CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

IN THE NICK OF TIME

Nicaise was not mistaken in his funereal apprehensions. The retreat in which his friends thought themselves secure from the Alfourous would not remain unknown for long to the ferocious cannibals, stimulated by the desertion of their god, the flight of their captives and the murder of their bravest warriors.

Two days after the escape, a group of indigenes recognized footprints in the sand on the sea-shore, and as Trinitus and his companions had been obliged to emerge from their hiding place to gather fruits and fresh water, it was not difficult to find traces of them in the valley where they were living.

So, on the morning of the third day, they were attacked by a hundred savages, who rushed at them with incredible fury.

All defense was futile. The three besieged men only had wooden sticks for weapons, and, during the first hail of stones launched by the Alfourous, Trinitus was hit in the head and fell to the ground face down, uttering a cry of pain.

Marcel tried to lift him up again, but the Alfourous did not give him time. They charged, howling with rage at their vanquished enemies, and tied them up tightly.

Nicaise tried in vain to intimidate the crowd with his sacramental words. He only excited the sinister laughter of those who had previously trembled at his voice. Seized by the feet, he was dragged with his friends to the edge of the stream that was running through the valley.

The horrible shocks and jolts experienced by Trinitus brought him back to consciousness, but the unfortunate man only opened his eyes to witness the preparations for his long agony.

Rapidly, the Alfouous lit an enormous fire. They set about heating their large knives in the blaze, and, tying Nicaise to a tree-trunk first, started dancing a frenzied saraband around him. The poor god only had time to shake his friends’ hands briefly and stammer a few words that his emotion rendered unintelligible.

Trinitus’ and Marcel’s eyes filled with tears; they looked at the sky in order not to see their friend’s torture.

Suddenly, a cry of desolation and pain chilled them with fear and suspended the breath in their oppressed chests.

One of the red-hot stone knives had made a profound incision in Nicaise’s arm.

The joyful clamors of the Alfourous succeeded their victim’s plaint, and other knives taken from the fire were approaching the victim’s face.

Suddenly, however, two abrupt detonations rang out from the depths of the woods, and the man torturing Nicaise fell down, dead.

At the same time, a furious barking resounded in the trees and cries of “Go! Go! Attack!” reached the ears of the captives.

“Is it a dream?” exclaimed Trinitus. In the transport of his joy, he broke the bonds that were swathing him.

Five or six further detonations demonstrated that he was not mistaken.

“Friends! Friends!” shouted Nicaise, in his turn, forgetting his wound and his pain.

When four more Alfouous had bitten the dust, three enormous dogs bounded into the middle of the amazed and fearful troop, like pouncing tigers. The natives were instantly overtaken by panic terror. Abandoning their captives and their weapons, they fled in all directions.

Meanwhile, Trinitus had freed his friends from their bonds, and all three, drunk with joy and gratitude, ran toward their liberators.

The latter, who were ten in number, advanced in a compact troop from the bushes where they had mounted the ambush—but two of them, who were evidently women, in spite of their bizarre accoutrements, broke abruptly into a run and threw their arms around Trinitus’ neck, weeping with joy.

That was too much emotion for the poor scientist. Tears of affection sprang from his eyes, and his lips were unable to pronounce the two cherished words that his heart was repeating incessantly: Alice! Thérèse!

Hugging his daughter and his wife, he covered their foreheads with tears and kisses.

In the meantime, Marcel and Nicaise threw themselves into the arms of those who had just snatched them from the jaws of death. They were none other than the passengers of the Richmond who had escaped the shipwreck with Trinitus’ wife and daughter.

Among them was the surgeon Sir William Hervey, Thérèse’s cousin, whose joy was inexpressible, and whom the scientist embraced effusively, like a beloved brother.

The happiest of all, however, was Marcel, when he received Alice’s thanks. How quickly he forgot, in her presence, the horrible danger he had been in!

His delight complete, Trinitus thought at times that he was dreaming. He could not account for the unexpected arrival of his liberators, and, trembling at the thought that the beautiful illusion might vanish, he dared not ask any question on that subject.

Sir William’s voice extracted him from his ecstasy. “Our boats are waiting on the coast,” the surgeon said. “Let’s hurry to get back to home. The Alfourous have only to rise up en masse to crush us.”

“You have a home?” asked Trinitus, astonished.

“Yes indeed! A few miles over the sea—an entire island, which we have conquered at swordspoint.

Nicaise and Marcel were no less agreeably surprised than Trinitus when they learned this good news.

“And how did you learn that we were in the midst of these cannibals?” asked the scientist.

