was strewn with bones; the guns were carefully loaded, in case of a sudden attack; they had supper; and then just before they lay down to rest, the heap of wood piled at the entrance was set fire to. Immediately, a regular explosion, or rather, a series of reports, broke the silence! The noise was caused by the bamboos, which, as the flames reached them, exploded like fireworks. The noise was enough to terrify even the boldest of wild beasts.
It was not the engineer who had invented this method of protection, for, according to Marco Polo, the Tartars have employed it for many centuries to drive away from their camps the formidable wild beasts which inhabit Central Asia.
CHAPTER V
A WRECK IN THE AIR
Cyrus Harding and his companions slept like innocent marmots in the cave which the jaguar had so politely left at their disposal. At sunrise all were on the shore at the extremity of the promontory, and their gaze was directed towards the horizon, of which two-thirds of the circumference was visible. Once more the engineer ascertained that not a sail nor a wreck of a ship was on the sea, and even with the telescope nothing suspicious could be discovered.
There was nothing either on the shore, at least, in the straight line of three miles which formed the south side of the promontory, for beyond that, rising ground hid the rest of the coast, and even from the extremity of the Serpentine peninsula Cape Claw could not be seen.
The southern coast of the island still remained to be explored. Now should they undertake it immediately and devote this day to it? This was not included in their first plan. In fact, when the boat was abandoned at the sources of the Mercy, it had been agreed that after surveying the west coast, they should go back to it, and return to Granite House by the Mercy. Harding then thought that the western coast would have offered refuge, either to a ship in distress, or to a vessel in her regular course; but now, as he saw that this coast presented no good anchorage, he wished
