which was now more
completely destroyed than ever Punic Carthage had been destroyed by
Scipio Africanus or Roman Carthage by Hassan the Saracen.

In the evening, as the sun was sinking below the eastern horizon,
Captain Servadac was lounging moodily against the taffrail. From the
heaven above, where stars kept peeping fitfully from behind the moving
clouds, his eye wandered mechanically to the waters below, where the
long waves were rising and falling with the evening breeze.

All at once, his attention was arrested by a luminous speck straight
ahead on the southern horizon. At first, imagining that he was the
victim of some spectral illusion, he observed it with silent attention;
but when, after some minutes, he became convinced that what he saw was
actually a distant light, he appealed to one of the sailors, by whom
his impression was fully corroborated. The intelligence was immediately
imparted to Count Timascheff and the lieutenant.

"Is it land, do you suppose?" inquired Servadac, eagerly.

"I should be more inclined to think it is a light on board some ship,"
replied the count.

"Whatever it is, in another hour we shall know all about it," said
Servadac.

"No, captain," interposed Lieutenant Procope; "we shall know nothing
until to-morrow."

"What! not bear down upon it at once?" asked the count in surprise.

"No, sir; I should much rather lay to and wait till daylight. If we are
really near land, I should be afraid to approach it in the dark."

The count expressed his approval of the lieutenant's caution, and
thereupon all sail was shortened so as to keep the _Dobryna_ from making
any considerable progress all through the hours of night. Few as those
hours were, they seemed to those on board as if their end would never
come. Fearful lest the faint glimmer should at any moment cease to be
visible, Hector Servadac did not quit his post upon the deck; but the
light continued unchanged. It shone with about the same degree of luster
as a star of the second magnitude, and from the fact of its remaining
stationary, Procope became more and more convinced that it was on land
and did not belong to a passing vessel.

At sunrise every telescope was pointed with keenest interest towards the
center of attraction. The light, of course, had ceased to be visible,
but in the direction where it had been seen, and at a distance of about
ten miles, there was the distinct outline of a solitary island of very
small extent;