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Home -> Jules Verne -> 20,000 Leagues under the Sea -> Chapter 3

20,000 Leagues under the Sea - Chapter 3

1. Part I Chapter 1

2. Chapter 2

3. Chapter 3

4. Chapter 4

5. Chapter 5

6. Chapter 6

7. Chapter 7

8. Chapter 8

9. Chapter 9

10. Chapter 10

11. Chapter 11

12. Chapter 12

13. Chapter 13

14. Chapter 14

15. Chapter 15

16. Chapter 16

17. Chapter 17

18. Chapter 18

19. Chapter 19

20. Chapter 20

21. Chapter 21

22. Chapter 22

23. Chapter 23

24. Part II Chapter 1

25. Chapter 2

26. Chapter 3

27. Chapter 4

28. Chapter 5

29. Chapter 6

30. Chapter 7

31. Chapter 8

32. Chapter 9

33. Chapter 10

34. Chapter 11

35. Chapter 12

36. Chapter 13

37. Chapter 14

38. Chapter 15

39. Chapter 16

40. Chapter 17

41. Chapter 18

42. Chapter 19

43. Chapter 20

44. Chapter 21

45. Chapter 22

46. Chapter 23







CHAPTER III

A PEARL OF TEN MILLIONS

The next morning at four o'clock I was awakened by
the steward whom Captain Nemo had placed at my service.
I rose hurriedly, dressed, and went into the saloon.

Captain Nemo was awaiting me.

"M. Aronnax," said he, "are you ready to start?"

"I am ready."

"Then please to follow me."

"And my companions, Captain?"

"They have been told and are waiting."

"Are we not to put on our diver's dresses?" asked I.

"Not yet. I have not allowed the Nautilus to come too near this coast,
and we are some distance from the Manaar Bank; but the boat is ready, and will
take us to the exact point of disembarking, which will save us a long way.
It carries our diving apparatus, which we will put on when we begin
our submarine journey."

Captain Nemo conducted me to the central staircase,
which led on the platform. Ned and Conseil were already there,
delighted at the idea of the "pleasure party" which was preparing.
Five sailors from the Nautilus, with their oars, waited in the boat,
which had been made fast against the side.

The night was still dark. Layers of clouds covered the sky,
allowing but few stars to be seen. I looked on the side
where the land lay, and saw nothing but a dark line enclosing
three parts of the horizon, from south-west to north west.
The Nautilus, having returned during the night up the western
coast of Ceylon, was now west of the bay, or rather gulf,
formed by the mainland and the Island of Manaar.
There, under the dark waters, stretched the pintadine bank,
an inexhaustible field of pearls, the length of which is more
than twenty miles.

Captain Nemo, Ned Land, Conseil, and I took our places
in the stern of the boat. The master went to the tiller;
his four companions leaned on their oars, the painter was cast off,
and we sheered off.

The boat went towards the south; the oarsmen did not hurry. I noticed
that their strokes, strong in the water, only followed each other every
ten seconds, according to the method generally adopted in the navy.
Whilst the craft was running by its own velocity, the liquid drops
struck the dark depths of the waves crisply like spats of melted lead.
A little billow, spreading wide, gave a slight roll to the boat, and some
samphire reeds flapped before it.

We were silent. What was Captain Nemo thinking of? Perhaps of
the land he was approaching, and which he found too near to him,
contrary to the Canadian's opinion, who thought it too far off.
As to Conseil, he was merely there from curiosity.

About half-past five the first tints on the horizon showed
the upper line of coast more distinctly. Flat enough in the east,
it rose a little to the south. Five miles still lay between us,
and it was indistinct owing to the mist on the water.
At six o'clock it became suddenly daylight, with that rapidity
peculiar to tropical regions, which know neither dawn nor twilight.
The solar rays pierced the curtain of clouds, piled up
on the eastern horizon, and the radiant orb rose rapidly.
I saw land distinctly, with a few trees scattered here and there.
The boat neared Manaar Island, which was rounded to the south.
Captain Nemo rose from his seat and watched the sea.

At a sign from him the anchor was dropped, but the chain scarcely ran,
for it was little more than a yard deep, and this spot was one of the highest
points of the bank of pintadines.

