This time there could be no mistake!
A human voice had answered us!
Was it the voice of some poor devil left behind in midocean, some other victim of that collision suffered by our ship?
Or was it one of the frigate's longboats, hailing us out of the gloom?
Conseil made one final effort, and bracing his hands on my shoulders, while I offered resistance with one supreme exertion, he raised himself half out of the water, then fell back exhausted.
"What did you see?"
"I saw . . . ," he muttered,
"I saw . . . but we mustn't talk . . . save our strength . . . !"
What had he seen?
Then, lord knows why, the thought of the monster came into my head for the first time . . . !
But even so, that voice . . . ?
Gone are the days when Jonahs took refuge in the bellies of whales!
Nevertheless, Conseil kept towing me.
Sometimes he looked up, stared straight ahead, and shouted a request for directions, which was answered by a voice that was getting closer and closer.
I could barely hear it.
I was at the end of my strength; my fingers gave out; my hands were no help to me; my mouth opened convulsively, filling with brine; its coldness ran through me; I raised my head one last time, then I collapsed. . . .
Just then something hard banged against me.
I clung to it.
Then I felt myself being pulled upward, back to the surface of the water; my chest caved in, and I fainted. . . .
For certain, I came to quickly, because someone was massaging me so vigorously it left furrows in my flesh.
I half opened my eyes. . . .
"Conseil!"
I muttered.
"Did master ring for me?"
Conseil replied.
Just then, in the last light of a moon settling on the horizon, I spotted a face that wasn't Conseil's but which I recognized at once.
"Ned!"
I exclaimed.
"In person, sir, and still after his prize!" the Canadian replied.
"You were thrown overboard after the frigate's collision?"
"Yes, professor, but I was luckier than you, and right away I was able to set foot on this floating islet."
"Islet?"
"Or in other words, on our gigantic narwhale."
"Explain yourself, Ned."
"It's just that I soon realized why my harpoon got blunted and couldn't puncture its hide."
"Why, Ned, why?"
"Because, professor, this beast is made of boilerplate steel!"
At this point in my story, I need to get a grip on myself, reconstruct exactly what I experienced, and make doubly sure of everything I write.
The Canadian's last words caused a sudden upheaval in my brain. I swiftly hoisted myself to the summit of this half–submerged creature or object that was serving as our refuge.
I tested it with my foot.
Obviously it was some hard, impenetrable substance, not the soft matter that makes up the bodies of our big marine mammals.
But this hard substance could have been a bony carapace, like those that covered some prehistoric animals, and I might have left it at that and classified this monster among such amphibious reptiles as turtles or alligators.
Well, no.
The blackish back supporting me was smooth and polished with no overlapping scales.
On impact, it gave off a metallic sonority, and as incredible as this sounds, it seemed, I swear, to be made of riveted plates.
No doubts were possible!
This animal, this monster, this natural phenomenon that had puzzled the whole scientific world, that had muddled and misled the minds of seamen in both hemispheres, was, there could be no escaping it, an even more astonishing phenomenon—a phenomenon made by the hand of man.
Even if I had discovered that some fabulous, mythological creature really existed, it wouldn't have given me such a terrific mental jolt.
It's easy enough to accept that prodigious things can come from our Creator.
But to find, all at once, right before your eyes, that the impossible had been mysteriously achieved by man himself: this staggers the mind!