oration again."

"Very good," said Pencroft. "But the boat?"

"The boat has remained by itself for one day at the sources of the
Mercy," replied Gideon Spilett; "it may just as well stay there two
days! As yet, we have had no reason to think that the island is
infested by thieves!"

"Yet," said the sailor, "when I remember the history of the turtle, I
am far from confident of that."

"The turtle! the turtle!" replied the reporter. "Don't you know that
the sea turned it over?"

"Who knows?" murmured the engineer.

"But--" said Neb.

Neb had evidently something to say, for he opened his mouth to speak
and yet said nothing.

"What do you want to say, Neb?" asked the engineer.

"If we return by the shore to Claw Cape," replied Neb, "after having
doubled the Cape, we shall be stopped--"

"By the Mercy! of course," replied Herbert, "and we shall have neither
bridge nor boat by which to cross."

"But, captain," added Pencroft, "with a few floating trunks we shall
have no difficulty in crossing the river."

"Never mind," said Spilett, "it will be useful to construct a bridge
if we wish to have an easy access to the Far West!"

"A bridge!" cried Pencroft. "Well, is not the captain the best
engineer in his profession? He will make us a bridge when we want one.
As to transporting you this evening to the other side of the Mercy,
and that without wetting one thread of your clothes, I will take care
of that. We have provisions for another day, and besides we can get
plenty of game. Forward!"

The reporter's proposal, so strongly seconded by the sailor, received
general approbation, for each wished to have their doubts set at rest,
and by returning by Claw Cape the exploration would be ended. But
there was not an hour to lose, for forty miles was a long march, and
they could not hope to reach Granite House before night.

At six o'clock in the morning the little band set out. As a precaution
the guns were loaded with ball, and Top, who led the van, received
orders to beat about the edge of the forest.

From the extremity of the promontory which formed the tail of the
peninsula the coast was rounded for a distance of five miles, which
was rapidly passed over, without even the most minute investigations
bringing to light the least trace of any old or recent landings; no
_debris_, no mark of an encampment, no cinders of a fire, nor even a
footprint!

From the point of the peninsula on which the settlers now were the