night was fine and tranquil and not yet fully dark. Cyrus Smith and the boy walked near each other without speaking. In certain places, the plateau was wide and they proceeded without difficulty. Other places, obstructed by debris, offered only a narrow path so that the two could not walk side by side. After a walk of twenty minutes, Cyrus Smith and Harbert were forced to stop. From this point on, the slopes of the two cones were flush. No shoulder separated the two parts of the mountain. To go around it, along slopes of nearly 70° incline, was impossible.
As they went higher into the crater.
But if the engineer and the boy had to give up the idea of following a circular route, there was nevertheless the possibility that they could climb the cone directly.
In fact, there was before them a deep opening5 in the solid block. It was the flare of the upper crater, the outlet so to speak, by which liquid eruptive material escaped at a time when the volcano was still active. The hardened lava and the encrusted slag formed a sort of natural staircase well designed for a climb, which would facilitate access to the summit of the mountain.
A glance sufficed for Cyrus Smith to recognize the situation. Without hesitation, and followed by the lad, he entered the enormous crevice. It was getting darker.
There was still 1000 feet to climb. Would the walls of the interior of the crater be scalable? They would see. The engineer would continue his climb as long as he could. Fortunately, the incline was gradual and winding, moving in a large spiral path along the interior of the volcano and favoring upward movement.
As to the volcano itself, there was no doubt that it was completely extinct. No smoke escaped from its interior. No flame revealed itself in the deep crevices. Neither growl, nor murmur, nor shudder came forth from this dark pit which perhaps extended to the very bowels of the earth. Even the atmosphere within the crater was not saturated with any sulphurous vapor. The volcano was more than slumbering; it was totally extinct.
Cyrus Smith’s attempt would most likely succeed. Little by little, he and Harbert ascended the inner walls and saw the crater enlarge above their heads. The radius of this circular portion of the sky, surrounded by the borders of the cone, became noticeably larger. With each step that Cyrus Smith and Harbert made, new stars entered their field of view. The magnificent constellations of the southern sky were shining brightly. At the zenith, the splendid Antares of Scorpio6 was sparkling with a pure glare, and not far away was the ß of Centaurus which is thought to be the nearest star to the terrestrial globe. Then as they went higher, Fomalhaut7 of the Southern Fish appeared, the Southern Triangle, and finally near the southern pole of the sky, the sparkling Southern Cross which takes the place of the pole star of the northern hemisphere.
It was nearly eight o’clock when Cyrus Smith and Harbert set foot on the upper crest of the mountain, the summit of the cone. By then it was completely dark and they could not see more than two miles. Did the sea completely surround this unknown land, or was it attached in the west to some continent of the Pacific? They still could not tell. Toward the west, a bank of clouds were clearly discernable on the horizon, adding to the darkness. They could not distinguish the line between sky and water.
But at one point on this horizon, a vague light suddenly appeared, slowly descending as the clouds rose to the zenith.
It was the slender crescent of the moon about to set. But its light was sufficient to clearly show the horizon then detached from a cloud, and the engineer was able to see its trembling image reflected for a moment on the liquid surface.
Cyrus Smith seized the boy’s hand and, with a solemn voice, said:
“An island!”
At that moment, the light of the lunar crescent was extinguished by the waves.
CHAPTER XI
A half hour later, Cyrus Smith and Harbert returned to camp. The engineer merely told his companions that the land where they had been thrown by chance was an island and that the next day they would discuss their options. Then each made the best sleeping arrangement he could, and in this crevice of basalt at a height of 2500 feet above sea level, the “islanders” enjoyed a deep sleep during a peaceful night.
The next day, March 30th, after a quick breakfast of roasted tragopan, the engineer wanted to climb to the volcano’s summit in order to carefully observe the island. He and his friends would perhaps be imprisoned for life here if this island was situated far from all land or if it was not near the lanes of ships visiting the archipelagos of the Pacific Ocean. This time, his companions followed him in this new exploration. They too wanted to see this island which they would ask to fulfill all their needs.
It was about seven o’clock in the morning when Cyrus Smith, Harbert, Pencroff, Gideon Spilett, and Neb broke camp, and none appeared uneasy about the situation. They had faith in themselves but it should be noted that the basis of this faith was not the same in Cyrus Smith as in his companions. The engineer had confidence because he felt capable of wresting from this savage nature all that would be necessary for his life and the life of his companions; they feared nothing precisely because Cyrus Smith was with them. Pencroff especially, since the incident of the rekindled fire, would not despair for an instant even if he found himself on a bare rock, if the engineer was with him on this rock.
“Bah!” he said. “We left Richmond without permission from the authorities! It would be a devil of a thing if we didn’t succeed in leaving a place where no one was holding us back!”
Cyrus Smith followed the same path as the day before. They went around the cone by the plateau which formed the shoulder up to the opening of the enormous crevice. The weather was magnificent. The sun rose in a pure sky and its rays enveloped the entire eastern side of the mountain.
They reached the crater. It was just as the engineer had recognized it in the darkness, that is to say a vast crater that extended 1000 feet above the plateau. From the base of the crevice, broad thick flows of lava had meandered over the sides of the mountain, marking out the route of the eruptive material into the lower valleys which criss-crossed the northern portion of the island.
The interior of the crater, whose inclination was not more than thirty five to forty degrees, presented no difficulties or obstacles to climbing. They saw traces of very old lava which probably had poured out at the summit of the cone before this lateral crevice opened a new route.
As to the volcanic chimney which established communication between the subterranean levels and the crater, they could not estimate its depth by looking at it since it was lost in darkness. But there was no doubt that the volcano was completely extinct.
Before eight o’clock, Cyrus Smith and his companions were gathered at the summit of the crater on a conical elevation of the northern rim.
“The sea! The sea everywhere!” they said as if their lips could not hold back this word that made islanders of them. The sea was an immense circular expanse around them. Perhaps on climbing to the summit of the cone Cyrus Smith had hoped to discover some coast, some neighboring island, which he had not been able to see in the darkness of the previous night. But nothing appeared on the horizon for a radius of over fifty miles. No land in sight. Not a sail. An immense desert. The island occupied the center of a circumference that seemed to extend to infinity in all directions.
The engineer and his companions, speechless, motionless, gazed at the ocean for several minutes. Their eyes strained to make out its furthest limits. Pencroff, who possessed a marvellous power of vision, saw nothing. If there was land anywhere
