Chapter 51 51 Maria Theresa

It was not long before the whole ship learned that Ayrton's confession did not say anything about Captain Grant's position.The atmosphere on board was very heavy, because everyone was waiting for Ayrton to tell the secret, and he didn't know a single fact that would enable the Duncan to find the Britannia! Therefore, the cruise ship still keeps going the original way.All that remains to be done is to choose a deserted island and drop Ayrton there. Paganel and Mengel looked at the ship's map.Coincidentally, there is an isolated island drawn on this thirty-seventh parallel, named Maria Theresa. It is a cliff, hanging alone in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 1,900 kilometers away from the coast of America, and 810 kilometers away from New Zealand. kilometer.To the north, the adjacent landmass is the French reserve of the Paumatu Islands.In the south, there is nothing all the way to the Antarctic ice field.Not a single ship has come to survey this lonely island.No sound in the world can reach this small island.Only storm-loving birds come to this island to rest during their long cross-sea flights.There are many maps that refuse to even write the name of this shore rock that was beaten by the Pacific waves.

If there is an absolutely lonely place on the ground, it can only be found on this small island far away from all routes.Ayrton was told the location of the island.He agreed to go to that small island to live a life away from the crowd.The bow of the Duncan thus pointed towards Mary Theresa Island.At this time, the Duncan could go in an absolute straight line, pass this small island, and go straight to Caltavano Bay. Two days later, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the sailor on lookout reported seeing land on the horizon.That is Maria Theresa, low and long, barely above the waves, like a big whale.It was still sixteen kilometers away from the cruise ship, and the cruise ship was advancing at a speed of nine kilometers per hour.

The silhouette of the island appeared on the horizon, gradually becoming clearer.The sun was sinking to the west, throwing its zigzag silhouette into sharp light.A few low mountains stand up here and there, inserted upside down in the sea of ​​light from the sun. At five o'clock, Menger seemed to see a puff of smoke floating into the sky. Is that a volcano?he asked Paganel, who was watching with a telescope. I dare not say that people on this island don't know much about it yet.We should not be surprised, however, if its formation is the result of an undersea protuberance, that is to say, a volcanic island.

Then, Greenarvan said, if the volcano erupted, it should have been erupted. Wouldn’t the volcano erupt again? The odds are slim, the island has been known for hundreds of years, and that's a guarantee.In the past, Yuria Island emerged from the Mediterranean Sea, and it was not long before it was preserved on the sea, and it disappeared within a few months.Paganel replied. Well, do you think we can land before dark, John?Greenervan said. No, sir.I cannot let the Duncan risk her way in the dark to strange shores.I'm going to reduce the horsepower and swing slowly. Tomorrow, at dawn, we will land a small boat.John.Mengel said.

At eight o'clock in the evening, although Maria Theresa Island was only three kilometers away, there was only a long shadow left, which was almost invisible.Still the Duncan swung slowly toward it.At nine o'clock, a rather strong red light, a fire lit up in the darkness.It is immobile and continuous. This proves to be a volcano.Paganel said, watching carefully. However, volcanic eruptions always make loud noises, and at such a short distance, we should be able to hear the sound, and the east wind is blowing from there, why can't a little sound reach our ears?Mengel said. Yes, this volcano only glows and doesn't speak.Moreover, it seems to light up and then stop, just like an intermittent lighthouse.Paganel said.

You are right, Menger replied, but we are not near the coast with the lighthouse.ah!He suddenly cried out, and another fire came out!On the beach, this time!You see!The fire is still shaking!And still changing places! Meng Geer was not mistaken, another fire appeared, sometimes it seemed to be extinguished, and suddenly it was lit again. So the island is inhabited?Greenervan said. The residents are all natives, for sure.Paganel replied. Well, we cannot leave Ayrton here. No, even giving him to the natives to eat would be too bad a gift.said the major. Let's find another uninhabited island, said Glenarvan, smiling involuntarily, feeling that the major is trying to please the natives, and I've promised him the safety of his life, and I can't take my word for it.

In any case, we have to be on our guard, the New Zealanders have a savage habit of lighting their fire to deceive passing boatmen, just as the inhabitants of Cornwall once did.It is probable that the natives of the island now know this method of luring ships.Paganel added. Turn your head sideways, and tomorrow, as soon as the sun comes out, we'll find out what's going on.Menger shouted to the sailor at the helm. It's eleven o'clock.Both the passenger and Menger went back to their rooms.There were only a few sailors on duty walking on the deck.In the stern only the helmsman was at the helm.

