“Thank you, Mr. Spilett,” replied the sailor, “I am going back to my work.” “Well, a cup of coffee, my friend?” “Nothing more.” “A pipe, then?” Pencroft jumped up, and his great good-natured face grew pale when he saw the reporter presenting him with a ready-filled pipe, and Herbert with a glowing coal. The sailor endeavored to speak, but could not get out a word; so, seizing the pipe, he carried it to his lips, then applying the coal, he drew five or six great whiffs. A fragrant blue cloud soon arose, and from its depths a voice was heard repeating excitedly,-- “Tobacco! real tobacco!” “Yes, Pencroft,” returned Cyrus Harding, “and very good tobacco too!” “O, divine Providence; sacred Author of all things!” cried the sailor. “Nothing more is now wanting to our island.” And Pencroft smoked, and smoked, and smoked. “And who made this discovery?” he asked at length. “You, Herbert, no doubt?” “No, Pencroft, it was Mr. Spilett.” “Mr. Spilett!” exclaimed the sailor, seizing the reporter, and clasping him to his breast with such a squeeze that he had never felt anything like it before. “Oh Pencroft,” said Spilett, recovering his breath at last, “a truce for one moment. You must share your gratitude with Herbert, who recognized the plant, with Cyrus, who prepared it, and with Neb, who took a great deal of trouble to keep our secret.” “Well, my friends, I will repay you some day,” replied the sailor. “Now we are friends for life.” Chapter 11 Winter arrived with the month of June, which is the December of the northern zones, and the great business was the making of warm and solid clothing. The musmons in the corral had been stripped of their wool, and this precious textile material was now to be transformed into stuff. Of course Cyrus Harding, having at his disposal neither carders, combers, polishers, stretchers, twisters, mule-jenny, nor self-acting machine to spin the wool, nor loom to weave it, was obliged to proceed in a simpler way, so as to do without spinning and weaving. And indeed he proposed to make use of the property which the filaments of wool possess when subjected to a powerful pressure of mixing together, and of manufacturing by this simple process the material called felt. This felt could then be obtained by a simple operation which, if it diminished the flexibility of the stuff, increased its power of retaining heat in proportion. Now the wool furnished by the musmons was composed of very short hairs, and was in a good condition to be felted.