The emotions of that day were breaking my heart.

“After all,” I thought, “the calends of July are still a long way off, and between now and then, many things can happen that will cure my uncle of his desire to travel underground.”

Night had fallen when we arrived at the house in Königstrasse. I expected to find all quiet there, my uncle in bed as was his custom, and Martha giving the dining-room her last touches with the feather brush.

But I had not taken the professor’s impatience into account.

I found him shouting and running around among a crowd of porters who were all unloading certain goods in the passage. The old servant was at her wits’ end.

“Come, Axel, hurry up, you miserable wretch,” my uncle exclaimed from as far off as he could see me. “Your suitcase isn’t packed, and my papers aren’t in order, and I can’t find the key to my overnight bag, and my gaiters haven’t arrived!”

I was thunderstruck. My voice failed. Scarcely could my lips formulate the words:

“So we’re really going?”

“Of course, you unfortunate boy, walking around instead of being here!”

“We’re leaving?” I asked in a weakened voice.

“Yes, the day after tomorrow, early in the morning.”

I could listen to no more, and fled to my little room.

There was no more doubt. My uncle had spent his afternoon purchasing some of the items and tools that were necessary for his journey. The passage was packed with rope ladders, knotted cords, torches, flasks, grappling irons, ice picks, iron-tipped walking sticks, pickaxes, enough of a load for at least ten men.

I spent an awful night. Next morning I was called early. I had decided not to open the door. But how to resist the sweet voice that pronounced the words, “My dear Axel”?

I came out of my room. I thought my pale countenance and my red and sleepless eyes would work on Graüben’s sympathies and change her mind.

“Ah! my dear Axel,” she said to me. “I see you are better, and that the night’s rest has calmed you down.”

“Calmed me down!” I exclaimed.

I rushed to the mirror. Well, in fact I did look better than I had expected. It was hard to believe.

“Axel,” she said, “I’ve had a long talk with my guardian. He is a bold scholar, a man of immense courage, and you must remember that his blood flows in your veins. He has told me about his plans, his hopes, and why and how he hopes to reach his goal. He will no doubt succeed. My dear Axel, it’s a wonderful thing to devote yourself to science like this! What honor will fall on Mr. Lidenbrock, and reflect on his companion! When you return, Axel, you’ll be a man, his equal, free to speak and to act independently, and finally free to …”

The girl, blushing, did not finish the sentence. Her words revived me. Nevertheless, I still refused to believe we would leave. I drew Graüben toward the professor’s study.

“Uncle, is it true, then, that we’ll leave?”

“What! You doubt it?”

“No,” I said, so as not to irritate him. “Only I’d like to know what need is there to hurry.”

“Time, of course! Time, flying with irrecuperable speed!”

“But it is only May 26th, and until the end of June—”

“What, ignorant! do you think you can get to Iceland so easily? If you had not deserted me like a fool, I would have taken you to the Copenhagen office at Liffender & Co., and you would have seen that there’s only one trip every month from Copenhagen to Reykjavik, on the 22nd.”

“And so?”

“So, if we wait for June 22nd, we’ll be too late to see the shadow of Scartaris touch the crater of Snaefells. We must therefore travel to Copenhagen as fast as we can so as to find a means of transportation. Go and pack your suitcase!”

There was not a word I could reply to this. I returned to my room. Graüben followed me. She undertook to pack all things necessary for my voyage. She was no more moved than if I had been starting for a little trip to Lübeck or Helgoland.p Her little hands moved without haste.