ering beings and oppressed races
on this earth, miserable creatures to console, victims to avenge? Do
you not understand?"

Captain Nemo stopped at these last words, regretting perhaps that he
had spoken so much. But I had guessed that, whatever the motive which
had forced him to seek independence under the sea, it had left him
still a man, that his heart still beat for the sufferings of humanity,
and that his immense charity was for oppressed races as well as
individuals. And I then understood for whom those millions were
destined which were forwarded by Captain Nemo when the Nautilus was
cruising in the waters of Crete.

CHAPTER IX

A VANISHED CONTINENT

The next morning, the 19th of February, I saw the Canadian enter my
room. I expected this visit. He looked very disappointed.

"Well, sir?" said he.

"Well, Ned, fortune was against us yesterday."

"Yes; that Captain must needs stop exactly at the hour we intended
leaving his vessel."

"Yes, Ned, he had business at his bankers."

"His bankers!"

"Or rather his banking-house; by that I mean the ocean, where his
riches are safer than in the chests of the State."

I then related to the Canadian the incidents of the preceding night,
hoping to bring him back to the idea of not abandoning the Captain; but
my recital had no other result than an energetically expressed regret
from Ned that he had not been able to take a walk on the battlefield of
Vigo on his own account.

"However," said he, "all is not ended. It is only a blow of the
harpoon lost. Another time we must succeed; and to-night, if
necessary----"

"In what direction is the Nautilus going?" I asked.

"I do not know," replied Ned.

"Well, at noon we shall see the point."

The Canadian returned to Conseil. As soon as I was dressed, I went
into the saloon. The compass was not reassuring. The course of the
Nautilus was S.S.W. We were turning our backs on Europe.

I waited with some impatience till the ship's place was pricked on the
chart. At about half-past eleven the reservoirs were emptied, and our
vessel rose to the surface of the ocean. I rushed towards the
platform. Ned Land had preceded me. No more land in sight. Nothing
but an immense sea. Some sails on the horizon, doubtless those going
to San Roque in search of favourable winds for doubling the Cape of
Good Hope. The weather was cloudy. A gale of wind was preparing. Ned
raved, and tried to pierce the cloudy hor