“Anyhow,” the boatswain answered, “it wasn’t savages who fired those guns.”
“So the island would be inhabited by Americans or Europeans?” James enquired.
“Well, to begin with, is it only an island?” Captain Gould replied. “How do we know what is beyond this cliff? Are we perhaps upon some very large island——”
“A very large island in this part of the Pacific?” Fritz rejoined. “Which one? I don’t see——”
“In my opinion,” John Block remarked, with much good sense, “it is useless to argue about all that. The truth is we don’t know whether our island is in the Pacific or the Indian Ocean. Let us have a little patience until dawn, which will break quite soon, and then we will go and see what there is up there to the northward.”
“Perhaps everything—perhaps nothing!” said James.
“Well,” the boatswain retorted, “it will be something to know which!”
About three o’clock the first glimmer of dawn began to show. Low on the horizon the east grew pale. The weather was very calm, for the wind had dropped towards morning. The clouds which had been chased by the breeze were now replaced by a veil of mist, through which the sun eventually broke. The whole sky gradually cleared. The streak of light drawn sharply across the east grew wider-spread over the line of sky and sea. The glorious sun appeared, throwing long streamers of light over the surface of the waters.
Eagerly all eyes travelled over so much of the ocean as was visible.
But no vessel was to be seen!