CHAPTER IX.
INSIDE.

THE next day, as no one interfered with my proceedings,
I was able to make a first exploration in the vast cavern
of Backcup.

What a night I passed, a prey to strange dreams, and’
how ardently I longed for the day!

I had been conducted into a grotto about a hundred
steps from the water’s edge where the tug lay.

This grotto, six feet by twelve, lit by an incandescent
lamp, is reached by a door which was fastened behind me.

I need not be astonished that electricity is the agent
employed for lighting the interior of this cavern, since
it supplies the impetus to the submarine tug. But how
ds it produced? Where does it come from? Can it
be that there are electric works in the interior of this
enormous crypt with all the machinery, dynamos, and
accumulators? re

My cell is furnished with a table on which my food is
served, a bedstead and bedding, a wicker armchair, a press
containing linen and several changes of clothes. The
drawer of the table contains paper, ink, and pens. Ina