Instantly the light went out and two enormous water-spouts fell on our deck.  A frightful shock followed, and the next moment I found myself struggling in the sea.  Though a good swimmer, I kept afloat with some difficulty, and great was my joy when I heard the voice of the faithful Conseil, who had jumped in after me.  Much stronger than myself, he helped me to remove some of my clothes, and thus we kept afloat until I fainted.

When I regained consciousness, I found myself on the top of what seemed to be a floating island, and there was Ned Land as well as Conseil.  We were on the back of the mysterious monster, and it was made of metal!  Presently it began to move, and we were afraid it might go below the surface.

Indeed, it seemed to be on the point of submerging, when Land hammered loudly on the metal plates, and in a moment an opening was made and the three of us were drawn inside by eight masked men.  A door banged on us, and for half an hour we lay in utter darkness.  Then a brilliant electric light flooded the cabin, a room of about twenty feet by ten, and two men entered.  One was tall, pale, and dark-eyed, but magnificently proportioned.

Though we spoke to them in French, German, English, and Latin, they did not seem to understand, while their own speech was unintelligible to us.  But they gave us clothes and food.  After eating the food, which was strange but delicious, we all lay down and slept the sleep of sheer exhaustion.

Next day the tall man, whom I afterwards came to know as Captain Nemo, master of his marvellous submarine boat, came to me, and, speaking in French, said: 

“I have been considering your case, and did not choose to speak till I had weighed it well.  You have pursued me to destroy me.  I have done with society for reasons of my own.  I have decided.  I give you choice of life or death.  If you grant me a passive obedience, and submit to my consigning you to your cabin for some hours or days, as occasion calls, you are safe.  You, Monsieur Arronax, have least cause to complain, for you have written on the life of the sea—­I have your book in my library here—­and will benefit most when I show you its marvels.  I love it.  It does not belong to despots.”

Clearly we could do nothing but submit, and afterwards Captain Nemo showed me his wondrous craft.

III.—­Our Life on the Nautilus

It was indeed a thing of marvels; for, besides the dining-room, it contained a large library of twelve thousand volumes, a drawing-room measuring thirty feet by eighteen, and fifteen high.  The walls of this apartment were adorned with masterpieces of the great painters, and beautiful marbles and bronzes.  A large piano-organ stood in one corner, and there were glass cases containing the rarest marine curiosities which a naturalist could wish to see.  A collection of enormous pearls in a cabinet must have been worth millions, and Captain Nemo told me he had rifled every sea to find them.