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Updated: May 19, 2025
Neb!" repeated the engineer, again pointing in the direction of Granite House. Top sprang forwards, and almost immediately disappeared. "He will get there!" said the reporter. "Yes, and he will come back, the faithful animal!" "What o'clock is it?" asked Gideon Spilett. "Ten." "In an hour he may be here. We will watch for his return." The gate of the corral was closed.
Pencroft again began to hope. Gideon Spilett said nothing. It might be that the fever was not quotidian, but tertian, and that it would return next day. Therefore, he awaited the next day with the greatest anxiety. It might have been remarked besides that during this period Herbert remained utterly prostrate, his head weak and giddy. Another symptom alarmed the reporter to the highest degree.
Herbert shared in some degree the sailor's feelings. As to the reporter, he simply replied, "Upon my word, Pencroft, it's perfectly indifferent to me!" "But, I repeat, that we haven't any fire!" "Pooh!" "Nor any means of relighting it!" "Nonsense!" "But I say, Mr. Spilett " "Isn't Cyrus here?" replied the reporter. "Is not our engineer alive? He will soon find some way of making fire for us!"
Pencroft and Ayrton, although they knew they ran the risk of being cut off, had not left their post, both that they did not wish to show themselves as yet to their assailants, and expose themselves to the "Speedy's" guns, and that they relied on Neb and Gideon Spilett, watching at the mouth of the river, and on Cyrus Harding and Herbert, in ambush among the rocks at the Chimneys.
"Nothing," replied Gideon Spilett, "and the document appears even to have been recently written. What do you think about it, Cyrus?" During this conversation Pencroft had not remained inactive. He had put the vessel about, and the "Bonadventure," all sails set, was running rapidly towards Claw Cape. Every one was thinking of the castaway on Tabor Island. Should they be in time to save him?
Not only Gideon Spilett and Herbert, but Pencroft and Neb also took part in this excursion. Cyrus Harding alone, alleging some work as an excuse, did not join them, but remained at Granite House. The hunters proceeded in the direction of Port Balloon, in order to reach the marsh, after having promised to be back by the evening. Top and Jup accompanied them.
"At any rate," observed Gideon Spilett, "if happily Ayrton did manage to escape, he would go directly to Granite House, for he could not know of the attempt of assassination of which Herbert has been a victim, and consequently would never think of our being imprisoned in the corral!" "Oh! I wish that he was there, at Granite House!" cried Pencroft, "and that we were there, too!
If Cyrus Harding, Gideon Spilett, Herbert, Pencroft, Neb, and Ayrton had survived, it was because, assembled under their tent, they had been hurled into the sea at the instant when the fragments of the island rained down on every side. When they reached the surface they could only perceive, at half a cable's length, this mass of rocks, towards which they swam and on which they found footing.
Gideon Spilett, Pencroft, and Herbert attentively examined this land, on which they might perhaps have to live many long years; on which indeed they might even die, should it be out of the usual track of vessels, as was likely to be the case. "Well," asked Herbert, "what do you say, Pencroft?" "There is some good and some bad, as in everything," replied the sailor. "We shall see.
"How long will it be, my dear Spilett, before you think Herbert may be carried to Granite House?" "That is difficult to say, Cyrus," answered the reporter, "for any imprudence might involve terrible consequences. But his convalescence is progressing, and if he continues to gain strength, in eight days from now well, we shall see." Eight days!
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