Part 2 - Abandoned: Chapter 10

by Jules Verne

　　When Pencroft had once got a plan in his head, he had no peace till it wasexecuted. Now he wished to visit Tabor Island, and as a boat of a certainsize was necessary for this voyage, he determined to build one.

　　What wood should he employ? Elm or fir, both of which abounded in theisland? They decided for the fir, as being easy to work, but which standswater as well as the elm.

　　These details settled, it was agreed that since the fine season would notreturn before six months, Cyrus Harding and Pencroft should work alone atthe boat. Gideon Spilett and Herbert were to continue to hunt, and neitherNeb nor Master Jup, his assistant, were to leave the domestic duties whichhad devolved upon them.

　　Directly the trees were chosen, they were felled, stripped of theirbranches, and sawn into planks as well as sawyers would have been able todo it. A week after, in the recess between the Chimneys and the cliff, adockyard was prepared, and a keel five-and-thirty feet long, furnished witha stern-post at the stern and a stem at the bows, lay along the sand.

　　Cyrus Harding was not working in the dark at this new trade. He knew asmuch about ship-building as about nearly everything else, and he had atfirst drawn the model of his ship on paper. Besides, he was ably secondedby Pencroft, who, having worked for several years in a dockyard inBrooklyn, knew the practical part of the trade. It was not until aftercareful calculation and deep thought that the timbers were laid on thekeel.

　　Pencroft, as may be believed, was all eagerness to carry out his newenterprise, and would not leave his work for an instant.

　　A single thing had the honor of drawing him, but for one day only, fromhis dockyard. This was the second wheat-harvest, which was gathered in onthe 15th of April. It was as much a success as the first, and yielded thenumber of grains which had been predicted.

　　"Five bushels, captain," said Pencroft, alter having scrupulouslymeasured his treasure.

　　"Five bushels," replied the engineer; "and a hundred and thirty thousandgrains a bushel will make six hundred and fifty thousand grains."

　　"Well, we will sow them all this time," said the sailor, "except a littlein reserve."

　　"Yes, Pencroft, and if the next crop gives a proportionate yield, weshall have four thousand bushels."

　　"And shall we eat bread?"

　　"We shall eat bread."

　　"But we must have a mill.

　　"We will make one."

　　The third corn-field was very much larger than the two first, and thesoil, prepared with extreme care, received the precious seed. That done,Pencroft returned to his work.

　　During this time Spilett and Herbert hunted in the neighborhood, and theyventured deep into the still unknown parts of the Far West, their gunsloaded with ball, ready for any dangerous emergency. It was a vast thicketof magnificent trees, crowded together as if pressed for room. Theexploration of these dense masses of wood was difficult in the extreme, andthe reporter never ventured there without the pocket-compass, for the sunscarcely pierced through the thick foliage and it would have been verydifficult for them to retrace their way. It naturally happened that gamewas more rare in those situations where there was hardly sufficient room tomove; two or three large herbivorous animals were however killed during thelast fortnight of April. These were koalas, specimens of which the settlershad already seen to the north of the lake, and which stupidly allowedthemselves to be killed among the thick branches of the trees in which theytook refuge. Their skins were brought back to Granite House, and there, bythe help of sulphuric acid, they were subjected to a sort of tanningprocess which rendered them capable of being used.

　　On the 30th of April, the two sportsmen were in the depth of the FarWest, when the reporter, preceding Herbert a few paces, arrived in a sortof clearing, into which the trees more sparsely scattered had permitted afew rays to penetrate. Gideon Spilett was at first surprised at the odorwhich exhaled from certain plants with straight stalks, round and branchy,bearing grape-like clusters of flowers and very small berries. The reporterbroke off one or two of these stalks and returned to the lad, to whom hesaid,--

　　"What can this be, Herbert?"

　　"Well, Mr. Spilett," said Herbert, "this is a treasure which will secureyou Pencroft's gratitude forever."

　　"Is it tobacco?"

　　"Yes, and though it may not be of the first quality, it is none the lesstobacco!"

　　"Oh, good old Pencroft! Won't he be pleased! But we must not let himsmoke it all, he must give us our share."

　　"Ah! an idea occurs to me, Mr, Spilett," replied Herbert. "Don't let ussay anything to Pencroft yet; we will prepare these leaves, and one fineday we will present him with a pipe already filled!"

　　"All right, Herbert, and on that day our worthy companion will havenothing left to wish for in this world."

　　The reporter and the lad secured a good store of the precious plant, andthen returned to Granite House, where they smuggled it in with as muchprecaution as if Pencroft had been the most vigilant and severe of custom-house officers.

