Part 3 - The Secret of the Island: Chapter 15

by Jules Verne

　　The colonists, warned by the engineer, left their work and gazed in silenceat the summit of Mount Franklin.

　　The volcano had awoke, and the vapor had penetrated the mineral layerheaped at the bottom of the crater. But would the subterranean firesprovoke any violent eruption? This was an event which could not beforeseen. However, even while admitting the possibility of an eruption, itwas not probable that the whole of Lincoln Island would suffer from it. Theflow of volcanic matter is not always disastrous, and the island hadalready undergone this trial, as was shown by the streams of lava hardenedon the northern slopes of the mountain. Besides, from the shape of thecrater--the opening broken in the upper edge--the matter would be thrown tothe side opposite the fertile regions of the island.

　　However, the past did not necessarily answer for the future. Often, atthe summit of volcanoes, the old craters close and new ones open. This hadoccurred in the two hemispheres--at Etna, Popocatepetl, at Orizabaand onthe eve of an eruption there is everything to be feared. In fact, anearthquake--a phenomenon which often accompanies volcanic eruption--isenough to change the interior arrangement of a mountain, and to open newoutlets for the burning lava.

　　Cyrus Harding explained these things to his companions, and, withoutexaggerating the state of things, he told them all the pros and cons. Afterall, they could not prevent it. It did not appear likely that Granite Housewould be threatened unless the ground was shaken by an earthquake. But thecorral would be in great danger should a new crater open in the southernside of Mount Franklin.

　　From that day the smoke never disappeared from the top of the mountain,and it could even be perceived that it increased in height and thickness,without any flame mingling in its heavy volumes. The phenomenon was stillconcentrated in the lower part of the central crater.

　　However, with the fine days work had been continued. The building of thevessel was hastened as much as possible, and, by means of the waterfall onthe shore, Cyrus Harding managed to establish an hydraulic sawmill, whichrapidly cut up the trunks of trees into planks and joists. The mechanism ofthis apparatus was as simple as those used in the rustic sawmills ofNorway. A first horizontal movement to move the piece of wood, a secondvertical movement to move the saw--this was all that was wanted; and theengineer succeeded by means of a wheel, two cylinders, and pulleys properlyarranged. Towards the end of the month of September the skeleton of thevessel, which was to be rigged as a schooner, lay in the dockyard. The ribswere almost entirely completed, and, all the timbers having been sustainedby a provisional band, the shape of the vessel could already be seen. Theschooner, sharp in the bows, very slender in the after-part, wouldevidently be suitable for a long voyage, if wanted; but laying the plankingwould still take a considerable time. Very fortunately, the iron work ofthe pirate brig had been saved after the explosion. From the planks andinjured ribs Pencroft and Ayrton had extracted the bolts and a largequantity of copper nails. It was so much work saved for the smiths, but thecarpenters had much to do.

　　Shipbuilding was interrupted for a week for the harvest, the haymaking,and the gathering in of the different crops on the plateau. This workfinished, every moment was devoted to finishing the schooner. when nightcame the workmen were really quite exhausted. So as not to lose any timethey had changed the hours for their meals; they dined at twelve o'clock,and only had their supper when daylight failed them. They then ascended toGranite House, when they were always ready to go to bed.

　　Sometimes, however, when the conversation bore on some interestingsubject the hour for sleep was delayed for a time. The colonists then spokeof the future, and talked willingly of the changes which a voyage in theschooner to inhabited lands would make in their situation. But always, inthe midst of these plans, prevailed the thought of a subsequent return toLincoln Island. Never would they abandon this colony, founded with so muchlabor and with such success, and to which a communication with Americawould afford a fresh impetus. Pencroft and Neb especially hoped to endtheir days there.

　　"Herbert," said the sailor, "you will never abandon Lincoln Island?"

　　"Never, Pencroft, and especially if you make up your mind to stay there."

　　"That was made up long ago, my boy," answered Pencroft. "I shall expectyou. You will bring me your wife and children, and I shall make jolly chapsof your youngsters!"

