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CHAPTER XVII.

FROM CAPE HORN TO THE AMAZON.

How I got up to the platform I have not a notion. Perhaps the Canadian carried me thither. But I breathed, I inhaled the life-restoring sea air. Close to me my two companions were drinking in the fresh molecules. Men deprived of food for a long time must not too suddenly partake of nourishment. We, on the contrary, had no necessity to limit ourselves; we could inspire to our lungs’ content the blessed air, and the breeze alone gave us this delightful sensation of mental intoxication.

“Ah!” cried Conseil, “how pleasant the oxygen is, and Monsieur need not fear to breathe it. There is enough for us all.”

Ned Land did not speak, but he opened his jaws wide enough to astonish a shark. And what breaths he took! The Canadian “drew” like a furnace in full blast.

Strength quickly returned, and when I looked round me I saw that we were the only occupants of the platform. Not one of the crew was there. Not even Captain Nemo. The strange sailors of the Nautilus contented themselves with