The Mysterious Island
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.