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However, some warning vibrations began to be felt in the vessel. I heard the keel grating against the rough
calcareous bottom of the coral reef.
At five-and-twenty minutes to three, Captain Nemo appeared in the saloon.
"We are going to start," said he.
CHAPTER XXI 78
"Ah!" replied I.
"I have given the order to open the hatches."
"And the Papuans?"
"The Papuans?" answered Captain Nemo, slightly shrugging his shoulders.
"Will they not come inside the Nautilus?"
"How?"
"Only by leaping over the hatches you have opened."
"M. Aronnax," quietly answered Captain Nemo, "they will not enter the hatches of the Nautilus in that way,
even if they were open."
I looked at the Captain.
"You do not understand?" said he.
"Hardly."
"Well, come and you will see."
I directed my steps towards the central staircase. There Ned Land and Conseil were slyly watching some of
the ship's crew, who were opening the hatches, while cries of rage and fearful vociferations resounded outside.
The port lids were pulled down outside. Twenty horrible faces appeared. But the first native who placed his
hand on the stair-rail, struck from behind by some invisible force, I know not what, fled, uttering the most
fearful cries and making the wildest contortions.
Ten of his companions followed him. They met with the same fate.
Conseil was in ecstasy. Ned Land, carried away by his violent instincts, rushed on to the staircase. But the
moment he seized the rail with both hands, he, in his turn, was overthrown.
"I am struck by a thunderbolt," cried he, with an oath.
This explained all. It was no rail; but a metallic cable charged with electricity from the deck communicating
with the platform. Whoever touched it felt a powerful shock-- and this shock would have been mortal if
Captain Nemo had discharged into the conductor the whole force of the current. It might truly be said that
between his assailants and himself he had stretched a network of electricity which none could pass with
impunity.
Meanwhile, the exasperated Papuans had beaten a retreat paralysed with terror. As for us, half laughing, we
consoled and rubbed the unfortunate Ned Land, who swore like one possessed.
But at this moment the Nautilus, raised by the last waves of the tide, quitted her coral bed exactly at the
fortieth minute fixed by the Captain. Her screw swept the waters slowly and majestically. Her speed increased
gradually, and, sailing on the surface of the ocean, she quitted safe and sound the dangerous passes of the
Straits of Torres.
CHAPTER XXII 79
CHAPTER XXII
"AEGRI SOMNIA"
The following day 10th January, the Nautilus continued her course between two seas, but with such
remarkable speed that I could not estimate it at less than thirty-five miles an hour. The rapidity of her screw
was such that I could neither follow nor count its revolutions. When I reflected that this marvellous electric
agent, after having afforded motion, heat, and light to the Nautilus, still protected her from outward attack,
and transformed her into an ark of safety which no profane hand might touch without being thunderstricken,
my admiration was unbounded, and from the structure it extended to the engineer who had called it into
existence.
Our course was directed to the west, and on the 11th of January we doubled Cape Wessel, situation in 135@
long. and 10@ S. lat., which forms the east point of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The reefs were still numerous,
but more equalised, and marked on the chart with extreme precision. The Nautilus easily avoided the breakers
of Money to port and the Victoria reefs to starboard, placed at 130@ long. and on the 10th parallel, which we
strictly followed.
On the 13th of January, Captain Nemo arrived in the Sea of Timor, and recognised the island of that name in
122@ long.
From this point the direction of the Nautilus inclined towards the south-west. Her head was set for the Indian
Ocean. Where would the fancy of Captain Nemo carry us next? Would he return to the coast of Asia or would
he approach again the shores of Europe? Improbable conjectures both, to a man who fled from inhabited
continents. Then would he descend to the south? Was he going to double the Cape of Good Hope, then Cape
Horn, and finally go as far as the Antarctic pole? Would he come back at last to the Pacific, where his
Nautilus could sail free and independently? Time would show.
After having skirted the sands of Cartier, of Hibernia, Seringapatam, and Scott, last efforts of the solid against
the liquid element, on the 14th of January we lost sight of land altogether. The speed of the Nautilus was
considerably abated, and with irregular course she sometimes swam in the bosom of the waters, sometimes
floated on their surface.
During this period of the voyage, Captain Nemo made some interesting experiments on the varied temperature
of the sea, in different beds. Under ordinary conditions these observations are made by means of rather
complicated instruments, and with somewhat doubtful results, by means of thermometrical sounding-leads,
the glasses often breaking under the pressure of the water, or an apparatus grounded on the variations of the
resistance of metals to the electric currents. Results so obtained could not be correctly calculated. On the
contrary, Captain Nemo went himself to test the temperature in the depths of the sea, and his thermometer,
placed in communication with the different sheets of water, gave him the required degree immediately and
accurately.
It was thus that, either by overloading her reservoirs or by descending obliquely by means of her inclined
planes, the Nautilus successively attained the depth of three, four, five, seven, nine, and ten thousand yards,
and the definite result of this experience was that the sea preserved an average temperature of four degrees [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]