The Floating Island (15 page)

“Old boy, you don’t happen to
have fifty thousand francs about you, do you?”

Meanwhile the quartette party
made many acquaintances, being assured of an excellent welcome everywhere.
Besides, on the recommendation of the deafening Munbar, who would not be eager
to treat them well?

In the first place they went to
visit their compatriot, Athanase Dorémus, professor of dancing and deportment.

This good fellow occupied in the
Starboard Section a modest house in Twenty-Fifth Avenue, at three thousand
dollars a year rent. His servant was an old negress, at a hundred dollars a
month. He was enchanted to make the acquaintance of Frenchmen
—
Frenchmen who did
honour to France.

He was an old man of seventy;
thin, emaciated, short, with a bright look, and all his teeth still perfect, as
was his abundant frizzly hair, which was white as his beard. He walked sedately,
with a certain rhythmic cadence, his chest in advance, his stomach curved in,
his arms rounded, his feet a little turned out, and with irreproachable boots.
Our artistes took great pleasure in making him talk, and he was quite willing,
for his graciousness was equal to his loquacity.

“I am delighted, my dear
compatriots, I am delighted,” he repeated twenty times at their first visit. “I
am delighted to see you! What an excellent idea it was of yours to come and
settle in this town. You will not regret it, for now I have lived here, I do
not know how it would be possible to live in any other way.”

“And how long have you been here,
Monsieur Dorémus?” asked Yvernès.

“For eighteen months,” replied
the professor, bringing his feet to the second position. “I am one of the first
comers on Floating Island. Thanks to the excellent references I obtained at New
Orleans, where I had established myself, my services were accepted by Mr. Cyrus
Bikerstaff, our adored governor. From that blessed day the salary assigned me
for managing a conservatoire of dancing and deportment has permitted me to live
—
”

“Like a millionaire!”  exclaimed
Pinchinat.

“Oh! Millionaires here
—
”

“I know
—
I know
—
my
dear compatriot. But from what we have heard from the superintendent, the
courses of your conservatoire are not largely attended.”

“The only pupils I have are all
young men, the young ladies thinking they are provided at birth with all the
necessary graces. And the young men prefer to take their lessons in private,
and it is in private that I teach them good French manners!” And he smiled as
he spoke, simpering like an old coquette, and disposing himself in graceful
attitudes.

Athanase Dorémus, a Picard of
Santerre, had left France in his early youth, and settled in the United States
at New Orleans. There among the French population of our regretted Louisiana,
opportunities did not fail him for exercising the talents. Admitted into the
principal families, he achieved success, and had begun to save money, when one
of the most American of enterprises lifted him into smooth water. This was at
the time that the Floating Island Company launched its project, scattering its
prospectuses far and wide, advertising itself lavishly in the newspapers,
appealing to all the ultra-rich who had made their incalculable fortunes out of
railways, petroleum wells, and the pork trade, salt or otherwise. Athanase Dorémus
conceived the idea of asking for employment of the governor of the new city in
which professors of his kind were not likely to be found. Favourably known in
the Coverley family, who were natives of New Orleans, he was recommended by its
chief, who was about to become one of the most prominent notables of the
Starboardites of Milliard City, and thereupon accepted. That is how a Frenchman,
and even a Picard, became one of the functionaries of Floating Island.

It is true that his lessons were
only given at his house, and the dancing-room at the casino saw nobody but the
professor reflected in its mirrors. But what did that matter so long as the
lack of pupils made no decrease in his salary?

In short, he was a good fellow,
slightly ridiculous and crazy, perhaps, and infatuated with himself, persuaded
that he possessed, with the heritage of the Vestrises and Saint Leons, the
traditions of Brummel and Lord Seymour. In the eyes of the quartette he was a
compatriot
—
a
quality always appreciated when thousands of leagues from France.

He had to be told the later
adventures of the four Parisians, under what circumstances they had arrived in
the island, how Calistus Munbar had enticed them on board, and how the island
had weighed anchor a few hours after they had embarked.

