This desert isle, covered with stones, without vegetation, desolate refuge of sea-birds, did it belong to a more important archipelago? They could not tell. It was necessary to wait until the next day to search for the engineer; who, alas! had made no cry to signal his presence.
“The silence of Cyrus proves nothing,” said the reporter. “He may be wounded, and unable to reply, but we will not despair.”
The reporter then offered to light a fire upon the point of the island, which would serve as a signal for the engineer. But they searched in vain for wood or dry branches. Sand and stones were all they found.
One can understand the grief of Neb and his companions, who were strongly attached to their comrade. It was too evident that they could not help him now, and that they must wait till day. Either the engineer had escaped, and was already safe upon the land, or he was lost forever. The hours were long and dreadful, the cold was intense. But the castaways did not think of sleep. They moved back and forth upon that arid island, constantly returning to the northern end, where they would be closest to the place of the catastrophe. They listened, they shouted, they tried to catch some call.
Once the cry of Neb was answered by an echo; and Herbert said:
“That proves that there is land not far to the west.”
The sailor nodded; he knew his eyes could not deceive him. He thought he had seen land, and it must be there. Meanwhile the sky was clearing slowly.
The night passed; and towards 5 o’clock in the morning the heavens began to brighten, though the horizon remained obscure.
“I feel the land,” said Pencroff, “it is there!”
The fog soon rose. A clear sun warmed the upper. At half past 6, the mist was nearly gone. The sea appeared, limitless towards the east, but bounded on the west by a high and abrupt coast.
Yes, the land was there! The island and the main land were separated by a channel half a mile wide. Into this current one of the party, without saying a word or consulting with his companions, precipitated himself. It was Neb. Pencroff called to him in vain. The reporter prepared to follow, but the sailor ran to him, exclaiming:
“Do you want to cross this channel?”
“Yes, I do,” replied Spilett.
“Well, then, listen to me a moment. Neb can rescue his master alone. If we throw ourselves into the channel we are in danger: this strong current can carry us out to sea by. You see the tide is going out. Wait, just wait a little.”
“You are right,” answered the reporter; “we will keep together as much as possible.”
Meantime, Neb was swimming vigorously in a diagonal direction, against the current. He was gaining towards the other shore. It took him more than half an hour to cross the half mile which separated the isle from the mainland.
Neb landed at the base of a high rocky wall, and clambered quickly up its side, and then disappeared behind a rock.
Neb’s companions fixed their eyes upon that land from which they were going to demand refuge. They ate some of the shellfish which they found upon the sands; it was a poor meal, but it was better than nothing.
The opposite coast formed an immense bay, terminated to the south by a sharp point. This point at its junction with the shore was abutted by high granite rocks. Towards the north, on the contrary, the bay widened, with a shore more rounded, extending from the southwest to the northeast, and ending in a narrow cape. Between these two points, the distance was about eight miles. A half mile from the shore the island, like an enormous whale, lay upon the sea. Its width was not greater than a quarter of a mile.
Before the Island, the shore began with a sandy beach strewn with black rocks. Beyond this rose, like a curtain, a perpendicular granite wall, at least 300 feet high and terminated by a ragged edge. This extended for about three miles, ending abruptly on the right, as if cut by the hand of man.
Upon the upper level of the coast not a tree was visible. To the right, however, and back of the smooth face of rock, some verdure appeared. Finally, distant towards the northwest about seven miles, shone a white summit, reflecting the sun’s rays. It was the snowy cap of some lofty mountain.
It was not possible to say whether this land was an island or a part of a continent. Gideon Spilett, Pencroff, and Herbert looked earnestly upon this land where they were to live, perhaps for long years.
“Well,” demanded Herbert, “what do you think of it, Pencroff?”
“Well,” replied the sailor, “there’s good and bad in it, as with everything else. But we will soon see. In three hours we can reach that shore, and we will see what we can do to find Mr. Smith.”
Pencroff was not wrong in his predictions. Three hours later, at low tide, Spilett and his two companions waded through the water, which was nowhere more than five feet deep. Herbert, where the water was too deep, swam like a fish; and all arrived without difficulty at the other shore.
Chapter IV
The reporter walked along the coast in the direction which Neb had taken some hours before, and disappeared quickly around a turn in the shore. Herbert wished to go with him.
“Stay, my boy,” said the sailor. “We must pitch our camp for the night, and try to find something more satisfying to eat than shellfish. Our friends will need food when they come back.”
“I am ready, Pencroff,” said Herbert.
“Good,” said the sailor. “We are tired, cold, and hungry; we need shelter, fire, and food. There is plenty of wood in the forest, and we can get eggs from the nests; but we must find a house.”
“Well,” said Herbert, “I will look for a cave in these rocks.”
“Right,” said Pencroff. “Let us start at once.”
They walked along the base of the rocky wall. But instead of going northwards, they turned to the south. Pencroff had noticed a narrow inlet in the coast. Now it was important to pitch the camp near the fresh water; in that part of the island, too, Smith could be found.
The rock rose 300 feet, smooth and massive. It was a sturdy wall of the hardest granite. About the summit hovered a host of aquatic birds, with long, narrow, pointed beaks.
Meanwhile Herbert noticed some rocks. On them lay hosts of bivalves. Herbert called to Pencroff, who came running to him.
“Ah, they are mussels,” said the sailor.
“They are not mussels,” said Herbert, examining the mollusks carefully, “they are lithodomes[24].”
“Can we eat them?” said Pencroff.
“Certainly.”
“Then let us eat some lithodomes.”
These lithodomes were oblong shell-fish[25], adhering in clusters to the rocks. They tasted like oysters; Pencroff and Herbert made a good meal of them.
Their hunger was allayed for the moment, but their thirst was increased by the spicy flavor of the mollusks. The thing now was to find fresh water. Two hundred feet further on Pencroff and Herbert reached the inlet, through which a little river was flowing with full current.
“Here is water,” said Pencroff, “and over there is wood. Well, Herbert, now all we need is a house.”
The river water was clear. Pencroff and Herbert went down between the rocks, into sandy corridors.
“This is just what we want,” said Pencroff. “These Chimneys will be our house. But first we must get together some firing.”
Herbert and Pencroff left the Chimneys, and walked up the left bank of the river. After a quarter of an hour’s walk, the two reached the elbow which the river made in turning to the left. From this point they saw a forest of magnificent trees.
“Good,” said the sailor, “I may not know the name of these trees, but I know they will help us to make a fire, and that’s the main thing for us.”
It was easy to gather the firewood; plenty of dead branches lay at their feet. The dry wood would burn rapidly. Herbert asked, how could two men carry such a load to the Chimneys.