that a human being set foot on the island, it appears no less certain that he has now left it."
"Then, if I understand you right, captain," said Herbert, "the vessel has left again?"
"Evidently."
"And we have lost an opportunity to get back to our country?" said Neb.
"I fear so."
"Very well, since the opportunity is lost, let us go on; it can't be helped," said Pencroft, who felt homesickness for Granite House.
But just as they were rising, Top was heard loudly barking; and the dog issued from the wood, holding in his mouth a rag soiled with mud.
Neb seized it. It was a piece of strong cloth!
Top still barked, and seemed to invite his master to follow him into the forest. "Now there's something to explain the bullet!" exclaimed Pencroft.
"A castaway!" replied Herbert.
"Wounded, perhaps!" said Neb.
"Or dead!" added the reporter. All ran after the dog, among the tall pines on the border of the forest. They made ready their fire-arms, in case of emergency.
They advanced some way into the wood, but to their great disappointment, saw no signs of any human being having passed that way. Shrubs and creepers were uninjured, and they had even to cut them away with the ax, as they had done in the deepest recesses of the forest. It was difficult to fancy that any human creature had ever passed there, but yet Top went backwards and forwards, not like a dog who searches at random, but like one who is following up an idea.
In about seven or eight minutes Top stopped in a glade surrounded with tall trees. The settlers gazed around them, but saw nothing, neither under the bushes nor among the trees.
"What is the matter, Top?" said Cyrus Harding.
Top barked louder, leaping at the foot of a huge pine. All at once Pencroft shouted, "Ho, splendid! capital!"
"What is it?" asked Spilett.
"We have been looking for a wreck at sea or on land!"
"Well?"