"Here we are, M. Aronnax," said Captain Nemo.
"You see that enclosed bay? Here, in a month will be
assembled the numerous fishing boats of the exporters,
and these are the waters their divers will ransack so boldly.
Happily, this bay is well situated for that kind of fishing.
It is sheltered from the strongest winds; the sea is never very
rough here, which makes it favourable for the diver's work.
We will now put on our dresses, and begin our walk."

I did not answer, and, while watching the suspected waves,
began with the help of the sailors to put on my heavy
sea-dress. Captain Nemo and my companions were also dressing.
None of the Nautilus men were to accompany us on this new excursion.

Soon we were enveloped to the throat in india-rubber clothing;
the air apparatus fixed to our backs by braces.
As to the Ruhmkorff apparatus, there was no necessity for it.
Before putting my head into the copper cap, I had asked the question
of the Captain.

"They would be useless," he replied. "We are going to no great depth,
and the solar rays will be enough to light our walk. Besides, it would
not be prudent to carry the electric light in these waters;
its brilliancy might attract some of the dangerous inhabitants
of the coast most inopportunely."

As Captain Nemo pronounced these words, I turned to Conseil and Ned Land.
But my two friends had already encased their heads in the metal cap,
and they could neither hear nor answer.

One last question remained to ask of Captain Nemo.

"And our arms?" asked I; "our guns?"

"Guns! What for? Do not mountaineers attack the bear with
a dagger in their hand, and is not steel surer than lead?
Here is a strong blade; put it in your belt, and we start."

I looked at my companions; they were armed like us, and, more than that,
Ned Land was brandishing an enormous harpoon, which he had placed in the boat
before leaving the Nautilus.

Then, following the Captain's example, I allowed myself to be
dressed in the heavy copper helmet, and our reservoirs of air
were at once in activity. An instant after we were landed,
one after the other, in about two yards of water upon an even sand.
Captain Nemo made a sign with his hand, and we followed him
by a gentle declivity till we disappeared under the waves.

Over our feet, like coveys of snipe in a bog, rose shoals of fish, of
the genus monoptera, which have no other fins but their tail. I
recognized the Javanese, a real serpent two and a half feet long, of a
livid colour underneath, and which might easily be mistaken for a conger
eel if it were not for the golden stripes on its side. In the genus
stromateus, whose bodies are very flat and oval, I saw some of the most
brilliant colours, carrying their dorsal fin like a scythe; an excellent
eating fish, which, dried and pickled, is known by the name of
Karawade; then some tranquebars, belonging to the genus apsiphoroides,
whose body is covered with a shell cuirass of eight longitudinal plates.

The heightening sun lit the mass of waters more and more. The soil
changed by degrees. To the fine sand succeeded a perfect causeway of
boulders, covered with a carpet of molluscs and zoophytes. Amongst the
specimens of these branches I noticed some placenae, with thin unequal
shells, a kind of ostracion peculiar to the Red Sea and the Indian
Ocean; some orange lucinae with rounded shells; rockfish three feet and
a half long, which raised themselves under the waves like hands ready
to seize one. There were also some panopyres, slightly luminous; and
lastly, some oculines, like magnificent fans, forming one of the richest
vegetations of these seas.

In the midst of these living plants, and under the arbours of the
hydrophytes, were layers of clumsy articulates, particularly some
raninae, whose carapace formed a slightly rounded triangle; and some
horrible looking parthenopes.

At about seven o'clock we found ourselves at last surveying the oyster-banks
on which the pearl-oysters are reproduced by millions.

Captain Nemo pointed with his hand to the enormous heap of oysters;
and I could well understand that this mine was inexhaustible, for
Nature's creative power is far beyond man's instinct of destruction.
Ned Land, faithful to his instinct, hastened to fill a net
which he carried by his side with some of the finest specimens.
But we could not stop. We must follow the Captain,
who seemed to guide him self by paths known only to himself.
The ground was sensibly rising, and sometimes,
on holding up my arm, it was above the surface of the sea.
Then the level of the bank would sink capriciously.
Often we rounded high rocks scarped into pyramids.
In their dark fractures huge crustacea, perched upon their
high claws like some war-machine, watched us with fixed eyes,
and under our feet crawled various kinds of annelides.

