with home-sickness myself. Nearly seven months had passed
without our having had any news from land; Captain Nemo's isolation,
his altered spirits, especially since the fight with the poulps, his
taciturnity, all made me view things in a different light.

"Well, sir?" said Ned, seeing I did not reply.

"Well, Ned, do you wish me to ask Captain Nemo his intentions
concerning us?"

"Yes, sir."

"Although he has already made them known?"

"Yes; I wish it settled finally. Speak for me, in my name only, if you
like."

"But I so seldom meet him. He avoids me."

"That is all the more reason for you to go to see him."

I went to my room. From thence I meant to go to Captain Nemo's. It
would not do to let this opportunity of meeting him slip. I knocked at
the door. No answer. I knocked again, then turned the handle. The
door opened, I went in. The Captain was there. Bending over his
work-table, he had not heard me. Resolved not to go without having
spoken, I approached him. He raised his head quickly, frowned, and
said roughly, "You here! What do you want?"

"To speak to you, Captain."

"But I am busy, sir; I am working. I leave you at liberty to shut
yourself up; cannot I be allowed the same?"

This reception was not encouraging; but I was determined to hear and
answer everything.

"Sir," I said coldly, "I have to speak to you on a matter that admits
of no delay."

"What is that, sir?" he replied, ironically. "Have you discovered
something that has escaped me, or has the sea delivered up any new
secrets?"

We were at cross-purposes. But, before I could reply, he showed me an
open manuscript on his table, and said, in a more serious tone, "Here,
M. Aronnax, is a manuscript written in several languages. It contains
the sum of my studies of the sea; and, if it please God, it shall not
perish with me. This manuscript, signed with my name, complete with
the history of my life, will be shut up in a little floating case. The
last survivor of all of us on board the Nautilus will throw this case
into the sea, and it will go whither it is borne by the waves."

This man's name! his history written by himself! His mystery would
then be revealed some day.

"Captain," I said, "I can but approve of the idea that makes you act
thus. The result of your studies must not be lost. But the means you
employ seem to me to be primitive. Who knows where the winds will
carry this case, and in whose hands it w