Page:Twenty Thousand Verne Frith 1876.pdf/333

 As he said this, he advanced towards a cabinet placed near the left window of the saloon. Near to this I saw a coffer bound with iron, on the cover of which was a plate of copper, engraved with a representation of the Nautilus, and the motto Mobilis in Mobile.

The captain opened the chest, which held a quantity of ingots.

Golden ingots! Whence could he have collected this enormous sum of money? What was he going to do with it?

I did not speak. I looked on. Captain Nemo took these ingots and placed them mathematically one by one in the chest, which he filled completely. I estimated that there must have been 4,000 lbs. weight of gold—five millions of francs (£200,000).

The chest was securely fastened down, and the captain wrote upon the lid an address, in characters which appeared to me to be modern Greek.

That done, the captain pressed a button communicating with the men’s quarters. Four men appeared, and without any trouble they pushed the chest out of the saloon. Subsequently I could hear them hauling it up the iron staircase.

Captain Nemo then turned to me and said: “You were saying?”

“I was saying nothing,” I replied.

“Then, sir, you will allow me to bid you good night,” and he quitted the saloon.

I returned to my room much exercised in my mind.

I tried in vain to sleep. I sought some connection between the appearance of the diver and the chest of gold. I soon perceived by the motion of the Nautilus that we were ascending to the surface.