　　"That's agreed," replied Herbert, laughing and blushing at the same time.

　　"And you, Captain Harding," resumed Pencroft enthusiastically, "you willbe still the governor of the island! Ah, how many inhabitants could itsupport? Ten thousand at least!"

　　They talked in this way, allowing Pencroft to run on, and at last thereporter actually started a newspaper--the New Lincoln Herald!

　　So is man's heart. The desire to perform a work which will endure, whichwill survive him, is the origin of his superiority over all other livingcreatures here below. It is this which has established his dominion, andthis it is which justifies it, over all the world.

　　After that, who knows if Jup and Top had not themselves their littledream of the future.

　　Ayrton silently said to himself that he would like to see Lord Glenarvanagain and show himself to all restored.

　　One evening, on the 15th of October, the conversation was prolonged laterthan usual. It was nine o'clock. Already, long badly concealed yawns gavewarning of the hour of rest, and Pencroft was proceeding towards his bed,when the electric bell, placed in the dining-room, suddenly rang.

　　All were there, Cyrus Harding, Gideon Spilett, Herbert, Ayrton, Pencroft,Neb. Therefore none of the colonists were at the corral.

　　Cyrus Harding rose. His companions stared at each other, scarcelybelieving their ears.

　　"What does that mean?" cried Neb. "Was it the devil who rang it?"

　　No one answered.

　　"The weather is stormy," observed Herbert. "Might not its influence ofelectricity--"

　　Herbert did not finish his phrase. The engineer, towards whom all eyeswere turned, shook his head negatively.

　　"We must wait," said Gideon Spilett. "If it is a signal, whoever it may bewho has made it, he will renew it."

　　"But who do you think it is?" cried Neb.

　　"Who?" answered Pencroft, "but he--"

　　The sailor's sentence was cut short by a new tinkle of the bell.

　　Harding went to the apparatus, and sent this question to the corral:--

　　"What do you want?"

　　A few moments later the needle, moving on the alphabetic dial, gave thisreply to the tenants of Granite House:--

　　"Come to the corral immediately."

　　"At last!" exclaimed Harding.

　　Yes! At last! The mystery was about to be unveiled. The colonists'fatigue had disappeared before the tremendous interest which was about tourge them to the corral, and all wish for rest had ceased. Without havinguttered a word, in a few moments they had left Granite House, and werestanding on the beach. Jup and Top alone were left behind. They could dowithout them.

　　The night was black. The new moon had disappeared at the same time as thesun. As Herbert had observed, great stormy clouds formed a lowering andheavy vault, preventing any star rays. A few lightning flashes, reflectionsfrom a distant storm, illuminated the horizon.

　　It was possible that a few hours later the thunder would roll over theisland itself. The night was very threatening.

　　But however deep the darkness was, it would not prevent them from findingthe familiar road to the corral.

　　They ascended the left bank of the Mercy, reached the plateau, passed thebridge over Creek Glycerine, and advanced through the forest.

　　They walked at a good pace, a prey to the liveliest emotions. There wasno doubt but that they were now going to learn the long-searched-for answerto the enigma, the name of that mysterious being, so deeply concerned intheir life, so generous in his influence, so powerful in his action! Mustnot this stranger have indeed mingled with their existence, have known thesmallest details, have heard all that was said in Granite House, to havebeen able always to act in the very nick of time?

　　Every one, wrapped up in his own reflections, pressed forward. Under thearch of trees the darkness was such that even the edge of the road couldnot be seen. Not a sound in the forest. Both animals and birds, influencedby the heaviness of the atmosphere, remained motionless and silent. Not abreath disturbed the leaves. The footsteps of the colonists alone resoundedon the hardened ground.

　　During the first quarter of an hour the silence was only interrupted bythis remark from Pencroft:--

　　"We ought to have brought a torch."

　　And by this reply from the engineer:--

　　"We shall find one at the corral."

　　Harding and his companions had left Granite House at twelve minutes pastnine. At forty-seven minutes past nine they had traversed three out of thefive miles which separated the mouth of the Mercy from the corral.

