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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Master of the World, by Jules Verne
+
+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
+www.gutenberg.org. 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.
+
+Title: The Master of the World
+
+Author: Jules Verne
+
+Release Date: September 19, 2001 [eBook #3809]
+[Most recently updated: November 12, 2020]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Norm Wolcott. HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASTER OF THE WORLD ***
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+The Master of the World
+
+by Jules Verne
+
+
+Contents
+
+ I. What Happened in the Mountains
+ II. I Reach Morganton
+ III. The Great Eyrie
+ IV. A Meeting of the Automobile Club
+ V. Along the Shores of New England
+ VI. The First Letter
+ VII. A Third Machine
+ VIII. At Any Cost
+ IX. The Second Letter
+ X. Outside the Law
+ XI. The Campaign
+ XII. Black Rock Creek
+ XIII. On Board the Terror
+ XIV. Niagara
+ XV. The Eagle’s Nest
+ XVI. Robur, the Conqueror
+ XVII. In the Name of the Law
+ XVIII. The Old Housekeeper’s Last Comment
+
+
+
+
+I.
+WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MOUNTAINS
+
+
+If I speak of myself in this story, it is because I have been deeply
+involved in its startling events, events doubtless among the most
+extraordinary which this twentieth century will witness. Sometimes I
+even ask myself if all this has really happened, if its pictures dwell
+in truth in my memory, and not merely in my imagination. In my position
+as head inspector in the federal police department at Washington, urged
+on moreover by the desire, which has always been very strong in me, to
+investigate and understand everything which is mysterious, I naturally
+became much interested in these remarkable occurrences. And as I have
+been employed by the government in various important affairs and secret
+missions since I was a mere lad, it also happened very naturally that
+the head of my department placed in my charge this astonishing
+investigation, wherein I found myself wrestling with so many
+impenetrable mysteries.
+
+In the remarkable passages of the recital, it is important that you
+should believe my word. For some of the facts I can bring no other
+testimony than my own. If you do not wish to believe me, so be it. I
+can scarce believe it all myself.
+
+The strange occurrences began in the western part of our great American
+State of North Carolina. There, deep amid the Blueridge Mountains rises
+the crest called the Great Eyrie. Its huge rounded form is distinctly
+seen from the little town of Morganton on the Catawba River, and still
+more clearly as one approaches the mountains by way of the village of
+Pleasant Garden.
+
+Why the name of Great Eyrie was originally given this mountain by the
+people of the surrounding region, I am not quite sure. It rises rocky
+and grim and inaccessible, and under certain atmospheric conditions has
+a peculiarly blue and distant effect. But the idea one would naturally
+get from the name is of a refuge for birds of prey, eagles, condors,
+vultures; the home of vast numbers of the feathered tribes, wheeling
+and screaming above peaks beyond the reach of man. Now, the Great Eyrie
+did not seem particularly attractive to birds; on the contrary, the
+people of the neighborhood began to remark that on some days when birds
+approached its summit they mounted still further, circled high above
+the crest, and then flew swiftly away, troubling the air with harsh
+cries.
+
+Why then the name Great Eyrie? Perhaps the mount might better have been
+called a crater, for in the center of those steep and rounded walls
+there might well be a huge deep basin. Perhaps there might even lie
+within their circuit a mountain lake, such as exists in other parts of
+the Appalachian mountain system, a lagoon fed by the rain and the
+winter snows.
+
+In brief was not this the site of an ancient volcano, one which had
+slept through ages, but whose inner fires might yet reawake? Might not
+the Great Eyrie reproduce in its neighborhood the violence of Mount
+Krakatoa or the terrible disaster of Mont Pelee? If there were indeed a
+central lake, was there not danger that its waters, penetrating the
+strata beneath, would be turned to steam by the volcanic fires and tear
+their way forth in a tremendous explosion, deluging the fair plains of
+Carolina with an eruption such as that of 1902 in Martinique?
+
+Indeed, with regard to this last possibility there had been certain
+symptoms recently observed which might well be due to volcanic action.
+Smoke had floated above the mountain and once the country folk passing
+near had heard subterranean noises, unexplainable rumblings. A glow in
+the sky had crowned the height at night.
+
+When the wind blew the smoky cloud eastward toward Pleasant Garden, a
+few cinders and ashes drifted down from it. And finally one stormy
+night pale flames, reflected from the clouds above the summit, cast
+upon the district below a sinister, warning light.
+
+In presence of these strange phenomena, it is not astonishing that the
+people of the surrounding district became seriously disquieted. And to
+the disquiet was joined an imperious need of knowing the true condition
+of the mountain. The Carolina newspapers had flaring headlines, “The
+Mystery of Great Eyrie!” They asked if it was not dangerous to dwell in
+such a region. Their articles aroused curiosity and fear—curiosity
+among those who being in no danger themselves were interested in the
+disturbance merely as a strange phenomenon of nature, fear in those who
+were likely to be the victims if a catastrophe actually occurred. Those
+more immediately threatened were the citizens of Morganton, and even
+more the good folk of Pleasant Garden and the hamlets and farms yet
+closer to the mountain.
+
+Assuredly it was regrettable that mountain climbers had not previously
+attempted to ascend to the summit of the Great Eyrie. The cliffs of
+rock which surrounded it had never been scaled. Perhaps they might
+offer no path by which even the most daring climber could penetrate to
+the interior. Yet, if a volcanic eruption menaced all the western
+region of the Carolinas, then a complete examination of the mountain
+was become absolutely necessary.
+
+Now before the actual ascent of the crater, with its many serious
+difficulties, was attempted, there was one way which offered an
+opportunity of reconnoitering the interior, without clambering up the
+precipices. In the first days of September of that memorable year, a
+well-known aeronaut named Wilker came to Morganton with his balloon. By
+waiting for a breeze from the east, he could easily rise in his balloon
+and drift over the Great Eyrie. There from a safe height above he could
+search with a powerful glass into its deeps. Thus he would know if the
+mouth of a volcano really opened amid the mighty rocks. This was the
+principal question. If this were settled, it would be known if the
+surrounding country must fear an eruption at some period more or less
+distant.
+
+The ascension was begun according to the programme suggested. The wind
+was fair and steady; the sky clear; the morning clouds were
+disappearing under the vigorous rays of the sun. If the interior of the
+Great Eyrie was not filled with smoke, the aeronaut would be able to
+search with his glass its entire extent. If the vapors were rising, he,
+no doubt, could detect their source.
+
+The balloon rose at once to a height of fifteen hundred feet, and there
+rested almost motionless for a quarter of an hour. Evidently the east
+wind, which was brisk upon the Surface of the earth, did not make
+itself felt at that height. Then, unlucky chance, the balloon was
+caught in an adverse current, and began to drift toward the east. Its
+distance from the mountain chain rapidly increased. Despite all the
+efforts of the aeronaut, the citizens of Morganton saw the balloon
+disappear on the wrong horizon. Later, they learned that it had landed
+in the neighborhood of Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina.
+
+This attempt having failed, it was agreed that it should be tried again
+under better conditions. Indeed, fresh rumblings were heard from the
+mountain, accompanied by heavy clouds and wavering glimmerings of light
+at night. Folk began to realize that the Great Eyrie was a serious and
+perhaps imminent source of danger. Yes, the entire country lay under
+the threat of some seismic or volcanic disaster.
+
+During the first days of April of that year, these more or less vague
+apprehensions turned to actual panic. The newspapers gave prompt echo
+to the public terror. The entire district between the mountains and
+Morganton was sure that an eruption was at hand.
+
+The night of the fourth of April, the good folk of Pleasant Garden were
+awakened by a sudden uproar. They thought that the mountains were
+falling upon them. They rushed from their houses, ready for instant
+flight, fearing to see open before them some immense abyss, engulfing
+the farms and villages for miles around.
+
+The night was very dark. A weight of heavy clouds pressed down upon the
+plain. Even had it been day the crest of the mountains would have been
+invisible.
+
+In the midst of this impenetrable obscurity, there was no response to
+the cries which arose from every side. Frightened groups of men, women,
+and children groped their way along the black roads in wild confusion.
+From every quarter came the screaming voices: “It is an earthquake!”
+“It is an eruption!” “Whence comes it?” “From the Great Eyrie!”
+
+Into Morganton sped the news that stones, lava, ashes, were raining
+down upon the country.
+
+Shrewd citizens of the town, however, observed that if there were an
+eruption the noise would have continued and increased, the flames would
+have appeared above the crater; or at least their lurid reflections
+would have penetrated the clouds. Now, even these reflections were no
+longer seen. If there had been an earthquake, the terrified people saw
+that at least their houses had not crumbled beneath the shock. It was
+possible that the uproar had been caused by an avalanche, the fall of
+some mighty rock from the summit of the mountains.
+
+An hour passed without other incident. A wind from the west sweeping
+over the long chain of the Blueridge, set the pines and hemlocks
+wailing on the higher slopes. There seemed no new cause for panic; and
+folk began to return to their houses. All, however, awaited impatiently
+the return of day.
+
+Then suddenly, toward three o’clock in the morning, another alarm!
+Flames leaped up above the rocky wall of the Great Eyrie. Reflected
+from the clouds, they illuminated the atmosphere for a great distance.
+A crackling, as if of many burning trees, was heard.
+
+Had a fire spontaneously broken out? And to what cause was it due?
+Lightning could not have started the conflagration; for no thunder had
+been heard. True, there was plenty of material for fire; at this height
+the chain of the Blueridge is well wooded. But these flames were too
+sudden for any ordinary cause.
+
+“An eruption! An eruption!”
+
+The cry resounded from all sides. An eruption! The Great Eyrie was then
+indeed the crater of a volcano buried in the bowels of the mountains.
+And after so many years, so many ages even, had it reawakened? Added to
+the flames, was a rain of stones and ashes about to follow? Were the
+lavas going to pour down torrents of molten fire, destroying everything
+in their passage, annihilating the towns, the villages, the farms, all
+this beautiful world of meadows, fields and forests, even as far as
+Pleasant Garden and Morganton?
