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      Chapter XIV

      One day the engineer proposed to explore the eastern and western shores of the lake. The landscape was charming. Smith and his companions moved over this unexplored neighborhood. Bows and arrows and sticks were their sole weapons.

      They soon reached the mouth of Red Creek. On this side the bank, clumps of trees, here and there, made a picturesque landscape. The whole extent of the lake was visible. The colonists were following the southern bank of the lake, when Top suddenly stopped. It raised one foot, and looked into the water. Then it barked furiously.

      At first neither Smith nor his companions paid any attention to the dog’s actions. But Top’s barking became incessant.

      – What is it, Top? – asked the engineer.

      The dog bounded towards his master and rushed back to the bank. Then, suddenly, it threw himself into the lake.

      – Come back, Top! – cried the engineer.

      – What’s going on under there? – asked the sailor. He was examining the surface of the lake.

      – Top smelt some animal, – answered Herbert.

      – It must be an alligator, – said the reporter.

      – I don’t think so, – answered Smith. – Alligators do not live in this latitude.

      Smith called the dog again. Suddenly an enormous head emerged from the water.

      Herbert recognized it, the comical face, with huge eyes and long silky moustaches. It was a dugong[45]. The huge monster caught the dog. The dog disappeared under the water.

      A struggle was going on under the water, and what a struggle! That struggle was becoming more terrible with each moment. The poor dog will die! But suddenly, through the midst of a circle of foam, Top appeared. Some unknown force shot the dog upward, ten feet in the air. Then Top fell again into the tumultuous waters, from which it escaped to the shore. The dog was miraculously saved.

      Cyrus Smith and his companions were amazed. But the struggle under water continued. Some more formidable animal attacked the dugong. This did not last long. The water grew red with blood. The body of the dugong floated on at the southern angle of the lake.

      The colonists ran to the animal. It was dead. Its body was enormous, between 15 and 16 feet long and weighed between 3,000 and 4,000 pounds. On its neck, yawned a wound, some sharp instrument made it. What killed the dugong? Nobody knew the answer.

      Chapter XV

      Cyrus Smith stood upon the border of the lake, thinking about the incident. He wanted to solve the mystery of that combat.

      – Well, Cyrus, – said the reporter, – The wound on this beast is strange enough, and I can’t understand how Top was thrown out of the water. There was a strong arm, and that same arm killed the dugong.

      – It’s very strange, indeed, – answered the engineer. – There is something here which I cannot understand. And we can’t explain how I myself was saved. Therefore, I am sure there is a mystery which we will discover some day.

      Neb and Pencroff were extracting the fat from the dugong and preserving the flesh for food. Now the colonists have a lot of food!

      The next day, near the lake they saw a passage. The opening was twenty feet wide, but only two feet high.

      – What are we waiting for, Mr. Smith? – cried the sailor. He wanted to begin the exploration.