever?
[00:27:42] Unknown:
Of course not, Vicky. If you have the faith I have. Remember, there was a man who went before and he came back and lived to tell it. I must believe, so shall we.
[00:28:01] Unknown:
I don't think anyone else believed that. The only thing that kept us from going mad was the sense of companionship. And then, suddenly, it happened. We were hoarding our electricity, saving our lamps. And on this day, feeling along in the dark, the nightmare that lurked in the back of all of our minds happened to me. Vicky, will you ask uncle Lotto if we can't stop a minute? Vicky? Vicky?
[00:28:32] Unknown:
Vic uncle Lotto? Hans? Vicky?
[00:28:41] Unknown:
I was suddenly screaming, panic welling up and catching in the back of my throat. Then with an effort, I got hold of myself. What a fool I was being. I had a sure way to find my way back to the others. All I had to do was follow the stream of water. I bent down. And to my horror and terror, I found nothing but dry granite. The stream was no longer at my feet. I went mad with panic, running back in the dark, screaming. Vicky? Vicky? Can you hear me?
[00:29:14] Unknown:
Uncle Otto? Hans?
[00:29:17] Unknown:
Please,
[00:29:28] Unknown:
please. When I came to, I had no way of knowing how long I'd been unconscious. My face was wet with tears and blood, for I'd cut my head when I fell. I was dizzy and half frantic with fear. And suddenly what was that? An explosion? Some subterranean earthquake? Oh, Lord. Please don't let me die. Please don't let me be buried alive.
[00:30:04] Unknown:
No. We won't give up. Fire the gun again. It's Vicky. And, Hans, help. Help.
[00:30:16] Unknown:
That must be the gun.
[00:30:18] Unknown:
Why does it sound so strange?
[00:30:20] Unknown:
Timothy can't hear that gunshot at his heart.
[00:30:24] Unknown:
But I do. I do. Won't give up. Give up. Give up. Why can't they hear me?
[00:30:29] Unknown:
And why do they sound so strange? Wait. I see it. It's some trick of acoustics. Their voices are traveling along the wall, like the whispering gallery in Saint Paul's Cathedral in London. If if I put my mouth close to the wall and whisper, maybe. Vicky. Vicky, my darling. Can you hear me?
[00:30:55] Unknown:
Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
[00:31:01] Unknown:
Listen. At Axel. My darling, darling, darling, my darling, where are you? I I don't know. I'm lost.
[00:31:11] Unknown:
Actually, my boy. How wonderful to know you are alive at White. We have been hunting everywhere for you. Now, because there is a time lag in transmitting messages, let me get us together as soon as possible. I have my watch in hand. At the end of this, I will say your name, noting the exact exactly. Exactly. Exactly. The moment you hear your name, repeat it. Repeat it. The moment I hear I hear I shall check the washing. By dividing the elapsed time, we will know just how far apart we are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:31:51] Unknown:
Now came the agonizing wait. It was unbearable to know that my darling Vicky and the others were so near and yet so. I will see exactly
[00:32:01] Unknown:
twenty seconds. I'm happy that is 10 and at 1,020 feet a second, that makes 10,200 and approximately two miles. Two miles? Now all you have to do, Toxon, is to find a path that takes you down. It is better that you come to us. I will tell you why. We are in a vast cavern and all the cracks on tissues and galleries seem to radiate from here. So so on your way, Bonnie. On your way. On your way. I love you, Anna. Don't don't don't. Just hurry to
[00:32:42] Unknown:
us. If our voices passed back and forth as they had, there could be no obstacle between us. So weak as I was, I hurried along the corridor, guiding myself by touching the wall. But I made one mistake. I was careless of what was under my feet and suddenly, it was as though the ground gave way beneath my feet. And I went slithering on loose rock down, down, sliding out of control, faster, faster, So suddenly the slide became a fall. I was jarred against projections dropping down a vertical shaft till my head hit a sharp rock and all went black.
[00:33:22] Unknown:
Hello, darling. Oh, Vicky. I guess you're alright. You're alive. I hear waves. And
[00:33:34] Unknown:
and we're in the open. The sun is shining. Are are we back outside? Under Godfrey,
[00:33:41] Unknown:
you are now at a depth underground of approximately a hundred miles.
[00:33:46] Unknown:
Oh, and and how far from Iceland? Over 2,000
[00:33:49] Unknown:
miles.
