Part 27 (1/2)

These words p.r.o.nounced, the chief officer went below again.

I thought the Nautilus was about to resume its underwater navigating.

So I went down the hatch and back through the gangways to my stateroom.

Five days pa.s.sed in this way with no change in our situation.

Every morning I climbed onto the platform. The same phrase was p.r.o.nounced by the same individual. Captain Nemo did not appear.

I was pursuing the policy that we had seen the last of him, when on November 16, while reentering my stateroom with Ned and Conseil, I found a note addressed to me on the table.

I opened it impatiently. It was written in a script that was clear and neat but a bit ”Old English” in style, its characters reminding me of German calligraphy.

The note was worded as follows:

Professor Aronnax

Aboard the Nautilus

November 16, 1867

Captain Nemo invites Professor Aronnax on a hunting trip that will take place tomorrow morning in his Crespo Island forests.

He hopes nothing will prevent the professor from attending, and he looks forward with pleasure to the professor's companions joining him.

CAPTAIN NEMO,

Commander of the Nautilus.

”A hunting trip!” Ned exclaimed.

”And in his forests on Crespo Island!” Conseil added.

”But does this mean the old boy goes ash.o.r.e?” Ned Land went on.

”That seems to be the gist of it,” I said, rereading the letter.

”Well, we've got to accept!” the Canadian answered.

”Once we're on solid ground, we'll figure out a course of action.

Besides, it wouldn't pain me to eat a couple slices of fresh venison!”

Without trying to reconcile the contradictions between Captain Nemo's professed horror of continents or islands and his invitation to go hunting in a forest, I was content to reply:

”First let's look into this Crespo Island.”

I consulted the world map; and in lat.i.tude 32 degrees 40'

north and longitude 167 degrees 50' west, I found an islet that had been discovered in 1801 by Captain Crespo, which old Spanish charts called Rocca de la Plata, in other words, ”Silver Rock.” So we were about 1,800 miles from our starting point, and by a slight change of heading, the Nautilus was bringing us back toward the southeast.

I showed my companions this small, stray rock in the middle of the north Pacific.