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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mysterious Island, by Jules Verne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Mysterious Island
+
+Author: Jules Verne
+
+Posting Date: August 24, 2008 [EBook #1268]
+Release Date: April, 1998
+Last Updated: October 13, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Anthony Matonak, and Trevor Carlson
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
+
+by Jules Verne
+
+1874
+
+
+
+
+PART 1--DROPPED FROM THE CLOUDS
+
+
+
+Chapter 1
+
+“Are we rising again?” “No. On the contrary.” “Are we descending?”
+ “Worse than that, captain! we are falling!” “For Heaven’s sake heave out
+the ballast!” “There! the last sack is empty!” “Does the balloon rise?”
+ “No!” “I hear a noise like the dashing of waves. The sea is below the
+car! It cannot be more than 500 feet from us!” “Overboard with every
+weight! ... everything!”
+
+Such were the loud and startling words which resounded through the air,
+above the vast watery desert of the Pacific, about four o’clock in the
+evening of the 23rd of March, 1865.
+
+Few can possibly have forgotten the terrible storm from the northeast,
+in the middle of the equinox of that year. The tempest raged without
+intermission from the 18th to the 26th of March. Its ravages were
+terrible in America, Europe, and Asia, covering a distance of eighteen
+hundred miles, and extending obliquely to the equator from the
+thirty-fifth north parallel to the fortieth south parallel. Towns were
+overthrown, forests uprooted, coasts devastated by the mountains of
+water which were precipitated on them, vessels cast on the shore, which
+the published accounts numbered by hundreds, whole districts leveled
+by waterspouts which destroyed everything they passed over, several
+thousand people crushed on land or drowned at sea; such were the traces
+of its fury, left by this devastating tempest. It surpassed in disasters
+those which so frightfully ravaged Havana and Guadalupe, one on the 25th
+of October, 1810, the other on the 26th of July, 1825.
+
+But while so many catastrophes were taking place on land and at sea, a
+drama not less exciting was being enacted in the agitated air.
+
+In fact, a balloon, as a ball might be carried on the summit of a
+waterspout, had been taken into the circling movement of a column of
+air and had traversed space at the rate of ninety miles an hour, turning
+round and round as if seized by some aerial maelstrom.
+
+Beneath the lower point of the balloon swung a car, containing five
+passengers, scarcely visible in the midst of the thick vapor mingled
+with spray which hung over the surface of the ocean.
+
+Whence, it may be asked, had come that plaything of the tempest? From
+what part of the world did it rise? It surely could not have started
+during the storm. But the storm had raged five days already, and the
+first symptoms were manifested on the 18th. It cannot be doubted that
+the balloon came from a great distance, for it could not have traveled
+less than two thousand miles in twenty-four hours.
+
+At any rate the passengers, destitute of all marks for their guidance,
+could not have possessed the means of reckoning the route traversed
+since their departure. It was a remarkable fact that, although in the
+very midst of the furious tempest, they did not suffer from it. They
+were thrown about and whirled round and round without feeling the
+rotation in the slightest degree, or being sensible that they were
+removed from a horizontal position.
+
+Their eyes could not pierce through the thick mist which had gathered
+beneath the car. Dark vapor was all around them. Such was the density
+of the atmosphere that they could not be certain whether it was day or
+night. No reflection of light, no sound from inhabited land, no roaring
+of the ocean could have reached them, through the obscurity, while
+suspended in those elevated zones. Their rapid descent alone had
+informed them of the dangers which they ran from the waves. However,
+the balloon, lightened of heavy articles, such as ammunition, arms, and
+provisions, had risen into the higher layers of the atmosphere, to a
+height of 4,500 feet. The voyagers, after having discovered that the sea
+extended beneath them, and thinking the dangers above less dreadful than
+those below, did not hesitate to throw overboard even their most useful
+articles, while they endeavored to lose no more of that fluid, the life
+of their enterprise, which sustained them above the abyss.
+
+The night passed in the midst of alarms which would have been death to
+less energetic souls. Again the day appeared and with it the tempest
+began to moderate. From the beginning of that day, the 24th of March,
+it showed symptoms of abating. At dawn, some of the lighter clouds had
+risen into the more lofty regions of the air. In a few hours the wind
+had changed from a hurricane to a fresh breeze, that is to say, the rate
+of the transit of the atmospheric layers was diminished by half. It
+was still what sailors call “a close-reefed topsail breeze,” but the
+commotion in the elements had none the less considerably diminished.
+
+Towards eleven o’clock, the lower region of the air was sensibly
+clearer. The atmosphere threw off that chilly dampness which is felt
+after the passage of a great meteor. The storm did not seem to have gone
+farther to the west. It appeared to have exhausted itself. Could it have
+passed away in electric sheets, as is sometimes the case with regard to
+the typhoons of the Indian Ocean?
+
+But at the same time, it was also evident that the balloon was again
+slowly descending with a regular movement. It appeared as if it were,
+little by little, collapsing, and that its case was lengthening and
+extending, passing from a spherical to an oval form. Towards midday the
+balloon was hovering above the sea at a height of only 2,000 feet. It
+contained 50,000 cubic feet of gas, and, thanks to its capacity, it
+could maintain itself a long time in the air, although it should reach a
+great altitude or might be thrown into a horizontal position.
+
+Perceiving their danger, the passengers cast away the last articles
+which still weighed down the car, the few provisions they had kept,
+everything, even to their pocket-knives, and one of them, having hoisted
+himself on to the circles which united the cords of the net, tried to
+secure more firmly the lower point of the balloon.
+
+It was, however, evident to the voyagers that the gas was failing, and
+that the balloon could no longer be sustained in the higher regions.
+They must infallibly perish!
+
+There was not a continent, nor even an island, visible beneath them.
+The watery expanse did not present a single speck of land, not a solid
+surface upon which their anchor could hold.
+
+It was the open sea, whose waves were still dashing with tremendous
+violence! It was the ocean, without any visible limits, even for those
+whose gaze, from their commanding position, extended over a radius of
+forty miles. The vast liquid plain, lashed without mercy by the storm,
+appeared as if covered with herds of furious chargers, whose white and
+disheveled crests were streaming in the wind. No land was in sight, not
+a solitary ship could be seen. It was necessary at any cost to arrest
+their downward course, and to prevent the balloon from being engulfed in
+the waves. The voyagers directed all their energies to this urgent work.
+But, notwithstanding their efforts, the balloon still fell, and at the
+same time shifted with the greatest rapidity, following the direction of
+the wind, that is to say, from the northeast to the southwest.
+
+Frightful indeed was the situation of these unfortunate men. They were
+evidently no longer masters of the machine. All their attempts were
+useless. The case of the balloon collapsed more and more. The gas
+escaped without any possibility of retaining it. Their descent was
+visibly accelerated, and soon after midday the car hung within 600 feet
+of the ocean.
+
+It was impossible to prevent the escape of gas, which rushed through a
+large rent in the silk. By lightening the car of all the articles which
+it contained, the passengers had been able to prolong their suspension
+in the air for a few hours. But the inevitable catastrophe could only
+be retarded, and if land did not appear before night, voyagers, car, and
+balloon must to a certainty vanish beneath the waves.
+
+They now resorted to the only remaining expedient. They were truly
+dauntless men, who knew how to look death in the face. Not a single
+murmur escaped from their lips. They were determined to struggle to the
+last minute, to do anything to retard their fall. The car was only a
+sort of willow basket, unable to float, and there was not the slightest
+possibility of maintaining it on the surface of the sea.
+
+Two more hours passed and the balloon was scarcely 400 feet above the
+water.
+
+At that moment a loud voice, the voice of a man whose heart was
+inaccessible to fear, was heard. To this voice responded others not
+less determined. “Is everything thrown out?” “No, here are still 2,000
+dollars in gold.” A heavy bag immediately plunged into the sea. “Does
+the balloon rise?” “A little, but it will not be long before it falls
+again.” “What still remains to be thrown out?” “Nothing.” “Yes! the
+car!” “Let us catch hold of the net, and into the sea with the car.”
+
+This was, in fact, the last and only mode of lightening the balloon.
+The ropes which held the car were cut, and the balloon, after its fall,
+mounted 2,000 feet. The five voyagers had hoisted themselves into the
+net, and clung to the meshes, gazing at the abyss.
+
+The delicate sensibility of balloons is well known. It is sufficient to
+throw out the lightest article to produce a difference in its vertical
+position. The apparatus in the air is like a balance of mathematical
+precision. It can be thus easily understood that when it is lightened of
+any considerable weight its movement will be impetuous and sudden. So
+it happened on this occasion. But after being suspended for an instant
+aloft, the balloon began to redescend, the gas escaping by the rent
+which it was impossible to repair.
+
+The men had done all that men could do. No human efforts could save them
+now.
+
+They must trust to the mercy of Him who rules the elements.
+
+At four o’clock the balloon was only 500 feet above the surface of the
+water.
+
+A loud barking was heard. A dog accompanied the voyagers, and was held
+pressed close to his master in the meshes of the net.
+
+“Top has seen something,” cried one of the men. Then immediately a loud
+voice shouted,--
+
+“Land! land!” The balloon, which the wind still drove towards the
+southwest, had since daybreak gone a considerable distance, which might
+be reckoned by hundreds of miles, and a tolerably high land had, in
+fact, appeared in that direction. But this land was still thirty miles
+off. It would not take less than an hour to get to it, and then there
+was the chance of falling to leeward.
+
+An hour! Might not the balloon before that be emptied of all the fluid
+it yet retained?
+
+Such was the terrible question! The voyagers could distinctly see that
+solid spot which they must reach at any cost. They were ignorant of what
+it was, whether an island or a continent, for they did not know to what
+part of the world the hurricane had driven them. But they must reach
+this land, whether inhabited or desolate, whether hospitable or not.
+
+It was evident that the balloon could no longer support itself! Several
+times already had the crests of the enormous billows licked the bottom
+of the net, making it still heavier, and the balloon only half rose,
+like a bird with a wounded wing. Half an hour later the land was not
+more than a mile off, but the balloon, exhausted, flabby, hanging in
+great folds, had gas in its upper part alone. The voyagers, clinging to
+the net, were still too heavy for it, and soon, half plunged into the
+sea, they were beaten by the furious waves. The balloon-case bulged out
+again, and the wind, taking it, drove it along like a vessel. Might it
+not possibly thus reach the land?
+
+But, when only two fathoms off, terrible cries resounded from four pairs
+of lungs at once. The balloon, which had appeared as if it would never
+again rise, suddenly made an unexpected bound, after having been struck
+by a tremendous sea. As if it had been at that instant relieved of a new
+part of its weight, it mounted to a height of 1,500 feet, and here it
+met a current of wind, which instead of taking it directly to the coast,
+carried it in a nearly parallel direction.
+
+At last, two minutes later, it reproached obliquely, and finally fell on
+a sandy beach, out of the reach of the waves.
+
+The voyagers, aiding each other, managed to disengage themselves from
+the meshes of the net. The balloon, relieved of their weight, was taken
+by the wind, and like a wounded bird which revives for an instant,
+disappeared into space.
+
+But the car had contained five passengers, with a dog, and the balloon
+only left four on the shore.
+
+The missing person had evidently been swept off by the sea, which had
+just struck the net, and it was owing to this circumstance that the
+lightened balloon rose the last time, and then soon after reached the
+land. Scarcely had the four castaways set foot on firm ground, than they
+all, thinking of the absent one, simultaneously exclaimed, “Perhaps he
+will try to swim to land! Let us save him! let us save him!”
+
+
+
+Chapter 2
+
+Those whom the hurricane had just thrown on this coast were neither
+aeronauts by profession nor amateurs. They were prisoners of war whose
+boldness had induced them to escape in this extraordinary manner.
+
+A hundred times they had almost perished! A hundred times had they
+almost fallen from their torn balloon into the depths of the ocean. But
+Heaven had reserved them for a strange destiny, and after having, on the
+20th of March, escaped from Richmond, besieged by the troops of General
+Ulysses Grant, they found themselves seven thousand miles from the
+capital of Virginia, which was the principal stronghold of the South,
+during the terrible War of Secession. Their aerial voyage had lasted
+five days.
+
+The curious circumstances which led to the escape of the prisoners were
+as follows:
+
+That same year, in the month of February, 1865, in one of the coups
+de main by which General Grant attempted, though in vain, to possess
+himself of Richmond, several of his officers fell into the power of the
+enemy and were detained in the town. One of the most distinguished was
+Captain Cyrus Harding. He was a native of Massachusetts, a first-class
+engineer, to whom the government had confided, during the war, the
+direction of the railways, which were so important at that time. A
+true Northerner, thin, bony, lean, about forty-five years of age; his
+close-cut hair and his beard, of which he only kept a thick mustache,
+were already getting gray. He had one-of those finely-developed heads
+which appear made to be struck on a medal, piercing eyes, a serious
+mouth, the physiognomy of a clever man of the military school. He was
+one of those engineers who began by handling the hammer and pickaxe,
+like generals who first act as common soldiers. Besides mental power, he
+also possessed great manual dexterity. His muscles exhibited remarkable
+proofs of tenacity. A man of action as well as a man of thought, all he
+did was without effort to one of his vigorous and sanguine temperament.
+Learned, clear-headed, and practical, he fulfilled in all
+emergencies those three conditions which united ought to insure human
+success--activity of mind and body, impetuous wishes, and powerful will.
+He might have taken for his motto that of William of Orange in the 17th
+century: “I can undertake and persevere even without hope of success.”
+ Cyrus Harding was courage personified. He had been in all the battles of
+that war. After having begun as a volunteer at Illinois, under Ulysses
+Grant, he fought at Paducah, Belmont, Pittsburg Landing, at the siege of
+Corinth, Port Gibson, Black River, Chattanooga, the Wilderness, on the
+Potomac, everywhere and valiantly, a soldier worthy of the general who
+said, “I never count my dead!” And hundreds of times Captain Harding had
+almost been among those who were not counted by the terrible Grant; but
+in these combats where he never spared himself, fortune favored him till
+the moment when he was wounded and taken prisoner on the field of battle
+near Richmond. At the same time and on the same day another important
+personage fell into the hands of the Southerners. This was no other than
+Gideon Spilett, a reporter for the New York Herald, who had been ordered
+to follow the changes of the war in the midst of the Northern armies.
+
+Gideon Spilett was one of that race of indomitable English or American
+chroniclers, like Stanley and others, who stop at nothing to obtain
+exact information, and transmit it to their journal in the shortest
+possible time. The newspapers of the Union, such as the New York Herald,
+are genuine powers, and their reporters are men to be reckoned with.
+Gideon Spilett ranked among the first of those reporters: a man of great
+merit, energetic, prompt and ready for anything, full of ideas, having
+traveled over the whole world, soldier and artist, enthusiastic in
+council, resolute in action, caring neither for trouble, fatigue, nor
+danger, when in pursuit of information, for himself first, and then for
+his journal, a perfect treasury of knowledge on all sorts of curious
+subjects, of the unpublished, of the unknown, and of the impossible. He
+was one of those intrepid observers who write under fire, “reporting”
+ among bullets, and to whom every danger is welcome.
+
+He also had been in all the battles, in the first rank, revolver in one
+hand, note-book in the other; grape-shot never made his pencil tremble.
+He did not fatigue the wires with incessant telegrams, like those who
+speak when they have nothing to say, but each of his notes, short,
+decisive, and clear, threw light on some important point. Besides, he
+was not wanting in humor. It was he who, after the affair of the Black
+River, determined at any cost to keep his place at the wicket of the
+telegraph office, and after having announced to his journal the result
+of the battle, telegraphed for two hours the first chapters of the
+Bible. It cost the New York Herald two thousand dollars, but the New
+York Herald published the first intelligence.
+
+Gideon Spilett was tall. He was rather more than forty years of age.
+Light whiskers bordering on red surrounded his face. His eye was steady,
+lively, rapid in its changes. It was the eye of a man accustomed to take
+in at a glance all the details of a scene. Well built, he was inured to
+all climates, like a bar of steel hardened in cold water.
+
+For ten years Gideon Spilett had been the reporter of the New York
+Herald, which he enriched by his letters and drawings, for he was as
+skilful in the use of the pencil as of the pen. When he was captured,
+he was in the act of making a description and sketch of the battle. The
+last words in his note-book were these: “A Southern rifleman has just
+taken aim at me, but--” The Southerner notwithstanding missed Gideon
+Spilett, who, with his usual fortune, came out of this affair without a
+scratch.
+
+Cyrus Harding and Gideon Spilett, who did not know each other except
+by reputation, had both been carried to Richmond. The engineer’s
+wounds rapidly healed, and it was during his convalescence that he made
+acquaintance with the reporter. The two men then learned to appreciate
+each other. Soon their common aim had but one object, that of escaping,
+rejoining Grant’s army, and fighting together in the ranks of the
+Federals.
+
+The two Americans had from the first determined to seize every chance;
+but although they were allowed to wander at liberty in the town,
+Richmond was so strictly guarded, that escape appeared impossible. In
+the meanwhile Captain Harding was rejoined by a servant who was devoted
+to him in life and in death. This intrepid fellow was a Negro born on
+the engineer’s estate, of a slave father and mother, but to whom Cyrus,
+who was an Abolitionist from conviction and heart, had long since given
+his freedom. The once slave, though free, would not leave his master. He
+would have died for him. He was a man of about thirty, vigorous, active,
+clever, intelligent, gentle, and calm, sometimes naive, always merry,
+obliging, and honest. His name was Nebuchadnezzar, but he only answered
+to the familiar abbreviation of Neb.
+
+When Neb heard that his master had been made prisoner, he left
+Massachusetts without hesitating an instant, arrived before Richmond,
+and by dint of stratagem and shrewdness, after having risked his life
+twenty times over, managed to penetrate into the besieged town. The
+pleasure of Harding on seeing his servant, and the joy of Neb at finding
+his master, can scarcely be described.
+
+But though Neb had been able to make his way into Richmond, it was quite
+another thing to get out again, for the Northern prisoners were very
+strictly watched. Some extraordinary opportunity was needed to make the
+attempt with any chance of success, and this opportunity not only did
+not present itself, but was very difficult to find.
+
+Meanwhile Grant continued his energetic operations. The victory of
+Petersburg had been very dearly bought. His forces, united to those of
+Butler, had as yet been unsuccessful before Richmond, and nothing gave
+the prisoners any hope of a speedy deliverance.
+
+The reporter, to whom his tedious captivity did not offer a single
+incident worthy of note, could stand it no longer. His usually active
+mind was occupied with one sole thought--how he might get out of
+Richmond at any cost. Several times had he even made the attempt,
+but was stopped by some insurmountable obstacle. However, the siege
+continued; and if the prisoners were anxious to escape and join Grant’s
+army, certain of the besieged were no less anxious to join the Southern
+forces. Among them was one Jonathan Forster, a determined Southerner.
+The truth was, that if the prisoners of the Secessionists could not
+leave the town, neither could the Secessionists themselves while the
+Northern army invested it. The Governor of Richmond for a long time had
+been unable to communicate with General Lee, and he very much wished to
+make known to him the situation of the town, so as to hasten the march
+of the army to their relief. Thus Jonathan Forster accordingly conceived
+the idea of rising in a balloon, so as to pass over the besieging lines,
+and in that way reach the Secessionist camp.
+
+The Governor authorized the attempt. A balloon was manufactured and
+placed at the disposal of Forster, who was to be accompanied by five
+other persons. They were furnished with arms in case they might have
+to defend themselves when they alighted, and provisions in the event of
+their aerial voyage being prolonged.
+
+The departure of the balloon was fixed for the 18th of March. It should
+be effected during the night, with a northwest wind of moderate force,
+and the aeronauts calculated that they would reach General Lee’s camp in
+a few hours.
+
+But this northwest wind was not a simple breeze. From the 18th it was
+evident that it was changing to a hurricane. The tempest soon became
+such that Forster’s departure was deferred, for it was impossible to
+risk the balloon and those whom it carried in the midst of the furious
+elements.
+
+The balloon, inflated on the great square of Richmond, was ready to
+depart on the first abatement of the wind, and, as may be supposed, the
+impatience among the besieged to see the storm moderate was very great.
+
+The 18th, the 19th of March passed without any alteration in the
+weather. There was even great difficulty in keeping the balloon fastened
+to the ground, as the squalls dashed it furiously about.
+
+The night of the 19th passed, but the next morning the storm blew with
+redoubled force. The departure of the balloon was impossible.
+
+On that day the engineer, Cyrus Harding, was accosted in one of the
+streets of Richmond by a person whom he did not in the least know. This
+was a sailor named Pencroft, a man of about thirty-five or forty years
+of age, strongly built, very sunburnt, and possessed of a pair of
+bright sparkling eyes and a remarkably good physiognomy. Pencroft was an
+American from the North, who had sailed all the ocean over, and who had
+gone through every possible and almost impossible adventure that a being
+with two feet and no wings would encounter. It is needless to say that
+he was a bold, dashing fellow, ready to dare anything and was astonished
+at nothing. Pencroft at the beginning of the year had gone to Richmond
+on business, with a young boy of fifteen from New Jersey, son of a
+former captain, an orphan, whom he loved as if he had been his
+own child. Not having been able to leave the town before the first
+operations of the siege, he found himself shut up, to his great disgust;
+but, not accustomed to succumb to difficulties, he resolved to escape by
+some means or other. He knew the engineer-officer by reputation; he knew
+with what impatience that determined man chafed under his restraint. On
+this day he did not, therefore, hesitate to accost him, saying, without
+circumlocution, “Have you had enough of Richmond, captain?”
+
+The engineer looked fixedly at the man who spoke, and who added, in a
+low voice,--
+
+“Captain Harding, will you try to escape?”
+
+“When?” asked the engineer quickly, and it was evident that this
+question was uttered without consideration, for he had not yet examined
+the stranger who addressed him. But after having with a penetrating
+eye observed the open face of the sailor, he was convinced that he had
+before him an honest man.
+
+“Who are you?” he asked briefly.
+
+Pencroft made himself known.
+
+“Well,” replied Harding, “and in what way do you propose to escape?”
+
+“By that lazy balloon which is left there doing nothing, and which looks
+to me as if it was waiting on purpose for us--”
+
+There was no necessity for the sailor to finish his sentence. The
+engineer understood him at once. He seized Pencroft by the arm, and
+dragged him to his house. There the sailor developed his project, which
+was indeed extremely simple. They risked nothing but their lives in its
+execution. The hurricane was in all its violence, it is true, but so
+clever and daring an engineer as Cyrus Harding knew perfectly well how
+to manage a balloon. Had he himself been as well acquainted with the art
+of sailing in the air as he was with the navigation of a ship, Pencroft
+would not have hesitated to set out, of course taking his young friend
+Herbert with him; for, accustomed to brave the fiercest tempests of the
+ocean, he was not to be hindered on account of the hurricane.
+
+Captain Harding had listened to the sailor without saying a word,
+but his eyes shone with satisfaction. Here was the long-sought-for
+opportunity--he was not a man to let it pass. The plan was feasible,
+though, it must be confessed, dangerous in the extreme. In the night,
+in spite of their guards, they might approach the balloon, slip into the
+car, and then cut the cords which held it. There was no doubt that they
+might be killed, but on the other hand they might succeed, and without
+this storm!--Without this storm the balloon would have started already
+and the looked-for opportunity would not have then presented itself.
+
+“I am not alone!” said Harding at last.
+
+“How many people do you wish to bring with you?” asked the sailor.
+
+“Two; my friend Spilett, and my servant Neb.”
+
+“That will be three,” replied Pencroft; “and with Herbert and me five.
+But the balloon will hold six--”
+
+“That will be enough, we will go,” answered Harding in a firm voice.
+
+This “we” included Spilett, for the reporter, as his friend well knew,
+was not a man to draw back, and when the project was communicated to him
+he approved of it unreservedly. What astonished him was, that so simple
+an idea had not occurred to him before. As to Neb, he followed his
+master wherever his master wished to go.
+
+“This evening, then,” said Pencroft, “we will all meet out there.”
+
+“This evening, at ten o’clock,” replied Captain Harding; “and Heaven
+grant that the storm does not abate before our departure.”
+
+Pencroft took leave of the two friends, and returned to his lodging,
+where young Herbert Brown had remained. The courageous boy knew of the
+sailor’s plan, and it was not without anxiety that he awaited the result
+of the proposal being made to the engineer. Thus five determined
+persons were about to abandon themselves to the mercy of the tempestuous
+elements!
+
+No! the storm did not abate, and neither Jonathan Forster nor his
+companions dreamed of confronting it in that frail car.
+
+It would be a terrible journey. The engineer only feared one thing; it
+was that the balloon, held to the ground and dashed about by the
+wind, would be torn into shreds. For several hours he roamed round the
+nearly-deserted square, surveying the apparatus. Pencroft did the same
+on his side, his hands in his pockets, yawning now and then like a man
+who did not know how to kill the time, but really dreading, like
+his friend, either the escape or destruction of the balloon. Evening
+arrived. The night was dark in the extreme. Thick mists passed like
+clouds close to the ground. Rain fell mingled with snow, it was very
+cold. A mist hung over Richmond. It seemed as if the violent storm had
+produced a truce between the besiegers and the besieged, and that the
+cannon were silenced by the louder detonations of the storm. The streets
+of the town were deserted. It had not even appeared necessary in that
+horrible weather to place a guard in the square, in the midst of which
+plunged the balloon. Everything favored the departure of the prisoners,
+but what might possibly be the termination of the hazardous voyage they
+contemplated in the midst of the furious elements?--
+
+“Dirty weather!” exclaimed Pencroft, fixing his hat firmly on his head
+with a blow of his fist; “but pshaw, we shall succeed all the same!”
+
+At half-past nine, Harding and his companions glided from different
+directions into the square, which the gas-lamps, extinguished by the
+wind, had left in total obscurity. Even the enormous balloon, almost
+beaten to the ground, could not be seen. Independently of the sacks of
+ballast, to which the cords of the net were fastened, the car was
+held by a strong cable passed through a ring in the pavement. The five
+prisoners met by the car. They had not been perceived, and such was the
+darkness that they could not even see each other.
+
+Without speaking a word, Harding, Spilett, Neb, and Herbert took their
+places in the car, while Pencroft by the engineer’s order detached
+successively the bags of ballast. It was the work of a few minutes only,
+and the sailor rejoined his companions.
+
+The balloon was then only held by the cable, and the engineer had
+nothing to do but to give the word.
+
+At that moment a dog sprang with a bound into the car. It was Top,
+a favorite of the engineer. The faithful creature, having broken his
+chain, had followed his master. He, however, fearing that its additional
+weight might impede their ascent, wished to send away the animal.
+
+“One more will make but little difference, poor beast!” exclaimed
+Pencroft, heaving out two bags of sand, and as he spoke letting go the
+cable; the balloon ascending in an oblique direction, disappeared, after
+having dashed the car against two chimneys, which it threw down as it
+swept by them.
+
+Then, indeed, the full rage of the hurricane was exhibited to the
+voyagers. During the night the engineer could not dream of descending,
+and when day broke, even a glimpse of the earth below was intercepted by
+fog.
+
+Five days had passed when a partial clearing allowed them to see the
+wide extending ocean beneath their feet, now lashed into the maddest
+fury by the gale.
+
+Our readers will recollect what befell these five daring individuals
+who set out on their hazardous expedition in the balloon on the 20th of
+March. Five days afterwards four of them were thrown on a desert coast,
+seven thousand miles from their country! But one of their number was
+missing, the man who was to be their guide, their leading spirit, the
+engineer, Captain Harding! The instant they had recovered their feet,
+they all hurried to the beach in the hopes of rendering him assistance.
+
+
+
+Chapter 3
+
+The engineer, the meshes of the net having given way, had been carried
+off by a wave. His dog also had disappeared. The faithful animal
+had voluntarily leaped out to help his master. “Forward,” cried the
+reporter; and all four, Spilett, Herbert, Pencroft, and Neb, forgetting
+their fatigue, began their search. Poor Neb shed bitter tears, giving
+way to despair at the thought of having lost the only being he loved on
+earth.
+
+Only two minutes had passed from the time when Cyrus Harding disappeared
+to the moment when his companions set foot on the ground. They had hopes
+therefore of arriving in time to save him. “Let us look for him! let us
+look for him!” cried Neb.
+
+“Yes, Neb,” replied Gideon Spilett, “and we will find him too!”
+
+“Living, I trust!”
+
+“Still living!”
+
+“Can he swim?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“Yes,” replied Neb, “and besides, Top is there.”
+
+The sailor, observing the heavy surf on the shore, shook his head.
+
+The engineer had disappeared to the north of the shore, and nearly half
+a mile from the place where the castaways had landed. The nearest point
+of the beach he could reach was thus fully that distance off.
+
+It was then nearly six o’clock. A thick fog made the night very dark.
+The castaways proceeded toward the north of the land on which chance had
+thrown them, an unknown region, the geographical situation of which they
+could not even guess. They were walking upon a sandy soil, mingled with
+stones, which appeared destitute of any sort of vegetation. The ground,
+very unequal and rough, was in some places perfectly riddled with holes,
+making walking extremely painful. From these holes escaped every minute
+great birds of clumsy flight, which flew in all directions. Others, more
+active, rose in flocks and passed in clouds over their heads. The sailor
+thought he recognized gulls and cormorants, whose shrill cries rose
+above the roaring of the sea.
+
+From time to time the castaways stopped and shouted, then listened for
+some response from the ocean, for they thought that if the engineer had
+landed, and they had been near to the place, they would have heard the
+barking of the dog Top, even should Harding himself have been unable to
+give any sign of existence. They stopped to listen, but no sound arose
+above the roaring of the waves and the dashing of the surf. The little
+band then continued their march forward, searching into every hollow of
+the shore.
+
+After walking for twenty minutes, the four castaways were suddenly
+brought to a standstill by the sight of foaming billows close to
+their feet. The solid ground ended here. They found themselves at the
+extremity of a sharp point on which the sea broke furiously.
+
+“It is a promontory,” said the sailor; “we must retrace our steps,
+holding towards the right, and we shall thus gain the mainland.”
+
+“But if he is there,” said Neb, pointing to the ocean, whose waves shone
+of a snowy white in the darkness. “Well, let us call again,” and all
+uniting their voices, they gave a vigorous shout, but there came no
+reply. They waited for a lull, then began again; still no reply.
+
+The castaways accordingly returned, following the opposite side of the
+promontory, over a soil equally sandy and rugged. However, Pencroft
+observed that the shore was more equal, that the ground rose, and he
+declared that it was joined by a long slope to a hill, whose massive
+front he thought that he could see looming indistinctly through the
+mist. The birds were less numerous on this part of the shore; the sea
+was also less tumultuous, and they observed that the agitation of the
+waves was diminished. The noise of the surf was scarcely heard. This
+side of the promontory evidently formed a semicircular bay, which the
+sharp point sheltered from the breakers of the open sea. But to follow
+this direction was to go south, exactly opposite to that part of the
+coast where Harding might have landed. After a walk of a mile and a
+half, the shore presented no curve which would permit them to return to
+the north. This promontory, of which they had turned the point, must
+be attached to the mainland. The castaways, although their strength
+was nearly exhausted, still marched courageously forward, hoping every
+moment to meet with a sudden angle which would set them in the first
+direction. What was their disappointment, when, after trudging nearly
+two miles, having reached an elevated point composed of slippery rocks,
+they found themselves again stopped by the sea.
+
+“We are on an islet,” said Pencroft, “and we have surveyed it from one
+extremity to the other.”
+
+The sailor was right; they had been thrown, not on a continent, not
+even on an island, but on an islet which was not more than two miles in
+length, with even a less breadth.
+
+Was this barren spot the desolate refuge of sea-birds, strewn with
+stones and destitute of vegetation, attached to a more important
+archipelago? It was impossible to say. When the voyagers from their car
+saw the land through the mist, they had not been able to reconnoiter
+it sufficiently. However, Pencroft, accustomed with his sailor eyes
+to piece through the gloom, was almost certain that he could clearly
+distinguish in the west confused masses which indicated an elevated
+coast. But they could not in the dark determine whether it was a single
+island, or connected with others. They could not leave it either, as the
+sea surrounded them; they must therefore put off till the next day their
+search for the engineer, from whom, alas! not a single cry had reached
+them to show that he was still in existence.
+
+“The silence of our friend proves nothing,” said the reporter. “Perhaps
+he has fainted or is wounded, and unable to reply directly, so we will
+not despair.”
+
+The reporter then proposed to light a fire on a point of the islet,
+which would serve as a signal to the engineer. But they searched in vain
+for wood or dry brambles; nothing but sand and stones were to be found.
+The grief of Neb and his companions, who were all strongly attached to
+the intrepid Harding, can be better pictured than described. It was too
+evident that they were powerless to help him. They must wait with what
+patience they could for daylight. Either the engineer had been able to
+save himself, and had already found a refuge on some point of the coast,
+or he was lost for ever! The long and painful hours passed by. The cold
+was intense. The castaways suffered cruelly, but they scarcely perceived
+it. They did not even think of taking a minute’s rest. Forgetting
+everything but their chief, hoping or wishing to hope on, they continued
+to walk up and down on this sterile spot, always returning to its
+northern point, where they could approach nearest to the scene of the
+catastrophe. They listened, they called, and then uniting their voices,
+they endeavored to raise even a louder shout than before, which would
+be transmitted to a great distance. The wind had now fallen almost to
+a calm, and the noise of the sea began also to subside. One of Neb’s
+shouts even appeared to produce an echo. Herbert directed Pencroft’s
+attention to it, adding, “That proves that there is a coast to the west,
+at no great distance.” The sailor nodded; besides, his eyes could not
+deceive him. If he had discovered land, however indistinct it might
+appear, land was sure to be there. But that distant echo was the only
+response produced by Neb’s shouts, while a heavy gloom hung over all the
+part east of the island.
+
+Meanwhile, the sky was clearing little by little. Towards midnight the
+stars shone out, and if the engineer had been there with his companions
+he would have remarked that these stars did not belong to the Northern
+Hemisphere. The Polar Star was not visible, the constellations were not
+those which they had been accustomed to see in the United States; the
+Southern Cross glittered brightly in the sky.
+
+The night passed away. Towards five o’clock in the morning of the 25th
+of March, the sky began to lighten; the horizon still remained dark,
+but with daybreak a thick mist rose from the sea, so that the eye could
+scarcely penetrate beyond twenty feet or so from where they stood. At
+length the fog gradually unrolled itself in great heavily moving waves.
+
+It was unfortunate, however, that the castaways could distinguish
+nothing around them. While the gaze of the reporter and Neb were cast
+upon the ocean, the sailor and Herbert looked eagerly for the coast
+in the west. But not a speck of land was visible. “Never mind,” said
+Pencroft, “though I do not see the land, I feel it... it is there...
+there... as sure as the fact that we are no longer at Richmond.” But the
+fog was not long in rising. It was only a fine-weather mist. A hot
+sun soon penetrated to the surface of the island. About half-past
+six, three-quarters of an hour after sunrise, the mist became more
+transparent. It grew thicker above, but cleared away below. Soon the
+isle appeared as if it had descended from a cloud, then the sea showed
+itself around them, spreading far away towards the east, but bounded on
+the west by an abrupt and precipitous coast.
+
+Yes! the land was there. Their safety was at least provisionally
+insured. The islet and the coast were separated by a channel about half
+a mile in breadth, through which rushed an extremely rapid current.
+
+However, one of the castaways, following the impulse of his heart,
+immediately threw himself into the current, without consulting his
+companions, without saying a single word. It was Neb. He was in haste
+to be on the other side, and to climb towards the north. It had been
+impossible to hold him back. Pencroft called him in vain. The reporter
+prepared to follow him, but Pencroft stopped him. “Do you want to cross
+the channel?” he asked. “Yes,” replied Spilett. “All right!” said the
+seaman; “wait a bit; Neb is well able to carry help to his master. If we
+venture into the channel, we risk being carried into the open sea by
+the current, which is running very strong; but, if I’m not wrong, it is
+ebbing. See, the tide is going down over the sand. Let us have patience,
+and at low water it is possible we may find a fordable passage.” “You
+are right,” replied the reporter, “we will not separate more than we can
+help.”
+
+During this time Neb was struggling vigorously against the current. He
+was crossing in an oblique direction. His black shoulders could be seen
+emerging at each stroke. He was carried down very quickly, but he also
+made way towards the shore. It took more than half an hour to cross from
+the islet to the land, and he reached the shore several hundred feet
+from the place which was opposite to the point from which he had
+started.
+
+Landing at the foot of a high wall of granite, he shook himself
+vigorously; and then, setting off running, soon disappeared behind
+a rocky point, which projected to nearly the height of the northern
+extremity of the islet.
+
+Neb’s companions had watched his daring attempt with painful anxiety,
+and when he was out of sight, they fixed their attention on the land
+where their hope of safety lay, while eating some shell-fish with which
+the sand was strewn. It was a wretched repast, but still it was better
+than nothing. The opposite coast formed one vast bay, terminating on the
+south by a very sharp point, which was destitute of all vegetation,
+and was of a very wild aspect. This point abutted on the shore in a
+grotesque outline of high granite rocks. Towards the north, on the
+contrary, the bay widened, and a more rounded coast appeared, trending
+from the southwest to the northeast, and terminating in a slender cape.
+The distance between these two extremities, which made the bow of the
+bay, was about eight miles. Half a mile from the shore rose the islet,
+which somewhat resembled the carcass of a gigantic whale. Its extreme
+breadth was not more than a quarter of a mile.
+
+Opposite the islet, the beach consisted first of sand, covered with
+black stones, which were now appearing little by little above the
+retreating tide. The second level was separated by a perpendicular
+granite cliff, terminated at the top by an unequal edge at a height of
+at least 300 feet. It continued thus for a length of three miles, ending
+suddenly on the right with a precipice which looked as if cut by the
+hand of man. On the left, above the promontory, this irregular and
+jagged cliff descended by a long slope of conglomerated rocks till it
+mingled with the ground of the southern point. On the upper plateau of
+the coast not a tree appeared. It was a flat tableland like that above
+Cape Town at the Cape of Good Hope, but of reduced proportions; at least
+so it appeared seen from the islet. However, verdure was not wanting to
+the right beyond the precipice. They could easily distinguish a confused
+mass of great trees, which extended beyond the limits of their view.
+This verdure relieved the eye, so long wearied by the continued ranges
+of granite. Lastly, beyond and above the plateau, in a northwesterly
+direction and at a distance of at least seven miles, glittered a white
+summit which reflected the sun’s rays. It was that of a lofty mountain,
+capped with snow.
+
+The question could not at present be decided whether this land formed
+an island, or whether it belonged to a continent. But on beholding
+the convulsed masses heaped up on the left, no geologist would have
+hesitated to give them a volcanic origin, for they were unquestionably
+the work of subterranean convulsions.
+
+Gideon Spilett, Pencroft, and Herbert attentively examined this land, on
+which they might perhaps have to live many long years; on which indeed
+they might even die, should it be out of the usual track of vessels, as
+was likely to be the case.
+
+“Well,” asked Herbert, “what do you say, Pencroft?”
+
+“There is some good and some bad, as in everything,” replied the sailor.
+“We shall see. But now the ebb is evidently making. In three hours we
+will attempt the passage, and once on the other side, we will try to get
+out of this scrape, and I hope may find the captain.” Pencroft was not
+wrong in his anticipations. Three hours later at low tide, the greater
+part of the sand forming the bed of the channel was uncovered. Between
+the islet and the coast there only remained a narrow channel which would
+no doubt be easy to cross.
+
+About ten o’clock, Gideon Spilett and his companions stripped themselves
+of their clothes, which they placed in bundles on their heads, and
+then ventured into the water, which was not more than five feet deep.
+Herbert, for whom it was too deep, swam like a fish, and got through
+capitally. All three arrived without difficulty on the opposite shore.
+Quickly drying themselves in the sun, they put on their clothes, which
+they had preserved from contact with the water, and sat down to take
+counsel together what to do next.
+
+
+
+Chapter 4
+
+All at once the reporter sprang up, and telling the sailor that he would
+rejoin them at that same place, he climbed the cliff in the direction
+which the Negro Neb had taken a few hours before. Anxiety hastened
+his steps, for he longed to obtain news of his friend, and he soon
+disappeared round an angle of the cliff. Herbert wished to accompany
+him.
+
+“Stop here, my boy,” said the sailor; “we have to prepare an encampment,
+and to try and find rather better grub than these shell-fish. Our
+friends will want something when they come back. There is work for
+everybody.”
+
+“I am ready,” replied Herbert.
+
+“All right,” said the sailor; “that will do. We must set about it
+regularly. We are tired, cold, and hungry; therefore we must have
+shelter, fire, and food. There is wood in the forest, and eggs in nests;
+we have only to find a house.”
+
+“Very well,” returned Herbert, “I will look for a cave among the rocks,
+and I shall be sure to discover some hole into which we can creep.”
+
+“All right,” said Pencroft; “go on, my boy.”
+
+They both walked to the foot of the enormous wall over the beach, far
+from which the tide had now retreated; but instead of going towards the
+north, they went southward. Pencroft had remarked, several hundred feet
+from the place at which they landed, a narrow cutting, out of which
+he thought a river or stream might issue. Now, on the one hand it was
+important to settle themselves in the neighborhood of a good stream
+of water, and on the other it was possible that the current had thrown
+Cyrus Harding on the shore there.
+
+The cliff, as has been said, rose to a height of three hundred feet, but
+the mass was unbroken throughout, and even at its base, scarcely washed
+by the sea, it did not offer the smallest fissure which would serve as
+a dwelling. It was a perpendicular wall of very hard granite, which even
+the waves had not worn away. Towards the summit fluttered myriads of
+sea-fowl, and especially those of the web-footed species with long,
+flat, pointed beaks--a clamorous tribe, bold in the presence of man,
+who probably for the first time thus invaded their domains. Pencroft
+recognized the skua and other gulls among them, the voracious little
+sea-mew, which in great numbers nestled in the crevices of the granite.
+A shot fired among this swarm would have killed a great number, but to
+fire a shot a gun was needed, and neither Pencroft nor Herbert had one;
+besides this, gulls and sea-mews are scarcely eatable, and even their
+eggs have a detestable taste. However, Herbert, who had gone forward
+a little more to the left, soon came upon rocks covered with sea-weed,
+which, some hours later, would be hidden by the high tide. On these
+rocks, in the midst of slippery wrack, abounded bivalve shell-fish, not
+to be despised by starving people. Herbert called Pencroft, who ran up
+hastily.
+
+“Here are mussels!” cried the sailor; “these will do instead of eggs!”
+
+“They are not mussels,” replied Herbert, who was attentively examining
+the molluscs attached to the rocks; “they are lithodomes.”
+
+“Are they good to eat?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“Perfectly so.”
+
+“Then let us eat some lithodomes.”
+
+The sailor could rely upon Herbert; the young boy was well up in natural
+history, and always had had quite a passion for the science. His father
+had encouraged him in it, by letting him attend the lectures of the best
+professors in Boston, who were very fond of the intelligent, industrious
+lad. And his turn for natural history was, more than once in the course
+of time, of great use, and he was not mistaken in this instance. These
+lithodomes were oblong shells, suspended in clusters and adhering
+very tightly to the rocks. They belong to that species of molluscous
+perforators which excavate holes in the hardest stone; their shell is
+rounded at both ends, a feature which is not remarked in the common
+mussel.
+
+Pencroft and Herbert made a good meal of the lithodomes, which were
+then half opened to the sun. They ate them as oysters, and as they had
+a strong peppery taste, they were palatable without condiments of any
+sort.
+
+Their hunger was thus appeased for the time, but not their thirst, which
+increased after eating these naturally-spiced molluscs. They had then to
+find fresh water, and it was not likely that it would be wanting in such
+a capriciously uneven region. Pencroft and Herbert, after having taken
+the precaution of collecting an ample supply of lithodomes, with which
+they filled their pockets and handkerchiefs, regained the foot of the
+cliff.
+
+Two hundred paces farther they arrived at the cutting, through which, as
+Pencroft had guessed, ran a stream of water, whether fresh or not was to
+be ascertained. At this place the wall appeared to have been separated
+by some violent subterranean force. At its base was hollowed out a
+little creek, the farthest part of which formed a tolerably sharp angle.
+The watercourse at that part measured one hundred feet in breadth, and
+its two banks on each side were scarcely twenty feet high. The river
+became strong almost directly between the two walls of granite, which
+began to sink above the mouth; it then suddenly turned and disappeared
+beneath a wood of stunted trees half a mile off.
+
+“Here is the water, and yonder is the wood we require!” said Pencroft.
+“Well, Herbert, now we only want the house.”
+
+The water of the river was limpid. The sailor ascertained that at this
+time--that is to say, at low tide, when the rising floods did not reach
+it--it was sweet. This important point established, Herbert looked for
+some cavity which would serve them as a retreat, but in vain; everywhere
+the wall appeared smooth, plain, and perpendicular.
+
+However, at the mouth of the watercourse and above the reach of the high
+tide, the convulsions of nature had formed, not a grotto, but a pile
+of enormous rocks, such as are often met with in granite countries and
+which bear the name of “Chimneys.”
+
+Pencroft and Herbert penetrated quite far in among the rocks, by sandy
+passages in which light was not wanting, for it entered through the
+openings which were left between the blocks, of which some were only
+sustained by a miracle of equilibrium; but with the light came also
+air--a regular corridor-gale--and with the wind the sharp cold from the
+exterior. However, the sailor thought that by stopping-up some of
+the openings with a mixture of stones and sand, the Chimneys could be
+rendered habitable. Their geometrical plan represented the typographical
+sign “&,” which signifies “et cetera” abridged, but by isolating the
+upper mouth of the sign, through which the south and west winds blew so
+strongly, they could succeed in making the lower part of use.
+
+“Here’s our work,” said Pencroft, “and if we ever see Captain Harding
+again, he will know how to make something of this labyrinth.”
+
+“We shall see him again, Pencroft,” cried Herbert, “and when he returns
+he must find a tolerable dwelling here. It will be so, if we can make a
+fireplace in the left passage and keep an opening for the smoke.”
+
+“So we can, my boy,” replied the sailor, “and these Chimneys will serve
+our turn. Let us set to work, but first come and get a store of fuel. I
+think some branches will be very useful in stopping up these openings,
+through which the wind shrieks like so many fiends.”
+
+Herbert and Pencroft left the Chimneys, and, turning the angle, they
+began to climb the left bank of the river. The current here was quite
+rapid, and drifted down some dead wood. The rising tide--and it could
+already be perceived--must drive it back with force to a considerable
+distance. The sailor then thought that they could utilize this ebb and
+flow for the transport of heavy objects.
+
+After having walked for a quarter of an hour, the sailor and the boy
+arrived at the angle which the river made in turning towards the left.
+From this point its course was pursued through a forest of magnificent
+trees. These trees still retained their verdure, notwithstanding the
+advanced season, for they belonged to the family of “coniferae,” which
+is spread over all the regions of the globe, from northern climates to
+the tropics. The young naturalist recognized especially the “deedara,”
+ which are very numerous in the Himalayan zone, and which spread around
+them a most agreeable odor. Between these beautiful trees sprang up
+clusters of firs, whose opaque open parasol boughs spread wide around.
+Among the long grass, Pencroft felt that his feet were crushing dry
+branches which crackled like fireworks.
+
+“Well, my boy,” said he to Herbert, “if I don’t know the name of these
+trees, at any rate I reckon that we may call them ‘burning wood,’ and
+just now that’s the chief thing we want.”
+
+“Let us get a supply,” replied Herbert, who immediately set to work.
+
+The collection was easily made. It was not even necessary to lop the
+trees, for enormous quantities of dead wood were lying at their feet;
+but if fuel was not wanting, the means of transporting it was not yet
+found. The wood, being very dry, would burn rapidly; it was therefore
+necessary to carry to the Chimneys a considerable quantity, and the
+loads of two men would not be sufficient. Herbert remarked this.
+
+“Well, my boy,” replied the sailor, “there must be some way of carrying
+this wood; there is always a way of doing everything. If we had a cart
+or a boat, it would be easy enough.”
+
+“But we have the river,” said Herbert.
+
+“Right,” replied Pencroft; “the river will be to us like a road which
+carries of itself, and rafts have not been invented for nothing.”
+
+“Only,” observed Herbert, “at this moment our road is going the wrong
+way, for the tide is rising!”
+
+“We shall be all right if we wait till it ebbs,” replied the sailor,
+“and then we will trust it to carry our fuel to the Chimneys. Let us get
+the raft ready.”
+
+The sailor, followed by Herbert, directed his steps towards the river.
+They both carried, each in proportion to his strength, a load of wood
+bound in fagots. They found on the bank also a great quantity of dead
+branches in the midst of grass, among which the foot of man had probably
+never before trod. Pencroft began directly to make his raft. In a kind
+of little bay, created by a point of the shore which broke the current,
+the sailor and the lad placed some good-sized pieces of wood, which
+they had fastened together with dry creepers. A raft was thus formed, on
+which they stacked all they had collected, sufficient, indeed, to have
+loaded at least twenty men. In an hour the work was finished, and the
+raft moored to the bank, awaited the turning of the tide.
+
+There were still several hours to be occupied, and with one consent
+Pencroft and Herbert resolved to gain the upper plateau, so as to have a
+more extended view of the surrounding country.
+
+Exactly two hundred feet behind the angle formed by the river, the wall,
+terminated by a fall of rocks, died away in a gentle slope to the edge
+of the forest. It was a natural staircase. Herbert and the sailor began
+their ascent; thanks to the vigor of their muscles they reached the
+summit in a few minutes; and proceeded to the point above the mouth of
+the river.
+
+On attaining it, their first look was cast upon the ocean which not long
+before they had traversed in such a terrible condition. They observed,
+with emotion, all that part to the north of the coast on which the
+catastrophe had taken place. It was there that Cyrus Harding had
+disappeared. They looked to see if some portion of their balloon, to
+which a man might possibly cling, yet existed. Nothing! The sea was but
+one vast watery desert. As to the coast, it was solitary also. Neither
+the reporter nor Neb could be anywhere seen. But it was possible that at
+this time they were both too far away to be perceived.
+
+“Something tells me,” cried Herbert, “that a man as energetic as Captain
+Harding would not let himself be drowned like other people. He must have
+reached some point of the shore; don’t you think so, Pencroft?”
+
+The sailor shook his head sadly. He little expected ever to see Cyrus
+Harding again; but wishing to leave some hope to Herbert: “Doubtless,
+doubtless,” said he; “our engineer is a man who would get out of a
+scrape to which any one else would yield.”
+
+In the meantime he examined the coast with great attention. Stretched
+out below them was the sandy shore, bounded on the right of the river’s
+mouth by lines of breakers. The rocks which were visible appeared like
+amphibious monsters reposing in the surf. Beyond the reef, the sea
+sparkled beneath the sun’s rays. To the south a sharp point closed the
+horizon, and it could not be seen if the land was prolonged in that
+direction, or if it ran southeast and southwest, which would have made
+this coast a very long peninsula. At the northern extremity of the bay
+the outline of the shore was continued to a great distance in a wider
+curve. There the shore was low, flat, without cliffs, and with great
+banks of sand, which the tide left uncovered. Pencroft and Herbert then
+returned towards the west. Their attention was first arrested by the
+snow-topped mountain which rose at a distance of six or seven miles.
+From its first declivities to within two miles of the coast were spread
+vast masses of wood, relieved by large green patches, caused by the
+presence of evergreen trees. Then, from the edge of this forest to the
+shore extended a plain, scattered irregularly with groups of trees. Here
+and there on the left sparkled through glades the waters of the little
+river; they could trace its winding course back towards the spurs of the
+mountain, among which it seemed to spring. At the point where the sailor
+had left his raft of wood, it began to run between the two high granite
+walls; but if on the left bank the wall remained clear and abrupt, on
+the right bank, on the contrary, it sank gradually, the massive sides
+changed to isolated rocks, the rocks to stones, the stones to shingle
+running to the extremity of the point.
+
+“Are we on an island?” murmured the sailor.
+
+“At any rate, it seems to be big enough,” replied the lad.
+
+“An island, ever so big, is an island all the same!” said Pencroft.
+
+But this important question could not yet be answered. A more perfect
+survey had to be made to settle the point. As to the land itself, island
+or continent, it appeared fertile, agreeable in its aspect, and varied
+in its productions.
+
+“This is satisfactory,” observed Pencroft; “and in our misfortune, we
+must thank Providence for it.”
+
+“God be praised!” responded Herbert, whose pious heart was full of
+gratitude to the Author of all things.
+
+Pencroft and Herbert examined for some time the country on which
+they had been cast; but it was difficult to guess after so hasty an
+inspection what the future had in store for them.
+
+They then returned, following the southern crest of the granite
+platform, bordered by a long fringe of jagged rocks, of the most
+whimsical shapes. Some hundreds of birds lived there nestled in the
+holes of the stone; Herbert, jumping over the rocks, startled a whole
+flock of these winged creatures.
+
+“Oh!” cried he, “those are not gulls nor sea-mews!”
+
+“What are they then?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“Upon my word, one would say they were pigeons!”
+
+“Just so, but these are wild or rock pigeons. I recognize them by
+the double band of black on the wing, by the white tail, and by their
+slate-colored plumage. But if the rock-pigeon is good to eat, its eggs
+must be excellent, and we will soon see how many they may have left in
+their nests!”
+
+“We will not give them time to hatch, unless it is in the shape of an
+omelet!” replied Pencroft merrily.
+
+“But what will you make your omelet in?” asked Herbert; “in your hat?”
+
+“Well!” replied the sailor, “I am not quite conjuror enough for that;
+we must come down to eggs in the shell, my boy, and I will undertake to
+despatch the hardest!”
+
+Pencroft and Herbert attentively examined the cavities in the granite,
+and they really found eggs in some of the hollows. A few dozen being
+collected, were packed in the sailor’s handkerchief, and as the time
+when the tide would be full was approaching, Pencroft and Herbert began
+to redescend towards the watercourse. When they arrived there, it was
+an hour after midday. The tide had already turned. They must now avail
+themselves of the ebb to take the wood to the mouth. Pencroft did not
+intend to let the raft go away in the current without guidance, neither
+did he mean to embark on it himself to steer it. But a sailor is never
+at a loss when there is a question of cables or ropes, and Pencroft
+rapidly twisted a cord, a few fathoms long, made of dry creepers. This
+vegetable cable was fastened to the after-part of the raft, and the
+sailor held it in his hand while Herbert, pushing off the raft with
+a long pole, kept it in the current. This succeeded capitally. The
+enormous load of wood drifted down the current. The bank was very
+equal; there was no fear that the raft would run aground, and before
+two o’clock they arrived at the river’s mouth, a few paces from the
+Chimneys.
+
+
+
+Chapter 5
+
+Pencroft’s first care, after unloading the raft, was to render the cave
+habitable by stopping up all the holes which made it draughty. Sand,
+stones, twisted branches, wet clay, closed up the galleries open to the
+south winds. One narrow and winding opening at the side was kept, to
+lead out the smoke and to make the fire draw. The cave was thus divided
+into three or four rooms, if such dark dens with which a donkey would
+scarcely have been contented deserved the name. But they were dry, and
+there was space to stand upright, at least in the principal room, which
+occupied the center. The floor was covered with fine sand, and taking
+all in all they were well pleased with it for want of a better.
+
+“Perhaps,” said Herbert, while he and Pencroft were working, “our
+companions have found a superior place to ours.”
+
+“Very likely,” replied the seaman; “but, as we don’t know, we must work
+all the same. Better to have two strings to one’s bow than no string at
+all!”
+
+“Oh!” exclaimed Herbert, “how jolly it will be if they were to find
+Captain Harding and were to bring him back with them!”
+
+“Yes, indeed!” said Pencroft, “that was a man of the right sort.”
+
+“Was!” exclaimed Herbert, “do you despair of ever seeing him again?”
+
+“God forbid!” replied the sailor. Their work was soon done, and Pencroft
+declared himself very well satisfied.
+
+“Now,” said he, “our friends can come back when they like. They will
+find a good enough shelter.”
+
+They now had only to make a fireplace and to prepare the supper--an easy
+task. Large flat stones were placed on the ground at the opening of the
+narrow passage which had been kept. This, if the smoke did not take
+the heat out with it, would be enough to maintain an equal temperature
+inside. Their wood was stowed away in one of the rooms, and the sailor
+laid in the fireplace some logs and brushwood. The seaman was busy with
+this, when Herbert asked him if he had any matches.
+
+“Certainly,” replied Pencroft, “and I may say happily, for without
+matches or tinder we should be in a fix.”
+
+“Still we might get fire as the savages do,” replied Herbert, “by
+rubbing two bits of dry stick one against the other.”
+
+“All right; try, my boy, and let’s see if you can do anything besides
+exercising your arms.”
+
+“Well, it’s a very simple proceeding, and much used in the islands of
+the Pacific.”
+
+“I don’t deny it,” replied Pencroft, “but the savages must know how to
+do it or employ a peculiar wood, for more than once I have tried to
+get fire in that way, but I could never manage it. I must say I prefer
+matches. By the bye, where are my matches?”
+
+Pencroft searched in his waistcoat for the box, which was always there,
+for he was a confirmed smoker. He could not find it; he rummaged the
+pockets of his trousers, but, to his horror, he could nowhere discover
+the box.
+
+“Here’s a go!” said he, looking at Herbert. “The box must have
+fallen out of my pocket and got lost! Surely, Herbert, you must have
+something--a tinder-box--anything that can possibly make fire!”
+
+“No, I haven’t, Pencroft.”
+
+The sailor rushed out, followed by the boy. On the sand, among the
+rocks, near the river’s bank, they both searched carefully, but in vain.
+The box was of copper, and therefore would have been easily seen.
+
+“Pencroft,” asked Herbert, “didn’t you throw it out of the car?”
+
+“I knew better than that,” replied the sailor; “but such a small article
+could easily disappear in the tumbling about we have gone through. I
+would rather even have lost my pipe! Confound the box! Where can it be?”
+
+“Look here, the tide is going down,” said Herbert; “let’s run to the
+place where we landed.”
+
+It was scarcely probable that they would find the box, which the waves
+had rolled about among the pebbles, at high tide, but it was as well
+to try. Herbert and Pencroft walked rapidly to the point where they had
+landed the day before, about two hundred feet from the cave. They hunted
+there, among the shingle, in the clefts of the rocks, but found nothing.
+If the box had fallen at this place it must have been swept away by the
+waves. As the sea went down, they searched every little crevice with
+no result. It was a grave loss in their circumstances, and for the
+time irreparable. Pencroft could not hide his vexation; he looked very
+anxious, but said not a word. Herbert tried to console him by observing,
+that if they had found the matches, they would, very likely, have been
+wetted by the sea and useless.
+
+“No, my boy,” replied the sailor; “they were in a copper box which shut
+very tightly; and now what are we to do?”
+
+“We shall certainly find some way of making a fire,” said Herbert.
+“Captain Harding or Mr. Spilett will not be without them.”
+
+“Yes,” replied Pencroft; “but in the meantime we are without fire, and
+our companions will find but a sorry repast on their return.”
+
+“But,” said Herbert quickly, “do you think it possible that they have no
+tinder or matches?”
+
+“I doubt it,” replied the sailor, shaking his head, “for neither Neb nor
+Captain Harding smoke, and I believe that Mr. Spilett would rather keep
+his note-book than his match-box.”
+
+Herbert did not reply. The loss of the box was certainly to be
+regretted, but the boy was still sure of procuring fire in some way or
+other. Pencroft, more experienced, did not think so, although he was not
+a man to trouble himself about a small or great grievance. At any rate,
+there was only one thing to be done--to await the return of Neb and the
+reporter; but they must give up the feast of hard eggs which they had
+meant to prepare, and a meal of raw flesh was not an agreeable prospect
+either for themselves or for the others.
+
+Before returning to the cave, the sailor and Herbert, in the event of
+fire being positively unattainable, collected some more shell-fish, and
+then silently retraced their steps to their dwelling.
+
+Pencroft, his eyes fixed on the ground, still looked for his box. He
+even climbed up the left bank of the river from its mouth to the angle
+where the raft had been moored. He returned to the plateau, went over it
+in every direction, searched among the high grass on the border of the
+forest, all in vain.
+
+It was five in the evening when he and Herbert re-entered the cave.
+It is useless to say that the darkest corners of the passages were
+ransacked before they were obliged to give it up in despair. Towards
+six o’clock, when the sun was disappearing behind the high lands of the
+west, Herbert, who was walking up and down on the strand, signalized the
+return of Neb and Spilett.
+
+They were returning alone!... The boy’s heart sank; the sailor had not
+been deceived in his forebodings; the engineer, Cyrus Harding, had not
+been found!
+
+The reporter, on his arrival, sat down on a rock, without saying
+anything. Exhausted with fatigue, dying of hunger, he had not strength
+to utter a word.
+
+As to Neb, his red eyes showed how he had cried, and the tears which he
+could not restrain told too clearly that he had lost all hope.
+
+The reporter recounted all that they had done in their attempt to
+recover Cyrus Harding. He and Neb had surveyed the coast for a distance
+of eight miles and consequently much beyond the place where the balloon
+had fallen the last time but one, a fall which was followed by the
+disappearance of the engineer and the dog Top. The shore was solitary;
+not a vestige of a mark. Not even a pebble recently displaced; not a
+trace on the sand; not a human footstep on all that part of the beach.
+It was clear that that portion of the shore had never been visited by
+a human being. The sea was as deserted as the land, and it was there,
+a few hundred feet from the coast, that the engineer must have found a
+tomb.
+
+As Spilett ended his account, Neb jumped up, exclaiming in a voice which
+showed how hope struggled within him, “No! he is not dead! he can’t be
+dead! It might happen to any one else, but never to him! He could get
+out of anything!” Then his strength forsaking him, “Oh! I can do no
+more!” he murmured.
+
+“Neb,” said Herbert, running to him, “we will find him! God will give
+him back to us! But in the meantime you are hungry, and you must eat
+something.”
+
+So saying, he offered the poor Negro a few handfuls of shell-fish, which
+was indeed wretched and insufficient food. Neb had not eaten anything
+for several hours, but he refused them. He could not, would not live
+without his master.
+
+As to Gideon Spilett, he devoured the shell-fish, then he laid himself
+down on the sand, at the foot of a rock. He was very weak, but calm.
+Herbert went up to him, and taking his hand, “Sir,” said he, “we
+have found a shelter which will be better than lying here. Night is
+advancing. Come and rest! To-morrow we will search farther.”
+
+The reporter got up, and guided by the boy went towards the cave. On
+the way, Pencroft asked him in the most natural tone, if by chance he
+happened to have a match or two.
+
+The reporter stopped, felt in his pockets, but finding nothing said, “I
+had some, but I must have thrown them away.”
+
+The seaman then put the same question to Neb and received the same
+answer.
+
+“Confound it!” exclaimed the sailor.
+
+The reporter heard him and seizing his arm, “Have you no matches?” he
+asked.
+
+“Not one, and no fire in consequence.”
+
+“Ah!” cried Neb, “if my master was here, he would know what to do!”
+
+The four castaways remained motionless, looking uneasily at each other.
+Herbert was the first to break the silence by saying, “Mr. Spilett,
+you are a smoker and always have matches about you; perhaps you haven’t
+looked well, try again, a single match will be enough!”
+
+The reporter hunted again in the pockets of his trousers, waistcoat, and
+great-coat, and at last to Pencroft’s great joy, no less to his extreme
+surprise, he felt a tiny piece of wood entangled in the lining of his
+waistcoat. He seized it with his fingers through the stuff, but he could
+not get it out. If this was a match and a single one, it was of great
+importance not to rub off the phosphorus.
+
+“Will you let me try?” said the boy, and very cleverly, without breaking
+it, he managed to draw out the wretched yet precious little bit of wood
+which was of such great importance to these poor men. It was unused.
+
+“Hurrah!” cried Pencroft; “it is as good as having a whole cargo!” He
+took the match, and, followed by his companions, entered the cave.
+
+This small piece of wood, of which so many in an inhabited country are
+wasted with indifference and are of no value, must here be used with the
+greatest caution.
+
+The sailor first made sure that it was quite dry; that done, “We must
+have some paper,” said he.
+
+“Here,” replied Spilett, after some hesitation tearing a leaf out of his
+note-book.
+
+Pencroft took the piece of paper which the reporter held out to him, and
+knelt down before the fireplace. Some handfuls of grass, leaves, and dry
+moss were placed under the fagots and disposed in such a way that the
+air could easily circulate, and the dry wood would rapidly catch fire.
+
+Pencroft then twisted the piece of paper into the shape of a cone, as
+smokers do in a high wind, and poked it in among the moss. Taking a
+small, rough stone, he wiped it carefully, and with a beating heart,
+holding his breath, he gently rubbed the match. The first attempt did
+not produce any effect. Pencroft had not struck hard enough, fearing to
+rub off the phosphorus.
+
+“No, I can’t do it,” said he, “my hand trembles, the match has missed
+fire; I cannot, I will not!” and rising, he told Herbert to take his
+place.
+
+Certainly the boy had never in all his life been so nervous. Prometheus
+going to steal the fire from heaven could not have been more anxious. He
+did not hesitate, however, but struck the match directly.
+
+A little spluttering was heard and a tiny blue flame sprang up, making
+a choking smoke. Herbert quickly turned the match so as to augment the
+flame, and then slipped it into the paper cone, which in a few seconds
+too caught fire, and then the moss.
+
+A minute later the dry wood crackled and a cheerful flame, assisted
+by the vigorous blowing of the sailor, sprang up in the midst of the
+darkness.
+
+“At last!” cried Pencroft, getting up; “I was never so nervous before in
+all my life!”
+
+The flat stones made a capital fireplace. The smoke went quite easily
+out at the narrow passage, the chimney drew, and an agreeable warmth was
+not long in being felt.
+
+They must now take great care not to let the fire go out, and always to
+keep some embers alight. It only needed care and attention, as they had
+plenty of wood and could renew their store at any time.
+
+Pencroft’s first thought was to use the fire by preparing a more
+nourishing supper than a dish of shell-fish. Two dozen eggs were
+brought by Herbert. The reporter leaning up in a corner, watched these
+preparations without saying anything. A threefold thought weighed on his
+mind. Was Cyrus still alive? If he was alive, where was he? If he had
+survived from his fall, how was it that he had not found some means of
+making known his existence? As to Neb, he was roaming about the shore.
+He was like a body without a soul.
+
+Pencroft knew fifty ways of cooking eggs, but this time he had no
+choice, and was obliged to content himself with roasting them under
+the hot cinders. In a few minutes the cooking was done, and the seaman
+invited the reporter to take his share of the supper. Such was the
+first repast of the castaways on this unknown coast. The hard eggs
+were excellent, and as eggs contain everything indispensable to man’s
+nourishment, these poor people thought themselves well off, and were
+much strengthened by them. Oh! if only one of them had not been missing
+at this meal! If the five prisoners who escaped from Richmond had been
+all there, under the piled-up rocks, before this clear, crackling fire
+on the dry sand, what thanksgiving must they have rendered to Heaven!
+But the most ingenious, the most learned, he who was their unquestioned
+chief, Cyrus Harding, was, alas! missing, and his body had not even
+obtained a burial-place.
+
+Thus passed the 25th of March. Night had come on. Outside could be heard
+the howling of the wind and the monotonous sound of the surf breaking
+on the shore. The waves rolled the shingle backwards and forwards with a
+deafening noise.
+
+The reporter retired into a dark corner after having shortly noted down
+the occurrences of the day; the first appearance of this new land, the
+loss of their leader, the exploration of the coast, the incident of the
+matches, etc.; and then overcome by fatigue, he managed to forget his
+sorrows in sleep. Herbert went to sleep directly. As to the sailor, he
+passed the night with one eye on the fire, on which he did not
+spare fuel. But one of the castaways did not sleep in the cave. The
+inconsolable, despairing Neb, notwithstanding all that his companions
+could say to induce him to take some rest, wandered all night long on
+the shore calling on his master.
+
+
+
+Chapter 6
+
+The inventory of the articles possessed by these castaways from the
+clouds, thrown upon a coast which appeared to be uninhabited, was soon
+made out. They had nothing, save the clothes which they were wearing at
+the time of the catastrophe. We must mention, however, a note-book and
+a watch which Gideon Spilett had kept, doubtless by inadvertence, not a
+weapon, not a tool, not even a pocket-knife; for while in the car they
+had thrown out everything to lighten the balloon. The imaginary heroes
+of Daniel Defoe or of Wyss, as well as Selkirk and Raynal shipwrecked
+on Juan Fernandez and on the archipelago of the Aucklands, were never in
+such absolute destitution. Either they had abundant resources from their
+stranded vessels, in grain, cattle, tools, ammunition, or else some
+things were thrown up on the coast which supplied them with all the
+first necessities of life. But here, not any instrument whatever, not a
+utensil. From nothing they must supply themselves with everything.
+
+And yet, if Cyrus Harding had been with them, if the engineer could
+have brought his practical science, his inventive mind to bear on their
+situation, perhaps all hope would not have been lost. Alas! they must
+hope no longer again to see Cyrus Harding. The castaways could expect
+nothing but from themselves and from that Providence which never
+abandons those whose faith is sincere.
+
+But ought they to establish themselves on this part of the coast,
+without trying to know to what continent it belonged, if it was
+inhabited, or if they were on the shore of a desert island?
+
+It was an important question, and should be solved with the shortest
+possible delay. From its answer they would know what measures to take.
+However, according to Pencroft’s advice, it appeared best to wait a few
+days before commencing an exploration. They must, in fact, prepare some
+provisions and procure more strengthening food than eggs and molluscs.
+The explorers, before undertaking new fatigues, must first of all
+recruit their strength.
+
+The Chimneys offered a retreat sufficient for the present. The fire was
+lighted, and it was easy to preserve some embers. There were plenty of
+shell-fish and eggs among the rocks and on the beach. It would be easy
+to kill a few of the pigeons which were flying by hundreds about the
+summit of the plateau, either with sticks or stones. Perhaps the trees
+of the neighboring forest would supply them with eatable fruit. Lastly,
+the sweet water was there.
+
+It was accordingly settled that for a few days they would remain at the
+Chimneys so as to prepare themselves for an expedition, either along
+the shore or into the interior of the country. This plan suited Neb
+particularly. As obstinate in his ideas as in his presentiments, he
+was in no haste to abandon this part of the coast, the scene of the
+catastrophe. He did not, he would not believe in the loss of Cyrus
+Harding. No, it did not seem to him possible that such a man had ended
+in this vulgar fashion, carried away by a wave, drowned in the floods, a
+few hundred feet from a shore. As long as the waves had not cast up the
+body of the engineer, as long as he, Neb, had not seen with his eyes,
+touched with his hands the corpse of his master, he would not believe
+in his death! And this idea rooted itself deeper than ever in his
+determined heart. An illusion perhaps, but still an illusion to be
+respected, and one which the sailor did not wish to destroy. As for him,
+he hoped no longer, but there was no use in arguing with Neb. He was
+like the dog who will not leave the place where his master is buried,
+and his grief was such that most probably he would not survive him.
+
+This same morning, the 26th of March, at daybreak, Neb had set out on
+the shore in a northerly direction, and he had returned to the spot
+where the sea, no doubt, had closed over the unfortunate Harding.
+
+That day’s breakfast was composed solely of pigeon’s eggs and
+lithodomes. Herbert had found some salt deposited by evaporation in the
+hollows of the rocks, and this mineral was very welcome.
+
+The repast ended, Pencroft asked the reporter if he wished to accompany
+Herbert and himself to the forest, where they were going to try to
+hunt. But on consideration, it was thought necessary that someone should
+remain to keep in the fire, and to be at hand in the highly improbable
+event of Neb requiring aid. The reporter accordingly remained behind.
+
+“To the chase, Herbert,” said the sailor. “We shall find ammunition
+on our way, and cut our weapons in the forest.” But at the moment of
+starting, Herbert observed, that since they had no tinder, it would
+perhaps be prudent to replace it by another substance.
+
+“What?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“Burnt linen,” replied the boy. “That could in case of need serve for
+tinder.”
+
+The sailor thought it very sensible advice. Only it had the
+inconvenience of necessitating the sacrifice of a piece of handkerchief.
+Notwithstanding, the thing was well worth while trying, and a part of
+Pencroft’s large checked handkerchief was soon reduced to the state of
+a half-burnt rag. This inflammable material was placed in the central
+chamber at the bottom of a little cavity in the rock, sheltered from all
+wind and damp.
+
+It was nine o’clock in the morning. The weather was threatening and the
+breeze blew from the southeast. Herbert and Pencroft turned the angle of
+the Chimneys, not without having cast a look at the smoke which, just at
+that place, curled round a point of rock: they ascended the left bank of
+the river.
+
+Arrived at the forest, Pencroft broke from the first tree two stout
+branches which he transformed into clubs, the ends of which Herbert
+rubbed smooth on a rock. Oh! what would they not have given for a knife!
+
+The two hunters now advanced among the long grass, following the bank.
+From the turning which directed its course to the southwest, the river
+narrowed gradually and the channel lay between high banks, over
+which the trees formed a double arch. Pencroft, lest they should lose
+themselves, resolved to follow the course of the stream, which would
+always lead them back to the point from which they started. But the bank
+was not without some obstacles: here, the flexible branches of the trees
+bent level with the current; there, creepers and thorns which they had
+to break down with their sticks. Herbert often glided among the
+broken stumps with the agility of a young cat, and disappeared in the
+underwood. But Pencroft called him back directly, begging him not to
+wander away. Meanwhile, the sailor attentively observed the disposition
+and nature of the surrounding country. On the left bank, the ground,
+which was flat and marshy, rose imperceptibly towards the interior. It
+looked there like a network of liquid threads which doubtless reached
+the river by some underground drain. Sometimes a stream ran through the
+underwood, which they crossed without difficulty. The opposite shore
+appeared to be more uneven, and the valley of which the river occupied
+the bottom was more clearly visible. The hill, covered with trees
+disposed in terraces, intercepted the view. On the right bank walking
+would have been difficult, for the declivities fell suddenly, and the
+trees bending over the water were only sustained by the strength of
+their roots.
+
+It is needless to add that this forest, as well as the coast already
+surveyed, was destitute of any sign of human life. Pencroft only saw
+traces of quadrupeds, fresh footprints of animals, of which he could not
+recognize the species. In all probability, and such was also Herbert’s
+opinion, some had been left by formidable wild beasts which doubtless
+would give them some trouble; but nowhere did they observe the mark of
+an axe on the trees, nor the ashes of a fire, nor the impression of a
+human foot. On this they might probably congratulate themselves, for on
+any land in the middle of the Pacific the presence of man was perhaps
+more to be feared than desired. Herbert and Pencroft speaking little,
+for the difficulties of the way were great, advanced very slowly, and
+after walking for an hour they had scarcely gone more than a mile.
+As yet the hunt had not been successful. However, some birds sang
+and fluttered in the foliage, and appeared very timid, as if man had
+inspired them with an instinctive fear. Among others, Herbert described,
+in a marshy part of the forest, a bird with a long pointed beak, closely
+resembling the king-fisher, but its plumage was not fine, though of a
+metallic brilliancy.
+
+“That must be a jacamar,” said Herbert, trying to get nearer.
+
+“This will be a good opportunity to taste jacamar,” replied the sailor,
+“if that fellow is in a humor to be roasted!”
+
+Just then, a stone cleverly thrown by the boy, struck the creature on
+the wing, but the blow did not disable it, and the jacamar ran off and
+disappeared in an instant.
+
+“How clumsy I am!” cried Herbert.
+
+“No, no, my boy!” replied the sailor. “The blow was well aimed; many a
+one would have missed it altogether! Come, don’t be vexed with yourself.
+We shall catch it another day!”
+
+As the hunters advanced, the trees were found to be more scattered, many
+being magnificent, but none bore eatable fruit. Pencroft searched in
+vain for some of those precious palm-trees which are employed in so many
+ways in domestic life, and which have been found as far as the fortieth
+parallel in the Northern Hemisphere, and to the thirty-fifth only in
+the Southern Hemisphere. But this forest was only composed of coniferae,
+such as deodaras, already recognized by Herbert, and Douglas pine,
+similar to those which grow on the northwest coast of America, and
+splendid firs, measuring a hundred and fifty feet in height.
+
+At this moment a flock of birds, of a small size and pretty plumage,
+with long glancing tails, dispersed themselves among the branches
+strewing their feathers, which covered the ground as with fine down.
+Herbert picked up a few of these feathers, and after having examined
+them,--
+
+“These are couroucous,” said he.
+
+“I should prefer a moor-cock or guinea-fowl,” replied Pencroft, “still,
+if they are good to eat--”
+
+“They are good to eat, and also their flesh is very delicate,” replied
+Herbert. “Besides, if I don’t mistake, it is easy to approach and kill
+them with a stick.”
+
+The sailor and the lad, creeping among the grass, arrived at the foot
+of a tree, whose lower branches were covered with little birds. The
+couroucous were waiting the passage of insects which served for their
+nourishment. Their feathery feet could be seen clasping the slender
+twigs which supported them.
+
+The hunters then rose, and using their sticks like scythes, they mowed
+down whole rows of these couroucous, who never thought of flying away,
+and stupidly allowed themselves to be knocked off. A hundred were
+already heaped on the ground, before the others made up their minds to
+fly.
+
+“Well,” said Pencroft, “here is game, which is quite within the reach of
+hunters like us. We have only to put out our hands and take it!”
+
+The sailor having strung the couroucous like larks on flexible twigs,
+they then continued their exploration. The stream here made a bend
+towards the south, but this detour was probably not prolonged for the
+river must have its source in the mountain, and be supplied by the
+melting of the snow which covered the sides of the central cone.
+
+The particular object of their expedition was, as has been said, to
+procure the greatest possible quantity of game for the inhabitants of
+the Chimneys. It must be acknowledged that as yet this object had not
+been attained. So the sailor actively pursued his researches, though he
+exclaimed, when some animal which he had not even time to recognize
+fled into the long grass, “If only we had had the dog Top!” But Top had
+disappeared at the same time as his master, and had probably perished
+with him.
+
+Towards three o’clock new flocks of birds were seen through certain
+trees, at whose aromatic berries they were pecking, those of the
+juniper-tree among others. Suddenly a loud trumpet call resounded
+through the forest. This strange and sonorous cry was produced by a game
+bird called grouse in the United States. They soon saw several couples,
+whose plumage was rich chestnut-brown mottled with dark brown, and tail
+of the same color. Herbert recognized the males by the two wing-like
+appendages raised on the neck. Pencroft determined to get hold of at
+least one of these gallinaceae, which were as large as a fowl, and whose
+flesh is better than that of a pullet. But it was difficult, for they
+would not allow themselves to be approached. After several fruitless
+attempts, which resulted in nothing but scaring the grouse, the sailor
+said to the lad,--
+
+“Decidedly, since we can’t kill them on the wing, we must try to take
+them with a line.”
+
+“Like a fish?” cried Herbert, much surprised at the proposal.
+
+“Like a fish,” replied the sailor quite seriously. Pencroft had found
+among the grass half a dozen grouse nests, each having three or four
+eggs. He took great care not to touch these nests, to which their
+proprietors would not fail to return. It was around these that he
+meant to stretch his lines, not snares, but real fishing-lines. He took
+Herbert to some distance from the nests, and there prepared his singular
+apparatus with all the care which a disciple of Izaak Walton would
+have used. Herbert watched the work with great interest, though rather
+doubting its success. The lines were made of fine creepers, fastened
+one to the other, of the length of fifteen or twenty feet. Thick, strong
+thorns, the points bent back (which were supplied from a dwarf acacia
+bush) were fastened to the ends of the creepers, by way of hooks. Large
+red worms, which were crawling on the ground, furnished bait.
+
+This done, Pencroft, passing among the grass and concealing himself
+skillfully, placed the end of his lines armed with hooks near the grouse
+nests; then he returned, took the other ends and hid with Herbert behind
+a large tree. There they both waited patiently; though, it must be
+said, that Herbert did not reckon much on the success of the inventive
+Pencroft.
+
+A whole half-hour passed, but then, as the sailor had surmised, several
+couple of grouse returned to their nests. They walked along, pecking the
+ground, and not suspecting in any way the presence of the hunters,
+who, besides, had taken care to place themselves to leeward of the
+gallinaceae.
+
+The lad felt at this moment highly interested. He held his breath, and
+Pencroft, his eyes staring, his mouth open, his lips advanced, as if
+about to taste a piece of grouse, scarcely breathed.
+
+Meanwhile, the birds walked about the hooks, without taking any notice
+of them. Pencroft then gave little tugs which moved the bait as if the
+worms had been still alive.
+
+The sailor undoubtedly felt much greater anxiety than does the
+fisherman, for he does not see his prey coming through the water. The
+jerks attracted the attention of the gallinaceae, and they attacked the
+hooks with their beaks. Three voracious grouse swallowed at the same
+moment bait and hook. Suddenly with a smart jerk, Pencroft “struck” his
+line, and a flapping of wings showed that the birds were taken.
+
+“Hurrah!” he cried, rushing towards the game, of which he made himself
+master in an instant.
+
+Herbert clapped his hands. It was the first time that he had ever seen
+birds taken with a line, but the sailor modestly confessed that it was
+not his first attempt, and that besides he could not claim the merit of
+invention.
+
+“And at any rate,” added he, “situated as we are, we must hope to hit
+upon many other contrivances.”
+
+The grouse were fastened by their claws, and Pencroft, delighted at not
+having to appear before their companions with empty hands, and observing
+that the day had begun to decline, judged it best to return to their
+dwelling.
+
+The direction was indicated by the river, whose course they had only
+to follow, and, towards six o’clock, tired enough with their excursion,
+Herbert and Pencroft arrived at the Chimneys.
+
+
+
+Chapter 7
+
+Gideon Spilett was standing motionless on the shore, his arms crossed,
+gazing over the sea, the horizon of which was lost towards the east in
+a thick black cloud which was spreading rapidly towards the zenith.
+The wind was already strong, and increased with the decline of day.
+The whole sky was of a threatening aspect, and the first symptoms of a
+violent storm were clearly visible.
+
+Herbert entered the Chimneys, and Pencroft went towards the reporter.
+The latter, deeply absorbed, did not see him approach.
+
+“We are going to have a dirty night, Mr. Spilett!” said the sailor:
+“Petrels delight in wind and rain.”
+
+The reporter, turning at the moment, saw Pencroft, and his first words
+were,--
+
+“At what distance from the coast would you say the car was, when the
+waves carried off our companion?”
+
+The sailor had not expected this question. He reflected an instant and
+replied,--
+
+“Two cables lengths at the most.”
+
+“But what is a cable’s length?” asked Gideon Spilett.
+
+“About a hundred and twenty fathoms, or six hundred feet.”
+
+“Then,” said the reporter, “Cyrus Harding must have disappeared twelve
+hundred feet at the most from the shore?”
+
+“About that,” replied Pencroft.
+
+“And his dog also?”
+
+“Also.”
+
+“What astonishes me,” rejoined the reporter, “while admitting that our
+companion has perished, is that Top has also met his death, and that
+neither the body of the dog nor of his master has been cast on the
+shore!”
+
+“It is not astonishing, with such a heavy sea,” replied the sailor.
+“Besides, it is possible that currents have carried them farther down
+the coast.”
+
+“Then, it is your opinion that our friend has perished in the waves?”
+ again asked the reporter.
+
+“That is my opinion.”
+
+“My own opinion,” said Gideon Spilett, “with due deference to your
+experience, Pencroft, is that in the double fact of the absolute
+disappearance of Cyrus and Top, living or dead, there is something
+unaccountable and unlikely.”
+
+“I wish I could think like you, Mr. Spilett,” replied Pencroft;
+“unhappily, my mind is made up on this point.” Having said this, the
+sailor returned to the Chimneys. A good fire crackled on the hearth.
+Herbert had just thrown on an armful of dry wood, and the flame cast a
+bright light into the darkest parts of the passage.
+
+Pencroft immediately began to prepare the dinner. It appeared best to
+introduce something solid into the bill of fare, for all needed to get
+up their strength. The strings of couroucous were kept for the next day,
+but they plucked a couple of grouse, which were soon spitted on a stick,
+and roasting before a blazing fire.
+
+At seven in the evening Neb had not returned. The prolonged absence of
+the Negro made Pencroft very uneasy. It was to be feared that he had met
+with an accident on this unknown land, or that the unhappy fellow had
+been driven to some act of despair. But Herbert drew very different
+conclusions from this absence. According to him, Neb’s delay was caused
+by some new circumstances which had induced him to prolong his search.
+Also, everything new must be to the advantage of Cyrus Harding. Why had
+Neb not returned unless hope still detained him? Perhaps he had found
+some mark, a footstep, a trace which had put him in the right path.
+Perhaps he was at this moment on a certain track. Perhaps even he was
+near his master.
+
+Thus the lad reasoned. Thus he spoke. His companions let him talk. The
+reporter alone approved with a gesture. But what Pencroft thought most
+probable was, that Neb had pushed his researches on the shore farther
+than the day before, and that he had not as yet had time to return.
+
+Herbert, however, agitated by vague presentiments, several times
+manifested an intention to go to meet Neb. But Pencroft assured him
+that that would be a useless course, that in the darkness and deplorable
+weather he could not find any traces of Neb, and that it would be much
+better to wait. If Neb had not made his appearance by the next day,
+Pencroft would not hesitate to join him in his search.
+
+Gideon Spilett approved of the sailor’s opinion that it was best not to
+divide, and Herbert was obliged to give up his project; but two large
+tears fell from his eyes.
+
+The reporter could not refrain from embracing the generous boy.
+
+Bad weather now set in. A furious gale from the southeast passed over
+the coast. The sea roared as it beat over the reef. Heavy rain was
+dashed by the storm into particles like dust. Ragged masses of vapor
+drove along the beach, on which the tormented shingles sounded as if
+poured out in cart-loads, while the sand raised by the wind added as
+it were mineral dust to that which was liquid, and rendered the united
+attack insupportable. Between the river’s mouth and the end of the
+cliff, eddies of wind whirled and gusts from this maelstrom lashed the
+water which ran through the narrow valley. The smoke from the fireplace
+was also driven back through the opening, filling the passages and
+rendering them uninhabitable.
+
+Therefore, as the grouse were cooked, Pencroft let the fire die away,
+and only preserved a few embers buried under the ashes.
+
+At eight o’clock Neb had not appeared, but there was no doubt that the
+frightful weather alone hindered his return, and that he must have
+taken refuge in some cave, to await the end of the storm or at least the
+return of day. As to going to meet him, or attempting to find him, it
+was impossible.
+
+The game constituted the only dish at supper; the meat was excellent,
+and Pencroft and Herbert, whose long excursion had rendered them very
+hungry, devoured it with infinite satisfaction.
+
+Their meal concluded, each retired to the corner in which he had rested
+the preceding night, and Herbert was not long in going to sleep near the
+sailor, who had stretched himself beside the fireplace.
+
+Outside, as the night advanced, the tempest also increased in strength,
+until it was equal to that which had carried the prisoners from Richmond
+to this land in the Pacific. The tempests which are frequent during the
+seasons of the equinox, and which are so prolific in catastrophes, are
+above all terrible over this immense ocean, which opposes no obstacle to
+their fury. No description can give an idea of the terrific violence of
+the gale as it beat upon the unprotected coast.
+
+Happily the pile of rocks which formed the Chimneys was solid. It was
+composed of enormous blocks of granite, a few of which, insecurely
+balanced, seemed to tremble on their foundations, and Pencroft could
+feel rapid quiverings under his head as it rested on the rock. But he
+repeated to himself, and rightly, that there was nothing to fear, and
+that their retreat would not give way. However he heard the noise of
+stones torn from the summit of the plateau by the wind, falling down on
+to the beach. A few even rolled on to the upper part of the Chimneys,
+or flew off in fragments when they were projected perpendicularly. Twice
+the sailor rose and intrenched himself at the opening of the passage, so
+as to take a look in safety at the outside. But there was nothing to be
+feared from these showers, which were not considerable, and he returned
+to his couch before the fireplace, where the embers glowed beneath the
+ashes.
+
+Notwithstanding the fury of the hurricane, the uproar of the tempest,
+the thunder, and the tumult, Herbert slept profoundly. Sleep at last
+took possession of Pencroft, whom a seafaring life had habituated to
+anything. Gideon Spilett alone was kept awake by anxiety. He reproached
+himself with not having accompanied Neb. It was evident that he had not
+abandoned all hope. The presentiments which had troubled Herbert did not
+cease to agitate him also. His thoughts were concentrated on Neb. Why
+had Neb not returned? He tossed about on his sandy couch, scarcely
+giving a thought to the struggle of the elements. Now and then, his
+eyes, heavy with fatigue, closed for an instant, but some sudden thought
+reopened them almost immediately.
+
+Meanwhile the night advanced, and it was perhaps two hours from morning,
+when Pencroft, then sound asleep, was vigorously shaken.
+
+“What’s the matter?” he cried, rousing himself, and collecting his ideas
+with the promptitude usual to seamen.
+
+The reporter was leaning over him, and saying,--
+
+“Listen, Pencroft, listen!”
+
+The sailor strained his ears, but could hear no noise beyond those
+caused by the storm.
+
+“It is the wind,” said he.
+
+“No,” replied Gideon Spilett, listening again, “I thought I heard--”
+
+“What?”
+
+“The barking of a dog!”
+
+“A dog!” cried Pencroft, springing up.
+
+“Yes--barking--”
+
+“It’s not possible!” replied the sailor. “And besides, how, in the
+roaring of the storm--”
+
+“Stop--listen--” said the reporter.
+
+Pencroft listened more attentively, and really thought he heard, during
+a lull, distant barking.
+
+“Well!” said the reporter, pressing the sailor’s hand.
+
+“Yes--yes!” replied Pencroft.
+
+“It is Top! It is Top!” cried Herbert, who had just awoke; and all three
+rushed towards the opening of the Chimneys. They had great difficulty in
+getting out. The wind drove them back. But at last they succeeded, and
+could only remain standing by leaning against the rocks. They looked
+about, but could not speak. The darkness was intense. The sea, the sky,
+the land were all mingled in one black mass. Not a speck of light was
+visible.
+
+The reporter and his companions remained thus for a few minutes,
+overwhelmed by the wind, drenched by the rain, blinded by the sand.
+
+Then, in a pause of the tumult, they again heard the barking, which they
+found must be at some distance.
+
+It could only be Top! But was he alone or accompanied? He was most
+probably alone, for, if Neb had been with him, he would have made
+his way more directly towards the Chimneys. The sailor squeezed the
+reporter’s hand, for he could not make himself heard, in a way which
+signified “Wait!” then he reentered the passage.
+
+An instant after he issued with a lighted fagot, which he threw into the
+darkness, whistling shrilly.
+
+It appeared as if this signal had been waited for; the barking
+immediately came nearer, and soon a dog bounded into the passage.
+Pencroft, Herbert, and Spilett entered after him.
+
+An armful of dry wood was thrown on the embers. The passage was lighted
+up with a bright flame.
+
+“It is Top!” cried Herbert.
+
+It was indeed Top, a magnificent Anglo-Norman, who derived from these
+two races crossed the swiftness of foot and the acuteness of smell which
+are the preeminent qualities of coursing dogs. It was the dog of the
+engineer, Cyrus Harding. But he was alone! Neither Neb nor his master
+accompanied him!
+
+How was it that his instinct had guided him straight to the Chimneys,
+which he did not know? It appeared inexplicable, above all, in the
+midst of this black night and in such a tempest! But what was still more
+inexplicable was, that Top was neither tired, nor exhausted, nor even
+soiled with mud or sand!--Herbert had drawn him towards him, and was
+patting his head, the dog rubbing his neck against the lad’s hands.
+
+“If the dog is found, the master will be found also!” said the reporter.
+
+“God grant it!” responded Herbert. “Let us set off! Top will guide us!”
+
+Pencroft did not make any objection. He felt that Top’s arrival
+contradicted his conjectures. “Come along then!” said he.
+
+Pencroft carefully covered the embers on the hearth. He placed a few
+pieces of wood among them, so as to keep in the fire until their return.
+Then, preceded by the dog, who seemed to invite them by short barks to
+come with him, and followed by the reporter and the boy, he dashed out,
+after having put up in his handkerchief the remains of the supper.
+
+The storm was then in all its violence, and perhaps at its height. Not a
+single ray of light from the moon pierced through the clouds. To follow
+a straight course was difficult. It was best to rely on Top’s instinct.
+They did so. The reporter and Herbert walked behind the dog, and the
+sailor brought up the rear. It was impossible to exchange a word. The
+rain was not very heavy, but the wind was terrific.
+
+However, one circumstance favored the seaman and his two companions. The
+wind being southeast, consequently blew on their backs. The clouds of
+sand, which otherwise would have been insupportable, from being received
+behind, did not in consequence impede their progress. In short, they
+sometimes went faster than they liked, and had some difficulty in
+keeping their feet; but hope gave them strength, for it was not at
+random that they made their way along the shore. They had no doubt that
+Neb had found his master, and that he had sent them the faithful dog.
+But was the engineer living, or had Neb only sent for his companions
+that they might render the last duties to the corpse of the unfortunate
+Harding?
+
+After having passed the precipice, Herbert, the reporter, and Pencroft
+prudently stepped aside to stop and take breath. The turn of the rocks
+sheltered them from the wind, and they could breathe after this walk or
+rather run of a quarter of an hour.
+
+They could now hear and reply to each other, and the lad having
+pronounced the name of Cyrus Harding, Top gave a few short barks, as
+much as to say that his master was saved.
+
+“Saved, isn’t he?” repeated Herbert; “saved, Top?”
+
+And the dog barked in reply.
+
+They once more set out. The tide began to rise, and urged by the wind it
+threatened to be unusually high, as it was a spring tide. Great billows
+thundered against the reef with such violence that they probably passed
+entirely over the islet, then quite invisible. The mole no longer
+protected the coast, which was directly exposed to the attacks of the
+open sea.
+
+As soon as the sailor and his companions left the precipice, the wind
+struck them again with renewed fury. Though bent under the gale they
+walked very quickly, following Top, who did not hesitate as to what
+direction to take.
+
+They ascended towards the north, having on their left an interminable
+extent of billows, which broke with a deafening noise, and on their
+right a dark country, the aspect of which it was impossible to guess.
+But they felt that it was comparatively flat, for the wind passed
+completely over them, without being driven back as it was when it came
+in contact with the cliff.
+
+At four o’clock in the morning, they reckoned that they had cleared
+about five miles. The clouds were slightly raised, and the wind, though
+less damp, was very sharp and cold. Insufficiently protected by their
+clothing, Pencroft, Herbert and Spilett suffered cruelly, but not
+a complaint escaped their lips. They were determined to follow Top,
+wherever the intelligent animal wished to lead them.
+
+Towards five o’clock day began to break. At the zenith, where the fog
+was less thick, gray shades bordered the clouds; under an opaque belt, a
+luminous line clearly traced the horizon. The crests of the billows were
+tipped with a wild light, and the foam regained its whiteness. At the
+same time on the left the hilly parts of the coast could be seen, though
+very indistinctly.
+
+At six o’clock day had broken. The clouds rapidly lifted. The seaman and
+his companions were then about six miles from the Chimneys. They were
+following a very flat shore bounded by a reef of rocks, whose heads
+scarcely emerged from the sea, for they were in deep water. On the left,
+the country appeared to be one vast extent of sandy downs, bristling
+with thistles. There was no cliff, and the shore offered no resistance
+to the ocean but a chain of irregular hillocks. Here and there grew two
+or three trees, inclined towards the west, their branches projecting in
+that direction. Quite behind, in the southwest, extended the border of
+the forest.
+
+At this moment, Top became very excited. He ran forward, then returned,
+and seemed to entreat them to hasten their steps. The dog then left the
+beach, and guided by his wonderful instinct, without showing the least
+hesitation, went straight in among the downs. They followed him. The
+country appeared an absolute desert. Not a living creature was to be
+seen.
+
+The downs, the extent of which was large, were composed of hillocks
+and even of hills, very irregularly distributed. They resembled a
+Switzerland modeled in sand, and only an amazing instinct could have
+possibly recognized the way.
+
+Five minutes after having left the beach, the reporter and his two
+companions arrived at a sort of excavation, hollowed out at the back of
+a high mound. There Top stopped, and gave a loud, clear bark. Spilett,
+Herbert, and Pencroft dashed into the cave.
+
+Neb was there, kneeling beside a body extended on a bed of grass.
+
+The body was that of the engineer, Cyrus Harding.
+
+
+
+Chapter 8
+
+
+Neb did not move. Pencroft only uttered one word.
+
+“Living?” he cried.
+
+Neb did not reply. Spilett and the sailor turned pale. Herbert clasped
+his hands, and remained motionless. The poor Negro, absorbed in his
+grief, evidently had neither seen his companions nor heard the sailor
+speak.
+
+The reporter knelt down beside the motionless body, and placed his ear
+to the engineer’s chest, having first torn open his clothes.
+
+A minute--an age!--passed, during which he endeavored to catch the
+faintest throb of the heart.
+
+Neb had raised himself a little and gazed without seeing. Despair had
+completely changed his countenance. He could scarcely be recognized,
+exhausted with fatigue, broken with grief. He believed his master was
+dead.
+
+Gideon Spilett at last rose, after a long and attentive examination.
+
+“He lives!” said he.
+
+Pencroft knelt in his turn beside the engineer, he also heard a
+throbbing, and even felt a slight breath on his cheek.
+
+Herbert at a word from the reporter ran out to look for water. He found,
+a hundred feet off, a limpid stream, which seemed to have been greatly
+increased by the rains, and which filtered through the sand; but nothing
+in which to put the water, not even a shell among the downs. The lad was
+obliged to content himself with dipping his handkerchief in the stream,
+and with it hastened back to the grotto.
+
+Happily the wet handkerchief was enough for Gideon Spilett, who only
+wished to wet the engineer’s lips. The cold water produced an almost
+immediate effect. His chest heaved and he seemed to try to speak.
+
+“We will save him!” exclaimed the reporter.
+
+At these words hope revived in Neb’s heart. He undressed his master
+to see if he was wounded, but not so much as a bruise was to be found,
+either on the head, body, or limbs, which was surprising, as he must
+have been dashed against the rocks; even the hands were uninjured, and
+it was difficult to explain how the engineer showed no traces of the
+efforts which he must have made to get out of reach of the breakers.
+
+But the explanation would come later. When Cyrus was able to speak he
+would say what had happened. For the present the question was, how to
+recall him to life, and it appeared likely that rubbing would bring this
+about; so they set to work with the sailor’s jersey.
+
+The engineer, revived by this rude shampooing, moved his arm slightly
+and began to breathe more regularly. He was sinking from exhaustion,
+and certainly, had not the reporter and his companions arrived, it would
+have been all over with Cyrus Harding.
+
+“You thought your master was dead, didn’t you?” said the seaman to Neb.
+
+“Yes! quite dead!” replied Neb, “and if Top had not found you, and
+brought you here, I should have buried my master, and then have lain
+down on his grave to die!”
+
+It had indeed been a narrow escape for Cyrus Harding!
+
+Neb then recounted what had happened. The day before, after having
+left the Chimneys at daybreak, he had ascended the coast in a northerly
+direction, and had reached that part of the shore which he had already
+visited.
+
+There, without any hope he acknowledged, Neb had searched the beach,
+among the rocks, on the sand, for the smallest trace to guide him. He
+examined particularly that part of the beach which was not covered by
+the high tide, for near the sea the water would have obliterated all
+marks. Neb did not expect to find his master living. It was for a corpse
+that he searched, a corpse which he wished to bury with his own hands!
+
+He sought long in vain. This desert coast appeared never to have been
+visited by a human creature. The shells, those which the sea had not
+reached, and which might be met with by millions above high-water mark,
+were untouched. Not a shell was broken.
+
+Neb then resolved to walk along the beach for some miles. It was
+possible that the waves had carried the body to quite a distant point.
+When a corpse floats a little distance from a low shore, it rarely
+happens that the tide does not throw it up, sooner or later. This Neb
+knew, and he wished to see his master again for the last time.
+
+“I went along the coast for another two miles, carefully examining
+the beach, both at high and low water, and I had despaired of finding
+anything, when yesterday, above five in the evening, I saw footprints on
+the sand.”
+
+“Footprints?” exclaimed Pencroft.
+
+“Yes!” replied Neb.
+
+“Did these footprints begin at the water’s edge?” asked the reporter.
+
+“No,” replied Neb, “only above high-water mark, for the others must have
+been washed out by the tide.”
+
+“Go on, Neb,” said Spilett.
+
+“I went half crazy when I saw these footprints. They were very clear
+and went towards the downs. I followed them for a quarter of a mile,
+running, but taking care not to destroy them. Five minutes after, as
+it was getting dark, I heard the barking of a dog. It was Top, and Top
+brought me here, to my master!”
+
+Neb ended his account by saying what had been his grief at finding the
+inanimate body, in which he vainly sought for the least sign of life.
+Now that he had found him dead he longed for him to be alive. All his
+efforts were useless! Nothing remained to be done but to render the last
+duties to the one whom he had loved so much! Neb then thought of his
+companions. They, no doubt, would wish to see the unfortunate man again.
+Top was there. Could he not rely on the sagacity of the faithful animal?
+Neb several times pronounced the name of the reporter, the one among his
+companions whom Top knew best.
+
+Then he pointed to the south, and the dog bounded off in the direction
+indicated to him.
+
+We have heard how, guided by an instinct which might be looked upon
+almost as supernatural, Top had found them.
+
+Neb’s companions had listened with great attention to this account.
+
+It was unaccountable to them how Cyrus Harding, after the efforts which
+he must have made to escape from the waves by crossing the rocks, had
+not received even a scratch. And what could not be explained either was
+how the engineer had managed to get to this cave in the downs, more than
+a mile from the shore.
+
+“So, Neb,” said the reporter, “it was not you who brought your master to
+this place.”
+
+“No, it was not I,” replied the Negro.
+
+“It’s very clear that the captain came here by himself,” said Pencroft.
+
+“It is clear in reality,” observed Spilett, “but it is not credible!”
+
+The explanation of this fact could only be produced from the engineer’s
+own lips, and they must wait for that till speech returned. Rubbing had
+re-established the circulation of the blood. Cyrus Harding moved his arm
+again, then his head, and a few incomprehensible words escaped him.
+
+Neb, who was bending over him, spoke, but the engineer did not appear
+to hear, and his eyes remained closed. Life was only exhibited in him by
+movement, his senses had not as yet been restored.
+
+Pencroft much regretted not having either fire, or the means of
+procuring it, for he had, unfortunately, forgotten to bring the burnt
+linen, which would easily have ignited from the sparks produced by
+striking together two flints. As to the engineer’s pockets, they were
+entirely empty, except that of his waistcoat, which contained his watch.
+It was necessary to carry Harding to the Chimneys, and that as soon as
+possible. This was the opinion of all.
+
+Meanwhile, the care which was lavished on the engineer brought him back
+to consciousness sooner than they could have expected. The water with
+which they wetted his lips revived him gradually. Pencroft also thought
+of mixing with the water some moisture from the titra’s flesh which
+he had brought. Herbert ran to the beach and returned with two large
+bivalve shells. The sailor concocted something which he introduced
+between the lips of the engineer, who eagerly drinking it opened his
+eyes.
+
+Neb and the reporter were leaning over him.
+
+“My master! my master!” cried Neb.
+
+The engineer heard him. He recognized Neb and Spilett, then his other
+two companions, and his hand slightly pressed theirs.
+
+A few words again escaped him, which showed what thoughts were, even
+then, troubling his brain. This time he was understood. Undoubtedly they
+were the same words he had before attempted to utter.
+
+“Island or continent?” he murmured.
+
+“Bother the continent,” cried Pencroft hastily; “there is time enough
+to see about that, captain! we don’t care for anything, provided you are
+living.”
+
+The engineer nodded faintly, and then appeared to sleep.
+
+They respected this sleep, and the reporter began immediately to make
+arrangements for transporting Harding to a more comfortable place. Neb,
+Herbert, and Pencroft left the cave and directed their steps towards
+a high mound crowned with a few distorted trees. On the way the sailor
+could not help repeating,--
+
+“Island or continent! To think of that, when at one’s last gasp! What a
+man!”
+
+Arrived at the summit of the mound, Pencroft and his two companions
+set to work, with no other tools than their hands, to despoil of its
+principal branches a rather sickly tree, a sort of marine fir; with
+these branches they made a litter, on which, covered with grass and
+leaves, they could carry the engineer.
+
+This occupied them nearly forty minutes, and it was ten o’clock when
+they returned to Cyrus Harding whom Spilett had not left.
+
+The engineer was just awaking from the sleep, or rather from the
+drowsiness, in which they had found him. The color was returning to his
+cheeks, which till now had been as pale as death. He raised himself a
+little, looked around him, and appeared to ask where he was.
+
+“Can you listen to me without fatigue, Cyrus?” asked the reporter.
+
+“Yes,” replied the engineer.
+
+“It’s my opinion,” said the sailor, “that Captain Harding will be
+able to listen to you still better, if he will have some more grouse
+jelly,--for we have grouse, captain,” added he, presenting him with a
+little of this jelly, to which he this time added some of the flesh.
+
+Cyrus Harding ate a little of the grouse, and the rest was divided
+among his companions, who found it but a meager breakfast, for they were
+suffering extremely from hunger.
+
+“Well!” said the sailor, “there is plenty of food at the Chimneys, for
+you must know, captain, that down there, in the south, we have a house,
+with rooms, beds, and fireplace, and in the pantry, several dozen of
+birds, which our Herbert calls couroucous. Your litter is ready, and as
+soon as you feel strong enough we will carry you home.”
+
+“Thanks, my friend,” replied the engineer; “wait another hour or two,
+and then we will set out. And now speak, Spilett.”
+
+The reporter then told him all that had occurred. He recounted all the
+events with which Cyrus was unacquainted, the last fall of the balloon,
+the landing on this unknown land, which appeared a desert (whatever it
+was, whether island or continent), the discovery of the Chimneys,
+the search for him, not forgetting of course Neb’s devotion, the
+intelligence exhibited by the faithful Top, as well as many other
+matters.
+
+“But,” asked Harding, in a still feeble voice, “you did not, then, pick
+me up on the beach?”
+
+“No,” replied the reporter.
+
+“And did you not bring me to this cave?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“At what distance is this cave from the sea?”
+
+“About a mile,” replied Pencroft; “and if you are astonished, captain,
+we are not less surprised ourselves at seeing you in this place!”
+
+“Indeed,” said the engineer, who was recovering gradually, and who took
+great interest in these details, “indeed it is very singular!”
+
+“But,” resumed the sailor, “can you tell us what happened after you were
+carried off by the sea?”
+
+Cyrus Harding considered. He knew very little. The wave had torn him
+from the balloon net. He sank at first several fathoms. On returning
+to the surface, in the half light, he felt a living creature struggling
+near him. It was Top, who had sprung to his help. He saw nothing of the
+balloon, which, lightened both of his weight and that of the dog, had
+darted away like an arrow.
+
+There he was, in the midst of the angry sea, at a distance which could
+not be less than half a mile from the shore. He attempted to struggle
+against the billows by swimming vigorously. Top held him up by his
+clothes; but a strong current seized him and drove him towards the
+north, and after half an hour of exertion, he sank, dragging Top
+with him into the depths. From that moment to the moment in which he
+recovered to find himself in the arms of his friends he remembered
+nothing.
+
+“However,” remarked Pencroft, “you must have been thrown on to the
+beach, and you must have had strength to walk here, since Neb found your
+footmarks!”
+
+“Yes... of course,” replied the engineer, thoughtfully; “and you found
+no traces of human beings on this coast?”
+
+“Not a trace,” replied the reporter; “besides, if by chance you had met
+with some deliverer there, just in the nick of time, why should he have
+abandoned you after having saved you from the waves?”
+
+“You are right, my dear Spilett. Tell me, Neb,” added the engineer,
+turning to his servant, “it was not you who... you can’t have had a
+moment of unconsciousness... during which no, that’s absurd.... Do any
+of the footsteps still remain?” asked Harding.
+
+“Yes, master,” replied Neb; “here, at the entrance, at the back of
+the mound, in a place sheltered from the rain and wind. The storm has
+destroyed the others.”
+
+“Pencroft,” said Cyrus Harding, “will you take my shoe and see if it
+fits exactly to the footprints?”
+
+The sailor did as the engineer requested. While he and Herbert, guided
+by Neb, went to the place where the footprints were to be found, Cyrus
+remarked to the reporter,--
+
+“It is a most extraordinary thing!”
+
+“Perfectly inexplicable!” replied Gideon Spilett.
+
+“But do not dwell upon it just now, my dear Spilett, we will talk about
+it by-and-by.”
+
+A moment after the others entered.
+
+There was no doubt about it. The engineer’s shoe fitted exactly to the
+footmarks. It was therefore Cyrus Harding who had left them on the sand.
+
+“Come,” said he, “I must have experienced this unconsciousness which I
+attributed to Neb. I must have walked like a somnambulist, without any
+knowledge of my steps, and Top must have guided me here, after having
+dragged me from the waves... Come, Top! Come, old dog!”
+
+The magnificent animal bounded barking to his master, and caresses were
+lavished on him. It was agreed that there was no other way of accounting
+for the rescue of Cyrus Harding, and that Top deserved all the honor of
+the affair.
+
+Towards twelve o’clock, Pencroft having asked the engineer if they could
+now remove him, Harding, instead of replying, and by an effort which
+exhibited the most energetic will, got up. But he was obliged to lean on
+the sailor, or he would have fallen.
+
+“Well done!” cried Pencroft; “bring the captain’s litter.”
+
+The litter was brought; the transverse branches had been covered with
+leaves and long grass. Harding was laid on it, and Pencroft, having
+taken his place at one end and Neb at the other, they started towards
+the coast. There was a distance of eight miles to be accomplished; but,
+as they could not go fast, and it would perhaps be necessary to stop
+frequently, they reckoned that it would take at least six hours to reach
+the Chimneys. The wind was still strong, but fortunately it did not
+rain. Although lying down, the engineer, leaning on his elbow, observed
+the coast, particularly inland. He did not speak, but he gazed; and, no
+doubt, the appearance of the country, with its inequalities of ground,
+its forests, its various productions, were impressed on his mind.
+However, after traveling for two hours, fatigue overcame him, and he
+slept.
+
+At half-past five the little band arrived at the precipice, and a short
+time after at the Chimneys.
+
+They stopped, and the litter was placed on the sand; Cyrus Harding was
+sleeping profoundly, and did not awake.
+
+Pencroft, to his extreme surprise, found that the terrible storm had
+quite altered the aspect of the place. Important changes had occurred;
+great blocks of stone lay on the beach, which was also covered with a
+thick carpet of sea-weed, algae, and wrack. Evidently the sea, passing
+over the islet, had been carried right up to the foot of the enormous
+curtain of granite. The soil in front of the cave had been torn away
+by the violence of the waves. A horrid presentiment flashed across
+Pencroft’s mind. He rushed into the passage, but returned almost
+immediately, and stood motionless, staring at his companions.... The
+fire was out; the drowned cinders were nothing but mud; the burnt
+linen, which was to have served as tinder, had disappeared! The sea had
+penetrated to the end of the passages, and everything was overthrown and
+destroyed in the interior of the Chimneys!
+
+
+
+Chapter 9
+
+In a few words, Gideon Spilett, Herbert, and Neb were made acquainted
+with what had happened. This accident, which appeared so very serious
+to Pencroft, produced different effects on the companions of the honest
+sailor.
+
+Neb, in his delight at having found his master, did not listen, or
+rather, did not care to trouble himself with what Pencroft was saying.
+
+Herbert shared in some degree the sailor’s feelings.
+
+As to the reporter, he simply replied,--
+
+“Upon my word, Pencroft, it’s perfectly indifferent to me!”
+
+“But, I repeat, that we haven’t any fire!”
+
+“Pooh!”
+
+“Nor any means of relighting it!”
+
+“Nonsense!”
+
+“But I say, Mr. Spilett--”
+
+“Isn’t Cyrus here?” replied the reporter.
+
+“Is not our engineer alive? He will soon find some way of making fire
+for us!”
+
+“With what?”
+
+“With nothing.”
+
+What had Pencroft to say? He could say nothing, for, in the bottom of
+his heart he shared the confidence which his companions had in Cyrus
+Harding. The engineer was to them a microcosm, a compound of every
+science, a possessor of all human knowledge. It was better to be with
+Cyrus in a desert island, than without him in the most flourishing town
+in the United States. With him they could want nothing; with him they
+would never despair. If these brave men had been told that a volcanic
+eruption would destroy the land, that this land would be engulfed in the
+depths of the Pacific, they would have imperturbably replied,--
+
+“Cyrus is here!”
+
+While in the palanquin, however, the engineer had again relapsed into
+unconsciousness, which the jolting to which he had been subjected during
+his journey had brought on, so that they could not now appeal to his
+ingenuity. The supper must necessarily be very meager. In fact, all the
+grouse flesh had been consumed, and there no longer existed any means of
+cooking more game. Besides, the couroucous which had been reserved had
+disappeared. They must consider what was to be done.
+
+First of all, Cyrus Harding was carried into the central passage. There
+they managed to arrange for him a couch of sea-weed which still remained
+almost dry. The deep sleep which had overpowered him would no doubt be
+more beneficial to him than any nourishment.
+
+Night had closed in, and the temperature, which had modified when the
+wind shifted to the northwest, again became extremely cold. Also, the
+sea having destroyed the partitions which Pencroft had put up in certain
+places in the passages, the Chimneys, on account of the draughts, had
+become scarcely habitable. The engineer’s condition would, therefore,
+have been bad enough, if his companions had not carefully covered him
+with their coats and waistcoats.
+
+Supper, this evening, was of course composed of the inevitable
+lithodomes, of which Herbert and Neb picked up a plentiful supply on the
+beach. However, to these molluscs, the lad added some edible sea-weed,
+which he gathered on high rocks, whose sides were only washed by the sea
+at the time of high tides. This sea-weed, which belongs to the order
+of Fucacae, of the genus Sargassum, produces, when dry, a gelatinous
+matter, rich and nutritious. The reporter and his companions, after
+having eaten a quantity of lithodomes, sucked the sargassum, of which
+the taste was very tolerable. It is used in parts of the East very
+considerably by the natives. “Never mind!” said the sailor, “the captain
+will help us soon.” Meanwhile the cold became very severe, and unhappily
+they had no means of defending themselves from it.
+
+The sailor, extremely vexed, tried in all sorts of ways to procure fire.
+Neb helped him in this work. He found some dry moss, and by striking
+together two pebbles he obtained some sparks, but the moss, not being
+inflammable enough, did not take fire, for the sparks were really only
+incandescent, and not at all of the same consistency as those which
+are emitted from flint when struck in the same manner. The experiment,
+therefore, did not succeed.
+
+Pencroft, although he had no confidence in the proceeding, then tried
+rubbing two pieces of dry wood together, as savages do. Certainly, the
+movement which he and Neb exhibited, if it had been transformed into
+heat, according to the new theory, would have been enough to heat the
+boiler of a steamer! It came to nothing. The bits of wood became hot, to
+be sure, but much less so than the operators themselves.
+
+After working an hour, Pencroft, who was in a complete state of
+perspiration, threw down the pieces of wood in disgust.
+
+“I can never be made to believe that savages light their fires in this
+way, let them say what they will,” he exclaimed. “I could sooner light
+my arms by rubbing them against each other!”
+
+The sailor was wrong to despise the proceeding. Savages often kindle
+wood by means of rapid rubbing. But every sort of wood does not answer
+for the purpose, and besides, there is “the knack,” following the usual
+expression, and it is probable that Pencroft had not “the knack.”
+
+Pencroft’s ill humor did not last long. Herbert had taken the bits of
+wood which he had turned down, and was exerting himself to rub them.
+The hardy sailor could not restrain a burst of laughter on seeing the
+efforts of the lad to succeed where he had failed.
+
+“Rub, my boy, rub!” said he.
+
+“I am rubbing,” replied Herbert, laughing, “but I don’t pretend to do
+anything else but warm myself instead of shivering, and soon I shall be
+as hot as you are, my good Pencroft!”
+
+This soon happened. However, they were obliged to give up, for this
+night at least, the attempt to procure fire. Gideon Spilett repeated,
+for the twentieth time, that Cyrus Harding would not have been troubled
+for so small a difficulty. And, in the meantime, he stretched himself in
+one of the passages on his bed of sand. Herbert, Neb, and Pencroft did
+the same, while Top slept at his master’s feet.
+
+Next day, the 28th of March, when the engineer awoke, about eight in the
+morning, he saw his companions around him watching his sleep, and, as on
+the day before, his first words were:--
+
+“Island or continent?” This was his uppermost thought.
+
+“Well!” replied Pencroft, “we don’t know anything about it, captain!”
+
+“You don’t know yet?”
+
+“But we shall know,” rejoined Pencroft, “when you have guided us into
+the country.”
+
+“I think I am able to try it,” replied the engineer, who, without much
+effort, rose and stood upright.
+
+“That’s capital!” cried the sailor.
+
+“I feel dreadfully weak,” replied Harding. “Give me something to eat, my
+friends, and it will soon go off. You have fire, haven’t you?”
+
+This question was not immediately replied to. But, in a few seconds--
+
+“Alas! we have no fire,” said Pencroft, “or rather, captain, we have it
+no longer!”
+
+And the sailor recounted all that had passed the day before. He amused
+the engineer by the history of the single match, then his abortive
+attempt to procure fire in the savages’ way.
+
+“We shall consider,” replied the engineer, “and if we do not find some
+substance similar to tinder--”
+
+“Well?” asked the sailor.
+
+“Well, we will make matches.
+
+“Chemicals?”
+
+“Chemicals!”
+
+“It is not more difficult than that,” cried the reporter, striking the
+sailor on the shoulder.
+
+The latter did not think it so simple, but he did not protest. All went
+out. The weather had become very fine. The sun was rising from the sea’s
+horizon, and touched with golden spangles the prismatic rugosities of
+the huge precipice.
+
+Having thrown a rapid glance around him, the engineer seated himself on
+a block of stone. Herbert offered him a few handfuls of shell-fish and
+sargassum, saying,--
+
+“It is all that we have, Captain Harding.”
+
+“Thanks, my boy,” replied Harding; “it will do--for this morning at
+least.”
+
+He ate the wretched food with appetite, and washed it down with a little
+fresh water, drawn from the river in an immense shell.
+
+His companions looked at him without speaking. Then, feeling somewhat
+refreshed, Cyrus Harding crossed his arms, and said,--
+
+“So, my friends, you do not know yet whether fate has thrown us on an
+island, or on a continent?”
+
+“No, captain,” replied the boy.
+
+“We shall know to-morrow,” said the engineer; “till then, there is
+nothing to be done.”
+
+“Yes,” replied Pencroft.
+
+“What?”
+
+“Fire,” said the sailor, who, also, had a fixed idea.
+
+“We will make it, Pencroft,” replied Harding.
+
+“While you were carrying me yesterday, did I not see in the west a
+mountain which commands the country?”
+
+“Yes,” replied Spilett, “a mountain which must be rather high--”
+
+“Well,” replied the engineer, “we will climb to the summit to-morrow,
+and then we shall see if this land is an island or a continent. Till
+then, I repeat, there is nothing to be done.”
+
+“Yes, fire!” said the obstinate sailor again.
+
+“But he will make us a fire!” replied Gideon Spilett, “only have a
+little patience, Pencroft!”
+
+The seaman looked at Spilett in a way which seemed to say, “If it
+depended upon you to do it, we wouldn’t taste roast meat very soon”; but
+he was silent.
+
+Meanwhile Captain Harding had made no reply. He appeared to be very
+little troubled by the question of fire. For a few minutes he remained
+absorbed in thought; then again speaking,--
+
+“My friends,” said he, “our situation is, perhaps, deplorable; but, at
+any rate, it is very plain. Either we are on a continent, and then, at
+the expense of greater or less fatigue, we shall reach some inhabited
+place, or we are on an island. In the latter case, if the island is
+inhabited, we will try to get out of the scrape with the help of its
+inhabitants; if it is desert, we will try to get out of the scrape by
+ourselves.”
+
+“Certainly, nothing could be plainer,” replied Pencroft.
+
+“But, whether it is an island or a continent,” asked Gideon Spilett,
+“whereabouts do you think, Cyrus, this storm has thrown us?”
+
+“I cannot say exactly,” replied the engineer, “but I presume it is
+some land in the Pacific. In fact, when we left Richmond, the wind was
+blowing from the northeast, and its very violence greatly proves that
+it could not have varied. If the direction has been maintained from
+the northeast to the southwest, we have traversed the States of North
+Carolina, of South Carolina, of Georgia, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico,
+itself, in its narrow part, then a part of the Pacific Ocean. I cannot
+estimate the distance traversed by the balloon at less than six to seven
+thousand miles, and, even supposing that the wind had varied half a
+quarter, it must have brought us either to the archipelago of Mendava,
+either on the Pomotous, or even, if it had a greater strength than I
+suppose, to the land of New Zealand. If the last hypothesis is correct,
+it will be easy enough to get home again. English or Maoris, we shall
+always find some one to whom we can speak. If, on the contrary, this is
+the coast of a desert island in some tiny archipelago, perhaps we shall
+be able to reconnoiter it from the summit of that peak which overlooks
+the country, and then we shall see how best to establish ourselves here
+as if we are never to go away.”
+
+“Never?” cried the reporter. “You say ‘Never,’ my dear Cyrus?”
+
+“Better to put things at the worst at first,” replied the engineer, “and
+reserve the best for a surprise.”
+
+“Well said,” remarked Pencroft. “It is to be hoped, too, that this
+island, if it be one, is not situated just out of the course of ships;
+that would be really unlucky!”
+
+“We shall not know what we have to rely on until we have first made the
+ascent of the mountain,” replied the engineer.
+
+“But to-morrow, captain,” asked Herbert, “shall you be in a state to
+bear the fatigue of the ascent?”
+
+“I hope so,” replied the engineer, “provided you and Pencroft, my boy,
+show yourselves quick and clever hunters.”
+
+“Captain,” said the sailor, “since you are speaking of game, if on my
+return, I was as certain of roasting it as I am of bringing it back--”
+
+“Bring it back all the same, Pencroft,” replied Harding.
+
+It was then agreed that the engineer and the reporter were to pass the
+day at the Chimneys, so as to examine the shore and the upper plateau.
+Neb, Herbert, and the sailor were to return to the forest, renew their
+store of wood, and lay violent hands on every creature, feathered or
+hairy, which might come within their reach.
+
+They set out accordingly about ten o’clock in the morning, Herbert
+confident, Neb joyous, Pencroft murmuring aside,--
+
+“If, on my return, I find a fire at the house, I shall believe that
+the thunder itself came to light it.” All three climbed the bank; and
+arrived at the angle made by the river, the sailor, stopping, said to
+his two companions,--
+
+“Shall we begin by being hunters or wood-men?”
+
+“Hunters,” replied Herbert. “There is Top already in quest.”
+
+“We will hunt, then,” said the sailor, “and afterwards we can come back
+and collect our wood.”
+
+This agreed to, Herbert, Neb, and Pencroft, after having torn three
+sticks from the trunk of a young fir, followed Top, who was bounding
+about among the long grass.
+
+This time, the hunters, instead of following the course of the river,
+plunged straight into the heart of the forest. There were still the
+same trees, belonging, for the most part, to the pine family. In
+certain places, less crowded, growing in clumps, these pines exhibited
+considerable dimensions, and appeared to indicate, by their development,
+that the country was situated in a higher latitude than the engineer had
+supposed. Glades, bristling with stumps worn away by time, were covered
+with dry wood, which formed an inexhaustible store of fuel. Then,
+the glade passed, the underwood thickened again, and became almost
+impenetrable.
+
+It was difficult enough to find the way among the groups of trees,
+without any beaten track. So the sailor from time to time broke off
+branches which might be easily recognized. But, perhaps, he was wrong
+not to follow the watercourse, as he and Herbert had done on their first
+excursion, for after walking an hour not a creature had shown itself.
+Top, running under the branches, only roused birds which could not be
+approached. Even the couroucous were invisible, and it was probable that
+the sailor would be obliged to return to the marshy part of the forest,
+in which he had so happily performed his grouse fishing.
+
+“Well, Pencroft,” said Neb, in a slightly sarcastic tone, “if this is
+all the game which you promised to bring back to my master, it won’t
+need a large fire to roast it!”
+
+“Have patience,” replied the sailor, “it isn’t the game which will be
+wanting on our return.”
+
+“Have you not confidence in Captain Harding?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“But you don’t believe that he will make fire?”
+
+“I shall believe it when the wood is blazing in the fireplace.”
+
+“It will blaze, since my master has said so.”
+
+“We shall see!”
+
+Meanwhile, the sun had not reached the highest point in its course above
+the horizon. The exploration, therefore, continued, and was usefully
+marked by a discovery which Herbert made of a tree whose fruit was
+edible. This was the stone-pine, which produces an excellent almond,
+very much esteemed in the temperate regions of America and Europe. These
+almonds were in a perfect state of maturity, and Herbert described them
+to his companions, who feasted on them.
+
+“Come,” said Pencroft, “sea-weed by way of bread, raw mussels for meat,
+and almonds for dessert, that’s certainly a good dinner for those who
+have not a single match in their pocket!”
+
+“We mustn’t complain,” said Herbert.
+
+“I am not complaining, my boy,” replied Pencroft, “only I repeat, that
+meat is a little too much economized in this sort of meal.”
+
+“Top has found something!” cried Neb, who ran towards a thicket, in the
+midst of which the dog had disappeared, barking. With Top’s barking were
+mingled curious gruntings.
+
+The sailor and Herbert had followed Neb. If there was game there this
+was not the time to discuss how it was to be cooked, but rather, how
+they were to get hold of it.
+
+The hunters had scarcely entered the bushes when they saw Top engaged
+in a struggle with an animal which he was holding by the ear. This
+quadruped was a sort of pig nearly two feet and a half long, of a
+blackish brown color, lighter below, having hard scanty hair; its toes,
+then strongly fixed in the ground, seemed to be united by a membrane.
+Herbert recognized in this animal the capybara, that is to say, one of
+the largest members of the rodent order.
+
+Meanwhile, the capybara did not struggle against the dog. It stupidly
+rolled its eyes, deeply buried in a thick bed of fat. Perhaps it saw men
+for the first time.
+
+However, Neb having tightened his grasp on his stick, was just going to
+fell the pig, when the latter, tearing itself from Top’s teeth, by which
+it was only held by the tip of its ear, uttered a vigorous grunt, rushed
+upon Herbert, almost overthrew him, and disappeared in the wood.
+
+“The rascal!” cried Pencroft.
+
+All three directly darted after Top, but at the moment when they joined
+him the animal had disappeared under the waters of a large pond shaded
+by venerable pines.
+
+Neb, Herbert, and Pencroft stopped, motionless. Top plunged into the
+water, but the capybara, hidden at the bottom of the pond, did not
+appear.
+
+“Let us wait,” said the boy, “for he will soon come to the surface to
+breathe.”
+
+“Won’t he drown?” asked Neb.
+
+“No,” replied Herbert, “since he has webbed feet, and is almost an
+amphibious animal. But watch him.”
+
+Top remained in the water. Pencroft and his two companions went to
+different parts of the bank, so as to cut off the retreat of the
+capybara, which the dog was looking for beneath the water.
+
+Herbert was not mistaken. In a few minutes the animal appeared on the
+surface of the water. Top was upon it in a bound, and kept it from
+plunging again. An instant later the capybara, dragged to the bank, was
+killed by a blow from Neb’s stick.
+
+“Hurrah!” cried Pencroft, who was always ready with this cry of triumph.
+
+“Give me but a good fire, and this pig shall be gnawed to the bones!”
+
+Pencroft hoisted the capybara on his shoulders, and judging by the
+height of the sun that it was about two o’clock, he gave the signal to
+return.
+
+Top’s instinct was useful to the hunters, who, thanks to the intelligent
+animal, were enabled to discover the road by which they had come. Half
+an hour later they arrived at the river.
+
+Pencroft soon made a raft of wood, as he had done before, though if
+there was no fire it would be a useless task, and the raft following the
+current, they returned towards the Chimneys.
+
+But the sailor had not gone fifty paces when he stopped, and again
+uttering a tremendous hurrah, pointed towards the angle of the cliff,--
+
+“Herbert! Neb! Look!” he shouted.
+
+Smoke was escaping and curling up among the rocks.
+
+
+
+Chapter 10
+
+In a few minutes the three hunters were before a crackling fire. The
+captain and the reporter were there. Pencroft looked from one to the
+other, his capybara in his hand, without saying a word.
+
+“Well, yes, my brave fellow,” cried the reporter.
+
+“Fire, real fire, which will roast this splendid pig perfectly, and we
+will have a feast presently!”
+
+“But who lighted it?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“The sun!”
