THE START
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At one and the same moment an electric bell in each of these places sounded a warning ring for a few seconds, and then suddenly ceased, while at the instant of cessation a ball placed in a tall glass tube began to fall slowly downward. This ball was in electric communication with the carbonite tube itself, and by an ingenious arrangement it measured and made manifest to the spectators the exact speed and position of the car at every stage of its rapid fall through the earth.
The die was cast! Our hero had started on his novel journey. And novel it was destined to be beyond anything he had ever imagined!
