Pencroff, anxious to the last degree, did not, however, despair; but, seated at the helm, he tried to see through the thick darkness around him. Towards 2 o’clock he suddenly started up, crying:—“A light! a light!” It was indeed a bright light appearing twenty miles to—the northeast. Lincoln Island was there, and this light, evidently lit by Smith, indicated the direction to be followed. Pencroff, who had been heading much too far towards the north, changed his course, and steered directly towards the light, which gleamed above the horizon like a star of the first magnitude. CHAPTER XXXVII. THE RETURN-DISCUSSION—SMITH AND THE UNKNOWN—BALLOON HARBOR-THE DEVOTION OF THE ENGINEER-A TOUCHING EXPERIENCE-TEARS. At 7 o’clock the next morning the boat touched the shore at the mouth of the Mercy. Smith and Neb, who had become very anxious at the stormy weather and the prolonged absence of their companions, had climbed, at daylight, to Prospect Plateau, and had at length perceived the sloop in the distance. “Thank Heaven! There they are,” exclaimed Smith; while Neb, dancing with pleasure, turned towards his master, and, striking his hands together, cried, “Oh, my master!”-a more touching expression than, the first polished phrase. The engineer’s first thought, on counting the number of persons on the deck of the Good Luck, was that Pencroff had found no one on Tabor Island, or that the unfortunate man had refused to exchange one prison for another. The engineer and Neb were on the beach at the moment the sloop arrived, and before the party had leaped ashore, Smith said:— “We have been very anxious about you, my friends. Did anything happen to you?” “No, indeed; everything went finely,” replied Spilett. “We will tell you all about it.” “Nevertheless, you have failed in your search, since you are all alone.”, “But, sir, there are four of us,” said the sailor. “Have you found this person?”. “Yes.” “And brought him back?” “Yes.” “Living?” “Where is he, and what is he, then?” “He is, or rather, he was a human being; and that is all, Cyrus, that we can say.” The engineer was thereupon, informed of everything that had happened; of the search, of the long-abandoned house, of the capture of the scarcely human inhabitant. “And,” added Pencroff,” I don’t know whether we have done right in bringing him here.” “Most certainly you have done right,” replied the engineer. “But the poor fellow has no sense at all.” “Not now, perhaps; in a few months, he will be as much a man as any of us. “Who knows what might happen to the last one of us, after living for a long time alone on this island? It is terrible to be all alone, my friends, and it is probable that solitude quickly overthrows reason, since you have found this poor being in such a condition.” “But, Mr. Smith,” asked Herbert, “what makes you think that the brutishness of this man has come on within a little while?”