rompted him to add,
"provided you do not overcharge me."

Ben Zoof was about again to interpose some angry exclamation; but
Servadac checked him, and continued in Spanish: "Listen to me, my
friends. Something very strange has happened. A most wonderful event has
cut us off from Spain, from France, from Italy, from every country
of Europe. In fact, we have left the Old World entirely. Of the whole
earth, nothing remains except this island on which you are now taking
refuge. The old globe is far, far away. Our present abode is but an
insignificant fragment that is left. I dare not tell you that there is
any chance of your ever again seeing your country or your homes."

He paused. The Spaniards evidently had no conception of his meaning.

Negrete begged him to tell them all again. He repeated all that he had
said, and by introducing some illustrations from familiar things,
he succeeded to a certain extent in conveying some faint idea of the
convulsion that had happened. The event was precisely what he had
foretold. The communication was received by all alike with the most
supreme indifference.

Hakkabut did not say a word. He had listened with manifest attention,
his lips twitching now and then as if suppressing a smile. Servadac
turned to him, and asked whether he was still disposed to put out to sea
and make for Algiers.

The Jew gave a broad grin, which, however, he was careful to conceal
from the Spaniards. "Your Excellency jests," he said in French; and
turning to Count Timascheff, he added in Russian: "The governor has made
up a wonderful tale."

The count turned his back in disgust, while the Jew sidled up to little
Nina and muttered in Italian. "A lot of lies, pretty one; a lot of
lies!"

"Confound the knave!" exclaimed Ben Zoof; "he gabbles every tongue under
the sun!"

"Yes," said Servadac; "but whether he speaks French, Russian, Spanish,
German, or Italian, he is neither more nor less than a Jew."

CHAPTER XX. A LIGHT ON THE HORIZON

On the following day, without giving himself any further concern about
the Jew's incredulity, the captain gave orders for the _Hansa_ to be
shifted round to the harbor of the Shelif. Hakkabut raised no objection,
not only because he was aware that the move insured the immediate safety
of his tartan, but because he was secretly entertaining the hope that
he might entice away two or three of the _Dobryna's_ crew and make his
escape to Algiers or some other port.