"Was it a gun fired outside the bay?" Ernest asked.
All listened with panting hearts.
Were they mistaken—was it an acoustic illusion, a final thunderclap?
If it was really the discharge of a piece of ordnance, it meant that a ship was off the island, driven there by the storm, and perhaps in distress.
A second report resounded. It was the same sound, and therefore came from the same distance, and this time no lightning had preceded it.
"Another," said Jack, "and there can be no doubt——"
"Yes," Mr. Wolston declared, "it was a gun we just heard!"
Hannah ran towards the door crying out as if involuntarily:
"The Unicorn! It can only be the Unicorn!"
For a few moments a stupefied silence reigned. The Unicorn off the island, and calling for help? No, no! That some ship might have been driven to the north-east, and be disabled and drifting among the reefs of False Hope Point or Cape East, was conceivable. But that it was the English corvette was not admissible. That would have necessitated her having left Europe three months earlier than they had expected. No, no! And M. Zermatt was so emphatic in his assertion of the contrary that all came round to his opinion: this could not be the Unicorn.