Jules Verne For Children: 16 Incredible Tales of Mystery, Courage & Adventure (Illustrated Edition). Jules Verne
my tower.”
“What are you doing there?”
“Examining the wide horizon.”
“Could you come down for a minute?”
“Do you want me?”
“Yes.”
“What for?”
“To know what countries the thirty-seventh parallel passes through.”
“That’s easily said. I need not disturb myself to come down for that.”
“Very well, tell us now.”
“Listen, then. After leaving America the thirty-seventh parallel crosses the Atlantic Ocean.”
“And then?”
“It encounters Isle Tristan d’Acunha.”
“Yes.”
“It goes on two degrees below the Cape of Good Hope.”
“And afterwards?”
“Runs across the Indian Ocean, and just touches Isle St. Pierre, in the Amsterdam group.”
“Go on.”
“It cuts Australia by the province of Victoria.”
“And then.”
“After leaving Australia in—”
This last sentence was not completed. Was the geographer hesitating, or didn’t he know what to say?
No; but a terrible cry resounded from the top of the tree. Glenarvan and his friends turned pale and looked at each other. What fresh catastrophe had happened now? Had the unfortunate Paganel slipped his footing?
Already Wilson and Mulrady had rushed to his rescue when his long body appeared tumbling down from branch to branch.
But was he living or dead, for his hands made no attempt to seize anything to stop himself. A few minutes more, and he would have fallen into the roaring waters had not the Major’s strong arm barred his passage.
“Much obliged, McNabbs,” said Paganel.
“How’s this? What is the matter with you? What came over you? Another of your absent fits.”
“Yes, yes,” replied Paganel, in a voice almost inarticulate with emotion. “Yes, but this was something extraordinary.”
“What was it?”
“I said we had made a mistake. We are making it still, and have been all along.”
“Explain yourself.”
“Glenarvan, Major, Robert, my friends,” exclaimed Paganel, “all you that hear me, we are looking for Captain Grant where he is not to be found.”
“What do you say?” exclaimed Glenarvan.
“Not only where he is not now, but where he has never been.”
CHAPTER XXIV
Paganel’s Disclosure
PROFOUND astonishment greeted these unexpected words of the learned geographer. What could he mean? Had he lost his sense? He spoke with such conviction, however, that all eyes turned toward Glenarvan, for Paganel’s affirmation was a direct answer to his question, but Glenarvan shook his head, and said nothing, though evidently he was not inclined to favor his friend’s views.
“Yes,” began Paganel again, as soon as he had recovered himself a little; “yes, we have gone a wrong track, and read on the document what was never there.”
“Explain yourself, Paganel,” said the Major, “and more calmly if you can.”
“The thing is very simple, Major. Like you, I was in error; like you, I had rushed at a false interpretation, until about an instant ago, on the top of the tree, when I was answering your questions, just as I pronounced the word ‘Australia,’ a sudden flash came across my mind, and the document became clear as day.”
“What!” exclaimed Glenarvan, “you mean to say that Harry Grant—”
“I mean to say,” replied Paganel, “that the word AUSTRAL that occurs in the document is not a complete word, as we have supposed up till now, but just the root of the word AUSTRALIE.”
“Well, that would be strange,” said the Major.
“Strange!” repeated Glenarvan, shrugging his shoulders; “it is simply impossible.”
“Impossible?” returned Paganel. “That is a word we don’t allow in France.”
“What!” continued Glenarvan, in a tone of the most profound incredulity, “you dare to contend, with the document in your hand, that the shipwreck of the BRITANNIA happened on the shores of Australia.”
“I am sure of it,” replied Paganel.
“My conscience,” exclaimed Glenarvan, “I must say I am surprised at such a declaration from the Secretary of a Geographical Society!”
“And why so?” said Paganel, touched in his weak point.
“Because, if you allow the word AUSTRALIE! you must also allow the word INDIENS, and Indians are never seen there.”
Paganel was not the least surprised at this rejoinder. Doubtless he expected it, for he began to smile, and said:
“My dear Glenarvan, don’t triumph over me too fast. I am going to floor you completely, and never was an Englishman more thoroughly defeated than you will be. It will be the revenge for Cressy and Agincourt.”
“I wish nothing better. Take your revenge, Paganel.”
“Listen, then. In the text of the document, there is neither mention of the Indians nor of Patagonia! The incomplete word INDI does not mean INDIENS, but of course, INDIGENES, aborigines! Now, do you admit that there are aborigines in Australia?”
“Bravo, Paganel!” said the Major.
“Well, do you agree to my interpretation, my dear Lord?” asked the geographer again.
“Yes,” replied Glenarvan, “if you will prove to me that the fragment of a word GONIE, does not refer to the country of the Patagonians.”
“Certainly it does not. It has nothing to do with Patagonia,” said Paganel. “Read it any way you please except that.”
“How?”
“Cosmogonie, theogonie, agonie.”
“AGONIE,” said the Major.
“I don’t care which,” returned Paganel. “The word is quite unimportant; I will not even try to find out its meaning. The main point is that AUSTRAL means AUSTRALIE, and we must have gone blindly on a wrong track not to have discovered the explanation at the very beginning, it was so evident. If I had found the document myself, and my judgment had not been misled by your interpretation, I should never have read it differently.”
A burst of hurrahs, and congratulations, and compliments followed Paganel’s words. Austin and the sailors, and the Major and Robert, most all overjoyed at this fresh hope, applauded him heartily; while even Glenarvan, whose eyes were gradually getting open, was almost prepared to give in.
“I only want to know one thing more, my dear Paganel,” he said, “and then I must bow to your perspicacity.”
“What is it?”
“How will you group the words together according to your new interpretation? How will the document read?”
“Easily enough answered. Here is the document,”