Chapter 56 Chapter Fourteen

The Richmond captives had been free for three years.In these three years, how many times have they talked about the motherland they never forget! They were convinced that the Civil War was over, and they thought it impossible for the just cause of the Union Army not to be victorious.But what happened in this terrible war?How many people shed blood for it?How many of their friends died in this war?These issues are what they often talk about, but they still don't know when they will be able to return to their homeland.It would be enough to go back, even if only for a few days, to restore social contact with the civilized world, to build a viaduct between home and Lincoln Island, and then to return to the island.The land they had found at that time already belonged to their motherland, and they might as well spend the longest and perhaps the happiest period of their lives here.Can this ideal not be realized?

To realize this ideal, there are only two possibilities: either a ship comes near Lincoln Island, or the immigrants build a ship and sail to the nearest land. We can only wait for our kind saint to provide us with the means to return home.said Pencroft. Indeed, Pencroft and Neb would not have been in the least surprised if they had been told that a ship of three hundred tons was waiting for them at Shark's Bay, or at Balloon Harbour.Nothing seemed impossible in their minds at the moment. But Cyrus.Smith was not so confident. He advised them to face the reality, especially on the issue of shipbuilding, because this is indeed an urgent task, and the letter stating Ayrton's new address must be sent by ship as soon as possible. Send to Dabao Island.

The Rider is gone, and it will take at least six months to build a new one.But now that winter is coming, sailing is not allowed until spring begins. We have time enough to make all the preparations before the weather warms up, said the engineer, when he consulted Pencroft on these matters, My friend, since we are going to rebuild the ship, I think it would be better to make it larger.It is very uncertain to wait for the Scottish cruise ship to reach the island of Bao.It may have been to Tabor Island some months ago, and since there was no trace of Ayrton, it had left.Wouldn't it be nice to build a big ship in which we could go to Polynesia or New Zealand if necessary?what do you think?

Mr. Smith, replied the sailor, I think you can build both big and small boats.There is no shortage of wood and tools, it is only a matter of time. How many months will it take to build a ship of 250 to 300 tons?Smith asked. Seven or eight months at least, replied Pencroft, and winter was coming, and it was very difficult to do carpentry in the freezing cold.We must expect a delay of several weeks of work.It would be nice if the boat could be built next November. Well, Cyrus.Smith said that it is a good time for sailing, whether it is to reach Baodao or go further afield, no matter what kind of sailing it is, any season is suitable.

Well, so be it, Mr. Smith, said the sailor, and you make the drawings, there are workmen all the time.I think Ayrton can be a good helper. After discussing with the residents, everyone agreed to the engineer's plan.Indeed, this is the best way.Building a large ship of 200 to 300 tons requires a lot of labor, but the immigrants feel that they have succeeded before, so they are very confident. So Cyrus.Smith was busy designing drawings and models of the ship.During this time the mates felled the trees, and brought the timber for ribs, frames, and planks.There are fine oaks and elms in the Far West Forest.They made a passable road through the passage opened during the previous expedition, and called it the Far West Road. The trees they felled were transported to the grotto, where the shipyard was located.The road mentioned above was opened up in a tortuous way due to the choice of trees, but in this way, it is convenient to go to a large area of ​​the Panshe Peninsula.

It is worth noting that felling and sawing wood must be hastened, because wet wood cannot be used, and it will take some time for the wood to dry.As a result, the woodworkers worked very intensely in April, only being affected by the stormy winds during the autumnal equinox.Little Japp was very dexterous, and was of great help to them, sometimes he went up the tree to tie the rope, and sometimes he carried the felled trunk on his strong shoulders. A large shed was built near the grotto, and all these timbers were piled there, waiting to be started. April is a fairly sunny month, about the same as October in the northern hemisphere.During this period, other work has not stopped and is actively going on.It wasn't long before all the devastated remains of Prospect Heights were gone.The mill has been rebuilt, and new buildings have been erected in the poultry farm.Because of the great increase of birds, these buildings had to be enlarged.There are now five wild donkeys in the hut, except for one young donkey, the other four are well trained, they are willing to pull carts and let people ride them.The squad now had a plow, which they used to pull with two wild asses, like real oxen in York and Kentucky.The immigrants worked together in a division of labor and never felt tired.Because of this, who else can match the fitness developed by these workers in exercise?What joy and joy it was in Granite Palace in the evenings, when a thousand plans for the construction of the vision were drawn up!

