Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 6.djvu/322

 curred, Herbert's recovery might be regarded as certain. But what would have been the condition of the colonists if his state had been worse,—if the ball had remained in his body, or if an arm had needed amputation?

"No," said Spilett more than once, "I have never thought of such a contingency without shuddering!"

"And yet, if it had been necessary to operate," said Harding one day to him, "you would not have hesitated?"

"No, Cyrus!" said Gideon Spilett, "but thank God that we have been spared this complication!"

The colonists had again succeeded by that simple good sense of which they had made use so often. But might not a time come when all their science would be at fault? They were alone on the island. Now, men in all states of society are necessary to each other. Cyrus Harding knew this well, and sometimes he asked himself if some circumstance might not occur which they would be powerless to surmount. It appeared to him besides, that he and his companions, till then so fortunate, had entered into an unlucky period. During the three years and a half which had elapsed since their escape from Richmond, it might be said that they had had everything their own way. The island had abundantly supplied them with minerals, vegetables, animals, and as Nature had constantly loaded them, their science had known how to take advantage of what she offered them. The wellbeing of the colony was therefore complete. Moreover, in certain concurrences an inexplicable influence had come to their aid! But all that could only be for a time. In short, Cyrus Harding believed that fortune had turned against them.

It was almost impossible to get at the five pirates who survived, Ayrton had no doubt been murdered by these wretches, who possessed fire-arms. Herbert had fallen, wounded almost mortally. Were these the first blows aimed by adverse fortune at the colonists? This was often asked by Harding. This was often repeated by the reporter; and it appeared to him also that the intervention, so strange, yet so efficacious, which till then had served them so well, had now failed them. Had this mysterious being, whatever he was, whose existence could not be denied, abandoned the island? Had he in his turn succumbed?

No reply was possible to these questions. But it must