At this time, Mary.Grant and Robert came up to the roof of the cabin. The two boys of Captain Grant, crouching on the rail, looked mournfully at the glistening sea and the gleaming trough behind the Duncan.Mary considered her brother's future.Robert considered his sister's way out.Both were thinking about their father.He, dear father, is he still alive?Did you give up looking for his job?can't!How can you live without your father?What would they do without their father?Don't say they don't have a father anymore, but they don't have Sir Glenarvan and Lady Helen, they don't know what they have become.

Robert had been matured through adversity, and he guessed what was on his sister's mind.He took Mary's hand and put it in his own. Mary, never disappoint.Remember the lesson our father taught us, courage can replace everything in this world.The kind of courage that never turns back, the kind of courage that enabled him to overcome everything, we should also have.Until now, sister, you have worked hard for me, and now it is my turn to work hard for you. Dear brother!Mary answered. I have something to tell you, don't you get angry, sister? How could I be angry, my little brother?

Will you let me do it? What do you mean by that?asked Mary, feeling uneasy. elder sister!I want to be a sailor Are you leaving me?Mary cried, and squeezed her brother's hand. yes sister!I shall be a sailor like my father, and a sailor like Captain John!Mary, my dear Mary!Captain John wasn't entirely disappointed, he!His chivalry, you must trust him just like me!He promised me that he would train me to be an excellent and great sailor in the future, and while he was training me, he went with me to find our father!Sister, you say, you say yes!If we get lost, our father must go all over the world to find us. Now that he is gone, our responsibility, at least, my responsibility is to go all over the world to find him!I have a goal in my life, and I should strive for this goal with my whole life: this goal is to find and always find the one who will never abandon us!Dear sister, he is too good, our father!

