L'île mystérieuse. English

by Jules Verne

  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 thedarkness.

  "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 wasdoing."

  "It can only be explained in that way, my friends," replied Hardingquickly, "and I understand now how Ayrton was able to point out exactlythe situation of Tabor Island, since the events which had preceded hisbeing left on the island had made it known to him."

  "However," observed Pencroft, "if he was not yet a brute when he wrotethat 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 ofintelligence at a more recent time than he thinks."

  "Of course it must be so," replied Pencroft, "without that the factwould be unaccountable."

  "Unaccountable indeed," answered the engineer, who did not appeardesirous 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 inevery point. I remember quite well the account in the newspapers of theyacht 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 accusethemselves like that!"

  The next day--the 21st of December--the colonists descended to thebeach, and having climbed the plateau they found nothing of Ayrton. Hehad reached his house in the corral during the night and the settlersjudged it best not to agitate him by their presence. Time woulddoubtless perform what sympathy had been unable to accomplish.

  Herbert, Pencroft, and Neb resumed their ordinary occupations. On thisday the same work brought Harding and the reporter to the workshop atthe Chimneys.

  "Do you know, my dear Cyrus," said Gideon Spilett, "that the explanationyou gave yesterday on the subject of the bottle has not satisfied me atall! How can it be supposed that the unfortunate man was able to writethat document and throw the bottle into the sea without having theslightest 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 amcontent to rank this incident among those which I have not been able toexplain to this day!"

  "Indeed, Cyrus," said Spilett, "these things are incredible! Yourrescue, the case stranded on the sand, Top's adventure, and lastly thisbottle... Shall we never have the answer to these enigmas?"

  "Yes!" replied the engineer quickly, "yes, even if I have to penetrateinto 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 inmysteries in this world. There is a reason for everything unaccountablewhich has happened here, and that reason I shall discover. But in themeantime we must work and observe."

  The month of January arrived. The year 1867 commenced. The summeroccupations 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 whichhad been prepared for him. He busied himself with the numerous flockconfided to his care, and spared his companions the trouble of comingevery two or three days to visit the corral. Nevertheless, in order notto leave Ayrton in solitude for too long a time, the settlers often paidhim a visit.

  It was not unimportant either, in consequence of some suspicionsentertained by the engineer and Gideon Spilett, that this part ofthe island should be subject to a surveillance of some sort, and thatAyrton, if any incident occurred unexpectedly, should not neglect toinform the inhabitants of Granite House of it.

  Nevertheless it might happen that something would occur which it wouldbe necessary to bring rapidly to the engineer's knowledge. Independentlyof facts bearing on the mystery of Lincoln Island, many othersmight happen, which would call for the prompt interference of thecolonists,--such as the sighting of a vessel, a wreck on the westerncoast, the possible arrival of pirates, etc.

  Therefore Cyrus Harding resolved to put the corral in instantaneouscommunication with Granite House.

  It was on the 10th of January that he made known his project to hiscompanions.

  "Why! how are you going to manage that, captain?" asked Pencroft. "Doyou 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 materialsfor making a battery, and the most difficult thing will be to stretchthe wires, but by means of a drawplate I think we shall manage it."

  "Well, after that," returned the sailor, "I shall never despair ofseeing ourselves some day rolling along on a railway!"

  They then set to work, beginning with the most difficult thing, for, ifthey failed in that, it would be useless to manufacture the battery andother accessories.

  The iron of Lincoln Island, as has been said, was of excellent quality,and consequently very fit for being drawn out. Harding commenced bymanufacturing a drawplate, that is to say, a plate of steel, piercedwith conical holes of different sizes, which would successively bringthe wire to the wished-for tenacity. This piece of steel, after havingbeen tempered, was fixed in as firm a way as possible in a solidframework planted in the ground, only a few feet from the great fall,the motive power of which the engineer intended to utilize. In fact asthe fulling-mill was there, although not then in use, its beam movedwith extreme power would serve to stretch out the wire by rolling itround itself. It was a delicate operation, and required much care. Theiron, prepared previously in long thin rods, the ends of which weresharpened with the file, having been introduced into the largest hole ofthe 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 sameoperation 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 distanceof five miles, which separated the corral from the bounds of GraniteHouse.

