rents will be a most delicate operation. I have arranged these so as to be automatically controlled, as much as possible, by the very position of the car in the tube; but my presence is absolutely necessary here, in case the slightest thing should go wrong."
"Well," said Mr. Curtis, "I must confess that, for my part, I am not at all surprised that no one should be willing to run the risk of taking this plunge through the earth. Not only is there, as you say, the danger of being killed by striking against the side of the tube, but the very rapidity of the passenger's fall would, as I have already said, prevent him from breathing; so that, even if he were not smashed into fragments or burned to a cinder, he would still be suffocated before he reached even the center of the earth!"
"Nonsense!" replied the doctor. "As I have already told you, we are all of us traveling at a much greater speed than this car will acquire, and there will consequently not be the slightest danger. A child could undertake the trip. And now that we are discussing the subject, I am surprised, James, that you do not yourself go."
"Oh, thank you, doctor; but although, as you say, I might go without danger, I am enough of a
