You have come to trouble my existence." "Unintentionally!" said I.
"Unintentionally ?" replied the stranger, raising his voice a little.
"Was it unintentionally that the Abraham Lincoln pursued me all over the seas?
Was it unintentionally that you took passage in this frigate?
Was it unintentionally that your cannon-balls rebounded off the plating of my vessel?
Was it unintentionally that Mr.Ned Land struck me with his harpoon ?" I detected a restrained irritation in these words.

But to these recriminations I had a very natural answer to make, and I made it.
"Sir," said I, "no doubt you are ignorant of the discussions which have taken place concerning you in America and Europe.

You do not know that divers accidents, caused by collisions with your submarine machine, have excited public feeling in the two continents.

I omit the theories without number by which it was sought to explain that of which you alone possess the secret.

But you must understand that, in pursuing you over the high seas of the Pacific, the Abraham Lincoln believed itself to be chasing some powerful sea-monster, of which it was necessary to rid the ocean at any price." A half-smile curled the lips of the commander: then, in a calmer tone: "M.