For the fourth piece Cyrus Harding slightly increased the charge, so as to try its extreme range. Then, all standing aside for fear of its bursting, the match was lighted by means of a long cord. A tremendous report was heard, but the piece had held good, and the colonists rushing to the windows, saw the shot graze the rocks of Mandible Cape, nearly five miles from Granite House, and disappear in Shark Gulf. "Well, captain," exclaimed Pencroft, whose cheers might have rivalled the reports themselves, "what do you say of our battery? All the pirates in the Pacific have only to present themselves before Granite House! Not one can land there now without our permission!" "Believe me, Pencroft," replied the engineer, "it would be better not to have to make the experiment." "Well," said the sailor, "what ought to be done with regard to those six villains who are roaming about the island? Are we to leave them to overrun our forests, our fields, our plantations. These pirates are regular jaguars, and it seems to me we ought not to hesitate to treat them as such! What do you think, Ayrton?" added Pencroft, turning to his companion. Ayrton hesitated at first to reply, and Cyrus Harding regretted that Pencroft had so thoughtlessly put this question. And he was much moved when Ayrton replied in a humble tone-- "I have been one of those jaguars, Mr Pencroft. I have no right to speak." And with a slow step he walked away. Pencroft understood. "What a brute I am!" he exclaimed. "Poor Ayrton! He has as much right to speak here as any one!" "Yes," said Gideon Spilett, "but his reserve does him honour, and it is right to respect the feeling which he has about his sad past." "Certainly, Mr Spilett," answered the sailor, "and there is no fear of my doing so again. I would rather bite my tongue off than cause Ayrton any pain! But to return to the question. It seems to me that these ruffians have no right to any pity, and that we ought to rid the island of them as soon as possible." "Is that your opinion, Pencroft?" asked the engineer. "Quite my opinion." "And before hunting them mercilessly, you would not wait until they had committed some fresh act of hostility against us?" "Isn't what they have done already enough?" asked Pencroft, who did not understand these scruples. "They may adopt other sentiments!" said Harding, "and perhaps repent." "They repent!" exclaimed the sailor, shrugging his shoulders. "Pencroft, think of Ayrton!" said Herbert, taking the sailor's hand. "He became an honest man again!" Pencroft looked at his companions one after the other. He had never thought of his proposal being met with any objection. His rough nature could not allow that they ought to come to terms with the rascals who had landed on the island with Bob Harvey's accomplices, the murderers of the crew of the _Speedy_; and he looked upon them as wild beasts which ought to be destroyed without delay and without remorse.