+
+Gideon Spilett was quite right in his reply. It was the sun which
+had furnished the heat which so astonished Pencroft. The sailor could
+scarcely believe his eyes, and he was so amazed that he did not think of
+questioning the engineer.
+
+“Had you a burning-glass, sir?” asked Herbert of Harding.
+
+“No, my boy,” replied he, “but I made one.”
+
+And he showed the apparatus which served for a burning-glass. It was
+simply two glasses which he had taken from his own and the reporter’s
+watches. Having filled them with water and rendered their edges adhesive
+by means of a little clay, he thus fabricated a regular burning-glass,
+which, concentrating the solar rays on some very dry moss, soon caused
+it to blaze.
+
+The sailor considered the apparatus; then he gazed at the engineer
+without saying a word, only a look plainly expressed his opinion that if
+Cyrus Harding was not a magician, he was certainly no ordinary man. At
+last speech returned to him, and he cried,--
+
+“Note that, Mr. Spilett, note that down on your paper!”
+
+“It is noted,” replied the reporter.
+
+Then, Neb helping him, the seaman arranged the spit, and the capybara,
+properly cleaned, was soon roasting like a suckling-pig before a clear,
+crackling fire.
+
+The Chimneys had again become more habitable, not only because the
+passages were warmed by the fire, but because the partitions of wood and
+mud had been re-established.
+
+It was evident that the engineer and his companions had employed their
+day well. Cyrus Harding had almost entirely recovered his strength, and
+had proved it by climbing to the upper plateau. From this point his eye,
+accustomed to estimate heights and distances, was fixed for a long time
+on the cone, the summit of which he wished to reach the next day. The
+mountain, situated about six miles to the northwest, appeared to him to
+measure 3,500 feet above the level of the sea. Consequently the gaze of
+an observer posted on its summit would extend over a radius of at least
+fifty miles. Therefore it was probable that Harding could easily solve
+the question of “island or continent,” to which he attached so much
+importance.
+
+They supped capitally. The flesh of the capybara was declared excellent.
+The sargassum and the almonds of the stone-pine completed the repast,
+during which the engineer spoke little. He was preoccupied with projects
+for the next day.
+
+Once or twice Pencroft gave forth some ideas upon what it would be best
+to do; but Cyrus Harding, who was evidently of a methodical mind, only
+shook his head without uttering a word.
+
+“To-morrow,” he repeated, “we shall know what we have to depend upon,
+and we will act accordingly.”
+
+The meal ended, fresh armfuls of wood were thrown on the fire, and
+the inhabitants of the Chimneys, including the faithful Top, were soon
+buried in a deep sleep.
+
+No incident disturbed this peaceful night, and the next day, the 29th
+of March, fresh and active they awoke, ready to undertake the excursion
+which must determine their fate.
+
+All was ready for the start. The remains of the capybara would be enough
+to sustain Harding and his companions for at least twenty-four hours.
+
+Besides, they hoped to find more food on the way. As the glasses had
+been returned to the watches of the engineer and reporter, Pencroft
+burned a little linen to serve as tinder. As to flint, that would not be
+wanting in these regions of Plutonic origin. It was half-past seven in
+the morning when the explorers, armed with sticks, left the Chimneys.
+Following Pencroft’s advice, it appeared best to take the road already
+traversed through the forest, and to return by another route. It was
+also the most direct way to reach the mountain. They turned the south
+angle and followed the left bank of the river, which was abandoned at
+the point where it formed an elbow towards the southwest. The path,
+already trodden under the evergreen trees, was found, and at nine
+o’clock Cyrus Harding and his companions had reached the western border
+of the forest. The ground, till then, very little undulated, boggy at
+first, dry and sandy afterwards, had a gentle slope, which ascended from
+the shore towards the interior of the country. A few very timid animals
+were seen under the forest-trees. Top quickly started them, but his
+master soon called him back, for the time had not come to commence
+hunting; that would be attended to later. The engineer was not a man who
+would allow himself to be diverted from his fixed idea. It might even
+have been said that he did not observe the country at all, either in
+its configuration or in its natural productions, his great aim being
+to climb the mountain before him, and therefore straight towards it he
+went. At ten o’clock a halt of a few minutes was made. On leaving
+the forest, the mountain system of the country appeared before the
+explorers. The mountain was composed of two cones; the first, truncated
+at a height of about two thousand five hundred feet, was sustained by
+buttresses, which appeared to branch out like the talons of an immense
+claw set on the ground. Between these were narrow valleys, bristling
+with trees, the last clumps of which rose to the top of the lowest cone.
+There appeared to be less vegetation on that side of the mountain which
+was exposed to the northeast, and deep fissures could be seen which, no
+doubt, were watercourses.
+
+On the first cone rested a second, slightly rounded, and placed a little
+on one side, like a great round hat cocked over the ear. A Scotchman
+would have said, “His bonnet was a thocht ajee.” It appeared formed of
+bare earth, here and there pierced by reddish rocks.
+
+They wished to reach the second cone, and proceeding along the ridge of
+the spurs seemed to be the best way by which to gain it.
+
+“We are on volcanic ground,” Cyrus Harding had said, and his companions
+following him began to ascend by degrees on the back of a spur, which,
+by a winding and consequently more accessible path, joined the first
+plateau.
+
+The ground had evidently been convulsed by subterranean force. Here and
+there stray blocks, numerous debris of basalt and pumice-stone, were met
+with. In isolated groups rose fir-trees, which, some hundred feet
+lower, at the bottom of the narrow gorges, formed massive shades almost
+impenetrable to the sun’s rays.
+
+During the first part of the ascent, Herbert remarked on the footprints
+which indicated the recent passage of large animals.
+
+“Perhaps these beasts will not let us pass by willingly,” said Pencroft.
+
+“Well,” replied the reporter, who had already hunted the tiger in
+India, and the lion in Africa, “we shall soon learn how successfully to
+encounter them. But in the meantime we must be upon our guard!”
+
+They ascended but slowly.
+
+The distance, increased by detours and obstacles which could not be
+surmounted directly, was long. Sometimes, too, the ground suddenly fell,
+and they found themselves on the edge of a deep chasm which they had to
+go round. Thus, in retracing their steps so as to find some practicable
+path, much time was employed and fatigue undergone for nothing. At
+twelve o’clock, when the small band of adventurers halted for breakfast
+at the foot of a large group of firs, near a little stream which fell in
+cascades, they found themselves still half way from the first plateau,
+which most probably they would not reach till nightfall. From this
+point the view of the sea was much extended, but on the right the high
+promontory prevented their seeing whether there was land beyond it. On
+the left, the sight extended several miles to the north; but, on the
+northwest, at the point occupied by the explorers, it was cut short
+by the ridge of a fantastically-shaped spur, which formed a powerful
+support of the central cone.
+
+At one o’clock the ascent was continued. They slanted more towards the
+southwest and again entered among thick bushes. There under the shade
+of the trees fluttered several couples of gallinaceae belonging to the
+pheasant species. They were tragopans, ornamented by a pendant skin
+which hangs over their throats, and by two small, round horns, planted
+behind the eyes. Among these birds, which were about the size of a fowl,
+the female was uniformly brown, while the male was gorgeous in his
+red plumage, decorated with white spots. Gideon Spilett, with a stone
+cleverly and vigorously thrown, killed one of these tragopans, on which
+Pencroft, made hungry by the fresh air, had cast greedy eyes.
+
+After leaving the region of bushes, the party, assisted by resting on
+each other’s shoulders, climbed for about a hundred feet up a steep
+acclivity and reached a level place, with very few trees, where the soil
+appeared volcanic. It was necessary to ascend by zigzags to make
+the slope more easy, for it was very steep, and the footing being
+exceedingly precarious required the greatest caution. Neb and Herbert
+took the lead, Pencroft the rear, the captain and the reporter between
+them. The animals which frequented these heights--and there were
+numerous traces of them--must necessarily belong to those races of sure
+foot and supple spine, chamois or goat. Several were seen, but this
+was not the name Pencroft gave them, for all of a sudden--“Sheep!” he
+shouted.
+
+All stopped about fifty feet from half-a-dozen animals of a large size,
+with strong horns bent back and flattened towards the point, with a
+woolly fleece, hidden under long silky hair of a tawny color.
+
+They were not ordinary sheep, but a species usually found in the
+mountainous regions of the temperate zone, to which Herbert gave the
+name of the musmon.
+
+“Have they legs and chops?” asked the sailor.
+
+“Yes,” replied Herbert.
+
+“Well, then, they are sheep!” said Pencroft.
+
+The animals, motionless among the blocks of basalt, gazed with an
+astonished eye, as if they saw human bipeds for the first time. Then
+their fears suddenly aroused, they disappeared, bounding over the rocks.
+
+“Good-bye, till we meet again,” cried Pencroft, as he watched them, in
+such a comical tone that Cyrus Harding, Gideon Spilett, Herbert, and Neb
+could not help laughing.
+
+The ascent was continued. Here and there were traces of lava. Sulphur
+springs sometimes stopped their way, and they had to go round them. In
+some places the sulphur had formed crystals among other substances, such
+as whitish cinders made of an infinity of little feldspar crystals.
+
+In approaching the first plateau formed by the truncating of the lower
+cone, the difficulties of the ascent were very great. Towards four
+o’clock the extreme zone of the trees had been passed. There only
+remained here and there a few twisted, stunted pines, which must have
+had a hard life in resisting at this altitude the high winds from the
+open sea. Happily for the engineer and his companions the weather was
+beautiful, the atmosphere tranquil; for a high breeze at an elevation of
+three thousand feet would have hindered their proceedings. The purity
+of the sky at the zenith was felt through the transparent air. A perfect
+calm reigned around them. They could not see the sun, then hid by the
+vast screen of the upper cone, which masked the half-horizon of the
+west, and whose enormous shadow stretching to the shore increased as
+the radiant luminary sank in its diurnal course. Vapor--mist rather than
+clouds--began to appear in the east, and assume all the prismatic colors
+under the influence of the solar rays.
+
+Five hundred feet only separated the explorers from the plateau, which
+they wished to reach so as to establish there an encampment for the
+night, but these five hundred feet were increased to more than two miles
+by the zigzags which they had to describe. The soil, as it were, slid
+under their feet.
+
+The slope often presented such an angle that they slipped when the
+stones worn by the air did not give a sufficient support. Evening
+came on by degrees, and it was almost night when Cyrus Harding and his
+companions, much fatigued by an ascent of seven hours, arrived at
+the plateau of the first cone. It was then necessary to prepare an
+encampment, and to restore their strength by eating first and sleeping
+afterwards. This second stage of the mountain rose on a base of rocks,
+among which it would be easy to find a retreat. Fuel was not abundant.
+However, a fire could be made by means of the moss and dry brushwood,
+which covered certain parts of the plateau. While the sailor was
+preparing his hearth with stones which he put to this use, Neb and
+Herbert occupied themselves with getting a supply of fuel. They soon
+returned with a load of brushwood. The steel was struck, the burnt linen
+caught the sparks of flint, and, under Neb’s breath, a crackling fire
+showed itself in a few minutes under the shelter of the rocks. Their
+object in lighting a fire was only to enable them to withstand the cold
+temperature of the night, as it was not employed in cooking the bird,
+which Neb kept for the next day. The remains of the capybara and
+some dozens of the stone-pine almonds formed their supper. It was not
+half-past six when all was finished.
+
+Cyrus Harding then thought of exploring in the half-light the large
+circular layer which supported the upper cone of the mountain. Before
+taking any rest, he wished to know if it was possible to get round the
+base of the cone in the case of its sides being too steep and its summit
+being inaccessible. This question preoccupied him, for it was possible
+that from the way the hat inclined, that is to say, towards the north,
+the plateau was not practicable. Also, if the summit of the mountain
+could not be reached on one side, and if, on the other, they could not
+get round the base of the cone, it would be impossible to survey the
+western part of the country, and their object in making the ascent would
+in part be altogether unattained.
+
+The engineer, accordingly, regardless of fatigue, leaving Pencroft and
+Neb to arrange the beds, and Gideon Spilett to note the incidents of the
+day, began to follow the edge of the plateau, going towards the north.
+Herbert accompanied him.
+
+The night was beautiful and still, the darkness was not yet deep. Cyrus
+Harding and the boy walked near each other, without speaking. In
+some places the plateau opened before them, and they passed without
+hindrance. In others, obstructed by rocks, there was only a narrow path,
+in which two persons could not walk abreast. After a walk of twenty
+minutes, Cyrus Harding and Herbert were obliged to stop. From this point
+the slope of the two cones became one. No shoulder here separated the
+two parts of the mountain. The slope, being inclined almost seventy
+degrees, the path became impracticable.
+
+But if the engineer and the boy were obliged to give up thoughts of
+following a circular direction, in return an opportunity was given for
+ascending the cone.
+
+In fact, before them opened a deep hollow. It was the rugged mouth
+of the crater, by which the eruptive liquid matter had escaped at
+the periods when the volcano was still in activity. Hardened lava and
+crusted scoria formed a sort of natural staircase of large steps, which
+would greatly facilitate the ascent to the summit of the mountain.
+
+Harding took all this in at a glance, and without hesitating, followed
+by the lad, he entered the enormous chasm in the midst of an increasing
+obscurity.
+
+There was still a height of a thousand feet to overcome. Would the
+interior acclivities of the crater be practicable? It would soon be
+seen. The persevering engineer resolved to continue his ascent until
+he was stopped. Happily these acclivities wound up the interior of the
+volcano and favored their ascent.
+
+As to the volcano itself, it could not be doubted that it was completely
+extinct. No smoke escaped from its sides; not a flame could be seen in
+the dark hollows; not a roar, not a mutter, no trembling even issued
+from this black well, which perhaps reached far into the bowels of the
+earth. The atmosphere inside the crater was filled with no sulphurous
+vapor. It was more than the sleep of a volcano; it was its complete
+extinction. Cyrus Harding’s attempt would succeed.
+
+Little by little, Herbert and he climbing up the sides of the interior,
+saw the crater widen above their heads. The radius of this circular
+portion of the sky, framed by the edge of the cone, increased obviously.
+At each step, as it were, that the explorers made, fresh stars entered
+the field of their vision. The magnificent constellations of the
+southern sky shone resplendently. At the zenith glittered the splendid
+Antares in the Scorpion, and not far was Alpha Centauri, which is
+believed to be the nearest star to the terrestrial globe. Then, as the
+crater widened, appeared Fomalhaut of the Fish, the Southern Triangle,
+and lastly, nearly at the Antarctic Pole, the glittering Southern Cross,
+which replaces the Polar Star of the Northern Hemisphere.
+
+It was nearly eight o’clock when Cyrus Harding and Herbert set foot on
+the highest ridge of the mountain at the summit of the cone.
+
+It was then perfectly dark, and their gaze could not extend over a
+radius of two miles. Did the sea surround this unknown land, or was it
+connected in the west with some continent of the Pacific? It could not
+yet be made out. Towards the west, a cloudy belt, clearly visible at the
+horizon, increased the gloom, and the eye could not discover if the sky
+and water were blended together in the same circular line.
+
+But at one point of the horizon a vague light suddenly appeared, which
+descended slowly in proportion as the cloud mounted to the zenith.
+
+It was the slender crescent moon, already almost disappearing; but its
+light was sufficient to show clearly the horizontal line, then detached
+from the cloud, and the engineer could see its reflection trembling for
+an instant on a liquid surface. Cyrus Harding seized the lad’s hand, and
+in a grave voice,--
+
+“An island!” said he, at the moment when the lunar crescent disappeared
+beneath the waves.
+
+
+
+Chapter 11
+
+Half an hour later Cyrus Harding and Herbert had returned to the
+encampment. The engineer merely told his companions that the land upon
+which fate had thrown them was an island, and that the next day they
+would consult. Then each settled himself as well as he could to sleep,
+and in that rocky hole, at a height of two thousand five hundred feet
+above the level of the sea, through a peaceful night, the islanders
+enjoyed profound repose.
+
+The next day, the 30th of March, after a hasty breakfast, which
+consisted solely of the roasted tragopan, the engineer wished to climb
+again to the summit of the volcano, so as more attentively to survey
+the island upon which he and his companions were imprisoned for life
+perhaps, should the island be situated at a great distance from any
+land, or if it was out of the course of vessels which visited the
+archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean. This time his companions followed
+him in the new exploration. They also wished to see the island, on the
+productions of which they must depend for the supply of all their wants.
+
+It was about seven o’clock in the morning when Cyrus Harding, Herbert,
+Pencroft, Gideon Spilett, and Neb quitted the encampment. No one
+appeared to be anxious about their situation. They had faith in
+themselves, doubtless, but it must be observed that the basis of this
+faith was not the same with Harding as with his companions. The engineer
+had confidence, because he felt capable of extorting from this wild
+country everything necessary for the life of himself and his companions;
+the latter feared nothing, just because Cyrus Harding was with them.
+Pencroft especially, since the incident of the relighted fire, would
+not have despaired for an instant, even if he was on a bare rock, if the
+engineer was with him on the rock.
+
+“Pshaw,” said he, “we left Richmond without permission from the
+authorities! It will be hard if we don’t manage to get away some day or
+other from a place where certainly no one will detain us!”
+
+Cyrus Harding followed the same road as the evening before. They went
+round the cone by the plateau which formed the shoulder, to the mouth of
+the enormous chasm. The weather was magnificent. The sun rose in a pure
+sky and flooded with his rays all the eastern side of the mountain.
+
+The crater was reached. It was just what the engineer had made it out to
+be in the dark; that is to say, a vast funnel which extended, widening,
+to a height of a thousand feet above the plateau. Below the chasm, large
+thick streaks of lava wound over the sides of the mountain, and thus
+marked the course of the eruptive matter to the lower valleys which
+furrowed the northern part of the island.
+
+The interior of the crater, whose inclination did not exceed thirty five
+to forty degrees, presented no difficulties nor obstacles to the ascent.
+Traces of very ancient lava were noticed, which probably had overflowed
+the summit of the cone, before this lateral chasm had opened a new way
+to it.
+
+As to the volcanic chimney which established a communication between the
+subterranean layers and the crater, its depth could not be calculated
+with the eye, for it was lost in obscurity. But there was no doubt as to
+the complete extinction of the volcano.
+
+Before eight o’clock Harding and his companions were assembled at the
+summit of the crater, on a conical mound which swelled the northern
+edge.
+
+“The sea, the sea everywhere!” they cried, as if their lips could not
+restrain the words which made islanders of them.
+
+The sea, indeed, formed an immense circular sheet of water all around
+them! Perhaps, on climbing again to the summit of the cone, Cyrus
+Harding had had a hope of discovering some coast, some island shore,
+which he had not been able to perceive in the dark the evening before.
+But nothing appeared on the farthest verge of the horizon, that is to
+say over a radius of more than fifty miles. No land in sight. Not a
+sail. Over all this immense space the ocean alone was visible--the
+island occupied the center of a circumference which appeared to be
+infinite.
+
+The engineer and his companions, mute and motionless, surveyed for
+some minutes every point of the ocean, examining it to its most extreme
+limits. Even Pencroft, who possessed a marvelous power of sight, saw
+nothing; and certainly if there had been land at the horizon, if it
+appeared only as an indistinct vapor, the sailor would undoubtedly
+have found it out, for nature had placed regular telescopes under his
+eyebrows.
+
+From the ocean their gaze returned to the island which they commanded
+entirely, and the first question was put by Gideon Spilett in these
+terms:
+
+“About what size is this island?”
+
+Truly, it did not appear large in the midst of the immense ocean.
+
+Cyrus Harding reflected a few minutes; he attentively observed the
+perimeter of the island, taking into consideration the height at which
+he was placed; then,--
+
+“My friends,” said he, “I do not think I am mistaken in giving to the
+shore of the island a circumference of more than a hundred miles.”
+
+“And consequently an area?”
+
+“That is difficult to estimate,” replied the engineer, “for it is so
+uneven.”
+
+If Cyrus Harding was not mistaken in his calculation, the island had
+almost the extent of Malta or Zante, in the Mediterranean, but it was at
+the same time much more irregular and less rich in capes, promontories,
+points, bays, or creeks. Its strange form caught the eye, and when
+Gideon Spilett, on the engineer’s advice, had drawn the outline, they
+found that it resembled some fantastic animal, a monstrous leviathan,
+which lay sleeping on the surface of the Pacific.
+
+This was in fact the exact shape of the island, which it is of
+consequence to know, and a tolerably correct map of it was immediately
+drawn by the reporter.
+
+The east part of the shore, where the castaways had landed, formed a
+wide bay, terminated by a sharp cape, which had been concealed by a high
+point from Pencroft on his first exploration. At the northeast two other
+capes closed the bay, and between them ran a narrow gulf, which looked
+like the half-open jaws of a formidable dog-fish.
+
+From the northeast to the southwest the coast was rounded, like
+the flattened cranium of an animal, rising again, forming a sort of
+protuberance which did not give any particular shape to this part of the
+island, of which the center was occupied by the volcano.
+
+From this point the shore ran pretty regularly north and south, broken
+at two-thirds of its perimeter by a narrow creek, from which it ended in
+a long tail, similar to the caudal appendage of a gigantic alligator.
+
+This tail formed a regular peninsula, which stretched more than thirty
+miles into the sea, reckoning from the cape southeast of the island,
+already mentioned; it curled round, making an open roadstead, which
+marked out the lower shore of this strangely-formed land.
+
+At the narrowest part, that is to say between the Chimneys and the creek
+on the western shore, which corresponded to it in latitude, the island
+only measured ten miles; but its greatest length, from the jaws at the
+northeast to the extremity of the tail of the southwest, was not less
+than thirty miles.
+
+As to the interior of the island, its general aspect was this, very
+woody throughout the southern part from the mountain to the shore, and
+arid and sandy in the northern part. Between the volcano and the east
+coast Cyrus Harding and his companions were surprised to see a
+lake, bordered with green trees, the existence of which they had not
+suspected. Seen from this height, the lake appeared to be on the same
+level as the ocean, but, on reflection, the engineer explained to his
+companions that the altitude of this little sheet of water must be about
+three hundred feet, because the plateau, which was its basin, was but a
+prolongation of the coast.
+
+“Is it a freshwater lake?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“Certainly,” replied the engineer, “for it must be fed by the water
+which flows from the mountain.”
+
+“I see a little river which runs into it,” said Herbert, pointing out a
+narrow stream, which evidently took its source somewhere in the west.
+
+“Yes,” said Harding; “and since this stream feeds the lake, most
+probably on the side near the sea there is an outlet by which the
+surplus water escapes. We shall see that on our return.”
+
+This little winding watercourse and the river already mentioned
+constituted the water-system, at least such as it was displayed to the
+eyes of the explorers. However, it was possible that under the masses of
+trees which covered two-thirds of the island, forming an immense forest,
+other rivers ran towards the sea. It might even be inferred that such
+was the case, so rich did this region appear in the most magnificent
+specimens of the flora of the temperate zones. There was no indication
+of running water in the north, though perhaps there might be stagnant
+water among the marshes in the northeast; but that was all, in addition
+to the downs, sand, and aridity which contrasted so strongly with the
+luxuriant vegetation of the rest of the island.
+
+The volcano did not occupy the central part; it rose, on the contrary,
+in the northwestern region, and seemed to mark the boundary of the two
+zones. At the southwest, at the south, and the southeast, the first part
+of the spurs were hidden under masses of verdure. At the north, on the
+contrary, one could follow their ramifications, which died away on the
+sandy plains. It was on this side that, at the time when the mountain
+was in a state of eruption, the discharge had worn away a passage, and
+a large heap of lava had spread to the narrow jaw which formed the
+northeastern gulf.
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions remained an hour at the top of the
+mountain. The island was displayed under their eyes, like a plan in
+relief with different tints, green for the forests, yellow for the
+sand, blue for the water. They viewed it in its tout-ensemble, nothing
+remained concealed but the ground hidden by verdure, the hollows of the
+valleys, and the interior of the volcanic chasms.
+
+One important question remained to be solved, and the answer would have
+a great effect upon the future of the castaways.
+
+Was the island inhabited?
+
+It was the reporter who put this question, to which after the close
+examination they had just made, the answer seemed to be in the negative.
+
+Nowhere could the work of a human hand be perceived. Not a group of
+huts, not a solitary cabin, not a fishery on the shore. No smoke curling
+in the air betrayed the presence of man. It is true, a distance of
+nearly thirty miles separated the observers from the extreme points,
+that is, of the tail which extended to the southwest, and it would have
+been difficult, even to Pencroft’s eyes, to discover a habitation there.
+Neither could the curtain of verdure, which covered three-quarters
+of the island, be raised to see if it did not shelter some straggling
+village. But in general the islanders live on the shores of the narrow
+spaces which emerge above the waters of the Pacific, and this shore
+appeared to be an absolute desert.
+
+Until a more complete exploration, it might be admitted that the island
+was uninhabited. But was it frequented, at least occasionally, by
+the natives of neighboring islands? It was difficult to reply to this
+question. No land appeared within a radius of fifty miles. But fifty
+miles could be easily crossed, either by Malay proas or by the large
+Polynesian canoes. Everything depended on the position of the island,
+of its isolation in the Pacific, or of its proximity to archipelagoes.
+Would Cyrus Harding be able to find out their latitude and longitude
+without instruments? It would be difficult. Since he was in doubt, it
+was best to take precautions against a possible descent of neighboring
+natives.
+
+The exploration of the island was finished, its shape determined, its
+features made out, its extent calculated, the water and mountain systems
+ascertained. The disposition of the forests and plains had been marked
+in a general way on the reporter’s plan. They had now only to descend
+the mountain slopes again, and explore the soil, in the triple point of
+view, of its mineral, vegetable, and animal resources.
+
+But before giving his companions the signal for departure, Cyrus Harding
+said to them in a calm, grave voice,--
+
+“Here, my friends, is the small corner of land upon which the hand of
+the Almighty has thrown us. We are going to live here; a long time,
+perhaps. Perhaps, too, unexpected help will arrive, if some ship passes
+by chance. I say by chance, because this is an unimportant island; there
+is not even a port in which ships could anchor, and it is to be feared
+that it is situated out of the route usually followed, that is to say,
+too much to the south for the ships which frequent the archipelagoes of
+the Pacific, and too much to the north for those which go to Australia
+by doubling Cape Horn. I wish to hide nothing of our position from
+you--”
+
+“And you are right, my dear Cyrus,” replied the reporter, with
+animation. “You have to deal with men. They have confidence in you, and
+you can depend upon them. Is it not so, my friends?”
+
+“I will obey you in everything, captain,” said Herbert, seizing the
+engineer’s hand.
+
+“My master always, and everywhere!” cried Neb.
+
+“As for me,” said the sailor, “if I ever grumble at work, my name’s not
+Jack Pencroft, and if you like, captain, we will make a little America
+of this island! We will build towns, we will establish railways, start
+telegraphs, and one fine day, when it is quite changed, quite put in
+order and quite civilized, we will go and offer it to the government of
+the Union. Only, I ask one thing.”
+
+“What is that?” said the reporter.
+
+“It is, that we do not consider ourselves castaways, but colonists,
+who have come here to settle.” Harding could not help smiling, and the
+sailor’s idea was adopted. He then thanked his companions, and added,
+that he would rely on their energy and on the aid of Heaven.
+
+“Well, now let us set off to the Chimneys!” cried Pencroft.
+
+“One minute, my friends,” said the engineer. “It seems to me it would
+be a good thing to give a name to this island, as well as to, the capes,
+promontories, and watercourses, which we can see.
+
+“Very good,” said the reporter. “In the future, that will simplify the
+instructions which we shall have to give and follow.”
+
+“Indeed,” said the sailor, “already it is something to be able to say
+where one is going, and where one has come from. At least, it looks like
+somewhere.”
+
+“The Chimneys, for example,” said Herbert.
+
+“Exactly!” replied Pencroft. “That name was the most convenient, and it
+came to me quite of myself. Shall we keep the name of the Chimneys for
+our first encampment, captain?”
+
+“Yes, Pencroft, since you have so christened it.”
+
+“Good! as for the others, that will be easy,” returned the sailor, who
+was in high spirits. “Let us give them names, as the Robinsons did,
+whose story Herbert has often read to me; Providence Bay, Whale Point,
+Cape Disappointment!”
+
+“Or, rather, the names of Captain Harding,” said Herbert, “of Mr.
+Spilett, of Neb!--”
+
+“My name!” cried Neb, showing his sparkling white teeth.
+
+“Why not?” replied Pencroft. “Port Neb, that would do very well! And
+Cape Gideon--”
+
+“I should prefer borrowing names from our country,” said the reporter,
+“which would remind us of America.”
+
+“Yes, for the principal ones,” then said Cyrus Harding; “for those of
+the bays and seas, I admit it willingly. We might give to that vast bay
+on the east the name of Union Bay, for example; to that large hollow on
+the south, Washington Bay; to the mountain upon which we are standing,
+that of Mount Franklin; to that lake which is extended under our eyes,
+that of Lake Grant; nothing could be better, my friends. These names
+will recall our country, and those of the great citizens who have
+honored it; but for the rivers, gulfs, capes, and promontories, which we
+perceive from the top of this mountain, rather let us choose names which
+will recall their particular shape. They will impress themselves better
+on our memory, and at the same time will be more practical. The shape of
+the island is so strange that we shall not be troubled to imagine
+what it resembles. As to the streams which we do not know as yet, in
+different parts of the forest which we shall explore later, the creeks
+which afterwards will be discovered, we can christen them as we find
+them. What do you think, my friends?”
+
+The engineer’s proposal was unanimously agreed to by his companions. The
+island was spread out under their eyes like a map, and they had only to
+give names to all its angles and points. Gideon Spilett would write
+them down, and the geographical nomenclature of the island would be
+definitely adopted. First, they named the two bays and the mountain,
+Union Bay, Washington Bay, and Mount Franklin, as the engineer had
+suggested.
+
+“Now,” said the reporter, “to this peninsula at the southwest of the
+island, I propose to give the name of Serpentine Peninsula, and that of
+Reptile-end to the bent tail which terminates it, for it is just like a
+reptile’s tail.”
+
+“Adopted,” said the engineer.
+
+“Now,” said Herbert, pointing to the other extremity of the island, “let
+us call this gulf which is so singularly like a pair of open jaws, Shark
+Gulf.”
+
+“Capital!” cried Pencroft, “and we can complete the resemblance by
+naming the two parts of the jaws Mandible Cape.”
+
+“But there are two capes,” observed the reporter.
+
+“Well,” replied Pencroft, “we can have North Mandible Cape and South
+Mandible Cape.”
+
+“They are inscribed,” said Spilett.
+
+“There is only the point at the southeastern extremity of the island to
+be named,” said Pencroft.
+
+“That is, the extremity of Union Bay?” asked Herbert.
+
+“Claw Cape,” cried Neb directly, who also wished to be godfather to some
+part of his domain.
+
+In truth, Neb had found an excellent name, for this cape was very like
+the powerful claw of the fantastic animal which this singularly-shaped
+island represented.
+
+Pencroft was delighted at the turn things had taken, and their
+imaginations soon gave to the river which furnished the settlers with
+drinking water and near which the balloon had thrown them, the name of
+the Mercy, in true gratitude to Providence. To the islet upon which the
+castaways had first landed, the name of Safety Island; to the plateau
+which crowned the high granite precipice above the Chimneys, and from
+whence the gaze could embrace the whole of the vast bay, the name of
+Prospect Heights.
+
+Lastly, all the masses of impenetrable wood which covered the Serpentine
+Peninsula were named the forests of the Far West.
+
+The nomenclature of the visible and known parts of the island was
+thus finished, and later, they would complete it as they made fresh
+discoveries.
+
+As to the points of the compass, the engineer had roughly fixed them by
+the height and position of the sun, which placed Union Bay and Prospect
+Heights to the east. But the next day, by taking the exact hour of the
+rising and setting of the sun, and by marking its position between this
+rising and setting, he reckoned to fix the north of the island exactly,
+for, in consequence of its situation in the Southern Hemisphere, the
+sun, at the precise moment of its culmination, passed in the north and
+not in the south, as, in its apparent movement, it seems to do, to those
+places situated in the Northern Hemisphere.
+
+Everything was finished, and the settlers had only to descend Mount
+Franklin to return to the Chimneys, when Pencroft cried out,--
+
+“Well! we are preciously stupid!”
+
+“Why?” asked Gideon Spilett, who had closed his notebook and risen to
+depart.
+
+“Why! our island! we have forgotten to christen it!”
+
+Herbert was going to propose to give it the engineer’s name and all his
+companions would have applauded him, when Cyrus Harding said simply,--
+
+“Let us give it the name of a great citizen, my friend; of him who now
+struggles to defend the unity of the American Republic! Let us call it
+Lincoln Island!”
+
+The engineer’s proposal was replied to by three hurrahs.
+
+And that evening, before sleeping, the new colonists talked of their
+absent country; they spoke of the terrible war which stained it with
+blood; they could not doubt that the South would soon be subdued, and
+that the cause of the North, the cause of justice, would triumph, thanks
+to Grant, thanks to Lincoln!
+
+Now this happened the 30th of March, 1865. They little knew that sixteen
+days afterwards a frightful crime would be committed in Washington, and
+that on Good Friday Abraham Lincoln would fall by the hand of a fanatic.
+
+
+
+Chapter 12
+
+They now began the descent of the mountain. Climbing down the crater,
+they went round the cone and reached their encampment of the previous
+night. Pencroft thought it must be breakfast-time, and the watches of
+the reporter and engineer were therefore consulted to find out the hour.
+
+That of Gideon Spilett had been preserved from the sea-water, as he had
+been thrown at once on the sand out of reach of the waves. It was an
+instrument of excellent quality, a perfect pocket chronometer, which the
+reporter had not forgotten to wind up carefully every day.
+
+As to the engineer’s watch, it, of course, had stopped during the time
+which he had passed on the downs.
+
+The engineer now wound it up, and ascertaining by the height of the sun
+that it must be about nine o’clock in the morning, he put his watch at
+that hour.
+
+“No, my dear Spilett, wait. You have kept the Richmond time, have you
+not?”
+
+“Yes, Cyrus.”
+
+“Consequently, your watch is set by the meridian of that town, which is
+almost that of Washington?”
+
+“Undoubtedly.”
+
+“Very well, keep it thus. Content yourself with winding it up very,
+exactly, but do not touch the hands. This may be of use to us.
+
+“What will be the good of that?” thought the sailor.
+
+They ate, and so heartily, that the store of game and almonds was
+totally exhausted. But Pencroft was not at all uneasy, they would supply
+themselves on the way. Top, whose share had been very much to his taste,
+would know how to find some fresh game among the brushwood. Moreover,
+the sailor thought of simply asking the engineer to manufacture some
+powder and one or two fowling-pieces; he supposed there would be no
+difficulty in that.
+
+On leaving the plateau, the captain proposed to his companions to return
+to the Chimneys by a new way. He wished to reconnoiter Lake Grant, so
+magnificently framed in trees. They therefore followed the crest of one
+of the spurs, between which the creek that supplied the lake probably
+had its source. In talking, the settlers already employed the names
+which they had just chosen, which singularly facilitated the exchange
+of their ideas. Herbert and Pencroft--the one young and the other very
+boyish--were enchanted, and while walking, the sailor said,
+
+“Hey, Herbert! how capital it sounds! It will be impossible to lose
+ourselves, my boy, since, whether we follow the way to Lake Grant, or
+whether we join the Mercy through the woods of the Far West, we shall be
+certain to arrive at Prospect Heights, and, consequently, at Union Bay!”
+
+It had been agreed, that without forming a compact band, the settlers
+should not stray away from each other. It was very certain that the
+thick forests of the island were inhabited by dangerous animals, and it
+was prudent to be on their guard. In general, Pencroft, Herbert, and Neb
+walked first, preceded by Top, who poked his nose into every bush. The
+reporter and the engineer went together, Gideon Spilett ready to note
+every incident, the engineer silent for the most part, and only stepping
+aside to pick up one thing or another, a mineral or vegetable substance,
+which he put into his pocket, without making any remark.
+
+“What can he be picking up?” muttered Pencroft. “I have looked in vain
+for anything that’s worth the trouble of stooping for.”
+
+Towards ten o’clock the little band descended the last declivities of
+Mount Franklin. As yet the ground was scantily strewn with bushes and
+trees. They were walking over yellowish calcinated earth, forming a
+plain of nearly a mile long, which extended to the edge of the wood.
+Great blocks of that basalt, which, according to Bischof, takes three
+hundred and fifty millions of years to cool, strewed the plain, very
+confused in some places. However, there were here no traces of lava,
+which was spread more particularly over the northern slopes.
+
+Cyrus Harding expected to reach, without incident, the course of the
+creek, which he supposed flowed under the trees at the border of the
+plain, when he saw Herbert running hastily back, while Neb and the
+sailor were hiding behind the rocks.
+
+“What’s the matter, my boy?” asked Spilett.
+
+“Smoke,” replied Herbert. “We have seen smoke among the rocks, a hundred
+paces from us.”
+
+“Men in this place?” cried the reporter.
+
+“We must avoid showing ourselves before knowing with whom we have to
+deal,” replied Cyrus Harding. “I trust that there are no natives on this
+island; I dread them more than anything else. Where is Top?”
+
+“Top is on before.”
+
+“And he doesn’t bark?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“That is strange. However, we must try to call him back.”
+
+In a few moments, the engineer, Gideon Spilett, and Herbert had rejoined
+their two companions, and like them, they kept out of sight behind the
+heaps of basalt.
+
+From thence they clearly saw smoke of a yellowish color rising in the
+air.
+
+Top was recalled by a slight whistle from his master, and the latter,
+signing to his companions to wait for him, glided away among the
+rocks. The colonists, motionless, anxiously awaited the result of this
+exploration, when a shout from the engineer made them hasten forward.
+They soon joined him, and were at once struck with a disagreeable odor
+which impregnated the atmosphere.
+
+The odor, easily recognized, was enough for the engineer to guess what
+the smoke was which at first, not without cause, had startled him.
+
+“This fire,” said he, “or rather, this smoke is produced by nature alone.
+There is a sulphur spring there, which will cure all our sore throats.”
+
+“Captain!” cried Pencroft. “What a pity that I haven’t got a cold!”
+
+The settlers then directed their steps towards the place from which the
+smoke escaped. They there saw a sulphur spring which flowed abundantly
+between the rocks, and its waters discharged a strong sulphuric acid
+odor, after having absorbed the oxygen of the air.
+
+Cyrus Harding, dipping in his hand, felt the water oily to the touch.
+He tasted it and found it rather sweet. As to its temperature, that he
+estimated at ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit. Herbert having asked on
+what he based this calculation,--
+
+“Its quite simple, my boy,” said he, “for, in plunging my hand into the
+water, I felt no sensation either of heat or cold. Therefore it has the
+same temperature as the human body, which is about ninety-five degrees.”
+
+The sulphur spring not being of any actual use to the settlers, they
+proceeded towards the thick border of the forest, which began some
+hundred paces off.
+
+There, as they had conjectured, the waters of the stream flowed clear
+and limpid between high banks of red earth, the color of which betrayed
+the presence of oxide of iron. From this color, the name of Red Creek
+was immediately given to the watercourse.
+
+It was only a large stream, deep and clear, formed of the mountain
+water, which, half river, half torrent, here rippling peacefully over
+the sand, there falling against the rocks or dashing down in a cascade,
+ran towards the lake, over a distance of a mile and a half, its breadth
+varying from thirty to forty feet. Its waters were sweet, and it was
+supposed that those of the lake were so also. A fortunate circumstance,
+in the event of their finding on its borders a more suitable dwelling
+than the Chimneys.
+
+As to the trees, which some hundred feet downwards shaded the banks of
+the creek, they belonged, for the most part, to the species which abound
+in the temperate zone of America and Tasmania, and no longer to those
+coniferae observed in that portion of the island already explored
+to some miles from Prospect Heights. At this time of the year, the
+commencement of the month of April, which represents the month of
+October, in this hemisphere, that is, the beginning of autumn, they
+were still in full leaf. They consisted principally of casuarinas and
+eucalypti, some of which next year would yield a sweet manna, similar to
+the manna of the East. Clumps of Australian cedars rose on the sloping
+banks, which were also covered with the high grass called “tussac” in
+New Holland; but the cocoanut, so abundant in the archipelagoes of the
+Pacific, seemed to be wanting in the island, the latitude, doubtless,
+being too low.
+
+“What a pity!” said Herbert, “such a useful tree, and which has such
+beautiful nuts!”
+
+As to the birds, they swarmed among the scanty branches of the eucalypti
+and casuarinas, which did not hinder the display of their wings.
+Black, white, or gray cockatoos, paroquets, with plumage of all colors,
+kingfishers of a sparkling green and crowned with red, blue lories,
+and various other birds appeared on all sides, as through a prism,
+fluttering about and producing a deafening clamor. Suddenly, a strange
+concert of discordant voices resounded in the midst of a thicket. The
+settlers heard successively the song of birds, the cry of quadrupeds,
+and a sort of clacking which they might have believed to have escaped
+from the lips of a native. Neb and Herbert rushed towards the bush,
+forgetting even the most elementary principles of prudence. Happily,
+they found there, neither a formidable wild beast nor a dangerous
+native, but merely half a dozen mocking and singing birds, known as
+mountain pheasants. A few skillful blows from a stick soon put an end to
+their concert, and procured excellent food for the evening’s dinner.
+
+Herbert also discovered some magnificent pigeons with bronzed wings,
+some superbly crested, others draped in green, like their congeners at
+Port-Macquarie; but it was impossible to reach them, or the crows and
+magpies which flew away in flocks.
+
+A charge of small shot would have made great slaughter among these
+birds, but the hunters were still limited to sticks and stones, and
+these primitive weapons proved very insufficient.
+
+Their insufficiency was still more clearly shown when a troop of
+quadrupeds, jumping, bounding, making leaps of thirty feet, regular
+flying mammiferae, fled over the thickets, so quickly and at such a
+height, that one would have thought that they passed from one tree to
+another like squirrels.
+
+“Kangaroos!” cried Herbert.
+
+“Are they good to eat?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“Stewed,” replied the reporter, “their flesh is equal to the best
+venison!--”
+
+Gideon Spilett had not finished this exciting sentence when the sailor,
+followed by Neb and Herbert, darted on the kangaroos tracks. Cyrus
+Harding called them back in vain. But it was in vain too for the hunters
+to pursue such agile game, which went bounding away like balls. After a
+chase of five minutes, they lost their breath, and at the same time all
+sight of the creatures, which disappeared in the wood. Top was not more
+successful than his masters.
+
+“Captain,” said Pencroft, when the engineer and the reporter had
+rejoined them, “Captain, you see quite well we can’t get on unless we
+make a few guns. Will that be possible?”
+
+“Perhaps,” replied the engineer, “but we will begin by first
+manufacturing some bows and arrows, and I don’t doubt that you will
+become as clever in the use of them as the Australian hunters.”
+
+“Bows and arrows!” said Pencroft scornfully. “That’s all very well for
+children!”
+
+“Don’t be proud, friend Pencroft,” replied the reporter. “Bows and
+arrows were sufficient for centuries to stain the earth with blood.
+Powder is but a thing of yesterday, and war is as old as the human
+race--unhappily.”
+
+“Faith, that’s true, Mr. Spilett,” replied the sailor, “and I always
+speak too quickly. You must excuse me!”
+
+Meanwhile, Herbert constant to his favorite science, Natural History,
+reverted to the kangaroos, saying,--
+
+“Besides, we had to deal just now with the species which is most
+difficult to catch. They were giants with long gray fur; but if I am not
+mistaken, there exist black and red kangaroos, rock kangaroos, and rat
+kangaroos, which are more easy to get hold of. It is reckoned that there
+are about a dozen species.”
+
+“Herbert,” replied the sailor sententiously, “there is only one species
+of kangaroos to me, that is ‘kangaroo on the spit,’ and it’s just the
+one we haven’t got this evening!”
+
+They could not help laughing at Master Pencroft’s new classification.
+The honest sailor did not hide his regret at being reduced for dinner to
+the singing pheasants, but fortune once more showed itself obliging to
+him.
+
+In fact, Top, who felt that his interest was concerned went and ferreted
+everywhere with an instinct doubled by a ferocious appetite. It was even
+probable that if some piece of game did fall into his clutches, none
+would be left for the hunters, if Top was hunting on his own account;
+but Neb watched him and he did well.
+
+Towards three o’clock the dog disappeared in the brushwood and gruntings
+showed that he was engaged in a struggle with some animal. Neb rushed
+after him, and soon saw Top eagerly devouring a quadruped, which ten
+seconds later would have been past recognizing in Top’s stomach. But
+fortunately the dog had fallen upon a brood, and besides the victim he
+was devouring, two other rodents--the animals in question belonged to
+that order--lay strangled on the turf.
+
+Neb reappeared triumphantly holding one of the rodents in each hand.
+Their size exceeded that of a rabbit, their hair was yellow, mingled
+with green spots, and they had the merest rudiments of tails.
+
+The citizens of the Union were at no loss for the right name of these
+rodents. They were maras, a sort of agouti, a little larger than their
+congeners of tropical countries, regular American rabbits, with long
+ears, jaws armed on each side with five molars, which distinguish the
+agouti.
+
+“Hurrah!” cried Pencroft, “the roast has arrived! and now we can go
+home.”
+
+The walk, interrupted for an instant, was resumed. The limpid waters of
+the Red Creek flowed under an arch of casuarinas, banksias, and gigantic
+gum-trees. Superb lilacs rose to a height of twenty feet. Other
+arborescent species, unknown to the young naturalist, bent over the
+stream, which could be heard murmuring beneath the bowers of verdure.
+
+Meanwhile the stream grew much wider, and Cyrus Harding supposed that
+they would soon reach its mouth. In fact, on emerging from beneath a
+thick clump of beautiful trees, it suddenly appeared before their eyes.
+
+The explorers had arrived on the western shore of Lake Grant. The place
+was well worth looking at. This extent of water, of a circumference of
+nearly seven miles and an area of two hundred and fifty acres, reposed
+in a border of diversified trees. Towards the east, through a curtain
+of verdure, picturesquely raised in some places, sparkled an horizon of
+sea. The lake was curved at the north, which contrasted with the sharp
+outline of its lower part. Numerous aquatic birds frequented the shores
+of this little Ontario, in which the thousand isles of its American
+namesake were represented by a rock which emerged from its surface, some
+hundred feet from the southern shore. There lived in harmony several
+couples of kingfishers perched on a stone, grave, motionless, watching
+for fish, then darting down, they plunged in with a sharp cry, and
+reappeared with their prey in their beaks. On the shores and on the
+islets, strutted wild ducks, pelicans, water-hens, red-beaks, philedons,
+furnished with a tongue like a brush, and one or two specimens of the
+splendid menura, the tail of which expands gracefully like a lyre.
+
+As to the water of the lake, it was sweet, limpid, rather dark, and from
+certain bubblings, and the concentric circles which crossed each other
+on the surface, it could not be doubted that it abounded in fish.
+
+“This lake is really beautiful!” said Gideon Spilett. “We could live on
+its borders!”
+
+“We will live there!” replied Harding.
+
+The settlers, wishing to return to the Chimneys by the shortest way,
+descended towards the angle formed on the south by the junction of
+the lake’s bank. It was not without difficulty that they broke a path
+through the thickets and brushwood which had never been put aside by the
+hand of men, and they thus went towards the shore, so as to arrive at
+the north of Prospect Heights. Two miles were cleared in this direction,
+and then, after they had passed the last curtain of trees, appeared the
+plateau, carpeted with thick turf, and beyond that the infinite sea.
+
+To return to the Chimneys, it was enough to cross the plateau obliquely
+for the space of a mile, and then to descend to the elbow formed by
+the first detour of the Mercy. But the engineer desired to know how
+and where the overplus of the water from the lake escaped, and the
+exploration was prolonged under the trees for a mile and a half towards
+the north. It was most probable that an overfall existed somewhere, and
+doubtless through a cleft in the granite. This lake was only, in short,
+an immense center basin, which was filled by degrees by the creek, and
+its waters must necessarily pass to the sea by some fall. If it was so,
+the engineer thought that it might perhaps be possible to utilize this
+fall and borrow its power, actually lost without profit to any one.
+They continued then to follow the shores of Lake Grant by climbing the
+plateau; but, after having gone a mile in this direction, Cyrus Harding
+had not been able to discover the overfall, which, however, must exist
+somewhere.
+
+It was then half-past four. In order to prepare for dinner it was
+necessary that the settlers should return to their dwelling. The little
+band retraced their steps, therefore, and by the left bank of the Mercy,
+Cyrus Harding and his companions arrived at the Chimneys.
+
+The fire was lighted, and Neb and Pencroft, on whom the functions of
+cooks naturally devolved, to the one in his quality of Negro, to the
+other in that of sailor, quickly prepared some broiled agouti, to which
+they did great justice.
+
+The repast at length terminated; at the moment when each one was about
+to give himself up to sleep, Cyrus Harding drew from his pocket little
+specimens of different sorts of minerals, and just said,--
+
+“My friends, this is iron mineral, this a pyrite, this is clay, this is
+lime, and this is coal. Nature gives us these things. It is our business
+to make a right use of them. To-morrow we will commence operations.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 13
+
+“Well, captain, where are we going to begin?” asked Pencroft next
+morning of the engineer.
+
+“At the beginning,” replied Cyrus Harding.
+
+And in fact, the settlers were compelled to begin “at the very
+beginning.” They did not possess even the tools necessary for making
+tools, and they were not even in the condition of nature, who, “having
+time, husbands her strength.” They had no time, since they had to
+provide for the immediate wants of their existence, and though,
+profiting by acquired experience, they had nothing to invent, still they
+had everything to make; their iron and their steel were as yet only in
+the state of minerals, their earthenware in the state of clay, their
+linen and their clothes in the state of textile material.
+
+It must be said, however, that the settlers were “men” in the complete
+and higher sense of the word. The engineer Harding could not have been
+seconded by more intelligent companions, nor with more devotion and
+zeal. He had tried them. He knew their abilities.
+
+Gideon Spilett, a talented reporter, having learned everything so as to
+be able to speak of everything, would contribute largely with his head
+and hands to the colonization of the island. He would not draw back from
+any task: a determined sportsman, he would make a business of what till
+then had only been a pleasure to him.
+
+Herbert, a gallant boy, already remarkably well informed in the natural
+sciences, would render greater service to the common cause.
+
+Neb was devotion personified. Clever, intelligent, indefatigable,
+robust, with iron health, he knew a little about the work of the forge,
+and could not fail to be very useful in the colony.
+
+As to Pencroft, he had sailed over every sea, a carpenter in the
+dockyards in Brooklyn, assistant tailor in the vessels of the state,
+gardener, cultivator, during his holidays, etc., and like all seamen,
+fit for anything, he knew how to do everything.
+
+It would have been difficult to unite five men, better fitted to
+struggle against fate, more certain to triumph over it.
+
+“At the beginning,” Cyrus Harding had said. Now this beginning of which
+the engineer spoke was the construction of an apparatus which would
+serve to transform the natural substances. The part which heat plays in
+these transformations is known. Now fuel, wood or coal, was ready for
+immediate use, an oven must be built to use it.
+
+“What is this oven for?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“To make the pottery which we have need of,” replied Harding.
+
+“And of what shall we make the oven?”
+
+“With bricks.”
+
+“And the bricks?”
+
+“With clay. Let us start, my friends. To save trouble, we will establish
+our manufactory at the place of production. Neb will bring provisions,
+and there will be no lack of fire to cook the food.”
+
+“No,” replied the reporter; “but if there is a lack of food for want of
+instruments for the chase?”
+
+“Ah, if we only had a knife!” cried the sailor.
+
+“Well?” asked Cyrus Harding.
+
+“Well! I would soon make a bow and arrows, and then there could be
+plenty of game in the larder!”
+
+“Yes, a knife, a sharp blade.” said the engineer, as if he was speaking
+to himself.
+
+At this moment his eyes fell upon Top, who was running about on the
+shore. Suddenly Harding’s face became animated.
+
+“Top, here,” said he.
+
+The dog came at his master’s call. The latter took Top’s head between
+his hands, and unfastening the collar which the animal wore round his
+neck, he broke it in two, saying,--
+
+“There are two knives, Pencroft!”
+
+Two hurrahs from the sailor was the reply. Top’s collar was made of a
+thin piece of tempered steel. They had only to sharpen it on a piece of
+sandstone, then to raise the edge on a finer stone. Now sandstone was
+abundant on the beach, and two hours after the stock of tools in the
+colony consisted of two sharp blades, which were easily fixed in solid
+handles.
+
+The production of these their first tools was hailed as a triumph. It
+was indeed a valuable result of their labor, and a very opportune one.
+They set out.
+
+Cyrus Harding proposed that they should return to the western shore of
+the lake, where the day before he had noticed the clayey ground of which
+he possessed a specimen. They therefore followed the bank of the Mercy,
+traversed Prospect Heights, and after a walk of five miles or more they
+reached a glade, situated two hundred feet from Lake Grant.
+
+On the way Herbert had discovered a tree, the branches of which the
+Indians of South America employ for making their bows. It was the
+crejimba, of the palm family, which does not bear edible fruit. Long
+straight branches were cut, the leaves stripped off; it was shaped,
+stronger in the middle, more slender at the extremities, and nothing
+remained to be done but to find a plant fit to make the bow-string.
+This was the “hibiscus heterophyllus,” which furnishes fibers of such
+remarkable tenacity that they have been compared to the tendons of
+animals. Pencroft thus obtained bows of tolerable strength, for which he
+only wanted arrows. These were easily made with straight stiff branches,
+without knots, but the points with which they must be armed, that is
+to say, a substance to serve in lieu of iron, could not be met with so
+easily. But Pencroft said, that having done his part of the work, chance
+would do the rest.
+
+The settlers arrived on the ground which had been discovered the day
+before. Being composed of the sort of clay which is used for making
+bricks and tiles, it was very useful for the work in question. There was
+no great difficulty in it. It was enough to scour the clay with sand,
+then to mold the bricks and bake them by the heat of a wood fire.
+
+Generally bricks are formed in molds, but the engineer contented himself
+with making them by hand. All that day and the day following were
+employed in this work. The clay, soaked in water, was mixed by the feet
+and hands of the manipulators, and then divided into pieces of equal
+size. A practiced workman can make, without a machine, about ten
+thousand bricks in twelve hours; but in their two days work the five
+brickmakers on Lincoln Island had not made more than three thousand,
+which were ranged near each other, until the time when their complete
+desiccation would permit them to be used in building the oven, that is
+to say, in three or four days.
+
+It was on the 2nd of April that Harding had employed himself in fixing
+the orientation of the island, or, in other words, the precise spot
+where the sun rose. The day before he had noted exactly the hour when
+the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, making allowance for the
+refraction. This morning he noted, no less exactly, the hour at which
+it reappeared. Between this setting and rising twelve hours, twenty-four
+minutes passed. Then, six hours, twelve minutes after its rising, the
+sun on this day would exactly pass the meridian and the point of the sky
+which it occupied at this moment would be the north. At the said hour,
+Cyrus marked this point, and putting in a line with the sun two trees
+which would serve him for marks, he thus obtained an invariable meridian
+for his ulterior operations.
+
+The settlers employed the two days before the oven was built in
+collecting fuel. Branches were cut all round the glade, and they picked
+up all the fallen wood under the trees. They were also able to hunt with
+greater success, since Pencroft now possessed some dozen arrows armed
+with sharp points. It was Top who had furnished these points, by bringing
+in a porcupine, rather inferior eating, but of great value, thanks to
+the quills with which it bristled. These quills were fixed firmly at the
+ends of the arrows, the flight of which was made more certain by some
+cockatoos’ feathers. The reporter and Herbert soon became very skilful
+archers. Game of all sorts in consequence abounded at the Chimneys,
+capybaras, pigeons, agouties, grouse, etc. The greater part of these
+animals were killed in the part of the forest on the left bank of the
+Mercy, to which they gave the name of Jacamar Wood, in remembrance of
+the bird which Pencroft and Herbert had pursued when on their first
+exploration.
+
+This game was eaten fresh, but they preserved some capybara hams, by
+smoking them above a fire of green wood, after having perfumed them with
+sweet-smelling leaves. However, this food, although very strengthening,
+was always roast upon roast, and the party would have been delighted
+to hear some soup bubbling on the hearth, but they must wait till a pot
+could be made, and, consequently, till the oven was built.
+
+During these excursions, which were not extended far from the
+brick-field, the hunters could discern the recent passage of animals of
+a large size, armed with powerful claws, but they could not recognize
+the species. Cyrus Harding advised them to be very careful, as the
+forest probably enclosed many dangerous beasts.
+
+And he did right. Indeed, Gideon Spilett and Herbert one day saw an
+animal which resembled a jaguar. Happily the creature did not attack
+them, or they might not have escaped without a severe wound. As soon
+as he could get a regular weapon, that is to say, one of the guns which
+Pencroft begged for, Gideon Spilett resolved to make desperate war
+against the ferocious beasts, and exterminate them from the island.
+
+The Chimneys during these few days was not made more comfortable, for
+the engineer hoped to discover, or build if necessary, a more convenient
+dwelling. They contented themselves with spreading moss and dry leaves
+on the sand of the passages, and on these primitive couches the tired
+workers slept soundly.
+
+They also reckoned the days they had passed on Lincoln Island, and from
+that time kept a regular account. The 5th of April, which was Wednesday,
+was twelve days from the time when the wind threw the castaways on this
+shore.
+
+On the 6th of April, at daybreak, the engineer and his companions were
+collected in the glade, at the place where they were going to perform
+the operation of baking the bricks. Naturally this had to be in the open
+air, and not in a kiln, or rather, the agglomeration of bricks made an
+enormous kiln, which would bake itself. The fuel, made of well-prepared
+fagots, was laid on the ground and surrounded with several rows of dried
+bricks, which soon formed an enormous cube, to the exterior of which
+they contrived air-holes. The work lasted all day, and it was not till
+the evening that they set fire to the fagots. No one slept that night,
+all watching carefully to keep up the fire.
+
+The operation lasted forty-eight hours, and succeeded perfectly. It then
+became necessary to leave the smoking mass to cool, and during this time
+Neb and Pencroft, guided by Cyrus Harding, brought, on a hurdle made of
+interlaced branches, loads of carbonate of lime and common stones,
+which were very abundant, to the north of the lake. These stones, when
+decomposed by heat, made a very strong quicklime, greatly increased by
+slacking, at least as pure as if it had been produced by the calcination
+of chalk or marble. Mixed with sand the lime made excellent mortar.
+
+The result of these different works was, that, on the 9th of April,
+the engineer had at his disposal a quantity of prepared lime and some
+thousands of bricks.
+
+Without losing an instant, therefore, they began the construction of
+a kiln to bake the pottery, which was indispensable for their domestic
+use. They succeeded without much difficulty. Five days after, the kiln
+was supplied with coal, which the engineer had discovered lying open to
+the sky towards the mouth of the Red Creek, and the first smoke escaped
+from a chimney twenty feet high. The glade was transformed into a
+manufactory, and Pencroft was not far wrong in believing that from this
+kiln would issue all the products of modern industry.
+
+In the meantime what the settlers first manufactured was a common
+pottery in which to cook their food. The chief material was clay, to
+which Harding added a little lime and quartz. This paste made regular
+“pipe-clay,” with which they manufactured bowls, cups molded on stones
+of a proper size, great jars and pots to hold water, etc. The shape of
+these objects was clumsy and defective, but after they had been baked
+in a high temperature, the kitchen of the Chimneys was provided with a
+number of utensils, as precious to the settlers as the most beautifully
+enameled china. We must mention here that Pencroft, desirous to know if
+the clay thus prepared was worthy of its name of pipe-clay, made some
+large pipes, which he thought charming, but for which, alas! he had no
+tobacco, and that was a great privation to Pencroft. “But tobacco
+will come, like everything else!” he repeated, in a burst of absolute
+confidence.
+
+This work lasted till the 15th of April, and the time was well employed.
+The settlers, having become potters, made nothing but pottery. When
+it suited Cyrus Harding to change them into smiths, they would become
+smiths. But the next day being Sunday, and also Easter Sunday, all
+agreed to sanctify the day by rest. These Americans were religious men,
+scrupulous observers of the precepts of the Bible, and their situation
+could not but develop sentiments of confidence towards the Author of all
+things.
+
+On the evening of the 15th of April they returned to the Chimneys,
+carrying with them the pottery, the furnace being extinguished until
+they could put it to a new use. Their return was marked by a fortunate
+incident; the engineer discovered a substance which replaced tinder.
+It is known that a spongy, velvety flesh is procured from a certain
+mushroom of the genus polyporous. Properly prepared, it is extremely
+inflammable, especially when it has been previously saturated with
+gunpowder, or boiled in a solution of nitrate or chlorate of potash.
+But, till then, they had not found any of these polypores or even any of
+the morels which could replace them. On this day, the engineer, seeing
+a plant belonging to the wormwood genus, the principal species of which
+are absinthe, balm-mint, tarragon, etc., gathered several tufts, and,
+presenting them to the sailor, said,--
+
+“Here, Pencroft, this will please you.”
+
+Pencroft looked attentively at the plant, covered with long silky hair,
+the leaves being clothed with soft down.
+
+“What’s that, captain?” asked Pencroft. “Is it tobacco?”
+
+“No,” replied Harding, “it is wormwood; Chinese wormwood to the learned,
+but to us it will be tinder.”
+
+When the wormwood was properly dried it provided them with a very
+inflammable substance, especially afterwards when the engineer had
+impregnated it with nitrate of potash, of which the island possessed
+several beds, and which is in truth saltpeter.
+
+The colonists had a good supper that evening. Neb prepared some agouti
+soup, a smoked capybara ham, to which was added the boiled tubercules of
+the “caladium macrorhizum,” an herbaceous plant of the arum family.
+They had an excellent taste, and were very nutritious, being something
+similar to the substance which is sold in England under the name of
+“Portland sago”; they were also a good substitute for bread, which the
+settlers in Lincoln Island did not yet possess.
+
+When supper was finished, before sleeping, Harding and his companions
+went to take the air on the beach. It was eight o’clock in the evening;
+the night was magnificent. The moon, which had been full five days
+before, had not yet risen, but the horizon was already silvered by those
+soft, pale shades which might be called the dawn of the moon. At the
+southern zenith glittered the circumpolar constellations, and above all
+the Southern Cross, which some days before the engineer had greeted on
+the summit of Mount Franklin.
+
+Cyrus Harding gazed for some time at this splendid constellation, which
+has at its summit and at its base two stars of the first magnitude, at
+its left arm a star of the second, and at its right arm a star of the
+third magnitude.
+
+Then, after some minutes thought--
+
+“Herbert,” he asked of the lad, “is not this the 15th of April?”
+
+“Yes, captain,” replied Herbert.
+
+“Well, if I am not mistaken, to-morrow will be one of the four days in
+the year in which the real time is identical with average time; that
+is to say, my boy, that to-morrow, to within some seconds, the sun will
+pass the meridian just at midday by the clocks. If the weather is fine
+I think that I shall obtain the longitude of the island with an
+approximation of some degrees.”
+
+“Without instruments, without sextant?” asked Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Yes,” replied the engineer. “Also, since the night is clear, I will
+try, this very evening, to obtain our latitude by calculating the
+height of the Southern Cross, that is, from the southern pole above the
+horizon. You understand, my friends, that before undertaking the work
+of installation in earnest it is not enough to have found out that this
+land is an island; we must, as nearly as possible, know at what distance
+it is situated, either from the American continent or Australia, or from
+the principal archipelagoes of the Pacific.”
+
+“In fact,” said the reporter, “instead of building a house it would
+be more important to build a boat, if by chance we are not more than a
+hundred miles from an inhabited coast.”
+
+“That is why,” returned Harding, “I am going to try this evening to
+calculate the latitude of Lincoln Island, and to-morrow, at midday, I
+will try to calculate the longitude.”
+
+If the engineer had possessed a sextant, an apparatus with which the
+angular distance of objects can be measured with great precision, there
+would have been no difficulty in the operation. This evening by the
+height of the pole, the next day by the passing of the sun at the
+meridian, he would obtain the position of the island. But as they had
+not one he would have to supply the deficiency.
+
+Harding then entered the Chimneys. By the light of the fire he cut two
+little flat rulers, which he joined together at one end so as to form
+a pair of compasses, whose legs could separate or come together. The
+fastening was fixed with a strong acacia thorn which was found in the
+wood pile. This instrument finished, the engineer returned to the beach,
+but as it was necessary to take the height of the pole from above a
+clear horizon, that is, a sea horizon, and as Claw Cape hid the southern
+horizon, he was obliged to look for a more suitable station. The best
+would evidently have been the shore exposed directly to the south; but
+the Mercy would have to be crossed, and that was a difficulty. Harding
+resolved, in consequence, to make his observation from Prospect Heights,
+taking into consideration its height above the level of the sea--a
+height which he intended to calculate next day by a simple process of
+elementary geometry.
+
+The settlers, therefore, went to the plateau, ascending the left bank of
+the Mercy, and placed themselves on the edge which looked northwest and
+southeast, that is, above the curiously-shaped rocks which bordered the
+river.
+
+This part of the plateau commanded the heights of the left bank, which
+sloped away to the extremity of Claw Cape, and to the southern side of
+the island. No obstacle intercepted their gaze, which swept the horizon
+in a semi-circle from the cape to Reptile End. To the south the horizon,
+lighted by the first rays of the moon, was very clearly defined against
+the sky.
+
+At this moment the Southern Cross presented itself to the observer in an
+inverted position, the star Alpha marking its base, which is nearer to
+the southern pole.
+
+This constellation is not situated as near to the antarctic pole as the
+Polar Star is to the arctic pole. The star Alpha is about twenty-seven
+degrees from it, but Cyrus Harding knew this and made allowance for
+it in his calculation. He took care also to observe the moment when it
+passed the meridian below the pole, which would simplify the operation.
+
+Cyrus Harding pointed one leg of the compasses to the horizon, the
+other to Alpha, and the space between the two legs gave him the angular
+distance which separated Alpha from the horizon. In order to fix the
+angle obtained, he fastened with thorns the two pieces of wood on a
+third placed transversely, so that their separation should be properly
+maintained.
+
+That done, there was only the angle to calculate by bringing back the
+observation to the level of the sea, taking into consideration the
+depression of the horizon, which would necessitate measuring the height
+of the cliff. The value of this angle would give the height of Alpha,
+and consequently that of the pole above the horizon, that is to say, the
+latitude of the island, since the latitude of a point of the globe is
+always equal to the height of the pole above the horizon of this point.
+
+The calculations were left for the next day, and at ten o’clock every
+one was sleeping soundly.
+
+
+
+Chapter 14
+
+
+The next day, the 16th of April, and Easter Sunday, the settlers issued
+from the Chimneys at daybreak, and proceeded to wash their linen. The
+engineer intended to manufacture soap as soon as he could procure the
+necessary materials--soda or potash, fat or oil. The important question
+of renewing their wardrobe would be treated of in the proper time and
+place. At any rate their clothes would last at least six months longer,
+for they were strong, and could resist the wear of manual labor. But
+all would depend on the situation of the island with regard to inhabited
+land. This would be settled to-day if the weather permitted.
+
+The sun rising above a clear horizon, announced a magnificent day, one
+of those beautiful autumn days which are like the last farewells of the
+warm season.
+
+It was now necessary to complete the observations of the evening before
+by measuring the height of the cliff above the level of the sea.
+
+“Shall you not need an instrument similar to the one which you used
+yesterday?” said Herbert to the engineer.
+
+“No, my boy,” replied the latter, “we are going to proceed differently,
+but in as precise a way.”
+
+Herbert, wishing to learn everything he could, followed the engineer to
+the beach. Pencroft, Neb, and the reporter remained behind and occupied
+themselves in different ways.
+
+Cyrus Harding had provided himself with a straight stick, twelve feet
+long, which he had measured as exactly as possible by comparing it with
+his own height, which he knew to a hair. Herbert carried a plumb-line
+which Harding had given him, that is to say, a simple stone fastened
+to the end of a flexible fiber. Having reached a spot about twenty feet
+from the edge of the beach, and nearly five hundred feet from the cliff,
+which rose perpendicularly, Harding thrust the pole two feet into
+the sand, and wedging it up carefully, he managed, by means of the
+plumb-line, to erect it perpendicularly with the plane of the horizon.
+
+
+That done, he retired the necessary distance, when, lying on the sand,
+his eye glanced at the same time at the top of the pole and the crest of
+the cliff. He carefully marked the place with a little stick.
+
+Then addressing Herbert--“Do you know the first principles of geometry?”
+ he asked.
+
+“Slightly, captain,” replied Herbert, who did not wish to put himself
+forward.
+
+“You remember what are the properties of two similar triangles?”
+
+“Yes,” replied Herbert; “their homologous sides are proportional.”
+
+“Well, my boy, I have just constructed two similar right-angled
+triangles; the first, the smallest, has for its sides the perpendicular
+pole, the distance which separates the little stick from the foot of the
+pole and my visual ray for hypothenuse; the second has for its sides
+the perpendicular cliff, the height of which we wish to measure, the
+distance which separates the little stick from the bottom of the
+cliff, and my visual ray also forms its hypothenuse, which proves to be
+prolongation of that of the first triangle.”
+
+“Ah, captain, I understand!” cried Herbert. “As the distance from the
+stick to the pole is to the distance from the stick to the base of the
+cliff, so is the height of the pole to the height of the cliff.”
+
+“Just so, Herbert,” replied the engineer; “and when we have measured the
+two first distances, knowing the height of the pole, we shall only have
+a sum in proportion to do, which will give us the height of the cliff,
+and will save us the trouble of measuring it directly.”
+
+The two horizontal distances were found out by means of the pole, whose
+length above the sand was exactly ten feet.
+
+The first distance was fifteen feet between the stick and the place
+where the pole was thrust into the sand.
+
+The second distance between the stick and the bottom of the cliff was
+five hundred feet.
+
+These measurements finished, Cyrus Harding and the lad returned to the
+Chimneys.
+
+The engineer then took a flat stone which he had brought back from one
+of his previous excursions, a sort of slate, on which it was easy
+to trace figures with a sharp shell. He then proved the following
+proportions:--
+
+
+          15:500::10:x
+
+         500 x 10 = 5000
+
+        5000 / 15 = 333.3
+
+
+From which it was proved that the granite cliff measured 333 feet in
+height.
+
+Cyrus Harding then took the instrument which he had made the evening
+before, the space between its two legs giving the angular distance
+between the star Alpha and the horizon. He measured, very exactly, the
+opening of this angle on a circumference which he divided into 360 equal
+parts. Now, this angle by adding to it the twenty-seven degrees which
+separated Alpha from the antarctic pole, and by reducing to the level of
+the sea the height of the cliff on which the observation had been made,
+was found to be fifty-three degrees. These fifty-three degrees being
+subtracted from ninety degrees--the distance from the pole to the
+equator--there remained thirty-seven degrees. Cyrus Harding concluded,
+therefore, that Lincoln Island was situated on the thirty-seventh degree
+of the southern latitude, or taking into consideration through the
+imperfection of the performance, an error of five degrees, that it must
+be situated between the thirty-fifth and the fortieth parallel.
+
+There was only the longitude to be obtained, and the position of the
+island would be determined, The engineer hoped to attempt this the same
+day, at twelve o’clock, at which moment the sun would pass the meridian.
+
+It was decided that Sunday should be spent in a walk, or rather an
+exploring expedition, to that side of the island between the north of
+the lake and Shark Gulf, and if there was time they would push their
+discoveries to the northern side of Cape South Mandible. They would
+breakfast on the downs, and not return till evening.
+
+At half-past eight the little band was following the edge of the
+channel. On the other side, on Safety Islet, numerous birds were gravely
+strutting. They were divers, easily recognized by their cry, which much
+resembles the braying of a donkey. Pencroft only considered them in
+an eatable point of view, and learnt with some satisfaction that their
+flesh, though blackish, is not bad food.
+
+Great amphibious creatures could also be seen crawling on the sand;
+seals, doubtless, who appeared to have chosen the islet for a place of
+refuge. It was impossible to think of those animals in an alimentary
+point of view, for their oily flesh is detestable; however, Cyrus
+Harding observed them attentively, and without making known his idea, he
+announced to his companions that very soon they would pay a visit to the
+islet. The beach was strewn with innumerable shells, some of which would
+have rejoiced the heart of a conchologist; there were, among others, the
+phasianella, the terebratual, etc. But what would be of more use, was
+the discovery, by Neb, at low tide, of a large oysterbed among the
+rocks, nearly five miles from the Chimneys.
+
+“Neb will not have lost his day,” cried Pencroft, looking at the
+spacious oyster-bed.
+
+“It is really a fortunate discovery,” said the reporter, “and as it is
+said that each oyster produces yearly from fifty to sixty thousand eggs,
+we shall have an inexhaustible supply there.”
+
+“Only I believe that the oyster is not very nourishing,” said Herbert.
+
+“No,” replied Harding. “The oyster contains very little nitrogen, and
+if a man lived exclusively on them, he would have to eat not less than
+fifteen to sixteen dozen a day.”
+
+“Capital!” replied Pencroft. “We might swallow dozens and dozens without
+exhausting the bed. Shall we take some for breakfast?”
+
+And without waiting for a reply to this proposal, knowing that it would
+be approved of, the sailor and Neb detached a quantity of the molluscs.
+They put them in a sort of net of hibiscus fiber, which Neb had
+manufactured, and which already contained food; they then continued to
+climb the coast between the downs and the sea.
+
+From time to time Harding consulted his watch, so as to be prepared in
+time for the solar observation, which had to be made exactly at midday.
+
+All that part of the island was very barren as far as the point
+which closed Union Bay, and which had received the name of Cape South
+Mandible. Nothing could be seen there but sand and shells, mingled with
+debris of lava. A few sea-birds frequented this desolate coast, gulls,
+great albatrosses, as well as wild duck, for which Pencroft had a great
+fancy. He tried to knock some over with an arrow, but without result,
+for they seldom perched, and he could not hit them on the wing.
+
+This led the sailor to repeat to the engineer,--
+
+“You see, captain, so long as we have not one or two fowling-pieces, we
+shall never get anything!”
+
+“Doubtless, Pencroft,” replied the reporter, “but it depends on you.
+Procure us some iron for the barrels, steel for the hammers, saltpeter.
+coal and sulphur for powder, mercury and nitric acid for the fulminate,
+and lead for the shot, and the captain will make us first-rate guns.”
+
+“Oh!” replied the engineer, “we might, no doubt, find all these
+substances on the island, but a gun is a delicate instrument, and needs
+very particular tools. However, we shall see later!”
+
+“Why,” cried Pencroft, “were we obliged to throw overboard all the
+weapons we had with us in the car, all our implements, even our
+pocket-knives?”
+
+“But if we had not thrown them away, Pencroft, the balloon would have
+thrown us to the bottom of the sea!” said Herbert.
+
+“What you say is true, my boy,” replied the sailor.
+
+Then passing to another idea,--“Think,” said he, “how astounded Jonathan
+Forster and his companions must have been when, next morning, they found
+the place empty, and the machine flown away!”
+
+“I am utterly indifferent about knowing what they may have thought,”
+ said the reporter.
+
+“It was all my idea, that!” said Pencroft, with a satisfied air.
+
+“A splendid idea, Pencroft!” replied Gideon Spilett, laughing, “and
+which has placed us where we are.”
+
+“I would rather be here than in the hands of the Southerners,” cried the
+sailor, “especially since the captain has been kind enough to come and
+join us again.”
+
+“So would I, truly!” replied the reporter. “Besides, what do we want?
+Nothing.”
+
+“If that is not--everything!” replied Pencroft, laughing and shrugging
+his shoulders. “But, some day or other, we shall find means of going
+away!”
+
+“Sooner, perhaps, than you imagine, my friends,” remarked the engineer,
+“if Lincoln Island is but a medium distance from an inhabited island,
+or from a continent. We shall know in an hour. I have not a map of the
+Pacific, but my memory has preserved a very clear recollection of
+its southern part. The latitude which I obtained yesterday placed New
+Zealand to the west of Lincoln Island, and the coast of Chile to the
+east. But between these two countries, there is a distance of at least
+six thousand miles. It has, therefore, to be determined what point in
+this great space the island occupies, and this the longitude will give
+us presently, with a sufficient approximation, I hope.”
+
+“Is not the archipelago of the Pomoutous the nearest point to us in
+latitude?” asked Herbert.
+
+“Yes,” replied the engineer, “but the distance which separates us from
+it is more than twelve hundred miles.”
+
+“And that way?” asked Neb, who followed the conversation with extreme
+interest, pointing to the south.
+
+“That way, nothing,” replied Pencroft.
+
+“Nothing, indeed,” added the engineer.
+
+“Well, Cyrus,” asked the reporter, “if Lincoln Island is not more than
+two or three thousand miles from New Zealand or Chile?”
+
+“Well,” replied the engineer, “instead of building a house we will build
+a boat, and Master Pencroft shall be put in command--”
+
+“Well then,” cried the sailor, “I am quite ready to be captain--as soon
+as you can make a craft that’s able to keep at sea!”
+
+“We shall do it, if it is necessary,” replied Cyrus Harding.
+
+But while these men, who really hesitated at nothing, were talking,
+the hour approached at which the observation was to be made. What Cyrus
+Harding was to do to ascertain the passage of the sun at the meridian of
+the island, without an instrument of any sort, Herbert could not guess.
+
+The observers were then about six miles from the Chimneys, not far from
+that part of the downs in which the engineer had been found after his
+enigmatical preservation. They halted at this place and prepared for
+breakfast, for it was half-past eleven. Herbert went for some fresh
+water from a stream which ran near, and brought it back in a jug, which
+Neb had provided.
+
+During these preparations Harding arranged everything for his
+astronomical observation. He chose a clear place on the shore, which
+the ebbing tide had left perfectly level. This bed of fine sand was as
+smooth as ice, not a grain out of place. It was of little importance
+whether it was horizontal or not, and it did not matter much whether the
+stick six feet high, which was planted there, rose perpendicularly. On
+the contrary, the engineer inclined it towards the south, that is to
+say, in the direction of the coast opposite to the sun, for it must
+not be forgotten that the settlers in Lincoln Island, as the island was
+situated in the Southern Hemisphere, saw the radiant planet describe its
+diurnal arc above the northern, and not above the southern horizon.
+
+Herbert now understood how the engineer was going to proceed to
+ascertain the culmination of the sun, that is to say its passing the
+meridian of the island or, in other words, determine due south. It was
+by means of the shadow cast on the sand by the stick, a way which, for
+want of an instrument, would give him a suitable approach to the result
+which he wished to obtain.
+
+In fact, the moment when this shadow would reach its minimum of length
+would be exactly twelve o’clock, and it would be enough to watch the
+extremity of the shadow, so as to ascertain the instant when, after
+having successively diminished, it began to lengthen. By inclining his
+stick to the side opposite to the sun, Cyrus Harding made the shadow
+longer, and consequently its modifications would be more easily
+ascertained. In fact, the longer the needle of a dial is, the more
+easily can the movement of its point be followed. The shadow of the
+stick was nothing but the needle of a dial. The moment had come, and
+Cyrus Harding knelt on the sand, and with little wooden pegs, which he
+stuck into the sand, he began to mark the successive diminutions of the
+stick’s shadow. His companions, bending over him, watched the operation
+with extreme interest. The reporter held his chronometer in his hand,
+ready to tell the hour which it marked when the shadow would be at its
+shortest. Moreover, as Cyrus Harding was working on the 16th of April,
+the day on which the true and the average time are identical, the hour
+given by Gideon Spilett would be the true hour then at Washington, which
+would simplify the calculation. Meanwhile as the sun slowly advanced,
+the shadow slowly diminished, and when it appeared to Cyrus Harding that
+it was beginning to increase, he asked, “What o’clock is it?”
+
+“One minute past five,” replied Gideon Spilett directly. They had now
+only to calculate the operation. Nothing could be easier. It could be
+seen that there existed, in round numbers, a difference of five hours
+between the meridian of Washington and that of Lincoln Island, that is
+to say, it was midday in Lincoln Island when it was already five o’clock
+in the evening in Washington. Now the sun, in its apparent movement
+round the earth, traverses one degree in four minutes, or fifteen
+degrees an hour. Fifteen degrees multiplied by five hours give
+seventy-five degrees.
+
+Then, since Washington is 77deg 3’ 11” as much as to say seventy-seven
+degrees counted from the meridian of Greenwich which the Americans
+take for their starting-point for longitudes concurrently with the
+English--it followed that the island must be situated seventy-seven and
+seventy-five degrees west of the meridian of Greenwich, that is to say,
+on the hundred and fifty-second degree of west longitude.
+
+Cyrus Harding announced this result to his companions, and taking into
+consideration errors of observation, as he had done for the latitude, he
+believed he could positively affirm that the position of Lincoln Island
+was between the thirty-fifth and the thirty-seventh parallel, and
+between the hundred and fiftieth and the hundred and fifty-fifth
+meridian to the west of the meridian of Greenwich.
+
+The possible fault which he attributed to errors in the observation was,
+it may be seen, of five degrees on both sides, which, at sixty miles
+to a degree, would give an error of three hundred miles in latitude and
+longitude for the exact position.
+
+But this error would not influence the determination which it was
+necessary to take. It was very evident that Lincoln Island was at such a
+distance from every country or island that it would be too hazardous to
+attempt to reach one in a frail boat.
+
+In fact, this calculation placed it at least twelve hundred miles from
+Tahiti and the islands of the archipelago of the Pomoutous, more than
+eighteen hundred miles from New Zealand, and more than four thousand
+five hundred miles from the American coast!
+
+And when Cyrus Harding consulted his memory, he could not remember in
+any way that such an island occupied, in that part of the Pacific, the
+situation assigned to Lincoln Island.
+
+
+
+Chapter 15
+
+The next day, the 17th of April, the sailor’s first words were addressed
+to Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Well, sir,” he asked, “what shall we do to-day?”
+
+“What the captain pleases,” replied the reporter.
+
+Till then the engineer’s companions had been brickmakers and potters,
+now they were to become metallurgists.
+
+The day before, after breakfast, they had explored as far as the point
+of Mandible Cape, seven miles distant from the Chimneys. There, the long
+series of downs ended, and the soil had a volcanic appearance. There
+were no longer high cliffs as at Prospect Heights, but a strange and
+capricious border which surrounded the narrow gulf between the two
+capes, formed of mineral matter, thrown up by the volcano. Arrived at
+this point the settlers retraced their steps, and at nightfall entered
+the Chimneys; but they did not sleep before the question of knowing
+whether they could think of leaving Lincoln Island or not was definitely
+settled.
+
+The twelve hundred miles which separated the island from the Pomoutous
+Island was a considerable distance. A boat could not cross it,
+especially at the approach of the bad season. Pencroft had expressly
+declared this. Now, to construct a simple boat even with the necessary
+tools, was a difficult work, and the colonists not having tools they
+must begin by making hammers, axes, adzes, saws, augers, planes, etc.,
+which would take some time. It was decided, therefore, that they
+would winter at Lincoln Island, and that they would look for a more
+comfortable dwelling than the Chimneys, in which to pass the winter
+months.
+
+Before anything else could be done it was necessary to make the iron
+ore, of which the engineer had observed some traces in the northwest
+part of the island, fit for use by converting it either into iron or
+into steel.
+
+Metals are not generally found in the ground in a pure state. For the
+most part they are combined with oxygen or sulphur. Such was the case
+with the two specimens which Cyrus Harding had brought back, one of
+magnetic iron, not carbonated, the other a pyrite, also called sulphuret
+of iron. It was, therefore the first, the oxide of iron, which they must
+reduce with coal, that is to say, get rid of the oxygen, to obtain it in
+a pure state. This reduction is made by subjecting the ore with coal to
+a high temperature, either by the rapid and easy Catalan method,
+which has the advantage of transforming the ore into iron in a single
+operation, or by the blast furnace, which first smelts the ore, then
+changes it into iron, by carrying away the three to four per cent. of
+coal, which is combined with it.
+
+Now Cyrus Harding wanted iron, and he wished to obtain it as soon as
+possible. The ore which he had picked up was in itself very pure and
+rich. It was the oxydulous iron, which is found in confused masses of a
+deep gray color; it gives a black dust, crystallized in the form of the
+regular octahedron. Native lodestones consist of this ore, and iron
+of the first quality is made in Europe from that with which Sweden and
+Norway are so abundantly supplied. Not far from this vein was the vein
+of coal already made use of by the settlers. The ingredients for the
+manufacture being close together would greatly facilitate the treatment
+of the ore. This is the cause of the wealth of the mines in Great
+Britain, where the coal aids the manufacture of the metal extracted from
+the same soil at the same time as itself.
+
+“Then, captain,” said Pencroft, “we are going to work iron ore?”
+
+“Yes, my friend,” replied the engineer, “and for that--something which
+will please you--we must begin by having a seal hunt on the islet.”
+
+“A seal hunt!” cried the sailor, turning towards Gideon Spilett. “Are
+seals needed to make iron?”
+
+“Since Cyrus has said so!” replied the reporter.
+
+But the engineer had already left the Chimneys, and Pencroft prepared
+for the seal hunt, without having received any other explanation.
+
+Cyrus Harding, Herbert, Gideon Spilett, Neb, and the sailor were
+soon collected on the shore, at a place where the channel left a ford
+passable at low tide. The hunters could therefore traverse it without
+getting wet higher than the knee.
+
+Harding then put his foot on the islet for the first, and his companions
+for the second time.
+
+On their landing some hundreds of penguins looked fearlessly at them.
+The hunters, armed with sticks, could have killed them easily, but they
+were not guilty of such useless massacre, as it was important not to
+frighten the seals, who were lying on the sand several cable lengths
+off. They also respected certain innocent-looking birds, whose wings
+were reduced to the state of stumps, spread out like fins, ornamented
+with feathers of a scaly appearance. The settlers, therefore, prudently
+advanced towards the north point, walking over ground riddled with
+little holes, which formed nests for the sea-birds. Towards the
+extremity of the islet appeared great black heads floating just above
+the water, having exactly the appearance of rocks in motion.
+
+These were the seals which were to be captured. It was necessary,
+however, first to allow them to land, for with their close, short
+hair, and their fusiform conformation, being excellent swimmers, it is
+difficult to catch them in the sea, while on land their short, webbed
+feet prevent their having more than a slow, waddling movement.
+
+Pencroft knew the habits of these creatures, and he advised waiting till
+they were stretched on the sand, when the sun, before long, would send
+them to sleep. They must then manage to cut off their retreat and knock
+them on the head.
+
+The hunters, having concealed themselves behind the rocks, waited
+silently.
+
+An hour passed before the seals came to play on the sand. They could
+count half a dozen. Pencroft and Herbert then went round the point of
+the islet, so as to take them in the rear, and cut off their retreat.
+During this time Cyrus Harding, Spilett, and Neb, crawling behind the
+rocks, glided towards the future scene of combat.
+
+All at once the tall figure of the sailor appeared. Pencroft shouted.
+The engineer and his two companions threw themselves between the sea and
+the seals. Two of the animals soon lay dead on the sand, but the rest
+regained the sea in safety.
+
+“Here are the seals required, captain!” said the sailor, advancing
+towards the engineer.
+
+“Capital,” replied Harding. “We will make bellows of them!”
+
+“Bellows!” cried Pencroft. “Well! these are lucky seals!”
+
+It was, in fact, a blowing-machine, necessary for the treatment of
+the ore that the engineer wished to manufacture with the skins of the
+amphibious creatures. They were of a medium size, for their length did
+not exceed six feet. They resembled a dog about the head.
+
+As it was useless to burden themselves with the weight of both the
+animals, Neb and Pencroft resolved to skin them on the spot, while Cyrus
+Harding and the reporter continued to explore the islet.
+
+The sailor and the Negro cleverly performed the operation, and three
+hours afterwards Cyrus Harding had at his disposal two seals’ skins,
+which he intended to use in this state, without subjecting them to any
+tanning process.
+
+The settlers waited till the tide was again low, and crossing the
+channel they entered the Chimneys.
+
+The skins had then to be stretched on a frame of wood and sewn by means
+of fibers so as to preserve the air without allowing too much to escape.
+Cyrus Harding had nothing but the two steel blades from Top’s collar,
+and yet he was so clever, and his companions aided him with so much
+intelligence, that three days afterwards the little colony’s stock of
+tools was augmented by a blowing-machine, destined to inject the air
+into the midst of the ore when it should be subjected to heat--an
+indispensable condition to the success of the operation.
+
+On the morning of the 20th of April began the “metallic period,” as the
+reporter called it in his notes. The engineer had decided, as has been
+said, to operate near the veins both of coal and ore. Now, according to
+his observations, these veins were situated at the foot of the northeast
+spurs of Mount Franklin, that is to say, a distance of six miles from
+their home. It was impossible, therefore, to return every day to the
+Chimneys, and it was agreed that the little colony should camp under a
+hut of branches, so that the important operation could be followed night
+and day.
+
+This settled, they set out in the morning. Neb and Pencroft dragged the
+bellows on a hurdle; also a quantity of vegetables and animals, which
+they besides could renew on the way.
+
+The road led through Jacamar Wood, which they traversed obliquely from
+southeast to northwest, and in the thickest part. It was necessary to
+beat a path, which would in the future form the most direct road to
+Prospect Heights and Mount Franklin. The trees, belonging to the species
+already discovered, were magnificent. Herbert found some new ones, among
+others some which Pencroft called “sham leeks”; for, in spite of their
+size, they were of the same liliaceous family as the onion, chive,
+shallot, or asparagus. These trees produce ligneous roots which, when
+cooked, are excellent; from them, by fermentation, a very agreeable
+liquor is made. They therefore made a good store of the roots.
+
+The journey through the wood was long; it lasted the whole day, and so
+allowed plenty of time for examining the flora and fauna. Top, who
+took special charge of the fauna, ran through the grass and brushwood,
+putting up all sorts of game. Herbert and Gideon Spilett killed two
+kangaroos with bows and arrows, and also an animal which strongly
+resembled both a hedgehog and an ant-eater. It was like the first
+because it rolled itself into a ball, and bristled with spines, and the
+second because it had sharp claws, a long slender snout which terminated
+in a bird’s beak, and an extendible tongue, covered with little thorns
+which served to hold the insects.
+
+“And when it is in the pot,” asked Pencroft naturally, “what will it be
+like?”
+
+“An excellent piece of beef,” replied Herbert.
+
+“We will not ask more from it,” replied the sailor.
+
+During this excursion they saw several wild boars, which however, did
+not offer to attack the little band, and it appeared as if they would
+not meet with any dangerous beasts; when, in a thick part of the wood,
+the reporter thought he saw, some paces from him, among the lower
+branches of a tree, an animal which he took for a bear, and which he
+very tranquilly began to draw. Happily for Gideon Spilett, the animal in
+question did not belong to the redoubtable family of the plantigrades.
+It was only a koala, better known under the name of the sloth, being
+about the size of a large dog, and having stiff hair of a dirty color,
+the paws armed with strong claws, which enabled it to climb trees and
+feed on the leaves. Having identified the animal, which they did not
+disturb, Gideon Spilett erased “bear” from the title of his sketch,
+putting koala in its place, and the journey was resumed.
+
+At five o’clock in the evening, Cyrus Harding gave the signal to halt.
+They were now outside the forest, at the beginning of the powerful spurs
+which supported Mount Franklin towards the west. At a distance of some
+hundred feet flowed the Red Creek, and consequently plenty of fresh
+water was within their reach.
+
+The camp was soon organized. In less than an hour, on the edge of the
+forest, among the trees, a hut of branches interlaced with creepers,
+and pasted over with clay, offered a tolerable shelter. Their geological
+researches were put off till the next day. Supper was prepared, a good
+fire blazed before the hut, the roast turned, and at eight o’clock,
+while one of the settlers watched to keep up the fire, in case any wild
+beasts should prowl in the neighborhood, the others slept soundly.
+
+The next day, the 21st of April, Cyrus Harding accompanied by Herbert,
+went to look for the soil of ancient formation, on which he had already
+discovered a specimen of ore. They found the vein above ground, near the
+source of the creek, at the foot of one of the northeastern spurs. This
+ore, very rich in iron, enclosed in its fusible veinstone, was perfectly
+suited to the mode of reduction which the engineer intended to employ;
+that is, the Catalan method, but simplified, as it is used in
+Corsica. In fact, the Catalan method, properly so called, requires the
+construction of kilns and crucibles, in which the ore and the coal,
+placed in alternate layers, are transformed and reduced, But Cyrus
+Harding intended to economize these constructions, and wished simply to
+form, with the ore and the coal, a cubic mass, to the center of which he
+would direct the wind from his bellows. Doubtless, it was the proceeding
+employed by Tubalcain, and the first metallurgists of the inhabited
+world. Now that which had succeeded with the grandson of Adam, and which
+still yielded good results in countries rich in ore and fuel, could not
+but succeed with the settlers in Lincoln Island.
+
+The coal, as well as the ore, was collected without trouble on the
+surface of the ground. They first broke the ore into little pieces,
+and cleansed them with the hand from the impurities which soiled their
+surface. Then coal and ore were arranged in heaps and in successive
+layers, as the charcoal-burner does with the wood which he wishes to
+carbonize. In this way, under the influence of the air projected by the
+blowing-machine, the coal would be transformed into carbonic acid, then
+into oxide of carbon, its use being to reduce the oxide of iron, that is
+to say, to rid it of the oxygen.
+
+Thus the engineer proceeded. The bellows of sealskin, furnished at its
+extremity with a nozzle of clay, which had been previously fabricated
+in the pottery kiln, was established near the heap of ore. Using the
+mechanism which consisted of a frame, cords of fiber and counterpoise,
+he threw into the mass an abundance of air, which by raising the
+temperature also concurred with the chemical transformation to produce
+in time pure iron.
+
+The operation was difficult. All the patience, all the ingenuity of the
+settlers was needed; but at last it succeeded, and the result was a lump
+of iron, reduced to a spongy state, which it was necessary to shingle
+and fagot, that is to say, to forge so as to expel from it the liquefied
+veinstone. These amateur smiths had, of course, no hammer; but they were
+in no worse a situation than the first metallurgist, and therefore did
+what, no doubt, he had to do.
+
+A handle was fixed to the first lump, and was used as a hammer to forge
+the second on a granite anvil, and thus they obtained a coarse but
+useful metal. At length, after many trials and much fatigue, on the 25th
+of April several bars of iron were forged, and transformed into tools,
+crowbars, pincers, pickaxes, spades, etc., which Pencroft and Neb
+declared to be real jewels. But the metal was not yet in its most
+serviceable state, that is, of steel. Now steel is a combination of iron
+and coal, which is extracted, either from the liquid ore, by taking from
+it the excess of coal, or from the iron by adding to it the coal which
+was wanting. The first, obtained by the decarburation of the metal,
+gives natural or puddled steel; the second, produced by the carburation
+of the iron, gives steel of cementation.
+
+It was the last which Cyrus Harding intended to forge, as he possessed
+iron in a pure state. He succeeded by heating the metal with powdered
+coal in a crucible which had previously been manufactured from clay
+suitable for the purpose.
+
+He then worked this steel, which is malleable both when hot or cold,
+with the hammer. Neb and Pencroft, cleverly directed, made hatchets,
+which, heated red-hot, and plunged suddenly into cold water, acquired an
+excellent temper.
+
+Other instruments, of course roughly fashioned, were also manufactured;
+blades for planes, axes, hatchets, pieces of steel to be transformed
+into saws, chisels; then iron for spades, pickaxes, hammers, nails,
+etc. At last, on the 5th of May, the metallic period ended, the smiths
+returned to the Chimneys, and new work would soon authorize them to take
+a fresh title.
+
+
+
+Chapter 16
+
+It was the 6th of May, a day which corresponds to the 6th of November in
+the countries of the Northern Hemisphere. The sky had been obscured for
+some days, and it was of importance to make preparations for the winter.
+However, the temperature was not as yet much lower, and a centigrade
+thermometer, transported to Lincoln Island, would still have marked an
+average of ten to twelve degrees above zero. This was not surprising,
+since Lincoln Island, probably situated between the thirty-fifth and
+fortieth parallel, would be subject, in the Southern Hemisphere, to
+the same climate as Sicily or Greece in the Northern Hemisphere. But as
+Greece and Sicily have severe cold, producing snow and ice, so doubtless
+would Lincoln Island in the severest part of the winter and it was
+advisable to provide against it.
+
+In any case if cold did not yet threaten them, the rainy season would
+begin, and on this lonely island, exposed to all the fury of the
+elements, in mid-ocean, bad weather would be frequent, and probably
+terrible. The question of a more comfortable dwelling than the Chimneys
+must therefore be seriously considered and promptly resolved on.
+
+Pencroft, naturally, had some predilection for the retreat which he
+had discovered, but he well understood that another must be found. The
+Chimneys had been already visited by the sea, under circumstances
+which are known, and it would not do to be exposed again to a similar
+accident.
+
+“Besides,” added Cyrus Harding, who this day was talking of these things
+with his companions, “we have some precautions to take.”
+
+“Why? The island is not inhabited,” said the reporter.
+
+“That is probable,” replied the engineer, “although we have not yet
+explored the interior; but if no human beings are found, I fear that
+dangerous animals may abound. It is necessary to guard against a
+possible attack, so that we shall not be obliged to watch every night,
+or to keep up a fire. And then, my friends, we must foresee everything.
+We are here in a part of the Pacific often frequented by Malay
+pirates--”
+
+“What!” said Herbert, “at such a distance from land?”
+
+“Yes, my boy,” replied the engineer. “These pirates are bold sailors as
+well as formidable enemies, and we must take measures accordingly.”
+
+“Well,” replied Pencroft, “we will fortify ourselves against savages
+with two legs as well as against savages with four. But, captain, will
+it not be best to explore every part of the island before undertaking
+anything else?”
+
+“That would be best,” added Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Who knows if we might not find on the opposite side one of the caverns
+which we have searched for in vain here?”
+
+“That is true,” replied the engineer, “but you forget, my friends, that
+it will be necessary to establish ourselves in the neighborhood of a
+watercourse, and that, from the summit of Mount Franklin, we could not
+see towards the west, either stream or river. Here, on the contrary, we
+are placed between the Mercy and Lake Grant, an advantage which must not
+be neglected. And, besides, this side, looking towards the east, is not
+exposed as the other is to the trade-winds, which in this hemisphere
+blow from the northwest.”
+
+“Then, captain,” replied the sailor, “let us build a house on the edge
+of the lake. Neither bricks nor tools are wanting now. After having been
+brickmakers, potters, smelters, and smiths, we shall surely know how to
+be masons!”
+
+“Yes, my friend; but before coming to any decision we must consider
+the matter thoroughly. A natural dwelling would spare us much work,
+and would be a surer retreat, for it would be as well defended against
+enemies from the interior as those from outside.”
+
+“That is true, Cyrus,” replied the reporter, “but we have already
+examined all that mass of granite, and there is not a hole, not a
+cranny!”
+
+“No, not one!” added Pencroft. “Ah, if we were able to dig out a
+dwelling in that cliff, at a good height, so as to be out of the reach
+of harm, that would be capital! I can see that on the front which looks
+seaward, five or six rooms--”
+
+“With windows to light them!” said Herbert, laughing.
+
+“And a staircase to climb up to them!” added Neb.
+
+“You are laughing,” cried the sailor, “and why? What is there impossible
+in what I propose? Haven’t we got pickaxes and spades? Won’t Captain
+Harding be able to make powder to blow up the mine? Isn’t it true,
+captain, that you will make powder the very day we want it?”
+
+Cyrus Harding listened to the enthusiastic Pencroft developing his
+fanciful projects. To attack this mass of granite, even by a mine, was
+Herculean work, and it was really vexing that nature could not help them
+at their need. But the engineer did not reply to the sailor except by
+proposing to examine the cliff more attentively, from the mouth of the
+river to the angle which terminated it on the north.
+
+They went out, therefore, and the exploration was made with extreme
+care, over an extent of nearly two miles. But in no place in the bare,
+straight cliff, could any cavity be found. The nests of the rock pigeons
+which fluttered at its summit were only, in reality, holes bored at the
+very top, and on the irregular edge of the granite.
+
+It was a provoking circumstance, and as to attacking this cliff, either
+with pickaxe or with powder, so as to effect a sufficient excavation, it
+was not to be thought of. It so happened that, on all this part of the
+shore, Pencroft had discovered the only habitable shelter, that is to
+say, the Chimneys, which now had to be abandoned.
+
+The exploration ended, the colonists found themselves at the north angle
+of the cliff, where it terminated in long slopes which died away on the
+shore. From this place, to its extreme limit in the west, it only formed
+a sort of declivity, a thick mass of stones, earth, and sand, bound
+together by plants, bushes, and grass inclined at an angle of only
+forty-five degrees. Clumps of trees grew on these slopes, which were
+also carpeted with thick grass. But the vegetation did not extend
+far, and a long, sandy plain, which began at the foot of these slopes,
+reached to the beach.
+
+Cyrus Harding thought, not without reason, that the overplus of the lake
+must overflow on this side. The excess of water furnished by the Red
+Creek must also escape by some channel or other. Now the engineer had
+not yet found this channel on any part of the shore already explored,
+that is to say, from the mouth of the stream on the west of Prospect
+Heights.
+
+The engineer now proposed to his companions to climb the slope, and to
+return to the Chimneys by the heights, while exploring the northern
+and eastern shores of the lake. The proposal was accepted, and in a few
+minutes Herbert and Neb were on the upper plateau. Cyrus Harding, Gideon
+Spilett, and Pencroft followed with more sedate steps.
+
+The beautiful sheet of water glittered through the trees under the rays
+of the sun. In this direction the country was charming. The eye feasted
+on the groups of trees. Some old trunks, bent with age, showed black
+against the verdant grass which covered the ground. Crowds of brilliant
+cockatoos screamed among the branches, moving prisms, hopping from one
+bough to another.
+
+The settlers instead of going directly to the north bank of the lake,
+made a circuit round the edge of the plateau, so as to join the mouth
+of the creek on its left bank. It was a detour of more than a mile and a
+half. Walking was easy, for the trees widely spread, left a considerable
+space between them. The fertile zone evidently stopped at this point,
+and vegetation would be less vigorous in the part between the course of
+the Creek and the Mercy.
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions walked over this new ground with great
+care. Bows, arrows, and sticks with sharp iron points were their only
+weapons. However, no wild beast showed itself, and it was probable that
+these animals frequented rather the thick forests in the south; but the
+settlers had the disagreeable surprise of seeing Top stop before a snake
+of great size, measuring from fourteen to fifteen feet in length. Neb
+killed it by a blow from his stick. Cyrus Harding examined the reptile,
+and declared it not venomous, for it belonged to that species of diamond
+serpents which the natives of New South Wales rear. But it was possible
+that others existed whose bite was mortal such as the deaf vipers with
+forked tails, which rise up under the feet, or those winged snakes,
+furnished with two ears, which enable them to proceed with great
+rapidity. Top, the first moment of surprise over, began a reptile chase
+with such eagerness, that they feared for his safety. His master called
+him back directly.
+
+The mouth of the Red Creek, at the place where it entered into the lake,
+was soon reached. The explorers recognized on the opposite shore the
+point which they had visited on their descent from Mount Franklin. Cyrus
+Harding ascertained that the flow of water into it from the creek was
+considerable. Nature must therefore have provided some place for the
+escape of the overplus. This doubtless formed a fall, which, if it could
+be discovered, would be of great use.
+
+The colonists, walking apart, but not straying far from each other,
+began to skirt the edge of the lake, which was very steep. The water
+appeared to be full of fish, and Pencroft resolved to make some
+fishing-rods, so as to try and catch some.
+
+The northeast point was first to be doubled. It might have been supposed
+that the discharge of water was at this place, for the extremity of the
+lake was almost on a level with the edge of the plateau. But no signs of
+this were discovered, and the colonists continued to explore the bank,
+which, after a slight bend, descended parallel to the shore.
+
+On this side the banks were less woody, but clumps of trees, here and
+there, added to the picturesqueness of the country. Lake Grant was
+viewed from thence in all its extent, and no breath disturbed the
+surface of its waters. Top, in beating the bushes, put up flocks of
+birds of different kinds, which Gideon Spilett and Herbert saluted with
+arrows. One was hit by the lad, and fell into some marshy grass. Top
+rushed forward, and brought a beautiful swimming bird, of a slate color,
+short beak, very developed frontal plate, and wings edged with white. It
+was a “coot,” the size of a large partridge, belonging to the group of
+macrodactyls which form the transition between the order of wading birds
+and that of palmipeds. Sorry game, in truth, and its flavor is far from
+pleasant. But Top was not so particular in these things as his masters,
+and it was agreed that the coot should be for his supper.
+
+The settlers were now following the eastern bank of the lake, and they
+would not be long in reaching the part which they already knew.
+The engineer was much surprised at not seeing any indication of the
+discharge of water. The reporter and the sailor talked with him, and he
+could not conceal his astonishment.
+
+At this moment Top, who had been very quiet till then, gave signs of
+agitation. The intelligent animal went backwards and forwards on the
+shore, stopped suddenly, and looked at the water, one paw raised, as if
+he was pointing at some invisible game; then he barked furiously, and
+was suddenly silent.
+
+Neither Cyrus Harding nor his companions had at first paid any attention
+to Top’s behavior; but the dog’s barking soon became so frequent that
+the engineer noticed it.
+
+“What is there, Top?” he asked.
+
+The dog bounded towards his master, seeming to be very uneasy, and then
+rushed again towards the bank. Then, all at once, he plunged into the
+lake.
+
+“Here, Top!” cried Cyrus Harding, who did not like his dog to venture
+into the treacherous water.
+
+“What’s happening down there?” asked Pencroft, examining the surface of
+the lake.
+
+“Top smells some amphibious creature,” replied Herbert.
+
+“An alligator, perhaps,” said the reporter.
+
+“I do not think so,” replied Harding. “Alligators are only met with in
+regions less elevated in latitude.”
+
+Meanwhile Top had returned at his master’s call, and had regained the
+shore: but he could not stay quiet; he plunged in among the tall grass,
+and guided by instinct, he appeared to follow some invisible being which
+was slipping along under the surface of the water. However the water
+was calm; not a ripple disturbed its surface. Several times the settlers
+stopped on the bank, and observed it attentively. Nothing appeared.
+There was some mystery there.
+
+The engineer was puzzled.
+
+“Let us pursue this exploration to the end,” said he.
+
+Half an hour after they had all arrived at the southeast angle of the
+lake, on Prospect Heights. At this point the examination of the banks of
+the lake was considered finished, and yet the engineer had not been able
+to discover how and where the waters were discharged. “There is no doubt
+this overflow exists,” he repeated, “and since it is not visible it must
+go through the granite cliff at the west!”
+
+“But what importance do you attach to knowing that, my dear Cyrus?”
+ asked Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Considerable importance,” replied the engineer; “for if it flows
+through the cliff there is probably some cavity, which it would be easy
+to render habitable after turning away the water.”
+
+“But is it not possible, captain, that the water flows away at the
+bottom of the lake,” said Herbert, “and that it reaches the sea by some
+subterranean passage?”
+
+“That might be,” replied the engineer, “and should it be so we shall be
+obliged to build our house ourselves, since nature has not done it for
+us.”
+
+The colonists were about to begin to traverse the plateau to return to
+the Chimneys, when Top gave new signs of agitation. He barked with fury,
+and before his master could restrain him, he had plunged a second time
+into the lake.
+
+All ran towards the bank. The dog was already more than twenty feet off,
+and Cyrus was calling him back, when an enormous head emerged from the
+water, which did not appear to be deep in that place.
+
+Herbert recognized directly the species of amphibian to which the
+tapering head, with large eyes, and adorned with long silky mustaches,
+belonged.
+
+“A lamantin!” he cried.
+
+It was not a lamantin, but one of that species of the order of
+cetaceans, which bear the name of the “dugong,” for its nostrils were
+open at the upper part of its snout. The enormous animal rushed on the
+dog, who tried to escape by returning towards the shore. His master
+could do nothing to save him, and before Gideon Spilett or Herbert
+thought of bending their bows, Top, seized by the dugong, had
+disappeared beneath the water.
+
+Neb, his iron-tipped spear in his hand, wished to go to Top’s help, and
+attack the dangerous animal in its own element.
+
+“No, Neb,” said the engineer, restraining his courageous servant.
+
+Meanwhile, a struggle was going on beneath the water, an inexplicable
+struggle, for in his situation Top could not possibly resist; and
+judging by the bubbling of the surface it must be also a terrible
+struggle, and could not but terminate in the death of the dog! But
+suddenly, in the middle of a foaming circle, Top reappeared. Thrown in
+the air by some unknown power, he rose ten feet above the surface of the
+lake, fell again into the midst of the agitated waters, and then soon
+gained the shore, without any severe wounds, miraculously saved.
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions could not understand it. What was not
+less inexplicable was that the struggle still appeared to be going on.
+Doubtless, the dugong, attacked by some powerful animal, after having
+released the dog, was fighting on its own account. But it did not last
+long. The water became red with blood, and the body of the dugong,
+emerging from the sheet of scarlet which spread around, soon stranded on
+a little beach at the south angle of the lake. The colonists ran towards
+it. The dugong was dead. It was an enormous animal, fifteen or sixteen
+feet long, and must have weighed from three to four thousand pounds. At
+its neck was a wound, which appeared to have been produced by a sharp
+blade.
+
+What could the amphibious creature have been, who, by this terrible
+blow had destroyed the formidable dugong? No one could tell, and much
+interested in this incident, Harding and his companions returned to the
+Chimneys.
+
+
+
+Chapter 17
+
+The next day, the 7th of May, Harding and Gideon Spilett, leaving Neb to
+prepare breakfast, climbed Prospect Heights, while Herbert and Pencroft
+ascended by the river, to renew their store of wood.
+
+The engineer and the reporter soon reached the little beach on which the
+dugong had been stranded. Already flocks of birds had attacked the mass
+of flesh, and had to be driven away with stones, for Cyrus wished to
+keep the fat for the use of the colony. As to the animal’s flesh
+it would furnish excellent food, for in the islands of the Malay
+Archipelago and elsewhere, it is especially reserved for the table of
+the native princes. But that was Neb’s affair.
+
+At this moment Cyrus Harding had other thoughts. He was much interested
+in the incident of the day before. He wished to penetrate the mystery
+of that submarine combat, and to ascertain what monster could have given
+the dugong so strange a wound. He remained at the edge of the lake,
+looking, observing; but nothing appeared under the tranquil waters,
+which sparkled in the first rays of the rising sun.
+
+At the beach, on which lay the body of the dugong, the water was
+tolerably shallow, but from this point the bottom of the lake sloped
+gradually, and it was probable that the depth was considerable in the
+center. The lake might be considered as a large center basin, which was
+filled by the water from the Red Creek.
+
+“Well, Cyrus,” said the reporter, “there seems to be nothing suspicious
+in this water.”
+
+“No, my dear Spilett,” replied the engineer, “and I really do not know
+how to account for the incident of yesterday.”
+
+“I acknowledge,” returned Spilett, “that the wound given this creature
+is, at least, very strange, and I cannot explain either how Top was
+so vigorously cast up out of the water. One could have thought that a
+powerful arm hurled him up, and that the same arm with a dagger killed
+the dugong!”
+
+“Yes,” replied the engineer, who had become thoughtful; “there is
+something there that I cannot understand. But do you better understand
+either, my dear Spilett, in what way I was saved myself--how I was drawn
+from the waves, and carried to the downs? No! Is it not true? Now, I
+feel sure that there is some mystery there, which, doubtless, we shall
+discover some day. Let us observe, but do not dwell on these singular
+incidents before our companions. Let us keep our remarks to ourselves,
+and continue our work.”
+
+It will be remembered that the engineer had not as yet been able to
+discover the place where the surplus water escaped, but he knew it must
+exist somewhere. He was much surprised to see a strong current at this
+place. By throwing in some bits of wood he found that it set towards the
+southern angle. He followed the current, and arrived at the south point
+of the lake.
+
+There was there a sort of depression in the water, as if it was suddenly
+lost in some fissure in the ground.
+
+Harding listened; placing his ear to the level of the lake, he very
+distinctly heard the noise of a subterranean fall.
+
+“There,” said he, rising, “is the discharge of the water; there,
+doubtless, by a passage in the granite cliff, it joins the sea, through
+cavities which we can use to our profit. Well, I can find it!”
+
+The engineer cut a long branch, stripped it of its leaves, and plunging
+it into the angle between the two banks, he found that there was a large
+hole one foot only beneath the surface of the water. This hole was the
+opening so long looked for in vain, and the force of the current was
+such that the branch was torn from the engineer’s hands and disappeared.
+
+“There is no doubt about it now,” repeated Harding. “There is the
+outlet, and I will lay it open to view!”
+
+“How?” asked Gideon Spilett.
+
+“By lowering the level of the water of the lake three feet.”
+
+“And how will you lower the level?”
+
+“By opening another outlet larger than this.”
+
+“At what place, Cyrus?”
+
+“At the part of the bank nearest the coast.”
+
+“But it is a mass of granite!” observed Spilett.
+
+“Well,” replied Cyrus Harding, “I will blow up the granite, and the
+water escaping, will subside, so as to lay bare this opening--”
+
+“And make a waterfall, by falling on to the beach,” added the reporter.
+
+“A fall that we shall make use of!” replied Cyrus. “Come, come!”
+
+The engineer hurried away his companion, whose confidence in Harding was
+such that he did not doubt the enterprise would succeed. And yet, how
+was this granite wall to be opened without powder, and with imperfect
+instruments? Was not this work upon which the engineer was so bent above
+their strength?
+
+When Harding and the reporter entered the Chimneys, they found Herbert
+and Pencroft unloading their raft of wood.
+
+“The woodmen have just finished, captain.” said the sailor, laughing,
+“and when you want masons--”
+
+“Masons,--no, but chemists,” replied the engineer.
+
+“Yes,” added the reporter, “we are going to blow up the island--”
+
+“Blow up the island?” cried Pencroft.
+
+“Part of it, at least,” replied Spilett.
+
+“Listen to me, my friends,” said the engineer. And he made known to them
+the result of his observations.
+
+According to him, a cavity, more or less considerable, must exist in
+the mass of granite which supported Prospect Heights, and he intended
+to penetrate into it. To do this, the opening through which the water
+rushed must first be cleared, and the level lowered by making a larger
+outlet. Therefore an explosive substance must be manufactured, which
+would make a deep trench in some other part of the shore. This was what
+Harding was going to attempt with the minerals which nature placed at
+his disposal.
+
+It is useless to say with what enthusiasm all, especially Pencroft,
+received this project. To employ great means, open the granite, create a
+cascade, that suited the sailor. And he would just as soon be a chemist
+as a mason or bootmaker, since the engineer wanted chemicals. He would
+be all that they liked, “even a professor of dancing and deportment,”
+ said he to Neb, if that was ever necessary.
+
+Neb and Pencroft were first of all told to extract the grease from the
+dugong, and to keep the flesh, which was destined for food. Such perfect
+confidence had they in the engineer, that they set out directly,
+without even asking a question. A few minutes after them, Cyrus Harding,
+Herbert, and Gideon Spilett, dragging the hurdle, went towards the vein
+of coals, where those shistose pyrites abound which are met with in the
+most recent transition soil, and of which Harding had already found a
+specimen. All the day being employed in carrying a quantity of these
+stones to the Chimneys, by evening they had several tons.
+
+The next day, the 8th of May, the engineer began his manipulations.
+These shistose pyrites being composed principally of coal, flint,
+alumina, and sulphuret of iron--the latter in excess--it was necessary
+to separate the sulphuret of iron, and transform it into sulphate as
+rapidly as possible. The sulphate obtained, the sulphuric acid could
+then be extracted.
+
+This was the object to be attained. Sulphuric acid is one of the agents
+the most frequently employed, and the manufacturing importance of a
+nation can be measured by the consumption which is made of it. This acid
+would later be of great use to the settlers, in the manufacturing of
+candles, tanning skins, etc., but this time the engineer reserved it for
+another use.
+
+Cyrus Harding chose, behind the Chimneys, a site where the ground
+was perfectly level. On this ground he placed a layer of branches and
+chopped wood, on which were piled some pieces of shistose pyrites,
+buttressed one against the other, the whole being covered with a thin
+layer of pyrites, previously reduced to the size of a nut.
+
+This done, they set fire to the wood, the heat was communicated to the
+shist, which soon kindled, since it contains coal and sulphur. Then new
+layers of bruised pyrites were arranged so as to form an immense
+heap, the exterior of which was covered with earth and grass, several
+air-holes being left, as if it was a stack of wood which was to be
+carbonized to make charcoal.
+
+They then left the transformation to complete itself, and it would
+not take less than ten or twelve days for the sulphuret of iron to be
+changed to sulphate of iron and the alumina into sulphate of alumina,
+two equally soluble substances, the others, flint, burnt coal, and
+cinders, not being so.
+
+While this chemical work was going on, Cyrus Harding proceeded with
+other operations, which were pursued with more than zeal,--it was
+eagerness.
+
+Neb and Pencroft had taken away the fat from the dugong, and placed it
+in large earthen pots. It was then necessary to separate the glycerine
+from the fat by saponifying it. Now, to obtain this result, it had to
+be treated either with soda or lime. In fact, one or other of these
+substances, after having attacked the fat, would form a soap by
+separating the glycerine, and it was just this glycerine which the
+engineer wished to obtain. There was no want of lime, only treatment by
+lime would give calcareous soap, insoluble, and consequently useless,
+while treatment by soda would furnish, on the contrary, a soluble soap,
+which could be put to domestic use. Now, a practical man, like Cyrus
+Harding, would rather try to obtain soda. Was this difficult? No; for
+marine plants abounded on the shore, glass-wort, ficoides, and all
+those fucaceae which form wrack. A large quantity of these plants
+was collected, first dried, then burnt in holes in the open air. The
+combustion of these plants was kept up for several days, and the result
+was a compact gray mass, which has been long known under the name of
+“natural soda.”
+
+This obtained, the engineer treated the fat with soda, which gave both a
+soluble soap and that neutral substance, glycerine.
+
+But this was not all. Cyrus Harding still needed, in view of his future
+preparation, another substance, nitrate of potash, which is better known
+under the name of salt niter, or of saltpeter.
+
+Cyrus Harding could have manufactured this substance by treating the
+carbonate of potash, which would be easily extracted from the cinders of
+the vegetables, by azotic acid. But this acid was wanting, and he would
+have been in some difficulty, if nature had not happily furnished the
+saltpeter, without giving them any other trouble than that of picking it
+up. Herbert found a vein of it at the foot of Mount Franklin, and they
+had nothing to do but purify this salt.
+
+These different works lasted a week. They were finished before
+the transformation of the sulphuret into sulphate of iron had been
+accomplished. During the following days the settlers had time to
+construct a furnace of bricks of a particular arrangement, to serve for
+the distillation of the sulphate or iron when it had been obtained. All
+this was finished about the 18th of May, nearly at the time when the
+chemical transformation terminated. Gideon Spilett, Herbert, Neb, and
+Pencroft, skillfully directed by the engineer, had become most clever
+workmen. Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and
+who teaches the best.
+
+When the heap of pyrites had been entirely reduced by fire, the result
+of the operation, consisting of sulphate of iron, sulphate of alumina,
+flint, remains of coal, and cinders was placed in a basinful of water.
+They stirred this mixture, let it settle, then decanted it, and obtained
+a clear liquid containing in solution sulphate of iron and sulphate of
+alumina, the other matters remaining solid, since they are insoluble.
+Lastly, this liquid being partly evaporated, crystals of sulphate of
+iron were deposited, and the not evaporated liquid, which contained the
+sulphate of alumina, was thrown away.
+
+Cyrus Harding had now at his disposal a large quantity of these sulphate
+of iron crystals, from which the sulphuric acid had to be extracted. The
+making of sulphuric acid is a very expensive manufacture. Considerable
+works are necessary--a special set of tools, an apparatus of
+platina, leaden chambers, unassailable by the acid, and in which the
+transformation is performed, etc. The engineer had none of these at his
+disposal, but he knew that, in Bohemia especially, sulphuric acid is
+manufactured by very simple means, which have also the advantage of
+producing it to a superior degree of concentration. It is thus that the
+acid known under the name of Nordhausen acid is made.
+
+To obtain sulphuric acid, Cyrus Harding had only one operation to make,
+to calcine the sulphate of iron crystals in a closed vase, so that the
+sulphuric acid should distil in vapor, which vapor, by condensation,
+would produce the acid.
+
+The crystals were placed in pots, and the heat from the furnace would
+distil the sulphuric acid. The operation was successfully completed, and
+on the 20th of May, twelve days after commencing it, the engineer
+was the possessor of the agent which later he hoped to use in so many
+different ways.
+
+Now, why did he wish for this agent? Simply to produce azotic acid;
+and that was easy, since saltpeter, attacked by sulphuric acid, gives
+azotic, or nitric, acid by distillation.
+
+But, after all, how was he going to employ this azotic acid? His
+companions were still ignorant of this, for he had not informed them of
+the result at which he aimed.
+
+However, the engineer had nearly accomplished his purpose, and by a
+last operation he would procure the substance which had given so much
+trouble.
+
+Taking some azotic acid, he mixed it with glycerine, which had been
+previously concentrated by evaporation, subjected to the water-bath, and
+he obtained, without even employing a refrigerant mixture, several pints
+of an oily yellow mixture.
+
+This last operation Cyrus Harding had made alone, in a retired place, at
+a distance from the Chimneys, for he feared the danger of an explosion,
+and when he showed a bottle of this liquid to his friends, he contented
+himself with saying,--
+
+“Here is nitro-glycerine!”
+
+It was really this terrible production, of which the explosive power is
+perhaps tenfold that of ordinary powder, and which has already caused so
+many accidents. However, since a way has been found to transform it into
+dynamite, that is to say, to mix with it some solid substance, clay or
+sugar, porous enough to hold it, the dangerous liquid has been used
+with some security. But dynamite was not yet known at the time when the
+settlers worked on Lincoln Island.
+
+“And is it that liquid that is going to blow up our rocks?” said
+Pencroft incredulously.
+
+“Yes, my friend,” replied the engineer, “and this nitro-glycerine will
+produce so much the more effect, as the granite is extremely hard, and
+will oppose a greater resistance to the explosion.”
+
+“And when shall we see this, captain?”
+
+“To-morrow, as soon as we have dug a hole for the mine, replied the
+engineer.”
+
+The next day, the 21st of May, at daybreak, the miners went to the point
+which formed the eastern shore of Lake Grant, and was only five hundred
+feet from the coast. At this place, the plateau inclined downwards from
+the waters, which were only restrained by their granite case. Therefore,
+if this case was broken, the water would escape by the opening and form
+a stream, which, flowing over the inclined surface of the plateau,
+would rush on to the beach. Consequently, the level of the lake would
+be greatly lowered, and the opening where the water escaped would be
+exposed, which was their final aim.
+
+Under the engineer’s directions, Pencroft, armed with a pickaxe, which
+he handled skillfully and vigorously, attacked the granite. The hole was
+made on the point of the shore, slanting, so that it should meet a
+much lower level than that of the water of the lake. In this way the
+explosive force, by scattering the rock, would open a large place for
+the water to rush out.
+
+The work took some time, for the engineer, wishing to produce a great
+effect, intended to devote not less than seven quarts of nitro-glycerine
+to the operation. But Pencroft, relieved by Neb, did so well, that
+towards four o’clock in the evening, the mine was finished.
+
+Now the question of setting fire to the explosive substance was raised.
+Generally, nitro-glycerine is ignited by caps of fulminate, which in
+bursting cause the explosion. A shock is therefore needed to produce
+the explosion, for, simply lighted, this substance would burn without
+exploding.
+
+Cyrus Harding could certainly have fabricated a percussion cap. In
+default of fulminate, he could easily obtain a substance similar to
+guncotton, since he had azotic acid at his disposal. This substance,
+pressed in a cartridge, and introduced among the nitro-glycerine, would
+burst by means of a fuse, and cause the explosion.
+
+But Cyrus Harding knew that nitro-glycerine would explode by a shock.
+He resolved to employ this means, and try another way, if this did not
+succeed.
+
+In fact, the blow of a hammer on a few drops of nitro-glycerine, spread
+out on a hard surface, was enough to create an explosion. But the
+operator could not be there to give the blow, without becoming a victim
+to the operation. Harding, therefore, thought of suspending a mass of
+iron, weighing several pounds, by means of a fiber, to an upright just
+above the mine. Another long fiber, previously impregnated with sulphur,
+was attached to the middle of the first, by one end, while the other lay
+on the ground several feet distant from the mine. The second fiber being
+set on fire, it would burn till it reached the first. This catching
+fire in its turn, would break, and the mass of iron would fall on the
+nitro-glycerine. This apparatus being then arranged, the engineer, after
+having sent his companions to a distance, filled the hole, so that the
+nitro-glycerine was on a level with the opening; then he threw a few
+drops of it on the surface of the rock, above which the mass of iron was
+already suspended.
+
+This done, Harding lit the end of the sulphured fiber, and leaving the
+place, he returned with his companions to the Chimneys.
+
+The fiber was intended to burn five and twenty minutes, and, in fact,
+five and twenty minutes afterwards a most tremendous explosion was
+heard. The island appeared to tremble to its very foundation. Stones
+were projected in the air as if by the eruption of a volcano. The shock
+produced by the displacing of the air was such, that the rocks of the
+Chimneys shook. The settlers, although they were more than two miles
+from the mine, were thrown on the ground.
+
+They rose, climbed the plateau, and ran towards the place where the bank
+of the lake must have been shattered by the explosion.
+
+A cheer escaped them! A large rent was seen in the granite! A rapid
+stream of water rushed foaming across the plateau and dashed down a
+height of three hundred feet on to the beach!
+
+
+
+Chapter 18
+
+Cyrus Harding’s project had succeeded, but, according to his usual
+habit he showed no satisfaction; with closed lips and a fixed look, he
+remained motionless. Herbert was in ecstasies, Neb bounded with joy,
+Pencroft nodded his great head, murmuring these words,--
+
+“Come, our engineer gets on capitally!”
+
+The nitro-glycerine had indeed acted powerfully. The opening which it
+had made was so large that the volume of water which escaped through
+this new outlet was at least treble that which before passed through the
+old one. The result was, that a short time after the operation the level
+of the lake would be lowered two feet, or more.
+
+The settlers went to the Chimneys to take some pickaxes, iron-tipped
+spears, string made of fibers, flint and steel; they then returned to
+the plateau, Top accompanying them.
+
+On the way the sailor could not help saying to the engineer,--
+
+“Don’t you think, captain, that by means of that charming liquid you
+have made, one could blow up the whole of our island?”
+
+“Without any doubt, the island, continents, and the world itself,”
+ replied the engineer. “It is only a question of quantity.”
+
+“Then could you not use this nitro-glycerine for loading firearms?”
+ asked the sailor.
+
+“No, Pencroft; for it is too explosive a substance. But it would be easy
+to make some guncotton, or even ordinary powder, as we have azotic acid,
+saltpeter, sulphur, and coal. Unhappily, it is the guns which we have
+not got.
+
+“Oh, captain,” replied the sailor, “with a little determination--”
+
+Pencroft had erased the word “impossible” from the dictionary of Lincoln
+Island.
+
+The settlers, having arrived at Prospect Heights, went immediately
+towards that point of the lake near which was the old opening now
+uncovered. This outlet had now become practicable, since the water no
+longer rushed through it, and it would doubtless be easy to explore the
+interior.
+
+In a few minutes the settlers had reached the lower point of the lake,
+and a glance showed them that the object had been attained.
+
+In fact, in the side of the lake, and now above the surface of the
+water, appeared the long-looked-for opening. A narrow ridge, left bare
+by the retreat of the water, allowed them to approach it. This orifice
+was nearly twenty feet in width, but scarcely two in height. It was like
+the mouth of a drain at the edge of the pavement, and therefore did
+not offer an easy passage to the settlers; but Neb and Pencroft, taking
+their pickaxes, soon made it of a suitable height.
+
+The engineer then approached, and found that the sides of the opening,
+in its upper part at least, had not a slope of more than from thirty to
+thirty-five degrees. It was therefore practicable, and, provided that
+the declivity did not increase, it would be easy to descend even to the
+level of the sea. If then, as was probable, some vast cavity existed in
+the interior of the granite, it might, perhaps, be of great use.
+
+“Well, captain, what are we stopping for?” asked the sailor, impatient
+to enter the narrow passage. “You see Top has got before us!”
+
+“Very well,” replied the engineer. “But we must see our way. Neb, go and
+cut some resinous branches.”
+
+Neb and Herbert ran to the edge of the lake, shaded with pines and other
+green trees, and soon returned with some branches, which they made
+into torches. The torches were lighted with flint and steel, and Cyrus
+Harding leading, the settlers ventured into the dark passage, which the
+overplus of the lake had formerly filled.