  It did not take more than a few days to perform this work, and indeedas soon as the machine had been commenced, Cyrus Harding left hiscompanions to follow the trade of wiredrawers, and occupied himself withmanufacturing his battery.

  It was necessary to obtain a battery with a constant current. It isknown that the elements of modern batteries are generally composed ofretort coal, zinc, and copper. Copper was absolutely wanting to theengineer, who, notwithstanding all his researches, had never been ableto find any trace of it in Lincoln Island, and was therefore obliged todo without it. Retort coal, that is to say, the hard graphite whichis found in the retorts of gas manufactories, after the coal hasbeen dehydrogenized, could have been obtained, but it would have beennecessary to establish a special apparatus, involving great labor. Asto zinc, it may be remembered that the case found at Flotsam Point waslined with this metal, which could not be better utilized than for thispurpose.

  Cyrus Harding, after mature consideration, decided to manufacture avery simple battery, resembling as nearly as possible that inventedby Becquerel in 1820, and in which zinc only is employed. The othersubstances, azotic acid and potash, were all at his disposal.

  The way in which the battery was composed was as follows, and theresults were to be attained by the reaction of acid and potash on eachother. A number of glass bottle
s were made and filled with azotic acid.The engineer corked them by means of a stopper through which passed aglass tube, bored at its lower extremity, and intended to be plungedinto the acid by means of a clay stopper secured by a rag. Into thistube, 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 theclay.

  Cyrus Harding then took two slips of zinc, one of which was plungedinto azotic acid, the other into a solution of potash. A current wasimmediately produced, which was transmitted from the slip of zinc in thebottle to that in the tube, and the two slips having been connected by ametallic wire the slip in the tube became the positive pole, and that inthe bottle the negative pole of the apparatus. Each bottle, therefore,produced as many currents as united would be sufficient to produce allthe phenomena of the electric telegraph. Such was the ingenious and verysimple apparatus constructed by Cyrus Harding, an apparatus which wouldallow them to establish a telegraphic communication between GraniteHouse and the corral.

  On the 6th of February was commenced the planting along the road tothe corral, of posts furnished with glass insulators, and intended tosupport the wire. A few days after, the wire was extended, ready toproduce the electric current at a rate of twenty thousand miles asecond.

  Two batteries had been manufactured, one for Granite House, the otherfor the corral; for if it was necessary the corral should be able tocommunicate with Granite House it might also be useful that GraniteHouse should be able to communicate with the corral.

  As to the receiver and manipulator, they were very simple. At the twostations the wire was wound round a magnet, that is to say, round apiece of soft iron surrounded with a wire. The communication was thusestablished between the two poles; the current, starting from thepositive pole, traversed the wire, passed through the magnet which wastemporarily magnetized, and returned through the earth to the negativepole. If the current was interrupted, the magnet immediately becameunmagnetized. It was sufficient to place a plate of soft iron before themagnet, which, attracted during the passage of the current, would fallback when the current was interrupted. This movement of the plate thusobtained, Harding could easily fasten to it a needle arranged on a dial,bearing the letters of the alphabet, and in this way communicate fromone 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 allwas going on well at the corral, and received in a few moments asatisfactory reply from Ayrton. Pencroft was wild with joy, and everymorning and evening he sent a telegram to the corral, which alwaysreceived an answer.

  This mode of communication presented two very real advantages: firstly,because it enabled them to ascertain that Ayrton was at the corral; andsecondly, that he was thus not left completely isolated. Besides, CyrusHarding never allowed a week to pass without going to see him, andAyrton came from time to time to Granite House, where he always found acordial welcome.

  The fine season passed away in the midst of the usual work. Theresources of the colony, particularly in vegetables and corn, increasedfrom day to day, and the plants brought from Tabor Island had succeededperfectly.

  The plateau of Prospect Heights presented an encouraging aspect. Thefourth harvest had been admirable and it may be supposed that no onethought of counting whether the four hundred thousand millions of grainsduly appeared in the crop. However, Pencroft had thought of doing so,but Cyrus Harding having told him that even if he managed to count threehundred grains a minute, or nine thousand an hour, it would take himnearly five thousand five-hundred years to finish his task, the honestsailor considered it best to give up the idea.

