Part 3 - The Secret of the Island: Chapter 14

by Jules Verne

　　Three years had passed away since the escape of the prisoners fromRichmond, and how often during those three years had they spoken of theircountry, always present in their thoughts!

　　They had no doubt that the civil war was at an end, and to them itappeared impossible that the just cause of the North had not triumphed. Butwhat had been the incidents of this terrible war? How much blood had it notcost? How many of their friends must have fallen in the struggle? Theyoften spoke of these things, without as yet being able to foresee the daywhen they would be permitted once more to see their country. To returnthither, were it but for a few days, to renew the social link with theinhabited world, to establish a communication between their native land andtheir island, then to pass the longest, perhaps the best, portion of theirexistence in this colony, founded by them, and which would then bedependent on their country, was this a dream impossible to realize?

　　There were only two ways of accomplishing it--either a ship must appearoff Lincoln Island, or the colonists must themselves build a vessel strongenough to sail to the nearest land.

　　"Unless," said Pencroft, "our good genius, himself provides us with themeans of returning to our country."

　　And, really, had any one told Pencroft and Neb that a ship of 300 tonswas waiting for them in Shark Gulf or at Port Balloon, they would not evenhave made a gesture of surprise. In their state of mind nothing appearedimprobable.

　　But Cyrus Harding, less confident, advised them to confine themselves tofact, and more especially so with regard to the building of a vessel--areally urgent work, since it was for the purpose of depositing, as soon aspossible, at Tabor Island a document indicating Ayrton's new residence.

　　As the "Bonadventure" no longer existed, six months at least would berequired for the construction of a new vessel. Now winter was approaching,and the voyage would not be made before the following spring.

　　"We have time to get everything ready for the fine season," remarked theengineer, who was consulting with Pencroft about these matters. "I think,therefore, my friend, that since we have to rebuild our vessel it will bebest to give her larger dimensions. The arrival of the Scotch yacht atTabor Island is very uncertain. It may even be that, having arrived severalmonths ago, she has again sailed after having vainly searched for sometrace of Ayrton. Will it not then he best to build a ship which, ifnecessary, could take us either to the Polynesian Archipelago or to NewZealand? What do you think?"

　　"I think, captain," answered the sailor; "I think that you are as capableof building a large vessel as a small one. Neither the wood nor the toolsare wanting. It is only a question of time."

　　"And how many months would be required to build a vessel of from 250 to300 tons?" asked Harding.

　　"Seven or eight months at least," replied Pencroft. "But it must not beforgotten that winter is drawing near, and that in severe frost wood isdifficult to work. We must calculate on several weeks delay, and if ourvessel is ready by next November we may think ourselves very lucky."

　　"Well," replied Cyrus Harding, "that will be exactly the most favorabletime for undertaking a voyage of any importance, either to Tabor Island orto a more distant land."

　　"So it will, captain," answered the sailor. "Make out your plans then;the workmen are ready, and I imagine that Ayrton can lend us a goodhelping hand."

　　The colonists, having been consulted, approved the engineer's plan, andit was, indeed, the best thing to be done. It is true that the constructionof a ship of from two to three hundred tons would be great labor, but thecolonists had confidence in themselves, justified by their previoussuccess.

　　Cyrus Harding then busied himself in drawing the plan of the vessel andmaking the model. During this time his companions employed themselves infelling and carting trees to furnish the ribs, timbers, and planks. Theforest of the Far West supplied the best oaks and elms. They took advantageof the opening already made on their last excursion to form a practicableroad, which they named the Far West Road, and the trees were carried to theChimneys, where the dockyard was established. As to the road in question,the choice of trees had rendered its direction somewhat capricious, but atthe same time it facilitated the access to a large part of the SerpentinePeninsula.

　　It was important that the trees should be quickly felled and cut up, forthey could not be used while yet green, and some time was necessary toallow them to get seasoned. The carpenters, therefore, worked vigorouslyduring the month of April, which was troubled only by a few equinoctialgales of some violence. Master Jup aided them dexterously, either byclimbing to the top of a tree to fasten the ropes or by lending his stoutshoulders to carry the lopped trunks.

