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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11556 ***
+
+                     Facing the Flag by Jules Verne
+
+[Redactor's Note: _Facing the Flag_ {number V044 in the T&M listing of
+Verne's works} is an anonymous translation of _Face au drapeau_ (1896)
+first published in the U.S. by F. Tennyson Neely in 1897, and later
+(circa 1903) republished from the same plates by Hurst and F.M. Lupton
+(Federal Book Co.). This is a different translation from the one
+published by Sampson & Low in England entitled _For the Flag_ (1897)
+translated by Mrs. Cashel Hoey.]
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+FACING THE FLAG
+
+BY
+
+J U L E S   V E R N E
+
+AUTHOR OF "AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS"; "TWENTY
+THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA"; "FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON," ETC.
+
+New York
+
+THE F. M. LUPTON PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1897
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+  CONTENTS
+
+       CHAP
+
+       I.       Healthful House
+
+
+       II.      Count d'Artigas
+
+
+       III.     Kidnapped
+
+
+       IV.      The Schooner "Ebba"
+
+
+       V.       Where am I.--(Notes by Simon Hart, the Engineer.)
+
+
+       VI.      On Deck
+
+
+       VII.     Two Days at Sea
+
+
+       VIII.    Back Cup
+
+
+       IX.      Inside Back Cup
+
+
+       X.       Ker Karraje
+
+
+       XI.      Five Weeks in Back Cup
+
+
+       XII.     Engineer Serko's Advice
+
+
+       XIII.    God Be with It
+
+
+       XIV.     Battle Between the "Sword" and the Tug
+
+
+       XV.      Expectation
+
+
+       XVI.     Only a few more Hours
+
+
+       XVII.    One against Five
+
+
+       XVIII.   On Board the "Tonnant"
+
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+FACING THE FLAG.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+HEALTHFUL HOUSE.
+
+
+The _carte de visite_ received that day, June 15, 189-, by the
+director of the establishment of Healthful House was a very neat one,
+and simply bore, without escutcheon or coronet, the name:
+
+                         COUNT D'ARTIGAS.
+
+Below this name, in a corner of the card, the following address was
+written in lead pencil:
+
+"On board the schooner _Ebba_, anchored off New-Berne, Pamlico Sound."
+
+The capital of North Carolina--one of the forty-four states of the
+Union at this epoch--is the rather important town of Raleigh, which is
+about one hundred and fifty miles in the interior of the province. It
+is owing to its central position that this city has become the seat
+of the State legislature, for there are others that equal and
+even surpass it in industrial and commercial importance, such as
+Wilmington, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Edenton, Washington, Salisbury,
+Tarborough, Halifax, and New-Berne. The latter town is situated on
+estuary of the Neuse River, which empties itself into Pamlico Sound, a
+sort of vast maritime lake protected by a natural dyke formed by the
+isles and islets of the Carolina coast.
+
+The director of Healthful House could never have imagined why the card
+should have been sent to him, had it not been accompanied by a
+note from the Count d'Artigas soliciting permission to visit the
+establishment. The personage in question hoped that the director would
+grant his request, and announced that he would present himself in the
+afternoon, accompanied by Captain Spade, commander of the schooner
+_Ebba_.
+
+This desire to penetrate to the interior of the celebrated sanitarium,
+then in great request by the wealthy invalids of the United States,
+was natural enough on the part of a foreigner. Others who did not bear
+such a high-sounding name as the Count d'Artigas had visited it, and
+had been unstinting in their compliments to the director. The latter
+therefore hastened to accord the authorization demanded, and added
+that he would be honored to open the doors of the establishment to the
+Count d'Artigas.
+
+Healthful House, which contained a select _personnel_, and was assured
+of the co-operation of the most celebrated doctors in the country, was
+a private enterprise. Independent of hospitals and almshouses, but
+subjected to the surveillance of the State, it comprised all the
+conditions of comfort and salubrity essential to establishments of
+this description designed to receive an opulent _clientele_.
+
+It would have been difficult to find a more agreeable situation than
+that of Healthful House. On the landward slope of a hill extended a
+park of two hundred acres planted with the magnificent vegetation that
+grows so luxuriantly in that part of North America, which is equal in
+latitude to the Canary and Madeira Islands. At the furthermost limit
+of the park lay the wide estuary of the Neuse, swept by the cool
+breezes of Pamlico Sound and by the winds that blew from the ocean
+beyond the narrow _lido_ of the coast.
+
+Healthful House, where rich invalids were cared for under such
+excellent hygienic conditions, was more generally reserved for the
+treatment of chronic complaints; but the management did not decline to
+admit patients affected by mental troubles, when the latter were not
+of an incurable nature.
+
+It thus happened--a circumstance that was bound to attract a good deal
+of attention to Healthful House, and which perhaps was the motive
+for the visit of the Count d'Artigas--that a person of world-wide
+notoriety had for eighteen months been under special observation
+there.
+
+This person was a Frenchman named Thomas Roch, forty-five years of
+age. He was, beyond question, suffering from some mental malady, but
+expert alienists admitted that he had not entirely lost the use of
+his reasoning faculties. It was only too evident that he had lost all
+notion of things as far as the ordinary acts of life were concerned;
+but in regard to subjects demanding the exercise of his genius, his
+sanity was unimpaired and unassailable--a fact which demonstrates how
+true is the _dictum_ that genius and madness are often closely
+allied! Otherwise his condition manifested itself by complete loss
+of memory;--the impossibility of concentrating his attention upon
+anything, lack of judgment, delirium and incoherence. He no longer
+even possessed the natural animal instinct of self-preservation, and
+had to be watched like an infant whom one never permits out of one's
+sight. Therefore a warder was detailed to keep close watch over him
+by day and by night in Pavilion No. 17, at the end of Healthful House
+Park, which had been specially set apart for him.
+
+Ordinary insanity, when it is not incurable, can only be cured by
+moral means. Medicine and therapeutics are powerless, and their
+inefficacy has long been recognized by specialists. Were these moral
+means applicable to the case of Thomas Roch? One may be permitted
+to doubt it, even amid the tranquil and salubrious surroundings of
+Healthful House. As a matter of fact the very symptoms of uneasiness,
+changes of temper, irritability, queer traits of character,
+melancholy, apathy, and a repugnance for serious occupations were
+distinctly apparent; no treatment seemed capable of curing or even
+alleviating these symptoms. This was patent to all his medical
+attendants.
+
+It has been justly remarked that madness is an excess of subjectivity;
+that is to say, a state in which the mind accords too much to mental
+labor and not enough to outward impressions. In the case of Thomas
+Roch this indifference was practically absolute. He lived but within
+himself, so to speak, a prey to a fixed idea which had brought him to
+the condition in which we find him. Could any circumstance occur
+to counteract it--to "exteriorize" him, as it were? The thing was
+improbable, but it was not impossible.
+
+It is now necessary to explain how this Frenchman came to quit France,
+what motive attracted him to the United States, why the Federal
+government had judged it prudent and necessary to intern him in this
+sanitarium, where every utterance that unconsciously escaped him
+during his crises were noted and recorded with the minutest care.
+
+Eighteen months previously the Secretary of the Navy at Washington,
+had received a demand for an audience in regard to a communication
+that Thomas Roch desired to make to him.
+
+As soon as he glanced at the name, the secretary perfectly understood
+the nature of the communication and the terms which would accompany
+it, and an immediate audience was unhesitatingly accorded.
+
+Thomas Roch's notoriety was indeed such that, out of solicitude for
+the interests confided to his keeping, and which he was bound to
+safeguard, he could not hesitate to receive the petitioner and listen
+to the proposals which the latter desired personally to submit to him.
+
+Thomas Roch was an inventor--an inventor of genius. Several important
+discoveries had brought him prominently to the notice of the
+world. Thanks to him, problems that had previously remained purely
+theoretical had received practical application. He occupied a
+conspicuous place in the front rank of the army of science. It will be
+seen how worry, deceptions, mortification, and the outrages with which
+he was overwhelmed by the cynical wits of the press combined to drive
+him to that degree of madness which necessitated his internment in
+Healthful House.
+
+His latest invention in war-engines bore the name of Roch's
+Fulgurator. This apparatus possessed, if he was to be believed, such
+superiority over all others, that the State which acquired it would
+become absolute master of earth and ocean.
+
+The deplorable difficulties inventors encounter in connection with
+their inventions are only too well known, especially when they
+endeavor to get them adopted by governmental commissions. Several of
+the most celebrated examples are still fresh in everybody's memory.
+It is useless to insist upon this point, because there are sometimes
+circumstances underlying affairs of this kind upon which it is
+difficult to obtain any light. In regard to Thomas Roch, however,
+it is only fair to say that, as in the case of the majority of his
+predecessors, his pretensions were excessive. He placed such an
+exorbitant price upon his new engine that it was practicably
+impossible to treat with him.
+
+This was due to the fact--and it should not be lost sight of--that in
+respect of previous inventions which had been most fruitful in result,
+he had been imposed upon with the greatest audacity. Being unable
+to obtain therefrom the profits which he had a right to expect, his
+temper had become soured. He became suspicious, would give up nothing
+without knowing just what he was doing, impose conditions that
+were perhaps unacceptable, wanted his mere assertions accepted as
+sufficient guarantee, and in any case asked for such a large sum of
+money on account before condescending to furnish the test of practical
+experiment that his overtures could not be entertained.
+
+In the first place he had offered the fulgurator to France, and made
+known the nature of it to the commission appointed to pass upon his
+proposition. The fulgurator was a sort of auto-propulsive engine,
+of peculiar construction, charged with an explosive composed of new
+substances and which only produced its effect under the action of a
+deflagrator that was also new.
+
+When this engine, no matter in what way it was launched, exploded, not
+on striking the object aimed at, but several hundred yards from it,
+its action upon the atmospheric strata was so terrific that any
+construction, warship or floating battery, within a zone of twelve
+thousand square yards, would be blown to atoms. This was the principle
+of the shell launched by the Zalinski pneumatic gun with which
+experiments had already been made at that epoch, but its results were
+multiplied at least a hundred-fold.
+
+If, therefore, Thomas Roch's invention possessed this power, it
+assured the offensive and defensive superiority of his native country.
+But might not the inventor be exaggerating, notwithstanding that the
+tests of other engines he had conceived had proved incontestably that
+they were all he had claimed them to be? This, experiment could alone
+show, and it was precisely here where the rub came in. Roch would
+not agree to experiment until the millions at which he valued his
+fulgurator had first been paid to him.
+
+It is certain that a sort of disequilibrium had then occurred in his
+mental faculties. It was felt that he was developing a condition of
+mind that would gradually lead to definite madness. No government
+could possibly condescend to treat with him under the conditions he
+imposed.
+
+The French commission was compelled to break off all negotiations with
+him, and the newspapers, even those of the Radical Opposition, had to
+admit that it was difficult to follow up the affair.
+
+In view of the excess of subjectivity which was unceasingly augmenting
+in the profoundly disturbed mind of Thomas Roch, no one will be
+surprised at the fact that the cord of patriotism gradually relaxed
+until it ceased to vibrate. For the honor of human nature be it said
+that Thomas Roch was by this time irresponsible for his actions. He
+preserved his whole consciousness only in so far as subjects bearing
+directly upon his invention were concerned. In this particular he had
+lost nothing of his mental power. But in all that related to the most
+ordinary details of existence his moral decrepitude increased daily
+and deprived him of complete responsibility for his acts.
+
+Thomas Roch's invention having been refused by the commission, steps
+ought to have been taken to prevent him from offering it elsewhere.
+Nothing of the kind was done, and there a great mistake was made.
+
+The inevitable was bound to happen, and it did. Under a growing
+irritability the sentiment of patriotism, which is the very essence of
+the citizen--who before belonging to himself belongs to his country--
+became extinct in the soul of the disappointed inventor. His thoughts
+turned towards other nations. He crossed the frontier, and forgetting
+the ineffaceable past, offered the fulgurator to Germany.
+
+There, as soon as his exorbitant demands were made known, the
+government refused to receive his communication. Besides, it so
+happened that the military authorities were just then absorbed by the
+construction of a new ballistic engine, and imagined they could afford
+to ignore that of the French inventor.
+
+As the result of this second rebuff Roch's anger became coupled with
+hatred--an instinctive hatred of humanity--especially after his
+_pourparlers_ with the British Admiralty came to naught. The English
+being practical people, did not at first repulse Thomas Roch. They
+sounded him and tried to get round him; but Roch would listen to
+nothing. His secret was worth millions, and these millions he would
+have, or they would not have his secret. The Admiralty at last
+declined to have anything more to do with him.
+
+It was in these conditions, when his intellectual trouble was growing
+daily worse, that he made a last effort by approaching the American
+Government. That was about eighteen months before this story opens.
+
+The Americans, being even more practical than the English, did not
+attempt to bargain for Roch's fulgurator, to which, in view of the
+French chemist's reputation, they attached exceptional importance.
+They rightly esteemed him a man of genius, and took the measures
+justified by his condition, prepared to indemnify him equitably later.
+
+As Thomas Roch gave only too visible proofs of mental alienation,
+the Administration, in the very interest of his invention, judged it
+prudent to sequestrate him.
+
+As is already known, he was not confined in a lunatic asylum, but was
+conveyed to Healthful House, which offered every guarantee for the
+proper treatment of his malady. Yet, though the most careful attention
+had been devoted to him, no improvement had manifested itself.
+
+Thomas Roch, let it be again remarked--this point cannot be too often
+insisted upon--incapable though he was of comprehending and performing
+the ordinary acts and duties of life, recovered all his powers when
+the field of his discoveries was touched upon. He became animated, and
+spoke with the assurance of a man who knows whereof he is descanting,
+and an authority that carried conviction with it. In the heat of his
+eloquence he would describe the marvellous qualities of his fulgurator
+and the truly extraordinary effects it caused. As to the nature of the
+explosive and of the deflagrator, the elements of which the latter was
+composed, their manufacture, and the way in which they were employed,
+he preserved complete silence, and all attempts to worm the secret out
+of him remained ineffectual. Once or twice, during the height of the
+paroxysms to which he was occasionally subject, there had been reason
+to believe that his secret would escape him, and every precaution had
+been taken to note his slightest utterance. But Thomas Roch had
+each time disappointed his watchers. If he no longer preserved the
+sentiment of self-preservation, he at least knew how to preserve the
+secret of his discovery.
+
+Pavilion No. 17 was situated in the middle of a garden that was
+surrounded by hedges, and here Roch was accustomed to take exercise
+under the surveillance of his guardian. This guardian lived in the
+same pavilion, slept in the same room with him, and kept constant
+watch upon him, never leaving him for an hour. He hung upon
+the lightest words uttered by the patient in the course of his
+hallucinations, which generally occurred in the intermediary state
+between sleeping and waking--watched and listened while he dreamed.
+
+This guardian was known as Gaydon. Shortly after the sequestration of
+Thomas Roch, having learned that an attendant speaking French fluently
+was wanted, he had applied at Healthful House for the place, and had
+been engaged to look after the new inmate.
+
+In reality the alleged Gaydon was a French engineer named Simon Hart,
+who for several years past had been connected with a manufactory of
+chemical products in New Jersey. Simon Hart was forty years of age.
+His high forehead was furrowed with the wrinkle that denoted the
+thinker, and his resolute bearing denoted energy combined with
+tenacity. Extremely well versed in the various questions relating to
+the perfecting of modern armaments, Hart knew everything that had been
+invented in the shape of explosives, of which there were over eleven
+hundred at that time, and was fully able to appreciate such a man
+as Thomas Roch. He firmly believed in the power of the latter's
+fulgurator, and had no doubt whatever that the inventor had conceived
+an engine that was capable of revolutionizing the condition of both
+offensive and defensive warfare on land and sea. He was aware that the
+demon of insanity had respected the man of science, and that in Roch's
+partially diseased brain the flame of genius still burned brightly.
+Then it occurred to him that if, during Roch's crises, his secret was
+revealed, this invention of a Frenchman would be seized upon by some
+other country to the detriment of France. Impelled by a spirit of
+patriotism, he made up his mind to offer himself as Thomas Roch's
+guardian, by passing himself off as an American thoroughly conversant
+with the French language, in order that if the inventor did at any
+time disclose his secret, France alone should benefit thereby. On
+pretext of returning to Europe, he resigned his position at the New
+Jersey manufactory, and changed his name so that none should know what
+had become of him.
+
+Thus it came to pass that Simon Hart, alias Gaydon, had been an
+attendant at Healthful House for fifteen months. It required no little
+courage on the part of a man of his position and education to perform
+the menial and exacting duties of an insane man's attendant; but, as
+has been before remarked, he was actuated by a spirit of the purest
+and noblest patriotism. The idea of depriving Roch of the legitimate
+benefits due to the inventor, if he succeeded in learning his secret,
+never for an instant entered his mind.
+
+He had kept the patient under the closest possible observation for
+fifteen months yet had not been able to learn anything from him,
+or worm out of him a single reply to his questions that was of the
+slightest value. But he had become more convinced than ever of the
+importance of Thomas Roch's discovery, and was extremely apprehensive
+lest the partial madness of the inventor should become general, or
+lest he should die during one of his paroxysms and carry his secret
+with him to the grave.
+
+This was Simon Hart's position, and this the mission to which he had
+wholly devoted himself in the interest of his native country.
+
+However, notwithstanding his deceptions and troubles, Thomas Roch's
+physical health, thanks to his vigorous constitution, was not
+particularly affected. A man of medium height, with a large head,
+high, wide forehead, strongly-cut features, iron-gray hair and
+moustache, eyes generally haggard, but which became piercing and
+imperious when illuminated by his dominant idea, thin lips closely
+compressed, as though to prevent the escape of a word that could
+betray his secret--such was the inventor confined in one of
+the pavilions of Healthful House, probably unconscious of his
+sequestration, and confided to the surveillance of Simon Hart the
+engineer, become Gaydon the warder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+COUNT D'ARTIGAS.
+
+
+Just who was this Count d'Artigas? A Spaniard? So his name would
+appear to indicate. Yet on the stern of his schooner, in letters of
+gold, was the name _Ebba_, which is of pure Norwegian origin. And had
+you asked him the name of the captain of the _Ebba_, he would have
+replied, Spade, and would doubtless have added that that of the
+boatswain was Effrondat, and that of the ship's cook, Helim--all
+singularly dissimilar and indicating very different nationalities.
+
+Could any plausible hypothesis be deducted from the type presented by
+Count d'Artigas? Not easily. If the color of his skin, his black hair,
+and the easy grace of his attitude denoted a Spanish origin, the
+_ensemble_ of his person showed none of the racial characteristics
+peculiar to the natives of the Iberian peninsula.
+
+He was a man of about forty-five years of age, about the average
+height, and robustly constituted. With his calm and haughty demeanor
+he resembled an Hindoo lord in whose blood might mingle that of some
+superb type of Malay. If he was not naturally of a cold temperament,
+he at least, with his imperious gestures and brevity of speech,
+endeavored to make it appear that he was. As to the language usually
+spoken by him and his crew, it was one of those idioms current in
+the islands of the Indian Ocean and the adjacent seas. Yet when his
+maritime excursions brought him to the coasts of the old or new world
+he spoke English with remarkable facility, and with so slight an
+accent as to scarcely betray his foreign origin.
+
+None could have told anything about his past, nor even about his
+present life, nor from what source he derived his fortune,--obviously
+a large one, inasmuch as he was able to gratify his every whim and
+lived in the greatest luxury whenever he visited America,--nor where
+he resided when at home, nor where was the port from which his
+schooner hailed, and none would have ventured to question him upon any
+of these points so little disposed was he to be communicative. He was
+not the kind of man to give anything away or compromise himself in the
+slightest degree, even when interviewed by American reporters.
+
+All that was known about him was what was published in the papers when
+the arrival of the _Ebba_ was reported in some port, and particularly
+in the ports of the east coast of the United States, where the
+schooner was accustomed to put in at regular periods to lay in
+provisions and stores for a lengthy voyage. She would take on board
+not only flour, biscuits, preserves, fresh and dried meat, live stock,
+wines, beers, and spirits, but also clothing, household utensils, and
+objects of luxury--all of the finest quality and highest price, and
+which were paid for either in dollars, guineas, or other coins of
+various countries and denominations.
+
+Consequently, if no one knew anything about the private life of Count
+d'Artigas, he was nevertheless very well known in the various ports of
+the United States from the Florida peninsula to New England.
+
+It is therefore in no way surprising that the director of Healthful
+House should have felt greatly flattered by the Count's visit, and
+have received him with every mark of honor and respect.
+
+It was the first time that the schooner _Ebba_ had dropped anchor
+in the port of New-Berne, and no doubt a mere whim of her owner had
+brought him to the mouth of the Neuse. Otherwise why should he have
+come to such a place? Certainly not to lay in stores, for Pamlico
+Sound offered neither the resources nor facilities to be found in
+such ports as Boston, New York, Dover, Savannah, Wilmington in North
+Carolina, and Charleston in South Carolina. What could he have
+procured with his piastres and bank-notes in the small markets of
+New-Berne? This chief town of Craven County contained barely six
+thousand inhabitants. Its commerce consisted principally in the
+exportation of grain, pigs, furniture, and naval munitions. Besides, a
+few weeks previously, the schooner had loaded up for some destination
+which, as usual, was unknown.
+
+Had this enigmatical personage then come solely for the purpose of
+visiting Healthful House? Very likely. There would have been nothing
+surprising in the fact, seeing that the establishment enjoyed a high
+and well-merited reputation.
+
+Or perhaps the Count had been inspired by curiosity to meet Thomas
+Roch? This curiosity would have been legitimate and natural enough
+in view of the universal renown of the French inventor. Fancy--a mad
+genius who claimed that his discoveries were destined to revolutionize
+the methods of modern military art!
+
+As he had notified the director he would do, the Count d'Artigas
+presented himself in the afternoon at the door of Healthful House,
+accompanied by Captain Spade, the commander of the _Ebba_.
+
+In conformity with orders given, both were admitted and conducted to
+the office of the director. The latter received his distinguished
+visitor with _empressement_, placed himself at his disposal, and
+intimated his intention of personally conducting him over the
+establishment, not being willing to concede to anybody else the honor
+of being his _cicerone_. The Count on his part was profuse in the
+expression of his thanks for the considerations extended to him.
+
+They went over the common rooms and private habitations of the
+establishment, the director prattling unceasingly about the care with
+which the patients were tended--much better care, if he was to be
+believed, than they could possibly have had in the bosoms of their
+families--and priding himself upon the results achieved, and which had
+earned for the place its well-merited success.
+
+The Count d'Artigas listened to his ceaseless chatter with apparent
+interest, probably in order the better to dissemble the real motive of
+his visit. However, after going the rounds for an hour he ventured to
+remark:
+
+"Have you not among your patients, sir, one anent whom there was a
+great deal of talk some time ago, and whose presence here contributed
+in no small measure to attract public attention to Healthful House?"
+
+"You refer to Thomas Roch, I presume, Count?" queried the director.
+
+"Precisely--that Frenchman--that inventor--whose mental condition is
+said to be very precarious."
+
+"Very precarious, Count, and happily so, perhaps! In my opinion
+humanity has nothing to gain by his discoveries, the application of
+which would increase the already too numerous means of destruction."
+
+"You speak wisely, sir, and I entirely agree with you. Real progress
+does not lie in that direction, and I regard as inimical to society
+all those who seek to follow it. But has this inventor entirely lost
+the use of his intellectual faculties?"
+
+"Entirely, no; save as regards the ordinary things of life. In this
+respect he no longer possesses either comprehension or responsibility.
+His genius as an inventor, however, remains intact; it has survived
+his moral degeneracy, and, had his insensate demands been complied
+with, I have no doubt he would have produced a new war engine--which
+the world can get along very well without."
+
+"Very well without, as you say, sir," re-echoed the Count d'Artigas,
+and Captain Spade nodded approval.
+
+"But you will be able to judge for yourself, Count, for here is the
+pavilion occupied by Thomas Roch. If his confinement is well justified
+from the point of view of public security he is none the less treated
+with all the consideration due to him and the attention which his
+condition necessitates. Besides, Healthful House is beyond the reach
+of indiscreet persons who might...."
+
+The director completed the phrase with a significant motion of
+his head--which brought an imperceptible smile to the lips of the
+stranger.
+
+"But," asked the Count, "is Thomas Roch never left alone?"
+
+"Never, Count, never. He has a permanent attendant in whom we have
+implicit confidence, who speaks his language and keeps the closest
+possible watch upon him. If in some way or other some indication
+relative to his discovery were to escape him, it would be immediately
+noted down and its value would be passed upon by those competent to
+judge."
+
+Here the Count d'Artigas stole a rapid and meaning glance at Captain
+Spade, who responded with a gesture which said plainly enough: "I
+understand." And had any one observed the captain during the visit,
+they could not have failed to remark that he examined with the
+greatest minuteness that portion of the park surrounding Pavilion No.
+17, and the different paths leading to the latter--probably in view of
+some prearranged scheme.
+
+The garden of the pavilion was near the high wall surrounding the
+property, from the foot of which on the other side the hill sloped
+gently to the right bank of the Neuse.
+
+The pavilion itself was a one-story building surmounted by a terrace
+in the Italian style. It contained two rooms and an ante-room with
+strongly-barred windows. On each side and in rear of the habitation
+were clusters of fine trees, which were then in full leaf. In front
+was a cool, green velvety lawn, ornamented with shrubs and brilliantly
+tinted flowers. The whole garden extended over about half an acre, and
+was reserved exclusively for the use of Thomas Roch, who was free to
+wander about it at pleasure under the surveillance of his guardian.
+
+When the Count d'Artigas, Captain Spade, and the director entered the
+garden, the first person they saw was the warder Gaydon, standing
+at the door of the pavilion. Unnoticed by the director the Count
+d'Artigas eyed the attendant with singular persistence.
+
+It was not the first time that strangers had come to see the occupant
+of Pavilion No. 17, for the French inventor was justly regarded as the
+most interesting inmate of Healthful House. Nevertheless, Gaydon's
+attention was attracted by the originality of the type presented by
+the two visitors, of whose nationality he was ignorant. If the name
+of the Count d'Artigas was not unfamiliar to him, he had never had
+occasion to meet that wealthy gentleman during the latter's sojourn in
+the eastern ports. He therefore had no idea as to who the Count was.
+Neither was he aware that the schooner _Ebba_ was then anchored at the
+entrance to the Neuse, at the foot of the hill upon which Healthful
+House was situated.
+
+"Gaydon," demanded the director, "where is Thomas Roch?"
+
+"Yonder," replied the warder, pointing to a man who was walking
+meditatively under the trees in rear of the pavilion.
+
+"The Count d'Artigas has been authorized to visit Healthful House,"
+the director explained; "and does not wish to go away without having
+seen Thomas Roch, who was lately the subject of a good deal too much
+discussion."
+
+"And who would be talked about a great deal more," added the Count,
+"had the Federal Government not taken the precaution to confine him in
+this establishment."
+
+"A necessary precaution, Count."
+
+"Necessary, as you observe, Mr. Director. It is better for the peace
+of the world that his secret should die with him."
+
+After having glanced at the Count d'Artigas, Gaydon had not uttered a
+word; but preceding the two strangers he walked towards the clump of
+trees where the inventor was pacing back and forth.
+
+Thomas Roch paid no attention to them. He appeared to be oblivious of
+their presence.
+
+Meanwhile, Captain Spade, while being careful not to excite suspicion,
+had been minutely examining the immediate surroundings of the pavilion
+and the end of the park in which it was situated. From the top of the
+sloping alleys he could easily distinguish the peak of a mast which
+showed above the wall of the park. He recognized the peak at a glance
+as being that of the _Ebba_, and knew therefore that the wall at this
+part skirted the right bank of the Neuse.
+
+The Count d'Artigas' whole attention was concentrated upon the French
+inventor. The latter's health appeared to have suffered in no way
+from his eighteen months' confinement; but his queer attitude, his
+incoherent gestures, his haggard eye, and his indifference to what was
+passing around him testified only too plainly to the degeneration of
+his mental faculties.
+
+At length Thomas Roch dropped into a seat and with the end of a switch
+traced in the sand of the alley the outline of a fortification. Then
+kneeling down he made a number of little mounds that were evidently
+intended to represent bastions. He next plucked some leaves from a
+neighboring tree and stuck them in the mounds like so many tiny
+flags. All this was done with the utmost seriousness and without any
+attention whatever being paid to the onlookers.
+
+It was the amusement of a child, but a child would have lacked this
+characteristic gravity.
+
+"Is he then absolutely mad?" demanded the Count d'Artigas, who
+in spite of his habitual impassibility appeared to be somewhat
+disappointed.
+
+"I warned you, Count, that nothing could be obtained from him."
+
+"Couldn't he at least pay some attention to us?"
+
+"It would perhaps be difficult to induce him to do so."
+
+Then turning to the attendant:
+
+"Speak to him, Gaydon. Perhaps he will answer you."
+
+"Oh! he'll answer me right enough, sir, never fear," replied Gaydon.
+
+He went up to the inventor and touching him on the shoulder, said
+gently: "Thomas Roch!"
+
+The latter raised his head, and of the persons present he doubtless
+saw but his keeper, though Captain Spade had come up and all formed a
+circle about him.
+
+"Thomas Roch," continued Gaydon, speaking in English, "here are some
+visitors to see you. They are interested in your health--in your
+work."
+
+The last word alone seemed to rouse him from his indifference.
+
+"My work?" he replied, also in English, which he spoke like a native.
+
+Then taking a pebble between his index finger and bent thumb, as a
+boy plays at marbles, he projected it against one of the little
+sand-heaps. It scattered, and he jumped for joy.
+
+"Blown to pieces! The bastion is blown to pieces! My explosive has
+destroyed everything at one blow!" he shouted, the light of triumph
+flashing in his eyes.
+
+"You see," said the director, addressing the Count d'Artigas. "The
+idea of his invention never leaves him."
+
+"And it will die with him," affirmed the attendant.
+
+"Couldn't you, Gaydon, get him to talk about his fulgurator?" asked
+his chief.
+
+"I will try, if you order me to do so, sir."
+
+"Well, I do order you, for I think it might interest the Count
+d'Artigas."
+
+"Certainly," assented the Count, whose physiognomy betrayed no sign of
+the sentiments which were agitating him.
+
+"I ought to warn you that I risk bringing on another fit," observed
+Gaydon.
+
+"You can drop the conversation when you consider it prudent. Tell
+Thomas Roch that a foreigner wishes to negotiate with him for the
+purchase of his fulgurator."
+
+"But are you not afraid he may give his secret away?" questioned the
+Count.
+
+He spoke with such vivacity that Gaydon could not restrain a glance of
+distrust, which, however, did not appear to disturb the equanimity of
+that impenetrable nobleman.
+
+"No fear of that," said the warder. "No promise would induce him to
+divulge his secret. Until the millions he demands are counted into his
+hand he will remain as mute as a stone."
+
+"I don't happen to be carrying those millions about me," remarked the
+Count quietly.
+
+Gaydon again touched Roch on the shoulder and repeated:
+
+"Thomas Roch, here are some foreigners who are anxious to acquire your
+invention."
+
+The madman started.
+
+"My invention?" he cried. "My deflagrator?"
+
+And his growing animation plainly indicated the imminence of the fit
+that Gaydon had been apprehensive about, and which questions of this
+character invariably brought on.
+
+"How much will you give me for it--how much?" continued Roch. "How
+much--how much?"
+
+"Ten million dollars," replied Gaydon.
+
+"Ten millions! Ten millions! A fulgurator ten million times more
+powerful than anything hitherto invented! Ten millions for an
+autopropulsive projectile which, when it explodes, destroys everything
+in sight within a radius of over twelve thousand square yards! Ten
+millions for the only deflagrator that can provoke its explosion! Why,
+all the wealth of the world wouldn't suffice to purchase the secret
+of my engine, and rather than sell it at such a price I would cut
+my tongue in half with my teeth. Ten millions, when it is worth a
+billion--a billion--a billion!"
+
+It was clear that Roch had lost all notion of things, and had Gaydon
+offered him ten billions the madman would have replied in exactly the
+same manner.
+
+The Count d'Artigas and Captain Spade had not taken their eyes off
+him. The Count was impassible as usual, though his brow had darkened,
+but the captain shook his head in a manner that implied plainly:
+"Decidedly there is nothing to hope from this poor devil!"
+
+After his outburst Roch fled across the garden crying hoarsely:
+
+"Billions! Billions!"
+
+Gaydon turned to the director and remarked:
+
+"I told you how it would be."
+
+Then he rushed after his patient, caught him by the arm, and led him,
+without any attempt at resistance, into the pavilion and closed the
+door.
+
+The Count d'Artigas remained alone with the director, Captain Spade
+having strolled off again in the direction of the wall at the bottom
+of the park.
+
+"You see I was not guilty of exaggeration, Count," said the director.
+"It is obvious to every one that Thomas Roch is becoming daily worse.
+In my opinion his case is a hopeless one. If all the money he asks for
+were offered to him, nothing could be got from him."
+
+"Very likely," replied the Count, "still, if his pecuniary demands are
+supremely absurd, he has none the less invented an engine the power of
+which is infinite, one might say."
+
+"That is the opinion expressed by competent persons, Count. But what
+he has discovered will ere long be lost with himself in one of these
+fits which are becoming more frequent and intense. Very soon even the
+motive of interest, the only sentiment that appears to have survived
+in his mind, will become extinct."
+
+"Mayhap the sentiment of hatred will remain, though," muttered the
+Count, as Spade joined them at the garden gate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+KIDNAPPED.
+
+
+Half an hour later the Count d'Artigas and Captain Spade were
+following the beech-lined road that separated the Healthful House
+estate from the right bank of the Neuse. Both had taken leave of the
+director, the latter declaring himself greatly honored by their visit,
+and the former thanking him warmly for his courteous reception. A
+hundred-dollar bill left as a tip for the staff of the establishment
+had certainly not belied the Count's reputation for generosity. He
+was--there could be no doubt about it--a foreigner of the highest
+distinction, if distinction be measured by generosity.
+
+Issuing by the gate at the main entrance to Healthful House, they had
+skirted the wall that surrounded the property, and which was high
+enough to preclude the possibility of climbing it. Not a word passed
+between them for some time; the Count was deep in thought and Captain
+Spade was not in the habit of addressing him without being first
+spoken to.
+
+At last when they stood beneath the rear wall behind which, though it
+was not visible, the Count knew Pavilion No. 17 was situated, he said:
+
+"You managed, I presume, to thoroughly explore the place, and are
+acquainted with every detail of it?"
+
+"Certainly, _Count_" replied Captain Spade, emphasizing the title.
+
+"You are perfectly sure about it?"
+
+"Perfectly. I could go through the park with my eyes shut. If you
+still persist in carrying out your scheme the pavilion can be easily
+reached."
+
+"I do persist, Spade."
+
+"Notwithstanding Thomas Roch's mental condition?"
+
+"Notwithstanding his condition; and if we succeed in carrying him
+off----"
+
+"That is my affair. When night comes on I undertake to enter the park
+of Healthful House, and then the pavilion garden without being seen by
+anybody."
+
+"By the entrance gate?"
+
+"No, on this side."
+
+"Yes, but on this side there is the wall, and if you succeed in
+climbing it, how are you going to get over it again with Thomas Roch?
+What if the madman cries out--what if he should resist--what if his
+keeper gives the alarm?"
+
+"Don't worry yourself in the least about that. We have only got to go
+in and come out by this door."
+
+Captain Spade pointed to a narrow door let into the wall a few
+paces distant, and which was doubtless used by the staff of the
+establishment when they had occasion to go out by the river.
+
+"That is the way I propose to go in. It's much easier than scaling the
+wall with a ladder."
+
+"But the door is closed."
+
+"It will open."
+
+"Has it no bolts?"
+
+"Yes, but I shot them back while we were strolling about, and the
+director didn't notice what I had done."
+
+"How are you going to open it?" queried the Count, going to the door.
+
+"Here is the key," replied Spade, producing it.
+
+He had withdrawn it from the lock, where it happened to be, when he
+had unbolted the door.
+
+"Capital!" exclaimed the Count. "It couldn't be better. The business
+will be easier than I expected. Let us get back to the schooner. At
+eight o'clock one of the boats will put you ashore with five men."
+
+"Yes, five men will do," said Captain Spade. "There will be enough of
+them to effect our object even if the keeper is aroused and it becomes
+necessary to put him out of the way."
+
+"Put him out of the way--well, if it becomes absolutely necessary of
+course you must, but it would be better to seize him too and bring him
+aboard the _Ebba_ Who knows but what he has already learned a part of
+Roch's secret?"
+
+"True."
+
+"Besides, Thomas Roch is used to him, and I don't propose to make him
+change his habitudes in any way."
+
+This observation was accompanied by such a significant smile that
+Captain Spade could entertain no doubt as to the rôle reserved for the
+warder of Healthful House.
+
+The plan to kidnap them both was thus settled, and appeared to have
+every chance of being successful; unless during the couple of hours of
+daylight that yet remained it was noticed that the key of the door had
+been stolen and the bolts drawn back, Captain Spade and his men could
+at least count upon being able to enter the park, and the rest, the
+captain affirmed, would be easy enough.
+
+Thomas Roch was the only patient in the establishment isolated and
+kept under special surveillance. All the other invalids lived in the
+main building, or occupied pavilions in the front of the park. The
+plan was to try and seize Roch and Gaydon separately and bind and gag
+them before they could cry out.
+
+The Count d'Artigas and his companion wended their way to a creek
+where one of the _Ebba's_ boats awaited them. The schooner was
+anchored two cable lengths from the shore, her sails neatly rolled
+upon her yards, which were squared as neatly as those of a pleasure
+yacht or of a man-of-war. At the peak of the mainmast a narrow red
+pennant was gently swayed by the wind, which came in fitful puffs from
+the east.
+
+The Count and the captain jumped into the boat and a few strokes of
+the four oars brought them alongside of the schooner. They climbed
+on deck and going forward to the jib-boom, leaned over the starboard
+bulwark and gazed at an object that floated on the water a few strokes
+ahead of the vessel. It was a small buoy that was rocked by the ripple
+of the ebbing tide.
+
+Twilight gradually set in, and the outline of New-Berne on the left
+bank of the sinuous Neuse became more and more indistinct until it
+disappeared in the deepening shades of night. A mist set in from the
+sea, but though it obscured the moon it brought no sign of rain. The
+lights gleamed out one by one in the houses of the town. The fishing
+smacks came slowly up the river to their anchorage, impelled by the
+oars of their crews which struck the water with sharp, rhythmical
+strokes, and with their sails distended on the chance of catching an
+occasional puff of the dropping wind to help them along. A couple of
+steamers passed, sending up volumes of black smoke and myriads of
+sparks from their double stacks, and lashing the water into foam with
+their powerful paddles.
+
+At eight o'clock the Count d'Artigas appeared on the schooner's deck
+accompanied by a man about fifty years of age, to whom he remarked:
+
+"It is time to go, Serko."
+
+"Very well, I will tell Spade," replied Serko.
+
+At that moment the captain joined them.
+
+"You had better get ready to go," said the Count.
+
+"All is ready."
+
+"Be careful to prevent any alarm being given, and arrange matters so
+that no one will for a minute suspect that Thomas Roch and his keeper
+have been brought on board the _Ebba_."
+
+"They wouldn't find them if they came to look for them," observed
+Serko, shrugging his shoulders and laughing heartily as though he had
+perpetrated a huge joke.
+
+"Nevertheless, it is better not to arouse their suspicion," said
+d'Artigas.
+
+The boat was lowered, and Captain Spade and five sailors took their
+places in it. Four of the latter got out the oars. The boatswain,
+Effrondat, who was to remain in charge of the boat, went to the stern
+beside Captain Spade and took the tiller.
+
+"Good luck, Spade," said Serko with a smile, "and don't make more
+noise about it than if you were a gallant carrying off his lady-love."
+
+"I won't--unless that Gaydon chap--"
+
+"We must have both Roch and Gaydon," insisted the Count d'Artigas.
+
+"That is understood," replied Spade.
+
+The boat pushed off, and the sailors on the deck of the schooner
+watched it till it was lost to sight in the darkness.
+
+Pending its return, no preparations for the _Ebba's_ departure were
+made. Perhaps there was no intention of quitting the port after the
+men had been kidnapped. Besides, how could the vessel have reached the
+open sea? Not a breath of air was now stirring, and in half an hour
+the tide would be setting in again, and rising strongly and rapidly
+for several miles above New-Berne.
+
+Anchored, as has already been said, a couple of cable-lengths from the
+shore, the _Ebba_ might have been brought much nearer to it, for the
+water was deep enough, and this would have facilitated the task of the
+kidnappers when they returned from their expedition. If, however, the
+Count d'Artigas preferred to let the vessel stay where she was, he
+probably had his reasons.
+
+Not a soul was in sight on the bank, and the road, with its borders
+of beech trees that skirted the wall of Healthful House estate, was
+equally deserted. The boat was made fast to the shore. Then Captain
+Spade and his four sailors landed, leaving the boatswain in charge,
+and disappeared amid the trees.
+
+When they reached the wall Captain Spade stopped and the sailors drew
+up on each side of the doorway. The captain had only to turn the key
+in the lock and push the door, unless one of the servants, noticing
+that the door was not secured as usual, had bolted it. In this event
+their task would be an extremely difficult one, even if they succeeded
+in scaling the high wall.
+
+The captain put his ear to the key-hole and listened.
+
+Not a sound was to be heard in the park. Not even a leaf was rustling
+in the branches of the beeches under which they were standing. The
+surrounding country was wrapt in the profoundest silence.
+
+Captain Spade drew the key from his pocket, inserted it in the lock
+and turned it noiselessly. Then he cautiously pushed the door, which
+opened inward.
+
+Things were, then, just as he had left them, and no one had noticed
+the theft of the key.
+
+After assuring himself that nobody happened to be in the neighborhood
+of the pavilion the captain entered, followed by his men. The door was
+left wide open, so that they could beat a hurried and uninterrupted
+retreat in case of necessity. The trees and bushes in this shady part
+of the park were very thick, and it was so dark that it would not have
+been easy to distinguish the pavilion had not a light shone brightly
+in one of the windows.
+
+No doubt this was the window of the room occupied by Roch and his
+guardian, Gaydon, seeing that the latter never left the patient placed
+in his charge either by night or day. Captain Spade had expected to
+find him there.
+
+The party approached cautiously, taking the utmost precaution to avoid
+kicking a pebble or stepping on a twig, the noise of which might have
+revealed their presence. In this way they reached the door of the
+pavilion near which was the curtained window of the room in which the
+light was burning.
+
+But if the door was locked, how were they going to get in? Captain
+Spade must have asked himself. He had no key, and to attempt to effect
+an entrance through the window would be hazardous, for, unless Gaydon
+could be prevented from giving the alarm, he would rouse the whole
+establishment.
+
+There was no help for it, however. The essential was to get possession
+of Roch. If they could kidnap Gaydon, too, in conformity with the
+intentions of the Count d'Artigas, so much the better. If not--
+
+Captain Spade crept stealthily to the window, and standing on tiptoe,
+looked in. Through an aperture in the curtain he could see all over
+the room.
+
+Gaydon was standing beside Thomas Roch, who had not yet recovered from
+the fit with which he had been attacked during the Count d'Artigas'
+visit. His condition necessitated special attention, and the warder
+was ministering to the patient under the direction of a third person.
+
+The latter was one of the doctors attached to Healthful House, and had
+been at once sent to the pavilion by the director when Roch's
+paroxysm came on. His presence of course rendered the situation more
+complicated and the work of the kidnappers more difficult.
+
+Roch, fully dressed, was extended upon a sofa. He was now fairly calm.
+The paroxysm, which was abating, would be followed by several hours of
+torpor and exhaustion.
+
+Just as Captain Spade peeped through the window the doctor was making
+preparations to leave. The Captain heard him say to Gaydon that his
+(the doctor's) presence was not likely to be required any more that
+night, and that there was nothing to be done beyond following the
+instructions he had given.
+
+The doctor then walked towards the door, which, it will be remembered,
+was close to the window in front of which Spade and his men were
+standing. If they remained where they were they could not fail to be
+seen, not only by the doctor, but by the warder, who was accompanying
+him to the door.
+
+Before they made their appearance, however, the sailors, at a sign
+from their chief, had dispersed and hidden themselves behind the
+bushes, while Spade himself crouched in the shadow beneath the window.
+Luckily Gaydon had not brought the lamp with him, so that the captain
+was in no danger of being seen.
+
+As he was about to take leave of Gaydon, the doctor stopped on the
+step and remarked:
+
+"This is one of the worst attacks our patient has had. One or two more
+like that and he will lose the little reason he still possesses."
+
+"Just so," said Gaydon. "I wonder that the director doesn't prohibit
+all visitors from entering the pavilion. Roch owes his present attack
+to a Count d'Artigas, for whose amusement harmful questions were put
+to him."
+
+"I will call the director's attention to the matter," responded the
+doctor.
+
+He then descended the steps and Gaydon, leaving the door of the
+pavilion ajar, accompanied him to the end of the path.
+
+When they had gone Captain Spade stood up, and his men rejoined him.
+
+Had they not better profit by the chance thus unexpectedly afforded
+them to enter the room and secure Roch, who was in a semi-comatose
+condition, and then await Gaydon's return, and seize the warder as he
+entered?
+
+
+This would have involved considerable risk. Gaydon, at a glance, would
+perceive that his patient was missing and raise an alarm; the doctor
+would come running back; the whole staff of Healthful House would
+turn out, and Spade would not have time to escape with his precious
+prisoner and lock the door in the wall after him.
+
+He did not have much chance to deliberate about it, for the warder was
+heard returning along the gravel path. Spade decided that the best
+thing to be done was to spring upon him as he passed and stifle
+his cries and overpower him before he could attempt to offer any
+resistance. The carrying off of the mad inventor would be easy enough,
+inasmuch as he was unconscious, and could not raise a finger to help
+himself.
+
+Gaydon came round a clump of bushes and approached the entrance to the
+pavilion. As he raised his foot to mount the steps the four sailors
+sprang upon him, bore him backwards to the ground, and had gagged him,
+securely bound him hand and foot, and bandaged his eyes before he
+began to realize what had happened.
+
+Two of the men then kept guard over him, while Captain Spade and the
+others entered the house.
+
+As the captain had surmised, Thomas Roch had sunk into such a torpor
+that he could have heard nothing of what had been going on outside.
+Reclining at full length, with his eyes closed, he might have been
+taken for a dead man but for his heavy breathing. There was no need
+either to bind or gag him. One man took him by the head and another by
+the feet and started off with him to the schooner.
+
+Captain Spade was the last to quit the house after extinguishing the
+lamp and closing the door behind him. In this way there was no reason
+to suppose that the inmates would be missed before morning.
+
+Gaydon was carried off in the same way as Thomas Roch had been. The
+two remaining sailors lifted him and bore him quietly but rapidly down
+the path to the door in the wall. The park was pitch dark. Not even a
+glimmer of the lights in the windows of Healthful House could be seen
+through the thick foliage.
+
+Arrived at the wall, Spade, who had led the way, stepped aside to
+allow the sailors with their burdens to pass through, then followed
+and closed and locked the door. He put the key in his pocket,
+intending to throw it into the Neuse as soon as they were safely on
+board the schooner.
+
+There was no one on the road, nor on the bank of the river.
+
+The party made for the boat, and found that Effrondat, the boatswain,
+had made all ready to receive them.
+
+Thomas Roch and Gaydon were laid in the bottom of the boat, and the
+sailors again took their places at the oars.
+
+"Hurry up, Effrondat, and cast off the painter," ordered the captain.
+
+The boatswain obeyed, and pushed the boat off with his foot as he
+scrambled in.
+
+The men bent to their oars and rowed rapidly to the schooner, which
+was easily distinguishable, having hung out a light at her mizzenmast
+head.
+
+In two minutes they were alongside.
+
+The Count d'Artigas was leaning on the bulwarks by the gangway.
+
+"All right, Spade?" he questioned.
+
+"Yes, sir, all right!"
+
+"Both of them?"
+
+"Both the madman and his keeper."
+
+"Doesn't anybody know about it up at Healthful House?
+
+"Not a soul."
+
+It was not likely that Gaydon, whose eyes and ears were bandaged, but
+who preserved all his sang-froid, could have recognized the voices of
+the Count d'Artigas and Captain Spade. Nor did he have the chance to.
+No attempt was immediately made to hoist him on board. He had been
+lying in the bottom of the boat alongside the schooner for fully
+half an hour, he calculated, before he felt himself lifted, and then
+lowered, doubtless to the bottom of the hold.
+
+The kidnapping having been accomplished it would seem that it only
+remained for the _Ebba_ to weigh anchor, descend the estuary and make
+her way out to sea through Pamlico Sound. Yet no preparations for
+departure were made.
+
+Was it not dangerous to stay where they were after their daring
+raid? Had the Count d'Artigas hidden his prisoners so securely as to
+preclude the possibility of their being discovered if the _Ebba_,
+whose presence in proximity to Healthful House could not fail to
+excite suspicion, received a visit from the New-Berne police?
+
+However this might have been, an hour after the return of the
+expedition, every soul on board save the watch--the Count d'Artigas,
+Serko, and Captain Spade in their respective cabins, and the crew in
+the fore-castle, were sound asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE SCHOONER EBBA.
+
+
+It was not till the next morning, and then very leisurely, that
+the _Ebba_ began to make preparations for her departure. From the
+extremity of New-Berne quay the crew might have been seen holystoning
+the deck, after which they loosened the reef lines, under the
+direction of Effrondat, the boatswain, hoisted in the boats and
+cleared the halyards.
+
+At eight o'clock the Count d'Artigas had not yet appeared on deck.
+His companion, Serko the engineer, as he was called on board, had not
+quitted his cabin. Captain Spade was strolling quietly about giving
+orders.
+
+The _Ebba_ would have made a splendid racing yacht, though she had
+never participated in any of the yacht races either on the North
+American or British coasts. The height of her masts, the extent of
+the canvas she carried, her shapely, raking hull, denoted her to be a
+craft of great speed, and her general lines showed that she was also
+built to weather the roughest gales at sea. In a favorable wind she
+would probably make twelve knots an hour.
+
+Notwithstanding these advantages, however, she must in a dead calm
+necessarily suffer from the same disadvantages as other sailing
+vessels, and it might have been supposed that the Count d'Artigas
+would have preferred a steam-yacht with which he could have gone
+anywhere, at any time, in any weather. But apparently he was satisfied
+to stick to the old method, even when he made his long trips across
+the Atlantic.
+
+On this particular morning the wind was blowing gently from the west,
+which was very favorable to the _Ebba_, and would enable her to stand
+straight out of the Neuse, across Pamlico Sound, and through one of
+the inlets that led to the open sea.
+
+At ten o'clock the _Ebba_ was still rocking lazily at anchor, her stem
+up stream and her cable tautened by the rapidly ebbing tide. The small
+buoy that on the previous evening had been moored near the schooner
+was no longer to be seen, and had doubtless been hoisted in.
+
+Suddenly a gun boomed out and a slight wreath of white smoke arose
+from the battery. It was answered by other reports from the guns on
+the chain of islands along the coast.
+
+At this moment the Count d'Artigas and Engineer Serko appeared on
+deck. Captain Spade went to meet them.
+
+"Guns barking," he said laconically.
+
+"We expected it," replied Serko, shrugging his shoulders. "They are
+signals to close the passes."
+
+"What has that to do with us?" asked the Count d'Artigas quietly.
+
+"Nothing at all," said the engineer.
+
+They all, of course, knew that the alarm-guns indicated that the
+disappearance of Thomas Roch and the warder Gaydon from Healthful
+House had been discovered.
+
+At daybreak the doctor had gone to Pavilion No. 17 to see how
+his patient had passed the night, and had found no one there. He
+immediately notified the director, who had the grounds thoroughly
+searched. It was then discovered that the door in rear of the park was
+unbolted, and that, though locked, the key had been taken away. It was
+evident that Roch and his attendant had been carried out that way. But
+who were the kidnappers? No one could possibly imagine. All that could
+be ascertained was that at half-past seven on the previous night one
+of the doctors had attended Thomas Roch, who was suffering from one of
+his fits, and that when the medical man had left him the invalid was
+in an unconscious condition. What had happened after the doctor took
+leave of Gaydon at the end of the garden-path could not even be
+conjectured.
+
+The news of the disappearance was telegraphed to New Berne, and thence
+to Raleigh. On receipt of it the Governor had instantly wired orders
+that no vessel was to be allowed to quit Pamlico Sound without having
+been first subjected to a most rigorous search. Another dispatch
+ordered the cruiser _Falcon_, which was stationed in the port, to
+carry out the Governor's instructions in this respect. At the same
+time measures were taken to keep a strict lookout in every town and
+village in the State.
+
+The Count d'Artigas could see the _Falcon_, which was a couple of
+miles away to the east in the estuary, getting steam up and making
+hurried preparations to carry out her mission. It would take at least
+an hour before the warship could be got ready to steam out, and the
+schooner might by that time have gained a good start.
+
+"Shall I weigh anchor?" demanded Captain Spade.
+
+"Yes, as we have a fair wind; but you can take your time about it,"
+replied the Count d'Artigas.
+
+"The passes of Pamlico Sound will be under observation," observed
+Engineer Serko, "and no vessel will be able to get out without
+receiving a visit from gentlemen as inquisitive as they will be
+indiscreet."
+
+"Never mind, get under way all the same," ordered the Count. "When the
+officers of the cruiser or the Custom-House officers have been over
+the _Ebba_ the embargo will be raised. I shall be indeed surprised if
+we are not allowed to go about our business."
+
+"With a thousand pardons for the liberty taken, and best wishes for a
+good voyage and speedy return," chuckled Engineer Serko, following the
+phrase with a loud and prolonged laugh.
+
+When the news was received at New-Berne, the authorities at first were
+puzzled to know whether the missing inventor and his keeper had fled
+or been carried off. As, however, Roch's flight could not have taken
+place without the connivance of Gaydon, this supposition was speedily
+abandoned. In the opinion of the director and management of Healthful
+House the warder was absolutely above suspicion. They must both, then,
+have been kidnapped.
+
+It can easily be imagined what a sensation the news caused in the
+town. What! the French inventor who had been so closely guarded had
+disappeared, and with him the secret of the wonderful fulgurator that
+nobody had been able to worm out of him? Might not the most serious
+consequences follow? Might not the discovery of the new engine be lost
+to America forever? If the daring act had been perpetrated on behalf
+of another nation, might not that nation, having Thomas Roch in
+its power, be eventually able to extract from him what the Federal
+Government had vainly endeavored to obtain? And was it reasonable, was
+it permissible, to suppose for an instant that he had been carried off
+for the benefit of a private individual?
+
+Certainly not, was the emphatic reply to the latter question, which
+was too ridiculous to be entertained. Therefore the whole power of
+the State was employed in an effort to recover the inventor. In every
+county of North Carolina a special surveillance was organized on
+every road and at every railroad station, and every house in town
+and country was searched. Every port from Wilmington to Norfolk was
+closed, and no craft of any description could leave without being
+thoroughly overhauled. Not only the cruiser _Falcon_, but every
+available cutter and launch was sent out with orders to patrol
+Pamlico Sound and board yachts, merchant vessels and fishing smacks
+indiscriminately whether anchored or not and search them down to the
+keelson.
+
+Still the crew of the _Ebba_ prepared calmly to weigh anchor, and the
+Count d'Artigas did not appear to be in the least concerned at the
+orders of the authorities and at the consequences that would ensue, if
+Thomas Roch and his keeper, Gaydon, were found on board.
+
+At last all was ready, the crew manned the capstan bars, the sails
+were hoisted, and the schooner glided gracefully through the water
+towards the Sound.
+
+Twenty miles from New-Berne the estuary curves abruptly and shoots off
+towards the northwest for about the same distance, gradually widening
+until it empties itself into Pamlico Sound.
+
+The latter is a vast expanse about seventy miles across from Sivan
+Island to Roanoke. On the seaward side stretches a chain of long and
+narrow islands, forming a natural breakwater north and south from
+Cape Lookout to Cape Hatteras and from the latter to Cape Henry, near
+Norfolk City, in Virginia.
+
+Numerous beacons on the islands and islets form an easy guide for
+vessels at night seeking refuge from the Atlantic gales, and once
+inside the chain they are certain of finding plenty of good anchoring
+grounds.
+
+Several passes afford an outlet from the Sound to the sea. Beyond
+Sivan Island lighthouse is Ocracoke inlet, and next is the inlet of
+Hatteras. There are also three others known as Logger Head inlet, New
+inlet, and Oregon inlet. The Ocracoke was the one nearest the _Ebba_,
+and she could make it without tacking, but the _Falcon_ was searching
+all vessels that passed through. This did not, however, make any
+particular difference, for by this time all the passes, upon which
+the guns of the forts had been trained, were guarded by government
+vessels.
+
+The _Ebba_, therefore, kept on her way, neither trying to avoid
+nor offering to approach the searchers. She seemed to be merely a
+pleasure-yacht out for a morning sail.
+
+No attempt had up to that time been made to accost her. Was she, then,
+specially privileged, and to be spared the bother of being searched?
+Was the Count d'Artigas considered too high and mighty a personage to
+be thus molested, and delayed even for an hour? It was unlikely, for
+though he was regarded as a distinguished foreigner who lived the life
+of luxury enjoyed by the favored of fortune, no one, as a matter of
+fact, knew who he was, nor whence he came, nor whither he was going.
+
+The schooner sped gracefully over the calm waters of the sound, her
+flag--a gold crescent in the angle of a red field--streaming proudly
+in the breeze. Count d'Artigas was cosily ensconced in a basket-work
+chair on the after-deck, conversing with Engineer Serko and Captain
+Spade.
+
+"They don't seem in a hurry to board us," remarked Serko.
+
+"They can come whenever they think proper," said the Count in a tone
+of supreme indifference.
+
+"No doubt they are waiting for us at the entrance to the inlet,"
+suggested Captain Spade.
+
+"Let them wait," grunted the wealthy nobleman.
+
+Then he relapsed into his customary unconcerned impassibility.
+
+Captain Spade's hypothesis was doubtless correct. The _Falcon_ had as
+yet made no move towards the schooner, but would almost certainly do
+so as soon as the latter reached the inlet, and the Count would have
+to submit to a search of his vessel if he wished to reach the open
+sea.
+
+How was it then that he manifested such extraordinary unconcern? Were
+Thomas Roch and Gaydon so safely hidden that their hiding-place could
+not possibly be discovered?
+
+The thing was possible, but perhaps the Count d'Artigas would not have
+been quite so confident had he been aware that the _Ebba_ had been
+specially signalled to the warship and revenue cutters as a suspect.
+
+The Count's visit to Healthful House on the previous day had now
+attracted particular attention to him and his schooner. Evidently, at
+the time, the director could have had no reason to suspect the motive
+of his visit. But a few hours later, Thomas Roch and his keeper had
+been carried off. No one else from outside had been near the pavilion
+that day. It was admitted that it would have been an easy matter for
+the Count's companion, while the former distracted the director's
+attention, to push back the bolts of the door in the wall and steal
+the key. Then the fact that the _Ebba_ was anchored in rear of, and
+only a few hundred yards from, the estate, was in itself suspicious.
+Nothing would have been easier for the desperadoes than to enter by
+the door, surprise their victims, and carry them off to the schooner.
+
+These suspicions, neither the director nor the _personnel_ of the
+establishment had at first liked to give expression to, but when
+the _Ebba_ was seen to weigh anchor and head for the open sea, they
+appeared to be confirmed.
+
+They were communicated to the authorities of New-Berne, who
+immediately ordered the commander of the _Falcon_ to intercept the
+schooner, to search her minutely high and low, and from stem to stern,
+and on no account to let her proceed, unless he was absolutely certain
+that Roch and Gaydon were not on board.
+
+Assuredly the Count d'Artigas could have had no idea that his vessel
+was the object of such stringent orders; but even if he had, it is
+questionable whether this superbly haughty and disdainful nobleman
+would have manifested any particular anxiety.
+
+Towards three o'clock, the warship which was cruising before the
+inlet, after having sent search parties aboard a few fishing-smacks,
+suddenly manoeuvred to the entrance of the pass, and awaited the
+approaching schooner. The latter surely did not imagine that she could
+force a passage in spite of the cruiser, or escape from a vessel
+propelled by steam. Besides, had she attempted such a foolhardy
+trick, a couple of shots from the _Falcon's_ guns would speedily have
+constrained her to lay to.
+
+Presently a boat, manned by two officers and ten sailors, put off from
+the cruiser and rowed towards the _Ebba_. When they were only about
+half a cable's length off, one of the men rose and waved a flag.
+
+"That's a signal to stop," said Engineer Serko.
+
+"Precisely," remarked the Count d'Artigas.
+
+"We shall have to lay to."
+
+"Then lay to."
+
+Captain Spade went forward and gave the necessary orders, and in a few
+minutes the vessel slackened speed, and was soon merely drifting with
+the tide.
+
+The _Falcon's_ boat pulled alongside, and a man in the bows held on to
+her with a boat-hook. The gangway was lowered by a couple of hands on
+the schooner, and the two officers, followed by eight of their men,
+climbed on deck.
+
+They found the crew of the _Ebba_ drawn up in line on the forecastle.
+
+The officer in command of the boarding-party--a first
+lieutenant--advanced towards the owner of the schooner, and the
+following questions and answers were exchanged:
+
+"This schooner belongs to the Count d'Artigas, to whom, I presume, I
+have the honor of speaking?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What is her name?"
+
+"The _Ebba_."
+
+"She is commanded by?--"
+
+"Captain Spade."
+
+"What is his nationality?"
+
+"Hindo-Malay."
+
+The officer scrutinized the schooner's flag, while the Count d'Artigas
+added:
+
+"Will you be good enough to tell me, sir, to what circumstance I owe
+the pleasure of your visit on board my vessel?"
+
+"Orders have been received," replied the officer, "to search every
+vessel now anchored in Pamlico Sound, or which attempts to leave it."
+
+He did not deem it necessary to insist upon this point since the
+_Ebba_, above every other, was to be subjected to the bother of a
+rigorous examination.
+
+"You, of course, sir, have no intention of refusing me permission to
+go over your schooner?"
+
+"Assuredly not, sir. My vessel is at your disposal from peaks to
+bilges. Only I should like to know why all the vessels which happen to
+be in Pamlico Sound to-day are being subjected to this formality."
+
+"I see no reason why you should not be informed, Monsieur the Count,"
+replied the officer. "The governor of North Carolina has been apprised
+that Healthful House has been broken into and two persons kidnapped,
+and the authorities merely wish to satisfy themselves that the persons
+carried off have not been embarked during the night."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed the Count, feigning surprise. "And who are
+the persons who have thus disappeared from Healthful House?"
+
+"An inventor--a madman--and his keeper."
+
+"A madman, sir? Do you, may I ask, refer to the Frenchman, Thomas
+Roch?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"The Thomas Roch whom I saw yesterday during my visit to the
+establishment--whom I questioned in presence of the director--who
+was seized with a violent paroxysm just as Captain Spade and I were
+leaving?"
+
+The officer observed the stranger with the keenest attention, in an
+effort to surprise anything suspicious in his attitude or remarks.
+
+"It is incredible!" added the Count, as though he had just heard about
+the outrage for the first time.
+
+"I can easily understand, sir, how uneasy the authorities must be,"
+he went on, "in view of Thomas Roch's personality, and I cannot but
+approve of the measures taken. I need hardly say that neither the
+French inventor nor his keeper is on board the _Ebba_. However, you
+can assure yourself of the fact by examining the schooner as minutely
+as you desire. Captain Spade, show these gentlemen over the vessel."
+
+Then saluting the lieutenant of the _Falcon_ coldly, the Count
+d'Artigas sank into his deck-chair again and replaced his cigar
+between his lips, while the two officers and eight sailors, conducted
+by Captain Spade, began their search.
+
+In the first place they descended the main hatchway to the after
+saloon--a luxuriously-appointed place, filled with art objects of
+great value, hung with rich tapestries and hangings, and wainscotted
+with costly woods.
+
+It goes without saying that this and the adjoining cabins were
+searched with a care that could not have been surpassed by the most
+experienced detectives. Moreover, Captain Spade assisted them by every
+means in his power, obviously anxious that they should not preserve
+the slightest suspicion of the _Ebba's_ owner.
+
+After the grand saloon and cabins, the elegant dining-saloon was
+visited. Then the cook's galley, Captain Spade's cabin, and the
+quarters of the crew in the forecastle were overhauled, but no sign of
+Thomas Roch or Gaydon was to be seen.
+
+Next, every inch of the hold, etc., was examined, with the aid of a
+couple of lanterns. Water-kegs, wine, brandy, whisky and beer barrels,
+biscuit-boxes, in fact, all the provision boxes and everything the
+hold contained, including the stock of coal, was moved and probed, and
+even the bilges were scrutinized, but all in vain.
+
+Evidently the suspicion that the Count d'Artigas had carried off
+the missing men was unfounded and unjust. Even a rat could not have
+escaped the notice of the vigilant searchers, leave alone two men.
+
+When they returned on deck, however, the officers, as a matter of
+precaution looked into the boats hanging on the davits, and punched
+the lowered sails, with the same result.
+
+It only remained for them, therefore, to take leave of the Count
+d'Artigas.
+
+"You must pardon us for having disturbed you, Monsieur the Count,"
+said the lieutenant.
+
+"You were compelled to obey your orders, gentlemen."
+
+"It was merely a formality, of course," ventured the officer.
+
+By a slight inclination of the head the Count signified that he was
+quite willing to accept this euphemism.
+
+"I assure you, gentlemen, that I have had no hand in this kidnapping."
+
+"We can no longer believe so, Monsieur the Count, and will withdraw."
+
+"As you please. Is the _Ebba_ now free to proceed?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Then _au revoir_, gentlemen, _au revoir_, for I am an _habitué_ of
+this coast and shall soon be back again. I hope that ere my return you
+will have discovered the author of the outrage, and have Thomas Roch
+safely back in Healthful House. It is a consummation devoutly to be
+wished in the interest of the United States--I might even say of the
+whole world."
+
+The two officers courteously saluted the Count, who responded with a
+nod. Captain Spade accompanied them to the gangway, and they were soon
+making for the cruiser, which had steamed near to pick them up.
+
+Meanwhile the breeze had freshened considerably, and when, at a sign
+from d'Artigas, Captain Spade set sail again, the _Ebba_ skimmed
+swiftly through the inlet, and half an hour after was standing out to
+sea.
+
+For an hour she continued steering east-northeast, and then, the wind,
+being merely a land breeze, dropped, and the schooner lay becalmed,
+her sails limp, and her flag drooping like a wet rag. It seemed that
+it would be impossible for the vessel to continue her voyage that
+night unless a breeze sprang up, and of this there was no sign.
+
+Since the schooner had cleared the inlet Captain Spade had stood in
+the bows gazing into the water, now to port, now to starboard, as if
+on the lookout for something. Presently he shouted in a stentorian
+voice:
+
+"Furl sail!"
+
+The sailors rushed to their posts, and in an instant the sails came
+rattling down and were furled.
+
+Was it Count d'Artigas' intention to wait there till daybreak brought
+a breeze with it? Presumably, or the sails would have remained hoisted
+to catch the faintest puff.
+
+A boat was lowered and Captain Spade jumped into it, accompanied by
+a sailor, who paddled it towards an object that was floating on the
+water a few yards away.
+
+This object was a small buoy, similar to that which had floated on the
+bosom of the Neuse when the _Ebba_ lay off Healthful House.
+
+The buoy, with a towline affixed to it, was lifted into the boat that
+was then paddled to the bow of the _Ebba_, from the deck of which
+another hawser was cast to the captain, who made it fast to the
+towline of the buoy. Having dropped the latter overboard again, the
+captain and the sailor returned to the ship and the boat was hoisted
+in.
+
+Almost immediately the hawser tautened, and the _Ebba_, though not a
+stitch of canvas had been set, sped off in an easterly direction at a
+speed that could not have been less than ten knots an hour.
+
+Night was falling fast, and soon the rapidly receding lights along the
+American coast were lost in the mist on the horizon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WHERE AM I?
+
+(Notes by Simon Hart, the Engineer.)
+
+
+Where am I? What has happened since the sudden aggression of which I
+was the victim near the pavilion?
+
+I had just quitted the doctor, and was about to mount the steps, close
+the door and resume my post beside Thomas Roch when several men
+sprang upon me and knocked me down. Who are they? My eyes having been
+bandaged I was unable to recognize them. I could not cry for help,
+having been gagged. I could make no resistance, for they had bound me
+hand and foot. Thus powerless, I felt myself lifted and carried about
+one hundred paces, then hoisted, then lowered, then laid down.
+
+Where? Where?
+
+And Thomas Roch, what has become of him? It must have been he rather
+than I they were after. I was but Gaydon, the warder. None suspected
+that I was Simon Hart, the engineer, nor could they have suspected my
+nationality. Why, therefore, should they have desired to kidnap a mere
+hospital attendant?
+
+There can consequently be no doubt that the French inventor has been
+carried off; and if he was snatched from Healthful House it must have
+been in the hope of forcing his secret from him.
+
+But I am reasoning on the supposition that Thomas Roch was carried off
+with me. Is it so? Yes--it must be--it is. I can entertain no doubt
+whatever about it. I have not fallen into the hands of malefactors
+whose only intention is robbery. They would not have acted in this
+way. After rendering it impossible for me to cry out, after having
+thrown me into a clump of bushes in the corner of the garden, after
+having kidnapped Thomas Roch they would not have shut me up--where I
+now am.
+
+Where? This is the question which I have been asking myself for hours
+without being able to answer it.
+
+However, one thing is certain, and that is that I have embarked upon
+an extraordinary adventure, that will end?--In what manner I know
+not--I dare not even imagine what the upshot of it will be. Anyhow,
+it is my intention to commit to memory, minute by minute, the least
+circumstance, and then, if it be possible, to jot down my daily
+impressions. Who knows what the future has in store for me? And who
+knows but what, in my new position, I may finally discover the secret
+of Roth's fulgurator? If I am to be delivered one day, this secret
+must be made known, as well as who is the author, or who are the
+authors, of this criminal outrage, which may be attended with such
+serious consequences.
+
+I continually revert to this question, hoping that some incident will
+occur to enlighten me:
+
+Where am I?
+
+Let me begin from the beginning.
+
+After having been carried by the head and feet from Healthful House,
+I felt that I was laid, without any brutality, I must admit, upon the
+stretchers of a row-boat of small dimensions.
+
+The rocking caused by the weight of my body was succeeded shortly
+afterwards by a further rocking--which I attribute to the embarking of
+a second person. Can there be room for doubt that it was Thomas
+Roch? As far as he was concerned they would not have had to take the
+precaution of gagging him, or of bandaging his eyes, or of binding
+him. He must still have been in a state of prostration which precluded
+the possibility of his making any resistance, or even of being
+conscious of what was being done. The proof that I am not deceiving
+myself is that I could smell the unmistakable odor of ether. Now,
+yesterday, before taking leave of us, the doctor administered a few
+drops of ether to the invalid and--I remember distinctly--a little of
+this extremely volatile substance fell upon his clothing while he was
+struggling in his fit. There is therefore nothing astonishing in the
+fact that this odor should have clung to him, nor that I should have
+distinguished it, even beneath the bandages that covered my face.
+
+Yes, Thomas Roch was extended near me in the boat. And to think that
+had I not returned to the pavilion when I did, had I delayed a few
+minutes longer, I should have found him gone!
+
+Let me think. What could have inspired that Count d'Artigas with the
+unfortunate curiosity to visit Healthful House? If he had not been
+allowed to see my patient nothing of the kind would have happened.
+Talking to Thomas Roch about his inventions brought on a fit of
+exceptional violence. The director is primarily to blame for not
+heeding my warning. Had he listened to me the doctor would not have
+been called upon to attend him, the door of the pavilion would have
+been locked, and the attempt of the band would have been frustrated.
+
+As to the interest there could have been in carrying off Thomas Roch,
+either on behalf of a private person or of one of the states of the
+Old World, it is so evident that there is no need to dwell upon it.
+However, I can be perfectly easy about the result. No one can possibly
+succeed in learning what for fifteen months I have been unable to
+ascertain. In the condition of intellectual collapse into which my
+fellow-countryman has fallen, all attempts to force his secret from
+him will be futile. Moreover, he is bound to go from bad to worse
+until he is hopelessly insane, even as regards those points upon which
+he has hitherto preserved his reason intact.
+
+After all, however, it is less about Thomas Roch than myself that I
+must think just now, and this is what I have experienced, to resume
+the thread of my adventure where I dropped it:
+
+After more rocking caused by our captors jumping into it, the boat
+is rowed off. The distance must be very short, for a minute after we
+bumped against something. I surmise that this something must be
+the hull of a ship, and that we have run alongside. There is some
+scurrying and excitement. Indistinctly through my bandages I can hear
+orders being given and a confused murmur of voices that lasts for
+about five minutes, but I cannot distinguish a word that is said.
+
+The only thought that occurs to me now is that they will hoist me on
+board and lower me to the bottom of the hold and keep me there till
+the vessel is far out at sea. Obviously they will not allow either
+Thomas Roch or his keeper to appear on deck as long as she remains in
+Pamlico Sound.
+
+My conjecture is correct. Still gagged and bound I am at last lifted
+by the legs and shoulders. My impression, however, is that I am not
+being raised over a ship's bulwark, but on the contrary am being
+lowered. Are they going to drop me overboard to drown like a rat, so
+as to get rid of a dangerous witness? This thought flashes into my
+brain, and a quiver of anguish passes through my body from head to
+foot. Instinctively I draw a long breath, and my lungs are filled with
+the precious air they will speedily lack.
+
+No, there is no immediate cause for alarm. I am laid with comparative
+gentleness upon a hard floor, which gives me the sensation of metallic
+coldness. I am lying at full length. To my extreme surprise, I find
+that the ropes with which I was bound have been untied and loosened.
+The tramping about around me has ceased. The next instant I hear a
+door closed with a bang.
+
+Where am I? And, in the first place, am I alone? I tear the gag from
+my mouth, and the bandages from my head.
+
+It is dark--pitch dark. Not a ray of light, not even the vague
+perception of light that the eyes preserve when the lids are tightly
+closed.
+
+I shout--I shout repeatedly. No response. My voice is smothered. The
+air I breathe is hot, heavy, thick, and the working of my lungs will
+become difficult, impossible, unless the store of air is renewed.
+
+I extend my arms and feel about me, and this is what I conclude:
+
+I am in a compartment with sheet-iron walls, which cannot measure more
+than four cubic yards. I can feel that the walls are of bolted plates,
+like the sides of a ship's water-tight compartment.
+
+I can feel that the entrance to it is by a door on one side, for the
+hinges protrude somewhat. This door must open inwards, and it is
+through here, no doubt, that I was carried in.
+
+I place my ear to the door, but not a sound can be heard. The silence
+is as profound as the obscurity--a strange silence that is only broken
+by the sonorousness of the metallic floor when I move about. None of
+the dull noises usually to be heard on board a ship is perceptible,
+not even the rippling of the water along the hull. Nor is there the
+slightest movement to be felt; yet, in the estuary of the Neuse, the
+current is always strong enough, to cause a marked oscillation to any
+vessel.
+
+But does the compartment in which I am confined, really belong to
+a ship? How do I know that I am afloat on the Neuse, though I was
+conveyed a short distance in a boat? Might not the latter, instead of
+heading for a ship in waiting for it, opposite Healthful House, have
+been rowed to a point further down the river? In this case is it not
+possible that I was carried into the cellar of a house? This would
+explain the complete immobility of the compartment. It is true that
+the walls are of bolted plates, and that there is a vague smell of
+salt water, that odor _sui generis_ which generally pervades the
+interior of a ship, and which there is no mistaking.
+
+An interval, which I estimate at about four hours, must have passed
+since my incarceration. It must therefore be near midnight. Shall I be
+left here in this way till morning? Luckily, I dined at six o'clock,
+which is the regular dinner-hour at Healthful House. I am not
+suffering from hunger. In fact I feel more inclined to sleep than
+to eat. Still, I hope I shall have energy enough to resist the
+inclination. I will not give way to it. I must try and find out what
+is going on outside. But neither sound nor light can penetrate this
+iron box. Wait a minute, though; perhaps by listening intently I may
+hear some sound, however feeble. Therefore I concentrate all my vital
+power in my sense of hearing. Moreover, I try--in case I should
+really not be on _terra firma_--to distinguish some movement, some
+oscillation of my prison. Admitting that the ship is still at anchor,
+it cannot be long before it will start--otherwise I shall have to give
+up imagining why Thomas Roch and I have been carried off.
+
+At last--it is no illusion--a slight rolling proves to me, beyond a
+doubt, that I am not on land. We are evidently moving, but the motion
+is scarcely perceptible. It is not a jerky, but rather a gliding
+movement, as though we were skimming through the water without effort,
+on an even keel.
+
+Let me consider the matter calmly. I am on board a vessel that was
+anchored in the Neuse, waiting under sail or steam, for the result of
+the expedition. A boat brought me aboard, but, I repeat, I did not
+feel that I was lifted over her bulwarks. Was I passed through a
+porthole? But after all, what does it matter? Whether I was lowered
+into the hold or not, I am certainly upon something that is floating
+and moving.
+
+No doubt I shall soon be let out, together with Thomas Roch, supposing
+them to have locked him up as carefully as they have me. By being let
+out, I mean being accorded permission to go on deck. It will not be
+for some hours to come, however, that is certain, for they won't want
+us to be seen, so that there is no chance of getting a whiff of fresh
+air till we are well out at sea. If it is a sailing vessel, she must
+have waited for a breeze--for the breeze that freshens off shore at
+daybreak, and is favorable to ships navigating Pamlico Sound.
+
+It certainly cannot be a steamer. I could not have failed to smell the
+oil and other odors of the engine-room. And then I should feel
+the trembling of the machinery, the jerks of the pistons, and the
+movements of the screws or paddles.
+
+The best thing to do is to wait patiently. I shan't be taken out of
+this hole until to-morrow, anyway. Moreover, if I am not released,
+somebody will surely bring me something to eat. There is no reason to
+suppose that they intend to starve me to death. They wouldn't have
+taken the trouble to bring me aboard, but would have dropped me to the
+bottom of the river had they been desirous of getting rid of me. Once
+we are out at sea, what will they have to fear from me? No one could
+hear my shouts. As to demanding an explanation and making a fuss, it
+would be useless. Besides, what am I to the men who have carried us
+off? A mere hospital attendant--one Gaydon, who is of no consequence.
+It is Thomas Roch they were after. I was taken along too because I
+happened to return to the pavilion at the critical moment.
+
+At any rate, no matter what happens, no matter who our kidnappers may
+be, no matter where we are taken, I shall stick to this resolution: I
+will continue to play my role of warder. No one, no! none, can suspect
+that Gaydon is Simon Hart, the engineer. There are two advantages in
+this: in the first place, they will take no notice of a poor devil
+of a warder, and in the second, I may be able to solve the mystery
+surrounding this plot and turn my knowledge to profit, if I succeed in
+making my escape.
+
+But whither are my thoughts wandering? I must perforce wait till we
+arrive at our destination before thinking of escaping. It will be time
+enough to bother about that when the occasion presents itself. Until
+then the essential is that they remain ignorant as to my identity, and
+they cannot, and shall not, know who I am.
+
+I am now certain that we are going through the water. But there is one
+thing that puzzles me. It is not a sailing vessel, neither can it be a
+steamer. Yet it is incontestably propelled by some powerful machine.
+There are none of the noises, nor is there the trembling that
+accompanies the working of steam engines. The movement of the vessel
+is more continuous and regular, it is a sort of direct rotation that
+is communicated by the motor, whatever the latter may be. No mistake
+is possible: the ship is propelled by some special mechanism. But what
+is it?
+
+Is it one of those turbines that have been spoken of lately, which,
+fitted into a submerged tube, are destined to replace the ordinary
+screw, it being claimed that they utilize the resistance of the water
+better than the latter and give increased speed to a ship?
+
+In a few hours' time I shall doubtless know all about this means of
+locomotion.
+
+Meanwhile there is another thing that equally puzzles me. There is not
+the slightest rolling or pitching. How is it that Pamlico Sound is so
+extraordinarily calm? The varying currents continuously ruffle the
+surface of the Sound, even if nothing else does.
+
+It is true the tide may be out, and I remember that last night
+the wind had fallen altogether. Still, no matter, the thing is
+inexplicable, for a ship propelled by machinery, no matter at what
+speed she may be going, always oscillates more or less, and I cannot
+perceive the slightest rocking.
+
+Such are the thoughts with which my mind is persistently filled.
+Despite an almost overpowering desire to sleep, despite the torpor
+that is coming upon me in this suffocating atmosphere, I am resolved
+not to close my eyes. I will keep awake till daylight, and there will
+be no daylight for me till it is let into my prison from the outside.
+Perhaps even if the door were open it would not penetrate to this
+black hole, and I shall probably not see it again until I am taken on
+deck.
+
+I am squatting in a corner of my prison, for I have no stool or
+anything to sit upon, but as my eyelids are heavy and I feel somnolent
+in spite of myself, I get up and walk about. Then I wax wrathful,
+anger fills my soul, I beat upon the iron walls with my fists, and
+shout for help. In vain! I hurt my hands against the bolts of the
+plates, and no one answers my cries.
+
+Such conduct is unworthy of me. I flattered myself that I would remain
+calm under all circumstances and here I am acting like a child.
+
+The absence of any rolling or lurching movement at least proves that
+we are not yet at sea. Instead of crossing Pamlico Sound, may we not
+be going in the opposite direction, up the River Neuse? No! What would
+they go further inland for? If Thomas Roch has been carried off from
+Healthful House, his captors obviously mean to take him out of the
+United States--probably to a distant island in the Atlantic, or to
+some point on the European continent. It is, therefore, not up the
+Neuse that our maritime machine, whatever it may be, is going, but
+across Pamlico Sound, which must be as calm as a mirror.
+
+Very well, then, when we get to sea I shall soon, know, for the vessel
+will rock right enough in the swell off shore, even though there be
+no wind,--unless I am aboard a battleship, or big cruiser, and this I
+fancy can hardly be!
+
+But hark! If I mistake not--no, it was not imagination--I hear
+footsteps. Some one is approaching the side of the compartment where
+the door is. One of the crew no doubt. Are they going to let me out at
+last? I can now hear voices. A conversation is going on outside the
+door, but it is carried on in a language that I do not understand. I
+shout to them--I shout again, but no answer is vouchsafed.
+
+There is nothing to do, then, but wait, wait, wait! I keep repeating
+the word and it rings in my ears like a bell.
+
+Let me try to calculate how long I have been here. The ship must have
+been under way for at least four or five hours. I reckon it must be
+past midnight, but I cannot tell, for unfortunately my watch is of no
+use to me in this Cimmerian darkness.
+
+Now, if we have been going for five hours, we must have cleared
+Pamlico Sound, whether we issued by Ocracoke or Hatteras inlet, and
+must be off the coast a good mile, at least. Yet I haven't felt any
+motion from the swell of the sea.
+
+It is inexplicable, incredible! Come now, have I made a mistake? Am
+I the dupe of an illusion? Am I not imprisoned in the hold of a ship
+under way?
+
+Another hour has passed and the movement of the ship suddenly ceases;
+I realize perfectly that she is stationary. Has she reached her
+destination? In this event we can only be in one of the coast ports
+to the north or south of Pamlico Sound. But why should Thomas Roch be
+landed again? The abduction must soon have been discovered, and our
+kidnappers would run the greatest risk of falling into the hands of
+the authorities if they attempted to disembark.
+
+However this may be, if the vessel is coming to anchor I shall hear
+the noise of the chain as it is paid out, and feel the jerk as
+the ship is brought up. I know that sound and that jerk well from
+experience, and I am bound to hear and feel them in a minute or two.
+
+I wait--I listen.
+
+A dead and disquieting silence reigns on board. I begin to wonder
+whether I am not the only living being in the ship.
+
+Now I feel an irresistible torpor coming over me. The air is vitiated.
+I cannot breathe. My chest is bursting. I try to resist, but it is
+impossible to do so. The temperature rises to such a degree that I am
+compelled to divest myself of part of my clothing. Then I lie me down
+in a corner. My heavy eyelids close, and I sink into a prostration
+that eventually forces me into heavy slumber.
+
+How long have I been asleep? I cannot say. Is it night? Is it day? I
+know not. I remark, however, that I breathe more easily, and that the
+air is no longer poisoned carbonic acid.
+
+Was the air renewed while I slept? Has the door been opened? Has
+anybody been in here?
+
+Yes, here is the proof of it!
+
+In feeling about, my hand has come in contact with a mug filled with
+a liquid that exhales an inviting odor. I raise it to my lips, which,
+are burning, for I am suffering such an agony of thirst that I would
+even drink brackish water.
+
+It is ale--an ale of excellent quality--which refreshes and comforts
+me, and I drain the pint to the last drop.
+
+But if they have not condemned me to die of thirst, neither have they
+condemned me to die of hunger, I suppose?
+
+No, for in one of the corners I find a basket, and this basket
+contains some bread and cold meat.
+
+I fall to, eating greedily, and my strength little by little returns.
+
+Decidedly, I am not so abandoned as I thought I was. Some one entered
+this obscure hole, and the open door admitted a little of the oxygen
+from the outside, without which I should have been suffocated. Then
+the wherewithal to quench my thirst and appease the pangs of hunger
+was placed within my reach.
+
+How much longer will this incarceration last? Days? Months? I cannot
+estimate the hours that have elapsed since I fell asleep, nor have I
+any idea as to what time of the day or night it may be. I was careful
+to wind up my watch, though, and perhaps by feeling the hands--Yes, I
+think the little hand marks eight o'clock--in the morning, no doubt.
+What I do know, however, is that the ship is not in motion. There is
+not the slightest quiver.
+
+Hours and hours, weary, interminable hours go by, and I wonder whether
+they are again waiting till night comes on to renew my stock of
+air and provisions. Yes, they are waiting to take advantage of my
+slumbers. But this time I am resolved to resist. I will feign to be
+asleep--and I shall know how to force an answer from whoever enters!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ON DECK.
+
+
+Here I am in the open air, breathing freely once more. I have at last
+been hauled out of that stifling box and taken on deck. I gaze around
+me in every direction and see no sign of land. On every hand is that
+circular line which defines earth and sky. No, there is not even a
+speck of land to be seen to the west, where the coast of North America
+extends for thousands of miles.
+
+The setting sun now throws but slanting rays upon the bosom of the
+ocean. It must be about six o'clock in the evening. I take out my
+watch and it marks thirteen minutes past six.
+
+As I have already mentioned, I waited for the door of my prison to
+open, thoroughly resolved not to fall asleep again, but to spring upon
+the first person who entered and force him to answer my questions. I
+was not aware then that it was day, but it was, and hour after hour
+passed and no one came. I began to suffer again from hunger and
+thirst, for I had not preserved either bite or sup.
+
+As soon as I awoke I felt that the ship was in motion again, after
+having, I calculated, remained stationary since the previous day--no
+doubt in some lonely creek, since I had not heard or felt her come to
+anchor.
+
+A few minutes ago--it must therefore have been six o'clock--I again
+heard footsteps on the other side of the iron wall of my compartment.
+Was anybody coming to my cell? Yes, for I heard the creaking of the
+bolts as they were drawn back, and then the door opened, and the
+darkness in which I had been plunged since the first hour of my
+captivity was illumined by the light of a lantern.
+
+Two men, whom I had no time to look at, entered and seized me by the
+arms. A thick cloth was thrown over my head, which was enveloped in
+such a manner that I could see absolutely nothing.
+
+What did it all mean? What were they going to do with me? I struggled,
+but they held me in an iron grasp. I questioned them, but they made
+no reply. The men spoke to each other in a language that I could not
+understand, and had never heard before.
+
+They stood upon no ceremony with me. It is true I was only a madhouse
+warder, and they probably did not consider it necessary to do so; but
+I question very much whether Simon Hart, the engineer, would have
+received any more courtesy at their hands.
+
+This time, however, no attempt was made to gag me nor to bind either
+my arms or legs. I was simply restrained by main force from breaking
+away from them.
+
+In a moment I was dragged out of the compartment and pushed along a
+narrow passage. Next, the steps of a metallic stairway resounded under
+our feet. Then the fresh air blew in my face and I inhaled it with
+avidity.
+
+Finally they took their hands from off me, and I found myself free. I
+immediately tore the cloth off my head and gazed about me.
+
+I am on board a schooner which is ripping through the water at a great
+rate and leaving a long white trail behind her.
+
+I had to clutch at one of the stays for support, dazzled as I was
+by the light after my forty-eight hours' imprisonment in complete
+obscurity.
+
+On the deck a dozen men with rough, weather-beaten faces come and
+go--very dissimilar types of men, to whom it would be impossible to
+attribute any particular nationality. They scarcely take any notice of
+me.
+
+As to the schooner, I estimate that she registers from two hundred and
+fifty to three hundred tons. She has a fairly wide beam, her masts are
+strong and lofty, and her large spread of canvas must carry her along
+at a spanking rate in a good breeze.
+
+Aft, a grizzly-faced man is at the wheel, and he is keeping her head
+to the sea that is running pretty high.
+
+I try to find out the name of the vessel, but it is not to be seen
+anywhere, even on the life-buoys.
+
+I walk up to one of the sailors and inquire:
+
+"What is the name of this ship?"
+
+No answer, and I fancy the man does not understand me.
+
+"Where is the captain?" I continue.
+
+But the sailor pays no more heed to this than he did to the previous
+question.
+
+I turn on my heel and go forward.
+
+Above the forward hatchway a bell is suspended. Maybe the name of the
+schooner is engraved upon it. I examine it, but can find no name upon
+it.
+
+I then return to the stern and address the man at the wheel. He gazes
+at me sourly, shrugs his shoulders, and bending, grasps the spokes of
+the wheel solidly, and brings the schooner, which had been headed off
+by a large wave from port, stem on to sea again.
+
+Seeing that nothing is to be got from that quarter, I turn away and
+look about to see if I can find Thomas Roch, but I do not perceive
+him anywhere. Is he not on board? He must be. They could have had no
+reason for carrying me off alone. No one could have had any idea
+that I was Simon Hart, the engineer, and even had they known it what
+interest could they have had in me, and what could they expect of me?
+
+Therefore, as Roch is not on deck, I conclude that he is locked in one
+of the cabins, and trust he has met with better treatment than his
+ex-guardian.
+
+But what is this--and how on earth could I have failed to notice it
+before? How is this schooner moving? Her sails are furled--there is
+not an inch of canvas set--the wind has fallen, and the few puffs that
+occasionally come from the east are unfavorable, in view of the fact
+that we are going in that very direction. And yet the schooner speeds
+through the sea, her bows down, throwing off clouds of foam, and
+leaving a long, milky, undulating trail in her wake.
+
+Is she a steam-yacht? No--there is not a smokestack about her. Is she
+propelled by electricity--by a battery of accumulators, or by piles of
+great power that work her screw and send her along at this rate?
+
+I can come to no other conclusion. In any case she must be fitted with
+a screw, and by leaning over the stern I shall be able to see it, and
+can find out what sets it working afterwards.
+
+The man at the wheel watches me ironically as I approach, but makes no
+effort to prevent me from looking over.
+
+I gaze long and earnestly, but there is no foaming and seething of
+the water such as is invariably caused by the revolutions of the
+screw--naught but the long white furrow that a sailing vessel leaves
+behind is discernible in the schooner's wake.
+
+Then, what kind of a machine is it that imparts such a marvellous
+speed to the vessel? As I have already said, the wind is against her,
+and there is a heavy swell on.
+
+I must--I will know. No one pays the slightest attention, and I again
+go forward.
+
+As I approach the forecastle I find myself face to face with a man who
+is leaning nonchalantly on the raised hatchway and who is watching me.
+He seems to be waiting for me to speak to him.
+
+I recognize him instantly. He is the person who accompanied the Count
+d'Artigas during the latter's visit to Healthful House. There can be
+no mistake--it is he right enough.
+
+It was, then, that rich foreigner who abducted Thomas Roch, and I am
+on board the _Ebba_ his schooner-yacht which is so well known on the
+American coast!
+
+The man before me will enlighten me about what I want to know. I
+remember that he and the Count spoke English together.
+
+I take him to be the captain of the schooner.
+
+"Captain," I say, "you are the person I saw at Healthful House. You
+remember me, of course?"
+
+He looks me up and down but does not condescend to reply.
+
+"I am Warder Gaydon, the attendant of Thomas Roch," I continue, "and I
+want to know why you have carried me off and placed me on board this
+schooner?"
+
+The captain interrupts me with a sign. It is not made to me, however,
+but to some sailors standing near.
+
+They catch me by the arms, and taking no notice of the angry movement
+that I cannot restrain, bundle me down the hatchway. The hatchway
+stair in reality, I remark, is a perpendicular iron ladder, at the
+bottom of which, to right and left, are some cabins, and forward, the
+men's quarters.
+
+Are they going to put me back in my dark prison at the bottom of the
+hold?
+
+No. They turn to the left and push me into a cabin. It is lighted by
+a port-hole, which is open, and through which the fresh air comes in
+gusts from the briny. The furniture consists of a bunk, a chair, a
+chest of drawers, a wash-hand-stand and a table.
+
+The latter is spread for dinner, and I sit down. Then the cook's mate
+comes in with two or three dishes. He is a colored lad, and as he is
+about to withdraw, I try to question him, but he, too, vouchsafes no
+reply. Perhaps he doesn't understand me.
+
+The door is closed, and I fall to and eat with an excellent appetite,
+with the intention of putting off all further questioning till some
+future occasion when I shall stand a chance of getting answered.
+
+It is true I am a prisoner, but this time I am comfortable enough, and
+I hope I shall be permitted to occupy this cabin for the remainder of
+the voyage, and not be lowered into that black hole again.
+
+I now give myself up to my thoughts, the first of which is that it was
+the Count d'Artigas who planned the abduction; that it was he who is
+responsible for the kidnapping of Thomas Roch, and that consequently
+the French inventor must be just as comfortably installed somewhere on
+board the schooner.
+
+But who is this Count d'Artigas? Where does he hail from? If he has
+seized Thomas Roch, is it not because he is determined to secure the
+secret of the fulgurator at no matter what cost? Very likely, and I
+must therefore be careful not to betray my identity, for if they knew
+the truth, I should never be afforded a chance to get away.
+
+But what a lot of mysteries to clear up, how many inexplicable things
+to explain--the origin of this d'Artigas, his intentions as to the
+future, whither we are bound, the port to which the schooner belongs,
+and this mysterious progress through the water without sails and
+without screws, at a speed of at least ten knots an hour!
+
+The air becoming keener as night deepens, I close and secure the
+port-hole, and as my cabin is bolted on the outside, the best thing I
+can do is to get into my bunk and let myself be gently rocked to sleep
+by the broad Atlantic in this mysterious cradle, the _Ebba_.
+
+The next morning I rise at daybreak, and having performed my
+ablutions, dress myself and wait.
+
+Presently the idea of trying the door occurs to me. I find that it has
+been unbolted, and pushing it open, climb the iron ladder and emerge
+on deck.
+
+The crew are washing down the deck, and standing aft and conversing
+are two men, one of whom is the captain. The latter manifests no
+surprise at seeing me, and indicates my presence to his companion by a
+nod.
+
+This other man, whom I have never before seen, is an individual of
+about fifty years of age, whose dark hair is streaked with gray.
+His features are delicately chiselled, his eyes are bright, and his
+expression is intelligent and not at all displeasing. He is somewhat
+of the Grecian type, and I have no doubt that he is of Hellenic origin
+when I hear him called Serko--Engineer Serko--by the Captain of the
+_Ebba_.
+
+As to the latter, he is called Spade--Captain Spade--and this name has
+an Italian twang about it. Thus there is a Greek, an Italian, and a
+crew recruited from every corner of the earth to man a schooner with a
+Norwegian name! This mixture strikes me as being suspicious.
+
+And that Count d'Artigas, with his Spanish name and Asiatic type,
+where does he come from?
+
+Captain Spade and Engineer Serko continue to converse in a low tone of
+voice. The former is keeping a sharp eye on the man at the wheel, who
+does not appear to pay any particular attention to the compass in
+front of him. He seems to pay more heed to the gestures of one of the
+sailors stationed forward, and who signals to him to put the helm to
+port or to starboard.
+
+Thomas Roch is near them, gazing vacantly out upon the vast expanse
+which is not limited on the horizon by a single speck of land. Two
+sailors watch his every movement. It is evidently feared that the
+madman may possibly attempt to jump overboard.
+
+I wonder whether I shall be permitted to communicate with my ward.
+
+I walk towards him, and Captain Spade and Engineer Serko watch me.
+
+Thomas Roch doesn't see me coming, and I stand beside him. Still he
+takes no notice of me, and makes no movement. His eyes, which sparkle
+brightly, wander over the ocean, and he draws in deep breaths of the
+salt, vivifying atmosphere. Added to the air surcharged with oxygen is
+a magnificent sunset in a cloudless sky. Does he perceive the change
+in his situation? Has he already forgotten about Healthful House, the
+pavilion in which he was a prisoner, and Gaydon, his keeper? It is
+highly probable. The past has presumably been effaced from his memory
+and he lives solely in the present.
+
+In my opinion, even on the deck of the _Ebba_, in the middle of the
+sea, Thomas Roch is still the helpless, irresponsible man whom I
+tended for fifteen months. His intellectual condition has undergone no
+change, and his reason will return only when he is spoken to about
+his inventions. The Count d'Artigas is perfectly aware of this mental
+disposition, having had a proof of it during his visit, and he
+evidently relies thereon to surprise sooner or later the inventor's
+secret. But with what object?
+
+"Thomas Roch!" I exclaim.
+
+My voice seems to strike him, and after gazing at me fixedly for an
+instant he averts his eyes quickly.
+
+I take his hand and press it. He withdraws it brusquely and walks
+away, without having recognized me, in the direction of Captain Spade
+and Engineer Serko.
+
+Does he think of speaking to one or other of these men, and if they
+speak to him will he be more reasonable than he was with me, and reply
+to them?
+
+At this moment his physiognomy lights up with a gleam of intelligence.
+His attention, obviously, has been attracted by the queer progress
+of the schooner. He gazes at the masts and the furled sails. Then he
+turns back and stops at the place where, if the _Ebba_ were a steamer,
+the funnel ought to be, and which in this case ought to be belching
+forth a cloud of black smoke.
+
+What appeared so strange to me evidently strikes Thomas Roch as being
+strange, too. He cannot explain what I found inexplicable, and, as I
+did, he walks aft to see if there is a screw.
+
+On the flanks of the _Ebba_ a shoal of porpoises are sporting.
+Swift as is the schooner's course they easily pass her, leaping and
+gambolling in their native element with surprising grace and agility.
+
+Thomas Roch pays no attention to them, but leans over the stern.
+
+Engineer Serko and Captain Spade, fearful lest he should fall
+overboard, hurry to him and drag him gently, but firmly, away.
+
+I observe from long experience that Roch is a prey to violent
+excitement. He turns about and gesticulates, uttering incoherent
+phrases the while.
+
+It is plain to me that another fit is coming on, similar to the one he
+had in the pavilion of Healthful House on the night we were abducted.
+He will have to be seized and carried down to his cabin, and I shall
+perhaps be summoned to attend to him.
+
+Meanwhile Engineer Serko and Captain Spade do not lose sight of him
+for a moment. They are evidently curious to see what he will do.
+
+After walking towards the mainmast and assuring himself that the sails
+are not set, he goes up to it and flinging his arms around it, tries
+with all his might to shake it, as though seeking to pull it down.
+
+
+Finding his efforts futile, he quits it and goes to the foremast,
+where the same performance is gone through. He waxes more and more
+excited. His vague utterances are followed by inarticulate cries.
+
+Suddenly he rushes to the port stays and clings to them, and I
+begin to fear that he will leap into the rigging and climb to the
+cross-tree, where he might be precipitated into the sea by a lurch of
+the ship.
+
+On a sign from Captain Spade, some sailors run up and try to make him
+relinquish his grasp of the stays, but are unable to do so. I know
+that during his fits he is endowed with the strength of ten men, and
+many a time I have been compelled to summon assistance in order to
+overpower him.
+
+Other members of the crew, however, come up, and the unhappy madman is
+borne to the deck, where two big sailors hold him down, despite his
+extraordinary strength.
+
+The only thing to do is to convey him to his cabin, and let him
+lie there till he gets over his fit. This is what will be done in
+conformity with orders given by a new-comer whose voice seems familiar
+to me.
+
+I turn and recognize him.
+
+He is the Count d'Artigas, with a frown on his face and an imperious
+manner, just as I had seen him at Healthful House.
+
+I at once advance toward him. I want an explanation and mean to have
+it.
+
+"By what right, sir?"--I begin.
+
+"By the right of might," replies the Count.
+
+Then he turns on his heel, and Thomas Roch is carried below.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+TWO DAYS AT SEA.
+
+
+Perhaps--should circumstances render it necessary--I may be induced to
+tell the Count d'Artigas that I am Simon Hart, the engineer. Who knows
+but what I may receive more consideration than if I remain Warder
+Gaydon? This measure, however, demands reflection. I have always been
+dominated by the thought that if the owner of the _Ebba_ kidnapped the
+French inventor, it was in the hope of getting possession of Roch's
+fulgurator, for which, neither the old nor new continent would pay the
+impossible price demanded. In that case the best thing I can do is to
+remain Warder Gaydon, on the chance that I may be allowed to continue
+in attendance upon him. In this way, if Thomas Roch should ever
+divulge his secret, I may learn what it was impossible to do at
+Healthful House, and can act accordingly.
+
+Meanwhile, where is the _Ebba_ bound?--first question.
+
+Who and what is the Count d'Artigas?--second question.
+
+The first will be answered in a few days' time, no doubt, in view of
+the rapidity with which we are ripping through the water, under the
+action of a means of propulsion that I shall end by finding out
+all about. As regards the second, I am by no means so sure that my
+curiosity will ever be gratified.
+
+In my opinion this enigmatical personage has an all important reason
+for hiding his origin, and I am afraid there is no indication by which
+I can gauge his nationality. If the Count d'Artigas speaks English
+fluently--and I was able to assure myself of that fact during his
+visit to Pavilion No. 17,--he pronounces it with a harsh, vibrating
+accent, which is not to be found among the peoples of northern
+latitudes. I do not remember ever to have heard anything like it in
+the course of my travels either in the Old or New World--unless it
+be the harshness characteristic of the idioms in use among the Malays.
+And, in truth, with his olive, verging on copper-tinted skin, his
+jet-black, crinkly hair, his piercing, deep-set, restless eyes, his
+square shoulders and marked muscular development, it is by no means
+unlikely that he belongs to one of the extreme Eastern races.
+
+I believe this name of d'Artigas is an assumed one, and his title of
+Count likewise. If his schooner bears a Norwegian name, he at any rate
+is not of Scandinavian origin. He has nothing of the races of Northern
+Europe about him.
+
+But whoever and whatever he may be, this man abducted Thomas Roch--and
+me with him--with no good intention, I'll be bound.
+
+But what I should like to know is, has he acted as the agent of a
+foreign power, or on his own account? Does he wish to profit alone by
+Thomas Roch's invention, and is he in the position to dispose of it
+profitably? That is another question that I cannot yet answer. Maybe
+I shall be able to find out from what I hear and see ere I make my
+escape, if escape be possible.
+
+The _Ebba_ continues on her way in the same mysterious manner. I am
+free to walk about the deck, without, however, being able to go beyond
+the fore hatchway. Once I attempted to go as far as the bows where I
+could, by leaning over, perceive the schooner's stem as it cut through
+the water, but acting, it was plain, on orders received, the watch
+on deck turned me back, and one of them, addressing me brusquely in
+harsh, grating English, said:
+
+"Go back! Go back! You are interfering with the working of the ship!"
+
+With the working of the ship! There was no working.
+
+Did they realize that I was trying to discover by what means the
+schooner was propelled? Very likely, and Captain Spade, who had looked
+on, must have known it, too. Even a hospital attendant could not fail
+to be astonished at the fact that a vessel without either screw or
+sails was going along at such a speed. However this may be, for some
+reason or other, the bows of the _Ebba_ are barred to me.
+
+Toward ten o'clock a breeze springs up--a northwest wind and very
+favorable--and Captain Spade gives an order to the boatswain. The
+latter immediately pipes all hands on deck, and the mainsail, the
+foresail, staysail and jibs are hoisted. The work could not have been
+executed with greater regularity and discipline on board a man-of-war.
+
+The _Ebba_ now has a slight list to port, and her speed is notably
+increased. But the motor continues to push her along, as is evident
+from the fact that the sails are not always as full as they ought
+to be if the schooner were bowling along solely under their action.
+However, they continue to render yeoman's service, for the breeze has
+set in steadily.
+
+The sky is clear, for the clouds in the west disappear as soon as they
+attain the horizon, and the sunlight dances on the water.
+
+My preoccupation now is to find out as near as possible where we
+are bound for. I am a good-enough sailor to be able to estimate
+the approximate speed of a ship. In my opinion the _Ebba_ has been
+travelling at the rate of from ten to eleven knots an hour. As to the
+direction we have been going in, it is always the same, and I have
+been able to verify this by casual glances at the binnacle. If the
+fore part of the vessel is barred to Warder Gaydon he has been allowed
+a free run of the remainder of it. Time and again I have glanced at
+the compass, and noticed that the needle invariably pointed to the
+east, or to be exact, east-southeast.
+
+These are the conditions in which we are navigating this part of the
+Atlantic Ocean, which is bounded on the west by the coast of the
+United States of America.
+
+I appeal to my memory. What are the islands or groups of islands to
+be found in the direction we are going, ere the continent of the Old
+World is reached?
+
+North Carolina, which the schooner quitted forty-eight hours ago, is
+traversed by the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude, and this parallel,
+extending eastward, must, if I mistake not, cut the African coast at
+Morocco. But along the line, about three thousand miles from America,
+are the Azores. Is it presumable that the _Ebba_ is heading for this
+archipelago, that the port to which she belongs is somewhere in these
+islands which constitute one of Portugal's insular domains? I cannot
+admit such an hypothesis.
+
+Besides, before the Azores, on the line of the thirty-fifth parallel,
+is the Bermuda group, which belongs to England. It seems to me to be a
+good deal less hypothetical that, if the Count d'Artigas was entrusted
+with the abduction of Thomas Roch by a European Power at all, it was
+by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The possibility,
+however, remains that he may be acting solely in his own interest.
+
+Three or four times during the day Count d'Artigas has come aft and
+remained for some time scanning the surrounding horizon attentively.
+When a sail or the smoke from a steamer heaves in sight he examines
+the passing vessel for a considerable time with a powerful telescope.
+I may add that he has not once condescended to notice my presence on
+deck.
+
+Now and then Captain Spade joins him and both exchange a few words in
+a language that I can neither understand nor recognize.
+
+It is with Engineer Serko, however, that the owner of the _Ebba_
+converses more readily than with anybody else, and the latter appears
+to be very intimate with him. The engineer is a good deal more free,
+more loquacious and less surly than his companions, and I wonder what
+position he occupies on the schooner. Is he a personal friend of the
+Count d'Artigas? Does he scour the seas with him, sharing the enviable
+life enjoyed by the rich yachtsman? He is the only man of the lot who
+seems to manifest, if not sympathy with, at least some interest in me.
+
+I have not seen Thomas Roch all day. He must be shut in his cabin,
+still under the influence of the fit that came upon him last night.
+
+I feel certain that this is so, when about three o'clock in the
+afternoon, just as he is about to go below, the Count beckons me to
+approach.
+
+I do not know what he wishes to say to me, this Count d'Artigas, but I
+do know what I will say to him.
+
+"Do these fits to which Thomas Roch is subject last long?" he asks me
+in English.
+
+"Sometimes forty-eight hours," I reply.
+
+"What is to be done?"
+
+"Nothing at all. Let him alone until he falls asleep. After a night's
+sleep the fit will be over and Thomas Roch will be his own helpless
+self again."
+
+"Very well, Warder Gaydon, you will continue to attend him as you did
+at Healthful House, if it be necessary."
+
+"To attend to him!"
+
+"Yes--on board the schooner--pending our arrival."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Where we shall be to-morrow afternoon," replies the Count.
+
+To-morrow, I say to myself. Then we are not bound for the coast of
+Africa, nor even the Azores. There only remains the hypothesis that we
+are making for the Bermudas.
+
+Count d'Artigas is about to go down the hatchway when I interrogate
+him in my turn:
+
+"Sir," I exclaim, "I desire to know, I have the right to know, where I
+am going, and----"
+
+"Here, Warder Gaydon," he interrupted, "you have no rights. All you
+have to do is to answer when you are spoken to." "I protest!"
+
+"Protest, then," replies this haughty and imperious personage,
+glancing at me menacingly.
+
+Then he disappears down the hatchway, leaving me face to face with
+Engineer Serko.
+
+"If I were you, Warder Gaydon, I would resign myself to the
+inevitable," remarks the latter with a smile. "When one is caught in a
+trap----"
+
+"One can cry out, I suppose?"
+
+"What is the use when no one is near to hear you?"
+
+"I shall be heard some day, sir."
+
+"Some day--that's a long way off. However, shout as much as you
+please."
+
+And with this ironical advice, Engineer Serko leaves me to my own
+reflections.
+
+Towards four o'clock a big ship is reported about six miles off to
+the east, coming in our direction. She is moving rapidly and grows
+perceptibly larger. Black clouds of smoke pour out of her two funnels.
+She is a warship, for a narrow pennant floats from her main-mast,
+and though she is not flying any flag I take her to be an American
+cruiser.
+
+I wonder whether the _Ebba_ will render her the customary salute as
+she passes.
+
+No; for the schooner suddenly changes her course with the evident
+intention of avoiding her.
+
+This proceeding on the part of such a suspicious yacht does not
+astonish me greatly. But what does cause me extreme surprise is
+Captain Spade's way of manoeuvring.
+
+He runs forward to a signalling apparatus in the bows, similar to that
+by which orders are transmitted to the engine room of a steamer. As
+soon as he presses one of the buttons of this apparatus the _Ebba_
+veers off a point to the south-west.
+
+Evidently an order of "some kind" has been transmitted to the driver
+of the machine of "some kind" which causes this inexplicable movement
+of the schooner by the action of a motor of "some kind" the principle
+of which I cannot guess at.
+
+The result of this manoeuvre is that the _Ebba_ slants away from the
+cruiser, whose course does not vary. Why should this warship cause a
+pleasure-yacht to turn out of its way? I have no idea.
+
+But the _Ebba_ behaves in a very different manner when about six
+o'clock in the evening a second ship comes in sight on the port bow.
+This time, instead of seeking to avoid her, Captain Spade signals an
+order by means of the apparatus above referred to, and resumes his
+course to the east--which will bring him close to the said ship.
+
+An hour later, the two vessels are only about four miles from each
+other.
+
+The wind has dropped completely. The strange ship, which is a
+three-masted merchantman, is taking in her top-gallant sails. It is
+useless to expect the wind to spring up again during the night, and
+she will lay becalmed till morning. The _Ebba_, however, propelled by
+her mysterious motor, continues to approach her.
+
+It goes without saying, that Captain Spade has also begun to take in
+sail, and the work, under the direction of the boatswain Effrondat, is
+executed with the same precision and promptness that struck me before.
+
+When the twilight deepens into darkness, only a mile and a half
+separates the vessels.
+
+Captain Spade then comes up to me--I am standing on the starboard
+side--and unceremoniously orders me to go below.
+
+I can but obey. I remark, however, ere I go, that the boatswain has
+not lighted the head-lamps, whereas the lamps of the three-master
+shine brightly--green to starboard, and red to port.
+
+I entertain no doubt that the schooner intends to pass her without
+being seen; for though she has slackened speed somewhat, her direction
+has not been in any way modified.
+
+I enter my cabin under the impression of a vague foreboding. My supper
+is on the table, but uneasy, I know not why, I hardly touch it, and
+lie down to wait for sleep that does not come.
+
+I remain in this condition for two hours. The silence is unbroken save
+by the water that ripples along the vessel's sides.
+
+My mind is full of the events of the past two days, and other thoughts
+crowd thickly upon me. To-morrow afternoon we shall reach our
+destination. To-morrow, I shall resume, on land, my attendance upon
+Thomas Roch, "if it be necessary," said the Count d'Artigas.
+
+If, when I was thrown into that black hole at the bottom of the hold,
+I was able to perceive when the schooner started off across Pamlico
+Sound, I now feel that she has come to a stop. It must be about ten
+o'clock.
+
+Why has she stopped? When Captain Spade ordered me below, there was no
+land in sight. In this direction, there is no island until the Bermuda
+group is reached--at least there is none on the map--and we shall have
+to go another fifty or sixty miles before the Bermudas can be
+sighted by the lookout men. Not only has the _Ebba_ stopped, but her
+immobility is almost complete. There is not a breath of wind, and
+scarcely any swell, and her slight, regular rocking is hardly
+perceptible.
+
+Then my thoughts turn to the merchantman, which was only a mile and a
+half off, on our bow, when I came below. If the schooner continued her
+course towards her, she must be almost alongside now. We certainly
+cannot be lying more than one or two cables' length from her. The
+three-master, which was becalmed at sundown, could not have gone west.
+She must be close by, and if the night is clear, I shall be able to
+see her through the porthole.
+
+It occurs to me, that perhaps a chance of escape presents itself. Why
+should I not attempt it, since no hope of being restored to liberty is
+held out to me? It is true I cannot swim, but if I seize a life buoy
+and jump overboard, I may be able to reach the ship, if I am not
+observed by the watch on deck.
+
+I must quit my cabin and go up by the forward hatchway. I listen. I
+hear no noise, either in the men's quarters, or on deck. The sailors
+must all be asleep at this hour. Here goes.
+
+I try to open the door, and find it is bolted on the outside, as I
+might have expected.
+
+I must give up the attempt, which, after all, had small chance of
+success.
+
+The best thing I can do, is to go to sleep, for I am weary of mind,
+if not of body. I am restless and racked by conflicting thoughts, and
+apprehensions of I know not what. Oh! if I could but sink into the
+blessed oblivion of slumber!
+
+I must have managed to fall asleep, for I have just been awakened by
+a noise--an unusual noise, such as I have not hitherto heard on board
+the schooner.
+
+Day begins to peer through the glass of my port-hole, which is turned
+towards the east. I look at my watch. It is half-past four.
+
+The first thing I wonder is, whether the _Ebba_ has resumed her
+voyage.
+
+No, I am certain she has not, either by sail, or by her motor. The
+sea is as calm at sunrise as it was at sunset. If the _Ebba_ has been
+going ahead while I slept, she is at any rate, stationary now.
+
+The noise to which I referred, is caused by men hurrying to and fro on
+deck--by men heavily laden. I fancy I can also hear a similar noise
+in the hold beneath my cabin floor, the entrance to which is situated
+abaft the foremast. I also feel that something is scraping against the
+schooner's hull. Have boats come alongside? Are the crew engaged in
+loading or unloading merchandise?
+
+And yet we cannot possibly have reached our journey's end. The Count
+d'Artigas said that we should not reach our destination till this
+afternoon. Now, I repeat, she was, last night, fully fifty or sixty
+miles from the nearest land, the group of the Bermudas. That she could
+have returned westward, and can be in proximity to the American coast,
+is inadmissible, in view of the distance. Moreover, I have reason to
+believe that the _Ebba_ has remained stationary all night. Before I
+fell asleep, I know she had stopped, and I now know that she is not
+moving.
+
+However, I shall see when I am allowed to go on deck. My cabin door is
+still bolted, I find on trying it; but I do not think they are likely
+to keep me here when broad daylight is on.
+
+An hour goes by, and it gradually gets lighter. I look out of my
+porthole. The ocean is covered by a mist, which the first rays of the
+sun will speedily disperse.
+
+I can, however, see for a half a mile, and if the three-masted
+merchantman is not visible, it is probably because she is lying off
+the other, or port, side of the _Ebba_.
+
+Presently I hear a key turned in my door, and the bolts drawn. I push
+the door open and clamber up the iron ladder to the deck, just as the
+men are battening down the cover of the hold.
+
+I look for the Count d'Artigas, but do not see him. He has not yet
+left his cabin.
+
+Aft, Captain Spade and Engineer Serko are superintending the stowing
+of some bales, which have doubtless been hoisted from the hold. This
+explains the noisy operations that were going on when I was awakened.
+Obviously, if the crew are getting out the cargo, we are approaching
+the end of our voyage. We are not far from port, and perhaps in a few
+hours, the schooner will drop anchor.
+
+But what about the sailing ship that was to port of us? She ought to
+be in the same place, seeing that there has been and is no wind.
+
+I look for her, but she is nowhere to be seen. There is not a sail,
+not a speck on the horizon either east, west, north or south.
+
+After cogitating upon the circumstance I can only arrive at the
+following conclusion, which, however, can only be accepted under
+reserve: Although I did not notice it, the _Ebba_ resumed her voyage
+while I slept, leaving the three-master becalmed behind her, and this
+is why the merchantman is no longer visible.
+
+I am careful not to question Captain Spade about it, nor even Engineer
+Serko, as I should certainly receive no answer.
+
+Besides, at this moment Captain Spade goes to the signalling apparatus
+and presses one of the buttons on the upper disk. Almost immediately
+the _Ebba_ gives a jerk, then with her sails still furled, she starts
+off eastward again.
+
+Two hours later the Count d'Artigas comes up through the main hatchway
+and takes his customary place aft. Serko and Captain Spade at once
+approach and engage in conversation with him.
+
+All three raise their telescopes and sweep the horizon from southeast
+to northeast.
+
+No one will be surprised to learn that I gaze intently in the same
+direction; but having no telescope I cannot distinguish anything.
+
+The midday meal over we all return on deck--all with the exception of
+Thomas Roch, who has not quitted his cabin.
+
+Towards one o'clock land is sighted by the lookout man on the foretop
+cross-tree. Inasmuch as the _Ebba_ is bowling along at great speed I
+shall soon be able to make out the coast line.
+
+In effect, two hours later a vague semicircular line that curves
+outward is discernible about eight miles off. As the schooner
+approaches it becomes more distinct. It is a mountain, or at all
+events very high ground, and from its summit a cloud of smoke ascends.
+
+What! A volcano in these parts? It must then be----
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+BACK CUP.
+
+
+In my opinion the _Ebba_ could have struck no other group of islands
+but the Bermudas in this part of the Atlantic. This is clear from the
+distance covered from the American coast and the direction sailed in
+since we issued from Pamlico Sound. This direction has constantly been
+south-southeast, and the distance, judging from the _Ebba's_ rate of
+speed, which has scarcely varied, is approximately seven hundred and
+fifty miles.
+
+Still, the schooner does not slacken speed. The Count d'Artigas and
+Engineer Serko remain aft, by the man at the wheel. Captain Spade has
+gone forward.
+
+Are we not going to leave this island, which appears to be isolated,
+to the west?
+
+It does not seem likely, since it is still broad daylight, and the
+hour at which the _Ebba_ was timed to arrive.
+
+All the sailors are drawn up on deck, awaiting orders, and Boatswain
+Effrondat is making preparations to anchor.
+
+Ere a couple of hours have passed I shall know all about it. It will
+be the first answer to one of the many questions that have perplexed
+me since the schooner put to sea.
+
+And yet it is most unlikely that the port to which the _Ebba_ belongs
+is situated on one of the Bermuda islands, in the middle of an English
+archipelago--unless the Count d'Artigas has kidnapped Thomas Roch for
+the British government, which I cannot believe.
+
+I become aware that this extraordinary man is gazing at me with
+singular persistence. Although he can have no suspicion that I am
+Simon Hart, the engineer, he must be asking himself what I think of
+this adventure. If Warder Gaydon is but a poor devil, this poor devil
+will manifest as much unconcern as to what is in store for him as any
+gentleman could--even though he were the proprietor of this queer
+pleasure yacht. Still I am a little uneasy under his gaze.
+
+I dare say that if the Count d'Artigas could guess how certain things
+have suddenly become clear to me, he would not hesitate to have me
+thrown overboard.
+
+Prudence therefore commands me to be more circumspect than ever.
+
+Without giving rise to any suspicion--even in the mind of Engineer
+Serko--I have succeeded in raising a corner of the mysterious veil,
+and I begin to see ahead a bit.
+
+As the _Ebba_ draws nearer, the island, or rather islet, towards which
+she is speeding shows more sharply against the blue background of the
+sky. The sun which has passed the zenith, shines full upon the western
+side. The islet is isolated, or at any rate I cannot see any others of
+the group to which it belongs, either to north or south.
+
+This islet, of curious contexture, resembles as near as possible a
+cup turned upside down, from which a fuliginous vapor arises. Its
+summit--the bottom of the cup, if you like--is about three hundred
+feet above the level of the sea, and its flanks, which are steep and
+regular, are as bare as the sea-washed rocks at its base.
+
+There is another peculiarity about it which must render the islet
+easily recognizable by mariners approaching it from the west, and this
+is a rock which forms a natural arch at the base of the mountain--the
+handle of the cup, so to speak--and through which the waves wash as
+freely as the sunshine passes. Seen this way the islet fully justifies
+the name of Back Cup given to it.
+
+Well, I know and recognize this islet! It is situated at the extremity
+of the archipelago of the Bermudas. It is the "reversed cup" that I
+had occasion to visit a few years ago--No, I am not mistaken. I then
+climbed over the calcareous and crooked rocks at its base on the east
+side. Yes, it is Back Cup, sure enough!
+
+Had I been less self-possessed I might have uttered an exclamation
+of surprise--and satisfaction--which, with good reason, would have
+excited the attention and suspicion of the Count d'Artigas.
+
+These are the circumstances under which I came to explore Back Cup
+while on a visit to Bermuda.
+
+This archipelago, which is situated about seven hundred and fifty
+miles from North Carolina is composed of several hundred islands or
+islets. Its centre is crossed by the sixty-fourth meridian and the
+thirty-second parallel. Since the Englishman Lomer was shipwrecked
+and cast up there in 1609, the Bermudas have belonged to the United
+Kingdom, and in consequence the colonial population has increased to
+ten thousand inhabitants. It was not for its productions of cotton,
+coffee, indigo, and arrowroot that England annexed the group--seized
+it, one might say; but because it formed a splendid maritime station
+in that part of the Ocean, and in proximity to the United States of
+America. Possession was taken of it without any protest on the part of
+other powers, and Bermuda is now administered by a British governor
+with the addition of a council and a General Assembly.
+
+The principal islands of the archipelago are called St. David,
+Somerset, Hamilton, and St. George. The latter has a free port, and
+the town of the same name is also the capital of the group.
+
+The largest of these isles is not more than seventeen miles long and
+five wide. Leaving out the medium-sized ones, there remains but an
+agglomeration of islets and reefs scattered over an area of twelve
+square leagues.
+
+Although the climate of Bermuda is very healthy, very salubrious, the
+isles are nevertheless frightfully beaten by the heavy winter tempests
+of the Atlantic, and their approach by navigators presents certain
+difficulties.
+
+What the archipelago especially lacks are rivers and rios. However,
+as abundant rains fall frequently, this drawback is got over by the
+inhabitants, who treasure up the heaven-sent water for household and
+agricultural purposes. This has necessitated the construction of vast
+cisterns which the downfalls keep filled. These works of engineering
+skill justly merit the admiration they receive and do honor to the
+genius of man.
+
+It was in connection with the setting up of these cisterns that I made
+the trip, as well as out of curiosity to inspect the fine works.
+
+
+I obtained from the company of which I was the engineer in New
+Jersey a vacation of several weeks, and embarked at New York for the
+Bermudas.
+
+While I was staying on Hamilton Island, in the vast port of
+Southampton, an event occurred of great interest to geologists.
+
+One day a whole flotilla of fishers, men, women and children, entered
+Southampton Harbor. For fifty years these families had lived on the
+east coast of Back Cup, where they had erected log-cabins and houses
+of stone. Their position for carrying on their industry was an
+exceptionally favorable one, for the waters teem with fish all the
+year round, and in March and April whales abound.
+
+Nothing had hitherto occurred to disturb their tranquil existence.
+They were quite contented with their rough lot, which was rendered
+less onerous by the facility of communication with Hamilton and St.
+George. Their solid barks took cargoes of fish there, which they
+exchanged for the necessities of life.
+
+Why had they thus abandoned the islet with the intention, as it pretty
+soon appeared, of never returning to it? The reason turned out to be
+that they no longer considered themselves in safety there.
+
+A couple of months previously they had been at first surprised, then
+alarmed, by several distinct detonations that appeared to have taken
+place in the interior of the mountain. At the same time smoke and
+flames issued from the summit--or the bottom of the reversed cup, if
+you like. Now no one had ever suspected that the islet was of volcanic
+origin, or that there was a crater at the top, no one having been able
+to climb its sides. Now, however, there could be no possible doubt
+that the mountain was an ancient volcano that had suddenly become
+active again and threatened the village with destruction.
+
+During the ensuing two months internal rumblings and explosions
+continued to be heard, which were accompanied by bursts of flame
+from the top--especially at night. The island was shaken by the
+explosions--the shocks could be distinctly felt. All these phenomena
+were indicative of an imminent eruption, and there was no spot at the
+base of the mountain that could afford any protection from the rivers
+of lava that would inevitably pour down its smooth, steep slopes
+and overwhelm the village in their boiling flood. Besides, the very
+mountain might be destroyed in the eruption.
+
+There was nothing for the population exposed to such a dire
+catastrophe to do but leave. This they did. Their humble Lares
+and Penates, in fact all their belongings, were loaded into the
+fishing-smacks, and the entire colony sought refuge in Southhampton
+Harbor.
+
+The news that a volcano, that had presumably been smouldering for
+centuries at the western extremity of the group, showed signs of
+breaking out again, caused a sensation throughout the Bermudas. But
+while some were terrified, the curiosity of others was aroused, mine
+included. The phenomenon was worth investigation, even if the simple
+fisher-folk had exaggerated.
+
+Back Cup, which, as already stated, lies at the western extremity of
+the archipelago, is connected therewith by a chain of small islets
+and reefs, which cannot be approached from the east. Being only three
+hundred feet in altitude, it cannot be seen either from St. George or
+Hamilton. I joined a party of explorers and we embarked in a cutter
+that landed us on the island, and made our way to the abandoned
+village of the Bermudan fishers.
+
+The internal crackings and detonations could be plainly heard, and a
+sheaf of smoke was swayed by the wind at the summit.
+
+Beyond a peradventure the ancient volcano had been started again
+by the subterranean fire, and an eruption at any moment was to be
+apprehended.
+
+In vain we attempted to climb to the mouth of the crater. The mountain
+sheered down at an angle of from seventy-five to eighty degrees, and
+its smooth, slippery sides afforded absolutely no foothold. Anything
+more barren than this rocky freak of nature it would be difficult to
+conceive. Only a few tufts of wild herbs were to be seen upon the
+whole island, and these seemed to have no _raison d'être_.
+
+Our explorations were therefore necessarily limited, and in view of
+the active symptoms of danger that manifested themselves, we could but
+approve the action of the villagers in abandoning the place; for we
+entertained no doubt that its destruction was imminent.
+
+These were the circumstances in which I was led to visit Back Cup, and
+no one will consequently be surprised at the fact that I recognized it
+immediately we hove in sight of the queer structure.
+
+No, I repeat, the Count d'Artigas would probably not be overpleased
+if he were aware that Warder Gaydon is perfectly acquainted with this
+islet, even if the _Ebba_ was to anchor there--which, as there is no
+port, is, to say the least, extremely improbable.
+
+As we draw nearer, I attentively examine Back Cup. Not one of
+its former inhabitants has been induced to return, and, as it is
+absolutely deserted, I cannot imagine why the schooner should visit
+the place.
+
+Perhaps, however, the Count d'Artigas and his companions have no
+intention of landing there. Even though the _Ebba_ should find
+temporary shelter between the rocky sides of a narrow creek there is
+nothing to give ground to the supposition that a wealthy yachtsman
+would have the remotest idea of fixing upon as his residence an arid
+cone exposed to all the terrible tempests of the Western Atlantic. To
+live here is all very well for rustic fishermen, but not for the Count
+d'Artigas, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade and his crew.
+
+Back Cup is now only half a mile off, and the seaweed thrown up on its
+rocky base is plainly discernible. The only living things upon it are
+the sea-gulls and other birds that circle in clouds around the smoking
+crater.
+
+When she is only two cable's lengths off, the schooner slackens speed,
+and then stops at the entrance of a sort of natural canal formed by a
+couple of reefs that barely rise above the water.
+
+I wonder whether the _Ebba_ will venture to try the dangerous feat of
+passing through it. I do not think so. She will probably lay where she
+is--though why she should do so I do not know--for a few hours, and
+then continue her voyage towards the east.
+
+However this may be I see no preparations in progress for dropping
+anchor. The anchors are suspended in their usual places, the cables
+have not been cleared, and no motion has been made to lower a single
+boat.
+
+At this moment Count d'Artigas, Engineer Serko and Captain Spade go
+forward and perform some manoeuvre that is inexplicable to me.
+
+I walk along the port side of the deck until I am near the foremast,
+and then I can see a small buoy that the sailors are hoisting in.
+Almost immediately the water, at the same spot becomes dark and I
+observe a black mass rising to the surface. Is it a big whale rising
+for air, and is the _Ebba_ in danger of being shattered by a blow from
+the monster's tail?
+
+Now I understand! At last the mystery is solved. I know what was the
+motor that caused the schooner to go at such an extraordinary speed
+without sails and without a screw. Her indefatigable motor is emerging
+from the sea, after having towed her from the coast of America to
+the archipelago of the Bermudas. There it is, floating alongside--a
+submersible boat, a submarine tug, worked by a screw set in motion by
+the current from a battery of accumulators or powerful electric piles.
+
+On the upper part of the long cigar-shaped iron tug is a platform in
+the middle of which is the "lid" by which an entrance is effected. In
+the fore part of the platform projects a periscope, or lookout, formed
+by port-holes or lenses through which an electric searchlight can
+throw its gleam for some distance under water in front of and on each
+side of the tug. Now relieved of its ballast of water the boat has
+risen to the surface. Its lid will open and fresh air will penetrate
+it to every part. In all probability, if it remained submerged during
+the day it rose at night and towed the _Ebba_ on the surface.
+
+But if the mechanical power of the tug is produced by electricity the
+latter must be furnished by some manufactory where it is stored, and
+the means of procuring the batteries is not to be found on Back Cup, I
+suppose.
+
+And then, why does the _Ebba_ have recourse to this submarine towing
+system? Why is she not provided with her own means of propulsion, like
+other pleasure-boats?
+
+These are things, however, upon which I have at present no leisure to
+ruminate.
+
+The lid of the tug opens and several men issue on to the platform.
+They are the crew of this submarine boat, and Captain Spade has been
+able to communicate with them and transmit his orders as to the
+direction to be taken by means of electric signals connected with the
+tug by a wire that passes along the stem of the schooner.
+
+Engineer Serko approaches me and says, pointing to the boat:
+
+"Get in."
+
+"Get in!" I exclaim.
+
+"Yes, in the tug, and look sharp about it."
+
+As usual there is nothing for it but to obey. I hasten to comply with
+the order and clamber over the side.
+
+At the same time Thomas Roch appears on deck accompanied by one of the
+crew. He appears to be very calm, and very indifferent too, and makes
+no resistance when he is lifted over and lowered into the tug. When he
+has been taken in, Count d'Artigas and Engineer Serko follow.
+
+Captain Spade and the crew of the _Ebba_ remain behind, with the
+exception of four men who man the dinghy, which has been lowered. They
+have hold of a long hawser, with which the schooner is probably to be
+towed through the reef. Is there then a creek in the middle of the
+rocks where the vessel is secure from the breakers? Is this the port
+to which she belongs?
+
+They row off with the hawser and make the end fast to a ring in the
+reef. Then the crew on board haul on it and in five minutes the
+schooner is so completely lost to sight among the rocks that even the
+tip of her mast could not be seen from the sea.
+
+Who in Bermuda imagines that a vessel is accustomed to lay up in
+this secret creek? Who in America would have any idea that the rich
+yachtsman so well known in all the eastern ports abides in the
+solitude of Back Cup mountain?
+
+Twenty minutes later the dinghy returns with the four men towards the
+tug which was evidently waiting for them before proceeding--where?
+
+They climb on board, the little boat is made fast astern, a movement
+is felt, the screw revolves rapidly and the tug skims along the
+surface to Back Cup, skirting the reefs to the south.
+
+Three cable's lengths further on, another tortuous canal is seen that
+leads to the island. Into this the tug enters. When it gets close
+inshore, an order is given to two men who jump out and haul the dinghy
+up on a narrow sandy beach out of the reach of wave or weed, and where
+it will be easily get-at-able when wanted.
+
+This done the sailors return to the tug and Engineer Serko signs to me
+to go below.
+
+A short iron ladder leads into a central cabin where various bales and
+packages are stored, and for which no doubt there was not room in the
+hold of the schooner. I am pushed into a side cabin, the door is shut
+upon me, and here I am once more a prisoner in profound darkness.
+
+I recognize the cabin the moment I enter it. It is the place in which
+I spent so many long hours after our abduction from Healthful House,
+and in which I was confined until well out at sea off Pamlico Sound.
+
+It is evident that Thomas Roch has been placed in a similar
+compartment.
+
+A loud noise is heard, the banging of the lid as it closes, and the
+tug begins to sink as the water is admitted to the tanks.
+
+This movement is succeeded by another--a movement that impels the boat
+through the water.
+
+Three minutes later it stops, and I feel that we are rising to the
+surface again.
+
+Another noise made by the lid being raised.
+
+The door of my cabin opens, and I rush out and clamber on to the
+platform.
+
+I look around and find that the tug has penetrated to the interior of
+Back Cup mountain.
+
+This is the mysterious retreat where Count d'Artigas lives with his
+companions--out of the world, so to speak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+INSIDE BACK CUP.
+
+
+The next morning I am able to make a first inspection of the vast
+cavern of Back Cup. No one seeks to prevent me.
+
+What a night I have passed! What strange visions I have seen! With
+what impatience I waited for morning!
+
+I was conducted to a grotto about a hundred paces from the edge of
+the lake where the tug stopped. The grotto, twelve feet by ten, was
+lighted by an incandescent lamp, and fitted with an entrance door that
+was closed upon me.
+
+I am not surprised that electricity is employed in lighting the
+interior of the cavern, as it is also used in the submarine boat. But
+where is it generated? Where does it come from? Is there a manufactory
+installed somewhere or other in this vast crypt, with machinery,
+dynamos and accumulators?
+
+My cell is neatly furnished with a table on which provisions are
+spread, a bunk with bedding, a basket chair, a wash-hand-stand with
+toilet set, and a closet containing linen and various suits of
+clothes. In a drawer of the table I find paper, ink and pens.
+
+My dinner consists of fresh fish, preserved meat, bread of excellent
+quality, ale and whisky; but I am so excited that I scarcely touch it.
+Yet I feel that I ought to fortify myself and recover my calmness of
+mind. I must and will solve the mystery surrounding the handful of men
+who burrow in the bowels of this island.
+
+So it is under the carapace of Back Cup that Count d'Artigas has
+established himself! This cavity, the existence of which is not even
+suspected, is his home when he is not sailing in the _Ebba_ along the
+coasts of the new world or the old. This is the unknown retreat he has
+discovered, to which access is obtained by a submarine passage twelve
+or fifteen feet below the surface of the ocean.
+
+Why has he severed himself from the world? What has been his past?
+If, as I suspect, this name of d'Artigas and this title of Count are
+assumed, what motive has he for hiding his identity? Has he been
+banished, is he an outcast of society that he should have selected
+this place above all others? Am I not in the power of an evildoer
+anxious to ensure impunity for his crimes and to defy the law by
+seeking refuge in this undiscoverable burrow? I have the right of
+supposing anything in the case of this suspicious foreigner, and I
+exercise it.
+
+Then the question to which I have never been able to suggest a
+satisfactory answer once more surges into my mind. Why was Thomas Roch
+abducted from Healthful House in the manner already fully described?
+Does the Count d'Artigas hope to force from him the secret of his
+fulgurator with a view to utilizing it for the defence of Back Cup in
+case his retreat should by chance be discovered? Hardly. It would be
+easy enough to starve the gang out of Back Cup, by preventing the tug
+from supplying them with provisions. On the other hand, the schooner
+could never break through the investing lines, and if she did her
+description would be known in every port. In this event, of what
+possible use would Thomas Roch's invention be to the Count d'Artigas
+Decidedly, I cannot understand it!
+
+About seven o'clock in the morning I jump out of bed. If I am a
+prisoner in the cavern I am at least not imprisoned in my grotto cell.
+The door yields when I turn the handle and push against it, and I walk
+out.
+
+Thirty yards in front of me is a rocky plane, forming a sort of quay
+that extends to right and left. Several sailors of the _Ebba_ are
+engaged in landing bales and stores from the interior of the tug,
+which lays alongside a little stone jetty.
+
+A dim light to which my eyes soon grow accustomed envelops the cavern
+and comes from a hole in the centre of the roof, through which the
+blue sky can be seen.
+
+"It is from that hole that the smoke which can be seen for such a
+distance issues," I say to myself, and this discovery suggests a whole
+series of reflections.
+
+Back Cup, then, is not a volcano, as was supposed--as I supposed
+myself. The flames that were seen a few years ago, and the columns
+of smoke that still rise were and are produced artificially. The
+detonations and rumblings that so alarmed the Bermudan fishers were
+not caused by the internal workings of nature. These various phenomena
+were fictitious. They manifested themselves at the mere will of the
+owner of the island, who wanted to scare away the inhabitants who
+resided on the coast. He succeeded, this Count d'Artigas, and remains
+the sole and undisputed monarch of the mountain. By exploding
+gunpowder, and burning seaweed swept up in inexhaustible quantities by
+the ocean, he has been able to simulate a volcano upon the point of
+eruption and effectually scare would-be settlers away!
+
+The light becomes stronger as the sun rises higher, the daylight
+streams through the fictitious crater, and I shall soon be able to
+estimate the cavern's dimensions. This is how I calculate:
+
+Exteriorly the island of Back Cup, which is as nearly as possible
+circular, measures two hundred and fifty yards in circumference, and
+presents an interior superficies of about six acres. The sides of the
+mountain at its base vary in thickness from thirty to a hundred yards.
+
+It therefore follows that this excavation practically occupies the
+whole of that part of Back Cup island which appears above water. As to
+the length of the submarine tunnel by which communication is obtained
+with the outside, and through which the tug passed, I estimate that it
+is fifty yards in length.
+
+The size of the cavern can be judged from these approximate figures.
+But vast as it is, I remember that there are caverns of larger
+dimensions both in the old and new worlds. For instance in Carniole,
+Northumberland, Derbyshire, Piedmont, the Balearics, Hungary
+and California are larger grottoes than Back Cup, and those at
+Han-sur-Lesse in Belgium, and the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, are also
+more extensive. The latter contain no fewer than two hundred and
+twenty-six domes, seven rivers, eight cataracts, thirty two wells of
+unknown depth, and an immense lake which extends over six or seven
+leagues, the limit of which has never been reached by explorers.
+
+I know these Kentucky grottoes, having visited them, as many thousands
+of tourists have done. The principal one will serve as a comparison
+to Back Cup. The roof of the former, like that of the latter, is
+supported by pillars of various lengths, which give it the appearance
+of a Gothic cathedral, with naves and aisles, though it lacks the
+architectural regularity of a religious edifice. The only difference
+is that whereas the roof of the Kentucky grotto is over four hundred
+feet high, that of Back Cup is not above two hundred and twenty at
+that part of it where the round hole through which issue the smoke and
+flames is situated.
+
+Another peculiarity, and a very important one, that requires to be
+pointed out, is that whereas the majority of the grottoes referred to
+are easily accessible, and were therefore bound to be discovered some
+time or other, the same remark does not apply to Back Cup. Although it
+is marked on the map as an island forming part of the Bermuda group,
+how could any one imagine that it is hollow, that its rocky sides
+are only the walls of an enormous cavern? In order to make such a
+discovery it would be necessary to get inside, and to get inside a
+submarine apparatus similar to that of the Count d'Artigas would be
+necessary.
+
+In my opinion this strange yachtsman's discovery of the tunnel by
+which he has been able to found this disquieting colony of Back Cup
+must have been due to pure chance.
+
+Now I turn my attention to the lake and observe that it is a
+very small one, measuring not more than four hundred yards in
+circumference. It is, properly speaking, a lagoon, the rocky sides of
+which are perpendicular. It is large enough for the tug to work about
+in it, and holds enough water too, for it must be one hundred and
+twenty-five feet deep.
+
+It goes without saying that this crypt, given its position and
+structure, belongs to the category of those which are due to the
+encroachments of the sea. It is at once of Neptunian and Plutonian
+origin, like the grottoes of Crozon and Morgate in the bay of
+Douarnenez in France, of Bonifacio on the Corsican coast, Thorgatten
+in Norway, the height of which is estimated at over three hundred
+feet, the catavaults of Greece, the grottoes of Gibraltar in Spain,
+and Tourana in Cochin China, whose carapace indicates that they are
+all the product of this dual geological labor.
+
+The islet of Back Cup is in great part formed of calcareous rocks,
+which slope upwards gently from the lagoon towards the sides and are
+separated from each other by narrow beaches of fine sand. Thick layers
+of seaweed that have been swept through the tunnel by the tide and
+thrown up around the lake have been piled into heaps, some of which
+are dry and some still wet, but all of which exhale the strong odor of
+the briny ocean. This, however, is not the only combustible employed
+by the inhabitants of Back Cup, for I see an enormous store of coal
+that must have been brought by the schooner and the tug. But it is the
+incineration of masses of dried seaweed that causes the smoke vomited
+forth by the crater of the mountain.
+
+Continuing my walk I perceive on the northern side of the lagoon the
+habitations of this colony of troglodytes--do they not merit the
+appellation? This part of the cavern, which is known as the Beehive,
+fully justifies its name, for it is honeycombed by cells excavated
+in the limestone rock and in which these human bees--or perhaps they
+should rather be called wasps--reside.
+
+The lay of the cavern to the east is very different. Here hundreds of
+pillars of all shapes rise to the dome, and form a veritable forest of
+stone trees through the sinuous avenues of which one can thread one's
+way to the extreme limit of the place.
+
+By counting the cells of the Beehive I calculate that Count d'Artigas'
+companions number from eighty to one hundred.
+
+As my eye wanders over the place I notice that the Count is standing
+in front of one of the cells, which is isolated from the others, and
+talking to Engineer Serko and Captain Spade. After a while they stroll
+down to the jetty alongside which the tug is lying.
+
+A dozen men have been emptying the merchandise out of the tug and
+transporting the goods in boats to the other side, where great cellars
+have been excavated in the rocks and form the storehouses of the band.
+
+The orifice of the tunnel is not visible in the waters of the lagoon,
+and I remember that when I was brought here I felt the tug sink
+several feet before it entered. In this respect therefore Back Cup
+does not resemble either the grottoes of Staffa or Morgate, entrance
+to which is always open, even at high tide. There may be another
+passage communicating with the coast, either natural or artificial,
+and this I shall have to make my business to find out.
+
+The island well merits its name of Back Cup. It is indeed a gigantic
+cup turned upside down, not only to outward appearance, but inwardly,
+too, though people are ignorant of the fact.
+
+I have already remarked that the Beehive is situated to the north of
+the lagoon, that is to say to the left on entering by the tunnel. On
+the opposite side are the storerooms filled with provisions of all
+kinds, bales of merchandise, barrels of wine, beer, and spirits and
+various packets bearing different marks and labels that show that they
+came from all parts of the world. One would think that the cargoes of
+a score of ships had been landed here.
+
+A little farther on is a large wooden shed the nature of which is
+easily distinguishable. From a pole above it a network of thick copper
+wires extends which conducts the current to the powerful electric
+lights suspended from the roof or dome, and to the incandescent lamps
+in each of the cells of the hive. A large number of lamps are also
+installed among the stone pillars and light up the avenues to their
+extremities.
+
+"Shall I be permitted to roam about wherever I please?" I ask myself.
+I hope so. I cannot for the life of me see why the Count d'Artigas
+should prohibit me from doing so, for I cannot get farther than the
+surrounding walls of his mysterious domain. I question whether there
+is any other issue than the tunnel, and how on earth could I get
+through that?
+
+Besides, admitting that I am able to get through it, I cannot get off
+the island. My disappearance would be soon noticed, and the tug would
+take out a dozen men who would explore every nook and cranny. I should
+inevitably be recaptured, brought back to the Beehive, and deprived of
+my liberty for good.
+
+I must therefore give up all idea of making my escape, unless I can
+see that it has some chance of being successful, and if ever an
+opportunity does present itself I shall not be slow to take advantage
+of it.
+
+On strolling round by the rows of cells I am able to observe a few of
+these companions of the Count d'Artigas who are content to pass their
+monotonous existence in the depths of Back Cup. As I said before,
+calculating from the number of cells in the Beehive, there must be
+between eighty and a hundred of them.
+
+They pay no attention whatever to me as I pass, and on examining them
+closely it seems to me that they must have been recruited from every
+country. I do not distinguish any community of origin among them, not
+even a similarity by which they might be classed as North Americans,
+Europeans or Asiatics. The color of their skin shades from white to
+yellow and black--the black peculiar to Australia rather than to
+Africa. To sum up, they appear for the most part to pertain to the
+Malay races. I may add that the Count d'Artigas certainly belongs
+to that particular race which peoples the Dutch isles in the West
+Pacific, while Engineer Serko must be Levantine and Captain Spade of
+Italian origin.
+
+But if the inhabitants of Back Cup are not bound to each other by
+ties of race, they certainly are by instinct and inclination. What
+forbidding, savage-looking faces they have, to be sure! They are men
+of violent character who have probably never placed any restraint upon
+their passions, nor hesitated at anything, and it occurs to me that
+in all likelihood they have sought refuge in this cavern, where they
+fancy they can continue to defy the law with impunity, after a
+long series of crimes--robbery, murder, arson, and excesses of all
+descriptions committed together. In this case Back Cup is nothing but
+a lair of pirates, the Count d'Artigas is the leader of the band and
+Serko and Spade are his lieutenants.
+
+I cannot get this idea out of my head, and the more I consider the
+more convinced I am that I am right, especially as everything I see
+during my stroll about the cavern seems to confirm my opinion.
+
+However this may be, and whatever may be the circumstances that have
+brought them together in this place, Count d'Artigas' companions
+appear to accept his all-powerful domination without question. On the
+other hand, if he keeps them under his iron heel by enforcing the
+severest discipline, certain advantages, some compensation,
+must accrue from the servitude to which they bow. What can this
+compensation be?
+
+Having turned that part of the bank under which the tunnel passes, I
+find myself on the opposite side of the lagoon, where are situated the
+storerooms containing the merchandise brought by the _Ebba_ on each
+trip, and which contain a great quantity of bales.
+
+Beyond is the manufactory of electric energy. I gaze in at the windows
+as I pass and notice that it contains machines of the latest invention
+and highest attained perfection, which take up little space. Not one
+steam engine, with its more or less complicated mechanism and need
+of fuel, is to be seen in the place. As I had surmised, piles of
+extraordinary power supply the current to the lamps in the cavern,
+as well as to the dynamos of the tug. No doubt the current is also
+utilized for domestic purposes, such as warming the Beehive and
+cooking food, I can see that in a neighboring cavity it is applied to
+the alembics used to produce fresh water. At any rate the colonists
+of Back Cup are not reduced to catching the rain water that falls so
+abundantly upon the exterior of the mountain.
+
+A few paces from the electric power house is a large cistern that,
+save in the matter of proportions, is the counterpart of those I
+visited in Bermuda. In the latter place the cisterns have to supply
+the needs of over ten thousand people, this one of a hundred--what?
+
+I am not sure yet what to call them. That their chief had serious
+reasons for choosing the bowels of this island for his abiding place
+is obvious. But what were those reasons? I can understand monks
+shutting themselves behind their monastery walls with the intention of
+separating themselves from the world, but these subjects of the Count
+d'Artigas have nothing of the monk about them, and would not be
+mistaken for such by the most simple-minded of mortals.
+
+I continue my way through the pillars to the extremity of the cavern.
+No one has sought to stop me, no one has spoken to me, not a soul
+apparently has taken the very slightest notice of me. This portion of
+Back Cup is extremely curious, and comparable to the most marvellous
+of the grottoes of Kentucky or the Balearics. I need hardly say that
+nowhere is the labor of man apparent. All this is the handiwork of
+nature, and it is not without wonder, mingled with awe, that I reflect
+upon the telluric forces capable of engendering such prodigious
+substructions. The daylight from the crater in the centre only strikes
+this part of the cavern obliquely, so that it is very imperfectly
+lighted, but at night, when illuminated by the electric lamps, its
+aspect must be positively fantastic.
+
+I have examined the walls everywhere with minute attention, but have
+been unable to discover any means of communicating with the outside.
+
+Quite a colony of birds--gulls, sea-swallows and other feathery
+denizens of the Bermudan beaches have made their home in the cavern.
+They have apparently never been hunted, for they are in no way
+disturbed by the presence of man.
+
+But besides sea-birds, which are free to come and go as they please
+by the orifice in the dome, there is a whole farmyard of domestic
+poultry, and cows and pigs. The food supply is therefore no less
+assured than it is varied, when the fish of all kinds that abound in
+the lagoon and around the island are taken into consideration.
+
+Moreover, a mere glance at the colonists of Back Cup amply suffices
+to show that they are not accustomed to fare scantily. They are all
+vigorous, robust seafaring men, weatherbeaten and seasoned in the
+burning beat of tropical latitudes, whose rich blood is surcharged
+with oxygen by the breezes of the ocean. There is not a youth nor an
+old man among them. They are all in their prime, their ages ranging
+from thirty to fifty.
+
+But why do they submit to such an existence? Do they never leave their
+rocky retreat?
+
+Perhaps I shall find out ere I am much older.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+KER KARRAJE.
+
+
+The cell in which I reside is about a hundred paces from the
+habitation of the Count d'Artigas, which is one of the end ones of
+this row of the Beehive. If I am not to share it with Thomas Roch, I
+presume the latter's cell is not far off, for in order that Warder
+Gaydon may continue to care for the ex-patient of Healthful House,
+their respective apartments will have to be contiguous. However, I
+suppose I shall soon be enlightened on this point.
+
+Captain Spade and Engineer Serko reside separately in proximity to
+D'Artigas' mansion.
+
+Mansion? Yes, why not dignify it with the title since this habitation
+has been arranged with a certain art? Skillful hands have carved an
+ornamental façade in the rock. A large door affords access to it.
+Colored glass windows in wooden frames let into the limestone
+walls admit the light. The interior comprises several chambers, a
+dining-room and a drawing-room lighted by a stained-glass window, the
+whole being perfectly ventilated. The furniture is of various styles
+and shapes and of French, English and American make. The kitchen,
+larder, etc., are in adjoining cells in rear of the Beehive.
+
+In the afternoon, just as I issue from my cell with the firm intention
+of "obtaining an audience" of the Count d'Artigas, I catch sight of
+him coming along the shore of the lagoon towards the hive. Either he
+does not see me, or wishes to avoid me, for he quickens his steps and
+I am unable to catch him.
+
+"Well, he will have to receive me, anyhow!" I mutter to myself.
+
+I hurry up to the door through which he has just disappeared and which
+has closed behind him.
+
+It is guarded by a gigantic, dark-skinned Malay, who orders me away in
+no amiable tone of voice.
+
+I decline to comply with his injunction, and repeat to him twice the
+following request in my very best English:
+
+"Tell the Count d'Artigas that I desire to be received immediately."
+
+I might just as well have addressed myself to the surrounding rock.
+This savage, no doubt, does not understand a word of English, for he
+scowls at me and orders me away again with a menacing cry.
+
+I have a good mind to attempt to force the door and shout so that the
+Count d'Artigas cannot fail to hear me, but in all probability I shall
+only succeed in rousing the wrath of the Malay, who appears to be
+endowed with herculean strength. I therefore judge discretion to be
+the better part of valor, and put off the explanation that is owing
+to me--and which, sooner or later, I will have--to a more propitious
+occasion.
+
+I meander off in front of the Beehive towards the east, and my
+thoughts revert to Thomas Roch. I am surprised that I have not seen
+him yet. Can he be in the throes of a fresh paroxysm?
+
+This hypothesis is hardly admissible, for if the Count d'Artigas is to
+be believed, he would in this event have summoned me to attend to the
+inventor.
+
+A little farther on I encounter Engineer Serko.
+
+With his inviting manner and usual good-humor this ironical individual
+smiles when he perceives me, and does not seek to avoid me. If he
+knew I was a colleague, an engineer--providing he himself really is
+one--perhaps he might receive me with more cordiality than I have yet
+encountered, but I am not going to be such a fool as to tell him who
+and what I am.
+
+He stops, with laughing eyes and mocking mouth, and accompanies a
+"Good day, how do you do?" with a gracious gesture of salutation.
+
+I respond coldly to his politeness--a fact which he affects not to
+notice.
+
+"May Saint Jonathan protect you, Mr. Gaydon!" he continues in his
+clear, ringing voice. "You are not, I presume, disposed to regret
+the fortunate circumstance by which you were permitted to visit this
+surpassingly marvellous cavern--and it really is one of the finest,
+although the least known on this spheroid."
+
+This word of a scientific language used in conversation with a simple
+hospital attendant surprises me, I admit, and I merely reply:
+
+"I should have no reason to complain, Mr. Serko, if, after having had
+the pleasure of visiting this cavern, I were at liberty to quit it."
+
+"What! Already thinking of leaving us, Mr. Gaydon,--of returning to
+your dismal pavilion at Healthful House? Why, you have scarcely had
+time to explore our magnificent domain, or to admire the incomparable
+beauty with which nature has endowed it."
+
+"What I have seen suffices," I answer; "and should you perchance be
+talking seriously I will assure you seriously that I do not want to
+see any more of it."
+
+"Come, now, Mr. Gaydon, permit me to point out that you have not yet
+had the opportunity of appreciating the advantages of an existence
+passed in such unrivalled surroundings. It is a quiet life, exempt
+from care, with an assured future, material conditions such as are not
+to be met with anywhere, an even climate and no more to fear from the
+tempests which desolate the coasts in this part of the Atlantic than
+from the cold of winter, or the heat of summer. This temperate and
+salubrious atmosphere is scarcely affected by changes of season. Here
+we have no need to apprehend the wrath of either Pluto or Neptune."
+
+"Sir," I reply, "it is impossible that this climate can suit you, that
+you can appreciate living in this grotto of----"
+
+I was on the point of pronouncing the name of Back Cup. Fortunately I
+restrained myself in time. What would happen if they suspected that
+I am aware of the name of their island, and, consequently, of its
+position at the extremity of the Bermuda group?
+
+"However," I continue, "if this climate does not suit me, I have, I
+presume, the right to make a change."
+
+"The right, of course."
+
+"I understand from your remark that I shall be furnished with the
+means of returning to America when I want to go?"
+
+"I have no reason for opposing your desires, Mr. Gaydon," Engineer
+Serko replies, "and I regard your presumption as a very natural
+one. Observe, however, that we live here in a noble and superb
+independence, that we acknowledge the authority of no foreign power,
+that we are subject to no outside authority, that we are the
+colonists of no state, either of the old or new world. This is worth
+consideration by whomsoever has a sense of pride and independence.
+Besides, what memories are evoked in a cultivated mind by these
+grottoes which seem to have been chiselled by the hands of the gods
+and in which they were wont to render their oracles by the mouth of
+Trophonius."
+
+Decidedly, Engineer Serko is fond of citing mythology! Trophonius
+after Pluto and Neptune? Does he imagine that Warder Gaydon ever heard
+of Trophonius? It is clear this mocker continues to mock, and I have
+to exercise the greatest patience in order not to reply in the same
+tone.
+
+"A moment ago," I continue shortly, "I wanted to enter yon habitation,
+which, if I mistake not, is that of the Count d'Artigas, but I was
+prevented."
+
+"By whom, Mr. Gaydon?"
+
+"By a man in the Count's employ."
+
+"He probably had received strict orders about it."
+
+"Possibly, yet whether he likes it or not, Count d'Artigas will have
+to see me and listen to me."
+
+"Maybe it would be difficult, and even impossible to get him to do
+so," says Engineer Serko with a smile.
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Because there is no such person as Count d'Artigas here."
+
+"You are jesting, I presume; I have just seen him."
+
+"It was not the Count d'Artigas whom you saw, Mr. Gaydon."
+
+"Who was it then, may I ask?"
+
+"The pirate Ker Karraje."
+
+This name was thrown at me in a hard tone of voice, and Engineer Serko
+walked off before I had presence of mind enough to detain him.
+
+The pirate Ker Karraje!
+
+Yes, this name is a revelation to me. I know it well, and what
+memories it evokes! It by itself explains what has hitherto been
+inexplicable to me. I now know into whose hands I have fallen.
+
+With what I already knew, with what I have learned since my arrival in
+Back Cup from Engineer Serko, this is what I am able to tell about the
+past and present of Ker Karraje:
+
+Eight or nine years ago, the West Pacific was infested by pirates
+who acted with the greatest audacity. A band of criminals of various
+origins, composed of escaped convicts, military and naval deserters,
+etc., operated with incredible audacity under the orders of a
+redoubtable chief. The nucleus of the band had been formed by men
+pertaining to the scum of Europe who had been attracted to New South
+Wales, in Australia, by the discovery of gold there. Among these
+gold-diggers, were Captain Spade and Engineer Serko, two outcasts,
+whom a certain community of ideas and character soon bound together in
+close friendship.
+
+These intelligent, well educated, resolute men would most assuredly
+have succeeded in any career. But being without conscience or
+scruples, and determined to get rich at no matter what cost, deriving
+from gambling and speculation what they might have earned by patient
+and steady work, they engaged in all sorts of impossible adventures.
+One day they were rich, the next day poor, like most of the
+questionable individuals who had hurried to the gold-fields in search
+of fortune.
+
+Among the diggers in New South Wales was a man of incomparable
+audacity, one of those men who stick at nothing--not even at
+crime--and whose influence upon bad and violent natures is
+irresistible.
+
+That man's name was Ker Karraje.
+
+The origin or nationality or antecedents of this pirate were never
+established by the investigations ordered in regard to him. He eluded
+all pursuit, and his name--or at least the name he gave himself--was
+known all over the world, and inspired horror and terror everywhere,
+as being that of a legendary personage, a bogey, invisible and
+unseizable.
+
+I have now reason to believe that Ker Karraje is a Malay. However, it
+is of little consequence, after all. What is certain is that he was
+with reason regarded as a formidable and dangerous villain who had
+many crimes, committed in distant seas, to answer for.
+
+After spending a few years on the Australian goldfields, where he made
+the acquaintance of Engineer Serko and Captain Spade, Ker Karraje
+managed to seize a ship in the port of Melbourne, in the province
+of Victoria. He was joined by about thirty rascals whose number was
+speedily tripled. In that part of the Pacific Ocean where piracy is
+still carried on with great facility, and I may say, profit, the
+number of ships pillaged, crews massacred, and raids committed in
+certain western islands which the colonists were unable to defend,
+cannot be estimated.
+
+Although the whereabouts of Ker Karraje's vessel, commanded by Captain
+Spade, was several times made known to the authorities, all attempts
+to capture it proved futile. The marauder would disappear among the
+innumerable islands of which he knew every cove and creek, and it was
+impossible to come across him.
+
+He maintained a perfect reign of terror. England, France, Germany,
+Russia and America vainly dispatched warships in pursuit of the
+phantom vessel which disappeared, no one knew whither, after robberies
+and murders that could not be prevented or punished had been committed
+by her crew.
+
+One day this series of crimes came to an end, and no more was heard of
+Ker Karraje. Had he abandoned the Pacific for other seas? Would this
+pirate break out in a fresh place? It was argued that notwithstanding
+what they must have spent in orgies and debauchery the pirate and his
+companions must still have an enormous amount of wealth hidden in some
+place known only to themselves, and that they were enjoying their
+ill-gotten gains.
+
+Where had the band hidden themselves since they had ceased their
+depredations? This was a question which everybody asked and none was
+able to answer. All attempts to run them to earth were vain. Terror
+and uneasiness having ceased with the danger, Ker Karraje's exploits
+soon began to be forgotten, even in the West Pacific.
+
+This is what had happened--and what will never be known unless I
+succeed in escaping from Back Cup:
+
+These wretches were, as a matter of fact, possessed of great wealth
+when they abandoned the Southern Seas. Having destroyed their ship
+they dispersed in different directions after having arranged to meet
+on the American continent.
+
+Engineer Serko, who was well versed in his profession, and was a
+clever mechanic to boot, and who had made a special study of submarine
+craft, proposed to Ker Karraje that they should construct one of
+these boats in order to continue their criminal exploits with greater
+secrecy and effectiveness.
+
+Ker Karraje at once saw the practical nature of the proposition, and
+as they had no lack of money the idea was soon carried out.
+
+While the so-called Count d'Artigas ordered the construction of the
+schooner _Ebba_ at the shipyards of Gotteborg, in Sweden, he gave to
+the Cramps of Philadelphia, in America, the plans of a submarine boat
+whose construction excited no suspicion. Besides, as will be seen, it
+soon disappeared and was never heard of again.
+
+The boat was constructed from a model and under the personal
+supervision of Engineer Serko, and fitted with all the known
+appliances of nautical science. The screw was worked with electric
+piles of recent invention which imparted enormous propulsive power to
+the motor.
+
+It goes without saying that no one imagined that Count d'Artigas was
+none other than Ker Karraje, the former pirate of the Pacific, and
+that Engineer Serko was the most formidable and resolute of his
+accomplices. The former was regarded as a foreigner of noble birth and
+great fortune, who for several months had been frequenting the ports
+of the United States, the _Ebba_ having been launched long before the
+tug was ready.
+
+Work upon the latter occupied fully eighteen months, and when the boat
+was finished it excited the admiration of all those interested in
+these engines of submarine navigation. By its external form, its
+interior arrangements, its air-supply system, the rapidity with which
+it could be immersed, the facility with which it could be handled and
+controlled, and its extraordinary speed, it was conceded to be far
+superior to the _Goubet,_ the _Gymnote_, the _Zede_, and other similar
+boats which had made great strides towards perfection.
+
+After several extremely successful experiments a public test was given
+in the open sea, four miles off Charleston, in presence of several
+American and foreign warships, merchant vessels, and pleasure boats
+invited for the occasion.
+
+Of course the _Ebba_ was among them, with the Count d'Artigas,
+Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade on board, and the old crew as well,
+save half a dozen men who manned the submarine machine, which was
+worked by a mechanical engineer named Gibson, a bold and very clever
+Englishman.
+
+The programme of this definite experiment comprised various evolutions
+on the surface of the water, which were to be followed by an immersion
+to last several hours, the boat being ordered not to rise again until
+a certain buoy stationed many miles out at sea had been attained.
+
+At the appointed time the lid was closed and the boat at first
+manoeuvred on the surface. Her speed and the ease with which
+she turned and twisted were loudly praised by all the technical
+spectators.
+
+Then at a signal given on board the _Ebba_ the tug sank slowly out
+of sight, and several vessels started for the buoy where she was to
+reappear.
+
+Three hours went by, but there was no sign of the boat.
+
+No one could suppose that in accordance with instructions received
+from the Count d'Artigas and Engineer Serko this submarine machine,
+which was destined to act as the invisible tug of the schooner, would
+not emerge till it had gone several miles beyond the rendezvous.
+Therefore, with the exception of those who were in the secret, no one
+entertained any doubt that the boat and all inside her had perished
+as the result of an accident either to her metallic covering or
+machinery.
+
+On board the _Ebba_ consternation was admirably simulated. On board
+the other vessels it was real. Drags were used and divers sent down
+along the course the boat was supposed to have taken, but it could
+not be found, and it was agreed that it had been swallowed up in the
+depths of the Atlantic.
+
+Two days later the Count d'Artigas put to sea again, and in
+forty-eight hours came up with the tug at the place appointed.
+
+This is how Ker Karraje became possessed of the admirable vessel
+which was to perform the double function of towing the schooner and
+attacking ships. With this terrible engine of destruction, whose very
+existence was ignored, the Count d'Artigas was able to recommence his
+career of piracy with security and impunity.
+
+These details I have learned from Engineer Serko, who is very proud of
+his handiwork,--and also very positive that the prisoner of Back Cup
+will never be able to disclose the secret.
+
+It will easily be realized how powerful was the offensive weapon
+Ker Karraje now possessed. During the night the tug would rush at a
+merchant vessel, and bore a hole in her with its powerful ram. At
+the same time the schooner which could not possibly have excited any
+suspicion, would run alongside and her horde of cutthroats would pour
+on to the doomed vessel's deck and massacre the helpless crew, after
+which they would hurriedly transfer that part of the cargo that was
+worth taking to the _Ebba_. Thus it happened that ship after ship
+was added to the long list of those that never reached port and were
+classed as having gone down with all on board.
+
+For a year after the odious comedy in the bay of Charleston Ker
+Karraje operated in the Atlantic, and his wealth increased to enormous
+proportions. The merchandise for which he had no use was disposed of
+in distant markets in exchange for gold and silver. But what was sadly
+needed was a place where the profits could be safely hidden pending
+the time when they were to be finally divided.
+
+Chance came to their aid. While exploring the bottom of the sea in
+the neighborhood of the Bermudas, Engineer Serko and Driver Gibson
+discovered at the base of Back Cup island the tunnel which led to the
+interior of the mountain. Would it have been possible for Ker Karraje
+to have found a more admirable refuge than this, absolutely safe as it
+was from any possible chance of discovery? Thus it came to pass that
+one of the islands of the Archipelago of Bermuda, erstwhile the haunt
+of buccaneers, became the lair of another gang a good deal more to be
+dreaded.
+
+This retreat having been definitely adopted, Count d'Artigas and his
+companions set about getting their place in order. Engineer Serko
+installed an electric power house, without having recourse to machines
+whose construction abroad might have aroused suspicion, simply
+employing piles that could be easily mounted and required but metal
+plates and chemical substances that the _Ebba_ procured during her
+visits to the American coast.
+
+What happened on the night of the 19th inst. can easily be divined.
+If the three-masted merchantman which lay becalmed was not visible at
+break of day it was because she had been scuttled by the tug, boarded
+by the cut-throat band on the _Ebba_, and sunk with all on board after
+being pillaged. The bales and things that I had seen on the schooner
+were a part of her cargo, and all unknown to me the gallant ship was
+lying at the bottom of the broad Atlantic!
+
+How will this adventure end? Shall I ever be able to escape from
+Back Cup, denounce the false Count d'Artigas and rid the seas of Ker
+Karraje's pirates?
+
+And if Ker Karraje is terrible as it is, how much more so will he
+become if he ever obtains possession of Roch's fulgurator! His power
+will be increased a hundred-fold! If he were able to employ this new
+engine of destruction no merchantman could resist him, no warship
+escape total destruction.
+
+I remain for some time absorbed and oppressed by the reflections with
+which the revelation of Ker Karraje's name inspires me. All that I
+have ever heard about this famous pirate recurs to me--his existence
+when he skimmed the Southern Seas, the useless expeditions organized
+by the maritime powers to hunt him down. The unaccountable loss of so
+many vessels in the Atlantic during the past few years is attributable
+to him. He had merely changed the scene of his exploits. It was
+supposed that he had been got rid of, whereas he is continuing his
+piratical practices in the most frequented ocean on the globe, by
+means of the tug which is believed to be lying at the bottom of
+Charleston Bay.
+
+"Now," I say to myself, "I know his real name and that of his
+lair--Ker Karraje and Back Cup;" and I surmise that if Engineer Serko
+has let me into the secret he must have been authorized to do so. Am I
+not meant to understand from this that I must give up all hope of ever
+recovering my liberty?
+
+Engineer Serko had manifestly remarked the impression created upon me
+by this revelation. I remember that on leaving me he went towards Ker
+Karraje's habitation, no doubt with the intention of apprising him of
+what had passed.
+
+After a rather long walk around the lagoon I am about to return to my
+cell, when I hear footsteps behind me. I turn and find myself face to
+face with the Count d'Artigas, who is accompanied by Captain Spade.
+He glances at me sharply, and in a burst of irritation that I cannot
+suppress, I exclaim:
+
+"You are keeping me here, sir, against all right. If it was to wait
+upon Thomas Roch that you carried me off from Healthful House, I
+refuse to attend to him, and insist upon being sent back."
+
+The pirate chief makes a gesture, but does not reply.
+
+Then my temper gets the better of me altogether.
+
+"Answer me, Count d'Artigas--or rather, for I know who you are--answer
+me, Ker Karraje!" I shout.
+
+"The Count d'Artigas is Ker Karraje," he coolly replies, "just as
+Warder Gaydon is Engineer Simon Hart; and Ker Karraje will never
+restore to liberty Engineer Simon Hart, who knows his secrets."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+FIVE WEEKS IN BACK CUP.
+
+
+The situation is plain. Ker Karraje knows who I am. He knew who I was
+when he kidnapped Thomas Roch and his attendant.
+
+How did this man manage to find out what I was able to keep from the
+staff of Healthful House? How comes it that he knew that a French
+engineer was performing the duties of attendant to Thomas Roch? I do
+not know how he discovered it, but the fact remains that he did.
+
+Evidently he had means of information which must have been costly, but
+from which he has derived considerable profit. Besides, men of his
+kidney do not count the cost when they wish to attain an end they have
+in view.
+
+Henceforward Ker Karraje, or rather Engineer Serko, will replace me
+as attendant upon Thomas Roch. Will he succeed better than I did? God
+grant that he may not, that the civilized world may be spared such a
+misfortune!
+
+I did not reply to Ker Karraje's Parthian shot, for I was stricken
+dumb. I did not, however, collapse, as the alleged Count d'Artigas
+perhaps expected I would.
+
+No! I looked him straight in the eyes, which glittered angrily, and
+crossed my arms defiantly, as he had done. And yet he held my life in
+his hands! At a sign a bullet would have laid me dead at his feet.
+Then my body, cast into the lagoon, would have been borne out to sea
+through the tunnel and there would have been an end of me.
+
+After this scene I am left at liberty, just as before. No measure is
+taken against me, I can walk among the pillars to the very end of the
+cavern, which--it is only too clear--possesses no other issue except
+the tunnel.
+
+When I return to my cell, at the extremity of the Beehive, a prey to a
+thousand thoughts suggested by my situation, I say to myself:
+
+"If Ker Karraje knows I am Simon Hart, the engineer, he must at any
+rate never know that I am aware of the position of Back Cup Island."
+
+As to the plan of confiding Thomas Roch to my care, I do not think
+he ever seriously entertained it, seeing that my identity had been
+revealed to him. I regret this, inasmuch as the inventor will
+indubitably be the object of pressing solicitations, and as Engineer
+Serko will employ every means in his power to obtain the composition
+of the explosive and deflagrator, of which he will make such
+detestable use during future piratical exploits. Yes, it would have
+been far better if I could have remained Thomas Roch's keeper here, as
+in Healthful House.
+
+For fifteen days I see nothing of my late charge. No one, I repeat,
+has placed any obstacles in the way of my daily peregrinations. I have
+no need to occupy myself about the material part of my existence. My
+meals are brought to me regularly, direct from the kitchen of the
+Count d'Artigas--I cannot accustom myself to calling him by any other
+name. The food leaves nothing to be desired, thanks to the provisions
+that the _Ebba_ brings on her return from each voyage.
+
+It is very fortunate, too, that I have been supplied with all the
+writing materials I require, for during my long hours of idleness I
+have been able to jot down in my notebook the slightest incidents that
+have occurred since I was abducted from Healthful House, and to keep
+a diary day by day. As long as I am permitted to use a pen I shall
+continue my notes. Mayhap some day, they will help to clear up the
+mysteries of Back Cup.
+
+_From July 5 to July 25._--A fortnight has passed, and all my attempts
+to get near Thomas Roch have been frustrated. Orders have evidently
+been given to keep him away from my influence, inefficacious though
+the latter has hitherto been. My only hope is that the Count
+d'Artigas, Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade will waste their time
+trying to get at the inventor's secrets.
+
+Three or four times to my knowledge, at least, Thomas Roch and
+Engineer Serko have walked together around the lagoon. As far as I
+have been able to judge, the former listened with some attention to
+what the other was saying to him. Serko has conducted him over the
+whole cavern, shown him the electric power house and the mechanism of
+the tug. Thomas Roch's mental condition has visibly improved since his
+departure from Healthful House.
+
+Thomas Roch lives in a private room in Ker Karraje's "mansion." I
+have no doubt that he is daily sounded in regard to his discoveries,
+especially by Engineer Serko. Will he be able to resist the temptation
+if they offer him the exorbitant price that he demands? Has he any
+idea of the value of money? These wretches may dazzle him with the
+gold that they have accumulated by years of rapine. In the present
+state of his mind may he not be induced to disclose the composition
+of his fulgurator? They would then only have to fetch the necessary
+substances and Thomas Roch would have plenty of time in Back Cup to
+devote to his chemical combinations. As to the war-engines themselves
+nothing would be easier than to have them made in sections in
+different parts of the American continent. My hair stands on end when
+I think what they could and would do with them if once they gained
+possession of them.
+
+These intolerable apprehensions no longer leave me a minute's peace;
+they are wearing me out and my health is suffering in consequence.
+Although the air in the interior of Back Cup is pure, I become subject
+to attacks of suffocation, and I feel as though my prison walls were
+falling upon me and crushing me under their weight. I am, besides,
+oppressed by the feeling that I am cut off from the world, as
+effectually as though I were no longer upon our planet,--for I know
+nothing of what is going on outside.
+
+Ah! if it were only possible to escape through that submarine tunnel,
+or through the hole in the dome and slide to the base of the mountain!
+
+On the morning of the 25th I at last encounter Thomas Roch. He is
+alone on the other side of the lagoon, and I wonder, inasmuch as
+I have not seen them since the previous day, whether Ker Karraje,
+Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade have not gone off on some
+expedition.
+
+I walk round towards Thomas Roch, and before he can see me I examine
+him attentively.
+
+His serious, thoughtful physiognomy is no longer that of a madman. He
+walks slowly, with his eyes bent on the ground, and under his arm a
+drawing-board upon which is stretched a sheet of paper covered with
+designs.
+
+Suddenly he raises his head, advances a step and recognizes me.
+
+"Ah! Gaydon, it is you, is it?" he cries, "I have then escaped from
+you! I am free!"
+
+He can, indeed, regard himself as being free--a good deal more at
+liberty in Back Cup than he was in Healthful House. But maybe my
+presence evokes unpleasant memories, and will bring on another fit,
+for he continues with extraordinary animation:
+
+"Yes, I know you, Gaydon.--Do not approach me! Stand off! stand off!
+You would like to get me back in your clutches, incarcerate me again
+in your dungeon! Never! I have friends here who will protect me. They
+are powerful, they are rich. The Count d'Artigas is my backer and
+Engineer Serko is my partner. We are going to exploit my invention! We
+are going to make my fulgurator! Hence! Get you gone!"
+
+Thomas Roch is in a perfect fury. He raises his voice, agitates his
+arms, and finally pulls from his pockets many rolls of dollar bills
+and banknotes, and handfuls of English, French, American and German
+gold coins, which slip through his fingers and roll about the cavern.
+
+How could he get all this money except from Ker Karraje, and as the
+price of his secret? The noise he makes attracts a number of men to
+the scene. They watch us for a moment, then seize Thomas Roch and drag
+him away. As soon as I am out of his sight he ceases-to struggle and
+becomes calm again.
+
+_July 27._--Two hours after meeting with Thomas Roch, I went down to
+the lagoon and walked out to the edge of the stone jetty.
+
+The tug is not moored in its accustomed place, nor can I see it
+anywhere about the lake. Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko had not gone
+yesterday, as I supposed, for I saw them in the evening.
+
+To-day, however, I have reason to believe that they really have gone
+away in the tug with Captain Spade and the crew of the _Ebba_, and
+that the latter must be sailing away.
+
+Have they set out on a piracy expedition? Very likely. It is equally
+likely that Ker Karraje, become once more the Count d'Artigas,
+travelling for pleasure on board his yacht, intends to put into some
+port on the American coast to procure the substances necessary to the
+preparation of Roch's fulgurator.
+
+Ah! if it had only been possible for me to hide in the tug, to slip
+into the _Ebba's_ hold, and stow myself away there until the schooner
+arrived in port! Then perchance I might have escaped and delivered the
+world from this band of pirates.
+
+It will be seen how tenaciously I cling to the thought of escape--of
+fleeing--fleeing at any cost from this lair. But flight is impossible,
+except through the tunnel, by means of a submarine boat. Is it not
+folly to think of such a thing? Sheer folly, and yet what other way is
+there of getting out of Back Cup?
+
+While I give myself up to these reflections the water of the lagoon
+opens a few yards from me and the tug appears. The lid is raised and
+Gibson, the engineer, and the men issue on to the platform. Other men
+come up and catch the line that is thrown to them. They haul upon it,
+and the tug is soon moored in its accustomed place.
+
+This time, therefore, at any rate, the schooner is not being towed,
+and the tug merely went out to put Ker Karraje and his companions
+aboard the _Ebba_.
+
+This only confirms my impression that the sole object of their trip is
+to reach an American port where the Count d'Artigas can procure the
+materials for making the explosive, and order the machines in some
+foundry. On the day fixed for their return the tug will go out through
+the tunnel again to meet the schooner and Ker Karraje will return to
+Back Cup.
+
+Decidedly, this evildoer is carrying out his designs and has succeeded
+sooner than I thought would be possible.
+
+_August 3._--An incident occurred to-day of which the lagoon was the
+theatre--a very curious incident that must be exceedingly rare.
+
+Towards three o'clock in the afternoon there was a prodigious bubbling
+in the water, which ceased for a minute or two and then recommenced in
+the centre of the lagoon.
+
+About fifteen pirates, whose attention had been attracted by this
+unaccountable phenomenon, hurried down to the bank manifesting signs
+of astonishment not unmingled with fear--at least I thought so.
