The Mysterious Island (51 page)

"At his, the convict's disposal, was the house built by honest Captain
Grant. He had only to live and expiate in solitude the crimes which he
had committed.

"Gentlemen, he repented, he was ashamed of his crimes and was very
miserable! He said to himself, that if men came some day to take
him from that islet, he must be worthy to return among them! How he
suffered, that wretched man! How he labored to recover himself by work!
How he prayed to be reformed by prayer! For two years, three years, this
went on, but Ayrton, humbled by solitude, always looking for some ship
to appear on the horizon, asking himself if the time of expiation would
soon be complete, suffered as none other suffered! Oh! how dreadful was
this solitude, to a heart tormented by remorse!

"But doubtless Heaven had not sufficiently punished this unhappy man,
for he felt that he was gradually becoming a savage! He felt that
brutishness was gradually gaining on him!

"He could not say if it was after two or three years of solitude, but at
last he became the miserable creature you found!

"I have no need to tell you, gentlemen, that Ayrton, Ben Joyce, and I,
are the same."

Cyrus Harding and his companions rose at the end of this account. It
is impossible to say how much they were moved! What misery, grief, and
despair lay revealed before them!

"Ayrton," said Harding, rising, "you have been a great criminal, but
Heaven must certainly think that you have expiated your crimes! That
has been proved by your having been brought again among your
fellow-creatures. Ayrton, you are forgiven! And now you will be our
companion?"

Ayrton drew back.

"Here is my hand!" said the engineer.

Ayrton grasped the hand which Harding extended to him, and great tears
fell from his eyes.

"Will you live with us?" asked Cyrus Harding.

"Captain Harding, leave me some time longer," replied Ayrton, "leave me
alone in the hut in the corral!"

"As you like, Ayrton," answered Cyrus Harding. Ayrton was going to
withdraw, when the engineer addressed one more question to him:—

"One word more, my friend. Since it was your intention to live alone,
why did you throw into the sea the document which put us on your track?"

"A document?" repeated Ayrton, who did not appear to know what he meant.

"Yes, the document which we found enclosed in a bottle, giving us the
exact position of Tabor Island!"

Ayrton passed his hand over his brow, then after having thought, "I
never threw any document into the sea!" he answered.

"Never?" exclaimed Pencroft.

"Never!"

And Ayrton, bowing, reached the door and departed.

"Poor man!" said Herbert, who had rushed to the door, but returned,
having seen Ayrton slide down the rope on the lift and disappear in the
darkness.

"He will come back," said Cyrus Harding.

"Come, now, captain," exclaimed Pencroft, "what does that mean? What!
wasn't it Ayrton who threw that bottle into the sea? Who was it then?"

Certainly, if ever a question was necessary to be made, it was that one!

"It was he," answered Neb, "only the unhappy man was half-mad."

"Yes!" said Herbert, "and he was no longer conscious of what he was
doing."

"It can only be explained in that way, my friends," replied Harding
quickly, "and I understand now how Ayrton was able to point out exactly
the situation of Tabor Island, since the events which had preceded his
being left on the island had made it known to him."

"However," observed Pencroft, "if he was not yet a brute when he wrote
that document, and if he threw it into the sea seven or eight years ago,
how is it that the paper has not been injured by damp?"

"That proves," answered Cyrus Harding, "that Ayrton was deprived of
intelligence at a more recent time than he thinks."

"Of course it must be so," replied Pencroft, "without that the fact
would be unaccountable."

"Unaccountable indeed," answered the engineer, who did not appear
desirous to prolong the conversation.

"But has Ayrton told the truth?" asked the sailor.

"Yes," replied the reporter. "The story which he has told is true in
every point. I remember quite well the account in the newspapers of the
yacht expedition undertaken by Lord Glenarvan, and its result."

"Ayrton has told the truth," added Harding. "Do not doubt it, Pencroft,
for it was painful to him. People tell the truth when they accuse
themselves like that!"