Noble and generous!I know, my brother, my father is already the glory of our motherland. If it wasn't for bad luck that didn't allow him to complete his career, he should already be one of the great men of our motherland! How could I not know? !Robert said. Mary threw her brother to her breast, and the little boy felt tears dripping down his brow. elder sister!elder sister!he cried, in spite of what they say, our friends, in spite of what they dare not say, I have hope, and I always have hope!A person like my father will not die until his career is successful! Mary just whimpered and couldn't speak.When she thought of finding his father in the future, and thinking of Captain Menger's chivalrous heart, thousands of feelings rushed in her heart. Is Mr. John still hoping?she asked. Still hoping.Robert replied that he was a big brother and would never abandon us.I'll be a sailor too, okay, sister?Will you be a seaman, and go to our father with him? Why don't you want to!However, our siblings have to separate! You will not be alone, sister, I know, the captain told me that Lady Helen would not let you leave him.You are a girl, you, you can, you should accept his kindness.If you don't accept it, you are ungrateful to him!However, I am a boy, and a man should be self-improvement. My father has said this sentence to me countless times. What about our old home in Dundee, our dear old home full of memories? We still keep it, sister!These, our friend Captain John, and Sir, have long since decided, and have decided very thoughtfully.Sir wants to keep you at Malcolm Hall as his own daughter, Sir once told my good friend John, and he told me again!You were there as at home, and someone was talking to you about our father, waiting for John and me, and one day we'll get him back and meet you!What a joyous day it must be!said Robert, screaming, with a gleam of excitement on his brow. My little brother, my good boy.Mary replied, How glad our father would be if he could hear what you said!You are so like my father, my dear brother, you are so like our lovely father, it seems that you have grown up to be exactly like your father! I hope so, sister.said Robert, flushing with a holy and filial pride. But how can we repay the kindness of Sir and Lady Glenarvan?Mary said again. ah!This is easy to say!cried Robert with childlike innocence, we love them, respect them, we always say that to them, kiss them more, and one day, when the time comes, I'll die for them! Don't die for them, live for them!Mary cried out and kissed her brother's forehead wildly. They would rather you live for them than I would you! Then the two children sank into endless dreams again, looking at each other in the dim shadows of the night.However, although they stopped talking with their mouths, they were still talking in their hearts, asking each other questions and answering each other.Long swells rolled gently on the calm sea, rising and falling slowly, and the propeller stirred the shining waves in the dark.At this moment, there was a miracle, a truly miraculous thing happened.The two brothers and sisters seem to have a magnetic force that mysteriously connects their two minds, and they feel the same hallucination at the same time and all of a sudden.From the midst of those flickering waves, both Mary and Robert seemed to hear a voice, in a voice so sad and mournful that the whole heart-strings of both were throbbing. save me!save me!The voice called. Sister, can you hear me?Did you hear that?Robert said. The two quickly slammed on the railing, bent down, and searched in the dark night. But they saw nothing, only darkness unfolded before their eyes. Robert, said Mary, pale with emotion, as if I were, I as you heard We were both dreaming, my brother! However, another cry for help came to their ears, this time the illusion was so real that the same cry burst out from the hearts of both of them at the same time: Father!Father! Mary couldn't bear it.She was overstimulated and passed out in Robert's arms. Help!cried Robert, my sister!my father!Help! The man at the helm ran to help Mary up.The sailors on duty also came running, and then Munger, Mrs. Helen and Sir were suddenly awakened and came running. My sister is dying and my father is there!cried Robert, pointing to the waves.People were baffled when they heard it. Yes, he cried again, my father is there!I hear my father's voice!My sister, like me, heard it! At this moment, Mary woke up, her eyes were open, and she was crying like a madman: O my father!My father is there! The poor girl climbed up, climbed over the railing, and bent over to throw herself into the sea. Sir!Madame!She clasped her hands and screamed, I said my father is there!I assure you, I heard his voice, from the waves, like a wail, like a dying farewell! At this moment, the poor child was convulsed again, and his whole body was convulsed.She trembled.They had to immediately carry her to her room, and Lady Helene followed her into her room to attend to her, while Robert called: my father!My father is there!I am not mistaken, sir! In the face of this miserable scene, people thought that the two children were fascinated by a hallucination.But how can I explain it when I am so fascinated? But Glenarvan was about to try it, and taking Robert by the hand twice, said to him: Do you hear your father's voice, child? Yes, sir, there, among the waves!He shouted: Help me!save me! Did you hear clearly it's your father's voice? Why didn't you hear me clearly, sir!ah!I could hear it so clearly, I could swear it!My sister heard it too, and she heard it as clearly as I did. It was my father's voice!Think about it, how could we both be wrong at the same time?Sir, let us save my father!Let go of the boat!Let the boat down! Jazz knew that the child was so fascinated that he couldn't explain it for a while.Yet he wanted to make one last effort, and he called for the sailor at the helm. Hawkins, he asked him, were you there at the helm when Miss Mary suddenly fainted? yes sir. Did you not see anything, did you hear anything? nothing. That's right, Robert. If it had been Hawkins' father, Robert had answered with undeniable firmness, Hawkins would not have said he hadn't heard anything.That is my father!Sir!my father!my father! Robert's throat was blocked by crying.He was pale and silent, and passed out after his sister.Glenarvan had him carried to his bed, and the child was overstimulated into a deep, lethargic slumber. Two poor orphans!Menger said that God was too cruel to them! Yes, they were overwhelmed with grief, so they both had the same hallucination at the same time.Sir said. Two people at the same time!How strange, said Paganel to himself!It is scientifically impossible for such a thing to happen! Then Paganel himself bent down to face the sea, tilted his ears, and waved his hands to tell others to be quiet and listen carefully.There was a deep silence everywhere.Paganel called out again, but there was no answer. How strange!He kept talking like this, walking back to the room, the intersection of longing and pain was not enough to explain an objective phenomenon! The next day, March 8th, at five o'clock in the morning, just before dawn, the passengers of the ship, Robert and his brother, were all assembled on the deck because no one could keep them in their rooms.All of them wanted to see the piece of land that they could only barely see last night. All the binoculars hungrily searched here and there for the main points of the island.The cruise ship is only one kilometer away from the island and drives slowly along the shore.People's eyesight can see the smallest details on the shore.Suddenly, Robert gave a cry, and said he saw three men running along the bank, waving their arms, while another was waving a flag. It's the Union Jack.Menger also cried out after grabbing his telescope. it is true!Paganel cried out too, and immediately looked back at Robert. Sir!said Robert, in a trembling voice, "Sir, if you won't let me swim to the island, please lower a boat."Sir!I beg you, let me be the first to log in! No one on board dared to speak.What's going on!On this small island where the thirty-seventh parallel passes, there are three people, three victims, and three Englishmen!So everyone thought of the scene last night, and the voice that Robert and Mary heard at night!There was only one point in which the two children might have been mistaken: a voice might have reached their ears, but how could that voice be their father's?Impossible!well!Anyway, it's impossible!So everyone thought: there will be another big disappointment waiting for them, and they are afraid that their physical strength will not be able to withstand this blow again.But what can be done to stop them and prevent them from going ashore!The Jazz didn't have the guts to stop them. Let the boat down!he is. In just one minute, the boat was in the sea.Captain Grant's two sons, Jazz, Menger, and Paganel all rushed into the boat, which was rowed desperately by six sailors, and soon left the ship. Still 20 meters away from the shore, Mary cried out in horror: my father! There was really a person standing on the shore, sandwiched between two people.His tall and strong figure, and his gentle and bold countenance, showed a perfect fusion of Mary and Robert.That was exactly the man the two children kept describing!Their hearts had not deceived them: it was indeed their father, Captain Grant! Hearing Mary's call, the captain opened his arms and fell down on the beach as if struck by lightning.