+
+Contrary to what might have been supposed, the diameter of the passage
+increased as the explorers proceeded, so that they very soon were able
+to stand upright. The granite, worn by the water for an infinite time,
+was very slippery, and falls were to be dreaded. But the settlers were
+all attached to each other by a cord, as is frequently done in ascending
+mountains. Happily some projections of the granite, forming regular
+steps, made the descent less perilous. Drops, still hanging from the
+rocks, shone here and there under the light of the torches, and
+the explorers guessed that the sides were clothed with innumerable
+stalactites. The engineer examined this black granite. There was not a
+stratum, not a break in it. The mass was compact, and of an extremely
+close grain. The passage dated, then, from the very origin of the
+island. It was not the water which little by little had hollowed it.
+Pluto and not Neptune had bored it with his own hand, and on the wall
+traces of an eruptive work could be distinguished, which all the washing
+of the water had not been able totally to efface.
+
+The settlers descended very slowly. They could not but feel a certain
+awe, in this venturing into these unknown depths, for the first time
+visited by human beings. They did not speak, but they thought; and
+the thought came to more than one, that some polypus or other
+gigantic cephalopod might inhabit the interior cavities, which were in
+communication with the sea. However, Top kept at the head of the little
+band, and they could rely on the sagacity of the dog, who would not fail
+to give the alarm if there was any need for it.
+
+After having descended about a hundred feet, following a winding road,
+Harding who was walking on before, stopped, and his companions came up
+with him. The place where they had halted was wider, so as to form a
+cavern of moderate dimensions. Drops of water fell from the vault, but
+that did not prove that they oozed through the rock. They were simply
+the last traces left by the torrent which had so long thundered through
+this cavity, and the air there was pure though slightly damp, but
+producing no mephitic exhalation.
+
+“Well, my dear Cyrus,” said Gideon Spilett, “here is a very secure
+retreat, well hid in the depths of the rock, but it is, however,
+uninhabitable.”
+
+“Why uninhabitable?” asked the sailor.
+
+“Because it is too small and too dark.”
+
+“Couldn’t we enlarge it, hollow it out, make openings to let in light
+and air?” replied Pencroft, who now thought nothing impossible.
+
+“Let us go on with our exploration,” said Cyrus Harding. “Perhaps lower
+down, nature will have spared us this labor.”
+
+“We have only gone a third of the way,” observed Herbert.
+
+“Nearly a third,” replied Harding, “for we have descended a hundred feet
+from the opening, and it is not impossible that a hundred feet farther
+down--”
+
+“Where is Top?” asked Neb, interrupting his master.
+
+They searched the cavern, but the dog was not there.
+
+“Most likely he has gone on,” said Pencroft.
+
+“Let us join him,” replied Harding.
+
+The descent was continued. The engineer carefully observed all the
+deviations of the passage, and notwithstanding so many detours, he
+could easily have given an account of its general direction, which went
+towards the sea.
+
+The settlers had gone some fifty feet farther, when their attention was
+attracted by distant sounds which came up from the depths. They stopped
+and listened. These sounds, carried through the passage as through an
+acoustic tube, came clearly to the ear.
+
+“That is Top barking!” cried Herbert.
+
+“Yes,” replied Pencroft, “and our brave dog is barking furiously!”
+
+“We have our iron-tipped spears,” said Cyrus Harding. “Keep on your
+guard, and forward!”
+
+“It is becoming more and more interesting,” murmured Gideon Spilett in
+the sailor’s ear, who nodded. Harding and his companions rushed to the
+help of their dog. Top’s barking became more and more perceptible,
+and it seemed strangely fierce. Was he engaged in a struggle with some
+animal whose retreat he had disturbed? Without thinking of the danger
+to which they might be exposed, the explorers were now impelled by an
+irresistible curiosity, and in a few minutes, sixteen feet lower they
+rejoined Top.
+
+There the passage ended in a vast and magnificent cavern.
+
+Top was running backwards and forwards, barking furiously. Pencroft and
+Neb, waving their torches, threw the light into every crevice; and
+at the same time, Harding, Gideon Spilett, and Herbert, their spears
+raised, were ready for any emergency which might arise. The enormous
+cavern was empty. The settlers explored it in every direction. There was
+nothing there, not an animal, not a human being; and yet Top continued
+to bark. Neither caresses nor threats could make him be silent.
+
+“There must be a place somewhere, by which the waters of the lake
+reached the sea,” said the engineer.
+
+“Of course,” replied Pencroft, “and we must take care not to tumble into
+a hole.”
+
+“Go, Top, go!” cried Harding.
+
+The dog, excited by his master’s words, ran towards the extremity of the
+cavern, and there redoubled his barking.
+
+They followed him, and by the light of the torches, perceived the mouth
+of a regular well in the granite. It was by this that the water escaped;
+and this time it was not an oblique and practicable passage, but a
+perpendicular well, into which it was impossible to venture.
+
+The torches were held over the opening: nothing could be seen. Harding
+took a lighted branch, and threw it into the abyss. The blazing resin,
+whose illuminating power increased still more by the rapidity of its
+fall, lighted up the interior of the well, but yet nothing appeared. The
+flame then went out with a slight hiss, which showed that it had reached
+the water, that is to say, the level of the sea.
+
+The engineer, calculating the time employed in its fall, was able to
+calculate the depth of the well, which was found to be about ninety
+feet.
+
+The floor of the cavern must thus be situated ninety feet above the
+level of the sea.
+
+“Here is our dwelling,” said Cyrus Harding.
+
+“But it was occupied by some creature,” replied Gideon Spilett, whose
+curiosity was not yet satisfied.
+
+“Well, the creature, amphibious or otherwise, has made off through this
+opening,” replied the engineer, “and has left the place for us.”
+
+“Never mind,” added the sailor, “I should like very much to be Top just
+for a quarter of an hour, for he doesn’t bark for nothing!”
+
+Cyrus Harding looked at his dog, and those of his companions who were
+near him might have heard him murmur these words,--
+
+“Yes, I believe that Top knows more than we do about a great many
+things.”
+
+However, the wishes of the settlers were for the most part satisfied.
+Chance, aided by the marvelous sagacity of their leader, had done them
+great service. They had now at their disposal a vast cavern, the size
+of which could not be properly calculated by the feeble light of their
+torches, but it would certainly be easy to divide it into rooms, by
+means of brick partitions, or to use it, if not as a house, at least as
+a spacious apartment. The water which had left it could not return. The
+place was free.
+
+Two difficulties remained; firstly, the possibility of lighting this
+excavation in the midst of solid rock; secondly, the necessity of
+rendering the means of access more easy. It was useless to think of
+lighting it from above, because of the enormous thickness of the granite
+which composed the ceiling; but perhaps the outer wall next the sea
+might be pierced. Cyrus Harding, during the descent, had roughly
+calculated its obliqueness, and consequently the length of the passage,
+and was therefore led to believe that the outer wall could not be very
+thick. If light was thus obtained, so would a means of access, for
+it would be as easy to pierce a door as windows, and to establish an
+exterior ladder.
+
+Harding made known his ideas to his companions.
+
+“Then, captain, let us set to work!” replied Pencroft. “I have my
+pickaxe, and I shall soon make my way through this wall. Where shall I
+strike?”
+
+“Here,” replied the engineer, showing the sturdy sailor a considerable
+recess in the side, which would much diminish the thickness.
+
+Pencroft attacked the granite, and for half an hour, by the light of the
+torches, he made the splinters fly around him. Neb relieved him, then
+Spilett took Neb’s place.
+
+This work had lasted two hours, and they began to fear that at this spot
+the wall would not yield to the pickaxe, when at a last blow given by
+Gideon Spilett, the instrument, passing through the rock, fell outside.
+
+“Hurrah! hurrah!” cried Pencroft.
+
+The wall only measured there three feet in thickness.
+
+Harding applied his eye to the aperture, which overlooked the ground
+from a height of eighty feet. Before him was extended the sea-coast, the
+islet, and beyond the open sea.
+
+Floods of light entered by this hole, inundating the splendid cavern and
+producing a magic effect! On its left side it did not measure more than
+thirty feet in height and breadth, but on the right it was enormous, and
+its vaulted roof rose to a height of more than eighty feet.
+
+In some places granite pillars, irregularly disposed, supported the
+vaulted roof, as those in the nave of a cathedral, here forming lateral
+piers, there elliptical arches, adorned with pointed moldings, losing
+themselves in dark bays, amid the fantastic arches of which glimpses
+could be caught in the shade, covered with a profusion of projections
+formed like so many pendants. This cavern was a picturesque mixture of
+all the styles of Byzantine, Roman, or Gothic architecture ever produced
+by the hand of man. And yet this was only the work of nature. She alone
+had hollowed this fairy Alhambra in a mass of granite.
+
+The settlers were overwhelmed with admiration. Where they had only
+expected to find a narrow cavity, they had found a sort of marvelous
+palace, and Neb had taken off his hat, as if he had been transported
+into a temple!
+
+Cries of admiration issued from every mouth. Hurrahs resounded, and the
+echo was repeated again and again till it died away in the dark naves.
+
+“Ah, my friends!” exclaimed Cyrus Harding, “when we have lighted the
+interior of this place, and have arranged our rooms and storehouses in
+the left part, we shall still have this splendid cavern, which we will
+make our study and our museum!”
+
+“And we will call it?--” asked Herbert.
+
+“Granite House,” replied Harding; a name which his companions again
+saluted with a cheer.
+
+The torches were now almost consumed, and as they were obliged to return
+by the passage to reach the summit of the plateau, it was decided to put
+off the work necessary for the arrangement of their new dwelling till
+the next day.
+
+Before departing, Cyrus Harding leaned once more over the dark well,
+which descended perpendicularly to the level of the sea. He listened
+attentively. No noise was heard, not even that of the water, which the
+undulations of the surge must sometimes agitate in its depths. A flaming
+branch was again thrown in. The sides of the well were lighted up for an
+instant, but as at the first time, nothing suspicious was seen.
+
+If some marine monster had been surprised unawares by the retreat of the
+water, he would by this time have regained the sea by the subterranean
+passage, before the new opening had been offered to him.
+
+Meanwhile, the engineer was standing motionless, his eyes fixed on the
+gulf, without uttering a word.
+
+The sailor approached him, and touching his arm, “Captain!” said he.
+
+“What do you want, my friend?” asked the engineer, as if he had returned
+from the land of dreams.
+
+“The torches will soon go out.”
+
+“Forward!” replied Cyrus Harding.
+
+The little band left the cavern and began to ascend through the dark
+passage. Top closed the rear, still growling every now and then. The
+ascent was painful enough. The settlers rested a few minutes in the
+upper grotto, which made a sort of landing-place halfway up the long
+granite staircase. Then they began to climb again.
+
+Soon fresher air was felt. The drops of water, dried by evaporation, no
+longer sparkled on the walls. The flaring torches began to grow dim. The
+one which Neb carried went out, and if they did not wish to find their
+way in the dark, they must hasten.
+
+This was done, and a little before four o’clock, at the moment when the
+sailor’s torch went out in its turn, Cyrus Harding and his companions
+passed out of the passage.
+
+
+
+Chapter 19
+
+The next day, the 22nd of May, the arrangement of their new dwelling
+was commenced. In fact, the settlers longed to exchange the insufficient
+shelter of the Chimneys for this large and healthy retreat, in the midst
+of solid rock, and sheltered from the water both of the sea and sky.
+Their former dwelling was not, however, to be entirely abandoned, for
+the engineer intended to make a manufactory of it for important works.
+Cyrus Harding’s first care was to find out the position of the front of
+Granite House from the outside. He went to the beach, and as the
+pickaxe when it escaped from the hands of the reporter must have fallen
+perpendicularly to the foot of the cliff, the finding it would be
+sufficient to show the place where the hole had been pierced in the
+granite.
+
+The pickaxe was easily found, and the hole could be seen in a
+perpendicular line above the spot where it was stuck in the sand. Some
+rock pigeons were already flying in and out of the narrow opening; they
+evidently thought that Granite House had been discovered on purpose for
+them. It was the engineer’s intention to divide the right portion of the
+cavern into several rooms, preceded by an entrance passage, and to light
+it by means of five windows and a door, pierced in the front. Pencroft
+was much pleased with the five windows, but he could not understand the
+use of the door, since the passage offered a natural staircase, through
+which it would always be easy to enter Granite House.
+
+“My friend,” replied Harding, “if it is easy for us to reach our
+dwelling by this passage, it will be equally easy for others besides
+us. I mean, on the contrary, to block up that opening, to seal it
+hermetically, and, if it is necessary, to completely hide the entrance
+by making a dam, and thus causing the water of the lake to rise.”
+
+“And how shall we get in?” asked the sailor.
+
+“By an outside ladder,” replied Cyrus Harding, “a rope ladder, which,
+once drawn up, will render access to our dwelling impossible.”
+
+“But why so many precautions?” asked Pencroft. “As yet we have seen no
+dangerous animals. As to our island being inhabited by natives, I don’t
+believe it!”
+
+“Are you quite sure of that, Pencroft?” asked the engineer, looking at
+the sailor.
+
+“Of course we shall not be quite sure, till we have explored it in every
+direction,” replied Pencroft.
+
+“Yes,” said Harding, “for we know only a small portion of it as yet. But
+at any rate, if we have no enemies in the interior, they may come from
+the exterior, for parts of the Pacific are very dangerous. We must be
+provided against every contingency.”
+
+Cyrus Harding spoke wisely; and without making any further objection,
+Pencroft prepared to execute his orders.
+
+The front of Granite House was then to be lighted by five windows and a
+door, besides a large bay window and some smaller oval ones, which would
+admit plenty of light to enter into the marvelous nave which was to be
+their chief room. This facade, situated at a height of eighty feet above
+the ground, was exposed to the east, and the rising sun saluted it with
+its first rays. It was found to be just at that part of the cliff which
+was between the projection at the mouth of the Mercy and a perpendicular
+line traced above the heap of rocks which formed the Chimneys. Thus
+the winds from the northeast would only strike it obliquely, for it was
+protected by the projection. Besides, until the window-frames were made,
+the engineer meant to close the openings with thick shutters, which
+would prevent either wind or rain from entering, and which could be
+concealed in need.
+
+The first work was to make the openings. This would have taken too long
+with the pickaxe alone, and it is known that Harding was an ingenious
+man. He had still a quantity of nitro-glycerine at his disposal, and he
+employed it usefully. By means of this explosive substance the rock was
+broken open at the very places chosen by the engineer. Then, with the
+pickaxe and spade, the windows and doors were properly shaped, the
+jagged edges were smoothed off, and a few days after the beginning of
+the work, Granite House was abundantly lighted by the rising sun,
+whose rays penetrated into its most secret recesses. Following the
+plan proposed by Cyrus Harding, the space was to be divided into five
+compartments looking out on the sea; to the right, an entry with a
+door, which would meet the ladder; then a kitchen, thirty feet long; a
+dining-room, measuring forty feet; a sleeping-room, of equal size; and
+lastly, a “Visitor’s room,” petitioned for by Pencroft, and which was
+next to the great hall. These rooms, or rather this suite of rooms,
+would not occupy all the depth of the cave. There would be also a
+corridor and a storehouse, in which their tools, provisions, and stores
+would be kept. All the productions of the island, the flora as well as
+the fauna, were to be there in the best possible state of preservation,
+and completely sheltered from the damp. There was no want of space, so
+that each object could be methodically arranged. Besides, the colonists
+had still at their disposal the little grotto above the great cavern,
+which was like the garret of the new dwelling.
+
+This plan settled, it had only to be put into execution. The miners
+became brickmakers again, then the bricks were brought to the foot of
+Granite House. Till then, Harding and his companions had only entered
+the cavern by the long passage. This mode of communication obliged them
+first to climb Prospect Heights, making a detour by the river’s bank,
+and then to descend two hundred feet through the passage, having to
+climb as far when they wished to return to the plateau. This was a great
+loss of time, and was also very fatiguing. Cyrus Harding, therefore,
+resolved to proceed without any further delay to the fabrication of
+a strong rope ladder, which, once raised, would render Granite House
+completely inaccessible.
+
+This ladder was manufactured with extreme care, and its uprights, formed
+of the twisted fibers of a species of cane, had the strength of a thick
+cable. As to the rounds, they were made of a sort of red cedar, with
+light, strong branches; and this apparatus was wrought by the masterly
+hand of Pencroft.
+
+Other ropes were made with vegetable fibers, and a sort of crane with a
+tackle was fixed at the door. In this way bricks could easily be
+raised into Granite House. The transport of the materials being thus
+simplified, the arrangement of the interior could begin immediately.
+There was no want of lime, and some thousands of bricks were there
+ready to be used. The framework of the partitions was soon raised, very
+roughly at first, and in a short time, the cave was divided into rooms
+and storehouses, according to the plan agreed upon.
+
+These different works progressed rapidly under the direction of the
+engineer, who himself handled the hammer and the trowel. No labor came
+amiss to Cyrus Harding, who thus set an example to his intelligent and
+zealous companions. They worked with confidence, even gaily, Pencroft
+always having some joke to crack, sometimes carpenter, sometimes
+rope-maker, sometimes mason, while he communicated his good humor to
+all the members of their little world. His faith in the engineer
+was complete; nothing could disturb it. He believed him capable of
+undertaking anything and succeeding in everything. The question of boots
+and clothes--assuredly a serious question,--that of light during the
+winter months, utilizing the fertile parts of the island, transforming
+the wild flora into cultivated flora, it all appeared easy to him; Cyrus
+Harding helping, everything would be done in time. He dreamed of canals
+facilitating the transport of the riches of the ground; workings
+of quarries and mines; machines for every industrial manufacture;
+railroads; yes, railroads! of which a network would certainly one day
+cover Lincoln Island.
+
+The engineer let Pencroft talk. He did not put down the aspirations of
+this brave heart. He knew how communicable confidence is; he even smiled
+to hear him speak, and said nothing of the uneasiness for the future
+which he felt. In fact, in that part of the Pacific, out of the course
+of vessels, it was to be feared that no help would ever come to them. It
+was on themselves, on themselves alone, that the settlers must depend,
+for the distance of Lincoln Island from all other land was such, that
+to hazard themselves in a boat, of a necessarily inferior construction,
+would be a serious and perilous thing.
+
+“But,” as the sailor said, “they quite took the wind out of the sails of
+the Robinsons, for whom everything was done by a miracle.”
+
+In fact, they were energetic; an energetic man will succeed where an
+indolent one would vegetate and inevitably perish.
+
+Herbert distinguished himself in these works. He was intelligent and
+active; understanding quickly, he performed well; and Cyrus Harding
+became more and more attached to the boy. Herbert had a lively and
+reverent love for the engineer. Pencroft saw the close sympathy which
+existed between the two, but he was not in the least jealous. Neb
+was Neb: he was what he would be always, courage, zeal, devotion,
+self-denial personified. He had the same faith in his master that
+Pencroft had, but he showed it less vehemently. When the sailor was
+enthusiastic, Neb always looked as if he would say, “Nothing could be
+more natural.” Pencroft and he were great friends.
+
+As to Gideon Spilett, he took part in the common work, and was not less
+skilful in it than his companions, which always rather astonished
+the sailor. A “journalist,” clever, not only in understanding, but in
+performing everything.
+
+The ladder was finally fixed on the 28th of May. There were not less
+than a hundred rounds in this perpendicular height of eighty feet.
+Harding had been able, fortunately, to divide it in two parts, profiting
+by an overhanging of the cliff which made a projection forty feet above
+the ground. This projection, carefully leveled by the pickaxe, made a
+sort of platform, to which they fixed the first ladder, of which the
+oscillation was thus diminished one-half, and a rope permitted it to be
+raised to the level of Granite House. As to the second ladder, it was
+secured both at its lower part, which rested on the projection, and at
+its upper end, which was fastened to the door. In short the ascent had
+been made much easier. Besides, Cyrus Harding hoped later to establish
+an hydraulic apparatus, which would avoid all fatigue and loss of time,
+for the inhabitants of Granite House.
+
+The settlers soon became habituated to the use of this ladder. They were
+light and active, and Pencroft, as a sailor, accustomed to run up
+the masts and shrouds, was able to give them lessons. But it was also
+necessary to give them to Top. The poor dog, with his four paws, was
+not formed for this sort of exercise. But Pencroft was such a zealous
+master, that Top ended by properly performing his ascents, and soon
+mounted the ladder as readily as his brethren in the circus. It need not
+be said that the sailor was proud of his pupil. However, more than once
+Pencroft hoisted him on his back, which Top never complained of.
+
+It must be mentioned here, that during these works, which were actively
+conducted, for the bad season was approaching, the alimentary question
+was not neglected. Every day, the reporter and Herbert, who had been
+voted purveyors to the colony, devoted some hours to the chase. As yet,
+they only hunted in Jacamar Wood, on the left of the river, because, for
+want of a bridge or boat, the Mercy had not yet been crossed. All the
+immense woods, to which the name of the Forests of the Far West had been
+given, were not explored. They reserved this important excursion for the
+first fine days of the next spring. But Jacamar Wood was full of game;
+kangaroos and boars abounded, and the hunters’ iron-tipped spears and
+bows and arrows did wonders. Besides, Herbert discovered towards the
+southwest point of the lagoon a natural warren, a slightly damp meadow,
+covered with willows and aromatic herbs which scented the air, such
+as thyme, basil, savory, all the sweet-scented species of the labiated
+plants, which the rabbits appeared to be particularly fond of.
+
+On the reporter observing that since the table was spread for the
+rabbits, it was strange that the rabbits themselves should be wanting,
+the two sportsmen carefully explored the warren. At any rate, it
+produced an abundance of useful plants, and a naturalist would have had
+a good opportunity of studying many specimens of the vegetable kingdom.
+Herbert gathered several shoots of the basil, rosemary, balm, betony,
+etc., which possess different medicinal properties, some pectoral,
+astringent, febrifuge, others anti-spasmodic, or anti-rheumatic. When,
+afterwards, Pencroft asked the use of this collection of herbs,--
+
+“For medicine,” replied the lad, “to treat us when we are ill.”
+
+“Why should we be ill, since there are no doctors in the island?” asked
+Pencroft quite seriously.
+
+There was no reply to be made to that, but the lad went on with his
+collection all the same, and it was well received at Granite House.
+Besides these medicinal herbs, he added a plant known in North America
+as “Oswego tea,” which made an excellent beverage.
+
+At last, by searching thoroughly, the hunters arrived at the real site
+of the warren. There the ground was perforated like a sieve.
+
+“Here are the burrows!” cried Herbert.
+
+“Yes,” replied the reporter, “so I see.”
+
+“But are they inhabited?”
+
+“That is the question.”
+
+This was soon answered. Almost immediately, hundreds of little animals,
+similar to rabbits, fled in every direction, with such rapidity that
+even Top could not overtake them. Hunters and dog ran in vain; these
+rodents escaped them easily. But the reporter resolved not to leave the
+place, until he had captured at least half-a-dozen of the quadrupeds.
+He wished to stock their larder first, and domesticate those which they
+might take later. It would not have been difficult to do this, with a
+few snares stretched at the openings of the burrows. But at this moment
+they had neither snares, nor anything to make them of. They must,
+therefore, be satisfied with visiting each hole, and rummaging in it
+with a stick, hoping by dint of patience to do what could not be done in
+any other way.
+
+At last, after half an hour, four rodents were taken in their holes.
+They were similar to their European brethren, and are commonly known by
+the name of American rabbits.
+
+This produce of the chase was brought back to Granite House, and figured
+at the evening repast. The tenants of the warren were not at all to be
+despised, for they were delicious. It was a valuable resource of the
+colony, and it appeared to be inexhaustible.
+
+On the 31st of May the partitions were finished. The rooms had now only
+to be furnished, and this would be work for the long winter days. A
+chimney was established in the first room, which served as a kitchen.
+The pipe destined to conduct the smoke outside gave some trouble to
+these amateur bricklayers. It appeared simplest to Harding to make it of
+brick clay; as creating an outlet for it to the upper plateau was not to
+be thought of, a hole was pierced in the granite above the window of
+the kitchen, and the pipe met it like that of an iron stove. Perhaps
+the winds which blew directly against the facade would make the chimney
+smoke, but these winds were rare, and besides, Master Neb, the cook, was
+not so very particular about that.
+
+When these interior arrangements were finished, the engineer occupied
+himself in blocking up the outlet by the lake, so as to prevent any
+access by that way. Masses of rock were rolled to the entrance and
+strongly cemented together. Cyrus Harding did not yet realize his plan
+of drowning this opening under the waters of the lake, by restoring
+them to their former level by means of a dam. He contented himself with
+hiding the obstruction with grass and shrubs, which were planted in the
+interstices of the rocks, and which next spring would sprout thickly.
+However, he used the waterfall so as to lead a small stream of fresh
+water to the new dwelling. A little trench, made below their level,
+produced this result; and this derivation from a pure and inexhaustible
+source yielded twenty-five or thirty gallons a day. There would never be
+any want of water at Granite House. At last all was finished, and it was
+time, for the bad season was near. Thick shutters closed the windows of
+the facade, until the engineer had time to make glass.
+
+Gideon Spilett had very artistically arranged on the rocky projections
+around the windows plants of different kinds, as well as long streaming
+grass, so that the openings were picturesquely framed in green, which
+had a pleasing effect.
+
+The inhabitants of this solid, healthy, and secure dwelling, could not
+but be charmed with their work. The view from the windows extended over
+a boundless horizon, which was closed by the two Mandible Capes on the
+north, and Claw Cape on the south. All Union Bay was spread before them.
+Yes, our brave settlers had reason to be satisfied, and Pencroft was
+lavish in his praise of what he humorously called, “his apartments on
+the fifth floor above the ground!”
+
+
+
+Chapter 20
+
+The winter season set in with the month of June, which corresponds with
+the month of December in the Northern Hemisphere. It began with showers
+and squalls, which succeeded each other without intermission. The
+tenants of Granite House could appreciate the advantages of a dwelling
+which sheltered them from the inclement weather. The Chimneys would have
+been quite insufficient to protect them against the rigor of winter, and
+it was to be feared that the high tides would make another irruption.
+Cyrus Harding had taken precautions against this contingency, so as
+to preserve as much as possible the forge and furnace which were
+established there.
+
+During the whole of the month of June the time was employed in different
+occupations, which excluded neither hunting nor fishing, the larder
+being, therefore, abundantly supplied. Pencroft, so soon as he had
+leisure, proposed to set some traps, from which he expected great
+results. He soon made some snares with creepers, by the aid of which the
+warren henceforth every day furnished its quota of rodents. Neb employed
+nearly all his time in salting or smoking meat, which insured their
+always having plenty of provisions. The question of clothes was now
+seriously discussed, the settlers having no other garments than those
+they wore when the balloon threw them on the island. These clothes were
+warm and good; they had taken great care of them as well as of their
+linen, and they were perfectly whole, but they would soon need to be
+replaced. Moreover, if the winter was severe, the settlers would suffer
+greatly from cold.
+
+On this subject the ingenuity of Harding was at fault. They must provide
+for their most pressing wants, settle their dwelling, and lay in a
+store of food; thus the cold might come upon them before the question
+of clothes had been settled. They must therefore make up their minds to
+pass this first winter without additional clothing. When the fine season
+came round again, they would regularly hunt those musmons which had been
+seen on the expedition to Mount Franklin, and the wool once collected,
+the engineer would know how to make it into strong warm stuff.... How?
+He would consider.
+
+“Well, we are free to roast ourselves at Granite House!” said Pencroft.
+“There are heaps of fuel, and no reason for sparing it.”
+
+“Besides,” added Gideon Spilett, “Lincoln Island is not situated under
+a very high latitude, and probably the winters here are not severe. Did
+you not say, Cyrus, that this thirty-fifth parallel corresponded to that
+of Spain in the other hemisphere?”
+
+“Doubtless,” replied the engineer, “but some winters in Spain are very
+cold! No want of snow and ice; and perhaps Lincoln Island is just as
+rigorously tried. However, it is an island, and as such, I hope that
+the temperature will be more moderate.”
+
+“Why, captain?” asked Herbert.
+
+“Because the sea, my boy, may be considered as an immense reservoir, in
+which is stored the heat of the summer. When winter comes, it restores
+this heat, which insures for the regions near the ocean a medium
+temperature, less high in summer, but less low in winter.”
+
+“We shall prove that,” replied Pencroft. “But I don’t want to bother
+myself about whether it will be cold or not. One thing is certain, that
+is that the days are already short, and the evenings long. Suppose we
+talk about the question of light.”
+
+“Nothing is easier,” replied Harding.
+
+“To talk about?” asked the sailor.
+
+“To settle.”
+
+“And when shall we begin?”
+
+“To-morrow, by having a seal hunt.”
+
+“To make candles?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+Such was the engineer’s project; and it was quite feasible, since he had
+lime and sulphuric acid, while the amphibians of the islet would furnish
+the fat necessary for the manufacture.
+
+They were now at the 4th of June. It was Whit Sunday and they agreed to
+observe this feast. All work was suspended, and prayers were offered
+to Heaven. But these prayers were now thanksgivings. The settlers in
+Lincoln Island were no longer the miserable castaways thrown on the
+islet. They asked for nothing more--they gave thanks. The next day, the
+5th of June, in rather uncertain weather, they set out for the islet.
+They had to profit by the low tide to cross the Channel, and it was
+agreed that they would construct, for this purpose, as well as they
+could, a boat which would render communication so much easier, and
+would also permit them to ascend the Mercy, at the time of their grand
+exploration of the southwest of the island, which was put off till the
+first fine days.
+
+The seals were numerous, and the hunters, armed with their iron-tipped
+spears, easily killed half-a-dozen. Neb and Pencroft skinned them, and
+only brought back to Granite House their fat and skin, this skin being
+intended for the manufacture of boots.
+
+The result of the hunt was this: nearly three hundred pounds of fat, all
+to be employed in the fabrication of candles.
+
+The operation was extremely simple, and if it did not yield absolutely
+perfect results, they were at least very useful. Cyrus Harding would
+only have had at his disposal sulphuric acid, but by heating this acid
+with the neutral fatty bodies he could separate the glycerine; then from
+this new combination, he easily separated the olein, the margarin, and
+the stearin, by employing boiling water. But to simplify the operation,
+he preferred to saponify the fat by means of lime. By this he obtained a
+calcareous soap, easy to decompose by sulphuric acid, which precipitated
+the lime into the state of sulphate, and liberated the fatty acids.
+
+From these three acids-oleic, margaric, and stearic-the first, being
+liquid, was driven out by a sufficient pressure. As to the two others,
+they formed the very substance of which the candles were to be molded.
+
+This operation did not last more than four and twenty hours. The wicks,
+after several trials, were made of vegetable fibers, and dipped in the
+liquefied substance, they formed regular stearic candles, molded by the
+hand, which only wanted whiteness and polish. They would not doubtless
+have the advantages of the wicks which are impregnated with boracic
+acid, and which vitrify as they burn and are entirely consumed, but
+Cyrus Harding having manufactured a beautiful pair of snuffers, these
+candles would be greatly appreciated during the long evenings in Granite
+House.
+
+During this month there was no want of work in the interior of their new
+dwelling. The joiners had plenty to do. They improved their tools, which
+were very rough, and added others also.
+
+Scissors were made among other things, and the settlers were at last
+able to cut their hair, and also to shave, or at least trim their
+beards. Herbert had none, Neb but little, but their companions were
+bristling in a way which justified the making of the said scissors.
+
+The manufacture of a hand-saw cost infinite trouble, but at last an
+instrument was obtained which, when vigorously handled, could divide the
+ligneous fibers of the wood. They then made tables, seats, cupboards,
+to furnish the principal rooms, and bedsteads, of which all the bedding
+consisted of grass mattresses. The kitchen, with its shelves, on which
+rested the cooking utensils, its brick stove, looked very well, and Neb
+worked away there as earnestly as if he was in a chemist’s laboratory.
+
+But the joiners had soon to be replaced by carpenters. In fact, the
+waterfall created by the explosion rendered the construction of two
+bridges necessary, one on Prospect Heights, the other on the shore. Now
+the plateau and the shore were transversely divided by a watercourse,
+which had to be crossed to reach the northern part of the island. To
+avoid it the colonists had been obliged to make a considerable detour,
+by climbing up to the source of the Red Creek. The simplest thing was to
+establish on the plateau, and on the shore, two bridges from twenty to
+five and twenty feet in length. All the carpenter’s work that was needed
+was to clear some trees of their branches: this was a business of some
+days. Directly the bridges were established, Neb and Pencroft profited
+by them to go to the oyster-bed which had been discovered near the
+downs. They dragged with them a sort of rough cart, which replaced the
+former inconvenient hurdle, and brought back some thousands of oysters,
+which soon increased among the rocks and formed a bed at the mouth of
+the Mercy. These molluscs were of excellent quality, and the colonists
+consumed some daily.
+
+It has been seen that Lincoln Island, although its inhabitants had as
+yet only explored a small portion of it, already contributed to almost
+all their wants. It was probable that if they hunted into its most
+secret recesses, in all the wooded part between the Mercy and Reptile
+Point, they would find new treasures.
+
+The settlers in Lincoln Island had still one privation. There was no
+want of meat, nor of vegetable products; those ligneous roots which
+they had found, when subjected to fermentation, gave them an acid drink,
+which was preferable to cold water; they also made sugar, without canes
+or beet-roots, by collecting the liquor which distils from the “acer
+saceharinum,” a sort of maple-tree, which flourishes in all the temperate
+zones, and of which the island possessed a great number; they made
+a very agreeable tea by employing the herbs brought from the warren;
+lastly, they had an abundance of salt, the only mineral which is used in
+food... but bread was wanting.
+
+Perhaps in time the settlers could replace this want by some equivalent,
+it was possible that they might find the sago or the breadfruit tree
+among the forests of the south, but they had not as yet met with these
+precious trees. However, Providence came directly to their aid, in an
+infinitesimal proportion it is true, but Cyrus Harding, with all his
+intelligence, all his ingenuity, would never have been able to produce
+that which, by the greatest chance, Herbert one day found in the lining
+of his waistcoat, which he was occupied in setting to rights.
+
+On this day, as it was raining in torrents, the settlers were assembled
+in the great hall in Granite House, when the lad cried out all at
+once,--
+
+“Look here, captain--A grain of corn!”
+
+And he showed his companions a grain--a single grain--which from a hole
+in his pocket had got into the lining of his waistcoat.
+
+The presence of this grain was explained by the fact that Herbert, when
+at Richmond, used to feed some pigeons, of which Pencroft had made him a
+present.
+
+“A grain of corn?” said the engineer quickly.
+
+“Yes, captain; but one, only one!”
+
+“Well, my boy,” said Pencroft, laughing, “we’re getting on capitally,
+upon my word! What shall we make with one grain of corn?”
+
+“We will make bread of it,” replied Cyrus Harding.
+
+“Bread, cakes, tarts!” replied the sailor. “Come, the bread that this
+grain of corn will make won’t choke us very soon!”
+
+Herbert, not attaching much importance to his discovery, was going to
+throw away the grain in question; but Harding took it, examined it,
+found that it was in good condition, and looking the sailor full in the
+face--“Pencroft,” he asked quietly, “do you know how many ears one grain
+of corn can produce?”
+
+“One, I suppose!” replied the sailor, surprised at the question.
+
+“Ten, Pencroft! And do you know how many grains one ear bears?”
+
+“No, upon my word.”
+
+“About eighty!” said Cyrus Harding. “Then, if we plant this grain, at
+the first crop we shall reap eight hundred grains which at the second
+will produce six hundred and forty thousand; at the third, five hundred
+and twelve millions; at the fourth, more than four hundred thousands of
+millions! There is the proportion.”
+
+Harding’s companions listened without answering. These numbers
+astonished them. They were exact, however.
+
+“Yes, my friends,” continued the engineer, “such are the arithmetical
+progressions of prolific nature; and yet what is this multiplication
+of the grain of corn, of which the ear only bears eight hundred grains,
+compared to the poppy-plant, which bears thirty-two thousand seeds; to
+the tobacco-plant, which produces three hundred and sixty thousand? In
+a few years, without the numerous causes of destruction, which arrests
+their fecundity, these plants would overrun the earth.”
+
+But the engineer had not finished his lecture.
+
+“And now, Pencroft,” he continued, “do you know how many bushels four
+hundred thousand millions of grains would make?”
+
+“No,” replied the sailor; “but what I do know is, that I am nothing
+better than a fool!”
+
+“Well, they would make more than three millions, at a hundred and thirty
+thousand a bushel, Pencroft.”
+
+“Three millions!” cried Pencroft.
+
+“Three millions.”
+
+“In four years?”
+
+“In four years,” replied Cyrus Harding, “and even in two years, if, as I
+hope, in this latitude we can obtain two crops a year.”
+
+At that, according to his usual custom, Pencroft could not reply
+otherwise than by a tremendous hurrah.
+
+“So, Herbert,” added the engineer, “you have made a discovery of great
+importance to us. Everything, my friends, everything can serve us in the
+condition in which we are. Do not forget that, I beg of you.”
+
+“No, captain, no, we shan’t forget it,” replied Pencroft; “and if ever
+I find one of those tobacco-seeds, which multiply by three hundred and
+sixty thousand, I assure you I won’t throw it away! And now, what must
+we do?”
+
+“We must plant this grain,” replied Herbert.
+
+“Yes,” added Gideon Spilett, “and with every possible care, for it bears
+in itself our future harvests.”
+
+“Provided it grows!” cried the sailor.
+
+“It will grow,” replied Cyrus Harding.
+
+This was the 20th of June. The time was then propitious for sowing this
+single precious grain of corn. It was first proposed to plant it in
+a pot, but upon reflection it was decided to leave it to nature, and
+confide it to the earth. This was done that very day, and it is needless
+to add, that every precaution was taken that the experiment might
+succeed.
+
+The weather having cleared, the settlers climbed the height above
+Granite House. There, on the plateau, they chose a spot, well sheltered
+from the wind, and exposed to all the heat of the midday sun. The place
+was cleared, carefully weeded, and searched for insects and worms;
+then a bed of good earth, improved with a little lime, was made; it was
+surrounded by a railing; and the grain was buried in the damp earth.
+
+Did it not seem as if the settlers were laying the first stone of some
+edifice? It recalled to Pencroft the day on which he lighted his only
+match, and all the anxiety of the operation. But this time the thing
+was more serious. In fact, the castaways would have been always able
+to procure fire, in some mode or other, but no human power could supply
+another grain of corn, if unfortunately this should be lost!
+
+
+
+Chapter 21
+
+From this time Pencroft did not let a single day pass without going to
+visit what he gravely called his “corn-field.” And woe to the insects
+which dared to venture there! No mercy was shown them.
+
+Towards the end of the month of June, after incessant rain, the weather
+became decidedly colder, and on the 29th a Fahrenheit thermometer
+would certainly have announced only twenty degrees above zero, that is
+considerably below the freezing-point. The next day, the 30th of June,
+the day which corresponds to the 31st of December in the northern year,
+was a Friday. Neb remarked that the year finished on a bad day, but
+Pencroft replied that naturally the next would begin on a good one,
+which was better.
+
+At any rate it commenced by very severe cold. Ice accumulated at the
+mouth of the Mercy, and it was not long before the whole expanse of the
+lake was frozen.
+
+The settlers had frequently been obliged to renew their store of wood.
+Pencroft also had wisely not waited till the river was frozen, but had
+brought enormous rafts of wood to their destination. The current was
+an indefatigable moving power, and it was employed in conveying the
+floating wood to the moment when the frost enchained it. To the fuel
+which was so abundantly supplied by the forest, they added several
+cartloads of coal, which had to be brought from the foot of the spurs of
+Mount Franklin. The powerful heat of the coal was greatly appreciated in
+the low temperature, which on the 4th of July fell to eight degrees of
+Fahrenheit, that is, thirteen degrees below zero. A second fireplace had
+been established in the dining-room, where they all worked together at
+their different avocations. During this period of cold, Cyrus Harding
+had great cause to congratulate himself on having brought to Granite
+House the little stream of water from Lake Grant. Taken below the frozen
+surface, and conducted through the passage, it preserved its fluidity,
+and arrived at an interior reservoir which had been hollowed out at the
+back part of the storeroom, while the overflow ran through the well to
+the sea.
+
+About this time, the weather being extremely dry, the colonists, clothed
+as warmly as possible, resolved to devote a day to the exploration of
+that part of the island between the Mercy and Claw Cape. It was a wide
+extent of marshy land, and they would probably find good sport, for
+water-birds ought to swarm there.
+
+They reckoned that it would be about eight or nine miles to go there,
+and as much to return, so that the whole of the day would be occupied.
+As an unknown part of the island was about to be explored, the whole
+colony took part in the expedition. Accordingly, on the 5th of July, at
+six o’clock in the morning, when day had scarcely broken, Cyrus Harding,
+Gideon Spilett, Herbert, Neb, and Pencroft, armed with spears, snares,
+bows and arrows, and provided with provisions, left Granite House,
+preceded by Top, who bounded before them.
+
+Their shortest way was to cross the Mercy on the ice, which then covered
+it.
+
+“But,” as the engineer justly observed, “that could not take the place
+of a regular bridge!” So, the construction of a regular bridge was noted
+in the list of future works.
+
+It was the first time that the settlers had set foot on the right bank
+of the Mercy, and ventured into the midst of those gigantic and superb
+coniferae now sprinkled over with snow.
+
+But they had not gone half a mile when from a thicket a whole family of
+quadrupeds, who had made a home there, disturbed by Top, rushed forth
+into the open country.
+
+“Ah! I should say those are foxes!” cried Herbert, when he saw the troop
+rapidly decamping.
+
+They were foxes, but of a very large size, who uttered a sort of
+barking, at which Top seemed to be very much astonished, for he stopped
+short in the chase, and gave the swift animals time to disappear.
+
+The dog had reason to be surprised, as he did not know Natural History.
+But, by their barking, these foxes, with reddish-gray hair, black tails
+terminating in a white tuft, had betrayed their origin. So Herbert
+was able, without hesitating, to give them their real name of “Arctic
+foxes.” They are frequently met with in Chile, in the Falkland Islands,
+and in all parts of America traversed by the thirtieth and fortieth
+parallels. Herbert much regretted that Top had not been able to catch
+one of these carnivora.
+
+“Are they good to eat?” asked Pencroft, who only regarded the
+representatives of the fauna in the island from one special point of
+view.
+
+“No,” replied Herbert; “but zoologists have not yet found out if the
+eye of these foxes is diurnal or nocturnal, or whether it is correct to
+class them in the genus dog, properly so called.”
+
+Harding could not help smiling on hearing the lad’s reflection, which
+showed a thoughtful mind. As to the sailor, from the moment when he
+found that the foxes were not classed in the genus eatable, they were
+nothing to him. However, when a poultry-yard was established at Granite
+House, he observed that it would be best to take some precautions
+against a probable visit from these four-legged plunderers, and no one
+disputed this.
+
+After having turned the point, the settlers saw a long beach washed by
+the open sea. It was then eight o’clock in the morning. The sky was very
+clear, as it often is after prolonged cold; but warmed by their walk,
+neither Harding nor his companions felt the sharpness of the atmosphere
+too severely. Besides there was no wind, which made it much more
+bearable. A brilliant sun, but without any calorific action, was just
+issuing from the ocean. The sea was as tranquil and blue as that of a
+Mediterranean gulf, when the sky is clear. Claw Cape, bent in the form
+of a yataghan, tapered away nearly four miles to the southeast. To
+the left the edge of the marsh was abruptly ended by a little point.
+Certainly, in this part of Union Bay, which nothing sheltered from the
+open sea, not even a sandbank, ships beaten by the east winds would
+have found no shelter. They perceived by the tranquillity of the sea, in
+which no shallows troubled the waters, by its uniform color, which was
+stained by no yellow shades, by the absence of even a reef, that the
+coast was steep and that the ocean there covered a deep abyss. Behind in
+the west, but at a distance of four miles, rose the first trees of the
+forests of the Far West. They might have believed themselves to be on
+the desolate coast of some island in the Antarctic regions which the ice
+had invaded. The colonists halted at this place for breakfast. A fire of
+brushwood and dried seaweed was lighted, and Neb prepared the breakfast
+of cold meat, to which he added some cups of Oswego tea.
+
+While eating they looked around them. This part of Lincoln Island was
+very sterile, and contrasted with all the western part. The reporter
+was thus led to observe that if chance had thrown them at first on the
+shore, they would have had but a deplorable idea of their future domain.
+
+“I believe that we should not have been able to reach it,” replied the
+engineer, “for the sea is deep, and there is not a rock on which we
+could have taken refuge. Before Granite House, at least, there were
+sandbanks, an islet, which multiplied our chances of safety. Here,
+nothing but the depths!”
+
+“It is singular enough,” remarked Spilett, “that this comparatively
+small island should present such varied ground. This diversity of
+aspect, logically only belongs to continents of a certain extent. One
+would really say, that the western part of Lincoln Island, so rich and
+so fertile, is washed by the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and that
+its shores to the north and the southeast extend over a sort of Arctic
+sea.”
+
+“You are right, my dear Spilett,” replied Cyrus Harding, “I have also
+observed this. I think the form and also the nature of this island
+strange. It is a summary of all the aspects which a continent presents,
+and I should not be surprised if it was a continent formerly.”
+
+“What! a continent in the middle of the Pacific?” cried Pencroft.
+
+“Why not?” replied Cyrus Harding. “Why should not Australia, New
+Ireland, Australasia, united to the archipelagoes of the Pacific, have
+once formed a sixth part of the world, as important as Europe or Asia,
+as Africa or the two Americas? To my mind, it is quite possible that all
+these islands, emerging from this vast ocean, are but the summits of
+a continent, now submerged, but which was above the waters at a
+prehistoric period.”
+
+“As the Atlantis was formerly,” replied Herbert.
+
+“Yes, my boy... if, however, it existed.”
+
+“And would Lincoln Island have been a part of that continent?” asked
+Pencroft.
+
+“It is probable,” replied Cyrus Harding, “and that would sufficiently,
+explain the variety of productions which are seen on its surface.”
+
+“And the great number of animals which still inhabit it,” added Herbert.
+
+“Yes, my boy,” replied the engineer, “and you furnish me with an
+argument to support my theory. It is certain, after what we have seen,
+that animals are numerous in this island, and what is more strange, that
+the species are extremely varied. There is a reason for that, and to
+me it is that Lincoln Island may have formerly been a part of some vast
+continent which had gradually sunk below the Pacific.”
+
+“Then, some fine day,” said Pencroft, who did not appear to be entirely
+convinced, “the rest of this ancient continent may disappear in its
+turn, and there will be nothing between America and Asia.”
+
+“Yes,” replied Harding, “there will be new continents which millions and
+millions of animalculae are building at this moment.”
+
+“And what are these masons?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“Coral insects,” replied Cyrus Harding. “By constant work they made the
+island of Clermont-Tonnerre, and numerous other coral islands in the
+Pacific Ocean. Forty-seven millions of these insects are needed to weigh
+a grain, and yet, with the sea-salt they absorb, the solid elements of
+water which they assimilate, these animalculae produce limestone, and
+this limestone forms enormous submarine erections, of which the hardness
+and solidity equal granite. Formerly, at the first periods of creation,
+nature employing fire, heaved up the land, but now she entrusts to these
+microscopic creatures the task of replacing this agent, of which
+the dynamic power in the interior of the globe has evidently
+diminished--which is proved by the number of volcanoes on the surface of
+the earth, now actually extinct. And I believe that centuries succeeding
+to centuries, and insects to insects, this Pacific may one day be
+changed into a vast continent, which new generations will inhabit and
+civilize in their turn.”
+
+“That will take a long time,” said Pencroft.
+
+“Nature has time for it,” replied the engineer.
+
+“But what would be the use of new continents?” asked Herbert. “It
+appears to me that the present extent of habitable countries is
+sufficient for humanity. Yet nature does nothing uselessly.”
+
+“Nothing uselessly, certainly,” replied the engineer, “but this is
+how the necessity of new continents for the future, and exactly on the
+tropical zone occupied by the coral islands, may be explained. At least
+to me this explanation appears plausible.”
+
+“We are listening, captain,” said Herbert.
+
+“This is my idea: philosophers generally admit that some day our globe
+will end, or rather that animal and vegetable life will no longer be
+possible, because of the intense cold to which it will be subjected.
+What they are not agreed upon, is the cause of this cold. Some think
+that it will arise from the falling of the temperature, which the
+sun will experience after millions of years; others, from the gradual
+extinction of the fires in the interior of our globe, which have a
+greater influence on it than is generally supposed. I hold to this last
+hypothesis, grounding it on the fact that the moon is really a cold
+star, which is no longer habitable, although the sun continues to throw
+on its surface the same amount of heat. If, then, the moon has become
+cold, it is because the interior fires to which, as do all the stars of
+the stellar world, it owes its origin, are completely extinct. Lastly,
+whatever may be the cause, our globe will become cold some day, but this
+cold will only operate gradually. What will happen, then? The temperate
+zones, at a more or less distant period, will not be more habitable than
+the polar regions now are. Then the population of men, as well as the
+animals, will flow towards the latitudes which are more directly under
+the solar influence. An immense emigration will take place. Europe,
+Central Asia, North America, will gradually be abandoned, as well as
+Australasia and the lower parts of South America. The vegetation will
+follow the human emigration. The flora will retreat towards the Equator
+at the same time as the fauna. The central parts of South America and
+Africa will be the continents chiefly inhabited. The Laplanders and the
+Samoides will find the climate of the polar regions on the shores of the
+Mediterranean. Who can say, that at this period, the equatorial regions
+will not be too small, to contain and nourish terrestrial humanity? Now,
+may not provident nature, so as to give refuge to all the vegetable
+and animal emigration, be at present laying the foundation of a new
+continent under the Equator, and may she not have entrusted these
+insects with the construction of it? I have often thought of all these
+things, my friends, and I seriously believe that the aspect of our
+globe will some day be completely changed; that by the raising of new
+continents the sea will cover the old, and that, in future ages,
+a Columbus will go to discover the islands of Chimborazo, of the
+Himalayas, or of Mont Blanc, remains of a submerged America, Asia,
+and Europe. Then these new continents will become, in their turn,
+uninhabitable; heat will die away, as does the heat from a body when
+the soul has left it; and life will disappear from the globe, if not for
+ever, at least for a period. Perhaps then, our spheroid will rest--will
+be left to death--to revive some day under superior conditions! But
+all that, my friends, is the secret of the Author of all things; and
+beginning by the work of the insects, I have perhaps let myself be
+carried too far, in investigating the secrets of the future.
+
+“My dear Cyrus,” replied Spilett, “these theories are prophecies to me,
+and they will be accomplished some day.”
+
+“That is the secret of God,” said the engineer.
+
+“All that is well and good,” then said Pencroft, who had listened with
+all his might, “but will you tell me, captain, if Lincoln Island has
+been made by your insects?”
+
+“No,” replied Harding; “it is of a purely volcanic origin.”
+
+“Then it will disappear some day?”
+
+“That is probable.”
+
+“I hope we won’t be here then.”
+
+“No, don’t be uneasy, Pencroft; we shall not be here then, as we have no
+wish to die here, and hope to get away some time.”
+
+“In the meantime,” replied Gideon Spilett, “let us establish ourselves
+here as if forever. There is no use in doing things by halves.”
+
+This ended the conversation. Breakfast was finished, the exploration was
+continued, and the settlers arrived at the border of the marshy
+region. It was a marsh of which the extent, to the rounded coast which
+terminated the island at the southeast, was about twenty square miles.
+The soil was formed of clayey flint-earth, mingled with vegetable
+matter, such as the remains of rushes, reeds, grass, etc. Here and there
+beds of grass, thick as a carpet, covered it. In many places icy pools
+sparkled in the sun. Neither rain nor any river, increased by a sudden
+swelling, could supply these ponds. They therefore naturally concluded
+that the marsh was fed by the infiltrations of the soil and it was
+really so. It was also to be feared that during the heat miasmas would
+arise, which might produce fevers.
+
+Above the aquatic plants, on the surface of the stagnant water,
+fluttered numbers of birds. Wild duck, teal, snipe lived there in
+flocks, and those fearless birds allowed themselves to be easily
+approached.
+
+One shot from a gun would certainly have brought down some dozen of the
+birds, they were so close together. The explorers were, however, obliged
+to content themselves with bows and arrows. The result was less, but the
+silent arrow had the advantage of not frightening the birds, while the
+noise of firearms would have dispersed them to all parts of the marsh.
+The hunters were satisfied, for this time, with a dozen ducks, which had
+white bodies with a band of cinnamon, a green head, wings black, white,
+and red, and flattened beak. Herbert called them tadorns. Top helped in
+the capture of these birds, whose name was given to this marshy part of
+the island. The settlers had here an abundant reserve of aquatic game.
+At some future time they meant to explore it more carefully, and it was
+probable that some of the birds there might be domesticated, or at least
+brought to the shores of the lake, so that they would be more within
+their reach.
+
+About five o’clock in the evening Cyrus Harding and his companions
+retraced their steps to their dwelling by traversing Tadorn’s Fens, and
+crossed the Mercy on the ice-bridge.
+
+At eight in the evening they all entered Granite House.
+
+
+
+Chapter 22
+
+This intense cold lasted till the 15th of August, without, however,
+passing the degree of Fahrenheit already mentioned. When the atmosphere
+was calm, the low temperature was easily borne, but when the wind blew,
+the poor settlers, insufficiently clothed, felt it severely. Pencroft
+regretted that Lincoln Island was not the home of a few families of
+bears rather than of so many foxes and seals.
+
+“Bears,” said he, “are generally very well dressed, and I ask no more
+than to borrow for the winter the warm cloaks which they have on their
+backs.”
+
+“But,” replied Neb, laughing, “perhaps the bears would not consent to
+give you their cloaks, Pencroft. These beasts are not St. Martins.”
+
+“We would make them do it, Neb, we would make them,” replied Pencroft,
+in quite an authoritative tone.
+
+But these formidable carnivora did not exist in the island, or at any
+rate they had not yet shown themselves.
+
+In the meanwhile, Herbert, Pencroft, and the reporter occupied
+themselves with making traps on Prospect Heights and at the border of
+the forest.
+
+According to the sailor, any animal, whatever it was, would be a lawful
+prize, and the rodents or carnivora which might get into the new snares
+would be well received at Granite House.
+
+The traps were besides extremely simple; being pits dug in the ground,
+a platform of branches and grass above, which concealed the opening, and
+at the bottom some bait, the scent of which would attract animals. It
+must be mentioned also, that they had not been dug at random, but
+at certain places where numerous footprints showed that quadrupeds
+frequented the ground. They were visited every day, and at three
+different times, during the first days, specimens of those Antarctic
+foxes which they had already seen on the right bank of the Mercy were
+found in them.
+
+“Why, there are nothing but foxes in this country!” cried Pencroft, when
+for the third time he drew one of the animals out of the pit. Looking at
+it in great disgust, he added, “beasts which are good for nothing!”
+
+“Yes,” said Gideon Spilett, “they are good for something!”
+
+“And what is that?”
+
+“To make bait to attract other creatures!”
+
+The reporter was right, and the traps were henceforward baited with the
+foxes carcasses.
+
+The sailor had also made snares from the long tough fibers of a certain
+plant, and they were even more successful than the traps. Rarely a day
+passed without some rabbits from the warren being caught. It was always
+rabbit, but Neb knew how to vary his sauces and the settlers did not
+think of complaining.
+
+However, once or twice in the second week of August, the traps supplied
+the hunters with other animals more useful than foxes, namely, several
+of those small wild boars which had already been seen to the north of
+the lake. Pencroft had no need to ask if these beasts were eatable. He
+could see that by their resemblance to the pig of America and Europe.
+
+“But these are not pigs,” said Herbert to him, “I warn you of that,
+Pencroft.”
+
+“My boy,” replied the sailor, bending over the trap and drawing out one
+of these representatives of the family of sus by the little appendage
+which served it as a tail. “Let me believe that these are pigs.”
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Because that pleases me!”
+
+“Are you very fond of pig then, Pencroft?”
+
+“I am very fond of pig,” replied the sailor, “particularly of its feet,
+and if it had eight instead of four, I should like it twice as much!”
+
+As to the animals in question, they were peccaries belonging to one of
+the four species which are included in the family, and they were also of
+the species of Tajacu, recognizable by their deep color and the absence
+of those long teeth with which the mouths of their congeners are armed.
+These peccaries generally live in herds, and it was probable that they
+abounded in the woody parts of the island.
+
+At any rate, they were eatable from head to foot, and Pencroft did not
+ask more from them.
+
+Towards the 15th of August, the state of the atmosphere was suddenly
+moderated by the wind shifting to the northwest. The temperature rose
+some degrees, and the accumulated vapor in the air was not long in
+resolving into snow. All the island was covered with a sheet of white,
+and showed itself to its inhabitants under a new aspect. The snow fell
+abundantly for several days, and it soon reached a thickness of two
+feet.
+
+The wind also blew with great violence, and at the height of Granite
+House the sea could be heard thundering against the reefs. In some
+places, the wind, eddying round the corners, formed the snow into tall
+whirling columns, resembling those waterspouts which turn round on their
+base, and which vessels attack with a shot from a gun. However, the
+storm, coming from the northwest, blew across the island, and the
+position of Granite House preserved it from a direct attack.
+
+But in the midst of this snow-storm, as terrible as if it had been
+produced in some polar country, neither Cyrus Harding nor his companions
+could, notwithstanding their wish for it, venture forth, and they
+remained shut up for five days, from the 20th to the 25th of August.
+They could hear the tempest raging in Jacamar Wood, which would surely
+suffer from it. Many of the trees would no doubt be torn up by the
+roots, but Pencroft consoled himself by thinking that he would not have
+the trouble of cutting them down.
+
+“The wind is turning woodman, let it alone,” he repeated.
+
+Besides, there was no way of stopping it, if they had wished to do so.
+
+How grateful the inhabitants of Granite House then were to Heaven for
+having prepared for them this solid and immovable retreat! Cyrus Harding
+had also his legitimate share of thanks, but after all, it was Nature
+who had hollowed out this vast cavern, and he had only discovered it.
+There all were in safety, and the tempest could not reach them. If
+they had constructed a house of bricks and wood on Prospect Heights,
+it certainly would not have resisted the fury of this storm. As to
+the Chimneys, it must have been absolutely uninhabitable, for the sea,
+passing over the islet, would beat furiously against it. But here, in
+Granite House, in the middle of a solid mass, over which neither the sea
+nor air had any influence, there was nothing to fear.
+
+During these days of seclusion the settlers did not remain inactive.
+
+There was no want of wood, cut up into planks, in the storeroom, and
+little by little they completed their furnishing; constructing the
+most solid of tables and chairs, for material was not spared. Neb and
+Pencroft were very proud of this rather heavy furniture, which they
+would not have changed on any account.
+
+Then the carpenters became basket-makers, and they did not succeed badly
+in this new manufacture. At the point of the lake which projected to the
+north, they had discovered an osier-bed in which grew a large number
+of purple osiers. Before the rainy season, Pencroft and Herbert had cut
+down these useful shrubs, and their branches, well prepared, could now
+be effectively employed. The first attempts were somewhat crude, but
+in consequence of the cleverness and intelligence of the workmen,
+by consulting, and recalling the models which they had seen, and by
+emulating each other, the possessions of the colony were soon increased
+by several baskets of different sizes. The storeroom was provided with
+them, and in special baskets Neb placed his collection of rhizomes,
+stone-pine almonds, etc.
+
+During the last week of the month of August the weather moderated again.
+The temperature fell a little, and the tempest abated. The colonists
+sallied out directly. There was certainly two feet of snow on the shore,
+but they were able to walk without much difficulty on the hardened
+surface. Cyrus Harding and his companions climbed Prospect Heights.
+
+What a change! The woods, which they had left green, especially in the
+part at which the firs predominated, had disappeared under a uniform
+color. All was white, from the summit of Mount Franklin to the shore,
+the forests, the plains, the lake, the river. The waters of the Mercy
+flowed under a roof of ice, which, at each rising and ebbing of the
+tide, broke up with loud crashes. Numerous birds fluttered over the
+frozen surface of the lake. Ducks and snipe, teal and guillemots were
+assembled in thousands. The rocks among which the cascade flowed were
+bristling with icicles. One might have said that the water escaped by a
+monstrous gargoyle, shaped with all the imagination of an artist of the
+Renaissance. As to the damage caused by the storm in the forest, that
+could not as yet be ascertained; they would have to wait till the snowy
+covering was dissipated.
+
+Gideon Spilett, Pencroft, and Herbert did not miss this opportunity of
+going to visit their traps. They did not find them easily, under the
+snow with which they were covered. They had also to be careful not to
+fall into one or other of them, which would have been both dangerous and
+humiliating; to be taken in their own snares! But happily they avoided
+this unpleasantness, and found their traps perfectly intact. No animal
+had fallen into them, and yet the footprints in the neighborhood were
+very numerous, among others, certain very clear marks of claws. Herbert
+did not hesitate to affirm that some animal of the feline species had
+passed there, which justified the engineer’s opinion that dangerous
+beasts existed in Lincoln Island. These animals doubtless generally
+lived in the forests of the Far West, but pressed by hunger, they had
+ventured as far as Prospect Heights. Perhaps they had smelled out the
+inhabitants of Granite House. “Now, what are these feline creatures?”
+ asked Pencroft. “They are tigers,” replied Herbert. “I thought those
+beasts were only found in hot countries?”
+
+“On the new continent,” replied the lad, “they are found from Mexico to
+the Pampas of Buenos Aires. Now, as Lincoln Island is nearly under the
+same latitude as the provinces of La Plata, it is not surprising that
+tigers are to be met with in it.”
+
+“Well, we must look out for them,” replied Pencroft.
+
+However, the snow soon disappeared, quickly dissolving under the
+influence of the rising temperature. Rain fell, and the sheet of white
+soon vanished. Notwithstanding the bad weather, the settlers renewed
+their stores of different things, stone-pine almonds, rhizomes, syrup
+from the maple-tree, for the vegetable part; rabbits from the warren,
+agouties, and kangaroos for the animal part. This necessitated several
+excursions into the forest, and they found that a great number of trees
+had been blown down by the last hurricane. Pencroft and Neb also pushed
+with the cart as far as the vein of coal, and brought back several tons
+of fuel. They saw in passing that the pottery kiln had been severely
+damaged by the wind, at least six feet of it having been blown off.
+
+At the same time as the coal, the store of wood was renewed at Granite
+House, and they profited by the current of the Mercy having again become
+free, to float down several rafts. They could see that the cold period
+was not ended.
+
+A visit was also paid to the Chimneys, and the settlers could not but
+congratulate themselves on not having been living there during the
+hurricane. The sea had left unquestionable traces of its ravages.
+Sweeping over the islet, it had furiously assailed the passages, half
+filling them with sand, while thick beds of seaweed covered the rocks.
+While Neb, Herbert, and Pencroft hunted or collected wood, Cyrus Harding
+and Gideon Spilett busied themselves in putting the Chimneys to rights,
+and they found the forge and the bellows almost unhurt, protected as
+they had been from the first by the heaps of sand.
+
+The store of fuel had not been made uselessly. The settlers had not done
+with the rigorous cold. It is known that, in the Northern Hemisphere,
+the month of February is principally distinguished by rapid fallings of
+the temperature. It is the same in the Southern Hemisphere, and the end
+of the month of August, which is the February of North America, does not
+escape this climatic law.
+
+About the 25th, after another change from snow to rain, the wind shifted
+to the southeast, and the cold became, suddenly, very severe. According
+to the engineer’s calculation, the mercurial column of a Fahrenheit
+thermometer would not have marked less than eight degrees below zero,
+and this intense cold, rendered still more painful by a sharp gale,
+lasted for several days. The colonists were again shut up in Granite
+House, and as it was necessary to hermetically seal all the openings
+of the facade, only leaving a narrow passage for renewing the air, the
+consumption of candles was considerable. To economize them, the cavern
+was often only lighted by the blazing hearths, on which fuel was not
+spared. Several times, one or other of the settlers descended to the
+beach in the midst of ice which the waves heaped up at each tide, but
+they soon climbed up again to Granite House, and it was not without pain
+and difficulty that their hands could hold to the rounds of the ladder.
+In consequence of the intense cold, their fingers felt as if burned when
+they touched the rounds. To occupy the leisure hours, which the tenants
+of Granite House now had at their disposal, Cyrus Harding undertook an
+operation which could be performed indoors.
+
+We know that the settlers had no other sugar at their disposal than
+the liquid substance which they drew from the maple, by making deep
+incisions in the tree. They contented themselves with collecting this
+liquor in jars and employing it in this state for different culinary
+purposes, and the more so, as on growing old, this liquid began to
+become white and to be of a syrupy consistence.
+
+But there was something better to be made of it, and one day Cyrus
+Harding announced that they were going to turn into refiners.
+
+“Refiners!” replied Pencroft. “That is rather a warm trade, I think.”
+
+“Very warm,” answered the engineer.
+
+“Then it will be seasonable!” said the sailor.
+
+This word refining need not awake in the mind thoughts of an elaborate
+manufactory with apparatus and numerous workmen. No! to crystallize this
+liquor, only an extremely easy operation is required. Placed on the fire
+in large earthen pots, it was simply subjected to evaporation, and
+soon a scum arose to its surface. As soon as this began to thicken,
+Neb carefully removed it with a wooden spatula; this accelerated the
+evaporation, and at the same time prevented it from contracting an
+empyreumatic flavor.
+
+After boiling for several hours on a hot fire, which did as much good to
+the operators as the substance operated upon, the latter was transformed
+into a thick syrup. This syrup was poured into clay molds, previously
+fabricated in the kitchen stove, and to which they had given various
+shapes. The next day this syrup had become cold, and formed cakes
+and tablets. This was sugar of rather a reddish color, but nearly
+transparent and of a delicious taste.
+
+The cold continued to the middle of September, and the prisoners in
+Granite House began to find their captivity rather tedious. Nearly every
+day they attempted sorties which they could not prolong. They constantly
+worked at the improvement of their dwelling. They talked while working.
+Harding instructed his companions in many things, principally explaining
+to them the practical applications of science. The colonists had no
+library at their disposal; but the engineer was a book which was always
+at hand, always open at the page which one wanted, a book which answered
+all their questions, and which they often consulted. The time thus
+passed away pleasantly, these brave men not appearing to have any fears
+for the future.
+
+However, all were anxious to see, if not the fine season, at least the
+cessation of the insupportable cold. If only they had been clothed in a
+way to meet it, how many excursions they would have attempted, either to
+the downs or to Tadorn’s Fens! Game would have been easily approached,
+and the chase would certainly have been most productive. But Cyrus
+Harding considered it of importance that no one should injure his
+health, for he had need of all his hands, and his advice was followed.
+
+But it must be said, that the one who was most impatient of this
+imprisonment, after Pencroft perhaps, was Top. The faithful dog found
+Granite House very narrow. He ran backwards and forwards from one
+room to another, showing in his way how weary he was of being shut
+up. Harding often remarked that when he approached the dark well which
+communicated with the sea, and of which the orifice opened at the back
+of the storeroom, Top uttered singular growlings. He ran round and round
+this hole, which had been covered with a wooden lid. Sometimes even he
+tried to put his paws under the lid, as if he wished to raise it.
+He then yelped in a peculiar way, which showed at once anger and
+uneasiness.
+
+The engineer observed this maneuver several times.
+
+What could there be in this abyss to make such an impression on the
+intelligent animal? The well led to the sea, that was certain. Could
+narrow passages spread from it through the foundations of the island?
+Did some marine monster come from time to time, to breathe at the bottom
+of this well? The engineer did not know what to think, and could not
+refrain from dreaming of many strange improbabilities. Accustomed to go
+far into the regions of scientific reality, he would not allow
+himself to be drawn into the regions of the strange and almost of the
+supernatural; but yet how to explain why Top, one of those sensible dogs
+who never waste their time in barking at the moon, should persist in
+trying with scent and hearing to fathom this abyss, if there was nothing
+there to cause his uneasiness? Top’s conduct puzzled Cyrus Harding even
+more than he cared to acknowledge to himself.
+
+At all events, the engineer only communicated his impressions to Gideon
+Spilett, for he thought it useless to explain to his companions the
+suspicions which arose from what perhaps was only Top’s fancy.
+
+At last the cold ceased. There had been rain, squalls mingled with snow,
+hailstorms, gusts of wind, but these inclemencies did not last. The ice
+melted, the snow disappeared; the shore, the plateau, the banks of
+the Mercy, the forest, again became practicable. This return of spring
+delighted the tenants of Granite House, and they soon only passed in it
+the hours necessary for eating and sleeping.
+
+They hunted much in the second part of September, which led Pencroft to
+again entreat for the firearms, which he asserted had been promised by
+Cyrus Harding. The latter, knowing well that without special tools it
+would be nearly impossible for him to manufacture a gun which would be
+of any use, still drew back and put off the operation to some future
+time, observing in his usual dry way, that Herbert and Spilett had
+become very skilful archers, so that many sorts of excellent animals,
+agouties, kangaroos, capybaras, pigeons, bustards, wild ducks, snipes,
+in short, game both with fur and feathers, fell victims to their arrows,
+and that, consequently, they could wait. But the obstinate sailor would
+listen to nothing of this, and he would give the engineer no peace till
+he promised to satisfy his desire. Gideon Spilett, however, supported
+Pencroft.
+
+“If, which may be doubted,” said he, “the island is inhabited by wild
+beasts, we must think how to fight with and exterminate them. A time may
+come when this will be our first duty.”
+
+But at this period, it was not the question of firearms which occupied
+Harding, but that of clothes. Those which the settlers wore had passed
+this winter, but they would not last until next winter. Skins of
+carnivora or the wool of ruminants must be procured at any price, and
+since there were plenty of musmons, it was agreed to consult on the
+means of forming a flock which might be brought up for the use of the
+colony. An enclosure for the domestic animals, a poultry-yard for the
+birds, in a word to establish a sort of farm in the island, such were
+the two important projects for the fine season.
+
+In consequence and in view of these future establishments, it became
+of much importance that they should penetrate into all the yet unknown
+parts of Lincoln Island, that is to say, through that thick forest which
+extended on the right bank of the Mercy, from its mouth to the extremity
+of the Serpentine Peninsula, as well as on the whole of its western
+side. But this needed settled weather, and a month must pass before this
+exploration could be profitably undertaken.
+
+They therefore waited with some impatience, when an incident occurred
+which increased the desire the settlers had to visit the whole of their
+domain.
+
+It was the 24th of October. On this day, Pencroft had gone to visit his
+traps, which he always kept properly baited. In one of them he found
+three animals which would be very welcome for the larder. They were a
+female peccary and her two young ones.
+
+Pencroft then returned to Granite House, enchanted with his capture,
+and, as usual, he made a great show of his game.
+
+“Come, we shall have a grand feast, captain!” he exclaimed. “And you
+too, Mr. Spilett, you will eat some!”
+
+“I shall be very happy,” replied the reporter; “but what is it that I am
+going to eat?”
+
+“Suckling-pig.”
+
+“Oh, indeed, suckling-pig, Pencroft? To hear you, I thought that you
+were bringing back a young partridge stuffed with truffles!”
+
+“What?” cried Pencroft. “Do you mean to say that you turn up your nose
+at suckling-pig?’
+
+“No,” replied Gideon Spilett, without showing any enthusiasm; “provided
+one doesn’t eat too much.”
+
+“That’s right, that’s right,” returned the sailor, who was not pleased
+whenever he heard his chase made light of. “You like to make objections.
+Seven months ago, when we landed on the island, you would have been only
+too glad to have met with such game!”
+
+“Well, well,” replied the reporter, “man is never perfect, nor
+contented.”
+
+“Now,” said Pencroft, “I hope that Neb will distinguish himself. Look
+here! These two little peccaries are not more than three months old!
+They will be as tender as quails! Come along, Neb, come! I will look
+after the cooking myself.”
+
+And the sailor, followed by Neb, entered the kitchen, where they were
+soon absorbed in their culinary labors.
+
+They were allowed to do it in their own way. Neb, therefore, prepared
+a magnificent repast--the two little peccaries, kangaroo soup, a smoked
+ham, stone-pine almonds, Oswego tea; in fact, all the best that they
+had, but among all the dishes figured in the first rank the savory
+peccaries.
+
+At five o’clock dinner was served in the dining-room of Granite House.
+The kangaroo soup was smoking on the table. They found it excellent.
+
+To the soup succeeded the peccaries, which Pencroft insisted on carving
+himself, and of which he served out monstrous portions to each of the
+guests.
+
+These suckling-pigs were really delicious, and Pencroft was devouring
+his share with great gusto, when all at once a cry and an oath escaped
+him.
+
+“What’s the matter?” asked Cyrus Harding.
+
+“The matter? the matter is that I have just broken a tooth!” replied the
+sailor.
+
+“What, are there pebbles in your peccaries?” said Gideon Spilett.
+
+“I suppose so,” replied Pencroft, drawing from his lips the object which
+had cost him a grinder--!
+
+It was not a pebble--it was a leaden bullet.
+
+
+
+
+
+PART 2
+
+ABANDONED
+
+
+
+Chapter 1
+
+It was now exactly seven months since the balloon voyagers had been
+thrown on Lincoln Island. During that time, notwithstanding the
+researches they had made, no human being had been discovered. No smoke
+even had betrayed the presence of man on the surface of the island. No
+vestiges of his handiwork showed that either at an early or at a late
+period had man lived there. Not only did it now appear to be uninhabited
+by any but themselves, but the colonists were compelled to believe that
+it never had been inhabited. And now, all this scaffolding of reasonings
+fell before a simple ball of metal, found in the body of an inoffensive
+rodent! In fact, this bullet must have issued from a firearm, and who
+but a human being could have used such a weapon?
+
+When Pencroft had placed the bullet on the table, his companions looked
+at it with intense astonishment. All the consequences likely to result
+from this incident, notwithstanding its apparent insignificance,
+immediately took possession of their minds. The sudden apparition of a
+supernatural being could not have startled them more completely.
+
+Cyrus Harding did not hesitate to give utterance to the suggestions
+which this fact, at once surprising and unexpected, could not fail to
+raise in his mind. He took the bullet, turned it over and over, rolled
+it between his finger and thumb; then, turning to Pencroft, he asked,--
+
+“Are you sure that the peccary wounded by this bullet was not more than
+three months old?”
+
+“Not more, captain,” replied Pencroft. “It was still sucking its mother
+when I found it in the trap.”
+
+“Well,” said the engineer, “that proves that within three months a
+gun-shot was fired in Lincoln Island.”
+
+“And that a bullet,” added Gideon Spilett, “wounded, though not
+mortally, this little animal.”
+
+“That is unquestionable,” said Cyrus Harding, “and these are the
+deductions which must be drawn from this incident: that the island was
+inhabited before our arrival, or that men have landed here within three
+months. Did these men arrive here voluntarily or involuntarily, by
+disembarking on the shore or by being wrecked? This point can only be
+cleared up later. As to what they were, Europeans or Malays, enemies or
+friends of our race, we cannot possibly guess; and if they still inhabit
+the island, or if they have left it, we know not. But these questions
+are of too much importance to be allowed to remain long unsettled.”
+
+“No! a hundred times no! a thousand times no!” cried the sailor,
+springing up from the table. “There are no other men than ourselves on
+Lincoln Island! By my faith! The island isn’t large and if it had been
+inhabited, we should have seen some of the inhabitants long before
+this!”
+
+“In fact, the contrary would be very astonishing,” said Herbert.
+
+“But it would be much more astonishing, I should think,” observed the
+reporter, “if this peccary had been born with a bullet in its inside!”
+
+“At least,” said Neb seriously, “if Pencroft has not had--”
+
+“Look here, Neb,” burst out Pencroft. “Do you think I could have a
+bullet in my jaw for five or six months without finding it out?
+Where could it be hidden?” he asked, opening his mouth to show the
+two-and-thirty teeth with which it was furnished. “Look well, Neb, and
+if you find one hollow tooth in this set, I will let you pull out half a
+dozen!”
+
+“Neb’s supposition is certainly inadmissible,” replied Harding, who,
+notwithstanding the gravity of his thoughts, could not restrain a smile.
+“It is certain that a gun has been fired in the island, within three
+months at most. But I am inclined to think that the people who landed
+on this coast were only here a very short time ago, or that they just
+touched here; for if, when we surveyed the island from the summit of
+Mount Franklin, it had been inhabited, we should have seen them or we
+should have been seen ourselves. It is therefore, probable that within
+only a few weeks castaways have been thrown by a storm on some part of
+the coast. However that may be, it is of consequence to us to have this
+point settled.”
+
+“I think that we should act with caution,” said the reporter.
+
+“Such is my advice,” replied Cyrus Harding, “for it is to be feared that
+Malay pirates have landed on the island!”
+
+“Captain,” asked the sailor, “would it not be a good plan, before
+setting out, to build a canoe in which we could either ascend the
+river, or, if we liked, coast round the inland? It will not do to be
+unprovided.”
+
+“Your idea is good, Pencroft,” replied the engineer, “but we cannot wait
+for that. It would take at least a month to build a boat.”
+
+“Yes, a real boat,” replied the sailor; “but we do not want one for a
+sea voyage, and in five days at the most, I will undertake to construct
+a canoe fit to navigate the Mercy.”
+
+“Five days,” cried Neb, “to build a boat?”
+
+“Yes, Neb; a boat in the Indian fashion.”
+
+“Of wood?” asked the Negro, looking still unconvinced.
+
+“Of wood,” replied Pencroft, “or rather of bark. I repeat, captain, that
+in five days the work will be finished!”
+
+“In five days, then, be it,” replied the engineer.
+
+“But till that time we must be very watchful,” said Herbert.
+
+“Very watchful indeed, my friends,” replied Harding; “and I beg you to
+confine your hunting excursions to the neighborhood of Granite House.”
+
+The dinner ended less gaily than Pencroft had hoped.
+
+So, then, the island was, or had been, inhabited by others than the
+settlers. Proved as it was by the incident of the bullet, it was
+hereafter an unquestionable fact, and such a discovery could not but
+cause great uneasiness among the colonists.
+
+Cyrus Harding and Gideon Spilett, before sleeping, conversed long about
+the matter. They asked themselves if by chance this incident might not
+have some connection with the inexplicable way in which the engineer had
+been saved, and the other peculiar circumstances which had struck them
+at different times. However, Cyrus Harding, after having discussed the
+pros and cons of the question, ended by saying,--
+
+“In short, would you like to know my opinion, my dear Spilett?”
+
+“Yes, Cyrus.”
+
+“Well, then, it is this: however minutely we explore the island, we
+shall find nothing.”
+
+The next day Pencroft set to work. He did not mean to build a boat with
+boards and planking, but simply a flat-bottomed canoe, which would be
+well suited for navigating the Mercy--above all, for approaching its
+source, where the water would naturally be shallow. Pieces of bark,
+fastened one to the other, would form a light boat; and in case of
+natural obstacles, which would render a portage necessary, it would be
+easily carried. Pencroft intended to secure the pieces of bark by means
+of nails, to insure the canoe being water-tight.
+
+It was first necessary to select the trees which would afford a strong
+and supple bark for the work. Now the last storm had brought down a
+number of large birch-trees, the bark of which would be perfectly suited
+for their purpose. Some of these trees lay on the ground, and they had
+only to be barked, which was the most difficult thing of all, owing to
+the imperfect tools which the settlers possessed. However, they overcame
+all difficulties.
+
+While the sailor, seconded by the engineer, thus occupied himself
+without losing an hour, Gideon Spilett and Herbert were not idle.
+
+They were made purveyors to the colony. The reporter could not but
+admire the boy, who had acquired great skill in handling the bow and
+spear. Herbert also showed great courage and much of that presence of
+mind which may justly be called “the reasoning of bravery.” These two
+companions of the chase, remembering Cyrus Harding’s recommendations,
+did not go beyond a radius of two miles round Granite House; but
+the borders of the forest furnished a sufficient tribute of agoutis,
+capybaras, kangaroos, peccaries, etc.; and if the result from the traps
+was less than during the cold, still the warren yielded its accustomed
+quota, which might have fed all the colony in Lincoln Island.
+
+Often during these excursions, Herbert talked with Gideon Spilett on the
+incident of the bullet, and the deductions which the engineer drew from
+it, and one day--it was the 26th of October--he said--“But, Mr. Spilett,
+do you not think it very extraordinary that, if any castaways have
+landed on the island, they have not yet shown themselves near Granite
+House?”
+
+“Very astonishing if they are still here,” replied the reporter, “but
+not astonishing at all if they are here no longer!”
+
+“So you think that these people have already quitted the island?”
+ returned Herbert.
+
+“It is more than probable, my boy; for if their stay was prolonged, and
+above all, if they were still here, some accident would have at last
+betrayed their presence.”
+
+“But if they were able to go away,” observed the lad, “they could not
+have been castaways.”
+
+“No, Herbert; or, at least, they were what might be called provisional
+castaways. It is very possible that a storm may have driven them to the
+island without destroying their vessel, and that, the storm over, they
+went away again.”
+
+“I must acknowledge one thing,” said Herbert, “it is that Captain
+Harding appears rather to fear than desire the presence of human beings
+on our island.”
+
+“In short,” responded the reporter, “there are only Malays who frequent
+these seas, and those fellows are ruffians which it is best to avoid.”
+
+“It is not impossible, Mr. Spilett,” said Herbert, “that some day or
+other we may find traces of their landing.”
+
+“I do not say no, my boy. A deserted camp, the ashes of a fire, would
+put us on the track, and this is what we will look for in our next
+expedition.”
+
+The day on which the hunters spoke thus, they were in a part of the
+forest near the Mercy, remarkable for its beautiful trees. There, among
+others, rose, to a height of nearly 200 feet above the ground, some of
+those superb coniferae, to which, in New Zealand, the natives give the
+name of Kauris.
+
+“I have an idea, Mr. Spilett,” said Herbert. “If I were to climb to the
+top of one of these kauris, I could survey the country for an immense
+distance round.”
+
+“The idea is good,” replied the reporter; “but could you climb to the
+top of those giants?”
+
+“I can at least try,” replied Herbert.
+
+The light and active boy then sprang on the first branches, the
+arrangement of which made the ascent of the kauri easy, and in a few
+minutes he arrived at the summit, which emerged from the immense plain
+of verdure.
+
+From this elevated situation his gaze extended over all the southern
+portion of the island, from Claw Cape on the southeast, to Reptile End
+on the southwest. To the northwest rose Mount Franklin, which concealed
+a great part of the horizon.
+
+But Herbert, from the height of his observatory, could examine all the
+yet unknown portion of the island, which might have given shelter to the
+strangers whose presence they suspected.
+
+The lad looked attentively. There was nothing in sight on the sea, not
+a sail, neither on the horizon nor near the island. However, as the bank
+of trees hid the shore, it was possible that a vessel, especially if
+deprived of her masts, might lie close to the land and thus be invisible
+to Herbert.
+
+Neither in the forests of the Far West was anything to be seen. The wood
+formed an impenetrable screen, measuring several square miles, without a
+break or an opening. It was impossible even to follow the course of the
+Mercy, or to ascertain in what part of the mountain it took its source.
+Perhaps other creeks also ran towards the west, but they could not be
+seen.
+
+But at last, if all indication of an encampment escaped Herbert’s sight
+could he not even catch a glimpse of smoke, the faintest trace of which
+would be easily discernible in the pure atmosphere?
+
+For an instant Herbert thought he could perceive a slight smoke in the
+west, but a more attentive examination showed that he was mistaken. He
+strained his eyes in every direction, and his sight was excellent. No,
+decidedly there was nothing there.
+
+Herbert descended to the foot of the kauri, and the two sportsmen
+returned to Granite House. There Cyrus Harding listened to the lad’s
+account, shook his head and said nothing. It was very evident that
+no decided opinion could be pronounced on this question until after a
+complete exploration of the island.
+
+Two days after--the 28th of October--another incident occurred, for
+which an explanation was again required.
+
+While strolling along the shore about two miles from Granite House,
+Herbert and Neb were fortunate enough to capture a magnificent specimen
+of the order of chelonia. It was a turtle of the species Midas, the
+edible green turtle, so called from the color both of its shell and fat.
+
+Herbert caught sight of this turtle as it was crawling among the rocks
+to reach the sea.
+
+“Help, Neb, help!” he cried.
+
+Neb ran up.
+
+“What a fine animal!” said Neb; “but how are we to catch it?”
+
+“Nothing is easier, Neb,” replied Herbert. “We have only to turn the
+turtle on its back, and it cannot possibly get away. Take your spear and
+do as I do.”
+
+The reptile, aware of danger, had retired between its carapace and
+plastron. They no longer saw its head or feet, and it was motionless as
+a rock.
+
+Herbert and Neb then drove their sticks underneath the animal, and by
+their united efforts managed without difficulty to turn it on its back.
+The turtle, which was three feet in length, would have weighed at least
+four hundred pounds.
+
+“Capital!” cried Neb; “this is something which will rejoice friend
+Pencroft’s heart.”
+
+In fact, the heart of friend Pencroft could not fail to be rejoiced,
+for the flesh of the turtle, which feeds on wrack-grass, is extremely
+savory. At this moment the creature’s head could be seen, which was
+small, flat, but widened behind by the large temporal fossae hidden
+under the long roof.
+
+“And now, what shall we do with our prize?” said Neb. “We can’t drag it
+to Granite House!”
+
+“Leave it here, since it cannot turn over,” replied Herbert, “and we
+will come back with the cart to fetch it.”
+
+“That is the best plan.”
+
+However, for greater precaution, Herbert took the trouble, which Neb
+deemed superfluous, to wedge up the animal with great stones; after
+which the two hunters returned to Granite House, following the beach,
+which the tide had left uncovered. Herbert, wishing to surprise
+Pencroft, said nothing about the “superb specimen of a chelonian” which
+they had turned over on the sand; but, two hours later, he and Neb
+returned with the cart to the place where they had left it. The “superb
+specimen of a chelonian” was no longer there!
+
+Neb and Herbert stared at each other first; then they stared about them.
+It was just at this spot that the turtle had been left. The lad even
+found the stones which he had used, and therefore he was certain of not
+being mistaken.
+
+“Well!” said Neb, “these beasts can turn themselves over, then?’’
+
+“It appears so,” replied Herbert, who could not understand it at all,
+and was gazing at the stones scattered on the sand.
+
+“Well, Pencroft will be disgusted!”
+
+“And Captain Harding will perhaps be very perplexed how to explain this
+disappearance,” thought Herbert.
+
+“Look here,” said Neb, who wished to hide his ill-luck, “we won’t speak
+about it.”
+
+“On the contrary, Neb, we must speak about it,” replied Herbert.
+
+And the two, taking the cart, which there was now no use for, returned
+to Granite House.
+
+Arrived at the dockyard, where the engineer and the sailor were working
+together, Herbert recounted what had happened.
+
+“Oh! the stupids!” cried the sailor, “to have let at least fifty meals
+escape!”
+
+“But, Pencroft,” replied Neb, “it wasn’t our fault that the beast got
+away; as I tell you, we had turned it over on its back!”
+
+“Then you didn’t turn it over enough!” returned the obstinate sailor.
+
+“Not enough!” cried Herbert.
+
+And he told how he had taken care to wedge up the turtle with stones.
+
+“It is a miracle, then!” replied Pencroft.
+
+“I thought, captain,” said Herbert, “that turtles, once placed on their
+backs, could not regain their feet, especially when they are of a large
+size?’
+
+“That is true, my boy,” replied Cyrus Harding.
+
+“Then how did it manage?”
+
+“At what distance from the sea did you leave this turtle?” asked
+the engineer, who, having suspended his work, was reflecting on this
+incident.
+
+“Fifteen feet at the most,” replied Herbert.
+
+“And the tide was low at the time?”
+
+“Yes, captain.”
+
+“Well,” replied the engineer, “what the turtle could not do on the sand
+it might have been able to do in the water. It turned over when the tide
+overtook it, and then quietly returned to the deep sea.”
+
+“Oh! what stupids we were!” cried Neb.
+
+“That is precisely what I had the honor of telling you before!” returned
+the sailor.
+
+Cyrus Harding had given this explanation, which, no doubt, was
+admissible. But was he himself convinced of the accuracy of this
+explanation? It cannot be said that he was.
+
+
+
+Chapter 2
+
+On the 9th of October the bark canoe was entirely finished. Pencroft
+had kept his promise, and a light boat, the shell of which was joined
+together by the flexible twigs of the crejimba, had been constructed in
+five days. A seat in the stern, a second seat in the middle to preserve
+the equilibrium, a third seat in the bows, rowlocks for the two oars, a
+scull to steer with, completed the little craft, which was twelve feet
+long, and did not weigh more than two hundred pounds. The operation of
+launching it was extremely simple. The canoe was carried to the beach
+and laid on the sand before Granite House, and the rising tide floated
+it. Pencroft, who leaped in directly, maneuvered it with the scull and
+declared it to be just the thing for the purpose to which they wished to
+put it.
+
+“Hurrah!” cried the sailor, who did not disdain to celebrate thus his
+own triumph. “With this we could go round--”
+
+“The world?” asked Gideon Spilett.
+
+“No, the island. Some stones for ballast, a mast and a sail, which the
+captain will make for us some day, and we shall go splendidly! Well,
+captain--and you, Mr. Spilett; and you, Herbert; and you, Neb--aren’t
+you coming to try our new vessel? Come along! we must see if it will
+carry all five of us!”
+
+This was certainly a trial which ought to be made. Pencroft soon brought
+the canoe to the shore by a narrow passage among the rocks, and it was
+agreed that they should make a trial of the boat that day by following
+the shore as far as the first point at which the rocks of the south
+ended.
+
+As they embarked, Neb cried,--
+
+“But your boat leaks rather, Pencroft.”
+
+“That’s nothing, Neb,” replied the sailor; “the wood will get seasoned.
+In two days there won’t be a single leak, and our boat will have no more
+water in her than there is in the stomach of a drunkard. Jump in!”
+
+They were soon all seated, and Pencroft shoved off. The weather was
+magnificent, the sea as calm as if its waters were contained within
+the narrow limits of a lake. Thus the boat could proceed with as much
+security as if it was ascending the tranquil current of the Mercy.
+
+Neb took one of the oars, Herbert the other, and Pencroft remained in
+the stern in order to use the scull.
+
+The sailor first crossed the channel, and steered close to the southern
+point of the islet. A light breeze blew from the south. No roughness was
+found either in the channel or the green sea. A long swell, which the
+canoe scarcely felt, as it was heavily laden, rolled regularly over the
+surface of the water. They pulled out about half a mile distant from the
+shore, that they might have a good view of Mount Franklin.
+
+Pencroft afterwards returned towards the mouth of the river. The boat
+then skirted the shore, which, extending to the extreme point, hid all
+Tadorn’s Fens.
+
+This point, of which the distance was increased by the irregularity of
+the coast, was nearly three miles from the Mercy. The settlers resolved
+to go to its extremity, and only go beyond it as much as was necessary
+to take a rapid survey of the coast as far as Claw Cape.
+
+The canoe followed the windings of the shore, avoiding the rocks
+which fringed it, and which the rising tide began to cover. The cliff
+gradually sloped away from the mouth of the river to the point. This was
+formed of granite rocks, capriciously distributed, very different from
+the cliff at Prospect Heights, and of an extremely wild aspect. It might
+have been said that an immense cartload of rocks had been emptied out
+there. There was no vegetation on this sharp promontory, which projected
+two miles from the forest, and it thus represented a giant’s arm
+stretched out from a leafy sleeve.
+
+The canoe, impelled by the two oars, advanced without difficulty. Gideon
+Spilett, pencil in one hand and notebook in the other, sketched the
+coast in bold strokes. Neb, Herbert, and Pencroft chatted, while
+examining this part of their domain, which was new to them, and, in
+proportion as the canoe proceeded towards the south, the two Mandible
+Capes appeared to move, and surround Union Bay more closely.
+
+As to Cyrus Harding, he did not speak; he simply gazed, and by the
+mistrust which his look expressed, it appeared that he was examining
+some strange country.
+
+In the meantime, after a voyage of three-quarters of an hour, the
+canoe reached the extremity of the point, and Pencroft was preparing to
+return, when Herbert, rising, pointed to a black object, saying,--
+
+“What do I see down there on the beach?”
+
+All eyes turned towards the point indicated.
+
+“Why,” said the reporter, “there is something. It looks like part of a
+wreck half buried in the sand.”
+
+“Ah!” cried Pencroft, “I see what it is!”
+
+“What?” asked Neb.
+
+“Barrels, barrels, which perhaps are full,” replied the sailor.
+
+“Pull to the shore, Pencroft!” said Cyrus.
+
+A few strokes of the oar brought the canoe into a little creek, and its
+passengers leaped on shore.
+
+Pencroft was not mistaken. Two barrels were there, half buried in the
+sand, but still firmly attached to a large chest, which, sustained by
+them, had floated to the moment when it stranded on the beach.
+
+“There has been a wreck, then, in some part of the island,” said
+Herbert.
+
+“Evidently,” replied Spilett.
+
+“But what’s in this chest?” cried Pencroft, with very natural
+impatience. “What’s in this chest? It is shut up, and nothing to open it
+with! Well, perhaps a stone--”
+
+And the sailor, raising a heavy block, was about to break in one of the
+sides of the chest, when the engineer arrested his hand.
+
+“Pencroft,” said he, “can you restrain your impatience for one hour
+only?”
+
+“But, captain, just think! Perhaps there is everything we want in
+there!”
+
+“We shall find that out, Pencroft,” replied the engineer; “but trust
+to me, and do not break the chest, which may be useful to us. We must
+convey it to Granite House, where we can open it easily, and without
+breaking it. It is quite prepared for a voyage; and since it has floated
+here, it may just as well float to the mouth of the river.”
+
+“You are right, captain, and I was wrong, as usual,” replied the sailor.
+
+The engineer’s advice was good. In fact, the canoe probably would not
+have been able to contain the articles possibly enclosed in the chest,
+which doubtless was heavy, since two empty barrels were required to buoy
+it up. It was, therefore, much better to tow it to the beach at Granite
+House.
+
+And now, whence had this chest come? That was the important question.
+Cyrus Harding and his companions looked attentively around them, and
+examined the shore for several hundred steps. No other articles or
+pieces of wreck could be found. Herbert and Neb climbed a high rock
+to survey the sea, but there was nothing in sight--neither a dismasted
+vessel nor a ship under sail.
+
+However, there was no doubt that there had been a wreck. Perhaps this
+incident was connected with that of the bullet? Perhaps strangers had
+landed on another part of the island? Perhaps they were still there?
+But the thought which came naturally to the settlers was, that these
+strangers could not be Malay pirates, for the chest was evidently of
+American or European make.
+
+All the party returned to the chest, which was of an unusually large
+size. It was made of oak wood, very carefully closed and covered with
+a thick hide, which was secured by copper nails. The two great barrels,
+hermetically sealed, but which sounded hollow and empty, were fastened
+to its sides by strong ropes, knotted with a skill which Pencroft
+directly pronounced sailors alone could exhibit. It appeared to be in a
+perfect state of preservation, which was explained by the fact that it
+had stranded on a sandy beach, and not among rocks. They had no doubt
+whatever, on examining it carefully, that it had not been long in the
+water, and that its arrival on this coast was recent. The water did
+not appear to have penetrated to the inside, and the articles which it
+contained were no doubt uninjured.
+
+It was evident that this chest had been thrown overboard from some
+dismasted vessel driven towards the island, and that, in the hope
+that it would reach the land, where they might afterwards find it,
+the passengers had taken the precaution to buoy it up by means of this
+floating apparatus.
+
+“We will tow this chest to Granite House,” said the engineer, “where we
+can make an inventory of its contents; then, if we discover any of the
+survivors from the supposed wreck, we can return it to those to whom it
+belongs. If we find no one--”
+
+“We will keep it for ourselves!” cried Pencroft. “But what in the world
+can there be in it?”
+
+The sea was already approaching the chest, and the high tide would
+evidently float it. One of the ropes which fastened the barrels was
+partly unlashed and used as a cable to unite the floating apparatus with
+the canoe. Pencroft and Neb then dug away the sand with their oars, so
+as to facilitate the moving of the chest, towing which the boat soon
+began to double the point, to which the name of Flotsam Point was given.
+
+The chest was heavy, and the barrels were scarcely sufficient to keep
+it above water. The sailor also feared every instant that it would get
+loose and sink to the bottom of the sea. But happily his fears were not
+realized, and an hour and a half after they set out--all that time had
+been taken up in going a distance of three miles--the boat touched the
+beach below Granite House.
+
+Canoe and chest were then hauled up on the sands; and as the tide was
+then going out, they were soon left high and dry. Neb, hurrying home,
+brought back some tools with which to open the chest in such a way that
+it might be injured as little as possible, and they proceeded to its
+inventory. Pencroft did not try to hide that he was greatly excited.
+
+The sailor began by detaching the two barrels, which, being in good
+condition, would of course be of use. Then the locks were forced with a
+cold chisel and hammer, and the lid thrown back. A second casing of zinc
+lined the interior of the chest, which had been evidently arranged
+that the articles which it enclosed might under any circumstances be
+sheltered from damp.
+
+“Oh!” cried Neb, “suppose it’s jam!
+
+“I hope not,” replied the reporter.
+
+“If only there was--” said the sailor in a low voice.
+
+“What?” asked Neb, who overheard him.
+
+“Nothing!”
+
+The covering of zinc was torn off and thrown back over the sides of the
+chest, and by degrees numerous articles of very varied character were
+produced and strewn about on the sand. At each new object Pencroft
+uttered fresh hurrahs, Herbert clapped his hands, and Neb danced up and
+down. There were books which made Herbert wild with joy, and cooking
+utensils which Neb covered with kisses!
+
+In short, the colonists had reason to be extremely satisfied, for this
+chest contained tools, weapons, instruments, clothes, books; and this
+is the exact list of them as stated in Gideon Spilett’s note-book:
+--Tools:--3 knives with several blades, 2 woodmen’s axes, 2 carpenter’s
+hatchets, 3 planes, 2 adzes, 1 twibil or mattock, 6 chisels, 2 files,
+3 hammers, 3 gimlets, 2 augers, 10 bags of nails and screws, 3 saws of
+different sizes, 2 boxes of needles.
+
+Weapons:--2 flint-lock guns, 2 for percussion caps, 2 breach-loader
+carbines, 5 boarding cutlasses, 4 sabers, 2 barrels of powder, each
+containing twenty-five pounds; 12 boxes of percussion caps.
+
+Instruments:--1 sextant, 1 double opera-glass, 1 telescope, 1 box of
+mathematical instruments, 1 mariner’s compass, 1 Fahrenheit thermometer,
+1 aneroid barometer, 1 box containing a photographic apparatus,
+object-glass, plates, chemicals, etc.
+
+Clothes:--2 dozen shirts of a peculiar material resembling wool, but
+evidently of a vegetable origin; 3 dozen stockings of the same material.
+
+Utensils:--1 iron pot, 6 copper saucepans, 3 iron dishes, 10 metal
+plates, 2 kettles, 1 portable stove, 6 table-knives.
+
+Books:--1 Bible, 1 atlas, 1 dictionary of the different Polynesian
+idioms, 1 dictionary of natural science, in six volumes; 3 reams of
+white paper, 2 books with blank pages.
+
+“It must be allowed,” said the reporter, after the inventory had been
+made, “that the owner of this chest was a practical man! Tools, weapons,
+instruments, clothes, utensils, books--nothing is wanting! It might
+really be said that he expected to be wrecked, and had prepared for it
+beforehand.”
+
+“Nothing is wanting, indeed,” murmured Cyrus Harding thoughtfully.
+
+“And for a certainty,” added Herbert, “the vessel which carried this
+chest and its owner was not a Malay pirate!”
+
+“Unless,” said Pencroft, “the owner had been taken prisoner by
+pirates--”
+
+“That is not admissible,” replied the reporter. “It is more probable
+that an American or European vessel has been driven into this quarter,
+and that her passengers, wishing to save necessaries at least, prepared
+this chest and threw it overboard.”
+
+“Is that your opinion, captain?” asked Herbert.
+
+“Yes, my boy,” replied the engineer, “that may have been the case. It
+is possible that at the moment, or in expectation of a wreck, they
+collected into this chest different articles of the greatest use in
+hopes of finding it again on the coast--”
+
+“Even the photographic box!” exclaimed the sailor incredulously.
+
+“As to that apparatus,” replied Harding, “I do not quite see the use of
+it; and a more complete supply of clothes or more abundant ammunition
+would have been more valuable to us as well as to any other castaways!”
+
+“But isn’t there any mark or direction on these instruments, tools, or
+books, which would tell us something about them?” asked Gideon Spilett.
+
+That might be ascertained. Each article was carefully examined,
+especially the books, instruments and weapons. Neither the weapons nor
+the instruments, contrary to the usual custom, bore the name of the
+maker; they were, besides, in a perfect state, and did not appear to
+have been used. The same peculiarity marked the tools and utensils; all
+were new, which proved that the articles had not been taken by chance
+and thrown into the chest, but, on the contrary, that the choice of
+things had been well considered and arranged with care. This was also
+indicated by the second case of metal which had preserved them from
+damp, and which could not have been soldered in a moment of haste.
+
+As to the dictionaries of natural science and Polynesian idioms, both
+were English; but they neither bore the name of the publisher nor the
+date of publication.
+
+The same with the Bible printed in English, in quarto, remarkable from a
+typographic point of view, and which appeared to have been often used.
+
+The atlas was a magnificent work, comprising maps of every country in
+the world, and several planispheres arranged upon Mercator’s projection,
+and of which the nomenclature was in French--but which also bore neither
+date nor name of publisher.
+
+There was nothing, therefore, on these different articles by which
+they could be traced, and nothing consequently of a nature to show the
+nationality of the vessel which must have recently passed these shores.
+
+But, wherever the chest might have come from, it was a treasure to the
+settlers on Lincoln Island. Till then, by making use of the productions
+of nature, they had created everything for themselves, and, thanks to
+their intelligence, they had managed without difficulty. But did it not
+appear as if Providence had wished to reward them by sending them these
+productions of human industry? Their thanks rose unanimously to Heaven.
+
+However, one of them was not quite satisfied: it was Pencroft. It
+appeared that the chest did not contain something which he evidently
+held in great esteem, for in proportion as they approached the bottom
+of the box, his hurrahs diminished in heartiness, and, the inventory
+finished, he was heard to mutter these words:--“That’s all very fine,
+but you can see that there is nothing for me in that box!”
+
+This led Neb to say,--
+
+“Why, friend Pencroft, what more do you expect?”
+
+“Half a pound of tobacco,” replied Pencroft seriously, “and nothing
+would have been wanting to complete my happiness!”
+
+No one could help laughing at this speech of the sailor’s.
+
+But the result of this discovery of the chest was, that it was now more
+than ever necessary to explore the island thoroughly. It was therefore
+agreed that the next morning at break of day, they should set out, by
+ascending the Mercy so as to reach the western shore. If any castaways
+had landed on the coast, it was to be feared they were without
+resources, and it was therefore the more necessary to carry help to them
+without delay.
+
+During the day the different articles were carried to Granite House,
+where they were methodically arranged in the great hall. This day--the
+29th of October--happened to be a Sunday, and, before going to bed,
+Herbert asked the engineer if he would not read them something from the
+Gospel.
+
+“Willingly,” replied Cyrus Harding.
+
+He took the sacred volume, and was about to open it, when Pencroft
+stopped him, saying,--“Captain, I am superstitious. Open at random
+and read the first verse which, your eye falls upon. We will see if it
+applies to our situation.”
+
+Cyrus Harding smiled at the sailor’s idea, and, yielding to his wish, he
+opened exactly at a place where the leaves were separated by a marker.
+
+Immediately his eyes were attracted by a cross which, made with a
+pencil, was placed against the eighth verse of the seventh chapter of
+the Gospel of St. Matthew. He read the verse, which was this:--
+
+“For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 3
+
+The next day, the 30th of October, all was ready for the proposed
+exploring expedition, which recent events had rendered so necessary. In
+fact, things had so come about that the settlers in Lincoln Island no
+longer needed help for themselves, but were even able to carry it to
+others.
+
+It was therefore agreed that they should ascend the Mercy as far as
+the river was navigable. A great part of the distance would thus be
+traversed without fatigue, and the explorers could transport their
+provisions and arms to an advanced point in the west of the island.
+
+It was necessary to think not only of the things which they should take
+with them, but also of those which they might have by chance to bring
+back to Granite House. If there had been a wreck on the coast, as was
+supposed, there would be many things cast up, which would be lawfully
+their prizes. In the event of this, the cart would have been of more use
+than the light canoe, but it was heavy and clumsy to drag, and therefore
+more difficult to use; this led Pencroft to express his regret that the
+chest had not contained, besides “his halfpound of tobacco,” a pair
+of strong New Jersey horses, which would have been very useful to the
+colony!
+
+The provisions, which Neb had already packed up, consisted of a store
+of meat and of several gallons of beer, that is to say enough to sustain
+them for three days, the time which Harding assigned for the expedition.
+They hoped besides to supply themselves on the road, and Neb took care
+not to forget the portable stove.
+
+The only tools the settlers took were the two woodmen’s axes, which
+they could use to cut a path through the thick forests, as also the
+instruments, the telescope and pocket-compass.
+
+For weapons they selected the two flint-lock guns, which were likely
+to be more useful to them than the percussion fowling-pieces, the first
+only requiring flints which could be easily replaced, and the latter
+needing fulminating caps, a frequent use of which would soon exhaust
+their limited stock. However, they took also one of the carbines and
+some cartridges. As to the powder, of which there was about fifty pounds
+in the barrel, a small supply of it had to be taken, but the engineer
+hoped to manufacture an explosive substance which would allow them to
+husband it. To the firearms were added the five cutlasses well sheathed
+in leather, and, thus supplied, the settlers could venture into the vast
+forest with some chance of success.
+
+It is useless to add that Pencroft, Herbert, and Neb, thus armed, were
+at the summit of their happiness, although Cyrus Harding made them
+promise not to fire a shot unless it was necessary.
+
+At six in the morning the canoe put off from the shore; all had
+embarked, including Top, and they proceeded to the mouth of the Mercy.
+
+The tide had begun to come up half an hour before. For several hours,
+therefore, there would be a current, which it was well to profit by, for
+later the ebb would make it difficult to ascend the river. The tide was
+already strong, for in three days the moon would be full, and it was
+enough to keep the boat in the center of the current, where it floated
+swiftly along between the high banks without its being necessary
+to increase its speed by the aid of the oars. In a few minutes the
+explorers arrived at the angle formed by the Mercy and exactly at the
+place where, seven months before, Pencroft had made his first raft of
+wood.
+
+After this sudden angle the river widened and flowed under the shade of
+great evergreen firs.
+
+The aspect of the banks was magnificent. Cyrus Harding and his
+companions could not but admire the lovely effects so easily produced
+by nature with water and trees. As they advanced the forest element
+diminished. On the right bank of the river grew magnificent specimens of
+the ulmaceae tribe, the precious elm, so valuable to builders, and which
+withstands well the action of water. Then there were numerous groups
+belonging to the same family, among others one in particular, the fruit
+of which produces a very useful oil. Further on, Herbert remarked the
+lardizabala, a twining shrub which, when bruised in water, furnishes
+excellent cordage; and two or three ebony trees of a beautiful black,
+crossed with capricious veins.
+
+From time to time, in certain places where the landing was easy, the
+canoe was stopped, when Gideon Spilett, Herbert, and Pencroft, their
+guns in their hands, and preceded by Top, jumped on shore. Without
+expecting game, some useful plant might be met with, and the young
+naturalist was delighted with discovering a sort of wild spinach,
+belonging to the order of chenopodiaceae, and numerous specimens of
+cruciferae, belonging to the cabbage tribe, which it would certainly be
+possible to cultivate by transplanting. There were cresses, horseradish,
+turnips, and lastly, little branching hairy stalks, scarcely more than
+three feet high, which produced brownish grains.
+
+“Do you know what this plant is?” asked Herbert of the sailor.
+
+“Tobacco!” cried Pencroft, who evidently had never seen his favorite
+plant except in the bowl of his pipe.
+
+“No, Pencroft,” replied Herbert; “this is not tobacco, it is mustard.”
+
+“Mustard be hanged!” returned the sailor; “but if by chance you happen
+to come across a tobacco-plant, my boy, pray don’t scorn that!”
+
+“We shall find it some day!” said Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Well!” exclaimed Pencroft, “when that day comes, I do not know what
+more will be wanting in our island!”
+
+These different plants, which had been carefully rooted up, were carried
+to the canoe, where Cyrus Harding had remained buried in thought.
+
+The reporter, Herbert, and Pencroft in this manner frequently
+disembarked, sometimes on the right bank, sometimes on the left bank of
+the Mercy.
+
+The latter was less abrupt, but the former more wooded. The engineer
+ascertained by consulting his pocket-compass that the direction of the
+river from the first turn was obviously southwest and northeast, and
+nearly straight for a length of about three miles. But it was to be
+supposed that this direction changed beyond that point, and that the
+Mercy continued to the north-west, towards the spurs of Mount Franklin,
+among which the river rose.
+
+During one of these excursions, Gideon Spilett managed to get hold
+of two couples of living gallinaceae. They were birds with long, thin
+beaks, lengthened necks, short wings, and without any appearance of
+a tail. Herbert rightly gave them the name of tinamous, and it
+was resolved that they should be the first tenants of their future
+poultry-yard.
+
+But till then the guns had not spoken, and the first report which awoke
+the echoes of the forest of the Far West was provoked by the appearance
+of a beautiful bird, resembling the kingfisher.
+
+“I recognize him!” cried Pencroft, and it seemed as if his gun went off
+by itself.
+
+“What do you recognize?” asked the reporter.
+
+“The bird which escaped us on our first excursion, and from which we
+gave the name to that part of the forest.”
+
+“A jacamar!” cried Herbert.
+
+It was indeed a jacamar, of which the plumage shines with a metallic
+luster. A shot brought it to the ground, and Top carried it to the
+canoe. At the same time half a dozen lories were brought down. The lory
+is of the size of a pigeon, the plumage dashed with green, part of
+the wings crimson, and its crest bordered with white. To the young boy
+belonged the honor of this shot, and he was proud enough of it. Lories
+are better food than the jacamar, the flesh of which is rather tough,
+but it was difficult to persuade Pencroft that he had not killed the
+king of eatable birds. It was ten o’clock in the morning when the canoe
+reached a second angle of the Mercy, nearly five miles from its mouth.
+Here a halt was made for breakfast under the shade of some splendid
+trees. The river still measured from sixty to seventy feet in breadth,
+and its bed from five to six feet in depth. The engineer had observed
+that it was increased by numerous affluents, but they were unnavigable,
+being simply little streams. As to the forest, including Jacamar Wood,
+as well as the forests of the Far West, it extended as far as the eye
+could reach. In no place, either in the depths of the forests or under
+the trees on the banks of the Mercy, was the presence of man revealed.
+The explorers could not discover one suspicious trace. It was evident
+that the woodman’s axe had never touched these trees, that the pioneer’s
+knife had never severed the creepers hanging from one trunk to another
+in the midst of tangled brushwood and long grass. If castaways had
+landed on the island, they could not have yet quitted the shore, and it
+was not in the woods that the survivors of the supposed shipwreck should
+be sought.
+
+The engineer therefore manifested some impatience to reach the western
+coast of Lincoln Island, which was at least five miles distant according
+to his estimation.
+
+The voyage was continued, and as the Mercy appeared to flow not towards
+the shore, but rather towards Mount Franklin, it was decided that they
+should use the boat as long as there was enough water under its keel
+to float it. It was both fatigue spared and time gained, for they would
+have been obliged to cut a path through the thick wood with their axes.
+But soon the flow completely failed them, either the tide was going
+down, and it was about the hour, or it could no longer be felt at this
+distance from the mouth of the Mercy. They had therefore to make use of
+the oars. Herbert and Neb each took one, and Pencroft took the scull.
+The forest soon became less dense, the trees grew further apart and
+often quite isolated. But the further they were from each other the more
+magnificent they appeared, profiting, as they did, by the free, pure air
+which circulated around them.
+
+What splendid specimens of the flora of this latitude! Certainly
+their presence would have been enough for a botanist to name without
+hesitation the parallel which traversed Lincoln Island.
+
+“Eucalypti!” cried Herbert.
+
+They were, in fact, those splendid trees, the giants of the
+extratropical zone, the congeners of the Australian and New Zealand
+eucalyptus, both situated under the same latitude as Lincoln Island.
+Some rose to a height of two hundred feet. Their trunks at the base
+measured twenty feet in circumference, and their bark was covered by a
+network of farrows containing a red, sweet-smelling gum. Nothing is more
+wonderful or more singular than those enormous specimens of the order of
+the myrtaceae, with their leaves placed vertically and not horizontally,
+so that an edge and not a surface looks upwards, the effect being that
+the sun’s rays penetrate more freely among the trees.
+
+The ground at the foot of the eucalypti was carpeted with grass, and
+from the bushes escaped flights of little birds, which glittered in the
+sunlight like winged rubies.
+
+“These are something like trees!” cried Neb; “but are they good for
+anything?”
+
+“Pooh!” replied Pencroft. “Of course there are vegetable giants as well
+as human giants, and they are no good, except to show themselves at
+fairs!”
+
+“I think that you are mistaken, Pencroft,” replied Gideon Spilett, “and
+that the wood of the eucalyptus has begun to be very advantageously
+employed in cabinet-making.”
+
+“And I may add,” said Herbert, “that the eucalyptus belongs to a family
+which comprises many useful members; the guava-tree, from whose fruit
+guava jelly is made; the clove-tree, which produces the spice; the
+pomegranate-tree, which bears pomegranates; the Eugeacia Cauliflora,
+the fruit of which is used in making a tolerable wine; the Ugui myrtle,
+which contains an excellent alcoholic liquor; the Caryophyllus myrtle,
+of which the bark forms an esteemed cinnamon; the Eugenia Pimenta, from
+whence comes Jamaica pepper; the common myrtle, from whose buds and
+berries spice is sometimes made; the Eucalyptus manifera, which yields
+a sweet sort of manna; the Guinea Eucalyptus, the sap of which is
+transformed into beer by fermentation; in short, all those trees known
+under the name of gum-trees or iron-bark trees in Australia, belong
+to this family of the myrtaceae, which contains forty-six genera and
+thirteen hundred species!”
+
+The lad was allowed to run on, and he delivered his little botanical
+lecture with great animation. Cyrus Harding listened smiling, and
+Pencroft with an indescribable feeling of pride.
+
+“Very good, Herbert,” replied Pencroft, “but I could swear that all
+those useful specimens you have just told us about are none of them
+giants like these!”
+
+“That is true, Pencroft.”
+
+“That supports what I said,” returned the sailor, “namely, that these
+giants are good for nothing!”
+
+“There you are wrong, Pencroft,” said the engineer; “these gigantic
+eucalypti, which shelter us, are good for something.”
+
+“And what is that?”
+
+“To render the countries which they inhabit healthy. Do you know what
+they are called in Australia and New Zealand?”
+
+“No, captain.”
+
+“They are called ‘fever trees.’”
+
+“Because they give fevers?”
+
+“No, because they prevent them!”
+
+“Good. I must note that,” said the reporter.
+
+“Note it then, my dear Spilett; for it appears proved that the presence
+of the eucalyptus is enough to neutralize miasmas. This natural antidote
+has been tried in certain countries in the middle of Europe and the
+north of Africa where the soil was absolutely unhealthy, and the
+sanitary condition of the inhabitants has been gradually ameliorated. No
+more intermittent fevers prevail in the regions now covered with forests
+of the myrtaceae. This fact is now beyond doubt, and it is a happy
+circumstance for us settlers in Lincoln Island.”
+
+“Ah! what an island! What a blessed island!” cried Pencroft. “I tell
+you, it wants nothing--unless it is--”
+
+“That will come, Pencroft, that will be found,” replied the engineer;
+“but now we must continue our voyage and push on as far as the river
+will carry our boat!”
+
+The exploration was therefore continued for another two miles in the
+midst of country covered with eucalypti, which predominated in the woods
+of this portion of the island. The space which they occupied extended as
+far as the eye could reach on each side of the Mercy, which wound along
+between high green banks. The bed was often obstructed by long weeds,
+and even by pointed rocks, which rendered the navigation very difficult.
+The action of the oars was prevented, and Pencroft was obliged to push
+with a pole. They found also that the water was becoming shallower
+and shallower, and that the canoe must soon stop. The sun was already
+sinking towards the horizon, and the trees threw long shadows on the
+ground. Cyrus Harding, seeing that he could not hope to reach the
+western coast of the island in one journey, resolved to camp at the
+place where any further navigation was prevented by want of water. He
+calculated that they were still five or six miles from the coast, and
+this distance was too great for them to attempt during the night in the
+midst of unknown woods.
+
+The boat was pushed on through the forest, which gradually became
+thicker again, and appeared also to have more inhabitants; for if the
+eyes of the sailor did not deceive him, he thought he saw bands of
+monkeys springing among the trees. Sometimes even two or three of these
+animals stopped at a little distance from the canoe and gazed at the
+settlers without manifesting any terror, as if, seeing men for the first
+time, they had not yet learned to fear them. It would have been easy
+to bring down one of these quadramani with a gunshot, and Pencroft was
+greatly tempted to fire, but Harding opposed so useless a massacre.
+This was prudent, for the monkeys, or apes rather, appearing to be very
+powerful and extremely active, it was useless to provoke an unnecessary
+aggression, and the creatures might, ignorant of the power of the
+explorers’ firearms, have attacked them. It is true that the sailor
+considered the monkeys from a purely alimentary point of view, for those
+animals which are herbivorous make very excellent game; but since they
+had an abundant supply of provisions, it was a pity to waste their
+ammunition.
+
+Towards four o’clock, the navigation of the Mercy became exceedingly
+difficult, for its course was obstructed by aquatic plants and rocks.
+The banks rose higher and higher, and already they were approaching the
+spurs of Mount Franklin. The source could not be far off, since it was
+fed by the water from the southern slopes of the mountain.
+
+“In a quarter of an hour,” said the sailor, “we shall be obliged to
+stop, captain.”
+
+“Very well, we will stop, Pencroft, and we will make our encampment for
+the night.”
+
+“At what distance are we from Granite House?” asked Herbert.
+
+“About seven miles,” replied the engineer, “taking into calculation,
+however, the detours of the river, which has carried us to the
+northwest.”
+
+“Shall we go on?” asked the reporter.
+
+“Yes, as long as we can,” replied Cyrus Harding. “To-morrow, at break of
+day, we will leave the canoe, and in two hours I hope we shall cross the
+distance which separates us from the coast, and then we shall have the
+whole day in which to explore the shore.”
+
+“Go ahead!” replied Pencroft.
+
+But soon the boat grated on the stony bottom of the river, which was
+now not more than twenty feet in breadth. The trees met like a bower
+overhead, and caused a half-darkness. They also heard the noise of a
+waterfall, which showed that a few hundred feet up the river there was a
+natural barrier.
+
+Presently, after a sudden turn of the river, a cascade appeared through
+the trees. The canoe again touched the bottom, and in a few minutes it
+was moored to a trunk near the right bank.
+
+It was nearly five o’clock. The last rays of the sun gleamed through
+the thick foliage and glanced on the little waterfall, making the spray
+sparkle with all the colors of the rainbow. Beyond that, the Mercy was
+lost in the bushwood, where it was fed from some hidden source. The
+different streams which flowed into it increased it to a regular river
+further down, but here it was simply a shallow, limpid brook.
+
+It was agreed to camp here, as the place was charming. The colonists
+disembarked, and a fire was soon lighted under a clump of trees, among
+the branches of which Cyrus Harding and his companions could, if it was
+necessary, take refuge for the night.
+
+Supper was quickly devoured, for they were very hungry, and then there
+was only sleeping to think of. But, as roarings of rather a suspicious
+nature had been heard during the evening, a good fire was made up for
+the night, so as to protect the sleepers with its crackling flames. Neb
+and Pencroft also watched by turns, and did not spare fuel. They thought
+they saw the dark forms of some wild animals prowling round the camp
+among the bushes, but the night passed without incident, and the next
+day, the 31st of October, at five o’clock in the morning, all were on
+foot, ready for a start.
+
+
+
+Chapter 4
+
+It was six o’ clock in the morning when the settlers, after a hasty
+breakfast, set out to reach by the shortest way, the western coast of
+the island. And how long would it take to do this? Cyrus Harding
+had said two hours, but of course that depended on the nature of the
+obstacles they might meet with. As it was probable that they would have
+to cut a path through the grass, shrubs, and creepers, they marched axe
+in hand, and with guns also ready, wisely taking warning from the cries
+of the wild beasts heard in the night.
+
+The exact position of the encampment could be determined by the bearing
+of Mount Franklin, and as the volcano arose in the north at a distance
+of less than three miles, they had only to go straight towards the
+southwest to reach the western coast. They set out, having first
+carefully secured the canoe. Pencroft and Neb carried sufficient
+provision for the little band for at least two days. It would not thus
+be necessary to hunt. The engineer advised his companions to refrain
+from firing, that their presence might not be betrayed to any one near
+the shore. The first hatchet blows were given among the brushwood in the
+midst of some mastic-trees, a little above the cascade; and his compass
+in his hand, Cyrus Harding led the way.
+
+The forest here was composed for the most part of trees which had
+already been met with near the lake and on Prospect Heights. There
+were deodars, Douglas firs, casuarinas, gum trees, eucalypti, hibiscus,
+cedars, and other trees, generally of a moderate size, for their number
+prevented their growth.
+
+Since their departure, the settlers had descended the slopes which
+constituted the mountain system of the island, on to a dry soil, but the
+luxuriant vegetation of which indicated it to be watered either by some
+subterranean marsh or by some stream. However, Cyrus Harding did not
+remember having seen, at the time of his excursion to the crater, any
+other watercourses but the Red Creek and the Mercy.
+
+During the first part of their excursion, they saw numerous troops of
+monkeys who exhibited great astonishment at the sight of men, whose
+appearance was so new to them. Gideon Spilett jokingly asked whether
+these active and merry quadrupeds did not consider him and his
+companions as degenerate brothers.
+
+And certainly, pedestrians, hindered at each step by bushes, caught by
+creepers, barred by trunks of trees, did not shine beside those supple
+animals, who, bounding from branch to branch, were hindered by nothing
+on their course. The monkeys were numerous, but happily they did not
+manifest any hostile disposition.
+
+Several pigs, agoutis, kangaroos, and other rodents were seen, also two
+or three koalas, at which Pencroft longed to have a shot.
+
+“But,” said he, “you may jump and play just now; we shall have one or
+two words to say to you on our way back!”
+
+At half-past nine the way was suddenly found to be barred by an unknown
+stream, from thirty to forty feet broad, whose rapid current dashed
+foaming over the numerous rocks which interrupted its course. This creek
+was deep and clear, but it was absolutely unnavigable.
+
+“We are cut off!” cried Neb.
+
+“No,” replied Herbert, “it is only a stream, and we can easily swim
+over.”
+
+“What would be the use of that?” returned Harding. “This creek evidently
+runs to the sea. Let us remain on this side and follow the bank, and
+I shall be much astonished if it does not lead us very quickly to the
+coast. Forward!”
+
+“One minute,” said the reporter. “The name of this creek, my friends? Do
+not let us leave our geography incomplete.”
+
+“All right!” said Pencroft.
+
+“Name it, my boy,” said the engineer, addressing the lad.
+
+“Will it not be better to wait until we have explored it to its mouth?”
+ answered Herbert.
+
+“Very well,” replied Cyrus Harding. “Let us follow it as fast as we can
+without stopping.”
+
+“Still another minute!” said Pencroft.
+
+“What’s the matter?” asked the reporter.
+
+“Though hunting is forbidden, fishing is allowed, I suppose,” said the
+sailor.
+
+“We have no time to lose,” replied the engineer.
+
+“Oh! five minutes!” replied Pencroft, “I only ask for five minutes to
+use in the interest of our breakfast!”
+
+And Pencroft, lying down on the bank, plunged his arm into the water,
+and soon pulled up several dozen of fine crayfish from among the stones.
+
+“These will be good!” cried Neb, going to the sailor’s aid.
+
+“As I said, there is everything in this island, except tobacco!”
+ muttered Pencroft with a sigh.
+
+The fishing did not take five minutes, for the crayfish were swarming in
+the creek. A bag was filled with the crustaceae, whose shells were of a
+cobalt blue. The settlers then pushed on.
+
+They advanced more rapidly and easily along the bank of the river than
+in the forest. From time to time they came upon the traces of animals of
+a large size who had come to quench their thirst at the stream, but none
+were actually seen, and it was evidently not in this part of the forest
+that the peccary had received the bullet which had cost Pencroft a
+grinder.
+
+In the meanwhile, considering the rapid current, Harding was led to
+suppose that he and his companions were much farther from the western
+coast than they had at first supposed. In fact, at this hour, the rising
+tide would have turned back the current of the creek, if its mouth had
+only been a few miles distant. Now, this effect was not produced, and
+the water pursued its natural course. The engineer was much astonished
+at this, and frequently consulted his compass, to assure himself that
+some turn of the river was not leading them again into the Far West.
+
+However, the creek gradually widened and its waters became less
+tumultuous. The trees on the right bank were as close together as on the
+left bank, and it was impossible to distinguish anything beyond them;
+but these masses of wood were evidently uninhabited, for Top did not
+bark, and the intelligent animal would not have failed to signal the
+presence of any stranger in the neighborhood.
+
+At half-past ten, to the great surprise of Cyrus Harding, Herbert, who
+was a little in front, suddenly stopped and exclaimed,--
+
+“The sea!”
+
+In a few minutes more, the whole western shore of the island lay
+extended before the eyes of the settlers.
+
+But what a contrast between this and the eastern coast, upon which
+chance had first thrown them. No granite cliff, no rocks, not even a
+sandy beach. The forest reached the shore, and the tall trees bending
+over the water were beaten by the waves. It was not such a shore as is
+usually formed by nature, either by extending a vast carpet of sand,
+or by grouping masses of rock, but a beautiful border consisting of the
+most splendid trees. The bank was raised a little above the level of the
+sea, and on this luxuriant soil, supported by a granite base, the fine
+forest trees seemed to be as firmly planted as in the interior of the
+island.
+
+The colonists were then on the shore of an unimportant little harbor,
+which would scarcely have contained even two or three fishing-boats. It
+served as a neck to the new creek, of which the curious thing was that
+its waters, instead of joining the sea by a gentle slope, fell from a
+height of more than forty feet, which explained why the rising tide was
+not felt up the stream. In fact, the tides of the Pacific, even at
+their maximum elevation, could never reach the level of the river, and,
+doubtless, millions of years would pass before the water would have worn
+away the granite and hollowed a practicable mouth.
+
+It was settled that the name of Falls River should be given to this
+stream. Beyond, towards the north, the forest border was prolonged for
+a space of nearly two miles; then the trees became scarcer, and beyond
+that again the picturesque heights described a nearly straight line,
+which ran north and south. On the contrary, all the part of the shore
+between Falls River and Reptile End was a mass of wood, magnificent
+trees, some straight, others bent, so that the long sea-swell bathed
+their roots. Now, it was this coast, that is, all the Serpentine
+Peninsula, that was to be explored, for this part of the shore offered
+a refuge to castaways, which the other wild and barren side must have
+refused.
+
+The weather was fine and clear, and from a height of a hillock on which
+Neb and Pencroft had arranged breakfast, a wide view was obtained. There
+was, however, not a sail in sight; nothing could be seen along the shore
+as far as the eye could reach. But the engineer would take nothing for
+granted until he had explored the coast to the very extremity of the
+Serpentine Peninsula.
+
+Breakfast was soon despatched, and at half-past eleven the captain gave
+the signal for departure. Instead of proceeding over the summit of a
+cliff or along a sandy beach, the settlers were obliged to remain under
+cover of the trees so that they might continue on the shore.
+
+The distance which separated Falls River from Reptile End was about
+twelve miles. It would have taken the settlers four hours to do this,
+on a clear ground and without hurrying themselves; but as it was they
+needed double the time, for what with trees to go round, bushes to cut
+down, and creepers to chop away, they were impeded at every step, these
+obstacles greatly lengthening their journey.
+
+There was, however, nothing to show that a shipwreck had taken place
+recently. It is true that, as Gideon Spilett observed, any remains of
+it might have drifted out to sea, and they must not take it for granted
+that because they could find no traces of it, a ship had not been
+castaway on the coast.
+
+The reporter’s argument was just, and besides, the incident of the
+bullet proved that a shot must have been fired in Lincoln Island within
+three months.
+
+It was already five o’clock, and there were still two miles between the
+settlers and the extremity of the Serpentine Peninsula. It was evident
+that after having reached Reptile End, Harding and his companions would
+not have time to return before dark to their encampment near the source
+of the Mercy. It would therefore be necessary to pass the night on the
+promontory. But they had no lack of provisions, which was lucky, for
+there were no animals on the shore, though birds, on the contrary,
+abound--jacamars, couroucous, tragopans, grouse, lories, parrots,
+cockatoos, pheasants, pigeons, and a hundred others. There was not
+a tree without a nest, and not a nest which was not full of flapping
+wings.