  The weather was splendid, the temperature very warm in the day time, butin the evening the sea-breezes tempered the heat of the atmosphere andprocured 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 blazedand 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 moderatenumber. The pigs had already produced young, and it may be understoodthat their care for these animals absorbed a great part of Neb andPencroft's time. The onagers, who had two pretty colts, were most oftenmounted by Gideon Spilett and Herbert, who had become an excellent riderunder the reporter's instruction, and they also harnessed them to thecart either for carrying wood and coal to Granite House, or differentmineral productions required by the engineer.

  Several expeditions were made about this time into the depths of the FarWest Forests. The explorers could venture there without having anythingto fear from the heat, for the sun's rays scarcely penetrated throughthe thick foliage spreading above their heads. They thus visited all theleft bank of the Mercy, along which ran the road from the corral to themouth of Falls River.

  But in these excursions the settlers took care to be well armed, forthey 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 pupilHerbert seconded him well. Armed as they were, they no longer fearedto meet one of those beasts. Herbert's courage was superb, and thereporter's sang-froid astonishing. Already twenty magnificent skinsornamented the dining-room of Granite House, and if this continued, thejaguar race would soon be extinct in the island, the object aimed at bythe hunters.

  The engineer sometimes took part in the expeditions made to the unknownparts of the island, which he surveyed with great attention. It was forother traces than those of animals that he searched the thickets of thevast forest, but nothing suspicious ever appeared. Neither Top nor Jup,who accompanied him, ever betrayed by their behavior that there wasanything strange there, and yet more than once again the dog barked atthe mouth of the well, which the engineer had before explored withoutresult.

  At this time Gideon Spilett, aided by Herbert, took several views ofthe most picturesque parts of the island, by means of the photographicapparatus found in the cases, and of which they had not as yet made anyuse.

  This apparatus, provided with a powerful object-glass, was verycomplete. Substances necessary for the photographic reproduction,collodion for preparing the glass plate, nitrate of silver to render itsensitive, hyposulfate of soda to fix the prints obtained, chloride ofammonium 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 wassufficient to soak them for a few minutes in the solution of nitrate ofsilver.

  The reporter and his assistant became in a short time very skilfuloperators, and they obtained fine views of the country, such as theisland, taken from Prospect Heights with Mount Franklin in the distance,the mouth of the Mercy, so picturesquely framed in high rocks, the gladeand the corral, with the spurs of the mountain in the background, thecurious development of Claw Cape, Flotsam Point, etc.

  Nor did the photographers forget to take the portraits of all theinhabitants of the island, leaving out no one.

  "It multiplies us," said Pencroft.

  And the sailor was enchanted to see his own countenance, faithfullyreproduced, ornamenting the walls of Granite House, and he stoppedas willingly before this exhibition as he would have done before therichest shop-windows in Broadway.

  But it must be acknowledged that the most successful portrait wasincontestably that of Master Jup. Master Jup had sat with a gravity notto 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 verydifficult to please; but he was quite cont
ented and contemplated his owncountenance with a sentimental air which expressed some small amount ofconceit.

  The summer heat ended with the month of March. The weather was sometimesrainy, but still warm. The month of March, which corresponds to theSeptember of northern latitudes, was not so fine as might have beenhoped. Perhaps it announced an early and rigorous winter.

  It might have been supposed one morning--the 21 st--that the first snowhad already made its appearance. In fact Herbert looking early from oneof 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 onething, that not only the islet but all the beach below Granite House wascovered 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 GideonSpilett.

  Cyrus Harding gazed at the sheet of white without saying anything, forhe really did not know how to explain this phenomenon, at this time ofyear 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 nimbleJup, who slid down to the sand.

  But the orang had not touched the ground, when the snowy sheet arose anddispersed in the air in such innumerable flakes that the light of thesun 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 theydisappeared in the distance, leaving the colonists amazed as if theyhad been present at some transformation scene, in which summer succeededwinter at the touch of a fairy's wand. Unfortunately the change had beenso sudden, that neither the reporter nor the lad had been able to bringdown 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 yearsbefore, the castaways from the air had been thrown upon Lincoln Island.