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[Le Blog Personnel de Professeur Aronnax] January 9th 1868

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:08:39 -0800 (PST)
To: jvf~at~gilead.org.il

We are now sailing back under our steam, although having seen today's
events, that is a misnomer. Yesterday we had another trip to the island
to pick up our final set of supplies before we floated off today and
Ned spotted this little object.



Now I have to admit that this stumped me, but this box of tricks came
up trumps and identified it as a turtle post and told me that an
example of this sort of design is available in the British Museum in
London (yet another reason for me to visit) but that the purpose of it
was a matter of great conjecture. What it did not tell me however, was
that it was not the sort of thing for us to take an interest in. Indeed
no sooner had Ned taken it out of the ground to bring back on board,
than a spear embedded itself into a palm tree not three inches from my
nose. Now, I grant you I am not brave as other people from my nation
(such as Cyrano de Beregac and indeed Porthos) so the sight of that led
me to make perhaps my only order of command ever. "RUN!"



And what a good command it was as no sooner were we all in the boat
than at least 50 Papuans were giving chase in their boats. Thank
goodness therefore that Ned is not only a good harpooner, but thanks to
those arms and shoulders of him the best rower this side of the
Atlantic Ocean and we were soon back inside the Nautlius and that we
thought would be the end of it. However, this morning when I woke up I
got a nasty shock, namely a Papuan peering in through one of the
portholes. In fact the whole ship was covered with them, which
presented us with a problem. According to the Captain, today was the
day we could float off our resting place (but I don't think carrying in
excess of 100 Papuans was part of the deal).

What amazed me though was the Captain's seeming lack of concern. He
just simply looked outside, went "Oh, well!" and turned a handle.
Within seconds, the Papuans screamed and jumped overboard leaving the
deck clear and myself, Ned and Conseil scratching our heads. We sought
permission to go on deck and investigated the scene and found nothing
to explain what had happened. "I don't understand it" said Ned and
leant against the guard rails on the deck. With no reason at all, he
screamed and fell to the deck unconcious.

Naturally we assumed that a Papuan had hit him with a poisoned spear
but there was nothing in his back. He started to come round and
explained that he'd been hit by a powerful force that not only made him
grab the rail even harder than usual, but had made his heart miss a
beat. This explaination solved everything and as I went back on board,
I smiled to the Captain and said "Lighting?". He smiled back and later
on explained that he was able to send some of the excess power
generated by the engines into the hull of the ship.

So we are now back on the move again, Ned has recovered from
his "lighting bolt" and I clearly have a lot to learn about this
machine.

--
Posted By Harry Hayfield to Le Blog Personnel de Professeur Aronnax on
2/10/2010 09:53:00 PM

Received on Thu 11 Feb 2010 - 00:08:46 IST

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