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 will. It is sad to think that this undertaking, which ought to have been international, and is sufficient to add lustre to any reign, was only successful owing to the energy of one man. So all honour to M. de Lesseps!”

“Yes, all honour to this great citizen!” I replied, surprised by the manner in which Captain Nemo spoke.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “I cannot take you up the Suez Canal, but the day after to-morrow you will see the long piers of Port Said, when we shall be in the Mediterranean.”

“In the Mediterranean?” I exclaimed.

“Yes. Does that astonish you?”

“Yes, it does. The idea that we shall be there the day after to-morrow!”

“Really!”

“Yes, captain. Although I confess I ought not to be surprised at anything while on board your vessel.”

“But why are you surprised?”

“Because I think of the awful speed you must make to double the Cape of Good Hope, go round Africa, and enter the Mediterranean the day after to-morrow.”

“And who told you that I am going to double the Cape and go up the African coast, eh?”

“Well, you will admit that even the Nautilus cannot sail on dry land, across the Isthmus of Suez.”

“Nor beneath it, M. Aronnax?”

“Beneath it?” I echoed.

“Certainly,” replied the captain, calmly. “Nature long ago made, underneath, what mortals have only to-day completed on the surface.”

“What do you say? A passage exists?”