"Jules Vernes - An Express of the Future" - читать интересную книгу автора (Verne Jules)

"Very well, so be it!" I said. "I will admit that travellers may take this madbrained route, and that you can
obtain this incredible speed. But, when you have got this speed, how do you check it? When you come to a
stop, everything must be shattered to pieces!"

"Not at all," replied the Colonel, shrugging his shoulders. "Between our tubesone for the out, the other for
the home journeyconsequently worked by currents going in opposite directionsa communication exists at
every joint. When a train is approaching, an electric spark advertises us of the fact; left to itself, the train
would continue its course by reason of the speed it had acquired; but, simply by the turning of a handle, we
are able to let in the opposing current of compressed air from the parallel tube, and, little by little, reduce to
nothing the final shock or stopping. But what is the use of all these explanations? Would not a trial be a
hundred timesbetter?"

And, without waiting for an answer to his questions, the Colonel pulled sharply a bright brass knob projecting
from the side of one of the tubes: a panel slid smoothly in its grooves, and in the opening left by its removal I
perceived a row of seats, on each of which two persons might sit comfortably side by side.

"The carriage!" exclaimed the Colonel. "Come in."

An Express of the Future 2
 An Express of the Future


I followed him without offering any objection, and the panel immediately slid back into its place.

By the light of an electric lamp in the roof I carefully examined the carriage I was in.

Nothing could be more simple: a long cylinder, comfortably upholstered, along which some fifty armтИТchairs,
in pairs, were ranged in twentyтИТfive parallel ranks. At either end a valve regulated the atmospheric pressure,
that at the farther end allowing breathable air to enter the carriage, that in front allowing for the discharge of
any excess beyond a normal pressure.

After spending a few moments on this examination, I became impatient.

"Well," I said, "are we not going to start?"

"Going to start?" cried the Colonel. "We have started!"

Startedlike thatwithout the least jerk, was it possible? I listened attentively, trying to detect a sound of
some kind that might have guided me.

If we had really startedif the Colonel had not deceived me in talking of a speed of eighteen hundred
kilometres an hourwe must already be far from any land, under the sea; above our heads the huge,
foamтИТcrested waves; even at that moment, perhaps taking it for a monstrous seaтИТserpent of an unknown
kindwhales were battering with their powerful tails our long, iron prison!

But I heard nothing but a dull rumble, produced, no doubt, by the passage of our carriage, and, plunged in
boundless astonishment, unable to believe in the reality of all that had happened to me, I sat silently, allowing
the time to pass.