CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The Squids

For several days, the Nautilus stayed away from the American coast. The Canadian was quite upset. He had been hoping we could escape using the boat, but we were now too far away from the American coast to survive the long boat journey.

For six months now, we had been prisoners onboard the Nautilus. We had traveled 17,000 leagues, and all believed our journey should come to an end. We could not hope that the captain would free us, so we must escape. Besides, since our terrible situation at the South Pole, the captain had become more upset, much less cheerful than in the past. He seemed to avoid me. I rarely saw him. In the past, he was delighted to explain the wonders of the sea to me, but now he was never in the sitting room. Why had he changed? I now had the knowledge to rewrite my book, and wished to again be in my country, though the daily observations of the sea animals was quite fascinating!

On April 20th, we were near the islands of the Bahamas, in the Caribbean Sea. That day, I was in the sitting room, observing the various sea animals when I felt a shock just before the Nautilus stopped. Just a few moments later, Captain Nemo came into the room, followed by one of his men. I had not seen him for quite some time. He seemed tired and dull.

"Have a collection of squids stopped our movement?" I asked as he came into the room.

"Yes, and we are going to fight the giant squids," he answered boldly.

"Man to beast?"

"Yes, the squids have stopped the motor of the submarine. That is the reason we have stopped."

"Our air guns do not work against these giant squids, so we must attack them with axes."

"And the spear, sir," said the Canadian, "if you will accept my help."

"I will accept it," answered the captain.

We then followed the captain to the central staircase. There about ten men with axes met us, ready to attack. Conseil and I took two axes; Ned Land grabbed his spear. The Nautilus was now on the surface of the water. One of the men began to open the door to the platform when a giant squid's arm reached into the door. Captain Nemo quickly rushed over with his ax to cut the arm. Another arm then came down and grabbed one of Captain Nemo's men, who was carried out. We hurried after him. The poor man then began screaming, "Help! Help!" I was shocked to hear these words spoken in French. This unhappy man was a fellow countryman, and was soon lost below the surface with the giant squid. The crew fought with their axes, as did Conseil, Ned, and I.

I felt great emotion and terror for that poor countryman, who was carried into the depths of the ocean by a terrible sea monster. After the battle was over, Captain Nemo, covered with blood, looked out at the sea that had taken his friend, and tears began falling down his cheeks.

(end of section)