Chapter 8 chapter eight

It was three long hours before the sun appeared on the horizon.It can be said that these few hours are as long as centuries. As a start, the test was severe, but, we repeat, Godfrey did not set out for a mere stroll.As he went to sea, he thought to himself that he had left all the happiness and peaceful ways of life behind him, and that he would not seek them back in the pursuit of adventure, so it was a matter of dealing with the situation. For the time being he was safe, after all, the sea could not snatch him from the rock wet with the lapping surf.Was he afraid that the rising tide would soon overwhelm him?No, because after thinking about it, he was sure that such a danger would only happen when the new moon tide reached its highest point.

But is this rock alone?Does it look down on a row of rocky rocks that dot the sea?What was that coast that Captain Decourt thought he saw in the dark?What continent does it belong to?It is absolutely certain that the Phantasm has been thrown out of her course during the storm of the previous few days, so that the position of the ship cannot be determined with certainty.But how could it be doubted that the captain had concluded two hours before that his charts had not recorded any indication of rocks in these waters!He even went so far as to identify for himself the so-called reefs to the east which his watchmen thought they saw.

But there is no doubt that, had Captain Decourt's surveys been farther along, the catastrophe could have been avoided, but what is the use of looking back! In the face of the fait accompli, the important question for Godfrey—a matter of life and death—was to find out what land he was near.In which part of the Pacific Ocean, this question can be deduced in a later stage.Before the day comes, the first thing to consider is leaving the highest rock, which is less than 20 steps long and wide.But leaving one place is always to go to another.If there is no such place to go, if the captain is mistaken in the mist, if this rock is surrounded by endless sea, if, where the horizon ends, water and sky merge on the same horizon!

The thoughts of the young man in distress were thus concentrated on this point.With all his eyesight he searched the dark night for some indistinct mass, a heap of rock or a cliff, that would indicate a land near the reef. Godfrey saw nothing, no smell of earth to his nose, no light to his eyes, no sound to his ears.Not a single bird flew through the darkness, and all around him seemed a vast expanse of uninhabited water. Godfrey had to admit that nine times out of ten he was screwed.Now, instead of traveling the world peacefully, it is time to face death.So calmly and courageously he thought of a God who is omnipotent even to the weakest of his creatures, which could no longer stand on its own.

The only thing Godfrey can decide is to wait for the day to come, and resign himself to God's blessing if he cannot be blessed, or on the contrary, to try everything, if there is any chance of salvation. Serious consideration calmed Godfrey, and he sat down on the rock.He took off his partially sea-soaked clothes, his woolen smock, and his boots, which had become heavy, in preparation for swimming, if he had to. However, no one survived the sinking?how! None of the people on the "Dream" went ashore!Were they all caught up in this inescapable vortex of a sinking ship?The last person Godfrey spoke to was Captain Decourt, who decided not to leave his ship as long as one of his sailors remained on board.Even the captain, who threw him into the sea at the moment when the deck of the "Dream" was about to drown.

But what happened to the others, unfortunate Tutley, the poor Chinaman, one in the poop and one deep in the hold, all of them suddenly submerged, no doubt? Was he the only one rescued of all those on board the Phantasm?But the speedboat was towing behind the ship!Could not few sailors, passengers, and sailors find refuge in this skiff, sufficient to escape in time from the wreck?yes!But what is more worrying is whether the small boat sank with the ship and is now touching a depth of about 20? Godfrey then thought that if he could not see in the dark of night, at least he could be heard.In this silence, nothing can stop him from shouting and calling.Perhaps one of his companions could answer his call with a voice.

He yelled several times, stretching out his yell, and his voice should be heard within a fairly wide range. Not a voice answered him. He called a few more times, turning his body continuously, facing various points on the horizon. quietly. "Just me! Just me!" he murmured. Not only did no voice answer his voice, but no echo answered his voice.If, however, he were near a precipice, not far from a group of rocks, such an arrangement is often found along the coast, his voice, reflected by the obstruction, would surely return to him.Either, therefore, stretching to the east of the reef was a low coast which did not produce echoes, or, which was more probable, there was no land of any kind in the vicinity.The rocky reef on which the victim had taken refuge was a lonely dot on the sea.

