“Certainly it does not. It has nothing to do with Patagonia,” said Paganel. “Read it any way you please except that.”
“How?”
“Cosmogonie, theogonie, agonie.”
“AGONIE,” said the Major.
“I don’t care which,” returned Paganel. “The word is quite unimportant; I will not even try to find out its meaning. The main point is that AUSTRAL means AUSTRALIE, and we must have gone blindly on a wrong track not to have discovered the explanation at the very beginning, it was so evident. If I had found the document myself, and my judgment had not been misled by your interpretation, I should never have read it differently.”
A burst of hurrahs, and congratulations, and compliments followed Paganel’s words. Austin and the sailors, and the Major and Robert, most all overjoyed at this fresh hope, applauded him heartily; while even Glenarvan, whose eyes were gradually getting open, was almost prepared to give in.
“I only want to know one thing more, my dear Paganel,” he said, “and then I must bow to your perspicacity.”
“What is it?”
“How will you group the words together according to your new interpretation? How will the document read?”
“Easily enough answered. Here is the document,” replied Paganel, taking out the precious paper he had been studying so conscientiously for the last few days.