+
+The agitation of the water was not caused by the tug, as the latter
+was lying alongside the jetty, and the idea that some other submarine
+boat had found its way through the tunnel was highly improbable.
+
+Almost at the same instant cries were heard on the opposite bank. The
+newcomers shouted something in a hoarse voice to the men on the side
+where I was standing, and these immediately rushed off towards the
+Beehive.
+
+I conjectured that they had caught sight of some sea-monster that had
+found its way in, and was floundering in the lagoon, and that they had
+rushed off to fetch arms and harpoons to try and capture it.
+
+I was right, for they speedily returned with the latter weapons and
+rifles loaded with explosive bullets.
+
+The monster in question was a whale, of the species that is common
+enough in Bermudan waters, which after swimming through the tunnel was
+plunging about in the narrow limits of the lake. As it was constrained
+to take refuge in Back Cup I concluded that it must have been hard
+pressed by whalers.
+
+Some minutes elapsed before the monster rose to the surface. Then the
+green shiny mass appeared spouting furiously and darting to and fro as
+though fighting with some formidable enemy.
+
+"If it was driven in here by whalers," I said to myself, "there must
+be a vessel in proximity to Back Cup--peradventure within a stone's
+throw of it. Her boats must have entered the western passes to the
+very foot of the mountain. And to think I am unable to communicate
+with them! But even if I could, I fail to see how I could go to them
+through these massive walls."
+
+I soon found, however, that it was not fishers, but sharks that had
+driven the whale through the tunnel, and which infest these waters in
+great numbers. I could see them plainly as they darted about, turning
+upon their backs and displaying their enormous mouths which were
+bristling with their cruel teeth. There were five or six of the
+monsters, and they attacked the whale with great viciousness. The
+latter's only means of defence was its tail, with which it lashed at
+them with terrific force and rapidity. But the whale had received
+several wounds and the water was tinged with its life-blood; for
+plunge and lash as it would, it could not escape the bites of its
+enemies.
+
+However, the voracious sharks were not permitted to vanquish their
+prey, for man, far more powerful with his instruments of death, was
+about to take a hand and snatch it from them. Gathered around the
+lagoon were the companions of Ker Karraje, every whit as ferocious as
+the sharks themselves, and well deserving the same name, for what else
+are they?
+
+Standing amid a group, at the extremity of the jetty, and armed with
+a harpoon, was the big Malay who had prevented me from entering Ker
+Karraje's house. When the whale got within shot, he hurled the harpoon
+with great force and skill, and it sank into the leviathan's flesh
+just under the left fin. The whale plunged immediately, followed by
+the relentless sharks. The rope attached to the weapon ran out for
+about sixty yards, and then slackened. The men at once began to haul
+on it, and the monster rose to the surface again near the end of the
+tunnel, struggling desperately in its death agony, and spurting great
+columns of water tinged with blood. One blow of its tail struck a
+shark, and hurled it clean out of water against the rocky side, where
+it dropped in again, badly, if not fatally injured.
+
+The harpoon was torn from the flesh by the jerk, and the whale went
+under. It came up again for the last time, and lashed the water so
+that it washed up from the tunnel end, disclosing the top of the
+orifice.
+
+Then the sharks again rushed on their prey, but were scared off by a
+hail of the explosive bullets. Two men then jumped into a boat and
+attached a line to the dead monster. The latter was hauled into the
+jetty, and the Malays started to cut it up with a dexterity that
+showed they were no novices at the work.
+
+No more sharks were to be seen, but I concluded that it would be as
+well to refrain from taking a bath in the lagoon for some days to
+come.
+
+I now know exactly where the entrance to the tunnel is situated. The
+orifice on this side is only ten feet below the edge of the western
+bank. But of what use is this knowledge to me?
+
+_August 7_.--Twelve days have elapsed since the Count d'Artigas,
+Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade put to sea. There is nothing to
+indicate that their return is expected, though the tug is always kept
+in readiness for immediate departure by Gibson, the engine-driver. If
+the _Ebba_ is not afraid to enter the ports of the United States by
+day, I rather fancy she prefers to enter the rocky channel of Back
+Cup at nightfall. I also fancy, somehow, that Ker Karraje and his
+companions will return to-night.
+
+_August 10_.--At ten o'clock last night, as I anticipated, the tug
+went under and out, just in time to meet the _Ebba_ and tow her
+through the channel to her creek, after which she returned with Ker
+Karraje and the others.
+
+When I look out this morning, I see Thomas Roch and Engineer Serko
+walking down to the lagoon, and talking. What they are talking about I
+can easily guess. I go forward and take a good look at my ex-patient.
+He is asking questions of Engineer Serko With great animation. His
+eyes gleam, his face is flushed, and he is all eagerness to reach the
+jetty. Engineer Serko can hardly keep up with him.
+
+The crew of the tug are unloading her, and they have just brought
+ashore ten medium-sized boxes. These boxes bear a peculiar red mark,
+which Thomas Roch examines closely.
+
+Engineer Serko orders the men to transport them to the storehouses on
+the left bank, and the boxes are forthwith loaded on a boat and rowed
+over.
+
+In my opinion, these boxes contain the substances by the combination
+or mixture of which, the fulgurator and deflagrator are to be made.
+The engines, doubtless, are being made in an American foundry, and
+when they are ready, the schooner will fetch them and bring them to
+Back Cup.
+
+For once in a while, anyhow, the _Ebba_ has not returned with any
+stolen merchandise. She went out and has returned with a clear bill.
+But with what terrible power Ker Karraje will be armed for both
+offensive and defensive operations at sea! If Thomas Roch is to be
+credited, this fulgurator could shatter the terrestrial spheroid at
+one blow. And who knows but what one day, he will try the experiment?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+ENGINEER SERKO'S ADVICE.
+
+
+Thomas Roch has started work and spends hours and hours in a wooden
+shed on the left bank of the lagoon that has been set apart as his
+laboratory and workshop. No one enters it except himself. Does he
+insist upon preparing the explosive in secret and does he intend to
+keep the formula thereof to himself? I should not wonder.
+
+The manner of employing Roch's fulgurator is, I believe, very simple
+indeed. The projectile in which it is used requires neither gun nor
+mortar to launch it, nor pneumatic tube like the Zalinski shell. It is
+autopropulsive, it projects itself, and no ship within a certain zone
+when the engine explodes could escape utter destruction. With such a
+weapon as this at his command Ker Karraje would be invincible.
+
+_From August 11 to August 17_.--During the past week Thomas Roch has
+been working without intermission. Every morning the inventor goes to
+his laboratory and does not issue therefrom till night. I have made no
+attempt to stop him or speak to him, knowing that it would be useless
+to do so.
+
+Although he is still indifferent to everything that does not touch
+upon his work he appears to be perfectly self-possessed. Why should he
+not have recovered his reason? Has he not obtained what he has so long
+sought for? Is he not at last able to carry out the plans he formed
+years and years ago?
+
+_August 18_.--At one o'clock this morning I was roused by several
+detonations.
+
+"Has Back Cup been attacked?" was my first thought. "Has the schooner
+excited suspicion, and been chased to the entrance to the passes? Is
+the island being bombarded with a view to its destruction? Has justice
+at last overtaken these evil-doers ere Thomas Roch has been able
+to complete the manufacture of his explosive, and before the
+autopropulsive engine could be fetched from the continent?"
+
+The detonations, which are very violent, continue, succeeding each
+other at regular intervals, and it occurs to me that if the schooner
+has been destroyed, all communication with the bases of supply being
+impossible, Back Cup cannot be provisioned.
+
+It is true the tug would be able to land the Count d'Artigas somewhere
+on the American coast where, money being no object, he could easily
+buy or order another vessel. But no matter. If Back Cup is only
+destroyed before Ker Karraje has Roch's fulgurator at his disposal I
+shall render thanks to heaven.
+
+A few hours later, at the usual time, I quit my cell. All is quiet at
+the Beehive. The men are going about their business as usual. The tug
+is moored near the jetty. Thomas Roch is going to his laboratory, and
+Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko are tranquilly pacing backwards and
+forwards by the lake and chatting. The island therefore could not have
+been attacked during the night. Yet I was awakened by the report of
+cannon, this I will swear.
+
+At this moment Ker Karraje goes off towards his abode and Engineer
+Serko, smilingly ironical, as usual, advances to meet me.
+
+"Well, Mr. Simon Hart," he says, "are you getting accustomed to
+your tranquil existence? Do you appreciate at their just merit the
+advantages of this enchanted grotto? Have you given up all hope of
+recovering your liberty some day or other?"
+
+What is the use of waxing wroth with this jester? I reply calmly:
+
+"No, sir. I have not given up hope, and I still expect that I shall be
+released."
+
+"What! Mr. Hart, separate ourselves from a man whom we all esteem--and
+I from a colleague who perhaps, in the course of Thomas Roch's fits of
+delirium, has learned some of his secrets? You are not serious!"
+
+So this is why they are keeping me a prisoner in Back Cup! They
+suppose that I am in part familiar with Roch's invention, and they
+hope to force me to tell what I know if Thomas Roch refuses to give up
+his secret. This is the reason why I was kidnapped with him, and why
+I have not been accommodated with an involuntary plunge in the lagoon
+with a stone fastened to my neck. I see it all now, and it is just as
+well to know it.
+
+"Very serious," I affirm, in response to the last remark of my
+interlocutor.
+
+"Well," he continues, "if I had the honor to be Simon Hart, the
+engineer, I should reason as follows: 'Given, on the one hand, the
+personality of Ker Karraje, the reasons which incited him to select
+such a mysterious retreat as this cavern, the necessity of the said
+cavern being kept from any attempt to discover it, not only in the
+interest of the Count d'Artigas, but in that of his companions--'"
+
+"Of his accomplices, if you please."
+
+"'Of his accomplices,' then--'and on the other hand, given the
+fact that I know the real name of the Count d'Artigas and in what
+mysterious safe he keeps his riches--'"
+
+"Riches stolen, and stained with blood, Mr. Serko."
+
+"'Riches stolen and stained with blood,' if you like--'I ought
+to understand that this question of liberty cannot be settled in
+accordance with my desires.'"
+
+It is useless to argue the point under these conditions, and I switch
+the conversation on to another line.
+
+"May I ask," I continue, "how you came to find out that Gaydon, the
+warder, was Simon Hart, the engineer?"
+
+"I see no reason for keeping you in ignorance on the subject, my dear
+colleague. It was largely by hazard. We had certain relations with the
+manufactory in New Jersey with which you were connected, and which you
+quitted suddenly one day under somewhat singular circumstances. Well,
+during a visit I made to Healthful House some months before the Count
+d'Artigas went there, I saw and recognized you."
+
+"You?"
+
+"My very self, and from that moment I promised myself the pleasure of
+having you for a fellow-passenger on board the _Ebba_."
+
+I do not recall ever having seen this Serko at Healthful House, but
+what he says is very likely true.
+
+"I hope your whim of having me for a companion will cost you dear,
+some day or other," I say to myself.
+
+Then, abruptly, I go on:
+
+"If I am not mistaken, you have succeeded in inducing Thomas Roch to
+disclose the secret of his fulgurator?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Hart. We paid millions for it. But millions, you know, are
+nothing to us. We have only the trouble of taking them! Therefore we
+filled all his pockets--covered him with millions!"
+
+"Of what use are these millions to him if he is not allowed to enjoy
+them outside?"
+
+"That, Mr. Hart, is a matter that does not trouble him a little bit!
+This man of genius thinks nothing of the future: he lives but in the
+present. While engines are being constructed from his plans over
+yonder in America, he is preparing his explosive with chemical
+substances with which he has been abundantly supplied. He! he! What an
+invention it is, this autopropulsive engine, which flies through
+the air of its own power and accelerates its speed till the goal is
+reached, thanks to the properties of a certain powder of progressive
+combustion! Here we have an invention that will bring about a radical
+change in the art of war."
+
+"Defensive war, Mr. Serko."
+
+"And offensive war, Mr. Hart."
+
+"Naturally," I answer.
+
+Then pumping him still more closely, I go on:
+
+"So, what no one else has been able to obtain from Thomas Roch--"
+
+"We obtained without much difficulty."
+
+"By paying him."
+
+"By paying him an incredible price--and, moreover, by causing to
+vibrate what in him is a very sensitive chord."
+
+"What chord?"
+
+"That of vengeance!"
+
+"Vengeance?--against whom?"
+
+"Against all those who have made themselves his enemies by
+discouraging him, by spurning him, expelling him, by constraining
+him to go a-begging from country to country with an invention of
+incontestable superiority! Now all notion of patriotism is extinct in
+his soul. He has now but one thought, one ferocious desire: to avenge
+himself upon those who have denied him--and even upon all mankind!
+Really, Mr. Hart, your governments of Europe and America committed a
+stupendous blunder in refusing to pay Roch the price his fulgurator is
+worth!"
+
+And Engineer Serko describes enthusiastically the various advantages
+of the new explosive which, he says, is incontestably superior to any
+yet invented.
+
+"And what a destructive effect it has," he adds. "It is analogous to
+that of the Zalinski shell, but is a hundred times more powerful, and
+requires no machine for firing it, as it flies through the air on its
+own wings, so to speak."
+
+I listen in the hope that Engineer Serko will give away a part of the
+secret, but in vain. He is careful not to say more than he wants to.
+
+"Has Thomas Roch," I ask, "made you acquainted with the composition of
+his explosive?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Hart--if it is all the same to you--and we shall shortly
+have considerable quantities of it stored in a safe place."
+
+"But will there not be a great and ever-impending danger in
+accumulating large quantities of it? If an accident were to happen it
+would be all up with the island of----!"
+
+Once more the name of Back Cup was on the point of escaping me.
+They might consider me too well-informed if they were aware that in
+addition to being acquainted with the Count d'Artigas' real name I
+also know where his stronghold is situated.
+
+Luckily Engineer Serko has not remarked my reticence, and he replies:
+
+"There will be no cause for alarm. Thomas Roch's explosive will not
+burn unless subjected to a special deflagrator. Neither fire nor shock
+will explode it."
+
+"And has Thomas Roch also sold you the secret of his deflagrator?"
+
+"Not yet, Mr. Hart, but it will not be long before the bargain is
+concluded. Therefore, I repeat, no danger is to be apprehended, and
+you need not keep awake of nights on that account. A thousand devils,
+sir! We have no desire to be blown up with our cavern and treasures! A
+few more years of good business and we shall divide the profits, which
+will be large enough to enable each one of us to live as he thinks
+proper and enjoy life to the top of his bent--after the dissolution
+of the firm of Ker Karraje and Co. I may add that though there is
+no danger of an explosion, we have everything to fear from a
+denunciation--which you are in the position to make, Mr. Hart.
+Therefore, if you take my advice, you will, like a sensible man,
+resign yourself to the inevitable until the disbanding of the company.
+We shall then see what in the interest of our security is best to be
+done with you!"
+
+It will be admitted that these words are not exactly calculated to
+reassure me. However, a lot of things may happen ere then. I have
+learned one good thing from this conversation, and that is that if
+Thomas Roch has sold his explosive to Ker Karraje and Co., he has
+at any rate, kept the secret of his deflagrator, without which the
+explosive is of no more value than the dust of the highway.
+
+But before terminating the interview I think I ought to make a very
+natural observation to Mr. Serko.
+
+"Sir," I say, "you are now acquainted with the composition of Thomas
+Roch's explosive. Does it really possess the destructive power that
+the inventor attributes to it? Has it ever been tried? May you not
+have purchased a composition as inert as a pinch of snuff?"
+
+"You are doubtless better informed upon this point than you pretend,
+Mr. Hart. Nevertheless, I thank you for the interest you manifest in
+our affairs, and am able to reassure you. The other night we made
+a series of decisive experiments. With only a few grains of this
+substance great blocks of rock were reduced to impalpable dust!"
+
+This explanation evidently applies to the detonation I heard.
+
+"Thus, my dear colleague," continues Engineer Serko, "I can assure you
+that our expectations have been answered. The effects of the explosive
+surpass anything that could have been imagined. A few thousand tons of
+it would burst our spheroid and scatter the fragments into space. You
+can be absolutely certain that it is capable of destroying no matter
+what vessel at a distance considerably greater than that attained by
+present projectiles and within a zone of at least a mile. The weak
+point in the invention is that rather too much time has to be expended
+in regulating the firing."
+
+Engineer Serko stops short, as though reluctant to give any further
+information, but finally adds:
+
+"Therefore, I end as I began, Mr. Hart. Resign yourself to the
+inevitable. Accept your new existence without reserve. Give yourself
+up to the tranquil delights of this subterranean life. If one is in
+good health, one preserves it; if one has lost one's health, one
+recovers it here. That is what is happening to your fellow countryman.
+Yes, the best thing you can do is to resign yourself to your lot."
+
+Thereupon this giver of good advice leaves me, after saluting me
+with a friendly gesture, like a man whose good intentions merit
+appreciation. But what irony there is in his words, in his glance, in
+his attitude. Shall I ever be able to get even with him?
+
+I now know that at any rate it is not easy to regulate the aim of
+Roch's auto-propulsive engine. It is probable that it always bursts at
+the same distance, and that beyond the zone in which the effects of
+the fulgurator are so terrible, and once it has been passed, a ship is
+safe from its effects. If I could only inform the world of this vital
+fact!
+
+_August 20_.--For two days no incident worth recording has occurred. I
+have explored Back Cup to its extreme limits. At night when the long
+perspective of arched columns are illuminated by the electric lamps, I
+am almost religiously impressed when I gaze upon the natural wonders
+of this cavern, which has become my prison. I have never given up hope
+of finding somewhere in the walls a fissure of some kind of which the
+pirates are ignorant and through which I could make my escape. It is
+true that once outside I should have to wait till a passing ship hove
+in sight. My evasion would speedily be known at the Beehive, and I
+should soon be recaptured, unless--a happy thought strikes me--unless
+I could get at the _Ebba's_ boat that was drawn up high and dry on the
+little sandy beach in the creek. In this I might be able to make my
+way to St. George or Hamilton.
+
+This evening--it was about nine o'clock--I stretched myself on a bed
+of sand at the foot of one of the columns, about one hundred yards to
+the east of the lagoon. Shortly afterwards I heard footsteps, then
+voices. Hiding myself as best I could behind the rocky base of the
+pillar, I listened with all my ears.
+
+I recognized the voices as those of Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko.
+The two men stopped close to where I was lying, and continued their
+conversation in English--which is the language generally used in Back
+Cup. I was therefore able to understand all that they said.
+
+They were talking about Thomas Roch, or rather his fulgurator.
+
+"In a week's time," said Ker Karraje, "I shall put to sea in the
+_Ebba_, and fetch the sections of the engines that are being cast in
+that Virginian foundry."
+
+"And when they are here," observed Engineer Serko, "I will piece them
+together and fix up the frames for firing them. But beforehand, there
+is a job to be done which it seems to me is indispensable."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"To cut a tunnel through the wall of the cavern."
+
+"Through the wall of the cavern?"
+
+"Oh! nothing but a narrow passage through which only one man at a time
+could squeeze, a hole easy enough to block, and the outside end of
+which would be hidden among the rocks."
+
+"Of what use could it be to us, Serko?"
+
+"I have often thought about the utility of having some other way of
+getting out besides the submarine tunnel. We never know what the
+future may have in store for us."
+
+"But the walls are so thick and hard," objected Ker Karraje.
+
+"Oh, with a few grains of Roch's explosive I undertake to reduce the
+rock to such fine powder that we shall be able to blow it away with
+our breath," Serko replied.
+
+It can easily be imagined with what interest and eagerness I listened
+to this. Here was a ray of hope. It. was proposed to open up
+communication with the outside by a tunnel in the wall, and this held
+out the possibility of escape.
+
+As this thought flashed through my mind, Ker Karraje said:
+
+"Very well, Serko, and if it becomes necessary some day to defend Back
+Cup and prevent any ship from approaching it----. It is true," he went
+on, without finishing the reflection, "our retreat would have to have
+been discovered by accident--or by denunciation."
+
+"We have nothing to fear either from accident or denunciation,"
+affirmed Serko.
+
+"By one of our band, no, of course not, but by Simon Hart, perhaps."
+
+"Hart!" exclaimed Serko. "He would have to escape first and no one can
+escape from Back Cup. I am, by the bye, interested in this Hart. He is
+a colleague, after all, and I have always suspected that he knows more
+about Roch's invention than he pretends. I will get round him so that
+we shall soon be discussing physics, mechanics, and matters ballistic
+like a couple of friends."
+
+"No matter," replied the generous and sensible Count d'Artigas, "when
+we are in full possession of the secret we had better get rid of the
+fellow."
+
+"We have plenty of time to do that, Ker Karraje."
+
+"If God permits you to, you wretches," I muttered to myself, while my
+heart thumped against my ribs.
+
+And yet, without the intervention of Providence, what hope is there
+for me?
+
+The conversation then took another direction.
+
+"Now that we know the composition of the explosive, Serko," said Ker
+Karraje, "we must, at all cost, get that of the deflagrator from
+Thomas Roch."
+
+"Yes," replied Engineer Serko, "that is what I am trying to do.
+Unfortunately, however, Roch positively refuses to discuss it. Still
+he has already made a few drops of it with which those experiments
+were made, and he will furnish as with some more to blow a hole
+through the wall."
+
+"But what about our expeditions at sea?" queried Ker Karraje.
+
+"Patience! We shall end by getting Roch's thunderbolts entirely in our
+own hand, and then----"
+
+"Are you sure, Serko?"
+
+"Quite sure,--by paying the price, Ker Karraje."
+
+The conversation dropped at this point, and they strolled off without
+having seen me--very luckily for me, I guess. If Engineer Serko spoke
+up somewhat in defence of a colleague, Ker Karraje is apparently
+animated with much less benevolent sentiments in regard to me. On the
+least suspicion they would throw me into the lake, and if I ever got
+through the tunnel, it would only be as a corpse carried out by the
+ebbing tide.
+
+_August 21_.--Engineer Serko has been prospecting with a view to
+piercing the proposed passage through the wall, in such a way that its
+existence will never be dreamed of outside. After a minute examination
+he decided to tunnel through the northern end of the cavern about
+sixty feet from the first cells of the Beehive.
+
+I am anxious for the passage to be made, for who knows but what it may
+be the way to freedom for me? Ah! if I only knew how to swim, perhaps
+I should have attempted to escape through the submarine tunnel, as
+since it was disclosed by the lashing back of the waters by the whale
+in its death-struggle, I know exactly where the orifice is situated.
+It seems to me that at the time of the great tides, this orifice must
+be partly uncovered. At the full and new moon, when the sea attains
+its maximum depression below the normal level, it is possible that--I
+must satisfy myself about this.
+
+I do not know how the fact will help me in any way, even if the
+entrance to the tunnel is partly uncovered, but I cannot afford to
+miss any detail that may possibly aid in my escape from Back Cup.
+
+_August 29_.--This morning I am witnessing the departure of the tug.
+The Count d'Artigas is, no doubt, going off in the _Ebba_ to fetch
+the sections of Thomas Roch's engines. Before embarking, the Count
+converses long and earnestly with Engineer Serko, who, apparently, is
+not going to accompany him on this trip, and is evidently giving him
+some recommendations, of which I may be the object. Then, having
+stepped on to the platform, he goes below, the lid shuts with a bang,
+and the tug sinks out of sight, leaving a trail of bubbles behind it.
+
+The hours go by, night is coming on, yet the tug does not return. I
+conclude that it has gone to tow the schooner, and perhaps to destroy
+any merchant vessels that may come in their way.
+
+It cannot, however, be absent very long, as the trip to America and
+back will not take more than a week.
+
+Besides, if I can judge from the calm atmosphere in the interior of
+the cavern, the _Ebba_ must be favored with beautiful weather. This
+is, in fact, the fine season in this part of the world. Ah! if only I
+could break out of my prison!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+GOD BE WITH IT.
+
+
+_From August 29 to September 10_.--Thirteen days have gone by and
+the _Ebba_ has not returned. Did she then not make straight for the
+American coast? Has she been delayed by a buccaneering cruise in the
+neighborhood of Back Cup? It seems to me that Ker Karraje's only
+desire would be to get back with the sections of Roch's engines as
+soon as possible. Maybe the Virginian foundry had not quite finished
+them.
+
+Engineer Serko does not display the least anxiety or impatience. He
+continues to greet me with his accustomed ironical cordiality, and
+with a kindly air that I distrust--with good reason. He affects to be
+solicitous as to my health, urges me to make the best of a bad job,
+calls me Ali Baba, assures me that there is not, in the whole world,
+such an enchanting spot as this Arabian Nights cavern, observes that I
+am fed, warmed, lodged, and clothed, that I have no taxes to pay, and
+that even the inhabitants of the favored principality of Monaco do not
+enjoy an existence more free from care.
+
+Sometimes this ironical verbiage brings the blood to my face, and I
+am tempted to seize this cynical banterer by the throat and choke the
+life out of him. They would kill me afterwards. Still, what would that
+matter! Would it not be better to end in this way than to spend years
+and years amid these infernal and infamous surroundings? However,
+while there is life there is hope, I reflect, and this thought
+restrains me.
+
+I have scarcely set eyes upon Thomas Roch since the _Ebba_ went away.
+He shuts himself up in his laboratory and works unceasingly. If he
+utilizes all the substances placed at his disposition there will be
+enough to blow up Back Cup and the whole Bermudan archipelago with it!
+
+I cling to the hope that he will never consent to give up the secret
+of his deflagrator, and that Engineer Serko's efforts to acquire it
+will remain futile.
+
+_September 3_.--To-day I have been able to witness with my own eyes
+the power of Roch's explosive, and also the manner in which the
+fulgurator is employed.
+
+During the morning the men began to pierce the passage through the
+wall of the cavern at the spot fixed upon by Engineer Serko, who
+superintended the work in person. The work began at the base, where
+the rock is as hard as granite. To have continued it with pickaxes
+would have entailed long and arduous labor, inasmuch as the wall at
+this place is not less than from twenty to thirty yards in thickness,
+but thanks to Roch's fulgurator the passage will be completed easily
+and rapidly.
+
+I may well be astonished at what I have seen. The pickaxes hardly made
+any impression on the rock, but its disaggregation was effected with
+really remarkable facility by means of the fulgurator.
+
+A few grains of this explosive shattered the rocky mass and reduced it
+to almost impalpable powder that one's breath could disperse as easily
+as vapor. The explosion produced an excavation measuring fully a cubic
+yard. It was accompanied by a sharp detonation that may be compared to
+the report of a cannon.
+
+The first charge used, although a very small one, a mere pinch, blew
+the men in every direction, and two of them were seriously injured.
+Engineer Serko himself was projected several yards, and sustained some
+rather severe contusions.
+
+Here is how this substance, whose bursting force surpasses anything
+hitherto conceived, is employed.
+
+A small hole about an inch and a half in length is pierced obliquely
+in the rock. A few grains of the explosive are then inserted, but no
+wad is used.
+
+Then Thomas Roch steps forward. In his hand is a little glass phial
+containing a bluish, oily liquid that congeals almost as soon as it
+comes in contact with the air. He pours one drop on the entrance of
+the hole, and draws back, but not with undue haste. It takes a certain
+time--about thirty-five seconds, I reckon--before the combination of
+the fulgurator and deflagrator is effected. But when the explosion
+does take place its power of disaggregation is such--I repeat--that
+it may be regarded as unlimited. It is at any rate a thousand times
+superior to that of any known explosive.
+
+Under these circumstances it will probably not take more than a week
+to complete the tunnel.
+
+_September 19_.--For some time past I have observed that the tide
+rises and falls twice every twenty-four hours, and that the ebb and
+flow produce a rather swift current through the submarine tunnel. It
+is pretty certain therefore that a floating object thrown into the
+lagoon when the top of the orifice is uncovered would be carried out
+by the receding tide. It is just possible that during the lowest
+equinoctial tides the top of the orifice is uncovered. This I shall be
+able to ascertain, as this is precisely the time they occur. To-day,
+September 19, I could almost distinguish the summit of the hole under
+the water. The day after to-morrow, if ever, it will be uncovered.
+
+Very well then, if I cannot myself attempt to get through, may be a
+bottle thrown into the lagoon might be carried out during the last
+few minutes of the ebb. And might not this bottle by chance--an
+ultra-providential chance, I must avow--be picked up by a ship passing
+near Back Cup? Perhaps even it might be borne away by a friendly
+current and cast upon one of the Bermudan beaches. What if that bottle
+contained a letter?
+
+I cannot get this thought out of my mind, and it works me up into a
+great state of excitement. Then objections crop up--this one among
+others: the bottle might be swept against the rocks and smashed ere
+ever it could get out of the tunnel. Very true, but what if, instead
+of a bottle a diminutive, tightly closed keg were used? It would not
+run any danger of being smashed and would besides stand a much better
+chance of reaching the open sea.
+
+_September 20_.--This evening, I, unperceived, entered one of the
+store houses containing the booty pillaged from various ships and
+procured a keg very suitable for my experiment.
+
+I hid the keg under my coat, and returned to the Beehive and my cell.
+Then without losing an instant I set to work. Paper, pen, ink, nothing
+was wanting, as will be supposed from the fact that for three months I
+have been making notes and dotting down my impressions daily.
+
+I indite the following message:
+
+"On June 15 last Thomas Roch and his keeper Gaydon, or rather Simon
+Hart, the French engineer who occupied Pavilion No. 17, at Healthful
+House, near New-Berne, North Carolina, United States of America, were
+kidnapped and carried on board the schooner _Ebba_, belonging to the
+Count d'Artigas. Both are now confined in the interior of a cavern
+which serves as a lair for the said Count d'Artigas--who is really Ker
+Karraje, the pirate who some time ago carried on his depredations in
+the West Pacific--and for about a hundred men of which his band is
+composed.
+
+"When he has obtained possession of Roch's fulgurator whose power is,
+so to speak, without limit, Ker Karraje will be in a position to carry
+on his crimes with complete impunity.
+
+"It is therefore urgent that the states interested should destroy his
+lair without delay.
+
+"The cavern in which the pirate Ker Karraje has taken refuge is in the
+interior of the islet of Back Cup, which is wrongly regarded as
+an active volcano. It is situated at the western extremity of the
+archipelago of Bermuda, and on the east is bounded by a range of
+reefs, but on the north, south, and west is open.
+
+"Communication with the inside of the mountain is only possible
+through a tunnel a few yards under water in a narrow pass on the west.
+A submarine apparatus therefore is necessary to effect an entrance, at
+any rate until a tunnel they are boring through the northwestern wall
+of the cavern is completed.
+
+"The pirate Ker Karraje employs an apparatus of this kind--the
+submarine boat that the Count d'Artigas ordered of the Cramps and
+which was supposed to have been lost during the public experiment with
+it in Charleston Bay. This boat is used not only for the purpose of
+entering and issuing from Back Cup, but also to tow the schooner and
+attack merchant vessels in Bermudan waters.
+
+"This schooner _Ebba_, so well known on the American coast, is kept
+in a small creek on the western side of the island, behind a mass of
+rocks, and is invisible from the sea.
+
+"The best place to land is on the west coast formerly occupied by the
+colony of Bermudan fishers; but it would first be advisable to effect
+a breach in the side of the cavern by means of the most powerful
+melinite shells.
+
+"The fact that Ker Karraje may be in the position to use Roch's
+fulgurator for the defence of the island must also be taken into
+consideration. Let it be well borne in mind that if its destructive
+power surpasses anything ever conceived or dreamed of, it extends over
+a zone not exceeding a mile in extent. The distance of this dangerous
+zone is variable, but once the engines have been set, the modification
+of the distance occupies some time, and a warship that succeeds in
+passing the zone has nothing further to fear.
+
+"This document is written on the twentieth day of September at eight
+o'clock in the evening and is signed with my name
+
+"THOMAS HART, Engineer."
+
+The above is the text of the statement I have just drawn up. It says
+all that is necessary about the island, whose exact situation is
+marked on all modern charts and maps, and points out the expediency
+of acting without delay, and what to do in case Ker Karraje is in the
+position to employ Roch's fulgurator.
+
+I add a plan of the cavern showing its internal configuration, the
+situation of the lagoon, the lay of the Beehive, Ker Karraje's
+habitation, my cell, and Thomas Roch's laboratory.
+
+I wrap the document in a piece of tarpaulin and insert the package in
+the little keg, which measures six inches by three and a half. It
+is perfectly watertight and will stand any amount of knocking about
+against the rocks.
+
+There is one danger, however, and that is, that it may be swept back
+by the returning tide, cast up on the island, and fall into the hands
+of the crew of the _Ebba_ when the schooner is hauled into her creek.
+If Ker Karraje ever gets hold of it, it will be all up with me.
+
+It will be readily conceived with what anxiety I have awaited the
+moment to make the attempt: I am in a perfect fever of excitement,
+for it is a matter of life or death to me. I calculate from previous
+observations that the tide will be very low at about a quarter to
+nine. The top of the tunnel ought then to be a foot and a half above
+water, which is more than enough to permit of the keg passing through
+it. It will be another half hour at least before the flow sets in
+again, and by that time the keg may be far enough away to escape being
+thrown back on the coast.
+
+I peer out of my cell. There is no one about, and I advance to the
+side of the lagoon, where by the light of a nearby lamp, I perceive
+the arch of the tunnel, towards which the current seems to be setting
+pretty swiftly.
+
+I go down to the very edge, and cast in the keg which contains the
+precious document and all my hopes.
+
+"God be with it!" I fervently exclaim. "God be with it!"
+
+For a minute or two the little barrel remains stationary, and then
+floats back to the side again. I throw it out once more with all my
+strength.
+
+This time it is in the track of the current, which to my great joy
+sweeps it along and in twenty seconds, it has disappeared in the
+tunnel.
+
+Yes, God be with it! May Heaven guide thee, little barrel! May it
+protect all those whom Ker Karraje menaces and grant that this band of
+pirates may not escape from the justice of man!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+BATTLE BETWEEN THE "SWORD" AND THE TUG.
+
+
+Through all this sleepless night I have followed the keg in fancy. How
+many times I seem to see it swept against the rocks in the tunnel into
+a creek, or some excavation. I am in a cold perspiration from head to
+foot. Then I imagine that it has been carried out to sea. Heavens!
+if the returning tide should sweep it back to the entrance and then
+through the tunnel into the lagoon! I must be on the lookout for it.
+
+I rise before the sun and saunter down to the lagoon. Not a single
+object is floating on its calm surface.
+
+The work on the tunnel through the side of the cavern goes on, and at
+four o'clock in the afternoon on September 23, Engineer Serko blows
+away the last rock obstructing the issue, and communication with the
+outer world is established. It is only a very narrow hole, and one
+has to stoop to go through it. The exterior orifice is lost among the
+crannies of the rocky coast, and it would be easy to obstruct it, if
+such a measure became necessary.
+
+It goes without saying that the passage will be strictly guarded. No
+one without special authorization will be able either to go out or
+come in, therefore there is little hope of escape in that direction.
+
+_September 25._--This morning the tug rose from the depth of the
+lagoon to the surface, and has now run alongside the jetty. The Count
+d'Artigas and Captain Spade disembark, and the crew set to work to
+land the provisions--boxes of canned meat, preserves, barrels of wine
+and spirits, and other things brought by the _Ebba,_ among which are
+several packages destined for Thomas Roch. The men also land the
+various sections of Roch's engines which are discoid in shape.
+
+The inventor watches their operations, and his eyes glisten with
+eagerness. He seizes one of the sections, examines it, and nods
+approval. I notice that his joy no longer finds expression in
+incoherent utterances, that he is completely transformed from what he
+was while a patient at Healthful House. So much is this the case that
+I begin to ask myself whether his madness which was asserted to be
+incurable, has not been radically cured.
+
+At last Thomas Roch embarks in the boat used for crossing the lake and
+is rowed over to his laboratory. Engineer Serko accompanies him. In an
+hour's time the tug's cargo has all been taken out and transported to
+the storehouses.
+
+Ker Karraje exchanges a word or two with Engineer Serko and then
+enters his mansion. Later, in the afternoon, I see them walking up and
+down in front of the Beehive and talking earnestly together.
+
+Then they enter the new tunnel, followed by Captain Spade. If I could
+but follow them! If I could but breathe for awhile the bracing air
+of the Atlantic, of which the interior of Back Cup only receives
+attenuated puffs, so to speak.
+
+_From September 26 to October 10_.--Fifteen days have elapsed. Under
+the directions of Engineer Serko and Thomas Roch the sections of the
+engines have been fitted together. Then the construction of their
+supports is begun. These supports are simple trestles, fitted with
+transverse troughs or grooves of various degrees of inclination, and
+which could be easily installed on the deck of the _Ebba_, or even
+on the platform of the tug, which can be kept on a level with the
+surface.
+
+Thus Ker Karraje, will be ruler of the seas, with his yacht. No
+warship, however big, however powerful, will be able to cross the zone
+of danger, whereas the _Ebba_ will be out of range of its guns. If
+only my notice were found! If only the existence of this lair of Back
+Cup were known! Means would soon be found, if not of destroying the
+place, at least of starving the band into submission!
+
+_October 20_.--To my extreme surprise I find this morning that the tug
+has gone away again. I recall that yesterday the elements of the piles
+were renewed, but I thought it was only to keep them in order. In
+view of the fact that the outside can now be reached through the new
+tunnel, and that Thomas Roch has everything he requires, I can only
+conclude that the tug has gone off on another marauding expedition.
+
+Yet this is the season of the equinoctial gales, and the Bermudan
+waters are swept by frequent tempests. This is evident from the
+violent gusts that drive back the smoke through the crater and the
+heavy rain that accompanies it, as well as by the water in the lagoon,
+which swells and washes over the brown rocks on its shores.
+
+But it is by no means sure that the _Ebba_ has quitted her cove.
+However staunch she may be, she is, it seems to me, of too light a
+build to face such tempests as now rage, even with the help of the
+tug.
+
+On the other hand, although the tug has nothing to fear from the heavy
+seas, as it would be in calm water a few yards below the surface, it
+is hardly likely that it has gone on a trip unless to accompany the
+schooner.
+
+I do not know to what its departure can be attributed, but its absence
+is likely to be prolonged, for it has not yet returned.
+
+Engineer Serko has remained behind, but Ker Karraje, Captain Spade,
+and the crew of the schooner, I find, have left.
+
+Life in the cavern goes on with its usual dispiriting monotony. I pass
+hour after hour in my cell, meditating, hoping, despairing, following
+in fancy the voyage of my little barrel, tossed about at the mercy
+of the currents and whose chances of being picked up, I fear, are
+becoming fainter each day, and killing time by writing my diary, which
+will probably not survive me.
+
+Thomas Roch is constantly occupied in his laboratory manufacturing his
+deflagrator. I still entertain the conviction that nothing will ever
+induce him to give up the secret of the liquid's composition; but I am
+perfectly aware that he will not hesitate to place his invention at
+Ker Karraje's service.
+
+I often meet Engineer Serko when my strolls take me in the direction
+of the Beehive. He always shows himself disposed to chat with me,
+though, it is true, he does so in a tone of impertinent frivolity.
+We converse upon all sorts of subjects, but rarely of my position.
+Recrimination thereanent is useless and only subjects me to renewed
+bantering.
+
+
+_October 22_.--To-day I asked Engineer Serko whether the _Ebba_ had
+put to sea again with the tug.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Simon Hart," he replied, "and though the clouds gather and
+loud the tempest roars, be in no uneasiness in regard to our dear
+_Ebba_."
+
+"Will she be gone long?"
+
+"We expect her back within forty-eight hours. It is the last voyage
+Count d'Artigas proposes to make before the winter gales render
+navigation in these parts impracticable."
+
+"Is her voyage one of business or pleasure?"
+
+"Of business, Mr. Hart, of business," answered Engineer Serko with
+a smile. "Our engines are now completed, and when the fine weather
+returns we shall resume offensive operations."
+
+"Against unfortunate merchantmen."
+
+"As unfortunate as they are richly laden."
+
+"Acts of piracy, whose impunity will, I trust, not always be assured,"
+I cried..
+
+"Calm yourself, dear colleague, be calm! Be calm! No one, you know,
+can ever discover our retreat, and none can ever disclose the secret!
+Besides, with these engines, which are so easily handled and are of
+such terrible power, it would be easy for us to blow to pieces any
+ship that attempted to get within a certain radius of the island."
+
+"Providing," I said, "that Thomas Roch has sold you the composition of
+his deflagrator as he has sold you that of his fulgurator."
+
+"That he has done, Mr. Hart, and it behooves me to set your mind at
+rest upon that point."
+
+From this categorical response I ought to have concluded that the
+misfortune had been consummated, but a certain hesitation in the
+intonation of his voice warned me that implicit reliance was not to be
+placed upon Engineer Serko's assertions.
+
+_October 25_.--What a frightful adventure I have just been mixed up
+in, and what a wonder I did not lose my life! It is only by a miracle
+that I am able to resume these notes, which have been interrupted for
+forty-eight hours. With a little luck, I should have been delivered!
+I should now be in one of the Bermudan ports--St. George or Hamilton.
+The mysteries of Back Cup would have been cleared up. The description
+of the schooner would have been wired all over the world, and she
+would not dare to put into any port. The provisioning of Back Cup
+would be impossible, and Ker Karraje's bandits would be condemned to
+starve to death!
+
+This is what occurred:
+
+At eight o'clock in the evening on October 23, I quitted my cell in
+an indefinable state of nervousness, and with a presentiment that a
+serious event was imminent. In vain I had tried to seek calmness in
+sleep. It was impossible to do so, and I rose and went out.
+
+Outside Back Cup the weather must have been very rough. Violent gusts
+of wind swept in through the crater and agitated the water of the
+lagoon.
+
+I walked along the shore on the Beehive side. No one was about. It
+was rather cold, and the air was damp. The pirates were all snugly
+ensconced in their cells, with the exception of one man, who stood
+guard over the new passage, notwithstanding that the outer entrance
+had been blocked. From where he was this man could not see the lagoon,
+moreover there were only two lamps alight, one on each side of
+the lake, and the forest of pillars was wrapt in the profoundest
+obscurity.
+
+I was walking about in the shadow, when some one passed me.
+
+I saw that he was Thomas Roch.
+
+He was walking slowly, absorbed by his thoughts, his brain at work, as
+usual.
+
+Was this not a favorable opportunity to talk to him, to enlighten him
+about what he was probably ignorant, namely, the character of the
+people into whose hands he had fallen?
+
+"He cannot," I argued, "know that the Count d'Artigas is none other
+than Ker Karraje, the pirate. He cannot be aware that he has given up
+a part of his invention to such a bandit. I must open his eyes to the
+fact that he will never be able to enjoy his millions, that he is a
+prisoner in Back Cup, and will never be allowed to leave it, any
+more than I shall. Yes, I will make an appeal to his sentiments of
+humanity, and point out to him what frightful misfortunes he will be
+responsible for if he does not keep the secret of his deflagrator."
+
+All this I had said to myself, and was preparing to carry out my
+resolution, when I suddenly felt myself seized from behind.
+
+Two men held me by the arms, and another appeared in front of me.
+
+Before I had time to cry out the man exclaimed in English:
+
+"Hush! not a word! Are you not Simon Hart?"
+
+"Yes, how did you know?"
+
+"I saw you come out of your cell."
+
+"Who are you, then?"
+
+"Lieutenant Davon, of the British Navy, of H.M.S. _Standard_, which is
+stationed at the Bermudas."
+
+Emotion choked me so that it was impossible for me to utter a word.
+
+"We have come to rescue you from Ker Karraje, and also propose to
+carry off Thomas Roch," he added.
+
+"Thomas Roch?" I stammered.
+
+"Yes, the document signed by you was found on the beach at St.
+George----"
+
+"In a keg, Lieutenant Davon, which I committed to the waters of the
+lagoon."
+
+"And which contained," went on the officer, "the notice by which we
+were apprised that the island of Back Cup served as a refuge for Ker
+Karraje and his band--Ker Karraje, this false Count d'Artigas, the
+author of the double abduction from Healthful House."
+
+"Ah! Lieutenant Davon----"
+
+"Now we have not a moment to spare, we must profit by the obscurity."
+
+"One word, Lieutenant Davon, how did you penetrate to the interior of
+Back Cup?"
+
+"By means of the submarine boat _Sword_, with which we have been
+making experiments at St. George for six months past."
+
+"A submarine boat!"
+
+"Yes, it awaits us at the foot of the rocks. And now, Mr. Hart, where
+is Ker Karraje's tug?"
+
+"It has been away for three weeks."
+
+"Ker Karraje is not here, then?"
+
+"No, but we expect him back every day--every hour, I might say."
+
+"It matters little," replied Lieutenant Davon. "It is not after Ker
+Karraje, but Thomas Roch, we have come--and you also, Mr. Hart. The
+_Sword_ will not leave the lagoon till you are both on board. If she
+does not turn up at St. George again, they will know that I have
+failed--and they will try again."
+
+"Where is the _Sword_, Lieutenant?"
+
+"On this side, in the shadow of the bank, where it cannot be seen.
+Thanks to your directions, I and my crew were able to locate the
+tunnel. We came through all right, and ten minutes ago rose to the
+surface of the lake. Two men landed with me. I saw you issue from the
+cell marked on your plan. Do you know where Thomas Roch is?"
+
+"A few paces off. He has just passed me, on his way to his
+laboratory."
+
+"God be praised, Mr. Hart!"
+
+"Amen, Lieutenant Davon."
+
+The lieutenant, the two men and I took the path around the lagoon.
+We had not gone far when we perceived Thomas Roch in front of us. To
+throw ourselves upon him, gag him before he could utter a cry, bind
+him before he could offer any resistance, and bear him off to the
+place where the _Sword_ was moored was the work of a minute.
+
+The _Sword_ was a submersible boat of only twelve tons, and
+consequently much inferior to the tug, both in respect of dimensions
+and power. Her screw was worked by a couple of dynamos fitted with
+accumulators that had been charged twelve hours previously in the port
+of St. George. However, the _Sword_ would suffice to take us out of
+this prison, to restore us to liberty--that liberty of which I had
+given up all hope. Thomas Roch was at last to be rescued from the
+clutches of Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko. The rascals would not be
+able to utilize his invention, and nothing could prevent the warships
+from landing a storming party on the island, who would force the
+tunnel in the wall and secure the pirates!
+
+We saw no one while the two men were conveying Thomas Roch to the
+_Sword_, and all got on board without incident. The lid was shut and
+secured, the water compartments filled, and the _Sword_ sank out of
+sight. We were saved!
+
+The _Sword_ was divided into three water-tight compartments. The after
+one contained the accumulators and machinery. The middle one, occupied
+by the pilot, was surmounted by a periscope fitted with lenticular
+portholes, through which an electric search-lamp lighted the way
+through the water. Forward, in the other compartment, Thomas Roch and
+I were shut in.
+
+My companion, though the gag which was choking him had been removed,
+was still bound, and, I thought, knew what was going on.
+
+But we were in a hurry to be off, and hoped to reach St. George that
+very night if no obstacle was encountered.
+
+I pushed open the door of the compartment and rejoined Lieutenant
+Davon, who was standing by the man at the wheel. In the after
+compartment three other men, including the engineer, awaited the
+lieutenant's orders to set the machinery in motion.
+
+"Lieutenant Davon," I said, "I do not think there is any particular
+reason why I should stay in there with Roch. If I can help you to get
+through the tunnel, pray command me."
+
+"Yes, I shall be glad to have you by me, Mr. Hart."
+
+It was then exactly thirty-seven minutes past eight.
+
+The search-lamp threw a vague light through the water ahead of the
+_Sword_. From where we were, we had to cross the lagoon through its
+entire length to get to the tunnel. It would be pretty difficult to
+fetch it, we knew, but, if necessary, we could hug the sides of the
+lake until we located it. Once outside the tunnel the _Sword_ would
+rise to the surface and make for St. George at full speed.
+
+"At what depth are we now?" I asked the lieutenant.
+
+"About a fathom."
+
+"It is not necessary to go any lower," I said. "From what I was able
+to observe during the equinoctial tides, I should think that we are in
+the axis of the tunnel."
+
+"All right," he replied.
+
+Yes, it was all right, and I felt that Providence was speaking by the
+mouth of the officer. Certainly Providence could not have chosen a
+better agent to work its will.
+
+In the light of the lamp I examined him. He was about thirty years of
+age, cool, phlegmatic, with resolute physiognomy--the English officer
+in all his native impassibility--no more disturbed than if he had been
+on board the _Standard_, operating with extraordinary _sang-froid,_ I
+might even say, with the precision of a machine.
+
+"On coming through the tunnel I estimated its length at about fifty
+yards," he remarked.
+
+"Yes, Lieutenant, about fifty yards from one extremity to the other."
+
+This calculation must have been pretty exact, since the new tunnel cut
+on a level with the coast is thirty-five feet in length.
+
+The order was given to go ahead, and the _Sword_ moved forward very
+slowly for fear of colliding against the rocky side.
+
+Sometimes we came near enough to it to distinguish a black mass ahead
+of it, but a turn of the wheel put us in the right direction again.
+Navigating a submarine boat in the open sea is difficult enough. How
+much more so in the confines of a lagoon!
+
+After five minutes' manoeuvring, the _Sword_, which was kept at about
+a fathom below the surface, had not succeeded in sighting the orifice.
+
+"Perhaps it would be better to return to the surface, Lieutenant," I
+said. "We should then be able to see where we are."
+
+"I think you are right, Mr. Hart, if you can point out just about
+where the tunnel is located."
+
+"I think I can."
+
+"Very well, then."
+
+As a precaution the light was turned off. The engineer set the pumps
+in motion, and, lightened of its water ballast, the boat slowly rose
+in the darkness to the surface.
+
+I remained at my post so that I could peer through the lookouts.
+
+At last the ascensional movement of the _Sword_ stopped, and the
+periscope emerged about a foot.
+
+On one side of me, lighted by the lamp by the shore, I could see the
+Beehive.
+
+"What is your opinion?" demanded the lieutenant.
+
+"We are too far north. The orifice is in the west side of the cavern."
+
+"Is anybody about?"
+
+"Not a soul."
+
+"Capital, Mr. Hart. Then we will keep on a level with the surface, and
+when we are in front of the tunnel, and you give the signal, we will
+sink."
+
+It was the best thing to be done. We moved off again and the pilot
+kept her head towards the tunnel.
+
+When we were about twelve yards off I gave the signal to stop. As soon
+as the current was turned off the _Sword_ stopped, opened her water
+tanks and slowly sank again.
+
+Then the light in the lookout was turned on again, and there in front
+of us was a black circle that did not reflect the lamp's rays.
+
+"There it is, there is the tunnel!" I cried.
+
+Was it not the door by which I was going to escape from my prison? Was
+not liberty awaiting me on the other side?
+
+Gently the _Sword_ moved towards the orifice.
+
+Oh! the horrible mischance! How have I survived it? How is it that my
+heart is not broken?
+
+A dim light appeared in the depth of the tunnel, about twenty-five
+yards in front of us. The advancing light could be none other than
+that, projected through the lookout of Ker Karraje's submarine boat.
+
+"The tug! The tug!" I exclaimed. "Lieutenant, here is the tug
+returning to Back Cup!"
+
+"Full speed astern," ordered the officer, and the _Sword_ drew back
+just as she was about to enter the tunnel.
+
+One chance remained. The lieutenant had swiftly turned off the light,
+and it was just possible that we had not been seen by the people in
+the tug. Perhaps, in the dark waters of the lagoon, we should escape
+notice, and when the oncoming boat had risen and moored to the jetty,
+we should be able to slip out unperceived.
+
+We had backed close in to the south side and the _Sword_ was about to
+stop, but alas, for our hopes! Captain Spade had seen that another
+submarine boat was about to issue through the tunnel, and he was
+making preparations to chase us. How could a frail craft like the
+_Sword_ defend itself against the attacks of Ker Karraje's powerful
+machine?
+
+Lieutenant Davon turned to me and said: "Go back to the compartment
+where Thomas Roch is and shut yourself in. I will close the
+after-door. There is just a chance that if the tug rams us the
+water-tight compartments will keep us up."
+
+After shaking hands with the lieutenant, who was as cool as though we
+were in no danger, I went forward and rejoined Thomas Roch. I closed
+the door and awaited the issue in profound darkness.
+
+Then I could feel the desperate efforts made by the _Sword_ to
+escape from or ram her enemy. I could feel her rushing, gyrating and
+plunging. Now she would twist to avoid a collision. Now she would rise
+to the surface, then sink to the bottom of the lagoon. Can any one
+conceive such a struggle as that in which, like two marine monsters,
+these machines were engaged in beneath the troubled waters of this
+inland lake?
+
+A few minutes elapsed, and I began to think that the _Sword_ had
+eluded the tug and was rushing through the tunnel.
+
+Suddenly there was a collision. The shock was not, it seemed to me,
+very violent, but I could be under no illusion: the _Sword_ had been
+struck on her starboard quarter. Perhaps her plates had resisted,
+and if not, the water would only invade one of her compartments, I
+thought.
+
+Almost immediately after, however, there was another shock that pushed
+the _Sword_ with extreme violence. She was raised by the ram of the
+tug which sawed and ripped its way into her side. Then I could feel
+her heel over and sink straight down, stern foremost.
+
+Thomas Roch and I were tumbled over violently by. this movement. There
+was another bump, another ripping sound, and the _Sword_ lay still.
+
+Just what happened after that I am unable to say, for I lost
+consciousness.
+
+I have since learned that all this occurred many hours ago.
+
+I however distinctly remember that my last thought was:
+
+"If I am to die, at any rate Thomas Roch and his secret perish with
+me--and the pirates of Back Cup will not escape punishment for their
+crimes."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+EXPECTATION.
+
+
+As soon as I recover my senses I find myself lying on my bed in my
+cell, where it appears I have been lying for thirty-six hours.
+
+I am not alone. Engineer Serko is near me. He has attended to me
+himself, not because he regards me as a friend, I surmise, but as
+a man from whom indispensable explanations are awaited, and who
+afterwards can be done away with if necessary.
+
+I am still so weak that I could not walk a step. A little more and I
+should have been asphyxiated in that narrow compartment of the _Sword_
+at the bottom of the lagoon.
+
+Am I in condition to reply to the questions that Engineer Serko is
+dying to put to me? Yes--but I shall maintain the utmost reserve.
+
+In the first place I wonder what has become of Lieutenant Davon and
+the crew of the _Sword_. Did those brave Englishmen perish in the
+collision? Are they safe and sound like us--for I suppose that Thomas
+Roch has also survived?
+
+The first question that Engineer Serko puts to me is this:
+
+"Will you explain to me what happened, Mr. Hart?"
+
+Instead of replying it occurs to me to question him myself.
+
+"And Thomas Roch?" I inquire.
+
+"In good health, Mr. Hart." Then he adds in an imperious tone: "Tell
+me what occurred!"
+
+"In the first place, tell me what became of the others."
+
+"What others?" replies Serko, glancing at me savagely.
+
+"Why, those men who threw themselves upon Thomas Roch and me, who
+gagged, bound, and carried us off and shut us up, I know not where?"
+
+On reflection I had come to the conclusion that the best thing to do
+was to pretend that I had been surprised before I knew where I was or
+who my aggressors were.
+
+"You will know what became of them later. But first, tell me how, the
+thing was done."
+
+By the threatening tone of his voice, as he for the third time puts
+this question, I understand the nature of the suspicions entertained
+of me. Yet to be in the position to accuse me of having had relations
+with the outside he would have had to get possession of my keg. This
+he could not have done, seeing that it is in the hands of the Bermudan
+authorities. The pirates cannot, I am convinced, have a single proof
+to back up their suspicions.
+
+I therefore recount how about eight o'clock on the previous evening I
+was walking along the edge of the lagoon, after Thomas Roch had passed
+me, going towards his laboratory, when I felt myself seized from
+behind; how having been gagged, bound, and blindfolded, I felt myself
+carried off and lowered into a hole with another person whom I thought
+I recognized from his groans as Thomas Roch; how I soon felt that I
+was on board a boat of some description and naturally concluded that
+it was the tug; how I felt it sink; how I felt a shock that threw me
+violently against the side, and how I felt myself suffocating and lost
+consciousness, since I remember nothing further.
+
+Engineer Serko listens with profound attention, a stern look in his
+eyes and a frown on his brow; and yet he can have no reason that
+authorizes him to doubt my word.
+
+"You claim that three men threw themselves upon you?" he asks.
+
+"Yes. I thought they were some of your people, for I did not see them
+coming. Who were they?"
+
+"Strangers, as you must have known from their language."
+
+"They did not utter a word!"
+
+"Have you no idea as to their nationality?"
+
+"Not the remotest."
+
+Do you know what were their intentions in entering the cavern?"
+
+"I do not."
+
+"What is your opinion about it?"
+
+"My opinion, Mr. Serko? I repeat I thought they were two or three of
+your pirates who had come to throw me into the lagoon by the Count
+d'Artigas' orders, and that they were going to do the same thing to
+Thomas Roch. I supposed that having obtained his secrets--as you
+informed me was the case--you had no further use for him and were
+about to get rid of us both."
+
+"Is it possible, Mr. Hart, that you could have thought such a thing!"
+continued Serko in his sarcastic way.
+
+"I did, until having been able to remove the bandage from my eyes, I
+perceived that I was in the tug."
+
+"It was not the tug, but a boat of the same kind that had got through
+the tunnel."
+
+"A submarine boat?" I ejaculate.
+
+"Yes, and manned by persons whose mission was to kidnap you and Thomas
+Roch."
+
+"Kidnap us?" I echo, continuing to feign surprise.
+
+"And," adds Engineer Serko, "I want to know what you think about the
+matter."
+
+"What I think about it? Well, it appears to me that there is only one
+plausible explanation possible. If the secret of your retreat has not
+been betrayed--and I cannot conceive how you could have been betrayed
+or what imprudence you or yours could have committed--my opinion is
+that this submarine boat was exploring the bottom of the sea in this
+neighborhood, that she must have found her way into the tunnel,
+that she rose to the surface of the lagoon, that her crew, greatly
+surprised to find themselves inside an inhabited cavern, seized hold
+of the first persons they came across, Thomas Roch and myself, and
+others as well perhaps, for of course I do not know----"
+
+Engineer Serko has become serious again. Does he realize the inanity
+of the hypothesis I try to pass off on him? Does he think I know more
+than I will say? However this may be, he accepts my professed view,
+and says:
+
+"In effect, Mr. Hart, it must have happened as you suggest, and when
+the stranger tried to make her way out through the tunnel just as the
+tug was entering, there was a collision--a collision of which she was
+the victim. But we are not the kind of people to allow our fellow-men
+to perish before our eyes. Moreover, the disappearance of Thomas Roch
+and yourself was almost immediately discovered. Two such valuable
+lives had to be saved at all hazards. We set to work. There are many
+expert divers among our men. They hastily donned their suits and
+descended to the bottom of the lagoon. They passed lines around the
+hull of the _Sword_----"
+
+"The _Sword_?" I exclaim.
+
+"That is the name we saw painted on the bow of the vessel when we
+raised her to the surface. What satisfaction we experienced when we
+recovered you--unconscious, it is true, but still breathing--and were
+able to bring you back to life! Unfortunately all our attentions to
+the officer who commanded the _Sword_, and to his crew were useless.
+The shock had torn open the after and middle compartments, and
+they paid with their lives the misfortune--due to chance, as you
+observe--of having discovered our mysterious retreat."
+
+On learning that Lieutenant Davon and his companions are dead, my
+heart is filled with anguish; but to keep up my role--as they were
+persons with whom, presumably, I was not acquainted, and had never
+seen--I am careful not to display any emotion. I must, on no account,
+afford ground for the suspicion that there was any connivance between
+the commander of the _Sword_ and me. For aught I know, Engineer Serko
+may have reason to be very skeptical about the discovery of the tunnel
+being accidental.
+
+What, however, I am most concerned about is that the unlooked-for
+occasion to recover my liberty was lost. Shall I ever be afforded
+another chance? However this may be, my notice reached the English
+authorities of the archipelago, and they now know where Ker Karraje
+is to be found. When it is seen that the _Sword_ does not return to
+Bermuda, there can be no doubt that another attempt will be made to
+get inside Back Cup, in which, had it not been for the inopportune
+return of the tug, I should no longer be a prisoner.
+
+I have resumed my usual existence, and having allayed all mistrust, am
+permitted to wander freely about the cavern, as usual.
+
+It is patent that the adventure has had no ill effect upon Thomas
+Roch. Intelligent nursing brought him around, as it did me. In full
+possession of his mental faculties he has returned to work, and spends
+the entire day in his laboratory.
+
+The _Ebba_ brought back from her last trip bales, boxes, and a
+quantity of objects of varied origin, and I conclude that a number of
+ships must have been pillaged during this marauding expedition.
+
+The work on the trestles for Roch's engine goes steadily forward, and
+there are now no fewer than fifty engines. If Ker Karraje and Engineer
+Serko are under the necessity of defending Back Cup, three or four
+will be sufficient to render the island unapproachable, as they will
+cover a zone which no vessel could enter without being blown to
+pieces. And it occurs to me that they intend to put Back Cup in a
+state of defence after having argued as follows:
+
+"If the appearance of the _Sword_ in the lagoon was due to chance the
+situation remains unchanged, and no power, not even England, will
+think of seeking for the _Sword_ inside the cavern. If, on the other
+hand, as the result of an incomprehensible revelation, it has been
+learned that Back Cup is become the retreat of Ker Karraje, if the
+expedition of the _Sword_ was a first effort against the island,
+another of a different kind--either a bombardment from a distance, or
+an attack by a landing party--is to be expected. Therefore, ere we
+can quit Back Cup and carry away our plunder, we shall have to defend
+ourselves by means of Roch's fulgurator."
+
+In my opinion the rascals must have gone on to reason still further in
+this wise:
+
+"Is there any connection between the disclosure of our secret--if it
+was, and however it may have been made--and the double abduction from
+Healthful House? Is it known that Thomas Roch and his keeper are
+confined in Back Cup? Is it known that the abduction was effected in
+the interest of Ker Karraje? Have Americans, English, French, Germans,
+and Russians reason to fear that an attack in force against the island
+would be doomed to failure?"
+
+Ker Karraje must know very well that these powers would not hesitate
+to attack him, however great the danger might be. The destruction of
+his lair is an urgent duty in the interest of public security and
+of humanity. After sweeping the West Pacific the pirate and his
+companions are infesting the West Atlantic, and must be wiped out at
+all costs.
+
+In any case, it is imperative that the inhabitants of Back Cup should
+be on their guard. This fact is realized, and, from the day on which
+the _Sword_ was destroyed, strict watch has been kept. Thanks to the
+new passage, they are able to hide among the rocks without having
+recourse to the submarine tunnel to get there, and day and night a
+dozen sentries are posted about the island. The moment a ship appears
+in sight the fact is at once made known inside the cavern.
+
+Nothing occurs for some days, and the latter succeed each other with
+dreadful monotony. The pirates, however, feel that Back Cup no longer
+enjoys its former security. Every moment an alarm from the sentries
+posted outside is expected. The situation is no longer the same since
+the advent of the _Sword_. Gallant Lieutenant Davon, gallant crew,
+may England, may the civilized nations, never forget that you have
+sacrificed your lives in the cause of humanity!
+
+It is evident that now, however powerful may be their means of
+defence, even more powerful than a network of torpedoes, Engineer
+Serko and Captain Spade are filled with an anxiety that they vainly
+essay to dissemble. They hold frequent conferences together. Maybe
+they discuss the advisability of quitting Back Cup with their wealth,
+for they are aware that if the existence of the cavern is known means
+will be found to reduce it, even if the inmates have to be starved
+out.
+
+This is, of course, mere conjecture on my part. What is essential to
+me is that they do not suspect me of having launched the keg that
+was so providentially picked up at Bermuda. Never, I must say, has
+Engineer Serko ever made any allusion to any such probability. No, I
+am not even suspected. If the contrary were the case I am sufficiently
+acquainted with Ker Karraje to know that he would long ago have sent
+me to rejoin Lieutenant Davon and the _Sword_ at the bottom of the
+lagoon.
+
+The winter tempests have set in with a vengeance. The wind howls
+though the hole in the roof, and rude gusts sweep through the forest
+of pillars producing sonorous sounds, so sonorous, so deep, that one
+might sometimes almost fancy they were produced by the firing of the
+guns of a squadron. Flocks of seabirds take refuge in the cavern from
+the gale, and at intervals, when it lulls, almost deafen us with their
+screaming.
+
+It is to be presumed that in such weather the schooner will make no
+attempt to put to sea, for the stock of provisions is ample enough to
+last all the season. Moreover, I imagine the Count d'Artigas will not
+be so eager in future to show his _Ebba_ along the American
+coast, where he risks being received, not, as hitherto, with the
+consideration due to a wealthy yachtsman, but in the manner Ker
+Karraje so richly merits.
+
+It occurs to me that if the apparition of the _Sword_ was the
+commencement of a campaign against the island, a question of great
+moment relative to the future of Back Cup arises.
+
+Therefore, one day, prudently, so as not to excite any suspicion, I
+ventured to pump Engineer Serko about it.
+
+We were in the neighborhood of Thomas Roch's laboratory, and had
+been conversing for some time, when Engineer Serko touched upon the
+extraordinary apparition of an English submarine boat in the lagoon.
+On this occasion he seemed to incline to the view that it might have
+been a premeditated expedition against Ker Karraje.
+
+"That is not my opinion," I replied, in order to bring him to the
+question that I wanted to put to him.
+
+"Why?" he demanded.
+
+"Because if your retreat were known a fresh attempt, if not to
+penetrate to the cavern, at least to destroy Back Cup, would ere this
+have been made."
+
+"Destroy it!" cried Serko. "It would be a dangerous undertaking, in
+view of the means of defence of which we now dispose."
+
+"They can know nothing about this matter, Mr. Serko. It is not
+imagined, either in the new world or the old, that the abduction from
+Healthful House was effected for your especial benefit, or that you
+have succeeded in coming to terms with Thomas Roch for his invention."
+
+Engineer Serko made no response to this observation, which, for that
+matter, was unanswerable.
+
+I continued:
+
+"Therefore a squadron sent by the maritime powers who have an interest
+in breaking up this island would not hesitate to approach and shell
+it. Now, I argue from this that as this squadron has not yet appeared,
+it is not likely to come at all, and that nothing is known as to Ker
+Karraje's whereabouts, and you must admit that this hypothesis is the
+most cheerful one, as far as you are concerned."
+
+"That may be," Engineer Serko replied, "but what is, is. Whether they
+are aware of the fact or no, if warships approach within five or six
+miles of this island they will be sunk before they have had time to
+fire a single shot!"
+
+"Well, and what then?"
+
+"What then? Why the probability is that no others would care to repeat
+the experiment."
+
+"That, again, may be. But these warships would invest you beyond the
+dangerous zone, and the _Ebba_ would not be able to put in to the
+ports she previously visited with the Count d'Artigas. In this event,
+how would you be able to provision the island?"
+
+Engineer Serko remained silent.
+
+This argument, which he must already have brooded over, was too
+logical to be refuted or dismissed, and I have an idea that the
+pirates contemplate abandoning Back Cup.
+
+Nevertheless, not relishing being cornered, he continued:
+
+"We should still have the tug, and what the _Ebba_ could not do, this
+would."
+
+"The tug?" I cried. "But if Ker Karraje's secrets are known, do you
+suppose the powers are not also aware of the existence of the Count
+d'Artigas' submarine boat?"
+
+Engineer Serko looked at me suspiciously.
+
+"Mr. Hart," he said, "you appear to me to carry your deductions rather
+far."
+
+"I, Mr. Serko?"
+
+"Yes, and I think you talk about all this like a man who knows more
+than he ought to."
+
+This remark brought me up abruptly. It was evident that my arguments
+might give rise to the suspicion that I was not altogether
+irresponsible for the recent incident. Engineer Serko scrutinized me
+sharply as though he would read my innermost thoughts.
+
+"Mr. Serko," I observed, "by profession, as well as by inclination, I
+am accustomed to reason upon everything. This is why I communicated to
+you the result of my reasoning, which you can take into consideration
+or not, as you like."
+
+Thereupon we separate. But I fancy my lack of reserve may have excited
+suspicions which may not be easy to allay.
+
+From this interview, however, I gleaned a precious bit of information,
+namely, that the dangerous zone of Roch's fulgurator is between five
+and six miles off. Perhaps, during the next equinoctial tides,
+another notice to this effect in another keg may also reach a safe
+destination.
+
+But how many weary months to wait before the orifice of the tunnel
+will again be uncovered!
+
+The rough weather continues, and the squalls are more violent than
+ever. Is it the state of the sea that delays another campaign against
+Back Cup? Lieutenant Davon certainly assured me that if his expedition
+failed, if the _Sword_ did not return to St. George, another attempt
+under different conditions would be made with a view to breaking up
+this bandits' lair. Sooner or later the work of justice must be
+done, and Back Cup be destroyed, even though I may not survive its
+destruction.
+
+Ah! why can I not go and breathe, if only for a single instant, the
+vivifying air outside? Why am I not permitted to cast one glance over
+the ocean towards the distant horizon of the Bermudas? My whole life
+is concentrated in one desire: to get through the tunnel in the wall
+and hide myself among the rocks. Perchance I might be the first to
+catch sight of the smoke of a squadron heading for the island.
+
+This project, alas! is unrealizable, as sentries are posted day and
+night at each extremity of the passage. No one can enter it without
+Engineer Serko's authorization. Were I to attempt it, I should risk
+being deprived of my liberty to walk about the cavern, and even worse
+might happen to me.
+
+Since our last conversation, Engineer Serko's attitude towards me has
+undergone a change. His gaze has lost its old-time sarcasm and is
+distrustful, suspicious, searching and as stern as Ker Karraje's.
+
+_November 17_.--This afternoon there was a great commotion in the
+Beehive, and the men rushed out of their cells with loud cries.
+
+I was reclining on my bed, but immediately rose and hurried out.
+
+All the pirates were making for the passage, in front of which were
+Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, Boatswain Effrondat,
+Engine-driver Gibson and the Count d'Artigas' big Malay attendant.
+
+I soon learn the reason for the tumult, for the sentries rush in with
+shouts of alarm.
+
+Several vessels have been sighted to the northwest--warships steaming
+at full speed in the direction of Back Cup.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+ONLY A FEW MORE HOURS.
+
+
+What effect this news has upon me, and what emotion it awakens within
+my soul! The end, I feel, is at hand. May it be such as civilization
+and humanity are entitled to.
+
+Up to the present I have indited my notes day by day. Henceforward
+it is imperative that I should inscribe them hour by hour, minute by
+minute. Who knows but what Thomas Roch's last secret may be revealed
+to me and that I shall have time to commit it to paper! Should I die
+during the attack God grant that the account of the five months I have
+passed in Back Cup may be found upon my body!
+
+At first Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, and several of
+their companions took up position on the exterior base of the island.
+What would I not give to be able follow to them, and in the friendly
+shelter of a rook watch the on-coming warships!
+
+An hour later they return after having left a score of men to keep
+watch. As the days at this season of the year are very short there is
+nothing to fear before the morrow. It is not likely that the ships
+will attempt a night attack and land a storming party, for they must
+imagine that the place is in a thorough condition of defence.
+
+All night long the pirates work, installing the trestles at different
+points of the coast. Six have been taken through the passage to places
+selected in advance.
+
+This done, Engineer Serko joins Thomas Roch in his laboratory. Is he
+going to tell him what is passing, that a squadron is in view of Back
+Cup, and that his fulgurator will be employed to defend the island?
+
+What is certain is that half a hundred engines, each charged with
+several pounds of the explosive and of the substance that ensures a
+trajectory superior to that of any other projectile, are ready for
+their work of destruction.
+
+As to the deflagrator liquid, Thomas Roch has a certain number of
+phials of it, and--I know only too well--will not refuse to help Ker
+Karraje's pirates with it.
+
+During these preparations night has come on. Only the lamps of the
+Beehive are lighted and a semi-obscurity reigns in the cavern.
+
+I return to my cell. It is to my interest to keep out of the way as
+much as possible, for Engineer Serko's suspicions might be revived now
+that the squadron is approaching Back Cup.
+
+But will the vessels sighted continue on their course in this
+direction? May they not be merely passing on their way to Bermuda? For
+an instant this doubt enters my mind. No, no, it cannot be! Besides, I
+have just heard Captain Spade declare that they are lying to in view
+of the island.
+
+To what nation do they belong? Have the English, desirous of avenging
+the destruction of the _Sword_, alone undertaken the expedition? May
+not cruisers of other nations be with them? I know not, and it is
+impossible to ascertain. And what does it matter, after all, so long
+as this haunt is destroyed, even though I should perish in the ruins
+like the heroic Lieutenant Davon and his brave crew?
+
+Preparations for defence continue with coolness and method under
+Engineer Serko's superintendence. These pirates are obviously certain
+that they will be able to annihilate their assailants as soon as the
+latter enter the dangerous zone. Their confidence in Roch's fulgurator
+is absolute. Absorbed by the idea that these warship are powerless
+against them, they think neither of the difficulties nor menaces held
+out by the future.
+
+I surmise that the trestles have been set up on the northwest coast
+with the grooves turned to send the engines to the north, west, and
+south. On the east, as already stated, the island is defended by the
+chain of reefs that stretches away to the Bermudas.
+
+About nine o'clock I venture out of my cell. They will pay little
+attention to me, and perhaps I may escape notice in the obscurity. Ah!
+if I could get through that passage and hide behind some rock, so that
+I could witness what goes on at daybreak! And why should I not succeed
+now that Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, and the pirates
+have taken their posts outside?
+
+The shores of the lake are deserted, but the entrance to the passage
+is kept by Count d'Artigas' Malay. I saunter, without any fixed idea,
+towards Thomas Roch's laboratory. This reminds me of my compatriot. I
+am, on reflection, disposed to think that he knows nothing about the
+presence of a squadron off Back Cup. Probably not until the last
+moment will Engineer Serko apprise him of its proximity, not till he
+brusquely points out to him the vengeance he can accomplish.
+
+Then I conceive the idea of enlightening Thomas Roch, myself, of the
+responsibility he is incurring and of revealing to him in this supreme
+hour the character of the men who want him to co-operate in their
+criminal projects.
+
+Yes, I will, attempt it, and may I succeed in fanning into a flame any
+spark of patriotism that may still linger in his rebellious soul!
+
+Roch is shut up in his laboratory. He must be alone, for never does he
+allow any one to enter while he is preparing his deflagrator.
+
+As I pass the jetty I notice that the tug is moored in its accustomed
+place. Here I judge it prudent to walk behind the first row of pillars
+and approach the laboratory laterally--which will enable me to see
+whether anybody is with him. When I have gone a short distance along
+the sombre avenue I see a bright light on the opposite side of the
+lagoon. It is the electric light in Roch's laboratory as seen through
+a narrow window in the front.
+
+Except in that particular spot, the southern shore of the lake is in
+darkness, whereas, in the opposite direction, the Beehive is lit up to
+its extremity at the northern wall. Through the opening in the dome,
+over the lake I can see the stars shining. The sky is clear, the
+tempest has abated, and the squalls no longer penetrate to the
+interior of Back Cup.
+
+When near the laboratory, I creep along the wall and peep in at the
+window.
+
+Thomas Roch is there alone. The light shines full on his face. If it
+is somewhat drawn, and the lines on the forehead are more
+pronounced, his physiognomy, at least, denotes perfect calmness and
+self-possession. No, he is no longer the inmate of Pavilion No. 17,
+the madman of Healthful House, and I ask myself whether he is not
+radically cured, whether there is no further danger of his reason
+collapsing in a final paroxysm.
+
+He has just laid two glass phials upon the table, and holds a third in
+his hand. He holds it up to the light, and observes the limpidity of
+the liquid it contains.
+
+I have half a mind to rush in, seize the tubes and smash them, but I
+reflect that he would have time to make some more of the stuff. Better
+stick to my first plan.
+
+I push the door open and enter.
+
+"Thomas Roch!" I exclaim.
+
+He has not heard, nor has he seen me.
+
+"Thomas Roch!" I repeat.
+
+He raises his head, turns and gazes at me.
+
+"Ah! it is you, Simon Hart!" he replies calmly, even indifferently.
+
+He knows my name. Engineer Serko must have informed him that it
+was Simon Hart, and not Keeper Gaydon who was watching over him at
+Healthful House.
+
+"You know who I am?" I say.
+
+"Yes, as I know what your object was in undertaking such a position.
+You lived in hopes of surprising a secret that they would not pay for
+at its just value!"
+
+Thomas Roch knows everything, and perhaps it is just as well, in view
+of what I am going to say.
+
+"Well, you did not succeed, Simon Hart, and as far as this is
+concerned," he added, flourishing the phial, "no one else has
+succeeded, or ever will succeed."
+
+As I conjectured, he has not, then, made known the composition of his
+deflagrator.
+
+Looking him straight in the face, I reply:
+
+"You know who I am, Thomas Roch, but do you know in whose place you
+are?"
+
+"In my own place!" he cries.
+
+That is what Ker Karraje has permitted him to believe. The inventor
+thinks he is at home in Back Cup, that the riches accumulated in this
+cavern are his, and that if an attack is made upon the place, it will
+be with the object of stealing what belongs to him! And he will defend
+it under the impression that he has the right to do so!
+
+"Thomas Roch," I continue, "listen to me."
+
+"What do you want to say to me, Simon Hart?"
+
+"This cavern into which we have been dragged, is occupied by a band of
+pirates, and--"
+
+Roch does not give me time to complete the sentence--I doubt even
+whether he has understood me.
+
+"I repeat," he interrupts vehemently, "that the treasures stored here
+are the price of my invention. They have paid me what I asked for
+my fulgurator--what I was everywhere else refused--even in my own
+country--which is also yours--and I will not allow myself to be
+despoiled!"
+
+What can I reply to such insensate assertions? I, however, go on:
+
+"Thomas Roch, do you remember Healthful House?"
+
+"Healthful House, where I was sequestrated after Warder Gaydon had
+been entrusted with the mission of spying upon me in order to rob me
+of my secret? I do, indeed."
+
+"I never dreamed of depriving you of the benefit of your secret,
+Thomas Roch. I would never have accepted such a mission. But you were
+ill, your reason was affected, and your invention was too valuable to
+be lost. Yes, had you disclosed the secret during one of your fits you
+would have preserved all the benefit and all the honor of it."
+
+"Really, Simon Hart!" Roch replies disdainfully. "Honor and benefit!
+Your assurances come somewhat late in the day. You forget that on
+the pretext of insanity, I was thrown into a dungeon. Yes, it was a
+pretext; for my reason has never left me, even for an hour, as you can
+see from what I have accomplished since I am free."
+
+"Free! Do you imagine you are free, Thomas Roch? Are you not more
+closely confined within the walls of this cavern than you ever were at
+Healthful House?"
+
+"A man who is in his own home," he replies angrily, "goes out as he
+likes and when he likes. I have only to say the word and all the doors
+will open before me. This place is mine. Count d'Artigas gave it to me
+with everything it contains. Woe to those who attempt to attack it.
+I have here the wherewithal to annihilate them, Simon Hart!" The
+inventor waves the phial feverishly as he speaks."
+
+"The Count d'Artigas has deceived you," I cry, "as he has deceived so
+many others. Under this name is dissembled one of the most formidable
+monsters who ever scoured the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. He is a
+bandit steeped in crime--he is the odious Ker Karraje!"
+
+"Ker Karraje!" echoes Thomas Roch.
+
+And I wonder if this name has not impressed him, if he remembers
+who the man is who bears it. If it did impress him, it was only
+momentarily.
+
+
+"I do not know this Ker Karraje," he says, pointing towards the door
+to order me out. "I only know the Count d'Artigas."
+
+"Thomas Roch," I persist, in a final effort, "the Count d'Artigas and
+Ker Karraje are one and the same person. If this man has purchased
+your secret, it is with the intention of ensuring impunity for his
+crimes and facilities for committing fresh ones. He is the chief of
+these pirates."
+
+"Pirates!" cries Roch, whose irritation increases the more I press
+him. "The real pirates are those who dare to menace me even in this
+retreat, who tried it on with the _Sword_--for Serko has told me
+everything--who sought to steal in my own home what belongs to me,
+what is but the just price of my discovery."
+
+"No, Thomas Roch, the pirates are those who have imprisoned you in
+this cavern of Back Cup, who will utilize your genius to defend it,
+and who will get rid of you when they are in entire possession of your
+secrets!"
+
+Thomas Roch here interrupts me. He does not appear to listen to what I
+say. He has a fixed idea, that of vengeance, which has been skilfully
+worked upon by Engineer Serko, and in which his hatred is concentrated
+to the exclusion of everything else.
+
+"The bandits," he hisses, "are those who spurned me without a hearing,
+who heaped injustice and ignominy upon me, who drove me from country
+to country, whereas I offered them superiority, invincibleness,
+omnipotence!"
+
+It is the eternal story of the unappreciated inventor, to whom the
+indifferent or envious refuse the means of testing his inventions, to
+pay him the value he sets upon them. I know it well--and also know all
+the exaggeration that has been written upon this subject.
+
+It is clearly no time for reasoning with Thomas Roch. My arguments
+are entirely lost upon the hapless dupe of Ker Karraje and his
+accomplices. In revealing to him the real name of the Count d'Artigas,
+and denouncing to him this band and their chief I had hoped to wean
+him from their influence and make him realize the criminal end they
+have in view. My hope was vain. He does not believe me. And then what
+does he care whether the brigand's name is Count 'd'Artigas or Ker
+Karraje? Is not he, Thomas Roch, master of Back Cup? Is he not the
+owner of these riches accumulated by twenty years of murder and
+rapine?
+
+Disarmed before such moral degeneracy, knowing not how I can touch
+his ulcerated, irresponsible heart, I turn towards the door. It only
+remains for me to withdraw. What is to be, will be, since it is out of
+my power to prevent the frightful _dénouement_ that will occur in a
+few hours.
+
+Thomas Roch takes no more notice of me. He seems to have forgotten
+that I am here. He has resumed his manipulations without realizing
+that he is not alone.
+
+There is only one means of preventing the imminent catastrophe. Throw
+myself upon Roch, place him beyond the power of doing harm--strike
+him--kill him--yes, kill him! It is my right--it is my duty!
+
+I have no arms, but on a near-by shelf I see some tools--a chisel and
+a hammer. What is to prevent me from knocking his brains out? Once he
+is dead I have but to smash the phials and his invention dies with
+him. The warships can approach, land their men upon the island,
+demolish Back Cup with their shells. Ker Karraje and his band will be
+killed to a man. Can I hesitate at a murder that will bring about the
+chastisement of so many crimes?
+
+I advance to the shelf and stretch forth my hand to seize the chisel.
+
+As I do so, Thomas Roch turns round.
+
+It is too late to strike. A struggle would ensue. The noise and his
+cries would be heard, for there are still some pirates not far off, I
+can even now hear some one approaching, and have only just time to fly
+if I would not be seen.
+
+Nevertheless, I make one last attempt to awaken the sentiment of
+patriotism within him.
+
+"Thomas Roch," I say, "warships are in sight. They have come to
+destroy this lair. Maybe one of them flies the French flag!"
+
+He gazes at me. He was not aware that Back Cup is going to be
+attacked, and I have just apprised him of the fact. His brow darkens
+and his eyes flash.
+
+"Thomas Roch, would you dare to fire upon your country's flag--the
+tricolor flag?"
+
+He raises his head, shakes it nervously, and with a disdainful
+gesture:
+
+"What do you mean by 'your country?' I no longer have any country,
+Simon Hart. The inventor spurned no longer has a country. Where he
+finds an asylum, there is his fatherland! They seek to take what is
+mine. I will defend it, and woe, woe to those who dare to attack me!"
+
+Then rushing to the door of the laboratory and throwing it violently
+open he shouts so loudly that he must be heard at the Beehive:
+
+"Go! Get you gone!"
+
+I have not a second to lose, and I dash out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+ONE AGAINST FIVE.
+
+
+For a whole hour I wander about among Back Cup's dark vaults, amid the
+stone trees, to the extreme limit of the cavern. It is here that I
+have so often sought an issue, a crevice, a crack through which I
+might squeeze to the shore of the island.
+
+My search has been futile. In my present condition, a prey to
+indefinable hallucinations it seems to me that these walls are thicker
+than ever, that they are gradually closing in upon and will crush me.
+
+How long this mental trouble lasts I cannot say. But I afterwards find
+myself on the Beehive side, opposite the cell in which I cannot hope
+for either repose or sleep. Sleep, when my brain is in a whirl
+of excitement? Sleep, when I am near the end of a situation that
+threatened to be prolonged for years and years?
+
+What will the end be as far as I am personally concerned? What am I to
+expect from the attack upon Back Cup, the success of which I have been
+unable to assure by placing Thomas Roch beyond the possibility of
+doing harm? His engines are ready to be launched, and as soon as the
+vessels have reached the dangerous zone they will be blown to atoms.
+
+However this may be, I am condemned to pass the remaining hours of the
+night in my cell. The time has come for me to go in. At daybreak I
+shall see what is best for me to do. Meanwhile, for aught I know I
+may hear the thunder of Roch's fulgurator as it destroys the ships
+approaching to make a night attack.
+
+I take a last look round. On the opposite side a light, a single
+light, is burning. It is the lamp in Roch's laboratory and it casts
+its reflection upon the waters of the lake.
+
+No one is about, and it occurs to me that the pirates must have taken
+up their lighting positions outside and that the Beehive is empty.
+
+Then, impelled by an irresistible instinct, instead of returning to my
+cell, I creep along the wall, listening, spying, ready to hide if I
+hear voices or footsteps.
+
+I at length reach the passage.
+
+God in heaven! No one is on guard there--the passage is free!
+
+Without giving myself time to reflect I dart into the dark hole, and
+grope my way along it. Soon I feel a fresher air--the salt, vivifying
+air of the sea, that I have not breathed for five months. I inspire it
+with avidity, with all the power of my lungs.
+
+The outer extremity of the passage appears against the star-studded
+sky. There is not even a shadow in the way. Perhaps I shall be able to
+get outside.
+
+I lay down, and crawl along noiselessly to the orifice and peer out.
+
+Not a soul is in sight!
+
+By skirting the rocks towards the east, to the side which cannot be
+approached from the sea on account of the reefs and which is not
+likely to be watched, I reach a narrow excavation about two hundred
+and twenty-five yards from where the point of the coast extends
+towards the northwest.
+
+At last I am out of the cavern. I am not free, but it is the beginning
+of freedom.
+
+On the point the forms of a few sentries stand out against the clear
+sky, so motionless that they might be mistaken for pieces of the rock.
+
+On the horizon to the west the position lights of the warship show in
+a luminous line.
+
+From a few gray patches discernable in the east, I calculate that it
+must be about five o'clock in the morning.
+
+_November 18_.--It is now light enough for me to be able to
+complete my notes relating the details of my visit to Thomas Roch's
+laboratory--the last lines my hand will trace, perhaps.
+
+I have begun to write, and shall dot down the incidents of the attack
+as they occur.
+
+The light damp mist that hangs over the water soon lifts under the
+influence of the breeze, and at last I can distinguish the warships.
+
+There are five of them, and they are lying in a line about six miles
+off, and consequently beyond the range of Roch's engines.
+
+My fear that after passing in sight of the Bermudas the squadron would
+continue on its way to the Antilles or Mexico was therefore unfounded.
+No, there it is, awaiting broad daylight in order to attack Back Cup.
+
+There is a movement on the coast. Three or four pirates emerge from
+the rocks, the sentries are recalled and draw in, and the entire band
+is soon assembled. They do not seek shelter inside the cavern, knowing
+full well that the ships can never get near enough for the shells of
+the big guns to reach, the island.
+
+I run no risk of being discovered, for only my head protrudes above
+the hole in the rock and no one is likely to come this way. The only
+thing that worries me is that Serko, or somebody else may take it into
+his head to see if I am in my cell, and if necessary to lock me in,
+though what they have to fear from me I cannot conceive.
+
+At twenty-five minutes past seven: Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko and
+Captain Spade advance to the extremity of the point, where they sweep
+the north-western horizon with their telescopes. Behind them the
+six trestles are installed, in the grooves of which are Roch's
+autopropulsive engines.
+
+Thirty-five minutes past seven: Smoke arises from the stacks of the
+warships, which are getting under way and will soon be within range of
+the engines.
+
+Horrible cries of joy, salvos of hurrahs--howls of wild beasts I might
+more appropriately say--arise from the pirate horde.
+
+At this moment Engineer Serko quits Ker Karraje, whom he leaves with
+Captain Spade, and enters the cavern, no doubt to fetch Thomas Roch.
+
+When Ker Karraje orders the latter to launch his engines against the
+ships will he remember what I told him? Will not his crime appear
+to him in all its horror? Will he refuse to obey? No, I am only too
+convinced of the contrary. It is useless to entertain any illusion on
+the subject. The inventor believes he is on his own property. They are
+going to attack it. He will defend it.
+
+The five warships slowly advance, making for the point. Perhaps they
+imagine on board that Thomas Roch has not given up his last and
+greatest secret to the pirates--and, as a matter of fact, he had
+not done so when I threw the keg into the lagoon. If the commanders
+propose to land storming parties and the ships advance into the
+zone of danger there will soon be nothing left of them but bits of
+shapeless floating wreckage.
+
+Here comes Thomas Roch accompanied by Engineer Serko. On issuing
+from the passage both go to the trestle that is pointing towards the
+leading warship.
+
+Ker Karraje and Captain Spade are awaiting them.
+
+As far as I am able to judge, Roch is calm. He knows what he is going
+to do. No hesitation troubles the soul of the hapless man whom hatred
+has led astray.
+
+Between his fingers shines the glass phial containing the deflagrator
+liquid.
+
+He then gazes towards the nearest ship, which is about five miles'
+distant.
+
+She is a cruiser of about two thousand five hundred tons--not more.
+
+She flies no flag, but from her build I take her to belong to a nation
+for which no Frenchman can entertain any particular regard.
+
+The four other warships remain behind.
+
+It is this cruiser which is to begin the attack.
+
+Let her use her guns, then, since the pirates allow her to approach,
+and may the first of her projectiles strike Thomas Roch!
+
+While Engineer Serko is estimating the distance, Roch places himself
+behind the trestle. Three engines are resting on it, charged with
+the explosive, and which are assured a long trajectory by the fusing
+matter without it being necessary to impart a gyratory movement to
+them--as in the case of Inventor Turpin's gyroscopic projectiles.
+Besides, if they drop within a few hundred yards of the vessel, they
+will be quite near enough to utterly destroy it.
+
+The time has come.
+
+"Thomas Roch!" Engineer Serko cries, and points to the cruiser.
+
+The latter is steaming slowly towards the northwestern point of the
+island and is between four and five miles off.
+
+Roch nods assent, and waves them back from the trestle.
+
+Ker Karraje, Captain Spade and the others draw back about fifty paces.
+
+Thomas Roch then takes the stopper from the phial which he holds in
+his right hand, and successively pours into a hole in the rear-end of
+each engine a few drops of the liquid, which mixes with the fusing
+matter.
+
+Forty-five seconds elapse--the time necessary for the combination to
+be effected--forty-five seconds during which it seems to me that my
+heart ceases to beat.
+
+A frightful whistling is then heard, and the three engines tear
+through the air, describing a prolonged curve at a height of three
+hundred feet, and pass the cruiser.
+
+Have they missed it? Is the danger over?
+
+No! the engines, after the manner of Artillery Captain Chapel's
+discoid projectile, return towards the doomed vessel like an
+Australian boomerang.
+
+The next instant the air is shaken with a violence comparable to that
+which would be caused by the explosion of a magazine of melinite or
+dynamite, Back Cup Island trembles to its very foundations.
+
+The cruiser has disappeared,--blown to pieces. The effect is that of
+the Zalinski shell, but centupled by the infinite power of Roch's
+fulgurator.
+
+What shouts the bandits raise as they rush towards the extremity of
+the point! Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade remain
+rooted to the spot, hardly able to credit the evidence of their own
+eyes.
+
+As to Thomas Roch, he stands with folded arms, and flashing eyes, his
+face radiant with pride and triumph.
+
+I understand, while I abhor his feelings.
+
+If the other warships approach they will share the same fate as the
+cruiser. They will inevitably be destroyed. Oh! if they would but give
+up the struggle and withdraw to safety, even though my last hope would
+go with them! The nations can consult and arrive at some other plan
+for destroying the island. They can surround the place with a belt of
+ships that the pirates cannot break through and starve them to death
+like so many rats in a hole.
+
+But I know that the warships will not retire, even though they know
+they are going to certain death. One after the other they will all
+make the attempt.
+
+And I am right. Signals are exchanged between them. Almost immediately
+clouds of black smoke arise and the vessels again advance.
+
+One of them, under forced draught, distances the others in her anxiety
+to bring her big guns quickly into action.
+
+At all risks I issue from my hole, and gaze at the on-coming warship
+with feverish eyes, awaiting, without being able to prevent it,
+another catastrophe.
+
+This vessel, which visibly grows larger as it comes nearer, is a
+cruiser of about the same tonnage as the one that preceded her. No
+flag is flying and I cannot guess her nationality. She continues
+steaming at full speed in an effort to pass the zone of danger before
+other engines can be launched. But how can she escape them since they
+will swoop back upon her?
+
+Thomas Roch places himself behind the second trestle as the cruiser
+passes on to the surface of the abysm in which she will in turn soon
+be swallowed up.
+
+No sound disturbs the stillness.
+
+Suddenly the rolling of drums and the blare of bugles is heard on
+board the warship.
+
+I know those bugle calls: they are French bugles! Great God! She is
+one of the ships of my own country's navy and a French inventor is
+about to destroy her!
+
+No! it shall not be. I will rush towards Thomas Roch--shout to him
+that she is a French ship. He does not, cannot, know it.
+
+At a sign from Engineer Serko the inventor has raised the phial.
+
+The bugles sound louder and more strident. It is the salute to the
+flag. A flag unfurls to the breeze--the tricolor, whose blue, white
+and red sections stand out luminously against the sky.
+
+Ah! What is this? I understand! Thomas Roch is fascinated at the sight
+of his national emblem. Slowly he lowers his arm as the flag flutters
+up to the mast-head. Then he draws back and covers his eyes with his
+hand.
+
+Heavens above! All sentiment of patriotism is not then dead in his
+ulcerated heart, seeing that it beats at the sight of his country's
+flag!
+
+My emotion is not less than his. At the risk of being seen--and what
+do I now care if I am seen?--I creep over the rocks. I will be there
+to sustain Thomas Roch and prevent him from weakening. If I pay for it
+with my life I will once more adjure him in the name of his country. I
+will cry to him:
+
+"Frenchman, it is the tricolor that flies on yonder ship! Frenchman,
+it is a very part of France that is approaching you! Frenchman, would
+you be so criminal as to strike it?"
+
+But my intervention will not be necessary. Thomas Roch is not a prey
+to one of the fits to which he was formerly subject. He is perfectly
+sane.
+
+When he found himself facing the flag he understood--and drew back.
+
+A few pirates approach to lead him to the trestle again. He struggles
+and pushes them from him.
+
+Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko run up. They point to the rapidly
+advancing ship. They order him to launch his engines.
+
+Thomas Roch refuses.
+
+Captain Spade and the others, mad with rage, menace him--curse
+him--strike him--try to wrest the phial from him.
+
+Roch throws it on the ground and crushes it under foot.
+
+Then panic seizes upon the crowd of wretches. The cruiser has passed
+the zone and they cannot return her fire. Shells begin to rain all
+over the island, bursting the rocks in every direction.
+
+But where is Thomas Roch? Has he been killed by one of the
+projectiles? No, I see him for the last time as he dashes into the
+passage.
+
+Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko and the others follow him to seek shelter
+inside of Back Cup.
+
+I will not return to the cavern at any price, even if I get killed by
+staying where I am.
+
+I will jot down my final notes and when the French sailors land on the
+point I will go--
+
+
+END OF ENGINEER SIMON HART'S NOTES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+ON BOARD THE "TONNANT."
+
+
+After the failure of Lieutenant Davon's mission with the _Sword_, the
+English authorities waited in vain for the expedition to return, and
+the conviction at length gained ground that the bold sailors had
+perished; but whether the _Sword_ had been lost by striking against
+a rock or had been destroyed by Ker Karraje's pirates, could not, of
+course, be ascertained.
+
+The object of the expedition, based upon the indications of the
+document found in the keg that was thrown up on the shore at St.
+George, was to carry off Thomas Roch ere his engines were completed.
+The French inventor having been recovered--without forgetting Engineer
+Simon Hart--he was to be handed over to the care of the Bermudan
+authorities. That done, there would be nothing to fear from his
+fulgurator when the island was attacked.
+
+When, however, the _Sword_ had been given up for lost, another
+expedition of a different kind, was decided upon.
+
+The time that had elapsed--nearly eight weeks--from the date of the
+document found in the keg, had to be taken into consideration. It
+was thought that during the interval, Ker Karraje might have gained
+possession of Roch's secrets.
+
+An _entente_ concluded between the maritime powers, resulted in the
+sending of five warships to Bermudan waters. As there was a vast
+cavern inside Back Cup mountain, it was decided to attempt to bring
+the latter down like the walls of a bastion, by bombarding it with
+powerful modern artillery.
+
+The squadron assembled at the entrance to the Chesapeake, in Virginia,
+and sailed for the archipelago, which was sighted on the evening of
+November 17.
+
+The next morning the vessel selected for the first attack, steamed
+forward. It was about four and a half miles from the island, when
+three engines, after passing the vessel, swerved round and exploded
+about sixty yards from her. She sank immediately.
+
+The effect of the explosion, which was superior to any previously
+obtained by new explosives, was instantaneous. Even at the distance
+they were from the spot where it occurred, the four remaining ships
+felt the shock severely.
+
+Two things were to be deduced from this sudden catastrophe:
+
+1.--The pirate Ker Karraje was in possession of Roch's fulgurator.
+
+2.--The new engine possessed the destructive power attributed to it by
+its inventor.
+
+After the disappearance of the unfortunate cruiser, the other vessels
+lowered boats to pick up a few survivors who were clinging to the
+floating wreckage.
+
+Then it was that the signals were exchanged and the warships started
+towards the island.
+
+The swiftest of them, the _Tonnant_, a French cruiser, forged ahead
+while the others forced their draught in an effort to catch up with
+her.
+
+The _Tonnant_, at the risk of being blown to pieces in turn,
+penetrated the danger zone half a mile, and then ran up her flag while
+manoeuvring to bring her heavy guns into action.
+
+From the bridge the officers could see Ker Karraje's band scattered on
+the rocks of the island.
+
+The occasion was an excellent one for getting a shot at them before
+the bombardment of their retreat was begun, and fire was opened with
+the result that the pirates made a rush to get into the cavern.
+
+A few minutes later there was a shock terrific enough to shake the sky
+down.
+
+Where the mountain had been, naught but a heap of smoking, crumbling
+rocks was to be seen. Back Cup had become a group of jagged reefs
+against which the sea, that had been thrown back like a gigantic tidal
+wave, was beating and frothing.
+
+What was the cause of the explosion?
+
+Had it been voluntarily caused by the pirates when they realized that
+escape was impossible?
+
+The _Tonnant_ had not been seriously damaged by the flying rocks. Her
+boats were lowered and made towards all that was left of Back Cup.
+
+The landing parties explored the ruins, and found a few horribly
+mangled corpses. Not a vestige of the cavern was to be seen.
+
+One body, and one only, was found intact. It was lying on the
+northeast side of the reefs. In one hand, tightly clasped, was a
+note-book, the last line of which was incomplete.
+
+A close examination showed that the man was still breathing. He
+was conveyed on board the _Tonnant_, where it was learned from the
+note-book that he was Simon Hart.
+
+For some time his life was despaired of, but he was eventually brought
+round, and from the answers made to the questions addressed to him the
+following conclusion was reached:
+
+Moved to his very soul at the sight of the tricolor flag, being at
+last conscious of the crime of _lèse-patrie_ he was about to commit,
+Thomas Roch rushed through the passage to the magazine where a
+considerable quantity of his explosive was stored. Then, before
+he could be prevented, brought about the terrible explosion which
+destroyed the island of Back Cup.
+
+And now Ker Karraje and his pirates have disappeared--and with them
+Thomas Roch and the secret of his invention.
+
+THE END.
+
+End of the Voyage Extraordinaire
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Facing the Flag, by Jules Verne
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11556 ***
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+<HR>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11556 ***</div>
+
+<H4>Facing the Flag by Jules Verne</H4>
+<P class=normal><B>[Redactor’s Note:</B> <I>Facing the Flag</I> {number
+<B>V044</B> in the T&amp;M listing of Verne’s works} is an anonymous translation
+of <I>Face au drapeau</I> (1896) first published in the U.S. by F. Tennyson
+Neely in 1897, and later (circa 1903) republished from the same plates by Hurst
+and F.M. Lupton (Federal Book Co.). Two apparent errors, which occur also in the
+french editions, have been made: the replacement of “Sivan� by “Swan� and of
+“Roandoke� by “Roanoke�. This is a different translation from the one published
+by Sampson &amp; Low in England entitled <I>For the Flag</I> (1897) translated
+by Mrs. Cashel Hoey.<B>]</B></P>
+<HR>
+
+<DIV align=center>
+<H2>FACING THE FLAG</H2>
+<H5>BY</H5>
+<H3>J U L E S &nbsp; V E R N E</H3>
+<H5>AUTHOR OF "AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS"; "TWENTY<BR>THOUSAND LEAGUES
+UNDER THE SEA"; "FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON," ETC.</H5>
+<P>&nbsp;</P>
+<P class=center>New York</P>
+<P class=center>THE F. M. LUPTON PUBLISHING COMPANY</P>
+<P class=center>PUBLISHERS</P>
+<HR>
+
+<P class=center>Copyright, 1897<BR>by<BR>F. TENNYSON NEELY</P>
+<HR>
+
+<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=2 width="70%" border=0>
+  <CAPTION><B>CONTENTS</B></CAPTION>
+  <TBODY>
+  <TR>
+    <TD>CHAP&nbsp;</TD>
+    <TD>&nbsp;</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD width="20%"><a href="#I">I</a></TD>
+    <TD>Healthful House</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#II">II</a></TD>
+    <TD>Count d'Artigas</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#III">III</a></TD>
+    <TD>Kidnapped</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#IV">IV</a></TD>
+    <TD>The Schooner “Ebba�</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#V">V</a></TD>
+    <TD>Where am I.--(Notes by Simon Hart, the Engineer.)</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#VI">VI</a></TD>
+    <TD>On Deck</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#VII">VII</a></TD>
+    <TD>Two Days at Sea</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#VIII">VIII</a></TD>
+    <TD>Back Cup</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#IX">IX</a></TD>
+    <TD>Inside Back Cup</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#X">X</a></TD>
+    <TD>Ker Karraje</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XI">XI</a></TD>
+    <TD>Five Weeks in Back Cup</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XII">XII</a></TD>
+    <TD>Engineer Serko’s Advice</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XIII">XIII</a></TD>
+    <TD>God Be with It</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XIV">XIV</a></TD>
+    <TD>Battle Between the “Sword� and the Tug</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XV">XV</a></TD>
+    <TD>Expectation</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XVI">XVI</a></TD>
+    <TD>Only a few more Hours</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XVII">XVII</a></TD>
+    <TD>One against Five</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XVIII">XVIII</a></TD>
+    <TD>On Board the “Tonnant�</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV>
+<HR>
+
+<H4>FACING THE FLAG.</H4>
+
+<a name="I" id="I"></a>
+
+<H4>CHAPTER I.</H4>
+<H4>HEALTHFUL HOUSE.</H4>
+<P>The <I>carte de visite</I> received that day, June 15, 189—, by the director
+of the establishment of Healthful House was a very neat one, and simply bore,
+without escutcheon or coronet, the name:</P>
+<P class=center>COUNT D’ARTIGAS.</P>
+<P>Below this name, in a corner of the card, the following address was written
+in lead pencil:</P>
+<P>“On board the schooner <I>Ebba</I>, anchored off New-Berne, Pamlico
+Sound.�</P>
+<P>The capital of North Carolina—one of the forty-four states of the Union at
+this epoch—is the rather important town of Raleigh, which is about one hundred
+and fifty miles in the interior of the province. It is owing to its central
+position that this city has become the seat of the State legislature, for there
+are others that equal and even surpass it in industrial and commercial
+importance, such as Wilmington, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Edenton, Washington,
+Salisbury, Tarborough, Halifax, and New-Berne. The latter town is situated on
+estuary of the Neuse River, which empties itself into Pamlico Sound, a sort of
+vast maritime lake protected by a natural dyke formed by the isles and islets of
+the Carolina coast.</P>
+<P>The director of Healthful House could never have imagined why the card should
+have been sent to him, had it not been accompanied by a note from the Count
+d’Artigas soliciting permission to visit the establishment. The personage in
+question hoped that the director would grant his request, and announced that he
+would present himself in the afternoon, accompanied by Captain Spade, commander
+of the schooner <I>Ebba</I>.</P>
+<P>This desire to penetrate to the interior of the celebrated sanitarium, then
+in great request by the wealthy invalids of the United States, was natural
+enough on the part of a foreigner. Others who did not bear such a high-sounding
+name as the Count d’Artigas had visited it, and had been unstinting in their
+compliments to the director. The latter therefore hastened to accord the
+authorization demanded, and added that he would be honored to open the doors of
+the establishment to the Count d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>Healthful House, which contained a select <I>personnel</I>, and was assured
+of the co-operation of the most celebrated doctors in the country, was a private
+enterprise. Independent of hospitals and almshouses, but subjected to the
+surveillance of the State, it comprised all the conditions of comfort and
+salubrity essential to establishments of this description designed to receive an
+opulent <I>clientele</I>.</P>
+<P>It would have been difficult to find a more agreeable situation than that of
+Healthful House. On the landward slope of a hill extended a park of two hundred
+acres planted with the magnificent vegetation that grows so luxuriantly in that
+part of North America, which is equal in latitude to the Canary and Madeira
+Islands. At the furthermost limit of the park lay the wide estuary of the Neuse,
+swept by the cool breezes of Pamlico Sound and by the winds that blew from the
+ocean beyond the narrow <I>lido</I> of the coast.</P>
+<P>Healthful House, where rich invalids were cared for under such excellent
+hygienic conditions, was more generally reserved for the treatment of chronic
+complaints; but the management did not decline to admit patients affected by
+mental troubles, when the latter were not of an incurable nature.</P>
+<P>It thus happened—a circumstance that was bound to attract a good deal of
+attention to Healthful House, and which perhaps was the motive for the visit of
+the Count d’Artigas—that a person of world-wide notoriety had for eighteen
+months been under special observation there.</P>
+<P>This person was a Frenchman named Thomas Roch, forty-five years of age. He
+was, beyond question, suffering from some mental malady, but expert alienists
+admitted that he had not entirely lost the use of his reasoning faculties. It
+was only too evident that he had lost all notion of things as far as the
+ordinary acts of life were concerned; but in regard to subjects demanding the
+exercise of his genius, his sanity was unimpaired and unassailable—a fact which
+demonstrates how true is the <I>dictum</I> that genius and madness are often
+closely allied! Otherwise his condition manifested itself by complete loss of
+memory;—the impossibility of concentrating his attention upon anything, lack of
+judgment, delirium and incoherence. He no longer even possessed the natural
+animal instinct of self-preservation, and had to be watched like an infant whom
+one never permits out of one’s sight. Therefore a warder was detailed to keep
+close watch over him by day and by night in Pavilion No. 17, at the end of
+Healthful House Park, which had been specially set apart for him.</P>
+<P>Ordinary insanity, when it is not incurable, can only be cured by moral
+means. Medicine and therapeutics are powerless, and their inefficacy has long
+been recognized by specialists. Were these moral means applicable to the case of
+Thomas Roch? One may be permitted to doubt it, even amid the tranquil and
+salubrious surroundings of Healthful House. As a matter of fact the very
+symptoms of uneasiness, changes of temper, irritability, queer traits of
+character, melancholy, apathy, and a repugnance for serious occupations were
+distinctly apparent; no treatment seemed capable of curing or even alleviating
+these symptoms. This was patent to all his medical attendants.</P>
+<P>It has been justly remarked that madness is an excess of subjectivity; that
+is to say, a state in which the mind accords too much to mental labor and not
+enough to outward impressions. In the case of Thomas Roch this indifference was
+practically absolute. He lived but within himself, so to speak, a prey to a
+fixed idea which had brought him to the condition in which we find him. Could
+any circumstance occur to counteract it—to “exteriorize� him, as it were? The
+thing was improbable, but it was not impossible.</P>
+<P>It is now necessary to explain how this Frenchman came to quit France, what
+motive attracted him to the United States, why the Federal government had judged
+it prudent and necessary to intern him in this sanitarium, where every utterance
+that unconsciously escaped him during his crises were noted and recorded with
+the minutest care.</P>
+<P>Eighteen months previously the Secretary of the Navy at Washington, had
+received a demand for an audience in regard to a communication that Thomas Roch
+desired to make to him.</P>
+<P>As soon as he glanced at the name, the secretary perfectly understood the
+nature of the communication and the terms which would accompany it, and an
+immediate audience was unhesitatingly accorded.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch’s notoriety was indeed such that, out of solicitude for the
+interests confided to his keeping, and which he was bound to safeguard, he could
+not hesitate to receive the petitioner and listen to the proposals which the
+latter desired personally to submit to him.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch was an inventor—an inventor of genius. Several important
+discoveries had brought him prominently to the notice of the world. Thanks to
+him, problems that had previously remained purely theoretical had received
+practical application. He occupied a conspicuous place in the front rank of the
+army of science. It will be seen how worry, deceptions, mortification, and the
+outrages with which he was overwhelmed by the cynical wits of the press combined
+to drive him to that degree of madness which necessitated his internment in
+Healthful House.</P>
+<P>His latest invention in war-engines bore the name of Roch’s Fulgurator. This
+apparatus possessed, if he was to be believed, such superiority over all others,
+that the State which acquired it would become absolute master of earth and
+ocean.</P>
+<P>The deplorable difficulties inventors encounter in connection with their
+inventions are only too well known, especially when they endeavor to get them
+adopted by governmental commissions. Several of the most celebrated examples are
+still fresh in everybody’s memory. It is useless to insist upon this point,
+because there are sometimes circumstances underlying affairs of this kind upon
+which it is difficult to obtain any light. In regard to Thomas Roch, however, it
+is only fair to say that, as in the case of the majority of his predecessors,
+his pretensions were excessive. He placed such an exorbitant price upon his new
+engine that it was practicably impossible to treat with him.</P>
+<P>This was due to the fact—and it should not be lost sight of—that in respect
+of previous inventions which had been most fruitful in result, he had been
+imposed upon with the greatest audacity. Being unable to obtain therefrom the
+profits which he had a right to expect, his temper had become soured. He became
+suspicious, would give up nothing without knowing just what he was doing, impose
+conditions that were perhaps unacceptable, wanted his mere assertions accepted
+as sufficient guarantee, and in any case asked for such a large sum of money on
+account before condescending to furnish the test of practical experiment that
+his overtures could not be entertained.</P>
+<P>In the first place he had offered the fulgurator to France, and made known
+the nature of it to the commission appointed to pass upon his proposition. The
+fulgurator was a sort of auto-propulsive engine, of peculiar construction,
+charged with an explosive composed of new substances and which only produced its
+effect under the action of a deflagrator that was also new.</P>
+<P>When this engine, no matter in what way it was launched, exploded, not on
+striking the object aimed at, but several hundred yards from it, its action upon
+the atmospheric strata was so terrific that any construction, warship or
+floating battery, within a zone of twelve thousand square yards, would be blown
+to atoms. This was the principle of the shell launched by the Zalinski pneumatic
+gun with which experiments had already been made at that epoch, but its results
+were multiplied at least a hundred-fold.</P>
+<P>If, therefore, Thomas Roch’s invention possessed this power, it assured the
+offensive and defensive superiority of his native country. But might not the
+inventor be exaggerating, notwithstanding that the tests of other engines he had
+conceived had proved incontestably that they were all he had claimed them to be?
+This, experiment could alone show, and it was precisely here where the rub came
+in. Roch would not agree to experiment until the millions at which he valued his
+fulgurator had first been paid to him.</P>
+<P>It is certain that a sort of disequilibrium had then occurred in his mental
+faculties. It was felt that he was developing a condition of mind that would
+gradually lead to definite madness. No government could possibly condescend to
+treat with him under the conditions he imposed.</P>
+<P>The French commission was compelled to break off all negotiations with him,
+and the newspapers, even those of the Radical Opposition, had to admit that it
+was difficult to follow up the affair.</P>
+<P>In view of the excess of subjectivity which was unceasingly augmenting in the
+profoundly disturbed mind of Thomas Roch, no one will be surprised at the fact
+that the cord of patriotism gradually relaxed until it ceased to vibrate. For
+the honor of human nature be it said that Thomas Roch was by this time
+irresponsible for his actions. He preserved his whole consciousness only in so
+far as subjects bearing directly upon his invention were concerned. In this
+particular he had lost nothing of his mental power. But in all that related to
+the most ordinary details of existence his moral decrepitude increased daily and
+deprived him of complete responsibility for his acts.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch’s invention having been refused by the commission, steps ought to
+have been taken to prevent him from offering it elsewhere. Nothing of the kind
+was done, and there a great mistake was made.</P>
+<P>The inevitable was bound to happen, and it did. Under a growing irritability
+the sentiment of patriotism, which is the very essence of the citizen—who before
+belonging to himself belongs to his country— became extinct in the soul of the
+disappointed inventor. His thoughts turned towards other nations. He crossed the
+frontier, and forgetting the ineffaceable past, offered the fulgurator to
+Germany.</P>
+<P>There, as soon as his exorbitant demands were made known, the government
+refused to receive his communication. Besides, it so happened that the military
+authorities were just then absorbed by the construction of a new ballistic
+engine, and imagined they could afford to ignore that of the French
+inventor.</P>
+<P>As the result of this second rebuff Roch’s anger became coupled with
+hatred—an instinctive hatred of humanity—especially after his <I>pourparlers</I>
+with the British Admiralty came to naught. The English being practical people,
+did not at first repulse Thomas Roch. They sounded him and tried to get round
+him; but Roch would listen to nothing. His secret was worth millions, and these
+millions he would have, or they would not have his secret. The Admiralty at last
+declined to have anything more to do with him.</P>
+<P>It was in these conditions, when his intellectual trouble was growing daily
+worse, that he made a last effort by approaching the American Government. That
+was about eighteen months before this story opens.</P>
+<P>The Americans, being even more practical than the English, did not attempt to
+bargain for Roch’s fulgurator, to which, in view of the French chemist’s
+reputation, they attached exceptional importance. They rightly esteemed him a
+man of genius, and took the measures justified by his condition, prepared to
+indemnify him equitably later.</P>
+<P>As Thomas Roch gave only too visible proofs of mental alienation, the
+Administration, in the very interest of his invention, judged it prudent to
+sequestrate him.</P>
+<P>As is already known, he was not confined in a lunatic asylum, but was
+conveyed to Healthful House, which offered every guarantee for the proper
+treatment of his malady. Yet, though the most careful attention had been devoted
+to him, no improvement had manifested itself.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch, let it be again remarked—this point cannot be too often insisted
+upon—incapable though he was of comprehending and performing the ordinary acts
+and duties of life, recovered all his powers when the field of his discoveries
+was touched upon. He became animated, and spoke with the assurance of a man who
+knows whereof he is descanting, and an authority that carried conviction with
+it. In the heat of his eloquence he would describe the marvellous qualities of
+his fulgurator and the truly extraordinary effects it caused. As to the nature
+of the explosive and of the deflagrator, the elements of which the latter was
+composed, their manufacture, and the way in which they were employed, he
+preserved complete silence, and all attempts to worm the secret out of him
+remained ineffectual. Once or twice, during the height of the paroxysms to which
+he was occasionally subject, there had been reason to believe that his secret
+would escape him, and every precaution had been taken to note his slightest
+utterance. But Thomas Roch had each time disappointed his watchers. If he no
+longer preserved the sentiment of self-preservation, he at least knew how to
+preserve the secret of his discovery.</P>
+<P>Pavilion No. 17 was situated in the middle of a garden that was surrounded by
+hedges, and here Roch was accustomed to take exercise under the surveillance of
+his guardian. This guardian lived in the same pavilion, slept in the same room
+with him, and kept constant watch upon him, never leaving him for an hour. He
+hung upon the lightest words uttered by the patient in the course of his
+hallucinations, which generally occurred in the intermediary state between
+sleeping and waking—watched and listened while he dreamed.</P>
+<P>This guardian was known as Gaydon. Shortly after the sequestration of Thomas
+Roch, having learned that an attendant speaking French fluently was wanted, he
+had applied at Healthful House for the place, and had been engaged to look after
+the new inmate.</P>
+<P>In reality the alleged Gaydon was a French engineer named Simon Hart, who for
+several years past had been connected with a manufactory of chemical products in
+New Jersey. Simon Hart was forty years of age. His high forehead was furrowed
+with the wrinkle that denoted the thinker, and his resolute bearing denoted
+energy combined with tenacity. Extremely well versed in the various questions
+relating to the perfecting of modern armaments, Hart knew everything that had
+been invented in the shape of explosives, of which there were over eleven
+hundred at that time, and was fully able to appreciate such a man as Thomas
+Roch. He firmly believed in the power of the latter’s fulgurator, and had no
+doubt whatever that the inventor had conceived an engine that was capable of
+revolutionizing the condition of both offensive and defensive warfare on land
+and sea. He was aware that the demon of insanity had respected the man of
+science, and that in Roch’s partially diseased brain the flame of genius still
+burned brightly. Then it occurred to him that if, during Roch’s crises, his
+secret was revealed, this invention of a Frenchman would be seized upon by some
+other country to the detriment of France. Impelled by a spirit of patriotism, he
+made up his mind to offer himself as Thomas Roch’s guardian, by passing himself
+off as an American thoroughly conversant with the French language, in order that
+if the inventor did at any time disclose his secret, France alone should benefit
+thereby. On pretext of returning to Europe, he resigned his position at the New
+Jersey manufactory, and changed his name so that none should know what had
+become of him.</P>
+<P>Thus it came to pass that Simon Hart, alias Gaydon, had been an attendant at
+Healthful House for fifteen months. It required no little courage on the part of
+a man of his position and education to perform the menial and exacting duties of
+an insane man’s attendant; but, as has been before remarked, he was actuated by
+a spirit of the purest and noblest patriotism. The idea of depriving Roch of the
+legitimate benefits due to the inventor, if he succeeded in learning his secret,
+never for an instant entered his mind.</P>
+<P>He had kept the patient under the closest possible observation for fifteen
+months yet had not been able to learn anything from him, or worm out of him a
+single reply to his questions that was of the slightest value. But he had become
+more convinced than ever of the importance of Thomas Roch’s discovery, and was
+extremely apprehensive lest the partial madness of the inventor should become
+general, or lest he should die during one of his paroxysms and carry his secret
+with him to the grave.</P>
+<P>This was Simon Hart’s position, and this the mission to which he had wholly
+devoted himself in the interest of his native country.</P>
+<P>However, notwithstanding his deceptions and troubles, Thomas Roch’s physical
+health, thanks to his vigorous constitution, was not particularly affected. A
+man of medium height, with a large head, high, wide forehead, strongly-cut
+features, iron-gray hair and moustache, eyes generally haggard, but which became
+piercing and imperious when illuminated by his dominant idea, thin lips closely
+compressed, as though to prevent the escape of a word that could betray his
+secret—such was the inventor confined in one of the pavilions of Healthful
+House, probably unconscious of his sequestration, and confided to the
+surveillance of Simon Hart the engineer, become Gaydon the warder.</P>
+
+<a name="II" id="II"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER II.</H4>
+<H4>COUNT D’ARTIGAS.</H4>
+<P>Just who was this Count d’Artigas? A Spaniard? So his name would appear to
+indicate. Yet on the stern of his schooner, in letters of gold, was the name
+<I>Ebba</I>, which is of pure Norwegian origin. And had you asked him the name
+of the captain of the <I>Ebba</I>, he would have replied, Spade, and would
+doubtless have added that that of the boatswain was Effrondat, and that of the
+ship’s cook, Helim—all singularly dissimilar and indicating very different
+nationalities.</P>
+<P>Could any plausible hypothesis be deducted from the type presented by Count
+d’Artigas? Not easily. If the color of his skin, his black hair, and the easy
+grace of his attitude denoted a Spanish origin, the <I>ensemble</I> of his
+person showed none of the racial characteristics peculiar to the natives of the
+Iberian peninsula.</P>
+<P>He was a man of about forty-five years of age, about the average height, and
+robustly constituted. With his calm and haughty demeanor he resembled an Hindoo
+lord in whose blood might mingle that of some superb type of Malay. If he was
+not naturally of a cold temperament, he at least, with his imperious gestures
+and brevity of speech, endeavored to make it appear that he was. As to the
+language usually spoken by him and his crew, it was one of those idioms current
+in the islands of the Indian Ocean and the adjacent seas. Yet when his maritime
+excursions brought him to the coasts of the old or new world he spoke English
+with remarkable facility, and with so slight an accent as to scarcely betray his
+foreign origin.</P>
+<P>None could have told anything about his past, nor even about his present
+life, nor from what source he derived his fortune,—obviously a large one,
+inasmuch as he was able to gratify his every whim and lived in the greatest
+luxury whenever he visited America,—nor where he resided when at home, nor where
+was the port from which his schooner hailed, and none would have ventured to
+question him upon any of these points so little disposed was he to be
+communicative. He was not the kind of man to give anything away or compromise
+himself in the slightest degree, even when interviewed by American
+reporters.</P>
+<P>All that was known about him was what was published in the papers when the
+arrival of the <I>Ebba</I> was reported in some port, and particularly in the
+ports of the east coast of the United States, where the schooner was accustomed
+to put in at regular periods to lay in provisions and stores for a lengthy
+voyage. She would take on board not only flour, biscuits, preserves, fresh and
+dried meat, live stock, wines, beers, and spirits, but also clothing, household
+utensils, and objects of luxury—all of the finest quality and highest price, and
+which were paid for either in dollars, guineas, or other coins of various
+countries and denominations.</P>
+<P>Consequently, if no one knew anything about the private life of Count
+d’Artigas, he was nevertheless very well known in the various ports of the
+United States from the Florida peninsula to New England.</P>
+<P>It is therefore in no way surprising that the director of Healthful House
+should have felt greatly flattered by the Count’s visit, and have received him
+with every mark of honor and respect.</P>
+<P>It was the first time that the schooner <I>Ebba</I> had dropped anchor in the
+port of New-Berne, and no doubt a mere whim of her owner had brought him to the
+mouth of the Neuse. Otherwise why should he have come to such a place? Certainly
+not to lay in stores, for Pamlico Sound offered neither the resources nor
+facilities to be found in such ports as Boston, New York, Dover, Savannah,
+Wilmington in North Carolina, and Charleston in South Carolina. What could he
+have procured with his piastres and bank-notes in the small markets of
+New-Berne? This chief town of Craven County contained barely six thousand
+inhabitants. Its commerce consisted principally in the exportation of grain,
+pigs, furniture, and naval munitions. Besides, a few weeks previously, the
+schooner had loaded up for some destination which, as usual, was unknown.</P>
+<P>Had this enigmatical personage then come solely for the purpose of visiting
+Healthful House? Very likely. There would have been nothing surprising in the
+fact, seeing that the establishment enjoyed a high and well-merited
+reputation.</P>
+<P>Or perhaps the Count had been inspired by curiosity to meet Thomas Roch? This
+curiosity would have been legitimate and natural enough in view of the universal
+renown of the French inventor. Fancy—a mad genius who claimed that his
+discoveries were destined to revolutionize the methods of modern military
+art!</P>
+<P>As he had notified the director he would do, the Count d’Artigas presented
+himself in the afternoon at the door of Healthful House, accompanied by Captain
+Spade, the commander of the <I>Ebba</I>.</P>
+<P>In conformity with orders given, both were admitted and conducted to the
+office of the director. The latter received his distinguished visitor with
+<I>empressement</I>, placed himself at his disposal, and intimated his intention
+of personally conducting him over the establishment, not being willing to
+concede to anybody else the honor of being his <I>cicerone</I>. The Count on his
+part was profuse in the expression of his thanks for the considerations extended
+to him.</P>
+<P>They went over the common rooms and private habitations of the establishment,
+the director prattling unceasingly about the care with which the patients were
+tended—much better care, if he was to be believed, than they could possibly have
+had in the bosoms of their families—and priding himself upon the results
+achieved, and which had earned for the place its well-merited success.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas listened to his ceaseless chatter with apparent interest,
+probably in order the better to dissemble the real motive of his visit. However,
+after going the rounds for an hour he ventured to remark:</P>
+<P>“Have you not among your patients, sir, one anent whom there was a great deal
+of talk some time ago, and whose presence here contributed in no small measure
+to attract public attention to Healthful House?�</P>
+<P>“You refer to Thomas Roch, I presume, Count?� queried the director.</P>
+<P>“Precisely—that Frenchman—that inventor—whose mental condition is said to be
+very precarious.�</P>
+<P>“Very precarious, Count, and happily so, perhaps! In my opinion humanity has
+nothing to gain by his discoveries, the application of which would increase the
+already too numerous means of destruction.�</P>
+<P>“You speak wisely, sir, and I entirely agree with you. Real progress does not
+lie in that direction, and I regard as inimical to society all those who seek to
+follow it. But has this inventor entirely lost the use of his intellectual
+faculties?�</P>
+<P>“Entirely, no; save as regards the ordinary things of life. In this respect
+he no longer possesses either comprehension or responsibility. His genius as an
+inventor, however, remains intact; it has survived his moral degeneracy, and,
+had his insensate demands been complied with, I have no doubt he would have
+produced a new war engine—which the world can get along very well without.�</P>
+<P>“Very well without, as you say, sir,� re-echoed the Count d’Artigas, and
+Captain Spade nodded approval.</P>
+<P>“But you will be able to judge for yourself, Count, for here is the pavilion
+occupied by Thomas Roch. If his confinement is well justified from the point of
+view of public security he is none the less treated with all the consideration
+due to him and the attention which his condition necessitates. Besides,
+Healthful House is beyond the reach of indiscreet persons who might....�</P>
+<P>The director completed the phrase with a significant motion of his head—which
+brought an imperceptible smile to the lips of the stranger.</P>
+<P>“But,� asked the Count, “is Thomas Roch never left alone?�</P>
+<P>“Never, Count, never. He has a permanent attendant in whom we have implicit
+confidence, who speaks his language and keeps the closest possible watch upon
+him. If in some way or other some indication relative to his discovery were to
+escape him, it would be immediately noted down and its value would be passed
+upon by those competent to judge.�</P>
+<P>Here the Count d’Artigas stole a rapid and meaning glance at Captain Spade,
+who responded with a gesture which said plainly enough: “I understand.� And had
+any one observed the captain during the visit, they could not have failed to
+remark that he examined with the greatest minuteness that portion of the park
+surrounding Pavilion No. 17, and the different paths leading to the
+latter—probably in view of some prearranged scheme.</P>
+<P>The garden of the pavilion was near the high wall surrounding the property,
+from the foot of which on the other side the hill sloped gently to the right
+bank of the Neuse.</P>
+<P>The pavilion itself was a one-story building surmounted by a terrace in the
+Italian style. It contained two rooms and an ante-room with strongly-barred
+windows. On each side and in rear of the habitation were clusters of fine trees,
+which were then in full leaf. In front was a cool, green velvety lawn,
+ornamented with shrubs and brilliantly tinted flowers. The whole garden extended
+over about half an acre, and was reserved exclusively for the use of Thomas
+Roch, who was free to wander about it at pleasure under the surveillance of his
+guardian.</P>
+<P>When the Count d’Artigas, Captain Spade, and the director entered the garden,
+the first person they saw was the warder Gaydon, standing at the door of the
+pavilion. Unnoticed by the director the Count d’Artigas eyed the attendant with
+singular persistence.</P>
+<P>It was not the first time that strangers had come to see the occupant of
+Pavilion No. 17, for the French inventor was justly regarded as the most
+interesting inmate of Healthful House. Nevertheless, Gaydon’s attention was
+attracted by the originality of the type presented by the two visitors, of whose
+nationality he was ignorant. If the name of the Count d’Artigas was not
+unfamiliar to him, he had never had occasion to meet that wealthy gentleman
+during the latter’s sojourn in the eastern ports. He therefore had no idea as to
+who the Count was. Neither was he aware that the schooner <I>Ebba</I> was then
+anchored at the entrance to the Neuse, at the foot of the hill upon which
+Healthful House was situated.</P>
+<P>“Gaydon,� demanded the director, “where is Thomas Roch?�</P>
+<P>“Yonder,� replied the warder, pointing to a man who was walking meditatively
+under the trees in rear of the pavilion.</P>
+<P>“The Count d’Artigas has been authorized to visit Healthful House,� the
+director explained; “and does not wish to go away without having seen Thomas
+Roch, who was lately the subject of a good deal too much discussion.�</P>
+<P>“And who would be talked about a great deal more,� added the Count, “had the
+Federal Government not taken the precaution to confine him in this
+establishment.�</P>
+<P>“A necessary precaution, Count.�</P>
+<P>“Necessary, as you observe, Mr. Director. It is better for the peace of the
+world that his secret should die with him.�</P>
+<P>After having glanced at the Count d’Artigas, Gaydon had not uttered a word;
+but preceding the two strangers he walked towards the clump of trees where the
+inventor was pacing back and forth.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch paid no attention to them. He appeared to be oblivious of their
+presence.</P>
+<P>Meanwhile, Captain Spade, while being careful not to excite suspicion, had
+been minutely examining the immediate surroundings of the pavilion and the end
+of the park in which it was situated. From the top of the sloping alleys he
+could easily distinguish the peak of a mast which showed above the wall of the
+park. He recognized the peak at a glance as being that of the <I>Ebba</I>, and
+knew therefore that the wall at this part skirted the right bank of the
+Neuse.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas’ whole attention was concentrated upon the French
+inventor. The latter’s health appeared to have suffered in no way from his
+eighteen months’ confinement; but his queer attitude, his incoherent gestures,
+his haggard eye, and his indifference to what was passing around him testified
+only too plainly to the degeneration of his mental faculties.</P>
+<P>At length Thomas Roch dropped into a seat and with the end of a switch traced
+in the sand of the alley the outline of a fortification. Then kneeling down he
+made a number of little mounds that were evidently intended to represent
+bastions. He next plucked some leaves from a neighboring tree and stuck them in
+the mounds like so many tiny flags. All this was done with the utmost
+seriousness and without any attention whatever being paid to the onlookers.</P>
+<P>It was the amusement of a child, but a child would have lacked this
+characteristic gravity.</P>
+<P>“Is he then absolutely mad?� demanded the Count d’Artigas, who in spite of
+his habitual impassibility appeared to be somewhat disappointed.</P>
+<P>“I warned you, Count, that nothing could be obtained from him.�</P>
+<P>“Couldn’t he at least pay some attention to us?�</P>
+<P>“It would perhaps be difficult to induce him to do so.�</P>
+<P>Then turning to the attendant:</P>
+<P>“Speak to him, Gaydon. Perhaps he will answer you.�</P>
+<P>“Oh! he’ll answer me right enough, sir, never fear,� replied Gaydon.</P>
+<P>He went up to the inventor and touching him on the shoulder, said gently:
+“Thomas Roch!�</P>
+<P>The latter raised his head, and of the persons present he doubtless saw but
+his keeper, though Captain Spade had come up and all formed a circle about
+him.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch,� continued Gaydon, speaking in English, “here are some visitors
+to see you. They are interested in your health—in your work.�</P>
+<P>The last word alone seemed to rouse him from his indifference.</P>
+<P>“My work?� he replied, also in English, which he spoke like a native.</P>
+<P>Then taking a pebble between his index finger and bent thumb, as a boy plays
+at marbles, he projected it against one of the little sand-heaps. It scattered,
+and he jumped for joy.</P>
+<P>“Blown to pieces! The bastion is blown to pieces! My explosive has destroyed
+everything at one blow!� he shouted, the light of triumph flashing in his
+eyes.</P>
+<P>“You see,� said the director, addressing the Count d’Artigas. “The idea of
+his invention never leaves him.�</P>
+<P>“And it will die with him,� affirmed the attendant.</P>
+<P>“Couldn’t you, Gaydon, get him to talk about his fulgurator?� asked his
+chief.</P>
+<P>“I will try, if you order me to do so, sir.�</P>
+<P>“Well, I do order you, for I think it might interest the Count
+d’Artigas.�</P>
+<P>“Certainly,� assented the Count, whose physiognomy betrayed no sign of the
+sentiments which were agitating him.</P>
+<P>“I ought to warn you that I risk bringing on another fit,� observed
+Gaydon.</P>
+<P>“You can drop the conversation when you consider it prudent. Tell Thomas Roch
+that a foreigner wishes to negotiate with him for the purchase of his
+fulgurator.�</P>
+<P>“But are you not afraid he may give his secret away?� questioned the
+Count.</P>
+<P>He spoke with such vivacity that Gaydon could not restrain a glance of
+distrust, which, however, did not appear to disturb the equanimity of that
+impenetrable nobleman.</P>
+<P>“No fear of that,� said the warder. “No promise would induce him to divulge
+his secret. Until the millions he demands are counted into his hand he will
+remain as mute as a stone.�</P>
+<P>“I don’t happen to be carrying those millions about me,� remarked the Count
+quietly.</P>
+<P>Gaydon again touched Roch on the shoulder and repeated:</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch, here are some foreigners who are anxious to acquire your
+invention.�</P>
+<P>The madman started.</P>
+<P>“My invention?� he cried. “My deflagrator?�</P>
+<P>And his growing animation plainly indicated the imminence of the fit that
+Gaydon had been apprehensive about, and which questions of this character
+invariably brought on.</P>
+<P>“How much will you give me for it—how much?� continued Roch. “How much—how
+much?�</P>
+<P>“Ten million dollars,� replied Gaydon.</P>
+<P>“Ten millions! Ten millions! A fulgurator ten million times more powerful
+than anything hitherto invented! Ten millions for an autopropulsive projectile
+which, when it explodes, destroys everything in sight within a radius of over
+twelve thousand square yards! Ten millions for the only deflagrator that can
+provoke its explosion! Why, all the wealth of the world wouldn’t suffice to
+purchase the secret of my engine, and rather than sell it at such a price I
+would cut my tongue in half with my teeth. Ten millions, when it is worth a
+billion—a billion—a billion!�</P>
+<P>It was clear that Roch had lost all notion of things, and had Gaydon offered
+him ten billions the madman would have replied in exactly the same manner.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas and Captain Spade had not taken their eyes off him. The
+Count was impassible as usual, though his brow had darkened, but the captain
+shook his head in a manner that implied plainly: “Decidedly there is nothing to
+hope from this poor devil!�</P>
+<P>After his outburst Roch fled across the garden crying hoarsely:</P>
+<P>“Billions! Billions!�</P>
+<P>Gaydon turned to the director and remarked:</P>
+<P>“I told you how it would be.�</P>
+<P>Then he rushed after his patient, caught him by the arm, and led him, without
+any attempt at resistance, into the pavilion and closed the door.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas remained alone with the director, Captain Spade having
+strolled off again in the direction of the wall at the bottom of the park.</P>
+<P>“You see I was not guilty of exaggeration, Count,� said the director. “It is
+obvious to every one that Thomas Roch is becoming daily worse. In my opinion his
+case is a hopeless one. If all the money he asks for were offered to him,
+nothing could be got from him.�</P>
+<P>“Very likely,� replied the Count, “still, if his pecuniary demands are
+supremely absurd, he has none the less invented an engine the power of which is
+infinite, one might say.�</P>
+<P>“That is the opinion expressed by competent persons, Count. But what he has
+discovered will ere long be lost with himself in one of these fits which are
+becoming more frequent and intense. Very soon even the motive of interest, the
+only sentiment that appears to have survived in his mind, will become
+extinct.�</P>
+<P>“Mayhap the sentiment of hatred will remain, though,� muttered the Count, as
+Spade joined them at the garden gate.</P>
+
+<a name="III" id="III"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER III.</H4>
+<H4>KIDNAPPED.</H4>
+<P>Half an hour later the Count d’Artigas and Captain Spade were following the
+beech-lined road that separated the Healthful House estate from the right bank
+of the Neuse. Both had taken leave of the director, the latter declaring himself
+greatly honored by their visit, and the former thanking him warmly for his
+courteous reception. A hundred-dollar bill left as a tip for the staff of the
+establishment had certainly not belied the Count’s reputation for generosity. He
+was—there could be no doubt about it—a foreigner of the highest distinction, if
+distinction be measured by generosity.</P>
+<P>Issuing by the gate at the main entrance to Healthful House, they had skirted
+the wall that surrounded the property, and which was high enough to preclude the
+possibility of climbing it. Not a word passed between them for some time; the
+Count was deep in thought and Captain Spade was not in the habit of addressing
+him without being first spoken to.</P>
+<P>At last when they stood beneath the rear wall behind which, though it was not
+visible, the Count knew Pavilion No. 17 was situated, he said:</P>
+<P>“You managed, I presume, to thoroughly explore the place, and are acquainted
+with every detail of it?�</P>
+<P>“Certainly, <I>Count</I>� replied Captain Spade, emphasizing the title.</P>
+<P>“You are perfectly sure about it?�</P>
+<P>“Perfectly. I could go through the park with my eyes shut. If you still
+persist in carrying out your scheme the pavilion can be easily reached.�</P>
+<P>“I do persist, Spade.�</P>
+<P>“Notwithstanding Thomas Roch’s mental condition?�</P>
+<P>“Notwithstanding his condition; and if we succeed in carrying him off——�</P>
+<P>“That is my affair. When night comes on I undertake to enter the park of
+Healthful House, and then the pavilion garden without being seen by
+anybody.�</P>
+<P>“By the entrance gate?�</P>
+<P>“No, on this side.�</P>
+<P>“Yes, but on this side there is the wall, and if you succeed in climbing it,
+how are you going to get over it again with Thomas Roch? What if the madman
+cries out—what if he should resist—what if his keeper gives the alarm?�</P>
+<P>“Don’t worry yourself in the least about that. We have only got to go in and
+come out by this door.�</P>
+<P>Captain Spade pointed to a narrow door let into the wall a few paces distant,
+and which was doubtless used by the staff of the establishment when they had
+occasion to go out by the river.</P>
+<P>“That is the way I propose to go in. It’s much easier than scaling the wall
+with a ladder.�</P>
+<P>“But the door is closed.�</P>
+<P>“It will open.�</P>
+<P>“Has it no bolts?�</P>
+<P>“Yes, but I shot them back while we were strolling about, and the director
+didn’t notice what I had done.�</P>
+<P>“How are you going to open it?� queried the Count, going to the door.</P>
+<P>“Here is the key,� replied Spade, producing it.</P>
+<P>He had withdrawn it from the lock, where it happened to be, when he had
+unbolted the door.</P>
+<P>“Capital!� exclaimed the Count. “It couldn’t be better. The business will be
+easier than I expected. Let us get back to the schooner. At eight o’clock one of
+the boats will put you ashore with five men.�</P>
+<P>“Yes, five men will do,� said Captain Spade. “There will be enough of them to
+effect our object even if the keeper is aroused and it becomes necessary to put
+him out of the way.�</P>
+<P>“Put him out of the way—well, if it becomes absolutely necessary of course
+you must, but it would be better to seize him too and bring him aboard the
+<I>Ebba</I> Who knows but what he has already learned a part of Roch’s
+secret?�</P>
+<P>“True.�</P>
+<P>“Besides, Thomas Roch is used to him, and I don’t propose to make him change
+his habitudes in any way.�</P>
+<P>This observation was accompanied by such a significant smile that Captain
+Spade could entertain no doubt as to the rôle reserved for the warder of
+Healthful House.</P>
+<P>The plan to kidnap them both was thus settled, and appeared to have every
+chance of being successful; unless during the couple of hours of daylight that
+yet remained it was noticed that the key of the door had been stolen and the
+bolts drawn back, Captain Spade and his men could at least count upon being able
+to enter the park, and the rest, the captain affirmed, would be easy enough.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch was the only patient in the establishment isolated and kept under
+special surveillance. All the other invalids lived in the main building, or
+occupied pavilions in the front of the park. The plan was to try and seize Roch
+and Gaydon separately and bind and gag them before they could cry out.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas and his companion wended their way to a creek where one
+of the <I>Ebba’s</I> boats awaited them. The schooner was anchored two cable
+lengths from the shore, her sails neatly rolled upon her yards, which were
+squared as neatly as those of a pleasure yacht or of a man-of-war. At the peak
+of the mainmast a narrow red pennant was gently swayed by the wind, which came
+in fitful puffs from the east.</P>
+<P>The Count and the captain jumped into the boat and a few strokes of the four
+oars brought them alongside of the schooner. They climbed on deck and going
+forward to the jib-boom, leaned over the starboard bulwark and gazed at an
+object that floated on the water a few strokes ahead of the vessel. It was a
+small buoy that was rocked by the ripple of the ebbing tide.</P>
+<P>Twilight gradually set in, and the outline of New-Berne on the left bank of
+the sinuous Neuse became more and more indistinct until it disappeared in the
+deepening shades of night. A mist set in from the sea, but though it obscured
+the moon it brought no sign of rain. The lights gleamed out one by one in the
+houses of the town. The fishing smacks came slowly up the river to their
+anchorage, impelled by the oars of their crews which struck the water with
+sharp, rhythmical strokes, and with their sails distended on the chance of
+catching an occasional puff of the dropping wind to help them along. A couple of
+steamers passed, sending up volumes of black smoke and myriads of sparks from
+their double stacks, and lashing the water into foam with their powerful
+paddles.</P>
+<P>At eight o’clock the Count d’Artigas appeared on the schooner’s deck
+accompanied by a man about fifty years of age, to whom he remarked:</P>
+<P>“It is time to go, Serko.�</P>
+<P>“Very well, I will tell Spade,� replied Serko.</P>
+<P>At that moment the captain joined them.</P>
+<P>“You had better get ready to go,� said the Count.</P>
+<P>“All is ready.�</P>
+<P>“Be careful to prevent any alarm being given, and arrange matters so that no
+one will for a minute suspect that Thomas Roch and his keeper have been brought
+on board the <I>Ebba</I>.�</P>
+<P>“They wouldn’t find them if they came to look for them,� observed Serko,
+shrugging his shoulders and laughing heartily as though he had perpetrated a
+huge joke.</P>
+<P>“Nevertheless, it is better not to arouse their suspicion,� said
+d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>The boat was lowered, and Captain Spade and five sailors took their places in
+it. Four of the latter got out the oars. The boatswain, Effrondat, who was to
+remain in charge of the boat, went to the stern beside Captain Spade and took
+the tiller.</P>
+<P>“Good luck, Spade,� said Serko with a smile, “and don’t make more noise about
+it than if you were a gallant carrying off his lady-love.�</P>
+<P>“I won’t—unless that Gaydon chap—�</P>
+<P>“We must have both Roch and Gaydon,� insisted the Count d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>“That is understood,� replied Spade.</P>
+<P>The boat pushed off, and the sailors on the deck of the schooner watched it
+till it was lost to sight in the darkness.</P>
+<P>Pending its return, no preparations for the <I>Ebba’s</I> departure were
+made. Perhaps there was no intention of quitting the port after the men had been
+kidnapped. Besides, how could the vessel have reached the open sea? Not a breath
+of air was now stirring, and in half an hour the tide would be setting in again,
+and rising strongly and rapidly for several miles above New-Berne.</P>
+<P>Anchored, as has already been said, a couple of cable-lengths from the shore,
+the <I>Ebba</I> might have been brought much nearer to it, for the water was
+deep enough, and this would have facilitated the task of the kidnappers when
+they returned from their expedition. If, however, the Count d’Artigas preferred
+to let the vessel stay where she was, he probably had his reasons.</P>
+<P>Not a soul was in sight on the bank, and the road, with its borders of beech
+trees that skirted the wall of Healthful House estate, was equally deserted. The
+boat was made fast to the shore. Then Captain Spade and his four sailors landed,
+leaving the boatswain in charge, and disappeared amid the trees.</P>
+<P>When they reached the wall Captain Spade stopped and the sailors drew up on
+each side of the doorway. The captain had only to turn the key in the lock and
+push the door, unless one of the servants, noticing that the door was not
+secured as usual, had bolted it. In this event their task would be an extremely
+difficult one, even if they succeeded in scaling the high wall.</P>
+<P>The captain put his ear to the key-hole and listened.</P>
+<P>Not a sound was to be heard in the park. Not even a leaf was rustling in the
+branches of the beeches under which they were standing. The surrounding country
+was wrapt in the profoundest silence.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade drew the key from his pocket, inserted it in the lock and
+turned it noiselessly. Then he cautiously pushed the door, which opened
+inward.</P>
+<P>Things were, then, just as he had left them, and no one had noticed the theft
+of the key.</P>
+<P>After assuring himself that nobody happened to be in the neighborhood of the
+pavilion the captain entered, followed by his men. The door was left wide open,
+so that they could beat a hurried and uninterrupted retreat in case of
+necessity. The trees and bushes in this shady part of the park were very thick,
+and it was so dark that it would not have been easy to distinguish the pavilion
+had not a light shone brightly in one of the windows.</P>
+<P>No doubt this was the window of the room occupied by Roch and his guardian,
+Gaydon, seeing that the latter never left the patient placed in his charge
+either by night or day. Captain Spade had expected to find him there.</P>
+<P>The party approached cautiously, taking the utmost precaution to avoid
+kicking a pebble or stepping on a twig, the noise of which might have revealed
+their presence. In this way they reached the door of the pavilion near which was
+the curtained window of the room in which the light was burning.</P>
+<P>But if the door was locked, how were they going to get in? Captain Spade must
+have asked himself. He had no key, and to attempt to effect an entrance through
+the window would be hazardous, for, unless Gaydon could be prevented from giving
+the alarm, he would rouse the whole establishment.</P>
+<P>There was no help for it, however. The essential was to get possession of
+Roch. If they could kidnap Gaydon, too, in conformity with the intentions of the
+Count d’Artigas, so much the better. If not—</P>
+<P>Captain Spade crept stealthily to the window, and standing on tiptoe, looked
+in. Through an aperture in the curtain he could see all over the room.</P>
+<P>Gaydon was standing beside Thomas Roch, who had not yet recovered from the
+fit with which he had been attacked during the Count d’Artigas’ visit. His
+condition necessitated special attention, and the warder was ministering to the
+patient under the direction of a third person.</P>
+<P>The latter was one of the doctors attached to Healthful House, and had been
+at once sent to the pavilion by the director when Roch’s paroxysm came on. His
+presence of course rendered the situation more complicated and the work of the
+kidnappers more difficult.</P>
+<P>Roch, fully dressed, was extended upon a sofa. He was now fairly calm. The
+paroxysm, which was abating, would be followed by several hours of torpor and
+exhaustion.</P>
+<P>Just as Captain Spade peeped through the window the doctor was making
+preparations to leave. The Captain heard him say to Gaydon that his (the
+doctor’s) presence was not likely to be required any more that night, and that
+there was nothing to be done beyond following the instructions he had given.</P>
+<P>The doctor then walked towards the door, which, it will be remembered, was
+close to the window in front of which Spade and his men were standing. If they
+remained where they were they could not fail to be seen, not only by the doctor,
+but by the warder, who was accompanying him to the door.</P>
+<P>Before they made their appearance, however, the sailors, at a sign from their
+chief, had dispersed and hidden themselves behind the bushes, while Spade
+himself crouched in the shadow beneath the window. Luckily Gaydon had not
+brought the lamp with him, so that the captain was in no danger of being
+seen.</P>
+<P>As he was about to take leave of Gaydon, the doctor stopped on the step and
+remarked:</P>
+<P>“This is one of the worst attacks our patient has had. One or two more like
+that and he will lose the little reason he still possesses.�</P>
+<P>“Just so,� said Gaydon. “I wonder that the director doesn’t prohibit all
+visitors from entering the pavilion. Roch owes his present attack to a Count
+d’Artigas, for whose amusement harmful questions were put to him.�</P>
+<P>“I will call the director’s attention to the matter,� responded the
+doctor.</P>
+<P>He then descended the steps and Gaydon, leaving the door of the pavilion
+ajar, accompanied him to the end of the path.</P>
+<P>When they had gone Captain Spade stood up, and his men rejoined him.</P>
+<P>Had they not better profit by the chance thus unexpectedly afforded them to
+enter the room and secure Roch, who was in a semi-comatose condition, and then
+await Gaydon’s return, and seize the warder as he entered?</P>
+<P>This would have involved considerable risk. Gaydon, at a glance, would
+perceive that his patient was missing and raise an alarm; the doctor would come
+running back; the whole staff of Healthful House would turn out, and Spade would
+not have time to escape with his precious prisoner and lock the door in the wall
+after him.</P>
+<P>He did not have much chance to deliberate about it, for the warder was heard
+returning along the gravel path. Spade decided that the best thing to be done
+was to spring upon him as he passed and stifle his cries and overpower him
+before he could attempt to offer any resistance. The carrying off of the mad
+inventor would be easy enough, inasmuch as he was unconscious, and could not
+raise a finger to help himself.</P>
+<P>Gaydon came round a clump of bushes and approached the entrance to the
+pavilion. As he raised his foot to mount the steps the four sailors sprang upon
+him, bore him backwards to the ground, and had gagged him, securely bound him
+hand and foot, and bandaged his eyes before he began to realize what had
+happened.</P>
+<P>Two of the men then kept guard over him, while Captain Spade and the others
+entered the house.</P>
+<P>As the captain had surmised, Thomas Roch had sunk into such a torpor that he
+could have heard nothing of what had been going on outside. Reclining at full
+length, with his eyes closed, he might have been taken for a dead man but for
+his heavy breathing. There was no need either to bind or gag him. One man took
+him by the head and another by the feet and started off with him to the
+schooner.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade was the last to quit the house after extinguishing the lamp and
+closing the door behind him. In this way there was no reason to suppose that the
+inmates would be missed before morning.</P>
+<P>Gaydon was carried off in the same way as Thomas Roch had been. The two
+remaining sailors lifted him and bore him quietly but rapidly down the path to
+the door in the wall. The park was pitch dark. Not even a glimmer of the lights
+in the windows of Healthful House could be seen through the thick foliage.</P>
+<P>Arrived at the wall, Spade, who had led the way, stepped aside to allow the
+sailors with their burdens to pass through, then followed and closed and locked
+the door. He put the key in his pocket, intending to throw it into the Neuse as
+soon as they were safely on board the schooner.</P>
+<P>There was no one on the road, nor on the bank of the river.</P>
+<P>The party made for the boat, and found that Effrondat, the boatswain, had
+made all ready to receive them.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch and Gaydon were laid in the bottom of the boat, and the sailors
+again took their places at the oars.</P>
+<P>“Hurry up, Effrondat, and cast off the painter,� ordered the captain.</P>
+<P>The boatswain obeyed, and pushed the boat off with his foot as he scrambled
+in.</P>
+<P>The men bent to their oars and rowed rapidly to the schooner, which was
+easily distinguishable, having hung out a light at her mizzenmast head.</P>
+<P>In two minutes they were alongside.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas was leaning on the bulwarks by the gangway.</P>
+<P>“All right, Spade?� he questioned.</P>
+<P>“Yes, sir, all right!�</P>
+<P>“Both of them?�</P>
+<P>“Both the madman and his keeper.�</P>
+<P>“Doesn’t anybody know about it up at Healthful House?</P>
+<P>“Not a soul.�</P>
+<P>It was not likely that Gaydon, whose eyes and ears were bandaged, but who
+preserved all his sang-froid, could have recognized the voices of the Count
+d’Artigas and Captain Spade. Nor did he have the chance to. No attempt was
+immediately made to hoist him on board. He had been lying in the bottom of the
+boat alongside the schooner for fully half an hour, he calculated, before he
+felt himself lifted, and then lowered, doubtless to the bottom of the hold.</P>
+<P>The kidnapping having been accomplished it would seem that it only remained
+for the <I>Ebba</I> to weigh anchor, descend the estuary and make her way out to
+sea through Pamlico Sound. Yet no preparations for departure were made.</P>
+<P>Was it not dangerous to stay where they were after their daring raid? Had the
+Count d’Artigas hidden his prisoners so securely as to preclude the possibility
+of their being discovered if the <I>Ebba</I>, whose presence in proximity to
+Healthful House could not fail to excite suspicion, received a visit from the
+New-Berne police?</P>
+<P>However this might have been, an hour after the return of the expedition,
+every soul on board save the watch—the Count d’Artigas, Serko, and Captain Spade
+in their respective cabins, and the crew in the fore-castle, were sound
+asleep.</P>
+
+<a name="IV" id="IV"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER IV.</H4>
+<H4>THE SCHOONER EBBA.</H4>
+<P>It was not till the next morning, and then very leisurely, that the
+<I>Ebba</I> began to make preparations for her departure. From the extremity of
+New-Berne quay the crew might have been seen holystoning the deck, after which
+they loosened the reef lines, under the direction of Effrondat, the boatswain,
+hoisted in the boats and cleared the halyards.</P>
+<P>At eight o’clock the Count d’Artigas had not yet appeared on deck. His
+companion, Serko the engineer, as he was called on board, had not quitted his
+cabin. Captain Spade was strolling quietly about giving orders.</P>
+<P>The <I>Ebba</I> would have made a splendid racing yacht, though she had never
+participated in any of the yacht races either on the North American or British
+coasts. The height of her masts, the extent of the canvas she carried, her
+shapely, raking hull, denoted her to be a craft of great speed, and her general
+lines showed that she was also built to weather the roughest gales at sea. In a
+favorable wind she would probably make twelve knots an hour.</P>
+<P>Notwithstanding these advantages, however, she must in a dead calm
+necessarily suffer from the same disadvantages as other sailing vessels, and it
+might have been supposed that the Count d’Artigas would have preferred a
+steam-yacht with which he could have gone anywhere, at any time, in any weather.
+But apparently he was satisfied to stick to the old method, even when he made
+his long trips across the Atlantic.</P>
+<P>On this particular morning the wind was blowing gently from the west, which
+was very favorable to the <I>Ebba</I>, and would enable her to stand straight
+out of the Neuse, across Pamlico Sound, and through one of the inlets that led
+to the open sea.</P>
+<P>At ten o’clock the <I>Ebba</I> was still rocking lazily at anchor, her stem
+up stream and her cable tautened by the rapidly ebbing tide. The small buoy that
+on the previous evening had been moored near the schooner was no longer to be
+seen, and had doubtless been hoisted in.</P>
+<P>Suddenly a gun boomed out and a slight wreath of white smoke arose from the
+battery. It was answered by other reports from the guns on the chain of islands
+along the coast.</P>
+<P>At this moment the Count d’Artigas and Engineer Serko appeared on deck.
+Captain Spade went to meet them.</P>
+<P>“Guns barking,� he said laconically.</P>
+<P>“We expected it,� replied Serko, shrugging his shoulders. “They are signals
+to close the passes.�</P>
+<P>“What has that to do with us?� asked the Count d’Artigas quietly.</P>
+<P>“Nothing at all,� said the engineer.</P>
+<P>They all, of course, knew that the alarm-guns indicated that the
+disappearance of Thomas Roch and the warder Gaydon from Healthful House had been
+discovered.</P>
+<P>At daybreak the doctor had gone to Pavilion No. 17 to see how his patient had
+passed the night, and had found no one there. He immediately notified the
+director, who had the grounds thoroughly searched. It was then discovered that
+the door in rear of the park was unbolted, and that, though locked, the key had
+been taken away. It was evident that Roch and his attendant had been carried out
+that way. But who were the kidnappers? No one could possibly imagine. All that
+could be ascertained was that at half-past seven on the previous night one of
+the doctors had attended Thomas Roch, who was suffering from one of his fits,
+and that when the medical man had left him the invalid was in an unconscious
+condition. What had happened after the doctor took leave of Gaydon at the end of
+the garden-path could not even be conjectured.</P>
+<P>The news of the disappearance was telegraphed to New Berne, and thence to
+Raleigh. On receipt of it the Governor had instantly wired orders that no vessel
+was to be allowed to quit Pamlico Sound without having been first subjected to a
+most rigorous search. Another dispatch ordered the cruiser <I>Falcon</I>, which
+was stationed in the port, to carry out the Governor’s instructions in this
+respect. At the same time measures were taken to keep a strict lookout in every
+town and village in the State.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas could see the <I>Falcon</I>, which was a couple of miles
+away to the east in the estuary, getting steam up and making hurried
+preparations to carry out her mission. It would take at least an hour before the
+warship could be got ready to steam out, and the schooner might by that time
+have gained a good start.</P>
+<P>“Shall I weigh anchor?� demanded Captain Spade.</P>
+<P>“Yes, as we have a fair wind; but you can take your time about it,� replied
+the Count d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>“The passes of Pamlico Sound will be under observation,� observed Engineer
+Serko, “and no vessel will be able to get out without receiving a visit from
+gentlemen as inquisitive as they will be indiscreet.�</P>
+<P>“Never mind, get under way all the same,� ordered the Count. “When the
+officers of the cruiser or the Custom-House officers have been over the
+<I>Ebba</I> the embargo will be raised. I shall be indeed surprised if we are
+not allowed to go about our business.�</P>
+<P>“With a thousand pardons for the liberty taken, and best wishes for a good
+voyage and speedy return,� chuckled Engineer Serko, following the phrase with a
+loud and prolonged laugh.</P>
+<P>When the news was received at New-Berne, the authorities at first were
+puzzled to know whether the missing inventor and his keeper had fled or been
+carried off. As, however, Roch’s flight could not have taken place without the
+connivance of Gaydon, this supposition was speedily abandoned. In the opinion of
+the director and management of Healthful House the warder was absolutely above
+suspicion. They must both, then, have been kidnapped.</P>
+<P>It can easily be imagined what a sensation the news caused in the town. What!
+the French inventor who had been so closely guarded had disappeared, and with
+him the secret of the wonderful fulgurator that nobody had been able to worm out
+of him? Might not the most serious consequences follow? Might not the discovery
+of the new engine be lost to America forever? If the daring act had been
+perpetrated on behalf of another nation, might not that nation, having Thomas
+Roch in its power, be eventually able to extract from him what the Federal
+Government had vainly endeavored to obtain? And was it reasonable, was it
+permissible, to suppose for an instant that he had been carried off for the
+benefit of a private individual?</P>
+<P>Certainly not, was the emphatic reply to the latter question, which was too
+ridiculous to be entertained. Therefore the whole power of the State was
+employed in an effort to recover the inventor. In every county of North Carolina
+a special surveillance was organized on every road and at every railroad
+station, and every house in town and country was searched. Every port from
+Wilmington to Norfolk was closed, and no craft of any description could leave
+without being thoroughly overhauled. Not only the cruiser <I>Falcon</I>, but
+every available cutter and launch was sent out with orders to patrol Pamlico
+Sound and board yachts, merchant vessels and fishing smacks indiscriminately
+whether anchored or not and search them down to the keelson.</P>
+<P>Still the crew of the <I>Ebba</I> prepared calmly to weigh anchor, and the
+Count d’Artigas did not appear to be in the least concerned at the orders of the
+authorities and at the consequences that would ensue, if Thomas Roch and his
+keeper, Gaydon, were found on board.</P>
+<P>At last all was ready, the crew manned the capstan bars, the sails were
+hoisted, and the schooner glided gracefully through the water towards the
+Sound.</P>
+<P>Twenty miles from New-Berne the estuary curves abruptly and shoots off
+towards the northwest for about the same distance, gradually widening until it
+empties itself into Pamlico Sound.</P>
+<P>The latter is a vast expanse about seventy miles across from Swan Island to
+Roanoke. On the seaward side stretches a chain of long and narrow islands,
+forming a natural breakwater north and south from Cape Lookout to Cape Hatteras
+and from the latter to Cape Henry, near Norfolk City, in Virginia.</P>
+<P>Numerous beacons on the islands and islets form an easy guide for vessels at
+night seeking refuge from the Atlantic gales, and once inside the chain they are
+certain of finding plenty of good anchoring grounds.</P>
+<P>Several passes afford an outlet from the Sound to the sea. Beyond Swan Island
+lighthouse is Ocracoke inlet, and next is the inlet of Hatteras. There are also
+three others known as Logger Head inlet, New inlet, and Oregon inlet. The
+Ocracoke was the one nearest the <I>Ebba</I>, and she could make it without
+tacking, but the <I>Falcon</I> was searching all vessels that passed through.
+This did not, however, make any particular difference, for by this time all the
+passes, upon which the guns of the forts had been trained, were guarded by
+government vessels.</P>
+<P>The <I>Ebba</I>, therefore, kept on her way, neither trying to avoid nor
+offering to approach the searchers. She seemed to be merely a pleasure-yacht out
+for a morning sail.</P>
+<P>No attempt had up to that time been made to accost her. Was she, then,
+specially privileged, and to be spared the bother of being searched? Was the
+Count d’Artigas considered too high and mighty a personage to be thus molested,
+and delayed even for an hour? It was unlikely, for though he was regarded as a
+distinguished foreigner who lived the life of luxury enjoyed by the favored of
+fortune, no one, as a matter of fact, knew who he was, nor whence he came, nor
+whither he was going.</P>
+<P>The schooner sped gracefully over the calm waters of the sound, her flag—a
+gold crescent in the angle of a red field—streaming proudly in the breeze. Count
+d’Artigas was cosily ensconced in a basket-work chair on the after-deck,
+conversing with Engineer Serko and Captain Spade.</P>
+<P>“They don’t seem in a hurry to board us,� remarked Serko.</P>
+<P>“They can come whenever they think proper,� said the Count in a tone of
+supreme indifference.</P>
+<P>“No doubt they are waiting for us at the entrance to the inlet,� suggested
+Captain Spade.</P>
+<P>“Let them wait,� grunted the wealthy nobleman.</P>
+<P>Then he relapsed into his customary unconcerned impassibility.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade’s hypothesis was doubtless correct. The <I>Falcon</I> had as
+yet made no move towards the schooner, but would almost certainly do so as soon
+as the latter reached the inlet, and the Count would have to submit to a search
+of his vessel if he wished to reach the open sea.</P>
+<P>How was it then that he manifested such extraordinary unconcern? Were Thomas
+Roch and Gaydon so safely hidden that their hiding-place could not possibly be
+discovered?</P>
+<P>The thing was possible, but perhaps the Count d’Artigas would not have been
+quite so confident had he been aware that the <I>Ebba</I> had been specially
+signalled to the warship and revenue cutters as a suspect.</P>
+<P>The Count’s visit to Healthful House on the previous day had now attracted
+particular attention to him and his schooner. Evidently, at the time, the
+director could have had no reason to suspect the motive of his visit. But a few
+hours later, Thomas Roch and his keeper had been carried off. No one else from
+outside had been near the pavilion that day. It was admitted that it would have
+been an easy matter for the Count’s companion, while the former distracted the
+director’s attention, to push back the bolts of the door in the wall and steal
+the key. Then the fact that the <I>Ebba</I> was anchored in rear of, and only a
+few hundred yards from, the estate, was in itself suspicious. Nothing would have
+been easier for the desperadoes than to enter by the door, surprise their
+victims, and carry them off to the schooner.</P>
+<P>These suspicions, neither the director nor the <I>personnel</I> of the
+establishment had at first liked to give expression to, but when the <I>Ebba</I>
+was seen to weigh anchor and head for the open sea, they appeared to be
+confirmed.</P>
+<P>They were communicated to the authorities of New-Berne, who immediately
+ordered the commander of the <I>Falcon</I> to intercept the schooner, to search
+her minutely high and low, and from stem to stern, and on no account to let her
+proceed, unless he was absolutely certain that Roch and Gaydon were not on
+board.</P>
+<P>Assuredly the Count d’Artigas could have had no idea that his vessel was the
+object of such stringent orders; but even if he had, it is questionable whether
+this superbly haughty and disdainful nobleman would have manifested any
+particular anxiety.</P>
+<P>Towards three o’clock, the warship which was cruising before the inlet, after
+having sent search parties aboard a few fishing-smacks, suddenly manoeuvred to
+the entrance of the pass, and awaited the approaching schooner. The latter
+surely did not imagine that she could force a passage in spite of the cruiser,
+or escape from a vessel propelled by steam. Besides, had she attempted such a
+foolhardy trick, a couple of shots from the <I>Falcon’s</I> guns would speedily
+have constrained her to lay to.</P>
+<P>Presently a boat, manned by two officers and ten sailors, put off from the
+cruiser and rowed towards the <I>Ebba</I>. When they were only about half a
+cable’s length off, one of the men rose and waved a flag.</P>
+<P>“That’s a signal to stop,� said Engineer Serko.</P>
+<P>“Precisely,� remarked the Count d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>“We shall have to lay to.�</P>
+<P>“Then lay to.�</P>
+<P>Captain Spade went forward and gave the necessary orders, and in a few
+minutes the vessel slackened speed, and was soon merely drifting with the
+tide.</P>
+<P>The <I>Falcon’s</I> boat pulled alongside, and a man in the bows held on to
+her with a boat-hook. The gangway was lowered by a couple of hands on the
+schooner, and the two officers, followed by eight of their men, climbed on
+deck.</P>
+<P>They found the crew of the <I>Ebba</I> drawn up in line on the
+forecastle.</P>
+<P>The officer in command of the boarding-party—a first lieutenant—advanced
+towards the owner of the schooner, and the following questions and answers were
+exchanged:</P>
+<P>“This schooner belongs to the Count d’Artigas, to whom, I presume, I have the
+honor of speaking?�</P>
+<P>“Yes, sir.�</P>
+<P>“What is her name?�</P>
+<P>“The <I>Ebba</I>.�</P>
+<P>“She is commanded by?—�</P>
+<P>“Captain Spade.�</P>
+<P>“What is his nationality?�</P>
+<P>“Hindo-Malay.�</P>
+<P>The officer scrutinized the schooner’s flag, while the Count d’Artigas
+added:</P>
+<P>“Will you be good enough to tell me, sir, to what circumstance I owe the
+pleasure of your visit on board my vessel?�</P>
+<P>“Orders have been received,� replied the officer, “to search every vessel now
+anchored in Pamlico Sound, or which attempts to leave it.�</P>
+<P>He did not deem it necessary to insist upon this point since the <I>Ebba</I>,
+above every other, was to be subjected to the bother of a rigorous
+examination.</P>
+<P>“You, of course, sir, have no intention of refusing me permission to go over
+your schooner?�</P>
+<P>“Assuredly not, sir. My vessel is at your disposal from peaks to bilges. Only
+I should like to know why all the vessels which happen to be in Pamlico Sound
+to-day are being subjected to this formality.�</P>
+<P>“I see no reason why you should not be informed, Monsieur the Count,� replied
+the officer. “The governor of North Carolina has been apprised that Healthful
+House has been broken into and two persons kidnapped, and the authorities merely
+wish to satisfy themselves that the persons carried off have not been embarked
+during the night.�</P>
+<P>“Is it possible?� exclaimed the Count, feigning surprise. “And who are the
+persons who have thus disappeared from Healthful House?�</P>
+<P>“An inventor—a madman—and his keeper.�</P>
+<P>“A madman, sir? Do you, may I ask, refer to the Frenchman, Thomas Roch?�</P>
+<P>“The same.�</P>
+<P>“The Thomas Roch whom I saw yesterday during my visit to the
+establishment—whom I questioned in presence of the director—who was seized with
+a violent paroxysm just as Captain Spade and I were leaving?�</P>
+<P>The officer observed the stranger with the keenest attention, in an effort to
+surprise anything suspicious in his attitude or remarks.</P>
+<P>“It is incredible!� added the Count, as though he had just heard about the
+outrage for the first time.</P>
+<P>“I can easily understand, sir, how uneasy the authorities must be,� he went
+on, “in view of Thomas Roch’s personality, and I cannot but approve of the
+measures taken. I need hardly say that neither the French inventor nor his
+keeper is on board the <I>Ebba</I>. However, you can assure yourself of the fact
+by examining the schooner as minutely as you desire. Captain Spade, show these
+gentlemen over the vessel.�</P>
+<P>Then saluting the lieutenant of the <I>Falcon</I> coldly, the Count d’Artigas
+sank into his deck-chair again and replaced his cigar between his lips, while
+the two officers and eight sailors, conducted by Captain Spade, began their
+search.</P>
+<P>In the first place they descended the main hatchway to the after saloon—a
+luxuriously-appointed place, filled with art objects of great value, hung with
+rich tapestries and hangings, and wainscotted with costly woods.</P>
+<P>It goes without saying that this and the adjoining cabins were searched with
+a care that could not have been surpassed by the most experienced detectives.
+Moreover, Captain Spade assisted them by every means in his power, obviously
+anxious that they should not preserve the slightest suspicion of the
+<I>Ebba’s</I> owner.</P>
+<P>After the grand saloon and cabins, the elegant dining-saloon was visited.
+Then the cook’s galley, Captain Spade’s cabin, and the quarters of the crew in
+the forecastle were overhauled, but no sign of Thomas Roch or Gaydon was to be
+seen.</P>
+<P>Next, every inch of the hold, etc., was examined, with the aid of a couple of
+lanterns. Water-kegs, wine, brandy, whisky and beer barrels, biscuit-boxes, in
+fact, all the provision boxes and everything the hold contained, including the
+stock of coal, was moved and probed, and even the bilges were scrutinized, but
+all in vain.</P>
+<P>Evidently the suspicion that the Count d’Artigas had carried off the missing
+men was unfounded and unjust. Even a rat could not have escaped the notice of
+the vigilant searchers, leave alone two men.</P>
+<P>When they returned on deck, however, the officers, as a matter of precaution
+looked into the boats hanging on the davits, and punched the lowered sails, with
+the same result.</P>
+<P>It only remained for them, therefore, to take leave of the Count
+d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>“You must pardon us for having disturbed you, Monsieur the Count,� said the
+lieutenant.</P>
+<P>“You were compelled to obey your orders, gentlemen.�</P>
+<P>“It was merely a formality, of course,� ventured the officer.</P>
+<P>By a slight inclination of the head the Count signified that he was quite
+willing to accept this euphemism.</P>
+<P>“I assure you, gentlemen, that I have had no hand in this kidnapping.�</P>
+<P>“We can no longer believe so, Monsieur the Count, and will withdraw.�</P>
+<P>“As you please. Is the <I>Ebba</I> now free to proceed?�</P>
+<P>“Certainly.�</P>
+<P>“Then <I>au revoir</I>, gentlemen, <I>au revoir</I>, for I am an
+<I>habitué</I> of this coast and shall soon be back again. I hope that ere my
+return you will have discovered the author of the outrage, and have Thomas Roch
+safely back in Healthful House. It is a consummation devoutly to be wished in
+the interest of the United States—I might even say of the whole world.�</P>
+<P>The two officers courteously saluted the Count, who responded with a nod.
+Captain Spade accompanied them to the gangway, and they were soon making for the
+cruiser, which had steamed near to pick them up.</P>
+<P>Meanwhile the breeze had freshened considerably, and when, at a sign from
+d’Artigas, Captain Spade set sail again, the <I>Ebba</I> skimmed swiftly through
+the inlet, and half an hour after was standing out to sea.</P>
+<P>For an hour she continued steering east-northeast, and then, the wind, being
+merely a land breeze, dropped, and the schooner lay becalmed, her sails limp,
+and her flag drooping like a wet rag. It seemed that it would be impossible for
+the vessel to continue her voyage that night unless a breeze sprang up, and of
+this there was no sign.</P>
+<P>Since the schooner had cleared the inlet Captain Spade had stood in the bows
+gazing into the water, now to port, now to starboard, as if on the lookout for
+something. Presently he shouted in a stentorian voice:</P>
+<P>“Furl sail!�</P>
+<P>The sailors rushed to their posts, and in an instant the sails came rattling
+down and were furled.</P>
+<P>Was it Count d’Artigas’ intention to wait there till daybreak brought a
+breeze with it? Presumably, or the sails would have remained hoisted to catch
+the faintest puff.</P>
+<P>A boat was lowered and Captain Spade jumped into it, accompanied by a sailor,
+who paddled it towards an object that was floating on the water a few yards
+away.</P>
+<P>This object was a small buoy, similar to that which had floated on the bosom
+of the Neuse when the <I>Ebba</I> lay off Healthful House.</P>
+<P>The buoy, with a towline affixed to it, was lifted into the boat that was
+then paddled to the bow of the <I>Ebba</I>, from the deck of which another
+hawser was cast to the captain, who made it fast to the towline of the buoy.
+Having dropped the latter overboard again, the captain and the sailor returned
+to the ship and the boat was hoisted in.</P>
+<P>Almost immediately the hawser tautened, and the <I>Ebba</I>, though not a
+stitch of canvas had been set, sped off in an easterly direction at a speed that
+could not have been less than ten knots an hour.</P>
+<P>Night was falling fast, and soon the rapidly receding lights along the
+American coast were lost in the mist on the horizon.</P>
+
+<a name="V" id="V"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER V.</H4>
+<H4>WHERE AM I?</H4>
+<P>(Notes by Simon Hart, the Engineer.)</P>
+<P>Where am I? What has happened since the sudden aggression of which I was the
+victim near the pavilion?</P>
+<P>I had just quitted the doctor, and was about to mount the steps, close the
+door and resume my post beside Thomas Roch when several men sprang upon me and
+knocked me down. Who are they? My eyes having been bandaged I was unable to
+recognize them. I could not cry for help, having been gagged. I could make no
+resistance, for they had bound me hand and foot. Thus powerless, I felt myself
+lifted and carried about one hundred paces, then hoisted, then lowered, then
+laid down.</P>
+<P>Where? Where?</P>
+<P>And Thomas Roch, what has become of him? It must have been he rather than I
+they were after. I was but Gaydon, the warder. None suspected that I was Simon
+Hart, the engineer, nor could they have suspected my nationality. Why,
+therefore, should they have desired to kidnap a mere hospital attendant?</P>
+<P>There can consequently be no doubt that the French inventor has been carried
+off; and if he was snatched from Healthful House it must have been in the hope
+of forcing his secret from him.</P>
+<P>But I am reasoning on the supposition that Thomas Roch was carried off with
+me. Is it so? Yes—it must be—it is. I can entertain no doubt whatever about it.
+I have not fallen into the hands of malefactors whose only intention is robbery.
+They would not have acted in this way. After rendering it impossible for me to
+cry out, after having thrown me into a clump of bushes in the corner of the
+garden, after having kidnapped Thomas Roch they would not have shut me up—where
+I now am.</P>
+<P>Where? This is the question which I have been asking myself for hours without
+being able to answer it.</P>
+<P>However, one thing is certain, and that is that I have embarked upon an
+extraordinary adventure, that will end?—In what manner I know not—I dare not
+even imagine what the upshot of it will be. Anyhow, it is my intention to commit
+to memory, minute by minute, the least circumstance, and then, if it be
+possible, to jot down my daily impressions. Who knows what the future has in
+store for me? And who knows but what, in my new position, I may finally discover
+the secret of Roth’s fulgurator? If I am to be delivered one day, this secret
+must be made known, as well as who is the author, or who are the authors, of
+this criminal outrage, which may be attended with such serious consequences.</P>
+<P>I continually revert to this question, hoping that some incident will occur
+to enlighten me:</P>
+<P>Where am I?</P>
+<P>Let me begin from the beginning.</P>
+<P>After having been carried by the head and feet from Healthful House, I felt
+that I was laid, without any brutality, I must admit, upon the stretchers of a
+row-boat of small dimensions.</P>
+<P>The rocking caused by the weight of my body was succeeded shortly afterwards
+by a further rocking—which I attribute to the embarking of a second person. Can
+there be room for doubt that it was Thomas Roch? As far as he was concerned they
+would not have had to take the precaution of gagging him, or of bandaging his
+eyes, or of binding him. He must still have been in a state of prostration which
+precluded the possibility of his making any resistance, or even of being
+conscious of what was being done. The proof that I am not deceiving myself is
+that I could smell the unmistakable odor of ether. Now, yesterday, before taking
+leave of us, the doctor administered a few drops of ether to the invalid and—I
+remember distinctly—a little of this extremely volatile substance fell upon his
+clothing while he was struggling in his fit. There is therefore nothing
+astonishing in the fact that this odor should have clung to him, nor that I
+should have distinguished it, even beneath the bandages that covered my
+face.</P>
+<P>Yes, Thomas Roch was extended near me in the boat. And to think that had I
+not returned to the pavilion when I did, had I delayed a few minutes longer, I
+should have found him gone!</P>
+<P>Let me think. What could have inspired that Count d’Artigas with the
+unfortunate curiosity to visit Healthful House? If he had not been allowed to
+see my patient nothing of the kind would have happened. Talking to Thomas Roch
+about his inventions brought on a fit of exceptional violence. The director is
+primarily to blame for not heeding my warning. Had he listened to me the doctor
+would not have been called upon to attend him, the door of the pavilion would
+have been locked, and the attempt of the band would have been frustrated.</P>
+<P>As to the interest there could have been in carrying off Thomas Roch, either
+on behalf of a private person or of one of the states of the Old World, it is so
+evident that there is no need to dwell upon it. However, I can be perfectly easy
+about the result. No one can possibly succeed in learning what for fifteen
+months I have been unable to ascertain. In the condition of intellectual
+collapse into which my fellow-countryman has fallen, all attempts to force his
+secret from him will be futile. Moreover, he is bound to go from bad to worse
+until he is hopelessly insane, even as regards those points upon which he has
+hitherto preserved his reason intact.</P>
+<P>After all, however, it is less about Thomas Roch than myself that I must
+think just now, and this is what I have experienced, to resume the thread of my
+adventure where I dropped it:</P>
+<P>After more rocking caused by our captors jumping into it, the boat is rowed
+off. The distance must be very short, for a minute after we bumped against
+something. I surmise that this something must be the hull of a ship, and that we
+have run alongside. There is some scurrying and excitement. Indistinctly through
+my bandages I can hear orders being given and a confused murmur of voices that
+lasts for about five minutes, but I cannot distinguish a word that is said.</P>
+<P>The only thought that occurs to me now is that they will hoist me on board
+and lower me to the bottom of the hold and keep me there till the vessel is far
+out at sea. Obviously they will not allow either Thomas Roch or his keeper to
+appear on deck as long as she remains in Pamlico Sound.</P>
+<P>My conjecture is correct. Still gagged and bound I am at last lifted by the
+legs and shoulders. My impression, however, is that I am not being raised over a
+ship’s bulwark, but on the contrary am being lowered. Are they going to drop me
+overboard to drown like a rat, so as to get rid of a dangerous witness? This
+thought flashes into my brain, and a quiver of anguish passes through my body
+from head to foot. Instinctively I draw a long breath, and my lungs are filled
+with the precious air they will speedily lack.</P>
+<P>No, there is no immediate cause for alarm. I am laid with comparative
+gentleness upon a hard floor, which gives me the sensation of metallic coldness.
