Chapter 5 Nemo's Gold

We went across Indian and Arabian waters and into the Red Sea. Ned didn't stop thinking about escape from the Nautilus.

“Where are we going after this?” he asked.

“Back to the Arabian Sea first,” I answered.“Then perhaps down the African coast...”

But we didn't go back to the Arabian Sea. One day Captain Nemo said, “Tomorrow we're going to be in the Mediterranean.”

I didn't understand. “We can't go from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean in a boat!” I said. “How are we going to take the Nautilus across Egypt?”

“We aren't going to go across Egypt. We're going to go under it,” the captain answered.“I know an underwater tunnel.”

That evening, we went into the tunnel. It was very dark and very small. But Nemo was a good seaman, and the Nautilus didn't have any problems. In a very short time, we were in the Mediterranean.

We then moved quickly away from Egypt. Near Crete, I remembered stories in the newspapers. Crete was in Turkey, but the Cretans wanted to be Greek. A lot of Cretans were now dead, because the Turkish people were very angry with them.

I looked at the sea. There was a swimmer underwater, and he didn't have a diving suit.

“Quickly!” I said to Captain Nemo. “Let's go to him now, or the sea's going to kill him.”

“He's OK,” the captain answered. “His name's Nicolas, and he's a very good swimmer.”

Was this man a friend of the captain? I wanted to ask, but then I stopped thinking about the swimmer. Captain Nemo had gold in his hands! I looked behind him, and there was gold on the table, too —a lot of gold!

Later, I listened to the noises of the night. Men went away from the Nautilus in the little boat, and came back a short time later. Did they take gold with them? Where did they take it? Was it for the Cretans?

We didn't go near any coasts after this, and three days later we were in the Atlantic. Ned was angry. He wanted to escape to a European country, and Europe was behind us now.

But first we went up the coast of Portugal and Spain.

“We're going to escape this evening,” Ned said. “Meet Conseil and me at the little boat at nine o'clock.”

I wanted to stay on the Nautilus, because it was a good home for a scientist. But I wanted to see Paris again one day, and this was perhaps the only time for an escape.

“OK,” I said to Ned.

At nine o'clock, I opened my door and started to walk to the little boat. But suddenly, the Nautilus stopped on the sea floor. Then Captain Nemo arrived.

“You wanted the answer to a question, I think, Mr. Aronnax,” he said. “Come with me.”

I went with him to the window. There were some old boats on the sea floor, and Nemo's men were there in their diving suits. They walked to the old boats and came back with gold in their hands.

“These boats went down to the sea floor in 1702, heavy with South American gold. My men and I sometimes come here and take a little gold. But it isn't for us. There are unhappy people in many countries. The gold is for them.”

I remembered the problems in Crete and started to understand Captain Nemo.

But Ned was not a happy man. “Where were you?” he asked me later. “We waited for you, but you didn't come.”