The leader of the boat spoke to us. At his words, Ned Land stood up quickly. The steward (a person who brings food) was almost choked, but he left the room. The steward did not look angry because he was very afraid of the leader. Conseil and I stayed silent. we waited to see what happened next.
The leader stood near a table. He looked at us very closely. He did not speak for a few minutes. Maybe he was sorry that he spoke French to us.
Finally, he spoke in a calm voice. "Gentlemen," he said, "I speak French, English, German, and Latin. I understood you before, but I wanted to think first. I know who you are now. You are Professor Pierre Aronnax from the Museum of Paris. This is your servant, Conseil. And this is Ned Land. Ned Land is a harpooner (a person who hunts large sea animals) from Canada."
I bowed my head. The leader spoke very well. He did not have an accent. I did not know which country he was from.
"You think I waited a long time to visit you," the leader said. "I had to decide what to do. You have come to my boat. You have troubled my life."
"We did not mean to come here!" I said.
"Did you not?" the leader asked. He was a little angry. "The Abraham Lincoln chased me across the sea. You shot at my boat with cannons. Ned Land tried to hit me with his harpoon."
I had an answer for him. I told him that the world was afraid of his boat. People in America and Europe talked about him. They thought his submarine was a sea monster. I told him that the Abraham Lincoln wanted to save the ocean from a monster.
The leader smiled a little. "Professor Aronnax," he said, "your ship wanted to kill a monster. But would they also try to kill a boat like this?"
I did not answer. I knew Captain Farragut would try to destroy the boat.
"So," the leader said, "I have the right to treat you as enemies."
I said nothing. He was stronger than we were. Arguments do not work against force.
"I thought about this for a long time," the leader said. "I do not have to be kind to you. I could put you on the deck of this boat and sink into the water. I could forget you exist. That is my right."
"A savage might do that," I said. "But a civilized (following the rules of human society) man would not."
"Professor!" the leader shouted. "I am not a civilized man! I am finished with the world. I do not follow its laws. Do not speak of those laws to me again!"
His eyes were full of anger. This man was free from all human rules. No ship could catch him under the sea. No one could tell him what to do. I felt afraid of him, but I was also interested in him.
After a long silence, the leader spoke again. "I will let you stay on my boat," he said. "You will be free here. But you must follow one rule. Do you agree?"
"What is the rule?" I asked.
"Sometimes, you must stay in your rooms," the leader said. "You might stay there for hours or days. You must not see the things that happen on this boat. Do you accept?"
"We accept," I said. "But I have one question. What do you mean by 'free'?"
"You can walk around the boat," he said. "You can see what we see. My companions and I have the same liberty."
"But we can never go home?" I asked. "We can never see our friends again?"
"Yes," the leader said. "But the world is not a good place. You will not miss it."
"I will never promise to stay!" Ned Land shouted. "I will try to escape!"
"I did not ask for your promise, Ned Land," the leader said coldly.
I told the leader that he was being cruel.
"No," the leader said. "It is kind. I could kill you, but I keep you alive. You attacked me. You found my secret. I cannot send you back to the world. I must protect myself."
The leader was very serious. We could not change his mind.
"So," I said, "we must choose between life and death?"
"Yes," the leader said.
"My friends," I told Ned Land and Conseil, "we have no choice. But we did not give our word of honor to stay."
The leader spoke more gently now. "Professor Aronnax, you will like it here. I have your book about the sea in my library. You know a lot about the ocean, but you have not seen everything. I will show you many wonders."
I was a scientist, so I was excited. I forgot about my liberty for a moment. I asked for the leader's name.
"I am Captain Nemo (a name that means 'no one'). You and your friends are passengers on the Nautilus."
Captain Nemo called a steward. He gave orders in a strange language. He told Ned Land and Conseil to follow the steward to eat. Then he invited me to breakfast.
I followed Captain Nemo through a long hall. It had electric lights. We entered a large dining room. There was beautiful furniture and expensive plates.
The breakfast was made of food from the sea. I did not know what some of the food was. But it tasted good.
"Most of this food is new to you," Captain Nemo said. "But it is healthy. I do not eat food from the land anymore. My crew and I only eat food from the ocean."
"Everything is from the sea?" I asked.
"Yes," Captain Nemo said. "The sea gives me everything I need. I hunt in the submarine (under the water) forests. I have gardens in the ocean. The Creator of the world grows everything for me."
I told him I understood about the fish. But I did not understand how he had meat.
"This is not meat," Captain Nemo said. "It is turtle. And this is dolphin. My cook is very good. This cream is made from the milk of a whale. This sugar is from seaweed. Taste the fruit made from sea flowers."
I tasted the food. It was amazing. Captain Nemo told me many stories about the ocean. He loved the sea. He said the sea was a place of freedom. Under the water, there are no masters. There, he was free.
Captain Nemo stood up. He invited me to see the rest of the Nautilus. We went into a library. It was a huge room with 12,000 books.
"This is a wonderful library," I said. "It is better than the museum in Paris."
"These books are my only link to the earth," Captain Nemo said. "You can read them whenever you want."
The library was also a room for smoking. Captain Nemo gave me a cigar (a roll of dried leaves for smoking). It was not made of tobacco. It was made of seaweed. It tasted very good.
Then we went into a very large room. It was a museum. There were beautiful paintings by famous artists. There were statues and a large piano. Captain Nemo said he loved music and art.
"I am dead to the world," he said. "These things are my memories."
I saw many glass cases. They were full of shells and plants from the sea. I was very happy to see them. There were pearls of many colors. Some pearls were larger than a bird's egg. They were worth millions of dollars. Captain Nemo collected them all himself from every ocean.
"You have a great treasure here," I said. "I want to know how this boat works. I see many strange instruments on the walls."
"I will explain them to you in my room," Captain Nemo said. "But first, let me show you your cabin."
He led me to a beautiful room. It had a bed and a table. It was next to Captain Nemo's room. Captain Nemo's room was very simple. It only had a small iron bed and a table. He did not want any comfort.
Captain Nemo told me to sit down. We began to talk.