s she laboured
less, greatly increased.

Neither Pencroft, Spilett, nor Herbert thought of taking an hour's
sleep. They kept a sharp look-out, for either Lincoln Island
could not be far distant and would be sighted at daybreak, or the
_Bonadventure_, carried away by currents, had drifted so much that it
would be impossible to rectify her course. Pencroft, uneasy to the
last degree, yet did not despair, for he had a gallant heart, and
grasping the tiller he anxiously endeavoured to pierce the darkness
which surrounded them.

About two o'clock in the morning he started forward,--

"A light! a light!" he shouted.

Indeed, a bright light appeared twenty miles to the north-east.
Lincoln Island was there, and this fire, evidently lighted by Cyrus
Harding, showed them the course to be followed. Pencroft, who was
bearing too much to the north, altered his course and steered towards
the fire, which burned brightly above the horizon like a star of the
first magnitude.

[Illustration: A LIGHT! A LIGHT!]

CHAPTER XV

The Return -- Discussion -- Cyrus Harding and the Stranger --
Port Balloon -- The Engineer's Devotion -- A touching
Incident -- Tears flow.

The next day, the 20th of October, at seven o'clock in the morning,
after a voyage of four days, the _Bonadventure_ gently glided up to
the beach at the mouth of the Mercy.

Cyrus Harding and Neb, who had become very uneasy at the bad weather
and the prolonged absence of their companions, had climbed at daybreak
to the plateau of Prospect Heights, and they had at last caught sight
of the vessel which had been so long in returning.

"God be praised! there they are!" exclaimed Cyrus Harding.

As to Neb in his joy, he began to dance, to twirl round, clapping his
hands and shouting, "Oh! my master!" A more touching pantomime than
the finest discourse.

The engineer's first idea, on counting the people on the deck of the
_Bonadventure_, was that Pencroft had not found the castaway of Tabor
Island, or at any rate that the unfortunate man had refused to leave
his island and change one prison for another.

Indeed Pencroft, Gideon Spilett, and Herbert were alone on the deck of
the _Bonadventure_.

The moment the vessel touched, the engineer and Neb were waiting on
the beach, and before the passengers had time to leap on to the sand,
Harding said: "We have been very uneasy at your delay, my friends! Did
you meet with any accident?"

"No," replied Gi