Part 12 (2/2)
”It's done, captain”
”There is a man in the crow's-nest?”
”Dirk Peters hiht, Jeilance”
”And also his eyes,” I added, ”for he is gifted with a not the sht islands was visible
”It is incoht of them,” said the captain ”I reckon that the Halbrane has , and the islands in question are tolerably close together”
”Then, captain, we roup to which Tsalal belonged has entirely disappeared in the earthquake”
”Land ahead!” cried Dirk Peters
We looked, but could discern nothing on the sea, nor was it until a quarter of an hour had elapsed that our glasses enabled us to recognize the tops of a few scattered islets shi+ning in the oblique rays of the sun, two or three e! How had it come about? Arthur Pym described spacious islands, but only a small number of tiny islets, half a dozen at most, protruded fro down from his lofty perch and junized the group?” asked the captain
”The group?” replied the half breed, shaking his head ”No, I have only seen the tops of five or six islets There is nothing but stone heaps there--not a single island!”
As the schooner approached we easily recognized these fragroup, which had been almost entirely destroyed on its western side The scattered reht seriously injure the keel or the sides of the Halbrane, and there was no intention of risking the shi+p's safety aly cast anchor at a safe distance, and a boat was lowered for the reception of Captain Len Guy, the boatswain, Dirk Peters, Holt, two men and myself The still, transparent water, as Peters steered us skilfully between the projecting edges of the little reefs, allowed us to see, not a bed of sand streith shells, but heaps'which were overgrown by land vegetation, tufts plants not belonging to the marine flora that floated the surface of the sea Presently we landed on one of the larger islets which rose to about thirty feet above the sea
”Do the tides rise soht?” I inquired of the captain
”Never,” he replied, ”and perhaps we shall discover sodo we can do,” said the boatswain, ”is to follow Dirk Peters, who has already distanced us The half-breed's lynx eyes will see e can't”
Peters had indeed scaled the eminence in a moment, and we presently joined him on the top
The islet was streith remains (probably of those domestic animals mentioned in Arthur Pym's journal), but these bones differed from the bones on Tsalal Island by the fact that the heaps dated froreed with the recent period at which we placed the earthquake Besides, plants and tufts of floere growing here and there
”And these are this year's,” I cried, ”no southern winter has passed over the been ascertained, no doubt could re the date of the cataclysm after the departure of Patterson The destruction of the population of Tsalal whose bones lay about the village was not attributable to that catastrophe William Guy and the five sailors of the Jane had been able to fly in time, since no bones that could be theirs had been found on the island
Where had they taken refuge? This was the everpressing question What anse to obtain? Must we conclude that having reached one of these islets they had perished in the sing-up of the archipelago? We debated this point, as th and with detail which I can only indicate here Suffice it to say that a decision was arrived at to the following effect Our sole chance of discovering the unfortunate castaas to continue our voyage for two or three parallels farther; the goal was there, and which of us would not sacrifice even his life to attain it?
”God is guiding us, Mr Jeorling,” said Captain Len Guy
Chapter XVIII
A Revelation
The following day, the 29th of Dece, the schooner set sail with a north-east wind, and this ti days passed wholly without incident; neither land nor any sign of land was observed The reat hauls of fish, to their own satisfaction and ours It was New Year's Day, 1840, four uelens and two months and five days since the Halbrahe had sailed from the Falklands The half-breed, betho subsisted, approached the bench on which I was sitting--the captain was in his cabin, and West was not in sight--with a plain intention of conversing with uessed
”Dirk Peters,” said I, taking up the subject at once, ”do you wish that we should talk of him?”
”Him!” he murmured
”You have reet him, sir! Never!”
”He is always there--before you?”
”Always! So ers shared! That makes brothers! No, it ain, but Pym--poor Pym--he is still beyond there!”
”Dirk Peters,” I asked, ”have you any idea of the route which you and Arthur Pym followed in the boat after your departure froer any instru at the sun We could not know, except that for the eight days the current pushed us towards the south, and the wind also A fine breeze and a fair sea, and our shi+rts for a sail”
”Yes, white linen shi+rts, which frightened your prisoner Nu Nu--”
”Perhaps so--I did not notice But if Py those eight days you were able to supply yourselves with food?”
”Yes, sir, and the days after--we and the savage You know--the three turtles that were in the boat These animals contain a store of fresh water--and their flesh is sweet, even raw Oh, raw flesh, sir!”
He lowered his voice, and threw a furtive glance around hihtful expression of the half-breed's face as he thus recalled the terrible scenes of the Grampus And it was not the expression of a cannibal of Australia or the New Hebrides, but that of a man who is pervaded by an insurmountable horror of himself
”Was it not on the 1st of March, Dirk Peters,” I asked, ”that you perceived for the first ti rays?”
”I do not remember, sir, but if Pym says It was so, Pym must be believed”
”Did he never speak to you of fiery rays which fell from the sky?” I did not use the term ”polar aurora,” lest the half-breed should not understand it
”Never, sir,” said Dirk Peters, after some reflection ”Did you not rerehite like milk, and that its surface became ruffled around your boat?”
”It may have been so, sir; I did not observe The boat went on and on, and my head ith it”
”And then, the fine powder, as fine as ashes, that fell--”
”I don't remember it”
”Was it not snow?”
”Snow? Yes! No! The weather arm What did Pym say? Pym must be believed” He lowered his voice and continued: ”But Pym will tell you all that, sir He knows I do not know He saw, and you will believe him”
”Yes, Dirk Peters, I shall believe hio in search of him, are we not?”