“Indeed?”
“Yes, Captain, although by this time I ought to have accustomed myself to be surprised at nothing since I have been on board your boat.”
“But the cause of this surprise?”
“Well! it is the fearful speed you will have to put on the Nautilus, if the day after to-morrow she is to be in the Mediterranean, having made the round of Africa, and doubled the Cape of Good Hope!”
“Who told you that she would make the round of Africa and double the Cape of Good Hope, sir?”
“Well, unless the Nautilus sails on dry land, and passes above the isthmus——”
“Or beneath it, M. Aronnax.”
“Beneath it?”
“Certainly,” replied Captain Nemo quietly. “A long time ago Nature made under this tongue of land what man has this day made on its surface.”
“What! such a passage exists?”