Part 21

-- No doubt, Harbert resumed. I will not tell you, Pencroff, that bamboo bark, cut into flexible strips, serves to make baskets or hampers; that this bark, reduced to pulp and macerated, is used in the manufacture of Chinese paper; that the stalks furnish, according to their thickness, canes, pipe stems, water conduits; that the large bamboos form excellent building materials, light and solid, and never attacked by insects. I will not even add that by sawing the internodes of bamboos and keeping for the bottom a portion of the transverse partition that forms the node, one thus obtains sturdy and convenient vessels much in use among the Chinese! No! That would not satisfy you. But...

-- But?...

-- But I will tell you, if you do not know it, that in India these bamboos are eaten in place of asparagus.

-- Asparagus thirty feet tall! cried the sailor. And are they good?

-- Excellent, replied Harbert. Only, it is not thirty-foot stalks that are eaten, but young bamboo shoots.

-- Perfect, my boy, perfect! replied Pencroff.

-- I will also add that the pith of the new stalks, candied in vinegar, forms a highly appreciated condiment.

-- Better and better, Harbert.

-- And finally that these bamboos exude between their nodes a sweet liquor, from which a very pleasant beverage may be made.

-- Is that all? asked the sailor.

-- That is all!

-- And it isn't smoked, by any chance?

-- It isn't smoked, my poor Pencroff!

Harbert and the sailor did not have to search long for a favorable spot to spend the night. The shore rocks--much fractured, for they must be violently beaten by the sea under the influence of the southwest winds--presented cavities that would allow them to sleep sheltered from the inclemencies of the air. But, at the moment they were about to enter one of these excavations, formidable roars stopped them.

-- Back! cried Pencroff. We have only small shot in our guns, and beasts that roar so well wouldn't care a fig for it!

And the sailor, seizing Harbert by the arm, dragged him behind the rocks, at the moment a magnificent animal appeared at the cave entrance.

It was a jaguar, of a size at least equal to its Asian counterparts, that is to say it measured more than five feet from the tip of the head to the base of the tail. Its fawn-colored coat was set off by several rows of black spots regularly ocellated and contrasted with the white fur of its belly. Harbert recognized there that fierce rival of the tiger, far more formidable than the cougar, which is only the rival of the wolf!

The jaguar advanced and looked around, its hair bristling, its eye on fire, as if it had not scented man for the first time. At this moment, the reporter was rounding the high rocks, and Harbert, imagining he had not noticed the jaguar, was about to rush toward him; but Gideon Spilett made him a sign with his hand and continued to walk. He was no stranger to tigers, and, advancing to within ten paces of the animal, he stood motionless, his rifle at his shoulder, without a muscle twitching.

The jaguar, crouched upon itself, sprang upon the hunter, but, at the moment it leapt, a bullet struck it between the eyes, and it fell dead.

Harbert and Pencroff rushed toward the jaguar. Nab and Cyrus Smith ran up on their side, and they remained a few moments contemplating the animal, stretched on the ground, whose magnificent hide would ornament the great hall of Granite-House.

-- Ah! Mr. Spilett! How I admire and envy you! cried Harbert in a perfectly natural outburst of enthusiasm.

-- Come now, my boy, replied the reporter, you would have done as much.

-- I! Such composure!...

-- Picture to yourself, Harbert, that a jaguar is a hare, and you will shoot it most tranquilly in the world.

-- There you are! replied Pencroff. It's no cleverer than that!

-- And now, said Gideon Spilett, since this jaguar has left its lair, I see no reason, my friends, why we should not occupy it for the night?

-- But others may come back! said Pencroff.

-- It will suffice to light a fire at the cave entrance, said the reporter, and they will not venture to cross the threshold.

-- To the jaguars' house, then! replied the sailor, dragging the animal's carcass after him.

The colonists headed toward the abandoned den, and there, while Nab skinned the jaguar, his companions piled up at the threshold a great quantity of dry wood, which the forest abundantly supplied.

But Cyrus Smith, having spotted the clump of bamboos, went to cut a certain amount, which he mixed with the fuel of the hearth.

This done, they settled into the grotto, whose sand was strewn with bones; the weapons were loaded just in case, for a sudden attack; they supped, and then, the moment for rest having come, fire was set to the pile of wood stacked at the cave entrance. Immediately, a veritable crackling burst into the air! It was the bamboos, reached by the flame, detonating like fireworks!

Nothing but this clamor would have sufficed to terrify the boldest wild beasts!

And this means of provoking loud detonations was not invented by the engineer, for, according to Marco Polo, the Tartars, for many centuries, have employed it successfully to drive away the formidable wild beasts of central Asia.

