must be drawn from this incident: that the island was
inhabited before our arrival, or that men have landed here within
three months. Did these men arrive here voluntarily or involuntarily,
by disembarking on the shore or by being wrecked? This point can only
be cleared up later. As to what they were, Europeans or Malays,
enemies or friends of our race, we cannot possibly guess; and if they
still inhabit the island, or if they have left it, we know not. But
these questions are of too much importance to be allowed to remain
long unsettled."

"No! a hundred times no! a thousand times no!" cried the sailor,
springing up from the table. "There are no other men than ourselves on
Lincoln Island! By my faith! The island isn't large, and if it had
been inhabited, we should have seen some of the inhabitants long
before this!"

"In fact, the contrary would be very astonishing," said Herbert.

"But it would be much more astonishing, I should think," observed the
reporter, "that this peccary should have been born with a bullet in
its inside!"

"At least," said Neb seriously, "if Pencroft has not had--"

"Look here, Neb," burst out Pencroft. "Do you think I could have a
bullet in my jaw for five or six months without finding it out? Where
could it be hidden?" he asked opening his mouth to show the
two-and-thirty teeth with which it was furnished. "Look well, Neb, and
if you find one hollow tooth in this set, I will let you pull out half
a dozen!"

"Neb's supposition is certainly inadmissible," replied Harding, who,
notwithstanding the gravity of his thoughts, could not restrain a
smile. "It is certain that a gun has been fired in the island, within
three months at most. But I am inclined to think that the people who
landed on this coast were only here a very short time ago, or that
they just touched here; for if, when we surveyed the island from the
summit of Mount Franklin, it had been inhabited, we should have seen
them or we should have been seen ourselves. It is therefore probable
that within only a few weeks castaways have been thrown by a storm on
some part of the coast. However that may be, it is of consequence to
us to have this point settled."

"I think that we should act with caution," said the reporter.

"Such is my advice," replied Cyrus Harding, "for it is to be feared
that Malay pirates have landed on the island!"

"Captain," asked the sailor, "would it not be a good plan, before
setting out, to build a ca