+
+This time the panic was overwhelming; nothing could stop it. Women
+carrying their infants, crazed with terror, rushed along the eastward
+roads. Men, deserting their homes, made hurried bundles of their most
+precious belongings and set free their livestock, cows, sheep, pigs,
+which fled in all directions. What disorder resulted from this
+agglomeration, human and animal, under darkest night, amid forests,
+threatened by the fires of the volcano, along the border of marshes
+whose waters might be upheaved and overflow! With the earth itself
+threatening to disappear from under the feet of the fugitives! Would
+they be in time to save themselves, if a cascade of glowing lava came
+rolling down the slope of the mountain across their route?
+
+Nevertheless, some of the chief and shrewder farm owners were not swept
+away in this mad flight, which they did their best to restrain.
+Venturing within a mile of the mountain, they saw that the glare of the
+flames was decreasing. In truth it hardly seemed that the region was
+immediately menaced by any further upheaval. No stones were being
+hurled into space; no torrent of lava was visible upon the slopes; no
+rumblings rose from the ground. There was no further manifestation of
+any seismic disturbance capable of overwhelming the land.
+
+At length, the flight of the fugitives ceased at a distance where they
+seemed secure from all danger. Then a few ventured back toward the
+mountain. Some farms were reoccupied before the break of day.
+
+By morning the crests of the Great Eyrie showed scarcely the least
+remnant of its cloud of smoke. The fires were certainly at an end; and
+if it were impossible to determine their cause, one might at least hope
+that they would not break out again.
+
+It appeared possible that the Great Eyrie had not really been the
+theater of volcanic phenomena at all. There was no further evidence
+that the neighborhood was at the mercy either of eruptions or of
+earthquakes.
+
+Yet once more about five o’clock, from beneath the ridge of the
+mountain, where the shadows of night still lingered, a strange noise
+swept across the air, a sort of whirring, accompanied by the beating of
+mighty wings. And had it been a clear day, perhaps the farmers would
+have seen the passage of a mighty bird of prey, some monster of the
+skies, which having risen from the Great Eyrie sped away toward the
+east.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+I REACH MORGANTON
+
+
+The twenty-seventh of April, having left Washington the night before, I
+arrived at Raleigh, the capital of the State of North Carolina.
+
+Two days before, the head of the federal police had called me to his
+room. He was awaiting me with some impatience. “John Strock,” said he,
+“are you still the man who on so many occasions has proven to me both
+his devotion and his ability?”
+
+“Mr. Ward,” I answered, with a bow, “I cannot promise success or even
+ability, but as to devotion, I assure you, it is yours.”
+
+“I do not doubt it,” responded the chief. “And I will ask you instead
+this more exact question: Are you as fond of riddles as ever? As eager
+to penetrate into mysteries, as I have known you before?”
+
+“I am, Mr. Ward.”
+
+“Good, Strock; then listen.”
+
+Mr. Ward, a man of about fifty years, of great power and intellect, was
+fully master of the important position he filled. He had several times
+entrusted to me difficult missions which I had accomplished
+successfully, and which had won me his confidence. For several months
+past, however, he had found no occasion for my services. Therefore I
+awaited with impatience what he had to say. I did not doubt that his
+questioning implied a serious and important task for me.
+
+“Doubtless you know,” said he, “what has happened down in the Blueridge
+Mountains near Morganton.”
+
+“Surely, Mr. Ward, the phenomena reported from there have been singular
+enough to arouse anyone’s curiosity.”
+
+“They are singular, even remarkable, Strock. No doubt about that. But
+there is also reason to ask, if these phenomena about the Great Eyrie
+are not a source of continued danger to the people there, if they are
+not forerunners of some disaster as terrible as it is mysterious.”
+
+“It is to be feared, sir.”
+
+“So we must know, Strock, what is inside of that mountain. If we are
+helpless in the face of some great force of nature, people must be
+warned in time of the danger which threatens them.”
+
+“It is clearly the duty of the authorities, Mr. Ward,” responded I, “to
+learn what is going on within there.”
+
+“True, Strock; but that presents great difficulties. Everyone reports
+that it is impossible to scale the precipices of the Great Eyrie and
+reach its interior. But has anyone ever attempted it with scientific
+appliances and under the best conditions? I doubt it, and believe a
+resolute attempt may bring success.”
+
+“Nothing is impossible, Mr. Ward; what we face here is merely a
+question of expense.”
+
+“We must not regard expense when we are seeking to reassure an entire
+population, or to preserve it from a catastrophe. There is another
+suggestion I would make to you. Perhaps this Great Eyrie is not so
+inaccessible as is supposed. Perhaps a band of malefactors have
+secreted themselves there, gaining access by ways known only to
+themselves.”
+
+“What! You suspect that robbers—”
+
+“Perhaps I am wrong, Strock; and these strange sights and sounds have
+all had natural causes. Well, that is what we have to settle, and as
+quickly as possible.”
+
+“I have one question to ask.”
+
+“Go ahead, Strock.”
+
+“When the Great Eyrie has been visited, when we know the source of
+these phenomena, if there really is a crater there and an eruption is
+imminent, can we avert it?”
+
+“No, Strock; but we can estimate the extent of the danger. If some
+volcano in the Alleghanies threatens North Carolina with a disaster
+similar to that of Martinique, buried beneath the outpourings of Mont
+Pelee, then these people must leave their homes.”
+
+“I hope, sir, there is no such widespread danger.”
+
+“I think not, Strock; it seems to me highly improbable that an active
+volcano exists in the Blueridge mountain chain. Our Appalachian
+mountain system is nowhere volcanic in its origin. But all these events
+cannot be without basis. In short, Strock, we have decided to make a
+strict inquiry into the phenomena of the Great Eyrie, to gather all the
+testimony, to question the people of the towns and farms. To do this, I
+have made choice of an agent in whom we have full confidence; and this
+agent is you, Strock.”
+
+“Good! I am ready, Mr. Ward,” cried I, “and be sure that I shall
+neglect nothing to bring you full information.”
+
+“I know it, Strock, and I will add that I regard you as specially
+fitted for the work. You will have a splendid opportunity to exercise,
+and I hope to satisfy, your favorite passion of curiosity.”
+
+“As you say, sir.”
+
+“You will be free to act according to circumstances. As to expenses, if
+there seems reason to organize an ascension party, which will be
+costly, you have carte blanche.”
+
+“I will act as seems best, Mr. Ward.”
+
+“Let me caution you to act with all possible discretion. The people in
+the vicinity are already over-excited. It will be well to move
+secretly. Do not mention the suspicions I have suggested to you. And
+above all, avoid arousing any fresh panic.”
+
+“It is understood.”
+
+“You will be accredited to the Mayor of Morganton, who will assist you.
+Once more, be prudent, Strock, and acquaint no one with your mission,
+unless it is absolutely necessary. You have often given proofs of your
+intelligence and address; and this time I feel assured you will
+succeed.”
+
+I asked him only “When shall I start?”
+
+“Tomorrow.”
+
+“Tomorrow, I shall leave Washington; and the day after, I shall be at
+Morganton.”
+
+How little suspicion had I of what the future had in store for me!
+
+I returned immediately to my house where I made my preparations for
+departure; and the next evening found me in Raleigh. There I passed the
+night, and in the course of the next afternoon arrived at the railroad
+station of Morganton.
+
+Morganton is but a small town, built upon strata of the jurassic
+period, particularly rich in coal. Its mines give it some prosperity.
+It also has numerous unpleasant mineral waters, so that the season
+there attracts many visitors. Around Morganton is a rich farming
+country, with broad fields of grain. It lies in the midst of swamps,
+covered with mosses and reeds. Evergreen forests rise high up the
+mountain slopes. All that the region lacks is the wells of natural gas,
+that invaluable natural source of power, light, and warmth, so abundant
+in most of the Alleghany valleys. Villages and farms are numerous up to
+the very borders of the mountain forests. Thus there were many
+thousands of people threatened, if the Great Eyrie proved indeed a
+volcano, if the convulsions of nature extended to Pleasant Garden and
+to Morganton.
+
+The mayor of Morganton, Mr. Elias Smith, was a tall man, vigorous and
+enterprising, forty years old or more, and of a health to defy all the
+doctors of the two Americas. He was a great hunter of bears and
+panthers, beasts which may still be found in the wild gorges and mighty
+forests of the Alleghanies.
+
+Mr. Smith was himself a rich land-owner, possessing several farms in
+the neighborhood. Even his most distant tenants received frequent
+visits from him. Indeed, whenever his official duties did not keep him
+in his so-called home at Morganton, he was exploring the surrounding
+country, irresistibly drawn by the instincts of the hunter.
+
+I went at once to the house of Mr. Smith. He was expecting me, having
+been warned by telegram. He received me very frankly, without any
+formality, his pipe in his mouth, a glass of brandy on the table. A
+second glass was brought in by a servant, and I had to drink to my host
+before beginning our interview.
+
+“Mr. Ward sent you,” said he to me in a jovial tone. “Good; let us
+drink to Mr. Ward’s health.”
+
+I clinked glasses with him, and drank in honor of the chief of police.
+
+“And now,” demanded Elias Smith, “what is worrying him?”
+
+At this I made known to the mayor of Morganton the cause and the
+purpose of my mission in North Carolina. I assured him that my chief
+had given me full power, and would render me every assistance,
+financial and otherwise, to solve the riddle and relieve the
+neighborhood of its anxiety relative to the Great Eyrie.
+
+Elias Smith listened to me without uttering a word, but not without
+several times refilling his glass and mine. While he puffed steadily at
+his pipe, the close attention which he gave me was beyond question. I
+saw his cheeks flush at times, and his eyes gleam under their bushy
+brows. Evidently the chief magistrate of Morganton was uneasy about
+Great Eyrie, and would be as eager as I to discover the cause of these
+phenomena.
+
+When I had finished my communication, Elias Smith gazed at me for some
+moments in silence. Then he said, softly, “So at Washington they wish
+to know what the Great Eyrie hides within its circuit?”
