Chapter XIII

“Now then, Mr. Smith, where shall we begin?” asked Pencroff the next morning.

“At the beginning,” answered the engineer.

It must be remembered, however, that these colonists were men, in the best sense of the word. The engineer Smith had questioned them, and knew their abilities. These five men were ready to struggle against fate, and to triumph in the end.

At the beginning, Smith had said. And this beginning was the construction of an apparatus which would serve to transform the natural substances. Everyone knows what an important part heat plays in these transformations. Therefore, it was necessary to make an oven.

“Why oven?” asked Pencroff.

“To make the pottery that we want,” replied Smith.

“And how will we make an oven?”

“With bricks.”

“And how will we make the bricks?”

“With clay. Come, friends.”

“If we only had a knife!” cried the sailor.

“What then?” asked Smith.

“Why, I would make a bow and arrows.”

“A knife. Something that will cut,” said the engineer, as if talking to himself.

Suddenly his face brightened:

“Come here, Top,” he called.

The dog bounded to his master, and Smith took off the collar which the animal had around his neck, broke it into halves, and said:

“Here are two knives, Pencroff.”

The sailor gave a couple of cheers. Top’s collar was made from a thin piece of tempered steel. All that was therefore necessary was to rub it to an edge upon a sand-stone, and then to sharpen it.

The engineer decided to return to the western bank of the lake, where he had noticed the clay. Following the bank of the Mercy they crossed Prospect Plateau, and after a walk of about five miles, they arrived at a glade some 200 paces distant from Lake Grant.

On the way, Herbert had discovered a tree from which the South American Indians make bows. The party had reached the place discovered the day before. The ground was composed of that clay which is used in making bricks and tiles. The labor was not difficult. It was only necessary to scour the clay with sand, mould the bricks, and then bake them before a wood fire.

On the 2nd of April, Smith tried to determine the position of the island. The day before he had noted the precise minute at which the sun had set. On this morning, he ascertained with equal precision the time of its rising. The intervening time was twelve hours and twenty-four minutes. Therefore six hours and twelve minutes after rising the sun would pass the meridian, and the point in the sky which it would occupy at that instant would be north.

During the two days they hunted in the neighborhood, far more successfully, as Pencroff had some dozens of arrows with very sharp points. It was Top who had brought a porcupine, it had perfect quills. These quills were firmly fastened to the ends of the arrows, and their flight was guided by feathering them with the cockatoo’s feathers. The reporter and Herbert soon became expert marksmen, and they got enough food.

By the 9th of April the engineer had at his disposal some thousands of bricks. They, therefore, began at once the construction of an oven. This was accomplished without much difficulty; and, five days later, the oven was supplied with coal. The glade was transformed into a manufactory, and Pencroff was ready to believe that all the products of modern industry would be produced from this oven.

Meantime the colonists moulded pots and mugs, plates and jars, tubs to hold water, and cooking vessels. Their form was rude and defective, but after they had been baked at a high temperature, the kitchen of the Chimneys found itself provided with utensils.

The work lasted until the 15th of April, and the time was well spent. The colonists became potters, they made nothing but pottery. This evening the colonists, seated in the central chamber, supped with comfort. Neb had prepared some agouti soup, a spiced ham. Supper finished, and before going to sleep the party took a stroll upon the beach. It was 8 o’clock, and the night was magnificent. The moon was about rising, and in the zenith, shining resplendent above the circumpolar constellations. For some moments the engineer gazed at it attentively. Then, after some reflection, he said:

“Herbert, is not today the 15th of April?”

“Yes, sir,” answered the lad.

“Then, if I am not mistaken, tomorrow will be one of the four days in the year when the mean and real time are the same; that is to say, my boy, that tomorrow, within some seconds of noon by the clocks, the sun will pass the meridian. If, therefore, the weather is clear, I think I will be able to obtain the longitude of the island within a few degrees.”

This calculation was postponed until the next day, and by 10 o’clock everybody slept profoundly.

The next day the engineer began his astronomical observation. He chose a smooth dry place upon the sand, which the sea had left perfectly levelled. Smith knelt down upon the sand and began marking the decrease in the length of the shadow by means of little wooden pegs. His companions, bending over him, watched the operation with the utmost interest.

The shadow diminished little by little, and as soon as Smith perceived it begin to lengthen he exclaimed:

“We are at least 1,200 miles from Tahitiand from the Low Archipelago, fully 1,800 miles from New Zealand, and more than 4,500 miles from the coast of America.”

But when Cyrus Smith searched his memory, he could not remember any island in the Pacific occupying the position of Lincoln Island.

Chapter XIV

One day the engineer proposed to explore the eastern and western shores of the lake. The proposition was accepted.

Two hundred feet distant the beautiful sheet of water shone through the leaves in the sunlight. The landscape was charming. The trees were in autumn tints and harmoniously grouped.

Smith and his companions moved cautiously over this unexplored neighborhood. Bows and arrows and sticks were their sole weapons. But no beast showed itself, and it was probable that the animals kept to the thicker forests in the south.

The mouth of Red Creek, where it emptied into the lake, was soon reached. The party recognized on the opposite bank the point they visited on their descent from Mount Franklin. On this side the bank was less wooded, but clumps of trees, here and there, made a picturesque landscape. The whole extent of the lake was visible. Top, beating the bush, flushed many coveys of birds, which Spilett and Herbert saluted with their arrows.