At this moment there opened before us a large grotto dug in a picturesque
heap of rocks and carpeted with all the thick warp of the submarine flora.
At first it seemed very dark to me. The solar rays seemed to be
extinguished by successive gradations, until its vague transparency became
nothing more than drowned light. Captain Nemo entered; we followed.
My eyes soon accustomed themselves to this relative state of darkness.
I could distinguish the arches springing capriciously from natural pillars,
standing broad upon their granite base, like the heavy columns of
Tuscan architecture. Why had our incomprehensible guide led us to the bottom
of this submarine crypt? I was soon to know. After descending a rather
sharp declivity, our feet trod the bottom of a kind of circular pit.
There Captain Nemo stopped, and with his hand indicated an object I
had not yet perceived. It was an oyster of extraordinary dimensions,
a gigantic tridacne, a goblet which could have contained a whole lake of
holy-water, a basin the breadth of which was more than two yards and a half,
and consequently larger than that ornamenting the saloon of the Nautilus.
I approached this extraordinary mollusc. It adhered by its filaments
to a table of granite, and there, isolated, it developed itself in the calm
waters of the grotto. I estimated the weight of this tridacne at 600 lb.
Such an oyster would contain 30 lb. of meat; and one must have the stomach of
a Gargantua to demolish some dozens of them.

Captain Nemo was evidently acquainted with the existence of this bivalve,
and seemed to have a particular motive in verifying the actual state
of this tridacne. The shells were a little open; the Captain came near
and put his dagger between to prevent them from closing; then with his
hand he raised the membrane with its fringed edges, which formed a cloak
for the creature. There, between the folded plaits, I saw a loose pearl,
whose size equalled that of a coco-nut. Its globular shape, perfect clearness,
and admirable lustre made it altogether a jewel of inestimable value.
Carried away by my curiosity, I stretched out my hand to seize it,
weigh it, and touch it; but the Captain stopped me, made a sign of refusal,
and quickly withdrew his dagger, and the two shells closed suddenly.
I then understood Captain Nemo's intention. In leaving this pearl
hidden in the mantle of the tridacne he was allowing it to grow slowly.
Each year the secretions of the mollusc would add new concentric circles.
I estimated its value at L500,000 at least.

After ten minutes Captain Nemo stopped suddenly.
I thought he had halted previously to returning. No; by a
gesture he bade us crouch beside him in a deep fracture
of the rock, his hand pointed to one part of the liquid mass,
which I watched attentively.

About five yards from me a shadow appeared, and sank to the ground.
The disquieting idea of sharks shot through my mind, but I was mistaken;
and once again it was not a monster of the ocean that we had anything
to do with.

It was a man, a living man, an Indian, a fisherman, a poor
devil who, I suppose, had come to glean before the harvest.
I could see the bottom of his canoe anchored some feet above his head.
He dived and went up successively. A stone held between his feet,
cut in the shape of a sugar loaf, whilst a rope fastened him to his boat,
helped him to descend more rapidly. This was all his apparatus.
Reaching the bottom, about five yards deep, he went on his knees
and filled his bag with oysters picked up at random. Then he went up,
emptied it, pulled up his stone, and began the operation once more,
which lasted thirty seconds.

The diver did not see us. The shadow of the rock hid us from sight.
And how should this poor Indian ever dream that men, beings like himself,
should be there under the water watching his movements and losing no detail
of the fishing? Several times he went up in this way, and dived again.
He did not carry away more than ten at each plunge, for he was obliged to pull
them from the bank to which they adhered by means of their strong byssus.
And how many of those oysters for which he risked his life had no pearl
in them! I watched him closely; his manoeuvres were regular; and for the
space of half an hour no danger appeared to threaten him.

I was beginning to accustom myself to the sight of this interesting fishing,
when suddenly, as the Indian was on the ground, I saw him make a gesture
of terror, rise, and make a spring to return to the surface of the sea.

I understood his dread. A gigantic shadow appeared just above
the unfortunate diver. It was a shark of enormous size
advancing diagonally, his eyes on fire, and his jaws open.
I was mute with horror and unable to move.

The voracious creature shot towards the Indian, who threw
himself on one side to avoid the shark's fins; but not its tail,
for it struck his chest and stretched him on the ground.

