It all happened as fast as lightning. I shivered. Who were these people? Some new kind of pirates, perhaps, who used the sea in their own way.
As soon as the hatch closed above me, I was in complete darkness. My bare feet felt the steps of an iron ladder; Ned and Conseil came down after me, held firmly. At the bottom a door opened and closed behind us with a bang. We were alone.
Ned was furious. “These people are no better than cannibals! But they won’t eat me without a fight. I still have my knife, and the first one who lays a hand on me…”
“Calm down, Ned,” I said. “Don’t make things worse with useless violence. Perhaps they will listen to us. Let’s find out where we are.”
I felt my way around. The walls were iron plates bolted together, without a window. There was a wooden table with a few stools, and a thick mat on the floor.
Half an hour passed. Suddenly the darkness gave way to a light so strong that I could not bear it at first. It came from a frosted glass dome in the ceiling, and I knew it at once: it was the same electric light that had shone around the “monster” in the sea.
“At last we can see!” cried Ned, knife in hand.
“Yes,” I said, “but we are still in the dark about our future.”
“Master should be patient,” said Conseil.
Then we heard bolts sliding back. The door opened, and two men came in.
The first was short and very strong, with broad shoulders, black hair and quick, sharp eyes. The second deserves a longer description. I saw at once that he was confident, calm, full of energy and brave. He was tall, with a wide forehead, pale skin and fine hands, and I could not tell whether he was thirty-five or fifty. When he looked hard at something, his eyebrows came together, and his black eyes seemed able to see through the water to the very bottom of the sea. He was the most remarkable man I had ever met.
The tall one, clearly the commander, studied us closely without a word. Then he spoke to his companion in a language I did not know, a rich and musical language. The other shook his head, answered with a few words, and looked at me as if he were asking a question.
I said in good French that I did not understand. He did not seem to understand me either.
“If master told our story,” said Conseil, “perhaps these gentlemen would understand a few words.”
So I told our whole adventure, speaking slowly and clearly, and gave our names: Professor Aronnax, his servant Conseil, and Mr. Ned Land, harpooner. The man with the calm eyes listened politely and very attentively, but nothing in his face showed that he had understood. When I finished, he said nothing.
“Your turn, Ned,” I said. “Tell it in your best English.”
Ned told our story again, without any success.
“If master will allow me,” said Conseil, “I will tell it in German.”
His German was excellent, but it did no better. At last I remembered my school Latin and told our story in Latin. That failed too. The two strangers said a few words in their own language and left. The door closed.
“It’s a disgrace!” cried Ned. “We speak to these rascals in French, English, German and Latin, and not one of them has the manners to answer!”
“Calm down, Ned. Anger won’t help.”
“But don’t you see, Professor? We’re going to starve to death in this iron cage!”
“We can last a while yet,” said Conseil.
Just then the door opened, and a steward came in. He brought us jackets and trousers made of a material I did not recognize, and we dressed quickly. Without a word (perhaps he could neither speak nor hear) he laid the table for three.
“This looks promising,” said Conseil.
“Bah!” said Ned. “What do you think they eat here? Turtle liver, shark and seal steak!”
The dishes came, and we sat down. These were clearly civilized people. There was no bread or wine, and only water, which did not please Ned. I recognized several kinds of fish, very well cooked; the other dishes were excellent too, though I could not even tell whether they came from an animal or a plant. Every spoon, fork, knife and plate carried the same words, with a letter below them:
Mobilis in mobili
N
The N was surely the first letter of the name of the mysterious man who gave orders at the bottom of the sea.
We had not eaten for fifteen hours, and we ate well. At least our hosts did not mean to let us starve. Afterwards my companions lay down on the mat and were soon fast asleep. I lay awake longer, with too many questions in my head. Where were we? What strange power was carrying us? I felt, or thought I felt, the boat sinking toward the bottom of the sea. At last I fell into a deep sleep.
We must have slept a long time, for when I woke, I felt completely rested. Nothing had changed: the prison was still a prison, and we were still prisoners. But I found it hard to breathe. The air was heavy; we had used up most of it. How did the commander of this boat get fresh air?
I was breathing faster and faster when suddenly a current of fresh air, smelling of the sea, poured in through an opening above the door, and I felt the boat rolling. The iron monster had come up to the surface to breathe, just like a whale.
Ned and Conseil woke up almost at once.
“Did master sleep well?” asked Conseil, as politely as ever.
“Very well. And you, Ned?”
“Soundly, Professor. But am I wrong, or is that a sea breeze?”
I told him what had happened.
“So that was the heavy breathing we heard near the Abraham Lincoln,” he said. “It was breathing! Only, Professor, I have no idea what time it is, unless it’s dinnertime.”
But the steward did not come. Hours passed, and we grew terribly hungry. Ned became angrier and angrier, and I feared what he would do when he met one of the crew. He shouted and roared, but the walls were deaf. There was no sound in the boat, and it did not even seem to move. The silence was dreadful. I was afraid, Conseil was calm, and Ned roared.
At last we heard steps on the metal floor outside. The locks turned, the door opened, and the steward came in. Before I could stop him, Ned threw himself on the man, knocked him down and seized him by the throat. The steward was choking under his powerful hand. Conseil was trying to pull Ned’s hand away, and I was rushing to help, when suddenly I froze. A voice said in French:
“Be quiet, Mr. Land; and you, Professor, will you be so kind as to listen to me?”
It was the commander of the ship.