+I am lying at full length. To my extreme surprise, I find that the ropes with
+which I was bound have been untied and loosened. The tramping about around me
+has ceased. The next instant I hear a door closed with a bang.</P>
+<P>Where am I? And, in the first place, am I alone? I tear the gag from my
+mouth, and the bandages from my head.</P>
+<P>It is dark—pitch dark. Not a ray of light, not even the vague perception of
+light that the eyes preserve when the lids are tightly closed.</P>
+<P>I shout—I shout repeatedly. No response. My voice is smothered. The air I
+breathe is hot, heavy, thick, and the working of my lungs will become difficult,
+impossible, unless the store of air is renewed.</P>
+<P>I extend my arms and feel about me, and this is what I conclude:</P>
+<P>I am in a compartment with sheet-iron walls, which cannot measure more than
+four cubic yards. I can feel that the walls are of bolted plates, like the sides
+of a ship’s water-tight compartment.</P>
+<P>I can feel that the entrance to it is by a door on one side, for the hinges
+protrude somewhat. This door must open inwards, and it is through here, no
+doubt, that I was carried in.</P>
+<P>I place my ear to the door, but not a sound can be heard. The silence is as
+profound as the obscurity—a strange silence that is only broken by the
+sonorousness of the metallic floor when I move about. None of the dull noises
+usually to be heard on board a ship is perceptible, not even the rippling of the
+water along the hull. Nor is there the slightest movement to be felt; yet, in
+the estuary of the Neuse, the current is always strong enough, to cause a marked
+oscillation to any vessel.</P>
+<P>But does the compartment in which I am confined, really belong to a ship? How
+do I know that I am afloat on the Neuse, though I was conveyed a short distance
+in a boat? Might not the latter, instead of heading for a ship in waiting for
+it, opposite Healthful House, have been rowed to a point further down the river?
+In this case is it not possible that I was carried into the cellar of a house?
+This would explain the complete immobility of the compartment. It is true that
+the walls are of bolted plates, and that there is a vague smell of salt water,
+that odor <I>sui generis</I> which generally pervades the interior of a ship,
+and which there is no mistaking.</P>
+<P>An interval, which I estimate at about four hours, must have passed since my
+incarceration. It must therefore be near midnight. Shall I be left here in this
+way till morning? Luckily, I dined at six o’clock, which is the regular
+dinner-hour at Healthful House. I am not suffering from hunger. In fact I feel
+more inclined to sleep than to eat. Still, I hope I shall have energy enough to
+resist the inclination. I will not give way to it. I must try and find out what
+is going on outside. But neither sound nor light can penetrate this iron box.
+Wait a minute, though; perhaps by listening intently I may hear some sound,
+however feeble. Therefore I concentrate all my vital power in my sense of
+hearing. Moreover, I try—in case I should really not be on <I>terra firma</I>—to
+distinguish some movement, some oscillation of my prison. Admitting that the
+ship is still at anchor, it cannot be long before it will start—otherwise I
+shall have to give up imagining why Thomas Roch and I have been carried off.</P>
+<P>At last—it is no illusion—a slight rolling proves to me, beyond a doubt, that
+I am not on land. We are evidently moving, but the motion is scarcely
+perceptible. It is not a jerky, but rather a gliding movement, as though we were
+skimming through the water without effort, on an even keel.</P>
+<P>Let me consider the matter calmly. I am on board a vessel that was anchored
+in the Neuse, waiting under sail or steam, for the result of the expedition. A
+boat brought me aboard, but, I repeat, I did not feel that I was lifted over her
+bulwarks. Was I passed through a porthole? But after all, what does it matter?
+Whether I was lowered into the hold or not, I am certainly upon something that
+is floating and moving.</P>
+<P>No doubt I shall soon be let out, together with Thomas Roch, supposing them
+to have locked him up as carefully as they have me. By being let out, I mean
+being accorded permission to go on deck. It will not be for some hours to come,
+however, that is certain, for they won’t want us to be seen, so that there is no
+chance of getting a whiff of fresh air till we are well out at sea. If it is a
+sailing vessel, she must have waited for a breeze—for the breeze that freshens
+off shore at daybreak, and is favorable to ships navigating Pamlico Sound.</P>
+<P>It certainly cannot be a steamer. I could not have failed to smell the oil
+and other odors of the engine-room. And then I should feel the trembling of the
+machinery, the jerks of the pistons, and the movements of the screws or
+paddles.</P>
+<P>The best thing to do is to wait patiently. I shan’t be taken out of this hole
+until to-morrow, anyway. Moreover, if I am not released, somebody will surely
+bring me something to eat. There is no reason to suppose that they intend to
+starve me to death. They wouldn’t have taken the trouble to bring me aboard, but
+would have dropped me to the bottom of the river had they been desirous of
+getting rid of me. Once we are out at sea, what will they have to fear from me?
+No one could hear my shouts. As to demanding an explanation and making a fuss,
+it would be useless. Besides, what am I to the men who have carried us off? A
+mere hospital attendant—one Gaydon, who is of no consequence. It is Thomas Roch
+they were after. I was taken along too because I happened to return to the
+pavilion at the critical moment.</P>
+<P>At any rate, no matter what happens, no matter who our kidnappers may be, no
+matter where we are taken, I shall stick to this resolution: I will continue to
+play my role of warder. No one, no! none, can suspect that Gaydon is Simon Hart,
+the engineer. There are two advantages in this: in the first place, they will
+take no notice of a poor devil of a warder, and in the second, I may be able to
+solve the mystery surrounding this plot and turn my knowledge to profit, if I
+succeed in making my escape.</P>
+<P>But whither are my thoughts wandering? I must perforce wait till we arrive at
+our destination before thinking of escaping. It will be time enough to bother
+about that when the occasion presents itself. Until then the essential is that
+they remain ignorant as to my identity, and they cannot, and shall not, know who
+I am.</P>
+<P>I am now certain that we are going through the water. But there is one thing
+that puzzles me. It is not a sailing vessel, neither can it be a steamer. Yet it
+is incontestably propelled by some powerful machine. There are none of the
+noises, nor is there the trembling that accompanies the working of steam
+engines. The movement of the vessel is more continuous and regular, it is a sort
+of direct rotation that is communicated by the motor, whatever the latter may
+be. No mistake is possible: the ship is propelled by some special mechanism. But
+what is it?</P>
+<P>Is it one of those turbines that have been spoken of lately, which, fitted
+into a submerged tube, are destined to replace the ordinary screw, it being
+claimed that they utilize the resistance of the water better than the latter and
+give increased speed to a ship?</P>
+<P>In a few hours’ time I shall doubtless know all about this means of
+locomotion.</P>
+<P>Meanwhile there is another thing that equally puzzles me. There is not the
+slightest rolling or pitching. How is it that Pamlico Sound is so
+extraordinarily calm? The varying currents continuously ruffle the surface of
+the Sound, even if nothing else does.</P>
+<P>It is true the tide may be out, and I remember that last night the wind had
+fallen altogether. Still, no matter, the thing is inexplicable, for a ship
+propelled by machinery, no matter at what speed she may be going, always
+oscillates more or less, and I cannot perceive the slightest rocking.</P>
+<P>Such are the thoughts with which my mind is persistently filled. Despite an
+almost overpowering desire to sleep, despite the torpor that is coming upon me
+in this suffocating atmosphere, I am resolved not to close my eyes. I will keep
+awake till daylight, and there will be no daylight for me till it is let into my
+prison from the outside. Perhaps even if the door were open it would not
+penetrate to this black hole, and I shall probably not see it again until I am
+taken on deck.</P>
+<P>I am squatting in a corner of my prison, for I have no stool or anything to
+sit upon, but as my eyelids are heavy and I feel somnolent in spite of myself, I
+get up and walk about. Then I wax wrathful, anger fills my soul, I beat upon the
+iron walls with my fists, and shout for help. In vain! I hurt my hands against
+the bolts of the plates, and no one answers my cries.</P>
+<P>Such conduct is unworthy of me. I flattered myself that I would remain calm
+under all circumstances and here I am acting like a child.</P>
+<P>The absence of any rolling or lurching movement at least proves that we are
+not yet at sea. Instead of crossing Pamlico Sound, may we not be going in the
+opposite direction, up the River Neuse? No! What would they go further inland
+for? If Thomas Roch has been carried off from Healthful House, his captors
+obviously mean to take him out of the United States—probably to a distant island
+in the Atlantic, or to some point on the European continent. It is, therefore,
+not up the Neuse that our maritime machine, whatever it may be, is going, but
+across Pamlico Sound, which must be as calm as a mirror.</P>
+<P>Very well, then, when we get to sea I shall soon, know, for the vessel will
+rock right enough in the swell off shore, even though there be no wind,—unless I
+am aboard a battleship, or big cruiser, and this I fancy can hardly be!</P>
+<P>But hark! If I mistake not—no, it was not imagination—I hear footsteps. Some
+one is approaching the side of the compartment where the door is. One of the
+crew no doubt. Are they going to let me out at last? I can now hear voices. A
+conversation is going on outside the door, but it is carried on in a language
+that I do not understand. I shout to them—I shout again, but no answer is
+vouchsafed.</P>
+<P>There is nothing to do, then, but wait, wait, wait! I keep repeating the word
+and it rings in my ears like a bell.</P>
+<P>Let me try to calculate how long I have been here. The ship must have been
+under way for at least four or five hours. I reckon it must be past midnight,
+but I cannot tell, for unfortunately my watch is of no use to me in this
+Cimmerian darkness.</P>
+<P>Now, if we have been going for five hours, we must have cleared Pamlico
+Sound, whether we issued by Ocracoke or Hatteras inlet, and must be off the
+coast a good mile, at least. Yet I haven’t felt any motion from the swell of the
+sea.</P>
+<P>It is inexplicable, incredible! Come now, have I made a mistake? Am I the
+dupe of an illusion? Am I not imprisoned in the hold of a ship under way?</P>
+<P>Another hour has passed and the movement of the ship suddenly ceases; I
+realize perfectly that she is stationary. Has she reached her destination? In
+this event we can only be in one of the coast ports to the north or south of
+Pamlico Sound. But why should Thomas Roch be landed again? The abduction must
+soon have been discovered, and our kidnappers would run the greatest risk of
+falling into the hands of the authorities if they attempted to disembark.</P>
+<P>However this may be, if the vessel is coming to anchor I shall hear the noise
+of the chain as it is paid out, and feel the jerk as the ship is brought up. I
+know that sound and that jerk well from experience, and I am bound to hear and
+feel them in a minute or two.</P>
+<P>I wait—I listen.</P>
+<P>A dead and disquieting silence reigns on board. I begin to wonder whether I
+am not the only living being in the ship.</P>
+<P>Now I feel an irresistible torpor coming over me. The air is vitiated. I
+cannot breathe. My chest is bursting. I try to resist, but it is impossible to
+do so. The temperature rises to such a degree that I am compelled to divest
+myself of part of my clothing. Then I lie me down in a corner. My heavy eyelids
+close, and I sink into a prostration that eventually forces me into heavy
+slumber.</P>
+<P>How long have I been asleep? I cannot say. Is it night? Is it day? I know
+not. I remark, however, that I breathe more easily, and that the air is no
+longer poisoned carbonic acid.</P>
+<P>Was the air renewed while I slept? Has the door been opened? Has anybody been
+in here?</P>
+<P>Yes, here is the proof of it!</P>
+<P>In feeling about, my hand has come in contact with a mug filled with a liquid
+that exhales an inviting odor. I raise it to my lips, which, are burning, for I
+am suffering such an agony of thirst that I would even drink brackish water.</P>
+<P>It is ale—an ale of excellent quality—which refreshes and comforts me, and I
+drain the pint to the last drop.</P>
+<P>But if they have not condemned me to die of thirst, neither have they
+condemned me to die of hunger, I suppose?</P>
+<P>No, for in one of the corners I find a basket, and this basket contains some
+bread and cold meat.</P>
+<P>I fall to, eating greedily, and my strength little by little returns.</P>
+<P>Decidedly, I am not so abandoned as I thought I was. Some one entered this
+obscure hole, and the open door admitted a little of the oxygen from the
+outside, without which I should have been suffocated. Then the wherewithal to
+quench my thirst and appease the pangs of hunger was placed within my reach.</P>
+<P>How much longer will this incarceration last? Days? Months? I cannot estimate
+the hours that have elapsed since I fell asleep, nor have I any idea as to what
+time of the day or night it may be. I was careful to wind up my watch, though,
+and perhaps by feeling the hands—Yes, I think the little hand marks eight
+o’clock—in the morning, no doubt. What I do know, however, is that the ship is
+not in motion. There is not the slightest quiver.</P>
+<P>Hours and hours, weary, interminable hours go by, and I wonder whether they
+are again waiting till night comes on to renew my stock of air and provisions.
+Yes, they are waiting to take advantage of my slumbers. But this time I am
+resolved to resist. I will feign to be asleep—and I shall know how to force an
+answer from whoever enters!</P>
+
+<a name="VI" id="VI"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER VI.</H4>
+<H4>ON DECK.</H4>
+<P>Here I am in the open air, breathing freely once more. I have at last been
+hauled out of that stifling box and taken on deck. I gaze around me in every
+direction and see no sign of land. On every hand is that circular line which
+defines earth and sky. No, there is not even a speck of land to be seen to the
+west, where the coast of North America extends for thousands of miles.</P>
+<P>The setting sun now throws but slanting rays upon the bosom of the ocean. It
+must be about six o’clock in the evening. I take out my watch and it marks
+thirteen minutes past six.</P>
+<P>As I have already mentioned, I waited for the door of my prison to open,
+thoroughly resolved not to fall asleep again, but to spring upon the first
+person who entered and force him to answer my questions. I was not aware then
+that it was day, but it was, and hour after hour passed and no one came. I began
+to suffer again from hunger and thirst, for I had not preserved either bite or
+sup.</P>
+<P>As soon as I awoke I felt that the ship was in motion again, after having, I
+calculated, remained stationary since the previous day—no doubt in some lonely
+creek, since I had not heard or felt her come to anchor.</P>
+<P>A few minutes ago—it must therefore have been six o’clock—I again heard
+footsteps on the other side of the iron wall of my compartment. Was anybody
+coming to my cell? Yes, for I heard the creaking of the bolts as they were drawn
+back, and then the door opened, and the darkness in which I had been plunged
+since the first hour of my captivity was illumined by the light of a
+lantern.</P>
+<P>Two men, whom I had no time to look at, entered and seized me by the arms. A
+thick cloth was thrown over my head, which was enveloped in such a manner that I
+could see absolutely nothing.</P>
+<P>What did it all mean? What were they going to do with me? I struggled, but
+they held me in an iron grasp. I questioned them, but they made no reply. The
+men spoke to each other in a language that I could not understand, and had never
+heard before.</P>
+<P>They stood upon no ceremony with me. It is true I was only a madhouse warder,
+and they probably did not consider it necessary to do so; but I question very
+much whether Simon Hart, the engineer, would have received any more courtesy at
+their hands.</P>
+<P>This time, however, no attempt was made to gag me nor to bind either my arms
+or legs. I was simply restrained by main force from breaking away from them.</P>
+<P>In a moment I was dragged out of the compartment and pushed along a narrow
+passage. Next, the steps of a metallic stairway resounded under our feet. Then
+the fresh air blew in my face and I inhaled it with avidity.</P>
+<P>Finally they took their hands from off me, and I found myself free. I
+immediately tore the cloth off my head and gazed about me.</P>
+<P>I am on board a schooner which is ripping through the water at a great rate
+and leaving a long white trail behind her.</P>
+<P>I had to clutch at one of the stays for support, dazzled as I was by the
+light after my forty-eight hours’ imprisonment in complete obscurity.</P>
+<P>On the deck a dozen men with rough, weather-beaten faces come and go—very
+dissimilar types of men, to whom it would be impossible to attribute any
+particular nationality. They scarcely take any notice of me.</P>
+<P>As to the schooner, I estimate that she registers from two hundred and fifty
+to three hundred tons. She has a fairly wide beam, her masts are strong and
+lofty, and her large spread of canvas must carry her along at a spanking rate in
+a good breeze.</P>
+<P>Aft, a grizzly-faced man is at the wheel, and he is keeping her head to the
+sea that is running pretty high.</P>
+<P>I try to find out the name of the vessel, but it is not to be seen anywhere,
+even on the life-buoys.</P>
+<P>I walk up to one of the sailors and inquire:</P>
+<P>“What is the name of this ship?�</P>
+<P>No answer, and I fancy the man does not understand me.</P>
+<P>“Where is the captain?� I continue.</P>
+<P>But the sailor pays no more heed to this than he did to the previous
+question.</P>
+<P>I turn on my heel and go forward.</P>
+<P>Above the forward hatchway a bell is suspended. Maybe the name of the
+schooner is engraved upon it. I examine it, but can find no name upon it.</P>
+<P>I then return to the stern and address the man at the wheel. He gazes at me
+sourly, shrugs his shoulders, and bending, grasps the spokes of the wheel
+solidly, and brings the schooner, which had been headed off by a large wave from
+port, stem on to sea again.</P>
+<P>Seeing that nothing is to be got from that quarter, I turn away and look
+about to see if I can find Thomas Roch, but I do not perceive him anywhere. Is
+he not on board? He must be. They could have had no reason for carrying me off
+alone. No one could have had any idea that I was Simon Hart, the engineer, and
+even had they known it what interest could they have had in me, and what could
+they expect of me?</P>
+<P>Therefore, as Roch is not on deck, I conclude that he is locked in one of the
+cabins, and trust he has met with better treatment than his ex-guardian.</P>
+<P>But what is this—and how on earth could I have failed to notice it before?
+How is this schooner moving? Her sails are furled—there is not an inch of canvas
+set—the wind has fallen, and the few puffs that occasionally come from the east
+are unfavorable, in view of the fact that we are going in that very direction.
+And yet the schooner speeds through the sea, her bows down, throwing off clouds
+of foam, and leaving a long, milky, undulating trail in her wake.</P>
+<P>Is she a steam-yacht? No—there is not a smokestack about her. Is she
+propelled by electricity—by a battery of accumulators, or by piles of great
+power that work her screw and send her along at this rate?</P>
+<P>I can come to no other conclusion. In any case she must be fitted with a
+screw, and by leaning over the stern I shall be able to see it, and can find out
+what sets it working afterwards.</P>
+<P>The man at the wheel watches me ironically as I approach, but makes no effort
+to prevent me from looking over.</P>
+<P>I gaze long and earnestly, but there is no foaming and seething of the water
+such as is invariably caused by the revolutions of the screw—naught but the long
+white furrow that a sailing vessel leaves behind is discernible in the
+schooner’s wake.</P>
+<P>Then, what kind of a machine is it that imparts such a marvellous speed to
+the vessel? As I have already said, the wind is against her, and there is a
+heavy swell on.</P>
+<P>I must—I will know. No one pays the slightest attention, and I again go
+forward.</P>
+<P>As I approach the forecastle I find myself face to face with a man who is
+leaning nonchalantly on the raised hatchway and who is watching me. He seems to
+be waiting for me to speak to him.</P>
+<P>I recognize him instantly. He is the person who accompanied the Count
+d’Artigas during the latter’s visit to Healthful House. There can be no
+mistake—it is he right enough.</P>
+<P>It was, then, that rich foreigner who abducted Thomas Roch, and I am on board
+the <I>Ebba</I> his schooner-yacht which is so well known on the American
+coast!</P>
+<P>The man before me will enlighten me about what I want to know. I remember
+that he and the Count spoke English together.</P>
+<P>I take him to be the captain of the schooner.</P>
+<P>“Captain,� I say, “you are the person I saw at Healthful House. You remember
+me, of course?�</P>
+<P>He looks me up and down but does not condescend to reply.</P>
+<P>“I am Warder Gaydon, the attendant of Thomas Roch,� I continue, “and I want
+to know why you have carried me off and placed me on board this schooner?�</P>
+<P>The captain interrupts me with a sign. It is not made to me, however, but to
+some sailors standing near.</P>
+<P>They catch me by the arms, and taking no notice of the angry movement that I
+cannot restrain, bundle me down the hatchway. The hatchway stair in reality, I
+remark, is a perpendicular iron ladder, at the bottom of which, to right and
+left, are some cabins, and forward, the men’s quarters.</P>
+<P>Are they going to put me back in my dark prison at the bottom of the
+hold?</P>
+<P>No. They turn to the left and push me into a cabin. It is lighted by a
+port-hole, which is open, and through which the fresh air comes in gusts from
+the briny. The furniture consists of a bunk, a chair, a chest of drawers, a
+wash-hand-stand and a table.</P>
+<P>The latter is spread for dinner, and I sit down. Then the cook’s mate comes
+in with two or three dishes. He is a colored lad, and as he is about to
+withdraw, I try to question him, but he, too, vouchsafes no reply. Perhaps he
+doesn’t understand me.</P>
+<P>The door is closed, and I fall to and eat with an excellent appetite, with
+the intention of putting off all further questioning till some future occasion
+when I shall stand a chance of getting answered.</P>
+<P>It is true I am a prisoner, but this time I am comfortable enough, and I hope
+I shall be permitted to occupy this cabin for the remainder of the voyage, and
+not be lowered into that black hole again.</P>
+<P>I now give myself up to my thoughts, the first of which is that it was the
+Count d’Artigas who planned the abduction; that it was he who is responsible for
+the kidnapping of Thomas Roch, and that consequently the French inventor must be
+just as comfortably installed somewhere on board the schooner.</P>
+<P>But who is this Count d’Artigas? Where does he hail from? If he has seized
+Thomas Roch, is it not because he is determined to secure the secret of the
+fulgurator at no matter what cost? Very likely, and I must therefore be careful
+not to betray my identity, for if they knew the truth, I should never be
+afforded a chance to get away.</P>
+<P>But what a lot of mysteries to clear up, how many inexplicable things to
+explain—the origin of this d’Artigas, his intentions as to the future, whither
+we are bound, the port to which the schooner belongs, and this mysterious
+progress through the water without sails and without screws, at a speed of at
+least ten knots an hour!</P>
+<P>The air becoming keener as night deepens, I close and secure the port-hole,
+and as my cabin is bolted on the outside, the best thing I can do is to get into
+my bunk and let myself be gently rocked to sleep by the broad Atlantic in this
+mysterious cradle, the <I>Ebba</I>.</P>
+<P>The next morning I rise at daybreak, and having performed my ablutions, dress
+myself and wait.</P>
+<P>Presently the idea of trying the door occurs to me. I find that it has been
+unbolted, and pushing it open, climb the iron ladder and emerge on deck.</P>
+<P>The crew are washing down the deck, and standing aft and conversing are two
+men, one of whom is the captain. The latter manifests no surprise at seeing me,
+and indicates my presence to his companion by a nod.</P>
+<P>This other man, whom I have never before seen, is an individual of about
+fifty years of age, whose dark hair is streaked with gray. His features are
+delicately chiselled, his eyes are bright, and his expression is intelligent and
+not at all displeasing. He is somewhat of the Grecian type, and I have no doubt
+that he is of Hellenic origin when I hear him called Serko—Engineer Serko—by the
+Captain of the <I>Ebba</I>.</P>
+<P>As to the latter, he is called Spade—Captain Spade—and this name has an
+Italian twang about it. Thus there is a Greek, an Italian, and a crew recruited
+from every corner of the earth to man a schooner with a Norwegian name! This
+mixture strikes me as being suspicious.</P>
+<P>And that Count d’Artigas, with his Spanish name and Asiatic type, where does
+he come from?</P>
+<P>Captain Spade and Engineer Serko continue to converse in a low tone of voice.
+The former is keeping a sharp eye on the man at the wheel, who does not appear
+to pay any particular attention to the compass in front of him. He seems to pay
+more heed to the gestures of one of the sailors stationed forward, and who
+signals to him to put the helm to port or to starboard.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch is near them, gazing vacantly out upon the vast expanse which is
+not limited on the horizon by a single speck of land. Two sailors watch his
+every movement. It is evidently feared that the madman may possibly attempt to
+jump overboard.</P>
+<P>I wonder whether I shall be permitted to communicate with my ward.</P>
+<P>I walk towards him, and Captain Spade and Engineer Serko watch me.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch doesn’t see me coming, and I stand beside him. Still he takes no
+notice of me, and makes no movement. His eyes, which sparkle brightly, wander
+over the ocean, and he draws in deep breaths of the salt, vivifying atmosphere.
+Added to the air surcharged with oxygen is a magnificent sunset in a cloudless
+sky. Does he perceive the change in his situation? Has he already forgotten
+about Healthful House, the pavilion in which he was a prisoner, and Gaydon, his
+keeper? It is highly probable. The past has presumably been effaced from his
+memory and he lives solely in the present.</P>
+<P>In my opinion, even on the deck of the <I>Ebba</I>, in the middle of the sea,
+Thomas Roch is still the helpless, irresponsible man whom I tended for fifteen
+months. His intellectual condition has undergone no change, and his reason will
+return only when he is spoken to about his inventions. The Count d’Artigas is
+perfectly aware of this mental disposition, having had a proof of it during his
+visit, and he evidently relies thereon to surprise sooner or later the
+inventor’s secret. But with what object?</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch!� I exclaim.</P>
+<P>My voice seems to strike him, and after gazing at me fixedly for an instant
+he averts his eyes quickly.</P>
+<P>I take his hand and press it. He withdraws it brusquely and walks away,
+without having recognized me, in the direction of Captain Spade and Engineer
+Serko.</P>
+<P>Does he think of speaking to one or other of these men, and if they speak to
+him will he be more reasonable than he was with me, and reply to them?</P>
+<P>At this moment his physiognomy lights up with a gleam of intelligence. His
+attention, obviously, has been attracted by the queer progress of the schooner.
+He gazes at the masts and the furled sails. Then he turns back and stops at the
+place where, if the <I>Ebba</I> were a steamer, the funnel ought to be, and
+which in this case ought to be belching forth a cloud of black smoke.</P>
+<P>What appeared so strange to me evidently strikes Thomas Roch as being
+strange, too. He cannot explain what I found inexplicable, and, as I did, he
+walks aft to see if there is a screw.</P>
+<P>On the flanks of the <I>Ebba</I> a shoal of porpoises are sporting. Swift as
+is the schooner’s course they easily pass her, leaping and gambolling in their
+native element with surprising grace and agility.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch pays no attention to them, but leans over the stern.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko and Captain Spade, fearful lest he should fall overboard,
+hurry to him and drag him gently, but firmly, away.</P>
+<P>I observe from long experience that Roch is a prey to violent excitement. He
+turns about and gesticulates, uttering incoherent phrases the while.</P>
+<P>It is plain to me that another fit is coming on, similar to the one he had in
+the pavilion of Healthful House on the night we were abducted. He will have to
+be seized and carried down to his cabin, and I shall perhaps be summoned to
+attend to him.</P>
+<P>Meanwhile Engineer Serko and Captain Spade do not lose sight of him for a
+moment. They are evidently curious to see what he will do.</P>
+<P>After walking towards the mainmast and assuring himself that the sails are
+not set, he goes up to it and flinging his arms around it, tries with all his
+might to shake it, as though seeking to pull it down.</P>
+<P>Finding his efforts futile, he quits it and goes to the foremast, where the
+same performance is gone through. He waxes more and more excited. His vague
+utterances are followed by inarticulate cries.</P>
+<P>Suddenly he rushes to the port stays and clings to them, and I begin to fear
+that he will leap into the rigging and climb to the cross-tree, where he might
+be precipitated into the sea by a lurch of the ship.</P>
+<P>On a sign from Captain Spade, some sailors run up and try to make him
+relinquish his grasp of the stays, but are unable to do so. I know that during
+his fits he is endowed with the strength of ten men, and many a time I have been
+compelled to summon assistance in order to overpower him.</P>
+<P>Other members of the crew, however, come up, and the unhappy madman is borne
+to the deck, where two big sailors hold him down, despite his extraordinary
+strength.</P>
+<P>The only thing to do is to convey him to his cabin, and let him lie there
+till he gets over his fit. This is what will be done in conformity with orders
+given by a new-comer whose voice seems familiar to me.</P>
+<P>I turn and recognize him.</P>
+<P>He is the Count d’Artigas, with a frown on his face and an imperious manner,
+just as I had seen him at Healthful House.</P>
+<P>I at once advance toward him. I want an explanation and mean to have it.</P>
+<P>“By what right, sir?�—I begin.</P>
+<P>“By the right of might,� replies the Count.</P>
+<P>Then he turns on his heel, and Thomas Roch is carried below.</P>
+
+<a name="VII" id="VII"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER VII.</H4>
+<H4>TWO DAYS AT SEA.</H4>
+<P>Perhaps—should circumstances render it necessary—I may be induced to tell the
+Count d’Artigas that I am Simon Hart, the engineer. Who knows but what I may
+receive more consideration than if I remain Warder Gaydon? This measure,
+however, demands reflection. I have always been dominated by the thought that if
+the owner of the <I>Ebba</I> kidnapped the French inventor, it was in the hope
+of getting possession of Roch’s fulgurator, for which, neither the old nor new
+continent would pay the impossible price demanded. In that case the best thing I
+can do is to remain Warder Gaydon, on the chance that I may be allowed to
+continue in attendance upon him. In this way, if Thomas Roch should ever divulge
+his secret, I may learn what it was impossible to do at Healthful House, and can
+act accordingly.</P>
+<P>Meanwhile, where is the <I>Ebba</I> bound?—first question.</P>
+<P>Who and what is the Count d’Artigas?—second question.</P>
+<P>The first will be answered in a few days’ time, no doubt, in view of the
+rapidity with which we are ripping through the water, under the action of a
+means of propulsion that I shall end by finding out all about. As regards the
+second, I am by no means so sure that my curiosity will ever be gratified.</P>
+<P>In my opinion this enigmatical personage has an all important reason for
+hiding his origin, and I am afraid there is no indication by which I can gauge
+his nationality. If the Count d’Artigas speaks English fluently—and I was able
+to assure myself of that fact during his visit to Pavilion No. 17,—he pronounces
+it with a harsh, vibrating accent, which is not to be found among the peoples of
+northern latitudes. I do not remember ever to have heard anything like it in the
+course of my travels either in the Old or New World—unless it be the harshness
+characteristic of the idioms in use among the Malays. And, in truth, with his
+olive, verging on copper-tinted skin, his jet-black, crinkly hair, his piercing,
+deep-set, restless eyes, his square shoulders and marked muscular development,
+it is by no means unlikely that he belongs to one of the extreme Eastern
+races.</P>
+<P>I believe this name of d’Artigas is an assumed one, and his title of Count
+likewise. If his schooner bears a Norwegian name, he at any rate is not of
+Scandinavian origin. He has nothing of the races of Northern Europe about
+him.</P>
+<P>But whoever and whatever he may be, this man abducted Thomas Roch—and me with
+him—with no good intention, I’ll be bound.</P>
+<P>But what I should like to know is, has he acted as the agent of a foreign
+power, or on his own account? Does he wish to profit alone by Thomas Roch’s
+invention, and is he in the position to dispose of it profitably? That is
+another question that I cannot yet answer. Maybe I shall be able to find out
+from what I hear and see ere I make my escape, if escape be possible.</P>
+<P>The <I>Ebba</I> continues on her way in the same mysterious manner. I am free
+to walk about the deck, without, however, being able to go beyond the fore
+hatchway. Once I attempted to go as far as the bows where I could, by leaning
+over, perceive the schooner’s stem as it cut through the water, but acting, it
+was plain, on orders received, the watch on deck turned me back, and one of
+them, addressing me brusquely in harsh, grating English, said:</P>
+<P>“Go back! Go back! You are interfering with the working of the ship!�</P>
+<P>With the working of the ship! There was no working.</P>
+<P>Did they realize that I was trying to discover by what means the schooner was
+propelled? Very likely, and Captain Spade, who had looked on, must have known
+it, too. Even a hospital attendant could not fail to be astonished at the fact
+that a vessel without either screw or sails was going along at such a speed.
+However this may be, for some reason or other, the bows of the <I>Ebba</I> are
+barred to me.</P>
+<P>Toward ten o’clock a breeze springs up—a northwest wind and very
+favorable—and Captain Spade gives an order to the boatswain. The latter
+immediately pipes all hands on deck, and the mainsail, the foresail, staysail
+and jibs are hoisted. The work could not have been executed with greater
+regularity and discipline on board a man-of-war.</P>
+<P>The <I>Ebba</I> now has a slight list to port, and her speed is notably
+increased. But the motor continues to push her along, as is evident from the
+fact that the sails are not always as full as they ought to be if the schooner
+were bowling along solely under their action. However, they continue to render
+yeoman’s service, for the breeze has set in steadily.</P>
+<P>The sky is clear, for the clouds in the west disappear as soon as they attain
+the horizon, and the sunlight dances on the water.</P>
+<P>My preoccupation now is to find out as near as possible where we are bound
+for. I am a good-enough sailor to be able to estimate the approximate speed of a
+ship. In my opinion the <I>Ebba</I> has been travelling at the rate of from ten
+to eleven knots an hour. As to the direction we have been going in, it is always
+the same, and I have been able to verify this by casual glances at the binnacle.
+If the fore part of the vessel is barred to Warder Gaydon he has been allowed a
+free run of the remainder of it. Time and again I have glanced at the compass,
+and noticed that the needle invariably pointed to the east, or to be exact,
+east-southeast.</P>
+<P>These are the conditions in which we are navigating this part of the Atlantic
+Ocean, which is bounded on the west by the coast of the United States of
+America.</P>
+<P>I appeal to my memory. What are the islands or groups of islands to be found
+in the direction we are going, ere the continent of the Old World is
+reached?</P>
+<P>North Carolina, which the schooner quitted forty-eight hours ago, is
+traversed by the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude, and this parallel, extending
+eastward, must, if I mistake not, cut the African coast at Morocco. But along
+the line, about three thousand miles from America, are the Azores. Is it
+presumable that the <I>Ebba</I> is heading for this archipelago, that the port
+to which she belongs is somewhere in these islands which constitute one of
+Portugal’s insular domains? I cannot admit such an hypothesis.</P>
+<P>Besides, before the Azores, on the line of the thirty-fifth parallel, is the
+Bermuda group, which belongs to England. It seems to me to be a good deal less
+hypothetical that, if the Count d’Artigas was entrusted with the abduction of
+Thomas Roch by a European Power at all, it was by the United Kingdom of Great
+Britain and Ireland. The possibility, however, remains that he may be acting
+solely in his own interest.</P>
+<P>Three or four times during the day Count d’Artigas has come aft and remained
+for some time scanning the surrounding horizon attentively. When a sail or the
+smoke from a steamer heaves in sight he examines the passing vessel for a
+considerable time with a powerful telescope. I may add that he has not once
+condescended to notice my presence on deck.</P>
+<P>Now and then Captain Spade joins him and both exchange a few words in a
+language that I can neither understand nor recognize.</P>
+<P>It is with Engineer Serko, however, that the owner of the <I>Ebba</I>
+converses more readily than with anybody else, and the latter appears to be very
+intimate with him. The engineer is a good deal more free, more loquacious and
+less surly than his companions, and I wonder what position he occupies on the
+schooner. Is he a personal friend of the Count d’Artigas? Does he scour the seas
+with him, sharing the enviable life enjoyed by the rich yachtsman? He is the
+only man of the lot who seems to manifest, if not sympathy with, at least some
+interest in me.</P>
+<P>I have not seen Thomas Roch all day. He must be shut in his cabin, still
+under the influence of the fit that came upon him last night.</P>
+<P>I feel certain that this is so, when about three o’clock in the afternoon,
+just as he is about to go below, the Count beckons me to approach.</P>
+<P>I do not know what he wishes to say to me, this Count d’Artigas, but I do
+know what I will say to him.</P>
+<P>“Do these fits to which Thomas Roch is subject last long?� he asks me in
+English.</P>
+<P>“Sometimes forty-eight hours,� I reply.</P>
+<P>“What is to be done?�</P>
+<P>“Nothing at all. Let him alone until he falls asleep. After a night’s sleep
+the fit will be over and Thomas Roch will be his own helpless self again.�</P>
+<P>“Very well, Warder Gaydon, you will continue to attend him as you did at
+Healthful House, if it be necessary.�</P>
+<P>“To attend to him!�</P>
+<P>“Yes—on board the schooner—pending our arrival.�</P>
+<P>“Where?�</P>
+<P>“Where we shall be to-morrow afternoon,� replies the Count.</P>
+<P>To-morrow, I say to myself. Then we are not bound for the coast of Africa,
+nor even the Azores. There only remains the hypothesis that we are making for
+the Bermudas.</P>
+<P>Count d’Artigas is about to go down the hatchway when I interrogate him in my
+turn:</P>
+<P>“Sir,� I exclaim, “I desire to know, I have the right to know, where I am
+going, and——�</P>
+<P>“Here, Warder Gaydon,� he interrupted, “you have no rights. All you have to
+do is to answer when you are spoken to.� “I protest!�</P>
+<P>“Protest, then,� replies this haughty and imperious personage, glancing at me
+menacingly.</P>
+<P>Then he disappears down the hatchway, leaving me face to face with Engineer
+Serko.</P>
+<P>“If I were you, Warder Gaydon, I would resign myself to the inevitable,�
+remarks the latter with a smile. “When one is caught in a trap——�</P>
+<P>“One can cry out, I suppose?�</P>
+<P>“What is the use when no one is near to hear you?�</P>
+<P>“I shall be heard some day, sir.�</P>
+<P>“Some day—that’s a long way off. However, shout as much as you please.�</P>
+<P>And with this ironical advice, Engineer Serko leaves me to my own
+reflections.</P>
+<P>Towards four o’clock a big ship is reported about six miles off to the east,
+coming in our direction. She is moving rapidly and grows perceptibly larger.
+Black clouds of smoke pour out of her two funnels. She is a warship, for a
+narrow pennant floats from her main-mast, and though she is not flying any flag
+I take her to be an American cruiser.</P>
+<P>I wonder whether the <I>Ebba</I> will render her the customary salute as she
+passes.</P>
+<P>No; for the schooner suddenly changes her course with the evident intention
+of avoiding her.</P>
+<P>This proceeding on the part of such a suspicious yacht does not astonish me
+greatly. But what does cause me extreme surprise is Captain Spade’s way of
+manoeuvring.</P>
+<P>He runs forward to a signalling apparatus in the bows, similar to that by
+which orders are transmitted to the engine room of a steamer. As soon as he
+presses one of the buttons of this apparatus the <I>Ebba</I> veers off a point
+to the south-west.</P>
+<P>Evidently an order of “some kind� has been transmitted to the driver of the
+machine of “some kind� which causes this inexplicable movement of the schooner
+by the action of a motor of “some kind� the principle of which I cannot guess
+at.</P>
+<P>The result of this manoeuvre is that the <I>Ebba</I> slants away from the
+cruiser, whose course does not vary. Why should this warship cause a
+pleasure-yacht to turn out of its way? I have no idea.</P>
+<P>But the <I>Ebba</I> behaves in a very different manner when about six o’clock
+in the evening a second ship comes in sight on the port bow. This time, instead
+of seeking to avoid her, Captain Spade signals an order by means of the
+apparatus above referred to, and resumes his course to the east—which will bring
+him close to the said ship.</P>
+<P>An hour later, the two vessels are only about four miles from each other.</P>
+<P>The wind has dropped completely. The strange ship, which is a three-masted
+merchantman, is taking in her top-gallant sails. It is useless to expect the
+wind to spring up again during the night, and she will lay becalmed till
+morning. The <I>Ebba</I>, however, propelled by her mysterious motor, continues
+to approach her.</P>
+<P>It goes without saying, that Captain Spade has also begun to take in sail,
+and the work, under the direction of the boatswain Effrondat, is executed with
+the same precision and promptness that struck me before.</P>
+<P>When the twilight deepens into darkness, only a mile and a half separates the
+vessels.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade then comes up to me—I am standing on the starboard side—and
+unceremoniously orders me to go below.</P>
+<P>I can but obey. I remark, however, ere I go, that the boatswain has not
+lighted the head-lamps, whereas the lamps of the three-master shine
+brightly—green to starboard, and red to port.</P>
+<P>I entertain no doubt that the schooner intends to pass her without being
+seen; for though she has slackened speed somewhat, her direction has not been in
+any way modified.</P>
+<P>I enter my cabin under the impression of a vague foreboding. My supper is on
+the table, but uneasy, I know not why, I hardly touch it, and lie down to wait
+for sleep that does not come.</P>
+<P>I remain in this condition for two hours. The silence is unbroken save by the
+water that ripples along the vessel’s sides.</P>
+<P>My mind is full of the events of the past two days, and other thoughts crowd
+thickly upon me. To-morrow afternoon we shall reach our destination. To-morrow,
+I shall resume, on land, my attendance upon Thomas Roch, “if it be necessary,�
+said the Count d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>If, when I was thrown into that black hole at the bottom of the hold, I was
+able to perceive when the schooner started off across Pamlico Sound, I now feel
+that she has come to a stop. It must be about ten o’clock.</P>
+<P>Why has she stopped? When Captain Spade ordered me below, there was no land
+in sight. In this direction, there is no island until the Bermuda group is
+reached—at least there is none on the map—and we shall have to go another fifty
+or sixty miles before the Bermudas can be sighted by the lookout men. Not only
+has the <I>Ebba</I> stopped, but her immobility is almost complete. There is not
+a breath of wind, and scarcely any swell, and her slight, regular rocking is
+hardly perceptible.</P>
+<P>Then my thoughts turn to the merchantman, which was only a mile and a half
+off, on our bow, when I came below. If the schooner continued her course towards
+her, she must be almost alongside now. We certainly cannot be lying more than
+one or two cables’ length from her. The three-master, which was becalmed at
+sundown, could not have gone west. She must be close by, and if the night is
+clear, I shall be able to see her through the porthole.</P>
+<P>It occurs to me, that perhaps a chance of escape presents itself. Why should
+I not attempt it, since no hope of being restored to liberty is held out to me?
+It is true I cannot swim, but if I seize a life buoy and jump overboard, I may
+be able to reach the ship, if I am not observed by the watch on deck.</P>
+<P>I must quit my cabin and go up by the forward hatchway. I listen. I hear no
+noise, either in the men’s quarters, or on deck. The sailors must all be asleep
+at this hour. Here goes.</P>
+<P>I try to open the door, and find it is bolted on the outside, as I might have
+expected.</P>
+<P>I must give up the attempt, which, after all, had small chance of
+success.</P>
+<P>The best thing I can do, is to go to sleep, for I am weary of mind, if not of
+body. I am restless and racked by conflicting thoughts, and apprehensions of I
+know not what. Oh! if I could but sink into the blessed oblivion of slumber!</P>
+<P>I must have managed to fall asleep, for I have just been awakened by a
+noise—an unusual noise, such as I have not hitherto heard on board the
+schooner.</P>
+<P>Day begins to peer through the glass of my port-hole, which is turned towards
+the east. I look at my watch. It is half-past four.</P>
+<P>The first thing I wonder is, whether the <I>Ebba</I> has resumed her
+voyage.</P>
+<P>No, I am certain she has not, either by sail, or by her motor. The sea is as
+calm at sunrise as it was at sunset. If the <I>Ebba</I> has been going ahead
+while I slept, she is at any rate, stationary now.</P>
+<P>The noise to which I referred, is caused by men hurrying to and fro on
+deck—by men heavily laden. I fancy I can also hear a similar noise in the hold
+beneath my cabin floor, the entrance to which is situated abaft the foremast. I
+also feel that something is scraping against the schooner’s hull. Have boats
+come alongside? Are the crew engaged in loading or unloading merchandise?</P>
+<P>And yet we cannot possibly have reached our journey’s end. The Count
+d’Artigas said that we should not reach our destination till this afternoon.
+Now, I repeat, she was, last night, fully fifty or sixty miles from the nearest
+land, the group of the Bermudas. That she could have returned westward, and can
+be in proximity to the American coast, is inadmissible, in view of the distance.
+Moreover, I have reason to believe that the <I>Ebba</I> has remained stationary
+all night. Before I fell asleep, I know she had stopped, and I now know that she
+is not moving.</P>
+<P>However, I shall see when I am allowed to go on deck. My cabin door is still
+bolted, I find on trying it; but I do not think they are likely to keep me here
+when broad daylight is on.</P>
+<P>An hour goes by, and it gradually gets lighter. I look out of my porthole.
+The ocean is covered by a mist, which the first rays of the sun will speedily
+disperse.</P>
+<P>I can, however, see for a half a mile, and if the three-masted merchantman is
+not visible, it is probably because she is lying off the other, or port, side of
+the <I>Ebba</I>.</P>
+<P>Presently I hear a key turned in my door, and the bolts drawn. I push the
+door open and clamber up the iron ladder to the deck, just as the men are
+battening down the cover of the hold.</P>
+<P>I look for the Count d’Artigas, but do not see him. He has not yet left his
+cabin.</P>
+<P>Aft, Captain Spade and Engineer Serko are superintending the stowing of some
+bales, which have doubtless been hoisted from the hold. This explains the noisy
+operations that were going on when I was awakened. Obviously, if the crew are
+getting out the cargo, we are approaching the end of our voyage. We are not far
+from port, and perhaps in a few hours, the schooner will drop anchor.</P>
+<P>But what about the sailing ship that was to port of us? She ought to be in
+the same place, seeing that there has been and is no wind.</P>
+<P>I look for her, but she is nowhere to be seen. There is not a sail, not a
+speck on the horizon either east, west, north or south.</P>
+<P>After cogitating upon the circumstance I can only arrive at the following
+conclusion, which, however, can only be accepted under reserve: Although I did
+not notice it, the <I>Ebba</I> resumed her voyage while I slept, leaving the
+three-master becalmed behind her, and this is why the merchantman is no longer
+visible.</P>
+<P>I am careful not to question Captain Spade about it, nor even Engineer Serko,
+as I should certainly receive no answer.</P>
+<P>Besides, at this moment Captain Spade goes to the signalling apparatus and
+presses one of the buttons on the upper disk. Almost immediately the <I>Ebba</I>
+gives a jerk, then with her sails still furled, she starts off eastward
+again.</P>
+<P>Two hours later the Count d’Artigas comes up through the main hatchway and
+takes his customary place aft. Serko and Captain Spade at once approach and
+engage in conversation with him.</P>
+<P>All three raise their telescopes and sweep the horizon from southeast to
+northeast.</P>
+<P>No one will be surprised to learn that I gaze intently in the same direction;
+but having no telescope I cannot distinguish anything.</P>
+<P>The midday meal over we all return on deck—all with the exception of Thomas
+Roch, who has not quitted his cabin.</P>
+<P>Towards one o’clock land is sighted by the lookout man on the foretop
+cross-tree. Inasmuch as the <I>Ebba</I> is bowling along at great speed I shall
+soon be able to make out the coast line.</P>
+<P>In effect, two hours later a vague semicircular line that curves outward is
+discernible about eight miles off. As the schooner approaches it becomes more
+distinct. It is a mountain, or at all events very high ground, and from its
+summit a cloud of smoke ascends.</P>
+<P>What! A volcano in these parts? It must then be——</P>
+
+<a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER VIII.</H4>
+<H4>BACK CUP.</H4>
+<P>In my opinion the <I>Ebba</I> could have struck no other group of islands but
+the Bermudas in this part of the Atlantic. This is clear from the distance
+covered from the American coast and the direction sailed in since we issued from
+Pamlico Sound. This direction has constantly been south-southeast, and the
+distance, judging from the <I>Ebba’s</I> rate of speed, which has scarcely
+varied, is approximately seven hundred and fifty miles.</P>
+<P>Still, the schooner does not slacken speed. The Count d’Artigas and Engineer
+Serko remain aft, by the man at the wheel. Captain Spade has gone forward.</P>
+<P>Are we not going to leave this island, which appears to be isolated, to the
+west?</P>
+<P>It does not seem likely, since it is still broad daylight, and the hour at
+which the <I>Ebba</I> was timed to arrive.</P>
+<P>All the sailors are drawn up on deck, awaiting orders, and Boatswain
+Effrondat is making preparations to anchor.</P>
+<P>Ere a couple of hours have passed I shall know all about it. It will be the
+first answer to one of the many questions that have perplexed me since the
+schooner put to sea.</P>
+<P>And yet it is most unlikely that the port to which the <I>Ebba</I> belongs is
+situated on one of the Bermuda islands, in the middle of an English
+archipelago—unless the Count d’Artigas has kidnapped Thomas Roch for the British
+government, which I cannot believe.</P>
+<P>I become aware that this extraordinary man is gazing at me with singular
+persistence. Although he can have no suspicion that I am Simon Hart, the
+engineer, he must be asking himself what I think of this adventure. If Warder
+Gaydon is but a poor devil, this poor devil will manifest as much unconcern as
+to what is in store for him as any gentleman could—even though he were the
+proprietor of this queer pleasure yacht. Still I am a little uneasy under his
+gaze.</P>
+<P>I dare say that if the Count d’Artigas could guess how certain things have
+suddenly become clear to me, he would not hesitate to have me thrown
+overboard.</P>
+<P>Prudence therefore commands me to be more circumspect than ever.</P>
+<P>Without giving rise to any suspicion—even in the mind of Engineer Serko—I
+have succeeded in raising a corner of the mysterious veil, and I begin to see
+ahead a bit.</P>
+<P>As the <I>Ebba</I> draws nearer, the island, or rather islet, towards which
+she is speeding shows more sharply against the blue background of the sky. The
+sun which has passed the zenith, shines full upon the western side. The islet is
+isolated, or at any rate I cannot see any others of the group to which it
+belongs, either to north or south.</P>
+<P>This islet, of curious contexture, resembles as near as possible a cup turned
+upside down, from which a fuliginous vapor arises. Its summit—the bottom of the
+cup, if you like—is about three hundred feet above the level of the sea, and its
+flanks, which are steep and regular, are as bare as the sea-washed rocks at its
+base.</P>
+<P>There is another peculiarity about it which must render the islet easily
+recognizable by mariners approaching it from the west, and this is a rock which
+forms a natural arch at the base of the mountain—the handle of the cup, so to
+speak—and through which the waves wash as freely as the sunshine passes. Seen
+this way the islet fully justifies the name of Back Cup given to it.</P>
+<P>Well, I know and recognize this islet! It is situated at the extremity of the
+archipelago of the Bermudas. It is the “reversed cup� that I had occasion to
+visit a few years ago—No, I am not mistaken. I then climbed over the calcareous
+and crooked rocks at its base on the east side. Yes, it is Back Cup, sure
+enough!</P>
+<P>Had I been less self-possessed I might have uttered an exclamation of
+surprise—and satisfaction—which, with good reason, would have excited the
+attention and suspicion of the Count d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>These are the circumstances under which I came to explore Back Cup while on a
+visit to Bermuda.</P>
+<P>This archipelago, which is situated about seven hundred and fifty miles from
+North Carolina is composed of several hundred islands or islets. Its centre is
+crossed by the sixty-fourth meridian and the thirty-second parallel. Since the
+Englishman Lomer was shipwrecked and cast up there in 1609, the Bermudas have
+belonged to the United Kingdom, and in consequence the colonial population has
+increased to ten thousand inhabitants. It was not for its productions of cotton,
+coffee, indigo, and arrowroot that England annexed the group—seized it, one
+might say; but because it formed a splendid maritime station in that part of the
+Ocean, and in proximity to the United States of America. Possession was taken of
+it without any protest on the part of other powers, and Bermuda is now
+administered by a British governor with the addition of a council and a General
+Assembly.</P>
+<P>The principal islands of the archipelago are called St. David, Somerset,
+Hamilton, and St. George. The latter has a free port, and the town of the same
+name is also the capital of the group.</P>
+<P>The largest of these isles is not more than seventeen miles long and five
+wide. Leaving out the medium-sized ones, there remains but an agglomeration of
+islets and reefs scattered over an area of twelve square leagues.</P>
+<P>Although the climate of Bermuda is very healthy, very salubrious, the isles
+are nevertheless frightfully beaten by the heavy winter tempests of the
+Atlantic, and their approach by navigators presents certain difficulties.</P>
+<P>What the archipelago especially lacks are rivers and rios. However, as
+abundant rains fall frequently, this drawback is got over by the inhabitants,
+who treasure up the heaven-sent water for household and agricultural purposes.
+This has necessitated the construction of vast cisterns which the downfalls keep
+filled. These works of engineering skill justly merit the admiration they
+receive and do honor to the genius of man.</P>
+<P>It was in connection with the setting up of these cisterns that I made the
+trip, as well as out of curiosity to inspect the fine works.</P>
+<P>I obtained from the company of which I was the engineer in New Jersey a
+vacation of several weeks, and embarked at New York for the Bermudas.</P>
+<P>While I was staying on Hamilton Island, in the vast port of Southampton, an
+event occurred of great interest to geologists.</P>
+<P>One day a whole flotilla of fishers, men, women and children, entered
+Southampton Harbor. For fifty years these families had lived on the east coast
+of Back Cup, where they had erected log-cabins and houses of stone. Their
+position for carrying on their industry was an exceptionally favorable one, for
+the waters teem with fish all the year round, and in March and April whales
+abound.</P>
+<P>Nothing had hitherto occurred to disturb their tranquil existence. They were
+quite contented with their rough lot, which was rendered less onerous by the
+facility of communication with Hamilton and St. George. Their solid barks took
+cargoes of fish there, which they exchanged for the necessities of life.</P>
+<P>Why had they thus abandoned the islet with the intention, as it pretty soon
+appeared, of never returning to it? The reason turned out to be that they no
+longer considered themselves in safety there.</P>
+<P>A couple of months previously they had been at first surprised, then alarmed,
+by several distinct detonations that appeared to have taken place in the
+interior of the mountain. At the same time smoke and flames issued from the
+summit—or the bottom of the reversed cup, if you like. Now no one had ever
+suspected that the islet was of volcanic origin, or that there was a crater at
+the top, no one having been able to climb its sides. Now, however, there could
+be no possible doubt that the mountain was an ancient volcano that had suddenly
+become active again and threatened the village with destruction.</P>
+<P>During the ensuing two months internal rumblings and explosions continued to
+be heard, which were accompanied by bursts of flame from the top—especially at
+night. The island was shaken by the explosions—the shocks could be distinctly
+felt. All these phenomena were indicative of an imminent eruption, and there was
+no spot at the base of the mountain that could afford any protection from the
+rivers of lava that would inevitably pour down its smooth, steep slopes and
+overwhelm the village in their boiling flood. Besides, the very mountain might
+be destroyed in the eruption.</P>
+<P>There was nothing for the population exposed to such a dire catastrophe to do
+but leave. This they did. Their humble Lares and Penates, in fact all their
+belongings, were loaded into the fishing-smacks, and the entire colony sought
+refuge in Southhampton Harbor.</P>
+<P>The news that a volcano, that had presumably been smouldering for centuries
+at the western extremity of the group, showed signs of breaking out again,
+caused a sensation throughout the Bermudas. But while some were terrified, the
+curiosity of others was aroused, mine included. The phenomenon was worth
+investigation, even if the simple fisher-folk had exaggerated.</P>
+<P>Back Cup, which, as already stated, lies at the western extremity of the
+archipelago, is connected therewith by a chain of small islets and reefs, which
+cannot be approached from the east. Being only three hundred feet in altitude,
+it cannot be seen either from St. George or Hamilton. I joined a party of
+explorers and we embarked in a cutter that landed us on the island, and made our
+way to the abandoned village of the Bermudan fishers.</P>
+<P>The internal crackings and detonations could be plainly heard, and a sheaf of
+smoke was swayed by the wind at the summit.</P>
+<P>Beyond a peradventure the ancient volcano had been started again by the
+subterranean fire, and an eruption at any moment was to be apprehended.</P>
+<P>In vain we attempted to climb to the mouth of the crater. The mountain
+sheered down at an angle of from seventy-five to eighty degrees, and its smooth,
+slippery sides afforded absolutely no foothold. Anything more barren than this
+rocky freak of nature it would be difficult to conceive. Only a few tufts of
+wild herbs were to be seen upon the whole island, and these seemed to have no
+<I>raison d’être</I>.</P>
+<P>Our explorations were therefore necessarily limited, and in view of the
+active symptoms of danger that manifested themselves, we could but approve the
+action of the villagers in abandoning the place; for we entertained no doubt
+that its destruction was imminent.</P>
+<P>These were the circumstances in which I was led to visit Back Cup, and no one
+will consequently be surprised at the fact that I recognized it immediately we
+hove in sight of the queer structure.</P>
+<P>No, I repeat, the Count d’Artigas would probably not be overpleased if he
+were aware that Warder Gaydon is perfectly acquainted with this islet, even if
+the <I>Ebba</I> was to anchor there—which, as there is no port, is, to say the
+least, extremely improbable.</P>
+<P>As we draw nearer, I attentively examine Back Cup. Not one of its former
+inhabitants has been induced to return, and, as it is absolutely deserted, I
+cannot imagine why the schooner should visit the place.</P>
+<P>Perhaps, however, the Count d’Artigas and his companions have no intention of
+landing there. Even though the <I>Ebba</I> should find temporary shelter between
+the rocky sides of a narrow creek there is nothing to give ground to the
+supposition that a wealthy yachtsman would have the remotest idea of fixing upon
+as his residence an arid cone exposed to all the terrible tempests of the
+Western Atlantic. To live here is all very well for rustic fishermen, but not
+for the Count d’Artigas, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade and his crew.</P>
+<P>Back Cup is now only half a mile off, and the seaweed thrown up on its rocky
+base is plainly discernible. The only living things upon it are the sea-gulls
+and other birds that circle in clouds around the smoking crater.</P>
+<P>When she is only two cable’s lengths off, the schooner slackens speed, and
+then stops at the entrance of a sort of natural canal formed by a couple of
+reefs that barely rise above the water.</P>
+<P>I wonder whether the <I>Ebba</I> will venture to try the dangerous feat of
+passing through it. I do not think so. She will probably lay where she is—though
+why she should do so I do not know—for a few hours, and then continue her voyage
+towards the east.</P>
+<P>However this may be I see no preparations in progress for dropping anchor.
+The anchors are suspended in their usual places, the cables have not been
+cleared, and no motion has been made to lower a single boat.</P>
+<P>At this moment Count d’Artigas, Engineer Serko and Captain Spade go forward
+and perform some manoeuvre that is inexplicable to me.</P>
+<P>I walk along the port side of the deck until I am near the foremast, and then
+I can see a small buoy that the sailors are hoisting in. Almost immediately the
+water, at the same spot becomes dark and I observe a black mass rising to the
+surface. Is it a big whale rising for air, and is the <I>Ebba</I> in danger of
+being shattered by a blow from the monster’s tail?</P>
+<P>Now I understand! At last the mystery is solved. I know what was the motor
+that caused the schooner to go at such an extraordinary speed without sails and
+without a screw. Her indefatigable motor is emerging from the sea, after having
+towed her from the coast of America to the archipelago of the Bermudas. There it
+is, floating alongside—a submersible boat, a submarine tug, worked by a screw
+set in motion by the current from a battery of accumulators or powerful electric
+piles.</P>
+<P>On the upper part of the long cigar-shaped iron tug is a platform in the
+middle of which is the “lid� by which an entrance is effected. In the fore part
+of the platform projects a periscope, or lookout, formed by port-holes or lenses
+through which an electric searchlight can throw its gleam for some distance
+under water in front of and on each side of the tug. Now relieved of its ballast
+of water the boat has risen to the surface. Its lid will open and fresh air will
+penetrate it to every part. In all probability, if it remained submerged during
+the day it rose at night and towed the <I>Ebba</I> on the surface.</P>
+<P>But if the mechanical power of the tug is produced by electricity the latter
+must be furnished by some manufactory where it is stored, and the means of
+procuring the batteries is not to be found on Back Cup, I suppose.</P>
+<P>And then, why does the <I>Ebba</I> have recourse to this submarine towing
+system? Why is she not provided with her own means of propulsion, like other
+pleasure-boats?</P>
+<P>These are things, however, upon which I have at present no leisure to
+ruminate.</P>
+<P>The lid of the tug opens and several men issue on to the platform. They are
+the crew of this submarine boat, and Captain Spade has been able to communicate
+with them and transmit his orders as to the direction to be taken by means of
+electric signals connected with the tug by a wire that passes along the stem of
+the schooner.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko approaches me and says, pointing to the boat:</P>
+<P>“Get in.�</P>
+<P>“Get in!� I exclaim.</P>
+<P>“Yes, in the tug, and look sharp about it.�</P>
+<P>As usual there is nothing for it but to obey. I hasten to comply with the
+order and clamber over the side.</P>
+<P>At the same time Thomas Roch appears on deck accompanied by one of the crew.
+He appears to be very calm, and very indifferent too, and makes no resistance
+when he is lifted over and lowered into the tug. When he has been taken in,
+Count d’Artigas and Engineer Serko follow.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade and the crew of the <I>Ebba</I> remain behind, with the
+exception of four men who man the dinghy, which has been lowered. They have hold
+of a long hawser, with which the schooner is probably to be towed through the
+reef. Is there then a creek in the middle of the rocks where the vessel is
+secure from the breakers? Is this the port to which she belongs?</P>
+<P>They row off with the hawser and make the end fast to a ring in the reef.
+Then the crew on board haul on it and in five minutes the schooner is so
+completely lost to sight among the rocks that even the tip of her mast could not
+be seen from the sea.</P>
+<P>Who in Bermuda imagines that a vessel is accustomed to lay up in this secret
+creek? Who in America would have any idea that the rich yachtsman so well known
+in all the eastern ports abides in the solitude of Back Cup mountain?</P>
+<P>Twenty minutes later the dinghy returns with the four men towards the tug
+which was evidently waiting for them before proceeding—where?</P>
+<P>They climb on board, the little boat is made fast astern, a movement is felt,
+the screw revolves rapidly and the tug skims along the surface to Back Cup,
+skirting the reefs to the south.</P>
+<P>Three cable’s lengths further on, another tortuous canal is seen that leads
+to the island. Into this the tug enters. When it gets close inshore, an order is
+given to two men who jump out and haul the dinghy up on a narrow sandy beach out
+of the reach of wave or weed, and where it will be easily get-at-able when
+wanted.</P>
+<P>This done the sailors return to the tug and Engineer Serko signs to me to go
+below.</P>
+<P>A short iron ladder leads into a central cabin where various bales and
+packages are stored, and for which no doubt there was not room in the hold of
+the schooner. I am pushed into a side cabin, the door is shut upon me, and here
+I am once more a prisoner in profound darkness.</P>
+<P>I recognize the cabin the moment I enter it. It is the place in which I spent
+so many long hours after our abduction from Healthful House, and in which I was
+confined until well out at sea off Pamlico Sound.</P>
+<P>It is evident that Thomas Roch has been placed in a similar compartment.</P>
+<P>A loud noise is heard, the banging of the lid as it closes, and the tug
+begins to sink as the water is admitted to the tanks.</P>
+<P>This movement is succeeded by another—a movement that impels the boat through
+the water.</P>
+<P>Three minutes later it stops, and I feel that we are rising to the surface
+again.</P>
+<P>Another noise made by the lid being raised.</P>
+<P>The door of my cabin opens, and I rush out and clamber on to the
+platform.</P>
+<P>I look around and find that the tug has penetrated to the interior of Back
+Cup mountain.</P>
+<P>This is the mysterious retreat where Count d’Artigas lives with his
+companions—out of the world, so to speak.</P>
+
+<a name="IX" id="IX"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER IX.</H4>
+<H4>INSIDE BACK CUP</H4>
+<P>The next morning I am able to make a first inspection of the vast cavern of
+Back Cup. No one seeks to prevent me.</P>
+<P>What a night I have passed! What strange visions I have seen! With what
+impatience I waited for morning!</P>
+<P>I was conducted to a grotto about a hundred paces from the edge of the lake
+where the tug stopped. The grotto, twelve feet by ten, was lighted by an
+incandescent lamp, and fitted with an entrance door that was closed upon me.</P>
+<P>I am not surprised that electricity is employed in lighting the interior of
+the cavern, as it is also used in the submarine boat. But where is it generated?
+Where does it come from? Is there a manufactory installed somewhere or other in
+this vast crypt, with machinery, dynamos and accumulators?</P>
+<P>My cell is neatly furnished with a table on which provisions are spread, a
+bunk with bedding, a basket chair, a wash-hand-stand with toilet set, and a
+closet containing linen and various suits of clothes. In a drawer of the table I
+find paper, ink and pens.</P>
+<P>My dinner consists of fresh fish, preserved meat, bread of excellent quality,
+ale and whisky; but I am so excited that I scarcely touch it. Yet I feel that I
+ought to fortify myself and recover my calmness of mind. I must and will solve
+the mystery surrounding the handful of men who burrow in the bowels of this
+island.</P>
+<P>So it is under the carapace of Back Cup that Count d’Artigas has established
+himself! This cavity, the existence of which is not even suspected, is his home
+when he is not sailing in the <I>Ebba</I> along the coasts of the new world or
+the old. This is the unknown retreat he has discovered, to which access is
+obtained by a submarine passage twelve or fifteen feet below the surface of the
+ocean.</P>
+<P>Why has he severed himself from the world? What has been his past? If, as I
+suspect, this name of d’Artigas and this title of Count are assumed, what motive
+has he for hiding his identity? Has he been banished, is he an outcast of
+society that he should have selected this place above all others? Am I not in
+the power of an evildoer anxious to ensure impunity for his crimes and to defy
+the law by seeking refuge in this undiscoverable burrow? I have the right of
+supposing anything in the case of this suspicious foreigner, and I exercise
+it.</P>
+<P>Then the question to which I have never been able to suggest a satisfactory
+answer once more surges into my mind. Why was Thomas Roch abducted from
+Healthful House in the manner already fully described? Does the Count d’Artigas
+hope to force from him the secret of his fulgurator with a view to utilizing it
+for the defence of Back Cup in case his retreat should by chance be discovered?
+Hardly. It would be easy enough to starve the gang out of Back Cup, by
+preventing the tug from supplying them with provisions. On the other hand, the
+schooner could never break through the investing lines, and if she did her
+description would be known in every port. In this event, of what possible use
+would Thomas Roch’s invention be to the Count d’Artigas Decidedly, I cannot
+understand it!</P>
+<P>About seven o’clock in the morning I jump out of bed. If I am a prisoner in
+the cavern I am at least not imprisoned in my grotto cell. The door yields when
+I turn the handle and push against it, and I walk out.</P>
+<P>Thirty yards in front of me is a rocky plane, forming a sort of quay that
+extends to right and left. Several sailors of the <I>Ebba</I> are engaged in
+landing bales and stores from the interior of the tug, which lays alongside a
+little stone jetty.</P>
+<P>A dim light to which my eyes soon grow accustomed envelops the cavern and
+comes from a hole in the centre of the roof, through which the blue sky can be
+seen.</P>
+<P>“It is from that hole that the smoke which can be seen for such a distance
+issues,� I say to myself, and this discovery suggests a whole series of
+reflections.</P>
+<P>Back Cup, then, is not a volcano, as was supposed—as I supposed myself. The
+flames that were seen a few years ago, and the columns of smoke that still rise
+were and are produced artificially. The detonations and rumblings that so
+alarmed the Bermudan fishers were not caused by the internal workings of nature.
+These various phenomena were fictitious. They manifested themselves at the mere
+will of the owner of the island, who wanted to scare away the inhabitants who
+resided on the coast. He succeeded, this Count d’Artigas, and remains the sole
+and undisputed monarch of the mountain. By exploding gunpowder, and burning
+seaweed swept up in inexhaustible quantities by the ocean, he has been able to
+simulate a volcano upon the point of eruption and effectually scare would-be
+settlers away!</P>
+<P>The light becomes stronger as the sun rises higher, the daylight streams
+through the fictitious crater, and I shall soon be able to estimate the cavern’s
+dimensions. This is how I calculate:</P>
+<P>Exteriorly the island of Back Cup, which is as nearly as possible circular,
+measures two hundred and fifty yards in circumference, and presents an interior
+superficies of about six acres. The sides of the mountain at its base vary in
+thickness from thirty to a hundred yards.</P>
+<P>It therefore follows that this excavation practically occupies the whole of
+that part of Back Cup island which appears above water. As to the length of the
+submarine tunnel by which communication is obtained with the outside, and
+through which the tug passed, I estimate that it is fifty yards in length.</P>
+<P>The size of the cavern can be judged from these approximate figures. But vast
+as it is, I remember that there are caverns of larger dimensions both in the old
+and new worlds. For instance in Carniole, Northumberland, Derbyshire, Piedmont,
+the Balearics, Hungary and California are larger grottoes than Back Cup, and
+those at Han-sur-Lesse in Belgium, and the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, are also
+more extensive. The latter contain no fewer than two hundred and twenty-six
+domes, seven rivers, eight cataracts, thirty two wells of unknown depth, and an
+immense lake which extends over six or seven leagues, the limit of which has
+never been reached by explorers.</P>
+<P>I know these Kentucky grottoes, having visited them, as many thousands of
+tourists have done. The principal one will serve as a comparison to Back Cup.
+The roof of the former, like that of the latter, is supported by pillars of
+various lengths, which give it the appearance of a Gothic cathedral, with naves
+and aisles, though it lacks the architectural regularity of a religious edifice.
+The only difference is that whereas the roof of the Kentucky grotto is over four
+hundred feet high, that of Back Cup is not above two hundred and twenty at that
+part of it where the round hole through which issue the smoke and flames is
+situated.</P>
+<P>Another peculiarity, and a very important one, that requires to be pointed
+out, is that whereas the majority of the grottoes referred to are easily
+accessible, and were therefore bound to be discovered some time or other, the
+same remark does not apply to Back Cup. Although it is marked on the map as an
+island forming part of the Bermuda group, how could any one imagine that it is
+hollow, that its rocky sides are only the walls of an enormous cavern? In order
+to make such a discovery it would be necessary to get inside, and to get inside
+a submarine apparatus similar to that of the Count d’Artigas would be
+necessary.</P>
+<P>In my opinion this strange yachtsman’s discovery of the tunnel by which he
+has been able to found this disquieting colony of Back Cup must have been due to
+pure chance.</P>
+<P>Now I turn my attention to the lake and observe that it is a very small one,
+measuring not more than four hundred yards in circumference. It is, properly
+speaking, a lagoon, the rocky sides of which are perpendicular. It is large
+enough for the tug to work about in it, and holds enough water too, for it must
+be one hundred and twenty-five feet deep.</P>
+<P>It goes without saying that this crypt, given its position and structure,
+belongs to the category of those which are due to the encroachments of the sea.
+It is at once of Neptunian and Plutonian origin, like the grottoes of Crozon and
+Morgate in the bay of Douarnenez in France, of Bonifacio on the Corsican coast,
+Thorgatten in Norway, the height of which is estimated at over three hundred
+feet, the catavaults of Greece, the grottoes of Gibraltar in Spain, and Tourana
+in Cochin China, whose carapace indicates that they are all the product of this
+dual geological labor.</P>
+<P>The islet of Back Cup is in great part formed of calcareous rocks, which
+slope upwards gently from the lagoon towards the sides and are separated from
+each other by narrow beaches of fine sand. Thick layers of seaweed that have
+been swept through the tunnel by the tide and thrown up around the lake have
+been piled into heaps, some of which are dry and some still wet, but all of
+which exhale the strong odor of the briny ocean. This, however, is not the only
+combustible employed by the inhabitants of Back Cup, for I see an enormous store
+of coal that must have been brought by the schooner and the tug. But it is the
+incineration of masses of dried seaweed that causes the smoke vomited forth by
+the crater of the mountain.</P>
+<P>Continuing my walk I perceive on the northern side of the lagoon the
+habitations of this colony of troglodytes—do they not merit the appellation?
+This part of the cavern, which is known as the Beehive, fully justifies its
+name, for it is honeycombed by cells excavated in the limestone rock and in
+which these human bees—or perhaps they should rather be called wasps—reside.</P>
+<P>The lay of the cavern to the east is very different. Here hundreds of pillars
+of all shapes rise to the dome, and form a veritable forest of stone trees
+through the sinuous avenues of which one can thread one’s way to the extreme
+limit of the place.</P>
+<P>By counting the cells of the Beehive I calculate that Count d’Artigas’
+companions number from eighty to one hundred.</P>
+<P>As my eye wanders over the place I notice that the Count is standing in front
+of one of the cells, which is isolated from the others, and talking to Engineer
+Serko and Captain Spade. After a while they stroll down to the jetty alongside
+which the tug is lying.</P>
+<P>A dozen men have been emptying the merchandise out of the tug and
+transporting the goods in boats to the other side, where great cellars have been
+excavated in the rocks and form the storehouses of the band.</P>
+<P>The orifice of the tunnel is not visible in the waters of the lagoon, and I
+remember that when I was brought here I felt the tug sink several feet before it
+entered. In this respect therefore Back Cup does not resemble either the
+grottoes of Staffa or Morgate, entrance to which is always open, even at high
+tide. There may be another passage communicating with the coast, either natural
+or artificial, and this I shall have to make my business to find out.</P>
+<P>The island well merits its name of Back Cup. It is indeed a gigantic cup
+turned upside down, not only to outward appearance, but inwardly, too, though
+people are ignorant of the fact.</P>
+<P>I have already remarked that the Beehive is situated to the north of the
+lagoon, that is to say to the left on entering by the tunnel. On the opposite
+side are the storerooms filled with provisions of all kinds, bales of
+merchandise, barrels of wine, beer, and spirits and various packets bearing
+different marks and labels that show that they came from all parts of the world.
+One would think that the cargoes of a score of ships had been landed here.</P>
+<P>A little farther on is a large wooden shed the nature of which is easily
+distinguishable. From a pole above it a network of thick copper wires extends
+which conducts the current to the powerful electric lights suspended from the
+roof or dome, and to the incandescent lamps in each of the cells of the hive. A
+large number of lamps are also installed among the stone pillars and light up
+the avenues to their extremities.</P>
+<P>“Shall I be permitted to roam about wherever I please?� I ask myself. I hope
+so. I cannot for the life of me see why the Count d’Artigas should prohibit me
+from doing so, for I cannot get farther than the surrounding walls of his
+mysterious domain. I question whether there is any other issue than the tunnel,
+and how on earth could I get through that?</P>
+<P>Besides, admitting that I am able to get through it, I cannot get off the
+island. My disappearance would be soon noticed, and the tug would take out a
+dozen men who would explore every nook and cranny. I should inevitably be
+recaptured, brought back to the Beehive, and deprived of my liberty for
+good.</P>
+<P>I must therefore give up all idea of making my escape, unless I can see that
+it has some chance of being successful, and if ever an opportunity does present
+itself I shall not be slow to take advantage of it.</P>
+<P>On strolling round by the rows of cells I am able to observe a few of these
+companions of the Count d’Artigas who are content to pass their monotonous
+existence in the depths of Back Cup. As I said before, calculating from the
+number of cells in the Beehive, there must be between eighty and a hundred of
+them.</P>
+<P>They pay no attention whatever to me as I pass, and on examining them closely
+it seems to me that they must have been recruited from every country. I do not
+distinguish any community of origin among them, not even a similarity by which
+they might be classed as North Americans, Europeans or Asiatics. The color of
+their skin shades from white to yellow and black—the black peculiar to Australia
+rather than to Africa. To sum up, they appear for the most part to pertain to
+the Malay races. I may add that the Count d’Artigas certainly belongs to that
+particular race which peoples the Dutch isles in the West Pacific, while
+Engineer Serko must be Levantine and Captain Spade of Italian origin.</P>
+<P>But if the inhabitants of Back Cup are not bound to each other by ties of
+race, they certainly are by instinct and inclination. What forbidding,
+savage-looking faces they have, to be sure! They are men of violent character
+who have probably never placed any restraint upon their passions, nor hesitated
+at anything, and it occurs to me that in all likelihood they have sought refuge
+in this cavern, where they fancy they can continue to defy the law with
+impunity, after a long series of crimes—robbery, murder, arson, and excesses of
+all descriptions committed together. In this case Back Cup is nothing but a lair
+of pirates, the Count d’Artigas is the leader of the band and Serko and Spade
+are his lieutenants.</P>
+<P>I cannot get this idea out of my head, and the more I consider the more
+convinced I am that I am right, especially as everything I see during my stroll
+about the cavern seems to confirm my opinion.</P>
+<P>However this may be, and whatever may be the circumstances that have brought
+them together in this place, Count d’Artigas’ companions appear to accept his
+all-powerful domination without question. On the other hand, if he keeps them
+under his iron heel by enforcing the severest discipline, certain advantages,
+some compensation, must accrue from the servitude to which they bow. What can
+this compensation be?</P>
+<P>Having turned that part of the bank under which the tunnel passes, I find
+myself on the opposite side of the lagoon, where are situated the storerooms
+containing the merchandise brought by the <I>Ebba</I> on each trip, and which
+contain a great quantity of bales.</P>
+<P>Beyond is the manufactory of electric energy. I gaze in at the windows as I
+pass and notice that it contains machines of the latest invention and highest
+attained perfection, which take up little space. Not one steam engine, with its
+more or less complicated mechanism and need of fuel, is to be seen in the place.
+As I had surmised, piles of extraordinary power supply the current to the lamps
+in the cavern, as well as to the dynamos of the tug. No doubt the current is
+also utilized for domestic purposes, such as warming the Beehive and cooking
+food, I can see that in a neighboring cavity it is applied to the alembics used
+to produce fresh water. At any rate the colonists of Back Cup are not reduced to
+catching the rain water that falls so abundantly upon the exterior of the
+mountain.</P>
+<P>A few paces from the electric power house is a large cistern that, save in
+the matter of proportions, is the counterpart of those I visited in Bermuda. In
+the latter place the cisterns have to supply the needs of over ten thousand
+people, this one of a hundred—what?</P>
+<P>I am not sure yet what to call them. That their chief had serious reasons for
+choosing the bowels of this island for his abiding place is obvious. But what
+were those reasons? I can understand monks shutting themselves behind their
+monastery walls with the intention of separating themselves from the world, but
+these subjects of the Count d’Artigas have nothing of the monk about them, and
+would not be mistaken for such by the most simple-minded of mortals.</P>
+<P>I continue my way through the pillars to the extremity of the cavern. No one
+has sought to stop me, no one has spoken to me, not a soul apparently has taken
+the very slightest notice of me. This portion of Back Cup is extremely curious,
+and comparable to the most marvellous of the grottoes of Kentucky or the
+Balearics. I need hardly say that nowhere is the labor of man apparent. All this
+is the handiwork of nature, and it is not without wonder, mingled with awe, that
+I reflect upon the telluric forces capable of engendering such prodigious
+substructions. The daylight from the crater in the centre only strikes this part
+of the cavern obliquely, so that it is very imperfectly lighted, but at night,
+when illuminated by the electric lamps, its aspect must be positively
+fantastic.</P>
+<P>I have examined the walls everywhere with minute attention, but have been
+unable to discover any means of communicating with the outside.</P>
+<P>Quite a colony of birds—gulls, sea-swallows and other feathery denizens of
+the Bermudan beaches have made their home in the cavern. They have apparently
+never been hunted, for they are in no way disturbed by the presence of man.</P>
+<P>But besides sea-birds, which are free to come and go as they please by the
+orifice in the dome, there is a whole farmyard of domestic poultry, and cows and
+pigs. The food supply is therefore no less assured than it is varied, when the
+fish of all kinds that abound in the lagoon and around the island are taken into
+consideration.</P>
+<P>Moreover, a mere glance at the colonists of Back Cup amply suffices to show
+that they are not accustomed to fare scantily. They are all vigorous, robust
+seafaring men, weatherbeaten and seasoned in the burning beat of tropical
+latitudes, whose rich blood is surcharged with oxygen by the breezes of the
+ocean. There is not a youth nor an old man among them. They are all in their
+prime, their ages ranging from thirty to fifty.</P>
+<P>But why do they submit to such an existence? Do they never leave their rocky
+retreat?</P>
+<P>Perhaps I shall find out ere I am much older.</P>
+
+<a name="X" id="X"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER X.</H4>
+<H4>KER KARRAJE.</H4>
+<P>The cell in which I reside is about a hundred paces from the habitation of
+the Count d’Artigas, which is one of the end ones of this row of the Beehive. If
+I am not to share it with Thomas Roch, I presume the latter’s cell is not far
+off, for in order that Warder Gaydon may continue to care for the ex-patient of
+Healthful House, their respective apartments will have to be contiguous.
+However, I suppose I shall soon be enlightened on this point.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade and Engineer Serko reside separately in proximity to D’Artigas’
+mansion.</P>
+<P>Mansion? Yes, why not dignify it with the title since this habitation has
+been arranged with a certain art? Skillful hands have carved an ornamental
+façade in the rock. A large door affords access to it. Colored glass windows in
+wooden frames let into the limestone walls admit the light. The interior
+comprises several chambers, a dining-room and a drawing-room lighted by a
+stained-glass window, the whole being perfectly ventilated. The furniture is of
+various styles and shapes and of French, English and American make. The kitchen,
+larder, etc., are in adjoining cells in rear of the Beehive.</P>
+<P>In the afternoon, just as I issue from my cell with the firm intention of
+“obtaining an audience� of the Count d’Artigas, I catch sight of him coming
+along the shore of the lagoon towards the hive. Either he does not see me, or
+wishes to avoid me, for he quickens his steps and I am unable to catch him.</P>
+<P>“Well, he will have to receive me, anyhow!� I mutter to myself.</P>
+<P>I hurry up to the door through which he has just disappeared and which has
+closed behind him.</P>
+<P>It is guarded by a gigantic, dark-skinned Malay, who orders me away in no
+amiable tone of voice.</P>
+<P>I decline to comply with his injunction, and repeat to him twice the
+following request in my very best English:</P>
+<P>“Tell the Count d’Artigas that I desire to be received immediately.�</P>
+<P>I might just as well have addressed myself to the surrounding rock. This
+savage, no doubt, does not understand a word of English, for he scowls at me and
+orders me away again with a menacing cry.</P>
+<P>I have a good mind to attempt to force the door and shout so that the Count
+d’Artigas cannot fail to hear me, but in all probability I shall only succeed in
+rousing the wrath of the Malay, who appears to be endowed with herculean
+strength. I therefore judge discretion to be the better part of valor, and put
+off the explanation that is owing to me—and which, sooner or later, I will
+have—to a more propitious occasion.</P>
+<P>I meander off in front of the Beehive towards the east, and my thoughts
+revert to Thomas Roch. I am surprised that I have not seen him yet. Can he be in
+the throes of a fresh paroxysm?</P>
+<P>This hypothesis is hardly admissible, for if the Count d’Artigas is to be
+believed, he would in this event have summoned me to attend to the inventor.</P>
+<P>A little farther on I encounter Engineer Serko.</P>
+<P>With his inviting manner and usual good-humor this ironical individual smiles
+when he perceives me, and does not seek to avoid me. If he knew I was a
+colleague, an engineer—providing he himself really is one—perhaps he might
+receive me with more cordiality than I have yet encountered, but I am not going
+to be such a fool as to tell him who and what I am.</P>
+<P>He stops, with laughing eyes and mocking mouth, and accompanies a “Good day,
+how do you do?� with a gracious gesture of salutation.</P>
+<P>I respond coldly to his politeness—a fact which he affects not to notice.</P>
+<P>“May Saint Jonathan protect you, Mr. Gaydon!� he continues in his clear,
+ringing voice. “You are not, I presume, disposed to regret the fortunate
+circumstance by which you were permitted to visit this surpassingly marvellous
+cavern—and it really is one of the finest, although the least known on this
+spheroid.�</P>
+<P>This word of a scientific language used in conversation with a simple
+hospital attendant surprises me, I admit, and I merely reply:</P>
+<P>“I should have no reason to complain, Mr. Serko, if, after having had the
+pleasure of visiting this cavern, I were at liberty to quit it.�</P>
+<P>“What! Already thinking of leaving us, Mr. Gaydon,—of returning to your
+dismal pavilion at Healthful House? Why, you have scarcely had time to explore
+our magnificent domain, or to admire the incomparable beauty with which nature
+has endowed it.�</P>
+<P>“What I have seen suffices,� I answer; “and should you perchance be talking
+seriously I will assure you seriously that I do not want to see any more of
+it.�</P>
+<P>“Come, now, Mr. Gaydon, permit me to point out that you have not yet had the
+opportunity of appreciating the advantages of an existence passed in such
+unrivalled surroundings. It is a quiet life, exempt from care, with an assured
+future, material conditions such as are not to be met with anywhere, an even
+climate and no more to fear from the tempests which desolate the coasts in this
+part of the Atlantic than from the cold of winter, or the heat of summer. This
+temperate and salubrious atmosphere is scarcely affected by changes of season.
+Here we have no need to apprehend the wrath of either Pluto or Neptune.�</P>
+<P>“Sir,� I reply, “it is impossible that this climate can suit you, that you
+can appreciate living in this grotto of——�</P>
+<P>I was on the point of pronouncing the name of Back Cup. Fortunately I
+restrained myself in time. What would happen if they suspected that I am aware
+of the name of their island, and, consequently, of its position at the extremity
+of the Bermuda group?</P>
+<P>“However,� I continue, “if this climate does not suit me, I have, I presume,
+the right to make a change.�</P>
+<P>“The right, of course.�</P>
+<P>“I understand from your remark that I shall be furnished with the means of
+returning to America when I want to go?�</P>
+<P>“I have no reason for opposing your desires, Mr. Gaydon,� Engineer Serko
+replies, “and I regard your presumption as a very natural one. Observe, however,
+that we live here in a noble and superb independence, that we acknowledge the
+authority of no foreign power, that we are subject to no outside authority, that
+we are the colonists of no state, either of the old or new world. This is worth
+consideration by whomsoever has a sense of pride and independence. Besides, what
+memories are evoked in a cultivated mind by these grottoes which seem to have
+been chiselled by the hands of the gods and in which they were wont to render
+their oracles by the mouth of Trophonius.�</P>
+<P>Decidedly, Engineer Serko is fond of citing mythology! Trophonius after Pluto
+and Neptune? Does he imagine that Warder Gaydon ever heard of Trophonius? It is
+clear this mocker continues to mock, and I have to exercise the greatest
+patience in order not to reply in the same tone.</P>
+<P>“A moment ago,� I continue shortly, “I wanted to enter yon habitation, which,
+if I mistake not, is that of the Count d’Artigas, but I was prevented.�</P>
+<P>“By whom, Mr. Gaydon?�</P>
+<P>“By a man in the Count’s employ.�</P>
+<P>“He probably had received strict orders about it.�</P>
+<P>“Possibly, yet whether he likes it or not, Count d’Artigas will have to see
+me and listen to me.�</P>
+<P>“Maybe it would be difficult, and even impossible to get him to do so,� says
+Engineer Serko with a smile.</P>
+<P>“Why so?�</P>
+<P>“Because there is no such person as Count d’Artigas here.�</P>
+<P>“You are jesting, I presume; I have just seen him.�</P>
+<P>“It was not the Count d’Artigas whom you saw, Mr. Gaydon.�</P>
+<P>“Who was it then, may I ask?�</P>
+<P>“The pirate Ker Karraje.�</P>
+<P>This name was thrown at me in a hard tone of voice, and Engineer Serko walked
+off before I had presence of mind enough to detain him.</P>
+<P>The pirate Ker Karraje!</P>
+<P>Yes, this name is a revelation to me. I know it well, and what memories it
+evokes! It by itself explains what has hitherto been inexplicable to me. I now
+know into whose hands I have fallen.</P>
+<P>With what I already knew, with what I have learned since my arrival in Back
+Cup from Engineer Serko, this is what I am able to tell about the past and
+present of Ker Karraje:</P>
+<P>Eight or nine years ago, the West Pacific was infested by pirates who acted
+with the greatest audacity. A band of criminals of various origins, composed of
+escaped convicts, military and naval deserters, etc., operated with incredible
+audacity under the orders of a redoubtable chief. The nucleus of the band had
+been formed by men pertaining to the scum of Europe who had been attracted to
+New South Wales, in Australia, by the discovery of gold there. Among these
+gold-diggers, were Captain Spade and Engineer Serko, two outcasts, whom a
+certain community of ideas and character soon bound together in close
+friendship.</P>
+<P>These intelligent, well educated, resolute men would most assuredly have
+succeeded in any career. But being without conscience or scruples, and
+determined to get rich at no matter what cost, deriving from gambling and
+speculation what they might have earned by patient and steady work, they engaged
+in all sorts of impossible adventures. One day they were rich, the next day
+poor, like most of the questionable individuals who had hurried to the
+gold-fields in search of fortune.</P>
+<P>Among the diggers in New South Wales was a man of incomparable audacity, one
+of those men who stick at nothing—not even at crime—and whose influence upon bad
+and violent natures is irresistible.</P>
+<P>That man’s name was Ker Karraje.</P>
+<P>The origin or nationality or antecedents of this pirate were never
+established by the investigations ordered in regard to him. He eluded all
+pursuit, and his name—or at least the name he gave himself—was known all over
+the world, and inspired horror and terror everywhere, as being that of a
+legendary personage, a bogey, invisible and unseizable.</P>
+<P>I have now reason to believe that Ker Karraje is a Malay. However, it is of
+little consequence, after all. What is certain is that he was with reason
+regarded as a formidable and dangerous villain who had many crimes, committed in
+distant seas, to answer for.</P>
+<P>After spending a few years on the Australian goldfields, where he made the
+acquaintance of Engineer Serko and Captain Spade, Ker Karraje managed to seize a
+ship in the port of Melbourne, in the province of Victoria. He was joined by
+about thirty rascals whose number was speedily tripled. In that part of the
+Pacific Ocean where piracy is still carried on with great facility, and I may
+say, profit, tho number of ships pillaged, crews massacred, and raids committed
+in certain western islands which the colonists were unable to defend, cannot be
+estimated.</P>
+<P>Although the whereabouts of Ker Karraje’s vessel, commanded by Captain Spade,
+was several times made known to the authorities, all attempts to capture it
+proved futile. The marauder would disappear among the innumerable islands of
+which he knew every cove and creek, and it was impossible to come across
+him.</P>
+<P>He maintained a perfect reign of terror. England, France, Germany, Russia and
+America vainly dispatched warships in pursuit of the phantom vessel which
+disappeared, no one knew whither, after robberies and murders that could not be
+prevented or punished had been committed by her crew.</P>
+<P>One day this series of crimes came to an end, and no more was heard of Ker
+Karraje. Had he abandoned the Pacific for other seas? Would this pirate break
+out in a fresh place? It was argued that notwithstanding what they must have
+spent in orgies and debauchery the pirate and his companions must still have an
+enormous amount of wealth hidden in some place known only to themselves, and
+that they were enjoying their ill-gotten gains.</P>
+<P>Where had the band hidden themselves since they had ceased their
+depredations? This was a question which everybody asked and none was able to
+answer. All attempts to run them to earth were vain. Terror and uneasiness
+having ceased with the danger, Ker Karraje’s exploits soon began to be
+forgotten, even in the West Pacific.</P>
+<P>This is what had happened—and what will never be known unless I succeed in
+escaping from Back Cup:</P>
+<P>These wretches were, as a matter of fact, possessed of great wealth when they
+abandoned the Southern Seas. Having destroyed their ship they dispersed in
+different directions after having arranged to meet on the American
+continent.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko, who was well versed in his profession, and was a clever
+mechanic to boot, and who had made a special study of submarine craft, proposed
+to Ker Karraje that they should construct one of these boats in order to
+continue their criminal exploits with greater secrecy and effectiveness.</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje at once saw the practical nature of the proposition, and as they
+had no lack of money the idea was soon carried out.</P>
+<P>While the so-called Count d’Artigas ordered the construction of the schooner
+<I>Ebba</I> at the shipyards of Gotteborg, in Sweden, he gave to the Cramps of
+Philadelphia, in America, the plans of a submarine boat whose construction
+excited no suspicion. Besides, as will be seen, it soon disappeared and was
+never heard of again.</P>
+<P>The boat was constructed from a model and under the personal supervision of
+Engineer Serko, and fitted with all the known appliances of nautical science.
+The screw was worked with electric piles of recent invention which imparted
+enormous propulsive power to the motor.</P>
+<P>It goes without saying that no one imagined that Count d’Artigas was none
+other than Ker Karraje, the former pirate of the Pacific, and that Engineer
+Serko was the most formidable and resolute of his accomplices. The former was
+regarded as a foreigner of noble birth and great fortune, who for several months
+had been frequenting the ports of the United States, the <I>Ebba</I> having been
+launched long before the tug was ready.</P>
+<P>Work upon the latter occupied fully eighteen months, and when the boat was
+finished it excited the admiration of all those interested in these engines of
+submarine navigation. By its external form, its interior arrangements, its
+air-supply system, the rapidity with which it could be immersed, the facility
+with which it could be handled and controlled, and its extraordinary speed, it
+was conceded to be far superior to the <I>Goubet,</I> the <I>Gymnote</I>, the
+<I>Zede</I>, and other similar boats which had made great strides towards
+perfection.</P>
+<P>After several extremely successful experiments a public test was given in the
+open sea, four miles off Charleston, in presence of several American and foreign
+warships, merchant vessels, and pleasure boats invited for the occasion.</P>
+<P>Of course the <I>Ebba</I> was among them, with the Count d’Artigas, Engineer
+Serko, and Captain Spade on board, and the old crew as well, save half a dozen
+men who manned the submarine machine, which was worked by a mechanical engineer
+named Gibson, a bold and very clever Englishman.</P>
+<P>The programme of this definite experiment comprised various evolutions on the
+surface of the water, which were to be followed by an immersion to last several
+hours, the boat being ordered not to rise again until a certain buoy stationed
+many miles out at sea had been attained.</P>
+<P>At the appointed time the lid was closed and the boat at first manoeuvred on
+the surface. Her speed and the ease with which she turned and twisted were
+loudly praised by all the technical spectators.</P>
+<P>Then at a signal given on board the <I>Ebba</I> the tug sank slowly out of
+sight, and several vessels started for the buoy where she was to reappear.</P>
+<P>Three hours went by, but there was no sign of the boat.</P>
+<P>No one could suppose that in accordance with instructions received from the
+Count d’Artigas and Engineer Serko this submarine machine, which was destined to
+act as the invisible tug of the schooner, would not emerge till it had gone
+several miles beyond the rendezvous. Therefore, with the exception of those who
+were in the secret, no one entertained any doubt that the boat and all inside
+her had perished as the result of an accident either to her metallic covering or
+machinery.</P>
+<P>On board the <I>Ebba</I> consternation was admirably simulated. On board the
+other vessels it was real. Drags were used and divers sent down along the course
+the boat was supposed to have taken, but it could not be found, and it was
+agreed that it had been swallowed up in the depths of the Atlantic.</P>
+<P>Two days later the Count d’Artigas put to sea again, and in forty-eight hours
+came up with the tug at the place appointed.</P>
+<P>This is how Ker Karraje became possessed of the admirable vessel which was to
+perform the double function of towing the schooner and attacking ships. With
+this terrible engine of destruction, whose very existence was ignored, the Count
+d’Artigas was able to recommence his career of piracy with security and
+impunity.</P>
+<P>These details I have learned from Engineer Serko, who is very proud of his
+handiwork,—and also very positive that the prisoner of Back Cup will never be
+able to disclose the secret.</P>
+<P>It will easily be realized how powerful was the offensive weapon Ker Karraje
+now possessed. During the night the tug would rush at a merchant vessel, and
+bore a hole in her with its powerful ram. At the same time the schooner which
+could not possibly have excited any suspicion, would run alongside and her horde
+of cutthroats would pour on to the doomed vessel’s deck and massacre the
+helpless crew, after which they would hurriedly transfer that part of the cargo
+that was worth taking to the <I>Ebba</I>. Thus it happened that ship after ship
+was added to the long list of those that never reached port and were classed as
+having gone down with all on board.</P>
+<P>For a year after the odious comedy in the bay of Charleston Ker Karraje
+operated in the Atlantic, and his wealth increased to enormous proportions. The
+merchandise for which he had no use was disposed of in distant markets in
+exchange for gold and silver. But what was sadly needed was a place where the
+profits could be safely hidden pending the time when they were to be finally
+divided.</P>
+<P>Chance came to their aid. While exploring the bottom of the sea in the
+neighborhood of the Bermudas, Engineer Serko and Driver Gibson discovered at the
+base of Back Cup island the tunnel which led to the interior of the mountain.
+Would it have been possible for Ker Karraje to have found a more admirable
+refuge than this, absolutely safe as it was from any possible chance of
+discovery? Thus it came to pass that one of the islands of the Archipelago of
+Bermuda, erstwhile the haunt of buccaneers, became the lair of another gang a
+good deal more to be dreaded.</P>
+<P>This retreat having been definitely adopted, Count d’Artigas and his
+companions set about getting their place in order. Engineer Serko installed an
+electric power house, without having recourse to machines whose construction
+abroad might have aroused suspicion, simply employing piles that could be easily
+mounted and required but metal plates and chemical substances that the
+<I>Ebba</I> procured during her visits to the American coast.</P>
+<P>What happened on the night of the 19th inst. can easily be divined. If the
+three-masted merchantman which lay becalmed was not visible at break of day it
+was because she had been scuttled by the tug, boarded by the cut-throat band on
+the <I>Ebba</I>, and sunk with all on board after being pillaged. The bales and
+things that I had seen on the schooner were a part of her cargo, and all unknown
+to me the gallant ship was lying at the bottom of the broad Atlantic!</P>
+<P>How will this adventure end? Shall I ever be able to escape from Back Cup,
+denounce the false Count d’Artigas and rid the seas of Ker Karraje’s
+pirates?</P>
+<P>And if Ker Karraje is terrible as it is, how much more so will he become if
+he ever obtains possession of Roch’s fulgurator! His power will be increased a
+hundred-fold! If he were able to employ this new engine of destruction no
+merchantman could resist him, no warship escape total destruction.</P>
+<P>I remain for some time absorbed and oppressed by the reflections with which
+the revelation of Ker Karraje’s name inspires me. All that I have ever heard
+about this famous pirate recurs to me—his existence when he skimmed the Southern
+Seas, the useless expeditions organized by the maritime powers to hunt him down.
+The unaccountable loss of so many vessels in the Atlantic during the past few
+years is attributable to him. He had merely changed the scene of his exploits.
+It was supposed that he had been got rid of, whereas he is continuing his
+piratical practices in the most frequented ocean on the globe, by means of the
+tug which is believed to be lying at the bottom of Charleston Bay.</P>
+<P>“Now,� I say to myself, “I know his real name and that of his lair—Ker
+Karraje and Back Cup;� and I surmise that if Engineer Serko has let me into the
+secret he must have been authorized to do so. Am I not meant to understand from
+this that I must give up all hope of ever recovering my liberty?</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko had manifestly remarked the impression created upon me by this
+revelation. I remember that on leaving me he went towards Ker Karraje’s
+habitation, no doubt with the intention of apprising him of what had passed.</P>
+<P>After a rather long walk around the lagoon I am about to return to my cell,
+when I hear footsteps behind me. I turn and find myself face to face with the
+Count d’Artigas, who is accompanied by Captain Spade. He glances at me sharply,
+and in a burst of irritation that I cannot suppress, I exclaim:</P>
+<P>“You are keeping me here, sir, against all right. If it was to wait upon
+Thomas Roch that you carried me off from Healthful House, I refuse to attend to
+him, and insist upon being sent back.�</P>
+<P>The pirate chief makes a gesture, but does not reply.</P>
+<P>Then my temper gets the better of me altogether.</P>
+<P>“Answer me, Count d’Artigas—or rather, for I know who you are—answer me, Ker
+Karraje!� I shout.</P>
+<P>“The Count d’Artigas is Ker Karraje,� he coolly replies, “just as Warder
+Gaydon is Engineer Simon Hart; and Ker Karraje will never restore to liberty
+Engineer Simon Hart, who knows his secrets.�</P>
+
+<a name="XI" id="XI"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XI.</H4>
+<H4>FIVE WEEKS IN BACK CUP.</H4>
+<P>The situation is plain. Ker Karraje knows who I am. He knew who I was when he
+kidnapped Thomas Roch and his attendant.</P>
+<P>How did this man manage to find out what I was able to keep from the staff of
+Healthful House? How comes it that he knew that a French engineer was performing
+the duties of attendant to Thomas Roch? I do not know how he discovered it, but
+the fact remains that he did.</P>
+<P>Evidently he had means of information which must have been costly, but from
+which he has derived considerable profit. Besides, men of his kidney do not
+count the cost when they wish to attain an end they have in view.</P>
+<P>Henceforward Ker Karraje, or rather Engineer Serko, will replace me as
+attendant upon Thomas Roch. Will he succeed better than I did? God grant that he
+may not, that the civilized world may be spared such a misfortune!</P>
+<P>I did not reply to Ker Karraje’s Parthian shot, for I was stricken dumb. I
+did not, however, collapse, as the alleged Count d’Artigas perhaps expected I
+would.</P>
+<P>No! I looked him straight in the eyes, which glittered angrily, and crossed
+my arms defiantly, as he had done. And yet he held my life in his hands! At a
+sign a bullet would have laid me dead at his feet. Then my body, cast into the
+lagoon, would have been borne out to sea through the tunnel and there would have
+been an end of me.</P>
+<P>After this scene I am left at liberty, just as before. No measure is taken
+against me, I can walk among the pillars to the very end of the cavern, which—it
+is only too clear—possesses no other issue except the tunnel.</P>
+<P>When I return to my cell, at the extremity of the Beehive, a prey to a
+thousand thoughts suggested by my situation, I say to myself:</P>
+<P>“If Ker Karraje knows I am Simon Hart, the engineer, he must at any rate
+never know that I am aware of the position of Back Cup Island.�</P>
+<P>As to the plan of confiding Thomas Roch to my care, I do not think he ever
+seriously entertained it, seeing that my identity had been revealed to him. I
+regret this, inasmuch as the inventor will indubitably be the object of pressing
+solicitations, and as Engineer Serko will employ every means in his power to
+obtain the composition of the explosive and deflagrator, of which he will make
+such detestable use during future piratical exploits. Yes, it would have been
+far better if I could have remained Thomas Roch’s keeper here, as in Healthful
+House.</P>
+<P>For fifteen days I see nothing of my late charge. No one, I repeat, has
+placed any obstacles in the way of my daily peregrinations. I have no need to
+occupy myself about the material part of my existence. My meals are brought to
+me regularly, direct from the kitchen of the Count d’Artigas—I cannot accustom
+myself to calling him by any other name. The food leaves nothing to be desired,
+thanks to the provisions that the <I>Ebba</I> brings on her return from each
+voyage.</P>
+<P>It is very fortunate, too, that I have been supplied with all the writing
+materials I require, for during my long hours of idleness I have been able to
+jot down in my notebook the slightest incidents that have occurred since I was
+abducted from Healthful House, and to keep a diary day by day. As long as I am
+permitted to use a pen I shall continue my notes. Mayhap some day, they will
+help to clear up the mysteries of Back Cup.</P>
+<P><I>From July 5 to July 25.</I>—A fortnight has passed, and all my attempts to
+get near Thomas Roch have been frustrated. Orders have evidently been given to
+keep him away from my influence, inefficacious though the latter has hitherto
+been. My only hope is that the Count d’Artigas, Engineer Serko, and Captain
+Spade will waste their time trying to get at the inventor’s secrets.</P>
+<P>Three or four times to my knowledge, at least, Thomas Roch and Engineer Serko
+have walked together around the lagoon. As far as I have been able to judge, the
+former listened with some attention to what the other was saying to him. Serko
+has conducted him over the whole cavern, shown him the electric power house and
+the mechanism of the tug. Thomas Roch’s mental condition has visibly improved
+since his departure from Healthful House.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch lives in a private room in Ker Karraje’s “mansion.� I have no
+doubt that he is daily sounded in regard to his discoveries, especially by
+Engineer Serko. Will he be able to resist the temptation if they offer him the
+exorbitant price that he demands? Has he any idea of the value of money? These
+wretches may dazzle him with the gold that they have accumulated by years of
+rapine. In the present state of his mind may he not be induced to disclose the
+composition of his fulgurator? They would then only have to fetch the necessary
+substances and Thomas Roch would have plenty of time in Back Cup to devote to
+his chemical combinations. As to the war-engines themselves nothing would be
+easier than to have them made in sections in different parts of the American
+continent. My hair stands on end when I think what they could and would do with
+them if once they gained possession of them.</P>
+<P>These intolerable apprehensions no longer leave me a minute’s peace; they are
+wearing me out and my health is suffering in consequence. Although the air in
+the interior of Back Cup is pure, I become subject to attacks of suffocation,
+and I feel as though my prison walls were falling upon me and crushing me under
+their weight. I am, besides, oppressed by the feeling that I am cut off from the
+world, as effectually as though I were no longer upon our planet,—for I know
+nothing of what is going on outside.</P>
+<P>Ah! if it were only possible to escape through that submarine tunnel, or
+through the hole in the dome and slide to the base of the mountain!</P>
+<P>On the morning of the 25th I at last encounter Thomas Roch. He is alone on
+the other side of the lagoon, and I wonder, inasmuch as I have not seen them
+since the previous day, whether Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade
+have not gone off on some expedition.</P>
+<P>I walk round towards Thomas Roch, and before he can see me I examine him
+attentively.</P>
+<P>His serious, thoughtful physiognomy is no longer that of a madman. He walks
+slowly, with his eyes bent on the ground, and under his arm a drawing-board upon
+which is stretched a sheet of paper covered with designs.</P>
+<P>Suddenly he raises his head, advances a step and recognizes me.</P>
+<P>“Ah! Gaydon, it is you, is it?� he cries, “I have then escaped from you! I am
+free!�</P>
+<P>He can, indeed, regard himself as being free—a good deal more at liberty in
+Back Cup than he was in Healthful House. But maybe my presence evokes unpleasant
+memories, and will bring on another fit, for he continues with extraordinary
+animation:</P>
+<P>“Yes, I know you, Gaydon.—Do not approach me! Stand off! stand off! You would
+like to get me back in your clutches, incarcerate me again in your dungeon!
+Never! I have friends here who will protect me. They are powerful, they are
+rich. The Count d’Artigas is my backer and Engineer Serko is my partner. We are
+going to exploit my invention! We are going to make my fulgurator! Hence! Get
+you gone!�</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch is in a perfect fury. He raises his voice, agitates his arms, and
+finally pulls from his pockets many rolls of dollar bills and banknotes, and
+handfuls of English, French, American and German gold coins, which slip through
+his fingers and roll about the cavern.</P>
+<P>How could he get all this money except from Ker Karraje, and as the price of
+his secret? The noise he makes attracts a number of men to the scene. They watch
+us for a moment, then seize Thomas Roch and drag him away. As soon as I am out
+of his sight he ceases-to struggle and becomes calm again.</P>
+<P><I>July 27.</I>—Two hours after meeting with Thomas Roch, I went down to the
+lagoon and walked out to the edge of the stone jetty.</P>
+<P>The tug is not moored in its accustomed place, nor can I see it anywhere
+about the lake. Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko had not gone yesterday, as I
+supposed, for I saw them in the evening.</P>
+<P>To-day, however, I have reason to believe that they really have gone away in
+the tug with Captain Spade and the crew of the <I>Ebba</I>, and that the latter
+must be sailing away.</P>
+<P>Have they set out on a piracy expedition? Very likely. It is equally likely
+that Ker Karraje, become once more the Count d’Artigas, travelling for pleasure
+on board his yacht, intends to put into some port on the American coast to
+procure the substances necessary to the preparation of Roch’s fulgurator.</P>
+<P>Ah! if it had only been possible for me to hide in the tug, to slip into the
+<I>Ebba’s</I> hold, and stow myself away there until the schooner arrived in
+port! Then perchance I might have escaped and delivered the world from this band
+of pirates.</P>
+<P>It will be seen how tenaciously I cling to the thought of escape—of
+fleeing—fleeing at any cost from this lair. But flight is impossible, except
+through the tunnel, by means of a submarine boat. Is it not folly to think of
+such a thing? Sheer folly, and yet what other way is there of getting out of
+Back Cup?</P>
+<P>While I give myself up to these reflections the water of the lagoon opens a
+few yards from me and the tug appears. The lid is raised and Gibson, the
+engineer, and the men issue on to the platform. Other men come up and catch the
+line that is thrown to them. They haul upon it, and the tug is soon moored in
+its accustomed place.</P>
+<P>This time, therefore, at any rate, the schooner is not being towed, and the
+tug merely went out to put Ker Karraje and his companions aboard the
+<I>Ebba</I>.</P>
+<P>This only confirms my impression that the sole object of their trip is to
+reach an American port where the Count d’Artigas can procure the materials for
+making the explosive, and order the machines in some foundry. On the day fixed
+for their return the tug will go out through the tunnel again to meet the
+schooner and Ker Karraje will return to Back Cup.</P>
+<P>Decidedly, this evildoer is carrying out his designs and has succeeded sooner
+than I thought would be possible.</P>
+<P><I>August 3.</I>—An incident occurred to-day of which the lagoon was the
+theatre—a very curious incident that must be exceedingly rare.</P>
+<P>Towards three o’clock in the afternoon there was a prodigious bubbling in the
+water, which ceased for a minute or two and then recommenced in the centre of
+the lagoon.</P>
+<P>About fifteen pirates, whose attention had been attracted by this
+unaccountable phenomenon, hurried down to the bank manifesting signs of
+astonishment not unmingled with fear—at least I thought so.</P>
+<P>The agitation of the water was not caused by the tug, as the latter was lying
+alongside the jetty, and the idea that some other submarine boat had found its
+way through the tunnel was highly improbable.</P>
+<P>Almost at the same instant cries were heard on the opposite bank. The
+newcomers shouted something in a hoarse voice to the men on the side where I was
+standing, and these immediately rushed off towards the Beehive.</P>
+<P>I conjectured that they had caught sight of some sea-monster that had found
+its way in, and was floundering in the lagoon, and that they had rushed off to
+fetch arms and harpoons to try and capture it.</P>
+<P>I was right, for they speedily returned with the latter weapons and rifles
+loaded with explosive bullets.</P>
+<P>The monster in question was a whale, of the species that is common enough in
+Bermudan waters, which after swimming through the tunnel was plunging about in
+the narrow limits of the lake. As it was constrained to take refuge in Back Cup
+I concluded that it must have been hard pressed by whalers.</P>
+<P>Some minutes elapsed before the monster rose to the surface. Then the green
+shiny mass appeared spouting furiously and darting to and fro as though fighting
+with some formidable enemy.</P>
+<P>“If it was driven in here by whalers,� I said to myself, “there must be a
+vessel in proximity to Back Cup—peradventure within a stone’s throw of it. Her
+boats must have entered the western passes to the very foot of the mountain. And
+to think I am unable to communicate with them! But even if I could, I fail to
+see how I could go to them through these massive walls.�</P>
+<P>I soon found, however, that it was not fishers, but sharks that had driven
+the whale through the tunnel, and which infest these waters in great numbers. I
+could see them plainly as they darted about, turning upon their backs and
+displaying their enormous mouths which were bristling with their cruel teeth.
+There were five or six of the monsters, and they attacked the whale with great
+viciousness. The latter’s only means of defence was its tail, with which it
+lashed at them with terrific force and rapidity. But the whale had received
+several wounds and the water was tinged with its life-blood; for plunge and lash
+as it would, it could not escape the bites of its enemies.</P>
+<P>However, the voracious sharks were not permitted to vanquish their prey, for
+man, far more powerful with his instruments of death, was about to take a hand
+and snatch it from them. Gathered around the lagoon were the companions of Ker
+Karraje, every whit as ferocious as the sharks themselves, and well deserving
+the same name, for what else are they?</P>
+<P>Standing amid a group, at the extremity of the jetty, and armed with a
+harpoon, was the big Malay who had prevented me from entering Ker Karraje’s
+house. When the whale got within shot, he hurled the harpoon with great force
+and skill, and it sank into the leviathan’s flesh just under the left fin. The
+whale plunged immediately, followed by the relentless sharks. The rope attached
+to the weapon ran out for about sixty yards, and then slackened. The men at once
+began to haul on it, and the monster rose to the surface again near the end of
+the tunnel, struggling desperately in its death agony, and spurting great
+columns of water tinged with blood. One blow of its tail struck a shark, and
+hurled it clean out of water against the rocky side, where it dropped in again,
+badly, if not fatally injured.</P>
+<P>The harpoon was torn from the flesh by the jerk, and the whale went under. It
+came up again for the last time, and lashed the water so that it washed up from
+the tunnel end, disclosing the top of the orifice.</P>
+<P>Then the sharks again rushed on their prey, but were scared off by a hail of
+the explosive bullets. Two men then jumped into a boat and attached a line to
+the dead monster. The latter was hauled into the jetty, and the Malays started
+to cut it up with a dexterity that showed they were no novices at the work.</P>
+<P>No more sharks were to be seen, but I concluded that it would be as well to
+refrain from taking a bath in the lagoon for some days to come.</P>
+<P>I now know exactly where the entrance to the tunnel is situated. The orifice
+on this side is only ten feet below the edge of the western bank. But of what
+use is this knowledge to me?</P>
+<P><I>August 7</I>.—Twelve days have elapsed since the Count d’Artigas, Engineer
+Serko, and Captain Spade put to sea. There is nothing to indicate that their
+return is expected, though the tug is always kept in readiness for immediate
+departure by Gibson, the engine-driver. If the <I>Ebba</I> is not afraid to
+enter the ports of the United States by day, I rather fancy she prefers to enter
+the rocky channel of Back Cup at nightfall. I also fancy, somehow, that Ker
+Karraje and his companions will return to-night.</P>
+<P><I>August 10</I>.—At ten o’clock last night, as I anticipated, the tug went
+under and out, just in time to meet the <I>Ebba</I> and tow her through the
+channel to her creek, after which she returned with Ker Karraje and the
+others.</P>
+<P>When I look out this morning, I see Thomas Roch and Engineer Serko walking
+down to the lagoon, and talking. What they are talking about I can easily guess.
+I go forward and take a good look at my ex-patient. He is asking questions of
+Engineer Serko With great animation. His eyes gleam, his face is flushed, and he
+is all eagerness to reach the jetty. Engineer Serko can hardly keep up with
+him.</P>
+<P>The crew of the tug are unloading her, and they have just brought ashore ten
+medium-sized boxes. These boxes bear a peculiar red mark, which Thomas Roch
+examines closely.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko orders the men to transport them to the storehouses on the
+left bank, and the boxes are forthwith loaded on a boat and rowed over.</P>
+<P>In my opinion, these boxes contain the substances by the combination or
+mixture of which, the fulgurator and deflagrator are to be made. The engines,
+doubtless, are being made in an American foundry, and when they are ready, the
+schooner will fetch them and bring them to Back Cup.</P>
+<P>For once in a while, anyhow, the <I>Ebba</I> has not returned with any stolen
+merchandise. She went out and has returned with a clear bill. But with what
+terrible power Ker Karraje will be armed for both offensive and defensive
+operations at sea! If Thomas Roch is to be credited, this fulgurator could
+shatter the terrestrial spheroid at one blow. And who knows but what one day, he
+will try the experiment?</P>
+
+<a name="XII" id="XII"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XII.</H4>
+<H4>ENGINEER SERKO’S ADVICE.</H4>
+<P>Thomas Roch has started work and spends hours and hours in a wooden shed on
+the left bank of the lagoon that has been set apart as his laboratory and
+workshop. No one enters it except himself. Does he insist upon preparing the
+explosive in secret and does he intend to keep the formula thereof to himself? I
+should not wonder.</P>
+<P>The manner of employing Roch’s fulgurator is, I believe, very simple indeed.
+The projectile in which it is used requires neither gun nor mortar to launch it,
+nor pneumatic tube like the Zalinski shell. It is autopropulsive, it projects
+itself, and no ship within a certain zone when the engine explodes could escape
+utter destruction. With such a weapon as this at his command Ker Karraje would
+be invincible.</P>
+<P><I>From August 11 to August 17</I>.—During the past week Thomas Roch has been
+working without intermission. Every morning the inventor goes to his laboratory
+and does not issue therefrom till night. I have made no attempt to stop him or
+speak to him, knowing that it would be useless to do so.</P>
+<P>Although he is still indifferent to everything that does not touch upon his
+work he appears to be perfectly self-possessed. Why should he not have recovered
+his reason? Has he not obtained what he has so long sought for? Is he not at
+last able to carry out the plans he formed years and years ago?</P>
+<P><I>August 18</I>.—At one o’clock this morning I was roused by several
+detonations.</P>
+<P>“Has Back Cup been attacked?� was my first thought. “Has the schooner excited
+suspicion, and been chased to the entrance to the passes? Is the island being
+bombarded with a view to its destruction? Has justice at last overtaken these
+evil-doers ere Thomas Roch has been able to complete the manufacture of his
+explosive, and before the autopropulsive engine could be fetched from the
+continent?�</P>
+<P>The detonations, which are very violent, continue, succeeding each other at
+regular intervals, and it occurs to me that if the schooner has been destroyed,
+all communication with the bases of supply being impossible, Back Cup cannot be
+provisioned.</P>
+<P>It is true the tug would be able to land the Count d’Artigas somewhere on the
+American coast where, money being no object, he could easily buy or order
+another vessel. But no matter. If Back Cup is only destroyed before Ker Karraje
+has Roch’s fulgurator at his disposal I shall render thanks to heaven.</P>
+<P>A few hours later, at the usual time, I quit my cell. All is quiet at the
+Beehive. The men are going about their business as usual. The tug is moored near
+the jetty. Thomas Roch is going to his laboratory, and Ker Karraje and Engineer
+Serko are tranquilly pacing backwards and forwards by the lake and chatting. The
+island therefore could not have been attacked during the night. Yet I was
+awakened by the report of cannon, this I will swear.</P>
+<P>At this moment Ker Karraje goes off towards his abode and Engineer Serko,
+smilingly ironical, as usual, advances to meet me.</P>
+<P>“Well, Mr. Simon Hart,� he says, “are you getting accustomed to your tranquil
+existence? Do you appreciate at their just merit the advantages of this
+enchanted grotto? Have you given up all hope of recovering your liberty some day
+or other?�</P>
+<P>What is the use of waxing wroth with this jester? I reply calmly:</P>
+<P>“No, sir. I have not given up hope, and I still expect that I shall be
+released.�</P>
+<P>“What! Mr. Hart, separate ourselves from a man whom we all esteem—and I from
+a colleague who perhaps, in the course of Thomas Roch’s fits of delirium, has
+learned some of his secrets? You are not serious!�</P>
+<P>So this is why they are keeping me a prisoner in Back Cup! They suppose that
+I am in part familiar with Roch’s invention, and they hope to force me to tell
+what I know if Thomas Roch refuses to give up his secret. This is the reason why
+I was kidnapped with him, and why I have not been accommodated with an
+involuntary plunge in the lagoon with a stone fastened to my neck. I see it all
+now, and it is just as well to know it.</P>
+<P>“Very serious,� I affirm, in response to the last remark of my
+interlocutor.</P>
+<P>“Well,� he continues, “if I had the honor to be Simon Hart, the engineer, I
+should reason as follows: ‘Given, on the one hand, the personality of Ker
+Karraje, the reasons which incited him to select such a mysterious retreat as
+this cavern, the necessity of the said cavern being kept from any attempt to
+discover it, not only in the interest of the Count d’Artigas, but in that of his
+companions—’“</P>
+<P>“Of his accomplices, if you please.�</P>
+<P>“‘Of his accomplices,’ then—’and on the other hand, given the fact that I
+know the real name of the Count d’Artigas and in what mysterious safe he keeps
+his riches—’“</P>
+<P>“Riches stolen, and stained with blood, Mr. Serko.�</P>
+<P>“‘Riches stolen and stained with blood,’ if you like—’I ought to understand
+that this question of liberty cannot be settled in accordance with my
+desires.’“</P>
+<P>It is useless to argue the point under these conditions, and I switch the
+conversation on to another line.</P>
+<P>“May I ask,� I continue, “how you came to find out that Gaydon, the warder,
+was Simon Hart, the engineer?�</P>
+<P>“I see no reason for keeping you in ignorance on the subject, my dear
+colleague. It was largely by hazard. We had certain relations with the
+manufactory in New Jersey with which you were connected, and which you quitted
+suddenly one day under somewhat singular circumstances. Well, during a visit I
+made to Healthful House some months before the Count d’Artigas went there, I saw
+and recognized you.�</P>
+<P>“You?�</P>
+<P>“My very self, and from that moment I promised myself the pleasure of having
+you for a fellow-passenger on board the <I>Ebba</I>.�</P>
+<P>I do not recall ever having seen this Serko at Healthful House, but what he
+says is very likely true.</P>
+<P>“I hope your whim of having me for a companion will cost you dear, some day
+or other,� I say to myself.</P>
+<P>Then, abruptly, I go on:</P>
+<P>“If I am not mistaken, you have succeeded in inducing Thomas Roch to disclose
+the secret of his fulgurator?�</P>
+<P>“Yes, Mr. Hart. We paid millions for it. But millions, you know, are nothing
+to us. We have only the trouble of taking them! Therefore we filled all his
+pockets—covered him with millions!�</P>
+<P>“Of what use are these millions to him if he is not allowed to enjoy them
+outside?�</P>
+<P>“That, Mr. Hart, is a matter that does not trouble him a little bit! This man
+of genius thinks nothing of the future: he lives but in the present. While
+engines are being constructed from his plans over yonder in America, he is
+preparing his explosive with chemical substances with which he has been
+abundantly supplied. He! he! What an invention it is, this autopropulsive
+engine, which flies through the air of its own power and accelerates its speed
+till the goal is reached, thanks to the properties of a certain powder of
+progressive combustion! Here we have an invention that will bring about a
+radical change in the art of war.�</P>
+<P>“Defensive war, Mr. Serko.�</P>
+<P>“And offensive war, Mr. Hart.�</P>
+<P>“Naturally,� I answer.</P>
+<P>Then pumping him still more closely, I go on:</P>
+<P>“So, what no one else has been able to obtain from Thomas Roch—�</P>
+<P>“We obtained without much difficulty.�</P>
+<P>“By paying him.�</P>
+<P>“By paying him an incredible price—and, moreover, by causing to vibrate what
+in him is a very sensitive chord.�</P>
+<P>“What chord?�</P>
+<P>“That of vengeance!�</P>
+<P>“Vengeance?—against whom?�</P>
+<P>“Against all those who have made themselves his enemies by discouraging him,
+by spurning him, expelling him, by constraining him to go a-begging from country
+to country with an invention of incontestable superiority! Now all notion of
+patriotism is extinct in his soul. He has now but one thought, one ferocious
+desire: to avenge himself upon those who have denied him—and even upon all
+mankind! Really, Mr. Hart, your governments of Europe and America committed a
+stupendous blunder in refusing to pay Roch the price his fulgurator is
+worth!�</P>
+<P>And Engineer Serko describes enthusiastically the various advantages of the
+new explosive which, he says, is incontestably superior to any yet invented.</P>
+<P>“And what a destructive effect it has,� he adds. “It is analogous to that of
+the Zalinski shell, but is a hundred times more powerful, and requires no
+machine for firing it, as it flies through the air on its own wings, so to
+speak.�</P>
+<P>I listen in the hope that Engineer Serko will give away a part of the secret,
+but in vain. He is careful not to say more than he wants to.</P>
+<P>“Has Thomas Roch,� I ask, “made you acquainted with the composition of his
+explosive?�</P>
+<P>“Yes, Mr. Hart—if it is all the same to you—and we shall shortly have
+considerable quantities of it stored in a safe place.�</P>
+<P>“But will there not be a great and ever-impending danger in accumulating
+large quantities of it? If an accident were to happen it would be all up with
+the island of——!�</P>
+<P>Once more the name of Back Cup was on the point of escaping me. They might
+consider me too well-informed if they were aware that in addition to being
+acquainted with the Count d’Artigas’ real name I also know where his stronghold
+is situated.</P>
+<P>Luckily Engineer Serko has not remarked my reticence, and he replies:</P>
+<P>“There will be no cause for alarm. Thomas Roch’s explosive will not burn
+unless subjected to a special deflagrator. Neither fire nor shock will explode
+it.�</P>
+<P>“And has Thomas Roch also sold you the secret of his deflagrator?�</P>
+<P>“Not yet, Mr. Hart, but it will not be long before the bargain is concluded.
+Therefore, I repeat, no danger is to be apprehended, and you need not keep awake
+of nights on that account. A thousand devils, sir! We have no desire to be blown
+up with our cavern and treasures! A few more years of good business and we shall
+divide the profits, which will be large enough to enable each one of us to live
+as he thinks proper and enjoy life to the top of his bent—after the dissolution
+of the firm of Ker Karraje and Co. I may add that though there is no danger of
+an explosion, we have everything to fear from a denunciation—which you are in
+the position to make, Mr. Hart. Therefore, if you take my advice, you will, like
+a sensible man, resign yourself to the inevitable until the disbanding of the
+company. We shall then see what in the interest of our security is best to be
+done with you!�</P>
+<P>It will be admitted that these words are not exactly calculated to reassure
+me. However, a lot of things may happen ere then. I have learned one good thing
+from this conversation, and that is that if Thomas Roch has sold his explosive
+to Ker Karraje and Co., he has at any rate, kept the secret of his deflagrator,
+without which the explosive is of no more value than the dust of the
+highway.</P>
+<P>But before terminating the interview I think I ought to make a very natural
+observation to Mr. Serko.</P>
+<P>“Sir,� I say, “you are now acquainted with the composition of Thomas Roch’s
+explosive. Does it really possess the destructive power that the inventor
+attributes to it? Has it ever been tried? May you not have purchased a
+composition as inert as a pinch of snuff?�</P>
+<P>“You are doubtless better informed upon this point than you pretend, Mr.
+Hart. Nevertheless, I thank you for the interest you manifest in our affairs,
+and am able to reassure you. The other night we made a series of decisive
+experiments. With only a few grains of this substance great blocks of rock were
+reduced to impalpable dust!�</P>
+<P>This explanation evidently applies to the detonation I heard.</P>
+<P>“Thus, my dear colleague,� continues Engineer Serko, “I can assure you that
+our expectations have been answered. The effects of the explosive surpass
+anything that could have been imagined. A few thousand tons of it would burst
+our spheroid and scatter the fragments into space. You can be absolutely certain
+that it is capable of destroying no matter what vessel at a distance
+considerably greater than that attained by present projectiles and within a zone
+of at least a mile. The weak point in the invention is that rather too much time
+has to be expended in regulating the firing.�</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko stops short, as though reluctant to give any further
+information, but finally adds:</P>
+<P>“Therefore, I end as I began, Mr. Hart. Resign yourself to the inevitable.
+Accept your new existence without reserve. Give yourself up to the tranquil
+delights of this subterranean life. If one is in good health, one preserves it;
+if one has lost one’s health, one recovers it here. That is what is happening to
+your fellow countryman. Yes, the best thing you can do is to resign yourself to
+your lot.�</P>
+<P>Thereupon this giver of good advice leaves me, after saluting me with a
+friendly gesture, like a man whose good intentions merit appreciation. But what
+irony there is in his words, in his glance, in his attitude. Shall I ever be
+able to get even with him?</P>
+<P>I now know that at any rate it is not easy to regulate the aim of Roch’s
+auto-propulsive engine. It is probable that it always bursts at the same
+distance, and that beyond the zone in which the effects of the fulgurator are so
+terrible, and once it has been passed, a ship is safe from its effects. If I
+could only inform the world of this vital fact!</P>
+<P><I>August 20</I>.—For two days no incident worth recording has occurred. I
+have explored Back Cup to its extreme limits. At night when the long perspective
+of arched columns are illuminated by the electric lamps, I am almost religiously
+impressed when I gaze upon the natural wonders of this cavern, which has become
+my prison. I have never given up hope of finding somewhere in the walls a
+fissure of some kind of which the pirates are ignorant and through which I could
+make my escape. It is true that once outside I should have to wait till a
+passing ship hove in sight. My evasion would speedily be known at the Beehive,
+and I should soon be recaptured, unless—a happy thought strikes me—unless I
+could get at the <I>Ebba’s</I> boat that was drawn up high and dry on the little
+sandy beach in the creek. In this I might be able to make my way to St. George
+or Hamilton.</P>
+<P>This evening—it was about nine o’clock—I stretched myself on a bed of sand at
+the foot of one of the columns, about one hundred yards to the east of the
+lagoon. Shortly afterwards I heard footsteps, then voices. Hiding myself as best
+I could behind the rocky base of the pillar, I listened with all my ears.</P>
+<P>I recognized the voices as those of Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko. The two
+men stopped close to where I was lying, and continued their conversation in
+English—which is the language generally used in Back Cup. I was therefore able
+to understand all that they said.</P>
+<P>They were talking about Thomas Roch, or rather his fulgurator.</P>
+<P>“In a week’s time,� said Ker Karraje, “I shall put to sea in the <I>Ebba</I>,
+and fetch the sections of the engines that are being cast in that Virginian
+foundry.�</P>
+<P>“And when they are here,� observed Engineer Serko, “I will piece them
+together and fix up the frames for firing them. But beforehand, there is a job
+to be done which it seems to me is indispensable.�</P>
+<P>“What is that?�</P>
+<P>“To cut a tunnel through the wall of the cavern.�</P>
+<P>“Through the wall of the cavern?�</P>
+<P>“Oh! nothing but a narrow passage through which only one man at a time could
+squeeze, a hole easy enough to block, and the outside end of which would be
+hidden among the rocks.�</P>
+<P>“Of what use could it be to us, Serko?�</P>
+<P>“I have often thought about the utility of having some other way of getting
+out besides the submarine tunnel. We never know what the future may have in
+store for us.�</P>
+<P>“But the walls are so thick and hard,� objected Ker Karraje.</P>
+<P>“Oh, with a few grains of Roch’s explosive I undertake to reduce the rock to
+such fine powder that we shall be able to blow it away with our breath,� Serko
+replied.</P>
+<P>It can easily be imagined with what interest and eagerness I listened to
+this. Here was a ray of hope. It. was proposed to open up communication with the
+outside by a tunnel in the wall, and this held out the possibility of
+escape.</P>
+<P>As this thought flashed through my mind, Ker Karraje said:</P>
+<P>“Very well, Serko, and if it becomes necessary some day to defend Back Cup
+and prevent any ship from approaching it——. It is true,� he went on, without
+finishing the reflection, “our retreat would have to have been discovered by
+accident—or by denunciation.�</P>
+<P>“We have nothing to fear either from accident or denunciation,� affirmed
+Serko.</P>
+<P>“By one of our band, no, of course not, but by Simon Hart, perhaps.�</P>
+<P>“Hart!� exclaimed Serko. “He would have to escape first and no one can escape
+from Back Cup. I am, by the bye, interested in this Hart. He is a colleague,
+after all, and I have always suspected that he knows more about Roch’s invention
+than he pretends. I will get round him so that we shall soon be discussing
+physics, mechanics, and matters ballistic like a couple of friends.�</P>
+<P>“No matter,� replied the generous and sensible Count d’Artigas, “when we are
+in full possession of the secret we had better get rid of the fellow.�</P>
+<P>“We have plenty of time to do that, Ker Karraje.�</P>
+<P>“If God permits you to, you wretches,� I muttered to myself, while my heart
+thumped against my ribs.</P>
+<P>And yet, without the intervention of Providence, what hope is there for
+me?</P>
+<P>The conversation then took another direction.</P>
+<P>“Now that we know the composition of the explosive, Serko,� said Ker Karraje,
+“we must, at all cost, get that of the deflagrator from Thomas Roch.�</P>
+<P>“Yes,� replied Engineer Serko, “that is what I am trying to do.
+Unfortunately, however, Roch positively refuses to discuss it. Still he has
+already made a few drops of it with which those experiments were made, and he
+will furnish as with some more to blow a hole through the wall.�</P>
+<P>“But what about our expeditions at sea?� queried Ker Karraje.</P>
+<P>“Patience! We shall end by getting Roch’s thunderbolts entirely in our own
+hand, and then——�</P>
+<P>“Are you sure, Serko?�</P>
+<P>“Quite sure,—by paying the price, Ker Karraje.�</P>
+<P>The conversation dropped at this point, and they strolled off without having
+seen me—very luckily for me, I guess. If Engineer Serko spoke up somewhat in
+defence of a colleague, Ker Karraje is apparently animated with much less
+benevolent sentiments in regard to me. On the least suspicion they would throw
+me into the lake, and if I ever got through the tunnel, it would only be as a
+corpse carried out by the ebbing tide.</P>
+<P><I>August 21</I>.—Engineer Serko has been prospecting with a view to piercing
+the proposed passage through the wall, in such a way that its existence will
+never be dreamed of outside. After a minute examination he decided to tunnel
+through the northern end of the cavern about sixty feet from the first cells of
+the Beehive.</P>
+<P>I am anxious for the passage to be made, for who knows but what it may be the
+way to freedom for me? Ah! if I only knew how to swim, perhaps I should have
+attempted to escape through the submarine tunnel, as since it was disclosed by
+the lashing back of the waters by the whale in its death-struggle, I know
+exactly where the orifice is situated. It seems to me that at the time of the
+great tides, this orifice must be partly uncovered. At the full and new moon,
+when the sea attains its maximum depression below the normal level, it is
+possible that—I must satisfy myself about this.</P>
+<P>I do not know how the fact will help me in any way, even if the entrance to
+the tunnel is partly uncovered, but I cannot afford to miss any detail that may
+possibly aid in my escape from Back Cup.</P>
+<P><I>August 29</I>.—This morning I am witnessing the departure of the tug. The
+Count d’Artigas is, no doubt, going off in the <I>Ebba</I> to fetch the sections
+of Thomas Roch’s engines. Before embarking, the Count converses long and
+earnestly with Engineer Serko, who, apparently, is not going to accompany him on
+this trip, and is evidently giving him some recommendations, of which I may be
+the object. Then, having stepped on to the platform, he goes below, the lid
+shuts with a bang, and the tug sinks out of sight, leaving a trail of bubbles
+behind it.</P>
+<P>The hours go by, night is coming on, yet the tug does not return. I conclude
+that it has gone to tow the schooner, and perhaps to destroy any merchant
+vessels that may come in their way.</P>
+<P>It cannot, however, be absent very long, as the trip to America and back will
+not take more than a week.</P>
+<P>Besides, if I can judge from the calm atmosphere in the interior of the
+cavern, the <I>Ebba</I> must be favored with beautiful weather. This is, in
+fact, the fine season in this part of the world. Ah! if only I could break out
+of my prison!</P>
+
+<a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XIII.</H4>
+<H4>GOD BE WITH IT.</H4>
+<P><I>From August 29 to September 10</I>.—Thirteen days have gone by and the
+<I>Ebba</I> has not returned. Did she then not make straight for the American
+coast? Has she been delayed by a buccaneering cruise in the neighborhood of Back
+Cup? It seems to me that Ker Karraje’s only desire would be to get back with the
+sections of Roch’s engines as soon as possible. Maybe the Virginian foundry had
+not quite finished them.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko does not display the least anxiety or impatience. He continues
+to greet me with his accustomed ironical cordiality, and with a kindly air that
+I distrust—with good reason. He affects to be solicitous as to my health, urges
+me to make the best of a bad job, calls me Ali Baba, assures me that there is
+not, in the whole world, such an enchanting spot as this Arabian Nights cavern,
+observes that I am fed, warmed, lodged, and clothed, that I have no taxes to
+pay, and that even the inhabitants of the favored principality of Monaco do not
+enjoy an existence more free from care.</P>
+<P>Sometimes this ironical verbiage brings the blood to my face, and I am
+tempted to seize this cynical banterer by the throat and choke the life out of
+him. They would kill me afterwards. Still, what would that matter! Would it not
+be better to end in this way than to spend years and years amid these infernal
+and infamous surroundings? However, while there is life there is hope, I
+reflect, and this thought restrains me.</P>
+<P>I have scarcely set eyes upon Thomas Roch since the <I>Ebba</I> went away. He
+shuts himself up in his laboratory and works unceasingly. If he utilizes all the
+substances placed at his disposition there will be enough to blow up Back Cup
+and the whole Bermudan archipelago with it!</P>
+<P>I cling to the hope that he will never consent to give up the secret of his
+deflagrator, and that Engineer Serko’s efforts to acquire it will remain
+futile.</P>
+<P><I>September 3</I>.—To-day I have been able to witness with my own eyes the
+power of Roch’s explosive, and also the manner in which the fulgurator is
+employed.</P>
+<P>During the morning the men began to pierce the passage through the wall of
+the cavern at the spot fixed upon by Engineer Serko, who superintended the work
+in person. The work began at the base, where the rock is as hard as granite. To
+have continued it with pickaxes would have entailed long and arduous labor,
+inasmuch as the wall at this place is not less than from twenty to thirty yards
+in thickness, but thanks to Roch’s fulgurator the passage will be completed
+easily and rapidly.</P>
+<P>I may well be astonished at what I have seen. The pickaxes hardly made any
+impression on the rock, but its disaggregation was effected with really
+remarkable facility by means of the fulgurator.</P>
+<P>A few grains of this explosive shattered the rocky mass and reduced it to
+almost impalpable powder that one’s breath could disperse as easily as vapor.
+The explosion produced an excavation measuring fully a cubic yard. It was
+accompanied by a sharp detonation that may be compared to the report of a
+cannon.</P>
+<P>The first charge used, although a very small one, a mere pinch, blew the men
+in every direction, and two of them were seriously injured. Engineer Serko
+himself was projected several yards, and sustained some rather severe
+contusions.</P>
+<P>Here is how this substance, whose bursting force surpasses anything hitherto
+conceived, is employed.</P>
+<P>A small hole about an inch and a half in length is pierced obliquely in the
+rock. A few grains of the explosive are then inserted, but no wad is used.</P>
+<P>Then Thomas Roch steps forward. In his hand is a little glass phial
+containing a bluish, oily liquid that congeals almost as soon as it comes in
+contact with the air. He pours one drop on the entrance of the hole, and draws
+back, but not with undue haste. It takes a certain time—about thirty-five
+seconds, I reckon—before the combination of the fulgurator and deflagrator is
+effected. But when the explosion does take place its power of disaggregation is
+such—I repeat—that it may be regarded as unlimited. It is at any rate a thousand
+times superior to that of any known explosive.</P>
+<P>Under these circumstances it will probably not take more than a week to
+complete the tunnel.</P>
+<P><I>September 19</I>.—For some time past I have observed that the tide rises
+and falls twice every twenty-four hours, and that the ebb and flow produce a
+rather swift current through the submarine tunnel. It is pretty certain
+therefore that a floating object thrown into the lagoon when the top of the
+orifice is uncovered would be carried out by the receding tide. It is just
+possible that during the lowest equinoctial tides the top of the orifice is
+uncovered. This I shall be able to ascertain, as this is precisely the time they
+occur. To-day, September 19, I could almost distinguish the summit of the hole
+under the water. The day after to-morrow, if ever, it will be uncovered.</P>
+<P>Very well then, if I cannot myself attempt to get through, may be a bottle
+thrown into the lagoon might be carried out during the last few minutes of the
+ebb. And might not this bottle by chance—an ultra-providential chance, I must
+avow—be picked up by a ship passing near Back Cup? Perhaps even it might be
+borne away by a friendly current and cast upon one of the Bermudan beaches. What
+if that bottle contained a letter?</P>
+<P>I cannot get this thought out of my mind, and it works me up into a great
+state of excitement. Then objections crop up—this one among others: the bottle
+might be swept against the rocks and smashed ere ever it could get out of the
+tunnel. Very true, but what if, instead of a bottle a diminutive, tightly closed
+keg were used? It would not run any danger of being smashed and would besides
+stand a much better chance of reaching the open sea.</P>
+<P><I>September 20</I>.—This evening, I, unperceived, entered one of the store
+houses containing the booty pillaged from various ships and procured a keg very
+suitable for my experiment.</P>
+<P>I hid the keg under my coat, and returned to the Beehive and my cell. Then
+without losing an instant I set to work. Paper, pen, ink, nothing was wanting,
+as will be supposed from the fact that for three months I have been making notes
+and dotting down my impressions daily.</P>
+<P>I indite the following message:</P>
+<P>“On June 15 last Thomas Roch and his keeper Gaydon, or rather Simon Hart, the
+French engineer who occupied Pavilion No. 17, at Healthful House, near
+New-Berne, North Carolina, United States of America, were kidnapped and carried
+on board the schooner <I>Ebba</I>, belonging to the Count d’Artigas. Both are
+now confined in the interior of a cavern which serves as a lair for the said
+Count d’Artigas—who is really Ker Karraje, the pirate who some time ago carried
+on his depredations in the West Pacific—and for about a hundred men of which his
+band is composed.</P>
+<P>“When he has obtained possession of Roch’s fulgurator whose power is, so to
+speak, without limit, Ker Karraje will be in a position to carry on his crimes
+with complete impunity.</P>
+<P>“It is therefore urgent that the states interested should destroy his lair
+without delay.</P>
+<P>“The cavern in which the pirate Ker Karraje has taken refuge is in the
+interior of the islet of Back Cup, which is wrongly regarded as an active
+volcano. It is situated at the western extremity of the archipelago of Bermuda,
+and on the east is bounded by a range of reefs, but on the north, south, and
+west is open.</P>
+<P>“Communication with the inside of the mountain is only possible through a
+tunnel a few yards under water in a narrow pass on the west. A submarine
+apparatus therefore is necessary to effect an entrance, at any rate until a
+tunnel they are boring through the northwestern wall of the cavern is
+completed.</P>
+<P>“The pirate Ker Karraje employs an apparatus of this kind—the submarine boat
+that the Count d’Artigas ordered of the Cramps and which was supposed to have
+been lost during the public experiment with it in Charleston Bay. This boat is
+used not only for the purpose of entering and issuing from Back Cup, but also to
+tow the schooner and attack merchant vessels in Bermudan waters.</P>
+<P>“This schooner <I>Ebba</I>, so well known on the American coast, is kept in a
+small creek on the western side of the island, behind a mass of rocks, and is
+invisible from the sea.</P>
+<P>“The best place to land is on the west coast formerly occupied by the colony
+of Bermudan fishers; but it would first be advisable to effect a breach in the
+side of the cavern by means of the most powerful melinite shells.</P>
+<P>“The fact that Ker Karraje may be in the position to use Roch’s fulgurator
+for the defence of the island must also be taken into consideration. Let it be
+well borne in mind that if its destructive power surpasses anything ever
+conceived or dreamed of, it extends over a zone not exceeding a mile in extent.
+The distance of this dangerous zone is variable, but once the engines have been
+set, the modification of the distance occupies some time, and a warship that
+succeeds in passing the zone has nothing further to fear.</P>
+<P>“This document is written on the twentieth day of September at eight o’clock
+in the evening and is signed with my name</P>
+<P>“THOMAS HART, Engineer.�</P>
+<P>The above is the text of the statement I have just drawn up. It says all that
+is necessary about the island, whose exact situation is marked on all modern
+charts and maps, and points out the expediency of acting without delay, and what
+to do in case Ker Karraje is in the position to employ Roch’s fulgurator.</P>
+<P>I add a plan of the cavern showing its internal configuration, the situation
+of the lagoon, the lay of the Beehive, Ker Karraje’s habitation, my cell, and
+Thomas Roch’s laboratory.</P>
+<P>I wrap the document in a piece of tarpaulin and insert the package in the
+little keg, which measures six inches by three and a half. It is perfectly
+watertight and will stand any amount of knocking about against the rocks.</P>
+<P>There is one danger, however, and that is, that it may be swept back by the
+returning tide, cast up on the island, and fall into the hands of the crew of
+the <I>Ebba</I> when the schooner is hauled into her creek. If Ker Karraje ever
+gets hold of it, it will be all up with me.</P>
+<P>It will be readily conceived with what anxiety I have awaited the moment to
+make the attempt: I am in a perfect fever of excitement, for it is a matter of
+life or death to me. I calculate from previous observations that the tide will
+be very low at about a quarter to nine. The top of the tunnel ought then to be a
+foot and a half above water, which is more than enough to permit of the keg
+passing through it. It will be another half hour at least before the flow sets
+in again, and by that time the keg may be far enough away to escape being thrown
+back on the coast.</P>
+<P>I peer out of my cell. There is no one about, and I advance to the side of
+the lagoon, where by the light of a nearby lamp, I perceive the arch of the
+tunnel, towards which the current seems to be setting pretty swiftly.</P>
+<P>I go down to the very edge, and cast in the keg which contains the precious
+document and all my hopes.</P>
+<P>“God be with it!� I fervently exclaim. “God be with it!�</P>
+<P>For a minute or two the little barrel remains stationary, and then floats
+back to the side again. I throw it out once more with all my strength.</P>
+<P>This time it is in the track of the current, which to my great joy sweeps it
+along and in twenty seconds, it has disappeared in the tunnel.</P>
+<P>Yes, God be with it! May Heaven guide thee, little barrel! May it protect all
+those whom Ker Karraje menaces and grant that this band of pirates may not
+escape from the justice of man!</P>
+
+<a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XIV.</H4>
+<H4>BATTLE BETWEEN THE “SWORD� AND THE TUG.</H4>
+<P>Through all this sleepless night I have followed the keg in fancy. How many
+times I seem to see it swept against the rocks in the tunnel into a creek, or
+some excavation. I am in a cold perspiration from head to foot. Then I imagine
+that it has been carried out to sea. Heavens! if the returning tide should sweep
+it back to tho entrance and then through the tunnel into the lagoon! I must be
+on the lookout for it.</P>
+<P>I rise before the sun and saunter down to the lagoon. Not a single object is
+floating on its calm surface.</P>
+<P>The work on the tunnel through the side of the cavern goes on, and at four
+o’clock in the afternoon on September 23, Engineer Serko blows away the last
+rock obstructing the issue, and communication with the outer world is
+established. It is only a very narrow hole, and one has to stoop to go through
+it. The exterior orifice is lost among the crannies of the rocky coast, and it
+would be easy to obstruct it, if such a measure became necessary.</P>
+<P>It goes without saying that the passage will be strictly guarded. No one
+without special authorization will be able either to go out or come in,
+therefore there is little hope of escape in that direction.</P>
+<P><I>September 25.</I>—This morning the tug rose from the depth of the lagoon
+to the surface, and has now run alongside the jetty. The Count d’Artigas and
+Captain Spade disembark, and the crew set to work to land the provisions—boxes
+of canned meat, preserves, barrels of wine and spirits, and other things brought
+by the <I>Ebba,</I> among which are several packages destined for Thomas Roch.
+The men also land the various sections of Roch’s engines which are discoid in
+shape.</P>
+<P>The inventor watches their operations, and his eyes glisten with eagerness.
+He seizes one of the sections, examines it, and nods approval. I notice that his
+joy no longer finds expression in incoherent utterances, that he is completely
+transformed from what he was while a patient at Healthful House. So much is this
+the case that I begin to ask myself whether his madness which was asserted to be
+incurable, has not been radically cured.</P>
+<P>At last Thomas Roch embarks in the boat used for crossing the lake and is
+rowed over to his laboratory. Engineer Serko accompanies him. In an hour’s time
+the tug’s cargo has all been taken out and transported to the storehouses.</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje exchanges a word or two with Engineer Serko and then enters his
+mansion. Later, in the afternoon, I see them walking up and down in front of the
+Beehive and talking earnestly together.</P>
+<P>Then they enter the new tunnel, followed by Captain Spade. If I could but
+follow them! If I could but breathe for awhile the bracing air of the Atlantic,
+of which the interior of Back Cup only receives attenuated puffs, so to
+speak.</P>
+<P><I>From September 26 to October 10</I>.—Fifteen days have elapsed. Under the
+directions of Engineer Serko and Thomas Roch the sections of the engines have
+been fitted together. Then the construction of their supports is begun. These
+supports are simple trestles, fitted with transverse troughs or grooves of
+various degrees of inclination, and which could be easily installed on the deck
+of the <I>Ebba</I>, or even on the platform of the tug, which can be kept on a
+level with the surface.</P>
+<P>Thus Ker Karraje, will be ruler of the seas, with his yacht. No warship,
+however big, however powerful, will be able to cross the zone of danger, whereas
+the <I>Ebba</I> will be out of range of its guns. If only my notice were found!
+If only the existence of this lair of Back Cup were known! Means would soon be
+found, if not of destroying the place, at least of starving the band into
+submission!</P>
+<P><I>October 20</I>.—To my extreme surprise I find this morning that the tug
+has gone away again. I recall that yesterday the elements of the piles were
+renewed, but I thought it was only to keep them in order. In view of the fact
+that the outside can now be reached through the new tunnel, and that Thomas Roch
+has everything he requires, I can only conclude that the tug has gone off on
+another marauding expedition.</P>
+<P>Yet this is the season of the equinoctial gales, and the Bermudan waters are
+swept by frequent tempests. This is evident from the violent gusts that drive
+back the smoke through the crater and the heavy rain that accompanies it, as
+well as by the water in the lagoon, which swells and washes over the brown rocks
+on its shores.</P>
+<P>But it is by no means sure that the <I>Ebba</I> has quitted her cove. However
+staunch she may be, she is, it seems to me, of too light a build to face such
+tempests as now rage, even with the help of the tug.</P>
+<P>On the other hand, although the tug has nothing to fear from the heavy seas,
+as it would be in calm water a few yards below the surface, it is hardly likely
+that it has gone on a trip unless to accompany the schooner.</P>
+<P>I do not know to what its departure can be attributed, but its absence is
+likely to be prolonged, for it has not yet returned.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko has remained behind, but Ker Karraje, Captain Spade, and the
+crew of the schooner, I find, have left.</P>
+<P>Life in the cavern goes on with its usual dispiriting monotony. I pass hour
+after hour in my cell, meditating, hoping, despairing, following in fancy the
+voyage of my little barrel, tossed about at the mercy of the currents and whose
+chances of being picked up, I fear, are becoming fainter each day, and killing
+time by writing my diary, which will probably not survive me.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch is constantly occupied in his laboratory manufacturing his
+deflagrator. I still entertain the conviction that nothing will ever induce him
+to give up the secret of the liquid’s composition; but I am perfectly aware that
+he will not hesitate to place his invention at Ker Karraje’s service.</P>
+<P>I often meet Engineer Serko when my strolls take me in the direction of the
+Beehive. He always shows himself disposed to chat with me, though, it is true,
+he does so in a tone of impertinent frivolity. We converse upon all sorts of
+subjects, but rarely of my position. Recrimination thereanent is useless and
+only subjects me to renewed bantering.</P>
+<P><I>October 22</I>.—To-day I asked Engineer Serko whether the <I>Ebba</I> had
+put to sea again with the tug.</P>
+<P>“Yes, Mr. Simon Hart,� he replied, “and though the clouds gather and loud the
+tempest roars, be in no uneasiness in regard to our dear <I>Ebba</I>.�</P>
+<P>“Will she be gone long?�</P>
+<P>“We expect her back within forty-eight hours. It is the last voyage Count
+d’Artigas proposes to make before the winter gales render navigation in these
+parts impracticable.�</P>
+<P>“Is her voyage one of business or pleasure?�</P>
+<P>“Of business, Mr. Hart, of business,� answered Engineer Serko with a smile.
+“Our engines are now completed, and when the fine weather returns we shall
+resume offensive operations.�</P>
+<P>“Against unfortunate merchantmen.�</P>
+<P>“As unfortunate as they are richly laden.�</P>
+<P>“Acts of piracy, whose impunity will, I trust, not always be assured,� I
+cried..</P>
+<P>“Calm yourself, dear colleague, be calm! Be calm! No one, you know, can ever
+discover our retreat, and none can ever disclose the secret! Besides, with these
+engines, which are so easily handled and are of such terrible power, it would be
+easy for us to blow to pieces any ship that attempted to get within a certain
+radius of the island.�</P>
+<P>“Providing,� I said, “that Thomas Roch has sold you the composition of his
+deflagrator as he has sold you that of his fulgurator.�</P>
+<P>“That he has done, Mr. Hart, and it behooves me to set your mind at rest upon
+that point.�</P>
+<P>From this categorical response I ought to have concluded that the misfortune
+had been consummated, but a certain hesitation in the intonation of his voice
+warned me that implicit reliance was not to be placed upon Engineer Serko’s
+assertions.</P>
+<P><I>October 25</I>.—What a frightful adventure I have just been mixed up in,
+and what a wonder I did not lose my life! It is only by a miracle that I am able
+to resume these notes, which have been interrupted for forty-eight hours. With a
+little luck, I should have been delivered! I should now be in one of the
+Bermudan ports—St. George or Hamilton. The mysteries of Back Cup would have been
+cleared up. The description of the schooner would have been wired all over the
+world, and she would not dare to put into any port. The provisioning of Back Cup
+would be impossible, and Ker Karraje’s bandits would be condemned to starve to
+death!</P>
+<P>This is what occurred:</P>
+<P>At eight o’clock in the evening on October 23, I quitted my cell in an
+indefinable state of nervousness, and with a presentiment that a serious event
+was imminent. In vain I had tried to seek calmness in sleep. It was impossible
+to do so, and I rose and went out.</P>
+<P>Outside Back Cup the weather must have been very rough. Violent gusts of wind
+swept in through the crater and agitated the water of the lagoon.</P>
+<P>I walked along the shore on the Beehive side. No one was about. It was rather
+cold, and the air was damp. The pirates were all snugly ensconced in their
+cells, with the exception of one man, who stood guard over the new passage,
+notwithstanding that the outer entrance had been blocked. From where he was this
+man could not see the lagoon, moreover there were only two lamps alight, one on
+each side of the lake, and the forest of pillars was wrapt in the profoundest
+obscurity.</P>
+<P>I was walking about in the shadow, when some one passed me.</P>
+<P>I saw that he was Thomas Roch.</P>
+<P>He was walking slowly, absorbed by his thoughts, his brain at work, as
+usual.</P>
+<P>Was this not a favorable opportunity to talk to him, to enlighten him about
+what he was probably ignorant, namely, the character of the people into whose
+hands he had fallen?</P>
+<P>“He cannot,� I argued, “know that the Count d’Artigas is none other than Ker
+Karraje, the pirate. He cannot be aware that he has given up a part of his
+invention to such a bandit. I must open his eyes to the fact that he will never
+be able to enjoy his millions, that he is a prisoner in Back Cup, and will never
+be allowed to leave it, any more than I shall. Yes, I will make an appeal to his
+sentiments of humanity, and point out to him what frightful misfortunes he will
+be responsible for if he does not keep the secret of his deflagrator.�</P>
+<P>All this I had said to myself, and was preparing to carry out my resolution,
+when I suddenly felt myself seized from behind.</P>
+<P>Two men held me by the arms, and another appeared in front of me.</P>
+<P>Before I had time to cry out the man exclaimed in English:</P>
+<P>“Hush! not a word! Are you not Simon Hart?�</P>
+<P>“Yes, how did you know?�</P>
+<P>“I saw you come out of your cell.�</P>
+<P>“Who are you, then?�</P>
+<P>“Lieutenant Davon, of the British Navy, of H.M.S. <I>Standard</I>, which is
+stationed at the Bermudas.�</P>
+<P>Emotion choked me so that it was impossible for me to utter a word.</P>
+<P>“We have come to rescue you from Ker Karraje, and also propose to carry off
+Thomas Roch,� he added.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch?� I stammered.</P>
+<P>“Yes, the document signed by you was found on the beach at St. George——�</P>
+<P>“In a keg, Lieutenant Davon, which I committed to the waters of the
+lagoon.�</P>
+<P>“And which contained,� went on the officer, “the notice by which we were
+apprised that the island of Back Cup served as a refuge for Ker Karraje and his
+band—Ker Karraje, this false Count d’Artigas, the author of the double abduction
+from Healthful House.�</P>
+<P>“Ah! Lieutenant Davon——�</P>
+<P>“Now we have not a moment to spare, we must profit by the obscurity.�</P>
+<P>“One word, Lieutenant Davon, how did you penetrate to the interior of Back
+Cup?�</P>
+<P>“By means of the submarine boat <I>Sword</I>, with which we have been making
+experiments at St. George for six months past.�</P>
+<P>“A submarine boat!�</P>
+<P>“Yes, it awaits us at the foot of the rocks. And now, Mr. Hart, where is Ker
+Karraje’s tug?�</P>
+<P>“It has been away for three weeks.�</P>
+<P>“Ker Karraje is not here, then?�</P>
+<P>“No, but we expect him back every day—every hour, I might say.�</P>
+<P>“It matters little,� replied Lieutenant Davon. “It is not after Ker Karraje,
+but Thomas Roch, we have come—and you also, Mr. Hart. The <I>Sword</I> will not
+leave the lagoon till you are both on board. If she does not turn up at St.
+George again, they will know that I have failed—and they will try again.�</P>
+<P>“Where is the <I>Sword</I>, Lieutenant?�</P>
+<P>“On this side, in the shadow of the bank, where it cannot be seen. Thanks to
+your directions, I and my crew were able to locate the tunnel. We came through
+all right, and ten minutes ago rose to the surface of the lake. Two men landed
+with me. I saw you issue from the cell marked on your plan. Do you know where
+Thomas Roch is?�</P>
+<P>“A few paces off. He has just passed me, on his way to his laboratory.�</P>
+<P>“God be praised, Mr. Hart!�</P>
+<P>“Amen, Lieutenant Davon.�</P>
+<P>The lieutenant, the two men and I took the path around the lagoon. We had not
+gone far when we perceived Thomas Roch in front of us. To throw ourselves upon
+him, gag him before he could utter a cry, bind him before he could offer any
+resistance, and bear him off to the place where the <I>Sword</I> was moored was
+the work of a minute.</P>
+<P>The <I>Sword</I> was a submersible boat of only twelve tons, and consequently
+much inferior to the tug, both in respect of dimensions and power. Her screw was
+worked by a couple of dynamos fitted with accumulators that had been charged
+twelve hours previously in the port of St. George. However, the <I>Sword</I>
+would suffice to take us out of this prison, to restore us to liberty—that
+liberty of which I had given up all hope. Thomas Roch was at last to be rescued
+from the clutches of Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko. The rascals would not be
+able to utilize his invention, and nothing could prevent the warships from
+landing a storming party on the island, who would force the tunnel in the wall
+and secure the pirates!</P>
+<P>We saw no one while the two men were conveying Thomas Roch to the
+<I>Sword</I>, and all got on board without incident. The lid was shut and
+secured, the water compartments filled, and the <I>Sword</I> sank out of sight.
+We were saved!</P>
+<P>The <I>Sword</I> was divided into three water-tight compartments. The after
+one contained the accumulators and machinery. The middle one, occupied by the
+pilot, was surmounted by a periscope fitted with lenticular portholes, through
+which an electric search-lamp lighted the way through the water. Forward, in the
+other compartment, Thomas Roch and I were shut in.</P>
+<P>My companion, though the gag which was choking him had been removed, was
+still bound, and, I thought, knew what was going on.</P>
+<P>But we were in a hurry to be off, and hoped to reach St. George that very
+night if no obstacle was encountered.</P>
+<P>I pushed open the door of the compartment and rejoined Lieutenant Davon, who
+was standing by the man at the wheel. In the after compartment three other men,
+including the engineer, awaited the lieutenant’s orders to set the machinery in
+motion.</P>
+<P>“Lieutenant Davon,� I said, “I do not think there is any particular reason
+why I should stay in there with Roch. If I can help you to get through the
+tunnel, pray command me.�</P>
+<P>“Yes, I shall be glad to have you by me, Mr. Hart.�</P>
+<P>It was then exactly thirty-seven minutes past eight.</P>
+<P>The search-lamp threw a vague light through the water ahead of the
+<I>Sword</I>. From where we were, we had to cross the lagoon through its entire
+length to get to the tunnel. It would be pretty difficult to fetch it, we knew,
+but, if necessary, we could hug the sides of the lake until we located it. Once
+outside the tunnel the <I>Sword</I> would rise to the surface and make for St.
+George at full speed.</P>
+<P>“At what depth are we now?� I asked the lieutenant.</P>
+<P>“About a fathom.�</P>
+<P>“It is not necessary to go any lower,� I said. “From what I was able to
+observe during the equinoctial tides, I should think that we are in the axis of
+the tunnel.�</P>
+<P>“All right,� he replied.</P>
+<P>Yes, it was all right, and I felt that Providence was speaking by the mouth
+of the officer. Certainly Providence could not have chosen a better agent to
+work its will.</P>
+<P>In the light of the lamp I examined him. He was about thirty years of age,
+cool, phlegmatic, with resolute physiognomy—the English officer in all his
+native impassibility—no more disturbed than if he had been on board the
+<I>Standard</I>, operating with extraordinary <I>sang-froid,</I> I might even
+say, with the precision of a machine.</P>
+<P>“On coming through the tunnel I estimated its length at about fifty yards,�
+he remarked.</P>
+<P>“Yes, Lieutenant, about fifty yards from one extremity to the other.�</P>
+<P>This calculation must have been pretty exact, since the new tunnel cut on a
+level with the coast is thirty-five feet in length.</P>
+<P>The order was given to go ahead, and the <I>Sword</I> moved forward very
+slowly for fear of colliding against the rocky side.</P>
+<P>Sometimes we came near enough to it to distinguish a black mass ahead of it,
+but a turn of the wheel put us in the right direction again. Navigating a
+submarine boat in the open sea is difficult enough. How much more so in the
+confines of a lagoon!</P>
+<P>After five minutes’ manoeuvring, the <I>Sword</I>, which was kept at about a
+fathom below the surface, had not succeeded in sighting the orifice.</P>
+<P>“Perhaps it would be better to return to the surface, Lieutenant,� I said.
+“We should then be able to see where we are.�</P>
+<P>“I think you are right, Mr. Hart, if you can point out just about where the
+tunnel is located.�</P>
+<P>“I think I can.�</P>
+<P>“Very well, then.�</P>
+<P>As a precaution the light was turned off. The engineer set the pumps in
+motion, and, lightened of its water ballast, the boat slowly rose in the
+darkness to the surface.</P>
+<P>I remained at my post so that I could peer through the lookouts.</P>
+<P>At last the ascensional movement of the <I>Sword</I> stopped, and the
+periscope emerged about a foot.</P>
+<P>On one side of me, lighted by the lamp by the shore, I could see the
+Beehive.</P>
+<P>“What is your opinion?� demanded the lieutenant.</P>
+<P>“We are too far north. The orifice is in the west side of the cavern.�</P>
+<P>“Is anybody about?�</P>
+<P>“Not a soul.�</P>
+<P>“Capital, Mr. Hart. Then we will keep on a level with the surface, and when
+we are in front of the tunnel, and you give the signal, we will sink.�</P>
+<P>It was the best thing to be done. We moved off again and the pilot kept her
+head towards the tunnel.</P>
+<P>When we were about twelve yards off I gave the signal to stop. As soon as the
+current was turned off the <I>Sword</I> stopped, opened her water tanks and
+slowly sank again.</P>
+<P>Then the light in the lookout was turned on again, and there in front of us
+was a black circle that did not reflect the lamp’s rays.</P>
+<P>“There it is, there is the tunnel!� I cried.</P>
+<P>Was it not the door by which I was going to escape from my prison? Was not
+liberty awaiting me on the other side?</P>
+<P>Gently the <I>Sword</I> moved towards the orifice.</P>
+<P>Oh! the horrible mischance! How have I survived it? How is it that my heart
+is not broken?</P>
+<P>A dim light appeared in the depth of the tunnel, about twenty-five yards in
+front of us. The advancing light could be none other than that, projected
+through the lookout of Ker Karraje’s submarine boat.</P>
+<P>“The tug! The tug!� I exclaimed. “Lieutenant, here is the tug returning to
+Back Cup!�</P>
+<P>“Full speed astern,� ordered the officer, and the <I>Sword</I> drew back just
+as she was about to enter the tunnel.</P>
+<P>One chance remained. The lieutenant had swiftly turned off the light, and it
+was just possible that we had not been seen by the people in the tug. Perhaps,
+in the dark waters of the lagoon, we should escape notice, and when the oncoming
+boat had risen and moored to the jetty, we should be able to slip out
+unperceived.</P>
+<P>We had backed close in to the south side and the <I>Sword</I> was about to
+stop, but alas, for our hopes! Captain Spade had seen that another submarine
+boat was about to issue through the tunnel, and he was making preparations to
+chase us. How could a frail craft like the <I>Sword</I> defend itself against
+the attacks of Ker Karraje’s powerful machine?</P>
+<P>Lieutenant Davon turned to me and said: “Go back to the compartment where
+Thomas Roch is and shut yourself in. I will close the after-door. There is just
+a chance that if the tug rams us the water-tight compartments will keep us
+up.�</P>
+<P>After shaking hands with the lieutenant, who was as cool as though we were in
+no danger, I went forward and rejoined Thomas Roch. I closed the door and
+awaited the issue in profound darkness.</P>
+<P>Then I could feel the desperate efforts made by the <I>Sword</I> to escape
+from or ram her enemy. I could feel her rushing, gyrating and plunging. Now she
+would twist to avoid a collision. Now she would rise to the surface, then sink
+to the bottom of the lagoon. Can any one conceive such a struggle as that in
+which, like two marine monsters, these machines were engaged in beneath the
+troubled waters of this inland lake?</P>
+<P>A few minutes elapsed, and I began to think that the <I>Sword</I> had eluded
+the tug and was rushing through the tunnel.</P>
+<P>Suddenly there was a collision. The shock was not, it seemed to me, very
+violent, but I could be under no illusion: the <I>Sword</I> had been struck on
+her starboard quarter. Perhaps her plates had resisted, and if not, the water
+would only invade one of her compartments, I thought.</P>
+<P>Almost immediately after, however, there was another shock that pushed the
+<I>Sword</I> with extreme violence. She was raised by the ram of the tug which
+sawed and ripped its way into her side. Then I could feel her heel over and sink
+straight down, stern foremost.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch and I were tumbled over violently by. this movement. There was
+another bump, another ripping sound, and the <I>Sword</I> lay still.</P>
+<P>Just what happened after that I am unable to say, for I lost
+consciousness.</P>
+<P>I have since learned that all this occurred many hours ago.</P>
+<P>I however distinctly remember that my last thought was:</P>
+<P>“If I am to die, at any rate Thomas Roch and his secret perish with me—and
+the pirates of Back Cup will not escape punishment for their crimes.�</P>
+
+<a name="XV" id="XV"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XV.</H4>
+<H4>EXPECTATION.</H4>
+<P>As soon as I recover my senses I find myself lying on my bed in my cell,
+where it appears I have been lying for thirty-six hours.</P>
+<P>I am not alone. Engineer Serko is near me. He has attended to me himself, not
+because he regards me as a friend, I surmise, but as a man from whom
+indispensable explanations are awaited, and who afterwards can be done away with
+if necessary.</P>
+<P>I am still so weak that I could not walk a step. A little more and I should
+have been asphyxiated in that narrow compartment of the <I>Sword</I> at the
+bottom of the lagoon.</P>
+<P>Am I in condition to reply to the questions that Engineer Serko is dying to
+put to me? Yes—but I shall maintain the utmost reserve.</P>
+<P>In the first place I wonder what has become of Lieutenant Davon and the crew
+of the <I>Sword</I>. Did those brave Englishmen perish in the collision? Are
+they safe and sound like us—for I suppose that Thomas Roch has also
+survived?</P>
+<P>The first question that Engineer Serko puts to me is this:</P>
+<P>“Will you explain to me what happened, Mr. Hart?�</P>
+<P>Instead of replying it occurs to me to question him myself.</P>
+<P>“And Thomas Roch?� I inquire.</P>
+<P>“In good health, Mr. Hart.� Then he adds in an imperious tone: “Tell me what
+occurred!�</P>
+<P>“In the first place, tell me what became of the others.�</P>
+<P>“What others?� replies Serko, glancing at me savagely.</P>
+<P>“Why, those men who threw themselves upon Thomas Roch and me, who gagged,
+bound, and carried us off and shut us up, I know not where?�</P>
+<P>On reflection I had come to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to
+pretend that I had been surprised before I knew where I was or who my aggressors
+were.</P>
+<P>“You will know what became of them later. But first, tell me how, the thing
+was done.�</P>
+<P>By the threatening tone of his voice, as he for the third time puts this
+question, I understand the nature of the suspicions entertained of me. Yet to be
+in the position to accuse me of having had relations with the outside he would
+have had to get possession of my keg. This he could not have done, seeing that
+it is in the hands of the Bermudan authorities. The pirates cannot, I am
+convinced, have a single proof to back up their suspicions.</P>
+<P>I therefore recount how about eight o’clock on the previous evening I was
+walking along the edge of the lagoon, after Thomas Roch had passed me, going
+towards his laboratory, when I felt myself seized from behind; how having been
+gagged, bound, and blindfolded, I felt myself carried off and lowered into a
+hole with another person whom I thought I recognized from his groans as Thomas
+Roch; how I soon felt that I was on board a boat of some description and
+naturally concluded that it was the tug; how I felt it sink; how I felt a shock
+that threw me violently against the side, and how I felt myself suffocating and
+lost consciousness, since I remember nothing further.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko listens with profound attention, a stern look in his eyes and
+a frown on his brow; and yet he can have no reason that authorizes him to doubt
+my word.</P>
+<P>“You claim that three men threw themselves upon you?� he asks.</P>
+<P>“Yes. I thought they were some of your people, for I did not see them coming.
+Who were they?�</P>
+<P>“Strangers, as you must have known from their language.�</P>
+<P>“They did not utter a word!�</P>
+<P>“Have you no idea as to their nationality?�</P>
+<P>“Not the remotest.�</P>
+<P>Do you know what were their intentions in entering the cavern?�</P>
+<P>“I do not.�</P>
+<P>“What is your opinion about it?�</P>
+<P>“My opinion, Mr. Serko? I repeat I thought they were two or three of your
+pirates who had come to throw me into the lagoon by the Count d’Artigas’ orders,
+and that they were going to do the same thing to Thomas Roch. I supposed that
+having obtained his secrets—as you informed me was the case—you had no further
+use for him and were about to get rid of us both.�</P>
+<P>“Is it possible, Mr. Hart, that you could have thought such a thing!�
+continued Serko in his sarcastic way.</P>
+<P>“I did, until having been able to remove the bandage from my eyes, I
+perceived that I was in the tug.�</P>
+<P>“It was not the tug, but a boat of the same kind that had got through the
+tunnel.�</P>
+<P>“A submarine boat?� I ejaculate.</P>
+<P>“Yes, and manned by persons whose mission was to kidnap you and Thomas
+Roch.�</P>
+<P>“Kidnap us?� I echo, continuing to feign surprise.</P>
+<P>“And,� adds Engineer Serko, “I want to know what you think about the
+matter.�</P>
+<P>“What I think about it? Well, it appears to me that there is only one
+plausible explanation possible. If the secret of your retreat has not been
+betrayed—and I cannot conceive how you could have been betrayed or what
+imprudence you or yours could have committed—my opinion is that this submarine
+boat was exploring the bottom of the sea in this neighborhood, that she must
+have found her way into the tunnel, that she rose to the surface of the lagoon,
+that her crew, greatly surprised to find themselves inside an inhabited cavern,
+seized hold of the first persons they came across, Thomas Roch and myself, and
+others as well perhaps, for of course I do not know——�</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko has become serious again. Does he realize the inanity of the
+hypothesis I try to pass off on him? Does he think I know more than I will say?
+However this may be, he accepts my professed view, and says:</P>
+<P>“In effect, Mr. Hart, it must have happened as you suggest, and when the
+stranger tried to make her way out through the tunnel just as the tug was
+entering, there was a collision—a collision of which she was the victim. But we
+are not the kind of people to allow our fellow-men to perish before our eyes.
+Moreover, the disappearance of Thomas Roch and yourself was almost immediately
+discovered. Two such valuable lives had to be saved at all hazards. We set to
+work. There are many expert divers among our men. They hastily donned their
+suits and descended to the bottom of the lagoon. They passed lines around the
+hull of the <I>Sword</I>——�</P>
+<P>“The <I>Sword</I>?� I exclaim.</P>
+<P>“That is the name we saw painted on the bow of the vessel when we raised her
+to the surface. What satisfaction we experienced when we recovered
+you—unconscious, it is true, but still breathing—and were able to bring you back
+to life! Unfortunately all our attentions to the officer who commanded the
+<I>Sword</I>, and to his crew were useless. The shock had torn open the after
+and middle compartments, and they paid with their lives the misfortune—due to
+chance, as you observe—of having discovered our mysterious retreat.�</P>
+<P>On learning that Lieutenant Davon and his companions are dead, my heart is
+filled with anguish; but to keep up my role—as they were persons with whom,
+presumably, I was not acquainted, and had never seen—I am careful not to display
+any emotion. I must, on no account, afford ground for the suspicion that there
+was any connivance between the commander of the <I>Sword</I> and me. For aught I
+know, Engineer Serko may have reason to be very skeptical about the discovery of
+the tunnel being accidental.</P>
+<P>What, however, I am most concerned about is that the unlooked-for occasion to
+recover my liberty was lost. Shall I ever be afforded another chance? However
+this may be, my notice reached the English authorities of the archipelago, and
+they now know where Ker Karraje is to be found. When it is seen that the
+<I>Sword</I> does not return to Bermuda, there can be no doubt that another
+attempt will be made to get inside Back Cup, in which, had it not been for the
+inopportune return of the tug, I should no longer be a prisoner.</P>
+<P>I have resumed my usual existence, and having allayed all mistrust, am
+permitted to wander freely about the cavern, as usual.</P>
+<P>It is patent that the adventure has had no ill effect upon Thomas Roch.
+Intelligent nursing brought him around, as it did me. In full possession of his
+mental faculties he has returned to work, and spends the entire day in his
+laboratory.</P>
+<P>The <I>Ebba</I> brought back from her last trip bales, boxes, and a quantity
+of objects of varied origin, and I conclude that a number of ships must have
+been pillaged during this marauding expedition.</P>
+<P>The work on the trestles for Roch’s engine goes steadily forward, and there
+are now no fewer than fifty engines. If Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko are under
+the necessity of defending Back Cup, three or four will be sufficient to render
+the island unapproachable, as they will cover a zone which no vessel could enter
+without being blown to pieces. And it occurs to me that they intend to put Back
+Cup in a state of defence after having argued as follows:</P>
+<P>“If the appearance of the <I>Sword</I> in the lagoon was due to chance the
+situation remains unchanged, and no power, not even England, will think of
+seeking for the <I>Sword</I> inside the cavern. If, on the other hand, as the
+result of an incomprehensible revelation, it has been learned that Back Cup is
+become the retreat of Ker Karraje, if the expedition of the <I>Sword</I> was a
+first effort against the island, another of a different kind—either a
+bombardment from a distance, or an attack by a landing party—is to be expected.
+Therefore, ere we can quit Back Cup and carry away our plunder, we shall have to
+defend ourselves by means of Roch’s fulgurator.�</P>
+<P>In my opinion the rascals must have gone on to reason still further in this
+wise:</P>
+<P>“Is there any connection between the disclosure of our secret—if it was, and
+however it may have been made—and the double abduction from Healthful House? Is
+it known that Thomas Roch and his keeper are confined in Back Cup? Is it known
+that the abduction was effected in the interest of Ker Karraje? Have Americans,
+English, French, Germans, and Russians reason to fear that an attack in force
+against the island would be doomed to failure?�</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje must know very well that these powers would not hesitate to
+attack him, however great the danger might be. The destruction of his lair is an
+urgent duty in the interest of public security and of humanity. After sweeping
+the West Pacific the pirate and his companions are infesting the West Atlantic,
+and must be wiped out at all costs.</P>
+<P>In any case, it is imperative that the inhabitants of Back Cup should be on
+their guard. This fact is realized, and, from the day on which the <I>Sword</I>
+was destroyed, strict watch has been kept. Thanks to the new passage, they are
+able to hide among the rocks without having recourse to the submarine tunnel to
+get there, and day and night a dozen sentries are posted about the island. The
+moment a ship appears in sight the fact is at once made known inside the
+cavern.</P>
+<P>Nothing occurs for some days, and the latter succeed each other with dreadful
+monotony. The pirates, however, feel that Back Cup no longer enjoys its former
+security. Every moment an alarm from the sentries posted outside is expected.
+The situation is no longer the same since the advent of the <I>Sword</I>.