This scene lasted but a few seconds: the shark returned, and,
turning on his back, prepared himself for cutting the Indian in two,
when I saw Captain Nemo rise suddenly, and then, dagger in hand,
walk straight to the monster, ready to fight face to face with him.
The very moment the shark was going to snap the unhappy fisherman
in two, he perceived his new adversary, and, turning over,
made straight towards him.

I can still see Captain Nemo's position. Holding himself well together,
he waited for the shark with admirable coolness; and, when it rushed at him,
threw himself on one side with wonderful quickness, avoiding the shock,
and burying his dagger deep into its side. But it was not all over.
A terrible combat ensued.

The shark had seemed to roar, if I might say so. The blood
rushed in torrents from its wound. The sea was dyed red,
and through the opaque liquid I could distinguish nothing more.
Nothing more until the moment when, like lightning, I saw
the undaunted Captain hanging on to one of the creature's fins,
struggling, as it were, hand to hand with the monster,
and dealing successive blows at his enemy, yet still unable to give
a decisive one.

The shark's struggles agitated the water with such fury that the rocking
threatened to upset me.

I wanted to go to the Captain's assistance, but, nailed to the spot
with horror, I could not stir.

I saw the haggard eye; I saw the different phases of the fight.
The Captain fell to the earth, upset by the enormous mass which leant
upon him. The shark's jaws opened wide, like a pair of factory shears,
and it would have been all over with the Captain; but, quick as thought,
harpoon in hand, Ned Land rushed towards the shark and struck it with
its sharp point.

The waves were impregnated with a mass of blood. They rocked under
the shark's movements, which beat them with indescribable fury.
Ned Land had not missed his aim. It was the monster's death-rattle.
Struck to the heart, it struggled in dreadful convulsions, the shock
of which overthrew Conseil.

But Ned Land had disentangled the Captain, who, getting up without any wound,
went straight to the Indian, quickly cut the cord which held him
to his stone, took him in his arms, and, with a sharp blow of his heel,
mounted to the surface.

We all three followed in a few seconds, saved by a miracle,
and reached the fisherman's boat.

Captain Nemo's first care was to recall the unfortunate
man to life again. I did not think he could succeed.
I hoped so, for the poor creature's immersion was not long;
but the blow from the shark's tail might have been his death-blow.

Happily, with the Captain's and Conseil's sharp friction,
I saw consciousness return by degrees. He opened his eyes.
What was his surprise, his terror even, at seeing four great
copper heads leaning over him! And, above all, what must
he have thought when Captain Nemo, drawing from the pocket
of his dress a bag of pearls, placed it in his hand!
This munificent charity from the man of the waters to the poor
Cingalese was accepted with a trembling hand. His wondering eyes
showed that he knew not to what super-human beings he owed both
fortune and life.

At a sign from the Captain we regained the bank, and, following the road
already traversed, came in about half an hour to the anchor which held
the canoe of the Nautilus to the earth.

Once on board, we each, with the help of the sailors, got rid
of the heavy copper helmet.

Captain Nemo's first word was to the Canadian.

"Thank you, Master Land," said he.

"It was in revenge, Captain," replied Ned Land.
"I owed you that."

A ghastly smile passed across the Captain's lips, and that was all.

"To the Nautilus," said he.

The boat flew over the waves. Some minutes after we met the shark's
dead body floating. By the black marking of the extremity of its fins,
I recognised the terrible melanopteron of the Indian Seas, of the species
of shark so properly called. It was more than twenty-five feet long;
its enormous mouth occupied one-third of its body. It was an adult,
as was known by its six rows of teeth placed in an isosceles triangle in
the upper jaw.

Whilst I was contemplating this inert mass, a dozen of these voracious
beasts appeared round the boat; and, without noticing us, threw themselves
upon the dead body and fought with one another for the pieces.

At half-past eight we were again on board the Nautilus.
There I reflected on the incidents which had taken place in our
excursion to the Manaar Bank.

Two conclusions I must inevitably draw from it--one bearing
upon the unparalleled courage of Captain Nemo, the other upon
his devotion to a human being, a representative of that race
from which he fled beneath the sea. Whatever he might say,
this strange man had not yet succeeded in entirely crushing his heart.

When I made this observation to him, he answered in a slightly moved tone:

"That Indian, sir, is an inhabitant of an oppressed country;
and I am still, and shall be, to my last breath, one of them!"




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