The Secret of the Island. ILLUSTRATED

"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!"

- Excerpted from "The Secret of the Island"