+
+“Yes, Mr. Smith.”
+
+“And you, also?”
+
+“I do.”
+
+“So do I, Mr. Strock.”
+
+He and I were as one in our curiosity.
+
+“You will understand,” added he, knocking the cinders from his pipe,
+“that as a land-owner, I am much interested in these stories of the
+Great Eyrie, and as mayor, I wish to protect my constituents.”
+
+“A double reason,” I commented, “to stimulate you to discover the cause
+of these extraordinary occurrences! Without doubt, my dear Mr. Smith,
+they have appeared to you as inexplicable and as threatening as to your
+people.”
+
+“Inexplicable, certainly, Mr. Strock. For on my part, I do not believe
+it possible that the Great Eyrie can be a volcano; the Alleghanies are
+nowhere of volcanic origins. I, myself, in our immediate district, have
+never found any geological traces of scoria, or lava, or any eruptive
+rock whatever. I do not think, therefore, that Morganton can possibly
+be threatened from such a source.”
+
+“You really think not, Mr. Smith?”
+
+“Certainly.”
+
+“But these tremblings of the earth that have been felt in the
+neighborhood!”
+
+“Yes these tremblings! These tremblings!” repeated Mr. Smith, shaking
+his head; “but in the first place, is it certain that there have been
+tremblings? At the moment when the flames showed most sharply, I was on
+my farm of Wildon, less than a mile from the Great Eyrie. There was
+certainly a tumult in the air, but I felt no quivering of the earth.”
+
+“But in the reports sent to Mr. Ward—”
+
+“Reports made under the impulse of the panic,” interrupted the mayor of
+Morganton. “I said nothing of any earth tremors in mine.”
+
+“But as to the flames which rose clearly above the crest?”
+
+“Yes, as to those, Mr. Strock, that is different. I saw them; saw them
+with my own eyes, and the clouds certainly reflected them for miles
+around. Moreover noises certainly came from the crater of the Great
+Eyrie, hissings, as if a great boiler were letting off steam.”
+
+“You have reliable testimony of this?”
+
+“Yes, the evidence of my own ears.”
+
+“And in the midst of this noise, Mr. Smith, did you believe that you
+heard that most remarkable of all the phenomena, a sound like the
+flapping of great wings?”
+
+“I thought so, Mr. Strock; but what mighty bird could this be, which
+sped away after the flames had died down, and what wings could ever
+make such tremendous sounds. I therefore seriously question, if this
+must not have been a deception of my imagination. The Great Eyrie a
+refuge for unknown monsters of the sky! Would they not have been seen
+long since, soaring above their immense nest of stone? In short, there
+is in all this a mystery which has not yet been solved.”
+
+“But we will solve it, Mr. Smith, if you will give me your aid.”
+
+“Surely, Mr. Strock; tomorrow we will start our campaign.”
+
+“Tomorrow.” And on that word the mayor and I separated. I went to a
+hotel, and established myself for a stay which might be indefinitely
+prolonged. Then having dined, and written to Mr. Ward, I saw Mr. Smith
+again in the afternoon, and arranged to leave Morganton with him at
+daybreak.
+
+Our first purpose was to undertake the ascent of the mountain, with the
+aid of two experienced guides. These men had ascended Mt. Mitchell and
+others of the highest peaks of the Blueridge. They had never, however,
+attempted the Great Eyrie, knowing that its walls of inaccessible
+cliffs defended it on every side. Moreover, before the recent startling
+occurrences the Great Eyrie had not particularly attracted the
+attention of tourists. Mr. Smith knew the two guides personally as men
+daring, skillful and trustworthy. They would stop at no obstacle; and
+we were resolved to follow them through everything.
+
+Moreover Mr. Smith remarked at the last that perhaps it was no longer
+as difficult as formerly to penetrate within the Great Eyrie.
+
+“And why?” asked I.
+
+“Because a huge block has recently broken away from the mountain side
+and perhaps it has left a practicable path or entrance.”
+
+“That would be a fortunate chance, Mr. Smith.”
+
+“We shall know all about it, Mr. Strock, no later than tomorrow.”
+
+“Till tomorrow, then.”
+
+
+
+
+III.
+THE GREAT EYRIE
+
+
+The next day at dawn, Elias Smith and I left Morganton by a road which,
+winding along the left bank of the Catawba River, led to the village of
+Pleasant Garden. The guides accompanied us, Harry Horn, a man of
+thirty, and James Bruck, aged twenty-five. They were both natives of
+the region, and in constant demand among the tourists who climbed the
+peaks of the Blueridge and Cumberland Mountains.
+
+A light wagon with two good horses was provided to carry us to the foot
+of the range. It contained provisions for two or three days, beyond
+which our trip surely would not be protracted. Mr. Smith had shown
+himself a generous provider both in meats and in liquors. As to water
+the mountain springs would furnish it in abundance, increased by the
+heavy rains, frequent in that region during springtime.
+
+It is needless to add that the Mayor of Morganton in his role of
+hunter, had brought along his gun and his dog, Nisko, who gamboled
+joyously about the wagon. Nisko, however, was to remain behind at the
+farm at Wildon, when we attempted our ascent. He could not possibly
+follow us to the Great Eyrie with its cliffs to scale and its crevasses
+to cross.
+
+The day was beautiful, the fresh air in that climate is still cool of
+an April morning. A few fleecy clouds sped rapidly overhead, driven by
+a light breeze which swept across the long plains, from the distant
+Atlantic. The sun peeping forth at intervals, illumined all the fresh
+young verdure of the countryside.
+
+An entire world animated the woods through which we passed. From before
+our equipage fled squirrels, field-mice, parroquets of brilliant colors
+and deafening loquacity. Opossums passed in hurried leaps, bearing
+their young in their pouches. Myriads of birds were scattered amid the
+foliage of banyans, palms, and masses of rhododendrons, so luxuriant
+that their thickets were impenetrable.
+
+We arrived that evening at Pleasant Garden, where we were comfortably
+located for the night with the mayor of the town, a particular friend
+of Mr. Smith. Pleasant Garden proved little more than a village; but
+its mayor gave us a warm and generous reception, and we supped
+pleasantly in his charming home, which stood beneath the shades of some
+giant beech-trees.
+
+Naturally the conversation turned upon our attempt to explore the
+interior of the Great Eyrie. “You are right,” said our host, “until we
+all know what is hidden within there, our people will remain uneasy.”
+
+“Has nothing new occurred,” I asked, “since the last appearance of
+flames above the Great Eyrie?”
+
+“Nothing, Mr. Strock. From Pleasant Garden we can see the entire crest
+of the mountain. Not a suspicious noise has come down to us. Not a
+spark has risen. If a legion of devils is in hiding there, they must
+have finished their infernal cookery, and soared away to some other
+haunt.”
+
+“Devils!” cried Mr. Smith. “Well, I hope they have not decamped without
+leaving some traces of their occupation, some parings of hoofs or horns
+or tails. We shall find them out.”
+
+On the morrow, the twenty-ninth of April, we started again at dawn. By
+the end of this second day, we expected to reach the farm of Wildon at
+the foot of the mountain. The country was much the same as before,
+except that our road led more steeply upward. Woods and marshes
+alternated, though the latter grew sparser, being drained by the sun as
+we approached the higher levels. The country was also less populous.
+There were only a few little hamlets, almost lost beneath the beech
+trees, a few lonely farms, abundantly watered by the many streams that
+rushed downward toward the Catawba River.
+
+The smaller birds and beasts grew yet more numerous. “I am much tempted
+to take my gun,” said Mr. Smith, “and to go off with Nisko. This will
+be the first time that I have passed here without trying my luck with
+the partridges and hares. The good beasts will not recognize me. But
+not only have we plenty of provisions, but we have a bigger chase on
+hand today. The chase of a mystery.”
+
+“And let us hope,” added I, “we do not come back disappointed hunters.”
+
+In the afternoon the whole chain of the Blueridge stretched before us
+at a distance of only six miles. The mountain crests were sharply
+outlined against the clear sky. Well wooded at the base, they grew more
+bare and showed only stunted evergreens toward the summit. There the
+scraggly trees, grotesquely twisted, gave to the rocky heights a bleak
+and bizarre appearance. Here and there the ridge rose in sharp peaks.
+On our right the Black Dome, nearly seven thousand feet high, reared
+its gigantic head, sparkling at times above the clouds.
+
+“Have you ever climbed that dome, Mr. Smith?” I asked.
+
+“No,” answered he, “but I am told that it is a very difficult ascent. A
+few mountaineers have climbed it; but they report that it has no
+outlook commanding the crater of the Great Eyrie.”
+
+“That is so,” said the guide, Harry Horn. “I have tried it myself.”
+
+“Perhaps,” suggested I, “the weather was unfavorable.”
+
+“On the contrary, Mr. Strock, it was unusually clear. But the wall of
+the Great Eyrie on that side rose so high, it completely hid the
+interior.”
+
+“Forward,” cried Mr. Smith. “I shall not be sorry to set foot where no
+person has ever stepped, or even looked, before.”
+
+Certainly on this day the Great Eyrie looked tranquil enough. As we
+gazed upon it, there rose from its heights neither smoke nor flame.
+
+Toward five o’clock our expedition halted at the Wildon farm, where the
+tenants warmly welcomed their landlord. The farmer assured us that
+nothing notable had happened about the Great Eyrie for some time. We
+supped at a common table with all the people of the farm; and our sleep
+that night was sound and wholly untroubled by premonitions of the
+future.
+
+On the morrow, before break of day, we set out for the ascent of the
+mountain. The height of the Great Eyrie scarce exceeds five thousand
+feet. A modest altitude, often surpassed in this section of the
+Alleghanies. As we were already more than three thousand feet above sea
+level, the fatigue of the ascent could not be great. A few hours should
+suffice to bring us to the crest of the crater. Of course, difficulties
+might present themselves, precipices to scale, clefts and breaks in the
+ridge might necessitate painful and even dangerous detours. This was
+the unknown, the spur to our attempt. As I said, our guides knew no
+more than we upon this point. What made me anxious, was, of course, the
+common report that the Great Eyrie was wholly inaccessible. But this
+remained unproven. And then there was the new chance that a fallen
+block had left a breach in the rocky wall.