“Haven’t you guessed?” said Alice, smiling. “Your bizarre boat was washed up on the coast of our island by the tempest, and it ran aground almost at my feet. I was with Maman and Sir William. We were quite astonished at first, on seeing that enormous machine, but when it collided with the rocks it had split, and a host of objects had spilled out on to the sand. I saw a few papers, ran to pick them up, and read: the Éclair, Captain Trinitus.… The last line of the manuscript read: “We are disembarking east of New Caledonia on an island that might be Anatom in the New Hebrides. O joy! You were nearby! And.…”

Emotion prevented the young woman from finishing her sentence. Trinitus, overcome once again by tenderness, hugged his dear child in his arms.

“And you came to snatch us from the most horrible death!” he continued. “To die without seeing you again…my Thérèse, my Alice! That was my only fear, the unique preoccupation torturing my mind!”

“We searched the island for two days without being able to find you,” Sir William went on. “The Alfourous have been cleverer than we were.”

“It was the smoke of the fire that put us on their track,” added one of the Richmond’s passengers.

“And the noses of our dogs,” another put in.

“Plock did well,” interjected a third. “He hunts Alfourous like hares.”

“It required prodigies to help us rid our island of natives,” said the oldest of the company in his turn, “and God knows how much trouble we had putting an end to them.”

“I can easily believe it,” observed Marcel, two whom Alice’s beautiful eyes were giving heart. “Hunt the native and he comes back at the gallop!”

“Bravo!” replied Sir William. “But let’s get back aboard in a hurry, in case the natives offer further evidence for the proverb. It’s necessary not to play games with people who understand diplomatic language so well.”

“You’re telling me!” said Nicaise. “I’ve been their good god for a week, and this morning, paying no heed to my head-dress, representative of the sun that they worship, they were about to cut me into slices.”

“You’ve been a god?” queried Sir William and his companions.

“As you see me now,” said Nicaise, “three days ago I was painted like an image d’Épinal…red, green and blue feathers. I looked like a parrot. But the rain the other night washed my colors away. I was a false god! What can you expect?”

Chatting in that manner, they reached the shore where the boats had been moored. They were three long canoes imitative of the savages’ pirogues, but much better constructed; the handiwork of intelligent and civilized workers was recognizable therein.

The three dogs that had returned from hunting Alfourous a few moments before, their mouths bloody, were the first to leap into the boats, and a few minutes later, the Richmond’s passengers took their new friends to the island that they had conquered.

They disembarked in a shady inlet in the depths of a delightful bay formed by the mouth of a wide stream. Trinitus perceived an enormous metallic sphere under a clump of mimosas, broken and battered but recognizable without difficulty. It was the debris of the Éclair.

In a vast meadow there were several goats, which Sir William and the other castaways had captured in the mountains while very young and had succeeded in domesticating.

At the end of the vast green expanse, where the island’s flora was displayed in al its magnificence, drowned in the banana-trees and laurier-roses, was the villa constructed by the new inhabitants. They had named it Valfleury.

Alice and Thérèse explained to Trinitus and his companions how they were cultivating and making use of that vast domain. The island was exceedingly fertile, and rich harvests could be obtained without a great deal of difficulty.

The woods that covered the side of the mountain beyond Valfeury furnished fruits and game in abundance, and miraculous catches could be obtained by fishing in the mouth of the river. A few rocks on the coast were laden with oysters, for the benefit of gourmets.

Sir William’s botanical knowledge had been very useful, and, thanks to him, the villa possessed a splendid garden.

Finally, after walking for half an hour, the caravan reached Valfleury. The most elegant of the three cabins making up the hamlet was reserved for Thérèse and Alice. It was a nest buried under climbing plants and covered by the protective shade of gigantic palm trees. A multitude of birds with fiery plumage were playing in the sunlight; in the courtyard, and heaped up in a hangar was equipment for cultivation, hunting and fishing.

Trinitus, Nicaise, and Marcel thought that they were in the Earthly Paradise. Marcel, most of all, was beginning to have charming dreams.

A week ago, moreover, the island had ceased to be a prison. A steamer bound for the Marquesas Islands would take the castaways of the Richmond aboard on its imminent return journey to France.

In the intoxication of his happiness, Trinitus did not forget to complete Marcel’s. He divined very rapidly that his young friend had touched Alice’s heart, and when he obtained that confession from the dear child, he immediately ran to find the man who had so courageously shared his tribulations and misfortunes.

That day, Marcel was working in the garden. Smiling, Trinitas took him to his daughter, and a few moments later, the delighted young man was holding Alice’s hand tenderly.