ill fall? Could you not use
some other means? Could not you, or one of yours----"

"Never, sir!" he said, hastily interrupting me.

"But I and my companions are ready to keep this manuscript in store;
and, if you will put us at liberty----"

"At liberty?" said the Captain, rising.

"Yes, sir; that is the subject on which I wish to question you. For
seven months we have been here on board, and I ask you to-day, in the
name of my companions and in my own, if your intention is to keep us
here always?"

"M. Aronnax, I will answer you to-day as I did seven months ago:
Whoever enters the Nautilus, must never quit it."

"You impose actual slavery upon us!"

"Give it what name you please."

"But everywhere the slave has the right to regain his liberty."

"Who denies you this right? Have I ever tried to chain you with an
oath?"

He looked at me with his arms crossed.

"Sir," I said, "to return a second time to this subject will be neither
to your nor to my taste; but, as we have entered upon it, let us go
through with it. I repeat, it is not only myself whom it concerns.
Study is to me a relief, a diversion, a passion that could make me
forget everything. Like you, I am willing to live obscure, in the
frail hope of bequeathing one day, to future time, the result of my
labours. But it is otherwise with Ned Land. Every man, worthy of the
name, deserves some consideration. Have you thought that love of
liberty, hatred of slavery, can give rise to schemes of revenge in a
nature like the Canadian's; that he could think, attempt, and try----"

I was silenced; Captain Nemo rose.

"Whatever Ned Land thinks of, attempts, or tries, what does it matter
to me? I did not seek him! It is not for my pleasure that I keep him
on board! As for you, M. Aronnax, you are one of those who can
understand everything, even silence. I have nothing more to say to
you. Let this first time you have come to treat of this subject be the
last, for a second time I will not listen to you."

I retired. Our situation was critical. I related my conversation to
my two companions.

"We know now," said Ned, "that we can expect nothing from this man.
The Nautilus is nearing Long Island. We will escape, whatever the
weather may be."

But the sky became more and more threatening. Symptoms of a hurricane
became manifest. The atmosphere was becoming white and misty. On the
horizon fine streaks of cirrhous clouds were succeeded by ma