Таинственный остров / The Mysterious Island. Уровень 2

Herbert swam like a fish; and all arrived without difficulty at the other shore.

Chapter IV

The reporter walked further along the coast. Herbert wanted to go with him.

– Stay, my boy, – said the sailor. – We must pitch our camp for the night, and try to find something to eat. Our friends will need food when they come back. We are tired, cold, and hungry. We need shelter, fire, and food. We will find wood in the forest, and we can get eggs from the nests. And we must find a house.

– We can look for a cave in these rocks, – said Herbert.

They walked along the base of the rocky wall. Then they turned to the south. Pencroff noticed a narrow inlet in the coast. Now it was important to pitch the camp near the water.

The rock rose 300 feet, smooth and massive. It was a sturdy wall of the hardest granite. About the summit hovered a host of aquatic birds, with long, narrow, pointed beaks.

Herbert noticed some rocks. On them lay hosts of bivalves.

– They are lithodomes[14 - lithodomes – литодомы], – said Herbert.

– Can we eat them? – said Pencroff.

– Certainly.

Pencroff and Herbert made a good meal of them, they tasted like oysters. Now they must find fresh water. Two hundred feet further on Pencroff and Herbert reached the inlet. A little river was flowing through it.

– Here is water, – said Pencroff, – and there is wood. Herbert, now we need the house.

The river water was clear. Pencroff and Herbert went down into sandy corridors.

– This is what we want, – said Pencroff. – These Chimneys will be our house.

Herbert and Pencroff left the Chimneys, and walked up the left bank of the river. Soon they reached the elbow which the river made to the left. From this point they saw a forest.

– Good, – said the sailor, – these trees will help us to make a fire.

It was easy to gather the firewood: many dry branches lay at their feet. But how can they carry them to the Chimneys?

– We have the river, – suggested Herbert.

– Exactly, said Pencroff. – The river will be our road and our carrier, too.

They looked at the ocean. The sea was a watery desert.

– Something tells me, – said Herbert, – that Mr. Smith is a very energetic man. So he saved himself. Don’t you think so, Pencroff?

The sailor shook his head sadly.

– Yes, – said he, – our engineer saved himself.