"Jules Verne. Off on a Comet. WORKS" - читать интересную книгу автора

"Neutral ground?" objected Colonel Murphy; "I beg your pardon.
This, Captain Servadac, is English territory. Do you not see
the English flag?" and, as he spoke, he pointed with national pride
to the British standard floating over the top of the island.

"Pshaw!" cried Servadac, with a contemptuous sneer; "that flag,
you know, has been hoisted but a few short weeks."

"That flag has floated where it is for ages," asserted the colonel.

"An imposture!" shouted Servadac, as he stamped with rage.

Recovering his composure in a degree, he continued:
"Can you suppose that I am not aware that this island on which we
find you is what remains of the Ionian representative republic,
over which you English exercise the right of protection,
but have no claim of government?"

The colonel and the major looked at each other in amazement.

Although Count Timascheff secretly sympathized with Servadac,
he had carefully refrained from taking part in the dispute;
but he was on the point of interfering, when the colonel,
in a greatly subdued tone, begged to be allowed to speak.

"I begin to apprehend," he said, "that you must be la-boring under some
strange mistake. There is no room for questioning that the territory
here is England's--England's by right of conquest; ceded to England
by the Treaty of Utrecht. Three times, indeed--in 1727, 1779, and 1792--
France and Spain have disputed our title, but always to no purpose.
You are, I assure you, at the present moment, as much on English soil
as if you were in London, in the middle of Trafalgar Square."

It was now the turn of the captain and the count to look surprised.
"Are we not, then, in Corfu?" they asked.

"You are at Gibraltar," replied the colonel.

Gibraltar! The word fell like a thunderclap upon their ears.
Gibraltar! the western extremity of the Mediterranean! Why, had they
not been sailing persistently to the east? Could they be wrong
in imagining that they had reached the Ionian Islands? What new
mystery was this?

Count Timascheff was about to proceed with a more rigorous investigation,
when the attention of all was arrested by a loud outcry.
Turning round, they saw that the crew of the _Dobryna_ was in
hot dispute with the English soldiers. A general altercation
had arisen from a disagreement between the sailor Panofka
and Corporal Pim. It had transpired that the cannon-ball fired