Five Thousand Miles Underground

Or

The Mystery of the Centre of the Earth

by Roy Rockwood, 1908

CHAPTER I

WASHINGTON BACKS OUT

"WASHINGTON! I say Washington!"

Throughout a big shed, filled for the most part with huge pieces of
machinery, echoed the voice of Professor Amos Henderson. He did not
look up from a small engine over which he was bending.

"Washington! Where are you? Why don't you answer me?"

From somewhere underneath an immense pile of iron, steel and aluminum
came the voice of a colored man.

"Yas sir, Perfesser, I'se goin' t' saggasiate my bodily presence in
yo' contiguous proximity an' attend t' yo' immediate conglomerated
prescriptions at th' predistined period. Yas, sir!"

"Well, Washington, if you had started when you began that long speech
you would have been at least half way here by this time. Hurry up!
Never mind tightning those bolts now. Find the boys. I need them to