Путешествие к центру Земли / A Journey to the Centre of the Earth

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When this work has ended my uncle tore the paper from me and examined it attentively for a long time.

“What does it all mean?” he asked mechanically.

I could not help him.

“This is what is called a cryptogram, or a cipher,” he said, “in which letters are purposely thrown in confusion. Under this jargon there may lie the clue to some great discovery!”

As for me, I thought that there was nothing at all in it; though, of course, I did not say so.

Then the Professor took the book and the parchment, and diligently compared them together.

“These two writings are not by the same hand,” he said; “the cipher is of later date than the book. There are two hundred years between the manuscript and the document.”

I agreed.

“I can imagine,” continued my uncle, “that some possessor of this book wrote these mysterious letters. But who was that possessor? Is there his name in the manuscript?”

My uncle raised his spectacles, and carefully examined the blank pages of the book.

On the front of the second title-page he could distinguish some letters.

“Arne Saknussemm[17 - Arne Saknussemm – Арне Сакнуссем]!” he cried in triumph. “That is the name of another Icelander, a savant of the sixteenth century, a celebrated alchemist!”

I gazed at my uncle with admiration.

“Those alchemists,” he resumed, “Avicenna, Bacon, Lully, Paracelsus[18 - Avicenna, Bacon, Lully, Paracelsus – Авиценна, Бэкон, Люлль, Парацельс], were the real and only savants of their time.

They made discoveries at which we are astonished. Has not this Saknussemm concealed under his cryptogram some surprising invention? It is so; it must be so!”

“No doubt,” I replied, “but why did he hide so marvellous discovery?”

“Why? Why? How can I tell? Did not Galileo [19 - Galileo – Галилей, итальянский физик, механик, астроном, философ, математик]do the same with Saturn? We shall see.

I will reveal the secret of this document, and I will neither sleep nor eat!”

My comment on this was “Oh!”

“First of all we must find out the key to this cipher; that cannot be difficult.”

At that I quickly raised my head.

“There’s nothing easier. In this document there are a hundred and thirty-two letters: seventy-seven consonants and fifty-five vowels.