Chapter 3
The engineer, the meshes of the net having given way, had been carriedoff by a wave. His dog also had disappeared. The faithful animalhad voluntarily leaped out to help his master. "Forward," cried thereporter; and all four, Spilett, Herbert, Pencroft, and Neb, forgettingtheir fatigue, began their search. Poor Neb shed bitter tears, givingway to despair at the thought of having lost the only being he loved onearth.
Only two minutes had passed from the time when Cyrus Harding disappearedto the moment when his companions set foot on the ground. They had hopestherefore of arriving in time to save him. "Let us look for him! let uslook for him!" cried Neb.
"Yes, Neb," replied Gideon Spilett, "and we will find him too!"
"Living, I trust!"
"Still living!"
"Can he swim?" asked Pencroft.
"Yes," replied Neb, "and besides, Top is there."
The sailor, observing the heavy surf on the shore, shook his head.
The engineer had disappeared to the north of the shore, and nearly halfa mile from the place where the castaways had landed. The nearest pointof the beach he could reach was thus fully that distance off.
It was then nearly six o'clock. A thick fog made the night very dark.The castaways proceeded toward the north of the land on which chance hadthrown them, an unknown region, the geographical situation of which theycould not even guess. They were walking upon a sandy soil, mingled withstones, which appeared destitute of any sort of vegetation. The ground,very unequal and rough, was in some places perfectly riddled with holes,making walking extremely painful. From these holes escaped every minutegreat birds of clumsy flight, which flew in all directions. Others, moreactive, rose in flocks and passed in clouds over their heads. The sailorthought he recognized gulls and cormorants, whose shrill cries roseabove the roaring of the sea.
From time to time the castaways stopped and shouted, then listened forsome response from the ocean, for they thought that if the engineer hadlanded, and they had been near to the place, they would have heard thebarking of the dog Top, even should Harding himself have been unable togive any sign of existence. They stopped to listen, but no sound aroseabove the roaring of the waves and the dashing of the surf. The littleband then continued their march forward, searching into every hollow ofthe shore.
After walking for twenty minutes, the four castaways were suddenlybrought to a standstill by the sight of foaming billows close totheir feet. The solid ground ended here. They found themselves at theextremity of a sharp point on which the sea broke furiously.
"It is a promontory," said the sailor; "we must retrace our steps,holding towards the right, and we shall thus gain the mainland."
"But if he is there," said Neb, pointing to the ocean, whose waves shoneof a snowy white in the darkness. "Well, let us call again," and alluniting their voices, they gave a vigorous shout, but there came noreply. They waited for a lull, then began again; still no reply.
The castaways accordingly returned, following the opposite side of thepromontory, over a soil equally sandy and rugged. However, Pencroftobserved that the shore was more equal, that the ground rose, and hedeclared that it was joined by a long slope to a hill, whose massivefront he thought that he could see looming indistinctly through themist. The birds were less numerous on this part of the shore; the seawas also less tumultuous, and they observed that the agitation of thewaves was diminished. The noise of the surf was scarcely heard. Thisside of the promontory evidently formed a semicircular bay, which thesharp point sheltered from the breakers of the open sea. But to followthis direction was to go south, exactly opposite to that part of thecoast where Harding might have landed. After a walk of a mile and ahalf, the shore presented no curve which would permit them to return tothe north. This promontory, of which they had turned the point, mustbe attached to the mainland. The castaways, although their strengthwas nearly exhausted, still marched courageously forward, hoping everymoment to meet with a sudden angle which would set them in the firstdirection. What was their disappointment, when, after trudging nearlytwo miles, having reached an elevated point composed of slippery rocks,they found themselves again stopped by the sea.
"We are on an islet," said Pencroft, "and we have surveyed it from oneextremity to the other."
The sailor was right; they had been thrown, not on a continent, noteven on an island, but on an islet which was not more than two miles inlength, with even a less breadth.