“I am not at all surprised at
that, in our superintendent,” replied the old professor. “That is quite in his
style. He has done it, and will do it again with others. He is a true son of
Barnum, and will end by getting the company into trouble. He is a free-and-easy
gentleman who would be all the better for a few lessons in deportment, I assure
you; one of those Yankees who see-saw in a chair with their legs on the
window-sill. Not bad at the bottom, but thinking they can do what they like.
But do not bear him any ill-will. Except for the unpleasantness of having
broken your engagement at San Diego, you will have only to congratulate
yourselves on your sojourn at Milliard City. People will have a high opinion of
you, as you will find.”

“Particularly at the end of each
quarter!” replied Frascolin, whose functions as treasurer of the party began to
be of exceptional importance.

To the question he was asked on
the subject of the rivalry between the two sections of the island, Athanase Dorémus
confirmed what Calistus Munbar had said. In his opinion there was a cloud on
the horizon, and even the menace of an approaching storm. Between the
Starboardites and Larboardites a conflict of interests and self-esteem was to
be feared. The families of Tankerdon and Coverley, the richest in the place,
were betraying increasing jealousy towards each other, and this would probably
produce an explosion, if some means of conciliation could not be found. Yes. An
explosion!

“Providing it does not explode in
the island, we have nothing to be anxious about them,” observed Pinchinat.

“At least, so long as we are on
board!”  added the ‘cellist.

“Oh! It is firm enough, my dear
compatriots,” replied Athanase Dorémus. “For the eighteen months it has been
afloat, no accident of any importance has happened to it. Nothing but a few
insignificant repairs, which did not even require it to return to Madeleine
Bay. Just think, it is made of plates of steel!”

That answered everything, and if
plates of steel did not give an absolute guarantee in this world, to what metal
could you trust?

Pinchinat was then led to ask
what the professor thought of Governor Cyrus Bikerstaff.

“Is he of steel also?”

“Yes, Monsieur Pinchinat,”
replied Athanase Dorémus, “he is gifted with great energy, and is a most able
administrator. Unfortunately, in Milliard City it is not enough to be made of
steel.”

“You must be made of gold,” retorted
Yvernès.

“Just so; or if you are not, you
are of no account!”

That was the case exactly. Cyrus
Bikerstaff, notwith standing his high position, was only a servant of the
company. He presided at the proceedings of the municipality, he had to receive
the customs, to watch over the public health, to keep the roads clean, to
superintend the plantations, to receive the revenue
—
in a word, to make enemies on all
sides. In Floating Island it was necessary to be wealthy; Cyrus Bikerstaff was
not wealthy.

In addition to this, his duties
obliged him to maintain a conciliatory attitude between both parties, to risk
nothing that might be agreeable to one that was not agreeable to the other. A
policy that was not easy.

Already ideas were evidently
getting about that might bring the two sections into conflict. If the
Starboardites had settled on Floating Island solely with a view to peaceably
enjoy their riches, the Larboardites began to hanker after business. They were
asking why Floating Island should not be used as an immense merchant vessel and
carry cargo to every part of Oceania, why all industries were forbidden in the
island? In short, although they had been here less than two years, these
Yankees, with Tankerdon at the head, were beginning to long to do a trade
again. Although they had not stated this in so many words, Cyrus Bikerstaff
could not help being anxious about it. He hoped, however, that the future would
not grow worse, and that intestine dissension would not trouble an island made
expressly for the tranquillity of its inhabitants.

In taking leave of Athanase Dorémus,
the quartette promised to visit him again. As a rule, the professor went in the
afternoon to the casino to which nobody came. There, not wishing to be accused
of unpunctuality, he waited preparing his lessons before the looking-glasses in
the room.

