thousand dollars, it would have been none the poorer."

"You are right, Conseil. It is a foolish affair after all, and one upon
which we entered too lightly. What time lost, what useless emotions!
We should have been back in France six months ago."

"In your little room, sir," replied Conseil, "and in your museum, sir; and I
should have already classed all your fossils, sir. And the Babiroussa would
have been installed in its cage in the Jardin des Plantes, and have drawn
all the curious people of the capital!"

"As you say, Conseil. I fancy we shall run a fair chance of being
laughed at for our pains."

"That's tolerably certain," replied Conseil, quietly; "I think
they will make fun of you, sir. And, must I say it----?"

"Go on, my good friend."

"Well, sir, you will only get your deserts."

"Indeed!"

"When one has the honour of being a savant as you are, sir, one should
not expose one's self to----"

Conseil had not time to finish his compliment.
In the midst of general silence a voice had just been heard.
It was the voice of Ned Land shouting:

"Look out there! The very thing we are looking for--
on our weather beam!"



CHAPTER VI

AT FULL STEAM

At this cry the whole ship's crew hurried towards the harpooner--
commander, officers, masters, sailors, cabin boys; even the engineers
left their engines, and the stokers their furnaces.

The order to stop her had been given, and the frigate now simply went
on by her own momentum. The darkness was then profound, and, however good
the Canadian's eyes were, I asked myself how he had managed to see,
and what he had been able to see. My heart beat as if it would break.
But Ned Land was not mistaken, and we all perceived the object
he pointed to. At two cables' length from the Abraham Lincoln,
on the starboard quarter, the sea seemed to be illuminated all over.
It was not a mere phosphoric phenomenon. The monster emerged some fathoms
from the water, and then threw out that very intense but mysterious
light mentioned in the report of several captains. This magnificent
irradiation must have been produced by an agent of great SHINING power.
The luminous part traced on the sea an immense oval, much elongated,
the centre of which condensed a burning heat, whose overpowering brilliancy
died out by successive gradations.

"It is only a massing of phosphoric particles," cried one of the officers.

"No, sir, certainly not," I replied. "That brightness is of an
essentially electrical nature. Besides, see, see! it moves;
it is moving forwards, backwards; it is darting towards us!"

A general cry arose from the frigate.

"Silence!" said the captain. "Up with the helm, reverse the engines."

The steam was shut off, and the Abraham Lincoln, beating to port,
described a semicircle.

"Right the helm, go ahead," cried the captain.

These orders were executed, and the frigate moved rapidly
from the burning light.

I was mistaken. She tried to sheer off, but the supernatural
animal approached with a velocity double her own.

We gasped for breath. Stupefaction more than fear made us dumb
and motionless. The animal gained on us, sporting with the waves.
It made the round of the frigate, which was then making fourteen knots,
and enveloped it with its electric rings like luminous dust.

Then it moved away two or three miles, leaving a phosphorescent track,
like those volumes of steam that the express trains leave behind.
All at once from the dark line of the horizon whither it retired
to gain its momentum, the monster rushed suddenly towards the Abraham
Lincoln with alarming rapidity, stopped suddenly about twenty feet
from the hull, and died out--not diving under the water, for its
brilliancy did not abate--but suddenly, and as if the source of this
brilliant emanation was exhausted. Then it reappeared on the other
side of the vessel, as if it had turned and slid under the hull.
Any moment a collision might have occurred which would have been fatal
to us. However, I was astonished at the manoeuvres of the frigate.
She fled and did not attack.

On the captain's face, generally so impassive, was an expression
of unaccountable astonishment.



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