"A splendid idea, Pencroft!" replied Gideon Spilett, laughing, "and which has placed us where we are."
"I would rather be here than in the hands of the Southerners," cried the sailor, "especially since the captain has been kind enough to come and join us again."
"So would I, truly!" replied the reporter. "Besides, what do we want? Nothing."
"If that is not—everything!" replied Pencroft, laughing, and shrugging his shoulders. "But, some day or other we shall find means of going away!"
"Sooner, perhaps, than you imagine, my friends," remarked the engineer, "if Lincoln Island is but a medium distance from an inhabited island, or from a continent. We shall know in an hour. I have not a map of the Pacific, but my memory has preserved a very clear recollection of its southern part. The latitude which I obtained yesterday placed New Zealand to the west of Lincoln Island, and the coast of Chili to the east. But between these two countries, there is a distance of at least six thousand miles. It has, therefore, to be determined what point in this great space the island occupies, and this the longitude will give us presently, with a sufficient approximation, I hope."
"Is not the archipelago of the Austral Islands the nearest point to us in latitude?" asked Herbert.
"Yes," replied the engineer, "but the distance which separates us from it is more than twelve hundred miles."
"And that way?" asked Neb, who followed the conversation with extreme interest, pointing to the south.
"That way, nothing," replied Pencroft.
"Nothing, indeed," added the engineer.
"Well, Cyrus," asked the reporter, "if Lincoln's Island is not more than two or three hundred miles from New Zealand or Chili?"
"Well," replied the engineer, "instead of building a house we will build a boat, and Master Pencroft shall be put in command"
"Well then," cried the sailor, "I am quite ready to be captain—as soon as you can make a craft that's able to keep at sea!"
"We shall do it, if it is necessary," replied Harding.
But whilst these men, who really hesitated at nothing, were talking, the hour approached at which the observation
