Captain Nemo took me to the dining room. We sat at a table in the middle of the room and ate a delicious lunch. He told me that all the food came from the sea. "I love the sea," he said. "It gives me everything that I need. Even my clothes come from the sea. It is a place of perfect peace. There are no governments, no taxes, and no wars. Here, I am truly free! I will never return to the land. "He took me to see the library which had thousands of books in many languages. Then he showed me the art gallery. It had many paintings by famous artists. The next room was a museum with all kinds of treasures from the sea. I had never seen such a good museum.
Captain Nemo was very proud of his collection and very proud of the Nautilus(鹦鹉螺号). He told me that he had discovered a way to make electricity(电) using salt and mercury(水银). This electricity gave the Nautilus all the power it needed to move through the water. Huge pumps filled and emptied (排空)tanks of air and water to make the Nautilussinkor rise.
After we got to the engine room, Captain Nemo showed me the engine and explained how it worked. The Nautilus was seventy meters long and eight meters wide. It had a cylindrical(圆柱形的) shape with points on each end and weighed 1,500 tons. "It's a wonderful ship!" I exclaimed(惊叫). "I love it as if it were my child," he replied.
"How did you build it in secret?" I asked. "All the parts were made in different countries. I used different names each time I placed an order. I took all the parts to a desert island, and my workmen put them together. Then, we burned our workshops." "It must have cost a fortune!(大笔的钱)" I exclaimed.
"Millions of dollars," he replied. "However, I have billions!"
—Taken from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
