“Captain!” I said to him.
He didn’t hear me.
“Captain!” I went on, touching him with my hand.
He trembled, and turning around:
“Ah, it’s you, professor!” he said to me. “Well, did you have a happy hunt? Was your herb gathering a success?”
“Yes, captain,” I replied, “but unfortunately we’ve brought back a horde of bipeds whose proximity worries me.”
“What sort of bipeds?”
“Savages.”
“Savages!” Captain Nemo replied in an ironic tone. “You set foot on one of the shores of this globe, professor, and you’re surprised to find savages there? Where aren’t there savages? And besides, are they any worse than men elsewhere, these people you call savages?”
“But captain—”