Two days passed without bringing any change in the situation. The cachalot was still following the shoal, and Mandibul passed the time by stabbing at it occasionally with a harpoon. The shoal gradually diminished, each attack by the cachalot costing a few herrings.
There was a battle in the sea and a battle in the sky: clouds against clouds, east wind against north wind, waves against waves! In that unleashed tumult of the elements, the poor herring shoal found a chance to lose its enemy; the cachalot, doubtless frightened, abandoned its pursuit.
Through two hours of daylight, 14 hours of darkness, and then another ten hours of daylight, the tempest did not relent. By the glare of lightning-flashes, the glow of the aurora borealis and the tremulous gleam of moonlight, the herring shoal still appeared, with only Mandibul’s energetic head and the charming but slightly unkempt face of Mrs. Hatteras protruding from its two iron buoys.
Mandibul blessed the tempest, for it had permitted him to hear sweet confessions from his companion’s lips. Amid all the thunderbolts, their two hearts had reached an understanding!
The tempest finally came to its conclusion, though, and so did the tranquility of our two friends. The ill-fated shoal of herrings, dicing with disaster until the end, had just run into the middle of an innumerable shoal of cod. Fatality!
The cod, which had not eaten for two days, seemed delighted with the windfall and hurled themselves into an attack in numbers that that bewildered the valiant Mandibul. Our friend struck out at the mass with thrusts of his harpoon, but the shoal was still surrounded and regularly put to the sword.
It was the beginning of the end. They could resist one cachalot, but how could they resist these irresistible enemies?
“We’re lost!” cried Mrs. Hatteras.
“Not yet!” replied Mandibul. Seizing his carbine, he attacked the cod with rifle fire.
The herring shoal diminished rapidly. At dusk Mandibul observed a diminution of two meters in its length. The width had diminished proportionately and the buoys were sinking deeper and deeper.
The meal continued all night. At daybreak, scarcely a meter of herrings remained around the buoys. Mandibul resumed his fusillade to make them last as long as possible. Mrs. Hatters fainted and slid into the interior of her buoy.
Suddenly, Mrs. Hatteras’s head emerged from the buoy again.
“Didn’t you hear it?” she cried.
“What’s that?”
“A cannon shot!”
Mandibul started. Indeed, it did seem to him that he had heard something like the last echoes of a cannon shot in the distance. Mandibul’s fusillade must have been heard, and that cannon short was doubtless a reply. Mandibul picked up his rifle again and fired into the air.
Then Mandibul released a joyful hurrah. As the buoys were balanced momentarily on the crest of a wave, there was just time to perceive a merchant ship at least half a league away steaming straight toward them at top speed.
A quarter of an hour later the distance had diminished considerably. On the deck and in the rigging of the ship the two castaways could make out a company of mariners waving their caps.
Another ten minutes went by. The ship had dropped a launch into the sea. Suddenly, Mandibul released an exclamation and almost fainted in his buoy.
“Well?” cried Mrs. Hatteras, breathlessly.
“It’s Farandoul!” exclaimed Mandibul.
It was, indeed, Farandoul himself who was in change of the launch. The savior ship was the Russian brig encountered by our friend in the waters of the Kanin lighthouse. Farandoul had made no mistake in his calculations; within a few days, in spite of the tempest, he had caught up with his friend, carried off by the last remnant of the herring shoal.
A quarter of an hour later the buoys, towed by the launch, came alongside the ship. Mandibul and Mrs. Hatteras threw themselves into the arms of Farandoul and the entire crew. We can avow that no one pressed the two castaways more ardently to his heart than the worthy solicitor Codgett; along with Mrs. Hatteras, he recovered the hope of some day seeing his invoice paid.
The sailors, charge with hoisting the buoys on board, were greatly astonished. The unfortunate herrings, the last survivors of so many disasters, did not want to abandon the buoys, and had themselves hoisted up with them, thus providing an example of fidelity worthy of figuring in a new edition of Morality in Action.
Mrs. Hatteras tore herself away from Codgett’s greetings and ran to the buoys. Picking up a herring, she held it out to Mandibul, saying softly: “Promise me that you’ll have it stuffed by a natural scientist; I want to keep a souvenir of these recent days of emotion!”
