fr:Hector Servadac - Chapitre XIII
CHAPTER XIII.A ROYAL SALUTE.
“ I take your bishop, major,” said Colonel Murphy, as he made a move that he had taken since the previous evening to consider.
“I was afraid you would,” replied Major Oliphant, looking intently at the chess-board.
Such was the way in which a long silence was broken
on the morning of the 17th February by the old calendar.
Another day elapsed before another move was made. It was a protracted game; it had, in fact, already lasted some months—the players being so deliberate, and so fearful of taking a step without the most mature consideration, that even now they were only making the twentieth move. Both of them, moreover, were rigid disciples of the renowned Philidor, who pronounces that to play the pawns well is “the soul of chess;” and, accordingly, not one pawn had been sacrificed without a most vigorous defence.
The men who were thus beguiling their leisure were
two officers in the British army—Colonel Heneage Finch
Murphy and Major Sir John Temple Oliphant. Remarkably
similar in personal appearance, they were hardly less
so in personal character. Both of them were about forty
years of age; both of them were tall and fair, with bushy
whiskers and moustaches; both of them were phlegmatic
in temperament, and both much addicted to the wearing
of their uniforms. They were proud of their nationality, and exhibited a manifest dislike, verging upon contempt, of everything foreign. Probably they would have felt no surprise if they had been told that Anglo-Saxons were fashioned out of some specific clay, the properties of which surpassed the investigation of chemical analysis. Without any intentional disparagement they might, in a certain way, be compared to two scarecrows which, though perfectly harmless in themselves, inspire some measure of respect, and are excellently adapted to protect the territory intrusted to their guardianship.
English-like, the two officers had made themselves
thoroughly at home in the station abroad in which it had
been their lot to be quartered. The faculty of colonization
seems to be indigenous to the native character; once let
an Englishman plant his national standard on the surface
of the moon, and it would not be long before a colony was
established round it.
The officers had a servant, named Kirke, and a company
of ten soldiers of the line. This party of thirteen
men were apparently the sole survivors of an overwhelming
catastrophe, which on the 1st of January had transformed
an enormous rock, garrisoned with well-nigh two thousand
troops, into an insignificant island far out to sea. But
although the transformation had been so marvellous, it
cannot be said that either Colonel Murphy or Major Oliphant
had made much demonstration of astonishment.
“This is all very peculiar, Sir John,” observed the
colonel.
“Yes, colonel; very peculiar,” replied the major.
“England will be sure to send for us,” said one officer.
“No doubt she will,” answered the other.
Accordingly, they came to the mutual resolution that
they would “stick to their post.”
To say the truth, it would have been a difficult matter
for the gallant officers to do otherwise; they had but
one small boat; therefore, it was well that they made a
virtue of necessity, and resigned themselves to patient
expectation of the British ship which, in due time, would
bring relief.
They had no fear of starvation. Their island was
mined with subterranean stores, and these were furnished
with supplies more than ample for thirteen men—nay, for
thirteen Englishmen—for the next five years at least. Preserved
meat, ale, brandy—all were in abundance; consequently, as the men expressed it, they were in this respect “all right.”
Of course, the physical changes that had taken place
had attracted the notice both of officers and men. But the
reversed position of east and west, the diminution of the
force of gravity, the altered rotation of the earth, and her
projection upon a new orbit, were all things that gave
them little concern and no uneasiness; and when the
colonel and the major had replaced the pieces on the
board which had been disturbed by the convulsion, any
surprise they might have felt at the chess-men losing
some portion of their weight was quite forgotten in the
satisfaction of seeing them retain their equilibrium.