　　All this timber was piled up under a large shed, built near theChimneys, and there awaited the time for use.

　　The month of April was tolerably fine, as October often is in thenorthern zone. At the same time other work was actively continued, and soonall trace of devastation disappeared from the plateau of Prospect Heights.The mill was rebuilt, and new buildings rose in the poultry-yard. It hadappeared necessary to enlarge their dimensions, for the featheredpopulation had increased considerably. The stable now contained fiveonagers, four of which were well broken, and allowed themselves to beeither driven or ridden, and a little colt. The colony now possessed aplow, to which the onagers were yoked like regular Yorkshire or Kentuckyoxen. The colonists divided their work, and their arms never tired. Thenwho could have enjoyed better health than these workers, and what goodhumor enlivened the evenings in Granite House as they formed a thousandplans for the future!

　　As a matter of course Ayrton shared the common lot in every respect, andthere was no longer any talk of his going to live at the corral.Nevertheless he was still sad and reserved, and joined more in the workthan in the pleasures of his companions. But he was a valuable workman atneed--strong, skilful, ingenious, intelligent. He was esteemed and loved byall, and he could not be ignorant of it.

　　In the meanwhile the corral was not abandoned. Every other day one of thesettlers, driving the cart or mounted on an onager, went to look after theflock of musmons and goats and bring back the supply of milk required byNeb. These excursions at the same time afforded opportunities for hunting.Therefore Herbert and Gideon Spilett, with Top in front, traversed moreoften than their companions the road to the corral, and with the capitalguns which they carried, capybaras, agouties, kangaroos, and wild pigs forlarge game, ducks, grouse, jacamars, and snipe for small game, were neverwanting in the house. The produce of the warren, of the oyster-bed, severalturtles which were taken, excellent salmon which came up the Mercy,vegetables from the plateau, wild fruit from the forest, were riches uponriches, and Neb, the head cook, could scarcely by himself store them away.

　　The telegraphic wire between the corral and Granite House had of coursebeen repaired, and it was worked whenever one or other of the settlers wasat the corral and found it necessary to spend the night there. Besides, theisland was safe now and no attacks were to be feared, at any rate from men.

　　However, that which had happened might happen again. A descent ofpirates, or even of escaped convicts, was always to be feared. It waspossible that companions or accomplices of Bob Harvey had been in thesecret of his plans, and might be tempted to imitate him. The colonists,therefore, were careful to observe the sea around the island, and every daytheir telescope covered the horizon enclosed by Union and Washington Bays.when they went to the corral they examined the sea to the west with no lessattention, and by climbing the spur their gaze extended over a largesection of the western horizon.

　　Nothing suspicious was discerned, but still it was necessary for them tobe on their guard.

　　The engineer one evening imparted to his friends a plan which he hadconceived for fortifying the corral. It appeared prudent to him to heightenthe palisade and to flank it with a sort of blockhouse, which, ifnecessary, the settlers could hold against the enemy. Granite House might,by its very position, be considered impregnable; therefore the corral withits buildings, its stores, and the animals it contained, would always bethe object of pirates, whoever they were, who might land on the island, andshould the colonists be obliged to shut themselves up there they ought alsoto be able to defend themselves without any disadvantage. This was aproject which might be left for consideration, and they were, besides,obliged to put off its execution until the next spring.

　　About the 15th of May the keel of the new vessel lay along the dockyard,and soon the stem and stern-post, mortised at each of its extremities, rosealmost perpendicularly. The keel, of good oak, measured 110 feet in length,this allowing a width of five-and-twenty feet to the midship beam. But thiswas all the carpenters could do before the arrival of the frosts and badweather. During the following week they fixed the first of the sterntimbers, but were then obliged to suspend work.