+Gallant Lieutenant Davon, gallant crew, may England, may the civilized nations,
+never forget that you have sacrificed your lives in the cause of humanity!</P>
+<P>It is evident that now, however powerful may be their means of defence, even
+more powerful than a network of torpedoes, Engineer Serko and Captain Spade are
+filled with an anxiety that they vainly essay to dissemble. They hold frequent
+conferences together. Maybe they discuss the advisability of quitting Back Cup
+with their wealth, for they are aware that if the existence of the cavern is
+known means will be found to reduce it, even if the inmates have to be starved
+out.</P>
+<P>This is, of course, mere conjecture on my part. What is essential to me is
+that they do not suspect me of having launched the keg that was so
+providentially picked up at Bermuda. Never, I must say, has Engineer Serko ever
+made any allusion to any such probability. No, I am not even suspected. If the
+contrary were the case I am sufficiently acquainted with Ker Karraje to know
+that he would long ago have sent me to rejoin Lieutenant Davon and the
+<I>Sword</I> at the bottom of the lagoon.</P>
+<P>The winter tempests have set in with a vengeance. The wind howls though the
+hole in the roof, and rude gusts sweep through the forest of pillars producing
+sonorous sounds, so sonorous, so deep, that one might sometimes almost fancy
+they were produced by the firing of the guns of a squadron. Flocks of seabirds
+take refuge in the cavern from the gale, and at intervals, when it lulls, almost
+deafen us with their screaming.</P>
+<P>It is to be presumed that in such weather the schooner will make no attempt
+to put to sea, for the stock of provisions is ample enough to last all the
+season. Moreover, I imagine the Count d’Artigas will not be so eager in future
+to show his <I>Ebba</I> along the American coast, where he risks being received,
+not, as hitherto, with the consideration due to a wealthy yachtsman, but in the
+manner Ker Karraje so richly merits.</P>
+<P>It occurs to me that if the apparition of the <I>Sword</I> was the
+commencement of a campaign against the island, a question of great moment
+relative to the future of Back Cup arises.</P>
+<P>Therefore, one day, prudently, so as not to excite any suspicion, I ventured
+to pump Engineer Serko about it.</P>
+<P>We were in the neighborhood of Thomas Roch’s laboratory, and had been
+conversing for some time, when Engineer Serko touched upon the extraordinary
+apparition of an English submarine boat in the lagoon. On this occasion he
+seemed to incline to the view that it might have been a premeditated expedition
+against Ker Karraje.</P>
+<P>“That is not my opinion,� I replied, in order to bring him to the question
+that I wanted to put to him.</P>
+<P>“Why?� he demanded.</P>
+<P>“Because if your retreat were known a fresh attempt, if not to penetrate to
+the cavern, at least to destroy Back Cup, would ere this have been made.�</P>
+<P>“Destroy it!� cried Serko. “It would be a dangerous undertaking, in view of
+the means of defence of which we now dispose.�</P>
+<P>“They can know nothing about this matter, Mr. Serko. It is not imagined,
+either in the new world or the old, that the abduction from Healthful House was
+effected for your especial benefit, or that you have succeeded in coming to
+terms with Thomas Roch for his invention.�</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko made no response to this observation, which, for that matter,
+was unanswerable.</P>
+<P>I continued:</P>
+<P>“Therefore a squadron sent by the maritime powers who have an interest in
+breaking up this island would not hesitate to approach and shell it. Now, I
+argue from this that as this squadron has not yet appeared, it is not likely to
+come at all, and that nothing is known as to Ker Karraje’s whereabouts, and you
+must admit that this hypothesis is the most cheerful one, as far as you are
+concerned.�</P>
+<P>“That may be,� Engineer Serko replied, “but what is, is. Whether they are
+aware of the fact or no, if warships approach within five or six miles of this
+island they will be sunk before they have had time to fire a single shot!�</P>
+<P>“Well, and what then?�</P>
+<P>“What then? Why the probability is that no others would care to repeat the
+experiment.�</P>
+<P>“That, again, may be. But these warships would invest you beyond the
+dangerous zone, and the <I>Ebba</I> would not be able to put in to the ports she
+previously visited with the Count d’Artigas. In this event, how would you be
+able to provision the island?�</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko remained silent.</P>
+<P>This argument, which he must already have brooded over, was too logical to be
+refuted or dismissed, and I have an idea that the pirates contemplate abandoning
+Back Cup.</P>
+<P>Nevertheless, not relishing being cornered, he continued:</P>
+<P>“We should still have the tug, and what the <I>Ebba</I> could not do, this
+would.�</P>
+<P>“The tug?� I cried. “But if Ker Karraje’s secrets are known, do you suppose
+the powers are not also aware of the existence of the Count d’Artigas’ submarine
+boat?�</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko looked at me suspiciously.</P>
+<P>“Mr. Hart,� he said, “you appear to me to carry your deductions rather
+far.�</P>
+<P>“I, Mr. Serko?�</P>
+<P>“Yes, and I think you talk about all this like a man who knows more than he
+ought to.�</P>
+<P>This remark brought me up abruptly. It was evident that my arguments might
+give rise to the suspicion that I was not altogether irresponsible for the
+recent incident. Engineer Serko scrutinized me sharply as though he would read
+my innermost thoughts.</P>
+<P>“Mr. Serko,� I observed, “by profession, as well as by inclination, I am
+accustomed to reason upon everything. This is why I communicated to you the
+result of my reasoning, which you can take into consideration or not, as you
+like.�</P>
+<P>Thereupon we separate. But I fancy my lack of reserve may have excited
+suspicions which may not be easy to allay.</P>
+<P>From this interview, however, I gleaned a precious bit of information,
+namely, that the dangerous zone of Roch’s fulgurator is between five and six
+miles off. Perhaps, during the next equinoctial tides, another notice to this
+effect in another keg may also reach a safe destination.</P>
+<P>But how many weary months to wait before the orifice of the tunnel will again
+be uncovered!</P>
+<P>The rough weather continues, and the squalls are more violent than ever. Is
+it the state of the sea that delays another campaign against Back Cup?
+Lieutenant Davon certainly assured me that if his expedition failed, if the
+<I>Sword</I> did not return to St. George, another attempt under different
+conditions would be made with a view to breaking up this bandits’ lair. Sooner
+or later the work of justice must be done, and Back Cup be destroyed, even
+though I may not survive its destruction.</P>
+<P>Ah! why can I not go and breathe, if only for a single instant, the vivifying
+air outside? Why am I not permitted to cast one glance over the ocean towards
+the distant horizon of the Bermudas? My whole life is concentrated in one
+desire: to get through the tunnel in the wall and hide myself among the rocks.
+Perchance I might be the first to catch sight of the smoke of a squadron heading
+for the island.</P>
+<P>This project, alas! is unrealizable, as sentries are posted day and night at
+each extremity of the passage. No one can enter it without Engineer Serko’s
+authorization. Were I to attempt it, I should risk being deprived of my liberty
+to walk about the cavern, and even worse might happen to me.</P>
+<P>Since our last conversation, Engineer Serko’s attitude towards me has
+undergone a change. His gaze has lost its old-time sarcasm and is distrustful,
+suspicious, searching and as stern as Ker Karraje’s.</P>
+<P><I>November 17</I>.—This afternoon there was a great commotion in the
+Beehive, and the men rushed out of their cells with loud cries.</P>
+<P>I was reclining on my bed, but immediately rose and hurried out.</P>
+<P>All the pirates were making for the passage, in front of which were Ker
+Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, Boatswain Effrondat, Engine-driver
+Gibson and the Count d’Artigas’ big Malay attendant.</P>
+<P>I soon learn the reason for the tumult, for the sentries rush in with shouts
+of alarm.</P>
+<P>Several vessels have been sighted to the northwest—warships steaming at full
+speed in the direction of Back Cup.</P>
+
+<a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XVI.</H4>
+<H4>ONLY A FEW MORE HOURS.</H4>
+<P>What effect this news has upon me, and what emotion it awakens within my
+soul! The end, I feel, is at hand. May it be such as civilization and humanity
+are entitled to.</P>
+<P>Up to the present I have indited my notes day by day. Henceforward it is
+imperative that I should inscribe them hour by hour, minute by minute. Who knows
+but what Thomas Roch’s last secret may be revealed to me and that I shall have
+time to commit it to paper! Should I die during the attack God grant that the
+account of the five months I have passed in Back Cup may be found upon my
+body!</P>
+<P>At first Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, and several of their
+companions took up position on the exterior base of the island. What would I not
+give to be able follow to them, and in the friendly shelter of a rook watch the
+on-coming warships!</P>
+<P>An hour later they return after having left a score of men to keep watch. As
+the days at this season of the year are very short there is nothing to fear
+before the morrow. It is not likely that the ships will attempt a night attack
+and land a storming party, for they must imagine that the place is in a thorough
+condition of defence.</P>
+<P>All night long the pirates work, installing the trestles at different points
+of the coast. Six have been taken through the passage to places selected in
+advance.</P>
+<P>This done, Engineer Serko joins Thomas Roch in his laboratory. Is he going to
+tell him what is passing, that a squadron is in view of Back Cup, and that his
+fulgurator will be employed to defend the island?</P>
+<P>What is certain is that half a hundred engines, each charged with several
+pounds of the explosive and of the substance that ensures a trajectory superior
+to that of any other projectile, are ready for their work of destruction.</P>
+<P>As to the deflagrator liquid, Thomas Roch has a certain number of phials of
+it, and—I know only too well—will not refuse to help Ker Karraje’s pirates with
+it.</P>
+<P>During these preparations night has come on. Only the lamps of the Beehive
+are lighted and a semi-obscurity reigns in the cavern.</P>
+<P>I return to my cell. It is to my interest to keep out of the way as much as
+possible, for Engineer Serko’s suspicions might be revived now that the squadron
+is approaching Back Cup.</P>
+<P>But will the vessels sighted continue on their course in this direction? May
+they not be merely passing on their way to Bermuda? For an instant this doubt
+enters my mind. No, no, it cannot be! Besides, I have just heard Captain Spade
+declare that they are lying to in view of the island.</P>
+<P>To what nation do they belong? Have the English, desirous of avenging the
+destruction of the <I>Sword</I>, alone undertaken the expedition? May not
+cruisers of other nations be with them? I know not, and it is impossible to
+ascertain. And what does it matter, after all, so long as this haunt is
+destroyed, even though I should perish in the ruins like the heroic Lieutenant
+Davon and his brave crew?</P>
+<P>Preparations for defence continue with coolness and method under Engineer
+Serko’s superintendence. These pirates are obviously certain that they will be
+able to annihilate their assailants as soon as the latter enter the dangerous
+zone. Their confidence in Roch’s fulgurator is absolute. Absorbed by the idea
+that these warship are powerless against them, they think neither of the
+difficulties nor menaces held out by the future.</P>
+<P>I surmise that the trestles have been set up on the northwest coast with the
+grooves turned to send the engines to the north, west, and south. On the east,
+as already stated, the island is defended by the chain of reefs that stretches
+away to the Bermudas.</P>
+<P>About nine o’clock I venture out of my cell. They will pay little attention
+to me, and perhaps I may escape notice in the obscurity. Ah! if I could get
+through that passage and hide behind some rock, so that I could witness what
+goes on at daybreak! And why should I not succeed now that Ker Karraje, Engineer
+Serko, Captain Spade, and the pirates have taken their posts outside?</P>
+<P>The shores of the lake are deserted, but the entrance to the passage is kept
+by Count d’Artigas’ Malay. I saunter, without any fixed idea, towards Thomas
+Roch’s laboratory. This reminds me of my compatriot. I am, on reflection,
+disposed to think that he knows nothing about the presence of a squadron off
+Back Cup. Probably not until the last moment will Engineer Serko apprise him of
+its proximity, not till he brusquely points out to him the vengeance he can
+accomplish.</P>
+<P>Then I conceive the idea of enlightening Thomas Roch, myself, of the
+responsibility he is incurring and of revealing to him in this supreme hour the
+character of the men who want him to co-operate in their criminal projects.</P>
+<P>Yes, I will, attempt it, and may I succeed in fanning into a flame any spark
+of patriotism that may still linger in his rebellious soul!</P>
+<P>Roch is shut up in his laboratory. He must be alone, for never does he allow
+any one to enter while he is preparing his deflagrator.</P>
+<P>As I pass the jetty I notice that the tug is moored in its accustomed place.
+Here I judge it prudent to walk behind the first row of pillars and approach the
+laboratory laterally—which will enable me to see whether anybody is with him.
+When I have gone a short distance along the sombre avenue I see a bright light
+on the opposite side of the lagoon. It is the electric light in Roch’s
+laboratory as seen through a narrow window in the front.</P>
+<P>Except in that particular spot, the southern shore of the lake is in
+darkness, whereas, in the opposite direction, the Beehive is lit up to its
+extremity at the northern wall. Through the opening in the dome, over the lake I
+can see the stars shining. The sky is clear, the tempest has abated, and the
+squalls no longer penetrate to the interior of Back Cup.</P>
+<P>When near the laboratory, I creep along the wall and peep in at the
+window.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch is there alone. The light shines full on his face. If it is
+somewhat drawn, and the lines on the forehead are more pronounced, his
+physiognomy, at least, denotes perfect calmness and self-possession. No, he is
+no longer the inmate of Pavilion No. 17, the madman of Healthful House, and I
+ask myself whether he is not radically cured, whether there is no further danger
+of his reason collapsing in a final paroxysm.</P>
+<P>He has just laid two glass phials upon the table, and holds a third in his
+hand. He holds it up to the light, and observes the limpidity of the liquid it
+contains.</P>
+<P>I have half a mind to rush in, seize the tubes and smash them, but I reflect
+that he would have time to make some more of the stuff. Better stick to my first
+plan.</P>
+<P>I push the door open and enter.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch!� I exclaim.</P>
+<P>He has not heard, nor has he seen me.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch!� I repeat.</P>
+<P>He raises his head, turns and gazes at me.</P>
+<P>“Ah! it is you, Simon Hart!� he replies calmly, even indifferently.</P>
+<P>He knows my name. Engineer Serko must have informed him that it was Simon
+Hart, and not Keeper Gaydon who was watching over him at Healthful House.</P>
+<P>“You know who I am?� I say.</P>
+<P>“Yes, as I know what your object was in undertaking such a position. You
+lived in hopes of surprising a secret that they would not pay for at its just
+value!�</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch knows everything, and perhaps it is just as well, in view of what
+I am going to say.</P>
+<P>“Well, you did not succeed, Simon Hart, and as far as this is concerned,� he
+added, flourishing the phial, “no one else has succeeded, or ever will
+succeed.�</P>
+<P>As I conjectured, he has not, then, made known the composition of his
+deflagrator.</P>
+<P>Looking him straight in the face, I reply:</P>
+<P>“You know who I am, Thomas Roch, but do you know in whose place you are?�</P>
+<P>“In my own place!� he cries.</P>
+<P>That is what Ker Karraje has permitted him to believe. The inventor thinks he
+is at home in Back Cup, that the riches accumulated in this cavern are his, and
+that if an attack is made upon the place, it will be with the object of stealing
+what belongs to him! And he will defend it under the impression that he has the
+right to do so!</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch,� I continue, “listen to me.�</P>
+<P>“What do you want to say to me, Simon Hart?�</P>
+<P>“This cavern into which we have been dragged, is occupied by a band of
+pirates, and—�</P>
+<P>Roch does not give me time to complete the sentence—I doubt even whether he
+has understood me.</P>
+<P>“I repeat,� he interrupts vehemently, “that the treasures stored here are the
+price of my invention. They have paid me what I asked for my fulgurator—what I
+was everywhere else refused—even in my own country—which is also yours—and I
+will not allow myself to be despoiled!�</P>
+<P>What can I reply to such insensate assertions? I, however, go on:</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch, do you remember Healthful House?�</P>
+<P>“Healthful House, where I was sequestrated after Warder Gaydon had been
+entrusted with the mission of spying upon me in order to rob me of my secret? I
+do, indeed.�</P>
+<P>“I never dreamed of depriving you of the benefit of your secret, Thomas Roch.
+I would never have accepted such a mission. But you were ill, your reason was
+affected, and your invention was too valuable to be lost. Yes, had you disclosed
+the secret during one of your fits you would have preserved all the benefit and
+all the honor of it.�</P>
+<P>“Really, Simon Hart!� Roch replies disdainfully. “Honor and benefit! Your
+assurances come somewhat late in the day. You forget that on the pretext of
+insanity, I was thrown into a dungeon. Yes, it was a pretext; for my reason has
+never left me, even for an hour, as you can see from what I have accomplished
+since I am free.�</P>
+<P>“Free! Do you imagine you are free, Thomas Roch? Are you not more closely
+confined within the walls of this cavern than you ever were at Healthful
+House?�</P>
+<P>“A man who is in his own home,� he replies angrily, “goes out as he likes and
+when he likes. I have only to say the word and all the doors will open before
+me. This place is mine. Count d’Artigas gave it to me with everything it
+contains. Woe to those who attempt to attack it. I have here the wherewithal to
+annihilate them, Simon Hart!� The inventor waves the phial feverishly as he
+speaks.�</P>
+<P>“The Count d’Artigas has deceived you,� I cry, “as he has deceived so many
+others. Under this name is dissembled one of the most formidable monsters who
+ever scoured the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. He is a bandit steeped in crime—he
+is the odious Ker Karraje!�</P>
+<P>“Ker Karraje!� echoes Thomas Roch.</P>
+<P>And I wonder if this name has not impressed him, if he remembers who the man
+is who bears it. If it did impress him, it was only momentarily.</P>
+<P>“I do not know this Ker Karraje,� he says, pointing towards the door to order
+me out. “I only know the Count d’Artigas.�</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch,� I persist, in a final effort, “the Count d’Artigas and Ker
+Karraje are one and the same person. If this man has purchased your secret, it
+is with the intention of ensuring impunity for his crimes and facilities for
+committing fresh ones. He is the chief of these pirates.�</P>
+<P>“Pirates!� cries Roch, whose irritation increases the more I press him. “The
+real pirates are those who dare to menace me even in this retreat, who tried it
+on with the <I>Sword</I>—for Serko has told me everything—who sought to steal in
+my own home what belongs to me, what is but the just price of my discovery.�</P>
+<P>“No, Thomas Roch, the pirates are those who have imprisoned you in this
+cavern of Back Cup, who will utilize your genius to defend it, and who will get
+rid of you when they are in entire possession of your secrets!�</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch here interrupts me. He does not appear to listen to what I say.
+He has a fixed idea, that of vengeance, which has been skilfully worked upon by
+Engineer Serko, and in which his hatred is concentrated to the exclusion of
+everything else.</P>
+<P>“The bandits,� he hisses, “are those who spurned me without a hearing, who
+heaped injustice and ignominy upon me, who drove me from country to country,
+whereas I offered them superiority, invincibleness, omnipotence!�</P>
+<P>It is the eternal story of the unappreciated inventor, to whom the
+indifferent or envious refuse the means of testing his inventions, to pay him
+the value he sets upon them. I know it well—and also know all the exaggeration
+that has been written upon this subject.</P>
+<P>It is clearly no time for reasoning with Thomas Roch. My arguments are
+entirely lost upon the hapless dupe of Ker Karraje and his accomplices. In
+revealing to him the real name of the Count d’Artigas, and denouncing to him
+this band and their chief I had hoped to wean him from their influence and make
+him realize the criminal end they have in view. My hope was vain. He does not
+believe me. And then what does he care whether the brigand’s name is Count
+‘d’Artigas or Ker Karraje? Is not he, Thomas Roch, master of Back Cup? Is he not
+the owner of these riches accumulated by twenty years of murder and rapine?</P>
+<P>Disarmed before such moral degeneracy, knowing not how I can touch his
+ulcerated, irresponsible heart, I turn towards the door. It only remains for me
+to withdraw. What is to be, will be, since it is out of my power to prevent the
+frightful <I>dénouement</I> that will occur in a few hours.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch takes no more notice of me. He seems to have forgotten that I am
+here. He has resumed his manipulations without realizing that he is not
+alone.</P>
+<P>There is only one means of preventing the imminent catastrophe. Throw myself
+upon Roch, place him beyond the power of doing harm—strike him—kill him—yes,
+kill him! It is my right—it is my duty!</P>
+<P>I have no arms, but on a near-by shelf I see some tools—a chisel and a
+hammer. What is to prevent me from knocking his brains out? Once he is dead I
+have but to smash the phials and his invention dies with him. The warships can
+approach, land their men upon the island, demolish Back Cup with their shells.
+Ker Karraje and his band will be killed to a man. Can I hesitate at a murder
+that will bring about the chastisement of so many crimes?</P>
+<P>I advance to the shelf and stretch forth my hand to seize the chisel.</P>
+<P>As I do so, Thomas Roch turns round.</P>
+<P>It is too late to strike. A struggle would ensue. The noise and his cries
+would be heard, for there are still some pirates not far off, I can even now
+hear some one approaching, and have only just time to fly if I would not be
+seen.</P>
+<P>Nevertheless, I make one last attempt to awaken the sentiment of patriotism
+within him.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch,� I say, “warships are in sight. They have come to destroy this
+lair. Maybe one of them flies the French flag!�</P>
+<P>He gazes at me. He was not aware that Back Cup is going to be attacked, and I
+have just apprised him of the fact. His brow darkens and his eyes flash.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch, would you dare to fire upon your country’s flag—the tricolor
+flag?�</P>
+<P>He raises his head, shakes it nervously, and with a disdainful gesture:</P>
+<P>“What do you mean by ‘your country?’ I no longer have any country, Simon
+Hart. The inventor spurned no longer has a country. Where he finds an asylum,
+there is his fatherland! They seek to take what is mine. I will defend it, and
+woe, woe to those who dare to attack me!�</P>
+<P>Then rushing to the door of the laboratory and throwing it violently open he
+shouts so loudly that he must be heard at the Beehive:</P>
+<P>“Go! Get you gone!�</P>
+<P>I have not a second to lose, and I dash out.</P>
+
+<a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XVII.</H4>
+<H4>ONE AGAINST FIVE.</H4>
+<P>For a whole hour I wander about among Back Cup’s dark vaults, amid the stone
+trees, to the extreme limit of the cavern. It is here that I have so often
+sought an issue, a crevice, a crack through which I might squeeze to the shore
+of the island.</P>
+<P>My search has been futile. In my present condition, a prey to indefinable
+hallucinations it seems to me that these walls are thicker than ever, that they
+are gradually closing in upon and will crush me.</P>
+<P>How long this mental trouble lasts I cannot say. But I afterwards find myself
+on the Beehive side, opposite the cell in which I cannot hope for either repose
+or sleep. Sleep, when my brain is in a whirl of excitement? Sleep, when I am
+near the end of a situation that threatened to be prolonged for years and
+years?</P>
+<P>What will the end be as far as I am personally concerned? What am I to expect
+from the attack upon Back Cup, the success of which I have been unable to assure
+by placing Thomas Roch beyond the possibility of doing harm? His engines are
+ready to be launched, and as soon as the vessels have reached the dangerous zone
+they will be blown to atoms.</P>
+<P>However this may be, I am condemned to pass the remaining hours of the night
+in my cell. The time has come for me to go in. At daybreak I shall see what is
+best for me to do. Meanwhile, for aught I know I may hear the thunder of Roch’s
+fulgurator as it destroys the ships approaching to make a night attack.</P>
+<P>I take a last look round. On the opposite side a light, a single light, is
+burning. It is the lamp in Roch’s laboratory and it casts its reflection upon
+the waters of the lake.</P>
+<P>No one is about, and it occurs to me that the pirates must have taken up
+their lighting positions outside and that the Beehive is empty.</P>
+<P>Then, impelled by an irresistible instinct, instead of returning to my cell,
+I creep along the wall, listening, spying, ready to hide if I hear voices or
+footsteps.</P>
+<P>I at length reach the passage.</P>
+<P>God in heaven! No one is on guard there—the passage is free!</P>
+<P>Without giving myself time to reflect I dart into the dark hole, and grope my
+way along it. Soon I feel a fresher air—the salt, vivifying air of the sea, that
+I have not breathed for five months. I inspire it with avidity, with all the
+power of my lungs.</P>
+<P>The outer extremity of the passage appears against the star-studded sky.
+There is not even a shadow in the way. Perhaps I shall be able to get
+outside.</P>
+<P>I lay down, and crawl along noiselessly to the orifice and peer out.</P>
+<P>Not a soul is in sight!</P>
+<P>By skirting the rocks towards the east, to the side which cannot be
+approached from the sea on account of the reefs and which is not likely to be
+watched, I reach a narrow excavation about two hundred and twenty-five yards
+from where the point of the coast extends towards the northwest.</P>
+<P>At last I am out of the cavern. I am not free, but it is the beginning of
+freedom.</P>
+<P>On the point the forms of a few sentries stand out against the clear sky, so
+motionless that they might be mistaken for pieces of the rock.</P>
+<P>On the horizon to the west the position lights of the warship show in a
+luminous line.</P>
+<P>From a few gray patches discernable in the east, I calculate that it must be
+about five o’clock in the morning.</P>
+<P><I>November 18</I>.—It is now light enough for me to be able to complete my
+notes relating the details of my visit to Thomas Roch’s laboratory—the last
+lines my hand will trace, perhaps.</P>
+<P>I have begun to write, and shall dot down the incidents of the attack as they
+occur.</P>
+<P>The light damp mist that hangs over the water soon lifts under the influence
+of the breeze, and at last I can distinguish the warships.</P>
+<P>There are five of them, and they are lying in a line about six miles off, and
+consequently beyond the range of Roch’s engines.</P>
+<P>My fear that after passing in sight of the Bermudas the squadron would
+continue on its way to the Antilles or Mexico was therefore unfounded. No, there
+it is, awaiting broad daylight in order to attack Back Cup.</P>
+<P>There is a movement on the coast. Three or four pirates emerge from the
+rocks, the sentries are recalled and draw in, and the entire band is soon
+assembled. They do not seek shelter inside the cavern, knowing full well that
+the ships can never get near enough for the shells of the big guns to reach, the
+island.</P>
+<P>I run no risk of being discovered, for only my head protrudes above the hole
+in the rock and no one is likely to come this way. The only thing that worries
+me is that Serko, or somebody else may take it into his head to see if I am in
+my cell, and if necessary to lock me in, though what they have to fear from me I
+cannot conceive.</P>
+<P>At twenty-five minutes past seven: Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko and Captain
+Spade advance to the extremity of the point, where they sweep the north-western
+horizon with their telescopes. Behind them the six trestles are installed, in
+the grooves of which are Roch’s autopropulsive engines.</P>
+<P>Thirty-five minutes past seven: Smoke arises from the stacks of the warships,
+which are getting under way and will soon be within range of the engines.</P>
+<P>Horrible cries of joy, salvos of hurrahs—howls of wild beasts I might more
+appropriately say—arise from the pirate horde.</P>
+<P>At this moment Engineer Serko quits Ker Karraje, whom he leaves with Captain
+Spade, and enters the cavern, no doubt to fetch Thomas Roch.</P>
+<P>When Ker Karraje orders the latter to launch his engines against the ships
+will he remember what I told him? Will not his crime appear to him in all its
+horror? Will he refuse to obey? No, I am only too convinced of the contrary. It
+is useless to entertain any illusion on the subject. The inventor believes he is
+on his own property. They are going to attack it. He will defend it.</P>
+<P>The five warships slowly advance, making for the point. Perhaps they imagine
+on board that Thomas Roch has not given up his last and greatest secret to the
+pirates—and, as a matter of fact, he had not done so when I threw the keg into
+the lagoon. If the commanders propose to land storming parties and the ships
+advance into the zone of danger there will soon be nothing left of them but bits
+of shapeless floating wreckage.</P>
+<P>Here comes Thomas Roch accompanied by Engineer Serko. On issuing from the
+passage both go to the trestle that is pointing towards the leading warship.</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje and Captain Spade are awaiting them.</P>
+<P>As far as I am able to judge, Roch is calm. He knows what he is going to do.
+No hesitation troubles the soul of the hapless man whom hatred has led
+astray.</P>
+<P>Between his fingers shines the glass phial containing the deflagrator
+liquid.</P>
+<P>He then gazes towards the nearest ship, which is about five miles’
+distant.</P>
+<P>She is a cruiser of about two thousand five hundred tons—not more.</P>
+<P>She flies no flag, but from her build I take her to belong to a nation for
+which no Frenchman can entertain any particular regard.</P>
+<P>The four other warships remain behind.</P>
+<P>It is this cruiser which is to begin the attack.</P>
+<P>Let her use her guns, then, since the pirates allow her to approach, and may
+the first of her projectiles strike Thomas Roch!</P>
+<P>While Engineer Serko is estimating the distance, Roch places himself behind
+the trestle. Three engines are resting on it, charged with the explosive, and
+which are assured a long trajectory by the fusing matter without it being
+necessary to impart a gyratory movement to them—as in the case of Inventor
+Turpin’s gyroscopic projectiles. Besides, if they drop within a few hundred
+yards of the vessel, they will be quite near enough to utterly destroy it.</P>
+<P>The time has come.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch!� Engineer Serko cries, and points to the cruiser.</P>
+<P>The latter is steaming slowly towards the northwestern point of the island
+and is between four and five miles off.</P>
+<P>Roch nods assent, and waves them back from the trestle.</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje, Captain Spade and the others draw back about fifty paces.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch then takes the stopper from the phial which he holds in his right
+hand, and successively pours into a hole in the rear-end of each engine a few
+drops of the liquid, which mixes with the fusing matter.</P>
+<P>Forty-five seconds elapse—the time necessary for the combination to be
+effected—forty-five seconds during which it seems to me that my heart ceases to
+beat.</P>
+<P>A frightful whistling is then heard, and the three engines tear through the
+air, describing a prolonged curve at a height of three hundred feet, and pass
+the cruiser.</P>
+<P>Have they missed it? Is the danger over?</P>
+<P>No! the engines, after the manner of Artillery Captain Chapel’s discoid
+projectile, return towards the doomed vessel like an Australian boomerang.</P>
+<P>The next instant the air is shaken with a violence comparable to that which
+would be caused by the explosion of a magazine of melinite or dynamite, Back Cup
+Island trembles to its very foundations.</P>
+<P>The cruiser has disappeared,—blown to pieces. The effect is that of the
+Zalinski shell, but centupled by the infinite power of Roch’s fulgurator.</P>
+<P>What shouts the bandits raise as they rush towards the extremity of the
+point! Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade remain rooted to the spot,
+hardly able to credit the evidence of their own eyes.</P>
+<P>As to Thomas Roch, he stands with folded arms, and flashing eyes, his face
+radiant with pride and triumph.</P>
+<P>I understand, while I abhor his feelings.</P>
+<P>If the other warships approach they will share the same fate as the cruiser.
+They will inevitably be destroyed. Oh! if they would but give up the struggle
+and withdraw to safety, even though my last hope would go with them! The nations
+can consult and arrive at some other plan for destroying the island. They can
+surround the place with a belt of ships that the pirates cannot break through
+and starve them to death like so many rats in a hole.</P>
+<P>But I know that the warships will not retire, even though they know they are
+going to certain death. One after the other they will all make the attempt.</P>
+<P>And I am right. Signals are exchanged between them. Almost immediately clouds
+of black smoke arise and the vessels again advance.</P>
+<P>One of them, under forced draught, distances the others in her anxiety to
+bring her big guns quickly into action.</P>
+<P>At all risks I issue from my hole, and gaze at the on-coming warship with
+feverish eyes, awaiting, without being able to prevent it, another
+catastrophe.</P>
+<P>This vessel, which visibly grows larger as it comes nearer, is a cruiser of
+about the same tonnage as the one that preceded her. No flag is flying and I
+cannot guess her nationality. She continues steaming at full speed in an effort
+to pass the zone of danger before other engines can be launched. But how can she
+escape them since they will swoop back upon her?</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch places himself behind the second trestle as the cruiser passes on
+to the surface of the abysm in which she will in turn soon be swallowed up.</P>
+<P>No sound disturbs the stillness.</P>
+<P>Suddenly the rolling of drums and the blare of bugles is heard on board the
+warship.</P>
+<P>I know those bugle calls: they are French bugles! Great God! She is one of
+the ships of my own country’s navy and a French inventor is about to destroy
+her!</P>
+<P>No! it shall not be. I will rush towards Thomas Roch—shout to him that she is
+a French ship. He does not, cannot, know it.</P>
+<P>At a sign from Engineer Serko the inventor has raised the phial.</P>
+<P>The bugles sound louder and more strident. It is the salute to the flag. A
+flag unfurls to the breeze—the tricolor, whose blue, white and red sections
+stand out luminously against the sky.</P>
+<P>Ah! What is this? I understand! Thomas Roch is fascinated at the sight of his
+national emblem. Slowly he lowers his arm as the flag flutters up to the
+mast-head. Then he draws back and covers his eyes with his hand.</P>
+<P>Heavens above! All sentiment of patriotism is not then dead in his ulcerated
+heart, seeing that it beats at the sight of his country’s flag!</P>
+<P>My emotion is not less than his. At the risk of being seen—and what do I now
+care if I am seen?—I creep over the rocks. I will be there to sustain Thomas
+Roch and prevent him from weakening. If I pay for it with my life I will once
+more adjure him in the name of his country. I will cry to him:</P>
+<P>“Frenchman, it is the tricolor that flies on yonder ship! Frenchman, it is a
+very part of France that is approaching you! Frenchman, would you be so criminal
+as to strike it?�</P>
+<P>But my intervention will not be necessary. Thomas Roch is not a prey to one
+of the fits to which he was formerly subject. He is perfectly sane.</P>
+<P>When he found himself facing the flag he understood—and drew back.</P>
+<P>A few pirates approach to lead him to the trestle again. He struggles and
+pushes them from him.</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko run up. They point to the rapidly advancing
+ship. They order him to launch his engines.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch refuses.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade and the others, mad with rage, menace him—curse him—strike
+him—try to wrest the phial from him.</P>
+<P>Roch throws it on the ground and crushes it under foot.</P>
+<P>Then panic seizes upon the crowd of wretches. The cruiser has passed the zone
+and they cannot return her fire. Shells begin to rain all over the island,
+bursting the rocks in every direction.</P>
+<P>But where is Thomas Roch? Has he been killed by one of the projectiles? No, I
+see him for the last time as he dashes into the passage.</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko and the others follow him to seek shelter inside
+of Back Cup.</P>
+<P>I will not return to the cavern at any price, even if I get killed by staying
+where I am.</P>
+<P>I will jot down my final notes and when the French sailors land on the point
+I will go—</P>
+<P class=center>END OF ENGINEER SIMON HART’S NOTES.</P>
+
+<a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XVIII.</H4>
+<H4>ON BOARD THE “TONNANT.�</H4>
+<P>After the failure of Lieutenant Davon’s mission with the <I>Sword</I>, the
+English authorities waited in vain for the expedition to return, and the
+conviction at length gained ground that the bold sailors had perished; but
+whether the <I>Sword</I> had been lost by striking against a rock or had been
+destroyed by Ker Karraje’s pirates, could not, of course, be ascertained.</P>
+<P>The object of the expedition, based upon the indications of the document
+found in the keg that was thrown up on the shore at St. George, was to carry off
+Thomas Roch ere his engines were completed. The French inventor having been
+recovered—without forgetting Engineer Simon Hart—he was to be handed over to the
+care of the Bermudan authorities. That done, there would be nothing to fear from
+his fulgurator when the island was attacked.</P>
+<P>When, however, the <I>Sword</I> had been given up for lost, another
+expedition of a different kind, was decided upon.</P>
+<P>The time that had elapsed—nearly eight weeks—from the date of the document
+found in the keg, had to be taken into consideration. It was thought that during
+the interval, Ker Karraje might have gained possession of Roch’s secrets.</P>
+<P>An <I>entente</I> concluded between the maritime powers, resulted in the
+sending of five warships to Bermudan waters. As there was a vast cavern inside
+Back Cup mountain, it was decided to attempt to bring the latter down like the
+walls of a bastion, by bombarding it with powerful modern artillery.</P>
+<P>The squadron assembled at the entrance to the Chesapeake, in Virginia, and
+sailed for the archipelago, which was sighted on the evening of November 17.</P>
+<P>The next morning the vessel selected for the first attack, steamed forward.
+It was about four and a half miles from the island, when three engines, after
+passing the vessel, swerved round and exploded about sixty yards from her. She
+sank immediately.</P>
+<P>The effect of the explosion, which was superior to any previously obtained by
+new explosives, was instantaneous. Even at the distance they were from the spot
+where it occurred, the four remaining ships felt the shock severely.</P>
+<P>Two things were to be deduced from this sudden catastrophe:</P>
+<P>1.—The pirate Ker Karraje was in possession of Roch’s fulgurator.</P>
+<P>2.—The new engine possessed the destructive power attributed to it by its
+inventor.</P>
+<P>After the disappearance of the unfortunate cruiser, the other vessels lowered
+boats to pick up a few survivors who were clinging to the floating wreckage.</P>
+<P>Then it was that the signals were exchanged and the warships started towards
+the island.</P>
+<P>The swiftest of them, the <I>Tonnant</I>, a French cruiser, forged ahead
+while the others forced their draught in an effort to catch up with her.</P>
+<P>The <I>Tonnant</I>, at the risk of being blown to pieces in turn, penetrated
+the danger zone half a mile, and then ran up her flag while manoeuvring to bring
+her heavy guns into action.</P>
+<P>From the bridge the officers could see Ker Karraje’s band scattered on the
+rocks of the island.</P>
+<P>The occasion was an excellent one for getting a shot at them before the
+bombardment of their retreat was begun, and fire was opened with the result that
+the pirates made a rush to get into the cavern.</P>
+<P>A few minutes later there was a shock terrific enough to shake the sky
+down.</P>
+<P>Where the mountain had been, naught but a heap of smoking, crumbling rocks
+was to be seen. Back Cup had become a group of jagged reefs against which the
+sea, that had been thrown back like a gigantic tidal wave, was beating and
+frothing.</P>
+<P>What was the cause of the explosion?</P>
+<P>Had it been voluntarily caused by the pirates when they realized that escape
+was impossible?</P>
+<P>The <I>Tonnant</I> had not been seriously damaged by the flying rocks. Her
+boats were lowered and made towards all that was left of Back Cup.</P>
+<P>The landing parties explored the ruins, and found a few horribly mangled
+corpses. Not a vestige of the cavern was to be seen.</P>
+<P>One body, and one only, was found intact. It was lying on the northeast side
+of the reefs. In one hand, tightly clasped, was a note-book, the last line of
+which was incomplete.</P>
+<P>A close examination showed that the man was still breathing. He was conveyed
+on board the <I>Tonnant</I>, where it was learned from the note-book that he was
+Simon Hart.</P>
+<P>For some time his life was despaired of, but he was eventually brought round,
+and from the answers made to the questions addressed to him the following
+conclusion was reached:</P>
+<P>Moved to his very soul at the sight of the tricolor flag, being at last
+conscious of the crime of <I>lèse-patrie</I> he was about to commit, Thomas Roch
+rushed through the passage to the magazine where a considerable quantity of his
+explosive was stored. Then, before he could be prevented, brought about the
+terrible explosion which destroyed the island of Back Cup.</P>
+<P>And now Ker Karraje and his pirates have disappeared—and with them Thomas
+Roch and the secret of his invention.</P>
+<P class=center>THE END.</P>
+<H4>End of the Voyage Extraordinaire</H4>
+<P>&nbsp;</P>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11556 ***</div>
+</BODY>
+</HTML>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Facing the Flag, by Jules Verne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Facing the Flag
+
+Author: Jules Verne
+
+Release Date: March 13, 2004 [EBook #11556]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACING THE FLAG ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Norm Wolcott and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+                     Facing the Flag by Jules Verne
+
+[Redactor's Note: _Facing the Flag_ {number V044 in the T&M listing of
+Verne's works} is an anonymous translation of _Face au drapeau_ (1896)
+first published in the U.S. by F. Tennyson Neely in 1897, and later
+(circa 1903) republished from the same plates by Hurst and F.M. Lupton
+(Federal Book Co.). This is a different translation from the one
+published by Sampson & Low in England entitled _For the Flag_ (1897)
+translated by Mrs. Cashel Hoey.]
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+FACING THE FLAG
+
+BY
+
+J U L E S   V E R N E
+
+AUTHOR OF "AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS"; "TWENTY
+THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA"; "FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON," ETC.
+
+New York
+
+THE F. M. LUPTON PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1897
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+  CONTENTS
+
+       CHAP
+
+       I.       Healthful House
+
+
+       II.      Count d'Artigas
+
+
+       III.     Kidnapped
+
+
+       IV.      The Schooner "Ebba"
+
+
+       V.       Where am I.--(Notes by Simon Hart, the Engineer.)
+
+
+       VI.      On Deck
+
+
+       VII.     Two Days at Sea
+
+
+       VIII.    Back Cup
+
+
+       IX.      Inside Back Cup
+
+
+       X.       Ker Karraje
+
+
+       XI.      Five Weeks in Back Cup
+
+
+       XII.     Engineer Serko's Advice
+
+
+       XIII.    God Be with It
+
+
+       XIV.     Battle Between the "Sword" and the Tug
+
+
+       XV.      Expectation
+
+
+       XVI.     Only a few more Hours
+
+
+       XVII.    One against Five
+
+
+       XVIII.   On Board the "Tonnant"
+
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+FACING THE FLAG.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+HEALTHFUL HOUSE.
+
+
+The _carte de visite_ received that day, June 15, 189-, by the
+director of the establishment of Healthful House was a very neat one,
+and simply bore, without escutcheon or coronet, the name:
+
+                         COUNT D'ARTIGAS.
+
+Below this name, in a corner of the card, the following address was
+written in lead pencil:
+
+"On board the schooner _Ebba_, anchored off New-Berne, Pamlico Sound."
+
+The capital of North Carolina--one of the forty-four states of the
+Union at this epoch--is the rather important town of Raleigh, which is
+about one hundred and fifty miles in the interior of the province. It
+is owing to its central position that this city has become the seat
+of the State legislature, for there are others that equal and
+even surpass it in industrial and commercial importance, such as
+Wilmington, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Edenton, Washington, Salisbury,
+Tarborough, Halifax, and New-Berne. The latter town is situated on
+estuary of the Neuse River, which empties itself into Pamlico Sound, a
+sort of vast maritime lake protected by a natural dyke formed by the
+isles and islets of the Carolina coast.
+
+The director of Healthful House could never have imagined why the card
+should have been sent to him, had it not been accompanied by a
+note from the Count d'Artigas soliciting permission to visit the
+establishment. The personage in question hoped that the director would
+grant his request, and announced that he would present himself in the
+afternoon, accompanied by Captain Spade, commander of the schooner
+_Ebba_.
+
+This desire to penetrate to the interior of the celebrated sanitarium,
+then in great request by the wealthy invalids of the United States,
+was natural enough on the part of a foreigner. Others who did not bear
+such a high-sounding name as the Count d'Artigas had visited it, and
+had been unstinting in their compliments to the director. The latter
+therefore hastened to accord the authorization demanded, and added
+that he would be honored to open the doors of the establishment to the
+Count d'Artigas.
+
+Healthful House, which contained a select _personnel_, and was assured
+of the co-operation of the most celebrated doctors in the country, was
+a private enterprise. Independent of hospitals and almshouses, but
+subjected to the surveillance of the State, it comprised all the
+conditions of comfort and salubrity essential to establishments of
+this description designed to receive an opulent _clientele_.
+
+It would have been difficult to find a more agreeable situation than
+that of Healthful House. On the landward slope of a hill extended a
+park of two hundred acres planted with the magnificent vegetation that
+grows so luxuriantly in that part of North America, which is equal in
+latitude to the Canary and Madeira Islands. At the furthermost limit
+of the park lay the wide estuary of the Neuse, swept by the cool
+breezes of Pamlico Sound and by the winds that blew from the ocean
+beyond the narrow _lido_ of the coast.
+
+Healthful House, where rich invalids were cared for under such
+excellent hygienic conditions, was more generally reserved for the
+treatment of chronic complaints; but the management did not decline to
+admit patients affected by mental troubles, when the latter were not
+of an incurable nature.
+
+It thus happened--a circumstance that was bound to attract a good deal
+of attention to Healthful House, and which perhaps was the motive
+for the visit of the Count d'Artigas--that a person of world-wide
+notoriety had for eighteen months been under special observation
+there.
+
+This person was a Frenchman named Thomas Roch, forty-five years of
+age. He was, beyond question, suffering from some mental malady, but
+expert alienists admitted that he had not entirely lost the use of
+his reasoning faculties. It was only too evident that he had lost all
+notion of things as far as the ordinary acts of life were concerned;
+but in regard to subjects demanding the exercise of his genius, his
+sanity was unimpaired and unassailable--a fact which demonstrates how
+true is the _dictum_ that genius and madness are often closely
+allied! Otherwise his condition manifested itself by complete loss
+of memory;--the impossibility of concentrating his attention upon
+anything, lack of judgment, delirium and incoherence. He no longer
+even possessed the natural animal instinct of self-preservation, and
+had to be watched like an infant whom one never permits out of one's
+sight. Therefore a warder was detailed to keep close watch over him
+by day and by night in Pavilion No. 17, at the end of Healthful House
+Park, which had been specially set apart for him.
+
+Ordinary insanity, when it is not incurable, can only be cured by
+moral means. Medicine and therapeutics are powerless, and their
+inefficacy has long been recognized by specialists. Were these moral
+means applicable to the case of Thomas Roch? One may be permitted
+to doubt it, even amid the tranquil and salubrious surroundings of
+Healthful House. As a matter of fact the very symptoms of uneasiness,
+changes of temper, irritability, queer traits of character,
+melancholy, apathy, and a repugnance for serious occupations were
+distinctly apparent; no treatment seemed capable of curing or even
+alleviating these symptoms. This was patent to all his medical
+attendants.
+
+It has been justly remarked that madness is an excess of subjectivity;
+that is to say, a state in which the mind accords too much to mental
+labor and not enough to outward impressions. In the case of Thomas
+Roch this indifference was practically absolute. He lived but within
+himself, so to speak, a prey to a fixed idea which had brought him to
+the condition in which we find him. Could any circumstance occur
+to counteract it--to "exteriorize" him, as it were? The thing was
+improbable, but it was not impossible.
+
+It is now necessary to explain how this Frenchman came to quit France,
+what motive attracted him to the United States, why the Federal
+government had judged it prudent and necessary to intern him in this
+sanitarium, where every utterance that unconsciously escaped him
+during his crises were noted and recorded with the minutest care.
+
+Eighteen months previously the Secretary of the Navy at Washington,
+had received a demand for an audience in regard to a communication
+that Thomas Roch desired to make to him.
+
+As soon as he glanced at the name, the secretary perfectly understood
+the nature of the communication and the terms which would accompany
+it, and an immediate audience was unhesitatingly accorded.
+
+Thomas Roch's notoriety was indeed such that, out of solicitude for
+the interests confided to his keeping, and which he was bound to
+safeguard, he could not hesitate to receive the petitioner and listen
+to the proposals which the latter desired personally to submit to him.
+
+Thomas Roch was an inventor--an inventor of genius. Several important
+discoveries had brought him prominently to the notice of the
+world. Thanks to him, problems that had previously remained purely
+theoretical had received practical application. He occupied a
+conspicuous place in the front rank of the army of science. It will be
+seen how worry, deceptions, mortification, and the outrages with which
+he was overwhelmed by the cynical wits of the press combined to drive
+him to that degree of madness which necessitated his internment in
+Healthful House.
+
+His latest invention in war-engines bore the name of Roch's
+Fulgurator. This apparatus possessed, if he was to be believed, such
+superiority over all others, that the State which acquired it would
+become absolute master of earth and ocean.
+
+The deplorable difficulties inventors encounter in connection with
+their inventions are only too well known, especially when they
+endeavor to get them adopted by governmental commissions. Several of
+the most celebrated examples are still fresh in everybody's memory.
+It is useless to insist upon this point, because there are sometimes
+circumstances underlying affairs of this kind upon which it is
+difficult to obtain any light. In regard to Thomas Roch, however,
+it is only fair to say that, as in the case of the majority of his
+predecessors, his pretensions were excessive. He placed such an
+exorbitant price upon his new engine that it was practicably
+impossible to treat with him.
+
+This was due to the fact--and it should not be lost sight of--that in
+respect of previous inventions which had been most fruitful in result,
+he had been imposed upon with the greatest audacity. Being unable
+to obtain therefrom the profits which he had a right to expect, his
+temper had become soured. He became suspicious, would give up nothing
+without knowing just what he was doing, impose conditions that
+were perhaps unacceptable, wanted his mere assertions accepted as
+sufficient guarantee, and in any case asked for such a large sum of
+money on account before condescending to furnish the test of practical
+experiment that his overtures could not be entertained.
+
+In the first place he had offered the fulgurator to France, and made
+known the nature of it to the commission appointed to pass upon his
+proposition. The fulgurator was a sort of auto-propulsive engine,
+of peculiar construction, charged with an explosive composed of new
+substances and which only produced its effect under the action of a
+deflagrator that was also new.
+
+When this engine, no matter in what way it was launched, exploded, not
+on striking the object aimed at, but several hundred yards from it,
+its action upon the atmospheric strata was so terrific that any
+construction, warship or floating battery, within a zone of twelve
+thousand square yards, would be blown to atoms. This was the principle
+of the shell launched by the Zalinski pneumatic gun with which
+experiments had already been made at that epoch, but its results were
+multiplied at least a hundred-fold.
+
+If, therefore, Thomas Roch's invention possessed this power, it
+assured the offensive and defensive superiority of his native country.
+But might not the inventor be exaggerating, notwithstanding that the
+tests of other engines he had conceived had proved incontestably that
+they were all he had claimed them to be? This, experiment could alone
+show, and it was precisely here where the rub came in. Roch would
+not agree to experiment until the millions at which he valued his
+fulgurator had first been paid to him.
+
+It is certain that a sort of disequilibrium had then occurred in his
+mental faculties. It was felt that he was developing a condition of
+mind that would gradually lead to definite madness. No government
+could possibly condescend to treat with him under the conditions he
+imposed.
+
+The French commission was compelled to break off all negotiations with
+him, and the newspapers, even those of the Radical Opposition, had to
+admit that it was difficult to follow up the affair.
+
+In view of the excess of subjectivity which was unceasingly augmenting
+in the profoundly disturbed mind of Thomas Roch, no one will be
+surprised at the fact that the cord of patriotism gradually relaxed
+until it ceased to vibrate. For the honor of human nature be it said
+that Thomas Roch was by this time irresponsible for his actions. He
+preserved his whole consciousness only in so far as subjects bearing
+directly upon his invention were concerned. In this particular he had
+lost nothing of his mental power. But in all that related to the most
+ordinary details of existence his moral decrepitude increased daily
+and deprived him of complete responsibility for his acts.
+
+Thomas Roch's invention having been refused by the commission, steps
+ought to have been taken to prevent him from offering it elsewhere.
+Nothing of the kind was done, and there a great mistake was made.
+
+The inevitable was bound to happen, and it did. Under a growing
+irritability the sentiment of patriotism, which is the very essence of
+the citizen--who before belonging to himself belongs to his country--
+became extinct in the soul of the disappointed inventor. His thoughts
+turned towards other nations. He crossed the frontier, and forgetting
+the ineffaceable past, offered the fulgurator to Germany.
+
+There, as soon as his exorbitant demands were made known, the
+government refused to receive his communication. Besides, it so
+happened that the military authorities were just then absorbed by the
+construction of a new ballistic engine, and imagined they could afford
+to ignore that of the French inventor.
+
+As the result of this second rebuff Roch's anger became coupled with
+hatred--an instinctive hatred of humanity--especially after his
+_pourparlers_ with the British Admiralty came to naught. The English
+being practical people, did not at first repulse Thomas Roch. They
+sounded him and tried to get round him; but Roch would listen to
+nothing. His secret was worth millions, and these millions he would
+have, or they would not have his secret. The Admiralty at last
+declined to have anything more to do with him.
+
+It was in these conditions, when his intellectual trouble was growing
+daily worse, that he made a last effort by approaching the American
+Government. That was about eighteen months before this story opens.
+
+The Americans, being even more practical than the English, did not
+attempt to bargain for Roch's fulgurator, to which, in view of the
+French chemist's reputation, they attached exceptional importance.
+They rightly esteemed him a man of genius, and took the measures
+justified by his condition, prepared to indemnify him equitably later.
+
+As Thomas Roch gave only too visible proofs of mental alienation,
+the Administration, in the very interest of his invention, judged it
+prudent to sequestrate him.
+
+As is already known, he was not confined in a lunatic asylum, but was
+conveyed to Healthful House, which offered every guarantee for the
+proper treatment of his malady. Yet, though the most careful attention
+had been devoted to him, no improvement had manifested itself.
+
+Thomas Roch, let it be again remarked--this point cannot be too often
+insisted upon--incapable though he was of comprehending and performing
+the ordinary acts and duties of life, recovered all his powers when
+the field of his discoveries was touched upon. He became animated, and
+spoke with the assurance of a man who knows whereof he is descanting,
+and an authority that carried conviction with it. In the heat of his
+eloquence he would describe the marvellous qualities of his fulgurator
+and the truly extraordinary effects it caused. As to the nature of the
+explosive and of the deflagrator, the elements of which the latter was
+composed, their manufacture, and the way in which they were employed,
+he preserved complete silence, and all attempts to worm the secret out
+of him remained ineffectual. Once or twice, during the height of the
+paroxysms to which he was occasionally subject, there had been reason
+to believe that his secret would escape him, and every precaution had
+been taken to note his slightest utterance. But Thomas Roch had
+each time disappointed his watchers. If he no longer preserved the
+sentiment of self-preservation, he at least knew how to preserve the
+secret of his discovery.
+
+Pavilion No. 17 was situated in the middle of a garden that was
+surrounded by hedges, and here Roch was accustomed to take exercise
+under the surveillance of his guardian. This guardian lived in the
+same pavilion, slept in the same room with him, and kept constant
+watch upon him, never leaving him for an hour. He hung upon
+the lightest words uttered by the patient in the course of his
+hallucinations, which generally occurred in the intermediary state
+between sleeping and waking--watched and listened while he dreamed.
+
+This guardian was known as Gaydon. Shortly after the sequestration of
+Thomas Roch, having learned that an attendant speaking French fluently
+was wanted, he had applied at Healthful House for the place, and had
+been engaged to look after the new inmate.
+
+In reality the alleged Gaydon was a French engineer named Simon Hart,
+who for several years past had been connected with a manufactory of
+chemical products in New Jersey. Simon Hart was forty years of age.
+His high forehead was furrowed with the wrinkle that denoted the
+thinker, and his resolute bearing denoted energy combined with
+tenacity. Extremely well versed in the various questions relating to
+the perfecting of modern armaments, Hart knew everything that had been
+invented in the shape of explosives, of which there were over eleven
+hundred at that time, and was fully able to appreciate such a man
+as Thomas Roch. He firmly believed in the power of the latter's
+fulgurator, and had no doubt whatever that the inventor had conceived
+an engine that was capable of revolutionizing the condition of both
+offensive and defensive warfare on land and sea. He was aware that the
+demon of insanity had respected the man of science, and that in Roch's
+partially diseased brain the flame of genius still burned brightly.
+Then it occurred to him that if, during Roch's crises, his secret was
+revealed, this invention of a Frenchman would be seized upon by some
+other country to the detriment of France. Impelled by a spirit of
+patriotism, he made up his mind to offer himself as Thomas Roch's
+guardian, by passing himself off as an American thoroughly conversant
+with the French language, in order that if the inventor did at any
+time disclose his secret, France alone should benefit thereby. On
+pretext of returning to Europe, he resigned his position at the New
+Jersey manufactory, and changed his name so that none should know what
+had become of him.
+
+Thus it came to pass that Simon Hart, alias Gaydon, had been an
+attendant at Healthful House for fifteen months. It required no little
+courage on the part of a man of his position and education to perform
+the menial and exacting duties of an insane man's attendant; but, as
+has been before remarked, he was actuated by a spirit of the purest
+and noblest patriotism. The idea of depriving Roch of the legitimate
+benefits due to the inventor, if he succeeded in learning his secret,
+never for an instant entered his mind.
+
+He had kept the patient under the closest possible observation for
+fifteen months yet had not been able to learn anything from him,
+or worm out of him a single reply to his questions that was of the
+slightest value. But he had become more convinced than ever of the
+importance of Thomas Roch's discovery, and was extremely apprehensive
+lest the partial madness of the inventor should become general, or
+lest he should die during one of his paroxysms and carry his secret
+with him to the grave.
+
+This was Simon Hart's position, and this the mission to which he had
+wholly devoted himself in the interest of his native country.
+
+However, notwithstanding his deceptions and troubles, Thomas Roch's
+physical health, thanks to his vigorous constitution, was not
+particularly affected. A man of medium height, with a large head,
+high, wide forehead, strongly-cut features, iron-gray hair and
+moustache, eyes generally haggard, but which became piercing and
+imperious when illuminated by his dominant idea, thin lips closely
+compressed, as though to prevent the escape of a word that could
+betray his secret--such was the inventor confined in one of
+the pavilions of Healthful House, probably unconscious of his
+sequestration, and confided to the surveillance of Simon Hart the
+engineer, become Gaydon the warder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+COUNT D'ARTIGAS.
+
+
+Just who was this Count d'Artigas? A Spaniard? So his name would
+appear to indicate. Yet on the stern of his schooner, in letters of
+gold, was the name _Ebba_, which is of pure Norwegian origin. And had
+you asked him the name of the captain of the _Ebba_, he would have
+replied, Spade, and would doubtless have added that that of the
+boatswain was Effrondat, and that of the ship's cook, Helim--all
+singularly dissimilar and indicating very different nationalities.
+
+Could any plausible hypothesis be deducted from the type presented by
+Count d'Artigas? Not easily. If the color of his skin, his black hair,
+and the easy grace of his attitude denoted a Spanish origin, the
+_ensemble_ of his person showed none of the racial characteristics
+peculiar to the natives of the Iberian peninsula.
+
+He was a man of about forty-five years of age, about the average
+height, and robustly constituted. With his calm and haughty demeanor
+he resembled an Hindoo lord in whose blood might mingle that of some
+superb type of Malay. If he was not naturally of a cold temperament,
+he at least, with his imperious gestures and brevity of speech,
+endeavored to make it appear that he was. As to the language usually
+spoken by him and his crew, it was one of those idioms current in
+the islands of the Indian Ocean and the adjacent seas. Yet when his
+maritime excursions brought him to the coasts of the old or new world
+he spoke English with remarkable facility, and with so slight an
+accent as to scarcely betray his foreign origin.
+
+None could have told anything about his past, nor even about his
+present life, nor from what source he derived his fortune,--obviously
+a large one, inasmuch as he was able to gratify his every whim and
+lived in the greatest luxury whenever he visited America,--nor where
+he resided when at home, nor where was the port from which his
+schooner hailed, and none would have ventured to question him upon any
+of these points so little disposed was he to be communicative. He was
+not the kind of man to give anything away or compromise himself in the
+slightest degree, even when interviewed by American reporters.
+
+All that was known about him was what was published in the papers when
+the arrival of the _Ebba_ was reported in some port, and particularly
+in the ports of the east coast of the United States, where the
+schooner was accustomed to put in at regular periods to lay in
+provisions and stores for a lengthy voyage. She would take on board
+not only flour, biscuits, preserves, fresh and dried meat, live stock,
+wines, beers, and spirits, but also clothing, household utensils, and
+objects of luxury--all of the finest quality and highest price, and
+which were paid for either in dollars, guineas, or other coins of
+various countries and denominations.
+
+Consequently, if no one knew anything about the private life of Count
+d'Artigas, he was nevertheless very well known in the various ports of
+the United States from the Florida peninsula to New England.
+
+It is therefore in no way surprising that the director of Healthful
+House should have felt greatly flattered by the Count's visit, and
+have received him with every mark of honor and respect.
+
+It was the first time that the schooner _Ebba_ had dropped anchor
+in the port of New-Berne, and no doubt a mere whim of her owner had
+brought him to the mouth of the Neuse. Otherwise why should he have
+come to such a place? Certainly not to lay in stores, for Pamlico
+Sound offered neither the resources nor facilities to be found in
+such ports as Boston, New York, Dover, Savannah, Wilmington in North
+Carolina, and Charleston in South Carolina. What could he have
+procured with his piastres and bank-notes in the small markets of
+New-Berne? This chief town of Craven County contained barely six
+thousand inhabitants. Its commerce consisted principally in the
+exportation of grain, pigs, furniture, and naval munitions. Besides, a
+few weeks previously, the schooner had loaded up for some destination
+which, as usual, was unknown.
+
+Had this enigmatical personage then come solely for the purpose of
+visiting Healthful House? Very likely. There would have been nothing
+surprising in the fact, seeing that the establishment enjoyed a high
+and well-merited reputation.
+
+Or perhaps the Count had been inspired by curiosity to meet Thomas
+Roch? This curiosity would have been legitimate and natural enough
+in view of the universal renown of the French inventor. Fancy--a mad
+genius who claimed that his discoveries were destined to revolutionize
+the methods of modern military art!
+
+As he had notified the director he would do, the Count d'Artigas
+presented himself in the afternoon at the door of Healthful House,
+accompanied by Captain Spade, the commander of the _Ebba_.
+
+In conformity with orders given, both were admitted and conducted to
+the office of the director. The latter received his distinguished
+visitor with _empressement_, placed himself at his disposal, and
+intimated his intention of personally conducting him over the
+establishment, not being willing to concede to anybody else the honor
+of being his _cicerone_. The Count on his part was profuse in the
+expression of his thanks for the considerations extended to him.
+
+They went over the common rooms and private habitations of the
+establishment, the director prattling unceasingly about the care with
+which the patients were tended--much better care, if he was to be
+believed, than they could possibly have had in the bosoms of their
+families--and priding himself upon the results achieved, and which had
+earned for the place its well-merited success.
+
+The Count d'Artigas listened to his ceaseless chatter with apparent
+interest, probably in order the better to dissemble the real motive of
+his visit. However, after going the rounds for an hour he ventured to
+remark:
+
+"Have you not among your patients, sir, one anent whom there was a
+great deal of talk some time ago, and whose presence here contributed
+in no small measure to attract public attention to Healthful House?"
+
+"You refer to Thomas Roch, I presume, Count?" queried the director.
+
+"Precisely--that Frenchman--that inventor--whose mental condition is
+said to be very precarious."
+
+"Very precarious, Count, and happily so, perhaps! In my opinion
+humanity has nothing to gain by his discoveries, the application of
+which would increase the already too numerous means of destruction."
+
+"You speak wisely, sir, and I entirely agree with you. Real progress
+does not lie in that direction, and I regard as inimical to society
+all those who seek to follow it. But has this inventor entirely lost
+the use of his intellectual faculties?"
+
+"Entirely, no; save as regards the ordinary things of life. In this
+respect he no longer possesses either comprehension or responsibility.
+His genius as an inventor, however, remains intact; it has survived
+his moral degeneracy, and, had his insensate demands been complied
+with, I have no doubt he would have produced a new war engine--which
+the world can get along very well without."
+
+"Very well without, as you say, sir," re-echoed the Count d'Artigas,
+and Captain Spade nodded approval.
+
+"But you will be able to judge for yourself, Count, for here is the
+pavilion occupied by Thomas Roch. If his confinement is well justified
+from the point of view of public security he is none the less treated
+with all the consideration due to him and the attention which his
+condition necessitates. Besides, Healthful House is beyond the reach
+of indiscreet persons who might...."
+
+The director completed the phrase with a significant motion of
+his head--which brought an imperceptible smile to the lips of the
+stranger.
+
+"But," asked the Count, "is Thomas Roch never left alone?"
+
+"Never, Count, never. He has a permanent attendant in whom we have
+implicit confidence, who speaks his language and keeps the closest
+possible watch upon him. If in some way or other some indication
+relative to his discovery were to escape him, it would be immediately
+noted down and its value would be passed upon by those competent to
+judge."
+
+Here the Count d'Artigas stole a rapid and meaning glance at Captain
+Spade, who responded with a gesture which said plainly enough: "I
+understand." And had any one observed the captain during the visit,
+they could not have failed to remark that he examined with the
+greatest minuteness that portion of the park surrounding Pavilion No.
+17, and the different paths leading to the latter--probably in view of
+some prearranged scheme.
+
+The garden of the pavilion was near the high wall surrounding the
+property, from the foot of which on the other side the hill sloped
+gently to the right bank of the Neuse.
+
+The pavilion itself was a one-story building surmounted by a terrace
+in the Italian style. It contained two rooms and an ante-room with
+strongly-barred windows. On each side and in rear of the habitation
+were clusters of fine trees, which were then in full leaf. In front
+was a cool, green velvety lawn, ornamented with shrubs and brilliantly
+tinted flowers. The whole garden extended over about half an acre, and
+was reserved exclusively for the use of Thomas Roch, who was free to
+wander about it at pleasure under the surveillance of his guardian.
+
+When the Count d'Artigas, Captain Spade, and the director entered the
+garden, the first person they saw was the warder Gaydon, standing
+at the door of the pavilion. Unnoticed by the director the Count
+d'Artigas eyed the attendant with singular persistence.
+
+It was not the first time that strangers had come to see the occupant
+of Pavilion No. 17, for the French inventor was justly regarded as the
+most interesting inmate of Healthful House. Nevertheless, Gaydon's
+attention was attracted by the originality of the type presented by
+the two visitors, of whose nationality he was ignorant. If the name
+of the Count d'Artigas was not unfamiliar to him, he had never had
+occasion to meet that wealthy gentleman during the latter's sojourn in
+the eastern ports. He therefore had no idea as to who the Count was.
+Neither was he aware that the schooner _Ebba_ was then anchored at the
+entrance to the Neuse, at the foot of the hill upon which Healthful
+House was situated.
+
+"Gaydon," demanded the director, "where is Thomas Roch?"
+
+"Yonder," replied the warder, pointing to a man who was walking
+meditatively under the trees in rear of the pavilion.
+
+"The Count d'Artigas has been authorized to visit Healthful House,"
+the director explained; "and does not wish to go away without having
+seen Thomas Roch, who was lately the subject of a good deal too much
+discussion."
+
+"And who would be talked about a great deal more," added the Count,
+"had the Federal Government not taken the precaution to confine him in
+this establishment."
+
+"A necessary precaution, Count."
+
+"Necessary, as you observe, Mr. Director. It is better for the peace
+of the world that his secret should die with him."
+
+After having glanced at the Count d'Artigas, Gaydon had not uttered a
+word; but preceding the two strangers he walked towards the clump of
+trees where the inventor was pacing back and forth.
+
+Thomas Roch paid no attention to them. He appeared to be oblivious of
+their presence.
+
+Meanwhile, Captain Spade, while being careful not to excite suspicion,
+had been minutely examining the immediate surroundings of the pavilion
+and the end of the park in which it was situated. From the top of the
+sloping alleys he could easily distinguish the peak of a mast which
+showed above the wall of the park. He recognized the peak at a glance
+as being that of the _Ebba_, and knew therefore that the wall at this
+part skirted the right bank of the Neuse.
+
+The Count d'Artigas' whole attention was concentrated upon the French
+inventor. The latter's health appeared to have suffered in no way
+from his eighteen months' confinement; but his queer attitude, his
+incoherent gestures, his haggard eye, and his indifference to what was
+passing around him testified only too plainly to the degeneration of
+his mental faculties.
+
+At length Thomas Roch dropped into a seat and with the end of a switch
+traced in the sand of the alley the outline of a fortification. Then
+kneeling down he made a number of little mounds that were evidently
+intended to represent bastions. He next plucked some leaves from a
+neighboring tree and stuck them in the mounds like so many tiny
+flags. All this was done with the utmost seriousness and without any
+attention whatever being paid to the onlookers.
+
+It was the amusement of a child, but a child would have lacked this
+characteristic gravity.
+
+"Is he then absolutely mad?" demanded the Count d'Artigas, who
+in spite of his habitual impassibility appeared to be somewhat
+disappointed.
+
+"I warned you, Count, that nothing could be obtained from him."
+
+"Couldn't he at least pay some attention to us?"
+
+"It would perhaps be difficult to induce him to do so."
+
+Then turning to the attendant:
+
+"Speak to him, Gaydon. Perhaps he will answer you."
+
+"Oh! he'll answer me right enough, sir, never fear," replied Gaydon.
+
+He went up to the inventor and touching him on the shoulder, said
+gently: "Thomas Roch!"
+
+The latter raised his head, and of the persons present he doubtless
+saw but his keeper, though Captain Spade had come up and all formed a
+circle about him.
+
+"Thomas Roch," continued Gaydon, speaking in English, "here are some
+visitors to see you. They are interested in your health--in your
+work."
+
+The last word alone seemed to rouse him from his indifference.
+
+"My work?" he replied, also in English, which he spoke like a native.
+
+Then taking a pebble between his index finger and bent thumb, as a
+boy plays at marbles, he projected it against one of the little
+sand-heaps. It scattered, and he jumped for joy.
+
+"Blown to pieces! The bastion is blown to pieces! My explosive has
+destroyed everything at one blow!" he shouted, the light of triumph
+flashing in his eyes.
+
+"You see," said the director, addressing the Count d'Artigas. "The
+idea of his invention never leaves him."
+
+"And it will die with him," affirmed the attendant.
+
+"Couldn't you, Gaydon, get him to talk about his fulgurator?" asked
+his chief.
+
+"I will try, if you order me to do so, sir."
+
+"Well, I do order you, for I think it might interest the Count
+d'Artigas."
+
+"Certainly," assented the Count, whose physiognomy betrayed no sign of
+the sentiments which were agitating him.
+
+"I ought to warn you that I risk bringing on another fit," observed
+Gaydon.
+
+"You can drop the conversation when you consider it prudent. Tell
+Thomas Roch that a foreigner wishes to negotiate with him for the
+purchase of his fulgurator."
+
+"But are you not afraid he may give his secret away?" questioned the
+Count.
+
+He spoke with such vivacity that Gaydon could not restrain a glance of
+distrust, which, however, did not appear to disturb the equanimity of
+that impenetrable nobleman.
+
+"No fear of that," said the warder. "No promise would induce him to
+divulge his secret. Until the millions he demands are counted into his
+hand he will remain as mute as a stone."
+
+"I don't happen to be carrying those millions about me," remarked the
+Count quietly.
+
+Gaydon again touched Roch on the shoulder and repeated:
+
+"Thomas Roch, here are some foreigners who are anxious to acquire your
+invention."
+
+The madman started.
+
+"My invention?" he cried. "My deflagrator?"
+
+And his growing animation plainly indicated the imminence of the fit
+that Gaydon had been apprehensive about, and which questions of this
+character invariably brought on.
+
+"How much will you give me for it--how much?" continued Roch. "How
+much--how much?"
+
+"Ten million dollars," replied Gaydon.
+
+"Ten millions! Ten millions! A fulgurator ten million times more
+powerful than anything hitherto invented! Ten millions for an
+autopropulsive projectile which, when it explodes, destroys everything
+in sight within a radius of over twelve thousand square yards! Ten
+millions for the only deflagrator that can provoke its explosion! Why,
+all the wealth of the world wouldn't suffice to purchase the secret
+of my engine, and rather than sell it at such a price I would cut
+my tongue in half with my teeth. Ten millions, when it is worth a
+billion--a billion--a billion!"
+
+It was clear that Roch had lost all notion of things, and had Gaydon
+offered him ten billions the madman would have replied in exactly the
+same manner.
+
+The Count d'Artigas and Captain Spade had not taken their eyes off
+him. The Count was impassible as usual, though his brow had darkened,
+but the captain shook his head in a manner that implied plainly:
+"Decidedly there is nothing to hope from this poor devil!"
+
+After his outburst Roch fled across the garden crying hoarsely:
+
+"Billions! Billions!"
+
+Gaydon turned to the director and remarked:
+
+"I told you how it would be."
+
+Then he rushed after his patient, caught him by the arm, and led him,
+without any attempt at resistance, into the pavilion and closed the
+door.
+
+The Count d'Artigas remained alone with the director, Captain Spade
+having strolled off again in the direction of the wall at the bottom
+of the park.
+
+"You see I was not guilty of exaggeration, Count," said the director.
+"It is obvious to every one that Thomas Roch is becoming daily worse.
+In my opinion his case is a hopeless one. If all the money he asks for
+were offered to him, nothing could be got from him."
+
+"Very likely," replied the Count, "still, if his pecuniary demands are
+supremely absurd, he has none the less invented an engine the power of
+which is infinite, one might say."
+
+"That is the opinion expressed by competent persons, Count. But what
+he has discovered will ere long be lost with himself in one of these
+fits which are becoming more frequent and intense. Very soon even the
+motive of interest, the only sentiment that appears to have survived
+in his mind, will become extinct."
+
+"Mayhap the sentiment of hatred will remain, though," muttered the
+Count, as Spade joined them at the garden gate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+KIDNAPPED.
+
+
+Half an hour later the Count d'Artigas and Captain Spade were
+following the beech-lined road that separated the Healthful House
+estate from the right bank of the Neuse. Both had taken leave of the
+director, the latter declaring himself greatly honored by their visit,
+and the former thanking him warmly for his courteous reception. A
+hundred-dollar bill left as a tip for the staff of the establishment
+had certainly not belied the Count's reputation for generosity. He
+was--there could be no doubt about it--a foreigner of the highest
+distinction, if distinction be measured by generosity.
+
+Issuing by the gate at the main entrance to Healthful House, they had
+skirted the wall that surrounded the property, and which was high
+enough to preclude the possibility of climbing it. Not a word passed
+between them for some time; the Count was deep in thought and Captain
+Spade was not in the habit of addressing him without being first
+spoken to.
+
+At last when they stood beneath the rear wall behind which, though it
+was not visible, the Count knew Pavilion No. 17 was situated, he said:
+
+"You managed, I presume, to thoroughly explore the place, and are
+acquainted with every detail of it?"
+
+"Certainly, _Count_" replied Captain Spade, emphasizing the title.
+
+"You are perfectly sure about it?"
+
+"Perfectly. I could go through the park with my eyes shut. If you
+still persist in carrying out your scheme the pavilion can be easily
+reached."
+
+"I do persist, Spade."
+
+"Notwithstanding Thomas Roch's mental condition?"
+
+"Notwithstanding his condition; and if we succeed in carrying him
+off----"
+
+"That is my affair. When night comes on I undertake to enter the park
+of Healthful House, and then the pavilion garden without being seen by
+anybody."
+
+"By the entrance gate?"
+
+"No, on this side."
+
+"Yes, but on this side there is the wall, and if you succeed in
+climbing it, how are you going to get over it again with Thomas Roch?
+What if the madman cries out--what if he should resist--what if his
+keeper gives the alarm?"
+
+"Don't worry yourself in the least about that. We have only got to go
+in and come out by this door."
+
+Captain Spade pointed to a narrow door let into the wall a few
+paces distant, and which was doubtless used by the staff of the
+establishment when they had occasion to go out by the river.
+
+"That is the way I propose to go in. It's much easier than scaling the
+wall with a ladder."
+
+"But the door is closed."
+
+"It will open."
+
+"Has it no bolts?"
+
+"Yes, but I shot them back while we were strolling about, and the
+director didn't notice what I had done."
+
+"How are you going to open it?" queried the Count, going to the door.
+
+"Here is the key," replied Spade, producing it.
+
+He had withdrawn it from the lock, where it happened to be, when he
+had unbolted the door.
+
+"Capital!" exclaimed the Count. "It couldn't be better. The business
+will be easier than I expected. Let us get back to the schooner. At
+eight o'clock one of the boats will put you ashore with five men."
+
+"Yes, five men will do," said Captain Spade. "There will be enough of
+them to effect our object even if the keeper is aroused and it becomes
+necessary to put him out of the way."
+
+"Put him out of the way--well, if it becomes absolutely necessary of
+course you must, but it would be better to seize him too and bring him
+aboard the _Ebba_ Who knows but what he has already learned a part of
+Roch's secret?"
+
+"True."
+
+"Besides, Thomas Roch is used to him, and I don't propose to make him
+change his habitudes in any way."
+
+This observation was accompanied by such a significant smile that
+Captain Spade could entertain no doubt as to the rôle reserved for the
+warder of Healthful House.
+
+The plan to kidnap them both was thus settled, and appeared to have
+every chance of being successful; unless during the couple of hours of
+daylight that yet remained it was noticed that the key of the door had
+been stolen and the bolts drawn back, Captain Spade and his men could
+at least count upon being able to enter the park, and the rest, the
+captain affirmed, would be easy enough.
+
+Thomas Roch was the only patient in the establishment isolated and
+kept under special surveillance. All the other invalids lived in the
+main building, or occupied pavilions in the front of the park. The
+plan was to try and seize Roch and Gaydon separately and bind and gag
+them before they could cry out.
+
+The Count d'Artigas and his companion wended their way to a creek
+where one of the _Ebba's_ boats awaited them. The schooner was
+anchored two cable lengths from the shore, her sails neatly rolled
+upon her yards, which were squared as neatly as those of a pleasure
+yacht or of a man-of-war. At the peak of the mainmast a narrow red
+pennant was gently swayed by the wind, which came in fitful puffs from
+the east.
+
+The Count and the captain jumped into the boat and a few strokes of
+the four oars brought them alongside of the schooner. They climbed
+on deck and going forward to the jib-boom, leaned over the starboard
+bulwark and gazed at an object that floated on the water a few strokes
+ahead of the vessel. It was a small buoy that was rocked by the ripple
+of the ebbing tide.
+
+Twilight gradually set in, and the outline of New-Berne on the left
+bank of the sinuous Neuse became more and more indistinct until it
+disappeared in the deepening shades of night. A mist set in from the
+sea, but though it obscured the moon it brought no sign of rain. The
+lights gleamed out one by one in the houses of the town. The fishing
+smacks came slowly up the river to their anchorage, impelled by the
+oars of their crews which struck the water with sharp, rhythmical
+strokes, and with their sails distended on the chance of catching an
+occasional puff of the dropping wind to help them along. A couple of
+steamers passed, sending up volumes of black smoke and myriads of
+sparks from their double stacks, and lashing the water into foam with
+their powerful paddles.
+
+At eight o'clock the Count d'Artigas appeared on the schooner's deck
+accompanied by a man about fifty years of age, to whom he remarked:
+
+"It is time to go, Serko."
+
+"Very well, I will tell Spade," replied Serko.
+
+At that moment the captain joined them.
+
+"You had better get ready to go," said the Count.
+
+"All is ready."
+
+"Be careful to prevent any alarm being given, and arrange matters so
+that no one will for a minute suspect that Thomas Roch and his keeper
+have been brought on board the _Ebba_."
+
+"They wouldn't find them if they came to look for them," observed
+Serko, shrugging his shoulders and laughing heartily as though he had
+perpetrated a huge joke.
+
+"Nevertheless, it is better not to arouse their suspicion," said
+d'Artigas.
+
+The boat was lowered, and Captain Spade and five sailors took their
+places in it. Four of the latter got out the oars. The boatswain,
+Effrondat, who was to remain in charge of the boat, went to the stern
+beside Captain Spade and took the tiller.
+
+"Good luck, Spade," said Serko with a smile, "and don't make more
+noise about it than if you were a gallant carrying off his lady-love."
+
+"I won't--unless that Gaydon chap--"
+
+"We must have both Roch and Gaydon," insisted the Count d'Artigas.
+
+"That is understood," replied Spade.
+
+The boat pushed off, and the sailors on the deck of the schooner
+watched it till it was lost to sight in the darkness.
+
+Pending its return, no preparations for the _Ebba's_ departure were
+made. Perhaps there was no intention of quitting the port after the
+men had been kidnapped. Besides, how could the vessel have reached the
+open sea? Not a breath of air was now stirring, and in half an hour
+the tide would be setting in again, and rising strongly and rapidly
+for several miles above New-Berne.
+
+Anchored, as has already been said, a couple of cable-lengths from the
+shore, the _Ebba_ might have been brought much nearer to it, for the
+water was deep enough, and this would have facilitated the task of the
+kidnappers when they returned from their expedition. If, however, the
+Count d'Artigas preferred to let the vessel stay where she was, he
+probably had his reasons.
+
+Not a soul was in sight on the bank, and the road, with its borders
+of beech trees that skirted the wall of Healthful House estate, was
+equally deserted. The boat was made fast to the shore. Then Captain
+Spade and his four sailors landed, leaving the boatswain in charge,
+and disappeared amid the trees.
+
+When they reached the wall Captain Spade stopped and the sailors drew
+up on each side of the doorway. The captain had only to turn the key
+in the lock and push the door, unless one of the servants, noticing
+that the door was not secured as usual, had bolted it. In this event
+their task would be an extremely difficult one, even if they succeeded
+in scaling the high wall.
+
+The captain put his ear to the key-hole and listened.
+
+Not a sound was to be heard in the park. Not even a leaf was rustling
+in the branches of the beeches under which they were standing. The
+surrounding country was wrapt in the profoundest silence.
+
+Captain Spade drew the key from his pocket, inserted it in the lock
+and turned it noiselessly. Then he cautiously pushed the door, which
+opened inward.
+
+Things were, then, just as he had left them, and no one had noticed
+the theft of the key.
+
+After assuring himself that nobody happened to be in the neighborhood
+of the pavilion the captain entered, followed by his men. The door was
+left wide open, so that they could beat a hurried and uninterrupted
+retreat in case of necessity. The trees and bushes in this shady part
+of the park were very thick, and it was so dark that it would not have
+been easy to distinguish the pavilion had not a light shone brightly
+in one of the windows.
+
+No doubt this was the window of the room occupied by Roch and his
+guardian, Gaydon, seeing that the latter never left the patient placed
+in his charge either by night or day. Captain Spade had expected to
+find him there.
+
+The party approached cautiously, taking the utmost precaution to avoid
+kicking a pebble or stepping on a twig, the noise of which might have
+revealed their presence. In this way they reached the door of the
+pavilion near which was the curtained window of the room in which the
+light was burning.
+
+But if the door was locked, how were they going to get in? Captain
+Spade must have asked himself. He had no key, and to attempt to effect
+an entrance through the window would be hazardous, for, unless Gaydon
+could be prevented from giving the alarm, he would rouse the whole
+establishment.
+
+There was no help for it, however. The essential was to get possession
+of Roch. If they could kidnap Gaydon, too, in conformity with the
+intentions of the Count d'Artigas, so much the better. If not--
+
+Captain Spade crept stealthily to the window, and standing on tiptoe,
+looked in. Through an aperture in the curtain he could see all over
+the room.
+
+Gaydon was standing beside Thomas Roch, who had not yet recovered from
+the fit with which he had been attacked during the Count d'Artigas'
+visit. His condition necessitated special attention, and the warder
+was ministering to the patient under the direction of a third person.
+
+The latter was one of the doctors attached to Healthful House, and had
+been at once sent to the pavilion by the director when Roch's
+paroxysm came on. His presence of course rendered the situation more
+complicated and the work of the kidnappers more difficult.
+
+Roch, fully dressed, was extended upon a sofa. He was now fairly calm.
+The paroxysm, which was abating, would be followed by several hours of
+torpor and exhaustion.
+
+Just as Captain Spade peeped through the window the doctor was making
+preparations to leave. The Captain heard him say to Gaydon that his
+(the doctor's) presence was not likely to be required any more that
+night, and that there was nothing to be done beyond following the
+instructions he had given.
+
+The doctor then walked towards the door, which, it will be remembered,
+was close to the window in front of which Spade and his men were
+standing. If they remained where they were they could not fail to be
+seen, not only by the doctor, but by the warder, who was accompanying
+him to the door.
+
+Before they made their appearance, however, the sailors, at a sign
+from their chief, had dispersed and hidden themselves behind the
+bushes, while Spade himself crouched in the shadow beneath the window.
+Luckily Gaydon had not brought the lamp with him, so that the captain
+was in no danger of being seen.
+
+As he was about to take leave of Gaydon, the doctor stopped on the
+step and remarked:
+
+"This is one of the worst attacks our patient has had. One or two more
+like that and he will lose the little reason he still possesses."
+
+"Just so," said Gaydon. "I wonder that the director doesn't prohibit
+all visitors from entering the pavilion. Roch owes his present attack
+to a Count d'Artigas, for whose amusement harmful questions were put
+to him."
+
+"I will call the director's attention to the matter," responded the
+doctor.
+
+He then descended the steps and Gaydon, leaving the door of the
+pavilion ajar, accompanied him to the end of the path.
+
+When they had gone Captain Spade stood up, and his men rejoined him.
+
+Had they not better profit by the chance thus unexpectedly afforded
+them to enter the room and secure Roch, who was in a semi-comatose
+condition, and then await Gaydon's return, and seize the warder as he
+entered?
+
+
+This would have involved considerable risk. Gaydon, at a glance, would
+perceive that his patient was missing and raise an alarm; the doctor
+would come running back; the whole staff of Healthful House would
+turn out, and Spade would not have time to escape with his precious
+prisoner and lock the door in the wall after him.
+
+He did not have much chance to deliberate about it, for the warder was
+heard returning along the gravel path. Spade decided that the best
+thing to be done was to spring upon him as he passed and stifle
+his cries and overpower him before he could attempt to offer any
+resistance. The carrying off of the mad inventor would be easy enough,
+inasmuch as he was unconscious, and could not raise a finger to help
+himself.
+
+Gaydon came round a clump of bushes and approached the entrance to the
+pavilion. As he raised his foot to mount the steps the four sailors
+sprang upon him, bore him backwards to the ground, and had gagged him,
+securely bound him hand and foot, and bandaged his eyes before he
+began to realize what had happened.
+
+Two of the men then kept guard over him, while Captain Spade and the
+others entered the house.
+
+As the captain had surmised, Thomas Roch had sunk into such a torpor
+that he could have heard nothing of what had been going on outside.
+Reclining at full length, with his eyes closed, he might have been
+taken for a dead man but for his heavy breathing. There was no need
+either to bind or gag him. One man took him by the head and another by
+the feet and started off with him to the schooner.
+
+Captain Spade was the last to quit the house after extinguishing the
+lamp and closing the door behind him. In this way there was no reason
+to suppose that the inmates would be missed before morning.
+
+Gaydon was carried off in the same way as Thomas Roch had been. The
+two remaining sailors lifted him and bore him quietly but rapidly down
+the path to the door in the wall. The park was pitch dark. Not even a
+glimmer of the lights in the windows of Healthful House could be seen
+through the thick foliage.
+
+Arrived at the wall, Spade, who had led the way, stepped aside to
+allow the sailors with their burdens to pass through, then followed
+and closed and locked the door. He put the key in his pocket,
+intending to throw it into the Neuse as soon as they were safely on
+board the schooner.
+
+There was no one on the road, nor on the bank of the river.
+
+The party made for the boat, and found that Effrondat, the boatswain,
+had made all ready to receive them.
+
+Thomas Roch and Gaydon were laid in the bottom of the boat, and the
+sailors again took their places at the oars.
+
+"Hurry up, Effrondat, and cast off the painter," ordered the captain.
+
+The boatswain obeyed, and pushed the boat off with his foot as he
+scrambled in.
+
+The men bent to their oars and rowed rapidly to the schooner, which
+was easily distinguishable, having hung out a light at her mizzenmast
+head.
+
+In two minutes they were alongside.
+
+The Count d'Artigas was leaning on the bulwarks by the gangway.
+
+"All right, Spade?" he questioned.
+
+"Yes, sir, all right!"
+
+"Both of them?"
+
+"Both the madman and his keeper."
+
+"Doesn't anybody know about it up at Healthful House?
+
+"Not a soul."
+
+It was not likely that Gaydon, whose eyes and ears were bandaged, but
+who preserved all his sang-froid, could have recognized the voices of
+the Count d'Artigas and Captain Spade. Nor did he have the chance to.
+No attempt was immediately made to hoist him on board. He had been
+lying in the bottom of the boat alongside the schooner for fully
+half an hour, he calculated, before he felt himself lifted, and then
+lowered, doubtless to the bottom of the hold.
+
+The kidnapping having been accomplished it would seem that it only
+remained for the _Ebba_ to weigh anchor, descend the estuary and make
+her way out to sea through Pamlico Sound. Yet no preparations for
+departure were made.
+
+Was it not dangerous to stay where they were after their daring
+raid? Had the Count d'Artigas hidden his prisoners so securely as to
+preclude the possibility of their being discovered if the _Ebba_,
+whose presence in proximity to Healthful House could not fail to
+excite suspicion, received a visit from the New-Berne police?
+
+However this might have been, an hour after the return of the
+expedition, every soul on board save the watch--the Count d'Artigas,
+Serko, and Captain Spade in their respective cabins, and the crew in
+the fore-castle, were sound asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE SCHOONER EBBA.
+
+
+It was not till the next morning, and then very leisurely, that
+the _Ebba_ began to make preparations for her departure. From the
+extremity of New-Berne quay the crew might have been seen holystoning
+the deck, after which they loosened the reef lines, under the
+direction of Effrondat, the boatswain, hoisted in the boats and
+cleared the halyards.
+
+At eight o'clock the Count d'Artigas had not yet appeared on deck.
+His companion, Serko the engineer, as he was called on board, had not
+quitted his cabin. Captain Spade was strolling quietly about giving
+orders.
+
+The _Ebba_ would have made a splendid racing yacht, though she had
+never participated in any of the yacht races either on the North
+American or British coasts. The height of her masts, the extent of
+the canvas she carried, her shapely, raking hull, denoted her to be a
+craft of great speed, and her general lines showed that she was also
+built to weather the roughest gales at sea. In a favorable wind she
+would probably make twelve knots an hour.
+
+Notwithstanding these advantages, however, she must in a dead calm
+necessarily suffer from the same disadvantages as other sailing
+vessels, and it might have been supposed that the Count d'Artigas
+would have preferred a steam-yacht with which he could have gone
+anywhere, at any time, in any weather. But apparently he was satisfied
+to stick to the old method, even when he made his long trips across
+the Atlantic.
+
+On this particular morning the wind was blowing gently from the west,
+which was very favorable to the _Ebba_, and would enable her to stand
+straight out of the Neuse, across Pamlico Sound, and through one of
+the inlets that led to the open sea.
+
+At ten o'clock the _Ebba_ was still rocking lazily at anchor, her stem
+up stream and her cable tautened by the rapidly ebbing tide. The small
+buoy that on the previous evening had been moored near the schooner
+was no longer to be seen, and had doubtless been hoisted in.
+
+Suddenly a gun boomed out and a slight wreath of white smoke arose
+from the battery. It was answered by other reports from the guns on
+the chain of islands along the coast.
+
+At this moment the Count d'Artigas and Engineer Serko appeared on
+deck. Captain Spade went to meet them.
+
+"Guns barking," he said laconically.
+
+"We expected it," replied Serko, shrugging his shoulders. "They are
+signals to close the passes."
+
+"What has that to do with us?" asked the Count d'Artigas quietly.
+
+"Nothing at all," said the engineer.
+
+They all, of course, knew that the alarm-guns indicated that the
+disappearance of Thomas Roch and the warder Gaydon from Healthful
+House had been discovered.
+
+At daybreak the doctor had gone to Pavilion No. 17 to see how
+his patient had passed the night, and had found no one there. He
+immediately notified the director, who had the grounds thoroughly
+searched. It was then discovered that the door in rear of the park was
+unbolted, and that, though locked, the key had been taken away. It was
+evident that Roch and his attendant had been carried out that way. But
+who were the kidnappers? No one could possibly imagine. All that could
+be ascertained was that at half-past seven on the previous night one
+of the doctors had attended Thomas Roch, who was suffering from one of
+his fits, and that when the medical man had left him the invalid was
+in an unconscious condition. What had happened after the doctor took
+leave of Gaydon at the end of the garden-path could not even be
+conjectured.
+
+The news of the disappearance was telegraphed to New Berne, and thence
+to Raleigh. On receipt of it the Governor had instantly wired orders
+that no vessel was to be allowed to quit Pamlico Sound without having
+been first subjected to a most rigorous search. Another dispatch
+ordered the cruiser _Falcon_, which was stationed in the port, to
+carry out the Governor's instructions in this respect. At the same
+time measures were taken to keep a strict lookout in every town and
+village in the State.
+
+The Count d'Artigas could see the _Falcon_, which was a couple of
+miles away to the east in the estuary, getting steam up and making
+hurried preparations to carry out her mission. It would take at least
+an hour before the warship could be got ready to steam out, and the
+schooner might by that time have gained a good start.
+
+"Shall I weigh anchor?" demanded Captain Spade.
+
+"Yes, as we have a fair wind; but you can take your time about it,"
+replied the Count d'Artigas.
+
+"The passes of Pamlico Sound will be under observation," observed
+Engineer Serko, "and no vessel will be able to get out without
+receiving a visit from gentlemen as inquisitive as they will be
+indiscreet."
+
+"Never mind, get under way all the same," ordered the Count. "When the
+officers of the cruiser or the Custom-House officers have been over
+the _Ebba_ the embargo will be raised. I shall be indeed surprised if
+we are not allowed to go about our business."
+
+"With a thousand pardons for the liberty taken, and best wishes for a
+good voyage and speedy return," chuckled Engineer Serko, following the
+phrase with a loud and prolonged laugh.
+
+When the news was received at New-Berne, the authorities at first were
+puzzled to know whether the missing inventor and his keeper had fled
+or been carried off. As, however, Roch's flight could not have taken
+place without the connivance of Gaydon, this supposition was speedily
+abandoned. In the opinion of the director and management of Healthful
+House the warder was absolutely above suspicion. They must both, then,
+have been kidnapped.
+
+It can easily be imagined what a sensation the news caused in the
+town. What! the French inventor who had been so closely guarded had
+disappeared, and with him the secret of the wonderful fulgurator that
+nobody had been able to worm out of him? Might not the most serious
+consequences follow? Might not the discovery of the new engine be lost
+to America forever? If the daring act had been perpetrated on behalf
+of another nation, might not that nation, having Thomas Roch in
+its power, be eventually able to extract from him what the Federal
+Government had vainly endeavored to obtain? And was it reasonable, was
+it permissible, to suppose for an instant that he had been carried off
+for the benefit of a private individual?
+
+Certainly not, was the emphatic reply to the latter question, which
+was too ridiculous to be entertained. Therefore the whole power of
+the State was employed in an effort to recover the inventor. In every
+county of North Carolina a special surveillance was organized on
+every road and at every railroad station, and every house in town
+and country was searched. Every port from Wilmington to Norfolk was
+closed, and no craft of any description could leave without being
+thoroughly overhauled. Not only the cruiser _Falcon_, but every
+available cutter and launch was sent out with orders to patrol
+Pamlico Sound and board yachts, merchant vessels and fishing smacks
+indiscriminately whether anchored or not and search them down to the
+keelson.
+
+Still the crew of the _Ebba_ prepared calmly to weigh anchor, and the
+Count d'Artigas did not appear to be in the least concerned at the
+orders of the authorities and at the consequences that would ensue, if
+Thomas Roch and his keeper, Gaydon, were found on board.
+
+At last all was ready, the crew manned the capstan bars, the sails
+were hoisted, and the schooner glided gracefully through the water
+towards the Sound.
+
+Twenty miles from New-Berne the estuary curves abruptly and shoots off
+towards the northwest for about the same distance, gradually widening
+until it empties itself into Pamlico Sound.
+
+The latter is a vast expanse about seventy miles across from Sivan
+Island to Roanoke. On the seaward side stretches a chain of long and
+narrow islands, forming a natural breakwater north and south from
+Cape Lookout to Cape Hatteras and from the latter to Cape Henry, near
+Norfolk City, in Virginia.
+
+Numerous beacons on the islands and islets form an easy guide for
+vessels at night seeking refuge from the Atlantic gales, and once
+inside the chain they are certain of finding plenty of good anchoring
+grounds.
+
+Several passes afford an outlet from the Sound to the sea. Beyond
+Sivan Island lighthouse is Ocracoke inlet, and next is the inlet of
+Hatteras. There are also three others known as Logger Head inlet, New
+inlet, and Oregon inlet. The Ocracoke was the one nearest the _Ebba_,
+and she could make it without tacking, but the _Falcon_ was searching
+all vessels that passed through. This did not, however, make any
+particular difference, for by this time all the passes, upon which
+the guns of the forts had been trained, were guarded by government
+vessels.
+
+The _Ebba_, therefore, kept on her way, neither trying to avoid
+nor offering to approach the searchers. She seemed to be merely a
+pleasure-yacht out for a morning sail.
+
+No attempt had up to that time been made to accost her. Was she, then,
+specially privileged, and to be spared the bother of being searched?
+Was the Count d'Artigas considered too high and mighty a personage to
+be thus molested, and delayed even for an hour? It was unlikely, for
+though he was regarded as a distinguished foreigner who lived the life
+of luxury enjoyed by the favored of fortune, no one, as a matter of
+fact, knew who he was, nor whence he came, nor whither he was going.
+
+The schooner sped gracefully over the calm waters of the sound, her
+flag--a gold crescent in the angle of a red field--streaming proudly
+in the breeze. Count d'Artigas was cosily ensconced in a basket-work
+chair on the after-deck, conversing with Engineer Serko and Captain
+Spade.
+
+"They don't seem in a hurry to board us," remarked Serko.
+
+"They can come whenever they think proper," said the Count in a tone
+of supreme indifference.
+
+"No doubt they are waiting for us at the entrance to the inlet,"
+suggested Captain Spade.
+
+"Let them wait," grunted the wealthy nobleman.
+
+Then he relapsed into his customary unconcerned impassibility.
+
+Captain Spade's hypothesis was doubtless correct. The _Falcon_ had as
+yet made no move towards the schooner, but would almost certainly do
+so as soon as the latter reached the inlet, and the Count would have
+to submit to a search of his vessel if he wished to reach the open
+sea.
+
+How was it then that he manifested such extraordinary unconcern? Were
+Thomas Roch and Gaydon so safely hidden that their hiding-place could
+not possibly be discovered?
+
+The thing was possible, but perhaps the Count d'Artigas would not have
+been quite so confident had he been aware that the _Ebba_ had been
+specially signalled to the warship and revenue cutters as a suspect.
+
+The Count's visit to Healthful House on the previous day had now
+attracted particular attention to him and his schooner. Evidently, at
+the time, the director could have had no reason to suspect the motive
+of his visit. But a few hours later, Thomas Roch and his keeper had
+been carried off. No one else from outside had been near the pavilion
+that day. It was admitted that it would have been an easy matter for
+the Count's companion, while the former distracted the director's
+attention, to push back the bolts of the door in the wall and steal
+the key. Then the fact that the _Ebba_ was anchored in rear of, and
+only a few hundred yards from, the estate, was in itself suspicious.
+Nothing would have been easier for the desperadoes than to enter by
+the door, surprise their victims, and carry them off to the schooner.
+
+These suspicions, neither the director nor the _personnel_ of the
+establishment had at first liked to give expression to, but when
+the _Ebba_ was seen to weigh anchor and head for the open sea, they
+appeared to be confirmed.
+
+They were communicated to the authorities of New-Berne, who
+immediately ordered the commander of the _Falcon_ to intercept the
+schooner, to search her minutely high and low, and from stem to stern,
+and on no account to let her proceed, unless he was absolutely certain
+that Roch and Gaydon were not on board.
+
+Assuredly the Count d'Artigas could have had no idea that his vessel
+was the object of such stringent orders; but even if he had, it is
+questionable whether this superbly haughty and disdainful nobleman
+would have manifested any particular anxiety.
+
+Towards three o'clock, the warship which was cruising before the
+inlet, after having sent search parties aboard a few fishing-smacks,
+suddenly manoeuvred to the entrance of the pass, and awaited the
+approaching schooner. The latter surely did not imagine that she could
+force a passage in spite of the cruiser, or escape from a vessel
+propelled by steam. Besides, had she attempted such a foolhardy
+trick, a couple of shots from the _Falcon's_ guns would speedily have
+constrained her to lay to.
+
+Presently a boat, manned by two officers and ten sailors, put off from
+the cruiser and rowed towards the _Ebba_. When they were only about
+half a cable's length off, one of the men rose and waved a flag.
+
+"That's a signal to stop," said Engineer Serko.
+
+"Precisely," remarked the Count d'Artigas.
+
+"We shall have to lay to."
+
+"Then lay to."
+
+Captain Spade went forward and gave the necessary orders, and in a few
+minutes the vessel slackened speed, and was soon merely drifting with
+the tide.
+
+The _Falcon's_ boat pulled alongside, and a man in the bows held on to
+her with a boat-hook. The gangway was lowered by a couple of hands on
+the schooner, and the two officers, followed by eight of their men,
+climbed on deck.
+
+They found the crew of the _Ebba_ drawn up in line on the forecastle.
+
+The officer in command of the boarding-party--a first
+lieutenant--advanced towards the owner of the schooner, and the
+following questions and answers were exchanged:
+
+"This schooner belongs to the Count d'Artigas, to whom, I presume, I
+have the honor of speaking?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What is her name?"
+
+"The _Ebba_."
+
+"She is commanded by?--"
+
+"Captain Spade."
+
+"What is his nationality?"
+
+"Hindo-Malay."
+
+The officer scrutinized the schooner's flag, while the Count d'Artigas
+added:
+
+"Will you be good enough to tell me, sir, to what circumstance I owe
+the pleasure of your visit on board my vessel?"
+
+"Orders have been received," replied the officer, "to search every
+vessel now anchored in Pamlico Sound, or which attempts to leave it."
+
+He did not deem it necessary to insist upon this point since the
+_Ebba_, above every other, was to be subjected to the bother of a
+rigorous examination.
+
+"You, of course, sir, have no intention of refusing me permission to
+go over your schooner?"
+
+"Assuredly not, sir. My vessel is at your disposal from peaks to
+bilges. Only I should like to know why all the vessels which happen to
+be in Pamlico Sound to-day are being subjected to this formality."
+
+"I see no reason why you should not be informed, Monsieur the Count,"
+replied the officer. "The governor of North Carolina has been apprised
+that Healthful House has been broken into and two persons kidnapped,
+and the authorities merely wish to satisfy themselves that the persons
+carried off have not been embarked during the night."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed the Count, feigning surprise. "And who are
+the persons who have thus disappeared from Healthful House?"
+
+"An inventor--a madman--and his keeper."
+
+"A madman, sir? Do you, may I ask, refer to the Frenchman, Thomas
+Roch?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"The Thomas Roch whom I saw yesterday during my visit to the
+establishment--whom I questioned in presence of the director--who
+was seized with a violent paroxysm just as Captain Spade and I were
+leaving?"
+
+The officer observed the stranger with the keenest attention, in an
+effort to surprise anything suspicious in his attitude or remarks.
+
+"It is incredible!" added the Count, as though he had just heard about
+the outrage for the first time.
+
+"I can easily understand, sir, how uneasy the authorities must be,"
+he went on, "in view of Thomas Roch's personality, and I cannot but
+approve of the measures taken. I need hardly say that neither the
+French inventor nor his keeper is on board the _Ebba_. However, you
+can assure yourself of the fact by examining the schooner as minutely
+as you desire. Captain Spade, show these gentlemen over the vessel."
+
+Then saluting the lieutenant of the _Falcon_ coldly, the Count
+d'Artigas sank into his deck-chair again and replaced his cigar
+between his lips, while the two officers and eight sailors, conducted
+by Captain Spade, began their search.
+
+In the first place they descended the main hatchway to the after
+saloon--a luxuriously-appointed place, filled with art objects of
+great value, hung with rich tapestries and hangings, and wainscotted
+with costly woods.
+
+It goes without saying that this and the adjoining cabins were
+searched with a care that could not have been surpassed by the most
+experienced detectives. Moreover, Captain Spade assisted them by every
+means in his power, obviously anxious that they should not preserve
+the slightest suspicion of the _Ebba's_ owner.
+
+After the grand saloon and cabins, the elegant dining-saloon was
+visited. Then the cook's galley, Captain Spade's cabin, and the
+quarters of the crew in the forecastle were overhauled, but no sign of
+Thomas Roch or Gaydon was to be seen.
+
+Next, every inch of the hold, etc., was examined, with the aid of a
+couple of lanterns. Water-kegs, wine, brandy, whisky and beer barrels,
+biscuit-boxes, in fact, all the provision boxes and everything the
+hold contained, including the stock of coal, was moved and probed, and
+even the bilges were scrutinized, but all in vain.
+
+Evidently the suspicion that the Count d'Artigas had carried off
+the missing men was unfounded and unjust. Even a rat could not have
+escaped the notice of the vigilant searchers, leave alone two men.
+
+When they returned on deck, however, the officers, as a matter of
+precaution looked into the boats hanging on the davits, and punched
+the lowered sails, with the same result.
+
+It only remained for them, therefore, to take leave of the Count
+d'Artigas.
+
+"You must pardon us for having disturbed you, Monsieur the Count,"
+said the lieutenant.
+
+"You were compelled to obey your orders, gentlemen."
+
+"It was merely a formality, of course," ventured the officer.
+
+By a slight inclination of the head the Count signified that he was
+quite willing to accept this euphemism.
+
+"I assure you, gentlemen, that I have had no hand in this kidnapping."
+
+"We can no longer believe so, Monsieur the Count, and will withdraw."
+
+"As you please. Is the _Ebba_ now free to proceed?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Then _au revoir_, gentlemen, _au revoir_, for I am an _habitué_ of
+this coast and shall soon be back again. I hope that ere my return you
+will have discovered the author of the outrage, and have Thomas Roch
+safely back in Healthful House. It is a consummation devoutly to be
+wished in the interest of the United States--I might even say of the
+whole world."
+
+The two officers courteously saluted the Count, who responded with a
+nod. Captain Spade accompanied them to the gangway, and they were soon
+making for the cruiser, which had steamed near to pick them up.
+
+Meanwhile the breeze had freshened considerably, and when, at a sign
+from d'Artigas, Captain Spade set sail again, the _Ebba_ skimmed
+swiftly through the inlet, and half an hour after was standing out to
+sea.
+
+For an hour she continued steering east-northeast, and then, the wind,
+being merely a land breeze, dropped, and the schooner lay becalmed,
+her sails limp, and her flag drooping like a wet rag. It seemed that
+it would be impossible for the vessel to continue her voyage that
+night unless a breeze sprang up, and of this there was no sign.
+
+Since the schooner had cleared the inlet Captain Spade had stood in
+the bows gazing into the water, now to port, now to starboard, as if
+on the lookout for something. Presently he shouted in a stentorian
+voice:
+
+"Furl sail!"
+
+The sailors rushed to their posts, and in an instant the sails came
+rattling down and were furled.
+
+Was it Count d'Artigas' intention to wait there till daybreak brought
+a breeze with it? Presumably, or the sails would have remained hoisted
+to catch the faintest puff.
+
+A boat was lowered and Captain Spade jumped into it, accompanied by
+a sailor, who paddled it towards an object that was floating on the
+water a few yards away.
+
+This object was a small buoy, similar to that which had floated on the
+bosom of the Neuse when the _Ebba_ lay off Healthful House.
+
+The buoy, with a towline affixed to it, was lifted into the boat that
+was then paddled to the bow of the _Ebba_, from the deck of which
+another hawser was cast to the captain, who made it fast to the
+towline of the buoy. Having dropped the latter overboard again, the
+captain and the sailor returned to the ship and the boat was hoisted
+in.
+
+Almost immediately the hawser tautened, and the _Ebba_, though not a
+stitch of canvas had been set, sped off in an easterly direction at a
+speed that could not have been less than ten knots an hour.
+
+Night was falling fast, and soon the rapidly receding lights along the
+American coast were lost in the mist on the horizon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WHERE AM I?
+
+(Notes by Simon Hart, the Engineer.)
+
+
+Where am I? What has happened since the sudden aggression of which I
+was the victim near the pavilion?
+
+I had just quitted the doctor, and was about to mount the steps, close
+the door and resume my post beside Thomas Roch when several men
+sprang upon me and knocked me down. Who are they? My eyes having been
+bandaged I was unable to recognize them. I could not cry for help,
+having been gagged. I could make no resistance, for they had bound me
+hand and foot. Thus powerless, I felt myself lifted and carried about
+one hundred paces, then hoisted, then lowered, then laid down.
+
+Where? Where?
+
+And Thomas Roch, what has become of him? It must have been he rather
+than I they were after. I was but Gaydon, the warder. None suspected
+that I was Simon Hart, the engineer, nor could they have suspected my
+nationality. Why, therefore, should they have desired to kidnap a mere
+hospital attendant?
+
+There can consequently be no doubt that the French inventor has been
+carried off; and if he was snatched from Healthful House it must have
+been in the hope of forcing his secret from him.
+
+But I am reasoning on the supposition that Thomas Roch was carried off
+with me. Is it so? Yes--it must be--it is. I can entertain no doubt
+whatever about it. I have not fallen into the hands of malefactors
+whose only intention is robbery. They would not have acted in this
+way. After rendering it impossible for me to cry out, after having
+thrown me into a clump of bushes in the corner of the garden, after
+having kidnapped Thomas Roch they would not have shut me up--where I
+now am.
+
+Where? This is the question which I have been asking myself for hours
+without being able to answer it.
+
+However, one thing is certain, and that is that I have embarked upon
+an extraordinary adventure, that will end?--In what manner I know
+not--I dare not even imagine what the upshot of it will be. Anyhow,
+it is my intention to commit to memory, minute by minute, the least
+circumstance, and then, if it be possible, to jot down my daily
+impressions. Who knows what the future has in store for me? And who
+knows but what, in my new position, I may finally discover the secret
+of Roth's fulgurator? If I am to be delivered one day, this secret
+must be made known, as well as who is the author, or who are the
+authors, of this criminal outrage, which may be attended with such
+serious consequences.
+
+I continually revert to this question, hoping that some incident will
+occur to enlighten me:
+
+Where am I?
+
+Let me begin from the beginning.
+
+After having been carried by the head and feet from Healthful House,
+I felt that I was laid, without any brutality, I must admit, upon the
+stretchers of a row-boat of small dimensions.
+
+The rocking caused by the weight of my body was succeeded shortly
+afterwards by a further rocking--which I attribute to the embarking of
+a second person. Can there be room for doubt that it was Thomas
+Roch? As far as he was concerned they would not have had to take the
+precaution of gagging him, or of bandaging his eyes, or of binding
+him. He must still have been in a state of prostration which precluded
+the possibility of his making any resistance, or even of being
+conscious of what was being done. The proof that I am not deceiving
+myself is that I could smell the unmistakable odor of ether. Now,
+yesterday, before taking leave of us, the doctor administered a few
+drops of ether to the invalid and--I remember distinctly--a little of
+this extremely volatile substance fell upon his clothing while he was
+struggling in his fit. There is therefore nothing astonishing in the
+fact that this odor should have clung to him, nor that I should have
+distinguished it, even beneath the bandages that covered my face.
+
+Yes, Thomas Roch was extended near me in the boat. And to think that
+had I not returned to the pavilion when I did, had I delayed a few
+minutes longer, I should have found him gone!
+
+Let me think. What could have inspired that Count d'Artigas with the
+unfortunate curiosity to visit Healthful House? If he had not been
+allowed to see my patient nothing of the kind would have happened.
+Talking to Thomas Roch about his inventions brought on a fit of
+exceptional violence. The director is primarily to blame for not
+heeding my warning. Had he listened to me the doctor would not have
+been called upon to attend him, the door of the pavilion would have
+been locked, and the attempt of the band would have been frustrated.
+
+As to the interest there could have been in carrying off Thomas Roch,
+either on behalf of a private person or of one of the states of the
+Old World, it is so evident that there is no need to dwell upon it.
+However, I can be perfectly easy about the result. No one can possibly
+succeed in learning what for fifteen months I have been unable to
+ascertain. In the condition of intellectual collapse into which my
+fellow-countryman has fallen, all attempts to force his secret from
+him will be futile. Moreover, he is bound to go from bad to worse
+until he is hopelessly insane, even as regards those points upon which
+he has hitherto preserved his reason intact.
+
+After all, however, it is less about Thomas Roch than myself that I
+must think just now, and this is what I have experienced, to resume
+the thread of my adventure where I dropped it:
+
+After more rocking caused by our captors jumping into it, the boat
+is rowed off. The distance must be very short, for a minute after we
+bumped against something. I surmise that this something must be
+the hull of a ship, and that we have run alongside. There is some
+scurrying and excitement. Indistinctly through my bandages I can hear
+orders being given and a confused murmur of voices that lasts for
+about five minutes, but I cannot distinguish a word that is said.
+
+The only thought that occurs to me now is that they will hoist me on
+board and lower me to the bottom of the hold and keep me there till
+the vessel is far out at sea. Obviously they will not allow either
+Thomas Roch or his keeper to appear on deck as long as she remains in
+Pamlico Sound.
+
+My conjecture is correct. Still gagged and bound I am at last lifted
+by the legs and shoulders. My impression, however, is that I am not
+being raised over a ship's bulwark, but on the contrary am being
+lowered. Are they going to drop me overboard to drown like a rat, so
+as to get rid of a dangerous witness? This thought flashes into my
+brain, and a quiver of anguish passes through my body from head to
+foot. Instinctively I draw a long breath, and my lungs are filled with
+the precious air they will speedily lack.
+
+No, there is no immediate cause for alarm. I am laid with comparative
+gentleness upon a hard floor, which gives me the sensation of metallic
+coldness. I am lying at full length. To my extreme surprise, I find
+that the ropes with which I was bound have been untied and loosened.
+The tramping about around me has ceased. The next instant I hear a
+door closed with a bang.
+
+Where am I? And, in the first place, am I alone? I tear the gag from
+my mouth, and the bandages from my head.
+
+It is dark--pitch dark. Not a ray of light, not even the vague
+perception of light that the eyes preserve when the lids are tightly
+closed.
+
+I shout--I shout repeatedly. No response. My voice is smothered. The
+air I breathe is hot, heavy, thick, and the working of my lungs will
+become difficult, impossible, unless the store of air is renewed.
+
+I extend my arms and feel about me, and this is what I conclude:
+
+I am in a compartment with sheet-iron walls, which cannot measure more
+than four cubic yards. I can feel that the walls are of bolted plates,
+like the sides of a ship's water-tight compartment.
+
+I can feel that the entrance to it is by a door on one side, for the
+hinges protrude somewhat. This door must open inwards, and it is
+through here, no doubt, that I was carried in.
+
+I place my ear to the door, but not a sound can be heard. The silence
+is as profound as the obscurity--a strange silence that is only broken
+by the sonorousness of the metallic floor when I move about. None of
+the dull noises usually to be heard on board a ship is perceptible,
+not even the rippling of the water along the hull. Nor is there the
+slightest movement to be felt; yet, in the estuary of the Neuse, the
+current is always strong enough, to cause a marked oscillation to any
+vessel.
+
+But does the compartment in which I am confined, really belong to
+a ship? How do I know that I am afloat on the Neuse, though I was
+conveyed a short distance in a boat? Might not the latter, instead of
+heading for a ship in waiting for it, opposite Healthful House, have
+been rowed to a point further down the river? In this case is it not
+possible that I was carried into the cellar of a house? This would
+explain the complete immobility of the compartment. It is true that
+the walls are of bolted plates, and that there is a vague smell of
+salt water, that odor _sui generis_ which generally pervades the
+interior of a ship, and which there is no mistaking.
+
+An interval, which I estimate at about four hours, must have passed
+since my incarceration. It must therefore be near midnight. Shall I be
+left here in this way till morning? Luckily, I dined at six o'clock,
+which is the regular dinner-hour at Healthful House. I am not
+suffering from hunger. In fact I feel more inclined to sleep than
+to eat. Still, I hope I shall have energy enough to resist the
+inclination. I will not give way to it. I must try and find out what
+is going on outside. But neither sound nor light can penetrate this
+iron box. Wait a minute, though; perhaps by listening intently I may
+hear some sound, however feeble. Therefore I concentrate all my vital
+power in my sense of hearing. Moreover, I try--in case I should
+really not be on _terra firma_--to distinguish some movement, some
+oscillation of my prison. Admitting that the ship is still at anchor,
+it cannot be long before it will start--otherwise I shall have to give
+up imagining why Thomas Roch and I have been carried off.
+
+At last--it is no illusion--a slight rolling proves to me, beyond a
+doubt, that I am not on land. We are evidently moving, but the motion
+is scarcely perceptible. It is not a jerky, but rather a gliding
+movement, as though we were skimming through the water without effort,
+on an even keel.
+
+Let me consider the matter calmly. I am on board a vessel that was
+anchored in the Neuse, waiting under sail or steam, for the result of
+the expedition. A boat brought me aboard, but, I repeat, I did not
+feel that I was lifted over her bulwarks. Was I passed through a
+porthole? But after all, what does it matter? Whether I was lowered
+into the hold or not, I am certainly upon something that is floating
+and moving.
+
+No doubt I shall soon be let out, together with Thomas Roch, supposing
+them to have locked him up as carefully as they have me. By being let
+out, I mean being accorded permission to go on deck. It will not be
+for some hours to come, however, that is certain, for they won't want
+us to be seen, so that there is no chance of getting a whiff of fresh
+air till we are well out at sea. If it is a sailing vessel, she must
+have waited for a breeze--for the breeze that freshens off shore at
+daybreak, and is favorable to ships navigating Pamlico Sound.
+
+It certainly cannot be a steamer. I could not have failed to smell the
+oil and other odors of the engine-room. And then I should feel
+the trembling of the machinery, the jerks of the pistons, and the
+movements of the screws or paddles.
+
+The best thing to do is to wait patiently. I shan't be taken out of
+this hole until to-morrow, anyway. Moreover, if I am not released,
+somebody will surely bring me something to eat. There is no reason to
+suppose that they intend to starve me to death. They wouldn't have
+taken the trouble to bring me aboard, but would have dropped me to the
+bottom of the river had they been desirous of getting rid of me. Once
+we are out at sea, what will they have to fear from me? No one could
+hear my shouts. As to demanding an explanation and making a fuss, it
+would be useless. Besides, what am I to the men who have carried us
+off? A mere hospital attendant--one Gaydon, who is of no consequence.
+It is Thomas Roch they were after. I was taken along too because I
+happened to return to the pavilion at the critical moment.
+
+At any rate, no matter what happens, no matter who our kidnappers may
+be, no matter where we are taken, I shall stick to this resolution: I
+will continue to play my role of warder. No one, no! none, can suspect
+that Gaydon is Simon Hart, the engineer. There are two advantages in
+this: in the first place, they will take no notice of a poor devil
+of a warder, and in the second, I may be able to solve the mystery
+surrounding this plot and turn my knowledge to profit, if I succeed in
+making my escape.
+
+But whither are my thoughts wandering? I must perforce wait till we
+arrive at our destination before thinking of escaping. It will be time
+enough to bother about that when the occasion presents itself. Until
+then the essential is that they remain ignorant as to my identity, and
+they cannot, and shall not, know who I am.
+
+I am now certain that we are going through the water. But there is one
+thing that puzzles me. It is not a sailing vessel, neither can it be a
+steamer. Yet it is incontestably propelled by some powerful machine.
+There are none of the noises, nor is there the trembling that
+accompanies the working of steam engines. The movement of the vessel
+is more continuous and regular, it is a sort of direct rotation that
+is communicated by the motor, whatever the latter may be. No mistake
+is possible: the ship is propelled by some special mechanism. But what
+is it?
+
+Is it one of those turbines that have been spoken of lately, which,
+fitted into a submerged tube, are destined to replace the ordinary
+screw, it being claimed that they utilize the resistance of the water
+better than the latter and give increased speed to a ship?
+
+In a few hours' time I shall doubtless know all about this means of
+locomotion.
+
+Meanwhile there is another thing that equally puzzles me. There is not
+the slightest rolling or pitching. How is it that Pamlico Sound is so
+extraordinarily calm? The varying currents continuously ruffle the
+surface of the Sound, even if nothing else does.
+
+It is true the tide may be out, and I remember that last night
+the wind had fallen altogether. Still, no matter, the thing is
+inexplicable, for a ship propelled by machinery, no matter at what
+speed she may be going, always oscillates more or less, and I cannot
+perceive the slightest rocking.
+
+Such are the thoughts with which my mind is persistently filled.
+Despite an almost overpowering desire to sleep, despite the torpor
+that is coming upon me in this suffocating atmosphere, I am resolved
+not to close my eyes. I will keep awake till daylight, and there will
+be no daylight for me till it is let into my prison from the outside.
+Perhaps even if the door were open it would not penetrate to this
+black hole, and I shall probably not see it again until I am taken on
+deck.
+
+I am squatting in a corner of my prison, for I have no stool or
+anything to sit upon, but as my eyelids are heavy and I feel somnolent
+in spite of myself, I get up and walk about. Then I wax wrathful,
+anger fills my soul, I beat upon the iron walls with my fists, and
+shout for help. In vain! I hurt my hands against the bolts of the
+plates, and no one answers my cries.
+
+Such conduct is unworthy of me. I flattered myself that I would remain
+calm under all circumstances and here I am acting like a child.
+
+The absence of any rolling or lurching movement at least proves that
+we are not yet at sea. Instead of crossing Pamlico Sound, may we not
+be going in the opposite direction, up the River Neuse? No! What would
+they go further inland for? If Thomas Roch has been carried off from
+Healthful House, his captors obviously mean to take him out of the
+United States--probably to a distant island in the Atlantic, or to
+some point on the European continent. It is, therefore, not up the
+Neuse that our maritime machine, whatever it may be, is going, but
+across Pamlico Sound, which must be as calm as a mirror.
+
+Very well, then, when we get to sea I shall soon, know, for the vessel
+will rock right enough in the swell off shore, even though there be
+no wind,--unless I am aboard a battleship, or big cruiser, and this I
+fancy can hardly be!
+
+But hark! If I mistake not--no, it was not imagination--I hear
+footsteps. Some one is approaching the side of the compartment where
+the door is. One of the crew no doubt. Are they going to let me out at
+last? I can now hear voices. A conversation is going on outside the
+door, but it is carried on in a language that I do not understand. I
+shout to them--I shout again, but no answer is vouchsafed.
+
+There is nothing to do, then, but wait, wait, wait! I keep repeating
+the word and it rings in my ears like a bell.
+
+Let me try to calculate how long I have been here. The ship must have
+been under way for at least four or five hours. I reckon it must be
+past midnight, but I cannot tell, for unfortunately my watch is of no
+use to me in this Cimmerian darkness.
+
+Now, if we have been going for five hours, we must have cleared
+Pamlico Sound, whether we issued by Ocracoke or Hatteras inlet, and
+must be off the coast a good mile, at least. Yet I haven't felt any
+motion from the swell of the sea.
+
+It is inexplicable, incredible! Come now, have I made a mistake? Am
+I the dupe of an illusion? Am I not imprisoned in the hold of a ship
+under way?
+
+Another hour has passed and the movement of the ship suddenly ceases;
+I realize perfectly that she is stationary. Has she reached her
+destination? In this event we can only be in one of the coast ports
+to the north or south of Pamlico Sound. But why should Thomas Roch be
+landed again? The abduction must soon have been discovered, and our
+kidnappers would run the greatest risk of falling into the hands of
+the authorities if they attempted to disembark.
+
+However this may be, if the vessel is coming to anchor I shall hear
+the noise of the chain as it is paid out, and feel the jerk as
+the ship is brought up. I know that sound and that jerk well from
+experience, and I am bound to hear and feel them in a minute or two.
+
+I wait--I listen.
+
+A dead and disquieting silence reigns on board. I begin to wonder
+whether I am not the only living being in the ship.
+
+Now I feel an irresistible torpor coming over me. The air is vitiated.
+I cannot breathe. My chest is bursting. I try to resist, but it is
+impossible to do so. The temperature rises to such a degree that I am
+compelled to divest myself of part of my clothing. Then I lie me down
+in a corner. My heavy eyelids close, and I sink into a prostration
+that eventually forces me into heavy slumber.
+
+How long have I been asleep? I cannot say. Is it night? Is it day? I
+know not. I remark, however, that I breathe more easily, and that the
+air is no longer poisoned carbonic acid.
+
+Was the air renewed while I slept? Has the door been opened? Has
+anybody been in here?
+
+Yes, here is the proof of it!
+
+In feeling about, my hand has come in contact with a mug filled with
+a liquid that exhales an inviting odor. I raise it to my lips, which,
+are burning, for I am suffering such an agony of thirst that I would
+even drink brackish water.
+
+It is ale--an ale of excellent quality--which refreshes and comforts
+me, and I drain the pint to the last drop.
+
+But if they have not condemned me to die of thirst, neither have they
+condemned me to die of hunger, I suppose?
+
+No, for in one of the corners I find a basket, and this basket
+contains some bread and cold meat.
+
+I fall to, eating greedily, and my strength little by little returns.
+
+Decidedly, I am not so abandoned as I thought I was. Some one entered
+this obscure hole, and the open door admitted a little of the oxygen
+from the outside, without which I should have been suffocated. Then
+the wherewithal to quench my thirst and appease the pangs of hunger
+was placed within my reach.
+
+How much longer will this incarceration last? Days? Months? I cannot
+estimate the hours that have elapsed since I fell asleep, nor have I
+any idea as to what time of the day or night it may be. I was careful
+to wind up my watch, though, and perhaps by feeling the hands--Yes, I
+think the little hand marks eight o'clock--in the morning, no doubt.
+What I do know, however, is that the ship is not in motion. There is
+not the slightest quiver.
+
+Hours and hours, weary, interminable hours go by, and I wonder whether
+they are again waiting till night comes on to renew my stock of
+air and provisions. Yes, they are waiting to take advantage of my
+slumbers. But this time I am resolved to resist. I will feign to be
+asleep--and I shall know how to force an answer from whoever enters!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ON DECK.
+
+
+Here I am in the open air, breathing freely once more. I have at last
+been hauled out of that stifling box and taken on deck. I gaze around
+me in every direction and see no sign of land. On every hand is that
+circular line which defines earth and sky. No, there is not even a
+speck of land to be seen to the west, where the coast of North America
+extends for thousands of miles.
+
+The setting sun now throws but slanting rays upon the bosom of the
+ocean. It must be about six o'clock in the evening. I take out my
+watch and it marks thirteen minutes past six.
+
+As I have already mentioned, I waited for the door of my prison to
+open, thoroughly resolved not to fall asleep again, but to spring upon
+the first person who entered and force him to answer my questions. I
+was not aware then that it was day, but it was, and hour after hour
+passed and no one came. I began to suffer again from hunger and
+thirst, for I had not preserved either bite or sup.
+
+As soon as I awoke I felt that the ship was in motion again, after
+having, I calculated, remained stationary since the previous day--no
+doubt in some lonely creek, since I had not heard or felt her come to
+anchor.
+
+A few minutes ago--it must therefore have been six o'clock--I again
+heard footsteps on the other side of the iron wall of my compartment.
+Was anybody coming to my cell? Yes, for I heard the creaking of the
+bolts as they were drawn back, and then the door opened, and the
+darkness in which I had been plunged since the first hour of my
+captivity was illumined by the light of a lantern.
+
+Two men, whom I had no time to look at, entered and seized me by the
+arms. A thick cloth was thrown over my head, which was enveloped in
+such a manner that I could see absolutely nothing.
+
+What did it all mean? What were they going to do with me? I struggled,
+but they held me in an iron grasp. I questioned them, but they made
+no reply. The men spoke to each other in a language that I could not
+understand, and had never heard before.
+
+They stood upon no ceremony with me. It is true I was only a madhouse
+warder, and they probably did not consider it necessary to do so; but
+I question very much whether Simon Hart, the engineer, would have
+received any more courtesy at their hands.
+
+This time, however, no attempt was made to gag me nor to bind either
+my arms or legs. I was simply restrained by main force from breaking
+away from them.
+
+In a moment I was dragged out of the compartment and pushed along a
+narrow passage. Next, the steps of a metallic stairway resounded under
+our feet. Then the fresh air blew in my face and I inhaled it with
+avidity.
+
+Finally they took their hands from off me, and I found myself free. I
+immediately tore the cloth off my head and gazed about me.
+
+I am on board a schooner which is ripping through the water at a great
+rate and leaving a long white trail behind her.
+
+I had to clutch at one of the stays for support, dazzled as I was
+by the light after my forty-eight hours' imprisonment in complete
+obscurity.
+
+On the deck a dozen men with rough, weather-beaten faces come and
+go--very dissimilar types of men, to whom it would be impossible to
+attribute any particular nationality. They scarcely take any notice of
+me.
+
+As to the schooner, I estimate that she registers from two hundred and
+fifty to three hundred tons. She has a fairly wide beam, her masts are
+strong and lofty, and her large spread of canvas must carry her along
+at a spanking rate in a good breeze.
+
+Aft, a grizzly-faced man is at the wheel, and he is keeping her head
+to the sea that is running pretty high.
+
+I try to find out the name of the vessel, but it is not to be seen
+anywhere, even on the life-buoys.
+
+I walk up to one of the sailors and inquire:
+
+"What is the name of this ship?"
+
+No answer, and I fancy the man does not understand me.
+
+"Where is the captain?" I continue.
+
+But the sailor pays no more heed to this than he did to the previous
+question.
+
+I turn on my heel and go forward.
+
+Above the forward hatchway a bell is suspended. Maybe the name of the
+schooner is engraved upon it. I examine it, but can find no name upon
+it.
+
+I then return to the stern and address the man at the wheel. He gazes
+at me sourly, shrugs his shoulders, and bending, grasps the spokes of
+the wheel solidly, and brings the schooner, which had been headed off
+by a large wave from port, stem on to sea again.
+
+Seeing that nothing is to be got from that quarter, I turn away and
+look about to see if I can find Thomas Roch, but I do not perceive
+him anywhere. Is he not on board? He must be. They could have had no
+reason for carrying me off alone. No one could have had any idea
+that I was Simon Hart, the engineer, and even had they known it what
+interest could they have had in me, and what could they expect of me?
+
+Therefore, as Roch is not on deck, I conclude that he is locked in one
+of the cabins, and trust he has met with better treatment than his
+ex-guardian.
+
+But what is this--and how on earth could I have failed to notice it
+before? How is this schooner moving? Her sails are furled--there is
+not an inch of canvas set--the wind has fallen, and the few puffs that
+occasionally come from the east are unfavorable, in view of the fact
+that we are going in that very direction. And yet the schooner speeds
+through the sea, her bows down, throwing off clouds of foam, and
+leaving a long, milky, undulating trail in her wake.
+
+Is she a steam-yacht? No--there is not a smokestack about her. Is she
+propelled by electricity--by a battery of accumulators, or by piles of
+great power that work her screw and send her along at this rate?
+
+I can come to no other conclusion. In any case she must be fitted with
+a screw, and by leaning over the stern I shall be able to see it, and
+can find out what sets it working afterwards.
+
+The man at the wheel watches me ironically as I approach, but makes no
+effort to prevent me from looking over.
+
+I gaze long and earnestly, but there is no foaming and seething of
+the water such as is invariably caused by the revolutions of the
+screw--naught but the long white furrow that a sailing vessel leaves
+behind is discernible in the schooner's wake.
+
+Then, what kind of a machine is it that imparts such a marvellous
+speed to the vessel? As I have already said, the wind is against her,
+and there is a heavy swell on.
+
+I must--I will know. No one pays the slightest attention, and I again
+go forward.
+
+As I approach the forecastle I find myself face to face with a man who
+is leaning nonchalantly on the raised hatchway and who is watching me.
+He seems to be waiting for me to speak to him.
+
+I recognize him instantly. He is the person who accompanied the Count
+d'Artigas during the latter's visit to Healthful House. There can be
+no mistake--it is he right enough.
+
+It was, then, that rich foreigner who abducted Thomas Roch, and I am
+on board the _Ebba_ his schooner-yacht which is so well known on the
+American coast!
+
+The man before me will enlighten me about what I want to know. I
+remember that he and the Count spoke English together.
+
+I take him to be the captain of the schooner.
+
+"Captain," I say, "you are the person I saw at Healthful House. You
+remember me, of course?"
+
+He looks me up and down but does not condescend to reply.
+
+"I am Warder Gaydon, the attendant of Thomas Roch," I continue, "and I
+want to know why you have carried me off and placed me on board this
+schooner?"
+
+The captain interrupts me with a sign. It is not made to me, however,
+but to some sailors standing near.
+
+They catch me by the arms, and taking no notice of the angry movement
+that I cannot restrain, bundle me down the hatchway. The hatchway
+stair in reality, I remark, is a perpendicular iron ladder, at the
+bottom of which, to right and left, are some cabins, and forward, the
+men's quarters.
+
+Are they going to put me back in my dark prison at the bottom of the
+hold?
+
+No. They turn to the left and push me into a cabin. It is lighted by
+a port-hole, which is open, and through which the fresh air comes in
+gusts from the briny. The furniture consists of a bunk, a chair, a
+chest of drawers, a wash-hand-stand and a table.
+
+The latter is spread for dinner, and I sit down. Then the cook's mate
+comes in with two or three dishes. He is a colored lad, and as he is
+about to withdraw, I try to question him, but he, too, vouchsafes no
+reply. Perhaps he doesn't understand me.
+
+The door is closed, and I fall to and eat with an excellent appetite,
+with the intention of putting off all further questioning till some
+future occasion when I shall stand a chance of getting answered.
+
+It is true I am a prisoner, but this time I am comfortable enough, and
+I hope I shall be permitted to occupy this cabin for the remainder of
+the voyage, and not be lowered into that black hole again.
+
+I now give myself up to my thoughts, the first of which is that it was
+the Count d'Artigas who planned the abduction; that it was he who is
+responsible for the kidnapping of Thomas Roch, and that consequently
+the French inventor must be just as comfortably installed somewhere on
+board the schooner.
+
+But who is this Count d'Artigas? Where does he hail from? If he has
+seized Thomas Roch, is it not because he is determined to secure the
+secret of the fulgurator at no matter what cost? Very likely, and I
+must therefore be careful not to betray my identity, for if they knew
+the truth, I should never be afforded a chance to get away.
+
+But what a lot of mysteries to clear up, how many inexplicable things
+to explain--the origin of this d'Artigas, his intentions as to the
+future, whither we are bound, the port to which the schooner belongs,
+and this mysterious progress through the water without sails and
+without screws, at a speed of at least ten knots an hour!
+
+The air becoming keener as night deepens, I close and secure the
+port-hole, and as my cabin is bolted on the outside, the best thing I
+can do is to get into my bunk and let myself be gently rocked to sleep
+by the broad Atlantic in this mysterious cradle, the _Ebba_.
+
+The next morning I rise at daybreak, and having performed my
+ablutions, dress myself and wait.
+
+Presently the idea of trying the door occurs to me. I find that it has
+been unbolted, and pushing it open, climb the iron ladder and emerge
+on deck.
+
+The crew are washing down the deck, and standing aft and conversing
+are two men, one of whom is the captain. The latter manifests no
+surprise at seeing me, and indicates my presence to his companion by a
+nod.
+
+This other man, whom I have never before seen, is an individual of
+about fifty years of age, whose dark hair is streaked with gray.
+His features are delicately chiselled, his eyes are bright, and his
+expression is intelligent and not at all displeasing. He is somewhat
+of the Grecian type, and I have no doubt that he is of Hellenic origin
+when I hear him called Serko--Engineer Serko--by the Captain of the
+_Ebba_.
+
+As to the latter, he is called Spade--Captain Spade--and this name has
+an Italian twang about it. Thus there is a Greek, an Italian, and a
+crew recruited from every corner of the earth to man a schooner with a
+Norwegian name! This mixture strikes me as being suspicious.
+
+And that Count d'Artigas, with his Spanish name and Asiatic type,
+where does he come from?
+
+Captain Spade and Engineer Serko continue to converse in a low tone of
+voice. The former is keeping a sharp eye on the man at the wheel, who
+does not appear to pay any particular attention to the compass in
+front of him. He seems to pay more heed to the gestures of one of the
+sailors stationed forward, and who signals to him to put the helm to
+port or to starboard.
+
+Thomas Roch is near them, gazing vacantly out upon the vast expanse
+which is not limited on the horizon by a single speck of land. Two
+sailors watch his every movement. It is evidently feared that the
+madman may possibly attempt to jump overboard.
+
+I wonder whether I shall be permitted to communicate with my ward.
+
+I walk towards him, and Captain Spade and Engineer Serko watch me.
+
+Thomas Roch doesn't see me coming, and I stand beside him. Still he
+takes no notice of me, and makes no movement. His eyes, which sparkle
+brightly, wander over the ocean, and he draws in deep breaths of the
+salt, vivifying atmosphere. Added to the air surcharged with oxygen is
+a magnificent sunset in a cloudless sky. Does he perceive the change
+in his situation? Has he already forgotten about Healthful House, the
+pavilion in which he was a prisoner, and Gaydon, his keeper? It is
+highly probable. The past has presumably been effaced from his memory
+and he lives solely in the present.
+
+In my opinion, even on the deck of the _Ebba_, in the middle of the
+sea, Thomas Roch is still the helpless, irresponsible man whom I
+tended for fifteen months. His intellectual condition has undergone no
+change, and his reason will return only when he is spoken to about
+his inventions. The Count d'Artigas is perfectly aware of this mental
+disposition, having had a proof of it during his visit, and he
+evidently relies thereon to surprise sooner or later the inventor's
+secret. But with what object?
+
+"Thomas Roch!" I exclaim.
+
+My voice seems to strike him, and after gazing at me fixedly for an
+instant he averts his eyes quickly.
+
+I take his hand and press it. He withdraws it brusquely and walks
+away, without having recognized me, in the direction of Captain Spade
+and Engineer Serko.
+
+Does he think of speaking to one or other of these men, and if they
+speak to him will he be more reasonable than he was with me, and reply
+to them?
+
+At this moment his physiognomy lights up with a gleam of intelligence.
+His attention, obviously, has been attracted by the queer progress
+of the schooner. He gazes at the masts and the furled sails. Then he
+turns back and stops at the place where, if the _Ebba_ were a steamer,
+the funnel ought to be, and which in this case ought to be belching
+forth a cloud of black smoke.
+
+What appeared so strange to me evidently strikes Thomas Roch as being
+strange, too. He cannot explain what I found inexplicable, and, as I
+did, he walks aft to see if there is a screw.
+
+On the flanks of the _Ebba_ a shoal of porpoises are sporting.
+Swift as is the schooner's course they easily pass her, leaping and
+gambolling in their native element with surprising grace and agility.
+
+Thomas Roch pays no attention to them, but leans over the stern.
+
+Engineer Serko and Captain Spade, fearful lest he should fall
+overboard, hurry to him and drag him gently, but firmly, away.
+
+I observe from long experience that Roch is a prey to violent
+excitement. He turns about and gesticulates, uttering incoherent
+phrases the while.
+
+It is plain to me that another fit is coming on, similar to the one he
+had in the pavilion of Healthful House on the night we were abducted.
+He will have to be seized and carried down to his cabin, and I shall
+perhaps be summoned to attend to him.
+
+Meanwhile Engineer Serko and Captain Spade do not lose sight of him
+for a moment. They are evidently curious to see what he will do.
+
+After walking towards the mainmast and assuring himself that the sails
+are not set, he goes up to it and flinging his arms around it, tries
+with all his might to shake it, as though seeking to pull it down.
+
+
+Finding his efforts futile, he quits it and goes to the foremast,
+where the same performance is gone through. He waxes more and more
+excited. His vague utterances are followed by inarticulate cries.
+
+Suddenly he rushes to the port stays and clings to them, and I
+begin to fear that he will leap into the rigging and climb to the
+cross-tree, where he might be precipitated into the sea by a lurch of
+the ship.
+
+On a sign from Captain Spade, some sailors run up and try to make him
+relinquish his grasp of the stays, but are unable to do so. I know
+that during his fits he is endowed with the strength of ten men, and
+many a time I have been compelled to summon assistance in order to
+overpower him.
+
+Other members of the crew, however, come up, and the unhappy madman is
+borne to the deck, where two big sailors hold him down, despite his
+extraordinary strength.
+
+The only thing to do is to convey him to his cabin, and let him
+lie there till he gets over his fit. This is what will be done in
+conformity with orders given by a new-comer whose voice seems familiar
+to me.
+
+I turn and recognize him.
+
+He is the Count d'Artigas, with a frown on his face and an imperious
+manner, just as I had seen him at Healthful House.
+
+I at once advance toward him. I want an explanation and mean to have
+it.
+
+"By what right, sir?"--I begin.
+
+"By the right of might," replies the Count.
+
+Then he turns on his heel, and Thomas Roch is carried below.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+TWO DAYS AT SEA.
+
+
+Perhaps--should circumstances render it necessary--I may be induced to
+tell the Count d'Artigas that I am Simon Hart, the engineer. Who knows
+but what I may receive more consideration than if I remain Warder
+Gaydon? This measure, however, demands reflection. I have always been
+dominated by the thought that if the owner of the _Ebba_ kidnapped the
+French inventor, it was in the hope of getting possession of Roch's
+fulgurator, for which, neither the old nor new continent would pay the
+impossible price demanded. In that case the best thing I can do is to
+remain Warder Gaydon, on the chance that I may be allowed to continue
+in attendance upon him. In this way, if Thomas Roch should ever
+divulge his secret, I may learn what it was impossible to do at
+Healthful House, and can act accordingly.
+
+Meanwhile, where is the _Ebba_ bound?--first question.
+
+Who and what is the Count d'Artigas?--second question.
+
+The first will be answered in a few days' time, no doubt, in view of
+the rapidity with which we are ripping through the water, under the
+action of a means of propulsion that I shall end by finding out
+all about. As regards the second, I am by no means so sure that my
+curiosity will ever be gratified.
+
+In my opinion this enigmatical personage has an all important reason
+for hiding his origin, and I am afraid there is no indication by which
+I can gauge his nationality. If the Count d'Artigas speaks English
+fluently--and I was able to assure myself of that fact during his
+visit to Pavilion No. 17,--he pronounces it with a harsh, vibrating
+accent, which is not to be found among the peoples of northern
+latitudes. I do not remember ever to have heard anything like it in
+the course of my travels either in the Old or New World--unless it
+be the harshness characteristic of the idioms in use among the Malays.
+And, in truth, with his olive, verging on copper-tinted skin, his
+jet-black, crinkly hair, his piercing, deep-set, restless eyes, his
+square shoulders and marked muscular development, it is by no means
+unlikely that he belongs to one of the extreme Eastern races.
+
+I believe this name of d'Artigas is an assumed one, and his title of
+Count likewise. If his schooner bears a Norwegian name, he at any rate
+is not of Scandinavian origin. He has nothing of the races of Northern
+Europe about him.
+
+But whoever and whatever he may be, this man abducted Thomas Roch--and
+me with him--with no good intention, I'll be bound.
+
+But what I should like to know is, has he acted as the agent of a
+foreign power, or on his own account? Does he wish to profit alone by
+Thomas Roch's invention, and is he in the position to dispose of it
+profitably? That is another question that I cannot yet answer. Maybe
+I shall be able to find out from what I hear and see ere I make my
+escape, if escape be possible.
+
+The _Ebba_ continues on her way in the same mysterious manner. I am
+free to walk about the deck, without, however, being able to go beyond
+the fore hatchway. Once I attempted to go as far as the bows where I
+could, by leaning over, perceive the schooner's stem as it cut through
+the water, but acting, it was plain, on orders received, the watch
+on deck turned me back, and one of them, addressing me brusquely in
+harsh, grating English, said:
+
+"Go back! Go back! You are interfering with the working of the ship!"
+
+With the working of the ship! There was no working.
+
+Did they realize that I was trying to discover by what means the
+schooner was propelled? Very likely, and Captain Spade, who had looked
+on, must have known it, too. Even a hospital attendant could not fail
+to be astonished at the fact that a vessel without either screw or
+sails was going along at such a speed. However this may be, for some
+reason or other, the bows of the _Ebba_ are barred to me.
+
+Toward ten o'clock a breeze springs up--a northwest wind and very
+favorable--and Captain Spade gives an order to the boatswain. The
+latter immediately pipes all hands on deck, and the mainsail, the
+foresail, staysail and jibs are hoisted. The work could not have been
+executed with greater regularity and discipline on board a man-of-war.
+
+The _Ebba_ now has a slight list to port, and her speed is notably
+increased. But the motor continues to push her along, as is evident
+from the fact that the sails are not always as full as they ought
+to be if the schooner were bowling along solely under their action.
+However, they continue to render yeoman's service, for the breeze has
+set in steadily.
+
+The sky is clear, for the clouds in the west disappear as soon as they
+attain the horizon, and the sunlight dances on the water.
+
+My preoccupation now is to find out as near as possible where we
+are bound for. I am a good-enough sailor to be able to estimate
+the approximate speed of a ship. In my opinion the _Ebba_ has been
+travelling at the rate of from ten to eleven knots an hour. As to the
+direction we have been going in, it is always the same, and I have
+been able to verify this by casual glances at the binnacle. If the
+fore part of the vessel is barred to Warder Gaydon he has been allowed
+a free run of the remainder of it. Time and again I have glanced at
+the compass, and noticed that the needle invariably pointed to the
+east, or to be exact, east-southeast.
+
+These are the conditions in which we are navigating this part of the
+Atlantic Ocean, which is bounded on the west by the coast of the
+United States of America.
+
+I appeal to my memory. What are the islands or groups of islands to
+be found in the direction we are going, ere the continent of the Old
+World is reached?
+
+North Carolina, which the schooner quitted forty-eight hours ago, is
+traversed by the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude, and this parallel,
+extending eastward, must, if I mistake not, cut the African coast at
+Morocco. But along the line, about three thousand miles from America,
+are the Azores. Is it presumable that the _Ebba_ is heading for this
+archipelago, that the port to which she belongs is somewhere in these
+islands which constitute one of Portugal's insular domains? I cannot
+admit such an hypothesis.
+
+Besides, before the Azores, on the line of the thirty-fifth parallel,
+is the Bermuda group, which belongs to England. It seems to me to be a
+good deal less hypothetical that, if the Count d'Artigas was entrusted
+with the abduction of Thomas Roch by a European Power at all, it was
+by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The possibility,
+however, remains that he may be acting solely in his own interest.
+
+Three or four times during the day Count d'Artigas has come aft and
+remained for some time scanning the surrounding horizon attentively.
+When a sail or the smoke from a steamer heaves in sight he examines
+the passing vessel for a considerable time with a powerful telescope.
+I may add that he has not once condescended to notice my presence on
+deck.
+
+Now and then Captain Spade joins him and both exchange a few words in
+a language that I can neither understand nor recognize.
+
+It is with Engineer Serko, however, that the owner of the _Ebba_
+converses more readily than with anybody else, and the latter appears
+to be very intimate with him. The engineer is a good deal more free,
+more loquacious and less surly than his companions, and I wonder what
+position he occupies on the schooner. Is he a personal friend of the
+Count d'Artigas? Does he scour the seas with him, sharing the enviable
+life enjoyed by the rich yachtsman? He is the only man of the lot who
+seems to manifest, if not sympathy with, at least some interest in me.
+
+I have not seen Thomas Roch all day. He must be shut in his cabin,
+still under the influence of the fit that came upon him last night.
+
+I feel certain that this is so, when about three o'clock in the
+afternoon, just as he is about to go below, the Count beckons me to
+approach.
+
+I do not know what he wishes to say to me, this Count d'Artigas, but I
+do know what I will say to him.
+
+"Do these fits to which Thomas Roch is subject last long?" he asks me
+in English.
+
+"Sometimes forty-eight hours," I reply.
+
+"What is to be done?"
+
+"Nothing at all. Let him alone until he falls asleep. After a night's
+sleep the fit will be over and Thomas Roch will be his own helpless
+self again."
+
+"Very well, Warder Gaydon, you will continue to attend him as you did
+at Healthful House, if it be necessary."
+
+"To attend to him!"
+
+"Yes--on board the schooner--pending our arrival."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Where we shall be to-morrow afternoon," replies the Count.
+
+To-morrow, I say to myself. Then we are not bound for the coast of
+Africa, nor even the Azores. There only remains the hypothesis that we
+are making for the Bermudas.
+
+Count d'Artigas is about to go down the hatchway when I interrogate
+him in my turn:
+
+"Sir," I exclaim, "I desire to know, I have the right to know, where I
+am going, and----"
+
+"Here, Warder Gaydon," he interrupted, "you have no rights. All you
+have to do is to answer when you are spoken to." "I protest!"
+
+"Protest, then," replies this haughty and imperious personage,
+glancing at me menacingly.
+
+Then he disappears down the hatchway, leaving me face to face with
+Engineer Serko.
+
+"If I were you, Warder Gaydon, I would resign myself to the
+inevitable," remarks the latter with a smile. "When one is caught in a
+trap----"
+
+"One can cry out, I suppose?"
+
+"What is the use when no one is near to hear you?"
+
+"I shall be heard some day, sir."
+
+"Some day--that's a long way off. However, shout as much as you
+please."
+
+And with this ironical advice, Engineer Serko leaves me to my own
+reflections.
+
+Towards four o'clock a big ship is reported about six miles off to
+the east, coming in our direction. She is moving rapidly and grows
+perceptibly larger. Black clouds of smoke pour out of her two funnels.
+She is a warship, for a narrow pennant floats from her main-mast,
+and though she is not flying any flag I take her to be an American
+cruiser.
+
+I wonder whether the _Ebba_ will render her the customary salute as
+she passes.
+
+No; for the schooner suddenly changes her course with the evident
+intention of avoiding her.
+
+This proceeding on the part of such a suspicious yacht does not
+astonish me greatly. But what does cause me extreme surprise is
+Captain Spade's way of manoeuvring.
+
+He runs forward to a signalling apparatus in the bows, similar to that
+by which orders are transmitted to the engine room of a steamer. As
+soon as he presses one of the buttons of this apparatus the _Ebba_
+veers off a point to the south-west.
+
+Evidently an order of "some kind" has been transmitted to the driver
+of the machine of "some kind" which causes this inexplicable movement
+of the schooner by the action of a motor of "some kind" the principle
+of which I cannot guess at.
+
+The result of this manoeuvre is that the _Ebba_ slants away from the
+cruiser, whose course does not vary. Why should this warship cause a
+pleasure-yacht to turn out of its way? I have no idea.
+
+But the _Ebba_ behaves in a very different manner when about six
+o'clock in the evening a second ship comes in sight on the port bow.
+This time, instead of seeking to avoid her, Captain Spade signals an
+order by means of the apparatus above referred to, and resumes his
+course to the east--which will bring him close to the said ship.
+
+An hour later, the two vessels are only about four miles from each
+other.
+
+The wind has dropped completely. The strange ship, which is a
+three-masted merchantman, is taking in her top-gallant sails. It is
+useless to expect the wind to spring up again during the night, and
+she will lay becalmed till morning. The _Ebba_, however, propelled by
+her mysterious motor, continues to approach her.
+
+It goes without saying, that Captain Spade has also begun to take in
+sail, and the work, under the direction of the boatswain Effrondat, is
+executed with the same precision and promptness that struck me before.
+
+When the twilight deepens into darkness, only a mile and a half
+separates the vessels.
+
+Captain Spade then comes up to me--I am standing on the starboard
+side--and unceremoniously orders me to go below.
+
+I can but obey. I remark, however, ere I go, that the boatswain has
+not lighted the head-lamps, whereas the lamps of the three-master
+shine brightly--green to starboard, and red to port.
+
+I entertain no doubt that the schooner intends to pass her without
+being seen; for though she has slackened speed somewhat, her direction
+has not been in any way modified.
+
+I enter my cabin under the impression of a vague foreboding. My supper
+is on the table, but uneasy, I know not why, I hardly touch it, and
+lie down to wait for sleep that does not come.
+
+I remain in this condition for two hours. The silence is unbroken save
+by the water that ripples along the vessel's sides.
+
+My mind is full of the events of the past two days, and other thoughts
+crowd thickly upon me. To-morrow afternoon we shall reach our
+destination. To-morrow, I shall resume, on land, my attendance upon
+Thomas Roch, "if it be necessary," said the Count d'Artigas.
+
+If, when I was thrown into that black hole at the bottom of the hold,
+I was able to perceive when the schooner started off across Pamlico
+Sound, I now feel that she has come to a stop. It must be about ten
+o'clock.
+
+Why has she stopped? When Captain Spade ordered me below, there was no
+land in sight. In this direction, there is no island until the Bermuda
+group is reached--at least there is none on the map--and we shall have
+to go another fifty or sixty miles before the Bermudas can be
+sighted by the lookout men. Not only has the _Ebba_ stopped, but her
+immobility is almost complete. There is not a breath of wind, and
+scarcely any swell, and her slight, regular rocking is hardly
+perceptible.
+
+Then my thoughts turn to the merchantman, which was only a mile and a
+half off, on our bow, when I came below. If the schooner continued her
+course towards her, she must be almost alongside now. We certainly
+cannot be lying more than one or two cables' length from her. The
+three-master, which was becalmed at sundown, could not have gone west.
+She must be close by, and if the night is clear, I shall be able to
+see her through the porthole.
+
+It occurs to me, that perhaps a chance of escape presents itself. Why
+should I not attempt it, since no hope of being restored to liberty is
+held out to me? It is true I cannot swim, but if I seize a life buoy
+and jump overboard, I may be able to reach the ship, if I am not
+observed by the watch on deck.
+
+I must quit my cabin and go up by the forward hatchway. I listen. I
+hear no noise, either in the men's quarters, or on deck. The sailors
+must all be asleep at this hour. Here goes.
+
+I try to open the door, and find it is bolted on the outside, as I
+might have expected.
+
+I must give up the attempt, which, after all, had small chance of
+success.
+
+The best thing I can do, is to go to sleep, for I am weary of mind,
+if not of body. I am restless and racked by conflicting thoughts, and
+apprehensions of I know not what. Oh! if I could but sink into the
+blessed oblivion of slumber!
+
+I must have managed to fall asleep, for I have just been awakened by
+a noise--an unusual noise, such as I have not hitherto heard on board
+the schooner.
+
+Day begins to peer through the glass of my port-hole, which is turned
+towards the east. I look at my watch. It is half-past four.
+
+The first thing I wonder is, whether the _Ebba_ has resumed her
+voyage.
+
+No, I am certain she has not, either by sail, or by her motor. The
+sea is as calm at sunrise as it was at sunset. If the _Ebba_ has been
+going ahead while I slept, she is at any rate, stationary now.
+
+The noise to which I referred, is caused by men hurrying to and fro on
+deck--by men heavily laden. I fancy I can also hear a similar noise
+in the hold beneath my cabin floor, the entrance to which is situated
+abaft the foremast. I also feel that something is scraping against the
+schooner's hull. Have boats come alongside? Are the crew engaged in
+loading or unloading merchandise?
+
+And yet we cannot possibly have reached our journey's end. The Count
+d'Artigas said that we should not reach our destination till this
+afternoon. Now, I repeat, she was, last night, fully fifty or sixty
+miles from the nearest land, the group of the Bermudas. That she could
+have returned westward, and can be in proximity to the American coast,
+is inadmissible, in view of the distance. Moreover, I have reason to
+believe that the _Ebba_ has remained stationary all night. Before I
+fell asleep, I know she had stopped, and I now know that she is not
+moving.
+
+However, I shall see when I am allowed to go on deck. My cabin door is
+still bolted, I find on trying it; but I do not think they are likely
+to keep me here when broad daylight is on.
+
+An hour goes by, and it gradually gets lighter. I look out of my
+porthole. The ocean is covered by a mist, which the first rays of the
+sun will speedily disperse.
+
+I can, however, see for a half a mile, and if the three-masted
+merchantman is not visible, it is probably because she is lying off
+the other, or port, side of the _Ebba_.
+
+Presently I hear a key turned in my door, and the bolts drawn. I push
+the door open and clamber up the iron ladder to the deck, just as the
+men are battening down the cover of the hold.
+
+I look for the Count d'Artigas, but do not see him. He has not yet
+left his cabin.
+
+Aft, Captain Spade and Engineer Serko are superintending the stowing
+of some bales, which have doubtless been hoisted from the hold. This
+explains the noisy operations that were going on when I was awakened.
+Obviously, if the crew are getting out the cargo, we are approaching
+the end of our voyage. We are not far from port, and perhaps in a few
+hours, the schooner will drop anchor.
+
+But what about the sailing ship that was to port of us? She ought to
+be in the same place, seeing that there has been and is no wind.
+
+I look for her, but she is nowhere to be seen. There is not a sail,
+not a speck on the horizon either east, west, north or south.
+
+After cogitating upon the circumstance I can only arrive at the
+following conclusion, which, however, can only be accepted under
+reserve: Although I did not notice it, the _Ebba_ resumed her voyage
+while I slept, leaving the three-master becalmed behind her, and this
+is why the merchantman is no longer visible.
+
+I am careful not to question Captain Spade about it, nor even Engineer
+Serko, as I should certainly receive no answer.
+
+Besides, at this moment Captain Spade goes to the signalling apparatus
+and presses one of the buttons on the upper disk. Almost immediately
+the _Ebba_ gives a jerk, then with her sails still furled, she starts
+off eastward again.
+
+Two hours later the Count d'Artigas comes up through the main hatchway
+and takes his customary place aft. Serko and Captain Spade at once
+approach and engage in conversation with him.
+
+All three raise their telescopes and sweep the horizon from southeast
+to northeast.
+
+No one will be surprised to learn that I gaze intently in the same
+direction; but having no telescope I cannot distinguish anything.
+
+The midday meal over we all return on deck--all with the exception of
+Thomas Roch, who has not quitted his cabin.
+
+Towards one o'clock land is sighted by the lookout man on the foretop
+cross-tree. Inasmuch as the _Ebba_ is bowling along at great speed I
+shall soon be able to make out the coast line.
+
+In effect, two hours later a vague semicircular line that curves
+outward is discernible about eight miles off. As the schooner
+approaches it becomes more distinct. It is a mountain, or at all
+events very high ground, and from its summit a cloud of smoke ascends.
+
+What! A volcano in these parts? It must then be----
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+BACK CUP.
+
+
+In my opinion the _Ebba_ could have struck no other group of islands
+but the Bermudas in this part of the Atlantic. This is clear from the
+distance covered from the American coast and the direction sailed in
+since we issued from Pamlico Sound. This direction has constantly been
+south-southeast, and the distance, judging from the _Ebba's_ rate of
+speed, which has scarcely varied, is approximately seven hundred and
+fifty miles.
+
+Still, the schooner does not slacken speed. The Count d'Artigas and
+Engineer Serko remain aft, by the man at the wheel. Captain Spade has
+gone forward.
+
+Are we not going to leave this island, which appears to be isolated,
+to the west?
+
+It does not seem likely, since it is still broad daylight, and the
+hour at which the _Ebba_ was timed to arrive.
+
+All the sailors are drawn up on deck, awaiting orders, and Boatswain
+Effrondat is making preparations to anchor.
+
+Ere a couple of hours have passed I shall know all about it. It will
+be the first answer to one of the many questions that have perplexed
+me since the schooner put to sea.
+
+And yet it is most unlikely that the port to which the _Ebba_ belongs
+is situated on one of the Bermuda islands, in the middle of an English
+archipelago--unless the Count d'Artigas has kidnapped Thomas Roch for
+the British government, which I cannot believe.
+
+I become aware that this extraordinary man is gazing at me with
+singular persistence. Although he can have no suspicion that I am
+Simon Hart, the engineer, he must be asking himself what I think of
+this adventure. If Warder Gaydon is but a poor devil, this poor devil
+will manifest as much unconcern as to what is in store for him as any
+gentleman could--even though he were the proprietor of this queer
+pleasure yacht. Still I am a little uneasy under his gaze.
+
+I dare say that if the Count d'Artigas could guess how certain things
+have suddenly become clear to me, he would not hesitate to have me
+thrown overboard.
+
+Prudence therefore commands me to be more circumspect than ever.
+
+Without giving rise to any suspicion--even in the mind of Engineer
+Serko--I have succeeded in raising a corner of the mysterious veil,
+and I begin to see ahead a bit.
+
+As the _Ebba_ draws nearer, the island, or rather islet, towards which
+she is speeding shows more sharply against the blue background of the
+sky. The sun which has passed the zenith, shines full upon the western
+side. The islet is isolated, or at any rate I cannot see any others of
+the group to which it belongs, either to north or south.
+
+This islet, of curious contexture, resembles as near as possible a
+cup turned upside down, from which a fuliginous vapor arises. Its
+summit--the bottom of the cup, if you like--is about three hundred
+feet above the level of the sea, and its flanks, which are steep and
+regular, are as bare as the sea-washed rocks at its base.
+
+There is another peculiarity about it which must render the islet
+easily recognizable by mariners approaching it from the west, and this
+is a rock which forms a natural arch at the base of the mountain--the
+handle of the cup, so to speak--and through which the waves wash as
+freely as the sunshine passes. Seen this way the islet fully justifies
+the name of Back Cup given to it.
+
+Well, I know and recognize this islet! It is situated at the extremity
+of the archipelago of the Bermudas. It is the "reversed cup" that I
+had occasion to visit a few years ago--No, I am not mistaken. I then
+climbed over the calcareous and crooked rocks at its base on the east
+side. Yes, it is Back Cup, sure enough!
+
+Had I been less self-possessed I might have uttered an exclamation
+of surprise--and satisfaction--which, with good reason, would have
+excited the attention and suspicion of the Count d'Artigas.
+
+These are the circumstances under which I came to explore Back Cup
+while on a visit to Bermuda.
+
+This archipelago, which is situated about seven hundred and fifty
+miles from North Carolina is composed of several hundred islands or
+islets. Its centre is crossed by the sixty-fourth meridian and the
+thirty-second parallel. Since the Englishman Lomer was shipwrecked
+and cast up there in 1609, the Bermudas have belonged to the United
+Kingdom, and in consequence the colonial population has increased to
+ten thousand inhabitants. It was not for its productions of cotton,
+coffee, indigo, and arrowroot that England annexed the group--seized
+it, one might say; but because it formed a splendid maritime station
+in that part of the Ocean, and in proximity to the United States of
+America. Possession was taken of it without any protest on the part of
+other powers, and Bermuda is now administered by a British governor
+with the addition of a council and a General Assembly.
+
+The principal islands of the archipelago are called St. David,
+Somerset, Hamilton, and St. George. The latter has a free port, and
+the town of the same name is also the capital of the group.
+
+The largest of these isles is not more than seventeen miles long and
+five wide. Leaving out the medium-sized ones, there remains but an
+agglomeration of islets and reefs scattered over an area of twelve
+square leagues.
+
+Although the climate of Bermuda is very healthy, very salubrious, the
+isles are nevertheless frightfully beaten by the heavy winter tempests
+of the Atlantic, and their approach by navigators presents certain
+difficulties.
+
+What the archipelago especially lacks are rivers and rios. However,
+as abundant rains fall frequently, this drawback is got over by the
+inhabitants, who treasure up the heaven-sent water for household and
+agricultural purposes. This has necessitated the construction of vast
+cisterns which the downfalls keep filled. These works of engineering
+skill justly merit the admiration they receive and do honor to the
+genius of man.
+
+It was in connection with the setting up of these cisterns that I made
+the trip, as well as out of curiosity to inspect the fine works.
+
+
+I obtained from the company of which I was the engineer in New
+Jersey a vacation of several weeks, and embarked at New York for the
+Bermudas.
+
+While I was staying on Hamilton Island, in the vast port of
+Southampton, an event occurred of great interest to geologists.
+
+One day a whole flotilla of fishers, men, women and children, entered
+Southampton Harbor. For fifty years these families had lived on the
+east coast of Back Cup, where they had erected log-cabins and houses
+of stone. Their position for carrying on their industry was an
+exceptionally favorable one, for the waters teem with fish all the
+year round, and in March and April whales abound.
+
+Nothing had hitherto occurred to disturb their tranquil existence.
+They were quite contented with their rough lot, which was rendered
+less onerous by the facility of communication with Hamilton and St.
+George. Their solid barks took cargoes of fish there, which they
+exchanged for the necessities of life.
+
+Why had they thus abandoned the islet with the intention, as it pretty
+soon appeared, of never returning to it? The reason turned out to be
+that they no longer considered themselves in safety there.
+
+A couple of months previously they had been at first surprised, then
+alarmed, by several distinct detonations that appeared to have taken
+place in the interior of the mountain. At the same time smoke and
+flames issued from the summit--or the bottom of the reversed cup, if
+you like. Now no one had ever suspected that the islet was of volcanic
+origin, or that there was a crater at the top, no one having been able
+to climb its sides. Now, however, there could be no possible doubt
+that the mountain was an ancient volcano that had suddenly become
+active again and threatened the village with destruction.
+
+During the ensuing two months internal rumblings and explosions
+continued to be heard, which were accompanied by bursts of flame
+from the top--especially at night. The island was shaken by the
+explosions--the shocks could be distinctly felt. All these phenomena
+were indicative of an imminent eruption, and there was no spot at the
+base of the mountain that could afford any protection from the rivers
+of lava that would inevitably pour down its smooth, steep slopes
+and overwhelm the village in their boiling flood. Besides, the very
+mountain might be destroyed in the eruption.
+
+There was nothing for the population exposed to such a dire
+catastrophe to do but leave. This they did. Their humble Lares
+and Penates, in fact all their belongings, were loaded into the
+fishing-smacks, and the entire colony sought refuge in Southhampton
+Harbor.
+
+The news that a volcano, that had presumably been smouldering for
+centuries at the western extremity of the group, showed signs of
+breaking out again, caused a sensation throughout the Bermudas. But
+while some were terrified, the curiosity of others was aroused, mine
+included. The phenomenon was worth investigation, even if the simple
+fisher-folk had exaggerated.
+
+Back Cup, which, as already stated, lies at the western extremity of
+the archipelago, is connected therewith by a chain of small islets
+and reefs, which cannot be approached from the east. Being only three
+hundred feet in altitude, it cannot be seen either from St. George or
+Hamilton. I joined a party of explorers and we embarked in a cutter
+that landed us on the island, and made our way to the abandoned
+village of the Bermudan fishers.
+
+The internal crackings and detonations could be plainly heard, and a
+sheaf of smoke was swayed by the wind at the summit.
+
+Beyond a peradventure the ancient volcano had been started again
+by the subterranean fire, and an eruption at any moment was to be
+apprehended.
+
+In vain we attempted to climb to the mouth of the crater. The mountain
+sheered down at an angle of from seventy-five to eighty degrees, and
+its smooth, slippery sides afforded absolutely no foothold. Anything
+more barren than this rocky freak of nature it would be difficult to
+conceive. Only a few tufts of wild herbs were to be seen upon the
+whole island, and these seemed to have no _raison d'être_.
+
+Our explorations were therefore necessarily limited, and in view of
+the active symptoms of danger that manifested themselves, we could but
+approve the action of the villagers in abandoning the place; for we
+entertained no doubt that its destruction was imminent.
+
+These were the circumstances in which I was led to visit Back Cup, and
+no one will consequently be surprised at the fact that I recognized it
+immediately we hove in sight of the queer structure.
+
+No, I repeat, the Count d'Artigas would probably not be overpleased
+if he were aware that Warder Gaydon is perfectly acquainted with this
+islet, even if the _Ebba_ was to anchor there--which, as there is no
+port, is, to say the least, extremely improbable.
+
+As we draw nearer, I attentively examine Back Cup. Not one of
+its former inhabitants has been induced to return, and, as it is
+absolutely deserted, I cannot imagine why the schooner should visit
+the place.
+
+Perhaps, however, the Count d'Artigas and his companions have no
+intention of landing there. Even though the _Ebba_ should find
+temporary shelter between the rocky sides of a narrow creek there is
+nothing to give ground to the supposition that a wealthy yachtsman
+would have the remotest idea of fixing upon as his residence an arid
+cone exposed to all the terrible tempests of the Western Atlantic. To
+live here is all very well for rustic fishermen, but not for the Count
+d'Artigas, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade and his crew.
+
+Back Cup is now only half a mile off, and the seaweed thrown up on its
+rocky base is plainly discernible. The only living things upon it are
+the sea-gulls and other birds that circle in clouds around the smoking
+crater.
+
+When she is only two cable's lengths off, the schooner slackens speed,
+and then stops at the entrance of a sort of natural canal formed by a
+couple of reefs that barely rise above the water.
+
+I wonder whether the _Ebba_ will venture to try the dangerous feat of
+passing through it. I do not think so. She will probably lay where she
+is--though why she should do so I do not know--for a few hours, and
+then continue her voyage towards the east.
+
+However this may be I see no preparations in progress for dropping
+anchor. The anchors are suspended in their usual places, the cables
+have not been cleared, and no motion has been made to lower a single
+boat.
+
+At this moment Count d'Artigas, Engineer Serko and Captain Spade go
+forward and perform some manoeuvre that is inexplicable to me.
+
+I walk along the port side of the deck until I am near the foremast,
+and then I can see a small buoy that the sailors are hoisting in.
+Almost immediately the water, at the same spot becomes dark and I
+observe a black mass rising to the surface. Is it a big whale rising
+for air, and is the _Ebba_ in danger of being shattered by a blow from
+the monster's tail?
+
+Now I understand! At last the mystery is solved. I know what was the
+motor that caused the schooner to go at such an extraordinary speed
+without sails and without a screw. Her indefatigable motor is emerging
+from the sea, after having towed her from the coast of America to
+the archipelago of the Bermudas. There it is, floating alongside--a
+submersible boat, a submarine tug, worked by a screw set in motion by
+the current from a battery of accumulators or powerful electric piles.
+
+On the upper part of the long cigar-shaped iron tug is a platform in
+the middle of which is the "lid" by which an entrance is effected. In
+the fore part of the platform projects a periscope, or lookout, formed
+by port-holes or lenses through which an electric searchlight can
+throw its gleam for some distance under water in front of and on each
+side of the tug. Now relieved of its ballast of water the boat has
+risen to the surface. Its lid will open and fresh air will penetrate
+it to every part. In all probability, if it remained submerged during
+the day it rose at night and towed the _Ebba_ on the surface.
+
+But if the mechanical power of the tug is produced by electricity the
+latter must be furnished by some manufactory where it is stored, and
+the means of procuring the batteries is not to be found on Back Cup, I
+suppose.
+
+And then, why does the _Ebba_ have recourse to this submarine towing
+system? Why is she not provided with her own means of propulsion, like
+other pleasure-boats?
+
+These are things, however, upon which I have at present no leisure to
+ruminate.
+
+The lid of the tug opens and several men issue on to the platform.
+They are the crew of this submarine boat, and Captain Spade has been
+able to communicate with them and transmit his orders as to the
+direction to be taken by means of electric signals connected with the
+tug by a wire that passes along the stem of the schooner.
+
+Engineer Serko approaches me and says, pointing to the boat:
+
+"Get in."
+
+"Get in!" I exclaim.
+
+"Yes, in the tug, and look sharp about it."
+
+As usual there is nothing for it but to obey. I hasten to comply with
+the order and clamber over the side.
+
+At the same time Thomas Roch appears on deck accompanied by one of the
+crew. He appears to be very calm, and very indifferent too, and makes
+no resistance when he is lifted over and lowered into the tug. When he
+has been taken in, Count d'Artigas and Engineer Serko follow.
+
+Captain Spade and the crew of the _Ebba_ remain behind, with the
+exception of four men who man the dinghy, which has been lowered. They
+have hold of a long hawser, with which the schooner is probably to be
+towed through the reef. Is there then a creek in the middle of the
+rocks where the vessel is secure from the breakers? Is this the port
+to which she belongs?
+
+They row off with the hawser and make the end fast to a ring in the
+reef. Then the crew on board haul on it and in five minutes the
+schooner is so completely lost to sight among the rocks that even the
+tip of her mast could not be seen from the sea.
+
+Who in Bermuda imagines that a vessel is accustomed to lay up in
+this secret creek? Who in America would have any idea that the rich
+yachtsman so well known in all the eastern ports abides in the
+solitude of Back Cup mountain?
+
+Twenty minutes later the dinghy returns with the four men towards the
+tug which was evidently waiting for them before proceeding--where?
+
+They climb on board, the little boat is made fast astern, a movement
+is felt, the screw revolves rapidly and the tug skims along the
+surface to Back Cup, skirting the reefs to the south.
+
+Three cable's lengths further on, another tortuous canal is seen that
+leads to the island. Into this the tug enters. When it gets close
+inshore, an order is given to two men who jump out and haul the dinghy
+up on a narrow sandy beach out of the reach of wave or weed, and where
+it will be easily get-at-able when wanted.
+
+This done the sailors return to the tug and Engineer Serko signs to me
+to go below.
+
+A short iron ladder leads into a central cabin where various bales and
+packages are stored, and for which no doubt there was not room in the
+hold of the schooner. I am pushed into a side cabin, the door is shut
+upon me, and here I am once more a prisoner in profound darkness.
+
+I recognize the cabin the moment I enter it. It is the place in which
+I spent so many long hours after our abduction from Healthful House,
+and in which I was confined until well out at sea off Pamlico Sound.
+
+It is evident that Thomas Roch has been placed in a similar
+compartment.
+
+A loud noise is heard, the banging of the lid as it closes, and the
+tug begins to sink as the water is admitted to the tanks.
+
+This movement is succeeded by another--a movement that impels the boat
+through the water.
+
+Three minutes later it stops, and I feel that we are rising to the
+surface again.
+
+Another noise made by the lid being raised.
+
+The door of my cabin opens, and I rush out and clamber on to the
+platform.
+
+I look around and find that the tug has penetrated to the interior of
+Back Cup mountain.
+
+This is the mysterious retreat where Count d'Artigas lives with his
+companions--out of the world, so to speak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+INSIDE BACK CUP.
+
+
+The next morning I am able to make a first inspection of the vast
+cavern of Back Cup. No one seeks to prevent me.
+
+What a night I have passed! What strange visions I have seen! With
+what impatience I waited for morning!
+
+I was conducted to a grotto about a hundred paces from the edge of
+the lake where the tug stopped. The grotto, twelve feet by ten, was
+lighted by an incandescent lamp, and fitted with an entrance door that
+was closed upon me.
+
+I am not surprised that electricity is employed in lighting the
+interior of the cavern, as it is also used in the submarine boat. But
+where is it generated? Where does it come from? Is there a manufactory
+installed somewhere or other in this vast crypt, with machinery,
+dynamos and accumulators?
+
+My cell is neatly furnished with a table on which provisions are
+spread, a bunk with bedding, a basket chair, a wash-hand-stand with
+toilet set, and a closet containing linen and various suits of
+clothes. In a drawer of the table I find paper, ink and pens.
+
+My dinner consists of fresh fish, preserved meat, bread of excellent
+quality, ale and whisky; but I am so excited that I scarcely touch it.
+Yet I feel that I ought to fortify myself and recover my calmness of
+mind. I must and will solve the mystery surrounding the handful of men
+who burrow in the bowels of this island.
+
+So it is under the carapace of Back Cup that Count d'Artigas has
+established himself! This cavity, the existence of which is not even
+suspected, is his home when he is not sailing in the _Ebba_ along the
+coasts of the new world or the old. This is the unknown retreat he has
+discovered, to which access is obtained by a submarine passage twelve
+or fifteen feet below the surface of the ocean.
+
+Why has he severed himself from the world? What has been his past?
+If, as I suspect, this name of d'Artigas and this title of Count are
+assumed, what motive has he for hiding his identity? Has he been
+banished, is he an outcast of society that he should have selected
+this place above all others? Am I not in the power of an evildoer
+anxious to ensure impunity for his crimes and to defy the law by
+seeking refuge in this undiscoverable burrow? I have the right of
+supposing anything in the case of this suspicious foreigner, and I
+exercise it.
+
+Then the question to which I have never been able to suggest a
+satisfactory answer once more surges into my mind. Why was Thomas Roch
+abducted from Healthful House in the manner already fully described?
+Does the Count d'Artigas hope to force from him the secret of his
+fulgurator with a view to utilizing it for the defence of Back Cup in
+case his retreat should by chance be discovered? Hardly. It would be
+easy enough to starve the gang out of Back Cup, by preventing the tug
+from supplying them with provisions. On the other hand, the schooner
+could never break through the investing lines, and if she did her
+description would be known in every port. In this event, of what
+possible use would Thomas Roch's invention be to the Count d'Artigas
+Decidedly, I cannot understand it!
+
+About seven o'clock in the morning I jump out of bed. If I am a
+prisoner in the cavern I am at least not imprisoned in my grotto cell.
+The door yields when I turn the handle and push against it, and I walk
+out.
+
+Thirty yards in front of me is a rocky plane, forming a sort of quay
+that extends to right and left. Several sailors of the _Ebba_ are
+engaged in landing bales and stores from the interior of the tug,
+which lays alongside a little stone jetty.
+
+A dim light to which my eyes soon grow accustomed envelops the cavern
+and comes from a hole in the centre of the roof, through which the
+blue sky can be seen.
+
+"It is from that hole that the smoke which can be seen for such a
+distance issues," I say to myself, and this discovery suggests a whole
+series of reflections.
+
+Back Cup, then, is not a volcano, as was supposed--as I supposed
+myself. The flames that were seen a few years ago, and the columns
+of smoke that still rise were and are produced artificially. The
+detonations and rumblings that so alarmed the Bermudan fishers were
+not caused by the internal workings of nature. These various phenomena
+were fictitious. They manifested themselves at the mere will of the
+owner of the island, who wanted to scare away the inhabitants who
+resided on the coast. He succeeded, this Count d'Artigas, and remains
+the sole and undisputed monarch of the mountain. By exploding
+gunpowder, and burning seaweed swept up in inexhaustible quantities by
+the ocean, he has been able to simulate a volcano upon the point of
+eruption and effectually scare would-be settlers away!
+
+The light becomes stronger as the sun rises higher, the daylight
+streams through the fictitious crater, and I shall soon be able to
+estimate the cavern's dimensions. This is how I calculate:
+
+Exteriorly the island of Back Cup, which is as nearly as possible
+circular, measures two hundred and fifty yards in circumference, and
+presents an interior superficies of about six acres. The sides of the
+mountain at its base vary in thickness from thirty to a hundred yards.
+
+It therefore follows that this excavation practically occupies the
+whole of that part of Back Cup island which appears above water. As to
+the length of the submarine tunnel by which communication is obtained
+with the outside, and through which the tug passed, I estimate that it
+is fifty yards in length.
+
+The size of the cavern can be judged from these approximate figures.
+But vast as it is, I remember that there are caverns of larger
+dimensions both in the old and new worlds. For instance in Carniole,
+Northumberland, Derbyshire, Piedmont, the Balearics, Hungary
+and California are larger grottoes than Back Cup, and those at
+Han-sur-Lesse in Belgium, and the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, are also
+more extensive. The latter contain no fewer than two hundred and
+twenty-six domes, seven rivers, eight cataracts, thirty two wells of
+unknown depth, and an immense lake which extends over six or seven
+leagues, the limit of which has never been reached by explorers.
+
+I know these Kentucky grottoes, having visited them, as many thousands
+of tourists have done. The principal one will serve as a comparison
+to Back Cup. The roof of the former, like that of the latter, is
+supported by pillars of various lengths, which give it the appearance
+of a Gothic cathedral, with naves and aisles, though it lacks the
+architectural regularity of a religious edifice. The only difference
+is that whereas the roof of the Kentucky grotto is over four hundred
+feet high, that of Back Cup is not above two hundred and twenty at
+that part of it where the round hole through which issue the smoke and
+flames is situated.
