Читать книгу Таинственный остров / Mysterious Island - Жюль Верн, Жуль Верн - Страница 5

The reporter walked along the coast in the direction which Neb had taken some hours before, and disappeared quickly around a turn in the shore. Herbert wished to go with him.

“Stay, my boy,” said the sailor. “We must pitch our camp for the night, and try to find something more satisfying to eat than shellfish. Our friends will need food when they come back.”

“I am ready, Pencroff,” said Herbert.

“Good,” said the sailor. “We are tired, cold, and hungry; we need shelter, fire, and food. There is plenty of wood in the forest, and we can get eggs from the nests; but we must find a house.”

“Well,” said Herbert, “I will look for a cave in these rocks.”

“Right,” said Pencroff. “Let us start at once.”

They walked along the base of the rocky wall. But instead of going northwards, they turned to the south. Pencroff had noticed a narrow inlet in the coast. Now it was important to pitch the camp near the fresh water; in that part of the island, too, Smith could be found.

The rock rose 300 feet, smooth and massive. It was a sturdy wall of the hardest granite. About the summit hovered a host of aquatic birds, with long, narrow, pointed beaks.

Meanwhile Herbert noticed some rocks. On them lay hosts of bivalves. Herbert called to Pencroff, who came running to him.

“Ah, they are mussels,” said the sailor.

“They are not mussels,” said Herbert, examining the mollusks carefully, “they are lithodomes[24].”

“Can we eat them?” said Pencroff.

“Certainly.”

“Then let us eat some lithodomes.”

These lithodomes were oblong shell-fish[25], adhering in clusters to the rocks. They tasted like oysters; Pencroff and Herbert made a good meal of them.

Their hunger was allayed for the moment, but their thirst was increased by the spicy flavor of the mollusks. The thing now was to find fresh water. Two hundred feet further on Pencroff and Herbert reached the inlet, through which a little river was flowing with full current.

“Here is water,” said Pencroff, “and over there is wood. Well, Herbert, now all we need is a house.”

The river water was clear. Pencroff and Herbert went down between the rocks, into sandy corridors.

“This is just what we want,” said Pencroff. “These Chimneys will be our house. But first we must get together some firing.”

Herbert and Pencroff left the Chimneys, and walked up the left bank of the river. After a quarter of an hour’s walk, the two reached the elbow which the river made in turning to the left. From this point they saw a forest of magnificent trees.

“Good,” said the sailor, “I may not know the name of these trees, but I know they will help us to make a fire, and that’s the main thing for us.”

It was easy to gather the firewood; plenty of dead branches lay at their feet. The dry wood would burn rapidly. Herbert asked, how could two men carry such a load to the Chimneys.

“My boy,” said the sailor, “there’s a way to do everything. If we had a car or a boat it would be too easy.”

“We have the river,” suggested Herbert.

“Exactly,” said Pencroff. “The river will be our road and our carrier, too.”

They looked at the ocean. The sea was a watery desert. The coast, too, was desolate. Neither Neb, nor the reporter could be seen.

“Something tells me,” said Herbert, “that a person so energetic as Mr. Smith could not be drowned like an ordinary man. He got to the shore; don’t you think so, Pencroff?”

The sailor shook his head sadly. He never thought to see Smith again; but he left Herbert a hope.

“No doubt,” said he, “our engineer saved himself.”

As Pencroff and Herbert walked towards the west, their looks fell on the snowcapped mountain, which rose six or seven miles away. They saw a forest. Then from the edge of this forest to the coast stretched a plateau.

“Are we upon an island?” muttered the sailor.

“It is big enough,” said the boy.

“An island’s an island, no matter how big,” said Pencroff.