Part One.: Chapter 14: A Note of Invitation

by Jules Verne

　　The next day was the 9th of November. I awoke after a longsleep of twelve hours. Conseil came, according to custom,to know "how I passed the night," and to offer his services.He had left his friend the Canadian sleeping like a man whohad never done anything else all his life. I let the worthyfellow chatter as he pleased, without caring to answer him.I was preoccupied by the absence of the Captain during our sittingof the day before, and hoping to see him to-day.

　　As soon as I was dressed I went into the saloon. It was deserted.I plunged into the study of the shell treasures hidden behind the glasses.

　　The whole day passed without my being honoured by a visit from Captain Nemo.The panels of the saloon did not open. Perhaps they did not wish us to tireof these beautiful things.

　　The course of the Nautilus was E.N.E., her speed twelve knots,the depth below the surface between twenty-five and thirty fathoms.

　　The next day, 10th of November, the same desertion,the same solitude. I did not see one of the ship's crew:Ned and Conseil spent the greater part of the day with me.They were astonished at the puzzling absence of the Captain.Was this singular man ill?--had he altered his intentions withregard to us?

　　After all, as Conseil said, we enjoyed perfect liberty, we were delicatelyand abundantly fed. Our host kept to his terms of the treaty.We could not complain, and, indeed, the singularity of our fate reservedsuch wonderful compensation for us that we had no right to accuseit as yet.

　　That day I commenced the journal of these adventures which has enabledme to relate them with more scrupulous exactitude and minute detail.

　　11th November, early in the morning. The fresh air spreadingover the interior of the Nautilus told me that we had cometo the surface of the ocean to renew our supply of oxygen.I directed my steps to the central staircase, and mounted the platform.

　　It was six o'clock, the weather was cloudy, the sea grey, but calm.Scarcely a billow. Captain Nemo, whom I hoped to meet, would he be there?I saw no one but the steersman imprisoned in his glass cage.Seated upon the projection formed by the hull of the pinnace,I inhaled the salt breeze with delight.

　　By degrees the fog disappeared under the action of the sun's rays,the radiant orb rose from behind the eastern horizon.The sea flamed under its glance like a train of gunpowder.The clouds scattered in the heights were coloured with lively tintsof beautiful shades, and numerous "mare's tails," which betokenedwind for that day. But what was wind to this Nautilus,which tempests could not frighten!

　　I was admiring this joyous rising of the sun, so gay,and so life-giving, when I heard steps approaching the platform.I was prepared to salute Captain Nemo, but it was his second(whom I had already seen on the Captain's first visit) who appeared.He advanced on the platform, not seeming to see me.With his powerful glass to his eye, he scanned every pointof the horizon with great attention. This examination over,he approached the panel and pronounced a sentence in exactlythese terms. I have remembered it, for every morningit was repeated under exactly the same conditions.It was thus worded:

　　"Nautron respoc lorni virch."

　　What it meant I could not say.

　　These words pronounced, the second descended. I thought thatthe Nautilus was about to return to its submarine navigation.I regained the panel and returned to my chamber.

　　Five days sped thus, without any change in our situation. Every morning Imounted the platform. The same phrase was pronounced by the same individual.But Captain Nemo did not appear.

　　I had made up my mind that I should never see him again,when, on the 16th November, on returning to my room with Nedand Conseil, I found upon my table a note addressed to me.I opened it impatiently. It was written in a bold, clear hand,the characters rather pointed, recalling the German type.The note was worded as follows:

　　TO PROFESSOR ARONNAX, On board the Nautilus. 16th of November, 1867.

　　Captain Nemo invites Professor Aronnax to a hunting-party, which willtake place to-morrow morning in the forests of the Island of Crespo.He hopes that nothing will prevent the Professor from being present,and he will with pleasure see him joined by his companions.

　　CAPTAIN NEMO, Commander of the Nautilus.

　　"A hunt!" exclaimed Ned.

　　"And in the forests of the Island of Crespo!" added Conseil.

　　"Oh! then the gentleman is going on terra firma?" replied Ned Land.

　　"That seems to me to be clearly indicated," said I,reading the letter once more.

　　"Well, we must accept," said the Canadian. "But once more on dry ground,we shall know what to do. Indeed, I shall not be sorry to eat a pieceof fresh venison."

　　Without seeking to reconcile what was contradictory between CaptainNemo's manifest aversion to islands and continents, and his invitationto hunt in a forest, I contented myself with replying:

　　"Let us first see where the Island of Crespo is."

　　I consulted the planisphere, and in 32@ 40' N. lat.and 157@ 50' W. long., I found a small island, recognised in 1801by Captain Crespo, and marked in the ancient Spanish mapsas Rocca de la Plata, the meaning of which is The Silver Rock.We were then about eighteen hundred miles from our starting-point,and the course of the Nautilus, a little changed, was bringingit back towards the southeast.

　　I showed this little rock, lost in the midst of the North Pacific,to my companions.

　　"If Captain Nemo does sometimes go on dry ground," said I,"he at least chooses desert islands."

　　Ned Land shrugged his shoulders without speaking, and Conseiland he left me.

　　After supper, which was served by the steward, mute and impassive,I went to bed, not without some anxiety.

　　The next morning, the 17th of November, on awakening, I feltthat the Nautilus was perfectly still. I dressed quicklyand entered the saloon.

　　Captain Nemo was there, waiting for me. He rose, bowed,and asked me if it was convenient for me to accompany him.As he made no allusion to his absence during the last eight days,I did not mention it, and simply answered that my companions andmyself were ready to follow him.

