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XIV . The Giant Squid I do not know how I got onto the platform , and perhaps Ned carried me there . But I was breathing the fresh sea air , and so were my two friends . “ My friends , ” I said , “ we are bound to each other for ever . I owe you my life . ” “ And I shall take advantage of it , ” said Ned . “ When I leave this cursed Nautilus , I shall take you with me . ” On the thirty - first of March we passed Cape Horn , and then the Nautilus turned north along the coast of South America . Ned was full of hope , because we were going towards his own seas , but the captain stayed far from the coast , and the sea was too rough for a small boat . I saw very little of Captain Nemo now , because he had become sadder and more silent , and he seemed to avoid me . Near the mouth of the Amazon our nets brought up a flat , round fish , red on top and white below , with large blue spots . It jumped about on the platform and nearly fell back into the sea , so Conseil rushed to save it for his collection and seized it with both hands . A moment later he was lying on his back with his legs in the air , half paralysed . “ Oh , master , master ! Help me ! ” he cried . It was the first time that the poor boy had ever spoken to me so directly . The fish was a kind of electric ray which had given him a powerful shock , and Ned and I rubbed his arms until he could move again . I suspect that Conseil was less upset about the shock than about touching a fish before he had classified it . On the twentieth of April we were near the Bahamas , where high cliffs rose from the bottom of the sea . Looking at the dark holes in the rocks , I said that they would be good homes for giant squid . “ I will never believe that such animals exist , ” said Ned . “ I once saw a large ship pulled under the waves by the arm of a squid , ” said Conseil seriously . “ You saw it ? ” cried Ned . “ Where ? ” “ At Saint Malo , Ned , in a church . It was a painting on the wall . ” Ned burst out laughing . I told them that most stories about sea monsters were legends . But in 1861 , near Tenerife , the crew of a small French warship had fought a huge squid , about six yards long . They had tried to pull it on board with a rope , but only its tail had come up , and the rest had escaped . “ Was it six yards long ? ” asked Conseil , who was standing at the window . “ Did it have eight arms that beat the water like a nest of snakes ? Did it have enormous eyes and a mouth like a parrot’s beak ? ” “ Exactly , Conseil . ” “ Then , with no offence to master , ” he said calmly , “ if this is not that squid , it is at least one of its brothers . ”
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