Was this barren spot the desolate refuge of sea-birds, strewn withstones and destitute of vegetation, attached to a more importantarchipelago? It was impossible to say. When the voyagers from their carsaw the land through the mist, they had not been able to reconnoiterit sufficiently. However, Pencroft, accustomed with his sailor eyesto piece through the gloom, was almost certain that he could clearlydistinguish in the west confused masses which indicated an elevatedcoast. But they could not in the dark determine whether it was a singleisland, or connected with others. They could not leave it either, as thesea surrounded them; they must therefore put off till the next day theirsearch for the engineer, from whom, alas! not a single cry had reachedthem to show that he was still in existence.
"The silence of our friend proves nothing," said the reporter. "Perhapshe has fainted or is wounded, and unable to reply directly, so we willnot despair."
The reporter then proposed to light a fire on a point of the islet,which would serve as a signal to the engineer. But they searched in vainfor wood or dry brambles; nothing but sand and stones were to be found.The grief of Neb and his companions, who were all strongly attached tothe intrepid Harding, can be better pictured than described. It was tooevident that they were powerless to help him. They must wait with whatpatience they could for daylight. Either the engineer had been able tosave himself, and had already found a refuge on some point of the coast,or he was lost for ever! The long and painful hours passed by. The coldwas intense. The castaways suffered cruelly, but they scarcely perceivedit. They did not even think of taking a minute's rest. Forgettingeverything but their chief, hoping or wishing to hope on, they continuedto walk up and down on this sterile spot, always returning to itsnorthern point, where they could approach nearest to the scene of thecatastrophe. They listened, they called, and then uniting their voices,they endeavored to raise even a louder shout than before, which wouldbe transmitted to a great distance. The wind had now fallen almost toa calm, and the noise of the sea began also to subside. One of Neb'sshouts even appeared to produce an echo. Herbert directed Pencroft'sattention to it, adding, "That proves that there is a coast to the west,at no great distance." The sailor nodded; besides, his eyes could notdeceive him. If he had discovered land, however indistinct it mightappear, land was sure to be there. But that distant echo was the onlyresponse produced by Neb's shouts, while a heavy gloom hung over all thepart east of the island.
Meanwhile, the sky was clearing little by little. Towards midnight thestars shone out, and if the engineer had been there with his companionshe would have remarked that these stars did not belong to the NorthernHemisphere. The Polar Star was not visible, the constellations were notthose which they had been accustomed to see in the United States; theSouthern Cross glittered brightly in the sky.
The night passed away. Towards five o'clock in the morning of the 25thof March, the sky began to lighten; the horizon still remained dark,but with daybreak a thick mist rose from the sea, so that the eye couldscarcely penetrate beyond twenty feet or so from where they stood. Atlength the fog gradually unrolled itself in great heavily moving waves.
It was unfortunate, however, that the castaways could distinguishnothing around them. While the gaze of the reporter and Neb were castupon the ocean, the sailor and Herbert looked eagerly for the coastin the west. But not a speck of land was visible. "Never mind," saidPencroft, "though I do not see the land, I feel it... it is there...there... as sure as the fact that we are no longer at Richmond." But thefog was not long in rising. It was only a fine-weather mist. A hotsun soon penetrated to t
he surface of the island. About half-pastsix, three-quarters of an hour after sunrise, the mist became moretransparent. It grew thicker above, but cleared away below. Soon theisle appeared as if it had descended from a cloud, then the sea showeditself around them, spreading far away towards the east, but bounded onthe west by an abrupt and precipitous coast.
Yes! the land was there. Their safety was at least provisionallyinsured. The islet and the coast were separated by a channel about halfa mile in breadth, through which rushed an extremely rapid current.
However, one of the castaways, following the impulse of his heart,immediately threw himself into the current, without consulting hiscompanions, without saying a single word. It was Neb. He was in hasteto be on the other side, and to climb towards the north. It had beenimpossible to hold him back. Pencroft called him in vain. The reporterprepared to follow him, but Pencroft stopped him. "Do you want to crossthe channel?" he asked. "Yes," replied Spilett. "All right!" said theseaman; "wait a bit; Neb is well able to carry help to his master. If weventure into the channel, we risk being carried into the open sea bythe current, which is running very strong; but, if I'm not wrong, it isebbing. See, the tide is going down over the sand. Let us have patience,and at low water it is possible we may find a fordable passage." "Youare right," replied the reporter, "we will not separate more than we canhelp."
