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The Blog of Axel Lidenbrock : June 4th 1863

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 14:51:21 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

BlankI was always under the impression that the North Sea was a very tricky
sea to cross and yet so far (fingers crossed of course) it's been very
pleasant. According to the captain the wind has only been a few knots (thank
goodness for engines I say) and today it's been so warm that some of the
sailors have been working on the rigging in just trousers (although there is
one sea dog I wish would keep his shirt on), however the captain did warn us
today that once we pass Peterhead (which we did earlier on) we are at the
mercy of the Atlantic (and I hope that it decides to be as kind).

If you remember a few days ago I started retelling the hows and whys of what
we are doing and having experienced yesterday precisely the pressure that
Arne was put under can now understand my uncle's decision to undertake this
trip. Although trying to figure out what Arne had written was never going to
be that easy. To give you an idea of how tricky it was, it took us the rest
of the day to get from

mm.rnlls esrevel seecIde
sgtssmf vnteief niedrke
kt,samn atrateS saodrrn
emtnaeI nvaect rrilSa
Atsaar .nvcrc ieaabs
ccrmi eevtVl frAntv
dt,iac oseibo KediiI

to

mmessvnkaSenrA.icefdoK.segnittamvrtn
ecertserrette,rotaisadva,ednecsedsadne
lacartniiilvIsiratracSarbmvtabiledmek
meretarcsilvcoIsleffenSnI.

and it still made little or no sense. In fact it made so little sense that
my uncle stormed out of the house and went to the Königstrasse in protest. I
decided to have a look and see if I could figure it out. On the face of it,
it looks like rubbish and yet at the same time I could see the words "sir",
"mess" and even "tar" as well as "mer", "arc" and "mere." All of this work
was starting to get to me and I fanned myself with the bit of paper, and
that's when I noticed something very odd indeed. As if by magic the words
"craterem" and "terrestre" appeared. It then suddenly dawned on me.
Punctuation! And so having solved the problem read the sentence only to wish
I hadn't. Which left me in a slight moral dilemma. Do I destroy the message
with myself being the only person who knew what it meant or do I keep it
intact and let my uncle see it (and let me tell you with the remains of a
fire close at hand it was a very tough decision indeed!)

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Received on Wed 04 Jun 2008 - 16:51:47 IDT

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