ve sailors could not be among
those skeletons which were strewn upon the earth, since they were
living at the time of Patterson's departure, seven months ago, and
the catastrophe already dated several years back!

Three hours later we had returned on board the _Halbrane_, without
having made any other discovery. Captain Len Guy went direct to his
cabin, shut himself up there, and did not reappear even at dinner
hour.

The following day, as I wished to return to the island in order to
resume its exploration from one coast to the other, I requested West
to have me rowed ashore.

He consented, after he had been authorized by Captain Len Guy, who
did not come with us.

Hung the boatswain, Martin Holt, four men, and myself took our
places in the boatt without arms; for there was no longer anything
to fear.

We disembarked at our yesterday's landing-place, and Hunt again
led the way towards the hill of Klock-Klock. Nothing remained of the
eminence that had been carried away in the artificial landslip, from
which the captain of the _Jane_, Patterson, his second officer, and
five of his men had happily escaped. The village of Klock-Klock had
thus disappeared; and doubtless the mystery of the strange
discoveries narrated in Edgar Poe's work was now and ever would
remain beyond solution.

We had only to regain our ship, returning by the east side of the
coast. Hunt brought us through the space where sheds had been
erected for the preparation of the _beche-de mer_, and we saw the
remains of them. On all sides silence and abandonment reigned.

We made a brief pause at the place where Arthur Pym and Dirk Peters
seized upon the boat which bore them towards higher latitudes, even
to that horizon of dark vapour whose rents permitted them to discern
the huge human figure, the white giant.

Hunt stood with crossed arms, his eyes devouring the vast extent of
the sea.

"Well, Hunt?" said I, tentatively.

Hunt did not appear to hear me; he did not turn his head in my
direction.

"What are we doing here?" I asked him, and touched him on the
shoulder.

He started, and cast a glance upon me which went to my heart.

"Come along, Hunt," cried Hurliguerly. "Are you going to take
root on this rock? Don't you see the _Halbrane_ waiting for us at
her moorings? Come along. We shall be off to-morrow. There is
nothing more to do here."

It seemed to me that Hunt's trembling lips repeated the word
"nothing," while his whole bearing