Neb did not move. Pencroft only uttered one word.
"Living?" he cried.
Neb did not reply. Spilett and the sailor turned pale. Herbert clasped
his hands, and remained motionless. The poor Negro, absorbed in his grief,
evidently had neither seen his companions nor heard the sailor speak.
The reporter knelt down beside the motionless body, and placed his ear to
the engineer's chest, having first torn open his clothes.
A minute--an age!--passed, during which he endeavored to catch the
faintest throb of the heart.
Neb had raised himself a little and gazed without seeing. Despair had
completely changed his countenance. He could scarcely be recognized,
exhausted with fatigue, broken with grief. He believed his master was dead.
Gideon Spilett at last rose, after a long and attentive examination.
"He lives!" said he.
Pencroft knelt in his turn beside the engineer, he also heard a
throbbing, and even felt a slight breath on his cheek.
Herbert at a word from the reporter ran out to look for water. He found,
a hundred feet off, a limpid stream, which seemed to have been greatly
increased by the rains, and which filtered through the sand; but nothing in
which to put the water, not even a shell among the downs. The lad was
obliged to content himself with dipping his handkerchief in the stream, and
with it hastened back to the grotto.
Happily the wet handkerchief was enough for Gideon Spilett, who only
wished to wet the engineer's lips. The cold water produced an almost
immediate effect. His chest heaved and he seemed to try to speak.
"We will save him!" exclaimed the reporter.
At these words hope revived in Neb's heart. He undressed his master to
see if he was wounded, but not so much as a bruise was to be found, either
on the head, body, or limbs, which was surprising, as he must have been
dashed against the rocks; even the hands were uninjured, and it was
difficult to explain how the engineer showed no traces of the efforts which
he must have made to get out of reach of the breakers.
But the explanation would come later. When Cyrus was able to speak he
would say what had happened. For the present the question was, how to
recall him to life, and it appeared likely that rubbing would bring this
about; so they set to work with the sailor's jersey.
The engineer, revived by this rude shampooing, moved his arm slightly and
began to breathe more regularly. He was sinking from exhaustion, and
certainly, had not the reporter and his companions arrived, it would have
been all over with Cyrus Harding.
"You thought your master was dead, didn't you?" said the seaman to Neb.
"Yes! quite dead!" replied Neb, "and if Top had not found you, and
brought you here, I should have buried my master, and then have lain down
on his grave to die!"
It had indeed been a narrow escape for Cyrus Harding!
Neb then recounted what had happened. The day before, after having left
the Chimneys at daybreak, he had ascended the coast in a northerly
direction, and had reached that part of the shore which he had already
visited.
There, without any hope he acknowledged, Neb had searched the beach,
among the rocks, on the sand, for the smallest trace to guide him. He
examined particularly that part of the beach which was not covered by the
high tide, for near the sea the water would have obliterated all marks. Neb
did not expect to find his master living. It was for a corpse that he
searched, a corpse which he wished to bury with his own hands!
He sought long in vain. This desert coast appeared never to have been
visited by a human creature. The shells, those which the sea had not
reached, and which might be met with by millions above high-water mark,
were untouched. Not a shell was broken.
Neb then resolved to walk along the beach for some miles. It was possible
that the waves had carried the body to quite a distant point. When a corpse
floats a little distance from a low shore, it rarely happens that the tide
does not throw it up, sooner or later. This Neb knew, and he wished to see
his master again for the last time.
"I went along the coast for another two miles, carefully examining the
beach, both at high and low water, and I had despaired of finding anything,
when yesterday, above five in the evening, I saw footprints on the sand."
"Footprints?" exclaimed Pencroft.
"Yes!" replied Neb.
"Did these footprints begin at the water's edge?" asked the reporter.
"No," replied Neb, "only above high-water mark, for the others must have
been washed out by the tide."
"Go on, Neb," said Spilett.
"I went half crazy when I saw these footprints. They were very clear and
went towards the downs. I followed them for a quarter of a mile, running,
but taking care not to destroy them. Five minutes after, as it was getting
dark, I heard the barking of a dog. It was Top, and Top brought me here, to
my master!"
Neb ended his account by saying what had been his grief at finding the
inanimate body, in which he vainly sought for the least sign of life. Now
that he had found him dead he longed for him to be alive. All his efforts
were useless! Nothing remained to be done but to render the last duties to
the one whom he had loved so much! Neb then thought of his companions.
They, no doubt, would wish to see the unfortunate man again. Top was there.
Could he not rely on the sagacity of the faithful animal? Neb several times
pronounced the name of the reporter, the one among his companions whom Top
knew best.
