"Be ready to fire, my friends!" cried Harding.
The colonists raised their guns. Top still barked, and Jup, running towards the dog, uttered shrill cries.
The colonists followed him cautiously. They reached the borders of the little stream, where it flowed across the enclosure. There, in the bright moonlight, what did they see? Five corpses, stretched on the bank!
They were those of the convicts who, four months previously, had landed on Lincoln Island!
CHAPTER XIII
THE SEARCH FOR THE PROTECTOR
How had it happened? Who had killed the convicts? Was it Ayrton? No, for a moment before he was dreading their return.
Ayrton was now in a profound stupor, from which it was no longer possible to rouse him. After uttering those few words he had fallen back and lay motionless on the bed.
The colonists, a prey to a thousand confused thoughts, under the influence of violent excitement, waited all night, without leaving the house, or returning to the spot where lay the bodies of the convicts. It was very probable that Ayrton would not be able to throw any light on the circumstances under which the bodies had been found, since he himself was not aware that he was in the corral. But at any rate he would be in a position to give an account of what had taken place before this terrible execution. The next day Ayrton awoke from his torpor, and his companions cordially manifested all the joy they felt, on seeing him again, almost safe and sound, after a hundred and four days' separation.
In a few words he recounted what had happened, or at least, as much as he knew. The day after his arrival at the corral, at nightfall, he was surprised by the convicts, who had scaled the palisade. They bound and gagged him; then he was led to a dark cavern, at the foot of Mount Franklin, where the convicts had taken refuge.
The next day the convicts were about to kill him, when one of them recognized him and called him by the name
