"Will there be a steeple?" Jack demanded.
"Certainly," Hannah answered.
"And a bell?"
"Yes—the Landlord's bell."
"And Hannah is to have the honour of ringing it first," Ernest announced.
It was the 24th of September, the date when Mr. Wolston's plan was to be carried into effect.
What would be the results of this exploration of the interior of New Switzerland?
For twelve years the shipwrecked people had been satisfied with the district of the Promised Land. It had sufficed to assure them of a livelihood, and even of prosperity. So, quite apart from the anxiety she must naturally feel when any of her dear ones were absent, Mme. Zermatt, though she did not seek to explain it even to herself, had her doubts about this expedition.
That evening, when M. Zermatt joined her in their room, she opened her heart to her husband, who answered her thus:
"If we were still in the same condition that we have been since we came here I would grant you, my dear, that this journey of discovery was not necessary. Even if Mr. Wolston and his family had been cast by shipwreck on this island of ours, I should say to them: 'What has been enough for us ought to be enough for you, and there is no need to rush into adventure when the advantage is not certain, and when there may be dangers to be incurred'; but New Switzerland has now a place on the map, and in the interest of its future colonists it is important that its extent should be known, the formation of its coasts and its resources."