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Gilliatt , who was a kind of seer amid the secrets of nature , stood there musing , and sensible of confused emotions . Suddenly , at a few feet below him , in the delightful transparence of that water like liquid jewels , he became sensible of the approach of something of mystic shape . A species of long ragged band was moving amidst the oscillation of the waves . It did not float , but darted about of its own will . It had an object ; was advancing somewhere rapidly . The object had something of the form of a jester’s bauble with points , which hung flabby and undulating . It seemed covered with a dust incapable of being washed away by the water . It was more than horrible ; it was foul . The beholder felt that it was something monstrous . It was a living thing ; unless , indeed , it were but an illusion . It seemed to be seeking the darker portion of the cavern , where at last it vanished . The heavy shadows grew darker as its sinister form glided into them , and disappeared . BOOK II THE LABOUR I THE RESOURCES OF ONE WHO HAS NOTHING The cavern did not easily part with its explorers . The entry had been difficult ; going back was more difficult still . Gilliatt , however , succeeded in extricating himself ; but he did not return there . He had found nothing of what he was in quest of , and he had not the time to indulge curiosity . He put the forge in operation at once . Tools were wanting ; he set to work and made them . For fuel he had the wreck ; for motive force the water ; for his bellows the wind ; for his anvil a stone ; for art his instinct ; for power his will . He entered with ardour upon his sombre labours . The weather seemed to smile upon his work . It continued to be dry and free from equinoctial gales . The month of March had come , but it was tranquil . The days grew longer . The blue of the sky , the gentleness of all the movements of the scene , the serenity of the noontide , seemed to exclude the idea of mischief . The waves danced merrily in the sunlight . A Judas kiss is the first step to treachery ; of such caresses the ocean is prodigal . Her smile , like that of woman’s sometimes , cannot be trusted . There was little wind . The hydraulic bellows worked all the better for that reason . Much wind would have embarrassed rather than aided it . Gilliatt had a saw ; he manufactured for himself a file . With the saw he attacked the wood ; with the file the metal . Then he availed himself of the two iron hands of the smith — the pincers and the pliers . The pincers gripe , the pliers handle ; the one is like the closed hand , the other like the fingers . By degrees he made for himself a number of auxiliaries , and constructed his armour . With a piece of hoop - wood he made a screen for his forge - fire .
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