"But enough of myself. I have to speak concerning yourselves, and this
Lincoln Island, upon which you have taken refuge. You desire to leave
it?"
"To return, captain!" answered Pencroft quickly.
"To return, Pencroft?" said the captain, with a smile. "I know, it is
true, your love for this island. You have helped to make it what it now
is, and it seems to you a paradise!"
"Our project, captain," interposed Cyrus Harding, "is to annex it to the
United States, and to establish for our shipping a port so fortunately
situated in this part of the Pacific."
"Your thoughts are with your country, gentlemen," continued the captain;
"your toils are for her prosperity and glory. You are right. One's
native land!--there should one live! there die! And I! I die far from
all I loved!"
"You have some last wish to transmit," said the engineer with emotion,
"some souvenir to send to those friends you have left in the mountains
of India?"
"No, Captain Harding; no friends remain to me! I am the last of my
race, and to all whom I have known I have long been as are the dead.--
But to return to yourselves. Solitude, isolation, are painful things,
and beyond human endurance. I die of having thought it possible to live
alone! You should, therefore, dare all in the attempt to leave Lincoln
Island, and see once more the land of your birth. I am aware that those
wretches have destroyed the vessel you had built."
"We propose to construct a vessel," said Gideon Spilett, "sufficiently
large to convey us to the nearest land; but if we should succeed, sooner
or later we shall return to Lincoln Island. We are attached to it by
too many recollections ever to forget it."
"It is here that we have known Captain Nemo," said Cyrus Harding.
"It is here only that we can make our home!" added Herbert.
"And here shall I sleep the sleep of eternity, if--" replied the
captain.
He paused for a moment, and, instead of completing the sentence, said
simply--
"Mr Harding, I wish to speak with you--alone!"
The engineer's companions, respecting the wish of the dying man,
retired.
Cyrus Harding remained but a few minutes alone with Captain Nemo, and
soon recalled his companions; but he said nothing to them of the private
matters which the dying man had confided to him.
Gideon Spilett now watched the captain with extreme care. It was
evident that he was no longer sustained by his moral energy, which had
lost the power of reaction against his physical weakness.
The day closed without change. The colonists did not quit the
_Nautilus_ for a moment. Night arrived, although it was impossible to
distinguish it from day in the cavern.
Captain Nemo suffered no pain, but he was visibly sinking. His noble
features, paled by the approach of death, were perfectly calm.
Inaudible words escaped at intervals from his lips, bearing upon various
incidents of his chequered career. Life was evidently ebbing slowly,
and his extremities were already cold.
Once or twice more he spoke to the colonists who stood around him, and
smiled on them with that last smile which continues after death.
At length, shortly after midnight, Captain Nemo by a supreme effort
succeeded in folding his arms across his breast, as if wishing in that
attitude to compose himself for death.
By one o'clock his glance alone showed signs of life. A dying light
gleamed in those eyes once so brilliant. Then, murmuring the words,
"God and my country!" he quietly expired.
Cyrus Harding, bending low, closed the eyes of him who had once been the
Prince Dakkar, and was now not even Captain Nemo.
Herbert and Pencroft sobbed aloud. Tears fell from Ayrton's eyes. Neb
was on his knees by the reporter's side, motionless as a statue.
Then Cyrus Harding, extending his hand over the forehead of the dead,
said solemnly--
"May his soul be with God! Let us pray!"
Some hours later the colonists fulfilled the promise made to the captain
by carrying out his dying wishes.
Cyrus Harding and his companions quitted the _Nautilus_, taking with
them the only memento left them by their benefactor, that coffer which
contained wealth amounting to millions.
The marvellous saloon, still flooded with light, had been carefully
closed. The iron door leading on deck was then securely fastened in
such a manner as to prevent even a drop of water from penetrating to the
interior of the _Nautilus_.
The colonists then descended into the canoe, which was moored to the
side of the submarine vessel.
The canoe was now brought round to the stern. There, at the water-line,
were two large stop-cocks, communicating with the reservoirs employed in
the submersion of the vessel.
The stop-cocks were opened, the reservoirs filled, and the _Nautilus_,
slowly sinking, disappeared beneath the surface of the lake.
But the colonists were yet able to follow its descent through the waves.
The powerful light it gave forth lighted up the translucent water,
while the cavern became gradually obscure. At length this vast effusion
of electric light faded away, and soon after the _Nautilus_, now the
tomb of Captain Nemo, reposed in its ocean bed.