That night there was little change in our situation; we were still under five hundred feet of ice. During the night I woke up several times and found that we were slowly rising to the surface as the layer of ice above us grew thinner. Finally, at six o'clock in the morning, Captain Nemo came to the door of the gallery.
"The sea is open," was all he said before quickly departing, but that was enough for me.
I went up to the platform, where the captain was looking at the water; it was still crowded with pieces of ice and moving icebergs.
"Are we at the South Pole?" I asked.
"I don't know," he replied. "I'll take our bearings at noon to determine our location."
Captain Nemo invited my companions and me to join him when he set foot on land, but only Conseil and I were interested. Two crew members rowed us to shore in the small boat. Conseil was about to jump out when I held him back.
"Sir," I said to Captain Nemo, "the honor of being first to set foot on land belongs to you."
"Thank you," said the captain. He climbed out of the boat, and after a few minutes said to us, "Whenever you like . . ."
We followed him onto the rocky shore, where we observed seals and penguins. Unfortunately, it was too foggy to see the sun and take our bearings, so we were still not sure about where we had landed. We returned to the submarine, disappointed but hoping to have better luck the next day. Unfortunately the following morning, our view of the sun was once again obscured, this time by heavy snow.
Finally, on the third day, Captain Nemo led us toward a peak, where we watched the sun burst through the clouds. He made his observations and confirmed that we were at the South Pole.
"I, Captain Nemo, have reached the South Pole today, March 21, 1868, and I take possession of this part of the globe," he said gravely.
"In the name of which monarch?" I asked, remembering how an explorer usually claimed land on behalf of his ruler.
"In my own name!" replied Captain Nemo, holding up a black flag bearing a gold N.
The next morning, at six o'clock, the crew of the Nautilus prepared to leave the South Pole. With its reservoirs filling with water, the submarine began its slow descent. At one thousand feet below the surface, it headed north at a steady 15 miles per hour. Toward night it was already floating under an immense iceberg.
At three o'clock in the morning, I was awakened by a violent shock. I sat up in bed and was thrown into the middle of the room by another shock. The Nautilus , having struck something, had rebounded and hit something else. I rushed to the gallery, where I found the furniture overturned. I heard footsteps and excited voices, but Captain Nemo did not appear. As I was leaving the gallery, Ned and Conseil entered.
"What's going on?" I asked them.
"That's what I came to ask you, Master," said Conseil.
Ned scowled. "The Nautilus has run aground. Judging from the way it's lying, I doubt it'll right itself as it did in the Torres Strait."
"So, do you think we're at the surface?" asked Conseil.
"That's easy enough to find out." I consulted the instruments, and to my great surprise, I discovered that we were more than a thousand feet underwater. "We must speak to Captain Nemo."
The three of us went in search of the captain, but when we couldn't find him, I decided he must be in the pilothouse. We returned to the gallery to wait for him. After about twenty minutes, the captain entered the room, but he took no notice of us. His normally emotionless face showed signs of unease. He watched the compass silently and then read the other instruments. I didn't want to interrupt him, but when he turned toward me, I decided to speak.
"An incident, Captain?" I asked, using the phrase he'd preferred in the Torres Strait.
"No, Professor, it's an accident."
"Serious?"'
"Perhaps," he replied. "We've run aground underwater, but we aren't in immediate danger."
"May I ask, sir, what caused this accident?"
"An enormous block of ice, an entire iceberg, turned over and slid under the Nautilus."
Captain Nemo said that the submarine was now emptying its reservoirs in an attempt to right itself, but the block of ice was rising with it. He explained this while never taking his eyes from the instruments.
Suddenly we felt a small movement below us; evidently the submarine was righting itself slightly. Ten long minutes passed while we watched the pictures on the wall slowly return to their normal position and the floor become horizontal under our feet.
"Are we floating again?" I asked.
"Of course," replied the captain, "but we're still underwater."
I looked through the windows and saw that a dazzling wall of ice rose about ten yards away from either side of the Nautilus . There was also ice above and below us. We were imprisoned in a perfect tunnel of ice filled with water. But I decided it would be easy to escape the tunnel. The submarine could go either forward or backward and then dive under the iceberg.
Captain Nemo left us, and I assumed he returned to the pilothouse. My companions and I stayed at the gallery windows, dazzled by the submarine's light sparkling on the ice. At five in the morning, we felt a shock at the vessel's bow; its battering ram had obviously struck a block of ice.
"We must go in reverse now, and see if we can find another way out," I said, trying to appear cheerful.
"That'll take hours more," grumbled Ned. "How long are we going to be stuck here?"
I had no idea, so I went to the library to calm my nerves. I threw myself on a couch and tried to read a book. Fifteen minutes later Conseil and Ned entered the room.
"Is that an interesting book, Master?" asked Conseil.
"Very interesting," I replied.
"Well, it should be." Conseil laughed. "It's the one you wrote!"
I slammed the book shut, and the two of them turned to go. I stood up.
"Let's return to the gallery," I said. "We should stay together until we're out of this predicament."
"As you wish, Master," replied Conseil.
Several hours passed while the Nautilus moved backward at a good rate of speed, and we kept an eye on the instruments. It was almost 8:30 when we felt another shock, this time at the stern. I turned pale and seized Conseil's hand. The three of us exchanged troubled glances. At this point Captain Nemo entered the room.
"The iceberg has shifted and closed up every outlet," he announced.
Once again we were trapped in the ice!