Professor, the captain said to me, do you know what the power of electricity is?"

"I do not know, I replied, surprised by this question.

-- Well, he resumed, you are about to find out. Electricity, Professor, is the great force that will one day set the earth in motion. It is the very life of the universe. Look: everything you see here, this light, this heat, this motive force, it is electricity that produces it. It is for me the source of all energies.

And speaking thus, he touched a button. A device placed in a corner of the salon began to move. It was an electric piano, whose keys, under the pressure of the captain's fingers, produced sounds of marvelous purity.

"You see, he said to me, I can play music with electricity. But that is not all. Electricity serves to heat me, to light me, to move my machines. It is the soul of my Nautilus."

I listened to him with profound interest. "Captain, I said to him, have you thus succeeded in utilizing electricity in an absolute way?"

"Absolute, Professor, and I draw it from an inexhaustible source. I draw electricity from the sea itself."

"From the sea?"

"Yes, Professor. Seawater is a compound of chlorine and sodium. I decompose seawater by electricity, and I obtain chlorine and sodium. Sodium, above all, is a precious metal for my machine. It serves to produce electricity. I therefore need only seawater to power my batteries."

"But, Captain, I said to him, sodium wears out, it must be renewed."

"I renew it, Professor. I manufacture the sodium I need myself. I take sea salt, I decompose it, and I obtain sodium."

"And you do not fear that sodium, when burning, might produce explosions?"

"No, Professor, for I use it under such conditions that it can neither burn nor explode. Besides, all my machinery is installed with perfect safety."

I could not help admiring Captain Nemo's science. "But, I said to him, the electricity you produce, you also use it for things other than lighting and heating?"

"Without a doubt, he answered me. It serves to move the entire mechanism of the Nautilus. Here, look at this control panel."

He showed me a series of switches, levers, dials. "Here, he said, I control the direction, the speed, the dive. Everything is electric. With a simple movement of the hand, I vary the pace, I ascend or I descend. Electricity is my faithful slave."

"And what speed can you attain? I asked.

-- Fifty leagues an hour, Professor."

I looked at him with astonishment. "Fifty leagues an hour! But that is prodigious!

-- Yes, Professor, and I can maintain it for hours without fatigue. The Nautilus is a marvelous instrument of locomotion. It moves with a rapidity that nothing equals."

"But, I said to him, you need air to breathe, you and your crew. How do you manage to renew the air on board?"

"I rise to the surface of the sea, and I have fresh air drawn in by pumps. But I can also remain underwater for several days without renewing the air, because I have reserves of compressed air."

"Captain, I said to him, you have truly realized wonders. Electricity has allowed you to master the sea."

"Yes, Professor, I am the master of the sea. It belongs to me. It has given me power, freedom, life."

He spoke with a sort of enthusiasm, and I felt that he was sincere. "But, I said to him, do you not fear that electricity, powerful as it is, might betray you one day?"

"No, Professor, for I know it well. I have studied it, tamed it, utilized it. It is mine as light is to the sun."

I thanked him for his explanations, and I left the salon, full of admiration for this strange genius who had known how to make electricity his servant.