+
+Another peculiarity, and a very important one, that requires to be
+pointed out, is that whereas the majority of the grottoes referred to
+are easily accessible, and were therefore bound to be discovered some
+time or other, the same remark does not apply to Back Cup. Although it
+is marked on the map as an island forming part of the Bermuda group,
+how could any one imagine that it is hollow, that its rocky sides
+are only the walls of an enormous cavern? In order to make such a
+discovery it would be necessary to get inside, and to get inside a
+submarine apparatus similar to that of the Count d'Artigas would be
+necessary.
+
+In my opinion this strange yachtsman's discovery of the tunnel by
+which he has been able to found this disquieting colony of Back Cup
+must have been due to pure chance.
+
+Now I turn my attention to the lake and observe that it is a
+very small one, measuring not more than four hundred yards in
+circumference. It is, properly speaking, a lagoon, the rocky sides of
+which are perpendicular. It is large enough for the tug to work about
+in it, and holds enough water too, for it must be one hundred and
+twenty-five feet deep.
+
+It goes without saying that this crypt, given its position and
+structure, belongs to the category of those which are due to the
+encroachments of the sea. It is at once of Neptunian and Plutonian
+origin, like the grottoes of Crozon and Morgate in the bay of
+Douarnenez in France, of Bonifacio on the Corsican coast, Thorgatten
+in Norway, the height of which is estimated at over three hundred
+feet, the catavaults of Greece, the grottoes of Gibraltar in Spain,
+and Tourana in Cochin China, whose carapace indicates that they are
+all the product of this dual geological labor.
+
+The islet of Back Cup is in great part formed of calcareous rocks,
+which slope upwards gently from the lagoon towards the sides and are
+separated from each other by narrow beaches of fine sand. Thick layers
+of seaweed that have been swept through the tunnel by the tide and
+thrown up around the lake have been piled into heaps, some of which
+are dry and some still wet, but all of which exhale the strong odor of
+the briny ocean. This, however, is not the only combustible employed
+by the inhabitants of Back Cup, for I see an enormous store of coal
+that must have been brought by the schooner and the tug. But it is the
+incineration of masses of dried seaweed that causes the smoke vomited
+forth by the crater of the mountain.
+
+Continuing my walk I perceive on the northern side of the lagoon the
+habitations of this colony of troglodytes--do they not merit the
+appellation? This part of the cavern, which is known as the Beehive,
+fully justifies its name, for it is honeycombed by cells excavated
+in the limestone rock and in which these human bees--or perhaps they
+should rather be called wasps--reside.
+
+The lay of the cavern to the east is very different. Here hundreds of
+pillars of all shapes rise to the dome, and form a veritable forest of
+stone trees through the sinuous avenues of which one can thread one's
+way to the extreme limit of the place.
+
+By counting the cells of the Beehive I calculate that Count d'Artigas'
+companions number from eighty to one hundred.
+
+As my eye wanders over the place I notice that the Count is standing
+in front of one of the cells, which is isolated from the others, and
+talking to Engineer Serko and Captain Spade. After a while they stroll
+down to the jetty alongside which the tug is lying.
+
+A dozen men have been emptying the merchandise out of the tug and
+transporting the goods in boats to the other side, where great cellars
+have been excavated in the rocks and form the storehouses of the band.
+
+The orifice of the tunnel is not visible in the waters of the lagoon,
+and I remember that when I was brought here I felt the tug sink
+several feet before it entered. In this respect therefore Back Cup
+does not resemble either the grottoes of Staffa or Morgate, entrance
+to which is always open, even at high tide. There may be another
+passage communicating with the coast, either natural or artificial,
+and this I shall have to make my business to find out.
+
+The island well merits its name of Back Cup. It is indeed a gigantic
+cup turned upside down, not only to outward appearance, but inwardly,
+too, though people are ignorant of the fact.
+
+I have already remarked that the Beehive is situated to the north of
+the lagoon, that is to say to the left on entering by the tunnel. On
+the opposite side are the storerooms filled with provisions of all
+kinds, bales of merchandise, barrels of wine, beer, and spirits and
+various packets bearing different marks and labels that show that they
+came from all parts of the world. One would think that the cargoes of
+a score of ships had been landed here.
+
+A little farther on is a large wooden shed the nature of which is
+easily distinguishable. From a pole above it a network of thick copper
+wires extends which conducts the current to the powerful electric
+lights suspended from the roof or dome, and to the incandescent lamps
+in each of the cells of the hive. A large number of lamps are also
+installed among the stone pillars and light up the avenues to their
+extremities.
+
+"Shall I be permitted to roam about wherever I please?" I ask myself.
+I hope so. I cannot for the life of me see why the Count d'Artigas
+should prohibit me from doing so, for I cannot get farther than the
+surrounding walls of his mysterious domain. I question whether there
+is any other issue than the tunnel, and how on earth could I get
+through that?
+
+Besides, admitting that I am able to get through it, I cannot get off
+the island. My disappearance would be soon noticed, and the tug would
+take out a dozen men who would explore every nook and cranny. I should
+inevitably be recaptured, brought back to the Beehive, and deprived of
+my liberty for good.
+
+I must therefore give up all idea of making my escape, unless I can
+see that it has some chance of being successful, and if ever an
+opportunity does present itself I shall not be slow to take advantage
+of it.
+
+On strolling round by the rows of cells I am able to observe a few of
+these companions of the Count d'Artigas who are content to pass their
+monotonous existence in the depths of Back Cup. As I said before,
+calculating from the number of cells in the Beehive, there must be
+between eighty and a hundred of them.
+
+They pay no attention whatever to me as I pass, and on examining them
+closely it seems to me that they must have been recruited from every
+country. I do not distinguish any community of origin among them, not
+even a similarity by which they might be classed as North Americans,
+Europeans or Asiatics. The color of their skin shades from white to
+yellow and black--the black peculiar to Australia rather than to
+Africa. To sum up, they appear for the most part to pertain to the
+Malay races. I may add that the Count d'Artigas certainly belongs
+to that particular race which peoples the Dutch isles in the West
+Pacific, while Engineer Serko must be Levantine and Captain Spade of
+Italian origin.
+
+But if the inhabitants of Back Cup are not bound to each other by
+ties of race, they certainly are by instinct and inclination. What
+forbidding, savage-looking faces they have, to be sure! They are men
+of violent character who have probably never placed any restraint upon
+their passions, nor hesitated at anything, and it occurs to me that
+in all likelihood they have sought refuge in this cavern, where they
+fancy they can continue to defy the law with impunity, after a
+long series of crimes--robbery, murder, arson, and excesses of all
+descriptions committed together. In this case Back Cup is nothing but
+a lair of pirates, the Count d'Artigas is the leader of the band and
+Serko and Spade are his lieutenants.
+
+I cannot get this idea out of my head, and the more I consider the
+more convinced I am that I am right, especially as everything I see
+during my stroll about the cavern seems to confirm my opinion.
+
+However this may be, and whatever may be the circumstances that have
+brought them together in this place, Count d'Artigas' companions
+appear to accept his all-powerful domination without question. On the
+other hand, if he keeps them under his iron heel by enforcing the
+severest discipline, certain advantages, some compensation,
+must accrue from the servitude to which they bow. What can this
+compensation be?
+
+Having turned that part of the bank under which the tunnel passes, I
+find myself on the opposite side of the lagoon, where are situated the
+storerooms containing the merchandise brought by the _Ebba_ on each
+trip, and which contain a great quantity of bales.
+
+Beyond is the manufactory of electric energy. I gaze in at the windows
+as I pass and notice that it contains machines of the latest invention
+and highest attained perfection, which take up little space. Not one
+steam engine, with its more or less complicated mechanism and need
+of fuel, is to be seen in the place. As I had surmised, piles of
+extraordinary power supply the current to the lamps in the cavern,
+as well as to the dynamos of the tug. No doubt the current is also
+utilized for domestic purposes, such as warming the Beehive and
+cooking food, I can see that in a neighboring cavity it is applied to
+the alembics used to produce fresh water. At any rate the colonists
+of Back Cup are not reduced to catching the rain water that falls so
+abundantly upon the exterior of the mountain.
+
+A few paces from the electric power house is a large cistern that,
+save in the matter of proportions, is the counterpart of those I
+visited in Bermuda. In the latter place the cisterns have to supply
+the needs of over ten thousand people, this one of a hundred--what?
+
+I am not sure yet what to call them. That their chief had serious
+reasons for choosing the bowels of this island for his abiding place
+is obvious. But what were those reasons? I can understand monks
+shutting themselves behind their monastery walls with the intention of
+separating themselves from the world, but these subjects of the Count
+d'Artigas have nothing of the monk about them, and would not be
+mistaken for such by the most simple-minded of mortals.
+
+I continue my way through the pillars to the extremity of the cavern.
+No one has sought to stop me, no one has spoken to me, not a soul
+apparently has taken the very slightest notice of me. This portion of
+Back Cup is extremely curious, and comparable to the most marvellous
+of the grottoes of Kentucky or the Balearics. I need hardly say that
+nowhere is the labor of man apparent. All this is the handiwork of
+nature, and it is not without wonder, mingled with awe, that I reflect
+upon the telluric forces capable of engendering such prodigious
+substructions. The daylight from the crater in the centre only strikes
+this part of the cavern obliquely, so that it is very imperfectly
+lighted, but at night, when illuminated by the electric lamps, its
+aspect must be positively fantastic.
+
+I have examined the walls everywhere with minute attention, but have
+been unable to discover any means of communicating with the outside.
+
+Quite a colony of birds--gulls, sea-swallows and other feathery
+denizens of the Bermudan beaches have made their home in the cavern.
+They have apparently never been hunted, for they are in no way
+disturbed by the presence of man.
+
+But besides sea-birds, which are free to come and go as they please
+by the orifice in the dome, there is a whole farmyard of domestic
+poultry, and cows and pigs. The food supply is therefore no less
+assured than it is varied, when the fish of all kinds that abound in
+the lagoon and around the island are taken into consideration.
+
+Moreover, a mere glance at the colonists of Back Cup amply suffices
+to show that they are not accustomed to fare scantily. They are all
+vigorous, robust seafaring men, weatherbeaten and seasoned in the
+burning beat of tropical latitudes, whose rich blood is surcharged
+with oxygen by the breezes of the ocean. There is not a youth nor an
+old man among them. They are all in their prime, their ages ranging
+from thirty to fifty.
+
+But why do they submit to such an existence? Do they never leave their
+rocky retreat?
+
+Perhaps I shall find out ere I am much older.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+KER KARRAJE.
+
+
+The cell in which I reside is about a hundred paces from the
+habitation of the Count d'Artigas, which is one of the end ones of
+this row of the Beehive. If I am not to share it with Thomas Roch, I
+presume the latter's cell is not far off, for in order that Warder
+Gaydon may continue to care for the ex-patient of Healthful House,
+their respective apartments will have to be contiguous. However, I
+suppose I shall soon be enlightened on this point.
+
+Captain Spade and Engineer Serko reside separately in proximity to
+D'Artigas' mansion.
+
+Mansion? Yes, why not dignify it with the title since this habitation
+has been arranged with a certain art? Skillful hands have carved an
+ornamental façade in the rock. A large door affords access to it.
+Colored glass windows in wooden frames let into the limestone
+walls admit the light. The interior comprises several chambers, a
+dining-room and a drawing-room lighted by a stained-glass window, the
+whole being perfectly ventilated. The furniture is of various styles
+and shapes and of French, English and American make. The kitchen,
+larder, etc., are in adjoining cells in rear of the Beehive.
+
+In the afternoon, just as I issue from my cell with the firm intention
+of "obtaining an audience" of the Count d'Artigas, I catch sight of
+him coming along the shore of the lagoon towards the hive. Either he
+does not see me, or wishes to avoid me, for he quickens his steps and
+I am unable to catch him.
+
+"Well, he will have to receive me, anyhow!" I mutter to myself.
+
+I hurry up to the door through which he has just disappeared and which
+has closed behind him.
+
+It is guarded by a gigantic, dark-skinned Malay, who orders me away in
+no amiable tone of voice.
+
+I decline to comply with his injunction, and repeat to him twice the
+following request in my very best English:
+
+"Tell the Count d'Artigas that I desire to be received immediately."
+
+I might just as well have addressed myself to the surrounding rock.
+This savage, no doubt, does not understand a word of English, for he
+scowls at me and orders me away again with a menacing cry.
+
+I have a good mind to attempt to force the door and shout so that the
+Count d'Artigas cannot fail to hear me, but in all probability I shall
+only succeed in rousing the wrath of the Malay, who appears to be
+endowed with herculean strength. I therefore judge discretion to be
+the better part of valor, and put off the explanation that is owing
+to me--and which, sooner or later, I will have--to a more propitious
+occasion.
+
+I meander off in front of the Beehive towards the east, and my
+thoughts revert to Thomas Roch. I am surprised that I have not seen
+him yet. Can he be in the throes of a fresh paroxysm?
+
+This hypothesis is hardly admissible, for if the Count d'Artigas is to
+be believed, he would in this event have summoned me to attend to the
+inventor.
+
+A little farther on I encounter Engineer Serko.
+
+With his inviting manner and usual good-humor this ironical individual
+smiles when he perceives me, and does not seek to avoid me. If he
+knew I was a colleague, an engineer--providing he himself really is
+one--perhaps he might receive me with more cordiality than I have yet
+encountered, but I am not going to be such a fool as to tell him who
+and what I am.
+
+He stops, with laughing eyes and mocking mouth, and accompanies a
+"Good day, how do you do?" with a gracious gesture of salutation.
+
+I respond coldly to his politeness--a fact which he affects not to
+notice.
+
+"May Saint Jonathan protect you, Mr. Gaydon!" he continues in his
+clear, ringing voice. "You are not, I presume, disposed to regret
+the fortunate circumstance by which you were permitted to visit this
+surpassingly marvellous cavern--and it really is one of the finest,
+although the least known on this spheroid."
+
+This word of a scientific language used in conversation with a simple
+hospital attendant surprises me, I admit, and I merely reply:
+
+"I should have no reason to complain, Mr. Serko, if, after having had
+the pleasure of visiting this cavern, I were at liberty to quit it."
+
+"What! Already thinking of leaving us, Mr. Gaydon,--of returning to
+your dismal pavilion at Healthful House? Why, you have scarcely had
+time to explore our magnificent domain, or to admire the incomparable
+beauty with which nature has endowed it."
+
+"What I have seen suffices," I answer; "and should you perchance be
+talking seriously I will assure you seriously that I do not want to
+see any more of it."
+
+"Come, now, Mr. Gaydon, permit me to point out that you have not yet
+had the opportunity of appreciating the advantages of an existence
+passed in such unrivalled surroundings. It is a quiet life, exempt
+from care, with an assured future, material conditions such as are not
+to be met with anywhere, an even climate and no more to fear from the
+tempests which desolate the coasts in this part of the Atlantic than
+from the cold of winter, or the heat of summer. This temperate and
+salubrious atmosphere is scarcely affected by changes of season. Here
+we have no need to apprehend the wrath of either Pluto or Neptune."
+
+"Sir," I reply, "it is impossible that this climate can suit you, that
+you can appreciate living in this grotto of----"
+
+I was on the point of pronouncing the name of Back Cup. Fortunately I
+restrained myself in time. What would happen if they suspected that
+I am aware of the name of their island, and, consequently, of its
+position at the extremity of the Bermuda group?
+
+"However," I continue, "if this climate does not suit me, I have, I
+presume, the right to make a change."
+
+"The right, of course."
+
+"I understand from your remark that I shall be furnished with the
+means of returning to America when I want to go?"
+
+"I have no reason for opposing your desires, Mr. Gaydon," Engineer
+Serko replies, "and I regard your presumption as a very natural
+one. Observe, however, that we live here in a noble and superb
+independence, that we acknowledge the authority of no foreign power,
+that we are subject to no outside authority, that we are the
+colonists of no state, either of the old or new world. This is worth
+consideration by whomsoever has a sense of pride and independence.
+Besides, what memories are evoked in a cultivated mind by these
+grottoes which seem to have been chiselled by the hands of the gods
+and in which they were wont to render their oracles by the mouth of
+Trophonius."
+
+Decidedly, Engineer Serko is fond of citing mythology! Trophonius
+after Pluto and Neptune? Does he imagine that Warder Gaydon ever heard
+of Trophonius? It is clear this mocker continues to mock, and I have
+to exercise the greatest patience in order not to reply in the same
+tone.
+
+"A moment ago," I continue shortly, "I wanted to enter yon habitation,
+which, if I mistake not, is that of the Count d'Artigas, but I was
+prevented."
+
+"By whom, Mr. Gaydon?"
+
+"By a man in the Count's employ."
+
+"He probably had received strict orders about it."
+
+"Possibly, yet whether he likes it or not, Count d'Artigas will have
+to see me and listen to me."
+
+"Maybe it would be difficult, and even impossible to get him to do
+so," says Engineer Serko with a smile.
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Because there is no such person as Count d'Artigas here."
+
+"You are jesting, I presume; I have just seen him."
+
+"It was not the Count d'Artigas whom you saw, Mr. Gaydon."
+
+"Who was it then, may I ask?"
+
+"The pirate Ker Karraje."
+
+This name was thrown at me in a hard tone of voice, and Engineer Serko
+walked off before I had presence of mind enough to detain him.
+
+The pirate Ker Karraje!
+
+Yes, this name is a revelation to me. I know it well, and what
+memories it evokes! It by itself explains what has hitherto been
+inexplicable to me. I now know into whose hands I have fallen.
+
+With what I already knew, with what I have learned since my arrival in
+Back Cup from Engineer Serko, this is what I am able to tell about the
+past and present of Ker Karraje:
+
+Eight or nine years ago, the West Pacific was infested by pirates
+who acted with the greatest audacity. A band of criminals of various
+origins, composed of escaped convicts, military and naval deserters,
+etc., operated with incredible audacity under the orders of a
+redoubtable chief. The nucleus of the band had been formed by men
+pertaining to the scum of Europe who had been attracted to New South
+Wales, in Australia, by the discovery of gold there. Among these
+gold-diggers, were Captain Spade and Engineer Serko, two outcasts,
+whom a certain community of ideas and character soon bound together in
+close friendship.
+
+These intelligent, well educated, resolute men would most assuredly
+have succeeded in any career. But being without conscience or
+scruples, and determined to get rich at no matter what cost, deriving
+from gambling and speculation what they might have earned by patient
+and steady work, they engaged in all sorts of impossible adventures.
+One day they were rich, the next day poor, like most of the
+questionable individuals who had hurried to the gold-fields in search
+of fortune.
+
+Among the diggers in New South Wales was a man of incomparable
+audacity, one of those men who stick at nothing--not even at
+crime--and whose influence upon bad and violent natures is
+irresistible.
+
+That man's name was Ker Karraje.
+
+The origin or nationality or antecedents of this pirate were never
+established by the investigations ordered in regard to him. He eluded
+all pursuit, and his name--or at least the name he gave himself--was
+known all over the world, and inspired horror and terror everywhere,
+as being that of a legendary personage, a bogey, invisible and
+unseizable.
+
+I have now reason to believe that Ker Karraje is a Malay. However, it
+is of little consequence, after all. What is certain is that he was
+with reason regarded as a formidable and dangerous villain who had
+many crimes, committed in distant seas, to answer for.
+
+After spending a few years on the Australian goldfields, where he made
+the acquaintance of Engineer Serko and Captain Spade, Ker Karraje
+managed to seize a ship in the port of Melbourne, in the province
+of Victoria. He was joined by about thirty rascals whose number was
+speedily tripled. In that part of the Pacific Ocean where piracy is
+still carried on with great facility, and I may say, profit, the
+number of ships pillaged, crews massacred, and raids committed in
+certain western islands which the colonists were unable to defend,
+cannot be estimated.
+
+Although the whereabouts of Ker Karraje's vessel, commanded by Captain
+Spade, was several times made known to the authorities, all attempts
+to capture it proved futile. The marauder would disappear among the
+innumerable islands of which he knew every cove and creek, and it was
+impossible to come across him.
+
+He maintained a perfect reign of terror. England, France, Germany,
+Russia and America vainly dispatched warships in pursuit of the
+phantom vessel which disappeared, no one knew whither, after robberies
+and murders that could not be prevented or punished had been committed
+by her crew.
+
+One day this series of crimes came to an end, and no more was heard of
+Ker Karraje. Had he abandoned the Pacific for other seas? Would this
+pirate break out in a fresh place? It was argued that notwithstanding
+what they must have spent in orgies and debauchery the pirate and his
+companions must still have an enormous amount of wealth hidden in some
+place known only to themselves, and that they were enjoying their
+ill-gotten gains.
+
+Where had the band hidden themselves since they had ceased their
+depredations? This was a question which everybody asked and none was
+able to answer. All attempts to run them to earth were vain. Terror
+and uneasiness having ceased with the danger, Ker Karraje's exploits
+soon began to be forgotten, even in the West Pacific.
+
+This is what had happened--and what will never be known unless I
+succeed in escaping from Back Cup:
+
+These wretches were, as a matter of fact, possessed of great wealth
+when they abandoned the Southern Seas. Having destroyed their ship
+they dispersed in different directions after having arranged to meet
+on the American continent.
+
+Engineer Serko, who was well versed in his profession, and was a
+clever mechanic to boot, and who had made a special study of submarine
+craft, proposed to Ker Karraje that they should construct one of
+these boats in order to continue their criminal exploits with greater
+secrecy and effectiveness.
+
+Ker Karraje at once saw the practical nature of the proposition, and
+as they had no lack of money the idea was soon carried out.
+
+While the so-called Count d'Artigas ordered the construction of the
+schooner _Ebba_ at the shipyards of Gotteborg, in Sweden, he gave to
+the Cramps of Philadelphia, in America, the plans of a submarine boat
+whose construction excited no suspicion. Besides, as will be seen, it
+soon disappeared and was never heard of again.
+
+The boat was constructed from a model and under the personal
+supervision of Engineer Serko, and fitted with all the known
+appliances of nautical science. The screw was worked with electric
+piles of recent invention which imparted enormous propulsive power to
+the motor.
+
+It goes without saying that no one imagined that Count d'Artigas was
+none other than Ker Karraje, the former pirate of the Pacific, and
+that Engineer Serko was the most formidable and resolute of his
+accomplices. The former was regarded as a foreigner of noble birth and
+great fortune, who for several months had been frequenting the ports
+of the United States, the _Ebba_ having been launched long before the
+tug was ready.
+
+Work upon the latter occupied fully eighteen months, and when the boat
+was finished it excited the admiration of all those interested in
+these engines of submarine navigation. By its external form, its
+interior arrangements, its air-supply system, the rapidity with which
+it could be immersed, the facility with which it could be handled and
+controlled, and its extraordinary speed, it was conceded to be far
+superior to the _Goubet,_ the _Gymnote_, the _Zede_, and other similar
+boats which had made great strides towards perfection.
+
+After several extremely successful experiments a public test was given
+in the open sea, four miles off Charleston, in presence of several
+American and foreign warships, merchant vessels, and pleasure boats
+invited for the occasion.
+
+Of course the _Ebba_ was among them, with the Count d'Artigas,
+Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade on board, and the old crew as well,
+save half a dozen men who manned the submarine machine, which was
+worked by a mechanical engineer named Gibson, a bold and very clever
+Englishman.
+
+The programme of this definite experiment comprised various evolutions
+on the surface of the water, which were to be followed by an immersion
+to last several hours, the boat being ordered not to rise again until
+a certain buoy stationed many miles out at sea had been attained.
+
+At the appointed time the lid was closed and the boat at first
+manoeuvred on the surface. Her speed and the ease with which
+she turned and twisted were loudly praised by all the technical
+spectators.
+
+Then at a signal given on board the _Ebba_ the tug sank slowly out
+of sight, and several vessels started for the buoy where she was to
+reappear.
+
+Three hours went by, but there was no sign of the boat.
+
+No one could suppose that in accordance with instructions received
+from the Count d'Artigas and Engineer Serko this submarine machine,
+which was destined to act as the invisible tug of the schooner, would
+not emerge till it had gone several miles beyond the rendezvous.
+Therefore, with the exception of those who were in the secret, no one
+entertained any doubt that the boat and all inside her had perished
+as the result of an accident either to her metallic covering or
+machinery.
+
+On board the _Ebba_ consternation was admirably simulated. On board
+the other vessels it was real. Drags were used and divers sent down
+along the course the boat was supposed to have taken, but it could
+not be found, and it was agreed that it had been swallowed up in the
+depths of the Atlantic.
+
+Two days later the Count d'Artigas put to sea again, and in
+forty-eight hours came up with the tug at the place appointed.
+
+This is how Ker Karraje became possessed of the admirable vessel
+which was to perform the double function of towing the schooner and
+attacking ships. With this terrible engine of destruction, whose very
+existence was ignored, the Count d'Artigas was able to recommence his
+career of piracy with security and impunity.
+
+These details I have learned from Engineer Serko, who is very proud of
+his handiwork,--and also very positive that the prisoner of Back Cup
+will never be able to disclose the secret.
+
+It will easily be realized how powerful was the offensive weapon
+Ker Karraje now possessed. During the night the tug would rush at a
+merchant vessel, and bore a hole in her with its powerful ram. At
+the same time the schooner which could not possibly have excited any
+suspicion, would run alongside and her horde of cutthroats would pour
+on to the doomed vessel's deck and massacre the helpless crew, after
+which they would hurriedly transfer that part of the cargo that was
+worth taking to the _Ebba_. Thus it happened that ship after ship
+was added to the long list of those that never reached port and were
+classed as having gone down with all on board.
+
+For a year after the odious comedy in the bay of Charleston Ker
+Karraje operated in the Atlantic, and his wealth increased to enormous
+proportions. The merchandise for which he had no use was disposed of
+in distant markets in exchange for gold and silver. But what was sadly
+needed was a place where the profits could be safely hidden pending
+the time when they were to be finally divided.
+
+Chance came to their aid. While exploring the bottom of the sea in
+the neighborhood of the Bermudas, Engineer Serko and Driver Gibson
+discovered at the base of Back Cup island the tunnel which led to the
+interior of the mountain. Would it have been possible for Ker Karraje
+to have found a more admirable refuge than this, absolutely safe as it
+was from any possible chance of discovery? Thus it came to pass that
+one of the islands of the Archipelago of Bermuda, erstwhile the haunt
+of buccaneers, became the lair of another gang a good deal more to be
+dreaded.
+
+This retreat having been definitely adopted, Count d'Artigas and his
+companions set about getting their place in order. Engineer Serko
+installed an electric power house, without having recourse to machines
+whose construction abroad might have aroused suspicion, simply
+employing piles that could be easily mounted and required but metal
+plates and chemical substances that the _Ebba_ procured during her
+visits to the American coast.
+
+What happened on the night of the 19th inst. can easily be divined.
+If the three-masted merchantman which lay becalmed was not visible at
+break of day it was because she had been scuttled by the tug, boarded
+by the cut-throat band on the _Ebba_, and sunk with all on board after
+being pillaged. The bales and things that I had seen on the schooner
+were a part of her cargo, and all unknown to me the gallant ship was
+lying at the bottom of the broad Atlantic!
+
+How will this adventure end? Shall I ever be able to escape from
+Back Cup, denounce the false Count d'Artigas and rid the seas of Ker
+Karraje's pirates?
+
+And if Ker Karraje is terrible as it is, how much more so will he
+become if he ever obtains possession of Roch's fulgurator! His power
+will be increased a hundred-fold! If he were able to employ this new
+engine of destruction no merchantman could resist him, no warship
+escape total destruction.
+
+I remain for some time absorbed and oppressed by the reflections with
+which the revelation of Ker Karraje's name inspires me. All that I
+have ever heard about this famous pirate recurs to me--his existence
+when he skimmed the Southern Seas, the useless expeditions organized
+by the maritime powers to hunt him down. The unaccountable loss of so
+many vessels in the Atlantic during the past few years is attributable
+to him. He had merely changed the scene of his exploits. It was
+supposed that he had been got rid of, whereas he is continuing his
+piratical practices in the most frequented ocean on the globe, by
+means of the tug which is believed to be lying at the bottom of
+Charleston Bay.
+
+"Now," I say to myself, "I know his real name and that of his
+lair--Ker Karraje and Back Cup;" and I surmise that if Engineer Serko
+has let me into the secret he must have been authorized to do so. Am I
+not meant to understand from this that I must give up all hope of ever
+recovering my liberty?
+
+Engineer Serko had manifestly remarked the impression created upon me
+by this revelation. I remember that on leaving me he went towards Ker
+Karraje's habitation, no doubt with the intention of apprising him of
+what had passed.
+
+After a rather long walk around the lagoon I am about to return to my
+cell, when I hear footsteps behind me. I turn and find myself face to
+face with the Count d'Artigas, who is accompanied by Captain Spade.
+He glances at me sharply, and in a burst of irritation that I cannot
+suppress, I exclaim:
+
+"You are keeping me here, sir, against all right. If it was to wait
+upon Thomas Roch that you carried me off from Healthful House, I
+refuse to attend to him, and insist upon being sent back."
+
+The pirate chief makes a gesture, but does not reply.
+
+Then my temper gets the better of me altogether.
+
+"Answer me, Count d'Artigas--or rather, for I know who you are--answer
+me, Ker Karraje!" I shout.
+
+"The Count d'Artigas is Ker Karraje," he coolly replies, "just as
+Warder Gaydon is Engineer Simon Hart; and Ker Karraje will never
+restore to liberty Engineer Simon Hart, who knows his secrets."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+FIVE WEEKS IN BACK CUP.
+
+
+The situation is plain. Ker Karraje knows who I am. He knew who I was
+when he kidnapped Thomas Roch and his attendant.
+
+How did this man manage to find out what I was able to keep from the
+staff of Healthful House? How comes it that he knew that a French
+engineer was performing the duties of attendant to Thomas Roch? I do
+not know how he discovered it, but the fact remains that he did.
+
+Evidently he had means of information which must have been costly, but
+from which he has derived considerable profit. Besides, men of his
+kidney do not count the cost when they wish to attain an end they have
+in view.
+
+Henceforward Ker Karraje, or rather Engineer Serko, will replace me
+as attendant upon Thomas Roch. Will he succeed better than I did? God
+grant that he may not, that the civilized world may be spared such a
+misfortune!
+
+I did not reply to Ker Karraje's Parthian shot, for I was stricken
+dumb. I did not, however, collapse, as the alleged Count d'Artigas
+perhaps expected I would.
+
+No! I looked him straight in the eyes, which glittered angrily, and
+crossed my arms defiantly, as he had done. And yet he held my life in
+his hands! At a sign a bullet would have laid me dead at his feet.
+Then my body, cast into the lagoon, would have been borne out to sea
+through the tunnel and there would have been an end of me.
+
+After this scene I am left at liberty, just as before. No measure is
+taken against me, I can walk among the pillars to the very end of the
+cavern, which--it is only too clear--possesses no other issue except
+the tunnel.
+
+When I return to my cell, at the extremity of the Beehive, a prey to a
+thousand thoughts suggested by my situation, I say to myself:
+
+"If Ker Karraje knows I am Simon Hart, the engineer, he must at any
+rate never know that I am aware of the position of Back Cup Island."
+
+As to the plan of confiding Thomas Roch to my care, I do not think
+he ever seriously entertained it, seeing that my identity had been
+revealed to him. I regret this, inasmuch as the inventor will
+indubitably be the object of pressing solicitations, and as Engineer
+Serko will employ every means in his power to obtain the composition
+of the explosive and deflagrator, of which he will make such
+detestable use during future piratical exploits. Yes, it would have
+been far better if I could have remained Thomas Roch's keeper here, as
+in Healthful House.
+
+For fifteen days I see nothing of my late charge. No one, I repeat,
+has placed any obstacles in the way of my daily peregrinations. I have
+no need to occupy myself about the material part of my existence. My
+meals are brought to me regularly, direct from the kitchen of the
+Count d'Artigas--I cannot accustom myself to calling him by any other
+name. The food leaves nothing to be desired, thanks to the provisions
+that the _Ebba_ brings on her return from each voyage.
+
+It is very fortunate, too, that I have been supplied with all the
+writing materials I require, for during my long hours of idleness I
+have been able to jot down in my notebook the slightest incidents that
+have occurred since I was abducted from Healthful House, and to keep
+a diary day by day. As long as I am permitted to use a pen I shall
+continue my notes. Mayhap some day, they will help to clear up the
+mysteries of Back Cup.
+
+_From July 5 to July 25._--A fortnight has passed, and all my attempts
+to get near Thomas Roch have been frustrated. Orders have evidently
+been given to keep him away from my influence, inefficacious though
+the latter has hitherto been. My only hope is that the Count
+d'Artigas, Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade will waste their time
+trying to get at the inventor's secrets.
+
+Three or four times to my knowledge, at least, Thomas Roch and
+Engineer Serko have walked together around the lagoon. As far as I
+have been able to judge, the former listened with some attention to
+what the other was saying to him. Serko has conducted him over the
+whole cavern, shown him the electric power house and the mechanism of
+the tug. Thomas Roch's mental condition has visibly improved since his
+departure from Healthful House.
+
+Thomas Roch lives in a private room in Ker Karraje's "mansion." I
+have no doubt that he is daily sounded in regard to his discoveries,
+especially by Engineer Serko. Will he be able to resist the temptation
+if they offer him the exorbitant price that he demands? Has he any
+idea of the value of money? These wretches may dazzle him with the
+gold that they have accumulated by years of rapine. In the present
+state of his mind may he not be induced to disclose the composition
+of his fulgurator? They would then only have to fetch the necessary
+substances and Thomas Roch would have plenty of time in Back Cup to
+devote to his chemical combinations. As to the war-engines themselves
+nothing would be easier than to have them made in sections in
+different parts of the American continent. My hair stands on end when
+I think what they could and would do with them if once they gained
+possession of them.
+
+These intolerable apprehensions no longer leave me a minute's peace;
+they are wearing me out and my health is suffering in consequence.
+Although the air in the interior of Back Cup is pure, I become subject
+to attacks of suffocation, and I feel as though my prison walls were
+falling upon me and crushing me under their weight. I am, besides,
+oppressed by the feeling that I am cut off from the world, as
+effectually as though I were no longer upon our planet,--for I know
+nothing of what is going on outside.
+
+Ah! if it were only possible to escape through that submarine tunnel,
+or through the hole in the dome and slide to the base of the mountain!
+
+On the morning of the 25th I at last encounter Thomas Roch. He is
+alone on the other side of the lagoon, and I wonder, inasmuch as
+I have not seen them since the previous day, whether Ker Karraje,
+Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade have not gone off on some
+expedition.
+
+I walk round towards Thomas Roch, and before he can see me I examine
+him attentively.
+
+His serious, thoughtful physiognomy is no longer that of a madman. He
+walks slowly, with his eyes bent on the ground, and under his arm a
+drawing-board upon which is stretched a sheet of paper covered with
+designs.
+
+Suddenly he raises his head, advances a step and recognizes me.
+
+"Ah! Gaydon, it is you, is it?" he cries, "I have then escaped from
+you! I am free!"
+
+He can, indeed, regard himself as being free--a good deal more at
+liberty in Back Cup than he was in Healthful House. But maybe my
+presence evokes unpleasant memories, and will bring on another fit,
+for he continues with extraordinary animation:
+
+"Yes, I know you, Gaydon.--Do not approach me! Stand off! stand off!
+You would like to get me back in your clutches, incarcerate me again
+in your dungeon! Never! I have friends here who will protect me. They
+are powerful, they are rich. The Count d'Artigas is my backer and
+Engineer Serko is my partner. We are going to exploit my invention! We
+are going to make my fulgurator! Hence! Get you gone!"
+
+Thomas Roch is in a perfect fury. He raises his voice, agitates his
+arms, and finally pulls from his pockets many rolls of dollar bills
+and banknotes, and handfuls of English, French, American and German
+gold coins, which slip through his fingers and roll about the cavern.
+
+How could he get all this money except from Ker Karraje, and as the
+price of his secret? The noise he makes attracts a number of men to
+the scene. They watch us for a moment, then seize Thomas Roch and drag
+him away. As soon as I am out of his sight he ceases-to struggle and
+becomes calm again.
+
+_July 27._--Two hours after meeting with Thomas Roch, I went down to
+the lagoon and walked out to the edge of the stone jetty.
+
+The tug is not moored in its accustomed place, nor can I see it
+anywhere about the lake. Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko had not gone
+yesterday, as I supposed, for I saw them in the evening.
+
+To-day, however, I have reason to believe that they really have gone
+away in the tug with Captain Spade and the crew of the _Ebba_, and
+that the latter must be sailing away.
+
+Have they set out on a piracy expedition? Very likely. It is equally
+likely that Ker Karraje, become once more the Count d'Artigas,
+travelling for pleasure on board his yacht, intends to put into some
+port on the American coast to procure the substances necessary to the
+preparation of Roch's fulgurator.
+
+Ah! if it had only been possible for me to hide in the tug, to slip
+into the _Ebba's_ hold, and stow myself away there until the schooner
+arrived in port! Then perchance I might have escaped and delivered the
+world from this band of pirates.
+
+It will be seen how tenaciously I cling to the thought of escape--of
+fleeing--fleeing at any cost from this lair. But flight is impossible,
+except through the tunnel, by means of a submarine boat. Is it not
+folly to think of such a thing? Sheer folly, and yet what other way is
+there of getting out of Back Cup?
+
+While I give myself up to these reflections the water of the lagoon
+opens a few yards from me and the tug appears. The lid is raised and
+Gibson, the engineer, and the men issue on to the platform. Other men
+come up and catch the line that is thrown to them. They haul upon it,
+and the tug is soon moored in its accustomed place.
+
+This time, therefore, at any rate, the schooner is not being towed,
+and the tug merely went out to put Ker Karraje and his companions
+aboard the _Ebba_.
+
+This only confirms my impression that the sole object of their trip is
+to reach an American port where the Count d'Artigas can procure the
+materials for making the explosive, and order the machines in some
+foundry. On the day fixed for their return the tug will go out through
+the tunnel again to meet the schooner and Ker Karraje will return to
+Back Cup.
+
+Decidedly, this evildoer is carrying out his designs and has succeeded
+sooner than I thought would be possible.
+
+_August 3._--An incident occurred to-day of which the lagoon was the
+theatre--a very curious incident that must be exceedingly rare.
+
+Towards three o'clock in the afternoon there was a prodigious bubbling
+in the water, which ceased for a minute or two and then recommenced in
+the centre of the lagoon.
+
+About fifteen pirates, whose attention had been attracted by this
+unaccountable phenomenon, hurried down to the bank manifesting signs
+of astonishment not unmingled with fear--at least I thought so.
+
+The agitation of the water was not caused by the tug, as the latter
+was lying alongside the jetty, and the idea that some other submarine
+boat had found its way through the tunnel was highly improbable.
+
+Almost at the same instant cries were heard on the opposite bank. The
+newcomers shouted something in a hoarse voice to the men on the side
+where I was standing, and these immediately rushed off towards the
+Beehive.
+
+I conjectured that they had caught sight of some sea-monster that had
+found its way in, and was floundering in the lagoon, and that they had
+rushed off to fetch arms and harpoons to try and capture it.
+
+I was right, for they speedily returned with the latter weapons and
+rifles loaded with explosive bullets.
+
+The monster in question was a whale, of the species that is common
+enough in Bermudan waters, which after swimming through the tunnel was
+plunging about in the narrow limits of the lake. As it was constrained
+to take refuge in Back Cup I concluded that it must have been hard
+pressed by whalers.
+
+Some minutes elapsed before the monster rose to the surface. Then the
+green shiny mass appeared spouting furiously and darting to and fro as
+though fighting with some formidable enemy.
+
+"If it was driven in here by whalers," I said to myself, "there must
+be a vessel in proximity to Back Cup--peradventure within a stone's
+throw of it. Her boats must have entered the western passes to the
+very foot of the mountain. And to think I am unable to communicate
+with them! But even if I could, I fail to see how I could go to them
+through these massive walls."
+
+I soon found, however, that it was not fishers, but sharks that had
+driven the whale through the tunnel, and which infest these waters in
+great numbers. I could see them plainly as they darted about, turning
+upon their backs and displaying their enormous mouths which were
+bristling with their cruel teeth. There were five or six of the
+monsters, and they attacked the whale with great viciousness. The
+latter's only means of defence was its tail, with which it lashed at
+them with terrific force and rapidity. But the whale had received
+several wounds and the water was tinged with its life-blood; for
+plunge and lash as it would, it could not escape the bites of its
+enemies.
+
+However, the voracious sharks were not permitted to vanquish their
+prey, for man, far more powerful with his instruments of death, was
+about to take a hand and snatch it from them. Gathered around the
+lagoon were the companions of Ker Karraje, every whit as ferocious as
+the sharks themselves, and well deserving the same name, for what else
+are they?
+
+Standing amid a group, at the extremity of the jetty, and armed with
+a harpoon, was the big Malay who had prevented me from entering Ker
+Karraje's house. When the whale got within shot, he hurled the harpoon
+with great force and skill, and it sank into the leviathan's flesh
+just under the left fin. The whale plunged immediately, followed by
+the relentless sharks. The rope attached to the weapon ran out for
+about sixty yards, and then slackened. The men at once began to haul
+on it, and the monster rose to the surface again near the end of the
+tunnel, struggling desperately in its death agony, and spurting great
+columns of water tinged with blood. One blow of its tail struck a
+shark, and hurled it clean out of water against the rocky side, where
+it dropped in again, badly, if not fatally injured.
+
+The harpoon was torn from the flesh by the jerk, and the whale went
+under. It came up again for the last time, and lashed the water so
+that it washed up from the tunnel end, disclosing the top of the
+orifice.
+
+Then the sharks again rushed on their prey, but were scared off by a
+hail of the explosive bullets. Two men then jumped into a boat and
+attached a line to the dead monster. The latter was hauled into the
+jetty, and the Malays started to cut it up with a dexterity that
+showed they were no novices at the work.
+
+No more sharks were to be seen, but I concluded that it would be as
+well to refrain from taking a bath in the lagoon for some days to
+come.
+
+I now know exactly where the entrance to the tunnel is situated. The
+orifice on this side is only ten feet below the edge of the western
+bank. But of what use is this knowledge to me?
+
+_August 7_.--Twelve days have elapsed since the Count d'Artigas,
+Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade put to sea. There is nothing to
+indicate that their return is expected, though the tug is always kept
+in readiness for immediate departure by Gibson, the engine-driver. If
+the _Ebba_ is not afraid to enter the ports of the United States by
+day, I rather fancy she prefers to enter the rocky channel of Back
+Cup at nightfall. I also fancy, somehow, that Ker Karraje and his
+companions will return to-night.
+
+_August 10_.--At ten o'clock last night, as I anticipated, the tug
+went under and out, just in time to meet the _Ebba_ and tow her
+through the channel to her creek, after which she returned with Ker
+Karraje and the others.
+
+When I look out this morning, I see Thomas Roch and Engineer Serko
+walking down to the lagoon, and talking. What they are talking about I
+can easily guess. I go forward and take a good look at my ex-patient.
+He is asking questions of Engineer Serko With great animation. His
+eyes gleam, his face is flushed, and he is all eagerness to reach the
+jetty. Engineer Serko can hardly keep up with him.
+
+The crew of the tug are unloading her, and they have just brought
+ashore ten medium-sized boxes. These boxes bear a peculiar red mark,
+which Thomas Roch examines closely.
+
+Engineer Serko orders the men to transport them to the storehouses on
+the left bank, and the boxes are forthwith loaded on a boat and rowed
+over.
+
+In my opinion, these boxes contain the substances by the combination
+or mixture of which, the fulgurator and deflagrator are to be made.
+The engines, doubtless, are being made in an American foundry, and
+when they are ready, the schooner will fetch them and bring them to
+Back Cup.
+
+For once in a while, anyhow, the _Ebba_ has not returned with any
+stolen merchandise. She went out and has returned with a clear bill.
+But with what terrible power Ker Karraje will be armed for both
+offensive and defensive operations at sea! If Thomas Roch is to be
+credited, this fulgurator could shatter the terrestrial spheroid at
+one blow. And who knows but what one day, he will try the experiment?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+ENGINEER SERKO'S ADVICE.
+
+
+Thomas Roch has started work and spends hours and hours in a wooden
+shed on the left bank of the lagoon that has been set apart as his
+laboratory and workshop. No one enters it except himself. Does he
+insist upon preparing the explosive in secret and does he intend to
+keep the formula thereof to himself? I should not wonder.
+
+The manner of employing Roch's fulgurator is, I believe, very simple
+indeed. The projectile in which it is used requires neither gun nor
+mortar to launch it, nor pneumatic tube like the Zalinski shell. It is
+autopropulsive, it projects itself, and no ship within a certain zone
+when the engine explodes could escape utter destruction. With such a
+weapon as this at his command Ker Karraje would be invincible.
+
+_From August 11 to August 17_.--During the past week Thomas Roch has
+been working without intermission. Every morning the inventor goes to
+his laboratory and does not issue therefrom till night. I have made no
+attempt to stop him or speak to him, knowing that it would be useless
+to do so.
+
+Although he is still indifferent to everything that does not touch
+upon his work he appears to be perfectly self-possessed. Why should he
+not have recovered his reason? Has he not obtained what he has so long
+sought for? Is he not at last able to carry out the plans he formed
+years and years ago?
+
+_August 18_.--At one o'clock this morning I was roused by several
+detonations.
+
+"Has Back Cup been attacked?" was my first thought. "Has the schooner
+excited suspicion, and been chased to the entrance to the passes? Is
+the island being bombarded with a view to its destruction? Has justice
+at last overtaken these evil-doers ere Thomas Roch has been able
+to complete the manufacture of his explosive, and before the
+autopropulsive engine could be fetched from the continent?"
+
+The detonations, which are very violent, continue, succeeding each
+other at regular intervals, and it occurs to me that if the schooner
+has been destroyed, all communication with the bases of supply being
+impossible, Back Cup cannot be provisioned.
+
+It is true the tug would be able to land the Count d'Artigas somewhere
+on the American coast where, money being no object, he could easily
+buy or order another vessel. But no matter. If Back Cup is only
+destroyed before Ker Karraje has Roch's fulgurator at his disposal I
+shall render thanks to heaven.
+
+A few hours later, at the usual time, I quit my cell. All is quiet at
+the Beehive. The men are going about their business as usual. The tug
+is moored near the jetty. Thomas Roch is going to his laboratory, and
+Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko are tranquilly pacing backwards and
+forwards by the lake and chatting. The island therefore could not have
+been attacked during the night. Yet I was awakened by the report of
+cannon, this I will swear.
+
+At this moment Ker Karraje goes off towards his abode and Engineer
+Serko, smilingly ironical, as usual, advances to meet me.
+
+"Well, Mr. Simon Hart," he says, "are you getting accustomed to
+your tranquil existence? Do you appreciate at their just merit the
+advantages of this enchanted grotto? Have you given up all hope of
+recovering your liberty some day or other?"
+
+What is the use of waxing wroth with this jester? I reply calmly:
+
+"No, sir. I have not given up hope, and I still expect that I shall be
+released."
+
+"What! Mr. Hart, separate ourselves from a man whom we all esteem--and
+I from a colleague who perhaps, in the course of Thomas Roch's fits of
+delirium, has learned some of his secrets? You are not serious!"
+
+So this is why they are keeping me a prisoner in Back Cup! They
+suppose that I am in part familiar with Roch's invention, and they
+hope to force me to tell what I know if Thomas Roch refuses to give up
+his secret. This is the reason why I was kidnapped with him, and why
+I have not been accommodated with an involuntary plunge in the lagoon
+with a stone fastened to my neck. I see it all now, and it is just as
+well to know it.
+
+"Very serious," I affirm, in response to the last remark of my
+interlocutor.
+
+"Well," he continues, "if I had the honor to be Simon Hart, the
+engineer, I should reason as follows: 'Given, on the one hand, the
+personality of Ker Karraje, the reasons which incited him to select
+such a mysterious retreat as this cavern, the necessity of the said
+cavern being kept from any attempt to discover it, not only in the
+interest of the Count d'Artigas, but in that of his companions--'"
+
+"Of his accomplices, if you please."
+
+"'Of his accomplices,' then--'and on the other hand, given the
+fact that I know the real name of the Count d'Artigas and in what
+mysterious safe he keeps his riches--'"
+
+"Riches stolen, and stained with blood, Mr. Serko."
+
+"'Riches stolen and stained with blood,' if you like--'I ought
+to understand that this question of liberty cannot be settled in
+accordance with my desires.'"
+
+It is useless to argue the point under these conditions, and I switch
+the conversation on to another line.
+
+"May I ask," I continue, "how you came to find out that Gaydon, the
+warder, was Simon Hart, the engineer?"
+
+"I see no reason for keeping you in ignorance on the subject, my dear
+colleague. It was largely by hazard. We had certain relations with the
+manufactory in New Jersey with which you were connected, and which you
+quitted suddenly one day under somewhat singular circumstances. Well,
+during a visit I made to Healthful House some months before the Count
+d'Artigas went there, I saw and recognized you."
+
+"You?"
+
+"My very self, and from that moment I promised myself the pleasure of
+having you for a fellow-passenger on board the _Ebba_."
+
+I do not recall ever having seen this Serko at Healthful House, but
+what he says is very likely true.
+
+"I hope your whim of having me for a companion will cost you dear,
+some day or other," I say to myself.
+
+Then, abruptly, I go on:
+
+"If I am not mistaken, you have succeeded in inducing Thomas Roch to
+disclose the secret of his fulgurator?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Hart. We paid millions for it. But millions, you know, are
+nothing to us. We have only the trouble of taking them! Therefore we
+filled all his pockets--covered him with millions!"
+
+"Of what use are these millions to him if he is not allowed to enjoy
+them outside?"
+
+"That, Mr. Hart, is a matter that does not trouble him a little bit!
+This man of genius thinks nothing of the future: he lives but in the
+present. While engines are being constructed from his plans over
+yonder in America, he is preparing his explosive with chemical
+substances with which he has been abundantly supplied. He! he! What an
+invention it is, this autopropulsive engine, which flies through
+the air of its own power and accelerates its speed till the goal is
+reached, thanks to the properties of a certain powder of progressive
+combustion! Here we have an invention that will bring about a radical
+change in the art of war."
+
+"Defensive war, Mr. Serko."
+
+"And offensive war, Mr. Hart."
+
+"Naturally," I answer.
+
+Then pumping him still more closely, I go on:
+
+"So, what no one else has been able to obtain from Thomas Roch--"
+
+"We obtained without much difficulty."
+
+"By paying him."
+
+"By paying him an incredible price--and, moreover, by causing to
+vibrate what in him is a very sensitive chord."
+
+"What chord?"
+
+"That of vengeance!"
+
+"Vengeance?--against whom?"
+
+"Against all those who have made themselves his enemies by
+discouraging him, by spurning him, expelling him, by constraining
+him to go a-begging from country to country with an invention of
+incontestable superiority! Now all notion of patriotism is extinct in
+his soul. He has now but one thought, one ferocious desire: to avenge
+himself upon those who have denied him--and even upon all mankind!
+Really, Mr. Hart, your governments of Europe and America committed a
+stupendous blunder in refusing to pay Roch the price his fulgurator is
+worth!"
+
+And Engineer Serko describes enthusiastically the various advantages
+of the new explosive which, he says, is incontestably superior to any
+yet invented.
+
+"And what a destructive effect it has," he adds. "It is analogous to
+that of the Zalinski shell, but is a hundred times more powerful, and
+requires no machine for firing it, as it flies through the air on its
+own wings, so to speak."
+
+I listen in the hope that Engineer Serko will give away a part of the
+secret, but in vain. He is careful not to say more than he wants to.
+
+"Has Thomas Roch," I ask, "made you acquainted with the composition of
+his explosive?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Hart--if it is all the same to you--and we shall shortly
+have considerable quantities of it stored in a safe place."
+
+"But will there not be a great and ever-impending danger in
+accumulating large quantities of it? If an accident were to happen it
+would be all up with the island of----!"
+
+Once more the name of Back Cup was on the point of escaping me.
+They might consider me too well-informed if they were aware that in
+addition to being acquainted with the Count d'Artigas' real name I
+also know where his stronghold is situated.
+
+Luckily Engineer Serko has not remarked my reticence, and he replies:
+
+"There will be no cause for alarm. Thomas Roch's explosive will not
+burn unless subjected to a special deflagrator. Neither fire nor shock
+will explode it."
+
+"And has Thomas Roch also sold you the secret of his deflagrator?"
+
+"Not yet, Mr. Hart, but it will not be long before the bargain is
+concluded. Therefore, I repeat, no danger is to be apprehended, and
+you need not keep awake of nights on that account. A thousand devils,
+sir! We have no desire to be blown up with our cavern and treasures! A
+few more years of good business and we shall divide the profits, which
+will be large enough to enable each one of us to live as he thinks
+proper and enjoy life to the top of his bent--after the dissolution
+of the firm of Ker Karraje and Co. I may add that though there is
+no danger of an explosion, we have everything to fear from a
+denunciation--which you are in the position to make, Mr. Hart.
+Therefore, if you take my advice, you will, like a sensible man,
+resign yourself to the inevitable until the disbanding of the company.
+We shall then see what in the interest of our security is best to be
+done with you!"
+
+It will be admitted that these words are not exactly calculated to
+reassure me. However, a lot of things may happen ere then. I have
+learned one good thing from this conversation, and that is that if
+Thomas Roch has sold his explosive to Ker Karraje and Co., he has
+at any rate, kept the secret of his deflagrator, without which the
+explosive is of no more value than the dust of the highway.
+
+But before terminating the interview I think I ought to make a very
+natural observation to Mr. Serko.
+
+"Sir," I say, "you are now acquainted with the composition of Thomas
+Roch's explosive. Does it really possess the destructive power that
+the inventor attributes to it? Has it ever been tried? May you not
+have purchased a composition as inert as a pinch of snuff?"
+
+"You are doubtless better informed upon this point than you pretend,
+Mr. Hart. Nevertheless, I thank you for the interest you manifest in
+our affairs, and am able to reassure you. The other night we made
+a series of decisive experiments. With only a few grains of this
+substance great blocks of rock were reduced to impalpable dust!"
+
+This explanation evidently applies to the detonation I heard.
+
+"Thus, my dear colleague," continues Engineer Serko, "I can assure you
+that our expectations have been answered. The effects of the explosive
+surpass anything that could have been imagined. A few thousand tons of
+it would burst our spheroid and scatter the fragments into space. You
+can be absolutely certain that it is capable of destroying no matter
+what vessel at a distance considerably greater than that attained by
+present projectiles and within a zone of at least a mile. The weak
+point in the invention is that rather too much time has to be expended
+in regulating the firing."
+
+Engineer Serko stops short, as though reluctant to give any further
+information, but finally adds:
+
+"Therefore, I end as I began, Mr. Hart. Resign yourself to the
+inevitable. Accept your new existence without reserve. Give yourself
+up to the tranquil delights of this subterranean life. If one is in
+good health, one preserves it; if one has lost one's health, one
+recovers it here. That is what is happening to your fellow countryman.
+Yes, the best thing you can do is to resign yourself to your lot."
+
+Thereupon this giver of good advice leaves me, after saluting me
+with a friendly gesture, like a man whose good intentions merit
+appreciation. But what irony there is in his words, in his glance, in
+his attitude. Shall I ever be able to get even with him?
+
+I now know that at any rate it is not easy to regulate the aim of
+Roch's auto-propulsive engine. It is probable that it always bursts at
+the same distance, and that beyond the zone in which the effects of
+the fulgurator are so terrible, and once it has been passed, a ship is
+safe from its effects. If I could only inform the world of this vital
+fact!
+
+_August 20_.--For two days no incident worth recording has occurred. I
+have explored Back Cup to its extreme limits. At night when the long
+perspective of arched columns are illuminated by the electric lamps, I
+am almost religiously impressed when I gaze upon the natural wonders
+of this cavern, which has become my prison. I have never given up hope
+of finding somewhere in the walls a fissure of some kind of which the
+pirates are ignorant and through which I could make my escape. It is
+true that once outside I should have to wait till a passing ship hove
+in sight. My evasion would speedily be known at the Beehive, and I
+should soon be recaptured, unless--a happy thought strikes me--unless
+I could get at the _Ebba's_ boat that was drawn up high and dry on the
+little sandy beach in the creek. In this I might be able to make my
+way to St. George or Hamilton.
+
+This evening--it was about nine o'clock--I stretched myself on a bed
+of sand at the foot of one of the columns, about one hundred yards to
+the east of the lagoon. Shortly afterwards I heard footsteps, then
+voices. Hiding myself as best I could behind the rocky base of the
+pillar, I listened with all my ears.
+
+I recognized the voices as those of Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko.
+The two men stopped close to where I was lying, and continued their
+conversation in English--which is the language generally used in Back
+Cup. I was therefore able to understand all that they said.
+
+They were talking about Thomas Roch, or rather his fulgurator.
+
+"In a week's time," said Ker Karraje, "I shall put to sea in the
+_Ebba_, and fetch the sections of the engines that are being cast in
+that Virginian foundry."
+
+"And when they are here," observed Engineer Serko, "I will piece them
+together and fix up the frames for firing them. But beforehand, there
+is a job to be done which it seems to me is indispensable."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"To cut a tunnel through the wall of the cavern."
+
+"Through the wall of the cavern?"
+
+"Oh! nothing but a narrow passage through which only one man at a time
+could squeeze, a hole easy enough to block, and the outside end of
+which would be hidden among the rocks."
+
+"Of what use could it be to us, Serko?"
+
+"I have often thought about the utility of having some other way of
+getting out besides the submarine tunnel. We never know what the
+future may have in store for us."
+
+"But the walls are so thick and hard," objected Ker Karraje.
+
+"Oh, with a few grains of Roch's explosive I undertake to reduce the
+rock to such fine powder that we shall be able to blow it away with
+our breath," Serko replied.
+
+It can easily be imagined with what interest and eagerness I listened
+to this. Here was a ray of hope. It. was proposed to open up
+communication with the outside by a tunnel in the wall, and this held
+out the possibility of escape.
+
+As this thought flashed through my mind, Ker Karraje said:
+
+"Very well, Serko, and if it becomes necessary some day to defend Back
+Cup and prevent any ship from approaching it----. It is true," he went
+on, without finishing the reflection, "our retreat would have to have
+been discovered by accident--or by denunciation."
+
+"We have nothing to fear either from accident or denunciation,"
+affirmed Serko.
+
+"By one of our band, no, of course not, but by Simon Hart, perhaps."
+
+"Hart!" exclaimed Serko. "He would have to escape first and no one can
+escape from Back Cup. I am, by the bye, interested in this Hart. He is
+a colleague, after all, and I have always suspected that he knows more
+about Roch's invention than he pretends. I will get round him so that
+we shall soon be discussing physics, mechanics, and matters ballistic
+like a couple of friends."
+
+"No matter," replied the generous and sensible Count d'Artigas, "when
+we are in full possession of the secret we had better get rid of the
+fellow."
+
+"We have plenty of time to do that, Ker Karraje."
+
+"If God permits you to, you wretches," I muttered to myself, while my
+heart thumped against my ribs.
+
+And yet, without the intervention of Providence, what hope is there
+for me?
+
+The conversation then took another direction.
+
+"Now that we know the composition of the explosive, Serko," said Ker
+Karraje, "we must, at all cost, get that of the deflagrator from
+Thomas Roch."
+
+"Yes," replied Engineer Serko, "that is what I am trying to do.
+Unfortunately, however, Roch positively refuses to discuss it. Still
+he has already made a few drops of it with which those experiments
+were made, and he will furnish as with some more to blow a hole
+through the wall."
+
+"But what about our expeditions at sea?" queried Ker Karraje.
+
+"Patience! We shall end by getting Roch's thunderbolts entirely in our
+own hand, and then----"
+
+"Are you sure, Serko?"
+
+"Quite sure,--by paying the price, Ker Karraje."
+
+The conversation dropped at this point, and they strolled off without
+having seen me--very luckily for me, I guess. If Engineer Serko spoke
+up somewhat in defence of a colleague, Ker Karraje is apparently
+animated with much less benevolent sentiments in regard to me. On the
+least suspicion they would throw me into the lake, and if I ever got
+through the tunnel, it would only be as a corpse carried out by the
+ebbing tide.
+
+_August 21_.--Engineer Serko has been prospecting with a view to
+piercing the proposed passage through the wall, in such a way that its
+existence will never be dreamed of outside. After a minute examination
+he decided to tunnel through the northern end of the cavern about
+sixty feet from the first cells of the Beehive.
+
+I am anxious for the passage to be made, for who knows but what it may
+be the way to freedom for me? Ah! if I only knew how to swim, perhaps
+I should have attempted to escape through the submarine tunnel, as
+since it was disclosed by the lashing back of the waters by the whale
+in its death-struggle, I know exactly where the orifice is situated.
+It seems to me that at the time of the great tides, this orifice must
+be partly uncovered. At the full and new moon, when the sea attains
+its maximum depression below the normal level, it is possible that--I
+must satisfy myself about this.
+
+I do not know how the fact will help me in any way, even if the
+entrance to the tunnel is partly uncovered, but I cannot afford to
+miss any detail that may possibly aid in my escape from Back Cup.
+
+_August 29_.--This morning I am witnessing the departure of the tug.
+The Count d'Artigas is, no doubt, going off in the _Ebba_ to fetch
+the sections of Thomas Roch's engines. Before embarking, the Count
+converses long and earnestly with Engineer Serko, who, apparently, is
+not going to accompany him on this trip, and is evidently giving him
+some recommendations, of which I may be the object. Then, having
+stepped on to the platform, he goes below, the lid shuts with a bang,
+and the tug sinks out of sight, leaving a trail of bubbles behind it.
+
+The hours go by, night is coming on, yet the tug does not return. I
+conclude that it has gone to tow the schooner, and perhaps to destroy
+any merchant vessels that may come in their way.
+
+It cannot, however, be absent very long, as the trip to America and
+back will not take more than a week.
+
+Besides, if I can judge from the calm atmosphere in the interior of
+the cavern, the _Ebba_ must be favored with beautiful weather. This
+is, in fact, the fine season in this part of the world. Ah! if only I
+could break out of my prison!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+GOD BE WITH IT.
+
+
+_From August 29 to September 10_.--Thirteen days have gone by and
+the _Ebba_ has not returned. Did she then not make straight for the
+American coast? Has she been delayed by a buccaneering cruise in the
+neighborhood of Back Cup? It seems to me that Ker Karraje's only
+desire would be to get back with the sections of Roch's engines as
+soon as possible. Maybe the Virginian foundry had not quite finished
+them.
+
+Engineer Serko does not display the least anxiety or impatience. He
+continues to greet me with his accustomed ironical cordiality, and
+with a kindly air that I distrust--with good reason. He affects to be
+solicitous as to my health, urges me to make the best of a bad job,
+calls me Ali Baba, assures me that there is not, in the whole world,
+such an enchanting spot as this Arabian Nights cavern, observes that I
+am fed, warmed, lodged, and clothed, that I have no taxes to pay, and
+that even the inhabitants of the favored principality of Monaco do not
+enjoy an existence more free from care.
+
+Sometimes this ironical verbiage brings the blood to my face, and I
+am tempted to seize this cynical banterer by the throat and choke the
+life out of him. They would kill me afterwards. Still, what would that
+matter! Would it not be better to end in this way than to spend years
+and years amid these infernal and infamous surroundings? However,
+while there is life there is hope, I reflect, and this thought
+restrains me.
+
+I have scarcely set eyes upon Thomas Roch since the _Ebba_ went away.
+He shuts himself up in his laboratory and works unceasingly. If he
+utilizes all the substances placed at his disposition there will be
+enough to blow up Back Cup and the whole Bermudan archipelago with it!
+
+I cling to the hope that he will never consent to give up the secret
+of his deflagrator, and that Engineer Serko's efforts to acquire it
+will remain futile.
+
+_September 3_.--To-day I have been able to witness with my own eyes
+the power of Roch's explosive, and also the manner in which the
+fulgurator is employed.
+
+During the morning the men began to pierce the passage through the
+wall of the cavern at the spot fixed upon by Engineer Serko, who
+superintended the work in person. The work began at the base, where
+the rock is as hard as granite. To have continued it with pickaxes
+would have entailed long and arduous labor, inasmuch as the wall at
+this place is not less than from twenty to thirty yards in thickness,
+but thanks to Roch's fulgurator the passage will be completed easily
+and rapidly.
+
+I may well be astonished at what I have seen. The pickaxes hardly made
+any impression on the rock, but its disaggregation was effected with
+really remarkable facility by means of the fulgurator.
+
+A few grains of this explosive shattered the rocky mass and reduced it
+to almost impalpable powder that one's breath could disperse as easily
+as vapor. The explosion produced an excavation measuring fully a cubic
+yard. It was accompanied by a sharp detonation that may be compared to
+the report of a cannon.
+
+The first charge used, although a very small one, a mere pinch, blew
+the men in every direction, and two of them were seriously injured.
+Engineer Serko himself was projected several yards, and sustained some
+rather severe contusions.
+
+Here is how this substance, whose bursting force surpasses anything
+hitherto conceived, is employed.
+
+A small hole about an inch and a half in length is pierced obliquely
+in the rock. A few grains of the explosive are then inserted, but no
+wad is used.
+
+Then Thomas Roch steps forward. In his hand is a little glass phial
+containing a bluish, oily liquid that congeals almost as soon as it
+comes in contact with the air. He pours one drop on the entrance of
+the hole, and draws back, but not with undue haste. It takes a certain
+time--about thirty-five seconds, I reckon--before the combination of
+the fulgurator and deflagrator is effected. But when the explosion
+does take place its power of disaggregation is such--I repeat--that
+it may be regarded as unlimited. It is at any rate a thousand times
+superior to that of any known explosive.
+
+Under these circumstances it will probably not take more than a week
+to complete the tunnel.
+
+_September 19_.--For some time past I have observed that the tide
+rises and falls twice every twenty-four hours, and that the ebb and
+flow produce a rather swift current through the submarine tunnel. It
+is pretty certain therefore that a floating object thrown into the
+lagoon when the top of the orifice is uncovered would be carried out
+by the receding tide. It is just possible that during the lowest
+equinoctial tides the top of the orifice is uncovered. This I shall be
+able to ascertain, as this is precisely the time they occur. To-day,
+September 19, I could almost distinguish the summit of the hole under
+the water. The day after to-morrow, if ever, it will be uncovered.
+
+Very well then, if I cannot myself attempt to get through, may be a
+bottle thrown into the lagoon might be carried out during the last
+few minutes of the ebb. And might not this bottle by chance--an
+ultra-providential chance, I must avow--be picked up by a ship passing
+near Back Cup? Perhaps even it might be borne away by a friendly
+current and cast upon one of the Bermudan beaches. What if that bottle
+contained a letter?
+
+I cannot get this thought out of my mind, and it works me up into a
+great state of excitement. Then objections crop up--this one among
+others: the bottle might be swept against the rocks and smashed ere
+ever it could get out of the tunnel. Very true, but what if, instead
+of a bottle a diminutive, tightly closed keg were used? It would not
+run any danger of being smashed and would besides stand a much better
+chance of reaching the open sea.
+
+_September 20_.--This evening, I, unperceived, entered one of the
+store houses containing the booty pillaged from various ships and
+procured a keg very suitable for my experiment.
+
+I hid the keg under my coat, and returned to the Beehive and my cell.
+Then without losing an instant I set to work. Paper, pen, ink, nothing
+was wanting, as will be supposed from the fact that for three months I
+have been making notes and dotting down my impressions daily.
+
+I indite the following message:
+
+"On June 15 last Thomas Roch and his keeper Gaydon, or rather Simon
+Hart, the French engineer who occupied Pavilion No. 17, at Healthful
+House, near New-Berne, North Carolina, United States of America, were
+kidnapped and carried on board the schooner _Ebba_, belonging to the
+Count d'Artigas. Both are now confined in the interior of a cavern
+which serves as a lair for the said Count d'Artigas--who is really Ker
+Karraje, the pirate who some time ago carried on his depredations in
+the West Pacific--and for about a hundred men of which his band is
+composed.
+
+"When he has obtained possession of Roch's fulgurator whose power is,
+so to speak, without limit, Ker Karraje will be in a position to carry
+on his crimes with complete impunity.
+
+"It is therefore urgent that the states interested should destroy his
+lair without delay.
+
+"The cavern in which the pirate Ker Karraje has taken refuge is in the
+interior of the islet of Back Cup, which is wrongly regarded as
+an active volcano. It is situated at the western extremity of the
+archipelago of Bermuda, and on the east is bounded by a range of
+reefs, but on the north, south, and west is open.
+
+"Communication with the inside of the mountain is only possible
+through a tunnel a few yards under water in a narrow pass on the west.
+A submarine apparatus therefore is necessary to effect an entrance, at
+any rate until a tunnel they are boring through the northwestern wall
+of the cavern is completed.
+
+"The pirate Ker Karraje employs an apparatus of this kind--the
+submarine boat that the Count d'Artigas ordered of the Cramps and
+which was supposed to have been lost during the public experiment with
+it in Charleston Bay. This boat is used not only for the purpose of
+entering and issuing from Back Cup, but also to tow the schooner and
+attack merchant vessels in Bermudan waters.
+
+"This schooner _Ebba_, so well known on the American coast, is kept
+in a small creek on the western side of the island, behind a mass of
+rocks, and is invisible from the sea.
+
+"The best place to land is on the west coast formerly occupied by the
+colony of Bermudan fishers; but it would first be advisable to effect
+a breach in the side of the cavern by means of the most powerful
+melinite shells.
+
+"The fact that Ker Karraje may be in the position to use Roch's
+fulgurator for the defence of the island must also be taken into
+consideration. Let it be well borne in mind that if its destructive
+power surpasses anything ever conceived or dreamed of, it extends over
+a zone not exceeding a mile in extent. The distance of this dangerous
+zone is variable, but once the engines have been set, the modification
+of the distance occupies some time, and a warship that succeeds in
+passing the zone has nothing further to fear.
+
+"This document is written on the twentieth day of September at eight
+o'clock in the evening and is signed with my name
+
+"THOMAS HART, Engineer."
+
+The above is the text of the statement I have just drawn up. It says
+all that is necessary about the island, whose exact situation is
+marked on all modern charts and maps, and points out the expediency
+of acting without delay, and what to do in case Ker Karraje is in the
+position to employ Roch's fulgurator.
+
+I add a plan of the cavern showing its internal configuration, the
+situation of the lagoon, the lay of the Beehive, Ker Karraje's
+habitation, my cell, and Thomas Roch's laboratory.
+
+I wrap the document in a piece of tarpaulin and insert the package in
+the little keg, which measures six inches by three and a half. It
+is perfectly watertight and will stand any amount of knocking about
+against the rocks.
+
+There is one danger, however, and that is, that it may be swept back
+by the returning tide, cast up on the island, and fall into the hands
+of the crew of the _Ebba_ when the schooner is hauled into her creek.
+If Ker Karraje ever gets hold of it, it will be all up with me.
+
+It will be readily conceived with what anxiety I have awaited the
+moment to make the attempt: I am in a perfect fever of excitement,
+for it is a matter of life or death to me. I calculate from previous
+observations that the tide will be very low at about a quarter to
+nine. The top of the tunnel ought then to be a foot and a half above
+water, which is more than enough to permit of the keg passing through
+it. It will be another half hour at least before the flow sets in
+again, and by that time the keg may be far enough away to escape being
+thrown back on the coast.
+
+I peer out of my cell. There is no one about, and I advance to the
+side of the lagoon, where by the light of a nearby lamp, I perceive
+the arch of the tunnel, towards which the current seems to be setting
+pretty swiftly.
+
+I go down to the very edge, and cast in the keg which contains the
+precious document and all my hopes.
+
+"God be with it!" I fervently exclaim. "God be with it!"
+
+For a minute or two the little barrel remains stationary, and then
+floats back to the side again. I throw it out once more with all my
+strength.
+
+This time it is in the track of the current, which to my great joy
+sweeps it along and in twenty seconds, it has disappeared in the
+tunnel.
+
+Yes, God be with it! May Heaven guide thee, little barrel! May it
+protect all those whom Ker Karraje menaces and grant that this band of
+pirates may not escape from the justice of man!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+BATTLE BETWEEN THE "SWORD" AND THE TUG.
+
+
+Through all this sleepless night I have followed the keg in fancy. How
+many times I seem to see it swept against the rocks in the tunnel into
+a creek, or some excavation. I am in a cold perspiration from head to
+foot. Then I imagine that it has been carried out to sea. Heavens!
+if the returning tide should sweep it back to the entrance and then
+through the tunnel into the lagoon! I must be on the lookout for it.
+
+I rise before the sun and saunter down to the lagoon. Not a single
+object is floating on its calm surface.
+
+The work on the tunnel through the side of the cavern goes on, and at
+four o'clock in the afternoon on September 23, Engineer Serko blows
+away the last rock obstructing the issue, and communication with the
+outer world is established. It is only a very narrow hole, and one
+has to stoop to go through it. The exterior orifice is lost among the
+crannies of the rocky coast, and it would be easy to obstruct it, if
+such a measure became necessary.
+
+It goes without saying that the passage will be strictly guarded. No
+one without special authorization will be able either to go out or
+come in, therefore there is little hope of escape in that direction.
+
+_September 25._--This morning the tug rose from the depth of the
+lagoon to the surface, and has now run alongside the jetty. The Count
+d'Artigas and Captain Spade disembark, and the crew set to work to
+land the provisions--boxes of canned meat, preserves, barrels of wine
+and spirits, and other things brought by the _Ebba,_ among which are
+several packages destined for Thomas Roch. The men also land the
+various sections of Roch's engines which are discoid in shape.
+
+The inventor watches their operations, and his eyes glisten with
+eagerness. He seizes one of the sections, examines it, and nods
+approval. I notice that his joy no longer finds expression in
+incoherent utterances, that he is completely transformed from what he
+was while a patient at Healthful House. So much is this the case that
+I begin to ask myself whether his madness which was asserted to be
+incurable, has not been radically cured.
+
+At last Thomas Roch embarks in the boat used for crossing the lake and
+is rowed over to his laboratory. Engineer Serko accompanies him. In an
+hour's time the tug's cargo has all been taken out and transported to
+the storehouses.
+
+Ker Karraje exchanges a word or two with Engineer Serko and then
+enters his mansion. Later, in the afternoon, I see them walking up and
+down in front of the Beehive and talking earnestly together.
+
+Then they enter the new tunnel, followed by Captain Spade. If I could
+but follow them! If I could but breathe for awhile the bracing air
+of the Atlantic, of which the interior of Back Cup only receives
+attenuated puffs, so to speak.
+
+_From September 26 to October 10_.--Fifteen days have elapsed. Under
+the directions of Engineer Serko and Thomas Roch the sections of the
+engines have been fitted together. Then the construction of their
+supports is begun. These supports are simple trestles, fitted with
+transverse troughs or grooves of various degrees of inclination, and
+which could be easily installed on the deck of the _Ebba_, or even
+on the platform of the tug, which can be kept on a level with the
+surface.
+
+Thus Ker Karraje, will be ruler of the seas, with his yacht. No
+warship, however big, however powerful, will be able to cross the zone
+of danger, whereas the _Ebba_ will be out of range of its guns. If
+only my notice were found! If only the existence of this lair of Back
+Cup were known! Means would soon be found, if not of destroying the
+place, at least of starving the band into submission!
+
+_October 20_.--To my extreme surprise I find this morning that the tug
+has gone away again. I recall that yesterday the elements of the piles
+were renewed, but I thought it was only to keep them in order. In
+view of the fact that the outside can now be reached through the new
+tunnel, and that Thomas Roch has everything he requires, I can only
+conclude that the tug has gone off on another marauding expedition.
+
+Yet this is the season of the equinoctial gales, and the Bermudan
+waters are swept by frequent tempests. This is evident from the
+violent gusts that drive back the smoke through the crater and the
+heavy rain that accompanies it, as well as by the water in the lagoon,
+which swells and washes over the brown rocks on its shores.
+
+But it is by no means sure that the _Ebba_ has quitted her cove.
+However staunch she may be, she is, it seems to me, of too light a
+build to face such tempests as now rage, even with the help of the
+tug.
+
+On the other hand, although the tug has nothing to fear from the heavy
+seas, as it would be in calm water a few yards below the surface, it
+is hardly likely that it has gone on a trip unless to accompany the
+schooner.
+
+I do not know to what its departure can be attributed, but its absence
+is likely to be prolonged, for it has not yet returned.
+
+Engineer Serko has remained behind, but Ker Karraje, Captain Spade,
+and the crew of the schooner, I find, have left.
+
+Life in the cavern goes on with its usual dispiriting monotony. I pass
+hour after hour in my cell, meditating, hoping, despairing, following
+in fancy the voyage of my little barrel, tossed about at the mercy
+of the currents and whose chances of being picked up, I fear, are
+becoming fainter each day, and killing time by writing my diary, which
+will probably not survive me.
+
+Thomas Roch is constantly occupied in his laboratory manufacturing his
+deflagrator. I still entertain the conviction that nothing will ever
+induce him to give up the secret of the liquid's composition; but I am
+perfectly aware that he will not hesitate to place his invention at
+Ker Karraje's service.
+
+I often meet Engineer Serko when my strolls take me in the direction
+of the Beehive. He always shows himself disposed to chat with me,
+though, it is true, he does so in a tone of impertinent frivolity.
+We converse upon all sorts of subjects, but rarely of my position.
+Recrimination thereanent is useless and only subjects me to renewed
+bantering.
+
+
+_October 22_.--To-day I asked Engineer Serko whether the _Ebba_ had
+put to sea again with the tug.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Simon Hart," he replied, "and though the clouds gather and
+loud the tempest roars, be in no uneasiness in regard to our dear
+_Ebba_."
+
+"Will she be gone long?"
+
+"We expect her back within forty-eight hours. It is the last voyage
+Count d'Artigas proposes to make before the winter gales render
+navigation in these parts impracticable."
+
+"Is her voyage one of business or pleasure?"
+
+"Of business, Mr. Hart, of business," answered Engineer Serko with
+a smile. "Our engines are now completed, and when the fine weather
+returns we shall resume offensive operations."
+
+"Against unfortunate merchantmen."
+
+"As unfortunate as they are richly laden."
+
+"Acts of piracy, whose impunity will, I trust, not always be assured,"
+I cried..
+
+"Calm yourself, dear colleague, be calm! Be calm! No one, you know,
+can ever discover our retreat, and none can ever disclose the secret!
+Besides, with these engines, which are so easily handled and are of
+such terrible power, it would be easy for us to blow to pieces any
+ship that attempted to get within a certain radius of the island."
+
+"Providing," I said, "that Thomas Roch has sold you the composition of
+his deflagrator as he has sold you that of his fulgurator."
+
+"That he has done, Mr. Hart, and it behooves me to set your mind at
+rest upon that point."
+
+From this categorical response I ought to have concluded that the
+misfortune had been consummated, but a certain hesitation in the
+intonation of his voice warned me that implicit reliance was not to be
+placed upon Engineer Serko's assertions.
+
+_October 25_.--What a frightful adventure I have just been mixed up
+in, and what a wonder I did not lose my life! It is only by a miracle
+that I am able to resume these notes, which have been interrupted for
+forty-eight hours. With a little luck, I should have been delivered!
+I should now be in one of the Bermudan ports--St. George or Hamilton.
+The mysteries of Back Cup would have been cleared up. The description
+of the schooner would have been wired all over the world, and she
+would not dare to put into any port. The provisioning of Back Cup
+would be impossible, and Ker Karraje's bandits would be condemned to
+starve to death!
+
+This is what occurred:
+
+At eight o'clock in the evening on October 23, I quitted my cell in
+an indefinable state of nervousness, and with a presentiment that a
+serious event was imminent. In vain I had tried to seek calmness in
+sleep. It was impossible to do so, and I rose and went out.
+
+Outside Back Cup the weather must have been very rough. Violent gusts
+of wind swept in through the crater and agitated the water of the
+lagoon.
+
+I walked along the shore on the Beehive side. No one was about. It
+was rather cold, and the air was damp. The pirates were all snugly
+ensconced in their cells, with the exception of one man, who stood
+guard over the new passage, notwithstanding that the outer entrance
+had been blocked. From where he was this man could not see the lagoon,
+moreover there were only two lamps alight, one on each side of
+the lake, and the forest of pillars was wrapt in the profoundest
+obscurity.
+
+I was walking about in the shadow, when some one passed me.
+
+I saw that he was Thomas Roch.
+
+He was walking slowly, absorbed by his thoughts, his brain at work, as
+usual.
+
+Was this not a favorable opportunity to talk to him, to enlighten him
+about what he was probably ignorant, namely, the character of the
+people into whose hands he had fallen?
+
+"He cannot," I argued, "know that the Count d'Artigas is none other
+than Ker Karraje, the pirate. He cannot be aware that he has given up
+a part of his invention to such a bandit. I must open his eyes to the
+fact that he will never be able to enjoy his millions, that he is a
+prisoner in Back Cup, and will never be allowed to leave it, any
+more than I shall. Yes, I will make an appeal to his sentiments of
+humanity, and point out to him what frightful misfortunes he will be
+responsible for if he does not keep the secret of his deflagrator."
+
+All this I had said to myself, and was preparing to carry out my
+resolution, when I suddenly felt myself seized from behind.
+
+Two men held me by the arms, and another appeared in front of me.
+
+Before I had time to cry out the man exclaimed in English:
+
+"Hush! not a word! Are you not Simon Hart?"
+
+"Yes, how did you know?"
+
+"I saw you come out of your cell."
+
+"Who are you, then?"
+
+"Lieutenant Davon, of the British Navy, of H.M.S. _Standard_, which is
+stationed at the Bermudas."
+
+Emotion choked me so that it was impossible for me to utter a word.
+
+"We have come to rescue you from Ker Karraje, and also propose to
+carry off Thomas Roch," he added.
+
+"Thomas Roch?" I stammered.
+
+"Yes, the document signed by you was found on the beach at St.
+George----"
+
+"In a keg, Lieutenant Davon, which I committed to the waters of the
+lagoon."
+
+"And which contained," went on the officer, "the notice by which we
+were apprised that the island of Back Cup served as a refuge for Ker
+Karraje and his band--Ker Karraje, this false Count d'Artigas, the
+author of the double abduction from Healthful House."
+
+"Ah! Lieutenant Davon----"
+
+"Now we have not a moment to spare, we must profit by the obscurity."
+
+"One word, Lieutenant Davon, how did you penetrate to the interior of
+Back Cup?"
+
+"By means of the submarine boat _Sword_, with which we have been
+making experiments at St. George for six months past."
+
+"A submarine boat!"
+
+"Yes, it awaits us at the foot of the rocks. And now, Mr. Hart, where
+is Ker Karraje's tug?"
+
+"It has been away for three weeks."
+
+"Ker Karraje is not here, then?"
+
+"No, but we expect him back every day--every hour, I might say."
+
+"It matters little," replied Lieutenant Davon. "It is not after Ker
+Karraje, but Thomas Roch, we have come--and you also, Mr. Hart. The
+_Sword_ will not leave the lagoon till you are both on board. If she
+does not turn up at St. George again, they will know that I have
+failed--and they will try again."
+
+"Where is the _Sword_, Lieutenant?"
+
+"On this side, in the shadow of the bank, where it cannot be seen.
+Thanks to your directions, I and my crew were able to locate the
+tunnel. We came through all right, and ten minutes ago rose to the
+surface of the lake. Two men landed with me. I saw you issue from the
+cell marked on your plan. Do you know where Thomas Roch is?"
+
+"A few paces off. He has just passed me, on his way to his
+laboratory."
+
+"God be praised, Mr. Hart!"
+
+"Amen, Lieutenant Davon."
+
+The lieutenant, the two men and I took the path around the lagoon.
+We had not gone far when we perceived Thomas Roch in front of us. To
+throw ourselves upon him, gag him before he could utter a cry, bind
+him before he could offer any resistance, and bear him off to the
+place where the _Sword_ was moored was the work of a minute.
+
+The _Sword_ was a submersible boat of only twelve tons, and
+consequently much inferior to the tug, both in respect of dimensions
+and power. Her screw was worked by a couple of dynamos fitted with
+accumulators that had been charged twelve hours previously in the port
+of St. George. However, the _Sword_ would suffice to take us out of
+this prison, to restore us to liberty--that liberty of which I had
+given up all hope. Thomas Roch was at last to be rescued from the
+clutches of Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko. The rascals would not be
+able to utilize his invention, and nothing could prevent the warships
+from landing a storming party on the island, who would force the
+tunnel in the wall and secure the pirates!
+
+We saw no one while the two men were conveying Thomas Roch to the
+_Sword_, and all got on board without incident. The lid was shut and
+secured, the water compartments filled, and the _Sword_ sank out of
+sight. We were saved!
+
+The _Sword_ was divided into three water-tight compartments. The after
+one contained the accumulators and machinery. The middle one, occupied
+by the pilot, was surmounted by a periscope fitted with lenticular
+portholes, through which an electric search-lamp lighted the way
+through the water. Forward, in the other compartment, Thomas Roch and
+I were shut in.
+
+My companion, though the gag which was choking him had been removed,
+was still bound, and, I thought, knew what was going on.
+
+But we were in a hurry to be off, and hoped to reach St. George that
+very night if no obstacle was encountered.
+
+I pushed open the door of the compartment and rejoined Lieutenant
+Davon, who was standing by the man at the wheel. In the after
+compartment three other men, including the engineer, awaited the
+lieutenant's orders to set the machinery in motion.
+
+"Lieutenant Davon," I said, "I do not think there is any particular
+reason why I should stay in there with Roch. If I can help you to get
+through the tunnel, pray command me."
+
+"Yes, I shall be glad to have you by me, Mr. Hart."
+
+It was then exactly thirty-seven minutes past eight.
+
+The search-lamp threw a vague light through the water ahead of the
+_Sword_. From where we were, we had to cross the lagoon through its
+entire length to get to the tunnel. It would be pretty difficult to
+fetch it, we knew, but, if necessary, we could hug the sides of the
+lake until we located it. Once outside the tunnel the _Sword_ would
+rise to the surface and make for St. George at full speed.
+
+"At what depth are we now?" I asked the lieutenant.
+
+"About a fathom."
+
+"It is not necessary to go any lower," I said. "From what I was able
+to observe during the equinoctial tides, I should think that we are in
+the axis of the tunnel."
+
+"All right," he replied.
+
+Yes, it was all right, and I felt that Providence was speaking by the
+mouth of the officer. Certainly Providence could not have chosen a
+better agent to work its will.
+
+In the light of the lamp I examined him. He was about thirty years of
+age, cool, phlegmatic, with resolute physiognomy--the English officer
+in all his native impassibility--no more disturbed than if he had been
+on board the _Standard_, operating with extraordinary _sang-froid,_ I
+might even say, with the precision of a machine.
+
+"On coming through the tunnel I estimated its length at about fifty
+yards," he remarked.
+
+"Yes, Lieutenant, about fifty yards from one extremity to the other."
+
+This calculation must have been pretty exact, since the new tunnel cut
+on a level with the coast is thirty-five feet in length.
+
+The order was given to go ahead, and the _Sword_ moved forward very
+slowly for fear of colliding against the rocky side.
+
+Sometimes we came near enough to it to distinguish a black mass ahead
+of it, but a turn of the wheel put us in the right direction again.
+Navigating a submarine boat in the open sea is difficult enough. How
+much more so in the confines of a lagoon!
+
+After five minutes' manoeuvring, the _Sword_, which was kept at about
+a fathom below the surface, had not succeeded in sighting the orifice.
+
+"Perhaps it would be better to return to the surface, Lieutenant," I
+said. "We should then be able to see where we are."
+
+"I think you are right, Mr. Hart, if you can point out just about
+where the tunnel is located."
+
+"I think I can."
+
+"Very well, then."
+
+As a precaution the light was turned off. The engineer set the pumps
+in motion, and, lightened of its water ballast, the boat slowly rose
+in the darkness to the surface.
+
+I remained at my post so that I could peer through the lookouts.
+
+At last the ascensional movement of the _Sword_ stopped, and the
+periscope emerged about a foot.
+
+On one side of me, lighted by the lamp by the shore, I could see the
+Beehive.
+
+"What is your opinion?" demanded the lieutenant.
+
+"We are too far north. The orifice is in the west side of the cavern."
+
+"Is anybody about?"
+
+"Not a soul."
+
+"Capital, Mr. Hart. Then we will keep on a level with the surface, and
+when we are in front of the tunnel, and you give the signal, we will
+sink."
+
+It was the best thing to be done. We moved off again and the pilot
+kept her head towards the tunnel.
+
+When we were about twelve yards off I gave the signal to stop. As soon
+as the current was turned off the _Sword_ stopped, opened her water
+tanks and slowly sank again.
+
+Then the light in the lookout was turned on again, and there in front
+of us was a black circle that did not reflect the lamp's rays.
+
+"There it is, there is the tunnel!" I cried.
+
+Was it not the door by which I was going to escape from my prison? Was
+not liberty awaiting me on the other side?
+
+Gently the _Sword_ moved towards the orifice.
+
+Oh! the horrible mischance! How have I survived it? How is it that my
+heart is not broken?
+
+A dim light appeared in the depth of the tunnel, about twenty-five
+yards in front of us. The advancing light could be none other than
+that, projected through the lookout of Ker Karraje's submarine boat.
+
+"The tug! The tug!" I exclaimed. "Lieutenant, here is the tug
+returning to Back Cup!"
+
+"Full speed astern," ordered the officer, and the _Sword_ drew back
+just as she was about to enter the tunnel.
+
+One chance remained. The lieutenant had swiftly turned off the light,
+and it was just possible that we had not been seen by the people in
+the tug. Perhaps, in the dark waters of the lagoon, we should escape
+notice, and when the oncoming boat had risen and moored to the jetty,
+we should be able to slip out unperceived.
+
+We had backed close in to the south side and the _Sword_ was about to
+stop, but alas, for our hopes! Captain Spade had seen that another
+submarine boat was about to issue through the tunnel, and he was
+making preparations to chase us. How could a frail craft like the
+_Sword_ defend itself against the attacks of Ker Karraje's powerful
+machine?
+
+Lieutenant Davon turned to me and said: "Go back to the compartment
+where Thomas Roch is and shut yourself in. I will close the
+after-door. There is just a chance that if the tug rams us the
+water-tight compartments will keep us up."
+
+After shaking hands with the lieutenant, who was as cool as though we
+were in no danger, I went forward and rejoined Thomas Roch. I closed
+the door and awaited the issue in profound darkness.
+
+Then I could feel the desperate efforts made by the _Sword_ to
+escape from or ram her enemy. I could feel her rushing, gyrating and
+plunging. Now she would twist to avoid a collision. Now she would rise
+to the surface, then sink to the bottom of the lagoon. Can any one
+conceive such a struggle as that in which, like two marine monsters,
+these machines were engaged in beneath the troubled waters of this
+inland lake?
+
+A few minutes elapsed, and I began to think that the _Sword_ had
+eluded the tug and was rushing through the tunnel.
+
+Suddenly there was a collision. The shock was not, it seemed to me,
+very violent, but I could be under no illusion: the _Sword_ had been
+struck on her starboard quarter. Perhaps her plates had resisted,
+and if not, the water would only invade one of her compartments, I
+thought.
+
+Almost immediately after, however, there was another shock that pushed
+the _Sword_ with extreme violence. She was raised by the ram of the
+tug which sawed and ripped its way into her side. Then I could feel
+her heel over and sink straight down, stern foremost.
+
+Thomas Roch and I were tumbled over violently by. this movement. There
+was another bump, another ripping sound, and the _Sword_ lay still.
+
+Just what happened after that I am unable to say, for I lost
+consciousness.
+
+I have since learned that all this occurred many hours ago.
+
+I however distinctly remember that my last thought was:
+
+"If I am to die, at any rate Thomas Roch and his secret perish with
+me--and the pirates of Back Cup will not escape punishment for their
+crimes."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+EXPECTATION.
+
+
+As soon as I recover my senses I find myself lying on my bed in my
+cell, where it appears I have been lying for thirty-six hours.
+
+I am not alone. Engineer Serko is near me. He has attended to me
+himself, not because he regards me as a friend, I surmise, but as
+a man from whom indispensable explanations are awaited, and who
+afterwards can be done away with if necessary.
+
+I am still so weak that I could not walk a step. A little more and I
+should have been asphyxiated in that narrow compartment of the _Sword_
+at the bottom of the lagoon.
+
+Am I in condition to reply to the questions that Engineer Serko is
+dying to put to me? Yes--but I shall maintain the utmost reserve.
+
+In the first place I wonder what has become of Lieutenant Davon and
+the crew of the _Sword_. Did those brave Englishmen perish in the
+collision? Are they safe and sound like us--for I suppose that Thomas
+Roch has also survived?
+
+The first question that Engineer Serko puts to me is this:
+
+"Will you explain to me what happened, Mr. Hart?"
+
+Instead of replying it occurs to me to question him myself.
+
+"And Thomas Roch?" I inquire.
+
+"In good health, Mr. Hart." Then he adds in an imperious tone: "Tell
+me what occurred!"
+
+"In the first place, tell me what became of the others."
+
+"What others?" replies Serko, glancing at me savagely.
+
+"Why, those men who threw themselves upon Thomas Roch and me, who
+gagged, bound, and carried us off and shut us up, I know not where?"
+
+On reflection I had come to the conclusion that the best thing to do
+was to pretend that I had been surprised before I knew where I was or
+who my aggressors were.
+
+"You will know what became of them later. But first, tell me how, the
+thing was done."
+
+By the threatening tone of his voice, as he for the third time puts
+this question, I understand the nature of the suspicions entertained
+of me. Yet to be in the position to accuse me of having had relations
+with the outside he would have had to get possession of my keg. This
+he could not have done, seeing that it is in the hands of the Bermudan
+authorities. The pirates cannot, I am convinced, have a single proof
+to back up their suspicions.
+
+I therefore recount how about eight o'clock on the previous evening I
+was walking along the edge of the lagoon, after Thomas Roch had passed
+me, going towards his laboratory, when I felt myself seized from
+behind; how having been gagged, bound, and blindfolded, I felt myself
+carried off and lowered into a hole with another person whom I thought
+I recognized from his groans as Thomas Roch; how I soon felt that I
+was on board a boat of some description and naturally concluded that
+it was the tug; how I felt it sink; how I felt a shock that threw me
+violently against the side, and how I felt myself suffocating and lost
+consciousness, since I remember nothing further.
+
+Engineer Serko listens with profound attention, a stern look in his
+eyes and a frown on his brow; and yet he can have no reason that
+authorizes him to doubt my word.
+
+"You claim that three men threw themselves upon you?" he asks.
+
+"Yes. I thought they were some of your people, for I did not see them
+coming. Who were they?"
+
+"Strangers, as you must have known from their language."
+
+"They did not utter a word!"
+
+"Have you no idea as to their nationality?"
+
+"Not the remotest."
+
+Do you know what were their intentions in entering the cavern?"
+
+"I do not."
+
+"What is your opinion about it?"
+
+"My opinion, Mr. Serko? I repeat I thought they were two or three of
+your pirates who had come to throw me into the lagoon by the Count
+d'Artigas' orders, and that they were going to do the same thing to
+Thomas Roch. I supposed that having obtained his secrets--as you
+informed me was the case--you had no further use for him and were
+about to get rid of us both."
+
+"Is it possible, Mr. Hart, that you could have thought such a thing!"
+continued Serko in his sarcastic way.
+
+"I did, until having been able to remove the bandage from my eyes, I
+perceived that I was in the tug."
+
+"It was not the tug, but a boat of the same kind that had got through
+the tunnel."
+
+"A submarine boat?" I ejaculate.
+
+"Yes, and manned by persons whose mission was to kidnap you and Thomas
+Roch."
+
+"Kidnap us?" I echo, continuing to feign surprise.
+
+"And," adds Engineer Serko, "I want to know what you think about the
+matter."
+
+"What I think about it? Well, it appears to me that there is only one
+plausible explanation possible. If the secret of your retreat has not
+been betrayed--and I cannot conceive how you could have been betrayed
+or what imprudence you or yours could have committed--my opinion is
+that this submarine boat was exploring the bottom of the sea in this
+neighborhood, that she must have found her way into the tunnel,
+that she rose to the surface of the lagoon, that her crew, greatly
+surprised to find themselves inside an inhabited cavern, seized hold
+of the first persons they came across, Thomas Roch and myself, and
+others as well perhaps, for of course I do not know----"
+
+Engineer Serko has become serious again. Does he realize the inanity
+of the hypothesis I try to pass off on him? Does he think I know more
+than I will say? However this may be, he accepts my professed view,
+and says:
+
+"In effect, Mr. Hart, it must have happened as you suggest, and when
+the stranger tried to make her way out through the tunnel just as the
+tug was entering, there was a collision--a collision of which she was
+the victim. But we are not the kind of people to allow our fellow-men
+to perish before our eyes. Moreover, the disappearance of Thomas Roch
+and yourself was almost immediately discovered. Two such valuable
+lives had to be saved at all hazards. We set to work. There are many
+expert divers among our men. They hastily donned their suits and
+descended to the bottom of the lagoon. They passed lines around the
+hull of the _Sword_----"
+
+"The _Sword_?" I exclaim.
+
+"That is the name we saw painted on the bow of the vessel when we
+raised her to the surface. What satisfaction we experienced when we
+recovered you--unconscious, it is true, but still breathing--and were
+able to bring you back to life! Unfortunately all our attentions to
+the officer who commanded the _Sword_, and to his crew were useless.
+The shock had torn open the after and middle compartments, and
+they paid with their lives the misfortune--due to chance, as you
+observe--of having discovered our mysterious retreat."
+
+On learning that Lieutenant Davon and his companions are dead, my
+heart is filled with anguish; but to keep up my role--as they were
+persons with whom, presumably, I was not acquainted, and had never
+seen--I am careful not to display any emotion. I must, on no account,
+afford ground for the suspicion that there was any connivance between
+the commander of the _Sword_ and me. For aught I know, Engineer Serko
+may have reason to be very skeptical about the discovery of the tunnel
+being accidental.
+
+What, however, I am most concerned about is that the unlooked-for
+occasion to recover my liberty was lost. Shall I ever be afforded
+another chance? However this may be, my notice reached the English
+authorities of the archipelago, and they now know where Ker Karraje
+is to be found. When it is seen that the _Sword_ does not return to
+Bermuda, there can be no doubt that another attempt will be made to
+get inside Back Cup, in which, had it not been for the inopportune
+return of the tug, I should no longer be a prisoner.
+
+I have resumed my usual existence, and having allayed all mistrust, am
+permitted to wander freely about the cavern, as usual.
+
+It is patent that the adventure has had no ill effect upon Thomas
+Roch. Intelligent nursing brought him around, as it did me. In full
+possession of his mental faculties he has returned to work, and spends
+the entire day in his laboratory.
+
+The _Ebba_ brought back from her last trip bales, boxes, and a
+quantity of objects of varied origin, and I conclude that a number of
+ships must have been pillaged during this marauding expedition.
+
+The work on the trestles for Roch's engine goes steadily forward, and
+there are now no fewer than fifty engines. If Ker Karraje and Engineer
+Serko are under the necessity of defending Back Cup, three or four
+will be sufficient to render the island unapproachable, as they will
+cover a zone which no vessel could enter without being blown to
+pieces. And it occurs to me that they intend to put Back Cup in a
+state of defence after having argued as follows:
+
+"If the appearance of the _Sword_ in the lagoon was due to chance the
+situation remains unchanged, and no power, not even England, will
+think of seeking for the _Sword_ inside the cavern. If, on the other
+hand, as the result of an incomprehensible revelation, it has been
+learned that Back Cup is become the retreat of Ker Karraje, if the
+expedition of the _Sword_ was a first effort against the island,
+another of a different kind--either a bombardment from a distance, or
+an attack by a landing party--is to be expected. Therefore, ere we
+can quit Back Cup and carry away our plunder, we shall have to defend
+ourselves by means of Roch's fulgurator."
+
+In my opinion the rascals must have gone on to reason still further in
+this wise:
+
+"Is there any connection between the disclosure of our secret--if it
+was, and however it may have been made--and the double abduction from
+Healthful House? Is it known that Thomas Roch and his keeper are
+confined in Back Cup? Is it known that the abduction was effected in
+the interest of Ker Karraje? Have Americans, English, French, Germans,
+and Russians reason to fear that an attack in force against the island
+would be doomed to failure?"
+
+Ker Karraje must know very well that these powers would not hesitate
+to attack him, however great the danger might be. The destruction of
+his lair is an urgent duty in the interest of public security and
+of humanity. After sweeping the West Pacific the pirate and his
+companions are infesting the West Atlantic, and must be wiped out at
+all costs.
+
+In any case, it is imperative that the inhabitants of Back Cup should
+be on their guard. This fact is realized, and, from the day on which
+the _Sword_ was destroyed, strict watch has been kept. Thanks to the
+new passage, they are able to hide among the rocks without having
+recourse to the submarine tunnel to get there, and day and night a
+dozen sentries are posted about the island. The moment a ship appears
+in sight the fact is at once made known inside the cavern.
+
+Nothing occurs for some days, and the latter succeed each other with
+dreadful monotony. The pirates, however, feel that Back Cup no longer
+enjoys its former security. Every moment an alarm from the sentries
+posted outside is expected. The situation is no longer the same since
+the advent of the _Sword_. Gallant Lieutenant Davon, gallant crew,
+may England, may the civilized nations, never forget that you have
+sacrificed your lives in the cause of humanity!
+
+It is evident that now, however powerful may be their means of
+defence, even more powerful than a network of torpedoes, Engineer
+Serko and Captain Spade are filled with an anxiety that they vainly
+essay to dissemble. They hold frequent conferences together. Maybe
+they discuss the advisability of quitting Back Cup with their wealth,
+for they are aware that if the existence of the cavern is known means
+will be found to reduce it, even if the inmates have to be starved
+out.
+
+This is, of course, mere conjecture on my part. What is essential to
+me is that they do not suspect me of having launched the keg that
+was so providentially picked up at Bermuda. Never, I must say, has
+Engineer Serko ever made any allusion to any such probability. No, I
+am not even suspected. If the contrary were the case I am sufficiently
+acquainted with Ker Karraje to know that he would long ago have sent
+me to rejoin Lieutenant Davon and the _Sword_ at the bottom of the
+lagoon.
+
+The winter tempests have set in with a vengeance. The wind howls
+though the hole in the roof, and rude gusts sweep through the forest
+of pillars producing sonorous sounds, so sonorous, so deep, that one
+might sometimes almost fancy they were produced by the firing of the
+guns of a squadron. Flocks of seabirds take refuge in the cavern from
+the gale, and at intervals, when it lulls, almost deafen us with their
+screaming.
+
+It is to be presumed that in such weather the schooner will make no
+attempt to put to sea, for the stock of provisions is ample enough to
+last all the season. Moreover, I imagine the Count d'Artigas will not
+be so eager in future to show his _Ebba_ along the American
+coast, where he risks being received, not, as hitherto, with the
+consideration due to a wealthy yachtsman, but in the manner Ker
+Karraje so richly merits.
+
+It occurs to me that if the apparition of the _Sword_ was the
+commencement of a campaign against the island, a question of great
+moment relative to the future of Back Cup arises.
+
+Therefore, one day, prudently, so as not to excite any suspicion, I
+ventured to pump Engineer Serko about it.
+
+We were in the neighborhood of Thomas Roch's laboratory, and had
+been conversing for some time, when Engineer Serko touched upon the
+extraordinary apparition of an English submarine boat in the lagoon.
+On this occasion he seemed to incline to the view that it might have
+been a premeditated expedition against Ker Karraje.
+
+"That is not my opinion," I replied, in order to bring him to the
+question that I wanted to put to him.
+
+"Why?" he demanded.
+
+"Because if your retreat were known a fresh attempt, if not to
+penetrate to the cavern, at least to destroy Back Cup, would ere this
+have been made."
+
+"Destroy it!" cried Serko. "It would be a dangerous undertaking, in
+view of the means of defence of which we now dispose."
+
+"They can know nothing about this matter, Mr. Serko. It is not
+imagined, either in the new world or the old, that the abduction from
+Healthful House was effected for your especial benefit, or that you
+have succeeded in coming to terms with Thomas Roch for his invention."
+
+Engineer Serko made no response to this observation, which, for that
+matter, was unanswerable.
+
+I continued:
+
+"Therefore a squadron sent by the maritime powers who have an interest
+in breaking up this island would not hesitate to approach and shell
+it. Now, I argue from this that as this squadron has not yet appeared,
+it is not likely to come at all, and that nothing is known as to Ker
+Karraje's whereabouts, and you must admit that this hypothesis is the
+most cheerful one, as far as you are concerned."
+
+"That may be," Engineer Serko replied, "but what is, is. Whether they
+are aware of the fact or no, if warships approach within five or six
+miles of this island they will be sunk before they have had time to
+fire a single shot!"
+
+"Well, and what then?"
+
+"What then? Why the probability is that no others would care to repeat
+the experiment."
+
+"That, again, may be. But these warships would invest you beyond the
+dangerous zone, and the _Ebba_ would not be able to put in to the
+ports she previously visited with the Count d'Artigas. In this event,
+how would you be able to provision the island?"
+
+Engineer Serko remained silent.
+
+This argument, which he must already have brooded over, was too
+logical to be refuted or dismissed, and I have an idea that the
+pirates contemplate abandoning Back Cup.
+
+Nevertheless, not relishing being cornered, he continued:
+
+"We should still have the tug, and what the _Ebba_ could not do, this
+would."
+
+"The tug?" I cried. "But if Ker Karraje's secrets are known, do you
+suppose the powers are not also aware of the existence of the Count
+d'Artigas' submarine boat?"
+
+Engineer Serko looked at me suspiciously.
+
+"Mr. Hart," he said, "you appear to me to carry your deductions rather
+far."
+
+"I, Mr. Serko?"
+
+"Yes, and I think you talk about all this like a man who knows more
+than he ought to."
+
+This remark brought me up abruptly. It was evident that my arguments
+might give rise to the suspicion that I was not altogether
+irresponsible for the recent incident. Engineer Serko scrutinized me
+sharply as though he would read my innermost thoughts.
+
+"Mr. Serko," I observed, "by profession, as well as by inclination, I
+am accustomed to reason upon everything. This is why I communicated to
+you the result of my reasoning, which you can take into consideration
+or not, as you like."
+
+Thereupon we separate. But I fancy my lack of reserve may have excited
+suspicions which may not be easy to allay.
+
+From this interview, however, I gleaned a precious bit of information,
+namely, that the dangerous zone of Roch's fulgurator is between five
+and six miles off. Perhaps, during the next equinoctial tides,
+another notice to this effect in another keg may also reach a safe
+destination.
+
+But how many weary months to wait before the orifice of the tunnel
+will again be uncovered!
+
+The rough weather continues, and the squalls are more violent than
+ever. Is it the state of the sea that delays another campaign against
+Back Cup? Lieutenant Davon certainly assured me that if his expedition
+failed, if the _Sword_ did not return to St. George, another attempt
+under different conditions would be made with a view to breaking up
+this bandits' lair. Sooner or later the work of justice must be
+done, and Back Cup be destroyed, even though I may not survive its
+destruction.
+
+Ah! why can I not go and breathe, if only for a single instant, the
+vivifying air outside? Why am I not permitted to cast one glance over
+the ocean towards the distant horizon of the Bermudas? My whole life
+is concentrated in one desire: to get through the tunnel in the wall
+and hide myself among the rocks. Perchance I might be the first to
+catch sight of the smoke of a squadron heading for the island.
+
+This project, alas! is unrealizable, as sentries are posted day and
+night at each extremity of the passage. No one can enter it without
+Engineer Serko's authorization. Were I to attempt it, I should risk
+being deprived of my liberty to walk about the cavern, and even worse
+might happen to me.
+
+Since our last conversation, Engineer Serko's attitude towards me has
+undergone a change. His gaze has lost its old-time sarcasm and is
+distrustful, suspicious, searching and as stern as Ker Karraje's.
+
+_November 17_.--This afternoon there was a great commotion in the
+Beehive, and the men rushed out of their cells with loud cries.
+
+I was reclining on my bed, but immediately rose and hurried out.
+
+All the pirates were making for the passage, in front of which were
+Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, Boatswain Effrondat,
+Engine-driver Gibson and the Count d'Artigas' big Malay attendant.
+
+I soon learn the reason for the tumult, for the sentries rush in with
+shouts of alarm.
+
+Several vessels have been sighted to the northwest--warships steaming
+at full speed in the direction of Back Cup.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+ONLY A FEW MORE HOURS.
+
+
+What effect this news has upon me, and what emotion it awakens within
+my soul! The end, I feel, is at hand. May it be such as civilization
+and humanity are entitled to.
+
+Up to the present I have indited my notes day by day. Henceforward
+it is imperative that I should inscribe them hour by hour, minute by
+minute. Who knows but what Thomas Roch's last secret may be revealed
+to me and that I shall have time to commit it to paper! Should I die
+during the attack God grant that the account of the five months I have
+passed in Back Cup may be found upon my body!
+
+At first Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, and several of
+their companions took up position on the exterior base of the island.
+What would I not give to be able follow to them, and in the friendly
+shelter of a rook watch the on-coming warships!
+
+An hour later they return after having left a score of men to keep
+watch. As the days at this season of the year are very short there is
+nothing to fear before the morrow. It is not likely that the ships
+will attempt a night attack and land a storming party, for they must
+imagine that the place is in a thorough condition of defence.
+
+All night long the pirates work, installing the trestles at different
+points of the coast. Six have been taken through the passage to places
+selected in advance.
+
+This done, Engineer Serko joins Thomas Roch in his laboratory. Is he
+going to tell him what is passing, that a squadron is in view of Back
+Cup, and that his fulgurator will be employed to defend the island?
+
+What is certain is that half a hundred engines, each charged with
+several pounds of the explosive and of the substance that ensures a
+trajectory superior to that of any other projectile, are ready for
+their work of destruction.
+
+As to the deflagrator liquid, Thomas Roch has a certain number of
+phials of it, and--I know only too well--will not refuse to help Ker
+Karraje's pirates with it.
+
+During these preparations night has come on. Only the lamps of the
+Beehive are lighted and a semi-obscurity reigns in the cavern.
+
+I return to my cell. It is to my interest to keep out of the way as
+much as possible, for Engineer Serko's suspicions might be revived now
+that the squadron is approaching Back Cup.
+
+But will the vessels sighted continue on their course in this
+direction? May they not be merely passing on their way to Bermuda? For
+an instant this doubt enters my mind. No, no, it cannot be! Besides, I
+have just heard Captain Spade declare that they are lying to in view
+of the island.
+
+To what nation do they belong? Have the English, desirous of avenging
+the destruction of the _Sword_, alone undertaken the expedition? May
+not cruisers of other nations be with them? I know not, and it is
+impossible to ascertain. And what does it matter, after all, so long
+as this haunt is destroyed, even though I should perish in the ruins
+like the heroic Lieutenant Davon and his brave crew?
+
+Preparations for defence continue with coolness and method under
+Engineer Serko's superintendence. These pirates are obviously certain
+that they will be able to annihilate their assailants as soon as the
+latter enter the dangerous zone. Their confidence in Roch's fulgurator
+is absolute. Absorbed by the idea that these warship are powerless
+against them, they think neither of the difficulties nor menaces held
+out by the future.
+
+I surmise that the trestles have been set up on the northwest coast
+with the grooves turned to send the engines to the north, west, and
+south. On the east, as already stated, the island is defended by the
+chain of reefs that stretches away to the Bermudas.
+
+About nine o'clock I venture out of my cell. They will pay little
+attention to me, and perhaps I may escape notice in the obscurity. Ah!
+if I could get through that passage and hide behind some rock, so that
+I could witness what goes on at daybreak! And why should I not succeed
+now that Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, and the pirates
+have taken their posts outside?
+
+The shores of the lake are deserted, but the entrance to the passage
+is kept by Count d'Artigas' Malay. I saunter, without any fixed idea,
+towards Thomas Roch's laboratory. This reminds me of my compatriot. I
+am, on reflection, disposed to think that he knows nothing about the
+presence of a squadron off Back Cup. Probably not until the last
+moment will Engineer Serko apprise him of its proximity, not till he
+brusquely points out to him the vengeance he can accomplish.
+
+Then I conceive the idea of enlightening Thomas Roch, myself, of the
+responsibility he is incurring and of revealing to him in this supreme
+hour the character of the men who want him to co-operate in their
+criminal projects.
+
+Yes, I will, attempt it, and may I succeed in fanning into a flame any
+spark of patriotism that may still linger in his rebellious soul!
+
+Roch is shut up in his laboratory. He must be alone, for never does he
+allow any one to enter while he is preparing his deflagrator.
+
+As I pass the jetty I notice that the tug is moored in its accustomed
+place. Here I judge it prudent to walk behind the first row of pillars
+and approach the laboratory laterally--which will enable me to see
+whether anybody is with him. When I have gone a short distance along
+the sombre avenue I see a bright light on the opposite side of the
+lagoon. It is the electric light in Roch's laboratory as seen through
+a narrow window in the front.
+
+Except in that particular spot, the southern shore of the lake is in
+darkness, whereas, in the opposite direction, the Beehive is lit up to
+its extremity at the northern wall. Through the opening in the dome,
+over the lake I can see the stars shining. The sky is clear, the
+tempest has abated, and the squalls no longer penetrate to the
+interior of Back Cup.
+
+When near the laboratory, I creep along the wall and peep in at the
+window.
+
+Thomas Roch is there alone. The light shines full on his face. If it
+is somewhat drawn, and the lines on the forehead are more
+pronounced, his physiognomy, at least, denotes perfect calmness and
+self-possession. No, he is no longer the inmate of Pavilion No. 17,
+the madman of Healthful House, and I ask myself whether he is not
+radically cured, whether there is no further danger of his reason
+collapsing in a final paroxysm.
+
+He has just laid two glass phials upon the table, and holds a third in
+his hand. He holds it up to the light, and observes the limpidity of
+the liquid it contains.
+
+I have half a mind to rush in, seize the tubes and smash them, but I
+reflect that he would have time to make some more of the stuff. Better
+stick to my first plan.
+
+I push the door open and enter.
+
+"Thomas Roch!" I exclaim.
+
+He has not heard, nor has he seen me.
+
+"Thomas Roch!" I repeat.
+
+He raises his head, turns and gazes at me.
+
+"Ah! it is you, Simon Hart!" he replies calmly, even indifferently.
+
+He knows my name. Engineer Serko must have informed him that it
+was Simon Hart, and not Keeper Gaydon who was watching over him at
+Healthful House.
+
+"You know who I am?" I say.
+
+"Yes, as I know what your object was in undertaking such a position.
+You lived in hopes of surprising a secret that they would not pay for
+at its just value!"
+
+Thomas Roch knows everything, and perhaps it is just as well, in view
+of what I am going to say.
+
+"Well, you did not succeed, Simon Hart, and as far as this is
+concerned," he added, flourishing the phial, "no one else has
+succeeded, or ever will succeed."
+
+As I conjectured, he has not, then, made known the composition of his
+deflagrator.
+
+Looking him straight in the face, I reply:
+
+"You know who I am, Thomas Roch, but do you know in whose place you
+are?"
+
+"In my own place!" he cries.
+
+That is what Ker Karraje has permitted him to believe. The inventor
+thinks he is at home in Back Cup, that the riches accumulated in this
+cavern are his, and that if an attack is made upon the place, it will
+be with the object of stealing what belongs to him! And he will defend
+it under the impression that he has the right to do so!
+
+"Thomas Roch," I continue, "listen to me."
+
+"What do you want to say to me, Simon Hart?"
+
+"This cavern into which we have been dragged, is occupied by a band of
+pirates, and--"
+
+Roch does not give me time to complete the sentence--I doubt even
+whether he has understood me.
+
+"I repeat," he interrupts vehemently, "that the treasures stored here
+are the price of my invention. They have paid me what I asked for
+my fulgurator--what I was everywhere else refused--even in my own
+country--which is also yours--and I will not allow myself to be
+despoiled!"
+
+What can I reply to such insensate assertions? I, however, go on:
+
+"Thomas Roch, do you remember Healthful House?"
+
+"Healthful House, where I was sequestrated after Warder Gaydon had
+been entrusted with the mission of spying upon me in order to rob me
+of my secret? I do, indeed."
+
+"I never dreamed of depriving you of the benefit of your secret,
+Thomas Roch. I would never have accepted such a mission. But you were
+ill, your reason was affected, and your invention was too valuable to
+be lost. Yes, had you disclosed the secret during one of your fits you
+would have preserved all the benefit and all the honor of it."
+
+"Really, Simon Hart!" Roch replies disdainfully. "Honor and benefit!
+Your assurances come somewhat late in the day. You forget that on
+the pretext of insanity, I was thrown into a dungeon. Yes, it was a
+pretext; for my reason has never left me, even for an hour, as you can
+see from what I have accomplished since I am free."
+
+"Free! Do you imagine you are free, Thomas Roch? Are you not more
+closely confined within the walls of this cavern than you ever were at
+Healthful House?"
+
+"A man who is in his own home," he replies angrily, "goes out as he
+likes and when he likes. I have only to say the word and all the doors
+will open before me. This place is mine. Count d'Artigas gave it to me
+with everything it contains. Woe to those who attempt to attack it.
+I have here the wherewithal to annihilate them, Simon Hart!" The
+inventor waves the phial feverishly as he speaks."
+
+"The Count d'Artigas has deceived you," I cry, "as he has deceived so
+many others. Under this name is dissembled one of the most formidable
+monsters who ever scoured the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. He is a
+bandit steeped in crime--he is the odious Ker Karraje!"
+
+"Ker Karraje!" echoes Thomas Roch.
+
+And I wonder if this name has not impressed him, if he remembers
+who the man is who bears it. If it did impress him, it was only
+momentarily.
+
+
+"I do not know this Ker Karraje," he says, pointing towards the door
+to order me out. "I only know the Count d'Artigas."
+
+"Thomas Roch," I persist, in a final effort, "the Count d'Artigas and
+Ker Karraje are one and the same person. If this man has purchased
+your secret, it is with the intention of ensuring impunity for his
+crimes and facilities for committing fresh ones. He is the chief of
+these pirates."
+
+"Pirates!" cries Roch, whose irritation increases the more I press
+him. "The real pirates are those who dare to menace me even in this
+retreat, who tried it on with the _Sword_--for Serko has told me
+everything--who sought to steal in my own home what belongs to me,
+what is but the just price of my discovery."
+
+"No, Thomas Roch, the pirates are those who have imprisoned you in
+this cavern of Back Cup, who will utilize your genius to defend it,
+and who will get rid of you when they are in entire possession of your
+secrets!"
+
+Thomas Roch here interrupts me. He does not appear to listen to what I
+say. He has a fixed idea, that of vengeance, which has been skilfully
+worked upon by Engineer Serko, and in which his hatred is concentrated
+to the exclusion of everything else.
+
+"The bandits," he hisses, "are those who spurned me without a hearing,
+who heaped injustice and ignominy upon me, who drove me from country
+to country, whereas I offered them superiority, invincibleness,
+omnipotence!"
+
+It is the eternal story of the unappreciated inventor, to whom the
+indifferent or envious refuse the means of testing his inventions, to
+pay him the value he sets upon them. I know it well--and also know all
+the exaggeration that has been written upon this subject.
+
+It is clearly no time for reasoning with Thomas Roch. My arguments
+are entirely lost upon the hapless dupe of Ker Karraje and his
+accomplices. In revealing to him the real name of the Count d'Artigas,
+and denouncing to him this band and their chief I had hoped to wean
+him from their influence and make him realize the criminal end they
+have in view. My hope was vain. He does not believe me. And then what
+does he care whether the brigand's name is Count 'd'Artigas or Ker
+Karraje? Is not he, Thomas Roch, master of Back Cup? Is he not the
+owner of these riches accumulated by twenty years of murder and
+rapine?
+
+Disarmed before such moral degeneracy, knowing not how I can touch
+his ulcerated, irresponsible heart, I turn towards the door. It only
+remains for me to withdraw. What is to be, will be, since it is out of
+my power to prevent the frightful _dénouement_ that will occur in a
+few hours.
+
+Thomas Roch takes no more notice of me. He seems to have forgotten
+that I am here. He has resumed his manipulations without realizing
+that he is not alone.
+
+There is only one means of preventing the imminent catastrophe. Throw
+myself upon Roch, place him beyond the power of doing harm--strike
+him--kill him--yes, kill him! It is my right--it is my duty!
+
+I have no arms, but on a near-by shelf I see some tools--a chisel and
+a hammer. What is to prevent me from knocking his brains out? Once he
+is dead I have but to smash the phials and his invention dies with
+him. The warships can approach, land their men upon the island,
+demolish Back Cup with their shells. Ker Karraje and his band will be
+killed to a man. Can I hesitate at a murder that will bring about the
+chastisement of so many crimes?
+
+I advance to the shelf and stretch forth my hand to seize the chisel.
+
+As I do so, Thomas Roch turns round.
+
+It is too late to strike. A struggle would ensue. The noise and his
+cries would be heard, for there are still some pirates not far off, I
+can even now hear some one approaching, and have only just time to fly
+if I would not be seen.
+
+Nevertheless, I make one last attempt to awaken the sentiment of
+patriotism within him.
+
+"Thomas Roch," I say, "warships are in sight. They have come to
+destroy this lair. Maybe one of them flies the French flag!"
+
+He gazes at me. He was not aware that Back Cup is going to be
+attacked, and I have just apprised him of the fact. His brow darkens
+and his eyes flash.
+
+"Thomas Roch, would you dare to fire upon your country's flag--the
+tricolor flag?"
+
+He raises his head, shakes it nervously, and with a disdainful
+gesture:
+
+"What do you mean by 'your country?' I no longer have any country,
+Simon Hart. The inventor spurned no longer has a country. Where he
+finds an asylum, there is his fatherland! They seek to take what is
+mine. I will defend it, and woe, woe to those who dare to attack me!"
+
+Then rushing to the door of the laboratory and throwing it violently
+open he shouts so loudly that he must be heard at the Beehive:
+
+"Go! Get you gone!"
+
+I have not a second to lose, and I dash out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+ONE AGAINST FIVE.
+
+
+For a whole hour I wander about among Back Cup's dark vaults, amid the
+stone trees, to the extreme limit of the cavern. It is here that I
+have so often sought an issue, a crevice, a crack through which I
+might squeeze to the shore of the island.
+
+My search has been futile. In my present condition, a prey to
+indefinable hallucinations it seems to me that these walls are thicker
+than ever, that they are gradually closing in upon and will crush me.
+
+How long this mental trouble lasts I cannot say. But I afterwards find
+myself on the Beehive side, opposite the cell in which I cannot hope
+for either repose or sleep. Sleep, when my brain is in a whirl
+of excitement? Sleep, when I am near the end of a situation that
+threatened to be prolonged for years and years?
+
+What will the end be as far as I am personally concerned? What am I to
+expect from the attack upon Back Cup, the success of which I have been
+unable to assure by placing Thomas Roch beyond the possibility of
+doing harm? His engines are ready to be launched, and as soon as the
+vessels have reached the dangerous zone they will be blown to atoms.
+
+However this may be, I am condemned to pass the remaining hours of the
+night in my cell. The time has come for me to go in. At daybreak I
+shall see what is best for me to do. Meanwhile, for aught I know I
+may hear the thunder of Roch's fulgurator as it destroys the ships
+approaching to make a night attack.
+
+I take a last look round. On the opposite side a light, a single
+light, is burning. It is the lamp in Roch's laboratory and it casts
+its reflection upon the waters of the lake.
+
+No one is about, and it occurs to me that the pirates must have taken
+up their lighting positions outside and that the Beehive is empty.
+
+Then, impelled by an irresistible instinct, instead of returning to my
+cell, I creep along the wall, listening, spying, ready to hide if I
+hear voices or footsteps.
+
+I at length reach the passage.
+
+God in heaven! No one is on guard there--the passage is free!
+
+Without giving myself time to reflect I dart into the dark hole, and
+grope my way along it. Soon I feel a fresher air--the salt, vivifying
+air of the sea, that I have not breathed for five months. I inspire it
+with avidity, with all the power of my lungs.
+
+The outer extremity of the passage appears against the star-studded
+sky. There is not even a shadow in the way. Perhaps I shall be able to
+get outside.
+
+I lay down, and crawl along noiselessly to the orifice and peer out.
+
+Not a soul is in sight!
+
+By skirting the rocks towards the east, to the side which cannot be
+approached from the sea on account of the reefs and which is not
+likely to be watched, I reach a narrow excavation about two hundred
+and twenty-five yards from where the point of the coast extends
+towards the northwest.
+
+At last I am out of the cavern. I am not free, but it is the beginning
+of freedom.
+
+On the point the forms of a few sentries stand out against the clear
+sky, so motionless that they might be mistaken for pieces of the rock.
+
+On the horizon to the west the position lights of the warship show in
+a luminous line.
+
+From a few gray patches discernable in the east, I calculate that it
+must be about five o'clock in the morning.
+
+_November 18_.--It is now light enough for me to be able to
+complete my notes relating the details of my visit to Thomas Roch's
+laboratory--the last lines my hand will trace, perhaps.
+
+I have begun to write, and shall dot down the incidents of the attack
+as they occur.
+
+The light damp mist that hangs over the water soon lifts under the
+influence of the breeze, and at last I can distinguish the warships.
+
+There are five of them, and they are lying in a line about six miles
+off, and consequently beyond the range of Roch's engines.
+
+My fear that after passing in sight of the Bermudas the squadron would
+continue on its way to the Antilles or Mexico was therefore unfounded.
+No, there it is, awaiting broad daylight in order to attack Back Cup.
+
+There is a movement on the coast. Three or four pirates emerge from
+the rocks, the sentries are recalled and draw in, and the entire band
+is soon assembled. They do not seek shelter inside the cavern, knowing
+full well that the ships can never get near enough for the shells of
+the big guns to reach, the island.
+
+I run no risk of being discovered, for only my head protrudes above
+the hole in the rock and no one is likely to come this way. The only
+thing that worries me is that Serko, or somebody else may take it into
+his head to see if I am in my cell, and if necessary to lock me in,
+though what they have to fear from me I cannot conceive.
+
+At twenty-five minutes past seven: Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko and
+Captain Spade advance to the extremity of the point, where they sweep
+the north-western horizon with their telescopes. Behind them the
+six trestles are installed, in the grooves of which are Roch's
+autopropulsive engines.
+
+Thirty-five minutes past seven: Smoke arises from the stacks of the
+warships, which are getting under way and will soon be within range of
+the engines.
+
+Horrible cries of joy, salvos of hurrahs--howls of wild beasts I might
+more appropriately say--arise from the pirate horde.
+
+At this moment Engineer Serko quits Ker Karraje, whom he leaves with
+Captain Spade, and enters the cavern, no doubt to fetch Thomas Roch.
+
+When Ker Karraje orders the latter to launch his engines against the
+ships will he remember what I told him? Will not his crime appear
+to him in all its horror? Will he refuse to obey? No, I am only too
+convinced of the contrary. It is useless to entertain any illusion on
+the subject. The inventor believes he is on his own property. They are
+going to attack it. He will defend it.
+
+The five warships slowly advance, making for the point. Perhaps they
+imagine on board that Thomas Roch has not given up his last and
+greatest secret to the pirates--and, as a matter of fact, he had
+not done so when I threw the keg into the lagoon. If the commanders
+propose to land storming parties and the ships advance into the
+zone of danger there will soon be nothing left of them but bits of
+shapeless floating wreckage.
+
+Here comes Thomas Roch accompanied by Engineer Serko. On issuing
+from the passage both go to the trestle that is pointing towards the
+leading warship.
+
+Ker Karraje and Captain Spade are awaiting them.
+
+As far as I am able to judge, Roch is calm. He knows what he is going
+to do. No hesitation troubles the soul of the hapless man whom hatred
+has led astray.
+
+Between his fingers shines the glass phial containing the deflagrator
+liquid.
+
+He then gazes towards the nearest ship, which is about five miles'
+distant.
+
+She is a cruiser of about two thousand five hundred tons--not more.
+
+She flies no flag, but from her build I take her to belong to a nation
+for which no Frenchman can entertain any particular regard.
+
+The four other warships remain behind.
+
+It is this cruiser which is to begin the attack.
+
+Let her use her guns, then, since the pirates allow her to approach,
+and may the first of her projectiles strike Thomas Roch!
+
+While Engineer Serko is estimating the distance, Roch places himself
+behind the trestle. Three engines are resting on it, charged with
+the explosive, and which are assured a long trajectory by the fusing
+matter without it being necessary to impart a gyratory movement to
+them--as in the case of Inventor Turpin's gyroscopic projectiles.
+Besides, if they drop within a few hundred yards of the vessel, they
+will be quite near enough to utterly destroy it.
+
+The time has come.
+
+"Thomas Roch!" Engineer Serko cries, and points to the cruiser.
+
+The latter is steaming slowly towards the northwestern point of the
+island and is between four and five miles off.
+
+Roch nods assent, and waves them back from the trestle.
+
+Ker Karraje, Captain Spade and the others draw back about fifty paces.
+
+Thomas Roch then takes the stopper from the phial which he holds in
+his right hand, and successively pours into a hole in the rear-end of
+each engine a few drops of the liquid, which mixes with the fusing
+matter.
+
+Forty-five seconds elapse--the time necessary for the combination to
+be effected--forty-five seconds during which it seems to me that my
+heart ceases to beat.
+
+A frightful whistling is then heard, and the three engines tear
+through the air, describing a prolonged curve at a height of three
+hundred feet, and pass the cruiser.
+
+Have they missed it? Is the danger over?
+
+No! the engines, after the manner of Artillery Captain Chapel's
+discoid projectile, return towards the doomed vessel like an
+Australian boomerang.
+
+The next instant the air is shaken with a violence comparable to that
+which would be caused by the explosion of a magazine of melinite or
+dynamite, Back Cup Island trembles to its very foundations.
+
+The cruiser has disappeared,--blown to pieces. The effect is that of
+the Zalinski shell, but centupled by the infinite power of Roch's
+fulgurator.
+
+What shouts the bandits raise as they rush towards the extremity of
+the point! Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade remain
+rooted to the spot, hardly able to credit the evidence of their own
+eyes.
+
+As to Thomas Roch, he stands with folded arms, and flashing eyes, his
+face radiant with pride and triumph.
+
+I understand, while I abhor his feelings.
+
+If the other warships approach they will share the same fate as the
+cruiser. They will inevitably be destroyed. Oh! if they would but give
+up the struggle and withdraw to safety, even though my last hope would
+go with them! The nations can consult and arrive at some other plan
+for destroying the island. They can surround the place with a belt of
+ships that the pirates cannot break through and starve them to death
+like so many rats in a hole.
+
+But I know that the warships will not retire, even though they know
+they are going to certain death. One after the other they will all
+make the attempt.
+
+And I am right. Signals are exchanged between them. Almost immediately
+clouds of black smoke arise and the vessels again advance.
+
+One of them, under forced draught, distances the others in her anxiety
+to bring her big guns quickly into action.
+
+At all risks I issue from my hole, and gaze at the on-coming warship
+with feverish eyes, awaiting, without being able to prevent it,
+another catastrophe.
+
+This vessel, which visibly grows larger as it comes nearer, is a
+cruiser of about the same tonnage as the one that preceded her. No
+flag is flying and I cannot guess her nationality. She continues
+steaming at full speed in an effort to pass the zone of danger before
+other engines can be launched. But how can she escape them since they
+will swoop back upon her?
+
+Thomas Roch places himself behind the second trestle as the cruiser
+passes on to the surface of the abysm in which she will in turn soon
+be swallowed up.
+
+No sound disturbs the stillness.
+
+Suddenly the rolling of drums and the blare of bugles is heard on
+board the warship.
+
+I know those bugle calls: they are French bugles! Great God! She is
+one of the ships of my own country's navy and a French inventor is
+about to destroy her!
+
+No! it shall not be. I will rush towards Thomas Roch--shout to him
+that she is a French ship. He does not, cannot, know it.
+
+At a sign from Engineer Serko the inventor has raised the phial.
+
+The bugles sound louder and more strident. It is the salute to the
+flag. A flag unfurls to the breeze--the tricolor, whose blue, white
+and red sections stand out luminously against the sky.
+
+Ah! What is this? I understand! Thomas Roch is fascinated at the sight
+of his national emblem. Slowly he lowers his arm as the flag flutters
+up to the mast-head. Then he draws back and covers his eyes with his
+hand.
+
+Heavens above! All sentiment of patriotism is not then dead in his
+ulcerated heart, seeing that it beats at the sight of his country's
+flag!
+
+My emotion is not less than his. At the risk of being seen--and what
+do I now care if I am seen?--I creep over the rocks. I will be there
+to sustain Thomas Roch and prevent him from weakening. If I pay for it
+with my life I will once more adjure him in the name of his country. I
+will cry to him:
+
+"Frenchman, it is the tricolor that flies on yonder ship! Frenchman,
+it is a very part of France that is approaching you! Frenchman, would
+you be so criminal as to strike it?"
+
+But my intervention will not be necessary. Thomas Roch is not a prey
+to one of the fits to which he was formerly subject. He is perfectly
+sane.
+
+When he found himself facing the flag he understood--and drew back.
+
+A few pirates approach to lead him to the trestle again. He struggles
+and pushes them from him.
+
+Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko run up. They point to the rapidly
+advancing ship. They order him to launch his engines.
+
+Thomas Roch refuses.
+
+Captain Spade and the others, mad with rage, menace him--curse
+him--strike him--try to wrest the phial from him.
+
+Roch throws it on the ground and crushes it under foot.
+
+Then panic seizes upon the crowd of wretches. The cruiser has passed
+the zone and they cannot return her fire. Shells begin to rain all
+over the island, bursting the rocks in every direction.
+
+But where is Thomas Roch? Has he been killed by one of the
+projectiles? No, I see him for the last time as he dashes into the
+passage.
+
+Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko and the others follow him to seek shelter
+inside of Back Cup.
+
+I will not return to the cavern at any price, even if I get killed by
+staying where I am.
+
+I will jot down my final notes and when the French sailors land on the
+point I will go--
+
+
+END OF ENGINEER SIMON HART'S NOTES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+ON BOARD THE "TONNANT."
+
+
+After the failure of Lieutenant Davon's mission with the _Sword_, the
+English authorities waited in vain for the expedition to return, and
+the conviction at length gained ground that the bold sailors had
+perished; but whether the _Sword_ had been lost by striking against
+a rock or had been destroyed by Ker Karraje's pirates, could not, of
+course, be ascertained.
+
+The object of the expedition, based upon the indications of the
+document found in the keg that was thrown up on the shore at St.
+George, was to carry off Thomas Roch ere his engines were completed.
+The French inventor having been recovered--without forgetting Engineer
+Simon Hart--he was to be handed over to the care of the Bermudan
+authorities. That done, there would be nothing to fear from his
+fulgurator when the island was attacked.
+
+When, however, the _Sword_ had been given up for lost, another
+expedition of a different kind, was decided upon.
+
+The time that had elapsed--nearly eight weeks--from the date of the
+document found in the keg, had to be taken into consideration. It
+was thought that during the interval, Ker Karraje might have gained
+possession of Roch's secrets.
+
+An _entente_ concluded between the maritime powers, resulted in the
+sending of five warships to Bermudan waters. As there was a vast
+cavern inside Back Cup mountain, it was decided to attempt to bring
+the latter down like the walls of a bastion, by bombarding it with
+powerful modern artillery.
+
+The squadron assembled at the entrance to the Chesapeake, in Virginia,
+and sailed for the archipelago, which was sighted on the evening of
+November 17.
+
+The next morning the vessel selected for the first attack, steamed
+forward. It was about four and a half miles from the island, when
+three engines, after passing the vessel, swerved round and exploded
+about sixty yards from her. She sank immediately.
+
+The effect of the explosion, which was superior to any previously
+obtained by new explosives, was instantaneous. Even at the distance
+they were from the spot where it occurred, the four remaining ships
+felt the shock severely.
+
+Two things were to be deduced from this sudden catastrophe:
+
+1.--The pirate Ker Karraje was in possession of Roch's fulgurator.
+
+2.--The new engine possessed the destructive power attributed to it by
+its inventor.
+
+After the disappearance of the unfortunate cruiser, the other vessels
+lowered boats to pick up a few survivors who were clinging to the
+floating wreckage.
+
+Then it was that the signals were exchanged and the warships started
+towards the island.
+
+The swiftest of them, the _Tonnant_, a French cruiser, forged ahead
+while the others forced their draught in an effort to catch up with
+her.
+
+The _Tonnant_, at the risk of being blown to pieces in turn,
+penetrated the danger zone half a mile, and then ran up her flag while
+manoeuvring to bring her heavy guns into action.
+
+From the bridge the officers could see Ker Karraje's band scattered on
+the rocks of the island.
+
+The occasion was an excellent one for getting a shot at them before
+the bombardment of their retreat was begun, and fire was opened with
+the result that the pirates made a rush to get into the cavern.
+
+A few minutes later there was a shock terrific enough to shake the sky
+down.
+
+Where the mountain had been, naught but a heap of smoking, crumbling
+rocks was to be seen. Back Cup had become a group of jagged reefs
+against which the sea, that had been thrown back like a gigantic tidal
+wave, was beating and frothing.
+
+What was the cause of the explosion?
+
+Had it been voluntarily caused by the pirates when they realized that
+escape was impossible?
+
+The _Tonnant_ had not been seriously damaged by the flying rocks. Her
+boats were lowered and made towards all that was left of Back Cup.
+
+The landing parties explored the ruins, and found a few horribly
+mangled corpses. Not a vestige of the cavern was to be seen.
+
+One body, and one only, was found intact. It was lying on the
+northeast side of the reefs. In one hand, tightly clasped, was a
+note-book, the last line of which was incomplete.
+
+A close examination showed that the man was still breathing. He
+was conveyed on board the _Tonnant_, where it was learned from the
+note-book that he was Simon Hart.
+
+For some time his life was despaired of, but he was eventually brought
+round, and from the answers made to the questions addressed to him the
+following conclusion was reached:
+
+Moved to his very soul at the sight of the tricolor flag, being at
+last conscious of the crime of _lèse-patrie_ he was about to commit,
+Thomas Roch rushed through the passage to the magazine where a
+considerable quantity of his explosive was stored. Then, before
+he could be prevented, brought about the terrible explosion which
+destroyed the island of Back Cup.
+
+And now Ker Karraje and his pirates have disappeared--and with them
+Thomas Roch and the secret of his invention.
+
+THE END.
+
+End of the Voyage Extraordinaire
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Facing the Flag, by Jules Verne
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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>The Project Gutenberg EBook of Facing the Flag, by Jules Verne</TITLE>
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+<BODY bgColor="#ffffec">
+<PRE>
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Facing the Flag, by Jules Verne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Facing the Flag
+
+Author: Jules Verne
+
+Release Date: March 13, 2004 [EBook #11556]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACING THE FLAG ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Norm Wolcott and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+Linked Table of Contents produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+</PRE>
+<HR>
+
+<H4>Facing the Flag by Jules Verne</H4>
+<P class=normal><B>[Redactor’s Note:</B> <I>Facing the Flag</I> {number
+<B>V044</B> in the T&amp;M listing of Verne’s works} is an anonymous translation
+of <I>Face au drapeau</I> (1896) first published in the U.S. by F. Tennyson
+Neely in 1897, and later (circa 1903) republished from the same plates by Hurst
+and F.M. Lupton (Federal Book Co.). Two apparent errors, which occur also in the
+french editions, have been made: the replacement of “Sivan� by “Swan� and of
+“Roandoke� by “Roanoke�. This is a different translation from the one published
+by Sampson &amp; Low in England entitled <I>For the Flag</I> (1897) translated
+by Mrs. Cashel Hoey.<B>]</B></P>
+<HR>
+
+<DIV align=center>
+<H2>FACING THE FLAG</H2>
+<H5>BY</H5>
+<H3>J U L E S &nbsp; V E R N E</H3>
+<H5>AUTHOR OF "AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS"; "TWENTY<BR>THOUSAND LEAGUES
+UNDER THE SEA"; "FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON," ETC.</H5>
+<P>&nbsp;</P>
+<P class=center>New York</P>
+<P class=center>THE F. M. LUPTON PUBLISHING COMPANY</P>
+<P class=center>PUBLISHERS</P>
+<HR>
+
+<P class=center>Copyright, 1897<BR>by<BR>F. TENNYSON NEELY</P>
+<HR>
+
+<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=2 width="70%" border=0>
+  <CAPTION><B>CONTENTS</B></CAPTION>
+  <TBODY>
+  <TR>
+    <TD>CHAP&nbsp;</TD>
+    <TD>&nbsp;</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD width="20%"><a href="#I">I</a></TD>
+    <TD>Healthful House</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#II">II</a></TD>
+    <TD>Count d'Artigas</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#III">III</a></TD>
+    <TD>Kidnapped</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#IV">IV</a></TD>
+    <TD>The Schooner “Ebba�</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#V">V</a></TD>
+    <TD>Where am I.--(Notes by Simon Hart, the Engineer.)</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#VI">VI</a></TD>
+    <TD>On Deck</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#VII">VII</a></TD>
+    <TD>Two Days at Sea</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#VIII">VIII</a></TD>
+    <TD>Back Cup</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#IX">IX</a></TD>
+    <TD>Inside Back Cup</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#X">X</a></TD>
+    <TD>Ker Karraje</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XI">XI</a></TD>
+    <TD>Five Weeks in Back Cup</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XII">XII</a></TD>
+    <TD>Engineer Serko’s Advice</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XIII">XIII</a></TD>
+    <TD>God Be with It</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XIV">XIV</a></TD>
+    <TD>Battle Between the “Sword� and the Tug</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XV">XV</a></TD>
+    <TD>Expectation</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XVI">XVI</a></TD>
+    <TD>Only a few more Hours</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XVII">XVII</a></TD>
+    <TD>One against Five</TD></TR>
+  <TR>
+    <TD><a href="#XVIII">XVIII</a></TD>
+    <TD>On Board the “Tonnant�</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV>
+<HR>
+
+<H4>FACING THE FLAG.</H4>
+
+<a name="I" id="I"></a>
+
+<H4>CHAPTER I.</H4>
+<H4>HEALTHFUL HOUSE.</H4>
+<P>The <I>carte de visite</I> received that day, June 15, 189—, by the director
+of the establishment of Healthful House was a very neat one, and simply bore,
+without escutcheon or coronet, the name:</P>
+<P class=center>COUNT D’ARTIGAS.</P>
+<P>Below this name, in a corner of the card, the following address was written
+in lead pencil:</P>
+<P>“On board the schooner <I>Ebba</I>, anchored off New-Berne, Pamlico
+Sound.�</P>
+<P>The capital of North Carolina—one of the forty-four states of the Union at
+this epoch—is the rather important town of Raleigh, which is about one hundred
+and fifty miles in the interior of the province. It is owing to its central
+position that this city has become the seat of the State legislature, for there
+are others that equal and even surpass it in industrial and commercial
+importance, such as Wilmington, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Edenton, Washington,
+Salisbury, Tarborough, Halifax, and New-Berne. The latter town is situated on
+estuary of the Neuse River, which empties itself into Pamlico Sound, a sort of
+vast maritime lake protected by a natural dyke formed by the isles and islets of
+the Carolina coast.</P>
+<P>The director of Healthful House could never have imagined why the card should
+have been sent to him, had it not been accompanied by a note from the Count
+d’Artigas soliciting permission to visit the establishment. The personage in
+question hoped that the director would grant his request, and announced that he
+would present himself in the afternoon, accompanied by Captain Spade, commander
+of the schooner <I>Ebba</I>.</P>
+<P>This desire to penetrate to the interior of the celebrated sanitarium, then
+in great request by the wealthy invalids of the United States, was natural
+enough on the part of a foreigner. Others who did not bear such a high-sounding
+name as the Count d’Artigas had visited it, and had been unstinting in their
+compliments to the director. The latter therefore hastened to accord the
+authorization demanded, and added that he would be honored to open the doors of
+the establishment to the Count d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>Healthful House, which contained a select <I>personnel</I>, and was assured
+of the co-operation of the most celebrated doctors in the country, was a private
+enterprise. Independent of hospitals and almshouses, but subjected to the
+surveillance of the State, it comprised all the conditions of comfort and
+salubrity essential to establishments of this description designed to receive an
+opulent <I>clientele</I>.</P>
+<P>It would have been difficult to find a more agreeable situation than that of
+Healthful House. On the landward slope of a hill extended a park of two hundred
+acres planted with the magnificent vegetation that grows so luxuriantly in that
+part of North America, which is equal in latitude to the Canary and Madeira
+Islands. At the furthermost limit of the park lay the wide estuary of the Neuse,
+swept by the cool breezes of Pamlico Sound and by the winds that blew from the
+ocean beyond the narrow <I>lido</I> of the coast.</P>
+<P>Healthful House, where rich invalids were cared for under such excellent
+hygienic conditions, was more generally reserved for the treatment of chronic
+complaints; but the management did not decline to admit patients affected by
+mental troubles, when the latter were not of an incurable nature.</P>
+<P>It thus happened—a circumstance that was bound to attract a good deal of
+attention to Healthful House, and which perhaps was the motive for the visit of
+the Count d’Artigas—that a person of world-wide notoriety had for eighteen
+months been under special observation there.</P>
+<P>This person was a Frenchman named Thomas Roch, forty-five years of age. He
+was, beyond question, suffering from some mental malady, but expert alienists
+admitted that he had not entirely lost the use of his reasoning faculties. It
+was only too evident that he had lost all notion of things as far as the
+ordinary acts of life were concerned; but in regard to subjects demanding the
+exercise of his genius, his sanity was unimpaired and unassailable—a fact which
+demonstrates how true is the <I>dictum</I> that genius and madness are often
+closely allied! Otherwise his condition manifested itself by complete loss of
+memory;—the impossibility of concentrating his attention upon anything, lack of
+judgment, delirium and incoherence. He no longer even possessed the natural
+animal instinct of self-preservation, and had to be watched like an infant whom
+one never permits out of one’s sight. Therefore a warder was detailed to keep
+close watch over him by day and by night in Pavilion No. 17, at the end of
+Healthful House Park, which had been specially set apart for him.</P>
+<P>Ordinary insanity, when it is not incurable, can only be cured by moral
+means. Medicine and therapeutics are powerless, and their inefficacy has long
+been recognized by specialists. Were these moral means applicable to the case of
+Thomas Roch? One may be permitted to doubt it, even amid the tranquil and
+salubrious surroundings of Healthful House. As a matter of fact the very
+symptoms of uneasiness, changes of temper, irritability, queer traits of
+character, melancholy, apathy, and a repugnance for serious occupations were
+distinctly apparent; no treatment seemed capable of curing or even alleviating
+these symptoms. This was patent to all his medical attendants.</P>
+<P>It has been justly remarked that madness is an excess of subjectivity; that
+is to say, a state in which the mind accords too much to mental labor and not
+enough to outward impressions. In the case of Thomas Roch this indifference was
+practically absolute. He lived but within himself, so to speak, a prey to a
+fixed idea which had brought him to the condition in which we find him. Could
+any circumstance occur to counteract it—to “exteriorize� him, as it were? The
+thing was improbable, but it was not impossible.</P>
+<P>It is now necessary to explain how this Frenchman came to quit France, what
+motive attracted him to the United States, why the Federal government had judged
+it prudent and necessary to intern him in this sanitarium, where every utterance
+that unconsciously escaped him during his crises were noted and recorded with
+the minutest care.</P>
+<P>Eighteen months previously the Secretary of the Navy at Washington, had
+received a demand for an audience in regard to a communication that Thomas Roch
+desired to make to him.</P>
+<P>As soon as he glanced at the name, the secretary perfectly understood the
+nature of the communication and the terms which would accompany it, and an
+immediate audience was unhesitatingly accorded.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch’s notoriety was indeed such that, out of solicitude for the
+interests confided to his keeping, and which he was bound to safeguard, he could
+not hesitate to receive the petitioner and listen to the proposals which the
+latter desired personally to submit to him.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch was an inventor—an inventor of genius. Several important
+discoveries had brought him prominently to the notice of the world. Thanks to
+him, problems that had previously remained purely theoretical had received
+practical application. He occupied a conspicuous place in the front rank of the
+army of science. It will be seen how worry, deceptions, mortification, and the
+outrages with which he was overwhelmed by the cynical wits of the press combined
+to drive him to that degree of madness which necessitated his internment in
+Healthful House.</P>
+<P>His latest invention in war-engines bore the name of Roch’s Fulgurator. This
+apparatus possessed, if he was to be believed, such superiority over all others,
+that the State which acquired it would become absolute master of earth and
+ocean.</P>
+<P>The deplorable difficulties inventors encounter in connection with their
+inventions are only too well known, especially when they endeavor to get them
+adopted by governmental commissions. Several of the most celebrated examples are
+still fresh in everybody’s memory. It is useless to insist upon this point,
+because there are sometimes circumstances underlying affairs of this kind upon
+which it is difficult to obtain any light. In regard to Thomas Roch, however, it
+is only fair to say that, as in the case of the majority of his predecessors,
+his pretensions were excessive. He placed such an exorbitant price upon his new
+engine that it was practicably impossible to treat with him.</P>
+<P>This was due to the fact—and it should not be lost sight of—that in respect
+of previous inventions which had been most fruitful in result, he had been
+imposed upon with the greatest audacity. Being unable to obtain therefrom the
+profits which he had a right to expect, his temper had become soured. He became
+suspicious, would give up nothing without knowing just what he was doing, impose
+conditions that were perhaps unacceptable, wanted his mere assertions accepted
+as sufficient guarantee, and in any case asked for such a large sum of money on
+account before condescending to furnish the test of practical experiment that
+his overtures could not be entertained.</P>
+<P>In the first place he had offered the fulgurator to France, and made known
+the nature of it to the commission appointed to pass upon his proposition. The
+fulgurator was a sort of auto-propulsive engine, of peculiar construction,
+charged with an explosive composed of new substances and which only produced its
+effect under the action of a deflagrator that was also new.</P>
+<P>When this engine, no matter in what way it was launched, exploded, not on
+striking the object aimed at, but several hundred yards from it, its action upon
+the atmospheric strata was so terrific that any construction, warship or
+floating battery, within a zone of twelve thousand square yards, would be blown
+to atoms. This was the principle of the shell launched by the Zalinski pneumatic
+gun with which experiments had already been made at that epoch, but its results
+were multiplied at least a hundred-fold.</P>
+<P>If, therefore, Thomas Roch’s invention possessed this power, it assured the
+offensive and defensive superiority of his native country. But might not the
+inventor be exaggerating, notwithstanding that the tests of other engines he had
+conceived had proved incontestably that they were all he had claimed them to be?
+This, experiment could alone show, and it was precisely here where the rub came
+in. Roch would not agree to experiment until the millions at which he valued his
+fulgurator had first been paid to him.</P>
+<P>It is certain that a sort of disequilibrium had then occurred in his mental
+faculties. It was felt that he was developing a condition of mind that would
+gradually lead to definite madness. No government could possibly condescend to
+treat with him under the conditions he imposed.</P>
+<P>The French commission was compelled to break off all negotiations with him,
+and the newspapers, even those of the Radical Opposition, had to admit that it
+was difficult to follow up the affair.</P>
+<P>In view of the excess of subjectivity which was unceasingly augmenting in the
+profoundly disturbed mind of Thomas Roch, no one will be surprised at the fact
+that the cord of patriotism gradually relaxed until it ceased to vibrate. For
+the honor of human nature be it said that Thomas Roch was by this time
+irresponsible for his actions. He preserved his whole consciousness only in so
+far as subjects bearing directly upon his invention were concerned. In this
+particular he had lost nothing of his mental power. But in all that related to
+the most ordinary details of existence his moral decrepitude increased daily and
+deprived him of complete responsibility for his acts.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch’s invention having been refused by the commission, steps ought to
+have been taken to prevent him from offering it elsewhere. Nothing of the kind
+was done, and there a great mistake was made.</P>
+<P>The inevitable was bound to happen, and it did. Under a growing irritability
+the sentiment of patriotism, which is the very essence of the citizen—who before
+belonging to himself belongs to his country— became extinct in the soul of the
+disappointed inventor. His thoughts turned towards other nations. He crossed the
+frontier, and forgetting the ineffaceable past, offered the fulgurator to
+Germany.</P>
+<P>There, as soon as his exorbitant demands were made known, the government
+refused to receive his communication. Besides, it so happened that the military
+authorities were just then absorbed by the construction of a new ballistic
+engine, and imagined they could afford to ignore that of the French
+inventor.</P>
+<P>As the result of this second rebuff Roch’s anger became coupled with
+hatred—an instinctive hatred of humanity—especially after his <I>pourparlers</I>
+with the British Admiralty came to naught. The English being practical people,
+did not at first repulse Thomas Roch. They sounded him and tried to get round
+him; but Roch would listen to nothing. His secret was worth millions, and these
+millions he would have, or they would not have his secret. The Admiralty at last
+declined to have anything more to do with him.</P>
+<P>It was in these conditions, when his intellectual trouble was growing daily
+worse, that he made a last effort by approaching the American Government. That
+was about eighteen months before this story opens.</P>
+<P>The Americans, being even more practical than the English, did not attempt to
+bargain for Roch’s fulgurator, to which, in view of the French chemist’s
+reputation, they attached exceptional importance. They rightly esteemed him a
+man of genius, and took the measures justified by his condition, prepared to
+indemnify him equitably later.</P>
+<P>As Thomas Roch gave only too visible proofs of mental alienation, the
+Administration, in the very interest of his invention, judged it prudent to
+sequestrate him.</P>
+<P>As is already known, he was not confined in a lunatic asylum, but was
+conveyed to Healthful House, which offered every guarantee for the proper
+treatment of his malady. Yet, though the most careful attention had been devoted
+to him, no improvement had manifested itself.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch, let it be again remarked—this point cannot be too often insisted
+upon—incapable though he was of comprehending and performing the ordinary acts
+and duties of life, recovered all his powers when the field of his discoveries
+was touched upon. He became animated, and spoke with the assurance of a man who
+knows whereof he is descanting, and an authority that carried conviction with
+it. In the heat of his eloquence he would describe the marvellous qualities of
+his fulgurator and the truly extraordinary effects it caused. As to the nature
+of the explosive and of the deflagrator, the elements of which the latter was
+composed, their manufacture, and the way in which they were employed, he
+preserved complete silence, and all attempts to worm the secret out of him
+remained ineffectual. Once or twice, during the height of the paroxysms to which
+he was occasionally subject, there had been reason to believe that his secret
+would escape him, and every precaution had been taken to note his slightest
+utterance. But Thomas Roch had each time disappointed his watchers. If he no
+longer preserved the sentiment of self-preservation, he at least knew how to
+preserve the secret of his discovery.</P>
+<P>Pavilion No. 17 was situated in the middle of a garden that was surrounded by
+hedges, and here Roch was accustomed to take exercise under the surveillance of
+his guardian. This guardian lived in the same pavilion, slept in the same room
+with him, and kept constant watch upon him, never leaving him for an hour. He
+hung upon the lightest words uttered by the patient in the course of his
+hallucinations, which generally occurred in the intermediary state between
+sleeping and waking—watched and listened while he dreamed.</P>
+<P>This guardian was known as Gaydon. Shortly after the sequestration of Thomas
+Roch, having learned that an attendant speaking French fluently was wanted, he
+had applied at Healthful House for the place, and had been engaged to look after
+the new inmate.</P>
+<P>In reality the alleged Gaydon was a French engineer named Simon Hart, who for
+several years past had been connected with a manufactory of chemical products in
+New Jersey. Simon Hart was forty years of age. His high forehead was furrowed
+with the wrinkle that denoted the thinker, and his resolute bearing denoted
+energy combined with tenacity. Extremely well versed in the various questions
+relating to the perfecting of modern armaments, Hart knew everything that had
+been invented in the shape of explosives, of which there were over eleven
+hundred at that time, and was fully able to appreciate such a man as Thomas
+Roch. He firmly believed in the power of the latter’s fulgurator, and had no
+doubt whatever that the inventor had conceived an engine that was capable of
+revolutionizing the condition of both offensive and defensive warfare on land
+and sea. He was aware that the demon of insanity had respected the man of
+science, and that in Roch’s partially diseased brain the flame of genius still
+burned brightly. Then it occurred to him that if, during Roch’s crises, his
+secret was revealed, this invention of a Frenchman would be seized upon by some
+other country to the detriment of France. Impelled by a spirit of patriotism, he
+made up his mind to offer himself as Thomas Roch’s guardian, by passing himself
+off as an American thoroughly conversant with the French language, in order that
+if the inventor did at any time disclose his secret, France alone should benefit
+thereby. On pretext of returning to Europe, he resigned his position at the New
+Jersey manufactory, and changed his name so that none should know what had
+become of him.</P>
+<P>Thus it came to pass that Simon Hart, alias Gaydon, had been an attendant at
+Healthful House for fifteen months. It required no little courage on the part of
+a man of his position and education to perform the menial and exacting duties of
+an insane man’s attendant; but, as has been before remarked, he was actuated by
+a spirit of the purest and noblest patriotism. The idea of depriving Roch of the
+legitimate benefits due to the inventor, if he succeeded in learning his secret,
+never for an instant entered his mind.</P>
+<P>He had kept the patient under the closest possible observation for fifteen
+months yet had not been able to learn anything from him, or worm out of him a
+single reply to his questions that was of the slightest value. But he had become
+more convinced than ever of the importance of Thomas Roch’s discovery, and was
+extremely apprehensive lest the partial madness of the inventor should become
+general, or lest he should die during one of his paroxysms and carry his secret
+with him to the grave.</P>
+<P>This was Simon Hart’s position, and this the mission to which he had wholly
+devoted himself in the interest of his native country.</P>
+<P>However, notwithstanding his deceptions and troubles, Thomas Roch’s physical
+health, thanks to his vigorous constitution, was not particularly affected. A
+man of medium height, with a large head, high, wide forehead, strongly-cut
+features, iron-gray hair and moustache, eyes generally haggard, but which became
+piercing and imperious when illuminated by his dominant idea, thin lips closely
+compressed, as though to prevent the escape of a word that could betray his
+secret—such was the inventor confined in one of the pavilions of Healthful
+House, probably unconscious of his sequestration, and confided to the
+surveillance of Simon Hart the engineer, become Gaydon the warder.</P>
+
+<a name="II" id="II"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER II.</H4>
+<H4>COUNT D’ARTIGAS.</H4>
+<P>Just who was this Count d’Artigas? A Spaniard? So his name would appear to
+indicate. Yet on the stern of his schooner, in letters of gold, was the name
+<I>Ebba</I>, which is of pure Norwegian origin. And had you asked him the name
+of the captain of the <I>Ebba</I>, he would have replied, Spade, and would
+doubtless have added that that of the boatswain was Effrondat, and that of the
+ship’s cook, Helim—all singularly dissimilar and indicating very different
+nationalities.</P>
+<P>Could any plausible hypothesis be deducted from the type presented by Count
+d’Artigas? Not easily. If the color of his skin, his black hair, and the easy
+grace of his attitude denoted a Spanish origin, the <I>ensemble</I> of his
+person showed none of the racial characteristics peculiar to the natives of the
+Iberian peninsula.</P>
+<P>He was a man of about forty-five years of age, about the average height, and
+robustly constituted. With his calm and haughty demeanor he resembled an Hindoo
+lord in whose blood might mingle that of some superb type of Malay. If he was
+not naturally of a cold temperament, he at least, with his imperious gestures
+and brevity of speech, endeavored to make it appear that he was. As to the
+language usually spoken by him and his crew, it was one of those idioms current
+in the islands of the Indian Ocean and the adjacent seas. Yet when his maritime
+excursions brought him to the coasts of the old or new world he spoke English
+with remarkable facility, and with so slight an accent as to scarcely betray his
+foreign origin.</P>
+<P>None could have told anything about his past, nor even about his present
+life, nor from what source he derived his fortune,—obviously a large one,
+inasmuch as he was able to gratify his every whim and lived in the greatest
+luxury whenever he visited America,—nor where he resided when at home, nor where
+was the port from which his schooner hailed, and none would have ventured to
+question him upon any of these points so little disposed was he to be
+communicative. He was not the kind of man to give anything away or compromise
+himself in the slightest degree, even when interviewed by American
+reporters.</P>
+<P>All that was known about him was what was published in the papers when the
+arrival of the <I>Ebba</I> was reported in some port, and particularly in the
+ports of the east coast of the United States, where the schooner was accustomed
+to put in at regular periods to lay in provisions and stores for a lengthy
+voyage. She would take on board not only flour, biscuits, preserves, fresh and
+dried meat, live stock, wines, beers, and spirits, but also clothing, household
+utensils, and objects of luxury—all of the finest quality and highest price, and
+which were paid for either in dollars, guineas, or other coins of various
+countries and denominations.</P>
+<P>Consequently, if no one knew anything about the private life of Count
+d’Artigas, he was nevertheless very well known in the various ports of the
+United States from the Florida peninsula to New England.</P>
+<P>It is therefore in no way surprising that the director of Healthful House
+should have felt greatly flattered by the Count’s visit, and have received him
+with every mark of honor and respect.</P>
+<P>It was the first time that the schooner <I>Ebba</I> had dropped anchor in the
+port of New-Berne, and no doubt a mere whim of her owner had brought him to the
+mouth of the Neuse. Otherwise why should he have come to such a place? Certainly
+not to lay in stores, for Pamlico Sound offered neither the resources nor
+facilities to be found in such ports as Boston, New York, Dover, Savannah,
+Wilmington in North Carolina, and Charleston in South Carolina. What could he
+have procured with his piastres and bank-notes in the small markets of
+New-Berne? This chief town of Craven County contained barely six thousand
+inhabitants. Its commerce consisted principally in the exportation of grain,
+pigs, furniture, and naval munitions. Besides, a few weeks previously, the
+schooner had loaded up for some destination which, as usual, was unknown.</P>
+<P>Had this enigmatical personage then come solely for the purpose of visiting
+Healthful House? Very likely. There would have been nothing surprising in the
+fact, seeing that the establishment enjoyed a high and well-merited
+reputation.</P>
+<P>Or perhaps the Count had been inspired by curiosity to meet Thomas Roch? This
+curiosity would have been legitimate and natural enough in view of the universal
+renown of the French inventor. Fancy—a mad genius who claimed that his
+discoveries were destined to revolutionize the methods of modern military
+art!</P>
+<P>As he had notified the director he would do, the Count d’Artigas presented
+himself in the afternoon at the door of Healthful House, accompanied by Captain
+Spade, the commander of the <I>Ebba</I>.</P>
+<P>In conformity with orders given, both were admitted and conducted to the
+office of the director. The latter received his distinguished visitor with
+<I>empressement</I>, placed himself at his disposal, and intimated his intention
+of personally conducting him over the establishment, not being willing to
+concede to anybody else the honor of being his <I>cicerone</I>. The Count on his
+part was profuse in the expression of his thanks for the considerations extended
+to him.</P>
+<P>They went over the common rooms and private habitations of the establishment,
+the director prattling unceasingly about the care with which the patients were
+tended—much better care, if he was to be believed, than they could possibly have
+had in the bosoms of their families—and priding himself upon the results
+achieved, and which had earned for the place its well-merited success.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas listened to his ceaseless chatter with apparent interest,
+probably in order the better to dissemble the real motive of his visit. However,
+after going the rounds for an hour he ventured to remark:</P>
+<P>“Have you not among your patients, sir, one anent whom there was a great deal
+of talk some time ago, and whose presence here contributed in no small measure
+to attract public attention to Healthful House?�</P>
+<P>“You refer to Thomas Roch, I presume, Count?� queried the director.</P>
+<P>“Precisely—that Frenchman—that inventor—whose mental condition is said to be
+very precarious.�</P>
+<P>“Very precarious, Count, and happily so, perhaps! In my opinion humanity has
+nothing to gain by his discoveries, the application of which would increase the
+already too numerous means of destruction.�</P>
+<P>“You speak wisely, sir, and I entirely agree with you. Real progress does not
+lie in that direction, and I regard as inimical to society all those who seek to
+follow it. But has this inventor entirely lost the use of his intellectual
+faculties?�</P>
+<P>“Entirely, no; save as regards the ordinary things of life. In this respect
+he no longer possesses either comprehension or responsibility. His genius as an
+inventor, however, remains intact; it has survived his moral degeneracy, and,
+had his insensate demands been complied with, I have no doubt he would have
+produced a new war engine—which the world can get along very well without.�</P>
+<P>“Very well without, as you say, sir,� re-echoed the Count d’Artigas, and
+Captain Spade nodded approval.</P>
+<P>“But you will be able to judge for yourself, Count, for here is the pavilion
+occupied by Thomas Roch. If his confinement is well justified from the point of
+view of public security he is none the less treated with all the consideration
+due to him and the attention which his condition necessitates. Besides,
+Healthful House is beyond the reach of indiscreet persons who might....�</P>
+<P>The director completed the phrase with a significant motion of his head—which
+brought an imperceptible smile to the lips of the stranger.</P>
+<P>“But,� asked the Count, “is Thomas Roch never left alone?�</P>
+<P>“Never, Count, never. He has a permanent attendant in whom we have implicit
+confidence, who speaks his language and keeps the closest possible watch upon
+him. If in some way or other some indication relative to his discovery were to
+escape him, it would be immediately noted down and its value would be passed
+upon by those competent to judge.�</P>
+<P>Here the Count d’Artigas stole a rapid and meaning glance at Captain Spade,
+who responded with a gesture which said plainly enough: “I understand.� And had
+any one observed the captain during the visit, they could not have failed to
+remark that he examined with the greatest minuteness that portion of the park
+surrounding Pavilion No. 17, and the different paths leading to the
+latter—probably in view of some prearranged scheme.</P>
+<P>The garden of the pavilion was near the high wall surrounding the property,
+from the foot of which on the other side the hill sloped gently to the right
+bank of the Neuse.</P>
+<P>The pavilion itself was a one-story building surmounted by a terrace in the
+Italian style. It contained two rooms and an ante-room with strongly-barred
+windows. On each side and in rear of the habitation were clusters of fine trees,
+which were then in full leaf. In front was a cool, green velvety lawn,
+ornamented with shrubs and brilliantly tinted flowers. The whole garden extended
+over about half an acre, and was reserved exclusively for the use of Thomas
+Roch, who was free to wander about it at pleasure under the surveillance of his
+guardian.</P>
+<P>When the Count d’Artigas, Captain Spade, and the director entered the garden,
+the first person they saw was the warder Gaydon, standing at the door of the
+pavilion. Unnoticed by the director the Count d’Artigas eyed the attendant with
+singular persistence.</P>
+<P>It was not the first time that strangers had come to see the occupant of
+Pavilion No. 17, for the French inventor was justly regarded as the most
+interesting inmate of Healthful House. Nevertheless, Gaydon’s attention was
+attracted by the originality of the type presented by the two visitors, of whose
+nationality he was ignorant. If the name of the Count d’Artigas was not
+unfamiliar to him, he had never had occasion to meet that wealthy gentleman
+during the latter’s sojourn in the eastern ports. He therefore had no idea as to
+who the Count was. Neither was he aware that the schooner <I>Ebba</I> was then
+anchored at the entrance to the Neuse, at the foot of the hill upon which
+Healthful House was situated.</P>
+<P>“Gaydon,� demanded the director, “where is Thomas Roch?�</P>
+<P>“Yonder,� replied the warder, pointing to a man who was walking meditatively
+under the trees in rear of the pavilion.</P>
+<P>“The Count d’Artigas has been authorized to visit Healthful House,� the
+director explained; “and does not wish to go away without having seen Thomas
+Roch, who was lately the subject of a good deal too much discussion.�</P>
+<P>“And who would be talked about a great deal more,� added the Count, “had the
+Federal Government not taken the precaution to confine him in this
+establishment.�</P>
+<P>“A necessary precaution, Count.�</P>
+<P>“Necessary, as you observe, Mr. Director. It is better for the peace of the
+world that his secret should die with him.�</P>
+<P>After having glanced at the Count d’Artigas, Gaydon had not uttered a word;
+but preceding the two strangers he walked towards the clump of trees where the
+inventor was pacing back and forth.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch paid no attention to them. He appeared to be oblivious of their
+presence.</P>
+<P>Meanwhile, Captain Spade, while being careful not to excite suspicion, had
+been minutely examining the immediate surroundings of the pavilion and the end
+of the park in which it was situated. From the top of the sloping alleys he
+could easily distinguish the peak of a mast which showed above the wall of the
+park. He recognized the peak at a glance as being that of the <I>Ebba</I>, and
+knew therefore that the wall at this part skirted the right bank of the
+Neuse.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas’ whole attention was concentrated upon the French
+inventor. The latter’s health appeared to have suffered in no way from his
+eighteen months’ confinement; but his queer attitude, his incoherent gestures,
+his haggard eye, and his indifference to what was passing around him testified
+only too plainly to the degeneration of his mental faculties.</P>
+<P>At length Thomas Roch dropped into a seat and with the end of a switch traced
+in the sand of the alley the outline of a fortification. Then kneeling down he
+made a number of little mounds that were evidently intended to represent
+bastions. He next plucked some leaves from a neighboring tree and stuck them in
+the mounds like so many tiny flags. All this was done with the utmost
+seriousness and without any attention whatever being paid to the onlookers.</P>
+<P>It was the amusement of a child, but a child would have lacked this
+characteristic gravity.</P>
+<P>“Is he then absolutely mad?� demanded the Count d’Artigas, who in spite of
+his habitual impassibility appeared to be somewhat disappointed.</P>
+<P>“I warned you, Count, that nothing could be obtained from him.�</P>
+<P>“Couldn’t he at least pay some attention to us?�</P>
+<P>“It would perhaps be difficult to induce him to do so.�</P>
+<P>Then turning to the attendant:</P>
+<P>“Speak to him, Gaydon. Perhaps he will answer you.�</P>
+<P>“Oh! he’ll answer me right enough, sir, never fear,� replied Gaydon.</P>
+<P>He went up to the inventor and touching him on the shoulder, said gently:
+“Thomas Roch!�</P>
+<P>The latter raised his head, and of the persons present he doubtless saw but
+his keeper, though Captain Spade had come up and all formed a circle about
+him.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch,� continued Gaydon, speaking in English, “here are some visitors
+to see you. They are interested in your health—in your work.�</P>
+<P>The last word alone seemed to rouse him from his indifference.</P>
+<P>“My work?� he replied, also in English, which he spoke like a native.</P>
+<P>Then taking a pebble between his index finger and bent thumb, as a boy plays
+at marbles, he projected it against one of the little sand-heaps. It scattered,
+and he jumped for joy.</P>
+<P>“Blown to pieces! The bastion is blown to pieces! My explosive has destroyed
+everything at one blow!� he shouted, the light of triumph flashing in his
+eyes.</P>
+<P>“You see,� said the director, addressing the Count d’Artigas. “The idea of
+his invention never leaves him.�</P>
+<P>“And it will die with him,� affirmed the attendant.</P>
+<P>“Couldn’t you, Gaydon, get him to talk about his fulgurator?� asked his
+chief.</P>
+<P>“I will try, if you order me to do so, sir.�</P>
+<P>“Well, I do order you, for I think it might interest the Count
+d’Artigas.�</P>
+<P>“Certainly,� assented the Count, whose physiognomy betrayed no sign of the
+sentiments which were agitating him.</P>
+<P>“I ought to warn you that I risk bringing on another fit,� observed
+Gaydon.</P>
+<P>“You can drop the conversation when you consider it prudent. Tell Thomas Roch
+that a foreigner wishes to negotiate with him for the purchase of his
+fulgurator.�</P>
+<P>“But are you not afraid he may give his secret away?� questioned the
+Count.</P>
+<P>He spoke with such vivacity that Gaydon could not restrain a glance of
+distrust, which, however, did not appear to disturb the equanimity of that
+impenetrable nobleman.</P>
+<P>“No fear of that,� said the warder. “No promise would induce him to divulge
+his secret. Until the millions he demands are counted into his hand he will
+remain as mute as a stone.�</P>
+<P>“I don’t happen to be carrying those millions about me,� remarked the Count
+quietly.</P>
+<P>Gaydon again touched Roch on the shoulder and repeated:</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch, here are some foreigners who are anxious to acquire your
+invention.�</P>
+<P>The madman started.</P>
+<P>“My invention?� he cried. “My deflagrator?�</P>
+<P>And his growing animation plainly indicated the imminence of the fit that
+Gaydon had been apprehensive about, and which questions of this character
+invariably brought on.</P>
+<P>“How much will you give me for it—how much?� continued Roch. “How much—how
+much?�</P>
+<P>“Ten million dollars,� replied Gaydon.</P>
+<P>“Ten millions! Ten millions! A fulgurator ten million times more powerful
+than anything hitherto invented! Ten millions for an autopropulsive projectile
+which, when it explodes, destroys everything in sight within a radius of over
+twelve thousand square yards! Ten millions for the only deflagrator that can
+provoke its explosion! Why, all the wealth of the world wouldn’t suffice to
+purchase the secret of my engine, and rather than sell it at such a price I
+would cut my tongue in half with my teeth. Ten millions, when it is worth a
+billion—a billion—a billion!�</P>
+<P>It was clear that Roch had lost all notion of things, and had Gaydon offered
+him ten billions the madman would have replied in exactly the same manner.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas and Captain Spade had not taken their eyes off him. The
+Count was impassible as usual, though his brow had darkened, but the captain
+shook his head in a manner that implied plainly: “Decidedly there is nothing to
+hope from this poor devil!�</P>
+<P>After his outburst Roch fled across the garden crying hoarsely:</P>
+<P>“Billions! Billions!�</P>
+<P>Gaydon turned to the director and remarked:</P>
+<P>“I told you how it would be.�</P>
+<P>Then he rushed after his patient, caught him by the arm, and led him, without
+any attempt at resistance, into the pavilion and closed the door.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas remained alone with the director, Captain Spade having
+strolled off again in the direction of the wall at the bottom of the park.</P>
+<P>“You see I was not guilty of exaggeration, Count,� said the director. “It is
+obvious to every one that Thomas Roch is becoming daily worse. In my opinion his
+case is a hopeless one. If all the money he asks for were offered to him,
+nothing could be got from him.�</P>
+<P>“Very likely,� replied the Count, “still, if his pecuniary demands are
+supremely absurd, he has none the less invented an engine the power of which is
+infinite, one might say.�</P>
+<P>“That is the opinion expressed by competent persons, Count. But what he has
+discovered will ere long be lost with himself in one of these fits which are
+becoming more frequent and intense. Very soon even the motive of interest, the
+only sentiment that appears to have survived in his mind, will become
+extinct.�</P>
+<P>“Mayhap the sentiment of hatred will remain, though,� muttered the Count, as
+Spade joined them at the garden gate.</P>
+
+<a name="III" id="III"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER III.</H4>
+<H4>KIDNAPPED.</H4>
+<P>Half an hour later the Count d’Artigas and Captain Spade were following the
+beech-lined road that separated the Healthful House estate from the right bank
+of the Neuse. Both had taken leave of the director, the latter declaring himself
+greatly honored by their visit, and the former thanking him warmly for his
+courteous reception. A hundred-dollar bill left as a tip for the staff of the
+establishment had certainly not belied the Count’s reputation for generosity. He
+was—there could be no doubt about it—a foreigner of the highest distinction, if
+distinction be measured by generosity.</P>
+<P>Issuing by the gate at the main entrance to Healthful House, they had skirted
+the wall that surrounded the property, and which was high enough to preclude the
+possibility of climbing it. Not a word passed between them for some time; the
+Count was deep in thought and Captain Spade was not in the habit of addressing
+him without being first spoken to.</P>
+<P>At last when they stood beneath the rear wall behind which, though it was not
+visible, the Count knew Pavilion No. 17 was situated, he said:</P>
+<P>“You managed, I presume, to thoroughly explore the place, and are acquainted
+with every detail of it?�</P>
+<P>“Certainly, <I>Count</I>� replied Captain Spade, emphasizing the title.</P>
+<P>“You are perfectly sure about it?�</P>
+<P>“Perfectly. I could go through the park with my eyes shut. If you still
+persist in carrying out your scheme the pavilion can be easily reached.�</P>
+<P>“I do persist, Spade.�</P>
+<P>“Notwithstanding Thomas Roch’s mental condition?�</P>
+<P>“Notwithstanding his condition; and if we succeed in carrying him off——�</P>
+<P>“That is my affair. When night comes on I undertake to enter the park of
+Healthful House, and then the pavilion garden without being seen by
+anybody.�</P>
+<P>“By the entrance gate?�</P>
+<P>“No, on this side.�</P>
+<P>“Yes, but on this side there is the wall, and if you succeed in climbing it,
+how are you going to get over it again with Thomas Roch? What if the madman
+cries out—what if he should resist—what if his keeper gives the alarm?�</P>
+<P>“Don’t worry yourself in the least about that. We have only got to go in and
+come out by this door.�</P>
+<P>Captain Spade pointed to a narrow door let into the wall a few paces distant,
+and which was doubtless used by the staff of the establishment when they had
+occasion to go out by the river.</P>
+<P>“That is the way I propose to go in. It’s much easier than scaling the wall
+with a ladder.�</P>
+<P>“But the door is closed.�</P>
+<P>“It will open.�</P>
+<P>“Has it no bolts?�</P>
+<P>“Yes, but I shot them back while we were strolling about, and the director
+didn’t notice what I had done.�</P>
+<P>“How are you going to open it?� queried the Count, going to the door.</P>
+<P>“Here is the key,� replied Spade, producing it.</P>
+<P>He had withdrawn it from the lock, where it happened to be, when he had
+unbolted the door.</P>
+<P>“Capital!� exclaimed the Count. “It couldn’t be better. The business will be
+easier than I expected. Let us get back to the schooner. At eight o’clock one of
+the boats will put you ashore with five men.�</P>
+<P>“Yes, five men will do,� said Captain Spade. “There will be enough of them to
+effect our object even if the keeper is aroused and it becomes necessary to put
+him out of the way.�</P>
+<P>“Put him out of the way—well, if it becomes absolutely necessary of course
+you must, but it would be better to seize him too and bring him aboard the
+<I>Ebba</I> Who knows but what he has already learned a part of Roch’s
+secret?�</P>
+<P>“True.�</P>
+<P>“Besides, Thomas Roch is used to him, and I don’t propose to make him change
+his habitudes in any way.�</P>
+<P>This observation was accompanied by such a significant smile that Captain
+Spade could entertain no doubt as to the rôle reserved for the warder of
+Healthful House.</P>
+<P>The plan to kidnap them both was thus settled, and appeared to have every
+chance of being successful; unless during the couple of hours of daylight that
+yet remained it was noticed that the key of the door had been stolen and the
+bolts drawn back, Captain Spade and his men could at least count upon being able
+to enter the park, and the rest, the captain affirmed, would be easy enough.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch was the only patient in the establishment isolated and kept under
+special surveillance. All the other invalids lived in the main building, or
+occupied pavilions in the front of the park. The plan was to try and seize Roch
+and Gaydon separately and bind and gag them before they could cry out.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas and his companion wended their way to a creek where one
+of the <I>Ebba’s</I> boats awaited them. The schooner was anchored two cable
+lengths from the shore, her sails neatly rolled upon her yards, which were
+squared as neatly as those of a pleasure yacht or of a man-of-war. At the peak
+of the mainmast a narrow red pennant was gently swayed by the wind, which came
+in fitful puffs from the east.</P>
+<P>The Count and the captain jumped into the boat and a few strokes of the four
+oars brought them alongside of the schooner. They climbed on deck and going
+forward to the jib-boom, leaned over the starboard bulwark and gazed at an
+object that floated on the water a few strokes ahead of the vessel. It was a
+small buoy that was rocked by the ripple of the ebbing tide.</P>
+<P>Twilight gradually set in, and the outline of New-Berne on the left bank of
+the sinuous Neuse became more and more indistinct until it disappeared in the
+deepening shades of night. A mist set in from the sea, but though it obscured
+the moon it brought no sign of rain. The lights gleamed out one by one in the
+houses of the town. The fishing smacks came slowly up the river to their
+anchorage, impelled by the oars of their crews which struck the water with
+sharp, rhythmical strokes, and with their sails distended on the chance of
+catching an occasional puff of the dropping wind to help them along. A couple of
+steamers passed, sending up volumes of black smoke and myriads of sparks from
+their double stacks, and lashing the water into foam with their powerful
+paddles.</P>
+<P>At eight o’clock the Count d’Artigas appeared on the schooner’s deck
+accompanied by a man about fifty years of age, to whom he remarked:</P>
+<P>“It is time to go, Serko.�</P>
+<P>“Very well, I will tell Spade,� replied Serko.</P>
+<P>At that moment the captain joined them.</P>
+<P>“You had better get ready to go,� said the Count.</P>
+<P>“All is ready.�</P>
+<P>“Be careful to prevent any alarm being given, and arrange matters so that no
+one will for a minute suspect that Thomas Roch and his keeper have been brought
+on board the <I>Ebba</I>.�</P>
+<P>“They wouldn’t find them if they came to look for them,� observed Serko,
+shrugging his shoulders and laughing heartily as though he had perpetrated a
+huge joke.</P>
+<P>“Nevertheless, it is better not to arouse their suspicion,� said
+d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>The boat was lowered, and Captain Spade and five sailors took their places in
+it. Four of the latter got out the oars. The boatswain, Effrondat, who was to
+remain in charge of the boat, went to the stern beside Captain Spade and took
+the tiller.</P>
+<P>“Good luck, Spade,� said Serko with a smile, “and don’t make more noise about
+it than if you were a gallant carrying off his lady-love.�</P>
+<P>“I won’t—unless that Gaydon chap—�</P>
+<P>“We must have both Roch and Gaydon,� insisted the Count d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>“That is understood,� replied Spade.</P>
+<P>The boat pushed off, and the sailors on the deck of the schooner watched it
+till it was lost to sight in the darkness.</P>
+<P>Pending its return, no preparations for the <I>Ebba’s</I> departure were
+made. Perhaps there was no intention of quitting the port after the men had been
+kidnapped. Besides, how could the vessel have reached the open sea? Not a breath
+of air was now stirring, and in half an hour the tide would be setting in again,
+and rising strongly and rapidly for several miles above New-Berne.</P>
+<P>Anchored, as has already been said, a couple of cable-lengths from the shore,
+the <I>Ebba</I> might have been brought much nearer to it, for the water was
+deep enough, and this would have facilitated the task of the kidnappers when
+they returned from their expedition. If, however, the Count d’Artigas preferred
+to let the vessel stay where she was, he probably had his reasons.</P>
+<P>Not a soul was in sight on the bank, and the road, with its borders of beech
+trees that skirted the wall of Healthful House estate, was equally deserted. The
+boat was made fast to the shore. Then Captain Spade and his four sailors landed,
+leaving the boatswain in charge, and disappeared amid the trees.</P>
+<P>When they reached the wall Captain Spade stopped and the sailors drew up on
+each side of the doorway. The captain had only to turn the key in the lock and
+push the door, unless one of the servants, noticing that the door was not
+secured as usual, had bolted it. In this event their task would be an extremely
+difficult one, even if they succeeded in scaling the high wall.</P>
+<P>The captain put his ear to the key-hole and listened.</P>
+<P>Not a sound was to be heard in the park. Not even a leaf was rustling in the
+branches of the beeches under which they were standing. The surrounding country
+was wrapt in the profoundest silence.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade drew the key from his pocket, inserted it in the lock and
+turned it noiselessly. Then he cautiously pushed the door, which opened
+inward.</P>
+<P>Things were, then, just as he had left them, and no one had noticed the theft
+of the key.</P>
+<P>After assuring himself that nobody happened to be in the neighborhood of the
+pavilion the captain entered, followed by his men. The door was left wide open,
+so that they could beat a hurried and uninterrupted retreat in case of
+necessity. The trees and bushes in this shady part of the park were very thick,
+and it was so dark that it would not have been easy to distinguish the pavilion
+had not a light shone brightly in one of the windows.</P>
+<P>No doubt this was the window of the room occupied by Roch and his guardian,
+Gaydon, seeing that the latter never left the patient placed in his charge
+either by night or day. Captain Spade had expected to find him there.</P>
+<P>The party approached cautiously, taking the utmost precaution to avoid
+kicking a pebble or stepping on a twig, the noise of which might have revealed
+their presence. In this way they reached the door of the pavilion near which was
+the curtained window of the room in which the light was burning.</P>
+<P>But if the door was locked, how were they going to get in? Captain Spade must
+have asked himself. He had no key, and to attempt to effect an entrance through
+the window would be hazardous, for, unless Gaydon could be prevented from giving
+the alarm, he would rouse the whole establishment.</P>
+<P>There was no help for it, however. The essential was to get possession of
+Roch. If they could kidnap Gaydon, too, in conformity with the intentions of the
+Count d’Artigas, so much the better. If not—</P>
+<P>Captain Spade crept stealthily to the window, and standing on tiptoe, looked
+in. Through an aperture in the curtain he could see all over the room.</P>
+<P>Gaydon was standing beside Thomas Roch, who had not yet recovered from the
+fit with which he had been attacked during the Count d’Artigas’ visit. His
+condition necessitated special attention, and the warder was ministering to the
+patient under the direction of a third person.</P>
+<P>The latter was one of the doctors attached to Healthful House, and had been
+at once sent to the pavilion by the director when Roch’s paroxysm came on. His
+presence of course rendered the situation more complicated and the work of the
+kidnappers more difficult.</P>
+<P>Roch, fully dressed, was extended upon a sofa. He was now fairly calm. The
+paroxysm, which was abating, would be followed by several hours of torpor and
+exhaustion.</P>
+<P>Just as Captain Spade peeped through the window the doctor was making
+preparations to leave. The Captain heard him say to Gaydon that his (the
+doctor’s) presence was not likely to be required any more that night, and that
+there was nothing to be done beyond following the instructions he had given.</P>
+<P>The doctor then walked towards the door, which, it will be remembered, was
+close to the window in front of which Spade and his men were standing. If they
+remained where they were they could not fail to be seen, not only by the doctor,
+but by the warder, who was accompanying him to the door.</P>
+<P>Before they made their appearance, however, the sailors, at a sign from their
+chief, had dispersed and hidden themselves behind the bushes, while Spade
+himself crouched in the shadow beneath the window. Luckily Gaydon had not
+brought the lamp with him, so that the captain was in no danger of being
+seen.</P>
+<P>As he was about to take leave of Gaydon, the doctor stopped on the step and
+remarked:</P>
+<P>“This is one of the worst attacks our patient has had. One or two more like
+that and he will lose the little reason he still possesses.�</P>
+<P>“Just so,� said Gaydon. “I wonder that the director doesn’t prohibit all
+visitors from entering the pavilion. Roch owes his present attack to a Count
+d’Artigas, for whose amusement harmful questions were put to him.�</P>
+<P>“I will call the director’s attention to the matter,� responded the
+doctor.</P>
+<P>He then descended the steps and Gaydon, leaving the door of the pavilion
+ajar, accompanied him to the end of the path.</P>
+<P>When they had gone Captain Spade stood up, and his men rejoined him.</P>
+<P>Had they not better profit by the chance thus unexpectedly afforded them to
+enter the room and secure Roch, who was in a semi-comatose condition, and then
+await Gaydon’s return, and seize the warder as he entered?</P>
+<P>This would have involved considerable risk. Gaydon, at a glance, would
+perceive that his patient was missing and raise an alarm; the doctor would come
+running back; the whole staff of Healthful House would turn out, and Spade would
+not have time to escape with his precious prisoner and lock the door in the wall
+after him.</P>
+<P>He did not have much chance to deliberate about it, for the warder was heard
+returning along the gravel path. Spade decided that the best thing to be done
+was to spring upon him as he passed and stifle his cries and overpower him
+before he could attempt to offer any resistance. The carrying off of the mad
+inventor would be easy enough, inasmuch as he was unconscious, and could not
+raise a finger to help himself.</P>
+<P>Gaydon came round a clump of bushes and approached the entrance to the
+pavilion. As he raised his foot to mount the steps the four sailors sprang upon
+him, bore him backwards to the ground, and had gagged him, securely bound him
+hand and foot, and bandaged his eyes before he began to realize what had
+happened.</P>
+<P>Two of the men then kept guard over him, while Captain Spade and the others
+entered the house.</P>
+<P>As the captain had surmised, Thomas Roch had sunk into such a torpor that he
+could have heard nothing of what had been going on outside. Reclining at full
+length, with his eyes closed, he might have been taken for a dead man but for
+his heavy breathing. There was no need either to bind or gag him. One man took
+him by the head and another by the feet and started off with him to the
+schooner.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade was the last to quit the house after extinguishing the lamp and
+closing the door behind him. In this way there was no reason to suppose that the
+inmates would be missed before morning.</P>
+<P>Gaydon was carried off in the same way as Thomas Roch had been. The two
+remaining sailors lifted him and bore him quietly but rapidly down the path to
+the door in the wall. The park was pitch dark. Not even a glimmer of the lights
+in the windows of Healthful House could be seen through the thick foliage.</P>
+<P>Arrived at the wall, Spade, who had led the way, stepped aside to allow the
+sailors with their burdens to pass through, then followed and closed and locked
+the door. He put the key in his pocket, intending to throw it into the Neuse as
+soon as they were safely on board the schooner.</P>
+<P>There was no one on the road, nor on the bank of the river.</P>
+<P>The party made for the boat, and found that Effrondat, the boatswain, had
+made all ready to receive them.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch and Gaydon were laid in the bottom of the boat, and the sailors
+again took their places at the oars.</P>
+<P>“Hurry up, Effrondat, and cast off the painter,� ordered the captain.</P>
+<P>The boatswain obeyed, and pushed the boat off with his foot as he scrambled
+in.</P>
+<P>The men bent to their oars and rowed rapidly to the schooner, which was
+easily distinguishable, having hung out a light at her mizzenmast head.</P>
+<P>In two minutes they were alongside.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas was leaning on the bulwarks by the gangway.</P>
+<P>“All right, Spade?� he questioned.</P>
+<P>“Yes, sir, all right!�</P>
+<P>“Both of them?�</P>
+<P>“Both the madman and his keeper.�</P>
+<P>“Doesn’t anybody know about it up at Healthful House?</P>
+<P>“Not a soul.�</P>
+<P>It was not likely that Gaydon, whose eyes and ears were bandaged, but who
+preserved all his sang-froid, could have recognized the voices of the Count
+d’Artigas and Captain Spade. Nor did he have the chance to. No attempt was
+immediately made to hoist him on board. He had been lying in the bottom of the
+boat alongside the schooner for fully half an hour, he calculated, before he
+felt himself lifted, and then lowered, doubtless to the bottom of the hold.</P>
+<P>The kidnapping having been accomplished it would seem that it only remained
+for the <I>Ebba</I> to weigh anchor, descend the estuary and make her way out to
+sea through Pamlico Sound. Yet no preparations for departure were made.</P>
+<P>Was it not dangerous to stay where they were after their daring raid? Had the
+Count d’Artigas hidden his prisoners so securely as to preclude the possibility
+of their being discovered if the <I>Ebba</I>, whose presence in proximity to
+Healthful House could not fail to excite suspicion, received a visit from the
+New-Berne police?</P>
+<P>However this might have been, an hour after the return of the expedition,
+every soul on board save the watch—the Count d’Artigas, Serko, and Captain Spade
+in their respective cabins, and the crew in the fore-castle, were sound
+asleep.</P>
+
+<a name="IV" id="IV"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER IV.</H4>
+<H4>THE SCHOONER EBBA.</H4>
+<P>It was not till the next morning, and then very leisurely, that the
+<I>Ebba</I> began to make preparations for her departure. From the extremity of
+New-Berne quay the crew might have been seen holystoning the deck, after which
+they loosened the reef lines, under the direction of Effrondat, the boatswain,
+hoisted in the boats and cleared the halyards.</P>
+<P>At eight o’clock the Count d’Artigas had not yet appeared on deck. His
+companion, Serko the engineer, as he was called on board, had not quitted his
+cabin. Captain Spade was strolling quietly about giving orders.</P>
+<P>The <I>Ebba</I> would have made a splendid racing yacht, though she had never
+participated in any of the yacht races either on the North American or British
+coasts. The height of her masts, the extent of the canvas she carried, her
+shapely, raking hull, denoted her to be a craft of great speed, and her general
+lines showed that she was also built to weather the roughest gales at sea. In a
+favorable wind she would probably make twelve knots an hour.</P>
+<P>Notwithstanding these advantages, however, she must in a dead calm
+necessarily suffer from the same disadvantages as other sailing vessels, and it
+might have been supposed that the Count d’Artigas would have preferred a
+steam-yacht with which he could have gone anywhere, at any time, in any weather.