+
+“At last,” said Mr. Smith to me, after lighting the first pipe of the
+twenty or more which he smoked each day, “we are well started. As to
+whether the ascent will take more or less time—”
+
+“In any case, Mr. Smith,” interrupted I, “you and I are fully resolved
+to pursue our quest to the end.”
+
+“Fully resolved, Mr. Strock.”
+
+“My chief has charged me to snatch the secret from this demon of the
+Great Eyrie.”
+
+“We will snatch it from him, willing or unwilling,” vowed Mr. Smith,
+calling Heaven to witness. “Even if we have to search the very bowels
+of the mountain.”
+
+“As it may happen, then,” said I, “that our excursion will be prolonged
+beyond today, it will be well to look to our provisions.”
+
+“Be easy, Mr. Strock; our guides have food for two days in their
+knapsacks, besides what we carry ourselves. Moreover, though I left my
+brave Nisko at the farm, I have my gun. Game will be plentiful in the
+woods and gorges of the lower part of the mountain, and perhaps at the
+top we shall find a fire to cook it, already lighted.”
+
+“Already lighted, Mr. Smith?”
+
+“And why not, Mr. Strock? These flames! These superb flames, which have
+so terrified our country folk! Is their fire absolutely cold, is no
+spark to be found beneath their ashes? And then, if this is truly a
+crater, is the volcano so wholly extinct that we cannot find there a
+single ember? Bah! This would be but a poor volcano if it hasn’t enough
+fire even to cook an egg or roast a potato. Come, I repeat, we shall
+see! We shall see!”
+
+At that point of the investigation I had, I confess, no opinion formed.
+I had my orders to examine the Great Eyrie. If it proved harmless, I
+would announce it, and people would be reassured. But at heart, I must
+admit, I had the very natural desire of a man possessed by the demon of
+curiosity. I should be glad, both for my own sake, and for the renown
+which would attach to my mission if the Great Eyrie proved the center
+of the most remarkable phenomena—of which I would discover the cause.
+
+Our ascent began in this order. The two guides went in front to seek
+out the most practicable paths. Elias Smith and I followed more
+leisurely. We mounted by a narrow and not very steep gorge amid rocks
+and trees. A tiny stream trickled downward under our feet. During the
+rainy season or after a heavy shower, the water doubtless bounded from
+rock to rock in tumultuous cascades. But it evidently was fed only by
+the rain, for now we could scarcely trace its course. It could not be
+the outlet of any lake within the Great Eyrie.
+
+After an hour of climbing, the slope became so steep that we had to
+turn, now to the right, now to the left; and our progress was much
+delayed. Soon the gorge became wholly impracticable; its cliff-like
+sides offered no sufficient foothold. We had to cling by branches, to
+crawl upon our knees. At this rate the top would not be reached before
+sundown.
+
+“Faith!” cried Mr. Smith, stopping for breath. “I realize why the
+climbers of the Great Eyrie have been few, so few, that it has never
+been ascended within my knowledge.”
+
+“The fact is,” I responded, “that it would be much toil for very little
+profit. And if we had not special reasons to persist in our attempt.”
+
+“You never said a truer word,” declared Harry Horn. “My comrade and I
+have scaled the Black Dome several times, but we never met such
+obstacles as these.”
+
+“The difficulties seem almost impassable,” added James Bruck.
+
+The question now was to determine to which side we should turn for a
+new route; to right, as to left, arose impenetrable masses of trees and
+bushes. In truth even the scaling of cliffs would have been more easy.
+Perhaps if we could get above this wooded slope we could advance with
+surer foot. Now, we could only go ahead blindly, and trust to the
+instincts of our two guides. James Bruck was especially useful. I
+believe that that gallant lad would have equaled a monkey in lightness
+and a wild goat in agility. Unfortunately, neither Elias Smith nor I
+was able to climb where he could.
+
+However, when it is a matter of real need with me, I trust I shall
+never be backward, being resolute by nature and well-trained in bodily
+exercise. Where James Bruck went, I was determined to go, also; though
+it might cost me some uncomfortable falls. But it was not the same with
+the first magistrate of Morganton, less young, less vigorous, larger,
+stouter, and less persistent than we others. Plainly he made every
+effort, not to retard our progress, but he panted like a seal, and soon
+I insisted on his stopping to rest.
+
+In short, it was evident that the ascent of the Great Eyrie would
+require far more time than we had estimated. We had expected to reach
+the foot of the rocky wall before eleven o’clock, but we now saw that
+mid-day would still find us several hundred feet below it.
+
+Toward ten o’clock, after repeated attempts to discover some more
+practicable route, after numberless turnings and returnings, one of the
+guides gave the signal to halt. We found ourselves at last on the upper
+border of the heavy wood. The trees, more thinly spaced, permitted us a
+glimpse upward to the base of the rocky wall which constituted the true
+Great Eyrie.
+
+“Whew!” exclaimed Mr. Smith, leaning against a mighty pine tree, “a
+little respite, a little repose, and even a little repast would not go
+badly.”
+
+“We will rest an hour,” said I.
+
+“Yes; after working our lungs and our legs, we will make our stomachs
+work.”
+
+We were all agreed on this point. A rest would certainty freshen us.
+Our only cause for inquietude was now the appearance of the precipitous
+slope above us. We looked up toward one of those bare strips called in
+that region, slides. Amid this loose earth, these yielding stones, and
+these abrupt rocks there was no roadway.
+
+Harry Horn said to his comrade, “It will not be easy.”
+
+“Perhaps impossible,” responded Bruck.
+
+Their comments caused me secret uneasiness. If I returned without even
+having scaled the mountain, my mission would be a complete failure,
+without speaking of the torture to my curiosity. And when I stood again
+before Mr. Ward, shamed and confused, I should cut but a sorry figure.
+
+We opened our knapsacks and lunched moderately on bread and cold meat.
+Our repast finished, in less than half an hour, Mr. Smith sprang up
+eager to push forward once more. James Bruck took the lead; and we had
+only to follow him as best we could.
+
+We advanced slowly. Our guides did not attempt to conceal their doubt
+and hesitation. Soon Horn left us and went far ahead to spy out which
+road promised most chance of success.
+
+Twenty minutes later he returned and led us onward toward the
+northwest. It was on this side that the Black Dome rose at a distance
+of three or four miles. Our path was still difficult and painful, amid
+the sliding stones, held in place only occasionally by wiry bushes. At
+length after a weary struggle, we gained some two hundred feet further
+upward and found ourselves facing a great gash, which broke the earth
+at this spot. Here and there were scattered roots recently uptorn,
+branches broken off, huge stones reduced to powder, as if an avalanche
+had rushed down this flank of the mountain.
+
+“That must be the path taken by the huge block which broke away from
+the Great Eyrie,” commented James Bruck.
+
+“No doubt,” answered Mr. Smith, “and I think we had better follow the
+road that it has made for us.”
+
+It was indeed this gash that Harry Horn had selected for our ascent.
+Our feet found lodgment in the firmer earth which had resisted the
+passage of the monster rock. Our task thus became much easier, and our
+progress was in a straight line upward, so that toward half past eleven
+we reached the upper border of the “slide.”
+
+Before us, less than a hundred feet away, but towering a hundred feet
+straight upwards in the air rose the rocky wall which formed the final
+crest, the last defence of the Great Eyrie.
+
+From this side, the summit of the wall showed capriciously irregular,
+rising in rude towers and jagged needles. At one point the outline
+appeared to be an enormous eagle silhouetted against the sky, just
+ready to take flight. Upon this side, at least, the precipice was
+insurmountable.
+
+“Rest a minute,” said Mr. Smith, “and we will see if it is possible to
+make our way around the base of this cliff.”
+
+“At any rate,” said Harry Horn, “the great block must have fallen from
+this part of the cliff; and it has left no breach for entering.”
+
+They were both right; we must seek entrance elsewhere. After a rest of
+ten minutes, we clambered up close to the foot of the wall, and began
+to make a circuit of its base.
+
+Assuredly the Great Eyrie now took on to my eyes an aspect absolutely
+fantastic. Its heights seemed peopled by dragons and huge monsters. If
+chimeras, griffins, and all the creations of mythology had appeared to
+guard it, I should have been scarcely surprised.
+
+With great difficulty and not without danger we continued our tour of
+this circumvallation, where it seemed that nature had worked as man
+does, with careful regularity. Nowhere was there any break in the
+fortification; nowhere a fault in the strata by which one might clamber
+up. Always this mighty wall, a hundred feet in height!
+
+After an hour and a half of this laborious circuit, we regained our
+starting-place. I could not conceal my disappointment, and Mr. Smith
+was not less chagrined than I.
+
+“A thousand devils!” cried he, “we know no better than before what is
+inside this confounded Great Eyrie, nor even if it is a crater.”
+
+“Volcano, or not,” said I, “there are no suspicious noises now; neither
+smoke nor flame rises above it; nothing whatever threatens an
+eruption.”
+
+This was true. A profound silence reigned around us; and a perfectly
+clear sky shone overhead. We tasted the perfect calm of great
+altitudes.
+
+It was worth noting that the circumference of the huge wall was about
+twelve or fifteen hundred feet. As to the space enclosed within, we
+could scarce reckon that without knowing the thickness of the
+encompassing wall. The surroundings were absolutely deserted. Probably
+not a living creature ever mounted to this height, except the few birds
+of prey which soared high above us.
+
+Our watches showed three o’clock, and Mr. Smith cried in disgust, “What
+is the use of stopping here all day! We shall learn nothing more. We
+must make a start, Mr. Strock, if we want to get back to Pleasant
+Garden to-night.”
+
+I made no answer, and did not move from where I was seated; so he
+called again, “Come, Mr. Strock; you don’t answer.”