　　Cyrus Harding and Neb were taken into confidence, and the sailorsuspected nothing during the whole time, necessarily somewhat long, whichwas required in order to dry the small leaves, chop them up, and subjectthem to a certain torrefaction on hot stones. This took two months; but allthese manipulations were successfully carried on unknown to Pencroft, for,occupied with the construction of his boat, he only returned to GraniteHouse at the hour of rest.

　　For some days they had observed an enormous animal two or three miles outin the open sea swimming around Lincoln Island. This was a whale of thelargest size, which apparently belonged to the southern species, calledthe "Cape Whale."

　　"What a lucky chance it would be if we could capture it!" cried thesailor. "Ah! if we only had a proper boat and a good harpoon, I would say'After the beast,' for he would be well worth the trouble of catching!"

　　"Well, Pencroft," observed Harding, "I should much like to watch youhandling a harpoon. It would be very interesting."

　　"I am astonished," said the reporter, "to see a whale in thiscomparatively high latitude."

　　"Why so, Mr. Spilett?" replied Herbert. "We are exactly in that part ofthe Pacific which English and American whalemen call the whale field, andit is here, between New Zealand and South America, that the whales of theSouthern Hemisphere are met with in the greatest numbers."

　　And Pencroft returned to his work, not without uttering a sigh of regret,for every sailor is a born fisherman, and if the pleasure of fishing is inexact proportion to the size of the animal, one can judge how a whalerfeels in sight of a whale. And if this had only been for pleasure! But theycould not help feeling how valuable such a prize would have been to thecolony, for the oil, fat, and bones would have been put to many uses.

　　Now it happened that this whale appeared to have no wish to leave thewaters of the island. Therefore, whether from the windows of Granite House,or from Prospect Heights, Herbert and Gideon Spilett, when they were nothunting, or Neb, unless presiding over his fires, never left the telescope,but watched all the animal's movements. The cetacean, having entered farinto Union Bay, made rapid furrows across it from Mandible Cape to ClawCape, propelled by its enormously powerful flukes, on which it supporteditself, and making its way through the water at the rate little short oftwelve knots an hour. Sometimes also it approached so near to the islandthat it could be clearly distinguished. It was the southern whale, which iscompletely black, the head being more depressed than that of the northernwhale.

　　They could also see it throwing up from its air-holes to a great height acloud of vapor, or of water, for, strange as it may appear, naturalists andwhalers are not agreed on this subject. Is it air or is it water which isthus driven out? It is generally admitted to be vapor, which, condensingsuddenly by contact with the cold air, falls again as rain.

　　However, the presence of this mammifer preoccupied the colonists. Itirritated Pencroft especially, as he could think of nothing else while atwork. He ended by longing for it, like a child for a thing which it hasbeen denied. At night he talked about it in his sleep, and certainly if hehad had the means of attacking it, if the sloop had been in a fit state toput to sea, he would not have hesitated to set out in pursuit.

　　But what the colonists could not do for themselves chance did for them,and on the 3rd of May shouts from Neb, who had stationed himself at thekitchen window, announced that the whale was stranded on the beach of theisland.

　　Herbert and Gideon Spilett, who were just about to set out hunting, lefttheir guns, Pencroft threw down his ax, and Harding and Neb joining theircompanions, all rushed towards the scene of action.

　　The stranding had taken place on the beach of Flotsam Point, three milesfrom Granite House, and at high tide. It was therefore probable that thecetacean would not be able to extricate itself easily; at any rate it wasbest to hasten, so as to cut off its retreat if necessary. They ran withpick-axes and iron-tipped poles in their hands, passed over the Mercybridge, descended the right bank of the river, along the beach, and in lessthan twenty minutes the settlers were close to the enormous animal, abovewhich flocks of birds already hovered.

　　"What a monster!" cried Neb.

　　And the exclamation was natural, for it was a southern whale, eighty feetlong, a giant of the species, probably not weighing less than a hundred andfifty thousand pounds!

　　In the meanwhile, the monster thus stranded did not move, nor attempt bystruggling to regain the water while the tide was still high.

　　It was dead, and a harpoon was sticking out of its left side.

　　"There are whalers in these quarters, then?" said Gideon Spilettdirectly.

　　"Oh, Mr. Spilett, that doesn't prove anything!" replied Pencroft. "Whaleshave been known to go thousands of miles with a harpoon in the side, andthis one might even have been struck in the north of the Atlantic and cometo die in the south of the Pacific, and it would be nothing astonishing."

　　Pencroft, having torn the harpoon from the animal's side, read thisinscription on it:

　　MARIA STELLA, VINEYARD"A vessel from the Vineyard! A ship from my country!" he cried. "The'Maria Stella!' A fine whaler, 'pon my word; I know her well! Oh, myfriends, a vessel from the Vineyard!--a whaler from the Vineyard!"

　　And the sailor brandishing the harpoon, repeated, not without emotion,the name which he loved so well--the name of his birthplace.

