So, some evenings later, on the 26th of April, when all the colonists were gathered together on Prospect Plateau, Smith began:— “My friends, I want to call your attention to certain things which are happening in our island, and to a subject on which I am anxious to have your advice. These things are almost supernatural—” “Supernatural!” exclaimed the sailor, puffing his pipe. “Can anything be supernatural?” “No, Pencroff, but certainly mysterious; unless, indeed, you can explain what Spilett and I have been unable to account for up to this time.” “Let us hear it, Mr. Smith,” replied the sailor. “Very well. Have you understood, then, how, after being thrown into the sea, I was found a quarter of a mile inland, without my having been conscious of getting there?” “Possibly, having fainted,”—began the sailor. “That is not admissible,” answered the engineer; “but, letting that go, have you understood how Top discovered your retreat five miles from the place where I lay?” “The dog’s instinct,” replied Herbert. “A singular instinct,” remarked the reporter, “since, in spite of the storm that was raging, Top arrived at the Chimneys dry and clean!” “Let that pass,” continued the engineer; “have you understood how our dog was so strangely thrown up from the lake, after his struggle with the dugong?” “No! that I avow,” replied Pencroff, “and the wound in the dugong which seemed to have been made by some sharp instrument, I don’t understand that at all.” “Let us pass on again,” replied Smith. “Have you understood, my friends, how that leaden bullet was in the body of the peccary; how that box was so fortunately thrown ashore, without any trace of a shipwreck; how that bottle, enclosing the paper, was found so opportunely; how our canoe, having broken its rope, floated down the Mercy to us at the very moment when we needed it; how, after the invasion of the monkeys, the ladder was let down from Granite House; how, finally, the document, which Ayrton pretends not to have written, came into our hands?” Smith had thus enumerated, without forgetting one, the strange events that had happened on the island. Herbert, Pencroff, and Neb looked at each other, not knowing what to say, as this succession of events, thus grouped together, gave them the greatest surprise. “Upon my faith,” said Pencroff, at length, “you are right, Mr. Smith, and it is hard to explain those things.” “Very well, my friends,” continued the engineer, “one thing more is to be added, not less incomprehensible than the others!” “What is that?” demanded Herbert, eagerly. “When you returned from Tabor Island, Pencroff, you say that you saw a light on Lincoln Island?” “Certainly I did.” “And you are perfectly sure that you saw it?” “As sure as that I see you.” “And you, Herbert?” “Why, Mr. Smith,” cried Herbert, “it shone like a star of the first magnitude!” “But was it not a star?” insisted the engineer.