Part 11 (1/2)
Could such an assertion prevail against the general incredulity? No, assuredly not! Martin Holt nudged Hurliguerly with his elbow, and both regarded Hunt with pity, while West observed hi that nothing serious was to be got out of this poor fellohosetime
And nevertheless, when I looked keenly at Hunt, it seemed to me that a sort of radiance of truth shone out of his eyes: Then I set to work to interrogate thequestions which he tried to answer categorically, as we shall see, and not once did he contradict himself
”Tell me,” I asked, ”did Arthur Pym really come to Tsalal Island on board the Grampus?”
”Yes”
”Did Arthur Pym separate himself, with the half-breed and one of the sailors, froone to the village of Klock-Klock?”
”Yes The sailor was one Allen, and he was almost immediately stifled under the stones”
”Then the two others saw the attack, and the destruction of the schooner, from the top of the hill?”
”Yes”
”Then, soot possession of one of the boats which the natives could not take fro reached the front of the curtain of vapour, they were both carried down into the gulf of the cataract?”
This time Hunt did not reply in the affirue words; he seeuished fla his head, he answered,-- ”No, not both Understand me--Dirk never told me--”
”Dirk Peters” interposed Captain Len Guy, quickly ”You knew Dirk Peters?”
”Yes”
”Where?”
”At Vandalia, State of Illinois”
”And it is froe?”
”Froe, having left Arthur Pym”
”Alone!”
”Speak, man--do speak!” I cried, iible sentences, Hunt spoke,-- ”Yes--there--a curtain of vapour--so the half-breed often said--understand me The two, Arthur Pym and he, were in the Tsalal boat Then an enormous block of ice came full upon them At the shock Dirk Peters was thrown into the sea, but he clung to the ice block, and--understand me, he saw the boat drift with the current, far, very far, too far! In vain did Pym try to rejoin his companion, he could not; the boat drifted on and on, and Pym, that poor dear Pym, was carried away It is he who has never come back, and he is there, still there!”
If Hunt had been the half-breed in person he could not have spoken with more heartfelt emotion of ”poor Pym”
It was then, in front of the ”curtain of vapour,” that Arthur Pym and the half-breed had been separated fro from the ice-world to America, whither he had conveyed the notes that were coar Poe
Hunt was minutely questioned upon all these points and he replied, conformably, he declared, to what the half-breed had told hi to this statement, Dirk Peters had Arthur Pym's note-book in his pocket at the moment when the ice-block struck them, and thus the journal which the half-breed placed at the disposal of the American romance-writer was saved
”Understand s as I have the hith Pym, poor Pym, had already disappeared in theupon raw fish, which he contrived to catch, was carried back by a cross current to Tsalal Island, where he landed half dead froer”
”To Tsalal Island!” exclai was it since they had left it?”
”Three weeks--yes, three weeks at the farthest, so Dirk Peters told me”
”Then he must have found all that remained of the crew of the Jane--my brother William and those who had survived with him?”
”No,” replied Hunt; ”and Dirk Peters always believed that they had perished--yes, to the very last man There was no one upon the island”
”No one?”
”Not a living soul”
”But the population?”
A ”No one! No one, I tell you The island was a desert --yes, a desert!”
This statement contradicted certain facts of which ere absolutely certain After all, though, it that when Dirk Peters returned to Tsalal Island, the population, seized by who can tell what terror, had already taken refuge upon the south-western group, and that Williaes of Klock-Klock That would explain why half-breed had not come across the to fear during eleven years of their sojourn in the island On the other hand, since Patterson had left them there seven previously, if we did not find theed to leave Tsalal, the being rendered uninhabitable by the earthquake
”So that,” resumed Captain Len Guy, ”on the return of Dirk Peters, there was no longer an inhabitant on the island?”
”No one,” repeated Hunt, ”no one The half-breed did not le native”
”And what did Dirk Peters do?”
”Understand me A forsaken boat lay there, at the back of the bay, containing soot into it, and a south wind--yes, south, very strong, the same that had driven the ice block, with the cross current, towards Tsalal Island--carried hih a passage in it--youyou only what Dirk Peters told me--and he cleared the polar circle”
”And beyond it?” I inquired
”Beyond it He was picked up by an American whaler, the Sandy Hook, and taken back to Aar Poe had never known Arthur Py uncertainty, he had brought Pym to an end ”as sudden as it was deplorable,” without indicating the h Arthur Pym did not return, could it be reasonably adth of ti elapsed since his disappearance?”
”Yes, yes,” replied Hunt
And this he affir conviction that Dirk Peters had infused into his ather in Vandalia, in Illinois
Now the question arose, was Hunt sane? Was it not he who had stolen into my cabin in a fit of insanity--of this I had no doubt--and murmured in my ear the words: ”And Py! In short, if all that Hunt had just said was true, if he was but the faithful reporter of secrets which had been entrusted to hiht he to be believed when he repeated in a tone of led command and entreaty,-- ”Pym is not dead Pym is there Poor Pym must not be forsaken!”
When I hadHunt, Captain Len Guy caave the word, ”All hands forward!”
When the men were assembled around him, he said,-- ”Listen to ravity of the questions I am about to put to you”
Hunt held his head up, and ran his eyes over the crew of the Halbrane
”You assert, Hunt, that all you have told us concerning Arthur Pym is true?”