　　At that moment sheets of lightning spread over the island and illuminedthe dark trees. The flashes dazzled and almost blinded them. Evidently thestorm would not be long in bursting forth.

　　The flashes gradually became brighter and more rapid. Distant thundergrowled in the sky. The atmosphere was stifling.

　　The colonists proceeded as if they were urged onwards by someirresistible force.

　　At ten o'clock a vivid flash showed them the palisade, and as theyreached the gate the storm burst forth with tremendous fury.

　　In a minute the corral was crossed, and Harding stood before the hut.

　　Probably the house was occupied by the stranger, since it was from thencethat the telegram had been sent. However, no light shone through thewindow.

　　The engineer knocked at the door.

　　No answer.

　　Cyrus Harding opened the door, and the settlers entered the room, whichwas perfectly dark. A light was struck by Neb, and in a few moments thelantern was lighted and the light thrown into every corner of the room.

　　There was no one there. Everything was in the state in which it had beenleft.

　　"Have we been deceived by an illusion?" murmured Cyrus Harding.

　　No! that was not possible! The telegram had clearly said,--

　　"Come to the corral immediately."

　　They approached the table specially devoted to the use of the wire.Everything was in order--the pile on the box containing it, as well as allthe apparatus.

　　"Who came here the last time?" asked the engineer.

　　"I did, captain," answered Ayrton.

　　"And that was-'

　　"Four days ago."

　　"Ah! a note!" cried Herbert, pointing to a paper lying on the table.

　　On this paper were written these words in English:--

　　"Follow the new wire."

　　"Forward!" cried Harding, who understood that the despatch had not beensent from the corral, but from the mysterious retreat, communicatingdirectly with Granite House by means of a supplementary wire joined to theold one.

　　Neb took the lighted lantern, and all left the corral. The storm thenburst forth with tremendous violence. The interval between each lightning-flash and each thunder-clap diminished rapidly. The summit of the volcano,with its plume of vapor, could be seen by occasional flashes.

　　There was no telegraphic communication in any part of the corral betweenthe house and the palisade; but the engineer, running straight to the firstpost, saw by the light of a flash a new wire hanging from the isolator tothe ground.

　　"There it is!" said he.

　　This wire lay along the ground, and was surrounded with an isolatingsubstance like a submarine cable, so as to assure the free transmission ofthe current. It appeared to pass through the wood and the southern spurs ofthe mountain, and consequently it ran towards the west.

　　"Follow it!" said Cyrus Harding.

　　And the settlers immediately pressed forward, guided by the wire.

　　The thunder continued to roar with such violence that not a word could beheard. However, there was no occasion for speaking, but to get forward asfast as possible.

　　Cyrus Harding and his companions then climbed the spur rising betweenthe corral valley and that of Falls River, which they crossed at itsnarrowest part. The wire, sometimes stretched over the lower branches ofthe trees, sometimes lying on the ground, guided them surely. The engineerhad supposed that the wire would perhaps stop at the bottom of the valley,and that the stranger's retreat would be there.

　　Nothing of the sort. They were obliged to ascend the south-western spur,and re-descend on that arid plateau terminated by the strangely-wild basaltcliff. From time to time one of the colonists stooped down and felt for thewire with his hands; but there was now no doubt that the wire was runningdirectly towards the sea. There, to a certainty, in the depths of thoserocks, was the dwelling so long sought for in vain.

　　The sky was literally on fire. Flash succeeded flash. Several struck thesummit of the volcano in the midst of the thick smoke. It appeared there asif the mountain was vomiting flame. At a few minutes to eleven thecolonists arrived on the high cliff overlooking the ocean to the west. Thewind had risen. The surf roared 500 feet below.

　　Harding calculated that they had gone a mile and a half from the corral.

　　At this point the wire entered among the rocks, following the steep sideof a narrow ravine. The settlers followed it at the risk of occasioning afall of the slightly-balanced rocks, and being dashed into the sea. Thedescent was extremely perilous, but they did not think of the danger; theywere no longer masters of themselves, and an irresistible attraction drewthem towards this mysterious place as the magnet draws iron.

