The Floating Island (37 page)

Meanwhile the caymans were being
pursued under the waters of the Serpentine River, but how could they be got rid
of with certainty? Fortunately, Hubley Harcourt thought of raising the sluices
of the river, and it was possible to attack the saurians under the best
conditions, not without success.

The only victim to be regretted
was a magnificent dog belonging to Nat Coverley. Seized by an alligator, the
poor animal was cut in two by a bite. But a dozen of these saurians had
succumbed under the bullets of the militia, and it was possible that Floating
Island was definitely delivered from these redoubtable reptiles.

On the whole it had been a good
day. Six lions, eight tigers, five jaguars, nine panthers, male and female,
were among the beasts slain.

The evening came, and the
quartette, including Frascolin, recovered from his shock, had just sat down at
the table in the restaurant.

“I should like to believe that we
are at the end of our troubles,” said Yvernès.

“Unless this steamer, like a
second Noah’s Ark, contained all the animals in creation,” said Pinchinat.

This was not probable, and
Athanase Dorémus felt himself sufficiently reassured to return to his house in
the Twenty-fifth Avenue. There in the barricaded house he found his old servant
in despair at the thought that nothing was left of her old master but a few
shapeless fragments.

This night was tranquil enough.
Only a few distant roars had been heard on the Larboard Harbour side. It was to
be hoped that next day, by proceeding to a general hunt across the country, the
destruction of these wild beasts would be complete.

The group of hunters met in the
early morning. During the twenty-four hours, it need scarcely be said that Floating
Island had remained stationary, all the machinery staff being engaged with the
rest.

The squads, each comprising
twenty men with magazine rifles, had orders to advance through the island.
Colonel Stewart did not consider it advisable to use cannon against the wild
beasts, now they had dispersed. Thirteen tracked to the vicinity of Stern
Battery fell to his gun. But he had to rescue, not without difficulty, two
customs officers from the neighbouring post, who had been knocked down by a
tiger and a panther, and had received serious wounds.

This last attack brought up to
fifty-three the number of animals killed since the beginning of the day before.

It was four o’clock in the
morning. Cyrus Bikerstaff and Commodore Simcoe, Jem Tankerdon and his son, Nat
Coverley and the two assistants, escorted by a detachment of militia, were
proceeding towards the town hall, where the council were awaiting the reports
from the two ports and the two batteries.

At their approach, when they were
within a hundred yards of the hall, loud shouts arose. A number of people,
women and children, seized with a sudden panic, were running along First
Avenue.

Immediately the Governor,
Commodore Simcoe, and their companions rushed towards the square, the gate of
which ought to have been shut. But by some inexplicable negligence this gate
was open, and there could be no doubt that one of the wild beasts
—
the last perhaps
—
had entered by it.

Nat Coverley and Walter Tankerdon
were the first to run into the square.

Suddenly, while he was within
three yards of Nat Coverley, Walter Tankerdon was knocked down by an enormous
tiger.

Nat Coverley, having no time to
slip a cartridge into his gun, drew the hunting knife at his belt, and jumped
to the rescue of Walter at the moment the animal’s claws struck the young man’s
shoulder.

Walter was saved, but the tiger
turned and attacked Nat Coverley.

He stabbed the animal with his
knife without reaching the heart, and fell under.

The tiger recoiled, his throat
roaring, his jaws open, his tongue bleeding
—

There was the report of a gun.

It was Jem Tankerdon who had
fired.

There was a second report.

It was the bullet which had
exploded in the tiger’s body.

They raised Walter, his shoulder
wounded.

As to Nat Coverley, if he was not
hurt, he had at least been close to death.

He rose, and advancing towards
Jem Tankerdon, said in a solemn voice:

“You have saved me
—
thanks!”

“You have saved my son
—
thanks!” replied
Jem Tankerdon.

And they shook hands in token of
a reconciliation which might end in a sincere friendship.

Walter was immediately taken to
the mansion in Nineteenth Avenue, where his family had taken refuge; while Nat
Coverley regained his house on the arm of Cyrus Bikerstaff.

