گرداب

Chapter ten

The Whirlpool

Captain Nemo was not the man I thought he was. I had respect for him as a scientist, but he murdered those men on the other ship!

After the terrible battle with the enemy ship, everything on the Nautilus was quiet. I did not see Captain Nemo or any of his men. We travelled underwater, never coming up except for air.

Ned and Conseil stayed in their rooms. We all felt the same, now, the adventure of the Nautilus was not exciting or interesting. It was ugly and deadly. The only thing we wanted was to escape.

Ned Land came into my room one night and woke me up. We were in the North Sea, near the coast of Norway. “Professor, wake up! The boat’s ready. Now is the time!”

“Can you see land?”

“Yes, about twenty miles away. We have to try!”

“I agree.”

“I’ll go up first, Conseil is there. Wait for two minutes, then come up after me. If anyone stops you, kill them.” Ned Land put a fishing knife in my hand and left the room, I looked around one more time. This was my home for nine months. For most of that time I enjoyed it, but now I had to leave.

As I walked through the museum to the stairs, I heard music coming from Captain Nemo’s library. I listened to him playing the piano, and I thought I heard him say.

“Enough. Oh, God, enough!”

Those were Captain Nemo’s last words.

I found Ned Land and Conseil in the small boat on the platform. Ned worked quickly to set if free. The Nautilus suddenly began to turn round in circles. The men below began to shout.

“What’s happening, sir?”

“I don’t know.”

“Get ready. I’m almost finished.”

Suddenly, I thought I understood what the men below said in their strange language. The Nautilus was in a whirlpool. The waters off the coast of Norway were famous for this. Boats which sailed into these whirlpools never escaped. “What shall we do, Professor?”

“Don’t free the boat. We’ll never make it.”

“I can’t hold it. We’re going to.”

I heard a loud “snap”. Something hit me on the head and that’s the last thing I remember.

I am writing this now some months later: I am safe now. The whirlpool threw our boat away from the Nautilus. Some fishermen found us and took us to the shore.

I do not know what happened to Captain Nemo and the Nautilus. Maybe he is still alive, living under the sea.

All I know is that we travelled 20,000 leagues under the sea, from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, through the Reel Sea and the Mediterranean, across the Atlantic and to the North and South Poles.

I saw things that no man from my world will ever see. It was a strange and wonderful adventure; one I will never forget.