Twenty Thousand Leagues

Part One · The Monster

Sailors had started to whisper about a monster. Ships were being struck in the night, and every one of them had a long, deep hole in its side. Some people said it was a whale, and some said it was a giant narwhal with a horn like a spear. Professor Aronnax, a famous sea scientist, joined a warship to hunt it. With him came his loyal helper Conseil, who sorted everything into categories, even danger, and a harpooner from Canada named Ned Land, who could hit a fish at a hundred paces.

For days, the sea was empty. Then, one night, a huge glowing shape rose out of the waves, brighter than any lamp, and the warship fired. The cannonballs bounced off its back like hail off a roof, and the monster charged. With a wrenching crash it rammed the ship, and Aronnax went flying through the air, and he hit the freezing water, and the world turned black. The last thing he heard was Conseil's voice, calmly saying, "The professor has fallen in."

He woke on a cold metal back that rose and fell on the waves. Ned Land and Conseil clung beside him, and the monster was no animal at all. It was a ship made of steel, shaped like a long, fat cigar. A hatch opened, and men in dark clothes dragged them inside, and nobody said a single word. The hatch banged shut with a hollow clang. The three prisoners stood in a gleaming room, and from somewhere beneath their feet came a low hum, like a sleeping giant.

A tall man with fierce eyes walked in and told them his name was Captain Nemo, and that this was the Nautilus. He had built it himself, he said, and he would never go back to land. Because they had seen his ship, they could never leave, but they would be treated as guests. Ned Land asked if guests got lunch. Aronnax stared through a great window in the wall at strange fish drifting past in the green gloom. It was the most beautiful prison in the world.

Day after day, the Nautilus carried them through wonders. They walked on the sea floor in heavy diving suits, through forests of red coral and past wrecks full of rusty cannons. Nemo showed them pearls as big as eggs. They glided beneath ice that groaned overhead, and they sailed through glowing clouds of tiny sea creatures. Aronnax scribbled in his notebook, enchanted, and Conseil sorted every fish by its family name. But Ned Land only paced and scowled, because he had not gone to sea to be a prisoner.

One evening, the Nautilus rose to the top, and Aronnax stood at the rail in the cool air. Nemo came and stood beside him, gazing into the dark water, and for once he spoke softly. The sea belonged to no king and no country, he said, and here a man was free. Aronnax asked what he was running from. Nemo only looked away, and a small, cold knot of dread tightened in the professor's chest.

Part Two · The Nautilus

Then, in a dark corner of the ocean, the water turned murky and strange. Every light on the Nautilus flickered. Nemo ordered the ship to rise, and Aronnax pressed his face to the window. Something huge slid by, wet and pale, with long arms. An eye as big as a dinner plate stared in at him, and then a thick tentacle slapped the glass. Another tentacle curled up the side. They were in the grip of a giant squid, and the captain's face had turned stone cold.

The crew rushed out onto the deck with axes. Tentacles lashed in the foam, slick and strong as ropes, and each one ended in rows of hooked cups. A sailor was snatched and lifted into the air, yelling. Ned Land leaped in with his harpoon and drove it into the beast's side, and Nemo hacked at an arm with his axe. The squid gave a hissing groan, and ink as black as night billowed across the waves, and Ned pulled the sailor free by the boots.

At last the monster let go and sank into the deep, and the crew stood gasping on the slippery deck. Nemo walked over to Ned Land and held out his hand. Neither man said anything. Aronnax saw, then, that the captain was not simply a villain. He was a man who had given up the world and was lonely and hard as iron. But he was also dangerous, and he would never let his guests go home. That night, Ned Land began to plan an escape.

Months passed. Then, far to the north, a strong current began to pull the Nautilus toward a rushing gap in the rocks. Nemo's face went grim. It was the Maelstrom, a whirlpool that swallowed ships whole, and the Nautilus tilted. Water roared past the windows, and every dish in the kitchen crashed to the floor. Ned, Conseil, and Aronnax saw their chance. They crept to the little boat fastened to the Nautilus' side, and they began to unscrew its bolts, with the spinning sea screaming outside.

The bolts came loose with a snap, and the boat was thrown out and spun round and round like a leaf in a drain. The three friends hung on with all their strength. Behind them, the Nautilus vanished into the foam. Then, with a jolt, the boat was flung clear of the whirlpool, and they washed up on a rocky shore. Fishermen found them, wet and shaking, alive and free. But where had the Nautilus gone?

Aronnax never knew. He wrote down all that he had seen, though many people laughed and said it was only a dream. But he knew it was true. Years later, on a stormy night, he came down to his study and found something on his desk that had not been there before. It was a pearl as big as an egg, still damp, and it was wrapped in a tiny scrap of paper that said just one word. "Thanks." Far out beyond the window, a green light blinked once on the black water, and went out.