"By jumping down the hatches you're about to open."
"Well, sir, closing the hatches should do the trick."
Hatches that had been closed the day before were now open.
The hatches were open. After mooring the skiff, we reentered the Nautilus's interior.
"There, sir, all under control!" he told me after a few moments. "The skiff is in place and the hatches are closed.
In the latitude of New York and southward it hatches, as a rule, five or six broods in a season, with from four to six young in a brood.
"Professor Aronnax," Captain Nemo replied serenely, "the Nautilus's hatches aren't to be entered in that fashion even when they're open."
No doubt the Papuans had been frightened off by the mere sight of this monster aground in the bay, because our hatches stayed open, offering easy access to the Nautilus's interior.
The hatches weren't open. So the air inside hadn't been renewed; but the air tanks were kept full for any eventuality and would function appropriately to shoot a few cubic meters of oxygen into the Nautilus's thin atmosphere.