le disposed to obey.

"I beg you, Pencroft," said the engineer.

"Very well!" replied the sailor, who vented his anger in another way, by
bestowing on the convicts the worst names in his maritime vocabulary.

The colonists remained, therefore, near the cart, and carefully watched
the neighbouring parts of the forest.

Three hours passed thus. The wind had fallen, and absolute silence
reigned under the great trees. The snapping of the smallest twig, a
footstep on the dry leaves, the gliding of a body amongst the grass,
would have been heard without difficulty. All was quiet. Besides, Top,
lying on the grass, his head stretched out on his paws, gave no signs of
uneasiness. At eight o'clock the day appeared far enough advanced for
the reconnaissance to be made under favourable conditions. Gideon
Spilett declared himself ready to set out accompanied by Pencroft.
Cyrus Harding consented. Top and Jup were to remain with the engineer,
Herbert, and Neb, for a bark or a cry at a wrong moment would give the
alarm.

"Do not be imprudent," said Harding to the reporter and Pencroft; "you
have not to gain possession of the corral, but only to find out whether
it is occupied or not."

"All right," answered Pencroft.

And the two departed.

Under the trees, thanks to the thickness of their foliage, the obscurity
rendered any object invisible beyond a radius of from thirty to forty
feet. The reporter and Pencroft, halting at any suspicious sound,
advanced with great caution.

They walked a little distance apart from each other so as to offer a
less mark for a shot. And, to tell the truth, they expected every
moment to hear a report. Five minutes after leaving the cart, Gideon
Spilett and Pencroft arrived at the edge of the wood before the clearing
beyond which rose the palisade.

They stopped. A few straggling beams still fell on the field clear of
trees. Thirty feet distant was the gate of the corral, which appeared
to be closed. This thirty feet, which it was necessary to cross from
the border of the wood to the palisade, constituted the dangerous zone,
to coin a term: in fact, one or more bullets fired from behind the
palisade might knock over any one who ventured onto this zone. Gideon
Spilett and the sailor were not men to draw back, but they knew that any
imprudence on their part, of which they would be the first victims,
would fall afterwards on their companions. If they themselves were
killed, what wo