As to this cavern which the colonists were exploring, did it not reach to the very centre of the island? For a quarter of an hour the canoe advanced under the directions of the engineer. At a certain moment he said:—
“Go over to the right.”
The canoe, taking this direction, brought up beside the wall. The engineer wished to observe whether the wire continued along this side.
It was there fastened to the rock.
“Forward!” said Smith.
The canoe kept on a quarter of an hour longer, and it must have been half a mile from the entrance, when Smith’s voice was heard again.
“Halt!” he exclaimed.
The canoe stopped, and the colonists saw a brilliant light illuminating the enormous crypt, so profoundly hidden in the bowels of the earth.
They were now enabled to examine this cavern of whose existence they had had no suspicion.
A vault, supported on basaltic shafts, which might all have been cast in the same mould, rose to a height of a hundred feet. Fantastic arches sprung at irregular intervals from these columns, which Nature had placed here by thousands. They rose to a height of forty or fifty feet, and the water, in despite of the tumult without, quietly lapped their base. The light noticed by the engineer seized upon each prismatic point and tipped it with fire; penetrated, so to speak, the walls as if they had been diaphanous, and changed into sparkling jewels the least projections of the cavern.
Following a phenomenon of reflection, the water reproduced these different lights upon its surface, so that the canoe seemed to float between two sparkling zones.
They had not yet thought of the nature of irradiation projected by the luminous centre whose rays, straight and clear, were broken on all the angles and mouldings of the crypt. The white color of this light betrayed its origin. It was electric. It was the sun of this cavern.
On a sign from Smith, the oars fell again into the water, and the canoe proceeded towards the luminous fire, which was half a cable’s length distant.
In this place, the sheet of water measured some 300 feet across, and an enormous basaltic wall, closing all that side, was visible beyond the luminous centre. The cavern had become much enlarged, and the sea here formed a little lake. But the vault, the side walls, and those of the apsis, all the prisms, cylinders, cones, were bathed in the electric fluid.
In the centre of the lake a long fusiform object floated on the surface of the water, silent, motionless. The light escaped from its sides as from two ovens heated to a white heat. This machine, looking like the body of an enormous cetacea, was 250 feet long, and rose ten to twelve feet above the water.
The canoe approached softly. In the bows stood Smith. He was greatly excited. Suddenly he seized the arm of the reporter.
“It is he! It can be no other than he,” he cried. “He!—”
Then he fell back upon the seat murmuring a name which Spilett alone heard.
Doubtless the reporter knew this name, for it affected him strangely, and he answered in a hoarse voice:—
“He! a man outlawed!”
“The same!” said Smith.
Under the engineer’s direction the canoe approached this singular floating machine, and came up to it on its left side, from which escaped a gleam of light through a thick glass.
Smith and his companions stepped on to the platform. An open hatchway was there, down which all descended.
At the bottom of the ladder appeared the waist of the vessel lit up by electric light. At the end of the waist was a door, which Smith pushed open.
A richly ornamented library, flooded with light, was rapidly crossed by the colonists. Beyond, a large door, also closed, was pushed open by the engineer.
A vast saloon, a sort of museum, in which were arranged all the treasures of the mineral world, works of art, marvels of industry, appeared before the eyes of the colonists, who seemed to be transported to the land of dreams.
Extended upon a rich divan they saw a man, who seemed unaware of their presence.
Then Smith raised his voice, and, to the extreme surprise of his companions, pronounced these words:—
“Captain Nemo, you have called us. Here we are.”
LVIII
Captain Nemo—His first words—History of a hero of liberty—Hatred of the invaders—His companions—The life under water—Alone—The last refuge of the Nautilus—The mysterious genius of the island.
At these words the man arose, and the light shone full upon his face: a magnificent head, with abundance of hair thrown back from a high forehead, a white beard, and an expression of haughtiness.
This man stood, resting one hand upon the divan, from which he had risen. One could see that a slow disease had broken him down, but his voice was still powerful, when he said in English, and in a tone of extreme surprise:—
“I have no name, sir!”
“I know you!” answered Smith.
Captain Nemo looked at the engineer as if he would have annihilated him. Then, falling back upon the cushions, he murmured:—
“After all, what does it matter; I am dying!”
Smith approached Captain Nemo, and Spilett took his hand, which was hot with fever. The others stood respectfully in a corner of the superb saloon, which was flooded with light.
Captain Nemo withdrew his hand, and signed to Smith and the reporter to be seated.
All looked at him with lively emotion. Here was the being whom they had called the “genius of the island,” the being whose intervention had been so efficacious, the benefactor to whom they owed so much. Before their eyes, here where Pencroff and Neb had expected to find some godlike creature, was only a man—a dying man!
But how did Smith know Captain Nemo? Why had
