12 一切都用电(8)

What! You have a skiff? I replied in some astonishment.

什么!您还有一只小艇吗?我有些惊异地说。

Surely. An excellent longboat, light and unsinkable, which is used for excursions and fishing trips.

当然喽。一只很好的小艇,轻快,又不怕沉没,可洪游览和钓鱼之用。

But when you want to set out, don't you have to return to the surface of the sea?

那么您想登上小艇的时候,您必定要浮到水面上去吗?

By no means. The skiff is attached to the topside of the Nautilus's hull and is set in a cavity expressly designed to receive it.

并不需要。这小艇系在诺第留斯号船身的上部,放在一个特别用来藏它的凹洞里。

It's completely decked over, absolutely watertight, and held solidly in place by bolts. This ladder leads to a manhole cut into the Nautilus's hull and corresponding to a comparable hole cut into the side of the skiff. I insert myself through this double opening into the longboat. My crew close up the hole belonging to the Nautilus; I close up the one belonging to the skiff, simply by screwing it into place. I undo the bolts holding the skiff to the submersible, and the longboat rises with prodigious speed to the surface of the sea. I then open the deck paneling, carefully closed until that point; I up mast and hoist sail--or I take out my oars--and I go for a spin.

小艇全部装有甲板,完全不透水,用结实的螺丝铰钉钉着。铁梯通到诺第留斯号船身上的一个单人小孔,这孔紧接着小艇身上的一个大小相同的孔。我就由这两个孔到小艇上去。一个人用压力螺钉,关上了诺第留斯号的孔门,同时我就关上了小艇的孔门;我松开铰钉,小艇就以很快的速度浮上水面。我于是就打开本来是紧闭着的盖板,竖起桅杆,扯开凤帆或划起桨来,我就在水上漫游了。

But how do you return to the ship?

但您怎样回到大船上呢?

I don't, Professor Aronnax; the Nautilus returns to me.

阿龙纳斯先生,不是我回去,而是诺第留斯号回到我身边来。

At your command?

它听您的吩咐?

At my command. An electric wire connects me to the ship. I fire off a telegram, and that's that.

它听我的吩咐。一根电线把我跟它连系在一起。我只要打个电报就行了。

Right, I said, tipsy from all these wonders, nothing to it!

的确,我说,我被这些奇迹陶醉了,没有比这更方便的了!

After passing the well of the companionway that led to the platform, I saw a cabin 2 meters long in which Conseil and Ned Land, enraptured with their meal, were busy devouringit to the last crumb. Then a door opened into the galley, 3 meters long and located between the vessel's huge storage lockers.

我走过了通到平台的梯笼间,看见一间长二米的舱房,康塞尔和尼德。兰两人正在那里狼吞虎咽,很快活地吃他们的饭。随后,又有一道门通到长三米的厨房,厨房是在宽大的食品储藏室中间。