noon
Outside the city limits , some wood or reed huts indicated the quarter where the bedouins lived . Soon Jidda faded into the shadows of evening , and the Nautilus went back beneath the mildly phosphorescent waters . The next day , February 10 , several ships appeared , running on our opposite tack . The Nautilus resumed its underwater navigating ; but at the moment of our noon sights , the sea was deserted and the ship rose again to its waterline . With Ned and Conseil , I went to sit on the platform . The coast to the east looked like a slightly blurred mass in a damp fog . Leaning against the sides of the skiff , we were chatting of one thing and another , when Ned Land stretched his hand toward a point in the water , saying to me : `` See anything out there , professor ? ''