+
+Towards seven o’clock the weary explorers arrived at Reptile End. Here
+the seaside forest ended, and the shore resumed the customary appearance
+of a coast, with rocks, reefs, and sands. It was possible that something
+might be found here, but darkness came on, and the further exploration
+had to be put off to the next day.
+
+Pencroft and Herbert hastened on to find a suitable place for their
+camp. Among the last trees of the forest of the Far West, the boy found
+several thick clumps of bamboos.
+
+“Good,” said he; “this is a valuable discovery.”
+
+“Valuable?” returned Pencroft.
+
+“Certainly,” replied Herbert. “I may say, Pencroft, that the bark of the
+bamboo, cut into flexible laths, is used for making baskets; that this
+bark, mashed into a paste, is used for the manufacture of Chinese paper;
+that the stalks furnish, according to their size, canes and pipes
+and are used for conducting water; that large bamboos make excellent
+material for building, being light and strong, and being never attacked
+by insects. I will add that by sawing the bamboo in two at the joint,
+keeping for the bottom the part of the transverse film which forms
+the joint, useful cups are obtained, which are much in use among the
+Chinese. No! you don’t care for that. But--”
+
+“But what?”
+
+“But I can tell you, if you are ignorant of it, that in India these
+bamboos are eaten like asparagus.”
+
+“Asparagus thirty feet high!” exclaimed the sailor. “And are they good?”
+
+“Excellent,” replied Herbert. “Only it is not the stems of thirty feet
+high which are eaten, but the young shoots.”
+
+“Perfect, my boy, perfect!” replied Pencroft.
+
+“I will also add that the pith of the young stalks, preserved in
+vinegar, makes a good pickle.”
+
+“Better and better, Herbert!”
+
+“And lastly, that the bamboos exude a sweet liquor which can be made
+into a very agreeable drink.”
+
+“Is that all?” asked the sailor.
+
+“That is all!”
+
+“And they don’t happen to do for smoking?”
+
+“No, my poor Pencroft.”
+
+Herbert and the sailor had not to look long for a place in which to pass
+the night. The rocks, which must have been violently beaten by the
+sea under the influence of the winds of the southwest, presented many
+cavities in which shelter could be found against the night air. But just
+as they were about to enter one of these caves a loud roaring arrested
+them.
+
+“Back!” cried Pencroft. “Our guns are only loaded with small shot, and
+beasts which can roar as loud as that would care no more for it than for
+grains of salt!” And the sailor, seizing Herbert by the arm, dragged
+him behind a rock, just as a magnificent animal showed itself at the
+entrance of the cavern.
+
+It was a jaguar of a size at least equal to its Asiatic congeners, that
+is to say, it measured five feet from the extremity of its head to the
+beginning of its tail. The yellow color of its hair was relieved by
+streaks and regular oblong spots of black, which contrasted with the
+white of its chest. Herbert recognized it as the ferocious rival of
+the tiger, as formidable as the puma, which is the rival of the largest
+wolf!
+
+The jaguar advanced and gazed around him with blazing eyes, his hair
+bristling as if this was not the first time he had scented men.
+
+At this moment the reporter appeared round a rock, and Herbert, thinking
+that he had not seen the jaguar, was about to rush towards him, when
+Gideon Spilett signed to him to remain where he was. This was not his
+first tiger, and advancing to within ten feet of the animal he remained
+motionless, his gun to his shoulder, without moving a muscle. The jaguar
+collected itself for a spring, but at that moment a shot struck it in
+the eyes, and it fell dead.
+
+Herbert and Pencroft rushed towards the jaguar. Neb and Harding also ran
+up, and they remained for some instants contemplating the animal as it
+lay stretched on the ground, thinking that its magnificent skin would be
+a great ornament to the hall at Granite House.
+
+“Oh, Mr. Spilett, how I admire and envy you!” cried Herbert, in a fit of
+very natural enthusiasm.
+
+“Well, my boy,” replied the reporter, “you could have done the same.”
+
+“I! with such coolness!--”
+
+“Imagine to yourself, Herbert, that the jaguar is only a hare, and you
+would fire as quietly as possible.”
+
+“That is,” rejoined Pencroft, “that it is not more dangerous than a
+hare!”
+
+“And now,” said Gideon Spilett, “since the jaguar has left its abode, I
+do not see, my friends, why we should not take possession of it for the
+night.”
+
+“But others may come,” said Pencroft.
+
+“It will be enough to light a fire at the entrance of the cavern,” said
+the reporter, “and no wild beasts will dare to cross the threshold.”
+
+“Into the jaguar’s house, then!” replied the sailor, dragging after him
+the body of the animal.
+
+While Neb skinned the jaguar, his companions collected an abundant
+supply of dry wood from the forest, which they heaped up at the cave.
+
+Cyrus Harding, seeing the clump of bamboos, cut a quantity, which he
+mingled with the other fuel.
+
+This done, they entered the grotto, of which the floor was strewn with
+bones, the guns were carefully loaded, in case of a sudden attack, they
+had supper, and then just before they lay down to rest, the heap of wood
+piled at the entrance was set fire to. Immediately, a regular explosion,
+or rather a series of reports, broke the silence! The noise was caused
+by the bamboos, which, as the flames reached them, exploded like
+fireworks. The noise was enough to terrify even the boldest of wild
+beasts.
+
+It was not the engineer who had invented this way of causing loud
+explosions, for, according to Marco Polo, the Tartars have employed it
+for many centuries to drive away from their encampments the formidable
+wild beasts of Central Asia.
+
+
+
+Chapter 5
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions slept like innocent marmots in the cave
+which the jaguar had so politely left at their disposal.
+
+At sunrise all were on the shore at the extremity of the promontory, and
+their gaze was directed towards the horizon, of which two-thirds of
+the circumference were visible. For the last time the engineer could
+ascertain that not a sail nor the wreck of a ship was on the sea, and
+even with the telescope nothing suspicious could be discovered.
+
+There was nothing either on the shore, at least, in the straight line
+of three miles which formed the south side of the promontory, for
+beyond that, rising ground had the rest of the coast, and even from the
+extremity of the Serpentine Peninsula Claw Cape could not be seen.
+
+The southern coast of the island still remained to be explored. Now
+should they undertake it immediately, and devote this day to it?
+
+This was not included in their first plan. In fact, when the boat was
+abandoned at the sources of the Mercy, it had been agreed that after
+having surveyed the west coast, they should go back to it, and return to
+Granite House by the Mercy. Harding then thought that the western coast
+would have offered refuge, either to a ship in distress, or to a vessel
+in her regular course; but now, as he saw that this coast presented no
+good anchorage, he wished to seek on the south what they had not been
+able to find on the west.
+
+Gideon Spilett proposed to continue the exploration, that the question
+of the supposed wreck might be completely settled, and he asked at what
+distance Claw Cape might be from the extremity of the peninsula.
+
+“About thirty miles,” replied the engineer, “if we take into
+consideration the curvings of the coast.”
+
+
+“Thirty miles!” returned Spilett. “That would be a long day’s march.
+Nevertheless, I think that we should return to Granite House by the
+south coast.”
+
+“But,” observed Herbert, “from Claw Cape to Granite House there must be
+at least another ten miles.
+
+“Make it forty miles in all,” replied the engineer, “and do not hesitate
+to do it. At least we should survey the unknown shore, and then we shall
+not have to begin the exploration again.”
+
+“Very good,” said Pencroft. “But the boat?”
+
+“The boat has remained by itself for one day at the sources of the
+Mercy,” replied Gideon Spilett; “it may just as well stay there two
+days! As yet, we have had no reason to think that the island is infested
+by thieves!”
+
+“Yet,” said the sailor, “when I remember the history of the turtle, I am
+far from confident of that.”
+
+“The turtle! the turtle!” replied the reporter. “Don’t you know that the
+sea turned it over?”
+
+“Who knows?” murmured the engineer.
+
+“But,--” said Neb.
+
+Neb had evidently something to say, for he opened his mouth to speak and
+yet said nothing.
+
+“What do you want to say, Neb?” asked the engineer.
+
+“If we return by the shore to Claw Cape,” replied Neb, “after having
+doubled the Cape, we shall be stopped--”
+
+“By the Mercy! of course,” replied Herbert, “and we shall have neither
+bridge nor boat by which to cross.”
+
+“But, captain,” added Pencroft, “with a few floating trunks we shall
+have no difficulty in crossing the river.”
+
+“Never mind,” said Spilett, “it will be useful to construct a bridge if
+we wish to have an easy access to the Far West!”
+
+“A bridge!” cried Pencroft. “Well, is not the captain the best engineer
+in his profession? He will make us a bridge when we want one. As to
+transporting you this evening to the other side of the Mercy, and that
+without wetting one thread of your clothes, I will take care of that. We
+have provisions for another day, and besides we can get plenty of game.
+Forward!”
+
+The reporter’s proposal, so strongly seconded by the sailor, received
+general approbation, for each wished to have their doubts set at rest,
+and by returning by Claw Cape the exploration would be ended. But there
+was not an hour to lose, for forty miles was a long march, and they
+could not hope to reach Granite House before night.
+
+At six o’clock in the morning the little band set out. As a precaution
+the guns were loaded with ball, and Top, who led the van, received
+orders to beat about the edge of the forest.
+
+From the extremity of the promontory which formed the tail of the
+peninsula the coast was rounded for a distance of five miles, which
+was rapidly passed over, without even the most minute investigations
+bringing to light the least trace of any old or recent landings; no
+debris, no mark of an encampment, no cinders of a fire, nor even a
+footprint!
+
+From the point of the peninsula on which the settlers now were their
+gaze could extend along the southwest. Twenty-five miles off the coast
+terminated in the Claw Cape, which loomed dimly through the morning
+mists, and which, by the phenomenon of the mirage, appeared as if
+suspended between land and water.
+
+Between the place occupied by the colonists and the other side of the
+immense bay, the shore was composed, first, of a tract of low land,
+bordered in the background by trees; then the shore became more
+irregular, projecting sharp points into the sea, and finally ended in
+the black rocks which, accumulated in picturesque disorder, formed Claw
+Cape.
+
+Such was the development of this part of the island, which the settlers
+took in at a glance, while stopping for an instant.
+
+“If a vessel ran in here,” said Pencroft, “she would certainly be lost.
+Sandbanks and reefs everywhere! Bad quarters!”
+
+“But at least something would be left of the ship,” observed the
+reporter.
+
+“There might be pieces of wood on the rocks, but nothing on the sands,”
+ replied the sailor.
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Because the sands are still more dangerous than the rocks, for they
+swallow up everything that is thrown on them. In a few days the hull of
+a ship of several hundred tons would disappear entirely in there!”
+
+“So, Pencroft,” asked the engineer, “if a ship has been wrecked on
+these banks, is it not astonishing that there is now no trace of her
+remaining?”
+
+“No, captain, with the aid of time and tempest. However, it would be
+surprising, even in this case, that some of the masts or spars should
+not have been thrown on the beach, out of reach of the waves.”
+
+“Let us go on with our search, then,” returned Cyrus Harding.
+
+At one o’clock the colonists arrived at the other side of Washington
+Bay, they having now gone a distance of twenty miles.
+
+They then halted for breakfast.
+
+Here began the irregular coast, covered with lines of rocks and
+sandbanks. The long sea-swell could be seen breaking over the rocks in
+the bay, forming a foamy fringe. From this point to Claw Cape the beach
+was very narrow between the edge of the forest and the reefs.
+
+Walking was now more difficult, on account of the numerous rocks which
+encumbered the beach. The granite cliff also gradually increased in
+height, and only the green tops of the trees which crowned it could be
+seen.
+
+After half an hour’s rest, the settlers resumed their journey, and not
+a spot among the rocks was left unexamined. Pencroft and Neb even rushed
+into the surf whenever any object attracted their attention. But they
+found nothing, some curious formations of the rocks having deceived
+them. They ascertained, however, that eatable shellfish abounded there,
+but these could not be of any great advantage to them until some easy
+means of communication had been established between the two banks of the
+Mercy, and until the means of transport had been perfected.
+
+Nothing therefore which threw any light on the supposed wreck could be
+found on this shore, yet an object of any importance, such as the hull
+of a ship, would have been seen directly, or any of her masts and spars
+would have been washed on shore, just as the chest had been, which was
+found twenty miles from here. But there was nothing.
+
+Towards three o’clock Harding and his companions arrived at a snug
+little creek. It formed quite a natural harbor, invisible from the sea,
+and was entered by a narrow channel.
+
+At the back of this creek some violent convulsion had torn up the
+rocky border, and a cutting, by a gentle slope, gave access to an upper
+plateau, which might be situated at least ten miles from Claw Cape, and
+consequently four miles in a straight line from Prospect Heights. Gideon
+Spilett proposed to his companions that they should make a halt here.
+They agreed readily, for their walk had sharpened their appetites;
+and although it was not their usual dinner-hour, no one refused to
+strengthen himself with a piece of venison. This luncheon would sustain
+them until their supper, which they intended to take at Granite House.
+In a few minutes the settlers, seated under a clump of fine sea-pines,
+were devouring the provisions which Neb produced from his bag.
+
+This spot was raised from fifty to sixty feet above the level of the
+sea. The view was very extensive, but beyond the cape it ended in Union
+Bay. Neither the islet nor Prospect Heights was visible, and could not
+be from thence, for the rising ground and the curtain of trees closed
+the northern horizon.
+
+It is useless to add that notwithstanding the wide extent of sea which
+the explorers could survey, and though the engineer swept the horizon
+with his glass, no vessel could be found.
+
+The shore was of course examined with the same care from the edge of the
+water to the cliff, and nothing could be discovered even with the aid of
+the instrument.
+
+“Well,” said Gideon Spilett, “it seems we must make up our minds to
+console ourselves with thinking that no one will come to dispute with us
+the possession of Lincoln Island!”
+
+“But the bullet,” cried Herbert. “That was not imaginary, I suppose!”
+
+“Hang it, no!” exclaimed Pencroft, thinking of his absent tooth.
+
+“Then what conclusion may be drawn?” asked the reporter.
+
+“This,” replied the engineer, “that three months or more ago, a vessel,
+either voluntarily or not, came here.”
+
+“What! then you admit, Cyrus, that she was swallowed up without leaving
+any trace?” cried the reporter.
+
+“No, my dear Spilett; but you see that if it is certain that a human
+being set foot on the island, it appears no less certain that he has now
+left it.”
+
+“Then, if I understand you right, captain,” said Herbert, “the vessel
+has left again?”
+
+“Evidently.”
+
+“And we have lost an opportunity to get back to our country?” said Neb.
+
+“I fear so.”
+
+“Very well, since the opportunity is lost, let us go on; it can’t be
+helped,” said Pencroft, who felt home-sickness for Granite House.
+
+But just as they were rising, Top was heard loudly barking; and the dog
+issued from the wood, holding in his mouth a rag soiled with mud.
+
+Neb seized it. It was a piece of strong cloth!
+
+Top still barked, and by his going and coming, seemed to invite his
+master to follow him into the forest.
+
+“Now there’s something to explain the bullet!” exclaimed Pencroft.
+
+“A castaway!” replied Herbert.
+
+“Wounded, perhaps!” said Neb.
+
+“Or dead!” added the reporter.
+
+All ran after the dog, among the tall pines on the border of the forest.
+Harding and his companions made ready their firearms, in case of an
+emergency.
+
+They advanced some way into the wood, but to their great disappointment,
+they as yet saw no signs of any human being having passed that way.
+Shrubs and creepers were uninjured, and they had even to cut them away
+with the axe, as they had done in the deepest recesses of the forest.
+It was difficult to fancy that any human creature had ever passed there,
+but yet Top went backward and forward, not like a dog who searches at
+random, but like a dog being endowed with a mind, who is following up an
+idea.
+
+In about seven or eight minutes Top stopped in a glade surrounded with
+tall trees. The settlers gazed around them, but saw nothing, neither
+under the bushes nor among the trees.
+
+“What is the matter, Top?” said Cyrus Harding.
+
+Top barked louder, bounding about at the foot of a gigantic pine. All at
+once Pencroft shouted,--“Ho, splendid! capital!”
+
+“What is it?” asked Spilett.
+
+“We have been looking for a wreck at sea or on land!”
+
+“Well?”
+
+“Well; and here we’ve found one in the air!”
+
+And the sailor pointed to a great white rag, caught in the top of the
+pine, a fallen scrap of which the dog had brought to them.
+
+“But that is not a wreck!” cried Gideon Spilett.
+
+“I beg your pardon!” returned Pencroft.
+
+“Why? is it--?”
+
+“It is all that remains of our airy boat, of our balloon, which has been
+caught up aloft there, at the top of that tree!”
+
+Pencroft was not mistaken, and he gave vent to his feelings in a
+tremendous hurrah, adding,--
+
+“There is good cloth! There is what will furnish us with linen for
+years. There is what will make us handkerchiefs and shirts! Ha, ha, Mr.
+Spilett, what do you say to an island where shirts grow on the trees?”
+
+It was certainly a lucky circumstance for the settlers in Lincoln Island
+that the balloon, after having made its last bound into the air, had
+fallen on the island and thus given them the opportunity of finding it
+again, whether they kept the case under its present form, or whether
+they wished to attempt another escape by it, or whether they usefully
+employed the several hundred yards of cotton, which was of fine quality.
+Pencroft’s joy was therefore shared by all.
+
+But it was necessary to bring down the remains of the balloon from
+the tree, to place it in security, and this was no slight task. Neb,
+Herbert, and the sailor, climbing to the summit of the tree, used all
+their skill to disengage the now reduced balloon.
+
+The operation lasted two hours, and then not only the case, with its
+valve, its springs, its brasswork, lay on the ground, but the net, that
+is to say a considerable quantity of ropes and cordage, and the
+circle and the anchor. The case, except for the fracture, was in good
+condition, only the lower portion being torn.
+
+It was a fortune which had fallen from the sky.
+
+“All the same, captain,” said the sailor, “if we ever decide to leave
+the island, it won’t be in a balloon, will it? These airboats won’t go
+where we want them to go, and we have had some experience in that way!
+Look here, we will build a craft of some twenty tons, and then we can
+make a main-sail, a foresail, and a jib out of that cloth. As to the
+rest of it, that will help to dress us.”
+
+“We shall see, Pencroft,” replied Cyrus Harding; “we shall see.”
+
+“In the meantime, we must put it in a safe place,” said Neb.
+
+They certainly could not think of carrying this load of cloth,
+ropes, and cordage, to Granite House, for the weight of it was very
+considerable, and while waiting for a suitable vehicle in which to
+convey it, it was of importance that this treasure should not be left
+longer exposed to the mercies of the first storm. The settlers, uniting
+their efforts, managed to drag it as far as the shore, where they
+discovered a large rocky cavity, which owing to its position could not
+be visited either by the wind or rain.
+
+“We needed a locker, and now we have one,” said Pencroft; “but as we
+cannot lock it up, it will be prudent to hide the opening. I don’t mean
+from two-legged thieves, but from those with four paws!”
+
+At six o’clock, all was stowed away, and after having given the creek
+the very suitable name of “Port Balloon,” the settlers pursued their
+way along Claw Cape. Pencroft and the engineer talked of the different
+projects which it was agreed to put into execution with the briefest
+possible delay. It was necessary first of all to throw a bridge over the
+Mercy, so as to establish an easy communication with the south of the
+island; then the cart must be taken to bring back the balloon, for the
+canoe alone could not carry it, then they would build a decked boat, and
+Pencroft would rig it as a cutter, and they would be able to undertake
+voyages of circumnavigation round the island, etc.
+
+In the meanwhile night came on, and it was already dark when the
+settlers reached Flotsam Point, where they had found the precious chest.
+
+The distance between Flotsam Point and Granite House was another four
+miles, and it was midnight when, after having followed the shore to the
+mouth of the Mercy, the settlers arrived at the first angle formed by
+the Mercy.
+
+There the river was eighty feet in breadth, which was awkward to cross,
+but as Pencroft had taken upon himself to conquer this difficulty, he
+was compelled to do it. The settlers certainly had reason to be pretty
+tired. The journey had been long, and the task of getting down the
+balloon had not rested either their arms or legs. They were anxious
+to reach Granite House to eat and sleep, and if the bridge had been
+constructed, in a quarter of an hour they would have been at home.
+
+The night was very dark. Pencroft prepared to keep his promise by
+constructing a sort of raft, on which to make the passage of the Mercy.
+He and Neb, armed with axes, chose two trees near the water, and began
+to attack them at the base.
+
+Cyrus Harding and Spilett, seated on the bank, waited till their
+companions were ready for their help, while Herbert roamed about, though
+without going to any distance. All at once, the lad, who had strolled by
+the river, came running back, and, pointing up the Mercy, exclaimed,--
+
+“What is floating there?”
+
+Pencroft stopped working, and seeing an indistinct object moving through
+the gloom,--
+
+“A canoe!” cried he.
+
+All approached, and saw to their extreme surprise, a boat floating down
+the current.
+
+“Boat ahoy!” shouted the sailor, without thinking that perhaps it would
+be best to keep silence.
+
+No reply. The boat still drifted onward, and it was not more than twelve
+feet off, when the sailor exclaimed,--
+
+“But it is our own boat! she has broken her moorings, and floated down
+the current. I must say she has arrived very opportunely.”
+
+“Our boat?” murmured the engineer.
+
+Pencroft was right. It was indeed the canoe, of which the rope had
+undoubtedly broken, and which had come alone from the sources of the
+Mercy. It was very important to seize it before the rapid current should
+have swept it away out of the mouth of the river, but Neb and Pencroft
+cleverly managed this by means of a long pole.
+
+The canoe touched the shore. The engineer leaped in first, and found,
+on examining the rope, that it had been really worn through by rubbing
+against the rocks.
+
+“Well,” said the reporter to him, in a low voice, “this is a strange
+thing.”
+
+“Strange indeed!” returned Cyrus Harding.
+
+Strange or not, it was very fortunate. Herbert, the reporter, Neb, and
+Pencroft, embarked in turn. There was no doubt about the rope having
+been worn through, but the astonishing part of the affair was, that the
+boat should arrive just at the moment when the settlers were there to
+seize it on its way, for a quarter of an hour earlier or later it would
+have been lost in the sea.
+
+If they had been living in the time of genii, this incident would
+have given them the right to think that the island was haunted by some
+supernatural being, who used his power in the service of the castaways!
+
+A few strokes of the oar brought the settlers to the mouth of the
+Mercy. The canoe was hauled up on the beach near the Chimneys, and all
+proceeded towards the ladder of Granite House.
+
+But at that moment, Top barked angrily, and Neb, who was looking for the
+first steps, uttered a cry.
+
+There was no longer a ladder!
+
+
+
+Chapter 6
+
+Cyrus Harding stood still, without saying a word. His companions
+searched in the darkness on the wall, in case the wind should have
+moved the ladder, and on the ground, thinking that it might have fallen
+down.... But the ladder had quite disappeared. As to ascertaining if
+a squall had blown it on the landing-place, half way up, that was
+impossible in the dark.
+
+“If it is a joke,” cried Pencroft, “it is a very stupid one! To come
+home and find no staircase to go up to your room by--that’s nothing for
+weary men to laugh at.”
+
+Neb could do nothing but cry out “Oh! oh! oh!”
+
+“I begin to think that very curious things happen in Lincoln Island!”
+ said Pencroft.
+
+“Curious?” replied Gideon Spilett, “not at all, Pencroft, nothing can be
+more natural. Some one has come during our absence, taken possession of
+our dwelling and drawn up the ladder.”
+
+“Some one,” cried the sailor. “But who?”
+
+“Who but the hunter who fired the bullet?” replied the reporter.
+
+“Well, if there is any one up there,” replied Pencroft, who began to
+lose patience, “I will give them a hail, and they must answer.”
+
+And in a stentorian voice the sailor gave a prolonged “Halloo!” which
+was echoed again and again from the cliff and rocks.
+
+The settlers listened and they thought they heard a sort of chuckling
+laugh, of which they could not guess the origin. But no voice replied to
+Pencroft, who in vain repeated his vigorous shouts.
+
+There was something indeed in this to astonish the most apathetic
+of men, and the settlers were not men of that description. In their
+situation every incident had its importance, and, certainly, during the
+seven months which they had spent on the island, they had not before met
+with anything of so surprising a character.
+
+Be that as it may, forgetting their fatigue in the singularity of the
+event, they remained below Granite House, not knowing what to think,
+not knowing what to do, questioning each other without any hope of
+a satisfactory reply, every one starting some supposition each more
+unlikely than the last. Neb bewailed himself, much disappointed at not
+being able to get into his kitchen, for the provisions which they
+had had on their expedition were exhausted, and they had no means of
+renewing them.
+
+“My friends,” at last said Cyrus Harding, “there is only one thing to be
+done at present; wait for day, and then act according to circumstances.
+But let us go to the Chimneys. There we shall be under shelter, and if
+we cannot eat, we can at least sleep.”
+
+“But who is it that has played us this cool trick?” again asked
+Pencroft, unable to make up his mind to retire from the spot.
+
+Whoever it was, the only thing practicable was to do as the engineer
+proposed, to go to the Chimneys and there wait for day. In the meanwhile
+Top was ordered to mount guard below the windows of Granite House, and
+when Top received an order he obeyed it without any questioning. The
+brave dog therefore remained at the foot of the cliff while his master
+with his companions sought a refuge among the rocks.
+
+To say that the settlers, notwithstanding their fatigue, slept well on
+the sandy floor of the Chimneys would not be true. It was not only that
+they were extremely anxious to find out the cause of what had happened,
+whether it was the result of an accident which would be discovered at
+the return of day, or whether on the contrary it was the work of a human
+being; but they also had very uncomfortable beds. That could not be
+helped, however, for in some way or other at that moment their dwelling
+was occupied, and they could not possibly enter it.
+
+Now Granite House was more than their dwelling, it was their warehouse.
+There were all the stores belonging to the colony, weapons, instruments,
+tools, ammunition, provisions, etc. To think that all that might be
+pillaged and that the settlers would have all their work to do over
+again, fresh weapons and tools to make, was a serious matter. Their
+uneasiness led one or other of them also to go out every few minutes to
+see if Top was keeping good watch. Cyrus Harding alone waited with his
+habitual patience, although his strong mind was exasperated at being
+confronted with such an inexplicable fact, and he was provoked at
+himself for allowing a feeling to which he could not give a name, to
+gain an influence over him. Gideon Spilett shared his feelings in this
+respect, and the two conversed together in whispers of the inexplicable
+circumstance which baffled even their intelligence and experience.
+
+“It is a joke,” said Pencroft; “it is a trick some one has played us.
+Well, I don’t like such jokes, and the joker had better look out for
+himself, if he falls into my hands, I can tell him.”
+
+As soon as the first gleam of light appeared in the east, the colonists,
+suitably armed, repaired to the beach under Granite House. The rising
+sun now shone on the cliff and they could see the windows, the shutters
+of which were closed, through the curtains of foliage.
+
+All here was in order; but a cry escaped the colonists when they saw
+that the door, which they had closed on their departure, was now wide
+open.
+
+Some one had entered Granite House--there could be no more doubt about
+that.
+
+The upper ladder, which generally hung from the door to the landing,
+was in its place, but the lower ladder was drawn up and raised to
+the threshold. It was evident that the intruders had wished to guard
+themselves against a surprise.
+
+Pencroft hailed again.
+
+No reply.
+
+“The beggars,” exclaimed the sailor. “There they are sleeping quietly
+as if they were in their own house. Hallo there, you pirates, brigands,
+robbers, sons of John Bull!”
+
+When Pencroft, being a Yankee, treated any one to the epithet of “son of
+John Bull,” he considered he had reached the last limits of insult.
+
+The sun had now completely risen, and the whole facade of Granite House
+became illuminated by its rays; but in the interior as well as on the
+exterior all was quiet and calm.
+
+The settlers asked if Granite House was inhabited or not, and yet the
+position of the ladder was sufficient to show that it was; it was also
+certain that the inhabitants, whoever they might be, had not been able
+to escape. But how were they to be got at?
+
+Herbert then thought of fastening a cord to an arrow, and shooting the
+arrow so that it should pass between the first rounds of the ladder
+which hung from the threshold. By means of the cord they would then
+be able to draw down the ladder to the ground, and so re-establish the
+communication between the beach and Granite House. There was evidently
+nothing else to be done, and, with a little skill, this method might
+succeed. Very fortunately bows and arrows had been left at the Chimneys,
+where they also found a quantity of light hibiscus cord. Pencroft
+fastened this to a well-feathered arrow. Then Herbert fixing it to his
+bow, took a careful aim for the lower part of the ladder.
+
+Cyrus Harding, Gideon Spilett, Pencroft, and Neb drew back, so as to see
+if anything appeared at the windows. The reporter lifted his gun to his
+shoulder and covered the door.
+
+The bow was bent, the arrow flew, taking the cord with it, and passed
+between the two last rounds.
+
+The operation had succeeded.
+
+Herbert immediately seized the end of the cord, but, at that moment when
+he gave it a pull to bring down the ladder, an arm, thrust suddenly out
+between the wall and the door, grasped it and dragged it inside Granite
+House.
+
+“The rascals!” shouted the sailor. “If a ball can do anything for you,
+you shall not have long to wait for it.
+
+“But who was it?” asked Neb.
+
+“Who was it? Didn’t you see?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“It was a monkey, a sapajou, an orangoutang, a baboon, a gorilla, a
+sagoin. Our dwelling has been invaded by monkeys, who climbed up the
+ladder during our absence.”
+
+And, at this moment, as if to bear witness to the truth of the sailor’s
+words, two or three quadrumana showed themselves at the windows,
+from which they had pushed back the shutters, and saluted the real
+proprietors of the place with a thousand hideous grimaces.
+
+“I knew that it was only a joke,” cried Pencroft; “but one of the jokers
+shall pay the penalty for the rest.”
+
+So saying, the sailor, raising his piece, took a rapid aim at one of the
+monkeys and fired. All disappeared, except one who fell mortally wounded
+on the beach. This monkey, which was of a large size, evidently belonged
+to the first order of the quadrumana. Whether this was a chimpanzee, an
+orangoutang, or a gorilla, he took rank among the anthropoid apes, who
+are so called from their resemblance to the human race. However, Herbert
+declared it to be an orangoutang.
+
+“What a magnificent beast!” cried Neb.
+
+“Magnificent, if you like,” replied Pencroft; “but still I do not see
+how we are to get into our house.”
+
+“Herbert is a good marksman,” said the reporter, “and his bow is here.
+He can try again.”
+
+“Why, these apes are so cunning,” returned Pencroft; “they won’t show
+themselves again at the windows and so we can’t kill them; and when I
+think of the mischief they may do in the rooms and storehouse--”
+
+“Have patience,” replied Harding; “these creatures cannot keep us long
+at bay.”
+
+“I shall not be sure of that till I see them down here,” replied the
+sailor. “And now, captain, do you know how many dozens of these fellows
+are up there?”
+
+It was difficult to reply to Pencroft, and as for the young boy making
+another attempt, that was not easy; for the lower part of the ladder
+had been drawn again into the door, and when another pull was given, the
+line broke and the ladder remained firm. The case was really perplexing.
+Pencroft stormed. There was a comic side to the situation, but he did
+not think it funny at all. It was certain that the settlers would end by
+reinstating themselves in their domicile and driving out the intruders,
+but when and how? this is what they were not able to say.
+
+Two hours passed, during which the apes took care not to show
+themselves, but they were still there, and three or four times a nose or
+a paw was poked out at the door or windows, and was immediately saluted
+by a gun-shot.
+
+“Let us hide ourselves,” at last said the engineer. “Perhaps the apes
+will think we have gone quite away and will show themselves again. Let
+Spilett and Herbert conceal themselves behind those rocks and fire on
+all that may appear.”
+
+The engineer’s orders were obeyed, and while the reporter and the lad,
+the best marksmen in the colony, posted themselves in a good position,
+but out of the monkeys’ sight, Neb, Pencroft, and Cyrus climbed the
+plateau and entered the forest in order to kill some game, for it was
+now time for breakfast and they had no provisions remaining.
+
+In half an hour the hunters returned with a few rock pigeons, which they
+roasted as well as they could. Not an ape had appeared. Gideon Spilett
+and Herbert went to take their share of the breakfast, leaving Top to
+watch under the windows. They then, having eaten, returned to their
+post.
+
+Two hours later, their situation was in no degree improved. The
+quadrumana gave no sign of existence, and it might have been supposed
+that they had disappeared; but what seemed more probable was that,
+terrified by the death of one of their companions, and frightened by the
+noise of the firearms, they had retreated to the back part of the house
+or probably even into the store-room. And when they thought of
+the valuables which this storeroom contained, the patience so much
+recommended by the engineer, fast changed into great irritation, and
+there certainly was room for it.
+
+“Decidedly it is too bad,” said the reporter; “and the worst of it is,
+there is no way of putting an end to it.”
+
+“But we must drive these vagabonds out somehow,” cried the sailor.
+“We could soon get the better of them, even if there are twenty of the
+rascals; but for that, we must meet them hand to hand. Come now, is
+there no way of getting at them?”
+
+“Let us try to enter Granite House by the old opening at the lake,”
+ replied the engineer.
+
+“Oh!” shouted the sailor, “and I never thought of that.”
+
+This was in reality the only way by which to penetrate into Granite
+House so as to fight with and drive out the intruders. The opening was,
+it is true, closed up with a wall of cemented stones, which it would be
+necessary to sacrifice, but that could easily be rebuilt. Fortunately,
+Cyrus Harding had not as yet effected his project of hiding this opening
+by raising the waters of the lake, for the operation would then have
+taken some time.
+
+It was already past twelve o’clock, when the colonists, well armed and
+provided with picks and spades, left the Chimneys, passed beneath the
+windows of Granite House, after telling Top to remain at his post, and
+began to ascend the left bank of the Mercy, so as to reach Prospect
+Heights.
+
+But they had not made fifty steps in this direction, when they heard the
+dog barking furiously.
+
+And all rushed down the bank again.
+
+Arrived at the turning, they saw that the situation had changed.
+
+In fact, the apes, seized with a sudden panic, from some unknown cause,
+were trying to escape. Two or three ran and clambered from one window
+to another with the agility of acrobats. They were not even trying to
+replace the ladder, by which it would have been easy to descend; perhaps
+in their terror they had forgotten this way of escape. The colonists,
+now being able to take aim without difficulty, fired. Some, wounded or
+killed, fell back into the rooms, uttering piercing cries. The rest,
+throwing themselves out, were dashed to pieces in their fall, and in a
+few minutes, so far as they knew, there was not a living quadrumana in
+Granite House.
+
+At this moment the ladder was seen to slip over the threshold, then
+unroll and fall to the ground.
+
+“Hullo!” cried the sailor, “this is queer!”
+
+“Very strange!” murmured the engineer, leaping first up the ladder.
+
+“Take care, captain!” cried Pencroft, “perhaps there are still some of
+these rascals.
+
+“We shall soon see,” replied the engineer, without stopping however.
+
+All his companions followed him, and in a minute they had arrived at the
+threshold. They searched everywhere. There was no one in the rooms nor
+in the storehouse, which had been respected by the band of quadrumana.
+
+“Well now, and the ladder,” cried the sailor; “who can the gentleman
+have been who sent us that down?”
+
+But at that moment a cry was heard, and a great orang, who had hidden
+himself in the passage, rushed into the room, pursued by Neb.
+
+“Ah, the robber!” cried Pencroft.
+
+And hatchet in hand, he was about to cleave the head of the animal, when
+Cyrus Harding seized his arm, saying,--
+
+“Spare him, Pencroft.”
+
+“Pardon this rascal?”
+
+“Yes! it was he who threw us the ladder!”
+
+And the engineer said this in such a peculiar voice that it was
+difficult to know whether he spoke seriously or not.
+
+Nevertheless, they threw themselves on the orang, who defended himself
+gallantly, but was soon overpowered and bound.
+
+“There!” said Pencroft. “And what shall we make of him, now we’ve got
+him?”
+
+“A servant!” replied Herbert.
+
+The lad was not joking in saying this, for he knew how this intelligent
+race could be turned to account.
+
+The settlers then approached the ape and gazed at it attentively. He
+belonged to the family of anthropoid apes, of which the facial angle is
+not much inferior to that of the Australians and Hottentots. It was an
+orangoutang, and as such, had neither the ferocity of the gorilla, nor
+the stupidity of the baboon. It is to this family of the anthropoid apes
+that so many characteristics belong which prove them to be possessed
+of an almost human intelligence. Employed in houses, they can wait at
+table, sweep rooms, brush clothes, clean boots, handle a knife, fork,
+and spoon properly, and even drink wine... doing everything as well as
+the best servant that ever walked upon two legs. Buffon possessed one
+of these apes, who served him for a long time as a faithful and zealous
+servant.
+
+The one which had been seized in the hall of Granite House was a great
+fellow, six feet high, with an admirably poportioned frame, a broad
+chest, head of a moderate size, the facial angle reaching sixty-five
+degrees, round skull, projecting nose, skin covered with soft glossy
+hair, in short, a fine specimen of the anthropoids. His eyes, rather
+smaller than human eyes, sparkled with intelligence; his white teeth
+glittered under his mustache, and he wore a little curly brown beard.
+
+“A handsome fellow!” said Pencroft; “if we only knew his language, we
+could talk to him.”
+
+“But, master,” said Neb, “are you serious? Are we going to take him as a
+servant?”
+
+“Yes, Neb,” replied the engineer, smiling. “But you must not be
+jealous.”
+
+“And I hope he will make an excellent servant,” added Herbert. “He
+appears young, and will be easy to educate, and we shall not be obliged
+to use force to subdue him, nor draw his teeth, as is sometimes done. He
+will soon grow fond of his masters if they are kind to him.”
+
+“And they will be,” replied Pencroft, who had forgotten all his rancor
+against “the jokers.”
+
+Then, approaching the orang,--
+
+“Well, old boy!” he asked, “how are you?”
+
+The orang replied by a little grunt which did not show any anger.
+
+“You wish to join the colony?” again asked the sailor. “You are going to
+enter the service of Captain Cyrus Harding?”
+
+Another respondent grunt was uttered by the ape.
+
+“And you will be satisfied with no other wages than your food?”
+
+Third affirmative grunt.
+
+“This conversation is slightly monotonous,” observed Gideon Spilett.
+
+“So much the better,” replied Pencroft; “the best servants are those who
+talk the least. And then, no wages, do you hear, my boy? We will give
+you no wages at first, but we will double them afterwards if we are
+pleased with you.”
+
+Thus the colony was increased by a new member. As to his name the sailor
+begged that in memory of another ape which he had known, he might be
+called Jupiter, and Jup for short.
+
+And so, without more ceremony, Master Jup was installed in Granite
+House.
+
+
+
+Chapter 7
+
+The settlers in Lincoln Island had now regained their dwelling, without
+having been obliged to reach it by the old opening, and were therefore
+spared the trouble of mason’s work. It was certainly lucky, that at the
+moment they were about to set out to do so, the apes had been seized
+with that terror, no less sudden than inexplicable, which had driven
+them out of Granite House. Had the animals discovered that they
+were about to be attacked from another direction? This was the only
+explanation of their sudden retreat.
+
+During the day the bodies of the apes were carried into the wood, where
+they were buried; then the settlers busied themselves in repairing the
+disorder caused by the intruders, disorder but not damage, for although
+they had turned everything in the rooms topsy-turvy, yet they had broken
+nothing. Neb relighted his stove, and the stores in the larder furnished
+a substantial repast, to which all did ample justice.
+
+Jup was not forgotten, and he ate with relish some stonepine almonds
+and rhizome roots, with which he was abundantly supplied. Pencroft had
+unfastened his arms, but judged it best to have his legs tied until they
+were more sure of his submission.
+
+Then, before retiring to rest, Harding and his companions seated round
+their table, discussed those plans, the execution of which was most
+pressing. The most important and most urgent was the establishment of a
+bridge over the Mercy, so as to form a communication with the southern
+part of the island and Granite House; then the making of an enclosure
+for the musmons or other woolly animals which they wished to capture.
+
+These two projects would help to solve the difficulty as to their
+clothing, which was now serious. The bridge would render easy the
+transport of the balloon case, which would furnish them with linen, and
+the inhabitants of the enclosure would yield wool which would supply
+them with winter clothes.
+
+As to the enclosure, it was Cyrus Harding’s intention to establish it at
+the sources of the Red Creek, where the ruminants would find fresh and
+abundant pasture. The road between Prospect Heights and the sources of
+the stream was already partly beaten, and with a better cart than the
+first, the material could be easily conveyed to the spot, especially if
+they could manage to capture some animals to draw it.
+
+But though there might be no inconvenience in the enclosure being so far
+from Granite House, it would not be the same with the poultry-yard, to
+which Neb called the attention of the colonists. It was indeed necessary
+that the birds should be close within reach of the cook, and no place
+appeared more favorable for the establishment of the said poultry-yard
+than that portion of the banks of the lake which was close to the old
+opening.
+
+Water-birds would prosper there as well as others, and the couple
+of tinamous taken in their last excursion would be the first to be
+domesticated.
+
+The next day, the 3rd of November, the new works were begun by the
+construction of the bridge, and all hands were required for this
+important task. Saws, hatchets, and hammers were shouldered by the
+settlers, who, now transformed into carpenters, descended to the shore.
+
+There Pencroft observed,--
+
+“Suppose, that during our absence, Master Jup takes it into his head to
+draw up the ladder which he so politely returned to us yesterday?”
+
+“Let us tie its lower end down firmly,” replied Cyrus Harding.
+
+This was done by means of two stakes securely fixed in the sand. Then
+the settlers, ascending the left bank of the Mercy, soon arrived at the
+angle formed by the river.
+
+There they halted, in order to ascertain if the bridge could be thrown
+across. The place appeared suitable.
+
+In fact, from this spot, to Port Balloon, discovered the day before on
+the southern coast, there was only a distance of three miles and a
+half, and from the bridge to the Port, it would be easy to make a good
+cart-road which would render the communication between Granite House and
+the south of the island extremely easy.
+
+Cyrus Harding now imparted to his companions a scheme for completely
+isolating Prospect Heights so as to shelter it from the attacks both of
+quadrupeds and quadrumana. In this way, Granite House, the Chimneys, the
+poultry-yard, and all the upper part of the plateau which was to be used
+for cultivation, would be protected against the depredations of animals.
+Nothing could be easier than to execute this project, and this is how
+the engineer intended to set to work.
+
+The plateau was already defended on three sides by water-courses, either
+artificial or natural. On the northwest, by the shores of Lake Grant,
+from the entrance of the passage to the breach made in the banks of the
+lake for the escape of the water.
+
+On the north, from this breach to the sea, by the new water-course which
+had hollowed out a bed for itself across the plateau and shore, above
+and below the fall, and it would be enough to dig the bed of this creek
+a little deeper to make it impracticable for animals, on all the eastern
+border by the sea itself, from the mouth of the aforesaid creek to the
+mouth of the Mercy.
+
+Lastly, on the south, from the mouth to the turn of the Mercy where the
+bridge was to be established.
+
+The western border of the plateau now remained between the turn of the
+river and the southern angle of the lake, a distance of about a mile,
+which was open to all comers. But nothing could be easier than to dig a
+broad deep ditch, which could be filled from the lake, and the overflow
+of which would throw itself by a rapid fall into the bed of the Mercy.
+The level of the lake would, no doubt, be somewhat lowered by this fresh
+discharge of its waters, but Cyrus Harding had ascertained that the
+volume of water in the Red Creek was considerable enough to allow of the
+execution of this project.
+
+“So then,” added the engineer, “Prospect Heights will become a regular
+island, being surrounded with water on all sides, and only communicating
+with the rest of our domain by the bridge which we are about to throw
+across the Mercy, the two little bridges already established above and
+below the fall; and, lastly, two other little bridges which must be
+constructed, one over the canal which I propose to dig, the other across
+to the left bank of the Mercy. Now, if these bridges can be raised at
+will, Prospect Heights will be guarded from any surprise.”
+
+The bridge was the most urgent work. Trees were selected, cut down,
+stripped of their branches, and cut into beams, joists, and planks. The
+end of the bridge which rested on the right bank of the Mercy was to be
+firm, but the other end on the left bank was to be movable, so that it
+might be raised by means of a counterpoise, as some canal bridges are
+managed.
+
+This was certainly a considerable work, and though it was skillfully
+conducted, it took some time, for the Mercy at this place was eighty
+feet wide. It was therefore necessary to fix piles in the bed of
+the river so as to sustain the floor of the bridge and establish a
+pile-driver to act on the tops of these piles, which would thus form two
+arches and allow the bridge to support heavy loads.
+
+Happily there was no want of tools with which to shape the wood, nor
+of iron-work to make it firm, nor of the ingenuity of a man who had a
+marvelous knowledge of the work, nor lastly, the zeal of his companions,
+who in seven months had necessarily acquired great skill in the use of
+their tools; and it must be said that not the least skilful was Gideon
+Spilett, who in dexterity almost equaled the sailor himself. “Who would
+ever have expected so much from a newspaper man!” thought Pencroft.
+
+The construction of the Mercy bridge lasted three weeks of regular
+hard work. They even breakfasted on the scene of their labors, and the
+weather being magnificent, they only returned to Granite House to sleep.
+
+During this period it may be stated that Master Jup grew more accustomed
+to his new masters, whose movements he always watched with very
+inquisitive eyes. However, as a precautionary measure, Pencroft did not
+as yet allow him complete liberty, rightly wishing to wait until the
+limits of the plateau should be settled by the projected works. Top
+and Jup were good friends and played willingly together, but Jup did
+everything solemnly.
+
+On the 20th of November the bridge was finished. The movable part,
+balanced by the counterpoise, swung easily, and only a slight effort was
+needed to raise it; between its hinge and the last cross-bar on which
+it rested when closed, there existed a space of twenty feet, which was
+sufficiently wide to prevent any animals from crossing.
+
+The settlers now began to talk of fetching the balloon-case, which they
+were anxious to place in perfect security; but to bring it, it would be
+necessary to take a cart to Port Balloon, and consequently, necessary to
+beat a road through the dense forests of the Far West. This would take
+some time. Also, Neb and Pencroft having gone to examine into the state
+of things at Port Balloon, and reported that the stock of cloth would
+suffer no damage in the grotto where it was stored, it was decided that
+the work at Prospect Heights should not be discontinued.
+
+“That,” observed Pencroft, “will enable us to establish our poultry-yard
+under better conditions, since we need have no fear of visits from foxes
+nor the attacks of other beasts.”
+
+“Then,” added Neb, “we can clear the plateau, and transplant wild plants
+to it.”
+
+“And prepare our second corn-field!” cried the sailor with a triumphant
+air.
+
+In fact, the first corn-field sown with a single grain had prospered
+admirably, thanks to Pencroft’s care. It had produced the ten ears
+foretold by the engineer, and each ear containing eighty grains, the
+colony found itself in possession of eight hundred grains, in six
+months, which promised a double harvest each year.
+
+These eight hundred grains, except fifty, which were prudently reserved,
+were to be sown in a new field, but with no less care than was bestowed
+on the single grain.
+
+The field was prepared, then surrounded with a strong palisade, high and
+pointed, which quadrupeds would have found difficulty in leaping. As to
+birds, some scarecrows, due to Pencroft’s ingenious brain, were enough
+to frighten them. The seven hundred and fifty grains deposited in very
+regular furrows were then left for nature to do the rest.
+
+On the 21st of November, Cyrus Harding began to plan the canal which was
+to close the plateau on the west, from the south angle of Lake Grant to
+the angle of the Mercy. There was there two or three feet of vegetable
+earth, and below that granite. It was therefore necessary to manufacture
+some more nitro-glycerine, and the nitro-glycerine did its accustomed
+work. In less than a fortnight a ditch, twelve feet wide and six deep,
+was dug out in the hard ground of the plateau. A new trench was made by
+the same means in the rocky border of the lake, forming a small stream,
+to which they gave the name of Creek Glycerine, and which was thus an
+affluent of the Mercy. As the engineer had predicted, the level of the
+lake was lowered, though very slightly. To complete the enclosure the
+bed of the stream on the beach was considerably enlarged, and the sand
+supported by means of stakes.
+
+By the end of the first fortnight of December these works were finished,
+and Prospect Heights--that is to say, a sort of irregular pentagon,
+having a perimeter of nearly four miles, surrounded by a liquid
+belt--was completely protected from depredators of every description.
+
+During the month of December, the heat was very great. In spite of it,
+however, the settlers continued their work, and as they were anxious to
+possess a poultry-yard they forthwith commenced it.
+
+It is useless to say that since the enclosing of the plateau had been
+completed, Master Jup had been set at liberty. He did not leave his
+masters, and evinced no wish to escape. He was a gentle animal, though
+very powerful and wonderfully active. He was already taught to make
+himself useful by drawing loads of wood and carting away the stones
+which were extracted from the bed of Creek Glycerine.
+
+The poultry-yard occupied an area of two hundred square yards, on the
+southeastern bank of the lake. It was surrounded by a palisade, and
+in it were constructed various shelters for the birds which were to
+populate it. These were simply built of branches and divided into
+compartments, made ready for the expected guests.
+
+The first were the two tinamous, which were not long in having a number
+of young ones; they had for companions half a dozen ducks, accustomed to
+the borders of the lake. Some belonged to the Chinese species, of which
+the wings open like a fan, and which by the brilliancy of their plumage
+rival the golden pheasants. A few days afterwards, Herbert snared a
+couple of gallinaceae, with spreading tails composed of long feathers,
+magnificent alectors, which soon became tame. As to pelicans,
+kingfishers, water-hens, they came of themselves to the shores of the
+poultry-yard, and this little community, after some disputes, cooing,
+screaming, clucking, ended by settling down peacefully, and increased in
+encouraging proportion for the future use of the colony.
+
+Cyrus Harding, wishing to complete his performance, established a
+pigeon-house in a corner of the poultry-yard. There he lodged a dozen
+of those pigeons which frequented the rocks of the plateau. These birds
+soon became accustomed to returning every evening to their new dwelling,
+and showed more disposition to domesticate themselves than their
+congeners, the wood-pigeons.
+
+Lastly, the time had come for turning the balloon-case to use, by
+cutting it up to make shirts and other articles; for as to keeping it in
+its present form, and risking themselves in a balloon filled with gas,
+above a sea of the limits of which they had no idea, it was not to be
+thought of.
+
+It was necessary to bring the case to Granite House, and the colonists
+employed themselves in rendering their heavy cart lighter and more
+manageable. But though they had a vehicle, the moving power was yet to
+be found.
+
+But did there not exist in the island some animal which might supply the
+place of the horse, ass, or ox? That was the question.
+
+“Certainly,” said Pencroft, “a beast of burden would be very useful to
+us until the captain has made a steam cart, or even an engine, for some
+day we shall have a railroad from Granite House to Port Balloon, with a
+branch line to Mount Franklin!”
+
+One day, the 23rd of December, Neb and Top were heard shouting and
+barking, each apparently trying to see who could make the most noise.
+The settlers, who were busy at the Chimneys, ran, fearing some vexatious
+incident.
+
+What did they see? Two fine animals of a large size that had imprudently
+ventured on the plateau, when the bridges were open. One would have said
+they were horses, or at least donkeys, male and female, of a fine shape,
+dove-colored, the legs and tail white, striped with black on the head
+and neck. They advanced quietly without showing any uneasiness, and
+gazed at the men, in whom they could not as yet recognize their future
+masters.
+
+“These are onagers!” cried Herbert, “animals something between the zebra
+and the quagga!”
+
+“Why not donkeys?” asked Neb.
+
+“Because they have not long ears, and their shape is more graceful!”
+
+“Donkeys or horses,” interrupted Pencroft, “they are ‘moving powers,’ as
+the captain would say, and as such must be captured!”
+
+The sailor, without frightening the animals, crept through the grass
+to the bridge over Creek Glycerine, lowered it, and the onagers were
+prisoners.
+
+Now, should they seize them with violence and master them by force? No.
+It was decided that for a few days they should be allowed to roam
+freely about the plateau, where there was an abundance of grass, and the
+engineer immediately began to prepare a stable near the poultry-yard,
+in which the onagers might find food, with a good litter, and shelter
+during the night.
+
+This done, the movements of the two magnificent creatures were left
+entirely free, and the settlers avoided even approaching them so as to
+terrify them. Several times, however, the onagers appeared to wish to
+leave the plateau, too confined for animals accustomed to the plains
+and forests. They were then seen following the water-barrier which
+everywhere presented itself before them, uttering short neighs, then
+galloping through the grass, and becoming calmer, they would remain
+entire hours gazing at the woods, from which they were cut off for ever!
+
+In the meantime harness of vegetable fiber had been manufactured, and
+some days after the capture of the onagers, not only the cart was ready,
+but a straight road, or rather a cutting, had been made through the
+forests of the Far West, from the angle of the Mercy to Port Balloon.
+The cart might then be driven there, and towards the end of December
+they tried the onagers for the first time.
+
+Pencroft had already coaxed the animals to come and eat out of his hand,
+and they allowed him to approach without making any difficulty, but once
+harnessed they reared and could with difficulty be held in. However, it
+was not long before they submitted to this new service, for the onager,
+being less refractory than the zebra, is frequently put in harness
+in the mountainous regions of Southern Africa, and it has even been
+acclimatized in Europe, under zones of a relative coolness.
+
+On this day all the colony, except Pencroft who walked at the animals’
+heads, mounted the cart, and set out on the road to Port Balloon.
+
+Of course they were jolted over the somewhat rough road, but the vehicle
+arrived without any accident, and was soon loaded with the case and
+rigging of the balloon.
+
+At eight o’clock that evening the cart, after passing over the Mercy
+bridge, descended the left bank of the river, and stopped on the beach.
+The onagers being unharnessed, were thence led to their stable, and
+Pencroft before going to sleep gave vent to his feelings in a deep sigh
+of satisfaction that awoke all the echoes of Granite House.
+
+
+
+Chapter 8
+
+The first week of January was devoted to the manufacture of the linen
+garments required by the colony. The needles found in the box were used
+by sturdy if not delicate fingers, and we may be sure that what was sewn
+was sewn firmly.
+
+There was no lack of thread, thanks to Cyrus Harding’s idea of
+re-employing that which had been already used in the covering of the
+balloon. This with admirable patience was all unpicked by Gideon Spilett
+and Herbert, for Pencroft had been obliged to give this work up, as it
+irritated him beyond measure; but he had no equal in the sewing part
+of the business. Indeed, everybody knows that sailors have a remarkable
+aptitude for tailoring.
+
+The cloth of which the balloon-case was made was then cleaned by means
+of soda and potash, obtained by the incineration of plants, in such a
+way that the cotton, having got rid of the varnish, resumed its natural
+softness and elasticity; then, exposed to the action of the atmosphere,
+it soon became perfectly white. Some dozen shirts and sock--the latter
+not knitted, of course, but made of cotton--were thus manufactured. What
+a comfort it was to the settlers to clothe themselves again in clean
+linen, which was doubtless rather rough, but they were not troubled
+about that! and then to go to sleep between sheets, which made the
+couches at Granite House into quite comfortable beds!
+
+It was about this time also that they made boots of seal-leather, which
+were greatly needed to replace the shoes and boots brought from America.
+We may be sure that these new shoes were large enough and never pinched
+the feet of the wearers.
+
+With the beginning of the year 1866 the heat was very great, but
+the hunting in the forests did not stand still. Agouties, peccaries,
+capybaras, kangaroos, game of all sorts, actually swarmed there, and
+Spilett and Herbert were too good marksmen ever to throw away their shot
+uselessly.
+
+Cyrus Harding still recommended them to husband the ammunition, and he
+took measures to replace the powder and shot which had been found in
+the box, and which he wished to reserve for the future. How did he know
+where chance might one day cast his companions and himself in the
+event of their leaving their domain? They should, then, prepare for the
+unknown future by husbanding their ammunition and by substituting for it
+some easily renewable substance.
+
+To replace lead, of which Harding had found no traces in the island, he
+employed granulated iron, which was easy to manufacture. These bullets,
+not having the weight of leaden bullets, were made larger, and each
+charge contained less, but the skill of the sportsmen made up this
+deficiency. As to powder, Cyrus Harding would have been able to make
+that also, for he had at his disposal saltpeter, sulphur, and coal; but
+this preparation requires extreme care, and without special tools it is
+difficult to produce it of a good quality. Harding preferred, therefore,
+to manufacture pyroxyle, that is to say gun-cotton, a substance in which
+cotton is not indispensable, as the elementary tissue of vegetables may
+be used, and this is found in an almost pure state, not only in cotton,
+but in the textile fiber of hemp and flax, in paper, the pith of the
+elder, etc. Now, the elder abounded in the island towards the mouth of
+Red Creek, and the colonists had already made coffee of the berries of
+these shrubs, which belong to the family of the caprifoliaceae.
+
+The only thing to be collected, therefore, was elder-pith, for as to the
+other substance necessary for the manufacture of pyroxyle, it was only
+fuming azotic acid. Now, Harding having sulphuric acid at his disposal,
+had already been easily able to produce azotic acid by attacking the
+saltpeter with which nature supplied him. He accordingly resolved to
+manufacture and employ pyroxyle, although it has some inconveniences,
+that is to say, a great inequality of effect, an excessive
+inflammability, since it takes fire at one hundred and seventy
+degrees instead of two hundred and forty, and lastly, an instantaneous
+deflagration which might damage the firearms. On the other hand, the
+advantages of pyroxyle consist in this, that it is not injured by damp,
+that it does not make the gun-barrels dirty, and that its force is four
+times that of ordinary powder.
+
+To make pyroxyle, the cotton must be immersed in the fuming azotic acid
+for a quarter of an hour, then washed in cold water and dried. Nothing
+could be more simple.
+
+Cyrus Harding had only at his disposal the ordinary azotic acid and not
+the fuming or monohydrate azotic acid, that is to say, acid which emits
+white vapors when it comes in contact with damp air; but by substituting
+for the latter ordinary azotic acid, mixed, in the proportion of from
+three to five volumes of concentrated sulphuric acid, the engineer
+obtained the same result. The sportsmen of the island therefore soon
+had a perfectly prepared substance, which, employed discreetly, produced
+admirable results.
+
+About this time the settlers cleared three acres of the plateau, and
+the rest was preserved in a wild state, for the benefit of the onagers.
+Several excursions were made into the Jacamar Wood and the forests of
+the Far West, and they brought back from thence a large collection of
+wild vegetables, spinach, cress, radishes, and turnips, which careful
+culture would soon improve, and which would temper the regimen on which
+the settlers had till then subsisted. Supplies of wood and coal were
+also carted. Each excursion was at the same time a means of improving
+the roads, which gradually became smoother under the wheels of the cart.
+
+The rabbit-warren still continued to supply the larder of Granite House.
+As fortunately it was situated on the other side of Creek Glycerine,
+its inhabitants could not reach the plateau nor ravage the newly-made
+plantation. The oyster-bed among the rocks was frequently renewed and
+furnished excellent molluscs. Besides that, the fishing, either in
+the lake or the Mercy, was very profitable, for Pencroft had made some
+lines, armed with iron hooks, with which they frequently caught fine
+trout, and a species of fish whose silvery sides were speckled with
+yellow, and which were also extremely savory. Master Neb, who was
+skilled in the culinary art, knew how to vary agreeably the bill of
+fare. Bread alone was wanting at the table of the settlers, and as has
+been said, they felt this privation greatly.
+
+The settlers hunted too the turtles which frequented the shores of
+Cape Mandible. At this place the beach was covered with little mounds,
+concealing perfectly spherical turtles’ eggs, with white hard shells,
+the albumen of which does not coagulate as that of birds’ eggs. They
+were hatched by the sun, and their number was naturally considerable, as
+each turtle can lay annually two hundred and fifty.
+
+“A regular egg-field,” observed Gideon Spilett, “and we have nothing to
+do but to pick them up.”
+
+But not being contented with simply the produce, they made chase after
+the producers, the result of which was that they were able to bring back
+to Granite House a dozen of these chelonians, which were really valuable
+from an alimentary point of view. The turtle soup, flavored with
+aromatic herbs, often gained well-merited praises for its preparer, Neb.
+
+We must here mention another fortunate circumstance by which new stores
+for the winter were laid in. Shoals of salmon entered the Mercy, and
+ascended the country for several miles. It was the time at which the
+females, going to find suitable places in which to spawn, precede the
+males and make a great noise through the fresh water. A thousand of
+these fish, which measured about two feet and a half in length, came up
+the river, and a large quantity were retained by fixing dams across
+the stream. More than a hundred were thus taken, which were salted and
+stored for the time when winter, freezing up the streams, would render
+fishing impracticable. By this time the intelligent Jup was raised
+to the duty of valet. He had been dressed in a jacket, white linen
+breeches, and an apron, the pockets of which were his delight. The
+clever orang had been marvelously trained by Neb, and any one would have
+said that the Negro and the ape understood each other when they talked
+together. Jup had besides a real affection for Neb, and Neb returned
+it. When his services were not required, either for carrying wood or for
+climbing to the top of some tree, Jup passed the greatest part of his
+time in the kitchen, where he endeavored to imitate Neb in all that he
+saw him do. The black showed the greatest patience and even extreme
+zeal in instructing his pupil, and the pupil exhibited remarkable
+intelligence in profiting by the lessons he received from his master.
+
+Judge then of the pleasure Master Jup gave to the inhabitants of Granite
+House when, without their having had any idea of it, he appeared one
+day, napkin on his arm, ready to wait at table. Quick, attentive, he
+acquitted himself perfectly, changing the plates, bringing dishes,
+pouring out water, all with a gravity which gave intense amusement to
+the settlers, and which enraptured Pencroft.
+
+“Jup, some soup!”
+
+“Jup, a little agouti!”
+
+“Jup, a plate!”
+
+“Jup! Good Jup! Honest Jup!”
+
+Nothing was heard but that, and Jup without ever being disconcerted,
+replied to every one, watched for everything, and he shook his head in a
+knowing way when Pencroft, referring to his joke of the first day, said
+to him,--
+
+“Decidedly, Jup, your wages must be doubled.”
+
+It is useless to say that the orang was now thoroughly domesticated at
+Granite House, and that he often accompanied his masters to the forest
+without showing any wish to leave them. It was most amusing to see him
+walking with a stick which Pencroft had given him, and which he carried
+on his shoulder like a gun. If they wished to gather some fruit from
+the summit of a tree, how quickly he climbed for it. If the wheel of the
+cart stuck in the mud, with what energy did Jup with a single heave of
+his shoulder put it right again.
+
+“What a jolly fellow he is!” cried Pencroft often. “If he was as
+mischievous as he is good, there would be no doing anything with him!”
+
+It was towards the end of January the colonists began their labors in
+the center of the island. It had been decided that a corral should be
+established near the sources of the Red Creek, at the foot of Mount
+Franklin, destined to contain the ruminants, whose presence would have
+been troublesome at Granite House, and especially for the musmons, who
+were to supply the wool for the settlers’ winter garments.
+
+Each morning, the colony, sometimes entire, but more often represented
+only by Harding, Herbert, and Pencroft, proceeded to the sources of the
+Creek, a distance of not more than five miles, by the newly beaten road
+to which the name of Corral Road had been given.
+
+There a site was chosen, at the back of the southern ridge of the
+mountain. It was a meadow land, dotted here and there with clumps of
+trees, and watered by a little stream, which sprung from the slopes
+which closed it in on one side. The grass was fresh, and it was not
+too much shaded by the trees which grew about it. This meadow was to
+be surrounded by a palisade, high enough to prevent even the most agile
+animals from leaping over. This enclosure would be large enough to
+contain a hundred musmons and wild goats, with all the young ones they
+might produce.
+
+The perimeter of the corral was then traced by the engineer, and
+they would then have proceeded to fell the trees necessary for the
+construction of the palisade, but as the opening up of the road had
+already necessitated the sacrifice of a considerable number, those were
+brought and supplied a hundred stakes, which were firmly fixed in the
+ground.
+
+The construction of this corral did not take less than three weeks,
+for besides the palisade, Cyrus Harding built large sheds, in which the
+animals could take shelter. These buildings had also to be made very
+strong, for musmons are powerful animals, and their first fury was to be
+feared. The stakes, sharpened at their upper end and hardened by fire,
+had been fixed by means of cross-bars, and at regular distances props
+assured the solidity of the whole.
+
+The corral finished, a raid had to be made on the pastures frequented
+by the ruminants. This was done on the 7th of February, on a beautiful
+summer’s day, and every one took part in it. The onagers, already well
+trained, were ridden by Spilett and Herbert, and were of great use.
+
+The maneuver consisted simply in surrounding the musmons and goats, and
+gradually narrowing the circle around them. Cyrus Harding, Pencroft,
+Neb, and Jup, posted themselves in different parts of the wood, while
+the two cavaliers and Top galloped in a radius of half a mile round the
+corral.
+
+The musmons were very numerous in this part of the island. These fine
+animals were as large as deer; their horns were stronger than those of
+the ram, and their gray-colored fleece was mixed with long hair.
+
+This hunting day was very fatiguing. Such going and coming, and running
+and riding and shouting! Of a hundred musmons which had been surrounded,
+more than two-thirds escaped, but at last, thirty of these animals and
+ten wild goats were gradually driven back towards the corral, the open
+door of which appearing to offer a means of escape, they rushed in and
+were prisoners.
+
+In short, the result was satisfactory, and the settlers had no reason to
+complain. There was no doubt that the flock would prosper, and that at
+no distant time not only wool but hides would be abundant.
+
+That evening the hunters returned to Granite House quite exhausted.
+However, notwithstanding their fatigue, they returned the next day
+to visit the corral. The prisoners had been trying to overthrow the
+palisade, but of course had not succeeded, and were not long in becoming
+more tranquil.
+
+During the month of February, no event of any importance occurred. The
+daily labors were pursued methodically, and, as well as improving the
+roads to the corral and to Port Balloon, a third was commenced, which,
+starting from the enclosure, proceeded towards the western coast. The
+yet unknown portion of Lincoln Island was that of the wood-covered
+Serpentine Peninsula, which sheltered the wild beasts, from which Gideon
+Spilett was so anxious to clear their domain.
+
+Before the cold season should appear the most assiduous care was given
+to the cultivation of the wild plants which had been transplanted from
+the forest to Prospect Heights. Herbert never returned from an excursion
+without bringing home some useful vegetable. One day, it was some
+specimens of the chicory tribe, the seeds of which by pressure yield an
+excellent oil; another, it was some common sorrel, whose antiscorbutic
+qualities were not to be despised; then, some of those precious tubers,
+which have at all times been cultivated in South America, potatoes, of
+which more than two hundred species are now known. The kitchen garden,
+now well stocked and carefully defended from the birds, was divided
+into small beds, where grew lettuces, kidney potatoes, sorrel, turnips,
+radishes, and other coneiferae. The soil on the plateau was particularly
+fertile, and it was hoped that the harvests would be abundant.
+
+They had also a variety of different beverages, and so long as they did
+not demand wine, the most hard to please would have had no reason to
+complain. To the Oswego tea, and the fermented liquor extracted from the
+roots of the dragonnier, Harding had added a regular beer, made from
+the young shoots of the spruce-fir, which, after having been boiled
+and fermented, made that agreeable drink called by the Anglo-Americans
+spring-beer.
+
+Towards the end of the summer, the poultry-yard was possessed of
+a couple of fine bustards, which belonged to the houbara species,
+characterized by a sort of feathery mantle; a dozen shovelers, whose
+upper mandible was prolonged on each side by a membraneous appendage;
+and also some magnificent cocks, similar to the Mozambique cocks,
+the comb, caruncle, and epidermis being black. So far, everything had
+succeeded, thanks to the activity of these courageous and intelligent
+men. Nature did much for them, doubtless; but faithful to the great
+precept, they made a right use of what a bountiful Providence gave them.
+
+After the heat of these warm summer days, in the evening when their work
+was finished and the sea-breeze began to blow, they liked to sit on the
+edge of Prospect Heights, in a sort of veranda, covered with creepers,
+which Neb had made with his own hands. There they talked, they
+instructed each other, they made plans, and the rough good-humor of
+the sailor always amused this little world, in which the most perfect
+harmony had never ceased to reign.
+
+They often spoke of their country, of their dear and great America. What
+was the result of the War of Secession? It could not have been greatly
+prolonged. Richmond had doubtless soon fallen into the hands of General
+Grant. The taking of the capital of the Confederates must have been the
+last action of this terrible struggle. Now the North had triumphed in
+the good cause, how welcome would have been a newspaper to the exiles in
+Lincoln Island! For eleven months all communication between them and the
+rest of their fellow-creatures had been interrupted, and in a short time
+the 24th of March would arrive, the anniversary of the day on which
+the balloon had thrown them on this unknown coast. They were then mere
+castaways, not even knowing how they should preserve their miserable
+lives from the fury of the elements! And now, thanks to the knowledge of
+their captain, and their own intelligence, they were regular colonists,
+furnished with arms, tools, and instruments; they had been able to turn
+to their profit the animals, plants, and minerals of the island, that is
+to say, the three kingdoms of Nature.
+
+Yes; they often talked of all these things and formed still more plans.
+
+As to Cyrus Harding he was for the most part silent, and listened to
+his companions more often than he spoke to them. Sometimes he smiled
+at Herbert’s ideas or Pencroft’s nonsense, but always and everywhere he
+pondered over those inexplicable facts, that strange enigma, of which
+the secret still escaped him!
+
+
+
+Chapter 9
+
+The weather changed during the first week of March. There had been a
+full moon at the commencement of the month, and the heat was excessive.
+The atmosphere was felt to be full of electricity, and a period of some
+length of tempestuous weather was to be feared.
+
+Indeed, on the 2nd, peals of thunder were heard, the wind blew from the
+east, and hail rattled against the facade of Granite House like
+volleys of grape-shot. The door and windows were immediately closed,
+or everything in the rooms would have been drenched. On seeing these
+hailstones, some of which were the size of a pigeon’s egg, Pencroft’s
+first thought was that his cornfield was in serious danger.
+
+He directly rushed to his field, where little green heads were already
+appearing, and by means of a great cloth, he managed to protect his
+crop.
+
+This bad weather lasted a week, during which time the thunder rolled
+without cessation in the depths of the sky.
+
+The colonists, not having any pressing work out of doors, profited
+by the bad weather to work at the interior of Granite House, the
+arrangement of which was becoming more complete from day to day. The
+engineer made a turning-lathe, with which he turned several articles
+both for the toilet and the kitchen, particularly buttons, the want of
+which was greatly felt. A gunrack had been made for the firearms, which
+were kept with extreme care, and neither tables nor cupboards were left
+incomplete. They sawed, they planed, they filed, they turned; and during
+the whole of this bad season, nothing was heard but the grinding
+of tools or the humming of the turning-lathe which responded to the
+growling of the thunder.
+
+Master Jup had not been forgotten, and he occupied a room at the back,
+near the storeroom, a sort of cabin with a cot always full of good
+litter, which perfectly suited his taste.
+
+“With good old Jup there is never any quarreling,” often repeated
+Pencroft, “never any improper reply. What a servant, Neb, what a
+servant!”
+
+Of course Jup was now well used to service. He brushed their clothes,
+he turned the spit, he waited at table, he swept the rooms, he gathered
+wood, and he performed another admirable piece of service which
+delighted Pencroft--he never went to sleep without first coming to tuck
+up the worthy sailor in his bed.
+
+As to the health of the members of the colony, bipeds or bimana,
+quadrumana or quadrupeds, it left nothing to be desired. With their life
+in the open air, on this salubrious soil, under that temperate zone,
+working both with head and hands, they could not suppose that illness
+would ever attack them.
+
+All were indeed wonderfully well. Herbert had already grown two inches
+in the year. His figure was forming and becoming more manly, and he
+promised to be an accomplished man, physically as well as morally.
+Besides he improved himself during the leisure hours which manual
+occupations left to him; he read the books found in the case; and after
+the practical lessons which were taught by the very necessity of their
+position, he found in the engineer for science, and the reporter for
+languages, masters who were delighted to complete his education.
+
+The tempest ended about the 9th of March, but the sky remained covered
+with clouds during the whole of this last summer month. The atmosphere,
+violently agitated by the electric commotions, could not recover its
+former purity, and there was almost invariably rain and fog, except for
+three or four fine days on which several excursions were made. About
+this time the female onager gave birth to a young one which belonged to
+the same sex as its mother, and which throve capitally. In the corral,
+the flock of musmons had also increased, and several lambs already
+bleated in the sheds, to the great delight of Neb and Herbert, who had
+each their favorite among these newcomers. An attempt was also made
+for the domestication of the peccaries, which succeeded well. A sty was
+constructed under the poultry-yard, and soon contained several young
+ones in the way to become civilized, that is to say, to become fat
+under Neb’s care. Master Jup, entrusted with carrying them their
+daily nourishment, leavings from the kitchen, etc., acquitted himself
+conscientiously of his task. He sometimes amused himself at the expense
+of his little pensioners by tweaking their tails; but this was mischief,
+and not wickedness, for these little twisted tails amused him like a
+plaything, and his instinct was that of a child. One day in this month
+of March, Pencroft, talking to the engineer, reminded Cyrus Harding of a
+promise which the latter had not as yet had time to fulfil.
+
+“You once spoke of an apparatus which would take the place of the long
+ladders at Granite House, captain,” said he; “won’t you make it some
+day?”
+
+“Nothing will be easier; but is this a really useful thing?”
+
+“Certainly, captain. After we have given ourselves necessaries, let us
+think a little of luxury. For us it may be luxury, if you like, but
+for things it is necessary. It isn’t very convenient to climb up a long
+ladder when one is heavily loaded.”
+
+“Well, Pencroft, we will try to please you,” replied Cyrus Harding.
+
+“But you have no machine at your disposal.”
+
+“We will make one.”
+
+“A steam machine?”
+
+“No, a water machine.”
+
+And, indeed, to work his apparatus there was already a natural force
+at the disposal of the engineer which could be used without great
+difficulty. For this, it was enough to augment the flow of the little
+stream which supplied the interior of Granite House with water. The
+opening among the stones and grass was then increased, thus producing
+a strong fall at the bottom of the passage, the overflow from which
+escaped by the inner well. Below this fall the engineer fixed a cylinder
+with paddles, which was joined on the exterior with a strong cable
+rolled on a wheel, supporting a basket. In this way, by means of a long
+rope reaching to the ground, which enabled them to regulate the motive
+power, they could rise in the basket to the door of Granite House.
+
+It was on the 17th of March that the lift acted for the first time, and
+gave universal satisfaction. Henceforward all the loads, wood, coal,
+provisions, and even the settlers themselves, were hoisted by this
+simple system, which replaced the primitive ladder, and, as may be
+supposed, no one thought of regretting the change. Top particularly was
+enchanted with this improvement, for he had not, and never could have
+possessed Master Jup’s skill in climbing ladders, and often it was on
+Neb’s back, or even on that of the orang that he had been obliged to
+make the ascent to Granite House. About this time, too, Cyrus Harding
+attempted to manufacture glass, and he at first put the old pottery-kiln
+to this new use. There were some difficulties to be encountered; but,
+after several fruitless attempts, he succeeded in setting up a glass
+manufactory, which Gideon Spilett and Herbert, his usual assistants, did
+not leave for several days. As to the substances used in the composition
+of glass, they are simply sand, chalk, and soda, either carbonate or
+sulphate. Now the beach supplied sand, lime supplied chalk, sea-weeds
+supplied soda, pyrites supplied sulphuric acid, and the ground supplied
+coal to heat the kiln to the wished-for temperature. Cyrus Harding thus
+soon had everything ready for setting to work.
+
+The tool, the manufacture of which presented the most difficulty, was
+the pipe of the glass-maker, an iron tube, five or six feet long, which
+collects on one end the material in a state of fusion. But by means of
+a long, thin piece of iron rolled up like the barrel of a gun, Pencroft
+succeeded in making a tube soon ready for use.
+
+On the 28th of March the tube was heated. A hundred parts of sand,
+thirty-five of chalk, forty of sulphate of soda, mixed with two or three
+parts of powdered coal, composed the substance, which was placed in
+crucibles. When the high temperature of the oven had reduced it to a
+liquid, or rather a pasty state, Cyrus Harding collected with the tube
+a quantity of the paste: he turned it about on a metal plate, previously
+arranged, so as to give it a form suitable for blowing, then he passed
+the tube to Herbert, telling him to blow at the other extremity.
+
+And Herbert, swelling out his cheeks, blew so much and so well into the
+tube-taking care to twirl it round at the same time--that his breath
+dilated the glassy mass. Other quantities of the substance in a state
+of fusion were added to the first, and in a short time the result was a
+bubble which measured a foot in diameter. Harding then took the tube
+out of Herbert’s hands, and, giving it a pendulous motion, he ended by
+lengthening the malleable bubble so as to give it a cylindroconic shape.
+
+The blowing operation had given a cylinder of glass terminated by two
+hemispheric caps, which were easily detached by means of a sharp iron
+dipped in cold water; then, by the same proceeding, this cylinder was
+cut lengthways, and after having been rendered malleable by a second
+heating, it was extended on a plate and spread out with a wooden roller.
+
+The first pane was thus manufactured, and they had only to perform this
+operation fifty times to have fifty panes. The windows at Granite House
+were soon furnished with panes; not very white, perhaps, but still
+sufficiently transparent.
+
+As to bottles and tumblers, that was only play. They were satisfied with
+them, besides, just as they came from the end of the tube. Pencroft had
+asked to be allowed to “blow” in his turn, and it was great fun for
+him; but he blew so hard that his productions took the most ridiculous
+shapes, which he admired immensely.
+
+Cyrus Harding and Herbert, while hunting one day, had entered the forest
+of the Far West, on the left bank of the Mercy, and, as usual, the
+lad was asking a thousand questions of the engineer, who answered them
+heartily. Now, as Harding was not a sportsman, and as, on the other
+side, Herbert was talking chemistry and natural philosophy, numbers of
+kangaroos, capybaras, and agouties came within range, which, however,
+escaped the lad’s gun; the consequence was that the day was already
+advanced, and the two hunters were in danger of having made a
+useless excursion, when Herbert, stopping, and uttering a cry of joy,
+exclaimed,--
+
+“Oh, Captain Harding, do you see that tree?” and he pointed to a shrub,
+rather than a tree, for it was composed of a single stem, covered with a
+scaly bark, which bore leaves streaked with little parallel veins.
+
+“And what is this tree which resembles a little palm?” asked Harding.
+
+“It is a ‘cycas revoluta,’ of which I have a picture in our dictionary
+of Natural History!” said Herbert.
+
+“But I can’t see any fruit on this shrub!” observed his companion.
+
+“No, captain,” replied Herbert; “but its stem contains a flour with
+which nature has provided us all ready ground.”
+
+“It is, then, the bread-tree?”
+
+“Yes, the bread-tree.”
+
+“Well, my boy,” replied the engineer, “this is a valuable discovery,
+since our wheat harvest is not yet ripe; I hope that you are not
+mistaken!”
+
+Herbert was not mistaken: he broke the stem of a cycas, which was
+composed of a glandulous tissue, containing a quantity of floury pith,
+traversed with woody fiber, separated by rings of the same substance,
+arranged concentrically. With this fecula was mingled a mucilaginous
+juice of disagreeable flavor, but which it would be easy to get rid of
+by pressure. This cellular substance was regular flour of a superior
+quality, extremely nourishing; its exportation was formerly forbidden by
+the Japanese laws.
+
+Cyrus Harding and Herbert, after having examined that part of the Far
+West where the cycas grew, took their bearings, and returned to Granite
+House, where they made known their discovery.
+
+The next day the settlers went to collect some, and returned to Granite
+House with an ample supply of cycas stems. The engineer constructed a
+press, with which to extract the mucilaginous juice mingled with the
+fecula, and he obtained a large quantity of flour, which Neb soon
+transformed into cakes and puddings. This was not quite real wheaten
+bread, but it was very like it.
+
+Now, too, the onager, the goats, and the sheep in the corral furnished
+daily the milk necessary to the colony. The cart, or rather a sort of
+light carriole which had replaced it, made frequent journeys to the
+corral, and when it was Pencroft’s turn to go he took Jup, and let him
+drive, and Jup, cracking his whip, acquitted himself with his customary
+intelligence.
+
+Everything prospered, as well in the corral as in Granite House, and
+certainly the settlers, if it had not been that they were so far from
+their native land, had no reason to complain. They were so well suited
+to this life, and were, besides, so accustomed to the island, that they
+could not have left its hospitable soil without regret!
+
+And yet so deeply is the love of his country implanted in the heart of
+man, that if a ship had unexpectedly come in sight of the island, the
+colonists would have made signals, would have attracted her attention,
+and would have departed!
+
+It was the 1st of April, a Sunday, Easter Day, which Harding and his
+companions sanctified by rest and prayer. The day was fine, such as an
+October day in the Northern Hemisphere might be.
+
+All, towards the evening after dinner, were seated under the veranda
+on the edge of Prospect Heights, and they were watching the
+darkness creeping up from the horizon. Some cups of the infusion of
+elder-berries, which took the place of coffee, had been served by Neb.
+They were speaking of the island and of its isolated situation in the
+Pacific, which led Gideon Spilett to say,--
+
+“My dear Cyrus, have you ever, since you possessed the sextant found in
+the case, again taken the position of our island?”
+
+“No,” replied the engineer.
+
+“But it would perhaps be a good thing to do it with this instrument,
+which is more perfect than that which you before used.”
+
+“What is the good?” said Pencroft. “The island is quite comfortable
+where it is!”
+
+“Well, who knows,” returned the reporter, “who knows but that we may be
+much nearer inhabited land than we think?”
+
+“We shall know to-morrow,” replied Cyrus Harding, “and if it had not
+been for the occupations which left me no leisure, we should have known
+it already.”
+
+“Good!” said Pencroft. “The captain is too good an observer to be
+mistaken, and, if it has not moved from its place, the island is just
+where he put it.”
+
+“We shall see.”
+
+On the next day, therefore, by means of the sextant, the engineer made
+the necessary observations to verify the position which he had
+already obtained, and this was the result of his operation. His first
+observation had given him the situation of Lincoln Island,--
+
+
+In west longitude: from 150deg. to 155deg.;
+
+In south latitude: from 30deg. to 35deg.
+
+
+The second gave exactly:
+
+
+In longitude: 150deg. 30’
+
+In south latitude: 34deg. 57’
+
+So then, notwithstanding the imperfection of his apparatus, Cyrus
+Harding had operated with so much skill that his error did not exceed
+five degrees.
+
+“Now,” said Gideon Spilett, “since we possess an atlas as well as a
+sextant, let us see, my dear Cyrus, the exact position which Lincoln
+Island occupies in the Pacific.”
+
+Herbert fetched the atlas, and the map of the Pacific was opened, and
+the engineer, compass in hand, prepared to determine their position.
+
+Suddenly the compasses stopped, and he exclaimed,
+
+“But an island exists in this part of the Pacific already!”
+
+“An island?” cried Pencroft.
+
+“Tabor Island.”
+
+“An important island?”
+
+“No, an islet lost in the Pacific, and which perhaps has never been
+visited.”
+
+“Well, we will visit it,” said Pencroft.
+
+“We?”
+
+“Yes, captain. We will build a decked boat, and I will undertake to
+steer her. At what distance are we from this Tabor Island?”
+
+“About a hundred and fifty miles to the northeast,” replied Harding.
+
+“A hundred and fifty miles! And what’s that?” returned Pencroft. “In
+forty-eight hours, with a good wind, we should sight it!”
+
+And, on this reply, it was decided that a vessel should be constructed
+in time to be launched towards the month of next October, on the return
+of the fine season.
+
+
+
+Chapter 10
+
+When Pencroft had once got a plan in his head, he had no peace till it
+was executed. Now he wished to visit Tabor Island, and as a boat of a
+certain size was necessary for this voyage, he determined to build one.
+
+What wood should he employ? Elm or fir, both of which abounded in the
+island? They decided for the fir, as being easy to work, but which
+stands water as well as the elm.
+
+These details settled, it was agreed that since the fine season would
+not return before six months, Cyrus Harding and Pencroft should work
+alone at the boat. Gideon Spilett and Herbert were to continue to
+hunt, and neither Neb nor Master Jup, his assistant, were to leave the
+domestic duties which had devolved upon them.
+
+Directly the trees were chosen, they were felled, stripped of their
+branches, and sawn into planks as well as sawyers would have been able
+to do it. A week after, in the recess between the Chimneys and the
+cliff, a dockyard was prepared, and a keel five-and-thirty feet long,
+furnished with a stern-post at the stern and a stem at the bows, lay
+along the sand.
+
+Cyrus Harding was not working in the dark at this new trade. He knew as
+much about ship-building as about nearly everything else, and he had
+at first drawn the model of his ship on paper. Besides, he was ably
+seconded by Pencroft, who, having worked for several years in a dockyard
+in Brooklyn, knew the practical part of the trade. It was not until
+after careful calculation and deep thought that the timbers were laid on
+the keel.
+
+Pencroft, as may be believed, was all eagerness to carry out his new
+enterprise, and would not leave his work for an instant.
+
+A single thing had the honor of drawing him, but for one day only, from
+his dockyard. This was the second wheat-harvest, which was gathered in
+on the 15th of April. It was as much a success as the first, and yielded
+the number of grains which had been predicted.
+
+“Five bushels, captain,” said Pencroft, after having scrupulously
+measured his treasure.
+
+“Five bushels,” replied the engineer; “and a hundred and thirty thousand
+grains a bushel will make six hundred and fifty thousand grains.”
+
+“Well, we will sow them all this time,” said the sailor, “except a
+little in reserve.”
+
+“Yes, Pencroft, and if the next crop gives a proportionate yield, we
+shall have four thousand bushels.”
+
+“And shall we eat bread?”
+
+“We shall eat bread.”
+
+“But we must have a mill.
+
+“We will make one.”
+
+The third corn-field was very much larger than the two first, and the
+soil, prepared with extreme care, received the precious seed. That done,
+Pencroft returned to his work.
+
+During this time Spilett and Herbert hunted in the neighborhood, and
+they ventured deep into the still unknown parts of the Far West, their
+guns loaded with ball, ready for any dangerous emergency. It was a vast
+thicket of magnificent trees, crowded together as if pressed for room.
+The exploration of these dense masses of wood was difficult in
+the extreme, and the reporter never ventured there without the
+pocket-compass, for the sun scarcely pierced through the thick foliage
+and it would have been very difficult for them to retrace their way.
+It naturally happened that game was more rare in those situations where
+there was hardly sufficient room to move; two or three large herbivorous
+animals were however killed during the last fortnight of April. These
+were koalas, specimens of which the settlers had already seen to the
+north of the lake, and which stupidly allowed themselves to be killed
+among the thick branches of the trees in which they took refuge. Their
+skins were brought back to Granite House, and there, by the help of
+sulphuric acid, they were subjected to a sort of tanning process which
+rendered them capable of being used.
+
+On the 30th of April, the two sportsmen were in the depth of the Far
+West, when the reporter, preceding Herbert a few paces, arrived in
+a sort of clearing, into which the trees more sparsely scattered had
+permitted a few rays to penetrate. Gideon Spilett was at first surprised
+at the odor which exhaled from certain plants with straight stalks,
+round and branchy, bearing grape-like clusters of flowers and very small
+berries. The reporter broke off one or two of these stalks and returned
+to the lad, to whom he said,--
+
+“What can this be, Herbert?”
+
+“Well, Mr. Spilett,” said Herbert, “this is a treasure which will secure
+you Pencroft’s gratitude forever.”
+
+“Is it tobacco?”
+
+“Yes, and though it may not be of the first quality, it is none the less
+tobacco!”
+
+“Oh, good old Pencroft! Won’t he be pleased! But we must not let him
+smoke it all, he must give us our share.”
+
+“Ah! an idea occurs to me, Mr. Spilett,” replied Herbert. “Don’t let us
+say anything to Pencroft yet; we will prepare these leaves, and one fine
+day we will present him with a pipe already filled!”
+
+“All right, Herbert, and on that day our worthy companion will have
+nothing left to wish for in this world.”
+
+The reporter and the lad secured a good store of the precious plant, and
+then returned to Granite House, where they smuggled it in with as much
+precaution as if Pencroft had been the most vigilant and severe of
+custom-house officers.
+
+Cyrus Harding and Neb were taken into confidence, and the sailor
+suspected nothing during the whole time, necessarily somewhat long,
+which was required in order to dry the small leaves, chop them up, and
+subject them to a certain torrefaction on hot stones. This took two
+months; but all these manipulations were successfully carried on unknown
+to Pencroft, for, occupied with the construction of his boat, he only
+returned to Granite House at the hour of rest.
+
+For some days they had observed an enormous animal two or three miles
+out in the open sea swimming around Lincoln Island. This was a whale
+of the largest size, which apparently belonged to the southern species,
+called the “Cape Whale.”
+
+“What a lucky chance it would be if we could capture it!” cried the
+sailor. “Ah! if we only had a proper boat and a good harpoon, I would
+say ‘After the beast,’ for he would be well worth the trouble of
+catching!”
+
+“Well, Pencroft,” observed Harding, “I should much like to watch you
+handling a harpoon. It would be very interesting.”
+
+“I am astonished,” said the reporter, “to see a whale in this
+comparatively high latitude.”
+
+“Why so, Mr. Spilett?” replied Herbert. “We are exactly in that part of
+the Pacific which English and American whalemen call the whale field,
+and it is here, between New Zealand and South America, that the whales
+of the Southern Hemisphere are met with in the greatest numbers.”
+
+And Pencroft returned to his work, not without uttering a sigh of
+regret, for every sailor is a born fisherman, and if the pleasure of
+fishing is in exact proportion to the size of the animal, one can judge
+how a whaler feels in sight of a whale. And if this had only been for
+pleasure! But they could not help feeling how valuable such a prize
+would have been to the colony, for the oil, fat, and bones would have
+been put to many uses.
+
+Now it happened that this whale appeared to have no wish to leave the
+waters of the island. Therefore, whether from the windows of Granite
+House, or from Prospect Heights, Herbert and Gideon Spilett, when they
+were not hunting, or Neb, unless presiding over his fires, never left
+the telescope, but watched all the animal’s movements. The cetacean,
+having entered far into Union Bay, made rapid furrows across it from
+Mandible Cape to Claw Cape, propelled by its enormously powerful flukes,
+on which it supported itself, and making its way through the water
+at the rate little short of twelve knots. Sometimes also it
+approached so near to the island that it could be clearly distinguished.
+It was the southern whale, which is completely black, the head being
+more depressed than that of the northern whale.
+
+They could also see it throwing up from its air-holes to a great
+height a cloud of vapor, or of water, for, strange as it may appear,
+naturalists and whalers are not agreed on this subject. Is it air or is
+it water which is thus driven out? It is generally admitted to be vapor,
+which, condensing suddenly by contact with the cold air, falls again as
+rain.
+
+However, the presence of this mammifer preoccupied the colonists. It
+irritated Pencroft especially, as he could think of nothing else while
+at work. He ended by longing for it, like a child for a thing which it
+has been denied. At night he talked about it in his sleep, and certainly
+if he had had the means of attacking it, if the sloop had been in a fit
+state to put to sea, he would not have hesitated to set out in pursuit.
+
+But what the colonists could not do for themselves chance did for them,
+and on the 3rd of May shouts from Neb, who had stationed himself at the
+kitchen window, announced that the whale was stranded on the beach of
+the island.
+
+Herbert and Gideon Spilett, who were just about to set out hunting,
+left their guns, Pencroft threw down his ax, and Harding and Neb joining
+their companions, all rushed towards the scene of action.
+
+The stranding had taken place on the beach of Flotsam Point, three miles
+from Granite House, and at high tide. It was therefore probable that the
+cetacean would not be able to extricate itself easily; at any rate it
+was best to hasten, so as to cut off its retreat if necessary. They ran
+with pick-axes and iron-tipped poles in their hands, passed over the
+Mercy bridge, descended the right bank of the river, along the beach,
+and in less than twenty minutes the settlers were close to the enormous
+animal, above which flocks of birds already hovered.
+
+“What a monster!” cried Neb.
+
+And the exclamation was natural, for it was a southern whale, eighty
+feet long, a giant of the species, probably not weighing less than a
+hundred and fifty thousand pounds!
+
+In the meanwhile, the monster thus stranded did not move, nor attempt by
+struggling to regain the water while the tide was still high.
+
+It was dead, and a harpoon was sticking out of its left side.
+
+“There are whalers in these quarters, then?” said Gideon Spilett
+directly.
+
+“Oh, Mr. Spilett, that doesn’t prove anything!” replied Pencroft.
+“Whales have been known to go thousands of miles with a harpoon in
+the side, and this one might even have been struck in the north of the
+Atlantic and come to die in the south of the Pacific, and it would be
+nothing astonishing.”
+
+Pencroft, having torn the harpoon from the animal’s side, read this
+inscription on it:
+
+
+           MARIA STELLA, VINEYARD
+
+
+“A vessel from the Vineyard! A ship from my country!” he cried. “The
+‘Maria Stella!’ A fine whaler, ‘pon my word; I know her well! Oh, my
+friends, a vessel from the Vineyard!--a whaler from the Vineyard!”
+
+And the sailor brandishing the harpoon, repeated, not without emotion,
+the name which he loved so well--the name of his birthplace.
+
+But as it could not be expected that the “Maria Stella” would come to
+reclaim the animal harpooned by her, they resolved to begin cutting it
+up before decomposition should commence. The birds, who had watched
+this rich prey for several days, had determined to take possession of it
+without further delay, and it was necessary to drive them off by firing
+at them repeatedly.
+
+The whale was a female, and a large quantity of milk was taken from it,
+which, according to the opinion of the naturalist Duffenbach, might pass
+for cow’s milk, and, indeed, it differs from it neither in taste, color,
+nor density.
+
+Pencroft had formerly served on board a whaling-ship, and he could
+methodically direct the operation of cutting up, a sufficiently
+disagreeable operation lasting three days, but from which the settlers
+did not flinch, not even Gideon Spilett, who, as the sailor said, would
+end by making a “real good castaway.”
+
+The blubber, cut in parallel slices of two feet and a half in thickness,
+then divided into pieces which might weigh about a thousand pounds each,
+was melted down in large earthen pots brought to the spot, for they did
+not wish to taint the environs of Granite House, and in this fusion it
+lost nearly a third of its weight.
+
+But there was an immense quantity of it; the tongue alone yielded six
+thousand pounds of oil, and the lower lip four thousand. Then, besides
+the fat, which would insure for a long time a store of stearine and
+glycerine, there were still the bones, for which a use could doubtless
+be found, although there were neither umbrellas nor stays used at
+Granite House. The upper part of the mouth of the cetacean was, indeed,
+provided on both sides with eight hundred horny blades, very elastic,
+of a fibrous texture, and fringed at the edge like great combs, at which
+the teeth, six feet long, served to retain the thousands of animalculae,
+little fish, and molluscs, on which the whale fed.
+
+The operation finished, to the great satisfaction of the operators, the
+remains of the animal were left to the birds, who would soon make every
+vestige of it disappear, and their usual daily occupations were resumed
+by the inmates of Granite House.
+
+However, before returning to the dockyard, Cyrus Harding conceived
+the idea of fabricating certain machines, which greatly excited the
+curiosity of his companions. He took a dozen of the whale’s bones, cut
+them into six equal parts, and sharpened their ends.
+
+“This machine is not my own invention, and it is frequently employed
+by the Aleutian hunters in Russian America. You see these bones, my
+friends; well, when it freezes, I will bend them, and then wet them
+with water till they are entirely covered with ice, which will keep them
+bent, and I will strew them on the snow, having previously covered them
+with fat. Now, what will happen if a hungry animal swallows one of these
+baits? Why, the heat of his stomach will melt the ice, and the bone,
+springing straight, will pierce him with its sharp points.”
+
+“Well! I do call that ingenious!” said Pencroft.
+
+“And it will spare the powder and shot,” rejoined Cyrus Harding.
+
+“That will be better than traps!” added Neb.
+
+In the meanwhile the boat-building progressed, and towards the end of
+the month half the planking was completed. It could already be seen that
+her shape was excellent, and that she would sail well.
+
+Pencroft worked with unparalleled ardor, and only a sturdy frame could
+have borne such fatigue; but his companions were preparing in secret a
+reward for his labors, and on the 31st of May he was to meet with one of
+the greatest joys of his life.
+
+On that day, after dinner, just as he was about to leave the table,
+Pencroft felt a hand on his shoulder.
+
+It was the hand of Gideon Spilett, who said,--
+
+“One moment, Master Pencroft, you mustn’t sneak off like that! You’ve
+forgotten your dessert.”
+
+“Thank you, Mr. Spilett,” replied the sailor, “I am going back to my
+work.”
+
+“Well, a cup of coffee, my friend?”
+
+“Nothing more.”
+
+“A pipe, then?”
+
+Pencroft jumped up, and his great good-natured face grew pale when he
+saw the reporter presenting him with a ready-filled pipe, and Herbert
+with a glowing coal.
+
+The sailor endeavored to speak, but could not get out a word; so,
+seizing the pipe, he carried it to his lips, then applying the coal,
+he drew five or six great whiffs. A fragrant blue cloud soon arose, and
+from its depths a voice was heard repeating excitedly,--
+
+“Tobacco! real tobacco!”
+
+“Yes, Pencroft,” returned Cyrus Harding, “and very good tobacco too!”
+
+“O, divine Providence; sacred Author of all things!” cried the sailor.
+“Nothing more is now wanting to our island.”
+
+And Pencroft smoked, and smoked, and smoked.
+
+“And who made this discovery?” he asked at length. “You, Herbert, no
+doubt?”
+
+“No, Pencroft, it was Mr. Spilett.”
+
+“Mr. Spilett!” exclaimed the sailor, seizing the reporter, and clasping
+him to his breast with such a squeeze that he had never felt anything
+like it before.
+
+“Oh Pencroft,” said Spilett, recovering his breath at last, “a truce for
+one moment. You must share your gratitude with Herbert, who recognized
+the plant, with Cyrus, who prepared it, and with Neb, who took a great
+deal of trouble to keep our secret.”
+
+“Well, my friends, I will repay you some day,” replied the sailor. “Now
+we are friends for life.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 11
+
+Winter arrived with the month of June, which is the December of the
+northern zones, and the great business was the making of warm and solid
+clothing.
+
+The musmons in the corral had been stripped of their wool, and this
+precious textile material was now to be transformed into stuff.
+
+Of course Cyrus Harding, having at his disposal neither carders,
+combers, polishers, stretchers, twisters, mule-jenny, nor self-acting
+machine to spin the wool, nor loom to weave it, was obliged to proceed
+in a simpler way, so as to do without spinning and weaving. And indeed
+he proposed to make use of the property which the filaments of wool
+possess when subjected to a powerful pressure of mixing together, and of
+manufacturing by this simple process the material called felt. This felt
+could then be obtained by a simple operation which, if it diminished
+the flexibility of the stuff, increased its power of retaining heat in
+proportion. Now the wool furnished by the musmons was composed of very
+short hairs, and was in a good condition to be felted.
+
+The engineer, aided by his companions, including Pencroft, who was once
+more obliged to leave his boat, commenced the preliminary operations,
+the subject of which was to rid the wool of that fat and oily substance
+with which it is impregnated, and which is called grease. This cleaning
+was done in vats filled with water, which was maintained at the
+temperature of seventy degrees, and in which the wool was soaked for
+four-and-twenty hours; it was then thoroughly washed in baths of soda,
+and, when sufficiently dried by pressure, it was in a state to be
+compressed, that is to say, to produce a solid material, rough, no
+doubt, and such as would have no value in a manufacturing center of
+Europe or America, but which would be highly esteemed in the Lincoln
+Island markets.
+
+This sort of material must have been known from the most ancient times,
+and, in fact, the first woolen stuffs were manufactured by the process
+which Harding was now about to employ. Where Harding’s engineering
+qualifications now came into play was in the construction of the machine
+for pressing the wool; for he knew how to turn ingeniously to profit
+the mechanical force, hitherto unused, which the waterfall on the beach
+possessed to move a fulling-mill.
+
+Nothing could be more rudimentary. The wool was placed in troughs, and
+upon it fell in turns heavy wooden mallets; such was the machine in
+question, and such it had been for centuries until the time when the
+mallets were replaced by cylinders of compression, and the material was
+no longer subjected to beating, but to regular rolling.
+
+The operation, ably directed by Cyrus Harding, was a complete success.
+The wool, previously impregnated with a solution of soap, intended on
+the one hand to facilitate the interlacing, the compression, and the
+softening of the wool, and on the other to prevent its diminution by
+the beating, issued from the mill in the shape of thick felt cloth. The
+roughnesses with which the staple of wool is naturally filled were so
+thoroughly entangled and interlaced together that a material was formed
+equally suitable either for garments or bedclothes. It was certainly
+neither merino, muslin, cashmere, rep, satin, alpaca, cloth, nor
+flannel. It was “Lincolnian felt,” and Lincoln Island possessed yet
+another manufacture. The colonists had now warm garments and thick
+bedclothes, and they could without fear await the approach of the winter
+of 1866-67.
+
+The severe cold began to be felt about the 20th of June, and, to his
+great regret, Pencroft was obliged to suspend his boat-building, which
+he hoped to finish in time for next spring.
+
+The sailor’s great idea was to make a voyage of discovery to Tabor
+Island, although Harding could not approve of a voyage simply for
+curiosity’s sake, for there was evidently nothing to be found on this
+desert and almost arid rock. A voyage of a hundred and fifty miles in a
+comparatively small vessel, over unknown seas, could not but cause him
+some anxiety. Suppose that their vessel, once out at sea, should be
+unable to reach Tabor Island, and could not return to Lincoln Island,
+what would become of her in the midst of the Pacific, so fruitful of
+disasters?
+
+Harding often talked over this project with Pencroft, and he found him
+strangely bent upon undertaking this voyage, for which determination he
+himself could give no sufficient reason.
+
+“Now,” said the engineer one day to him, “I must observe, my friend,
+that after having said so much, in praise of Lincoln Island, after
+having spoken so often of the sorrow you would feel if you were obliged
+to forsake it, you are the first to wish to leave it.”
+
+“Only to leave it for a few days,” replied Pencroft, “only for a few
+days, captain. Time to go and come back, and see what that islet is
+like!”
+
+“But it is not nearly as good as Lincoln Island.”
+
+“I know that beforehand.”
+
+“Then why venture there?”
+
+“To know what is going on in Tabor Island.”
+
+“But nothing is going on there; nothing could happen there.”
+
+“Who knows?”
+
+“And if you are caught in a hurricane?”
+
+“There is no fear of that in the fine season,” replied Pencroft.
+“But, captain, as we must provide against everything, I shall ask your
+permission to take Herbert only with me on this voyage.”
+
+“Pencroft,” replied the engineer, placing his hand on the sailor’s
+shoulder, “if any misfortune happens to you, or to this lad, whom
+chance has made our child, do you think we could ever cease to blame
+ourselves?”
+
+“Captain Harding,” replied Pencroft, with unshaken confidence, “we
+shall not cause you that sorrow. Besides, we will speak further of this
+voyage, when the time comes to make it. And I fancy, when you have seen
+our tight-rigged little craft, when you have observed how she behaves at
+sea, when we sail round our island, for we will do so together--I fancy,
+I say, that you will no longer hesitate to let me go. I don’t conceal
+from you that your boat will be a masterpiece.”
+
+“Say ‘our’ boat, at least, Pencroft,” replied the engineer, disarmed for
+the moment. The conversation ended thus, to be resumed later on, without
+convincing either the sailor or the engineer.
+
+The first snow fell towards the end of the month of June. The corral had
+previously been largely supplied with stores, so that daily visits to
+it were not requisite; but it was decided that more than a week should
+never be allowed to pass without someone going to it.
+
+Traps were again set, and the machines manufactured by Harding were
+tried. The bent whalebones, imprisoned in a case of ice, and covered
+with a thick outer layer of fat, were placed on the border of the forest
+at a spot where animals usually passed on their way to the lake.
+
+To the engineer’s great satisfaction, this invention, copied from the
+Aleutian fishermen, succeeded perfectly. A dozen foxes, a few wild
+boars, and even a jaguar, were taken in this way, the animals being
+found dead, their stomachs pierced by the unbent bones.
+
+An incident must here be related, not only as interesting in itself, but
+because it was the first attempt made by the colonists to communicate
+with the rest of mankind.
+
+Gideon Spilett had already several times pondered whether to throw into
+the sea a letter enclosed in a bottle, which currents might perhaps
+carry to an inhabited coast, or to confide it to pigeons.
+
+But how could it be seriously hoped that either pigeons or bottles could
+cross the distance of twelve hundred miles which separated the island
+from any inhabited land? It would have been pure folly.
+
+But on the 30th of June the capture was effected, not without
+difficulty, of an albatross, which a shot from Herbert’s gun had
+slightly wounded in the foot. It was a magnificent bird, measuring ten
+feet from wing to wing, and which could traverse seas as wide as the
+Pacific.
+
+Herbert would have liked to keep this superb bird, as its wound would
+soon heal, and he thought he could tame it; but Spilett explained to
+him that they should not neglect this opportunity of attempting to
+communicate by this messenger with the lands of the Pacific; for if the
+albatross had come from some inhabited region, there was no doubt but
+that it would return there so soon as it was set free.
+
+Perhaps in his heart Gideon Spilett, in whom the journalist sometimes
+came to the surface, was not sorry to have the opportunity of sending
+forth to take its chance an exciting article relating the adventures
+of the settlers in Lincoln Island. What a success for the authorized
+reporter of the New York Herald, and for the number which should contain
+the article, if it should ever reach the address of its editor, the
+Honorable James Bennett!
+
+Gideon Spilett then wrote out a concise account, which was placed in a
+strong waterproof bag, with an earnest request to whoever might find it
+to forward it to the office of the New York Herald. This little bag was
+fastened to the neck of the albatross, and not to its foot, for these
+birds are in the habit of resting on the surface of the sea; then
+liberty was given to this swift courier of the air, and it was not
+without some emotion that the colonists watched it disappear in the
+misty west.
+
+“Where is he going to?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“Towards New Zealand,” replied Herbert.
+
+“A good voyage to you,” shouted the sailor, who himself did not expect
+any great result from this mode of correspondence.
+
+With the winter, work had been resumed in the interior of Granite House,
+mending clothes and different occupations, among others making the sails
+for their vessel, which were cut from the inexhaustible balloon-case.
+
+During the month of July the cold was intense, but there was no lack of
+either wood or coal. Cyrus Harding had established a second fireplace in
+the dining-room, and there the long winter evenings were spent. Talking
+while they worked, reading when the hands remained idle, the time passed
+with profit to all.
+
+It was real enjoyment to the settlers when in their room, well lighted
+with candles, well warmed with coal, after a good dinner, elderberry
+coffee smoking in the cups, the pipes giving forth an odoriferous smoke,
+they could hear the storm howling without. Their comfort would have been
+complete, if complete comfort could ever exist for those who are far
+from their fellow-creatures, and without any means of communication with
+them. They often talked of their country, of the friends whom they had
+left, of the grandeur of the American Republic, whose influence could
+not but increase; and Cyrus Harding, who had been much mixed up with the
+affairs of the Union, greatly interested his auditors by his recitals,
+his views, and his prognostics.
+
+It chanced one day that Spilett was led to say--
+
+“But now, my dear Cyrus, all this industrial and commercial movement
+to which you predict a continual advance, does it not run the danger of
+being sooner or later completely stopped?”
+
+“Stopped! And by what?”
+
+“By the want of coal, which may justly be called the most precious of
+minerals.”
+
+“Yes, the most precious indeed,” replied the engineer; “and it would
+seem that nature wished to prove that it was so by making the diamond,
+which is simply pure carbon crystallized.”
+
+“You don’t mean to say, captain,” interrupted Pencroft, “that we burn
+diamonds in our stoves in the shape of coal?”
+
+“No, my friend,” replied Harding.
+
+“However,” resumed Gideon Spilett, “you do not deny that some day the
+coal will be entirely consumed?”
+
+“Oh! the veins of coal are still considerable, and the hundred
+thousand miners who annually extract from them a hundred millions of
+hundredweights have not nearly exhausted them.”
+
+“With the increasing consumption of coal,” replied Gideon Spilett, “it
+can be foreseen that the hundred thousand workmen will soon become two
+hundred thousand, and that the rate of extraction will be doubled.”
+
+“Doubtless; but after the European mines, which will be soon worked more
+thoroughly with new machines, the American and Australian mines will for
+a long time yet provide for the consumption in trade.”
+
+“For how long a time?” asked the reporter.
+
+“For at least two hundred and fifty or three hundred years.”
+
+“That is reassuring for us, but a bad look-out for our
+great-grandchildren!” observed Pencroft.
+
+“They will discover something else,” said Herbert.
+
+“It is to be hoped so,” answered Spilett, “for without coal there would
+be no machinery, and without machinery there would be no railways, no
+steamers, no manufactories, nothing of that which is indispensable to
+modern civilization!”
+
+“But what will they find?” asked Pencroft. “Can you guess, captain?”
+
+“Nearly, my friend.”
+
+“And what will they burn instead of coal?”
+
+“Water,” replied Harding.
+
+“Water!” cried Pencroft, “water as fuel for steamers and engines! water
+to heat water!”
+
+“Yes, but water decomposed into its primitive elements,” replied Cyrus
+Harding, “and decomposed doubtless, by electricity, which will then have
+become a powerful and manageable force, for all great discoveries, by
+some inexplicable laws, appear to agree and become complete at the same
+time. Yes, my friends, I believe that water will one day be employed
+as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used singly or
+together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light, of
+an intensity of which coal is not capable. Some day the coalrooms of
+steamers and the tenders of locomotives will, instead of coal, be stored
+with these two condensed gases, which will burn in the furnaces with
+enormous calorific power. There is, therefore, nothing to fear. As long
+as the earth is inhabited it will supply the wants of its inhabitants,
+and there will be no want of either light or heat as long as the
+productions of the vegetable, mineral or animal kingdoms do not fail us.
+I believe, then, that when the deposits of coal are exhausted we shall
+heat and warm ourselves with water. Water will be the coal of the
+future.”
+
+“I should like to see that,” observed the sailor.
+
+“You were born too soon, Pencroft,” returned Neb, who only took part in
+the discussion by these words.
+
+However, it was not Neb’s speech which interrupted the conversation, but
+Top’s barking, which broke out again with that strange intonation which
+had before perplexed the engineer. At the same time Top began to run
+round the mouth of the well, which opened at the extremity of the
+interior passage.
+
+“What can Top be barking in that way for?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“And Jup be growling like that?” added Herbert.
+
+In fact the orang, joining the dog, gave unequivocal signs of agitation,
+and, singular to say, the two animals appeared more uneasy than angry.
+
+“It is evident,” said Gideon Spilett, “that this well is in direct
+communication with the sea, and that some marine animal comes from time
+to time to breathe at the bottom.”
+
+“That’s evident,” replied the sailor, “and there can be no other
+explanation to give. Quiet there, Top!” added Pencroft, turning to the
+dog, “and you, Jup, be off to your room!”
+
+The ape and the dog were silent. Jup went off to bed, but Top remained
+in the room, and continued to utter low growls at intervals during the
+rest of the evening. There was no further talk on the subject, but the
+incident, however, clouded the brow of the engineer.
+
+During the remainder of the month of July there was alternate rain and
+frost. The temperature was not so low as during the preceding winter,
+and its maximum did not exceed eight degrees Fahrenheit. But although
+this winter was less cold, it was more troubled by storms and squalls;
+the sea besides often endangered the safety of the Chimneys. At times
+it almost seemed as if an under-current raised these monstrous billows
+which thundered against the wall of Granite House.
+
+When the settlers, leaning from their windows, gazed on the huge watery
+masses breaking beneath their eyes, they could not but admire the
+magnificent spectacle of the ocean in its impotent fury. The waves
+rebounded in dazzling foam, the beach entirely disapppearing under the
+raging flood, and the cliff appearing to emerge from the sea itself, the
+spray rising to a height of more than a hundred feet.
+
+During these storms it was difficult and even dangerous to venture out,
+owing to the frequently falling trees; however, the colonists never
+allowed a week to pass without having paid a visit to the corral.
+Happily, this enclosure, sheltered by the southeastern spur of Mount
+Franklin, did not greatly suffer from the violence of the hurricanes,
+which spared its trees, sheds, and palisades; but the poultry-yard on
+Prospect Heights, being directly exposed to the gusts of wind from the
+east, suffered considerable damage. The pigeon-house was twice unroofed
+and the paling blown down. All this required to be remade more solidly
+than before, for, as may be clearly seen, Lincoln Island was situated in
+one of the most dangerous parts of the Pacific. It really appeared as if
+it formed the central point of vast cyclones, which beat it perpetually
+as the whip does the top, only here it was the top which was motionless
+and the whip which moved. During the first week of the month of August
+the weather became more moderate, and the atmosphere recovered the calm
+which it appeared to have lost forever. With the calm the cold again
+became intense, and the thermometer fell to eight degrees Fahrenheit,
+below zero.
+
+On the 3rd of August an excursion which had been talked of for several
+days was made into the southeastern part of the island, towards Tadorn
+Marsh. The hunters were tempted by the aquatic game which took up their
+winter quarters there. Wild duck, snipe, teal and grebe abounded there,
+and it was agreed that a day should be devoted to an expedition against
+these birds.
+
+Not only Gideon Spilett and Herbert, but Pencroft and Neb also took part
+in this excursion. Cyrus Harding alone, alleging some work as an excuse,
+did not join them, but remained at Granite House.
+
+The hunters proceeded in the direction of Port Balloon, in order to
+reach the marsh, after having promised to be back by the evening. Top
+and Jup accompanied them. As soon as they had passed over the Mercy
+Bridge, the engineer raised it and returned, intending to put into
+execution a project for the performance of which he wished to be alone.
+
+Now this project was to minutely explore the interior well, the mouth
+of which was on a level with the passage of Granite House, and which
+communicated with the sea, since it formerly supplied a way to the
+waters of the lake.
+
+Why did Top so often run round this opening? Why did he utter such
+strange barks when a sort of uneasiness seemed to draw him towards this
+well? Why did Jup join Top in a sort of common anxiety? Had this well
+branches besides the communication with the sea? Did it spread towards
+other parts of the island? This is what Cyrus Harding wished to know. He
+had resolved, therefore, to attempt the exploration of the well during
+the absence of his companions, and an opportunity for doing so had now
+presented itself.
+
+It was easy to descend to the bottom of the well by employing the rope
+ladder which had not been used since the establishment of the lift. The
+engineer drew the ladder to the hole, the diameter of which measured
+nearly six feet, and allowed it to unroll itself after having securely
+fastened its upper extremity. Then, having lighted a lantern, taken a
+revolver, and placed a cutlass in his belt, he began the descent.
+
+The sides were everywhere entire; but points of rock jutted out here and
+there, and by means of these points it would have been quite possible
+for an active creature to climb to the mouth of the well.
+
+The engineer remarked this; but although he carefully examined these
+points by the light of his lantern, he could find no impression, no
+fracture which could give any reason to suppose that they had either
+recently or at any former time been used as a staircase. Cyrus Harding
+descended deeper, throwing the light of his lantern on all sides.
+
+He saw nothing suspicious.
+
+When the engineer had reached the last rounds he came upon the water,
+which was then perfectly calm. Neither at its level nor in any other
+part of the well, did any passage open, which could lead to the interior
+of the cliff. The wall which Harding struck with the hilt of his cutlass
+sounded solid. It was compact granite, through which no living being
+could force a way. To arrive at the bottom of the well and then climb
+up to its mouth it was necessary to pass through the channel under the
+rocky subsoil of the beach, which placed it in communication with the
+sea, and this was only possible for marine animals. As to the question
+of knowing where this channel ended, at what point of the shore, and at
+what depth beneath the water, it could not be answered.
+
+Then Cyrus Harding, having ended his survey, re-ascended, drew up the
+ladder, covered the mouth of the well, and returned thoughtfully to the
+diningroom, saying to himself,--
+
+“I have seen nothing, and yet there is something there!”
+
+
+
+Chapter 12
+
+In the evening the hunters returned, having enjoyed good sport, and
+being literally loaded with game; indeed, they had as much as four men
+could possibly carry. Top wore a necklace of teal and Jup wreaths of
+snipe round his body.
+
+“Here, master,” cried Neb; “here’s something to employ our time!
+Preserved and made into pies we shall have a welcome store! But I must
+have some one to help me. I count on you, Pencroft.”
+
+“No, Neb,” replied the sailor; “I have the rigging of the vessel to
+finish and to look after, and you will have to do without me.”
+
+“And you, Mr. Herbert?”
+
+“I must go to the corral to-morrow, Neb,” replied the lad.
+
+“It will be you then, Mr. Spilett, who will help me?”
+
+“To oblige you, Neb, I will,” replied the reporter; “but I warn you that
+if you disclose your recipes to me, I shall publish them.”
+
+“Whenever you like, Mr. Spilett,” replied Neb; “whenever you like.”
+
+And so the next day Gideon Spilett became Neb’s assistant and was
+installed in his culinary laboratory. The engineer had previously made
+known to him the result of the exploration which he had made the day
+before, and on this point the reporter shared Harding’s opinion, that
+although he had found nothing, a secret still remained to be discovered!
+
+The frost continued for another week, and the settlers did not leave
+Granite House unless to look after the poultry-yard. The dwelling
+was filled with appetizing odors, which were emitted from the learned
+manipulation of Neb and the reporter. But all the results of the chase
+were not made into preserved provisions; and as the game kept perfectly
+in the intense cold, wild duck and other fowl were eaten fresh, and
+declared superior to all other aquatic birds in the known world.
+
+During this week, Pencroft, aided by Herbert, who handled the
+sailmaker’s needle with much skill, worked with such energy that the
+sails of the vessel were finished. There was no want of cordage. Thanks
+to the rigging which had been discovered with the case of the balloon,
+the ropes and cables from the net were all of good quality, and the
+sailor turned them all to account. To the sails were attached strong
+bolt ropes, and there still remained enough from which to make the
+halyards, shrouds, and sheets, etc. The blocks were manufactured by
+Cyrus Harding under Pencroft’s directions by means of the turning lathe.
+It therefore happened that the rigging was entirely prepared before the
+vessel was finished. Pencroft also manufactured a flag, that flag so
+dear to every true American, containing the stars and stripes of their
+glorious Union. The colors for it were supplied from certain plants
+used in dyeing, and which were very abundant in the island; only to the
+thirty-seven stars, representing the thirty-seven States of the Union,
+which shine on the American flag, the sailor added a thirty-eighth, the
+star of “the State of Lincoln,” for he considered his island as already
+united to the great republic. “And,” said he, “it is so already in
+heart, if not in deed!”
+
+In the meantime, the flag was hoisted at the central window of Granite
+House, and the settlers saluted it with three cheers.
+
+The cold season was now almost at an end, and it appeared as if this
+second winter was to pass without any unusual occurrence, when on the
+night of the 11th of August, the plateau of Prospect Heights was menaced
+with complete destruction.
+
+After a busy day the colonists were sleeping soundly, when towards four
+o’clock in the morning they were suddenly awakened by Top’s barking.
+
+The dog was not this time barking near the mouth of the well, but at
+the threshold of the door, at which he was scratching as if he wished to
+burst it open. Jup was also uttering piercing cries.
+
+“Hello, Top!” cried Neb, who was the first awake. But the dog continued
+to bark more furiously than ever.
+
+“What’s the matter now?” asked Harding.
+
+And all dressing in haste rushed to the windows, which they opened.
+
+Beneath their eyes was spread a sheet of snow which looked gray in the
+dim light. The settlers could see nothing, but they heard a singular
+yelping noise away in the darkness. It was evident that the beach had
+been invaded by a number of animals which could not be seen.
+
+“What are they?” cried Pencroft.
+
+“Wolves, jaguars, or apes?” replied Neb.
+
+“They have nearly reached the plateau,” said the reporter.
+
+“And our poultry-yard,” exclaimed Herbert, “and our garden!”
+
+“Where can they have crossed?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“They must have crossed the bridge on the shore,” replied the engineer,
+“which one of us must have forgotten to close.”
+
+“True,” said Spilett, “I remember having left it open.”
+
+“A fine job you have made of it, Mr. Spilett,” cried the sailor.
+
+“What is done cannot be undone,” replied Cyrus Harding. “We must consult
+what it will now be best to do.”
+
+Such were the questions and answers which were rapidly exchanged between
+Harding and his companions. It was certain that the bridge had been
+crossed, that the shore had been invaded by animals, and that whatever
+they might be they could by ascending the left bank of the Mercy reach
+Prospect Heights. They must therefore be advanced against quickly and
+fought with if necessary.
+
+“But what are these beasts?” was asked a second time, as the yelpings
+were again heard more loudly than before. These yelps made Herbert
+start, and he remembered having heard them before during his first visit
+to the sources of the Red Creek.
+
+“They are colpeo foxes!” he exclaimed.
+
+“Forward!” shouted the sailor.
+
+And all arming themselves with hatchets, carbines, and revolvers, threw
+themselves into the lift and soon set foot on the shore.
+
+Colpeos are dangerous animals when in great numbers and irritated by
+hunger, nevertheless the colonists did not hesitate to throw themselves
+into the midst of the troop, and their first shots vividly lighting up
+the darkness made their assailants draw back.
+
+The chief thing was to hinder these plunderers from reaching the
+plateau, for the garden and the poultry-yard would then have been at
+their mercy, and immense, perhaps irreparable mischief, would inevitably
+be the result, especially with regard to the corn-field. But as the
+invasion of the plateau could only be made by the left bank of the
+Mercy, it was sufficient to oppose the colpeos on the narrow bank
+between the river and the cliff of granite.
+
+This was plain to all, and, by Cyrus Harding’s orders, they reached the
+spot indicated by him, while the colpeos rushed fiercely through
+the gloom. Harding, Gideon Spilett, Herbert, Pencroft and Neb posted
+themselves in impregnable line. Top, his formidable jaws open, preceded
+the colonists, and he was followed by Jup, armed with a knotty cudgel,
+which he brandished like a club.
+
+The night was extremely dark, it was only by the flashes from the
+revolvers as each person fired that they could see their assailants, who
+were at least a hundred in number, and whose eyes were glowing like hot
+coals.
+
+“They must not pass!” shouted Pencroft.
+
+“They shall not pass!” returned the engineer.
+
+But if they did not pass it was not for want of having attempted it.
+Those in the rear pushed on the foremost assailants, and it was an
+incessant struggle with revolvers and hatchets. Several colpeos already
+lay dead on the ground, but their number did not appear to diminish,
+and it might have been supposed that reinforcements were continually
+arriving over the bridge.
+
+The colonists were soon obliged to fight at close quarters, not without
+receiving some wounds, though happily very slight ones. Herbert had,
+with a shot from his revolver, rescued Neb, on whose back a colpeo had
+sprung like a tiger cat. Top fought with actual fury, flying at the
+throats of the foxes and strangling them instantaneously. Jup wielded
+his weapon valiantly, and it was in vain that they endeavored to keep
+him in the rear. Endowed doubtless with sight which enabled him to
+pierce the obscurity, he was always in the thick of the fight uttering
+from time to time--a sharp hissing sound, which was with him the sign of
+great rejoicing.
+
+At one moment he advanced so far, that by the light from a revolver
+he was seen surrounded by five or six large colpeos, with whom he was
+coping with great coolness.
+
+However, the struggle was ended at last, and victory was on the side
+of the settlers, but not until they had fought for two long hours! The
+first signs of the approach of day doubtless determined the retreat of
+their assailants, who scampered away towards the North, passing over the
+bridge, which Neb ran immediately to raise. When day had sufficiently
+lighted up the field of battle, the settlers counted as many as fifty
+dead bodies scattered about on the shore.
+
+“And Jup!” cried Pencroft; “where is Jup?” Jup had disappeared. His
+friend Neb called him, and for the first time Jup did not reply to his
+friend’s call.
+
+Everyone set out in search of Jup, trembling lest he should be found
+among the slain; they cleared the place of the bodies which stained the
+snow with their blood. Jup was found in the midst of a heap of colpeos
+whose broken jaws and crushed bodies showed that they had to do with the
+terrible club of the intrepid animal.
+
+Poor Jup still held in his hand the stump of his broken cudgel, but
+deprived of his weapon he had been overpowered by numbers, and his chest
+was covered with severe wounds.
+
+“He is living,” cried Neb, who was bending over him.
+
+“And we will save him,” replied the sailor. “We will nurse him as if he
+was one of ourselves.”
+
+It appeared as if Jup understood, for he leaned his head on Pencroft’s
+shoulder as if to thank him. The sailor was wounded himself, but his
+wound was insignificant, as were those of his companions; for thanks to
+their firearms they had been almost always able to keep their assailants
+at a distance. It was therefore only the orang whose condition was
+serious.
+
+Jup, carried by Neb and Pencroft, was placed in the lift, and only a
+slight moan now and then escaped his lips. He was gently drawn up to
+Granite House. There he was laid on a mattress taken from one of the
+beds, and his wounds were bathed with the greatest care. It did not
+appear that any vital part had been reached, but Jup was very weak from
+loss of blood, and a high fever soon set in after his wounds had been
+dressed. He was laid down, strict diet was imposed, “just like a real
+person,” as Neb said, and they made him swallow several cups of
+a cooling drink, for which the ingredients were supplied from the
+vegetable medicine chest of Granite House. Jup was at first restless,
+but his breathing gradually became more regular, and he was left
+sleeping quietly. From time to time Top, walking on tip-toe, as one
+might say, came to visit his friend, and seemed to approve of all the
+care that had been taken of him. One of Jup’s hands hung over the side
+of his bed, and Top licked it with a sympathizing air.
+
+They employed the day in interring the dead, who were dragged to the
+forest of the Far West, and there buried deep.
+
+This attack, which might have had such serious consequences, was a
+lesson to the settlers, who from this time never went to bed until one
+of their number had made sure that all the bridges were raised, and that
+no invasion was possible.
+
+However, Jup, after having given them serious anxiety for several
+days, began to recover. His constitution brought him through, the fever
+gradually subsided, and Gideon Spilett, who was a bit of a doctor,
+pronounced him quite out of danger. On the 16th of August, Jup began to
+eat. Neb made him nice little sweet dishes, which the invalid devoured
+with great relish, for if he had a pet failing it was that of being
+somewhat of a gourmand, and Neb had never done anything to cure him of
+this fault.
+
+“What would you have?” said he to Gideon Spilett, who sometimes
+expostulated with him for spoiling the ape. “Poor Jup has no other
+pleasure than that of the palate, and I am only too glad to be able to
+reward his services in this way!”
+
+Ten days after taking to his bed, on the 21st of August, Master Jup
+arose. His wounds were healed, and it was evident that he would not
+be long in regaining his usual strength and agility. Like all
+convalescents, he was tremendously hungry, and the reporter allowed him
+to eat as much as he liked, for he trusted to that instinct, which
+is too often wanting in reasoning beings, to keep the orang from any
+excess. Neb was delighted to see his pupil’s appetite returning.
+
+“Eat away, my Jup,” said he, “and don’t spare anything; you have shed
+your blood for us, and it is the least I can do to make you strong
+again!”
+
+On the 25th of August Neb’s voice was heard calling to his companions.
+
+“Captain, Mr. Spilett, Mr. Herbert, Pencroft, come! come!”
+
+The colonists, who were together in the dining-room, rose at Neb’s call,
+who was then in Jup’s room.
+
+“What’s the matter?” asked the reporter.
+
+“Look,” replied Neb, with a shout of laughter. And what did they see?
+Master Jup smoking calmly and seriously, sitting crosslegged like a Turk
+at the entrance to Granite House!
+
+“My pipe,” cried Pencroft. “He has taken my pipe! Hello, my honest Jup,
+I make you a present of it! Smoke away, old boy, smoke away!”
+
+And Jup gravely puffed out clouds of smoke which seemed to give him
+great satisfaction. Harding did not appear to be much astonished at this
+incident, and he cited several examples of tame apes, to whom the use of
+tobacco had become quite familiar.
+
+But from this day Master Jup had a pipe of his own, the sailor’s
+ex-pipe, which was hung in his room near his store of tobacco. He filled
+it himself, lighted it with a glowing coal, and appeared to be
+the happiest of quadrumana. It may readily be understood that this
+similarity of tastes of Jup and Pencroft served to tighten the bonds of
+friendship which already existed between the honest ape and the worthy
+sailor.
+
+“Perhaps he is really a man,” said Pencroft sometimes to Neb. “Should
+you be surprised to hear him beginning to speak to us some day?”
+
+“My word, no,” replied Neb. “What astonishes me is that he hasn’t spoken
+to us before, for now he wants nothing but speech!”
+
+“It would amuse me all the same,” resumed the sailor, “if some fine day
+he said to me, ‘Suppose we change pipes, Pencroft.’”
