I do not know how I got onto the platform; perhaps Ned carried me there. But I was breathing the sea air. My two companions were drinking it in as if it were wine.
“Ah,” said Conseil, “how good this oxygen is! Master need not be afraid to breathe it. There is enough for everyone.”
Ned said nothing, but he opened his mouth wide enough to frighten a shark. My first words were words of thanks, for my two friends had kept me alive in the last hours of that long agony.
“My friends,” I said, “we are bound to each other forever, and I owe you more than I can say.”
“Then I’ll take advantage of it,” said Ned.
“What do you mean?” asked Conseil.
“I mean that I’ll take you both with me when I leave this cursed Nautilus.”
On March 31 we rounded Cape Horn, and that evening, to my great joy, the map showed that we were heading north through the Atlantic. We did not see Captain Nemo for many days. The Nautilus followed the coast of South America at great speed, keeping far from the towns of Brazil, to Ned’s great disappointment, and on April 11 we reached the mouth of the Amazon.
There the crew brought in rich catches with the net, among them a fish that Conseil will long remember. It was a kind of ray, round and flat, and it was thrashing so hard on the platform that it almost threw itself back into the sea. Conseil did not want to lose it. Before I could stop him, he seized it with both hands. A moment later he was lying on his back, his legs in the air and half his body unable to move, and he cried, “Master, master! Help me!”
It was the first time the poor fellow had ever spoken to me so directly. Ned and I picked him up and rubbed his arms until the feeling came back. He had seized an electric ray, a fish that can give a powerful electric shock.
After that the Nautilus kept far from the coast. On April 16 we saw the mountains of Martinique and Guadeloupe far away. Ned had hoped to escape among these islands, and now he lost heart. Captain Nemo had changed too. He was more silent than before, he no longer came to the salon to show me the wonders of the sea, and he seemed to avoid me. What had happened to him?
On April 20 we were near the Bahamas, passing high cliffs under the sea covered with thick seaweed.
“These cliffs are just the right place for giant squid,” I said. “I would not be surprised to see some of those monsters.”
“I’ll never believe such animals exist,” said Ned.
“Well,” said Conseil, very seriously, “I clearly remember seeing a large ship pulled under the waves by a squid’s arm.”
“You saw that?” said Ned. “With your own eyes? Where?”
“At Saint-Malo.”
“In the harbor?”
“No, in a church. In a painting.”
Ned burst out laughing.
“Legends make monsters much bigger than they are,” I said. “But very large squid certainly exist. In 1861, not far from here, the crew of a French ship got a rope around one, but it was so heavy that the rope cut off its tail, and it disappeared under the water.”
“How long was it?” asked Ned.
“About six meters?” said Conseil, who stood at the window looking at the cliff.
“Exactly.”
“And it had eight arms that beat the water like a nest of snakes?”
“Exactly.”
“Huge eyes, and a mouth like a parrot’s beak?”
“Yes, Conseil.”
“Then, with all respect to master,” said Conseil calmly, “if this is not that squid, it is at least one of its brothers.”
Ned hurried to the window. “What a horrible beast!” he cried.
I looked too, and I could not hide my disgust. A monstrous squid, eight meters long, was swimming toward the Nautilus, staring at us with its enormous green eyes. Its eight arms were twice as long as its body and twisted like hair in the wind. Its beak opened and closed, and its color changed quickly from gray to reddish brown. I overcame my horror, took a pencil and began to draw it.
Soon other squid appeared at the window. I counted seven. They followed the ship, and I heard their beaks scraping on the iron hull. Suddenly the Nautilus stopped with a shock that shook every plate.
Captain Nemo came into the salon with the second officer, looking gloomy. He watched the squid, spoke a few words to the officer, and the shutters closed.
“A curious collection of squid,” I said.
“Yes, Professor. And we are going to fight them, man against beast. One of them has caught its jaws in the propeller, and we cannot move. Our electric guns are no use against such soft flesh, so we will use axes.”
“And my harpoon, Captain,” said Ned, “if you’ll accept my help.”
“I accept it, Mr. Land.”
At the bottom of the central stairs about ten men stood ready with axes. Conseil and I took two; Ned took a harpoon. The Nautilus had risen to the surface. A sailor at the top of the ladder loosened the bolts of the hatch, and at once the hatch flew up, pulled open by the suckers of a long arm. The arm slid down the opening like a snake. With one blow of his axe, Captain Nemo cut it off. Then another arm came down, seized the sailor in front of the Captain and lifted him into the air. Captain Nemo gave a cry and rushed up the stairs. We followed.
What a scene! The poor man, held by the arm of the giant squid, was swinging in the air. He was choking, and he cried out, “Help! Help!” in French. I had a countryman on board, perhaps more than one! I will hear that cry all my life.
Captain Nemo threw himself at the squid and cut off one arm after another with his axe. We all struck at the monsters that were climbing onto the ship. The squid had lost seven of its eight arms; only one was left, waving the sailor in the air like a feather. But just as the Captain and his officer reached it, the animal shot out a cloud of black ink. When we could see again, the squid was gone, and my unhappy countryman with it.
Ten or twelve squid now covered the platform. We fought among their arms in blood and ink. Ned’s harpoon struck again and again at their green eyes, until suddenly a monster threw him down. Its terrible beak opened over him. I ran to help, but Captain Nemo was there before me. His axe struck between the huge jaws, and Ned, saved, rose and drove his harpoon deep into the animal’s heart.
“I owed you that, Mr. Land,” said the Captain.
Ned bowed without a word. The fight had lasted a quarter of an hour. At last the beaten monsters left us and disappeared under the waves. Captain Nemo, covered in blood, stood looking at the sea that had taken one of his companions, and tears ran down his face.