Three hours passed in this fear and anxiety.Godfrey, numb from the cold, walked up and down the narrow top of the rock, trying to keep out the cold. Finally, the clouds on the zenith were dyed with a few traces of pale light.This is a reflection from the first colors on the horizon. Godfrey turned in this direction—perhaps the only direction toward land—trying to see if some cliff emerged from the darkness.The rising sun may have sharpened its outline as it painted its profile in its first brilliance. But through this dim dawn nothing has yet revealed itself.A mist rose from the sea, making it difficult to detect even the extent of the reef.

So no more fantasies.Indeed, if Godfrey had been cast upon a solitary rock in the Pacific Ocean, he would not have been far from dying, of starvation, of thirst, or, if it must be done, as a last resort, at the bottom of the water. But he watched anyway, and his eyes seemed too piercing, on which all his hopes were focused. The morning mist finally began to clear, and Godfrey saw one after another the rocks that made up the reef emerging from the sea, like a team of sea monsters.It was a long row of blackish, strangely cut stones of different sizes and shapes that were scattered irregularly, and their projections were roughly in the east-west direction.The gigantic rock on which Godfrey stood atop emerged at the western end of the line of reefs, within thirty fathoms of where the Mirage sank.At this point the sea was probably extremely deep, for no part of the ship, not even the top of its mast, could be seen.Probably, by a slip of the bottom somewhere in the rocky seabed, it was swept into the open space of the reef.

Godfrey doesn't need to look much to understand the reality of the situation, that salvation cannot come from this direction.His whole attention was thus turned to the other end of the reef, which was gradually uncovered by the rising mists.It should be added that the sea level was now low, exposing the rocks more completely.I saw that they were long and wide at the wet bottom.Here, separated by a fairly wide sea, there, only some puddles to separate them.If they adjoin some coastal zone, landing there is not difficult. Nevertheless, no coast was seen, and even in this direction, there was no sign of a high ground near by.

