The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne (beach read .txt) 📗

“How far off from the sea did you leave this turtle?” asked the engineer, who had stopped working and was turning this incident over in his mind.

“About fifteen feet,” answered Herbert.

“And it was low water?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well,” responded the engineer, “what the turtle could not do on land, he could do in water. When the tide rose over him he turned over, and⁠—tranquilly paddled off.”

“How foolish we are,” cried Neb.

“That is just what I said you were,” answered Pencroff.

Smith had given this explanation, which was doubtless admissible; but was he himself satisfied with it? He did not venture to say that.

Trial of the canoe⁠—A wreck on the shore⁠—The tow⁠—Jetsam Point⁠—Inventory of the box⁠—What Pencroff wanted⁠—A Bible⁠—A verse from the Bible.

On the 29th of October the canoe was finished. Pencroff had kept his word, and had built, in five days, a sort of bark shell, stiffened with flexible crejimba rods. A seat at either end, another midway to keep it open, a gunwale for the tholepins of a pair of oars, and a paddle to steer with, completed this canoe, which was twelve feet in length, and did not weigh 200 pounds.

“Hurrah!” cried the sailor, quite ready to applaud his own success. “With this we can make the tour of⁠—”

“Of the world?” suggested Spilett.

“No, but of the island. Some stones for ballast, a mast in the bow, with a sail which Mr. Smith will make someday, and away we’ll go! But now let us try our new ship, for we must see if it will carry all of us.”

The experiment was made. Pencroff, by a stroke of the paddle, brought the canoe close to the shore by a narrow passage between the rocks, and he was confident that they could at once make a trial trip of the craft by following the bank as far as the lower point where the rocks ended.

As they were stepping in, Neb cried:⁠—

“But your boat leaks, Pencroff.”

“Oh, that’s nothing, Neb,” answered the sailor. “The wood has to drink! But in two days it will not show, and there will be as little water in our canoe as in the stomach of a drunkard! Come, get in!”

They all embarked, and Pencroff pushed off. The weather was splendid, the sea was as calm as a lake, and the canoe could venture upon it with as much security as upon the tranquil current of the Mercy.

Neb and Herbert took the oars, and Pencroff sat in the stern with the paddle as steersman.

The sailor crossed the channel, and rounded the southern point of the islet. A gentle breeze was wafted from the south. There were no billows, but the canoe rose and fell with the long undulations of the sea, and they rowed out half a mile from the coast so as to get a view of the outline of Mount Franklin. Then, putting about, Pencroff returned towards the mouth of the river, and followed along the rounded shore which hid the low marshy ground of Tadorn’s Fens. The point, made longer by the bend of the coast, was three miles from the Mercy, and the colonists resolved to go past it far enough to obtain a hasty glance at the coast as far as Claw Cape.

The canoe followed along the shore, keeping off some two cables length so as to avoid the line of rocks beginning to be covered by the tide. The cliff, beginning at the mouth of the river, lowered as it approached the promontory. It was a savage-looking, unevenly-arranged heap of granite blocks, very different from the curtain of Prospect Plateau. There was not a trace of vegetation on this sharp point, which projected two miles beyond the forest, like a giant’s arm, thrust out from a green sleeve.

The canoe sped easily along. Spilett sketched the outline of the coast in his notebook, and Neb, Pencroff, and Herbert discussed the features of their new domain; and as they moved southward the two Mandible Capes seemed to shut together and enclose Union Bay. As to Smith, he regarded everything in silence, and from his distrustful expression it seemed as if he was observing some suspicious land.

The canoe had reached the end of the point and was about doubling it, when Herbert rose, and pointing out a black object, said:⁠—

“What is that down there on the sand?”

Everyone looked in the direction indicated.

“There is something there, indeed,” said the reporter. “It looks like a wreck half buried in the sand.”

“Oh, I see what it is!” cried Pencroff.

“What?” asked Neb.

“Barrels! they are barrels, and maybe they are full!”

“To shore, Pencroff!” said Smith.

And with a few strokes the canoe was driven into a little cove, and the party went up the beach.

Pencroff was not mistaken. There were two barrels half buried in the sand; but firmly fastened to them was a large box, which, borne up by them, had been floated on to the shore.

“Has there been a shipwreck here?” asked Herbert.

“Evidently,” answered Spilett.

“But what is in this box?” exclaimed Pencroff, with a natural impatience. “What is in this box? It is closed, and we have nothing with which to raise the lid. However, with a stone⁠—”

And the sailor picked up a heavy rock, and was about to break one of the sides, when the engineer, stopping him, said:⁠—

“Cannot you moderate your impatience for about an hour, Pencroff?”

“But, think, Mr. Smith! Maybe there is everything we want in it!”

“We will find out, Pencroff,” answered the engineer, “but do not break the box, as it will be useful. Let us transport it to Granite House, where we can readily open it without injuring it. It is all prepared for the voyage, and since it has floated here, it can float again to the river mouth.”

“You are right, sir, and I am wrong,” answered the sailor, “but one is not always his own master!”

The engineer’s advice was good. It was likely that the canoe could not carry the things probably enclosed in the box, since the latter was so heavy