We need not be astonished if next
morning Mrs. Tankerdon visited Mrs. Coverley to express her thanks for the
service rendered to Walter, and if Mrs. Coverley visited Mrs. Tankerdon to
express her thanks for the service rendered Nat Coverley. Let us even say that
Miss Coverley accompanied her mother, and was it not natural that both should
ask how the young man was progressing?

In fact everything was for the
best, and, rid of its formidable visitors, Floating Island could safely resume
its voyage towards the Fijis,

“HOW many did you say?” asked
Pinchinat.

“Two hundred and fifty-five, my
friends,” replied Frascolin. “Yes, there are two hundred and fifty-five islands
and islets in the Fiji Archipelago.”

“And how does that interest us,”
replied Pinchinat, “if the Pearl of the Pacific does not make two hundred and
fifty-five stoppages?”

“You will never learn geography!”
proclaimed Frascolin.

“And you
—
you know too much,” replied his
Highness.

And that was always the sort of
welcome the second violin received when he tried to instruct his recalcitrant
comrades.

However, Sebastien Zorn, who
listened more willingly, allowed himself to be taken before the map at the
casino, on which the position was marked each day. It was easy to follow the
itinerary of Floating Island since its departure from Madeleine Bay. This
itinerary formed a sort of large S, of which the lower loop curved up to the
Fiji group.

Frascolin showed the
violoncellist this collection of islands, discovered by Tasman in 1643
—
an archipelago
comprised between the sixteenth and twentieth parallels of south latitude, and
between the hundred and seventy-fourth and hundred and seventy-ninth meridians
of east longitudes.

“So we are going to take our
cumbrous machine among those hundreds of pebbles scattered on the road?”
observed Sebastien Zorn.

“Yes, my old string-fellow,”
replied Frascolin, “and if you look with attention
—
”

“And shut your mouth,” added
Pinchinat.

“Why?”

“Because the proverb says that
the fly cannot enter a closed mouth!”

“Of what fly are you speaking?”

“The one that stings you whenever
you want to break out against Floating Island!”

Sebastien Zorn shrugged his
shoulders disdainfully, and turned to Frascolin.

“You were saying?”

“I was saying that to reach the
two large islands of Viti-Levu and Vanua-Levu, there are three passages which
cross the eastern group, those of Nanuku, Lakemba, and Oneata.”

“To say nothing of the passage
where you are smashed into a thousand pieces!” exclaimed Sebastien Zorn. “That
will be the end of it! Is it possible to navigate such seas with such a town,
and a large population in that town? No, it is contrary to the laws of nature!”

“The fly!” retorted Pinchinat. “That
is Zorn’s fly; see it!”

In fact, the obstinate
violoncellist was always full of these dismal prognostics, and made no attempt
to control them.

In this part of the Pacific the
first group of the Fijis forms quite a barrier to ships arriving from the East.
But there were passages wide enough for Commodore Simcoe to venture to bring
Floating Island through them besides those pointed out by Frascolin. Among
these islands the most important are the two Levus, situated in the west, and
Ono, Ngaloa, Kandavu, &c.

A sea is enclosed within their
summits emerged from the depths of the ocean, the Koro Sea, and if this
archipelago, discovered by Cook, visited by Bligh in 1789, by Wilson in 1792,
is so minutely known, it is because the remarkable voyages of Dumont D’Urville
in 1828 and in 1833, of the American Wilkes in 1839, of the English Erskine in
1853, and the
Herald
expedition, under Captain Durham of the British
Navy, have enabled them to be charted with a precision that does honour to the
hydrographers.

Hence there was no hesitation on
the part of Commodore Simcoe. Coming from the south-east, he entered the
Voulanga passage, leaving to port the island of that name, in shape like a cut
cake served on a coral dish. Next morning Floating Island entered the interior
sea, which is protected against the ocean surges by substantial submarine
chains.

It need hardly be said that all
fears had not been allayed regarding the wild beasts. The Milliardites remained
constantly on the alert. Constant expeditions were organized through the woods,
fields and waters. No trace of wild beasts was discovered. No growling was
heard by day or night.