+But apparently he was satisfied to stick to the old method, even when he made
+his long trips across the Atlantic.</P>
+<P>On this particular morning the wind was blowing gently from the west, which
+was very favorable to the <I>Ebba</I>, and would enable her to stand straight
+out of the Neuse, across Pamlico Sound, and through one of the inlets that led
+to the open sea.</P>
+<P>At ten o’clock the <I>Ebba</I> was still rocking lazily at anchor, her stem
+up stream and her cable tautened by the rapidly ebbing tide. The small buoy that
+on the previous evening had been moored near the schooner was no longer to be
+seen, and had doubtless been hoisted in.</P>
+<P>Suddenly a gun boomed out and a slight wreath of white smoke arose from the
+battery. It was answered by other reports from the guns on the chain of islands
+along the coast.</P>
+<P>At this moment the Count d’Artigas and Engineer Serko appeared on deck.
+Captain Spade went to meet them.</P>
+<P>“Guns barking,� he said laconically.</P>
+<P>“We expected it,� replied Serko, shrugging his shoulders. “They are signals
+to close the passes.�</P>
+<P>“What has that to do with us?� asked the Count d’Artigas quietly.</P>
+<P>“Nothing at all,� said the engineer.</P>
+<P>They all, of course, knew that the alarm-guns indicated that the
+disappearance of Thomas Roch and the warder Gaydon from Healthful House had been
+discovered.</P>
+<P>At daybreak the doctor had gone to Pavilion No. 17 to see how his patient had
+passed the night, and had found no one there. He immediately notified the
+director, who had the grounds thoroughly searched. It was then discovered that
+the door in rear of the park was unbolted, and that, though locked, the key had
+been taken away. It was evident that Roch and his attendant had been carried out
+that way. But who were the kidnappers? No one could possibly imagine. All that
+could be ascertained was that at half-past seven on the previous night one of
+the doctors had attended Thomas Roch, who was suffering from one of his fits,
+and that when the medical man had left him the invalid was in an unconscious
+condition. What had happened after the doctor took leave of Gaydon at the end of
+the garden-path could not even be conjectured.</P>
+<P>The news of the disappearance was telegraphed to New Berne, and thence to
+Raleigh. On receipt of it the Governor had instantly wired orders that no vessel
+was to be allowed to quit Pamlico Sound without having been first subjected to a
+most rigorous search. Another dispatch ordered the cruiser <I>Falcon</I>, which
+was stationed in the port, to carry out the Governor’s instructions in this
+respect. At the same time measures were taken to keep a strict lookout in every
+town and village in the State.</P>
+<P>The Count d’Artigas could see the <I>Falcon</I>, which was a couple of miles
+away to the east in the estuary, getting steam up and making hurried
+preparations to carry out her mission. It would take at least an hour before the
+warship could be got ready to steam out, and the schooner might by that time
+have gained a good start.</P>
+<P>“Shall I weigh anchor?� demanded Captain Spade.</P>
+<P>“Yes, as we have a fair wind; but you can take your time about it,� replied
+the Count d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>“The passes of Pamlico Sound will be under observation,� observed Engineer
+Serko, “and no vessel will be able to get out without receiving a visit from
+gentlemen as inquisitive as they will be indiscreet.�</P>
+<P>“Never mind, get under way all the same,� ordered the Count. “When the
+officers of the cruiser or the Custom-House officers have been over the
+<I>Ebba</I> the embargo will be raised. I shall be indeed surprised if we are
+not allowed to go about our business.�</P>
+<P>“With a thousand pardons for the liberty taken, and best wishes for a good
+voyage and speedy return,� chuckled Engineer Serko, following the phrase with a
+loud and prolonged laugh.</P>
+<P>When the news was received at New-Berne, the authorities at first were
+puzzled to know whether the missing inventor and his keeper had fled or been
+carried off. As, however, Roch’s flight could not have taken place without the
+connivance of Gaydon, this supposition was speedily abandoned. In the opinion of
+the director and management of Healthful House the warder was absolutely above
+suspicion. They must both, then, have been kidnapped.</P>
+<P>It can easily be imagined what a sensation the news caused in the town. What!
+the French inventor who had been so closely guarded had disappeared, and with
+him the secret of the wonderful fulgurator that nobody had been able to worm out
+of him? Might not the most serious consequences follow? Might not the discovery
+of the new engine be lost to America forever? If the daring act had been
+perpetrated on behalf of another nation, might not that nation, having Thomas
+Roch in its power, be eventually able to extract from him what the Federal
+Government had vainly endeavored to obtain? And was it reasonable, was it
+permissible, to suppose for an instant that he had been carried off for the
+benefit of a private individual?</P>
+<P>Certainly not, was the emphatic reply to the latter question, which was too
+ridiculous to be entertained. Therefore the whole power of the State was
+employed in an effort to recover the inventor. In every county of North Carolina
+a special surveillance was organized on every road and at every railroad
+station, and every house in town and country was searched. Every port from
+Wilmington to Norfolk was closed, and no craft of any description could leave
+without being thoroughly overhauled. Not only the cruiser <I>Falcon</I>, but
+every available cutter and launch was sent out with orders to patrol Pamlico
+Sound and board yachts, merchant vessels and fishing smacks indiscriminately
+whether anchored or not and search them down to the keelson.</P>
+<P>Still the crew of the <I>Ebba</I> prepared calmly to weigh anchor, and the
+Count d’Artigas did not appear to be in the least concerned at the orders of the
+authorities and at the consequences that would ensue, if Thomas Roch and his
+keeper, Gaydon, were found on board.</P>
+<P>At last all was ready, the crew manned the capstan bars, the sails were
+hoisted, and the schooner glided gracefully through the water towards the
+Sound.</P>
+<P>Twenty miles from New-Berne the estuary curves abruptly and shoots off
+towards the northwest for about the same distance, gradually widening until it
+empties itself into Pamlico Sound.</P>
+<P>The latter is a vast expanse about seventy miles across from Swan Island to
+Roanoke. On the seaward side stretches a chain of long and narrow islands,
+forming a natural breakwater north and south from Cape Lookout to Cape Hatteras
+and from the latter to Cape Henry, near Norfolk City, in Virginia.</P>
+<P>Numerous beacons on the islands and islets form an easy guide for vessels at
+night seeking refuge from the Atlantic gales, and once inside the chain they are
+certain of finding plenty of good anchoring grounds.</P>
+<P>Several passes afford an outlet from the Sound to the sea. Beyond Swan Island
+lighthouse is Ocracoke inlet, and next is the inlet of Hatteras. There are also
+three others known as Logger Head inlet, New inlet, and Oregon inlet. The
+Ocracoke was the one nearest the <I>Ebba</I>, and she could make it without
+tacking, but the <I>Falcon</I> was searching all vessels that passed through.
+This did not, however, make any particular difference, for by this time all the
+passes, upon which the guns of the forts had been trained, were guarded by
+government vessels.</P>
+<P>The <I>Ebba</I>, therefore, kept on her way, neither trying to avoid nor
+offering to approach the searchers. She seemed to be merely a pleasure-yacht out
+for a morning sail.</P>
+<P>No attempt had up to that time been made to accost her. Was she, then,
+specially privileged, and to be spared the bother of being searched? Was the
+Count d’Artigas considered too high and mighty a personage to be thus molested,
+and delayed even for an hour? It was unlikely, for though he was regarded as a
+distinguished foreigner who lived the life of luxury enjoyed by the favored of
+fortune, no one, as a matter of fact, knew who he was, nor whence he came, nor
+whither he was going.</P>
+<P>The schooner sped gracefully over the calm waters of the sound, her flag—a
+gold crescent in the angle of a red field—streaming proudly in the breeze. Count
+d’Artigas was cosily ensconced in a basket-work chair on the after-deck,
+conversing with Engineer Serko and Captain Spade.</P>
+<P>“They don’t seem in a hurry to board us,� remarked Serko.</P>
+<P>“They can come whenever they think proper,� said the Count in a tone of
+supreme indifference.</P>
+<P>“No doubt they are waiting for us at the entrance to the inlet,� suggested
+Captain Spade.</P>
+<P>“Let them wait,� grunted the wealthy nobleman.</P>
+<P>Then he relapsed into his customary unconcerned impassibility.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade’s hypothesis was doubtless correct. The <I>Falcon</I> had as
+yet made no move towards the schooner, but would almost certainly do so as soon
+as the latter reached the inlet, and the Count would have to submit to a search
+of his vessel if he wished to reach the open sea.</P>
+<P>How was it then that he manifested such extraordinary unconcern? Were Thomas
+Roch and Gaydon so safely hidden that their hiding-place could not possibly be
+discovered?</P>
+<P>The thing was possible, but perhaps the Count d’Artigas would not have been
+quite so confident had he been aware that the <I>Ebba</I> had been specially
+signalled to the warship and revenue cutters as a suspect.</P>
+<P>The Count’s visit to Healthful House on the previous day had now attracted
+particular attention to him and his schooner. Evidently, at the time, the
+director could have had no reason to suspect the motive of his visit. But a few
+hours later, Thomas Roch and his keeper had been carried off. No one else from
+outside had been near the pavilion that day. It was admitted that it would have
+been an easy matter for the Count’s companion, while the former distracted the
+director’s attention, to push back the bolts of the door in the wall and steal
+the key. Then the fact that the <I>Ebba</I> was anchored in rear of, and only a
+few hundred yards from, the estate, was in itself suspicious. Nothing would have
+been easier for the desperadoes than to enter by the door, surprise their
+victims, and carry them off to the schooner.</P>
+<P>These suspicions, neither the director nor the <I>personnel</I> of the
+establishment had at first liked to give expression to, but when the <I>Ebba</I>
+was seen to weigh anchor and head for the open sea, they appeared to be
+confirmed.</P>
+<P>They were communicated to the authorities of New-Berne, who immediately
+ordered the commander of the <I>Falcon</I> to intercept the schooner, to search
+her minutely high and low, and from stem to stern, and on no account to let her
+proceed, unless he was absolutely certain that Roch and Gaydon were not on
+board.</P>
+<P>Assuredly the Count d’Artigas could have had no idea that his vessel was the
+object of such stringent orders; but even if he had, it is questionable whether
+this superbly haughty and disdainful nobleman would have manifested any
+particular anxiety.</P>
+<P>Towards three o’clock, the warship which was cruising before the inlet, after
+having sent search parties aboard a few fishing-smacks, suddenly manoeuvred to
+the entrance of the pass, and awaited the approaching schooner. The latter
+surely did not imagine that she could force a passage in spite of the cruiser,
+or escape from a vessel propelled by steam. Besides, had she attempted such a
+foolhardy trick, a couple of shots from the <I>Falcon’s</I> guns would speedily
+have constrained her to lay to.</P>
+<P>Presently a boat, manned by two officers and ten sailors, put off from the
+cruiser and rowed towards the <I>Ebba</I>. When they were only about half a
+cable’s length off, one of the men rose and waved a flag.</P>
+<P>“That’s a signal to stop,� said Engineer Serko.</P>
+<P>“Precisely,� remarked the Count d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>“We shall have to lay to.�</P>
+<P>“Then lay to.�</P>
+<P>Captain Spade went forward and gave the necessary orders, and in a few
+minutes the vessel slackened speed, and was soon merely drifting with the
+tide.</P>
+<P>The <I>Falcon’s</I> boat pulled alongside, and a man in the bows held on to
+her with a boat-hook. The gangway was lowered by a couple of hands on the
+schooner, and the two officers, followed by eight of their men, climbed on
+deck.</P>
+<P>They found the crew of the <I>Ebba</I> drawn up in line on the
+forecastle.</P>
+<P>The officer in command of the boarding-party—a first lieutenant—advanced
+towards the owner of the schooner, and the following questions and answers were
+exchanged:</P>
+<P>“This schooner belongs to the Count d’Artigas, to whom, I presume, I have the
+honor of speaking?�</P>
+<P>“Yes, sir.�</P>
+<P>“What is her name?�</P>
+<P>“The <I>Ebba</I>.�</P>
+<P>“She is commanded by?—�</P>
+<P>“Captain Spade.�</P>
+<P>“What is his nationality?�</P>
+<P>“Hindo-Malay.�</P>
+<P>The officer scrutinized the schooner’s flag, while the Count d’Artigas
+added:</P>
+<P>“Will you be good enough to tell me, sir, to what circumstance I owe the
+pleasure of your visit on board my vessel?�</P>
+<P>“Orders have been received,� replied the officer, “to search every vessel now
+anchored in Pamlico Sound, or which attempts to leave it.�</P>
+<P>He did not deem it necessary to insist upon this point since the <I>Ebba</I>,
+above every other, was to be subjected to the bother of a rigorous
+examination.</P>
+<P>“You, of course, sir, have no intention of refusing me permission to go over
+your schooner?�</P>
+<P>“Assuredly not, sir. My vessel is at your disposal from peaks to bilges. Only
+I should like to know why all the vessels which happen to be in Pamlico Sound
+to-day are being subjected to this formality.�</P>
+<P>“I see no reason why you should not be informed, Monsieur the Count,� replied
+the officer. “The governor of North Carolina has been apprised that Healthful
+House has been broken into and two persons kidnapped, and the authorities merely
+wish to satisfy themselves that the persons carried off have not been embarked
+during the night.�</P>
+<P>“Is it possible?� exclaimed the Count, feigning surprise. “And who are the
+persons who have thus disappeared from Healthful House?�</P>
+<P>“An inventor—a madman—and his keeper.�</P>
+<P>“A madman, sir? Do you, may I ask, refer to the Frenchman, Thomas Roch?�</P>
+<P>“The same.�</P>
+<P>“The Thomas Roch whom I saw yesterday during my visit to the
+establishment—whom I questioned in presence of the director—who was seized with
+a violent paroxysm just as Captain Spade and I were leaving?�</P>
+<P>The officer observed the stranger with the keenest attention, in an effort to
+surprise anything suspicious in his attitude or remarks.</P>
+<P>“It is incredible!� added the Count, as though he had just heard about the
+outrage for the first time.</P>
+<P>“I can easily understand, sir, how uneasy the authorities must be,� he went
+on, “in view of Thomas Roch’s personality, and I cannot but approve of the
+measures taken. I need hardly say that neither the French inventor nor his
+keeper is on board the <I>Ebba</I>. However, you can assure yourself of the fact
+by examining the schooner as minutely as you desire. Captain Spade, show these
+gentlemen over the vessel.�</P>
+<P>Then saluting the lieutenant of the <I>Falcon</I> coldly, the Count d’Artigas
+sank into his deck-chair again and replaced his cigar between his lips, while
+the two officers and eight sailors, conducted by Captain Spade, began their
+search.</P>
+<P>In the first place they descended the main hatchway to the after saloon—a
+luxuriously-appointed place, filled with art objects of great value, hung with
+rich tapestries and hangings, and wainscotted with costly woods.</P>
+<P>It goes without saying that this and the adjoining cabins were searched with
+a care that could not have been surpassed by the most experienced detectives.
+Moreover, Captain Spade assisted them by every means in his power, obviously
+anxious that they should not preserve the slightest suspicion of the
+<I>Ebba’s</I> owner.</P>
+<P>After the grand saloon and cabins, the elegant dining-saloon was visited.
+Then the cook’s galley, Captain Spade’s cabin, and the quarters of the crew in
+the forecastle were overhauled, but no sign of Thomas Roch or Gaydon was to be
+seen.</P>
+<P>Next, every inch of the hold, etc., was examined, with the aid of a couple of
+lanterns. Water-kegs, wine, brandy, whisky and beer barrels, biscuit-boxes, in
+fact, all the provision boxes and everything the hold contained, including the
+stock of coal, was moved and probed, and even the bilges were scrutinized, but
+all in vain.</P>
+<P>Evidently the suspicion that the Count d’Artigas had carried off the missing
+men was unfounded and unjust. Even a rat could not have escaped the notice of
+the vigilant searchers, leave alone two men.</P>
+<P>When they returned on deck, however, the officers, as a matter of precaution
+looked into the boats hanging on the davits, and punched the lowered sails, with
+the same result.</P>
+<P>It only remained for them, therefore, to take leave of the Count
+d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>“You must pardon us for having disturbed you, Monsieur the Count,� said the
+lieutenant.</P>
+<P>“You were compelled to obey your orders, gentlemen.�</P>
+<P>“It was merely a formality, of course,� ventured the officer.</P>
+<P>By a slight inclination of the head the Count signified that he was quite
+willing to accept this euphemism.</P>
+<P>“I assure you, gentlemen, that I have had no hand in this kidnapping.�</P>
+<P>“We can no longer believe so, Monsieur the Count, and will withdraw.�</P>
+<P>“As you please. Is the <I>Ebba</I> now free to proceed?�</P>
+<P>“Certainly.�</P>
+<P>“Then <I>au revoir</I>, gentlemen, <I>au revoir</I>, for I am an
+<I>habitué</I> of this coast and shall soon be back again. I hope that ere my
+return you will have discovered the author of the outrage, and have Thomas Roch
+safely back in Healthful House. It is a consummation devoutly to be wished in
+the interest of the United States—I might even say of the whole world.�</P>
+<P>The two officers courteously saluted the Count, who responded with a nod.
+Captain Spade accompanied them to the gangway, and they were soon making for the
+cruiser, which had steamed near to pick them up.</P>
+<P>Meanwhile the breeze had freshened considerably, and when, at a sign from
+d’Artigas, Captain Spade set sail again, the <I>Ebba</I> skimmed swiftly through
+the inlet, and half an hour after was standing out to sea.</P>
+<P>For an hour she continued steering east-northeast, and then, the wind, being
+merely a land breeze, dropped, and the schooner lay becalmed, her sails limp,
+and her flag drooping like a wet rag. It seemed that it would be impossible for
+the vessel to continue her voyage that night unless a breeze sprang up, and of
+this there was no sign.</P>
+<P>Since the schooner had cleared the inlet Captain Spade had stood in the bows
+gazing into the water, now to port, now to starboard, as if on the lookout for
+something. Presently he shouted in a stentorian voice:</P>
+<P>“Furl sail!�</P>
+<P>The sailors rushed to their posts, and in an instant the sails came rattling
+down and were furled.</P>
+<P>Was it Count d’Artigas’ intention to wait there till daybreak brought a
+breeze with it? Presumably, or the sails would have remained hoisted to catch
+the faintest puff.</P>
+<P>A boat was lowered and Captain Spade jumped into it, accompanied by a sailor,
+who paddled it towards an object that was floating on the water a few yards
+away.</P>
+<P>This object was a small buoy, similar to that which had floated on the bosom
+of the Neuse when the <I>Ebba</I> lay off Healthful House.</P>
+<P>The buoy, with a towline affixed to it, was lifted into the boat that was
+then paddled to the bow of the <I>Ebba</I>, from the deck of which another
+hawser was cast to the captain, who made it fast to the towline of the buoy.
+Having dropped the latter overboard again, the captain and the sailor returned
+to the ship and the boat was hoisted in.</P>
+<P>Almost immediately the hawser tautened, and the <I>Ebba</I>, though not a
+stitch of canvas had been set, sped off in an easterly direction at a speed that
+could not have been less than ten knots an hour.</P>
+<P>Night was falling fast, and soon the rapidly receding lights along the
+American coast were lost in the mist on the horizon.</P>
+
+<a name="V" id="V"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER V.</H4>
+<H4>WHERE AM I?</H4>
+<P>(Notes by Simon Hart, the Engineer.)</P>
+<P>Where am I? What has happened since the sudden aggression of which I was the
+victim near the pavilion?</P>
+<P>I had just quitted the doctor, and was about to mount the steps, close the
+door and resume my post beside Thomas Roch when several men sprang upon me and
+knocked me down. Who are they? My eyes having been bandaged I was unable to
+recognize them. I could not cry for help, having been gagged. I could make no
+resistance, for they had bound me hand and foot. Thus powerless, I felt myself
+lifted and carried about one hundred paces, then hoisted, then lowered, then
+laid down.</P>
+<P>Where? Where?</P>
+<P>And Thomas Roch, what has become of him? It must have been he rather than I
+they were after. I was but Gaydon, the warder. None suspected that I was Simon
+Hart, the engineer, nor could they have suspected my nationality. Why,
+therefore, should they have desired to kidnap a mere hospital attendant?</P>
+<P>There can consequently be no doubt that the French inventor has been carried
+off; and if he was snatched from Healthful House it must have been in the hope
+of forcing his secret from him.</P>
+<P>But I am reasoning on the supposition that Thomas Roch was carried off with
+me. Is it so? Yes—it must be—it is. I can entertain no doubt whatever about it.
+I have not fallen into the hands of malefactors whose only intention is robbery.
+They would not have acted in this way. After rendering it impossible for me to
+cry out, after having thrown me into a clump of bushes in the corner of the
+garden, after having kidnapped Thomas Roch they would not have shut me up—where
+I now am.</P>
+<P>Where? This is the question which I have been asking myself for hours without
+being able to answer it.</P>
+<P>However, one thing is certain, and that is that I have embarked upon an
+extraordinary adventure, that will end?—In what manner I know not—I dare not
+even imagine what the upshot of it will be. Anyhow, it is my intention to commit
+to memory, minute by minute, the least circumstance, and then, if it be
+possible, to jot down my daily impressions. Who knows what the future has in
+store for me? And who knows but what, in my new position, I may finally discover
+the secret of Roth’s fulgurator? If I am to be delivered one day, this secret
+must be made known, as well as who is the author, or who are the authors, of
+this criminal outrage, which may be attended with such serious consequences.</P>
+<P>I continually revert to this question, hoping that some incident will occur
+to enlighten me:</P>
+<P>Where am I?</P>
+<P>Let me begin from the beginning.</P>
+<P>After having been carried by the head and feet from Healthful House, I felt
+that I was laid, without any brutality, I must admit, upon the stretchers of a
+row-boat of small dimensions.</P>
+<P>The rocking caused by the weight of my body was succeeded shortly afterwards
+by a further rocking—which I attribute to the embarking of a second person. Can
+there be room for doubt that it was Thomas Roch? As far as he was concerned they
+would not have had to take the precaution of gagging him, or of bandaging his
+eyes, or of binding him. He must still have been in a state of prostration which
+precluded the possibility of his making any resistance, or even of being
+conscious of what was being done. The proof that I am not deceiving myself is
+that I could smell the unmistakable odor of ether. Now, yesterday, before taking
+leave of us, the doctor administered a few drops of ether to the invalid and—I
+remember distinctly—a little of this extremely volatile substance fell upon his
+clothing while he was struggling in his fit. There is therefore nothing
+astonishing in the fact that this odor should have clung to him, nor that I
+should have distinguished it, even beneath the bandages that covered my
+face.</P>
+<P>Yes, Thomas Roch was extended near me in the boat. And to think that had I
+not returned to the pavilion when I did, had I delayed a few minutes longer, I
+should have found him gone!</P>
+<P>Let me think. What could have inspired that Count d’Artigas with the
+unfortunate curiosity to visit Healthful House? If he had not been allowed to
+see my patient nothing of the kind would have happened. Talking to Thomas Roch
+about his inventions brought on a fit of exceptional violence. The director is
+primarily to blame for not heeding my warning. Had he listened to me the doctor
+would not have been called upon to attend him, the door of the pavilion would
+have been locked, and the attempt of the band would have been frustrated.</P>
+<P>As to the interest there could have been in carrying off Thomas Roch, either
+on behalf of a private person or of one of the states of the Old World, it is so
+evident that there is no need to dwell upon it. However, I can be perfectly easy
+about the result. No one can possibly succeed in learning what for fifteen
+months I have been unable to ascertain. In the condition of intellectual
+collapse into which my fellow-countryman has fallen, all attempts to force his
+secret from him will be futile. Moreover, he is bound to go from bad to worse
+until he is hopelessly insane, even as regards those points upon which he has
+hitherto preserved his reason intact.</P>
+<P>After all, however, it is less about Thomas Roch than myself that I must
+think just now, and this is what I have experienced, to resume the thread of my
+adventure where I dropped it:</P>
+<P>After more rocking caused by our captors jumping into it, the boat is rowed
+off. The distance must be very short, for a minute after we bumped against
+something. I surmise that this something must be the hull of a ship, and that we
+have run alongside. There is some scurrying and excitement. Indistinctly through
+my bandages I can hear orders being given and a confused murmur of voices that
+lasts for about five minutes, but I cannot distinguish a word that is said.</P>
+<P>The only thought that occurs to me now is that they will hoist me on board
+and lower me to the bottom of the hold and keep me there till the vessel is far
+out at sea. Obviously they will not allow either Thomas Roch or his keeper to
+appear on deck as long as she remains in Pamlico Sound.</P>
+<P>My conjecture is correct. Still gagged and bound I am at last lifted by the
+legs and shoulders. My impression, however, is that I am not being raised over a
+ship’s bulwark, but on the contrary am being lowered. Are they going to drop me
+overboard to drown like a rat, so as to get rid of a dangerous witness? This
+thought flashes into my brain, and a quiver of anguish passes through my body
+from head to foot. Instinctively I draw a long breath, and my lungs are filled
+with the precious air they will speedily lack.</P>
+<P>No, there is no immediate cause for alarm. I am laid with comparative
+gentleness upon a hard floor, which gives me the sensation of metallic coldness.
+I am lying at full length. To my extreme surprise, I find that the ropes with
+which I was bound have been untied and loosened. The tramping about around me
+has ceased. The next instant I hear a door closed with a bang.</P>
+<P>Where am I? And, in the first place, am I alone? I tear the gag from my
+mouth, and the bandages from my head.</P>
+<P>It is dark—pitch dark. Not a ray of light, not even the vague perception of
+light that the eyes preserve when the lids are tightly closed.</P>
+<P>I shout—I shout repeatedly. No response. My voice is smothered. The air I
+breathe is hot, heavy, thick, and the working of my lungs will become difficult,
+impossible, unless the store of air is renewed.</P>
+<P>I extend my arms and feel about me, and this is what I conclude:</P>
+<P>I am in a compartment with sheet-iron walls, which cannot measure more than
+four cubic yards. I can feel that the walls are of bolted plates, like the sides
+of a ship’s water-tight compartment.</P>
+<P>I can feel that the entrance to it is by a door on one side, for the hinges
+protrude somewhat. This door must open inwards, and it is through here, no
+doubt, that I was carried in.</P>
+<P>I place my ear to the door, but not a sound can be heard. The silence is as
+profound as the obscurity—a strange silence that is only broken by the
+sonorousness of the metallic floor when I move about. None of the dull noises
+usually to be heard on board a ship is perceptible, not even the rippling of the
+water along the hull. Nor is there the slightest movement to be felt; yet, in
+the estuary of the Neuse, the current is always strong enough, to cause a marked
+oscillation to any vessel.</P>
+<P>But does the compartment in which I am confined, really belong to a ship? How
+do I know that I am afloat on the Neuse, though I was conveyed a short distance
+in a boat? Might not the latter, instead of heading for a ship in waiting for
+it, opposite Healthful House, have been rowed to a point further down the river?
+In this case is it not possible that I was carried into the cellar of a house?
+This would explain the complete immobility of the compartment. It is true that
+the walls are of bolted plates, and that there is a vague smell of salt water,
+that odor <I>sui generis</I> which generally pervades the interior of a ship,
+and which there is no mistaking.</P>
+<P>An interval, which I estimate at about four hours, must have passed since my
+incarceration. It must therefore be near midnight. Shall I be left here in this
+way till morning? Luckily, I dined at six o’clock, which is the regular
+dinner-hour at Healthful House. I am not suffering from hunger. In fact I feel
+more inclined to sleep than to eat. Still, I hope I shall have energy enough to
+resist the inclination. I will not give way to it. I must try and find out what
+is going on outside. But neither sound nor light can penetrate this iron box.
+Wait a minute, though; perhaps by listening intently I may hear some sound,
+however feeble. Therefore I concentrate all my vital power in my sense of
+hearing. Moreover, I try—in case I should really not be on <I>terra firma</I>—to
+distinguish some movement, some oscillation of my prison. Admitting that the
+ship is still at anchor, it cannot be long before it will start—otherwise I
+shall have to give up imagining why Thomas Roch and I have been carried off.</P>
+<P>At last—it is no illusion—a slight rolling proves to me, beyond a doubt, that
+I am not on land. We are evidently moving, but the motion is scarcely
+perceptible. It is not a jerky, but rather a gliding movement, as though we were
+skimming through the water without effort, on an even keel.</P>
+<P>Let me consider the matter calmly. I am on board a vessel that was anchored
+in the Neuse, waiting under sail or steam, for the result of the expedition. A
+boat brought me aboard, but, I repeat, I did not feel that I was lifted over her
+bulwarks. Was I passed through a porthole? But after all, what does it matter?
+Whether I was lowered into the hold or not, I am certainly upon something that
+is floating and moving.</P>
+<P>No doubt I shall soon be let out, together with Thomas Roch, supposing them
+to have locked him up as carefully as they have me. By being let out, I mean
+being accorded permission to go on deck. It will not be for some hours to come,
+however, that is certain, for they won’t want us to be seen, so that there is no
+chance of getting a whiff of fresh air till we are well out at sea. If it is a
+sailing vessel, she must have waited for a breeze—for the breeze that freshens
+off shore at daybreak, and is favorable to ships navigating Pamlico Sound.</P>
+<P>It certainly cannot be a steamer. I could not have failed to smell the oil
+and other odors of the engine-room. And then I should feel the trembling of the
+machinery, the jerks of the pistons, and the movements of the screws or
+paddles.</P>
+<P>The best thing to do is to wait patiently. I shan’t be taken out of this hole
+until to-morrow, anyway. Moreover, if I am not released, somebody will surely
+bring me something to eat. There is no reason to suppose that they intend to
+starve me to death. They wouldn’t have taken the trouble to bring me aboard, but
+would have dropped me to the bottom of the river had they been desirous of
+getting rid of me. Once we are out at sea, what will they have to fear from me?
+No one could hear my shouts. As to demanding an explanation and making a fuss,
+it would be useless. Besides, what am I to the men who have carried us off? A
+mere hospital attendant—one Gaydon, who is of no consequence. It is Thomas Roch
+they were after. I was taken along too because I happened to return to the
+pavilion at the critical moment.</P>
+<P>At any rate, no matter what happens, no matter who our kidnappers may be, no
+matter where we are taken, I shall stick to this resolution: I will continue to
+play my role of warder. No one, no! none, can suspect that Gaydon is Simon Hart,
+the engineer. There are two advantages in this: in the first place, they will
+take no notice of a poor devil of a warder, and in the second, I may be able to
+solve the mystery surrounding this plot and turn my knowledge to profit, if I
+succeed in making my escape.</P>
+<P>But whither are my thoughts wandering? I must perforce wait till we arrive at
+our destination before thinking of escaping. It will be time enough to bother
+about that when the occasion presents itself. Until then the essential is that
+they remain ignorant as to my identity, and they cannot, and shall not, know who
+I am.</P>
+<P>I am now certain that we are going through the water. But there is one thing
+that puzzles me. It is not a sailing vessel, neither can it be a steamer. Yet it
+is incontestably propelled by some powerful machine. There are none of the
+noises, nor is there the trembling that accompanies the working of steam
+engines. The movement of the vessel is more continuous and regular, it is a sort
+of direct rotation that is communicated by the motor, whatever the latter may
+be. No mistake is possible: the ship is propelled by some special mechanism. But
+what is it?</P>
+<P>Is it one of those turbines that have been spoken of lately, which, fitted
+into a submerged tube, are destined to replace the ordinary screw, it being
+claimed that they utilize the resistance of the water better than the latter and
+give increased speed to a ship?</P>
+<P>In a few hours’ time I shall doubtless know all about this means of
+locomotion.</P>
+<P>Meanwhile there is another thing that equally puzzles me. There is not the
+slightest rolling or pitching. How is it that Pamlico Sound is so
+extraordinarily calm? The varying currents continuously ruffle the surface of
+the Sound, even if nothing else does.</P>
+<P>It is true the tide may be out, and I remember that last night the wind had
+fallen altogether. Still, no matter, the thing is inexplicable, for a ship
+propelled by machinery, no matter at what speed she may be going, always
+oscillates more or less, and I cannot perceive the slightest rocking.</P>
+<P>Such are the thoughts with which my mind is persistently filled. Despite an
+almost overpowering desire to sleep, despite the torpor that is coming upon me
+in this suffocating atmosphere, I am resolved not to close my eyes. I will keep
+awake till daylight, and there will be no daylight for me till it is let into my
+prison from the outside. Perhaps even if the door were open it would not
+penetrate to this black hole, and I shall probably not see it again until I am
+taken on deck.</P>
+<P>I am squatting in a corner of my prison, for I have no stool or anything to
+sit upon, but as my eyelids are heavy and I feel somnolent in spite of myself, I
+get up and walk about. Then I wax wrathful, anger fills my soul, I beat upon the
+iron walls with my fists, and shout for help. In vain! I hurt my hands against
+the bolts of the plates, and no one answers my cries.</P>
+<P>Such conduct is unworthy of me. I flattered myself that I would remain calm
+under all circumstances and here I am acting like a child.</P>
+<P>The absence of any rolling or lurching movement at least proves that we are
+not yet at sea. Instead of crossing Pamlico Sound, may we not be going in the
+opposite direction, up the River Neuse? No! What would they go further inland
+for? If Thomas Roch has been carried off from Healthful House, his captors
+obviously mean to take him out of the United States—probably to a distant island
+in the Atlantic, or to some point on the European continent. It is, therefore,
+not up the Neuse that our maritime machine, whatever it may be, is going, but
+across Pamlico Sound, which must be as calm as a mirror.</P>
+<P>Very well, then, when we get to sea I shall soon, know, for the vessel will
+rock right enough in the swell off shore, even though there be no wind,—unless I
+am aboard a battleship, or big cruiser, and this I fancy can hardly be!</P>
+<P>But hark! If I mistake not—no, it was not imagination—I hear footsteps. Some
+one is approaching the side of the compartment where the door is. One of the
+crew no doubt. Are they going to let me out at last? I can now hear voices. A
+conversation is going on outside the door, but it is carried on in a language
+that I do not understand. I shout to them—I shout again, but no answer is
+vouchsafed.</P>
+<P>There is nothing to do, then, but wait, wait, wait! I keep repeating the word
+and it rings in my ears like a bell.</P>
+<P>Let me try to calculate how long I have been here. The ship must have been
+under way for at least four or five hours. I reckon it must be past midnight,
+but I cannot tell, for unfortunately my watch is of no use to me in this
+Cimmerian darkness.</P>
+<P>Now, if we have been going for five hours, we must have cleared Pamlico
+Sound, whether we issued by Ocracoke or Hatteras inlet, and must be off the
+coast a good mile, at least. Yet I haven’t felt any motion from the swell of the
+sea.</P>
+<P>It is inexplicable, incredible! Come now, have I made a mistake? Am I the
+dupe of an illusion? Am I not imprisoned in the hold of a ship under way?</P>
+<P>Another hour has passed and the movement of the ship suddenly ceases; I
+realize perfectly that she is stationary. Has she reached her destination? In
+this event we can only be in one of the coast ports to the north or south of
+Pamlico Sound. But why should Thomas Roch be landed again? The abduction must
+soon have been discovered, and our kidnappers would run the greatest risk of
+falling into the hands of the authorities if they attempted to disembark.</P>
+<P>However this may be, if the vessel is coming to anchor I shall hear the noise
+of the chain as it is paid out, and feel the jerk as the ship is brought up. I
+know that sound and that jerk well from experience, and I am bound to hear and
+feel them in a minute or two.</P>
+<P>I wait—I listen.</P>
+<P>A dead and disquieting silence reigns on board. I begin to wonder whether I
+am not the only living being in the ship.</P>
+<P>Now I feel an irresistible torpor coming over me. The air is vitiated. I
+cannot breathe. My chest is bursting. I try to resist, but it is impossible to
+do so. The temperature rises to such a degree that I am compelled to divest
+myself of part of my clothing. Then I lie me down in a corner. My heavy eyelids
+close, and I sink into a prostration that eventually forces me into heavy
+slumber.</P>
+<P>How long have I been asleep? I cannot say. Is it night? Is it day? I know
+not. I remark, however, that I breathe more easily, and that the air is no
+longer poisoned carbonic acid.</P>
+<P>Was the air renewed while I slept? Has the door been opened? Has anybody been
+in here?</P>
+<P>Yes, here is the proof of it!</P>
+<P>In feeling about, my hand has come in contact with a mug filled with a liquid
+that exhales an inviting odor. I raise it to my lips, which, are burning, for I
+am suffering such an agony of thirst that I would even drink brackish water.</P>
+<P>It is ale—an ale of excellent quality—which refreshes and comforts me, and I
+drain the pint to the last drop.</P>
+<P>But if they have not condemned me to die of thirst, neither have they
+condemned me to die of hunger, I suppose?</P>
+<P>No, for in one of the corners I find a basket, and this basket contains some
+bread and cold meat.</P>
+<P>I fall to, eating greedily, and my strength little by little returns.</P>
+<P>Decidedly, I am not so abandoned as I thought I was. Some one entered this
+obscure hole, and the open door admitted a little of the oxygen from the
+outside, without which I should have been suffocated. Then the wherewithal to
+quench my thirst and appease the pangs of hunger was placed within my reach.</P>
+<P>How much longer will this incarceration last? Days? Months? I cannot estimate
+the hours that have elapsed since I fell asleep, nor have I any idea as to what
+time of the day or night it may be. I was careful to wind up my watch, though,
+and perhaps by feeling the hands—Yes, I think the little hand marks eight
+o’clock—in the morning, no doubt. What I do know, however, is that the ship is
+not in motion. There is not the slightest quiver.</P>
+<P>Hours and hours, weary, interminable hours go by, and I wonder whether they
+are again waiting till night comes on to renew my stock of air and provisions.
+Yes, they are waiting to take advantage of my slumbers. But this time I am
+resolved to resist. I will feign to be asleep—and I shall know how to force an
+answer from whoever enters!</P>
+
+<a name="VI" id="VI"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER VI.</H4>
+<H4>ON DECK.</H4>
+<P>Here I am in the open air, breathing freely once more. I have at last been
+hauled out of that stifling box and taken on deck. I gaze around me in every
+direction and see no sign of land. On every hand is that circular line which
+defines earth and sky. No, there is not even a speck of land to be seen to the
+west, where the coast of North America extends for thousands of miles.</P>
+<P>The setting sun now throws but slanting rays upon the bosom of the ocean. It
+must be about six o’clock in the evening. I take out my watch and it marks
+thirteen minutes past six.</P>
+<P>As I have already mentioned, I waited for the door of my prison to open,
+thoroughly resolved not to fall asleep again, but to spring upon the first
+person who entered and force him to answer my questions. I was not aware then
+that it was day, but it was, and hour after hour passed and no one came. I began
+to suffer again from hunger and thirst, for I had not preserved either bite or
+sup.</P>
+<P>As soon as I awoke I felt that the ship was in motion again, after having, I
+calculated, remained stationary since the previous day—no doubt in some lonely
+creek, since I had not heard or felt her come to anchor.</P>
+<P>A few minutes ago—it must therefore have been six o’clock—I again heard
+footsteps on the other side of the iron wall of my compartment. Was anybody
+coming to my cell? Yes, for I heard the creaking of the bolts as they were drawn
+back, and then the door opened, and the darkness in which I had been plunged
+since the first hour of my captivity was illumined by the light of a
+lantern.</P>
+<P>Two men, whom I had no time to look at, entered and seized me by the arms. A
+thick cloth was thrown over my head, which was enveloped in such a manner that I
+could see absolutely nothing.</P>
+<P>What did it all mean? What were they going to do with me? I struggled, but
+they held me in an iron grasp. I questioned them, but they made no reply. The
+men spoke to each other in a language that I could not understand, and had never
+heard before.</P>
+<P>They stood upon no ceremony with me. It is true I was only a madhouse warder,
+and they probably did not consider it necessary to do so; but I question very
+much whether Simon Hart, the engineer, would have received any more courtesy at
+their hands.</P>
+<P>This time, however, no attempt was made to gag me nor to bind either my arms
+or legs. I was simply restrained by main force from breaking away from them.</P>
+<P>In a moment I was dragged out of the compartment and pushed along a narrow
+passage. Next, the steps of a metallic stairway resounded under our feet. Then
+the fresh air blew in my face and I inhaled it with avidity.</P>
+<P>Finally they took their hands from off me, and I found myself free. I
+immediately tore the cloth off my head and gazed about me.</P>
+<P>I am on board a schooner which is ripping through the water at a great rate
+and leaving a long white trail behind her.</P>
+<P>I had to clutch at one of the stays for support, dazzled as I was by the
+light after my forty-eight hours’ imprisonment in complete obscurity.</P>
+<P>On the deck a dozen men with rough, weather-beaten faces come and go—very
+dissimilar types of men, to whom it would be impossible to attribute any
+particular nationality. They scarcely take any notice of me.</P>
+<P>As to the schooner, I estimate that she registers from two hundred and fifty
+to three hundred tons. She has a fairly wide beam, her masts are strong and
+lofty, and her large spread of canvas must carry her along at a spanking rate in
+a good breeze.</P>
+<P>Aft, a grizzly-faced man is at the wheel, and he is keeping her head to the
+sea that is running pretty high.</P>
+<P>I try to find out the name of the vessel, but it is not to be seen anywhere,
+even on the life-buoys.</P>
+<P>I walk up to one of the sailors and inquire:</P>
+<P>“What is the name of this ship?�</P>
+<P>No answer, and I fancy the man does not understand me.</P>
+<P>“Where is the captain?� I continue.</P>
+<P>But the sailor pays no more heed to this than he did to the previous
+question.</P>
+<P>I turn on my heel and go forward.</P>
+<P>Above the forward hatchway a bell is suspended. Maybe the name of the
+schooner is engraved upon it. I examine it, but can find no name upon it.</P>
+<P>I then return to the stern and address the man at the wheel. He gazes at me
+sourly, shrugs his shoulders, and bending, grasps the spokes of the wheel
+solidly, and brings the schooner, which had been headed off by a large wave from
+port, stem on to sea again.</P>
+<P>Seeing that nothing is to be got from that quarter, I turn away and look
+about to see if I can find Thomas Roch, but I do not perceive him anywhere. Is
+he not on board? He must be. They could have had no reason for carrying me off
+alone. No one could have had any idea that I was Simon Hart, the engineer, and
+even had they known it what interest could they have had in me, and what could
+they expect of me?</P>
+<P>Therefore, as Roch is not on deck, I conclude that he is locked in one of the
+cabins, and trust he has met with better treatment than his ex-guardian.</P>
+<P>But what is this—and how on earth could I have failed to notice it before?
+How is this schooner moving? Her sails are furled—there is not an inch of canvas
+set—the wind has fallen, and the few puffs that occasionally come from the east
+are unfavorable, in view of the fact that we are going in that very direction.
+And yet the schooner speeds through the sea, her bows down, throwing off clouds
+of foam, and leaving a long, milky, undulating trail in her wake.</P>
+<P>Is she a steam-yacht? No—there is not a smokestack about her. Is she
+propelled by electricity—by a battery of accumulators, or by piles of great
+power that work her screw and send her along at this rate?</P>
+<P>I can come to no other conclusion. In any case she must be fitted with a
+screw, and by leaning over the stern I shall be able to see it, and can find out
+what sets it working afterwards.</P>
+<P>The man at the wheel watches me ironically as I approach, but makes no effort
+to prevent me from looking over.</P>
+<P>I gaze long and earnestly, but there is no foaming and seething of the water
+such as is invariably caused by the revolutions of the screw—naught but the long
+white furrow that a sailing vessel leaves behind is discernible in the
+schooner’s wake.</P>
+<P>Then, what kind of a machine is it that imparts such a marvellous speed to
+the vessel? As I have already said, the wind is against her, and there is a
+heavy swell on.</P>
+<P>I must—I will know. No one pays the slightest attention, and I again go
+forward.</P>
+<P>As I approach the forecastle I find myself face to face with a man who is
+leaning nonchalantly on the raised hatchway and who is watching me. He seems to
+be waiting for me to speak to him.</P>
+<P>I recognize him instantly. He is the person who accompanied the Count
+d’Artigas during the latter’s visit to Healthful House. There can be no
+mistake—it is he right enough.</P>
+<P>It was, then, that rich foreigner who abducted Thomas Roch, and I am on board
+the <I>Ebba</I> his schooner-yacht which is so well known on the American
+coast!</P>
+<P>The man before me will enlighten me about what I want to know. I remember
+that he and the Count spoke English together.</P>
+<P>I take him to be the captain of the schooner.</P>
+<P>“Captain,� I say, “you are the person I saw at Healthful House. You remember
+me, of course?�</P>
+<P>He looks me up and down but does not condescend to reply.</P>
+<P>“I am Warder Gaydon, the attendant of Thomas Roch,� I continue, “and I want
+to know why you have carried me off and placed me on board this schooner?�</P>
+<P>The captain interrupts me with a sign. It is not made to me, however, but to
+some sailors standing near.</P>
+<P>They catch me by the arms, and taking no notice of the angry movement that I
+cannot restrain, bundle me down the hatchway. The hatchway stair in reality, I
+remark, is a perpendicular iron ladder, at the bottom of which, to right and
+left, are some cabins, and forward, the men’s quarters.</P>
+<P>Are they going to put me back in my dark prison at the bottom of the
+hold?</P>
+<P>No. They turn to the left and push me into a cabin. It is lighted by a
+port-hole, which is open, and through which the fresh air comes in gusts from
+the briny. The furniture consists of a bunk, a chair, a chest of drawers, a
+wash-hand-stand and a table.</P>
+<P>The latter is spread for dinner, and I sit down. Then the cook’s mate comes
+in with two or three dishes. He is a colored lad, and as he is about to
+withdraw, I try to question him, but he, too, vouchsafes no reply. Perhaps he
+doesn’t understand me.</P>
+<P>The door is closed, and I fall to and eat with an excellent appetite, with
+the intention of putting off all further questioning till some future occasion
+when I shall stand a chance of getting answered.</P>
+<P>It is true I am a prisoner, but this time I am comfortable enough, and I hope
+I shall be permitted to occupy this cabin for the remainder of the voyage, and
+not be lowered into that black hole again.</P>
+<P>I now give myself up to my thoughts, the first of which is that it was the
+Count d’Artigas who planned the abduction; that it was he who is responsible for
+the kidnapping of Thomas Roch, and that consequently the French inventor must be
+just as comfortably installed somewhere on board the schooner.</P>
+<P>But who is this Count d’Artigas? Where does he hail from? If he has seized
+Thomas Roch, is it not because he is determined to secure the secret of the
+fulgurator at no matter what cost? Very likely, and I must therefore be careful
+not to betray my identity, for if they knew the truth, I should never be
+afforded a chance to get away.</P>
+<P>But what a lot of mysteries to clear up, how many inexplicable things to
+explain—the origin of this d’Artigas, his intentions as to the future, whither
+we are bound, the port to which the schooner belongs, and this mysterious
+progress through the water without sails and without screws, at a speed of at
+least ten knots an hour!</P>
+<P>The air becoming keener as night deepens, I close and secure the port-hole,
+and as my cabin is bolted on the outside, the best thing I can do is to get into
+my bunk and let myself be gently rocked to sleep by the broad Atlantic in this
+mysterious cradle, the <I>Ebba</I>.</P>
+<P>The next morning I rise at daybreak, and having performed my ablutions, dress
+myself and wait.</P>
+<P>Presently the idea of trying the door occurs to me. I find that it has been
+unbolted, and pushing it open, climb the iron ladder and emerge on deck.</P>
+<P>The crew are washing down the deck, and standing aft and conversing are two
+men, one of whom is the captain. The latter manifests no surprise at seeing me,
+and indicates my presence to his companion by a nod.</P>
+<P>This other man, whom I have never before seen, is an individual of about
+fifty years of age, whose dark hair is streaked with gray. His features are
+delicately chiselled, his eyes are bright, and his expression is intelligent and
+not at all displeasing. He is somewhat of the Grecian type, and I have no doubt
+that he is of Hellenic origin when I hear him called Serko—Engineer Serko—by the
+Captain of the <I>Ebba</I>.</P>
+<P>As to the latter, he is called Spade—Captain Spade—and this name has an
+Italian twang about it. Thus there is a Greek, an Italian, and a crew recruited
+from every corner of the earth to man a schooner with a Norwegian name! This
+mixture strikes me as being suspicious.</P>
+<P>And that Count d’Artigas, with his Spanish name and Asiatic type, where does
+he come from?</P>
+<P>Captain Spade and Engineer Serko continue to converse in a low tone of voice.
+The former is keeping a sharp eye on the man at the wheel, who does not appear
+to pay any particular attention to the compass in front of him. He seems to pay
+more heed to the gestures of one of the sailors stationed forward, and who
+signals to him to put the helm to port or to starboard.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch is near them, gazing vacantly out upon the vast expanse which is
+not limited on the horizon by a single speck of land. Two sailors watch his
+every movement. It is evidently feared that the madman may possibly attempt to
+jump overboard.</P>
+<P>I wonder whether I shall be permitted to communicate with my ward.</P>
+<P>I walk towards him, and Captain Spade and Engineer Serko watch me.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch doesn’t see me coming, and I stand beside him. Still he takes no
+notice of me, and makes no movement. His eyes, which sparkle brightly, wander
+over the ocean, and he draws in deep breaths of the salt, vivifying atmosphere.
+Added to the air surcharged with oxygen is a magnificent sunset in a cloudless
+sky. Does he perceive the change in his situation? Has he already forgotten
+about Healthful House, the pavilion in which he was a prisoner, and Gaydon, his
+keeper? It is highly probable. The past has presumably been effaced from his
+memory and he lives solely in the present.</P>
+<P>In my opinion, even on the deck of the <I>Ebba</I>, in the middle of the sea,
+Thomas Roch is still the helpless, irresponsible man whom I tended for fifteen
+months. His intellectual condition has undergone no change, and his reason will
+return only when he is spoken to about his inventions. The Count d’Artigas is
+perfectly aware of this mental disposition, having had a proof of it during his
+visit, and he evidently relies thereon to surprise sooner or later the
+inventor’s secret. But with what object?</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch!� I exclaim.</P>
+<P>My voice seems to strike him, and after gazing at me fixedly for an instant
+he averts his eyes quickly.</P>
+<P>I take his hand and press it. He withdraws it brusquely and walks away,
+without having recognized me, in the direction of Captain Spade and Engineer
+Serko.</P>
+<P>Does he think of speaking to one or other of these men, and if they speak to
+him will he be more reasonable than he was with me, and reply to them?</P>
+<P>At this moment his physiognomy lights up with a gleam of intelligence. His
+attention, obviously, has been attracted by the queer progress of the schooner.
+He gazes at the masts and the furled sails. Then he turns back and stops at the
+place where, if the <I>Ebba</I> were a steamer, the funnel ought to be, and
+which in this case ought to be belching forth a cloud of black smoke.</P>
+<P>What appeared so strange to me evidently strikes Thomas Roch as being
+strange, too. He cannot explain what I found inexplicable, and, as I did, he
+walks aft to see if there is a screw.</P>
+<P>On the flanks of the <I>Ebba</I> a shoal of porpoises are sporting. Swift as
+is the schooner’s course they easily pass her, leaping and gambolling in their
+native element with surprising grace and agility.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch pays no attention to them, but leans over the stern.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko and Captain Spade, fearful lest he should fall overboard,
+hurry to him and drag him gently, but firmly, away.</P>
+<P>I observe from long experience that Roch is a prey to violent excitement. He
+turns about and gesticulates, uttering incoherent phrases the while.</P>
+<P>It is plain to me that another fit is coming on, similar to the one he had in
+the pavilion of Healthful House on the night we were abducted. He will have to
+be seized and carried down to his cabin, and I shall perhaps be summoned to
+attend to him.</P>
+<P>Meanwhile Engineer Serko and Captain Spade do not lose sight of him for a
+moment. They are evidently curious to see what he will do.</P>
+<P>After walking towards the mainmast and assuring himself that the sails are
+not set, he goes up to it and flinging his arms around it, tries with all his
+might to shake it, as though seeking to pull it down.</P>
+<P>Finding his efforts futile, he quits it and goes to the foremast, where the
+same performance is gone through. He waxes more and more excited. His vague
+utterances are followed by inarticulate cries.</P>
+<P>Suddenly he rushes to the port stays and clings to them, and I begin to fear
+that he will leap into the rigging and climb to the cross-tree, where he might
+be precipitated into the sea by a lurch of the ship.</P>
+<P>On a sign from Captain Spade, some sailors run up and try to make him
+relinquish his grasp of the stays, but are unable to do so. I know that during
+his fits he is endowed with the strength of ten men, and many a time I have been
+compelled to summon assistance in order to overpower him.</P>
+<P>Other members of the crew, however, come up, and the unhappy madman is borne
+to the deck, where two big sailors hold him down, despite his extraordinary
+strength.</P>
+<P>The only thing to do is to convey him to his cabin, and let him lie there
+till he gets over his fit. This is what will be done in conformity with orders
+given by a new-comer whose voice seems familiar to me.</P>
+<P>I turn and recognize him.</P>
+<P>He is the Count d’Artigas, with a frown on his face and an imperious manner,
+just as I had seen him at Healthful House.</P>
+<P>I at once advance toward him. I want an explanation and mean to have it.</P>
+<P>“By what right, sir?�—I begin.</P>
+<P>“By the right of might,� replies the Count.</P>
+<P>Then he turns on his heel, and Thomas Roch is carried below.</P>
+
+<a name="VII" id="VII"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER VII.</H4>
+<H4>TWO DAYS AT SEA.</H4>
+<P>Perhaps—should circumstances render it necessary—I may be induced to tell the
+Count d’Artigas that I am Simon Hart, the engineer. Who knows but what I may
+receive more consideration than if I remain Warder Gaydon? This measure,
+however, demands reflection. I have always been dominated by the thought that if
+the owner of the <I>Ebba</I> kidnapped the French inventor, it was in the hope
+of getting possession of Roch’s fulgurator, for which, neither the old nor new
+continent would pay the impossible price demanded. In that case the best thing I
+can do is to remain Warder Gaydon, on the chance that I may be allowed to
+continue in attendance upon him. In this way, if Thomas Roch should ever divulge
+his secret, I may learn what it was impossible to do at Healthful House, and can
+act accordingly.</P>
+<P>Meanwhile, where is the <I>Ebba</I> bound?—first question.</P>
+<P>Who and what is the Count d’Artigas?—second question.</P>
+<P>The first will be answered in a few days’ time, no doubt, in view of the
+rapidity with which we are ripping through the water, under the action of a
+means of propulsion that I shall end by finding out all about. As regards the
+second, I am by no means so sure that my curiosity will ever be gratified.</P>
+<P>In my opinion this enigmatical personage has an all important reason for
+hiding his origin, and I am afraid there is no indication by which I can gauge
+his nationality. If the Count d’Artigas speaks English fluently—and I was able
+to assure myself of that fact during his visit to Pavilion No. 17,—he pronounces
+it with a harsh, vibrating accent, which is not to be found among the peoples of
+northern latitudes. I do not remember ever to have heard anything like it in the
+course of my travels either in the Old or New World—unless it be the harshness
+characteristic of the idioms in use among the Malays. And, in truth, with his
+olive, verging on copper-tinted skin, his jet-black, crinkly hair, his piercing,
+deep-set, restless eyes, his square shoulders and marked muscular development,
+it is by no means unlikely that he belongs to one of the extreme Eastern
+races.</P>
+<P>I believe this name of d’Artigas is an assumed one, and his title of Count
+likewise. If his schooner bears a Norwegian name, he at any rate is not of
+Scandinavian origin. He has nothing of the races of Northern Europe about
+him.</P>
+<P>But whoever and whatever he may be, this man abducted Thomas Roch—and me with
+him—with no good intention, I’ll be bound.</P>
+<P>But what I should like to know is, has he acted as the agent of a foreign
+power, or on his own account? Does he wish to profit alone by Thomas Roch’s
+invention, and is he in the position to dispose of it profitably? That is
+another question that I cannot yet answer. Maybe I shall be able to find out
+from what I hear and see ere I make my escape, if escape be possible.</P>
+<P>The <I>Ebba</I> continues on her way in the same mysterious manner. I am free
+to walk about the deck, without, however, being able to go beyond the fore
+hatchway. Once I attempted to go as far as the bows where I could, by leaning
+over, perceive the schooner’s stem as it cut through the water, but acting, it
+was plain, on orders received, the watch on deck turned me back, and one of
+them, addressing me brusquely in harsh, grating English, said:</P>
+<P>“Go back! Go back! You are interfering with the working of the ship!�</P>
+<P>With the working of the ship! There was no working.</P>
+<P>Did they realize that I was trying to discover by what means the schooner was
+propelled? Very likely, and Captain Spade, who had looked on, must have known
+it, too. Even a hospital attendant could not fail to be astonished at the fact
+that a vessel without either screw or sails was going along at such a speed.
+However this may be, for some reason or other, the bows of the <I>Ebba</I> are
+barred to me.</P>
+<P>Toward ten o’clock a breeze springs up—a northwest wind and very
+favorable—and Captain Spade gives an order to the boatswain. The latter
+immediately pipes all hands on deck, and the mainsail, the foresail, staysail
+and jibs are hoisted. The work could not have been executed with greater
+regularity and discipline on board a man-of-war.</P>
+<P>The <I>Ebba</I> now has a slight list to port, and her speed is notably
+increased. But the motor continues to push her along, as is evident from the
+fact that the sails are not always as full as they ought to be if the schooner
+were bowling along solely under their action. However, they continue to render
+yeoman’s service, for the breeze has set in steadily.</P>
+<P>The sky is clear, for the clouds in the west disappear as soon as they attain
+the horizon, and the sunlight dances on the water.</P>
+<P>My preoccupation now is to find out as near as possible where we are bound
+for. I am a good-enough sailor to be able to estimate the approximate speed of a
+ship. In my opinion the <I>Ebba</I> has been travelling at the rate of from ten
+to eleven knots an hour. As to the direction we have been going in, it is always
+the same, and I have been able to verify this by casual glances at the binnacle.
+If the fore part of the vessel is barred to Warder Gaydon he has been allowed a
+free run of the remainder of it. Time and again I have glanced at the compass,
+and noticed that the needle invariably pointed to the east, or to be exact,
+east-southeast.</P>
+<P>These are the conditions in which we are navigating this part of the Atlantic
+Ocean, which is bounded on the west by the coast of the United States of
+America.</P>
+<P>I appeal to my memory. What are the islands or groups of islands to be found
+in the direction we are going, ere the continent of the Old World is
+reached?</P>
+<P>North Carolina, which the schooner quitted forty-eight hours ago, is
+traversed by the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude, and this parallel, extending
+eastward, must, if I mistake not, cut the African coast at Morocco. But along
+the line, about three thousand miles from America, are the Azores. Is it
+presumable that the <I>Ebba</I> is heading for this archipelago, that the port
+to which she belongs is somewhere in these islands which constitute one of
+Portugal’s insular domains? I cannot admit such an hypothesis.</P>
+<P>Besides, before the Azores, on the line of the thirty-fifth parallel, is the
+Bermuda group, which belongs to England. It seems to me to be a good deal less
+hypothetical that, if the Count d’Artigas was entrusted with the abduction of
+Thomas Roch by a European Power at all, it was by the United Kingdom of Great
+Britain and Ireland. The possibility, however, remains that he may be acting
+solely in his own interest.</P>
+<P>Three or four times during the day Count d’Artigas has come aft and remained
+for some time scanning the surrounding horizon attentively. When a sail or the
+smoke from a steamer heaves in sight he examines the passing vessel for a
+considerable time with a powerful telescope. I may add that he has not once
+condescended to notice my presence on deck.</P>
+<P>Now and then Captain Spade joins him and both exchange a few words in a
+language that I can neither understand nor recognize.</P>
+<P>It is with Engineer Serko, however, that the owner of the <I>Ebba</I>
+converses more readily than with anybody else, and the latter appears to be very
+intimate with him. The engineer is a good deal more free, more loquacious and
+less surly than his companions, and I wonder what position he occupies on the
+schooner. Is he a personal friend of the Count d’Artigas? Does he scour the seas
+with him, sharing the enviable life enjoyed by the rich yachtsman? He is the
+only man of the lot who seems to manifest, if not sympathy with, at least some
+interest in me.</P>
+<P>I have not seen Thomas Roch all day. He must be shut in his cabin, still
+under the influence of the fit that came upon him last night.</P>
+<P>I feel certain that this is so, when about three o’clock in the afternoon,
+just as he is about to go below, the Count beckons me to approach.</P>
+<P>I do not know what he wishes to say to me, this Count d’Artigas, but I do
+know what I will say to him.</P>
+<P>“Do these fits to which Thomas Roch is subject last long?� he asks me in
+English.</P>
+<P>“Sometimes forty-eight hours,� I reply.</P>
+<P>“What is to be done?�</P>
+<P>“Nothing at all. Let him alone until he falls asleep. After a night’s sleep
+the fit will be over and Thomas Roch will be his own helpless self again.�</P>
+<P>“Very well, Warder Gaydon, you will continue to attend him as you did at
+Healthful House, if it be necessary.�</P>
+<P>“To attend to him!�</P>
+<P>“Yes—on board the schooner—pending our arrival.�</P>
+<P>“Where?�</P>
+<P>“Where we shall be to-morrow afternoon,� replies the Count.</P>
+<P>To-morrow, I say to myself. Then we are not bound for the coast of Africa,
+nor even the Azores. There only remains the hypothesis that we are making for
+the Bermudas.</P>
+<P>Count d’Artigas is about to go down the hatchway when I interrogate him in my
+turn:</P>
+<P>“Sir,� I exclaim, “I desire to know, I have the right to know, where I am
+going, and——�</P>
+<P>“Here, Warder Gaydon,� he interrupted, “you have no rights. All you have to
+do is to answer when you are spoken to.� “I protest!�</P>
+<P>“Protest, then,� replies this haughty and imperious personage, glancing at me
+menacingly.</P>
+<P>Then he disappears down the hatchway, leaving me face to face with Engineer
+Serko.</P>
+<P>“If I were you, Warder Gaydon, I would resign myself to the inevitable,�
+remarks the latter with a smile. “When one is caught in a trap——�</P>
+<P>“One can cry out, I suppose?�</P>
+<P>“What is the use when no one is near to hear you?�</P>
+<P>“I shall be heard some day, sir.�</P>
+<P>“Some day—that’s a long way off. However, shout as much as you please.�</P>
+<P>And with this ironical advice, Engineer Serko leaves me to my own
+reflections.</P>
+<P>Towards four o’clock a big ship is reported about six miles off to the east,
+coming in our direction. She is moving rapidly and grows perceptibly larger.
+Black clouds of smoke pour out of her two funnels. She is a warship, for a
+narrow pennant floats from her main-mast, and though she is not flying any flag
+I take her to be an American cruiser.</P>
+<P>I wonder whether the <I>Ebba</I> will render her the customary salute as she
+passes.</P>
+<P>No; for the schooner suddenly changes her course with the evident intention
+of avoiding her.</P>
+<P>This proceeding on the part of such a suspicious yacht does not astonish me
+greatly. But what does cause me extreme surprise is Captain Spade’s way of
+manoeuvring.</P>
+<P>He runs forward to a signalling apparatus in the bows, similar to that by
+which orders are transmitted to the engine room of a steamer. As soon as he
+presses one of the buttons of this apparatus the <I>Ebba</I> veers off a point
+to the south-west.</P>
+<P>Evidently an order of “some kind� has been transmitted to the driver of the
+machine of “some kind� which causes this inexplicable movement of the schooner
+by the action of a motor of “some kind� the principle of which I cannot guess
+at.</P>
+<P>The result of this manoeuvre is that the <I>Ebba</I> slants away from the
+cruiser, whose course does not vary. Why should this warship cause a
+pleasure-yacht to turn out of its way? I have no idea.</P>
+<P>But the <I>Ebba</I> behaves in a very different manner when about six o’clock
+in the evening a second ship comes in sight on the port bow. This time, instead
+of seeking to avoid her, Captain Spade signals an order by means of the
+apparatus above referred to, and resumes his course to the east—which will bring
+him close to the said ship.</P>
+<P>An hour later, the two vessels are only about four miles from each other.</P>
+<P>The wind has dropped completely. The strange ship, which is a three-masted
+merchantman, is taking in her top-gallant sails. It is useless to expect the
+wind to spring up again during the night, and she will lay becalmed till
+morning. The <I>Ebba</I>, however, propelled by her mysterious motor, continues
+to approach her.</P>
+<P>It goes without saying, that Captain Spade has also begun to take in sail,
+and the work, under the direction of the boatswain Effrondat, is executed with
+the same precision and promptness that struck me before.</P>
+<P>When the twilight deepens into darkness, only a mile and a half separates the
+vessels.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade then comes up to me—I am standing on the starboard side—and
+unceremoniously orders me to go below.</P>
+<P>I can but obey. I remark, however, ere I go, that the boatswain has not
+lighted the head-lamps, whereas the lamps of the three-master shine
+brightly—green to starboard, and red to port.</P>
+<P>I entertain no doubt that the schooner intends to pass her without being
+seen; for though she has slackened speed somewhat, her direction has not been in
+any way modified.</P>
+<P>I enter my cabin under the impression of a vague foreboding. My supper is on
+the table, but uneasy, I know not why, I hardly touch it, and lie down to wait
+for sleep that does not come.</P>
+<P>I remain in this condition for two hours. The silence is unbroken save by the
+water that ripples along the vessel’s sides.</P>
+<P>My mind is full of the events of the past two days, and other thoughts crowd
+thickly upon me. To-morrow afternoon we shall reach our destination. To-morrow,
+I shall resume, on land, my attendance upon Thomas Roch, “if it be necessary,�
+said the Count d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>If, when I was thrown into that black hole at the bottom of the hold, I was
+able to perceive when the schooner started off across Pamlico Sound, I now feel
+that she has come to a stop. It must be about ten o’clock.</P>
+<P>Why has she stopped? When Captain Spade ordered me below, there was no land
+in sight. In this direction, there is no island until the Bermuda group is
+reached—at least there is none on the map—and we shall have to go another fifty
+or sixty miles before the Bermudas can be sighted by the lookout men. Not only
+has the <I>Ebba</I> stopped, but her immobility is almost complete. There is not
+a breath of wind, and scarcely any swell, and her slight, regular rocking is
+hardly perceptible.</P>
+<P>Then my thoughts turn to the merchantman, which was only a mile and a half
+off, on our bow, when I came below. If the schooner continued her course towards
+her, she must be almost alongside now. We certainly cannot be lying more than
+one or two cables’ length from her. The three-master, which was becalmed at
+sundown, could not have gone west. She must be close by, and if the night is
+clear, I shall be able to see her through the porthole.</P>
+<P>It occurs to me, that perhaps a chance of escape presents itself. Why should
+I not attempt it, since no hope of being restored to liberty is held out to me?
+It is true I cannot swim, but if I seize a life buoy and jump overboard, I may
+be able to reach the ship, if I am not observed by the watch on deck.</P>
+<P>I must quit my cabin and go up by the forward hatchway. I listen. I hear no
+noise, either in the men’s quarters, or on deck. The sailors must all be asleep
+at this hour. Here goes.</P>
+<P>I try to open the door, and find it is bolted on the outside, as I might have
+expected.</P>
+<P>I must give up the attempt, which, after all, had small chance of
+success.</P>
+<P>The best thing I can do, is to go to sleep, for I am weary of mind, if not of
+body. I am restless and racked by conflicting thoughts, and apprehensions of I
+know not what. Oh! if I could but sink into the blessed oblivion of slumber!</P>
+<P>I must have managed to fall asleep, for I have just been awakened by a
+noise—an unusual noise, such as I have not hitherto heard on board the
+schooner.</P>
+<P>Day begins to peer through the glass of my port-hole, which is turned towards
+the east. I look at my watch. It is half-past four.</P>
+<P>The first thing I wonder is, whether the <I>Ebba</I> has resumed her
+voyage.</P>
+<P>No, I am certain she has not, either by sail, or by her motor. The sea is as
+calm at sunrise as it was at sunset. If the <I>Ebba</I> has been going ahead
+while I slept, she is at any rate, stationary now.</P>
+<P>The noise to which I referred, is caused by men hurrying to and fro on
+deck—by men heavily laden. I fancy I can also hear a similar noise in the hold
+beneath my cabin floor, the entrance to which is situated abaft the foremast. I
+also feel that something is scraping against the schooner’s hull. Have boats
+come alongside? Are the crew engaged in loading or unloading merchandise?</P>
+<P>And yet we cannot possibly have reached our journey’s end. The Count
+d’Artigas said that we should not reach our destination till this afternoon.
+Now, I repeat, she was, last night, fully fifty or sixty miles from the nearest
+land, the group of the Bermudas. That she could have returned westward, and can
+be in proximity to the American coast, is inadmissible, in view of the distance.
+Moreover, I have reason to believe that the <I>Ebba</I> has remained stationary
+all night. Before I fell asleep, I know she had stopped, and I now know that she
+is not moving.</P>
+<P>However, I shall see when I am allowed to go on deck. My cabin door is still
+bolted, I find on trying it; but I do not think they are likely to keep me here
+when broad daylight is on.</P>
+<P>An hour goes by, and it gradually gets lighter. I look out of my porthole.
+The ocean is covered by a mist, which the first rays of the sun will speedily
+disperse.</P>
+<P>I can, however, see for a half a mile, and if the three-masted merchantman is
+not visible, it is probably because she is lying off the other, or port, side of
+the <I>Ebba</I>.</P>
+<P>Presently I hear a key turned in my door, and the bolts drawn. I push the
+door open and clamber up the iron ladder to the deck, just as the men are
+battening down the cover of the hold.</P>
+<P>I look for the Count d’Artigas, but do not see him. He has not yet left his
+cabin.</P>
+<P>Aft, Captain Spade and Engineer Serko are superintending the stowing of some
+bales, which have doubtless been hoisted from the hold. This explains the noisy
+operations that were going on when I was awakened. Obviously, if the crew are
+getting out the cargo, we are approaching the end of our voyage. We are not far
+from port, and perhaps in a few hours, the schooner will drop anchor.</P>
+<P>But what about the sailing ship that was to port of us? She ought to be in
+the same place, seeing that there has been and is no wind.</P>
+<P>I look for her, but she is nowhere to be seen. There is not a sail, not a
+speck on the horizon either east, west, north or south.</P>
+<P>After cogitating upon the circumstance I can only arrive at the following
+conclusion, which, however, can only be accepted under reserve: Although I did
+not notice it, the <I>Ebba</I> resumed her voyage while I slept, leaving the
+three-master becalmed behind her, and this is why the merchantman is no longer
+visible.</P>
+<P>I am careful not to question Captain Spade about it, nor even Engineer Serko,
+as I should certainly receive no answer.</P>
+<P>Besides, at this moment Captain Spade goes to the signalling apparatus and
+presses one of the buttons on the upper disk. Almost immediately the <I>Ebba</I>
+gives a jerk, then with her sails still furled, she starts off eastward
+again.</P>
+<P>Two hours later the Count d’Artigas comes up through the main hatchway and
+takes his customary place aft. Serko and Captain Spade at once approach and
+engage in conversation with him.</P>
+<P>All three raise their telescopes and sweep the horizon from southeast to
+northeast.</P>
+<P>No one will be surprised to learn that I gaze intently in the same direction;
+but having no telescope I cannot distinguish anything.</P>
+<P>The midday meal over we all return on deck—all with the exception of Thomas
+Roch, who has not quitted his cabin.</P>
+<P>Towards one o’clock land is sighted by the lookout man on the foretop
+cross-tree. Inasmuch as the <I>Ebba</I> is bowling along at great speed I shall
+soon be able to make out the coast line.</P>
+<P>In effect, two hours later a vague semicircular line that curves outward is
+discernible about eight miles off. As the schooner approaches it becomes more
+distinct. It is a mountain, or at all events very high ground, and from its
+summit a cloud of smoke ascends.</P>
+<P>What! A volcano in these parts? It must then be——</P>
+
+<a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER VIII.</H4>
+<H4>BACK CUP.</H4>
+<P>In my opinion the <I>Ebba</I> could have struck no other group of islands but
+the Bermudas in this part of the Atlantic. This is clear from the distance
+covered from the American coast and the direction sailed in since we issued from
+Pamlico Sound. This direction has constantly been south-southeast, and the
+distance, judging from the <I>Ebba’s</I> rate of speed, which has scarcely
+varied, is approximately seven hundred and fifty miles.</P>
+<P>Still, the schooner does not slacken speed. The Count d’Artigas and Engineer
+Serko remain aft, by the man at the wheel. Captain Spade has gone forward.</P>
+<P>Are we not going to leave this island, which appears to be isolated, to the
+west?</P>
+<P>It does not seem likely, since it is still broad daylight, and the hour at
+which the <I>Ebba</I> was timed to arrive.</P>
+<P>All the sailors are drawn up on deck, awaiting orders, and Boatswain
+Effrondat is making preparations to anchor.</P>
+<P>Ere a couple of hours have passed I shall know all about it. It will be the
+first answer to one of the many questions that have perplexed me since the
+schooner put to sea.</P>
+<P>And yet it is most unlikely that the port to which the <I>Ebba</I> belongs is
+situated on one of the Bermuda islands, in the middle of an English
+archipelago—unless the Count d’Artigas has kidnapped Thomas Roch for the British
+government, which I cannot believe.</P>
+<P>I become aware that this extraordinary man is gazing at me with singular
+persistence. Although he can have no suspicion that I am Simon Hart, the
+engineer, he must be asking himself what I think of this adventure. If Warder
+Gaydon is but a poor devil, this poor devil will manifest as much unconcern as
+to what is in store for him as any gentleman could—even though he were the
+proprietor of this queer pleasure yacht. Still I am a little uneasy under his
+gaze.</P>
+<P>I dare say that if the Count d’Artigas could guess how certain things have
+suddenly become clear to me, he would not hesitate to have me thrown
+overboard.</P>
+<P>Prudence therefore commands me to be more circumspect than ever.</P>
+<P>Without giving rise to any suspicion—even in the mind of Engineer Serko—I
+have succeeded in raising a corner of the mysterious veil, and I begin to see
+ahead a bit.</P>
+<P>As the <I>Ebba</I> draws nearer, the island, or rather islet, towards which
+she is speeding shows more sharply against the blue background of the sky. The
+sun which has passed the zenith, shines full upon the western side. The islet is
+isolated, or at any rate I cannot see any others of the group to which it
+belongs, either to north or south.</P>
+<P>This islet, of curious contexture, resembles as near as possible a cup turned
+upside down, from which a fuliginous vapor arises. Its summit—the bottom of the
+cup, if you like—is about three hundred feet above the level of the sea, and its
+flanks, which are steep and regular, are as bare as the sea-washed rocks at its
+base.</P>
+<P>There is another peculiarity about it which must render the islet easily
+recognizable by mariners approaching it from the west, and this is a rock which
+forms a natural arch at the base of the mountain—the handle of the cup, so to
+speak—and through which the waves wash as freely as the sunshine passes. Seen
+this way the islet fully justifies the name of Back Cup given to it.</P>
+<P>Well, I know and recognize this islet! It is situated at the extremity of the
+archipelago of the Bermudas. It is the “reversed cup� that I had occasion to
+visit a few years ago—No, I am not mistaken. I then climbed over the calcareous
+and crooked rocks at its base on the east side. Yes, it is Back Cup, sure
+enough!</P>
+<P>Had I been less self-possessed I might have uttered an exclamation of
+surprise—and satisfaction—which, with good reason, would have excited the
+attention and suspicion of the Count d’Artigas.</P>
+<P>These are the circumstances under which I came to explore Back Cup while on a
+visit to Bermuda.</P>
+<P>This archipelago, which is situated about seven hundred and fifty miles from
+North Carolina is composed of several hundred islands or islets. Its centre is
+crossed by the sixty-fourth meridian and the thirty-second parallel. Since the
+Englishman Lomer was shipwrecked and cast up there in 1609, the Bermudas have
+belonged to the United Kingdom, and in consequence the colonial population has
+increased to ten thousand inhabitants. It was not for its productions of cotton,
+coffee, indigo, and arrowroot that England annexed the group—seized it, one
+might say; but because it formed a splendid maritime station in that part of the
+Ocean, and in proximity to the United States of America. Possession was taken of
+it without any protest on the part of other powers, and Bermuda is now
+administered by a British governor with the addition of a council and a General
+Assembly.</P>
+<P>The principal islands of the archipelago are called St. David, Somerset,
+Hamilton, and St. George. The latter has a free port, and the town of the same
+name is also the capital of the group.</P>
+<P>The largest of these isles is not more than seventeen miles long and five
+wide. Leaving out the medium-sized ones, there remains but an agglomeration of
+islets and reefs scattered over an area of twelve square leagues.</P>
+<P>Although the climate of Bermuda is very healthy, very salubrious, the isles
+are nevertheless frightfully beaten by the heavy winter tempests of the
+Atlantic, and their approach by navigators presents certain difficulties.</P>
+<P>What the archipelago especially lacks are rivers and rios. However, as
+abundant rains fall frequently, this drawback is got over by the inhabitants,
+who treasure up the heaven-sent water for household and agricultural purposes.
+This has necessitated the construction of vast cisterns which the downfalls keep
+filled. These works of engineering skill justly merit the admiration they
+receive and do honor to the genius of man.</P>
+<P>It was in connection with the setting up of these cisterns that I made the
+trip, as well as out of curiosity to inspect the fine works.</P>
+<P>I obtained from the company of which I was the engineer in New Jersey a
+vacation of several weeks, and embarked at New York for the Bermudas.</P>
+<P>While I was staying on Hamilton Island, in the vast port of Southampton, an
+event occurred of great interest to geologists.</P>
+<P>One day a whole flotilla of fishers, men, women and children, entered
+Southampton Harbor. For fifty years these families had lived on the east coast
+of Back Cup, where they had erected log-cabins and houses of stone. Their
+position for carrying on their industry was an exceptionally favorable one, for
+the waters teem with fish all the year round, and in March and April whales
+abound.</P>
+<P>Nothing had hitherto occurred to disturb their tranquil existence. They were
+quite contented with their rough lot, which was rendered less onerous by the
+facility of communication with Hamilton and St. George. Their solid barks took
+cargoes of fish there, which they exchanged for the necessities of life.</P>
+<P>Why had they thus abandoned the islet with the intention, as it pretty soon
+appeared, of never returning to it? The reason turned out to be that they no
+longer considered themselves in safety there.</P>
+<P>A couple of months previously they had been at first surprised, then alarmed,
+by several distinct detonations that appeared to have taken place in the
+interior of the mountain. At the same time smoke and flames issued from the
+summit—or the bottom of the reversed cup, if you like. Now no one had ever
+suspected that the islet was of volcanic origin, or that there was a crater at
+the top, no one having been able to climb its sides. Now, however, there could
+be no possible doubt that the mountain was an ancient volcano that had suddenly
+become active again and threatened the village with destruction.</P>
+<P>During the ensuing two months internal rumblings and explosions continued to
+be heard, which were accompanied by bursts of flame from the top—especially at
+night. The island was shaken by the explosions—the shocks could be distinctly
+felt. All these phenomena were indicative of an imminent eruption, and there was
+no spot at the base of the mountain that could afford any protection from the
+rivers of lava that would inevitably pour down its smooth, steep slopes and
+overwhelm the village in their boiling flood. Besides, the very mountain might
+be destroyed in the eruption.</P>
+<P>There was nothing for the population exposed to such a dire catastrophe to do
+but leave. This they did. Their humble Lares and Penates, in fact all their
+belongings, were loaded into the fishing-smacks, and the entire colony sought
+refuge in Southhampton Harbor.</P>
+<P>The news that a volcano, that had presumably been smouldering for centuries
+at the western extremity of the group, showed signs of breaking out again,
+caused a sensation throughout the Bermudas. But while some were terrified, the
+curiosity of others was aroused, mine included. The phenomenon was worth
+investigation, even if the simple fisher-folk had exaggerated.</P>
+<P>Back Cup, which, as already stated, lies at the western extremity of the
+archipelago, is connected therewith by a chain of small islets and reefs, which
+cannot be approached from the east. Being only three hundred feet in altitude,
+it cannot be seen either from St. George or Hamilton. I joined a party of
+explorers and we embarked in a cutter that landed us on the island, and made our
+way to the abandoned village of the Bermudan fishers.</P>
+<P>The internal crackings and detonations could be plainly heard, and a sheaf of
+smoke was swayed by the wind at the summit.</P>
+<P>Beyond a peradventure the ancient volcano had been started again by the
+subterranean fire, and an eruption at any moment was to be apprehended.</P>
+<P>In vain we attempted to climb to the mouth of the crater. The mountain
+sheered down at an angle of from seventy-five to eighty degrees, and its smooth,
+slippery sides afforded absolutely no foothold. Anything more barren than this
+rocky freak of nature it would be difficult to conceive. Only a few tufts of
+wild herbs were to be seen upon the whole island, and these seemed to have no
+<I>raison d’être</I>.</P>
+<P>Our explorations were therefore necessarily limited, and in view of the
+active symptoms of danger that manifested themselves, we could but approve the
+action of the villagers in abandoning the place; for we entertained no doubt
+that its destruction was imminent.</P>
+<P>These were the circumstances in which I was led to visit Back Cup, and no one
+will consequently be surprised at the fact that I recognized it immediately we
+hove in sight of the queer structure.</P>
+<P>No, I repeat, the Count d’Artigas would probably not be overpleased if he
+were aware that Warder Gaydon is perfectly acquainted with this islet, even if
+the <I>Ebba</I> was to anchor there—which, as there is no port, is, to say the
+least, extremely improbable.</P>
+<P>As we draw nearer, I attentively examine Back Cup. Not one of its former
+inhabitants has been induced to return, and, as it is absolutely deserted, I
+cannot imagine why the schooner should visit the place.</P>
+<P>Perhaps, however, the Count d’Artigas and his companions have no intention of
+landing there. Even though the <I>Ebba</I> should find temporary shelter between
+the rocky sides of a narrow creek there is nothing to give ground to the
+supposition that a wealthy yachtsman would have the remotest idea of fixing upon
+as his residence an arid cone exposed to all the terrible tempests of the
+Western Atlantic. To live here is all very well for rustic fishermen, but not
+for the Count d’Artigas, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade and his crew.</P>
+<P>Back Cup is now only half a mile off, and the seaweed thrown up on its rocky
+base is plainly discernible. The only living things upon it are the sea-gulls
+and other birds that circle in clouds around the smoking crater.</P>
+<P>When she is only two cable’s lengths off, the schooner slackens speed, and
+then stops at the entrance of a sort of natural canal formed by a couple of
+reefs that barely rise above the water.</P>
+<P>I wonder whether the <I>Ebba</I> will venture to try the dangerous feat of
+passing through it. I do not think so. She will probably lay where she is—though
+why she should do so I do not know—for a few hours, and then continue her voyage
+towards the east.</P>
+<P>However this may be I see no preparations in progress for dropping anchor.
+The anchors are suspended in their usual places, the cables have not been
+cleared, and no motion has been made to lower a single boat.</P>
+<P>At this moment Count d’Artigas, Engineer Serko and Captain Spade go forward
+and perform some manoeuvre that is inexplicable to me.</P>
+<P>I walk along the port side of the deck until I am near the foremast, and then
+I can see a small buoy that the sailors are hoisting in. Almost immediately the
+water, at the same spot becomes dark and I observe a black mass rising to the
+surface. Is it a big whale rising for air, and is the <I>Ebba</I> in danger of
+being shattered by a blow from the monster’s tail?</P>
+<P>Now I understand! At last the mystery is solved. I know what was the motor
+that caused the schooner to go at such an extraordinary speed without sails and
+without a screw. Her indefatigable motor is emerging from the sea, after having
+towed her from the coast of America to the archipelago of the Bermudas. There it
+is, floating alongside—a submersible boat, a submarine tug, worked by a screw
+set in motion by the current from a battery of accumulators or powerful electric
+piles.</P>
+<P>On the upper part of the long cigar-shaped iron tug is a platform in the
+middle of which is the “lid� by which an entrance is effected. In the fore part
+of the platform projects a periscope, or lookout, formed by port-holes or lenses
+through which an electric searchlight can throw its gleam for some distance
+under water in front of and on each side of the tug. Now relieved of its ballast
+of water the boat has risen to the surface. Its lid will open and fresh air will
+penetrate it to every part. In all probability, if it remained submerged during
+the day it rose at night and towed the <I>Ebba</I> on the surface.</P>
+<P>But if the mechanical power of the tug is produced by electricity the latter
+must be furnished by some manufactory where it is stored, and the means of
+procuring the batteries is not to be found on Back Cup, I suppose.</P>
+<P>And then, why does the <I>Ebba</I> have recourse to this submarine towing
+system? Why is she not provided with her own means of propulsion, like other
+pleasure-boats?</P>
+<P>These are things, however, upon which I have at present no leisure to
+ruminate.</P>
+<P>The lid of the tug opens and several men issue on to the platform. They are
+the crew of this submarine boat, and Captain Spade has been able to communicate
+with them and transmit his orders as to the direction to be taken by means of
+electric signals connected with the tug by a wire that passes along the stem of
+the schooner.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko approaches me and says, pointing to the boat:</P>
+<P>“Get in.�</P>
+<P>“Get in!� I exclaim.</P>
+<P>“Yes, in the tug, and look sharp about it.�</P>
+<P>As usual there is nothing for it but to obey. I hasten to comply with the
+order and clamber over the side.</P>
+<P>At the same time Thomas Roch appears on deck accompanied by one of the crew.
+He appears to be very calm, and very indifferent too, and makes no resistance
+when he is lifted over and lowered into the tug. When he has been taken in,
+Count d’Artigas and Engineer Serko follow.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade and the crew of the <I>Ebba</I> remain behind, with the
+exception of four men who man the dinghy, which has been lowered. They have hold
+of a long hawser, with which the schooner is probably to be towed through the
+reef. Is there then a creek in the middle of the rocks where the vessel is
+secure from the breakers? Is this the port to which she belongs?</P>
+<P>They row off with the hawser and make the end fast to a ring in the reef.
+Then the crew on board haul on it and in five minutes the schooner is so
+completely lost to sight among the rocks that even the tip of her mast could not
+be seen from the sea.</P>
+<P>Who in Bermuda imagines that a vessel is accustomed to lay up in this secret
+creek? Who in America would have any idea that the rich yachtsman so well known
+in all the eastern ports abides in the solitude of Back Cup mountain?</P>
+<P>Twenty minutes later the dinghy returns with the four men towards the tug
+which was evidently waiting for them before proceeding—where?</P>
+<P>They climb on board, the little boat is made fast astern, a movement is felt,
+the screw revolves rapidly and the tug skims along the surface to Back Cup,
+skirting the reefs to the south.</P>
+<P>Three cable’s lengths further on, another tortuous canal is seen that leads
+to the island. Into this the tug enters. When it gets close inshore, an order is
+given to two men who jump out and haul the dinghy up on a narrow sandy beach out
+of the reach of wave or weed, and where it will be easily get-at-able when
+wanted.</P>
+<P>This done the sailors return to the tug and Engineer Serko signs to me to go
+below.</P>
+<P>A short iron ladder leads into a central cabin where various bales and
+packages are stored, and for which no doubt there was not room in the hold of
+the schooner. I am pushed into a side cabin, the door is shut upon me, and here
+I am once more a prisoner in profound darkness.</P>
+<P>I recognize the cabin the moment I enter it. It is the place in which I spent
+so many long hours after our abduction from Healthful House, and in which I was
+confined until well out at sea off Pamlico Sound.</P>
+<P>It is evident that Thomas Roch has been placed in a similar compartment.</P>
+<P>A loud noise is heard, the banging of the lid as it closes, and the tug
+begins to sink as the water is admitted to the tanks.</P>
+<P>This movement is succeeded by another—a movement that impels the boat through
+the water.</P>
+<P>Three minutes later it stops, and I feel that we are rising to the surface
+again.</P>
+<P>Another noise made by the lid being raised.</P>
+<P>The door of my cabin opens, and I rush out and clamber on to the
+platform.</P>
+<P>I look around and find that the tug has penetrated to the interior of Back
+Cup mountain.</P>
+<P>This is the mysterious retreat where Count d’Artigas lives with his
+companions—out of the world, so to speak.</P>
+
+<a name="IX" id="IX"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER IX.</H4>
+<H4>INSIDE BACK CUP</H4>
+<P>The next morning I am able to make a first inspection of the vast cavern of
+Back Cup. No one seeks to prevent me.</P>
+<P>What a night I have passed! What strange visions I have seen! With what
+impatience I waited for morning!</P>
+<P>I was conducted to a grotto about a hundred paces from the edge of the lake
+where the tug stopped. The grotto, twelve feet by ten, was lighted by an
+incandescent lamp, and fitted with an entrance door that was closed upon me.</P>
+<P>I am not surprised that electricity is employed in lighting the interior of
+the cavern, as it is also used in the submarine boat. But where is it generated?
+Where does it come from? Is there a manufactory installed somewhere or other in
+this vast crypt, with machinery, dynamos and accumulators?</P>
+<P>My cell is neatly furnished with a table on which provisions are spread, a
+bunk with bedding, a basket chair, a wash-hand-stand with toilet set, and a
+closet containing linen and various suits of clothes. In a drawer of the table I
+find paper, ink and pens.</P>
+<P>My dinner consists of fresh fish, preserved meat, bread of excellent quality,
+ale and whisky; but I am so excited that I scarcely touch it. Yet I feel that I
+ought to fortify myself and recover my calmness of mind. I must and will solve
+the mystery surrounding the handful of men who burrow in the bowels of this
+island.</P>
+<P>So it is under the carapace of Back Cup that Count d’Artigas has established
+himself! This cavity, the existence of which is not even suspected, is his home
+when he is not sailing in the <I>Ebba</I> along the coasts of the new world or
+the old. This is the unknown retreat he has discovered, to which access is
+obtained by a submarine passage twelve or fifteen feet below the surface of the
+ocean.</P>
+<P>Why has he severed himself from the world? What has been his past? If, as I
+suspect, this name of d’Artigas and this title of Count are assumed, what motive
+has he for hiding his identity? Has he been banished, is he an outcast of
+society that he should have selected this place above all others? Am I not in
+the power of an evildoer anxious to ensure impunity for his crimes and to defy
+the law by seeking refuge in this undiscoverable burrow? I have the right of
+supposing anything in the case of this suspicious foreigner, and I exercise
+it.</P>
+<P>Then the question to which I have never been able to suggest a satisfactory
+answer once more surges into my mind. Why was Thomas Roch abducted from
+Healthful House in the manner already fully described? Does the Count d’Artigas
+hope to force from him the secret of his fulgurator with a view to utilizing it
+for the defence of Back Cup in case his retreat should by chance be discovered?
+Hardly. It would be easy enough to starve the gang out of Back Cup, by
+preventing the tug from supplying them with provisions. On the other hand, the
+schooner could never break through the investing lines, and if she did her
+description would be known in every port. In this event, of what possible use
+would Thomas Roch’s invention be to the Count d’Artigas Decidedly, I cannot
+understand it!</P>
+<P>About seven o’clock in the morning I jump out of bed. If I am a prisoner in
+the cavern I am at least not imprisoned in my grotto cell. The door yields when
+I turn the handle and push against it, and I walk out.</P>
+<P>Thirty yards in front of me is a rocky plane, forming a sort of quay that
+extends to right and left. Several sailors of the <I>Ebba</I> are engaged in
+landing bales and stores from the interior of the tug, which lays alongside a
+little stone jetty.</P>
+<P>A dim light to which my eyes soon grow accustomed envelops the cavern and
+comes from a hole in the centre of the roof, through which the blue sky can be
+seen.</P>
+<P>“It is from that hole that the smoke which can be seen for such a distance
+issues,� I say to myself, and this discovery suggests a whole series of
+reflections.</P>
+<P>Back Cup, then, is not a volcano, as was supposed—as I supposed myself. The
+flames that were seen a few years ago, and the columns of smoke that still rise
+were and are produced artificially. The detonations and rumblings that so
+alarmed the Bermudan fishers were not caused by the internal workings of nature.
+These various phenomena were fictitious. They manifested themselves at the mere
+will of the owner of the island, who wanted to scare away the inhabitants who
+resided on the coast. He succeeded, this Count d’Artigas, and remains the sole
+and undisputed monarch of the mountain. By exploding gunpowder, and burning
+seaweed swept up in inexhaustible quantities by the ocean, he has been able to
+simulate a volcano upon the point of eruption and effectually scare would-be
+settlers away!</P>
+<P>The light becomes stronger as the sun rises higher, the daylight streams
+through the fictitious crater, and I shall soon be able to estimate the cavern’s
+dimensions. This is how I calculate:</P>
+<P>Exteriorly the island of Back Cup, which is as nearly as possible circular,
+measures two hundred and fifty yards in circumference, and presents an interior
+superficies of about six acres. The sides of the mountain at its base vary in
+thickness from thirty to a hundred yards.</P>
+<P>It therefore follows that this excavation practically occupies the whole of
+that part of Back Cup island which appears above water. As to the length of the
+submarine tunnel by which communication is obtained with the outside, and
+through which the tug passed, I estimate that it is fifty yards in length.</P>
+<P>The size of the cavern can be judged from these approximate figures. But vast
+as it is, I remember that there are caverns of larger dimensions both in the old
+and new worlds. For instance in Carniole, Northumberland, Derbyshire, Piedmont,
+the Balearics, Hungary and California are larger grottoes than Back Cup, and
+those at Han-sur-Lesse in Belgium, and the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, are also
+more extensive. The latter contain no fewer than two hundred and twenty-six
+domes, seven rivers, eight cataracts, thirty two wells of unknown depth, and an
+immense lake which extends over six or seven leagues, the limit of which has
+never been reached by explorers.</P>
+<P>I know these Kentucky grottoes, having visited them, as many thousands of
+tourists have done. The principal one will serve as a comparison to Back Cup.
+The roof of the former, like that of the latter, is supported by pillars of
+various lengths, which give it the appearance of a Gothic cathedral, with naves
+and aisles, though it lacks the architectural regularity of a religious edifice.
+The only difference is that whereas the roof of the Kentucky grotto is over four
+hundred feet high, that of Back Cup is not above two hundred and twenty at that
+part of it where the round hole through which issue the smoke and flames is
+situated.</P>
+<P>Another peculiarity, and a very important one, that requires to be pointed
+out, is that whereas the majority of the grottoes referred to are easily
+accessible, and were therefore bound to be discovered some time or other, the
+same remark does not apply to Back Cup. Although it is marked on the map as an
+island forming part of the Bermuda group, how could any one imagine that it is
+hollow, that its rocky sides are only the walls of an enormous cavern? In order
+to make such a discovery it would be necessary to get inside, and to get inside
+a submarine apparatus similar to that of the Count d’Artigas would be
+necessary.</P>
+<P>In my opinion this strange yachtsman’s discovery of the tunnel by which he
+has been able to found this disquieting colony of Back Cup must have been due to
+pure chance.</P>
+<P>Now I turn my attention to the lake and observe that it is a very small one,
+measuring not more than four hundred yards in circumference. It is, properly
+speaking, a lagoon, the rocky sides of which are perpendicular. It is large
+enough for the tug to work about in it, and holds enough water too, for it must
+be one hundred and twenty-five feet deep.</P>
+<P>It goes without saying that this crypt, given its position and structure,
+belongs to the category of those which are due to the encroachments of the sea.
+It is at once of Neptunian and Plutonian origin, like the grottoes of Crozon and
+Morgate in the bay of Douarnenez in France, of Bonifacio on the Corsican coast,
+Thorgatten in Norway, the height of which is estimated at over three hundred
+feet, the catavaults of Greece, the grottoes of Gibraltar in Spain, and Tourana
+in Cochin China, whose carapace indicates that they are all the product of this
+dual geological labor.</P>
+<P>The islet of Back Cup is in great part formed of calcareous rocks, which
+slope upwards gently from the lagoon towards the sides and are separated from
+each other by narrow beaches of fine sand. Thick layers of seaweed that have
+been swept through the tunnel by the tide and thrown up around the lake have
+been piled into heaps, some of which are dry and some still wet, but all of
+which exhale the strong odor of the briny ocean. This, however, is not the only
+combustible employed by the inhabitants of Back Cup, for I see an enormous store
+of coal that must have been brought by the schooner and the tug. But it is the
+incineration of masses of dried seaweed that causes the smoke vomited forth by
+the crater of the mountain.</P>
+<P>Continuing my walk I perceive on the northern side of the lagoon the
+habitations of this colony of troglodytes—do they not merit the appellation?
+This part of the cavern, which is known as the Beehive, fully justifies its
+name, for it is honeycombed by cells excavated in the limestone rock and in
+which these human bees—or perhaps they should rather be called wasps—reside.</P>
+<P>The lay of the cavern to the east is very different. Here hundreds of pillars
+of all shapes rise to the dome, and form a veritable forest of stone trees
+through the sinuous avenues of which one can thread one’s way to the extreme
+limit of the place.</P>
+<P>By counting the cells of the Beehive I calculate that Count d’Artigas’
+companions number from eighty to one hundred.</P>
+<P>As my eye wanders over the place I notice that the Count is standing in front
+of one of the cells, which is isolated from the others, and talking to Engineer
+Serko and Captain Spade. After a while they stroll down to the jetty alongside
+which the tug is lying.</P>
+<P>A dozen men have been emptying the merchandise out of the tug and
+transporting the goods in boats to the other side, where great cellars have been
+excavated in the rocks and form the storehouses of the band.</P>
+<P>The orifice of the tunnel is not visible in the waters of the lagoon, and I
+remember that when I was brought here I felt the tug sink several feet before it
+entered. In this respect therefore Back Cup does not resemble either the
+grottoes of Staffa or Morgate, entrance to which is always open, even at high
+tide. There may be another passage communicating with the coast, either natural
+or artificial, and this I shall have to make my business to find out.</P>
+<P>The island well merits its name of Back Cup. It is indeed a gigantic cup
+turned upside down, not only to outward appearance, but inwardly, too, though
+people are ignorant of the fact.</P>
+<P>I have already remarked that the Beehive is situated to the north of the
+lagoon, that is to say to the left on entering by the tunnel. On the opposite
+side are the storerooms filled with provisions of all kinds, bales of
+merchandise, barrels of wine, beer, and spirits and various packets bearing
+different marks and labels that show that they came from all parts of the world.
+One would think that the cargoes of a score of ships had been landed here.</P>
+<P>A little farther on is a large wooden shed the nature of which is easily
+distinguishable. From a pole above it a network of thick copper wires extends
+which conducts the current to the powerful electric lights suspended from the
+roof or dome, and to the incandescent lamps in each of the cells of the hive. A
+large number of lamps are also installed among the stone pillars and light up
+the avenues to their extremities.</P>
+<P>“Shall I be permitted to roam about wherever I please?� I ask myself. I hope
+so. I cannot for the life of me see why the Count d’Artigas should prohibit me
+from doing so, for I cannot get farther than the surrounding walls of his
+mysterious domain. I question whether there is any other issue than the tunnel,
+and how on earth could I get through that?</P>
+<P>Besides, admitting that I am able to get through it, I cannot get off the
+island. My disappearance would be soon noticed, and the tug would take out a
+dozen men who would explore every nook and cranny. I should inevitably be
+recaptured, brought back to the Beehive, and deprived of my liberty for
+good.</P>
+<P>I must therefore give up all idea of making my escape, unless I can see that
+it has some chance of being successful, and if ever an opportunity does present
+itself I shall not be slow to take advantage of it.</P>
+<P>On strolling round by the rows of cells I am able to observe a few of these
+companions of the Count d’Artigas who are content to pass their monotonous
+existence in the depths of Back Cup. As I said before, calculating from the
+number of cells in the Beehive, there must be between eighty and a hundred of
+them.</P>
+<P>They pay no attention whatever to me as I pass, and on examining them closely
+it seems to me that they must have been recruited from every country. I do not
+distinguish any community of origin among them, not even a similarity by which
+they might be classed as North Americans, Europeans or Asiatics. The color of
+their skin shades from white to yellow and black—the black peculiar to Australia
+rather than to Africa. To sum up, they appear for the most part to pertain to
+the Malay races. I may add that the Count d’Artigas certainly belongs to that
+particular race which peoples the Dutch isles in the West Pacific, while
+Engineer Serko must be Levantine and Captain Spade of Italian origin.</P>
+<P>But if the inhabitants of Back Cup are not bound to each other by ties of
+race, they certainly are by instinct and inclination. What forbidding,
+savage-looking faces they have, to be sure! They are men of violent character
+who have probably never placed any restraint upon their passions, nor hesitated
+at anything, and it occurs to me that in all likelihood they have sought refuge
+in this cavern, where they fancy they can continue to defy the law with
+impunity, after a long series of crimes—robbery, murder, arson, and excesses of
+all descriptions committed together. In this case Back Cup is nothing but a lair
+of pirates, the Count d’Artigas is the leader of the band and Serko and Spade
+are his lieutenants.</P>
+<P>I cannot get this idea out of my head, and the more I consider the more
+convinced I am that I am right, especially as everything I see during my stroll
+about the cavern seems to confirm my opinion.</P>
+<P>However this may be, and whatever may be the circumstances that have brought
+them together in this place, Count d’Artigas’ companions appear to accept his
+all-powerful domination without question. On the other hand, if he keeps them
+under his iron heel by enforcing the severest discipline, certain advantages,
+some compensation, must accrue from the servitude to which they bow. What can
+this compensation be?</P>
+<P>Having turned that part of the bank under which the tunnel passes, I find
+myself on the opposite side of the lagoon, where are situated the storerooms
+containing the merchandise brought by the <I>Ebba</I> on each trip, and which
+contain a great quantity of bales.</P>
+<P>Beyond is the manufactory of electric energy. I gaze in at the windows as I
+pass and notice that it contains machines of the latest invention and highest
+attained perfection, which take up little space. Not one steam engine, with its
+more or less complicated mechanism and need of fuel, is to be seen in the place.
+As I had surmised, piles of extraordinary power supply the current to the lamps
+in the cavern, as well as to the dynamos of the tug. No doubt the current is
+also utilized for domestic purposes, such as warming the Beehive and cooking
+food, I can see that in a neighboring cavity it is applied to the alembics used
+to produce fresh water. At any rate the colonists of Back Cup are not reduced to
+catching the rain water that falls so abundantly upon the exterior of the
+mountain.</P>
+<P>A few paces from the electric power house is a large cistern that, save in
+the matter of proportions, is the counterpart of those I visited in Bermuda. In
+the latter place the cisterns have to supply the needs of over ten thousand
+people, this one of a hundred—what?</P>
+<P>I am not sure yet what to call them. That their chief had serious reasons for
+choosing the bowels of this island for his abiding place is obvious. But what
+were those reasons? I can understand monks shutting themselves behind their
+monastery walls with the intention of separating themselves from the world, but
+these subjects of the Count d’Artigas have nothing of the monk about them, and
+would not be mistaken for such by the most simple-minded of mortals.</P>
+<P>I continue my way through the pillars to the extremity of the cavern. No one
+has sought to stop me, no one has spoken to me, not a soul apparently has taken
+the very slightest notice of me. This portion of Back Cup is extremely curious,
+and comparable to the most marvellous of the grottoes of Kentucky or the
+Balearics. I need hardly say that nowhere is the labor of man apparent. All this
+is the handiwork of nature, and it is not without wonder, mingled with awe, that
+I reflect upon the telluric forces capable of engendering such prodigious
+substructions. The daylight from the crater in the centre only strikes this part
+of the cavern obliquely, so that it is very imperfectly lighted, but at night,
+when illuminated by the electric lamps, its aspect must be positively
+fantastic.</P>
+<P>I have examined the walls everywhere with minute attention, but have been
+unable to discover any means of communicating with the outside.</P>
+<P>Quite a colony of birds—gulls, sea-swallows and other feathery denizens of
+the Bermudan beaches have made their home in the cavern. They have apparently
+never been hunted, for they are in no way disturbed by the presence of man.</P>
+<P>But besides sea-birds, which are free to come and go as they please by the
+orifice in the dome, there is a whole farmyard of domestic poultry, and cows and
+pigs. The food supply is therefore no less assured than it is varied, when the
+fish of all kinds that abound in the lagoon and around the island are taken into
+consideration.</P>
+<P>Moreover, a mere glance at the colonists of Back Cup amply suffices to show
+that they are not accustomed to fare scantily. They are all vigorous, robust
+seafaring men, weatherbeaten and seasoned in the burning beat of tropical
+latitudes, whose rich blood is surcharged with oxygen by the breezes of the
+ocean. There is not a youth nor an old man among them. They are all in their
+prime, their ages ranging from thirty to fifty.</P>
+<P>But why do they submit to such an existence? Do they never leave their rocky
+retreat?</P>
+<P>Perhaps I shall find out ere I am much older.</P>
+
+<a name="X" id="X"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER X.</H4>
+<H4>KER KARRAJE.</H4>
+<P>The cell in which I reside is about a hundred paces from the habitation of
+the Count d’Artigas, which is one of the end ones of this row of the Beehive. If
+I am not to share it with Thomas Roch, I presume the latter’s cell is not far
+off, for in order that Warder Gaydon may continue to care for the ex-patient of
+Healthful House, their respective apartments will have to be contiguous.
+However, I suppose I shall soon be enlightened on this point.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade and Engineer Serko reside separately in proximity to D’Artigas’
+mansion.</P>
+<P>Mansion? Yes, why not dignify it with the title since this habitation has
+been arranged with a certain art? Skillful hands have carved an ornamental
+façade in the rock. A large door affords access to it. Colored glass windows in
+wooden frames let into the limestone walls admit the light. The interior
+comprises several chambers, a dining-room and a drawing-room lighted by a
+stained-glass window, the whole being perfectly ventilated. The furniture is of
+various styles and shapes and of French, English and American make. The kitchen,
+larder, etc., are in adjoining cells in rear of the Beehive.</P>
+<P>In the afternoon, just as I issue from my cell with the firm intention of
+“obtaining an audience� of the Count d’Artigas, I catch sight of him coming
+along the shore of the lagoon towards the hive. Either he does not see me, or
+wishes to avoid me, for he quickens his steps and I am unable to catch him.</P>
+<P>“Well, he will have to receive me, anyhow!� I mutter to myself.</P>
+<P>I hurry up to the door through which he has just disappeared and which has
+closed behind him.</P>
+<P>It is guarded by a gigantic, dark-skinned Malay, who orders me away in no
+amiable tone of voice.</P>
+<P>I decline to comply with his injunction, and repeat to him twice the
+following request in my very best English:</P>
+<P>“Tell the Count d’Artigas that I desire to be received immediately.�</P>
+<P>I might just as well have addressed myself to the surrounding rock. This
+savage, no doubt, does not understand a word of English, for he scowls at me and
+orders me away again with a menacing cry.</P>
+<P>I have a good mind to attempt to force the door and shout so that the Count
+d’Artigas cannot fail to hear me, but in all probability I shall only succeed in
+rousing the wrath of the Malay, who appears to be endowed with herculean
+strength. I therefore judge discretion to be the better part of valor, and put
+off the explanation that is owing to me—and which, sooner or later, I will
+have—to a more propitious occasion.</P>
+<P>I meander off in front of the Beehive towards the east, and my thoughts
+revert to Thomas Roch. I am surprised that I have not seen him yet. Can he be in
+the throes of a fresh paroxysm?</P>
+<P>This hypothesis is hardly admissible, for if the Count d’Artigas is to be
+believed, he would in this event have summoned me to attend to the inventor.</P>
+<P>A little farther on I encounter Engineer Serko.</P>
+<P>With his inviting manner and usual good-humor this ironical individual smiles
+when he perceives me, and does not seek to avoid me. If he knew I was a
+colleague, an engineer—providing he himself really is one—perhaps he might
+receive me with more cordiality than I have yet encountered, but I am not going
+to be such a fool as to tell him who and what I am.</P>
+<P>He stops, with laughing eyes and mocking mouth, and accompanies a “Good day,
+how do you do?� with a gracious gesture of salutation.</P>
+<P>I respond coldly to his politeness—a fact which he affects not to notice.</P>
+<P>“May Saint Jonathan protect you, Mr. Gaydon!� he continues in his clear,
+ringing voice. “You are not, I presume, disposed to regret the fortunate
+circumstance by which you were permitted to visit this surpassingly marvellous
+cavern—and it really is one of the finest, although the least known on this
+spheroid.�</P>
+<P>This word of a scientific language used in conversation with a simple
+hospital attendant surprises me, I admit, and I merely reply:</P>
+<P>“I should have no reason to complain, Mr. Serko, if, after having had the
+pleasure of visiting this cavern, I were at liberty to quit it.�</P>
+<P>“What! Already thinking of leaving us, Mr. Gaydon,—of returning to your
+dismal pavilion at Healthful House? Why, you have scarcely had time to explore
+our magnificent domain, or to admire the incomparable beauty with which nature
+has endowed it.�</P>
+<P>“What I have seen suffices,� I answer; “and should you perchance be talking
+seriously I will assure you seriously that I do not want to see any more of
+it.�</P>
+<P>“Come, now, Mr. Gaydon, permit me to point out that you have not yet had the
+opportunity of appreciating the advantages of an existence passed in such
+unrivalled surroundings. It is a quiet life, exempt from care, with an assured
+future, material conditions such as are not to be met with anywhere, an even
+climate and no more to fear from the tempests which desolate the coasts in this
+part of the Atlantic than from the cold of winter, or the heat of summer. This
+temperate and salubrious atmosphere is scarcely affected by changes of season.
+Here we have no need to apprehend the wrath of either Pluto or Neptune.�</P>
+<P>“Sir,� I reply, “it is impossible that this climate can suit you, that you
+can appreciate living in this grotto of——�</P>
+<P>I was on the point of pronouncing the name of Back Cup. Fortunately I
+restrained myself in time. What would happen if they suspected that I am aware
+of the name of their island, and, consequently, of its position at the extremity
+of the Bermuda group?</P>
+<P>“However,� I continue, “if this climate does not suit me, I have, I presume,
+the right to make a change.�</P>
+<P>“The right, of course.�</P>
+<P>“I understand from your remark that I shall be furnished with the means of
+returning to America when I want to go?�</P>
+<P>“I have no reason for opposing your desires, Mr. Gaydon,� Engineer Serko
+replies, “and I regard your presumption as a very natural one. Observe, however,
+that we live here in a noble and superb independence, that we acknowledge the
+authority of no foreign power, that we are subject to no outside authority, that
+we are the colonists of no state, either of the old or new world. This is worth
+consideration by whomsoever has a sense of pride and independence. Besides, what
+memories are evoked in a cultivated mind by these grottoes which seem to have
+been chiselled by the hands of the gods and in which they were wont to render
+their oracles by the mouth of Trophonius.�</P>
+<P>Decidedly, Engineer Serko is fond of citing mythology! Trophonius after Pluto
+and Neptune? Does he imagine that Warder Gaydon ever heard of Trophonius? It is
+clear this mocker continues to mock, and I have to exercise the greatest
+patience in order not to reply in the same tone.</P>
+<P>“A moment ago,� I continue shortly, “I wanted to enter yon habitation, which,
+if I mistake not, is that of the Count d’Artigas, but I was prevented.�</P>
+<P>“By whom, Mr. Gaydon?�</P>
+<P>“By a man in the Count’s employ.�</P>
+<P>“He probably had received strict orders about it.�</P>
+<P>“Possibly, yet whether he likes it or not, Count d’Artigas will have to see
+me and listen to me.�</P>
+<P>“Maybe it would be difficult, and even impossible to get him to do so,� says
+Engineer Serko with a smile.</P>
+<P>“Why so?�</P>
+<P>“Because there is no such person as Count d’Artigas here.�</P>
+<P>“You are jesting, I presume; I have just seen him.�</P>
+<P>“It was not the Count d’Artigas whom you saw, Mr. Gaydon.�</P>
+<P>“Who was it then, may I ask?�</P>
+<P>“The pirate Ker Karraje.�</P>
+<P>This name was thrown at me in a hard tone of voice, and Engineer Serko walked
+off before I had presence of mind enough to detain him.</P>
+<P>The pirate Ker Karraje!</P>
+<P>Yes, this name is a revelation to me. I know it well, and what memories it
+evokes! It by itself explains what has hitherto been inexplicable to me. I now
+know into whose hands I have fallen.</P>
+<P>With what I already knew, with what I have learned since my arrival in Back
+Cup from Engineer Serko, this is what I am able to tell about the past and
+present of Ker Karraje:</P>
+<P>Eight or nine years ago, the West Pacific was infested by pirates who acted
+with the greatest audacity. A band of criminals of various origins, composed of
+escaped convicts, military and naval deserters, etc., operated with incredible
+audacity under the orders of a redoubtable chief. The nucleus of the band had
+been formed by men pertaining to the scum of Europe who had been attracted to
+New South Wales, in Australia, by the discovery of gold there. Among these
+gold-diggers, were Captain Spade and Engineer Serko, two outcasts, whom a
+certain community of ideas and character soon bound together in close
+friendship.</P>
+<P>These intelligent, well educated, resolute men would most assuredly have
+succeeded in any career. But being without conscience or scruples, and
+determined to get rich at no matter what cost, deriving from gambling and
+speculation what they might have earned by patient and steady work, they engaged
+in all sorts of impossible adventures. One day they were rich, the next day
+poor, like most of the questionable individuals who had hurried to the
+gold-fields in search of fortune.</P>
+<P>Among the diggers in New South Wales was a man of incomparable audacity, one
+of those men who stick at nothing—not even at crime—and whose influence upon bad
+and violent natures is irresistible.</P>
+<P>That man’s name was Ker Karraje.</P>
+<P>The origin or nationality or antecedents of this pirate were never
+established by the investigations ordered in regard to him. He eluded all
+pursuit, and his name—or at least the name he gave himself—was known all over
+the world, and inspired horror and terror everywhere, as being that of a
+legendary personage, a bogey, invisible and unseizable.</P>
+<P>I have now reason to believe that Ker Karraje is a Malay. However, it is of
+little consequence, after all. What is certain is that he was with reason
+regarded as a formidable and dangerous villain who had many crimes, committed in
+distant seas, to answer for.</P>
+<P>After spending a few years on the Australian goldfields, where he made the
+acquaintance of Engineer Serko and Captain Spade, Ker Karraje managed to seize a
+ship in the port of Melbourne, in the province of Victoria. He was joined by
+about thirty rascals whose number was speedily tripled. In that part of the
+Pacific Ocean where piracy is still carried on with great facility, and I may
+say, profit, tho number of ships pillaged, crews massacred, and raids committed
+in certain western islands which the colonists were unable to defend, cannot be
+estimated.</P>
+<P>Although the whereabouts of Ker Karraje’s vessel, commanded by Captain Spade,
+was several times made known to the authorities, all attempts to capture it
+proved futile. The marauder would disappear among the innumerable islands of
+which he knew every cove and creek, and it was impossible to come across
+him.</P>
+<P>He maintained a perfect reign of terror. England, France, Germany, Russia and
+America vainly dispatched warships in pursuit of the phantom vessel which
+disappeared, no one knew whither, after robberies and murders that could not be
+prevented or punished had been committed by her crew.</P>
+<P>One day this series of crimes came to an end, and no more was heard of Ker
+Karraje. Had he abandoned the Pacific for other seas? Would this pirate break
+out in a fresh place? It was argued that notwithstanding what they must have
+spent in orgies and debauchery the pirate and his companions must still have an
+enormous amount of wealth hidden in some place known only to themselves, and
+that they were enjoying their ill-gotten gains.</P>
+<P>Where had the band hidden themselves since they had ceased their
+depredations? This was a question which everybody asked and none was able to
+answer. All attempts to run them to earth were vain. Terror and uneasiness
+having ceased with the danger, Ker Karraje’s exploits soon began to be
+forgotten, even in the West Pacific.</P>
+<P>This is what had happened—and what will never be known unless I succeed in
+escaping from Back Cup:</P>
+<P>These wretches were, as a matter of fact, possessed of great wealth when they
+abandoned the Southern Seas. Having destroyed their ship they dispersed in
+different directions after having arranged to meet on the American
+continent.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko, who was well versed in his profession, and was a clever
+mechanic to boot, and who had made a special study of submarine craft, proposed
+to Ker Karraje that they should construct one of these boats in order to
+continue their criminal exploits with greater secrecy and effectiveness.</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje at once saw the practical nature of the proposition, and as they
+had no lack of money the idea was soon carried out.</P>
+<P>While the so-called Count d’Artigas ordered the construction of the schooner
+<I>Ebba</I> at the shipyards of Gotteborg, in Sweden, he gave to the Cramps of
+Philadelphia, in America, the plans of a submarine boat whose construction
+excited no suspicion. Besides, as will be seen, it soon disappeared and was
+never heard of again.</P>
+<P>The boat was constructed from a model and under the personal supervision of
+Engineer Serko, and fitted with all the known appliances of nautical science.
+The screw was worked with electric piles of recent invention which imparted
+enormous propulsive power to the motor.</P>
+<P>It goes without saying that no one imagined that Count d’Artigas was none
+other than Ker Karraje, the former pirate of the Pacific, and that Engineer
+Serko was the most formidable and resolute of his accomplices. The former was
+regarded as a foreigner of noble birth and great fortune, who for several months
+had been frequenting the ports of the United States, the <I>Ebba</I> having been
+launched long before the tug was ready.</P>
+<P>Work upon the latter occupied fully eighteen months, and when the boat was
+finished it excited the admiration of all those interested in these engines of
+submarine navigation. By its external form, its interior arrangements, its
+air-supply system, the rapidity with which it could be immersed, the facility
+with which it could be handled and controlled, and its extraordinary speed, it
+was conceded to be far superior to the <I>Goubet,</I> the <I>Gymnote</I>, the
+<I>Zede</I>, and other similar boats which had made great strides towards
+perfection.</P>
+<P>After several extremely successful experiments a public test was given in the
+open sea, four miles off Charleston, in presence of several American and foreign
+warships, merchant vessels, and pleasure boats invited for the occasion.</P>
+<P>Of course the <I>Ebba</I> was among them, with the Count d’Artigas, Engineer
+Serko, and Captain Spade on board, and the old crew as well, save half a dozen
+men who manned the submarine machine, which was worked by a mechanical engineer
+named Gibson, a bold and very clever Englishman.</P>
+<P>The programme of this definite experiment comprised various evolutions on the
+surface of the water, which were to be followed by an immersion to last several
+hours, the boat being ordered not to rise again until a certain buoy stationed
+many miles out at sea had been attained.</P>
+<P>At the appointed time the lid was closed and the boat at first manoeuvred on
+the surface. Her speed and the ease with which she turned and twisted were
+loudly praised by all the technical spectators.</P>
+<P>Then at a signal given on board the <I>Ebba</I> the tug sank slowly out of
+sight, and several vessels started for the buoy where she was to reappear.</P>
+<P>Three hours went by, but there was no sign of the boat.</P>
+<P>No one could suppose that in accordance with instructions received from the
+Count d’Artigas and Engineer Serko this submarine machine, which was destined to
+act as the invisible tug of the schooner, would not emerge till it had gone
+several miles beyond the rendezvous. Therefore, with the exception of those who
+were in the secret, no one entertained any doubt that the boat and all inside
+her had perished as the result of an accident either to her metallic covering or
+machinery.</P>
+<P>On board the <I>Ebba</I> consternation was admirably simulated. On board the
+other vessels it was real. Drags were used and divers sent down along the course
+the boat was supposed to have taken, but it could not be found, and it was
+agreed that it had been swallowed up in the depths of the Atlantic.</P>
+<P>Two days later the Count d’Artigas put to sea again, and in forty-eight hours
+came up with the tug at the place appointed.</P>
+<P>This is how Ker Karraje became possessed of the admirable vessel which was to
+perform the double function of towing the schooner and attacking ships. With
+this terrible engine of destruction, whose very existence was ignored, the Count
+d’Artigas was able to recommence his career of piracy with security and
+impunity.</P>
+<P>These details I have learned from Engineer Serko, who is very proud of his
+handiwork,—and also very positive that the prisoner of Back Cup will never be
+able to disclose the secret.</P>
+<P>It will easily be realized how powerful was the offensive weapon Ker Karraje
+now possessed. During the night the tug would rush at a merchant vessel, and
+bore a hole in her with its powerful ram. At the same time the schooner which
+could not possibly have excited any suspicion, would run alongside and her horde
+of cutthroats would pour on to the doomed vessel’s deck and massacre the
+helpless crew, after which they would hurriedly transfer that part of the cargo
+that was worth taking to the <I>Ebba</I>. Thus it happened that ship after ship
+was added to the long list of those that never reached port and were classed as
+having gone down with all on board.</P>
+<P>For a year after the odious comedy in the bay of Charleston Ker Karraje
+operated in the Atlantic, and his wealth increased to enormous proportions. The
+merchandise for which he had no use was disposed of in distant markets in
+exchange for gold and silver. But what was sadly needed was a place where the
+profits could be safely hidden pending the time when they were to be finally
+divided.</P>
+<P>Chance came to their aid. While exploring the bottom of the sea in the
+neighborhood of the Bermudas, Engineer Serko and Driver Gibson discovered at the
+base of Back Cup island the tunnel which led to the interior of the mountain.
+Would it have been possible for Ker Karraje to have found a more admirable
+refuge than this, absolutely safe as it was from any possible chance of
+discovery? Thus it came to pass that one of the islands of the Archipelago of
+Bermuda, erstwhile the haunt of buccaneers, became the lair of another gang a
+good deal more to be dreaded.</P>
+<P>This retreat having been definitely adopted, Count d’Artigas and his
+companions set about getting their place in order. Engineer Serko installed an
+electric power house, without having recourse to machines whose construction
+abroad might have aroused suspicion, simply employing piles that could be easily
+mounted and required but metal plates and chemical substances that the
+<I>Ebba</I> procured during her visits to the American coast.</P>
+<P>What happened on the night of the 19th inst. can easily be divined. If the
+three-masted merchantman which lay becalmed was not visible at break of day it
+was because she had been scuttled by the tug, boarded by the cut-throat band on
+the <I>Ebba</I>, and sunk with all on board after being pillaged. The bales and
+things that I had seen on the schooner were a part of her cargo, and all unknown
+to me the gallant ship was lying at the bottom of the broad Atlantic!</P>
+<P>How will this adventure end? Shall I ever be able to escape from Back Cup,
+denounce the false Count d’Artigas and rid the seas of Ker Karraje’s
+pirates?</P>
+<P>And if Ker Karraje is terrible as it is, how much more so will he become if
+he ever obtains possession of Roch’s fulgurator! His power will be increased a
+hundred-fold! If he were able to employ this new engine of destruction no
+merchantman could resist him, no warship escape total destruction.</P>
+<P>I remain for some time absorbed and oppressed by the reflections with which
+the revelation of Ker Karraje’s name inspires me. All that I have ever heard
+about this famous pirate recurs to me—his existence when he skimmed the Southern
+Seas, the useless expeditions organized by the maritime powers to hunt him down.
+The unaccountable loss of so many vessels in the Atlantic during the past few
+years is attributable to him. He had merely changed the scene of his exploits.
+It was supposed that he had been got rid of, whereas he is continuing his
+piratical practices in the most frequented ocean on the globe, by means of the
+tug which is believed to be lying at the bottom of Charleston Bay.</P>
+<P>“Now,� I say to myself, “I know his real name and that of his lair—Ker
+Karraje and Back Cup;� and I surmise that if Engineer Serko has let me into the
+secret he must have been authorized to do so. Am I not meant to understand from
+this that I must give up all hope of ever recovering my liberty?</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko had manifestly remarked the impression created upon me by this
+revelation. I remember that on leaving me he went towards Ker Karraje’s
+habitation, no doubt with the intention of apprising him of what had passed.</P>
+<P>After a rather long walk around the lagoon I am about to return to my cell,
+when I hear footsteps behind me. I turn and find myself face to face with the
+Count d’Artigas, who is accompanied by Captain Spade. He glances at me sharply,
+and in a burst of irritation that I cannot suppress, I exclaim:</P>
+<P>“You are keeping me here, sir, against all right. If it was to wait upon
+Thomas Roch that you carried me off from Healthful House, I refuse to attend to
+him, and insist upon being sent back.�</P>
+<P>The pirate chief makes a gesture, but does not reply.</P>
+<P>Then my temper gets the better of me altogether.</P>
+<P>“Answer me, Count d’Artigas—or rather, for I know who you are—answer me, Ker
+Karraje!� I shout.</P>
+<P>“The Count d’Artigas is Ker Karraje,� he coolly replies, “just as Warder
+Gaydon is Engineer Simon Hart; and Ker Karraje will never restore to liberty
+Engineer Simon Hart, who knows his secrets.�</P>
+
+<a name="XI" id="XI"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XI.</H4>
+<H4>FIVE WEEKS IN BACK CUP.</H4>
+<P>The situation is plain. Ker Karraje knows who I am. He knew who I was when he
+kidnapped Thomas Roch and his attendant.</P>
+<P>How did this man manage to find out what I was able to keep from the staff of
+Healthful House? How comes it that he knew that a French engineer was performing
+the duties of attendant to Thomas Roch? I do not know how he discovered it, but
+the fact remains that he did.</P>
+<P>Evidently he had means of information which must have been costly, but from
+which he has derived considerable profit. Besides, men of his kidney do not
+count the cost when they wish to attain an end they have in view.</P>
+<P>Henceforward Ker Karraje, or rather Engineer Serko, will replace me as
+attendant upon Thomas Roch. Will he succeed better than I did? God grant that he
+may not, that the civilized world may be spared such a misfortune!</P>
+<P>I did not reply to Ker Karraje’s Parthian shot, for I was stricken dumb. I
+did not, however, collapse, as the alleged Count d’Artigas perhaps expected I
+would.</P>
+<P>No! I looked him straight in the eyes, which glittered angrily, and crossed
+my arms defiantly, as he had done. And yet he held my life in his hands! At a
+sign a bullet would have laid me dead at his feet. Then my body, cast into the
+lagoon, would have been borne out to sea through the tunnel and there would have
+been an end of me.</P>
+<P>After this scene I am left at liberty, just as before. No measure is taken
+against me, I can walk among the pillars to the very end of the cavern, which—it
+is only too clear—possesses no other issue except the tunnel.</P>
+<P>When I return to my cell, at the extremity of the Beehive, a prey to a
+thousand thoughts suggested by my situation, I say to myself:</P>
+<P>“If Ker Karraje knows I am Simon Hart, the engineer, he must at any rate
+never know that I am aware of the position of Back Cup Island.�</P>
+<P>As to the plan of confiding Thomas Roch to my care, I do not think he ever
+seriously entertained it, seeing that my identity had been revealed to him. I
+regret this, inasmuch as the inventor will indubitably be the object of pressing
+solicitations, and as Engineer Serko will employ every means in his power to
+obtain the composition of the explosive and deflagrator, of which he will make
+such detestable use during future piratical exploits. Yes, it would have been
+far better if I could have remained Thomas Roch’s keeper here, as in Healthful
+House.</P>
+<P>For fifteen days I see nothing of my late charge. No one, I repeat, has
+placed any obstacles in the way of my daily peregrinations. I have no need to
+occupy myself about the material part of my existence. My meals are brought to
+me regularly, direct from the kitchen of the Count d’Artigas—I cannot accustom
+myself to calling him by any other name. The food leaves nothing to be desired,
+thanks to the provisions that the <I>Ebba</I> brings on her return from each
+voyage.</P>
+<P>It is very fortunate, too, that I have been supplied with all the writing
+materials I require, for during my long hours of idleness I have been able to
+jot down in my notebook the slightest incidents that have occurred since I was
+abducted from Healthful House, and to keep a diary day by day. As long as I am
+permitted to use a pen I shall continue my notes. Mayhap some day, they will
+help to clear up the mysteries of Back Cup.</P>
+<P><I>From July 5 to July 25.</I>—A fortnight has passed, and all my attempts to
+get near Thomas Roch have been frustrated. Orders have evidently been given to
+keep him away from my influence, inefficacious though the latter has hitherto
+been. My only hope is that the Count d’Artigas, Engineer Serko, and Captain
+Spade will waste their time trying to get at the inventor’s secrets.</P>
+<P>Three or four times to my knowledge, at least, Thomas Roch and Engineer Serko
+have walked together around the lagoon. As far as I have been able to judge, the
+former listened with some attention to what the other was saying to him. Serko
+has conducted him over the whole cavern, shown him the electric power house and
+the mechanism of the tug. Thomas Roch’s mental condition has visibly improved
+since his departure from Healthful House.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch lives in a private room in Ker Karraje’s “mansion.� I have no
+doubt that he is daily sounded in regard to his discoveries, especially by
+Engineer Serko. Will he be able to resist the temptation if they offer him the
+exorbitant price that he demands? Has he any idea of the value of money? These
+wretches may dazzle him with the gold that they have accumulated by years of
+rapine. In the present state of his mind may he not be induced to disclose the
+composition of his fulgurator? They would then only have to fetch the necessary
+substances and Thomas Roch would have plenty of time in Back Cup to devote to
+his chemical combinations. As to the war-engines themselves nothing would be
+easier than to have them made in sections in different parts of the American
+continent. My hair stands on end when I think what they could and would do with
+them if once they gained possession of them.</P>
+<P>These intolerable apprehensions no longer leave me a minute’s peace; they are
+wearing me out and my health is suffering in consequence. Although the air in
+the interior of Back Cup is pure, I become subject to attacks of suffocation,
+and I feel as though my prison walls were falling upon me and crushing me under
+their weight. I am, besides, oppressed by the feeling that I am cut off from the
+world, as effectually as though I were no longer upon our planet,—for I know
+nothing of what is going on outside.</P>
+<P>Ah! if it were only possible to escape through that submarine tunnel, or
+through the hole in the dome and slide to the base of the mountain!</P>
+<P>On the morning of the 25th I at last encounter Thomas Roch. He is alone on
+the other side of the lagoon, and I wonder, inasmuch as I have not seen them
+since the previous day, whether Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade
+have not gone off on some expedition.</P>
+<P>I walk round towards Thomas Roch, and before he can see me I examine him
+attentively.</P>
+<P>His serious, thoughtful physiognomy is no longer that of a madman. He walks
+slowly, with his eyes bent on the ground, and under his arm a drawing-board upon
+which is stretched a sheet of paper covered with designs.</P>
+<P>Suddenly he raises his head, advances a step and recognizes me.</P>
+<P>“Ah! Gaydon, it is you, is it?� he cries, “I have then escaped from you! I am
+free!�</P>
+<P>He can, indeed, regard himself as being free—a good deal more at liberty in
+Back Cup than he was in Healthful House. But maybe my presence evokes unpleasant
+memories, and will bring on another fit, for he continues with extraordinary
+animation:</P>
+<P>“Yes, I know you, Gaydon.—Do not approach me! Stand off! stand off! You would
+like to get me back in your clutches, incarcerate me again in your dungeon!
+Never! I have friends here who will protect me. They are powerful, they are
+rich. The Count d’Artigas is my backer and Engineer Serko is my partner. We are
+going to exploit my invention! We are going to make my fulgurator! Hence! Get
+you gone!�</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch is in a perfect fury. He raises his voice, agitates his arms, and
+finally pulls from his pockets many rolls of dollar bills and banknotes, and
+handfuls of English, French, American and German gold coins, which slip through
+his fingers and roll about the cavern.</P>
+<P>How could he get all this money except from Ker Karraje, and as the price of
+his secret? The noise he makes attracts a number of men to the scene. They watch
+us for a moment, then seize Thomas Roch and drag him away. As soon as I am out
+of his sight he ceases-to struggle and becomes calm again.</P>
+<P><I>July 27.</I>—Two hours after meeting with Thomas Roch, I went down to the
+lagoon and walked out to the edge of the stone jetty.</P>
+<P>The tug is not moored in its accustomed place, nor can I see it anywhere
+about the lake. Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko had not gone yesterday, as I
+supposed, for I saw them in the evening.</P>
+<P>To-day, however, I have reason to believe that they really have gone away in
+the tug with Captain Spade and the crew of the <I>Ebba</I>, and that the latter
+must be sailing away.</P>
+<P>Have they set out on a piracy expedition? Very likely. It is equally likely
+that Ker Karraje, become once more the Count d’Artigas, travelling for pleasure
+on board his yacht, intends to put into some port on the American coast to
+procure the substances necessary to the preparation of Roch’s fulgurator.</P>
+<P>Ah! if it had only been possible for me to hide in the tug, to slip into the
+<I>Ebba’s</I> hold, and stow myself away there until the schooner arrived in
+port! Then perchance I might have escaped and delivered the world from this band
+of pirates.</P>
+<P>It will be seen how tenaciously I cling to the thought of escape—of
+fleeing—fleeing at any cost from this lair. But flight is impossible, except
+through the tunnel, by means of a submarine boat. Is it not folly to think of
+such a thing? Sheer folly, and yet what other way is there of getting out of
+Back Cup?</P>
+<P>While I give myself up to these reflections the water of the lagoon opens a
+few yards from me and the tug appears. The lid is raised and Gibson, the
+engineer, and the men issue on to the platform. Other men come up and catch the
+line that is thrown to them. They haul upon it, and the tug is soon moored in
+its accustomed place.</P>
+<P>This time, therefore, at any rate, the schooner is not being towed, and the
+tug merely went out to put Ker Karraje and his companions aboard the
+<I>Ebba</I>.</P>
+<P>This only confirms my impression that the sole object of their trip is to
+reach an American port where the Count d’Artigas can procure the materials for
+making the explosive, and order the machines in some foundry. On the day fixed
+for their return the tug will go out through the tunnel again to meet the
+schooner and Ker Karraje will return to Back Cup.</P>
+<P>Decidedly, this evildoer is carrying out his designs and has succeeded sooner
+than I thought would be possible.</P>
+<P><I>August 3.</I>—An incident occurred to-day of which the lagoon was the
+theatre—a very curious incident that must be exceedingly rare.</P>
+<P>Towards three o’clock in the afternoon there was a prodigious bubbling in the
+water, which ceased for a minute or two and then recommenced in the centre of
+the lagoon.</P>
+<P>About fifteen pirates, whose attention had been attracted by this
+unaccountable phenomenon, hurried down to the bank manifesting signs of
+astonishment not unmingled with fear—at least I thought so.</P>
+<P>The agitation of the water was not caused by the tug, as the latter was lying
+alongside the jetty, and the idea that some other submarine boat had found its
+way through the tunnel was highly improbable.</P>
+<P>Almost at the same instant cries were heard on the opposite bank. The
+newcomers shouted something in a hoarse voice to the men on the side where I was
+standing, and these immediately rushed off towards the Beehive.</P>
+<P>I conjectured that they had caught sight of some sea-monster that had found
+its way in, and was floundering in the lagoon, and that they had rushed off to
+fetch arms and harpoons to try and capture it.</P>
+<P>I was right, for they speedily returned with the latter weapons and rifles
+loaded with explosive bullets.</P>
+<P>The monster in question was a whale, of the species that is common enough in
+Bermudan waters, which after swimming through the tunnel was plunging about in
+the narrow limits of the lake. As it was constrained to take refuge in Back Cup
+I concluded that it must have been hard pressed by whalers.</P>
+<P>Some minutes elapsed before the monster rose to the surface. Then the green
+shiny mass appeared spouting furiously and darting to and fro as though fighting
+with some formidable enemy.</P>
+<P>“If it was driven in here by whalers,� I said to myself, “there must be a
+vessel in proximity to Back Cup—peradventure within a stone’s throw of it. Her
+boats must have entered the western passes to the very foot of the mountain. And
+to think I am unable to communicate with them! But even if I could, I fail to
+see how I could go to them through these massive walls.�</P>
+<P>I soon found, however, that it was not fishers, but sharks that had driven
+the whale through the tunnel, and which infest these waters in great numbers. I
+could see them plainly as they darted about, turning upon their backs and
+displaying their enormous mouths which were bristling with their cruel teeth.
+There were five or six of the monsters, and they attacked the whale with great
+viciousness. The latter’s only means of defence was its tail, with which it
+lashed at them with terrific force and rapidity. But the whale had received
+several wounds and the water was tinged with its life-blood; for plunge and lash
+as it would, it could not escape the bites of its enemies.</P>
+<P>However, the voracious sharks were not permitted to vanquish their prey, for
+man, far more powerful with his instruments of death, was about to take a hand
+and snatch it from them. Gathered around the lagoon were the companions of Ker
+Karraje, every whit as ferocious as the sharks themselves, and well deserving
+the same name, for what else are they?</P>
+<P>Standing amid a group, at the extremity of the jetty, and armed with a
+harpoon, was the big Malay who had prevented me from entering Ker Karraje’s
+house. When the whale got within shot, he hurled the harpoon with great force
+and skill, and it sank into the leviathan’s flesh just under the left fin. The
+whale plunged immediately, followed by the relentless sharks. The rope attached
+to the weapon ran out for about sixty yards, and then slackened. The men at once
+began to haul on it, and the monster rose to the surface again near the end of
+the tunnel, struggling desperately in its death agony, and spurting great
+columns of water tinged with blood. One blow of its tail struck a shark, and
+hurled it clean out of water against the rocky side, where it dropped in again,
+badly, if not fatally injured.</P>
+<P>The harpoon was torn from the flesh by the jerk, and the whale went under. It
+came up again for the last time, and lashed the water so that it washed up from
+the tunnel end, disclosing the top of the orifice.</P>
+<P>Then the sharks again rushed on their prey, but were scared off by a hail of
+the explosive bullets. Two men then jumped into a boat and attached a line to
+the dead monster. The latter was hauled into the jetty, and the Malays started
+to cut it up with a dexterity that showed they were no novices at the work.</P>
+<P>No more sharks were to be seen, but I concluded that it would be as well to
+refrain from taking a bath in the lagoon for some days to come.</P>
+<P>I now know exactly where the entrance to the tunnel is situated. The orifice
+on this side is only ten feet below the edge of the western bank. But of what
+use is this knowledge to me?</P>
+<P><I>August 7</I>.—Twelve days have elapsed since the Count d’Artigas, Engineer
+Serko, and Captain Spade put to sea. There is nothing to indicate that their
+return is expected, though the tug is always kept in readiness for immediate
+departure by Gibson, the engine-driver. If the <I>Ebba</I> is not afraid to
+enter the ports of the United States by day, I rather fancy she prefers to enter
+the rocky channel of Back Cup at nightfall. I also fancy, somehow, that Ker
+Karraje and his companions will return to-night.</P>
+<P><I>August 10</I>.—At ten o’clock last night, as I anticipated, the tug went
+under and out, just in time to meet the <I>Ebba</I> and tow her through the
+channel to her creek, after which she returned with Ker Karraje and the
+others.</P>
+<P>When I look out this morning, I see Thomas Roch and Engineer Serko walking
+down to the lagoon, and talking. What they are talking about I can easily guess.
+I go forward and take a good look at my ex-patient. He is asking questions of
+Engineer Serko With great animation. His eyes gleam, his face is flushed, and he
+is all eagerness to reach the jetty. Engineer Serko can hardly keep up with
+him.</P>
+<P>The crew of the tug are unloading her, and they have just brought ashore ten
+medium-sized boxes. These boxes bear a peculiar red mark, which Thomas Roch
+examines closely.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko orders the men to transport them to the storehouses on the
+left bank, and the boxes are forthwith loaded on a boat and rowed over.</P>
+<P>In my opinion, these boxes contain the substances by the combination or
+mixture of which, the fulgurator and deflagrator are to be made. The engines,
+doubtless, are being made in an American foundry, and when they are ready, the
+schooner will fetch them and bring them to Back Cup.</P>
+<P>For once in a while, anyhow, the <I>Ebba</I> has not returned with any stolen
+merchandise. She went out and has returned with a clear bill. But with what
+terrible power Ker Karraje will be armed for both offensive and defensive
+operations at sea! If Thomas Roch is to be credited, this fulgurator could
+shatter the terrestrial spheroid at one blow. And who knows but what one day, he
+will try the experiment?</P>
+
+<a name="XII" id="XII"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XII.</H4>
+<H4>ENGINEER SERKO’S ADVICE.</H4>
+<P>Thomas Roch has started work and spends hours and hours in a wooden shed on
+the left bank of the lagoon that has been set apart as his laboratory and
+workshop. No one enters it except himself. Does he insist upon preparing the
+explosive in secret and does he intend to keep the formula thereof to himself? I
+should not wonder.</P>
+<P>The manner of employing Roch’s fulgurator is, I believe, very simple indeed.
+The projectile in which it is used requires neither gun nor mortar to launch it,
+nor pneumatic tube like the Zalinski shell. It is autopropulsive, it projects
+itself, and no ship within a certain zone when the engine explodes could escape
+utter destruction. With such a weapon as this at his command Ker Karraje would
+be invincible.</P>
+<P><I>From August 11 to August 17</I>.—During the past week Thomas Roch has been
+working without intermission. Every morning the inventor goes to his laboratory
+and does not issue therefrom till night. I have made no attempt to stop him or
+speak to him, knowing that it would be useless to do so.</P>
+<P>Although he is still indifferent to everything that does not touch upon his
+work he appears to be perfectly self-possessed. Why should he not have recovered
+his reason? Has he not obtained what he has so long sought for? Is he not at
+last able to carry out the plans he formed years and years ago?</P>
+<P><I>August 18</I>.—At one o’clock this morning I was roused by several
+detonations.</P>
+<P>“Has Back Cup been attacked?� was my first thought. “Has the schooner excited
+suspicion, and been chased to the entrance to the passes? Is the island being
+bombarded with a view to its destruction? Has justice at last overtaken these
+evil-doers ere Thomas Roch has been able to complete the manufacture of his
+explosive, and before the autopropulsive engine could be fetched from the
+continent?�</P>
+<P>The detonations, which are very violent, continue, succeeding each other at
+regular intervals, and it occurs to me that if the schooner has been destroyed,
+all communication with the bases of supply being impossible, Back Cup cannot be
+provisioned.</P>
+<P>It is true the tug would be able to land the Count d’Artigas somewhere on the
+American coast where, money being no object, he could easily buy or order
+another vessel. But no matter. If Back Cup is only destroyed before Ker Karraje
+has Roch’s fulgurator at his disposal I shall render thanks to heaven.</P>
+<P>A few hours later, at the usual time, I quit my cell. All is quiet at the
+Beehive. The men are going about their business as usual. The tug is moored near
+the jetty. Thomas Roch is going to his laboratory, and Ker Karraje and Engineer
+Serko are tranquilly pacing backwards and forwards by the lake and chatting. The
+island therefore could not have been attacked during the night. Yet I was
+awakened by the report of cannon, this I will swear.</P>
+<P>At this moment Ker Karraje goes off towards his abode and Engineer Serko,
+smilingly ironical, as usual, advances to meet me.</P>
+<P>“Well, Mr. Simon Hart,� he says, “are you getting accustomed to your tranquil
+existence? Do you appreciate at their just merit the advantages of this
+enchanted grotto? Have you given up all hope of recovering your liberty some day
+or other?�</P>
+<P>What is the use of waxing wroth with this jester? I reply calmly:</P>
+<P>“No, sir. I have not given up hope, and I still expect that I shall be
+released.�</P>
+<P>“What! Mr. Hart, separate ourselves from a man whom we all esteem—and I from
+a colleague who perhaps, in the course of Thomas Roch’s fits of delirium, has
+learned some of his secrets? You are not serious!�</P>
+<P>So this is why they are keeping me a prisoner in Back Cup! They suppose that
+I am in part familiar with Roch’s invention, and they hope to force me to tell
+what I know if Thomas Roch refuses to give up his secret. This is the reason why
+I was kidnapped with him, and why I have not been accommodated with an
+involuntary plunge in the lagoon with a stone fastened to my neck. I see it all
+now, and it is just as well to know it.</P>
+<P>“Very serious,� I affirm, in response to the last remark of my
+interlocutor.</P>
+<P>“Well,� he continues, “if I had the honor to be Simon Hart, the engineer, I
+should reason as follows: ‘Given, on the one hand, the personality of Ker
+Karraje, the reasons which incited him to select such a mysterious retreat as
+this cavern, the necessity of the said cavern being kept from any attempt to
+discover it, not only in the interest of the Count d’Artigas, but in that of his
+companions—’“</P>
+<P>“Of his accomplices, if you please.�</P>
+<P>“‘Of his accomplices,’ then—’and on the other hand, given the fact that I
+know the real name of the Count d’Artigas and in what mysterious safe he keeps
+his riches—’“</P>
+<P>“Riches stolen, and stained with blood, Mr. Serko.�</P>
+<P>“‘Riches stolen and stained with blood,’ if you like—’I ought to understand
+that this question of liberty cannot be settled in accordance with my
+desires.’“</P>
+<P>It is useless to argue the point under these conditions, and I switch the
+conversation on to another line.</P>
+<P>“May I ask,� I continue, “how you came to find out that Gaydon, the warder,
+was Simon Hart, the engineer?�</P>
+<P>“I see no reason for keeping you in ignorance on the subject, my dear
+colleague. It was largely by hazard. We had certain relations with the
+manufactory in New Jersey with which you were connected, and which you quitted
+suddenly one day under somewhat singular circumstances. Well, during a visit I
+made to Healthful House some months before the Count d’Artigas went there, I saw
+and recognized you.�</P>
+<P>“You?�</P>
+<P>“My very self, and from that moment I promised myself the pleasure of having
+you for a fellow-passenger on board the <I>Ebba</I>.�</P>
+<P>I do not recall ever having seen this Serko at Healthful House, but what he
+says is very likely true.</P>
+<P>“I hope your whim of having me for a companion will cost you dear, some day
+or other,� I say to myself.</P>
+<P>Then, abruptly, I go on:</P>
+<P>“If I am not mistaken, you have succeeded in inducing Thomas Roch to disclose
+the secret of his fulgurator?�</P>
+<P>“Yes, Mr. Hart. We paid millions for it. But millions, you know, are nothing
+to us. We have only the trouble of taking them! Therefore we filled all his
+pockets—covered him with millions!�</P>
+<P>“Of what use are these millions to him if he is not allowed to enjoy them
+outside?�</P>
+<P>“That, Mr. Hart, is a matter that does not trouble him a little bit! This man
+of genius thinks nothing of the future: he lives but in the present. While
+engines are being constructed from his plans over yonder in America, he is
+preparing his explosive with chemical substances with which he has been
+abundantly supplied. He! he! What an invention it is, this autopropulsive
+engine, which flies through the air of its own power and accelerates its speed
+till the goal is reached, thanks to the properties of a certain powder of
+progressive combustion! Here we have an invention that will bring about a
+radical change in the art of war.�</P>
+<P>“Defensive war, Mr. Serko.�</P>
+<P>“And offensive war, Mr. Hart.�</P>
+<P>“Naturally,� I answer.</P>
+<P>Then pumping him still more closely, I go on:</P>
+<P>“So, what no one else has been able to obtain from Thomas Roch—�</P>
+<P>“We obtained without much difficulty.�</P>
+<P>“By paying him.�</P>
+<P>“By paying him an incredible price—and, moreover, by causing to vibrate what
+in him is a very sensitive chord.�</P>
+<P>“What chord?�</P>
+<P>“That of vengeance!�</P>
+<P>“Vengeance?—against whom?�</P>
+<P>“Against all those who have made themselves his enemies by discouraging him,
+by spurning him, expelling him, by constraining him to go a-begging from country
+to country with an invention of incontestable superiority! Now all notion of
+patriotism is extinct in his soul. He has now but one thought, one ferocious
+desire: to avenge himself upon those who have denied him—and even upon all
+mankind! Really, Mr. Hart, your governments of Europe and America committed a
+stupendous blunder in refusing to pay Roch the price his fulgurator is
+worth!�</P>
+<P>And Engineer Serko describes enthusiastically the various advantages of the
+new explosive which, he says, is incontestably superior to any yet invented.</P>
+<P>“And what a destructive effect it has,� he adds. “It is analogous to that of
+the Zalinski shell, but is a hundred times more powerful, and requires no
+machine for firing it, as it flies through the air on its own wings, so to
+speak.�</P>
+<P>I listen in the hope that Engineer Serko will give away a part of the secret,
+but in vain. He is careful not to say more than he wants to.</P>
+<P>“Has Thomas Roch,� I ask, “made you acquainted with the composition of his
+explosive?�</P>
+<P>“Yes, Mr. Hart—if it is all the same to you—and we shall shortly have
+considerable quantities of it stored in a safe place.�</P>
+<P>“But will there not be a great and ever-impending danger in accumulating
+large quantities of it? If an accident were to happen it would be all up with
+the island of——!�</P>
+<P>Once more the name of Back Cup was on the point of escaping me. They might
+consider me too well-informed if they were aware that in addition to being
+acquainted with the Count d’Artigas’ real name I also know where his stronghold
+is situated.</P>
+<P>Luckily Engineer Serko has not remarked my reticence, and he replies:</P>
+<P>“There will be no cause for alarm. Thomas Roch’s explosive will not burn
+unless subjected to a special deflagrator. Neither fire nor shock will explode
+it.�</P>
+<P>“And has Thomas Roch also sold you the secret of his deflagrator?�</P>
+<P>“Not yet, Mr. Hart, but it will not be long before the bargain is concluded.
+Therefore, I repeat, no danger is to be apprehended, and you need not keep awake
+of nights on that account. A thousand devils, sir! We have no desire to be blown
+up with our cavern and treasures! A few more years of good business and we shall
+divide the profits, which will be large enough to enable each one of us to live
+as he thinks proper and enjoy life to the top of his bent—after the dissolution
+of the firm of Ker Karraje and Co. I may add that though there is no danger of
+an explosion, we have everything to fear from a denunciation—which you are in
+the position to make, Mr. Hart. Therefore, if you take my advice, you will, like
+a sensible man, resign yourself to the inevitable until the disbanding of the
+company. We shall then see what in the interest of our security is best to be
+done with you!�</P>
+<P>It will be admitted that these words are not exactly calculated to reassure
+me. However, a lot of things may happen ere then. I have learned one good thing
+from this conversation, and that is that if Thomas Roch has sold his explosive
+to Ker Karraje and Co., he has at any rate, kept the secret of his deflagrator,
+without which the explosive is of no more value than the dust of the
+highway.</P>
+<P>But before terminating the interview I think I ought to make a very natural
+observation to Mr. Serko.</P>
+<P>“Sir,� I say, “you are now acquainted with the composition of Thomas Roch’s
+explosive. Does it really possess the destructive power that the inventor
+attributes to it? Has it ever been tried? May you not have purchased a
+composition as inert as a pinch of snuff?�</P>
+<P>“You are doubtless better informed upon this point than you pretend, Mr.
+Hart. Nevertheless, I thank you for the interest you manifest in our affairs,
+and am able to reassure you. The other night we made a series of decisive
+experiments. With only a few grains of this substance great blocks of rock were
+reduced to impalpable dust!�</P>
+<P>This explanation evidently applies to the detonation I heard.</P>
+<P>“Thus, my dear colleague,� continues Engineer Serko, “I can assure you that
+our expectations have been answered. The effects of the explosive surpass
+anything that could have been imagined. A few thousand tons of it would burst
+our spheroid and scatter the fragments into space. You can be absolutely certain
+that it is capable of destroying no matter what vessel at a distance
+considerably greater than that attained by present projectiles and within a zone
+of at least a mile. The weak point in the invention is that rather too much time
+has to be expended in regulating the firing.�</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko stops short, as though reluctant to give any further
+information, but finally adds:</P>
+<P>“Therefore, I end as I began, Mr. Hart. Resign yourself to the inevitable.
+Accept your new existence without reserve. Give yourself up to the tranquil
+delights of this subterranean life. If one is in good health, one preserves it;
+if one has lost one’s health, one recovers it here. That is what is happening to
+your fellow countryman. Yes, the best thing you can do is to resign yourself to
+your lot.�</P>
+<P>Thereupon this giver of good advice leaves me, after saluting me with a
+friendly gesture, like a man whose good intentions merit appreciation. But what
+irony there is in his words, in his glance, in his attitude. Shall I ever be
+able to get even with him?</P>
+<P>I now know that at any rate it is not easy to regulate the aim of Roch’s
+auto-propulsive engine. It is probable that it always bursts at the same
+distance, and that beyond the zone in which the effects of the fulgurator are so
+terrible, and once it has been passed, a ship is safe from its effects. If I
+could only inform the world of this vital fact!</P>
+<P><I>August 20</I>.—For two days no incident worth recording has occurred. I
+have explored Back Cup to its extreme limits. At night when the long perspective
+of arched columns are illuminated by the electric lamps, I am almost religiously
+impressed when I gaze upon the natural wonders of this cavern, which has become
+my prison. I have never given up hope of finding somewhere in the walls a
+fissure of some kind of which the pirates are ignorant and through which I could
+make my escape. It is true that once outside I should have to wait till a
+passing ship hove in sight. My evasion would speedily be known at the Beehive,
+and I should soon be recaptured, unless—a happy thought strikes me—unless I
+could get at the <I>Ebba’s</I> boat that was drawn up high and dry on the little
+sandy beach in the creek. In this I might be able to make my way to St. George
+or Hamilton.</P>
+<P>This evening—it was about nine o’clock—I stretched myself on a bed of sand at
+the foot of one of the columns, about one hundred yards to the east of the
+lagoon. Shortly afterwards I heard footsteps, then voices. Hiding myself as best
+I could behind the rocky base of the pillar, I listened with all my ears.</P>
+<P>I recognized the voices as those of Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko. The two
+men stopped close to where I was lying, and continued their conversation in
+English—which is the language generally used in Back Cup. I was therefore able
+to understand all that they said.</P>
+<P>They were talking about Thomas Roch, or rather his fulgurator.</P>
+<P>“In a week’s time,� said Ker Karraje, “I shall put to sea in the <I>Ebba</I>,
+and fetch the sections of the engines that are being cast in that Virginian
+foundry.�</P>
+<P>“And when they are here,� observed Engineer Serko, “I will piece them
+together and fix up the frames for firing them. But beforehand, there is a job
+to be done which it seems to me is indispensable.�</P>
+<P>“What is that?�</P>
+<P>“To cut a tunnel through the wall of the cavern.�</P>
+<P>“Through the wall of the cavern?�</P>
+<P>“Oh! nothing but a narrow passage through which only one man at a time could
+squeeze, a hole easy enough to block, and the outside end of which would be
+hidden among the rocks.�</P>
+<P>“Of what use could it be to us, Serko?�</P>
+<P>“I have often thought about the utility of having some other way of getting
+out besides the submarine tunnel. We never know what the future may have in
+store for us.�</P>
+<P>“But the walls are so thick and hard,� objected Ker Karraje.</P>
+<P>“Oh, with a few grains of Roch’s explosive I undertake to reduce the rock to
+such fine powder that we shall be able to blow it away with our breath,� Serko
+replied.</P>
+<P>It can easily be imagined with what interest and eagerness I listened to
+this. Here was a ray of hope. It. was proposed to open up communication with the
+outside by a tunnel in the wall, and this held out the possibility of
+escape.</P>
+<P>As this thought flashed through my mind, Ker Karraje said:</P>
+<P>“Very well, Serko, and if it becomes necessary some day to defend Back Cup
+and prevent any ship from approaching it——. It is true,� he went on, without
+finishing the reflection, “our retreat would have to have been discovered by
+accident—or by denunciation.�</P>
+<P>“We have nothing to fear either from accident or denunciation,� affirmed
+Serko.</P>
+<P>“By one of our band, no, of course not, but by Simon Hart, perhaps.�</P>
+<P>“Hart!� exclaimed Serko. “He would have to escape first and no one can escape
+from Back Cup. I am, by the bye, interested in this Hart. He is a colleague,
+after all, and I have always suspected that he knows more about Roch’s invention
+than he pretends. I will get round him so that we shall soon be discussing
+physics, mechanics, and matters ballistic like a couple of friends.�</P>
+<P>“No matter,� replied the generous and sensible Count d’Artigas, “when we are
+in full possession of the secret we had better get rid of the fellow.�</P>
+<P>“We have plenty of time to do that, Ker Karraje.�</P>
+<P>“If God permits you to, you wretches,� I muttered to myself, while my heart
+thumped against my ribs.</P>
+<P>And yet, without the intervention of Providence, what hope is there for
+me?</P>
+<P>The conversation then took another direction.</P>
+<P>“Now that we know the composition of the explosive, Serko,� said Ker Karraje,
+“we must, at all cost, get that of the deflagrator from Thomas Roch.�</P>
+<P>“Yes,� replied Engineer Serko, “that is what I am trying to do.
+Unfortunately, however, Roch positively refuses to discuss it. Still he has
+already made a few drops of it with which those experiments were made, and he
+will furnish as with some more to blow a hole through the wall.�</P>
+<P>“But what about our expeditions at sea?� queried Ker Karraje.</P>
+<P>“Patience! We shall end by getting Roch’s thunderbolts entirely in our own
+hand, and then——�</P>
+<P>“Are you sure, Serko?�</P>
+<P>“Quite sure,—by paying the price, Ker Karraje.�</P>
+<P>The conversation dropped at this point, and they strolled off without having
+seen me—very luckily for me, I guess. If Engineer Serko spoke up somewhat in
+defence of a colleague, Ker Karraje is apparently animated with much less
+benevolent sentiments in regard to me. On the least suspicion they would throw
+me into the lake, and if I ever got through the tunnel, it would only be as a
+corpse carried out by the ebbing tide.</P>
+<P><I>August 21</I>.—Engineer Serko has been prospecting with a view to piercing
+the proposed passage through the wall, in such a way that its existence will
+never be dreamed of outside. After a minute examination he decided to tunnel
+through the northern end of the cavern about sixty feet from the first cells of
+the Beehive.</P>
+<P>I am anxious for the passage to be made, for who knows but what it may be the
+way to freedom for me? Ah! if I only knew how to swim, perhaps I should have
+attempted to escape through the submarine tunnel, as since it was disclosed by
+the lashing back of the waters by the whale in its death-struggle, I know
+exactly where the orifice is situated. It seems to me that at the time of the
+great tides, this orifice must be partly uncovered. At the full and new moon,
+when the sea attains its maximum depression below the normal level, it is
+possible that—I must satisfy myself about this.</P>
+<P>I do not know how the fact will help me in any way, even if the entrance to
+the tunnel is partly uncovered, but I cannot afford to miss any detail that may
+possibly aid in my escape from Back Cup.</P>
+<P><I>August 29</I>.—This morning I am witnessing the departure of the tug. The
+Count d’Artigas is, no doubt, going off in the <I>Ebba</I> to fetch the sections
+of Thomas Roch’s engines. Before embarking, the Count converses long and
+earnestly with Engineer Serko, who, apparently, is not going to accompany him on
+this trip, and is evidently giving him some recommendations, of which I may be
+the object. Then, having stepped on to the platform, he goes below, the lid
+shuts with a bang, and the tug sinks out of sight, leaving a trail of bubbles
+behind it.</P>
+<P>The hours go by, night is coming on, yet the tug does not return. I conclude
+that it has gone to tow the schooner, and perhaps to destroy any merchant
+vessels that may come in their way.</P>
+<P>It cannot, however, be absent very long, as the trip to America and back will
+not take more than a week.</P>
+<P>Besides, if I can judge from the calm atmosphere in the interior of the
+cavern, the <I>Ebba</I> must be favored with beautiful weather. This is, in
+fact, the fine season in this part of the world. Ah! if only I could break out
+of my prison!</P>
+
+<a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XIII.</H4>
+<H4>GOD BE WITH IT.</H4>
+<P><I>From August 29 to September 10</I>.—Thirteen days have gone by and the
+<I>Ebba</I> has not returned. Did she then not make straight for the American
+coast? Has she been delayed by a buccaneering cruise in the neighborhood of Back
+Cup? It seems to me that Ker Karraje’s only desire would be to get back with the
+sections of Roch’s engines as soon as possible. Maybe the Virginian foundry had
+not quite finished them.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko does not display the least anxiety or impatience. He continues
+to greet me with his accustomed ironical cordiality, and with a kindly air that
+I distrust—with good reason. He affects to be solicitous as to my health, urges
+me to make the best of a bad job, calls me Ali Baba, assures me that there is
+not, in the whole world, such an enchanting spot as this Arabian Nights cavern,
+observes that I am fed, warmed, lodged, and clothed, that I have no taxes to
+pay, and that even the inhabitants of the favored principality of Monaco do not
+enjoy an existence more free from care.</P>
+<P>Sometimes this ironical verbiage brings the blood to my face, and I am
+tempted to seize this cynical banterer by the throat and choke the life out of
+him. They would kill me afterwards. Still, what would that matter! Would it not
+be better to end in this way than to spend years and years amid these infernal
+and infamous surroundings? However, while there is life there is hope, I
+reflect, and this thought restrains me.</P>
+<P>I have scarcely set eyes upon Thomas Roch since the <I>Ebba</I> went away. He
+shuts himself up in his laboratory and works unceasingly. If he utilizes all the
+substances placed at his disposition there will be enough to blow up Back Cup
+and the whole Bermudan archipelago with it!</P>
+<P>I cling to the hope that he will never consent to give up the secret of his
+deflagrator, and that Engineer Serko’s efforts to acquire it will remain
+futile.</P>
+<P><I>September 3</I>.—To-day I have been able to witness with my own eyes the
+power of Roch’s explosive, and also the manner in which the fulgurator is
+employed.</P>
+<P>During the morning the men began to pierce the passage through the wall of
+the cavern at the spot fixed upon by Engineer Serko, who superintended the work
+in person. The work began at the base, where the rock is as hard as granite. To
+have continued it with pickaxes would have entailed long and arduous labor,
+inasmuch as the wall at this place is not less than from twenty to thirty yards
+in thickness, but thanks to Roch’s fulgurator the passage will be completed
+easily and rapidly.</P>
+<P>I may well be astonished at what I have seen. The pickaxes hardly made any
+impression on the rock, but its disaggregation was effected with really
+remarkable facility by means of the fulgurator.</P>
+<P>A few grains of this explosive shattered the rocky mass and reduced it to
+almost impalpable powder that one’s breath could disperse as easily as vapor.
