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diff --git a/3808-h/3808-h.htm b/3808-h/3808-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f587c3a --- /dev/null +++ b/3808-h/3808-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8934 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Robur the Conqueror, by Jules Verne</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Robur the Conqueror, by Jules Verne</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Robur the Conqueror</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Jules Verne</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 19, 2001 [eBook #3808]<br /> +[Most recently updated: April 21, 2023]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Norman Wolcott</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROBUR THE CONQUEROR ***</div> + +<h1>ROBUR THE CONQUEROR</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">By Jules Verne</h2> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I Mysterious sounds</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II Agreement Impossible</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III A Visitor is Announced</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV In Which a New Character Appears</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V Another Disappearance</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI The President and Secretary Suspend Hostilities</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII On board the Albatross</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII The Balloonists Refuse to be Convinced</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX Across the Prairie</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X Westward—but Whither?</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI The Wide Pacific</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII Through the Himalayas</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII Over the Caspian</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV The Aeronef at Full Speed</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap15">CHAPTER XV A Skirmish in Dahomey</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI Over the Atlantic</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII The Shipwrecked Crew</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII Over the Volcano</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX Anchored at Last</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap20">CHAPTER XX The Wreck of the Albatross</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap21">CHAPTER XXI The Institute Again</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap22">CHAPTER XXII The Go-Ahead is Launched</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap23">CHAPTER XXIII The Grand Collapse</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a> +Chapter I<br/> +MYSTERIOUS SOUNDS</h2> + +<p> +BANG! Bang! +</p> + +<p> +The pistol shots were almost simultaneous. A cow peacefully grazing fifty yards +away received one of the bullets in her back. She had nothing to do with the +quarrel all the same. +</p> + +<p> +Neither of the adversaries was hit. +</p> + +<p> +Who were these two gentlemen? We do not know, although this would be an +excellent opportunity to hand down their names to posterity. All we can say is +that the elder was an Englishman and the younger an American, and both of them +were old enough to know better. +</p> + +<p> +So far as recording in what locality the inoffensive ruminant had just tasted +her last tuft of herbage, nothing can be easier. It was on the left bank of +Niagara, not far from the suspension bridge which joins the American to the +Canadian bank three miles from the falls. +</p> + +<p> +The Englishman stepped up to the American. +</p> + +<p> +“I contend, nevertheless, that it was ‘Rule Britannia!’” +</p> + +<p> +“And I say it was ‘Yankee Doodle!’” replied the young American. +</p> + +<p> +The dispute was about to begin again when one of the seconds—doubtless in the +interests of the milk trade—interposed. +</p> + +<p> +“Suppose we say it was ‘Rule Doodle’ and ‘Yankee Britannia’ and adjourn to +breakfast?” +</p> + +<p> +This compromise between the national airs of Great Britain and the United +States was adopted to the general satisfaction. The Americans and Englishmen +walked up the left bank of the Niagara on their way to Goat Island, the neutral +ground between the falls. Let us leave them in the presence of the boiled eggs +and traditional ham, and floods enough of tea to make the cataract jealous, and +trouble ourselves no more about them. It is extremely unlikely that we shall +again meet with them in this story. +</p> + +<p> +Which was right; the Englishman or the American? It is not easy to say. Anyhow +the duel shows how great was the excitement, not only in the new but also in +the old world, with regard to an inexplicable phenomenon which for a month or +more had driven everybody to distraction. +</p> + +<p> +Never had the sky been so much looked at since the appearance of man on the +terrestrial globe. The night before an aerial trumpet had blared its brazen +notes through space immediately over that part of Canada between Lake Ontario +and Lake Erie. Some people had heard those notes as “Yankee Doodle.” others had +heard them as “Rule Britannia.” and hence the quarrel between the Anglo-Saxons, +which ended with the breakfast on Goat Island. Perhaps it was neither one nor +the other of these patriotic tunes, but what was undoubted by all was that +these extraordinary sounds had seemed to descend from the sky to the earth. +</p> + +<p> +What could it be? Was it some exuberant aeronaut rejoicing on that sonorous +instrument of which the Renommée makes such obstreperous use? +</p> + +<p> +No! There was no balloon and there were no aeronauts. Some strange phenomenon +had occurred in the higher zones of the atmosphere, a phenomenon of which +neither the nature nor the cause could be explained. Today it appeared over +America; forty-eight hours afterwards it was over Europe; a week later it was +in Asia over the Celestial Empire. +</p> + +<p> +Hence in every country of the world—empire, kingdom, or republic—there was +anxiety which it was important to allay. If you hear in your house strange and +inexplicable noises, do you not at once endeavor to discover the cause? And if +your search is in vain, do you not leave your house and take up your quarters +in another? But in this case the house was the terrestrial globe! There are no +means of leaving that house for the moon or Mars, or Venus, or Jupiter, or any +other planet of the solar system. And so of necessity we have to find out what +it is that takes place, not in the infinite void, but within the atmospherical +zones. In fact, if there is no air there is no noise, and as there was a +noise—that famous trumpet, to wit—the phenomenon must occur in the air, the +density of which invariably diminishes, and which does not extend for more than +six miles round our spheroid. +</p> + +<p> +Naturally the newspapers took up the question in their thousands, and treated +it in every form, throwing on it both light and darkness, recording many things +about it true or false, alarming and tranquillizing their readers—as the sale +required—and almost driving ordinary people mad. At one blow party politics +dropped unheeded—and the affairs of the world went on none the worse for it. +</p> + +<p> +But what could this thing be? There was not an observatory that was not applied +to. If an observatory could not give a satisfactory answer what was the use of +observatories? If astronomers, who doubled and tripled the stars a hundred +thousand million miles away, could not explain a phenomenon occurring only a +few miles off, what was the use of astronomers? +</p> + +<p> +The observatory at Paris was very guarded in what it said. In the mathematical +section they had not thought the statement worth noticing; in the meridional +section they knew nothing about it; in the physical observatory they had not +come across it; in the geodetic section they had had no observation; in the +meteorological section there had been no record; in the calculating room they +had had nothing to deal with. At any rate this confession was a frank one, and +the same frankness characterized the replies from the observatory of Montsouris +and the magnetic station in the park of St. Maur. The same respect for the +truth distinguished the Bureau des Longitudes. +</p> + +<p> +The provinces were slightly more affirmative. Perhaps in the night of the fifth +and the morning of the sixth of May there had appeared a flash of light of +electrical origin which lasted about twenty seconds. At the Pic du Midi this +light appeared between nine and ten in the evening. At the Meteorological +Observatory on the Puy de Dome the light had been observed between one and two +o’clock in the morning; at Mont Ventoux in Provence it had been seen between +two and three o’clock; at Nice it had been noticed between three and four +o’clock; while at the Semnoz Alps between Annecy, Le Bourget, and Le Léman, it +had been detected just as the zenith was paling with the dawn. +</p> + +<p> +Now it evidently would not do to disregard these observations altogether. There +could be no doubt that a light had been observed at different places, in +succession, at intervals, during some hours. Hence, whether it had been +produced from many centers in the terrestrial atmosphere, or from one center, +it was plain that the light must have traveled at a speed of over one hundred +and twenty miles an hour. +</p> + +<p> +In the United Kingdom there was much perplexity. The observatories were not in +agreement. Greenwich would not consent to the proposition of Oxford. They were +agreed on one point, however, and that was: “It was nothing at all!” +</p> + +<p> +But, said one, “It was an optical illusion!” While the other contended that, +“It was an acoustical illusion!” And so they disputed. Something, however, was, +it will be seen, common to both “It was an illusion.” +</p> + +<p> +Between the observatory of Berlin and the observatory of Vienna the discussion +threatened to end in international complications; but Russia, in the person of +the director of the observatory at Pulkowa, showed that both were right. It all +depended on the point of view from which they attacked the phenomenon, which, +though impossible in theory, was possible in practice. +</p> + +<p> +In Switzerland, at the observatory of Sautis in the canton of Appenzell, at the +Righi, at the Gäbriss, in the passes of the St. Gothard, at the St. Bernard, at +the Julier, at the Simplon, at Zurich, at Somblick in the Tyrolean Alps, there +was a very strong disinclination to say anything about what nobody could +prove—and that was nothing but reasonable. +</p> + +<p> +But in Italy, at the meteorological stations on Vesuvius, on Etna in the old +Casa Inglesi, at Monte Cavo, the observers made no hesitation in admitting the +materiality of the phenomenon, particularly as they had seen it by day in the +form of a small cloud of vapor, and by night in that of a shooting star. But of +what it was they knew nothing. +</p> + +<p> +Scientists began at last to tire of the mystery, while they continued to +disagree about it, and even to frighten the lowly and the ignorant, who, thanks +to one of the wisest laws of nature, have formed, form, and will form the +immense majority of the world’s inhabitants. Astronomers and meteorologists +would soon have dropped the subject altogether had not, on the night of the +26th and 27th, the observatory of Kautokeino at Finmark, in Norway, and during +the night of the 28th and 29th that of Isfjord at Spitzbergen—Norwegian one and +Swedish the other—found themselves agreed in recording that in the center of an +aurora borealis there had appeared a sort of huge bird, an aerial monster, +whose structure they were unable to determine, but who, there was no doubt, was +showering off from his body certain corpuscles which exploded like bombs. +</p> + +<p> +In Europe not a doubt was thrown on this observation of the stations in Finmark +and Spitzbergen. But what appeared the most phenomenal about it was that the +Swedes and Norwegians could find themselves in agreement on any subject +whatever. +</p> + +<p> +There was a laugh at the asserted discovery in all the observatories of South +America, in Brazil, Peru, and La Plata, and in those of Australia at Sydney, +Adelaide, and Melbourne; and Australian laughter is very catching. +</p> + +<p> +To sum up, only one chief of a meteorological station ventured on a decided +answer to this question, notwithstanding the sarcasms that his solution +provoked. This was a Chinaman, the director of the observatory at Zi-Ka-Wey +which rises in the center of a vast plateau less than thirty miles from the +sea, having an immense horizon and wonderfully pure atmosphere. “It is +possible.” said he, “that the object was an aviform apparatus—a flying +machine!” +</p> + +<p> +What nonsense! +</p> + +<p> +But if the controversy was keen in the old world, we can imagine what it was +like in that portion of the new of which the United States occupy so vast an +area. +</p> + +<p> +A Yankee, we know, does not waste time on the road. He takes the street that +leads him straight to his end. And the observatories of the American Federation +did not hesitate to do their best. If they did not hurl their objectives at +each other’s heads, it was because they would have had to put them back just +when they most wanted to use them. In this much-disputed question the +observatories of Washington in the District of Columbia, and Cambridge in +Massachusetts, found themselves opposed by those of Dartmouth College in New +Hampshire, and Ann Arbor in Michigan. The subject of their dispute was not the +nature of the body observed, but the precise moment of its observation. All of +them claimed to have seen it the same night, the same hour, the same minute, +the same second, although the trajectory of the mysterious voyager took it but +a moderate height above the horizon. Now from Massachusetts to Michigan, from +New Hampshire to Columbia, the distance is too great for this double +observation, made at the same moment, to be considered possible. +</p> + +<p> +Dudley at Albany, in the state of New York, and West Point, the military +academy, showed that their colleagues were wrong by an elaborate calculation of +the right ascension and declination of the aforesaid body. +</p> + +<p> +But later on it was discovered that the observers had been deceived in the +body, and that what they had seen was an aerolite. This aerolite could not be +the object in question, for how could an aerolite blow a trumpet? +</p> + +<p> +It was in vain that they tried to get rid of this trumpet as an optical +illusion. The ears were no more deceived than the eyes. Something had assuredly +been seen, and something had assuredly been heard. In the night of the 12th and +13th of May—a very dark night—the observers at Yale College, in the Sheffield +Science School, had been able to take down a few bars of a musical phrase in D +major, common time, which gave note for note, rhythm for rhythm, the chorus of +the Chant du Départ. +</p> + +<p> +“Good.” said the Yankee wags. “There is a French band well up in the air.” +</p> + +<p> +“But to joke is not to answer.” Thus said the observatory at Boston, founded by +the Atlantic Iron Works Society, whose opinions in matters of astronomy and +meteorology began to have much weight in the world of science. +</p> + +<p> +Then there intervened the observatory at Cincinnati, founded in 1870, on Mount +Lookout, thanks to the generosity of Mr. Kilgour, and known for its +micrometrical measurements of double stars. Its director declared with the +utmost good faith that there had certainly been something, that a traveling +body had shown itself at very short periods at different points in the +atmosphere, but what were the nature of this body, its dimensions, its speed, +and its trajectory, it was impossible to say. +</p> + +<p> +It was then a journal whose publicity is immense—the “New York Herald”—received +the anonymous contribution hereunder. +</p> + +<p> +“There will be in the recollection of most people the rivalry which existed a +few years ago between the two heirs of the Begum of Ragginahra, the French +doctor Sarrasin, the city of Frankville, and the German engineer Schultze, in +the city of Steeltown, both in the south of Oregon in the United States. +</p> + +<p> +“It will not have been forgotten that, with the object of destroying +Frankville, Herr Schultze launched a formidable engine, intended to beat down +the town and annihilate it at a single blow. +</p> + +<p> +“Still less will it be forgotten that this engine, whose initial velocity as it +left the mouth of the monster cannon had been erroneously calculated, had flown +off at a speed exceeding by sixteen times that of ordinary projectiles—or about +four hundred and fifty miles an hour—that it did not fall to the ground, and +that it passed into an aerolitic stage, so as to circle for ever round our +globe. +</p> + +<p> +“Why should not this be the body in question?” +</p> + +<p> +Very ingenious, Mr. Correspondent on the “New York Herald!” but how about the +trumpet? There was no trumpet in Herr Schulze’s projectile! +</p> + +<p> +So all the explanations explained nothing, and all the observers had observed +in vain. There remained only the suggestion offered by the director of +Zi-Ka-Wey. But the opinion of a Chinaman! +</p> + +<p> +The discussion continued, and there was no sign of agreement. Then came a short +period of rest. Some days elapsed without any object, aerolite or otherwise, +being described, and without any trumpet notes being heard in the atmosphere. +The body then had fallen on some part of the globe where it had been difficult +to trace it; in the sea, perhaps. Had it sunk in the depths of the Atlantic, +the Pacific, or the Indian Ocean? What was to be said in this matter? +</p> + +<p> +But then, between the 2nd and 9th of June, there came a new series of facts +which could not possibly be explained by the unaided existence of a cosmic +phenomenon. +</p> + +<p> +In a week the Hamburgers at the top of St. Michael’s Tower, the Turks on the +highest minaret of St. Sophia, the Rouennais at the end of the metal spire of +their cathedral, the Strasburgers at the summit of their minister, the +Americans on the head of the Liberty statue at the entrance of the Hudson and +on the Bunker Hill monument at Boston, the Chinese at the spike of the temple +of the Four Hundred Genii at Canton, the Hindus on the sixteenth terrace of the +pyramid of the temple at Tanjore, the San Pietrini at the cross of St. Peter’s +at Rome, the English at the cross of St. Paul’s in London, the Egyptians at the +apex of the Great Pyramid of Ghizeh, the Parisians at the lighting conductor of +the iron tower of the Exposition of 1889, a thousand feet high, all of them +beheld a flag floating from some one of these inaccessible points. +</p> + +<p> +And the flag was black, dotted with stars, and it bore a golden sun in its +center. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a> +Chapter II<br/> +AGREEMENT IMPOSSIBLE</h2> + +<p> +“And the first who says the contrary—” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed! But we will say the contrary so long as there is a place to say it +in!” +</p> + +<p> +“And in spite of your threats—” +</p> + +<p> +“Mind what you are saying, Bat Fynn!” +</p> + +<p> +“Mind what you are saying, Uncle Prudent!” +</p> + +<p> +“I maintain that the screw ought to be behind!” +</p> + +<p> +“And so do we! And so do we!” replied half a hundred voices confounded in one. +</p> + +<p> +“No! It ought to be in front!” shouted Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“In front!” roared fifty other voices, with a vigor in no whit less remarkable. +</p> + +<p> +“We shall never agree!” +</p> + +<p> +“Never! Never!” +</p> + +<p> +“Then what is the use of a dispute?” +</p> + +<p> +“It is not a dispute! It is a discussion!” +</p> + +<p> +One would not have thought so to listen to the taunts, objurgations, and +vociferations which filled the lecture room for a good quarter of an hour. +</p> + +<p> +The room was one of the largest in the Weldon Institute, the well-known club in +Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U. S. A. The evening before there +had been an election of a lamplighter, occasioning many public manifestations, +noisy meetings, and even interchanges of blows, resulting in an effervescence +which had not yet subsided, and which would account for some of the excitement +just exhibited by the members of the Weldon Institute. For this was merely a +meeting of balloonists, discussing the burning question of the direction of +balloons. +</p> + +<p> +In this great saloon there were struggling, pushing, gesticulating, shouting, +arguing, disputing, a hundred balloonists, all with their hats on, under the +authority of a president, assisted by a secretary and treasurer. They were not +engineers by profession, but simply amateurs of all that appertained to +aerostatics, and they were amateurs in a fury, and especially foes of those who +would oppose to aerostats “apparatuses heavier than the air.” flying machines, +aerial ships, or what not. That these people might one day discover the method +of guiding balloons is possible. There could be no doubt that their president +had considerable difficulty in guiding them. +</p> + +<p> +This president, well known in Philadelphia, was the famous Uncle Prudent, +Prudent being his family name. There is nothing surprising in America in the +qualificative uncle, for you can there be uncle without having either nephew or +niece. There they speak of uncle as in other places they speak of father, +though the father may have had no children. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent was a personage of consideration, and in spite of his name was +well known for his audacity. He was very rich, and that is no drawback even in +the United States; and how could it be otherwise when he owned the greater part +of the shares in Niagara Falls? A society of engineers had just been founded at +Buffalo for working the cataract. It seemed to be an excellent speculation. The +seven thousand five hundred cubic meters that pass over Niagara in a second +would produce seven millions of horsepower. This enormous power, distributed +amongst all the workshops within a radius of three hundred miles, would return +an annual income of three hundred million dollars, of which the greater part +would find its way into the pocket of Uncle Prudent. He was a bachelor, he +lived quietly, and for his only servant had his valet Frycollin, who was hardly +worthy of being the servant to so audacious a master. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent was rich, and therefore he had friends, as was natural; but he +also had enemies, although he was president of the club—among others all those +who envied his position. Amongst his bitterest foes we may mention the +secretary of the Weldon Institute. +</p> + +<p> +This was Phil Evans, who was also very rich, being the manager of the Wheelton +Watch Company, an important manufactory, which makes every day five hundred +movements equal in every respect to the best Swiss workmanship. Phil Evans +would have passed for one of the happiest men in the world, and even in the +United States, if it had not been for Uncle Prudent. Like him he was in his +forty-sixth year; like him of invariable health; like him of undoubted +boldness. They were two men made to understand each other thoroughly, but they +did not, for both were of extreme violence of character. Uncle Prudent was +furiously hot; Phil Evans was abnormally cool. +</p> + +<p> +And why had not Phil Evans been elected president of the club? The votes were +exactly divided between Uncle Prudent and him. Twenty times there had been a +scrutiny, and twenty times the majority had not declared for either one or the +other. The position was embarrassing, and it might have lasted for the lifetime +of the candidates. +</p> + +<p> +One of the members of the club then proposed a way out of the difficulty. This +was Jem Chip, the treasurer of the Weldon Institute. Chip was a confirmed +vegetarian, a proscriber of all animal nourishment, of all fermented liquors, +half a Mussulman, half a Brahman. On this occasion Jem Chip was supported by +another member of the club, William T. Forbes, the manager of a large factory +where they made glucose by treating rags with sulphuric acid. A man of good +standing was this William T. Forbes, the father of two charming girls—Miss +Dorothy, called Doll, and Miss Martha, called Mat, who gave the tone to the +best society in Philadelphia. +</p> + +<p> +It followed, then, on the proposition of Jem Chip, supported by William T. +Forbes and others, that it was decided to elect the president “on the center +point.” +</p> + +<p> +This mode of election can be applied in all cases when it is desired to elect +the most worthy; and a number of Americans of high intelligence are already +thinking of employing it in the nomination of the President of the Republic of +the United States. +</p> + +<p> +On two boards of perfect whiteness a black line is traced. The length of each +of these lines is mathematically the same, for they have been determined with +as much accuracy as the base of the first triangle in a trigonometrical survey. +That done, the two boards were erected on the same day in the center of the +conference room, and the two candidates, each armed with a fine needle, marched +towards the board that had fallen to his lot. The man who planted his needle +nearest the center of the line would be proclaimed President of the Weldon +Institute. +</p> + +<p> +The operation must be done at once—no guide marks or trial shots allowed; +nothing but sureness of eye. The man must have a compass in his eye, as the +saying goes; that was all. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent stuck in his needle at the same moment as Phil Evans did his. +Then there began the measurement to discover which of the two competitors had +most nearly approached the center. +</p> + +<p> +Wonderful! Such had been the precision of the shots that the measures gave no +appreciable difference. If they were not exactly in the mathematical center of +the line, the distance between the needles was so small as to be invisible to +the naked eye. +</p> + +<p> +The meeting was much embarrassed. +</p> + +<p> +Fortunately one of the members, Truck Milnor, insisted that the measurements +should be remade by means of a rule graduated by the micrometrical machine of +M. Perreaux, which can divide a millimeter into fifteen-hundredths of a +millimeter with a diamond splinter, was brought to bear on the lines; and on +reading the divisions through a microscope the following were the results: +Uncle Prudent had approached the center within less than six +fifteenth-hundredths of a millimeter. Phil Evans was within nine +fifteen-hundredths. +</p> + +<p> +And that is why Phil Evans was only secretary of the Weldon Institute, whereas +Uncle Prudent was president. A difference of three fifteen-hundredths of a +millimeter! And on account of it Phil Evans vowed against Uncle Prudent one of +those hatreds which are none the less fierce for being latent. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a> +Chapter III<br/> +A VISITOR IS ANNOUNCED</h2> + +<p> +The many experiments made during this last quarter of the nineteenth century +have given considerable impetus to the question of guidable balloons. The cars +furnished with propellers attached in 1852 to the aerostats of the elongated +form introduced by Henry Giffard, the machines of Dupuy de Lome in 1872, of the +Tissandier brothers in 1883, and of Captain Krebs and Renard in 1884, yielded +many important results. But if these machines, moving in a medium heavier than +themselves, maneuvering under the propulsion of a screw, working at an angle to +the direction of the wind, and even against the wind, to return to their point +of departure, had been really “guidable.” they had only succeeded under very +favorable conditions. In large, covered halls their success was perfect. In a +calm atmosphere they did very well. In a light wind of five or six yards a +second they still moved. But nothing practical had been obtained. Against a +miller’s wind—nine yards a second—the machines had remained almost stationary. +Against a fresh breeze—eleven yards a second—they would have advanced +backwards. In a storm—twenty-seven to thirty-three yards a second—they would +have been blown about like a feather. In a hurricane—sixty yards a second—they +would have run the risk of being dashed to pieces. And in one of those cyclones +which exceed a hundred yards a second not a fragment of them would have been +left. It remained, then, even after the striking experiments of Captains Krebs +and Renard, that though guidable aerostats had gained a little speed, they +could not be kept going in a moderate breeze. Hence the impossibility of making +practical use of this mode of aerial locomotion. +</p> + +<p> +With regards to the means employed to give the aerostat its motion a great deal +of progress had been made. For the steam engines of Henry Giffard, and the +muscular force of Dupuy de Lome, electric motors had gradually been +substituted. The batteries of bichromate of potassium of the Tissandier +brothers had given a speed of four yards a second. The dynamo-electric machines +of Captain Krebs and Renard had developed a force of twelve horsepower and +yielded a speed of six and a half yards per second. +</p> + +<p> +With regard to this motor, engineers and electricians had been approaching more +and more to that desideratum which is known as a steam horse in a watch case. +Gradually the results of the pile of which Captains Krebs and Renard had kept +the secret had been surpassed, and aeronauts had become able to avail +themselves of motors whose lightness increased at the same time as their power. +</p> + +<p> +In this there was much to encourage those who believed in the utilization of +guidable balloons. But yet how many good people there are who refuse to admit +the possibility of such a thing! If the aerostat finds support in the air it +belongs to the medium in which it moves; under such conditions, how can its +mass, which offers so much resistance to the currents of the atmosphere, make +its way against the wind? +</p> + +<p> +In this struggle of the inventors after a light and powerful motor, the +Americans had most nearly attained what they sought. A dynamo-electric +apparatus, in which a new pile was employed the composition of which was still +a mystery, had been bought from its inventor, a Boston chemist up to then +unknown. Calculations made with the greatest care, diagrams drawn with the +utmost exactitude, showed that by means of this apparatus driving a screw of +given dimensions a displacement could be obtained of from twenty to twenty-two +yards a second. +</p> + +<p> +Now this was magnificent! +</p> + +<p> +“And it is not dear.” said Uncle Prudent, as he handed to the inventor in +return for his formal receipt the last installment of the hundred thousand +paper dollars he had paid for his invention. +</p> + +<p> +Immediately the Weldon Institute set to work. When there comes along a project +of practical utility the money leaps nimbly enough from American pockets. The +funds flowed in even without its being necessary to form a syndicate. Three +hundred thousand dollars came into the club’s account at the first appeal. The +work began under the superintendence of the most celebrated aeronaut of the +United States, Harry W. Tinder, immortalized by three of his ascents out of a +thousand, one in which he rose to a height of twelve thousand yards, higher +than Gay Lussac, Coxwell, Sivet, Crocé-Spinelli, Tissandier, Glaisher; another +in which he had crossed America from New York to San Francisco, exceeding by +many hundred leagues the journeys of Nadar, Godard, and others, to say nothing +of that of John Wise, who accomplished eleven hundred and fifty miles from St. +Louis to Jefferson county; the third, which ended in a frightful fall from +fifteen hundred feet at the cost of a slight sprain in the right thumb, while +the less fortunate Pilâtre de Rozier fell only seven hundred feet, and yet +killed himself on the spot! +</p> + +<p> +At the time this story begins the Weldon Institute had got their work well in +hand. In the Turner yard at Philadelphia there reposed an enormous aerostat, +whose strength had been tried by highly compressed air. It well merited the +name of the monster balloon. +</p> + +<p> +How large was Nadar’s Géant? Six thousand cubic meters. How large was John +Wise’s balloon? Twenty thousand cubic meters. How large was the Giffard balloon +at the 1878 Exhibition? Twenty-five thousand cubic meters. Compare these three +aerostats with the aerial machine of the Weldon Institute, whose volume +amounted to forty thousand cubic meters, and you will understand why Uncle +Prudent and his colleagues were so justifiably proud of it. +</p> + +<p> +This balloon not being destined for the exploration of the higher strata of the +atmosphere, was not called the Excelsior, a name which is rather too much held +in honor among the citizens of America. No! It was called, simply, the +“Go-Ahead.” and all it had to do was to justify its name by going ahead +obediently to the wishes of its commander. +</p> + +<p> +The dynamo-electric machine, according to the patent purchased by the Weldon +Institute, was nearly ready. In less than six weeks the “Go-Ahead” would start +for its first cruise through space. +</p> + +<p> +But, as we have seen, all the mechanical difficulties had not been overcome. +Many evenings had been devoted to discussing, not the form of its screw nor its +dimensions, but whether it ought to be put behind, as the Tissandier brothers +had done, or before as Captains Krebs and Renard had done. It is unnecessary to +add that the partisans of the two systems had almost come to blows. The group +of “Beforists” were equaled in number by the group of “Behindists.” Uncle +Prudent, who ought to have given the casting vote—Uncle Prudent, brought up +doubtless in the school of Professor Buridan—could not bring himself to decide. +</p> + +<p> +Hence the impossibility of getting the screw into place. The dispute might last +for some time, unless the government interfered. But in the United States the +government meddles with private affairs as little as it possibly can. And it is +right. +</p> + +<p> +Things were in this state at this meeting on the 13th of June, which threatened +to end in a riot—insults exchanged, fisticuffs succeeding the insults, cane +thrashings succeeding the fisticuffs, revolver shots succeeding the cane +thrashings—when at thirty-seven minutes past eight there occurred a diversion. +</p> + +<p> +The porter of the Weldon Institute coolly and calmly, like a policeman amid the +storm of the meeting, approached the presidential desk. On it he placed a card. +He awaited the orders that Uncle Prudent found it convenient to give. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent turned on the steam whistle, which did duty for the presidential +bell, for even the Kremlin clock would have struck in vain! But the tumult +slackened not. +</p> + +<p> +Then the president removed his hat. Thanks to this extreme measure a +semi-silence was obtained. +</p> + +<p> +“A communication!” said Uncle Prudent, after taking a huge pinch from the +snuff-box which never left him. +</p> + +<p> +“Speak up!” answered eighty-nine voices, accidentally in agreement on this one +point. +</p> + +<p> +“A stranger, my dear colleagues, asks to be admitted to the meeting.” +</p> + +<p> +“Never!” replied every voice. +</p> + +<p> +“He desires to prove to us, it would appear.” continued Uncle Prudent, “that to +believe in guiding balloons is to believe in the absurdest of Utopias!” +</p> + +<p> +“Let him in! Let him in!” +</p> + +<p> +“What is the name of this singular personage?” asked secretary Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“Robur.” replied Uncle Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +“Robur! Robur! Robur!” yelled the assembly. And the welcome accorded so quickly +to the curious name was chiefly due to the Weldon Institute hoping to vent its +exasperation on the head of him who bore it! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a> +Chapter IV<br/> +IN WHICH A NEW CHARACTER APPEARS</h2> + +<p> +“Citizens of the United States! My name is Robur. I am worthy of the name! I am +forty years old, although I look but thirty, and I have a constitution of iron, +a healthy vigor that nothing can shake, a muscular strength that few can equal, +and a digestion that would be thought first class even in an ostrich!” +</p> + +<p> +They were listening! Yes! The riot was quelled at once by the totally +unexpected fashion of the speech. Was this fellow a madman or a hoaxer? Whoever +he was, he kept his audience in hand. There was not a whisper in the meeting in +which but a few minutes ago the storm was in full fury. +</p> + +<p> +And Robur looked the man he said he was. Of middle height and geometric +breadth, his figure was a regular trapezium with the greatest of its parallel +sides formed by the line of his shoulders. On this line attached by a robust +neck there rose an enormous spheroidal head. The head of what animal did it +resemble from the point of view of passional analogy? The head of a bull; but a +bull with an intelligent face. Eyes which at the least opposition would glow +like coals of fire; and above them a permanent contraction of the superciliary +muscle, an invariable sign of extreme energy. Short hair, slightly woolly, with +metallic reflections; large chest rising and falling like a smith’s bellows; +arms, hands, legs, feet, all worthy of the trunk. No mustaches, no whiskers, +but a large American goatee, revealing the attachments of the jaw whose +masseter muscles were evidently of formidable strength. It has been +calculated—what has not been calculated?—that the pressure of the jaw of an +ordinary crocodile can reach four hundred atmospheres, while that of a hound +can only amount to one hundred. From this the following curious formula has +been deduced: If a kilogram of dog produces eight kilograms of masseteric +force, a kilogram of crocodile could produce twelve. Now, a kilogram of, the +aforesaid Robur would not produce less than ten, so that he came between the +dog and the crocodile. +</p> + +<p> +From what country did this remarkable specimen come? It was difficult to say. +One thing was noticeable, and that was that he expressed himself fluently in +English without a trace of the drawling twang that distinguishes the Yankees of +New England. +</p> + +<p> +He continued: “And now, honorable citizens, for my mental faculties. You see +before you an engineer whose nerves are in no way inferior to his muscles. I +have no fear of anything or anybody. I have a strength of will that has never +had to yield. When I have decided on a thing, all America, all the world, may +strive in vain to keep me from it. When I have an idea, I allow no one to share +it, and I do not permit any contradiction. I insist on these details, honorable +citizens, because it is necessary you should quite understand me. Perhaps you +think I am talking too much about myself? It does not matter if you do! And now +consider a little before you interrupt me, as I have come to tell you something +that you may not be particularly pleased to hear.” +</p> + +<p> +A sound as of the surf on the beach began to rise along the first row of +seats—a sign that the sea would not be long in getting stormy again. +</p> + +<p> +“Speak, stranger!” said Uncle Prudent, who had some difficulty in restraining +himself. +</p> + +<p> +And Robur spoke as follows, without troubling himself any more about his +audience. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes! I know it well! After a century of experiments that have led to nothing, +and trials giving no results, there still exist ill-balanced minds who believe +in guiding balloons. They imagine that a motor of some sort, electric or +otherwise, might be applied to their pretentious skin bags which are at the +mercy of every current in the atmosphere. They persuade themselves that they +can be masters of an aerostat as they can be masters of a ship on the surface +of the sea. Because a few inventors in calm or nearly calm weather have +succeeded in working an angle with the wind, or even beating to windward in a +gentle breeze, they think that the steering of aerial apparatus lighter than +the air is a practical matter. Well, now, look here; You hundred, who believe +in the realization of your dreams, are throwing your thousands of dollars not +into water but into space! You are fighting the impossible!” +</p> + +<p> +Strange as it was that at this affirmation the members of the Weldon Institute +did not move. Had they become as deaf as they were patient? Or were they +reserving themselves to see how far this audacious contradictor would dare to +go? +</p> + +<p> +Robur continued: “What? A balloon! When to obtain the raising of a couple of +pounds you require a cubic yard of gas. A balloon pretending to resist the wind +by aid of its mechanism, when the pressure of a light breeze on a vessel’s +sails is not less than that of four hundred horsepower; when in the accident at +the Tay Bridge you saw the storm produce a pressure of eight and a half +hundredweight on a square yard. A balloon, when on such a system nature has +never constructed anything flying, whether furnished with wings like birds, or +membranes like certain fish, or certain mammalia—” +</p> + +<p> +“Mammalia?” exclaimed one of the members. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes! Mammalia! The bat, which flies, if I am not mistaken! Is the gentleman +unaware that this flyer is a mammal? Did he ever see an omelette made of bat’s +eggs?” +</p> + +<p> +The interrupter reserved himself for future interruption, and Robur resumed: +“But does that mean that man is to give up the conquest of the air, and the +transformation of the domestic and political manners of the old world, by the +use of this admirable means of locomotion? By no means. As he has become master +of the seas with the ship, by the oar, the sail, the wheel and the screw, so +shall he become master of atmospherical space by apparatus heavier than the +air—for it must be heavier to be stronger than the air!” +</p> + +<p> +And then the assembly exploded. What a broadside of yells escaped from all +these mouths, aimed at Robur like the muzzles of so many guns! Was not this +hurling a declaration of war into the very camp of the balloonists? Was not +this a stirring up of strife between ‘the lighter’ and ‘the heavier’ than air? +</p> + +<p> +Robur did not even frown. With folded arms he waited bravely till silence was +obtained. +</p> + +<p> +By a gesture Uncle Prudent ordered the firing to cease. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes.” continued Robur, “the future is for the flying machine. The air affords +a solid fulcrum. If you will give a column of air an ascensional movement of +forty-five meters a second, a man can support himself on the top of it if the +soles of his boots have a superficies of only the eighth of a square meter. And +if the speed be increased to ninety meters, he can walk on it with naked feet. +Or if, by means of a screw, you drive a mass of air at this speed, you get the +same result.” +</p> + +<p> +What Robur said had been said before by all the partisans of aviation, whose +work slowly but surely is leading on to the solution of the problem. To Ponton +d’Amécourt, La Landelle, Nadar, De Luzy, De Louvrié, Liais, Beleguir, Moreau, +the brothers Richard, Babinet, Jobert, Du Temple, Salives, Penaud, De +Villeneuve, Gauchot and Tatin, Michael Loup, Edison, Planavergne, and so many +others, belongs the honor of having brought forward ideas of such simplicity. +Abandoned and resumed times without number, they are sure, some day to triumph. +To the enemies of aviation, who urge that the bird only sustains himself by +warming the air he strikes, their answer is ready. Have they not proved that an +eagle weighing five kilograms would have to fill fifty cubic meters with his +warm fluid merely to sustain himself in space? +</p> + +<p> +This is what Robur demonstrated with undeniable logic amid the uproar that +arose on all sides. And in conclusion these are the words he hurled in the +faces of the balloonists: “With your aerostats you can do nothing—you will +arrive at nothing—you dare do nothing! The boldest of your aeronauts, John +Wise, although he has made an aerial voyage of twelve hundred miles above the +American continent, has had to give up his project of crossing the Atlantic! +And you have not advanced one step—not one step—towards your end.” +</p> + +<p> +“Sir.” said the president, who in vain endeavored to keep himself cool, “you +forget what was said by our immortal Franklin at the first appearance of the +fire balloon, ‘It is but a child, but it will grow!’ It was but a child, and it +has grown.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, Mr. President, it has not grown! It has got fatter—and this is not the +same thing!” +</p> + +<p> +This was a direct attack on the Weldon Institute, which had decreed, helped, +and paid for the making of a monster balloon. And so propositions of the +following kind began to fly about the room: “Turn him out!” “Throw him off the +platform!” “Prove that he is heavier than the air!” +</p> + +<p> +But these were only words, not means to an end. +</p> + +<p> +Robur remained impassible, and continued: “There is no progress for your +aerostats, my citizen balloonists; progress is for flying machines. The bird +flies, and he is not a balloon, he is a piece of mechanism!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, he flies!” exclaimed the fiery Bat T. Fynn; “but he flies against all the +laws of mechanics.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed!” said Robur, shrugging his shoulders, and resuming, “Since we have +begun the study of the flight of large and small birds one simple idea has +prevailed—to imitate nature, which never makes mistakes. Between the albatross, +which gives hardly ten beats of the wing per minute, between the pelican, which +gives seventy—” +</p> + +<p> +“Seventy-one.” said the voice of a scoffer. +</p> + +<p> +“And the bee, which gives one hundred and ninety-two per second—” +</p> + +<p> +“One hundred and ninety-three!” said the facetious individual. +</p> + +<p> +“And, the common house fly, which gives three hundred and thirty—” +</p> + +<p> +“And a half!” +</p> + +<p> +“And the mosquito, which gives millions—” +</p> + +<p> +“No, milliards!” +</p> + +<p> +But Robur, the interrupted, interrupted not his demonstration. “Between these +different rates—” he continued. +</p> + +<p> +“There is a difference.” said a voice. +</p> + +<p> +“There is a possibility of finding a practical solution. When De Lucy showed +that the stag beetle, an insect weighing only two grammes, could lift a weight +of four hundred grammes, or two hundred times its own weight, the problem of +aviation was solved. Besides, it has been shown that the wing surface decreases +in proportion to the increase of the size and weight of the animal. Hence we +can look forward to such contrivances—” +</p> + +<p> +“Which would never fly!” said secretary Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“Which have flown, and which will fly.” said Robur, without being in the least +disconcerted, “and which we can call streophores, helicopters, orthopters—or, +in imitation of the word ‘nef,’ which comes from ‘navis,’ call them from +‘avis,’ ‘efs,’—by means of which man will become the master of space. The +helix—” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, the helix!” replied Phil Evans. “But the bird has no helix; that we know!” +</p> + +<p> +“So.” said Robur; “but Penaud has shown that in reality the bird makes a helix, +and its flight is helicopteral. And the motor of the future is the screw—” +</p> + +<p> +“From such a maladee Saint Helix keep us free!” sung out one of the members, +who had accidentally hit upon the air from Herold’s “Zampa.” +</p> + +<p> +And they all took up the chorus: “From such a maladee Saint Helix keep us +free!” with such intonations and variations as would have made the French +composer groan in his grave. +</p> + +<p> +As the last notes died away in a frightful discord Uncle Prudent took advantage +of the momentary calm to say, “Stranger, up to now, we let you speak without +interruption.” It seemed that for the president of the Weldon Institute shouts, +yells, and catcalls were not interruptions, but only an exchange of arguments. +</p> + +<p> +“But I may remind you, all the same, that the theory of aviation is condemned +beforehand, and rejected by the majority of American and foreign engineers. It +is a system which was the cause of the death of the Flying Saracen at +Constantinople, of the monk Volador at Lisbon, of De Leturn in 1852, of De +Groof in 1864, besides the victims I forget since the mythological Icarus—” +</p> + +<p> +“A system.” replied Robur, “no more to be condemned than that whose martyrology +contains the names of Pilâtre de Rozier at Calais, of Blanchard at Paris, of +Donaldson and Grimwood in Lake Michigan, of Sivel and of Crocé-Spinelli, and +others whom it takes good care, to forget.” +</p> + +<p> +This was a counter-thrust with a vengeance. +</p> + +<p> +“Besides.” continued Robur, “With your balloons as good as you can make them +you will never obtain any speed worth mentioning. It would take you ten years +to go round the world—and a flying machine could do it in a week!” +</p> + +<p> +Here arose a new tempest of protests and denials which lasted for three long +minutes. And then Phil Evans look up the word. +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Aviator.” he said “you who talk so much of the benefits of aviation, have +you ever aviated?” +</p> + +<p> +“I have.” +</p> + +<p> +“And made the conquest of the air?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not unlikely.” +</p> + +<p> +“Hooray for Robur the Conqueror!” shouted an ironical voice. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, yes! Robur the Conqueror! I accept the name and I will bear it, for I +have a right to it!” +</p> + +<p> +“We beg to doubt it!” said Jem Chip. +</p> + +<p> +“Gentlemen.” said Robur, and his brows knit, “when I have just seriously stated +a serious thing I do not permit anyone to reply to me by a flat denial, and I +shall be glad to know the name of the interrupter.” +</p> + +<p> +“My name is Chip, and I am a vegetarian.” +</p> + +<p> +“Citizen Chip.” said Robur, “I knew that vegetarians had longer alimentary +canals than other men—a good foot longer at the least. That is quite long +enough; and so do not compel me to make you any longer by beginning at your +ears and—” +</p> + +<p> +“Throw him out.” +</p> + +<p> +“Into the street with him!” +</p> + +<p> +“Lynch him!” +</p> + +<p> +“Helix him!” +</p> + +<p> +The rage of the balloonists burst forth at last. They rushed at the platform. +Robur disappeared amid a sheaf of hands that were thrown about as if caught in +a storm. In vain the steam whistle screamed its fanfares on to the assembly. +Philadelphia might well think that a fire was devouring one of its quarters and +that all the waters of the Schuyllkill could not put it out. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly there was a recoil in the tumult. Robur had put his hands into his +pockets and now held them out at the front ranks of the infuriated mob. +</p> + +<p> +In each hand was one of those American institutions known as revolvers which +the mere pressure of the fingers is enough to fire—pocket mitrailleuses in +fact. +</p> + +<p> +And taking advantage not only of the recoil of his assailants but also of the +silence which accompanied it. +</p> + +<p> +“Decidedly.” said he, “it was not Amerigo that discovered the New World, it was +Cabot! You are not Americans, citizen balloonists! You are only Cabo—” +</p> + +<p> +Four or five shots cracked out, fired into space. They hurt nobody. Amid the +smoke, the engineer vanished; and when it had thinned away there was no trace +of him. Robur the Conqueror had flown, as if some apparatus of aviation had +borne him into the air. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a> +Chapter V<br/> +ANOTHER DISAPPEARANCE</h2> + +<p> +This was not the first occasion on which, at the end of their stormy +discussions, the members of the Weldon Institute had filled Walnut Street and +its neighborhood with their tumult. Several times had the inhabitants +complained of the noisy way in which the proceedings ended, and more than once +had the policemen had to interfere to clear the thoroughfare for the passersby, +who for the most part were supremely indifferent on the question of aerial +navigation. But never before had the tumult attained such proportions, never +had the complaints been better founded, never had the intervention of the +police been more necessary. +</p> + +<p> +But there was some excuse for the members of the Weldon Institute. They had +been attacked in their own house. To these enthusiasts for “lighter than air” a +no less enthusiast for “heavier than air” had said things absolutely abhorrent. +And at the moment they were about to treat him as he deserved, he had +disappeared. +</p> + +<p> +So they cried aloud for vengeance. To leave such insults unpunished was +impossible to all with American blood in their veins. Had not the sons of +Amerigo been called the sons of Cabot? Was not that an insult as unpardonable +as it happened to be just—historically? +</p> + +<p> +The members of the club in several groups rushed down Walnut Street, then into +the adjoining streets, and then all over the neighborhood. They woke up the +householders; they compelled them to search their houses, prepared to indemnify +them later on for the outrage on their privacy. Vain were all their trouble and +searching. Robur was nowhere to be found; there was no trace of him. He might +have gone off in the “Go-Ahead.” the balloon of the Institute, for all they +could tell. After an hour’s hunt the members had to give in and separate, not +before they had agreed to extend their search over the whole territory of the +twin Americas that form the new continent. +</p> + +<p> +By eleven o’clock quiet had been restored in the neighborhood of Walnut Street. +Philadelphia was able to sink again into that sound sleep which is the +privilege of non-manufacturing towns. The different members of the club parted +to seek their respective houses. To mention the most distinguished amongst +them, William T. Forbes sought his large sugar establishment, where Miss Doll +and Miss Mat had prepared for him his evening tea, sweetened with his own +glucose. Truck Milnor took the road to his factory in the distant suburb, where +the engines worked day and night. Treasurer Jim Chip, publicly accused of +possessing an alimentary canal twelve inches longer than that of other men, +returned to the vegetable soup that was waiting for him. +</p> + +<p> +Two of the most important balloonists—two only—did not seem to think of +returning so soon to their domicile. They availed themselves of the opportunity +to discuss the question with more than usual acrimony. These were the +irreconcilables, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, the president and secretary of +the Weldon Institute. +</p> + +<p> +At the door of the club the valet Frycollin waited for Uncle Prudent, his +master, and at last he went after him, though he cared but little for the +subject which had set the two colleagues at loggerheads. +</p> + +<p> +It is only an euphemism that the verb “discuss” can be used to express the way +in which the duet between the president and secretary was being performed. As a +matter of fact they were in full wrangle with an energy born of their old +rivalry. +</p> + +<p> +“No, Sir, no.” said Phil Evans. “If I had had the honor of being president of +the Weldon Institute, there never, no, never, would have been such a scandal.” +</p> + +<p> +“And what would you have done, if you had had the honor?” demanded Uncle +Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +“I would have stopped the insulter before he had opened his mouth.” +</p> + +<p> +“It seems to me it would have been impossible to stop him until he had opened +his mouth.” replied Uncle Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +“Not in America, Sir; not in America.” +</p> + +<p> +And exchanging such observations, increasing in bitterness as they went, they +walked on through the streets farther and farther from their homes, until they +reached a part of the city whence they had to go a long way round to get back. +</p> + +<p> +Frycollin followed, by no means at ease to see his master plunging into such +deserted spots. He did not like deserted spots, particularly after midnight. In +fact the darkness was profound, and the moon was only a thin crescent just +beginning its monthly life. Frycollin kept a lookout to the left and right of +him to see if he was followed. And he fancied he could see five or six hulking +follows dogging his footsteps. Instinctively he drew nearer to his master, but +not for the world would he have dared to break in on the conversation of which +the fragments reached him. +</p> + +<p> +In short it so chanced that the president and secretary of the Weldon Institute +found themselves on the road to Fairmount Park. In the full heat of their +dispute they crossed the Schuyllkill river by the famous iron bridge. They met +only a few belated wayfarers, and pressed on across a wide open tract where the +immense prairie was broken every now and then by the patches of thick +woodland—which make the park different to any other in the world. +</p> + +<p> +There Frycollin’s terror became acute, particularly as he saw the five or six +shadows gliding after him across the Schuyllkill bridge. The pupils of his eyes +broadened out to the circumference of his iris, and his limbs seemed to +diminish as if endowed with the contractility peculiar to the mollusca and +certain of the articulate; for Frycollin, the valet, was an egregious coward. +</p> + +<p> +He was a pure South Carolina Negro, with the head of a fool and the carcass of +an imbecile. Being only one and twenty, he had never been a slave, not even by +birth, but that made no difference to him. Grinning and greedy and idle, and a +magnificent poltroon, he had been the servant of Uncle Prudent for about three +years. Over and over again had his master threatened to kick him out, but had +kept him on for fear of doing worse. With a master ever ready to venture on the +most audacious enterprises, Frycollin’s cowardice had brought him many arduous +trials. But he had some compensation. Very little had been said about his +gluttony, and still less about his laziness. +</p> + +<p> +Ah, Valet Frycollin, if you could only have read the future! Why, oh why, +Frycollin, did you not remain at Boston with the Sneffels, and not have given +them up when they talked of going to Switzerland? Was not that a much more +suitable place for you than this of Uncle Prudent’s, where danger was daily +welcomed? +</p> + +<p> +But here he was, and his master had become used to his faults. He had one +advantage, and that was a consideration. Although he was a Negro by birth he +did not speak like a Negro, and nothing is so irritating as that hateful jargon +in which all the pronouns are possessive and all the verbs infinitive. Let it +be understood, then, that Frycollin was a thorough coward. +</p> + +<p> +And now it was midnight, and the pale crescent of the moon began to sink in the +west behind the trees in the park. The rays streaming fitfully through the +branches made the shadows darker than ever. Frycollin looked around him +anxiously. “Brrr!” he said, “There are those fellows there all the time. +Positively they are getting nearer! Master Uncle!” he shouted. +</p> + +<p> +It was thus he called the president of the Weldon Institute, and thus did the +president desire to be called. +</p> + +<p> +At the moment the dispute of the rivals had reached its maximum, and as they +hurled their epithets at each other they walked faster and faster, and drew +farther and farther away from the Schuyllkill bridge. They had reached the +center of a wide clump of trees, whose summits were just tipped by the parting +rays of the moon. Beyond the trees was a very large clearing—an oval field, a +complete amphitheater. Not a hillock was there to hinder the gallop of the +horses, not a bush to stop the view of the spectators. +</p> + +<p> +And if Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans had not been so deep in their dispute, and +had used their eyes as they were accustomed to, they would have found the +clearing was not in its usual state. Was it a flour mill that had anchored on +it during the night? It looked like it, with its wings and sails—motionless and +mysterious in the gathering gloom. +</p> + +<p> +But neither the president nor the secretary of the Weldon Institute noticed the +strange modification in the landscape of Fairmount Park; and neither did +Frycollin. It seemed to him that the thieves were approaching, and preparing +for their attack; and he was seized with convulsive fear, paralyzed in his +limbs, with every hair he could boast of on the bristle. His terror was +extreme. His knees bent under him, but he had just strength enough to exclaim +for the last time, “Master Uncle! Master Uncle!” +</p> + +<p> +“What is the matter with you?” asked Uncle Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps the disputants would not have been sorry to have relieved their fury at +the expense of the unfortunate valet. But they had no time; and neither even +had he time to answer. +</p> + +<p> +A whistle was heard. A flash of electric light shot across the clearing. +</p> + +<p> +A signal, doubtless? The moment had come for the deed of violence. In less time +that it takes to tell, six men came leaping across from under the trees, two +onto Uncle Prudent, two onto Phil Evans, two onto Frycollin—there was no need +for the last two, for the Negro was incapable of defending himself. The +president and secretary of the Weldon Institute, although taken by surprise, +would have resisted. +</p> + +<p> +They had neither time nor strength to do so. In a second they were rendered +speechless by a gag, blind by a bandage, thrown down, pinioned and carried +bodily off across the clearing. What could they think except that they had +fallen into the hands of people who intended to rob them? The people did +nothing of the sort, however. They did not even touch Uncle Prudent’s pockets, +although, according to his custom, they were full of paper dollars. +</p> + +<p> +Within a minute of the attack, without a word being passed, Uncle Prudent, Phil +Evans, and Frycollin felt themselves laid gently down, not on the grass, but on +a sort of plank that creaked beneath them. They were laid down side by side. +</p> + +<p> +A door was shut; and the grating of a bolt in a staple told them that they were +prisoners. +</p> + +<p> +Then there came a continuous buzzing, a quivering, a frrrr, with the rrr +unending. +</p> + +<p> +And that was the only sound that broke the quiet of the night. +</p> + +<p> +Great was the excitement next morning in Philadelphia Very early was it known +what had passed at the meeting of the Institute. Everyone knew of the +appearance of the mysterious engineer named Robur—Robur the Conqueror—and the +tumult among the balloonists, and his inexplicable disappearance. But it was +quite another thing when all the town heard that the president and secretary of +the club had also disappeared during the night. +</p> + +<p> +Long and keen was the search in the city and neighborhood! Useless! The +newspapers of Philadelphia, the newspapers of Pennsylvania, the newspapers of +the United States reported the facts and explained them in a hundred ways, not +one of which was the right one. Heavy rewards were offered, and placards were +pasted up, but all to no purpose. The earth seemed to have opened and bodily +swallowed the president and secretary of the Weldon Institute. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a> +Chapter VI<br/> +THE PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY SUSPEND HOSTILITIES</h2> + +<p> +A bandage over the eyes, a gag in the mouth, a cord round the wrists, a cord +round the ankles, unable to see, to speak, or to move, Uncle Prudent, Phil +Evans, and Frycollin were anything but pleased with their position. Knowing not +who had seized them, nor in what they had been thrown like parcels in a goods +wagon, nor where they were, nor what was reserved for them—it was enough to +exasperate even the most patient of the ovine race, and we know that the +members of the Weldon Institute were not precisely sheep as far as patience +went. With his violence of character we can easily imagine how Uncle Prudent +felt. One thing was evident, that Phil Evans and he would find it difficult to +attend the club next evening. +</p> + +<p> +As to Frycollin, with his eyes shut and his mouth closed, it was impossible for +him to think of anything. He was more dead than alive. +</p> + +<p> +For an hour the position of the prisoners remained unchanged. No one came to +visit them, or to give them that liberty of movement and speech of which they +lay in such need. They were reduced to stifled sighs, to grunts emitted over +and under their gags, to everything that betrayed anger kept dumb and fury +imprisoned, or rather bound down. Then after many fruitless efforts they +remained for some time as though lifeless. Then as the sense of sight was +denied them they tried by their sense of hearing to obtain some indication of +the nature of this disquieting state of things. But in vain did they seek for +any other sound than an interminable and inexplicable f-r-r-r which seemed to +envelop them in a quivering atmosphere. +</p> + +<p> +At last something happened. Phil Evans, regaining his coolness, managed to +slacken the cord which bound his wrists. Little by little the knot slipped, his +fingers slipped over each other, and his hands regained their usual freedom. +</p> + +<p> +A vigorous rubbing restored the circulation. A moment after he had slipped off +the bandage which bound his eyes, taken the gag out of his mouth, and cut the +cords round his ankles with his knife. An American who has not a bowie-knife in +his pocket is no longer an American. +</p> + +<p> +But if Phil Evans had regained the power of moving and speaking, that was all. +His eyes were useless to him—at present at any rate. The prison was quite dark, +though about six feet above him a feeble gleam of light came in through a kind +of loophole. +</p> + +<p> +As may be imagined, Phil Evans did not hesitate to at once set free his rival. +A few cuts with the bowie settled the knots which bound him foot and hand. +</p> + +<p> +Immediately Uncle Prudent rose to his knees and snatched away his bandage and +gag. +</p> + +<p> +“Thanks.” said he, in stifled voice. +</p> + +<p> +“Phil Evans?” +</p> + +<p> +“Uncle Prudent?” +</p> + +<p> +“Here we are no longer the president and secretary of the Weldon Institute. We +are adversaries no more.” +</p> + +<p> +“You are right.” answered Evans. “We are now only two men agreed to avenge +ourselves on a third whose attempt deserves severe reprisals. And this third +is—” +</p> + +<p> +“Robur!” +</p> + +<p> +“It is Robur!” +</p> + +<p> +On this point both were absolutely in accord. On this subject there was no fear +of dispute. +</p> + +<p> +“And your servant?” said Phil Evans, pointing to Frycollin, who was puffing +like a grampus. “We must set him free.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not yet.” said Uncle Prudent. “He would overwhelm us with his jeremiads, and +we have something else to do than abuse each other.” +</p> + +<p> +“What is that, Uncle Prudent?” +</p> + +<p> +“To save ourselves if possible.” +</p> + +<p> +“You are right, even if it is impossible.” +</p> + +<p> +“And even if it is impossible.” +</p> + +<p> +There could be no doubt that this kidnapping was due to Robur, for an ordinary +thief would have relieved them of their watches, jewelry, and purses, and +thrown their bodies into the Schuyllkill with a good gash in their throats +instead of throwing them to the bottom of—Of what? That was a serious question, +which would have to be answered before attempting an escape with any chance of +success. +</p> + +<p> +“Phil Evans.” began Uncle Prudent, “if, when we came away from our meeting, +instead of indulging in amenities to which we need not recur, we had kept our +eyes more open, this would not have happened. Had we remained in the streets of +Philadelphia there would have been none of this. Evidently Robur foresaw what +would happen at the club, and had placed some of his bandits on guard at the +door. When we left Walnut Street these fellows must have watched us and +followed us, and when we imprudently ventured into Fairmount Park they went in +for their little game.” +</p> + +<p> +“Agreed.” said Evans. “We were wrong not to go straight home.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is always wrong not to be right.” said Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +Here a long-drawn sigh escaped from the darkest corner of the prison. “What is +that?” asked Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing! Frycollin is dreaming.” +</p> + +<p> +“Between the moment we were seized a few steps out into the clearing and the +moment we were thrown in here only two minutes elapsed. It is thus evident that +those people did not take us out of Fairmount Park.” +</p> + +<p> +“And if they had done so we should have felt we were being moved.” +</p> + +<p> +“Undoubtedly; and consequently we must be in some vehicle, perhaps some of +those long prairie wagons, or some show-caravan—” +</p> + +<p> +“Evidently! For if we were in a boat moored on the Schuyllkill we should have +noticed the movement due to the current—” +</p> + +<p> +“That is so; and as we are still in the clearing, I think that now is the time +to get away, and we can return later to settle with this Robur—” +</p> + +<p> +“And make him pay for this attempt on the liberty of two citizens of the United +States.” +</p> + +<p> +“And he shall pay pretty dearly!” +</p> + +<p> +“But who is this man? Where does he come from? Is he English, or German, or +French—” +</p> + +<p> +“He is a scoundrel, that is enough!” said Uncle Prudent. “Now to work.” And +then the two men, with their hands stretched out and their fingers wide apart, +began to feel round the walls to find a joint or crack. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing. Nothing; not even at the door. It was closely shut and it was +impossible to shoot back the lock. All that could be done was to make a hole, +and escape through the hole. It remained to be seen if the knives could cut +into the walls. +</p> + +<p> +“But whence comes this never-ending rustling?” asked Evans, who was much +impressed at the continuous f-r-r-r. +</p> + +<p> +“The wind, doubtless.” said Uncle Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +“The wind! But I thought the night was quite calm.” +</p> + +<p> +“So it was. But if it isn’t the wind, what can it be?” +</p> + +<p> +Phil Evans got out the best blade of his knife and set to work on the wall near +the door. Perhaps he might make a hole which would enable him to open it from +the outside should it be only bolted or should the key have been left in the +lock. He worked away for some minutes. The only result was to nip up his knife, +to snip off its point, and transform what was left of the blade into a saw. +</p> + +<p> +“Doesn’t it cut?” asked Uncle Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +“No.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is the wall made of sheet iron?” +</p> + +<p> +“No; it gives no metallic sound when you hit it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is it of ironwood?” +</p> + +<p> +“No; it isn’t iron and it isn’t wood.” +</p> + +<p> +“What is it then?” +</p> + +<p> +“Impossible to say. But, anyhow, steel doesn’t touch it.” Uncle Prudent, in a +sudden outburst of fury, began to rave and stamp on the sonorous planks, while +his hands sought to strangle an imaginary Robur. +</p> + +<p> +“Be calm, Prudent, be calm! You have a try.” +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent had a try, but the bowie-knife could do nothing against a wall +which its best blades could not even scratch. The wall seemed to be made of +crystal. +</p> + +<p> +So it became evident that all flight was impracticable except through the door, +and for a time they must resign themselves to their fate—not a very pleasant +thing for the Yankee temperament, and very much to the disgust of these +eminently practical men. But this conclusion was not arrived at without many +objurgations and loud-sounding phrases hurled at this Robur—who, from what had +been seen of him at the Weldon Institute, was not the sort of man to trouble +himself much about them. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly Frycollin began to give unequivocal signs of being unwell. He began to +writhe in a most lamentable fashion, either with cramp in his stomach or in his +limbs; and Uncle Prudent, thinking it his duty to put an end to these +gymnastics, cut the cords that bound him. +</p> + +<p> +He had cause to be sorry for it. Immediately there was poured forth an +interminable litany, in which the terrors of fear were mingled with the +tortures of hunger. Frycollin was no worse in his brain than in his stomach, +and it would have been difficult to decide to which organ the chief cause of +the trouble should be assigned. +</p> + +<p> +“Frycollin!” said Uncle Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +“Master Uncle! Master Uncle!” answered the Negro between two of his lugubrious +howls. +</p> + +<p> +“It is possible that we are doomed to die of hunger in this prison, but we have +made up our minds not to succumb until we have availed ourselves of every means +of alimentation to prolong our lives.” +</p> + +<p> +“To eat me?” exclaimed Frycollin. +</p> + +<p> +“As is always done with a Negro under such circumstances! So you had better not +make yourself too obvious—” +</p> + +<p> +“Or you’ll have your bones picked!” said Evans. +</p> + +<p> +And as Frycollin saw he might be used to prolong two existences more precious +than his own, he contented himself thenceforth with groaning in quiet. +</p> + +<p> +The time went on and all attempts to force the door or get through the wall +proved fruitless. What the wall was made of was impossible to say. It was not +metal; it was not wood; it was not stone, And all the cell seemed to be made of +the same stuff. When they stamped on the floor it gave a peculiar sound that +Uncle Prudent found it difficult to describe; the floor seemed to sound hollow, +as if it was not resting directly on the ground of the clearing. And the +inexplicable f-r-r-r-r seemed to sweep along below it. All of which was rather +alarming. +</p> + +<p> +“Uncle Prudent.” said Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“Well?” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you think our prison has been moved at all?” +</p> + +<p> +“Not that I know of.” +</p> + +<p> +“Because when we were first caught I distinctly remember the fresh fragrance of +the grass and the resinous odor of the park trees. While now, when I take in a +good sniff of the air, it seems as though all that had gone.” +</p> + +<p> +“So it has.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why?” +</p> + +<p> +“We cannot say why unless we admit that the prison has moved; and I say again +that if the prison had moved, either as a vehicle on the road or a boat on the +stream, we should have felt it.” +</p> + +<p> +Here Frycollin gave vent to a long groan, which might have been taken for his +last had he not followed it up with several more. +</p> + +<p> +“I expect Robur will soon have us brought before him.” said Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“I hope so.” said Uncle Prudent. “And I shall tell him—” +</p> + +<p> +“What?” +</p> + +<p> +“That he began by being rude and ended in being unbearable.” +</p> + +<p> +Here Phil Evans noticed that day was beginning to break. A gleam, still faint, +filtered through the narrow window opposite the door. It ought thus to be about +four o’clock in the morning for it is at that hour in the month of June in this +latitude that the horizon of Philadelphia is tinged by the first rays of the +dawn. +</p> + +<p> +But when Uncle Prudent sounded his repeater—which was a masterpiece from his +colleague’s factory—the tiny gong only gave a quarter to three, and the watch +had not stopped. +</p> + +<p> +“That is strange!” said Phil Evans. “At a quarter to three it ought still to be +night.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps my watch has got slow.” answered Uncle Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +“A watch of the Wheelton Watch Company!” exclaimed Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +Whatever might be the reason, there was no doubt that the day was breaking. +Gradually the window became white in the deep darkness of the cell. However, if +the dawn appeared sooner than the fortieth parallel permitted, it did not +advance with the rapidity peculiar to lower latitudes. This was another +observation—of Uncle Prudent’s—a new inexplicable phenomenon. +</p> + +<p> +“Couldn’t we get up to the window and see where we are?” +</p> + +<p> +“We might.” said Uncle Prudent. “Frycollin, get up!” +</p> + +<p> +The Negro arose. +</p> + +<p> +“Put your back against the wall.” continued Prudent, “and you, Evans, get on +his shoulders while I buttress him up.” +</p> + +<p> +“Right!” said Evans. +</p> + +<p> +An instant afterwards his knees were on Frycollin’s shoulders, and his eyes +were level with the window. The window was not of lenticular glass like those +on shipboard, but was a simple flat pane. It was small, and Phil Evans found +his range of view was much limited. +</p> + +<p> +“Break the glass.” said Prudent, “and perhaps you will be able to see better.” +</p> + +<p> +Phil Evans gave it a sharp knock with the handle of his bowie-knife. It gave +back a silvery sound, but it did not break. +</p> + +<p> +Another and more violent blow. The same result. +</p> + +<p> +“It is unbreakable glass!” said Evans. +</p> + +<p> +It appeared as though the pane was made of glass toughened on the Siemens +system—as after several blows it remained intact. +</p> + +<p> +The light had now increased, and Phil Evans could see for some distance within +the radius allowed by the frame. +</p> + +<p> +“What do you see?” asked Uncle Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing.” +</p> + +<p> +“What? Not any trees?” +</p> + +<p> +“No.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not even the top branches?” +</p> + +<p> +“No.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then we are not in the clearing?” +</p> + +<p> +“Neither in the clearing nor in the park.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you see any roofs of houses or monuments?” said Prudent, whose +disappointment and anger were increasing rapidly. +</p> + +<p> +“No.” +</p> + +<p> +“What! Not a flagstaff, nor a church tower, nor a chimney?” +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing but space.” +</p> + +<p> +As he uttered the words the door opened. A man appeared on the threshold. It +was Robur. +</p> + +<p> +“Honorable balloonists” he said, in a serious voice, “you are now free to go +and come as you like.” +</p> + +<p> +“Free!” exclaimed Uncle Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes—within the limits of the “Albatross!” +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans rushed out of their prison. And what did they see? +</p> + +<p> +Four thousand feet below them the face of a country they sought in vain to +recognize. