“Well then, since the chance is lost, let us push on,” said Pencroff, already home-sick for Granite House. “But, just as they were rising, Top’s barking was heard, and the dog burst from the forest, holding in his mouth a soiled rag. Neb took it from him. It was a bit of strong cloth. Top, still barking, seemed by his motions to invite his master to follow into the wood. “Here is something which will explain my bullet,” cried Pencroff. “A shipwrecked person!” answered Herbert. “Wounded, perhaps!” exclaimed Neb. “Or dead!” responded the reporter. And all holding their arms in readiness, hurried after the dog through the outskirts of the forests. They advanced some distance into the wood, but, to their disappointment, they saw no tracks. The underbrush and lianas were uninjured and had to be cut away with the hatchet, as in the depths of the forest. It was hard to imagine that any human creature had passed there, and yet Top’s action showed no uncertainty, but was more like that of a human being having a fixed purpose. In a few minutes the dog stopped. The colonists, who had arrived at a sort of glade surrounded by high trees, looked all about them, but neither in the underbrush or between the tree trunks could they discover a thing. “What is it, Top?” said Smith. Top, barking louder, ran to the foot of a gigantic pine. Suddenly Pencroff exclaimed:— “This is capital!” “What’s that,” asked Spilett. “We’ve been hunting for some waif on the sea or land—” “Well?” “And here it is in the air!” And the sailor pointed out a mass of faded cloth caught on the summit of the pine, a piece of which Top had found on the ground. “But that is no waif!” exclaimed Spilett. “Indeed it is,” answered Pencroff. “How is it!” “It is all that is left of our balloon, of our ship which is stranded on the top of this tree.” Pencroff was not mistaken, and he added, with a shout:— “And there is good stuff in it which will keep us in linen for years. It will make us handkerchiefs and shirts. Aha, Mr. Spilett! what do you say of an island where shirts grow on the trees?” It was, indeed, a fortunate thing for the colonists that the aerostat, after having made its last bound into the air, had fallen again on the island. They could, either keep the envelope in its present shape, in case they might desire to attempt a new flight through the air, or, after having taken off the varnish, they could make use of its hundreds of ells of good cotton cloth. At these thoughts all shared Pencroff’s joy. It was no easy task to take down this envelope from the tree top. But Neb, Herbert, and the sailor climbed up to it, and after two hours of hard work not only the envelope, with its valve, springs, and leather mountings, but the net, equivalent to a large quantity of cordage and ropes, together with the iron ring and the anchor, lay upon the ground. The envelope, excepting the rent, was in good order, and only its lower end had been torn away.