5. Hunting Trip

You have many concerns, but your excitement at being aboard the Nautilus makes you forget them. The days fly by as you study shells in the drawing room. You even begin to keep a journal.

Captain Nemo isn’t seen for days. You, Ned, and Conseil wonder what’s become of him. Is he sick? Is he having second thoughts about keeping you on board? Then Ned and Conseil find a note on the table in your room. It reads:

To Professor Arronax, on board the Nautilus. 16th of November, 1867. Captain Nemo invites Professor Arronax to a hunting party, which will take place tomorrow morning in the forests of the Island of Crespo. He will with pleasure see him joined by his companions.

—Captain Nemo, Commander of the Nautilus.

“A hunt!” exclaims Ned.

“In the forests of the Island of Crespo!” adds Conseil.

“Oh! Then the captain is going on land?” asks Ned.

You study the letter. “It seems so,” you say.

Ned can barely contain his excitement. “Once we’re on land, you know what we must do,” he says.

“Let’s find out where this island is first,” you caution.

***

The next morning, you find Captain Nemo waiting for you in the drawing room. He takes you to the dining room and advises you to eat a huge breakfast.

You listen in amazement as he explains that you won’t be hunting on land. The forests of the Island of Crespo are actually underwater. You will be wearing special diving suits, with tanks of air. You’ll be able to stay underwater for nine to ten hours. And you will be using air guns that fire glass bullets filled with a shock of electricity.

After breakfast, Captain Nemo leads you to a room at the back of the submarine. You stop for Ned and Conseil along the way.

In the room, you see a dozen diving suits hanging on the wall.

“Oh, great,” says Ned.

“Come on,” you say. “The forests are underwater, that’s all.”

Ned shakes his head. “Unless I am forced, I will never get into one of those things.”

“No one will force you,” says Captain Nemo coldly.

Ned hurries away in disgust and leaves you and Conseil to suit up, with help from a couple of crewmen. The suits are extremely heavy. You can’t even lift your feet. Before the helmet is put over your head and sealed, you ask Captain Nemo how you will get up from the bottom of the sea.

Captain Nemo grins. “You’ll see.”

A crewman seals your helmet to your suit, and all is deathly quiet. You feel yourself being pushed into a little room off the one you’re in.

You, Conseil, Captain Nemo, and another diver are sealed in the room in complete darkness.

Minutes pass. You hear a loud hissing. Cold grips you from your feet up to your chest. The room is soon filled with water, and another door slides open. You find yourself sinking downward. In an instant, your feet hit the ocean floor.

You and Conseil follow Captain Nemo and his crewman. Your suit, which felt so heavy in the Nautilus, now feels weightless. You must be about thirty feet below the surface, and the sun’s rays reflect off the smooth, sandy floor. Down here, you can see as well as you could on land. Everywhere around you is life. Anemones, shells, plants, and coral form a colorful feast for your eyes. Your only frustration is that you can’t talk to Conseil about what you see.

You walk through a plain filled with wild seaweed, and the ocean floor turns from smooth sand to gooey ooze. Your journey slowly angles downward. Soon the sun’s rays no longer reach you. Captain Nemo stops and points to a mass of dark shadows ahead. You have reached the forests of the Island of Crespo.

The scenery looks strange. The forest is made up of large tree-plants, and everything grows straight up in rigid lines. Your eyes adjust to the darkness, but you still stumble over rocks sticking up from the forest floor.

You realize that you have been walking for hours, and the thought makes you sleepy—something that happens to all divers. When Captain Nemo signals a stop, you sit down. Your eyes close behind the thick glass of your helmet, and you fall into a heavy sleep.

***

You wake with a start. A giant sea spider snaps its menacing pincers just feet away. Its legs are bent as if the spider is about to spring. Do you have time to flee, or will you stand and defend yourself? What will you choose to do?