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a> +Chapter VII<br/> +ON BOARD THE ALBATROSS</h2> + +<p> +“When will man cease to crawl in the depths to live in the azure and quiet of +the sky?” +</p> + +<p> +To this question of Camille Flammarion’s the answer is easy. It will be when +the progress of mechanics has enabled us to solve the problem of aviation. And +in a few years—as we can foresee—a more practical utilization of electricity +will do much towards that solution. +</p> + +<p> +In 1783, before the Montgolfier brothers had built their fire-balloon, and +Charles, the physician, had devised his first aerostat, a few adventurous +spirits had dreamt of the conquest of space by mechanical means. The first +inventors did not think of apparatus lighter than air, for that the science of +their time did not allow them to imagine. It was to contrivances heavier than +air, to flying machines in imitation of the birds, that they trusted to realize +aerial locomotion. +</p> + +<p> +This was exactly what had been done by that madman Icarus, the son of Daedalus, +whose wings, fixed together with wax, had melted as they approached the sun. +</p> + +<p> +But without going back to mythological times, without dwelling on Archytas of +Tarentum, we find, in the works of Dante of Perugia, of Leonardo da Vinci and +Guidotti, the idea of machines made to move through the air. Two centuries and +a half afterwards inventors began to multiply. In 1742 the Marquis de +Bacqueville designed a system of wings, tried it over the Seine, and fell and +broke his arm. In 1768 Paucton conceived the idea of an apparatus with two +screws, suspensive and propulsive. In 1781 Meerwein, the architect of the +Prince of Baden, built an orthopteric machine, and protested against the +tendency of the aerostats which had just been invented. In 1784 Launoy and +Bienvenu had maneuvered a helicopter worked by springs. In 1808 there were the +attempts at flight by the Austrian Jacques Degen. In 1810 came the pamphlet by +Denian of Nantes, in which the principles of “heavier than air” are laid down. +From 1811 to 1840 came the inventions and researches of Derblinger, Vigual, +Sarti, Dubochet, and Cagniard de Latour. In 1842 we have the Englishman Henson, +with his system of inclined planes and screws worked by steam. In 1845 came +Cossus and his ascensional screws. In 1847 came Camille Vert and his helicopter +made of birds’ wings. In 1852 came Letur with his system of guidable +parachutes, whose trial cost him his life; and in the same year came Michel +Loup with his plan of gliding through the air on four revolving wings. In 1853 +came Béléguic and his aeroplane with the traction screws, Vaussin-Chardannes +with his guidable kite, and George Cauley with his flying machines driven by +gas. From 1854 to 1863 appeared Joseph Pline with several patents for aerial +systems. Bréant, Carlingford, Le Bris, Du Temple, Bright, whose ascensional +screws were left-handed; Smythies, Panafieu, Crosnier, &c. At length, in +1863, thanks to the efforts of Nadar, a society of “heavier than air” was +founded in Paris. There the inventors could experiment with the machines, of +which many were patented. Ponton d’Amécourt and his steam helicopter, La +Landelle and his system of combining screws with inclined planes and +parachutes, Louvrié and his aeroscape, Esterno and his mechanical bird, Groof +and his apparatus with wings worked by levers. The impetus was given, inventors +invented, calculators calculated all that could render aerial locomotion +practicable. Bourcart, Le Bris, Kaufmann, Smyth, Stringfellow, Prigent, +Danjard, Pomés and De la Pauze, Moy, Pénaud, Jobert, Haureau de Villeneuve, +Achenbach, Garapon, Duchesne, Danduran, Pariesel, Dieuaide, Melkiseff, +Forlanini, Bearey, Tatin, Dandrieux, Edison, some with wings or screws, others +with inclined planes, imagined, created, constructed, perfected, their flying +machines, ready to do their work, once there came to be applied to thereby some +inventor a motor of adequate power and excessive lightness. +</p> + +<p> +This list may be a little long, but that will be forgiven, for it is necessary +to give the various steps in the ladder of aerial locomotion, on the top of +which appeared Robur the Conqueror. Without these attempts, these experiments +of his predecessors, how could the inquirer have conceived so perfect an +apparatus? And though he had but contempt for those who obstinately worked away +in the direction of balloons, he held in high esteem all those partisans of +“heavier than air.” English, American, Italian, Austrian, French—and +particularly French—whose work had been perfected by him, and led him to design +and then to build this flying engine known as the “Albatross.” which he was +guiding through the currents of the atmosphere. +</p> + +<p> +“The pigeon flies!” had exclaimed one of the most persistent adepts at +aviation. +</p> + +<p> +“They will crowd the air as they crowd the earth!” said one of his most excited +partisans. +</p> + +<p> +“From the locomotive to the aeromotive!” shouted the noisiest of all, who had +turned on the trumpet of publicity to awaken the Old and New Worlds. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing, in fact, is better established, by experiment and calculation, than +that the air is highly resistant. A circumference of only a yard in diameter in +the shape of a parachute can not only impede descent in air, but can render it +isochronous. That is a fact. +</p> + +<p> +It is equally well known that when the speed is great the work of the weight +varies in almost inverse ratio to the square of the speed, and therefore +becomes almost insignificant. +</p> + +<p> +It is also known that as the weight of a flying animal increases, the less is +the proportional increase in the surface beaten by the wings in order to +sustain it, although the motion of the wings becomes slower. +</p> + +<p> +A flying machine must therefore be constructed to take advantage of these +natural laws, to imitate the bird, “that admirable type of aerial locomotion.” +according to Dr. Marcy, of the Institute of France. +</p> + +<p> +In short the contrivances likely to solve the problem are of three kinds:— +</p> + +<p> +1. Helicopters or spiralifers, which are simply screws with vertical axes. +</p> + +<p> +2. Ornithopters, machines which endeavour to reproduce the natural flight of +birds. +</p> + +<p> +3. Aeroplanes, which are merely inclined planes like kites, but towed or driven +by screws. +</p> + +<p> +Each of these systems has had and still has it partisans obstinately resolved +to give way in not the slightest particular. However, Robur, for many reasons, +had rejected the two first. +</p> + +<p> +The ornithopter, or mechanical bird, offers certain advantages, no doubt. That +the work and experiments of M. Renard in 1884 have sufficiently proved. But, as +has been said, it is not necessary to copy Nature servilely. Locomotives are +not copied from the hare, nor are ships copied from the fish. To the first we +have put wheels which are not legs; to the second we have put screws which are +not fins. And they do not do so badly. Besides, what is this mechanical +movement in the flight of birds, whose action is so complex? Has not Doctor +Marcy suspected that the feathers open during the return of the wings so as to +let the air through them? And is not that rather a difficult operation for an +artificial machine? +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand, aeroplanes have given many good results. Screws opposing a +slanting plane to the bed of air will produce an ascensional movement, and the +models experimented on have shown that the disposable weight, that is to say +the weight it is possible to deal with as distinct from that of the apparatus, +increases with the square of the speed. Herein the aeroplane has the advantage +over the aerostat even when the aerostat is furnished with the means of +locomotion. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless Robur had thought that the simpler his contrivance the better. And +the screws—the Saint Helices that had been thrown in his teeth at the Weldon +Institute—had sufficed for all the needs of his flying machine. One series +could hold it suspended in the air, the other could drive it along under +conditions that were marvelously adapted for speed and safety. +</p> + +<p> +If the ornithopter—striking like the wings of a bird—raised itself by beating +the air, the helicopter raised itself by striking the air obliquely, with the +fins of the screw as it mounted on an inclined plane. These fins, or arms, are +in reality wings, but wings disposed as a helix instead of as a paddle wheel. +The helix advances in the direction of its axis. Is the axis vertical? Then it +moves vertically. Is the axis horizontal? Then it moves horizontally. +</p> + +<p> +The whole of Robur’s flying apparatus depended on these two movements, as will +be seen from the following detailed description, which can be divided under +three heads—the platform, the engines of suspension and propulsion, and the +machinery. +</p> + +<p> +Platform.—This was a framework a hundred feet long and twelve wide, a ship’s +deck in fact, with a projecting prow. Beneath was a hull solidly built, +enclosing the engines, stores, and provisions of all sorts, including the +watertanks. Round the deck a few light uprights supported a wire trellis that +did duty for bulwarks. On the deck were three houses, whose compartments were +used as cabins for the crew, or as machine rooms. In the center house was the +machine which drove the suspensory helices, in that forward was the machine +that drove the bow screw, in that aft was the machine that drove the stern +screw. In the bow were the cook’s galley and the crew’s quarters; in the stern +were several cabins, including that of the engineer, the saloon, and above them +all a glass house in which stood the helmsman, who steered the vessel by means +of a powerful rudder. All these cabins were lighted by port-holes filled with +toughened glass, which has ten times the resistance of ordinary glass. Beneath +the hull was a system of flexible springs to ease off the concussion when it +became advisable to land. +</p> + +<p> +Engines of suspension and propulsion.—Above the deck rose thirty-seven vertical +axes, fifteen along each side, and seven, more elevated, in the centre. The +“Albatross” might be called a clipper with thirty-seven masts. But these masts +instead of sails bore each two horizontal screws, not very large in spread or +diameter, but driven at prodigious speed. Each of these axes had its own +movement independent of the rest, and each alternate one spun round in a +different direction from the others, so as to avoid any tendency to gyration. +Hence the screws as they rose on the vertical column of air retained their +equilibrium by their horizontal resistance. Consequently the apparatus was +furnished with seventy-four suspensory screws, whose three branches were +connected by a metallic circle which economized their motive force. In front +and behind, mounted on horizontal axes, were two propelling screws, each with +four arms. These screws were of much larger diameter than the suspensory ones, +but could be worked at quite their speed. In fact, the vessel combined the +systems of Cossus, La Landelle, and Ponton d’Amécourt, as perfected by Robur. +But it was in the choice and application of his motive force that he could +claim to be an inventor. +</p> + +<p> +Machinery.—Robur had not availed himself of the vapor of water or other +liquids, nor compressed air and other mechanical motion. He employed +electricity, that agent which one day will be the soul of the industrial world. +But he required no electro-motor to produce it. All he trusted to was piles and +accumulators. What were the elements of these piles, and what were the acids he +used, Robur only knew. And the construction of the accumulators was kept +equally secret. Of what were their positive and negative plates? None can say. +The engineer took good care—and not unreasonably—to keep his secret unpatented. +One thing was unmistakable, and that was that the piles were of extraordinary +strength; and the accumulators left those of Faure-Sellon-Volckmar very far +behind in yielding currents whose ampères ran into figures up to then unknown. +Thus there was obtained a power to drive the screws and communicate a +suspending and propelling force in excess of all his requirements under any +circumstances. +</p> + +<p> +But—it is as well to repeat it—this belonged entirely to Robur. He kept it a +close secret. And, if the president and secretary of the Weldon Institute did +not happen to discover it, it would probably be lost to humanity. +</p> + +<p> +It need not be shown that the apparatus possessed sufficient stability. Its +center of gravity proved that at once. There was no danger of its making +alarming angles with the horizontal, still less of its capsizing. +</p> + +<p> +And now for the metal used by Robur in the construction of his aeronef—a name +which can be exactly applied to the “Albatross.” What was this material, so +hard that the bowie-knife of Phil Evans could not scratch it, and Uncle Prudent +could not explain its nature? Simply paper! +</p> + +<p> +For some years this fabrication had been making considerable progress. Unsized +paper, with the sheets impregnated with dextrin and starch and squeezed in +hydraulic presses, will form a material as hard as steel. There are made of it +pulleys, rails, and wagon-wheels, much more solid than metal wheels, and far +lighter. And it was this lightness and solidity which Robur availed himself of +in building his aerial locomotive. Everything—framework, hull, houses, +cabins—were made of straw-paper turned hard as metal by compression, and—what +was not to be despised in an apparatus flying at great heights—incombustible. +The different parts of the engines and the screws were made of gelatinized +fiber, which combined in sufficient degree flexibility with resistance. This +material could be used in every form. It was insoluble in most gases and +liquids, acids or essences, to say nothing of its insulating properties, and it +proved most valuable in the electric machinery of the “Albatross.” +</p> + +<p> +Robur, his mate Tom Turner, an engineer and two assistants, two steersman and a +cook—eight men all told—formed the crew of the aeronef, and proved ample for +all the maneuvers required in aerial navigation. There were arms of the chase +and of war; fishing appliances; electric lights; instruments of observation, +compasses, and sextants for checking the course, thermometers for studying the +temperature, different barometers, some for estimating the heights attained, +others for indicating the variations of atmospheric pressure; a storm-glass for +forecasting tempests; a small library; a portable printing press; a field-piece +mounted on a pivot; breech loading and throwing a three-inch shell; a supply of +powder, bullets, dynamite cartridges; a cooking-stove, warmed by currents from +the accumulators; a stock of preserves, meats and vegetables sufficient to last +for months. Such were the outfit and stores of the aeronef—in addition to the +famous trumpet. +</p> + +<p> +There was besides a light india-rubber boat, insubmersible, which could carry +eight men on the surface of a river, a lake, or a calm sea. +</p> + +<p> +But were there any parachutes in case of accident? No. Robur did not believe in +accidents of that kind. The axes of the screws were independent. The stoppage +of a few would not affect the motion of the others; and if only half were +working, the “Albatross” could still keep afloat in her natural element. +</p> + +<p> +“And with her.” said Robur to his guests—guests in spite of themselves—“I am +master of the seventh part of the world, larger than Africa, Oceania, Asia, +America, and Europe, this aerial Icarian sea, which millions of Icarians will +one day people.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a> +Chapter VIII<br/> +THE BALLOONISTS REFUSE TO BE CONVINCED</h2> + +<p> +The President of the Weldon Institute was stupefied; his companion was +astonished. But neither of them would allow any of their very natural amazement +to be visible. +</p> + +<p> +The valet Frycollin did not conceal his terror at finding himself borne through +space on such a machine, and he took no pains whatever to hide it. +</p> + +<p> +The suspensory screws were rapidly spinning overhead. Fast as they were going, +they would have to triple their speed if the “Albatross” was to ascend to +higher zones. The two propellers were running very easily and driving the ship +at about eleven knots an hour. +</p> + +<p> +As they leaned over the rail the passengers of the “Albatross” could perceive a +long sinuous liquid ribbon which meandered like a mere brook through a varied +country amid the gleaming of many lagoons obliquely struck by the rays of the +sun. The brook was a river, one of the most important in that district. Along +its left bank was a chain of mountains extending out of sight. +</p> + +<p> +“And will you tell us where we are?” asked Uncle Prudent, in a voice tremulous +with anger. +</p> + +<p> +“I have nothing to teach you.” answered Robur. +</p> + +<p> +“And will you tell us where we are going?” asked Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“Through space.” +</p> + +<p> +“And how long will that last?” +</p> + +<p> +“Until it ends.” +</p> + +<p> +“Are we going round the world?” asked Phil Evans ironically. +</p> + +<p> +“Further than that.” said Robur. +</p> + +<p> +“And if this voyage does not suit us?” asked Uncle Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +“It will have to suit you.” +</p> + +<p> +That is a foretaste of the nature of the relations that were to obtain between +the master of the “Albatross” and his guests, not to say his prisoners. +Manifestly he wished to give them time to cool down, to admire the marvelous +apparatus which was bearing them through the air, and doubtless to compliment +the inventor. And so he went off to the other end of the deck, leaving them to +examine the arrangement of the machinery and the management of the ship or to +give their whole attention to the landscape which was unrolling beneath them. +</p> + +<p> +“Uncle Prudent.” said Evans, “unless I am mistaken we are flying over Central +Canada. That river in the northwest is the St. Lawrence. That town we are +leaving behind is Quebec.” +</p> + +<p> +It was indeed the old city of Champlain, whose zinc roofs were shining like +reflectors in the sun. The “Albatross” must thus have reached the forty-sixth +degree of north latitude, and thus was explained the premature advance of the +day with the abnormal prolongation of the dawn. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes.” said Phil Evans, “There is the town in its amphitheater, the hill with +its citadel, the Gibraltar of North America. There are the cathedrals. There is +the Custom House with its dome surmounted by the British flag!” +</p> + +<p> +Phil Evans had not finished before the Canadian city began to slip into the +distance. +</p> + +<p> +The clipper entered a zone of light clouds, which gradually shut off a view of +the ground. +</p> + +<p> +Robur, seeing that the president and secretary of the Weldon Institute had +directed their attention to the external arrangements of the “Albatross.” +walked up to them and said: “Well, gentlemen, do you believe in the possibility +of aerial locomotion by machines heavier than air?” +</p> + +<p> +It would have been difficult not to succumb to the evidence. But Uncle Prudent +and Phil Evans did not reply. +</p> + +<p> +“You are silent.” continued the engineer. “Doubtless hunger makes you dumb! But +if I undertook to carry you through the air, I did not think of feeding you on +such a poorly nutritive fluid. Your first breakfast is waiting for you.” +</p> + +<p> +As Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans were feeling the pangs of hunger somewhat +keenly they did not care to stand upon ceremony. A meal would commit them to +nothing; and when Robur put them back on the ground they could resume full +liberty of action. +</p> + +<p> +And so they followed into a small dining-room in the aftermost house. There +they found a well-laid table at which they could take their meals during the +voyage. There were different preserves; and, among other things, was a sort of +bread made of equal parts of flour and meat reduced to powder and worked +together with a little lard, which boiled in water made excellent soup; and +there were rashers of fried ham, and for drink there was tea. +</p> + +<p> +Neither had Frycollin been forgotten. He was taken forward and there found some +strong soup made of this bread. In truth he had to be very hungry to eat at +all, for his jaws shook with fear, and almost refused to work. “If it was to +break! If it was to break!” said the unfortunate Negro. Hence continual +faintings. Only think! A fall of over four thousand feet, which would smash him +to a jelly! +</p> + +<p> +An hour afterwards Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans appeared on the deck. Robur was +no longer there. At the stem the man at the wheel in his glass cage, his eyes +fixed on the compass, followed imperturbably without hesitation the route given +by the engineer. +</p> + +<p> +As for the rest of the crew, breakfast probably kept them from their posts. An +assistant engineer, examining the machinery, went from one house to the other. +</p> + +<p> +If the speed of the ship was great the two colleagues could only estimate it +imperfectly, for the “Albatross” had passed through the cloud zone which the +sun showed some four thousand feet below. +</p> + +<p> +“I can hardly believe it.” said Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t believe it!” said Uncle Prudent. And going to the bow they looked out +towards the western horizon. +</p> + +<p> +“Another town.” said Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you recognize it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes! It seems to me to be Montreal.” +</p> + +<p> +“Montreal? But we only left Quebec two hours ago!” +</p> + +<p> +“That proves that we must be going at a speed of seventy-five miles an hour.” +</p> + +<p> +Such was the speed of the aeronef; and if the passengers were not +inconvenienced by it, it was because they were going with the wind. In a calm +such speed would have been difficult and the rate would have sunk to that of an +express. In a head-wind the speed would have been unbearable. +</p> + +<p> +Phil Evans was not mistaken. Below the “Albatross” appeared Montreal, easily +recognizable by the Victoria Bridge, a tubular bridge thrown over the St. +Lawrence like the railway viaduct over the Venice lagoon. Soon they could +distinguish the town’s wide streets, its huge shops, its palatial banks, its +cathedral, recently built on the model of St. Peter’s at Rome, and then Mount +Royal, which commands the city and forms a magnificent park. +</p> + +<p> +Luckily Phil Evans had visited the chief towns of Canada, and could recognize +them without asking Robur. After Montreal they passed Ottawa, whose falls, seen +from above, looked like a vast cauldron in ebullition, throwing off masses of +steam with grand effect. +</p> + +<p> +“There is the Parliament House.” +</p> + +<p> +And he pointed out a sort of Nuremburg toy planted on a hill top. This toy with +its polychrome architecture resembled the House of Parliament in London much as +the Montreal cathedral resembles St. Peter’s at Rome. But that was of no +consequence; there could be no doubt it was Ottawa. +</p> + +<p> +Soon the city faded off towards the horizon, and formed but a luminous spot on +the ground. +</p> + +<p> +It was almost two hours before Robur appeared. His mate, Tom Turner, +accompanied him. He said only three words. These were transmitted to the two +assistant engineers in the fore and aft engine-houses. At a sign the helmsman +changed the-direction of the “Albatross” a couple of points to the southwest; +at the same time Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans felt that a greater speed had +been given to the propellers. +</p> + +<p> +In fact, the speed had been doubled, and now surpassed anything that had ever +been attained by terrestrial Engines. Torpedo-boats do their twenty-two knots +an hour; railway trains do their sixty miles an hour; the ice-boats on the +frozen Hudson do their sixty-five miles an hour; a machine built by the +Patterson company, with a cogged wheel, has done its eighty miles; and another +locomotive between Trenton and Jersey City has done its eighty-four. +</p> + +<p> +But the “Albatross.” at full speed, could do her hundred and twenty miles an +hour, or 176 feet per second. This speed is that of the storm which tears up +trees by the roots. It is the mean speed of the carrier pigeon, and is only +surpassed by the flight of the swallow (220 feet per second) and that of the +swift (274 feet per second). +</p> + +<p> +In a word, as Robur had said, the “Albatross.” by using the whole force of her +screws, could make the tour of the globe in two hundred hours, or less than +eight days. +</p> + +<p> +Is it necessary to say so? The phenomenon whose appearance had so much puzzled +the people of both worlds was the aeronef of the engineer. The trumpet which +blared its startling fanfares through the air was that of the mate, Tom Turner. +The flag planted on the chief monuments of Europe, Asia, America, was the flag +of Robur the Conqueror and his “Albatross.” +</p> + +<p> +And if up to then the engineer had taken many precautions against being +recognized, if by preference he traveled at night, clearing the way with his +electric lights, and during the day vanishing into the zones above the clouds, +he seemed now to have no wish to keep his secret hidden. And if he had come to +Philadelphia and presented himself at the meeting of the Weldon Institute, was +it not that they might share in his prodigious discovery, and convince “ipso +facto” the most incredulous? We know how he had been received, and we see what +reprisals he had taken on the president and secretary of the club. +</p> + +<p> +Again did Robur approach his prisoners, who affected to be in no way surprised +at what they saw, of what had succeeded in spite of them. Evidently beneath the +cranium of these two Anglo-Saxon heads there was a thick crust of obstinacy, +which would not be easy to remove. +</p> + +<p> +On his part, Robur did not seem to notice anything particular, and coolly +continued the conversation which he had begun two hours before. +</p> + +<p> +“Gentlemen.” said he, “you ask yourselves doubtless if this apparatus, so +marvelously adapted for aerial locomotion, is susceptible of receiving greater +speed. It is not worth while to conquer space if we cannot devour it. I wanted +the air to be a solid support to me, and it is. I saw that to struggle against +the wind I must be stronger than the wind, and I am. I had no need of sails to +drive me, nor oars nor wheels to push me, nor rails to give me a faster road. +Air is what I wanted, that was all. Air surrounds me as it surrounds the +submarine boat, and in it my propellers act like the screws of a steamer. That +is how I solved the problem of aviation. That is what a balloon will never do, +nor will any machine that is lighter than air.” +</p> + +<p> +Silence, absolute, on the part of the colleagues, which did not for a moment +disconcert the engineer. He contented himself with a half-smile, and continued +in his interrogative style, “Perhaps you ask if to this power of the +“Albatross” to move horizontally there is added an equal power of vertical +movement—in a word, if, when, we visit the higher zones of the atmosphere, we +can compete with an aerostat? Well, I should not advise you to enter the +“Go-Ahead” against her!” +</p> + +<p> +The two colleagues shrugged their shoulders. That was probably what the +engineer was waiting for. +</p> + +<p> +Robur made a sign. The propelling screws immediately stopped, and after running +for a mile the “Albatross” pulled up motionless. +</p> + +<p> +At a second gesture from Robur the suspensory helices revolved at a speed that +can only be compared to that of a siren in acoustical experiments. Their +f-r-r-r-r rose nearly an octave in the scale of sound, diminishing gradually in +intensity as the air became more rarified, and the machine rose vertically, +like a lark singing his song in space. +</p> + +<p> +“Master! Master!” shouted Frycollin. “See that it doesn’t break!” +</p> + +<p> +A smile of disdain was Robur’s only reply. In a few minutes the “Albatross” had +attained the height of 8,700 feet, and extended the range of vision by seventy +miles, the barometer having fallen 480 millimeters. +</p> + +<p> +Then the “Albatross” descended. The diminution of the pressure in high +altitudes leads to the diminution of oxygen in the air, and consequently in the +blood. This has been the cause of several serious accidents which have happened +to aeronauts, and Robur saw no reason to run any risk. +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” thus returned to the height she seemed to prefer, and her +propellers beginning again, drove her off to the southwest. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, sirs, if that is what you wanted you can reply.” Then, leaning over the +rail, he remained absorbed in contemplation. +</p> + +<p> +When he raised his head the president and secretary of the Weldon Institute +stood by his side. +</p> + +<p> +“Engineer Robur.” said Uncle Prudent, in vain endeavoring to control himself, +“we have nothing to ask about what you seem to believe, but we wish to ask you +a question which we think you would do well to answer.” +</p> + +<p> +“Speak.” +</p> + +<p> +“By what right did you attack us in Philadelphia in Fairmount Park? By what +right did you shut us up in that prison? By what right have you brought us +against our will on board this flying machine?” +</p> + +<p> +“And by what right, Messieurs Balloonists, did you insult and threaten me in +your club in such a way that I am astonished I came out of it alive?” +</p> + +<p> +“To ask is not to answer.” said Phil Evans, “and I repeat, by what right?” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you wish to know?” +</p> + +<p> +“If you please.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, by the right of the strongest!” +</p> + +<p> +“That is cynical.” +</p> + +<p> +“But it is true.” +</p> + +<p> +“And for how long, citizen engineer.” asked Uncle Prudent, who was nearly +exploding, “for how long do you intend to exercise that right?” +</p> + +<p> +“How can you?” said Robur, ironically, “how can you ask me such a question when +you have only to cast down your eyes to enjoy a spectacle unparalleled in the +world?” +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” was then sweeping across the immense expanse of Lake Ontario. +She had just crossed the country so poetically described by Cooper. Then she +followed the southern shore and headed for the celebrated river which pours +into it the waters of Lake Erie, breaking them to powder in its cataracts. +</p> + +<p> +In an instant a majestic sound, a roar as of the tempest, mounted towards them +and, as if a humid fog had been projected into the air, the atmosphere sensibly +freshened. Below were the liquid masses. They seemed like an enormous flowing +sheet of crystal amid a thousand rainbows due to refraction as it decomposed +the solar rays. The sight was sublime. +</p> + +<p> +Before the falls a foot-bridge, stretching like a thread, united one bank to +the other. Three miles below was a suspension-bridge, across which a train was +crawling from the Canadian to the American bank. +</p> + +<p> +“The falls of Niagara!” exclaimed Phil Evans. And as the exclamation escaped +him, Uncle Prudent was doing all could do to admire nothing of these wonders. +</p> + +<p> +A minute afterwards the “Albatross” had crossed the river which separates the +United States from Canada, and was flying over the vast territories of the +West. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a> +Chapter IX<br/> +ACROSS THE PRAIRIE</h2> + +<p> +In one, of the cabins of the after-house Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans had found +two excellent berths, with clean linen, change of clothes, and traveling-cloaks +and rugs. No Atlantic liner could have offered them more comfort. If they did +not sleep soundly it was that they did not wish to do so, or rather that their +very real anxiety prevented them. In what adventure had they embarked? To what +series of experiments had they been invited? How would the business end? And +above all, what was Robur going to do with them? +</p> + +<p> +Frycollin, the valet, was quartered forward in a cabin adjoining that of the +cook. The neighborhood did not displease him; he liked to rub shoulders with +the great in this world. But if he finally went to sleep it was to dream of +fall after fall, of projections through space, which made his sleep a horrible +nightmare. +</p> + +<p> +However, nothing could be quieter than this journey through the atmosphere, +whose currents had grown weaker with the evening. Beyond the rustling of the +blades of the screws there was not a sound, except now and then the whistle +from some terrestrial locomotive, or the calling of some animal. Strange +instinct! These terrestrial beings felt the aeronef glide over them, and +uttered cries of terror as it passed. On the morrow, the 14th of June, at five +o’clock, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans were walking on the deck of the +“Albatross.” +</p> + +<p> +Nothing had changed since the evening; there was a lookout forward, and the +helmsman was in his glass cage. Why was there a look-out? Was there any chance +of collision with another such machine? Certainly not. Robur had not yet found +imitators. The chance of encountering an aerostat gliding through the air was +too remote to be regarded. In any case it would be all the worse for the +aerostat—the earthen pot and the iron pot. The “Albatross” had nothing to fear +from the collision. +</p> + +<p> +But what could happen? The aeronef might find herself like a ship on a lee +shore if a mountain that could not be outflanked or passed barred the way. +These are the reefs of the air, and they have to be avoided as a ship avoids +the reefs of the sea. The engineer, it is true, had given the course, and in +doing so had taken into account the altitude necessary to clear the summits of +the high lands in the district. But as the aeronef was rapidly nearing a +mountainous country, it was only prudent to keep a good lookout, in case some +slight deviation from the course became necessary. +</p> + +<p> +Looking at the country beneath them, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans noticed a +large lake, whose lower southern end the “Albatross” had just reached. They +concluded, therefore, that during the night the whole length of Lake Erie had +been traversed, and that, as they were going due west, they would soon be over +Lake Michigan. “There can be no doubt of it.” said Phil Evans, “and that group +of roofs on the horizon is Chicago.” +</p> + +<p> +He was right. It was indeed the city from which the seventeen railways diverge, +the Queen of the West, the vast reservoir into which flow the products of +Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, and all the States which form the western +half of the Union. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent, through an excellent telescope he had found in his cabin, easily +recognized the principal buildings. His colleague pointed out to him the +churches and public edifices, the numerous “elevators” or mechanical, +granaries, and the huge Sherman Hotel, whose windows seemed like a hundred +glittering points on each of its faces. +</p> + +<p> +“If that is Chicago.” said Uncle Prudent, “it is obvious that we are going +farther west than is convenient for us if we are to return to our +starting-place.” +</p> + +<p> +And, in fact, the “Albatross” was traveling in a straight line from the +Pennsylvania capital. +</p> + +<p> +But if Uncle Prudent wished to ask Robur to take him eastwards he could not +then do so. That morning the engineer did not leave his cabin. Either he was +occupied in some work, or else he was asleep, and the two colleagues sat down +to breakfast without seeing him. +</p> + +<p> +The speed was the same as that during last evening. The wind being easterly the +rate was not interfered with at all, and as the thermometer only falls a degree +centigrade for every seventy meters of elevation the temperature was not +insupportable. And so, in chatting and thinking and waiting for the engineer, +Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans walked about beneath the forest of screws, whose +gyratory movement gave their arms the appearance of semi-diaphanous disks. +</p> + +<p> +The State of Illinois was left by its northern frontier in less than two hours +and a half; and they crossed the Father of Waters, the Mississippi, whose +double-decked steam-boats seemed no bigger than canoes. Then the “Albatross” +flew over Iowa after having sighted Iowa City about eleven o’clock in the +morning. +</p> + +<p> +A few chains of hills, “bluffs” as they are called, curved across the face of +the country trending from the south to the northwest, whose moderate height +necessitated no rise in the course of the aeronef. Soon the bluffs gave place +to the large plains of western Iowa and Nebraska—immense prairies extending all +the way to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Here and there were many rios, +affluents or minor affluents of the Missouri. On their banks were towns and +villages, growing more scattered as the “Albatross” sped farther west. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing particular happened during this day. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans were +left entirely to themselves. They hardly noticed Frycollin sprawling at full +length in the bow, keeping his eyes shut so that he could see nothing. And they +were not attacked by vertigo, as might have been expected. There was no guiding +mark, and there was nothing to cause the vertigo, as there would have been on +the top of a lofty building. The abyss has no attractive power when it is gazed +at from the car of a balloon or deck of an aeronef. It is not an abyss that +opens beneath the aeronaut, but an horizon that rises round him on all sides +like a cup. +</p> + +<p> +In a couple of hours the “Albatross” was over Omaha, on the Nebraskan +frontier—Omaha City, the real head of the Pacific Railway, that long line of +rails, four thousand five hundred miles in length, stretching from New York to +San Francisco. For a moment they could see the yellow waters of the Missouri, +then the town, with its houses of wood and brick in the center of a rich basin, +like a buckle in the iron belt which clasps North America round the waist. +Doubtless, also, as the passengers in the aeronef could observe all these +details, the inhabitants of Omaha noticed the strange machine. Their +astonishment at seeing it gliding overhead could be no greater than that of the +president and secretary of the Weldon Institute at finding themselves on board. +</p> + +<p> +Anyhow, the journals of the Union would be certain to notice the fact. It would +be the explanation of the astonishing phenomenon which the whole world had been +wondering over for some time. +</p> + +<p> +In an hour the “Albatross” had left Omaha and crossed the Platte River, whose +valley is followed by the Pacific Railway in its route across the prairie. +Things looked serious for Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“It is serious, then, this absurd project of taking us to the Antipodes.” +</p> + +<p> +“And whether we like it or not!” exclaimed the other. +</p> + +<p> +“Robur had better take care! I am not the man to stand that sort of thing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Nor am I!” replied Phil Evans. “But be calm, Uncle Prudent, be calm.” +</p> + +<p> +“Be calm!” +</p> + +<p> +“And keep your temper until it is wanted.” +</p> + +<p> +By five o’clock they had crossed the Black Mountains covered with pines and +cedars, and the “Albatross” was over the appropriately named Bad Lands of +Nebraska—a chaos of ochre-colored hills, of mountainous fragments fallen on the +soil and broken in their fall. At a distance these blocks take the most +fantastic shapes. Here and there amid this enormous game of knucklebones there +could be traced the imaginary ruins of medieval cities with forts and dungeons, +pepper-box turrets, and machicolated towers. And in truth these Bad Lands are +an immense ossuary where lie bleaching in the sun myriads of fragments of +pachyderms, chelonians, and even, some would have us believe, fossil men, +overwhelmed by unknown cataclysms ages and ages ago. +</p> + +<p> +When evening came the whole basin of the Platte River had been crossed, and the +plain extended to the extreme limits of the horizon, which rose high owing to +the altitude of the “Albatross.” +</p> + +<p> +During the night there were no more shrill whistles of locomotives or deeper +notes of the river steamers to trouble the quiet of the starry firmament. Long +bellowing occasionally reached the aeronef from the herds of buffalo that +roamed over the prairie in search of water and pasturage. And when they ceased, +the trampling of the grass under their feet produced a dull roaring similar to +the rushing of a flood, and very different from the continuous f-r-r-r-r of the +screws. +</p> + +<p> +Then from time to time came the howl of a wolf, a fox, a wild cat, or a coyote, +the “Canis latrans.” whose name is justified by his sonorous bark. +</p> + +<p> +Occasionally came penetrating odors of mint, and sage, and absinthe, mingled +with the more powerful fragrance of the conifers which rose floating through +the night air. +</p> + +<p> +At last came a menacing yell, which was not due to the coyote. It was the shout +of a Redskin, which no Tenderfoot would confound with the cry of a wild beast. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a> +Chapter X<br/> +WESTWARD—BUT WHITHER?</h2> + +<p> +The next day, the 15th of June, about five o’clock in the morning, Phil Evans +left his cabin. Perhaps he would today have a chance of speaking to Robur? +Desirous of knowing why he had not appeared the day before, Evans addressed +himself to the mate, Tom Turner. +</p> + +<p> +Tom Turner was an Englishman of about forty-five, broad in the shoulders and +short in the legs, a man of iron, with one of those enormous characteristic +heads that Hogarth rejoiced in. +</p> + +<p> +“Shall we see Mr. Robur to-day?” asked Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know.” said Turner. +</p> + +<p> +“I need not ask if he has gone out.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps he has.” +</p> + +<p> +“And when will he come back?” +</p> + +<p> +“When he has finished his cruise.” +</p> + +<p> +And Tom went into his cabin. +</p> + +<p> +With this reply they had to be contented. Matters did not look promising, +particularly as on reference to the compass it appeared that the “Albatross” +was still steering southwest. +</p> + +<p> +Great was the contrast between the barren tract of the Bad Lands passed over +during the night and the landscape then unrolling beneath them. +</p> + +<p> +The aeronef was now more than six hundred miles from Omaha, and over a country +which Phil Evans could not recognize because he had never been there before. A +few forts to keep the Indians in order crowned the bluffs with their geometric +lines, formed oftener of palisades than walls. There were few villages, and few +inhabitants, the country differing widely from the auriferous lands of Colorado +many leagues to the south. +</p> + +<p> +In the distance a long line of mountain crests, in great confusion as yet, +began to appear. They were the Rocky Mountains. +</p> + +<p> +For the first time that morning Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans were sensible of a +certain lowness of temperature which was not due to a change in the weather, +for the sun shone in superb splendor. +</p> + +<p> +“It is because of the “Albatross” being higher in the air.” said Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +In fact the barometer outside the central deck-house had fallen 540 +millimeters, thus indicating an elevation of about 10,000 feet above the sea. +The aeronef was at this altitude owing to the elevation of the ground. An hour +before she had been at a height of 13,000 feet, and behind her were mountains +covered with perpetual snow. +</p> + +<p> +There was nothing Uncle Prudent and his companion could remember which would +lead them to discover where they were. During the night the “Albatross” had +made several stretches north and south at tremendous speed, and that was what +had put them out of their reckoning. +</p> + +<p> +After talking over several hypotheses more or less plausible they came to the +conclusion that this country encircled with mountains must be the district +declared by an Act of Congress in March, 1872, to be the National Park of the +United States. A strange region it was. It well merited the name of a park—a +park with mountains for hills, with lakes for ponds, with rivers for +streamlets, and with geysers of marvelous power instead of fountains. +</p> + +<p> +In a few minutes the “Albatross” glided across the Yellowstone River, leaving +Mount Stevenson on the right, and coasting the large lake which bears the name +of the stream. Great was the variety on the banks of this basin, ribbed as they +were with obsidian and tiny crystals, reflecting the sunlight on their myriad +facets. Wonderful was the arrangement of the islands on its surface; +magnificent were the blue reflections of the gigantic mirror. And around the +lake, one of the highest in the globe, were multitudes of pelicans, swans, +gulls and geese, bernicles and divers. In places the steep banks were clothed +with green trees, pines and larches, and at the foot of the escarpments there +shot upwards innumerable white fumaroles, the vapor escaping from the soil as +from an enormous reservoir in which the water is kept in permanent ebullition +by subterranean fire. +</p> + +<p> +The cook might have seized the opportunity of securing an ample supply of +trout, the only fish the Yellowstone Lake contains in myriads. But the +“Albatross” kept on at such a height that there was no chance of indulging in a +catch which assuredly would have been miraculous. +</p> + +<p> +In three quarters of an hour the lake was overpassed, and a little farther on +the last was seen of the geyser region, which rivals the finest in Iceland. +Leaning over the rail, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans watched the liquid columns +which leaped up as though to furnish the aeronef with a new element. There were +the Fan, with the jets shot forth in rays, the Fortress, which seemed to be +defended by waterspouts, the Faithful Friend, with her plume crowned with the +rainbows, the Giant, spurting forth a vertical torrent twenty feet round and +more than two hundred feet high. +</p> + +<p> +Robur must evidently have been familiar with this incomparable spectacle, +unique in the world, for he did not appear on deck. Was it, then, for the sole +pleasure of his guests that he had brought the aeronef above the national +domain? If so, he came not to receive their thanks. He did not even trouble +himself during the daring passage of the Rocky Mountains, which the “Albatross” +approached at about seven o’clock. +</p> + +<p> +By increasing the speed of her wings, as a bird rising in its flight, the +“Albatross” would clear the highest ridges of the chain, and sink again over +Oregon or Utah, But the maneuver was unnecessary. The passes allowed the +barrier to be crossed without ascending for the higher ridges. There are many +of these canyons, or steep valleys, more or less narrow, through which they +could glide, such as Bridger Gap, through which runs the Pacific Railway into +the Mormon territory, and others to the north and south of it. +</p> + +<p> +It was through one of these that the “Albatross” headed, after slackening speed +so as not to dash against the walls of the canyon. The steersman, with a +sureness of hand rendered more effective by the sensitiveness of the rudder, +maneuvered his craft as if she were a crack racer in a Royal Victoria match. It +was really extraordinary. In spite of all the jealousy of the two enemies of +“lighter than air.” they could not help being surprised at the perfection of +this engine of aerial locomotion. +</p> + +<p> +In less than two hours and a half they were through the Rockies, and the +“Albatross” resumed her former speed of sixty-two miles an hour. She was +steering southwest so as to cut across Utah diagonally as she neared the +ground. She had even dropped several hundred yards when the sound of a whistle +attracted the attention of Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans. It was a train on the +Pacific Railway on the road to Salt Lake City. +</p> + +<p> +And then, in obedience to an order secretly given, the “Albatross” dropped +still lower so as to chase the train, which was going at full speed. She was +immediately sighted. A few heads showed themselves at the doors of the cars. +Then numerous passengers crowded the gangways. Some did not hesitate to climb +on the roof to get a better view of the flying machine. Cheers came floating up +through the air; but no Robur appeared in answer to them. +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” continued her descent, slowing her suspensory screws and +moderating her speed so as not to leave the train behind. She flew about it +like an enormous beetle or a gigantic bird of prey. She headed off, to the +right and left, and swept on in front, and hung behind, and proudly displayed +her flag with the golden sun, to which the conductor of the train replied by +waving the Stars and Stripes. +</p> + +<p> +In vain the prisoners, in their desire to take advantage of the opportunity, +endeavored to make themselves known to those below. In vain the president of +the Weldon Institute roared forth at the top of his voice, “I am Uncle Prudent +of Philadelphia!” And the secretary followed suit with, “I am Phil Evans, his +colleague!” Their shouts were lost in the thousand cheers with which the +passengers greeted the aeronef. +</p> + +<p> +Three or four of the crew of the “Albatross” had appeared on the deck, and one +of them, like sailors when passing a ship less speedy than their own, held out +a rope, an ironical way of offering to tow them. +</p> + +<p> +And then the “Albatross” resumed her original speed, and in half an hour the +express was out of sight. About one o’clock there appeared a vast disk, which +reflected the solar rays as if it were an immense mirror. +</p> + +<p> +“That ought to be the Mormon capital, Salt Lake City.” said Uncle Prudent. And +so it was, and the disk was the roof of the Tabernacle, where ten thousand +saints can worship at their ease. This vast dome, like a convex mirror, threw +off the rays of the sun in all directions. +</p> + +<p> +It vanished like a shadow, and the “Albatross” sped on her way to the southwest +with a speed that was not felt, because it surpassed that of the chasing wind. +Soon she was in Nevada over the silver regions, which the Sierra separates from +the golden lands of California. +</p> + +<p> +“We shall certainly reach San Francisco before night.” said Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“And then?” asked Uncle Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +It was six o’clock precisely when the Sierra Nevada was crossed by the same +pass as that taken by the railway. Only a hundred and eighty miles then +separated them from San Francisco, the Californian capital. +</p> + +<p> +At the speed the “Albatross” was going she would be over the dome by eight +o’clock. +</p> + +<p> +At this moment Robur appeared on deck. The colleagues walked up to him. +</p> + +<p> +“Engineer Robur.” said Uncle Prudent, “we are now on the very confines of +America! We think the time has come for this joke to end.” +</p> + +<p> +“I never joke.” said Robur. +</p> + +<p> +He raised his hand. The “Albatross” swiftly dropped towards the ground, and at +the same time such speed was given her as to drive the prisoners into their +cabin. As soon as the door was shut, Uncle Prudent exclaimed, +</p> + +<p> +“I could strangle him!” +</p> + +<p> +“We must try to escape.” said Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; cost what it may!” +</p> + +<p> +A long murmur greeted their ears. It was the beating of the surf on the +seashore. It was the Pacific Ocean! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a> +Chapter XI<br/> +THE WIDE PACIFIC</h2> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans had quite made up their minds to escape. If they +had not had to deal with the eight particularly vigorous men who composed the +crew of the aeronef they might have tried to succeed by main force. But as they +were only two—for Frycollin could only be considered as a quantity of no +importance—force was not to be thought of. Hence recourse must be had to +strategy as soon as the “Albatross” again took the ground. Such was what Phil +Evans endeavored to impress on his irascible colleague, though he was in +constant fear of Prudent aggravating matters by some premature outbreak. +</p> + +<p> +In any case the present was not the time to attempt anything of the sort. The +aeronef was sweeping along over the North Pacific. On the following morning, +that of June 16th, the coast was out of sight. And as the coast curves off from +Vancouver Island up to the Aleutians—belonging to that portion of America ceded +by Russia to the United States in 1867—it was highly probable that the +“Albatross” would cross it at the end of the curve, if her course remained +unchanged. +</p> + +<p> +How long the night appeared to be to the two friends! How eager they were to +get out of their cabins! When they came on deck in the morning the dawn had for +some hours been silvering the eastern horizon. They were nearing the June +solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, when there is +hardly any night along the sixtieth parallel. +</p> + +<p> +Either from custom or intention Robur was in no hurry to leave his deck-house, +When he came out this morning be contented himself with bowing to his two +guests as he passed them in the stern of the aeronef. +</p> + +<p> +And now Frycollin ventured out of his cabin. His eyes red with sleeplessness, +and dazed in their look, he tottered along, like a man whose foot feels it is +not on solid ground. His first glance was at the suspensory screws, which were +working with gratifying regularity without any signs of haste. That done, the +Negro stumbled along to the rail, and grasped it with both hands, so as to make +sure of his balance. Evidently he wished to view the country over which the +“Albatross” was flying at the height of seven hundred feet or more. +</p> + +<p> +At first he kept himself well back behind the rail. Then he shook it to make +sure it was firm; then he drew himself up; then he bent forward; then he +stretched out his head. It need not be said that while he was executing these +different maneuvers he kept his eyes shut. At last he opened them. +</p> + +<p> +What a shout! And how quickly he fled! And how deeply his head sank back into +his shoulders! At the bottom of the abyss he had seen the immense ocean. His +hair would have risen on end—if it had not been wool. +</p> + +<p> +“The sea! The sea!” he cried. And Frycollin would have fallen on the deck had +not the cook opened his arms to receive him. +</p> + +<p> +This cook was a Frenchman, and probably a Gascon, his name being Francois +Tapage. If he was not a Gascon he must in his infancy have inhaled the breezes +of the Garonne. How did this Francois Tapage find himself in the service of the +engineer? By what chain of accidents had he become one of the crew of the +“Albatross?” We can hardly say; but in any case be spoke English like a Yankee. +“Eh, stand up!” he said, lifting the Negro by a vigorous clutch at the waist. +</p> + +<p> +“Master Tapage!” said the poor fellow, giving a despairing look at the screws. +</p> + +<p> +“At your service, Frycollin.” +</p> + +<p> +“Did this thing ever smash?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, but it will end by smashing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why? Why?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because everything must end. +</p> + +<p> +“And the sea is beneath us!” +</p> + +<p> +“If we are to fall, it is better to fall in the sea.” +</p> + +<p> +“We shall be drowned.” +</p> + +<p> +“We shall be drowned, but we shall not be smashed to a jelly.” +</p> + +<p> +The next moment Frycollin was on all fours, creeping to the back of his cabin. +</p> + +<p> +During this day the aeronef was only driven at moderate speed. She seemed to +skim the placid surface of the sea, which lay beneath. Uncle Prudent and his +companion remained in their cabin, so that they did not meet with Robur, who +walked about smoking alone or talking to the mate. Only half the screws were +working, yet that was enough to keep the apparatus afloat in the lower zones of +the atmosphere. +</p> + +<p> +The crew, as a change from the ordinary routine, would have endeavored to catch +a few fish had there been any sign of them; but all that could be seen on the +surface of the sea were a few of those yellow-bellied whales which measure +about eighty feet in length. These are the most formidable cetaceans in the +northern seas, and whalers are very careful in attacking them, for their +strength is prodigious. However, in harpooning one of these whales, either with +the ordinary harpoon, the Fletcher fuse, or the javelin-bomb, of which there +was an assortment on board, there would have been danger to the men of the +“Albatross.” +</p> + +<p> +But what was the good of such useless massacre? Doubtless to show off the +powers of the aeronef to the members of the Weldon Institute. And so Robur gave +orders for the capture of one of these monstrous cetaceans. +</p> + +<p> +At the shout of “A whale! A whale!” Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans came out of +their cabin. Perhaps there was a whaler in sight! In that case all they had to +do to escape from their flying prison was to jump into the sea, and chance +being picked up by the vessel. +</p> + +<p> +The crew were all on deck. “Shall we try, sir?” asked Tom Turner. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes.” said Robur. +</p> + +<p> +In the engine-room the engineer and his assistant were at their posts ready to +obey the orders signaled to them. The “Albatross” dropped towards the sea, and +remained, about fifty feet above it. +</p> + +<p> +There was no ship in sight—of that the two colleagues soon assured +themselves—nor was there any land to be seen to which they could swim, +providing Robur made no attempt to recapture them. +</p> + +<p> +Several jets of water from the spout holes soon announced the presence of the +whales as they came to the surface to breathe. Tom Turner and one of the men +were in the bow. Within his reach was one of those javelin-bombs, of +Californian make, which are shot from an arquebus and which are shaped as a +metallic cylinder terminated by a cylindrical shell armed with a shaft having a +barbed point. Robur was a little farther aft, and with his right hand signaled +to the engineers, while with his left, he directed the steersman. He thus +controlled the aeronef in every way, horizontally and vertically, and it is +almost impossible to conceive with what speed and precision the “Albatross” +answered to his orders. She seemed a living being, of which he was the soul. +</p> + +<p> +“A whale! A whale!” shouted Tom Turner, as the back of a cetacean emerged from +the surface about four cable-lengths in front of the “Albatross.” +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” swept towards it, and when she was within sixty feet of it she +stopped dead. +</p> + +<p> +Tom Turner seized the arquebus, which was resting against a cleat on the rail. +He fired, and the projectile, attached to a long line, entered the whale’s +body. The shell, filled with an explosive compound, burst, and shot out a small +harpoon with two branches, which fastened into the animal’s flesh. +</p> + +<p> +“Look out!” shouted Turner. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, much against their will, became greatly +interested in the spectacle. +</p> + +<p> +The whale, seriously wounded, gave the sea such a slap with his tail, that the +water dashed up over the bow of the aeronef. Then he plunged to a great depth, +while the line, which had been previously wetted in a tub of water to prevent +its taking fire, ran out like lightning. When the whale rose to the surface he +started off at full speed in a northerly direction. +</p> + +<p> +It may be imagined with what speed the “Albatross” was towed in pursuit. +Besides, the propellers had been stopped. The whale was let go as he would, and +the ship followed him. Turner stood ready to cut the line in case a fresh +plunge should render this towing dangerous. +</p> + +<p> +For half an hour, and perhaps for a distance of six miles, the “Albatross” was +thus dragged along, but it was obvious that the whale was tiring. Then, at a +gesture from Robur the assistant engineers started the propellers astern, so as +to oppose a certain resistance to the whale, who was gradually getting closer. +</p> + +<p> +Soon the aeronef was gliding about twenty-five feet above him. His tail was +beating the waters with incredible violence, and as he turned over on his back +an enormous wave was produced. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly the whale turned up again, so as to take a header, as it were, and +then dived with such rapidity that Turner had barely time to cut the line. +</p> + +<p> +The aeronef was dragged to the very surface of the water. A whirlpool was +formed where the animal had disappeared. A wave dashed up on to the deck as if +the aeronef were a ship driving against wind and tide. +</p> + +<p> +Luckily, with a blow of the hatchet the mate severed the line, and the +“Albatross.” freed from her tug, sprang aloft six hundred feet under the +impulse of her ascensional screws. Robur had maneuvered his ship without losing +his coolness for a moment. +</p> + +<p> +A few minutes afterwards the whale returned to the surface—dead. From every +side the birds flew down on to the carcass, and their cries were enough to +deafen a congress. The “Albatross.” without stopping to share in the spoil, +resumed her course to the west. +</p> + +<p> +In the morning of the 17th of June, at about six o’clock, land was sighted on +the horizon. This was the peninsula of Alaska, and the long range of breakers +of the Aleutian Islands. +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” glided over the barrier where the fur seals swarm for the +benefit of the Russo-American Company. An excellent business is the capture of +these amphibians, which are from six to seven feet long, russet in color, and +weigh from three hundred to four hundred pounds. There they were in +interminable files, ranged in line of battle, and countable by thousands. +</p> + +<p> +Although they did not move at the passage of the “Albatross.” it was otherwise +with the ducks, divers, and loons, whose husky cries filled the air as they +disappeared beneath the waves and fled terrified from the aerial monster. +</p> + +<p> +The twelve hundred miles of the Behring Sea between the first of the Aleutians +and the extreme end of Kamtschatka were traversed during the twenty-four hours +of this day and the following night. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans found that +here was no present chance of putting their project of escape into execution. +Flight was not to be thought of among the deserts of Eastern Asia, nor on the +coast of the sea of Okhotsk. Evidently the “Albatross” was bound for Japan or +China, and there, although it was not perhaps quite safe to trust themselves to +the mercies of the Chinese or Japanese, the two friends had made up their minds +to run if the aeronef stopped. +</p> + +<p> +But would she stop? She was not like a bird which grows fatigued by too long a +flight, or like a balloon which has to descend for want of gas. She still had +food for many weeks and her organs were of marvelous strength, defying all +weakness and weariness. +</p> + +<p> +During the 18th of June she swept over the peninsula of Kamtschatka, and during +the day there was a glimpse of Petropaulovski and the volcano of Kloutschew. +Then she rose again to cross the Sea of Okhotsk, running down by the Kurile +Isles, which seemed to be a breakwater pierced by hundreds of channels. On the +19th, in the morning, the “Albatross” was over the strait of La Perouse between +Saghalien and Northern Japan, and had reached the mouth of the great Siberian +river, the Amoor. +</p> + +<p> +Then there came a fog so dense that the aeronef had to rise above it. At the +altitude she was there was no obstacle to be feared, no elevated monuments to +hinder her passage, no mountains against which there was risk of being +shattered in her flight. The country was only slightly varied. But the fog was +very disagreeable, and made everything on board very damp. +</p> + +<p> +All that was necessary was to get above this bed of mist, which was nearly +thirteen hundred feet thick, and the ascensional screws being increased in +speed, the “Albatross” was soon clear of the fog and in the sunny regions of +the sky. Under these circumstances, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans would have +found some difficulty in carrying out their plan of escape, even admitting that +they could leave the aeronef. +</p> + +<p> +During the day, as Robur passed them he stopped for a moment, and without +seeming to attach any importance to what he said, addressed them carelessly as +follows: “Gentlemen, a sailing-ship or a steamship caught in a fog from which +it cannot escape is always much delayed. It must not move unless it keeps its +whistle or its horn going. It must reduce its speed, and any instant a +collision may be expected. The “Albatross” has none of these things to fear. +What does fog matter to her? She can leave it when she chooses. The whole of +space is hers.” And Robur continued his stroll without waiting for an answer, +and the puffs of his pipe were lost in the sky. +</p> + +<p> +“Uncle Prudent.” said Phil Evans, “it seems that this astonishing “Albatross” +never has anything to fear.” +</p> + +<p> +“That we shall see!” answered the president of the Weldon Institute. +</p> + +<p> +The fog lasted three days, the 19th, 20th, and 21st of June, with regrettable +persistence. An ascent had to be made to clear the Japanese mountain of +Fujiyama. When the curtain of mist was drawn aside there lay below them an +immense city, with palaces, villas, gardens, and parks. Even without seeing it +Robur had recognized it by the barking of the innumerable dogs, the cries of +the birds of prey, and above all, by the cadaverous odor which the bodies of +its executed criminals gave off into space. +</p> + +<p> +The two colleagues were out on the deck while the engineer was taking his +observations in case he thought it best to continue his course through the fog. +</p> + +<p> +“Gentlemen.” said he, “I have no reason for concealing from you that this town +is Tokyo, the capital of Japan.” +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent did not reply. In the presence of the engineer he was almost +choked, as if his lungs were short of air. +</p> + +<p> +“This view of Tokyo.” continued Robur, “is very curious.” +</p> + +<p> +“Curious as it may be—” replied Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“It is not as good as Peking?” interrupted the engineer. +</p> + +<p> +“That is what I think, and very shortly you shall have an opportunity of +judging.” +</p> + +<p> +Impossible to be more agreeable! +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” then gliding southeast, had her course changed four points, so +as to head to the eastward. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a> +Chapter XII<br/> +THROUGH THE HIMALAYAS</h2> + +<p> +During the night the fog cleared off. There were symptoms of an approaching +typhoon—a rapid fall of the barometer, a disappearance of vapor, large clouds +of ellipsoid form clinging to a copper sky, and, on the opposite horizon, long +streaks of carmine on a slate-colored field, with a large sector quite clear in +the north. Then the sea was smooth and calm and at sunset assumed a deep +scarlet hue. +</p> + +<p> +Fortunately the typhoon broke more to the south, and had no other result than +to sweep away the mist which had been accumulating during the last three days. +</p> + +<p> +In an hour they had traversed the hundred and twenty-five miles of the Korean +strait, and while the typhoon was raging on the coast of China, the “Albatross” +was over the Yellow Sea. During the 22nd and 23rd she was over the Gulf of +Pechelee, and on the 24th she was ascending the valley of the Peiho on her way +to the capital of the Celestial Empire. +</p> + +<p> +Leaning over the rail, the two colleagues, as the engineer had told them, could +see distinctly the immense city, the wall which divides it into two parts—the +Manchu town, and the Chinese town—the twelve suburbs which surround it, the +large boulevards which radiate from its center, the temples with their green +and yellow roofs bathed in the rising sun, the grounds surrounding the houses +of the mandarins; then in the middle of the Manchu town the eighteen hundred +acres of the Yellow town, with its pagodas, its imperial gardens, its +artificial lakes, its mountain of coal which towers above the capital; and in +the center of the Yellow town, like a square of Chinese puzzle enclosed in +another, the Red town, that is the imperial palace, with all the peaks of its +outrageous architecture. +</p> + +<p> +Below the “Albatross” the air was filled with a singular harmony. It seemed to +be a concert of Aeolian harps. In the air were a hundred kites of different +forms, made of sheets of palm-leaf, and having at their upper end a sort of bow +of light wood with a thin slip of bamboo beneath. In the breath of the wind +these slips, with all their notes varied like those of a harmonicon, gave forth +a most melancholy murmuring. It seemed as though they were breathing musical +oxygen. +</p> + +<p> +It suited Robur’s whim to run close up to this aerial orchestra, and the +“Albatross” slowed as she glided through the sonorous waves which the kites +gave off through the atmosphere. +</p> + +<p> +But immediately an extraordinary effect was produced amongst the innumerable +population. Beatings of the tomtoms and sounds of other formidable instruments +of the Chinese orchestra, gun reports by the thousand, mortars fired in +hundreds, all were brought into play to scare away the aeronef. Although the +Chinese astronomers may have recognized the aerial machine as the moving body +that had given rise to such disputes, it was to the Celestial million, from the +humblest tankader to the best-buttoned mandarin, an apocalyptical monster +appearing in the sky of Buddha. +</p> + +<p> +The crew of the “Albatross” troubled themselves very little about these +demonstrations. But the strings which held the kites, and were tied to fixed +pegs in the imperial gardens, were cut or quickly hauled in; and the kites were +either drawn in rapidly, sounding louder as they sank, or else fell like a bird +shot through both wings, whose song ends with its last sigh. +</p> + +<p> +A noisy fanfare escaped from Tom Turner’s trumpet, and drowned the final notes +of the aerial concert. It did not interrupt the terrestrial fusillade. At last +a shell exploded a few feet below the “Albatross.” and then she mounted into +the inaccessible regions of the sky. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing happened during the few following days of which the prisoners could +take advantage. The aeronef kept on her course to the southwest, thereby +showing that it was intended to take her to India. Twelve hours after leaving +Peking, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans caught a glimpse of the Great Wall in the +neighborhood of Chen-Si. Then, avoiding the Lung Mountains, they passed over +the valley of the Hoangho and crossed the Chinese border on the Tibet side. +</p> + +<p> +Tibet consists of high table-lands without vegetation, with here and there +snowy peaks and barren ravines, torrents fed by glaciers, depressions with +glittering beds of salt, lakes surrounded by luxurious forests, with icy winds +sweeping over all. +</p> + +<p> +The barometer indicated an altitude of thirteen thousand feet above the level +of the sea. At that height the temperature, although it was in the warmest +months of the northern hemisphere, was only a little above freezing. This cold, +combined with the speed of the “Albatross.” made the voyage somewhat trying, +and although the friends had warm traveling wraps, they preferred to keep to +their cabin. +</p> + +<p> +It need hardly be said that to keep the aeronef in this rarefied atmosphere the +suspensory screws had to be driven at extreme speed. But they worked with +perfect regularity, and the sound of their wings almost acted as a lullaby. +</p> + +<p> +During this day, appearing from below about the size of a carrier pigeon, she +passed over Garlock, a town of western Tibet, the capital of the province of +Cari Khorsum. +</p> + +<p> +On the 27th of June, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans sighted an enormous barrier, +broken here and there by several peaks, lost in the snows that bounded the +horizon. +</p> + +<p> +Leaning against the fore-cabin, so as to keep their places notwithstanding the +speed of the ship, they watched these colossal masses, which seemed to be +running away from the aeronef. +</p> + +<p> +“The Himalayas, evidently.” said Phil Evans; “and probably Robur is going round +their base, so as to pass into India.” +</p> + +<p> +“So much the worse.” answered Uncle Prudent. “On that immense territory we +shall perhaps be able to—” +</p> + +<p> +“Unless he goes round by Burma to the east, or Nepal to the west.” +</p> + +<p> +“Anyhow, I defy him to go through them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed!” said a voice. +</p> + +<p> +The next day, the 28th of June, the “Albatross” was in front of the huge mass +above the province of Zang. On the other side of the chain was the province of +Nepal. These ranges block the road into India from the north. The two northern +ones, between which the aeronef was gliding like a ship between enormous reefs +are the first steps of the Central Asian barrier. The first was the Kuen Lung, +the other the Karakorum, bordering the longitudinal valley parallel to the +Himalayas, from which the Indus flows to the west and the Brahmapootra to the +east. +</p> + +<p> +What a superb orographical system! More than two hundred summits have been +measured, seventeen of which exceed twenty-five thousand feet. In front of the +“Albatross.” at a height of twenty-nine thousand feet, towered Mount Everest. +To the right was Dhawalagiri, reaching twenty-six thousand eight hundred feet, +and relegated to second place since the measurement of Mount Everest. +</p> + +<p> +Evidently Robur did not intend to go over the top of these peaks; but probably +he knew the passes of the Himalayas, among others that of Ibi Ganim, which the +brothers Schlagintweit traversed in 1856 at a height of twenty-two thousand +feet. And towards it he went. +</p> + +<p> +Several hours of palpitation, becoming quite painful, followed; and although +the rarefaction of the air was not such as to necessitate recourse being had to +the special apparatus for renewing oxygen in the cabins, the cold was +excessive. +</p> + +<p> +Robur stood in the bow, his sturdy figure wrapped in a great-coat. He gave the +orders, while Tom Turner was at the helm. The engineer kept an attentive watch +on his batteries, the acid in which fortunately ran no risk of congelation. The +screws, running at the full strength of the current, gave forth a note of +intense shrillness in spite of the trifling density of the air. The barometer +showed twenty-three thousand feet in altitude. +</p> + +<p> +Magnificent was the grouping of the chaos of mountains! Everywhere were +brilliant white summits. There were no lakes, but glaciers descending ten +thousand feet towards the base. There was no herbage, only a few phanerogams on +the limit of vegetable life. Down on the lower flanks of the range were +splendid forests of pines and cedars. Here were none of the gigantic ferns and +interminable parasites stretching from tree to tree as in the thickets of the +jungle. There were no animals—no wild horses, or yaks, or Tibetan bulls. +Occasionally a scared gazelle showed itself far down the slopes. There were no +birds, save a couple of those crows which can rise to the utmost limits of the +respirable air. +</p> + +<p> +The pass at last was traversed. The “Albatross” began to descend. Coming from +the hills out of the forest region there was now beneath them an immense plain +stretching far and wide. +</p> + +<p> +Then Robur stepped up to his guests, and in a pleasant voice remarked, “India, +gentlemen!” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a> +Chapter XIII<br/> +OVER THE CASPIAN</h2> + +<p> +The engineer had no intention of taking his ship over the wondrous lands of +Hindustan. To cross the Himalayas was to show how admirable was the machine he +commanded; to convince those who would not be convinced was all he wished to +do. +</p> + +<p> +But if in their hearts Uncle Prudent and his colleague could not help admiring +so perfect an engine of aerial locomotion, they allowed none of their +admiration to be visible. All they thought of was how to escape. They did not +even admire the superb spectacle that lay beneath them as the “Albatross” flew +along the river banks of the Punjab. +</p> + +<p> +At the base of the Himalayas there runs a marshy belt of country, the home of +malarious vapors, the Terai, in which fever is endemic. But this offered no +obstacle to the “Albatross.” or, in any way, affected the health of her crew. +She kept on without undue haste towards the angle where India joins on to China +and Turkestan, and on the 29th of June, in the early hours of the morning, +there opened to view the incomparable valley of Cashmere. +</p> + +<p> +Yes! Incomparable is this gorge between the major and the minor +Himalayas—furrowed by the buttresses in which the mighty range dies out in the +basin of the Hydaspes, and watered by the capricious windings of the river +which saw the struggle between the armies of Porus and Alexander, when India +and Greece contended for Central Asia. The Hydaspes is still there, although +the two towns founded by the Macedonian in remembrance of his victory have long +since disappeared. +</p> + +<p> +During the morning the aeronef was over Serinuggur, which is better known under +the name of Cashmere. Uncle Prudent and his companion beheld the superb city +clustered along both banks of the river; its wooden bridges stretching across +like threads, its villas and their balconies standing out in bold outline, its +hills shaded by tall poplars, its roofs grassed over and looking like +molehills; its numerous canals, with boats like nut-shells, and boatmen like +ants; its palaces, temples, kiosks, mosques, and bungalows on the outskirts; +and its old citadel of Hari-Pawata on the slope of the hill like the most +important of the forts of Paris on the slope of Mont Valerien. +</p> + +<p> +“That would be Venice.” said Phil Evans, “if we were in Europe.” +</p> + +<p> +“And if we were in Europe.” answered Uncle Prudent, “we should know how to find +the way to America.” +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” did not linger over the lake through which the river flows, but +continued her flight down the valley of the Hydaspes. +</p> + +<p> +For half an hour only did she descend to within thirty feet of the river and +remained stationary. Then, by means of an india-rubber pipe, Tom Turner and his +men replenished their water supply, which was drawn up by a pump worked by the +accumulators. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans stood watching the operation. The +same idea occurred to each of them. They were only a few feet from the surface +of the stream. They were both good swimmers. A plunge would give them their +liberty; and once they had reached the river, how could Robur get them back +again? For his propellers to work, he must keep at least six feet above the +ground. +</p> + +<p> +In a moment all the chances pro and con were run over in their heads. In a +moment they were considered, and the prisoners rushed to throw themselves +overboard, when several pairs of hands seized them by the shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +They had been watched; and flight was utterly impossible. +</p> + +<p> +This time they did not yield without resisting. They tried to throw off those +who held them. But these men of the “Albatross” were no children. +</p> + +<p> +“Gentlemen.” said the engineer, “when people, have the pleasure of traveling +with Robur the Conqueror, as you have so well named him, on board his admirable +“Albatross.” they do not leave him in that way. I may add you never leave him.” +</p> + +<p> +Phil Evans drew away his colleague, who was about to commit some act of +violence. They retired to their cabin, resolved to escape, even if it cost them +their lives. +</p> + +<p> +Immediately the “Albatross” resumed her course to the west. During the day at +moderate speed she passed over the territory of Cabulistan, catching a +momentary glimpse of its capital, and crossed the frontier of the kingdom of +Herat, nearly seven hundred miles from Cashmere. +</p> + +<p> +In these much-disputed countries, the open road for the Russians to the English +possessions in India, there were seen many columns and convoys, and, in a word, +everything that constitutes in men and material an army on the march. There +were heard also the roar of the cannon and the crackling of musketry. But the +engineer never meddled with the affairs of others where his honor or humanity +was not concerned. He passed above them. If Herat as we are told, is the key of +Central Asia, it mattered little to him if it was kept in an English or +Muscovite pocket. Terrestrial interests were nothing to him who had made the +air his domain. +</p> + +<p> +Besides, the country soon disappeared in one of those sandstorms which are so +frequent in these regions. The wind called the “tebbad” bears along the seeds +of fever in the impalpable dust it raises in its passage. And many are the +caravans that perish in its eddies. +</p> + +<p> +To escape this dust, which might have interfered with the working of the +screws, the “Albatross” shot up some six thousand feet into a purer atmosphere. +</p> + +<p> +And thus vanished the Persian frontier and the extensive plains. The speed was +not excessive, although there were no rocks ahead, for the mountains marked on +the map are of very moderate altitude. But as the ship approached the capital, +she had to steer clear of Demavend, whose snowy peak rises some twenty-two +thousand feet, and the chain of Elbruz, at whose foot is built Teheran. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as the day broke on the 2nd of July the peak of Demavend appeared above +the sandstorm, and the “Albatross” was steered so as to pass over the town, +which the wind had wrapped in a mantle of dust. +</p> + +<p> +However, about six o’clock her crew could see the large ditches that surround +it, and the Shah’s palace, with its walls covered with porcelain tiles, and its +ornamental lakes, which seemed like huge turquoises of beautiful blue. +</p> + +<p> +It was but a hasty glimpse. The “Albatross” now headed for the north, and a few +hours afterwards she was over a little hill at the northern angle of the +Persian frontier, on the shores of a vast extent of water which stretched away +out of sight to the north and east. +</p> + +<p> +The town was Ashurada, the most southerly of the Russian stations. The vast +extent of water was a sea. It was the Caspian. +</p> + +<p> +The eddies of sand had been passed. There was a view of a group of European +houses rising along a promontory, with a church tower in the midst of them. +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” swooped down towards the surface of the sea. Towards evening +she was running along the coast—which formerly belonged to Turkestan, but now +belongs to Russia—and in the morning of the 3rd of July she was about three +hundred feet above the Caspian. +</p> + +<p> +There was no land in sight, either on the Asiatic or European side. On the +surface of the sea a few white sails were bellying in the breeze. These were +native vessels recognizable by their peculiar rig—kesebeys, with two masts; +kayuks, the old pirate-boats, with one mast; teimils, and smaller craft for +trading and fishing. Here and there a few puffs of smoke rose up to the +“Albatross” from the funnels of the Ashurada steamers, which the Russians keep +as the police of these Turcoman waters. +</p> + +<p> +That morning Tom Turner was talking to the cook, Tapage, and to a question of +his replied, “Yes; we shall be about forty-eight hours over the Caspian.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good!” said the cook; “Then we can have some fishing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Just so.” +</p> + +<p> +They were to remain for forty-eight hours over the Caspian, which is some six +hundred and twenty-five miles long and two hundred wide, because the speed of +the “Albatross” had been much reduced, and while the fishing was going on she +would be stopped altogether. +</p> + +<p> +The reply was heard by Phil Evans, who was then in the bow, where Frycollin was +overwhelming him with piteous pleadings to be put “on the ground.” +</p> + +<p> +Without replying to this preposterous request, Evans returned aft to Uncle +Prudent; and there, taking care not to be overheard, he reported the +conversation that had taken place. +</p> + +<p> +“Phil Evans.” said Uncle Prudent, “I think there can be no mistake as to this +scoundrel’s intention with regard to us.” +</p> + +<p> +“None.” said Phil Evans. “He will only give us our liberty when it suits him, +and perhaps not at all.” +</p> + +<p> +“In that case we must do all we can to get away from the ‘Albatross’.” +</p> + +<p> +“A splendid craft, she is, I must admit.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps so.” said Uncle Prudent; “but she belongs to a scoundrel who detains +us on board in defiance of all right. For us and ours she is a constant danger. +If we do not destroy her—” +</p> + +<p> +“Let us begin by saving ourselves” answered Phil Evans; “we can see about the +destruction afterwards.” +</p> + +<p> +“Just so.” said Uncle Prudent. “And we must avail ourselves of every chance +that comes, along. Evidently the “Albatross” is going to cross the Caspian into +Europe, either by the north into Russia or by the west into the southern +countries. Well, no matter where we stop, before we get to the Atlantic, we +shall be safe. And we ought to be ready at any moment.” +</p> + +<p> +“But.” asked Evans, “how are we to get out?” +</p> + +<p> +“Listen to me.” said Uncle Prudent. “It may happen during the night that the +“Albatross” may drop to within a few hundred feet of the ground. Now there are +on board several ropes of that length, and, with a little pluck we might slip +down them—” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes.” said Evans. “If the case is desperate I don’t mind—” +</p> + +<p> +“Nor I. During the night there’s no one about except the man at the wheel. And +if we can drop one of the ropes forward without being seen or heard—” +</p> + +<p> +“Good! I am glad to see you are so cool; that means business. But just now we +are over the Caspian. There are several ships in sight. The “Albatross” is +going down to fish. Cannot we do something now?” +</p> + +<p> +“Sh! They are watching us much more than you think.” said Uncle Prudent. “You +saw that when we tried to jump into the Hydaspes.” +</p> + +<p> +“And who knows that they don’t watch us at night?” asked Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, we must end this; we must finish with this “Albatross” and her master.” +</p> + +<p> +It will be seen how in the excitement of their anger the colleagues—Uncle +Prudent in particular—were prepared to attempt the most hazardous things. The +sense of their powerlessness, the ironical disdain with which Robur treated +them, the brutal remarks he indulged in—all contributed towards intensifying +the aggravation which daily grew more manifest. +</p> + +<p> +This very day something occurred which gave rise to another most regrettable +altercation between Robur and his guests. This was provoked by Frycollin, who, +finding himself above the boundless sea, was seized with another fit of terror. +Like a child, like the Negro he was, he gave himself over to groaning and +protesting and crying, and writhing in a thousand contortions and grimaces. +</p> + +<p> +“I want to get out! I want to get out! I am not a bird! Boohoo! I don’t want to +fly, I want to get out!” +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent, as may be imagined, did not attempt to quiet him. In fact, he +encouraged him, and particularly as the incessant howling seemed to have a +strangely irritating effect on Robur. +</p> + +<p> +When Tom Turner and his companions were getting ready for fishing, the engineer +ordered them to shut up Frycollin in his cabin. But the Negro never ceased his +jumping about, and began to kick at the wall and yell with redoubled power. +</p> + +<p> +It was noon. The “Albatross” was only about fifteen or twenty feet above the +water. A few ships, terrified at the apparition, sought safety in flight. +</p> + +<p> +As may be guessed, a sharp look-out was kept on the prisoners, whose temptation +to escape could not but be intensified. Even supposing they jumped overboard +they would have been picked up by the india-rubber boat. As there was nothing +to do during the fishing, in which Phil Evans intended to take part, Uncle +Prudent, raging furiously as usual, retired to his cabin. +</p> + +<p> +The Caspian Sea is a volcanic depression. Into it flow the waters of the Volga, +the Ural, the Kour, the Kouma, the Jemba, and others. Without the evaporation +which relieves it of its overflow, this basin, with an area of 17,000 square +miles, and a depth of from sixty to four hundred feet, would flood the low +marshy ground to its north and east. Although it is not in communication with +the Black Sea or the Sea of Aral, being at a much lower level than they are, it +contains an immense number of fish—such fish, be it understood, as can live in +its bitter waters, the bitterness being due to the naphtha which pours in from +the springs on the south. +</p> + +<p> +The crew of the “Albatross” made no secret of their delight at the change in +their food the fishing would bring them. +</p> + +<p> +“Look out!” shouted Turner, as he harpooned a good-size fish, not unlike a +shark. +</p> + +<p> +It was a splendid sturgeon seven feet long, called by the Russians beluga, the +eggs of which mixed up with salt, vinegar, and white wine form caviar. +Sturgeons from the river are, it may be, rather better than those from the sea; +but these were welcomed warmly enough on board the “Albatross.” +</p> + +<p> +But the best catches were made with the drag-nets, which brought up at each +haul carp, bream, salmon, saltwater pike, and a number of medium-sized +sterlets, which wealthy gourmets have sent alive to Astrakhan, Moscow, and +Petersburg, and which now passed direct from their natural element into the +cook’s kettle without any charge for transport. +</p> + +<p> +An hour’s work sufficed to fill up the larders of the aeronef, and she resumed +her course to the north. +</p> + +<p> +During the fishing Frycollin had continued shouting and kicking at his cabin +wall, and making a tremendous noise. +</p> + +<p> +“That wretched nigger will not be quiet, then?” said Robur, almost out of +patience. +</p> + +<p> +“It seems to me, sir, he has a right to complain.” said Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, and I have a right to look after my ears.” replied Robur. +</p> + +<p> +“Engineer Robur!” said Uncle Prudent, who had just appeared on deck. +</p> + +<p> +“President of the Weldon Institute!” +</p> + +<p> +They had stepped up to one another, and were looking into the whites of each +other’s eyes. Then Robur shrugged his shoulders. “Put him at the end of a +line.” he said. +</p> + +<p> +Turner saw his meaning at once. Frycollin was dragged out of his cabin. Loud +were his cries when the mate and one of the men seized him and tied him into a +tub, which they hitched on to a rope—one of those very ropes, in fact, that +Uncle Prudent had intended to use as we know. +</p> + +<p> +The Negro at first thought he was going to be hanged. Not he was only going to +be towed! +</p> + +<p> +The rope was paid out for a hundred feet and Frycollin found himself hanging in +space. +</p> + +<p> +He could then shout at his ease. But fright contracted his larynx, and he was +mute. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans endeavored to prevent this performance. They were +thrust aside. +</p> + +<p> +“It is scandalous! It is cowardly!” said Uncle Prudent, quite beside himself +with rage. +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed!” said Robur. +</p> + +<p> +“It is an abuse of power against which I protest.” +</p> + +<p> +“Protest away!” +</p> + +<p> +“I will be avenged, Mr. Robur.” +</p> + +<p> +“Avenge when you like, Mr. Prudent.” +</p> + +<p> +“I will have my revenge on you and yours.” +</p> + +<p> +The crew began to close up with anything but peaceful intentions. Robur +motioned them away. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, on you and yours!” said Uncle Prudent, whom his colleague in vain tried +to keep quiet. +</p> + +<p> +“Whenever you please!” said the engineer. +</p> + +<p> +“And in every possible way!” +</p> + +<p> +“That is enough now.” said Robur, in a threatening tone. “There are other ropes +on board. And if you don’t be quiet I’ll treat you as I have done your +servant!” +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent was silent, not because he was afraid, but because his wrath had +nearly choked him; and Phil Evans led him off to his cabin. +</p> + +<p> +During the last hour the air had been strangely troubled. The symptoms could +not be mistaken. A storm was threatening. The electric saturation of the +atmosphere had become so great that about half-past two o’clock Robur witnessed +a phenomenon that was new to him. +</p> + +<p> +In the north, whence the storm was traveling, were spirals of half-luminous +vapor due to the difference in the electric charges of the various beds of +cloud. The reflections of these bands came running along the waves in myriads +of lights, growing in intensity as the sky darkened. +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” and the storm were sure to meet, for they were exactly in front +of each other. +</p> + +<p> +And Frycollin? Well! Frycollin was being towed—and towed is exactly the word, +for the rope made such an angle, with the aeronef, now going at over sixty +knots an hour, that the tub was a long way behind her. +</p> + +<p> +The crew were busy in preparing for the storm, for the “Albatross” would either +have to rise above it or drive through its lowest layers. She was about three +thousand feet above the sea when a clap of thunder was heard. Suddenly the +squall struck her. In a few seconds the fiery clouds swept on around her. +</p> + +<p> +Phil Evans went to intercede for Frycollin, and asked for him to be taken on +board again. But Robur had already given orders to that effect, and the rope +was being hauled in, when suddenly there took place an inexplicable slackening +in the speed of the screws. +</p> + +<p> +The engineer rushed to the central deck-house. “Power! More power!” he shouted. +“We must rise quickly and get over the storm!” +</p> + +<p> +“Impossible, sir!” +</p> + +<p> +“What is the matter?” +</p> + +<p> +“The currents are troubled! They are intermittent!” And, in fact, the +“Albatross” was falling fast. +</p> + +<p> +As with the telegraph wires on land during a storm, so was it with the +accumulators of the aeronef. But what is only an inconvenience in the case of +messages was here a terrible danger. +</p> + +<p> +“Let her down, then.” said Robur, “and get out of the electric zone! Keep cool, +my lads!” +</p> + +<p> +He stepped on to his quarter-deck and his crew went to their stations. +</p> + +<p> +Although the “Albatross” had sunk several hundred feet she was still in the +thick of the cloud, and the flashes played across her as if they were +fireworks. It seemed as though she was struck. The screws ran more and more +slowly, and what began as a gentle descent threatened to become a collapse. +</p> + +<p> +In less than a minute it was evident they would get down to the surface of the +sea. Once they were immersed no power could drag them from the abyss. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly the electric cloud appeared above them. The “Albatross” was only sixty +feet from the crest of the waves. In two or three seconds the deck would be +under water. +</p> + +<p> +But Robur, seizing the propitious moment, rushed to the central house and +seized the levers. He turned on the currents from the piles no longer +neutralized by the electric tension of the surrounding atmosphere. In a moment +the screws had regained their normal speed and checked the descent; and the +“Albatross” remained at her slight elevation while her propellers drove her +swiftly out of reach of the storm. +</p> + +<p> +Frycollin, of course, had a bath—though only for a few seconds. When he was +dragged on deck he was as wet as if he had been to the bottom of the sea. As +may be imagined, he cried no more. +</p> + +<p> +In the morning of the 4th of July the “Albatross” had passed over the northern +shore of the Caspian. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap14"></a> +Chapter XIV<br/> +THE AERONEF AT FULL SPEED</h2> + +<p> +If ever Prudent and Evans despaired on escaping from the “Albatross” it was +during the two days that followed. It may be that Robur considered it more +difficult to keep a watch on his prisoners while he was crossing Europe, and he +knew that they had made up their minds to get away. +</p> + +<p> +But any attempt to have done so would have been simply committing suicide. To +jump from an express going sixty miles an hour is to risk your life, but to +jump from a machine going one hundred and twenty miles an hour would be to seek +your death. +</p> + +<p> +And it was at this speed, the greatest that could be given to her, that the +“Albatross” tore along. Her speed exceeded that of the swallow, which is one +hundred and twelve miles an hour. +</p> + +<p> +At first the wind was in the northeast, and the “Albatross” had it fair, her +general course being a westerly one. But the wind began to drop, and it soon +became impossible for the colleagues to remain on the deck without having their +breath taken away by the rapidity of the flight. And on one occasion they would +have been blown overboard if they had not been dashed up against the deck-house +by the pressure of the wind. +</p> + +<p> +Luckily the steersman saw them through the windows of his cage, and by the +electric bell gave the alarm to the men in the fore-cabin. Four of them came +aft, creeping along the deck. +</p> + +<p> +Those who have been at sea, beating to windward in half a gale of wind, will +understand what the pressure was like. But here it was the “Albatross” that by +her incomparable speed made her own wind. +</p> + +<p> +To allow Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans to get back to their cabin the speed had +to be reduced. Inside the deck-house the “Albatross” bore with her a perfectly +breathable atmosphere. To stand such driving the strength of the apparatus must +have been prodigious. The propellers spun round so swiftly that they seemed +immovable, and it was with irresistible power that they screwed themselves +through the air. +</p> + +<p> +The last town that had been noticed was Astrakhan, situated at the north end of +the Caspian Sea. The Star of the Desert—it must have been a poet who so called +it—has now sunk from the first rank to the fifth or sixth. A momentary glance +was afforded at its old walls, with their useless battlements, the ancient +towers in the center of the city, the mosques and modern churches, the +cathedral with its five domes, gilded and dotted with stars as if it were a +piece of the sky, as they rose from the bank of the Volga, which here, as it +joins the sea, is over a mile in width. +</p> + +<p> +Thenceforward the flight of the “Albatross” became quite a race through the +heights of the sky, as if she had been harnessed to one of those fabulous +hippogriffs which cleared a league at every sweep of the wing. +</p> + +<p> +At ten o’clock in the morning, of the 4th of July the aeronef, heading +northwest, followed for a little the valley of the Volga. The steppes of the +Don and the Ural stretched away on each side of the river. Even if it had been +possible to get a glimpse of these vast territories there would have been no +time to count the towns and villages. In the evening the aeronef passed over +Moscow without saluting the flag on the Kremlin. In ten hours she had covered +the twelve hundred miles which separate Astrakhan from the ancient capital of +all the Russias. +</p> + +<p> +From Moscow to St. Petersburg the railway line measures about seven hundred and +fifty miles. This was but a half-day’s journey, and the “Albatross.” as +punctual as the mail, reached St. Petersburg and the banks of the Neva at two +o’clock in the morning. +</p> + +<p> +Then came the Gulf of Finland, the Archipelago of Abo, the Baltic, Sweden in +the latitude of Stockholm, and Norway in the latitude of Christiania. Ten hours +only for these twelve hundred miles! Verily it might be thought that no human +power would henceforth be able to check the speed of the “Albatross.” and as if +the resultant of her force of projection and the attraction of the earth would +maintain her in an unvarying trajectory round the globe. +</p> + +<p> +But she did stop nevertheless, and that was over the famous fall of the +Rjukanfos in Norway. Gousta, whose summit dominates this wonderful region of +Tellermarken, stood in the west like a gigantic barrier apparently impassable. +And when the “Albatross” resumed her journey at full speed her head had been +turned to the south. +</p> + +<p> +And during this extraordinary flight what was Frycollin doing? He remained +silent in a corner of his cabin, sleeping as well as he could, except at meal +times. +</p> + +<p> +Tapage then favored him with his company and amused himself at his expense. +“Eh! eh! my boy!” said he. “So you are not crying any more? Perhaps it hurt you +too much? That two hours hanging cured you of it? At our present rate, what a +splendid air-bath you might have for your rheumatics!” +</p> + +<p> +“It seems to me we shall soon go to pieces!” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps so; but we shall go so fast we shan’t have time to fall! That is some +comfort!” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you think so?” +</p> + +<p> +“I do.” +</p> + +<p> +To tell the truth, and not to exaggerate like Tapage, it was only reasonable +that owing to the excessive speed the work of the suspensory screws should be +somewhat lessened. The “Albatross” glided on its bed of air like a Congreve +rocket. +</p> + +<p> +“And shall we last long like that?” asked Frycollin. +</p> + +<p> +“Long? Oh, no, only as long as we live!” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh!” said the Negro, beginning his lamentations. +</p> + +<p> +“Take care, Fry, take care! For, as they say in my country, the master may send +you to the seesaw!” And Frycollin gulped down his sobs as he gulped down the +meat which, in double doses, he was hastily swallowing. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, who were not men to waste time in +wrangling when nothing could come of it, agreed upon doing something. It was +evident that escape was not to be thought of. But if it was impossible for them +to again set foot on the terrestrial globe, could they not make known to its +inhabitants what had become of them since their disappearance, and tell them by +whom they had been carried off, and provoke—how was not very clear—some +audacious attempt on the part of their friends to rescue them from Robur? +</p> + +<p> +Communicate? But how? Should they follow the example of sailors in distress and +enclose in a bottle a document giving the place of shipwreck and throw it into +the sea? But here the sea was the atmosphere. The bottle would not swim. And if +it did not fall on somebody and crack his skull it might never be found. +</p> + +<p> +The colleagues were about to sacrifice one of the bottles on board when an idea +occurred to Uncle Prudent. He took snuff, as we know, and we may pardon this +fault in an American, who might do worse. And as a snuff-taker he possessed a +snuff-box, which was now empty. This box was made of aluminum. If it was thrown +overboard any honest citizen that found it would pick it up, and, being an +honest citizen, he would take it to the police-office, and there they would +open it and discover from the document what had become of the two victims of +Robur the Conqueror! +</p> + +<p> +And this is what was done. The note was short, but it told all, and it gave the +address of the Weldon Institute, with a request that it might be forwarded. +Then Uncle Prudent folded up the note, shut it in the box, bound the box round +with a piece of worsted so as to keep it from opening it as it fell. And then +all that had to be done was to wait for a favorable opportunity. +</p> + +<p> +During this marvelous flight over Europe it was not an easy thing to leave the +cabin and creep along the deck at the risk of being suddenly and secretly blown +away, and it would not do for the snuff-box to fall into the sea or a gulf or a +lake or a watercourse, for it would then perhaps be lost. At the same time it +was not impossible that the colleagues might in this way get into communication +with the habitable globe. +</p> + +<p> +It was then growing daylight, and it seemed as though it would be better to +wait for the night and take advantage of a slackening speed or a halt to go out +on deck and drop the precious snuff-box into some town. +</p> + +<p> +When all these points had been thought over and settled, the prisoners, found +they could not put their plan into execution—on that day, at all events—for the +“Albatross.” after leaving Gousta, had kept her southerly course, which took +her over the North Sea, much to the consternation of the thousands of coasting +craft engaged in the English, Dutch, French, and Belgian trade. Unless the +snuff-box fell on the deck of one of these vessels there was every chance of +its going to the bottom of the sea, and Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans were +obliged to wait for a better opportunity. And, as we shall immediately see, an +excellent chance was soon to be offered them. +</p> + +<p> +At ten o’clock that evening the “Albatross” reached the French coast near +Dunkirk. The night was rather dark. For a moment they could see the lighthouse +at Grisnez cross its electric beam with the lights from Dover on the other side +of the strait. Then the “Albatross” flew over the French territory at a mean +height of three thousand feet. +</p> + +<p> +There was no diminution in her speed. She shot like a rocket over the towns and +villages so numerous in northern France. She was flying straight on to Paris, +and after Dunkirk came Doullens, Amiens, Creil, Saint Denis. She never left the +line; and about midnight she was over the “city of light.” which merits its +name even when its inhabitants are asleep or ought to be. +</p> + +<p> +By what strange whim was it that she was stopped over the city of Paris? We do +not know; but down she came till she was within a few hundred feet of the +ground. Robur then came out of his cabin, and the crew came on to the deck to +breathe the ambient air. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans took care not to miss such an excellent +opportunity. They left their deck-house and walked off away from the others so +as to be ready at the propitious moment. It was important their action should +not be seen. +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross.” like a huge coleopter, glided gently over the mighty city. She +took the line of the boulevards, then brilliantly lighted by the Edison lamps. +Up to her there floated the rumble of the vehicles as they drove along the +streets, and the roll of the trains on the numerous railways that converge into +Paris. Then she glided over the highest monuments as if she was going to knock +the ball off the Pantheon or the cross off the Invalides. She hovered over the +two minarets of the Trocadero and the metal tower of the Champ de Mars, where +the enormous reflector was inundating the whole capital with its electric rays. +</p> + +<p> +This aerial promenade, this nocturnal loitering, lasted for about an hour. It +was a halt for breath before the voyage was resumed. +</p> + +<p> +And probably Robur wished to give the Parisians the sight of a meteor quite +unforeseen by their astronomers. The lamps of the “Albatross” were turned on. +Two brilliant sheaves of light shot down and moved along over the squares, the +gardens, the palaces, the sixty thousand houses, and swept the space from one +horizon to the other. +</p> + +<p> +Assuredly the “Albatross” was seen this time—and not only well seen but heard, +for Tom Turner brought out his trumpet and blew a rousing tarantaratara. +</p> + +<p> +At this moment Uncle Prudent leant over the rail, opened his hand, and let his +snuff-box fall. +</p> + +<p> +Immediately the “Albatross” shot upwards, and past her, higher still, there +mounted the noisy cheering of the crowd then thick on the boulevards—a hurrah +of stupefaction to greet the imaginary meteor. +</p> + +<p> +The lamps of the aeronef were turned off, and the darkness and the silence +closed in around as the voyage was resumed at the rate of one hundred and +twenty miles an hour. +</p> + +<p> +This was all that was to be seen of the French capital. At four o’clock in the +morning the “Albatross” had crossed the whole country obliquely; and so as to +lose no time in traversing the Alps or the Pyrenees, she flew over the face of +Provence to the cape of Antibes. At nine o’clock next morning the San Pietrini +assembled on the terrace of St. Peter at Rome were astounded to see her pass +over the eternal city. Two hours afterwards she crossed the Bay of Naples and +hovered for an instant over the fuliginous wreaths of Vesuvius. Then, after +cutting obliquely across the Mediterranean, in the early hours of the afternoon +she was signaled by the look-outs at La Goulette on the Tunisian coast. +</p> + +<p> +After America, Asia! After Asia, Europe! More than eighteen thousand miles had +this wonderful machine accomplished in less than twenty-three days! +</p> + +<p> +And now she was off over the known and unknown regions of Africa! +</p> + +<p> +It may be interesting to know what had happened to the famous snuff-box after +its fall? +</p> + +<p> +It had fallen in the Rue de Rivoli, opposite No. 200, when the street was +deserted. In the morning it was picked up by an honest sweeper, who took it to +the prefecture of police. There it was at first supposed to be an infernal +machine. And it was untied, examined, and opened with care. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly a sort of explosion took place. It was a terrific sneeze on the part +of the inspector. +</p> + +<p> +The document was then extracted from the snuff-box, and to the general +surprise, read as follows: +</p> + +<p> +“Messrs. Prudent and Evans, president and secretary of the Weldon Institute, +Philadelphia, have been carried off in the aeronef Albatross belonging to Robur +the engineer.” +</p> + +<p> +“Please inform our friends and acquaintances.” +</p> + +<p> +“P. and P. E.” +</p> + +<p> +Thus was the strange phenomenon at last explained to the people of the two +worlds. Thus was peace given to the scientists of the numerous observatories on +the surface of the terrestrial globe. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap15"></a> +Chapter XV<br/> +A SKIRMISH IN DAHOMEY</h2> + +<p> +At this point in the circumnavigatory voyage of the “Albatross” it is only +natural that some such questions as the following should be asked. Who was this +Robur, of whom up to the present we know nothing but the name? Did he pass his +life in the air? Did his aeronef never rest? Had he not some retreat in some +inaccessible spot in which, if he had need of repose or revictualing, he could +betake himself? It would be very strange if it were not so. The most powerful +flyers have always an eyrie or nest somewhere. +</p> + +<p> +And what was the engineer going to do with his prisoners? Was he going to keep +them in his power and condemn them to perpetual aviation? Or was he going to +take them on a trip over Africa, South America, Australasia, the Indian Ocean, +the Atlantic and the Pacific, to convince them against their will, and then +dismiss them with, “And now gentlemen, I hope you will believe a little more in +heavier than air?” +</p> + +<p> +To these questions, it is now impossible to reply. They are the secrets of the +future. Perhaps the answers will be revealed. Anyhow the bird-like Robur was +not seeking his nest on the northern frontier of Africa. By the end of the day +he had traversed Tunis from Cape Bon to Cape Carthage, sometimes hovering, and +sometimes darting along at top speed. Soon he reached the interior, and flew +down the beautiful valley of Medjeida above its yellow stream hidden under its +luxuriant bushes of cactus and oleander; and scared away the hundreds of +parrots that perch on the telegraph wires and seem to wait for the messages to +pass to bear them away beneath their wings. +</p> + +<p> +Two hours after sunset the helm was put up and the “Albatross” bore off to the +southeast; and on the morrow, after clearing the Tell Mountains, she saw the +rising of the morning star over the sands of the Sahara. +</p> + +<p> +On the 30th of July there was seen from the aeronef the little village of +Geryville, founded like Laghouat on the frontier of the desert to facilitate +the future conquest of Kabylia. Next, not without difficulty, the peaks of +Stillero were passed against a somewhat boisterous wind. Then the desert was +crossed, sometimes leisurely over the Ksars or green oases, sometimes at +terrific speed that far outstripped the flight of the vultures. Often the crew +had to fire into the flocks of these birds which, a dozen or so at a time, +fearlessly hurled them selves on to the aeronef to the extreme terror of +Frycollin. +</p> + +<p> +But if the vultures could only reply with cries and blows of beaks and talons, +the natives, in no way less savage, were not sparing of their musket-shots, +particularly when crossing the Mountain of Sel, whose green and violet slope +bore its cape of white. Then the “Albatross” was at last over the grand Sahara; +and at once she rose into the higher zones so as to escape from a simoom which +was sweeping a wave of ruddy sand along the surface of the ground like a bore +on the surface of the sea. +</p> + +<p> +Then the desolate tablelands of Chetka scattered their ballast in blackish +waves up to the fresh and verdant valley of Ain-Massin. It is difficult to +conceive the variety of the territories which could be seen at one view. To the +green hills covered with trees and shrubs there succeeded long gray undulations +draped like the folds of an Arab burnous and broken in picturesque masses. In +the distance could be seen the wadys with their torrential waters, their +forests of palm-trees, and blocks of small houses grouped on a hill around a +mosque, among them Metlili, where there vegetates a religious chief, the grand +marabout Sidi Chick. +</p> + +<p> +Before night several hundred miles had been accomplished above a flattish +country ridged occasionally with large sandhills. If the “Albatross” had +halted, she would have come to the earth in the depths of the Wargla oasis +hidden beneath an immense forest of palm-trees. The town was clearly enough +displayed with its three distinct quarters, the ancient palace of the Sultan, a +kind of fortified Kasbah, houses of brick which had been left to the sun to +bake, and artesian wells dug in the valley—where the aeronef could have renewed +her water supply. But, thanks to her extraordinary speed, the waters of the +Hydaspes taken in the vale of Cashmere still filled her tanks in the center of +the African desert. +</p> + +<p> +Was the “Albatross” seen by the Arabs, the Mozabites, and the Negroes who share +amongst them the town of Wargla? Certainly, for she was saluted with many +hundred gunshot, and the bullets fell back before they reached her. +</p> + +<p> +Then came the night, that silent night in the desert of which Felicien David +has so poetically told us the secrets. +</p> + +<p> +During the following hours the course lay southwesterly, cutting across the +routes of El Golea, one of which was explored in 1859 by the intrepid +Duveyrier. +</p> + +<p> +The darkness was profound. Nothing could be seen of the Trans-Saharan Railway +constructing on the plans of Duponchel—a long ribbon of iron destined to bind +together Algiers and Timbuktu by way of Laghouat and Gardaia, and destined +eventually to run down into the Gulf of Guinea. +</p> + +<p> +Then the “Albatross” entered the equatorial region below the tropic of Cancer. +Six hundred miles from the northern frontier of the Sahara she crossed the +route on which Major Laing met his, death in 1846, and crossed the road of the +caravans from Morocco to the Sudan, and that part of the desert swept by the +Tuaregs, where could be heard what is called “the song of the sand.” a soft and +plaintive murmur that seems to escape from the ground. +</p> + +<p> +Only one thing happened. A cloud of locusts came flying along, and there fell +such a cargo of them on board as to threaten to sink the ship. But all hands +set to work to clear the deck, and the locusts were thrown over except a few +hundred kept by Tapage for his larder. And he served them up in so succulent a +fashion that Frycollin forgot for the moment his perpetual trances and said, +“these are as good as prawns.” +</p> + +<p> +The aeronef was then eleven hundred miles from the Wargla oasis and almost on +the northern frontier of the Sudan. About two o’clock in the afternoon a city +appeared in the bend of a large river. The river was the Niger. The city was +Timbuktu. +</p> + +<p> +If, up to then, this African Mecca had only been visited by the travelers of +the ancient world Batouta, Khazan, Imbert, Mungo Park, Adams, Laing, Caillé, +Barth, Lenz, on that day by a most singular chance the two Americans could +boast of having seen, heard, and smelt it, on their return to America—if they +ever got back there. +</p> + +<p> +Of having seen it, because their view included the whole triangle of three or +four miles in circumference; of having heard it, because the day was one of +some rejoicing and the noise was terrible; of having smelt it, because the +olfactory nerve could not but be very disagreeably affected by the odors of the +Youbou-Kamo square, where the meatmarket stands close to the palace of the +ancient Somai kings. +</p> + +<p> +The engineer had no notion of allowing the president and secretary of the +Weldon Institute to be ignorant that they had the honor of contemplating the +Queen of the Sudan, now in the power of the Tuaregs of Taganet. +</p> + +<p> +“Gentlemen, Timbuktu!” he said, in the same tone as twelve days before he had +said, “Gentlemen, India!” Then he continued, “Timbuktu is an important city of +from twelve to thirteen thousand inhabitants, formerly illustrious in science +and art. Perhaps you would like to stay there for a day or two?” +</p> + +<p> +Such a proposal could only have been made ironically. “But.” continued he, “it +would be dangerous among the Negroes, Berbers, and Foullanes who occupy, +it—particularly as our arrival in an aeronef might prejudice them against you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Sir.” said Phil Evans, in the same tone, “for the pleasure of leaving you we +would willingly risk an unpleasant reception from the natives. Prison for +prison, we would rather be in Timbuktu than on the “Albatross.”” +</p> + +<p> +“That is a matter of taste.” answered the engineer. “Anyhow, I shall not try +the adventure, for I am responsible for the safety of the guests who do me the +honor to travel with me.” +</p> + +<p> +“And so.” said Uncle Prudent, explosively, “you are not content with being our +jailer, but you insult us.