Then he pointed to the south, and the dog bounded off in the direction
indicated to him.
We have heard how, guided by an instinct which might be looked upon
almost as supernatural, Top had found them.
Neb's companions had listened with great attention to this account.
It was unaccountable to them how Cyrus Harding, after the efforts which
he must have made to escape from the waves by crossing the rocks, had not
received even a scratch. And what could not be explained either was how the
engineer had managed to get to this cave in the downs, more than a mile
from the shore.
"So, Neb," said the reporter, "it was not you who brought your master to
this place."
"No, it was not I," replied the Negro.
"It's very clear that the captain came here by himself," said Pencroft.
"It is clear in reality," observed Spilett, "but it is not credible!"
The explanation of this fact could only be produced from the engineer's
own lips, and they must wait for that till speech returned. Rubbing had
re-established the circulation of the blood. Cyrus Harding moved his arm
again, then his head, and a few incomprehensible words escaped him.
Neb, who was bending over him, spoke, but the engineer did not appear to
hear, and his eyes remained closed. Life was only exhibited in him by
movement, his senses had not as yet been restored.
Pencroft much regretted not having either fire, or the means of procuring
it, for he had, unfortunately, forgotten to bring the burnt linen, which
would easily have ignited from the sparks produced by striking together two
flints. As to the engineer's pockets, they were entirely empty, except that
of his waistcoat, which contained his watch. It was necessary to carry
Harding to the Chimneys, and that as soon as possible. This was the opinion
of all.
Meanwhile, the care which was lavished on the engineer brought him back
to consciousness sooner than they could have expected. The water with which
they wetted his lips revived him gradually. Pencroft also thought of mixing
with the water some moisture from the titra's flesh which he had brought.
Herbert ran to the beach and returned with two large bivalve shells. The
sailor concocted something which he introduced between the lips of the
engineer, who eagerly drinking it opened his eyes.
Neb and the reporter were leaning over him.
"My master! my master!" cried Neb.
The engineer heard him. He recognized Neb and Spilett, then his other two
companions, and his hand slightly pressed theirs.
A few words again escaped him, which showed what thoughts were, even
then, troubling his brain. This time he was understood. Undoubtedly they
were the same words he had before attempted to utter.
"Island or continent?" he murmured.
"Bother the continent," cried Pencroft hastily; "there is time enough to
see about that, captain! we don't care for anything, provided you are
living."
The engineer nodded faintly, and then appeared to sleep.
They respected this sleep, and the reporter began immediately to make
arrangements for transporting Harding to a more comfortable place. Neb,
Herbert, and Pencroft left the cave and directed their steps towards a high
mound crowned with a few distorted trees. On the way the sailor could not
help repeating,--
"Island or continent! To think of that, when at one's last gasp! What a
man!"
Arrived at the summit of the mound, Pencroft and his two companions set
to work, with no other tools than their hands, to despoil of its principal
branches a rather sickly tree, a sort of marine fir; with these branches
they made a litter, on which, covered with grass and leaves, they could
carry the engineer.
This occupied them nearly forty minutes, and it was ten o'clock when they
returned to Cyrus Harding whom Spilett had not left.
The engineer was just awaking from the sleep, or rather from the
drowsiness, in which they had found him. The color was returning to his
cheeks, which till now had been as pale as death. He raised himself a
little, looked around him, and appeared to ask where he was.
"Can you listen to me without fatigue, Cyrus?" asked the reporter.
"Yes," replied the engineer.
"It's my opinion," said the sailor, "that Captain Harding will be able to
listen to you still better, if he will have some more grouse jelly,--for we
have grouse, captain," added he, presenting him with a little of this
jelly, to which he this time added some of the flesh.
Cyrus Harding ate a little of the grouse, and the rest was divided among
his companions, who found it but a meager breakfast, for they were
suffering extremely from hunger.
"Well!" said the sailor, "there is plenty of food at the Chimneys, for
you must know, captain, that down there, in the south, we have a house,
with rooms, beds, and fireplace, and in the pantry, several dozen of birds,
which our Herbert calls couroucous. Your litter is ready, and as soon as
you feel strong enough we will carry you home."
"Thanks, my friend," replied the engineer; "wait another hour or two, and
then we will set out. And now speak, Spilett."
The reporter then told him all that had occurred. He recounted all the
events with which Cyrus was unacquainted, the last fall of the balloon, the
landing on this unknown land, which appeared a desert (whatever it was,
whether island or continent), the discovery of the Chimneys, the search for
him, not forgetting of course Neb's devotion, the intelligence exhibited by
the faithful Top, as well as many other matters.
