erefore Cyrus Harding resolved to put the corral in instantaneous
communication with Granite House.

It was on the 10th of January that he made known his project to his
companions.

"Why! how are you going to manage that, captain?" asked Pencroft. "Do
you by chance happen to think of establishing a telegraph?"

"Exactly so," answered the engineer.

"Electric?" cried Herbert.

"Electric," replied Cyrus Harding. "We have all the necessary
materials for making a battery, and the most difficult thing will be
to stretch the wires, but by means of a draw-plate I think we shall
manage it."

"Well, after that," returned the sailor, "I shall never despair of
seeing ourselves some day rolling along on a railway!"

They then set to work, beginning with the most difficult thing, for,
if they failed in that, it would be useless to manufacture the battery
and other accessories.

The iron of Lincoln Island, as has been said, was of excellent
quality, and consequently very fit for being drawn out. Harding
commenced by manufacturing a draw-plate, that is to say, a plate of
steel, pierced with conical holes of different sizes, which would
successively bring the wire to the wished-for tenacity. This piece of
steel, after having been tempered, was fixed in as firm a way as
possible in a solid framework planted in the ground, only a few feet
from the great fall, the motive power of which the engineer intended
to utilise. In fact, as the fulling-mill was there, although not then
in use, its beam moved with extreme power would serve to stretch out
the wire by rolling it round itself. It was a delicate operation, and
required much care. The iron, prepared previously in long thin rods,
the ends of which were sharpened with the file, having been introduced
into the largest hole of the draw-plate, was drawn out by the beam
which wound it round itself, to a length of twenty-five or thirty
feet, then unrolled, and the same operation was performed successively
through the holes of a less size. Finally, the engineer obtained wires
from forty to fifty feet long, which could be easily fastened together
and stretched over the distance of five miles, which separated the
corral from the bounds of Granite House.

It did not take more than a few days to perform this work, and indeed
as soon as the machine had been commenced, Cyrus Harding left his
companions to follow the trade of wire-drawers, and occupied himself
with manufacturing his battery