The Secret of the Island

It was now two years and a half since the castaways from the balloon had been thrown on Lincoln Island and during that period there had been no communication between them and their fellow-creatures. Once the reporter had attempted to communicate with the inhabited world by confiding to a bird a letter which contained the secret of their situation but that was a chance on which it was impossible to reckon seriously. Ayrton alone under the circumstances which have been related had come to join the little colony. Now suddenly on this day the 17th of October other men had unexpectedly appeared in sight of the island on that deserted sea!