+
+“Yes,” replied Neb, “what a pity he was born dumb!”
+
+With the month of September the winter ended, and the works were again
+eagerly commenced. The building of the vessel advanced rapidly, she was
+already completely decked over, and all the inside parts of the hull
+were firmly united with ribs bent by means of steam, which answered all
+the purposes of a mold.
+
+As there was no want of wood, Pencroft proposed to the engineer to give
+a double lining to the hull, to insure the strength of the vessel.
+
+Harding, not knowing what the future might have in store for them,
+approved the sailor’s idea of making the craft as strong as possible.
+The interior and deck of the vessel was entirely finished towards the
+15th of September. For calking the seams they made oakum of dry seaweed,
+which was hammered in between the planks; then these seams were covered
+with boiling tar, which was obtained in great abundance from the pines
+in the forest.
+
+The management of the vessel was very simple. She had from the first
+been ballasted with heavy blocks of granite walled up, in a bed of lime,
+twelve thousand pounds of which they stowed away.
+
+A deck was placed over this ballast, and the interior was divided into
+two cabins; two benches extended along them and served also as lockers.
+The foot of the mast supported the partition which separated the two
+cabins, which were reached by two hatchways let into the deck.
+
+Pencroft had no trouble in finding a tree suitable for the mast. He
+chose a straight young fir, with no knots, and which he had only to
+square at the step, and round off at the top. The ironwork of the mast,
+the rudder and the hull had been roughly but strongly forged at the
+Chimneys. Lastly, yards, masts, boom, spars, oars, etc., were all
+furnished by the first week in October, and it was agreed that a trial
+trip should be taken round the island, so as to ascertain how the vessel
+would behave at sea, and how far they might depend upon her.
+
+During all this time the necessary works had not been neglected.
+The corral was enlarged, for the flock of musmons and goats had been
+increased by a number of young ones, who had to be housed and fed. The
+colonists had paid visits also to the oyster bed, the warren, the coal
+and iron mines, and to the till then unexplored districts of the Far
+West forest, which abounded in game. Certain indigenous plants were
+discovered, and those fit for immediate use contributed to vary the
+vegetable stores of Granite House.
+
+They were a species of ficoide, some similar to those of the Cape, with
+eatable fleshy leaves, others bearing seeds containing a sort of flour.
+
+On the 10th of October the vessel was launched. Pencroft was radiant
+with joy, the operation was perfectly successful; the boat completely
+rigged, having been pushed on rollers to the water’s edge, was floated
+by the rising tide, amid the cheers of the colonists, particularly of
+Pencroft, who showed no modesty on this occasion. Besides his importance
+was to last beyond the finishing of the vessel, since, after having
+built her, he was to command her. The grade of captain was bestowed upon
+him with the approbation of all. To satisfy Captain Pencroft, it was now
+necessary to give a name to the vessel, and, after many propositions had
+been discussed, the votes were all in favor of the “Bonadventure.” As
+soon as the “Bonadventure” had been lifted by the rising tide, it was
+seen that she lay evenly in the water, and would be easily navigated.
+However, the trial trip was to be made that very day, by an excursion
+off the coast. The weather was fine, the breeze fresh, and the sea
+smooth, especially towards the south coast, for the wind was blowing
+from the northwest.
+
+“All hands on board,” shouted Pencroft; but breakfast was first
+necessary, and it was thought best to take provisions on board, in the
+event of their excursion being prolonged until the evening.
+
+Cyrus Harding was equally anxious to try the vessel, the model of which
+had originated with him, although on the sailor’s advice he had altered
+some parts of it, but he did not share Pencroft’s confidence in her,
+and as the latter had not again spoken of the voyage to Tabor Island,
+Harding hoped he had given it up. He would have indeed great reluctance
+in letting two or three of his companions venture so far in so small a
+boat, which was not of more than fifteen tons’ burden.
+
+At half-past ten everybody was on board, even Top and Jup, and Herbert
+weighed the anchor, which was fast in the sand near the mouth of the
+Mercy. The sail was hoisted, the Lincolnian flag floated from the
+masthead, and the “Bonadventure,” steered by Pencroft, stood out to sea.
+
+The wind blowing out of Union Bay she ran before it, and thus showed her
+owners, much to their satisfaction, that she possessed a remarkably fast
+pair of heels, according to Pencroft’s mode of speaking. After having
+doubled Flotsam Point and Claw Cape, the captain kept her close hauled,
+so as to sail along the southern coast of the island, when it was found
+she sailed admirably within five points of the wind. All hands were
+enchanted, they had a good vessel, which, in case of need, would be
+of great service to them, and with fine weather and a fresh breeze the
+voyage promised to be charming.
+
+Pencroft now stood off the shore, three or four miles across from Port
+Balloon. The island then appeared in all its extent and under a new
+aspect, with the varied panorama of its shore from Claw Cape to Reptile
+End, the forests in which dark firs contrasted with the young foliage
+of other trees and overlooked the whole, and Mount Franklin whose lofty
+head was still whitened with snow.
+
+“How beautiful it is!” cried Herbert.
+
+“Yes, our island is beautiful and good,” replied Pencroft. “I love it as
+I loved my poor mother. It received us poor and destitute, and now what
+is wanting to us five fellows who fell on it from the sky?”
+
+“Nothing,” replied Neb; “nothing, captain.”
+
+And the two brave men gave three tremendous cheers in honor of their
+island!
+
+During all this time Gideon Spilett, leaning against the mast, sketched
+the panorama which was developed before his eyes.
+
+Cyrus Harding gazed on it in silence.
+
+“Well, Captain Harding,” asked Pencroft, “what do you think of our
+vessel?”
+
+“She appears to behave well,” replied the engineer.
+
+“Good! And do you think now that she could undertake a voyage of some
+extent?”
+
+“What voyage, Pencroft?”
+
+“One to Tabor Island, for instance.”
+
+“My friend,” replied Harding, “I think that in any pressing emergency
+we need not hesitate to trust ourselves to the ‘Bonadventure’ even for
+a longer voyage; but you know I should see you set off to Tabor Island
+with great uneasiness, since nothing obliges you to go there.”
+
+“One likes to know one’s neighbors,” returned the sailor, who was
+obstinate in his idea. “Tabor Island is our neighbor, and the only one!
+Politeness requires us to go at least to pay a visit.”
+
+“By Jove,” said Spilett, “our friend Pencroft has become very particular
+about the proprieties all at once!”
+
+“I am not particular about anything at all,” retorted the sailor, who
+was rather vexed by the engineer’s opposition, but who did not wish to
+cause him anxiety.
+
+“Consider, Pencroft,” resumed Harding, “you cannot go alone to Tabor
+Island.”
+
+“One companion will be enough for me.”
+
+“Even so,” replied the engineer, “you will risk depriving the colony of
+Lincoln Island of two settlers out of five.”
+
+“Out of six,” answered Pencroft; “you forget Jup.”
+
+“Out of seven,” added Neb; “Top is quite worth another.”
+
+“There is no risk at all in it, captain,” replied Pencroft.
+
+“That is possible, Pencroft; but I repeat it is to expose ourselves
+uselessly.”
+
+The obstinate sailor did not reply, and let the conversation drop, quite
+determined to resume it again. But he did not suspect that an incident
+would come to his aid and change into an act of humanity that which was
+at first only a doubtful whim.
+
+After standing off the shore the “Bonadventure” again approached it
+in the direction of Port Balloon. It was important to ascertain the
+channels between the sandbanks and reefs, that buoys might be laid down
+since this little creek was to be the harbor.
+
+They were not more than half a mile from the coast, and it was necessary
+to tack to beat against the wind. The “Bonadventure” was then going at a
+very moderate rate, as the breeze, partly intercepted by the high land,
+scarcely swelled her sails, and the sea, smooth as glass, was only
+rippled now and then by passing gusts.
+
+Herbert had stationed himself in the bows that he might indicate the
+course to be followed among the channels, when all at once he shouted,--
+
+“Luff, Pencroft, luff!”
+
+“What’s the matter,” replied the sailor; “a rock?”
+
+“No--wait,” said Herbert; “I don’t quite see. Luff again--right--now.”
+
+So saying, Herbert, leaning over the side, plunged his arm into the
+water, and pulled it out, exclaiming,--
+
+“A bottle!”
+
+He held in his hand a corked bottle which he had just seized a few
+cables’ length from the shore.
+
+Cyrus Harding took the bottle. Without uttering a single word he drew
+the cork, and took from it a damp paper, on which were written these
+words:--
+
+“Castaway.... Tabor island: 153deg W. long., 37deg 11’ S. lat.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 13
+
+“A castaway!” exclaimed Pencroft; “left on this Tabor Island not two
+hundred miles from us! Ah, Captain Harding, you won’t now oppose my
+going.”
+
+“No, Pencroft,” replied Cyrus Harding; “and you shall set out as soon as
+possible.”
+
+“To-morrow?”
+
+“To-morrow!”
+
+The engineer still held in his hand the paper which he had taken from
+the bottle. He contemplated it for some instants, then resumed,
+
+“From this document, my friends, from the way in which it is worded,
+we may conclude this: first, that the castaway on Tabor Island is a man
+possessing a considerable knowledge of navigation, since he gives the
+latitude and longitude of the island exactly as we ourselves found it,
+and to a second of approximation; secondly, that he is either English or
+American, as the document is written in the English language.”
+
+“That is perfectly logical,” answered Spilett; “and the presence of this
+castaway explains the arrival of the case on the shores of our island.
+There must have been a wreck, since there is a castaway. As to the
+latter, whoever he may be, it is lucky for him that Pencroft thought of
+building this boat and of trying her this very day, for a day later and
+this bottle might have been broken on the rocks.”
+
+“Indeed,” said Herbert, “it is a fortunate chance that the
+‘Bonadventure’ passed exactly where the bottle was still floating!”
+
+“Does not this appear strange to you?” asked Harding of Pencroft.
+
+“It appears fortunate, that’s all,” answered the sailor. “Do you see
+anything extraordinary in it, captain? The bottle must go somewhere, and
+why not here as well as anywhere else?”
+
+“Perhaps you are right, Pencroft,” replied the engineer; “and yet--”
+
+“But,” observed Herbert, “there’s nothing to prove that this bottle has
+been floating long in the sea.”
+
+“Nothing,” replied Gideon Spilett, “and the document appears even to
+have been recently written. What do you think about it, Cyrus?”
+
+During this conversation Pencroft had not remained inactive. He had put
+the vessel about, and the “Bonadventure,” all sails set, was running
+rapidly towards Claw Cape.
+
+Every one was thinking of the castaway on Tabor Island. Should they
+be in time to save him? This was a great event in the life of the
+colonists! They themselves were but castaways, but it was to be feared
+that another might not have been so fortunate, and their duty was to go
+to his succor.
+
+Claw Cape was doubled, and about four o’clock the “Bonadventure” dropped
+her anchor at the mouth of the Mercy.
+
+That same evening the arrangements for the new expedition were made.
+It appeared best that Pencroft and Herbert, who knew how to work the
+vessel, should undertake the voyage alone. By setting out the next day,
+the 10th of October, they would arrive on the 13th, for with the present
+wind it would not take more than forty-eight hours to make this passage
+of a hundred and fifty miles. One day in the island, three or four to
+return, they might hope therefore that on the 17th they would again
+reach Lincoln Island. The weather was fine, the barometer was rising,
+the wind appeared settled, everything then was in favor of these brave
+men whom an act of humanity was taking far from their island.
+
+Thus it had been agreed that Cyrus Harding, Neb, and Gideon Spilett
+should remain at Granite House, but an objection was raised, and
+Spilett, who had not forgotten his business as reporter to the New York
+Herald, having declared that he would go by swimming rather than lose
+such an opportunity, he was admitted to take a part in the voyage.
+
+The evening was occupied in transporting on board the “Bonadventure,”
+ articles of bedding, utensils, arms, ammunition, a compass, provisions
+for a week; this being rapidly done, the colonists ascended to Granite
+House.
+
+The next day, at five o’clock in the morning, the farewells were said,
+not without some emotion on both sides, and Pencroft setting sail made
+towards Claw Cape, which had to be doubled in order to proceed to the
+southwest.
+
+The “Bonadventure” was already a quarter of a mile from the coast when
+the passengers perceived on the heights of Granite House two men waving
+their farewells; they were Cyrus Harding and Neb.
+
+“Our friends,” exclaimed Spilett, “this is our first separation in
+fifteen months.”
+
+Pencroft, the reporter and Herbert waved in return, and Granite House
+soon disappeared behind the high rocks of the Cape.
+
+During the first part of the day the “Bonadventure” was still in sight
+of the southern coast of Lincoln Island, which soon appeared just like
+a green basket, with Mount Franklin rising from the center. The heights,
+diminished by distance, did not present an appearance likely to tempt
+vessels to touch there. Reptile End was passed in about an hour, though
+at a distance of about ten miles.
+
+At this distance it was no longer possible to distinguish anything of
+the Western Coast, which stretched away to the ridges of Mount Franklin,
+and three hours after the last of Lincoln Island sank below the horizon.
+
+The “Bonadventure” behaved capitally. Bounding over the waves she
+proceeded rapidly on her course. Pencroft had hoisted the foresail, and
+steering by the compass followed a rectilinear direction. From time to
+time Herbert relieved him at the helm, and the lad’s hand was so firm
+that the sailor had not a point to find fault with.
+
+Gideon Spilett chatted sometimes with one, sometimes with the other, if
+wanted he lent a hand with the ropes, and Captain Pencroft was perfectly
+satisfied with his crew.
+
+In the evening the crescent moon, which would not be in its first
+quarter until the 16th, appeared in the twilight and soon set again. The
+night was dark but starry, and the next day again promised to be fine.
+
+Pencroft prudently lowered the foresail, not wishing to be caught by
+a sudden gust while carrying too much canvas; it was perhaps an
+unnecessary precaution on such a calm night, but Pencroft was a prudent
+sailor and cannot be blamed for it.
+
+The reporter slept part of the night. Pencroft and Herbert took turns
+for a spell of two hours each at the helm. The sailor trusted Herbert as
+he would himself, and his confidence was justified by the coolness and
+judgment of the lad. Pencroft gave him his directions as a commander to
+his steersman, and Herbert never allowed the “Bonadventure” to swerve
+even a point. The night passed quickly, as did the day of the 12th of
+October. A south-easterly direction was strictly maintained. Unless the
+“Bonadventure” fell in with some unknown current she would come exactly
+within sight of Tabor Island.
+
+As to the sea over which the vessel was then sailing, it was absolutely
+deserted. Now and then a great albatross or frigate bird passed within
+gunshot, and Gideon Spilett wondered if it was to one of them that he
+had confided his last letter addressed to the New York Herald. These
+birds were the only beings that appeared to frequent this part of the
+ocean between Tabor and Lincoln Islands.
+
+“And yet,” observed Herbert, “this is the time that whalers usually
+proceed towards the southern part of the Pacific. Indeed I do not think
+there could be a more deserted sea than this.”
+
+“It is not quite so deserted as all that,” replied Pencroft.
+
+“What do you mean?” asked the reporter.
+
+“We are on it. Do you take our vessel for a wreck and us for porpoises?”
+
+And Pencroft laughed at his joke.
+
+By the evening, according to calculation, it was thought that the
+“Bonadventure” had accomplished a distance of a hundred and twenty miles
+since her departure from Lincoln Island, that is to say in thirty-six
+hours, which would give her a speed of between three and four knots.
+The breeze was very slight and might soon drop altogether.
+However, it was hoped that the next morning by break of day, if the
+calculation had been correct and the course true, they would sight Tabor
+Island.
+
+Neither Gideon Spilett, Herbert, nor Pencroft slept that night. In the
+expectation of the next day they could not but feel some emotion.
+There was so much uncertainty in their enterprise! Were they near Tabor
+Island? Was the island still inhabited by the castaway to whose succor
+they had come? Who was this man? Would not his presence disturb the
+little colony till then so united? Besides, would he be content to
+exchange his prison for another? All these questions, which would no
+doubt be answered the next day, kept them in suspense, and at the dawn
+of day they all fixed their gaze on the western horizon.
+
+“Land!” shouted Pencroft at about six o’clock in the morning.
+
+And it was impossible that Pencroft should be mistaken, it was
+evident that land was there. Imagine the joy of the little crew of
+the “Bonadventure.” In a few hours they would land on the beach of the
+island!
+
+The low coast of Tabor Island, scarcely emerging from the sea, was not
+more than fifteen miles distant.
+
+The head of the “Bonadventure,” which was a little to the south of the
+island, was set directly towards it, and as the sun mounted in the east,
+its rays fell upon one or two headlands.
+
+“This is a much less important isle than Lincoln Island,” observed
+Herbert, “and is probably due like ours to some submarine convulsion.”
+
+At eleven o’clock the “Bonadventure” was not more than two miles off,
+and Pencroft, while looking for a suitable place at which to land,
+proceeded very cautiously through the unknown waters. The whole of the
+island could now be surveyed, and on it could be seen groups of gum
+and other large trees, of the same species as those growing on Lincoln
+Island. But the astonishing thing was that no smoke arose to show that
+the island was inhabited, no signal whatever appeared on the shore!
+
+And yet the document was clear enough; there was a castaway, and this
+castaway should have been on the watch.
+
+In the meanwhile the “Bonadventure” entered the winding channels among
+the reefs, and Pencroft observed every turn with extreme care. He had
+put Herbert at the helm, posting himself in the bows, inspecting the
+water, while he held the halliard in his hand, ready to lower the sail
+at a moment’s notice. Gideon Spilett with his glass eagerly scanned the
+shore, though without perceiving anything.
+
+However, at about twelve o’clock the keel of the “Bonadventure” grated
+on the bottom. The anchor was let go, the sails furled, and the crew of
+the little vessel landed.
+
+And there was no reason to doubt that this was Tabor Island, since
+according to the most recent charts there was no island in this part of
+the Pacific between New Zealand and the American Coast.
+
+The vessel was securely moored, so that there should be no danger of
+her being carried away by the receding tide; then Pencroft and his
+companions, well armed, ascended the shore, so as to gain an elevation
+of about two hundred and fifty or three hundred feet which rose at a
+distance of half a mile.
+
+“From the summit of that hill,” said Spilett, “we can no doubt obtain a
+complete view of the island, which will greatly facilitate our search.”
+
+“So as to do here,” replied Herbert, “that which Captain Harding did the
+very first thing on Lincoln Island, by climbing Mount Franklin.”
+
+“Exactly so,” answered the reporter, “and it is the best plan.”
+
+While thus talking the explorers had advanced along a clearing
+which terminated at the foot of the hill. Flocks of rock-pigeons and
+sea-swallows, similar to those of Lincoln Island, fluttered around them.
+Under the woods which skirted the glade on the left they could hear the
+bushes rustling and see the grass waving, which indicated the presence
+of timid animals, but still nothing to show that the island was
+inhabited.
+
+Arrived at the foot of the hill, Pencroft, Spilett, and Herbert climbed
+it in a few minutes, and gazed anxiously round the horizon.
+
+They were on an islet, which did not measure more than six miles in
+circumference, its shape not much bordered by capes or promontories,
+bays or creeks, being a lengthened oval. All around, the lonely sea
+extended to the limits of the horizon. No land nor even a sail was in
+sight.
+
+This woody islet did not offer the varied aspects of Lincoln Island,
+arid and wild in one part, but fertile and rich in the other. On the
+contrary this was a uniform mass of verdure, out of which rose two or
+three hills of no great height. Obliquely to the oval of the island ran
+a stream through a wide meadow falling into the sea on the west by a
+narrow mouth.
+
+“The domain is limited,” said Herbert.
+
+“Yes,” rejoined Pencroft: “It would have been too small for us.”
+
+“And moreover,” said the reporter, “it appears to be uninhabited.”
+
+“Indeed,” answered Herbert, “nothing here betrays the presence of man.”
+
+“Let us go down,” said Pencroft, “and search.”
+
+The sailor and his two companions returned to the shore, to the place
+where they had left the “Bonadventure.”
+
+They had decided to make the tour of the island on foot, before
+exploring the interior; so that not a spot should escape their
+investigations. The beach was easy to follow, and only in some places
+was their way barred by large rocks, which, however, they easily passed
+round. The explorers proceeded towards the south, disturbing numerous
+flocks of sea-birds and herds of seals, which threw themselves into the
+sea as soon as they saw the strangers at a distance.
+
+“Those beasts yonder,” observed the reporter, “do not see men for the
+first time. They fear them, therefore they must know them.”
+
+An hour after their departure they arrived on the southern point of the
+islet, terminated by a sharp cape, and proceeded towards the north along
+the western coast, equally formed by sand and rocks, the background
+bordered with thick woods.
+
+There was not a trace of a habitation in any part, not the print of a
+human foot on the shore of the island, which after four hours’ walking
+had been gone completely round.
+
+It was to say the least very extraordinary, and they were compelled to
+believe that Tabor Island was not or was no longer inhabited. Perhaps,
+after all the document was already several months or several years old,
+and it was possible in this case, either that the castaway had been
+enabled to return to his country, or that he had died of misery.
+
+Pencroft, Spilett, and Herbert, forming more or less probable
+conjectures, dined rapidly on board the “Bonadventure” so as to be
+able to continue their excursion until nightfall. This was done at five
+o’clock in the evening, at which hour they entered the wood.
+
+Numerous animals fled at their approach, being principally, one might
+say, only goats and pigs, which were obviously European species.
+
+Doubtless some whaler had landed them on the island, where they had
+rapidly increased. Herbert resolved to catch one or two living, and take
+them back to Lincoln Island.
+
+It was no longer doubtful that men at some period or other had visited
+this islet, and this became still more evident when paths appeared
+trodden through the forest, felled trees, and everywhere traces of the
+hand of man; but the trees were becoming rotten, and had been felled
+many years ago; the marks of the axe were velveted with moss, and the
+grass grew long and thick on the paths, so that it was difficult to find
+them.
+
+“But,” observed Gideon Spilett, “this not only proves that men have
+landed on the island, but also that they lived on it for some time. Now,
+who were these men? How many of them remain?”
+
+“The document,” said Herbert, “only spoke of one castaway.”
+
+“Well, if he is still on the island,” replied Pencroft, “it is
+impossible but that we shall find him.”
+
+The exploration was continued. The sailor and his companions naturally
+followed the route which cut diagonally across the island, and they were
+thus obliged to follow the stream which flowed towards the sea.
+
+If the animals of European origin, if works due to a human hand, showed
+incontestably that men had already visited the island, several specimens
+of the vegetable kingdom did not prove it less. In some places, in the
+midst of clearings, it was evident that the soil had been planted with
+culinary plants, at probably the same distant period.
+
+What, then, was Herbert’s joy, when he recognized potatoes, chicory,
+sorrel, carrots, cabbages, and turnips, of which it was sufficient to
+collect the seed to enrich the soil of Lincoln Island.
+
+“Capital, jolly!” exclaimed Pencroft. “That will suit Neb as well as us.
+Even if we do not find the castaway, at least our voyage will not have
+been useless, and God will have rewarded us.”
+
+“Doubtless,” replied Gideon Spilett, “but to see the state in which we
+find these plantations, it is to be feared that the island has not been
+inhabited for some time.”
+
+“Indeed,” answered Herbert, “an inhabitant, whoever he was, could not
+have neglected such an important culture!”
+
+“Yes,” said Pencroft, “the castaway has gone.”
+
+“We must suppose so.”
+
+“It must then be admitted that the document has already a distant date?”
+
+“Evidently.”
+
+“And that the bottle only arrived at Lincoln Island after having floated
+in the sea a long time.”
+
+“Why not?” returned Pencroft. “But night is coming on,” added he, “and I
+think that it will be best to give up the search for the present.”
+
+“Let us go on board, and to-morrow we will begin again,” said the
+reporter.
+
+This was the wisest course, and it was about to be followed when
+Herbert, pointing to a confused mass among the trees, exclaimed,--
+
+“A hut!”
+
+All three immediately ran towards the dwelling. In the twilight it was
+just possible to see that it was built of planks and covered with a
+thick tarpaulin.
+
+The half-closed door was pushed open by Pencroft, who entered with a
+rapid step.
+
+The hut was empty!
+
+
+
+Chapter 14
+
+Pencroft, Herbert, and Gideon Spilett remained silent in the midst of
+the darkness.
+
+Pencroft shouted loudly.
+
+No reply was made.
+
+The sailor then struck a light and set fire to a twig. This lighted for
+a minute a small room, which appeared perfectly empty. At the back was
+a rude fireplace, with a few cold cinders, supporting an armful of dry
+wood. Pencroft threw the blazing twig on it, the wood crackled and gave
+forth a bright light.
+
+The sailor and his two companions then perceived a disordered bed, of
+which the damp and yellow coverlets proved that it had not been used for
+a long time. In the corner of the fireplace were two kettles, covered
+with rust, and an overthrown pot. A cupboard, with a few moldy sailor’s
+clothes; on the table a tin plate and a Bible, eaten away by damp; in a
+corner a few tools, a spade, pickaxe, two fowling-pieces, one of which
+was broken; on a plank, forming a shelf, stood a barrel of powder, still
+untouched, a barrel of shot, and several boxes of caps, all thickly
+covered with dust, accumulated, perhaps, by many long years.
+
+“There is no one here,” said the reporter.
+
+“No one,” replied Pencroft.
+
+“It is a long time since this room has been inhabited,” observed
+Herbert.
+
+“Yes, a very long time!” answered the reporter.
+
+“Mr. Spilett,” then said Pencroft, “instead of returning on board, I
+think that it would be well to pass the night in this hut.”
+
+“You are right, Pencroft,” answered Gideon Spilett, “and if its owner
+returns, well! perhaps he will not be sorry to find the place taken
+possession of.”
+
+“He will not return,” said the sailor, shaking his head.
+
+“You think that he has quitted the island?” asked the reporter.
+
+“If he had quitted the island he would have taken away his weapons and
+his tools,” replied Pencroft. “You know the value which castaways set
+on such articles as these the last remains of a wreck. No! no!” repeated
+the sailor, in a tone of conviction; “no, he has not left the island! If
+he had escaped in a boat made by himself, he would still less have left
+these indispensable and necessary articles. No! he is on the island!”
+
+“Living?” asked Herbert.
+
+“Living or dead. But if he is dead, I suppose he has not buried himself,
+and so we shall at least find his remains!”
+
+It was then agreed that the night should be passed in the deserted
+dwelling, and a store of wood found in a corner was sufficient to warm
+it. The door closed, Pencroft, Herbert and Spilett remained there,
+seated on a bench, talking little but wondering much. They were in a
+frame of mind to imagine anything or expect anything. They listened
+eagerly for sounds outside. The door might have opened suddenly, and
+a man presented himself to them without their being in the least
+surprised, notwithstanding all that the hut revealed of abandonment,
+and they had their hands ready to press the hands of this man, this
+castaway, this unknown friend, for whom friends were waiting.
+
+But no voice was heard, the door did not open. The hours thus passed
+away.
+
+How long the night appeared to the sailor and his companions! Herbert
+alone slept for two hours, for at his age sleep is a necessity. They
+were all three anxious to continue their exploration of the day before,
+and to search the most secret recesses of the islet! The inferences
+deduced by Pencroft were perfectly reasonable, and it was nearly certain
+that, as the hut was deserted, and the tools, utensils, and weapons were
+still there, the owner had succumbed. It was agreed, therefore, that
+they should search for his remains, and give them at least Christian
+burial.
+
+Day dawned; Pencroft and his companions immediately proceeded to survey
+the dwelling. It had certainly been built in a favorable situation,
+at the back of a little hill, sheltered by five or six magnificent
+gum-trees. Before its front and through the trees the axe had prepared
+a wide clearing, which allowed the view to extend to the sea. Beyond a
+lawn, surrounded by a wooden fence falling to pieces, was the shore, on
+the left of which was the mouth of the stream.
+
+The hut had been built of planks, and it was easy to see that these
+planks had been obtained from the hull or deck of a ship. It was
+probable that a disabled vessel had been cast on the coast of the
+island, that one at least of the crew had been saved, and that by means
+of the wreck this man, having tools at his disposal, had built the
+dwelling.
+
+And this became still more evident when Gideon Spilett, after having
+walked around the hut, saw on a plank, probably one of those which
+had formed the armor of the wrecked vessel, these letters already half
+effaced:
+
+
+              BR--TAN--A
+
+
+“Britannia,” exclaimed Pencroft, whom the reporter had called; “it is
+a common name for ships, and I could not say if she was English or
+American!”
+
+“It matters very little, Pencroft!”
+
+“Very little indeed,” answered the sailor, “and we will save the
+survivor of her crew if he is still living, to whatever country he may
+belong. But before beginning our search again let us go on board the
+‘Bonadventure’.”
+
+A sort of uneasiness had seized Pencroft upon the subject of his vessel.
+Should the island be inhabited after all, and should some one have taken
+possession of her? But he shrugged his shoulders at such an unreasonable
+supposition. At any rate the sailor was not sorry to go to breakfast on
+board. The road already trodden was not long, scarcely a mile. They set
+out on their walk, gazing into the wood and thickets through which goats
+and pigs fled in hundreds.
+
+Twenty minutes after leaving the hut Pencroft and his companions reached
+the western coast of the island, and saw the “Bonadventure” held fast by
+her anchor, which was buried deep in the sand.
+
+Pencroft could not restrain a sigh of satisfaction. After all this
+vessel was his child, and it is the right of fathers to be often uneasy
+when there is no occasion for it.
+
+They returned on board, breakfasted, so that it should not be necessary
+to dine until very late; then the repast being ended, the exploration
+was continued and conducted with the most minute care. Indeed, it was
+very probable that the only inhabitant of the island had perished. It
+was therefore more for the traces of a dead than of a living man that
+Pencroft and his companions searched. But their searches were vain, and
+during the half of that day they sought to no purpose among the thickets
+of trees which covered the islet. There was then scarcely any doubt
+that, if the castaway was dead, no trace of his body now remained, but
+that some wild beast had probably devoured it to the last bone.
+
+“We will set off to-morrow at daybreak,” said Pencroft to his two
+companions, as about two o’clock they were resting for a few minutes
+under the shade of a clump of firs.
+
+“I should think that we might without scruple take the utensils which
+belonged to the castaway,” added Herbert.
+
+“I think so, too,” returned Gideon Spilett, “and these arms and tools
+will make up the stores of Granite House. The supply of powder and shot
+is also most important.”
+
+“Yes,” replied Pencroft, “but we must not forget to capture a couple or
+two of those pigs, of which Lincoln Island is destitute.”
+
+“Nor to gather those seeds,” added Herbert, “which will give us all the
+vegetables of the Old and the New Worlds.”
+
+“Then perhaps it would be best,” said the reporter, “to remain a day
+longer on Tabor Island, so as to collect all that may be useful to us.”
+
+“No, Mr. Spilett,” answered Pencroft, “I will ask you to set off
+to-morrow at daybreak. The wind seems to me to be likely to shift to the
+west, and after having had a fair wind for coming we shall have a fair
+wind for going back.”
+
+“Then do not let us lose time,” said Herbert, rising.
+
+“We won’t waste time,” returned Pencroft. “You, Herbert, go and gather
+the seeds, which you know better than we do. While you do that, Mr.
+Spilett and I will go and have a pig hunt, and even without Top I hope
+we shall manage to catch a few!”
+
+Herbert accordingly took the path which led towards the cultivated part
+of the islet, while the sailor and the reporter entered the forest.
+
+Many specimens of the porcine race fled before them, and these animals,
+which were singularly active, did not appear to be in a humor to allow
+themselves to be approached.
+
+However, after an hour’s chase, the hunters had just managed to get hold
+of a couple lying in a thicket, when cries were heard resounding from
+the north part of the island, With the cries were mingled terrible
+yells, in which there was nothing human.
+
+Pencroft and Gideon Spilett were at once on their feet, and the pigs
+by this movement began to run away, at the moment when the sailor was
+getting ready the rope to bind them.
+
+“That’s Herbert’s voice,” said the reporter.
+
+“Run!” exclaimed Pencroft.
+
+And the sailor and Spilett immediately ran at full speed towards the
+spot from whence the cries proceeded.
+
+They did well to hasten, for at a turn of the path near a clearing they
+saw the lad thrown on the ground and in the grasp of a savage being,
+apparently a gigantic ape, who was about to do him some great harm.
+
+To rush on this monster, throw him on the ground in his turn, snatch
+Herbert from him, then bind him securely, was the work of a minute for
+Pencroft and Gideon Spilett. The sailor was of Herculean strength, the
+reporter also very powerful, and in spite of the monster’s resistance he
+was firmly tied so that he could not even move.
+
+“You are not hurt, Herbert?” asked Spilett.
+
+“No, no!”
+
+“Oh, if this ape had wounded him!” exclaimed Pencroft.
+
+“But he is not an ape,” answered Herbert.
+
+At these words Pencroft and Gideon Spilett looked at the singular being
+who lay on the ground. Indeed it was not an ape; it was a human being,
+a man. But what a man! A savage in all the horrible acceptation of the
+word, and so much the more frightful that he seemed fallen to the lowest
+degree of brutishness!
+
+Shaggy hair, untrimmed beard descending to the chest, the body almost
+naked except a rag round the waist, wild eyes, enormous hands with
+immensely long nails, skin the color of mahogany, feet as hard as if
+made of horn, such was the miserable creature who yet had a claim to be
+called a man. But it might justly be asked if there were yet a soul in
+this body, or if the brute instinct alone survived in it!
+
+“Are you quite sure that this is a man, or that he has ever been one?”
+ said Pencroft to the reporter.
+
+“Alas! there is no doubt about it,” replied Spilett.
+
+“Then this must be the castaway?” asked Herbert.
+
+“Yes,” replied Gideon Spilett, “but the unfortunate man has no longer
+anything human about him!”
+
+The reporter spoke the truth. It was evident that if the castaway had
+ever been a civilized being, solitude had made him a savage, or worse,
+perhaps a regular man of the woods. Hoarse sounds issued from his throat
+between his teeth, which were sharp as the teeth of a wild beast made to
+tear raw flesh.
+
+Memory must have deserted him long before, and for a long time also he
+had forgotten how to use his gun and tools, and he no longer knew how to
+make a fire! It could be seen that he was active and powerful, but the
+physical qualities had been developed in him to the injury of the moral
+qualities. Gideon Spilett spoke to him. He did not appear to understand
+or even to hear. And yet on looking into his eyes, the reporter thought
+he could see that all reason was not extinguished in him. However, the
+prisoner did not struggle, nor even attempt to break his bonds. Was he
+overwhelmed by the presence of men whose fellow he had once been? Had he
+found in some corner of his brain a fleeting remembrance which recalled
+him to humanity? If free, would he attempt to fly, or would he remain?
+They could not tell, but they did not make the experiment; and after
+gazing attentively at the miserable creature,--
+
+“Whoever he may be,” remarked Gideon Spilett, “whoever he may have
+been, and whatever he may become, it is our duty to take him with us to
+Lincoln Island.”
+
+“Yes, yes!” replied Herbert, “and perhaps with care we may arouse in him
+some gleam of intelligence.”
+
+“The soul does not die,” said the reporter, “and it would be a great
+satisfaction to rescue one of God’s creatures from brutishness.”
+
+Pencroft shook his head doubtfully.
+
+“We must try at any rate,” returned the reporter; “humanity commands
+us.”
+
+It was indeed their duty as Christians and civilized beings. All three
+felt this, and they well knew that Cyrus Harding would approve of their
+acting thus.
+
+“Shall we leave him bound?” asked the sailor.
+
+“Perhaps he would walk if his feet were unfastened,” said Herbert.
+
+“Let us try,” replied Pencroft.
+
+The cords which shackled the prisoner’s feet were cut off, but his arms
+remained securely fastened. He got up by himself and did not manifest
+any desire to run away. His hard eyes darted a piercing glance at the
+three men, who walked near him, but nothing denoted that he recollected
+being their fellow, or at least having been so. A continual hissing
+sound issued from his lips, his aspect was wild, but he did not attempt
+to resist.
+
+By the reporter’s advice the unfortunate man was taken to the hut.
+Perhaps the sight of the things that belonged to him would make some
+impression on him! Perhaps a spark would be sufficient to revive his
+obscured intellect, to rekindle his dulled soul. The dwelling was
+not far off. In a few minutes they arrived there, but the prisoner
+remembered nothing, and it appeared that he had lost consciousness of
+everything.
+
+What could they think of the degree of brutishness into which this
+miserable being had fallen, unless that his imprisonment on the islet
+dated from a very distant period and after having arrived there a
+rational being solitude had reduced him to this condition.
+
+The reporter then thought that perhaps the sight of fire would have
+some effect on him, and in a moment one of those beautiful flames, that
+attract even animals, blazed up on the hearth. The sight of the flame
+seemed at first to fix the attention of the unhappy object, but soon
+he turned away and the look of intelligence faded. Evidently there was
+nothing to be done, for the time at least, but to take him on board
+the “Bonadventure.” This was done, and he remained there in Pencroft’s
+charge.
+
+Herbert and Spilett returned to finish their work; and some hours after
+they came back to the shore, carrying the utensils and guns, a store of
+vegetables, of seeds, some game, and two couple of pigs.
+
+All was embarked, and the “Bonadventure” was ready to weigh anchor and
+sail with the morning tide.
+
+The prisoner had been placed in the fore-cabin, where he remained quiet,
+silent, apparently deaf and dumb.
+
+Pencroft offered him something to eat, but he pushed away the cooked
+meat that was presented to him and which doubtless did not suit him. But
+on the sailor showing him one of the ducks which Herbert had killed, he
+pounced on it like a wild beast, and devoured it greedily.
+
+“You think that he will recover his senses?” asked Pencroft. “It is
+not impossible that our care will have an effect upon him, for it is
+solitude that has made him what he is, and from this time forward he
+will be no longer alone.”
+
+“The poor man must no doubt have been in this state for a long time,”
+ said Herbert.
+
+“Perhaps,” answered Gideon Spilett.
+
+“About what age is he?” asked the lad.
+
+“It is difficult to say,” replied the reporter, “for it is impossible to
+see his features under the thick beard which covers his face, but he is
+no longer young, and I suppose he might be about fifty.”
+
+“Have you noticed, Mr. Spilett, how deeply sunk his eyes are?” asked
+Herbert.
+
+“Yes, Herbert, but I must add that they are more human than one could
+expect from his appearance.”
+
+“However, we shall see,” replied Pencroft, “and I am anxious to know
+what opinion Captain Harding will have of our savage. We went to look
+for a human creature, and we are bringing back a monster! After all, we
+did what we could.”
+
+The night passed, and whether the prisoner slept or not could not be
+known, but at any rate, although he had been unbound, he did not
+move. He was like a wild animal, which appears stunned at first by its
+capture, and becomes wild again afterwards.
+
+
+At daybreak the next morning, the 15th of October, the change of weather
+predicted by Pencroft occurred. The wind having shifted to the northwest
+favored the return of the “Bonadventure,” but at the same time it
+freshened, which might render navigation more difficult.
+
+At five o’clock in the morning the anchor was weighed. Pencroft took a
+reef in the mainsail, and steered towards the north-east, so as to sail
+straight for Lincoln Island.
+
+The first day of the voyage was not marked by any incident. The prisoner
+remained quiet in the fore-cabin, and as he had been a sailor it
+appeared that the motion of the vessel might produce on him a salutary
+reaction. Did some recollection of his former calling return to him?
+However that might be, he remained tranquil, astonished rather than
+depressed.
+
+The next day the wind increased, blowing more from the north,
+consequently in a less favorable direction for the “Bonadventure.”
+ Pencroft was soon obliged to sail close-hauled, and without saying
+anything about it he began to be uneasy at the state of the sea, which
+frequently broke over the bows. Certainly, if the wind did not moderate,
+it would take a longer time to reach Lincoln Island than it had taken to
+make Tabor Island.
+
+Indeed, on the morning of the 17th, the “Bonadventure” had been
+forty-eight hours at sea, and nothing showed that she was near the
+island. It was impossible, besides, to estimate the distance traversed,
+or to trust to the reckoning for the direction, as the speed had been
+very irregular.
+
+Twenty-four hours after there was yet no land in sight. The wind was
+right ahead and the sea very heavy. The sails were close-reefed, and
+they tacked frequently. On the 18th, a wave swept completely over the
+“Bonadventure”; and if the crew had not taken the precaution of lashing
+themselves to the deck, they would have been carried away.
+
+On this occasion Pencroft and his companions, who were occupied with
+loosing themselves, received unexpected aid from the prisoner, who
+emerged from the hatchway as if his sailor’s instinct had suddenly
+returned, broke a piece out of the bulwarks with a spar so as to let
+the water which filled the deck escape. Then the vessel being clear, he
+descended to his cabin without having uttered a word. Pencroft, Gideon
+Spilett, and Herbert, greatly astonished, let him proceed.
+
+Their situation was truly serious, and the sailor had reason to fear
+that he was lost on the wide sea without any possibility of recovering
+his course.
+
+The night was dark and cold. However, about eleven o’clock, the wind
+fell, the sea went down, and the speed of the vessel, as she labored
+less, greatly increased.
+
+Neither Pencroft, Spilett, nor Herbert thought of taking an hour’s
+sleep. They kept a sharp look-out, for either Lincoln Island could not
+be far distant and would be sighted at daybreak, or the “Bonadventure,”
+ carried away by currents, had drifted so much that it would be
+impossible to rectify her course. Pencroft, uneasy to the last degree,
+yet did not despair, for he had a gallant heart, and grasping the tiller
+he anxiously endeavored to pierce the darkness which surrounded them.
+
+About two o’clock in the morning he started forward,--
+
+“A light! a light!” he shouted.
+
+Indeed, a bright light appeared twenty miles to the northeast. Lincoln
+Island was there, and this fire, evidently lighted by Cyrus Harding,
+showed them the course to be followed. Pencroft, who was bearing too
+much to the north, altered his course and steered towards the fire,
+which burned brightly above the horizon like a star of the first
+magnitude.
+
+
+
+Chapter 15
+
+The next day, the 20th of October, at seven o’clock in the morning,
+after a voyage of four days, the “Bonadventure” gently glided up to the
+beach at the mouth of the Mercy.
+
+Cyrus Harding and Neb, who had become very uneasy at the bad weather and
+the prolonged absence of their companions, had climbed at daybreak to
+the plateau of Prospect Heights, and they had at last caught sight of
+the vessel which had been so long in returning.
+
+“God be praised! there they are!” exclaimed Cyrus Harding.
+
+As to Neb in his joy, he began to dance, to twirl round, clapping his
+hands and shouting, “Oh! my master!” A more touching pantomime than the
+finest discourse.
+
+The engineer’s first idea, on counting the people on the deck of the
+“Bonadventure,” was that Pencroft had not found the castaway of Tabor
+Island, or at any rate that the unfortunate man had refused to leave his
+island and change one prison for another.
+
+Indeed Pencroft, Gideon Spilett, and Herbert were alone on the deck of
+the “Bonadventure.”
+
+The moment the vessel touched, the engineer and Neb were waiting on
+the beach, and before the passengers had time to leap on to the sand,
+Harding said: “We have been very uneasy at your delay, my friends! Did
+you meet with any accident?”
+
+“No,” replied Gideon Spilett; “on the contrary, everything went
+wonderfully well. We will tell you all about it.”
+
+“However,” returned the engineer, “your search has been unsuccessful,
+since you are only three, just as you went!”
+
+“Excuse me, captain,” replied the sailor, “we are four.”
+
+“You have found the castaway?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“And you have brought him?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Living?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Where is he? Who is he?”
+
+“He is,” replied the reporter, “or rather he was a man! There, Cyrus,
+that is all we can tell you!”
+
+The engineer was then informed of all that had passed during the voyage,
+and under what conditions the search had been conducted; how the only
+dwelling in the island had long been abandoned; how at last a castaway
+had been captured, who appeared no longer to belong to the human
+species.
+
+“And that’s just the point,” added Pencroft, “I don’t know if we have
+done right to bring him here.”
+
+“Certainly you have, Pencroft,” replied the engineer quickly.
+
+“But the wretched creature has no sense!”
+
+“That is possible at present,” replied Cyrus Harding, “but only a few
+months ago the wretched creature was a man like you and me. And who
+knows what will become of the survivor of us after a long solitude on
+this island? It is a great misfortune to be alone, my friends; and it
+must be believed that solitude can quickly destroy reason, since you
+have found this poor creature in such a state!”
+
+“But, captain,” asked Herbert, “what leads you to think that the
+brutishness of the unfortunate man began only a few months back?”
+
+“Because the document we found had been recently written,” answered the
+engineer, “and the castaway alone can have written it.”
+
+“Always supposing,” observed Gideon Spilett, “that it had not been
+written by a companion of this man, since dead.”
+
+“That is impossible, my dear Spilett.”
+
+“Why so?” asked the reporter.
+
+“Because the document would then have spoken of two castaways,” replied
+Harding, “and it mentioned only one.”
+
+Herbert then in a few words related the incidents of the voyage, and
+dwelt on the curious fact of the sort of passing gleam in the prisoner’s
+mind, when for an instant in the height of the storm he had become a
+sailor.
+
+“Well, Herbert,” replied the engineer, “you are right to attach great
+importance to this fact. The unfortunate man cannot be incurable, and
+despair has made him what he is; but here he will find his fellow-men,
+and since there is still a soul in him, this soul we shall save!”
+
+The castaway of Tabor Island, to the great pity of the engineer and
+the great astonishment of Neb, was then brought from the cabin which he
+occupied in the fore part of the “Bonadventure”; when once on land he
+manifested a wish to run away.
+
+But Cyrus Harding approaching, placed his hand on his shoulder with a
+gesture full of authority, and looked at him with infinite tenderness.
+Immediately the unhappy man, submitting to a superior will, gradually
+became calm, his eyes fell, his head bent, and he made no more
+resistance.
+
+“Poor fellow!” murmured the engineer.
+
+Cyrus Harding had attentively observed him. To judge by his appearance
+this miserable being had no longer anything human about him, and
+yet Harding, as had the reporter already, observed in his look an
+indefinable trace of intelligence.
+
+It was decided that the castaway, or rather the stranger as he was
+thenceforth termed by his companions, should live in one of the rooms
+of Granite House, from which, however, he could not escape. He was led
+there without difficulty, and with careful attention, it might, perhaps,
+be hoped that some day he would be a companion to the settlers in
+Lincoln Island.
+
+Cyrus Harding, during breakfast, which Neb had hastened to prepare,
+as the reporter, Herbert, and Pencroft were dying of hunger, heard in
+detail all the incidents which had marked the voyage of exploration to
+the islet. He agreed with his friends on this point, that the stranger
+must be either English or American, the name Britannia leading them
+to suppose this, and, besides, through the bushy beard, and under
+the shaggy, matted hair, the engineer thought he could recognize the
+characteristic features of the Anglo-Saxon.
+
+“But, by the bye,” said Gideon Spilett, addressing Herbert, “you never
+told us how you met this savage, and we know nothing, except that you
+would have been strangled, if we had not happened to come up in time to
+help you!”
+
+“Upon my word,” answered Herbert, “it is rather difficult to say how it
+happened. I was, I think, occupied in collecting my plants, when I heard
+a noise like an avalanche falling from a very tall tree. I scarcely
+had time to look round. This unfortunate man, who was without doubt
+concealed in a tree, rushed upon me in less time than I take to tell you
+about it, and unless Mr. Spilett and Pencroft--”
+
+“My boy!” said Cyrus Harding, “you ran a great danger, but, perhaps,
+without that, the poor creature would have still hidden himself from
+your search, and we should not have had a new companion.”
+
+“You hope, then, Cyrus, to succeed in reforming the man?” asked the
+reporter.
+
+“Yes,” replied the engineer.
+
+Breakfast over, Harding and his companions left Granite House and
+returned to the beach. They there occupied themselves in unloading the
+“Bonadventure,” and the engineer, having examined the arms and tools,
+saw nothing which could help them to establish the identity of the
+stranger.
+
+The capture of pigs, made on the islet, was looked upon as being very
+profitable to Lincoln Island, and the animals were led to the sty, where
+they soon became at home.
+
+The two barrels, containing the powder and shot, as well as the box
+of caps, were very welcome. It was agreed to establish a small
+powder-magazine, either outside Granite House or in the Upper Cavern,
+where there would be no fear of explosion. However, the use of pyroxyle
+was to be continued, for this substance giving excellent results, there
+was no reason for substituting ordinary powder.
+
+When the unloading of the vessel was finished,--
+
+“Captain,” said Pencroft, “I think it would be prudent to put our
+‘Bonadventure’ in a safe place.”
+
+“Is she not safe at the mouth of the Mercy?” asked Cyrus Harding.
+
+“No, captain,” replied the sailor. “Half of the time she is stranded on
+the sand, and that works her. She is a famous craft, you see, and she
+behaved admirably during the squall which struck us on our return.”
+
+“Could she not float in the river?”
+
+“No doubt, captain, she could; but there is no shelter there, and in the
+east winds, I think that the ‘Bonadventure’ would suffer much from the
+surf.”
+
+“Well, where would you put her, Pencroft?”
+
+“In Port Balloon,” replied the sailor. “That little creek, shut in by
+rocks, seems to me to be just the harbor we want.”
+
+“Is it not rather far?”
+
+“Pooh! it is not more than three miles from Granite House, and we have a
+fine straight road to take us there!”
+
+“Do it then, Pencroft, and take your ‘Bonadventure’ there,” replied
+the engineer, “and yet I would rather have her under our more immediate
+protection. When we have time, we must make a little harbor for her.”
+
+“Famous!” exclaimed Pencroft. “A harbor with a lighthouse, a pier, and
+dock! Ah! really with you, captain, everything becomes easy.”
+
+“Yes, my brave Pencroft,” answered the engineer, “but on condition,
+however, that you help me, for you do as much as three men in all our
+work.”
+
+Herbert and the sailor then re-embarked on board the “Bonadventure,”
+ the anchor was weighed, the sail hoisted, and the wind drove her rapidly
+towards Claw Cape. Two hours after, she was reposing on the tranquil
+waters of Port Balloon.
+
+During the first days passed by the stranger in Granite House, had he
+already given them reason to think that his savage nature was becoming
+tamed? Did a brighter light burn in the depths of that obscured mind? In
+short, was the soul returning to the body?
+
+Yes, to a certainty, and to such a degree, that Cyrus Harding and the
+reporter wondered if the reason of the unfortunate man had ever been
+totally extinguished. At first, accustomed to the open air, to the
+unrestrained liberty which he had enjoyed on Tabor Island, the stranger
+manifested a sullen fury, and it was feared that he might throw
+himself onto the beach, out of one of the windows of Granite House.
+But gradually he became calmer, and more freedom was allowed to his
+movements.
+
+They had reason to hope, and to hope much. Already, forgetting his
+carnivorous instincts, the stranger accepted a less bestial nourishment
+than that on which he fed on the islet, and cooked meat did not produce
+in him the same sentiment of repulsion which he had showed on board
+the “Bonadventure.” Cyrus Harding had profited by a moment when he was
+sleeping, to cut his hair and matted beard, which formed a sort of
+mane and gave him such a savage aspect. He had also been clothed more
+suitably, after having got rid of the rag which covered him. The result
+was that, thanks to these attentions, the stranger resumed a more
+human appearance, and it even seemed as if his eyes had become milder.
+Certainly, when formerly lighted up by intelligence, this man’s face
+must have had a sort of beauty.
+
+Every day, Harding imposed on himself the task of passing some hours
+in his company. He came and worked near him, and occupied himself in
+different things, so as to fix his attention. A spark, indeed, would be
+sufficient to reillumine that soul, a recollection crossing that brain
+to recall reason. That had been seen, during the storm, on board the
+“Bonadventure!” The engineer did not neglect either to speak aloud, so
+as to penetrate at the same time by the organs of hearing and sight the
+depths of that torpid intelligence. Sometimes one of his companions,
+sometimes another, sometimes all joined him. They spoke most often of
+things belonging to the navy, which must interest a sailor.
+
+At times, the stranger gave some slight attention to what was said,
+and the settlers were soon convinced that he partly understood them.
+Sometimes the expression of his countenance was deeply sorrowful, a
+proof that he suffered mentally, for his face could not be mistaken;
+but he did not speak, although at different times, however, they almost
+thought that words were about to issue from his lips. At all events, the
+poor creature was quite quiet and sad!
+
+But was not his calm only apparent? Was not his sadness only the result
+of his seclusion? Nothing could yet be ascertained. Seeing only certain
+objects and in a limited space, always in contact with the colonists,
+to whom he would soon become accustomed, having no desires to satisfy,
+better fed, better clothed, it was natural that his physical nature
+should gradually improve; but was he penetrated with the sense of a new
+life? or rather, to employ a word which would be exactly applicable
+to him, was he not becoming tamed, like an animal in company with his
+master? This was an important question, which Cyrus Harding was anxious
+to answer, and yet he did not wish to treat his invalid roughly! Would
+he ever be a convalescent?
+
+How the engineer observed him every moment! How he was on the watch for
+his soul, if one may use the expression! How he was ready to grasp it!
+The settlers followed with real sympathy all the phases of the cure
+undertaken by Harding. They aided him also in this work of humanity, and
+all, except perhaps the incredulous Pencroft, soon shared both his hope
+and his faith.
+
+The calm of the stranger was deep, as has been said, and he even showed
+a sort of attachment for the engineer, whose influence he evidently
+felt. Cyrus Harding resolved then to try him, by transporting him
+to another scene, from that ocean which formerly his eyes had been
+accustomed to contemplate, to the border of the forest, which might
+perhaps recall those where so many years of his life had been passed!
+
+“But,” said Gideon Spilett, “can we hope that he will not escape, if
+once set at liberty?”
+
+“The experiment must be tried,” replied the engineer.
+
+“Well!” said Pencroft. “When that fellow is outside, and feels the fresh
+air, he will be off as fast as his legs can carry him!”
+
+“I do not think so,” returned Harding.
+
+“Let us try,” said Spilett.
+
+“We will try,” replied the engineer.
+
+This was on the 30th of October, and consequently the castaway of Tabor
+Island had been a prisoner in Granite House for nine days. It was
+warm, and a bright sun darted its rays on the island. Cyrus Harding and
+Pencroft went to the room occupied by the stranger, who was found lying
+near the window and gazing at the sky.
+
+“Come, my friend,” said the engineer to him.
+
+The stranger rose immediately. His eyes were fixed on Cyrus Harding, and
+he followed him, while the sailor marched behind them, little confident
+as to the result of the experiment.
+
+Arrived at the door, Harding and Pencroft made him take his place in
+the lift, while Neb, Herbert, and Gideon Spilett waited for them before
+Granite House. The lift descended, and in a few moments all were united
+on the beach.
+
+The settlers went a short distance from the stranger, so as to leave him
+at liberty.
+
+He then made a few steps toward the sea, and his look brightened with
+extreme animation, but he did not make the slightest attempt to escape.
+He was gazing at the little waves which, broken by the islet, rippled on
+the sand.
+
+“This is only the sea,” observed Gideon Spilett, “and possibly it does
+not inspire him with any wish to escape!”
+
+“Yes,” replied Harding, “we must take him to the plateau, on the border
+of the forest. There the experiment will be more conclusive.”
+
+“Besides, he could not run away,” said Neb, “since the bridge is
+raised.”
+
+“Oh!” said Pencroft, “that isn’t a man to be troubled by a stream like
+Creek Glycerine! He could cross it directly, at a single bound!”
+
+“We shall soon see,” Harding contented himself with replying, his eyes
+not quitting those of his patient.
+
+The latter was then led towards the mouth of the Mercy, and all climbing
+the left bank of the river, reached Prospect Heights.
+
+Arrived at the spot on which grew the first beautiful trees of the
+forest, their foliage slightly agitated by the breeze, the stranger
+appeared greedily to drink in the penetrating odor which filled the
+atmosphere, and a long sigh escaped from his chest.
+
+The settlers kept behind him, ready to seize him if he made any movement
+to escape!
+
+And, indeed, the poor creature was on the point of springing into the
+creek which separated him from the forest, and his legs were bent for an
+instant as if for a spring, but almost immediately he stepped back, half
+sank down, and a large tear fell from his eyes.
+
+“Ah!” exclaimed Cyrus Harding, “you have become a man again, for you can
+weep!”
+
+
+
+Chapter 16
+
+Yes! the unfortunate man had wept! Some recollection doubtless had
+flashed across his brain, and to use Cyrus Harding’s expression, by
+those tears he was once more a man.
+
+The colonists left him for some time on the plateau, and withdrew
+themselves to a short distance, so that he might feel himself free; but
+he did not think of profiting by this liberty, and Harding soon brought
+him back to Granite House. Two days after this occurrence, the stranger
+appeared to wish gradually to mingle with their common life. He
+evidently heard and understood, but no less evidently was he strangely
+determined not to speak to the colonists; for one evening, Pencroft,
+listening at the door of his room, heard these words escape from his
+lips:--
+
+“No! here! I! never!”
+
+The sailor reported these words to his companions.
+
+“There is some painful mystery there!” said Harding.
+
+The stranger had begun to use the laboring tools, and he worked in the
+garden. When he stopped in his work, as was often the case, he remained
+retired within himself, but on the engineer’s recommendation, they
+respected the reserve which he apparently wished to keep. If one of the
+settlers approached him, he drew back, and his chest heaved with sobs,
+as if overburdened!
+
+Was it remorse that overwhelmed him thus? They were compelled to believe
+so, and Gideon Spilett could not help one day making this observation,--
+
+“If he does not speak it is because he has, I fear, things too serious
+to be told!”
+
+They must be patient and wait.
+
+A few days later, on the 3rd of November, the stranger, working on the
+plateau, had stopped, letting his spade drop to the ground, and Harding,
+who was observing him from a little distance, saw that tears were again
+flowing from his eyes. A sort of irresistible pity led him towards the
+unfortunate man, and he touched his arm lightly.
+
+“My friend!” said he.
+
+The stranger tried to avoid his look, and Cyrus Harding having
+endeavored to take his hand, he drew back quickly.
+
+“My friend,” said Harding in a firmer voice, “look at me, I wish it!”
+
+The stranger looked at the engineer, and seemed to be under his power,
+as a subject under the influence of a mesmerist. He wished to run away.
+But then his countenance suddenly underwent a transformation. His eyes
+flashed. Words struggled to escape from his lips. He could no longer
+contain himself! At last he folded his arms; then, in a hollow
+voice,--“Who are you?” he asked Cyrus Harding.
+
+“Castaways, like you,” replied the engineer, whose emotion was deep. “We
+have brought you here, among your fellow-men.”
+
+“My fellow-men!.... I have none!”
+
+“You are in the midst of friends.”
+
+“Friends!--for me! friends!” exclaimed the stranger, hiding his face in
+his hands. “No--never--leave me! leave me!”
+
+Then he rushed to the side of the plateau which overlooked the sea, and
+remained there a long time motionless.
+
+Harding rejoined his companions and related to them what had just
+happened.
+
+“Yes! there is some mystery in that man’s life,” said Gideon Spilett,
+“and it appears as if he had only re-entered society by the path of
+remorse.”
+
+“I don’t know what sort of a man we have brought here,” said the sailor.
+“He has secrets--”
+
+“Which we will respect,” interrupted Cyrus Harding quickly. “If he has
+committed any crime, he has most fearfully expiated it, and in our eyes
+he is absolved.”
+
+For two hours the stranger remained alone on the shore, evidently under
+the influence of recollections which recalled all his past life--a
+melancholy life doubtless--and the colonists, without losing sight of
+him, did not attempt to disturb his solitude. However, after two hours,
+appearing to have formed a resolution, he came to find Cyrus Harding.
+His eyes were red with the tears he had shed, but he wept no longer.
+His countenance expressed deep humility. He appeared anxious, timorous,
+ashamed, and his eyes were constantly fixed on the ground.
+
+“Sir,” said he to Harding, “your companions and you, are you English?”
+
+“No,” answered the engineer, “we are Americans.”
+
+“Ah!” said the stranger, and he murmured, “I prefer that!”
+
+“And you, my friend?” asked the engineer.
+
+“English,” replied he hastily.
+
+And as if these few words had been difficult to say, he retreated to the
+beach, where he walked up and down between the cascade and the mouth of
+the Mercy, in a state of extreme agitation.
+
+Then, passing one moment close to Herbert, he stopped and in a stifled
+voice,--
+
+“What month?” he asked.
+
+“December,” replied Herbert.
+
+“What year?”
+
+“1866.”
+
+“Twelve years! twelve years!” he exclaimed.
+
+Then he left him abruptly.
+
+Herbert reported to the colonists the questions and answers which had
+been made.
+
+“This unfortunate man,” observed Gideon Spilett, “was no longer
+acquainted with either months or years!”
+
+“Yes!” added Herbert, “and he had been twelve years already on the islet
+when we found him there!”
+
+“Twelve years!” rejoined Harding. “Ah! twelve years of solitude, after a
+wicked life, perhaps, may well impair a man’s reason!”
+
+“I am induced to think,” said Pencroft, “that this man was not wrecked
+on Tabor Island, but that in consequence of some crime he was left
+there.”
+
+“You must be right, Pencroft,” replied the reporter, “and if it is so
+it is not impossible that those who left him on the island may return to
+fetch him some day!”
+
+“And they will no longer find him,” said Herbert.
+
+“But then,” added Pencroft, “they must return, and--”
+
+“My friends,” said Cyrus Harding, “do not let us discuss this question
+until we know more about it. I believe that the unhappy man has
+suffered, that he has severely expiated his faults, whatever they may
+have been, and that the wish to unburden himself stifles him. Do not let
+us press him to tell us his history! He will tell it to us doubtless,
+and when we know it, we shall see what course it will be best to follow.
+He alone besides can tell us, if he has more than a hope, a certainty,
+of returning some day to his country, but I doubt it!”
+
+“And why?” asked the reporter.
+
+“Because that, in the event of his being sure of being delivered at a
+certain time, he would have waited the hour of his deliverance and would
+not have thrown this document into the sea. No, it is more probable that
+he was condemned to die on that islet, and that he never expected to see
+his fellow-creatures again!”
+
+“But,” observed the sailor, “there is one thing which I cannot explain.”
+
+“What is it?”
+
+“If this man had been left for twelve years on Tabor Island, one may
+well suppose that he had been several years already in the wild state in
+which we found him!”
+
+“That is probable,” replied Cyrus Harding.
+
+“It must then be many years since he wrote that document!”
+
+“No doubt,” and yet the document appears to have been recently written!
+
+“Besides, how do you know that the bottle which enclosed the document
+may not have taken several years to come from Tabor Island to Lincoln
+Island?”
+
+“That is not absolutely impossible,” replied the reporter.
+
+“Might it not have been a long time already on the coast of the island?”
+
+“No,” answered Pencroft, “for it was still floating. We could not even
+suppose that after it had stayed for any length of time on the shore, it
+would have been swept off by the sea, for the south coast is all rocks,
+and it would certainly have been smashed to pieces there!”
+
+“That is true,” rejoined Cyrus Harding thoughtfully.
+
+“And then,” continued the sailor, “if the document was several years
+old, if it had been shut up in that bottle for several years, it would
+have been injured by damp. Now, there is nothing of the kind, and it was
+found in a perfect state of preservation.”
+
+The sailor’s reasoning was very just, and pointed out an
+incomprehensible fact, for the document appeared to have been recently
+written, when the colonists found it in the bottle. Moreover, it gave
+the latitude and longitude of Tabor Island correctly, which implied that
+its author had a more complete knowledge of hydrography than could be
+expected of a common sailor.
+
+“There is in this, again, something unaccountable,” said the engineer,
+“but we will not urge our companion to speak. When he likes, my
+friends, then we shall be ready to hear him!”
+
+During the following days the stranger did not speak a word, and did not
+once leave the precincts of the plateau. He worked away, without losing
+a moment, without taking a minute’s rest, but always in a retired place.
+At meal times he never came to Granite House, although invited several
+times to do so, but contented himself with eating a few raw vegetables.
+At nightfall he did not return to the room assigned to him, but remained
+under some clump of trees, or when the weather was bad crouched in some
+cleft of the rocks. Thus he lived in the same manner as when he had no
+other shelter than the forests of Tabor Island, and as all persuasion
+to induce him to improve his life was in vain, the colonists
+waited patiently. And the time was near, when, as it seemed, almost
+involuntarily urged by his conscience, a terrible confession escaped
+him.
+
+On the 10th of November, about eight o’clock in the evening, as night
+was coming on, the stranger appeared unexpectedly before the settlers,
+who were assembled under the veranda. His eyes burned strangely, and he
+had quite resumed the wild aspect of his worst days.
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions were astounded on seeing that, overcome
+by some terrible emotion, his teeth chattered like those of a person
+in a fever. What was the matter with him? Was the sight of his
+fellow-creatures insupportable to him? Was he weary of this return to a
+civilized mode of existence? Was he pining for his former savage
+life? It appeared so, as soon he was heard to express himself in these
+incoherent sentences:--
+
+“Why am I here?.... By what right have you dragged me from my islet?....
+Do you think there could be any tie between you and me?.... Do you know
+who I am--what I have done--why I was there--alone? And who told
+you that I was not abandoned there--that I was not condemned to die
+there?.... Do you know my past?.... How do you know that I have not
+stolen, murdered--that I am not a wretch--an accursed being--only fit to
+live like a wild beast, far from all--speak--do you know it?”
+
+The colonists listened without interrupting the miserable creature, from
+whom these broken confessions escaped, as it were, in spite of himself.
+Harding wishing to calm him, approached him, but he hastily drew back.
+
+“No! no!” he exclaimed; “one word only--am I free?”
+
+“You are free,” answered the engineer.
+
+“Farewell, then!” he cried, and fled like a madman.
+
+Neb, Pencroft, and Herbert ran also towards the edge of the wood--but
+they returned alone.
+
+“We must let him alone!” said Cyrus Harding.
+
+“He will never come back!” exclaimed Pencroft.
+
+“He will come back,” replied the engineer.
+
+Many days passed; but Harding--was it a sort of
+presentiment?--persisted in the fixed idea that sooner or later the
+unhappy man would return.
+
+“It is the last revolt of his wild nature,” said he, “which remorse has
+touched, and which renewed solitude will terrify.”
+
+In the meanwhile, works of all sorts were continued, as well on Prospect
+Heights as at the corral, where Harding intended to build a farm. It is
+unnecessary to say that the seeds collected by Herbert on Tabor
+Island had been carefully sown. The plateau thus formed one immense
+kitchen-garden, well laid out and carefully tended, so that the arms of
+the settlers were never in want of work. There was always something to
+be done. As the esculents increased in number, it became necessary to
+enlarge the simple beds, which threatened to grow into regular fields
+and replace the meadows. But grass abounded in other parts of the
+island, and there was no fear of the onagers being obliged to go on
+short allowance. It was well worth while, besides, to turn Prospect
+Heights into a kitchen-garden, defended by its deep belt of creeks, and
+to remove them to the meadows, which had no need of protection against
+the depredations of quadrumana and quadrapeds.
+
+On the 15th of November, the third harvest was gathered in. How
+wonderfully had the field increased in extent, since eighteen months
+ago, when the first grain of wheat was sown! The second crop of six
+hundred thousand grains produced this time four thousand bushels, or
+five hundred millions of grains!
+
+The colony was rich in corn, for ten bushels alone were sufficient for
+sowing every year to produce an ample crop for the food both of men and
+beasts. The harvest was completed, and the last fortnight of the month
+of November was devoted to the work of converting it into food for man.
+In fact, they had corn, but not flour, and the establishment of a mill
+was necessary. Cyrus Harding could have utilized the second fall which
+flowed into the Mercy to establish his motive power, the first
+being already occupied with moving the felting mill, but, after some
+consultation, it was decided that a simple windmill should be built on
+Prospect Heights. The building of this presented no more difficulty than
+the building of the former, and it was moreover certain that there would
+be no want of wind on the plateau, exposed as it was to the sea breezes.
+
+“Not to mention,” said Pencroft, “that the windmill will be more lively
+and will have a good effect in the landscape!”
+
+They set to work by choosing timber for the frame and machinery of the
+mill. Some large stones, found at the north of the lake, could be easily
+transformed into millstones, and as to the sails, the inexhaustible case
+of the balloon furnished the necessary material.
+
+Cyrus Harding made his model, and the site of the mill was chosen a
+little to the right of the poultry-yard, near the shore of the lake. The
+frame was to rest on a pivot supported with strong timbers, so that it
+could turn with all the machinery it contained according as the wind
+required it. The work advanced rapidly. Neb and Pencroft had become
+very skilful carpenters, and had nothing to do but to copy the models
+provided by the engineer.
+
+Soon a sort of cylindrical box, in shape like a pepper-pot, with a
+pointed roof, rose on the spot chosen. The four frames which formed the
+sails had been firmly fixed in the center beam, so as to form a certain
+angle with it, and secured with iron clamps. As to the different
+parts of the internal mechanism, the box destined to contain the two
+millstones, the fixed stone and the moving stone, the hopper, a sort of
+large square trough, wide at the top, narrow at the bottom, which would
+allow the grain to fall on the stones, the oscillating spout intended to
+regulate the passing of the grain, and lastly the bolting machine, which
+by the operation of sifting, separates the bran from the flour,
+were made without difficulty. The tools were good, and the work not
+difficult, for in reality, the machinery of a mill is very simple. This
+was only a question of time.
+
+Every one had worked at the construction of the mill, and on the 1st
+of December it was finished. As usual, Pencroft was delighted with his
+work, and had no doubt that the apparatus was perfect.
+
+“Now for a good wind,” said he, “and we shall grind our first harvest
+splendidly!”
+
+“A good wind, certainly,” answered the engineer, “but not too much,
+Pencroft.”
+
+“Pooh! our mill would only go the faster!”
+
+“There is no need for it to go so very fast,” replied Cyrus Harding. “It
+is known by experience that the greatest quantity of work is performed
+by a mill when the number of turns made by the sails in a minute is six
+times the number of feet traversed by the wind in a second. A moderate
+breeze, which passes over twenty-four feet to the second, will give
+sixteen turns to the sails during a minute, and there is no need of
+more.”
+
+“Exactly!” cried Herbert, “a fine breeze is blowing from the northeast,
+which will soon do our business for us.”
+
+There was no reason for delaying the inauguration of the mill, for the
+settlers were eager to taste the first piece of bread in Lincoln Island.
+On this morning two or three bushels of wheat were ground, and the next
+day at breakfast a magnificent loaf, a little heavy perhaps, although
+raised with yeast, appeared on the table at Granite House. Every one
+munched away at it with a pleasure which may be easily understood.
+
+In the meanwhile, the stranger had not reappeared. Several times Gideon
+Spilett and Herbert searched the forest in the neighborhood of Granite
+House, without meeting or finding any trace of him. They became
+seriously uneasy at this prolonged absence. Certainly, the former
+savage of Tabor island could not be perplexed how to live in the forest,
+abounding in game, but was it not to be feared that he had resumed his
+habits, and that this freedom would revive in him his wild instincts?
+However, Harding, by a sort of presentiment, doubtless, always persisted
+in saying that the fugitive would return.
+
+“Yes, he will return!” he repeated with a confidence which his
+companions could not share. “When this unfortunate man was on Tabor
+Island, he knew himself to be alone! Here, he knows that fellow-men are
+awaiting him! Since he has partially spoken of his past life, the poor
+penitent will return to tell the whole, and from that day he will belong
+to us!”
+
+The event justified Cyrus Harding’s predictions. On the 3rd of December,
+Herbert had left the plateau to go and fish on the southern bank of the
+lake. He was unarmed, and till then had never taken any precautions for
+defense, as dangerous animals had not shown themselves on that part of
+the island.
+
+Meanwhile, Pencroft and Neb were working in the poultry-yard, while
+Harding and the reporter were occupied at the Chimneys in making soda,
+the store of soap being exhausted.
+
+Suddenly cries resounded,--
+
+“Help! help!”
+
+Cyrus Harding and the reporter, being at too great a distance, had not
+been able to hear the shouts. Pencroft and Neb, leaving the poultry-yard
+in all haste, rushed towards the lake.
+
+But before then, the stranger, whose presence at this place no one had
+suspected, crossed Creek Glycerine, which separated the plateau from the
+forest, and bounded up the opposite bank.
+
+Herbert was there face to face with a fierce jaguar, similar to the
+one which had been killed on Reptile End. Suddenly surprised, he was
+standing with his back against a tree, while the animal gathering itself
+together was about to spring.
+
+But the stranger, with no other weapon than a knife, rushed on the
+formidable animal, who turned to meet this new adversary.
+
+The struggle was short. The stranger possessed immense strength and
+activity. He seized the jaguar’s throat with one powerful hand, holding
+it as in a vise, without heeding the beast’s claws which tore his flesh,
+and with the other he plunged his knife into its heart.
+
+The jaguar fell. The stranger kicked away the body, and was about to
+fly at the moment when the settlers arrived on the field of battle, but
+Herbert, clinging to him, cried,--
+
+“No, no! you shall not go!”
+
+Harding advanced towards the stranger, who frowned when he saw him
+approaching. The blood flowed from his shoulder under his torn shirt,
+but he took no notice of it.
+
+“My friend,” said Cyrus Harding, “we have just contracted a debt of
+gratitude to you. To save our boy you have risked your life!”
+
+“My life!” murmured the stranger. “What is that worth? Less than
+nothing!”
+
+“You are wounded?”
+
+“It is no matter.”
+
+“Will you give me your hand?”
+
+And as Herbert endeavored to seize the hand which had just saved him,
+the stranger folded his arms, his chest heaved, his look darkened, and
+he appeared to wish to escape, but making a violent effort over himself,
+and in an abrupt tone,--
+
+“Who are you?” he asked, “and what do you claim to be to me?”
+
+It was the colonists’ history which he thus demanded, and for the first
+time. Perhaps this history recounted, he would tell his own.
+
+In a few words Harding related all that had happened since their
+departure from Richmond; how they had managed, and what resources they
+now had at their disposal.
+
+The stranger listened with extreme attention.
+
+Then the engineer told who they all were, Gideon Spilett, Herbert,
+Pencroft, Neb, himself, and, he added, that the greatest happiness they
+had felt since their arrival in Lincoln Island was on the return of the
+vessel from Tabor Island, when they had been able to include among them
+a new companion.
+
+At these words the stranger’s face flushed, his head sunk on his breast,
+and confusion was depicted on his countenance.
+
+“And now that you know us,” added Cyrus Harding, “will you give us your
+hand?”
+
+“No,” replied the stranger in a hoarse voice; “no! You are honest men!
+And I--”
+
+
+
+Chapter 17
+
+These last words justified the colonists’ presentiment. There had been
+some mournful past, perhaps expiated in the sight of men, but from which
+his conscience had not yet absolved him. At any rate the guilty man felt
+remorse, he repented, and his new friends would have cordially pressed
+the hand which they sought; but he did not feel himself worthy to extend
+it to honest men! However, after the scene with the jaguar, he did not
+return to the forest, and from that day did not go beyond the enclosure
+of Granite House.
+
+What was the mystery of his life? Would the stranger one day speak of
+it? Time alone could show. At any rate, it was agreed that his secret
+should never be asked from him, and that they would live with him as if
+they suspected nothing.
+
+For some days their life continued as before. Cyrus Harding and Gideon
+Spilett worked together, sometimes chemists, sometimes experimentalists.
+The reporter never left the engineer except to hunt with Herbert, for
+it would not have been prudent to allow the lad to ramble alone in the
+forest; and it was very necessary to be on their guard. As to Neb
+and Pencroft, one day at the stables and poultry-yard, another at the
+corral, without reckoning work in Granite House, they were never in want
+of employment.
+
+The stranger worked alone, and he had resumed his usual life, never
+appearing at meals, sleeping under the trees in the plateau, never
+mingling with his companions. It really seemed as if the society of
+those who had saved him was insupportable to him!
+
+“But then,” observed Pencroft, “why did he entreat the help of his
+fellow-creatures? Why did he throw that paper into the sea?”
+
+“He will tell us why,” invariably replied Cyrus Harding.
+
+“When?”
+
+“Perhaps sooner than you think, Pencroft.”
+
+And, indeed, the day of confession was near.
+
+On the 10th of December, a week after his return to Granite House,
+Harding saw the stranger approaching, who, in a calm voice and humble
+tone, said to him: “Sir, I have a request to make of you.”
+
+“Speak,” answered the engineer, “but first let me ask you a question.”
+
+At these words the stranger reddened, and was on the point of
+withdrawing. Cyrus Harding understood what was passing in the mind of
+the guilty man, who doubtless feared that the engineer would interrogate
+him on his past life.
+
+Harding held him back.
+
+“Comrade,” said he, “we are not only your companions but your friends. I
+wish you to believe that, and now I will listen to you.”
+
+The stranger pressed his hand over his eyes. He was seized with a
+sort of trembling, and remained a few moments without being able to
+articulate a word.
+
+“Sir,” said he at last, “I have come to beg you to grant me a favor.”
+
+“What is it?”
+
+“You have, four or five miles from here, a corral for your domesticated
+animals. These animals need to be taken care of. Will you allow me to
+live there with them?”
+
+Cyrus Harding gazed at the unfortunate man for a few moments with a
+feeling of deep commiseration; then,--
+
+
+“My friend,” said he, “the corral has only stables hardly fit for
+animals.”
+
+“It will be good enough for me, sir.”
+
+“My friend,” answered Harding, “we will not constrain you in anything.
+You wish to live at the corral, so be it. You will, however, be always
+welcome at Granite House. But since you wish to live at the corral
+we will make the necessary arrangements for your being comfortably
+established there.”
+
+“Never mind that, I shall do very well.”
+
+“My friend,” answered Harding, who always intentionally made use of this
+cordial appellation, “you must let us judge what it will be best to do
+in this respect.”
+
+“Thank you, sir,” replied the stranger as he withdrew.
+
+The engineer then made known to his companions the proposal which had
+been made to him, and it was agreed that they should build a wooden
+house at the corral, which they would make as comfortable as possible.
+
+That very day the colonists repaired to the corral with the necessary
+tools, and a week had not passed before the house was ready to receive
+its tenant. It was built about twenty feet from the sheds, and from
+there it was easy to overlook the flock of sheep, which then numbered
+more than eighty. Some furniture, a bed, table, bench, cupboard, and
+chest were manufactured, and a gun, ammunition, and tools were carried
+to the corral.
+
+The stranger, however, had seen nothing of his new dwelling, and he
+had allowed the settlers to work there without him, while he occupied
+himself on the plateau, wishing, doubtless, to put the finishing stroke
+to his work. Indeed, thanks to him, all the ground was dug up and ready
+to be sowed when the time came.
+
+It was on the 20th of December that all the arrangements at the corral
+were completed. The engineer announced to the stranger that his dwelling
+was ready to receive him, and the latter replied that he would go and
+sleep there that very evening.
+
+On this evening the colonists were gathered in the diningroom of Granite
+House. It was then eight o’clock, the hour at which their companion was
+to leave them. Not wishing to trouble him by their presence, and thus
+imposing on him the necessity of saying farewells which might perhaps be
+painful to him, they had left him alone and ascended to Granite House.
+
+Now, they had been talking in the room for a few minutes, when a light
+knock was heard at the door. Almost immediately the stranger entered,
+and without any preamble,--
+
+“Gentlemen,” said he, “before I leave you, it is right that you should
+know my history. I will tell it you.”
+
+These simple words profoundly impressed Cyrus Harding and his
+companions. The engineer rose.
+
+“We ask you nothing, my friend,” said he; “it is your right to be
+silent.”
+
+“It is my duty to speak.”
+
+“Sit down, then.”
+
+“No, I will stand.”
+
+“We are ready to hear you,” replied Harding.
+
+The stranger remained standing in a corner of the room, a little in the
+shade. He was bareheaded, his arms folded across his chest, and it
+was in this posture that in a hoarse voice, speaking like some one
+who obliges himself to speak, he gave the following recital, which his
+auditors did not once interrupt:--
+
+“On the 20th of December, 1854, a steam-yacht, belonging to a Scotch
+nobleman, Lord Glenarvan, anchored off Cape Bernouilli, on the western
+coast of Australia, in the thirty-seventh parallel. On board this yacht
+were Lord Glenarvan and his wife, a major in the English army, a French
+geographer, a young girl, and a young boy. These two last were the
+children of Captain Grant, whose ship, the ‘Britannia,’ had been lost,
+crew and cargo, a year before. The ‘Duncan’ was commanded by Captain
+John Mangles, and manned by a crew of fifteen men.
+
+“This is the reason the yacht at this time lay off the coast of
+Australia. Six months before, a bottle, enclosing a document written in
+English, German, and French, had been found in the Irish Sea, and picked
+up by the ‘Duncan.’ This document stated in substance that there still
+existed three survivors from the wreck of the ‘Britannia,’ that these
+survivors were Captain Grant and two of his men, and that they had found
+refuge on some land, of which the document gave the latitude, but of
+which the longitude, effaced by the sea, was no longer legible.
+
+“This latitude was 37deg 11’ south; therefore, the longitude being
+unknown, if they followed the thirty-seventh parallel over continents
+and seas, they would be certain to reach the spot inhabited by Captain
+Grant and his two companions. The English Admiralty having hesitated to
+undertake this search, Lord Glenarvan resolved to attempt everything to
+find the captain. He communicated with Mary and Robert Grant, who joined
+him. The ‘Duncan’ yacht was equipped for the distant voyage, in which
+the nobleman’s family and the captain’s children wished to take part,
+and the ‘Duncan,’ leaving Glasgow, proceeded towards the Atlantic,
+passed through the Straits of Magellan, and ascended the Pacific as
+far as Patagonia, where, according to a previous interpretation of the
+document, they supposed that Captain Grant was a prisoner among the
+Indians.
+
+“The ‘Duncan’ disembarked her passengers on the western coast of
+Patagonia, and sailed to pick them up again on the eastern coast at
+Cape Corrientes. Lord Glenarvan traversed Patagonia, following the
+thirty-seventh parallel, and having found no trace of the captain, he
+re-embarked on the 13th of November, so as to pursue his search through
+the Ocean.
+
+“After having unsuccessfully visited the islands of Tristan d’Acunha and
+Amsterdam, situated in her course, the ‘Duncan,’ as I have said, arrived
+at Cape Bernouilli, on the Australian coast, on the 20th of December,
+1854.
+
+“It was Lord Glenarvan’s intention to traverse Australia as he had
+traversed America, and he disembarked. A few miles from the coast was
+established a farm, belonging to an Irishman, who offered hospitality to
+the travelers. Lord Glenarvan made known to the Irishman the cause
+which had brought him to these parts, and asked if he knew whether a
+three-masted English vessel, the ‘Britannia,’ had been lost less than
+two years before on the west coast of Australia.
+
+“The Irishman had never heard of this wreck, but, to the great surprise
+of the bystanders, one of his servants came forward and said,--
+
+“‘My lord, praise and thank God! If Captain Grant is still living, he is
+living on the Australian shores.’
+
+“‘Who are you?’ asked Lord Glenarvan.
+
+“‘A Scotchman like yourself, my lord,’ replied the man; ‘I am one of
+Captain Grant’s crew--one of the castaways of the “Britannia.’”
+
+“This man was called Ayrton. He was, in fact, the boatswain’s mate of
+the ‘Britannia,’ as his papers showed. But, separated from Captain Grant
+at the moment when the ship struck upon the rocks, he had till then
+believed that the captain with all his crew had perished, and that he,
+Ayrton, was the sole survivor of the ‘Britannia.’
+
+“‘Only,’ he added, ‘it was not on the west coast, but on the east coast
+of Australia that the vessel was lost, and if Captain Grant is still
+living, as his document indicates, he is a prisoner among the natives,
+and it is on the other coast that he must be looked for.’
+
+“This man spoke in a frank voice and with a confident look; his words
+could not be doubted. The Irishman, in whose service he had been for
+more than a year, answered for his trustworthiness. Lord Glenarvan,
+therefore, believed in the fidelity of this man and, by his advice,
+resolved to cross Australia, following the thirty-seventh parallel. Lord
+Glenarvan, his wife, the two children, the major, the Frenchman, Captain
+Mangles, and a few sailors composed the little band under the command
+of Ayrton, while the ‘Duncan,’ under charge of the mate, Tom Austin,
+proceeded to Melbourne, there to await Lord Glenarvan’s instructions.
+
+“They set out on the 23rd of December, 1854.
+
+“It is time to say that Ayrton was a traitor. He was, indeed, the
+boatswain’s mate of the ‘Britannia,’ but, after some dispute with his
+captain, he endeavored to incite the crew to mutiny and seize the ship,
+and Captain Grant had landed him, on the 8th of April, 1852, on the
+west coast of Australia, and then sailed, leaving him there, as was only
+just.
+
+“Therefore this wretched man knew nothing of the wreck of the
+‘Britannia’; he had just heard of it from Glenarvan’s account. Since his
+abandonment, he had become, under the name of Ben Joyce, the leader of
+the escaped convicts; and if he boldly maintained that the wreck had
+taken place on the east coast, and led Lord Glenarvan to proceed in that
+direction, it was that he hoped to separate him from his ship, seize the
+‘Duncan,’ and make the yacht a pirate in the Pacific.”
+
+Here the stranger stopped for a moment. His voice trembled, but he
+continued,--
+
+“The expedition set out and proceeded across Australia. It was
+inevitably unfortunate, since Ayrton, or Ben Joyce, as he may be
+called, guided it, sometimes preceded, sometimes followed by his band of
+convicts, who had been told what they had to do.
+
+“Meanwhile, the ‘Duncan’ had been sent to Melbourne for repairs. It was
+necessary, then, to get Lord Glenarvan to order her to leave Melbourne
+and go to the east coast of Australia, where it would be easy to seize
+her. After having led the expedition near enough to the coast, in the
+midst of vast forests with no resources, Ayrton obtained a letter, which
+he was charged to carry to the mate of the ‘Duncan’--a letter which
+ordered the yacht to repair immediately to the east coast, to Twofold
+Bay, that is to say a few days’ journey from the place where the
+expedition had stopped. It was there that Ayrton had agreed to meet his
+accomplices, and two days after gaining possession of the letter, he
+arrived at Melbourne.
+
+“So far the villain had succeeded in his wicked design. He would be able
+to take the ‘Duncan’ into Twofold Bay, where it would be easy for the
+convicts to seize her, and her crew massacred, Ben Joyce would become
+master of the seas. But it pleased God to prevent the accomplishment of
+these terrible projects.
+
+“Ayrton, arrived at Melbourne, delivered the letter to the mate, Tom
+Austin, who read it and immediately set sail, but judge of Ayrton’s rage
+and disappointment, when the next day he found that the mate was taking
+the vessel, not to the east coast of Australia, to Twofold Bay, but to
+the east coast of New Zealand. He wished to stop him, but Austin showed
+him the letter!... And indeed, by a providential error of the French
+geographer, who had written the letter, the east coast of New Zealand
+was mentioned as the place of destination.
+
+“All Ayrton’s plans were frustrated! He became outrageous. They put him
+in irons. He was then taken to the coast of New Zealand, not knowing
+what would become of his accomplices, or what would become of Lord
+Glenarvan.
+
+“The ‘Duncan’ cruised about on this coast until the 3rd of March. On
+that day Ayrton heard the report of guns. The guns on the ‘Duncan’ were
+being fired, and soon Lord Glenarvan and his companions came on board.
+
+“This is what had happened.
+
+“After a thousand hardships, a thousand dangers, Lord Glenarvan had
+accomplished his journey, and arrived on the east coast of Australia, at
+Twofold Bay. ‘No “Duncan!”’ He telegraphed to Melbourne. They answered,
+“Duncan” sailed on the 18th instant. Destination unknown.’
+
+“Lord Glenarvan could only arrive at one conclusion; that his honest
+yacht had fallen into the hands of Ben Joyce, and had become a pirate
+vessel!
+
+“However, Lord Glenarvan would not give up. He was a bold and generous
+man. He embarked in a merchant vessel, sailed to the west coast of New
+Zealand, traversed it along the thirty-seventh parallel, without
+finding any trace of Captain Grant; but on the other side, to his
+great surprise, and by the will of Heaven, he found the ‘Duncan,’ under
+command of the mate, who had been waiting for him for five weeks!
+
+“This was on the 3rd of March, 1855. Lord Glenarvan was now on board the
+‘Duncan,’ but Ayrton was there also. He appeared before the nobleman,
+who wished to extract from him all that the villain knew about Captain
+Grant. Ayrton refused to speak. Lord Glenarvan then told him, that at
+the first port they put into, he would be delivered up to the English
+authorities. Ayrton remained mute.
+
+“The ‘Duncan’ continued her voyage along the thirty-seventh parallel.
+In the meanwhile, Lady Glenarvan undertook to vanquish the resistance of
+the ruffian.
+
+“At last, her influence prevailed, and Ayrton, in exchange for what he
+could tell, proposed that Lord Glenarvan should leave him on some island
+in the Pacific, instead of giving him up to the English authorities.
+Lord Glenarvan, resolving to do anything to obtain information about
+Captain Grant, consented.
+
+“Ayrton then related all his life, and it was certain that he knew
+nothing from the day on which Captain Grant had landed him on the
+Australian coast.
+
+“Nevertheless, Lord Glenarvan kept the promise which he had given. The
+‘Duncan’ continued her voyage and arrived at Tabor Island. It was there
+that Ayrton was to be landed, and it was there also that, by a
+veritable miracle, they found Captain Grant and two men, exactly on the
+thirty-seventh parallel.
+
+“The convict, then, went to take their place on this desert islet, and
+at the moment he left the yacht these words were pronounced by Lord
+Glenarvan:--
+
+“‘Here, Ayrton, you will be far from any land, and without any possible
+communication with your fellow-creatures. You cannot escape from this
+islet on which the ‘Duncan’ leaves you. You will be alone, under the eye
+of a God who reads the depths of the heart, but you will be neither
+lost nor forgotten, as was Captain Grant. Unworthy as you are to be
+remembered by men, men will remember you. I know where you are Ayrton,
+and I know where to find you. I will never forget it!
+
+“And the ‘Duncan,’ making sail, soon disappeared. This was 18th of
+March, 1855.
+
+     (The events which have just been briefly related are taken
+     from a work which some of our readers have no doubt read,
+     and which is entitled, “Captain Grant’s children.” They will
+     remark on this occasion, as well as later, some discrepancy
+     in the dates; but later again, they will understand why the
+     real dates were not at first given.)
+
+“Ayrton was alone, but he had no want of either ammunition, weapons,
+tools, or seeds.
+
+“At his, the convict’s disposal, was the house built by honest Captain
+Grant. He had only to live and expiate in solitude the crimes which he
+had committed.
+
+“Gentlemen, he repented, he was ashamed of his crimes and was very
+miserable! He said to himself, that if men came some day to take
+him from that islet, he must be worthy to return among them! How he
+suffered, that wretched man! How he labored to recover himself by work!
+How he prayed to be reformed by prayer! For two years, three years, this
+went on, but Ayrton, humbled by solitude, always looking for some ship
+to appear on the horizon, asking himself if the time of expiation would
+soon be complete, suffered as none other suffered! Oh! how dreadful was
+this solitude, to a heart tormented by remorse!
+
+“But doubtless Heaven had not sufficiently punished this unhappy man,
+for he felt that he was gradually becoming a savage! He felt that
+brutishness was gradually gaining on him!
+
+“He could not say if it was after two or three years of solitude, but at
+last he became the miserable creature you found!
+
+“I have no need to tell you, gentlemen, that Ayrton, Ben Joyce, and I,
+are the same.”
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions rose at the end of this account. It
+is impossible to say how much they were moved! What misery, grief, and
+despair lay revealed before them!
+
+“Ayrton,” said Harding, rising, “you have been a great criminal, but
+Heaven must certainly think that you have expiated your crimes! That
+has been proved by your having been brought again among your
+fellow-creatures. Ayrton, you are forgiven! And now you will be our
+companion?”
+
+Ayrton drew back.
+
+“Here is my hand!” said the engineer.
+
+Ayrton grasped the hand which Harding extended to him, and great tears
+fell from his eyes.
+
+“Will you live with us?” asked Cyrus Harding.
+
+“Captain Harding, leave me some time longer,” replied Ayrton, “leave me
+alone in the hut in the corral!”
+
+“As you like, Ayrton,” answered Cyrus Harding. Ayrton was going to
+withdraw, when the engineer addressed one more question to him:--
+
+“One word more, my friend. Since it was your intention to live alone,
+why did you throw into the sea the document which put us on your track?”
+
+“A document?” repeated Ayrton, who did not appear to know what he meant.
+
+“Yes, the document which we found enclosed in a bottle, giving us the
+exact position of Tabor Island!”
+
+Ayrton passed his hand over his brow, then after having thought, “I
+never threw any document into the sea!” he answered.
+
+“Never?” exclaimed Pencroft.
+
+“Never!”
+
+And Ayrton, bowing, reached the door and departed.
+
+
+
+Chapter 18
+
+“Poor man!” said Herbert, who had rushed to the door, but returned,
+having seen Ayrton slide down the rope on the lift and disappear in the
+darkness.
+
+“He will come back,” said Cyrus Harding.
+
+“Come, now, captain,” exclaimed Pencroft, “what does that mean? What!
+wasn’t it Ayrton who threw that bottle into the sea? Who was it then?”
+
+Certainly, if ever a question was necessary to be made, it was that one!
+
+“It was he,” answered Neb, “only the unhappy man was half-mad.”
+
+“Yes!” said Herbert, “and he was no longer conscious of what he was
+doing.”
+
+“It can only be explained in that way, my friends,” replied Harding
+quickly, “and I understand now how Ayrton was able to point out exactly
+the situation of Tabor Island, since the events which had preceded his
+being left on the island had made it known to him.”
+
+“However,” observed Pencroft, “if he was not yet a brute when he wrote
+that document, and if he threw it into the sea seven or eight years ago,
+how is it that the paper has not been injured by damp?”
+
+“That proves,” answered Cyrus Harding, “that Ayrton was deprived of
+intelligence at a more recent time than he thinks.”
+
+“Of course it must be so,” replied Pencroft, “without that the fact
+would be unaccountable.”
+
+“Unaccountable indeed,” answered the engineer, who did not appear
+desirous to prolong the conversation.
+
+“But has Ayrton told the truth?” asked the sailor.
+
+“Yes,” replied the reporter. “The story which he has told is true in
+every point. I remember quite well the account in the newspapers of the
+yacht expedition undertaken by Lord Glenarvan, and its result.”
+
+“Ayrton has told the truth,” added Harding. “Do not doubt it, Pencroft,
+for it was painful to him. People tell the truth when they accuse
+themselves like that!”
+
+The next day--the 21st of December--the colonists descended to the
+beach, and having climbed the plateau they found nothing of Ayrton. He
+had reached his house in the corral during the night and the settlers
+judged it best not to agitate him by their presence. Time would
+doubtless perform what sympathy had been unable to accomplish.
+
+Herbert, Pencroft, and Neb resumed their ordinary occupations. On this
+day the same work brought Harding and the reporter to the workshop at
+the Chimneys.
+
+“Do you know, my dear Cyrus,” said Gideon Spilett, “that the explanation
+you gave yesterday on the subject of the bottle has not satisfied me at
+all! How can it be supposed that the unfortunate man was able to write
+that document and throw the bottle into the sea without having the
+slightest recollection of it?”
+
+“Nor was it he who threw it in, my dear Spilett.”
+
+“You think then--”
+
+“I think nothing, I know nothing!” interrupted Cyrus Harding. “I am
+content to rank this incident among those which I have not been able to
+explain to this day!”
+
+“Indeed, Cyrus,” said Spilett, “these things are incredible! Your
+rescue, the case stranded on the sand, Top’s adventure, and lastly this
+bottle... Shall we never have the answer to these enigmas?”
+
+“Yes!” replied the engineer quickly, “yes, even if I have to penetrate
+into the bowels of this island!”
+
+“Chance will perhaps give us the key to this mystery!”
+
+“Chance! Spilett! I do not believe in chance, any more than I believe in
+mysteries in this world. There is a reason for everything unaccountable
+which has happened here, and that reason I shall discover. But in the
+meantime we must work and observe.”
+
+The month of January arrived. The year 1867 commenced. The summer
+occupations were assiduously continued. During the days which followed,
+Herbert and Spilett having gone in the direction of the corral,
+ascertained that Ayrton had taken possession of the habitation which
+had been prepared for him. He busied himself with the numerous flock
+confided to his care, and spared his companions the trouble of coming
+every two or three days to visit the corral. Nevertheless, in order not
+to leave Ayrton in solitude for too long a time, the settlers often paid
+him a visit.
+
+It was not unimportant either, in consequence of some suspicions
+entertained by the engineer and Gideon Spilett, that this part of
+the island should be subject to a surveillance of some sort, and that
+Ayrton, if any incident occurred unexpectedly, should not neglect to
+inform the inhabitants of Granite House of it.
+
+Nevertheless it might happen that something would occur which it would
+be necessary to bring rapidly to the engineer’s knowledge. Independently
+of facts bearing on the mystery of Lincoln Island, many others
+might happen, which would call for the prompt interference of the
+colonists,--such as the sighting of a vessel, a wreck on the western
+coast, the possible arrival of pirates, etc.
+
+Therefore Cyrus Harding resolved to put the corral in instantaneous
+communication with Granite House.
+
+It was on the 10th of January that he made known his project to his
+companions.
+
+“Why! how are you going to manage that, captain?” asked Pencroft. “Do
+you by chance happen to think of establishing a telegraph?”
+
+“Exactly so,” answered the engineer.
+
+“Electric?” cried Herbert.
+
+“Electric,” replied Cyrus Harding. “We have all the necessary materials
+for making a battery, and the most difficult thing will be to stretch
+the wires, but by means of a drawplate I think we shall manage it.”
+
+“Well, after that,” returned the sailor, “I shall never despair of
+seeing ourselves some day rolling along on a railway!”
+
+They then set to work, beginning with the most difficult thing, for, if
+they failed in that, it would be useless to manufacture the battery and
+other accessories.
+
+The iron of Lincoln Island, as has been said, was of excellent quality,
+and consequently very fit for being drawn out. Harding commenced by
+manufacturing a drawplate, that is to say, a plate of steel, pierced
+with conical holes of different sizes, which would successively bring
+the wire to the wished-for tenacity. This piece of steel, after having
+been tempered, was fixed in as firm a way as possible in a solid
+framework planted in the ground, only a few feet from the great fall,
+the motive power of which the engineer intended to utilize. In fact as
+the fulling-mill was there, although not then in use, its beam moved
+with extreme power would serve to stretch out the wire by rolling it
+round itself. It was a delicate operation, and required much care. The
+iron, prepared previously in long thin rods, the ends of which were
+sharpened with the file, having been introduced into the largest hole of
+the drawplate, was drawn out by the beam which wound it round itself,
+to a length of twenty-five or thirty feet, then unrolled, and the same
+operation was performed successively through the holes of a less size.
+Finally, the engineer obtained wires from forty to fifty feet long,
+which could be easily fastened together and stretched over the distance
+of five miles, which separated the corral from the bounds of Granite
+House.
+
+It did not take more than a few days to perform this work, and indeed
+as soon as the machine had been commenced, Cyrus Harding left his
+companions to follow the trade of wiredrawers, and occupied himself with
+manufacturing his battery.
+
+It was necessary to obtain a battery with a constant current. It is
+known that the elements of modern batteries are generally composed of
+retort coal, zinc, and copper. Copper was absolutely wanting to the
+engineer, who, notwithstanding all his researches, had never been able
+to find any trace of it in Lincoln Island, and was therefore obliged to
+do without it. Retort coal, that is to say, the hard graphite which
+is found in the retorts of gas manufactories, after the coal has
+been dehydrogenized, could have been obtained, but it would have been
+necessary to establish a special apparatus, involving great labor. As
+to zinc, it may be remembered that the case found at Flotsam Point was
+lined with this metal, which could not be better utilized than for this
+purpose.
+
+Cyrus Harding, after mature consideration, decided to manufacture a
+very simple battery, resembling as nearly as possible that invented
+by Becquerel in 1820, and in which zinc only is employed. The other
+substances, azotic acid and potash, were all at his disposal.
+
+The way in which the battery was composed was as follows, and the
+results were to be attained by the reaction of acid and potash on each
+other. A number of glass bottles were made and filled with azotic acid.
+The engineer corked them by means of a stopper through which passed a
+glass tube, bored at its lower extremity, and intended to be plunged
+into the acid by means of a clay stopper secured by a rag. Into this
+tube, through its upper extremity, he poured a solution of potash,
+previously obtained by burning and reducing to ashes various plants,
+and in this way the acid and potash could act on each other through the
+clay.
+
+Cyrus Harding then took two slips of zinc, one of which was plunged
+into azotic acid, the other into a solution of potash. A current was
+immediately produced, which was transmitted from the slip of zinc in the
+bottle to that in the tube, and the two slips having been connected by a
+metallic wire the slip in the tube became the positive pole, and that in
+the bottle the negative pole of the apparatus. Each bottle, therefore,
+produced as many currents as united would be sufficient to produce all
+the phenomena of the electric telegraph. Such was the ingenious and very
+simple apparatus constructed by Cyrus Harding, an apparatus which would
+allow them to establish a telegraphic communication between Granite
+House and the corral.
+
+On the 6th of February was commenced the planting along the road to
+the corral, of posts furnished with glass insulators, and intended to
+support the wire. A few days after, the wire was extended, ready to
+produce the electric current at a rate of twenty thousand miles a
+second.
+
+Two batteries had been manufactured, one for Granite House, the other
+for the corral; for if it was necessary the corral should be able to
+communicate with Granite House it might also be useful that Granite
+House should be able to communicate with the corral.
+
+As to the receiver and manipulator, they were very simple. At the two
+stations the wire was wound round a magnet, that is to say, round a
+piece of soft iron surrounded with a wire. The communication was thus
+established between the two poles; the current, starting from the
+positive pole, traversed the wire, passed through the magnet which was
+temporarily magnetized, and returned through the earth to the negative
+pole. If the current was interrupted, the magnet immediately became
+unmagnetized. It was sufficient to place a plate of soft iron before the
+magnet, which, attracted during the passage of the current, would fall
+back when the current was interrupted. This movement of the plate thus
+obtained, Harding could easily fasten to it a needle arranged on a dial,
+bearing the letters of the alphabet, and in this way communicate from
+one station to the other.
+
+All was completely arranged by the 12th of February. On this day,
+Harding, having sent the current through the wire, asked if all
+was going on well at the corral, and received in a few moments a
+satisfactory reply from Ayrton. Pencroft was wild with joy, and every
+morning and evening he sent a telegram to the corral, which always
+received an answer.
+
+This mode of communication presented two very real advantages: firstly,
+because it enabled them to ascertain that Ayrton was at the corral; and
+secondly, that he was thus not left completely isolated. Besides, Cyrus
+Harding never allowed a week to pass without going to see him, and
+Ayrton came from time to time to Granite House, where he always found a
+cordial welcome.
+
+The fine season passed away in the midst of the usual work. The
+resources of the colony, particularly in vegetables and corn, increased
+from day to day, and the plants brought from Tabor Island had succeeded
+perfectly.
+
+The plateau of Prospect Heights presented an encouraging aspect. The
+fourth harvest had been admirable and it may be supposed that no one
+thought of counting whether the four hundred thousand millions of grains
+duly appeared in the crop. However, Pencroft had thought of doing so,
+but Cyrus Harding having told him that even if he managed to count three
+hundred grains a minute, or nine thousand an hour, it would take him
+nearly five thousand five-hundred years to finish his task, the honest
+sailor considered it best to give up the idea.
+
+The weather was splendid, the temperature very warm in the day time, but
+in the evening the sea-breezes tempered the heat of the atmosphere and
+procured cool nights for the inhabitants of Granite House. There were,
+however, a few storms, which, although they were not of long duration,
+swept over Lincoln Island with extraordinary fury. The lightning blazed
+and the thunder continued to roll for some hours.
+
+At this period the little colony was extremely prosperous.
+
+The tenants of the poultry-yard swarmed, and they lived on the surplus,
+but it became necessary to reduce the population to a more moderate
+number. The pigs had already produced young, and it may be understood
+that their care for these animals absorbed a great part of Neb and
+Pencroft’s time. The onagers, who had two pretty colts, were most often
+mounted by Gideon Spilett and Herbert, who had become an excellent rider
+under the reporter’s instruction, and they also harnessed them to the
+cart either for carrying wood and coal to Granite House, or different
+mineral productions required by the engineer.
+
+Several expeditions were made about this time into the depths of the Far
+West Forests. The explorers could venture there without having anything
+to fear from the heat, for the sun’s rays scarcely penetrated through
+the thick foliage spreading above their heads. They thus visited all the
+left bank of the Mercy, along which ran the road from the corral to the
+mouth of Falls River.
+
+But in these excursions the settlers took care to be well armed, for
+they met with savage wild boars, with which they often had a tussle.
+They also, during this season, made fierce war against the jaguars.
+Gideon Spilett had vowed a special hatred against them, and his pupil
+Herbert seconded him well. Armed as they were, they no longer feared
+to meet one of those beasts. Herbert’s courage was superb, and the
+reporter’s sang-froid astonishing. Already twenty magnificent skins
+ornamented the dining-room of Granite House, and if this continued, the
+jaguar race would soon be extinct in the island, the object aimed at by
+the hunters.
+
+The engineer sometimes took part in the expeditions made to the unknown
+parts of the island, which he surveyed with great attention. It was for
+other traces than those of animals that he searched the thickets of the
+vast forest, but nothing suspicious ever appeared. Neither Top nor Jup,
+who accompanied him, ever betrayed by their behavior that there was
+anything strange there, and yet more than once again the dog barked at
+the mouth of the well, which the engineer had before explored without
+result.
+
+At this time Gideon Spilett, aided by Herbert, took several views of
+the most picturesque parts of the island, by means of the photographic
+apparatus found in the cases, and of which they had not as yet made any
+use.
+
+This apparatus, provided with a powerful object-glass, was very
+complete. Substances necessary for the photographic reproduction,
+collodion for preparing the glass plate, nitrate of silver to render it
+sensitive, hyposulfate of soda to fix the prints obtained, chloride of
+ammonium in which to soak the paper destined to give the positive proof,
+acetate of soda and chloride of gold in which to immerse the paper,
+nothing was wanting. Even the papers were there, all prepared,
+and before laying in the printing-frame upon the negatives, it was
+sufficient to soak them for a few minutes in the solution of nitrate of
+silver.
+
+The reporter and his assistant became in a short time very skilful
+operators, and they obtained fine views of the country, such as the
+island, taken from Prospect Heights with Mount Franklin in the distance,
+the mouth of the Mercy, so picturesquely framed in high rocks, the glade
+and the corral, with the spurs of the mountain in the background, the
+curious development of Claw Cape, Flotsam Point, etc.
+
+Nor did the photographers forget to take the portraits of all the
+inhabitants of the island, leaving out no one.
+
+“It multiplies us,” said Pencroft.
+
+And the sailor was enchanted to see his own countenance, faithfully
+reproduced, ornamenting the walls of Granite House, and he stopped
+as willingly before this exhibition as he would have done before the
+richest shop-windows in Broadway.
+
+But it must be acknowledged that the most successful portrait was
+incontestably that of Master Jup. Master Jup had sat with a gravity not
+to be described, and his portrait was lifelike!
+
+“He looks as if he was just going to grin!” exclaimed Pencroft.
+
+And if Master Jup had not been satisfied, he would have been very
+difficult to please; but he was quite contented and contemplated his own
+countenance with a sentimental air which expressed some small amount of
+conceit.
+
+The summer heat ended with the month of March. The weather was sometimes
+rainy, but still warm. The month of March, which corresponds to the
+September of northern latitudes, was not so fine as might have been
+hoped. Perhaps it announced an early and rigorous winter.
+
+It might have been supposed one morning--the 21 st--that the first snow
+had already made its appearance. In fact Herbert looking early from one
+of the windows of Granite House, exclaimed,--
+
+“Hallo! the islet is covered with snow!”
+
+“Snow at this time?” answered the reporter, joining the boy.
+
+Their companions were soon beside them, but could only ascertain one
+thing, that not only the islet but all the beach below Granite House was
+covered with one uniform sheet of white.
+
+“It must be snow!” said Pencroft.
+
+“Or rather it’s very like it!” replied Neb.
+
+“But the thermometer marks fifty-eight degrees!” observed Gideon
+Spilett.
+
+Cyrus Harding gazed at the sheet of white without saying anything, for
+he really did not know how to explain this phenomenon, at this time of
+year and in such a temperature.
+
+“By Jove!” exclaimed Pencroft, “all our plants will be frozen!”
+
+And the sailor was about to descend, when he was preceded by the nimble
+Jup, who slid down to the sand.
+
+But the orang had not touched the ground, when the snowy sheet arose and
+dispersed in the air in such innumerable flakes that the light of the
+sun was obscured for some minutes.
+
+“Birds!” cried Herbert.
+
+They were indeed swarms of sea-birds, with dazzling white plumage.
+They had perched by thousands on the islet and on the shore, and they
+disappeared in the distance, leaving the colonists amazed as if they
+had been present at some transformation scene, in which summer succeeded
+winter at the touch of a fairy’s wand. Unfortunately the change had been
+so sudden, that neither the reporter nor the lad had been able to bring
+down one of these birds, of which they could not recognize the species.
+
+A few days after came the 26th of March, the day on which, two years
+before, the castaways from the air had been thrown upon Lincoln Island.
+
+
+
+Chapter 19
+
+Two years already! and for two years the colonists had had no
+communication with their fellow-creatures! They were without news from
+the civilized world, lost on this island, as completely as if they had
+been on the most minute star of the celestial hemisphere!
+
+What was now happening in their country? The picture of their native
+land was always before their eyes, the land torn by civil war at the
+time they left it, and which the Southern rebellion was perhaps still
+staining with blood! It was a great sorrow to them, and they often
+talked together of these things, without ever doubting however that
+the cause of the North must triumph, for the honor of the American
+Confederation.
+
+During these two years not a vessel had passed in sight of the island;
+or, at least, not a sail had been seen. It was evident that Lincoln
+Island was out of the usual track, and also that it was unknown,--as was
+besides proved by the maps,--for though there was no port, vessels might
+have visited it for the purpose of renewing their store of water. But
+the surrounding ocean was deserted as far as the eye could reach, and
+the colonists must rely on themselves for regaining their native land.
+
+However, one chance of rescue existed, and this chance was discussed
+one day on the first week of April, when the colonists were gathered
+together in the dining-room of Granite House.
+
+They had been talking of America, of their native country, which they
+had so little hope of ever seeing again.
+
+“Decidedly we have only one way,” said Spilett, “one single way for
+leaving Lincoln Island, and that is, to build a vessel large enough to
+sail several hundred miles. It appears to me, that when one has built a
+boat it is just as easy to build a ship!”
+
+“And in which we might go to the Pomoutous,” added Herbert, “just as
+easily as we went to Tabor Island.”
+
+“I do not say no,” replied Pencroft, who had always the casting vote
+in maritime questions; “I do not say no, although it is not exactly the
+same thing to make a long as a short voyage! If our little craft had
+been caught in any heavy gale of wind during the voyage to Tabor Island,
+we should have known that land was at no great distance either way; but
+twelve hundred miles is a pretty long way, and the nearest land is at
+least that distance!”
+
+“Would you not, in that case, Pencroft, attempt the adventure?” asked
+the reporter.
+
+“I will attempt anything that is desired, Mr. Spilett,” answered the
+sailor, “and you know well that I am not a man to flinch!”
+
+“Remember, besides, that we number another sailor amongst us now,”
+ remarked Neb.
+
+“Who is that?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“Ayrton.”
+
+“If he will consent to come,” said Pencroft.
+
+“Nonsense!” returned the reporter; “do you think that if Lord
+Glenarvan’s yacht had appeared at Tabor Island, while he was still
+living there, Ayrton would have refused to depart?”
+
+“You forget, my friends,” then said Cyrus Harding, “that Ayrton was not
+in possession of his reason during the last years of his stay there. But
+that is not the question. The point is to know if we may count among
+our chances of being rescued, the return of the Scotch vessel. Now,
+Lord Glenarvan promised Ayrton that he would return to take him off from
+Tabor Island when he considered that his crimes were expiated, and I
+believe that he will return.”
+
+“Yes,” said the reporter, “and I will add that he will return soon, for
+it is twelve years since Ayrton was abandoned.”
+
+“Well!” answered Pencroft, “I agree with you that the nobleman will
+return, and soon too. But where will he touch? At Tabor Island, and not
+at Lincoln Island.”
+
+“That is the more certain,” replied Herbert, “as Lincoln Island is not
+even marked on the map.”
+
+“Therefore, my friends,” said the engineer, “we ought to take the
+necessary precautions for making our presence and that of Ayrton on
+Lincoln Island known at Tabor Island.”
+
+“Certainly,” answered the reporter, “and nothing is easier than to place
+in the hut, which was Captain Grant’s and Ayrton’s dwelling, a notice
+which Lord Glenarvan and his crew cannot help finding, giving the
+position of our island.”
+
+“It is a pity,” remarked the sailor, “that we forgot to take that
+precaution on our first visit to Tabor Island.”
+
+“And why should we have done it?” asked Herbert. “At that time we did
+not know Ayrton’s history; we did not know that any one was likely to
+come some day to fetch him, and when we did know his history, the season
+was too advanced to allow us to return then to Tabor Island.”
+
+“Yes,” replied Harding, “it was too late, and we must put off the voyage
+until next spring.”
+
+“But suppose the Scotch yacht comes before that,” said Pencroft.
+
+“That is not probable,” replied the engineer, “for Lord Glenarvan would
+not choose the winter season to venture into these seas. Either he has
+already returned to Tabor Island, since Ayrton has been with us, that is
+to say, during the last five months and has left again; or he will not
+come till later, and it will be time enough in the first fine October
+days to go to Tabor Island, and leave a notice there.”
+
+“We must allow,” said Neb, “that it will be very unfortunate if the
+‘Duncan’ has returned to these parts only a few months ago!”
+
+“I hope that it is not so,” replied Cyrus Harding, “and that Heaven has
+not deprived us of the best chance which remains to us.”
+
+“I think,” observed the reporter, “that at any rate we shall know what
+we have to depend on when we have been to Tabor Island, for if the yacht
+has returned there, they will necessarily have left some traces of their
+visit.”
+
+“That is evident,” answered the engineer. “So then, my friends, since
+we have this chance of returning to our country, we must wait patiently,
+and if it is taken from us we shall see what will be best to do.”
+
+“At any rate,” remarked Pencroft, “it is well understood that if we
+do leave Lincoln Island, it will not be because we were uncomfortable
+there!”
+
+“No, Pencroft,” replied the engineer, “it will be because we are far
+from all that a man holds dearest in the world, his family, his friends,
+his native land!”
+
+Matters being thus decided, the building of a vessel large enough to
+sail either to the Archipelagoes in the north, or to New Zealand in
+the west, was no longer talked of, and they busied themselves in their
+accustomed occupations, with a view to wintering a third time in Granite
+House.
+
+However, it was agreed that before the stormy weather came on, their
+little vessel should be employed in making a voyage round the island.
+A complete survey of the coast had not yet been made, and the colonists
+had but an imperfect idea of the shore to the west and north, from the
+mouth of Falls River to the Mandible Capes, as well as of the narrow bay
+between them, which opened like a shark’s jaws.
+
+The plan of this excursion was proposed by Pencroft, and Cyrus Harding
+fully acquiesced in it, for he himself wished to see this part of his
+domain.
+
+The weather was variable, but the barometer did not fluctuate by sudden
+movements, and they could therefore count on tolerable weather. However,
+during the first week of April, after a sudden barometrical fall, a
+renewed rise was marked by a heavy gale of wind, lasting five or six
+days; then the needle of the instrument remained stationary at a
+height of twenty-nine inches and nine-tenths, and the weather appeared
+propitious for an excursion.
+
+The departure was fixed for the 16th of April, and the “Bonadventure,”
+ anchored in Port Balloon, was provisioned for a voyage which might be of
+some duration.
+
+Cyrus Harding informed Ayrton of the projected expedition, and proposed
+that he should take part in it, but Ayrton preferring to remain on
+shore, it was decided that he should come to Granite House during the
+absence of his companions. Master Jup was ordered to keep him company,
+and made no remonstrance.
+
+On the morning of the 16th of April all the colonists, including Top,
+embarked. A fine breeze blew from the south-west, and the “Bonadventure”
+ tacked on leaving Port Balloon so as to reach Reptile End. Of the ninety
+miles which the perimeter of the island measured, twenty included the
+south coast between the port and the promontory. The wind being right
+ahead it was necessary to hug the shore.
+
+It took the whole day to reach the promontory, for the vessel on leaving
+port had only two hours of ebb tide and had therefore to make way for
+six hours against the flood. It was nightfall before the promontory was
+doubled.
+
+The sailor then proposed to the engineer that they should continue
+sailing slowly with two reefs in the sail. But Harding preferred to
+anchor a few cable-lengths from the shore, so as to survey that part of
+the coast during the day. It was agreed also that as they were anxious
+for a minute exploration of the coast they should not sail during the
+night, but would always, when the weather permitted it, be at anchor
+near the shore.
+
+The night was passed under the promontory, and the wind having fallen,
+nothing disturbed the silence. The passengers, with the exception of the
+sailor, scarcely slept as well on board the “Bonadventure” as they would
+have done in their rooms at Granite House, but they did sleep however.
+Pencroft set sail at break of day, and by going on the larboard tack
+they could keep close to the shore.
+
+The colonists knew this beautiful wooded coast, since they had already
+explored it on foot, and yet it again excited their admiration. They
+coasted along as close in as possible, so as to notice everything,
+avoiding always the trunks of trees which floated here and there.
+Several times also they anchored, and Gideon Spilett took photographs of
+the superb scenery.
+
+About noon the “Bonadventure” arrived at the mouth of Falls River.
+Beyond, on the left bank, a few scattered trees appeared, and three
+miles further even these dwindled into solitary groups among the western
+spurs of the mountain, whose arid ridge sloped down to the shore.
+
+What a contrast between the northern and southern part of the coast!
+In proportion as one was woody and fertile so was the other rugged and
+barren! It might have been designated as one of those iron coasts, as
+they are called in some countries, and its wild confusion appeared to
+indicate that a sudden crystallization had been produced in the yet
+liquid basalt of some distant geological sea. These stupendous masses
+would have terrified the settlers if they had been cast at first on
+this part of the island! They had not been able to perceive the sinister
+aspect of this shore from the summit of Mount Franklin, for they
+overlooked it from too great a height, but viewed from the sea it
+presented a wild appearance which could not perhaps be equaled in any
+corner of the globe.
+
+The “Bonadventure” sailed along this coast for the distance of half a
+mile. It was easy to see that it was composed of blocks of all sizes,
+from twenty to three hundred feet in height, and of all shapes, round
+like towers, prismatic like steeples, pyramidal like obelisks, conical
+like factory chimneys. An iceberg of the Polar seas could not have been
+more capricious in its terrible sublimity! Here, bridges were thrown
+from one rock to another; there, arches like those of a wave, into the
+depths of which the eye could not penetrate; in one place, large vaulted
+excavations presented a monumental aspect; in another, a crowd of
+columns, spires, and arches, such as no Gothic cathedral ever
+possessed. Every caprice of nature, still more varied than those of the
+imagination, appeared on this grand coast, which extended over a length
+of eight or nine miles.
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions gazed, with a feeling of surprise
+bordering on stupefaction. But, although they remained silent, Top,
+not being troubled with feelings of this sort, uttered barks which were
+repeated by the thousand echoes of the basaltic cliff. The engineer
+even observed that these barks had something strange in them, like those
+which the dog had uttered at the mouth of the well in Granite House.
+
+“Let us go close in,” said he.
+
+And the “Bonadventure” sailed as near as possible to the rocky shore.
+Perhaps some cave, which it would be advisable to explore, existed
+there? But Harding saw nothing, not a cavern, not a cleft which could
+serve as a retreat to any being whatever, for the foot of the cliff was
+washed by the surf. Soon Top’s barks ceased, and the vessel continued
+her course at a few cables-length from the coast.
+
+In the northwest part of the island the shore became again flat and
+sandy. A few trees here and there rose above a low, marshy ground, which
+the colonists had already surveyed, and in violent contrast to the other
+desert shore, life was again manifested by the presence of myriads of
+water-fowl. That evening the “Bonadventure” anchored in a small bay
+to the north of the island, near the land, such was the depth of water
+there. The night passed quietly, for the breeze died away with the last
+light of day, and only rose again with the first streaks of dawn.
+
+As it was easy to land, the usual hunters of the colony, that is to say,
+Herbert and Gideon Spilett, went for a ramble of two hours or so, and
+returned with several strings of wild duck and snipe. Top had
+done wonders, and not a bird had been lost, thanks to his zeal and
+cleverness.
+
+At eight o’clock in the morning the “Bonadventure” set sail, and ran
+rapidly towards North Mandible Cape, for the wind was right astern and
+freshening rapidly.
+
+“However,” observed Pencroft, “I should not be surprised if a gale came
+up from the west. Yesterday the sun set in a very red-looking horizon,
+and now, this morning, those mares-tails don’t forbode anything good.”
+
+These mares-tails are cirrus clouds, scattered in the zenith, their
+height from the sea being less than five thousand feet. They look like
+light pieces of cotton wool, and their presence usually announces some
+sudden change in the weather.
+
+“Well,” said Harding, “let us carry as much sail as possible, and run
+for shelter into Shark Gulf. I think that the ‘Bonadventure’ will be
+safe there.”
+
+“Perfectly,” replied Pencroft, “and besides, the north coast is merely
+sand, very uninteresting to look at.”
+
+“I shall not be sorry,” resumed the engineer, “to pass not only to-night
+but to-morrow in that bay, which is worth being carefully explored.”
+
+“I think that we shall be obliged to do so, whether we like it or not,”
+ answered Pencroft, “for the sky looks very threatening towards the west.
+Dirty weather is coming on!”
+
+“At any rate we have a favorable wind for reaching Cape Mandible,”
+ observed the reporter.
+
+“A very fine wind,” replied the sailor; “but we must tack to enter the
+gulf, and I should like to see my way clear in these unknown quarters.”
+
+“Quarters which appear to be filled with rocks,” added Herbert, “if we
+judge by what we saw on the south coast of Shark Gulf.”
+
+“Pencroft,” said Cyrus Harding, “do as you think best, we will leave it
+to you.”
+
+“Don’t make your mind uneasy, captain,” replied the sailor, “I shall not
+expose myself needlessly! I would rather a knife were run into my ribs
+than a sharp rock into those of my ‘Bonadventure!’”
+
+That which Pencroft called ribs was the part of his vessel under water,
+and he valued it more than his own skin.
+
+“What o’clock is it?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“Ten o’clock,” replied Gideon Spilett.
+
+“And what distance is it to the Cape, captain?”
+
+“About fifteen miles,” replied the engineer.
+
+“That’s a matter of two hours and a half,” said the sailor, “and we
+shall be off the Cape between twelve and one o’clock. Unluckily, the
+tide will be turning at that moment, and will be ebbing out of the gulf.
+I am afraid that it will be very difficult to get in, having both wind
+and tide against us.”
+
+“And the more so that it is a full moon to-day,” remarked Herbert, “and
+these April tides are very strong.”
+
+“Well, Pencroft,” asked Harding, “can you not anchor off the Cape?”
+
+“Anchor near land, with bad weather coming on!” exclaimed the sailor.
+“What are you thinking of, captain? We should run aground, of a
+certainty!”
+
+“What will you do then?”
+
+“I shall try to keep in the offing until the flood, that is to say, till
+about seven in the evening, and if there is still light enough I will
+try to enter the gulf; if not, we must stand off and on during the
+night, and we will enter to-morrow at sunrise.”
+
+“As I told you, Pencroft, we will leave it to you,” answered Harding.
+
+“Ah!” said Pencroft, “if there was only a lighthouse on the coast, it
+would be much more convenient for sailors.”
+
+“Yes,” replied Herbert, “and this time we shall have no obliging
+engineer to light a fire to guide us into port!”
+
+“Why, indeed, my dear Cyrus,” said Spilett, “we have never thanked you;
+but frankly, without that fire we should never have been able--”
+
+“A fire?” asked Harding, much astonished at the reporter’s words.
+
+“We mean, captain,” answered Pencroft, “that on board the ‘Bonadventure’
+we were very anxious during the few hours before our return, and we
+should have passed to windward of the island, if it had not been for the
+precaution you took of lighting a fire the night of the 19th of October,
+on Prospect Heights.”
+
+“Yes, yes! That was a lucky idea of mine!” replied the engineer.
+
+“And this time,” continued the sailor, “unless the idea occurs to
+Ayrton, there will be no one to do us that little service!”
+
+“No! No one!” answered Cyrus Harding.
+
+A few minutes after, finding himself alone in the bows of the vessel,
+with the reporter, the engineer bent down and whispered,--
+
+“If there is one thing certain in this world, Spilett, it is that I
+never lighted any fire during the night of the 19th of October, neither
+on Prospect Heights nor on any other part of the island!”
+
+
+
+Chapter 20
+
+Things happened as Pencroft had predicted, he being seldom mistaken in
+his prognostications. The wind rose, and from a fresh breeze it soon
+increased to a regular gale; that is to say, it acquired a speed of from
+forty to forty-five miles an hour, before which a ship in the open sea
+would have run under close-reefed topsails. Now, as it was nearly six
+o’clock when the “Bonadventure” reached the gulf, and as at that
+moment the tide turned, it was impossible to enter. They were therefore
+compelled to stand off, for even if he had wished to do so, Pencroft
+could not have gained the mouth of the Mercy. Hoisting the jib to the
+mainmast by way of a storm-sail, he hove to, putting the head of the
+vessel towards the land.
+
+Fortunately, although the wind was strong the sea, being sheltered by
+the land, did not run very high. They had then little to fear from
+the waves, which always endanger small craft. The “Bonadventure” would
+doubtlessly not have capsized, for she was well ballasted, but enormous
+masses of water falling on the deck might injure her if her timbers
+could not sustain them. Pencroft, as a good sailor, was prepared
+for anything. Certainly, he had great confidence in his vessel, but
+nevertheless he awaited the return of day with some anxiety.
+
+During the night, Cyrus Harding and Gideon Spilett had no opportunity
+for talking together, and yet the words pronounced in the reporter’s
+ear by the engineer were well worth being discussed, together with the
+mysterious influence which appeared to reign over Lincoln Island. Gideon
+Spilett did not cease from pondering over this new and inexplicable
+incident, the appearance of a fire on the coast of the island. The fire
+had actually been seen! His companions, Herbert and Pencroft, had seen
+it with him! The fire had served to signalize the position of the island
+during that dark night, and they had not doubted that it was lighted by
+the engineer’s hand; and here was Cyrus Harding expressly declaring that
+he had never done anything of the sort! Spilett resolved to recur to
+this incident as soon as the “Bonadventure” returned, and to urge Cyrus
+Harding to acquaint their companions with these strange facts. Perhaps
+it would be decided to make in common a complete investigation of every
+part of Lincoln Island.
+
+However that might be, on this evening no fire was lighted on these yet
+unknown shores, which formed the entrance to the gulf, and the little
+vessel stood off during the night.
+
+When the first streaks of dawn appeared in the western horizon, the
+wind, which had slightly fallen, shifted two points, and enabled
+Pencroft to enter the narrow gulf with greater ease. Towards seven
+o’clock in the morning, the “Bonadventure,” weathering the North
+Mandible Cape, entered the strait and glided on to the waters, so
+strangely enclosed in the frame of lava.
+
+“Well,” said Pencroft, “this bay would make admirable roads, in which a
+whole fleet could lie at their ease!”
+
+“What is especially curious,” observed Harding, “is that the gulf
+has been formed by two rivers of lava, thrown out by the volcano, and
+accumulated by successive eruptions. The result is that the gulf is
+completely sheltered on all sides, and I believe that even in the
+stormiest weather, the sea here must be as calm as a lake.”
+
+“No doubt,” returned the sailor, “since the wind has only that narrow
+entrance between the two capes to get in by, and, besides, the north
+cape protects that of the south in a way which would make the entrance
+of gusts very difficult. I declare our ‘Bonadventure’ could stay here
+from one end of the year to the other, without even dragging at her
+anchor!”
+
+“It is rather large for her!” observed the reporter.
+
+“Well! Mr. Spilett,” replied the sailor, “I agree that it is too large
+for the ‘Bonadventure,’ but if the fleets of the Union were in want of a
+harbor in the Pacific, I don’t think they would ever find a better place
+than this!”
+
+“We are in the shark’s mouth,” remarked Neb, alluding to the form of the
+gulf.
+
+“Right into its mouth, my honest Neb!” replied Herbert, “but you are not
+afraid that it will shut upon us, are you?”
+
+“No, Mr. Herbert,” answered Neb, “and yet this gulf here doesn’t please
+me much! It has a wicked look!”