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! a little irony, that is all!” +</p> + +<p> +“Are there any weapons on board?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, quite an arsenal.” +</p> + +<p> +“Two revolvers will do, if I hold one and you the other.” +</p> + +<p> +“A duel!” exclaimed Robur, “a duel, which would perhaps cause the death of one +of us.” +</p> + +<p> +“Which certainly would cause it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well! No, Mr. President of the Weldon Institute, I very much prefer keeping +you alive.” +</p> + +<p> +“To be sure of living yourself. That is wise.” +</p> + +<p> +“Wise or not, it suits me. You are at liberty to think as you like, and to +complain to those who have the power to help you—if you can.” +</p> + +<p> +“And that we have done, Mr. Robur.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed!” +</p> + +<p> +“Was it so difficult when we were crossing the inhabited part of Europe to drop +a letter overboard?” +</p> + +<p> +“Did you do that?” said Robur, in a paroxysm of rage. +</p> + +<p> +“And if we have done it?” +</p> + +<p> +“If you have done it—you deserve—” +</p> + +<p> +“What, sir?” +</p> + +<p> +“To follow your letter overboard.” +</p> + +<p> +“Throw us over, then. We did do it.” +</p> + +<p> +Robur stepped towards them. At a gesture from him Tom Turner and some of the +crew ran up. The engineer was seriously tempted to put his threat into +execution, and, fearful perhaps of yielding to it, he precipitately rushed into +his cabin. +</p> + +<p> +“Good!” exclaimed Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“And what he will dare not do.” said Uncle Prudent, “I Will do! Yes, I Will +do!” +</p> + +<p> +At the moment the population of Timbuktu were crowding onto the squares and +roads and the terraces built like amphitheaters. In the rich quarters of +Sankere and Sarahama, as in the miserable huts at Raguidi, the priests from the +minarets were thundering their loudest maledictions against the aerial monster. +These were more harmless than the rifle-bullets; though assuredly, if the +aeronef had come to earth she would have certainly been torn to pieces. +</p> + +<p> +For some miles noisy flocks of storks, francolins, and ibises escorted the +“Albatross” and tried to race her, but in her rapid flight she soon distanced +them. +</p> + +<p> +The evening came. The air was troubled by the roarings of the numerous herds of +elephants and buffaloes which wander over this land, whose fertility is simply +marvelous. For forty-eight hours the whole of the region between the prime +meridian and the second degree, in the bend of the Niger, was viewed from the +“Albatross.” +</p> + +<p> +If a geographer had only such an apparatus at his command, with what facility +could he map the country, note the elevations, fix the courses of the rivers +and their affluents, and determine the positions of the towns and villages! +There would then be no huge blanks on the map of Africa, no dotted lines, no +vague designations which are the despair of cartographers. +</p> + +<p> +In the morning of the 11th the “Albatross” crossed the mountains of northern +Guinea, between the Sudan and the gulf which bears their name. On the horizon +was the confused outline of the Kong mountains in the kingdom of Dahomey. +</p> + +<p> +Since the departure from Timbuktu Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans noticed that the +course had been due south. If that direction was persisted in they would cross +the equator in six more degrees. The “Albatross” would then abandon the +continents and fly not over the Bering Sea, or the Caspian Sea, or the North +Sea, or the Mediterranean, but over the Atlantic Ocean. +</p> + +<p> +This look-out was not particularly pleasing to the two friends, whose chances +of escape had sunk to below zero. But the “Albatross” had slackened speed as +though hesitating to leave Africa behind. Was Robur thinking of going back? No; +but his attention had been particularly attracted to the country which he was +then crossing. +</p> + +<p> +We know—and he knew—that the kingdom of Dahomey is one of the most powerful on +the West Coast of Africa. Strong enough to hold its own with its neighbor +Ashantee, its area is somewhat small, being contained within three hundred and +sixty leagues from north to south, and one hundred and eighty from east to +west. But its population numbers some seven or eight hundred thousand, +including the neighboring independent territories of Whydah and Ardrah. +</p> + +<p> +If Dahomey is not a large country, it is often talked about. It is celebrated +for the frightful cruelties which signalize its annual festivals, and by its +human sacrifices—fearful hecatombs intended to honor the sovereign it has lost +and the sovereign who has succeeded him. It is even a matter of politeness when +the King of Dahomey receives a visit from some high personage or some foreign +ambassador to give him a surprise present of a dozen heads, cut off in his +honor by the minister of justice, the “minghan.” who is wonderfully skillful in +that branch of his duties. +</p> + +<p> +When the “Albatross” came flying over Dahomey, the old King Bahadou had just +died, and the whole population was proceeding to the enthronization of his +successor. Hence there was great agitation all over the country, and it did not +escape Robur that everybody was on the move. +</p> + +<p> +Long lines of Dahomians were hurrying along the roads from the country into the +capital, Abomey. Well kept roads radiating among vast plains clothed with giant +trees, immense fields of manioc, magnificent forests of palms, cocoa-trees, +mimosas, orange-trees, mango-trees—such was the country whose perfumes mounted +to the “Albatross.” while many parrots and cardinals swarmed among the trees. +</p> + +<p> +The engineer, leaning over the rail, seemed deep in thought, and exchanged but +a few words with Tom Turner. It did not look as though the “Albatross” had +attracted the attention of those moving masses, which were often invisible +under the impenetrable roof of trees. This was doubtless due to her keeping at +a good altitude amid a bank of light cloud. +</p> + +<p> +About eleven o’clock in the morning the capital was sighted, surrounded by its +walls, defended by a fosse measuring twelve miles round, with wide, regular +streets on the flat plain, and a large square on the northern side occupied by +the king’s palace. This huge collection of buildings is commanded by a terrace +not far from the place of sacrifice. During the festival days it is from this +high terrace that they throw the prisoners tied up in wicker baskets, and it +can be imagined with what fury these unhappy wretches are cut in pieces. +</p> + +<p> +In one of the courtyards which divide the king’s palace there were drawn up +four thousand warriors, one of the contigents of the royal army—and not the +least courageous one. If it is doubtful if there are any Amazons an the river +of that name, there is no doubt of there being Amazons at Dahomey. Some have a +blue shirt with a blue or red scarf, with white-and-blue striped trousers and a +white cap; others, the elephant-huntresses, have a heavy carbine, a +short-bladed dagger, and two antelope horns fixed to their heads by a band of +iron. The artillery-women have a blue-and-red tunic, and, as weapons, +blunderbusses and old cast cannons; and another brigade, consisting of vestal +virgins, pure as Diana, have blue tunics and white trousers. If we add to these +Amazons, five or six thousand men in cotton drawers and shirts, with a knotted +tuft to increase their stature, we shall have passed in review the Dahomian +army. +</p> + +<p> +Abomey on this day was deserted. The sovereign, the royal family, the masculine +and feminine army, and the population had all gone out of the capital to a vast +plain a few miles away surrounded by magnificent forests. +</p> + +<p> +On this plain the recognition of the new king was to take place. Here it was +that thousands of prisoners taken during recent razzias were to be immolated in +his honor. +</p> + +<p> +It was about two o’clock when the “Albatross” arrived over the plain and began +to descend among the clouds which still hid her from the Dahomians. +</p> + +<p> +There were sixteen thousand people at least come from all parts of the kingdom, +from Whydah, and Kerapay, and Ardrah, and Tombory, and the most distant +villages. +</p> + +<p> +The new king—a sturdy fellow named Bou-Nadi—some five-and-twenty years old, was +seated on a hillock shaded by a group of wide-branched trees. Before him stood +his male army, his Amazons, and his people. +</p> + +<p> +At the foot of the mound fifty musicians were playing on their barbarous +instruments, elephants’ tusks giving forth a husky note, deerskin drums, +calabashes, guitars, bells struck with an iron clapper, and bamboo flutes, +whose shrill whistle was heard over all. Every other second came discharges of +guns and blunderbusses, discharges of cannons with the carriages jumping so as +to imperil the lives of the artillery-women, and a general uproar so intense +that even the thunder would be unheard amidst it. +</p> + +<p> +In one corner of the plain, under a guard of soldiers, were grouped the +prisoners destined to accompany the defunct king into the other world. At the +obsequies of Ghozo, the father of Bahadou, his son had dispatched three +thousand, and Bou-Nadi could not do less than his predecessor. For an hour +there was a series of discourses, harangues, palavers and dances, executed not +only by professionals, but by the Amazons, who displayed much martial grace. +</p> + +<p> +But the time for the hecatomb was approaching. Robur, who knew the customs of +Dahomey, did not lose sight of the men, women, and children reserved for +butchery. +</p> + +<p> +The minghan was standing at the foot of the hillock. He was brandishing his +executioner’s sword, with its curved blade surmounted by a metal bird, whose +weight rendered the cut more certain. +</p> + +<p> +This time he was not alone. He could not have performed the task. Near him were +grouped a hundred executioners, all accustomed to cut off heads at one blow. +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” came slowly down in an oblique direction. Soon she emerged from +the bed of clouds which hid her till she was within three hundred feet of the +ground, and for the first time she was visible from below. +</p> + +<p> +Contrary to what had hitherto happened, the savages saw in her a celestial +being come to render homage to King Baha-dou. The enthusiasm was indescribable, +the shouts were interminable, the prayers were terrific—prayers addressed to +this supernatural hippogriff, which “had doubtless come to” take the king’s +body to the higher regions of the Dahomian heaven. And now the first head fell +under the minghan’s sword, and the prisoners were led up in hundreds before the +horrible executioners. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly a gun was fired from the “Albatross.” The minister of justice fell +dead on his face! +</p> + +<p> +“Well aimed, Tom!” said Robur, +</p> + +<p> +His comrades, armed as he was, stood ready to fire when the order was given. +</p> + +<p> +But a change came over the crowd below. They had understood. The winged monster +was not a friendly spirit, it was a hostile spirit. And after the fall of the +minghan loud shouts for revenge arose on all sides. Almost immediately a +fusillade resounded over the plain. +</p> + +<p> +These menaces did not prevent the “Albatross” from descending boldly to within +a hundred and fifty feet of the ground. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, whatever +were their feelings towards Robur, could not help joining him in such a work of +humanity. +</p> + +<p> +“Let us free the prisoners!” they shouted. +</p> + +<p> +“That is what I am going to do!” said the engineer. +</p> + +<p> +And the magazine rifles of the “Albatross” in the hands of the colleagues, as +in the hands of the crew, began to rain down the bullets, of which not one was +lost in the masses below. And the little gun shot forth its shrapnel, which +really did marvels. +</p> + +<p> +The prisoners, although they did not understand how the help had come to them, +broke their bonds, while the soldiers were firing at the aeronef. The stern +screw was shot through by a bullet, and a few holes were made in the hull. +Frycollin, crouching in his cabin, received a graze from a bullet that came +through the deck-house. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah! They will have them!” said Tom Turner. And, rushing to the magazine, he +returned with a dozen dynamite cartridges, which he distributed to the men. At +a sign from Robur, these cartridges were fired at the hillock, and as they +reached the ground exploded like so many small shells. +</p> + +<p> +The king and his court and army and people were stricken with fear at the turn +things had taken. They fled under the trees, while the prisoners ran off +without anybody thinking of pursuing them. +</p> + +<p> +In this way was the festival interfered with. And in this way did Uncle Prudent +and, Phil Evans recognize the power of the aeronef and the services it could +render to humanity. +</p> + +<p> +Soon the “Albatross” rose again to a moderate height, and passing over Whydah +lost to view this savage coast which the southwest wind hems round with an +inaccessible surf. And she flew out over the Atlantic. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap16"></a> +Chapter XVI<br/> +OVER THE ATLANTIC</h2> + +<p> +Yes, the Atlantic! The fears of the two colleagues were realized; but it did +not seem as though Robur had the least anxiety about venturing over this vast +ocean. Both he and his men seemed quite unconcerned about it and had gone back +to their stations. +</p> + +<p> +Whither was the “Albatross” bound? Was she going more than round the world as +Robur had said? Even if she were, the voyage must end somewhere. That Robur +spent his life in the air on board the aeronef and never came to the ground was +impossible. How could he make up his stock of provisions and the materials +required for working his machines? He must have some retreat, some harbor of +refuge—in some unknown and inaccessible spot where the “Albatross” could +revictual. That he had broken off all connections with the inhabitants of the +land might be true, but with every point on the surface of the earth, certainly +not. +</p> + +<p> +That being the case, where was this point? How had the engineer come to choose +it? Was he expected by a little colony of which he was the chief? Could he +there find a new crew? +</p> + +<p> +What means had he that he should be able to build so costly a vessel as the +“Albatross” and keep her building secret? It is true his living was not +expensive. But, finally, who was this Robur? Where did he come from? What had +been his history? Here were riddles impossible to solve; and Robur was not the +man to assist willingly in their solution. +</p> + +<p> +It is not to be wondered at that these insoluble problems drove the colleagues +almost to frenzy. To find themselves whipped off into the unknown without +knowing what the end might be doubting even if the adventure would end, +sentenced to perpetual aviation, was this not enough to drive the President and +secretary of the Weldon Institute to extremities? +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile the “Albatross” drove along above the Atlantic, and in the morning +when the sun rose there was nothing to be seen but the circular line where +earth met sky. Not a spot of land was insight in this huge field of vision. +Africa had vanished beneath the northern horizon. +</p> + +<p> +When Frycollin ventured out of his cabin and saw all this water beneath him, +fear took possession of him. +</p> + +<p> +Of the hundred and forty-five million square miles of which the area of the +world’s waters consists, the Atlantic claims about a quarter; and it seemed as +though the engineer was in no hurry to cross it. There was now no going at full +speed, none of the hundred and twenty miles an hour at which the “Albatross” +had flown over Europe. Here, where the southwest winds prevail, the wind was +ahead of them, and though it was not very strong, it would not do to defy it +and the “Albatross” was sent along at a moderate speed, which, however, easily +outstripped that of the fastest mail-boat. +</p> + +<p> +On the 13th of July she crossed the line, and the fact was duly announced to +the crew. It was then that Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans ascertained that they +were bound for the southern hemisphere. The crossing of the line took place +without any of the Neptunian ceremonies that still linger on certain ships. +Tapage was the only one to mark the event, and he did so by pouring a pint of +water down Frycollin’s neck. +</p> + +<p> +On the 18th of July, when beyond the tropic of Capricorn, another phenomenon +was noticed, which would have been somewhat alarming to a ship on the sea. A +strange succession of luminous waves widened out over the surface of the ocean +with a speed estimated at quite sixty miles an hour. The waves ran along at +about eight feet from one another, tracing two furrows of light. As night fell +a bright reflection rose even to the “Albatross.” so that she might have been +taken for a flaming aerolite. Never before had Robur sailed on a sea of +fire—fire without heat—which there was no need to flee from as it mounted +upwards into the sky. +</p> + +<p> +The cause of this light must have been electricity; it could not be attributed +to a bank of fish spawn, nor to a crowd of those animalculae that give +phosphorescence to the sea, and this showed that the electrical tension of the +atmosphere was considerable. +</p> + +<p> +In the morning an ordinary ship would probably have been lost. But the +“Albatross” played with the winds and waves like the powerful bird whose name +she bore. If she did not walk on their surface like the petrels, she could like +the eagles find calm and sunshine in the higher zones. +</p> + +<p> +They had now passed the forty-seventh parallel. The day was but little over +seven hours long, and would become even less as they approached the Pole. +</p> + +<p> +About one o’clock in the afternoon the “Albatross” was floating along in a +lower current than usual, about a hundred feet from the level of the sea. The +air was calm, but in certain parts of the sky were thick black clouds, massed +in mountains, on their upper surface, and ruled off below by a sharp horizontal +line. From these clouds a few lengthy protuberances escaped, and their points +as they fell seemed to draw up hills of foaming water to meet them. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly the water shot up in the form of a gigantic hourglass, and the +“Albatross” was enveloped in the eddy of an enormous waterspout, while twenty +others, black as ink, raged around her. Fortunately the gyratory movement of +the water was opposite to that of the suspensory screws, otherwise the aeronef +would have been hurled into the sea. But she began to spin round on herself +with frightful rapidity. The danger was immense, and perhaps impossible to +escape, for the engineer could not get through the spout which sucked him back +in defiance of his propellers. The men, thrown to the ends of the deck by +centrifugal force, were grasping the rail to save themselves from being shot +off. +</p> + +<p> +“Keep cool!” shouted Robur. +</p> + +<p> +They wanted all their coolness, and their patience, too. Uncle Prudent and Phil +Evans, who had just come out of their cabin, were hurled back at the risk of +flying overboard. As she spun the “Albatross” was carried along by the spout, +which pirouetted along the waves with a speed enough to make the helices +jealous. And if she escaped from the spout she might be caught by another, and +jerked to pieces with the shock. +</p> + +<p> +“Get the gun ready!” said Robur. +</p> + +<p> +The order was given to Tom Turner, who was crouching behind the swivel +amidships where the effect of the centrifugal force was least felt. He +understood. In a moment he had opened the breech and slipped a cartridge from +the ammunition-box at hand. The gun went off, and the waterspouts collapsed, +and with them vanished the platform of cloud they seemed to bear above them. +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing broken on board?” asked Robur. +</p> + +<p> +“No.” answered Tom Turner. “But we don’t want to have another game of +humming-top like that!” +</p> + +<p> +For ten minutes or so the “Albatross” had been in extreme peril. Had it not +been for her extraordinary strength of build she would have been lost. +</p> + +<p> +During this passage of the Atlantic many were the hours whose monotony was +unbroken by any phenomenon whatever. The days grew shorter and shorter, and the +cold became keen. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans saw little of Robur. Seated in +his cabin, the engineer was busy laying out his course and marking it on his +maps, taking his observations whenever he could, recording the readings of his +barometers, thermometers, and chronometers, and making full entries in his +log-book. +</p> + +<p> +The colleagues wrapped themselves well up and eagerly watched for the sight of +land to the southward. At Uncle Prudent’s request Frycollin tried to pump the +cook as to whither the engineer was bound, but what reliance could be placed on +the information given by this Gascon? Sometimes Robur was an ex-minister of the +Argentine Republic, sometimes a lord of the Admiralty, sometimes an +ex-President of the United States, sometimes a Spanish general temporarily +retired, sometimes a Viceroy of the Indies who had sought a more elevated +position in the air. Sometimes he possessed millions, thanks to successful +razzias in the aeronef, and he had been proclaimed for piracy. Sometimes he had +been ruined by making the aeronef, and had been forced to fly aloft to escape +from his creditors. As to knowing if he were going to stop anywhere, no! But if +he thought of going to the moon, and found there a convenient anchorage, he +would anchor there! “Eh! Fry! My boy! That would just suit you to see what was +going on up there.” +</p> + +<p> +“I shall not go! I refuse!” said the Negro, who took all these things +seriously. +</p> + +<p> +“And why, Fry, why? You might get married to some pretty bouncing Lunarian!” +</p> + +<p> +Frycollin reported this conversation to his master, who saw it was evident that +nothing was to be learnt about Robur. And so he thought still more of how he +could have his revenge on him. +</p> + +<p> +“Phil.” said he one day, “is it quite certain that escape is impossible?” +</p> + +<p> +“Impossible.” +</p> + +<p> +“Be it so! But a man is always his own property; and if necessary, by +sacrificing his life—” +</p> + +<p> +“If we are to make that sacrifice.” said Phil Evans, “the sooner the better. It +is almost time to end this. Where is the “Albatross” going? Here we are flying +obliquely over the Atlantic, and if we keep on we shall get to the coast of +Patagonia or Tierra del Fuego. And what are we to do then? Get into the +Pacific, or go to the continent at the South Pole? Everything is possible with +this Robur. We shall be lost in the end. It is thus a case of legitimate +self-defence, and if we must perish—” +</p> + +<p> +“Which we shall not do.” answered Uncle Prudent, “without being avenged, +without annihilating this machine and all she carries.” +</p> + +<p> +The colleagues had reached a stage of impotent fury, and were prepared to +sacrifice themselves if they could only destroy the inventor and his secret. A +few months only would then be the life of this prodigious aeronef, of whose +superiority in aerial locomotion they had such convincing proofs! The idea took +such hold of them that they thought of nothing else but how to put it into +execution. And how? By seizing on some of the explosives on board and simply +blowing her up. But could they get at the magazines? +</p> + +<p> +Fortunately for them, Frycollin had no suspicion of their scheme. At the +thought of the “Albatross” exploding in midair, he would not have shrunk from +betraying his master. +</p> + +<p> +It was on the 23rd of July that the land reappeared in the southwest near Cape +Virgins at the entrance of the Straits of Magellan. Under the fifty-second +parallel at this time of year the night was eighteen hours long and the +temperature was six below freezing. +</p> + +<p> +At first the “Albatross.” instead of keeping on to the south, followed the +windings of the coast as if to enter the Pacific. After passing Lomas Bay, +leaving Mount Gregory to the north and the Brecknocks to the west, they sighted +Puerto Arena, a small Chilean village, at the moment the churchbells were in +full swing; and a few hours later they were over the old settlement at Port +Famine. +</p> + +<p> +If the Patagonians, whose fires could be seen occasionally, were really above +the average in stature, the passengers in the aeronef were unable to say, for +to them they seemed to be dwarfs. But what a magnificent landscape opened +around during these short hours of the southern day! Rugged mountains, peaks +eternally capped with snow, with thick forests rising on their flanks, inland +seas, bays deep set amid the peninsulas, and islands of the Archipelago. +Clarence Island, Dawson Island, and the Land of Desolation, straits and +channels, capes and promontories, all in inextricable confusion, and bound by +the ice in one solid mass from Cape Forward, the most southerly point of the +American continent, to Cape Horn the most southerly point of the New World. +</p> + +<p> +When she reached Fort Famine the “Albatross” resumed her course to the south. +Passing between Mount Tam on the Brunswick Peninsula and Mount Graves, she +steered for Mount Sarmiento, an enormous peak wrapped in snow, which commands +the Straits of Magellan, rising six thousand four hundred feet from the sea. +And now they were over the land of the Fuegians, Tierra del Fuego, the land of +fire. Six months later, in the height of summer, with days from fifteen to +sixteen hours long, how beautiful and fertile would most of this country be, +particularly in its northern portion! Then, all around would be seen valleys +and pasturages that could form the feeding-grounds of thousands of animals; +then would appear virgin forests, gigantic trees-birches, beeches, ash-trees, +cypresses, tree-ferns—and broad plains overrun by herds of guanacos, vicunas, +and ostriches. Now there were armies of penguins and myriads of birds; and, +when the “Albatross” turned on her electric lamps the guillemots, ducks, and +geese came crowding on board enough to fill Tapage’s larder a hundred times and +more. +</p> + +<p> +Here was work for the cook, who knew how to bring out the flavor of the game +and keep down its peculiar oiliness. And here was work for Frycollin in +plucking dozen after dozen of such interesting feathered friends. +</p> + +<p> +That day, as the sun was setting about three o’clock in the afternoon, there +appeared in sight a large lake framed in a border of superb forest. The lake +was completely frozen over, and a few natives with long snowshoes on their feet +were swiftly gliding over it. +</p> + +<p> +At the sight of the “Albatross.” the Fuegians, overwhelmed with +terror—scattered in all directions, and when they could not get away they hid +themselves, taking, like the animals, to the holes in the ground. +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” still held her southerly course, crossing the Beagle Channel, +and Navarin Island and Wollaston Island, on the shores of the Pacific. Then, +having accomplished 4,700 miles since she left Dahomey, she passed the last +islands of the Magellanic archipelago, whose most southerly outpost, lashed by +the everlasting surf, is the terrible Cape Horn. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap17"></a> +Chapter XVII<br/> +THE SHIPWRECKED CREW</h2> + +<p> +Next day was the 24th of July; and the 24th of July in the southern hemisphere +corresponds to the 24th of January in the northern. The fifty-sixth degree of +latitude had been left behind. The similar parallel in northern Europe runs +through Edinburgh. +</p> + +<p> +The thermometer kept steadily below freezing, so that the machinery was called +upon to furnish a little artificial heat in the cabins. Although the days begin +to lengthen after the 21st day of June in the southern hemisphere, yet the +advance of the “Albatross” towards the Pole more than neutralized this +increase, and consequently the daylight became very short. There was thus very +little to be seen. At night time the cold became very keen; but as there was no +scarcity of clothing on board, the colleagues, well wrapped up, remained a good +deal on deck thinking over their plans of escape, and watching for an +opportunity. Little was seen of Robur; since the high words that had been +exchanged in the Timbuktu country, the engineer had left off speaking to his +prisoners. Frycollin seldom came out of the cook-house, where Tapage treated +him most hospitably, on condition that he acted as his assistant. This position +was not without its advantages, and the Negro, with his master’s permission, +very willingly accepted it. Shut up in the galley, he saw nothing of what was +passing outside, and might even consider himself beyond the reach of danger. He +was, in fact, very like the ostrich, not only in his stomach, but in his folly. +</p> + +<p> +But whither went the “Albatross?” Was she in mid-winter bound for the southern +seas or continents round the Pole? In this icy atmosphere, even granting that +the elements of the batteries were unaffected by such frost, would not all the +crew succumb to a horrible death from the cold? That Robur should attempt to +cross the Pole in the warm season was bad enough, but to attempt such a thing +in the depth of the winter night would be the act of a madman. +</p> + +<p> +Thus reasoned the President and Secretary of the Weldon Institute, now they had +been brought to the end of the continent of the New World, which is still +America, although it does not belong to the United States. +</p> + +<p> +What was this intractable Robur going to do? Had not the time arrived for them +to end the voyage by blowing up the ship? +</p> + +<p> +It was noticed that during the 24th of July the engineer had frequent +consultations with his mate. He and Tom Turner kept constant watch on the +barometer—not so much to keep themselves informed of the height at which they +were traveling as to be on the look-out for a change in the weather. Evidently +some indications had been observed of which it was necessary to make careful +note. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent also remarked that Robur had been taking stock of the provisions +and stores, and everything seemed to show that he was contemplating turning +back. +</p> + +<p> +“Turning back!” said Phil Evans. “But where to?” +</p> + +<p> +“Where he can reprovision the ship.” said Uncle Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +“That ought to be in some lonely island in the Pacific with a colony of +scoundrels worthy of their chief.” +</p> + +<p> +“That is what I think. I fancy he is going west, and with the speed he can get +up it would not take, him long to get home.” +</p> + +<p> +“But we should not be able to put our plan into execution. If we get there—” +</p> + +<p> +“We shall not get there!” +</p> + +<p> +The colleagues had partly guessed the engineer’s intentions. During the day it +became no longer doubtful that when the “Albatross” reached the confines of the +Antarctic Sea her course was to be changed. When the ice has formed about Cape +Horn the lower regions of the Pacific are covered with icefields and icebergs. +The floes then form an impenetrable barrier to the strongest ships and the +boldest navigators. Of course, by increasing the speed of her wings the +“Albatross” could clear the mountains of ice accumulated on the ocean as she +could the mountains of earth on the polar continent—if it is a continent that +forms the cap of the southern pole. But would she attempt it in the middle of +the polar night, in an atmosphere of sixty below freezing? +</p> + +<p> +After she had advanced about a hundred miles to the south the “Albatross” +headed westerly, as if for some unknown island of the Pacific. Beneath her +stretched the liquid plain between Asia and America. The waters now had assumed +that singular color which has earned for them the name of the Milky Sea. In the +half shadow, which the enfeebled rays of the sun were unable to dissipate, the +surface of the Pacific was a milky white. It seemed like a vast snowfield, +whose undulations were imperceptible at such a height. If the sea had been +solidified by the cold, and converted into an immense icefield, its aspect +could not have been much different. They knew that the phenomenon was produced +by myriads of luminous particles of phosphorescent corpuscles; but it was +surprising to come across such an opalescent mass beyond the limits of the +Indian Ocean. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly the barometer fell after keeping somewhat high during the earlier +hours of the day. Evidently the indications were such as a shipmaster might +feel anxious at, though the master of an aeronef might despise them. There was +every sign that a terrible storm had recently raged in the Pacific. +</p> + +<p> +It was one o’clock in the afternoon when Tom Turner came up to the engineer and +said, “Do you see that black spot on the horizon, sir—there away to due north +of us? That is not a rock?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, Tom; there is no land out there.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then it must be a ship or a boat.” +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, who were in the bow, looked in the direction +pointed out by the mate. +</p> + +<p> +Robur asked for the glass and attentively observed the object. +</p> + +<p> +“It is a boat.” said he, “and there are some men in it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Shipwrecked?” asked Tom. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes! They have had to abandon their ship, and, knowing nothing of the nearest +land, are perhaps dying of hunger and thirst! Well, it shall not be said that +the “Albatross” did not come to their help!” +</p> + +<p> +The orders were given, and the aeronef began to sink towards the sea. At three +hundred yards from it the descent was stopped, and the propellers drove ahead +full speed towards the north. +</p> + +<p> +It was a boat. Her sail flapped against the mast as she rose and fell on the +waves. There was no wind, and she was making no progress. Doubtless there was +no one on board with strength enough left to work the oars. In the boat were +five men asleep or helpless, if they were not dead. +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” had arrived above them, and slowly descended. On the boat’s +stern was the name of the ship to which she belonged—the “Jeannette” of Nantes. +</p> + +<p> +“Hallo, there!” shouted Turner, loud enough for the men to hear, for the boat +was only eighty feet below him. +</p> + +<p> +There was no answer. “Fire a gun!” said Robur. +</p> + +<p> +The gun was fired and the report rang out over the sea. +</p> + +<p> +One of the men looked up feebly. His eyes were haggard and his face was that of +a skeleton. As he caught sight of the “Albatross” he made a gesture as of fear. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t be afraid.” said Robur in French, “we have come to help you. Who are +you?” +</p> + +<p> +“We belong to the barque “Jeannette.” and I am the mate. We left her a +fortnight ago as she was sinking. We have no water and no food.” +</p> + +<p> +The four other men had now sat up. Wan and exhausted, in a terrible state of +emaciation, they lifted their hands towards the “Albatross.” +</p> + +<p> +“Look-out!” shouted Robur. +</p> + +<p> +A line was let down, and a pail of fresh water was lowered into the boat. The +men snatched at it and drank it with an eagerness awful to see. +</p> + +<p> +“Bread, bread!” they exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +Immediately a basket with some food and five pints of coffee descended towards +them. The mate with difficulty restrained them in their ravenousness. +</p> + +<p> +“Where are we?” asked the mate at last. +</p> + +<p> +“Fifty miles from the Chili coast and the Chonos Archipelago.” answered Robur. +</p> + +<p> +“Thanks. But we are becalmed, and—?” +</p> + +<p> +“We are going to tow you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who are you?” +</p> + +<p> +“People who are glad to be of assistance to you.” said Robur. +</p> + +<p> +The mate understood that the incognito was to be respected. But had the flying +machine sufficient power to tow them through the water? +</p> + +<p> +Yes; and the boat, attached to a hundred feet of rope, began to move off +towards the east. At ten o’clock at night the land was sighted—or rather they +could see the lights which indicated its position. This rescue from the sky had +come just in time for the survivors of the “Jeannette.” and they had good +reason to believe it miraculous. +</p> + +<p> +When they had been taken to the mouth of the channel leading among the Chonos +Islands, Robur shouted to them to cast off the tow-line. This, with many a +blessing to those who had saved them, they did, and the “Albatross” headed out +to the offing. +</p> + +<p> +Certainly there was some good in this aeronef, which could thus help those who +were lost at sea! What balloon, perfect as it might be, would be able to +perform such a service? And between themselves Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans +could not but admire it, although they were quite disposed to deny the evidence +of their senses. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap18"></a> +Chapter XVIII<br/> +OVER THE VOLCANO</h2> + +<p> +The sea was as rough as ever, and the symptoms became alarming. The barometer +fell several millimeters. The wind came in violent gusts, and then for a moment +or so failed altogether. Under such circumstances a sailing vessel would have +had to reef in her topsails and her foresail. Everything showed that the wind +was rising in the northwest. The storm-glass became much troubled and its +movements were most disquieting. +</p> + +<p> +At one o’clock in the morning the wind came on again with extreme violence. +Although the aeronef was going right in its teeth she was still making progress +at a rate of from twelve to fifteen miles an hour. But that was the utmost she +could do. +</p> + +<p> +Evidently preparations must be made for a cyclone, a very rare occurrence in +these latitudes. Whether it be called a hurricane, as in the Atlantic, a +typhoon, as in Chinese waters a simoom, as in the Sahara, or a tornado, as on +the western coast, such a storm is always a gyratory one, and most dangerous +for any ship caught in the current which increases from the circumference to +the center, and has only one spot of calm, the middle of the vortex. +</p> + +<p> +Robur knew this. He also knew it was best to escape from the cyclone and get +beyond its zone of attraction by ascending to the higher strata. Up to then he +had always succeeded in doing this, but now he had not an hour, perhaps not a +minute, to lose. +</p> + +<p> +In fact the violence of the wind sensibly increased. The crests of the waves +were swept off as they rose and blown into white dust on the surface of the +sea. It was manifest that the cyclone was advancing with fearful velocity +straight towards the regions of the pole. +</p> + +<p> +“Higher!” said Robur. +</p> + +<p> +“Higher it is.” said Tom Tumor. +</p> + +<p> +An extreme ascensional power was communicated to the aeronef, and she shot up +slantingly as if she was traveling on a plane sloping downwards from the +southwest. Suddenly the barometer fell more than a dozen millimeters and the +“Albatross” paused in her ascent. +</p> + +<p> +What was the cause of the stoppage? Evidently she was pulled back by the air; +some formidable current had diminished the resistance to the screws. When a +steamer travels upstream more work is got out of her screw than when the water +is running between the blades. The recoil is then considerable, and may perhaps +be as great as the current. It was thus with the “Albatross” at this moment. +</p> + +<p> +But Robur was not the man to give in. His seventy-four screws, working +perfectly together, were driven at their maximum speed. But the aeronef could +not escape; the attraction of the cyclone was irresistible. During the few +moments of calm she began to ascend, but the heavy pull soon drew her back, and +she sunk like a ship as she founders. +</p> + +<p> +Evidently if the violence of the cyclone went on increasing the “Albatross” +would be but as a straw caught in one of those whirlwinds that root up the +trees, carry off roofs, and blow down walls. +</p> + +<p> +Robur and Tom could only speak by signs. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans clung to +the rail and wondered if the cyclone was not playing their game in destroying +the aeronef and with her the inventor—and with the inventor the secret of his +invention. +</p> + +<p> +But if the “Albatross” could not get out of the cyclone vertically could she +not do something else? Could she not gain the center, where it was +comparatively calm, and where they would have more control over her? Quite so, +but to do this she would have to break through the circular currents which were +sweeping her round with them. Had she sufficient mechanical power to escape +through them? +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly the upper part of the cloud fell in. The vapor condensed in torrents +of rain. It was two o’clock in the morning. The barometer, oscillating over a +range of twelve millimeters, had now fallen to 27.91, and from this something +should be taken on account of the height of the aeronef above the level of the +sea. +</p> + +<p> +Strange to say, the cyclone was out of the zone to which such storms are +generally restricted, such zone being bounded by the thirtieth parallel of +north latitude and the twenty-sixth parallel of south latitude. This may +perhaps explain why the eddying storm suddenly turned into a straight one. But +what a hurricane! The tempest in Connecticut on the 22nd of March, 1882, could +only have been compared to it, and the speed of that was more than three +hundred miles an hour. +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” had thus to fly before the wind or rather she had to be left to +be driven by the current, from which she could neither mount nor escape. But in +following this unchanging trajectory she was bearing due south, towards those +polar regions which Robur had endeavored to avoid. And now he was no longer +master of her course; she would go where the hurricane took her. +</p> + +<p> +Tom Turner was at the helm, and it required all his skill to keep her straight. +In the first hours of the morning—if we can so call the vague tint which began +to rise over the horizon—the “Albatross” was fifteen degrees below Cape Horn; +twelve hundred miles more and she would cross the antarctic circle. Where she +was, in this month of July, the night lasted nineteen hours and a half. The +sun’s disk—without warmth, without light—only appeared above the horizon to +disappear almost immediately. At the pole the night lengthened into one of a +hundred and seventy-nine days. Everything showed that the “Albatross” was about +to plunge into an abyss. +</p> + +<p> +During the day an observation, had it been possible, would have given 66° +40′ south latitude. The aeronef was within fourteen hundred miles of the +pole. +</p> + +<p> +Irresistibly was she drawn towards this inaccessible corner of the globe, her +speed eating up, so to speak, her weight, although she weighed less than +before, owing to the flattening of the earth at the pole. It seemed as though +she could have dispensed altogether with her suspensory screws. And soon the +fury of the storm reached such a height that Robur thought it best to reduce +the speed of her helices as much as possible, so as to avoid disaster. And only +enough speed was given to keep the aeronef under control of the rudder. +</p> + +<p> +Amid these dangers the engineer retained his imperturbable coolness, and the +crew obeyed him as if their leader’s mind had entered into them. Uncle Prudent +and Phil Evans had not for a moment left the deck; they could remain without +being disturbed. The air made but slight resistance. The aeronef was like an +aerostat, which drifts with the fluid masses in which it is plunged. +</p> + +<p> +Is the domain of the southern pole a continent or an archipelago? Or is it a +palaeocrystic sea, whose ice melts not even during the long summer? We know +not. But what we do know is that the southern pole is colder than the northern +one—a phenomenon due to the position of the earth in its orbit during winter in +the antarctic regions. +</p> + +<p> +During this day there was nothing to show that the storm was abating. It was by +the seventy-fifth meridian to the west that the “Albatross” crossed into the +circumpolar region. By what meridian would she come out—if she ever came out? +</p> + +<p> +As she descended more to the south the length of the day diminished. Before +long she would be plunged in that continuous night which is illuminated only by +the rays of the moon or the pale streamers of the aurora. But the moon was then +new, and the companions of Robur might see nothing of the regions whose secret +has hitherto defied human curiosity, There was not much inconvenience on board +from the cold, for the temperature was not nearly so low as was expected. +</p> + +<p> +It seemed as though the hurricane was a sort of Gulf Stream, carrying a certain +amount of heat along with it. +</p> + +<p> +Great was the regret that the whole region was in such profound obscurity. Even +if the moon had been in full glory but few observations could have been made. +At this season of the year an immense curtain of snow, an icy carapace, covers +up the polar surface. There was none of that ice “blink” to be seen, that +whitish tint of which the reflection is absent from dark horizons. Under such +circumstances, how could they distinguish the shape of the ground, the extent +of the seas, the position of the islands? How could they recognize the +hydrographic network of the country or the orographic configuration, and +distinguish the hills and mountains from the icebergs and floes? +</p> + +<p> +A little after midnight an aurora illuminated the darkness. With its silver +fringes and spangles radiating over space, it seemed like a huge fan open over +half the sky. Its farthest electric effluences were lost in the Southern Cross, +whose four bright stars were gleaming overhead. The phenomenon was one of +incomparable magnificence, and the light showed the face of the country as a +confused mass of white. +</p> + +<p> +It need not be said that they had approached so near to the pole that the +compass was constantly affected, and gave no precise indication of the course +pursued. Its inclination was such that at one time Robur felt certain they were +passing over the magnetic pole discovered by Sir James Ross. And an hour later, +in calculating the angle the needle made with the vertical, he exclaimed: “the +South Pole is beneath us!” +</p> + +<p> +A white cap appeared, but nothing could be seen of what it bid under its ice. +</p> + +<p> +A few minutes afterwards the aurora died away, and the point where all the +world’s meridians cross is still to be discovered. +</p> + +<p> +If Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans wished to bury in the most mysterious solitudes +the aeronef and all she bore, the moment was propitious. If they did not do so +it was doubtless because the explosive they required was still denied to them. +</p> + +<p> +The hurricane still raged and swept along with such rapidity that had a +mountain been met with the aeronef would have been dashed to pieces like a ship +on a lee shore. Not only had the power gone to steer her horizontally, but the +control of her elevation had also vanished. +</p> + +<p> +And it was not unlikely that mountains did exist in these antarctic lands. Any +instant a shock might happen which would destroy the “Albatross.” Such a +catastrophe became more probable as the wind shifted more to the east after +they passed the prime meridian. Two luminous points then showed themselves +ahead of the “Albatross.” There were the two volcanos of the Ross +Mountains—Erebus and Terror. Was the “Albatross” to be shriveled up in their +flames like a gigantic butterfly? +</p> + +<p> +An hour of intense excitement followed. One of the volcanoes, Erebus, seemed to +be rushing at the aeronef, which could not move from the bed of the hurricane. +The cloud of flame grew as they neared it. A network of fire barred their road. +A brilliant light shone round over all. The figures on board stood out in the +bright light as if come from another world. Motionless, without a sound or a +gesture, they waited for the terrible moment when the furnace would wrap them +in its fires. +</p> + +<p> +But the storm that bore the “Albatross” saved them from such a fearful fate. +The flames of Erebus were blown down by the hurricane as it passed, and the +“Albatross” flew over unhurt. She swept through a hail of ejected material, +which was fortunately kept at bay by the centrifugal action of the suspensory +screws. And she harmlessly passed over the crater while it was in full +eruption. +</p> + +<p> +An hour afterwards the horizon hid from their view the two colossal torches +which light the confines of the world during the long polar night. +</p> + +<p> +At two o’clock in the morning Balleny Island was sighted on the coast of +Discovery Land, though it could not be recognized owing to its being bound to +the mainland by a cement of ice. +</p> + +<p> +And the “Albatross” emerged from the polar circle on the hundred and +seventy-fifth meridian. The hurricane had carried her over the icebergs and +icefloes, against which she was in danger of being dashed a hundred times or +more. She was not in the hands of the helmsman, but in the hand of God—and God +is a good pilot. +</p> + +<p> +The aeronef sped along to the north, and at the sixtieth parallel the storm +showed signs of dying away. Its violence sensibly diminished. The “Albatross” +began to come under control again. And, what was a great comfort, had again +entered the lighted regions of the globe; and the day reappeared about eight +o’clock in the morning. +</p> + +<p> +Robur had been carried by the storm into the Pacific over the polar region, +accomplishing four thousand three hundred and fifty miles in nineteen hours, or +about three miles a minute, a speed almost double that which the “Albatross” +was equal to with her propellers under ordinary circumstances. But he did not +know where he then was owing to the disturbance of the needle in the +neighborhood of the magnetic pole, and he would have to wait till the sun shone +out under convenient conditions for observation. Unfortunately, heavy clouds +covered the sky all that day and the sun did not appear. +</p> + +<p> +This was a disappointment more keenly felt as both propelling screws had +sustained damage during the tempest. Robur, much disconcerted at this accident, +could only advance at a moderate speed during this day, and when he passed over +the antipodes of Paris was only going about eighteen miles an hour. It was +necessary not to aggravate the damage to the screws, for if the propellers were +rendered useless the situation of the aeronef above the vast seas of the +Pacific would be a very awkward one. And the engineer began to consider if he +could not effect his repairs on the spot, so as to make sure of continuing his +voyage. +</p> + +<p> +In the morning of the 27th of July, about seven o’clock, land was sighted to +the north. It was soon seen to be an island. But which island was it of the +thousands that dot the Pacific? However, Robur decided to stop at it without +landing. He thought, that he could repair damages during the day and start in +the evening. +</p> + +<p> +The wind had died away completely and this was a favorable circumstance for the +maneuver he desired to execute. At least, if she did not remain stationary the +“Albatross” would be carried he knew not where. +</p> + +<p> +A cable one hundred and fifty feet long with an anchor at the end was dropped +overboard. When the aeronef reached the shore of the island the anchor dragged +up the first few rocks and then got firmly fixed between two large blocks. The +cable then stretched to full length under the influence of the suspensory +screws, and the “Albatross” remained motionless, riding like a ship in a +roadstead. +</p> + +<p> +It was the first time she had been fastened to the earth since she left +Philadelphia. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap19"></a> +Chapter XIX<br/> +ANCHORED AT LAST</h2> + +<p> +When the “Albatross” was high in the air the island could be seen to be of +moderate size. But on what parallel was it situated? What meridian ran through +it? Was it an island in the Pacific, in Australasia, or in the Indian Ocean? +When the sun appeared, and Robur had taken his observations, they would know; +but although they could not trust to the indications of the compass there was +reason to think they were in the Pacific. +</p> + +<p> +At this height—one hundred and fifty feet—the island which measured about +fifteen miles round, was like a three-pointed star in the sea. +</p> + +<p> +Off the southwest point was an islet and a range of rocks. On the shore there +were no tide-marks, and this tended to confirm Robur in his opinion as to his +position for the ebb and flow are almost imperceptible in the Pacific. +</p> + +<p> +At the northwest point there was a conical mountain about two hundred feet +high. +</p> + +<p> +No natives were to be seen, but they might be on the opposite coast. In any +case, if they had perceived the aeronef, terror had made them either hide +themselves or run away. The “Albatross” had anchored on the southwest point of +the island. Not far off, down a little creek, a small river flowed in among the +rocks. Beyond were several winding valleys; trees of different kinds; and +birds—partridges and bustards—in great numbers. If the island was not inhabited +it was habitable. Robur might surely have landed on it; if he had not done so +it was probably because the ground was uneven and did not offer a convenient +spot to beach the aeronef. +</p> + +<p> +While he was waiting for the sun the engineer began the repairs he reckoned on +completing before the day was over. The suspensory screws were undamaged and +had worked admirably amid all the violence of the storm, which, as we have +said, had considerably lightened their work. At this moment half of them were +in action, enough to keep the “Albatross” fixed to the shore by the taut cable. +But the two propellers had suffered, and more than Robur had thought. Their +blades would have to be adjusted and the gearing seen to by which they received +their rotatory movement. +</p> + +<p> +It was the screw at the bow which was first attacked under Robur’s +superintendence. It was the best to commence with, in case the “Albatross” had +to leave before the work was finished. With only this propeller he could easily +keep a proper course. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile Uncle Prudent and his colleague, after walking about the deck, had +sat down aft. Frycollin was strangely reassured. What a difference! To be +suspended only one hundred and fifty feet from the ground! +</p> + +<p> +The work was only interrupted for a moment while the elevation of the sun above +the horizon allowed Robur to take an horary angle, so that at the time of its +culmination he could calculate his position. +</p> + +<p> +The result of the observation, taken with the greatest exactitude, was as +follows: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +Longitude, 176° 10′ west.<br/> +Latitude, 44° 25′ south.<br/> +</p> + +<p> +This point on the map answered to the position of the Chatham Islands, and +particularly of Pitt Island, one of the group. +</p> + +<p> +“That is nearer than I supposed.” said Robur to Tom Turner. +</p> + +<p> +“How far off are we?” +</p> + +<p> +“Forty-six degrees south of X Island, or two thousand eight hundred miles.” +</p> + +<p> +“All the more reason to get our propellers into order.” said the mate. “We may +have the wind against us this passage, and with the little stores we have left +we ought to get to X as soon as possible.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Tom, and I hope to get under way tonight, even if I go with one screw, +and put the other to-rights on the voyage.” +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Robur.” said Tom “What is to be done with those two gentlemen and their +servant?” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you think they would complain if they became colonists of X Island?” +</p> + +<p> +But where was this X? It was an island lost in the immensity of the Pacific +Ocean between the Equator and the Tropic of Cancer—an island most appropriately +named by Robur in this algebraic fashion. It was in the north of the South +Pacific, a long way out of the route of inter-oceanic communication. There it +was that Robur had founded his little colony, and there the “Albatross” rested +when tired with her flight. There she was provisioned for all her voyages. In X +Island, Robur, a man of immense wealth, had established a shipyard in which he +built his aeronef. There he could repair it, and even rebuild it. In his +warehouses were materials and provisions of all sorts stored for the fifty +inhabitants who lived on the island. +</p> + +<p> +When Robur had doubled Cape Horn a few days before his intention had been to +regain X Island by crossing the Pacific obliquely. But the cyclone had seized +the “Albatross.” and the hurricane had carried her away to the south. In fact, +he had been brought back to much the same latitude as before, and if his +propellers had not been damaged the delay would have been of no importance. +</p> + +<p> +His object was therefore to get back to X Island, but as the mate had said, the +voyage would be a long one, and the winds would probably be against them. The +mechanical power of the “Albatross” was, however, quite equal to taking her to +her destination, and under ordinary circumstances she would be there in three +or four days. +</p> + +<p> +Hence Robur’s resolve to anchor on the Chatham Islands. There was every +opportunity for repairing at least the fore-screw. He had no fear that if the +wind were to rise he would be driven to the south instead of to the north. When +night came the repairs would be finished, and he would have to maneuver so as +to weigh anchor. If it were too firmly fixed in the rocks he could cut the +cable and resume his flight towards the equator. +</p> + +<p> +The crew of the “Albatross.” knowing there was no time to lose, set to work +vigorously. +</p> + +<p> +While they were busy in the bow of the aeronef, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans +held a little conversation together which had exceptionally important +consequences. +</p> + +<p> +“Phil Evans.” said Uncle Prudent, “you have resolved, as I have, to sacrifice +your life?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, like you.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is evident that we can expect nothing from Robur.” +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, Phil Evans, I have made up my mind. If the “Albatross” leaves this place +tonight, the night will not pass without our having accomplished our task. We +will smash the wings of this bird of Robur’s! This night I will blow it into +the air!” +</p> + +<p> +“The sooner the better.” said Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +It will be seen that the two colleagues were agreed on all points even in +accepting with indifference the frightful death in store for them. “Have you +all you want?” asked Evans. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. Last night, while Robur and his people had enough to do to look after the +safety of the ship, I slipped into the magazine and got hold of a dynamite +cartridge.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let us set to work, Uncle Prudent.” +</p> + +<p> +“No. Wait till tonight. When the night comes we will go into our cabin, and you +shall see something that will surprise you.” +</p> + +<p> +At six o’clock the colleagues dined together as usual. Two hours afterwards +they retired to their cabin like men who wished to make up for a sleepless +night. +</p> + +<p> +Neither Robur nor any of his companions had a suspicion of the catastrophe that +threatened the “Albatross.” +</p> + +<p> +This was Uncle Prudent’s plan. As he had said, he had stolen into the magazine, +and there had possessed himself of some powder and cartridge like those used by +Robur in Dahomey. Returning to his cabin, he had carefully concealed the +cartridge with which he had resolved to blow up the “Albatross” in mid-air. +</p> + +<p> +Phil Evans, screened by his companion, was now examining the infernal machine, +which was a metallic canister containing about two pounds of dynamite, enough +to shatter the aeronef to atoms. If the explosion did not destroy her at once, +it would do so in her fall. Nothing was easier than to place this cartridge in +a corner of the cabin, so that it would blow in the deck and tear away the +framework of the hull. +</p> + +<p> +But to obtain the explosion it was necessary to adjust the fulminating cap with +which the cartridge was fitted. This was the most delicate part of the +operation, for the explosion would have to be carefully timed, so as not to +occur too soon or too late. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent had carefully thought over the matter. His conclusions were as +follows. As soon as the fore propeller was repaired the aeronef would resume +her course to the north, and that done Robur and his crew would probably come +aft to put the other screw into order. The presence of these people about the +cabin might interfere with his plans, and so he had resolved to make a slow +match do duty as a time-fuse. +</p> + +<p> +“When I got the cartridge.” said he to Phil Evans, “I took some gunpowder as +well. With the powder I will make a fuse that will take some time to burn, and +which will lead into the fulminate. My idea is to light it about midnight, so +that the explosion will take place about three or four o’clock in the morning.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well planned!” said Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +The colleagues, as we see, had arrived at such a stage as to look with the +greatest nonchalance on the awful destruction in which they were about to +perish. Their hatred against Robur and his people had so increased that they +would sacrifice their own lives to destroy the “Albatross” and all she bore. +The act was that of madmen, it was horrible; but at such a pitch had they +arrived after five weeks of anger that could not vent itself, of rage that +could not be gratified. +</p> + +<p> +“And Frycollin?” asked Phil Evans, “have we the right to dispose of his life?” +</p> + +<p> +“We shall sacrifice ours as well!” said Uncle Prudent. But it is doubtful if +Frycollin would have thought the reason sufficient. +</p> + +<p> +Immediately Uncle Prudent set to work, while Evans kept watch in the +neighborhood of the cabin. The crew were all at work forward. There was no fear +of being surprised. Uncle Prudent began by rubbing a small quantity of the +powder very fine; and then, having slightly moistened it, he wrapped it up in a +piece of rag in the shape of a match. When it was lighted he calculated it +would burn about an inch in five minutes, or a yard in three hours. The match +was tried and found to answer, and was then wound round with string and +attached to the cap of the cartridge. Uncle Prudent had all finished about ten +o’clock in the evening without having excited the least suspicion. +</p> + +<p> +During the day the work on the fore screw had been actively carried on, but it +had had to be taken on board to adjust the twisted blades. Of the piles and +accumulators and the machinery that drove the ship nothing was damaged. +</p> + +<p> +When night fell Robur and his men knocked off work. The fore propeller not been +got into place, and to finish it would take another three hours. After some +conversation with Tom Turner it was decided to give the crew a rest, and +postpone what required to be done to the next morning. +</p> + +<p> +The final adjustment was a matter of extreme nicety, and the electric lamps did +not give so suitable a light for such work as the daylight. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans were not aware of this. They had understood that +the screw would be in place during the night, and that the “Albatross” would be +on her way to the north. +</p> + +<p> +The night was dark and moonless. Heavy clouds made the darkness deeper. A light +breeze began to rise. A few puffs came from the southwest, but they had no +effect on the “Albatross.” She remained motionless at her anchor, and the cable +stretched vertically downward to the ground. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent and his colleague, imagining they were under way again, sat shut +up in their cabin, exchanging but a few words, and listening to the f-r-r-r-r +of the suspensory screws, which drowned every other sound on board. They were +waiting till the time of action arrived. +</p> + +<p> +A little before midnight Uncle Prudent said, “It is time!” Under the berths in +the cabin was a sliding box, forming a small locker, and in this locker Uncle +Prudent put the dynamite and the slow-match. In this way the match would burn +without betraying itself by its smoke or spluttering. Uncle Prudent lighted the +end and pushed back the box under the berth with “Now let us go aft, and wait.” +</p> + +<p> +They then went out, and were astonished not to find the steersman at his post. +</p> + +<p> +Phil Evans leant out over the rail. +</p> + +<p> +“The “Albatross” is where she was.” said he in a low voice. “The work is not +finished. They have not started!” +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent made a gesture of disappointment. “We shall have to put out the +match.” said he. +</p> + +<p> +“No.” said Phil Evans, “we must escape!” +</p> + +<p> +“Escape?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes! down the cable! Fifty yards is nothing!” +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing, of course, Phil Evans, and we should be fools not to take the chance +now it has come.” +</p> + +<p> +But first they went back to the cabin and took away all they could carry, with +a view to a more or less prolonged stay on the Chatham Islands. Then they shut +the door and noiselessly crept forward, intending to wake Frycollin and take +him with them. +</p> + +<p> +The darkness was intense. The clouds were racing up from the southwest, and the +aeronef was tugging at her anchor and thus throwing the cable more and more out +of the vertical. There would be no difficulty in slipping down it. +</p> + +<p> +The colleagues made their way along the deck, stopping in the shadow of the +deckhouses to listen if there was any sound. The silence was unbroken. No light +shone from the portholes. The aeronef was not only silent; she was asleep. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent was close to Frycollin’s cabin when Phil Evans stopped him. “The +look-out!” he said. +</p> + +<p> +A man was crouching near the deck-house. He was only half asleep. All flight +would be impossible if he were to give the alarm. Close by were a few ropes, +and pieces of rag and waste used in the work at the screw. +</p> + +<p> +An instant afterwards the man was gagged and blindfolded and lashed to the rail +unable to utter a sound or move an inch. This was done almost without a +whisper. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans listened. All was silent within the cabins. Every +one on board was asleep. They reached Frycollin’s cabin. Tapage was snoring +away in a style worthy of his name, and that promised well. +</p> + +<p> +To his great surprise, Uncle Prudent had not even to push Frycollin’s door. It +was open. He stepped into the doorway and looked around. “Nobody here!” he +said. +</p> + +<p> +“Nobody! Where can he be?” asked Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +They went into the bow, thinking Frycollin might perhaps be asleep in the +corner. Still they found nobody. +</p> + +<p> +“Has the fellow got the start of us?” asked Uncle Prudent. +</p> + +<p> +“Whether he has or not.” said Phil Evans, “we can’t wait any longer. Down you +go.” +</p> + +<p> +Without hesitation the fugitives one after the other clambered over the side +and, seizing the cable with hands and feet slipped down it safe and sound to +the ground. +</p> + +<p> +Think of their joy at again treading the earth they had lost for so long—at +walking on solid ground and being no longer the playthings of the atmosphere! +</p> + +<p> +They were staring up the creek to the interior of the island when suddenly a +form rose in front of them. It was Frycollin. The Negro had had the same idea +as his master and the audacity to start without telling him. But there was no +time for recriminations, and Uncle Prudent was in search of a refuge in some +distant part of the island when Phil Evans stopped him. +</p> + +<p> +“Uncle Prudent.” said he. “Here we are safe from Robur. He is doomed like his +companions to a terrible death. He deserves it, we know. But if he would swear +on his honor not to take us prisoners again—” +</p> + +<p> +“The honor of such a man—” +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent did not finish his sentence. +</p> + +<p> +There was a noise on the “Albatross.” Evidently, the alarm had been given. The +escape was discovered. +</p> + +<p> +“Help! Help!” shouted somebody. It was the look-out man, who had got rid of his +gag. Hurried footsteps were heard on deck. Almost immediately the electric +lamps shot beams over a large circle. +</p> + +<p> +“There they are! There they are!” shouted Tom Turner. The fugitives were seen. +</p> + +<p> +At the same instant an order was given by Robur, and the suspensory screws +being slowed, the cable was hauled in on board, and the “Albatross” sank +towards the ground. +</p> + +<p> +At this moment the voice of Phil Evans was heard shouting, “Engineer Robur, +will you give us your word of honor to leave us free on this island?” +</p> + +<p> +“Never!” said Robur. And the reply was followed by the report of a gun, and the +bullet grazed Phil’s shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah! The brutes!” said Uncle Prudent. Knife in hand, he rushed towards the +rocks where the anchor had fixed itself. The aeronef was not more than fifty +feet from the ground. +</p> + +<p> +In a few seconds the cable was cut, and the breeze, which had increased +considerably, striking the “Albatross” on the quarter, carried her out over the +sea. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap20"></a> +Chapter XX<br/> +THE WRECK OF THE ALBATROSS</h2> + +<p> +It was then twenty minutes after midnight. Five or six shots had been fired +from the aeronef. Uncle Prudent and Frycollin, supporting Phil Evans, had taken +shelter among the rocks. They had not been hit. For the moment there was +nothing to fear. +</p> + +<p> +As the “Albatross” drifted off from Pitt Island she rose obliquely to nearly +three thousand feet. It was necessary to increase the ascensional power to +prevent her falling into the sea. +</p> + +<p> +When the look-out man had got clear of his gag and shouted, Robur and Tom +Turner had rushed up to him and torn off his bandage. The mate had then run +back to the stern cabin. It was empty! Tapage had searched Frycollin’s cabin, +and that also was empty. +</p> + +<p> +When he saw that the prisoners had escaped, Robur was seized with a paroxysm of +anger. The escape meant the revelation of his secret to the world. He had not +been much concerned at the document thrown overboard while they were crossing +Europe, for there were so many chances that it would be lost in its fall; but +now! +</p> + +<p> +As he grew calm, “They have escaped.” said he. “Be it so! But they cannot get +away from Pitt Island, and in a day or so I will go back! I will recapture +them! And then—” +</p> + +<p> +In fact, the safety of the three fugitives was by no means assured. The +“Albatross” would be repaired, and return well in hand. Before the day was out +they might again be in the power of the engineer. +</p> + +<p> +Before the day was out! But in two hours the “Albatross” would be annihilated! +The dynamite cartridge was like a torpedo fastened to her hull, and would +accomplish her destruction in mid-air. The breeze freshened, and the aeronef +was carried to the northeast. Although her speed was but moderate, she would be +out of sight of the Chatham Islands before sunrise. To return against the wind +she must have her propellers going, particularly the one in the bow. +</p> + +<p> +“Tom.” said the engineer, “turn the lights full on.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Sir.” +</p> + +<p> +“And all hands to work.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Sir.” +</p> + +<p> +There was no longer any idea of putting off the work till tomorrow. There was +now no thought of fatigue. Not one of the men of the “Albatross” failed to +share in the feelings of his chief. Not one but was ready to do anything to +recapture the fugitives! +</p> + +<p> +As soon as the screw was in place they would return to the island and drop +another anchor, and give chase to the fugitives. Then only would they begin +repairing the stern-screw; and then the aeronef could resume her voyage across +the Pacific to X Island. +</p> + +<p> +It was important, above all things, that the “Albatross” should not be carried +too far to the northeast, but unfortunately the breeze grew stronger, and she +could not head against it, or even remain stationary. Deprived of her +propellers she was an unguidable balloon. The fugitives on the shore knew that +she would have disappeared before the explosion blew her to pieces. +</p> + +<p> +Robur felt much disappointment at seeing his plans so interfered with. Would it +not take him much longer than he thought to get back to his old anchorage? +</p> + +<p> +While the work at the screw was actively pushed on, he resolved to descend to +the surface of the sea, in the hope that the wind would there be lighter. +Perhaps the “Albatross” would be able to remain in the neighborhood until she +was again fit to work to windward. +</p> + +<p> +The maneuver was instantly executed. If a passing ship had sighted the aerial +machine as she sunk through the air, with her electric lights in full blaze, +with what terror would she have been seized! +</p> + +<p> +When the “Albatross” was a few hundred feet from the waves she stopped. +Unfortunately Robur found that the breeze was stronger here than above, and the +aeronef drifted off more rapidly. He risked being blown a long, way off to the +northeast, and that would delay his return to Pitt Island. In short, after +several experiments, he found it better to keep his ship well up in the air, +and the “Albatross” went aloft to about ten thousand feet. There, if she did +not remain stationary, the drifting was very slight. The engineer could thus +hope that by sunrise at such an altitude he would still be in sight of the +island. +</p> + +<p> +Robur did not trouble himself about the reception the fugitives might have +received from the natives—if there were any natives. That they might help them +mattered little to him. With the powers of offense possessed by the “Albatross” +they would be promptly terrified and dispersed. The capture of the prisoners +was certain, and once he had them again, “They will not escape from X Island!” +</p> + +<p> +About one o’clock in the morning the fore-screw was finished, and all that had +to be done was to get it back to its place. This would take about an hour. That +done, the “Albatross” would be headed southwest and the stern-screw could be +taken in hand. +</p> + +<p> +And how about the match that was burning in the deserted cabin? The match of +which more than a third was now consumed? And the spark that was creeping along +to the dynamite? +</p> + +<p> +Assuredly if the men of the aeronef had not been so busy one of them would have +heard the feeble sputtering that was going on in the deck-house. Perhaps he +would have smelt the burning powder! He would doubtless have become uneasy! And +told Tom Turner! And then they would have looked about, and found the box and +the infernal machine; and then there would have been time to save this +wonderful “Albatross” and all she bore! +</p> + +<p> +But the men were at work in the bow, twenty yards away from the cabin. Nothing +brought them to that part of the deck; nothing called off their attention from +their work. Robur was there working with his hands, excellent mechanic as he +was. He hurried on the work, but nothing was neglected, everything was +carefully done. Was it not necessary that he should again become absolute +master of his invention? If he did not recapture the fugitives they would get +away home. They would begin inquiring into matters. They might even discover X +Island, and there would be an end to this life, which the men of the +“Albatross” had created for themselves, a life that seemed superhuman and +sublime. +</p> + +<p> +Tom Turner came up to the engineer. It was a quarter past one. “It seems to me, +sir, that the breeze is falling, and going round to the west.” +</p> + +<p> +“What does the barometer say?” asked Robur, after looking up at the sky. +</p> + +<p> +“It is almost stationary, and the clouds seem gathering below us.” +</p> + +<p> +“So they are, and it may be raining down at the sea; but if we keep above the +rain it makes no difference to us. It will not interfere with the work.” +</p> + +<p> +“If it is raining it is not a heavy rain.” said Tom. “The clouds do not look +like it, and probably the wind has dropped altogether.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps so, but I think we had better not go down yet. Let us get into going +order as soon as we can, and then we can do as we like.” +</p> + +<p> +At a few minutes after two the first part of the work was finished. The +fore-screw was in its place, and the power was turned on. The speed was +gradually increased, and the “Albatross.” heading to the southwest, returned at +moderate speed towards the Chatham Islands. +</p> + +<p> +“Tom.” said Robur, “it is about two hours and a half since we got adrift. The +wind has not changed all the time. I think we ought to be over the island in an +hour.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, sir. We are going about forty feet a second. We ought to be there about +half-past three.” +</p> + +<p> +“All the better. It would suit us best to get back while it is dark, and even +beach the “Albatross” if we can. Those fellows will fancy we are a long way off +to the northward, and never think of keeping a look-out. If we have to stop a +day or two on the island—” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll stop, and if we have to fight an army of natives?” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll fight.” said Robur. “We’ll fight then for our “Albatross.”” +</p> + +<p> +The engineer went forward to the men, who were waiting for orders. “My lads.” +he said to them, “we cannot knock off yet. We must work till day comes.” +</p> + +<p> +They were all ready to do so. The stern-screw had now to be treated as the +other had been. The damage was the same, a twisting from the violence of the +hurricane during the passage across the southern pole. +</p> + +<p> +But to get the screw on board it seemed best to stop the progress of the +aeronef for a few minutes, and even to drive her backwards. The engines were +reversed. The aeronef began to fall astern, when Tom Turner was surprised by a +peculiar odor. +</p> + +<p> +This was from the gas given off by the match, which had accumulated in the box, +and was now escaping from the cabin. “Hallo!” said the mate, with a sniff. +</p> + +<p> +“What is the matter?” asked Robur. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you smell something? Isn’t it burning powder?” +</p> + +<p> +“So it is, Tom.” +</p> + +<p> +“And it comes from that cabin.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, the very cabin—” +</p> + +<p> +“Have those scoundrels set it on fire?” +</p> + +<p> +“Suppose it is something else!” exclaimed Robur. “Force the door, Tom; drive in +the door!” +</p> + +<p> +But the mate had not made one step towards it when a fearful explosion shook +the “Albatross.” The cabins flew into splinters. The lamps went out. The +electric current suddenly failed. The darkness was complete. Most of the +suspensory screws were twisted or broken, but a few in the bow still revolved. +</p> + +<p> +At the same instant the hull of the aeronef opened just behind the first +deck-house, where the engines for the fore-screw were placed; and the +after-part of the deck collapsed in space. +</p> + +<p> +Immediately the last suspensory screw stopped spinning, and the “Albatross” +dropped into the abyss. +</p> + +<p> +It was a fall of ten thousand feet for the eight men who were clinging to the +wreck; and the fall was even faster than it might have been, for the fore +propeller was vertical in the air and still working! +</p> + +<p> +It was then that Robur, with extraordinary coolness, climbed up to the broken +deck-house, and seizing the lever reversed the rotation, so that the propeller +became a suspender. The fall continued, but it was checked, and the wreck did +not fall with the accelerating swiftness of bodies influenced solely by +gravitation; and if it was death to the survivors of the “Albatross” from their +being hurled into the sea, it was not death by asphyxia amid air which the +rapidity of descent rendered unbreathable. +</p> + +<p> +Eighty seconds after the explosion, all that remained of the “Albatross” +plunged into the waves! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap21"></a> +Chapter XXI<br/> +THE INSTITUTE AGAIN</h2> + +<p> +Some weeks before, on the 13th of June, on the morning after the sitting during +which the Weldon Institute had been given over to such stormy discussions, the +excitement of all classes of the Philadelphia population, black or white, had +been much easier to imagine than to describe. +</p> + +<p> +From a very early hour conversation was entirely occupied with the unexpected +and scandalous incident of the night before. A stranger calling himself an +engineer, and answering to the name of Robur, a person of unknown origin, of +anonymous nationality, had unexpectedly presented himself in the club-room, +insulted the balloonists, made fun of the aeronauts, boasted of the marvels of +machines heavier than air, and raised a frightful tumult by the remarks with +which he greeted the menaces of his adversaries. After leaving the desk, amid a +volley of revolver shots, he had disappeared, and in spite of every endeavor, +no trace could be found of him. +</p> + +<p> +Assuredly here was enough to exercise every tongue and excite every +imagination. But by how much was this excitement increased when in the evening +of the 13th of June it was found that neither the president nor secretary of +the Weldon Institute had returned to their homes! Was it by chance only that +they were absent? No, or at least there was nothing to lead people to think so. +It had even been agreed that in the morning they would be back at the club, one +as president, the other as secretary, to take their places during a discussion +on the events of the preceding evening. +</p> + +<p> +And not only was there the complete disappearance of these two considerable +personages in the state of Pennsylvania, but there was no news of the valet +Frycollin. He was as undiscoverable as his master. Never had a Negro since +Toussaint L’Ouverture, Soulouque, or Dessaline had so much talked about him. +</p> + +<p> +The next day there was no news. Neither the colleagues nor Frycollin had been +found. The anxiety became serious. Agitation commenced. A numerous crowd +besieged the post and telegraph offices in case any news should be received. +There was no news. +</p> + +<p> +And they had been seen coming out of the Weldon Institute loudly talking +together, and with Frycollin in attendance, go down Walnut Street towards +Fairmount Park! Jem Chip, the vegetarian, had even shaken hands with the +president and left him with “Tomorrow!” +</p> + +<p> +And William T. Forbes, the manufacturer of sugar from rags, had received a +cordial shake from Phil Evans who had said to him twice, “Au revoir! Au +revoir!” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Doll and Miss Mat Forbes, so attached to Uncle Prudent by the bonds of +purest friendship, could not get over the disappearance, and in order to obtain +news of the absent, talked even more than they were accustomed to. +</p> + +<p> +Three, four, five, six days passed. Then a week, then two weeks, and there was +nothing to give a clue to the missing three. The most minute search had been +made in every quarter. Nothing! In the park, even under the trees and +brushwood. Nothing! Always nothing! Although here it was noticed that the grass +looked to be pressed down in a way that seemed suspicious and certainly was +inexplicable; and at the edge of the clearing there were traces of a recent +struggle. Perhaps a band of scoundrels had attacked the colleagues here in the +deserted park in the middle of the night! +</p> + +<p> +It was possible. The police proceeded with their inquiries in all due form and +with all lawful slowness. They dragged the Schuyllkill river, and cut into the +thick bushes that fringe its banks; and if this was useless it was not quite a +waste, for the Schuyllkill is in great want of a good weeding, and it got it on +this occasion. Practical people are the authorities of Philadelphia! +</p> + +<p> +Then the newspapers were tried. Advertisements and notices and articles were +sent to all the journals in the Union without distinction of color. The “Daily +Negro.” the special organ of the black race, published a portrait of Frycollin +after his latest photograph. Rewards were offered to whoever would give news of +the three absentees, and even to those who would find some clue to put the +police on the track. “Five thousand dollars! Five thousand dollars to any +citizen who would—” +</p> + +<p> +Nothing was done. The five thousand dollars remained with the treasurer of the +Weldon Institute. +</p> + +<p> +Undiscoverable! Undiscoverable! Undiscoverable! Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, +of Philadelphia! +</p> + +<p> +It need hardly be said that the club was put to serious inconvenience by this +disappearance of its president and secretary. And at first the assembly voted +urgency to a measure which suspended the work on the “Go-Ahead.” How, in the +absence of the principal promoters of the affair, of those who had devoted to +the enterprise a certain part of their fortune in time and money—how could they +finish the work when these were not present? It were better, then, to wait. +</p> + +<p> +And just then came the first news of the strange phenomenon which had exercised +people’s minds some weeks before. The mysterious object had been again seen at +different times in the higher regions of the atmosphere. But nobody dreamt of +establishing a connection between this singular reappearance and the no less +singular disappearance of the members of the Weldon Institute. In fact, it +would have required a very strong dose of imagination to connect one of these +facts with the other. +</p> + +<p> +Whatever it might be, asteroid or aerolite or aerial monster, it had reappeared +in such a way that its dimensions and shape could be much better appreciated, +first in Canada, over the country between Ottawa and Quebec, on the very +morning after the disappearance of the colleagues, and later over the plains of +the Far West, where it had tried its speed against an express train on the +Union Pacific. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of this day the doubts of the learned world were at an end. The body +was not a product of nature, it was a flying machine, the practical application +of the theory of “heavier than air.” And if the inventor of the aeronef had +wished to keep himself unknown he could evidently have done better than to try +it over the Far West. As to the mechanical force he required, or the engines by +which it was communicated, nothing was known, but there could be no doubt the +aeronef was gifted with an extraordinary faculty of locomotion. In fact, a few +days afterwards it was reported from the Celestial Empire, then from the +southern part of India, then from the Russian steppes. +</p> + +<p> +Who was then this bold mechanician that possessed such powers of locomotion, +for whom States had no frontiers and oceans no limits, who disposed of the +terrestrial atmosphere as if it were his domain? Could it be this Robur whose +theories had been so brutally thrown in the face of the Weldon Institute the +day he led the attack against the utopia of guidable balloons? Perhaps such a +notion occurred to some of the wide-awake people, but none dreamt that the said +Robur had anything to do with the disappearance of the president and secretary +of the Institute. +</p> + +<p> +Things remained in this state of mystery when a telegram arrived from France +through the New York cable at 11-37 A.M. on July 13. And what was this +telegram? It was the text of the document found at Paris in a snuff-box +revealing what had happened to the two personages for whom the Union was in +mourning. +</p> + +<p> +So, then, the perpetrator of this kidnapping “was” Robur the engineer, come +expressly to Philadelphia to destroy in its egg the theory of the balloonists. +He it was who commanded the “Albatross!” He it was who carried off by way of +reprisal Uncle Prudent, Phil Evans and Frycollin; and they might be considered +lost for ever. At least until some means were found of constructing an engine +capable of contending with this powerful machine their terrestrial friends +would never bring them back to earth. +</p> + +<p> +What excitement! What stupor! The telegram from Paris had been addressed to the +members of the Weldon Institute. The members of the club were immediately +informed of it. Ten minutes later all Philadelphia received the news through +its telephones, and in less than an hour all America heard of it through the +innumerable electric wires of the new continent. +</p> + +<p> +No one would believe it! “It is an unseasonable joke.” said some. “It is all +smoke.” said others. How could such a thing be done in Philadelphia, and so +secretly, too? How could the “Albatross” have been beached in Fairmount Park +without its appearance having been signaled all over Pennsylvania? +</p> + +<p> +Very good. These were the arguments. The incredulous had the right of doubting. +But the right did not last long. Seven days after the receipt of the telegram +the French mail-boat “Normandie” came into the Hudson, bringing the famous +snuff-box. The railway took it in all haste from New York to Philadelphia. +</p> + +<p> +It was indeed the snuff-box of the President of the Weldon Institute. Jem Chip +would have done on at day to take some more substantial nourishment, for he +fell into a swoon when he recognized it. How many a time had he taken from it +the pinch of friendship! And Miss Doll and Miss Mat also recognized it, and so +did William T. Forbes, Truck Milnor, Bat T. Fynn, and many other members. And +not only was it the president’s snuff-box, it was the president’s writing! +</p> + +<p> +Then did the people lament and stretch out their hands in despair to the skies. +Uncle Prudent and his colleague carried away in a flying machine, and no one +able to deliver them! +</p> + +<p> +The Niagara Falls Company, in which Uncle Prudent was the largest shareholder, +thought of suspending its business and turning off its cataracts. The Wheelton +Watch Company thought of winding up its machinery, now it had lost its manager. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing more was heard of the aeronef. July passed, and there was no news. +August ran its course, and the uncertainty on the subject of Robur’s prisoners +was as great as ever. Had he, like Icarus, fallen a victim to his own temerity? +</p> + +<p> +The first twenty-seven days of September went by without result, but on the +28th a rumor spread through Philadelphia that Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans had +during the afternoon quietly walked into the president’s house. And, what was +more extraordinary, the rumor was true, although very few believed it. +</p> + +<p> +They had, however, to give in to the evidence. There could be no doubt these +were the two men, and not their shadows. And Frycollin also had come back! The +members of the club, then their friends, then the crowd, swarmed into the +president’s house, and shook hands with the president and secretary, and +cheered them again and again. Jem Chip was there, having left his luncheon’s +joint of boiled lettuces, and William T. Forbes and his daughters, and all the +members of the club. It is a mystery how Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans emerged +alive from the thousands who welcomed them. +</p> + +<p> +On that evening was the weekly meeting of the Institute. It was expected that +the colleagues would take their places at the desk. As they had said nothing of +their adventures, it was thought they would then speak, and relate the +impressions of their voyage. But for some reason or other both were silent. And +so also was Frycollin, whom his congeners in their delirium had failed to +dismember. +</p> + +<p> +But though the colleagues did not tell what had happened to them, that is no +reason why we should not. We know what occurred on the night of the 27th and +28th of July; the daring escape to the earth, the scramble among the rocks, the +bullet fired at Phil Evans, the cut cable, and the “Albatross” deprived of her +propellers, drifting off to the northeast at a great altitude. Her electric +lamps rendered her visible for some time. And then she disappeared. +</p> + +<p> +The fugitives had little to fear. Now could Robur get back to the island for +three or four hours if his screws were out of gear? By that time the +“Albatross” would have been destroyed by the explosion, and be no more than a +wreck floating on the sea; those whom she bore would be mangled corpses, which +the ocean would not even give up again. The act of vengeance would be +accomplished. +</p> + +<p> +Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans looked upon it as an act of legitimate +self-defence, and felt no remorse whatever. Evans was but slightly wounded by +the rifle bullet, and the three made their way up from the shore in the hope of +meeting some of the natives. The hope was realized. About fifty natives were +living by fishing off the western coast. They had seen the aeronef descend on +the island, and they welcomed the fugitives as if they were supernatural +beings. They worshipped them, we ought rather to say. They accommodated them in +the most comfortable of their huts. +</p> + +<p> +As they had expected, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans saw nothing more of the +aeronef. They concluded that the catastrophe had taken place in some high +region of the atmosphere, and that they would hear no more of Robur and his +prodigious machine. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile they had to wait for an opportunity of returning to America. The +Chatham Islands are not much visited by navigators, and all August passed +without sign of a ship. The fugitives began to ask themselves if they had not +exchanged one prison for another. +</p> + +<p> +At last a ship came to water at the Chatham Islands. It will not have been +forgotten that when Uncle Prudent was seized he had on him several thousand +paper dollars, much more than would take him back to America. After thanking +their adorers, who were not sparing of their most respectful demonstrations, +Uncle Prudent, Phil Evans, and Frycollin embarked for Auckland. They said +nothing of their adventures, and in two weeks landed in New Zealand. +</p> + +<p> +At Auckland, a mail-boat took them on board as passengers, and after a splendid +passage the survivors of the “Albatross” stepped ashore at San Francisco. They +said nothing as to who they were or whence they had come, but as they had paid +full price for their berths no American captain would trouble them further. At +San Francisco they took the first train out on the Pacific Railway, and on the +27th of September, they arrived at Philadelphia, That is the compendious +history of what had occurred since the escape of the fugitives. And that is why +this very evening the president and secretary of the Weldon Institute took +their seats amid a most extraordinary attendance. +</p> + +<p> +Never before had either of them been so calm. To look at them it did not seem +as though anything abnormal had happened since the memorable sitting of the +12th of June. Three months and a half had gone, and seemed to be counted as +nothing. After the first round of cheers, which both received without showing +the slightest emotion, Uncle Prudent took off his hat and spoke. +</p> + +<p> +“Worthy citizens.” said he, “the meeting is now open.” +</p> + +<p> +Tremendous applause. And properly so, for if it was not extraordinary that the +meeting was open, it was extraordinary that it should be opened by Uncle +Prudent and Phil Evans. +</p> + +<p> +The president allowed the enthusiasm to subside in shouts and clappings; then +he continued: “At our last meeting, gentlemen, the discussion was somewhat +animated—(hear, hear)—between the partisans of the screw before and those of +the screw behind for our balloon the “Go-Ahead.” (Marks of surprise.) We have +found a way to bring the beforists and the behindists in agreement. That way is +as follows: we are going to use two screws, one at each end of the car.” +Silence, and complete stupefaction. +</p> + +<p> +That was all. +</p> + +<p> +Yes, all! Of the kidnapping of the president and secretary of the Weldon +Institute not a word! Not a word of the “Albatross” nor of Robur! Not a word of +the voyage! Not a word of the way in which the prisoners had escaped! Not a +word of what had become of the aeronef, if it still flew through space, or if +they were to be prepared for new reprisals on the member’s of the club! +</p> + +<p> +Of course the balloonists were longing to ask Uncle Prudent and the secretary +about all these things, but they looked so close and so serious that they +thought it best to respect their attitude. When they thought fit to speak they +would do so, and it would be an honor to hear. After all, there might be in all +this some secret which would not yet be divulged. +</p> + +<p> +And then Uncle Prudent, resuming his speech amid a silence up to then unknown +in the meetings of the Weldon Institute, said, “Gentlemen, it now only remains +for us to finish the aerostat ‘Go-Ahead.’ It is left to her to effect the +conquest of the air! The meeting is at an end!” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap22"></a> +Chapter XXII<br/> +THE GO-AHEAD IS LAUNCHED</h2> + +<p> +On the following 19th of April, seven months after the unexpected return of +Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, Philadelphia was in a state of unwonted +excitement. There were neither elections nor meetings this time. The aerostat +“Go-Ahead.” built by the Weldon Institute, was to take possession of her +natural element. +</p> + +<p> +The celebrated Harry W. Tinder, whose name we mentioned at the beginning of +this story, had been engaged as aeronaut. He had no assistant, and the only +passengers were to be the president and secretary of the Weldon Institute. +</p> + +<p> +Did they not merit such an honor? Did it not come to them appropriately to rise +in person to protest against any apparatus that was heavier than air? +</p> + +<p> +During the seven months, however, they had said nothing of their adventures; +and even Frycollin had not uttered a whisper of Robur and his wonderful +clipper. Probably Uncle Prudent and his friend desired that no question should +arise as to the merits of the aeronef, or any other flying machine. +</p> + +<p> +Although the “Go-Ahead” might not claim the first place among aerial +locomotives, they would have nothing to say about the inventions of other +aviators. They believed, and would always believe, that the true atmospheric +vehicle was the aerostat, and that to it alone belonged the future. +</p> + +<p> +Besides, he on whom they had been so terribly—and in their idea so +justly—avenged, existed no longer. None of those who accompanied him had +survived. The secret of the “Albatross” was buried in the depths of the +Pacific! +</p> + +<p> +That Robur had a retreat, an island in the middle of that vast ocean, where he +could put into port, was only a hypothesis; and the colleagues reserved to +themselves the right of making inquiries on the subject later on. The grand +experiment which the Weldon Institute had been preparing for so long was at +last to take place. The “Go-Ahead” was the most perfect type of what had up to +then been invented in aerostatic art—she was what an “Inflexible” or a +“Formidable” is in ships of war. +</p> + +<p> +She possessed all the qualities of a good aerostat. Her dimensions allowed of +her rising to the greatest height a balloon could attain; her impermeability +enabled her to remain for an indefinite time in the atmosphere; her solidity +would defy any dilation of gas or violence of wind or rain; her capacity gave +her sufficient ascensional force to lift with all their accessories an electric +engine that would communicate to her propellers a power superior to anything +yet obtained. The “Go-Ahead” was of elongated form, so as to facilitate her +horizontal displacement. Her car was a platform somewhat like that of the +balloon used by Krebs and Renard; and it carried all the necessary outfit, +instruments, cables, grapnels, guide-ropes, etc., and the piles and +accumulators for the mechanical power. The car had a screw in front, and a +screw and rudder behind. But probably the work done by the machines would be +very much less than that done by the machines of the “Albatross.” +</p> + +<p> +The “Go-Ahead” had been taken to the clearing in Fairmount Park, to the very +spot where the aeronef had landed for a few hours. +</p> + +<p> +Her ascensional power was due to the very lightest of gaseous bodies. Ordinary +lighting gas possesses an elevating force of about 700 grams for every cubic +meter. But hydrogen possesses an ascensional force estimated at 1,100 grams per +cubic meter. Pure hydrogen prepared according to the method of the celebrated +Henry Gifford filled the enormous balloon. And as the capacity of the +“Go-Ahead” was 40,000 cubic meters, the ascensional power of the gas she +contained was 40,000 multiplied by 1,100 or 44,000 kilograms. +</p> + +<p> +On this 29th of April everything was ready. Since eleven o’clock the enormous +aerostat had been floating a few feet from the ground ready to rise in mid-air. +It was splendid weather and seemed to have been made specially for the +experiment, although if the breeze had been stronger the results might have +been more conclusive. There had never been any doubt that a balloon could be +guided in a calm atmosphere; but to guide it when the atmosphere is in motion +is quite another thing; and it is under such circumstances that the experiment +should be tried. +</p> + +<p> +But there was no wind today, nor any sign of any. Strange to say, North America +on that day omitted to send on to Europe one of those first-class storms which +it seems to have in such inexhaustible numbers. A better day could not have +been chosen for an aeronautic experiment. +</p> + +<p> +The crowd was immense in Fairmount Park; trains had poured into the +Pennsylvania capital sightseers from the neighboring states; industrial and +commercial life came to a standstill that the people might troop to the +show-master, workmen, women, old men, children, members of Congress, soldiers, +magistrates, reporters, white natives and black natives, all were there. We +need not stop to describe the excitement, the unaccountable movements, the +sudden pushings, which made the mass heave and swell. Nor need we recount the +number of cheers which rose from all sides like fireworks when Uncle Prudent +and Phil Evans appeared on the platform and hoisted the American colors. Need +we say that the majority of the crowd had come from afar not so much to see the +“Go-Ahead” as to gaze on these extraordinary men? +</p> + +<p> +Why two and not three? Why not Frycollin? Because Frycollin thought his +campaign in the “Albatross” sufficient for his fame. He had declined the honor +of accompanying his master, and he took no part in the frenzied declamations +that greeted the president and secretary of the Weldon Institute. +</p> + +<p> +Of the members of the illustrious assembly not one was absent from the reserved +places within the ropes. There were Truck Milnor, Bat T. Fynn, and William T. +Forbes with his two daughters on his arm. All had come to affirm by their +presence that nothing could separate them from the partisans of “lighter than +air.” +</p> + +<p> +About twenty minutes past eleven a gun announced the end of the final +preparations. The “Go-Ahead” only waited the signal to start. At twenty-five +minutes past eleven the second gun was fired. +</p> + +<p> +The “Go-Ahead” was about one hundred and fifty feet above the clearing, and was +held by a rope. In this way the platform commanded the excited crowd. Uncle +Prudent and Phil Evans stood upright and placed their left hands on their +hearts, to signify how deeply they were touched by their reception. Then they +extended their right hands towards the zenith, to signify that the greatest of +known balloons was about to take possession of the supra-terrestrial domain. +</p> + +<p> +A hundred thousand hands were placed in answer on a hundred thousand hearts, +and a hundred thousand other hands were lifted to the sky. +</p> + +<p> +The third gun was fired at half-past eleven. “Let go!” shouted Uncle Prudent; +and the “Go-Ahead” rose “majestically”—an adverb consecrated by custom to all +aerostatic ascents. +</p> + +<p> +It really was a superb spectacle. It seemed as if a vessel were just launched +from the stocks. And was she not a vessel launched into the aerial sea? The +“Go-Ahead” went up in a perfectly vertical line—a proof of the calmness of the +atmosphere—and stopped at an altitude of eight hundred feet. +</p> + +<p> +Then she began her horizontal maneuvering. With her screws going she moved to +the east at a speed of twelve yards a second. That is the speed of the +whale—not an inappropriate comparison, for the balloon was somewhat of the +shape of the giant of the northern seas. +</p> + +<p> +A salvo of cheers mounted towards the skillful aeronauts. Then under the +influence of her rudder, the “Go-Ahead” went through all the evolutions that +her steersman could give her. She turned in a small circle; she moved forwards +and backwards in a way to convince the most refractory disbeliever in the +guiding of balloons. And if there had been any disbeliever there he would have +been simply annihilated. +</p> + +<p> +But why was there no wind to assist at this magnificent experiment? It was +regrettable. Doubtless the spectators would have seen the “Go-Ahead” +unhesitatingly execute all the movements of a sailing-vessel in beating to +windward, or of a steamer driving in the wind’s eye. +</p> + +<p> +At this moment the aerostat rose a few hundred yards. The maneuver was +understood below. Uncle Prudent and his companions were going in search of a +breeze in the higher zones, so as to complete the experiment. The system of +cellular balloons—analogous to the swimming bladder in fishes—into which could +be introduced a certain amount of air by pumping, had provided for this +vertical motion. Without throwing out ballast or losing gas the aeronaut was +able to rise or sink at his will. Of course there was a valve in the upper +hemisphere which would permit of a rapid descent if found necessary. All these +contrivances are well known, but they were here fitted in perfection. +</p> + +<p> +The “Go-Ahead” then rose vertically. Her enormous dimensions gradually grew +smaller to the eye, and the necks of the crowd were almost cricked as they +gazed into the air. Gradually the whale became a porpoise, and the porpoise +became a gudgeon. The ascensional movement did not cease until the “Go-Ahead” +had reached a height of fourteen thousand feet. But the air was so free from +mist that she remained clearly visible. +</p> + +<p> +However, she remained over the clearing as if she were a fixture. An immense +bell had imprisoned the atmosphere and deprived it of movement; not a breath of +wind was there, high or low. The aerostat maneuvered without encountering any +resistance, seeming very small owing to the distance, much as if she were being +looked at through the wrong end of a telescope. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly there was a shout among the crowd, a shout followed by a hundred +thousand more. All hands were stretched towards a point on the horizon. That +point was the northwest. There in the deep azure appeared a moving body, which +was approaching and growing larger. Was it a bird beating with its wings the +higher zones of space? Was it an aerolite shooting obliquely through the +atmosphere? In any case, its speed was terrific, and it would soon be above the +crowd. A suspicion communicated itself electrically to the brains of all on the +clearing. +</p> + +<p> +But it seemed as though the “Go-Ahead” had sighted this strange object. +Assuredly it seemed as though she feared some danger, for her speed was +increased, and she was going east as fast as she could. +</p> + +<p> +Yes, the crowd saw what it meant! A name uttered by one of the members of the +Weldon Institute was repeated by a hundred thousand mouths: +</p> + +<p> +“The “Albatross!” The “Albatross!”” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap23"></a> +Chapter XXIII<br/> +THE GRAND COLLAPSE</h2> + +<p> +It was indeed the “Albatross!” It was indeed Robur who had reappeared in the +heights of the sky! It was he who like a huge bird of prey was going to strike +the “Go-Ahead.” +</p> + +<p> +And yet, nine months before, the aeronef, shattered by the explosion, her +screws broken, her deck smashed in two, had been apparently annihilated. +</p> + +<p> +Without the prodigious coolness of the engineer, who reversed the gyratory +motion of the fore propeller and converted it into a suspensory screw, the men +of the “Albatross” would all have been asphyxiated by the fall. But if they had +escaped asphyxia, how had they escaped being drowned in the Pacific? +</p> + +<p> +The remains of the deck, the blades of the propellers, the compartments of the +cabins, all formed a sort of raft. When a wounded bird falls on the waves its +wings keep it afloat. For several hours Robur and his men remained unhelped, at +first on the wreck, and afterwards in the india-rubber boat that had fallen +uninjured. A few hours after sunrise they were sighted by a passing ship, and a +boat was lowered to their rescue. +</p> + +<p> +Robur and his companions were saved, and so was much of what remained of the +aeronef. The engineer said that his ship had perished in a collision, and no +further questions were asked him. +</p> + +<p> +The ship was an English three-master, the “Two Friends.” bound for Melbourne, +where she arrived a few days afterwards. +</p> + +<p> +Robur was in Australia, but a long way from X Island, to which he desired to +return as soon as possible. +</p> + +<p> +In the ruins of the aftermost cabin he had found a considerable sum of money, +quite enough to provide for himself and companions without applying to anyone +for help. A short time after he arrived in Melbourne he became the owner of a +small brigantine of about a hundred tons, and in her he sailed for X Island. +</p> + +<p> +There he had but one idea—to be avenged. But to secure his vengeance he would +have to make another “Albatross.” This after all was an easy task for him who +made the first. He used up what he could of the old material; the propellers +and engines he had brought back in the brigantine. The mechanism was fitted +with new piles and new accumulators, and, in short, in less than eight months, +the work was finished, and a new “Albatross.” identical with the one destroyed +by the explosion, was ready to take flight. And he had the same crew. +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” left X Island in the first week of April. During this aerial +passage Robur did not want to be seen from the earth, and he came along almost +always above the clouds. When he arrived over North America he descended in a +desolate spot in the Far West. There the engineer, keeping a profound +incognito, learnt with considerable pleasure that the Weldon Institute was +about to begin its experiments, and that the “Go-Ahead.” with Uncle Prudent and +Phil Evans, was going to start from Philadelphia on the 29th of April. +</p> + +<p> +Here was a chance for Robur and his crew to gratify their longing for revenge. +Here was a chance for inflicting on their foes a terrible vengeance, which in +the “Go-Ahead” they could not escape. A public vengeance, which would at the +same time prove the superiority of the aeronef to all aerostats and +contrivances of that nature! +</p> + +<p> +And that is why, on this very day, like a vulture from the clouds, the aeronef +appeared over Fairmount Park. +</p> + +<p> +Yes! It was the “Albatross.” easily recognizable by all those who had never +before seen her. +</p> + +<p> +The “Go-Ahead” was in full flight; but it soon appeared that she could not +escape horizontally, and so she sought her safety in a vertical direction, not +dropping to the ground, for the aeronef would have cut her off, but rising to a +zone where she could not perhaps be reached. This was very daring, and at the +same time very logical. +</p> + +<p> +But the “Albatross” began to rise after her. Although she was smaller than the +“Go-Ahead.” it was a case of the swordfish and the whale. +</p> + +<p> +This could easily be seen from below and with what anxiety! In a few moments +the aerostat had attained a height of sixteen thousand feet. +</p> + +<p> +The “Albatross” followed her as she rose. She flew round her flanks, and +maneuvered round her in a circle with a constantly diminishing radius. She +could have annihilated her at a stroke, and Uncle Prudent and his companions +would have been dashed to atoms in a frightful fall. +</p> + +<p> +The people, mute with horror, gazed breathlessly; they were seized with that +sort of fear which presses on the chest and grips the legs when we see anyone +fall from a height. An aerial combat was beginning in which there were none of +the chances of safety as in a sea-fight. It was the first of its kind, but it +would not be the last, for progress is one of the laws of this world. And if +the “Go-Ahead” was flying the American colors, did not the “Albatross” display +the stars and golden sun of Robur the Conqueror? +</p> + +<p> +The “Go-Ahead” tried to distance her enemy by rising still higher. She threw +away the ballast she had in reserve; she made a new leap of three thousand +feet; she was now but a dot in space. The “Albatross.” which followed her round +and round at top speed, was now invisible. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly a shout of terror rose from the crowd. The “Go-Ahead” increased +rapidly in size, and the aeronef appeared dropping with her. This time it was a +fall. The gas had dilated in the higher zones of the atmosphere and had burst +the balloon, which, half inflated still, was falling rapidly. +</p> + +<p> +But the aeronef, slowing her suspensory screws, came down just as fast. She ran +alongside the “Go-Ahead” when she was not more than four thousand feet from the +ground. +</p> + +<p> +Would Robur destroy her? +</p> + +<p> +No; he was going to save her crew! +</p> + +<p> +And so cleverly did he handle his vessel that the aeronaut jumped on board. +</p> + +<p> +Would Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans refuse to be saved by him? They were quite +capable of doing so. But the crew threw themselves on them and dragged them by +force from the “Go-Ahead” to the “Albatross.” +</p> + +<p> +Then the aeronef glided off and remained stationary, while the balloon, quite +empty of gas, fell on the trees of the clearing and hung there like a gigantic +rag. +</p> + +<p> +An appalling silence reigned on the ground. It seemed as though life were +suspended in each of the crowd; and many eyes had been closed so as not to +behold the final catastrophe. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans had again become the +prisoners of the redoubtable Robur. Now he had recaptured them, would he carry +them off into space, where it was impossible to follow him? +</p> + +<p> +It seemed so. +</p> + +<p> +However, instead of mounting into the sky the “Albatross” stopped six feet from +the ground. Then, amid profound silence, the engineer’s voice was heard. +</p> + +<p> +“Citizens of the United States.” he said, “The president and secretary of the +Weldon Institute are again in my power. In keeping them I am only within my +right. But from the passion kindled in them by the success of the “Albatross” I +see that their minds are not prepared for that important revolution which the +conquest of the air will one day bring, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, you are +free!” +</p> + +<p> +The president, the secretary, and the aeronaut had only to jump down. +</p> + +<p> +Then Robur continued. +</p> + +<p> +“Citizens of the United States, my experiment is finished; but my advice to +those present is to be premature in nothing, not even in progress. It is +evolution and not revolution that we should seek. In a word, we must not be +before our time. I have come too soon today to withstand such contradictory and +divided interests as yours. Nations are not yet fit for union. +</p> + +<p> +“I go, then; and I take my secret with me. But it will not be lost to humanity. +It will belong to you the day you are educated enough to profit by it and wise +enough not to abuse it. Citizens of the United States—Good-by!” +</p> + +<p> +And the “Albatross.” beating the air with her seventy-four screws, and driven +by her propellers, shot off towards the east amid a tempest of cheers. +</p> + +<p> +The two colleagues, profoundly humiliated, and through them the whole Weldon +Institute, did the only thing they could. They went home. +</p> + +<p> +And the crowd by a sudden change of front greeted them with particularly keen +sarcasms, and, at their expense, are sarcastic still. +</p> + +<p> +And now, who is this Robur? Shall we ever know? +</p> + +<p> +We know today. Robur is the science of the future. Perhaps the science of +tomorrow. Certainly the science that will come! +</p> + +<p> +Does the “Albatross” still cruise in the atmosphere in the realm that none can +take from her? There is no reason to doubt it. +</p> + +<p> +Will Robur, the Conqueror, appear one day as he said? Yes! He will come to +declare the secret of his invention, which will greatly change the social and +political conditions of the world. +</p> + +<p> +As for the future of aerial locomotion, it belongs to the aeronef and not the +aerostat. +</p> + +<p> +It is to the “Albatross” that the conquest of the air will assuredly fall. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +—End of Voyage Extraordinaire—Robur the Conqueror— +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROBUR THE CONQUEROR ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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