　　We entered the dining-room, where breakfast was served.

　　"M. Aronnax," said the Captain, "pray, share my breakfast without ceremony;we will chat as we eat. For, though I promised you a walk in the forest,I did not undertake to find hotels there. So breakfast as a man who will mostlikely not have his dinner till very late."

　　I did honour to the repast. It was composed of several kinds of fish,and slices of sea-cucumber, and different sorts of seaweed.Our drink consisted of pure water, to which the Captain addedsome drops of a fermented liquor, extracted by the Kamschatchamethod from a seaweed known under the name of Rhodomenia palmata.Captain Nemo ate at first without saying a word. Then he began:

　　"Sir, when I proposed to you to hunt in my submarine forest of Crespo,you evidently thought me mad. Sir, you should never judge lightlyof any man."

　　"But Captain, believe me----"

　　"Be kind enough to listen, and you will then see whether youhave any cause to accuse me of folly and contradiction."

　　"I listen."

　　"You know as well as I do, Professor, that man can live under water,providing he carries with him a sufficient supply of breathable air.In submarine works, the workman, clad in an impervious dress,with his head in a metal helmet, receives air from above by meansof forcing pumps and regulators."

　　"That is a diving apparatus," said I.

　　"Just so, but under these conditions the man is not at liberty;he is attached to the pump which sends him air through anindia-rubber tube, and if we were obliged to be thus heldto the Nautilus, we could not go far."

　　"And the means of getting free?" I asked.

　　"It is to use the Rouquayrol apparatus, invented by two of yourown countrymen, which I have brought to perfection for my own use,and which will allow you to risk yourself under these newphysiological conditions without any organ whatever suffering.It consists of a reservoir of thick iron plates, in which I storethe air under a pressure of fifty atmospheres. This reservoir isfixed on the back by means of braces, like a soldier's knapsack.Its upper part forms a box in which the air is kept by means ofa bellows, and therefore cannot escape unless at its normal tension.In the Rouquayrol apparatus such as we use, two india rubber pipesleave this box and join a sort of tent which holds the nose and mouth;one is to introduce fresh air, the other to let out the foul, and the tonguecloses one or the other according to the wants of the respirator.But I, in encountering great pressures at the bottom of the sea,was obliged to shut my head, like that of a diver in a ball of copper;and it is to this ball of copper that the two pipes, the inspirator andthe expirator, open."

　　"Perfectly, Captain Nemo; but the air that you carry with youmust soon be used; when it only contains fifteen per cent.of oxygen it is no longer fit to breathe."

　　"Right! But I told you, M. Aronnax, that the pumps of the Nautilus allowme to store the air under considerable pressure, and on those conditionsthe reservoir of the apparatus can furnish breathable air for nineor ten hours."

　　"I have no further objections to make," I answered."I will only ask you one thing, Captain--how can you light yourroad at the bottom of the sea?"

　　"With the Ruhmkorff apparatus, M. Aronnax; one is carried on the back,the other is fastened to the waist. It is composed of a Bunsen pile,which I do not work with bichromate of potash, but with sodium.A wire is introduced which collects the electricity produced, and directsit towards a particularly made lantern. In this lantern is a spiral glasswhich contains a small quantity of carbonic gas. When the apparatus is atwork this gas becomes luminous, giving out a white and continuous light.Thus provided, I can breathe and I can see."

　　"Captain Nemo, to all my objections you make such crushing answers that Idare no longer doubt. But, if I am forced to admit the Rouquayroland Ruhmkorff apparatus, I must be allowed some reservations with regardto the gun I am to carry."

　　"But it is not a gun for powder," answered the Captain.

　　"Then it is an air-gun."

　　"Doubtless! How would you have me manufacture gun powder on board,without either saltpetre, sulphur, or charcoal?"

　　"Besides," I added, "to fire under water in a medium eighthundred and fifty-five times denser than the air, we mustconquer very considerable resistance."

　　"That would be no difficulty. There exist guns, according to Fulton,perfected in England by Philip Coles and Burley, in France by Furcy,and in Italy by Landi, which are furnished with a peculiarsystem of closing, which can fire under these conditions.But I repeat, having no powder, I use air under great pressure,which the pumps of the Nautilus furnish abundantly."

　　"But this air must be rapidly used?"

　　"Well, have I not my Rouquayrol reservoir, which can furnish it at need?A tap is all that is required. Besides M. Aronnax, you must seeyourself that, during our submarine hunt, we can spend but little airand but few balls."

　　"But it seems to me that in this twilight, and in the midst of this fluid,which is very dense compared with the atmosphere, shots could not go far,nor easily prove mortal."

　　"Sir, on the contrary, with this gun every blow is mortal;and, however lightly the animal is touched, it falls as if struckby a thunderbolt."

　　"Why?"

　　"Because the balls sent by this gun are not ordinary balls, but littlecases of glass. These glass cases are covered with a case of steel,and weighted with a pellet of lead; they are real Leyden bottles,into which the electricity is forced to a very high tension.With the slightest shock they are discharged, and the animal,however strong it may be, falls dead. I must tell you that thesecases are size number four, and that the charge for an ordinary gunwould be ten."

　　"I will argue no longer," I replied, rising from the table."I have nothing left me but to take my gun. At all events,I will go where you go."

　　Captain Nemo then led me aft; and in passing before Ned's andConseil's cabin, I called my two companions, who followed promptly.We then came to a cell near the machinery-room, in which we puton our walking-dress.