The Jeweller (aside): He's going out of his mind!
Valdemar: My friend, is there a telegraph office in this town?
The Jeweller: Yes, and it has a line to Europe.
Valdemar: I can send a message, then?
The Jeweller: Of course.
Valdemar: And if I paid ten times, or a hundred times the price of the message, would I get an answer right away?
The Jeweller: Very likely.
Valdemar: Ah! Babichok! Dear little Babichok! I'm a millionaire! I'm a millionaire seventeen times over. You'll have carriages and castles and an Indian cashmere shawl. (To the jeweller) There must be Indian cashmere shawls in India?
The Jeweller: Splendid ones. They come from Paris.
Valdemar: I'll buy nine. The telegraph office. Where's the telegraph office?
The Jeweller (aside): He's going crazy!
(Enter Anderson)
Valdemar (to Anderson): Excuse me, sir, where's the telegraph office?
Anderson: Over there, to the right.
Valdemar: Thank you, sir. I'm going to send a telegram to Babichok, sir, to tell her about my fortune.
(He runs out.)
The Jeweller: I missed out on a wonderful deal.
(He goes back into his shop)
(Enter Dr. Ox, coming out of the hotel, followed by George, Tartelet, and Eva)
Ox: Well, sir, is everything ready for us to come on board your ship?
Anderson: Yes, sir.
George (excitedly): We're about to leave, any minute now. We'll reach the open sea, and when we're there, doctor.... Ah!
Ox (in a low voice): Silence!
Anderson: My ship makes excellent time, gentlemen, and I have no doubt that within six weeks I can land you at Valparaiso.5
George: At Valparaiso! Us? Ah!
Eva (looking at him nervously): George!
Ox: We will not be getting off your ship at Valparaiso, sir.
Anderson: But gentlemen, I am going directly from Goa to the coast of South America, and unless you want to get off in mid-ocean....
Ox: Who knows? In mid-ocean? Perhaps.
George: In mid-ocean! Yes, that's the route we must take, diving through the water, down to the depths of the abyss.
Eva: George, you're terrifying me.
George (coming out of his reverie): Eva, my dear Eva, don't worry. You won't have to face these dangers. I don't want you to.
Eva: I'll never be separated from you!
Anderson (aside): I seem to have some peculiar passengers here.
Tartelet (who has been mingling with the crowd, now comes back onstage): What are these good people saying? They claim there's a sea monster swimming about in their harbor.
Ox (laughing): A monster?
Anderson: Don't laugh, gentlemen. There really has been a dreadful creature traveling through the waters of the Indian Ocean for the past month.
George: Good!
Anderson: What did you say?
George: We'll do battle with it, captain.
Ox: It's some mythical octopus,6 some legendary Kraken.7
Anderson: No, it's a kind of whale, a phosphorescent monster about two hundred and fifty feet long. It creates a frightful eddy as it goes, and leaves a dazzling white wake behind it.
Shouts from the crowd: There it is! There it is!
Anderson: They must have caught sight of it just now.
George: Come on. Let's run!
(He goes back upstage with Ox and Anderson. All three cross the dock at the back of the stage, amongst the crowd.)
Tartelet: Ali! Poor Mr. George gets more and more excited all the time. Dr. Ox's control over him, with its incomprehensible power, is only too clearly justified. Now we're left to fend for ourselves. (Looking around) By the way, what's become of young Valdemar? Where can he be?
(Eva goes back upstage and rejoins George)
(Enter Valdemar, quickly, from the left.)
Valdemar: Ah! Mr. Tartelet, my dear Mr. Tartelet.
Tartelet: What's the matter, young Valdemar?
Valdemar: The matter? What's the matter? I'm in such a state I can't talk. I can't say a word, Tartelet, I'm too flustered.
Tartelet: Yes! And when you're flustered, your toes point in. Look. Just look. Your feet!
Valdemar: This is no time to worry about such nonsense.
Tartelet (hurt): What's that? Nonsense, you say?
Valdemar: Later! I'll do whatever you want then. I'll take lessons from you at ten sous each, or a hundred francs, or a thousand francs.
Tartelet: He left his sanity behind in the central fire. His brain is cooked!
