And he told how he had taken care to wedge up the turtle with stones.

“It is a miracle, then!” replied Pencroft.

“I thought, captain,” said Herbert, “that turtles, once placed on their backs, could not regain their feet, especially when they are of a large size?’

“That is true, my boy,” replied Cyrus Harding.

“Then how did it manage?”

“At what distance from the sea did you leave this turtle?” asked the engineer, who, having suspended his work, was reflecting on this incident.

“Fifteen feet at the most,” replied Herbert.

“And the tide was low at the time?”

“Yes, captain.”

“Well,” replied the engineer, “what the turtle could not do on the sand it might have been able to do in the water.  It turned over when the tide overtook it, and then quietly returned to the deep sea.”

“Oh! what stupids we were!” cried Neb.

“That is precisely what I had the honor of telling you before!” returned the sailor.

Cyrus Harding had given this explanation, which, no doubt, was admissible.  But was he himself convinced of the accuracy of this explanation?  It cannot be said that he was.

Chapter 2

On the 9th of October the bark canoe was entirely finished.  Pencroft had kept his promise, and a light boat, the shell of which was joined together by the flexible twigs of the crejimba, had been constructed in five days.  A seat in the stern, a second seat in the middle to preserve the equilibrium, a third seat in the bows, rowlocks for the two oars, a scull to steer with, completed the little craft, which was twelve feet long, and did not weigh more than two hundred pounds.  The operation of launching it was extremely simple.  The canoe was carried to the beach and laid on the sand before Granite House, and the rising tide floated it.  Pencroft, who leaped in directly, maneuvered it with the scull and declared it to be just the thing for the purpose to which they wished to put it.

“Hurrah!” cried the sailor, who did not disdain to celebrate thus his own triumph.  “With this we could go round—­”

“The world?” asked Gideon Spilett.

“No, the island.  Some stones for ballast, a mast and a sail, which the captain will make for us some day, and we shall go splendidly!  Well, captain—­and you, Mr. Spilett; and you, Herbert; and you, Neb—­aren’t you coming to try our new vessel?  Come along! we must see if it will carry all five of us!”

This was certainly a trial which ought to be made.  Pencroft soon brought the canoe to the shore by a narrow passage among the rocks, and it was agreed that they should make a trial of the boat that day by following the shore as far as the first point at which the rocks of the south ended.

As they embarked, Neb cried,—­

“But your boat leaks rather, Pencroft.”