The Crystal City Under the Sea (13 page)

“To-day, madame,” he would say, in a stentorian voice, “we have accomplished a step, if I may so express myself!”

“What has happened, my dear sir?” the poor lady would inquire, trembling.

“We have decided, madame, to send down our regretted René’s diving-bell.”

“Do you mean, sir, that you are going?”

“Excuse me, madame! It is here that I propose to begin our search.”

“But, since he himself has sent us word that he left these waters—”objected Madame Caoudal, perplexed.

“No matter, no matter! that is a mere detail. I was saying that we would make soundings, here in the first instance. If they should have no result (as there is only too good reason to fear) —”

“Would it not be better, in that case, to search where there would be more chance of finding him?” timidly interrupted Madame Caoudal. “I certainly never have ventured to ask you, sir! But since you have the goodness to offer it to me—”

“One moment, dear madame. We must search here first, in case (very improbably, by the way,) our dear young friend had lost himself on his way back, If we are not successful, we shall be free to try somewhere else.”

“Then we have gained nothing,” said Madame Caoudal, whose hopes were once more frustrated,

“So far, no, madame, no. But, never fear, I have undertaken to find him; and, alive or dead, I will bring him to you, on the word of honour of Monte Cristo!”

And he settled himself in his arm-chair with a defiant gesture like the pose in his famous three-quarter portrait by Bonnat.

At other times, he set himself to describe or, rather, to analyze to her, her son’s character, never appearing to think that she probably knew fully as much about him, and could have dispensed with so much idle chatter.

“Your son, madame, is what I should describe as a man in the vanguard! He will always be in advance of his time. And it is for that reason that he will never succeed in anything.”

“Excuse me, sir,” said Madame Caoudal, her motherly pride wounded, “my poor boy, on the contrary, always has succeeded in everything that he has undertaken! Even this unfortunate boat, as you can prove, accomplished just what he intended. And all his life René has been neat handed. We have noticed it hundreds of times, haven’t we, Hélène?”

“Quite so, quite so, madame. But what I mean to say is, that your son, being naturally too adventurous to be satisfied to run in beaten paths, was certain to engage in some adventure,—what shall I call it?—rash, imprudent, unreasonable.”

“Good heavens, my dear sir, he does not seem to have been considered very unreasonable; this last experiment of his succeeded so well, if my memory serves me, that your highness claims a large share of his invention!”

“Very true, perfectly correct, madame,” replied the prince, rolling his eyes. And he indulged in an expressive pantomimic performance behind Madame Caoudal’s back, tapping his forehead and regarding her with a compassionate look, as if to say that her grief had rendered her incapable of following any serious reasoning.

After this the intercourse between the two became less frequent, and had it not been for the lively admiration he professed for Mademoiselle Rieux, and his excessive desire to mix himself up with everything, far or near, that excited public curiosity, his royal highness would have soon ceased to have anything to do with these “commoners,” who seemed perfectly unconscious of his condescension in showing them attention. It is true that he considered it quite “up-to-date” and worthy of himself, so to speak, to put his crown in his pocket, and appear, in the presence of women, as a man of the world. But he would not have been displeased at finding his conduct regarded as magnanimous. However, in spite of the occasional stabs he administered each time that he found himself in Madame Caoudal’s company, he persisted in playing his part of friend and protector of the family, and in showing himself ,at her house.

The Hercules soon had to leave Brest for the Mediterranean, and Madame Caoudal and Hélène were very glad when Patrice told them that he should not go on this voyage, at any rate. They had no difficulty in guessing that he had decided on this in order to remain near them for a time; and the moral support of his presence was most precious to them in their increasing distress.

CHAPTER XII
KERMADEC’S MISSION.

E
ARLY one morning, Doctor Patrice was setting out to make his usual call on Madame Caoudal. As he left his own door, he almost fell back against it; for whom should he see, but Yvon Kermadec! The sailor, smarter than ever, with his nose in the air, his cheerful face and sailor’s waddle, looked about him with his bright blue eyes, as if the whole place belonged to him. His nourishing appearance showed that he was by no means the worse for his absence. Patrice made one bound towards him.

