Part 34 (1/2)

”And you were saying, sir?” said he.

”I was saying nothing, Captain.”

”Then, sir, if you will allow me, I will wish you good night.”

Whereupon he turned and left the saloon.

I returned to my room much troubled, as one may believe. I vainly tried to sleep--I sought the connecting link between the apparition of the diver and the chest filled with gold. Soon, I felt by certain movements of pitching and tossing that the Nautilus was leaving the depths and returning to the surface.

Then I heard steps upon the platform; and I knew they were unfastening the pinnace and launching it upon the waves. For one instant it struck the side of the Nautilus, then all noise ceased.

Two hours after, the same noise, the same going and coming was renewed; the boat was hoisted on board, replaced in its socket, and the Nautilus again plunged under the waves.

So these millions had been transported to their address. To what point of the continent? Who was Captain Nemo's correspondent?

The next day I related to Conseil and the Canadian the events of the night, which had excited my curiosity to the highest degree. My companions were not less surprised than myself.

”But where does he take his millions to?” asked Ned Land.

To that there was no possible answer. I returned to the saloon after having breakfast and set to work. Till five o'clock in the evening I employed myself in arranging my notes. At that moment--(ought I to attribute it to some peculiar idiosyncrasy)--I felt so great a heat that I was obliged to take off my coat. It was strange, for we were under low lat.i.tudes; and even then the Nautilus, submerged as it was, ought to experience no change of temperature. I looked at the manometer; it showed a depth of sixty feet, to which atmospheric heat could never attain.

I continued my work, but the temperature rose to such a pitch as to be intolerable.

”Could there be fire on board?” I asked myself.

I was leaving the saloon, when Captain Nemo entered; he approached the thermometer, consulted it, and, turning to me, said:

”Forty-two degrees.”

”I have noticed it, Captain,” I replied; ”and if it gets much hotter we cannot bear it.”

”Oh, sir, it will not get better if we do not wish it.”

”You can reduce it as you please, then?”

”No; but I can go farther from the stove which produces it.”

”It is outward, then!”

”Certainly; we are floating in a current of boiling water.”

”Is it possible!” I exclaimed.

”Look.”

The panels opened, and I saw the sea entirely white all round. A sulphurous smoke was curling amid the waves, which boiled like water in a copper. I placed my hand on one of the panes of gla.s.s, but the heat was so great that I quickly took it off again.

”Where are we?” I asked.

”Near the Island of Santorin, sir,” replied the Captain. ”I wished to give you a sight of the curious spectacle of a submarine eruption.”