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Updated: June 20, 2025
Ah! how many inhabitants could it support? Ten thousand at least!" They talked in this way, allowing Pencroft to run on, and at last the reporter actually started a newspaper the New Lincoln Herald! So is man's heart. The desire to perform a work which will endure, which will survive him, is the origin of his superiority over all other living creatures here below.
"With what?" "With nothing." What had Pencroft to say? He could say nothing, for, in the bottom of his heart he shared the confidence which his companions had in Cyrus Harding. The engineer was to them a microcosm, a compound of every science, a possessor of all human knowledge. It was better to be with Cyrus in a desert island, than without him in the most flourishing town in the United States.
And, at this moment, as if to bear witness to the truth of the sailor's words, two or three quadrumana showed themselves at the windows, from which they had pushed back the shutters, and saluted the real proprietors of the place with a thousand hideous grimaces. "I knew that it was only a joke," cried Pencroft; "but one of the jokers shall pay the penalty for the rest."
Before them they beheld that being whom they had styled the "genius of the island," the powerful protector whose intervention, in so many circumstances, had been so efficacious, the benefactor to whom they owed such a debt of gratitude! Their eyes beheld a man only, and a man at the point of death, where Pencroft and Neb had expected to find an almost supernatural being!
As to Pencroft, he had sailed over every sea, a carpenter in the dockyards in Brooklyn, assistant tailor in the vessels of the state, gardener, cultivator, during his holidays, etc., and like all seamen, fit for anything, he knew how to do everything. It would have been difficult to unite five men, better fitted to struggle against fate, more certain to triumph over it.
"But suppose the convicts pay her another visit," said Herbert. "Well, my boy," replied Pencroft, "not finding her here, they would not be long in finding her on the sands of Granite House, and, during our absence, nothing could hinder them from seizing her! I agree, therefore, with Mr Spilett, that she must be left in Port Balloon.
"No, my boy," replied the sailor; "they were in a copper box which shut very tightly; and now what are we to do?" "We shall certainly find some way of making a fire," said Herbert. "Captain Harding or Mr. Spilett will not be without them." "Yes," replied Pencroft; "but in the meantime we are without fire, and our companions will find but a sorry repast on their return."
"I am not complaining, my boy," replied Pencroft, "only I repeat, that meat is a little too much economized in this sort of meal." "Top has found something!" cried Neb, who ran towards a thicket, in the midst of which the dog had disappeared, barking. With Top's barking were mingled curious gruntings. The sailor and Herbert had followed Neb.
"About a mile," replied Pencroft; "and if you are astonished, captain, we are not less surprised ourselves at seeing you in this place!" "Indeed," said the engineer, who was recovering gradually, and who took great interest in these details, "indeed it is very singular!" "But," resumed the sailor, "can you tell us what happened after you were carried off by the sea?" Cyrus Harding considered.
"Poor fellow! his return to social life will have been but of short duration." "If he is dead," added Pencroft, in a peculiar tone. "Do you hope, then, Pencroft, that the villains have spared him?" asked Gideon Spilett. "Yes, if they had any interest in doing so." "What! you suppose that Ayrton finding his old companions, forgetting all that he owes us "
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