CHAPTER VII
AN UNKNOWN SPECIES OF WHALE
This unexpected fall so stunned me that I have no
clear recollection of my nsations at the time.
I was at first drawn down to a depth of about twenty feet.
I am a good swimmer (though without pretending to rival
讲担当Byron or Edgar Poe, who were masters of the art),
and in that plunge I did not lo my prence of mind.
Two vigorous strokes brought me to the surface of the water.
My first care was to look for the frigate. Had the crew
en me disappear? Had the Abraham Lincoln veered round?
Would the captain put out a boat? Might I hope to be saved?
The darkness was inten. I caught a glimp of a black mass disappearing in
the east, its beacon lights dying out in the distance. It was the frigate!
I was lost.
医生锦旗
"Help, help!" I shouted, swimming towards the Abraham Lincoln in desperation.
My clothes encumbered me; they emed glued to my body,
京剧的魅力and paralyd my movements.
I was sinking! I was suffocating!
"Help!"
This was my last cry. My mouth filled with water;
I struggled against being drawn down the abyss.
Suddenly my clothes were ized by a strong hand, and I
felt mylf quickly drawn up to the surface of the a;
and I heard, yes, I heard the words pronounced in my ear:
"If master would be so good as to lean on my shoulder,
master would swim with much greater ea."
I ized with one hand my faithful Conil's arm.
"Is it you?" said I, "you?"
"Mylf," answered Conil; "and waiting master's orders."
"That shock threw you as well as me into the a?"
"No; but, being in my master's rvice, I followed him."
The worthy fellow thought that was but natural.
"And the frigate?" I asked.
"The frigate?" replied Conil, turning on his back;
"I think that master had better not count too much on her."
"You think so?"
"I say that, at the time I threw mylf into the a, I heard the men
at the wheel say, `The screw and the rudder are broken.'
"Broken?"
"Yes, broken by the monster's teeth. It is the only injury
the Abraham Lincoln has sustained. But it is a bad look-out for us--
she no longer answers her helm."
"Then we are lost!"
"Perhaps so," calmly answered Conil. "However, we have still veral
hours before us, and one can do a good deal in some hours."
Conil's imperturbable coolness t me up again.
I swam more vigorously; but, cramped by my clothes, which stuck
to me like a leaden weight, I felt great difficulty in bearing up.
Conil saw this.
"Will master let me make a slit?" said he; and, slipping an open knife
under my clothes, he ripped them up from top to bottom very rapidly.
Then he cleverly slipped them off me, while I swam for both of us.
Then I did the same for Conil, and we continued to swim near
to each other.
Nevertheless, our situation was no less terrible.
Perhaps our disappearance had not been noticed; and, if it
had been, the frigate could not tack, being without its helm.
Conil argued on this supposition, and laid his plans accordingly.
This quiet boy was perfectly lf-possd. We then decided that,
as our only chance of safety was being picked up by the Abraham
Lincoln's boats, we ought to manage so as to wait for them
as long as possible. I resolved then to husband our strength,
so that both should not be exhausted at the same time;
and this is how we managed: while one of us lay on our back,
quite still, with arms crosd, and legs stretched out,
the other would swim and push the other on in front.
This towing business did not last more than ten minutes each;
and relieving each other thus, we could swim on for some hours,
perhaps till day-break. Poor chance! but hope is so firmly
rooted in the heart of man! Moreover, there were two of us.
Indeed I declare (though it may em improbable)
if I sought to destroy all hope--if I wished to despair,
I could not.
The collision of the frigate with the cetacean had
occurred about eleven o'clock in the evening before.
I reckoned then we should have eight hours to swim before sunri,
an operation quite practicable if we relieved each other.
The a, very calm, was in our favour. Sometimes I tried
to pierce the inten darkness that was only dispelled
by the phosphorescence caud by our movements.
I watched the luminous waves that broke over my hand,
who mirror-like surface was spotted with silvery rings.
One might have said that we were in a bath of quicksilver.
Near one o'clock in the morning, I was ized with dreadful fatigue.
My limbs stiffened under the strain of violent cramp. Conil was
obliged to keep me up, and our prervation devolved on him alone.
I heard the poor boy pant; his breathing became short and hurried.
I found that he could not keep up much longer.
"Leave me! leave me!" I said to him.
"Leave my master? Never!" replied he. "I would drown first."
Just then the moon appeared through the fringes of a
thick cloud that the wind was driving to the east.
The surface of the a glittered with its rays.
This kindly light reanimated us. My head got better again.
I looked at all points of the horizon. I saw the frigate!
She was five miles from us, and looked like a dark mass,
hardly discernible. But no boats!
I would have cried out. But what good would it have been at such a distance!
My swollen lips could utter no sounds. Conil could articulate
我的swot分析some words,
and I heard him repeat at intervals, "Help! help!"
Our movements were suspended for an instant; we listened.
It might be only a singing in the ear, but it emed to me
as if a cry answered the cry from Conil.