Valdemar: No, it isn't cooked, but it's boiling, its boiling, it's boiling. Just think. That stone that hit me in the back.
Tartelet: What about it?
Valdemar: It's a diamond. A diamond! It's worth millions!
Tartelet: That's impossible.
Valdemar: I was offered five hundred thousand sequins for it, right here.
Tartelet: Five hundred thousand sequins? Here?
Valdemar: Yes. My dear Mr. Tartelet, I'm a millionaire. Or rather, we're millionaires.
Tartelet: We're millionaires, did you say? Did you say "we"? Ah, my friend. Ah, my good friend. You did say "we," didn't you?
Valdemar: Certainly. We're millionaires, Miss Babichok and I.
Tartelet: Ah! Miss Babi.... That's true, of course. Congratulations, Vladimir. Ah! Now she'll marry you.
Valdemar: Will she marry me! Twice over! So I've just sent a message to her in Copenhagen, telling her about my good luck and saying that I'm leaving shortly for Europe. I'm waiting now for her answer. Can you imagine what her answer will be?
Tartelet: Certainly I can imagine it. You'll be leaving us, then?
Valdemar: Yes, but I'm not a selfish person. I like you, Tartelet.
Tartelet: Thank you.
Valdemar: I'll brighten up the final years of your life, Tartelet. When you're old, you'll come and spend your last days in our house, in our castle. It will be a palace.
Tartelet: Old! But I'm old now, my friend, I'm old now.
Valdemar: Oh no, you're not old enough yet, Tartelet. It's your lastyour very last days that I want to brighten up.
Tartelet (aside): He's stupid, but he means well. (Aloud) Dear Matthew. Point your toes out, my friend, point your toes out!
Valdemar: Yes, professor, yes. Wait a minute! I'm rich! I'm entitled to point my toes in. See, this is how I want to walk from now on. (He walks with his toes pointing in) I'll make it the fashion. I'm rich! And I'm really going to live up to my status from now on. This is the fashion, the real fashion.
(Enter Captain Anderson)
(A boat large enough to hold seven or eight persons has come up to the dock)
Anderson: Get in! Get in!
(George and Ox get in the boat)
Tartelet: Goodbye, young Valdemar.
Valdemar: Goodbye, then, my dear professor.
(As Tartelet is about to embark, a telegram arrives)
Employee: Mr. Valdemar? Telegram for Mr. Valdemar.
Valdemar: That's me! That's me! It's an answer from my darling Babichok.
Tartelet: What does she say?
Valdemar (reads): "Dear Valdemar. Be happy...." (Speaks) Oh yes, I am, I am! (Reads) ". . . without me. I have just married...."
Tartelet: What did you say?
Valdemar (reads): "Without me, I have just married...." (Speaks) I don't understand.
Tartelet: Oh come now!
Anderson: Come along, gentlemen, come along!
Tartelet: We're coming.
Valdemar (angrily): That hussy! Ah! I'll never see her again.
Tartelet: Take my advice, Valdemar. Forget that cheating woman and come with us.
Valdemar: Well, all right. I'll come. And she'll see, now that she's lost me, what a hero she's lost.
Anderson: Come along, gentlemen, come along.
(They both get in the boat.)
(The scene
changes)
A moonlit night at sea.
Ox (standing alone on the platform): Here it is, under my feet, the dreadful monster that spread terror among the people of Goa. It's Captain Nemo's submarine, the man whose fame my rival, my enemy, hopes to surpass. Be patient, George, be patient. I shall keep all my promises. I shall make your fondest dreams come true. And you will not have to pay for my services. She will pay! She whose image is constantly before my eyes, whose memory fills my entire soul. Eva! Eva! She is there, close to him. They were thrown onto this platform, just as I was, by the shock when the two vessels collided. Let me go and find her. Let me finish my work.
(He kicks the hull of the ship and an opening appears, through which he descends. The Nautilus disappears, then reappears on stage. It opens slightly to reveal the interior chamber)
This short scene, with Dr. Ox standing alone on the deck of the Nautilus, was omitted from the French edition published in 1981. It appears in this edition as Act II, Scene 2.