+
+“Hallo!” cried Pencroft, “here is Neb turning up his nose at my gulf,
+just as I was thinking of presenting it to America!”
+
+“But, at any rate, is the water deep enough?” asked the engineer, “for a
+depth sufficient for the keel of the ‘Bonadventure’ would not be enough
+for those of our iron-clads.”
+
+“That is easily found out,” replied Pencroft.
+
+And the sailor sounded with a long cord, which served him as a
+lead-line, and to which was fastened a lump of iron. This cord measured
+nearly fifty fathoms, and its entire length was unrolled without finding
+any bottom.
+
+“There,” exclaimed Pencroft, “our iron-clads can come here after all!
+They would not run aground!”
+
+“Indeed,” said Gideon Spilett, “this gulf is a regular abyss, but,
+taking into consideration the volcanic origin of the island, it is not
+astonishing that the sea should offer similar depressions.”
+
+“One would say too,” observed Herbert, “that these cliffs were perfectly
+perpendicular; and I believe that at their foot, even with a line five
+or six times longer, Pencroft would not find bottom.”
+
+“That is all very well,” then said the reporter, “but I must point out
+to Pencroft that his harbor is wanting in one very important respect!”
+
+“And what is that, Mr. Spilett?”
+
+“An opening, a cutting of some sort, to give access to the interior of
+the island. I do not see a spot on which we could land.” And, in
+fact, the steep lava cliffs did not afford a single place suitable for
+landing. They formed an insuperable barrier, recalling, but with more
+wildness, the fiords of Norway. The “Bonadventure,” coasting as close
+as possible along the cliffs, did not discover even a projection which
+would allow the passengers to leave the deck.
+
+Pencroft consoled himself by saying that with the help of a mine they
+could soon open out the cliff when that was necessary, and then, as
+there was evidently nothing to be done in the gulf, he steered his
+vessel towards the strait and passed out at about two o’clock in the
+afternoon.
+
+“Ah!” said Neb, uttering a sigh of satisfaction.
+
+One might really say that the honest Negro did not feel at his ease in
+those enormous jaws.
+
+The distance from Mandible Cape to the mouth of the Mercy was not more
+than eight miles. The head of the “Bonadventure” was put towards Granite
+House, and a fair wind filling her sails, she ran rapidly along the
+coast.
+
+To the enormous lava rocks succeeded soon those capricious sand dunes,
+among which the engineer had been so singularly recovered, and which
+seabirds frequented in thousands.
+
+About four o’clock, Pencroft leaving the point of the islet on his
+left, entered the channel which separated it from the coast, and at five
+o’clock the anchor of the “Bonadventure” was buried in the sand at the
+mouth of the Mercy.
+
+The colonists had been absent three days from their dwelling. Ayrton
+was waiting for them on the beach, and Jup came joyously to meet them,
+giving vent to deep grunts of satisfaction.
+
+A complete exploration of the coast of the island had now been made,
+and no suspicious appearances had been observed. If any mysterious being
+resided on it, it could only be under cover of the impenetrable forest
+of the Serpentine Peninsula, to which the colonists had not yet directed
+their investigations.
+
+Gideon Spilett discussed these things with the engineer, and it was
+agreed that they should direct the attention of their companions to the
+strange character of certain incidents which had occurred on the island,
+and of which the last was the most unaccountable.
+
+However, Harding, returning to the fact of a fire having been kindled on
+the shore by an unknown hand, could not refrain from repeating for the
+twentieth time to the reporter,--
+
+“But are you quite sure of having seen it? Was it not a partial eruption
+of the volcano, or perhaps some meteor?”
+
+“No, Cyrus,” answered the reporter, “it was certainly a fire lighted by
+the hand of man. Besides; question Pencroft and Herbert. They saw it as
+I saw it myself, and they will confirm my words.”
+
+In consequence, therefore, a few days after, on the 25th of April, in
+the evening, when the settlers were all collected on Prospect Heights,
+Cyrus Harding began by saying,--
+
+“My friends, I think it my duty to call your attention to certain
+incidents which have occurred in the island, on the subject of which I
+shall be happy to have your advice. These incidents are, so to speak,
+supernatural--”
+
+“Supernatural!” exclaimed the sailor, emitting a volume of smoke from
+his mouth. “Can it be possible that our island is supernatural?”
+
+“No, Pencroft, but mysterious, most certainly,” replied the engineer;
+“unless you can explain that which Spilett and I have until now failed
+to understand.”
+
+“Speak away, captain,” answered the sailor.
+
+“Well, have you understood,” then said the engineer, “how was it that
+after falling into the sea, I was found a quarter of a mile into the
+interior of the island, and that, without my having any consciousness of
+my removal there?”
+
+“Unless, being unconscious--” said Pencroft.
+
+“That is not admissible,” replied the engineer. “But to continue. Have
+you understood how Top was able to discover your retreat five miles from
+the cave in which I was lying?”
+
+“The dog’s instinct--” observed Herbert.
+
+“Singular instinct!” returned the reporter, “since notwithstanding the
+storm of rain and wind which was raging during that night, Top arrived
+at the Chimneys, dry and without a speck of mud!”
+
+“Let us continue,” resumed the engineer. “Have you understood how our
+dog was so strangely thrown up out of the water of the lake, after his
+struggle with the dugong?”
+
+“No! I confess, not at all,” replied Pencroft, “and the wound which the
+dugong had in its side, a wound which seemed to have been made with a
+sharp instrument; that can’t be understood, either.”
+
+“Let us continue again,” said Harding. “Have you understood, my friends,
+how that bullet got into the body of the young peccary; how that case
+happened to be so fortunately stranded, without there being any trace
+of a wreck; how that bottle containing the document presented itself
+so opportunely, during our first sea-excursion; how our canoe, having
+broken its moorings, floated down the current of the Mercy and rejoined
+us at the very moment we needed it; how after the ape invasion the
+ladder was so obligingly thrown down from Granite House; and lastly, how
+the document, which Ayrton asserts was never written by him, fell into
+our hands?”
+
+As Cyrus Harding thus enumerated, without forgetting one, the singular
+incidents which had occurred in the island, Herbert, Neb, and Pencroft
+stared at each other, not knowing what to reply, for this succession of
+incidents, grouped thus for the first time, could not but excite their
+surprise to the highest degree.
+
+“‘Pon my word,” said Pencroft at last, “you are right, captain, and it
+is difficult to explain all these things!”
+
+“Well, my friends,” resumed the engineer, “a last fact has just been
+added to these, and it is no less incomprehensible than the others!”
+
+“What is it, captain?” asked Herbert quickly.
+
+“When you were returning from Tabor Island, Pencroft,” continued the
+engineer, “you said that a fire appeared on Lincoln Island?”
+
+“Certainly,” answered the sailor.
+
+“And you are quite certain of having seen this fire?”
+
+“As sure as I see you now.”
+
+“You also, Herbert?”
+
+“Why, captain,” cried Herbert, “that fire was blazing like a star of the
+first magnitude!”
+
+“But was it not a star?” urged the engineer.
+
+“No,” replied Pencroft, “for the sky was covered with thick clouds, and
+at any rate a star would not have been so low on the horizon. But Mr.
+Spilett saw it as well as we, and he will confirm our words.”
+
+“I will add,” said the reporter, “that the fire was very bright, and
+that it shot up like a sheet of lightning.”
+
+“Yes, yes! exactly,” added Herbert, “and it was certainly placed on the
+heights of Granite House.”
+
+“Well, my friends,” replied Cyrus Harding, “during the night of the 19th
+of October, neither Neb nor I lighted any fire on the coast.”
+
+“You did not!” exclaimed Pencroft, in the height of his astonishment,
+not being able to finish his sentence.
+
+“We did not leave Granite House,” answered Cyrus Harding, “and if a fire
+appeared on the coast, it was lighted by another hand than ours!”
+
+Pencroft, Herbert, and Neb were stupefied. No illusion could be
+possible, and a fire had actually met their eyes during the night of the
+19th of October. Yes! they had to acknowledge it, a mystery existed! An
+inexplicable influence, evidently favorable to the colonists, but very
+irritating to their curiosity, was executed always in the nick of time
+on Lincoln Island. Could there be some being hidden in its profoundest
+recesses? It was necessary at any cost to ascertain this.
+
+Harding also reminded his companions of the singular behavior of Top and
+Jup when they prowled round the mouth of the well, which placed Granite
+House in communication with the sea, and he told them that he had
+explored the well, without discovering anything suspicious. The final
+resolve taken, in consequence of this conversation, by all the members
+of the colony, was that as soon as the fine season returned they would
+thoroughly search the whole of the island.
+
+But from that day Pencroft appeared to be anxious. He felt as if the
+island which he had made his own personal property belonged to him
+entirely no longer, and that he shared it with another master, to
+whom, willing or not, he felt subject. Neb and he often talked of those
+unaccountable things, and both, their natures inclining them to the
+marvelous, were not far from believing that Lincoln Island was under the
+dominion of some supernatural power.
+
+In the meanwhile, the bad weather came with the month of May, the
+November of the northern zones. It appeared that the winter would
+be severe and forward. The preparations for the winter season were
+therefore commenced without delay.
+
+Nevertheless, the colonists were well prepared to meet the winter,
+however hard it might be. They had plenty of felt clothing, and the
+musmons, very numerous by this time, had furnished an abundance of wool
+necessary for the manufacture of this warm material.
+
+It is unnecessary to say that Ayrton had been provided with this
+comfortable clothing. Cyrus Harding proposed that he should come to
+spend the bad season with them in Granite House, where he would be
+better lodged than at the corral, and Ayrton promised to do so, as soon
+as the last work at the corral was finished. He did this towards the
+middle of April. From that time Ayrton shared the common life, and made
+himself useful on all occasions; but still humble and sad, he never took
+part in the pleasures of his companions.
+
+For the greater part of this, the third winter which the settlers passed
+in Lincoln Island, they were confined to Granite House. There were many
+violent storms and frightful tempests, which appeared to shake the rocks
+to their very foundations. Immense waves threatened to overwhelm the
+island, and certainly any vessel anchored near the shore would have
+been dashed to pieces. Twice, during one of these hurricanes, the Mercy
+swelled to such a degree as to give reason to fear that the bridges
+would be swept away, and it was necessary to strengthen those on the
+shore, which disappeared under the foaming waters, when the sea beat
+against the beach.
+
+It may well be supposed that such storms, comparable to water-spouts in
+which were mingled rain and snow, would cause great havoc on the
+plateau of Prospect Heights. The mill and the poultry-yard particularly
+suffered. The colonists were often obliged to make immediate repairs,
+without which the safety of the birds would have been seriously
+threatened.
+
+During the worst weather, several jaguars and troops of quadrumana
+ventured to the edge of the plateau, and it was always to be feared that
+the most active and audacious would, urged by hunger, manage to cross
+the stream, which besides, when frozen, offered them an easy passage.
+Plantations and domestic animals would then have been infallibly
+destroyed, without a constant watch, and it was often necessary to
+make use of the guns to keep those dangerous visitors at a respectful
+distance. Occupation was not wanting to the colonists, for without
+reckoning their out-door cares, they had always a thousand plans for the
+fitting up of Granite House.
+
+They had also some fine sporting excursions, which were made during the
+frost in the vast Tadorn Marsh. Gideon Spilett and Herbert, aided by
+Jup and Top, did not miss a shot in the midst of myriads of wild-duck,
+snipe, teal, and others. The access to these hunting-grounds was easy;
+besides, whether they reached them by the road to Port Balloon, after
+having passed the Mercy Bridge, or by turning the rocks from Flotsam
+Point, the hunters were never distant from Granite House more than two
+or three miles.
+
+Thus passed the four winter months, which were really rigorous, that is
+to say, June, July, August, and September. But, in short, Granite House
+did not suffer much from the inclemency of the weather, and it was
+the same with the corral, which, less exposed than the plateau, and
+sheltered partly by Mount Franklin, only received the remains of the
+hurricanes, already broken by the forests and the high rocks of the
+shore. The damages there were consequently of small importance, and the
+activity and skill of Ayrton promptly repaired them, when some time in
+October he returned to pass a few days in the corral.
+
+During this winter, no fresh inexplicable incident occurred. Nothing
+strange happened, although Pencroft and Neb were on the watch for the
+most insignificant facts to which they attached any mysterious cause.
+Top and Jup themselves no longer growled round the well or gave any
+signs of uneasiness. It appeared, therefore, as if the series of
+supernatural incidents was interrupted, although they often talked of
+them during the evenings in Granite House, and they remained thoroughly
+resolved that the island should be searched, even in those parts the
+most difficult to explore. But an event of the highest importance, and
+of which the consequences might be terrible, momentarily diverted from
+their projects Cyrus Harding and his companions.
+
+It was the month of October. The fine season was swiftly returning.
+Nature was reviving; and among the evergreen foliage of the coniferae
+which formed the border of the wood, already appeared the young leaves
+of the banksias, deodars, and other trees.
+
+It may be remembered that Gideon Spilett and Herbert had, at different
+times, taken photographic views of Lincoln Island.
+
+Now, on the 17th of this month of October, towards three o’clock in
+the afternoon, Herbert, enticed by the charms of the sky, thought of
+reproducing Union Bay, which was opposite to Prospect Heights, from Cape
+Mandible to Claw Cape.
+
+The horizon was beautifully clear, and the sea, undulating under a soft
+breeze, was as calm as the waters of a lake, sparkling here and there
+under the sun’s rays.
+
+The apparatus had been placed at one of the windows of the dining-room
+at Granite House, and consequently overlooked the shore and the bay.
+Herbert proceeded as he was accustomed to do, and the negative obtained,
+he went away to fix it by means of the chemicals deposited in a dark
+nook of Granite House.
+
+Returning to the bright light, and examining it well, Herbert perceived
+on his negative an almost imperceptible little spot on the sea horizon.
+He endeavored to make it disappear by reiterated washing, but could not
+accomplish it.
+
+“It is a flaw in the glass,” he thought.
+
+And then he had the curiosity to examine this flaw with a strong
+magnifier which he unscrewed from one of the telescopes.
+
+But he had scarcely looked at it, when he uttered a cry, and the glass
+almost fell from his hands.
+
+Immediately running to the room in which Cyrus Harding then was, he
+extended the negative and magnifier towards the engineer, pointing out
+the little spot.
+
+Harding examined it; then seizing his telescope he rushed to the window.
+
+The telescope, after having slowly swept the horizon, at last stopped on
+the looked-for spot, and Cyrus Harding, lowering it, pronounced one word
+only,--
+
+“A vessel!”
+
+And in fact a vessel was in sight, off Lincoln Island!
+
+
+
+
+
+PART 3
+
+THE SECRET OF THE ISLAND
+
+
+
+Chapter 1
+
+It was now two years and a half since the castaways from the balloon had
+been thrown on Lincoln Island, and during that period there had been no
+communication between them and their fellow-creatures. Once the reporter
+had attempted to communicate with the inhabited world by confiding to
+a bird a letter which contained the secret of their situation, but that
+was a chance on which it was impossible to reckon seriously. Ayrton,
+alone, under the circumstances which have been related, had come to
+join the little colony. Now, suddenly, on this day, the 17th of October,
+other men had unexpectedly appeared in sight of the island, on that
+deserted sea!
+
+There could be no doubt about it! A vessel was there! But would she
+pass on, or would she put into port? In a few hours the colonists would
+definitely know what to expect.
+
+Cyrus Harding and Herbert having immediately called Gideon Spilett,
+Pencroft, and Neb into the dining-room of Granite House, told them
+what had happened. Pencroft, seizing the telescope, rapidly swept the
+horizon, and stopping on the indicated point, that is to say, on
+that which had made the almost imperceptible spot on the photographic
+negative,--
+
+“I’m blessed but it is really a vessel!” he exclaimed, in a voice which
+did not express any great amount of satisfaction.
+
+“Is she coming here?” asked Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Impossible to say anything yet,” answered Pencroft, “for her rigging
+alone is above the horizon, and not a bit of her hull can be seen.”
+
+“What is to be done?” asked the lad.
+
+“Wait,” replied Harding.
+
+And for a considerable time the settlers remained silent, given up to
+all the thoughts, and the emotions, all the fears, all the hopes, which
+were aroused by this incident--the most important which had occurred
+since their arrival in Lincoln Island. Certainly, the colonists were not
+in the situation of castaways abandoned on a sterile islet, constantly
+contending against a cruel nature for their miserable existence, and
+incessantly tormented by the longing to return to inhabited countries.
+Pencroft and Neb, especially, who felt themselves at once so happy and
+so rich, would not have left their island without regret. They were
+accustomed, besides, to this new life in the midst of the domain which
+their intelligence had as it were civilized. But at any rate this ship
+brought news from the world, perhaps even from their native land. It was
+bringing fellow-creatures to them, and it may be conceived how deeply
+their hearts were moved at the sight!
+
+From time to time Pencroft took the glass and rested himself at the
+window. From thence he very attentively examined the vessel, which was
+at a distance of twenty miles to the east. The colonists had as yet,
+therefore, no means of signalizing their presence. A flag would not have
+been perceived; a gun would not have been heard; a fire would not have
+been visible. However, it was certain that the island, overtopped by
+Mount Franklin, could not escape the notice of the vessel’s lookout. But
+why was the ship coming there? Was it simple chance which brought it to
+that part of the Pacific, where the maps mentioned no land except Tabor
+Island, which itself was out of the route usually followed by vessels
+from the Polynesian Archipelagoes, from New Zealand, and from the
+American coast? To this question, which each one asked himself, a reply
+was suddenly made by Herbert.
+
+“Can it be the ‘Duncan’?” he cried.
+
+The “Duncan,” as has been said, was Lord Glenarvan’s yacht, which had
+left Ayrton on the islet, and which was to return there someday to fetch
+him. Now, the islet was not so far distant from Lincoln Island, but
+that a vessel, standing for the one, could pass in sight of the other. A
+hundred and fifty miles only separated them in longitude, and seventy in
+latitude.
+
+“We must tell Ayrton,” said Gideon Spilett, “and send for him
+immediately. He alone can say if it is the ‘Duncan.’”
+
+This was the opinion of all, and the reporter, going to the telegraphic
+apparatus which placed the corral in communication with Granite House,
+sent this telegram:--“Come with all possible speed.”
+
+In a few minutes the bell sounded.
+
+“I am coming,” replied Ayrton.
+
+Then the settlers continued to watch the vessel.
+
+“If it is the ‘Duncan,’” said Herbert, “Ayrton will recognize her
+without difficulty, since he sailed on board her for some time.”
+
+“And if he recognizes her,” added Pencroft, “it will agitate him
+exceedingly!”
+
+“Yes,” answered Cyrus Harding; “but now Ayrton is worthy to return on
+board the ‘Duncan,’ and pray Heaven that it is indeed Lord Glenarvan’s
+yacht, for I should be suspicious of any other vessel. These are
+ill-famed seas, and I have always feared a visit from Malay pirates to
+our island.”
+
+“We could defend it,’, cried Herbert.
+
+“No doubt, my boy,” answered the engineer smiling, “but it would be
+better not to have to defend it.”
+
+“A useless observation,” said Spilett. “Lincoln Island is unknown to
+navigators, since it is not marked even on the most recent maps. Do
+you think, Cyrus, that that is a sufficient motive for a ship, finding
+herself unexpectedly in sight of new land, to try and visit rather than
+avoid it?”
+
+“Certainly,” replied Pencroft.
+
+“I think so too,” added the engineer. “It may even be said that it is
+the duty of a captain to come and survey any land or island not yet
+known, and Lincoln Island is in this position.”
+
+“Well,” said Pencroft, “suppose this vessel comes and anchors there a
+few cables-lengths from our island, what shall we do?”
+
+This sudden question remained at first without any reply. But Cyrus
+Harding, after some moments’ thought, replied in the calm tone which was
+usual to him,--
+
+“What we shall do, my friends? What we ought to do is this:--we will
+communicate with the ship, we will take our passage on board her, and we
+will leave our island, after having taken possession of it in the name
+of the United States. Then we will return with any who may wish to
+follow us to colonize it definitely, and endow the American Republic
+with a useful station in this part of the Pacific Ocean!”
+
+“Hurrah!” exclaimed Pencroft, “and that will be no small present
+which we shall make to our country! The colonization is already almost
+finished; names are given to every part of the island; there is
+a natural port, fresh water, roads, a telegraph, a dockyard, and
+manufactories; and there will be nothing to be done but to inscribe
+Lincoln Island on the maps!”
+
+“But if anyone seizes it in our absence?” observed Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Hang it!” cried the sailor. “I would rather remain all alone to guard
+it: and trust to Pencroft, they shouldn’t steal it from him, like a
+watch from the pocket of a swell!”
+
+For an hour it was impossible to say with any certainty whether the
+vessel was or was not standing towards Lincoln Island. She was
+nearer, but in what direction was she sailing? This Pencroft could not
+determine. However, as the wind was blowing from the northeast, in all
+probability the vessel was sailing on the starboard tack. Besides, the
+wind was favorable for bringing her towards the island, and, the sea
+being calm, she would not be afraid to approach although the shallows
+were not marked on the chart.
+
+Towards four o’clock--an hour after he had been sent for--Ayrton arrived
+at Granite House. He entered the dining-room saying,--
+
+“At your service, gentlemen.”
+
+Cyrus Harding gave him his hand, as was his custom to do, and, leading
+him to the window,--
+
+“Ayrton,” said he, “we have begged you to come here for an important
+reason. A ship is in sight of the island.”
+
+Ayrton at first paled slightly, and for a moment his eyes became dim;
+then, leaning out the window, he surveyed the horizon, but could see
+nothing.
+
+“Take this telescope,” said Spilett, “and look carefully, Ayrton, for
+it is possible that this ship may be the ‘Duncan’ come to these seas for
+the purpose of taking you home again.”
+
+“The ‘Duncan!’” murmured Ayrton. “Already?” This last word escaped
+Ayrton’s lips as if involuntarily, and his head drooped upon his hands.
+
+Did not twelve years’ solitude on a desert island appear to him a
+sufficient expiation? Did not the penitent yet feel himself pardoned,
+either in his own eyes or in the eyes of others?
+
+“No,” said he, “no! it cannot be the ‘Duncan’!”
+
+“Look, Ayrton,” then said the engineer, “for it is necessary that we
+should know beforehand what to expect.”
+
+Ayrton took the glass and pointed it in the direction indicated. During
+some minutes he examined the horizon without moving, without uttering a
+word. Then,--
+
+“It is indeed a vessel,” said he, “but I do not think she is the
+‘Duncan.’”
+
+“Why do you not think so?” asked Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Because the ‘Duncan’ is a steam-yacht, and I cannot perceive any trace
+of smoke either above or near that vessel.”
+
+“Perhaps she is simply sailing,” observed Pencroft. “The wind is
+favorable for the direction which she appears to be taking, and she may
+be anxious to economize her coal, being so far from land.”
+
+“It is possible that you may be right, Mr. Pencroft,” answered Ayrton,
+“and that the vessel has extinguished her fires. We must wait until she
+is nearer, and then we shall soon know what to expect.”
+
+So saying, Ayrton sat down in a corner of the room and remained silent.
+The colonists again discussed the strange ship, but Ayrton took no
+part in the conversation. All were in such a mood that they found it
+impossible to continue their work. Gideon Spilett and Pencroft were
+particularly nervous, going, coming, not able to remain still in one
+place. Herbert felt more curiosity. Neb alone maintained his usual
+calm manner. Was not his country that where his master was? As to the
+engineer, he remained plunged in deep thought, and in his heart feared
+rather than desired the arrival of the ship. In the meanwhile, the
+vessel was a little nearer the island. With the aid of the glass, it was
+ascertained that she was a brig, and not one of those Malay proas, which
+are generally used by the pirates of the Pacific. It was, therefore,
+reasonable to believe that the engineer’s apprehensions would not be
+justified, and that the presence of this vessel in the vicinity of the
+island was fraught with no danger.
+
+Pencroft, after a minute examination, was able positively to affirm that
+the vessel was rigged as a brig, and that she was standing obliquely
+towards the coast, on the starboard tack, under her topsails and
+top-gallant-sails. This was confirmed by Ayrton. But by continuing in
+this direction she must soon disappear behind Claw Cape, as the wind
+was from the southwest, and to watch her it would be then necessary
+to ascend the height of Washington Bay, near Port Balloon--a provoking
+circumstance, for it was already five o’clock in the evening, and the
+twilight would soon make any observation extremely difficult.
+
+“What shall we do when night comes on?” asked Gideon Spilett. “Shall we
+light a fire, so as to signal our presence on the coast?”
+
+This was a serious question, and yet, although the engineer still
+retained some of his presentiments, it was answered in the affirmative.
+During the night the ship might disappear and leave for ever, and, this
+ship gone, would another ever return to the waters of Lincoln Island?
+Who could foresee what the future would then have in store for the
+colonists?
+
+“Yes,” said the reporter, “we ought to make known to that vessel,
+whoever she may be, that the island is inhabited. To neglect the
+opportunity which is offered to us might be to create everlasting
+regrets.”
+
+It was therefore decided that Neb and Pencroft should go to Port
+Balloon, and that there, at nightfall, they should light an immense
+fire, the blaze of which would necessarily attract the attention of the
+brig.
+
+But at the moment when Neb and the sailor were preparing to leave
+Granite House, the vessel suddenly altered her course, and stood
+directly for Union Bay. The brig was a good sailer, for she approached
+rapidly. Neb and Pencroft put off their departure, therefore, and the
+glass was put into Ayrton’s hands, that he might ascertain for certain
+whether the ship was or was not the “Duncan.” The Scotch yacht was also
+rigged as a brig. The question was, whether a chimney could be discerned
+between the two masts of the vessel, which was now at a distance of only
+five miles.
+
+The horizon was still very clear. The examination was easy, and Ayrton
+soon let the glass fall again, saying--
+
+“It is not the ‘Duncan’! It could not be!”
+
+Pencroft again brought the brig within the range of the telescope, and
+could see that she was of between three and four hundred tons burden,
+wonderfully narrow, well-masted, admirably built, and must be a very
+rapid sailer. But to what nation did she belong? That was difficult to
+say.
+
+“And yet,” added the sailor, “a flag is floating from her peak, but I
+cannot distinguish the colors of it.”
+
+“In half an hour we shall be certain about that,” answered the reporter.
+“Besides, it is very evident that the intention of the captain of this
+ship is to land, and, consequently, if not today, to-morrow at the
+latest, we shall make his acquaintance.”
+
+“Never mind!” said Pencroft. “It is best to know whom we have to deal
+with, and I shall not be sorry to recognize that fellow’s colors!”
+
+And, while thus speaking, the sailor never left the glass. The day began
+to fade, and with the day the breeze fell also. The brig’s ensign hung
+in folds, and it became more and more difficult to observe it.
+
+“It is not the American flag,” said Pencroft from time to time, “nor the
+English, the red of which could be easily seen, nor the French or German
+colors, nor the white flag of Russia, nor the yellow of Spain. One would
+say it was all one color. Let’s see: in these seas, what do we generally
+meet with? The Chilean flag?--but that is tri-color. Brazilian?--it is
+green. Japanese?--it is yellow and black, while this--”
+
+At that moment the breeze blew out the unknown flag. Ayrton seizing the
+telescope which the sailor had put down, put it to his eye, and in a
+hoarse voice,--
+
+“The black flag!” he exclaimed.
+
+And indeed the somber bunting was floating from the mast of the brig,
+and they had now good reason for considering her to be a suspicious
+vessel!
+
+Had the engineer, then, been right in his presentiments? Was this a
+pirate vessel? Did she scour the Pacific, competing with the Malay proas
+which still infest it? For what had she come to look at the shores of
+Lincoln Island? Was it to them an unknown island, ready to become
+a magazine for stolen cargoes? Had she come to find on the coast a
+sheltered port for the winter months? Was the settlers’ honest domain
+destined to be transformed into an infamous refuge--the headquarters of
+the piracy of the Pacific?
+
+All these ideas instinctively presented themselves to the colonists’
+imaginations. There was no doubt, besides, of the signification which
+must be attached to the color of the hoisted flag. It was that of
+pirates! It was that which the “Duncan” would have carried, had the
+convicts succeeded in their criminal design! No time was lost before
+discussing it.
+
+“My friends,” said Cyrus Harding, “perhaps this vessel only wishes to
+survey the coast of the island. Perhaps her crew will not land. There is
+a chance of it. However that may be, we ought to do everything we can to
+hide our presence here. The windmill on Prospect Heights is too easily
+seen. Let Ayrton and Neb go and take down the sails. We must also
+conceal the windows of Granite House with thick branches. All the fires
+must be extinguished, so that nothing may betray the presence of men on
+the island.”
+
+“And our vessel?” said Herbert.
+
+“Oh,” answered Pencroft, “she is sheltered in Port Balloon, and I defy
+any of those rascals there to find her!”
+
+The engineer’s orders were immediately executed. Neb and Ayrton
+ascended the plateau, and took the necessary precautions to conceal
+any indication of a settlement. While they were thus occupied, their
+companions went to the border of Jacamar Wood, and brought back a large
+quantity of branches and creepers, which would at some distance appear
+as natural foliage, and thus disguise the windows in the granite cliff.
+At the same time, the ammunition and guns were placed ready so as to be
+at hand in case of an unexpected attack.
+
+When all these precautions had been taken,--
+
+“My friends,” said Harding, and his voice betrayed some emotion, “if the
+wretches endeavor to seize Lincoln Island, we shall defend it--shall we
+not?”
+
+“Yes, Cyrus,” replied the reporter, “and if necessary we will die to
+defend it!”
+
+The engineer extended his hand to his companions, who pressed it warmly.
+Ayrton remained in his corner, not joining the colonists. Perhaps he,
+the former convict, still felt himself unworthy to do so!
+
+Cyrus Harding understood what was passing in Ayrton’s mind, and going to
+him--
+
+“And you, Ayrton,” he asked, “what will you do?”
+
+“My duty,” answered Ayrton.
+
+He then took up his station near the window and gazed through the
+foliage.
+
+It was now half-past seven. The sun had disappeared twenty minutes ago
+behind Granite House. Consequently the Eastern horizon was becoming
+obscured. In the meanwhile the brig continued to advance towards Union
+Bay. She was now not more than two miles off, and exactly opposite the
+plateau of Prospect Heights, for after having tacked off Claw Cape, she
+had drifted towards the north in the current of the rising tide. One
+might have said that at this distance she had already entered the vast
+bay, for a straight line drawn from Claw Cape to Cape Mandible would
+have rested on her starboard quarter.
+
+Was the brig about to penetrate far into the bay? That was the first
+question. When once in the bay, would she anchor there? That was the
+second. Would she not content herself with only surveying the coast, and
+stand out to sea again without landing her crew? They would know this in
+an hour. The colonists could do nothing but wait.
+
+Cyrus Harding had not seen the suspected vessel hoist the black flag
+without deep anxiety. Was it not a direct menace against the work which
+he and his companions had till now conducted so successfully? Had these
+pirates--for the sailors of the brig could be nothing else--already
+visited the island, since on approaching it they had hoisted their
+colors. Had they formerly invaded it, so that certain unaccountable
+peculiarities might be explained in this way? Did there exist in the as
+yet unexplored parts some accomplice ready to enter into communication
+with them?
+
+To all these questions which he mentally asked himself, Harding knew not
+what to reply; but he felt that the safety of the colony could not but
+be seriously threatened by the arrival of the brig.
+
+However, he and his companions were determined to fight to the last
+gasp. It would have been very important to know if the pirates
+were numerous and better armed than the colonists. But how was this
+information to be obtained?
+
+Night fell. The new moon had disappeared. Profound darkness enveloped
+the island and the sea. No light could pierce through the heavy piles
+of clouds on the horizon. The wind had died away completely with the
+twilight. Not a leaf rustled on the trees, not a ripple murmured on
+the shore. Nothing could be seen of the ship, all her lights being
+extinguished, and if she was still in sight of the island, her
+whereabouts could not be discovered.
+
+“Well! who knows?” said Pencroft. “Perhaps that cursed craft will stand
+off during the night, and we shall see nothing of her at daybreak.”
+
+As if in reply to the sailor’s observation, a bright light flashed in
+the darkness, and a cannon-shot was heard.
+
+The vessel was still there and had guns on board.
+
+Six seconds elapsed between the flash and the report.
+
+Therefore the brig was about a mile and a quarter from the coast.
+
+At the same time, the chains were heard rattling through the
+hawse-holes.
+
+The vessel had just anchored in sight of Granite House!
+
+
+
+Chapter 2
+
+There was no longer any doubt as to the pirates’ intentions. They had
+dropped anchor at a short distance from the island, and it was evident
+that the next day by means of their boats they purposed to land on the
+beach!
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions were ready to act, but, determined
+though they were, they must not forget to be prudent. Perhaps their
+presence might still be concealed in the event of the pirates contenting
+themselves with landing on the shore without examining the interior of
+the island. It might be, indeed, that their only intention was to obtain
+fresh water from the Mercy, and it was not impossible that the bridge,
+thrown across a mile and a half from the mouth, and the manufactory at
+the Chimneys might escape their notice.
+
+But why was that flag hoisted at the brig’s peak? What was that shot
+fired for? Pure bravado doubtless, unless it was a sign of the act of
+taking possession. Harding knew now that the vessel was well armed. And
+what had the colonists of Lincoln Island to reply to the pirates’ guns?
+A few muskets only.
+
+“However,” observed Cyrus Harding, “here we are in an impregnable
+position. The enemy cannot discover the mouth of the outlet, now that it
+is hidden under reeds and grass, and consequently it would be impossible
+for them to penetrate into Granite House.”
+
+“But our plantations, our poultry-yard, our corral, all, everything!”
+ exclaimed Pencroft, stamping his foot. “They may spoil everything,
+destroy everything in a few hours!”
+
+“Everything, Pencroft,” answered Harding, “and we have no means of
+preventing them.”
+
+“Are they numerous? that is the question,” said the reporter. “If they
+are not more than a dozen, we shall be able to stop them, but forty,
+fifty, more perhaps!”
+
+“Captain Harding,” then said Ayrton, advancing towards the engineer,
+“will you give me leave?”
+
+“For what, my friend?”
+
+“To go to that vessel to find out the strength of her crew.”
+
+“But Ayrton--” answered the engineer, hesitating, “you will risk your
+life--”
+
+“Why not, sir?”
+
+“That is more than your duty.”
+
+“I have more than my duty to do,” replied Ayrton.
+
+“Will you go to the ship in the boat?” asked Gideon Spilett.
+
+“No, sir, but I will swim. A boat would be seen where a man may glide
+between wind and water.”
+
+“Do you know that the brig is a mile and a quarter from the shore?” said
+Herbert.
+
+“I am a good swimmer, Mr. Herbert.”
+
+“I tell you it is risking your life,” said the engineer.
+
+“That is no matter,” answered Ayrton. “Captain Harding, I ask this as a
+favor. Perhaps it will be a means of raising me in my own eyes!”
+
+“Go, Ayrton,” replied the engineer, who felt sure that a refusal would
+have deeply wounded the former convict, now become an honest man.
+
+“I will accompany you,” said Pencroft.
+
+“You mistrust me!” said Ayrton quickly.
+
+Then more humbly,--
+
+“Alas!”
+
+“No! no!” exclaimed Harding with animation, “no, Ayrton, Pencroft does
+not mistrust you. You interpret his words wrongly.”
+
+“Indeed,” returned the sailor, “I only propose to accompany Ayrton as
+far as the islet. It may be, although it is scarcely possible, that one
+of these villains has landed, and in that case two men will not be too
+many to hinder him from giving the alarm. I will wait for Ayrton on the
+islet, and he shall go alone to the vessel, since he has proposed to do
+so.” These things agreed to, Ayrton made preparations for his departure.
+His plan was bold, but it might succeed, thanks to the darkness of the
+night. Once arrived at the vessel’s side, Ayrton, holding on to the main
+chains, might reconnoiter the number and perhaps overhear the intentions
+of the pirates.
+
+Ayrton and Pencroft, followed by their companions, descended to the
+beach. Ayrton undressed and rubbed himself with grease, so as to suffer
+less from the temperature of the water, which was still cold. He might,
+indeed, be obliged to remain in it for several hours.
+
+Pencroft and Neb, during this time, had gone to fetch the boat, moored
+a few hundred feet higher up, on the bank of the Mercy, and by the time
+they returned, Ayrton was ready to start. A coat was thrown over his
+shoulders, and the settlers all came round him to press his hand.
+
+Ayrton then shoved off with Pencroft in the boat.
+
+It was half-past ten in the evening when the two adventurers disappeared
+in the darkness. Their companions returned to wait at the Chimneys.
+
+The channel was easily traversed, and the boat touched the opposite
+shore of the islet. This was not done without precaution, for fear lest
+the pirates might be roaming about there. But after a careful survey,
+it was evident that the islet was deserted. Ayrton then, followed by
+Pencroft, crossed it with a rapid step, scaring the birds nestled in the
+holes of the rocks; then, without hesitating, he plunged into the sea,
+and swam noiselessly in the direction of the ship, in which a few lights
+had recently appeared, showing her exact situation. As to Pencroft,
+he crouched down in a cleft of the rock, and awaited the return of his
+companion.
+
+In the meanwhile, Ayrton, swimming with a vigorous stroke, glided
+through the sheet of water without producing the slightest ripple. His
+head just emerged above it and his eyes were fixed on the dark hull of
+the brig, from which the lights were reflected in the water. He thought
+only of the duty which he had promised to accomplish, and nothing of the
+danger which he ran, not only on board the ship, but in the sea, often
+frequented by sharks. The current bore him along and he rapidly receded
+from the shore.
+
+Half an hour afterwards, Ayrton, without having been either seen or
+heard, arrived at the ship and caught hold of the main-chains. He took
+breath, then, hoisting himself up, he managed to reach the extremity of
+the cutwater. There were drying several pairs of sailors’ trousers. He
+put on a pair. Then settling himself firmly, he listened. They were not
+sleeping on board the brig. On the contrary, they were talking, singing,
+laughing. And these were the sentences, accompanied with oaths, which
+principally struck Ayrton:--
+
+“Our brig is a famous acquisition.”
+
+“She sails well, and merits her name of the ‘Speedy.’”
+
+“She would show all the navy of Norfolk a clean pair of heels.”
+
+“Hurrah for her captain!”
+
+“Hurrah for Bob Harvey!”
+
+What Ayrton felt when he overheard this fragment of conversation may be
+understood when it is known that in this Bob Harvey he recognized one
+of his old Australian companions, a daring sailor, who had continued his
+criminal career. Bob Harvey had seized, on the shores of Norfolk Island
+this brig, which was loaded with arms, ammunition, utensils, and tools
+of all sorts, destined for one of the Sandwich Islands. All his gang had
+gone on board, and pirates after having been convicts, these wretches,
+more ferocious than the Malays themselves, scoured the Pacific,
+destroying vessels, and massacring their crews.
+
+The convicts spoke loudly, they recounted their deeds, drinking deeply
+at the same time, and this is what Ayrton gathered. The actual crew
+of the “Speedy” was composed solely of English prisoners, escaped from
+Norfolk Island.
+
+Here it may be well to explain what this island was. In 29deg 2’ south
+latitude, and 165deg 42’ east longitude, to the east of Australia, is
+found a little island, six miles in circumference, overlooked by Mount
+Pitt, which rises to a height of 1,100 feet above the level of the sea.
+This is Norfolk Island, once the seat of an establishment in which were
+lodged the most intractable convicts from the English penitentiaries.
+They numbered 500, under an iron discipline, threatened with terrible
+punishments, and were guarded by 150 soldiers, and 150 employed
+under the orders of the governor. It would be difficult to imagine
+a collection of greater ruffians. Sometimes,--although very
+rarely,--notwithstanding the extreme surveillance of which they were
+the object, many managed to escape, and seizing vessels which they
+surprised, they infested the Polynesian Archipelagoes.
+
+Thus had Bob Harvey and his companions done. Thus had Ayrton formerly
+wished to do. Bob Harvey had seized the brig “Speedy,” anchored in sight
+of Norfolk Island; the crew had been massacred; and for a year this ship
+had scoured the Pacific, under the command of Harvey, now a pirate, and
+well known to Ayrton!
+
+The convicts were, for the most part, assembled under the poop; but a
+few, stretched on the deck, were talking loudly.
+
+The conversation still continued amid shouts and libations. Ayrton
+learned that chance alone had brought the “Speedy” in sight of Lincoln
+Island; Bob Harvey had never yet set foot on it; but, as Cyrus Harding
+had conjectured, finding this unknown land in his course, its position
+being marked on no chart, he had formed the project of visiting it, and,
+if he found it suitable, of making it the brig’s headquarters.
+
+As to the black flag hoisted at the “Speedy’s” peak, and the gun which
+had been fired, in imitation of men-of-war when they lower their
+colors, it was pure piratical bravado. It was in no way a signal, and no
+communication yet existed between the convicts and Lincoln Island.
+
+The settlers’ domain was now menaced with terrible danger. Evidently
+the island, with its water, its harbor, its resources of all kinds so
+increased in value by the colonists, and the concealment afforded by
+Granite House, could not but be convenient for the convicts; in their
+hands it would become an excellent place of refuge, and, being unknown,
+it would assure them, for a long time perhaps, impunity and security.
+Evidently, also, the lives of the settlers would not be respected, and
+Bob Harvey and his accomplices’ first care would be to massacre them
+without mercy. Harding and his companions had, therefore, not even the
+choice of flying and hiding themselves in the island, since the convicts
+intended to reside there, and since, in the event of the “Speedy”
+ departing on an expedition, it was probable that some of the crew would
+remain on shore, so as to settle themselves there. Therefore, it
+would be necessary to fight, to destroy every one of these scoundrels,
+unworthy of pity, and against whom any means would be right. So thought
+Ayrton, and he well knew that Cyrus Harding would be of his way of
+thinking.
+
+But was resistance and, in the last place, victory possible? That would
+depend on the equipment of the brig, and the number of men which she
+carried.
+
+This Ayrton resolved to learn at any cost, and as an hour after his
+arrival the vociferations had begun to die away, and as a large number
+of the convicts were already buried in a drunken sleep, Ayrton did not
+hesitate to venture onto the “Speedy’s” deck, which the extinguished
+lanterns now left in total darkness. He hoisted himself onto the
+cutwater, and by the bowsprit arrived at the forecastle. Then, gliding
+among the convicts stretched here and there, he made the round of the
+ship, and found that the “Speedy” carried four guns, which would throw
+shot of from eight to ten pounds in weight. He found also, on touching
+them that these guns were breech-loaders. They were therefore, of modern
+make, easily used, and of terrible effect.
+
+As to the men lying on the deck, they were about ten in number, but
+it was to be supposed that more were sleeping down below. Besides, by
+listening to them, Ayrton had understood that there were fifty on
+board. That was a large number for the six settlers of Lincoln Island to
+contend with! But now, thanks to Ayrton’s devotion, Cyrus Harding would
+not be surprised, he would know the strength of his adversaries, and
+would make his arrangements accordingly.
+
+There was nothing more for Ayrton to do but to return, and render to his
+companions an account of the mission with which he had charged himself,
+and he prepared to regain the bows of the brig, so that he might let
+himself down into the water. But to this man, whose wish was, as he had
+said, to do more than his duty, there came an heroic thought. This was
+to sacrifice his own life, but save the island and the colonists. Cyrus
+Harding evidently could not resist fifty ruffians, all well armed, who,
+either by penetrating by main force into Granite House, or by starving
+out the besieged, could obtain from them what they wanted. And then he
+thought of his preservers--those who had made him again a man, and an
+honest mm, those to whom he owed all--murdered without pity, their works
+destroyed, their island turned into a pirates’ den! He said to himself
+that he, Ayrton, was the principal cause of so many disasters, since his
+old companion, Bob Harvey, had but realized his own plans, and a
+feeling of horror took possession of him. Then he was seized with an
+irresistible desire to blow up the brig and with her, all whom she had
+on board. He would perish in the explosion, but he would have done his
+duty.
+
+Ayrton did not hesitate. To reach the powder-room, which is always
+situated in the after-part of a vessel, was easy. There would be no want
+of powder in a vessel which followed such a trade, and a spark would be
+enough to destroy it in an instant.
+
+Ayrton stole carefully along the between-decks, strewn with numerous
+sleepers, overcome more by drunkenness than sleep. A lantern was lighted
+at the foot of the mainmast, round which was hung a gun-rack, furnished
+with weapons of all sorts.
+
+Ayrton took a revolver from the rack, and assured himself that it was
+loaded and primed. Nothing more was needed to accomplish the work of
+destruction. He then glided towards the stern, so as to arrive under the
+brig’s poop at the powder-magazine.
+
+It was difficult to proceed along the dimly lighted deck without
+stumbling over some half-sleeping convict, who retorted by oaths and
+kicks. Ayrton was, therefore, more than once obliged to halt. But at
+last he arrived at the partition dividing the aftercabin, and found the
+door opening into the magazine itself.
+
+Ayrton, compelled to force it open, set to work. It was a difficult
+operation to perform without noise, for he had to break a padlock. But
+under his vigorous hand, the padlock broke, and the door was open.
+
+At that moment a hand was laid on Ayrton’s shoulder.
+
+“What are you doing here?” asked a tall man, in a harsh voice, who,
+standing in the shadow, quickly threw the light of a lantern in Ayrton’s
+face.
+
+Ayrton drew back. In the rapid flash of the lantern, he had recognized
+his former accomplice, Bob Harvey, who could not have known him, as he
+must have thought Ayrton long since dead.
+
+“What are you doing here?” again said Bob Harvey, seizing Ayrton by the
+waistband.
+
+But Ayrton, without replying, wrenched himself from his grasp and
+attempted to rush into the magazine. A shot fired into the midst of the
+powder-casks, and all would be over!
+
+“Help, lads!” shouted Bob Harvey.
+
+At his shout two or three pirates awoke, jumped up, and, rushing on
+Ayrton, endeavored to throw him down. He soon extricated himself from
+their grasp. He fired his revolver, and two of the convicts fell, but
+a blow from a knife which he could not ward off made a gash in his
+shoulder.
+
+Ayrton perceived that he could no longer hope to carry out his project.
+Bob Harvey had reclosed the door of the powder-magazine, and a movement
+on the deck indicated a general awakening of the pirates. Ayrton must
+reserve himself to fight at the side of Cyrus Harding. There was nothing
+for him but flight!
+
+But was flight still possible? It was doubtful, yet Ayrton resolved to
+dare everything in order to rejoin his companions.
+
+Four barrels of the revolver were still undischarged. Two were
+fired--one, aimed at Bob Harvey, did not wound him, or at any rate
+only slightly, and Ayrton, profiting by the momentary retreat of his
+adversaries, rushed towards the companion-ladder to gain the deck.
+Passing before the lantern, he smashed it with a blow from the butt of
+his revolver. A profound darkness ensued, which favored his flight. Two
+or three pirates, awakened by the noise, were descending the ladder at
+the same moment.
+
+A fifth shot from Ayrton laid one low, and the others drew back, not
+understanding what was going on. Ayrton was on deck in two bounds, and
+three seconds later, having discharged his last barrel in the face of
+a pirate who was about to seize him by the throat, he leaped over the
+bulwarks into the sea.
+
+Ayrton had not made six strokes before shots were splashing around him
+like hail.
+
+What were Pencroft’s feelings, sheltered under a rock on the islet! What
+were those of Harding, the reporter, Herbert, and Neb, crouched in the
+Chimneys, when they heard the reports on board the brig! They rushed out
+on to the beach, and, their guns shouldered, they stood ready to repel
+any attack.
+
+They had no doubt about it themselves! Ayrton, surprised by the pirates,
+had been murdered, and, perhaps, the wretches would profit by the night
+to make a descent on the island!
+
+Half an hour was passed in terrible anxiety. The firing had ceased, and
+yet neither Ayrton nor Pencroft had reappeared. Was the islet invaded?
+Ought they not to fly to the help of Ayrton and Pencroft? But how? The
+tide being high at that time, rendered the channel impassable. The boat
+was not there! We may imagine the horrible anxiety which took possession
+of Harding and his companions!
+
+At last, towards half-past twelve, a boat, carrying two men, touched the
+beach. It was Ayrton, slightly wounded in the shoulder, and Pencroft,
+safe and sound, whom their friends received with open arms.
+
+All immediately took refuge in the Chimneys. There Ayrton recounted all
+that had passed, even to his plan for blowing up the brig, which he had
+attempted to put into execution.
+
+All hands were extended to Ayrton, who did not conceal from them that
+their situation was serious. The pirates had been alarmed. They knew
+that Lincoln Island was inhabited. They would land upon it in numbers
+and well armed. They would respect nothing. Should the settlers fall
+into their hands, they must expect no mercy!
+
+“Well, we shall know how to die!” said the reporter.
+
+“Let us go in and watch,” answered the engineer.
+
+“Have we any chance of escape, captain?” asked the sailor.
+
+“Yes, Pencroft.”
+
+“Hum! six against fifty!”
+
+“Yes! six! without counting--”
+
+“Who?” asked Pencroft.
+
+Cyrus did not reply, but pointed upwards.
+
+
+
+Chapter 3
+
+The night passed without incident. The colonists were on the qui vive,
+and did not leave their post at the Chimneys. The pirates, on their
+side, did not appear to have made any attempt to land. Since the last
+shots fired at Ayrton not a report, not even a sound, had betrayed the
+presence of the brig in the neighborhood of the island. It might have
+been fancied that she had weighed anchor, thinking that she had to deal
+with her match, and had left the coast.
+
+But it was no such thing, and when day began to dawn the settlers could
+see a confused mass through the morning mist. It was the “Speedy.”
+
+“These, my friends,” said the engineer, “are the arrangements which
+appear to me best to make before the fog completely clears away. It
+hides us from the eyes of the pirates, and we can act without attracting
+their attention. The most important thing is, that the convicts
+should believe that the inhabitants of the island are numerous, and
+consequently capable of resisting them. I therefore propose that we
+divide into three parties. The first of which shall be posted at the
+Chimneys, the second at the mouth of the Mercy. As to the third, I think
+it would be best to place it on the islet, so as to prevent, or at all
+events delay, any attempt at landing. We have the use of two rifles and
+four muskets. Each of us will be armed, and, as we are amply provided
+with powder and shot, we need not spare our fire. We have nothing to
+fear from the muskets nor even from the guns of the brig. What can they
+do against these rocks? And, as we shall not fire from the windows of
+Granite House, the pirates will not think of causing irreparable damage
+by throwing shell against it. What is to be feared is, the necessity of
+meeting hand-to-hand, since the convicts have numbers on their side. We
+must therefore try to prevent them from landing, but without discovering
+ourselves. Therefore, do not economize the ammunition. Fire often, but
+with a sure aim. We have each eight or ten enemies to kill, and they
+must be killed!”
+
+Cyrus Harding had clearly represented their situation, although he spoke
+in the calmest voice, as if it was a question of directing a piece
+of work and not ordering a battle. His companions approved these
+arrangements without even uttering a word. There was nothing more to be
+done but for each to take his place before the fog should be completely
+dissipated. Neb and Pencroft immediately ascended to Granite House and
+brought back a sufficient quantity of ammunition. Gideon Spilett and
+Ayrton, both very good marksmen, were armed with the two rifles,
+which carried nearly a mile. The four other muskets were divided among
+Harding, Neb, Pencroft, and Herbert.
+
+The posts were arranged in the following manner:--
+
+Cyrus Harding and Herbert remained in ambush at the Chimneys, thus
+commanding the shore to the foot of Granite House.
+
+Gideon Spilett and Neb crouched among the rocks at the mouth of the
+Mercy, from which the drawbridges had been raised, so as to prevent any
+one from crossing in a boat or landing on the opposite shore.
+
+As to Ayrton and Pencroft, they shoved off in the boat, and prepared to
+cross the channel and to take up two separate stations on the islet.
+In this way, shots being fired from four different points at once,
+the convicts would be led to believe that the island was both largely
+peopled and strongly defended.
+
+In the event of a landing being effected without their having been able
+to prevent it, and also if they saw that they were on the point of being
+cut off by the brig’s boat, Ayrton and Pencroft were to return in their
+boat to the shore and proceed towards the threatened spot.
+
+Before starting to occupy their posts, the colonists for the last time
+wrung each other’s hands.
+
+Pencroft succeeded in controlling himself sufficiently to suppress his
+emotion when he embraced Herbert, his boy! and then they separated.
+
+In a few moments Harding and Herbert on one side, the reporter and Neb
+on the other, had disappeared behind the rocks, and five minutes later
+Ayrton and Pencroft, having without difficulty crossed the channel,
+disembarked on the islet and concealed themselves in the clefts of its
+eastern shore.
+
+None of them could have been seen, for they themselves could scarcely
+distinguish the brig in the fog.
+
+It was half-past six in the morning.
+
+Soon the fog began to clear away, and the topmasts of the brig issued
+from the vapor. For some minutes great masses rolled over the surface of
+the sea, then a breeze sprang up, which rapidly dispelled the mist.
+
+The “Speedy” now appeared in full view, with a spring on her cable, her
+head to the north, presenting her larboard side to the island. Just as
+Harding had calculated, she was not more than a mile and a quarter from
+the coast.
+
+The sinister black flag floated from the peak.
+
+The engineer, with his telescope, could see that the four guns on board
+were pointed at the island. They were evidently ready to fire at a
+moment’s notice.
+
+In the meanwhile the “Speedy” remained silent. About thirty pirates
+could be seen moving on the deck. A few more on the poop; two others
+posted in the shrouds, and armed with spyglasses, were attentively
+surveying the island.
+
+Certainly, Bob Harvey and his crew would not be able easily to give an
+account of what had happened during the night on board the brig. Had
+this half-naked man, who had forced the door of the powder-magazine, and
+with whom they had struggled, who had six times discharged his revolver
+at them, who had killed one and wounded two others, escaped their shot?
+Had he been able to swim to shore? Whence did he come? What had been his
+object? Had his design really been to blow up the brig, as Bob Harvey
+had thought? All this must be confused enough to the convicts’ minds.
+But what they could no longer doubt was that the unknown island before
+which the “Speedy” had cast anchor was inhabited, and that there was,
+perhaps, a numerous colony ready to defend it. And yet no one was to be
+seen, neither on the shore, nor on the heights. The beach appeared to be
+absolutely deserted. At any rate, there was no trace of dwellings. Had
+the inhabitants fled into the interior? Thus probably the pirate captain
+reasoned, and doubtless, like a prudent man, he wished to reconnoiter
+the locality before he allowed his men to venture there.
+
+During an hour and a half, no indication of attack or landing could be
+observed on board the brig. Evidently Bob Harvey was hesitating. Even
+with his strongest telescopes he could not have perceived one of the
+settlers crouched among the rocks. It was not even probable that his
+attention had been awakened by the screen of green branches and creepers
+hiding the windows of Granite House, and showing rather conspicuously on
+the bare rock. Indeed, how could he imagine that a dwelling was hollowed
+out, at that height, in the solid granite? From Claw Cape to the
+Mandible Capes, in all the extent of Union Bay, there was nothing to
+lead him to suppose that the island was or could be inhabited.
+
+At eight o’clock, however, the colonists observed a movement on board
+the “Speedy.” A boat was lowered, and seven men jumped into her. They
+were armed with muskets; one took the yoke-lines, four others the oars,
+and the two others, kneeling in the bows, ready to fire, reconnoitered
+the island. Their object was no doubt to make an examination but not to
+land, for in the latter case they would have come in larger numbers. The
+pirates from their look-out could have seen that the coast was sheltered
+by an islet, separated from it by a channel half a mile in width.
+However, it was soon evident to Cyrus Harding, on observing the
+direction followed by the boat, that they would not attempt to penetrate
+into the channel, but would land on the islet.
+
+Pencroft and Ayrton, each hidden in a narrow cleft of the rock, saw them
+coming directly towards them, and waited till they were within range.
+
+The boat advanced with extreme caution. The oars only dipped into the
+water at long intervals. It could now be seen that one of the convicts
+held a lead-line in his hand, and that he wished to fathom the depth of
+the channel hollowed out by the current of the Mercy. This showed that
+it was Bob Harvey’s intention to bring his brig as near as possible
+to the coast. About thirty pirates, scattered in the rigging, followed
+every movement of the boat, and took the bearings of certain landmarks
+which would allow them to approach without danger. The boat was not more
+than two cables-lengths off the islet when she stopped. The man at the
+tiller stood up and looked for the best place at which to land.
+
+At that moment two shots were heard. Smoke curled up from among the
+rocks of the islet. The man at the helm and the man with the lead-line
+fell backwards into the boat. Ayrton’s and Pencroft’s balls had struck
+them both at the same moment.
+
+Almost immediately a louder report was heard, a cloud of smoke issued
+from the brig’s side, and a ball, striking the summit of the rock which
+sheltered Ayrton and Pencroft, made it fly in splinters, but the two
+marksmen remained unhurt.
+
+Horrible imprecations burst from the boat, which immediately continued
+its way. The man who had been at the tiller was replaced by one of his
+comrades, and the oars were rapidly plunged into the water. However,
+instead of returning on board as might have been expected, the boat
+coasted along the islet, so as to round its southern point. The pirates
+pulled vigorously at their oars that they might get out of range of the
+bullets.
+
+They advanced to within five cables-lengths of that part of the
+shore terminated by Flotsam Point, and after having rounded it in a
+semicircular line, still protected by the brig’s guns, they proceeded
+towards the mouth of the Mercy.
+
+Their evident intention was to penetrate into the channel, and cut off
+the colonists posted on the islet, in such a way, that whatever their
+number might be, being placed between the fire from the boat and the
+fire from the brig, they would find themselves in a very disadvantageous
+position.
+
+A quarter of an hour passed while the boat advanced in this direction.
+Absolute silence, perfect calm reigned in the air and on the water.
+
+Pencroft and Ayrton, although they knew they ran the risk of being
+cut off, had not left their post, both that they did not wish to show
+themselves as yet to their assailants, and expose themselves to the
+“Speedy’s” guns, and that they relied on Neb and Gideon Spilett,
+watching at the mouth of the river, and on Cyrus Harding and Herbert, in
+ambush among the rocks at the Chimneys.
+
+Twenty minutes after the first shots were fired, the boat was less than
+two cables-lengths off the Mercy. As the tide was beginning to rise with
+its accustomed violence, caused by the narrowness of the straits, the
+pirates were drawn towards the river, and it was only by dint of hard
+rowing that they were able to keep in the middle of the channel. But, as
+they were passing within good range of the mouth of the Mercy, two balls
+saluted them, and two more of their number were laid in the bottom of
+the boat. Neb and Spilett had not missed their aim.
+
+The brig immediately sent a second ball on the post betrayed by the
+smoke, but without any other result than that of splintering the rock.
+
+The boat now contained only three able men. Carried on by the current,
+it shot through the channel with the rapidity of an arrow, passed before
+Harding and Herbert, who, not thinking it within range, withheld their
+fire, then, rounding the northern point of the islet with the two
+remaining oars, they pulled towards the brig.
+
+Hitherto the settlers had nothing to complain of. Their adversaries
+had certainly had the worst of it. The latter already counted four men
+seriously wounded if not dead; they, on the contrary, unwounded, had not
+missed a shot. If the pirates continued to attack them in this way, if
+they renewed their attempt to land by means of a boat, they could be
+destroyed one by one.
+
+It was now seen how advantageous the engineer’s arrangements had
+been. The pirates would think that they had to deal with numerous and
+well-armed adversaries, whom they could not easily get the better of.
+
+Half an hour passed before the boat, having to pull against the current,
+could get alongside the “Speedy.” Frightful cries were heard when they
+returned on board with the wounded, and two or three guns were fired
+with no results.
+
+But now about a dozen other convicts, maddened with rage, and possibly
+by the effect of the evening’s potations, threw themselves into the
+boat. A second boat was also lowered, in which eight men took their
+places, and while the first pulled straight for the islet, to dislodge
+the colonists from thence the second maneuvered so as to force the
+entrance of the Mercy.
+
+The situation was evidently becoming very dangerous for Pencroft and
+Ayrton, and they saw that they must regain the mainland.
+
+However, they waited till the first boat was within range, when two
+well-directed balls threw its crew into disorder. Then, Pencroft and
+Ayrton, abandoning their posts, under fire from the dozen muskets, ran
+across the islet at full speed, jumped into their boat, crossed the
+channel at the moment the second boat reached the southern end, and ran
+to hide themselves in the Chimneys.
+
+They had scarcely rejoined Cyrus Harding and Herbert, before the islet
+was overrun with pirates in every direction. Almost at the same moment,
+fresh reports resounded from the Mercy station, to which the second boat
+was rapidly approaching. Two, out of the eight men who manned her,
+were mortally wounded by Gideon Spilett and Neb, and the boat herself,
+carried irresistibly onto the reefs, was stove in at the mouth of the
+Mercy. But the six survivors, holding their muskets above their heads to
+preserve them from contact with the water, managed to land on the right
+bank of the river. Then, finding they were exposed to the fire of the
+ambush there, they fled in the direction of Flotsam Point, out of range
+of the balls.
+
+The actual situation was this: on the islet were a dozen convicts,
+of whom some were no doubt wounded, but who had still a boat at their
+disposal; on the island were six, but who could not by any possibility
+reach Granite House, as they could not cross the river, all the bridges
+being raised.
+
+“Hallo,” exclaimed Pencroft as he rushed into the Chimneys, “hallo,
+captain! What do you think of it, now?”
+
+“I think,” answered the engineer, “that the combat will now take a new
+form, for it cannot be supposed that the convicts will be so foolish as
+to remain in a position so unfavorable for them!”
+
+“They won’t cross the channel,” said the sailor. “Ayrton and Mr.
+Spilett’s rifles are there to prevent them. You know that they carry
+more than a mile!”
+
+“No doubt,” replied Herbert; “but what can two rifles do against the
+brig’s guns?”
+
+“Well, the brig isn’t in the channel yet, I fancy!” said Pencroft.
+
+“But suppose she does come there?” said Harding.
+
+“That’s impossible, for she would risk running aground and being lost!”
+
+“It is possible,” said Ayrton. “The convicts might profit by the high
+tide to enter the channel, with the risk of grounding at low tide, it
+is true; but then, under the fire from her guns, our posts would be no
+longer tenable.”
+
+“Confound them!” exclaimed Pencroft, “it really seems as if the
+blackguards were preparing to weigh anchor.”
+
+“Perhaps we shall be obliged to take refuge in Granite House!” observed
+Herbert.
+
+“We must wait!” answered Cyrus Harding.
+
+“But Mr. Spilett and Neb?” said Pencroft.
+
+“They will know when it is best to rejoin us. Be ready, Ayrton. It is
+yours and Spilett’s rifles which must speak now.”
+
+It was only too true. The “Speedy” was beginning to weigh her anchor,
+and her intention was evidently to approach the islet. The tide would
+be rising for an hour and a half, and the ebb current being already
+weakened, it would be easy for the brig to advance. But as to entering
+the channel, Pencroft, contrary to Ayrton’s opinion, could not believe
+that she would dare to attempt it.
+
+In the meanwhile, the pirates who occupied the islet had gradually
+advanced to the opposite shore, and were now only separated from the
+mainland by the channel.
+
+Being armed with muskets alone, they could do no harm to the settlers,
+in ambush at the Chimneys and the mouth of the Mercy; but, not knowing
+the latter to be supplied with long-range rifles, they on their side did
+not believe themselves to be exposed. Quite uncovered, therefore, they
+surveyed the islet, and examined the shore.
+
+Their illusion was of short duration. Ayrton’s and Gideon Spilett’s
+rifles then spoke, and no doubt imparted some very disagreeable
+intelligence to two of the convicts, for they fell backwards.
+
+Then there was a general helter-skelter. The ten others, not even
+stopping to pick up their dead or wounded companions, fled to the other
+side of the islet, tumbled into the boat which had brought them, and
+pulled away with all their strength.
+
+“Eight less!” exclaimed Pencroft. “Really, one would have thought that
+Mr. Spilett and Ayrton had given the word to fire together!”
+
+“Gentlemen,” said Ayrton, as he reloaded his gun, “this is becoming more
+serious. The brig is making sail!”
+
+“The anchor is weighed!” exclaimed Pencroft.
+
+“Yes, and she is already moving.”
+
+In fact, they could distinctly hear the creaking of the windlass. The
+“Speedy” was at first held by her anchor; then, when that had been
+raised, she began to drift towards the shore. The wind was blowing
+from the sea; the jib and the foretopsail were hoisted, and the vessel
+gradually approached the island.
+
+From the two posts of the Mercy and the Chimneys they watched her
+without giving a sign of life, but not without some emotion. What
+could be more terrible for the colonists than to be exposed, at a short
+distance, to the brig’s guns, without being able to reply with any
+effect? How could they then prevent the pirates from landing?
+
+Cyrus Harding felt this strongly, and he asked himself what it would
+be possible to do. Before long, he would be called upon for his
+determination. But what was it to be? To shut themselves up in Granite
+House, to be besieged there, to remain there for weeks, for months even,
+since they had an abundance of provisions? So far good! But after that?
+The pirates would not the less be masters of the island, which they
+would ravage at their pleasure, and in time, they would end by having
+their revenge on the prisoners in Granite House.
+
+However, one chance yet remained; it was that Bob Harvey, after all,
+would not venture his ship into the channel, and that he would keep
+outside the islet. He would be still separated from the coast by half a
+mile, and at that distance his shot could not be very destructive.
+
+“Never!” repeated Pencroft, “Bob Harvey will never, if he is a good
+seaman, enter that channel! He knows well that it would risk the brig,
+if the sea got up ever so little! And what would become of him without
+his vessel?”
+
+In the meanwhile the brig approached the islet, and it could be seen
+that she was endeavoring to make the lower end. The breeze was light,
+and as the current had then lost much of its force, Bob Harvey had
+absolute command over his vessel.
+
+The route previously followed by the boats had allowed her to
+reconnoiter the channel, and she boldly entered it.
+
+The pirate’s design was now only too evident; he wished to bring her
+broadside to bear on the Chimneys and from there to reply with shell and
+ball to the shot which had till then decimated her crew.
+
+Soon the “Speedy” reached the point of the islet; she rounded it with
+ease; the mainsail was braced up, and the brig hugging the wind, stood
+across the mouth of the Mercy.
+
+“The scoundrels! they are coming!” said Pencroft.
+
+At that moment, Cyrus Harding, Ayrton, the sailor, and Herbert, were
+rejoined by Neb and Gideon Spilett.
+
+The reporter and his companion had judged it best to abandon the post at
+the Mercy, from which they could do nothing against the ship, and they
+had acted wisely. It was better that the colonists should be together at
+the moment when they were about to engage in a decisive action. Gideon
+Spilett and Neb had arrived by dodging behind the rocks, though not
+without attracting a shower of bullets, which had not, however, reached
+them.
+
+“Spilett! Neb!” cried the engineer. “You are not wounded?”
+
+“No,” answered the reporter, “a few bruises only from the ricochet! But
+that cursed brig has entered the channel!”
+
+“Yes,” replied Pencroft, “and in ten minutes she will have anchored
+before Granite House!”
+
+“Have you formed any plan, Cyrus?” asked the reporter.
+
+“We must take refuge in Granite House while there is still time, and the
+convicts cannot see us.”
+
+“That is, my opinion, too,” replied Gideon Spilett, “but once shut up--”
+
+“We must be guided by circumstances,” said the engineer.
+
+“Let us be off, then, and make haste!” said the reporter.
+
+“Would you not wish, captain, that Ayrton and I should remain here?”
+ asked the sailor.
+
+“What would be the use of that, Pencroft?” replied Harding. “No. We will
+not separate!”
+
+There was not a moment to be lost. The colonists left the Chimneys. A
+bend of the cliff prevented them from being seen by those in the brig,
+but two or three reports, and the crash of bullets on the rock, told
+them that the “Speedy” was at no great distance.
+
+To spring into the lift, hoist themselves up to the door of Granite
+House, where Top and Jup had been shut up since the evening before, to
+rush into the large room, was the work of a minute only.
+
+It was quite time, for the settlers, through the branches, could see the
+“Speedy,” surrounded with smoke, gliding up the channel. The firing was
+incessant, and shot from the four guns struck blindly, both on the Mercy
+post, although it was not occupied, and on the Chimneys. The rocks were
+splintered, and cheers accompanied each discharge. However, they
+were hoping that Granite House would be spared, thanks to Harding’s
+precaution of concealing the windows when a shot, piercing the door,
+penetrated into the passage.
+
+“We are discovered!” exclaimed Pencroft.
+
+The colonists had not, perhaps, been seen, but it was certain that Bob
+Harvey had thought proper to send a ball through the suspected foliage
+which concealed that part of the cliff. Soon he redoubled his attack,
+when another ball having torn away the leafy screen, disclosed a gaping
+aperture in the granite.
+
+The colonists’ situation was desperate. Their retreat was discovered.
+They could not oppose any obstacle to these missiles, nor protect the
+stone, which flew in splinters around them. There was nothing to be
+done but to take refuge in the upper passage of Granite House, and leave
+their dwelling to be devastated, when a deep roar was heard, followed by
+frightful cries!
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions rushed to one of the windows--
+
+The brig, irresistibly raised on a sort of water-spout, had just split
+in two, and in less than ten seconds she was swallowed up with all her
+criminal crew!
+
+
+
+Chapter 4
+
+“She has blown up!” cried Herbert.
+
+“Yes! blown up, just as if Ayrton had set fire to the powder!” returned
+Pencroft, throwing himself into the lift together with Neb and the lad.
+
+“But what has happened?” asked Gideon Spilett, quite stunned by this
+unexpected catastrophe.
+
+“Oh! this time, we shall know--” answered the engineer quickly.
+
+“What shall we know?--”
+
+“Later! later! Come, Spilett. The main point is that these pirates have
+been exterminated!”
+
+And Cyrus Harding, hurrying away the reporter and Ayrton, joined
+Pencroft, Neb, and Herbert on the beach.
+
+Nothing could be seen of the brig, not even her masts. After having been
+raised by the water-spout, she had fallen on her side, and had sunk in
+that position, doubtless in consequence of some enormous leak. But as
+in that place the channel was not more than twenty feet in depth, it
+was certain that the sides of the submerged brig would reappear at low
+water.
+
+A few things from the wreck floated on the surface of the water, a raft
+could be seen consisting of spare spars, coops of poultry with their
+occupants still living, boxes and barrels, which gradually came to the
+surface, after having escaped through the hatchways, but no pieces of
+the wreck appeared, neither planks from the deck, nor timber from the
+hull,--which rendered the sudden disappearance of the “Speedy” perfectly
+inexplicable.
+
+However, the two masts, which had been broken and escaped from the
+shrouds and stays came up, and with their sails, some furled and the
+others spread. But it was not necessary to wait for the tide to bring
+up these riches, and Ayrton and Pencroft jumped into the boat with the
+intention of towing the pieces of wreck either to the beach or to the
+islet. But just as they were shoving off, an observation from Gideon
+Spilett arrested them.
+
+“What about those six convicts who disembarked on the right bank of the
+Mercy?” said he.
+
+In fact, it would not do to forget that the six men whose boat had gone
+to pieces on the rocks had landed at Flotsam Point.
+
+They looked in that direction. None of the fugitives were visible. It
+was probable that, having seen their vessel engulfed in the channel,
+they had fled into the interior of the island.
+
+“We will deal with them later,” said Harding. “As they are armed, they
+will still be dangerous; but as it is six against six, the chances are
+equal. To the most pressing business first.”
+
+Ayrton and Pencroft pulled vigorously towards the wreck.
+
+The sea was calm and the tide very high, as there had been a new moon
+but two days before. A whole hour at least would elapse before the hull
+of the brig could emerge from the water of the channel.
+
+Ayrton and Pencroft were able to fasten the masts and spars by means of
+ropes, the ends of which were carried to the beach. There, by the united
+efforts of the settlers the pieces of wreck were hauled up. Then the
+boat picked up all that was floating, coops, barrels, and boxes, which
+were immediately carried to the Chimneys.
+
+Several bodies floated also. Among them, Ayrton recognized that of
+Bob Harvey, which he pointed out to his companion, saying with some
+emotion,--
+
+“That is what I have been, Pencroft.”
+
+“But what you are no longer, brave Ayrton!” returned the sailor warmly.
+
+It was singular enough that so few bodies floated. Only five or six were
+counted, which were already being carried by the current towards the
+open sea. Very probably the convicts had not had time to escape, and
+the ship lying over on her side, the greater number of them had remained
+below. Now the current, by carrying the bodies of these miserable men
+out to sea, would spare the colonists the sad task of burying them in
+some corner of their island.
+
+For two hours, Cyrus Harding and his companions were solely occupied
+in hauling up the spars on to the sand, and then in spreading the sails
+which were perfectly uninjured, to dry. They spoke little, for they were
+absorbed in their work, but what thoughts occupied their minds!
+
+The possession of this brig, or rather all that she contained, was
+a perfect mine of wealth. In fact, a ship is like a little world in
+miniature, and the stores of the colony would be increased by a large
+number of useful articles. It would be, on a large scale, equivalent to
+the chest found at Flotsam Point.
+
+“And besides,” thought Pencroft, “why should it be impossible to refloat
+the brig? If she has only a leak, that may be stopped up; a vessel from
+three to four hundred tons, why she is a regular ship compared to our
+‘Bonadventure’! And we could go a long distance in her! We could go
+anywhere we liked! Captain Harding, Ayrton and I must examine her! She
+would be well worth the trouble!”
+
+In fact, if the brig was still fit to navigate, the colonists’ chances
+of returning to their native land were singularly increased. But, to
+decide this important question, it was necessary to wait until the tide
+was quite low, so that every part of the brig’s hull might be examined.
+
+When their treasures had been safely conveyed on shore, Harding and his
+companions agreed to devote some minutes to breakfast. They were almost
+famished; fortunately, the larder was not far off, and Neb was noted
+for being an expeditious cook. They breakfasted, therefore, near the
+Chimneys, and during their repast, as may be supposed, nothing was
+talked of but the event which had so miraculously saved the colony.
+
+“Miraculous is the word,” repeated Pencroft, “for it must be
+acknowledged that those rascals blew up just at the right moment!
+Granite House was beginning to be uncomfortable as a habitation!”
+
+“And can you guess, Pencroft,” asked the reporter, “how it happened, or
+what can have occasioned the explosion?”
+
+“Oh! Mr. Spilett, nothing is more simple,” answered Pencroft. “A convict
+vessel is not disciplined like a man-of-war! Convicts are not sailors.
+Of course the powder-magazine was open, and as they were firing
+incessantly, some careless or clumsy fellow just blew up the vessel!”
+
+“Captain Harding,” said Herbert, “what astonishes me is that the
+explosion has not produced more effect. The report was not loud, and
+besides there are so few planks and timbers torn out. It seems as if the
+ship had rather foundered than blown up.”
+
+“Does that astonish you, my boy?” asked the engineer.
+
+“Yes, captain.”
+
+“And it astonishes me also, Herbert,” replied he, “but when we visit the
+hull of the brig, we shall no doubt find the explanation of the matter.”
+
+“Why, captain,” said Pencroft, “you don’t suppose that the ‘Speedy’
+simply foundered like a ship which has struck on a rock?”
+
+“Why not,” observed Neb, “if there are rocks in the channel?”
+
+“Nonsense, Neb,” answered Pencroft, “you did not look at the right
+moment. An instant before she sank, the brig, as I saw perfectly well,
+rose on an enormous wave, and fell back on her larboard side. Now, if
+she had only struck, she would have sunk quietly and gone to the bottom
+like an honest vessel.”
+
+“It was just because she was not an honest vessel!” returned Neb.
+
+“Well, we shall soon see, Pencroft,” said the engineer.
+
+“We shall soon see,” rejoined the sailor, “but I would wager my
+head there are no rocks in the channel. Look here, captain, to speak
+candidly, do you mean to say that there is anything marvelous in the
+occurrence?”
+
+Cyrus Harding did not answer.
+
+“At any rate,” said Gideon Spilett, “whether rock or explosion, you will
+agree, Pencroft, that it occurred just in the nick of time!”
+
+“Yes! yes!” replied the sailor, “but that is not the question. I ask
+Captain Harding if he sees anything supernatural in all this.”
+
+“I cannot say, Pencroft,” said the engineer. “That is all the answer I
+can make.”
+
+A reply which did not satisfy Pencroft at all. He stuck to “an
+explosion,” and did not wish to give it up. He would never consent
+to admit that in that channel, with its fine sandy bed, just like
+the beach, which he had often crossed at low water, there could be an
+unknown rock.
+
+And besides, at the time the brig foundered, it was high water, that is
+to say, there was enough water to carry the vessel clear over any rocks
+which would not be uncovered at low tide. Therefore, there could not
+have been a collision. Therefore, the vessel had not struck. So she had
+blown up.
+
+And it must be confessed that the sailor’s arguments were reasonable.
+
+Towards half-past one, the colonists embarked in the boat to visit the
+wreck. It was to be regretted that the brig’s two boats had not been
+saved; but one, as has been said, had gone to pieces at the mouth of the
+Mercy, and was absolutely useless; the other had disappeared when the
+brig went down, and had not again been seen, having doubtless been
+crushed.
+
+The hull of the “Speedy” was just beginning to issue from the water.
+The brig was lying right over on her side, for her masts being broken,
+pressed down by the weight of the ballast displaced by the shock, the
+keel was visible along her whole length. She had been regularly turned
+over by the inexplicable but frightful submarine action, which had been
+at the same time manifested by an enormous water-spout.
+
+The settlers rowed round the hull, and in proportion as the tide went
+down, they could ascertain, if not the cause which had occasioned the
+catastrophe, at least the effect produced.
+
+Towards the bows, on both sides of the keel, seven or eight feet from
+the beginning of the stem, the sides of the brig were frightfully torn.
+Over a length of at least twenty feet there opened two large leaks,
+which would be impossible to stop up. Not only had the copper sheathing
+and the planks disappeared, reduced, no doubt, to powder, but also the
+ribs, the iron bolts, and treenails which united them. From the entire
+length of the hull to the stern the false keel had been separated with
+an unaccountable violence, and the keel itself, torn from the carline in
+several places, was split in all its length.
+
+“I’ve a notion!” exclaimed Pencroft, “that this vessel will be difficult
+to get afloat again.”
+
+“It will be impossible,” said Ayrton.
+
+“At any rate,” observed Gideon Spilett to the sailor, “the explosion,
+if there has been one, has produced singular effects! It has split the
+lower part of the hull, instead of blowing up the deck and topsides!
+These great rents appear rather to have been made by a rock than by the
+explosion of a powder-magazine.”
+
+“There is not a rock in the channel!” answered the sailor. “I will admit
+anything you like, except the rock.”
+
+“Let us try to penetrate into the interior of the brig,” said the
+engineer; “perhaps we shall then know what to think of the cause of her
+destruction.”
+
+This was the best thing to be done, and it was agreed, besides, to
+take an inventory of all the treasures on board, and to arrange their
+preservation.
+
+Access to the interior of the brig was now easy. The tide was still
+going down and the deck was practicable. The ballast, composed of heavy
+masses of iron, had broken through in several places. The noise of the
+sea could be heard as it rushed out at the holes in the hull.
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions, hatchets in hand, advanced along the
+shattered deck. Cases of all sorts encumbered it, and, as they had
+been but a very short time in the water, their contents were perhaps
+uninjured.
+
+They then busied themselves in placing all this cargo in safety. The
+water would not return for several hours, and these hours must be
+employed in the most profitable way. Ayrton and Pencroft had, at the
+entrance made in the hull, discovered tackle, which would serve to hoist
+up the barrels and chests. The boat received them and transported them
+to the shore. They took the articles as they came, intending to sort
+them afterwards.
+
+At any rate, the settlers saw at once, with extreme satisfaction, that
+the brig possessed a very varied cargo--an assortment of all sorts of
+articles, utensils, manufactured goods, and tools--such as the ships
+which make the great coasting-trade of Polynesia are usually laden with.
+It was probable that they would find a little of everything, and they
+agreed that it was exactly what was necessary for the colony of Lincoln
+Island.
+
+However--and Cyrus Harding observed it in silent astonishment--not only,
+as has been said, had the hull of the brig enormously suffered from the
+shock, whatever it was, that had occasioned the catastrophe, but the
+interior arrangements had been destroyed, especially towards the bows.
+Partitions and stanchions were smashed, as if some tremendous shell had
+burst in the interior of the brig. The colonists could easily go fore
+and aft, after having removed the cases as they were extricated. They
+were not heavy bales, which would have been difficult to remove,
+but simple packages, of which the stowage, besides, was no longer
+recognizable.
+
+The colonists then reached the stern of the brig--the part formerly
+surmounted by the poop. It was there that, following Ayrton’s
+directions, they must look for the powder-magazine. Cyrus Harding
+thought that it had not exploded; that it was possible some barrels
+might be saved, and that the powder, which is usually enclosed in metal
+coverings might not have suffered from contact with the water.
+
+This, in fact, was just what had happened. They extricated from among
+a large number of shot twenty barrels, the insides of which were lined
+with copper. Pencroft was convinced by the evidence of his own eyes that
+the destruction of the “Speedy” could not be attributed to an explosion.
+That part of the hull in which the magazine was situated was, moreover,
+that which had suffered least.
+
+“It may be so,” said the obstinate sailor; “but as to a rock, there is
+not one in the channel!”
+
+“Then, how did it happen?” asked Herbert.
+
+“I don’t know,” answered Pencroft, “Captain Harding doesn’t know, and
+nobody knows or ever will know!”
+
+Several hours had passed during these researches, and the tide began to
+flow. Work must be suspended for the present. There was no fear of the
+brig being carried away by the sea, for she was already fixed as firmly
+as if moored by her anchors.
+
+They could, therefore, without inconvenience, wait until the next day to
+resume operations; but, as to the vessel itself, she was doomed, and it
+would be best to hasten to save the remains of her hull, as she would
+not be long in disappearing in the quicksands of the channel.
+
+It was now five o’clock in the evening. It had been a hard day’s work
+for the men. They ate with good appetite, and notwithstanding their
+fatigue, they could not resist, after dinner, their desire of inspecting
+the cases which composed the cargo of the “Speedy.”
+
+Most of them contained clothes, which, as may be believed, was well
+received. There were enough to clothe a whole colony--linen for every
+one’s use, shoes for every one’s feet.
+
+“We are too rich!” exclaimed Pencroft, “But what are we going to do with
+all this?”
+
+And every moment burst forth the hurrahs of the delighted sailor when he
+caught sight of the barrels of gunpowder, firearms and sidearms,
+balls of cotton, implements of husbandry, carpenter’s, joiner’s, and
+blacksmith’s tools, and boxes of all kinds of seeds, not in the least
+injured by their short sojourn in the water. Ah, two years before,
+how these things would have been prized! And now, even though the
+industrious colonists had provided themselves with tools, these
+treasures would find their use.
+
+There was no want of space in the store-rooms of Granite House, but that
+daytime would not allow them to stow away the whole. It would not do
+also to forget that the six survivors of the “Speedy’s” crew had landed
+on the island, for they were in all probability scoundrels of the
+deepest dye, and it was necessary that the colonists should be on their
+guard against them. Although the bridges over the Mercy were raised,
+the convicts would not be stopped by a river or a stream and, rendered
+desperate, these wretches would be capable of anything.
+
+They would see later what plan it would be best to follow; but in the
+meantime it was necessary to mount guard over cases and packages heaped
+up near the Chimneys, and thus the settlers employed themselves in turn
+during the night.
+
+The morning came, however, without the convicts having attempted any
+attack. Master Jup and Top, on guard at the foot of Granite House, would
+have quickly given the alarm. The three following days--the 19th, 20th,
+and 21st of October--were employed in saving everything of value, or of
+any use whatever, either from the cargo or rigging of the brig. At low
+tide they overhauled the hold--at high tide they stowed away the rescued
+articles. A great part of the copper sheathing had been torn from the
+hull, which every day sank lower. But before the sand had swallowed the
+heavy things which had fallen through the bottom, Ayrton and Pencroft,
+diving to the bed of the channel, recovered the chains and anchors of
+the brig, the iron of her ballast, and even four guns, which, floated by
+means of empty casks, were brought to shore.
+
+It may be seen that the arsenal of the colony had gained by the
+wreck, as well as the storerooms of Granite House. Pencroft, always
+enthusiastic in his projects, already spoke of constructing a battery
+to command the channel and the mouth of the river. With four guns,
+he engaged to prevent any fleet, “however powerful it might be,” from
+venturing into the waters of Lincoln Island!
+
+In the meantime, when nothing remained of the brig but a useless hulk,
+bad weather came on, which soon finished her. Cyrus Harding had intended
+to blow her up, so as to collect the remains on the shore, but a strong
+gale from the northeast and a heavy sea compelled him to economize his
+powder.
+
+In fact, on the night of the 23rd, the hull entirely broke up, and some
+of the wreck was cast up on the beach.
+
+As to the papers on board, it is useless to say that, although he
+carefully searched the lockers of the poop, Harding did not discover
+any trace of them. The pirates had evidently destroyed everything that
+concerned either the captain or the owners of the “Speedy,” and, as the
+name of her port was not painted on her counter, there was nothing which
+would tell them her nationality. However, by the shape of her boats
+Ayrton and Pencroft believed that the brig was of English build.
+
+A week after the castrophe--or, rather, after the fortunate, though
+inexplicable, event to which the colony owed its preservation--nothing
+more could be seen of the vessel, even at low tide. The wreck had
+disappeared, and Granite House was enriched by nearly all it had
+contained.
+
+However, the mystery which enveloped its strange destruction would
+doubtless never have been cleared away if, on the 30th of November, Neb,
+strolling on the beach, had not found a piece of a thick iron cylinder,
+bearing traces of explosion. The edges of this cylinder were twisted and
+broken, as if they had been subjected to the action of some explosive
+substance.
+
+Neb brought this piece of metal to his master, who was then occupied
+with his companions in the workshop of the Chimneys.
+
+Cyrus Harding examined the cylinder attentively, then, turning to
+Pencroft,--
+
+“You persist, my friend,” said he, “in maintaining that the ‘Speedy’ was
+not lost in consequence of a collision?”
+
+“Yes, captain,” answered the sailor. “You know as well as I do that
+there are no rocks in the channel.”
+
+“But suppose she had run against this piece of iron?” said the engineer,
+showing the broken cylinder.
+
+“What, that bit of pipe!” exclaimed Pencroft in a tone of perfect
+incredulity.
+
+“My friends,” resumed Harding, “you remember that before she foundered
+the brig rose on the summit of a regular waterspout?”
+
+“Yes, captain,” replied Herbert.
+
+“Well, would you like to know what occasioned that waterspout? It was
+this,” said the engineer, holding up the broken tube.
+
+“That?” returned Pencroft.
+
+“Yes! This cylinder is all that remains of a torpedo!”
+
+“A torpedo!” exclaimed the engineer’s companions.
+
+“And who put the torpedo there?” demanded Pencroft, who did not like to
+yield.
+
+“All that I can tell you is, that it was not I,” answered Cyrus Harding;
+“but it was there, and you have been able to judge of its incomparable
+power!”
+
+
+
+Chapter 5
+
+So, then, all was explained by the submarine explosion of this torpedo.
+Cyrus Harding could not be mistaken, as, during the war of the Union,
+he had had occasion to try these terrible engines of destruction. It
+was under the action of this cylinder, charged with some explosive
+substance, nitro-glycerine, picrate, or some other material of the same
+nature, that the water of the channel had been raised like a dome, the
+bottom of the brig crushed in, and she had sunk instantly, the damage
+done to her hull being so considerable that it was impossible to refloat
+her. The “Speedy” had not been able to withstand a torpedo that would
+have destroyed an ironclad as easily as a fishing-boat!
+
+Yes! all was explained, everything--except the presence of the torpedo
+in the waters of the channel!
+
+“My friends, then,” said Cyrus Harding, “we can no longer be in doubt
+as to the presence of a mysterious being, a castaway like us, perhaps,
+abandoned on our island, and I say this in order that Ayrton may be
+acquainted with all the strange events which have occurred during these
+two years. Who this beneficent stranger is, whose intervention has, so
+fortunately for us, been manifested on many occasions, I cannot imagine.
+What his object can be in acting thus, in concealing himself after
+rendering us so many services, I cannot understand: But his services are
+not the less real, and are of such a nature that only a man possessed of
+prodigious power, could render them. Ayrton is indebted to him as much
+as we are, for, if it was the stranger who saved me from the waves after
+the fall from the balloon, evidently it was he who wrote the document,
+who placed the bottle in the channel, and who has made known to us the
+situation of our companion. I will add that it was he who guided that
+chest, provided with everything we wanted, and stranded it on Flotsam
+Point; that it was he who lighted that fire on the heights of the
+island, which permitted you to land; that it was he who fired that
+bullet found in the body of the peccary; that it was he who plunged that
+torpedo into the channel, which destroyed the brig; in a word, that all
+those inexplicable events, for which we could not assign a reason, are
+due to this mysterious being. Therefore, whoever he may be, whether
+shipwrecked, or exiled on our island, we shall be ungrateful, if we
+think ourselves freed from gratitude towards him. We have contracted a
+debt, and I hope that we shall one day pay it.”
+
+“You are right in speaking thus, my dear Cyrus,” replied Gideon Spilett.
+“Yes, there is an almost all-powerful being, hidden in some part of the
+island, and whose influence has been singularly useful to our colony.
+I will add that the unknown appears to possess means of action which
+border on the supernatural, if in the events of practical life the
+supernatural were recognizable. Is it he who is in secret communication
+with us by the well in Granite House, and has he thus a knowledge of all
+our plans? Was it he who threw us that bottle, when the vessel made her
+first cruise? Was it he who threw Top out of the lake, and killed the
+dugong? Was it he, who as everything leads us to believe, saved you from
+the waves, and that under circumstances in which any one else would not
+have been able to act? If it was he, he possesses a power which renders
+him master of the elements.”
+
+The reporter’s reasoning was just, and every one felt it to be so.
+
+“Yes,” rejoined Cyrus Harding, “if the intervention of a human being is
+not more questionable for us, I agree that he has at his disposal means
+of action beyond those possessed by humanity. There is a mystery still,
+but if we discover the man, the mystery will be discovered also. The
+question, then, is, ought we to respect the incognito of this generous
+being, or ought we to do everything to find him out? What is your
+opinion on the matter?”
+
+“My opinion,” said Pencroft, “is that, whoever he may be, he is a brave
+man, and he has my esteem!”
+
+“Be it so,” answered Harding, “but that is not an answer, Pencroft.”
+
+“Master,” then said Neb, “my idea is, that we may search as long as we
+like for this gentleman whom you are talking about, but that we shall
+not discover him till he pleases.”
+
+“That’s not bad, what you say, Neb,” observed Pencroft.
+
+“I am of Neb’s opinion,” said Gideon Spilett, “but that is no reason for
+not attempting the adventure. Whether we find this mysterious being or
+not, we shall at least have fulfilled our duty towards him.”
+
+“And you, my boy, give us your opinion,” said the engineer, turning to
+Herbert.
+
+“Oh,” cried Herbert, his countenance full of animation, “how I should
+like to thank him, he who saved you first, and who has now saved us!”
+
+“Of course, my boy,” replied Pencroft, “so would I and all of us. I am
+not inquisitive, but I would give one of my eyes to see this individual
+face to face! It seems to me that he must be handsome, tall, strong,
+with a splendid beard, radiant hair, and that he must be seated on
+clouds, a great ball in his hands!”
+
+“But, Pencroft,” answered Spilett, “you are describing a picture of the
+Creator.”
+
+“Possibly, Mr. Spilett,” replied the sailor, “but that is how I imagine
+him!”
+
+“And you, Ayrton?” asked the engineer.
+
+“Captain Harding,” replied Ayrton, “I can give you no better advice in
+this matter. Whatever you do will be best; when you wish me to join you
+in your researches, I am ready to follow you.
+
+“I thank you, Ayrton,” answered Cyrus Harding, “but I should like a more
+direct answer to the question I put to you. You are our companion; you
+have already endangered your life several times for us, and you, as
+well as the rest, ought to be consulted in the matter of any important
+decision. Speak, therefore.”
+
+“Captain Harding,” replied Ayrton, “I think that we ought to do
+everything to discover this unknown benefactor. Perhaps he is alone.
+Perhaps he is suffering. Perhaps he has a life to be renewed. I, too,
+as you said, have a debt of gratitude to pay him. It was he, it could be
+only he who must have come to Tabor Island, who found there the wretch
+you knew, and who made known to you that there was an unfortunate man
+there to be saved. Therefore it is, thanks to him, that I have become a
+man again. No, I will never forget him!”
+
+“That is settled, then,” said Cyrus Harding. “We will begin our
+researches as soon as possible. We will not leave a corner of the island
+unexplored. We will search into its most secret recesses, and will
+hope that our unknown friend will pardon us in consideration of our
+intentions!”
+
+For several days the colonists were actively employed in haymaking and
+the harvest. Before putting their project of exploring the yet unknown
+parts of the island into execution, they wished to get all possible work
+finished. It was also the time for collecting the various vegetables
+from the Tabor Island plants. All was stowed away, and happily there was
+no want of room in Granite House, in which they might have housed all
+the treasures of the island. The products of the colony were there,
+methodically arranged, and in a safe place, as may be believed,
+sheltered as much from animals as from man.
+
+There was no fear of damp in the middle of that thick mass of granite.
+Many natural excavations situated in the upper passage were enlarged
+either by pick-axe or mine, and Granite House thus became a general
+warehouse, containing all the provisions, arms, tools, and spare
+utensils--in a word, all the stores of the colony.
+
+As to the guns obtained from the brig, they were pretty pieces of
+ordnance, which, at Pencroft’s entreaty, were hoisted by means of tackle
+and pulleys, right up into Granite House; embrasures were made between
+the windows, and the shining muzzles of the guns could soon be seen
+through the granite cliff. From this height they commanded all Union
+Bay. It was like a little Gibraltar, and any vessel anchored off the
+islet would inevitably be exposed to the fire of this aerial battery.
+
+“Captain,” said Pencroft one day, it was the 8th of November, “now that
+our fortifications are finished, it would be a good thing if we tried
+the range of our guns.”
+
+“Do you think that is useful?” asked the engineer.
+
+“It is more than useful, it is necessary! Without that how are we to
+know to what distance we can send one of those pretty shot with which we
+are provided?”
+
+“Try them, Pencroft,” replied the engineer. “However, I think that in
+making the experiment, we ought to employ, not the ordinary powder,
+the supply of which, I think, should remain untouched, but the pyroxyle
+which will never fail us.”
+
+“Can the cannon support the shock of the pyroxyle?” asked the reporter,
+who was not less anxious than Pencroft to try the artillery of Granite
+House.
+
+“I believe so. However,” added the engineer, “we will be prudent.” The
+engineer was right in thinking that the guns were of excellent make.
+Made of forged steel, and breech-loaders, they ought consequently to be
+able to bear a considerable charge, and also have an enormous range.
+In fact, as regards practical effect, the transit described by the ball
+ought to be as extended as possible, and this tension could only be
+obtained under the condition that the projectile should be impelled with
+a very great initial velocity.
+
+“Now,” said Harding to his companions, “the initial velocity is in
+proportion to the quantity of powder used. In the fabrication of
+these pieces, everything depends on employing a metal with the highest
+possible power of resistance, and steel is incontestably that metal of
+all others which resists the best. I have, therefore, reason to believe
+that our guns will bear without risk the expansion of the pyroxyle gas,
+and will give excellent results.”
+
+“We shall be a great deal more certain of that when we have tried them!”
+ answered Pencroft.
+
+It is unnecessary to say that the four cannons were in perfect order.
+Since they had been taken from the water, the sailor had bestowed great
+care upon them. How many hours he had spent, in rubbing, greasing, and
+polishing them, and in cleaning the mechanism! And now the pieces were
+as brilliant as if they had been on board a frigate of the United States
+Navy.
+
+On this day, therefore, in presence of all the members of the colony,
+including Master Jup and Top, the four cannon were successively tried.
+They were charged with pyroxyle, taking into consideration its explosive
+power, which, as has been said, is four times that of ordinary powder:
+the projectile to be fired was cylindroconic.
+
+Pencroft, holding the end of the quick-match, stood ready to fire.
+
+At Harding’s signal, he fired. The shot, passing over the islet,
+fell into the sea at a distance which could not be calculated with
+exactitude.
+
+The second gun was pointed at the rocks at the end of Flotsam Point, and
+the shot striking a sharp rock nearly three miles from Granite House,
+made it fly into splinters. It was Herbert who had pointed this gun and
+fired it, and very proud he was of his first shot. Pencroft only was
+prouder than he! Such a shot, the honor of which belonged to his dear
+boy.
+
+The third shot, aimed this time at the downs forming the upper side
+of Union Bay, struck the sand at a distance of four miles, then having
+ricocheted: was lost in the sea in a cloud of spray.
+
+For the fourth piece Cyrus Harding slightly increased the charge, so
+as to try its extreme range. Then, all standing aside for fear of its
+bursting, the match was lighted by means of a long cord.
+
+A tremendous report was heard, but the piece had held good, and the
+colonists rushing to the windows, saw the shot graze the rocks of
+Mandible Cape, nearly five miles from Granite House, and disappear in
+Shark Gulf.
+
+“Well, captain,” exclaimed Pencroft, whose cheers might have rivaled the
+reports themselves, “what do you say of our battery? All the pirates in
+the Pacific have only to present themselves before Granite House! Not
+one can land there now without our permission!”
+
+“Believe me, Pencroft,” replied the engineer, “it would be better not to
+have to make the experiment.”
+
+“Well,” said the sailor, “what ought to be done with regard to those
+six villains who are roaming about the island? Are we to leave them
+to overrun our forests, our fields, our plantations? These pirates are
+regular jaguars, and it seems to me we ought not to hesitate to treat
+them as such! What do you think, Ayrton?” added Pencroft, turning to his
+companion.
+
+Ayrton hesitated at first to reply, and Cyrus Harding regretted that
+Pencroft had so thoughtlessly put this question. And he was much moved
+when Ayrton replied in a humble tone,--
+
+“I have been one of those jaguars, Mr. Pencroft. I have no right to
+speak.”
+
+And with a slow step he walked away.
+
+Pencroft understood.
+
+“What a brute I am!” he exclaimed. “Poor Ayrton! He has as much right to
+speak here as any one!”
+
+“Yes,” said Gideon Spilett, “but his reserve does him honor, and it is
+right to respect the feeling which he has about his sad past.”
+
+“Certainly, Mr. Spilett,” answered the sailor, “and there is no fear of
+my doing so again. I would rather bite my tongue off than cause Ayrton
+any pain! But to return to the question. It seems to me that these
+ruffians have no right to any pity, and that we ought to rid the island
+of them as soon as possible.”
+
+“Is that your opinion, Pencroft?” asked the engineer.
+
+“Quite my opinion.”
+
+“And before hunting them mercilessly, you would not wait until they had
+committed some fresh act of hostility against us?”
+
+“Isn’t what they have done already enough?” asked Pencroft, who did not
+understand these scruples.
+
+“They may adopt other sentiments!” said Harding, “and perhaps repent.”
+
+“They repent!” exclaimed the sailor, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+“Pencroft, think of Ayrton!” said Herbert, taking the sailor’s hand. “He
+became an honest man again!”
+
+Pencroft looked at his companions one after the other. He had never
+thought of his proposal being met with any objection. His rough nature
+could not allow that they ought to come to terms with the rascals who
+had landed on the island with Bob Harvey’s accomplices, the murderers of
+the crew of the “Speedy,” and he looked upon them as wild beasts which
+ought to be destroyed without delay and without remorse.
+
+“Come!” said be. “Everybody is against me! You wish to be generous to
+those villains! Very well; I hope we mayn’t repent it!”
+
+“What danger shall we run,” said Herbert, “if we take care to be always
+on our guard?”
+
+“Hum!” observed the reporter, who had not given any decided opinion.
+“They are six and well armed. If they each lay hid in a corner, and each
+fired at one of us, they would soon be masters of the colony!”
+
+“Why have they not done so?” said Herbert. “No doubt because it was not
+their interest to do it. Besides, we are six also.”
+
+“Well, well!” replied Pencroft, whom no reasoning could have convinced.
+“Let us leave these good people to do what they like, and don’t think
+anything more about them!”
+
+“Come, Pencroft,” said Neb, “don’t make yourself out so bad as all that!
+Suppose one of these unfortunate men were here before you, within good
+range of your guns, you would not fire.”
+
+“I would fire on him as I would on a mad dog, Neb,” replied Pencroft
+coldly.
+
+“Pencroft,” said the engineer, “you have always shown much deference to
+my advice; will you, in this matter, yield to me?”
+
+“I will do as you please, Captain Harding,” answered the sailor, who was
+not at all convinced.
+
+“Very well, wait, and we will not attack them unless we are attacked
+first.”
+
+Thus their behavior towards the pirates was agreed upon, although
+Pencroft augured nothing good from it. They were not to attack them, but
+were to be on their guard. After all, the island was large and fertile.
+If any sentiment of honesty yet remained in the bottom of their hearts,
+these wretches might perhaps be reclaimed. Was it not their interest in
+the situation in which they found themselves to begin a new life? At
+any rate, for humanity’s sake alone, it would be right to wait. The
+colonists would no longer as before, be able to go and come without
+fear. Hitherto they had only wild beasts to guard against, and now six
+convicts of the worst description, perhaps, were roaming over their
+island. It was serious, certainly, and to less brave men, it would have
+been security lost! No matter! At present, the colonists had reason on
+their side against Pencroft. Would they be right in the future? That
+remained to be seen.
+
+
+
+Chapter 6
+
+However, the chief business of the colonists was to make that complete
+exploration of the island which had been decided upon, and which would
+have two objects: to discover the mysterious being whose existence was
+now indisputable, and at the same time to find out what had become of
+the pirates, what retreat they had chosen, what sort of life they were
+leading, and what was to be feared from them. Cyrus Harding wished
+to set out without delay; but as the expedition would be of some days
+duration, it appeared best to load the cart with different materials and
+tools in order to facilitate the organization of the encampments. One
+of the onagers, however, having hurt its leg, could not be harnessed
+at present, and a few days’ rest was necessary. The departure was,
+therefore, put off for a week, until the 20th of November. The month
+of November in this latitude corresponds to the month of May in the
+northern zones. It was, therefore, the fine season. The sun was entering
+the tropic of Capricorn, and gave the longest days in the year. The time
+was, therefore, very favorable for the projected expedition, which,
+if it did not accomplish its principal object, would at any rate be
+fruitful in discoveries, especially of natural productions, since
+Harding proposed to explore those dense forests of the Far West, which
+stretched to the extremity of the Serpentine Peninsula.
+
+During the nine days which preceded their departure, it was agreed that
+the work on Prospect Heights should be finished off.
+
+Moreover, it was necessary for Ayrton to return to the corral, where the
+domesticated animals required his care. It was decided that he should
+spend two days there, and return to Granite House after having liberally
+supplied the stables.
+
+As he was about to start, Harding asked him if he would not like one
+of them to accompany him, observing that the island was less safe than
+formerly. Ayrton replied that this was unnecessary, as he was enough
+for the work, and that besides he apprehended no danger. If anything
+occurred at the corral, or in the neighborhood, he could instantly warn
+the colonists by sending a telegram to Granite House.
+
+Ayrton departed at dawn on the 9th, taking the cart drawn by one onager,
+and two hours after, the electric wire announced that he had found all
+in order at the corral.
+
+During these two days Harding busied himself in executing a project
+which would completely guard Granite House against any surprise. It was
+necessary to completely conceal the opening of the old outlet, which
+was already walled up and partly hidden under grass and plants, at the
+southern angle of Lake Grant. Nothing was easier, since if the level
+of the lake was raised two or three feet, the opening would be quite
+beneath it. Now, to raise this level they had only to establish a dam at
+the two openings made by the lake, and by which were fed Creek Glycerine
+and Falls River.
+
+The colonists worked with a will, and the two dams which besides did not
+exceed eight feet in width by three in height, were rapidly erected by
+means of well-cemented blocks of stone.
+
+This work finished, it would have been impossible to guess that at that
+part of the lake, there existed a subterranean passage through which the
+overflow of the lake formerly escaped.
+
+Of course the little stream which fed the reservoir of Granite House and
+worked the lift, had been carefully preserved, and the water could not
+fail. The lift once raised, this sure and comfortable retreat would be
+safe from any surprise.
+
+This work had been so quickly done, that Pencroft, Gideon Spilett, and
+Herbert found time to make an expedition to Port Balloon, The sailor was
+very anxious to know if the little creek in which the “Bonadventure” was
+moored, had been visited by the convicts.
+
+“These gentlemen,” he observed, “landed on the south coast, and if they
+followed the shore, it is to be feared that they may have discovered the
+little harbor, and in that case, I wouldn’t give half-a-dollar for our
+‘Bonadventure.’”
+
+Pencroft’s apprehensions were not without foundation, and a visit
+to Port Balloon appeared to be very desirable. The sailor and his
+companions set off on the 10th of November, after dinner, well armed.
+Pencroft, ostentatiously slipping two bullets into each barrel of his
+rifle, shook his head in a way which betokened nothing good to any one
+who approached too near him, whether “man or beast,” as he said. Gideon
+Spilett and Herbert also took their guns, and about three o’clock all
+three left Granite House.
+
+Neb accompanied them to the turn of the Mercy, and after they had
+crossed, he raised the bridge. It was agreed that a gunshot should
+announce the colonists’ return, and that at the signal Neb should return
+and reestablish the communication between the two banks of the river.
+
+The little band advanced directly along the road which led to the
+southern coast of the island. This was only a distance of three miles
+and a half, but Gideon Spilett and his companions took two hours to
+traverse it. They examined all the border of the road, the thick forest,
+as well as Tabor Marsh. They found no trace of the fugitives who, no
+doubt, not having yet discovered the number of the colonists, or the
+means of defense which they had at their disposal, had gained the less
+accessible parts of the island.
+
+Arrived at Port Balloon, Pencroft saw with extreme satisfaction that
+the “Bonadventure” was tranquilly floating in the narrow creek. However,
+Port Balloon was so well hidden among high rocks, that it could scarcely
+be discovered either from the land or the sea.
+
+“Come,” said Pencroft, “the blackguards have not been there yet. Long
+grass suits reptiles best, and evidently we shall find them in the Far
+West.”
+
+“And it’s very lucky, for if they had found the ‘Bonadventure’,” added
+Herbert, “they would have gone off in her, and we should have been
+prevented from returning to Tabor Island.”
+
+“Indeed,” remarked the reporter, “it will be important to take a
+document there which will make known the situation of Lincoln Island,
+and Ayrton’s new residence, in case the Scotch yacht returns to fetch
+him.”
+
+“Well, the ‘Bonadventure’ is always there, Mr. Spilett,” answered the
+sailor. “She and her crew are ready to start at a moment’s notice!”
+
+“I think, Pencroft, that that is a thing to be done after our
+exploration of the island is finished. It is possible after all that the
+stranger, if we manage to find him, may know as much about Tabor Island
+as about Lincoln Island. Do not forget that he is certainly the author
+of the document, and he may, perhaps, know how far we may count on the
+return of the yacht!”
+
+“But!” exclaimed Pencroft, “who in the world can he be? The fellow knows
+us and we know nothing about him! If he is a simple castaway, why should
+he conceal himself! We are honest men, I suppose, and the society of
+honest men isn’t unpleasant to any one. Did he come here voluntarily?
+Can he leave the island if he likes? Is he here still? Will he remain
+any longer?”
+
+Chatting thus, Pencroft, Gideon Spilett, and Herbert got on board and
+looked about the deck of the “Bonadventure.” All at once, the sailor
+having examined the bitts to which the cable of the anchor was
+secured,--
+
+“Hallo,” he cried, “this is queer!”
+
+“What is the matter, Pencroft?” asked the reporter.
+
+“The matter is, that it was not I who made this knot!”
+
+And Pencroft showed a rope which fastened the cable to the bitt itself.
+
+“What, it was not you?” asked Gideon Spilett.
+
+“No! I can swear to it. This is a reef knot, and I always make a running
+bowline.”
+
+“You must be mistaken, Pencroft.”
+
+“I am not mistaken!” declared the sailor. “My hand does it so naturally,
+and one’s hand is never mistaken!”
+
+“Then can the convicts have been on board?” asked Herbert.
+
+“I know nothing about that,” answered Pencroft, “but what is certain,
+is that some one has weighed the ‘Bonadventure’s’ anchor and dropped it
+again! And look here, here is another proof! The cable of the anchor has
+been run out, and its service is no longer at the hawse-hole. I repeat
+that some one has been using our vessel!”
+
+“But if the convicts had used her, they would have pillaged her, or
+rather gone off with her.”
+
+“Gone off! where to--to Tabor Island?” replied Pencroft. “Do you think,
+they would risk themselves in a boat of such small tonnage?”
+
+“We must, besides, be sure that they know of the islet,” rejoined the
+reporter.
+
+“However that may be,” said the sailor, “as sure as my name is
+Bonadventure Pencroft, of the Vineyard, our ‘Bonadventure’ has sailed
+without us!”
+
+The sailor was positive that neither Gideon Spilett nor Herbert could
+dispute his statement. It was evident that the vessel had been moved,
+more or less, since Pencroft had brought her to Port Balloon. As to the
+sailor, he had not the slightest doubt that the anchor had been raised
+and then dropped again. Now, what was the use of these two maneuvers,
+unless the vessel had been employed in some expedition?
+
+“But how was it we did not see the ‘Bonadventure’ pass in the sight of
+the island?” observed the reporter, who was anxious to bring forward
+every possible objection.
+
+“Why, Mr. Spilett,” replied the sailor, “they would only have to start
+in the night with a good breeze, and they would be out of sight of the
+island in two hours.”
+
+“Well,” resumed Gideon Spilett, “I ask again, what object could the
+convicts have had in using the ‘Bonadventure,’ and why, after they had
+made use of her, should they have brought her back to port?”
+
+“Why, Mr. Spilett,” replied the sailor, “we must put that among the
+unaccountable things, and not think anything more about it. The chief
+thing is that the ‘Bonadventure’ was there, and she is there now. Only,
+unfortunately, if the convicts take her a second time, we shall very
+likely not find her again in her place!”
+
+“Then, Pencroft,” said Herbert, “would it not be wisest to bring the
+‘Bonadventure’ off to Granite House?”
+
+“Yes and no,” answered Pencroft, “or rather no. The mouth of the Mercy
+is a bad place for a vessel, and the sea is heavy there.”
+
+“But by hauling her up on the sand, to the foot of the Chimneys?”
+
+“Perhaps yes,” replied Pencroft. “At any rate, since we must leave
+Granite House for a long expedition, I think the ‘Bonadventure’ will be
+safer here during our absence, and we shall do best to leave her here
+until the island is rid of these blackguards.”
+
+“That is exactly my opinion,” said the reporter. “At any rate in the
+event of bad weather, she will not be exposed here as she would be at
+the mouth of the Mercy.”
+
+“But suppose the convicts pay her another visit,” said Herbert.
+
+“Well, my boy,” replied Pencroft, “not finding her here, they would not
+be long in finding her on the sands of Granite House, and, during our
+absence, nothing could hinder them from seizing her! I agree, therefore,
+with Mr. Spilett, that she must be left in Port Balloon. But, if on our
+return we have not rid the island of those rascals, it will be prudent
+to bring our boat to Granite House, until the time when we need not fear
+any unpleasant visits.”
+
+“That’s settled. Let us be off,” said the reporter.
+
+Pencroft, Herbert, and Gideon Spilett, on their return to Granite House,
+told the engineer all that had passed, and the latter approved of their
+arrangements both for the present and the future. He also promised the
+sailor that he would study that part of the channel situated between the
+islet and the coast, so as to ascertain if it would not be possible
+to make an artificial harbor there by means of dams. In this way, the
+“Bonadventure” would be always within reach, under the eyes of the
+colonists, and if necessary, under lock and key.
+
+That evening a telegram was sent to Ayrton, requesting him to bring from
+the corral a couple of goats, which Neb wished to acclimatize to the
+plateau. Singularly enough, Ayrton did not acknowledge the receipt of
+the despatch, as he was accustomed to do. This could not but astonish
+the engineer. But it might be that Ayrton was not at that moment in the
+corral, or even that he was on his way back to Granite House. In fact,
+two days had already passed since his departure, and it had been decided
+that on the evening of the 10th or at the latest the morning of the
+11th, he should return. The colonists waited, therefore, for Ayrton to
+appear on Prospect Heights. Neb and Herbert even watched at the bridge
+so as to be ready to lower it the moment their companion presented
+himself.
+
+But up to ten in the evening, there were no signs of Ayrton. It was,
+therefore, judged best to send a fresh despatch, requiring an immediate
+reply.
+
+The bell of the telegraph at Granite House remained mute.
+
+The colonists’ uneasiness was great. What had happened? Was Ayrton no
+longer at the corral, or if he was still there, had he no longer control
+over his movements? Could they go to the corral in this dark night?
+
+They consulted. Some wished to go, the others to remain.
+
+“But,” said Herbert, “perhaps some accident has happened to the
+telegraphic apparatus, so that it works no longer?”
+
+“That may be,” said the reporter.
+
+“Wait till to-morrow,” replied Cyrus Harding. “It is possible, indeed,
+that Ayrton has not received our despatch, or even that we have not
+received his.”
+
+They waited, of course not without some anxiety.
+
+At dawn of day, the 11th of November, Harding again sent the electric
+current along the wire and received no reply.
+
+He tried again: the same result.
+
+“Off to the corral,” said he.
+
+“And well armed!” added Pencroft.
+
+It was immediately decided that Granite House should not be left alone
+and that Neb should remain there. After having accompanied his friends
+to Creek Glycerine, he raised the bridge; and waiting behind a tree he
+watched for the return of either his companions or Ayrton.
+
+In the event of the pirates presenting themselves and attempting to
+force the passage, he was to endeavor to stop them by firing on them,
+and as a last resource he was to take refuge in Granite House, where,
+the lift once raised, he would be in safety.
+
+Cyrus Harding, Gideon Spilett, Herbert, and Pencroft were to repair
+to the corral, and if they did not find Ayrton, search the neighboring
+woods.
+
+At six o’clock in the morning, the engineer and his three companions
+had passed Creek Glycerine, and Neb posted himself behind a small mound
+crowned by several dragon trees, on the left bank of the stream.
+
+The colonists, after leaving the plateau of Prospect Heights,
+immediately took the road to the corral. They shouldered their guns,
+ready to fire on the slightest hostile demonstration. The two rifles and
+the two guns had been loaded with ball.
+
+The wood was thick on each side of the road and might easily have
+concealed the convicts, who owing to their weapons would have been
+really formidable.
+
+The colonists walked rapidly and in silence. Top preceded them,
+sometimes running on the road, sometimes taking a ramble into the wood,
+but always quiet and not appearing to fear anything unusual. And
+they could be sure that the faithful dog would not allow them to be
+surprised, but would bark at the least appearance of danger.
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions followed beside the road the wire which
+connected the corral with Granite House. After walking for nearly two
+miles, they had not as yet discovered any explanation of the difficulty.
+The posts were in good order, the wire regularly extended. However, at
+that moment the engineer observed that the wire appeared to be slack,
+and on arriving at post No. 74, Herbert, who was in advance stopped,
+exclaiming,--
+
+“The wire is broken!”
+
+His companions hurried forward and arrived at the spot where the lad
+was standing. The post was rooted up and lying across the path. The
+unexpected explanation of the difficulty was here, and it was evident
+that the despatches from Granite House had not been received at the
+corral, nor those from the corral at Granite House.
+
+“It wasn’t the wind that blew down this post,” observed Pencroft.
+
+“No,” replied Gideon Spilett. “The earth has been dug up round its foot,
+and it has been torn up by the hand of man.”
+
+“Besides, the wire is broken,” added Herbert, showing that the wire had
+been snapped.
+
+“Is the fracture recent?” asked Harding.
+
+“Yes,” answered Herbert, “it has certainly been done quite lately.”
+
+“To the corral! to the corral!” exclaimed the sailor.
+
+The colonists were now half way between Granite House and the corral,
+having still two miles and a half to go. They pressed forward with
+redoubled speed.
+
+Indeed, it was to be feared that some serious accident had occurred in
+the corral. No doubt, Ayrton might have sent a telegram which had not
+arrived, but this was not the reason why his companions were so uneasy,
+for, a more unaccountable circumstance, Ayrton, who had promised to
+return the evening before, had not reappeared. In short, it was not
+without a motive that all communication had been stopped between the
+corral and Granite House, and who but the convicts could have any
+interest in interrupting this communication?
+
+The settlers hastened on, their hearts oppressed with anxiety. They were
+sincerely attached to their new companion. Were they to find him struck
+down by the hands of those of whom he was formerly the leader?
+
+Soon they arrived at the place where the road led along the side of the
+little stream which flowed from the Red Creek and watered the meadows
+of the corral. They then moderated their pace so that they should not
+be out of breath at the moment when a struggle might be necessary. Their
+guns were in their hands ready cocked. The forest was watched on every
+side. Top uttered sullen groans which were rather ominous.
+
+At last the palisade appeared through the trees. No trace of any damage
+could be seen. The gate was shut as usual. Deep silence reigned in the
+corral. Neither the accustomed bleating of the sheep nor Ayrton’s voice
+could be heard.
+
+“Let us enter,” said Cyrus Harding.
+
+And the engineer advanced, while his companions, keeping watch about
+twenty paces behind him, were ready to fire at a moment’s notice.
+
+Harding raised the inner latch of the gate and was about to push it
+back, when Top barked loudly. A report sounded and was responded to by a
+cry of pain.
+
+Herbert, struck by a bullet, lay stretched on the ground.
+
+
+
+Chapter 7
+
+
+At Herbert’s cry, Pencroft, letting his gun fall, rushed towards him.
+
+“They have killed him!” he cried. “My boy! They have killed him!”
+
+Cyrus Harding and Gideon Spilett ran to Herbert.
+
+The reporter listened to ascertain if the poor lad’s heart was still
+beating.
+
+“He lives,” said he, “but he must be carried--”
+
+“To Granite House? that is impossible!” replied the engineer.
+
+“Into the corral, then!” said Pencroft.
+
+“In a moment,” said Harding.
+
+And he ran round the left corner of the palisade. There he found a
+convict, who aiming at him, sent a ball through his hat. In a few
+seconds, before he had even time to fire his second barrel, he fell,
+struck to the heart by Harding’s dagger, more sure even than his gun.
+
+During this time, Gideon Spilett and the sailor hoisted themselves over
+the palisade, leaped into the enclosure, threw down the props which
+supported the inner door, ran into the empty house, and soon, poor
+Herbert was lying on Ayrton’s bed. In a few moments, Harding was by his
+side.
+
+On seeing Herbert senseless, the sailor’s grief was terrible.
+
+He sobbed, he cried, he tried to beat his head against the wall.
+
+Neither the engineer nor the reporter could calm him. They themselves
+were choked with emotion. They could not speak.
+
+However, they knew that it depended on them to rescue from death the
+poor boy who was suffering beneath their eyes. Gideon Spilett had not
+passed through the many incidents by which his life had been checkered
+without acquiring some slight knowledge of medicine. He knew a little
+of everything, and several times he had been obliged to attend to wounds
+produced either by a sword-bayonet or shot. Assisted by Cyrus Harding,
+he proceeded to render the aid Herbert required.
+
+The reporter was immediately struck by the complete stupor in which
+Herbert lay, a stupor owing either to the hemorrhage, or to the shock,
+the ball having struck a bone with sufficient force to produce a violent
+concussion.
+
+Herbert was deadly pale, and his pulse so feeble that Spilett only felt
+it beat at long intervals, as if it was on the point of stopping.
+
+These symptoms were very serious.
+
+Herbert’s chest was laid bare, and the blood having been stanched with
+handkerchiefs, it was bathed with cold water.
+
+The contusion, or rather the contused wound appeared,--an oval below the
+chest between the third and fourth ribs. It was there that Herbert had
+been hit by the bullet.
+
+Cyrus Harding and Gideon Spilett then turned the poor boy over; as they
+did so, he uttered a moan so feeble that they almost thought it was his
+last sigh.
+
+Herberts back was covered with blood from another contused wound, by
+which the ball had immediately escaped.
+
+“God be praised!” said the reporter, “the ball is not in the body, and
+we shall not have to extract it.”
+
+“But the heart?” asked Harding.
+
+“The heart has not been touched; if it had been, Herbert would be dead!”
+
+“Dead!” exclaimed Pencroft, with a groan.
+
+The sailor had only heard the last words uttered by the reporter.
+
+“No, Pencroft,” replied Cyrus Harding, “no! He is not dead. His pulse
+still beats. He has even uttered a moan. But for your boy’s sake, calm
+yourself. We have need of all our self-possession.”
+
+“Do not make us lose it, my friend.”
+
+Pencroft was silent, but a reaction set in, and great tears rolled down
+his cheeks.
+
+In the meanwhile, Gideon Spilett endeavored to collect his ideas, and
+proceed methodically. After his examination he had no doubt that the
+ball, entering in front, between the seventh and eighth ribs, had issued
+behind between the third and fourth. But what mischief had the ball
+committed in its passage? What important organs had been reached? A
+professional surgeon would have had difficulty in determining this at
+once, and still more so the reporter.
+
+However, he knew one thing, this was that he would have to prevent the
+inflammatory strangulation of the injured parts, then to contend with
+the local inflammation and fever which would result from the wound,
+perhaps mortal! Now, what styptics, what antiphlogistics ought to be
+employed? By what means could inflammation be prevented?
+
+At any rate, the most important thing was that the two wounds should
+be dressed without delay. It did not appear necessary to Gideon Spilett
+that a fresh flow of blood should be caused by bathing them in tepid
+water, and compressing their lips. The hemorrhage had been very
+abundant, and Herbert was already too much enfeebled by the loss of
+blood.
+
+The reporter, therefore, thought it best to simply bathe the two wounds
+with cold water.
+
+Herbert was placed on his left side, and was maintained in that
+position.
+
+“He must not be moved.” said Gideon Spilett. “He is in the most
+favorable position for the wounds in his back and chest to suppurate
+easily, and absolute rest is necessary.”
+
+“What! can’t we carry him to Granite House?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“No, Pencroft,” replied the reporter.
+
+“I’ll pay the villains off!” cried the sailor, shaking his fist in a
+menacing manner.
+
+“Pencroft!” said Cyrus Harding.
+
+Gideon Spilett had resumed his examination of the wounded boy. Herbert
+was still so frightfully pale, that the reporter felt anxious.
+
+“Cyrus,” said he, “I am not a surgeon. I am in terrible perplexity. You
+must aid me with your advice, your experience!”
+
+“Take courage, my friend,” answered the engineer, pressing the
+reporter’s hand. “Judge coolly. Think only of this: Herbert must be
+saved!”
+
+These words restored to Gideon Spilett that self-possession which he had
+lost in a moment of discouragement on feeling his great responsibility.
+He seated himself close to the bed. Cyrus Harding stood near. Pencroft
+had torn up his shirt, and was mechanically making lint.
+
+Spilett then explained to Cyrus Harding that he thought he ought first
+of all to stop the hemorrhage, but not close the two wounds, or cause
+their immediate cicatrization, for there had been internal perforation,
+and the suppuration must not be allowed to accumulate in the chest.
+
+Harding approved entirely, and it was decided that the two wounds should
+be dressed without attempting to close them by immediate coaptation.
+
+And now did the colonists possess an efficacious agent to act against
+the inflammation which might occur?
+
+Yes. They had one, for nature had generously lavished it. They had cold
+water, that is to say, the most powerful sedative that can be employed
+against inflammation of wounds, the most efficacious therapeutic agent
+in grave cases, and the one which is now adopted by all physicians.
+Cold water has, moreover, the advantage of leaving the wound in absolute
+rest, and preserving it from all premature dressing, a considerable
+advantage, since it has been found by experience that contact with the
+air is dangerous during the first days.
+
+Gideon Spilett and Cyrus Harding reasoned thus with their simple good
+sense, and they acted as the best surgeon would have done. Compresses
+of linen were applied to poor Herbert’s two wounds, and were kept
+constantly wet with cold water.
+
+The sailor had at first lighted a fire in the hut, which was not wanting
+in things necessary for life. Maple sugar, medicinal plants, the same
+which the lad had gathered on the banks of Lake Grant, enabled them to
+make some refreshing drinks, which they gave him without his taking any
+notice of it. His fever was extremely high, and all that day and night
+passed without his becoming conscious.
+
+Herbert’s life hung on a thread, and this thread might break at any
+moment. The next day, the 12th of November, the hopes of Harding and his
+companions slightly revived. Herbert had come out of his long stupor.
+He opened his eyes, he recognized Cyrus Harding, the reporter, and
+Pencroft. He uttered two or three words. He did not know what had
+happened. They told him, and Spilett begged him to remain perfectly
+still, telling him that his life was not in danger, and that his wounds
+would heal in a few days. However, Herbert scarcely suffered at all,
+and the cold water with which they were constantly bathed, prevented any
+inflammation of the wounds. The suppuration was established in a regular
+way, the fever did not increase, and it might now be hoped that this
+terrible wound would not involve any catastrophe. Pencroft felt the
+swelling of his heart gradually subside. He was like a sister of mercy,
+like a mother by the bed of her child.
+
+Herbert dozed again, but his sleep appeared more natural.
+
+“Tell me again that you hope, Mr. Spilett,” said Pencroft. “Tell me
+again that you will save Herbert!”
+
+“Yes, we will save him!” replied the reporter. “The wound is serious,
+and, perhaps, even the ball has traversed the lungs, but the perforation
+of this organ is not fatal.”
+
+“God bless you!” answered Pencroft.
+
+As may be believed, during the four-and-twenty hours they had been in
+the corral, the colonists had no other thought than that of nursing
+Herbert. They did not think either of the danger which threatened them
+should the convicts return, or of the precautions to be taken for the
+future.
+
+But on this day, while Pencroft watched by the sick-bed, Cyrus Harding
+and the reporter consulted as to what it would be best to do.
+
+First of all they examined the corral. There was not a trace of Ayrton.
+Had the unhappy man been dragged away by his former accomplices? Had he
+resisted, and been overcome in the struggle? This last supposition was
+only too probable. Gideon Spilett, at the moment he scaled the palisade,
+had clearly seen some one of the convicts running along the southern
+spur of Mount Franklin, towards whom Top had sprung. It was one of those
+whose object had been so completely defeated by the rocks at the mouth
+of the Mercy. Besides, the one killed by Harding, and whose body was
+found outside the enclosure, of course belonged to Bob Harvey’s crew.
+
+As to the corral, it had not suffered any damage. The gates were closed,
+and the animals had not been able to disperse in the forest. Nor could
+they see traces of any struggle, any devastation, either in the hut,
+or in the palisade. The ammunition only, with which Ayrton had been
+supplied, had disappeared with him.
+
+“The unhappy man has been surprised,” said Harding, “and as he was a man
+to defend himself, he must have been overpowered.”
+
+“Yes, that is to be feared!” said the reporter. “Then, doubtless, the
+convicts installed themselves in the corral where they found plenty of
+everything, and only fled when they saw us coming. It is very evident,
+too, that at this moment Ayrton, whether living or dead, is not here!”
+
+“We shall have to beat the forest,” said the engineer, “and rid the
+island of these wretches. Pencroft’s presentiments were not mistaken,
+when he wished to hunt them as wild beasts. That would have spared us
+all these misfortunes!”
+
+“Yes,” answered the reporter, “but now we have the right to be
+merciless!”
+
+“At any rate,” said the engineer, “we are obliged to wait some time,
+and to remain at the corral until we can carry Herbert without danger to
+Granite House.”
+
+“But Neb?” asked the reporter.
+
+“Neb is in safety.”
+
+“But if, uneasy at our absence, he would venture to come?”
+
+“He must not come!” returned Cyrus Harding quickly. “He would be
+murdered on the road!”
+
+“It is very probable, however, that he will attempt to rejoin us!”
+
+“Ah, if the telegraph still acted, he might be warned! But that is
+impossible now! As to leaving Pencroft and Herbert here alone, we could
+not do it! Well, I will go alone to Granite House.”
+
+“No, no! Cyrus,” answered the reporter, “you must not expose yourself!
+Your courage would be of no avail. The villains are evidently watching
+the corral, they are hidden in the thick woods which surround it, and if
+you go we shall soon have to regret two misfortunes instead of one!”
+
+“But Neb?” repeated the engineer. “It is now four-and-twenty hours since
+he has had any news of us! He will be sure to come!”
+
+“And as he will be less on his guard than we should be ourselves,” added
+Spilett, “he will be killed!”
+
+“Is there really no way of warning him?”
+
+While the engineer thought, his eyes fell on Top, who, going backwards
+and forwards seemed to say,--
+
+“Am not I here?”
+
+“Top!” exclaimed Cyrus Harding.
+
+The animal sprang at his master’s call.
+
+“Yes, Top will go,” said the reporter, who had understood the engineer.