The most positive result was the
complete reconciliation that had been effected between the two sections of the
town. After the Coverley-Tankerdon affair, the Starboardite and Larboardite
families visited each other, invited each other, received each other. Every
evening there was a ball and concert at one of the chief notables’,
particularly at the mansion in Nineteenth Avenue and the mansion in the
Fifteenth. The Quartette Party had more than they could do; the enthusiasm they
provoked did not diminish; on the contrary it increased.

At last the great news came one
morning while Floating Island was beating with its powerful screws the tranquil
surface of this Koro Sea. Jem Tankerdon had gone officially to the house of Nat
Coverley, and demanded the hand of Miss Di Coverley for his son Walter. And Nat
Coverley had given Miss Coverley’s hand to Walter Tankerdon, the son of Jem
Tankerdon. The question of dowry had led to no difficulty. It would be two
hundred millions for each of the young couple.

“They should have enough to live
on
—
even in
Europe,” remarked Pinchinat, judiciously.

Felicitations reached both
families from all parts. The Governor, Cyrus Bikerstaff, made no attempt to
hide his extreme satisfaction. Thanks to this marriage, there would disappear
all those causes of rivalry which had menaced the future of Floating Island.
The King and Queen of Malecarlie were among the first to send their compliments
and good wishes. Visiting cards, printed in gold on aluminium, rained into the
boxes at the mansions. The journals had paragraph after paragraph regarding the
splendours in preparation
—
such
as had never been seen at Milliard City, nor anywhere else on the globe.
Cablegrams were sent to Paris with regard to the trousseau. The linendrapers’
shops, the establishments of the great dressmakers, the jewellers, received the
most extraordinary orders. A special steamer, starting from Marseilles, would
come by Suez and the Indian Ocean, bringing these marvels of French industry.
The wedding day was to be five weeks from then, on the 27th of February. The
tradesmen of Milliard City had their share of profit in the affair. They had to
furnish their contingent to this wedding outfit, and fortunes were to be made
out of the orders they received from the nabobs of Floating Island.

There could be no doubt who would
organize the entertainments. Calistus Munbar was evidently the man. His state
of mind was indescribable when the marriage of Walter Tankerdon and Miss
Coverley was publicly announced. We know how he desired it, how he would have
done everything to bring it about. It was the realization of his dream, and as
the municipality intended to give him a free hand, rest assured that he would
be at the height of his powers in organizing an ultra-marvellous festival.

At the date chosen for the
nuptial ceremony, Commodore Simcoe announced in a note to the newspapers that
Floating Island would be in that part of the sea between Fiji and the New
Hebrides. Before then it would stop at Viti-Levu, where the stay would last
twelve days
—
the
only one it was proposed to make amid this vast archipelago.

The voyage was delightful. Many
whales played on the surface of the sea. With the thousand jets of water from
their blowholes, it seemed like an immense basin of Neptune, in comparison with
which that of Versailles was but a child’s toy, as Yvernès said. But also in
hundreds appeared enormous sharks, escorting Floating Island as if they were
following a ship under way.

This portion of the Pacific is
the boundary of Polynesia, which here is bordered by Melanesia, in which the
group of the New Hebrides is situated.
[xx]
It is cut by the hundred and eightieth degree of longitude
—
the conventional
line which forms the boundary between the two parts of this immense ocean. When
they reach this meridian, sailors coming from the east omit a day from their
calendar, and, inversely, those coming from the west add one. Without this
precaution there would be no concordance of dates. The preceding year Floating
Island had not had to make this change, for it had not advanced to the westward
beyond this meridian. But this time it had to conform to the rule, and as it
came from the east, the 22nd of January had to become the 23rd.

Of the two hundred and fifty-five
islands of which the archipelago of Fiji is composed, only a hundred are
inhabited. The total population does not exceed a hundred and twenty-eight
thousand inhabitants
—
a
very slight density for an extent of twenty-one thousand square kilometres.