“Look out, my friends, be ready!” cried Smith.
The colonists waited, with their guns at the shoulder. Top continued to bark, and Jup, running towards the dog, uttered sharp cries.
The colonists, following him, came to the border of the little brook, overshadowed by large trees.
And there, in the full moonlight, what did they see?
Five corpses lay extended upon the bank!
They were the bodies of the convicts, who, four months before, had landed upon Lincoln Island.
LV
Ayrton’s recital—Plans of his old comrades—Taking possession of the corral—The rules of the island—The Good Luck—Researches about Mount Franklin—The upper valleys—Subterranean rumblings—Pencroff’s answer—At the bottom of the crater—The return.
How had it happened? Who had killed the convicts? Ayrton? No, since the moment before he had feared their return!
But Ayrton was now in a slumber from which it was impossible to arouse him. After he had spoken these few words, he had fallen back upon his bed, seized by a sudden torpor.
The colonists, terribly excited, preyed upon by a thousand confused thoughts, remained all night in the house. The next morning Ayrton awoke from his sleep, and his companions demonstrated to him their joy at finding him safe and sound after all these months of separation.
Then Ayrton related in a few words all that had happened.
The day after his return to the corral, the 10th of November, just at nightfall, he had been surprised by the convicts, who had climbed over the fence. He was tied and gagged and taken to a dark cavern at the foot of Mount Franklin, where the convicts had a retreat.
His death had been resolved upon, and he was to be killed the following day, when one of the convicts recognized him and called him by the name he had borne in Australia. These wretches, who would have massacred Ayrton, respected Ben Joyce.
From this moment Ayrton was subjected to the importunities of his old comrades. They wished to gain him over to them, and they counted upon him to take Granite House, to enter that inaccessible dwelling, and to become masters of the island, after having killed the colonists.
Ayrton resisted. The former convict, repentant and pardoned, would rather die than betray his companions.
For four months, fastened, gagged, watched, he had remained in this cavern.
Meanwhile the convicts lived upon the stock in the corral, but did not inhabit the place.
On the 11th of November, two of these bandits, inopportunely surprised by the arrival of the colonists, fired on Herbert, and one of them returned boasting of having killed one of the inhabitants. His companion, as we know, had fallen at Smith’s hand.
One can judge of Ayrton’s despair, when he heard of Herbert’s death! It left but four of the colonists, almost at the mercy of the convicts!
Following this event, and during all the time that the colonists, detained by Herbert’s illness, remained at the corral, the pirates did not leave their cave; indeed, after having pillaged Prospect Plateau, they did not deem it prudent to leave it.
The bad treatment of Ayrton was redoubled. His hands and feet still bore the red marks of the lines with which he remained bound, day and night. Each moment he expected to be killed.
This was the third week in February. The convicts, awaiting a favorable opportunity, rarely left their retreat, and then only to a point in the interior or on the west coast. Ayrton had no news of his friends, and no hopes of seeing them again.
Finally, the poor unfortunate, enfeebled by bad treatment, fell in a profound prostration in which he neither saw nor heard anything. From this moment, he could not say what had happened.
“But, Mr. Smith,” he added, “since I was imprisoned in this cavern, how is it that I am here?”
“How is that the convicts are lying there, dead, in the middle of the corral?” answered the engineer.
“Dead!” cried Ayrton, half rising, notwithstanding his feebleness. His companions assisted him to get up, and all went to the little brook.
It was broad daylight. There on the shore, in the position in which they had met their deaths, lay the five convicts.
Ayrton was astounded. The others looked on without speaking. Then, at a sign from Smith, Neb and Pencroff examined the bodies. Not a wound was visible upon them. Only after minute search, Pencroff perceived on the forehead of one, on the breast of another, on this one’s back, and on the shoulder of a fourth, a small red mark, a hardly visible bruise, made by some unknown instrument.
“There is where they have been hit!” said Smith.
“But with what sort of a weapon?” cried the reporter.
“A destructive weapon enough, though unknown to us!”
“And who has destroyed them?” asked Pencroff.
“The ruler of the island,” answered Smith, “he who has brought you here, Ayrton, whose influence is again manifesting itself, who does for us what we are unable to do for ourselves, and who then hides from us.”
“Let us search for him!” cried Pencroff.
“Yes, we will search,” replied Smith; “but the being who accomplishes such prodigies will not be found until it pleases him to call us to him!”
This invisible protection, which nullified their own actions, both annoyed and affected the engineer. The relative inferiority in which it placed him wounded his pride. A generosity which so studiously eluded all mark of recognition denoted a sort of disdain for those benefited, which, in a measure, detracted from the value of the gift.
“Let us search,” he repeated, “and Heaven grant that someday we be permitted to prove to this haughty protector that he is not dealing with ingrates! What would I not give to be able, in our turn, to repay him, and to render him, even at the risk of our lives, some signal service!”
From this time, this search was the single endeavor of the inhabitants of Lincoln Island. All tried to discover the answer to
