"Have we been deceived by an illusion?" murmured Cyrus Harding.
"No! that was not possible! The telegram had clearly said, "Come to the corral immediately."
They approached the table specially devoted to the use of the wire. Everything was in order—the pile and the box containing it, as well as all the apparatus.
"Who came here the last time?" asked the engineer.
"I did, captain," answered Ayrton.
"And that was———"
"Four days ago."
"Ah! a note!" cried Herbert, pointing to a paper lying on the table.
On this paper was written, "Follow the new wire."
"Forward!" cried Harding, who saw that the despatch had not been sent from the corral, but from the mysterious retreat, communicating directly with Granite House by means of a supplementary wire joined to the old one.
Neb took the lighted lantern, and all left the corral. The storm then burst forth with tremendous violence. The interval between each lightning-flash and each thunderclap diminished rapidly. The summit of the volcano, with its plume of vapor, could be seen by occasional flashes.
There was no telegraphic communication in any part of the corral between the house and the palisade; but the engineer, running straight to the first post, saw by the light of a flash a new wire hanging from the isolater to the ground. "There it is!" said he.
This wire lay along the ground, and was surrounded with an isolating substance like a submarine cable, so as to assure the free transmission of the current. It appeared to pass through the wood and the southern spurs of the mountain, and consequently it ran towards the west.
"Follow it!" said Cyrus Harding. And the settlers immediately pressed forward, guided by the wire.
The thunder continued to roar with such violence that not a word could be heard. However, there was no occasion for speaking, but to get forward as fast as possible. They climbed the spur rising between the corral valley and that of Falls River, which they crossed at its narrowest part. The wire, sometimes stretched over the lower branches of the trees, sometimes lying on the ground,
