"A fort?" Jack repeated enquiringly.
"Well, my boy," M. Zermatt answered, "we must not forget that New Switzerland is going to become an English possession, and that it will be to the interest of the English to fortify it. The battery on Shark's Island would not be strong enough to defend the future town which will probably be built between Flamingo Bay and Rock Castle. So it seems to me indispensable that Prospect Hill should be used in the near future for a fort."
"Prospect Hill, or a little farther forward, on False Hope Point," Mr. Wolston suggested. "In that case the villa might be preserved."
"I should like that much better," Jack declared.
"And so should I," Mme. Zermatt added. "Let us try to keep all these memorials of our early days, Prospect Hill as well as Falconhurst. I should be very sorry to see them disappear."
Of course, Betsy's feeling was a very natural one. But the situation had changed. While New Switzerland belonged to the shipwrecked survivors of the Landlord only, there had never been any question of putting it in a state of defence. When it became a dependency of England, it must have coast defences.
And all things considered, could its first occupants really regret the consequences involved by the arrival of the Unicorn in these waters of New Switzerland?
"No," was M. Zermatt's conclusion, "so let us leave the future to bring about gradually all the various changes it requires."
Moreover, there were other things to be done that were much more urgent than the repairs at Falconhurst and Prospect Hill. It was nearly time to get in all the crops, to say nothing of the attention that had to be given to the animals at Wood Grange, the hermitage at Eberfurt, and Sugar-cane Grove.
When they paid their first visit to Whale Island M. Zermatt and Mr. Wolston had been amazed at the number of rabbits it contained. There were hundreds of these most prolific rodents. Fortunately the island produced quite enough herbaceous plants and roots to guarantee their food supply. So Jenny, to whom M. Zermatt had made a present of this island, would find it in a highly prosperous condition when she returned.