Part 14 (1/2)
For two hours the stranger remained alone on the shore, evidently under the influence of recollections which recalled all his past life--asight of him, did not attempt to disturb his solitude However, after two hours, appearing to have for His eyes were red with the tears he had shed, but he wept no longer His countenance expressed deep humility He appeared anxious, tiround
”Sir,” said he to Harding, ”your colish?”
”No,” answered the engineer, ”we are Aer, and he murmured, ”I prefer that!”
”And you, lish,” replied he hastily
And as if these feords had been difficult to say, he retreated to the beach, where he walked up and down between the cascade and the itation
Then, passing one moment close to Herbert, he stopped, and in a stifled voice,-- ”What month?” he asked
”December,” replied Herbert
”What year?”
”1866”
”Twelve years! twelve years!” he exclaimed
Then he left him abruptly
Herbert reported to the colonists the questions and anshich had been made
”This unfortunate er acquainted with either months or years!”
”Yes!” added Herbert, ”and he had been twelve years already on the islet e found hi ”Ah! twelve years of solitude, after a wicked life, perhaps, may well impair a man's reason!”
”I am induced to think,” said Pencroft, ”that this man was not wrecked on Tabor Island, but that in consequence of soht, Pencroft,” replied the reporter, ”and if it is so it is not impossible that those who left him on the island may return to fetch hier find him,” said Herbert
”But then,” added Pencroft, ”they , ”do not let us discuss this question until we know more about it I believe that the unhappy man has suffered, that he has severely expiated his faults, whatever they may have been, and that the wish to unburden himself stifles him Do not let us press him to tell us his history! He will tell it to us doubtless, and e know it, we shall see what course it will be best to follow He alone besides can tell us, if he hassome day to his country, but I doubt it!”
”And why?” asked the reporter
”Because that, in the event of his being sure of being delivered at a certain time, he would have waited the hour of his deliverance and would not have thrown this document into the sea No, it is more probable that he was condemned to die on that islet, and that he never expected to see his fellow-creatures again!”
”But,” observed the sailor, ”there is one thing which I cannot explain”
”What is it?”
”If this man had been left for twelve years on Tabor Island, one may well suppose that he had been several years already in the wild state in which we found hi
”It must then be many years since he wrote that document!”
”No doubt, and yet the document appears to have been recently written!”
”Besides, how do you know that the bottle which enclosed the document may not have taken several years to come from Tabor Island to Lincoln Island?”
”That is not absolutely iht it not have been a long time already on the coast of the island?”
”No,” answered Pencroft, ”for it was still floating We could not even suppose that after it had stayed for any length of time on the shore, it would have been swept off by the sea, for the south coast is all rocks, and it would certainly have been smashed to pieces there!”
”That is true,” rejoined Cyrus Harding thoughtfully
”And then,” continued the sailor, ”if the document was several years old, if it had been shut up in that bottle for several years, it would have been injured by da of the kind, and it was found in a perfect state of preservation”
The sailor's reasoning was very just, and pointed out an incomprehensible fact, for the document appeared to have been recently written, when the colonists found it in the bottle Moreover, it gave the latitude and longitude of Tabor Island correctly, which iraphy than could be expected of a co unaccountable,” said the engineer; ”but ill not urge our companion to speak When he likes,the following days the stranger did not speak a word, and did not once leave the precincts of the plateau He worked aithout losing aa minute's rest, but always in a retired place At h invited several tietables At nightfall he did not return to the rooned to him, but remained under some clump of trees, or when the weather was bad crouched in some cleft of the rocks Thus he lived in the same manner as when he had no other shelter than the forests of Tabor Island, and as all persuasion to induce him to improve his life was in vain, the colonists waited patiently And the tied by his conscience, a terrible confession escaped hiht o'clock in the evening, as night was coer appeared unexpectedly before the settlers, ere asseely, and he had quite resu and his co that, overcome by some terrible emotion, his teeth chattered like those of a person in a fever What was the ht of his fellow-creatures insupportable to him? Was he weary of this return to a civilised e life? It appeared so, as soon he was heard to express himself in these incoherent sentences:-- ”Why aed me from my islet? Do you think there could be any tie between you and me? Do you knoho I am--what I have done--why I was there--alone? And who told you that I was not abandoned there--that I was not condemned to die there? Do you know my past? How do you know that I have not stolen, --only fit to live like a wild beast far from all--speak--do you know it?”
The colonists listened without interrupting the miserable creature, from whom these broken confessions escaped, as it were, in spite of hi to calm him, approached him, but he hastily drew back
”No! no!” he exclaimed; ”one word only--aineer
”Farewell then!” he cried, and fled like a made of the wood--but they returned alone
”We
”He will never come back!” exclaiineer
Many days passed; but Harding--was it a sort of presentiment?--persisted in the fixed idea that sooner or later the unhappy man would return
”It is the last revolt of his wild nature,” said he, ”which remorse has touched, and which renewed solitude will terrify”
In the meanwhile, works of all sorts were continued, as well on Prospect Heights as at the corral, where Harding intended to build a farm It is unnecessary to say that the seeds collected by Herbert on Tabor Island had been carefully sown The plateau thus forarden, well laid out and carefully tended, so that the arms of the settlers were never in want of work There was always so to be done As the esculents increased in nue the siular fields and replace the rass abounded in other parts of the island, and there was no fear of the onagas being obliged to go on short allowance It orth while, besides, to turn Prospect Heights into a kitchen-garden, defended by its deep belt of creeks, and to reainst the depredations of quadrumana and quadrupeds