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Chapter 8 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 ***, 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 *** 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 ***. "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 appeased 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!