Part 8 (2/2)
Pencroft jurew pale when he saw the reporter presenting hi coal
The sailor endeavoured to speak, but could not get out a word, so, seizing the pipe, he carried it to his lips, then applying the coal, he drew five or six great whiffs A fragrant blue cloud soon arose, and fro excitedly,-- ”Tobacco! real tobacco!”
”Yes, Pencroft,” returned Cyrus Harding, ”and very good tobacco too!”
”O divine Providence! sacred Author of all things!” cried the sailor ”Nothingto our island”
And Pencroft smoked, and smoked, and sth ”You, Herbert, no doubt?”
”No, Pencroft, it was Mr Spilett”
”Mr Spilett!” exclai him to his breast with such a squeeze that he had never felt anything like it before
”Oh, Pencroft,” said Spilett, recovering his breath at last, ”a truce for one ratitude with Herbert, who recognised the plant, with Cyrus, who prepared it, and with Neb who took a great deal of trouble to keep our secret”
”Well, my friends, I will repay you some day,” replied the sailor ”Noe are friends for life”
[Illustration: PENCROFT HAS NOTHING LEFT TO WISH FOR]
CHAPTER XI
Winter -- Felling Wood -- The Mill -- Pencroft's fixed Idea -- The Bones -- To what Use an Albatross may be put -- Fuel for the Future -- Top and Jup -- Store to the Poultry-yard -- Excursion to the Marsh -- Cyrus Harding alone -- Exploring the Well Winter arrived with the month of June, which is the Decereat business was the
The musmons in the corral had been stripped of their wool, and this precious textile material was now to be transfor at his disposal neither carders, combers, polishers, stretchers, twisters,ed to proceed in a si And indeed he proposed to make use of the property which the filaments of wool possess when subjected to a powerful pressure ofby this simple process the material called felt This felt could then be obtained by a simple operation which, if it diminished the flexibility of the stuff, increased its power of retaining heat in proportion Now the wool furnished by the ood condition to be felted
The engineer, aided by his coed to leave his boat, commenced the preliminary operations, the object of which was to rid the wool of that fat and oily substance hich it is i was done in vats filled ater, which was rees, and in which the as soaked for four-and-twenty hours; it was then thoroughly washed in baths of soda, and, when sufficiently dried by pressure, it was in a state to be coh, no doubt, and such as would have no value in acentre of Europe or Ahly esteemed in the Lincoln Island markets
This sort of material must have been known from the most ancient times, and, in fact, the first woollen stuffs werewas now about to e qualifications now came into play was in the construction of the eniously to profit the mechanical force, hitherto unused, which the waterfall on the beach possessed tocould be hs, and upon it fell in turns heavy wooden mallets, such was the machine in question, and such it had been for centuries until the time when the mallets were replaced by cylinders of co, but to regular rolling
The operation, ably directed by Cyrus Harding, was a conated with a solution of soap, intended on the one hand to facilitate the interlacing, the co of the wool, and on the other to prevent its di, issued frohnesses hich the staple of wool is naturally filled were so thoroughly entangled and interlaced together that a arments or bedclothes It was certainly neither merino, muslin, cashmere, rep, satin, alpaca, cloth, nor flannel It was ”Lincolnian felt,” and Lincoln Island possessed yet another arments and thick bedclothes, and they could without fear await the approach of the winter of 1866-67
The severe cold began to be felt about the 20th of June, and, to his great regret, Pencroft was obliged to suspend his boat-building, which he hoped to finish in tireat idea was tocould not approve of a voyage si to be found on this desert and ale of a hundred and fifty miles in a comparatively small vessel, over unknown seas, could not but cause him some anxiety Suppose that their vessel, once out at sea, should be unable to reach Tabor Island, and could not return to Lincoln Island, ould become of her in theoften talked over this project with Pencroft, and he found hie, for which deterive no sufficient reason
”Now,” said the engineer one day to hi said sospoken so often of the sorrow you would feel if you were obliged to forsake it, you are the first to wish to leave it”
”Only to leave it for a few days,” replied Pencroft, ”only for a few days, captain Tio and come back, and see what that islet is like!”
”But it is not nearly as good as Lincoln Island”
”I know that beforehand”
”Then why venture there?”
”To knohat is going on in Tabor Island”
”But nothing is going on there; nothing could happen there”
”Who knows?”
”And if you are caught in a hurricane?”
”There is no fear of that in the fine season,” replied Pencroft ”But, captain, as we , I shall ask your pere”
”Pencroft,” replied the engineer, placing his hand on the sailor's shoulder, ”if any misfortune happens to you, or to this lad, whom chance has made our child, do you think we could ever cease to bla,” replied Pencroft, with unshaken confidence, ”we shall not cause you that sorrow Besides, ill speak further of this voyage, when the tiht-rigged little craft, when you have observed how she behaves at sea, e sail round our island, for ill do so together--I fancy, I say, that you will no longer hesitate to let o I don't conceal from you that your boat will be a masterpiece”
”Say 'our' boat, at least, Pencroft,” replied the engineer, disarmed for the moment The conversation ended thus, to be resuineer
The first snow fell towards the end of the ely supplied with stores, so that daily visits to it were not requisite; but it was decided that more than a week should never be allowed to pass without soain set, and thewere tried The bent whalebones, imprisoned in a case of ice, and covered with a thick outer layer of fat, were placed on the border of the forest at a spot where animals usually passed on their way to the lake
To the engineer's great satisfaction, this invention, copied from the Aleutian fishermen, succeeded perfectly A dozen foxes, a feild boars, and even a jaguar, were taken in this way, the ani found dead, their stomachs pierced by the unbent bones
An incidentin itself, but because it was the first attempt made by the colonists to communicate with the rest of mankind
Gideon Spilett had already several times pondered whether to throw into the sea a letter enclosed in a bottle, which currents ht perhaps carry to an inhabited coast, or to confide it to pigeons
But how could it be seriously hoped that either pigeons or bottles could cross the distance of twelve hundred miles which separated the island from any inhabited land? It would have been pure folly
But on the 30th of June the capture was effected, not without difficulty, of an albatross, which a shot fronificent bird, , and which could traverse seas as wide as the Pacific
Herbert would have liked to keep this superb bird, as its wound would soon heal, and he thought he could talect this opportunity of atteer with the lands of the Pacific; for if the albatross had coion, there was no doubt but that it would return there so soon as it was set free
Perhaps in his heart Gideon Spilett, in whom the journalist sometimes came to the surface, was not sorry to have the opportunity of sending forth to take its chance an exciting article relating the adventures of the settlers in Lincoln Island What a success for the authorised reporter of the New York Herald, and for the number which should contain the article, if it should ever reach the address of its editor, the Honourable John Benett!
Gideon Spilett then wrote out a concise account, which was placed in a strong waterproof bag, with an earnest request to whoever ht find it to forward it to the office of the New York Herald This little bag was fastened to the neck of the albatross, and not to its foot, for these birds are in the habit of resting on the surface of the sea; then liberty was given to this swift courier of the air, and it was not without some emotion that the colonists watched it disappear in theto?” asked Pencroft
”Towards New Zealand,” replied Herbert
”A good voyage to you,” shouted the sailor, who hireat result from this mode of correspondence
With the winter, work had been resu clothes and different occupations, a the sails for their vessel, which were cut from the inexhaustible balloon-case