　　During the last days of the month the weather was extremely bad. The windblew from the east, sometimes with the violence of a tempest. The engineerwas somewhat uneasy on account of the dockyard shed--which besides, hecould not have established in any other place near to Granite House--forthe islet only imperfectly sheltered the shore from the fury of the opensea, and in great storms the waves beat against the very foot of thegranite cliff.

　　But, very fortunately, these fears were not realized. The wind shifted tothe southeast, and there the beach of Granite House was completely coveredby Flotsam Point.

　　Pencroft and Ayrton, the most zealous workmen at the new vessel, pursuedtheir labor as long as they could. They were not men to mind the windtearing at their hair, nor the rain wetting them to the skin, and a blowfrom a hammer is worth just as much in bad as in fine weather. But when asevere frost succeeded this wet period, the wood, its fibers acquiring thehardness of iron, became extremely difficult to work, and about the 10th ofJune shipbuilding was obliged to be entirely discontinued.

　　Cyrus Harding and his companions had not omitted to observe how severewas the temperature during the winters of Lincoln Island. The cold wascomparable to that experienced in the States of New England, situated atalmost the same distance from the equator. In the northern hemisphere, orat any rate in the part occupied by British America and the north of theUnited States, this phenomenon is explained by the flat conformation of theterritories bordering on the pole, and on which there is no intumescence ofthe soil to oppose any obstacle to the north winds; here, in LincolnIsland, this explanation would not suffice.

　　"It has even been observed," remarked Harding one day to his companions,"that in equal latitudes the islands and coast regions are less tried bythe cold than inland countries. I have often heard it asserted that thewinters of Lombardy, for example, are not less rigorous than those ofScotland, which results from the sea restoring during the winter the heatwhich it received during the summer. Islands are, therefore, in a bettersituation for benefiting by this restitution."

　　"But then, Captain Harding," asked Herbert, "why does Lincoln Islandappear to escape the common law?"

　　"That is difficult to explain," answered the engineer. "However, I shouldbe disposed to conjecture that this peculiarity results from the situationof the island in the Southern Hemisphere, which, as you know, my boy, iscolder than the Northern Hemisphere."

　　"Yes," said Herbert, "and icebergs are met with in lower latitudes in thesouth than in the north of the Pacific."

　　"That is true," remarked Pencroft, "and when I have been serving on boardwhalers I have seen icebergs off Cape Horn."

　　"The severe cold experienced in Lincoln Island," said Gideon Spilett,"may then perhaps be explained by the presence of floes or icebergscomparatively near to Lincoln Island."

　　"Your opinion is very admissible indeed, my dear Spilett," answered CyrusHarding, "and it is evidently to the proximity of icebergs that we owe ourrigorous winters. I would draw your attention also to an entirely physicalcause, which renders the Southern colder than the Northern Hemisphere. Infact, since the sun is nearer to this hemisphere during the summer, it isnecessarily more distant during the winter. This explains then the excessof temperature in the two seasons, for, if we find the winters very cold inLincoln Island, we must not forget that the summers here, on the contrary,are very hot."

　　"But why, if you please, captain," asked Pencroft, knitting his brows,"why should our hemisphere, as you say, be so badly divided? It isn't just,that!"

　　"Friend Pencroft," answered the engineer, laughing, "whether just or not,we must submit to it, and here lies the reason for this peculiarity. Theearth does not describe a circle around the sun, but an ellipse, as it mustby the laws of rational mechanics. Now, the earth occupies one of the fociof the ellipse, and so at one point in its course is at its apogee, thatis, at its farthest from the sun, and at another point it is at itsperigee, or nearest to the sun. Now it happens that it is during the winterof the southern countries that it is at its most distant point from thesun, and consequently, in a situation for those regions to feel thegreatest cold. Nothing can be done to prevent that, and men, Pencroft,however learned they may be, can never change anything of thecosmographical order established by God Himself."

　　"And yet," added Pencroft, "the world is very learned. what a big book,captain, might be made with all that is known!"

