“Yes, captain, although since I’ve been aboard your vessel, I should have formed the habit of not being amazed by anything!” “But what is it that startles you?” “The thought of how hideously fast the Nautilus will need to go, if it’s to double the Cape of Good Hope, circle around Africa, and lie in the open Mediterranean by the day after tomorrow.” “And who says it will circle Africa, professor? What’s this talk about doubling the Cape of Good Hope?” “But unless the Nautilus navigates on dry land and crosses over the isthmus—” “Or under it, Professor Aronnax.” “Under it?” “Surely,” Captain Nemo replied serenely. “Under that tongue of land, nature long ago made what man today is making on its surface.” “What! There’s a passageway?” “Yes, an underground passageway that I’ve named the Arabian Tunnel. It starts below Suez and leads to the Bay of Pelusium.” “But isn’t that isthmus only composed of quicksand?” “To a certain depth. But at merely fifty meters, one encounters a firm foundation of rock.” “And it’s by luck that you discovered this passageway?” I asked, more and more startled. “Luck plus logic, professor, and logic even more than luck.” “Captain, I hear you, but I can’t believe my ears.” “Oh, sir! The old saying still holds good: Aures habent et non audient!* Not only does this passageway exist, but I’ve taken advantage of it on several occasions. Without it, I wouldn’t have ventured today into such a blind alley as the Red Sea.” *Latin: “They have ears but hear not.” Ed. “Is it indiscreet to ask how you discovered this tunnel?” “Sir,” the captain answered me, “there can be no secrets between men who will never leave each other.” I ignored this innuendo and waited for Captain Nemo’s explanation. “Professor,” he told me, “the simple logic of the naturalist led me to discover this passageway, and I alone am familiar with it. I’d noted that in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean there exist a number of absolutely identical species of fish: eels, butterfish, greenfish, bass, jewelfish, flying fish. Certain of this fact, I wondered if there weren’t a connection between the two seas. If there were, its underground current had to go from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean simply because of their difference in level. So I caught a large number of fish in the vicinity of Suez. I slipped copper rings around their tails and tossed them back into the sea. A few months later off the coast of Syria, I recaptured a few specimens of my fish, adorned with their telltale rings. So this proved to me that some connection existed between the two seas. I searched for it with my Nautilus, I discovered it, I ventured into it; and soon, professor, you also will have cleared my Arabic tunnel!” CHAPTER 5 Arabian Tunnel