menu_book Chapter 9

chapter nine the tantrums of ned land i have no idea how long this slumber lasted but it must have been a good while since we were completely over our exhaustion i was the first one to wake up my companions weren't yet stirring and still lay in their corners like inanimate objects i had barely gotten up from my passably hard mattress when i felt my mind clear my brain go on the alert so i began a careful re-examination of our cell nothing had changed in its interior arrangements the prison was still a prison and its prisoners still prisoners but taking advantage of our slumber the steward had cleared the table consequently nothing indicated any forthcoming improvement in our situation and i seriously wondered if we were doomed to spend the rest of our lives in this cage this prospect seemed increasingly painful to me because even though my brain was clear of its obsessions from the night before i was feeling an odd short-windedness in my chest it was swimming hard for me to breathe the heavy air was no longer sufficient for the full play of my lungs although our cell was large we obviously had used up most of the oxygen it contained

in essence over an hour's time a single human being consumes all the oxygen found in one hundred litres of air at which point that air has become charged with a nearly equal amount of carbon dioxide and is no longer fit for breathing so it was now urgent to renew the air in our prison and no doubt the air in this whole underwater boat as well here a question popped into my head how did the commander of this aquatic residence go about it did he obtain air using chemical methods releasing the oxygen contained in potassium chlorate by heating it meanwhile absorbing the carbon dioxide with potassium hydroxide if so he would have to keep up some kind of relationship with the shore to come by the materials needed for such an operation did he simply limit himself to storing the air in high-pressure tanks and then dispense it according to his crew's needs perhaps or proceeding in a more convenient more economical and consequently more probable fashion was he satisfied with merely returning to breathe at the surface of the water like a cetacean renewing his oxygen supply every twenty-four hours in any event whatever his method was it seemed prudent to me that he used this method without delay

in fact i had already resorted to speeding up my inhalations in order to extract from the cell what little oxygen it contained when suddenly i was refreshed by a current of clean air scented with a salty aroma it had to be a sea-breeze life-giving and charged with iodine i opened my mouth wide and my lungs glatted themselves on the fresh particles at the same time i felt a swaying a rolling of moderate magnitude but definitely noticeable this boat this sheet-iron monster had obviously just risen to the surface of the ocean there to breathe in good whale fashion so the ship's mode of ventilation was finally established when i had absorbed a chest full of this clean air i looked for the conduit the air carrier if you prefer that allowed this beneficial influx to reach us and i soon found it above the door opened an air vent that let in a fresh current of oxygen renewing the thin air in our cell i had gotten to this point in my observations when ned and edwin seal woke up almost simultaneously under the influence of this reviving air purification they rubbed their eyes stretched their arms and sprang to their feet

did the master sleep well conseil asked me with his perennial good manners extremely well my gallant lad i replied and how about you mr ned land like a log professor but i must be imagining things because it seems like i'm breathing a sea-breeze a seaman couldn't be wrong on this topic and i told the canadian what had gone on while he slept good he said that explains perfectly all that bellowing we heard when our so-called narwhale lay in sight of the abraham lincoln perfectly mr land it was catching its breath only i've no idea what time it is professor aaron x unless maybe it's dinner-time dinner-time i find harpooner i'd say at least breakfast-time because we've certainly woken up to a new day which indicates kinsale replied did we've spent twenty-four hours in slumber that's my assessment i replied i won't argue with you ned land answered

but dinner or breakfast that steward will be plenty welcome whether he brings the one or the other the one and the other kinsale said well put the canadian replied we deserve two meals and speaking for myself i'll do justice to them both all right ned let's wait and see i replied it's clear that these strangers don't intend to let us die of hunger otherwise last evening's dinner wouldn't make any sense unless they're fattening us up ned shot back i object i replied they have not fallen into the hands of cannibals just because they don't make a habit of it the canadian replied in all seriousness doesn't mean they don't indulge from time to time who knows maybe these people have gone without fresh meat for a long while and in that case these three healthy well-built specimens like the professor his man-servant and me get rid of those ideas mr land i answered the harpooner and above all don't let them lead you to flare up against our hosts which would only make our situation worse

anyhow the harpooner said i'm as hungry as all hades and dinner or breakfast not one puny meal has arrived mr land i answered we have to adapt to the schedule on board and i imagine our stomachs are running ahead of the chief cook's dinner bell the chief cook's dinner bell well then we'll adjust our stomachs to the chef's time-table well then we'll adjust our stomachs to the chef's time-table consale replied serenely there you go again conceal my friend the impatient canadian shot back you never allow yourself any displays of bile or attacks of nerves you're everlastingly calm you say you're after meal grace even if you didn't get any food for your before-meal blessing and you'd starve to death rather than complain what good would it do consale asked complaining doesn't have to do good it just feels good and if these pirates i say pirates out of consideration for the professor's feelings since he doesn't want us to call them cannibals if these pirates think they're going to smother me in this cage without hearing what cuss words spice up my outbursts they've got another thing coming look here professor aranac speak frankly how long do you figure they'll keep us in this iron box to tell the truth friend land i know little more about it than you do but in a nutshell what do you suppose is going on my supposition is that the sheer chance has made us privy to an important secret

