"Just imagine if this were our first visit to the east coast of the island; with all these indisputable proofs before us of a landing, which the marks show to have been recent, think of the regrets and disappointment we should have felt! A ship had anchored here, her crew had camped within this bay, and we did not know anything about it! And after leaving this utterly deserted shore, could we have ventured to hope that she would ever come back?"
"That is very true," Betsy replied. "How was it that we learned of the arrival of the Unicorn?"
"By chance," said Jack; "pure chance!"
"No, my boy," M. Zermatt answered; "whatever Ernest may have said, it was due to our custom of firing our guns at Shark's Island every year at this season, to which the corvette replied with three guns."
"I must acknowledge that I was wrong," Ernest confessed.
"And think of our anxiety and our despair," M. Zermatt went on, "during the next three days, when the storm prevented us from going back to the island to repeat our signals, and think of our fear that the ship might have left again before we could reach her!"
"Yes, indeed," said Mr. Wolston, "that would have been a frightful disappointment! Fancy knowing that a ship had anchored in this bay and that you had not been able to communicate with her! And yet, in my opinion, your chances of being restored to your own home were still greatly increased."
"That is certain," Ernest said emphatically, "for our island was no longer unknown, seeing that the ship must have ascertained its position, which would have been entered in the charts. Some day or other a ship would have come to take possession of this land."
"Well, finally and in conclusion," said Jack, "the Unicorn did come, the Unicorn was observed, the Unicorn was visited, the Unicorn has gone, the Unicorn will come back, and what we have to do now, I think, is——"
"Have lunch?" Hannah Wolston put in, laughing.