the uprising of the basaltic rocks, Captain
Nemo's wish is that it shall be buried with him. His wish is our law,
and we will fulfil it."

After a somewhat prolonged conversation, Cyrus Harding and his
companions again descended to the interior of the _Nautilus_. There
they took some refreshment and returned to the saloon.

Captain Nemo had somewhat rallied from the prostration which had
overcome him, and his eyes shone with their wonted fire. A faint smile
even curled his lips.

The colonists drew around him.

"Gentlemen," said the captain, "you are brave and honest men. You have
devoted yourselves to the common weal. Often have I observed your
conduct. I have esteemed you--I esteem you still! Your hand, Mr
Harding!"

Cyrus Harding gave his hand to the captain, who clasped it
affectionately.

"It is well!" he murmured.

He resumed--

"But enough of myself. I have to speak concerning yourselves, and this
Lincoln Island, upon which you have taken refuge. You desire to leave
it?"

"To return, captain!" answered Pencroft quickly.

"To return, Pencroft?" said the captain, with a smile. "I know, it is
true, your love for this island. You have helped to make it what it now
is, and it seems to you a paradise!"

"Our project, captain," interposed Cyrus Harding, "is to annex it to the
United States, and to establish for our shipping a port so fortunately
situated in this part of the Pacific."

"Your thoughts are with your country, gentlemen," continued the captain;
"your toils are for her prosperity and glory. You are right. One's
native land!--there should one live! there die! And I! I die far from
all I loved!"

"You have some last wish to transmit," said the engineer with emotion,
"some souvenir to send to those friends you have left in the mountains
of India?"

"No, Captain Harding; no friends remain to me! I am the last of my
race, and to all whom I have known I have long been as are the dead.--
But to return to yourselves. Solitude, isolation, are painful things,
and beyond human endurance. I die of having thought it possible to live
alone! You should, therefore, dare all in the attempt to leave Lincoln
Island, and see once more the land of your birth. I am aware that those
wretches have destroyed the vessel you had built."

"We propose to construct a vessel," said Gideon Spilett, "sufficiently
large to convey us to the nearest land; but if we should succeed, sooner
or later we sh