CHAPTER V

Cyrus Smith and his companions slept like innocent marmots in the cave that the jaguar had so politely left at their disposal. At sunrise, all were on the shore, at the very extremity of the promontory, and their gazes were still directed toward that horizon, which was visible over two-thirds of its circumference. One last time, the engineer could ascertain that no sail, no ship's carcass appeared upon the sea, and the spyglass could discover no suspicious point there.

Nothing, either, upon the coast, at least in the rectilinear part that formed the southern shore of the promontory over a length of three miles, for, beyond, an indentation of the land hid the rest of the coast, and even, from the end of the Serpentine peninsula, one could not perceive Cape Claw, hidden by high rocks.

There remained, then, the southern shore of the island to explore. Now, would they undertake this exploration immediately and devote this 2nd of November to it?

This was not part of the original plan. Indeed, when the pirogue was abandoned at the sources of the Mercy, it had been agreed that after observing the west coast, they would return to fetch it, and would go back to Granite-House by the Mercy road. Cyrus Smith then believed that the western shore might offer refuge, either to a distressed vessel or to a ship on regular course; but, since this coast presented no landing, they must seek on the south of the island what they had not found on the west.

It was Gideon Spilett who proposed to continue the exploration, so that the question of the presumed shipwreck might be completely resolved, and he asked at what distance Cape Claw might be from the end of the peninsula.

-- About thirty miles, replied the engineer, if we account for the curves of the coast.

-- Thirty miles! resumed Gideon Spilett. That will be a stiff day's march. Nevertheless, I think we should return to Granite-House by following the southern shore.

-- But, observed Harbert, from Cape Claw to Granite-House, there will still be ten miles at least to count.

-- Say forty miles in all, replied the reporter, and let us not hesitate to make them. At least, we will observe this unknown coast, and we will not have to repeat this exploration.

-- Very true, said Pencroff then. But the pirogue?

-- The pirogue has been alone for a day at the sources of the Mercy, replied Gideon Spilett, it can well stay there two days! Thus far, we can hardly say the island is infested with thieves!

-- However, said the sailor, when I recall the story of the turtle, I have no more confidence than is necessary.

-- The turtle! The turtle! replied the reporter. Do you not know it was the sea that turned it over?

-- Who knows? murmured the engineer.

-- But... said Nab.

Nab had something to say, that was evident, for he opened his mouth to speak and did not speak.

-- What do you want to say, Nab? the engineer asked him.

-- If we return by the shore to Cape Claw, replied Nab, after doubling that cape, we will be barred...

-- By the Mercy! Indeed, replied Harbert, and we will have neither bridge nor boat to cross it!

-- Well, Mr. Cyrus, replied Pencroff, with a few floating trunks, we won't be bothered to pass that river!

-- Still, said Gideon Spilett, it will be useful to build a bridge, if we want easy access to the Far-West!

-- A bridge! cried Pencroff. Well, isn't Mr. Smith an engineer by trade? But he'll make us a bridge, when we want a bridge! As for transporting you this evening to the other bank of the Mercy, and that without wetting a thread of your clothes, I take charge of it. We still have a day's provisions, that's all we need, and, besides, game perhaps won't be lacking today as yesterday. Off we go!

The reporter's proposition, very warmly supported by the sailor, obtained general approval, for each was eager to have done with his doubts, and, by returning via Cape Claw, the exploration would be complete. But there was not an hour to lose, for a forty-mile stage is long, and they must not count on reaching Granite-House before night.

At six in the morning, the little troop set out. In anticipation of bad encounters, animals two- or four-legged, the guns were loaded with ball, and Top, who was to lead the way, received order to beat the forest edge.

From the end of the promontory that formed the tail of the peninsula, the coast curved round over a distance of five miles, which was rapidly covered, without the most minute investigations having revealed the least trace of an ancient or recent landing, nor a wreck, nor a remnant of encampment, nor the ashes of an extinguished fire, nor a footprint!

The colonists, arrived at the angle where the curve ended to follow the northeast direction forming Washington Bay, could then embrace with a glance the southern shore of the island in its full extent. At twenty-five miles, the coast ended at Cape Claw, which was barely outlined in the morning haze, and which a mirage heightened, as if it were suspended between land and water. Between the place occupied by the colonists and the bottom of the immense bay, the shore consisted, first, of a broad very even and very flat beach, bordered by a line of trees in the background; then, afterward, the coast, become very irregular, thrust sharp points into the sea, and finally some blackish rocks accumulated in picturesque disorder to end at Cape Claw.

Such was the layout of this part of the island, which the explorers saw for the first time, and which they scanned at a glance, after stopping an instant.

-- A ship that would put in here at full sea, said Pencroff then, would be inevitably lost. Sandbanks, extending offshore, and farther out, reefs! Bad waters!

-- But at least, something of that ship would remain, observed the reporter.

