The Mysterious Island

Inspecting the house closely, they discern that the house must have been abandoned for years. They spend the night in the abandoned house and return to their search the next morning, again finding nothing. They plan to leave the next morning along with as much of the previous inhabitant’s supplies as they can carry with them. The men separate to prepare for the voyage, but Gideon and Pencroff rush to Harbert’s aid when he appears to be attacked by a giant ape.

Wrestling the creature off of Harbert, they discover that the ape is in fact a man in a wild state of uncleanliness. Upon inspection, the man appears to be quite wild and does not utter a single word of speech. The men decide it is their duty to take him back to Lincoln Island and attempt to rehabilitate him: “Such was indeed their duty as civilized Christian beings. On that point they could not disagree, and they knew that Cyrus Smith would approve this course of action” (417). Taking him aboard the ship, yet keeping him in bondage for their own safety, the men set sail for home.

They sail for over 48 hours without spying land, while at the same time a storm threatens to swamp the ship. However, just in time, the men spot a fire in the distance that they know must have been lit by Cyrus and Neb back on the island to guide them. Once back, they introduce the castaway: Cyrus believes they will be able to bring back his sanity and humanity and does everything he can to restore the man’s health.

After nine days, they bring the stranger out of the house and to the sea to gauge his reaction to his new surroundings. At the sight of it, the stranger begins to weep: “Some memory had surfaced in his mind, and, to use Cyrus Smith’s expression, his tears had made him a man again” (433). Confronting the man after this, Cyrus hears the stranger’s first words: “Who are you?” Cyrus tells him they are castaways and that they will be his friends. The man becomes very emotional.

After a time, the stranger tells them his story. He is an Englishman and has been on the island now for 12 years. This news baffles the men, who also find that new questions have been raised about the message in the bottle, which seems now to have possibly had a more mysterious origin. Suffering from some grief, and unable to bear the company of his new companions, the stranger runs off into the forest alone. Cyrus insists that when he is ready, the man will return to their company.

In the meantime, the men build a windmill to mill the long-awaited crop of wheat they have grown and recently harvested. One day shortly after, Harbert is cornered by a jaguar and, at the last possible moment, is rescued by the stranger, who stabs the jaguar. Upon this great rescue, the men insist on the stranger remaining with them, telling him their long story in hopes that he will in turn tell them of his own past.

This time, after hearing Cyrus tell their story, the man again refuses to say more about himself but remains in the vicinity of Granite House. Eventually, he requests to live at the sheepfold and look after the animals; the men agree, but only after convincing the stranger to let them build him a proper home there.

After a number of days, the structure is complete, but before the stranger leaves for his new home, he sits down with the men to recount his past for them. Weaving a long and winding tale, the stranger admits to getting marooned on the island after an ill-fated attempt at commandeering a ship in a failed act of piracy.

Once abandoned on the island, however, the years changed him and caused him to live out the majority of his time on Tabor Island in desolation, conscious of his need to suffer for the expiation of his sins: “He looked on his criminal past with horror, and his unhappiness was profound. He told himself that if ever men came to look for him here, he would have to prove himself worthy of returning to their midst!” (456). Hearing his tale and moved to pity, the men acclaim their unanimous acceptance of him, reassuring him of their desire for him to live in their company as an honest man.

The only remaining mystery is from whence the message in a bottle came, for the stranger admits that it was not he who sent it. The men grow even more suspicious that things on the island are not as they appear. With the stranger—now known as Ayrton—continuing to live at the sheepfold, Cyrus constructs a telegraph system to keep the two locations in communication.

Two years have gone by now, and the men spend one evening discussing their future. Their thoughts turn to their homeland of America, and Gideon suggests that their previous success in building a small boat should be proof that they are capable of building a ship large enough to sail over a thousand miles to the nearest inhabited land. They set this plan aside for the next season, agreeing to place evidence of their presence on Lincoln Island back on Tabor Island once spring arrives, just in case any ship happens to land there in the future.

In the meantime, the men decide to use the remaining good weather before winter to sail around the island, observing the coast and surveying the island from the sea. After three days, they sail around the whole of the island, returning to find Ayrton and Joop awaiting them on the shore. Cyrus sits everyone down to have a discussion about the various mysterious events that have occurred over the past two years that he feels he cannot continue to contemplate alone. The men agree that there have been many inexplicable events, but none offer a solution that solves the mystery.

Over the course of the next few months, winter comes and goes, and the men continue to occupy themselves with the regular duties of island life. Spring arrives, and Harbert decides one day that he wishes to take a photographic image of the bay from the window of Granite House and, in looking out to sea—with the help of a spyglass—realizes that, just out on the horizon, he can see what is clearly a ship.