Fortunately I
restrained myself in time. What would happen if they suspected that
I am aware of the name of their island, and, consequently, of its
position at the extremity of the Bermuda group?
"However," I continue, "if this climate does not suit me, I have, I
presume, the right to make a change."
"The right, of course."
"I understand from your remark that I shall be furnished with the
means of returning to America when I want to go?"
"I have no reason for opposing your desires, Mr. Gaydon," Engineer
Serko replies, "and I regard your presumption as a very natural
one. Observe, however, that we live here in a noble and superb
independence, that we acknowledge the authority of no foreign power,
that we are subject to no outside authority, that we are the
colonists of no state, either of the old or new world. This is worth
consideration by whomsoever has a sense of pride and independence.
Besides, what memories are evoked in a cultivated mind by these
grottoes which seem to have been chiselled by the hands of the gods
and in which they were wont to render their oracles by the mouth of
Trophonius."
Decidedly, Engineer Serko is fond of citing mythology! Trophonius
after Pluto and Neptune? Does he imagine that Warder Gaydon ever heard
of Trophonius? It is clear this mocker continues to mock, and I have
to exercise the greatest patience in order not to reply in the same
tone.
"A moment ago," I continue shortly, "I wanted to enter yon habitation,
which, if I mistake not, is that of the Count d'Artigas, but I was
prevented.
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