Mandibul still had the company’s treasure. He took out a wad of bills to the value of a million and gave it to the Russian captain as a salvage fee. The good captain, delighted with his lucrative campaign, asked which port he should head for.
“Europe!” was everyone’s vote—but Farandoul intervened. He had reflected a great deal, and had privately formed a firm resolution to shield his friends from a civilization that was too advanced. Could any veritable tranquility be found in Europe, that land of sterile agitations, that feverish part of the world in which what people called life was nothing but ridiculous torments or artificial pleasures? No, no, no! After such an agitated existence, Farandoul wanted to give his friends a taste of the pure and limpid happiness of a peaceful life in the bosom of solitude.
In spite of the clamors, therefore, he set a course for the Atlantic Ocean instead of setting sail for Europe.
No one except Mandibul knew where they were going. The journey was very long.
One day, the German scientist perceived a region of tropical vegetation of which Farandoul refused to tell them the name. Instead of landing, our hero contented himself with sending Mandibul ashore to re-provision the ship.
Twenty-four hours later, Mandibul having been conscientious, the ship put out to sea again, still heading southwards.
A few weeks later they sighted land again; in heavy seas they doubled a cape in which the scientists believed that they recognized Cape Horn, and they found themselves confronted by limitless ocean again. It was the Pacific!
You have doubtless already guessed that Farandoul’s ship was heading for the little island in Pomotou, the corner of the globe where he had spent his happy childhood. There was the safe and tranquil port in which our hero expected, after so many shocks, to spend some peaceful days with his friends.
After Cape Horn, the brave monkey spent his days on the mast, telescope in hand. One day, he manifested signs of anxiety; he was seen repeatedly rubbing the lenses of his spy-glass and scanning the horizon tenaciously. Suddenly, the telescope slipped from his hands; he cried out and slid down to the deck. At the same moment, the lookout signaled land ahead.
It was Pomotou!
The ship dropped anchor a quarter of a league from the land. On the shore a lively animation was visible; large numbers of individuals were coming and going around the huts of a large village.
A cry of “Man overboard!” was heard. That was the foster-father, who, unable to restrain himself, had just jumped into the water and was swimming to the shore.
He was soon seen, and caused a considerable stir among the group of natives. The excitement on the beach was further increased when he arrived; the village seemed to be in revolution!
After a few minutes, a boat cast off and moved in the direction of the ship. When it came alongside, the German scientists fell over backwards with astonishment. It was manned exclusively by monkeys!
Meanwhile, these monkeys had rapidly climbed the sides of the ship and leapt on to the bridge. The German scientists broke their pipes in the excess of their surprise; the monkeys had precipitated themselves into Farandoul’s arms. O emotion! The monkeys were our hero’s five foster-brothers, found on the shore by their father.
The process of disembarkation began immediately. The sailors bid farewell to the Russian captain. Hatteras’s ex-captives did not want to hear any more
talk of returning to Europe and proposed to found a colony in Pomotou. When he learned of their decision, César Picolot requested naturalization from Farandoul’s foster-brothers, and obtained it on Farandoul’s recommendation.
Mrs. Hatteras, putting her hand in Mandibul’s, declared that she considered herself to be divorced and expressed her intention of granting the wishes of her companion in misfortune as soon as they could be given legal status by the Pomotouan authorities.
As for the beautiful nihilist Olga Borogodoloff, she leaned on Farandoul’s arm with enough abandon for there to be no need to ask her whether she wanted to return to Europe.
No longer daring, after such a long absence, to confront the reproaches of Mrs. Codgett, the solicitor Codgett asked for, and obtained, a hut on the island. Only the German scientists asked to be repatriated, in order to give an account of their polar mission to the Scientific Congress of Berlin.