During this time Neb was struggling vigorously against the current. Hewas crossing in an oblique direction. His black shoulders could be seenemerging at each stroke. He was carried down very quickly, but he alsomade way towards the shore. It took more than half an hour to cross fromthe islet to the land, and he reached the shore several hundred feetfrom the place which was opposite to the point from which he hadstarted.
Landing at the foot of a high wall of granite, he shook himselfvigorously; and then, setting off running, soon disappeared behinda rocky point, which projected to nearly the height of the northernextremity of the islet.
Neb's companions had watched his daring attempt with painful anxiety,and when he was out of sight, they fixed their attention on the landwhere their hope of safety lay, while eating some shell-fish with whichthe sand was strewn. It was a wretched repast, but still it was betterthan nothing. The opposite coast formed one vast bay, terminating on thesouth by a very sharp point, which was destitute of all vegetation,and was of a very wild aspect. This point abutted on the shore in agrotesque outline of high granite rocks. Towards the north, on thecontrary, the bay widened, and a more rounded coast appeared, trendingfrom the southwest to the northeast, and terminating in a slender cape.The distance between these two extremities, which made the bow of thebay, was about eight miles. Half a mile from the shore rose the islet,which somewhat resembled the carcass of a gigantic whale. Its extremebreadth was not more than a quarter of a mile.
Opposite the islet, the beach consisted first of sand, covered withblack stones, which were now appearing little by little above theretreating tide. The second level was separated by a perpendiculargranite cliff, terminated at the top by an unequal edge at a height ofat least 300 feet. It continued thus for a length of three miles, endingsuddenly on the right with a precipice which looked as if cut by thehand of man. On the left, above the promontory, this irregular andjagged cliff descended by a long slope of conglomerated rocks till itmingled with the ground of the southern point. On the upper plateau ofthe coast not a tree appeared. It was a flat tableland like that aboveCape Town at the Cape of Good Hope, but of reduced proportions; at leastso it appeared seen from the islet. However, verdure was not wanting tothe right beyond the precipice. They could easily distinguish a confusedmass of great trees, which extended beyond the limits of their view.This verdure relieved the eye, so long wearied by the continued rangesof granite. Lastly, beyond and above the plateau, in a northwesterlydirection and at a distance of at least seven miles, glittered a whitesummit which reflected the sun's rays. It was that of a lofty mountain,capped with snow.
The question could not at present be decided whether this land formedan island, or whether it belonged to a continent. But on beholdingthe convulsed masses heaped up on the left, no geologist would havehesitated to give them a volcanic origin, for they were unquestionablythe work of subterranean convulsions.
Gideon Spilett, Pencroft, and Herbert attentively examined this land, onwhich they might perhaps have to live many long years; on which indeedthey might even die, should it be out of the usual track of vessels, aswas likely to be the case.
"Well," asked Herbert, "what do you say, Pencroft?"
"There is some good and some bad, as in everything," replied the sailor."We shall see. But now the ebb is evidently making. In three hours wewill attempt the passage, and once on the other side, we will try to getout of this scrape, and I hope may find the captain." Pencroft was notwrong in his anticipations. Three hours later at low tide, the greaterpart of the sand forming the bed of the channel was uncovered. Betweenthe islet and the coast there only remained a narrow channel which wouldno doubt be easy to cross.
About ten o'clock, Gideon Spilett and his companions stripped themselvesof their clothes, which they placed in bundles on their heads, andthen ventured into the water, which was not more than five feet deep.Herbert, for whom it was too deep, swam like a fish, and got throughcapitally. All three arrived without difficulty on the opposite shore.Quickly drying themselves in the sun, they put on their clothes, whichthey had preserved from contact with the water, and sat down to takecounsel together what to do next.