SECOND PART
CHAPTER 15: Accident or Incident?
(continued)
We left the lounge. Nobody in the library. Nobody by the central
companionway or the crew's quarters. I assumed that Captain Nemo
was stationed in the pilothouse. Best to wait. The three of us
returned to the lounge.
I'll skip over the Canadian's complaints. He had good grounds
for an outburst. I didn't answer him back, letting him blow off
all the steam he wanted.
We had been left to ourselves for twenty minutes, trying to detect
the tiniest noises inside the Nautilus, when Captain Nemo entered.
He didn't seem to see us. His facial features, usually so emotionless,
revealed a certain uneasiness. He studied the compass and pressure
gauge in silence, then went and put his finger on the world map
at a spot in the sector depicting the southernmost seas.
I hesitated to interrupt him. But some moments later, when he turned
to me, I threw back at him a phrase he had used in the Torres Strait:
"An incident, captain?"
"No, sir," he replied, "this time an accident."
"Serious?"
"Perhaps."
"Is there any immediate danger?"
"No."
"The Nautilus has run aground?"
"Yes."
"And this accident came about . . . ?"
"Through nature's unpredictability not man's incapacity.
No errors were committed in our maneuvers. Nevertheless, we can't
prevent a loss of balance from taking its toll. One may defy
human laws, but no one can withstand the laws of nature."
Captain Nemo had picked an odd time to philosophize. All in all,
this reply told me nothing.
"May I learn, sir," I asked him, "what caused this accident?"
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