The interior of the Nautilus, front cutaway view. An interior chamber elegantly furnished, lighted by electricity. Sofas on either side. All the machinery is upstage. On the outside, the hull of the Nautilus, which is completely submerged, is in contact with the water, which covers it above the platform. Backstage, doors leading to the engine room.
(Enter Eva, George, and Ox)
George: What a strange, mysterious craft this is!
Ox: It can dive at will to the bottom of the ocean or sail on the surface. It travels without sails and without steam, powered by electricity alone.
George: And it's obviously armed with a formidable ram, because when our ship tried to block its way, it rushed forward violently and tore a large hole in the Tranquebar's8 hull that nearly sent her to the bottom.
Eva: That was when we were taken on board here. But what can have happened to our two fellow passengers?
George: They probably stayed on board.
Eva: Or perhaps they were thrown into the sea.
Ox: In that case, they have nothing to fear. Thanks to my valuable discovery, they can live and breathe under water.
George: But what are we doing here? What ship is this, and who is its captain?
(Enter Volsius, disguised as Captain Nemo)
Volsius: You are on board the Nautilus, and you are prisoners of Captain Nemo.
George, Eva: Captain Nemo!
Ox (to George): You wanted to make the acquaintance of this hero of the undersea world. Now you know him.
Volsius: Are you really sure that you know me, gentlemen?
George: We have known you for a long time, by your name and by your exploits.
Eva: We don't suppose you intend to treat us as enemies.
George: And hold us prisoner aboard your ship.
Volsius: When you are better acquainted with the Nautilus, you may not want to leave her.
All: Not leave her? Us?
Volsius: Life is a hundred times more peaceful and more independent on my ship than it is in your world. Here, you have no need to worry about storms at sea or persecution at the hands of man. Hurricanes may rage on the surface, but thirty feet down there is absolute calm. Whatever despots may rule on earth, my Nautilus goes down into the depths of the ocean and I can defy all the tyrannies of the world. Liberty9 is still to be found, gentlemen, a hundred feet below the surface of the sea.
Ox: Liberty? Inside a prison?
George: That may be liberty for a misanthropist or a savage, but not for a civilized man.
Volsius: I reject that title, gentlemen. No, I am not what you call a civilized man. I have severed all ties with your society. I have left your earthly habitat forever. And I was in rather good company as I went into exile. God had just been banished from earth at that very moment-the "so-called God," as people say now.10
Ox (sarcastically): I see that Captain Nemo is a devout believer.
Volsius: Very devout," and firmer in his beliefs than those whom I see displaying an atheism born of pride or fear.
Ox: Pride or fear, did you say?
Volsius: Yes, certainly. Most of those who claim to be atheists are either arrogant or afraid. If there were a God, say the arrogant ones, would a superior man like me, a man of genius, stagnate here unrecognized? The others, speaking out of fear, say there is no God.
All: Out of fear?
Volsius: Yes, gentlemen, fear. Examine the lives of these men. Dig into their past. Study their consciences. You will always find some dreary and mysterious reason, some dark memory, that makes them fear a supreme tribunal. They are afraid, I tell you. And why do they go around shouting and proclaiming everywhere that God does not exist? The reason is not so much a desire to convince others as the vain hope of convincing themselves.
Ox (laughs): Ha ha! From the depths of the ocean, Captain Nemo wants to reawaken faith and reform our civilization.
Volsius: Ah, what a wonderful civilization it is! And on what an unshakable foundation this modern society rests, a society that steals from the disinherited of this world the hope of a better world to come. But if there is no life anywhere but on earth, if we have no expectation of any future punishment or reward, virtue is a fraud. Crime has only to find a way of skillfully evading the law. And should you happen to have a government headed by a few worthy and honest leaders who practice a gentle, bourgeois philosophy and are pleased to commute the sentences handed down by Justice, you will see the ranks of hardened criminals increase without letup. Since murder will be no more severely punished than theft, thieves will become murderers, and the murderers will say to themselves, "We can kill without fear; they won't kill us. We can cut throats without remorse; remorse is an empty word, since God does not exist."
George: What do you intend to do with us?
Eva: Please, sir, don't keep us here. None of us will betray your secret.