now then if the crew of this underwater boat have a personal interest in keeping that secret and if their personal interest is more important than the lives of three men i believe that our very existence is in jeopardy if such is not the cause then at the first available opportunity this monster that has swallowed us will return us to the world inhabited by our own kind unless they recruit us to serve on the crew conceal said and keep us here till the moment ned land answered when some frigate that's faster or smarter than the abraham lincoln captures this den of buccaneers then hangs all of us by the neck from the tip of a main-mast yard well thought out mr land but as yet i don't believe we've been tended any enlistment office consequently it's pointless to argue about what tactics we should pursue in such a case i repeat let's wait let's be guided by events and let's do nothing since right now there's nothing we can do on the contrary professor the harpooner replied not wanting to give in there is something we can do oh and what mr land break out of here

breaking out of a prison on shore is difficult enough but with an under-water prison it strikes me as completely unworkable come now ned my friend conceal asked how would you answer master's objection i refuse to believe that an american is at the end of his tether visibly baffled the harpooner said nothing under the conditions in which fate had left us it was absolutely impossible to escape but a canadian's wit is half french and mr ned land made this clear in his reply so professor aranax he went on after thinking for a few moments you haven't figured out what people do when they can't escape from their prison no my friend easy they fix things so they stay there of course conceal put in since we are deep in the ocean being inside this boat is vastly preferable to being above it or below it but we fix things by kicking out all the jailers guards and wardens ned land added what's this ned i asked you seriously consider taking over this craft

very seriously the canadian replied it's impossible and why is that sir some promising opportunity might come up and i don't see what could stop us from taking advantage of it there are only about twenty men on board this machine i don't think they can stave off two frenchmen and a canadian it seemed wiser to accept the harpooner's proposition than to debate it accordingly i was content to reply let such circumstance come mr land and we'll see but until then i beg you to control your impatience we need to act shrewdly and your flare-ups won't give rise to any promising opportunities so swear to me that you'll accept our situation without throwing a tantrum over it i give you my word professor ned land replied in an unenthusiastic tone no vehement phrases will leave my mouth no vicious gestures will give my feelings away not even when they don't feed us on time have your word ned i answered the canadian then our conversation petered out and each of us withdrew into his own thoughts for my part despite the harpooner's confident talk i admit that i entertain no illusions i had no faith in those promising opportunities that ned land mentioned

to operate with such efficiency this underwater boat had to have a sizeable crew so if it came to a physical contest we would be facing an overwhelming opponent besides before we could do anything we had to be free and that we definitely were not i didn't see any way out of this sheet-iron hermetically sealed cell and if the strange commander of this boat did have a secret to keep which seemed rather likely he would never give us freedom of movement aboard his vessel now then would he resort to violence in order to be rid of us or would he drop us off one day on some remote coast there lay the unknown all these hypotheses seemed extremely plausible to me and to hope for freedom through use of force you had to be a harpooner i realised moreover that ned land's brooding was getting him madder by the minute little by little i heard those aforesaid cuss words welling up in the depths of his gullet and i saw his movements turn threatening again he stood up pacing in circles like a wild beast in a cage striking the walls with his foot and fist meanwhile the hours passed our hunger nagged unmercifully and this time the steward did not appear

which amounted to forgetting our castaway status for much too long if they really had good intentions toward us tortured per the growling of his well-built stomach ned land was getting more and more riled and despite his word of honour i was in real dread of an explosion when he stood in the presence of one of the men on board for two more hours ned land's rage increased the canadian shouted and fated but to no avail the sheet iron walls were deaf i didn't hear a single sound inside the dead-seeming boat the vessel hadn't stirred because i obviously would have felt its hull vibrating under the influence of the propeller it had undoubtedly sunk into the watery deep and no longer belonged to the outside world all this dismal silence was terrifying as for our neglect our isolation in the depths of this cell i was afraid to guess at how long it might last little by little hopes i had entertained after our interview with the ship's commander were fading away the gentleness of the man's gaze the generosity expressed in his facial features the nobility of his bearing all vanished from my memory i saw this mystifying individual anew for what he inevitably must be cruel and merciless i viewed him as outside humanity beyond all feelings of compassion the implacable foe of his fellow-man toward whom he must have sworn an undying hate

but even so was the man going to let us dive starvation locked up in this cramped prison exposed to those horrible temptations to which people are driven by extreme hunger this grim possibility took on a dreadful intensity in my mind and fired by my imagination i felt an unreasoning terror run through me conceal stayed calm ned land bellowed just then a noise was audible outside footsteps rang on the metal tiling the locks were turned the door opened the steward appeared before i could make a single movement to prevent him the canadian rushed at the poor man threw him down held him by the throat the steward was choking in the grip of those powerful hands conceal was already trying to loosen the harpooner's hand from his half-suffocated victim and i had gone to join in the rescue when i was abruptly nailed to the spot by these words pronounced in french calm down mr land and you professor kindly listen to me chapter