The fog has been dissipating, and the field of vision is getting wider and wider, and Godfrey's eyes are fixed on it stubbornly.The spiraling mist thus winds up to a space of half a mile.Already a few patches of sandy terrain had emerged among rocks covered in slimy seaweed.Would the sand at least signify the existence of a beach, and, if there was a beach, could it be suspected that it was not connected to the shore of a more important land? In short, a long line of sand dunes jutted out sharply from the huge granite rocks, and seemed to block the eastern horizon.As the sun sucked away the morning mist, its red disc was revealed. "Land! Land!" cried Godfrey. So he stretched out his hands to the solid surface, and knelt on the rock in an impulse of gratitude to God. That is indeed land.In that place the rocks formed but a prominent head, somewhat like the southern cape of a cove, rounded off on a circumference of not more than two miles.The innermost part of this depression is like a flat sandy beach, surrounded by continuous rows of small sand dunes that follow the shape of the grass, but not too high. From Godfrey's position he could see the coast in its entirety. This coast is interrupted on the north and south by two unequal headlands, which extend not more than five or six miles in length.However, it is likely to be connected to a large landmass.Whatever it was, at least it was rescued for now.At this point Godfrey would have no doubts, he had not been cast upon some lonely rock, and he could trust that this strange stretch of land would provide for his basic needs. "Landing! Landing!" he thought. But, before leaving the rock, he turned his back one last time.His eyes were still searching the sea, until he saw the horizon of the open sea.Will there be some post-disaster wreckage on the waves, some fragments of the Mirage, some survivors? nothing. The dinghy is no longer there either, and may have been dragged into the same abyss. Godfrey then wondered if any of his companions had found refuge on this rock, as he had done, and were waiting for day to try to reach the shore? Not a single one, neither on the rocks nor on the sand!The reef is as deserted as the ocean. But in the final analysis, if there are no survivors, the sea will throw at least a few corpses!Between the rocks, on the last edge of the surf, could Godfrey not find the rigid bodies of his companions? No!In all places on the large rocky reef that the low tide then exposed, there was nothing. Godfrey is the only one!He can only rely on himself to fight against all kinds of dangers that threaten him! Yet, let us say a few words in his praise, Godfrey would not be discouraged in the face of this reality.But because above all it was more suitable for him to settle on land, which was still a short distance away, he moved away from the top of the rock and began to move closer to the shore. When the distance between rocks was too great for him to leap across, he plunged into the water, and whether he walked across it with his feet or had to float himself up by swimming, he reached the nearest point with ease. and, conversely, when the distance in front of him was but a yard or two, he jumped from one rock to another.Walking on these slimy boulders covered in slippery seaweed is no easy task, and it's a long way.About a quarter of a mile Ruth walked in such conditions. Nevertheless, at last Godfrey set his foot deftly and lightly on the land where perhaps, if not a quick death, at least a miserable life worse than death awaited him.Hunger, thirst, cold, privation, dangers of every kind, without a weapon for self-defense, without a gun to hunt animals, without a change of clothes, this is what he will be reduced to! what!Indiscreet man!He wanted to know whether he had the ability to get rid of the severe situation!Well, he's about to feel it!He once wanted to get the experience of being a Robinson Crusoe!Well, he'll see if it's an encounter he's envious of! He remembered now that for the sake of adventure he had abandoned the happy life, the easy life of a rich and amorous family in San Francisco.He thought of his Uncle Will, his fiancée Fina, his friends whom he would never see again, for sure! The remembrance of these memories made his heart constrict, and, in spite of his determination, a tear welled up in his eye. If he wasn't alone, if any post-wreck survivors came to this coast like him, even if, lost the captain and mate, just the last of the sailors, just Professor Tutley, he's useless for this What a person can trust is only a little bit, and what may happen in the future will not make him feel so terrible!So, at this point, he also wants to hold out hope.Though he had found no trace on the surface of the reef, couldn't he have encountered it in the sand of this beach?Is there no one else who has landed on this coast and is looking for a companion like him? Godfrey looked all over again to the north and south.He didn't see a single person.Evidently, this part of the land was deserted.There was no sign of a hut, no trail of smoke rising into the air. "Come on! Come on!" thought Godfrey. So he headed north to the beach before venturing up the sandy dunes that would allow him to see the place on a larger scale. There is silence, there are no prints on the sand, and a few seabirds, seagulls or gulls are playing on the edge of the hanging rock, which is the only living thing in this deserted place. Godfrey walked like this for a quarter of an hour.At last, as he was about to leap up the steep slope of the tallest of the rush-and-briar dunes, he stopped suddenly. An indeterminate object, greatly swollen like the carcass of a sea monster, must have been thrown up by a recent storm, and lay on the edge of the reef fifty paces from him. Godfrey hurried in this direction. The closer he came, the faster his heart beat, and indeed he seemed to recognize the shape of a man in this animal that had been beaten to the shore in the shallows. Not ten paces from there he stopped, as if nailed to the ground, and cried: "Tatley!" That was the professor of dance and instrumentation. Godfrey sprinted toward his partner, probably, he still had a little breath! In a split second, he realized that the lifebelt was creating the bulge and making the hapless professor look like a sea monster.But even though Tatley was motionless, he might not be dead!It may have been the swimming apparatus that held him up on the water as the crashing waves drove him ashore! Godfrey went to work.He knelt beside Tatley, he loosened his life belt, he massaged him vigorously with his hands, and finally, he found a soft breath from his half-open lips! ...and he puts his hand over his heart! ...the heart is still beating. Godfrey called to him. Tatley moved his head, and then, with a hoarse voice, he spoke intermittently. Godfrey shook him violently. Then Tattley opened his eyes, raised his left hand over his forehead, raised his right again, and ascertained that neither his precious pocket violin nor the bow he was clutching were missing at all. "Tatley! My dear Tatley!" cried Godfrey, lifting his head slightly. The head with sparse and disheveled hair nodded slightly from top to bottom. "It's me! Me! Godfrey!" "Godfrey?" the professor replied. Then, I saw him turn over, kneel up, look, smile, and stand up again! ... He felt that he finally had a solid support point!He understood that he was no longer on the deck of a ship, suffering from all kinds of shaking back and forth, left and right!The sea has ceased to bear him!He's on solid ground again! At that moment, Professor Tuttley regained the balance that had been lost since his departure, his feet naturally turned outward in the prescribed position, his left hand grasped the pocket violin, The right hand swung the bow; and then, as the strings began to thump with a melancholy dampness, these words uttered from his smiling lips: "In place, miss!" The righteous man was thinking of Fina!

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