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 “This fancy will not lead us very far, then. There is no other outlet to the Persian Gulf, and if we enter it we shall soon have to retrace our steps.”

“Well, then, we must come back again, Master Land; and if, after the Persian Gulf, the Nautilus chooses to visit the Red Sea, the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb is always free to us.”

“I need scarcely tell you, sir,” replied Ned Land, “that the Red Sea is closed equally with the Gulf, since the Isthmus of Suez is not yet cut through; and if it were, a mysterious vessel like ours would not risk herself in a canal intersected with sluices. So the Red Sea is not our road to Europe.”

“But I have not said that we were going back to Europe.”

“What do you think, then?”

“I suppose that, after having seen the curious localities of Arabia and Egypt, the Nautilus will go back into the Indian Ocean again, perhaps through the Mozambique Channel, perhaps outside Madagascar, so as to gain the Cape of Good Hope.”

“And when we have reached the Cape?” asked the Canadian, with peculiar insistence.

“Well, then we shall explore that part of the Atlantic we do not yet know. Ah! friend Ned, you are getting tired of this submarine travelling. You are blasé with the incessant wonders of the sea, varied though they be. For my own part, I shall be sorry to come to the end of a voyage such as is given to few men to enjoy.”

“But are you aware that we have been shut up in the Nautilus nearly three months?”

“No, Ned, I did not know it. I do not wish to—and I reckon neither hours nor days.”