+
+In truth, it cut me deeply to abandon our effort, to descend the slope
+without having achieved my mission. I felt an imperious need of
+persisting; my curiosity had redoubled. But what could I do? Could I
+tear open this unyielding earth? Overleap the mighty cliff? Throwing
+one last defiant glare at the Great Eyrie, I followed my companions.
+
+The return was effected without great difficulty. We had only to slide
+down where we had so laboriously scrambled up. Before five o’clock we
+descended the last slopes of the mountain, and the farmer of Wildon
+welcomed us to a much needed meal.
+
+“Then you didn’t get inside?” said he.
+
+“No,” responded Mr. Smith, “and I believe that the inside exists only
+in the imagination of our country folk.”
+
+At half past eight our carriage drew up before the house of the Mayor
+of Pleasant Garden, where we passed the night. While I strove vainly to
+sleep, I asked myself if I should not stop there in the village and
+organize a new ascent. But what better chance had it of succeeding than
+the first? The wisest course was, doubtless, to return to Washington
+and consult Mr. Ward.
+
+So, the next day, having rewarded our two guides, I took leave of Mr.
+Smith at Morganton, and that same evening left by train for Washington.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+A MEETING OF THE AUTOMOBILE CLUB
+
+
+Was the mystery of the Great Eyrie to be solved some day by chances
+beyond our imagining? That was known only to the future. And was the
+solution a matter of the first importance? That was beyond doubt, since
+the safety of the people of western Carolina perhaps depended upon it.
+
+Yet a fortnight after my return to Washington, public attention was
+wholly distracted from this problem by another very different in
+nature, but equally astonishing.
+
+Toward the middle of that month of May the newspapers of Pennsylvania
+informed their readers of some strange occurrences in different parts
+of the state. On the roads which radiated from Philadelphia, the chief
+city, there circulated an extraordinary vehicle, of which no one could
+describe the form, or the nature, or even the size, so rapidly did it
+rush past. It was an automobile; all were agreed on that. But as to
+what motor drove it, only imagination could say; and when the popular
+imagination is aroused, what limit is there to its hypotheses?
+
+At that period the most improved automobiles, whether driven by steam,
+gasoline, or electricity, could not accomplish much more than sixty
+miles an hour, a speed that the railroads, with their most rapid
+expresses, scarce exceed on the best lines of America and Europe. Now,
+this new automobile which was astonishing the world, traveled at more
+than double this speed.
+
+It is needless to add that such a rate constituted an extreme danger on
+the highroads, as much so for vehicles, as for pedestrians. This
+rushing mass, coming like a thunder-bolt, preceded by a formidable
+rumbling, caused a whirlwind, which tore the branches from the trees
+along the road, terrified the animals browsing in adjoining fields, and
+scattered and killed the birds, which could not resist the suction of
+the tremendous air currents engendered by its passage.
+
+And, a bizarre detail to which the newspapers drew particular
+attention, the surface of the roads was scarcely even scratched by the
+wheels of the apparition, which left behind it no such ruts as are
+usually made by heavy vehicles. At most there was a light touch, a mere
+brushing of the dust. It was only the tremendous speed which raised
+behind the vehicle such whirlwinds of dust.
+
+“It is probable,” commented the New York Herald, “that the extreme
+rapidity of motion destroys the weight.”
+
+Naturally there were protests from all sides. It was impossible to
+permit the mad speed of this apparition which threatened to overthrow
+and destroy everything in its passage, equipages and people. But how
+could it be stopped? No one knew to whom the vehicle belonged, nor
+whence it came, nor whither it went. It was seen but for an instant as
+it darted forward like a bullet in its dizzy flight. How could one
+seize a cannon-ball in the air, as it leaped from the mouth of the gun?
+
+I repeat, there was no evidence as to the character of the propelling
+engine. It left behind it no smoke, no steam, no odor of gasoline, or
+any other oil. It seemed probable, therefore, that the vehicle ran by
+electricity, and that its accumulators were of an unknown model, using
+some unknown fluid.
+
+The public imagination, highly excited, readily accepted every sort of
+rumor about this mysterious automobile. It was said to be a
+supernatural car. It was driven by a specter, by one of the chauffeurs
+of hell, a goblin from another world, a monster escaped from some
+mythological menagerie, in short, the devil in person, who could defy
+all human intervention, having at his command invisible and infinite
+satanic powers.
+
+But even Satan himself had no right to run at such speed over the roads
+of the United States without a special permit, without a number on his
+car, and without a regular license. And it was certain that not a
+single municipality had given him permission to go two hundred miles an
+hour. Public security demanded that some means be found to unmask the
+secret of this terrible chauffeur.
+
+Moreover, it was not only Pennsylvania that served as the theater of
+his sportive eccentricities. The police reported his appearance in
+other states; in Kentucky near Frankfort; in Ohio near Columbus; in
+Tennessee near Nashville; in Missouri near Jefferson; and finally in
+Illinois in the neighborhood of Chicago.
+
+The alarm having been given, it became the duty of the authorities to
+take steps against this public danger. To arrest or even to halt an
+apparition moving at such speed was scarcely practicable. A better way
+would be to erect across the roads solid gateways with which the flying
+machine must come in contact sooner or later, and be smashed into a
+thousand pieces.
+
+“Nonsense!” declared the incredulous. “This madman would know well how
+to circle around such obstructions.”
+
+“And if necessary,” added others, “the machine would leap over the
+barriers.”
+
+“And if he is indeed the devil, he has, as a former angel, presumably
+preserved his wings, and so he will take to flight.”
+
+But this last was but the suggestion of foolish old gossips who did not
+stop to study the matter. For if the King of Hades possessed a pair of
+wings, why did he obstinately persist in running around on the earth at
+the risk of crushing his own subjects, when he might more easily have
+hurled himself through space as free as a bird.
+
+Such was the situation when, in the last week of May, a fresh event
+occurred, which seemed to show that the United States was indeed
+helpless in the hands of some unapproachable monster. And after the New
+World, would not the Old in its turn, be desecrated by the mad career
+of this remarkable automobilist?
+
+The following occurrence was reported in all the newspapers of the
+Union, and with what comments and outcries it is easy to imagine.
+
+A race was to be held by the automobile Club of Wisconsin, over the
+roads of that state of which Madison is the capital. The route laid out
+formed an excellent track, about two hundred miles in length, starting
+from Prairie-du-chien on the western frontier, passing by Madison and
+ending a little above Milwaukee on the borders of Lake Michigan. Except
+for the Japanese road between Nikko and Namode, bordered by giant
+cypresses, there is no better track in the world than this of
+Wisconsin. It runs straight and level as an arrow for sometimes fifty
+miles at a stretch. Many and noted were the machines entered for this
+great race. Every kind of motor vehicle was permitted to compete, even
+motorcycles, as well as automobiles. The machines were of all makes and
+nationalities. The sum of the different prizes reached fifty thousand
+dollars, so that the race was sure to be desperately contested. New
+records were expected to be made.
+
+Calculating on the maximum speed hitherto attained, of perhaps eighty
+miles an hour, this international contest covering two hundred miles
+would last about three hours. And, to avoid all danger, the state
+authorities of Wisconsin had forbidden all other traffic between
+Prairie-du-chien and Milwaukee during three hours on the morning of the
+thirtieth of May. Thus, if there were any accidents, those who suffered
+would be themselves to blame.
+
+There was an enormous crowd; and it was not composed only of the people
+of Wisconsin. Many thousands gathered from the neighboring states of
+Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana, and even from New York. Among the
+sportsmen assembled were many foreigners, English, French, Germans and
+Austrians, each nationality, of course, supporting the chauffeurs of
+its land. Moreover, as this was the United States, the country of the
+greatest gamblers of the world, bets were made of every sort and of
+enormous amounts.
+
+The start was to be made at eight o’clock in the morning; and to avoid
+crowding and the accidents which must result from it, the automobiles
+were to follow each other at two minute intervals, along the roads
+whose borders were black with spectators.
+
+The first ten racers, numbered by lot, were dispatched between eight
+o’clock and twenty minutes past. Unless there was some disastrous
+accident, some of these machines would surely arrive at the goal by
+eleven o’clock. The others followed in order.
+
+An hour and a half had passed. There remained but a single contestant
+at Prairie-du-chien. Word was sent back and forth by telephone every
+five minutes as to the order of the racers. Midway between Madison and
+Milwaukee, the lead was held by a machine of Renault brothers, four
+cylindered, of twenty horsepower, and with Michelin tires. It was
+closely followed by a Harvard-Watson car and by a Dion-Bouton. Some
+accidents had already occurred, other machines were hopelessly behind.
+Not more than a dozen would contest the finish. Several chauffeurs had
+been injured, but not seriously. And even had they been killed, the
+death of men is but a detail, not considered of great importance in
+that astonishing country of America.
+
+Naturally the excitement became more intense as one approached the
+finishing line near Milwaukee. There were assembled the most curious,
+the most interested; and there the passions of the moment were
+unchained. By ten o’clock it was evident, that the first prize, twenty
+thousand dollars, lay between five machines, two American, two French,
+and one English. Imagine, therefore, the fury with which bets were
+being made under the influence of national pride. The regular book
+makers could scarcely meet the demands of those who wished to wager.
+Offers and amounts were hurled from lip to lip with feverish rapidity.
+“One to three on the Harvard-Watson!”
+
+“One to two on the Dion-Bouton!”
+
+“Even money on the Renault!”
+
+These cries rang along the line of spectators at each new announcement
+from the telephones.
+
+Suddenly at half-past nine by the town clock of Prairie-du-chien, two
+miles beyond that town was heard a tremendous noise and rumbling which
+proceeded from the midst of a flying cloud of dust accompanied by
+shrieks like those of a naval siren.
+
+Scarcely had the crowds time to draw to one side, to escape a
+destruction which would have included hundreds of victims. The cloud
+swept by like a hurricane. No one could distinguish what it was that
+passed with such speed. There was no exaggeration in saying that its
+rate was at least one hundred and fifty miles an hour.
