The Extraordinary Journeys by Jules Verne & William Butcher

Author:Jules Verne & William Butcher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-01-20T16:00:00+00:00

6

The Greek Islands

The following day, 12 February, the Nautilus surfaced at daybreak. I rushed on to the platform. Three miles to the south the vague silhouette of Pelusium was outlined. A river had carried us from one sea to another. But this tunnel, although easy to descend, had to be impossible to ascend.

At about seven o’clock, Ned and Conseil joined me. The inseparable companions had slept peacefully, without worrying about the Nautilus’s feat.

‘Well, monsieur the naturalist,’ asked the Canadian in a slightly bantering tone, ‘and what about the Mediterranean?’

‘We’re floating on its surface, Ned, my friend.’

‘What!’ said Conseil. ‘During the night?’

‘Yes, this very night we crossed that uncrossable isthmus in a matter of minutes.’

‘I don’t believe a word of it.’

‘Well you had better, Master Land,’ I said. ‘That low rounded coast to the south is the Egyptian coast.’

‘Try the other one,’ retorted the obstinate Canadian.

‘But if monsieur says so,’ Conseil told him, ‘we have to believe monsieur.’

‘Moreover, Ned, Captain Nemo did me the honours of his tunnel, and I was beside him in the pilot-house when he himself steered the Nautilus through that narrow passage.’

‘Do you hear, Ned?’ said Conseil.

‘And since you have such good eyes,’ I added, ‘you can see the jetties at Port Said stretching out to sea.’

The Canadian looked carefully.

‘Actually,’ he said, ‘you are quite right, monsieur, and your captain is a great man. We’re in the Mediterranean. Good. Let’s now chat about our business, please, but where nobody can hear us.’

I could see what the Canadian was driving at. In any case, I thought it better to talk if he wanted to, so all three of us went and sat near the searchlight, where we were less exposed to the wet spray from the waves.

‘Now, Ned, we are listening,’ I said. ‘What is on your mind?’

‘What I have to tell you is very simple. We’re now in Europe, and before Captain Nemo’s whims drag us to the ends of the polar seas or back to the South Seas, I would like to leave the Nautilus.’

I will admit that this discussion with the Canadian worried me. I did not wish to fetter the freedom of my companions in any way, but nevertheless felt no desire to leave Captain Nemo. Thanks to him, thanks to his vessel, I was furthering my underwater studies each day, I was rewriting my book about the submarine depths in the very midst of that element. Would I ever again have such an opportunity to observe the wonders of the ocean? No, never! So I could not get used to the idea of abandoning the Nautilus before our cycle of investigation was finished.

‘Ned, my friend,’ I said, ‘please tell me frankly. Are you bored here? Do you regret the fate that placed you in Captain Nemo’s hands?’

The Canadian remained silent for a moment. Then, crossing his arms:

‘Frankly,’ he said, ‘I don’t regret this voyage under the seas. I will be pleased to have done it; but in order for me to have done it, it must be over.

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