[00:33:50] Unknown:
Then we're somewhere beneath London or perhaps Paris? Approximately. Incredible. What's the hammering? What's the hammering, I hear? Come. Come and see.
[00:34:04] Unknown:
It is Hans. He is building a raft for us. Out of what? Lupine, fir, birch. But there are no trees down here. Somewhere on the shores of this sea there are. Oh, well, at some time. This is fossil wood mineralized by the sea, driftwood. It floats, and it will make a fine raft. What dog, Doc?
[00:34:27] Unknown:
Good dog, Hans. But
[00:34:30] Unknown:
why is Hans building his raft? Well,
[00:34:33] Unknown:
so we can follow the example of that well known chicken and get to the other side.
[00:34:44] Unknown:
I wish someone could explain this this other world to me. If uncle Otto can't, nobody can. Where does the light come from?
[00:34:53] Unknown:
Well, the best I can do is suggest that it's a kind of luminance from electric forces, a sort of constant lightning. What about those clouds? Water vapor and suspension.
[00:35:04] Unknown:
How high are they?
[00:35:06] Unknown:
Oh, a good 12,000 feet, I'd say. How large is the sea? At least as big as the Mediterranean.
[00:35:13] Unknown:
We've been sailing for nearly a week, and there's no sign of the other shore. And all this inside one huge cavern in the deep, severe, it's beyond belief.
[00:35:32] Unknown:
It was two days later that we made land in a heavily wooded area with mountains rising steeply almost from the shore. In one of them, we found a cave and another miracle, the name of Arnie Sapnusam chiseled in granite. But less than a hundred feet into the cave, the way was blocked by a gigantic rock which fitted into the passage like a stopper in a bottle. Hans began to chip at it with his pickaxe.
[00:35:59] Unknown:
Now it is hopeless. Even you could never cut through that, Hans.
[00:36:03] Unknown:
No. But Axel can. Axel? How? Let him answer that for himself.
[00:36:08] Unknown:
What have you got there, Axel? Fifty pounds of our explosive.
[00:36:13] Unknown:
If we can't cut through the rock, we can blow it out of there. Hans, you cut a hole big enough for traffic.
[00:36:21] Unknown:
Yeah. For traffic. Excellent. Indeed. Now set your charge, Axel, while I make a slow fuse. That will give us time to get away from here before it explodes. Everybody aboard my sword. Now I just put you off a head of I I don't think there would be any dings. Better to be safe. I'm sorry.
[00:36:43] Unknown:
Oh, the fuse burned faster than Iceland. It's what I meant if I be What is it? It looks like a bottomless pit. There must have been an abyss on the other side of the rock. The sea is pouring inwards and we are being swept beneath.
[00:37:15] Unknown:
The next forty eight hours were a nightmare not to be believed. With the speed of an express train, the current carried us down on a wave tearing through between the walls of the tunnel. We were tossed and battered about, but held on grimly. Nothing worse could happen to us, we supposed, until
[00:37:32] Unknown:
Who? What is it also? Yeah. We're going up. How? The water has reached the bottom of the abyss
[00:38:30] Unknown:
earth.
[00:38:34] Unknown:
So our four adventurers came back to the surface the same way they had entered, through the crater of a volcano. Burned, bruised, tattered, and exhausted, they were blown out of the volcano Etna in Italy, for that was how far they had traveled through the center of the earth. But they lived to tell the tale. And that is how Jules Verne's book begins and ends. Once again, I remind all of you that there is only time to bring you highlights of a book such as this, to enjoy it fully and to appreciate the genius of Jules Verne, the richness of his imagination, and the scientific knowledge that justifies it, you must go back to the book.
It will bring you many hours of pleasure.
[00:39:39] Unknown:
Our cast included Ian Martin, Don Scardino, and Giada Rolan. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown.
[00:39:51] Unknown:
This is Tom Bosley inviting you to return to the General Mills Radio Adventure Theater for another exciting tale you can hear through the magic of radio. The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater is recommended by NEA, the National Education Association.
[00:41:13] Unknown:
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Introduction to Jules Verne's Vision
The Mysterious Parchment
Decoding the Cryptogram
Journey to Iceland
Descent into the Volcano
Challenges and Discoveries
Lost and Found
The Underground Sea
The Explosive Escape
Return to the Surface