+
+The apparition passed and disappeared in an instant, leaving behind it
+a long train of white dust, as an express locomotive leaves behind a
+train of smoke. Evidently it was an automobile with a most
+extraordinary motor. If it maintained this arrow-like speed, it would
+reach the contestants in the fore-front of the race; it would pass them
+with this speed double their own; it would arrive first at the goal.
+
+And then from all parts arose an uproar, as soon as the spectators had
+nothing more to fear.
+
+“It is that infernal machine.”
+
+“Yes; the one the police cannot stop.”
+
+“But it has not been heard of for a fortnight.”
+
+“It was supposed to be done for, destroyed, gone forever.”
+
+“It is a devil’s car, driven by hellfire, and with Satan driving!”
+
+In truth, if he were not the devil, who could this mysterious chauffeur
+be, driving with this unbelievable velocity, his no less mysterious
+machine? At least it was beyond doubt that this was the same machine
+which had already attracted so much attention. If the police believed
+that they had frightened it away, that it was never to be heard of
+more, well, the police were mistaken which happens in America as
+elsewhere.
+
+The first stunned moment of surprise having passed, many people rushed
+to the telephones to warn those further along the route of the danger
+which menaced, not only the people, but also the automobiles scattered
+along the road.
+
+When this terrible madman arrived like an avalanche they would be
+smashed to pieces, ground into powder, annihilated!
+
+And from the collision might not the destroyer himself emerge safe and
+sound? He must be so adroit, this chauffeur of chauffeurs, he must
+handle his machine with such perfection of eye and hand, that he knew,
+no doubt, how to escape from every situation. Fortunately the Wisconsin
+authorities had taken such precautions that the road would be clear
+except for contesting automobiles. But what right had this machine
+among them!
+
+And what said the racers themselves, who, warned by telephone, had to
+sheer aside from the road in their struggle for the grand prize? By
+their estimate, this amazing vehicle was going at least one hundred and
+thirty miles an hour. Fast as was their speed, it shot by them at such
+a rate that they could hardly make out even the shape of the machine, a
+sort of lengthened spindle, probably not over thirty feet long. Its
+wheels spun with such velocity that they could scarce be seen. For the
+rest, the machine left behind it neither smoke nor scent.
+
+As for the driver, hidden in the interior of his machine, he had been
+quite invisible. He remained as unknown as when he had first appeared
+on the various roads throughout the country.
+
+Milwaukee was promptly warned of the coming of this interloper. Fancy
+the excitement the news caused! The immediate purpose agreed upon was
+to stop this projectile, to erect across its route an obstacle against
+which it would smash into a thousand pieces. But was there time? Would
+not the machine appear at any moment? And what need was there, since
+the track ended on the edge of Lake Michigan, and so the vehicle would
+be forced to stop there anyway, unless its supernatural driver could
+ride the water as well as the land.
+
+Here, also, as all along the route, the most extravagant suggestions
+were offered. Even those who would not admit that the mysterious
+chauffeur must be Satan in person allowed that he might be some monster
+escaped from the fantastic visions of the Apocalypse.
+
+And now there were no longer minutes to wait. Any second might bring
+the expected apparition.
+
+It was not yet eleven o’clock when a rumbling was heard far down the
+track, and the dust rose in violent whirlwinds. Harsh whistlings
+shrieked through the air warning all to give passage to the monster.
+
+It did not slacken speed at the finish. Lake Michigan was not half a
+mile beyond, and the machine must certainly be hurled into the water!
+Could it be that the mechanician was no longer master of his mechanism?
+
+There could be little doubt of it. Like a shooting star, the vehicle
+flashed through Milwaukee. When it had passed the city, would it plunge
+itself to destruction in the waters of Lake Michigan?
+
+At any rate when it disappeared at a slight bend in the road no trace
+was to be found of its passage.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+ALONG THE SHORES OF NEW ENGLAND
+
+
+At the time when the newspapers were filled with these reports, I was
+again in Washington. On my return I had presented myself at my chief’s
+office, but had been unable to see him. Family affairs had suddenly
+called him away, to be absent some weeks. Mr. Ward, however,
+undoubtedly knew of the failure of my mission. The newspapers,
+especially those of North Carolina, had given full details of our
+ascent of the Great Eyrie.
+
+Naturally, I was much annoyed by this delay which further fretted my
+restless curiosity. I could turn to no other plans for the future.
+Could I give up the hope of learning the secret of the Great Eyrie? No!
+I would return to the attack a dozen times if necessary, and despite
+every failure.
+
+Surely, the winning of access within those walls was not a task beyond
+human power. A scaffolding might be raised to the summit of the cliff;
+or a tunnel might be pierced through its depth. Our engineers met
+problems more difficult every day. But in this case it was necessary to
+consider the expense, which might easily grow out of proportion to the
+advantages to be gained. A tunnel would cost many thousand dollars, and
+what good would it accomplish beyond satisfying the public curiosity
+and my own?
+
+My personal resources were wholly insufficient for the achievement. Mr.
+Ward, who held the government’s funds, was away. I even thought of
+trying to interest some millionaire. Oh, if I could but have promised
+one of them some gold or silver mines within the mountain! But such an
+hypothesis was not admissible. The chain of the Appalachians is not
+situated in a gold bearing region like that of the Pacific mountains,
+the Transvaal, or Australia.
+
+It was not until the fifteenth of June that Mr. Ward returned to duty.
+Despite my lack of success he received me warmly. “Here is our poor
+Strock!” cried he, at my entrance. “Our poor Strock, who has failed!”
+
+“No more, Mr. Ward, than if you had charged me to investigate the
+surface of the moon,” answered I. “We found ourselves face to face with
+purely natural obstacles insurmountable with the forces then at our
+command.”
+
+“I do not doubt that, Strock, I do not doubt that in the least.
+Nevertheless, the fact remains that you have discovered nothing of what
+is going on within the Great Eyrie.”
+
+“Nothing, Mr. Ward.”
+
+“You saw no sign of fire?”
+
+“None.”
+
+“And you heard no suspicious noises whatever?”
+
+“None.”
+
+“Then it is still uncertain if there is really a volcano there?”
+
+“Still uncertain, Mr. Ward. But if it is there, we have good reason to
+believe that it has sunk into a profound sleep.”
+
+“Still,” returned Mr. Ward, “there is nothing to show that it will not
+wake up again any day, Strock. It is not enough that a volcano should
+sleep, it must be absolutely extinguished unless indeed all these
+threatening rumors have been born solely in the Carolinian
+imagination.”
+
+“That is not possible, sir,” I said. “Both Mr. Smith, the mayor of
+Morganton and his friend the mayor of Pleasant Garden, are reliable
+men. And they speak from their own knowledge in this matter. Flames
+have certainly risen above the Great Eyrie. Strange noises have issued
+from it. There can be no doubt whatever of the reality of these
+phenomena.”
+
+“Granted,” declared Mr. Ward. “I admit that the evidence is
+unassailable. So the deduction to be drawn is that the Great Eyrie has
+not yet given up its secret.”
+
+“If we are determined to know it, Mr. Ward, the solution is only a
+solution of expense. Pickaxes and dynamite would soon conquer those
+walls.”
+
+“No doubt,” responded the chief, “but such an undertaking hardly seems
+justified, since the mountain is now quiet. We will wait awhile and
+perhaps nature herself will disclose her mystery.”
+
+“Mr. Ward, believe me that I regret deeply that I have been unable to
+solve the problem you entrusted to me,” I said.
+
+“Nonsense! Do not upset yourself, Strock. Take your defeat
+philosophically. We cannot always be successful, even in the police.
+How many criminals escape us! I believe we should never capture one of
+them, if they were a little more intelligent and less imprudent, and if
+they did not compromise themselves so stupidly. Nothing, it seems to
+me, would be easier than to plan a crime, a theft or an assassination,
+and to execute it without arousing any suspicions, or leaving any
+traces to be followed. You understand, Strock, I do not want to give
+our criminals lessons; I much prefer to have them remain as they are.
+Nevertheless there are many whom the police will never be able to track
+down.”
+
+On this matter I shared absolutely the opinion of my chief. It is among
+rascals that one finds the most fools. For this very reason I had been
+much surprised that none of the authorities had been able to throw any
+light upon the recent performances of the “demon automobile.” And when
+Mr. Ward brought up this subject, I did not conceal from him my
+astonishment.
+
+He pointed out that the vehicle was practically unpursuable; that in
+its earlier appearances, it had apparently vanished from all roads even
+before a telephone message could be sent ahead. Active and numerous
+police agents had been spread throughout the country, but no one of
+them had encountered the delinquent. He did not move continuously from
+place to place, even at his amazing speed, but seemed to appear only
+for a moment and then to vanish into thin air. True, he had at length
+remained visible along the entire route from Prairie-du-Chien to
+Milwaukee, and he had covered in less than an hour and a half this
+track of two hundred miles.
+
+But since then, there had been no news whatever of the machine. Arrived
+at the end of the route, driven onward by its own impetus, unable to
+stop, had it indeed been engulfed within the waters of Lake Michigan?
+Must we conclude that the machine and its driver had both perished,
+that there was no longer any danger to be feared from either? The great
+majority of the public refused to accept this conclusion. They fully
+expected the machine to reappear.
+
+Mr. Ward frankly admitted that the whole matter seemed to him most
+extraordinary; and I shared his view. Assuredly if this infernal
+chauffeur did not return, his apparition would have to be placed among
+those superhuman mysteries which it is not given to man to understand.
+
+We had fully discussed this affair, the chief and I; and I thought that
+our interview was at an end, when, after pacing the room for a few
+moments, he said abruptly, “Yes, what happened there at Milwaukee was
+very strange. But here is something no less so!”
+
+With this he handed me a report which he had received from Boston, on a
+subject of which the evening papers had just begun to apprise their
+readers. While I read it, Mr. Ward was summoned from the room. I seated
+myself by the window and studied with extreme attention the matter of
+the report.
+
+For some days the waters along the coast of Maine, Connecticut, and
+Massachusetts had been the scene of an appearance which no one could
+exactly describe. A moving body would appear amid the waters, some two
+or three miles off shore, and go through rapid evolutions. It would
+flash for a while back and forth among the waves and then dart out of
+sight.
