"Yes, for something like forty miles," Ernest answered; "from False Hope Point to Pearl Bay."
"And we had not even the curiosity to go to see Burning Rock," Jack exclaimed.
"A desert island, which Jenny never wanted to see again," Hannah remarked.
"The best thing to do," M. Zermatt decided, "will be to explore the territory near the shore of Pearl Bay, for beyond that there are green prairies, broken hills, fields of cotton trees, with leafy woods."
"Where are the truffles!" Ernest put in.
"You glutton!" Jack exclaimed.
"Yes, truffles," M. Zermatt replied, laughing, "and where there are creatures too that dig the truffles up."
"Not forgetting panthers and lions!" Betsy added.
"Well," said Mr. Wolston, "the net result of all that is that we must not venture that way or any other without taking precautions. But since our future colony will be obliged to spread beyond the Promised Land, it seems to me that it would be better to explore the interior than to sail round the island."
"And to do so before the corvette comes back," Ernest added. "My view, indeed, is that it would be best to cross the defile of Cluse and go through the Green Valley so as to get right up to the mountains that one can see from the rising ground at Eberfurt."