first to discover it. I saw him fussing with the valves that regulate

the air supply. And at the same time I experienced difficulty in

breathing. My head felt dizzy--my limbs heavy.

I saw Perry crumple in his seat. He gave himself a shake and sat

erect again. Then he turned toward me.

"Good-bye, David," he said. "I guess this is the end," and then

he smiled and closed his eyes.

"Good-bye, Perry, and good luck to you," I answered, smiling back

at him. But I fought off that awful lethargy. I was very young--I

did not want to die.

For an hour I battled against the cruelly enveloping death that

surrounded me upon all sides. At first I found that by climbing

high into the framework above me I could find more of the precious

life-giving elements, and for a while these sustained me. It must

have been an hour after Perry had succumbed that I at last came

to the realization that I could no longer carry on this unequal

struggle against the inevitable.

With my last flickering ray of consciousness I turned mechanically

toward the distance meter. It stood at exactly five hundred miles

from the earth's surface--and then of a sudden the huge thing that

bore us came to a stop. The rattle of hurtling rock through the

hollow jacket ceased. The wild racing of the giant drill betokened

that it was running loose in AIR--and then another truth flashed

upon me. The point of the prospector was ABOVE us. Slowly it

dawned on me that since passing through the ice strata it had been

above. We had turned in the ice and sped upward toward the earth's

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