onal hunters of the beast.

And so the black seized Godfrey by the arms to drag him away in the
direction of Will Tree, and Godfrey, understanding that he could not be
too cautious, made no resistance.

CHAPTER XIX.

IN WHICH THE SITUATION ALREADY GRAVELY COMPROMISED BECOMES MORE AND MORE
COMPLICATED.

The presence of a formidable wild beast in Phina Island was, it must be
confessed, calculated to make our friends think the worst of the
ill-fortune which had fallen on them.

Godfrey--perhaps he was wrong--did not consider that he ought to hide
from Tartlet what had passed.

"A bear!" screamed the professor, looking round him with a bewildered
glare as if the environs of Will Tree were being assailed by a herd of
wild beasts. "Why, a bear? Up to now we had not even got a bear in our
island! If there is one there may be many, and even numbers of other
ferocious beasts--jaguars, panthers, tigers, hyaenas, lions!"

Tartlet already beheld Phina Island given over to quite a menagerie
escaped from their cages.

Godfrey answered that there was no need for him to exaggerate. He had
seen one bear, that was certain. Why one of these animals had never been
seen before in his wanderings on the island he could not explain, and it
was indeed inexplicable. But to conclude from this that wild animals of
all kinds were prowling in the woods and prairies was to go too far.
Nevertheless, they would have to be cautious and never go out unarmed.

Unhappy Tartlet! From this day there commenced for him an existence of
anxieties, emotions, alarms, and irrational terrors which gave him
nostalgia for his native land in a most acute form.

"No!" repeated he. "No! If there are animals--I have had enough of it,
and I want to get off!"

He had not the power.

Godfrey and his companions then had henceforth to be on their guard. An
attack might take place not only on the shore side or the prairie side,
but even in the group of sequoias. This is why serious measures were
taken to put the habitation in a state to repel a sudden attack. The
door was strengthened, so as to resist the clutches of a wild beast. As
for the domestic animals Godfrey would have built a stable to shut them
up in at least at night, but it was not easy to do so. He contented
himself at present with making a sort of enclosure of branches not far
from Will Tree, which would keep them as in a fold. But the enclosure
was not solid enough nor high enough to hinder