"Did you hear?" I murmured.
"Yes! Yes!"
And Conil gave one more despairing cry.
This time there was no mistake! A human voice responded to ours!
Was it the voice of another unfortunate creature, abandoned in the middle
of the ocean, some other victim of the shock sustained by the vesl?
Or rather was it a boat from the frigate, that was hailing us in the darkness?
Conil made a last effort, and, leaning on my shoulder, while I struck
out in a desperate effort, he raid himlf half out of the water,
then fell back exhausted.
"What did you e?"
"I saw----" murmured he; "I saw--but do not talk--rerve all your strength!"
What had he en? Then, I know not why, the thought
of the monster came into my head for the first time!
But that voice! The time is past for Jonahs to take refuge
in whales' bellies! However, Conil was towing me again.
He raid his head sometimes, looked before us, and uttered a cry
of recognition, which was responded to by a voice that came nearer
and nearer. I scarcely heard it. My strength was exhausted;
my fingers stiffened; my hand afforded me support no longer;
my mouth, convulsively opening, filled with salt water.
陶瓷电热水壶Cold crept over me. I raid my head for the last time,
then I sank.
At this moment a hard body struck me. I clung to it:
then I felt that I was being drawn up, that I was brought to
the surface of the water, that my chest collapd--I fainted.
It is certain that I soon came to, thanks to the vigorous rubbings
that I received. I half opened my eyes.
"Conil!" I murmured.
"Does master call me?" asked Conil.
Just then, by the waning light of the moon which was sinking
down to the horizon, I saw a face which was not Conil's
and which I immediately recognid.
"Ned!" I cried.
"The same, sir, who is eking his prize!" replied the Canadian.
"Were you thrown into the a by the shock to the frigate?"
"Yes, Professor; but more fortunate than you, I was able to find
a footing almost directly upon a floating island."
"An island?"
"Or, more correctly speaking, on our gigantic narwhal."
"Explain yourlf, Ned!"
"Only I soon found out why my harpoon had not entered its skin
and was blunted."
"Why, Ned, why?"
"Becau, Professor, that beast is made of sheet iron."
The Canadian's last words produced a sudden revolution in my brain.
I wriggled mylf quickly to the top of the being, o
r object,
half out of the water, which rved us for a refuge. I kicked it.
It was evidently a hard, impenetrable body, and not the soft substance
that forms the bodies of the great marine mammalia. But this hard
body might be a bony covering, like that of the antediluvian animals;
and I should be free to class this monster among amphibious reptiles,
such as tortois or alligators.
Well, no! the blackish back that supported me was smooth,
polished, without scales. The blow produced a metallic sound;
and, incredible though it may be, it emed, I might say,
as if it was made of riveted plates.
There was no doubt about it! This monster, this natural
phenomenon that had puzzled the learned world, and over thrown
and misled the imagination of amen of both hemispheres,
it must be owned was a still more astonishing phenomenon,
inasmuch as it was a simply human construction.
We had no time to lo, however. We were lying upon the back of a
sort of submarine boat, which appeared (as far as I could judge)
like a huge fish of steel. Ned Land's mind was made up on this point.
Conil and I could only agree with him.
Just then a bubbling began at the back of this strange thing
(which was evidently propelled by a screw), and it began to move.
We had only just time to ize hold of the upper part,
一笑置之的意思which ro about ven feet out of the water, and happily its speed
was not great.
"As long as it sails horizontally," muttered Ned Land,
"I do not mind; but, if it takes a fancy to dive, I would
not give two straws for my life."
The Canadian might have said still less. It became really necessary to
communicate with the beings, whatever they were, shut up inside the machine.
I arched all over the outside for an aperture, a panel, or a manhole,
to u a technical expression; but the lines of the iron rivets,
solidly driven into the joints of the iron plates, were clear and uniform.
Besides, the moon disappeared then, and left us in total darkness.
政治生活知识点At last this long night pasd. My indistinct remembrance
prevents my describing all the impressions it made.
I can only recall one circumstance. During some lulls of
the wind and a, I fancied I heard veral times vague sounds,
校园美女图片a sort of fugitive harmony produced by words of command.
What was, then, the mystery of this submarine craft,
of which the whole world vainly sought an explanation?
What kind of beings existed in this strange boat?
What mechanical agent caud its prodigious speed?
Daybreak appeared. The morning mists surrounded us,
but they soon cleared off. I was about to examine the hull,
which formed on deck a kind of horizontal platform, when I felt
it gradually sinking.
"Oh! confound it!" cried Ned Land, kicki
ng the resounding plate.
"Open, you inhospitable rascals!"
Happily the sinking movement cead. Suddenly a noi, like iron
works violently pushed aside, came from the interior of the boat.
One iron plate was moved, a man appeared, uttered an odd cry,
and disappeared immediately.
Some moments after, eight strong men, with masked faces, appeared noilessly,
and drew us down into their formidable machine.
