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As he made no allusion to his absence during the last eight days,
I did not mention it, and simply answered that my companions and
myself were ready to follow him.
We entered the dining-room, where breakfast was served.
"M. Aronnax," said the Captain, "pray, share my breakfast without ceremony;
we will chat as we eat. For, though I promised you a walk in the forest,
I did not undertake to find hotels there. So breakfast as a man who will most
likely not have his dinner till very late."
I did honour to the repast. It was composed of several kinds of fish,
and slices of sea-cucumber, and different sorts of seaweed.
Our drink consisted of pure water, to which the Captain added
some drops of a fermented liquor, extracted by the Kamschatcha
method from a seaweed known under the name of Rhodomenia palmata.
Captain Nemo ate at first without saying a word. Then he began:
"Sir, when I proposed to you to hunt in my submarine forest of Crespo,
you evidently thought me mad. Sir, you should never judge lightly
of any man."
"But Captain, believe me----"
"Be kind enough to listen, and you will then see whether you
have any cause to accuse me of folly and contradiction."
"I listen."
"You know as well as I do, Professor, that man can live under water,
providing he carries with him a sufficient supply of breathable air.
In submarine works, the workman, clad in an impervious dress,
with his head in a metal helmet, receives air from above by means
of forcing pumps and regulators."
"That is a diving apparatus," said I.
"Just so, but under these conditions the man is not at liberty;
he is attached to the pump which sends him air through an
india-rubber tube, and if we were obliged to be thus held
to the Nautilus, we could not go far."
"And the means of getting free?" I asked.
"It is to use the Rouquayrol apparatus, invented by two of your
own countrymen, which I have brought to perfection for my own use,
and which will allow you to risk yourself under these new
physiological conditions without any organ whatever suffering.
It consists of a reservoir of thick iron plates, in which I store
the air under a pressure of fifty atmospheres.
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