LITMIR.BIZ

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my prisoners of war! I’ve cared for you when I could plunge you back into the ocean depths! You attacked me! You’ve known the secret no living man must know, the secret of my entire existence! Do you think I’ll send you back to a world that must know nothing more of me? Never!”

      “Then, sir,” I went on, “you give us, quite simply, a choice between life and death?”

      “Quite simply.”

      “My friends,” I said, “we have nothing to do. But no solemn promises bind us to the commander of this vessel.”

      “None, sir,” the stranger replied.

      Then, in a gentler voice, he went on:

      “Now, allow me to finish what I have to tell you. I’ve heard of you, Professor Aronnax. Among my books you’ll find the work you’ve published on the great ocean depths. But you don’t know everything because you haven’t seen everything. Let me tell you, professor, you won’t regret the time you spend aboard my vessel. You’re going to voyage through a land of wonders. I’m going to make another underwater tour of the world—perhaps my last, who knows?—and I’ll review everything I’ve studied in the depths of these seas that I’ve crossed so often, and you can be my fellow student.”

      I can’t deny it; the commander’s words had a tremendous effect on me. He had caught me on my weak side, and I momentarily forgot that this experience was worth the loss of my freedom. So I replied:

      “Sir, even though you’ve cut yourself off from humanity, I can see that you haven’t disowned all human feeling. We’re castaways, you’ve saved us, we’ll never forget that. I have but one last question.”

      “Ask it, professor.”

      “By what name am I to call you?”

      “Sir,” the commander replied, “to you, I’m simply Captain Nemo; to me, you and your companions are simply passengers on the Nautilus.”

      Captain Nemo went out. A steward appeared. The captain gave him his orders in that strange language I couldn’t even identify. Then, turning to the Canadian and Conseil:

      “A meal is waiting for you in your cabin,” he told them. “Kindly follow this man.”

      “That’s an offer I can’t refuse!” the harpooner replied.

      “And now, Professor Aronnax, our own breakfast is ready. Allow me to lead the way.”

      “Yours to command, captain.”

      I went down a kind of electrically lit passageway that resembled a gangway on a ship. After a stretch of some ten meters, a second door opened before me.

      I then entered a dining room, decorated and furnished in austere good taste. Tall oaken sideboards stood at both ends of this room, and sparkling on their shelves were rows of earthenware, porcelain, and glass of incalculable value. In the center of this room stood a table, richly spread. Captain Nemo indicated the place I was to occupy.

      “Be seated,” he told me, “and eat, please.”

      Our breakfast consisted of several dishes whose contents were all supplied by the sea, and some foods whose nature was unknown to me. These various food items seemed to be rich in phosphorous.

      Captain Nemo stared at me. I had asked him nothing, but he read my thoughts, and on his own he answered the questions I was itching to address him.

      “Most of these dishes are new to you,” he told me. “But you can consume them without fear. They’re healthy and nourishing. I renounced terrestrial foods long ago. My crew are strong and full of energy, and they eat what I eat.”

      “So,” I said, “all these foods are products of the sea?”

      “Yes, professor, the sea supplies all my needs. Sometimes I cast my nets, sometimes I go hunting far out of man’s reach, and I corner the game that dwells in my underwater forests. My herds graze without fear on the ocean’s immense prairies.”

      I stared at Captain Nemo in definite astonishment, and I answered him:

      “Sir, I understand perfectly how your nets can furnish excellent fish for your table; I understand less how you can chase aquatic game in your underwater forests; but how a piece of red meat, no matter how small, can figure in your menu, that I don’t understand at all.”

      “Nor I, sir,” Captain Nemo answered me. “I never touch the flesh of land animals.”

      “Nevertheless, this … ,” I went on, pointing to a dish where some slices of loin were still left.

      “What you believe to be red meat, professor, is nothing other than loin of sea turtle. Similarly, here are some dolphin livers you might mistake for stewed pork. My chef is a skillful food processor. Feel free to try all of these foods. Here are some preserves of sea cucumber, here’s cream from milk furnished by the udders of cetaceans, and sugar from the huge fucus plants in the North Sea; and finally, allow me to offer you some marmalade of sea anemone, equal to that from the tastiest fruits. The sea, Professor Aronnax, not only feeds me, it dresses me as well. That fabric covering you was woven from the masses of filaments that anchor certain seashells. The perfumes you’ll find on the washstand in your cabin were produced from the oozings of marine plants. Your mattress was made from the ocean’s softest eelgrass. Your pen will be whalebone, your ink a juice secreted by cuttlefish or squid. Everything comes to me from the sea, just as someday everything will return to it!”

      “You love the sea, captain.”

      “Yes, I love it! The sea is everything! It covers seven-tenths of the planet earth. Its breath is clean and healthy. It’s an immense wilderness where a man is never lonely. It’s simply movement and love; it’s living infinity. The sea is a vast pool of nature. Our globe began with the sea, so to speak, and who can say we won’t end with it! Here lies supreme tranquility. The sea doesn’t belong to tyrants. On its surface they can battle each other, devour each other. But thirty feet below sea level, their dominion ceases, their influence fades, their power vanishes! Live in the heart of the seas! Here alone lies independence! Here I’m free!”

      Captain Nemo suddenly fell silent in the midst of this enthusiastic speech. Had he said too much? Then he turned to me:

      “Now, professor,” he said, “if you’d like to inspect the Nautilus, I’m yours to command.”

      Chapter 11

      Captain Nemo stood up. I followed him. Contrived at the rear of the dining room, a double door opened, and I entered a room.

      It was a library. Tall, black-rosewood bookcases held a large number of books. Light, movable reading stands, which could be pushed away or pulled near as desired, allowed books to be positioned on them for easy study. In the center stood a huge table covered with pamphlets, among which some newspapers. Electric light was falling from four globes set in the ceiling. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

      “Captain Nemo,” I told my host, “this is a library that would do credit to more than one continental palace, and I truly marvel to think it can go with you into the deepest seas.”

      “Where could one find greater silence or solitude, professor?” Captain Nemo replied. “Did your study at the museum afford you such a perfect retreat?”

      “No, sir, and I might add that you own 6,000 or 7,000 volumes here.”

      “12,000, Professor Aronnax. They’re my sole remaining ties with dry land. I left the shore the day my Nautilus submerged for the first time under the waters. That day I purchased my last volumes, my last pamphlets, my last newspapers. Professor, these books are at your disposal, and you may use them freely.”

      I thanked Captain Nemo and approached the shelves of this library. Written in every language, books on science, ethics, and literature were there in abundance, but I didn’t see a single work on economics. One odd detail: all these books were shelved indiscriminately without regard to the language in which they were written, and this jumble proved that the Nautilus’s captain could read fluently many languages.

      Among

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