CHAPTER X.
TALKS WITH THE DOCTOR.
I may now give some more careful details respecting the underground city which it was my good or evil fortune to visit in company with the Demon. My readers may wish to know how the inhabitants got there, for the balloon, notwithstanding its monstrous size, was only provided with four comfortable seats. What, I may be asked, did their food consist of, and how and where did they procure it? How did horses, and other creatures, get there, and how were they fed? Where and how was the gas, which was in constant consumption, manufactured? Where did they get wood to make their furniture? How make their carriages, their cannon? Who supplied them with gunpowder, and the necessary materials for their mysterious existence?
Once for all, in answer to these questions, I must reply that I cannot tell. My adventure seemed to me so like a hideous dream, with a bright gleam of moral sunshine in it here and there, that it did not occur to me to gather all the information which I ought to have collected. It must be remembered that my visit was a very short one, and more than half of it was spent on a bed of sickness.
With the exception of eating a certain kind of food, the ordinary functions of nature were entirely suspended. The
