That done, the professor and his pupil rushed into one another's arms.
"My dear Godfrey!" exclaimed Tartlet1.
"My good Tartlet!" replied Godfrey.
"At last we are arrived in port!" observed the professor in the tone of a man who had had enough of navigation and its accidents.
He called it arriving in port!
Godfrey had no desire to contradict him.
"Take off your life-belt," he said. "It suffocates2 you and hampers3 your movements."
"Do you think I can do so without inconvenience?" asked Tartlet.
"Without any inconvenience," answered Godfrey. "Now put up your fiddle4, and let us take a look round."
"Come on," replied the professor; "but if you don't[Pg 92] mind, Godfrey, let us go to the first restaurant we see. I am dying of hunger, and a dozen sandwiches washed down with a glass or two of wine will soon set me on my legs again."
"Yes! to the first restaurant!" answered Godfrey, nodding his head; "and even to the last, if the first does not suit us."
"And," continued Tartlet, "we can ask some fellow as we go along the road to the telegraph office so as to send a message off to your Uncle Kolderup. That excellent man will hardly refuse to send on some necessary cash for us to get back to Montgomery Street, for I have not got a cent with me!"
"Agreed, to the first telegraph office," answered Godfrey, "or if there isn't one in this country, to the first post office. Come on, Tartlet."
The professor took off his swimming apparatus5, and passed it over his shoulder like a hunting-horn, and then both stepped out for the edge of the dunes7 which bordered the shore.
What more particularly interested Godfrey, whom the encounter with Tartlet had imbued8 with some hope, was to see if they too were the only survivors9 of the Dream.
A quarter of an hour after the explorers had left the edge of the reef they had climbed a dune6 about sixty or[Pg 93] eighty feet high, and stood on its crest10. Thence they looked on a large extent of coast, and examined the horizon in the east, which till then had been hidden by the hills on the shore.
Two or three miles away in that direction a second line of hills formed the background, and beyond them nothing was seen of the horizon.
Towards the north the coast trended off to a point, but it could not be seen if there was a corresponding cape12 behind. On the south a creek13 ran some distance into the shore, and on this side it looked as though the ocean closed the view. Whence this land in the Pacific was probably a peninsula, and the isthmus14 which joined it to the continent would have to be sought for towards the north or north-east.
The country, however, far from being barren, was hidden beneath an agreeable mantle15 of verdure; long prairies, amid which meandered16 many limpid17 streams, and high and thick forests, whose trees rose above one another to the very background of hills. It was a charming landscape.
But of houses forming town, village, or hamlet, not one was in sight! Of buildings grouped and arranged as a farm of any sort, not a sign! Of smoke in the sky, betraying some dwelling18 hidden among the trees, not a trace. Not a steeple above the branches, not a windmill[Pg 94] on an isolated19 hill. Not even in default of houses a cabin, a hut, an ajoupa, or a wigwam? No! nothing. If human beings inhabited this unknown land, they must live like troglodytes20, below, and not above the ground. Not a road was visible, not a footpath21, not even a track. It seemed that the foot of man had never trod either a rock of the beach or a blade of the grass on the prairies.
"I don't see the town," remarked Tartlet, who, however, remained on tiptoe.
"That is perhaps because it is not in this part of the province!" answered Godfrey.
"But a village?"
"There's nothing here."
"Where are we then?"
"I know nothing about it."
"What! You don't know! But Godfrey, we had better make haste and find out."
"Who is to tell us?"
"What will become of us then?" exclaimed Tartlet, rounding his arms and lifting them to the sky.
"Become a couple of Crusoes!"
At this answer the professor gave a bound such as no clown had ever equalled.
Crusoes! They! A Crusoe! He! Descendants of that Selkirk who had lived for long years on the island of Juan[Pg 95] Fernandez! Imitators of the imaginary heroes of Daniel Defoe and De Wyss whose adventures they had so often read! Abandoned, far from their relatives, their friends; separated from their fellow-men by thousands of miles, destined23 to defend their lives perhaps against wild beasts, perhaps against savages24 who would land there, wretches25 without resources, suffering from hunger, suffering from thirst, without weapons, without tools, almost without clothes, left to themselves. No, it was impossible!
"Don't say such things, Godfrey," exclaimed Tartlet. "No! Don't joke about such things! The mere26 supposition will kill me! You are laughing at me, are you not?"
"Yes, my gallant27 Tartlet," answered Godfrey. "Reassure28 yourself. But in the first place, let us think about matters that are pressing."
In fact, they had to try and find some cavern29, a grotto30 or hole, in which to pass the night, and then to collect some edible31 mollusks so as to satisfy the cravings of their stomachs.
Godfrey and Tartlet then commenced to descend22 the talus of the dunes in the direction of the reef. Godfrey showed himself very ardent32 in his researches, and Tartlet considerably33 stupefied by his shipwreck34 experiences. The first looked before him, behind him, and all around him; the second hardly saw ten paces in front of him.
[Pg 96]
"If there are no inhabitants on this land, are there any animals?" asked Godfrey.
He meant to say domestic animals, such as furred and feathered game, not wild animals which abound36 in tropical regions, and with which they were not likely to have to do.
Several flocks of birds were visible on the shore, bitterns, curlews, bernicle geese, and teal, which hovered37 and chirped38 and filled the air with their flutterings and cries, doubtless protesting against the invasion of their domain39.
Godfrey was justified40 in concluding that where there were birds there were nests, and where there were nests there were eggs. The birds congregated41 here in such numbers, because rocks provided them with thousands of cavities for their dwelling-places. In the distance a few herons and some flocks of snipe indicated the neighbourhood of a marsh42.
Birds then were not wanting, the only difficulty was to get at them without fire-arms. The best thing to do now was to make use of them in the egg state, and consume them under that elementary but nourishing form.
But if the dinner was there, how were they to cook it? How were they to set about lighting43 a fire? An important question, the solution of which was postponed44.
Godfrey and Tartlet returned straight towards the reef, over which some sea-birds were circling. An agreeable surprise there awaited them.
[Pg 97]
Among the
Join or Log In!
You need to log in to continue reading