　　"And what a much bigger book still with all that is not known!" answeredHarding.

　　At last, for one reason or another, the month of June brought the coldwith its accustomed intensity, and the settlers were often confined toGranite House. Ah! how wearisome this imprisonment was to them, and moreparticularly to Gideon Spilett.

　　"Look here," said he to Neb one day, "I would give you by notarial deedall the estates which will come to me some day, if you were a good enoughfellow to go, no matter where, and subscribe to some newspaper for me!Decidedly the thing that is most essential to my happiness is the knowingevery morning what has happened the day before in other places than this!"

　　Neb began to laugh.

　　"'Pon my word," he replied, "the only thing I think about is my dailywork!"

　　The truth was that indoors as well as out there was no want of work.

　　The colony of Lincoln Island was now at its highest point of prosperity,achieved by three years of continued hard work. The destruction of the brighad been a new source of riches. Without speaking of the complete rig whichwould serve for the vessel now on the stocks, utensils and tools of allsorts, weapons and ammunition, clothes and instruments, were now piled inthe storerooms of Granite House. It had not even been necessary to resortagain to the manufacture of the coarse felt materials. Though the colonistshad suffered from cold during their first winter, the bad season might nowcome without their having any reason to dread its severity. Linen wasplentiful also, and besides, they kept it with extreme care. From chlorideof sodium, which is nothing else than sea salt, Cyrus Harding easilyextracted the soda and chlorine. The soda, which it was easy to change intocarbonate of soda, and the chlorine, of which he made chloride of lime,were employed for various domestic purposes, and especially in bleachinglinen. Besides, they did not wash more than four times a year, as was doneby families in the olden times, and it may be added, that Pencroft andGideon Spilett, while waiting for the postman to bring him his newspaper,distinguished themselves as washermen.

　　So passed the winter months, June, July, and August. They were severe,and the average observations of the thermometer did not give more thaneight degrees of Fahrenheit. It was therefore lower in temperature than thepreceding winter. But then, what splendid fires blazed continually on thehearths of Granite House, the smoke marking the granite wall with long,zebra-like streaks! Fuel was not spared, as it grew naturally a few stepsfrom them. Besides, the chips of the wood destined for the construction ofthe ship enabled them to economize the coal, which required more trouble totransport.

　　Men and animals were all well. Master Jup was a little chilly, it must beconfessed. This was perhaps his only weakness, and it was necessary to makehim a well-padded dressing-gown. But what a servant he was, clever,zealous, indefatigable, not indiscreet, not talkative, and he might havebeen with reason proposed as a model for all his biped brothers in the Oldand New Worlds!

　　"As for that," said Pencroft, "when one has four hands at one's service,of course one's work ought to be done so much the better!"

　　And indeed the intelligent creature did it well.

　　During the seven months which had passed since the last researches maderound the mountain, and during the month of September, which brought backfine weather, nothing was heard of the genius of the island. His power wasnot manifested in any way. It is true that it would have been superfluous,for no incident occurred to put the colonists to any painful trial.

　　Cyrus Harding even observed that if by chance the communication betweenthe unknown and the tenants of Granite House had ever been establishedthrough the granite, and if Top's instinct had as it were felt it, therewas no further sign of it during this period. The dog's growling hadentirely ceased, as well as the uneasiness of the orang. The two friends--for they were such--no longer prowled round the opening of the inner well,nor did they bark or whine in that singular way which from the first theengineer had noticed. But could he be sure that this was all that was to besaid about this enigma, and that he should never arrive at a solution?Could he be certain that some conjuncture would not occur which would bringthe mysterious personage on the scene? who could tell what the future mighthave in reserve?

　　At last the winter was ended, but an event, the consequences of whichmight be serious occurred in the first days of the returning spring.

　　On the 7th of September, Cyrus Harding, having observed the crater, sawsmoke curling round the summit of the mountain, its first vapors rising inthe air.