Chapter 47

CHAPTER 5

So, then, all was explained by the submarine explosion of this torpedo.
Cyrus Harding could not be mistaken, as, during the war of the Union, he
had had occasion to try these terrible engines of destruction. It was under
the action of this cylinder, charged with some explosive substance, nitro-
glycerine, picrate, or some other material of the same nature, that the
water of the channel had been raised like a dome, the bottom of the brig
crushed in, and she had sunk instantly, the damage done to her hull being so
considerable that it was impossible to refloat her. The "Speedy" had not
been able to withstand a torpedo that would have destroyed an ironclad as
easily as a fishing-boat!

Yes! all was explained, everything--except the presence of the torpedo in
the waters of the channel!

My friends, then," said Cyrus Harding, "we can no longer be in doubt as
to the presence of a mysterious being, a castaway like us, perhaps,
abandoned on our island, and I say this in order that Ayrton may be
acquainted with all the strange events which have occurred during these two
years. Who this beneficent stranger is, whose intervention has, so
fortunately for us, been manifested on many occasions, I cannot imagine.
What his object can be in acting thus, in concealing himself after
rendering us so many services, I cannot understand: But his services are
not the less real, and are of such a nature that only a man possessed of
prodigious power, could render them. Ayrton is indebted to him as much as
we are, for, if it was the stranger who saved me from the waves after the
fall from the balloon, evidently it was he who wrote the document, who
placed the bottle in the channel, and who has made known to us the
situation of our companion. I will add that it was he who guided that
chest, provided with everything we wanted, and stranded it on Flotsam
Point; that it was he who lighted that fire on the heights of the island,
which permitted you to land; that it was he who fired that bullet found in
the body of the peccary; that it was he who plunged that torpedo into the
channel, which destroyed the brig; in a word, that all those inexplicable
events, for which we could not assign a reason, are due to this mysterious
being. Therefore, whoever he may be, whether shipwrecked, or exiled on our
island, we shall be ungrateful, if we think ourselves freed from gratitude
towards him. We have contracted a debt, and I hope that we shall one day
pay it."

"You are right in speaking thus, my dear Cyrus," replied Gideon Spilett.
"Yes, there is an almost all-powerful being, hidden in some part of the
island, and whose influence has been singularly useful to our colony. I
will add that the unknown appears to possess means of