“Why, Kermadec, that can’t be you! Where have you sprung from? And René — your master —where is he?” “My master is as well as you or I, sir.”

“Is he here?”

“Well, no,” said the seaman, shaking his head in a mysterious manner. And, with his right thumb pointing over his left shoulder, he indicated a vague point in space.

“Where is he, then? How is it you have come alone? What has become of the boat? We thought you were lost.”

“Much the same thing,” replied the seaman, mysteriously. “Upon my word, if any one knew how we have spent our time since we left they would open their eyes.”

“Have you seen Madame Caoudal, yet?” “No, doctor, my business is with you.”

“With me? Why? Are you ill?”

“For that matter, no. I must say the air is good there (though there is not much of it); seeing that I never was better in my life.”

“In that case what do you want with me? “

“This: I am sent by my officer with a message to the surgeon-major. He told me to bring you back with me.”

“What! To take me back with you? Where, you booby?”

Once more the sailor made the sign with his thumb towards the same vague region as before, winking in a mysterious manner.

“What do you mean?” said the doctor, turning around on him.

“Sh—sh—sh — not so loud! My master desires that no one shall know where he is at this moment.”

“But where is he? if I may venture discreetly to ask.”

“Well, sir, to tell no lies about it, it is a rum kind of a place, and with rum ways of going on.” And Kermadec raised his eyes and hands to heaven, as if the ways and goings on were beyond his powers to describe.

“ Come! what are you trying to say? Explain yourself, if that is possible.”

“Well, then,” said Kermadec, having prudently looked around to assure himself that no one could hear him, “you see my officer and I have taken a voyage—one of those voyages—”

“Very good. You wish me to understand that he has arrived at the home of the people he was in search of.”

“Ah, then, you are in the secret, sir. Well, that is so. My master is living in clover, I can tell you; and, saving your honour’s respect, I. too, have nothing to complain of. If I had been able to write home to my cousin (who is a tidy sort of a girl) they would none of them have believed me.”

“But to your story?”

“Well, to make a long story short, the old gentleman (your honour knows who I mean?) this here old man, who they say has lived more than a hundred years, is beginning to feel that he is getting old. Seems to me that you may live like a fish under water for a hundred years without heaving the anchor! Well, as I was saying, he is ill, poor old gentleman, and my master wants you to come and see him.”

“Devil take you! Am I to go to the bottom of the sea to feel the pulse of this old Father Neptune?”

“Saving your honour’s respect, sir! However, here is the letter my master charged me to give you,” added Kermadec, feeling in the pocket of his pea-jacket.

“You have a letter; then why did n’t you say so before?” said the doctor, seizing the paper out of the sailor’s hand. He tore open the envelope, and saw that it was indeed his friend’s handwriting. It ran as follows:

“I write to you again, dear Stephen, because I have a special and urgent request to make to you; but this letter is quite as much for my mother and Hélène as for you. And first of all let me cry victory! I am in port, I have gained my end, and I am now writing to you on a mother-of-pearl table at the bottom of the sea, near the Azores, in the enchanted palace of Atlantis! That is the name of her whom I vowed to see again and whom I have found! If I were to tell you by what means I succeeded, I should need a volume. I will limit myself to a few important details. As you already know, I had, with my diving-bell, ascertained the precise site of the submarine dwelling; but I did not then know that it comprised an immense conservatory lighted up by a luminous source as brilliant as that of the sun, this light diffusing itself under the water to a considerable distance, and it assisted me to find my way here. Arrived at the region I knew to be in the neighbourhood of the dwelling, I opened the cisterns containing the water, as I no longer needed the weight for sinking, ran my boat along, extinguishing the electric light, and keeping a sharp lookout through a porthole. We had not gone more than two hundred yards, when the distant light began to be perceptible. It rapidly increased in brilliance, and it soon became possible to distinguish the focus and to steer for it Forty minutes after I left the surface I found myself in contact with the crystal wall of the magic palace. But this time I was in possession of an apparatus infinitely more manageable, and I was able to pursue a regular investigation. I began by recognizing the form of the exterior of the conservatory, As I had supposed from my previous visit, it was composed of long, rectangular galleries, surmounted at regular distances by hemispheric cupolas. I saw even the breakage I had made with my diving-bell in one of the cupolas, and which had not been repaired; but what I failed to find in any part was a door, or any means whatever of effecting an entrance. In vain I went round and round the illuminated building, which was fully forty acres in extent; there appeared to be no break in the continuity of the transparent

