At length an opening in the trees allowed the sea-horizon to be seen.  But the cart continued its progress, for not one of its defenders thought of abandoning it.

At that moment Pencroft stopped the onager, and in a hoarse voice,—­

“Oh! the villains!” he exclaimed.

And he pointed to a thick smoke rising from the mill, the sheds, and the buildings at the poultry-yard.

A man was moving about in the midst of the smoke.  It was Neb.

His companions uttered a shout.  He heard, and ran to meet them.

The convicts had left the plateau nearly half-an-hour before, having devastated it!

“And Mr. Herbert?” asked Neb.

Gideon Spilett returned to the cart.

Herbert had lost consciousness!

Chapter 10

Of the convicts, the dangers which menaced Granite House, the ruins with which the plateau was covered, the colonists thought no longer.  Herbert’s critical state outweighed all other considerations.  Would the removal prove fatal to him by causing some internal injury?  The reporter could not affirm it, but he and his companions almost despaired of the result.  The cart was brought to the bend of the river.  There some branches, disposed as a liner, received the mattress on which lay the unconscious Herbert.  Ten minutes after, Cyrus Harding, Spilett, and Pencroft were at the foot of the cliff, leaving Neb to take the cart on to the plateau of Prospect Heights.  The lift was put in motion, and Herbert was soon stretched on his bed in Granite House.

What cares were lavished on him to bring him back to life!  He smiled for a moment on finding himself in his room, but could scarcely even murmur a few words, so great was his weakness.  Gideon Spilett examined his wounds.  He feared to find them reopened, having been imperfectly healed.  There was nothing of the sort.  From whence, then, came this prostration? why was Herbert so much worse?  The lad then fell into a kind of feverish sleep, and the reporter and Pencroft remained near the bed.  During this time, Harding told Neb all that had happened at the corral, and Neb recounted to his master the events of which the plateau had just been the theater.

It was only during the preceding night that the convicts had appeared on the edge of the forest, at the approaches to Creek Glycerine.  Neb, who was watching near the poultry-yard, had not hesitated to fire at one of the pirates, who was about to cross the stream; but in the darkness he could not tell whether the man had been hit or not.  At any rate, it was not enough to frighten away the band, and Neb had only just time to get up to Granite House, where at least he was in safety.

But what was he to do there?  How prevent the devastations with which the convicts threatened the plateau?  Had Neb any means by which to warn his master?  And, besides, in what situation were the inhabitants of the corral themselves?  Cyrus Harding and his companions had left on the 11th of November, and it was now the 29th.  It was, therefore, nineteen days since Neb had had other news than that brought by Top—­disastrous news:  Ayrton disappeared, Herbert severely wounded, the engineer, reporter, and sailor, as it were, imprisoned in the corral!