The next day—the 21st of December—the colonists descended to the
beach, and having climbed the plateau they found nothing of Ayrton. He
had reached his house in the corral during the night and the settlers
judged it best not to agitate him by their presence. Time would
doubtless perform what sympathy had been unable to accomplish.

Herbert, Pencroft, and Neb resumed their ordinary occupations. On this
day the same work brought Harding and the reporter to the workshop at
the Chimneys.

"Do you know, my dear Cyrus," said Gideon Spilett, "that the explanation
you gave yesterday on the subject of the bottle has not satisfied me at
all! How can it be supposed that the unfortunate man was able to write
that document and throw the bottle into the sea without having the
slightest recollection of it?"

"Nor was it he who threw it in, my dear Spilett."

"You think then—"

"I think nothing, I know nothing!" interrupted Cyrus Harding. "I am
content to rank this incident among those which I have not been able to
explain to this day!"

"Indeed, Cyrus," said Spilett, "these things are incredible! Your
rescue, the case stranded on the sand, Top's adventure, and lastly this
bottle... Shall we never have the answer to these enigmas?"

"Yes!" replied the engineer quickly, "yes, even if I have to penetrate
into the bowels of this island!"

"Chance will perhaps give us the key to this mystery!"

"Chance! Spilett! I do not believe in chance, any more than I believe in
mysteries in this world. There is a reason for everything unaccountable
which has happened here, and that reason I shall discover. But in the
meantime we must work and observe."

The month of January arrived. The year 1867 commenced. The summer
occupations were assiduously continued. During the days which followed,
Herbert and Spilett having gone in the direction of the corral,
ascertained that Ayrton had taken possession of the habitation which
had been prepared for him. He busied himself with the numerous flock
confided to his care, and spared his companions the trouble of coming
every two or three days to visit the corral. Nevertheless, in order not
to leave Ayrton in solitude for too long a time, the settlers often paid
him a visit.

It was not unimportant either, in consequence of some suspicions
entertained by the engineer and Gideon Spilett, that this part of
the island should be subject to a surveillance of some sort, and that
Ayrton, if any incident occurred unexpectedly, should not neglect to
inform the inhabitants of Granite House of it.

Nevertheless it might happen that something would occur which it would
be necessary to bring rapidly to the engineer's knowledge. Independently
of facts bearing on the mystery of Lincoln Island, many others
might happen, which would call for the prompt interference of the
colonists,—such as the sighting of a vessel, a wreck on the western
coast, the possible arrival of pirates, etc.

Therefore Cyrus Harding resolved to put the corral in instantaneous
communication with Granite House.

It was on the 10th of January that he made known his project to his
companions.

"Why! how are you going to manage that, captain?" asked Pencroft. "Do
you by chance happen to think of establishing a telegraph?"

"Exactly so," answered the engineer.

"Electric?" cried Herbert.

"Electric," replied Cyrus Harding. "We have all the necessary materials
for making a battery, and the most difficult thing will be to stretch
the wires, but by means of a drawplate I think we shall manage it."

"Well, after that," returned the sailor, "I shall never despair of
seeing ourselves some day rolling along on a railway!"

They then set to work, beginning with the most difficult thing, for, if
they failed in that, it would be useless to manufacture the battery and
other accessories.

The iron of Lincoln Island, as has been said, was of excellent quality,
and consequently very fit for being drawn out. Harding commenced by
manufacturing a drawplate, that is to say, a plate of steel, pierced
with conical holes of different sizes, which would successively bring
the wire to the wished-for tenacity. This piece of steel, after having
been tempered, was fixed in as firm a way as possible in a solid
framework planted in the ground, only a few feet from the great fall,
the motive power of which the engineer intended to utilize. In fact as
the fulling-mill was there, although not then in use, its beam moved
with extreme power would serve to stretch out the wire by rolling it
round itself. It was a delicate operation, and required much care. The
iron, prepared previously in long thin rods, the ends of which were
sharpened with the file, having been introduced into the largest hole of
the drawplate, was drawn out by the beam which wound it round itself,
to a length of twenty-five or thirty feet, then unrolled, and the same
operation was performed successively through the holes of a less size.
Finally, the engineer obtained wires from forty to fifty feet long,
which could be easily fastened together and stretched over the distance
of five miles, which separated the corral from the bounds of Granite
House.

