throw
any light on the circumstances under which the bodies had been found,
since he himself was not aware that he was in the corral. But at any
rate he would be in a position to give an account of what had taken
place before this terrible execution. The next day Ayrton awoke from
his torpor, and his companions cordially manifested all the joy they
felt, on seeing him again, almost safe and sound, after a hundred and
four days' separation.

Ayrton then in a few words recounted what had happened, or at least as
much as he knew.

The day after his arrival at the corral, on the 10th of last November,
at nightfall, he was surprised by the convicts, who had scaled the
palisade. They bound and gagged him; then he was led to a dark cavern,
at the foot of Mount Franklin, where the convicts had taken refuge.

His death had been decided upon, and the next day the convicts were
about to kill him, when one of them recognised him, and called him by
the name which he bore in Australia. The wretches had no scruples as to
murdering Ayrton! They spared Ben Joyce!

But from that moment Ayrton was exposed to the importunities of his
former accomplices. They wished him to join them again, and relied upon
his aid to enable them to gain possession of Granite House, to penetrate
into that hitherto inaccessible dwelling, and to become masters of the
island, after murdering the colonists!

Ayrton remained firm. The once convict, now repentant and pardoned,
would rather die than betray his companions. Ayrton--bound, gagged, and
closely watched--lived in this cave for four months.

Nevertheless the convicts had discovered the corral a short time after
their arrival in the island, and since then they had subsisted on
Ayrton's stores, but did not live at the corral.

On the 11th of November, two of the villains, surprised by the
colonists' arrival, fired at Herbert, and one of them returned, boasting
of having killed one of the inhabitants of the island; but he returned
alone. His companion, as is known, fell by Cyrus Harding's dagger.

Ayrton's anxiety and despair may be imagined when he learnt the news of
Herbert's death. The settlers were now only four, and, as it seemed, at
the mercy of the convicts. After this event, and during all the time
that the colonists, detained by Herbert's illness, remained in the
corral, the pirates did not leave their cavern, and even after they had
pillaged the plateau of Prospect Heights, they