+
+The body moved with such lightning speed that the best telescopes could
+hardly follow it. Its length did not seem to exceed thirty feet. Its
+cigar-shaped form and greenish color, made it difficult to distinguish
+against the background of the ocean. It had been most frequently
+observed along the coast between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia. From
+Providence, from Boston, from Portsmouth, and from Portland motor boats
+and steam launches had repeatedly attempted to approach this moving
+body and even to give it chase. They could not get anywhere near it.
+Pursuit seemed useless. It darted like an arrow beyond the range of
+view.
+
+Naturally, widely differing opinions were held as to the nature of this
+object. But no hypothesis rested on any secure basis. Seamen were as
+much at a loss as others. At first sailors thought it must be some
+great fish, like a whale. But it is well known that all these animals
+come to the surface with a certain regularity to breathe, and spout up
+columns of mingled air and water. Now, this strange animal, if it was
+an animal, had never “blown” as the whalers say; nor had it ever made
+any noises of breathing. Yet if it were not one of these huge marine
+mammals, how was this unknown monster to be classed? Did it belong
+among the legendary dwellers in the deep, the krakens, the octopuses,
+the leviathans, the famous sea-serpents?
+
+At any rate, since this monster, whatever it was, had appeared along
+the New England shores, the little fishing-smacks and pleasure boats
+dared not venture forth. Wherever it appeared the boats fled to the
+nearest harbor, as was but prudent. If the animal was of a ferocious
+character, none cared to await its attack.
+
+As to the large ships and coast steamers, they had nothing to fear from
+any monster, whale or otherwise. Several of them had seen this creature
+at a distance of some miles. But when they attempted to approach, it
+fled rapidly away. One day, even, a fast United States gun boat went
+out from Boston, if not to pursue the monster, at least to send after
+it a few cannon shot. Almost instantly the animal disappeared, and the
+attempt was vain. As yet, however, the monster had shown no intention
+of attacking either boats or people.
+
+At this moment Mr. Ward returned and I interrupted my reading to say,
+“There seems as yet no reason to complain of this sea-serpent. It flees
+before big ships. It does not pursue little ones. Feeling and
+intelligence are not very strong in fishes.”
+
+“Yet their emotions exist, Strock, and if strongly aroused—”
+
+“But, Mr. Ward, the beast seems not at all dangerous. One of two things
+will happen. Either it will presently quit these coasts, or finally it
+will be captured and we shall be able to study it at our leisure here
+in the museum of Washington.”
+
+“And if it is not a marine animal?” asked Mr. Ward.
+
+“What else can it be?” I protested in surprise.
+
+“Finish your reading,” said Mr. Ward.
+
+I did so; and found that in the second part of the report, my chief had
+underlined some passages in red pencil.
+
+For some time no one had doubted that this was an animal; and that, if
+it were vigorously pursued, it would at last be driven from our shores.
+But a change of opinion had come about. People began to ask if, instead
+of a fish, this were not some new and remarkable kind of boat.
+
+Certainly in that case its engine must be one of amazing power. Perhaps
+the inventor before selling the secret of his invention, sought to
+attract public attention and to astound the maritime world. Such surety
+in the movements of his boat, grace in its every evolution, such ease
+in defying pursuit by its arrow-like speed, surely, these were enough
+to arouse world-wide curiosity!
+
+At that time great progress had been made in the manufacture of marine
+engines. Huge transatlantic steamers completed the ocean passage in
+five days. And the engineers had not yet spoken their last word.
+Neither were the navies of the world behind. The cruisers, the torpedo
+boats, the torpedo-destroyers, could match the swiftest steamers of the
+Atlantic and Pacific, or of the Indian trade.
+
+If, however, this were a boat of some new design, there had as yet been
+no opportunity to observe its form. As to the engines which drove it,
+they must be of a power far beyond the fastest known. By what force
+they worked, was equally a problem. Since the boat had no sails, it was
+not driven by the wind; and since it had no smoke-stack, it was not
+driven by steam.
+
+At this point in the report, I again paused in my reading and
+considered the comment I wished to make.
+
+“What are you puzzling over, Strock?” demanded my chief.
+
+“It is this, Mr. Ward; the motive power of this so-called boat must be
+as tremendous and as unknown as that of the remarkable automobile which
+has so amazed us all.”
+
+“So that is your idea, is it, Strock?”
+
+“Yes, Mr. Ward.”
+
+There was but one conclusion to be drawn. If the mysterious chauffeur
+had disappeared, if he had perished with his machine in Lake Michigan,
+it was equally important now to win the secret of this no less
+mysterious navigator. And it must be won before he in his turn plunged
+into the abyss of the ocean. Was it not the interest of the inventor to
+disclose his invention? Would not the American government or any other
+give him any price he chose to ask?
+
+Yet unfortunately, since the inventor of the terrestrial apparition had
+persisted in preserving his incognito, was it not to be feared that the
+inventor of the marine apparition would equally preserve his? Even if
+the first machine still existed, it was no longer heard from; and would
+not the second, in the same way, after having disclosed its powers,
+disappear in its turn, without a single trace?
+
+What gave weight to this probability was that since the arrival of this
+report at Washington twenty-four hours before, the presence of the
+extraordinary boat hadn’t been announced from anywhere along the shore.
+Neither had it been seen on any other coast. Though, of course, the
+assertion that it would not reappear at all would have been hazardous,
+to say the least.
+
+I noted another interesting and possibly important point. It was a
+singular coincidence which indeed Mr. Ward suggested to me, at the same
+moment that I was considering it. This was that only after the
+disappearance of the wonderful automobile had the no less wonderful
+boat come into view. Moreover, their engines both possessed a most
+dangerous power of locomotion. If both should go rushing at the same
+time over the face of the world, the same danger would threaten mankind
+everywhere, in boats, in vehicles, and on foot. Therefore it was
+absolutely necessary that the police should in some manner interfere to
+protect the public ways of travel.
+
+That is what Mr. Ward pointed out to me; and our duty was obvious. But
+how could we accomplish this task? We discussed the matter for some
+time; and I was just about to leave when Mr. Ward made one last
+suggestion.
+
+“Have you not observed, Strock,” said he, “that there is a sort of
+fantastic resemblance between the general appearance of this boat and
+this automobile?”
+
+“There is something of the sort, Mr. Ward.”
+
+“Well, is it not possible that the two are one?”
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+THE FIRST LETTER
+
+
+After leaving Mr. Ward I returned to my home in Long Street. There I
+had plenty of time to consider this strange case uninterrupted by
+either wife or children. My household consisted solely of an ancient
+servant, who having been formerly in the service of my mother, had now
+continued for fifteen years in mine.
+
+Two months before I had obtained a leave of absence. It had still two
+weeks to run, unless indeed some unforeseen circumstance interrupted
+it, some mission which could not be delayed. This leave, as I have
+shown, had already been interrupted for four days by my exploration of
+the Great Eyrie.
+
+And now was it not my duty to abandon my vacation, and endeavor to
+throw light upon the remarkable events of which the road to Milwaukee
+and the shore of New England had been in turn the scene? I would have
+given much to solve the twin mysteries, but how was it possible to
+follow the track of this automobile or this boat?
+
+Seated in my easy chair after breakfast, with my pipe lighted, I opened
+my newspaper. To what should I turn? Politics interested me but little,
+with its eternal strife between the Republicans and the Democrats.
+Neither did I care for the news of society, nor for the sporting page.
+You will not be surprised, then, that my first idea was to see if there
+was any news from North Carolina about the Great Eyrie. There was
+little hope of this, however, for Mr. Smith had promised to telegraph
+me at once if anything occurred. I felt quite sure that the mayor of
+Morganton was as eager for information and as watchful as could have
+been myself. The paper told me nothing new. It dropped idly from my
+hand; and I remained deep in thought.
+
+What most frequently recurred to me was the suggestion of Mr. Ward that
+perhaps the automobile and the boat which had attracted our attention
+were in reality one and the same. Very probably, at least, the two
+machines had been built by the same hand. And beyond doubt, these were
+similar engines, which generated this remarkable speed, more than
+doubling the previous records of earth and sea.
+
+“The same inventor!” repeated I.
+
+Evidently this hypothesis had strong grounds. The fact that the two
+machines had not yet appeared at the same time added weight to the
+idea. I murmured to myself, “After the mystery of Great Eyrie, comes
+that of Milwaukee and Boston. Will this new problem be as difficult to
+solve as was the other?”
+
+I noted idly that this new affair had a general resemblance to the
+other, since both menaced the security of the general public. To be
+sure, only the inhabitants of the Blueridge region had been in danger
+from an eruption or possible earthquake at Great Eyrie. While now, on
+every road of the United States, or along every league of its coasts
+and harbors, every inhabitant was in danger from this vehicle or this
+boat, with its sudden appearance and insane speed.
+
+I found that, as was to be expected, the newspapers not only suggested,
+but enlarged upon the dangers of the case. Timid people everywhere were
+much alarmed. My old servant, naturally credulous and superstitious,
+was particularly upset. That same day after dinner, as she was clearing
+away the things, she stopped before me, a water bottle in one hand, the
+serviette in the other, and asked anxiously, “Is there no news, sir?”
+
+“None,” I answered, knowing well to what she referred.
+
+“The automobile has not come back?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“Nor the boat?”
+
+“Nor the boat. There is no news even in the best informed papers.”
+
+“But—your secret police information?”
+
+“We are no wiser.”
+
+“Then, sir, if you please, of what use are the police?”
+
+It is a question which has phased me more than once.
+
+“Now you see what will happen,” continued the old housekeeper,
+complainingly. “Some fine morning, he will come without warning, this
+terrible chauffeur, and rush down our street here, and kill us all!”
+
+“Good! When that happens, there will be some chance of catching him.”
+
+“He will never be arrested, sir.”
+
+“Why not?”
+
+“Because he is the devil himself, and you can’t arrest the devil!”
