n society!

I could no longer content myself with the theory which satisfied
Conseil.

That worthy fellow persisted in seeing in the Commander of the Nautilus
one of those unknown servants who return mankind contempt for
indifference. For him, he was a misunderstood genius who, tired of
earth's deceptions, had taken refuge in this inaccessible medium, where
he might follow his instincts freely. To my mind, this explains but
one side of Captain Nemo's character. Indeed, the mystery of that last
night during which we had been chained in prison, the sleep, and the
precaution so violently taken by the Captain of snatching from my eyes
the glass I had raised to sweep the horizon, the mortal wound of the
man, due to an unaccountable shock of the Nautilus, all put me on a new
track. No; Captain Nemo was not satisfied with shunning man. His
formidable apparatus not only suited his instinct of freedom, but
perhaps also the design of some terrible retaliation.

At this moment nothing is clear to me; I catch but a glimpse of light
amidst all the darkness, and I must confine myself to writing as events
shall dictate.

That day, the 24th of January, 1868, at noon, the second officer came
to take the altitude of the sun. I mounted the platform, lit a cigar,
and watched the operation. It seemed to me that the man did not
understand French; for several times I made remarks in a loud voice,
which must have drawn from him some involuntary sign of attention, if
he had understood them; but he remained undisturbed and dumb.

As he was taking observations with the sextant, one of the sailors of
the Nautilus (the strong man who had accompanied us on our first
submarine excursion to the Island of Crespo) came to clean the glasses
of the lantern. I examined the fittings of the apparatus, the strength
of which was increased a hundredfold by lenticular rings, placed
similar to those in a lighthouse, and which projected their brilliance
in a horizontal plane. The electric lamp was combined in such a way as
to give its most powerful light. Indeed, it was produced in vacuo,
which insured both its steadiness and its intensity. This vacuum
economised the graphite points between which the luminous arc was
developed--an important point of economy for Captain Nemo, who could
not easily have replaced them; and under these conditions their waste
was imperceptible. When the Nautilus was ready to continue its
submarine journey, I went down