Volsius: Well, I'm a magnanimous person, and I'm willing to let my ship take you ... wherever you want to go.
George: But we're on our way to conquer the impossible, through fire, through space.
Volsius: And through water, too, no doubt. Pour me a few drops of your precious potion, and I'll go with you, Dr. Ox.
Ox: Ah! You know ... ?
Volsius: Your conversation reached me just now through the walls of the Nautilus. Yes, I know your name, learned doctor, and I know all about your wonderful discovery, just as I know who you are, George Hatteras.
George: George Hatteras, the son of a man who never retreated before any obstacle, and who went....
Volsius: Who went to his death,i" where you are in danger of going yourself.
George: Enough of your lessons, sir. I am not about to take lessons from you, even on board your ship.
Volsius (sadly): You will take lessons, unfortunately, and more dreadful ones than I can teach you. You want to leave the Nautilus to run around at the bottom of the ocean. Very well, then, I'll go with you, as I said I would.
Ox: Even if I don't provide you with the means to live where the elements of life are not to be found?
Volsius: Even without that.
George: All right, then. Whenever you like, sir.
Volsius: Right now.
he Nautilus closes up and moves away through the water)
The open part of the Nautilus gradually closes, then moves ahead so as to show the shape of the stern with its spinning propeller The Nautilus goes off stage obliquely.
The bottom of the sea. Enter Valdemar stage right. Schools offish swim around under his feet and disappear through the water.
Valdemar: This is really and truly the bottom of the sea. I'm living, walking, and breathing under water, just like an ordinary herring. What a strange country! The roads are badly maintained, but certainly well watered. Not too much sun, either. (Looking around.) And my friends, what has become of them? I thought Tartelet dived in at the same time as I did. He must have been carried away by the current. (Schools offish swim by over his head.) Ah! Fish! Frrr ... Frrr ... They're fl
ying away, like birds. Good! There are some jellyfish. They look like colored parasols. But there are no ladies under them who can give me directions. (While he is speaking, a large crab makes its way obliquely toward him. Suddenly he notices it) A crab! A crab! What an ugly creature. But it's coming after me! (He tries to run away, dodging from side to side) But I don't know you. I don't know you. It will catch me sooner or later, the beast! Go lie down! (At that moment an enormous shark appears in the water above him and swims down closer and closer to the bottom.) And that fish! What a mouth! What teeth! A shark! It's a shark! Help! Help! Save me! (in desperation, he goes in one direction, then another, but the crab is at his heels and the shark comes closer, opening its formidable jaws.) Help! (He starts to run, with the crab and shark in pursuit)
he scene changes)
Valdemar: Ouf! Those two horrible creatures are out of sight. Where am I now? A forest! I didn't expect to find a forest under water. (He stops in front of an immense oyster13) Well, well, an oyster. And what a fine oyster! A dozen of that size would make a nice appetizer for lunch. Maybe I'll have a taste. But no, this is August. There's no "R" in this month, so it can't be fresh. ( fust then a gigantic octopus appears. Valdemar notices it) Oh my goodness! What now? An octopus. A horrible octopus. What? It's chasing me, too. I'm done for! Where can I run? Where can I hide? Ah! The oyster! The hospitable oyster. (Valdemar rushes toward the open oyster and crawls inside. The two halves suddenly close. The octopus disappears)
(Enter Tartelet. He looks around carefully. From time to time he stops and calls out)
Tartelet (shouts): Valdemar! Valdemar! (He moves downstage) No one there. But I saw him sink at the same time as I did. There's no use calling and looking around. There's no one there. I've been looking for a long time, and I'm really tired. (He sits on the large oyster in which Valdemar is hiding) Let's take a little rest. What has happened to my fellow passengers? Doctor Ox? I'm not worried about him, but what about Mr. George, and especially Miss Eva? (As he is speaking, the oyster slowly begins to open) What a strange effect weariness has on me. The rock I'm sitting on seems to be rising. (He feels himself being lifted by the upper half.) Hey! What's going on underneath me? No, I'm not mistaken, it's really rising. It's moving. It's definitely rising. (Trembling) Oh my goodness! What's that? (He presses down and the oyster closes again) There's a creature in there. It's rising. It's still rising.