Treasure Hunt Tales: The Star of the South & Captain Antifer. Жюль Верн

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СКАЧАТЬ a voyage of a few days I could recover it, if ever the time came for me to return!”

      And so saying he lapsed into silence. With a long look down over the taffrail into the water, which was so transparent that he could see quite eighty feet beneath him, he returned to the captain, and with a certain vehemence exclaimed,—

      “I will throw my riches into the sea.”

      “It will never give them up again, your Excellency.”

      “Let them perish rather than fall into the hands of my enemies or those who are unworthy of them.”

      “As you please.”

      “If before to-night we have not discovered some unknown island, those three casks shall be thrown into the sea.”

      “Ay, ay, your Excellency!” replied the captain, who at once gave orders to haul a little closer to windward.

      His Excellency returned to the stern and, sitting down on the deck, resumed the dreamy state which was habitual to him.

      The sun was sinking rapidly. At this time of year, a fortnight before the equinox, it would set but a few degrees from the west. That is to say in exactly the direction the captain was looking. Was there in this direction any high promontory on the shore of the continent or on some island? Impossible, for the chart showed no island within a radius of from fifteen to twenty miles, and this on a sea well known to navigators. Was this then a solitary rock, a reef rising but a few yards above the surface of the waves, which would serve as the spot which up to then his Excellency had sought in vain as a deposit for his treasure. There was nothing answering to it on the very careful charts of this portion of the sea. An island with the breakers around it, girdled with mist and spray, was not likely to have escaped a sailor’s notice. The charts should have shown its true position; and according to the chart he had, the captain could declare that there was not even a reef marked anywhere within sight.

      “It is an illusion!” he thought, when he had again brought his telescope to bear on the suspected spot, although he picked it up immediately.

      In fact there was nothing so indistinct within the telescope’s field of view.

      At this moment—a few minutes after six—the solar disk was just on the horizon, and “hissing at the touch of the sea,” if we believe what the Iberians used to say. At his setting, as at his rising, refraction still showed his position when he was below the horizon. The luminous rays obliquely projected on the surface of the waves extended as in a long diameter from west to east. The last ripples like rays of fire gleamed beneath the dying breeze. This light suddenly went out as the upper edge of the disk touched the line of water, and shot forth its green ray. The hull of the brigantine became dark while the upper canvas shone purple in the last of the light.

      As the shades of twilight began to fall a voice was heard from the bows,—

      “Ho, there!”

      “What is the matter?” asked the captain.

      “Land on the starboard bow!”

      Land, and in the direction the captain had been watching the misty outline a few minutes before. He had not been mistaken then.

      At the shout of the look-out the men on watch had rushed to the bulwarks and were looking away to the west. The captain, with his telescope slung behind him, grasped the main shrouds, and slowly mounted the ratlines to reach the crosstrees and there sit astride on them; with his glass at his eye he looked at the land in sight.

      The look-out was not mistaken. Six or seven miles away was a small island, its lineaments standing out black against the sky. You would have said it was a reef of moderate height, crowned with a cloud of sulphurous vapour. Fifty years later a sailor would have said it was the smoke of a large steamer passing in the offing; but in 1831 no one imagined that the ocean would one day be ploughed by these monsters of navigation.

      The captain had little time to look at it or think about it. The island was almost immediately hidden behind the evening mist. No matter, he had seen it, and seen it well. There was no doubt of that.

      The captain descended to the poop, and the distinguished personage, whom this incident had awakened from his reverie, made a sign for him to approach.

      “Well?”

      “Yes, your Excellency.”

      “Land in sight?”

      “An islet at least.”

      “At what distance?”

      “About six miles to the westward.”

      “And the chart shows nothing in that direction?”

      “Nothing.”

      “You are sure about that?”

      “Sure.”

      “It must be an unknown island, then?”

      “I think so.”

      “Is that possible?”

      “Yes, your Excellency, if the islet be of recent formation.”

      “Recent?”

      “I am inclined to think so, for it appeared to me to be wrapped in vapour. In these parts the plutonic forces are often in action, and manifest themselves by submarine upheavals.”

      “I hope what you say is true. I could not wish for anything better than that one of these masses should suddenly rise from the sea! It does not belong to anybody—”

      “Or rather, your Excellency, it belongs to the first occupant.”

      “That would be to me, then?”

      “Yes, to you.”

      “Steer straight for that island.”

      “Straight, but carefully,” replied the captain. “Our brigantine would be in danger of being dashed to pieces if the reefs extend far out. I propose to wait for daylight, to make out the position, and then land on the islet.”

      “Wait, then.

      This was only acting like a seaman. It would never do to risk a ship in shoals that were unknown. In approaching an unknown coast, the night must be avoided and the lead used.

      His Excellency went back to his cabin; if he slept at all the cabin-boy would have no occasion to call him at dawn; he would be on deck before sunrise.

      The captain would not leave his post, but preferred to watch through the night, which slowly passed. The horizon became more and more obscure. Overhead the clouds became invisible as the diffused light left them. About one o’clock the breeze increased slightly. Only sufficient sail was set to keep the vessel under the control of her helm.

      The firmament became lighted by the early constellations. In the north Polaris gazed gently with a motionless eye, while Arcturus shone brightly to continue the curve of the Great Bear. On the other side of the pole Cassiopeia traced her sparkling W. Below, Capella appeared where she had appeared the day before and would appear on the morrow, allowing for the СКАЧАТЬ