　　Thus they almost unconsciously descended this ravine, which even in broaddaylight would have been considered impracticable.

　　The stones rolled and sparkled like fiery balls when they crossed throughthe gleams of light. Harding was first--Ayrton last. On they went, step bystep. Now they slid over the slippery rock; then they struggled to theirfeet and scrambled on.

　　At last the wire touched the rocks on the beach. The colonists hadreached the bottom of the basalt cliff.

　　There appeared a narrow ridge, running horizontally and parallel with thesea. The settlers followed the wire along it. They had not gone a hundredpaces when the ridge by a moderate incline sloped down to the level of thesea.

　　The engineer seized the wire and found that it disappeared beneath thewaves.

　　His companions were stupefied.

　　A cry of disappointment, almost a cry of despair, escaped them! Must theythen plunge beneath the water and seek there for some submarine cavern? Intheir excited state they would not have hesitated to do it.

　　The engineer stopped them.

　　He led his companions to a hollow in the rocks, and there--

　　"We must wait," said he. "The tide is high. At low water the way will beopen."

　　"But what can make you think-" asked Pencroft.

　　"He would not have called us if the means had been wanting to enable usto reach him!"

　　Cyrus Harding spoke in a tone of such thorough conviction that noobjection was raised. His remark, besides, was logical. It was quitepossible that an opening, practicable at low water, though hidden now bythe high tide, opened at the foot of the cliff.

　　There was some time to wait. The colonists remained silently crouching ina deep hollow. Rain now began to fall in torrents. The thunder was re-echoed among the rocks with a grand sonorousness.

　　The colonists' emotion was great. A thousand strange and extraordinaryideas crossed their brains, and they expected some grand and superhumanapparition, which alone could come up to the notion they had formed of themysterious genius of the island.

　　At midnight, Harding carrying the lantern, descended to the beach toreconnoiter.

　　The engineer was not mistaken. The beginning of an immense excavationcould be seen under the water. There the wire, bending at a right angle,entered the yawning gulf.

　　Cyrus Harding returned to his companions, and said simply,--

　　"In an hour the opening will be practicable."

　　"It is there, then?" said Pencroft.

　　"Did you doubt it?" returned Harding.

　　"But this cavern must be filled with water to a certain height," observedHerbert.

　　"Either the cavern will be completely dry," replied Harding, "and in thatcase we can traverse it on foot, or it will not be dry, and some means oftransport will be put at our disposal."

　　An hour passed. All climbed down through the rain to the level of thesea. There was now eight feet of the opening above the water. It was likethe arch of a bridge, under which rushed the foaming water.

　　Leaning forward, the engineer saw a black object floating on the water.He drew it towards him. It was a boat, moored to some interior projectionof the cave. This boat was iron-plated. Two oars lay at the bottom.

　　"Jump in!" said Harding.

　　In a moment the settlers were in the boat. Neb and Ayrton took the oars,Pencroft the rudder. Cyrus Harding in the bows, with the lantern, lightedthe way.

　　The elliptical roof, under which the boat at first passed, suddenly rose;but the darkness was too deep, and the light of the lantern too slight, foreither the extent, length, height, or depth of the cave to be ascertained.Solemn silence reigned in this basaltic cavern. Not a sound could penetrateinto it, even the thunder peals could not pierce its thick sides.

　　Such immense caves exist in various parts of the world, natural cryptsdating from the geological epoch of the globe. Some are filled by the sea;others contain entire lakes in their sides. Such is Fingal's Cave, in theisland of Staffa, one of the Hebrides; such are the caves of Morgat, in thebay of Douarnenez, in Brittany, the caves of Bonifacio, in Corsica, thoseof Lyse-Fjord, in Norway; such are the immense Mammoth caverns in Kentucky,500 feet in height, and more than twenty miles in length! In many parts ofthe globe, nature has excavated these caverns, and preserved them for theadmiration of man.