+The explosion produced an excavation measuring fully a cubic yard. It was
+accompanied by a sharp detonation that may be compared to the report of a
+cannon.</P>
+<P>The first charge used, although a very small one, a mere pinch, blew the men
+in every direction, and two of them were seriously injured. Engineer Serko
+himself was projected several yards, and sustained some rather severe
+contusions.</P>
+<P>Here is how this substance, whose bursting force surpasses anything hitherto
+conceived, is employed.</P>
+<P>A small hole about an inch and a half in length is pierced obliquely in the
+rock. A few grains of the explosive are then inserted, but no wad is used.</P>
+<P>Then Thomas Roch steps forward. In his hand is a little glass phial
+containing a bluish, oily liquid that congeals almost as soon as it comes in
+contact with the air. He pours one drop on the entrance of the hole, and draws
+back, but not with undue haste. It takes a certain time—about thirty-five
+seconds, I reckon—before the combination of the fulgurator and deflagrator is
+effected. But when the explosion does take place its power of disaggregation is
+such—I repeat—that it may be regarded as unlimited. It is at any rate a thousand
+times superior to that of any known explosive.</P>
+<P>Under these circumstances it will probably not take more than a week to
+complete the tunnel.</P>
+<P><I>September 19</I>.—For some time past I have observed that the tide rises
+and falls twice every twenty-four hours, and that the ebb and flow produce a
+rather swift current through the submarine tunnel. It is pretty certain
+therefore that a floating object thrown into the lagoon when the top of the
+orifice is uncovered would be carried out by the receding tide. It is just
+possible that during the lowest equinoctial tides the top of the orifice is
+uncovered. This I shall be able to ascertain, as this is precisely the time they
+occur. To-day, September 19, I could almost distinguish the summit of the hole
+under the water. The day after to-morrow, if ever, it will be uncovered.</P>
+<P>Very well then, if I cannot myself attempt to get through, may be a bottle
+thrown into the lagoon might be carried out during the last few minutes of the
+ebb. And might not this bottle by chance—an ultra-providential chance, I must
+avow—be picked up by a ship passing near Back Cup? Perhaps even it might be
+borne away by a friendly current and cast upon one of the Bermudan beaches. What
+if that bottle contained a letter?</P>
+<P>I cannot get this thought out of my mind, and it works me up into a great
+state of excitement. Then objections crop up—this one among others: the bottle
+might be swept against the rocks and smashed ere ever it could get out of the
+tunnel. Very true, but what if, instead of a bottle a diminutive, tightly closed
+keg were used? It would not run any danger of being smashed and would besides
+stand a much better chance of reaching the open sea.</P>
+<P><I>September 20</I>.—This evening, I, unperceived, entered one of the store
+houses containing the booty pillaged from various ships and procured a keg very
+suitable for my experiment.</P>
+<P>I hid the keg under my coat, and returned to the Beehive and my cell. Then
+without losing an instant I set to work. Paper, pen, ink, nothing was wanting,
+as will be supposed from the fact that for three months I have been making notes
+and dotting down my impressions daily.</P>
+<P>I indite the following message:</P>
+<P>“On June 15 last Thomas Roch and his keeper Gaydon, or rather Simon Hart, the
+French engineer who occupied Pavilion No. 17, at Healthful House, near
+New-Berne, North Carolina, United States of America, were kidnapped and carried
+on board the schooner <I>Ebba</I>, belonging to the Count d’Artigas. Both are
+now confined in the interior of a cavern which serves as a lair for the said
+Count d’Artigas—who is really Ker Karraje, the pirate who some time ago carried
+on his depredations in the West Pacific—and for about a hundred men of which his
+band is composed.</P>
+<P>“When he has obtained possession of Roch’s fulgurator whose power is, so to
+speak, without limit, Ker Karraje will be in a position to carry on his crimes
+with complete impunity.</P>
+<P>“It is therefore urgent that the states interested should destroy his lair
+without delay.</P>
+<P>“The cavern in which the pirate Ker Karraje has taken refuge is in the
+interior of the islet of Back Cup, which is wrongly regarded as an active
+volcano. It is situated at the western extremity of the archipelago of Bermuda,
+and on the east is bounded by a range of reefs, but on the north, south, and
+west is open.</P>
+<P>“Communication with the inside of the mountain is only possible through a
+tunnel a few yards under water in a narrow pass on the west. A submarine
+apparatus therefore is necessary to effect an entrance, at any rate until a
+tunnel they are boring through the northwestern wall of the cavern is
+completed.</P>
+<P>“The pirate Ker Karraje employs an apparatus of this kind—the submarine boat
+that the Count d’Artigas ordered of the Cramps and which was supposed to have
+been lost during the public experiment with it in Charleston Bay. This boat is
+used not only for the purpose of entering and issuing from Back Cup, but also to
+tow the schooner and attack merchant vessels in Bermudan waters.</P>
+<P>“This schooner <I>Ebba</I>, so well known on the American coast, is kept in a
+small creek on the western side of the island, behind a mass of rocks, and is
+invisible from the sea.</P>
+<P>“The best place to land is on the west coast formerly occupied by the colony
+of Bermudan fishers; but it would first be advisable to effect a breach in the
+side of the cavern by means of the most powerful melinite shells.</P>
+<P>“The fact that Ker Karraje may be in the position to use Roch’s fulgurator
+for the defence of the island must also be taken into consideration. Let it be
+well borne in mind that if its destructive power surpasses anything ever
+conceived or dreamed of, it extends over a zone not exceeding a mile in extent.
+The distance of this dangerous zone is variable, but once the engines have been
+set, the modification of the distance occupies some time, and a warship that
+succeeds in passing the zone has nothing further to fear.</P>
+<P>“This document is written on the twentieth day of September at eight o’clock
+in the evening and is signed with my name</P>
+<P>“THOMAS HART, Engineer.�</P>
+<P>The above is the text of the statement I have just drawn up. It says all that
+is necessary about the island, whose exact situation is marked on all modern
+charts and maps, and points out the expediency of acting without delay, and what
+to do in case Ker Karraje is in the position to employ Roch’s fulgurator.</P>
+<P>I add a plan of the cavern showing its internal configuration, the situation
+of the lagoon, the lay of the Beehive, Ker Karraje’s habitation, my cell, and
+Thomas Roch’s laboratory.</P>
+<P>I wrap the document in a piece of tarpaulin and insert the package in the
+little keg, which measures six inches by three and a half. It is perfectly
+watertight and will stand any amount of knocking about against the rocks.</P>
+<P>There is one danger, however, and that is, that it may be swept back by the
+returning tide, cast up on the island, and fall into the hands of the crew of
+the <I>Ebba</I> when the schooner is hauled into her creek. If Ker Karraje ever
+gets hold of it, it will be all up with me.</P>
+<P>It will be readily conceived with what anxiety I have awaited the moment to
+make the attempt: I am in a perfect fever of excitement, for it is a matter of
+life or death to me. I calculate from previous observations that the tide will
+be very low at about a quarter to nine. The top of the tunnel ought then to be a
+foot and a half above water, which is more than enough to permit of the keg
+passing through it. It will be another half hour at least before the flow sets
+in again, and by that time the keg may be far enough away to escape being thrown
+back on the coast.</P>
+<P>I peer out of my cell. There is no one about, and I advance to the side of
+the lagoon, where by the light of a nearby lamp, I perceive the arch of the
+tunnel, towards which the current seems to be setting pretty swiftly.</P>
+<P>I go down to the very edge, and cast in the keg which contains the precious
+document and all my hopes.</P>
+<P>“God be with it!� I fervently exclaim. “God be with it!�</P>
+<P>For a minute or two the little barrel remains stationary, and then floats
+back to the side again. I throw it out once more with all my strength.</P>
+<P>This time it is in the track of the current, which to my great joy sweeps it
+along and in twenty seconds, it has disappeared in the tunnel.</P>
+<P>Yes, God be with it! May Heaven guide thee, little barrel! May it protect all
+those whom Ker Karraje menaces and grant that this band of pirates may not
+escape from the justice of man!</P>
+
+<a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XIV.</H4>
+<H4>BATTLE BETWEEN THE “SWORD� AND THE TUG.</H4>
+<P>Through all this sleepless night I have followed the keg in fancy. How many
+times I seem to see it swept against the rocks in the tunnel into a creek, or
+some excavation. I am in a cold perspiration from head to foot. Then I imagine
+that it has been carried out to sea. Heavens! if the returning tide should sweep
+it back to tho entrance and then through the tunnel into the lagoon! I must be
+on the lookout for it.</P>
+<P>I rise before the sun and saunter down to the lagoon. Not a single object is
+floating on its calm surface.</P>
+<P>The work on the tunnel through the side of the cavern goes on, and at four
+o’clock in the afternoon on September 23, Engineer Serko blows away the last
+rock obstructing the issue, and communication with the outer world is
+established. It is only a very narrow hole, and one has to stoop to go through
+it. The exterior orifice is lost among the crannies of the rocky coast, and it
+would be easy to obstruct it, if such a measure became necessary.</P>
+<P>It goes without saying that the passage will be strictly guarded. No one
+without special authorization will be able either to go out or come in,
+therefore there is little hope of escape in that direction.</P>
+<P><I>September 25.</I>—This morning the tug rose from the depth of the lagoon
+to the surface, and has now run alongside the jetty. The Count d’Artigas and
+Captain Spade disembark, and the crew set to work to land the provisions—boxes
+of canned meat, preserves, barrels of wine and spirits, and other things brought
+by the <I>Ebba,</I> among which are several packages destined for Thomas Roch.
+The men also land the various sections of Roch’s engines which are discoid in
+shape.</P>
+<P>The inventor watches their operations, and his eyes glisten with eagerness.
+He seizes one of the sections, examines it, and nods approval. I notice that his
+joy no longer finds expression in incoherent utterances, that he is completely
+transformed from what he was while a patient at Healthful House. So much is this
+the case that I begin to ask myself whether his madness which was asserted to be
+incurable, has not been radically cured.</P>
+<P>At last Thomas Roch embarks in the boat used for crossing the lake and is
+rowed over to his laboratory. Engineer Serko accompanies him. In an hour’s time
+the tug’s cargo has all been taken out and transported to the storehouses.</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje exchanges a word or two with Engineer Serko and then enters his
+mansion. Later, in the afternoon, I see them walking up and down in front of the
+Beehive and talking earnestly together.</P>
+<P>Then they enter the new tunnel, followed by Captain Spade. If I could but
+follow them! If I could but breathe for awhile the bracing air of the Atlantic,
+of which the interior of Back Cup only receives attenuated puffs, so to
+speak.</P>
+<P><I>From September 26 to October 10</I>.—Fifteen days have elapsed. Under the
+directions of Engineer Serko and Thomas Roch the sections of the engines have
+been fitted together. Then the construction of their supports is begun. These
+supports are simple trestles, fitted with transverse troughs or grooves of
+various degrees of inclination, and which could be easily installed on the deck
+of the <I>Ebba</I>, or even on the platform of the tug, which can be kept on a
+level with the surface.</P>
+<P>Thus Ker Karraje, will be ruler of the seas, with his yacht. No warship,
+however big, however powerful, will be able to cross the zone of danger, whereas
+the <I>Ebba</I> will be out of range of its guns. If only my notice were found!
+If only the existence of this lair of Back Cup were known! Means would soon be
+found, if not of destroying the place, at least of starving the band into
+submission!</P>
+<P><I>October 20</I>.—To my extreme surprise I find this morning that the tug
+has gone away again. I recall that yesterday the elements of the piles were
+renewed, but I thought it was only to keep them in order. In view of the fact
+that the outside can now be reached through the new tunnel, and that Thomas Roch
+has everything he requires, I can only conclude that the tug has gone off on
+another marauding expedition.</P>
+<P>Yet this is the season of the equinoctial gales, and the Bermudan waters are
+swept by frequent tempests. This is evident from the violent gusts that drive
+back the smoke through the crater and the heavy rain that accompanies it, as
+well as by the water in the lagoon, which swells and washes over the brown rocks
+on its shores.</P>
+<P>But it is by no means sure that the <I>Ebba</I> has quitted her cove. However
+staunch she may be, she is, it seems to me, of too light a build to face such
+tempests as now rage, even with the help of the tug.</P>
+<P>On the other hand, although the tug has nothing to fear from the heavy seas,
+as it would be in calm water a few yards below the surface, it is hardly likely
+that it has gone on a trip unless to accompany the schooner.</P>
+<P>I do not know to what its departure can be attributed, but its absence is
+likely to be prolonged, for it has not yet returned.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko has remained behind, but Ker Karraje, Captain Spade, and the
+crew of the schooner, I find, have left.</P>
+<P>Life in the cavern goes on with its usual dispiriting monotony. I pass hour
+after hour in my cell, meditating, hoping, despairing, following in fancy the
+voyage of my little barrel, tossed about at the mercy of the currents and whose
+chances of being picked up, I fear, are becoming fainter each day, and killing
+time by writing my diary, which will probably not survive me.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch is constantly occupied in his laboratory manufacturing his
+deflagrator. I still entertain the conviction that nothing will ever induce him
+to give up the secret of the liquid’s composition; but I am perfectly aware that
+he will not hesitate to place his invention at Ker Karraje’s service.</P>
+<P>I often meet Engineer Serko when my strolls take me in the direction of the
+Beehive. He always shows himself disposed to chat with me, though, it is true,
+he does so in a tone of impertinent frivolity. We converse upon all sorts of
+subjects, but rarely of my position. Recrimination thereanent is useless and
+only subjects me to renewed bantering.</P>
+<P><I>October 22</I>.—To-day I asked Engineer Serko whether the <I>Ebba</I> had
+put to sea again with the tug.</P>
+<P>“Yes, Mr. Simon Hart,� he replied, “and though the clouds gather and loud the
+tempest roars, be in no uneasiness in regard to our dear <I>Ebba</I>.�</P>
+<P>“Will she be gone long?�</P>
+<P>“We expect her back within forty-eight hours. It is the last voyage Count
+d’Artigas proposes to make before the winter gales render navigation in these
+parts impracticable.�</P>
+<P>“Is her voyage one of business or pleasure?�</P>
+<P>“Of business, Mr. Hart, of business,� answered Engineer Serko with a smile.
+“Our engines are now completed, and when the fine weather returns we shall
+resume offensive operations.�</P>
+<P>“Against unfortunate merchantmen.�</P>
+<P>“As unfortunate as they are richly laden.�</P>
+<P>“Acts of piracy, whose impunity will, I trust, not always be assured,� I
+cried..</P>
+<P>“Calm yourself, dear colleague, be calm! Be calm! No one, you know, can ever
+discover our retreat, and none can ever disclose the secret! Besides, with these
+engines, which are so easily handled and are of such terrible power, it would be
+easy for us to blow to pieces any ship that attempted to get within a certain
+radius of the island.�</P>
+<P>“Providing,� I said, “that Thomas Roch has sold you the composition of his
+deflagrator as he has sold you that of his fulgurator.�</P>
+<P>“That he has done, Mr. Hart, and it behooves me to set your mind at rest upon
+that point.�</P>
+<P>From this categorical response I ought to have concluded that the misfortune
+had been consummated, but a certain hesitation in the intonation of his voice
+warned me that implicit reliance was not to be placed upon Engineer Serko’s
+assertions.</P>
+<P><I>October 25</I>.—What a frightful adventure I have just been mixed up in,
+and what a wonder I did not lose my life! It is only by a miracle that I am able
+to resume these notes, which have been interrupted for forty-eight hours. With a
+little luck, I should have been delivered! I should now be in one of the
+Bermudan ports—St. George or Hamilton. The mysteries of Back Cup would have been
+cleared up. The description of the schooner would have been wired all over the
+world, and she would not dare to put into any port. The provisioning of Back Cup
+would be impossible, and Ker Karraje’s bandits would be condemned to starve to
+death!</P>
+<P>This is what occurred:</P>
+<P>At eight o’clock in the evening on October 23, I quitted my cell in an
+indefinable state of nervousness, and with a presentiment that a serious event
+was imminent. In vain I had tried to seek calmness in sleep. It was impossible
+to do so, and I rose and went out.</P>
+<P>Outside Back Cup the weather must have been very rough. Violent gusts of wind
+swept in through the crater and agitated the water of the lagoon.</P>
+<P>I walked along the shore on the Beehive side. No one was about. It was rather
+cold, and the air was damp. The pirates were all snugly ensconced in their
+cells, with the exception of one man, who stood guard over the new passage,
+notwithstanding that the outer entrance had been blocked. From where he was this
+man could not see the lagoon, moreover there were only two lamps alight, one on
+each side of the lake, and the forest of pillars was wrapt in the profoundest
+obscurity.</P>
+<P>I was walking about in the shadow, when some one passed me.</P>
+<P>I saw that he was Thomas Roch.</P>
+<P>He was walking slowly, absorbed by his thoughts, his brain at work, as
+usual.</P>
+<P>Was this not a favorable opportunity to talk to him, to enlighten him about
+what he was probably ignorant, namely, the character of the people into whose
+hands he had fallen?</P>
+<P>“He cannot,� I argued, “know that the Count d’Artigas is none other than Ker
+Karraje, the pirate. He cannot be aware that he has given up a part of his
+invention to such a bandit. I must open his eyes to the fact that he will never
+be able to enjoy his millions, that he is a prisoner in Back Cup, and will never
+be allowed to leave it, any more than I shall. Yes, I will make an appeal to his
+sentiments of humanity, and point out to him what frightful misfortunes he will
+be responsible for if he does not keep the secret of his deflagrator.�</P>
+<P>All this I had said to myself, and was preparing to carry out my resolution,
+when I suddenly felt myself seized from behind.</P>
+<P>Two men held me by the arms, and another appeared in front of me.</P>
+<P>Before I had time to cry out the man exclaimed in English:</P>
+<P>“Hush! not a word! Are you not Simon Hart?�</P>
+<P>“Yes, how did you know?�</P>
+<P>“I saw you come out of your cell.�</P>
+<P>“Who are you, then?�</P>
+<P>“Lieutenant Davon, of the British Navy, of H.M.S. <I>Standard</I>, which is
+stationed at the Bermudas.�</P>
+<P>Emotion choked me so that it was impossible for me to utter a word.</P>
+<P>“We have come to rescue you from Ker Karraje, and also propose to carry off
+Thomas Roch,� he added.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch?� I stammered.</P>
+<P>“Yes, the document signed by you was found on the beach at St. George——�</P>
+<P>“In a keg, Lieutenant Davon, which I committed to the waters of the
+lagoon.�</P>
+<P>“And which contained,� went on the officer, “the notice by which we were
+apprised that the island of Back Cup served as a refuge for Ker Karraje and his
+band—Ker Karraje, this false Count d’Artigas, the author of the double abduction
+from Healthful House.�</P>
+<P>“Ah! Lieutenant Davon——�</P>
+<P>“Now we have not a moment to spare, we must profit by the obscurity.�</P>
+<P>“One word, Lieutenant Davon, how did you penetrate to the interior of Back
+Cup?�</P>
+<P>“By means of the submarine boat <I>Sword</I>, with which we have been making
+experiments at St. George for six months past.�</P>
+<P>“A submarine boat!�</P>
+<P>“Yes, it awaits us at the foot of the rocks. And now, Mr. Hart, where is Ker
+Karraje’s tug?�</P>
+<P>“It has been away for three weeks.�</P>
+<P>“Ker Karraje is not here, then?�</P>
+<P>“No, but we expect him back every day—every hour, I might say.�</P>
+<P>“It matters little,� replied Lieutenant Davon. “It is not after Ker Karraje,
+but Thomas Roch, we have come—and you also, Mr. Hart. The <I>Sword</I> will not
+leave the lagoon till you are both on board. If she does not turn up at St.
+George again, they will know that I have failed—and they will try again.�</P>
+<P>“Where is the <I>Sword</I>, Lieutenant?�</P>
+<P>“On this side, in the shadow of the bank, where it cannot be seen. Thanks to
+your directions, I and my crew were able to locate the tunnel. We came through
+all right, and ten minutes ago rose to the surface of the lake. Two men landed
+with me. I saw you issue from the cell marked on your plan. Do you know where
+Thomas Roch is?�</P>
+<P>“A few paces off. He has just passed me, on his way to his laboratory.�</P>
+<P>“God be praised, Mr. Hart!�</P>
+<P>“Amen, Lieutenant Davon.�</P>
+<P>The lieutenant, the two men and I took the path around the lagoon. We had not
+gone far when we perceived Thomas Roch in front of us. To throw ourselves upon
+him, gag him before he could utter a cry, bind him before he could offer any
+resistance, and bear him off to the place where the <I>Sword</I> was moored was
+the work of a minute.</P>
+<P>The <I>Sword</I> was a submersible boat of only twelve tons, and consequently
+much inferior to the tug, both in respect of dimensions and power. Her screw was
+worked by a couple of dynamos fitted with accumulators that had been charged
+twelve hours previously in the port of St. George. However, the <I>Sword</I>
+would suffice to take us out of this prison, to restore us to liberty—that
+liberty of which I had given up all hope. Thomas Roch was at last to be rescued
+from the clutches of Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko. The rascals would not be
+able to utilize his invention, and nothing could prevent the warships from
+landing a storming party on the island, who would force the tunnel in the wall
+and secure the pirates!</P>
+<P>We saw no one while the two men were conveying Thomas Roch to the
+<I>Sword</I>, and all got on board without incident. The lid was shut and
+secured, the water compartments filled, and the <I>Sword</I> sank out of sight.
+We were saved!</P>
+<P>The <I>Sword</I> was divided into three water-tight compartments. The after
+one contained the accumulators and machinery. The middle one, occupied by the
+pilot, was surmounted by a periscope fitted with lenticular portholes, through
+which an electric search-lamp lighted the way through the water. Forward, in the
+other compartment, Thomas Roch and I were shut in.</P>
+<P>My companion, though the gag which was choking him had been removed, was
+still bound, and, I thought, knew what was going on.</P>
+<P>But we were in a hurry to be off, and hoped to reach St. George that very
+night if no obstacle was encountered.</P>
+<P>I pushed open the door of the compartment and rejoined Lieutenant Davon, who
+was standing by the man at the wheel. In the after compartment three other men,
+including the engineer, awaited the lieutenant’s orders to set the machinery in
+motion.</P>
+<P>“Lieutenant Davon,� I said, “I do not think there is any particular reason
+why I should stay in there with Roch. If I can help you to get through the
+tunnel, pray command me.�</P>
+<P>“Yes, I shall be glad to have you by me, Mr. Hart.�</P>
+<P>It was then exactly thirty-seven minutes past eight.</P>
+<P>The search-lamp threw a vague light through the water ahead of the
+<I>Sword</I>. From where we were, we had to cross the lagoon through its entire
+length to get to the tunnel. It would be pretty difficult to fetch it, we knew,
+but, if necessary, we could hug the sides of the lake until we located it. Once
+outside the tunnel the <I>Sword</I> would rise to the surface and make for St.
+George at full speed.</P>
+<P>“At what depth are we now?� I asked the lieutenant.</P>
+<P>“About a fathom.�</P>
+<P>“It is not necessary to go any lower,� I said. “From what I was able to
+observe during the equinoctial tides, I should think that we are in the axis of
+the tunnel.�</P>
+<P>“All right,� he replied.</P>
+<P>Yes, it was all right, and I felt that Providence was speaking by the mouth
+of the officer. Certainly Providence could not have chosen a better agent to
+work its will.</P>
+<P>In the light of the lamp I examined him. He was about thirty years of age,
+cool, phlegmatic, with resolute physiognomy—the English officer in all his
+native impassibility—no more disturbed than if he had been on board the
+<I>Standard</I>, operating with extraordinary <I>sang-froid,</I> I might even
+say, with the precision of a machine.</P>
+<P>“On coming through the tunnel I estimated its length at about fifty yards,�
+he remarked.</P>
+<P>“Yes, Lieutenant, about fifty yards from one extremity to the other.�</P>
+<P>This calculation must have been pretty exact, since the new tunnel cut on a
+level with the coast is thirty-five feet in length.</P>
+<P>The order was given to go ahead, and the <I>Sword</I> moved forward very
+slowly for fear of colliding against the rocky side.</P>
+<P>Sometimes we came near enough to it to distinguish a black mass ahead of it,
+but a turn of the wheel put us in the right direction again. Navigating a
+submarine boat in the open sea is difficult enough. How much more so in the
+confines of a lagoon!</P>
+<P>After five minutes’ manoeuvring, the <I>Sword</I>, which was kept at about a
+fathom below the surface, had not succeeded in sighting the orifice.</P>
+<P>“Perhaps it would be better to return to the surface, Lieutenant,� I said.
+“We should then be able to see where we are.�</P>
+<P>“I think you are right, Mr. Hart, if you can point out just about where the
+tunnel is located.�</P>
+<P>“I think I can.�</P>
+<P>“Very well, then.�</P>
+<P>As a precaution the light was turned off. The engineer set the pumps in
+motion, and, lightened of its water ballast, the boat slowly rose in the
+darkness to the surface.</P>
+<P>I remained at my post so that I could peer through the lookouts.</P>
+<P>At last the ascensional movement of the <I>Sword</I> stopped, and the
+periscope emerged about a foot.</P>
+<P>On one side of me, lighted by the lamp by the shore, I could see the
+Beehive.</P>
+<P>“What is your opinion?� demanded the lieutenant.</P>
+<P>“We are too far north. The orifice is in the west side of the cavern.�</P>
+<P>“Is anybody about?�</P>
+<P>“Not a soul.�</P>
+<P>“Capital, Mr. Hart. Then we will keep on a level with the surface, and when
+we are in front of the tunnel, and you give the signal, we will sink.�</P>
+<P>It was the best thing to be done. We moved off again and the pilot kept her
+head towards the tunnel.</P>
+<P>When we were about twelve yards off I gave the signal to stop. As soon as the
+current was turned off the <I>Sword</I> stopped, opened her water tanks and
+slowly sank again.</P>
+<P>Then the light in the lookout was turned on again, and there in front of us
+was a black circle that did not reflect the lamp’s rays.</P>
+<P>“There it is, there is the tunnel!� I cried.</P>
+<P>Was it not the door by which I was going to escape from my prison? Was not
+liberty awaiting me on the other side?</P>
+<P>Gently the <I>Sword</I> moved towards the orifice.</P>
+<P>Oh! the horrible mischance! How have I survived it? How is it that my heart
+is not broken?</P>
+<P>A dim light appeared in the depth of the tunnel, about twenty-five yards in
+front of us. The advancing light could be none other than that, projected
+through the lookout of Ker Karraje’s submarine boat.</P>
+<P>“The tug! The tug!� I exclaimed. “Lieutenant, here is the tug returning to
+Back Cup!�</P>
+<P>“Full speed astern,� ordered the officer, and the <I>Sword</I> drew back just
+as she was about to enter the tunnel.</P>
+<P>One chance remained. The lieutenant had swiftly turned off the light, and it
+was just possible that we had not been seen by the people in the tug. Perhaps,
+in the dark waters of the lagoon, we should escape notice, and when the oncoming
+boat had risen and moored to the jetty, we should be able to slip out
+unperceived.</P>
+<P>We had backed close in to the south side and the <I>Sword</I> was about to
+stop, but alas, for our hopes! Captain Spade had seen that another submarine
+boat was about to issue through the tunnel, and he was making preparations to
+chase us. How could a frail craft like the <I>Sword</I> defend itself against
+the attacks of Ker Karraje’s powerful machine?</P>
+<P>Lieutenant Davon turned to me and said: “Go back to the compartment where
+Thomas Roch is and shut yourself in. I will close the after-door. There is just
+a chance that if the tug rams us the water-tight compartments will keep us
+up.�</P>
+<P>After shaking hands with the lieutenant, who was as cool as though we were in
+no danger, I went forward and rejoined Thomas Roch. I closed the door and
+awaited the issue in profound darkness.</P>
+<P>Then I could feel the desperate efforts made by the <I>Sword</I> to escape
+from or ram her enemy. I could feel her rushing, gyrating and plunging. Now she
+would twist to avoid a collision. Now she would rise to the surface, then sink
+to the bottom of the lagoon. Can any one conceive such a struggle as that in
+which, like two marine monsters, these machines were engaged in beneath the
+troubled waters of this inland lake?</P>
+<P>A few minutes elapsed, and I began to think that the <I>Sword</I> had eluded
+the tug and was rushing through the tunnel.</P>
+<P>Suddenly there was a collision. The shock was not, it seemed to me, very
+violent, but I could be under no illusion: the <I>Sword</I> had been struck on
+her starboard quarter. Perhaps her plates had resisted, and if not, the water
+would only invade one of her compartments, I thought.</P>
+<P>Almost immediately after, however, there was another shock that pushed the
+<I>Sword</I> with extreme violence. She was raised by the ram of the tug which
+sawed and ripped its way into her side. Then I could feel her heel over and sink
+straight down, stern foremost.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch and I were tumbled over violently by. this movement. There was
+another bump, another ripping sound, and the <I>Sword</I> lay still.</P>
+<P>Just what happened after that I am unable to say, for I lost
+consciousness.</P>
+<P>I have since learned that all this occurred many hours ago.</P>
+<P>I however distinctly remember that my last thought was:</P>
+<P>“If I am to die, at any rate Thomas Roch and his secret perish with me—and
+the pirates of Back Cup will not escape punishment for their crimes.�</P>
+
+<a name="XV" id="XV"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XV.</H4>
+<H4>EXPECTATION.</H4>
+<P>As soon as I recover my senses I find myself lying on my bed in my cell,
+where it appears I have been lying for thirty-six hours.</P>
+<P>I am not alone. Engineer Serko is near me. He has attended to me himself, not
+because he regards me as a friend, I surmise, but as a man from whom
+indispensable explanations are awaited, and who afterwards can be done away with
+if necessary.</P>
+<P>I am still so weak that I could not walk a step. A little more and I should
+have been asphyxiated in that narrow compartment of the <I>Sword</I> at the
+bottom of the lagoon.</P>
+<P>Am I in condition to reply to the questions that Engineer Serko is dying to
+put to me? Yes—but I shall maintain the utmost reserve.</P>
+<P>In the first place I wonder what has become of Lieutenant Davon and the crew
+of the <I>Sword</I>. Did those brave Englishmen perish in the collision? Are
+they safe and sound like us—for I suppose that Thomas Roch has also
+survived?</P>
+<P>The first question that Engineer Serko puts to me is this:</P>
+<P>“Will you explain to me what happened, Mr. Hart?�</P>
+<P>Instead of replying it occurs to me to question him myself.</P>
+<P>“And Thomas Roch?� I inquire.</P>
+<P>“In good health, Mr. Hart.� Then he adds in an imperious tone: “Tell me what
+occurred!�</P>
+<P>“In the first place, tell me what became of the others.�</P>
+<P>“What others?� replies Serko, glancing at me savagely.</P>
+<P>“Why, those men who threw themselves upon Thomas Roch and me, who gagged,
+bound, and carried us off and shut us up, I know not where?�</P>
+<P>On reflection I had come to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to
+pretend that I had been surprised before I knew where I was or who my aggressors
+were.</P>
+<P>“You will know what became of them later. But first, tell me how, the thing
+was done.�</P>
+<P>By the threatening tone of his voice, as he for the third time puts this
+question, I understand the nature of the suspicions entertained of me. Yet to be
+in the position to accuse me of having had relations with the outside he would
+have had to get possession of my keg. This he could not have done, seeing that
+it is in the hands of the Bermudan authorities. The pirates cannot, I am
+convinced, have a single proof to back up their suspicions.</P>
+<P>I therefore recount how about eight o’clock on the previous evening I was
+walking along the edge of the lagoon, after Thomas Roch had passed me, going
+towards his laboratory, when I felt myself seized from behind; how having been
+gagged, bound, and blindfolded, I felt myself carried off and lowered into a
+hole with another person whom I thought I recognized from his groans as Thomas
+Roch; how I soon felt that I was on board a boat of some description and
+naturally concluded that it was the tug; how I felt it sink; how I felt a shock
+that threw me violently against the side, and how I felt myself suffocating and
+lost consciousness, since I remember nothing further.</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko listens with profound attention, a stern look in his eyes and
+a frown on his brow; and yet he can have no reason that authorizes him to doubt
+my word.</P>
+<P>“You claim that three men threw themselves upon you?� he asks.</P>
+<P>“Yes. I thought they were some of your people, for I did not see them coming.
+Who were they?�</P>
+<P>“Strangers, as you must have known from their language.�</P>
+<P>“They did not utter a word!�</P>
+<P>“Have you no idea as to their nationality?�</P>
+<P>“Not the remotest.�</P>
+<P>Do you know what were their intentions in entering the cavern?�</P>
+<P>“I do not.�</P>
+<P>“What is your opinion about it?�</P>
+<P>“My opinion, Mr. Serko? I repeat I thought they were two or three of your
+pirates who had come to throw me into the lagoon by the Count d’Artigas’ orders,
+and that they were going to do the same thing to Thomas Roch. I supposed that
+having obtained his secrets—as you informed me was the case—you had no further
+use for him and were about to get rid of us both.�</P>
+<P>“Is it possible, Mr. Hart, that you could have thought such a thing!�
+continued Serko in his sarcastic way.</P>
+<P>“I did, until having been able to remove the bandage from my eyes, I
+perceived that I was in the tug.�</P>
+<P>“It was not the tug, but a boat of the same kind that had got through the
+tunnel.�</P>
+<P>“A submarine boat?� I ejaculate.</P>
+<P>“Yes, and manned by persons whose mission was to kidnap you and Thomas
+Roch.�</P>
+<P>“Kidnap us?� I echo, continuing to feign surprise.</P>
+<P>“And,� adds Engineer Serko, “I want to know what you think about the
+matter.�</P>
+<P>“What I think about it? Well, it appears to me that there is only one
+plausible explanation possible. If the secret of your retreat has not been
+betrayed—and I cannot conceive how you could have been betrayed or what
+imprudence you or yours could have committed—my opinion is that this submarine
+boat was exploring the bottom of the sea in this neighborhood, that she must
+have found her way into the tunnel, that she rose to the surface of the lagoon,
+that her crew, greatly surprised to find themselves inside an inhabited cavern,
+seized hold of the first persons they came across, Thomas Roch and myself, and
+others as well perhaps, for of course I do not know——�</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko has become serious again. Does he realize the inanity of the
+hypothesis I try to pass off on him? Does he think I know more than I will say?
+However this may be, he accepts my professed view, and says:</P>
+<P>“In effect, Mr. Hart, it must have happened as you suggest, and when the
+stranger tried to make her way out through the tunnel just as the tug was
+entering, there was a collision—a collision of which she was the victim. But we
+are not the kind of people to allow our fellow-men to perish before our eyes.
+Moreover, the disappearance of Thomas Roch and yourself was almost immediately
+discovered. Two such valuable lives had to be saved at all hazards. We set to
+work. There are many expert divers among our men. They hastily donned their
+suits and descended to the bottom of the lagoon. They passed lines around the
+hull of the <I>Sword</I>——�</P>
+<P>“The <I>Sword</I>?� I exclaim.</P>
+<P>“That is the name we saw painted on the bow of the vessel when we raised her
+to the surface. What satisfaction we experienced when we recovered
+you—unconscious, it is true, but still breathing—and were able to bring you back
+to life! Unfortunately all our attentions to the officer who commanded the
+<I>Sword</I>, and to his crew were useless. The shock had torn open the after
+and middle compartments, and they paid with their lives the misfortune—due to
+chance, as you observe—of having discovered our mysterious retreat.�</P>
+<P>On learning that Lieutenant Davon and his companions are dead, my heart is
+filled with anguish; but to keep up my role—as they were persons with whom,
+presumably, I was not acquainted, and had never seen—I am careful not to display
+any emotion. I must, on no account, afford ground for the suspicion that there
+was any connivance between the commander of the <I>Sword</I> and me. For aught I
+know, Engineer Serko may have reason to be very skeptical about the discovery of
+the tunnel being accidental.</P>
+<P>What, however, I am most concerned about is that the unlooked-for occasion to
+recover my liberty was lost. Shall I ever be afforded another chance? However
+this may be, my notice reached the English authorities of the archipelago, and
+they now know where Ker Karraje is to be found. When it is seen that the
+<I>Sword</I> does not return to Bermuda, there can be no doubt that another
+attempt will be made to get inside Back Cup, in which, had it not been for the
+inopportune return of the tug, I should no longer be a prisoner.</P>
+<P>I have resumed my usual existence, and having allayed all mistrust, am
+permitted to wander freely about the cavern, as usual.</P>
+<P>It is patent that the adventure has had no ill effect upon Thomas Roch.
+Intelligent nursing brought him around, as it did me. In full possession of his
+mental faculties he has returned to work, and spends the entire day in his
+laboratory.</P>
+<P>The <I>Ebba</I> brought back from her last trip bales, boxes, and a quantity
+of objects of varied origin, and I conclude that a number of ships must have
+been pillaged during this marauding expedition.</P>
+<P>The work on the trestles for Roch’s engine goes steadily forward, and there
+are now no fewer than fifty engines. If Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko are under
+the necessity of defending Back Cup, three or four will be sufficient to render
+the island unapproachable, as they will cover a zone which no vessel could enter
+without being blown to pieces. And it occurs to me that they intend to put Back
+Cup in a state of defence after having argued as follows:</P>
+<P>“If the appearance of the <I>Sword</I> in the lagoon was due to chance the
+situation remains unchanged, and no power, not even England, will think of
+seeking for the <I>Sword</I> inside the cavern. If, on the other hand, as the
+result of an incomprehensible revelation, it has been learned that Back Cup is
+become the retreat of Ker Karraje, if the expedition of the <I>Sword</I> was a
+first effort against the island, another of a different kind—either a
+bombardment from a distance, or an attack by a landing party—is to be expected.
+Therefore, ere we can quit Back Cup and carry away our plunder, we shall have to
+defend ourselves by means of Roch’s fulgurator.�</P>
+<P>In my opinion the rascals must have gone on to reason still further in this
+wise:</P>
+<P>“Is there any connection between the disclosure of our secret—if it was, and
+however it may have been made—and the double abduction from Healthful House? Is
+it known that Thomas Roch and his keeper are confined in Back Cup? Is it known
+that the abduction was effected in the interest of Ker Karraje? Have Americans,
+English, French, Germans, and Russians reason to fear that an attack in force
+against the island would be doomed to failure?�</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje must know very well that these powers would not hesitate to
+attack him, however great the danger might be. The destruction of his lair is an
+urgent duty in the interest of public security and of humanity. After sweeping
+the West Pacific the pirate and his companions are infesting the West Atlantic,
+and must be wiped out at all costs.</P>
+<P>In any case, it is imperative that the inhabitants of Back Cup should be on
+their guard. This fact is realized, and, from the day on which the <I>Sword</I>
+was destroyed, strict watch has been kept. Thanks to the new passage, they are
+able to hide among the rocks without having recourse to the submarine tunnel to
+get there, and day and night a dozen sentries are posted about the island. The
+moment a ship appears in sight the fact is at once made known inside the
+cavern.</P>
+<P>Nothing occurs for some days, and the latter succeed each other with dreadful
+monotony. The pirates, however, feel that Back Cup no longer enjoys its former
+security. Every moment an alarm from the sentries posted outside is expected.
+The situation is no longer the same since the advent of the <I>Sword</I>.
+Gallant Lieutenant Davon, gallant crew, may England, may the civilized nations,
+never forget that you have sacrificed your lives in the cause of humanity!</P>
+<P>It is evident that now, however powerful may be their means of defence, even
+more powerful than a network of torpedoes, Engineer Serko and Captain Spade are
+filled with an anxiety that they vainly essay to dissemble. They hold frequent
+conferences together. Maybe they discuss the advisability of quitting Back Cup
+with their wealth, for they are aware that if the existence of the cavern is
+known means will be found to reduce it, even if the inmates have to be starved
+out.</P>
+<P>This is, of course, mere conjecture on my part. What is essential to me is
+that they do not suspect me of having launched the keg that was so
+providentially picked up at Bermuda. Never, I must say, has Engineer Serko ever
+made any allusion to any such probability. No, I am not even suspected. If the
+contrary were the case I am sufficiently acquainted with Ker Karraje to know
+that he would long ago have sent me to rejoin Lieutenant Davon and the
+<I>Sword</I> at the bottom of the lagoon.</P>
+<P>The winter tempests have set in with a vengeance. The wind howls though the
+hole in the roof, and rude gusts sweep through the forest of pillars producing
+sonorous sounds, so sonorous, so deep, that one might sometimes almost fancy
+they were produced by the firing of the guns of a squadron. Flocks of seabirds
+take refuge in the cavern from the gale, and at intervals, when it lulls, almost
+deafen us with their screaming.</P>
+<P>It is to be presumed that in such weather the schooner will make no attempt
+to put to sea, for the stock of provisions is ample enough to last all the
+season. Moreover, I imagine the Count d’Artigas will not be so eager in future
+to show his <I>Ebba</I> along the American coast, where he risks being received,
+not, as hitherto, with the consideration due to a wealthy yachtsman, but in the
+manner Ker Karraje so richly merits.</P>
+<P>It occurs to me that if the apparition of the <I>Sword</I> was the
+commencement of a campaign against the island, a question of great moment
+relative to the future of Back Cup arises.</P>
+<P>Therefore, one day, prudently, so as not to excite any suspicion, I ventured
+to pump Engineer Serko about it.</P>
+<P>We were in the neighborhood of Thomas Roch’s laboratory, and had been
+conversing for some time, when Engineer Serko touched upon the extraordinary
+apparition of an English submarine boat in the lagoon. On this occasion he
+seemed to incline to the view that it might have been a premeditated expedition
+against Ker Karraje.</P>
+<P>“That is not my opinion,� I replied, in order to bring him to the question
+that I wanted to put to him.</P>
+<P>“Why?� he demanded.</P>
+<P>“Because if your retreat were known a fresh attempt, if not to penetrate to
+the cavern, at least to destroy Back Cup, would ere this have been made.�</P>
+<P>“Destroy it!� cried Serko. “It would be a dangerous undertaking, in view of
+the means of defence of which we now dispose.�</P>
+<P>“They can know nothing about this matter, Mr. Serko. It is not imagined,
+either in the new world or the old, that the abduction from Healthful House was
+effected for your especial benefit, or that you have succeeded in coming to
+terms with Thomas Roch for his invention.�</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko made no response to this observation, which, for that matter,
+was unanswerable.</P>
+<P>I continued:</P>
+<P>“Therefore a squadron sent by the maritime powers who have an interest in
+breaking up this island would not hesitate to approach and shell it. Now, I
+argue from this that as this squadron has not yet appeared, it is not likely to
+come at all, and that nothing is known as to Ker Karraje’s whereabouts, and you
+must admit that this hypothesis is the most cheerful one, as far as you are
+concerned.�</P>
+<P>“That may be,� Engineer Serko replied, “but what is, is. Whether they are
+aware of the fact or no, if warships approach within five or six miles of this
+island they will be sunk before they have had time to fire a single shot!�</P>
+<P>“Well, and what then?�</P>
+<P>“What then? Why the probability is that no others would care to repeat the
+experiment.�</P>
+<P>“That, again, may be. But these warships would invest you beyond the
+dangerous zone, and the <I>Ebba</I> would not be able to put in to the ports she
+previously visited with the Count d’Artigas. In this event, how would you be
+able to provision the island?�</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko remained silent.</P>
+<P>This argument, which he must already have brooded over, was too logical to be
+refuted or dismissed, and I have an idea that the pirates contemplate abandoning
+Back Cup.</P>
+<P>Nevertheless, not relishing being cornered, he continued:</P>
+<P>“We should still have the tug, and what the <I>Ebba</I> could not do, this
+would.�</P>
+<P>“The tug?� I cried. “But if Ker Karraje’s secrets are known, do you suppose
+the powers are not also aware of the existence of the Count d’Artigas’ submarine
+boat?�</P>
+<P>Engineer Serko looked at me suspiciously.</P>
+<P>“Mr. Hart,� he said, “you appear to me to carry your deductions rather
+far.�</P>
+<P>“I, Mr. Serko?�</P>
+<P>“Yes, and I think you talk about all this like a man who knows more than he
+ought to.�</P>
+<P>This remark brought me up abruptly. It was evident that my arguments might
+give rise to the suspicion that I was not altogether irresponsible for the
+recent incident. Engineer Serko scrutinized me sharply as though he would read
+my innermost thoughts.</P>
+<P>“Mr. Serko,� I observed, “by profession, as well as by inclination, I am
+accustomed to reason upon everything. This is why I communicated to you the
+result of my reasoning, which you can take into consideration or not, as you
+like.�</P>
+<P>Thereupon we separate. But I fancy my lack of reserve may have excited
+suspicions which may not be easy to allay.</P>
+<P>From this interview, however, I gleaned a precious bit of information,
+namely, that the dangerous zone of Roch’s fulgurator is between five and six
+miles off. Perhaps, during the next equinoctial tides, another notice to this
+effect in another keg may also reach a safe destination.</P>
+<P>But how many weary months to wait before the orifice of the tunnel will again
+be uncovered!</P>
+<P>The rough weather continues, and the squalls are more violent than ever. Is
+it the state of the sea that delays another campaign against Back Cup?
+Lieutenant Davon certainly assured me that if his expedition failed, if the
+<I>Sword</I> did not return to St. George, another attempt under different
+conditions would be made with a view to breaking up this bandits’ lair. Sooner
+or later the work of justice must be done, and Back Cup be destroyed, even
+though I may not survive its destruction.</P>
+<P>Ah! why can I not go and breathe, if only for a single instant, the vivifying
+air outside? Why am I not permitted to cast one glance over the ocean towards
+the distant horizon of the Bermudas? My whole life is concentrated in one
+desire: to get through the tunnel in the wall and hide myself among the rocks.
+Perchance I might be the first to catch sight of the smoke of a squadron heading
+for the island.</P>
+<P>This project, alas! is unrealizable, as sentries are posted day and night at
+each extremity of the passage. No one can enter it without Engineer Serko’s
+authorization. Were I to attempt it, I should risk being deprived of my liberty
+to walk about the cavern, and even worse might happen to me.</P>
+<P>Since our last conversation, Engineer Serko’s attitude towards me has
+undergone a change. His gaze has lost its old-time sarcasm and is distrustful,
+suspicious, searching and as stern as Ker Karraje’s.</P>
+<P><I>November 17</I>.—This afternoon there was a great commotion in the
+Beehive, and the men rushed out of their cells with loud cries.</P>
+<P>I was reclining on my bed, but immediately rose and hurried out.</P>
+<P>All the pirates were making for the passage, in front of which were Ker
+Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, Boatswain Effrondat, Engine-driver
+Gibson and the Count d’Artigas’ big Malay attendant.</P>
+<P>I soon learn the reason for the tumult, for the sentries rush in with shouts
+of alarm.</P>
+<P>Several vessels have been sighted to the northwest—warships steaming at full
+speed in the direction of Back Cup.</P>
+
+<a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XVI.</H4>
+<H4>ONLY A FEW MORE HOURS.</H4>
+<P>What effect this news has upon me, and what emotion it awakens within my
+soul! The end, I feel, is at hand. May it be such as civilization and humanity
+are entitled to.</P>
+<P>Up to the present I have indited my notes day by day. Henceforward it is
+imperative that I should inscribe them hour by hour, minute by minute. Who knows
+but what Thomas Roch’s last secret may be revealed to me and that I shall have
+time to commit it to paper! Should I die during the attack God grant that the
+account of the five months I have passed in Back Cup may be found upon my
+body!</P>
+<P>At first Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, and several of their
+companions took up position on the exterior base of the island. What would I not
+give to be able follow to them, and in the friendly shelter of a rook watch the
+on-coming warships!</P>
+<P>An hour later they return after having left a score of men to keep watch. As
+the days at this season of the year are very short there is nothing to fear
+before the morrow. It is not likely that the ships will attempt a night attack
+and land a storming party, for they must imagine that the place is in a thorough
+condition of defence.</P>
+<P>All night long the pirates work, installing the trestles at different points
+of the coast. Six have been taken through the passage to places selected in
+advance.</P>
+<P>This done, Engineer Serko joins Thomas Roch in his laboratory. Is he going to
+tell him what is passing, that a squadron is in view of Back Cup, and that his
+fulgurator will be employed to defend the island?</P>
+<P>What is certain is that half a hundred engines, each charged with several
+pounds of the explosive and of the substance that ensures a trajectory superior
+to that of any other projectile, are ready for their work of destruction.</P>
+<P>As to the deflagrator liquid, Thomas Roch has a certain number of phials of
+it, and—I know only too well—will not refuse to help Ker Karraje’s pirates with
+it.</P>
+<P>During these preparations night has come on. Only the lamps of the Beehive
+are lighted and a semi-obscurity reigns in the cavern.</P>
+<P>I return to my cell. It is to my interest to keep out of the way as much as
+possible, for Engineer Serko’s suspicions might be revived now that the squadron
+is approaching Back Cup.</P>
+<P>But will the vessels sighted continue on their course in this direction? May
+they not be merely passing on their way to Bermuda? For an instant this doubt
+enters my mind. No, no, it cannot be! Besides, I have just heard Captain Spade
+declare that they are lying to in view of the island.</P>
+<P>To what nation do they belong? Have the English, desirous of avenging the
+destruction of the <I>Sword</I>, alone undertaken the expedition? May not
+cruisers of other nations be with them? I know not, and it is impossible to
+ascertain. And what does it matter, after all, so long as this haunt is
+destroyed, even though I should perish in the ruins like the heroic Lieutenant
+Davon and his brave crew?</P>
+<P>Preparations for defence continue with coolness and method under Engineer
+Serko’s superintendence. These pirates are obviously certain that they will be
+able to annihilate their assailants as soon as the latter enter the dangerous
+zone. Their confidence in Roch’s fulgurator is absolute. Absorbed by the idea
+that these warship are powerless against them, they think neither of the
+difficulties nor menaces held out by the future.</P>
+<P>I surmise that the trestles have been set up on the northwest coast with the
+grooves turned to send the engines to the north, west, and south. On the east,
+as already stated, the island is defended by the chain of reefs that stretches
+away to the Bermudas.</P>
+<P>About nine o’clock I venture out of my cell. They will pay little attention
+to me, and perhaps I may escape notice in the obscurity. Ah! if I could get
+through that passage and hide behind some rock, so that I could witness what
+goes on at daybreak! And why should I not succeed now that Ker Karraje, Engineer
+Serko, Captain Spade, and the pirates have taken their posts outside?</P>
+<P>The shores of the lake are deserted, but the entrance to the passage is kept
+by Count d’Artigas’ Malay. I saunter, without any fixed idea, towards Thomas
+Roch’s laboratory. This reminds me of my compatriot. I am, on reflection,
+disposed to think that he knows nothing about the presence of a squadron off
+Back Cup. Probably not until the last moment will Engineer Serko apprise him of
+its proximity, not till he brusquely points out to him the vengeance he can
+accomplish.</P>
+<P>Then I conceive the idea of enlightening Thomas Roch, myself, of the
+responsibility he is incurring and of revealing to him in this supreme hour the
+character of the men who want him to co-operate in their criminal projects.</P>
+<P>Yes, I will, attempt it, and may I succeed in fanning into a flame any spark
+of patriotism that may still linger in his rebellious soul!</P>
+<P>Roch is shut up in his laboratory. He must be alone, for never does he allow
+any one to enter while he is preparing his deflagrator.</P>
+<P>As I pass the jetty I notice that the tug is moored in its accustomed place.
+Here I judge it prudent to walk behind the first row of pillars and approach the
+laboratory laterally—which will enable me to see whether anybody is with him.
+When I have gone a short distance along the sombre avenue I see a bright light
+on the opposite side of the lagoon. It is the electric light in Roch’s
+laboratory as seen through a narrow window in the front.</P>
+<P>Except in that particular spot, the southern shore of the lake is in
+darkness, whereas, in the opposite direction, the Beehive is lit up to its
+extremity at the northern wall. Through the opening in the dome, over the lake I
+can see the stars shining. The sky is clear, the tempest has abated, and the
+squalls no longer penetrate to the interior of Back Cup.</P>
+<P>When near the laboratory, I creep along the wall and peep in at the
+window.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch is there alone. The light shines full on his face. If it is
+somewhat drawn, and the lines on the forehead are more pronounced, his
+physiognomy, at least, denotes perfect calmness and self-possession. No, he is
+no longer the inmate of Pavilion No. 17, the madman of Healthful House, and I
+ask myself whether he is not radically cured, whether there is no further danger
+of his reason collapsing in a final paroxysm.</P>
+<P>He has just laid two glass phials upon the table, and holds a third in his
+hand. He holds it up to the light, and observes the limpidity of the liquid it
+contains.</P>
+<P>I have half a mind to rush in, seize the tubes and smash them, but I reflect
+that he would have time to make some more of the stuff. Better stick to my first
+plan.</P>
+<P>I push the door open and enter.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch!� I exclaim.</P>
+<P>He has not heard, nor has he seen me.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch!� I repeat.</P>
+<P>He raises his head, turns and gazes at me.</P>
+<P>“Ah! it is you, Simon Hart!� he replies calmly, even indifferently.</P>
+<P>He knows my name. Engineer Serko must have informed him that it was Simon
+Hart, and not Keeper Gaydon who was watching over him at Healthful House.</P>
+<P>“You know who I am?� I say.</P>
+<P>“Yes, as I know what your object was in undertaking such a position. You
+lived in hopes of surprising a secret that they would not pay for at its just
+value!�</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch knows everything, and perhaps it is just as well, in view of what
+I am going to say.</P>
+<P>“Well, you did not succeed, Simon Hart, and as far as this is concerned,� he
+added, flourishing the phial, “no one else has succeeded, or ever will
+succeed.�</P>
+<P>As I conjectured, he has not, then, made known the composition of his
+deflagrator.</P>
+<P>Looking him straight in the face, I reply:</P>
+<P>“You know who I am, Thomas Roch, but do you know in whose place you are?�</P>
+<P>“In my own place!� he cries.</P>
+<P>That is what Ker Karraje has permitted him to believe. The inventor thinks he
+is at home in Back Cup, that the riches accumulated in this cavern are his, and
+that if an attack is made upon the place, it will be with the object of stealing
+what belongs to him! And he will defend it under the impression that he has the
+right to do so!</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch,� I continue, “listen to me.�</P>
+<P>“What do you want to say to me, Simon Hart?�</P>
+<P>“This cavern into which we have been dragged, is occupied by a band of
+pirates, and—�</P>
+<P>Roch does not give me time to complete the sentence—I doubt even whether he
+has understood me.</P>
+<P>“I repeat,� he interrupts vehemently, “that the treasures stored here are the
+price of my invention. They have paid me what I asked for my fulgurator—what I
+was everywhere else refused—even in my own country—which is also yours—and I
+will not allow myself to be despoiled!�</P>
+<P>What can I reply to such insensate assertions? I, however, go on:</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch, do you remember Healthful House?�</P>
+<P>“Healthful House, where I was sequestrated after Warder Gaydon had been
+entrusted with the mission of spying upon me in order to rob me of my secret? I
+do, indeed.�</P>
+<P>“I never dreamed of depriving you of the benefit of your secret, Thomas Roch.
+I would never have accepted such a mission. But you were ill, your reason was
+affected, and your invention was too valuable to be lost. Yes, had you disclosed
+the secret during one of your fits you would have preserved all the benefit and
+all the honor of it.�</P>
+<P>“Really, Simon Hart!� Roch replies disdainfully. “Honor and benefit! Your
+assurances come somewhat late in the day. You forget that on the pretext of
+insanity, I was thrown into a dungeon. Yes, it was a pretext; for my reason has
+never left me, even for an hour, as you can see from what I have accomplished
+since I am free.�</P>
+<P>“Free! Do you imagine you are free, Thomas Roch? Are you not more closely
+confined within the walls of this cavern than you ever were at Healthful
+House?�</P>
+<P>“A man who is in his own home,� he replies angrily, “goes out as he likes and
+when he likes. I have only to say the word and all the doors will open before
+me. This place is mine. Count d’Artigas gave it to me with everything it
+contains. Woe to those who attempt to attack it. I have here the wherewithal to
+annihilate them, Simon Hart!� The inventor waves the phial feverishly as he
+speaks.�</P>
+<P>“The Count d’Artigas has deceived you,� I cry, “as he has deceived so many
+others. Under this name is dissembled one of the most formidable monsters who
+ever scoured the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. He is a bandit steeped in crime—he
+is the odious Ker Karraje!�</P>
+<P>“Ker Karraje!� echoes Thomas Roch.</P>
+<P>And I wonder if this name has not impressed him, if he remembers who the man
+is who bears it. If it did impress him, it was only momentarily.</P>
+<P>“I do not know this Ker Karraje,� he says, pointing towards the door to order
+me out. “I only know the Count d’Artigas.�</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch,� I persist, in a final effort, “the Count d’Artigas and Ker
+Karraje are one and the same person. If this man has purchased your secret, it
+is with the intention of ensuring impunity for his crimes and facilities for
+committing fresh ones. He is the chief of these pirates.�</P>
+<P>“Pirates!� cries Roch, whose irritation increases the more I press him. “The
+real pirates are those who dare to menace me even in this retreat, who tried it
+on with the <I>Sword</I>—for Serko has told me everything—who sought to steal in
+my own home what belongs to me, what is but the just price of my discovery.�</P>
+<P>“No, Thomas Roch, the pirates are those who have imprisoned you in this
+cavern of Back Cup, who will utilize your genius to defend it, and who will get
+rid of you when they are in entire possession of your secrets!�</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch here interrupts me. He does not appear to listen to what I say.
+He has a fixed idea, that of vengeance, which has been skilfully worked upon by
+Engineer Serko, and in which his hatred is concentrated to the exclusion of
+everything else.</P>
+<P>“The bandits,� he hisses, “are those who spurned me without a hearing, who
+heaped injustice and ignominy upon me, who drove me from country to country,
+whereas I offered them superiority, invincibleness, omnipotence!�</P>
+<P>It is the eternal story of the unappreciated inventor, to whom the
+indifferent or envious refuse the means of testing his inventions, to pay him
+the value he sets upon them. I know it well—and also know all the exaggeration
+that has been written upon this subject.</P>
+<P>It is clearly no time for reasoning with Thomas Roch. My arguments are
+entirely lost upon the hapless dupe of Ker Karraje and his accomplices. In
+revealing to him the real name of the Count d’Artigas, and denouncing to him
+this band and their chief I had hoped to wean him from their influence and make
+him realize the criminal end they have in view. My hope was vain. He does not
+believe me. And then what does he care whether the brigand’s name is Count
+‘d’Artigas or Ker Karraje? Is not he, Thomas Roch, master of Back Cup? Is he not
+the owner of these riches accumulated by twenty years of murder and rapine?</P>
+<P>Disarmed before such moral degeneracy, knowing not how I can touch his
+ulcerated, irresponsible heart, I turn towards the door. It only remains for me
+to withdraw. What is to be, will be, since it is out of my power to prevent the
+frightful <I>dénouement</I> that will occur in a few hours.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch takes no more notice of me. He seems to have forgotten that I am
+here. He has resumed his manipulations without realizing that he is not
+alone.</P>
+<P>There is only one means of preventing the imminent catastrophe. Throw myself
+upon Roch, place him beyond the power of doing harm—strike him—kill him—yes,
+kill him! It is my right—it is my duty!</P>
+<P>I have no arms, but on a near-by shelf I see some tools—a chisel and a
+hammer. What is to prevent me from knocking his brains out? Once he is dead I
+have but to smash the phials and his invention dies with him. The warships can
+approach, land their men upon the island, demolish Back Cup with their shells.
+Ker Karraje and his band will be killed to a man. Can I hesitate at a murder
+that will bring about the chastisement of so many crimes?</P>
+<P>I advance to the shelf and stretch forth my hand to seize the chisel.</P>
+<P>As I do so, Thomas Roch turns round.</P>
+<P>It is too late to strike. A struggle would ensue. The noise and his cries
+would be heard, for there are still some pirates not far off, I can even now
+hear some one approaching, and have only just time to fly if I would not be
+seen.</P>
+<P>Nevertheless, I make one last attempt to awaken the sentiment of patriotism
+within him.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch,� I say, “warships are in sight. They have come to destroy this
+lair. Maybe one of them flies the French flag!�</P>
+<P>He gazes at me. He was not aware that Back Cup is going to be attacked, and I
+have just apprised him of the fact. His brow darkens and his eyes flash.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch, would you dare to fire upon your country’s flag—the tricolor
+flag?�</P>
+<P>He raises his head, shakes it nervously, and with a disdainful gesture:</P>
+<P>“What do you mean by ‘your country?’ I no longer have any country, Simon
+Hart. The inventor spurned no longer has a country. Where he finds an asylum,
+there is his fatherland! They seek to take what is mine. I will defend it, and
+woe, woe to those who dare to attack me!�</P>
+<P>Then rushing to the door of the laboratory and throwing it violently open he
+shouts so loudly that he must be heard at the Beehive:</P>
+<P>“Go! Get you gone!�</P>
+<P>I have not a second to lose, and I dash out.</P>
+
+<a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XVII.</H4>
+<H4>ONE AGAINST FIVE.</H4>
+<P>For a whole hour I wander about among Back Cup’s dark vaults, amid the stone
+trees, to the extreme limit of the cavern. It is here that I have so often
+sought an issue, a crevice, a crack through which I might squeeze to the shore
+of the island.</P>
+<P>My search has been futile. In my present condition, a prey to indefinable
+hallucinations it seems to me that these walls are thicker than ever, that they
+are gradually closing in upon and will crush me.</P>
+<P>How long this mental trouble lasts I cannot say. But I afterwards find myself
+on the Beehive side, opposite the cell in which I cannot hope for either repose
+or sleep. Sleep, when my brain is in a whirl of excitement? Sleep, when I am
+near the end of a situation that threatened to be prolonged for years and
+years?</P>
+<P>What will the end be as far as I am personally concerned? What am I to expect
+from the attack upon Back Cup, the success of which I have been unable to assure
+by placing Thomas Roch beyond the possibility of doing harm? His engines are
+ready to be launched, and as soon as the vessels have reached the dangerous zone
+they will be blown to atoms.</P>
+<P>However this may be, I am condemned to pass the remaining hours of the night
+in my cell. The time has come for me to go in. At daybreak I shall see what is
+best for me to do. Meanwhile, for aught I know I may hear the thunder of Roch’s
+fulgurator as it destroys the ships approaching to make a night attack.</P>
+<P>I take a last look round. On the opposite side a light, a single light, is
+burning. It is the lamp in Roch’s laboratory and it casts its reflection upon
+the waters of the lake.</P>
+<P>No one is about, and it occurs to me that the pirates must have taken up
+their lighting positions outside and that the Beehive is empty.</P>
+<P>Then, impelled by an irresistible instinct, instead of returning to my cell,
+I creep along the wall, listening, spying, ready to hide if I hear voices or
+footsteps.</P>
+<P>I at length reach the passage.</P>
+<P>God in heaven! No one is on guard there—the passage is free!</P>
+<P>Without giving myself time to reflect I dart into the dark hole, and grope my
+way along it. Soon I feel a fresher air—the salt, vivifying air of the sea, that
+I have not breathed for five months. I inspire it with avidity, with all the
+power of my lungs.</P>
+<P>The outer extremity of the passage appears against the star-studded sky.
+There is not even a shadow in the way. Perhaps I shall be able to get
+outside.</P>
+<P>I lay down, and crawl along noiselessly to the orifice and peer out.</P>
+<P>Not a soul is in sight!</P>
+<P>By skirting the rocks towards the east, to the side which cannot be
+approached from the sea on account of the reefs and which is not likely to be
+watched, I reach a narrow excavation about two hundred and twenty-five yards
+from where the point of the coast extends towards the northwest.</P>
+<P>At last I am out of the cavern. I am not free, but it is the beginning of
+freedom.</P>
+<P>On the point the forms of a few sentries stand out against the clear sky, so
+motionless that they might be mistaken for pieces of the rock.</P>
+<P>On the horizon to the west the position lights of the warship show in a
+luminous line.</P>
+<P>From a few gray patches discernable in the east, I calculate that it must be
+about five o’clock in the morning.</P>
+<P><I>November 18</I>.—It is now light enough for me to be able to complete my
+notes relating the details of my visit to Thomas Roch’s laboratory—the last
+lines my hand will trace, perhaps.</P>
+<P>I have begun to write, and shall dot down the incidents of the attack as they
+occur.</P>
+<P>The light damp mist that hangs over the water soon lifts under the influence
+of the breeze, and at last I can distinguish the warships.</P>
+<P>There are five of them, and they are lying in a line about six miles off, and
+consequently beyond the range of Roch’s engines.</P>
+<P>My fear that after passing in sight of the Bermudas the squadron would
+continue on its way to the Antilles or Mexico was therefore unfounded. No, there
+it is, awaiting broad daylight in order to attack Back Cup.</P>
+<P>There is a movement on the coast. Three or four pirates emerge from the
+rocks, the sentries are recalled and draw in, and the entire band is soon
+assembled. They do not seek shelter inside the cavern, knowing full well that
+the ships can never get near enough for the shells of the big guns to reach, the
+island.</P>
+<P>I run no risk of being discovered, for only my head protrudes above the hole
+in the rock and no one is likely to come this way. The only thing that worries
+me is that Serko, or somebody else may take it into his head to see if I am in
+my cell, and if necessary to lock me in, though what they have to fear from me I
+cannot conceive.</P>
+<P>At twenty-five minutes past seven: Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko and Captain
+Spade advance to the extremity of the point, where they sweep the north-western
+horizon with their telescopes. Behind them the six trestles are installed, in
+the grooves of which are Roch’s autopropulsive engines.</P>
+<P>Thirty-five minutes past seven: Smoke arises from the stacks of the warships,
+which are getting under way and will soon be within range of the engines.</P>
+<P>Horrible cries of joy, salvos of hurrahs—howls of wild beasts I might more
+appropriately say—arise from the pirate horde.</P>
+<P>At this moment Engineer Serko quits Ker Karraje, whom he leaves with Captain
+Spade, and enters the cavern, no doubt to fetch Thomas Roch.</P>
+<P>When Ker Karraje orders the latter to launch his engines against the ships
+will he remember what I told him? Will not his crime appear to him in all its
+horror? Will he refuse to obey? No, I am only too convinced of the contrary. It
+is useless to entertain any illusion on the subject. The inventor believes he is
+on his own property. They are going to attack it. He will defend it.</P>
+<P>The five warships slowly advance, making for the point. Perhaps they imagine
+on board that Thomas Roch has not given up his last and greatest secret to the
+pirates—and, as a matter of fact, he had not done so when I threw the keg into
+the lagoon. If the commanders propose to land storming parties and the ships
+advance into the zone of danger there will soon be nothing left of them but bits
+of shapeless floating wreckage.</P>
+<P>Here comes Thomas Roch accompanied by Engineer Serko. On issuing from the
+passage both go to the trestle that is pointing towards the leading warship.</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje and Captain Spade are awaiting them.</P>
+<P>As far as I am able to judge, Roch is calm. He knows what he is going to do.
+No hesitation troubles the soul of the hapless man whom hatred has led
+astray.</P>
+<P>Between his fingers shines the glass phial containing the deflagrator
+liquid.</P>
+<P>He then gazes towards the nearest ship, which is about five miles’
+distant.</P>
+<P>She is a cruiser of about two thousand five hundred tons—not more.</P>
+<P>She flies no flag, but from her build I take her to belong to a nation for
+which no Frenchman can entertain any particular regard.</P>
+<P>The four other warships remain behind.</P>
+<P>It is this cruiser which is to begin the attack.</P>
+<P>Let her use her guns, then, since the pirates allow her to approach, and may
+the first of her projectiles strike Thomas Roch!</P>
+<P>While Engineer Serko is estimating the distance, Roch places himself behind
+the trestle. Three engines are resting on it, charged with the explosive, and
+which are assured a long trajectory by the fusing matter without it being
+necessary to impart a gyratory movement to them—as in the case of Inventor
+Turpin’s gyroscopic projectiles. Besides, if they drop within a few hundred
+yards of the vessel, they will be quite near enough to utterly destroy it.</P>
+<P>The time has come.</P>
+<P>“Thomas Roch!� Engineer Serko cries, and points to the cruiser.</P>
+<P>The latter is steaming slowly towards the northwestern point of the island
+and is between four and five miles off.</P>
+<P>Roch nods assent, and waves them back from the trestle.</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje, Captain Spade and the others draw back about fifty paces.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch then takes the stopper from the phial which he holds in his right
+hand, and successively pours into a hole in the rear-end of each engine a few
+drops of the liquid, which mixes with the fusing matter.</P>
+<P>Forty-five seconds elapse—the time necessary for the combination to be
+effected—forty-five seconds during which it seems to me that my heart ceases to
+beat.</P>
+<P>A frightful whistling is then heard, and the three engines tear through the
+air, describing a prolonged curve at a height of three hundred feet, and pass
+the cruiser.</P>
+<P>Have they missed it? Is the danger over?</P>
+<P>No! the engines, after the manner of Artillery Captain Chapel’s discoid
+projectile, return towards the doomed vessel like an Australian boomerang.</P>
+<P>The next instant the air is shaken with a violence comparable to that which
+would be caused by the explosion of a magazine of melinite or dynamite, Back Cup
+Island trembles to its very foundations.</P>
+<P>The cruiser has disappeared,—blown to pieces. The effect is that of the
+Zalinski shell, but centupled by the infinite power of Roch’s fulgurator.</P>
+<P>What shouts the bandits raise as they rush towards the extremity of the
+point! Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade remain rooted to the spot,
+hardly able to credit the evidence of their own eyes.</P>
+<P>As to Thomas Roch, he stands with folded arms, and flashing eyes, his face
+radiant with pride and triumph.</P>
+<P>I understand, while I abhor his feelings.</P>
+<P>If the other warships approach they will share the same fate as the cruiser.
+They will inevitably be destroyed. Oh! if they would but give up the struggle
+and withdraw to safety, even though my last hope would go with them! The nations
+can consult and arrive at some other plan for destroying the island. They can
+surround the place with a belt of ships that the pirates cannot break through
+and starve them to death like so many rats in a hole.</P>
+<P>But I know that the warships will not retire, even though they know they are
+going to certain death. One after the other they will all make the attempt.</P>
+<P>And I am right. Signals are exchanged between them. Almost immediately clouds
+of black smoke arise and the vessels again advance.</P>
+<P>One of them, under forced draught, distances the others in her anxiety to
+bring her big guns quickly into action.</P>
+<P>At all risks I issue from my hole, and gaze at the on-coming warship with
+feverish eyes, awaiting, without being able to prevent it, another
+catastrophe.</P>
+<P>This vessel, which visibly grows larger as it comes nearer, is a cruiser of
+about the same tonnage as the one that preceded her. No flag is flying and I
+cannot guess her nationality. She continues steaming at full speed in an effort
+to pass the zone of danger before other engines can be launched. But how can she
+escape them since they will swoop back upon her?</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch places himself behind the second trestle as the cruiser passes on
+to the surface of the abysm in which she will in turn soon be swallowed up.</P>
+<P>No sound disturbs the stillness.</P>
+<P>Suddenly the rolling of drums and the blare of bugles is heard on board the
+warship.</P>
+<P>I know those bugle calls: they are French bugles! Great God! She is one of
+the ships of my own country’s navy and a French inventor is about to destroy
+her!</P>
+<P>No! it shall not be. I will rush towards Thomas Roch—shout to him that she is
+a French ship. He does not, cannot, know it.</P>
+<P>At a sign from Engineer Serko the inventor has raised the phial.</P>
+<P>The bugles sound louder and more strident. It is the salute to the flag. A
+flag unfurls to the breeze—the tricolor, whose blue, white and red sections
+stand out luminously against the sky.</P>
+<P>Ah! What is this? I understand! Thomas Roch is fascinated at the sight of his
+national emblem. Slowly he lowers his arm as the flag flutters up to the
+mast-head. Then he draws back and covers his eyes with his hand.</P>
+<P>Heavens above! All sentiment of patriotism is not then dead in his ulcerated
+heart, seeing that it beats at the sight of his country’s flag!</P>
+<P>My emotion is not less than his. At the risk of being seen—and what do I now
+care if I am seen?—I creep over the rocks. I will be there to sustain Thomas
+Roch and prevent him from weakening. If I pay for it with my life I will once
+more adjure him in the name of his country. I will cry to him:</P>
+<P>“Frenchman, it is the tricolor that flies on yonder ship! Frenchman, it is a
+very part of France that is approaching you! Frenchman, would you be so criminal
+as to strike it?�</P>
+<P>But my intervention will not be necessary. Thomas Roch is not a prey to one
+of the fits to which he was formerly subject. He is perfectly sane.</P>
+<P>When he found himself facing the flag he understood—and drew back.</P>
+<P>A few pirates approach to lead him to the trestle again. He struggles and
+pushes them from him.</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko run up. They point to the rapidly advancing
+ship. They order him to launch his engines.</P>
+<P>Thomas Roch refuses.</P>
+<P>Captain Spade and the others, mad with rage, menace him—curse him—strike
+him—try to wrest the phial from him.</P>
+<P>Roch throws it on the ground and crushes it under foot.</P>
+<P>Then panic seizes upon the crowd of wretches. The cruiser has passed the zone
+and they cannot return her fire. Shells begin to rain all over the island,
+bursting the rocks in every direction.</P>
+<P>But where is Thomas Roch? Has he been killed by one of the projectiles? No, I
+see him for the last time as he dashes into the passage.</P>
+<P>Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko and the others follow him to seek shelter inside
+of Back Cup.</P>
+<P>I will not return to the cavern at any price, even if I get killed by staying
+where I am.</P>
+<P>I will jot down my final notes and when the French sailors land on the point
+I will go—</P>
+<P class=center>END OF ENGINEER SIMON HART’S NOTES.</P>
+
+<a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>
+<H4>CHAPTER XVIII.</H4>
+<H4>ON BOARD THE “TONNANT.�</H4>
+<P>After the failure of Lieutenant Davon’s mission with the <I>Sword</I>, the
+English authorities waited in vain for the expedition to return, and the
+conviction at length gained ground that the bold sailors had perished; but
+whether the <I>Sword</I> had been lost by striking against a rock or had been
+destroyed by Ker Karraje’s pirates, could not, of course, be ascertained.</P>
+<P>The object of the expedition, based upon the indications of the document
+found in the keg that was thrown up on the shore at St. George, was to carry off
+Thomas Roch ere his engines were completed. The French inventor having been
+recovered—without forgetting Engineer Simon Hart—he was to be handed over to the
+care of the Bermudan authorities. That done, there would be nothing to fear from
+his fulgurator when the island was attacked.</P>
+<P>When, however, the <I>Sword</I> had been given up for lost, another
+expedition of a different kind, was decided upon.</P>
+<P>The time that had elapsed—nearly eight weeks—from the date of the document
+found in the keg, had to be taken into consideration. It was thought that during
+the interval, Ker Karraje might have gained possession of Roch’s secrets.</P>
+<P>An <I>entente</I> concluded between the maritime powers, resulted in the
+sending of five warships to Bermudan waters. As there was a vast cavern inside
+Back Cup mountain, it was decided to attempt to bring the latter down like the
+walls of a bastion, by bombarding it with powerful modern artillery.</P>
+<P>The squadron assembled at the entrance to the Chesapeake, in Virginia, and
+sailed for the archipelago, which was sighted on the evening of November 17.</P>
+<P>The next morning the vessel selected for the first attack, steamed forward.
+It was about four and a half miles from the island, when three engines, after
+passing the vessel, swerved round and exploded about sixty yards from her. She
+sank immediately.</P>
+<P>The effect of the explosion, which was superior to any previously obtained by
+new explosives, was instantaneous. Even at the distance they were from the spot
+where it occurred, the four remaining ships felt the shock severely.</P>
+<P>Two things were to be deduced from this sudden catastrophe:</P>
+<P>1.—The pirate Ker Karraje was in possession of Roch’s fulgurator.</P>
+<P>2.—The new engine possessed the destructive power attributed to it by its
+inventor.</P>
+<P>After the disappearance of the unfortunate cruiser, the other vessels lowered
+boats to pick up a few survivors who were clinging to the floating wreckage.</P>
+<P>Then it was that the signals were exchanged and the warships started towards
+the island.</P>
+<P>The swiftest of them, the <I>Tonnant</I>, a French cruiser, forged ahead
+while the others forced their draught in an effort to catch up with her.</P>
+<P>The <I>Tonnant</I>, at the risk of being blown to pieces in turn, penetrated
+the danger zone half a mile, and then ran up her flag while manoeuvring to bring
+her heavy guns into action.</P>
+<P>From the bridge the officers could see Ker Karraje’s band scattered on the
+rocks of the island.</P>
+<P>The occasion was an excellent one for getting a shot at them before the
+bombardment of their retreat was begun, and fire was opened with the result that
+the pirates made a rush to get into the cavern.</P>
+<P>A few minutes later there was a shock terrific enough to shake the sky
+down.</P>
+<P>Where the mountain had been, naught but a heap of smoking, crumbling rocks
+was to be seen. Back Cup had become a group of jagged reefs against which the
+sea, that had been thrown back like a gigantic tidal wave, was beating and
+frothing.</P>
+<P>What was the cause of the explosion?</P>
+<P>Had it been voluntarily caused by the pirates when they realized that escape
+was impossible?</P>
+<P>The <I>Tonnant</I> had not been seriously damaged by the flying rocks. Her
+boats were lowered and made towards all that was left of Back Cup.</P>
+<P>The landing parties explored the ruins, and found a few horribly mangled
+corpses. Not a vestige of the cavern was to be seen.</P>
+<P>One body, and one only, was found intact. It was lying on the northeast side
+of the reefs. In one hand, tightly clasped, was a note-book, the last line of
+which was incomplete.</P>
+<P>A close examination showed that the man was still breathing. He was conveyed
+on board the <I>Tonnant</I>, where it was learned from the note-book that he was
+Simon Hart.</P>
+<P>For some time his life was despaired of, but he was eventually brought round,
+and from the answers made to the questions addressed to him the following
+conclusion was reached:</P>
+<P>Moved to his very soul at the sight of the tricolor flag, being at last
+conscious of the crime of <I>lèse-patrie</I> he was about to commit, Thomas Roch
+rushed through the passage to the magazine where a considerable quantity of his
+explosive was stored. Then, before he could be prevented, brought about the
+terrible explosion which destroyed the island of Back Cup.</P>
+<P>And now Ker Karraje and his pirates have disappeared—and with them Thomas
+Roch and the secret of his invention.</P>
+<P class=center>THE END.</P>
+<H4>End of the Voyage Extraordinaire</H4>
+<P>&nbsp;</P>
+<PRE>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Facing the Flag, by Jules Verne
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diff --git a/old/11556.txt b/old/11556.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1980393
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/11556.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7395 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Facing the Flag, by Jules Verne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Facing the Flag
+
+Author: Jules Verne
+
+Release Date: March 13, 2004 [EBook #11556]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACING THE FLAG ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Norm Wolcott and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+                     Facing the Flag by Jules Verne
+
+[Redactor's Note: _Facing the Flag_ {number V044 in the T&M listing of
+Verne's works} is an anonymous translation of _Face au drapeau_ (1896)
+first published in the U.S. by F. Tennyson Neely in 1897, and later
+(circa 1903) republished from the same plates by Hurst and F.M. Lupton
+(Federal Book Co.). This is a different translation from the one
+published by Sampson & Low in England entitled _For the Flag_ (1897)
+translated by Mrs. Cashel Hoey.]
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+FACING THE FLAG
+
+BY
+
+J U L E S   V E R N E
+
+AUTHOR OF "AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS"; "TWENTY
+THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA"; "FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON," ETC.
+
+New York
+
+THE F. M. LUPTON PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1897
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+  CONTENTS
+
+       CHAP
+
+       I.       Healthful House
+
+
+       II.      Count d'Artigas
+
+
+       III.     Kidnapped
+
+
+       IV.      The Schooner "Ebba"
+
+
+       V.       Where am I.--(Notes by Simon Hart, the Engineer.)
+
+
+       VI.      On Deck
+
+
+       VII.     Two Days at Sea
+
+
+       VIII.    Back Cup
+
+
+       IX.      Inside Back Cup
+
+
+       X.       Ker Karraje
+
+
+       XI.      Five Weeks in Back Cup
+
+
+       XII.     Engineer Serko's Advice
+
+
+       XIII.    God Be with It
+
+
+       XIV.     Battle Between the "Sword" and the Tug
+
+
+       XV.      Expectation
+
+
+       XVI.     Only a few more Hours
+
+
+       XVII.    One against Five
+
+
+       XVIII.   On Board the "Tonnant"
+
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+FACING THE FLAG.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+HEALTHFUL HOUSE.
+
+
+The _carte de visite_ received that day, June 15, 189-, by the
+director of the establishment of Healthful House was a very neat one,
+and simply bore, without escutcheon or coronet, the name:
+
+                         COUNT D'ARTIGAS.
+
+Below this name, in a corner of the card, the following address was
+written in lead pencil:
+
+"On board the schooner _Ebba_, anchored off New-Berne, Pamlico Sound."
+
+The capital of North Carolina--one of the forty-four states of the
+Union at this epoch--is the rather important town of Raleigh, which is
+about one hundred and fifty miles in the interior of the province. It
+is owing to its central position that this city has become the seat
+of the State legislature, for there are others that equal and
+even surpass it in industrial and commercial importance, such as
+Wilmington, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Edenton, Washington, Salisbury,
+Tarborough, Halifax, and New-Berne. The latter town is situated on
+estuary of the Neuse River, which empties itself into Pamlico Sound, a
+sort of vast maritime lake protected by a natural dyke formed by the
+isles and islets of the Carolina coast.
+
+The director of Healthful House could never have imagined why the card
+should have been sent to him, had it not been accompanied by a
+note from the Count d'Artigas soliciting permission to visit the
+establishment. The personage in question hoped that the director would
+grant his request, and announced that he would present himself in the
+afternoon, accompanied by Captain Spade, commander of the schooner
+_Ebba_.
+
+This desire to penetrate to the interior of the celebrated sanitarium,
+then in great request by the wealthy invalids of the United States,
+was natural enough on the part of a foreigner. Others who did not bear
+such a high-sounding name as the Count d'Artigas had visited it, and
+had been unstinting in their compliments to the director. The latter
+therefore hastened to accord the authorization demanded, and added
+that he would be honored to open the doors of the establishment to the
+Count d'Artigas.
+
+Healthful House, which contained a select _personnel_, and was assured
+of the co-operation of the most celebrated doctors in the country, was
+a private enterprise. Independent of hospitals and almshouses, but
+subjected to the surveillance of the State, it comprised all the
+conditions of comfort and salubrity essential to establishments of
+this description designed to receive an opulent _clientele_.
+
+It would have been difficult to find a more agreeable situation than
+that of Healthful House. On the landward slope of a hill extended a
+park of two hundred acres planted with the magnificent vegetation that
+grows so luxuriantly in that part of North America, which is equal in
+latitude to the Canary and Madeira Islands. At the furthermost limit
+of the park lay the wide estuary of the Neuse, swept by the cool
+breezes of Pamlico Sound and by the winds that blew from the ocean
+beyond the narrow _lido_ of the coast.
+
+Healthful House, where rich invalids were cared for under such
+excellent hygienic conditions, was more generally reserved for the
+treatment of chronic complaints; but the management did not decline to
+admit patients affected by mental troubles, when the latter were not
+of an incurable nature.
+
+It thus happened--a circumstance that was bound to attract a good deal
+of attention to Healthful House, and which perhaps was the motive
+for the visit of the Count d'Artigas--that a person of world-wide
+notoriety had for eighteen months been under special observation
+there.
+
+This person was a Frenchman named Thomas Roch, forty-five years of
+age. He was, beyond question, suffering from some mental malady, but
+expert alienists admitted that he had not entirely lost the use of
+his reasoning faculties. It was only too evident that he had lost all
+notion of things as far as the ordinary acts of life were concerned;
+but in regard to subjects demanding the exercise of his genius, his
+sanity was unimpaired and unassailable--a fact which demonstrates how
+true is the _dictum_ that genius and madness are often closely
+allied! Otherwise his condition manifested itself by complete loss
+of memory;--the impossibility of concentrating his attention upon
+anything, lack of judgment, delirium and incoherence. He no longer
+even possessed the natural animal instinct of self-preservation, and
+had to be watched like an infant whom one never permits out of one's
+sight. Therefore a warder was detailed to keep close watch over him
+by day and by night in Pavilion No. 17, at the end of Healthful House
+Park, which had been specially set apart for him.
+
+Ordinary insanity, when it is not incurable, can only be cured by
+moral means. Medicine and therapeutics are powerless, and their
+inefficacy has long been recognized by specialists. Were these moral
+means applicable to the case of Thomas Roch? One may be permitted
+to doubt it, even amid the tranquil and salubrious surroundings of
+Healthful House. As a matter of fact the very symptoms of uneasiness,
+changes of temper, irritability, queer traits of character,
+melancholy, apathy, and a repugnance for serious occupations were
+distinctly apparent; no treatment seemed capable of curing or even
+alleviating these symptoms. This was patent to all his medical
+attendants.
+
+It has been justly remarked that madness is an excess of subjectivity;
+that is to say, a state in which the mind accords too much to mental
+labor and not enough to outward impressions. In the case of Thomas
+Roch this indifference was practically absolute. He lived but within
+himself, so to speak, a prey to a fixed idea which had brought him to
+the condition in which we find him. Could any circumstance occur
+to counteract it--to "exteriorize" him, as it were? The thing was
+improbable, but it was not impossible.
+
+It is now necessary to explain how this Frenchman came to quit France,
+what motive attracted him to the United States, why the Federal
+government had judged it prudent and necessary to intern him in this
+sanitarium, where every utterance that unconsciously escaped him
+during his crises were noted and recorded with the minutest care.
+
+Eighteen months previously the Secretary of the Navy at Washington,
+had received a demand for an audience in regard to a communication
+that Thomas Roch desired to make to him.
+
+As soon as he glanced at the name, the secretary perfectly understood
+the nature of the communication and the terms which would accompany
+it, and an immediate audience was unhesitatingly accorded.
+
+Thomas Roch's notoriety was indeed such that, out of solicitude for
+the interests confided to his keeping, and which he was bound to
+safeguard, he could not hesitate to receive the petitioner and listen
+to the proposals which the latter desired personally to submit to him.
+
+Thomas Roch was an inventor--an inventor of genius. Several important
+discoveries had brought him prominently to the notice of the
+world. Thanks to him, problems that had previously remained purely
+theoretical had received practical application. He occupied a
+conspicuous place in the front rank of the army of science. It will be
+seen how worry, deceptions, mortification, and the outrages with which
+he was overwhelmed by the cynical wits of the press combined to drive
+him to that degree of madness which necessitated his internment in
+Healthful House.
+
+His latest invention in war-engines bore the name of Roch's
+Fulgurator. This apparatus possessed, if he was to be believed, such
+superiority over all others, that the State which acquired it would
+become absolute master of earth and ocean.
+
+The deplorable difficulties inventors encounter in connection with
+their inventions are only too well known, especially when they
+endeavor to get them adopted by governmental commissions. Several of
+the most celebrated examples are still fresh in everybody's memory.
+It is useless to insist upon this point, because there are sometimes
+circumstances underlying affairs of this kind upon which it is
+difficult to obtain any light. In regard to Thomas Roch, however,
+it is only fair to say that, as in the case of the majority of his
+predecessors, his pretensions were excessive. He placed such an
+exorbitant price upon his new engine that it was practicably
+impossible to treat with him.
+
+This was due to the fact--and it should not be lost sight of--that in
+respect of previous inventions which had been most fruitful in result,
+he had been imposed upon with the greatest audacity. Being unable
+to obtain therefrom the profits which he had a right to expect, his
+temper had become soured. He became suspicious, would give up nothing
+without knowing just what he was doing, impose conditions that
+were perhaps unacceptable, wanted his mere assertions accepted as
+sufficient guarantee, and in any case asked for such a large sum of
+money on account before condescending to furnish the test of practical
+experiment that his overtures could not be entertained.
+
+In the first place he had offered the fulgurator to France, and made
+known the nature of it to the commission appointed to pass upon his
+proposition. The fulgurator was a sort of auto-propulsive engine,
+of peculiar construction, charged with an explosive composed of new
+substances and which only produced its effect under the action of a
+deflagrator that was also new.
+
+When this engine, no matter in what way it was launched, exploded, not
+on striking the object aimed at, but several hundred yards from it,
+its action upon the atmospheric strata was so terrific that any
+construction, warship or floating battery, within a zone of twelve
+thousand square yards, would be blown to atoms. This was the principle
+of the shell launched by the Zalinski pneumatic gun with which
+experiments had already been made at that epoch, but its results were
+multiplied at least a hundred-fold.
+
+If, therefore, Thomas Roch's invention possessed this power, it
+assured the offensive and defensive superiority of his native country.
+But might not the inventor be exaggerating, notwithstanding that the
+tests of other engines he had conceived had proved incontestably that
+they were all he had claimed them to be? This, experiment could alone
+show, and it was precisely here where the rub came in. Roch would
+not agree to experiment until the millions at which he valued his
+fulgurator had first been paid to him.
+
+It is certain that a sort of disequilibrium had then occurred in his
+mental faculties. It was felt that he was developing a condition of
+mind that would gradually lead to definite madness. No government
+could possibly condescend to treat with him under the conditions he
+imposed.
+
+The French commission was compelled to break off all negotiations with
+him, and the newspapers, even those of the Radical Opposition, had to
+admit that it was difficult to follow up the affair.
+
+In view of the excess of subjectivity which was unceasingly augmenting
+in the profoundly disturbed mind of Thomas Roch, no one will be
+surprised at the fact that the cord of patriotism gradually relaxed
+until it ceased to vibrate. For the honor of human nature be it said
+that Thomas Roch was by this time irresponsible for his actions. He
+preserved his whole consciousness only in so far as subjects bearing
+directly upon his invention were concerned. In this particular he had
+lost nothing of his mental power. But in all that related to the most
+ordinary details of existence his moral decrepitude increased daily
+and deprived him of complete responsibility for his acts.
+
+Thomas Roch's invention having been refused by the commission, steps
+ought to have been taken to prevent him from offering it elsewhere.
+Nothing of the kind was done, and there a great mistake was made.
+
+The inevitable was bound to happen, and it did. Under a growing
+irritability the sentiment of patriotism, which is the very essence of
+the citizen--who before belonging to himself belongs to his country--
+became extinct in the soul of the disappointed inventor. His thoughts
+turned towards other nations. He crossed the frontier, and forgetting
+the ineffaceable past, offered the fulgurator to Germany.
+
+There, as soon as his exorbitant demands were made known, the
+government refused to receive his communication. Besides, it so
+happened that the military authorities were just then absorbed by the
+construction of a new ballistic engine, and imagined they could afford
+to ignore that of the French inventor.
+
+As the result of this second rebuff Roch's anger became coupled with
+hatred--an instinctive hatred of humanity--especially after his
+_pourparlers_ with the British Admiralty came to naught. The English
+being practical people, did not at first repulse Thomas Roch. They
+sounded him and tried to get round him; but Roch would listen to
+nothing. His secret was worth millions, and these millions he would
+have, or they would not have his secret. The Admiralty at last
+declined to have anything more to do with him.
+
+It was in these conditions, when his intellectual trouble was growing
+daily worse, that he made a last effort by approaching the American
+Government. That was about eighteen months before this story opens.
+
+The Americans, being even more practical than the English, did not
+attempt to bargain for Roch's fulgurator, to which, in view of the
+French chemist's reputation, they attached exceptional importance.
+They rightly esteemed him a man of genius, and took the measures
+justified by his condition, prepared to indemnify him equitably later.
+
+As Thomas Roch gave only too visible proofs of mental alienation,
+the Administration, in the very interest of his invention, judged it
+prudent to sequestrate him.
+
+As is already known, he was not confined in a lunatic asylum, but was
+conveyed to Healthful House, which offered every guarantee for the
+proper treatment of his malady. Yet, though the most careful attention
+had been devoted to him, no improvement had manifested itself.
+
+Thomas Roch, let it be again remarked--this point cannot be too often
+insisted upon--incapable though he was of comprehending and performing
+the ordinary acts and duties of life, recovered all his powers when
+the field of his discoveries was touched upon. He became animated, and
+spoke with the assurance of a man who knows whereof he is descanting,
+and an authority that carried conviction with it. In the heat of his
+eloquence he would describe the marvellous qualities of his fulgurator
+and the truly extraordinary effects it caused. As to the nature of the
+explosive and of the deflagrator, the elements of which the latter was
+composed, their manufacture, and the way in which they were employed,
+he preserved complete silence, and all attempts to worm the secret out
+of him remained ineffectual. Once or twice, during the height of the
+paroxysms to which he was occasionally subject, there had been reason
+to believe that his secret would escape him, and every precaution had
+been taken to note his slightest utterance. But Thomas Roch had
+each time disappointed his watchers. If he no longer preserved the
+sentiment of self-preservation, he at least knew how to preserve the
+secret of his discovery.
+
+Pavilion No. 17 was situated in the middle of a garden that was
+surrounded by hedges, and here Roch was accustomed to take exercise
+under the surveillance of his guardian. This guardian lived in the
+same pavilion, slept in the same room with him, and kept constant
+watch upon him, never leaving him for an hour. He hung upon
+the lightest words uttered by the patient in the course of his
+hallucinations, which generally occurred in the intermediary state
+between sleeping and waking--watched and listened while he dreamed.
+
+This guardian was known as Gaydon. Shortly after the sequestration of
+Thomas Roch, having learned that an attendant speaking French fluently
+was wanted, he had applied at Healthful House for the place, and had
+been engaged to look after the new inmate.
+
+In reality the alleged Gaydon was a French engineer named Simon Hart,
+who for several years past had been connected with a manufactory of
+chemical products in New Jersey. Simon Hart was forty years of age.
+His high forehead was furrowed with the wrinkle that denoted the
+thinker, and his resolute bearing denoted energy combined with
+tenacity. Extremely well versed in the various questions relating to
+the perfecting of modern armaments, Hart knew everything that had been
+invented in the shape of explosives, of which there were over eleven
+hundred at that time, and was fully able to appreciate such a man
+as Thomas Roch. He firmly believed in the power of the latter's
+fulgurator, and had no doubt whatever that the inventor had conceived
+an engine that was capable of revolutionizing the condition of both
+offensive and defensive warfare on land and sea. He was aware that the
+demon of insanity had respected the man of science, and that in Roch's
+partially diseased brain the flame of genius still burned brightly.
+Then it occurred to him that if, during Roch's crises, his secret was
+revealed, this invention of a Frenchman would be seized upon by some
+other country to the detriment of France. Impelled by a spirit of
+patriotism, he made up his mind to offer himself as Thomas Roch's
+guardian, by passing himself off as an American thoroughly conversant
+with the French language, in order that if the inventor did at any
+time disclose his secret, France alone should benefit thereby. On
+pretext of returning to Europe, he resigned his position at the New
+Jersey manufactory, and changed his name so that none should know what
+had become of him.
+
+Thus it came to pass that Simon Hart, alias Gaydon, had been an
+attendant at Healthful House for fifteen months. It required no little
+courage on the part of a man of his position and education to perform
+the menial and exacting duties of an insane man's attendant; but, as
+has been before remarked, he was actuated by a spirit of the purest
+and noblest patriotism. The idea of depriving Roch of the legitimate
+benefits due to the inventor, if he succeeded in learning his secret,
+never for an instant entered his mind.
+
+He had kept the patient under the closest possible observation for
+fifteen months yet had not been able to learn anything from him,
+or worm out of him a single reply to his questions that was of the
+slightest value. But he had become more convinced than ever of the
+importance of Thomas Roch's discovery, and was extremely apprehensive
+lest the partial madness of the inventor should become general, or
+lest he should die during one of his paroxysms and carry his secret
+with him to the grave.
+
+This was Simon Hart's position, and this the mission to which he had
+wholly devoted himself in the interest of his native country.
+
+However, notwithstanding his deceptions and troubles, Thomas Roch's
+physical health, thanks to his vigorous constitution, was not
+particularly affected. A man of medium height, with a large head,
+high, wide forehead, strongly-cut features, iron-gray hair and
+moustache, eyes generally haggard, but which became piercing and
+imperious when illuminated by his dominant idea, thin lips closely
+compressed, as though to prevent the escape of a word that could
+betray his secret--such was the inventor confined in one of
+the pavilions of Healthful House, probably unconscious of his
+sequestration, and confided to the surveillance of Simon Hart the
+engineer, become Gaydon the warder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+COUNT D'ARTIGAS.
+
+
+Just who was this Count d'Artigas? A Spaniard? So his name would
+appear to indicate. Yet on the stern of his schooner, in letters of
+gold, was the name _Ebba_, which is of pure Norwegian origin. And had
+you asked him the name of the captain of the _Ebba_, he would have
+replied, Spade, and would doubtless have added that that of the
+boatswain was Effrondat, and that of the ship's cook, Helim--all
+singularly dissimilar and indicating very different nationalities.
+
+Could any plausible hypothesis be deducted from the type presented by
+Count d'Artigas? Not easily. If the color of his skin, his black hair,
+and the easy grace of his attitude denoted a Spanish origin, the
+_ensemble_ of his person showed none of the racial characteristics
+peculiar to the natives of the Iberian peninsula.
+
+He was a man of about forty-five years of age, about the average
+height, and robustly constituted. With his calm and haughty demeanor
+he resembled an Hindoo lord in whose blood might mingle that of some
+superb type of Malay. If he was not naturally of a cold temperament,
+he at least, with his imperious gestures and brevity of speech,
+endeavored to make it appear that he was. As to the language usually
+spoken by him and his crew, it was one of those idioms current in
+the islands of the Indian Ocean and the adjacent seas. Yet when his
+maritime excursions brought him to the coasts of the old or new world
+he spoke English with remarkable facility, and with so slight an
+accent as to scarcely betray his foreign origin.
+
+None could have told anything about his past, nor even about his
+present life, nor from what source he derived his fortune,--obviously
+a large one, inasmuch as he was able to gratify his every whim and
+lived in the greatest luxury whenever he visited America,--nor where
+he resided when at home, nor where was the port from which his
+schooner hailed, and none would have ventured to question him upon any
+of these points so little disposed was he to be communicative. He was
+not the kind of man to give anything away or compromise himself in the
+slightest degree, even when interviewed by American reporters.
+
+All that was known about him was what was published in the papers when
+the arrival of the _Ebba_ was reported in some port, and particularly
+in the ports of the east coast of the United States, where the
+schooner was accustomed to put in at regular periods to lay in
+provisions and stores for a lengthy voyage. She would take on board
+not only flour, biscuits, preserves, fresh and dried meat, live stock,
+wines, beers, and spirits, but also clothing, household utensils, and
+objects of luxury--all of the finest quality and highest price, and
+which were paid for either in dollars, guineas, or other coins of
+various countries and denominations.
+
+Consequently, if no one knew anything about the private life of Count
+d'Artigas, he was nevertheless very well known in the various ports of
+the United States from the Florida peninsula to New England.
+
+It is therefore in no way surprising that the director of Healthful
+House should have felt greatly flattered by the Count's visit, and
+have received him with every mark of honor and respect.
+
+It was the first time that the schooner _Ebba_ had dropped anchor
+in the port of New-Berne, and no doubt a mere whim of her owner had
+brought him to the mouth of the Neuse. Otherwise why should he have
+come to such a place? Certainly not to lay in stores, for Pamlico
+Sound offered neither the resources nor facilities to be found in
+such ports as Boston, New York, Dover, Savannah, Wilmington in North
+Carolina, and Charleston in South Carolina. What could he have
+procured with his piastres and bank-notes in the small markets of
+New-Berne? This chief town of Craven County contained barely six
+thousand inhabitants. Its commerce consisted principally in the
+exportation of grain, pigs, furniture, and naval munitions. Besides, a
+few weeks previously, the schooner had loaded up for some destination
+which, as usual, was unknown.
+
+Had this enigmatical personage then come solely for the purpose of
+visiting Healthful House? Very likely. There would have been nothing
+surprising in the fact, seeing that the establishment enjoyed a high
+and well-merited reputation.
+
+Or perhaps the Count had been inspired by curiosity to meet Thomas
+Roch? This curiosity would have been legitimate and natural enough
+in view of the universal renown of the French inventor. Fancy--a mad
+genius who claimed that his discoveries were destined to revolutionize
+the methods of modern military art!
+
+As he had notified the director he would do, the Count d'Artigas
+presented himself in the afternoon at the door of Healthful House,
+accompanied by Captain Spade, the commander of the _Ebba_.
+
+In conformity with orders given, both were admitted and conducted to
+the office of the director. The latter received his distinguished
+visitor with _empressement_, placed himself at his disposal, and
+intimated his intention of personally conducting him over the
+establishment, not being willing to concede to anybody else the honor
+of being his _cicerone_. The Count on his part was profuse in the
+expression of his thanks for the considerations extended to him.
+
+They went over the common rooms and private habitations of the
+establishment, the director prattling unceasingly about the care with
+which the patients were tended--much better care, if he was to be
+believed, than they could possibly have had in the bosoms of their
+families--and priding himself upon the results achieved, and which had
+earned for the place its well-merited success.
+
+The Count d'Artigas listened to his ceaseless chatter with apparent
+interest, probably in order the better to dissemble the real motive of
+his visit. However, after going the rounds for an hour he ventured to
+remark:
+
+"Have you not among your patients, sir, one anent whom there was a
+great deal of talk some time ago, and whose presence here contributed
+in no small measure to attract public attention to Healthful House?"
+
+"You refer to Thomas Roch, I presume, Count?" queried the director.
+
+"Precisely--that Frenchman--that inventor--whose mental condition is
+said to be very precarious."
+
+"Very precarious, Count, and happily so, perhaps! In my opinion
+humanity has nothing to gain by his discoveries, the application of
+which would increase the already too numerous means of destruction."
+
+"You speak wisely, sir, and I entirely agree with you. Real progress
+does not lie in that direction, and I regard as inimical to society
+all those who seek to follow it. But has this inventor entirely lost
+the use of his intellectual faculties?"
+
+"Entirely, no; save as regards the ordinary things of life. In this
+respect he no longer possesses either comprehension or responsibility.
+His genius as an inventor, however, remains intact; it has survived
+his moral degeneracy, and, had his insensate demands been complied
+with, I have no doubt he would have produced a new war engine--which
+the world can get along very well without."
+
+"Very well without, as you say, sir," re-echoed the Count d'Artigas,
+and Captain Spade nodded approval.
+
+"But you will be able to judge for yourself, Count, for here is the
+pavilion occupied by Thomas Roch. If his confinement is well justified
+from the point of view of public security he is none the less treated
+with all the consideration due to him and the attention which his
+condition necessitates. Besides, Healthful House is beyond the reach
+of indiscreet persons who might...."
+
+The director completed the phrase with a significant motion of
+his head--which brought an imperceptible smile to the lips of the
+stranger.
+
+"But," asked the Count, "is Thomas Roch never left alone?"
+
+"Never, Count, never. He has a permanent attendant in whom we have
+implicit confidence, who speaks his language and keeps the closest
+possible watch upon him. If in some way or other some indication
+relative to his discovery were to escape him, it would be immediately
+noted down and its value would be passed upon by those competent to
+judge."
+
+Here the Count d'Artigas stole a rapid and meaning glance at Captain
+Spade, who responded with a gesture which said plainly enough: "I
+understand." And had any one observed the captain during the visit,
+they could not have failed to remark that he examined with the
+greatest minuteness that portion of the park surrounding Pavilion No.
+17, and the different paths leading to the latter--probably in view of
+some prearranged scheme.
+
+The garden of the pavilion was near the high wall surrounding the
+property, from the foot of which on the other side the hill sloped
+gently to the right bank of the Neuse.
+
+The pavilion itself was a one-story building surmounted by a terrace
+in the Italian style. It contained two rooms and an ante-room with
+strongly-barred windows. On each side and in rear of the habitation
+were clusters of fine trees, which were then in full leaf. In front
+was a cool, green velvety lawn, ornamented with shrubs and brilliantly
+tinted flowers. The whole garden extended over about half an acre, and
+was reserved exclusively for the use of Thomas Roch, who was free to
+wander about it at pleasure under the surveillance of his guardian.
+
+When the Count d'Artigas, Captain Spade, and the director entered the
+garden, the first person they saw was the warder Gaydon, standing
+at the door of the pavilion. Unnoticed by the director the Count
+d'Artigas eyed the attendant with singular persistence.
+
+It was not the first time that strangers had come to see the occupant
+of Pavilion No. 17, for the French inventor was justly regarded as the
+most interesting inmate of Healthful House. Nevertheless, Gaydon's
+attention was attracted by the originality of the type presented by
+the two visitors, of whose nationality he was ignorant. If the name
+of the Count d'Artigas was not unfamiliar to him, he had never had
+occasion to meet that wealthy gentleman during the latter's sojourn in
+the eastern ports. He therefore had no idea as to who the Count was.
+Neither was he aware that the schooner _Ebba_ was then anchored at the
+entrance to the Neuse, at the foot of the hill upon which Healthful
+House was situated.
+
+"Gaydon," demanded the director, "where is Thomas Roch?"
+
+"Yonder," replied the warder, pointing to a man who was walking
+meditatively under the trees in rear of the pavilion.
+
+"The Count d'Artigas has been authorized to visit Healthful House,"
+the director explained; "and does not wish to go away without having
+seen Thomas Roch, who was lately the subject of a good deal too much
+discussion."
+
+"And who would be talked about a great deal more," added the Count,
+"had the Federal Government not taken the precaution to confine him in
+this establishment."
+
+"A necessary precaution, Count."
+
+"Necessary, as you observe, Mr. Director. It is better for the peace
+of the world that his secret should die with him."
+
+After having glanced at the Count d'Artigas, Gaydon had not uttered a
+word; but preceding the two strangers he walked towards the clump of
+trees where the inventor was pacing back and forth.
+
+Thomas Roch paid no attention to them. He appeared to be oblivious of
+their presence.
+
+Meanwhile, Captain Spade, while being careful not to excite suspicion,
+had been minutely examining the immediate surroundings of the pavilion
+and the end of the park in which it was situated. From the top of the
+sloping alleys he could easily distinguish the peak of a mast which
+showed above the wall of the park. He recognized the peak at a glance
+as being that of the _Ebba_, and knew therefore that the wall at this
+part skirted the right bank of the Neuse.
+
+The Count d'Artigas' whole attention was concentrated upon the French
+inventor. The latter's health appeared to have suffered in no way
+from his eighteen months' confinement; but his queer attitude, his
+incoherent gestures, his haggard eye, and his indifference to what was
+passing around him testified only too plainly to the degeneration of
+his mental faculties.
+
+At length Thomas Roch dropped into a seat and with the end of a switch
+traced in the sand of the alley the outline of a fortification. Then
+kneeling down he made a number of little mounds that were evidently
+intended to represent bastions. He next plucked some leaves from a
+neighboring tree and stuck them in the mounds like so many tiny
+flags. All this was done with the utmost seriousness and without any
+attention whatever being paid to the onlookers.
+
+It was the amusement of a child, but a child would have lacked this
+characteristic gravity.
+
+"Is he then absolutely mad?" demanded the Count d'Artigas, who
+in spite of his habitual impassibility appeared to be somewhat
+disappointed.
+
+"I warned you, Count, that nothing could be obtained from him."
+
+"Couldn't he at least pay some attention to us?"
+
+"It would perhaps be difficult to induce him to do so."
+
+Then turning to the attendant:
+
+"Speak to him, Gaydon. Perhaps he will answer you."
+
+"Oh! he'll answer me right enough, sir, never fear," replied Gaydon.
+
+He went up to the inventor and touching him on the shoulder, said
+gently: "Thomas Roch!"
+
+The latter raised his head, and of the persons present he doubtless
+saw but his keeper, though Captain Spade had come up and all formed a
+circle about him.
+
+"Thomas Roch," continued Gaydon, speaking in English, "here are some
+visitors to see you. They are interested in your health--in your
+work."
+
+The last word alone seemed to rouse him from his indifference.
+
+"My work?" he replied, also in English, which he spoke like a native.
+
+Then taking a pebble between his index finger and bent thumb, as a
+boy plays at marbles, he projected it against one of the little
+sand-heaps. It scattered, and he jumped for joy.
+
+"Blown to pieces! The bastion is blown to pieces! My explosive has
+destroyed everything at one blow!" he shouted, the light of triumph
+flashing in his eyes.
+
+"You see," said the director, addressing the Count d'Artigas. "The
+idea of his invention never leaves him."
+
+"And it will die with him," affirmed the attendant.
+
+"Couldn't you, Gaydon, get him to talk about his fulgurator?" asked
+his chief.
+
+"I will try, if you order me to do so, sir."
+
+"Well, I do order you, for I think it might interest the Count
+d'Artigas."
+
+"Certainly," assented the Count, whose physiognomy betrayed no sign of
+the sentiments which were agitating him.
+
+"I ought to warn you that I risk bringing on another fit," observed
+Gaydon.
+
+"You can drop the conversation when you consider it prudent. Tell
+Thomas Roch that a foreigner wishes to negotiate with him for the
+purchase of his fulgurator."
+
+"But are you not afraid he may give his secret away?" questioned the
+Count.
+
+He spoke with such vivacity that Gaydon could not restrain a glance of
+distrust, which, however, did not appear to disturb the equanimity of
+that impenetrable nobleman.
+
+"No fear of that," said the warder. "No promise would induce him to
+divulge his secret. Until the millions he demands are counted into his
+hand he will remain as mute as a stone."
+
+"I don't happen to be carrying those millions about me," remarked the
+Count quietly.
+
+Gaydon again touched Roch on the shoulder and repeated:
+
+"Thomas Roch, here are some foreigners who are anxious to acquire your
+invention."
+
+The madman started.
+
+"My invention?" he cried. "My deflagrator?"
+
+And his growing animation plainly indicated the imminence of the fit
+that Gaydon had been apprehensive about, and which questions of this
+character invariably brought on.
+
+"How much will you give me for it--how much?" continued Roch. "How
+much--how much?"
+
+"Ten million dollars," replied Gaydon.
+
+"Ten millions! Ten millions! A fulgurator ten million times more
+powerful than anything hitherto invented! Ten millions for an
+autopropulsive projectile which, when it explodes, destroys everything
+in sight within a radius of over twelve thousand square yards! Ten
+millions for the only deflagrator that can provoke its explosion! Why,
+all the wealth of the world wouldn't suffice to purchase the secret
+of my engine, and rather than sell it at such a price I would cut
+my tongue in half with my teeth. Ten millions, when it is worth a
+billion--a billion--a billion!"
+
+It was clear that Roch had lost all notion of things, and had Gaydon
+offered him ten billions the madman would have replied in exactly the
+same manner.
+
+The Count d'Artigas and Captain Spade had not taken their eyes off
+him. The Count was impassible as usual, though his brow had darkened,
+but the captain shook his head in a manner that implied plainly:
+"Decidedly there is nothing to hope from this poor devil!"
+
+After his outburst Roch fled across the garden crying hoarsely:
+
+"Billions! Billions!"
+
+Gaydon turned to the director and remarked:
+
+"I told you how it would be."
+
+Then he rushed after his patient, caught him by the arm, and led him,
+without any attempt at resistance, into the pavilion and closed the
+door.
+
+The Count d'Artigas remained alone with the director, Captain Spade
+having strolled off again in the direction of the wall at the bottom
+of the park.
+
+"You see I was not guilty of exaggeration, Count," said the director.
+"It is obvious to every one that Thomas Roch is becoming daily worse.
+In my opinion his case is a hopeless one. If all the money he asks for
+were offered to him, nothing could be got from him."
+
+"Very likely," replied the Count, "still, if his pecuniary demands are
+supremely absurd, he has none the less invented an engine the power of
+which is infinite, one might say."
+
+"That is the opinion expressed by competent persons, Count. But what
+he has discovered will ere long be lost with himself in one of these
+fits which are becoming more frequent and intense. Very soon even the
+motive of interest, the only sentiment that appears to have survived
+in his mind, will become extinct."
+
+"Mayhap the sentiment of hatred will remain, though," muttered the
+Count, as Spade joined them at the garden gate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+KIDNAPPED.
+
+
+Half an hour later the Count d'Artigas and Captain Spade were
+following the beech-lined road that separated the Healthful House
+estate from the right bank of the Neuse. Both had taken leave of the
+director, the latter declaring himself greatly honored by their visit,
+and the former thanking him warmly for his courteous reception. A
+hundred-dollar bill left as a tip for the staff of the establishment
+had certainly not belied the Count's reputation for generosity. He
+was--there could be no doubt about it--a foreigner of the highest
+distinction, if distinction be measured by generosity.
+
+Issuing by the gate at the main entrance to Healthful House, they had
+skirted the wall that surrounded the property, and which was high
+enough to preclude the possibility of climbing it. Not a word passed
+between them for some time; the Count was deep in thought and Captain
+Spade was not in the habit of addressing him without being first
+spoken to.
+
+At last when they stood beneath the rear wall behind which, though it
+was not visible, the Count knew Pavilion No. 17 was situated, he said:
+
+"You managed, I presume, to thoroughly explore the place, and are
+acquainted with every detail of it?"
+
+"Certainly, _Count_" replied Captain Spade, emphasizing the title.
+
+"You are perfectly sure about it?"
+
+"Perfectly. I could go through the park with my eyes shut. If you
+still persist in carrying out your scheme the pavilion can be easily
+reached."
+
+"I do persist, Spade."
+
+"Notwithstanding Thomas Roch's mental condition?"
+
+"Notwithstanding his condition; and if we succeed in carrying him
+off----"
+
+"That is my affair. When night comes on I undertake to enter the park
+of Healthful House, and then the pavilion garden without being seen by
+anybody."
+
+"By the entrance gate?"
+
+"No, on this side."
+
+"Yes, but on this side there is the wall, and if you succeed in
+climbing it, how are you going to get over it again with Thomas Roch?
+What if the madman cries out--what if he should resist--what if his
+keeper gives the alarm?"
+
+"Don't worry yourself in the least about that. We have only got to go
+in and come out by this door."
+
+Captain Spade pointed to a narrow door let into the wall a few
+paces distant, and which was doubtless used by the staff of the
+establishment when they had occasion to go out by the river.
+
+"That is the way I propose to go in. It's much easier than scaling the
+wall with a ladder."
+
+"But the door is closed."
+
+"It will open."
+
+"Has it no bolts?"
+
+"Yes, but I shot them back while we were strolling about, and the
+director didn't notice what I had done."
+
+"How are you going to open it?" queried the Count, going to the door.
+
+"Here is the key," replied Spade, producing it.
+
+He had withdrawn it from the lock, where it happened to be, when he
+had unbolted the door.
+
+"Capital!" exclaimed the Count. "It couldn't be better. The business
+will be easier than I expected. Let us get back to the schooner. At
+eight o'clock one of the boats will put you ashore with five men."
+
+"Yes, five men will do," said Captain Spade. "There will be enough of
+them to effect our object even if the keeper is aroused and it becomes
+necessary to put him out of the way."
+
+"Put him out of the way--well, if it becomes absolutely necessary of
+course you must, but it would be better to seize him too and bring him
+aboard the _Ebba_ Who knows but what he has already learned a part of
+Roch's secret?"
+
+"True."
+
+"Besides, Thomas Roch is used to him, and I don't propose to make him
+change his habitudes in any way."
+
+This observation was accompanied by such a significant smile that
+Captain Spade could entertain no doubt as to the role reserved for the
+warder of Healthful House.
+
+The plan to kidnap them both was thus settled, and appeared to have
+every chance of being successful; unless during the couple of hours of
+daylight that yet remained it was noticed that the key of the door had
+been stolen and the bolts drawn back, Captain Spade and his men could
+at least count upon being able to enter the park, and the rest, the
+captain affirmed, would be easy enough.
+
+Thomas Roch was the only patient in the establishment isolated and
+kept under special surveillance. All the other invalids lived in the
+main building, or occupied pavilions in the front of the park. The
+plan was to try and seize Roch and Gaydon separately and bind and gag
+them before they could cry out.
+
+The Count d'Artigas and his companion wended their way to a creek
+where one of the _Ebba's_ boats awaited them. The schooner was
+anchored two cable lengths from the shore, her sails neatly rolled
+upon her yards, which were squared as neatly as those of a pleasure
+yacht or of a man-of-war. At the peak of the mainmast a narrow red
+pennant was gently swayed by the wind, which came in fitful puffs from
+the east.
+
+The Count and the captain jumped into the boat and a few strokes of
+the four oars brought them alongside of the schooner. They climbed
+on deck and going forward to the jib-boom, leaned over the starboard
+bulwark and gazed at an object that floated on the water a few strokes
+ahead of the vessel. It was a small buoy that was rocked by the ripple
+of the ebbing tide.
+
+Twilight gradually set in, and the outline of New-Berne on the left
+bank of the sinuous Neuse became more and more indistinct until it
+disappeared in the deepening shades of night. A mist set in from the
+sea, but though it obscured the moon it brought no sign of rain. The
+lights gleamed out one by one in the houses of the town. The fishing
+smacks came slowly up the river to their anchorage, impelled by the
+oars of their crews which struck the water with sharp, rhythmical
+strokes, and with their sails distended on the chance of catching an
+occasional puff of the dropping wind to help them along. A couple of
+steamers passed, sending up volumes of black smoke and myriads of
+sparks from their double stacks, and lashing the water into foam with
+their powerful paddles.
+
+At eight o'clock the Count d'Artigas appeared on the schooner's deck
+accompanied by a man about fifty years of age, to whom he remarked:
+
+"It is time to go, Serko."
+
+"Very well, I will tell Spade," replied Serko.
+
+At that moment the captain joined them.
+
+"You had better get ready to go," said the Count.
+
+"All is ready."
+
+"Be careful to prevent any alarm being given, and arrange matters so
+that no one will for a minute suspect that Thomas Roch and his keeper
+have been brought on board the _Ebba_."
+
+"They wouldn't find them if they came to look for them," observed
+Serko, shrugging his shoulders and laughing heartily as though he had
+perpetrated a huge joke.
+
+"Nevertheless, it is better not to arouse their suspicion," said
+d'Artigas.
+
+The boat was lowered, and Captain Spade and five sailors took their
+places in it. Four of the latter got out the oars. The boatswain,
+Effrondat, who was to remain in charge of the boat, went to the stern
+beside Captain Spade and took the tiller.
+
+"Good luck, Spade," said Serko with a smile, "and don't make more
+noise about it than if you were a gallant carrying off his lady-love."
+
+"I won't--unless that Gaydon chap--"
+
+"We must have both Roch and Gaydon," insisted the Count d'Artigas.
+
+"That is understood," replied Spade.
+
+The boat pushed off, and the sailors on the deck of the schooner
+watched it till it was lost to sight in the darkness.
+
+Pending its return, no preparations for the _Ebba's_ departure were
+made. Perhaps there was no intention of quitting the port after the
+men had been kidnapped. Besides, how could the vessel have reached the
+open sea? Not a breath of air was now stirring, and in half an hour
+the tide would be setting in again, and rising strongly and rapidly
+for several miles above New-Berne.
+
+Anchored, as has already been said, a couple of cable-lengths from the
+shore, the _Ebba_ might have been brought much nearer to it, for the
+water was deep enough, and this would have facilitated the task of the
+kidnappers when they returned from their expedition. If, however, the
+Count d'Artigas preferred to let the vessel stay where she was, he
+probably had his reasons.
+
+Not a soul was in sight on the bank, and the road, with its borders
+of beech trees that skirted the wall of Healthful House estate, was
+equally deserted. The boat was made fast to the shore. Then Captain
+Spade and his four sailors landed, leaving the boatswain in charge,
+and disappeared amid the trees.
+
+When they reached the wall Captain Spade stopped and the sailors drew
+up on each side of the doorway. The captain had only to turn the key
+in the lock and push the door, unless one of the servants, noticing
+that the door was not secured as usual, had bolted it. In this event
+their task would be an extremely difficult one, even if they succeeded
+in scaling the high wall.
+
+The captain put his ear to the key-hole and listened.
+
+Not a sound was to be heard in the park. Not even a leaf was rustling
+in the branches of the beeches under which they were standing. The
+surrounding country was wrapt in the profoundest silence.
+
+Captain Spade drew the key from his pocket, inserted it in the lock
+and turned it noiselessly. Then he cautiously pushed the door, which
+opened inward.
+
+Things were, then, just as he had left them, and no one had noticed
+the theft of the key.
+
+After assuring himself that nobody happened to be in the neighborhood
+of the pavilion the captain entered, followed by his men. The door was
+left wide open, so that they could beat a hurried and uninterrupted
+retreat in case of necessity. The trees and bushes in this shady part
+of the park were very thick, and it was so dark that it would not have
+been easy to distinguish the pavilion had not a light shone brightly
+in one of the windows.
+
+No doubt this was the window of the room occupied by Roch and his
+guardian, Gaydon, seeing that the latter never left the patient placed
+in his charge either by night or day. Captain Spade had expected to
+find him there.
+
+The party approached cautiously, taking the utmost precaution to avoid
+kicking a pebble or stepping on a twig, the noise of which might have
+revealed their presence. In this way they reached the door of the
+pavilion near which was the curtained window of the room in which the
+light was burning.
+
+But if the door was locked, how were they going to get in? Captain
+Spade must have asked himself. He had no key, and to attempt to effect
+an entrance through the window would be hazardous, for, unless Gaydon
+could be prevented from giving the alarm, he would rouse the whole
+establishment.
+
+There was no help for it, however. The essential was to get possession
+of Roch. If they could kidnap Gaydon, too, in conformity with the
+intentions of the Count d'Artigas, so much the better. If not--
+
+Captain Spade crept stealthily to the window, and standing on tiptoe,
+looked in. Through an aperture in the curtain he could see all over
+the room.
+
+Gaydon was standing beside Thomas Roch, who had not yet recovered from
+the fit with which he had been attacked during the Count d'Artigas'
+visit. His condition necessitated special attention, and the warder
+was ministering to the patient under the direction of a third person.
+
+The latter was one of the doctors attached to Healthful House, and had
+been at once sent to the pavilion by the director when Roch's
+paroxysm came on. His presence of course rendered the situation more
+complicated and the work of the kidnappers more difficult.
+
+Roch, fully dressed, was extended upon a sofa. He was now fairly calm.
+The paroxysm, which was abating, would be followed by several hours of
+torpor and exhaustion.
+
+Just as Captain Spade peeped through the window the doctor was making
+preparations to leave. The Captain heard him say to Gaydon that his
+(the doctor's) presence was not likely to be required any more that
+night, and that there was nothing to be done beyond following the
+instructions he had given.
+
+The doctor then walked towards the door, which, it will be remembered,
+was close to the window in front of which Spade and his men were
+standing. If they remained where they were they could not fail to be
+seen, not only by the doctor, but by the warder, who was accompanying
+him to the door.
+
+Before they made their appearance, however, the sailors, at a sign
+from their chief, had dispersed and hidden themselves behind the
+bushes, while Spade himself crouched in the shadow beneath the window.
+Luckily Gaydon had not brought the lamp with him, so that the captain
+was in no danger of being seen.
+
+As he was about to take leave of Gaydon, the doctor stopped on the
+step and remarked:
+
+"This is one of the worst attacks our patient has had. One or two more
+like that and he will lose the little reason he still possesses."
+
+"Just so," said Gaydon. "I wonder that the director doesn't prohibit
+all visitors from entering the pavilion. Roch owes his present attack
+to a Count d'Artigas, for whose amusement harmful questions were put
+to him."
+
+"I will call the director's attention to the matter," responded the
+doctor.
+
+He then descended the steps and Gaydon, leaving the door of the
+pavilion ajar, accompanied him to the end of the path.
+
+When they had gone Captain Spade stood up, and his men rejoined him.
+
+Had they not better profit by the chance thus unexpectedly afforded
+them to enter the room and secure Roch, who was in a semi-comatose
+condition, and then await Gaydon's return, and seize the warder as he
+entered?
+
+
+This would have involved considerable risk. Gaydon, at a glance, would
+perceive that his patient was missing and raise an alarm; the doctor
+would come running back; the whole staff of Healthful House would
+turn out, and Spade would not have time to escape with his precious
+prisoner and lock the door in the wall after him.
+
+He did not have much chance to deliberate about it, for the warder was
+heard returning along the gravel path. Spade decided that the best
+thing to be done was to spring upon him as he passed and stifle
+his cries and overpower him before he could attempt to offer any
+resistance. The carrying off of the mad inventor would be easy enough,
+inasmuch as he was unconscious, and could not raise a finger to help
+himself.
+
+Gaydon came round a clump of bushes and approached the entrance to the
+pavilion. As he raised his foot to mount the steps the four sailors
+sprang upon him, bore him backwards to the ground, and had gagged him,
+securely bound him hand and foot, and bandaged his eyes before he
+began to realize what had happened.
+
+Two of the men then kept guard over him, while Captain Spade and the
+others entered the house.
+
+As the captain had surmised, Thomas Roch had sunk into such a torpor
+that he could have heard nothing of what had been going on outside.
+Reclining at full length, with his eyes closed, he might have been
+taken for a dead man but for his heavy breathing. There was no need
+either to bind or gag him. One man took him by the head and another by
+the feet and started off with him to the schooner.
+
+Captain Spade was the last to quit the house after extinguishing the
+lamp and closing the door behind him. In this way there was no reason
+to suppose that the inmates would be missed before morning.
+
+Gaydon was carried off in the same way as Thomas Roch had been. The
+two remaining sailors lifted him and bore him quietly but rapidly down
+the path to the door in the wall. The park was pitch dark. Not even a
+glimmer of the lights in the windows of Healthful House could be seen
+through the thick foliage.
+
+Arrived at the wall, Spade, who had led the way, stepped aside to
+allow the sailors with their burdens to pass through, then followed
+and closed and locked the door. He put the key in his pocket,
+intending to throw it into the Neuse as soon as they were safely on
+board the schooner.
+
+There was no one on the road, nor on the bank of the river.
+
+The party made for the boat, and found that Effrondat, the boatswain,
+had made all ready to receive them.
+
+Thomas Roch and Gaydon were laid in the bottom of the boat, and the
+sailors again took their places at the oars.
+
+"Hurry up, Effrondat, and cast off the painter," ordered the captain.
+
+The boatswain obeyed, and pushed the boat off with his foot as he
+scrambled in.
+
+The men bent to their oars and rowed rapidly to the schooner, which
+was easily distinguishable, having hung out a light at her mizzenmast
+head.
+
+In two minutes they were alongside.
+
+The Count d'Artigas was leaning on the bulwarks by the gangway.
+
+"All right, Spade?" he questioned.
+
+"Yes, sir, all right!"
+
+"Both of them?"
+
+"Both the madman and his keeper."
+
+"Doesn't anybody know about it up at Healthful House?
+
+"Not a soul."
+
+It was not likely that Gaydon, whose eyes and ears were bandaged, but
+who preserved all his sang-froid, could have recognized the voices of
+the Count d'Artigas and Captain Spade. Nor did he have the chance to.
+No attempt was immediately made to hoist him on board. He had been
+lying in the bottom of the boat alongside the schooner for fully
+half an hour, he calculated, before he felt himself lifted, and then
+lowered, doubtless to the bottom of the hold.
+
+The kidnapping having been accomplished it would seem that it only
+remained for the _Ebba_ to weigh anchor, descend the estuary and make
+her way out to sea through Pamlico Sound. Yet no preparations for
+departure were made.
+
+Was it not dangerous to stay where they were after their daring
+raid? Had the Count d'Artigas hidden his prisoners so securely as to
+preclude the possibility of their being discovered if the _Ebba_,
+whose presence in proximity to Healthful House could not fail to
+excite suspicion, received a visit from the New-Berne police?
+
+However this might have been, an hour after the return of the
+expedition, every soul on board save the watch--the Count d'Artigas,
+Serko, and Captain Spade in their respective cabins, and the crew in
+the fore-castle, were sound asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE SCHOONER EBBA.
+
+
+It was not till the next morning, and then very leisurely, that
+the _Ebba_ began to make preparations for her departure. From the
+extremity of New-Berne quay the crew might have been seen holystoning
+the deck, after which they loosened the reef lines, under the
+direction of Effrondat, the boatswain, hoisted in the boats and
+cleared the halyards.
+
+At eight o'clock the Count d'Artigas had not yet appeared on deck.
+His companion, Serko the engineer, as he was called on board, had not
+quitted his cabin. Captain Spade was strolling quietly about giving
+orders.
+
+The _Ebba_ would have made a splendid racing yacht, though she had
+never participated in any of the yacht races either on the North
+American or British coasts. The height of her masts, the extent of
+the canvas she carried, her shapely, raking hull, denoted her to be a
+craft of great speed, and her general lines showed that she was also
+built to weather the roughest gales at sea. In a favorable wind she
+would probably make twelve knots an hour.
+
+Notwithstanding these advantages, however, she must in a dead calm
+necessarily suffer from the same disadvantages as other sailing
+vessels, and it might have been supposed that the Count d'Artigas
+would have preferred a steam-yacht with which he could have gone
+anywhere, at any time, in any weather. But apparently he was satisfied
+to stick to the old method, even when he made his long trips across
+the Atlantic.
+
+On this particular morning the wind was blowing gently from the west,
+which was very favorable to the _Ebba_, and would enable her to stand
+straight out of the Neuse, across Pamlico Sound, and through one of
+the inlets that led to the open sea.
+
+At ten o'clock the _Ebba_ was still rocking lazily at anchor, her stem
+up stream and her cable tautened by the rapidly ebbing tide. The small
+buoy that on the previous evening had been moored near the schooner
+was no longer to be seen, and had doubtless been hoisted in.
+
+Suddenly a gun boomed out and a slight wreath of white smoke arose
+from the battery. It was answered by other reports from the guns on
+the chain of islands along the coast.
+
+At this moment the Count d'Artigas and Engineer Serko appeared on
+deck. Captain Spade went to meet them.
+
+"Guns barking," he said laconically.
+
+"We expected it," replied Serko, shrugging his shoulders. "They are
+signals to close the passes."
+
+"What has that to do with us?" asked the Count d'Artigas quietly.
+
+"Nothing at all," said the engineer.
+
+They all, of course, knew that the alarm-guns indicated that the
+disappearance of Thomas Roch and the warder Gaydon from Healthful
+House had been discovered.
+
+At daybreak the doctor had gone to Pavilion No. 17 to see how
+his patient had passed the night, and had found no one there. He
+immediately notified the director, who had the grounds thoroughly
+searched. It was then discovered that the door in rear of the park was
+unbolted, and that, though locked, the key had been taken away. It was
+evident that Roch and his attendant had been carried out that way. But
+who were the kidnappers? No one could possibly imagine. All that could
+be ascertained was that at half-past seven on the previous night one
+of the doctors had attended Thomas Roch, who was suffering from one of
+his fits, and that when the medical man had left him the invalid was
+in an unconscious condition. What had happened after the doctor took
+leave of Gaydon at the end of the garden-path could not even be
+conjectured.
+
+The news of the disappearance was telegraphed to New Berne, and thence
+to Raleigh. On receipt of it the Governor had instantly wired orders
+that no vessel was to be allowed to quit Pamlico Sound without having
+been first subjected to a most rigorous search. Another dispatch
+ordered the cruiser _Falcon_, which was stationed in the port, to
+carry out the Governor's instructions in this respect. At the same
+time measures were taken to keep a strict lookout in every town and
+village in the State.
+
+The Count d'Artigas could see the _Falcon_, which was a couple of
+miles away to the east in the estuary, getting steam up and making
+hurried preparations to carry out her mission. It would take at least
+an hour before the warship could be got ready to steam out, and the
+schooner might by that time have gained a good start.
+
+"Shall I weigh anchor?" demanded Captain Spade.
+
+"Yes, as we have a fair wind; but you can take your time about it,"
+replied the Count d'Artigas.
+
+"The passes of Pamlico Sound will be under observation," observed
+Engineer Serko, "and no vessel will be able to get out without
+receiving a visit from gentlemen as inquisitive as they will be
+indiscreet."
+
+"Never mind, get under way all the same," ordered the Count. "When the
+officers of the cruiser or the Custom-House officers have been over
+the _Ebba_ the embargo will be raised. I shall be indeed surprised if
+we are not allowed to go about our business."
+
+"With a thousand pardons for the liberty taken, and best wishes for a
+good voyage and speedy return," chuckled Engineer Serko, following the
+phrase with a loud and prolonged laugh.
+
+When the news was received at New-Berne, the authorities at first were
+puzzled to know whether the missing inventor and his keeper had fled
+or been carried off. As, however, Roch's flight could not have taken
+place without the connivance of Gaydon, this supposition was speedily
+abandoned. In the opinion of the director and management of Healthful
+House the warder was absolutely above suspicion. They must both, then,
+have been kidnapped.
+
+It can easily be imagined what a sensation the news caused in the
+town. What! the French inventor who had been so closely guarded had
+disappeared, and with him the secret of the wonderful fulgurator that
+nobody had been able to worm out of him? Might not the most serious
+consequences follow? Might not the discovery of the new engine be lost
+to America forever? If the daring act had been perpetrated on behalf
+of another nation, might not that nation, having Thomas Roch in
+its power, be eventually able to extract from him what the Federal
+Government had vainly endeavored to obtain? And was it reasonable, was
+it permissible, to suppose for an instant that he had been carried off
+for the benefit of a private individual?
+
+Certainly not, was the emphatic reply to the latter question, which
+was too ridiculous to be entertained. Therefore the whole power of
+the State was employed in an effort to recover the inventor. In every
+county of North Carolina a special surveillance was organized on
+every road and at every railroad station, and every house in town
+and country was searched. Every port from Wilmington to Norfolk was
+closed, and no craft of any description could leave without being
+thoroughly overhauled. Not only the cruiser _Falcon_, but every
+available cutter and launch was sent out with orders to patrol
+Pamlico Sound and board yachts, merchant vessels and fishing smacks
+indiscriminately whether anchored or not and search them down to the
+keelson.
+
+Still the crew of the _Ebba_ prepared calmly to weigh anchor, and the
+Count d'Artigas did not appear to be in the least concerned at the
+orders of the authorities and at the consequences that would ensue, if
+Thomas Roch and his keeper, Gaydon, were found on board.
+
+At last all was ready, the crew manned the capstan bars, the sails
+were hoisted, and the schooner glided gracefully through the water
+towards the Sound.
+
+Twenty miles from New-Berne the estuary curves abruptly and shoots off
+towards the northwest for about the same distance, gradually widening
+until it empties itself into Pamlico Sound.
+
+The latter is a vast expanse about seventy miles across from Sivan
+Island to Roanoke. On the seaward side stretches a chain of long and
+narrow islands, forming a natural breakwater north and south from
+Cape Lookout to Cape Hatteras and from the latter to Cape Henry, near
+Norfolk City, in Virginia.
+
+Numerous beacons on the islands and islets form an easy guide for
+vessels at night seeking refuge from the Atlantic gales, and once
+inside the chain they are certain of finding plenty of good anchoring
+grounds.
+
+Several passes afford an outlet from the Sound to the sea. Beyond
+Sivan Island lighthouse is Ocracoke inlet, and next is the inlet of
+Hatteras. There are also three others known as Logger Head inlet, New
+inlet, and Oregon inlet. The Ocracoke was the one nearest the _Ebba_,
+and she could make it without tacking, but the _Falcon_ was searching
+all vessels that passed through. This did not, however, make any
+particular difference, for by this time all the passes, upon which
+the guns of the forts had been trained, were guarded by government
+vessels.
+
+The _Ebba_, therefore, kept on her way, neither trying to avoid
+nor offering to approach the searchers. She seemed to be merely a
+pleasure-yacht out for a morning sail.
+
+No attempt had up to that time been made to accost her. Was she, then,
+specially privileged, and to be spared the bother of being searched?
+Was the Count d'Artigas considered too high and mighty a personage to
+be thus molested, and delayed even for an hour? It was unlikely, for
+though he was regarded as a distinguished foreigner who lived the life
+of luxury enjoyed by the favored of fortune, no one, as a matter of
+fact, knew who he was, nor whence he came, nor whither he was going.
+
+The schooner sped gracefully over the calm waters of the sound, her
+flag--a gold crescent in the angle of a red field--streaming proudly
+in the breeze. Count d'Artigas was cosily ensconced in a basket-work
+chair on the after-deck, conversing with Engineer Serko and Captain
+Spade.
+
+"They don't seem in a hurry to board us," remarked Serko.
+
+"They can come whenever they think proper," said the Count in a tone
+of supreme indifference.
+
+"No doubt they are waiting for us at the entrance to the inlet,"
+suggested Captain Spade.
+
+"Let them wait," grunted the wealthy nobleman.
+
+Then he relapsed into his customary unconcerned impassibility.
+
+Captain Spade's hypothesis was doubtless correct. The _Falcon_ had as
+yet made no move towards the schooner, but would almost certainly do
+so as soon as the latter reached the inlet, and the Count would have
+to submit to a search of his vessel if he wished to reach the open
+sea.
+
+How was it then that he manifested such extraordinary unconcern? Were
+Thomas Roch and Gaydon so safely hidden that their hiding-place could
+not possibly be discovered?
+
+The thing was possible, but perhaps the Count d'Artigas would not have
+been quite so confident had he been aware that the _Ebba_ had been
+specially signalled to the warship and revenue cutters as a suspect.
+
+The Count's visit to Healthful House on the previous day had now
+attracted particular attention to him and his schooner. Evidently, at
+the time, the director could have had no reason to suspect the motive
+of his visit. But a few hours later, Thomas Roch and his keeper had
+been carried off. No one else from outside had been near the pavilion
+that day. It was admitted that it would have been an easy matter for
+the Count's companion, while the former distracted the director's
+attention, to push back the bolts of the door in the wall and steal
+the key. Then the fact that the _Ebba_ was anchored in rear of, and
+only a few hundred yards from, the estate, was in itself suspicious.
+Nothing would have been easier for the desperadoes than to enter by
+the door, surprise their victims, and carry them off to the schooner.
+
+These suspicions, neither the director nor the _personnel_ of the
+establishment had at first liked to give expression to, but when
+the _Ebba_ was seen to weigh anchor and head for the open sea, they
+appeared to be confirmed.
+
+They were communicated to the authorities of New-Berne, who
+immediately ordered the commander of the _Falcon_ to intercept the
+schooner, to search her minutely high and low, and from stem to stern,
+and on no account to let her proceed, unless he was absolutely certain
+that Roch and Gaydon were not on board.
+
+Assuredly the Count d'Artigas could have had no idea that his vessel
+was the object of such stringent orders; but even if he had, it is
+questionable whether this superbly haughty and disdainful nobleman
+would have manifested any particular anxiety.
+
+Towards three o'clock, the warship which was cruising before the
+inlet, after having sent search parties aboard a few fishing-smacks,
+suddenly manoeuvred to the entrance of the pass, and awaited the
+approaching schooner. The latter surely did not imagine that she could
+force a passage in spite of the cruiser, or escape from a vessel
+propelled by steam. Besides, had she attempted such a foolhardy
+trick, a couple of shots from the _Falcon's_ guns would speedily have
+constrained her to lay to.
+
+Presently a boat, manned by two officers and ten sailors, put off from
+the cruiser and rowed towards the _Ebba_. When they were only about
+half a cable's length off, one of the men rose and waved a flag.
+
+"That's a signal to stop," said Engineer Serko.
+
+"Precisely," remarked the Count d'Artigas.
+
+"We shall have to lay to."
+
+"Then lay to."
+
+Captain Spade went forward and gave the necessary orders, and in a few
+minutes the vessel slackened speed, and was soon merely drifting with
+the tide.
+
+The _Falcon's_ boat pulled alongside, and a man in the bows held on to
+her with a boat-hook. The gangway was lowered by a couple of hands on
+the schooner, and the two officers, followed by eight of their men,
+climbed on deck.
+
+They found the crew of the _Ebba_ drawn up in line on the forecastle.
+
+The officer in command of the boarding-party--a first
+lieutenant--advanced towards the owner of the schooner, and the
+following questions and answers were exchanged:
+
+"This schooner belongs to the Count d'Artigas, to whom, I presume, I
+have the honor of speaking?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What is her name?"
+
+"The _Ebba_."
+
+"She is commanded by?--"
+
+"Captain Spade."
+
+"What is his nationality?"
+
+"Hindo-Malay."
+
+The officer scrutinized the schooner's flag, while the Count d'Artigas
+added:
+
+"Will you be good enough to tell me, sir, to what circumstance I owe
+the pleasure of your visit on board my vessel?"
+
+"Orders have been received," replied the officer, "to search every
+vessel now anchored in Pamlico Sound, or which attempts to leave it."
+
+He did not deem it necessary to insist upon this point since the
+_Ebba_, above every other, was to be subjected to the bother of a
+rigorous examination.
+
+"You, of course, sir, have no intention of refusing me permission to
+go over your schooner?"
+
+"Assuredly not, sir. My vessel is at your disposal from peaks to
+bilges. Only I should like to know why all the vessels which happen to
+be in Pamlico Sound to-day are being subjected to this formality."
+
+"I see no reason why you should not be informed, Monsieur the Count,"
+replied the officer. "The governor of North Carolina has been apprised
+that Healthful House has been broken into and two persons kidnapped,
+and the authorities merely wish to satisfy themselves that the persons
+carried off have not been embarked during the night."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed the Count, feigning surprise. "And who are
+the persons who have thus disappeared from Healthful House?"
+
+"An inventor--a madman--and his keeper."
+
+"A madman, sir? Do you, may I ask, refer to the Frenchman, Thomas
+Roch?"
+
+"The same."
+
+"The Thomas Roch whom I saw yesterday during my visit to the
+establishment--whom I questioned in presence of the director--who
+was seized with a violent paroxysm just as Captain Spade and I were
+leaving?"
+
+The officer observed the stranger with the keenest attention, in an
+effort to surprise anything suspicious in his attitude or remarks.
+
+"It is incredible!" added the Count, as though he had just heard about
+the outrage for the first time.
+
+"I can easily understand, sir, how uneasy the authorities must be,"
+he went on, "in view of Thomas Roch's personality, and I cannot but
+approve of the measures taken. I need hardly say that neither the
+French inventor nor his keeper is on board the _Ebba_. However, you
+can assure yourself of the fact by examining the schooner as minutely
+as you desire. Captain Spade, show these gentlemen over the vessel."
+
+Then saluting the lieutenant of the _Falcon_ coldly, the Count
+d'Artigas sank into his deck-chair again and replaced his cigar
+between his lips, while the two officers and eight sailors, conducted
+by Captain Spade, began their search.
+
+In the first place they descended the main hatchway to the after
+saloon--a luxuriously-appointed place, filled with art objects of
+great value, hung with rich tapestries and hangings, and wainscotted
+with costly woods.
+
+It goes without saying that this and the adjoining cabins were
+searched with a care that could not have been surpassed by the most
+experienced detectives. Moreover, Captain Spade assisted them by every
+means in his power, obviously anxious that they should not preserve
+the slightest suspicion of the _Ebba's_ owner.
+
+After the grand saloon and cabins, the elegant dining-saloon was
+visited. Then the cook's galley, Captain Spade's cabin, and the
+quarters of the crew in the forecastle were overhauled, but no sign of
+Thomas Roch or Gaydon was to be seen.
+
+Next, every inch of the hold, etc., was examined, with the aid of a
+couple of lanterns. Water-kegs, wine, brandy, whisky and beer barrels,
+biscuit-boxes, in fact, all the provision boxes and everything the
+hold contained, including the stock of coal, was moved and probed, and
+even the bilges were scrutinized, but all in vain.
+
+Evidently the suspicion that the Count d'Artigas had carried off
+the missing men was unfounded and unjust. Even a rat could not have
+escaped the notice of the vigilant searchers, leave alone two men.
+
+When they returned on deck, however, the officers, as a matter of
+precaution looked into the boats hanging on the davits, and punched
+the lowered sails, with the same result.
+
+It only remained for them, therefore, to take leave of the Count
+d'Artigas.
+
+"You must pardon us for having disturbed you, Monsieur the Count,"
+said the lieutenant.
+
+"You were compelled to obey your orders, gentlemen."
+
+"It was merely a formality, of course," ventured the officer.
+
+By a slight inclination of the head the Count signified that he was
+quite willing to accept this euphemism.
+
+"I assure you, gentlemen, that I have had no hand in this kidnapping."
+
+"We can no longer believe so, Monsieur the Count, and will withdraw."
+
+"As you please. Is the _Ebba_ now free to proceed?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Then _au revoir_, gentlemen, _au revoir_, for I am an _habitue_ of
+this coast and shall soon be back again. I hope that ere my return you
+will have discovered the author of the outrage, and have Thomas Roch
+safely back in Healthful House. It is a consummation devoutly to be
+wished in the interest of the United States--I might even say of the
+whole world."
+
+The two officers courteously saluted the Count, who responded with a
+nod. Captain Spade accompanied them to the gangway, and they were soon
+making for the cruiser, which had steamed near to pick them up.
+
+Meanwhile the breeze had freshened considerably, and when, at a sign
+from d'Artigas, Captain Spade set sail again, the _Ebba_ skimmed
+swiftly through the inlet, and half an hour after was standing out to
+sea.
+
+For an hour she continued steering east-northeast, and then, the wind,
+being merely a land breeze, dropped, and the schooner lay becalmed,
+her sails limp, and her flag drooping like a wet rag. It seemed that
+it would be impossible for the vessel to continue her voyage that
+night unless a breeze sprang up, and of this there was no sign.
+
+Since the schooner had cleared the inlet Captain Spade had stood in
+the bows gazing into the water, now to port, now to starboard, as if
+on the lookout for something. Presently he shouted in a stentorian
+voice:
+
+"Furl sail!"
+
+The sailors rushed to their posts, and in an instant the sails came
+rattling down and were furled.
+
+Was it Count d'Artigas' intention to wait there till daybreak brought
+a breeze with it? Presumably, or the sails would have remained hoisted
+to catch the faintest puff.
+
+A boat was lowered and Captain Spade jumped into it, accompanied by
+a sailor, who paddled it towards an object that was floating on the
+water a few yards away.
+
+This object was a small buoy, similar to that which had floated on the
+bosom of the Neuse when the _Ebba_ lay off Healthful House.
+
+The buoy, with a towline affixed to it, was lifted into the boat that
+was then paddled to the bow of the _Ebba_, from the deck of which
+another hawser was cast to the captain, who made it fast to the
+towline of the buoy. Having dropped the latter overboard again, the
+captain and the sailor returned to the ship and the boat was hoisted
+in.
+
+Almost immediately the hawser tautened, and the _Ebba_, though not a
+stitch of canvas had been set, sped off in an easterly direction at a
+speed that could not have been less than ten knots an hour.
+
+Night was falling fast, and soon the rapidly receding lights along the
+American coast were lost in the mist on the horizon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WHERE AM I?
+
+(Notes by Simon Hart, the Engineer.)
+
+
+Where am I? What has happened since the sudden aggression of which I
+was the victim near the pavilion?
+
+I had just quitted the doctor, and was about to mount the steps, close
+the door and resume my post beside Thomas Roch when several men
+sprang upon me and knocked me down. Who are they? My eyes having been
+bandaged I was unable to recognize them. I could not cry for help,
+having been gagged. I could make no resistance, for they had bound me
+hand and foot. Thus powerless, I felt myself lifted and carried about
+one hundred paces, then hoisted, then lowered, then laid down.
+
+Where? Where?
+
+And Thomas Roch, what has become of him? It must have been he rather
+than I they were after. I was but Gaydon, the warder. None suspected
+that I was Simon Hart, the engineer, nor could they have suspected my
+nationality. Why, therefore, should they have desired to kidnap a mere
+hospital attendant?
+
+There can consequently be no doubt that the French inventor has been
+carried off; and if he was snatched from Healthful House it must have
+been in the hope of forcing his secret from him.
+
+But I am reasoning on the supposition that Thomas Roch was carried off
+with me. Is it so? Yes--it must be--it is. I can entertain no doubt
+whatever about it. I have not fallen into the hands of malefactors
+whose only intention is robbery. They would not have acted in this
+way. After rendering it impossible for me to cry out, after having
+thrown me into a clump of bushes in the corner of the garden, after
+having kidnapped Thomas Roch they would not have shut me up--where I
+now am.
+
+Where? This is the question which I have been asking myself for hours
+without being able to answer it.
+
+However, one thing is certain, and that is that I have embarked upon
+an extraordinary adventure, that will end?--In what manner I know
+not--I dare not even imagine what the upshot of it will be. Anyhow,
+it is my intention to commit to memory, minute by minute, the least
+circumstance, and then, if it be possible, to jot down my daily
+impressions. Who knows what the future has in store for me? And who
+knows but what, in my new position, I may finally discover the secret
+of Roth's fulgurator? If I am to be delivered one day, this secret
+must be made known, as well as who is the author, or who are the
+authors, of this criminal outrage, which may be attended with such
+serious consequences.
+
+I continually revert to this question, hoping that some incident will
+occur to enlighten me:
+
+Where am I?
+
+Let me begin from the beginning.
+
+After having been carried by the head and feet from Healthful House,
+I felt that I was laid, without any brutality, I must admit, upon the
+stretchers of a row-boat of small dimensions.
+
+The rocking caused by the weight of my body was succeeded shortly
+afterwards by a further rocking--which I attribute to the embarking of
+a second person. Can there be room for doubt that it was Thomas
+Roch? As far as he was concerned they would not have had to take the
+precaution of gagging him, or of bandaging his eyes, or of binding
+him. He must still have been in a state of prostration which precluded
+the possibility of his making any resistance, or even of being
+conscious of what was being done. The proof that I am not deceiving
+myself is that I could smell the unmistakable odor of ether. Now,
+yesterday, before taking leave of us, the doctor administered a few
+drops of ether to the invalid and--I remember distinctly--a little of
+this extremely volatile substance fell upon his clothing while he was
+struggling in his fit. There is therefore nothing astonishing in the
+fact that this odor should have clung to him, nor that I should have
+distinguished it, even beneath the bandages that covered my face.
+
+Yes, Thomas Roch was extended near me in the boat. And to think that
+had I not returned to the pavilion when I did, had I delayed a few
+minutes longer, I should have found him gone!
+
+Let me think. What could have inspired that Count d'Artigas with the
+unfortunate curiosity to visit Healthful House? If he had not been
+allowed to see my patient nothing of the kind would have happened.
+Talking to Thomas Roch about his inventions brought on a fit of
+exceptional violence. The director is primarily to blame for not
+heeding my warning. Had he listened to me the doctor would not have
+been called upon to attend him, the door of the pavilion would have
+been locked, and the attempt of the band would have been frustrated.
+
+As to the interest there could have been in carrying off Thomas Roch,
+either on behalf of a private person or of one of the states of the
+Old World, it is so evident that there is no need to dwell upon it.
+However, I can be perfectly easy about the result. No one can possibly
+succeed in learning what for fifteen months I have been unable to
+ascertain. In the condition of intellectual collapse into which my
+fellow-countryman has fallen, all attempts to force his secret from
+him will be futile. Moreover, he is bound to go from bad to worse
+until he is hopelessly insane, even as regards those points upon which
+he has hitherto preserved his reason intact.
+
+After all, however, it is less about Thomas Roch than myself that I
+must think just now, and this is what I have experienced, to resume
+the thread of my adventure where I dropped it:
+
+After more rocking caused by our captors jumping into it, the boat
+is rowed off. The distance must be very short, for a minute after we
+bumped against something. I surmise that this something must be
+the hull of a ship, and that we have run alongside. There is some
+scurrying and excitement. Indistinctly through my bandages I can hear
+orders being given and a confused murmur of voices that lasts for
+about five minutes, but I cannot distinguish a word that is said.
+
+The only thought that occurs to me now is that they will hoist me on
+board and lower me to the bottom of the hold and keep me there till
+the vessel is far out at sea. Obviously they will not allow either
+Thomas Roch or his keeper to appear on deck as long as she remains in
+Pamlico Sound.
+
+My conjecture is correct. Still gagged and bound I am at last lifted
+by the legs and shoulders. My impression, however, is that I am not
+being raised over a ship's bulwark, but on the contrary am being
+lowered. Are they going to drop me overboard to drown like a rat, so
+as to get rid of a dangerous witness? This thought flashes into my
+brain, and a quiver of anguish passes through my body from head to
+foot. Instinctively I draw a long breath, and my lungs are filled with
+the precious air they will speedily lack.
+
+No, there is no immediate cause for alarm. I am laid with comparative
+gentleness upon a hard floor, which gives me the sensation of metallic
+coldness. I am lying at full length. To my extreme surprise, I find
+that the ropes with which I was bound have been untied and loosened.
+The tramping about around me has ceased. The next instant I hear a
+door closed with a bang.
+
+Where am I? And, in the first place, am I alone? I tear the gag from
+my mouth, and the bandages from my head.
+
+It is dark--pitch dark. Not a ray of light, not even the vague
+perception of light that the eyes preserve when the lids are tightly
+closed.
+
+I shout--I shout repeatedly. No response. My voice is smothered. The
+air I breathe is hot, heavy, thick, and the working of my lungs will
+become difficult, impossible, unless the store of air is renewed.
+
+I extend my arms and feel about me, and this is what I conclude:
+
+I am in a compartment with sheet-iron walls, which cannot measure more
+than four cubic yards. I can feel that the walls are of bolted plates,
+like the sides of a ship's water-tight compartment.
+
+I can feel that the entrance to it is by a door on one side, for the
+hinges protrude somewhat. This door must open inwards, and it is
+through here, no doubt, that I was carried in.
+
+I place my ear to the door, but not a sound can be heard. The silence
+is as profound as the obscurity--a strange silence that is only broken
+by the sonorousness of the metallic floor when I move about. None of
+the dull noises usually to be heard on board a ship is perceptible,
+not even the rippling of the water along the hull. Nor is there the
+slightest movement to be felt; yet, in the estuary of the Neuse, the
+current is always strong enough, to cause a marked oscillation to any
+vessel.
+
+But does the compartment in which I am confined, really belong to
+a ship? How do I know that I am afloat on the Neuse, though I was
+conveyed a short distance in a boat? Might not the latter, instead of
+heading for a ship in waiting for it, opposite Healthful House, have
+been rowed to a point further down the river? In this case is it not
+possible that I was carried into the cellar of a house? This would
+explain the complete immobility of the compartment. It is true that
+the walls are of bolted plates, and that there is a vague smell of
+salt water, that odor _sui generis_ which generally pervades the
+interior of a ship, and which there is no mistaking.
+
+An interval, which I estimate at about four hours, must have passed
+since my incarceration. It must therefore be near midnight. Shall I be
+left here in this way till morning? Luckily, I dined at six o'clock,
+which is the regular dinner-hour at Healthful House. I am not
+suffering from hunger. In fact I feel more inclined to sleep than
+to eat. Still, I hope I shall have energy enough to resist the
+inclination. I will not give way to it. I must try and find out what
+is going on outside. But neither sound nor light can penetrate this
+iron box. Wait a minute, though; perhaps by listening intently I may
+hear some sound, however feeble. Therefore I concentrate all my vital
+power in my sense of hearing. Moreover, I try--in case I should
+really not be on _terra firma_--to distinguish some movement, some
+oscillation of my prison. Admitting that the ship is still at anchor,
+it cannot be long before it will start--otherwise I shall have to give
+up imagining why Thomas Roch and I have been carried off.
+
+At last--it is no illusion--a slight rolling proves to me, beyond a
+doubt, that I am not on land. We are evidently moving, but the motion
+is scarcely perceptible. It is not a jerky, but rather a gliding
+movement, as though we were skimming through the water without effort,
+on an even keel.
+
+Let me consider the matter calmly. I am on board a vessel that was
+anchored in the Neuse, waiting under sail or steam, for the result of
+the expedition. A boat brought me aboard, but, I repeat, I did not
+feel that I was lifted over her bulwarks. Was I passed through a
+porthole? But after all, what does it matter? Whether I was lowered
+into the hold or not, I am certainly upon something that is floating
+and moving.
+
+No doubt I shall soon be let out, together with Thomas Roch, supposing
+them to have locked him up as carefully as they have me. By being let
+out, I mean being accorded permission to go on deck. It will not be
+for some hours to come, however, that is certain, for they won't want
+us to be seen, so that there is no chance of getting a whiff of fresh
+air till we are well out at sea. If it is a sailing vessel, she must
+have waited for a breeze--for the breeze that freshens off shore at
+daybreak, and is favorable to ships navigating Pamlico Sound.
+
+It certainly cannot be a steamer. I could not have failed to smell the
+oil and other odors of the engine-room. And then I should feel
+the trembling of the machinery, the jerks of the pistons, and the
+movements of the screws or paddles.
+
+The best thing to do is to wait patiently. I shan't be taken out of
+this hole until to-morrow, anyway. Moreover, if I am not released,
+somebody will surely bring me something to eat. There is no reason to
+suppose that they intend to starve me to death. They wouldn't have
+taken the trouble to bring me aboard, but would have dropped me to the
+bottom of the river had they been desirous of getting rid of me. Once
+we are out at sea, what will they have to fear from me? No one could
+hear my shouts. As to demanding an explanation and making a fuss, it
+would be useless. Besides, what am I to the men who have carried us
+off? A mere hospital attendant--one Gaydon, who is of no consequence.
+It is Thomas Roch they were after. I was taken along too because I
+happened to return to the pavilion at the critical moment.
+
+At any rate, no matter what happens, no matter who our kidnappers may
+be, no matter where we are taken, I shall stick to this resolution: I
+will continue to play my role of warder. No one, no! none, can suspect
+that Gaydon is Simon Hart, the engineer. There are two advantages in
+this: in the first place, they will take no notice of a poor devil
+of a warder, and in the second, I may be able to solve the mystery
+surrounding this plot and turn my knowledge to profit, if I succeed in
+making my escape.
+
+But whither are my thoughts wandering? I must perforce wait till we
+arrive at our destination before thinking of escaping. It will be time
+enough to bother about that when the occasion presents itself. Until
+then the essential is that they remain ignorant as to my identity, and
+they cannot, and shall not, know who I am.
+
+I am now certain that we are going through the water. But there is one
+thing that puzzles me. It is not a sailing vessel, neither can it be a
+steamer. Yet it is incontestably propelled by some powerful machine.
+There are none of the noises, nor is there the trembling that
+accompanies the working of steam engines. The movement of the vessel
+is more continuous and regular, it is a sort of direct rotation that
+is communicated by the motor, whatever the latter may be. No mistake
+is possible: the ship is propelled by some special mechanism. But what
+is it?
+
+Is it one of those turbines that have been spoken of lately, which,
+fitted into a submerged tube, are destined to replace the ordinary
+screw, it being claimed that they utilize the resistance of the water
+better than the latter and give increased speed to a ship?
+
+In a few hours' time I shall doubtless know all about this means of
+locomotion.
+
+Meanwhile there is another thing that equally puzzles me. There is not
+the slightest rolling or pitching. How is it that Pamlico Sound is so
+extraordinarily calm? The varying currents continuously ruffle the
+surface of the Sound, even if nothing else does.
+
+It is true the tide may be out, and I remember that last night
+the wind had fallen altogether. Still, no matter, the thing is
+inexplicable, for a ship propelled by machinery, no matter at what
+speed she may be going, always oscillates more or less, and I cannot
+perceive the slightest rocking.
+
+Such are the thoughts with which my mind is persistently filled.
+Despite an almost overpowering desire to sleep, despite the torpor
+that is coming upon me in this suffocating atmosphere, I am resolved
+not to close my eyes. I will keep awake till daylight, and there will
+be no daylight for me till it is let into my prison from the outside.
+Perhaps even if the door were open it would not penetrate to this
+black hole, and I shall probably not see it again until I am taken on
+deck.
+
+I am squatting in a corner of my prison, for I have no stool or
+anything to sit upon, but as my eyelids are heavy and I feel somnolent
+in spite of myself, I get up and walk about. Then I wax wrathful,
+anger fills my soul, I beat upon the iron walls with my fists, and
+shout for help. In vain! I hurt my hands against the bolts of the
+plates, and no one answers my cries.
+
+Such conduct is unworthy of me. I flattered myself that I would remain
+calm under all circumstances and here I am acting like a child.
+
+The absence of any rolling or lurching movement at least proves that
+we are not yet at sea. Instead of crossing Pamlico Sound, may we not
+be going in the opposite direction, up the River Neuse? No! What would
+they go further inland for? If Thomas Roch has been carried off from
+Healthful House, his captors obviously mean to take him out of the
+United States--probably to a distant island in the Atlantic, or to
+some point on the European continent. It is, therefore, not up the
+Neuse that our maritime machine, whatever it may be, is going, but
+across Pamlico Sound, which must be as calm as a mirror.
+
+Very well, then, when we get to sea I shall soon, know, for the vessel
+will rock right enough in the swell off shore, even though there be
+no wind,--unless I am aboard a battleship, or big cruiser, and this I
+fancy can hardly be!
+
+But hark! If I mistake not--no, it was not imagination--I hear
+footsteps. Some one is approaching the side of the compartment where
+the door is. One of the crew no doubt. Are they going to let me out at
+last? I can now hear voices. A conversation is going on outside the
+door, but it is carried on in a language that I do not understand. I
+shout to them--I shout again, but no answer is vouchsafed.
+
+There is nothing to do, then, but wait, wait, wait! I keep repeating
+the word and it rings in my ears like a bell.
+
+Let me try to calculate how long I have been here. The ship must have
+been under way for at least four or five hours. I reckon it must be
+past midnight, but I cannot tell, for unfortunately my watch is of no
+use to me in this Cimmerian darkness.
+
+Now, if we have been going for five hours, we must have cleared
+Pamlico Sound, whether we issued by Ocracoke or Hatteras inlet, and
+must be off the coast a good mile, at least. Yet I haven't felt any
+motion from the swell of the sea.
+
+It is inexplicable, incredible! Come now, have I made a mistake? Am
+I the dupe of an illusion? Am I not imprisoned in the hold of a ship
+under way?
+
+Another hour has passed and the movement of the ship suddenly ceases;
+I realize perfectly that she is stationary. Has she reached her
+destination? In this event we can only be in one of the coast ports
+to the north or south of Pamlico Sound. But why should Thomas Roch be
+landed again? The abduction must soon have been discovered, and our
+kidnappers would run the greatest risk of falling into the hands of
+the authorities if they attempted to disembark.
+
+However this may be, if the vessel is coming to anchor I shall hear
+the noise of the chain as it is paid out, and feel the jerk as
+the ship is brought up. I know that sound and that jerk well from
+experience, and I am bound to hear and feel them in a minute or two.
+
+I wait--I listen.
+
+A dead and disquieting silence reigns on board. I begin to wonder
+whether I am not the only living being in the ship.
+
+Now I feel an irresistible torpor coming over me. The air is vitiated.
+I cannot breathe. My chest is bursting. I try to resist, but it is
+impossible to do so. The temperature rises to such a degree that I am
+compelled to divest myself of part of my clothing. Then I lie me down
+in a corner. My heavy eyelids close, and I sink into a prostration
+that eventually forces me into heavy slumber.
+
+How long have I been asleep? I cannot say. Is it night? Is it day? I
+know not. I remark, however, that I breathe more easily, and that the
+air is no longer poisoned carbonic acid.
+
+Was the air renewed while I slept? Has the door been opened? Has
+anybody been in here?
+
+Yes, here is the proof of it!
+
+In feeling about, my hand has come in contact with a mug filled with
+a liquid that exhales an inviting odor. I raise it to my lips, which,
+are burning, for I am suffering such an agony of thirst that I would
+even drink brackish water.
+
+It is ale--an ale of excellent quality--which refreshes and comforts
+me, and I drain the pint to the last drop.
+
+But if they have not condemned me to die of thirst, neither have they
+condemned me to die of hunger, I suppose?
+
+No, for in one of the corners I find a basket, and this basket
+contains some bread and cold meat.
+
+I fall to, eating greedily, and my strength little by little returns.
+
+Decidedly, I am not so abandoned as I thought I was. Some one entered
+this obscure hole, and the open door admitted a little of the oxygen
+from the outside, without which I should have been suffocated. Then
+the wherewithal to quench my thirst and appease the pangs of hunger
+was placed within my reach.
+
+How much longer will this incarceration last? Days? Months? I cannot
+estimate the hours that have elapsed since I fell asleep, nor have I
+any idea as to what time of the day or night it may be. I was careful
+to wind up my watch, though, and perhaps by feeling the hands--Yes, I
+think the little hand marks eight o'clock--in the morning, no doubt.
+What I do know, however, is that the ship is not in motion. There is
+not the slightest quiver.
+
+Hours and hours, weary, interminable hours go by, and I wonder whether
+they are again waiting till night comes on to renew my stock of
+air and provisions. Yes, they are waiting to take advantage of my
+slumbers. But this time I am resolved to resist. I will feign to be
+asleep--and I shall know how to force an answer from whoever enters!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ON DECK.
+
+
+Here I am in the open air, breathing freely once more. I have at last
+been hauled out of that stifling box and taken on deck. I gaze around
+me in every direction and see no sign of land. On every hand is that
+circular line which defines earth and sky. No, there is not even a
+speck of land to be seen to the west, where the coast of North America
+extends for thousands of miles.
+
+The setting sun now throws but slanting rays upon the bosom of the
+ocean. It must be about six o'clock in the evening. I take out my
+watch and it marks thirteen minutes past six.
+
+As I have already mentioned, I waited for the door of my prison to
+open, thoroughly resolved not to fall asleep again, but to spring upon
+the first person who entered and force him to answer my questions. I
+was not aware then that it was day, but it was, and hour after hour
+passed and no one came. I began to suffer again from hunger and
+thirst, for I had not preserved either bite or sup.
+
+As soon as I awoke I felt that the ship was in motion again, after
+having, I calculated, remained stationary since the previous day--no
+doubt in some lonely creek, since I had not heard or felt her come to
+anchor.
+
+A few minutes ago--it must therefore have been six o'clock--I again
+heard footsteps on the other side of the iron wall of my compartment.
+Was anybody coming to my cell? Yes, for I heard the creaking of the
+bolts as they were drawn back, and then the door opened, and the
+darkness in which I had been plunged since the first hour of my
+captivity was illumined by the light of a lantern.
+
+Two men, whom I had no time to look at, entered and seized me by the
+arms. A thick cloth was thrown over my head, which was enveloped in
+such a manner that I could see absolutely nothing.
+
+What did it all mean? What were they going to do with me? I struggled,
+but they held me in an iron grasp. I questioned them, but they made
+no reply. The men spoke to each other in a language that I could not
+understand, and had never heard before.
+
+They stood upon no ceremony with me. It is true I was only a madhouse
+warder, and they probably did not consider it necessary to do so; but
+I question very much whether Simon Hart, the engineer, would have
+received any more courtesy at their hands.
+
+This time, however, no attempt was made to gag me nor to bind either
+my arms or legs. I was simply restrained by main force from breaking
+away from them.
+
+In a moment I was dragged out of the compartment and pushed along a
+narrow passage. Next, the steps of a metallic stairway resounded under
+our feet. Then the fresh air blew in my face and I inhaled it with
+avidity.
+
+Finally they took their hands from off me, and I found myself free. I
+immediately tore the cloth off my head and gazed about me.
+
+I am on board a schooner which is ripping through the water at a great
+rate and leaving a long white trail behind her.
+
+I had to clutch at one of the stays for support, dazzled as I was
+by the light after my forty-eight hours' imprisonment in complete
+obscurity.
+
+On the deck a dozen men with rough, weather-beaten faces come and
+go--very dissimilar types of men, to whom it would be impossible to
+attribute any particular nationality. They scarcely take any notice of
+me.
+
+As to the schooner, I estimate that she registers from two hundred and
+fifty to three hundred tons. She has a fairly wide beam, her masts are
+strong and lofty, and her large spread of canvas must carry her along
+at a spanking rate in a good breeze.
+
+Aft, a grizzly-faced man is at the wheel, and he is keeping her head
+to the sea that is running pretty high.
+
+I try to find out the name of the vessel, but it is not to be seen
+anywhere, even on the life-buoys.
+
+I walk up to one of the sailors and inquire:
+
+"What is the name of this ship?"
+
+No answer, and I fancy the man does not understand me.
+
+"Where is the captain?" I continue.
+
+But the sailor pays no more heed to this than he did to the previous
+question.
+
+I turn on my heel and go forward.
+
+Above the forward hatchway a bell is suspended. Maybe the name of the
+schooner is engraved upon it. I examine it, but can find no name upon
+it.
+
+I then return to the stern and address the man at the wheel. He gazes
+at me sourly, shrugs his shoulders, and bending, grasps the spokes of
+the wheel solidly, and brings the schooner, which had been headed off
+by a large wave from port, stem on to sea again.
+
+Seeing that nothing is to be got from that quarter, I turn away and
+look about to see if I can find Thomas Roch, but I do not perceive
+him anywhere. Is he not on board? He must be. They could have had no
+reason for carrying me off alone. No one could have had any idea
+that I was Simon Hart, the engineer, and even had they known it what
+interest could they have had in me, and what could they expect of me?
+
+Therefore, as Roch is not on deck, I conclude that he is locked in one
+of the cabins, and trust he has met with better treatment than his
+ex-guardian.
+
+But what is this--and how on earth could I have failed to notice it
+before? How is this schooner moving? Her sails are furled--there is
+not an inch of canvas set--the wind has fallen, and the few puffs that
+occasionally come from the east are unfavorable, in view of the fact
+that we are going in that very direction. And yet the schooner speeds
+through the sea, her bows down, throwing off clouds of foam, and
+leaving a long, milky, undulating trail in her wake.
+
+Is she a steam-yacht? No--there is not a smokestack about her. Is she
+propelled by electricity--by a battery of accumulators, or by piles of
+great power that work her screw and send her along at this rate?
+
+I can come to no other conclusion. In any case she must be fitted with
+a screw, and by leaning over the stern I shall be able to see it, and
+can find out what sets it working afterwards.
+
+The man at the wheel watches me ironically as I approach, but makes no
+effort to prevent me from looking over.
+
+I gaze long and earnestly, but there is no foaming and seething of
+the water such as is invariably caused by the revolutions of the
+screw--naught but the long white furrow that a sailing vessel leaves
+behind is discernible in the schooner's wake.
+
+Then, what kind of a machine is it that imparts such a marvellous
+speed to the vessel? As I have already said, the wind is against her,
+and there is a heavy swell on.
+
+I must--I will know. No one pays the slightest attention, and I again
+go forward.
+
+As I approach the forecastle I find myself face to face with a man who
+is leaning nonchalantly on the raised hatchway and who is watching me.
+He seems to be waiting for me to speak to him.
+
+I recognize him instantly. He is the person who accompanied the Count
+d'Artigas during the latter's visit to Healthful House. There can be
+no mistake--it is he right enough.
+
+It was, then, that rich foreigner who abducted Thomas Roch, and I am
+on board the _Ebba_ his schooner-yacht which is so well known on the
+American coast!
+
+The man before me will enlighten me about what I want to know. I
+remember that he and the Count spoke English together.
+
+I take him to be the captain of the schooner.
+
+"Captain," I say, "you are the person I saw at Healthful House. You
+remember me, of course?"
+
+He looks me up and down but does not condescend to reply.
+
+"I am Warder Gaydon, the attendant of Thomas Roch," I continue, "and I
+want to know why you have carried me off and placed me on board this
+schooner?"
+
+The captain interrupts me with a sign. It is not made to me, however,
+but to some sailors standing near.
+
+They catch me by the arms, and taking no notice of the angry movement
+that I cannot restrain, bundle me down the hatchway. The hatchway
+stair in reality, I remark, is a perpendicular iron ladder, at the
+bottom of which, to right and left, are some cabins, and forward, the
+men's quarters.
+
+Are they going to put me back in my dark prison at the bottom of the
+hold?
+
+No. They turn to the left and push me into a cabin. It is lighted by
+a port-hole, which is open, and through which the fresh air comes in
+gusts from the briny. The furniture consists of a bunk, a chair, a
+chest of drawers, a wash-hand-stand and a table.
+
+The latter is spread for dinner, and I sit down. Then the cook's mate
+comes in with two or three dishes. He is a colored lad, and as he is
+about to withdraw, I try to question him, but he, too, vouchsafes no
+reply. Perhaps he doesn't understand me.
+
+The door is closed, and I fall to and eat with an excellent appetite,
+with the intention of putting off all further questioning till some
+future occasion when I shall stand a chance of getting answered.
+
+It is true I am a prisoner, but this time I am comfortable enough, and
+I hope I shall be permitted to occupy this cabin for the remainder of
+the voyage, and not be lowered into that black hole again.
+
+I now give myself up to my thoughts, the first of which is that it was
+the Count d'Artigas who planned the abduction; that it was he who is
+responsible for the kidnapping of Thomas Roch, and that consequently
+the French inventor must be just as comfortably installed somewhere on
+board the schooner.
+
+But who is this Count d'Artigas? Where does he hail from? If he has
+seized Thomas Roch, is it not because he is determined to secure the
+secret of the fulgurator at no matter what cost? Very likely, and I
+must therefore be careful not to betray my identity, for if they knew
+the truth, I should never be afforded a chance to get away.
+
+But what a lot of mysteries to clear up, how many inexplicable things
+to explain--the origin of this d'Artigas, his intentions as to the
+future, whither we are bound, the port to which the schooner belongs,
+and this mysterious progress through the water without sails and
+without screws, at a speed of at least ten knots an hour!
+
+The air becoming keener as night deepens, I close and secure the
+port-hole, and as my cabin is bolted on the outside, the best thing I
+can do is to get into my bunk and let myself be gently rocked to sleep
+by the broad Atlantic in this mysterious cradle, the _Ebba_.
+
+The next morning I rise at daybreak, and having performed my
+ablutions, dress myself and wait.
+
+Presently the idea of trying the door occurs to me. I find that it has
+been unbolted, and pushing it open, climb the iron ladder and emerge
+on deck.
+
+The crew are washing down the deck, and standing aft and conversing
+are two men, one of whom is the captain. The latter manifests no
+surprise at seeing me, and indicates my presence to his companion by a
+nod.
+
+This other man, whom I have never before seen, is an individual of
+about fifty years of age, whose dark hair is streaked with gray.
+His features are delicately chiselled, his eyes are bright, and his
+expression is intelligent and not at all displeasing. He is somewhat
+of the Grecian type, and I have no doubt that he is of Hellenic origin
+when I hear him called Serko--Engineer Serko--by the Captain of the
+_Ebba_.
+
+As to the latter, he is called Spade--Captain Spade--and this name has
+an Italian twang about it. Thus there is a Greek, an Italian, and a
+crew recruited from every corner of the earth to man a schooner with a
+Norwegian name! This mixture strikes me as being suspicious.
+
+And that Count d'Artigas, with his Spanish name and Asiatic type,
+where does he come from?
+
+Captain Spade and Engineer Serko continue to converse in a low tone of
+voice. The former is keeping a sharp eye on the man at the wheel, who
+does not appear to pay any particular attention to the compass in
+front of him. He seems to pay more heed to the gestures of one of the
+sailors stationed forward, and who signals to him to put the helm to
+port or to starboard.
+
+Thomas Roch is near them, gazing vacantly out upon the vast expanse
+which is not limited on the horizon by a single speck of land. Two
+sailors watch his every movement. It is evidently feared that the
+madman may possibly attempt to jump overboard.
+
+I wonder whether I shall be permitted to communicate with my ward.
+
+I walk towards him, and Captain Spade and Engineer Serko watch me.
+
+Thomas Roch doesn't see me coming, and I stand beside him. Still he
+takes no notice of me, and makes no movement. His eyes, which sparkle
+brightly, wander over the ocean, and he draws in deep breaths of the
+salt, vivifying atmosphere. Added to the air surcharged with oxygen is
+a magnificent sunset in a cloudless sky. Does he perceive the change
+in his situation? Has he already forgotten about Healthful House, the
+pavilion in which he was a prisoner, and Gaydon, his keeper? It is
+highly probable. The past has presumably been effaced from his memory
+and he lives solely in the present.
+
+In my opinion, even on the deck of the _Ebba_, in the middle of the
+sea, Thomas Roch is still the helpless, irresponsible man whom I
+tended for fifteen months. His intellectual condition has undergone no
+change, and his reason will return only when he is spoken to about
+his inventions. The Count d'Artigas is perfectly aware of this mental
+disposition, having had a proof of it during his visit, and he
+evidently relies thereon to surprise sooner or later the inventor's
+secret. But with what object?
+
+"Thomas Roch!" I exclaim.
+
+My voice seems to strike him, and after gazing at me fixedly for an
+instant he averts his eyes quickly.
+
+I take his hand and press it. He withdraws it brusquely and walks
+away, without having recognized me, in the direction of Captain Spade
+and Engineer Serko.
+
+Does he think of speaking to one or other of these men, and if they
+speak to him will he be more reasonable than he was with me, and reply
+to them?
+
+At this moment his physiognomy lights up with a gleam of intelligence.
+His attention, obviously, has been attracted by the queer progress
+of the schooner. He gazes at the masts and the furled sails. Then he
+turns back and stops at the place where, if the _Ebba_ were a steamer,
+the funnel ought to be, and which in this case ought to be belching
+forth a cloud of black smoke.
+
+What appeared so strange to me evidently strikes Thomas Roch as being
+strange, too. He cannot explain what I found inexplicable, and, as I
+did, he walks aft to see if there is a screw.
+
+On the flanks of the _Ebba_ a shoal of porpoises are sporting.
+Swift as is the schooner's course they easily pass her, leaping and
+gambolling in their native element with surprising grace and agility.
+
+Thomas Roch pays no attention to them, but leans over the stern.
+
+Engineer Serko and Captain Spade, fearful lest he should fall
+overboard, hurry to him and drag him gently, but firmly, away.
+
+I observe from long experience that Roch is a prey to violent
+excitement. He turns about and gesticulates, uttering incoherent
+phrases the while.
+
+It is plain to me that another fit is coming on, similar to the one he
+had in the pavilion of Healthful House on the night we were abducted.
+He will have to be seized and carried down to his cabin, and I shall
+perhaps be summoned to attend to him.
+
+Meanwhile Engineer Serko and Captain Spade do not lose sight of him
+for a moment. They are evidently curious to see what he will do.
+
+After walking towards the mainmast and assuring himself that the sails
+are not set, he goes up to it and flinging his arms around it, tries
+with all his might to shake it, as though seeking to pull it down.
+
+
+Finding his efforts futile, he quits it and goes to the foremast,
+where the same performance is gone through. He waxes more and more
+excited. His vague utterances are followed by inarticulate cries.
+
+Suddenly he rushes to the port stays and clings to them, and I
+begin to fear that he will leap into the rigging and climb to the
+cross-tree, where he might be precipitated into the sea by a lurch of
+the ship.
+
+On a sign from Captain Spade, some sailors run up and try to make him
+relinquish his grasp of the stays, but are unable to do so. I know
+that during his fits he is endowed with the strength of ten men, and
+many a time I have been compelled to summon assistance in order to
+overpower him.
+
+Other members of the crew, however, come up, and the unhappy madman is
+borne to the deck, where two big sailors hold him down, despite his
+extraordinary strength.