　　But as it could not be expected that the "Maria Stella" would come toreclaim the animal harpooned by her, they resolved to begin cutting it upbefore decomposition should commence. The birds, who had watched this richprey for several days, had determined to take possession of it withoutfurther delay, and it was necessary to drive them off by firing at themrepeatedly.

　　The whale was a female, and a large quantity of milk was taken from it,which, according to the opinion of the naturalist Duffenbach, might passfor cow's milk, and, indeed, it differs from it neither in taste, color,nor density.

　　Pencroft had formerly served on board a whaling-ship, and he couldmethodically direct the operation of cutting up, a sufficientlydisagreeable operation lasting three days, but from which the settlers didnot flinch, not even Gideon Spilett, who, as the sailor said, would end bymaking a "real good castaway."

　　The blubber, cut in parallel slices of two feet and a half in thickness,then divided into pieces which might weigh about a thousand pounds each,was melted down in large earthen pots brought to the spot, for they did notwish to taint the environs of Granite House, and in this fusion it lostnearly a third of its weight.

　　But there was an immense quantity of it; the tongue alone yielded sixthousand pounds of oil, and the lower lip four thousand. Then, besides thefat, which would insure for a long time a store of stearine and glycerine,there were still the bones, for which a use could doubtless be found,although there were neither umbrellas nor stays used at Granite House. Theupper part of the mouth of the cetacean was, indeed, provided on both sideswith eight hundred horny blades, very elastic, of a fibrous texture, andfringed at the edge like great combs, at which the teeth, six feet long,served to retain the thousands of animalculae, little fish, and molluscs,on which the whale fed.

　　The operation finished, to the great satisfaction of the operators, theremains of the animal were left to the birds, who would soon make everyvestige of it disappear, and their usual daily occupations were resumed bythe inmates of Granite House.

　　However, before returning to the dockyard, Cyrus Harding conceived theidea of fabricating certain machines, which greatly excited the curiosityof his companions. He took a dozen of the whale's bones, cut them into sixequal parts, and sharpened their ends.

　　"This machine is not my own invention, and it is frequently employed bythe Aleutian hunters in Russian America. You see these bones, my friends;well, when it freezes, I will bend them, and then wet them with water tillthey are entirely covered with ice, which will keep them bent, and I willstrew them on the snow, having previously covered them with fat. Now, whatwill happen if a hungry animal swallows one of these baits? Why, the heatof his stomach will melt the ice, and the bone, springing straight, willpierce him with its sharp points."

　　"Well! I do call that ingenious!" said Pencroft.

　　"And it will spare the powder and shot," rejoined Cyrus Harding.

　　"That will be better than traps!" added Neb.

　　In the meanwhile the boat-building progressed, and towards the end of themonth half the planking was completed. It could already be seen that hershape was excellent, and that she would sail well.

　　Pencroft worked with unparalleled ardor, and only a sturdy frame couldhave borne such fatigue; but his companions were preparing in secret areward for his labors, and on the 31st of May he was to meet with one ofthe greatest joys of his life.

　　On that day, after dinner, just as he was about to leave the table,Pencroft felt a hand on his shoulder.

　　It was the hand of Gideon Spilett, who said,--

　　"One moment, Master Pencroft, you mustn't sneak off like that! You'veforgotten your dessert."

　　"Thank you, Mr. Spilett," replied the sailor, "I am going back to mywork."

　　"Well, a cup of coffee, my friend?"

　　"Nothing more."

　　"A pipe, then?"

　　Pencroft jumped up, and his great good-natured face grew pale when he sawthe reporter presenting him with a ready-filled pipe, and Herbert with aglowing coal.

　　The sailor endeavored to speak, but could not get out a word; so, seizingthe pipe, he carried it to his lips, then applying the coal, he drew fiveor six great whiffs. A fragrant blue cloud soon arose, and from its depthsa voice was heard repeating excitedly,--

　　"Tobacco! real tobacco!"

　　"Yes, Pencroft," returned Cyrus Harding, "and very good tobacco too!"

　　"O, divine Providence; sacred Author of all things!" cried the sailor."Nothing more is now wanting to our island."

　　And Pencroft smoked, and smoked, and smoked.

　　"And who made this discovery?" he asked at length. "You, Herbert, nodoubt?"

　　"No, Pencroft, it was Mr. Spilett."

　　"Mr. Spilett!" exclaimed the sailor, seizing the reporter, and claspinghim to his breast with such a squeeze that he had never felt anything likeit before.

　　"Oh Pencroft," said Spilett, recovering his breath at last, "a truce forone moment. You must share your gratitude with Herbert, who recognized theplant, with Cyrus, who prepared it, and with Neb, who took a great deal oftrouble to keep our secret."

　　"Well, my friends, I will repay you some day," replied the sailor. "Nowwe are friends for life."