We shall pass over all the details of the establishment of our friends in the monkeys’ village. Farandoul, elected Governor General of the mixed nation, took the reins of government in hand, to the great satisfaction of bimanes and quadrumanes alike. Olga soon became Madame Farandoul and Mrs. Hatteras assumed the sweet title of Madame Mandibul. The singers found good matches among the former crew of La Belle Léocadie. Trabadec, Codgett and Picolot took quadrumane spouses, and the rest of the crew, desirous of not remaining bachelors, sent Tournesol to Lima on a mission to bring back a job lot of assorted spouses. The mixed Pomotouan nation was founded.
What more is there to say? Happiness has no story value. The historian, having arrived at the conclusion of his task, can only break his pen, while dreaming enviously of the fate of the happy inhabitants of that Fortunate Isle in Pomotou.121
THE END
APPENDIX:
ROBIDA’S CHAPTER SYNOPSES
PART ONE: OCEANIA - THE MONKEY KING
I. How Saturnin Farandoul, aged four months and seven days, embarked upon a career of adventure. His adoptive family take him for an incompetent monkey.
II. In which we are introduced to La Belle Léocadie. The Bora-Bora Company for the Skimming of the Sunda Islands. The boar filled with grape-shot.
III. Siege and blockade. The heroic conduct of the tortoises of the Mysterious Island. A terrible stew!
IV. Captain Nemo’s divers. Lieutenant Mandibul is swallowed by an oyster. Love in a diving-suit.
V. How poor Mysora ended up in the aquarium of Valentin Croknuff, an aged but very ardent man of science. Saturnin Farandoul declares war on England.
VI. The Conquest of Australia. Telegrams and Correspondence in the Melbourne Herald. The great Melbourne Aquarium will not capitulate!
VII. The assault on the Great Aquarium. The horrible wickedness of the bimane Croknuff! The world devoid of happiness; Mysora is no more.
VIII. The organization of the Farandoulian Empire. Biographies of the principal bimane and quadrumane leaders. In which the great ideas of Saturnin I regarding the regeneration of the world in general, and old Europe in particular, are revealed to the reader.
IX. The Perfidious Schemes of Perfidious Albion. Lady Arabella Cardigan, a bimane spy, seduces quadrumane Colonel Makako. How empires perish!!!
X. How the bimane generals imprisoned by the English regained their liberty. Bora-Bora’s treasure. The lamentable fate of La Belle Léocadie.
PART TWO: THE TWO AMERICAS - AROUND THE WORLD IN MORE THAN 80 DAYS
I. A Great Rattlesnake Hunt. Farandoul’s heart beats again! A fine reception from the Mormons.
II. Farandoul’s 17 Wives. The hour of tranquility has not come. Attached to the war-pole!
III. Rising Moon. A warning to the young as to the terrible consequences that can arise from declarations tattooed on a lady’s breast. What a bear!
IV. A duel of gigantic locomotives. The Farandoulist Crisis. Horatius Bixby’s three hairs.
V. Three hundred and fifty-eight women surrounded on a hill! The strange and terrible adventures as a result of which these Parisian, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish and Chinese ladies came to be lost in the Patagonian pampas!
VI. How the Fogg caravan went from gauchos to Patagonians. All Patagonia under arms! Refuge with the beavers. Foundation of a lakeside city.
VII. Beavertown attacked! The deplorable conduct of 350 ladies. Treason upon treason. Clarification of the mysterious fate of Passepartout. To the last drop of Nicaraguan blood!
VIII. The Railway War. The new siege warfare. Concentrated vervain gas bombs, chloroform shells and smallpox canisters. Pneumatic aspirators. Submarine warfare!
IX. In the air! The appearance of new blue moons at Cayman City. An escape in the clouds; the fugitives’ last pigeon. The heroic devotion of Barbara Twinklish.
X. Aerial operations. Flying mines. A great battle at 800 meters. The deplorable end of Sir Phileas Fogg.
PART THREE: ACROSS AFRICA - THE FOUR QUEENS
I. The Saucepan Boat. The Niam-Niams manifest the intention of eating Farandoul boiled. Emotion in the scientific world. A triumphant arrival among the Makalolos.
II. Giraffe-riders and ostrich-borne sharpshooters. The wisdom of 500 queens. Preparations for a solemn feast. How, after becoming weary of the nation, Farandoul abducted the reigning queens and their reserves.