+
+The only thing to do is to convey him to his cabin, and let him
+lie there till he gets over his fit. This is what will be done in
+conformity with orders given by a new-comer whose voice seems familiar
+to me.
+
+I turn and recognize him.
+
+He is the Count d'Artigas, with a frown on his face and an imperious
+manner, just as I had seen him at Healthful House.
+
+I at once advance toward him. I want an explanation and mean to have
+it.
+
+"By what right, sir?"--I begin.
+
+"By the right of might," replies the Count.
+
+Then he turns on his heel, and Thomas Roch is carried below.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+TWO DAYS AT SEA.
+
+
+Perhaps--should circumstances render it necessary--I may be induced to
+tell the Count d'Artigas that I am Simon Hart, the engineer. Who knows
+but what I may receive more consideration than if I remain Warder
+Gaydon? This measure, however, demands reflection. I have always been
+dominated by the thought that if the owner of the _Ebba_ kidnapped the
+French inventor, it was in the hope of getting possession of Roch's
+fulgurator, for which, neither the old nor new continent would pay the
+impossible price demanded. In that case the best thing I can do is to
+remain Warder Gaydon, on the chance that I may be allowed to continue
+in attendance upon him. In this way, if Thomas Roch should ever
+divulge his secret, I may learn what it was impossible to do at
+Healthful House, and can act accordingly.
+
+Meanwhile, where is the _Ebba_ bound?--first question.
+
+Who and what is the Count d'Artigas?--second question.
+
+The first will be answered in a few days' time, no doubt, in view of
+the rapidity with which we are ripping through the water, under the
+action of a means of propulsion that I shall end by finding out
+all about. As regards the second, I am by no means so sure that my
+curiosity will ever be gratified.
+
+In my opinion this enigmatical personage has an all important reason
+for hiding his origin, and I am afraid there is no indication by which
+I can gauge his nationality. If the Count d'Artigas speaks English
+fluently--and I was able to assure myself of that fact during his
+visit to Pavilion No. 17,--he pronounces it with a harsh, vibrating
+accent, which is not to be found among the peoples of northern
+latitudes. I do not remember ever to have heard anything like it in
+the course of my travels either in the Old or New World--unless it
+be the harshness characteristic of the idioms in use among the Malays.
+And, in truth, with his olive, verging on copper-tinted skin, his
+jet-black, crinkly hair, his piercing, deep-set, restless eyes, his
+square shoulders and marked muscular development, it is by no means
+unlikely that he belongs to one of the extreme Eastern races.
+
+I believe this name of d'Artigas is an assumed one, and his title of
+Count likewise. If his schooner bears a Norwegian name, he at any rate
+is not of Scandinavian origin. He has nothing of the races of Northern
+Europe about him.
+
+But whoever and whatever he may be, this man abducted Thomas Roch--and
+me with him--with no good intention, I'll be bound.
+
+But what I should like to know is, has he acted as the agent of a
+foreign power, or on his own account? Does he wish to profit alone by
+Thomas Roch's invention, and is he in the position to dispose of it
+profitably? That is another question that I cannot yet answer. Maybe
+I shall be able to find out from what I hear and see ere I make my
+escape, if escape be possible.
+
+The _Ebba_ continues on her way in the same mysterious manner. I am
+free to walk about the deck, without, however, being able to go beyond
+the fore hatchway. Once I attempted to go as far as the bows where I
+could, by leaning over, perceive the schooner's stem as it cut through
+the water, but acting, it was plain, on orders received, the watch
+on deck turned me back, and one of them, addressing me brusquely in
+harsh, grating English, said:
+
+"Go back! Go back! You are interfering with the working of the ship!"
+
+With the working of the ship! There was no working.
+
+Did they realize that I was trying to discover by what means the
+schooner was propelled? Very likely, and Captain Spade, who had looked
+on, must have known it, too. Even a hospital attendant could not fail
+to be astonished at the fact that a vessel without either screw or
+sails was going along at such a speed. However this may be, for some
+reason or other, the bows of the _Ebba_ are barred to me.
+
+Toward ten o'clock a breeze springs up--a northwest wind and very
+favorable--and Captain Spade gives an order to the boatswain. The
+latter immediately pipes all hands on deck, and the mainsail, the
+foresail, staysail and jibs are hoisted. The work could not have been
+executed with greater regularity and discipline on board a man-of-war.
+
+The _Ebba_ now has a slight list to port, and her speed is notably
+increased. But the motor continues to push her along, as is evident
+from the fact that the sails are not always as full as they ought
+to be if the schooner were bowling along solely under their action.
+However, they continue to render yeoman's service, for the breeze has
+set in steadily.
+
+The sky is clear, for the clouds in the west disappear as soon as they
+attain the horizon, and the sunlight dances on the water.
+
+My preoccupation now is to find out as near as possible where we
+are bound for. I am a good-enough sailor to be able to estimate
+the approximate speed of a ship. In my opinion the _Ebba_ has been
+travelling at the rate of from ten to eleven knots an hour. As to the
+direction we have been going in, it is always the same, and I have
+been able to verify this by casual glances at the binnacle. If the
+fore part of the vessel is barred to Warder Gaydon he has been allowed
+a free run of the remainder of it. Time and again I have glanced at
+the compass, and noticed that the needle invariably pointed to the
+east, or to be exact, east-southeast.
+
+These are the conditions in which we are navigating this part of the
+Atlantic Ocean, which is bounded on the west by the coast of the
+United States of America.
+
+I appeal to my memory. What are the islands or groups of islands to
+be found in the direction we are going, ere the continent of the Old
+World is reached?
+
+North Carolina, which the schooner quitted forty-eight hours ago, is
+traversed by the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude, and this parallel,
+extending eastward, must, if I mistake not, cut the African coast at
+Morocco. But along the line, about three thousand miles from America,
+are the Azores. Is it presumable that the _Ebba_ is heading for this
+archipelago, that the port to which she belongs is somewhere in these
+islands which constitute one of Portugal's insular domains? I cannot
+admit such an hypothesis.
+
+Besides, before the Azores, on the line of the thirty-fifth parallel,
+is the Bermuda group, which belongs to England. It seems to me to be a
+good deal less hypothetical that, if the Count d'Artigas was entrusted
+with the abduction of Thomas Roch by a European Power at all, it was
+by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The possibility,
+however, remains that he may be acting solely in his own interest.
+
+Three or four times during the day Count d'Artigas has come aft and
+remained for some time scanning the surrounding horizon attentively.
+When a sail or the smoke from a steamer heaves in sight he examines
+the passing vessel for a considerable time with a powerful telescope.
+I may add that he has not once condescended to notice my presence on
+deck.
+
+Now and then Captain Spade joins him and both exchange a few words in
+a language that I can neither understand nor recognize.
+
+It is with Engineer Serko, however, that the owner of the _Ebba_
+converses more readily than with anybody else, and the latter appears
+to be very intimate with him. The engineer is a good deal more free,
+more loquacious and less surly than his companions, and I wonder what
+position he occupies on the schooner. Is he a personal friend of the
+Count d'Artigas? Does he scour the seas with him, sharing the enviable
+life enjoyed by the rich yachtsman? He is the only man of the lot who
+seems to manifest, if not sympathy with, at least some interest in me.
+
+I have not seen Thomas Roch all day. He must be shut in his cabin,
+still under the influence of the fit that came upon him last night.
+
+I feel certain that this is so, when about three o'clock in the
+afternoon, just as he is about to go below, the Count beckons me to
+approach.
+
+I do not know what he wishes to say to me, this Count d'Artigas, but I
+do know what I will say to him.
+
+"Do these fits to which Thomas Roch is subject last long?" he asks me
+in English.
+
+"Sometimes forty-eight hours," I reply.
+
+"What is to be done?"
+
+"Nothing at all. Let him alone until he falls asleep. After a night's
+sleep the fit will be over and Thomas Roch will be his own helpless
+self again."
+
+"Very well, Warder Gaydon, you will continue to attend him as you did
+at Healthful House, if it be necessary."
+
+"To attend to him!"
+
+"Yes--on board the schooner--pending our arrival."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Where we shall be to-morrow afternoon," replies the Count.
+
+To-morrow, I say to myself. Then we are not bound for the coast of
+Africa, nor even the Azores. There only remains the hypothesis that we
+are making for the Bermudas.
+
+Count d'Artigas is about to go down the hatchway when I interrogate
+him in my turn:
+
+"Sir," I exclaim, "I desire to know, I have the right to know, where I
+am going, and----"
+
+"Here, Warder Gaydon," he interrupted, "you have no rights. All you
+have to do is to answer when you are spoken to." "I protest!"
+
+"Protest, then," replies this haughty and imperious personage,
+glancing at me menacingly.
+
+Then he disappears down the hatchway, leaving me face to face with
+Engineer Serko.
+
+"If I were you, Warder Gaydon, I would resign myself to the
+inevitable," remarks the latter with a smile. "When one is caught in a
+trap----"
+
+"One can cry out, I suppose?"
+
+"What is the use when no one is near to hear you?"
+
+"I shall be heard some day, sir."
+
+"Some day--that's a long way off. However, shout as much as you
+please."
+
+And with this ironical advice, Engineer Serko leaves me to my own
+reflections.
+
+Towards four o'clock a big ship is reported about six miles off to
+the east, coming in our direction. She is moving rapidly and grows
+perceptibly larger. Black clouds of smoke pour out of her two funnels.
+She is a warship, for a narrow pennant floats from her main-mast,
+and though she is not flying any flag I take her to be an American
+cruiser.
+
+I wonder whether the _Ebba_ will render her the customary salute as
+she passes.
+
+No; for the schooner suddenly changes her course with the evident
+intention of avoiding her.
+
+This proceeding on the part of such a suspicious yacht does not
+astonish me greatly. But what does cause me extreme surprise is
+Captain Spade's way of manoeuvring.
+
+He runs forward to a signalling apparatus in the bows, similar to that
+by which orders are transmitted to the engine room of a steamer. As
+soon as he presses one of the buttons of this apparatus the _Ebba_
+veers off a point to the south-west.
+
+Evidently an order of "some kind" has been transmitted to the driver
+of the machine of "some kind" which causes this inexplicable movement
+of the schooner by the action of a motor of "some kind" the principle
+of which I cannot guess at.
+
+The result of this manoeuvre is that the _Ebba_ slants away from the
+cruiser, whose course does not vary. Why should this warship cause a
+pleasure-yacht to turn out of its way? I have no idea.
+
+But the _Ebba_ behaves in a very different manner when about six
+o'clock in the evening a second ship comes in sight on the port bow.
+This time, instead of seeking to avoid her, Captain Spade signals an
+order by means of the apparatus above referred to, and resumes his
+course to the east--which will bring him close to the said ship.
+
+An hour later, the two vessels are only about four miles from each
+other.
+
+The wind has dropped completely. The strange ship, which is a
+three-masted merchantman, is taking in her top-gallant sails. It is
+useless to expect the wind to spring up again during the night, and
+she will lay becalmed till morning. The _Ebba_, however, propelled by
+her mysterious motor, continues to approach her.
+
+It goes without saying, that Captain Spade has also begun to take in
+sail, and the work, under the direction of the boatswain Effrondat, is
+executed with the same precision and promptness that struck me before.
+
+When the twilight deepens into darkness, only a mile and a half
+separates the vessels.
+
+Captain Spade then comes up to me--I am standing on the starboard
+side--and unceremoniously orders me to go below.
+
+I can but obey. I remark, however, ere I go, that the boatswain has
+not lighted the head-lamps, whereas the lamps of the three-master
+shine brightly--green to starboard, and red to port.
+
+I entertain no doubt that the schooner intends to pass her without
+being seen; for though she has slackened speed somewhat, her direction
+has not been in any way modified.
+
+I enter my cabin under the impression of a vague foreboding. My supper
+is on the table, but uneasy, I know not why, I hardly touch it, and
+lie down to wait for sleep that does not come.
+
+I remain in this condition for two hours. The silence is unbroken save
+by the water that ripples along the vessel's sides.
+
+My mind is full of the events of the past two days, and other thoughts
+crowd thickly upon me. To-morrow afternoon we shall reach our
+destination. To-morrow, I shall resume, on land, my attendance upon
+Thomas Roch, "if it be necessary," said the Count d'Artigas.
+
+If, when I was thrown into that black hole at the bottom of the hold,
+I was able to perceive when the schooner started off across Pamlico
+Sound, I now feel that she has come to a stop. It must be about ten
+o'clock.
+
+Why has she stopped? When Captain Spade ordered me below, there was no
+land in sight. In this direction, there is no island until the Bermuda
+group is reached--at least there is none on the map--and we shall have
+to go another fifty or sixty miles before the Bermudas can be
+sighted by the lookout men. Not only has the _Ebba_ stopped, but her
+immobility is almost complete. There is not a breath of wind, and
+scarcely any swell, and her slight, regular rocking is hardly
+perceptible.
+
+Then my thoughts turn to the merchantman, which was only a mile and a
+half off, on our bow, when I came below. If the schooner continued her
+course towards her, she must be almost alongside now. We certainly
+cannot be lying more than one or two cables' length from her. The
+three-master, which was becalmed at sundown, could not have gone west.
+She must be close by, and if the night is clear, I shall be able to
+see her through the porthole.
+
+It occurs to me, that perhaps a chance of escape presents itself. Why
+should I not attempt it, since no hope of being restored to liberty is
+held out to me? It is true I cannot swim, but if I seize a life buoy
+and jump overboard, I may be able to reach the ship, if I am not
+observed by the watch on deck.
+
+I must quit my cabin and go up by the forward hatchway. I listen. I
+hear no noise, either in the men's quarters, or on deck. The sailors
+must all be asleep at this hour. Here goes.
+
+I try to open the door, and find it is bolted on the outside, as I
+might have expected.
+
+I must give up the attempt, which, after all, had small chance of
+success.
+
+The best thing I can do, is to go to sleep, for I am weary of mind,
+if not of body. I am restless and racked by conflicting thoughts, and
+apprehensions of I know not what. Oh! if I could but sink into the
+blessed oblivion of slumber!
+
+I must have managed to fall asleep, for I have just been awakened by
+a noise--an unusual noise, such as I have not hitherto heard on board
+the schooner.
+
+Day begins to peer through the glass of my port-hole, which is turned
+towards the east. I look at my watch. It is half-past four.
+
+The first thing I wonder is, whether the _Ebba_ has resumed her
+voyage.
+
+No, I am certain she has not, either by sail, or by her motor. The
+sea is as calm at sunrise as it was at sunset. If the _Ebba_ has been
+going ahead while I slept, she is at any rate, stationary now.
+
+The noise to which I referred, is caused by men hurrying to and fro on
+deck--by men heavily laden. I fancy I can also hear a similar noise
+in the hold beneath my cabin floor, the entrance to which is situated
+abaft the foremast. I also feel that something is scraping against the
+schooner's hull. Have boats come alongside? Are the crew engaged in
+loading or unloading merchandise?
+
+And yet we cannot possibly have reached our journey's end. The Count
+d'Artigas said that we should not reach our destination till this
+afternoon. Now, I repeat, she was, last night, fully fifty or sixty
+miles from the nearest land, the group of the Bermudas. That she could
+have returned westward, and can be in proximity to the American coast,
+is inadmissible, in view of the distance. Moreover, I have reason to
+believe that the _Ebba_ has remained stationary all night. Before I
+fell asleep, I know she had stopped, and I now know that she is not
+moving.
+
+However, I shall see when I am allowed to go on deck. My cabin door is
+still bolted, I find on trying it; but I do not think they are likely
+to keep me here when broad daylight is on.
+
+An hour goes by, and it gradually gets lighter. I look out of my
+porthole. The ocean is covered by a mist, which the first rays of the
+sun will speedily disperse.
+
+I can, however, see for a half a mile, and if the three-masted
+merchantman is not visible, it is probably because she is lying off
+the other, or port, side of the _Ebba_.
+
+Presently I hear a key turned in my door, and the bolts drawn. I push
+the door open and clamber up the iron ladder to the deck, just as the
+men are battening down the cover of the hold.
+
+I look for the Count d'Artigas, but do not see him. He has not yet
+left his cabin.
+
+Aft, Captain Spade and Engineer Serko are superintending the stowing
+of some bales, which have doubtless been hoisted from the hold. This
+explains the noisy operations that were going on when I was awakened.
+Obviously, if the crew are getting out the cargo, we are approaching
+the end of our voyage. We are not far from port, and perhaps in a few
+hours, the schooner will drop anchor.
+
+But what about the sailing ship that was to port of us? She ought to
+be in the same place, seeing that there has been and is no wind.
+
+I look for her, but she is nowhere to be seen. There is not a sail,
+not a speck on the horizon either east, west, north or south.
+
+After cogitating upon the circumstance I can only arrive at the
+following conclusion, which, however, can only be accepted under
+reserve: Although I did not notice it, the _Ebba_ resumed her voyage
+while I slept, leaving the three-master becalmed behind her, and this
+is why the merchantman is no longer visible.
+
+I am careful not to question Captain Spade about it, nor even Engineer
+Serko, as I should certainly receive no answer.
+
+Besides, at this moment Captain Spade goes to the signalling apparatus
+and presses one of the buttons on the upper disk. Almost immediately
+the _Ebba_ gives a jerk, then with her sails still furled, she starts
+off eastward again.
+
+Two hours later the Count d'Artigas comes up through the main hatchway
+and takes his customary place aft. Serko and Captain Spade at once
+approach and engage in conversation with him.
+
+All three raise their telescopes and sweep the horizon from southeast
+to northeast.
+
+No one will be surprised to learn that I gaze intently in the same
+direction; but having no telescope I cannot distinguish anything.
+
+The midday meal over we all return on deck--all with the exception of
+Thomas Roch, who has not quitted his cabin.
+
+Towards one o'clock land is sighted by the lookout man on the foretop
+cross-tree. Inasmuch as the _Ebba_ is bowling along at great speed I
+shall soon be able to make out the coast line.
+
+In effect, two hours later a vague semicircular line that curves
+outward is discernible about eight miles off. As the schooner
+approaches it becomes more distinct. It is a mountain, or at all
+events very high ground, and from its summit a cloud of smoke ascends.
+
+What! A volcano in these parts? It must then be----
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+BACK CUP.
+
+
+In my opinion the _Ebba_ could have struck no other group of islands
+but the Bermudas in this part of the Atlantic. This is clear from the
+distance covered from the American coast and the direction sailed in
+since we issued from Pamlico Sound. This direction has constantly been
+south-southeast, and the distance, judging from the _Ebba's_ rate of
+speed, which has scarcely varied, is approximately seven hundred and
+fifty miles.
+
+Still, the schooner does not slacken speed. The Count d'Artigas and
+Engineer Serko remain aft, by the man at the wheel. Captain Spade has
+gone forward.
+
+Are we not going to leave this island, which appears to be isolated,
+to the west?
+
+It does not seem likely, since it is still broad daylight, and the
+hour at which the _Ebba_ was timed to arrive.
+
+All the sailors are drawn up on deck, awaiting orders, and Boatswain
+Effrondat is making preparations to anchor.
+
+Ere a couple of hours have passed I shall know all about it. It will
+be the first answer to one of the many questions that have perplexed
+me since the schooner put to sea.
+
+And yet it is most unlikely that the port to which the _Ebba_ belongs
+is situated on one of the Bermuda islands, in the middle of an English
+archipelago--unless the Count d'Artigas has kidnapped Thomas Roch for
+the British government, which I cannot believe.
+
+I become aware that this extraordinary man is gazing at me with
+singular persistence. Although he can have no suspicion that I am
+Simon Hart, the engineer, he must be asking himself what I think of
+this adventure. If Warder Gaydon is but a poor devil, this poor devil
+will manifest as much unconcern as to what is in store for him as any
+gentleman could--even though he were the proprietor of this queer
+pleasure yacht. Still I am a little uneasy under his gaze.
+
+I dare say that if the Count d'Artigas could guess how certain things
+have suddenly become clear to me, he would not hesitate to have me
+thrown overboard.
+
+Prudence therefore commands me to be more circumspect than ever.
+
+Without giving rise to any suspicion--even in the mind of Engineer
+Serko--I have succeeded in raising a corner of the mysterious veil,
+and I begin to see ahead a bit.
+
+As the _Ebba_ draws nearer, the island, or rather islet, towards which
+she is speeding shows more sharply against the blue background of the
+sky. The sun which has passed the zenith, shines full upon the western
+side. The islet is isolated, or at any rate I cannot see any others of
+the group to which it belongs, either to north or south.
+
+This islet, of curious contexture, resembles as near as possible a
+cup turned upside down, from which a fuliginous vapor arises. Its
+summit--the bottom of the cup, if you like--is about three hundred
+feet above the level of the sea, and its flanks, which are steep and
+regular, are as bare as the sea-washed rocks at its base.
+
+There is another peculiarity about it which must render the islet
+easily recognizable by mariners approaching it from the west, and this
+is a rock which forms a natural arch at the base of the mountain--the
+handle of the cup, so to speak--and through which the waves wash as
+freely as the sunshine passes. Seen this way the islet fully justifies
+the name of Back Cup given to it.
+
+Well, I know and recognize this islet! It is situated at the extremity
+of the archipelago of the Bermudas. It is the "reversed cup" that I
+had occasion to visit a few years ago--No, I am not mistaken. I then
+climbed over the calcareous and crooked rocks at its base on the east
+side. Yes, it is Back Cup, sure enough!
+
+Had I been less self-possessed I might have uttered an exclamation
+of surprise--and satisfaction--which, with good reason, would have
+excited the attention and suspicion of the Count d'Artigas.
+
+These are the circumstances under which I came to explore Back Cup
+while on a visit to Bermuda.
+
+This archipelago, which is situated about seven hundred and fifty
+miles from North Carolina is composed of several hundred islands or
+islets. Its centre is crossed by the sixty-fourth meridian and the
+thirty-second parallel. Since the Englishman Lomer was shipwrecked
+and cast up there in 1609, the Bermudas have belonged to the United
+Kingdom, and in consequence the colonial population has increased to
+ten thousand inhabitants. It was not for its productions of cotton,
+coffee, indigo, and arrowroot that England annexed the group--seized
+it, one might say; but because it formed a splendid maritime station
+in that part of the Ocean, and in proximity to the United States of
+America. Possession was taken of it without any protest on the part of
+other powers, and Bermuda is now administered by a British governor
+with the addition of a council and a General Assembly.
+
+The principal islands of the archipelago are called St. David,
+Somerset, Hamilton, and St. George. The latter has a free port, and
+the town of the same name is also the capital of the group.
+
+The largest of these isles is not more than seventeen miles long and
+five wide. Leaving out the medium-sized ones, there remains but an
+agglomeration of islets and reefs scattered over an area of twelve
+square leagues.
+
+Although the climate of Bermuda is very healthy, very salubrious, the
+isles are nevertheless frightfully beaten by the heavy winter tempests
+of the Atlantic, and their approach by navigators presents certain
+difficulties.
+
+What the archipelago especially lacks are rivers and rios. However,
+as abundant rains fall frequently, this drawback is got over by the
+inhabitants, who treasure up the heaven-sent water for household and
+agricultural purposes. This has necessitated the construction of vast
+cisterns which the downfalls keep filled. These works of engineering
+skill justly merit the admiration they receive and do honor to the
+genius of man.
+
+It was in connection with the setting up of these cisterns that I made
+the trip, as well as out of curiosity to inspect the fine works.
+
+
+I obtained from the company of which I was the engineer in New
+Jersey a vacation of several weeks, and embarked at New York for the
+Bermudas.
+
+While I was staying on Hamilton Island, in the vast port of
+Southampton, an event occurred of great interest to geologists.
+
+One day a whole flotilla of fishers, men, women and children, entered
+Southampton Harbor. For fifty years these families had lived on the
+east coast of Back Cup, where they had erected log-cabins and houses
+of stone. Their position for carrying on their industry was an
+exceptionally favorable one, for the waters teem with fish all the
+year round, and in March and April whales abound.
+
+Nothing had hitherto occurred to disturb their tranquil existence.
+They were quite contented with their rough lot, which was rendered
+less onerous by the facility of communication with Hamilton and St.
+George. Their solid barks took cargoes of fish there, which they
+exchanged for the necessities of life.
+
+Why had they thus abandoned the islet with the intention, as it pretty
+soon appeared, of never returning to it? The reason turned out to be
+that they no longer considered themselves in safety there.
+
+A couple of months previously they had been at first surprised, then
+alarmed, by several distinct detonations that appeared to have taken
+place in the interior of the mountain. At the same time smoke and
+flames issued from the summit--or the bottom of the reversed cup, if
+you like. Now no one had ever suspected that the islet was of volcanic
+origin, or that there was a crater at the top, no one having been able
+to climb its sides. Now, however, there could be no possible doubt
+that the mountain was an ancient volcano that had suddenly become
+active again and threatened the village with destruction.
+
+During the ensuing two months internal rumblings and explosions
+continued to be heard, which were accompanied by bursts of flame
+from the top--especially at night. The island was shaken by the
+explosions--the shocks could be distinctly felt. All these phenomena
+were indicative of an imminent eruption, and there was no spot at the
+base of the mountain that could afford any protection from the rivers
+of lava that would inevitably pour down its smooth, steep slopes
+and overwhelm the village in their boiling flood. Besides, the very
+mountain might be destroyed in the eruption.
+
+There was nothing for the population exposed to such a dire
+catastrophe to do but leave. This they did. Their humble Lares
+and Penates, in fact all their belongings, were loaded into the
+fishing-smacks, and the entire colony sought refuge in Southhampton
+Harbor.
+
+The news that a volcano, that had presumably been smouldering for
+centuries at the western extremity of the group, showed signs of
+breaking out again, caused a sensation throughout the Bermudas. But
+while some were terrified, the curiosity of others was aroused, mine
+included. The phenomenon was worth investigation, even if the simple
+fisher-folk had exaggerated.
+
+Back Cup, which, as already stated, lies at the western extremity of
+the archipelago, is connected therewith by a chain of small islets
+and reefs, which cannot be approached from the east. Being only three
+hundred feet in altitude, it cannot be seen either from St. George or
+Hamilton. I joined a party of explorers and we embarked in a cutter
+that landed us on the island, and made our way to the abandoned
+village of the Bermudan fishers.
+
+The internal crackings and detonations could be plainly heard, and a
+sheaf of smoke was swayed by the wind at the summit.
+
+Beyond a peradventure the ancient volcano had been started again
+by the subterranean fire, and an eruption at any moment was to be
+apprehended.
+
+In vain we attempted to climb to the mouth of the crater. The mountain
+sheered down at an angle of from seventy-five to eighty degrees, and
+its smooth, slippery sides afforded absolutely no foothold. Anything
+more barren than this rocky freak of nature it would be difficult to
+conceive. Only a few tufts of wild herbs were to be seen upon the
+whole island, and these seemed to have no _raison d'etre_.
+
+Our explorations were therefore necessarily limited, and in view of
+the active symptoms of danger that manifested themselves, we could but
+approve the action of the villagers in abandoning the place; for we
+entertained no doubt that its destruction was imminent.
+
+These were the circumstances in which I was led to visit Back Cup, and
+no one will consequently be surprised at the fact that I recognized it
+immediately we hove in sight of the queer structure.
+
+No, I repeat, the Count d'Artigas would probably not be overpleased
+if he were aware that Warder Gaydon is perfectly acquainted with this
+islet, even if the _Ebba_ was to anchor there--which, as there is no
+port, is, to say the least, extremely improbable.
+
+As we draw nearer, I attentively examine Back Cup. Not one of
+its former inhabitants has been induced to return, and, as it is
+absolutely deserted, I cannot imagine why the schooner should visit
+the place.
+
+Perhaps, however, the Count d'Artigas and his companions have no
+intention of landing there. Even though the _Ebba_ should find
+temporary shelter between the rocky sides of a narrow creek there is
+nothing to give ground to the supposition that a wealthy yachtsman
+would have the remotest idea of fixing upon as his residence an arid
+cone exposed to all the terrible tempests of the Western Atlantic. To
+live here is all very well for rustic fishermen, but not for the Count
+d'Artigas, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade and his crew.
+
+Back Cup is now only half a mile off, and the seaweed thrown up on its
+rocky base is plainly discernible. The only living things upon it are
+the sea-gulls and other birds that circle in clouds around the smoking
+crater.
+
+When she is only two cable's lengths off, the schooner slackens speed,
+and then stops at the entrance of a sort of natural canal formed by a
+couple of reefs that barely rise above the water.
+
+I wonder whether the _Ebba_ will venture to try the dangerous feat of
+passing through it. I do not think so. She will probably lay where she
+is--though why she should do so I do not know--for a few hours, and
+then continue her voyage towards the east.
+
+However this may be I see no preparations in progress for dropping
+anchor. The anchors are suspended in their usual places, the cables
+have not been cleared, and no motion has been made to lower a single
+boat.
+
+At this moment Count d'Artigas, Engineer Serko and Captain Spade go
+forward and perform some manoeuvre that is inexplicable to me.
+
+I walk along the port side of the deck until I am near the foremast,
+and then I can see a small buoy that the sailors are hoisting in.
+Almost immediately the water, at the same spot becomes dark and I
+observe a black mass rising to the surface. Is it a big whale rising
+for air, and is the _Ebba_ in danger of being shattered by a blow from
+the monster's tail?
+
+Now I understand! At last the mystery is solved. I know what was the
+motor that caused the schooner to go at such an extraordinary speed
+without sails and without a screw. Her indefatigable motor is emerging
+from the sea, after having towed her from the coast of America to
+the archipelago of the Bermudas. There it is, floating alongside--a
+submersible boat, a submarine tug, worked by a screw set in motion by
+the current from a battery of accumulators or powerful electric piles.
+
+On the upper part of the long cigar-shaped iron tug is a platform in
+the middle of which is the "lid" by which an entrance is effected. In
+the fore part of the platform projects a periscope, or lookout, formed
+by port-holes or lenses through which an electric searchlight can
+throw its gleam for some distance under water in front of and on each
+side of the tug. Now relieved of its ballast of water the boat has
+risen to the surface. Its lid will open and fresh air will penetrate
+it to every part. In all probability, if it remained submerged during
+the day it rose at night and towed the _Ebba_ on the surface.
+
+But if the mechanical power of the tug is produced by electricity the
+latter must be furnished by some manufactory where it is stored, and
+the means of procuring the batteries is not to be found on Back Cup, I
+suppose.
+
+And then, why does the _Ebba_ have recourse to this submarine towing
+system? Why is she not provided with her own means of propulsion, like
+other pleasure-boats?
+
+These are things, however, upon which I have at present no leisure to
+ruminate.
+
+The lid of the tug opens and several men issue on to the platform.
+They are the crew of this submarine boat, and Captain Spade has been
+able to communicate with them and transmit his orders as to the
+direction to be taken by means of electric signals connected with the
+tug by a wire that passes along the stem of the schooner.
+
+Engineer Serko approaches me and says, pointing to the boat:
+
+"Get in."
+
+"Get in!" I exclaim.
+
+"Yes, in the tug, and look sharp about it."
+
+As usual there is nothing for it but to obey. I hasten to comply with
+the order and clamber over the side.
+
+At the same time Thomas Roch appears on deck accompanied by one of the
+crew. He appears to be very calm, and very indifferent too, and makes
+no resistance when he is lifted over and lowered into the tug. When he
+has been taken in, Count d'Artigas and Engineer Serko follow.
+
+Captain Spade and the crew of the _Ebba_ remain behind, with the
+exception of four men who man the dinghy, which has been lowered. They
+have hold of a long hawser, with which the schooner is probably to be
+towed through the reef. Is there then a creek in the middle of the
+rocks where the vessel is secure from the breakers? Is this the port
+to which she belongs?
+
+They row off with the hawser and make the end fast to a ring in the
+reef. Then the crew on board haul on it and in five minutes the
+schooner is so completely lost to sight among the rocks that even the
+tip of her mast could not be seen from the sea.
+
+Who in Bermuda imagines that a vessel is accustomed to lay up in
+this secret creek? Who in America would have any idea that the rich
+yachtsman so well known in all the eastern ports abides in the
+solitude of Back Cup mountain?
+
+Twenty minutes later the dinghy returns with the four men towards the
+tug which was evidently waiting for them before proceeding--where?
+
+They climb on board, the little boat is made fast astern, a movement
+is felt, the screw revolves rapidly and the tug skims along the
+surface to Back Cup, skirting the reefs to the south.
+
+Three cable's lengths further on, another tortuous canal is seen that
+leads to the island. Into this the tug enters. When it gets close
+inshore, an order is given to two men who jump out and haul the dinghy
+up on a narrow sandy beach out of the reach of wave or weed, and where
+it will be easily get-at-able when wanted.
+
+This done the sailors return to the tug and Engineer Serko signs to me
+to go below.
+
+A short iron ladder leads into a central cabin where various bales and
+packages are stored, and for which no doubt there was not room in the
+hold of the schooner. I am pushed into a side cabin, the door is shut
+upon me, and here I am once more a prisoner in profound darkness.
+
+I recognize the cabin the moment I enter it. It is the place in which
+I spent so many long hours after our abduction from Healthful House,
+and in which I was confined until well out at sea off Pamlico Sound.
+
+It is evident that Thomas Roch has been placed in a similar
+compartment.
+
+A loud noise is heard, the banging of the lid as it closes, and the
+tug begins to sink as the water is admitted to the tanks.
+
+This movement is succeeded by another--a movement that impels the boat
+through the water.
+
+Three minutes later it stops, and I feel that we are rising to the
+surface again.
+
+Another noise made by the lid being raised.
+
+The door of my cabin opens, and I rush out and clamber on to the
+platform.
+
+I look around and find that the tug has penetrated to the interior of
+Back Cup mountain.
+
+This is the mysterious retreat where Count d'Artigas lives with his
+companions--out of the world, so to speak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+INSIDE BACK CUP.
+
+
+The next morning I am able to make a first inspection of the vast
+cavern of Back Cup. No one seeks to prevent me.
+
+What a night I have passed! What strange visions I have seen! With
+what impatience I waited for morning!
+
+I was conducted to a grotto about a hundred paces from the edge of
+the lake where the tug stopped. The grotto, twelve feet by ten, was
+lighted by an incandescent lamp, and fitted with an entrance door that
+was closed upon me.
+
+I am not surprised that electricity is employed in lighting the
+interior of the cavern, as it is also used in the submarine boat. But
+where is it generated? Where does it come from? Is there a manufactory
+installed somewhere or other in this vast crypt, with machinery,
+dynamos and accumulators?
+
+My cell is neatly furnished with a table on which provisions are
+spread, a bunk with bedding, a basket chair, a wash-hand-stand with
+toilet set, and a closet containing linen and various suits of
+clothes. In a drawer of the table I find paper, ink and pens.
+
+My dinner consists of fresh fish, preserved meat, bread of excellent
+quality, ale and whisky; but I am so excited that I scarcely touch it.
+Yet I feel that I ought to fortify myself and recover my calmness of
+mind. I must and will solve the mystery surrounding the handful of men
+who burrow in the bowels of this island.
+
+So it is under the carapace of Back Cup that Count d'Artigas has
+established himself! This cavity, the existence of which is not even
+suspected, is his home when he is not sailing in the _Ebba_ along the
+coasts of the new world or the old. This is the unknown retreat he has
+discovered, to which access is obtained by a submarine passage twelve
+or fifteen feet below the surface of the ocean.
+
+Why has he severed himself from the world? What has been his past?
+If, as I suspect, this name of d'Artigas and this title of Count are
+assumed, what motive has he for hiding his identity? Has he been
+banished, is he an outcast of society that he should have selected
+this place above all others? Am I not in the power of an evildoer
+anxious to ensure impunity for his crimes and to defy the law by
+seeking refuge in this undiscoverable burrow? I have the right of
+supposing anything in the case of this suspicious foreigner, and I
+exercise it.
+
+Then the question to which I have never been able to suggest a
+satisfactory answer once more surges into my mind. Why was Thomas Roch
+abducted from Healthful House in the manner already fully described?
+Does the Count d'Artigas hope to force from him the secret of his
+fulgurator with a view to utilizing it for the defence of Back Cup in
+case his retreat should by chance be discovered? Hardly. It would be
+easy enough to starve the gang out of Back Cup, by preventing the tug
+from supplying them with provisions. On the other hand, the schooner
+could never break through the investing lines, and if she did her
+description would be known in every port. In this event, of what
+possible use would Thomas Roch's invention be to the Count d'Artigas
+Decidedly, I cannot understand it!
+
+About seven o'clock in the morning I jump out of bed. If I am a
+prisoner in the cavern I am at least not imprisoned in my grotto cell.
+The door yields when I turn the handle and push against it, and I walk
+out.
+
+Thirty yards in front of me is a rocky plane, forming a sort of quay
+that extends to right and left. Several sailors of the _Ebba_ are
+engaged in landing bales and stores from the interior of the tug,
+which lays alongside a little stone jetty.
+
+A dim light to which my eyes soon grow accustomed envelops the cavern
+and comes from a hole in the centre of the roof, through which the
+blue sky can be seen.
+
+"It is from that hole that the smoke which can be seen for such a
+distance issues," I say to myself, and this discovery suggests a whole
+series of reflections.
+
+Back Cup, then, is not a volcano, as was supposed--as I supposed
+myself. The flames that were seen a few years ago, and the columns
+of smoke that still rise were and are produced artificially. The
+detonations and rumblings that so alarmed the Bermudan fishers were
+not caused by the internal workings of nature. These various phenomena
+were fictitious. They manifested themselves at the mere will of the
+owner of the island, who wanted to scare away the inhabitants who
+resided on the coast. He succeeded, this Count d'Artigas, and remains
+the sole and undisputed monarch of the mountain. By exploding
+gunpowder, and burning seaweed swept up in inexhaustible quantities by
+the ocean, he has been able to simulate a volcano upon the point of
+eruption and effectually scare would-be settlers away!
+
+The light becomes stronger as the sun rises higher, the daylight
+streams through the fictitious crater, and I shall soon be able to
+estimate the cavern's dimensions. This is how I calculate:
+
+Exteriorly the island of Back Cup, which is as nearly as possible
+circular, measures two hundred and fifty yards in circumference, and
+presents an interior superficies of about six acres. The sides of the
+mountain at its base vary in thickness from thirty to a hundred yards.
+
+It therefore follows that this excavation practically occupies the
+whole of that part of Back Cup island which appears above water. As to
+the length of the submarine tunnel by which communication is obtained
+with the outside, and through which the tug passed, I estimate that it
+is fifty yards in length.
+
+The size of the cavern can be judged from these approximate figures.
+But vast as it is, I remember that there are caverns of larger
+dimensions both in the old and new worlds. For instance in Carniole,
+Northumberland, Derbyshire, Piedmont, the Balearics, Hungary
+and California are larger grottoes than Back Cup, and those at
+Han-sur-Lesse in Belgium, and the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, are also
+more extensive. The latter contain no fewer than two hundred and
+twenty-six domes, seven rivers, eight cataracts, thirty two wells of
+unknown depth, and an immense lake which extends over six or seven
+leagues, the limit of which has never been reached by explorers.
+
+I know these Kentucky grottoes, having visited them, as many thousands
+of tourists have done. The principal one will serve as a comparison
+to Back Cup. The roof of the former, like that of the latter, is
+supported by pillars of various lengths, which give it the appearance
+of a Gothic cathedral, with naves and aisles, though it lacks the
+architectural regularity of a religious edifice. The only difference
+is that whereas the roof of the Kentucky grotto is over four hundred
+feet high, that of Back Cup is not above two hundred and twenty at
+that part of it where the round hole through which issue the smoke and
+flames is situated.
+
+Another peculiarity, and a very important one, that requires to be
+pointed out, is that whereas the majority of the grottoes referred to
+are easily accessible, and were therefore bound to be discovered some
+time or other, the same remark does not apply to Back Cup. Although it
+is marked on the map as an island forming part of the Bermuda group,
+how could any one imagine that it is hollow, that its rocky sides
+are only the walls of an enormous cavern? In order to make such a
+discovery it would be necessary to get inside, and to get inside a
+submarine apparatus similar to that of the Count d'Artigas would be
+necessary.
+
+In my opinion this strange yachtsman's discovery of the tunnel by
+which he has been able to found this disquieting colony of Back Cup
+must have been due to pure chance.
+
+Now I turn my attention to the lake and observe that it is a
+very small one, measuring not more than four hundred yards in
+circumference. It is, properly speaking, a lagoon, the rocky sides of
+which are perpendicular. It is large enough for the tug to work about
+in it, and holds enough water too, for it must be one hundred and
+twenty-five feet deep.
+
+It goes without saying that this crypt, given its position and
+structure, belongs to the category of those which are due to the
+encroachments of the sea. It is at once of Neptunian and Plutonian
+origin, like the grottoes of Crozon and Morgate in the bay of
+Douarnenez in France, of Bonifacio on the Corsican coast, Thorgatten
+in Norway, the height of which is estimated at over three hundred
+feet, the catavaults of Greece, the grottoes of Gibraltar in Spain,
+and Tourana in Cochin China, whose carapace indicates that they are
+all the product of this dual geological labor.
+
+The islet of Back Cup is in great part formed of calcareous rocks,
+which slope upwards gently from the lagoon towards the sides and are
+separated from each other by narrow beaches of fine sand. Thick layers
+of seaweed that have been swept through the tunnel by the tide and
+thrown up around the lake have been piled into heaps, some of which
+are dry and some still wet, but all of which exhale the strong odor of
+the briny ocean. This, however, is not the only combustible employed
+by the inhabitants of Back Cup, for I see an enormous store of coal
+that must have been brought by the schooner and the tug. But it is the
+incineration of masses of dried seaweed that causes the smoke vomited
+forth by the crater of the mountain.
+
+Continuing my walk I perceive on the northern side of the lagoon the
+habitations of this colony of troglodytes--do they not merit the
+appellation? This part of the cavern, which is known as the Beehive,
+fully justifies its name, for it is honeycombed by cells excavated
+in the limestone rock and in which these human bees--or perhaps they
+should rather be called wasps--reside.
+
+The lay of the cavern to the east is very different. Here hundreds of
+pillars of all shapes rise to the dome, and form a veritable forest of
+stone trees through the sinuous avenues of which one can thread one's
+way to the extreme limit of the place.
+
+By counting the cells of the Beehive I calculate that Count d'Artigas'
+companions number from eighty to one hundred.
+
+As my eye wanders over the place I notice that the Count is standing
+in front of one of the cells, which is isolated from the others, and
+talking to Engineer Serko and Captain Spade. After a while they stroll
+down to the jetty alongside which the tug is lying.
+
+A dozen men have been emptying the merchandise out of the tug and
+transporting the goods in boats to the other side, where great cellars
+have been excavated in the rocks and form the storehouses of the band.
+
+The orifice of the tunnel is not visible in the waters of the lagoon,
+and I remember that when I was brought here I felt the tug sink
+several feet before it entered. In this respect therefore Back Cup
+does not resemble either the grottoes of Staffa or Morgate, entrance
+to which is always open, even at high tide. There may be another
+passage communicating with the coast, either natural or artificial,
+and this I shall have to make my business to find out.
+
+The island well merits its name of Back Cup. It is indeed a gigantic
+cup turned upside down, not only to outward appearance, but inwardly,
+too, though people are ignorant of the fact.
+
+I have already remarked that the Beehive is situated to the north of
+the lagoon, that is to say to the left on entering by the tunnel. On
+the opposite side are the storerooms filled with provisions of all
+kinds, bales of merchandise, barrels of wine, beer, and spirits and
+various packets bearing different marks and labels that show that they
+came from all parts of the world. One would think that the cargoes of
+a score of ships had been landed here.
+
+A little farther on is a large wooden shed the nature of which is
+easily distinguishable. From a pole above it a network of thick copper
+wires extends which conducts the current to the powerful electric
+lights suspended from the roof or dome, and to the incandescent lamps
+in each of the cells of the hive. A large number of lamps are also
+installed among the stone pillars and light up the avenues to their
+extremities.
+
+"Shall I be permitted to roam about wherever I please?" I ask myself.
+I hope so. I cannot for the life of me see why the Count d'Artigas
+should prohibit me from doing so, for I cannot get farther than the
+surrounding walls of his mysterious domain. I question whether there
+is any other issue than the tunnel, and how on earth could I get
+through that?
+
+Besides, admitting that I am able to get through it, I cannot get off
+the island. My disappearance would be soon noticed, and the tug would
+take out a dozen men who would explore every nook and cranny. I should
+inevitably be recaptured, brought back to the Beehive, and deprived of
+my liberty for good.
+
+I must therefore give up all idea of making my escape, unless I can
+see that it has some chance of being successful, and if ever an
+opportunity does present itself I shall not be slow to take advantage
+of it.
+
+On strolling round by the rows of cells I am able to observe a few of
+these companions of the Count d'Artigas who are content to pass their
+monotonous existence in the depths of Back Cup. As I said before,
+calculating from the number of cells in the Beehive, there must be
+between eighty and a hundred of them.
+
+They pay no attention whatever to me as I pass, and on examining them
+closely it seems to me that they must have been recruited from every
+country. I do not distinguish any community of origin among them, not
+even a similarity by which they might be classed as North Americans,
+Europeans or Asiatics. The color of their skin shades from white to
+yellow and black--the black peculiar to Australia rather than to
+Africa. To sum up, they appear for the most part to pertain to the
+Malay races. I may add that the Count d'Artigas certainly belongs
+to that particular race which peoples the Dutch isles in the West
+Pacific, while Engineer Serko must be Levantine and Captain Spade of
+Italian origin.
+
+But if the inhabitants of Back Cup are not bound to each other by
+ties of race, they certainly are by instinct and inclination. What
+forbidding, savage-looking faces they have, to be sure! They are men
+of violent character who have probably never placed any restraint upon
+their passions, nor hesitated at anything, and it occurs to me that
+in all likelihood they have sought refuge in this cavern, where they
+fancy they can continue to defy the law with impunity, after a
+long series of crimes--robbery, murder, arson, and excesses of all
+descriptions committed together. In this case Back Cup is nothing but
+a lair of pirates, the Count d'Artigas is the leader of the band and
+Serko and Spade are his lieutenants.
+
+I cannot get this idea out of my head, and the more I consider the
+more convinced I am that I am right, especially as everything I see
+during my stroll about the cavern seems to confirm my opinion.
+
+However this may be, and whatever may be the circumstances that have
+brought them together in this place, Count d'Artigas' companions
+appear to accept his all-powerful domination without question. On the
+other hand, if he keeps them under his iron heel by enforcing the
+severest discipline, certain advantages, some compensation,
+must accrue from the servitude to which they bow. What can this
+compensation be?
+
+Having turned that part of the bank under which the tunnel passes, I
+find myself on the opposite side of the lagoon, where are situated the
+storerooms containing the merchandise brought by the _Ebba_ on each
+trip, and which contain a great quantity of bales.
+
+Beyond is the manufactory of electric energy. I gaze in at the windows
+as I pass and notice that it contains machines of the latest invention
+and highest attained perfection, which take up little space. Not one
+steam engine, with its more or less complicated mechanism and need
+of fuel, is to be seen in the place. As I had surmised, piles of
+extraordinary power supply the current to the lamps in the cavern,
+as well as to the dynamos of the tug. No doubt the current is also
+utilized for domestic purposes, such as warming the Beehive and
+cooking food, I can see that in a neighboring cavity it is applied to
+the alembics used to produce fresh water. At any rate the colonists
+of Back Cup are not reduced to catching the rain water that falls so
+abundantly upon the exterior of the mountain.
+
+A few paces from the electric power house is a large cistern that,
+save in the matter of proportions, is the counterpart of those I
+visited in Bermuda. In the latter place the cisterns have to supply
+the needs of over ten thousand people, this one of a hundred--what?
+
+I am not sure yet what to call them. That their chief had serious
+reasons for choosing the bowels of this island for his abiding place
+is obvious. But what were those reasons? I can understand monks
+shutting themselves behind their monastery walls with the intention of
+separating themselves from the world, but these subjects of the Count
+d'Artigas have nothing of the monk about them, and would not be
+mistaken for such by the most simple-minded of mortals.
+
+I continue my way through the pillars to the extremity of the cavern.
+No one has sought to stop me, no one has spoken to me, not a soul
+apparently has taken the very slightest notice of me. This portion of
+Back Cup is extremely curious, and comparable to the most marvellous
+of the grottoes of Kentucky or the Balearics. I need hardly say that
+nowhere is the labor of man apparent. All this is the handiwork of
+nature, and it is not without wonder, mingled with awe, that I reflect
+upon the telluric forces capable of engendering such prodigious
+substructions. The daylight from the crater in the centre only strikes
+this part of the cavern obliquely, so that it is very imperfectly
+lighted, but at night, when illuminated by the electric lamps, its
+aspect must be positively fantastic.
+
+I have examined the walls everywhere with minute attention, but have
+been unable to discover any means of communicating with the outside.
+
+Quite a colony of birds--gulls, sea-swallows and other feathery
+denizens of the Bermudan beaches have made their home in the cavern.
+They have apparently never been hunted, for they are in no way
+disturbed by the presence of man.
+
+But besides sea-birds, which are free to come and go as they please
+by the orifice in the dome, there is a whole farmyard of domestic
+poultry, and cows and pigs. The food supply is therefore no less
+assured than it is varied, when the fish of all kinds that abound in
+the lagoon and around the island are taken into consideration.
+
+Moreover, a mere glance at the colonists of Back Cup amply suffices
+to show that they are not accustomed to fare scantily. They are all
+vigorous, robust seafaring men, weatherbeaten and seasoned in the
+burning beat of tropical latitudes, whose rich blood is surcharged
+with oxygen by the breezes of the ocean. There is not a youth nor an
+old man among them. They are all in their prime, their ages ranging
+from thirty to fifty.
+
+But why do they submit to such an existence? Do they never leave their
+rocky retreat?
+
+Perhaps I shall find out ere I am much older.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+KER KARRAJE.
+
+
+The cell in which I reside is about a hundred paces from the
+habitation of the Count d'Artigas, which is one of the end ones of
+this row of the Beehive. If I am not to share it with Thomas Roch, I
+presume the latter's cell is not far off, for in order that Warder
+Gaydon may continue to care for the ex-patient of Healthful House,
+their respective apartments will have to be contiguous. However, I
+suppose I shall soon be enlightened on this point.
+
+Captain Spade and Engineer Serko reside separately in proximity to
+D'Artigas' mansion.
+
+Mansion? Yes, why not dignify it with the title since this habitation
+has been arranged with a certain art? Skillful hands have carved an
+ornamental facade in the rock. A large door affords access to it.
+Colored glass windows in wooden frames let into the limestone
+walls admit the light. The interior comprises several chambers, a
+dining-room and a drawing-room lighted by a stained-glass window, the
+whole being perfectly ventilated. The furniture is of various styles
+and shapes and of French, English and American make. The kitchen,
+larder, etc., are in adjoining cells in rear of the Beehive.
+
+In the afternoon, just as I issue from my cell with the firm intention
+of "obtaining an audience" of the Count d'Artigas, I catch sight of
+him coming along the shore of the lagoon towards the hive. Either he
+does not see me, or wishes to avoid me, for he quickens his steps and
+I am unable to catch him.
+
+"Well, he will have to receive me, anyhow!" I mutter to myself.
+
+I hurry up to the door through which he has just disappeared and which
+has closed behind him.
+
+It is guarded by a gigantic, dark-skinned Malay, who orders me away in
+no amiable tone of voice.
+
+I decline to comply with his injunction, and repeat to him twice the
+following request in my very best English:
+
+"Tell the Count d'Artigas that I desire to be received immediately."
+
+I might just as well have addressed myself to the surrounding rock.
+This savage, no doubt, does not understand a word of English, for he
+scowls at me and orders me away again with a menacing cry.
+
+I have a good mind to attempt to force the door and shout so that the
+Count d'Artigas cannot fail to hear me, but in all probability I shall
+only succeed in rousing the wrath of the Malay, who appears to be
+endowed with herculean strength. I therefore judge discretion to be
+the better part of valor, and put off the explanation that is owing
+to me--and which, sooner or later, I will have--to a more propitious
+occasion.
+
+I meander off in front of the Beehive towards the east, and my
+thoughts revert to Thomas Roch. I am surprised that I have not seen
+him yet. Can he be in the throes of a fresh paroxysm?
+
+This hypothesis is hardly admissible, for if the Count d'Artigas is to
+be believed, he would in this event have summoned me to attend to the
+inventor.
+
+A little farther on I encounter Engineer Serko.
+
+With his inviting manner and usual good-humor this ironical individual
+smiles when he perceives me, and does not seek to avoid me. If he
+knew I was a colleague, an engineer--providing he himself really is
+one--perhaps he might receive me with more cordiality than I have yet
+encountered, but I am not going to be such a fool as to tell him who
+and what I am.
+
+He stops, with laughing eyes and mocking mouth, and accompanies a
+"Good day, how do you do?" with a gracious gesture of salutation.
+
+I respond coldly to his politeness--a fact which he affects not to
+notice.
+
+"May Saint Jonathan protect you, Mr. Gaydon!" he continues in his
+clear, ringing voice. "You are not, I presume, disposed to regret
+the fortunate circumstance by which you were permitted to visit this
+surpassingly marvellous cavern--and it really is one of the finest,
+although the least known on this spheroid."
+
+This word of a scientific language used in conversation with a simple
+hospital attendant surprises me, I admit, and I merely reply:
+
+"I should have no reason to complain, Mr. Serko, if, after having had
+the pleasure of visiting this cavern, I were at liberty to quit it."
+
+"What! Already thinking of leaving us, Mr. Gaydon,--of returning to
+your dismal pavilion at Healthful House? Why, you have scarcely had
+time to explore our magnificent domain, or to admire the incomparable
+beauty with which nature has endowed it."
+
+"What I have seen suffices," I answer; "and should you perchance be
+talking seriously I will assure you seriously that I do not want to
+see any more of it."
+
+"Come, now, Mr. Gaydon, permit me to point out that you have not yet
+had the opportunity of appreciating the advantages of an existence
+passed in such unrivalled surroundings. It is a quiet life, exempt
+from care, with an assured future, material conditions such as are not
+to be met with anywhere, an even climate and no more to fear from the
+tempests which desolate the coasts in this part of the Atlantic than
+from the cold of winter, or the heat of summer. This temperate and
+salubrious atmosphere is scarcely affected by changes of season. Here
+we have no need to apprehend the wrath of either Pluto or Neptune."
+
+"Sir," I reply, "it is impossible that this climate can suit you, that
+you can appreciate living in this grotto of----"
+
+I was on the point of pronouncing the name of Back Cup. Fortunately I
+restrained myself in time. What would happen if they suspected that
+I am aware of the name of their island, and, consequently, of its
+position at the extremity of the Bermuda group?
+
+"However," I continue, "if this climate does not suit me, I have, I
+presume, the right to make a change."
+
+"The right, of course."
+
+"I understand from your remark that I shall be furnished with the
+means of returning to America when I want to go?"
+
+"I have no reason for opposing your desires, Mr. Gaydon," Engineer
+Serko replies, "and I regard your presumption as a very natural
+one. Observe, however, that we live here in a noble and superb
+independence, that we acknowledge the authority of no foreign power,
+that we are subject to no outside authority, that we are the
+colonists of no state, either of the old or new world. This is worth
+consideration by whomsoever has a sense of pride and independence.
+Besides, what memories are evoked in a cultivated mind by these
+grottoes which seem to have been chiselled by the hands of the gods
+and in which they were wont to render their oracles by the mouth of
+Trophonius."
+
+Decidedly, Engineer Serko is fond of citing mythology! Trophonius
+after Pluto and Neptune? Does he imagine that Warder Gaydon ever heard
+of Trophonius? It is clear this mocker continues to mock, and I have
+to exercise the greatest patience in order not to reply in the same
+tone.
+
+"A moment ago," I continue shortly, "I wanted to enter yon habitation,
+which, if I mistake not, is that of the Count d'Artigas, but I was
+prevented."
+
+"By whom, Mr. Gaydon?"
+
+"By a man in the Count's employ."
+
+"He probably had received strict orders about it."
+
+"Possibly, yet whether he likes it or not, Count d'Artigas will have
+to see me and listen to me."
+
+"Maybe it would be difficult, and even impossible to get him to do
+so," says Engineer Serko with a smile.
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Because there is no such person as Count d'Artigas here."
+
+"You are jesting, I presume; I have just seen him."
+
+"It was not the Count d'Artigas whom you saw, Mr. Gaydon."
+
+"Who was it then, may I ask?"
+
+"The pirate Ker Karraje."
+
+This name was thrown at me in a hard tone of voice, and Engineer Serko
+walked off before I had presence of mind enough to detain him.
+
+The pirate Ker Karraje!
+
+Yes, this name is a revelation to me. I know it well, and what
+memories it evokes! It by itself explains what has hitherto been
+inexplicable to me. I now know into whose hands I have fallen.
+
+With what I already knew, with what I have learned since my arrival in
+Back Cup from Engineer Serko, this is what I am able to tell about the
+past and present of Ker Karraje:
+
+Eight or nine years ago, the West Pacific was infested by pirates
+who acted with the greatest audacity. A band of criminals of various
+origins, composed of escaped convicts, military and naval deserters,
+etc., operated with incredible audacity under the orders of a
+redoubtable chief. The nucleus of the band had been formed by men
+pertaining to the scum of Europe who had been attracted to New South
+Wales, in Australia, by the discovery of gold there. Among these
+gold-diggers, were Captain Spade and Engineer Serko, two outcasts,
+whom a certain community of ideas and character soon bound together in
+close friendship.
+
+These intelligent, well educated, resolute men would most assuredly
+have succeeded in any career. But being without conscience or
+scruples, and determined to get rich at no matter what cost, deriving
+from gambling and speculation what they might have earned by patient
+and steady work, they engaged in all sorts of impossible adventures.
+One day they were rich, the next day poor, like most of the
+questionable individuals who had hurried to the gold-fields in search
+of fortune.
+
+Among the diggers in New South Wales was a man of incomparable
+audacity, one of those men who stick at nothing--not even at
+crime--and whose influence upon bad and violent natures is
+irresistible.
+
+That man's name was Ker Karraje.
+
+The origin or nationality or antecedents of this pirate were never
+established by the investigations ordered in regard to him. He eluded
+all pursuit, and his name--or at least the name he gave himself--was
+known all over the world, and inspired horror and terror everywhere,
+as being that of a legendary personage, a bogey, invisible and
+unseizable.
+
+I have now reason to believe that Ker Karraje is a Malay. However, it
+is of little consequence, after all. What is certain is that he was
+with reason regarded as a formidable and dangerous villain who had
+many crimes, committed in distant seas, to answer for.
+
+After spending a few years on the Australian goldfields, where he made
+the acquaintance of Engineer Serko and Captain Spade, Ker Karraje
+managed to seize a ship in the port of Melbourne, in the province
+of Victoria. He was joined by about thirty rascals whose number was
+speedily tripled. In that part of the Pacific Ocean where piracy is
+still carried on with great facility, and I may say, profit, the
+number of ships pillaged, crews massacred, and raids committed in
+certain western islands which the colonists were unable to defend,
+cannot be estimated.
+
+Although the whereabouts of Ker Karraje's vessel, commanded by Captain
+Spade, was several times made known to the authorities, all attempts
+to capture it proved futile. The marauder would disappear among the
+innumerable islands of which he knew every cove and creek, and it was
+impossible to come across him.
+
+He maintained a perfect reign of terror. England, France, Germany,
+Russia and America vainly dispatched warships in pursuit of the
+phantom vessel which disappeared, no one knew whither, after robberies
+and murders that could not be prevented or punished had been committed
+by her crew.
+
+One day this series of crimes came to an end, and no more was heard of
+Ker Karraje. Had he abandoned the Pacific for other seas? Would this
+pirate break out in a fresh place? It was argued that notwithstanding
+what they must have spent in orgies and debauchery the pirate and his
+companions must still have an enormous amount of wealth hidden in some
+place known only to themselves, and that they were enjoying their
+ill-gotten gains.
+
+Where had the band hidden themselves since they had ceased their
+depredations? This was a question which everybody asked and none was
+able to answer. All attempts to run them to earth were vain. Terror
+and uneasiness having ceased with the danger, Ker Karraje's exploits
+soon began to be forgotten, even in the West Pacific.
+
+This is what had happened--and what will never be known unless I
+succeed in escaping from Back Cup:
+
+These wretches were, as a matter of fact, possessed of great wealth
+when they abandoned the Southern Seas. Having destroyed their ship
+they dispersed in different directions after having arranged to meet
+on the American continent.
+
+Engineer Serko, who was well versed in his profession, and was a
+clever mechanic to boot, and who had made a special study of submarine
+craft, proposed to Ker Karraje that they should construct one of
+these boats in order to continue their criminal exploits with greater
+secrecy and effectiveness.
+
+Ker Karraje at once saw the practical nature of the proposition, and
+as they had no lack of money the idea was soon carried out.
+
+While the so-called Count d'Artigas ordered the construction of the
+schooner _Ebba_ at the shipyards of Gotteborg, in Sweden, he gave to
+the Cramps of Philadelphia, in America, the plans of a submarine boat
+whose construction excited no suspicion. Besides, as will be seen, it
+soon disappeared and was never heard of again.
+
+The boat was constructed from a model and under the personal
+supervision of Engineer Serko, and fitted with all the known
+appliances of nautical science. The screw was worked with electric
+piles of recent invention which imparted enormous propulsive power to
+the motor.
+
+It goes without saying that no one imagined that Count d'Artigas was
+none other than Ker Karraje, the former pirate of the Pacific, and
+that Engineer Serko was the most formidable and resolute of his
+accomplices. The former was regarded as a foreigner of noble birth and
+great fortune, who for several months had been frequenting the ports
+of the United States, the _Ebba_ having been launched long before the
+tug was ready.
+
+Work upon the latter occupied fully eighteen months, and when the boat
+was finished it excited the admiration of all those interested in
+these engines of submarine navigation. By its external form, its
+interior arrangements, its air-supply system, the rapidity with which
+it could be immersed, the facility with which it could be handled and
+controlled, and its extraordinary speed, it was conceded to be far
+superior to the _Goubet,_ the _Gymnote_, the _Zede_, and other similar
+boats which had made great strides towards perfection.
+
+After several extremely successful experiments a public test was given
+in the open sea, four miles off Charleston, in presence of several
+American and foreign warships, merchant vessels, and pleasure boats
+invited for the occasion.
+
+Of course the _Ebba_ was among them, with the Count d'Artigas,
+Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade on board, and the old crew as well,
+save half a dozen men who manned the submarine machine, which was
+worked by a mechanical engineer named Gibson, a bold and very clever
+Englishman.
+
+The programme of this definite experiment comprised various evolutions
+on the surface of the water, which were to be followed by an immersion
+to last several hours, the boat being ordered not to rise again until
+a certain buoy stationed many miles out at sea had been attained.
+
+At the appointed time the lid was closed and the boat at first
+manoeuvred on the surface. Her speed and the ease with which
+she turned and twisted were loudly praised by all the technical
+spectators.
+
+Then at a signal given on board the _Ebba_ the tug sank slowly out
+of sight, and several vessels started for the buoy where she was to
+reappear.
+
+Three hours went by, but there was no sign of the boat.
+
+No one could suppose that in accordance with instructions received
+from the Count d'Artigas and Engineer Serko this submarine machine,
+which was destined to act as the invisible tug of the schooner, would
+not emerge till it had gone several miles beyond the rendezvous.
+Therefore, with the exception of those who were in the secret, no one
+entertained any doubt that the boat and all inside her had perished
+as the result of an accident either to her metallic covering or
+machinery.
+
+On board the _Ebba_ consternation was admirably simulated. On board
+the other vessels it was real. Drags were used and divers sent down
+along the course the boat was supposed to have taken, but it could
+not be found, and it was agreed that it had been swallowed up in the
+depths of the Atlantic.
+
+Two days later the Count d'Artigas put to sea again, and in
+forty-eight hours came up with the tug at the place appointed.
+
+This is how Ker Karraje became possessed of the admirable vessel
+which was to perform the double function of towing the schooner and
+attacking ships. With this terrible engine of destruction, whose very
+existence was ignored, the Count d'Artigas was able to recommence his
+career of piracy with security and impunity.
+
+These details I have learned from Engineer Serko, who is very proud of
+his handiwork,--and also very positive that the prisoner of Back Cup
+will never be able to disclose the secret.
+
+It will easily be realized how powerful was the offensive weapon
+Ker Karraje now possessed. During the night the tug would rush at a
+merchant vessel, and bore a hole in her with its powerful ram. At
+the same time the schooner which could not possibly have excited any
+suspicion, would run alongside and her horde of cutthroats would pour
+on to the doomed vessel's deck and massacre the helpless crew, after
+which they would hurriedly transfer that part of the cargo that was
+worth taking to the _Ebba_. Thus it happened that ship after ship
+was added to the long list of those that never reached port and were
+classed as having gone down with all on board.
+
+For a year after the odious comedy in the bay of Charleston Ker
+Karraje operated in the Atlantic, and his wealth increased to enormous
+proportions. The merchandise for which he had no use was disposed of
+in distant markets in exchange for gold and silver. But what was sadly
+needed was a place where the profits could be safely hidden pending
+the time when they were to be finally divided.
+
+Chance came to their aid. While exploring the bottom of the sea in
+the neighborhood of the Bermudas, Engineer Serko and Driver Gibson
+discovered at the base of Back Cup island the tunnel which led to the
+interior of the mountain. Would it have been possible for Ker Karraje
+to have found a more admirable refuge than this, absolutely safe as it
+was from any possible chance of discovery? Thus it came to pass that
+one of the islands of the Archipelago of Bermuda, erstwhile the haunt
+of buccaneers, became the lair of another gang a good deal more to be
+dreaded.
+
+This retreat having been definitely adopted, Count d'Artigas and his
+companions set about getting their place in order. Engineer Serko
+installed an electric power house, without having recourse to machines
+whose construction abroad might have aroused suspicion, simply
+employing piles that could be easily mounted and required but metal
+plates and chemical substances that the _Ebba_ procured during her
+visits to the American coast.
+
+What happened on the night of the 19th inst. can easily be divined.
+If the three-masted merchantman which lay becalmed was not visible at
+break of day it was because she had been scuttled by the tug, boarded
+by the cut-throat band on the _Ebba_, and sunk with all on board after
+being pillaged. The bales and things that I had seen on the schooner
+were a part of her cargo, and all unknown to me the gallant ship was
+lying at the bottom of the broad Atlantic!
+
+How will this adventure end? Shall I ever be able to escape from
+Back Cup, denounce the false Count d'Artigas and rid the seas of Ker
+Karraje's pirates?
+
+And if Ker Karraje is terrible as it is, how much more so will he
+become if he ever obtains possession of Roch's fulgurator! His power
+will be increased a hundred-fold! If he were able to employ this new
+engine of destruction no merchantman could resist him, no warship
+escape total destruction.
+
+I remain for some time absorbed and oppressed by the reflections with
+which the revelation of Ker Karraje's name inspires me. All that I
+have ever heard about this famous pirate recurs to me--his existence
+when he skimmed the Southern Seas, the useless expeditions organized
+by the maritime powers to hunt him down. The unaccountable loss of so
+many vessels in the Atlantic during the past few years is attributable
+to him. He had merely changed the scene of his exploits. It was
+supposed that he had been got rid of, whereas he is continuing his
+piratical practices in the most frequented ocean on the globe, by
+means of the tug which is believed to be lying at the bottom of
+Charleston Bay.
+
+"Now," I say to myself, "I know his real name and that of his
+lair--Ker Karraje and Back Cup;" and I surmise that if Engineer Serko
+has let me into the secret he must have been authorized to do so. Am I
+not meant to understand from this that I must give up all hope of ever
+recovering my liberty?
+
+Engineer Serko had manifestly remarked the impression created upon me
+by this revelation. I remember that on leaving me he went towards Ker
+Karraje's habitation, no doubt with the intention of apprising him of
+what had passed.
+
+After a rather long walk around the lagoon I am about to return to my
+cell, when I hear footsteps behind me. I turn and find myself face to
+face with the Count d'Artigas, who is accompanied by Captain Spade.
+He glances at me sharply, and in a burst of irritation that I cannot
+suppress, I exclaim:
+
+"You are keeping me here, sir, against all right. If it was to wait
+upon Thomas Roch that you carried me off from Healthful House, I
+refuse to attend to him, and insist upon being sent back."
+
+The pirate chief makes a gesture, but does not reply.
+
+Then my temper gets the better of me altogether.
+
+"Answer me, Count d'Artigas--or rather, for I know who you are--answer
+me, Ker Karraje!" I shout.
+
+"The Count d'Artigas is Ker Karraje," he coolly replies, "just as
+Warder Gaydon is Engineer Simon Hart; and Ker Karraje will never
+restore to liberty Engineer Simon Hart, who knows his secrets."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+FIVE WEEKS IN BACK CUP.
+
+
+The situation is plain. Ker Karraje knows who I am. He knew who I was
+when he kidnapped Thomas Roch and his attendant.
+
+How did this man manage to find out what I was able to keep from the
+staff of Healthful House? How comes it that he knew that a French
+engineer was performing the duties of attendant to Thomas Roch? I do
+not know how he discovered it, but the fact remains that he did.
+
+Evidently he had means of information which must have been costly, but
+from which he has derived considerable profit. Besides, men of his
+kidney do not count the cost when they wish to attain an end they have
+in view.
+
+Henceforward Ker Karraje, or rather Engineer Serko, will replace me
+as attendant upon Thomas Roch. Will he succeed better than I did? God
+grant that he may not, that the civilized world may be spared such a
+misfortune!
+
+I did not reply to Ker Karraje's Parthian shot, for I was stricken
+dumb. I did not, however, collapse, as the alleged Count d'Artigas
+perhaps expected I would.
+
+No! I looked him straight in the eyes, which glittered angrily, and
+crossed my arms defiantly, as he had done. And yet he held my life in
+his hands! At a sign a bullet would have laid me dead at his feet.
+Then my body, cast into the lagoon, would have been borne out to sea
+through the tunnel and there would have been an end of me.
+
+After this scene I am left at liberty, just as before. No measure is
+taken against me, I can walk among the pillars to the very end of the
+cavern, which--it is only too clear--possesses no other issue except
+the tunnel.
+
+When I return to my cell, at the extremity of the Beehive, a prey to a
+thousand thoughts suggested by my situation, I say to myself:
+
+"If Ker Karraje knows I am Simon Hart, the engineer, he must at any
+rate never know that I am aware of the position of Back Cup Island."
+
+As to the plan of confiding Thomas Roch to my care, I do not think
+he ever seriously entertained it, seeing that my identity had been
+revealed to him. I regret this, inasmuch as the inventor will
+indubitably be the object of pressing solicitations, and as Engineer
+Serko will employ every means in his power to obtain the composition
+of the explosive and deflagrator, of which he will make such
+detestable use during future piratical exploits. Yes, it would have
+been far better if I could have remained Thomas Roch's keeper here, as
+in Healthful House.
+
+For fifteen days I see nothing of my late charge. No one, I repeat,
+has placed any obstacles in the way of my daily peregrinations. I have
+no need to occupy myself about the material part of my existence. My
+meals are brought to me regularly, direct from the kitchen of the
+Count d'Artigas--I cannot accustom myself to calling him by any other
+name. The food leaves nothing to be desired, thanks to the provisions
+that the _Ebba_ brings on her return from each voyage.
+
+It is very fortunate, too, that I have been supplied with all the
+writing materials I require, for during my long hours of idleness I
+have been able to jot down in my notebook the slightest incidents that
+have occurred since I was abducted from Healthful House, and to keep
+a diary day by day. As long as I am permitted to use a pen I shall
+continue my notes. Mayhap some day, they will help to clear up the
+mysteries of Back Cup.
+
+_From July 5 to July 25._--A fortnight has passed, and all my attempts
+to get near Thomas Roch have been frustrated. Orders have evidently
+been given to keep him away from my influence, inefficacious though
+the latter has hitherto been. My only hope is that the Count
+d'Artigas, Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade will waste their time
+trying to get at the inventor's secrets.
+
+Three or four times to my knowledge, at least, Thomas Roch and
+Engineer Serko have walked together around the lagoon. As far as I
+have been able to judge, the former listened with some attention to
+what the other was saying to him. Serko has conducted him over the
+whole cavern, shown him the electric power house and the mechanism of
+the tug. Thomas Roch's mental condition has visibly improved since his
+departure from Healthful House.
+
+Thomas Roch lives in a private room in Ker Karraje's "mansion." I
+have no doubt that he is daily sounded in regard to his discoveries,
+especially by Engineer Serko. Will he be able to resist the temptation
+if they offer him the exorbitant price that he demands? Has he any
+idea of the value of money? These wretches may dazzle him with the
+gold that they have accumulated by years of rapine. In the present
+state of his mind may he not be induced to disclose the composition
+of his fulgurator? They would then only have to fetch the necessary
+substances and Thomas Roch would have plenty of time in Back Cup to
+devote to his chemical combinations. As to the war-engines themselves
+nothing would be easier than to have them made in sections in
+different parts of the American continent. My hair stands on end when
+I think what they could and would do with them if once they gained
+possession of them.
+
+These intolerable apprehensions no longer leave me a minute's peace;
+they are wearing me out and my health is suffering in consequence.
+Although the air in the interior of Back Cup is pure, I become subject
+to attacks of suffocation, and I feel as though my prison walls were
+falling upon me and crushing me under their weight. I am, besides,
+oppressed by the feeling that I am cut off from the world, as
+effectually as though I were no longer upon our planet,--for I know
+nothing of what is going on outside.
+
+Ah! if it were only possible to escape through that submarine tunnel,
+or through the hole in the dome and slide to the base of the mountain!
+
+On the morning of the 25th I at last encounter Thomas Roch. He is
+alone on the other side of the lagoon, and I wonder, inasmuch as
+I have not seen them since the previous day, whether Ker Karraje,
+Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade have not gone off on some
+expedition.
+
+I walk round towards Thomas Roch, and before he can see me I examine
+him attentively.
+
+His serious, thoughtful physiognomy is no longer that of a madman. He
+walks slowly, with his eyes bent on the ground, and under his arm a
+drawing-board upon which is stretched a sheet of paper covered with
+designs.
+
+Suddenly he raises his head, advances a step and recognizes me.
+
+"Ah! Gaydon, it is you, is it?" he cries, "I have then escaped from
+you! I am free!"
+
+He can, indeed, regard himself as being free--a good deal more at
+liberty in Back Cup than he was in Healthful House. But maybe my
+presence evokes unpleasant memories, and will bring on another fit,
+for he continues with extraordinary animation:
+
+"Yes, I know you, Gaydon.--Do not approach me! Stand off! stand off!
+You would like to get me back in your clutches, incarcerate me again
+in your dungeon! Never! I have friends here who will protect me. They
+are powerful, they are rich. The Count d'Artigas is my backer and
+Engineer Serko is my partner. We are going to exploit my invention! We
+are going to make my fulgurator! Hence! Get you gone!"
+
+Thomas Roch is in a perfect fury. He raises his voice, agitates his
+arms, and finally pulls from his pockets many rolls of dollar bills
+and banknotes, and handfuls of English, French, American and German
+gold coins, which slip through his fingers and roll about the cavern.
+
+How could he get all this money except from Ker Karraje, and as the
+price of his secret? The noise he makes attracts a number of men to
+the scene. They watch us for a moment, then seize Thomas Roch and drag
+him away. As soon as I am out of his sight he ceases-to struggle and
+becomes calm again.
+
+_July 27._--Two hours after meeting with Thomas Roch, I went down to
+the lagoon and walked out to the edge of the stone jetty.
+
+The tug is not moored in its accustomed place, nor can I see it
+anywhere about the lake. Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko had not gone
+yesterday, as I supposed, for I saw them in the evening.
+
+To-day, however, I have reason to believe that they really have gone
+away in the tug with Captain Spade and the crew of the _Ebba_, and
+that the latter must be sailing away.
+
+Have they set out on a piracy expedition? Very likely. It is equally
+likely that Ker Karraje, become once more the Count d'Artigas,
+travelling for pleasure on board his yacht, intends to put into some
+port on the American coast to procure the substances necessary to the
+preparation of Roch's fulgurator.
+
+Ah! if it had only been possible for me to hide in the tug, to slip
+into the _Ebba's_ hold, and stow myself away there until the schooner
+arrived in port! Then perchance I might have escaped and delivered the
+world from this band of pirates.
+
+It will be seen how tenaciously I cling to the thought of escape--of
+fleeing--fleeing at any cost from this lair. But flight is impossible,
+except through the tunnel, by means of a submarine boat. Is it not
+folly to think of such a thing? Sheer folly, and yet what other way is
+there of getting out of Back Cup?
+
+While I give myself up to these reflections the water of the lagoon
+opens a few yards from me and the tug appears. The lid is raised and
+Gibson, the engineer, and the men issue on to the platform. Other men
+come up and catch the line that is thrown to them. They haul upon it,
+and the tug is soon moored in its accustomed place.
+
+This time, therefore, at any rate, the schooner is not being towed,
+and the tug merely went out to put Ker Karraje and his companions
+aboard the _Ebba_.
+
+This only confirms my impression that the sole object of their trip is
+to reach an American port where the Count d'Artigas can procure the
+materials for making the explosive, and order the machines in some
+foundry. On the day fixed for their return the tug will go out through
+the tunnel again to meet the schooner and Ker Karraje will return to
+Back Cup.
+
+Decidedly, this evildoer is carrying out his designs and has succeeded
+sooner than I thought would be possible.
+
+_August 3._--An incident occurred to-day of which the lagoon was the
+theatre--a very curious incident that must be exceedingly rare.
+
+Towards three o'clock in the afternoon there was a prodigious bubbling
+in the water, which ceased for a minute or two and then recommenced in
+the centre of the lagoon.
+
+About fifteen pirates, whose attention had been attracted by this
+unaccountable phenomenon, hurried down to the bank manifesting signs
+of astonishment not unmingled with fear--at least I thought so.
+
+The agitation of the water was not caused by the tug, as the latter
+was lying alongside the jetty, and the idea that some other submarine
+boat had found its way through the tunnel was highly improbable.
+
+Almost at the same instant cries were heard on the opposite bank. The
+newcomers shouted something in a hoarse voice to the men on the side
+where I was standing, and these immediately rushed off towards the
+Beehive.
+
+I conjectured that they had caught sight of some sea-monster that had
+found its way in, and was floundering in the lagoon, and that they had
+rushed off to fetch arms and harpoons to try and capture it.
+
+I was right, for they speedily returned with the latter weapons and
+rifles loaded with explosive bullets.
+
+The monster in question was a whale, of the species that is common
+enough in Bermudan waters, which after swimming through the tunnel was
+plunging about in the narrow limits of the lake. As it was constrained
+to take refuge in Back Cup I concluded that it must have been hard
+pressed by whalers.
+
+Some minutes elapsed before the monster rose to the surface. Then the
+green shiny mass appeared spouting furiously and darting to and fro as
+though fighting with some formidable enemy.
+
+"If it was driven in here by whalers," I said to myself, "there must
+be a vessel in proximity to Back Cup--peradventure within a stone's
+throw of it. Her boats must have entered the western passes to the
+very foot of the mountain. And to think I am unable to communicate
+with them! But even if I could, I fail to see how I could go to them
+through these massive walls."
+
+I soon found, however, that it was not fishers, but sharks that had
+driven the whale through the tunnel, and which infest these waters in
+great numbers. I could see them plainly as they darted about, turning
+upon their backs and displaying their enormous mouths which were
+bristling with their cruel teeth. There were five or six of the
+monsters, and they attacked the whale with great viciousness. The
+latter's only means of defence was its tail, with which it lashed at
+them with terrific force and rapidity. But the whale had received
+several wounds and the water was tinged with its life-blood; for
+plunge and lash as it would, it could not escape the bites of its
+enemies.
+
+However, the voracious sharks were not permitted to vanquish their
+prey, for man, far more powerful with his instruments of death, was
+about to take a hand and snatch it from them. Gathered around the
+lagoon were the companions of Ker Karraje, every whit as ferocious as
+the sharks themselves, and well deserving the same name, for what else
+are they?
+
+Standing amid a group, at the extremity of the jetty, and armed with
+a harpoon, was the big Malay who had prevented me from entering Ker
+Karraje's house. When the whale got within shot, he hurled the harpoon
+with great force and skill, and it sank into the leviathan's flesh
+just under the left fin. The whale plunged immediately, followed by
+the relentless sharks. The rope attached to the weapon ran out for
+about sixty yards, and then slackened. The men at once began to haul
+on it, and the monster rose to the surface again near the end of the
+tunnel, struggling desperately in its death agony, and spurting great
+columns of water tinged with blood. One blow of its tail struck a
+shark, and hurled it clean out of water against the rocky side, where
+it dropped in again, badly, if not fatally injured.
+
+The harpoon was torn from the flesh by the jerk, and the whale went
+under. It came up again for the last time, and lashed the water so
+that it washed up from the tunnel end, disclosing the top of the
+orifice.
+
+Then the sharks again rushed on their prey, but were scared off by a
+hail of the explosive bullets. Two men then jumped into a boat and
+attached a line to the dead monster. The latter was hauled into the
+jetty, and the Malays started to cut it up with a dexterity that
+showed they were no novices at the work.
+
+No more sharks were to be seen, but I concluded that it would be as
+well to refrain from taking a bath in the lagoon for some days to
+come.
+
+I now know exactly where the entrance to the tunnel is situated. The
+orifice on this side is only ten feet below the edge of the western
+bank. But of what use is this knowledge to me?
+
+_August 7_.--Twelve days have elapsed since the Count d'Artigas,
+Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade put to sea. There is nothing to
+indicate that their return is expected, though the tug is always kept
+in readiness for immediate departure by Gibson, the engine-driver. If
+the _Ebba_ is not afraid to enter the ports of the United States by
+day, I rather fancy she prefers to enter the rocky channel of Back
+Cup at nightfall. I also fancy, somehow, that Ker Karraje and his
+companions will return to-night.
+
+_August 10_.--At ten o'clock last night, as I anticipated, the tug
+went under and out, just in time to meet the _Ebba_ and tow her
+through the channel to her creek, after which she returned with Ker
+Karraje and the others.
+
+When I look out this morning, I see Thomas Roch and Engineer Serko
+walking down to the lagoon, and talking. What they are talking about I
+can easily guess. I go forward and take a good look at my ex-patient.
+He is asking questions of Engineer Serko With great animation. His
+eyes gleam, his face is flushed, and he is all eagerness to reach the
+jetty. Engineer Serko can hardly keep up with him.
+
+The crew of the tug are unloading her, and they have just brought
+ashore ten medium-sized boxes. These boxes bear a peculiar red mark,
+which Thomas Roch examines closely.
+
+Engineer Serko orders the men to transport them to the storehouses on
+the left bank, and the boxes are forthwith loaded on a boat and rowed
+over.
+
+In my opinion, these boxes contain the substances by the combination
+or mixture of which, the fulgurator and deflagrator are to be made.
+The engines, doubtless, are being made in an American foundry, and
+when they are ready, the schooner will fetch them and bring them to
+Back Cup.
+
+For once in a while, anyhow, the _Ebba_ has not returned with any
+stolen merchandise. She went out and has returned with a clear bill.
+But with what terrible power Ker Karraje will be armed for both
+offensive and defensive operations at sea! If Thomas Roch is to be
+credited, this fulgurator could shatter the terrestrial spheroid at
+one blow. And who knows but what one day, he will try the experiment?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+ENGINEER SERKO'S ADVICE.
+
+
+Thomas Roch has started work and spends hours and hours in a wooden
+shed on the left bank of the lagoon that has been set apart as his
+laboratory and workshop. No one enters it except himself. Does he
+insist upon preparing the explosive in secret and does he intend to
+keep the formula thereof to himself? I should not wonder.
+
+The manner of employing Roch's fulgurator is, I believe, very simple
+indeed. The projectile in which it is used requires neither gun nor
+mortar to launch it, nor pneumatic tube like the Zalinski shell. It is
+autopropulsive, it projects itself, and no ship within a certain zone
+when the engine explodes could escape utter destruction. With such a
+weapon as this at his command Ker Karraje would be invincible.
+
+_From August 11 to August 17_.--During the past week Thomas Roch has
+been working without intermission. Every morning the inventor goes to
+his laboratory and does not issue therefrom till night. I have made no
+attempt to stop him or speak to him, knowing that it would be useless
+to do so.
+
+Although he is still indifferent to everything that does not touch
+upon his work he appears to be perfectly self-possessed. Why should he
+not have recovered his reason? Has he not obtained what he has so long
+sought for? Is he not at last able to carry out the plans he formed
+years and years ago?
+
+_August 18_.--At one o'clock this morning I was roused by several
+detonations.
+
+"Has Back Cup been attacked?" was my first thought. "Has the schooner
+excited suspicion, and been chased to the entrance to the passes? Is
+the island being bombarded with a view to its destruction? Has justice
+at last overtaken these evil-doers ere Thomas Roch has been able
+to complete the manufacture of his explosive, and before the
+autopropulsive engine could be fetched from the continent?"
+
+The detonations, which are very violent, continue, succeeding each
+other at regular intervals, and it occurs to me that if the schooner
+has been destroyed, all communication with the bases of supply being
+impossible, Back Cup cannot be provisioned.
+
+It is true the tug would be able to land the Count d'Artigas somewhere
+on the American coast where, money being no object, he could easily
+buy or order another vessel. But no matter. If Back Cup is only
+destroyed before Ker Karraje has Roch's fulgurator at his disposal I
+shall render thanks to heaven.
+
+A few hours later, at the usual time, I quit my cell. All is quiet at
+the Beehive. The men are going about their business as usual. The tug
+is moored near the jetty. Thomas Roch is going to his laboratory, and
+Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko are tranquilly pacing backwards and
+forwards by the lake and chatting. The island therefore could not have
+been attacked during the night. Yet I was awakened by the report of
+cannon, this I will swear.
+
+At this moment Ker Karraje goes off towards his abode and Engineer
+Serko, smilingly ironical, as usual, advances to meet me.
+
+"Well, Mr. Simon Hart," he says, "are you getting accustomed to
+your tranquil existence? Do you appreciate at their just merit the
+advantages of this enchanted grotto? Have you given up all hope of
+recovering your liberty some day or other?"
+
+What is the use of waxing wroth with this jester? I reply calmly:
+
+"No, sir. I have not given up hope, and I still expect that I shall be
+released."
+
+"What! Mr. Hart, separate ourselves from a man whom we all esteem--and
+I from a colleague who perhaps, in the course of Thomas Roch's fits of
+delirium, has learned some of his secrets? You are not serious!"
+
+So this is why they are keeping me a prisoner in Back Cup! They
+suppose that I am in part familiar with Roch's invention, and they
+hope to force me to tell what I know if Thomas Roch refuses to give up
+his secret. This is the reason why I was kidnapped with him, and why
+I have not been accommodated with an involuntary plunge in the lagoon
+with a stone fastened to my neck. I see it all now, and it is just as
+well to know it.
+
+"Very serious," I affirm, in response to the last remark of my
+interlocutor.
+
+"Well," he continues, "if I had the honor to be Simon Hart, the
+engineer, I should reason as follows: 'Given, on the one hand, the
+personality of Ker Karraje, the reasons which incited him to select
+such a mysterious retreat as this cavern, the necessity of the said
+cavern being kept from any attempt to discover it, not only in the
+interest of the Count d'Artigas, but in that of his companions--'"
+
+"Of his accomplices, if you please."
+
+"'Of his accomplices,' then--'and on the other hand, given the
+fact that I know the real name of the Count d'Artigas and in what
+mysterious safe he keeps his riches--'"
+
+"Riches stolen, and stained with blood, Mr. Serko."
+
+"'Riches stolen and stained with blood,' if you like--'I ought
+to understand that this question of liberty cannot be settled in
+accordance with my desires.'"
+
+It is useless to argue the point under these conditions, and I switch
+the conversation on to another line.
+
+"May I ask," I continue, "how you came to find out that Gaydon, the
+warder, was Simon Hart, the engineer?"
+
+"I see no reason for keeping you in ignorance on the subject, my dear
+colleague. It was largely by hazard. We had certain relations with the
+manufactory in New Jersey with which you were connected, and which you
+quitted suddenly one day under somewhat singular circumstances. Well,
+during a visit I made to Healthful House some months before the Count
+d'Artigas went there, I saw and recognized you."
+
+"You?"
+
+"My very self, and from that moment I promised myself the pleasure of
+having you for a fellow-passenger on board the _Ebba_."
+
+I do not recall ever having seen this Serko at Healthful House, but
+what he says is very likely true.
+
+"I hope your whim of having me for a companion will cost you dear,
+some day or other," I say to myself.
+
+Then, abruptly, I go on:
+
+"If I am not mistaken, you have succeeded in inducing Thomas Roch to
+disclose the secret of his fulgurator?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Hart. We paid millions for it. But millions, you know, are
+nothing to us. We have only the trouble of taking them! Therefore we
+filled all his pockets--covered him with millions!"
+
+"Of what use are these millions to him if he is not allowed to enjoy
+them outside?"
+
+"That, Mr. Hart, is a matter that does not trouble him a little bit!
+This man of genius thinks nothing of the future: he lives but in the
+present. While engines are being constructed from his plans over
+yonder in America, he is preparing his explosive with chemical
+substances with which he has been abundantly supplied. He! he! What an
+invention it is, this autopropulsive engine, which flies through
+the air of its own power and accelerates its speed till the goal is
+reached, thanks to the properties of a certain powder of progressive
+combustion! Here we have an invention that will bring about a radical
+change in the art of war."
+
+"Defensive war, Mr. Serko."
+
+"And offensive war, Mr. Hart."
+
+"Naturally," I answer.
+
+Then pumping him still more closely, I go on:
+
+"So, what no one else has been able to obtain from Thomas Roch--"
+
+"We obtained without much difficulty."
+
+"By paying him."
+
+"By paying him an incredible price--and, moreover, by causing to
+vibrate what in him is a very sensitive chord."
+
+"What chord?"
+
+"That of vengeance!"
+
+"Vengeance?--against whom?"
+
+"Against all those who have made themselves his enemies by
+discouraging him, by spurning him, expelling him, by constraining
+him to go a-begging from country to country with an invention of
+incontestable superiority! Now all notion of patriotism is extinct in
+his soul. He has now but one thought, one ferocious desire: to avenge
+himself upon those who have denied him--and even upon all mankind!
+Really, Mr. Hart, your governments of Europe and America committed a
+stupendous blunder in refusing to pay Roch the price his fulgurator is
+worth!"
+
+And Engineer Serko describes enthusiastically the various advantages
+of the new explosive which, he says, is incontestably superior to any
+yet invented.
+
+"And what a destructive effect it has," he adds. "It is analogous to
+that of the Zalinski shell, but is a hundred times more powerful, and
+requires no machine for firing it, as it flies through the air on its
+own wings, so to speak."
+
+I listen in the hope that Engineer Serko will give away a part of the
+secret, but in vain. He is careful not to say more than he wants to.
+
+"Has Thomas Roch," I ask, "made you acquainted with the composition of
+his explosive?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Hart--if it is all the same to you--and we shall shortly
+have considerable quantities of it stored in a safe place."
+
+"But will there not be a great and ever-impending danger in
+accumulating large quantities of it? If an accident were to happen it
+would be all up with the island of----!"
+
+Once more the name of Back Cup was on the point of escaping me.
+They might consider me too well-informed if they were aware that in
+addition to being acquainted with the Count d'Artigas' real name I
+also know where his stronghold is situated.
+
+Luckily Engineer Serko has not remarked my reticence, and he replies:
+
+"There will be no cause for alarm. Thomas Roch's explosive will not
+burn unless subjected to a special deflagrator. Neither fire nor shock
+will explode it."
+
+"And has Thomas Roch also sold you the secret of his deflagrator?"
+
+"Not yet, Mr. Hart, but it will not be long before the bargain is
+concluded. Therefore, I repeat, no danger is to be apprehended, and
+you need not keep awake of nights on that account. A thousand devils,
+sir! We have no desire to be blown up with our cavern and treasures! A
+few more years of good business and we shall divide the profits, which
+will be large enough to enable each one of us to live as he thinks
+proper and enjoy life to the top of his bent--after the dissolution
+of the firm of Ker Karraje and Co. I may add that though there is
+no danger of an explosion, we have everything to fear from a
+denunciation--which you are in the position to make, Mr. Hart.
+Therefore, if you take my advice, you will, like a sensible man,
+resign yourself to the inevitable until the disbanding of the company.
+We shall then see what in the interest of our security is best to be
+done with you!"
+
+It will be admitted that these words are not exactly calculated to
+reassure me. However, a lot of things may happen ere then. I have
+learned one good thing from this conversation, and that is that if
+Thomas Roch has sold his explosive to Ker Karraje and Co., he has
+at any rate, kept the secret of his deflagrator, without which the
+explosive is of no more value than the dust of the highway.
+
+But before terminating the interview I think I ought to make a very
+natural observation to Mr. Serko.
+
+"Sir," I say, "you are now acquainted with the composition of Thomas
+Roch's explosive. Does it really possess the destructive power that
+the inventor attributes to it? Has it ever been tried? May you not
+have purchased a composition as inert as a pinch of snuff?"
+
+"You are doubtless better informed upon this point than you pretend,
+Mr. Hart. Nevertheless, I thank you for the interest you manifest in
+our affairs, and am able to reassure you. The other night we made
+a series of decisive experiments. With only a few grains of this
+substance great blocks of rock were reduced to impalpable dust!"
+
+This explanation evidently applies to the detonation I heard.
+
+"Thus, my dear colleague," continues Engineer Serko, "I can assure you
+that our expectations have been answered. The effects of the explosive
+surpass anything that could have been imagined. A few thousand tons of
+it would burst our spheroid and scatter the fragments into space. You
+can be absolutely certain that it is capable of destroying no matter
+what vessel at a distance considerably greater than that attained by
+present projectiles and within a zone of at least a mile. The weak
+point in the invention is that rather too much time has to be expended
+in regulating the firing."
+
+Engineer Serko stops short, as though reluctant to give any further
+information, but finally adds:
+
+"Therefore, I end as I began, Mr. Hart. Resign yourself to the
+inevitable. Accept your new existence without reserve. Give yourself
+up to the tranquil delights of this subterranean life. If one is in
+good health, one preserves it; if one has lost one's health, one
+recovers it here. That is what is happening to your fellow countryman.
+Yes, the best thing you can do is to resign yourself to your lot."
+
+Thereupon this giver of good advice leaves me, after saluting me
+with a friendly gesture, like a man whose good intentions merit
+appreciation. But what irony there is in his words, in his glance, in
+his attitude. Shall I ever be able to get even with him?
+
+I now know that at any rate it is not easy to regulate the aim of
+Roch's auto-propulsive engine. It is probable that it always bursts at
+the same distance, and that beyond the zone in which the effects of
+the fulgurator are so terrible, and once it has been passed, a ship is
+safe from its effects. If I could only inform the world of this vital
+fact!
+
+_August 20_.--For two days no incident worth recording has occurred. I
+have explored Back Cup to its extreme limits. At night when the long
+perspective of arched columns are illuminated by the electric lamps, I
+am almost religiously impressed when I gaze upon the natural wonders
+of this cavern, which has become my prison. I have never given up hope
+of finding somewhere in the walls a fissure of some kind of which the
+pirates are ignorant and through which I could make my escape. It is
+true that once outside I should have to wait till a passing ship hove
+in sight. My evasion would speedily be known at the Beehive, and I
+should soon be recaptured, unless--a happy thought strikes me--unless
+I could get at the _Ebba's_ boat that was drawn up high and dry on the
+little sandy beach in the creek. In this I might be able to make my
+way to St. George or Hamilton.
+
+This evening--it was about nine o'clock--I stretched myself on a bed
+of sand at the foot of one of the columns, about one hundred yards to
+the east of the lagoon. Shortly afterwards I heard footsteps, then
+voices. Hiding myself as best I could behind the rocky base of the
+pillar, I listened with all my ears.
+
+I recognized the voices as those of Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko.
+The two men stopped close to where I was lying, and continued their
+conversation in English--which is the language generally used in Back
+Cup. I was therefore able to understand all that they said.
+
+They were talking about Thomas Roch, or rather his fulgurator.
+
+"In a week's time," said Ker Karraje, "I shall put to sea in the
+_Ebba_, and fetch the sections of the engines that are being cast in
+that Virginian foundry."
+
+"And when they are here," observed Engineer Serko, "I will piece them
+together and fix up the frames for firing them. But beforehand, there
+is a job to be done which it seems to me is indispensable."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"To cut a tunnel through the wall of the cavern."
+
+"Through the wall of the cavern?"
+
+"Oh! nothing but a narrow passage through which only one man at a time
+could squeeze, a hole easy enough to block, and the outside end of
+which would be hidden among the rocks."
+
+"Of what use could it be to us, Serko?"
+
+"I have often thought about the utility of having some other way of
+getting out besides the submarine tunnel. We never know what the
+future may have in store for us."
+
+"But the walls are so thick and hard," objected Ker Karraje.
+
+"Oh, with a few grains of Roch's explosive I undertake to reduce the
+rock to such fine powder that we shall be able to blow it away with
+our breath," Serko replied.
+
+It can easily be imagined with what interest and eagerness I listened
+to this. Here was a ray of hope. It. was proposed to open up
+communication with the outside by a tunnel in the wall, and this held
+out the possibility of escape.
+
+As this thought flashed through my mind, Ker Karraje said:
+
+"Very well, Serko, and if it becomes necessary some day to defend Back
+Cup and prevent any ship from approaching it----. It is true," he went
+on, without finishing the reflection, "our retreat would have to have
+been discovered by accident--or by denunciation."
+
+"We have nothing to fear either from accident or denunciation,"
+affirmed Serko.
+
+"By one of our band, no, of course not, but by Simon Hart, perhaps."
+
+"Hart!" exclaimed Serko. "He would have to escape first and no one can
+escape from Back Cup. I am, by the bye, interested in this Hart. He is
+a colleague, after all, and I have always suspected that he knows more
+about Roch's invention than he pretends. I will get round him so that
+we shall soon be discussing physics, mechanics, and matters ballistic
+like a couple of friends."
+
+"No matter," replied the generous and sensible Count d'Artigas, "when
+we are in full possession of the secret we had better get rid of the
+fellow."
+
+"We have plenty of time to do that, Ker Karraje."
+
+"If God permits you to, you wretches," I muttered to myself, while my
+heart thumped against my ribs.
+
+And yet, without the intervention of Providence, what hope is there
+for me?
+
+The conversation then took another direction.
+
+"Now that we know the composition of the explosive, Serko," said Ker
+Karraje, "we must, at all cost, get that of the deflagrator from
+Thomas Roch."
+
+"Yes," replied Engineer Serko, "that is what I am trying to do.
+Unfortunately, however, Roch positively refuses to discuss it. Still
+he has already made a few drops of it with which those experiments
+were made, and he will furnish as with some more to blow a hole
+through the wall."
+
+"But what about our expeditions at sea?" queried Ker Karraje.
+
+"Patience! We shall end by getting Roch's thunderbolts entirely in our
+own hand, and then----"
+
+"Are you sure, Serko?"
+
+"Quite sure,--by paying the price, Ker Karraje."
+
+The conversation dropped at this point, and they strolled off without
+having seen me--very luckily for me, I guess. If Engineer Serko spoke
+up somewhat in defence of a colleague, Ker Karraje is apparently
+animated with much less benevolent sentiments in regard to me. On the
+least suspicion they would throw me into the lake, and if I ever got
+through the tunnel, it would only be as a corpse carried out by the
+ebbing tide.
+
+_August 21_.--Engineer Serko has been prospecting with a view to
+piercing the proposed passage through the wall, in such a way that its
+existence will never be dreamed of outside. After a minute examination
+he decided to tunnel through the northern end of the cavern about
+sixty feet from the first cells of the Beehive.
+
+I am anxious for the passage to be made, for who knows but what it may
+be the way to freedom for me? Ah! if I only knew how to swim, perhaps
+I should have attempted to escape through the submarine tunnel, as
+since it was disclosed by the lashing back of the waters by the whale
+in its death-struggle, I know exactly where the orifice is situated.
+It seems to me that at the time of the great tides, this orifice must
+be partly uncovered. At the full and new moon, when the sea attains
+its maximum depression below the normal level, it is possible that--I
+must satisfy myself about this.
+
+I do not know how the fact will help me in any way, even if the
+entrance to the tunnel is partly uncovered, but I cannot afford to
+miss any detail that may possibly aid in my escape from Back Cup.
+
+_August 29_.--This morning I am witnessing the departure of the tug.
+The Count d'Artigas is, no doubt, going off in the _Ebba_ to fetch
+the sections of Thomas Roch's engines. Before embarking, the Count
+converses long and earnestly with Engineer Serko, who, apparently, is
+not going to accompany him on this trip, and is evidently giving him
+some recommendations, of which I may be the object. Then, having
+stepped on to the platform, he goes below, the lid shuts with a bang,
+and the tug sinks out of sight, leaving a trail of bubbles behind it.
+
+The hours go by, night is coming on, yet the tug does not return. I
+conclude that it has gone to tow the schooner, and perhaps to destroy
+any merchant vessels that may come in their way.
+
+It cannot, however, be absent very long, as the trip to America and
+back will not take more than a week.
+
+Besides, if I can judge from the calm atmosphere in the interior of
+the cavern, the _Ebba_ must be favored with beautiful weather. This
+is, in fact, the fine season in this part of the world. Ah! if only I
+could break out of my prison!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+GOD BE WITH IT.
+
+
+_From August 29 to September 10_.--Thirteen days have gone by and
+the _Ebba_ has not returned. Did she then not make straight for the
+American coast? Has she been delayed by a buccaneering cruise in the
+neighborhood of Back Cup? It seems to me that Ker Karraje's only
+desire would be to get back with the sections of Roch's engines as
+soon as possible. Maybe the Virginian foundry had not quite finished
+them.
+
+Engineer Serko does not display the least anxiety or impatience. He
+continues to greet me with his accustomed ironical cordiality, and
+with a kindly air that I distrust--with good reason. He affects to be
+solicitous as to my health, urges me to make the best of a bad job,
+calls me Ali Baba, assures me that there is not, in the whole world,
+such an enchanting spot as this Arabian Nights cavern, observes that I
+am fed, warmed, lodged, and clothed, that I have no taxes to pay, and
+that even the inhabitants of the favored principality of Monaco do not
+enjoy an existence more free from care.
+
+Sometimes this ironical verbiage brings the blood to my face, and I
+am tempted to seize this cynical banterer by the throat and choke the
+life out of him. They would kill me afterwards. Still, what would that
+matter! Would it not be better to end in this way than to spend years
+and years amid these infernal and infamous surroundings? However,
+while there is life there is hope, I reflect, and this thought
+restrains me.
+
+I have scarcely set eyes upon Thomas Roch since the _Ebba_ went away.
+He shuts himself up in his laboratory and works unceasingly. If he
+utilizes all the substances placed at his disposition there will be
+enough to blow up Back Cup and the whole Bermudan archipelago with it!
+
+I cling to the hope that he will never consent to give up the secret
+of his deflagrator, and that Engineer Serko's efforts to acquire it
+will remain futile.
+
+_September 3_.--To-day I have been able to witness with my own eyes
+the power of Roch's explosive, and also the manner in which the
+fulgurator is employed.
+
+During the morning the men began to pierce the passage through the
+wall of the cavern at the spot fixed upon by Engineer Serko, who
+superintended the work in person. The work began at the base, where
+the rock is as hard as granite. To have continued it with pickaxes
+would have entailed long and arduous labor, inasmuch as the wall at
+this place is not less than from twenty to thirty yards in thickness,
+but thanks to Roch's fulgurator the passage will be completed easily
+and rapidly.
+
+I may well be astonished at what I have seen. The pickaxes hardly made
+any impression on the rock, but its disaggregation was effected with
+really remarkable facility by means of the fulgurator.
+
+A few grains of this explosive shattered the rocky mass and reduced it
+to almost impalpable powder that one's breath could disperse as easily
+as vapor. The explosion produced an excavation measuring fully a cubic
+yard. It was accompanied by a sharp detonation that may be compared to
+the report of a cannon.
+
+The first charge used, although a very small one, a mere pinch, blew
+the men in every direction, and two of them were seriously injured.
+Engineer Serko himself was projected several yards, and sustained some
+rather severe contusions.
+
+Here is how this substance, whose bursting force surpasses anything
+hitherto conceived, is employed.
+
+A small hole about an inch and a half in length is pierced obliquely
+in the rock. A few grains of the explosive are then inserted, but no
+wad is used.
+
+Then Thomas Roch steps forward. In his hand is a little glass phial
+containing a bluish, oily liquid that congeals almost as soon as it
+comes in contact with the air. He pours one drop on the entrance of
+the hole, and draws back, but not with undue haste. It takes a certain
+time--about thirty-five seconds, I reckon--before the combination of
+the fulgurator and deflagrator is effected. But when the explosion
+does take place its power of disaggregation is such--I repeat--that
+it may be regarded as unlimited. It is at any rate a thousand times
+superior to that of any known explosive.
+
+Under these circumstances it will probably not take more than a week
+to complete the tunnel.
+
+_September 19_.--For some time past I have observed that the tide
+rises and falls twice every twenty-four hours, and that the ebb and
+flow produce a rather swift current through the submarine tunnel. It
+is pretty certain therefore that a floating object thrown into the
+lagoon when the top of the orifice is uncovered would be carried out
+by the receding tide. It is just possible that during the lowest
+equinoctial tides the top of the orifice is uncovered. This I shall be
+able to ascertain, as this is precisely the time they occur. To-day,
+September 19, I could almost distinguish the summit of the hole under
+the water. The day after to-morrow, if ever, it will be uncovered.
+
+Very well then, if I cannot myself attempt to get through, may be a
+bottle thrown into the lagoon might be carried out during the last
+few minutes of the ebb. And might not this bottle by chance--an
+ultra-providential chance, I must avow--be picked up by a ship passing
+near Back Cup? Perhaps even it might be borne away by a friendly
+current and cast upon one of the Bermudan beaches. What if that bottle
+contained a letter?
+
+I cannot get this thought out of my mind, and it works me up into a
+great state of excitement. Then objections crop up--this one among
+others: the bottle might be swept against the rocks and smashed ere
+ever it could get out of the tunnel. Very true, but what if, instead
+of a bottle a diminutive, tightly closed keg were used? It would not
+run any danger of being smashed and would besides stand a much better
+chance of reaching the open sea.
+
+_September 20_.--This evening, I, unperceived, entered one of the
+store houses containing the booty pillaged from various ships and
+procured a keg very suitable for my experiment.
+
+I hid the keg under my coat, and returned to the Beehive and my cell.
+Then without losing an instant I set to work. Paper, pen, ink, nothing
+was wanting, as will be supposed from the fact that for three months I
+have been making notes and dotting down my impressions daily.
+
+I indite the following message:
+
+"On June 15 last Thomas Roch and his keeper Gaydon, or rather Simon
+Hart, the French engineer who occupied Pavilion No. 17, at Healthful
+House, near New-Berne, North Carolina, United States of America, were
+kidnapped and carried on board the schooner _Ebba_, belonging to the
+Count d'Artigas. Both are now confined in the interior of a cavern
+which serves as a lair for the said Count d'Artigas--who is really Ker
+Karraje, the pirate who some time ago carried on his depredations in
+the West Pacific--and for about a hundred men of which his band is
+composed.
+
+"When he has obtained possession of Roch's fulgurator whose power is,
+so to speak, without limit, Ker Karraje will be in a position to carry
+on his crimes with complete impunity.
+
+"It is therefore urgent that the states interested should destroy his
+lair without delay.
+
+"The cavern in which the pirate Ker Karraje has taken refuge is in the
+interior of the islet of Back Cup, which is wrongly regarded as
+an active volcano. It is situated at the western extremity of the
+archipelago of Bermuda, and on the east is bounded by a range of
+reefs, but on the north, south, and west is open.
+
+"Communication with the inside of the mountain is only possible
+through a tunnel a few yards under water in a narrow pass on the west.
+A submarine apparatus therefore is necessary to effect an entrance, at
+any rate until a tunnel they are boring through the northwestern wall
+of the cavern is completed.
+
+"The pirate Ker Karraje employs an apparatus of this kind--the
+submarine boat that the Count d'Artigas ordered of the Cramps and
+which was supposed to have been lost during the public experiment with
+it in Charleston Bay. This boat is used not only for the purpose of
+entering and issuing from Back Cup, but also to tow the schooner and
+attack merchant vessels in Bermudan waters.
+
+"This schooner _Ebba_, so well known on the American coast, is kept
+in a small creek on the western side of the island, behind a mass of
+rocks, and is invisible from the sea.
+
+"The best place to land is on the west coast formerly occupied by the
+colony of Bermudan fishers; but it would first be advisable to effect
+a breach in the side of the cavern by means of the most powerful
+melinite shells.
+
+"The fact that Ker Karraje may be in the position to use Roch's
+fulgurator for the defence of the island must also be taken into
+consideration. Let it be well borne in mind that if its destructive
+power surpasses anything ever conceived or dreamed of, it extends over
+a zone not exceeding a mile in extent. The distance of this dangerous
+zone is variable, but once the engines have been set, the modification
+of the distance occupies some time, and a warship that succeeds in
+passing the zone has nothing further to fear.
+
+"This document is written on the twentieth day of September at eight
+o'clock in the evening and is signed with my name
+
+"THOMAS HART, Engineer."
+
+The above is the text of the statement I have just drawn up. It says
+all that is necessary about the island, whose exact situation is
+marked on all modern charts and maps, and points out the expediency
+of acting without delay, and what to do in case Ker Karraje is in the
+position to employ Roch's fulgurator.
+
+I add a plan of the cavern showing its internal configuration, the
+situation of the lagoon, the lay of the Beehive, Ker Karraje's
+habitation, my cell, and Thomas Roch's laboratory.
+
+I wrap the document in a piece of tarpaulin and insert the package in
+the little keg, which measures six inches by three and a half. It
+is perfectly watertight and will stand any amount of knocking about
+against the rocks.
+
+There is one danger, however, and that is, that it may be swept back
+by the returning tide, cast up on the island, and fall into the hands
+of the crew of the _Ebba_ when the schooner is hauled into her creek.
+If Ker Karraje ever gets hold of it, it will be all up with me.
+
+It will be readily conceived with what anxiety I have awaited the
+moment to make the attempt: I am in a perfect fever of excitement,
+for it is a matter of life or death to me. I calculate from previous
+observations that the tide will be very low at about a quarter to
+nine. The top of the tunnel ought then to be a foot and a half above
+water, which is more than enough to permit of the keg passing through
+it. It will be another half hour at least before the flow sets in
+again, and by that time the keg may be far enough away to escape being
+thrown back on the coast.
+
+I peer out of my cell. There is no one about, and I advance to the
+side of the lagoon, where by the light of a nearby lamp, I perceive
+the arch of the tunnel, towards which the current seems to be setting
+pretty swiftly.
+
+I go down to the very edge, and cast in the keg which contains the
+precious document and all my hopes.
+
+"God be with it!" I fervently exclaim. "God be with it!"
+
+For a minute or two the little barrel remains stationary, and then
+floats back to the side again. I throw it out once more with all my
+strength.
+
+This time it is in the track of the current, which to my great joy
+sweeps it along and in twenty seconds, it has disappeared in the
+tunnel.
+
+Yes, God be with it! May Heaven guide thee, little barrel! May it
+protect all those whom Ker Karraje menaces and grant that this band of
+pirates may not escape from the justice of man!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+BATTLE BETWEEN THE "SWORD" AND THE TUG.
+
+
+Through all this sleepless night I have followed the keg in fancy. How
+many times I seem to see it swept against the rocks in the tunnel into
+a creek, or some excavation. I am in a cold perspiration from head to
+foot. Then I imagine that it has been carried out to sea. Heavens!
+if the returning tide should sweep it back to the entrance and then
+through the tunnel into the lagoon! I must be on the lookout for it.
+
+I rise before the sun and saunter down to the lagoon. Not a single
+object is floating on its calm surface.
+
+The work on the tunnel through the side of the cavern goes on, and at
+four o'clock in the afternoon on September 23, Engineer Serko blows
+away the last rock obstructing the issue, and communication with the
+outer world is established. It is only a very narrow hole, and one
+has to stoop to go through it. The exterior orifice is lost among the
+crannies of the rocky coast, and it would be easy to obstruct it, if
+such a measure became necessary.
+
+It goes without saying that the passage will be strictly guarded. No
+one without special authorization will be able either to go out or
+come in, therefore there is little hope of escape in that direction.
+
+_September 25._--This morning the tug rose from the depth of the
+lagoon to the surface, and has now run alongside the jetty. The Count
+d'Artigas and Captain Spade disembark, and the crew set to work to
+land the provisions--boxes of canned meat, preserves, barrels of wine
+and spirits, and other things brought by the _Ebba,_ among which are
+several packages destined for Thomas Roch. The men also land the
+various sections of Roch's engines which are discoid in shape.
+
+The inventor watches their operations, and his eyes glisten with
+eagerness. He seizes one of the sections, examines it, and nods
+approval. I notice that his joy no longer finds expression in
+incoherent utterances, that he is completely transformed from what he
+was while a patient at Healthful House. So much is this the case that
+I begin to ask myself whether his madness which was asserted to be
+incurable, has not been radically cured.
+
+At last Thomas Roch embarks in the boat used for crossing the lake and
+is rowed over to his laboratory. Engineer Serko accompanies him. In an
+hour's time the tug's cargo has all been taken out and transported to
+the storehouses.
+
+Ker Karraje exchanges a word or two with Engineer Serko and then
+enters his mansion. Later, in the afternoon, I see them walking up and
+down in front of the Beehive and talking earnestly together.
+
+Then they enter the new tunnel, followed by Captain Spade. If I could
+but follow them! If I could but breathe for awhile the bracing air
+of the Atlantic, of which the interior of Back Cup only receives
+attenuated puffs, so to speak.
+
+_From September 26 to October 10_.--Fifteen days have elapsed. Under
+the directions of Engineer Serko and Thomas Roch the sections of the
+engines have been fitted together. Then the construction of their
+supports is begun. These supports are simple trestles, fitted with
+transverse troughs or grooves of various degrees of inclination, and
+which could be easily installed on the deck of the _Ebba_, or even
+on the platform of the tug, which can be kept on a level with the
+surface.
+
+Thus Ker Karraje, will be ruler of the seas, with his yacht. No
+warship, however big, however powerful, will be able to cross the zone
+of danger, whereas the _Ebba_ will be out of range of its guns. If
+only my notice were found! If only the existence of this lair of Back
+Cup were known! Means would soon be found, if not of destroying the
+place, at least of starving the band into submission!
+
+_October 20_.--To my extreme surprise I find this morning that the tug
+has gone away again. I recall that yesterday the elements of the piles
+were renewed, but I thought it was only to keep them in order. In
+view of the fact that the outside can now be reached through the new
+tunnel, and that Thomas Roch has everything he requires, I can only
+conclude that the tug has gone off on another marauding expedition.
+
+Yet this is the season of the equinoctial gales, and the Bermudan
+waters are swept by frequent tempests. This is evident from the
+violent gusts that drive back the smoke through the crater and the
+heavy rain that accompanies it, as well as by the water in the lagoon,
+which swells and washes over the brown rocks on its shores.
+
+But it is by no means sure that the _Ebba_ has quitted her cove.
+However staunch she may be, she is, it seems to me, of too light a
+build to face such tempests as now rage, even with the help of the
+tug.
+
+On the other hand, although the tug has nothing to fear from the heavy
+seas, as it would be in calm water a few yards below the surface, it
+is hardly likely that it has gone on a trip unless to accompany the
+schooner.
+
+I do not know to what its departure can be attributed, but its absence
+is likely to be prolonged, for it has not yet returned.
+
+Engineer Serko has remained behind, but Ker Karraje, Captain Spade,
+and the crew of the schooner, I find, have left.
+
+Life in the cavern goes on with its usual dispiriting monotony. I pass
+hour after hour in my cell, meditating, hoping, despairing, following
+in fancy the voyage of my little barrel, tossed about at the mercy
+of the currents and whose chances of being picked up, I fear, are
+becoming fainter each day, and killing time by writing my diary, which
+will probably not survive me.
+
+Thomas Roch is constantly occupied in his laboratory manufacturing his
+deflagrator. I still entertain the conviction that nothing will ever
+induce him to give up the secret of the liquid's composition; but I am
+perfectly aware that he will not hesitate to place his invention at
+Ker Karraje's service.
+
+I often meet Engineer Serko when my strolls take me in the direction
+of the Beehive. He always shows himself disposed to chat with me,
+though, it is true, he does so in a tone of impertinent frivolity.
+We converse upon all sorts of subjects, but rarely of my position.
+Recrimination thereanent is useless and only subjects me to renewed
+bantering.
+
+
+_October 22_.--To-day I asked Engineer Serko whether the _Ebba_ had
+put to sea again with the tug.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Simon Hart," he replied, "and though the clouds gather and
+loud the tempest roars, be in no uneasiness in regard to our dear
+_Ebba_."
+
+"Will she be gone long?"
+
+"We expect her back within forty-eight hours. It is the last voyage
+Count d'Artigas proposes to make before the winter gales render
+navigation in these parts impracticable."
+
+"Is her voyage one of business or pleasure?"
+
+"Of business, Mr. Hart, of business," answered Engineer Serko with
+a smile. "Our engines are now completed, and when the fine weather
+returns we shall resume offensive operations."
+
+"Against unfortunate merchantmen."
+
+"As unfortunate as they are richly laden."
+
+"Acts of piracy, whose impunity will, I trust, not always be assured,"
+I cried..
+
+"Calm yourself, dear colleague, be calm! Be calm! No one, you know,
+can ever discover our retreat, and none can ever disclose the secret!
+Besides, with these engines, which are so easily handled and are of
+such terrible power, it would be easy for us to blow to pieces any
+ship that attempted to get within a certain radius of the island."
+
+"Providing," I said, "that Thomas Roch has sold you the composition of
+his deflagrator as he has sold you that of his fulgurator."
+
+"That he has done, Mr. Hart, and it behooves me to set your mind at
+rest upon that point."
+
+From this categorical response I ought to have concluded that the
+misfortune had been consummated, but a certain hesitation in the
+intonation of his voice warned me that implicit reliance was not to be
+placed upon Engineer Serko's assertions.
+
+_October 25_.--What a frightful adventure I have just been mixed up
+in, and what a wonder I did not lose my life! It is only by a miracle
+that I am able to resume these notes, which have been interrupted for
+forty-eight hours. With a little luck, I should have been delivered!
+I should now be in one of the Bermudan ports--St. George or Hamilton.
+The mysteries of Back Cup would have been cleared up. The description
+of the schooner would have been wired all over the world, and she
+would not dare to put into any port. The provisioning of Back Cup
+would be impossible, and Ker Karraje's bandits would be condemned to
+starve to death!
+
+This is what occurred:
+
+At eight o'clock in the evening on October 23, I quitted my cell in
+an indefinable state of nervousness, and with a presentiment that a
+serious event was imminent. In vain I had tried to seek calmness in
+sleep. It was impossible to do so, and I rose and went out.
+
+Outside Back Cup the weather must have been very rough. Violent gusts
+of wind swept in through the crater and agitated the water of the
+lagoon.
+
+I walked along the shore on the Beehive side. No one was about. It
+was rather cold, and the air was damp. The pirates were all snugly
+ensconced in their cells, with the exception of one man, who stood
+guard over the new passage, notwithstanding that the outer entrance
+had been blocked. From where he was this man could not see the lagoon,
+moreover there were only two lamps alight, one on each side of
+the lake, and the forest of pillars was wrapt in the profoundest
+obscurity.
+
+I was walking about in the shadow, when some one passed me.
+
+I saw that he was Thomas Roch.
+
+He was walking slowly, absorbed by his thoughts, his brain at work, as
+usual.
+
+Was this not a favorable opportunity to talk to him, to enlighten him
+about what he was probably ignorant, namely, the character of the
+people into whose hands he had fallen?
+
+"He cannot," I argued, "know that the Count d'Artigas is none other
+than Ker Karraje, the pirate. He cannot be aware that he has given up
+a part of his invention to such a bandit. I must open his eyes to the
+fact that he will never be able to enjoy his millions, that he is a
+prisoner in Back Cup, and will never be allowed to leave it, any
+more than I shall. Yes, I will make an appeal to his sentiments of
+humanity, and point out to him what frightful misfortunes he will be
+responsible for if he does not keep the secret of his deflagrator."
+
+All this I had said to myself, and was preparing to carry out my
+resolution, when I suddenly felt myself seized from behind.
+
+Two men held me by the arms, and another appeared in front of me.
+
+Before I had time to cry out the man exclaimed in English:
+
+"Hush! not a word! Are you not Simon Hart?"
+
+"Yes, how did you know?"
+
+"I saw you come out of your cell."
+
+"Who are you, then?"
+
+"Lieutenant Davon, of the British Navy, of H.M.S. _Standard_, which is
+stationed at the Bermudas."
+
+Emotion choked me so that it was impossible for me to utter a word.
+
+"We have come to rescue you from Ker Karraje, and also propose to
+carry off Thomas Roch," he added.
+
+"Thomas Roch?" I stammered.
+
+"Yes, the document signed by you was found on the beach at St.
+George----"
+
+"In a keg, Lieutenant Davon, which I committed to the waters of the
+lagoon."
+
+"And which contained," went on the officer, "the notice by which we
+were apprised that the island of Back Cup served as a refuge for Ker
+Karraje and his band--Ker Karraje, this false Count d'Artigas, the
+author of the double abduction from Healthful House."
+
+"Ah! Lieutenant Davon----"
+
+"Now we have not a moment to spare, we must profit by the obscurity."
+
+"One word, Lieutenant Davon, how did you penetrate to the interior of
+Back Cup?"
+
+"By means of the submarine boat _Sword_, with which we have been
+making experiments at St. George for six months past."
+
+"A submarine boat!"
+
+"Yes, it awaits us at the foot of the rocks. And now, Mr. Hart, where
+is Ker Karraje's tug?"
+
+"It has been away for three weeks."
+
+"Ker Karraje is not here, then?"
+
+"No, but we expect him back every day--every hour, I might say."
+
+"It matters little," replied Lieutenant Davon. "It is not after Ker
+Karraje, but Thomas Roch, we have come--and you also, Mr. Hart. The
+_Sword_ will not leave the lagoon till you are both on board. If she
+does not turn up at St. George again, they will know that I have
+failed--and they will try again."
+
+"Where is the _Sword_, Lieutenant?"
+
+"On this side, in the shadow of the bank, where it cannot be seen.
+Thanks to your directions, I and my crew were able to locate the
+tunnel. We came through all right, and ten minutes ago rose to the
+surface of the lake. Two men landed with me. I saw you issue from the
+cell marked on your plan. Do you know where Thomas Roch is?"
+
+"A few paces off. He has just passed me, on his way to his
+laboratory."
+
+"God be praised, Mr. Hart!"
+
+"Amen, Lieutenant Davon."
+
+The lieutenant, the two men and I took the path around the lagoon.
+We had not gone far when we perceived Thomas Roch in front of us. To
+throw ourselves upon him, gag him before he could utter a cry, bind
+him before he could offer any resistance, and bear him off to the
+place where the _Sword_ was moored was the work of a minute.
+
+The _Sword_ was a submersible boat of only twelve tons, and
+consequently much inferior to the tug, both in respect of dimensions
+and power. Her screw was worked by a couple of dynamos fitted with
+accumulators that had been charged twelve hours previously in the port
+of St. George. However, the _Sword_ would suffice to take us out of
+this prison, to restore us to liberty--that liberty of which I had
+given up all hope. Thomas Roch was at last to be rescued from the
+clutches of Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko. The rascals would not be
+able to utilize his invention, and nothing could prevent the warships
+from landing a storming party on the island, who would force the
+tunnel in the wall and secure the pirates!
+
+We saw no one while the two men were conveying Thomas Roch to the
+_Sword_, and all got on board without incident. The lid was shut and
+secured, the water compartments filled, and the _Sword_ sank out of
+sight. We were saved!
+
+The _Sword_ was divided into three water-tight compartments. The after
+one contained the accumulators and machinery. The middle one, occupied
+by the pilot, was surmounted by a periscope fitted with lenticular
+portholes, through which an electric search-lamp lighted the way
+through the water. Forward, in the other compartment, Thomas Roch and
+I were shut in.
+
+My companion, though the gag which was choking him had been removed,
+was still bound, and, I thought, knew what was going on.
+
+But we were in a hurry to be off, and hoped to reach St. George that
+very night if no obstacle was encountered.
+
+I pushed open the door of the compartment and rejoined Lieutenant
+Davon, who was standing by the man at the wheel. In the after
+compartment three other men, including the engineer, awaited the
+lieutenant's orders to set the machinery in motion.
+
+"Lieutenant Davon," I said, "I do not think there is any particular
+reason why I should stay in there with Roch. If I can help you to get
+through the tunnel, pray command me."
+
+"Yes, I shall be glad to have you by me, Mr. Hart."
+
+It was then exactly thirty-seven minutes past eight.
+
+The search-lamp threw a vague light through the water ahead of the
+_Sword_. From where we were, we had to cross the lagoon through its
+entire length to get to the tunnel. It would be pretty difficult to
+fetch it, we knew, but, if necessary, we could hug the sides of the
+lake until we located it. Once outside the tunnel the _Sword_ would
+rise to the surface and make for St. George at full speed.
+
+"At what depth are we now?" I asked the lieutenant.
+
+"About a fathom."
+
+"It is not necessary to go any lower," I said. "From what I was able
+to observe during the equinoctial tides, I should think that we are in
+the axis of the tunnel."
+
+"All right," he replied.
+
+Yes, it was all right, and I felt that Providence was speaking by the
+mouth of the officer. Certainly Providence could not have chosen a
+better agent to work its will.
+
+In the light of the lamp I examined him. He was about thirty years of
+age, cool, phlegmatic, with resolute physiognomy--the English officer
+in all his native impassibility--no more disturbed than if he had been
+on board the _Standard_, operating with extraordinary _sang-froid,_ I
+might even say, with the precision of a machine.
+
+"On coming through the tunnel I estimated its length at about fifty
+yards," he remarked.
+
+"Yes, Lieutenant, about fifty yards from one extremity to the other."
+
+This calculation must have been pretty exact, since the new tunnel cut
+on a level with the coast is thirty-five feet in length.
+
+The order was given to go ahead, and the _Sword_ moved forward very
+slowly for fear of colliding against the rocky side.
+
+Sometimes we came near enough to it to distinguish a black mass ahead
+of it, but a turn of the wheel put us in the right direction again.
+Navigating a submarine boat in the open sea is difficult enough. How
+much more so in the confines of a lagoon!
+
+After five minutes' manoeuvring, the _Sword_, which was kept at about
+a fathom below the surface, had not succeeded in sighting the orifice.
+
+"Perhaps it would be better to return to the surface, Lieutenant," I
+said. "We should then be able to see where we are."
+
+"I think you are right, Mr. Hart, if you can point out just about
+where the tunnel is located."
+
+"I think I can."
+
+"Very well, then."
+
+As a precaution the light was turned off. The engineer set the pumps
+in motion, and, lightened of its water ballast, the boat slowly rose
+in the darkness to the surface.
+
+I remained at my post so that I could peer through the lookouts.
+
+At last the ascensional movement of the _Sword_ stopped, and the
+periscope emerged about a foot.
+
+On one side of me, lighted by the lamp by the shore, I could see the
+Beehive.
+
+"What is your opinion?" demanded the lieutenant.
+
+"We are too far north. The orifice is in the west side of the cavern."
+
+"Is anybody about?"
+
+"Not a soul."
+
+"Capital, Mr. Hart. Then we will keep on a level with the surface, and
+when we are in front of the tunnel, and you give the signal, we will
+sink."
+
+It was the best thing to be done. We moved off again and the pilot
+kept her head towards the tunnel.
+
+When we were about twelve yards off I gave the signal to stop. As soon
+as the current was turned off the _Sword_ stopped, opened her water
+tanks and slowly sank again.
+
+Then the light in the lookout was turned on again, and there in front
+of us was a black circle that did not reflect the lamp's rays.
+
+"There it is, there is the tunnel!" I cried.
+
+Was it not the door by which I was going to escape from my prison? Was
+not liberty awaiting me on the other side?
+
+Gently the _Sword_ moved towards the orifice.
+
+Oh! the horrible mischance! How have I survived it? How is it that my
+heart is not broken?
+
+A dim light appeared in the depth of the tunnel, about twenty-five
+yards in front of us. The advancing light could be none other than
+that, projected through the lookout of Ker Karraje's submarine boat.
+
+"The tug! The tug!" I exclaimed. "Lieutenant, here is the tug
+returning to Back Cup!"
+
+"Full speed astern," ordered the officer, and the _Sword_ drew back
+just as she was about to enter the tunnel.
+
+One chance remained. The lieutenant had swiftly turned off the light,
+and it was just possible that we had not been seen by the people in
+the tug. Perhaps, in the dark waters of the lagoon, we should escape
+notice, and when the oncoming boat had risen and moored to the jetty,
+we should be able to slip out unperceived.
+
+We had backed close in to the south side and the _Sword_ was about to
+stop, but alas, for our hopes! Captain Spade had seen that another
+submarine boat was about to issue through the tunnel, and he was
+making preparations to chase us. How could a frail craft like the
+_Sword_ defend itself against the attacks of Ker Karraje's powerful
+machine?
+
+Lieutenant Davon turned to me and said: "Go back to the compartment
+where Thomas Roch is and shut yourself in. I will close the
+after-door. There is just a chance that if the tug rams us the
+water-tight compartments will keep us up."
+
+After shaking hands with the lieutenant, who was as cool as though we
+were in no danger, I went forward and rejoined Thomas Roch. I closed
+the door and awaited the issue in profound darkness.
+
+Then I could feel the desperate efforts made by the _Sword_ to
+escape from or ram her enemy. I could feel her rushing, gyrating and
+plunging. Now she would twist to avoid a collision. Now she would rise
+to the surface, then sink to the bottom of the lagoon. Can any one
+conceive such a struggle as that in which, like two marine monsters,
+these machines were engaged in beneath the troubled waters of this
+inland lake?
+
+A few minutes elapsed, and I began to think that the _Sword_ had
+eluded the tug and was rushing through the tunnel.
+
+Suddenly there was a collision. The shock was not, it seemed to me,
+very violent, but I could be under no illusion: the _Sword_ had been
+struck on her starboard quarter. Perhaps her plates had resisted,
+and if not, the water would only invade one of her compartments, I
+thought.
+
+Almost immediately after, however, there was another shock that pushed
+the _Sword_ with extreme violence. She was raised by the ram of the
+tug which sawed and ripped its way into her side. Then I could feel
+her heel over and sink straight down, stern foremost.
+
+Thomas Roch and I were tumbled over violently by. this movement. There
+was another bump, another ripping sound, and the _Sword_ lay still.
+
+Just what happened after that I am unable to say, for I lost
+consciousness.
+
+I have since learned that all this occurred many hours ago.
+
+I however distinctly remember that my last thought was:
+
+"If I am to die, at any rate Thomas Roch and his secret perish with
+me--and the pirates of Back Cup will not escape punishment for their
+crimes."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+EXPECTATION.
+
+
+As soon as I recover my senses I find myself lying on my bed in my
+cell, where it appears I have been lying for thirty-six hours.
+
+I am not alone. Engineer Serko is near me. He has attended to me
+himself, not because he regards me as a friend, I surmise, but as
+a man from whom indispensable explanations are awaited, and who
+afterwards can be done away with if necessary.
+
+I am still so weak that I could not walk a step. A little more and I
+should have been asphyxiated in that narrow compartment of the _Sword_
+at the bottom of the lagoon.
+
+Am I in condition to reply to the questions that Engineer Serko is
+dying to put to me? Yes--but I shall maintain the utmost reserve.
+
+In the first place I wonder what has become of Lieutenant Davon and
+the crew of the _Sword_. Did those brave Englishmen perish in the
+collision? Are they safe and sound like us--for I suppose that Thomas
+Roch has also survived?
+
+The first question that Engineer Serko puts to me is this:
+
+"Will you explain to me what happened, Mr. Hart?"
+
+Instead of replying it occurs to me to question him myself.
+
+"And Thomas Roch?" I inquire.
+
+"In good health, Mr. Hart." Then he adds in an imperious tone: "Tell
+me what occurred!"
+
+"In the first place, tell me what became of the others."
+
+"What others?" replies Serko, glancing at me savagely.
+
+"Why, those men who threw themselves upon Thomas Roch and me, who
+gagged, bound, and carried us off and shut us up, I know not where?"
+
+On reflection I had come to the conclusion that the best thing to do
+was to pretend that I had been surprised before I knew where I was or
+who my aggressors were.
+
+"You will know what became of them later. But first, tell me how, the
+thing was done."
+
+By the threatening tone of his voice, as he for the third time puts
+this question, I understand the nature of the suspicions entertained
+of me. Yet to be in the position to accuse me of having had relations
+with the outside he would have had to get possession of my keg. This
+he could not have done, seeing that it is in the hands of the Bermudan
+authorities. The pirates cannot, I am convinced, have a single proof
+to back up their suspicions.
+
+I therefore recount how about eight o'clock on the previous evening I
+was walking along the edge of the lagoon, after Thomas Roch had passed
+me, going towards his laboratory, when I felt myself seized from
+behind; how having been gagged, bound, and blindfolded, I felt myself
+carried off and lowered into a hole with another person whom I thought
+I recognized from his groans as Thomas Roch; how I soon felt that I
+was on board a boat of some description and naturally concluded that
+it was the tug; how I felt it sink; how I felt a shock that threw me
+violently against the side, and how I felt myself suffocating and lost
+consciousness, since I remember nothing further.
+
+Engineer Serko listens with profound attention, a stern look in his
+eyes and a frown on his brow; and yet he can have no reason that
+authorizes him to doubt my word.
+
+"You claim that three men threw themselves upon you?" he asks.
+
+"Yes. I thought they were some of your people, for I did not see them
+coming. Who were they?"
+
+"Strangers, as you must have known from their language."
+
+"They did not utter a word!"
+
+"Have you no idea as to their nationality?"
+
+"Not the remotest."
+
+Do you know what were their intentions in entering the cavern?"
+
+"I do not."
+
+"What is your opinion about it?"
+
+"My opinion, Mr. Serko? I repeat I thought they were two or three of
+your pirates who had come to throw me into the lagoon by the Count
+d'Artigas' orders, and that they were going to do the same thing to
+Thomas Roch. I supposed that having obtained his secrets--as you
+informed me was the case--you had no further use for him and were
+about to get rid of us both."
+
+"Is it possible, Mr. Hart, that you could have thought such a thing!"
+continued Serko in his sarcastic way.
+
+"I did, until having been able to remove the bandage from my eyes, I
+perceived that I was in the tug."
+
+"It was not the tug, but a boat of the same kind that had got through
+the tunnel."
+
+"A submarine boat?" I ejaculate.
+
+"Yes, and manned by persons whose mission was to kidnap you and Thomas
+Roch."
+
+"Kidnap us?" I echo, continuing to feign surprise.
+
+"And," adds Engineer Serko, "I want to know what you think about the
+matter."
+
+"What I think about it? Well, it appears to me that there is only one
+plausible explanation possible. If the secret of your retreat has not
+been betrayed--and I cannot conceive how you could have been betrayed
+or what imprudence you or yours could have committed--my opinion is
+that this submarine boat was exploring the bottom of the sea in this
+neighborhood, that she must have found her way into the tunnel,
+that she rose to the surface of the lagoon, that her crew, greatly
+surprised to find themselves inside an inhabited cavern, seized hold
+of the first persons they came across, Thomas Roch and myself, and
+others as well perhaps, for of course I do not know----"
+
+Engineer Serko has become serious again. Does he realize the inanity
+of the hypothesis I try to pass off on him? Does he think I know more
+than I will say? However this may be, he accepts my professed view,
+and says:
+
+"In effect, Mr. Hart, it must have happened as you suggest, and when
+the stranger tried to make her way out through the tunnel just as the
+tug was entering, there was a collision--a collision of which she was
+the victim. But we are not the kind of people to allow our fellow-men
+to perish before our eyes. Moreover, the disappearance of Thomas Roch
+and yourself was almost immediately discovered. Two such valuable
+lives had to be saved at all hazards. We set to work. There are many
+expert divers among our men. They hastily donned their suits and
+descended to the bottom of the lagoon. They passed lines around the
+hull of the _Sword_----"
+
+"The _Sword_?" I exclaim.
+
+"That is the name we saw painted on the bow of the vessel when we
+raised her to the surface. What satisfaction we experienced when we
+recovered you--unconscious, it is true, but still breathing--and were
+able to bring you back to life! Unfortunately all our attentions to
+the officer who commanded the _Sword_, and to his crew were useless.
+The shock had torn open the after and middle compartments, and
+they paid with their lives the misfortune--due to chance, as you
+observe--of having discovered our mysterious retreat."
+
+On learning that Lieutenant Davon and his companions are dead, my
+heart is filled with anguish; but to keep up my role--as they were
+persons with whom, presumably, I was not acquainted, and had never
+seen--I am careful not to display any emotion. I must, on no account,
+afford ground for the suspicion that there was any connivance between
+the commander of the _Sword_ and me. For aught I know, Engineer Serko
+may have reason to be very skeptical about the discovery of the tunnel
+being accidental.
+
+What, however, I am most concerned about is that the unlooked-for
+occasion to recover my liberty was lost. Shall I ever be afforded
+another chance? However this may be, my notice reached the English
+authorities of the archipelago, and they now know where Ker Karraje
+is to be found. When it is seen that the _Sword_ does not return to
+Bermuda, there can be no doubt that another attempt will be made to
+get inside Back Cup, in which, had it not been for the inopportune
+return of the tug, I should no longer be a prisoner.
+
+I have resumed my usual existence, and having allayed all mistrust, am
+permitted to wander freely about the cavern, as usual.
+
+It is patent that the adventure has had no ill effect upon Thomas
+Roch. Intelligent nursing brought him around, as it did me. In full
+possession of his mental faculties he has returned to work, and spends
+the entire day in his laboratory.
+
+The _Ebba_ brought back from her last trip bales, boxes, and a
+quantity of objects of varied origin, and I conclude that a number of
+ships must have been pillaged during this marauding expedition.
+
+The work on the trestles for Roch's engine goes steadily forward, and
+there are now no fewer than fifty engines. If Ker Karraje and Engineer
+Serko are under the necessity of defending Back Cup, three or four
+will be sufficient to render the island unapproachable, as they will
+cover a zone which no vessel could enter without being blown to
+pieces. And it occurs to me that they intend to put Back Cup in a
+state of defence after having argued as follows:
+
+"If the appearance of the _Sword_ in the lagoon was due to chance the
+situation remains unchanged, and no power, not even England, will
+think of seeking for the _Sword_ inside the cavern. If, on the other
+hand, as the result of an incomprehensible revelation, it has been
+learned that Back Cup is become the retreat of Ker Karraje, if the
+expedition of the _Sword_ was a first effort against the island,
+another of a different kind--either a bombardment from a distance, or
+an attack by a landing party--is to be expected. Therefore, ere we
+can quit Back Cup and carry away our plunder, we shall have to defend
+ourselves by means of Roch's fulgurator."
+
+In my opinion the rascals must have gone on to reason still further in
+this wise:
+
+"Is there any connection between the disclosure of our secret--if it
+was, and however it may have been made--and the double abduction from
+Healthful House? Is it known that Thomas Roch and his keeper are
+confined in Back Cup? Is it known that the abduction was effected in
+the interest of Ker Karraje? Have Americans, English, French, Germans,
+and Russians reason to fear that an attack in force against the island
+would be doomed to failure?"
+
+Ker Karraje must know very well that these powers would not hesitate
+to attack him, however great the danger might be. The destruction of
+his lair is an urgent duty in the interest of public security and
+of humanity. After sweeping the West Pacific the pirate and his
+companions are infesting the West Atlantic, and must be wiped out at
+all costs.
+
+In any case, it is imperative that the inhabitants of Back Cup should
+be on their guard. This fact is realized, and, from the day on which
+the _Sword_ was destroyed, strict watch has been kept. Thanks to the
+new passage, they are able to hide among the rocks without having
+recourse to the submarine tunnel to get there, and day and night a
+dozen sentries are posted about the island. The moment a ship appears
+in sight the fact is at once made known inside the cavern.
+
+Nothing occurs for some days, and the latter succeed each other with
+dreadful monotony. The pirates, however, feel that Back Cup no longer
+enjoys its former security. Every moment an alarm from the sentries
+posted outside is expected. The situation is no longer the same since
+the advent of the _Sword_. Gallant Lieutenant Davon, gallant crew,
+may England, may the civilized nations, never forget that you have
+sacrificed your lives in the cause of humanity!
+
+It is evident that now, however powerful may be their means of
+defence, even more powerful than a network of torpedoes, Engineer
+Serko and Captain Spade are filled with an anxiety that they vainly
+essay to dissemble. They hold frequent conferences together. Maybe
+they discuss the advisability of quitting Back Cup with their wealth,
+for they are aware that if the existence of the cavern is known means
+will be found to reduce it, even if the inmates have to be starved
+out.
+
+This is, of course, mere conjecture on my part. What is essential to
+me is that they do not suspect me of having launched the keg that
+was so providentially picked up at Bermuda. Never, I must say, has
+Engineer Serko ever made any allusion to any such probability. No, I
+am not even suspected. If the contrary were the case I am sufficiently
+acquainted with Ker Karraje to know that he would long ago have sent
+me to rejoin Lieutenant Davon and the _Sword_ at the bottom of the
+lagoon.
+
+The winter tempests have set in with a vengeance. The wind howls
+though the hole in the roof, and rude gusts sweep through the forest
+of pillars producing sonorous sounds, so sonorous, so deep, that one
+might sometimes almost fancy they were produced by the firing of the
+guns of a squadron. Flocks of seabirds take refuge in the cavern from
+the gale, and at intervals, when it lulls, almost deafen us with their
+screaming.
+
+It is to be presumed that in such weather the schooner will make no
+attempt to put to sea, for the stock of provisions is ample enough to
+last all the season. Moreover, I imagine the Count d'Artigas will not
+be so eager in future to show his _Ebba_ along the American
+coast, where he risks being received, not, as hitherto, with the
+consideration due to a wealthy yachtsman, but in the manner Ker
+Karraje so richly merits.
+
+It occurs to me that if the apparition of the _Sword_ was the
+commencement of a campaign against the island, a question of great
+moment relative to the future of Back Cup arises.
+
+Therefore, one day, prudently, so as not to excite any suspicion, I
+ventured to pump Engineer Serko about it.
+
+We were in the neighborhood of Thomas Roch's laboratory, and had
+been conversing for some time, when Engineer Serko touched upon the
+extraordinary apparition of an English submarine boat in the lagoon.
+On this occasion he seemed to incline to the view that it might have
+been a premeditated expedition against Ker Karraje.
+
+"That is not my opinion," I replied, in order to bring him to the
+question that I wanted to put to him.
+
+"Why?" he demanded.
+
+"Because if your retreat were known a fresh attempt, if not to
+penetrate to the cavern, at least to destroy Back Cup, would ere this
+have been made."
+
+"Destroy it!" cried Serko. "It would be a dangerous undertaking, in
+view of the means of defence of which we now dispose."
+
+"They can know nothing about this matter, Mr. Serko. It is not
+imagined, either in the new world or the old, that the abduction from
+Healthful House was effected for your especial benefit, or that you
+have succeeded in coming to terms with Thomas Roch for his invention."
+
+Engineer Serko made no response to this observation, which, for that
+matter, was unanswerable.
+
+I continued:
+
+"Therefore a squadron sent by the maritime powers who have an interest
+in breaking up this island would not hesitate to approach and shell
+it. Now, I argue from this that as this squadron has not yet appeared,
+it is not likely to come at all, and that nothing is known as to Ker
+Karraje's whereabouts, and you must admit that this hypothesis is the
+most cheerful one, as far as you are concerned."
+
+"That may be," Engineer Serko replied, "but what is, is. Whether they
+are aware of the fact or no, if warships approach within five or six
+miles of this island they will be sunk before they have had time to
+fire a single shot!"
+
+"Well, and what then?"
+
+"What then? Why the probability is that no others would care to repeat
+the experiment."
+
+"That, again, may be. But these warships would invest you beyond the
+dangerous zone, and the _Ebba_ would not be able to put in to the
+ports she previously visited with the Count d'Artigas. In this event,
+how would you be able to provision the island?"
+
+Engineer Serko remained silent.
+
+This argument, which he must already have brooded over, was too
+logical to be refuted or dismissed, and I have an idea that the
+pirates contemplate abandoning Back Cup.
+
+Nevertheless, not relishing being cornered, he continued:
+
+"We should still have the tug, and what the _Ebba_ could not do, this
+would."
+
+"The tug?" I cried. "But if Ker Karraje's secrets are known, do you
+suppose the powers are not also aware of the existence of the Count
+d'Artigas' submarine boat?"
+
+Engineer Serko looked at me suspiciously.
+
+"Mr. Hart," he said, "you appear to me to carry your deductions rather
+far."
+
+"I, Mr. Serko?"
+
+"Yes, and I think you talk about all this like a man who knows more
+than he ought to."
+
+This remark brought me up abruptly. It was evident that my arguments
+might give rise to the suspicion that I was not altogether
+irresponsible for the recent incident. Engineer Serko scrutinized me
+sharply as though he would read my innermost thoughts.
+
+"Mr. Serko," I observed, "by profession, as well as by inclination, I
+am accustomed to reason upon everything. This is why I communicated to
+you the result of my reasoning, which you can take into consideration
+or not, as you like."
+
+Thereupon we separate. But I fancy my lack of reserve may have excited
+suspicions which may not be easy to allay.
+
+From this interview, however, I gleaned a precious bit of information,
+namely, that the dangerous zone of Roch's fulgurator is between five
+and six miles off. Perhaps, during the next equinoctial tides,
+another notice to this effect in another keg may also reach a safe
+destination.
+
+But how many weary months to wait before the orifice of the tunnel
+will again be uncovered!
+
+The rough weather continues, and the squalls are more violent than
+ever. Is it the state of the sea that delays another campaign against
+Back Cup? Lieutenant Davon certainly assured me that if his expedition
+failed, if the _Sword_ did not return to St. George, another attempt
+under different conditions would be made with a view to breaking up
+this bandits' lair. Sooner or later the work of justice must be
+done, and Back Cup be destroyed, even though I may not survive its
+destruction.
+
+Ah! why can I not go and breathe, if only for a single instant, the
+vivifying air outside? Why am I not permitted to cast one glance over
+the ocean towards the distant horizon of the Bermudas? My whole life
+is concentrated in one desire: to get through the tunnel in the wall
+and hide myself among the rocks. Perchance I might be the first to
+catch sight of the smoke of a squadron heading for the island.
+
+This project, alas! is unrealizable, as sentries are posted day and
+night at each extremity of the passage. No one can enter it without
+Engineer Serko's authorization. Were I to attempt it, I should risk
+being deprived of my liberty to walk about the cavern, and even worse
+might happen to me.
+
+Since our last conversation, Engineer Serko's attitude towards me has
+undergone a change. His gaze has lost its old-time sarcasm and is
+distrustful, suspicious, searching and as stern as Ker Karraje's.
+
+_November 17_.--This afternoon there was a great commotion in the
+Beehive, and the men rushed out of their cells with loud cries.
+
+I was reclining on my bed, but immediately rose and hurried out.
+
+All the pirates were making for the passage, in front of which were
+Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, Boatswain Effrondat,
+Engine-driver Gibson and the Count d'Artigas' big Malay attendant.
+
+I soon learn the reason for the tumult, for the sentries rush in with
+shouts of alarm.
+
+Several vessels have been sighted to the northwest--warships steaming
+at full speed in the direction of Back Cup.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+ONLY A FEW MORE HOURS.
+
+
+What effect this news has upon me, and what emotion it awakens within
+my soul! The end, I feel, is at hand. May it be such as civilization
+and humanity are entitled to.
+
+Up to the present I have indited my notes day by day. Henceforward
+it is imperative that I should inscribe them hour by hour, minute by
+minute. Who knows but what Thomas Roch's last secret may be revealed
+to me and that I shall have time to commit it to paper! Should I die
+during the attack God grant that the account of the five months I have
+passed in Back Cup may be found upon my body!
+
+At first Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, and several of
+their companions took up position on the exterior base of the island.
+What would I not give to be able follow to them, and in the friendly
+shelter of a rook watch the on-coming warships!
+
+An hour later they return after having left a score of men to keep
+watch. As the days at this season of the year are very short there is
+nothing to fear before the morrow. It is not likely that the ships
+will attempt a night attack and land a storming party, for they must
+imagine that the place is in a thorough condition of defence.
+
+All night long the pirates work, installing the trestles at different
+points of the coast. Six have been taken through the passage to places
+selected in advance.
+
+This done, Engineer Serko joins Thomas Roch in his laboratory. Is he
+going to tell him what is passing, that a squadron is in view of Back
+Cup, and that his fulgurator will be employed to defend the island?
+
+What is certain is that half a hundred engines, each charged with
+several pounds of the explosive and of the substance that ensures a
+trajectory superior to that of any other projectile, are ready for
+their work of destruction.
+
+As to the deflagrator liquid, Thomas Roch has a certain number of
+phials of it, and--I know only too well--will not refuse to help Ker
+Karraje's pirates with it.
+
+During these preparations night has come on. Only the lamps of the
+Beehive are lighted and a semi-obscurity reigns in the cavern.
+
+I return to my cell. It is to my interest to keep out of the way as
+much as possible, for Engineer Serko's suspicions might be revived now
+that the squadron is approaching Back Cup.
+
+But will the vessels sighted continue on their course in this
+direction? May they not be merely passing on their way to Bermuda? For
+an instant this doubt enters my mind. No, no, it cannot be! Besides, I
+have just heard Captain Spade declare that they are lying to in view
+of the island.
+
+To what nation do they belong? Have the English, desirous of avenging
+the destruction of the _Sword_, alone undertaken the expedition? May
+not cruisers of other nations be with them? I know not, and it is
+impossible to ascertain. And what does it matter, after all, so long
+as this haunt is destroyed, even though I should perish in the ruins
+like the heroic Lieutenant Davon and his brave crew?
+
+Preparations for defence continue with coolness and method under
+Engineer Serko's superintendence. These pirates are obviously certain
+that they will be able to annihilate their assailants as soon as the
+latter enter the dangerous zone. Their confidence in Roch's fulgurator
+is absolute. Absorbed by the idea that these warship are powerless
+against them, they think neither of the difficulties nor menaces held
+out by the future.
+
+I surmise that the trestles have been set up on the northwest coast
+with the grooves turned to send the engines to the north, west, and
+south. On the east, as already stated, the island is defended by the
+chain of reefs that stretches away to the Bermudas.
+
+About nine o'clock I venture out of my cell. They will pay little
+attention to me, and perhaps I may escape notice in the obscurity. Ah!
+if I could get through that passage and hide behind some rock, so that
+I could witness what goes on at daybreak! And why should I not succeed
+now that Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, and the pirates
+have taken their posts outside?
+
+The shores of the lake are deserted, but the entrance to the passage
+is kept by Count d'Artigas' Malay. I saunter, without any fixed idea,
+towards Thomas Roch's laboratory. This reminds me of my compatriot. I
+am, on reflection, disposed to think that he knows nothing about the
+presence of a squadron off Back Cup. Probably not until the last
+moment will Engineer Serko apprise him of its proximity, not till he
+brusquely points out to him the vengeance he can accomplish.
+
+Then I conceive the idea of enlightening Thomas Roch, myself, of the
+responsibility he is incurring and of revealing to him in this supreme
+hour the character of the men who want him to co-operate in their
+criminal projects.
+
+Yes, I will, attempt it, and may I succeed in fanning into a flame any
+spark of patriotism that may still linger in his rebellious soul!
+
+Roch is shut up in his laboratory. He must be alone, for never does he
+allow any one to enter while he is preparing his deflagrator.
+
+As I pass the jetty I notice that the tug is moored in its accustomed
+place. Here I judge it prudent to walk behind the first row of pillars
+and approach the laboratory laterally--which will enable me to see
+whether anybody is with him. When I have gone a short distance along
+the sombre avenue I see a bright light on the opposite side of the
+lagoon. It is the electric light in Roch's laboratory as seen through
+a narrow window in the front.
+
+Except in that particular spot, the southern shore of the lake is in
+darkness, whereas, in the opposite direction, the Beehive is lit up to
+its extremity at the northern wall. Through the opening in the dome,
+over the lake I can see the stars shining. The sky is clear, the
+tempest has abated, and the squalls no longer penetrate to the
+interior of Back Cup.
+
+When near the laboratory, I creep along the wall and peep in at the
+window.
+
+Thomas Roch is there alone. The light shines full on his face. If it
+is somewhat drawn, and the lines on the forehead are more
+pronounced, his physiognomy, at least, denotes perfect calmness and
+self-possession. No, he is no longer the inmate of Pavilion No. 17,
+the madman of Healthful House, and I ask myself whether he is not
+radically cured, whether there is no further danger of his reason
+collapsing in a final paroxysm.
+
+He has just laid two glass phials upon the table, and holds a third in
+his hand. He holds it up to the light, and observes the limpidity of
+the liquid it contains.
+
+I have half a mind to rush in, seize the tubes and smash them, but I
+reflect that he would have time to make some more of the stuff. Better
+stick to my first plan.
+
+I push the door open and enter.
+
+"Thomas Roch!" I exclaim.
+
+He has not heard, nor has he seen me.
+
+"Thomas Roch!" I repeat.
+
+He raises his head, turns and gazes at me.
+
+"Ah! it is you, Simon Hart!" he replies calmly, even indifferently.
+
+He knows my name. Engineer Serko must have informed him that it
+was Simon Hart, and not Keeper Gaydon who was watching over him at
+Healthful House.
+
+"You know who I am?" I say.
+
+"Yes, as I know what your object was in undertaking such a position.
+You lived in hopes of surprising a secret that they would not pay for
+at its just value!"
+
+Thomas Roch knows everything, and perhaps it is just as well, in view
+of what I am going to say.
+
+"Well, you did not succeed, Simon Hart, and as far as this is
+concerned," he added, flourishing the phial, "no one else has
+succeeded, or ever will succeed."
+
+As I conjectured, he has not, then, made known the composition of his
+deflagrator.
+
+Looking him straight in the face, I reply:
+
+"You know who I am, Thomas Roch, but do you know in whose place you
+are?"
+
+"In my own place!" he cries.
+
+That is what Ker Karraje has permitted him to believe. The inventor
+thinks he is at home in Back Cup, that the riches accumulated in this
+cavern are his, and that if an attack is made upon the place, it will
+be with the object of stealing what belongs to him! And he will defend
+it under the impression that he has the right to do so!
+
+"Thomas Roch," I continue, "listen to me."
+
+"What do you want to say to me, Simon Hart?"
+
+"This cavern into which we have been dragged, is occupied by a band of
+pirates, and--"
+
+Roch does not give me time to complete the sentence--I doubt even
+whether he has understood me.
+
+"I repeat," he interrupts vehemently, "that the treasures stored here
+are the price of my invention. They have paid me what I asked for
+my fulgurator--what I was everywhere else refused--even in my own
+country--which is also yours--and I will not allow myself to be
+despoiled!"
+
+What can I reply to such insensate assertions? I, however, go on:
+
+"Thomas Roch, do you remember Healthful House?"
+
+"Healthful House, where I was sequestrated after Warder Gaydon had
+been entrusted with the mission of spying upon me in order to rob me
+of my secret? I do, indeed."
+
+"I never dreamed of depriving you of the benefit of your secret,
+Thomas Roch. I would never have accepted such a mission. But you were
+ill, your reason was affected, and your invention was too valuable to
+be lost. Yes, had you disclosed the secret during one of your fits you
+would have preserved all the benefit and all the honor of it."
+
+"Really, Simon Hart!" Roch replies disdainfully. "Honor and benefit!
+Your assurances come somewhat late in the day. You forget that on
+the pretext of insanity, I was thrown into a dungeon. Yes, it was a
+pretext; for my reason has never left me, even for an hour, as you can
+see from what I have accomplished since I am free."
+
+"Free! Do you imagine you are free, Thomas Roch? Are you not more
+closely confined within the walls of this cavern than you ever were at
+Healthful House?"
+
+"A man who is in his own home," he replies angrily, "goes out as he
+likes and when he likes. I have only to say the word and all the doors
+will open before me. This place is mine. Count d'Artigas gave it to me
+with everything it contains. Woe to those who attempt to attack it.
+I have here the wherewithal to annihilate them, Simon Hart!" The
+inventor waves the phial feverishly as he speaks."
+
+"The Count d'Artigas has deceived you," I cry, "as he has deceived so
+many others. Under this name is dissembled one of the most formidable
+monsters who ever scoured the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. He is a
+bandit steeped in crime--he is the odious Ker Karraje!"
+
+"Ker Karraje!" echoes Thomas Roch.
+
+And I wonder if this name has not impressed him, if he remembers
+who the man is who bears it. If it did impress him, it was only
+momentarily.
+
+
+"I do not know this Ker Karraje," he says, pointing towards the door
+to order me out. "I only know the Count d'Artigas."
+
+"Thomas Roch," I persist, in a final effort, "the Count d'Artigas and
+Ker Karraje are one and the same person. If this man has purchased
+your secret, it is with the intention of ensuring impunity for his
+crimes and facilities for committing fresh ones. He is the chief of
+these pirates."
+
+"Pirates!" cries Roch, whose irritation increases the more I press
+him. "The real pirates are those who dare to menace me even in this
+retreat, who tried it on with the _Sword_--for Serko has told me
+everything--who sought to steal in my own home what belongs to me,
+what is but the just price of my discovery."
+
+"No, Thomas Roch, the pirates are those who have imprisoned you in
+this cavern of Back Cup, who will utilize your genius to defend it,
+and who will get rid of you when they are in entire possession of your
+secrets!"
+
+Thomas Roch here interrupts me. He does not appear to listen to what I
+say. He has a fixed idea, that of vengeance, which has been skilfully
+worked upon by Engineer Serko, and in which his hatred is concentrated
+to the exclusion of everything else.
+
+"The bandits," he hisses, "are those who spurned me without a hearing,
+who heaped injustice and ignominy upon me, who drove me from country
+to country, whereas I offered them superiority, invincibleness,
+omnipotence!"
+
+It is the eternal story of the unappreciated inventor, to whom the
+indifferent or envious refuse the means of testing his inventions, to
+pay him the value he sets upon them. I know it well--and also know all
+the exaggeration that has been written upon this subject.
+
+It is clearly no time for reasoning with Thomas Roch. My arguments
+are entirely lost upon the hapless dupe of Ker Karraje and his
+accomplices. In revealing to him the real name of the Count d'Artigas,
+and denouncing to him this band and their chief I had hoped to wean
+him from their influence and make him realize the criminal end they
+have in view. My hope was vain. He does not believe me. And then what
+does he care whether the brigand's name is Count 'd'Artigas or Ker
+Karraje? Is not he, Thomas Roch, master of Back Cup? Is he not the
+owner of these riches accumulated by twenty years of murder and
+rapine?
+
+Disarmed before such moral degeneracy, knowing not how I can touch
+his ulcerated, irresponsible heart, I turn towards the door. It only
+remains for me to withdraw. What is to be, will be, since it is out of
+my power to prevent the frightful _denouement_ that will occur in a
+few hours.
+
+Thomas Roch takes no more notice of me. He seems to have forgotten
+that I am here. He has resumed his manipulations without realizing
+that he is not alone.
+
+There is only one means of preventing the imminent catastrophe. Throw
+myself upon Roch, place him beyond the power of doing harm--strike
+him--kill him--yes, kill him! It is my right--it is my duty!
+
+I have no arms, but on a near-by shelf I see some tools--a chisel and
+a hammer. What is to prevent me from knocking his brains out? Once he
+is dead I have but to smash the phials and his invention dies with
+him. The warships can approach, land their men upon the island,
+demolish Back Cup with their shells. Ker Karraje and his band will be
+killed to a man. Can I hesitate at a murder that will bring about the
+chastisement of so many crimes?
+
+I advance to the shelf and stretch forth my hand to seize the chisel.
+
+As I do so, Thomas Roch turns round.
+
+It is too late to strike. A struggle would ensue. The noise and his
+cries would be heard, for there are still some pirates not far off, I
+can even now hear some one approaching, and have only just time to fly
+if I would not be seen.
+
+Nevertheless, I make one last attempt to awaken the sentiment of
+patriotism within him.
+
+"Thomas Roch," I say, "warships are in sight. They have come to
+destroy this lair. Maybe one of them flies the French flag!"
+
+He gazes at me. He was not aware that Back Cup is going to be
+attacked, and I have just apprised him of the fact. His brow darkens
+and his eyes flash.
+
+"Thomas Roch, would you dare to fire upon your country's flag--the
+tricolor flag?"
+
+He raises his head, shakes it nervously, and with a disdainful
+gesture:
+
+"What do you mean by 'your country?' I no longer have any country,
+Simon Hart. The inventor spurned no longer has a country. Where he
+finds an asylum, there is his fatherland! They seek to take what is
+mine. I will defend it, and woe, woe to those who dare to attack me!"
+
+Then rushing to the door of the laboratory and throwing it violently
+open he shouts so loudly that he must be heard at the Beehive:
+
+"Go! Get you gone!"
+
+I have not a second to lose, and I dash out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+ONE AGAINST FIVE.
+
+
+For a whole hour I wander about among Back Cup's dark vaults, amid the
+stone trees, to the extreme limit of the cavern. It is here that I
+have so often sought an issue, a crevice, a crack through which I
+might squeeze to the shore of the island.
+
+My search has been futile. In my present condition, a prey to
+indefinable hallucinations it seems to me that these walls are thicker
+than ever, that they are gradually closing in upon and will crush me.
+
+How long this mental trouble lasts I cannot say. But I afterwards find
+myself on the Beehive side, opposite the cell in which I cannot hope
+for either repose or sleep. Sleep, when my brain is in a whirl
+of excitement? Sleep, when I am near the end of a situation that
+threatened to be prolonged for years and years?
+
+What will the end be as far as I am personally concerned? What am I to
+expect from the attack upon Back Cup, the success of which I have been
+unable to assure by placing Thomas Roch beyond the possibility of
+doing harm? His engines are ready to be launched, and as soon as the
+vessels have reached the dangerous zone they will be blown to atoms.
+
+However this may be, I am condemned to pass the remaining hours of the
+night in my cell. The time has come for me to go in. At daybreak I
+shall see what is best for me to do. Meanwhile, for aught I know I
+may hear the thunder of Roch's fulgurator as it destroys the ships
+approaching to make a night attack.
+
+I take a last look round. On the opposite side a light, a single
+light, is burning. It is the lamp in Roch's laboratory and it casts
+its reflection upon the waters of the lake.
+
+No one is about, and it occurs to me that the pirates must have taken
+up their lighting positions outside and that the Beehive is empty.
+
+Then, impelled by an irresistible instinct, instead of returning to my
+cell, I creep along the wall, listening, spying, ready to hide if I
+hear voices or footsteps.
+
+I at length reach the passage.
+
+God in heaven! No one is on guard there--the passage is free!
+
+Without giving myself time to reflect I dart into the dark hole, and
+grope my way along it. Soon I feel a fresher air--the salt, vivifying
+air of the sea, that I have not breathed for five months. I inspire it
+with avidity, with all the power of my lungs.
+
+The outer extremity of the passage appears against the star-studded
+sky. There is not even a shadow in the way. Perhaps I shall be able to
+get outside.
+
+I lay down, and crawl along noiselessly to the orifice and peer out.
+
+Not a soul is in sight!
+
+By skirting the rocks towards the east, to the side which cannot be
+approached from the sea on account of the reefs and which is not
+likely to be watched, I reach a narrow excavation about two hundred
+and twenty-five yards from where the point of the coast extends
+towards the northwest.
+
+At last I am out of the cavern. I am not free, but it is the beginning
+of freedom.
+
+On the point the forms of a few sentries stand out against the clear
+sky, so motionless that they might be mistaken for pieces of the rock.
+
+On the horizon to the west the position lights of the warship show in
+a luminous line.
+
+From a few gray patches discernable in the east, I calculate that it
+must be about five o'clock in the morning.
+
+_November 18_.--It is now light enough for me to be able to
+complete my notes relating the details of my visit to Thomas Roch's
+laboratory--the last lines my hand will trace, perhaps.
+
+I have begun to write, and shall dot down the incidents of the attack
+as they occur.
+
+The light damp mist that hangs over the water soon lifts under the
+influence of the breeze, and at last I can distinguish the warships.
+
+There are five of them, and they are lying in a line about six miles
+off, and consequently beyond the range of Roch's engines.
+
+My fear that after passing in sight of the Bermudas the squadron would
+continue on its way to the Antilles or Mexico was therefore unfounded.
+No, there it is, awaiting broad daylight in order to attack Back Cup.
+
+There is a movement on the coast. Three or four pirates emerge from
+the rocks, the sentries are recalled and draw in, and the entire band
+is soon assembled. They do not seek shelter inside the cavern, knowing
+full well that the ships can never get near enough for the shells of
+the big guns to reach, the island.
+
+I run no risk of being discovered, for only my head protrudes above
+the hole in the rock and no one is likely to come this way. The only
+thing that worries me is that Serko, or somebody else may take it into
+his head to see if I am in my cell, and if necessary to lock me in,
+though what they have to fear from me I cannot conceive.
+
+At twenty-five minutes past seven: Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko and
+Captain Spade advance to the extremity of the point, where they sweep
+the north-western horizon with their telescopes. Behind them the
+six trestles are installed, in the grooves of which are Roch's
+autopropulsive engines.
+
+Thirty-five minutes past seven: Smoke arises from the stacks of the
+warships, which are getting under way and will soon be within range of
+the engines.
+
+Horrible cries of joy, salvos of hurrahs--howls of wild beasts I might
+more appropriately say--arise from the pirate horde.
+
+At this moment Engineer Serko quits Ker Karraje, whom he leaves with
+Captain Spade, and enters the cavern, no doubt to fetch Thomas Roch.
+
+When Ker Karraje orders the latter to launch his engines against the
+ships will he remember what I told him? Will not his crime appear
+to him in all its horror? Will he refuse to obey? No, I am only too
+convinced of the contrary. It is useless to entertain any illusion on
+the subject. The inventor believes he is on his own property. They are
+going to attack it. He will defend it.
+
+The five warships slowly advance, making for the point. Perhaps they
+imagine on board that Thomas Roch has not given up his last and
+greatest secret to the pirates--and, as a matter of fact, he had
+not done so when I threw the keg into the lagoon. If the commanders
+propose to land storming parties and the ships advance into the
+zone of danger there will soon be nothing left of them but bits of
+shapeless floating wreckage.
+
+Here comes Thomas Roch accompanied by Engineer Serko. On issuing
+from the passage both go to the trestle that is pointing towards the
+leading warship.
+
+Ker Karraje and Captain Spade are awaiting them.
+
+As far as I am able to judge, Roch is calm. He knows what he is going
+to do. No hesitation troubles the soul of the hapless man whom hatred
+has led astray.
+
+Between his fingers shines the glass phial containing the deflagrator
+liquid.
+
+He then gazes towards the nearest ship, which is about five miles'
+distant.
+
+She is a cruiser of about two thousand five hundred tons--not more.
+
+She flies no flag, but from her build I take her to belong to a nation
+for which no Frenchman can entertain any particular regard.
+
+The four other warships remain behind.
+
+It is this cruiser which is to begin the attack.
+
+Let her use her guns, then, since the pirates allow her to approach,
+and may the first of her projectiles strike Thomas Roch!
+
+While Engineer Serko is estimating the distance, Roch places himself
+behind the trestle. Three engines are resting on it, charged with
+the explosive, and which are assured a long trajectory by the fusing
+matter without it being necessary to impart a gyratory movement to
+them--as in the case of Inventor Turpin's gyroscopic projectiles.
+Besides, if they drop within a few hundred yards of the vessel, they
+will be quite near enough to utterly destroy it.
+
+The time has come.
+
+"Thomas Roch!" Engineer Serko cries, and points to the cruiser.
+
+The latter is steaming slowly towards the northwestern point of the
+island and is between four and five miles off.
+
+Roch nods assent, and waves them back from the trestle.
+
+Ker Karraje, Captain Spade and the others draw back about fifty paces.
+
+Thomas Roch then takes the stopper from the phial which he holds in
+his right hand, and successively pours into a hole in the rear-end of
+each engine a few drops of the liquid, which mixes with the fusing
+matter.
+
+Forty-five seconds elapse--the time necessary for the combination to
+be effected--forty-five seconds during which it seems to me that my
+heart ceases to beat.
+
+A frightful whistling is then heard, and the three engines tear
+through the air, describing a prolonged curve at a height of three
+hundred feet, and pass the cruiser.
+
+Have they missed it? Is the danger over?
+
+No! the engines, after the manner of Artillery Captain Chapel's
+discoid projectile, return towards the doomed vessel like an
+Australian boomerang.
+
+The next instant the air is shaken with a violence comparable to that
+which would be caused by the explosion of a magazine of melinite or
+dynamite, Back Cup Island trembles to its very foundations.
+
+The cruiser has disappeared,--blown to pieces. The effect is that of
+the Zalinski shell, but centupled by the infinite power of Roch's
+fulgurator.
+
+What shouts the bandits raise as they rush towards the extremity of
+the point! Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, and Captain Spade remain
+rooted to the spot, hardly able to credit the evidence of their own
+eyes.
+
+As to Thomas Roch, he stands with folded arms, and flashing eyes, his
+face radiant with pride and triumph.
+
+I understand, while I abhor his feelings.
+
+If the other warships approach they will share the same fate as the
+cruiser. They will inevitably be destroyed. Oh! if they would but give
+up the struggle and withdraw to safety, even though my last hope would
+go with them! The nations can consult and arrive at some other plan
+for destroying the island. They can surround the place with a belt of
+ships that the pirates cannot break through and starve them to death
+like so many rats in a hole.
+
+But I know that the warships will not retire, even though they know
+they are going to certain death. One after the other they will all
+make the attempt.
+
+And I am right. Signals are exchanged between them. Almost immediately
+clouds of black smoke arise and the vessels again advance.
+
+One of them, under forced draught, distances the others in her anxiety
+to bring her big guns quickly into action.
+
+At all risks I issue from my hole, and gaze at the on-coming warship
+with feverish eyes, awaiting, without being able to prevent it,
+another catastrophe.
+
+This vessel, which visibly grows larger as it comes nearer, is a
+cruiser of about the same tonnage as the one that preceded her. No
+flag is flying and I cannot guess her nationality. She continues
+steaming at full speed in an effort to pass the zone of danger before
+other engines can be launched. But how can she escape them since they
+will swoop back upon her?
+
+Thomas Roch places himself behind the second trestle as the cruiser
+passes on to the surface of the abysm in which she will in turn soon
+be swallowed up.
+
+No sound disturbs the stillness.
+
+Suddenly the rolling of drums and the blare of bugles is heard on
+board the warship.
+
+I know those bugle calls: they are French bugles! Great God! She is
+one of the ships of my own country's navy and a French inventor is
+about to destroy her!
+
+No! it shall not be. I will rush towards Thomas Roch--shout to him
+that she is a French ship. He does not, cannot, know it.
+
+At a sign from Engineer Serko the inventor has raised the phial.
+
+The bugles sound louder and more strident. It is the salute to the
+flag. A flag unfurls to the breeze--the tricolor, whose blue, white
+and red sections stand out luminously against the sky.
+
+Ah! What is this? I understand! Thomas Roch is fascinated at the sight
+of his national emblem. Slowly he lowers his arm as the flag flutters
+up to the mast-head. Then he draws back and covers his eyes with his
+hand.
+
+Heavens above! All sentiment of patriotism is not then dead in his
+ulcerated heart, seeing that it beats at the sight of his country's
+flag!
+
+My emotion is not less than his. At the risk of being seen--and what
+do I now care if I am seen?--I creep over the rocks. I will be there
+to sustain Thomas Roch and prevent him from weakening. If I pay for it
+with my life I will once more adjure him in the name of his country. I
+will cry to him:
+
+"Frenchman, it is the tricolor that flies on yonder ship! Frenchman,
+it is a very part of France that is approaching you! Frenchman, would
+you be so criminal as to strike it?"
+
+But my intervention will not be necessary. Thomas Roch is not a prey
+to one of the fits to which he was formerly subject. He is perfectly
+sane.
+
+When he found himself facing the flag he understood--and drew back.
+
+A few pirates approach to lead him to the trestle again. He struggles
+and pushes them from him.
+
+Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko run up. They point to the rapidly
+advancing ship. They order him to launch his engines.
+
+Thomas Roch refuses.
+
+Captain Spade and the others, mad with rage, menace him--curse
+him--strike him--try to wrest the phial from him.
+
+Roch throws it on the ground and crushes it under foot.
+
+Then panic seizes upon the crowd of wretches. The cruiser has passed
+the zone and they cannot return her fire. Shells begin to rain all
+over the island, bursting the rocks in every direction.
+
+But where is Thomas Roch? Has he been killed by one of the
+projectiles? No, I see him for the last time as he dashes into the
+passage.
+
+Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko and the others follow him to seek shelter
+inside of Back Cup.
+
+I will not return to the cavern at any price, even if I get killed by
+staying where I am.
+
+I will jot down my final notes and when the French sailors land on the
+point I will go--
+
+
+END OF ENGINEER SIMON HART'S NOTES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+ON BOARD THE "TONNANT."
+
+
+After the failure of Lieutenant Davon's mission with the _Sword_, the
+English authorities waited in vain for the expedition to return, and
+the conviction at length gained ground that the bold sailors had
+perished; but whether the _Sword_ had been lost by striking against
+a rock or had been destroyed by Ker Karraje's pirates, could not, of
+course, be ascertained.
+
+The object of the expedition, based upon the indications of the
+document found in the keg that was thrown up on the shore at St.
+George, was to carry off Thomas Roch ere his engines were completed.
+The French inventor having been recovered--without forgetting Engineer
+Simon Hart--he was to be handed over to the care of the Bermudan
+authorities. That done, there would be nothing to fear from his
+fulgurator when the island was attacked.
+
+When, however, the _Sword_ had been given up for lost, another
+expedition of a different kind, was decided upon.
+
+The time that had elapsed--nearly eight weeks--from the date of the
+document found in the keg, had to be taken into consideration. It
+was thought that during the interval, Ker Karraje might have gained
+possession of Roch's secrets.
+
+An _entente_ concluded between the maritime powers, resulted in the
+sending of five warships to Bermudan waters. As there was a vast
+cavern inside Back Cup mountain, it was decided to attempt to bring
+the latter down like the walls of a bastion, by bombarding it with
+powerful modern artillery.
+
+The squadron assembled at the entrance to the Chesapeake, in Virginia,
+and sailed for the archipelago, which was sighted on the evening of
+November 17.
+
+The next morning the vessel selected for the first attack, steamed
+forward. It was about four and a half miles from the island, when
+three engines, after passing the vessel, swerved round and exploded
+about sixty yards from her. She sank immediately.
+
+The effect of the explosion, which was superior to any previously
+obtained by new explosives, was instantaneous. Even at the distance
+they were from the spot where it occurred, the four remaining ships
+felt the shock severely.
+
+Two things were to be deduced from this sudden catastrophe:
+
+1.--The pirate Ker Karraje was in possession of Roch's fulgurator.
+
+2.--The new engine possessed the destructive power attributed to it by
+its inventor.
+
+After the disappearance of the unfortunate cruiser, the other vessels
+lowered boats to pick up a few survivors who were clinging to the
+floating wreckage.
+
+Then it was that the signals were exchanged and the warships started
+towards the island.
+
+The swiftest of them, the _Tonnant_, a French cruiser, forged ahead
+while the others forced their draught in an effort to catch up with
+her.
+
+The _Tonnant_, at the risk of being blown to pieces in turn,
+penetrated the danger zone half a mile, and then ran up her flag while
+manoeuvring to bring her heavy guns into action.
+
+From the bridge the officers could see Ker Karraje's band scattered on
+the rocks of the island.
+
+The occasion was an excellent one for getting a shot at them before
+the bombardment of their retreat was begun, and fire was opened with
+the result that the pirates made a rush to get into the cavern.
+
+A few minutes later there was a shock terrific enough to shake the sky
+down.
+
+Where the mountain had been, naught but a heap of smoking, crumbling
+rocks was to be seen. Back Cup had become a group of jagged reefs
+against which the sea, that had been thrown back like a gigantic tidal
+wave, was beating and frothing.
+
+What was the cause of the explosion?
+
+Had it been voluntarily caused by the pirates when they realized that
+escape was impossible?
+
+The _Tonnant_ had not been seriously damaged by the flying rocks. Her
+boats were lowered and made towards all that was left of Back Cup.
+
+The landing parties explored the ruins, and found a few horribly
+mangled corpses. Not a vestige of the cavern was to be seen.
+
+One body, and one only, was found intact. It was lying on the
+northeast side of the reefs. In one hand, tightly clasped, was a
+note-book, the last line of which was incomplete.
+
+A close examination showed that the man was still breathing. He
+was conveyed on board the _Tonnant_, where it was learned from the
+note-book that he was Simon Hart.
+
+For some time his life was despaired of, but he was eventually brought
+round, and from the answers made to the questions addressed to him the
+following conclusion was reached:
+
+Moved to his very soul at the sight of the tricolor flag, being at
+last conscious of the crime of _lese-patrie_ he was about to commit,
+Thomas Roch rushed through the passage to the magazine where a
+considerable quantity of his explosive was stored. Then, before
+he could be prevented, brought about the terrible explosion which
+destroyed the island of Back Cup.
+
+And now Ker Karraje and his pirates have disappeared--and with them
+Thomas Roch and the secret of his invention.
+
+THE END.
+
+End of the Voyage Extraordinaire
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Facing the Flag, by Jules Verne
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