Now, of course, Ayrton was working with them all, and there was no more talk of going back to the corral.But he still frowns, rarely speaks, and often participates in work with his partners, but rarely chats and laughs with everyone.But in times of emergency, he was an invaluable worker strong, quick, dexterous, and clever.Everyone values ​​him and loves him, and he cannot fail to feel this. During this time, they did not leave the corral unattended.Every other day, one of the inhabitants drove or rode on an ass to tend the mouflons and goats, and bring back the milk that Neb asked for.There are opportunities to hunt along the way.It was Herbert and Gideon, therefore, who went most frequently to the corral.Spilett.They brought good hunting guns, and Top led the way to hunt. There was never any game in Granite Palace. The big ones included capybaras, agouti, kangaroos and wild boars; snipe.In addition, there were products from the rabbit farm and clam farm, turtles caught, delicious salmon from the River of Mercy, vegetables from the highlands, and wild fruits from the forest, so diverse that the chef Neb could hardly keep them all alone. coming.

Of course, the telegraph wire between the corral and Granite Palace was restored.If a resident came to the corral and thought it necessary to spend the night there, they wired to connect.Now, the desert island is safe again, and the residents don't have to worry about any attack, at least human attack. However, things that have already happened may still happen again.Pirates and even fugitives may attack the island at any time.Bob.Harvey's secret plan may be known to other partners and henchmen, and they may learn from him to make the same attempt.So the emigrants kept a careful eye on the sea around the deserted island, scanning the horizon with binoculars every day between Union Bay and Washington Bay.As they went to the corral, they kept an equally careful eye on the sea to the west; on the spur they could see a good part of the western horizon.

They didn't find anything suspicious, but it was still necessary to be careful. One evening the engineer announced to his companions a plan to fortify the corral.For the sake of prudence, he thought that the fence should be raised high, and a wooden fort should be built on the side; when necessary, the residents could use it to defend against the enemy. However, no matter what kind of pirate it is, as soon as it lands, it will target the corral with its buildings, stores and livestock.If the immigrants are forced to stay inside, they should also be able to defend themselves against any adverse threat.It's a plan worth considering, but they won't be able to implement it until next spring.

Around the 15th of May, the keel of the new ship had been placed in the shipyard; soon, the bow and stern timbers were joined to the two ends of the keel with tenons, and they were almost upright.The keel was of good oak, a hundred and ten feet long, from which a central spoke twenty-five feet long was crossed.But when the carpenters finished their work, the cold and bad weather came.Over the next few weeks, they put in the first stern ribs, and then they had to stop work. In the last few days of the month, the weather gets really bad.The east wind is sometimes as violent as a storm.The engineer was somewhat troubled by the shed of the shipyard, but he could not build it anywhere else near the Granite Palace, because the island could only shelter part of the raging tide from the sea rushing to the shore, and in times of severe storm the waves would even Has been rushed to the foot of the granite rock wall.

