Yes, I replied, for we are going the way of the sun, and here the sun is in the north. Is he ill? I then entered a dining-room, decorated and furnished in severe taste. High oaken sideboards, inlaid with ebony, stood at the two extremities of the room, and upon their shelves glittered china, porcelain, and glass of inestimable value. The captain then decided to take more direct means.
Indeed! Propose, captain. Captain! I said again, touching his hand. For a quarter of an hour we watched the ship which was steaming toward us. I could not, however, believe that she could see the Nautilus from that distance, and still less that she could know what this submarine engine was. Soon the Canadian informed me that she was a large armored two-decker ram. A thick black smoke was pouring from her two funnels. Her closely furled sails were stopped to her yards. She hoisted no flag at her mizzen-peak. The distance prevented us from distinguishing the colors of her pennant, which floated like a thin ribbon. She advanced rapidly. If Captain Nemo allowed her to approach, there was a chance of salvation for us.
Confound it! exclaimed the Canadian, I know well enough! The Nautilus has struck; and judging by the way she lies, I do not think she will right herself as she did the first time in Torres Straits. Sir, replied the Canadian, I am ready to do anything for the general safety. I went down to the saloon, but found no one there. I ventured to knock at the door that opened into the captain's room. Come in, was the answer. The spot is situated a little above the Isthmus of Suez, in the arm which formerly made a deep estuary when the Red Sea extended to the Salt Lakes. Now, whether this passage were miraculous or not, the Israelites, nevertheless, crossed there to reach the Promised Land, and Pharaoh's army perished precisely on that spot; and I think that excavations made in the middle of the sand would bring to light a large number of arms and instruments of Egyptian origin.