It did not take more than a few days to perform this work, and indeed
as soon as the machine had been commenced, Cyrus Harding left his
companions to follow the trade of wiredrawers, and occupied himself with
manufacturing his battery.

It was necessary to obtain a battery with a constant current. It is
known that the elements of modern batteries are generally composed of
retort coal, zinc, and copper. Copper was absolutely wanting to the
engineer, who, notwithstanding all his researches, had never been able
to find any trace of it in Lincoln Island, and was therefore obliged to
do without it. Retort coal, that is to say, the hard graphite which
is found in the retorts of gas manufactories, after the coal has
been dehydrogenized, could have been obtained, but it would have been
necessary to establish a special apparatus, involving great labor. As
to zinc, it may be remembered that the case found at Flotsam Point was
lined with this metal, which could not be better utilized than for this
purpose.

Cyrus Harding, after mature consideration, decided to manufacture a
very simple battery, resembling as nearly as possible that invented
by Becquerel in 1820, and in which zinc only is employed. The other
substances, azotic acid and potash, were all at his disposal.

The way in which the battery was composed was as follows, and the
results were to be attained by the reaction of acid and potash on each
other. A number of glass bottles were made and filled with azotic acid.
The engineer corked them by means of a stopper through which passed a
glass tube, bored at its lower extremity, and intended to be plunged
into the acid by means of a clay stopper secured by a rag. Into this
tube, through its upper extremity, he poured a solution of potash,
previously obtained by burning and reducing to ashes various plants,
and in this way the acid and potash could act on each other through the
clay.

Cyrus Harding then took two slips of zinc, one of which was plunged
into azotic acid, the other into a solution of potash. A current was
immediately produced, which was transmitted from the slip of zinc in the
bottle to that in the tube, and the two slips having been connected by a
metallic wire the slip in the tube became the positive pole, and that in
the bottle the negative pole of the apparatus. Each bottle, therefore,
produced as many currents as united would be sufficient to produce all
the phenomena of the electric telegraph. Such was the ingenious and very
simple apparatus constructed by Cyrus Harding, an apparatus which would
allow them to establish a telegraphic communication between Granite
House and the corral.

On the 6th of February was commenced the planting along the road to
the corral, of posts furnished with glass insulators, and intended to
support the wire. A few days after, the wire was extended, ready to
produce the electric current at a rate of twenty thousand miles a
second.

Two batteries had been manufactured, one for Granite House, the other
for the corral; for if it was necessary the corral should be able to
communicate with Granite House it might also be useful that Granite
House should be able to communicate with the corral.

As to the receiver and manipulator, they were very simple. At the two
stations the wire was wound round a magnet, that is to say, round a
piece of soft iron surrounded with a wire. The communication was thus
established between the two poles; the current, starting from the
positive pole, traversed the wire, passed through the magnet which was
temporarily magnetized, and returned through the earth to the negative
pole. If the current was interrupted, the magnet immediately became
unmagnetized. It was sufficient to place a plate of soft iron before the
magnet, which, attracted during the passage of the current, would fall
back when the current was interrupted. This movement of the plate thus
obtained, Harding could easily fasten to it a needle arranged on a dial,
bearing the letters of the alphabet, and in this way communicate from
one station to the other.

All was completely arranged by the 12th of February. On this day,
Harding, having sent the current through the wire, asked if all
was going on well at the corral, and received in a few moments a
satisfactory reply from Ayrton. Pencroft was wild with joy, and every
morning and evening he sent a telegram to the corral, which always
received an answer.