+
+“Top can go where we cannot! He will carry to Granite House the news of
+the corral, and he will bring back to us that from Granite House!”
+
+“Quick!” said Harding. “Quick!”
+
+Spilett rapidly tore a leaf from his note-book, and wrote these words:--
+
+“Herbert wounded. We are at the corral. Be on your guard. Do not leave
+Granite House. Have the convicts appeared in the neighborhood? Reply by
+Top.”
+
+This laconic note contained all that Neb ought to know, and at the same
+time asked all that the colonists wished to know. It was folded and
+fastened to Top’s collar in a conspicuous position.
+
+“Top, my dog,” said the engineer, caressing the animal, “Neb, Top! Neb!
+Go, go!”
+
+Top bounded at these words. He understood, he knew what was expected of
+him. The road to the corral was familiar to him. In less than an hour he
+could clear it, and it might be hoped that where neither Cyrus Harding
+nor the reporter could have ventured without danger, Top, running among
+the grass or in the wood, would pass unperceived.
+
+The engineer went to the gate of the corral and opened it.
+
+“Neb, Top! Neb!” repeated the engineer, again pointing in the direction
+of Granite House.
+
+Top sprang forwards, then almost immediately disappeared.
+
+“He will get there!” said the reporter.
+
+“Yes, and he will come back, the faithful animal!”
+
+“What o’clock is it?” asked Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Ten.”
+
+“In an hour he may be here. We will watch for his return.”
+
+The gate of the corral was closed. The engineer and the reporter
+re-entered the house. Herbert was still in a sleep. Pencroft kept the
+compresses always wet. Spilett, seeing there was nothing he could do
+at that moment, busied himself in preparing some nourishment, while
+attentively watching that part of the enclosure against the hill, at
+which an attack might be expected.
+
+The settlers awaited Top’s return with much anxiety. A little before
+eleven o’clock, Cyrus Harding and the reporter, rifle in hand, were
+behind the gate, ready to open it at the first bark of their dog.
+
+They did not doubt that if Top had arrived safely at Granite House, Neb
+would have sent him back immediately.
+
+They had both been there for about ten minutes, when a report was heard,
+followed by repeated barks.
+
+The engineer opened the gate, and seeing smoke a hundred feet off in the
+wood, he fired in that direction.
+
+Almost immediately Top bounded into the corral, and the gate was quickly
+shut.
+
+“Top, Top!” exclaimed the engineer, taking the dog’s great honest head
+between his hands.
+
+A note was fastened to his neck, and Cyrus Harding read these words,
+traced in Neb’s large writing:--“No pirates in the neighborhood of
+Granite House. I will not stir. Poor Mr. Herbert!”
+
+
+
+Chapter 8
+
+So the convicts were still there, watching the corral, and determined to
+kill the settlers one after the other. There was nothing to be done but
+to treat them as wild beasts. But great precautions must be taken, for
+just now the wretches had the advantage on their side, seeing, and not
+being seen, being able to surprise by the suddenness of their attack,
+yet not to be surprised themselves. Harding made arrangements,
+therefore, for living in the corral, of which the provisions would last
+for a tolerable length of time. Ayrton’s house had been provided with
+all that was necessary for existence, and the convicts, scared by
+the arrival of the settlers, had not had time to pillage it. It was
+probable, as Gideon Spilett observed, that things had occurred as
+follows:
+
+The six convicts, disembarking on the island, had followed the southern
+shore, and after having traversed the double shore of the Serpentine
+Peninsula, not being inclined to venture into the Far West woods, they
+had reached the mouth of Falls River. From this point, by following the
+right bank of the watercourse, they would arrive at the spurs of Mount
+Franklin, among which they would naturally seek a retreat, and they
+could not have been long in discovering the corral, then uninhabited.
+There they had regularly installed themselves, awaiting the moment
+to put their abominable schemes into execution. Ayrton’s arrival had
+surprised them, but they had managed to overpower the unfortunate man,
+and--the rest may be easily imagined!
+
+Now, the convicts,--reduced to five, it is true, but well armed,--were
+roaming the woods, and to venture there was to expose themselves to
+their attacks, which could be neither guarded against nor prevented.
+
+“Wait! There is nothing else to be done!” repeated Cyrus Harding. “When
+Herbert is cured, we can organize a general battle of the island, and
+have satisfaction of these convicts. That will be the object of our
+grand expedition at the same time--”
+
+“As the search for our mysterious protector,” added Gideon Spilett,
+finishing the engineer’s sentence. “And it must be acknowledged, my dear
+Cyrus, that this time his protection was wanting at the very moment when
+it was most necessary to us!”
+
+“Who knows?” replied the engineer.
+
+“What do you mean?” asked the reporter.
+
+“That we are not at the end of our trouble yet, my dear Spilett,
+and that his powerful intervention may have another opportunity of
+exercising itself. But that is not the question now. Herbert’s life
+before everything.”
+
+This was the colonists’ saddest thought. Several days passed, and the
+poor boy’s state was happily no worse. Cold water, always kept at a
+suitable temperature, had completely prevented the inflammation of the
+wounds. It even seemed to the reporter that this water, being slightly
+sulphurous,--which was explained by the neighborhood of the volcano,
+had a more direct action on the healing. The suppuration was much
+less abundant, and thanks to the incessant care by which he was
+surrounded!--Herbert returned to life, and his fever abated. He was
+besides subjected to a severe diet, and consequently his weakness was
+and would be extreme; but there was no want of refreshing drinks, and
+absolute rest was of the greatest benefit to him. Cyrus Harding, Gideon
+Spilett, and Pencroft had become very skilful in dressing the lad’s
+wounds. All the linen in the house had been sacrificed. Herbert’s
+wounds, covered with compresses and lint, were pressed neither too much
+nor too little, so as to cause their cicatrization without effecting any
+inflammatory reaction. The reporter used extreme care in the dressing,
+knowing well the importance of it, and repeating to his companions that
+which most surgeons willingly admit, that it is perhaps rarer to see a
+dressing well done than an operation well performed.
+
+In ten days, on the 22nd of November, Herbert was considerably better.
+He had begun to take some nourishment.
+
+The color was returning to his cheeks, and his bright eyes smiled at
+his nurses. He talked a little, notwithstanding Pencroft’s efforts, who
+talked incessantly to prevent him from beginning to speak, and told him
+the most improbable stories. Herbert had questioned him on the subject
+of Ayrton, whom he was astonished not to see near him, thinking that
+he was at the corral. But the sailor, not wishing to distress Herbert,
+contented himself by replying that Ayrton had rejoined Neb, so as to
+defend Granite House.
+
+“Humph!” said Pencroft, “these pirates! they are gentlemen who have
+no right to any consideration! And the captain wanted to win them by
+kindness! I’ll send them some kindness, but in the shape of a good
+bullet!”
+
+“And have they not been seen again?” asked Herbert.
+
+“No, my boy,” answered the sailor, “but we shall find them, and when
+you are cured we shall see if the cowards who strike us from behind will
+dare to meet us face to face!”
+
+“I am still very weak, my poor Pencroft!”
+
+“Well! your strength will return gradually! What’s a ball through the
+chest? Nothing but a joke! I’ve seen many, and I don’t think much of
+them!”
+
+At last things appeared to be going on well, and if no complication
+occurred, Herbert’s recovery might be regarded as certain. But what
+would have been the condition of the colonists if his state had been
+aggravated,--if, for example, the ball had remained in his body, if his
+arm or his leg had had to be amputated?
+
+“No,” said Spilett more than once, “I have never thought of such a
+contingency without shuddering!”
+
+“And yet, if it had been necessary to operate,” said Harding one day to
+him, “you would not have hesitated?”
+
+“No, Cyrus!” said Gideon Spilett, “but thank God that we have been
+spared this complication!”
+
+As in so many other conjectures, the colonists had appealed to the logic
+of that simple good sense of which they had made use so often, and once
+more, thanks to their general knowledge, it had succeeded! But might not
+a time come when all their science would be at fault? They were alone
+on the island. Now, men in all states of society are necessary to each
+other. Cyrus Harding knew this well, and sometimes he asked if some
+circumstance might not occur which they would be powerless to surmount.
+It appeared to him besides, that he and his companions, till then so
+fortunate, had entered into an unlucky period. During the two years and
+a half which had elapsed since their escape from Richmond, it might
+be said that they had had everything their own way. The island had
+abundantly supplied them with minerals, vegetables, animals, and as
+Nature had constantly loaded them, their science had known how to take
+advantage of what she offered them.
+
+The wellbeing of the colony was therefore complete. Moreover, in certain
+occurrences an inexplicable influence had come to their aid!... But all
+that could only be for a time.
+
+In short, Cyrus Harding believed that fortune had turned against them.
+
+In fact, the convicts’ ship had appeared in the waters of the island,
+and if the pirates had been, so to speak, miraculously destroyed, six of
+them, at least, had escaped the catastrophe. They had disembarked on the
+island, and it was almost impossible to get at the five who survived.
+Ayrton had no doubt been murdered by these wretches, who possessed
+firearms, and at the first use that they had made of them, Herbert had
+fallen, wounded almost mortally. Were these the first blows aimed by
+adverse fortune at the colonists? This was often asked by Harding. This
+was often repeated by the reporter; and it appeared to him also that the
+intervention, so strange, yet so efficacious, which till then had served
+them so well, had now failed them. Had this mysterious being, whatever
+he was, whose existence could not be denied, abandoned the island? Had
+he in his turn succumbed?
+
+No reply was possible to these questions. But it must not be imagined
+that because Harding and his companions spoke of these things, they were
+men to despair. Far from that. They looked their situation in the face,
+they analyzed the chances, they prepared themselves for any event, they
+stood firm and straight before the future, and if adversity was at last
+to strike them, it would find in them men prepared to struggle against
+it.
+
+
+
+Chapter 9
+
+The convalescence of the young invalid was regularly progressing. One
+thing only was now to be desired, that his state would allow him to be
+brought to Granite House. However well built and supplied the corral
+house was, it could not be so comfortable as the healthy granite
+dwelling. Besides, it did not offer the same security, and its tenants,
+notwithstanding their watchfulness, were here always in fear of some
+shot from the convicts. There, on the contrary, in the middle of that
+impregnable and inaccessible cliff, they would have nothing to fear, and
+any attack on their persons would certainly fail. They therefore waited
+impatiently for the moment when Herbert might be moved without danger
+from his wound, and they were determined to make this move, although the
+communication through Jacamar Wood was very difficult.
+
+They had no news from Neb, but were not uneasy on that account. The
+courageous Negro, well entrenched in the depths of Granite House, would
+not allow himself to be surprised. Top had not been sent again to him,
+as it appeared useless to expose the faithful dog to some shot which
+might deprive the settlers of their most useful auxiliary.
+
+They waited, therefore, although they were anxious to be reunited at
+Granite House. It pained the engineer to see his forces divided, for it
+gave great advantage to the pirates. Since Ayrton’s disappearance they
+were only four against five, for Herbert could not yet be counted, and
+this was not the least care of the brave boy, who well understood the
+trouble of which he was the cause.
+
+The question of knowing how, in their condition, they were to act
+against the pirates, was thoroughly discussed on the 29th of November
+by Cyrus Harding, Gideon Spilett, and Pencroft, at a moment when Herbert
+was asleep and could not hear them.
+
+“My friends,” said the reporter, after they had talked of Neb and of the
+impossibility of communicating with him, “I think,--like you, that to
+venture on the road to the corral would be to risk receiving a gunshot
+without being able to return it. But do you not think that the best
+thing to be done now is to openly give chase to these wretches?”
+
+“That is just what I was thinking,” answered Pencroft. “I believe we’re
+not fellows to be afraid of a bullet, and as for me, if Captain Harding
+approves, I’m ready to dash into the forest! Why, hang it, one man is
+equal to another!”
+
+“But is he equal to five?” asked the engineer.
+
+“I will join Pencroft,” said the reporter, “and both of us, well-armed
+and accompanied by Top--”
+
+“My dear Spilett, and you, Pencroft,” answered Harding, “let us reason
+coolly. If the convicts were hid in one spot of the island, if we knew
+that spot, and had only to dislodge them, I would undertake a direct
+attack; but is there not occasion to fear, on the contrary, that they
+are sure to fire the first shot?”
+
+“Well, captain,” cried Pencroft, “a bullet does not always reach its
+mark.”
+
+“That which struck Herbert did not miss, Pencroft,” replied the
+engineer. “Besides, observe that if both of you left the corral I should
+remain here alone to defend it. Do you imagine that the convicts will
+not see you leave it, that they will not allow you to enter the forest,
+and that they will not attack it during your absence, knowing that there
+is no one here but a wounded boy and a man?”
+
+“You are right, captain,” replied Pencroft, his chest swelling with
+sullen anger. “You are right; they will do all they can to retake the
+corral, which they know to be well stored; and alone you could not hold
+it against them.”
+
+“Oh, if we were only at Granite House!”
+
+“If we were at Granite House,” answered the engineer, “the case would be
+very different. There I should not be afraid to leave Herbert with one,
+while the other three went to search the forests of the island. But we
+are at the corral, and it is best to stay here until we can leave it
+together.”
+
+Cyrus Harding’s reasoning was unanswerable, and his companions
+understood it well.
+
+“If only Ayrton was still one of us!” said Gideon Spilett. “Poor fellow!
+his return to social life will have been but of short duration.”
+
+“If he is dead,” added Pencroft, in a peculiar tone.
+
+“Do you hope, then, Pencroft, that the villains have spared him?” asked
+Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Yes, if they had any interest in doing so.”
+
+“What! you suppose that Ayrton finding his old companions, forgetting
+all that he owes us--”
+
+“Who knows?” answered the sailor, who did not hazard this shameful
+supposition without hesitating.
+
+“Pencroft,” said Harding, taking the sailor’s arm, “that is a wicked
+idea of yours, and you will distress me much if you persist in speaking
+thus. I will answer for Ayrton’s fidelity.”
+
+“And I also,” added the reporter quickly.
+
+“Yes, yes, captain, I was wrong,” replied Pencroft; “it was a wicked
+idea indeed that I had, and nothing justifies it. But what can I do? I’m
+not in my senses. This imprisonment in the corral wearies me horribly,
+and I have never felt so excited as I do now.
+
+“Be patient, Pencroft,” replied the engineer. “How long will it be, my
+dear Spilett, before you think Herbert may be carried to Granite House?”
+
+“That is difficult to say, Cyrus,” answered the reporter, “for any
+imprudence might involve terrible consequences. But his convalescence
+is progressing, and if he continues to gain strength, in eight days from
+now--well, we shall see.”
+
+Eight days! That would put off the return to Granite House until the
+first days of December. At this time two months of spring had already
+passed. The weather was fine, and the heat began to be great. The
+forests of the island were in full leaf, and the time was approaching
+when the usual crops ought to be gathered. The return to the plateau of
+Prospect Heights would, therefore, be followed by extensive agricultural
+labors, interrupted only by the projected expedition through the island.
+
+It can, therefore, be well understood how injurious this seclusion in
+the corral must have been to the colonists.
+
+But if they were compelled to bow before necessity, they did not do so
+without impatience.
+
+Once or twice the reporter ventured out into the road and made the
+tour of the palisade. Top accompanied him, and Gideon Spilett, his gun
+cocked, was ready for any emergency.
+
+He met with no misadventure and found no suspicious traces. His dog
+would have warned him of any danger, and, as Top did not bark, it might
+be concluded that there was nothing to fear at the moment at least, and
+that the convicts were occupied in another part of the island.
+
+However, on his second sortie, on the 27th of November, Gideon Spilett,
+who had ventured a quarter of a mile into the woods, towards the south
+of the mountain, remarked that Top scented something. The dog had no
+longer his unconcerned manner; he went backwards and forwards, ferreting
+among the grass and bushes as if his smell had revealed some suspicious
+object to him.
+
+Gideon Spilett followed Top, encouraged him, excited him by his voice,
+while keeping a sharp look-out, his gun ready to fire, and sheltering
+himself behind the trees. It was not probable that Top scented the
+presence of man, for in that case, he would have announced it by
+half-uttered, sullen, angry barks. Now, as he did not growl, it was
+because danger was neither near nor approaching.
+
+Nearly five minutes passed thus, Top rummaging, the reporter following
+him prudently when, all at once, the dog rushed towards a thick bush,
+and drew out a rag.
+
+It was a piece of cloth, stained and torn, which Spilett immediately
+brought back to the corral. There it was examined by the colonists,
+who found that it was a fragment of Ayrton’s waistcoat, a piece of that
+felt, manufactured solely by the Granite House factory.
+
+“You see, Pencroft,” observed Harding, “there has been resistance on the
+part of the unfortunate Ayrton. The convicts have dragged him away in
+spite of himself! Do you still doubt his honesty?”
+
+“No, captain,” answered the sailor, “and I repented of my suspicion a
+long time ago! But it seems to me that something may be learned from the
+incident.”
+
+“What is that?” asked the reporter.
+
+“It is that Ayrton was not killed at the corral! That they dragged him
+away living, since he has resisted. Therefore, perhaps, he is still
+living!”
+
+“Perhaps, indeed,” replied the engineer, who remained thoughtful.
+
+This was a hope, to which Ayrton’s companions could still hold. Indeed,
+they had before believed that, surprised in the corral, Ayrton had
+fallen by a bullet, as Herbert had fallen. But if the convicts had not
+killed him at first, if they had brought him living to another part of
+the island, might it not be admitted that he was still their prisoner?
+Perhaps, even, one of them had found in Ayrton his old Australian
+companion Ben Joyce, the chief of the escaped convicts. And who knows
+but that they had conceived the impossible hope of bringing back Ayrton
+to themselves? He would have been very useful to them, if they had been
+able to make him turn traitor!
+
+This incident was, therefore, favorably interpreted at the corral, and
+it no longer appeared impossible that they should find Ayrton again.
+On his side, if he was only a prisoner, Ayrton would no doubt do all
+he could to escape from the hands of the villains, and this would be a
+powerful aid to the settlers!
+
+“At any rate,” observed Gideon Spilett, “if happily Ayrton did manage to
+escape, he would go directly to Granite House, for he could not know
+of the attempted assassination of which Herbert has been a victim, and
+consequently would never think of our being imprisoned in the corral.”
+
+“Oh! I wish that he was there, at Granite House!” cried Pencroft, “and
+that we were there, too! For, although the rascals can do nothing to our
+house, they may plunder the plateau, our plantations, our poultry-yard!”
+
+Pencroft had become a thorough farmer, heartily attached to his crops.
+But it must be said that Herbert was more anxious than any to return
+to Granite House, for he knew how much the presence of the settlers
+was needed there. And it was he who was keeping them at the corral!
+Therefore, one idea occupied his mind--to leave the corral, and when!
+He believed he could bear removal to Granite House. He was sure his
+strength would return more quickly in his room, with the air and sight
+of the sea!
+
+Several times he pressed Gideon Spilett, but the latter, fearing, with
+good reason, that Herbert’s wounds, half healed, might reopen on the
+way, did not give the order to start.
+
+However, something occurred which compelled Cyrus Harding and his
+two friends to yield to the lad’s wish, and God alone knew that this
+determination might cause them grief and remorse.
+
+It was the 29th of November, seven o’clock in the evening. The three
+settlers were talking in Herbert’s room, when they heard Top utter quick
+barks.
+
+Harding, Pencroft, and Spilett seized their guns and ran out of the
+house. Top, at the foot of the palisade, was jumping, barking, but it
+was with pleasure, not anger.
+
+“Some one is coming.”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“It is not an enemy!”
+
+“Neb, perhaps?”
+
+“Or Ayrton?”
+
+These words had hardly been exchanged between the engineer and his two
+companions when a body leaped over the palisade and fell on the ground
+inside the corral.
+
+It was Jup, Master Jup in person, to whom Top immediately gave a most
+cordial reception.
+
+“Jup!” exclaimed Pencroft.
+
+
+“Neb has sent him to us,” said the reporter.
+
+“Then,” replied the engineer, “he must have some note on him.”
+
+Pencroft rushed up to the orang. Certainly if Neb had any important
+matter to communicate to his master he could not employ a more sure or
+more rapid messenger, who could pass where neither the colonists could,
+nor even Top himself.
+
+Cyrus Harding was not mistaken. At Jup’s neck hung a small bag, and in
+this bag was found a little note traced by Neb’s hand.
+
+The despair of Harding and his companions may be imagined when they read
+these words:--
+
+
+“Friday, six o’clock in the morning.
+
+“Plateau invaded by convicts.
+
+                             “Neb.”
+
+
+They gazed at each other without uttering a word, then they re-entered
+the house. What were they to do? The convicts on Prospect Heights! that
+was disaster, devastation, ruin.
+
+Herbert, on seeing the engineer, the reporter, and Pencroft re-enter,
+guessed that their situation was aggravated, and when he saw Jup, he no
+longer doubted that some misfortune menaced Granite House.
+
+“Captain Harding,” said he, “I must go; I can bear the journey. I must
+go.”
+
+Gideon Spilett approached Herbert; then, having looked at him,--
+
+“Let us go, then!” said he.
+
+The question was quickly decided whether Herbert should be carried on a
+litter or in the cart which had brought Ayrton to the corral. The motion
+of the litter would have been more easy for the wounded lad, but it
+would have necessitated two bearers, that is to say, there would have
+been two guns less for defense if an attack was made on the road. Would
+they not, on the contrary, by employing the cart leave every arm free?
+Was it impossible to place the mattress on which Herbert was lying in
+it, and to advance with so much care that any jolt should be avoided? It
+could be done.
+
+The cart was brought. Pencroft harnessed the onager. Cyrus Harding and
+the reporter raised Herbert’s mattress and placed it on the bottom of
+the cart. The weather was fine. The sun’s bright rays glanced through
+the trees.
+
+“Are the guns ready?” asked Cyrus Harding.
+
+They were. The engineer and Pencroft, each armed with a double-barreled
+gun, and Gideon Spilett carrying his rifle, had nothing to do but start.
+
+“Are you comfortable, Herbert?” asked the engineer.
+
+“Ah, captain,” replied the lad, “don’t be uneasy, I shall not die on the
+road!”
+
+While speaking thus, it could be seen that the poor boy had called up
+all his energy, and by the energy of a powerful will had collected his
+failing strength.
+
+The engineer felt his heart sink painfully. He still hesitated to
+give the signal for departure; but that would have driven Herbert to
+despair--killed him perhaps.
+
+“Forward!” said Harding.
+
+The gate of the corral was opened. Jup and Top, who knew when to be
+silent, ran in advance. The cart came out, the gate was reclosed, and
+the onager, led by Pencroft, advanced at a slow pace.
+
+Certainly, it would have been safer to have taken a different road than
+that which led straight from the corral to Granite House, but the cart
+would have met with great difficulties in moving under the trees. It was
+necessary, therefore, to follow this way, although it was well known to
+the convicts.
+
+Cyrus Harding and Gideon Spilett walked one on each side of the cart,
+ready to answer to any attack. However, it was not probable that the
+convicts would have yet left the plateau of Prospect Heights.
+
+Neb’s note had evidently been written and sent as soon as the convicts
+had shown themselves there. Now, this note was dated six o’clock in
+the morning, and the active orang, accustomed to come frequently to the
+corral, had taken scarcely three quarters of an hour to cross the five
+miles which separated it from Granite House. They would, therefore, be
+safe at that time, and if there was any occasion for firing, it would
+probably not be until they were in the neighborhood of Granite House.
+However, the colonists kept a strict watch. Top and Jup, the latter
+armed with his club, sometimes in front, sometimes beating the wood at
+the sides of the road, signalized no danger.
+
+The cart advanced slowly under Pencroft’s guidance. It had left the
+corral at half-past seven. An hour after, four out of the five miles
+had been cleared, without any incident having occurred. The road was
+as deserted as all that part of the Jacamar Wood which lay between the
+Mercy and the lake. There was no occasion for any warning. The wood
+appeared as deserted as on the day when the colonists first landed on
+the island.
+
+They approached the plateau. Another mile and they would see the bridge
+over Creek Glycerine. Cyrus Harding expected to find it in its place;
+supposing that the convicts would have crossed it, and that, after
+having passed one of the streams which enclosed the plateau, they
+would have taken the precaution to lower it again, so as to keep open a
+retreat.
+
+At length an opening in the trees allowed the sea-horizon to be seen.
+But the cart continued its progress, for not one of its defenders
+thought of abandoning it.
+
+At that moment Pencroft stopped the onager, and in a hoarse voice,--
+
+“Oh! the villains!” he exclaimed.
+
+And he pointed to a thick smoke rising from the mill, the sheds, and the
+buildings at the poultry-yard.
+
+A man was moving about in the midst of the smoke. It was Neb.
+
+His companions uttered a shout. He heard, and ran to meet them.
+
+The convicts had left the plateau nearly half-an-hour before, having
+devastated it!
+
+“And Mr. Herbert?” asked Neb.
+
+Gideon Spilett returned to the cart.
+
+Herbert had lost consciousness!
+
+
+
+Chapter 10
+
+Of the convicts, the dangers which menaced Granite House, the ruins
+with which the plateau was covered, the colonists thought no longer.
+Herbert’s critical state outweighed all other considerations. Would the
+removal prove fatal to him by causing some internal injury? The reporter
+could not affirm it, but he and his companions almost despaired of
+the result. The cart was brought to the bend of the river. There some
+branches, disposed as a liner, received the mattress on which lay the
+unconscious Herbert. Ten minutes after, Cyrus Harding, Spilett, and
+Pencroft were at the foot of the cliff, leaving Neb to take the cart
+on to the plateau of Prospect Heights. The lift was put in motion, and
+Herbert was soon stretched on his bed in Granite House.
+
+What cares were lavished on him to bring him back to life! He smiled for
+a moment on finding himself in his room, but could scarcely even murmur
+a few words, so great was his weakness. Gideon Spilett examined his
+wounds. He feared to find them reopened, having been imperfectly healed.
+There was nothing of the sort. From whence, then, came this prostration?
+why was Herbert so much worse? The lad then fell into a kind of feverish
+sleep, and the reporter and Pencroft remained near the bed. During this
+time, Harding told Neb all that had happened at the corral, and Neb
+recounted to his master the events of which the plateau had just been
+the theater.
+
+It was only during the preceding night that the convicts had appeared on
+the edge of the forest, at the approaches to Creek Glycerine. Neb, who
+was watching near the poultry-yard, had not hesitated to fire at one of
+the pirates, who was about to cross the stream; but in the darkness he
+could not tell whether the man had been hit or not. At any rate, it was
+not enough to frighten away the band, and Neb had only just time to get
+up to Granite House, where at least he was in safety.
+
+But what was he to do there? How prevent the devastations with which the
+convicts threatened the plateau? Had Neb any means by which to warn
+his master? And, besides, in what situation were the inhabitants of the
+corral themselves? Cyrus Harding and his companions had left on the 11th
+of November, and it was now the 29th. It was, therefore, nineteen days
+since Neb had had other news than that brought by Top--disastrous news:
+Ayrton disappeared, Herbert severely wounded, the engineer, reporter,
+and sailor, as it were, imprisoned in the corral!
+
+What was he to do? asked poor Neb. Personally he had nothing to
+fear, for the convicts could not reach him in Granite House. But the
+buildings, the plantations, all their arrangements at the mercy of the
+pirates! Would it not be best to let Cyrus Harding judge of what he
+ought to do, and to warn him, at least, of the danger which threatened
+him?
+
+Neb then thought of employing Jup, and confiding a note to him. He knew
+the orang’s great intelligence, which had been often put to the proof.
+Jup understood the word corral, which had been frequently pronounced
+before him, and it may be remembered, too, that he had often driven
+the cart thither in company with Pencroft. Day had not yet dawned. The
+active orang would know how to pass unperceived through the woods, of
+which the convicts, besides, would think he was a native.
+
+Neb did not hesitate. He wrote the note, he tied it to Jup’s neck, he
+brought the ape to the door of Granite House, from which he let down a
+long cord to the ground; then, several times he repeated these words,--
+
+“Jup Jup! corral, corral!”
+
+The creature understood, seized the cord, glided rapidly down the beach,
+and disappeared in the darkness without the convicts’ attention having
+been in the least excited.
+
+“You did well, Neb,” said Harding, “but perhaps in not warning us you
+would have done still better!”
+
+And, in speaking thus, Cyrus Harding thought of Herbert, whose recovery
+the removal had so seriously checked.
+
+Neb ended his account. The convicts had not appeared at all on the
+beach. Not knowing the number of the island’s inhabitants, they might
+suppose that Granite House was defended by a large party. They must have
+remembered that during the attack by the brig numerous shot had been
+fired both from the lower and upper rocks, and no doubt they did not
+wish to expose themselves. But the plateau of Prospect Heights was
+open to them, and not covered by the fire of Granite House. They gave
+themselves up, therefore, to their instinct of destruction,--plundering,
+burning, devastating everything,--and only retiring half an hour before
+the arrival of the colonists, whom they believed still confined in the
+corral.
+
+On their retreat, Neb hurried out. He climbed the plateau at the risk
+of being perceived and fired at, tried to extinguish the fire which was
+consuming the buildings of the poultry-yard, and had struggled, though
+in vain, against it until the cart appeared at the edge of the wood.
+
+Such had been these serious events. The presence of the convicts
+constituted a permanent source of danger to the settlers in Lincoln
+Island, until then so happy, and who might now expect still greater
+misfortunes.
+
+Spilett remained in Granite House with Herbert and Pencroft, while
+Cyrus Harding, accompanied by Neb, proceeded to judge for himself of the
+extent of the disaster.
+
+It was fortunate that the convicts had not advanced to the foot of
+Granite House. The workshop at the Chimneys would in that case not
+have escaped destruction. But after all, this evil would have been more
+easily reparable than the ruins accumulated on the plateau of Prospect
+Heights. Harding and Neb proceeded towards the Mercy, and ascended its
+left bank without meeting with any trace of the convicts; nor on the
+other side of the river, in the depths of the wood, could they perceive
+any suspicious indications.
+
+Besides, it might be supposed that in all probability either the
+convicts knew of the return of the settlers to Granite House, by having
+seen them pass on the road from the corral, or, after the devastation of
+the plateau, they had penetrated into Jacamar Wood, following the course
+of the Mercy, and were thus ignorant of their return.
+
+In the former case, they must have returned towards the corral, now
+without defenders, and which contained valuable stores.
+
+In the latter, they must have regained their encampment, and would wait
+on opportunity to recommence the attack.
+
+It was, therefore, possible to prevent them, but any enterprise to clear
+the island was now rendered difficult by reason of Herbert’s condition.
+Indeed, their whole force would have been barely sufficient to cope with
+the convicts, and just now no one could leave Granite House.
+
+The engineer and Neb arrived on the plateau. Desolation reigned
+everywhere. The fields had been trampled over; the ears of wheat, which
+were nearly full-grown, lay on the ground. The other plantations had not
+suffered less.
+
+The kitchen-garden was destroyed. Happily, Granite House possessed a
+store of seed which would enable them to repair these misfortunes.
+
+As to the wall and buildings of the poultry-yard and the onagers stable,
+the fire had destroyed all. A few terrified creatures roamed over the
+plateau. The birds, which during the fire had taken refuge on the waters
+of the lake, had already returned to their accustomed spot, and were
+dabbling on the banks. Everything would have to be reconstructed.
+
+Cyrus Harding’s face, which was paler than usual, expressed an internal
+anger which he commanded with difficulty, but he did not utter a word.
+Once more he looked at his devastated fields, and at the smoke which
+still rose from the ruins, then he returned to Granite House.
+
+The following days were the saddest of any that the colonists had passed
+on the island! Herbert’s weakness visibly increased. It appeared that
+a more serious malady, the consequence of the profound physiological
+disturbance he had gone through, threatened to declare itself, and
+Gideon Spilett feared such an aggravation of his condition that he would
+be powerless to fight against it!
+
+In fact, Herbert remained in an almost continuous state of drowsiness,
+and symptoms of delirium began to manifest themselves. Refreshing drinks
+were the only remedies at the colonists’ disposal. The fever was not
+as yet very high, but it soon appeared that it would probably recur at
+regular intervals. Gideon Spilett first recognized this on the 6th of
+December.
+
+The poor boy, whose fingers, nose, and ears had become extremely
+pale, was at first seized with slight shiverings, horripilations, and
+tremblings. His pulse was weak and irregular, his skin dry, his thirst
+intense. To this soon succeeded a hot fit; his face became flushed; his
+skin reddened; his pulse quick; then a profuse perspiration broke out
+after which the fever seemed to diminish. The attack had lasted nearly
+five hours.
+
+Gideon Spilett had not left Herbert, who, it was only too certain, was
+now seized by an intermittent fever, and this fever must be cured at any
+cost before it should assume a more serious aspect.
+
+“And in order to cure it,” said Spilett to Cyrus Harding, “we need a
+febrifuge.”
+
+“A febrifuge--” answered the engineer. “We have neither Peruvian bark,
+nor sulphate of quinine.”
+
+“No,” said Gideon Spilett, “but there are willows on the border of
+the lake, and the bark of the willow might, perhaps, prove to be a
+substitute for quinine.”
+
+“Let us try it without losing a moment,” replied Cyrus Harding.
+
+The bark of the willow has, indeed, been justly considered as a
+succedaneum for Peruvian bark, as has also that of the horse-chestnut
+tree, the leaf of the holly, the snake-root, etc. It was evidently
+necessary to make trial of this substance, although not so valuable as
+Peruvian bark, and to employ it in its natural state, since they had no
+means for extracting its essence.
+
+Cyrus Harding went himself to cut from the trunk of a species of black
+willow, a few pieces of bark; he brought them back to Granite House, and
+reduced them to a powder, which was administered that same evening to
+Herbert.
+
+The night passed without any important change. Herbert was somewhat
+delirious, but the fever did not reappear in the night, and did not
+return either during the following day.
+
+Pencroft again began to hope. Gideon Spilett said nothing. It might be
+that the fever was not quotidian, but tertian, and that it would return
+next day. Therefore, he awaited the next day with the greatest anxiety.
+
+It might have been remarked besides that during this period Herbert
+remained utterly prostrate, his head weak and giddy. Another symptom
+alarmed the reporter to the highest degree. Herbert’s liver became
+congested, and soon a more intense delirium showed that his brain was
+also affected.
+
+Gideon Spilett was overwhelmed by this new complication. He took the
+engineer aside.
+
+“It is a malignant fever,” said he.
+
+“A malignant fever!” cried Harding. “You are mistaken, Spilett. A
+malignant fever does not declare itself spontaneously; its germ must
+previously have existed.”
+
+“I am not mistaken,” replied the reporter. “Herbert no doubt contracted
+the germ of this fever in the marshes of the island. He has already had
+one attack; should a second come on and should we not be able to prevent
+a third, he is lost.”
+
+“But the willow bark?”
+
+“That is insufficient,” answered the reporter, “and the third attack of
+a malignant fever, which is not arrested by means of quinine, is always
+fatal.”
+
+Fortunately, Pencroft heard nothing of this conversation or he would
+have gone mad.
+
+It may be imagined what anxiety the engineer and the reporter suffered
+during the day of the 7th of December and the following night.
+
+Towards the middle of the day the second attack came on. The crisis was
+terrible. Herbert felt himself sinking. He stretched his arms towards
+Cyrus Harding, towards Spilett, towards Pencroft. He was so young to
+die! The scene was heart-rending. They were obliged to send Pencroft
+away.
+
+The fit lasted five hours. It was evident that Herbert could not survive
+a third.
+
+The night was frightful. In his delirium Herbert uttered words which
+went to the hearts of his companions. He struggled with the convicts,
+he called to Ayrton, he poured forth entreaties to that mysterious
+being,--that powerful unknown protector,--whose image was stamped upon
+his mind; then he again fell into a deep exhaustion which completely
+prostrated him. Several times Gideon Spilett thought that the poor boy
+was dead.
+
+The next day, the 8th of December, was but a succession of the fainting
+fits. Herbert’s thin hands clutched the sheets. They had administered
+further doses of pounded bark, but the reporter expected no result from
+it.
+
+“If before tomorrow morning we have not given him a more energetic
+febrifuge,” said the reporter, “Herbert will be dead.”
+
+Night arrived--the last night, it was too much to be feared, of the
+good, brave, intelligent boy, so far in advance of his years, and who
+was loved by all as their own child. The only remedy which existed
+against this terrible malignant fever, the only specific which could
+overcome it, was not to be found in Lincoln Island.
+
+During the night of the 8th of December, Herbert was seized by a more
+violent delirium. His liver was fearfully congested, his brain affected,
+and already it was impossible for him to recognize any one.
+
+Would he live until the next day, until that third attack which
+must infallibly carry him off? It was not probable. His strength was
+exhausted, and in the intervals of fever he lay as one dead.
+
+Towards three o’clock in the morning Herbert uttered a piercing cry.
+He seemed to be torn by a supreme convulsion. Neb, who was near him,
+terrified, ran into the next room where his companions were watching.
+
+Top, at that moment, barked in a strange manner.
+
+All rushed in immediately and managed to restrain the dying boy, who was
+endeavoring to throw himself out of his bed, while Spilett, taking his
+arm, felt his pulse gradually quicken.
+
+It was five in the morning. The rays of the rising sun began to shine in
+at the windows of Granite House. It promised to be a fine day, and this
+day was to be poor Herbert’s last!
+
+A ray glanced on the table placed near the bed.
+
+Suddenly Pencroft, uttering a cry, pointed to the table.
+
+On it lay a little oblong box, of which the cover bore these
+words:--“SULPHATE OF QUININE.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 11
+
+Gideon Spilett took the box and opened it. It contained nearly two
+hundred grains of a white powder, a few particles of which he carried to
+his lips. The extreme bitterness of the substance precluded all doubt;
+it was certainly the precious extract of quinine, that pre-eminent
+antifebrile.
+
+This powder must be administered to Herbert without delay. How it came
+there might be discussed later.
+
+“Some coffee!” said Spilett.
+
+In a few moments Neb brought a cup of the warm infusion. Gideon Spilett
+threw into it about eighteen grains of quinine, and they succeeded in
+making Herbert drink the mixture.
+
+There was still time, for the third attack of the malignant fever had
+not yet shown itself. How they longed to be able to add that it would
+not return!
+
+Besides, it must be remarked, the hopes of all had now revived. The
+mysterious influence had been again exerted, and in a critical moment,
+when they had despaired of it.
+
+In a few hours Herbert was much calmer. The colonists could now discuss
+this incident. The intervention of the stranger was more evident than
+ever. But how had he been able to penetrate during the night into
+Granite House? It was inexplicable, and, in truth, the proceedings of
+the genius of the island were not less mysterious than was that genius
+himself. During this day the sulphate of quinine was administered to
+Herbert every three hours.
+
+The next day some improvement in Herbert’s condition was apparent.
+Certainly, he was not out of danger, intermittent fevers being subject
+to frequent and dangerous relapses, but the most assiduous care was
+bestowed on him. And besides, the specific was at hand; nor, doubtless,
+was he who had brought it far distant! And the hearts of all were
+animated by returning hope.
+
+This hope was not disappointed. Ten days after, on the 20th of December,
+Herbert’s convalescence commenced.
+
+He was still weak, and strict diet had been imposed upon him, but no
+access of fever supervened. And then, the poor boy submitted with such
+docility to all the prescriptions ordered him! He longed so to get well!
+
+Pencroft was as a man who has been drawn up from the bottom of an abyss.
+Fits of joy approaching delirium seized him. When the time for the third
+attack had passed by, he nearly suffocated the reporter in his embrace.
+Since then, he always called him Dr. Spilett.
+
+The real doctor, however, remained undiscovered.
+
+“We will find him!” repeated the sailor.
+
+Certainly, this man, whoever he was, might expect a somewhat too
+energetic embrace from the worthy Pencroft!
+
+The month of December ended, and with it the year 1867, during which
+the colonists of Lincoln Island had of late been so severely tried.
+They commenced the year 1868 with magnificent weather, great heat, and
+a tropical temperature, delightfully cooled by the sea-breeze. Herbert’s
+recovery progressed, and from his bed, placed near one of the windows of
+Granite House, he could inhale the fresh air, charged with ozone, which
+could not fail to restore his health. His appetite returned, and what
+numberless delicate, savory little dishes Neb prepared for him!
+
+“It is enough to make one wish to have a fever oneself!” said Pencroft.
+
+During all this time, the convicts did not once appear in the vicinity
+of Granite House. There was no news of Ayrton, and though the engineer
+and Herbert still had some hopes of finding him again, their companions
+did not doubt but that the unfortunate man had perished. However, this
+uncertainty could not last, and when once the lad should have recovered,
+the expedition, the result of which must be so important, would be
+undertaken. But they would have to wait a month, perhaps, for all
+the strength of the colony must be put into requisition to obtain
+satisfaction from the convicts.
+
+However, Herbert’s convalescence progressed rapidly. The congestion of
+the liver had disappeared, and his wounds might be considered completely
+healed.
+
+During the month of January, important work was done on the plateau
+of Prospect Heights; but it consisted solely in saving as much as was
+possible from the devastated crops, either of corn or vegetables. The
+grain and the plants were gathered, so as to provide a new harvest for
+the approaching half-season. With regard to rebuilding the poultry-yard,
+wall, or stables, Cyrus Harding preferred to wait. While he and his
+companions were in pursuit of the convicts, the latter might very
+probably pay another visit to the plateau, and it would be useless to
+give them an opportunity of recommencing their work of destruction. When
+the island should be cleared of these miscreants, they would set about
+rebuilding. The young convalescent began to get up in the second week of
+January, at first for one hour a day, then two, then three. His strength
+visibly returned, so vigorous was his constitution. He was now eighteen
+years of age. He was tall, and promised to become a man of noble and
+commanding presence. From this time his recovery, while still requiring
+care,--and Dr. Spilett was very strict,--made rapid progress. Towards
+the end of the month, Herbert was already walking about on Prospect
+Heights, and the beach.
+
+He derived, from several sea-baths, which he took in company with
+Pencroft and Neb, the greatest possible benefit. Cyrus Harding thought
+he might now settle the day for their departure, for which the 15th of
+February was fixed. The nights, very clear at this time of year, would
+be favorable to the researches they intended to make all over the
+island.
+
+The necessary preparations for this exploration were now commenced, and
+were important, for the colonists had sworn not to return to Granite
+House until their twofold object had been achieved; on the one hand, to
+exterminate the convicts, and rescue Ayrton, if he was still living; on
+the other, to discover who it was that presided so effectually over the
+fortunes of the colony.
+
+Of Lincoln Island, the settlers knew thoroughly all the eastern coast
+from Claw Cape to the Mandible Capes, the extensive Tadorn Marsh, the
+neighborhood of Lake Grant, Jacamar Wood, between the road to the corral
+and the Mercy, the courses of the Mercy and Red Creek, and lastly, the
+spurs of Mount Franklin, among which the corral had been established.
+
+They had explored, though only in an imperfect manner, the vast shore
+of Washington Bay from Claw Cape to Reptile End, the woody and marshy
+border of the west coast, and the interminable downs, ending at the open
+mouth of Shark Gulf. But they had in no way surveyed the woods which
+covered the Serpentine Peninsula, all to the right of the Mercy, the
+left bank of Falls River, and the wilderness of spurs and valleys which
+supported three quarters of the base of Mount Franklin, to the east, the
+north, and the west, and where doubtless many secret retreats existed.
+Consequently, many millions of acres of the island had still escaped
+their investigations.
+
+It was, therefore, decided that the expedition should be carried through
+the Far West, so as to include all that region situated on the right of
+the Mercy.
+
+It might, perhaps, be better worth while to go direct to the corral,
+where it might be supposed that the convicts had again taken refuge,
+either to pillage or to establish themselves there. But either the
+devastation of the corral would have been an accomplished fact by
+this time, and it would be too late to prevent it, or it had been the
+convicts’ interest to entrench themselves there, and there would be
+still time to go and turn them out on their return.
+
+Therefore, after some discussion, the first plan was adhered to, and the
+settlers resolved to proceed through the wood to Reptile End. They would
+make their way with their hatchets, and thus lay the first draft of a
+road which would place Granite House in communication with the end of
+the peninsula for a length of from sixteen to seventeen miles.
+
+The cart was in good condition. The onagers, well rested, could go a
+long journey. Provisions, camp effects, a portable stove, and various
+utensils were packed in the cart, as also weapons and ammunition,
+carefully chosen from the now complete arsenal of Granite House. But it
+was necessary to remember that the convicts were, perhaps, roaming about
+the woods, and that in the midst of these thick forests a shot might
+quickly be fired and received. It was therefore resolved that the little
+band of settlers should remain together and not separate under any
+pretext whatever.
+
+It was also decided that no one should remain at Granite House. Top
+and Jup themselves were to accompany the expedition; the inaccessible
+dwelling needed no guard. The 14th of February, eve of the departure,
+was consecrated entirely to repose, and--thanksgiving addressed by the
+colonists to the Creator. A place in the cart was reserved for Herbert,
+who, though thoroughly convalescent, was still a little weak. The next
+morning, at daybreak, Cyrus Harding took the necessary measures to
+protect Granite House from any invasion. The ladders, which were
+formerly used for the ascent, were brought to the Chimneys and buried
+deep in the sand, so that they might be available on the return of the
+colonists, for the machinery of the lift had been taken to pieces, and
+nothing of the apparatus remained. Pencroft stayed the last in Granite
+House in order to finish this work, and he then lowered himself down
+by means of a double rope held below, and which, when once hauled down,
+left no communication between the upper landing and the beach.
+
+The weather was magnificent.
+
+“We shall have a warm day of it,” said the reporter, laughing.
+
+“Pooh! Dr. Spilett,” answered Pencroft, “we shall walk under the shade
+of the trees and shan’t even see the sun!”
+
+“Forward!” said the engineer.
+
+The cart was waiting on the beach before the Chimneys. The reporter
+made Herbert take his place in it during the first hours at least of the
+journey, and the lad was obliged to submit to his doctor’s orders.
+
+Neb placed himself at the onagers’ heads. Cyrus Harding, the reporter,
+and the sailor, walked in front. Top bounded joyfully along. Herbert
+offered a seat in his vehicle to Jup, who accepted it without ceremony.
+The moment for departure had arrived, and the little band set out.
+
+The cart first turned the angle of the mouth of the Mercy, then, having
+ascended the left bank for a mile, crossed the bridge, at the other side
+of which commenced the road to Port Balloon, and there the explorers,
+leaving this road on their left, entered the cover of the immense woods
+which formed the region of the Far West.
+
+For the first two miles the widely scattered trees allowed the cart to
+pass with ease; from time to time it became necessary to cut away a few
+creepers and bushes, but no serious obstacle impeded the progress of the
+colonists.
+
+The thick foliage of the trees threw a grateful shade on the ground.
+Deodars, Douglas firs, casuarinas, banksias, gum-trees, dragon-trees,
+and other well-known species, succeeded each other far as the eye could
+reach. The feathered tribes of the island were all represented--grouse,
+jacamars, pheasants, lories, as well as the chattering cockatoos,
+parrots, and paroquets. Agouties, kangaroos, and capybaras fled swiftly
+at their approach; and all this reminded the settlers of the first
+excursions they had made on their arrival at the island.
+
+“Nevertheless,” observed Cyrus Harding, “I notice that these creatures,
+both birds and quadrupeds, are more timid than formerly. These woods
+have, therefore, been recently traversed by the convicts, and we shall
+certainly find some traces of them.”
+
+And, in fact, in several places they could distinguish traces, more or
+less recent, of the passage of a band of men--here branches broken off
+the trees, perhaps to mark out the way; there the ashes of a fire, and
+footprints in clayey spots; but nothing which appeared to belong to a
+settled encampment.
+
+The engineer had recommended his companions to refrain from hunting. The
+reports of the firearms might give the alarm to the convicts, who
+were, perhaps, roaming through the forest. Moreover, the hunters would
+necessarily ramble some distance from the cart, which it was dangerous
+to leave unguarded.
+
+In the afterpart of the day, when about six miles from Granite House,
+their progress became much more difficult. In order to make their way
+through some thickets, they were obliged to cut down trees. Before
+entering such places Harding was careful to send in Top and Jup, who
+faithfully accomplished their commission, and when the dog and orang
+returned without giving any warning, there was evidently nothing to
+fear, either from convicts or wild beasts, two varieties of the animal
+kingdom, whose ferocious instincts placed them on the same level. On the
+evening of the first day the colonists encamped about nine miles from
+Granite House, on the border of a little stream falling into the Mercy,
+and of the existence of which they had till then been ignorant; it
+evidently, however, belonged to the hydiographical system to which the
+soil owed its astonishing fertility. The settlers made a hearty meal,
+for their appetites were sharpened, and measures were then taken that
+the night might be passed in safety. If the engineer had had only to
+deal with wild beasts, jaguars or others, he would have simply lighted
+fires all around his camp, which would have sufficed for its defense;
+but the convicts would be rather attracted than terrified by the flames,
+and it was, therefore, better to be surrounded by the profound darkness
+of night.
+
+The watch was, however, carefully organized. Two of the settlers were
+to watch together, and every two hours it was agreed that they should
+be relieved by their comrades. And so, notwithstanding his wish to the
+contrary, Herbert was exempted from guard. Pencroft and Gideon Spilett
+in one party, the engineer and Neb in another, mounted guard in turns
+over the camp.
+
+The night, however, was but of few hours. The darkness was due rather to
+the thickness of the foliage than to the disappearance of the sun.
+The silence was scarcely disturbed by the howling of jaguars and the
+chattering of the monkeys, the latter appearing to particularly irritate
+Master Jup. The night passed without incident, and on the next day, the
+15th of February, the journey through the forest, tedious rather than
+difficult, was continued. This day they could not accomplish more than
+six miles, for every moment they were obliged to cut a road with their
+hatchets.
+
+Like true settlers, the colonists spared the largest and most beautiful
+trees, which would besides have cost immense labor to fell, and the
+small ones only were sacrificed, but the result was that the road took a
+very winding direction, and lengthened itself by numerous detours.
+
+During the day Herbert discovered several new specimens not before met
+with in the island, such as the tree-fern, with its leaves spread out
+like the waters of a fountain, locust-trees, on the long pods of
+which the onagers browsed greedily, and which supplied a sweet pulp
+of excellent flavor. There, too, the colonists again found groups of
+magnificent kauries, their cylindrical trunks, crowded with a cone
+of verdure, rising to a height of two hundred feet. These were the
+tree-kings of New Zealand, as celebrated as the cedars of Lebanon.
+
+As to the fauna, there was no addition to those species already known to
+the hunters. Nevertheless, they saw, though unable to get near them, a
+couple of those large birds peculiar to Australia, a sort of cassowary,
+called emu, five feet in height, and with brown plumage, which belong
+to the tribe of waders. Top darted after them as fast as his four legs
+could carry him, but the emus distanced him with ease, so prodigious was
+their speed.
+
+As to the traces left by the convicts, a few more were discovered. Some
+footprints found near an apparently recently extinguished fire were
+attentively examined by the settlers. By measuring them one after the
+other, according to their length and breadth, the marks of five men’s
+feet were easily distinguished. The five convicts had evidently
+camped on this spot; but,--and this was the object of so minute an
+examination,--a sixth footprint could not be discovered, which in that
+case would have been that of Ayrton.
+
+“Ayrton was not with them!” said Herbert.
+
+“No,” answered Pencroft, “and if he was not with them, it was because
+the wretches had already murdered him! but then these rascals have not a
+den to which they may be tracked like tigers!”
+
+“No,” replied the reporter, “it is more probable that they wander at
+random, and it is their interest to rove about until the time when they
+will be masters of the island!”
+
+“The masters of the island!” exclaimed the sailor; “the masters of the
+island!...” he repeated, and his voice was choked, as if his throat was
+seized in an iron grasp. Then in a calmer tone, “Do you know, Captain
+Harding,” said he, “what the ball is which I have rammed into my gun?”
+
+“No, Pencroft!”
+
+“It is the ball that went through Herbert’s chest, and I promise you it
+won’t miss its mark!”
+
+But this just retaliation would not bring Ayrton back to life, and from
+the examination of the footprints left in the ground, they must, alas!
+conclude that all hopes of ever seeing him again must be abandoned.
+
+That evening they encamped fourteen miles from Granite House, and Cyrus
+Harding calculated that they could not be more than five miles from
+Reptile Point.
+
+And indeed, the next day the extremity of the peninsula was reached, and
+the whole length of the forest had been traversed; but there was nothing
+to indicate the retreat in which the convicts had taken refuge, nor
+that, no less secret, which sheltered the mysterious unknown.
+
+
+
+Chapter 12
+
+The next day, the 18th of February, was devoted to the exploration
+of all that wooded region forming the shore from Reptile End to Falls
+River. The colonists were able to search this forest thoroughly, for, as
+it was comprised between the two shores of the Serpentine Peninsula, it
+was only from three to four miles in breadth. The trees, both by their
+height and their thick foliage, bore witness to the vegetative power of
+the soil, more astonishing here than in any other part of the island.
+One might have said that a corner from the virgin forests of America or
+Africa had been transported into this temperate zone. This led them to
+conclude that the superb vegetation found a heat in this soil, damp in
+its upper layer, but warmed in the interior by volcanic fires, which
+could not belong to a temperate climate. The most frequently occurring
+trees were knaries and eucalypti of gigantic dimensions.
+
+But the colonists’ object was not simply to admire the magnificent
+vegetation. They knew already that in this respect Lincoln Island would
+have been worthy to take the first rank in the Canary group, to which
+the first name given was that of the Happy Isles. Now, alas! their
+island no longer belonged to them entirely; others had taken possession
+of it, miscreants polluted its shores, and they must be destroyed to the
+last man.
+
+No traces were found on the western coast, although they were carefully
+sought for. No more footprints, no more broken branches, no more
+deserted camps.
+
+“This does not surprise me,” said Cyrus Harding to his companions.
+“The convicts first landed on the island in the neighborhood of Flotsam
+Point, and they immediately plunged into the Far West forests, after
+crossing Tadorn Marsh. They then followed almost the same route that we
+took on leaving Granite House. This explains the traces we found in the
+wood. But, arriving on the shore, the convicts saw at once that they
+would discover no suitable retreat there, and it was then that, going
+northwards again, they came upon the corral.”
+
+“Where they have perhaps returned,” said Pencroft.
+
+“I do not think so,” answered the engineer, “for they would naturally
+suppose that our researches would be in that direction. The corral is
+only a storehouse to them, and not a definitive encampment.”
+
+“I am of Cyrus’ opinion,” said the reporter, “and I think that it is
+among the spurs of Mount Franklin that the convicts will have made their
+lair.”
+
+“Then, captain, straight to the corral!” cried Pencroft. “We must finish
+them off, and till now we have only lost time!”
+
+“No, my friend,” replied the engineer; “you forget that we have a reason
+for wishing to know if the forests of the Far West do not contain some
+habitation. Our exploration has a double object, Pencroft. If, on the
+one hand, we have to chastise crime, we have, on the other, an act of
+gratitude to perform.”
+
+“That was well said, captain,” replied the sailor, “but, all the same,
+it is my opinion that we shall not find the gentleman until he pleases.”
+
+And truly Pencroft only expressed the opinion of all. It was probable
+that the stranger’s retreat was not less mysterious than was he himself.
+
+That evening the cart halted at the mouth of Falls River. The camp was
+organized as usual, and the customary precautions were taken for the
+night. Herbert, become again the healthy and vigorous lad he was before
+his illness, derived great benefit from this life in the open air,
+between the sea breezes and the vivifying air from the forests. His
+place was no longer in the cart, but at the head of the troop.
+
+The next day, the 19th of February, the colonists, leaving the shore,
+where, beyond the mouth, basalts of every shape were so picturesquely
+piled up, ascended the river by its left bank. The road had been already
+partly cleared in their former excursions made from the corral to the
+west coast. The settlers were now about six miles from Mount Franklin.
+
+The engineer’s plan was this:--To minutely survey the valley forming
+the bed of the river, and to cautiously approach the neighborhood of the
+corral; if the corral was occupied, to seize it by force; if it was not,
+to entrench themselves there and make it the center of the operations
+which had for their object the exploration of Mount Franklin.
+
+This plan was unanimously approved by the colonists, for they were
+impatient to regain entire possession of their island.
+
+They made their way then along the narrow valley separating two of the
+largest spurs of Mount Franklin. The trees, crowded on the river’s bank,
+became rare on the upper slopes of the mountain. The ground was hilly
+and rough, very suitable for ambushes, and over which they did not
+venture without extreme precaution. Top and Jup skirmished on the
+flanks, springing right and left through the thick brushwood, and
+emulating each other in intelligence and activity. But nothing showed
+that the banks of the stream had been recently frequented--nothing
+announced either the presence or the proximity of the convicts. Towards
+five in the evening the cart stopped nearly 600 feet from the palisade.
+A semicircular screen of trees still hid it.
+
+It was necessary to reconnoiter the corral, in order to ascertain if it
+was occupied. To go there openly, in broad daylight, when the convicts
+were probably in ambush, would be to expose themselves, as poor Herbert
+had done, to the firearms of the ruffians. It was better, then, to wait
+until night came on.
+
+However, Gideon Spilett wished without further delay to reconnoiter the
+approaches to the corral, and Pencroft, who was quite out of patience,
+volunteered to accompany him.
+
+“No, my friends,” said the engineer, “wait till night. I will not allow
+one of you to expose himself in open day.”
+
+“But, captain--” answered the sailor, little disposed to obey.
+
+“I beg of you, Pencroft,” said the engineer.
+
+“Very well!” replied the sailor, who vented his anger in another way, by
+bestowing on the convicts the worst names in his maritime vocabulary.
+
+The colonists remained, therefore, near the cart, and carefully watched
+the neighboring parts of the forest.
+
+Three hours passed thus. The wind had fallen, and absolute silence
+reigned under the great trees. The snapping of the smallest twig, a
+footstep on the dry leaves, the gliding of a body among the grass, would
+have been heard without difficulty. All was quiet. Besides, Top, lying
+on the grass, his head stretched out on his paws, gave no sign of
+uneasiness. At eight o’clock the day appeared far enough advanced for
+the reconnaissance to be made under favorable conditions. Gideon Spilett
+declared himself ready to set out accompanied by Pencroft. Cyrus Harding
+consented. Top and Jup were to remain with the engineer, Herbert, and
+Neb, for a bark or a cry at a wrong moment would give the alarm.
+
+“Do not be imprudent,” said Harding to the reporter and Pencroft, “you
+have not to gain possession of the corral, but only to find out whether
+it is occupied or not.”
+
+“All right,” answered Pencroft.
+
+And the two departed.
+
+Under the trees, thanks to the thickness of their foliage, the obscurity
+rendered any object invisible beyond a radius of from thirty to forty
+feet. The reporter and Pencroft, halting at any suspicious sound,
+advanced with great caution.
+
+They walked a little distance apart from each other so as to offer a
+less mark for a shot. And, to tell the truth, they expected every moment
+to hear a report. Five minutes after leaving the cart, Gideon Spilett
+and Pencroft arrived at the edge of the wood before the clearing beyond
+which rose the palisade.
+
+They stopped. A few straggling beams still fell on the field clear of
+trees. Thirty feet distant was the gate of the corral, which appeared
+to be closed. This thirty feet, which it was necessary to cross from
+the wood to the palisade, constituted the dangerous zone, to borrow
+a ballistic term: in fact, one or more bullets fired from behind the
+palisade might knock over any one who ventured on to this zone. Gideon
+Spilett and the sailor were not men to draw back, but they knew that
+any imprudence on their part, of which they would be the first victims,
+would fall afterwards on their companions. If they themselves were
+killed, what would become of Harding, Neb, and Herbert?
+
+But Pencroft, excited at feeling himself so near the corral where he
+supposed the convicts had taken refuge, was about to press forward, when
+the reporter held him back with a grasp of iron.
+
+“In a few minutes it will be quite dark,” whispered Spilett in the
+sailor’s ear, “then will be the time to act.”
+
+Pencroft, convulsively clasping the butt-end of his gun, restrained his
+energies, and waited, swearing to himself.
+
+Soon the last of the twilight faded away. Darkness, which seemed as if
+it issued from the dense forest, covered the clearing. Mount Franklin
+rose like an enormous screen before the western horizon, and night
+spread rapidly over all, as it does in regions of low latitudes. Now was
+the time.
+
+The reporter and Pencroft, since posting themselves on the edge of the
+wood, had not once lost sight of the palisade. The corral appeared to
+be absolutely deserted. The top of the palisade formed a line, a
+little darker than the surrounding shadow, and nothing disturbed its
+distinctness. Nevertheless, if the convicts were there, they must have
+posted one of their number to guard against any surprise.
+
+Spilett grasped his companion’s hand, and both crept towards the corral,
+their guns ready to fire.
+
+They reached the gate without the darkness being illuminated by a single
+ray of light.
+
+Pencroft tried to push open the gate, which, as the reporter and he had
+supposed, was closed. However, the sailor was able to ascertain that the
+outer bars had not been put up. It might, then, be concluded that the
+convicts were there in the corral, and that very probably they had
+fastened the gate in such a way that it could not be forced open.
+
+Gideon Spilett and Pencroft listened.
+
+Not a sound could be heard inside the palisade. The musmons and the
+goats, sleeping no doubt in their huts, in no way disturbed the calm of
+night.
+
+The reporter and the sailor hearing nothing, asked themselves whether
+they had not better scale the palisades and penetrate into the corral.
+This would have been contrary to Cyrus Harding’s instructions.
+
+It is true that the enterprise might succeed, but it might also fail.
+Now, if the convicts were suspecting nothing, if they knew nothing of
+the expedition against them, if, lastly, there now existed a chance
+of surprising them, ought this chance to be lost by inconsiderately
+attempting to cross the palisades?
+
+This was not the reporter’s opinion. He thought it better to wait until
+all the settlers were collected together before attempting to penetrate
+into the corral. One thing was certain, that it was possible to reach
+the palisade without being seen, and also that it did not appear to be
+guarded. This point settled, there was nothing to be done but to return
+to the cart, where they would consult.
+
+Pencroft probably agreed with this decision, for he followed the
+reporter without making any objection when the latter turned back to the
+wood.
+
+In a few minutes the engineer was made acquainted with the state of
+affairs.
+
+“Well,” said he, after a little thought, “I now have reason to believe
+that the convicts are not in the corral.”
+
+“We shall soon know,” said Pencroft, “when we have scaled the palisade.”
+
+“To the corral, my friends!” said Cyrus Harding.
+
+“Shall we leave the cart in the wood?” asked Neb.
+
+“No,” replied the engineer, “it is our wagon of ammunition and
+provisions, and, if necessary, it would serve as an entrenchment.”
+
+“Forward, then!” said Gideon Spilett.
+
+The cart emerged from the wood and began to roll noiselessly towards the
+palisade. The darkness was now profound, the silence as complete as
+when Pencroft and the reporter crept over the ground. The thick grass
+completely muffled their footsteps. The colonists held themselves ready
+to fire. Jup, at Pencroft’s orders, kept behind. Neb led Top in a leash,
+to prevent him from bounding forward.
+
+The clearing soon came in sight. It was deserted. Without hesitating,
+the little band moved towards the palisade. In a short space of time the
+dangerous zone was passed. Neb remained at the onagers’ heads to hold
+them. The engineer, the reporter, Herbert, and Pencroft, proceeded to
+the door, in order to ascertain if it was barricaded inside. It was
+open!
+
+“What do you say now?” asked the engineer, turning to the sailor and
+Spilett.
+
+Both were stupefied.
+
+“I can swear,” said Pencroft, “that this gate was shut just now!”
+
+The colonists now hesitated. Were the convicts in the corral when
+Pencroft and the reporter made their reconnaissance? It could not be
+doubted, as the gate then closed could only have been opened by them.
+Were they still there, or had one of their number just gone out?
+
+All these questions presented themselves simultaneously to the minds of
+the colonists, but how could they be answered?
+
+At that moment, Herbert, who had advanced a few steps into the
+enclosure, drew back hurriedly, and seized Harding’s hand.
+
+“What’s the matter?” asked the engineer.
+
+“A light!”
+
+“In the house?”
+
+“Yes!”
+
+All five advanced and indeed, through the window fronting them, they saw
+glimmering a feeble light. Cyrus Harding made up his mind rapidly. “It
+is our only chance,” said he to his companions, “of finding the convicts
+collected in this house, suspecting nothing! They are in our power!
+Forward!” The colonists crossed through the enclosure, holding their
+guns ready in their hands. The cart had been left outside under the
+charge of Jup and Top, who had been prudently tied to it.
+
+Cyrus Harding, Pencroft, and Gideon Spilett on one side, Herbert and Neb
+on the other, going along by the palisade, surveyed the absolutely dark
+and deserted corral.
+
+In a few moments they were near the closed door of the house.
+
+Harding signed to his companions not to stir, and approached the window,
+then feebly lighted by the inner light.
+
+He gazed into the apartment.
+
+On the table burned a lantern. Near the table was the bed formerly used
+by Ayrton.
+
+On the bed lay the body of a man.
+
+Suddenly Cyrus Harding drew back, and in a hoarse voice,--“Ayrton!” he
+exclaimed.
+
+Immediately the door was forced rather than opened, and the colonists
+rushed into the room.
+
+Ayrton appeared to be asleep. His countenance showed that he had long
+and cruelly suffered. On his wrists and ankles could be seen great
+bruises.
+
+Harding bent over him.
+
+“Ayrton!” cried the engineer, seizing the arm of the man whom he had
+just found again under such unexpected circumstances.
+
+At this exclamation Ayrton opened his eyes, and, gazing at Harding, then
+at the others,--
+
+“You!” he cried, “you?”
+
+“Ayrton! Ayrton!” repeated Harding.
+
+“Where am I?”
+
+“In the house in the corral!”
+
+“Alone?”
+
+“Yes!”
+
+“But they will come back!” cried Ayrton. “Defend yourselves! defend
+yourselves!”
+
+And he fell back exhausted.
+
+“Spilett,” exclaimed the engineer, “we may be attacked at any moment.
+Bring the cart into the corral. Then, barricade the door, and all come
+back here.”
+
+Pencroft, Neb, and the reporter hastened to execute the engineer’s
+orders. There was not a moment to be lost. Perhaps even now the cart was
+in the hands of the convicts!
+
+In a moment the reporter and his two companions had crossed the corral
+and reached the gate of the palisade behind which Top was heard growling
+sullenly.
+
+The engineer, leaving Ayrton for an instant, came out ready to fire.
+Herbert was at his side. Both surveyed the crest of the spur overlooking
+the corral. If the convicts were lying in ambush there, they might knock
+the settlers over one after the other.
+
+At that moment the moon appeared in the east, above the black curtain of
+the forest, and a white sheet of light spread over the interior of the
+enclosure. The corral, with its clumps of trees, the little stream which
+watered it, its wide carpet of grass, was suddenly illuminated. From
+the side of the mountain, the house and a part of the palisade stood
+out white in the moonlight. On the opposite side towards the door, the
+enclosure remained dark. A black mass soon appeared. This was the cart
+entering the circle of light, and Cyrus Harding could hear the noise
+made by the door, as his companions shut it and fastened the interior
+bars.
+
+But, at that moment, Top, breaking loose, began to bark furiously and
+rush to the back of the corral, to the right of the house.
+
+“Be ready to fire, my friends!” cried Harding.
+
+The colonists raised their pieces and waited the moment to fire.
+
+Top still barked, and Jup, running towards the dog, uttered shrill
+cries.
+
+The colonists followed him, and reached the borders of the little
+stream, shaded by large trees. And there, in the bright moonlight, what
+did they see? Five corpses, stretched on the bank!
+
+They were those of the convicts who, four months previously, had landed
+on Lincoln Island!
+
+
+
+Chapter 13
+
+How had it happened? who had killed the convicts? Was it Ayrton? No, for
+a moment before he was dreading their return.
+
+But Ayrton was now in a profound stupor, from which it was no longer
+possible to rouse him. After uttering those few words he had again
+become unconscious, and had fallen back motionless on the bed.
+
+The colonists, a prey to a thousand confused thoughts, under the
+influence of violent excitement, waited all night, without leaving
+Ayrton’s house, or returning to the spot where lay the bodies of the
+convicts. It was very probable that Ayrton would not be able to throw
+any light on the circumstances under which the bodies had been found,
+since he himself was not aware that he was in the corral. But at any
+rate he would be in a position to give an account of what had taken
+place before this terrible execution. The next day Ayrton awoke from his
+torpor, and his companions cordially manifested all the joy they felt,
+on seeing him again, almost safe and sound, after a hundred and four
+days separation.
+
+Ayrton then in a few words recounted what had happened, or, at least, as
+much as he knew.
+
+The day after his arrival at the corral, on the 10th of last November,
+at nightfall, he was surprised by the convicts, who had scaled the
+palisade. They bound and gagged him; then he was led to a dark cavern,
+at the foot of Mount Franklin, where the convicts had taken refuge.
+
+His death had been decided upon, and the next day the convicts were
+about to kill him, when one of them recognized him and called him by
+the name which he bore in Australia. The wretches had no scruples as to
+murdering Ayrton! They spared Ben Joyce!
+
+But from that moment Ayrton was exposed to the importunities of his
+former accomplices. They wished him to join them again, and relied upon
+his aid to enable them to gain possession of Granite House, to penetrate
+into that hitherto inaccessible dwelling, and to become masters of the
+island, after murdering the colonists!
+
+Ayrton remained firm. The once convict, now repentant and pardoned,
+would rather die than betray his companions. Ayrton--bound, gagged, and
+closely watched--lived in this cave for four months.
+
+Nevertheless the convicts had discovered the corral a short time after
+their arrival in the island, and since then they had subsisted on
+Ayrton’s stores, but did not live at the corral.
+
+On the 11th of November, two of the villains, surprised by the
+colonists’ arrival, fired at Herbert, and one of them returned, boasting
+of having killed one of the inhabitants of the island; but he returned
+alone. His companion, as is known, fell by Cyrus Harding’s dagger.
+
+Ayrton’s anxiety and despair may be imagined when he learned the news of
+Herbert’s death. The settlers were now only four, and, as it seemed,
+at the mercy of the convicts. After this event, and during all the
+time that the colonists, detained by Herbert’s illness, remained in the
+corral, the pirates did not leave their cavern, and even after they had
+pillaged the plateau of Prospect Heights, they did not think it prudent
+to abandon it.
+
+The ill-treatment inflicted on Ayrton was now redoubled. His hands and
+feet still bore the bloody marks of the cords which bound him day and
+night. Every moment he expected to be put to death, nor did it appear
+possible that he could escape.
+
+Matters remained thus until the third week of February. The convicts,
+still watching for a favorable opportunity, rarely quitted their
+retreat, and only made a few hunting excursions, either to the interior
+of the island, or the south coast.
+
+Ayrton had no further news of his friends, and relinquished all hope
+of ever seeing them again. At last, the unfortunate man, weakened
+by ill-treatment, fell into a prostration so profound that sight and
+hearing failed him. From that moment, that is to say, since the last two
+days, he could give no information whatever of what had occurred.
+
+“But, Captain Harding,” he added, “since I was imprisoned in that
+cavern, how is it that I find myself in the corral?”
+
+“How is it that the convicts are lying yonder dead, in the middle of the
+enclosure?” answered the engineer.
+
+“Dead!” cried Ayrton, half rising from his bed, notwithstanding his
+weakness.
+
+His companions supported him. He wished to get up, and with their
+assistance he did so. They then proceeded together towards the little
+stream.
+
+It was now broad daylight.
+
+There, on the bank, in the position in which they had been stricken
+by death in its most instantaneous form, lay the corpses of the five
+convicts!
+
+Ayrton was astounded. Harding and his companions looked at him without
+uttering a word. On a sign from the engineer, Neb and Pencroft examined
+the bodies, already stiffened by the cold.
+
+They bore no apparent trace of any wound.
+
+Only, after carefully examining them, Pencroft found on the forehead of
+one, on the chest of another, on the back of this one, on the shoulder
+of that, a little red spot, a sort of scarcely visible bruise, the cause
+of which it was impossible to conjecture.
+
+“It is there that they have been struck!” said Cyrus Harding.
+
+“But with what weapon?” cried the reporter.
+
+“A weapon, lightning-like in its effects, and of which we have not the
+secret!”
+
+“And who has struck the blow?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“The avenging power of the island,” replied Harding, “he who brought you
+here, Ayrton, whose influence has once more manifested itself, who does
+for us all that which we cannot do for ourselves, and who, his will
+accomplished, conceals himself from us.”
+
+“Let us make search for him, then!” exclaimed Pencroft.
+
+“Yes, we will search for him,” answered Harding, “but we shall not
+discover this powerful being who performs such wonders, until he pleases
+to call us to him!”
+
+This invisible protection, which rendered their own action unavailing,
+both irritated and piqued the engineer. The relative inferiority which
+it proved was of a nature to wound a haughty spirit. A generosity
+evinced in such a manner as to elude all tokens of gratitude, implied a
+sort of disdain for those on whom the obligation was conferred, which in
+Cyrus Harding’s eyes marred, in some degree, the worth of the benefit.
+
+“Let us search,” he resumed, “and God grant that we may some day be
+permitted to prove to this haughty protector that he has not to deal
+with ungrateful people! What would I not give could we repay him, by
+rendering him in our turn, although at the price of our lives, some
+signal service!”
+
+From this day, the thoughts of the inhabitants of Lincoln Island were
+solely occupied with the intended search. Everything incited them to
+discover the answer to this enigma, an answer which would only be the
+name of a man endowed with a truly inexplicable, and in some degree
+superhuman power.
+
+In a few minutes, the settlers re-entered the house, where their
+influence soon restored to Ayrton his moral and physical energy. Neb
+and Pencroft carried the corpses of the convicts into the forest, some
+distance from the corral, and buried them deep in the ground.
+
+Ayrton was then made acquainted with the facts which had occurred during
+his seclusion. He learned Herbert’s adventures, and through what various
+trials the colonists had passed. As to the settlers, they had despaired
+of ever seeing Ayrton again, and had been convinced that the convicts
+had ruthlessly murdered him.
+
+“And now,” said Cyrus Harding, as he ended his recital, “a duty remains
+for us to perform. Half of our task is accomplished, but although the
+convicts are no longer to be feared, it is not owing to ourselves that
+we are once more masters of the island.”
+
+“Well!” answered Gideon Spilett, “let us search all this labyrinth of
+the spurs of Mount Franklin. We will not leave a hollow, not a hole
+unexplored! Ah! if ever a reporter found himself face to face with a
+mystery, it is I who now speak to you, my friends!”
+
+“And we will not return to Granite House until we have found our
+benefactor,” said Herbert.
+
+“Yes,” said the engineer, “we will do all that it is humanly possible to
+do, but I repeat we shall not find him until he himself permits us.”
+
+“Shall we stay at the corral?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“We shall stay here,” answered Harding. “Provisions are abundant, and we
+are here in the very center of the circle we have to explore. Besides,
+if necessary, the cart will take us rapidly to Granite House.”
+
+“Good!” answered the sailor. “Only I have a remark to make.”
+
+“What is it?”
+
+“Here is the fine season getting on, and we must not forget that we have
+a voyage to make.”
+
+“A voyage?” said Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Yes, to Tabor Island,” answered Pencroft. “It is necessary to carry a
+notice there to point out the position of our island and say that Ayrton
+is here in case the Scotch yacht should come to take him off. Who knows
+if it is not already too late?”
+
+“But, Pencroft,” asked Ayrton, “how do you intend to make this voyage?”
+
+“In the ‘Bonadventure.’”
+
+“The ‘Bonadventure!’” exclaimed Ayrton. “She no longer exists.”
+
+“My ‘Bonadventure’ exists no longer!” shouted Pencroft, bounding from
+his seat.
+
+“No,” answered Ayrton. “The convicts discovered her in her little harbor
+only eight days ago, they put to sea in her--”
+
+“And?” said Pencroft, his heart beating.
+
+“And not having Bob Harvey to steer her, they ran on the rocks, and the
+vessel went to pieces.”
+
+“Oh, the villains, the cutthroats, the infamous scoundrels!” exclaimed
+Pencroft.
+
+“Pencroft,” said Herbert, taking the sailor’s hand, “we will build
+another ‘Bonadventure’--a larger one. We have all the ironwork--all the
+rigging of the brig at our disposal.”
+
+“But do you know,” returned Pencroft, “that it will take at least five
+or six months to build a vessel of from thirty to forty tons?”
+
+“We can take our time,” said the reporter, “and we must give up the
+voyage to Tabor Island for this year.”
+
+“Oh, my ‘Bonadventure!’ my poor ‘Bonadventure!’” cried Pencroft, almost
+broken-hearted at the destruction of the vessel of which he was so
+proud.
+
+The loss of the “Bonadventure” was certainly a thing to be lamented by
+the colonists, and it was agreed that this loss should be repaired
+as soon as possible. This settled, they now occupied themselves with
+bringing their researches to bear on the most secret parts of the
+island.
+
+The exploration was commenced at daybreak on the 19th of February, and
+lasted an entire week. The base of the mountain, with its spurs and
+their numberless ramifications, formed a labyrinth of valleys and
+elevations. It was evident that there, in the depths of these narrow
+gorges, perhaps even in the interior of Mount Franklin itself, was the
+proper place to pursue their researches. No part of the island could
+have been more suitable to conceal a dwelling whose occupant wished to
+remain unknown. But so irregular was the formation of the valleys that
+Cyrus Harding was obliged to conduct the exploration in a strictly
+methodical manner.
+
+The colonists first visited the valley opening to the south of the
+volcano, and which first received the waters of Falls River. There
+Ayrton showed them the cavern where the convicts had taken refuge, and
+in which he had been imprisoned until his removal to the corral. This
+cavern was just as Ayrton had left it. They found there a considerable
+quantity of ammunition and provisions, conveyed thither by the convicts
+in order to form a reserve.
+
+The whole of the valley bordering on the cave, shaded by fir and
+other trees, was thoroughly explored, and on turning the point of the
+southwestern spur, the colonists entered a narrower gorge similar to the
+picturesque columns of basalt on the coast. Here the trees were fewer.
+Stones took the place of grass. Goats and musmons gambolled among the
+rocks. Here began the barren part of the island. It could already be
+seen that, of the numerous valleys branching off at the base of Mount
+Franklin, three only were wooded and rich in pasturage like that of the
+corral, which bordered on the west on the Falls River valley, and on the
+east on the Red Creek valley. These two streams, which lower down became
+rivers by the absorption of several tributaries, were formed by all the
+springs of the mountain and thus caused the fertility of its southern
+part. As to the Mercy, it was more directly fed from ample springs
+concealed under the cover of Jacamar Wood, and it was by springs of
+this nature, spreading in a thousand streamlets, that the soil of the
+Serpentine Peninsula was watered.
+
+Now, of these three well-watered valleys, either might have served as a
+retreat to some solitary who would have found there everything necessary
+for life. But the settlers had already explored them, and in no part had
+they discovered the presence of man.
+
+Was it then in the depths of those barren gorges, in the midst of the
+piles of rock, in the rugged northern ravines, among the streams of
+lava, that this dwelling and its occupant would be found?
+
+The northern part of Mount Franklin was at its base composed solely of
+two valleys, wide, not very deep, without any appearance of vegetation,
+strewn with masses of rock, paved with lava, and varied with great
+blocks of mineral. This region required a long and careful exploration.
+It contained a thousand cavities, comfortless no doubt, but perfectly
+concealed and difficult of access.
+
+The colonists even visited dark tunnels, dating from the volcanic
+period, still black from the passage of the fire, and penetrated into
+the depths of the mountain. They traversed these somber galleries,
+waving lighted torches; they examined the smallest excavations; they
+sounded the shallowest depths, but all was dark and silent. It did
+not appear that the foot of man had ever before trodden these ancient
+passages, or that his arm had ever displaced one of these blocks, which
+remained as the volcano had cast them up above the waters, at the time
+of the submersion of the island.
+
+However, although these passages appeared to be absolutely deserted, and
+the obscurity was complete, Cyrus Harding was obliged to confess that
+absolute silence did not reign there.
+
+On arriving at the end of one of these gloomy caverns, extending several
+hundred feet into the interior of the mountain, he was surprised to hear
+a deep rumbling noise, increased in intensity by the sonorousness of the
+rocks.
+
+Gideon Spilett, who accompanied him, also heard these distant
+mutterings, which indicated a revivification of the subterranean fires.
+Several times both listened, and they agreed that some chemical process
+was taking place in the bowels of the earth.
+
+“Then the volcano is not totally extinct?” said the reporter.
+
+“It is possible that since our exploration of the crater,” replied Cyrus
+Harding, “some change has occurred. Any volcano, although considered
+extinct, may evidently again burst forth.”
+
+“But if an eruption of Mount Franklin occurred,” asked Spilett, “would
+there not be some danger to Lincoln Island?”
+
+“I do not think so,” answered the reporter. “The crater, that is to
+say, the safety-valve, exists, and the overflow of smoke and lava, would
+escape, as it did formerly, by this customary outlet.”
+
+“Unless the lava opened a new way for itself towards the fertile parts
+of the island!”
+
+“And why, my dear Spilett,” answered Cyrus Harding, “should it not
+follow the road naturally traced out for it?”
+
+“Well, volcanoes are capricious,” returned the reporter.
+
+“Notice,” answered the engineer, “that the inclination of Mount Franklin
+favors the flow of water towards the valleys which we are exploring just
+now. To turn aside this flow, an earthquake would be necessary to change
+the mountain’s center of gravity.”
+
+“But an earthquake is always to be feared at these times,” observed
+Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Always,” replied the engineer, “especially when the subterranean forces
+begin to awake, as they risk meeting with some obstruction, after a long
+rest. Thus, my dear Spilett, an eruption would be a serious thing
+for us, and it would be better that the volcano should not have the
+slightest desire to wake up. But we could not prevent it, could we? At
+any rate, even if it should occur, I do not think Prospect Heights would
+be seriously threatened. Between them and the mountain, the ground
+is considerably depressed, and if the lava should ever take a course
+towards the lake, it would be cast on the downs and the neighboring
+parts of Shark Gulf.”
+
+“We have not yet seen any smoke at the top of the mountain, to indicate
+an approaching eruption,” said Gideon Spilett.
+
+“No,” answered Harding, “not a vapor escapes from the crater, for it
+was only yesterday that I attentively surveyed the summit. But it
+is probable that at the lower part of the chimney, time may have
+accumulated rocks, cinders, hardened lava, and that this valve of which
+I spoke, may at any time become overcharged. But at the first serious
+effort, every obstacle will disappear, and you may be certain, my dear
+Spilett, that neither the island, which is the boiler, nor the
+volcano, which is the chimney, will burst under the pressure of gas.
+Nevertheless, I repeat, it would be better that there should not be an
+eruption.”
+
+“And yet we are not mistaken,” remarked the reporter. “Mutterings can be
+distinctly heard in the very bowels of the volcano!”
+
+“You are right,” said the engineer, again listening attentively. “There
+can be no doubt of it. A commotion is going on there, of which we can
+neither estimate the importance nor the ultimate result.”
+
+Cyrus Harding and Spilett, on coming out, rejoined their companions, to
+whom they made known the state of affairs.
+
+“Very well!” cried Pencroft, “The volcano wants to play his pranks! Let
+him try, if he likes! He will find his master!”
+
+“Who?” asked Neb.
+
+“Our good genius, Neb, our good genius, who will shut his mouth for him,
+if he so much as pretends to open it!”
+
+As may be seen, the sailor’s confidence in the tutelary deity of his
+island was absolute, and, certainly, the occult power, manifested until
+now in so many inexplicable ways, appeared to be unlimited; but also it
+knew how to escape the colonists’ most minute researches, for, in
+spite of all their efforts, in spite of the more than zeal,--the
+obstinacy,--with which they carried on their exploration, the retreat of
+the mysterious being could not be discovered.
+
+From the 19th to the 20th of February the circle of investigation was
+extended to all the northern region of Lincoln Island, whose most secret
+nooks were explored. The colonists even went the length of tapping every
+rock. The search was extended to the extreme verge of the mountain. It
+was explored thus to the very summit of the truncated cone terminating
+the first row of rocks, then to the upper ridge of the enormous hat, at
+the bottom of which opened the crater.
+
+They did more; they visited the gulf, now extinct, but in whose depths
+the rumbling could be distinctly heard. However, no sign of smoke or
+vapor, no heating of the rock, indicated an approaching eruption.
+But neither there, nor in any other part of Mount Franklin, did the
+colonists find any traces of him of whom they were in search.
+
+Their investigations were then directed to the downs. They carefully
+examined the high lava-cliffs of Shark Gulf from the base to the crest,
+although it was extremely difficult to reach even the level of the gulf.
+No one!--nothing!
+
+Indeed, in these three words was summed up so much fatigue uselessly
+expended, so much energy producing no results, that somewhat of anger
+mingled with the discomfiture of Cyrus Harding and his companions.
+
+It was now time to think of returning, for these researches could not be
+prolonged indefinitely. The colonists were certainly right in believing
+that the mysterious being did not reside on the surface of the island,
+and the wildest fancies haunted their excited imaginations. Pencroft
+and Neb, particularly, were not contented with the mystery, but allowed
+their imaginations to wander into the domain of the supernatural.
+
+On the 25th of February the colonists re-entered Granite House, and by
+means of the double cord, carried by an arrow to the threshold of the
+door, they re-established communication between their habitation and the
+ground.
+
+A month later they commemorated, on the 25th of March, the third
+anniversary of their arrival on Lincoln Island.
+
+
+
+Chapter 14
+
+Three years had passed away since the escape of the prisoners from
+Richmond, and how often during those three years had they spoken of
+their country, always present in their thoughts!
+
+They had no doubt that the civil war was at an end, and to them it
+appeared impossible that the just cause of the North had not triumphed.
+But what had been the incidents of this terrible war? How much blood had
+it not cost? How many of their friends must have fallen in the struggle?
+They often spoke of these things, without as yet being able to foresee
+the day when they would be permitted once more to see their country.
+To return thither, were it but for a few days, to renew the social link
+with the inhabited world, to establish a communication between their
+native land and their island, then to pass the longest, perhaps the
+best, portion of their existence in this colony, founded by them,
+and which would then be dependent on their country, was this a dream
+impossible to realize?
+
+There were only two ways of accomplishing it--either a ship must appear
+off Lincoln Island, or the colonists must themselves build a vessel
+strong enough to sail to the nearest land.
+
+“Unless,” said Pencroft, “our good genius, himself provides us with the
+means of returning to our country.”
+
+And, really, had any one told Pencroft and Neb that a ship of 300 tons
+was waiting for them in Shark Gulf or at Port Balloon, they would not
+even have made a gesture of surprise. In their state of mind nothing
+appeared improbable.
+
+But Cyrus Harding, less confident, advised them to confine themselves to
+fact, and more especially so with regard to the building of a vessel--a
+really urgent work, since it was for the purpose of depositing, as
+soon as possible, at Tabor Island a document indicating Ayrton’s new
+residence.
+
+As the “Bonadventure” no longer existed, six months at least would
+be required for the construction of a new vessel. Now winter was
+approaching, and the voyage would not be made before the following
+spring.
+
+“We have time to get everything ready for the fine season,” remarked
+the engineer, who was consulting with Pencroft about these matters. “I
+think, therefore, my friend, that since we have to rebuild our vessel
+it will be best to give her larger dimensions. The arrival of the Scotch
+yacht at Tabor Island is very uncertain. It may even be that, having
+arrived several months ago, she has again sailed after having vainly
+searched for some trace of Ayrton. Will it not then be best to build
+a ship which, if necessary, could take us either to the Polynesian
+Archipelago or to New Zealand? What do you think?”
+
+“I think, captain,” answered the sailor; “I think that you are as
+capable of building a large vessel as a small one. Neither the wood nor
+the tools are wanting. It is only a question of time.”
+
+“And how many months would be required to build a vessel of from 250 to
+300 tons?” asked Harding.
+
+“Seven or eight months at least,” replied Pencroft. “But it must not be
+forgotten that winter is drawing near, and that in severe frost wood is
+difficult to work. We must calculate on several weeks delay, and if our
+vessel is ready by next November we may think ourselves very lucky.”
+
+“Well,” replied Cyrus Harding, “that will be exactly the most favorable
+time for undertaking a voyage of any importance, either to Tabor Island
+or to a more distant land.”
+
+“So it will, captain,” answered the sailor. “Make out your plans then;
+the workmen are ready, and I imagine that Ayrton can lend us a good
+helping hand.”
+
+The colonists, having been consulted, approved the engineer’s plan,
+and it was, indeed, the best thing to be done. It is true that the
+construction of a ship of from two to three hundred tons would be great
+labor, but the colonists had confidence in themselves, justified by
+their previous success.
+
+Cyrus Harding then busied himself in drawing the plan of the vessel and
+making the model. During this time his companions employed themselves in
+felling and carting trees to furnish the ribs, timbers, and planks.
+The forest of the Far West supplied the best oaks and elms. They took
+advantage of the opening already made on their last excursion to form a
+practicable road, which they named the Far West Road, and the trees were
+carried to the Chimneys, where the dockyard was established. As to
+the road in question, the choice of trees had rendered its direction
+somewhat capricious, but at the same time it facilitated the access to a
+large part of the Serpentine Peninsula.
+
+It was important that the trees should be quickly felled and cut up, for
+they could not be used while yet green, and some time was necessary to
+allow them to get seasoned. The carpenters, therefore, worked vigorously
+during the month of April, which was troubled only by a few equinoctial
+gales of some violence. Master Jup aided them dexterously, either by
+climbing to the top of a tree to fasten the ropes or by lending his
+stout shoulders to carry the lopped trunks.
+
+All this timber was piled up under a large shed, built near the
+Chimneys, and there awaited the time for use.
+
+The month of April was tolerably fine, as October often is in the
+northern zone. At the same time other work was actively continued, and
+soon all trace of devastation disappeared from the plateau of
+Prospect Heights. The mill was rebuilt, and new buildings rose in the
+poultry-yard. It had appeared necessary to enlarge their dimensions,
+for the feathered population had increased considerably. The stable
+now contained five onagers, four of which were well broken, and allowed
+themselves to be either driven or ridden, and a little colt. The colony
+now possessed a plow, to which the onagers were yoked like regular
+Yorkshire or Kentucky oxen. The colonists divided their work, and their
+arms never tired. Then who could have enjoyed better health than these
+workers, and what good humor enlivened the evenings in Granite House as
+they formed a thousand plans for the future!
+
+As a matter of course Ayrton shared the common lot in every respect,
+and there was no longer any talk of his going to live at the corral.
+Nevertheless he was still sad and reserved, and joined more in the work
+than in the pleasures of his companions. But he was a valuable workman
+at need--strong, skilful, ingenious, intelligent. He was esteemed and
+loved by all, and he could not be ignorant of it.
+
+In the meanwhile the corral was not abandoned. Every other day one of
+the settlers, driving the cart or mounted on an onager, went to look
+after the flock of musmons and goats and bring back the supply of
+milk required by Neb. These excursions at the same time afforded
+opportunities for hunting. Therefore Herbert and Gideon Spilett, with
+Top in front, traversed more often than their companions the road to
+the corral, and with the capital guns which they carried, capybaras,
+agouties, kangaroos, and wild pigs for large game, ducks, grouse,
+jacamars, and snipe for small game, were never wanting in the house.
+The produce of the warren, of the oyster-bed, several turtles which were
+taken, excellent salmon which came up the Mercy, vegetables from the
+plateau, wild fruit from the forest, were riches upon riches, and Neb,
+the head cook, could scarcely by himself store them away.
+
+The telegraphic wire between the corral and Granite House had of course
+been repaired, and it was worked whenever one or other of the settlers
+was at the corral and found it necessary to spend the night there.
+Besides, the island was safe now and no attacks were to be feared, at
+any rate from men.
+
+However, that which had happened might happen again. A descent of
+pirates, or even of escaped convicts, was always to be feared. It was
+possible that companions or accomplices of Bob Harvey had been in the
+secret of his plans, and might be tempted to imitate him. The colonists,
+therefore, were careful to observe the sea around the island, and every
+day their telescope covered the horizon enclosed by Union and Washington
+Bays. When they went to the corral they examined the sea to the west
+with no less attention, and by climbing the spur their gaze extended
+over a large section of the western horizon.
+
+Nothing suspicious was discerned, but still it was necessary for them to
+be on their guard.
+
+The engineer one evening imparted to his friends a plan which he had
+conceived for fortifying the corral. It appeared prudent to him to
+heighten the palisade and to flank it with a sort of blockhouse, which,
+if necessary, the settlers could hold against the enemy. Granite House
+might, by its very position, be considered impregnable; therefore the
+corral with its buildings, its stores, and the animals it contained,
+would always be the object of pirates, whoever they were, who might land
+on the island, and should the colonists be obliged to shut themselves
+up there they ought also to be able to defend themselves without any
+disadvantage. This was a project which might be left for consideration,
+and they were, besides, obliged to put off its execution until the next
+spring.
+
+About the 15th of May the keel of the new vessel lay along the dockyard,
+and soon the stem and stern-post, mortised at each of its extremities,
+rose almost perpendicularly. The keel, of good oak, measured 110 feet
+in length, this allowing a width of five-and-twenty feet to the midship
+beam. But this was all the carpenters could do before the arrival of the
+frosts and bad weather. During the following week they fixed the first
+of the stern timbers, but were then obliged to suspend work.
+
+During the last days of the month the weather was extremely bad. The
+wind blew from the east, sometimes with the violence of a tempest. The
+engineer was somewhat uneasy on account of the dockyard shed--which
+besides, he could not have established in any other place near to
+Granite House--for the islet only imperfectly sheltered the shore from
+the fury of the open sea, and in great storms the waves beat against the
+very foot of the granite cliff.
+
+But, very fortunately, these fears were not realized. The wind shifted
+to the southeast, and there the beach of Granite House was completely
+covered by Flotsam Point.
+
+Pencroft and Ayrton, the most zealous workmen at the new vessel, pursued
+their labor as long as they could. They were not men to mind the wind
+tearing at their hair, nor the rain wetting them to the skin, and a blow
+from a hammer is worth just as much in bad as in fine weather. But when
+a severe frost succeeded this wet period, the wood, its fibers acquiring
+the hardness of iron, became extremely difficult to work, and about the
+10th of June shipbuilding was obliged to be entirely discontinued.
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions had not omitted to observe how severe
+was the temperature during the winters of Lincoln Island. The cold was
+comparable to that experienced in the States of New England, situated at
+almost the same distance from the equator. In the northern hemisphere,
+or at any rate in the part occupied by British America and the north of
+the United States, this phenomenon is explained by the flat conformation
+of the territories bordering on the pole, and on which there is no
+intumescence of the soil to oppose any obstacle to the north winds;
+here, in Lincoln Island, this explanation would not suffice.
+
+“It has even been observed,” remarked Harding one day to his companions,
+“that in equal latitudes the islands and coast regions are less tried by
+the cold than inland countries. I have often heard it asserted that the
+winters of Lombardy, for example, are not less rigorous than those of
+Scotland, which results from the sea restoring during the winter the
+heat which it received during the summer. Islands are, therefore, in a
+better situation for benefiting by this restitution.”
+
+“But then, Captain Harding,” asked Herbert, “why does Lincoln Island
+appear to escape the common law?”
+
+“That is difficult to explain,” answered the engineer. “However, I
+should be disposed to conjecture that this peculiarity results from the
+situation of the island in the Southern Hemisphere, which, as you know,
+my boy, is colder than the Northern Hemisphere.”
+
+“Yes,” said Herbert, “and icebergs are met with in lower latitudes in
+the south than in the north of the Pacific.”
+
+“That is true,” remarked Pencroft, “and when I have been serving on
+board whalers I have seen icebergs off Cape Horn.”
+
+“The severe cold experienced in Lincoln Island,” said Gideon Spilett,
+“may then perhaps be explained by the presence of floes or icebergs
+comparatively near to Lincoln Island.”
+
+“Your opinion is very admissible indeed, my dear Spilett,” answered
+Cyrus Harding, “and it is evidently to the proximity of icebergs that
+we owe our rigorous winters. I would draw your attention also to an
+entirely physical cause, which renders the Southern colder than the
+Northern Hemisphere. In fact, since the sun is nearer to this hemisphere
+during the summer, it is necessarily more distant during the winter.
+This explains then the excess of temperature in the two seasons, for, if
+we find the winters very cold in Lincoln Island, we must not forget that
+the summers here, on the contrary, are very hot.”
+
+“But why, if you please, captain,” asked Pencroft, knitting his brows,
+“why should our hemisphere, as you say, be so badly divided? It isn’t
+just, that!”
+
+“Friend Pencroft,” answered the engineer, laughing, “whether just
+or not, we must submit to it, and here lies the reason for this
+peculiarity. The earth does not describe a circle around the sun, but
+an ellipse, as it must by the laws of rational mechanics. Now, the earth
+occupies one of the foci of the ellipse, and so at one point in its
+course is at its apogee, that is, at its farthest from the sun, and
+at another point it is at its perigee, or nearest to the sun. Now it
+happens that it is during the winter of the southern countries that
+it is at its most distant point from the sun, and consequently, in a
+situation for those regions to feel the greatest cold. Nothing can be
+done to prevent that, and men, Pencroft, however learned they may be,
+can never change anything of the cosmographical order established by God
+Himself.”
+
+“And yet,” added Pencroft, “the world is very learned. What a big book,
+captain, might be made with all that is known!”
+
+“And what a much bigger book still with all that is not known!” answered
+Harding.
+
+At last, for one reason or another, the month of June brought the cold
+with its accustomed intensity, and the settlers were often confined to
+Granite House. Ah! how wearisome this imprisonment was to them, and more
+particularly to Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Look here,” said he to Neb one day, “I would give you by notarial
+deed all the estates which will come to me some day, if you were a good
+enough fellow to go, no matter where, and subscribe to some newspaper
+for me! Decidedly the thing that is most essential to my happiness is
+the knowing every morning what has happened the day before in other
+places than this!”
+
+Neb began to laugh.
+
+“‘Pon my word,” he replied, “the only thing I think about is my daily
+work!”
+
+The truth was that indoors as well as out there was no want of work.
+
+The colony of Lincoln Island was now at its highest point of prosperity,
+achieved by three years of continued hard work. The destruction of the
+brig had been a new source of riches. Without speaking of the complete
+rig which would serve for the vessel now on the stocks, utensils and
+tools of all sorts, weapons and ammunition, clothes and instruments,
+were now piled in the storerooms of Granite House. It had not even
+been necessary to resort again to the manufacture of the coarse felt
+materials. Though the colonists had suffered from cold during their
+first winter, the bad season might now come without their having any
+reason to dread its severity. Linen was plentiful also, and besides,
+they kept it with extreme care. From chloride of sodium, which is
+nothing else than sea salt, Cyrus Harding easily extracted the soda and
+chlorine. The soda, which it was easy to change into carbonate of soda,
+and the chlorine, of which he made chloride of lime, were employed for
+various domestic purposes, and especially in bleaching linen. Besides,
+they did not wash more than four times a year, as was done by families
+in the olden times, and it may be added, that Pencroft and Gideon
+Spilett, while waiting for the postman to bring him his newspaper,
+distinguished themselves as washermen.
+
+So passed the winter months, June, July, and August. They were severe,
+and the average observations of the thermometer did not give more than
+eight degrees of Fahrenheit. It was therefore lower in temperature than
+the preceding winter. But then, what splendid fires blazed continually
+on the hearths of Granite House, the smoke marking the granite wall with
+long, zebra-like streaks! Fuel was not spared, as it grew naturally a
+few steps from them. Besides, the chips of the wood destined for the
+construction of the ship enabled them to economize the coal, which
+required more trouble to transport.
+
+Men and animals were all well. Master Jup was a little chilly, it must
+be confessed. This was perhaps his only weakness, and it was necessary
+to make him a well-padded dressing-gown. But what a servant he was,
+clever, zealous, indefatigable, not indiscreet, not talkative, and
+he might have been with reason proposed as a model for all his biped
+brothers in the Old and New Worlds!
+
+“As for that,” said Pencroft, “when one has four hands at one’s service,
+of course one’s work ought to be done so much the better!”
+
+And indeed the intelligent creature did it well.
+
+During the seven months which had passed since the last researches made
+round the mountain, and during the month of September, which brought
+back fine weather, nothing was heard of the genius of the island. His
+power was not manifested in any way. It is true that it would have
+been superfluous, for no incident occurred to put the colonists to any
+painful trial.
+
+Cyrus Harding even observed that if by chance the communication between
+the unknown and the tenants of Granite House had ever been established
+through the granite, and if Top’s instinct had as it were felt it, there
+was no further sign of it during this period. The dog’s growling
+had entirely ceased, as well as the uneasiness of the orang. The two
+friends--for they were such--no longer prowled round the opening of the
+inner well, nor did they bark or whine in that singular way which from
+the first the engineer had noticed. But could he be sure that this was
+all that was to be said about this enigma, and that he should never
+arrive at a solution? Could he be certain that some conjuncture would
+not occur which would bring the mysterious personage on the scene? who
+could tell what the future might have in reserve?
+
+At last the winter was ended, but an event, the consequences of which
+might be serious occurred in the first days of the returning spring.
+
+On the 7th of September, Cyrus Harding, having observed the crater, saw
+smoke curling round the summit of the mountain, its first vapors rising
+in the air.
+
+
+
+Chapter 15
+
+The colonists, warned by the engineer, left their work and gazed in
+silence at the summit of Mount Franklin.
+
+The volcano had awoke, and the vapor had penetrated the mineral layer
+heaped at the bottom of the crater. But would the subterranean fires
+provoke any violent eruption? This was an event which could not be
+foreseen. However, even while admitting the possibility of an eruption,
+it was not probable that the whole of Lincoln Island would suffer from
+it. The flow of volcanic matter is not always disastrous, and the island
+had already undergone this trial, as was shown by the streams of lava
+hardened on the northern slopes of the mountain. Besides, from the shape
+of the crater--the opening broken in the upper edge--the matter would be
+thrown to the side opposite the fertile regions of the island.
+
+However, the past did not necessarily answer for the future. Often, at
+the summit of volcanoes, the old craters close and new ones open.
+This had occurred in the two hemispheres--at Etna, Popocatepetl, at
+Orizabaand on the eve of an eruption there is everything to be feared.
+In fact, an earthquake--a phenomenon which often accompanies volcanic
+eruption--is enough to change the interior arrangement of a mountain,
+and to open new outlets for the burning lava.
+
+Cyrus Harding explained these things to his companions, and, without
+exaggerating the state of things, he told them all the pros and cons.
+After all, they could not prevent it. It did not appear likely that
+Granite House would be threatened unless the ground was shaken by an
+earthquake. But the corral would be in great danger should a new crater
+open in the southern side of Mount Franklin.
+
+From that day the smoke never disappeared from the top of the mountain,
+and it could even be perceived that it increased in height and
+thickness, without any flame mingling in its heavy volumes. The
+phenomenon was still concentrated in the lower part of the central
+crater.
+
+However, with the fine days work had been continued. The building of the
+vessel was hastened as much as possible, and, by means of the waterfall
+on the shore, Cyrus Harding managed to establish an hydraulic sawmill,
+which rapidly cut up the trunks of trees into planks and joists. The
+mechanism of this apparatus was as simple as those used in the rustic
+sawmills of Norway. A first horizontal movement to move the piece of
+wood, a second vertical movement to move the saw--this was all that was
+wanted; and the engineer succeeded by means of a wheel, two cylinders,
+and pulleys properly arranged. Towards the end of the month of September
+the skeleton of the vessel, which was to be rigged as a schooner, lay
+in the dockyard. The ribs were almost entirely completed, and, all the
+timbers having been sustained by a provisional band, the shape of the
+vessel could already be seen. The schooner, sharp in the bows, very
+slender in the after-part, would evidently be suitable for a long
+voyage, if wanted; but laying the planking would still take a
+considerable time. Very fortunately, the iron work of the pirate brig
+had been saved after the explosion. From the planks and injured ribs
+Pencroft and Ayrton had extracted the bolts and a large quantity
+of copper nails. It was so much work saved for the smiths, but the
+carpenters had much to do.
+
+Shipbuilding was interrupted for a week for the harvest, the haymaking,
+and the gathering in of the different crops on the plateau. This work
+finished, every moment was devoted to finishing the schooner. When night
+came the workmen were really quite exhausted. So as not to lose any
+time they had changed the hours for their meals; they dined at twelve
+o’clock, and only had their supper when daylight failed them. They then
+ascended to Granite House, when they were always ready to go to bed.
+
+Sometimes, however, when the conversation bore on some interesting
+subject the hour for sleep was delayed for a time. The colonists then
+spoke of the future, and talked willingly of the changes which a voyage
+in the schooner to inhabited lands would make in their situation.
+But always, in the midst of these plans, prevailed the thought of a
+subsequent return to Lincoln Island. Never would they abandon this
+colony, founded with so much labor and with such success, and to which
+a communication with America would afford a fresh impetus. Pencroft and
+Neb especially hoped to end their days there.
+
+“Herbert,” said the sailor, “you will never abandon Lincoln Island?”
+
+“Never, Pencroft, and especially if you make up your mind to stay
+there.”
+
+“That was made up long ago, my boy,” answered Pencroft. “I shall expect
+you. You will bring me your wife and children, and I shall make jolly
+chaps of your youngsters!”
+
+“That’s agreed,” replied Herbert, laughing and blushing at the same
+time.
+
+“And you, Captain Harding,” resumed Pencroft enthusiastically, “you will
+be still the governor of the island! Ah, how many inhabitants could it
+support? Ten thousand at least!”
+
+They talked in this way, allowing Pencroft to run on, and at last the
+reporter actually started a newspaper--the New Lincoln Herald!
+
+So is man’s heart. The desire to perform a work which will endure, which
+will survive him, is the origin of his superiority over all other living
+creatures here below. It is this which has established his dominion, and
+this it is which justifies it, over all the world.
+
+After that, who knows if Jup and Top had not themselves their little
+dream of the future.
+
+Ayrton silently said to himself that he would like to see Lord Glenarvan
+again and show himself to all restored.
+
+One evening, on the 15th of October, the conversation was prolonged
+later than usual. It was nine o’clock. Already, long badly concealed
+yawns gave warning of the hour of rest, and Pencroft was proceeding
+towards his bed, when the electric bell, placed in the dining-room,
+suddenly rang.
+
+All were there, Cyrus Harding, Gideon Spilett, Herbert, Ayrton,
+Pencroft, Neb. Therefore none of the colonists were at the corral.
+
+Cyrus Harding rose. His companions stared at each other, scarcely
+believing their ears.
+
+“What does that mean?” cried Neb. “Was it the devil who rang it?”
+
+No one answered.
+
+“The weather is stormy,” observed Herbert. “Might not its influence of
+electricity--”
+
+Herbert did not finish his phrase. The engineer, towards whom all eyes
+were turned, shook his head negatively.
+
+“We must wait,” said Gideon Spilett. “If it is a signal, whoever it may
+be who has made it, he will renew it.”
+
+“But who do you think it is?” cried Neb.
+
+“Who?” answered Pencroft, “but he--”
+
+The sailor’s sentence was cut short by a new tinkle of the bell.
+
+Harding went to the apparatus, and sent this question to the corral:--
+
+“What do you want?”
+
+A few moments later the needle, moving on the alphabetic dial, gave this
+reply to the tenants of Granite House:--
+
+“Come to the corral immediately.”
+
+“At last!” exclaimed Harding.
+
+Yes! At last! The mystery was about to be unveiled. The colonists’
+fatigue had disappeared before the tremendous interest which was about
+to urge them to the corral, and all wish for rest had ceased. Without
+having uttered a word, in a few moments they had left Granite House,
+and were standing on the beach. Jup and Top alone were left behind. They
+could do without them.
+
+The night was black. The new moon had disappeared at the same time as
+the sun. As Herbert had observed, great stormy clouds formed a lowering
+and heavy vault, preventing any star rays. A few lightning flashes,
+reflections from a distant storm, illuminated the horizon.
+
+It was possible that a few hours later the thunder would roll over the
+island itself. The night was very threatening.
+
+But however deep the darkness was, it would not prevent them from
+finding the familiar road to the corral.
+
+They ascended the left bank of the Mercy, reached the plateau, passed
+the bridge over Creek Glycerine, and advanced through the forest.
+
+They walked at a good pace, a prey to the liveliest emotions. There was
+no doubt but that they were now going to learn the long-searched-for
+answer to the enigma, the name of that mysterious being, so deeply
+concerned in their life, so generous in his influence, so powerful
+in his action! Must not this stranger have indeed mingled with their
+existence, have known the smallest details, have heard all that was said
+in Granite House, to have been able always to act in the very nick of
+time?
+
+Every one, wrapped up in his own reflections, pressed forward. Under the
+arch of trees the darkness was such that even the edge of the road
+could not be seen. Not a sound in the forest. Both animals and birds,
+influenced by the heaviness of the atmosphere, remained motionless
+and silent. Not a breath disturbed the leaves. The footsteps of the
+colonists alone resounded on the hardened ground.
+
+During the first quarter of an hour the silence was only interrupted by
+this remark from Pencroft:--
+
+“We ought to have brought a torch.”
+
+And by this reply from the engineer:--
+
+“We shall find one at the corral.”
+
+Harding and his companions had left Granite House at twelve minutes past
+nine. At forty-seven minutes past nine they had traversed three out of
+the five miles which separated the mouth of the Mercy from the corral.
+
+At that moment sheets of lightning spread over the island and illumined
+the dark trees. The flashes dazzled and almost blinded them. Evidently
+the storm would not be long in bursting forth.
+
+The flashes gradually became brighter and more rapid. Distant thunder
+growled in the sky. The atmosphere was stifling.
+
+The colonists proceeded as if they were urged onwards by some
+irresistible force.
+
+At ten o’clock a vivid flash showed them the palisade, and as they
+reached the gate the storm burst forth with tremendous fury.
+
+In a minute the corral was crossed, and Harding stood before the hut.
+
+Probably the house was occupied by the stranger, since it was from
+thence that the telegram had been sent. However, no light shone through
+the window.
+
+The engineer knocked at the door.
+
+No answer.
+
+Cyrus Harding opened the door, and the settlers entered the room, which
+was perfectly dark. A light was struck by Neb, and in a few moments the
+lantern was lighted and the light thrown into every corner of the room.
+
+There was no one there. Everything was in the state in which it had been
+left.
+
+“Have we been deceived by an illusion?” murmured Cyrus Harding.
+
+No! that was not possible! The telegram had clearly said,--
+
+“Come to the corral immediately.”
+
+They approached the table specially devoted to the use of the wire.
+Everything was in order--the pile on the box containing it, as well as
+all the apparatus.
+
+“Who came here the last time?” asked the engineer.
+
+“I did, captain,” answered Ayrton.
+
+“And that was--”
+
+“Four days ago.”
+
+“Ah! a note!” cried Herbert, pointing to a paper lying on the table.
+
+On this paper were written these words in English:--
+
+“Follow the new wire.”
+
+“Forward!” cried Harding, who understood that the despatch had not been
+sent from the corral, but from the mysterious retreat, communicating
+directly with Granite House by means of a supplementary wire joined to
+the old one.
+
+Neb took the lighted lantern, and all left the corral. The storm
+then burst forth with tremendous violence. The interval between each
+lightning-flash and each thunder-clap diminished rapidly. The summit
+of the volcano, with its plume of vapor, could be seen by occasional
+flashes.
+
+There was no telegraphic communication in any part of the corral between
+the house and the palisade; but the engineer, running straight to the
+first post, saw by the light of a flash a new wire hanging from the
+isolator to the ground.
+
+“There it is!” said he.
+
+This wire lay along the ground, and was surrounded with an isolating
+substance like a submarine cable, so as to assure the free transmission
+of the current. It appeared to pass through the wood and the southern
+spurs of the mountain, and consequently it ran towards the west.
+
+“Follow it!” said Cyrus Harding.
+
+And the settlers immediately pressed forward, guided by the wire.
+
+The thunder continued to roar with such violence that not a word could
+be heard. However, there was no occasion for speaking, but to get
+forward as fast as possible.
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions then climbed the spur rising between
+the corral valley and that of Falls River, which they crossed at its
+narrowest part. The wire, sometimes stretched over the lower branches
+of the trees, sometimes lying on the ground, guided them surely. The
+engineer had supposed that the wire would perhaps stop at the bottom of
+the valley, and that the stranger’s retreat would be there.
+
+Nothing of the sort. They were obliged to ascend the south-western spur,
+and re-descend on that arid plateau terminated by the strangely-wild
+basalt cliff. From time to time one of the colonists stooped down and
+felt for the wire with his hands; but there was now no doubt that the
+wire was running directly towards the sea. There, to a certainty, in the
+depths of those rocks, was the dwelling so long sought for in vain.
+
+The sky was literally on fire. Flash succeeded flash. Several struck the
+summit of the volcano in the midst of the thick smoke. It appeared there
+as if the mountain was vomiting flame. At a few minutes to eleven the
+colonists arrived on the high cliff overlooking the ocean to the west.
+The wind had risen. The surf roared 500 feet below.
+
+Harding calculated that they had gone a mile and a half from the corral.
+
+At this point the wire entered among the rocks, following the steep side
+of a narrow ravine. The settlers followed it at the risk of occasioning
+a fall of the slightly-balanced rocks, and being dashed into the sea.
+The descent was extremely perilous, but they did not think of the
+danger; they were no longer masters of themselves, and an irresistible
+attraction drew them towards this mysterious place as the magnet draws
+iron.
+
+Thus they almost unconsciously descended this ravine, which even in
+broad daylight would have been considered impracticable.
+
+The stones rolled and sparkled like fiery balls when they crossed
+through the gleams of light. Harding was first--Ayrton last. On they
+went, step by step. Now they slid over the slippery rock; then they
+struggled to their feet and scrambled on.
+
+At last the wire touched the rocks on the beach. The colonists had
+reached the bottom of the basalt cliff.
+
+There appeared a narrow ridge, running horizontally and parallel with
+the sea. The settlers followed the wire along it. They had not gone a
+hundred paces when the ridge by a moderate incline sloped down to the
+level of the sea.
+
+The engineer seized the wire and found that it disappeared beneath the
+waves.
+
+His companions were stupefied.
+
+A cry of disappointment, almost a cry of despair, escaped them! Must
+they then plunge beneath the water and seek there for some submarine
+cavern? In their excited state they would not have hesitated to do it.
+
+The engineer stopped them.
+
+He led his companions to a hollow in the rocks, and there--
+
+“We must wait,” said he. “The tide is high. At low water the way will be
+open.”
+
+“But what can make you think-” asked Pencroft.
+
+“He would not have called us if the means had been wanting to enable us
+to reach him!”
+
+Cyrus Harding spoke in a tone of such thorough conviction that no
+objection was raised. His remark, besides, was logical. It was quite
+possible that an opening, practicable at low water, though hidden now by
+the high tide, opened at the foot of the cliff.
+
+There was some time to wait. The colonists remained silently crouching
+in a deep hollow. Rain now began to fall in torrents. The thunder was
+re-echoed among the rocks with a grand sonorousness.
+
+The colonists’ emotion was great. A thousand strange and extraordinary
+ideas crossed their brains, and they expected some grand and superhuman
+apparition, which alone could come up to the notion they had formed of
+the mysterious genius of the island.
+
+At midnight, Harding carrying the lantern, descended to the beach to
+reconnoiter.
+
+The engineer was not mistaken. The beginning of an immense excavation
+could be seen under the water. There the wire, bending at a right angle,
+entered the yawning gulf.
+
+Cyrus Harding returned to his companions, and said simply,--
+
+“In an hour the opening will be practicable.”
+
+“It is there, then?” said Pencroft.
+
+“Did you doubt it?” returned Harding.
+
+“But this cavern must be filled with water to a certain height,”
+ observed Herbert.
+
+“Either the cavern will be completely dry,” replied Harding, “and in
+that case we can traverse it on foot, or it will not be dry, and some
+means of transport will be put at our disposal.”
+
+An hour passed. All climbed down through the rain to the level of the
+sea. There was now eight feet of the opening above the water. It was
+like the arch of a bridge, under which rushed the foaming water.
+
+Leaning forward, the engineer saw a black object floating on the
+water. He drew it towards him. It was a boat, moored to some interior
+projection of the cave. This boat was iron-plated. Two oars lay at the
+bottom.
+
+“Jump in!” said Harding.
+
+In a moment the settlers were in the boat. Neb and Ayrton took the
+oars, Pencroft the rudder. Cyrus Harding in the bows, with the lantern,
+lighted the way.
+
+The elliptical roof, under which the boat at first passed, suddenly
+rose; but the darkness was too deep, and the light of the lantern too
+slight, for either the extent, length, height, or depth of the cave to
+be ascertained. Solemn silence reigned in this basaltic cavern. Not a
+sound could penetrate into it, even the thunder peals could not pierce
+its thick sides.
+
+Such immense caves exist in various parts of the world, natural crypts
+dating from the geological epoch of the globe. Some are filled by the
+sea; others contain entire lakes in their sides. Such is Fingal’s Cave,
+in the island of Staffa, one of the Hebrides; such are the caves of
+Morgat, in the bay of Douarnenez, in Brittany, the caves of Bonifacio,
+in Corsica, those of Lyse-Fjord, in Norway; such are the immense Mammoth
+caverns in Kentucky, 500 feet in height, and more than twenty miles in
+length! In many parts of the globe, nature has excavated these caverns,
+and preserved them for the admiration of man.
+
+Did the cavern which the settlers were now exploring extend to the
+center of the island? For a quarter of an hour the boat had been
+advancing, making detours, indicated to Pencroft by the engineer in
+short sentences, when all at once,--
+
+“More to the right!” he commanded.
+
+The boat, altering its course, came up alongside the right wall. The
+engineer wished to see if the wire still ran along the side.
+
+The wire was there fastened to the rock.
+
+“Forward!” said Harding.
+
+And the two oars, plunging into the dark waters, urged the boat onwards.
+
+On they went for another quarter of an hour, and a distance of
+half-a-mile must have been cleared from the mouth of the cave, when
+Harding’s voice was again heard.
+
+“Stop!” said he.
+
+The boat stopped, and the colonists perceived a bright light
+illuminating the vast cavern, so deeply excavated in the bowels of the
+island, of which nothing had ever led them to suspect the existence.
+
+At a height of a hundred feet rose the vaulted roof, supported on basalt
+shafts. Irregular arches, strange moldings, appeared on the columns
+erected by nature in thousands from the first epochs of the formation of
+the globe. The basalt pillars, fitted one into the other, measured
+from forty to fifty feet in height, and the water, calm in spite of the
+tumult outside, washed their base. The brilliant focus of light, pointed
+out by the engineer, touched every point of rocks, and flooded the walls
+with light.
+
+By reflection the water reproduced the brilliant sparkles, so that the
+boat appeared to be floating between two glittering zones. They could
+not be mistaken in the nature of the irradiation thrown from the glowing
+nucleus, whose clear rays were shattered by all the angles, all the
+projections of the cavern. This light proceeded from an electric source,
+and its white color betrayed its origin. It was the sun of this cave,
+and it filled it entirely.
+
+At a sign from Cyrus Harding the oars again plunged into the water,
+causing a regular shower of gems, and the boat was urged forward towards
+the light, which was now not more than half a cable’s length distant.
+
+At this place the breadth of the sheet of water measured nearly 350
+feet, and beyond the dazzling center could be seen an enormous basaltic
+wall, blocking up any issue on that side. The cavern widened here
+considerably, the sea forming a little lake. But the roof, the side
+walls, the end cliff, all the prisms, all the peaks, were flooded with
+the electric fluid, so that the brilliancy belonged to them, and as if
+the light issued from them.
+
+In the center of the lake a long cigar-shaped object floated on the
+surface of the water, silent, motionless. The brilliancy which issued
+from it escaped from its sides as from two kilns heated to a white heat.
+This apparatus, similar in shape to an enormous whale, was about 250
+feet long, and rose about ten or twelve above the water.
+
+The boat slowly approached it, Cyrus Harding stood up in the bows. He
+gazed, a prey to violent excitement. Then, all at once, seizing the
+reporter’s arm,--
+
+“It is he! It can only be he!” he cried, “he!--”
+
+Then, falling back on the seat, he murmured a name which Gideon Spilett
+alone could hear.
+
+The reporter evidently knew this name, for it had a wonderful effect
+upon him, and he answered in a hoarse voice,--
+
+“He! an outlawed man!”
+
+“He!” said Harding.
+
+At the engineer’s command the boat approached this singular floating
+apparatus. The boat touched the left side, from which escaped a ray of
+light through a thick glass.
+
+Harding and his companions mounted on the platform. An open hatchway was
+there. All darted down the opening.
+
+At the bottom of the ladder was a deck, lighted by electricity. At the
+end of this deck was a door, which Harding opened.
+
+A richly-ornamented room, quickly traversed by the colonists, was joined
+to a library, over which a luminous ceiling shed a flood of light.
+
+At the end of the library a large door, also shut, was opened by the
+engineer.
+
+An immense saloon--a sort of museum, in which were heaped up, with
+all the treasures of the mineral world, works of art, marvels of
+industry--appeared before the eyes of the colonists, who almost thought
+themselves suddenly transported into a land of enchantment.
+
+Stretched on a rich sofa they saw a man, who did not appear to notice
+their presence.
+
+Then Harding raised his voice, and to the extreme surprise of his
+companions, he uttered these words,--
+
+“Captain Nemo, you asked for us! We are here.--”
+
+
+
+Chapter 16
+
+At these words the reclining figure rose, and the electric light fell
+upon his countenance; a magnificent head, the forehead high, the glance
+commanding, beard white, hair abundant and falling over the shoulders.
+
+His hand rested upon the cushion of the divan from which he had just
+risen. He appeared perfectly calm. It was evident that his strength had
+been gradually undermined by illness, but his voice seemed yet powerful,
+as he said in English, and in a tone which evinced extreme surprise,--
+
+“Sir, I have no name.”
+
+“Nevertheless, I know you!” replied Cyrus Harding.
+
+Captain Nemo fixed his penetrating gaze upon the engineer, as though he
+were about to annihilate him.
+
+Then, falling back amid the pillows of the divan,--
+
+“After all, what matters now?” he murmured; “I am dying!”
+
+Cyrus Harding drew near the captain, and Gideon Spilett took his
+hand--it was of a feverish heat. Ayrton, Pencroft, Herbert, and Neb
+stood respectfully apart in an angle of the magnificent saloon, whose
+atmosphere was saturated with the electric fluid.
+
+Meanwhile Captain Nemo withdrew his hand, and motioned the engineer and
+the reporter to be seated.
+
+All regarded him with profound emotion. Before them they beheld that
+being whom they had styled the “genius of the island,” the powerful
+protector whose intervention, in so many circumstances, had been so
+efficacious, the benefactor to whom they owed such a debt of gratitude!
+Their eyes beheld a man only, and a man at the point of death, where
+Pencroft and Neb had expected to find an almost supernatural being!
+
+But how happened it that Cyrus Harding had recognized Captain Nemo? why
+had the latter so suddenly risen on hearing this name uttered, a name
+which he had believed known to none?--
+
+The captain had resumed his position on the divan, and leaning on his
+arm, he regarded the engineer, seated near him.
+
+“You know the name I formerly bore, sir?” he asked.
+
+“I do,” answered Cyrus Harding, “and also that of this wonderful
+submarine vessel--”
+
+“The ‘Nautilus’?” said the captain, with a faint smile.
+
+“The ‘Nautilus.’”
+
+“But do you--do you know who I am?”
+
+“I do.”
+
+“It is nevertheless many years since I have held any communication with
+the inhabited world; three long years have I passed in the depth of
+the sea, the only place where I have found liberty! Who then can have
+betrayed my secret?”
+
+“A man who was bound to you by no tie, Captain Nemo, and who,
+consequently, cannot be accused of treachery.”
+
+“The Frenchman who was cast on board my vessel by chance sixteen years
+since?”
+
+“The same.”
+
+“He and his two companions did not then perish in the maelstrom, in the
+midst of which the ‘Nautilus’ was struggling?”
+
+“They escaped, and a book has appeared under the title of ‘Twenty
+Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,’ which contains your history.”
+
+“The history of a few months only of my life!” interrupted the captain
+impetuously.
+
+“It is true,” answered Cyrus Harding, “but a few months of that strange
+life have sufficed to make you known.”
+
+“As a great criminal, doubtless!” said Captain Nemo, a haughty smile
+curling his lips. “Yes, a rebel, perhaps an outlaw against humanity!”
+
+The engineer was silent.
+
+“Well, sir?”
+
+“It is not for me to judge you, Captain Nemo,” answered Cyrus Harding,
+“at any rate as regards your past life. I am, with the rest of the
+world, ignorant of the motives which induced you to adopt this strange
+mode of existence, and I cannot judge of effects without knowing their
+causes; but what I do know is, that a beneficent hand has constantly
+protected us since our arrival on Lincoln Island, that we all owe our
+lives to a good, generous, and powerful being, and that this being so
+powerful, good and generous, Captain Nemo, is yourself!”
+
+“It is I,” answered the captain simply.
+
+The engineer and the reporter rose. Their companions had drawn near, and
+the gratitude with which their hearts were charged was about to express
+itself in their gestures and words.
+
+Captain Nemo stopped them by a sign, and in a voice which betrayed more
+emotion than he doubtless intended to show.
+
+“Wait till you have heard all,” he said.
+
+And the captain, in a few concise sentences, ran over the events of his
+life.
+
+His narrative was short, yet he was obliged to summon up his whole
+remaining energy to arrive at the end. He was evidently contending
+against extreme weakness. Several times Cyrus Harding entreated him to
+repose for a while, but he shook his head as a man to whom the morrow
+may never come, and when the reporter offered his assistance,--
+
+“It is useless,” he said; “my hours are numbered.”
+
+Captain Nemo was an Indian, the Prince Dakkar, son of a rajah of the
+then independent territory of Bundelkund. His father sent him, when ten
+years of age, to Europe, in order that he might receive an education
+in all respects complete, and in the hopes that by his talents and
+knowledge he might one day take a leading part in raising his long
+degraded and heathen country to a level with the nations of Europe.
+
+From the age of ten years to that of thirty Prince Dakkar, endowed by
+Nature with her richest gifts of intellect, accumulated knowledge of
+every kind, and in science, literature, and art his researches were
+extensive and profound.
+
+He traveled over the whole of Europe. His rank and fortune caused him to
+be everywhere sought after; but the pleasures of the world had for him
+no attractions. Though young and possessed of every personal advantage,
+he was ever grave--somber even--devoured by an unquenchable thirst for
+knowledge, and cherishing in the recesses of his heart the hope that
+he might become a great and powerful ruler of a free and enlightened
+people.
+
+Still, for long the love of science triumphed over all other feelings.
+He became an artist deeply impressed by the marvels of art, a
+philosopher to whom no one of the higher sciences was unknown, a
+statesman versed in the policy of European courts. To the eyes of those
+who observed him superficially he might have passed for one of those
+cosmopolitans, curious of knowledge, but disdaining action; one of those
+opulent travelers, haughty and cynical, who move incessantly from place
+to place, and are of no country.
+
+The history of Captain Nemo has, in fact, been published under the title
+of “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” Here, therefore, will apply
+the observation already made as to the adventures of Ayrton with regard
+to the discrepancy of dates. Readers should therefore refer to the note
+already published on this point.
+
+This artist, this philosopher, this man was, however, still cherishing
+the hope instilled into him from his earliest days.
+
+Prince Dakkar returned to Bundelkund in the year 1849. He married a
+noble Indian lady, who was imbued with an ambition not less ardent than
+that by which he was inspired. Two children were born to them, whom they
+tenderly loved. But domestic happiness did not prevent him from seeking
+to carry out the object at which he aimed. He waited an opportunity. At
+length, as he vainly fancied, it presented itself.
+
+Instigated by princes equally ambitious and less sagacious and more
+unscrupulous than he was, the people of India were persuaded that they
+might successfully rise against their English rulers, who had brought
+them out of a state of anarchy and constant warfare and misery, and had
+established peace and prosperity in their country. Their ignorance and
+gross superstition made them the facile tools of their designing chiefs.
+
+In 1857 the great sepoy revolt broke out. Prince Dakkar, under the
+belief that he should thereby have the opportunity of attaining the
+object of his long-cherished ambition, was easily drawn into it. He
+forthwith devoted his talents and wealth to the service of this cause.
+He aided it in person; he fought in the front ranks; he risked his life
+equally with the humblest of the wretched and misguided fanatics; he was
+ten times wounded in twenty engagements, seeking death but finding it
+not, but at length the sanguinary rebels were utterly defeated, and the
+atrocious mutiny was brought to an end.
+
+Never before had the British power in India been exposed to such danger,
+and if, as they had hoped, the sepoys had received assistance from
+without, the influence and supremacy in Asia of the United Kingdom would
+have been a thing of the past.
+
+The name of Prince Dakkar was at that time well known. He had fought
+openly and without concealment. A price was set upon his head, but he
+managed to escape from his pursuers.
