he onaga, and in a hoarse voice--

"Oh! the villains!" he exclaimed.

And he pointed to a thick smoke rising from the mill, the sheds, and the
buildings at the poultry-yard.

A man was moving about in the midst of the smoke. It was Neb.

His companions uttered a shout. He heard, and ran to meet them.

The convicts had left the plateau nearly half-an-hour before, having
devastated it!

"And Mr Herbert?" asked Neb.

Gideon Spilett returned to the cart.

Herbert had lost consciousness!

CHAPTER TEN.

HERBERT CARRIED TO GRANITE HOUSE--NEB RELATES ALL THAT HAS HAPPENED--
HARDING'S VISIT TO THE PLATEAU--RUIN AND DEVASTATION--THE COLONISTS
BAFFLED BY HERBERT'S ILLNESS--WILLOW BARK--A DEADLY FEVER--TOP BARKS
AGAIN!

Of the convicts, the dangers which menaced Granite House, the ruins with
which the plateau was covered, the colonists thought no longer.
Herbert's critical state outweighed all other considerations. Would the
removal prove fatal to him by causing some internal injury? The
reporter could not affirm it, but he and his companions almost despaired
of the result. The cart was brought to the bend of the river. There
some branches, disposed as a litter, received the mattress on which lay
the unconscious Herbert. Ten minutes after, Cyrus Harding, Spilett, and
Pencroft were at the foot of the cliff, leaving Neb to take the cart
onto the plateau of Prospect Heights. The lift was put in motion, and
Herbert was soon stretched on his bed in Granite House.

What cares were lavished on him to bring him back to life! He smiled
for a moment on finding himself in his room, but could scarcely even
murmur a few words, so great was his weakness. Gideon Spilett examined
his wounds. He feared to find them reopened, having been imperfectly
healed. There was nothing of the sort. From whence, then, came this
prostration? Why was Herbert so much worse? The lad then fell into a
kind of feverish sleep, and the reporter and Pencroft remained near the
bed. During this time, Harding told Neb all that had happened at the
corral, and Neb recounted to his master the events of which the plateau
had just been the theatre.

It was only during the preceding night that the convicts had appeared on
the edge of the forest, at the approaches to Creek Glycerine. Neb, who
was watching near the poultry-yard, had not hesitated to fire at one of
the pirates, who was about to cross the stream; but in the darkness he
could not