The things we do!

Ned Land struck me
with his harpoon?"
I detected a restrained irritation in these words.
But to these recriminations I had a very natural answer to make,
and I made it.
"Sir," said I, "no doubt you are ignorant of the discussions
which have taken place concerning you in America and Europe.
You do not know that divers accidents, caused by collisions with your
submarine machine, have excited public feeling in the two continents.
I omit the theories without number by which it was sought
to explain that of which you alone possess the secret.
But you must understand that, in pursuing you over the high
seas of the Pacific, the Abraham Lincoln believed itself to be
chasing some powerful sea-monster, of which it was necessary
to rid the ocean at any price."
A half-smile curled the lips of the commander: then, in a calmer tone:
"M. Aronnax," he replied, "dare you affirm that your frigate
would not as soon have pursued and cannonaded a submarine boat
as a monster?"
This question embarrassed me, for certainly Captain Farragut might
not have hesitated.


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