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"His Lordship will please to consider that if Captain Grant had gained the shore on the east of Australia, he would almost immediately have found refuge and assistance. The whole of that coast is English, we might say, peopled with colonists. The crew of the BRITANNIA could not have gone ten miles without meeting a fellow-countryman." "I am quite of your opinion, Captain John," said Paganel.
"There is not the least room then for hesitation," said Lord Glenarvan. "Go we must, and as soon as possible. What route must we take?" "One that is both easy and agreeable," replied Paganel. "Rather mountainous at first, and then sloping gently down the eastern side of the Andes into a smooth plain, turfed and graveled quite like a garden." "Let us see the map?" said the Major.
"The very thing I would fain avoid," exclaimed the geographer. "What! do you think another twenty miles after crossing the Pampas and Australia, can have any terrors for us, hardened as we are to fatigue?" "My friend," replied Paganel, "I do not call in question our courage nor the bravery of our friends. Twenty miles would be nothing in any other country than New Zealand.
Oh, I make no question that the Geographical Society would have sent me to Patagonia as soon as to India, if I had sent in a request to that effect. But I never thought of it." "Just like you." "Come, Monsieur Paganel, will you go with us?" asked Lady Helena, in her most winning tone. "Madam, my mission?" "We shall pass through the Straits of Magellan, I must tell you," said Lord Glenarvan.
Then he finished the letter, and gave it to Glenarvan to sign, who went through the necessary formality as well as he could, and closed and sealed the letter. Paganel, whose hand still trembled with emotion, directed it thus: "Tom Austin, Chief Officer on board the Yacht DUNCAN, Melbourne."
"An excellent idea, Paganel; well conceived," said the Major. "You understand," replied the geographer, "we are to pretend to fall victims to the flames of the Maori Pluto, and to disappear spiritually into the tomb of Kara-Tete. And stay there three, four, even five days if necessary that is to say, till the savages are convinced that we have perished, and abandon their watch."
Many compliments were paid Paganel on his twofold talents as hunter and cook, which the SAVANT accepted with the modesty which characterizes true merit. Then he turned the conversation on the peculiarities of the OMBU, under whose canopy they had found shelter, and whose depths he declared were immense. "Robert and I," he added, jestingly, "thought ourselves hunting in the open forest.
"First," said Glenarvan, "I think we ought to start before we are driven to it by hunger. We are revived now, and ought to take advantage of it. To-night we will try to reach the eastern valleys by crossing the cordon of natives under cover of the darkness." "Excellent," answered Paganel, "if the Maories allow us to pass." "And if not?" asked John Mangles.
"But, I say, do you make any progress in it?" asked Glenarvan. "Most certainly, my dear Lord. Ah, if it wasn't the accent, that wretched accent!" And for want of better work, Paganel whiled away the time along the road by practising the difficulties in pronunciation, repeating all the break-jaw words he could, though still making geographical observations.
This he drew out, and offered to Thalcave, simply saying: "My wife." The Indian gazed at it with a softened eye, and said: "Good and beautiful." Then Robert, and Paganel, and the Major, and the rest, exchanged touching farewells with the faithful Patagonian. Thalcave embraced them each, and pressed them to his broad chest.
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