Suddenly, to my intense astonishment, I noticed a strange fact, and I uttered a cry of surprise.
“What is the matter?” my uncle asked.
“That compass!”
“Well?”
“See, its poles are reversed!”
“Reversed?”
“Yes, they point the wrong way.”
My uncle looked, he compared, and the house shook with his triumphant leap of exultation.
A light broke in upon his spirit and mine.
“See there,” he cried, as soon as he was able to speak. “After our arrival at Cape Saknussemm the north pole of the needle of this confounded compass began to point south instead of north.”
“Evidently!”
“Here, then, is the explanation of our mistake. But what phenomenon could have caused this reversal of the poles?”
“The reason is evident, uncle.”
“Tell me, then, Axel.”
“During the electric storm on the Liedenbrock sea, that ball of fire, which magnetised all the iron on board, reversed the poles of our magnet!”