Fortunately, these concerns did not materialize.The wind turned to the southeast, and the entire beach at Granite Palace was sheltered from the wind by Relic Point. Pencroft and Ayrton were the most zealous workers in the shipbuilding work, and they labored as long as they could.They are weather-beaten men who always pick up the hammer no matter the weather is good or bad.But this rain was followed by a severe cold, and the wood fibers became as hard as iron, making work very difficult.Around June 10, all shipbuilding had to come to a standstill. Cyrus.Smith and his companions have such a feeling that the climate of Lincoln Island is quite cold in winter, and the degree of cold is as cold as that of the New England states (the distance between these states and the equator is almost the same as that between Lincoln Island and the equator. the same) almost.In the northern hemisphere, at least the British territories in America and the northern United States, it is cold because the terrain near the North Pole is flat and there are no high mountains to block the north wind.But in Lincoln Island, it cannot be explained in this way. It has been observed that Smith one day remarked to his companions that, at the same latitude, the islands and coastal regions are not so cold as the interior.For instance, I have often heard that the winters in Lombardy are not warmer than those in Scotland, because the sea near Scotland, in winter, dissipates the heat which it absorbed in summer.Because of its ability to be affected by this, the island fares much better than the mainland. Why, then, asked Herbert, Mr. Smith, does Lincoln Island not obey the general laws? This is difficult to understand, replied the engineer, but I suppose it is due to the location of Lincoln Island in the southern hemisphere.The Southern Hemisphere is colder than the Northern Hemisphere, you know that, boy. Yes, says Herbert, there are more icebergs in the lower latitudes of the South Pacific than in the lower latitudes of the North Pacific. It is true, said Pencroft, that when I was a sailor on a whaling ship I had seen icebergs near Cape Horn. Well, Keating.Spilett said that Lincoln Island was so cold, perhaps, because there were ice floes or icebergs not far away. You are right indeed, my dear Spilett, Cyrus.Smith said, "Obviously our severe cold is due to the proximity of the icebergs, and I would also like to draw your attention to a completely natural reason."It can also explain why the southern hemisphere is colder than the northern hemisphere.In fact, the sun is closer to the southern hemisphere in summer, so it must be farther away in winter.This is the reason for the great disparity in temperature between cold and hot seasons [Note: In fact, the difference in temperature between winter and summer is mainly caused by the oblique or direct sunlight, not the distance from the sun. 】.If we think Lincoln Island's winters are particularly cold, let's not forget, in turn, that the summers here are also extremely hot. But, excuse me, Mr. Smith, said Pencroft, frowning, why is our southern hemisphere divided as badly as you say?This, this is not fair! Pencroft, said the engineer laughing, whether fair or not, we must go along with it.Therefore, the division is so special, the reason is this: According to the reasonable laws of mechanics, the orbit of the earth around the sun cannot be circular, but can only be elliptical.When the earth passes a pole farther from the sun in the ellipse during its revolution, it is at aphelion; at another time, when it is closer to the sun, it is at perihelion.Right now, in the southern hemisphere, winter is when we are furthest from the sun and, therefore, this area is the coldest.There is no way to change this.Pencroft, no matter how rich human knowledge is, it can never change the laws of the universe. But, Pencroft insisted, human knowledge is very rich.Mr. Smith, if there were a book of all that man knows, what a big book it would be! However, if everything you don't know is also written in a book, the book will be much bigger!Smith said. Whatever the cause, the month of June brought as usual severe cold, and the inhabitants had to sit in Granite Palace all day.ah!They are especially Keating.How tired Spilett was of this confinement! Well, the correspondent said to Neb one day, wherever you go, if you'll be kind enough to order me a paper, I'll give you all the fortune I'll ever get, and let it be!Really, the greatest enjoyment for me is knowing every morning what happened in various places the day before! Neb laughed. Honestly, he said, all I think about is my day job! In fact, there is as much work to do indoors as it is outside. After three years of constant toil, the prosperity of the Lincoln Island squad has now reached its heyday.The destruction of the brig was a new bonanza.In addition to the complete set of rigging to equip the new ship under construction, there are all kinds of utensils and tools, guns and ammunition, clothes and utensils, all stored in the warehouses of Granite Palace.There's not even a need to make that rough Lincoln felt anymore.The inhabitants had suffered from the cold during their first winter, but now, no matter how bad the weather, they had no need to fear.They have a lot of linen, but still use it sparingly.Cyrus.Smith had no trouble getting baking soda and chlorine from sodium chloride, which is actually sea salt.Baking soda was easily turned into sodium carbonate and chlorine into calcium chloride, and engineers used them for various household purposes, notably to bleach linen.In addition, like the old family, they do not wash their clothes more than four times a year.A note should be added, Keating.While Spilett was waiting for the postman to deliver his newspaper, he also acted as an excellent laundryman with Pencroft. Thus passed the winter months of June, July, and August.It's been a bitterly cold month, with an average temperature of just eight degrees Fahrenheit, lower than last winter.But behold the fires in the palace of granite!The granite rock walls are smoked into strips, just like the patterns on zebras.Firewood is produced not far from them, so they can increase it in abundance.Coal alone is more difficult to transport; but in shipbuilding, there are many scraps of wood left over, which enable them to save some coal. The people and animals on the island are all safe.It must be admitted that little Japp is a little afraid of the cold.This is probably its only weakness.The residents had to make a thick pajamas for it to wear.What a servant it is!Smart, enthusiastic, prudent, not tired, and not talkative; it is fully qualified to be elected as a model among the apes of the old and new continents! it ah!Pencroft said that since it had four hands to do things, surely its work should be done better! In fact, the clever brute did a pretty good job. Seven months had elapsed since the last search was carried out around the hill.During this period, including the warmer September, there was no news from the saint on the desert island.He did not show his strength by any means.In fact, even if it exerted its strength, it would not show it, because the immigrants did not encounter headaches. Cyrus.Smith even noticed that, although strangers had sometimes come into contact with the inhabitants through Granite House, and Top's intuition had felt this, in the interim there had been no indication of this fact.Top stopped growling, and the chimpanzee was no longer disturbed.The two friends, they were friends, neither kept watch on the rim of the well, nor cried out inexplicably, as the engineer had first seen them.But could he think that this was the riddle, which could never be answered?Can he be sure that this mysterious person will not appear on the spot in any emergency situation in the future?Who knows what the future holds? After all, winter is over.However, in the first few days of the earth's rejuvenation, something happened.This incident could have serious consequences. September 7th, Cyrus.Smith surveyed the crater and saw that the summit was smoky, with the first plumes of steam rising into the sky.