Page:Twenty Thousand Verne Frith 1876.pdf/52

 where he had gone to take his start, the monster launched himself suddenly against the Abraham Lincoln with fearful rapidity, stopped suddenly within twenty paces of the frigate, extinguished the light—not by plunging beneath the surface, since the gleam was not withdrawn by degrees—but suddenly, as if the source of the brilliant light had been suddenly dried up. It then reappeared at the other side of the frigate, so either it had turned, or the monster gone underneath it. At every moment a collision seemed imminent, and that would have been fatal to us.

Meantime, I wondered at the behaviour of the frigate. She was flying and not attacking. She was pursued, instead of being the pursuer, and I said so to Commodore Farragut. His usually impassible face betrayed the greatest astonishment.

“M. Aronnax,” he replied, “I do not know with what formidable being I have to do—and I do not wish to risk my ship in this darkness. Besides, how can I attack it, or how defend myself from its attack? Let us wait for daylight and the sides will be changed.”

“You have no doubt respecting the nature of the animal, commodore?”

“No, it is evidently a gigantic narwhal, but also an electric one.”

“Perhaps,” I added, “we should not approach it any more than a torpedo?”

“Quite so,” replied the commodore, “and if it possess the power to emit a shock, it is the most terrible animal ever created. That is why, sir, I am on my guard.”

The crew all remained on deck during the night. No