Page:Twenty Thousand Verne Frith 1876.pdf/334

 Then I heard some noise on the platform, I fancied that they were launching the boat; it struck the side and all was quiet.

Two hours later the same noise and movement were repeated; the boat was hoisted up and secured, and the Nautilus plunged once again beneath the waves. So the millions had been forwarded to their destination; but on what part of the continent. Who was Captain Nemo’s correspondent?

Next day I related all I had seen to Conseil and Ned. My companions were not less astonished than I had been.

“But where does he take his millions to?” asked Ned Land.

This we could not answer. After breakfast I went into the saloon and sat down to work. Till 5 I was arranging my notes, when I suddenly felt a great heat, and I was glad to take off my outer garment of byssus. This heat was extraordinary in effect, for we were not in tropic latitudes; and, besides, the Nautilus being under water, would not be affected in any case. I looked at the manometer; we were at a depth of sixty feet, to which the heat of the air could not reach. I continued to work, but the heat became intolerable.

“Is the ship on fire?” I thought.

I was about to leave the saloon when Captain Nemo entered. He looked at the thermometer and, turning to me, said:

“Forty-two degrees.”

“So I see, captain; and it the heat increases we shall not be able to bear it.”

“It will not get hotter if we do not like it.”

“You can reduce it, then, if you wish, captain?”

“No, but I can go farther from the cause of it.”