-- There would remain pieces of wood on the reefs, and nothing on the sands, replied the sailor.

-- Why so?

-- Because those sands, more dangerous even than the rocks, swallow up all that is cast there, and a few days suffice for the hull of a ship of several hundred tons to disappear entirely!

-- Thus, Pencroff, asked the engineer, if a vessel had been lost on those banks, would it be no wonder that there is now no trace of it?

-- No, Mr. Smith, with the help of time or tempest. Still, it would be surprising, even in that case, that fragments of mast, of spars, had not been thrown on the shore, beyond the reach of the sea.

-- Let us continue our search, then, replied Cyrus Smith.

At one hour after midday, the colonists had arrived at the bottom of Washington Bay, and, at this moment, they had covered a distance of twenty miles.

They halted to breakfast.

There began an irregular coast, bizarrely jagged and covered by a long line of those reefs that succeeded the sandbanks, and which the tide, now at slack, would soon uncover. One saw the supple undulations of the sea, broken at the rock heads, unfold there in long foamy fringes. From this point to Cape Claw, the beach was narrow and squeezed between the line of reefs and that of the forest.

The march was therefore going to become more difficult, for innumerable fallen rocks encumbered the shore.

The granite wall also tended to rise higher and higher, and, of the trees that crowned it behind, one could see only the green summits, animated by no breeze.

After a half-hour of rest, the colonists set out again, and their eyes left no point of the reefs and beach unobserved. Pencroff and Nab even ventured amid the reefs, whenever an object attracted their gaze. But of wreck, none, and they were deceived by some bizarre conformation of the rocks. They could ascertain, however, that edible shellfish abounded on this beach, but it could not be profitably exploited until a communication had been established between the two banks of the Mercy, and also when means of transport were perfected.

Thus, nothing relating to the presumed shipwreck appeared on this coast, and yet an object of some importance, the hull of a vessel for example, would have been visible then, or its debris would have been cast ashore, as had been that case, found less than twenty miles from there. But there was nothing.

Toward three o'clock, Cyrus Smith and his companions arrived at a narrow well-enclosed creek, to which no watercourse led. It formed a true little natural port, invisible from offshore, to which a narrow passage led, which the reefs left between them. At the bottom of this creek, some violent convulsion had torn the rocky border, and a cut, hollowed in a gentle slope, gave access to the upper plateau, which could be situated less than ten miles from Cape Claw, and, consequently, four miles in a straight line from the Grande-Vue plateau.

Gideon Spilett proposed to his companions to halt at this spot. It was accepted, for the march had sharpened everyone's appetite, and, though it was not dinnertime, no one refused to refresh himself with a piece of venison. This lunch was to allow them to wait for supper at Granite-House. A few minutes later, the colonists, seated at the foot of a magnificent clump of maritime pines, devoured the provisions that Nab had drawn from his knapsack.

The place was elevated fifty to sixty feet above sea level. The range of view was thus rather extended, and, passing over the last rocks of the cape, it was lost even in Union Bay. But neither the islet, nor the Grande-Vue plateau were visible and could not be then, for the relief of the ground and the curtain of great trees abruptly masked the northern horizon.

Needless to add that, despite the extent of sea the explorers could embrace, and though the engineer's glass had point by point traversed that circular line where sky and water merged, no ship was perceived. Likewise, over all that part of the coast still to be explored, the glass was swept with the same care from the beach to the reefs, and no wreck appeared in the field of the instrument.

-- Come, said Gideon Spilett, we must make up our minds and console ourselves thinking that no one will come dispute possession of Lincoln Island with us!

-- But finally, that bit of lead! said Harbert. It is not imaginary, I suppose!

-- A thousand devils, no! cried Pencroff, thinking of his absent molar.

-- Then what to conclude? asked the reporter.

-- This, replied the engineer: it is that at most three months ago, a ship, voluntarily or not, made landfall...

-- What! You would admit, Cyrus, that it sank without leaving any trace? cried the reporter.

-- No, my dear Spilett, but note that if it is certain a human being set foot on this island, it appears no less certain that he has left it now.

-- Then, if I understand you well, Mr. Cyrus, said Harbert, the ship would have departed again?...

-- Evidently.

-- And we would have lost without return an occasion to repatriate ourselves? said Nab.

-- Without return, I fear.

-- Well! Since the occasion is lost, on the way, said Pencroff, who already had homesickness for Granite-House.

But, scarcely had he risen, than Top's barking rang out forcefully, and the dog came out of the woods, holding in his jaws a scrap of fabric soiled with mud.

Nab tore the scrap from the dog's mouth.

It was a piece of stout canvas.

Top kept barking, and, by his comings and goings, seemed to invite his master to follow him into the forest.

-- There is something there that could well explain my bit of lead! cried Pencroff.

