So, then, all was explained by the submarine explosion of this torpedo. Cyrus Harding could not be mistaken, as, during the war of the Union, he had had occasion to try these terrible engines of destruction. It was under the action of this cylinder,...
She has blown up! cried Herbert. Yes! blown up, just as if Ayrton had set fire to the powder! returned Pencroft, throwing himself into the lift together with Neb and the lad. But what has happened? asked Gideon Spilett, quite stunned by this unexpect...
The night passed without incident. The colonists were on the qui vive, and did not leave their post at the Chimneys. The pirates, on their side, did not appear to have made any attempt to land. Since the last shots fired at Ayrton not a report, not e...
There was no longer any doubt as to the pirates' intentions. They had dropped anchor at a short distance from the island, and it was evident that the next day by means of their boats they purposed to land on the beach! Cyrus Harding and his companion...
It was now two years and a half since the castaways from the balloon had been thrown on Lincoln Island, and during that period there had been no communication between them and their fellow-creatures. Once the reporter had attempted to communicate wit...
Things happened as Pencroft had predicted, he being seldom mistaken in his prognostications. The wind rose, and from a fresh breeze it soon increased to a regular gale; that is to say, it acquired a speed of from forty to forty-five miles an hour, be...
Two years already! and for two years the colonists had had no communication with their fellow-creatures! They were without news from the civilized world, lost on this island, as completely as if they had been on the most minute star of the celestial...
Poor man! said Herbert, who had rushed to the door, but returned, having seen Ayrton slide down the rope on the lift and disappear in the darkness. He will come back, said Cyrus Harding. Come, now, captain, exclaimed Pencroft, what does that mean? Wh...
These last words justified the colonists' presentiment. There had been some mournful past, perhaps expiated in the sight of men, but from which his conscience had not yet absolved him. At any rate the guilty man felt remorse, he repented, and his new...
Yes! the unfortunate man had wept! Some recollection doubtless had flashed across his brain, and to use Cyrus Harding's expression, by those tears he was once more a man. The colonists left him for some time on the plateau, and withdrew themselves to...
The next day, the 20th of October, at seven o'clock in the morning, after a voyage of four days, the Bonadventure gently glided up to the beach at the mouth of the Mercy. Cyrus Harding and Neb, who had become very uneasy at the bad weather and the pr...
Pencroft, Herbert, and Gideon Spilett remained silent in the midst of the darkness. Pencroft shouted loudly. No reply was made. The sailor then struck a light and set fire to a twig. This lighted for a minute a small room, which appeared perfectly em...
A castaway! exclaimed Pencroft; left on this Tabor Island not two hundred miles from us! Ah, Captain Harding, you won't now oppose my going. No, Pencroft, replied Cyrus Harding; and you shall set out as soon as possible. To-morrow? To-morrow! The eng...
In the evening the hunters returned, having enjoyed good sport, and being literally loaded with game; indeed, they had as much as four men could possibly carry. Top wore a necklace of teal and Jup wreaths of snipe round his body. Here, master, cried...
Winter arrived with the month of June, which is the December of the northern zones, and the great business was the making of warm and solid clothing. The musmons in the corral had been stripped of their wool, and this precious textile material was no...