The colonists were following the southern bank of the lake, when Top showed signs of alarm. The intelligent animal, running along the bank, suddenly stopped, with one foot raised, and looked into the water as if pointing something. Then he barked furiously.

At first neither Smith nor his companions paid any attention to the dog’s actions, but his barking became so incessant, that the engineer noticed it.

“What is it, Top?” he called.

The dog bounded towards his master, and, showing a real anxiety, rushed back to the bank. Then, suddenly, he threw himself into the lake.

“Come back here, Top!” cried the engineer.

“What’s going on under there?” asked the sailor examining the surface of the lake.

“Top has smelt some animal,” answered Herbert.

“It must be an alligator,” said the reporter.

“I don’t think so,” answered Smith. “Alligators are not met within this latitude.”

The dog was already twenty feet off, and Smith called to him to come back, when suddenly an enormous head emerged from the water.

Herbert instantly recognized it, the comical face, with huge eyes and long silky moustaches. It was a dugong. The huge monster threw himself upon the dog. His master could do nothing to save him, and, before Spilett or Herbert could draw their bows, Top, seized by the dugong, had disappeared under the water.

A struggle was going on under the surface, a struggle which, owing to the powerlessness of the dog, was inexplicable; a struggle which was becoming more terrible each moment; in short, a struggle which could only be terminated by the death of the dog. But suddenly, through the midst of a circle of foam, Top appeared, shot upward by some unknown force, rising ten feet in the air, and falling again into the tumultuous waters, from which he escaped to shore without any serious wounds, miraculously saved.

Cyrus Smith and his companions were amazed. Still more inexplicable, it seemed as if the struggle under water continued. Doubtless the dugong had been attacked by some more formidable animal.

But this did not last much longer. The water grew red with blood, and the body of the dugong, emerging from the waves, floated on at the southern angle of the lake.

The colonists ran to where the animal lay, and found it dead. Its body was enormous, measuring between 15 and 16 feet long and weighing between 3,000 and 4,000 pounds. On its neck, yawned a wound, which seemed to have been made by some sharp instrument. What was it that had killed the formidable dugong? Nobody could answer.

Chapter XV

Cyrus Smith was thinking about the incident of the day before. He wanted to solve the mystery of that unseen combat. He stood upon the border of the lake, looking upon its tranquil surface.

“Well, Cyrus,” questioned the reporter, “I don’t see anything suspicious in this.”

“No, my dear fellow, but how can we explain yesterday’s affair?”

“Yes, the wound on this beast is strange enough, and I can’t understand how Top was thrown out of the water like that. There was a strong arm, and that same arm gave the dugong his death-wound.”

“It’s very strange, indeed,” answered the engineer. “There is something here which I cannot understand. But neither can we explain how I myself was saved; how I was snatched from the waves and borne to the downs. Therefore, I am sure there is some mystery which we will someday discover. In the mean time, let us continue our work.”

Neb and Pencroff were extracting the fat from the dugong and preserving the flesh for food. Now the colonists had a lot of it!

The next day, they saw a passage near the lake. A narrow ledge gave them access to it. The opening was twenty feet wide, though only two feet high.

“What are we waiting for, Mr. Smith!?” cried the sailor, all impatience to begin the exploration, “Top, you see, has gone ahead!”

“We must have some light,” said the engineer. “Go, Neb, and cut some resinous branches.”

Neb and Herbert soon returned with branches which were made into torches. The colonists, with Smith leading, entered the dark passage.

The passage grew higher as they advanced, until soon they were able to walk upright. Drops of water, still clinging to the rocks, glistened like stalactites in the torchlight.

The colonists descended slowly. No one spoke, but each was busied with his own reflections and thoughts.

Top was ahead of the little troop and they could rely on the dog. After having descended 100 feet, Smith halted, and the others came up with him. They were standing in a cavern of moderate size.

“Well, Cyrus,” said Spilett, “here is a retreat sufficiently unknown and hidden in the depths, but it is uninhabitable.”

“How, uninhabitable?” asked the sailor.

“Why, it is too small and too dark.”

“Where is Top?” asked Neb.

They looked about the cavern. The dog was not there.

The party had not descended more than fifty feet further, when their attention was arrested by distant sounds coming from the depths of the rock. They stopped and listened. These sounds were distinctly heard.

“Its Top’s barking!” cried Herbert.

“Yes, and the brave dog is barking furiously,” added Pencroff.

They hurried to the rescue of the dog. His barks grew more distinct. They could hear that he was in a strange rage and ran down the passage. Sixteen feet lower they came up with the dog.

There, the corridor opened out into a vast and magnificent cavern. Top, rushing about, was barking furiously. But the enormous cavern was empty. The colonists searched everywhere; they could find no living thing. Nevertheless, Top continued barking.

“Here is our house,” said Smith.

“But it was preoccupied,” said Spilett, whose curiosity was unsatisfied.

“Well, at the moment it’s free,” replied the engineer.

Smith looked at his dog, and those who were near him heard him murmur:

“Yes, I am convinced that Top knows more than we do about many things!”

“Hurrah!” cried Pencroff.

The colonists were overcome with admiration. They found themselves in a sort of marvellous palace!

“My friends,” cried Smith, “we will lighten the interior of this place, we will arrange our chambers, our store-rooms, our offices, this splendid cavern will be our study and our museum!”

“And we will call it…”, said Herbert.

“Granite House,” answered Smith; and his companions saluted the name with their cheers.