René admitted to the Crystal City.

wall, against which I struggled much in the same way as a fly does when trying to get through a pane of glass to the outer air. I was just debating whether I should be driven to use force to penetrate into this submarine kingdom, and wondering what the consequences might be of such a burglarious proceeding, when my attention was attracted by a low part of the glass wall arranged like the basin of a lock, and I came closer to make a more minute investigation. The result of this examination was that I found myself right in front of a vast cistern or well, placed vertically above a second basin, which was empty like a dry dock, and bounded by movable walls provided with racks. No doubt this was really a lock, that is to say a veritable entrance. But how to get this door opened, the door by which I must have entered once before? That was the next question. After mature deliberation I resolved to adopt the usual measure in cases when one desires admission, no matter where, by knocking at the door. For this purpose I had only to grasp a hammer with the india-rubber arm I had on the flank of the Titania. Immediately a pealing sound from the blows on the glass doors was heard throughout the passages of the conservatory, as I was afterwards told, though the noise I made was hardly perceptible to my ears. I speedily saw the effect of my loud knock. The old man of the sea, who I have since learned calls himself Charicles, appeared, followed by his charming daughter. At the sight of my submarine boat he seemed profoundly astonished, and at first hardly knew what he ought to do. But very soon the sentiment of hospitality swallowed up his fear of the unknown, and he stepped towards the windlass of the lock and turned it with a hand and arm that were still vigourous. Slowly the movable wall of the upper chamber opened in front of the Titania, which floated in it after three turns of the screw. At once the rack came into operation in an inverse manner, so as to shut the upper doors, while the lower doors opened, in their turn, to allow the sea water to flow into the lower basin. The Titania sank into it also, and found herself inclosed in this temporary prison. Then the basin emptied itself, my boat rested dry on the fine sand of the floor, and the glass doors which separated me from the conservatory sliding along their grooves, I judged that the moment had arrived for throwing back the folding-doors of my cabin. You have seen at Brest how promptly this is done.

“My sudden appearance, rising from the cockpit, closely resembled that of a Jack-in-the-box, the toy we and our nurses used to delight in as children. It appeared to have a very startling effect on the old man of the sea. No doubt his surprise and anger were too much for him, when he recognized, in his unexpected visitor, the same intruder whom he had so promptly dismissed on a previous occasion. Any way, he stood transfixed for a moment, uttered a few disjointed words, and then fell suddenly back in a heap on the floor. With his daughter and Kermadec I hastened to his assistance, for he had lost consciousness. It did not take us long to carry him to an adjoining room and lay him on the very couch upon which I had once rested. But our efforts to bring him back to consciousness were powerless. His daughter bemoaned him in a musical language which is a dialect of ancient Greece, as I had presumed. I did my best to encourage her, while assisting her in restoring the old man, but could not succeed in either. What can I say, my dear Stephen? For ten days Kermadec and I have been here, and the master of the house has not recovered his senses. Atlan-tis is at last convinced that, though I was the involuntary cause of this misfortune, at least, I am sparing nothing to repair it. We have succeeded in exchanging a few words. I have told her that I have come again solely to see her, and she has given me to understand that the remembrance of my first visit is always present with her.