-- A castaway! replied Harbert.

-- Wounded, perhaps! said Nab.

-- Or dead! replied the reporter.

And all rushed in the dog's tracks, among those great pines that formed the first curtain of the forest. Just in case, Cyrus Smith and his companions had prepared their weapons.

They had to advance rather deeply into the woods; but, to their great disappointment, they still saw no footprint. Brush and lianas were intact, and they even had to cut them with the axe, as had been done in the deepest thickets of the forest. It was thus difficult to admit that a human creature had already passed there, and yet Top went and came, not like a dog who searches at random, but like a being endowed with will who follows an idea.

After seven or eight minutes of walking, Top stopped.

The colonists, arrived at a sort of clearing, bordered by great trees, looked around and saw nothing, neither under the brush, nor between the tree trunks.

-- But what is it, Top? said Cyrus Smith.

Top barked more forcefully, jumping at the foot of a gigantic pine.

Suddenly, Pencroff cried out:

-- Ah! good! Ah! perfect!

-- What is it? asked Gideon Spilett.

-- We are looking for a wreck at sea or on land!

-- Well?

-- Well, it is up in the air that it is found!

And the sailor showed a sort of great whitish rag, hooked to the top of the pine, and of which Top had brought back a piece fallen to the ground.

-- But that is no wreck! cried Gideon Spilett.

-- Beg pardon! replied Pencroff.

-- How so? It is?...

-- It is all that remains of our aerial boat, of our balloon that ran aground up there, at the summit of this tree!

Pencroff was not mistaken, and he uttered a magnificent hurrah, adding:

-- Here's some fine canvas! Here's enough to furnish us linen for years! Here's enough to make handkerchiefs and shirts! Eh, Mr. Spilett, what do you say to an island where shirts grow on trees?

It was truly a fortunate circumstance for the colonists of Lincoln Island that the aerostat, after making its last bound in the air, had fallen back on the island and that they had this chance to find it again.

Either they would keep the envelope in this form, if they wished to attempt a new evasion by air, or they would profitably employ those few hundred ells of a fine quality cotton canvas, once freed of its varnish. As may be thought, Pencroff's joy was unanimously and warmly shared.

But this envelope, they must remove it from the tree where it hung, to put it in a safe place, and that was no small task. Nab, Harbert and the sailor, having climbed to the top of the tree, had to perform prodigies of skill to disengage the enormous deflated aerostat.

The operation lasted nearly two hours, and not only the envelope, with its valve, its springs, its brass fittings, but the net, that is to say a considerable lot of cordage and ropes, the retaining ring and the balloon's anchor were on the ground. The envelope, save the fracture, was in good condition, and, alone, its lower appendage had been torn.

It was a fortune that had fallen from the sky.

-- All the same, Mr. Cyrus, said the sailor, if we ever decide to leave the island, it won't be by balloon, will it? Airships don't go where you want, and we know something about that! See here, if you take my advice, we'll build a good boat of some twenty tons, and you'll let me cut a mainsail and a jib from this canvas. As for the rest, it will serve to clothe us!

-- We shall see, Pencroff, replied Cyrus Smith, we shall see.

-- Meanwhile, we must put all that in safety, said Nab. Indeed, they could not think of transporting to Granite-House this load of canvas, ropes, cordage, whose weight was considerable, and, pending a suitable vehicle to carry them, it was important not to leave these riches longer at the mercy of the first hurricane. The colonists, uniting their efforts, managed to drag the whole to the shore, where they discovered a rather vast rocky cavity, which neither wind, nor rain, nor sea could visit, thanks to its orientation.

-- We needed a closet, we have a closet, said Pencroff; but as it doesn't lock, it will be prudent to hide its opening. I don't say that for two-footed thieves, but for four-footed thieves!

At six in the evening, all was stored, and, after giving the little indentation that formed the creek the very justified name of "Balloon Harbor," they took the road to Cape Claw. Pencroff and the engineer talked of various projects that it was fitting to execute in the briefest delay. Above all, a bridge must be thrown over the Mercy, to establish easy communication with the south of the island; then, the cart would come fetch the aerostat, for the skiff could not suffice to transport it; then, a decked shallop would be built; then, Pencroff would rig it as a cutter, and they could undertake circumnavigation voyages... around the island; then, etc.

However, night was coming, and the sky was already dark, when the colonists reached the Wreck Point, at the very place where they had discovered the precious case. But there, no more than elsewhere, was there anything indicating that some shipwreck had occurred, and they had to return to the conclusions previously formulated by Cyrus Smith. From Wreck Point to Granite-House, there remained still four miles, and they were quickly covered; but it was past midnight, when, after following the coast to the mouth of the Mercy, the colonists arrived at the first bend formed by the river.

“Stories of the world, in your language.”