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Quick as lightning , Ned Land rushed forward with his harpoon and drove it into the shark’s heart . The monster twisted in terrible pain , and its last movements knocked Conseil over . Then it was still . The captain got up without a scratch . He went straight to the fisherman , cut the rope that held him to the stone , took him in his arms and kicked his way up to the surface . We followed him to the fisherman’s boat , where the captain rubbed the man’s chest until he slowly opened his eyes . Imagine his terror when he saw four great copper heads leaning over him ! And imagine his surprise when the captain took a bag of pearls from his suit and put it in his hand . The poor man held it with a shaking hand . I am sure that he did not know whether his saviours were men or gods . Back in the boat , the captain turned to Ned . “ Thank you , Master Land . ” “ It was a debt , Captain , ” Ned answered . “ I owed you that . ” A faint smile passed over the captain’s lips , and that was all . On the way back to the Nautilus we passed the body of the shark . It was more than twenty - five feet long , and a dozen other sharks were already fighting over it . That evening I told the captain how much I admired what he had done for the fisherman . “ That Indian , sir , lives in an oppressed country , ” he answered , and his voice was not quite steady . “ And I am still one of them , and I shall be until my last breath ! ” IX . The Arabian Tunnel We left Ceylon behind and sailed north into the Sea of Oman . Ned was puzzled , and so was I . The Persian Gulf had no other exit , and the Red Sea was closed too , because the Suez Canal had not yet been finished . Yet in early February the Nautilus passed the Strait of Bab el Mandeb and entered the Red Sea . For several days we admired its coral forests through the windows . Then one day Captain Nemo joined me on the platform and offered me a cigar . We talked about the new canal that my countryman Monsieur de Lesseps was building at Suez . “ He has the genius of the will , ” said the captain , “ and he brings more honour to his nation than great generals . It is a pity that I cannot take you through his canal . But the day after tomorrow you will see the long pier of Port Said , in the Mediterranean . ” “ The day after tomorrow ? But to go round Africa , you would need to fly ! ” “ Who said anything about going round Africa ? We shall pass under the isthmus , Professor . Nature made a passage under that strip of land long ago . I call it the Arabian Tunnel . ”
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