Читать книгу Таинственный остров / Mysterious Island - Жюль Верн, Жуль Верн - Страница 10

The engineer had sunk into a lethargy, the result of the journey. First of all, Cyrus Smith was carried into the main corridor. There they were able to make for him a couch of seaweeds.

The supper that evening consisted of the lithodomes, which Herbert and Neb had gathered from the beach.

The next day, the 28th of March, when the engineer awoke at about 8 o’clock, he saw his companions beside him, and, as on the day before, his first words were “Island or continent?”

It was his one thought.

“Well, Mr. Smith,” answered Pencroff, “we don’t know.”

“You haven’t found out yet?”

“But we will,” affirmed Pencroff, “when you are able to guide us in this country.”

“I believe that I am able to do that now,” answered the engineer, who, without much effort, rose up.

“That is good,” exclaimed the sailor.

“When you were carrying me here yesterday, did I not see a mountain rising in the west?”

“Yes,” said Spilett, “quite a high one.”

“All right,” exclaimed the engineer. “Tomorrow we will climb to its summit and determine whether this is an island or a continent.”

“But,” asked Spilett, “whether it is a continent or an island, where do you think this storm has thrown us, Cyrus?”

“In truth, I cannot say,” replied the engineer, “but the probability is that we are somewhere in the Pacific. When we left Richmond the wind was northeast, and its very violence proves that its direction did not vary much. We crossed North and South Carolina[38], Georgia[39], the Gulf of Mexico[40], and the narrow part of Mexico, and a portion of the Pacific Ocean. I do not estimate the distance traversed by the balloon at less than 6,000 or 7,000 miles. But if this coast belongs to some barren island in the Micronesian Archipelago[41], perhaps we will never leave it.

“Never?” cried the reporter. “Do you say “never”, my dear Cyrus?”

“We will know how to act when we first ascend the mountain,” answered Smith.

“But will you be able, Mr. Smith, to make the climb tomorrow?” asked Herbert.

“I hope so,” answered the engineer, “if Pencroff and you, my boy, show yourselves to be good hunters.”