CHAPTER 8

Is Cyrus Harding living?—Neb’s Recital—Footprints—An unanswerable Question—Cyrus Harding’s first Words—Identifying the Footsteps—Return to the Chimneys—Pencroft startled! Neb did not move. Pencroft only uttered one word. “Living?” he cried. Neb did not reply. Spilett and the sailor turned pale. Herbert clasped his hands, and remained motionless. The poor Negro, absorbed in his grief, evidently had neither seen his companions nor heard the sailor speak. The reporter knelt down beside the motionless body, a…