Caught in the Maelstrom

Chapter-12

After the bloody battle with the squid, I came to realize that I could no longer stay on board the Nautilus. But I had to try one last time to see if Captain Nemo would let us leave willingly.
I found him in his cabin bent over his work table writing. He frowned as I entered.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded, “I’m busy working.”
“Monsieur,” I said calmly, “I have to talk to you about something which cannot wait.”
“Monsieur Aronnax, what I am doing cannot wait either. This book I am writing contains all my studies on the sea. With God’s help, it will not die with me. The book is signed with my real name and tells the story of my life and work. It will be sealed in a small unsinkable box and will be thrown into the sea by the last man to survive on the Nautilus when her end comes.”
“Captain, I agree that your studies must not be lost. Who knows where the currents will take the box? Perhaps I could keep this book for you if you gave us our freedom.”
“Monsieur Aronax,” cried the captain, “I will say now what I said seven months ago. Whoever enters the Nautilus never leaves it. Now get out of here and never speak to me of this again!”
There was no other explanation. Part of Captain Nemo’s mysterious life was becoming clear. But so much was still unexplained.
“Perhaps we can signal them,” said Ned, “Then maybe they’ll understand we’re friends.”
He took out his handkerchief to wave in the air. But no sooner had he unfolded it than his arm was struck by a fist of iron.
“You fool!” cried Captain Nemo, “Do you want me to nail you to the spur of the Nautilus before we ram that ship? Go below, immediately! All of you!”
“Captain,” I protested, “are you really going to attack this ship?”
Captain Nemo’s face was twisted with rage as he replied, “Monsieur, I am going to sink it. They have attacked me, but my attack will be even more terrible. They shall all die. They are the killers and I am the victim. Because of them, I lost everything I ever loved—my country, my wife, my children, my father, my mother. I saw them all die. Every thing I hate is there. Now shut you mouth and go below!”
We raced down to my cabin. Once the door was closed, I gasped, “We must escape. He’s gone mad. We must try to warn that ship.”
“Then let us prepare to leave as soon as it is dark!” said Ned.
Night came, but our opportunity to escape did not. Captain Nemo stayed on deck until dawn, when the warship’s cannons began firing again.
Then Captain Nemo gave the order to dive. I realized that he was planning to ram the warship from below because it was not protected by heavy steel plates.
“My friends,” I said to Ned and Conseil, “this terrible day of June 2 is beginning. May God save us!”

The Nautilus’ speed increased to the point where its entire hull trembled. Suddenly I felt a blow, then heard the steel spur pushing into something with scraping sounds. The Nautilus had gone tight through the hull of the warship like a needle going through a piece of cloth.
I couldn’t stand it any longer. I rushed into the lounge, half out of my mind. Captain Nemo was standing there, silently gazing out of the window.
The huge warship was sinking below the surface, and the Nautilus was following it down to watch its death struggle. Sailors were climbing up the masts trying to save themselves, but their bodies finally floated free as the sea pulled them down.
I was frozen with horror and unable to catch my breath.
When the ship hit the ocean floor, Captain Nemo turned away. He opened the door to his cabin and went inside.
Through the open door, I saw him go over to a portrait of a young woman and two small children. He gazed at it for several minutes, then clutched it to his chest. With the portrait still in his hands, he sank to his knees and burst into deep sobs.
The Nautilus continued on its way as if nothing had happened. But my feelings of horror towards Captain Nemo stayed with me. No matter how much he had suffered at the hands of his fellow men, he had no right to punish them the way he had.
I no longer saw the captain at all. We stayed underwater for the next twenty days, surfacing only to renew our air supply. Our position was no longer marked on the map, so I had no idea where we were.
One morning, I awoke to find Ned leaning over me. In a low voice, he said, “Our chance has come. I went up on deck when we surfaced and made out some land about twenty miles to the east. Meet us at the dinghy at ten tonight.”
“I’ll be there, Ned,” I replied.
The rest of that day seemed to last for ever. I don’t dare leave my cabin for fear of meeting Captain Nemo and having him see the horror I felt for him.
But at seven o’clock, I went to the lounge to take one last look at the wonders of Nature and art collected there. I felt a stab of regret that these treasures would one day be destroyed at the bottom of the sea along with the man who had gathered them.
Then I returned to my cabin and dressed in my thick sea clothes. I gathered up my notes and tucked them carefully inside my jacket. My heart was beating fast, and I was unable to control my nerves.
I tried to stretch out on my bed and relax. All the events of the past ten months on board the Nautilus passed before my eyes: the disappearance of the Abraham Lincoln, the underwater hunting expeditions, running aground at Torres Strait, the attack by the cannibals of New Guinea, the coral cemetery, the tunnel beneath Suez, the diver and the gold bars at Crete, the treasure at Vigo Bay, the lost continent of Atlantis, the Great Ice Barrier, the South Pole, the digging out of the ice tunnel, the fight with the squid, and the attack on the warship, watching it sink with all hands.
Before I knew it, it was almost ten o’clock. I opened my door and crept down the gangway towards the lounge. Soft, sad music was coming from the organ. Captain Nemo was in there and I had to pass him to get out.
I crept across the darkened room without being noticed. Just as I reached the door to the library, Captain Nemo struck one resounding chord on the organ and cried out in the darkness the last words I ever heard from him. “Almighty God Enough! Enough!”
Was he finally regretting? I didn’t have time to think now. I rushed through the library, into the companionway, and up into the dinghy.
Ned and Conseil bolted the hatches behind me. Then, just as Ned started to loosen the bolts holding the dinghy to the submarine, we heard voices talking excitedly inside the Nautilus.
Had someone discovered our escape? Were they looking for us? No! One word that the crew kept repeating over and over told me what was causing all the excitement.
“The Maelstrom! The Maelstrom!”
The Maelstrom! Could a more frightening word reach the ears of any sailor? The Maelstrom, off the coast of Norway, was the most violent whirlpool in the world! No ship had ever escaped its raging current. Was the Nautilus about to be dragged down into its depths just as we were escaping?
Had the Nautilus been caught up in the Maelstrom by accident? Or was this some plan of Captain Nemo’s?… I had no more time to think. The Nautilus started spinning around and around in smaller and smaller circles. And the dinghy, still attached to her hull, was carried along with her at an incredible speed. We were terrified. Our blood stopped circulating. Our nerves were numb. We were at death’s door.
“We have to screw the bolts back down,” gasped Ned. “It’s our only chance.”
But before he could finish, we heard a loud crack. The bolts had broken. The dinghy was torn from the ship and thrown into the middle of the whirlpool like a stone hurled from a slingshot.
My head hit the side of the iron dinghy and I lost consciousness.
What happened that night, how we escaped the whirlpool and survived, neither Ned, nor Conseil, nor I can ever say.
When I came back to my senses, I was lying in a fisherman’s cottage on one of the islands off the coast of Norway. My two friends tearfully embraced me the moment I opened my eyes.
Thus ended the voyage which took us 60,000 miles, or 20,00 leagues, under the sea. Will people believe me? I do not know. But for ten months, I had travelled under the oceans of the world and gazed at their many wonders.
What became of the Nautilus? Did it escape the Maelstrom? Is Captain Nemo still alive. If so, has he finished with his terrible revenge? Will the seas one day wash up the book containing his life story? Will I ever find out his real name?
I hope so. I also hope that the Nautilus survived in that terrible whirlpool where so many other ships were wrecked.
If it has, and if Captain Nemo still lives in the ocean, then I hope with all my heart that his hatred for the world has come to an end. I hope that he is peacefully exploring the seas and will one day share his vast scientific knowledge with the whole human race.

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