I fell into the water and I was very surprised. I went down about twenty feet under the sea. I am a good swimmer, so I did not lose my courage. I swam back up to the surface of the water.
I looked for the ship, the Abraham Lincoln. It was very dark. I saw a black shape far away in the east. Its lights were disappearing. The ship was leaving me behind.
"Help! Help!" I shouted. I tried to swim toward the ship. My wet clothes were very heavy and I could not move well. I started to sink again.
I could not breathe. I shouted one last time. Suddenly, a strong hand grabbed my clothes. The hand pulled me up to the surface. I heard a voice in my ear.
"Please lean on my shoulder, sir," the voice said. "It will be easier to swim." I grabbed the arm of my friend, Conseil. I was very happy to see him.
"Did you fall into the sea too?" I asked Conseil. Conseil said no. He saw me fall, so he jumped into the water to help me. Conseil thought this was a normal thing to do.
I asked Conseil about the ship. Conseil told me to not expect help from the Abraham Lincoln. He heard the sailors say that the ship was broken.
The monster hit the ship’s propeller (the part of a ship that spins to make it move). Now the ship could not turn. The ship could not come back for Professor Aronnax and Conseil.
"Then we are lost!" I said. Conseil was very calm. He said we had a few hours to wait for help. His calm voice made me feel better.
My clothes were like heavy lead. Conseil used a knife to cut my clothes off. Then I did the same for Conseil. Now we could swim more easily.
We decided to help each other. One of us rested on his back while the other pushed him. We changed every ten minutes. We hoped to stay alive until the morning.
We swam for many hours. The sea was very calm. Sometimes I looked at the dark water. I saw small lights in the waves when we moved.
At one o’clock in the morning, I was very tired. My legs were very stiff. Conseil had to hold me up. I heard Conseil breathing very hard.
"Leave me, Conseil!" I said. "Save yourself!" But Conseil said he would never leave me. He said he would die with me.
Then the moon came out from behind a cloud. I saw the Abraham Lincoln five miles away. It was only a dark shape. I did not see any small boats.
I wanted to shout, but I was too weak. Conseil shouted "Help! Help!" many times. Then we heard a voice answer us in the dark.
"Did you hear that?" I asked. Conseil shouted again. This time, we were sure. A human voice answered us.
Conseil made a last effort. He stood up in the water and looked around. Then he fell back. He told me to save my strength. He did not tell me what he saw.
I thought about the monster again. But then I heard the voice again. The voice was very close now. I was very tired and cold. I started to sink for the last time.
Suddenly, I hit a hard body in the water. I held onto it. Someone pulled me up to the top of the hard object. Then I fainted.
I woke up because someone was rubbing my skin. I opened my eyes and saw Conseil. I also saw another face. It was Ned Land.
"Ned Land!" I cried. Ned Land was happy to see me. I asked if the ship threw him into the sea too. Ned Land said yes.
Ned Land was lucky. He found a floating island very quickly. But it was not a real island. It was the back of the monster.
"Professor Aronnax," Ned Land said. "My harpoon did not hurt the monster. I know why now. This beast is made of iron."
I stood up on the back of the object. I kicked it with my foot. It was very hard. It was not the body of an animal. It was a submarine (a ship that can travel under the water).
This was a great surprise. The monster was a machine. People built this machine. We were standing on a giant fish made of steel.
Suddenly, the machine started to move. A screw (a spinning blade at the back of a boat) pushed it forward. We held onto the metal top so we did not fall.
"It is okay if it stays on top of the water," Ned Land said. "But if it goes down, we will die." We needed to talk to the people inside the machine.
I looked for a door, but I could not find one. It was very dark again. We waited for a long time on the metal back of the machine.
Finally, the sun came up. The fog went away. I wanted to look at the machine, but it started to sink. Ned Land was very angry.
"Open the door!" Ned Land shouted. He kicked the metal floor. Suddenly, we heard a loud noise inside the boat.
A metal plate moved and a door opened. A man appeared and looked at us. He shouted a strange word and disappeared.
A few minutes later, eight strong men came out. They wore masks on their faces. They were very quiet. They pulled us down inside their dangerous machine.