All these events passed before my eyes like scenes in a drama.
Then Captain Nemo seemed to grow enormously, his features to assume
superhuman proportions. He was no longer my equal, but a man of the waters,
the genie of the sea.
It was then half-past nine. I held my head between my hands to keep
it from bursting. I closed my eyes; I would not think any longer.
There was another half-hour to wait, another half-hour of a nightmare,
which might drive me mad.
At that moment I heard the distant strains of the organ, a sad harmony to an
undefinable chant, the wail of a soul longing to break these earthly bonds.
I listened with every sense, scarcely breathing; plunged, like Captain Nemo,
in that musical ecstasy, which was drawing him in spirit to the end of life.
Then a sudden thought terrified me. Captain Nemo had left his room.
He was in the saloon, which I must cross to fly. There I should
meet him for the last time. He would see me, perhaps speak to me.
A gesture of his might destroy me, a single word chain me on board.
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