　　Did the cavern which the settlers were now exploring extend to the centerof the island? For a quarter of an hour the boat had been advancing, makingdetours, indicated to Pencroft by the engineer in short sentences, when allat once,--

　　"More to the right!" he commanded.

　　The boat, altering its course, came up alongside the right wall. Theengineer wished to see if the wire still ran along the side.

　　The wire was there fastened to the rock.

　　"Forward!" said Harding.

　　And the two oars, plunging into the dark waters, urged the boat onwards.

　　On they went for another quarter of an hour, and a distance of half-a-mile must have been cleared from the mouth of the cave, when Harding'svoice was again heard.

　　"Stop!" said he.

　　The boat stopped, and the colonists perceived a bright light illuminatingthe vast cavern, so deeply excavated in the bowels of the island, of whichnothing had ever led them to suspect the existence.

　　At a height of a hundred feet rose the vaulted roof, supported on basaltshafts. Irregular arches, strange moldings, appeared on the columns erectedby nature in thousands from the first epochs of the formation of the globe.The basalt pillars, fitted one into the other, measured from forty to fiftyfeet in height, and the water, calm in spite of the tumult outside, washedtheir base. The brilliant focus of light, pointed out by the engineer,touched every point of rocks, and flooded the walls with light.

　　By reflection the water reproduced the brilliant sparkles, so that theboat appeared to be floating between two glittering zones. They could notbe mistaken in the nature of the irradiation thrown from the glowingnucleus, whose clear rays were shattered by all the angles, all theprojections of the cavern. This light proceeded from an electric source,and its white color betrayed its origin. It was the sun of this cave, andit filled it entirely.

　　At a sign from Cyrus Harding the oars again plunged into the water,causing a regular shower of gems, and the boat was urged forward towardsthe light, which was now not more than half a cable's length distant.

　　At this place the breadth of the sheet of water measured nearly 350 feet,and beyond the dazzling center could be seen an enormous basaltic wall,blocking up any issue on that side. The cavern widened here considerably,the sea forming a little lake. But the roof, the side walls, the end cliff,all the prisms, all the peaks, were flooded with the electric fluid, sothat the brilliancy belonged to them, and as if the light issued from them.

　　In the center of the lake a long cigar-shaped object floated on thesurface of the water, silent, motionless. The brilliancy which issued fromit escaped from its sides as from two kilns heated to a white heat. Thisapparatus, similar in shape to an enormous whale, was about 250 feet long,and rose about ten or twelve above the water.

　　The boat slowly approached it, Cyrus Harding stood up in the bows. Hegazed, a prey to violent excitement. Then, all at once, seizing thereporter's arm,--

　　"It is he! It can only be he!" he cried, "he!--"

　　Then, falling back on the seat, he murmured a name which Gideon Spilettalone could hear.

　　The reporter evidently knew this name, for it had a wonderfuleffect upon him, and he answered in a hoarse voice,--

　　"He! an outlawed man!"

　　"He!" said Harding.

　　At the engineer's command the boat approached this singular floatingapparatus. The boat touched the left side, from which escaped a ray oflight through a thick glass.

　　Harding and his companions mounted on the platform. An open hatchway wasthere. All darted down the opening.

　　At the bottom of the ladder was a deck, lighted by electricity. At theend of this deck was a door, which Harding opened.

　　A richly-ornamented room, quickly traversed by the colonists, was joinedto a library, over which a luminous ceiling shed a flood of light.

　　At the end of the library a large door, also shut, was opened by theengineer.

　　An immense saloon--a sort of museum, in which were heaped up, with allthe treasures of the mineral world, works of art, marvels of industry--appeared before the eyes of the colonists, who almost thought themselvessuddenly transported into a land of enchantment.

　　Stretched on a rich sofa they saw a man, who did not appear to noticetheir presence.

　　Then Harding raised his voice, and to the extreme surprise of hiscompanions, he uttered these words,--

　　"Captain Nemo, you asked for us! We are here.--"