III. All-out Pursuit. Minor adventures hunting and fishing. The sail-equipped hippopotamus. A long discussion with an impaled rhinoceros. A letter from Mandibul.
IV. Continuation of the flight. Kidnapped by gorillas. The powerful effect of morality on simple nature.
V. Continuation of the flight! Adventures of six gods of the Sacred Isles. Their escapes and successive transformations. Six very unhappy gods.
VI. Encounters and complications. An army of locusts. A fatal night in the ruins of Thebes. Farandoul, mummified, travels in the luggage of the Klaknavor clan.
VII. Vengeance! Seven Simon Stylites. Miss Flora MacKlaknavor is compromised! Tranquility is not of this world. Scarcely arrived in Cairo, our friends are carried off by an unknown comet!
VIII. A voyage through interplanetary space, on a very small and scarcely fertile star. How the inhabitants of the minaret saved themselves by fishing for satellites. Hector Servadac!
IX. A terrible landing on the planet Saturn! The strangeness of Saturnian nature. Seven female species. Servadac and his friends, treated as curious animals, are put in cages in the zoological gardens.
X. Another cataclysm! Return to Earth. How the four queens, remaining on Saturn, married powerful monarchs and became the founders of a new race.
PART FOUR: ASIA - THE SEARCH FOR THE WHITE ELEPHANT
I. Sixty millions reward. How Farandoul and his marines, on arrival in Siam, were condemned to decapitation by sword 800 times over, and how Tournesol earned a more severe sentence.
II. The falsely-tinted elephant. Further embarrassment. The heart of the colonel of the Amazon corps beats precipitately! Three hundred overexcited elephants.
III. The festivals of India. Fakirs and bayaderes. More condemnations! Flayed alive with skilled slowness. A remarkable case of longevity observed in the Rajah of Kifir. Forty widows to burn!
IV. Across Tibet. A singular marriage proposition. Arrival in China. A pleasant journey in wheelbarrows with sails and the defeat of the Chinese army.
V. How the mariners carelessly broke the Porcelain Tower of Nanking. A regional conference of executioners. The torture of 98,000 pieces! The cangues of the condemned.
VI. The theft of a river-boat and an accidental journey to Japan. A fatal prediction relating to Prince Miko. How Farandoul was married in error, on the day of his arrival, to the fiancée of the surly Prince Kaido.
VII. Battles and revolutions. A political crisis. Generals and politicians disembowel themselves in fury. Catastrophe. Condemned to perish in boiling fat. The prediction fulfilled!
VIII. A new condemnation. Two crosswise incisions, flick flick! Pursuit along the walls. The Temple of the 33,333 Spirits.
IX.
Imprudent return to China. Recaptured and recondemned! Exciting escape in barrels. The Great Wall of China. The King of Siam’s elephant is on the point of being eaten.
X. Another of Jules Verne’s heroes! The elephant’s misfortunes are not over.
Drowned, eaten or frozen. Farandoul the nurse. Triumphant return to Siam.
PART FIVE: EUROPE - HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR OF THE NORTH POLE
I. Mysterious Parisians. The Nabob of the Opera. The Misfortunes of a Company of Millionaires. How Farandoul’s foster-father, after 30 years of virtuous existence, found himself launched into the whirlwind of worldly pleasure. Farandoul the savior.
II. Preparations for departure to the North Pole. The balloon with the gondola-sloop. Cast off. A passenger on board! Repeated advertisements of the Governor of the North Pole.
III. The ice-sheet. Combat by boiling water. Bears and scientists. The seals of the ice-sheet speak Latin. The engagement of Farandoul’s foster-father to a young Eskimo.
IV. The mystery clarified. Terrible adventures of a professor of philosophy and a singing café troupe traveling from Le Havre to Trouville. Concerts at the North Pole. Mrs. Hatteras.
V. Horrible treason of Governor Hatteras. Abandoned at the Pole. The fire extinguished, the flame frozen. Departure and shipwreck. Run aground on a providential shoal of herrings.
The Adventures of Saturnin Farandoul Page 66