+
+Civilization never recedes; the law of necessity ever forces it onwards.
+The sepoys were vanquished, and the land of the rajahs of old fell again
+under the rule of England.
+
+Prince Dakkar, unable to find that death he courted, returned to the
+mountain fastnesses of Bundelkund. There, alone in the world, overcome
+by disappointment at the destruction of all his vain hopes, a prey
+to profound disgust for all human beings, filled with hatred of the
+civilized world, he realized the wreck of his fortune, assembled some
+score of his most faithful companions, and one day disappeared, leaving
+no trace behind.
+
+Where, then, did he seek that liberty denied him upon the inhabited
+earth? Under the waves, in the depths of the ocean, where none could
+follow.
+
+The warrior became the man of science. Upon a deserted island of the
+Pacific he established his dockyard, and there a submarine vessel was
+constructed from his designs. By methods which will at some future
+day be revealed he had rendered subservient the illimitable forces of
+electricity, which, extracted from inexhaustible sources, was employed
+for all the requirements of his floating equipage, as a moving,
+lighting, and heating agent. The sea, with its countless treasures, its
+myriads of fish, its numberless wrecks, its enormous mammalia, and not
+only all that nature supplied, but also all that man had lost in its
+depths, sufficed for every want of the prince and his crew--and thus was
+his most ardent desire accomplished, never again to hold communication
+with the earth. He named his submarine vessel the “Nautilus,” called
+himself simply Captain Nemo, and disappeared beneath the seas.
+
+During many years this strange being visited every ocean, from pole to
+pole. Outcast of the inhabited earth in these unknown worlds he gathered
+incalculable treasures. The millions lost in the Bay of Vigo, in 1702,
+by the galleons of Spain, furnished him with a mine of inexhaustible
+riches which he devoted always, anonymously, in favor of those nations
+who fought for the independence of their country.
+
+  (This refers to the resurrection of the Candiotes, who were, in
+   fact, largely assisted by Captain Nemo.)
+
+For long, however, he had held no communication with his
+fellow-creatures, when, during the night of the 6th of November, 1866,
+three men were cast on board his vessel. They were a French professor,
+his servant, and a Canadian fisherman. These three men had been hurled
+overboard by a collision which had taken place between the “Nautilus”
+ and the United States frigate “Abraham Lincoln,” which had chased her.
+
+Captain Nemo learned from this professor that the “Nautilus,” taken now
+for a gigantic mammal of the whale species, now for a submarine vessel
+carrying a crew of pirates, was sought for in every sea.
+
+He might have returned these three men to the ocean, from whence chance
+had brought them in contact with his mysterious existence. Instead of
+doing this he kept them prisoners, and during seven months they were
+enabled to behold all the wonders of a voyage of twenty thousand leagues
+under the sea.
+
+One day, the 22nd of June, 1867, these three men, who knew nothing of
+the past history of Captain Nemo, succeeded in escaping in one of the
+“Nautilus’s” boats. But as at this time the “Nautilus” was drawn into
+the vortex of the maelstrom, off the coast of Norway, the captain
+naturally believed that the fugitives, engulfed in that frightful
+whirlpool, found their death at the bottom of the abyss. He was unaware
+that the Frenchman and his two companions had been miraculously cast
+on shore, that the fishermen of the Lofoten Islands had rendered
+them assistance, and that the professor, on his return to France, had
+published that work in which seven months of the strange and eventful
+navigation of the “Nautilus” were narrated and exposed to the curiosity
+of the public.
+
+For a long time after this, Captain Nemo continued to live thus,
+traversing every sea. But one by one his companions died, and found
+their last resting-place in their cemetery of coral, in the bed of the
+Pacific. At last Captain Nemo remained the solitary survivor of all
+those who had taken refuge with him in the depths of the ocean.
+
+He was now sixty years of age. Although alone, he succeeded in
+navigating the “Nautilus” towards one of those submarine caverns which
+had sometimes served him as a harbor.
+
+One of these ports was hollowed beneath Lincoln Island, and at this
+moment furnished an asylum to the “Nautilus.”
+
+The captain had now remained there six years, navigating the ocean no
+longer, but awaiting death, and that moment when he should rejoin his
+former companions, when by chance he observed the descent of the balloon
+which carried the prisoners of the Confederates. Clad in his diving
+dress he was walking beneath the water at a few cables’ length from the
+shore of the island, when the engineer had been thrown into the sea.
+Moved by a feeling of compassion the captain saved Cyrus Harding.
+
+His first impulse was to fly from the vicinity of the five castaways;
+but his harbor refuge was closed, for in consequence of an elevation of
+the basalt, produced by the influence of volcanic action, he could
+no longer pass through the entrance of the vault. Though there was
+sufficient depth of water to allow a light craft to pass the bar,
+there was not enough for the “Nautilus,” whose draught of water was
+considerable.
+
+Captain Nemo was compelled, therefore, to remain. He observed these men
+thrown without resources upon a desert island, but had no wish to be
+himself discovered by them. By degrees he became interested in their
+efforts when he saw them honest, energetic, and bound to each other by
+the ties of friendship. As if despite his wishes, he penetrated all the
+secrets of their existence. By means of the diving dress he could easily
+reach the well in the interior of Granite House, and climbing by the
+projections of rock to its upper orifice he heard the colonists as they
+recounted the past, and studied the present and future. He learned from
+them the tremendous conflict of America with America itself, for the
+abolition of slavery. Yes, these men were worthy to reconcile Captain
+Nemo with that humanity which they represented so nobly in the island.
+
+Captain Nemo had saved Cyrus Harding. It was he also who had brought
+back the dog to the Chimneys, who rescued Top from the waters of the
+lake, who caused to fall at Flotsam Point the case containing so many
+things useful to the colonists, who conveyed the canoe back into the
+stream of the Mercy, who cast the cord from the top of Granite House at
+the time of the attack by the baboons, who made known the presence
+of Ayrton upon Tabor Island, by means of the document enclosed in the
+bottle, who caused the explosion of the brig by the shock of a torpedo
+placed at the bottom of the canal, who saved Herbert from certain death
+by bringing the sulphate of quinine; and finally, it was he who had
+killed the convicts with the electric balls, of which he possessed the
+secret, and which he employed in the chase of submarine creatures. Thus
+were explained so many apparently supernatural occurrences, and which
+all proved the generosity and power of the captain.
+
+Nevertheless, this noble misanthrope longed to benefit his proteges
+still further. There yet remained much useful advice to give them, and,
+his heart being softened by the approach of death, he invited, as we are
+aware, the colonists of Granite House to visit the “Nautilus,” by means
+of a wire which connected it with the corral. Possibly he would not
+have done this had he been aware that Cyrus Harding was sufficiently
+acquainted with his history to address him by the name of Nemo.
+
+The captain concluded the narrative of his life. Cyrus Harding then
+spoke; he recalled all the incidents which had exercised so beneficent
+an influence upon the colony, and in the names of his companions and
+himself thanked the generous being to whom they owed so much.
+
+But Captain Nemo paid little attention; his mind appeared to be absorbed
+by one idea, and without taking the proffered hand of the engineer,--
+
+“Now, sir,” said he, “now that you know my history, your judgment!”
+
+In saying this, the captain evidently alluded to an important incident
+witnessed by the three strangers thrown on board his vessel, and which
+the French professor had related in his work, causing a profound and
+terrible sensation. Some days previous to the flight of the professor
+and his two companions, the “Nautilus,” being chased by a frigate in the
+north of the Atlantic had hurled herself as a ram upon this frigate, and
+sunk her without mercy.
+
+Cyrus Harding understood the captain’s allusion, and was silent.
+
+“It was an enemy’s frigate,” exclaimed Captain Nemo, transformed for
+an instant into the Prince Dakkar, “an enemy’s frigate! It was she who
+attacked me--I was in a narrow and shallow bay--the frigate barred my
+way--and I sank her!”
+
+A few moments of silence ensued; then the captain demanded,--
+
+“What think you of my life, gentlemen?”
+
+Cyrus Harding extended his hand to the ci-devant prince and replied
+gravely, “Sir, your error was in supposing that the past can be
+resuscitated, and in contending against inevitable progress. It is one
+of those errors which some admire, others blame; which God alone can
+judge. He who is mistaken in an action which he sincerely believes to be
+right may be an enemy, but retains our esteem. Your error is one that
+we may admire, and your name has nothing to fear from the judgment of
+history, which does not condemn heroic folly, but its results.”
+
+The old man’s breast swelled with emotion, and raising his hand to
+heaven,--
+
+“Was I wrong, or in the right?” he murmured.
+
+Cyrus Harding replied, “All great actions return to God, from whom they
+are derived. Captain Nemo, we, whom you have succored, shall ever mourn
+your loss.”
+
+Herbert, who had drawn near the captain, fell on his knees and kissed
+his hand.
+
+A tear glistened in the eyes of the dying man. “My child,” he said, “may
+God bless you!”
+
+
+
+Chapter 17
+
+Day had returned. No ray of light penetrated into the profundity of the
+cavern. It being high-water, the entrance was closed by the sea. But the
+artificial light, which escaped in long streams from the skylights of
+the “Nautilus” was as vivid as before, and the sheet of water shone
+around the floating vessel.
+
+An extreme exhaustion now overcame Captain Nemo, who had fallen back
+upon the divan. It was useless to contemplate removing him to Granite
+House, for he had expressed his wish to remain in the midst of those
+marvels of the “Nautilus” which millions could not have purchased, and
+to wait there for that death which was swiftly approaching.
+
+During a long interval of prostration, which rendered him almost
+unconscious, Cyrus Harding and Gideon Spilett attentively observed
+the condition of the dying man. It was apparent that his strength was
+gradually diminishing. That frame, once so robust, was now but the
+fragile tenement of a departing soul. All of life was concentrated in
+the heart and head.
+
+The engineer and reporter consulted in whispers. Was it possible to
+render any aid to the dying man? Might his life, if not saved, be
+prolonged for some days? He himself had said that no remedy could
+avail, and he awaited with tranquillity that death which had for him no
+terrors.
+
+“We can do nothing,” said Gideon Spilett.
+
+“But of what is he dying?” asked Pencroft.
+
+“Life is simply fading out,” replied the reporter.
+
+“Nevertheless,” said the sailor, “if we move him into the open air, and
+the light of the sun, he might perhaps recover.”
+
+“No, Pencroft,” answered the engineer, “it is useless to attempt it.
+Besides, Captain Nemo would never consent to leave his vessel. He
+has lived for a dozen years on board the ‘Nautilus,’ and on board the
+‘Nautilus’ he desires to die.”
+
+Without doubt Captain Nemo heard Cyrus Harding’s reply, for he raised
+himself slightly, and in a voice more feeble, but always intelligible,--
+
+“You are right, sir,” he said. “I shall die here--it is my wish; and
+therefore I have a request to make of you.”
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions had drawn near the divan, and now
+arranged the cushions in such a manner as to better support the dying
+man.
+
+They saw his eyes wander over all the marvels of this saloon, lighted
+by the electric rays which fell from the arabesques of the luminous
+ceiling. He surveyed, one after the other, the pictures hanging from
+the splendid tapestries of the partitions, the chef-d’oeuvres of the
+Italian, Flemish, French, and Spanish masters; the statues of marble and
+bronze on their pedestals; the magnificent organ, leaning against the
+after-partition; the aquarium, in which bloomed the most wonderful
+productions of the sea--marine plants, zoophytes, chaplets of pearls
+of inestimable value; and, finally, his eyes rested on this device,
+inscribed over the pediment of the museum--the motto of the “Nautilus”--
+
+
+“Mobilis in mobile.”
+
+
+His glance seemed to rest fondly for the last time on these masterpieces
+of art and of nature, to which he had limited his horizon during a
+sojourn of so many years in the abysses of the seas.
+
+Cyrus Harding respected the captain’s silence, and waited till he should
+speak.
+
+After some minutes, during which, doubtless, he passed in review his
+whole life, Captain Nemo turned to the colonists and said,
+
+“You consider yourselves, gentlemen, under some obligations to me?”
+
+“Captain, believe us that we would give our lives to prolong yours.”
+
+“Promise, then,” continued Captain Nemo, “to carry out my last wishes,
+and I shall be repaid for all I have done for you.”
+
+“We promise,” said Cyrus Harding.
+
+And by this promise he bound both himself and his companions.
+
+“Gentlemen,” resumed the captain, “to-morrow I shall be dead.”
+
+Herbert was about to utter an exclamation, but a sign from the captain
+arrested him.
+
+“To-morrow I shall die, and I desire no other tomb than the ‘Nautilus.’
+It is my grave! All my friends repose in the depths of the ocean; their
+resting-place shall be mine.”
+
+These words were received with profound silence.
+
+“Pay attention to my wishes,” he continued. “The ‘Nautilus’ is
+imprisoned in this grotto, the entrance of which is blocked up; but,
+although egress is impossible, the vessel may at least sink in the
+abyss, and there bury my remains.”
+
+The colonists listened reverently to the words of the dying man.
+
+“To-morrow, after my death, Mr. Harding,” continued the captain,
+“yourself and companions will leave the ‘Nautilus,’ for all the
+treasures it contains must perish with me. One token alone will remain
+with you of Prince Dakkar, with whose history you are now acquainted.
+That coffer yonder contains diamonds of the value of many millions,
+most of them mementoes of the time when, husband and father, I thought
+happiness possible for me, and a collection of pearls gathered by my
+friends and myself in the depths of the ocean. Of this treasure at a
+future day, you may make good use. In the hands of such men as yourself
+and your comrades, Captain Harding, money will never be a source of
+danger. From on high I shall still participate in your enterprises, and
+I fear not but that they will prosper.”
+
+After a few moments’ repose, necessitated by his extreme weakness,
+Captain Nemo continued,--
+
+“To-morrow you will take the coffer, you will leave the saloon, of which
+you will close the door; then you will ascend on to the deck of the
+‘Nautilus,’ and you will lower the mainhatch so as entirely to close the
+vessel.”
+
+“It shall be done, captain,” answered Cyrus Harding.
+
+“Good. You will then embark in the canoe which brought you hither; but,
+before leaving the ‘Nautilus,’ go to the stern and there open two large
+stop-cocks which you will find upon the water-line. The water will
+penetrate into the reservoirs, and the ‘Nautilus’ will gradually sink
+beneath the water to repose at the bottom of the abyss.”
+
+And comprehending a gesture of Cyrus Harding, the captain added,--
+
+“Fear nothing! You will but bury a corpse!”
+
+Neither Cyrus Harding nor his companions ventured to offer any
+observation to Captain Nemo. He had expressed his last wishes, and they
+had nothing to do but to conform to them.
+
+“I have your promise, gentlemen?” added Captain Nemo.
+
+“You have, captain,” replied the engineer.
+
+The captain thanked the colonists by a sign, and requested them to leave
+him for some hours. Gideon Spilett wished to remain near him, in the
+event of a crisis coming on, but the dying man refused, saying, “I shall
+live until to-morrow, sir.”
+
+All left the saloon, passed through the library and the dining-room, and
+arrived forward, in the machine-room where the electrical apparatus was
+established, which supplied not only heat and light, but the mechanical
+power of the “Nautilus.”
+
+The “Nautilus” was a masterpiece containing masterpieces within itself,
+and the engineer was struck with astonishment.
+
+The colonists mounted the platform, which rose seven or eight feet above
+the water. There they beheld a thick glass lenticular covering, which
+protected a kind of large eye, from which flashed forth light. Behind
+this eye was apparently a cabin containing the wheels of the rudder, and
+in which was stationed the helmsman, when he navigated the “Nautilus”
+ over the bed of the ocean, which the electric rays would evidently light
+up to a considerable distance.
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions remained for a time silent, for they
+were vividly impressed by what they had just seen and heard, and their
+hearts were deeply touched by the thought that he whose arm had so often
+aided them, the protector whom they had known but a few hours, was at
+the point of death.
+
+Whatever might be the judgment pronounced by posterity upon the events
+of this, so to speak, extra-human existence, the character of Prince
+Dakkar would ever remain as one of those whose memory time can never
+efface.
+
+“What a man!” said Pencroft. “Is it possible that he can have lived at
+the bottom of the sea? And it seems to me that perhaps he has not found
+peace there any more than elsewhere!”
+
+“The ‘Nautilus,’” observed Ayrton, “might have enabled us to leave
+Lincoln Island and reach some inhabited country.”
+
+“Good Heavens!” exclaimed Pencroft, “I for one would never risk myself
+in such a craft. To sail on the seas, good, but under the seas, never!”
+
+“I believe, Pencroft,” answered the reporter, “that the navigation of a
+submarine vessel such as the ‘Nautilus’ ought to be very easy, and that
+we should soon become accustomed to it. There would be no storms, no
+lee-shore to fear. At some feet beneath the surface the waters of the
+ocean are as calm as those of a lake.”
+
+“That may be,” replied the sailor, “but I prefer a gale of wind on
+board a well-found craft. A vessel is built to sail on the sea, and not
+beneath it.”
+
+“My friends,” said the engineer, “it is useless, at any rate as regards
+the ‘Nautilus,’ to discuss the question of submarine vessels. The
+‘Nautilus’ is not ours, and we have not the right to dispose of it.
+Moreover, we could in no case avail ourselves of it. Independently of
+the fact that it would be impossible to get it out of this cavern, whose
+entrance is now closed by the uprising of the basaltic rocks, Captain
+Nemo’s wish is that it shall be buried with him. His wish is our law,
+and we will fulfil it.”
+
+After a somewhat prolonged conversation, Cyrus Harding and his
+companions again descended to the interior of the “Nautilus.” There they
+took some refreshment and returned to the saloon.
+
+Captain Nemo had somewhat rallied from the prostration which had
+overcome him, and his eyes shone with their wonted fire. A faint smile
+even curled his lips.
+
+The colonists drew around him.
+
+“Gentlemen,” said the captain, “you are brave and honest men. You
+have devoted yourselves to the common weal. Often have I observed
+your conduct. I have esteemed you--I esteem you still! Your hand, Mr.
+Harding.”
+
+Cyrus Harding gave his hand to the captain, who clasped it
+affectionately.
+
+“It is well!” he murmured.
+
+He resumed,--
+
+“But enough of myself. I have to speak concerning yourselves, and this
+Lincoln Island, upon which you have taken refuge. You now desire to
+leave it?”
+
+“To return, captain!” answered Pencroft quickly.
+
+“To return, Pencroft?” said the captain, with a smile. “I know, it is
+true, your love for this island. You have helped to make it what it now
+is, and it seems to you a paradise!”
+
+“Our project, captain,” interposed Cyrus Harding, “is to annex it to the
+United States, and to establish for our shipping a port so fortunately
+situated in this part of the Pacific.”
+
+“Your thoughts are with your country, gentlemen,” continued the captain;
+“your toils are for her prosperity and glory. You are right. One’s
+native land!--there should one live! there die! And I die far from all I
+loved!”
+
+“You have some last wish to transmit,” said the engineer with emotion,
+“some souvenir to send to those friends you have left in the mountains
+of India?”
+
+“No, Captain Harding; no friends remain to me! I am the last of my race,
+and to all whom I have known I have long been as are the dead.--But
+to return to yourselves. Solitude, isolation, are painful things, and
+beyond human endurance. I die of having thought it possible to live
+alone! You should, therefore, dare all in the attempt to leave Lincoln
+Island, and see once more the land of your birth. I am aware that those
+wretches have destroyed the vessel you have built.”
+
+“We propose to construct a vessel,” said Gideon Spilett, “sufficiently
+large to convey us to the nearest land; but if we should succeed, sooner
+or later we shall return to Lincoln Island. We are attached to it by too
+many recollections ever to forget it.”
+
+“It is here that we have known Captain Nemo,” said Cyrus Harding.
+
+“It is here only that we can make our home!” added Herbert.
+
+“And here shall I sleep the sleep of eternity, if--” replied the
+captain.
+
+He paused for a moment, and, instead of completing the sentence, said
+simply,--
+
+“Mr. Harding, I wish to speak with you--alone!”
+
+The engineer’s companions, respecting the wish, retired.
+
+Cyrus Harding remained but a few minutes alone with Captain Nemo, and
+soon recalled his companions; but he said nothing to them of the private
+matters which the dying man had confided to him.
+
+Gideon Spilett now watched the captain with extreme care. It was evident
+that he was no longer sustained by his moral energy, which had lost the
+power of reaction against his physical weakness.
+
+The day closed without change. The colonists did not quit the “Nautilus”
+ for a moment. Night arrived, although it was impossible to distinguish
+it from day in the cavern.
+
+Captain Nemo suffered no pain, but he was visibly sinking. His noble
+features, paled by the approach of death, were perfectly calm. Inaudible
+words escaped at intervals from his lips, bearing upon various incidents
+of his checkered career. Life was evidently ebbing slowly and his
+extremities were already cold.
+
+Once or twice more he spoke to the colonists who stood around him, and
+smiled on them with that last smile which continues after death.
+
+At length, shortly after midnight, Captain Nemo by a supreme effort
+succeeded in folding his arms across his breast, as if wishing in that
+attitude to compose himself for death.
+
+By one o’clock his glance alone showed signs of life. A dying light
+gleamed in those eyes once so brilliant. Then, murmuring the words, “God
+and my country!” he quietly expired.
+
+Cyrus Harding, bending low closed the eyes of him who had once been the
+Prince Dakkar, and was now not even Captain Nemo.
+
+Herbert and Pencroft sobbed aloud. Tears fell from Ayrton’s eyes. Neb
+was on his knees by the reporter’s side, motionless as a statue.
+
+Then Cyrus Harding, extending his hand over the forehead of the dead,
+said solemnly, “May his soul be with God!” Turning to his friends, he
+added, “Let us pray for him whom we have lost!”
+
+
+Some hours later the colonists fulfilled the promise made to the captain
+by carrying out his dying wishes.
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions quitted the “Nautilus,” taking with
+them the only memento left them by their benefactor, the coffer which
+contained wealth amounting to millions.
+
+The marvelous saloon, still flooded with light, had been carefully
+closed. The iron door leading on deck was then securely fastened in
+such a manner as to prevent even a drop of water from penetrating to the
+interior of the “Nautilus.”
+
+The colonists then descended into the canoe, which was moored to the
+side of the submarine vessel.
+
+The canoe was now brought around to the stern. There, at the water-line,
+were two large stop-cocks communicating with the reservoirs employed in
+the submersion of the vessel.
+
+The stop-cocks were opened, the reservoirs filled, and the “Nautilus,”
+ slowly sinking, disappeared beneath the surface of the lake.
+
+But the colonists were yet able to follow its descent through the waves.
+The powerful light it gave forth lighted up the translucent water, while
+the cavern became gradually obscure. At length this vast effusion of
+electric light faded away, and soon after the “Nautilus,” now the tomb
+of Captain Nemo, reposed in its ocean bed.
+
+
+
+Chapter 18
+
+
+At break of day the colonists regained in silence the entrance of the
+cavern, to which they gave the name of “Dakkar Grotto,” in memory of
+Captain Nemo. It was now low-water, and they passed without difficulty
+under the arcade, washed on the right by the sea.
+
+The canoe was left here, carefully protected from the waves. As
+additional precaution, Pencroft, Neb, and Ayrton drew it up on a little
+beach which bordered one of the sides of the grotto, in a spot where it
+could run no risk of harm.
+
+The storm had ceased during the night. The last low mutterings of the
+thunder died away in the west. Rain fell no longer, but the sky was yet
+obscured by clouds. On the whole, this month of October, the first of
+the southern spring, was not ushered in by satisfactory tokens, and the
+wind had a tendency to shift from one point of the compass to another,
+which rendered it impossible to count upon settled weather.
+
+Cyrus Harding and his companions, on leaving Dakkar Grotto, had taken
+the road to the corral. On their way Neb and Herbert were careful to
+preserve the wire which had been laid down by the captain between the
+corral and the grotto, and which might at a future time be of service.
+
+The colonists spoke but little on the road. The various incidents of the
+night of October 15th had left a profound impression on their minds. The
+unknown being whose influence had so effectually protected them, the
+man whom their imagination had endowed with supernatural powers, Captain
+Nemo, was no more. His “Nautilus” and he were buried in the depths of
+the abyss. To each one of them their existence seemed even more isolated
+than before. They had been accustomed to count upon the intervention of
+that power which existed no longer, and Gideon Spilett, and even Cyrus
+Harding, could not escape this impression. Thus they maintained a
+profound silence during their journey to the corral.
+
+Towards nine in the morning the colonists arrived at Granite House.
+
+It had been agreed that the construction of the vessel should be
+actively pushed forward, and Cyrus Harding more than ever devoted his
+time and labor to this object. It was impossible to divine what future
+lay before them. Evidently the advantage to the colonists would be great
+of having at their disposal a substantial vessel, capable of keeping the
+sea even in heavy weather, and large enough to attempt, in case of
+need, a voyage of some duration. Even if, when their vessel should be
+completed, the colonists should not resolve to leave Lincoln Island as
+yet, in order to gain either one of the Polynesian Archipelagoes of the
+Pacific or the shores of New Zealand, they might at least, sooner or
+later, proceed to Tabor Island, to leave there the notice relating to
+Ayrton. This was a precaution rendered indispensable by the possibility
+of the Scotch yacht reappearing in those seas, and it was of the highest
+importance that nothing should be neglected on this point.
+
+The works were then resumed. Cyrus Harding, Pencroft, and Ayrton,
+assisted by Neb, Gideon Spilett, and Herbert, except when unavoidably
+called off by other necessary occupations, worked without cessation. It
+was important that the new vessel should be ready in five months--that
+is to say, by the beginning of March--if they wished to visit Tabor
+Island before the equinoctial gales rendered the voyage impracticable.
+Therefore the carpenters lost not a moment. Moreover, it was unnecessary
+to manufacture rigging, that of the “Speedy” having been saved entire,
+so that the hull only of the vessel needed to be constructed.
+
+The end of the year 1868 found them occupied by these important labors,
+to the exclusion of almost all others. At the expiration of two months
+and a half the ribs had been set up and the first planks adjusted. It
+was already evident that the plans made by Cyrus Harding were admirable,
+and that the vessel would behave well at sea.
+
+Pencroft brought to the task a devouring energy, and would even grumble
+when one or the other abandoned the carpenter’s axe for the gun of the
+hunter. It was nevertheless necessary to keep up the stores of Granite
+House, in view of the approaching winter. But this did not satisfy
+Pencroft. The brave, honest sailor was not content when the workmen were
+not at the dockyard. When this happened he grumbled vigorously, and, by
+way of venting his feelings, did the work of six men.
+
+The weather was very unfavorable during the whole of the summer season.
+For some days the heat was overpowering, and the atmosphere, saturated
+with electricity, was only cleared by violent storms. It was rarely that
+the distant growling of the thunder could not be heard, like a low but
+incessant murmur, such as is produced in the equatorial regions of the
+globe.
+
+The 1st of January, 1869, was signalized by a storm of extreme violence,
+and the thunder burst several times over the island. Large trees were
+struck by the electric fluid and shattered, and among others one of
+those gigantic nettle-trees which had shaded the poultry-yard at the
+southern extremity of the lake. Had this meteor any relation to the
+phenomena going on in the bowels of the earth? Was there any connection
+between the commotion of the atmosphere and that of the interior of the
+earth? Cyrus Harding was inclined to think that such was the case, for
+the development of these storms was attended by the renewal of volcanic
+symptoms.
+
+It was on the 3rd of January that Herbert, having ascended at daybreak
+to the plateau of Prospect Heights to harness one of the onagers,
+perceived an enormous hat-shaped cloud rolling from the summit of the
+volcano.
+
+Herbert immediately apprised the colonists, who at once joined him in
+watching the summit of Mount Franklin.
+
+“Ah!” exclaimed Pencroft, “those are not vapors this time! It seems to
+me that the giant is not content with breathing; he must smoke!”
+
+This figure of speech employed by the sailor exactly expressed the
+changes going on at the mouth of the volcano. Already for three months
+had the crater emitted vapors more or less dense, but which were as yet
+produced only by an internal ebullition of mineral substances. But
+now the vapors were replaced by a thick smoke, rising in the form of a
+grayish column, more than three hundred feet in width at its base, and
+which spread like an immense mushroom to a height of from seven to eight
+hundred feet above the summit of the mountain.
+
+“The fire is in the chimney,” observed Gideon Spilett.
+
+“And we can’t put it out!” replied Herbert.
+
+“The volcano ought to be swept,” observed Neb, who spoke as if perfectly
+serious.
+
+“Well said, Neb!” cried Pencroft, with a shout of laughter; “and you’ll
+undertake the job, no doubt?”
+
+Cyrus Harding attentively observed the dense smoke emitted by Mount
+Franklin, and even listened, as if expecting to hear some distant
+muttering. Then, turning towards his companions, from whom he had gone
+somewhat apart, he said,--
+
+“The truth is, my friends, we must not conceal from ourselves that an
+important change is going forward. The volcanic substances are no longer
+in a state of ebullition, they have caught fire, and we are undoubtedly
+menaced by an approaching eruption.”
+
+“Well, captain,” said Pencroft, “we shall witness the eruption; and if
+it is a good one, we’ll applaud it. I don’t see that we need concern
+ourselves further about the matter.”
+
+“It may be so,” replied Cyrus Harding, “for the ancient track of
+the lava is still open; and thanks to this, the crater has hitherto
+overflowed towards the north. And yet--”
+
+“And yet, as we can derive no advantage from an eruption, it might be
+better it should not take place,” said the reporter.
+
+“Who knows?” answered the sailor. “Perhaps there may be some valuable
+substance in this volcano, which it will spout forth, and which we may
+turn to good account!”
+
+Cyrus Harding shook his head with the air of a man who augured no good
+from the phenomenon whose development had been so sudden. He did not
+regard so lightly as Pencroft the results of an eruption. If the lava,
+in consequence of the position of the crater, did not directly menace
+the wooded and cultivated parts of the island, other complications might
+present themselves. In fact, eruptions are not unfrequently accompanied
+by earthquakes; and an island of the nature of Lincoln Island, formed of
+substances so varied, basalt on one side, granite on the other, lava on
+the north, rich soil on the south, substances which consequently could
+not be firmly attached to each other, would be exposed to the risk
+of disintegration. Although, therefore, the spreading of the volcanic
+matter might not constitute a serious danger, any movement of the
+terrestrial structure which should shake the island might entail the
+gravest consequences.
+
+“It seems to me,” said Ayrton, who had reclined so as to place his ear
+to the ground, “it seems to me that I can hear a dull, rumbling sound,
+like that of a wagon loaded with bars of iron.”
+
+The colonists listened with the greatest attention, and were convinced
+that Ayrton was not mistaken. The rumbling was mingled with a
+subterranean roar, which formed a sort of rinforzando, and died slowly
+away, as if some violent storm had passed through the profundities of
+the globe. But no explosion properly so termed, could be heard. It might
+therefore be concluded that the vapors and smoke found a free passage
+through the central shaft; and that the safety-valve being sufficiently
+large, no convulsion would be produced, no explosion was to be
+apprehended.
+
+“Well, then!” said Pencroft, “are we not going back to work? Let Mount
+Franklin smoke, groan, bellow, or spout forth fire and flame as much as
+it pleases, that is no reason why we should be idle! Come, Ayrton, Neb,
+Herbert, Captain Harding, Mr. Spilett, every one of us must turn to at
+our work to-day! We are going to place the keelson, and a dozen pair
+of hands would not be too many. Before two months I want our new
+‘Bonadventure’--for we shall keep the old name, shall we not?--to float
+on the waters of Port Balloon! Therefore there is not an hour to lose!”
+
+All the colonists, their services thus requisitioned by Pencroft,
+descended to the dockyard, and proceeded to place the keelson, a thick
+mass of wood which forms the lower portion of a ship and unites firmly
+the timbers of the hull. It was an arduous undertaking, in which all
+took part.
+
+They continued their labors during the whole of this day, the 3rd of
+January, without thinking further of the volcano, which could not,
+besides, be seen from the shore of Granite House. But once or twice,
+large shadows, veiling the sun, which described its diurnal arc through
+an extremely clear sky, indicated that a thick cloud of smoke passed
+between its disc and the island. The wind, blowing on the shore, carried
+all these vapors to the westward. Cyrus Harding and Gideon Spilett
+remarked these somber appearances, and from time to time discussed
+the evident progress of the volcanic phenomena, but their work went
+on without interruption. It was, besides, of the first importance from
+every point of view, that the vessel should be finished with the least
+possible delay. In presence of the eventualities which might arise,
+the safety of the colonists would be to a great extent secured by their
+ship. Who could tell that it might not prove some day their only refuge?
+
+In the evening, after supper, Cyrus Harding, Gideon Spilett, and Herbert
+again ascended the plateau of Prospect Heights. It was already dark, and
+the obscurity would permit them to ascertain if flames or incandescent
+matter thrown up by the volcano were mingled with the vapor and smoke
+accumulated at the mouth of the crater.
+
+“The crater is on fire!” said Herbert, who, more active than his
+companion, first reached the plateau.
+
+Mount Franklin, distant about six miles, now appeared like a gigantic
+torch, around the summit of which turned fuliginous flames. So much
+smoke, and possibly scoriae and cinders were mingled with them, that
+their light gleamed but faintly amid the gloom of the night. But a kind
+of lurid brilliancy spread over the island, against which stood out
+confusedly the wooded masses of the heights. Immense whirlwinds of vapor
+obscured the sky, through which glimmered a few stars.
+
+“The change is rapid!” said the engineer.
+
+“That is not surprising,” answered the reporter. “The reawakening of the
+volcano already dates back some time. You may remember, Cyrus, that
+the first vapors appeared about the time we searched the sides of the
+mountain to discover Captain Nemo’s retreat. It was, if I mistake not,
+about the 15th of October.”
+
+“Yes,” replied Herbert, “two months and a half ago!”
+
+“The subterranean fires have therefore been smoldering for ten weeks,”
+ resumed Gideon Spilett, “and it is not to be wondered at that they now
+break out with such violence!”
+
+“Do not you feel a certain vibration of the soil?” asked Cyrus Harding.
+
+“Yes,” replied Gideon Spilett, “but there is a great difference between
+that and an earthquake.”
+
+“I do not affirm that we are menaced with an earthquake,” answered Cyrus
+Harding, “may God preserve us from that! No; these vibrations are due to
+the effervescence of the central fire. The crust of the earth is
+simply the shell of a boiler, and you know that such a shell, under the
+pressure of steam, vibrates like a sonorous plate. It is this effect
+which is being produced at this moment.”
+
+“What magnificent flames!” exclaimed Herbert.
+
+At this instant a kind of bouquet of flames shot forth from the crater,
+the brilliancy of which was visible even through the vapors. Thousands
+of luminous sheets and barbed tongues of fire were cast in various
+directions. Some, extending beyond the dome of smoke, dissipated
+it, leaving behind an incandescent powder. This was accompanied
+by successive explosions, resembling the discharge of a battery of
+machine-guns.
+
+Cyrus Harding, the reporter, and Herbert, after spending an hour on the
+plateau of Prospect Heights, again descended to the beach, and returned
+to Granite House. The engineer was thoughtful and preoccupied, so much
+so, indeed, that Gideon Spilett inquired if he apprehended any immediate
+danger, of which the eruption might directly or indirectly be the cause.
+
+“Yes, and no,” answered Cyrus Harding.
+
+“Nevertheless,” continued the reporter, “would not the greatest
+misfortune which could happen to us be an earthquake which would
+overturn the island? Now, I do not suppose that this is to be feared,
+since the vapors and lava have found a free outlet.”
+
+“True,” replied Cyrus Harding, “and I do not fear an earthquake in the
+sense in which the term is commonly applied to convulsions of the soil
+provoked by the expansion of subterranean gases. But other causes may
+produce great disasters.”
+
+“How so, my dear Cyrus?’
+
+“I am not certain. I must consider. I must visit the mountain. In a few
+days I shall learn more on this point.”
+
+Gideon Spilett said no more, and soon, in spite of the explosions of
+the volcano, whose intensity increased, and which were repeated by the
+echoes of the island, the inhabitants of Granite House were sleeping
+soundly.
+
+Three days passed by--the 4th, 5th, and 6th of January. The construction
+of the vessel was diligently continued, and without offering further
+explanations the engineer pushed forward the work with all his energy.
+Mount Franklin was now hooded by a somber cloud of sinister aspect, and,
+amid the flames, vomiting forth incandescent rocks, some of which fell
+back into the crater itself. This caused Pencroft, who would only look
+at the matter in the light of a joke, to exclaim,--
+
+“Ah! the giant is playing at cup and ball; he is a conjurer.”
+
+In fact, the substances thrown up fell back again in to the abyss, and
+it did not seem that the lava, though swollen by the internal pressure,
+had yet risen to the orifice of the crater. At any rate, the opening on
+the northeast, which was partly visible, poured out no torrent upon the
+northern slope of the mountain.
+
+Nevertheless, however pressing was the construction of the vessel, other
+duties demanded the presence of the colonists on various portions of the
+island. Before everything it was necessary to go to the corral, where
+the flocks of musmons and goats were enclosed, and replenish the
+provision of forage for those animals. It was accordingly arranged that
+Ayrton should proceed thither the next day, the 7th of January; and as
+he was sufficient for the task, to which he was accustomed, Pencroft and
+the rest were somewhat surprised on hearing the engineer say to Ayrton--
+
+“As you are going to-morrow to the corral I will accompany you.”
+
+“But, Captain Harding,” exclaimed the sailor, “our working days will not
+be many, and if you go also we shall be two pair of hands short!”
+
+“We shall return to-morrow,” replied Cyrus Harding, “but it is necessary
+that I should go to the corral. I must learn how the eruption is
+progressing.”
+
+“The eruption! always the eruption!” answered Pencroft, with an air of
+discontent. “An important thing, truly, this eruption! I trouble myself
+very little about it.”
+
+Whatever might be the sailor’s opinion, the expedition projected by the
+engineer was settled for the next day. Herbert wished to accompany Cyrus
+Harding, but he would not vex Pencroft by his absence.
+
+The next day, at dawn, Cyrus Harding and Ayrton, mounting the cart drawn
+by two onagers, took the road to the corral and set off at a round trot.
+
+Above the forest were passing large clouds, to which the crater of Mount
+Franklin incessantly added fuliginous matter. These clouds, which rolled
+heavily in the air, were evidently composed of heterogeneous substances.
+It was not alone from the volcano that they derived their strange
+opacity and weight. Scoriae, in a state of dust, like powdered
+pumice-stone, and grayish ashes as small as the finest feculae, were
+held in suspension in the midst of their thick folds. These ashes are so
+fine that they have been observed in the air for whole months. After
+the eruption of 1783 in Iceland for upwards of a year the atmosphere was
+thus charged with volcanic dust through which the rays of the sun were
+only with difficulty discernible.
+
+But more often this pulverized matter falls, and this happened on the
+present occasion. Cyrus Harding and Ayrton had scarcely reached the
+corral when a sort of black snow like fine gunpowder fell, and instantly
+changed the appearance of the soil. Trees, meadows, all disappeared
+beneath a covering several inches in depth. But, very fortunately,
+the wind blew from the northeast, and the greater part of the cloud
+dissolved itself over the sea.
+
+“This is very singular, Captain Harding,” said Ayrton.
+
+“It is very serious,” replied the engineer. “This powdered pumice-stone,
+all this mineral dust, proves how grave is the convulsion going forward
+in the lower depths of the volcano.”
+
+“But can nothing be done?”
+
+“Nothing, except to note the progress of the phenomenon. Do you,
+therefore, Ayrton, occupy yourself with the necessary work at the
+corral. In the meantime I will ascend just beyond the source of Red
+Creek and examine the condition of the mountain upon its northern
+aspect. Then--”
+
+“Well, Captain Harding?”
+
+“Then we will pay a visit to Dakkar Grotto. I wish to inspect it. At any
+rate I will come back for you in two hours.”
+
+Ayrton then proceeded to enter the corral, and, while awaiting the
+engineer’s return, busied himself with the musmons and goats which
+seemed to feel a certain uneasiness in presence of these first signs of
+an eruption.
+
+Meanwhile Cyrus Harding ascended the crest of the eastern spur, passed
+Red Creek, and arrived at the spot where he and his companions had
+discovered a sulphurous spring at the time of their first exploration.
+
+How changed was everything! Instead of a single column of smoke he
+counted thirteen, forced through the soil as if violently propelled by
+some piston. It was evident that the crust of the earth was subjected
+in this part of the globe to a frightful pressure. The atmosphere was
+saturated with gases and carbonic acid, mingled with aqueous vapors.
+Cyrus Harding felt the volcanic tufa with which the plain was strewn,
+and which was but pulverized cinders hardened into solid blocks by time,
+tremble beneath him, but he could discover no traces of fresh lava.
+
+The engineer became more assured of this when he observed all the
+northern part of Mount Franklin. Pillars of smoke and flame escaped from
+the crater; a hail of scoriae fell on the ground; but no current of
+lava burst from the mouth of the volcano, which proved that the volcanic
+matter had not yet attained the level of the superior orifice of the
+central shaft.
+
+“But I would prefer that it were so,” said Cyrus Harding to himself. “At
+any rate, I should then know that the lava had followed its accustomed
+track. Who can say that it may not take a new course? But the danger
+does not consist in that! Captain Nemo foresaw it clearly! No, the
+danger does not lie there!”
+
+Cyrus Harding advanced towards the enormous causeway whose prolongation
+enclosed the narrow Shark Gulf. He could now sufficiently examine on
+this side the ancient channels of the lava. There was no doubt in his
+mind that the most recent eruption had occurred at a far-distant epoch.
+
+He then returned by the same way, listening attentively to the
+subterranean mutterings which rolled like long-continued thunder,
+interrupted by deafening explosions. At nine in the morning he reached
+the corral.
+
+Ayrton awaited him.
+
+“The animals are cared for, Captain Harding,” said Ayrton.
+
+“Good, Ayrton.”
+
+“They seem uneasy, Captain Harding.”
+
+“Yes, instinct speaks through them, and instinct is never deceived.”
+
+“Are you ready?”
+
+“Take a lamp, Ayrton,” answered the engineer; “we will start at once.”
+
+Ayrton did as desired. The onagers, unharnessed, roamed in the corral.
+The gate was secured on the outside, and Cyrus Harding, preceding
+Ayrton, took the narrow path which led westward to the shore.
+
+The soil they walked upon was choked with the pulverized matter fallen
+from the cloud. No quadruped appeared in the woods. Even the birds had
+fled. Sometimes a passing breeze raised the covering of ashes, and the
+two colonists, enveloped in a whirlwind of dust, lost sight of each
+other. They were then careful to cover their eyes and mouths with
+handkerchiefs, for they ran the risk of being blinded and suffocated.
+
+It was impossible for Cyrus Harding and Ayrton, with these impediments,
+to make rapid progress. Moreover, the atmosphere was close, as if the
+oxygen had been partly burned up, and had become unfit for respiration.
+At every hundred paces they were obliged to stop to take breath. It was
+therefore past ten o’clock when the engineer and his companion reached
+the crest of the enormous mass of rocks of basalt and porphyry which
+composed the northwest coast of the island.
+
+Ayrton and Cyrus Harding commenced the descent of this abrupt declivity,
+following almost step for step the difficult path which, during that
+stormy night, had led them to Dakkar Grotto. In open day the descent was
+less perilous, and, besides, the bed of ashes which covered the polished
+surface of the rock enabled them to make their footing more secure.
+
+The ridge at the end of the shore, about forty feet in height, was soon
+reached. Cyrus Harding recollected that this elevation gradually sloped
+towards the level of the sea. Although the tide was at present low, no
+beach could be seen, and the waves, thickened by the volcanic dust, beat
+upon the basaltic rocks.
+
+Cyrus Harding and Ayrton found without difficulty the entrance to Dakkar
+Grotto, and paused for a moment at the last rock before it.
+
+“The iron boat should be there,” said the engineer.
+
+“It is here, Captain Harding,” replied Ayrton, drawing towards him the
+fragile craft, which was protected by the arch of the vault.
+
+“On board, Ayrton!”
+
+The two colonists stepped into the boat. A slight undulation of the
+waves carried it farther under the low arch of the crypt, and there
+Ayrton, with the aid of flint and steel, lighted the lamp. He then took
+the oars, and the lamp having been placed in the bow of the boat, so
+that its rays fell before them, Cyrus Harding took the helm and steered
+through the shades of the grotto.
+
+The “Nautilus” was there no longer to illuminate the cavern with its
+electric light. Possibly it might not yet be extinguished, but no ray
+escaped from the depths of the abyss in which reposed all that was
+mortal of Captain Nemo.
+
+The light afforded by the lamp, although feeble, nevertheless enabled
+the engineer to advance slowly, following the wall of the cavern. A
+deathlike silence reigned under the vaulted roof, or at least in the
+anterior portion, for soon Cyrus Harding distinctly heard the rumbling
+which proceeded from the bowels of the mountain.
+
+“That comes from the volcano,” he said.
+
+Besides these sounds, the presence of chemical combinations was soon
+betrayed by their powerful odor, and the engineer and his companion were
+almost suffocated by sulphurous vapors.
+
+“This is what Captain Nemo feared,” murmured Cyrus Harding, changing
+countenance. “We must go to the end, notwithstanding.”
+
+“Forward!” replied Ayrton, bending to his oars and directing the boat
+towards the head of the cavern.
+
+Twenty-five minutes after entering the mouth of the grotto the boat
+reached the extreme end.
+
+Cyrus Harding then, standing up, cast the light of the lamp upon the
+walls of the cavern which separated it from the central shaft of the
+volcano. What was the thickness of this wall? It might be ten feet or a
+hundred feet--it was impossible to say. But the subterranean sounds were
+too perceptible to allow of the supposition that it was of any great
+thickness.
+
+The engineer, after having explored the wall at a certain height
+horizontally, fastened the lamp to the end of an oar, and again surveyed
+the basaltic wall at a greater elevation.
+
+There, through scarcely visible clefts and joinings, escaped a pungent
+vapor, which infected the atmosphere of the cavern. The wall was broken
+by large cracks, some of which extended to within two or three feet of
+the water’s edge.
+
+Cyrus Harding thought for a brief space. Then he said in a low voice,--
+
+“Yes! the captain was right! The danger lies there, and a terrible
+danger!”
+
+Ayrton said not a word, but, upon a sign from Cyrus Harding, resumed the
+oars, and half an hour later the engineer and he reached the entrance of
+Dakkar Grotto.
+
+
+
+Chapter 19
+
+The next day, the 8th day of January, after a day and night passed
+at the corral, where they left all in order, Cyrus Harding and Ayrton
+arrived at Granite House.
+
+The engineer immediately called his companions together, and informed
+them of the imminent danger which threatened Lincoln Island, and from
+which no human power could deliver them.
+
+“My friends,” he said, and his voice betrayed the depth of his emotion,
+“our island is not among those which will endure while this earth
+endures. It is doomed to more or less speedy destruction, the cause of
+which it bears within itself, and from which nothing can save it.”
+
+The colonists looked at each other, then at the engineer. They did not
+clearly comprehend him.
+
+“Explain yourself, Cyrus!” said Gideon Spilett.
+
+“I will do so,” replied Cyrus Harding, “or rather I will simply
+afford you the explanation which, during our few minutes of private
+conversation, was given me by Captain Nemo.”
+
+“Captain Nemo!” exclaimed the colonists.
+
+“Yes, and it was the last service he desired to render us before his
+death!”
+
+“The last service!” exclaimed Pencroft, “the last service! You will see
+that though he is dead he will render us others yet!”
+
+“But what did the captain say?” inquired the reporter.
+
+“I will tell you, my friends,” said the engineer. “Lincoln Island does
+not resemble the other islands of the Pacific, and a fact of which
+Captain Nemo has made me cognizant must sooner or later bring about the
+subversion of its foundation.”
+
+“Nonsense! Lincoln Island, it can’t be!” cried Pencroft, who, in spite
+of the respect he felt for Cyrus Harding, could not prevent a gesture of
+incredulity.
+
+“Listen, Pencroft,” resumed the engineer, “I will tell you what Captain
+Nemo communicated to me, and which I myself confirmed yesterday, during
+the exploration of Dakkar Grotto.
+
+“This cavern stretches under the island as far as the volcano, and is
+only separated from its central shaft by the wall which terminates it.
+Now, this wall is seamed with fissures and clefts which already allow
+the sulphurous gases generated in the interior of the volcano to
+escape.”
+
+“Well?” said Pencroft, his brow suddenly contracting.
+
+“Well, then, I saw that these fissures widen under the internal pressure
+from within, that the wall of basalt is gradually giving way and that
+after a longer or shorter period it will afford a passage to the waters
+of the lake which fill the cavern.”
+
+“Good!” replied Pencroft, with an attempt at pleasantry. “The sea will
+extinguish the volcano, and there will be an end of the matter!”
+
+“Not so!” said Cyrus Harding, “should a day arrive when the sea, rushing
+through the wall of the cavern, penetrates by the central shaft into the
+interior of the island to the boiling lava, Lincoln Island will that day
+be blown into the air--just as would happen to the island of Sicily were
+the Mediterranean to precipitate itself into Mount Etna.”
+
+The colonists made no answer to these significant words of the engineer.
+They now understood the danger by which they were menaced.
+
+It may be added that Cyrus Harding had in no way exaggerated the danger
+to be apprehended. Many persons have formed an idea that it would be
+possible to extinguish volcanoes, which are almost always situated on
+the shores of a sea or lake, by opening a passage for the admission of
+the water. But they are not aware that this would be to incur the risk
+of blowing up a portion of the globe, like a boiler whose steam is
+suddenly expanded by intense heat. The water, rushing into a cavity
+whose temperature might be estimated at thousands of degrees, would
+be converted into steam with a sudden energy which no enclosure could
+resist.
+
+It was not therefore doubtful that the island, menaced by a frightful
+and approaching convulsion, would endure only so long as the wall
+of Dakkar Grotto itself should endure. It was not even a question of
+months, nor of weeks, but of days; it might be of hours.
+
+The first sentiment which the colonists felt was that of profound
+sorrow. They thought not so much of the peril which menaced themselves
+personally, but of the destruction of the island which had sheltered
+them, which they had cultivated, which they loved so well, and had hoped
+to render so flourishing. So much effort ineffectually expended, so much
+labor lost.
+
+Pencroft could not prevent a large tear from rolling down his cheek, nor
+did he attempt to conceal it.
+
+Some further conversation now took place. The chances yet in favor of
+the colonists were discussed; but finally it was agreed that there was
+not an hour to be lost, that the building and fitting of the vessel
+should be pushed forward with their utmost energy, and that this was the
+sole chance of safety for the inhabitants of Lincoln Island.
+
+All hands, therefore, set to work on the vessel. What could it avail
+to sow, to reap, to hunt, to increase the stores of Granite House?
+The contents of the storehouse and outbuildings contained more than
+sufficient to provide the ship for a voyage, however long might be its
+duration. But it was imperative that the ship should be ready to receive
+them before the inevitable catastrophe should arrive.
+
+Their labors were now carried on with feverish ardor. By the 23rd of
+January the vessel was half-decked over. Up to this time no change had
+taken place on the summit of the volcano. Vapor and smoke mingled with
+flames and incandescent stones were thrown up from the crater. But
+during the night of the 23rd, in consequence of the lava attaining the
+level of the first stratum of the volcano, the hat-shaped cone which
+formed over the latter disappeared. A frightful sound was heard. The
+colonists at first thought the island was rent asunder, and rushed out
+of Granite House.
+
+This occurred about two o’clock in the morning.
+
+The sky appeared on fire. The superior cone, a mass of rock a thousand
+feet in height, and weighing thousands of millions of pounds, had
+been thrown down upon the island, making it tremble to its foundation.
+Fortunately, this cone inclined to the north, and had fallen upon the
+plain of sand and tufa stretching between the volcano and the sea. The
+aperture of the crater being thus enlarged projected towards the sky a
+glare so intense that by the simple effect of reflection the atmosphere
+appeared red-hot. At the same time a torrent of lava, bursting from the
+new summit, poured out in long cascades, like water escaping from a vase
+too full, and a thousand tongues of fire crept over the sides of the
+volcano.
+
+“The corral! the corral!” exclaimed Ayrton.
+
+It was, in fact, towards the corral that the lava was rushing as the
+new crater faced the east, and consequently the fertile portions of the
+island, the springs of Red Creek and Jacamar Wood, were menaced with
+instant destruction.
+
+At Ayrton’s cry the colonists rushed to the onagers’ stables. The cart
+was at once harnessed. All were possessed by the same thought--to hasten
+to the corral and set at liberty the animals it enclosed.
+
+Before three in the morning they arrived at the corral. The cries of the
+terrified musmons and goats indicated the alarm which possessed them.
+Already a torrent of burning matter and liquefied minerals fell from
+the side of the mountain upon the meadows as far as the side of the
+palisade. The gate was burst open by Ayrton, and the animals, bewildered
+with terror, fled in all directions.
+
+An hour afterwards the boiling lava filled the corral, converting into
+vapor the water of the little rivulet which ran through it, burning up
+the house like dry grass, and leaving not even a post of the palisade to
+mark the spot where the corral once stood.
+
+To contend against this disaster would have been folly--nay, madness. In
+presence of Nature’s grand convulsions man is powerless.
+
+It was now daylight--the 24th of January. Cyrus Harding and his
+companions, before returning to Granite House, desired to ascertain the
+probable direction this inundation of lava was about to take. The soil
+sloped gradually from Mount Franklin to the east coast, and it was to be
+feared that, in spite of the thick Jacamar Wood, the torrent would reach
+the plateau of Prospect Heights.
+
+“The lake will cover us,” said Gideon Spilett.
+
+“I hope so!” was Cyrus Harding’s only reply.
+
+The colonists were desirous of reaching the plain upon which the
+superior cone of Mount Franklin had fallen, but the lava arrested their
+progress. It had followed, on one side, the valley of Red Creek, and
+on the other that of Falls River, evaporating those watercourses in its
+passage. There was no possibility of crossing the torrent of lava;
+on the contrary, the colonists were obliged to retreat before it. The
+volcano, without its crown, was no longer recognizable, terminated as it
+was by a sort of flat table which replaced the ancient crater. From two
+openings in its southern and eastern sides an unceasing flow of lava
+poured forth, thus forming two distinct streams. Above the new crater a
+cloud of smoke and ashes, mingled with those of the atmosphere, massed
+over the island. Loud peals of thunder broke, and could scarcely be
+distinguished from the rumblings of the mountain, whose mouth vomited
+forth ignited rocks, which, hurled to more than a thousand feet, burst
+in the air like shells. Flashes of lightning rivaled in intensity the
+volcano’s eruption.
+
+Towards seven in the morning the position was no longer tenable by the
+colonists, who accordingly took shelter in the borders of Jacamar Wood.
+Not only did the projectiles begin to rain around them, but the lava,
+overflowing the bed of Red Creek, threatened to cut off the road to the
+corral. The nearest rows of trees caught fire, and their sap, suddenly
+transformed into vapor, caused them to explode with loud reports, while
+others, less moist, remained unhurt in the midst of the inundation.
+
+The colonists had again taken the road to the corral. They proceeded but
+slowly, frequently looking back; but, in consequence of the inclination
+of the soil, the lava gained rapidly in the east, and as its lower waves
+became solidified others, at boiling heat, covered them immediately.
+
+Meanwhile, the principal stream of Red Creek Valley became more and
+more menacing. All this portion of the forest was on fire, and enormous
+wreaths of smoke rolled over the trees, whose trunks were already
+consumed by the lava.
+
+The colonists halted near the lake, about half a mile from the mouth of
+Red Creek. A question of life or death was now to be decided.
+
+Cyrus Harding, accustomed to the consideration of important crises, and
+aware that he was addressing men capable of hearing the truth, whatever
+it might be, then said,--
+
+“Either the lake will arrest the progress of the lava, and a part of
+the island will be preserved from utter destruction, or the stream will
+overrun the forests of the Far West, and not a tree or plant will
+remain on the surface of the soil. We shall have no prospect but that
+of starvation upon these barren rocks--a death which will probably be
+anticipated by the explosion of the island.”
+
+“In that case,” replied Pencroft, folding his arms and stamping his
+foot, “what’s the use of working any longer on the vessel?”
+
+“Pencroft,” answered Cyrus Harding, “we must do our duty to the last!”
+
+At this instant the river of lava, after having broken a passage through
+the noble trees it devoured in its course, reached the borders of the
+lake. At this point there was an elevation of the soil which, had it
+been greater, might have sufficed to arrest the torrent.
+
+“To work!” cried Cyrus Harding.
+
+The engineer’s thought was at once understood. It might be possible to
+dam, as it were, the torrent, and thus compel it to pour itself into the
+lake.
+
+The colonists hastened to the dockyard. They returned with shovels,
+picks, axes, and by means of banking the earth with the aid of fallen
+trees they succeeded in a few hours in raising an embankment three feet
+high and some hundreds of paces in length. It seemed to them, when
+they had finished, as if they had scarcely been working more than a few
+minutes.
+
+It was not a moment too soon. The liquefied substances soon after
+reached the bottom of the barrier. The stream of lava swelled like a
+river about to overflow its banks, and threatened to demolish the sole
+obstacle which could prevent it from overrunning the whole Far West. But
+the dam held firm, and after a moment of terrible suspense the torrent
+precipitated itself into Grant Lake from a height of twenty feet.
+
+The colonists, without moving or uttering a word, breathlessly regarded
+this strife of the two elements.
+
+What a spectacle was this conflict between water and fire! What pen
+could describe the marvelous horror of this scene--what pencil could
+depict it? The water hissed as it evaporated by contact with the boiling
+lava. The vapor whirled in the air to an immeasurable height, as if
+the valves of an immense boiler had been suddenly opened. But, however
+considerable might be the volume of water contained in the lake, it must
+eventually be absorbed, because it was not replenished, while the stream
+of lava, fed from an inexhaustible source, rolled on without ceasing new
+waves of incandescent matter.
+
+The first waves of lava which fell in the lake immediately solidified
+and accumulated so as speedily to emerge from it. Upon their surface
+fell other waves, which in their turn became stone, but a step
+nearer the center of the lake. In this manner was formed a pier which
+threatened to gradually fill up the lake, which could not overflow, the
+water displaced by the lava being evaporated. The hissing of the water
+rent the air with a deafening sound, and the vapor, blown by the wind,
+fell in rain upon the sea. The pier became longer and longer, and the
+blocks of lava piled themselves one on another. Where formerly stretched
+the calm waters of the lake now appeared an enormous mass of smoking
+rocks, as if an upheaving of the soil had formed immense shoals. Imagine
+the waters of the lake aroused by a hurricane, then suddenly solidified
+by an intense frost, and some conception may be formed of the aspect of
+the lake three hours after the eruption of this irresistible torrent of
+lava.
+
+This time water would be vanquished by fire.
+
+Nevertheless it was a fortunate circumstance for the colonists that the
+effusion of lava should have been in the direction of Lake Grant. They
+had before them some days’ respite. The plateau of Prospect Heights,
+Granite House, and the dockyard were for the moment preserved. And these
+few days it was necessary to employ in planking and carefully calking
+the vessel, and launching her. The colonists would then take refuge on
+board the vessel, content to rig her after she should be afloat on the
+waters. With the danger of an explosion which threatened to destroy the
+island there could be no security on shore. The walls of Granite House,
+once so sure a retreat, might at any moment fall in upon them.
+
+During the six following days, from the 25th to the 30th of January, the
+colonists accomplished as much of the construction of their vessel as
+twenty men could have done. They hardly allowed themselves a moment’s
+repose, and the glare of the flames which shot from the crater enabled
+them to work night and day. The flow of lava continued, but perhaps
+less abundantly. This was fortunate, for Lake Grant was almost entirely
+choked up, and if more lava should accumulate it would inevitably spread
+over the plateau of Prospect Heights, and thence upon the beach.
+
+But if the island was thus partially protected on this side, it was not
+so with the western part.
+
+In fact, the second stream of lava, which had followed the valley of
+Falls River, a valley of great extent, the land on both sides of the
+creek being flat, met with no obstacle. The burning liquid had then
+spread through the forest of the Far West. At this period of the year,
+when the trees were dried up by a tropical heat, the forest caught fire
+instantaneously, in such a manner that the conflagration extended itself
+both by the trunks of the trees and by their higher branches, whose
+interlacement favored its progress. It even appeared that the current
+of flame spread more rapidly among the summits of the trees than the
+current of lava at their bases.
+
+Thus it happened that the wild animals, jaguars, wild boars, capybaras,
+koalas, and game of every kind, mad with terror, had fled to the banks
+of the Mercy and to the Tadorn Marsh, beyond the road to Port Balloon.
+But the colonists were too much occupied with their task to pay any
+attention to even the most formidable of these animals. They had
+abandoned Granite House, and would not even take shelter at the
+Chimneys, but encamped under a tent, near the mouth of the Mercy.
+
+Each day Cyrus Harding and Gideon Spilett ascended the plateau of
+Prospect Heights. Sometimes Herbert accompanied them, but never
+Pencroft, who could not bear to look upon the prospect of the island now
+so utterly devastated.
+
+It was, in truth, a heart-rending spectacle. All the wooded part of the
+island was now completely bare. One single clump of green trees raised
+their heads at the extremity of Serpentine Peninsula. Here and there
+were a few grotesque blackened and branchless stumps. The side of the
+devastated forest was even more barren than Tadorn Marsh. The eruption
+of lava had been complete. Where formerly sprang up that charming
+verdure, the soil was now nothing but a savage mass of volcanic tufa.
+In the valleys of the Falls and Mercy rivers no drop of water now
+flowed towards the sea, and should Lake Grant be entirely dried up,
+the colonists would have no means of quenching their thirst. But,
+fortunately the lava had spared the southern corner of the lake,
+containing all that remained of the drinking water of the island.
+Towards the northwest stood out the rugged and well-defined outlines of
+the sides of the volcano, like a gigantic claw hovering over the island.
+What a sad and fearful sight, and how painful to the colonists, who,
+from a fertile domain covered with forests, irrigated by watercourses,
+and enriched by the produce of their toils, found themselves, as it
+were, transported to a desolate rock, upon which, but for their reserves
+of provisions, they could not even gather the means of subsistence!
+
+“It is enough to break one’s heart!” said Gideon Spilett, one day.
+
+“Yes, Spilett,” answered the engineer. “May God grant us the time to
+complete this vessel, now our sole refuge!”
+
+“Do not you think, Cyrus, that the violence of the eruption has somewhat
+lessened? The volcano still vomits forth lava, but somewhat less
+abundantly, if I mistake not.”
+
+“It matters little,” answered Cyrus Harding. “The fire is still burning
+in the interior of the mountain, and the sea may break in at any moment.
+We are in the condition of passengers whose ship is devoured by a
+conflagration which they cannot extinguish, and who know that sooner or
+later the flames must reach the powder-magazine. To work, Spilett, to
+work, and let us not lose an hour!”
+
+During eight days more, that is to say until the 7th of February,
+the lava continued to flow, but the eruption was confined within the
+previous limits. Cyrus Harding feared above all lest the liquefied
+matter should overflow the shore, for in that event the dockyard could
+not escape. Moreover, about this time the colonists felt in the frame of
+the island vibrations which alarmed them to the highest degree.
+
+It was the 20th of February. Yet another month must elapse before the
+vessel would be ready for sea. Would the island hold together till then?
+The intention of Pencroft and Cyrus Harding was to launch the vessel
+as soon as the hull should be complete. The deck, the upperworks, the
+interior woodwork and the rigging might be finished afterwards, but the
+essential point was that the colonists should have an assured refuge
+away from the island. Perhaps it might be even better to conduct the
+vessel to Port Balloon, that is to say, as far as possible from the
+center of eruption, for at the mouth of the Mercy, between the islet and
+the wall of granite, it would run the risk of being crushed in the event
+of any convulsion. All the exertions of the voyagers were therefore
+concentrated upon the completion of the hull.
+
+Thus the 3rd of March arrived, and they might calculate upon launching
+the vessel in ten days.
+
+Hope revived in the hearts of the colonists, who had, in this fourth
+year of their sojourn on Lincoln island, suffered so many trials. Even
+Pencroft lost in some measure the somber taciturnity occasioned by
+the devastation and ruin of his domain. His hopes, it is true, were
+concentrated upon his vessel.
+
+“We shall finish it,” he said to the engineer, “we shall finish it,
+captain, and it is time, for the season is advancing and the equinox
+will soon be here. Well, if necessary, we must put in to Tabor island
+to spend the winter. But think of Tabor island after Lincoln Island. Ah,
+how unfortunate! Who could have believed it possible?”
+
+“Let us get on,” was the engineer’s invariable reply.
+
+And they worked away without losing a moment.
+
+“Master,” asked Neb, a few days later, “do you think all this could have
+happened if Captain Nemo had been still alive?”
+
+“Certainly, Neb,” answered Cyrus Harding.
+
+“I, for one, don’t believe it!” whispered Pencroft to Neb.
+
+“Nor I!” answered Neb seriously.
+
+During the first week of March appearances again became menacing.
+Thousands of threads like glass, formed of fluid lava, fell like rain
+upon the island. The crater was again boiling with lava which overflowed
+the back of the volcano. The torrent flowed along the surface of the
+hardened tufa, and destroyed the few meager skeletons of trees which had
+withstood the first eruption. The stream, flowing this time towards the
+southwest shore of Lake Grant, stretched beyond Creek Glycerine, and
+invaded the plateau of Prospect Heights. This last blow to the work of
+the colonists was terrible. The mill, the buildings of the inner court,
+the stables, were all destroyed. The affrighted poultry fled in all
+directions. Top and Jup showed signs of the greatest alarm, as if their
+instinct warned them of an impending catastrophe. A large number of the
+animals of the island had perished in the first eruption. Those which
+survived found no refuge but Tadorn Marsh, save a few to which the
+plateau of Prospect Heights afforded asylum. But even this last retreat
+was now closed to them, and the lava-torrent, flowing over the edge of
+the granite wall, began to pour down upon the beach its cataracts of
+fire. The sublime horror of this spectacle passed all description.
+During the night it could only be compared to a Niagara of molten fluid,
+with its incandescent vapors above and its boiling masses below.
+
+The colonists were driven to their last entrenchment, and although the
+upper seams of the vessel were not yet calked, they decided to launch
+her at once.
+
+Pencroft and Ayrton therefore set about the necessary preparations for
+the launching, which was to take place the morning of the next day, the
+9th of March.
+
+But during the night of the 8th an enormous column of vapor escaping
+from the crater rose with frightful explosions to a height of more than
+three thousand feet. The wall of Dakkar Grotto had evidently given way
+under the pressure of gases, and the sea, rushing through the central
+shaft into the igneous gulf, was at once converted into vapor. But
+the crater could not afford a sufficient outlet for this vapor. An
+explosion, which might have been heard at a distance of a hundred miles,
+shook the air. Fragments of mountains fell into the Pacific, and, in a
+few minutes, the ocean rolled over the spot where Lincoln island once
+stood.
+
+
+
+Chapter 20
+
+An isolated rock, thirty feet in length, twenty in breadth, scarcely ten
+from the water’s edge, such was the only solid point which the waves of
+the Pacific had not engulfed.
+
+It was all that remained of the structure of Granite House! The wall had
+fallen headlong and been then shattered to fragments, and a few of the
+rocks of the large room were piled one above another to form this point.
+All around had disappeared in the abyss; the inferior cone of Mount
+Franklin, rent asunder by the explosion; the lava jaws of Shark Gulf,
+the plateau of Prospect Heights, Safety Islet, the granite rocks of Port
+Balloon, the basalts of Dakkar Grotto, the long Serpentine Peninsula, so
+distant nevertheless from the center of the eruption. All that could
+now be seen of Lincoln Island was the narrow rock which now served as a
+refuge to the six colonists and their dog Top.
+
+The animals had also perished in the catastrophe; the birds, as well
+as those representing the fauna of the island--all either crushed or
+drowned, and the unfortunate Jup himself had, alas! found his death in
+some crevice of the soil.
+
+If Cyrus Harding, Gideon Spilett, Herbert, Pencroft, Neb, and Ayrton
+had survived, it was because, assembled under their tent, they had been
+hurled into the sea at the instant when the fragments of the island
+rained down on every side.
+
+When they reached the surface they could only perceive, at half a
+cable’s length, this mass of rocks, towards which they swam and on which
+they found footing.
+
+On this barren rock they had now existed for nine days. A few provisions
+taken from the magazine of Granite House before the catastrophe, a
+little fresh water from the rain which had fallen in a hollow of the
+rock, was all that the unfortunate colonists possessed. Their last hope,
+the vessel, had been shattered to pieces. They had no means of quitting
+the reef; no fire, nor any means of obtaining it. It seemed that they
+must inevitably perish.
+
+This day, the 18th of March, there remained only provisions for two
+days, although they limited their consumption to the bare necessaries
+of life. All their science and intelligence could avail them nothing in
+their present position. They were in the hand of God.
+
+Cyrus Harding was calm, Gideon Spilett more nervous, and Pencroft, a
+prey to sullen anger, walked to and fro on the rock. Herbert did not
+for a moment quit the engineer’s side, as if demanding from him that
+assistance he had no power to give. Neb and Ayrton were resigned to
+their fate.
+
+“Ah, what a misfortune! what a misfortune!” often repeated Pencroft.
+“If we had but a walnut-shell to take us to Tabor Island! But we have
+nothing, nothing!”
+
+“Captain Nemo did right to die,” said Neb.
+
+During the five ensuing days Cyrus Harding and his unfortunate
+companions husbanded their provisions with the most extreme care, eating
+only what would prevent them from dying of starvation. Their weakness
+was extreme. Herbert and Neb began to show symptoms of delirium.
+
+Under these circumstances was it possible for them to retain even the
+shadow of a hope? No! What was their sole remaining chance? That a
+vessel should appear in sight of the rock? But they knew only too well
+from experience that no ships ever visited this part of the Pacific.
+Could they calculate that, by a truly providential coincidence, the
+Scotch yacht would arrive precisely at this time in search of Ayrton
+at Tabor Island? It was scarcely probable; and, besides, supposing
+she should come there, as the colonists had not been able to deposit
+a notice pointing out Ayrton’s change of abode, the commander of the
+yacht, after having explored Tabor Island without results, would again
+set sail and return to lower latitudes.
+
+No! no hope of being saved could be retained, and a horrible death,
+death from hunger and thirst, awaited them upon this rock.
+
+Already they were stretched on the rock, inanimate, and no longer
+conscious of what passed around them. Ayrton alone, by a supreme effort,
+from time to time raised his head, and cast a despairing glance over the
+desert ocean.
+
+But on the morning of the 24th of March Ayrton’s arms were extended
+toward a point in the horizon; he raised himself, at first on his knees,
+then upright, and his hand seemed to make a signal.
+
+A sail was in sight off the rock. She was evidently not without an
+object. The reef was the mark for which she was making in a direct line,
+under all steam, and the unfortunate colonists might have made her out
+some hours before if they had had the strength to watch the horizon.
+
+“The ‘Duncan’!” murmured Ayrton--and fell back without sign of life.
+
+When Cyrus Harding and his companions recovered consciousness, thanks to
+the attention lavished upon them, they found themselves in the cabin of
+a steamer, without being able to comprehend how they had escaped death.
+
+A word from Ayrton explained everything.
+
+“The ‘Duncan’!” he murmured.
+
+“The ‘Duncan’!” exclaimed Cyrus Harding. And raising his hand to Heaven,
+he said, “Oh! Almighty God! mercifully hast Thou preserved us!”
+
+It was, in fact, the “Duncan,” Lord Glenarvan’s yacht, now commanded by
+Robert, son of Captain Grant, who had been despatched to Tabor Island to
+find Ayrton, and bring him back to his native land after twelve years of
+expiation.
+
+The colonists were not only saved, but already on the way to their
+native country.
+
+“Captain Grant,” asked Cyrus Harding, “who can have suggested to you the
+idea, after having left Tabor Island, where you did not find Ayrton, of
+coming a hundred miles farther northeast?”
+
+“Captain Harding,” replied Robert Grant, “it was in order to find, not
+only Ayrton, but yourself and your companions.”
+
+“My companions and myself?”
+
+“Doubtless, at Lincoln Island.”
+
+“At Lincoln Island!” exclaimed in a breath Gideon Spilett, Herbert, Neb,
+and Pencroft, in the highest degree astonished.
+
+“How could you be aware of the existence of Lincoln Island?” inquired
+Cyrus Harding, “it is not even named in the charts.”
+
+“I knew of it from a document left by you on Tabor Island,” answered
+Robert Grant.
+
+“A document!” cried Gideon Spilett.
+
+“Without doubt, and here it is,” answered Robert Grant, producing a
+paper which indicated the longitude and latitude of Lincoln Island, “the
+present residence of Ayrton and five American colonists.”
+
+“It is Captain Nemo!” cried Cyrus Harding, after having read the notice,
+and recognized that the handwriting was similar to that of the paper
+found at the corral.
+
+“Ah!” said Pencroft, “it was then he who took our ‘Bonadventure’ and
+hazarded himself alone to go to Tabor Island!”
+
+“In order to leave this notice,” added Herbert.
+
+“I was then right in saying,” exclaimed the sailor, “that even after his
+death the captain would render us a last service.”
+
+“My friends,” said Cyrus Harding, in a voice of the profoundest emotion,
+“may the God of mercy have had pity on the soul of Captain Nemo, our
+benefactor.”
+
+The colonists uncovered themselves at these last words of Cyrus Harding,
+and murmured the name of Captain Nemo.
+
+Then Ayrton, approaching the engineer, said simply, “Where should this
+coffer be deposited?”
+
+It was the coffer which Ayrton had saved at the risk of his life, at
+the very instant that the island had been engulfed, and which he now
+faithfully handed to the engineer.
+
+“Ayrton! Ayrton!” said Cyrus Harding, deeply touched. Then, addressing
+Robert Grant, “Sir,” he added, “you left behind you a criminal; you find
+in his place a man who has become honest by penitence, and whose hand I
+am proud to clasp in mine.”
+
+Robert Grant was now made acquainted with the strange history of Captain
+Nemo and the colonists of Lincoln Island. Then, observation being taken
+of what remained of this shoal, which must henceforward figure on the
+charts of the Pacific, the order was given to make all sail.
+
+A few weeks afterwards the colonists landed in America, and found their
+country once more at peace after the terrible conflict in which right
+and justice had triumphed.
+
+Of the treasures contained in the coffer left by Captain Nemo to the
+colonists of Lincoln Island, the larger portion was employed in the
+purchase of a vast territory in the State of Iowa. One pearl alone, the
+finest, was reserved from the treasure and sent to Lady Glenarvan in the
+name of the castaways restored to their country by the “Duncan.”
+
+There, upon this domain, the colonists invited to labor, that is to say,
+to wealth and happiness, all those to whom they had hoped to offer the
+hospitality of Lincoln Island. There was founded a vast colony to
+which they gave the name of that island sunk beneath the waters of the
+Pacific. A river there was called the Mercy, a mountain took the name
+of Mount Franklin, a small lake was named Lake Grant, and the forests
+became the forests of the Far West. It might have been an island on
+terra firma.
+
+There, under the intelligent hands of the engineer and his companions,
+everything prospered. Not one of the former colonists of Lincoln Island
+was absent, for they had sworn to live always together. Neb was with his
+master; Ayrton was there ready to sacrifice himself for all; Pencroft
+was more a farmer than he had ever been a sailor; Herbert, who completed
+his studies under the superintendence of Cyrus Harding, and Gideon
+Spilett, who founded the New Lincoln Herald, the best-informed journal
+in the world.
+
+There Cyrus Harding and his companions received at intervals visits from
+Lord and Lady Glenarvan, Captain John Mangles and his wife, the sister
+of Robert Grant, Robert Grant himself, Major McNab, and all those who
+had taken part in the history both of Captain Grant and Captain Nemo.
+
+There, to conclude, all were happy, united in the present as they had
+been in the past; but never could they forget that island upon which
+they had arrived poor and friendless, that island which, during four
+years had supplied all their wants, and of which there remained but a
+fragment of granite washed by the waves of the Pacific, the tomb of him
+who had borne the name of Captain Nemo.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mysterious Island, by Jules Verne
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diff --git a/ch16/ch16_part1.ipynb b/ch16/ch16_part1.ipynb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e435e766
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ch16/ch16_part1.ipynb
@@ -0,0 +1,1396 @@
+{
+ "cells": [
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "Chapter 16\n",
+    "========\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "# Introduction"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 1,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "W_xh shape:  (5, 2)\n",
+      "W_oo shape:  (2, 2)\n",
+      "b_h shape:   (2,)\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "import tensorflow as tf\n",
+    "tf.random.set_seed(1)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "rnn_layer = tf.keras.layers.SimpleRNN(\n",
+    "    units=2, use_bias=True, \n",
+    "    return_sequences=True)\n",
+    "rnn_layer.build(input_shape=(None, None, 5))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "w_xh, w_oo, b_h = rnn_layer.weights\n",
+    "\n",
+    "print('W_xh shape: ', w_xh.shape)\n",
+    "print('W_oo shape: ', w_oo.shape)\n",
+    "print('b_h shape:  ', b_h.shape)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 2,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Time step 0 =>\n",
+      "   Input           :  [[1. 1. 1. 1. 1.]]\n",
+      "   Hidden          :  [[0.41464037 0.96012145]]\n",
+      "   Output (manual) :  [[0.39240566 0.74433106]]\n",
+      "   SimpleRNN output:  [0.39240566 0.74433106]\n",
+      "\n",
+      "Time step 1 =>\n",
+      "   Input           :  [[2. 2. 2. 2. 2.]]\n",
+      "   Hidden          :  [[0.82928073 1.9202429 ]]\n",
+      "   Output (manual) :  [[0.80116504 0.9912947 ]]\n",
+      "   SimpleRNN output:  [0.80116504 0.9912947 ]\n",
+      "\n",
+      "Time step 2 =>\n",
+      "   Input           :  [[3. 3. 3. 3. 3.]]\n",
+      "   Hidden          :  [[1.243921  2.8803642]]\n",
+      "   Output (manual) :  [[0.95468265 0.9993069 ]]\n",
+      "   SimpleRNN output:  [0.95468265 0.9993069 ]\n",
+      "\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "x_seq = tf.convert_to_tensor(\n",
+    "    [[1.0]*5, [2.0]*5, [3.0]*5],\n",
+    "    dtype=tf.float32)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "## output of SimepleRNN:\n",
+    "output = rnn_layer(tf.reshape(x_seq, shape=(1, 3, 5)))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "## manually computing the output:\n",
+    "out_man = []\n",
+    "for t in range(len(x_seq)):\n",
+    "    xt = tf.reshape(x_seq[t], (1, 5))\n",
+    "    print('Time step {} =>'.format(t))\n",
+    "    print('   Input           : ', xt.numpy())\n",
+    "    \n",
+    "    ht = tf.matmul(xt, w_xh) + b_h    \n",
+    "    print('   Hidden          : ', ht.numpy())\n",
+    "    \n",
+    "    if t>0:\n",
+    "        prev_o = out_man[t-1]\n",
+    "    else:\n",
+    "        prev_o = tf.zeros(shape=(ht.shape))\n",
+    "        \n",
+    "    ot = ht + tf.matmul(prev_o, w_oo)\n",
+    "    ot = tf.math.tanh(ot)\n",
+    "    out_man.append(ot)\n",
+    "    print('   Output (manual) : ', ot.numpy())\n",
+    "    print('   SimpleRNN output: '.format(t), output[0][t].numpy())\n",
+    "    print()"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "\n",
+    "# Project 1: Sentiment Analysis"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 1,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "import tensorflow as tf\n",
+    "import tensorflow_datasets as tfds\n",
+    "import numpy as np\n",
+    "import pandas as pd"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 3,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "data": {
+      "text/html": [
+       "<div>\n",
+       "<style scoped>\n",
+       "    .dataframe tbody tr th:only-of-type {\n",
+       "        vertical-align: middle;\n",
+       "    }\n",
+       "\n",
+       "    .dataframe tbody tr th {\n",
+       "        vertical-align: top;\n",
+       "    }\n",
+       "\n",
+       "    .dataframe thead th {\n",
+       "        text-align: right;\n",
+       "    }\n",
+       "</style>\n",
+       "<table border=\"1\" class=\"dataframe\">\n",
+       "  <thead>\n",
+       "    <tr style=\"text-align: right;\">\n",
+       "      <th></th>\n",
+       "      <th>review</th>\n",
+       "      <th>sentiment</th>\n",
+       "    </tr>\n",
+       "  </thead>\n",
+       "  <tbody>\n",
+       "    <tr>\n",
+       "      <td>49995</td>\n",
+       "      <td>OK, lets start with the best. the building. al...</td>\n",
+       "      <td>0</td>\n",
+       "    </tr>\n",
+       "    <tr>\n",
+       "      <td>49996</td>\n",
+       "      <td>The British 'heritage film' industry is out of...</td>\n",
+       "      <td>0</td>\n",
+       "    </tr>\n",
+       "    <tr>\n",
+       "      <td>49997</td>\n",
+       "      <td>I don't even know where to begin on this one. ...</td>\n",
+       "      <td>0</td>\n",
+       "    </tr>\n",
+       "    <tr>\n",
+       "      <td>49998</td>\n",
+       "      <td>Richard Tyler is a little boy who is scared of...</td>\n",
+       "      <td>0</td>\n",
+       "    </tr>\n",
+       "    <tr>\n",
+       "      <td>49999</td>\n",
+       "      <td>I waited long to watch this movie. Also becaus...</td>\n",
+       "      <td>1</td>\n",
+       "    </tr>\n",
+       "  </tbody>\n",
+       "</table>\n",
+       "</div>"
+      ],
+      "text/plain": [
+       "                                                  review  sentiment\n",
+       "49995  OK, lets start with the best. the building. al...          0\n",
+       "49996  The British 'heritage film' industry is out of...          0\n",
+       "49997  I don't even know where to begin on this one. ...          0\n",
+       "49998  Richard Tyler is a little boy who is scared of...          0\n",
+       "49999  I waited long to watch this movie. Also becaus...          1"
+      ]
+     },
+     "execution_count": 3,
+     "metadata": {},
+     "output_type": "execute_result"
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "df = pd.read_csv('movie_data.csv', encoding='utf-8')\n",
+    "\n",
+    "df.tail()\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 4,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "b'In 1974, the teenager Martha Moxley (Maggie Grace)' 1\n",
+      "b'OK... so... I really like Kris Kristofferson and h' 0\n",
+      "b'***SPOILER*** Do not read this, if you think about' 0\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "# Step 1: Create a dataset\n",
+    "\n",
+    "target = df.pop('sentiment')\n",
+    "\n",
+    "ds_raw = tf.data.Dataset.from_tensor_slices(\n",
+    "    (df.values, target.values))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "## inspection:\n",
+    "for ex in ds_raw.take(3):\n",
+    "    tf.print(ex[0].numpy()[0][:50], ex[1])"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "#### Train/validaiton/test splits"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 5,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "tf.random.set_seed(1)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "ds_raw = ds_raw.shuffle(\n",
+    "    50000, reshuffle_each_iteration=False)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "ds_raw_test = ds_raw.take(25000)\n",
+    "ds_raw_train_valid = ds_raw.skip(25000)\n",
+    "ds_raw_train = ds_raw_train_valid.take(20000)\n",
+    "ds_raw_valid = ds_raw_train_valid.skip(20000)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "### Tokenizer and Encoder\n",
+    "\n",
+    " * `tfds.features.text.Tokenizer`: https://www.tensorflow.org/datasets/api_docs/python/tfds/features/text/Tokenizer\n",
+    " * `tfds.features.text.TokenTextEncoder`: https://www.tensorflow.org/datasets/api_docs/python/tfds/features/text/TokenTextEncoder"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "### Encoding sequences: keeping the last 100 items in each sequence"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 10,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Vocab-size:  87007\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "## Step 2: find unique words\n",
+    "\n",
+    "from collections import Counter\n",
+    "\n",
+    "tokenizer = tfds.features.text.Tokenizer()\n",
+    "token_counts = Counter()\n",
+    "\n",
+    "for example in ds_raw_train:\n",
+    "    tokens = tokenizer.tokenize(example[0].numpy()[0])\n",
+    "    token_counts.update(tokens)\n",
+    "    \n",
+    "print('Vocab-size: ', len(token_counts))"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 11,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "data": {
+      "text/plain": [
+       "[232, 9, 270, 1123]"
+      ]
+     },
+     "execution_count": 11,
+     "metadata": {},
+     "output_type": "execute_result"
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "## Step 3: endoding each unique token into an integer\n",
+    "\n",
+    "encoder = tfds.features.text.TokenTextEncoder(token_counts)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "example_str = 'This is an example!'\n",
+    "encoder.encode(example_str)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 13,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "\n",
+    "## Step 3-A: define the function for transformation\n",
+    "def encode(text_tensor, label):\n",
+    "    text = text_tensor.numpy()[0]\n",
+    "    encoded_text = encoder.encode(text)\n",
+    "    return encoded_text, label\n",
+    "\n",
+    "## Step 3-B: wrap the encode function to a TF Op.\n",
+    "def encode_map_fn(text, label):\n",
+    "    return tf.py_function(encode, inp=[text, label], \n",
+    "                          Tout=(tf.int64, tf.int64))\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 14,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Sequence length:  (24,)\n",
+      "Sequence length:  (179,)\n",
+      "Sequence length:  (262,)\n",
+      "Sequence length:  (535,)\n",
+      "Sequence length:  (130,)\n"
+     ]
+    },
+    {
+     "data": {
+      "text/plain": [
+       "(<tf.Tensor: id=46318, shape=(130,), dtype=int64, numpy=\n",
+       " array([  579,  1296,    32,   425,    40,   763,  9267,    65,   280,\n",
+       "          308,     6,   481,   155,   473,     2,     3,   684,     9,\n",
+       "          781,   176,   959,   730,  3917,    67,  9905,    13,   277,\n",
+       "           24,    35,   371, 16368,     6,    14, 17231,    29,   187,\n",
+       "         1651,   489,   503,   480,   143,    32,   270,  5851,  2402,\n",
+       "           13,  3592,  3443,   425,  3313,   256,   257,  1577,   117,\n",
+       "            8,   698,   270,   564,    56,     8,    42,  7517,  2629,\n",
+       "          820,    25,    60,    79,   343,    32,   645,    14,   528,\n",
+       "          241,    32,  1980,     8,    56,     8,    42,  1364,   573,\n",
+       "         5183,    43,    12,  3870,    32,   312,   642,   251,  1401,\n",
+       "        17232,     8,   698,   257,   750,     2,     9,    76,   235,\n",
+       "            8,    42,   235,   840,   666,   258, 17233,   419,    32,\n",
+       "        17234,   585,   420,   840,    25,    40,    13,    14,   198,\n",
+       "          266,   623,   173,   179,  4103,   216,    25,   616, 14185,\n",
+       "          186,    35, 16250,   120])>,\n",
+       " <tf.Tensor: id=46319, shape=(), dtype=int64, numpy=0>)"
+      ]
+     },
+     "execution_count": 14,
+     "metadata": {},
+     "output_type": "execute_result"
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "ds_train = ds_raw_train.map(encode_map_fn)\n",
+    "ds_valid = ds_raw_valid.map(encode_map_fn)\n",
+    "ds_test = ds_raw_test.map(encode_map_fn)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "tf.random.set_seed(1)\n",
+    "for example in ds_train.shuffle(1000).take(5):\n",
+    "    print('Sequence length: ', example[0].shape)\n",
+    "    \n",
+    "example"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "### Batch"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": null,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "#   ######   ###       ###          #      ###     \n",
+    "#   #        #   #     #   #      #   #    #   #    \n",
+    "#   #        #    #    #    #    #     #   #    #  \n",
+    "#   #####    #####     #####     #     #   #####   \n",
+    "#   #        #    #    #    #     #   #    #    #  \n",
+    "#   #        #    #    #    #      # #     #    #   \n",
+    "#   ######   #     #   #     #             #     # \n",
+    "#\n",
+    "# this will result in error\n",
+    "BATCH_SIZE = 32\n",
+    "train_data = all_encoded_data.batch(BATCH_SIZE)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "next(iter(train_data))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "# Running this will result in error\n",
+    "# We cannot apply .batch() to this dataset\n",
+    "\n",
+    "#   ######   ###       ###          #      ###     \n",
+    "#   #        #   #     #   #      #   #    #   #    \n",
+    "#   #        #    #    #    #    #     #   #    #  \n",
+    "#   #####    #####     #####     #     #   #####   \n",
+    "#   #        #    #    #    #     #   #    #    #  \n",
+    "#   #        #    #    #    #      # #     #    #   \n",
+    "#   ######   #     #   #     #             #     # "
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 29,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Individual Shape:  (119,)\n",
+      "Individual Shape:  (688,)\n",
+      "Individual Shape:  (308,)\n",
+      "Individual Shape:  (204,)\n",
+      "Individual Shape:  (326,)\n",
+      "Individual Shape:  (240,)\n",
+      "Individual Shape:  (127,)\n",
+      "Individual Shape:  (453,)\n",
+      "Batch Shape:  (4, 688) #columns:  688\n",
+      "Batch Shape:  (4, 453) #columns:  453\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "## Take a small subset\n",
+    "ds_subset = ds_train.take(8)\n",
+    "for example in ds_subset:\n",
+    "    print('Individual Shape: ', example[0].shape)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "## batching the datasets\n",
+    "ds_batched = ds_subset.padded_batch(\n",
+    "    4, padded_shapes=([-1], []))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "for batch in ds_batched:\n",
+    "    print('Batch Shape: ', batch[0].shape)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 16,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "## batching the datasets\n",
+    "train_data = ds_train.padded_batch(\n",
+    "    32, padded_shapes=([-1],[]))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "valid_data = ds_valid.padded_batch(\n",
+    "    32, padded_shapes=([-1],[]))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "test_data = ds_test.padded_batch(\n",
+    "    32, padded_shapes=([-1],[]))\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "## Building an RNN layer:\n",
+    "\n",
+    "### Embedding layer\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    " * `input_dim`: number of words, i.e. maximum integer index + 1.\n",
+    " * `output_dim`: \n",
+    " * `input_length`: the length of (padded) sequence\n",
+    "    * for example, `'This is an example' -> [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 1, 8, 9]`   \n",
+    "    => input_lenght is 10\n",
+    " \n",
+    " \n",
+    "\n",
+    " * When calling the layer, takes integr values as input,   \n",
+    " the embedding layer convert each interger into float vector of size `[output_dim]`\n",
+    "   * If input shape is `[BATCH_SIZE]`, output shape will be `[BATCH_SIZE, output_dim]`\n",
+    "   * If input shape is `[BATCH_SIZE, 10]`, output shape will be `[BATCH_SIZE, 10, output_dim]`"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 17,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Model: \"sequential\"\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "Layer (type)                 Output Shape              Param #   \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "embed-layer (Embedding)      (None, 20, 6)             600       \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "Total params: 600\n",
+      "Trainable params: 600\n",
+      "Non-trainable params: 0\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import Embedding\n",
+    "\n",
+    "model = tf.keras.Sequential()\n",
+    "\n",
+    "model.add(Embedding(input_dim=100,\n",
+    "                    output_dim=6,\n",
+    "                    input_length=20,\n",
+    "                    name='embed-layer'))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "model.summary()"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "### Different RNN Layers:\n",
+    "\n",
+    " * `tf.keras.layers.SimpleRNN(units, return_sequences=False)`\n",
+    " * `tf.keras.layers.LSTM(..)`\n",
+    " * `tf.keras.layers.GRU(..)`\n",
+    " * `tf.keras.layers.Bidirectional()`\n",
+    " \n",
+    "**Determine `return_sequenes=?`**\n",
+    " * In a multi-layer RNN, all RNN layers except the last one should have `return_sequenes=True`\n",
+    " * For the last RNN layer, decide based on the type of problem: \n",
+    "   * many-to-many: -> `return_sequences=True`\n",
+    "   * many-to-one : -> `return_sequenes=False`\n",
+    "   * ..\n",
+    "    "
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 19,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Model: \"sequential_1\"\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "Layer (type)                 Output Shape              Param #   \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "embedding_1 (Embedding)      (None, None, 32)          32000     \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "simple_rnn (SimpleRNN)       (None, None, 32)          2080      \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "simple_rnn_1 (SimpleRNN)     (None, 32)                2080      \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "dense (Dense)                (None, 1)                 33        \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "Total params: 36,193\n",
+      "Trainable params: 36,193\n",
+      "Non-trainable params: 0\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "## An example of building a RNN model\n",
+    "## with SimpleRNN layer\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras import Sequential\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import Embedding\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import SimpleRNN\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import Dense\n",
+    "\n",
+    "model = Sequential()\n",
+    "model.add(Embedding(1000, 32))\n",
+    "model.add(SimpleRNN(32, return_sequences=True))\n",
+    "model.add(SimpleRNN(32))\n",
+    "model.add(Dense(1))\n",
+    "model.summary()\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 20,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Model: \"sequential_2\"\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "Layer (type)                 Output Shape              Param #   \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "embedding_2 (Embedding)      (None, None, 32)          320000    \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "lstm (LSTM)                  (None, None, 32)          8320      \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "lstm_1 (LSTM)                (None, 32)                8320      \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "dense_1 (Dense)              (None, 1)                 33        \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "Total params: 336,673\n",
+      "Trainable params: 336,673\n",
+      "Non-trainable params: 0\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "## An example of building a RNN model\n",
+    "## with LSTM layer\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras import Sequential\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import Embedding\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import LSTM\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import Dense\n",
+    "\n",
+    "model = Sequential()\n",
+    "model.add(Embedding(10000, 32))\n",
+    "model.add(LSTM(32, return_sequences=True))\n",
+    "model.add(LSTM(32))\n",
+    "model.add(Dense(1))\n",
+    "model.summary()\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 21,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Model: \"sequential_3\"\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "Layer (type)                 Output Shape              Param #   \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "embedding_3 (Embedding)      (None, None, 32)          320000    \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "gru (GRU)                    (None, None, 32)          6336      \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "gru_1 (GRU)                  (None, 32)                6336      \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "dense_2 (Dense)              (None, 1)                 33        \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "Total params: 332,705\n",
+      "Trainable params: 332,705\n",
+      "Non-trainable params: 0\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "## An example of building a RNN model\n",
+    "## with GRU layer\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras import Sequential\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import Embedding\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import GRU\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import Dense\n",
+    "\n",
+    "model = Sequential()\n",
+    "model.add(Embedding(10000, 32))\n",
+    "model.add(GRU(32, return_sequences=True))\n",
+    "model.add(GRU(32))\n",
+    "model.add(Dense(1))\n",
+    "model.summary()\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "## Bidirectional LSTM using full-length sequences"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 22,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Model: \"sequential_4\"\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "Layer (type)                 Output Shape              Param #   \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "embed-layer (Embedding)      (None, None, 20)          1740180   \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "bidir-lstm (Bidirectional)   (None, 128)               43520     \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "dense_3 (Dense)              (None, 64)                8256      \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "dense_4 (Dense)              (None, 1)                 65        \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "Total params: 1,792,021\n",
+      "Trainable params: 1,792,021\n",
+      "Non-trainable params: 0\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "Epoch 1/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 380s 608ms/step - loss: 0.5173 - accuracy: 0.7376 - val_loss: 0.0000e+00 - val_accuracy: 0.0000e+00\n",
+      "Epoch 2/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 365s 584ms/step - loss: 0.2747 - accuracy: 0.8955 - val_loss: 0.3982 - val_accuracy: 0.8516\n",
+      "Epoch 3/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 365s 584ms/step - loss: 0.1528 - accuracy: 0.9478 - val_loss: 0.4270 - val_accuracy: 0.8588\n",
+      "Epoch 4/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 365s 584ms/step - loss: 0.0958 - accuracy: 0.9674 - val_loss: 0.6082 - val_accuracy: 0.8358\n",
+      "Epoch 5/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 365s 584ms/step - loss: 0.0551 - accuracy: 0.9836 - val_loss: 0.6766 - val_accuracy: 0.8468\n",
+      "Epoch 6/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 365s 584ms/step - loss: 0.0454 - accuracy: 0.9858 - val_loss: 0.6429 - val_accuracy: 0.8398\n",
+      "Epoch 7/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 365s 584ms/step - loss: 0.0418 - accuracy: 0.9870 - val_loss: 0.6093 - val_accuracy: 0.8388\n",
+      "Epoch 8/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 365s 584ms/step - loss: 0.0288 - accuracy: 0.9908 - val_loss: 0.7021 - val_accuracy: 0.8356\n",
+      "Epoch 9/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 365s 584ms/step - loss: 0.0308 - accuracy: 0.9909 - val_loss: 0.7601 - val_accuracy: 0.8392\n",
+      "Epoch 10/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 365s 584ms/step - loss: 0.0205 - accuracy: 0.9931 - val_loss: 0.8158 - val_accuracy: 0.8388\n",
+      "782/782 [==============================] - 140s 179ms/step - loss: 0.8131 - accuracy: 0.8392\n",
+      "Test Acc.: 83.92%\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "\n",
+    "embedding_dim = 20\n",
+    "vocab_size = len(token_counts) + 2\n",
+    "\n",
+    "tf.random.set_seed(1)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "## build the model\n",
+    "bi_lstm_model = tf.keras.Sequential([\n",
+    "    tf.keras.layers.Embedding(\n",
+    "        input_dim=vocab_size,\n",
+    "        output_dim=embedding_dim,\n",
+    "        name='embed-layer'),\n",
+    "    \n",
+    "    tf.keras.layers.Bidirectional(\n",
+    "        tf.keras.layers.LSTM(64, name='lstm-layer'),\n",
+    "        name='bidir-lstm'), \n",
+    "\n",
+    "    tf.keras.layers.Dense(64, activation='relu'),\n",
+    "    \n",
+    "    tf.keras.layers.Dense(1, activation='sigmoid')\n",
+    "])\n",
+    "\n",
+    "bi_lstm_model.summary()\n",
+    "\n",
+    "## compile and train:\n",
+    "bi_lstm_model.compile(\n",
+    "    optimizer=tf.keras.optimizers.Adam(1e-3),\n",
+    "    loss=tf.keras.losses.BinaryCrossentropy(from_logits=False),\n",
+    "    metrics=['accuracy'])\n",
+    "\n",
+    "history = bi_lstm_model.fit(\n",
+    "    train_data, \n",
+    "    validation_data=valid_data, \n",
+    "    epochs=10)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "## evaluate on the test data\n",
+    "test_results= bi_lstm_model.evaluate(test_data)\n",
+    "print('Test Acc.: {:.2f}%'.format(test_results[1]*100))"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 12,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "bi_lstm_model.save('models/Bidir-LSTM-full-length-seq.h5')"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "## SimpleRNN with short sequences"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 23,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "from collections import Counter\n",
+    "\n",
+    "def preprocess_datasets(\n",
+    "    ds_raw_train, \n",
+    "    ds_raw_valid, \n",
+    "    ds_raw_test,\n",
+    "    max_seq_length=None,\n",
+    "    batch_size=32):\n",
+    "    \n",
+    "    ## Step 1: (already done => creating a dataset)\n",
+    "    ## Step 2: find unique tokens\n",
+    "    tokenizer = tfds.features.text.Tokenizer()\n",
+    "    token_counts = Counter()\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    for example in ds_raw_train:\n",
+    "        tokens = tokenizer.tokenize(example[0].numpy()[0])\n",
+    "        if max_seq_length is not None:\n",
+    "            tokens = tokens[-max_seq_length:]\n",
+    "        token_counts.update(tokens)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    print('Vocab-size: ', len(token_counts))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    ## Step 3: encoding the texts\n",
+    "    encoder = tfds.features.text.TokenTextEncoder(token_counts)\n",
+    "    def encode(text_tensor, label):\n",
+    "        text = text_tensor.numpy()[0]\n",
+    "        encoded_text = encoder.encode(text)\n",
+    "        if max_seq_length is not None:\n",
+    "            encoded_text = encoded_text[-max_seq_length:]\n",
+    "        return encoded_text, label\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    def encode_map_fn(text, label):\n",
+    "        return tf.py_function(encode, inp=[text, label], \n",
+    "                              Tout=(tf.int64, tf.int64))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    ds_train = ds_raw_train.map(encode_map_fn)\n",
+    "    ds_valid = ds_raw_valid.map(encode_map_fn)\n",
+    "    ds_test = ds_raw_test.map(encode_map_fn)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    ## Step 4: batching the datasets\n",
+    "    train_data = ds_train.padded_batch(\n",
+    "        batch_size, padded_shapes=([-1],[]))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    valid_data = ds_valid.padded_batch(\n",
+    "        batch_size, padded_shapes=([-1],[]))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    test_data = ds_test.padded_batch(\n",
+    "        batch_size, padded_shapes=([-1],[]))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    return (train_data, valid_data, \n",
+    "            test_data, len(token_counts))"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 24,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import Embedding\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import Bidirectional\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import SimpleRNN\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import LSTM\n",
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import GRU\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "def build_rnn_model(embedding_dim, vocab_size,\n",
+    "                    recurrent_type='SimpleRNN',\n",
+    "                    n_recurrent_units=64,\n",
+    "                    n_recurrent_layers=1,\n",
+    "                    bidirectional=True):\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    tf.random.set_seed(1)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    # build the model\n",
+    "    model = tf.keras.Sequential()\n",
+    "    \n",
+    "    model.add(\n",
+    "        Embedding(\n",
+    "            input_dim=vocab_size,\n",
+    "            output_dim=embedding_dim,\n",
+    "            name='embed-layer')\n",
+    "    )\n",
+    "    \n",
+    "    for i in range(n_recurrent_layers):\n",
+    "        return_sequences = (i < n_recurrent_layers-1)\n",
+    "            \n",
+    "        if recurrent_type == 'SimpleRNN':\n",
+    "            recurrent_layer = SimpleRNN(\n",
+    "                units=n_recurrent_units, \n",
+    "                return_sequences=return_sequences,\n",
+    "                name='simprnn-layer-{}'.format(i))\n",
+    "        elif recurrent_type == 'LSTM':\n",
+    "            recurrent_layer = LSTM(\n",
+    "                units=n_recurrent_units, \n",
+    "                return_sequences=return_sequences,\n",
+    "                name='lstm-layer-{}'.format(i))\n",
+    "        elif recurrent_type == 'GRU':\n",
+    "            recurrent_layer = GRU(\n",
+    "                units=n_recurrent_units, \n",
+    "                return_sequences=return_sequences,\n",
+    "                name='gru-layer-{}'.format(i))\n",
+    "        \n",
+    "        if bidirectional:\n",
+    "            recurrent_layer = Bidirectional(\n",
+    "                recurrent_layer, name='bidir-'+recurrent_layer.name)\n",
+    "            \n",
+    "        model.add(recurrent_layer)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    model.add(tf.keras.layers.Dense(64, activation='relu'))\n",
+    "    model.add(tf.keras.layers.Dense(1, activation='sigmoid'))\n",
+    "    \n",
+    "    return model\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 25,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Vocab-size:  58063\n",
+      "Model: \"sequential_5\"\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "Layer (type)                 Output Shape              Param #   \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "embed-layer (Embedding)      (None, None, 20)          1161300   \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "bidir-simprnn-layer-0 (Bidir (None, 128)               10880     \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "dense_5 (Dense)              (None, 64)                8256      \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "dense_6 (Dense)              (None, 1)                 65        \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "Total params: 1,180,501\n",
+      "Trainable params: 1,180,501\n",
+      "Non-trainable params: 0\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "\n",
+    "batch_size = 32\n",
+    "embedding_dim = 20\n",
+    "max_seq_length = 100\n",
+    "\n",
+    "train_data, valid_data, test_data, n = preprocess_datasets(\n",
+    "    ds_raw_train, ds_raw_valid, ds_raw_test, \n",
+    "    max_seq_length=max_seq_length, \n",
+    "    batch_size=batch_size\n",
+    ")\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "vocab_size = n + 2\n",
+    "\n",
+    "rnn_model = build_rnn_model(\n",
+    "    embedding_dim, vocab_size,\n",
+    "    recurrent_type='SimpleRNN', \n",
+    "    n_recurrent_units=64,\n",
+    "    n_recurrent_layers=1,\n",
+    "    bidirectional=True)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "rnn_model.summary()"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 26,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Epoch 1/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 71s 113ms/step - loss: 0.7055 - accuracy: 0.5026 - val_loss: 0.0000e+00 - val_accuracy: 0.0000e+00\n",
+      "Epoch 2/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 69s 110ms/step - loss: 0.7037 - accuracy: 0.5113 - val_loss: 0.6953 - val_accuracy: 0.5072\n",
+      "Epoch 3/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 69s 110ms/step - loss: 0.6954 - accuracy: 0.5213 - val_loss: 0.6884 - val_accuracy: 0.5452\n",
+      "Epoch 4/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 69s 110ms/step - loss: 0.6317 - accuracy: 0.6259 - val_loss: 0.6152 - val_accuracy: 0.6522\n",
+      "Epoch 5/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 69s 110ms/step - loss: 0.4913 - accuracy: 0.7629 - val_loss: 0.7798 - val_accuracy: 0.6278\n",
+      "Epoch 6/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 69s 110ms/step - loss: 0.4252 - accuracy: 0.8094 - val_loss: 0.6105 - val_accuracy: 0.7432\n",
+      "Epoch 7/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 69s 110ms/step - loss: 0.4100 - accuracy: 0.8122 - val_loss: 0.6718 - val_accuracy: 0.7016\n",
+      "Epoch 8/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 69s 110ms/step - loss: 0.3749 - accuracy: 0.8281 - val_loss: 0.7762 - val_accuracy: 0.6348\n",
+      "Epoch 9/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 69s 110ms/step - loss: 0.2711 - accuracy: 0.8813 - val_loss: 0.7503 - val_accuracy: 0.6892\n",
+      "Epoch 10/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 69s 111ms/step - loss: 0.1665 - accuracy: 0.9367 - val_loss: 0.7172 - val_accuracy: 0.7454\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "rnn_model.compile(optimizer=tf.keras.optimizers.Adam(1e-3),\n",
+    "                  loss=tf.keras.losses.BinaryCrossentropy(from_logits=False),\n",
+    "                  metrics=['accuracy'])\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "history = rnn_model.fit(\n",
+    "    train_data, \n",
+    "    validation_data=valid_data, \n",
+    "    epochs=10)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 29,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "782/782 [==============================] - 44s 57ms/step - loss: 1.2369 - accuracy: 0.7341\n"
+     ]
+    },
+    {
+     "data": {
+      "text/plain": [
+       "[1.236854262745289, 0.73412]"
+      ]
+     },
+     "execution_count": 29,
+     "metadata": {},
+     "output_type": "execute_result"
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "rnn_model.evaluate(test_data)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 37,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Test Acc.: 73.41%\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "print('Test Acc.: {:.2f}%'.format(results[1]*100))"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "## Optional exercise: \n",
+    "\n",
+    "### Uni-directional SimpleRNN with full-length sequences"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 27,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Vocab-size:  87007\n",
+      "Model: \"sequential_6\"\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "Layer (type)                 Output Shape              Param #   \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "embed-layer (Embedding)      (None, None, 20)          1740180   \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "simprnn-layer-0 (SimpleRNN)  (None, 64)                5440      \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "dense_7 (Dense)              (None, 64)                4160      \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "dense_8 (Dense)              (None, 1)                 65        \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "Total params: 1,749,845\n",
+      "Trainable params: 1,749,845\n",
+      "Non-trainable params: 0\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "\n",
+    "batch_size = 32\n",
+    "embedding_dim = 20\n",
+    "max_seq_length = None\n",
+    "\n",
+    "train_data, valid_data, test_data, n = preprocess_datasets(\n",
+    "    ds_raw_train, ds_raw_valid, ds_raw_test, \n",
+    "    max_seq_length=max_seq_length, \n",
+    "    batch_size=batch_size\n",
+    ")\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "vocab_size = n + 2\n",
+    "\n",
+    "rnn_model = build_rnn_model(\n",
+    "    embedding_dim, vocab_size,\n",
+    "    recurrent_type='SimpleRNN', \n",
+    "    n_recurrent_units=64,\n",
+    "    n_recurrent_layers=1,\n",
+    "    bidirectional=False)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "rnn_model.summary()"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 28,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Epoch 1/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 226s 361ms/step - loss: 0.6993 - accuracy: 0.5034 - val_loss: 0.0000e+00 - val_accuracy: 0.0000e+00\n",
+      "Epoch 2/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 224s 359ms/step - loss: 0.6993 - accuracy: 0.5006 - val_loss: 0.6998 - val_accuracy: 0.5010\n",
+      "Epoch 3/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 281s 449ms/step - loss: 0.6968 - accuracy: 0.5034 - val_loss: 0.6960 - val_accuracy: 0.5004\n",
+      "Epoch 4/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 288s 460ms/step - loss: 0.6958 - accuracy: 0.5038 - val_loss: 0.6953 - val_accuracy: 0.5002\n",
+      "Epoch 5/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 287s 459ms/step - loss: 0.6952 - accuracy: 0.5045 - val_loss: 0.6947 - val_accuracy: 0.4952\n",
+      "Epoch 6/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 287s 459ms/step - loss: 0.6945 - accuracy: 0.5080 - val_loss: 0.6945 - val_accuracy: 0.4956\n",
+      "Epoch 7/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 287s 459ms/step - loss: 0.6940 - accuracy: 0.5109 - val_loss: 0.6945 - val_accuracy: 0.4960\n",
+      "Epoch 8/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 288s 461ms/step - loss: 0.6936 - accuracy: 0.5110 - val_loss: 0.6963 - val_accuracy: 0.4968\n",
+      "Epoch 9/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 241s 386ms/step - loss: 0.6934 - accuracy: 0.5101 - val_loss: 0.6948 - val_accuracy: 0.4960\n",
+      "Epoch 10/10\n",
+      "625/625 [==============================] - 224s 358ms/step - loss: 0.6935 - accuracy: 0.5096 - val_loss: 0.6936 - val_accuracy: 0.4986\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "rnn_model.compile(optimizer=tf.keras.optimizers.Adam(1e-3),\n",
+    "                  loss=tf.keras.losses.BinaryCrossentropy(from_logits=False),\n",
+    "                  metrics=['accuracy'])\n",
+    "\n",
+    "history = rnn_model.fit(\n",
+    "    train_data, \n",
+    "    validation_data=valid_data, \n",
+    "    epochs=10)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": null,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": []
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": []
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "## Appendix\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "### A- An alterntaive way to get the dataset: using tensorflow_datasets"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": null,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "\n",
+    "imdb_bldr = tfds.builder('imdb_reviews')\n",
+    "print(imdb_bldr.info)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "imdb_bldr.download_and_prepare()\n",
+    "\n",
+    "datasets = imdb_bldr.as_dataset(shuffle_files=False)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "datasets.keys()\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "### B- Tokenizer and Encoder\n",
+    "\n",
+    " * `tfds.features.text.Tokenizer`: https://www.tensorflow.org/datasets/api_docs/python/tfds/features/text/Tokenizer\n",
+    " * `tfds.features.text.TokenTextEncoder`: https://www.tensorflow.org/datasets/api_docs/python/tfds/features/text/TokenTextEncoder\n",
+    "\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 9,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "<TokenTextEncoder vocab_size=6>\n",
+      "[1, 3, 2, 4]\n",
+      "[1, 3, 2, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5]\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "vocab_set = {'a', 'b', 'c', 'd'}\n",
+    "encoder = tfds.features.text.TokenTextEncoder(vocab_set)\n",
+    "print(encoder)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "print(encoder.encode(b'a b c d, , : .'))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "print(encoder.encode(b'a b c d e f g h i z'))"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "### C- Text Pre-processing with Keras "
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": null,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "TOP_K = 200\n",
+    "MAX_LEN = 10\n",
+    "\n",
+    "tokenizer = tf.keras.preprocessing.text.Tokenizer(num_words=TOP_K)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "tokenizer.fit_on_texts(['this is an example', 'je suis en forme '])\n",
+    "sequences = tokenizer.texts_to_sequences(['this is an example', 'je suis en forme '])\n",
+    "print(sequences)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "tf.keras.preprocessing.sequence.pad_sequences(sequences, maxlen=MAX_LEN)\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": null,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": [
+    "####\n",
+    "TOP_K = 20000\n",
+    "MAX_LEN = 500\n",
+    "\n",
+    "tokenizer = tf.keras.preprocessing.text.Tokenizer(num_words=TOP_K)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "tokenizer.fit_on_texts(\n",
+    "    [example['text'].numpy().decode('utf-8') \n",
+    "     for example in imdb_train])\n",
+    "\n",
+    "x_train = tokenizer.texts_to_sequences(\n",
+    "    [example['text'].numpy().decode('utf-8')\n",
+    "     for example in imdb_train])\n",
+    "\n",
+    "print(len(x_train))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "x_train_padded = tf.keras.preprocessing.sequence.pad_sequences(\n",
+    "    x_train, maxlen=MAX_LEN)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "print(x_train_padded.shape)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "### D- Embedding\n",
+    "\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 18,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "[[-0.0208060984 0.0142502077 0.0475785471 -0.00649005175]\n",
+      " [-0.00420691818 -0.0375086069 -0.00477621704 0.00311584398]\n",
+      " [0.028728161 -0.0440448038 -0.0428906195 -0.019158531]\n",
+      " [-0.0248817336 0.0408470519 -0.00285203382 -0.0257614851]\n",
+      " [0.0443614833 0.00331580639 0.043055404 -0.011118304]\n",
+      " [-0.0281324144 0.00720113516 0.0192188732 -0.0186921246]]\n",
+      "TensorShape([6, 4])\n",
+      "[[-0.0208060984 0.0142502077 0.0475785471 -0.00649005175]]\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "from tensorflow.keras.layers import Embedding\n",
+    "\n",
+    "tf.random.set_seed(1)\n",
+    "embed = Embedding(input_dim=100, output_dim=4)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "inp_arr = np.array([1, 98, 5, 6, 67, 45])\n",
+    "tf.print(embed(inp_arr))\n",
+    "tf.print(embed(inp_arr).shape)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "tf.print(embed(np.array([1])))"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": null,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": []
+  }
+ ],
+ "metadata": {
+  "kernelspec": {
+   "display_name": "Python 3",
+   "language": "python",
+   "name": "python3"
+  },
+  "language_info": {
+   "codemirror_mode": {
+    "name": "ipython",
+    "version": 3
+   },
+   "file_extension": ".py",
+   "mimetype": "text/x-python",
+   "name": "python",
+   "nbconvert_exporter": "python",
+   "pygments_lexer": "ipython3",
+   "version": "3.7.4"
+  }
+ },
+ "nbformat": 4,
+ "nbformat_minor": 2
+}
diff --git a/ch16/ch16_part2.ipynb b/ch16/ch16_part2.ipynb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1778e8f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ch16/ch16_part2.ipynb
@@ -0,0 +1,571 @@
+{
+ "cells": [
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "Chapter 16 \n",
+    "====\n",
+    "\n",
+    "## Project two: character-level language modeling in TensorFlow"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 1,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current\n",
+      "                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed\n",
+      "100 1144k  100 1144k    0     0  2706k      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 2711k\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "! curl -O http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1268/1268-0.txt"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 3,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "567 1112917\n",
+      "Total Length:  1112350\n",
+      "Unique Characters:  80\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "import numpy as np\n",
+    "\n",
+    "## Reading and processing text\n",
+    "with open('1268-0.txt', 'r') as fp:\n",
+    "    text=fp.read()\n",
+    "    \n",
+    "start_indx = text.find('THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND')\n",
+    "end_indx = text.find('End of the Project Gutenberg')\n",
+    "print(start_indx, end_indx)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "text = text[start_indx:end_indx]\n",
+    "char_set = set(text)\n",
+    "print('Total Length: ', len(text))\n",
+    "print('Unique Characters: ', len(char_set))\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 4,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Text encoded shape:  (1112350,)\n",
+      "THE MYSTERIOUS    == Encoding ==>  [44 32 29  1 37 48 43 44 29 42 33 39 45 43  1]\n",
+      "[33 43 36 25 38 28]   == Reverse ==>  ISLAND\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "chars_sorted = sorted(char_set)\n",
+    "char2int = {ch:i for i,ch in enumerate(chars_sorted)}\n",
+    "char_array = np.array(chars_sorted)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "text_encoded = np.array(\n",
+    "    [char2int[ch] for ch in text],\n",
+    "    dtype=np.int32)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "print('Text encoded shape: ', text_encoded.shape)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "print(text[:15], '  == Encoding ==> ', text_encoded[:15])\n",
+    "print(text_encoded[15:21], '  == Reverse ==> ', ''.join(char_array[text_encoded[15:21]]))"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 5,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "44 -> T\n",
+      "32 -> H\n",
+      "29 -> E\n",
+      "1 ->  \n",
+      "37 -> M\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "import tensorflow as tf\n",
+    "\n",
+    "ds_text_encoded = tf.data.Dataset.from_tensor_slices(text_encoded)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "for ex in ds_text_encoded.take(5):\n",
+    "    print('{} -> {}'.format(ex.numpy(), char_array[ex.numpy()]))"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 6,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "[44 32 29  1 37 48 43 44 29 42 33 39 45 43  1 33 43 36 25 38 28  1  6  6\n",
+      "  6  0  0  0  0  0 40 67 64 53 70 52 54 53  1 51]  ->  74\n",
+      "'THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND ***\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nProduced b'  ->  'y'\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "seq_length = 40\n",
+    "chunk_size = seq_length + 1\n",
+    "\n",
+    "ds_chunks = ds_text_encoded.batch(chunk_size, drop_remainder=True)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "## inspection:\n",
+    "for seq in ds_chunks.take(1):\n",
+    "    input_seq = seq[:seq_length].numpy()\n",
+    "    target = seq[seq_length].numpy()\n",
+    "    print(input_seq, ' -> ', target)\n",
+    "    print(repr(''.join(char_array[input_seq])), \n",
+    "          ' -> ', repr(''.join(char_array[target])))\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 7,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      " Input (x):  'THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND ***\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nProduced b'\n",
+      "Target (y):  'HE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND ***\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nProduced by'\n",
+      "\n",
+      " Input (x):  ' Anthony Matonak, and Trevor Carlson\\n\\n\\n\\n'\n",
+      "Target (y):  'Anthony Matonak, and Trevor Carlson\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n'\n",
+      "\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "## define the function for splitting x & y\n",
+    "def split_input_target(chunk):\n",
+    "    input_seq = chunk[:-1]\n",
+    "    target_seq = chunk[1:]\n",
+    "    return input_seq, target_seq\n",
+    "\n",
+    "ds_sequences = ds_chunks.map(split_input_target)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "## inspection:\n",
+    "for example in ds_sequences.take(2):\n",
+    "    print(' Input (x): ', repr(''.join(char_array[example[0].numpy()])))\n",
+    "    print('Target (y): ', repr(''.join(char_array[example[1].numpy()])))\n",
+    "    print()"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 8,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "data": {
+      "text/plain": [
+       "<BatchDataset shapes: ((None, 40), (None, 40)), types: (tf.int32, tf.int32)>"
+      ]
+     },
+     "execution_count": 8,
+     "metadata": {},
+     "output_type": "execute_result"
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "# Batch size\n",
+    "BATCH_SIZE = 64\n",
+    "BUFFER_SIZE = 10000\n",
+    "\n",
+    "tf.random.set_seed(1)\n",
+    "ds = ds_sequences.shuffle(BUFFER_SIZE).batch(BATCH_SIZE)# drop_remainder=True)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "ds"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 8,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": []
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 15,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Model: \"sequential_1\"\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "Layer (type)                 Output Shape              Param #   \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "embedding_1 (Embedding)      (None, None, 256)         20480     \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "lstm_1 (LSTM)                (None, None, 512)         1574912   \n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n",
+      "dense_1 (Dense)              (None, None, 80)          41040     \n",
+      "=================================================================\n",
+      "Total params: 1,636,432\n",
+      "Trainable params: 1,636,432\n",
+      "Non-trainable params: 0\n",
+      "_________________________________________________________________\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "def build_model(vocab_size, embedding_dim, rnn_units):\n",
+    "    model = tf.keras.Sequential([\n",
+    "        tf.keras.layers.Embedding(vocab_size, embedding_dim),\n",
+    "        tf.keras.layers.LSTM(\n",
+    "            rnn_units, return_sequences=True),\n",
+    "        tf.keras.layers.Dense(vocab_size)\n",
+    "    ])\n",
+    "    return model\n",
+    "\n",
+    "\n",
+    "charset_size = len(char_array)\n",
+    "embedding_dim = 256\n",
+    "rnn_units = 512\n",
+    "\n",
+    "tf.random.set_seed(1)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "model = build_model(\n",
+    "    vocab_size = charset_size,\n",
+    "    embedding_dim=embedding_dim,\n",
+    "    rnn_units=rnn_units)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "model.summary()"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": null,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Epoch 1/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 94s 222ms/step - loss: 2.3170\n",
+      "Epoch 2/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 92s 218ms/step - loss: 1.7389\n",
+      "Epoch 3/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 93s 219ms/step - loss: 1.5360\n",
+      "Epoch 4/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 93s 219ms/step - loss: 1.4221\n",
+      "Epoch 5/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 92s 217ms/step - loss: 1.3495\n",
+      "Epoch 6/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 92s 217ms/step - loss: 1.2981\n",
+      "Epoch 7/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 93s 218ms/step - loss: 1.2605\n",
+      "Epoch 8/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 93s 218ms/step - loss: 1.2305\n",
+      "Epoch 9/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 93s 219ms/step - loss: 1.2053\n",
+      "Epoch 10/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 93s 218ms/step - loss: 1.1832\n",
+      "Epoch 11/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 92s 217ms/step - loss: 1.1634\n",
+      "Epoch 12/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 92s 217ms/step - loss: 1.1457\n",
+      "Epoch 13/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 92s 218ms/step - loss: 1.1296\n",
+      "Epoch 14/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 92s 218ms/step - loss: 1.1142\n",
+      "Epoch 15/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 93s 219ms/step - loss: 1.1000\n",
+      "Epoch 16/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 92s 216ms/step - loss: 1.0858\n",
+      "Epoch 17/20\n",
+      "424/424 [==============================] - 93s 219ms/step - loss: 1.0721\n",
+      "Epoch 18/20\n",
+      "159/424 [==========>...................] - ETA: 59s - loss: 1.0615"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "model.compile(\n",
+    "    optimizer='adam', \n",
+    "    loss=tf.keras.losses.SparseCategoricalCrossentropy(\n",
+    "        from_logits=True\n",
+    "    ))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "model.fit(ds, epochs=20)"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "### Sampling"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 11,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Probabilities:  [0.33333334 0.33333334 0.33333334]\n",
+      "array([[0, 0, 1, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0]])\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "tf.random.set_seed(1)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "logits = [[1.0, 1.0, 1.0]]\n",
+    "print('Probabilities: ', tf.math.softmax(logits).numpy()[0])\n",
+    "\n",
+    "samples = tf.random.categorical(\n",
+    "    logits=logits, num_samples=10)\n",
+    "tf.print(samples.numpy())"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 12,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Probabilities:  [0.10650698 0.10650698 0.78698605]\n",
+      "array([[2, 0, 2, 2, 2, 0, 1, 2, 2, 0]])\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "tf.random.set_seed(1)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "logits = [[1.0, 1.0, 3.0]]\n",
+    "print('Probabilities: ', tf.math.softmax(logits).numpy()[0])\n",
+    "\n",
+    "samples = tf.random.categorical(\n",
+    "    logits=logits, num_samples=10)\n",
+    "tf.print(samples.numpy())"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 13,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "The island is open he heard the victory of the\n",
+      "Mercy, and brought it into them, and they no longer continue, some on the little man of the felting circle of slopes.\n",
+      "\n",
+      "The engineer troused, he could not find our companions.\n",
+      "\n",
+      "\n",
+      "\n",
+      "Chapter 11\n",
+      "\n",
+      "At this position, he might just as if his first true to be finished, and he\n",
+      "though not more I can this teles.”\n",
+      "\n",
+      "“Why shall fear line,” answered the reporter, “what a disposal silence was advanced with them, and in masterspon.\n",
+      "\n",
+      "Before three heights of the\n",
+      "Frenchant Heights \n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "def sample(model, starting_str, \n",
+    "           len_generated_text=500, \n",
+    "           max_input_length=40,\n",
+    "           scale_factor=1.0):\n",
+    "    encoded_input = [char2int[s] for s in starting_str]\n",
+    "    encoded_input = tf.reshape(encoded_input, (1, -1))\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    generated_str = starting_str\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    model.reset_states()\n",
+    "    for i in range(len_generated_text):\n",
+    "        logits = model(encoded_input)\n",
+    "        logits = tf.squeeze(logits, 0)\n",
+    "\n",
+    "        scaled_logits = logits * scale_factor\n",
+    "        new_char_indx = tf.random.categorical(\n",
+    "            scaled_logits, num_samples=1)\n",
+    "        \n",
+    "        new_char_indx = tf.squeeze(new_char_indx)[-1].numpy()    \n",
+    "\n",
+    "        generated_str += str(char_array[new_char_indx])\n",
+    "        \n",
+    "        new_char_indx = tf.expand_dims([new_char_indx], 0)\n",
+    "        encoded_input = tf.concat(\n",
+    "            [encoded_input, new_char_indx],\n",
+    "            axis=1)\n",
+    "        encoded_input = encoded_input[:, -max_input_length:]\n",
+    "\n",
+    "    return generated_str\n",
+    "\n",
+    "tf.random.set_seed(1)\n",
+    "print(sample(model, starting_str=\"The island\", \n",
+    "             scale_factor=1.0))"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "markdown",
+   "metadata": {},
+   "source": [
+    "### Predictability vs. randomness"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 14,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "Probabilities before scaling:         [0.10650698 0.10650698 0.78698604]\n",
+      "Probabilities after scaling with 0.5: [0.21194156 0.21194156 0.57611688]\n",
+      "Probabilities after scaling with 0.1: [0.31042377 0.31042377 0.37915245]\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "logits = np.array([[1.0, 1.0, 3.0]])\n",
+    "\n",
+    "print('Probabilities before scaling:        ', tf.math.softmax(logits).numpy()[0])\n",
+    "\n",
+    "print('Probabilities after scaling with 0.5:', tf.math.softmax(0.5*logits).numpy()[0])\n",
+    "\n",
+    "print('Probabilities after scaling with 0.1:', tf.math.softmax(0.1*logits).numpy()[0])\n"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 19,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "The island spoke of heavy torn into the island from the sea.\n",
+      "\n",
+      "The noise of the inhabitants of the island was to be feared that the colonists had come a project with a straight be put to the bank of the island was the surface of the lake and sulphuric acid, and several supply of her animals. The first stranger carried a sort of accessible to break these screen barrels to their distance from the palisade.\n",
+      "\n",
+      "“The first huntil,” said the reporter, “and his companions the reporter extended to build a few days a\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "tf.random.set_seed(1)\n",
+    "print(sample(model, starting_str=\"The island\", \n",
+    "             scale_factor=2.0))"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": 20,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [
+    {
+     "name": "stdout",
+     "output_type": "stream",
+     "text": [
+      "The island\n",
+      "glissed in\n",
+      "ascercicedly useful? loigeh, Cyrus,\n",
+      "Spileots,” henseporvemented\n",
+      "House to a left\n",
+      "the centlic moment. Tonsense craw.\n",
+      "\n",
+      "Pencrular ed/ of times,” tading had coflently often above anzand?”\n",
+      "\n",
+      "“Wat;” then:y.”\n",
+      "\n",
+      "\n",
+      "Ardivify he acpearly, howcovered--he hassime; however, fenquests hen adgents!’.? Let us Neg eqiAl?.\n",
+      "\n",
+      "GencNal, my surved thirtyin” ou; is Harding; treuths. Osew apartarned. “N,\n",
+      "the poltuge of about-but durired with purteg.\n",
+      "\n",
+      "Chappes wason!\n",
+      "\n",
+      "Fears,” returned Spilett; “if\n",
+      "you tear 8t trung\n"
+     ]
+    }
+   ],
+   "source": [
+    "tf.random.set_seed(1)\n",
+    "print(sample(model, starting_str=\"The island\", \n",
+    "             scale_factor=0.5))"
+   ]
+  },
+  {
+   "cell_type": "code",
+   "execution_count": null,
+   "metadata": {},
+   "outputs": [],
+   "source": []
+  }
+ ],
+ "metadata": {
+  "kernelspec": {
+   "display_name": "Python 3",
+   "language": "python",
+   "name": "python3"
+  },
+  "language_info": {
+   "codemirror_mode": {
+    "name": "ipython",
+    "version": 3
+   },
+   "file_extension": ".py",
+   "mimetype": "text/x-python",
+   "name": "python",
+   "nbconvert_exporter": "python",
+   "pygments_lexer": "ipython3",
+   "version": "3.7.4"
+  }
+ },
+ "nbformat": 4,
+ "nbformat_minor": 2
+}