The island gradually moved to the
westward, and a little towards the north-west, so as to touch at the Sandwich
Islands. In the latitudes bordering on the torrid zone the temperature is
already high, and the inhabitants of Milliard City would have found it almost
unbearable had it not been for the cooling sea breeze. Fortunately, the nights
are fresh, and even in the dog-days the trees and lawns watered with artificial
rain retained their attractive verdure. Every day, at noon, the position shown
on the dials of the town hall was telegraphed to the different quarters. On the
17th of June, Floating Island was in 155
⁰
longitude west and 27
°
latitude north,
and approaching the tropics.

“You might say it was the sun
which towed us” remarked Yvernès, “or if you like it more elegantly, that we
have for our team the horses of the divine Apollo!”

The observation was as
appropriate as it was poetical, but Sebastien Zorn received it with a shrug of
his shoulders. It did not suit him to be towed
—
against
his will.

“Well,” he would never cease
repeating, “we shall see how this adventure will end.”

The quartette generally went into
the park every day at the fashionable hour. On horse, on foot, in their
carriages, all the notables of Milliard City were to be met with around the
lawns. The ladies of fashion here showed their third daily toilette, of one
colour throughout, from the hat to the boots, and usually of Indian silk, which
was very fashionable this year. Often, too, they wore artificial silk made of
cellulose, in which there is such a play of colour; or even imitation cotton,
made of pine or larch-wood defibrized and disintegrated.

This provoked Pinchinat to remark,
“You will see that one day they will make fabrics of ivy-wood for faithful
friends, and weeping willow for inconsolable widows.”

In any case, the wealthy
Milliardites would not have worn these fabrics if they had not come from Paris,
nor these dresses if they had not borne the name of the king of dressmakers
—
of him who
haughtily proclaimed the axiom: “Woman is only a question of dress.”

Sometimes the King and Queen of
Malecarlie would pass among these smart gentry. The royal couple, deprived of
their sovereignty, inspired our artistes with real sympathy. What reflections
occurred to them at seeing these august personages arm-in-arm. They were
relatively poor amid this wealthy crowd, but they were evidently proud and
honourable, like philosophers withdrawn from the cares of this world. It is
true that the Americans of Floating Island were at heart much flattered at
having a king for one of their citizens, and treated him with the respect due
to his former position. The quartette respectfully saluted their Majesties when
they met them in the avenues of the town or the footpath of the park. The King
and Queen showed that they much appreciated these marks of deference that were
so French. But their Majesties were of no more account than Cyrus Bikerstaff
—
perhaps less.

In truth, travellers who were frightened
at a sea-voyage might well adopt this kind of navigation on a moving island.
Under such circumstances, there could not be any anxiety as to the accidents of
the sea. There was nothing to fear from storms. With ten million horse-power on
its flanks, a Floating Island could never be detained by calms, and would be
powerful enough to make headway against contrary winds. If there were any
danger from collisions, the danger was not to the island. So much the worse for
the vessels that hurled themselves at full speed or under full sail against its
sides of steel. But there was not much fear of such encounters, owing to the
electric light of its aluminium moons with which the atmosphere was filled
during the night. As to storms, they were not worth talking about. The island
was large enough to put a bridle on the fury of the waves.

And when their walks brought
Pinchinat and Frascolin to the bow or stern of the island, either to the Prow
or Stern Battery, they were both of opinion that there was a want of capes,
promontories, points, creeks, and beaches. The shore was but a breastwork of
steel kept in place by millions of bolts and rivets. And how a painter would
have regretted the absence of those old rocks, rough as an elephant’s skin,
which the surf caresses with seaweeds as the tide comes in. Decidedly, you do
not replace the beauties of nature by the marvels of industry. In spite of his
permanent admiration, Yvernès was forced to admit that the imprint of the
Creator was wanting on this artificial island.

During the evening of the 25th of
June Floating Island crossed the tropic of Cancer and entered the Torrid Zone
of the Pacific. At this hour, the quartette were giving their second
performance in the casino. Kindly note that owing to the success of their first
appearance, the price of stalls was now increased by a third.