"But," asked Harding, in a still feeble voice, "you did not, then, pick
me up on the beach?"
"No," replied the reporter.
"And did you not bring me to this cave?"
"No."
"At what distance is this cave from the sea?"
"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. He knew very little. The wave had torn him from
the balloon net. He sank at first several fathoms. On returning to the
surface, in the half light, he felt a living creature struggling near him.
It was Top, who had sprung to his help. He saw nothing of the balloon,
which, lightened both of his weight and that of the dog, had darted away
like an arrow.
There he was, in the midst of the angry sea, at a distance which could
not be less than half a mile from the shore. He attempted to struggle
against the billows by swimming vigorously. Top held him up by his clothes;
but a strong current seized him and drove him towards the north, and after
half an hour of exertion, he sank, dragging Top with him into the depths.
From that moment to the moment in which he recovered to find himself in the
arms of his friends he remembered nothing.
"However," remarked Pencroft, "you must have been thrown on to the beach,
and you must have had strength to walk here, since Neb found your
footmarks!"
"Yes... of course  replied the engineer, thoughtfully; "and you found no
traces of human beings on this coast?"
"Not a trace," replied the reporter; "besides, if by chance you had met
with some deliverer there, just in the nick of time, why should he have
abandoned you after having saved you from the waves?"
"You are right, my dear Spilett. Tell me, Neb," added the engineer,
turning to his servant, "it was not you who... you can't have had a moment
of unconsciousness... during which no, that's absurd.... Do any of the
footsteps still remain?" asked Harding.
"Yes, master,  replied Neb; "here, at the entrance, at the back of the
mound, in a place sheltered from the rain and wind. The storm has destroyed
the others."
"Pencroft," said Cyrus Harding, "will you take my shoe and see if it fits
exactly to the footprints?"
The sailor did as the engineer requested. While he and Herbert, guided by
Neb, went to the place where the footprints were to be found, Cyrus
remarked to the reporter,--
"It is a most extraordinary thing!"
"Perfectly inexplicable!" replied Gideon Spilett.
"But do not dwell upon it just now, my dear Spilett, we will talk about
it by-and-by."
A moment after the others entered.
There was no doubt about it. The engineer's shoe fitted exactly to the
footmarks. It was therefore Cyrus Harding who had left them on the sand.
"Come," said he, "I must have experienced this unconsciousness which I
attributed to Neb. I must have walked like a somnambulist, without any
knowledge of my steps, and Top must have guided me here, after having
dragged me from the waves... Come, Top! Come, old dog!"
The magnificent animal bounded barking to his master, and caresses were
lavished on him. It was agreed that there was no other way of accounting
for the rescue of Cyrus Harding, and that Top deserved all the honor of the
affair.
Towards twelve o'clock, Pencroft having asked the engineer if they could
now remove him, Harding, instead of replying, and by an effort which
exhibited the most energetic will, got up. But he was obliged to lean on
the sailor, or he would have fallen.
"Well done!" cried Pencroft; "bring the captain's litter."
The litter was brought; the transverse branches had been covered with
leaves and long grass. Harding was laid on it, and Pencroft, having taken
his place at one end and Neb at the other, they started towards the coast.
There was a distance of eight miles to be accomplished; but, as they could
not go fast, and it would perhaps be necessary to stop frequently, they
reckoned that it would take at least six hours to reach the Chimneys. The
wind was still strong, but fortunately it did not rain. Although lying
down, the engineer, leaning on his elbow, observed the coast, particularly
inland. He did not speak, but he gazed; and, no doubt, the appearance of
the country, with its inequalities of ground, its forests, its various
productions, were impressed on his mind. However, after traveling for two
hours, fatigue overcame him, and he slept.
At half-past five the little band arrived at the precipice, and a short
time after at the Chimneys.
They stopped, and the litter was placed on the sand; Cyrus Harding was
sleeping profoundly, and did not awake.
Pencroft, to his extreme surprise, found that the terrible storm had
quite altered the aspect of the place. Important changes had occurred;
great blocks of stone lay on the beach, which was also covered with a thick
carpet of sea-weed, algae, and wrack. Evidently the sea, passing over the
islet, had been carried right up to the foot of the enormous curtain of
granite. The soil in front of the cave had been torn away by the violence
of the waves. A horrid presentiment flashed across Pencroft's mind. He
rushed into the passage, but returned almost immediately, and stood
motionless, staring at his companions.... The fire was out; the drowned
cinders were nothing but mud; the burnt linen, which was to have served as
tinder, had disappeared! The sea had penetrated to the end of the passages,
and everything was overthrown and destroyed in the interior of the
Chimneys!