Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/325

 resort to the Buntzen "pile." He raised the two perfectly isolating conducting rods which were used to decompose the water, then searching in his traveling-bag he drew out two pieces of charcoal cut to a point, which he fastened to the end of each wire.

His two friends watched him without understanding his object, but they said nothing until the doctor had finished. He then stood upright in the center of the car and took one of the pieces of charcoal in each hand and touched one against the other. Suddenly an intense and dazzling light was produced of an insupportable brightness between the two parts of the charcoal. An immense band of electric light literally burnt through the obscurity of the night.

"Oh!" said Joe. "Sir"

"Hold your tongue," said the doctor.

directed his electric light towards various points, and stopped at the spot whence the cries of terror were heard. His two companions regarded it fixedly.

The "baobab," above which the "Victoria" was hovering, was growing in the center of an open space. Between the oil-plant fields and the sugar-canes they distinguished fifty huts of low and conical appearance, around which a numerous tribe had congregated.

A hundred feet below the balloon a stake had been prepared. At the foot of this stake lay a human being, a young man about thirty years old, with long black hair; he was half naked, emaciated, stained with blood, and covered with wounds. His head was bent forward on his chest.

Some hairs more closely shaven on the top of the head indicated the place where the tonsure had been half effaced.

"A missionary! a priest!" cried Joe.

"Poor fellow!" said the Scot.

"We will save him, Dick," said the doctor.

The crowd of negroes perceiving the balloon, which appeared like an enormous comet with a dazzling tail, were seized with a panic, as may readily be imagined. At their cries, the prisoner raised his head. His eyes sparkled with