Who were they ?" "Strangers, as you must have known from their language." "They did not utter a word!" "Have you no idea as to their nationality ?" "Not the remotest." Do you know what were their intentions in entering the cavern ?" "I do not." "What is your opinion about it ?" "My opinion, Mr.Serko?
I repeat I thought they were two or three of your pirates who had come to throw me into the lagoon by the Count d'Artigas' orders, and that they were going to do the same thing to Thomas Roch.

I supposed that having obtained his secrets--as you informed me was the case--you had no further use for him and were about to get rid of us both." "Is it possible, Mr.Hart, that you could have thought such a thing!" continued Serko in his sarcastic way.
"I did, until having been able to remove the bandage from my eyes, I perceived that I was in the tug." "It was not the tug, but a boat of the same kind that had got through the tunnel." "A submarine boat ?" I ejaculate.
"Yes, and manned by persons whose mission was to kidnap you and Thomas Roch." "Kidnap us ?" I echo, continuing to feign surprise.
"And," adds Engineer Serko, "I want to know what you think about the matter." "What I think about it?
Well, it appears to me that there is only one plausible explanation possible.

If the secret of your retreat has not been betrayed--and I cannot conceive how you could have been betrayed or what imprudence you or yours could have committed--my opinion is that this submarine boat was exploring the bottom of the sea in this neighborhood, that she must have found her way into the tunnel, that she rose to the surface of the lagoon, that her crew, greatly surprised to find themselves inside an inhabited cavern, seized hold of the first persons they came across, Thomas Roch and myself, and others as well perhaps, for of course I do not know----" Engineer Serko has become serious again.

Does he realize the inanity of the hypothesis I try to pass off on him?
Does he think I know more than I will say?
However this may be, he accepts my professed view, and says: "In effect, Mr.Hart, it must have happened as you suggest, and when the stranger tried to make her way out through the tunnel just as the tug was entering, there was a collision--a collision of which she was the victim.

But we are not the kind of people to allow our fellow-men to perish before our eyes.