+
+Decidedly, thought I, the devil has many uses; and if he did not exist
+we would have to invent him, to give people some way of explaining the
+inexplicable. It was he who lit the flames of the Great Eyrie. It was
+he who smashed the record in the Wisconsin race. It is he who is
+scurrying along the shores of Connecticut and Massachusetts. But
+putting to one side this evil spirit who is so necessary, for the
+convenience of the ignorant, there was no doubt that we were facing a
+most bewildering problem. Had both of these machines disappeared
+forever? They had passed like a meteor, like a star shooting through
+space; and in a hundred years the adventure would become a legend, much
+to the taste of the gossips of the next century.
+
+For several days the newspapers of America and even those of Europe
+continued to discuss these events. Editorials crowded upon editorials.
+Rumors were added to rumors. Story tellers of every kind crowded to the
+front. The public of two continents was interested. In some parts of
+Europe there was even jealousy that America should have been chosen as
+the field of such an experience. If these marvelous inventors were
+American, then their country, their army and navy, would have a great
+advantage over others. The United States might acquire an incontestable
+superiority.
+
+Under the date of the tenth of June, a New York paper published a
+carefully studied article on this phase of the subject. Comparing the
+speed of the swiftest known vessels with the smallest minimum of speed
+which could possibly be assigned to the new boat, the article
+demonstrated that if the United States secured this secret, Europe
+would be but three days away from her, while she would still be five
+days from Europe.
+
+If our own police had searched diligently to discover the mystery of
+the Great Eyrie, the secret service of every country in the world was
+now interested in these new problems.
+
+Mr. Ward referred to the matter each time I saw him. Our chat would
+begin by his rallying me about my ill-success in Carolina, and I would
+respond by reminding him that success there was only a question of
+expense.
+
+“Never mind, my good Strock,” said he, “there will come a chance for
+our clever inspector to regain his laurels. Take now this affair of the
+automobile and the boat. If you could clear that up in advance of all
+the detectives of the world, what an honor it would be to our
+department! What glory for you!”
+
+“It certainly would, Mr. Ward. And if you put the matter in my charge—”
+
+“Who knows, Strock? Let us wait a while! Let us wait!”
+
+Matters stood thus when, on the morning of June fifteenth, my old
+servant brought me a letter from the letter-carrier, a registered
+letter for which I had to sign. I looked at the address. I did not know
+the handwriting. The postmark, dating from two days before, was stamped
+at the post office of Morganton.
+
+Morganton! Here at last was, no doubt, news from Mr. Elias Smith.
+
+“Yes!” exclaimed I, speaking to my old servant, for lack of another,
+“it must be from Mr. Smith at last. I know no one else in Morganton.
+And if he writes he has news!”
+
+“Morganton?” said the old woman, “isn’t that the place where the demons
+set fire to their mountain?”
+
+“Exactly.”
+
+“Oh, sir! I hope you don’t mean to go back there!”
+
+“Why not?”
+
+“Because you will end by being burned up in that furnace of the Great
+Eyrie. And I wouldn’t want you buried that way, sir.”
+
+“Cheer up, and let us see if it is not better news than that.”
+
+The envelope was sealed with red sealing wax, and stamped with a sort
+of coat of arms, surmounted with three stars. The paper was thick and
+very strong. I broke the envelope and drew out a letter. It was a
+single sheet, folded in four, and written on one side only. My first
+glance was for the signature.
+
+There was no signature! Nothing but three initials at the end of the
+last line!
+
+“The letter is not from the Mayor of Morganton,” said I.
+
+“Then from whom?” asked the old servant, doubly curious in her quality
+as a woman and as an old gossip.
+
+Looking again at the three initials of the signature, I said, “I know
+no one for whom these letters would stand; neither at Morganton nor
+elsewhere.”
+
+The hand-writing was bold. Both up strokes and down strokes very sharp,
+about twenty lines in all. Here is the letter, of which I, with good
+reason, retained an exact copy. It was dated, to my extreme
+stupefaction, from that mysterious Great Eyrie:
+
+Great Eyrie, Blueridge Mtns,
+To Mr. Strock: North Carolina, June 13th.
+Chief Inspector of Police,
+34 Long St., Washington, D. C.
+
+
+Sir,
+    You were charged with the mission of penetrating the Great Eyrie.
+    You came on April the twenty-eighth, accompanied by the Mayor of
+    Morganton and two guides.
+    You mounted to the foot of the wall, and you encircled it, finding
+    it too high and steep to climb.
+    You sought a breech and you found none. Know this: none enter the
+    Great Eyrie; or if one enters, he never returns.
+    “Do not try again, for the second attempt will not result as did
+    the first, but will have grave consequences for you.
+    “Heed this warning, or evil fortune will come to you.
+
+
+“M. o. W.”
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+A THIRD MACHINE
+
+
+I confess that at first this letter dumfounded me. “Ohs!” and “Ahs!”
+slipped from my open mouth. The old servant stared at me, not knowing
+what to think.
+
+“Oh, sir! is it bad news?”
+
+I answered for I kept few secrets from this faithful soul by reading
+her the letter from end to end. She listened with much anxiety.
+
+“A joke, without doubt,” said I, shrugging my shoulders.
+
+“Well,” returned my superstitious handmaid, “if it isn’t from the
+devil, it’s from the devil’s country, anyway.”
+
+Left alone, I again went over this unexpected letter. Reflection
+inclined me yet more strongly to believe that it was the work of a
+practical joker. My adventure was well known. The newspapers had given
+it in full detail. Some satirist, such as exists even in America, must
+have written this threatening letter to mock me.
+
+To assume, on the other hand, that the Eyrie really served as the
+refuge of a band of criminals, seemed absurd. If they feared that the
+police would discover their retreat, surely they would not have been so
+foolish as thus to force attention upon themselves. Their chief
+security would lie in keeping their presence there unknown. They must
+have realized that such a challenge from them would only arouse the
+police to renewed activity. Dynamite or melinite would soon open an
+entrance to their fortress. Moreover, how could these men have,
+themselves, gained entrance into the Eyrie unless there existed a
+passage which we had failed to discover? Assuredly the letter came from
+a jester or a madman; and I need not worry over it, nor even consider
+it.
+
+Hence, though for an instant I had thought of showing this letter to
+Mr. Ward, I decided not to do so. Surely he would attach no importance
+to it. However, I did not destroy it, but locked it in my desk for safe
+keeping. If more letters came of the same kind, and with the same
+initials, I would attach as little weight to them as to this.
+
+Several days passed quietly. There was nothing to lead me to expect
+that I should soon quit Washington; though in my line of duty one is
+never certain of the morrow. At any moment I might be sent speeding
+from Oregon to Florida, from Maine to Texas. And this unpleasant
+thought haunted me frequently if my next mission were no more
+successful than that to the Great Eyrie, I might as well give up and
+hand in my resignation from the force. Of the mysterious chauffeur or
+chauffeurs, nothing more was heard. I knew that our own government
+agents, as well as foreign ones, were keeping keen watch over all the
+roads and rivers, all the lakes and the coasts of America. Of course,
+the size of the country made any close supervision impossible; but
+these twin inventors had not before chosen secluded and unfrequented
+spots in which to appear. The main highway of Wisconsin on a great race
+day, the harbor of Boston, incessantly crossed by thousands of boats,
+these were hardly what would be called hiding-places! If the daring
+driver had not perished of which there was always strong probability;
+then he must have left America. Perhaps he was in the waters of the Old
+World, or else resting in some retreat known only to himself, and in
+that case—
+
+“Ah!” I repeated to myself, many times, “for such a retreat, as secret
+as inaccessible, this fantastic personage could not find one better
+than the Great Eyrie!” But, of course, a boat could not get there, any
+more than an automobile. Only high-flying birds of prey, eagles or
+condors, could find refuge there.
+
+The nineteenth of June I was going to the police bureau, when, on
+leaving my house, I noticed two men who looked at me with a certain
+keenness. Not knowing them, I took no notice; and if my attention was
+drawn to the matter, it was because my servant spoke of it when I
+returned.
+
+For some days, she said, she had noticed that two men seemed to be
+spying upon me in the street. They stood constantly, perhaps a hundred
+steps from my house; and she suspected that they followed me each time
+I went up the street.
+
+“You are sure?” I asked.
+
+“Yes, sir, and no longer ago than yesterday, when you came into the
+house, these men came slipping along in your footsteps, and then went
+away as soon as the door was shut behind you.”
+
+“You must be mistaken!”
+
+“I am not, sir.”
+
+“And if you met these two men, you would know them?”
+
+“I would.”
+
+“Good;” I cried, laughing, “I see you have the very spirit for a
+detective. I must engage you as a member of our force.”
+
+“Joke if you like, sir. But I have still two good eyes, and I don’t
+need spectacles to recognize people. Someone is spying on you, that’s
+certain; and you should put some of your men to track them in turn.”
+
+“All right; I promise to do so,” I said, to satisfy her. “And when my
+men get after them, we shall soon know what these mysterious fellows
+want of me.”
+
+In truth I did not take the good soul’s excited announcement very
+seriously. I added, however, “When I go out, I will watch the people
+around me with great care.”
+
+“That will be best, sir.”
+
+My poor old housekeeper was always frightening herself at nothing. “If
+I see them again,” she added, “I will warn you before you set foot out
+of doors.”
+
+“Agreed!” And I broke off the conversation, knowing well that if I
+allowed her to run on, she would end by being sure that Beelzebub
+himself and one of his chief attendants were at my heels.
+
+The two following days, there was certainly no one spying on me, either
+at my exits or entrances. So I concluded my old servant had made much
+of nothing, as usual. But on the morning of the twenty-second of June,
+after rushing upstairs as rapidly as her age would permit, the devoted
+old soul burst into my room and in a half whisper gasped “Sir! Sir!”
+
+“What is it?”
+
+“They are there!”
+
+“Who?” I queried, my mind on anything but the web she had been spinning
+about me.
+
+“The two spies!”
+
+“Ah, those wonderful spies!”
+
+“Themselves! In the street! Right in front of our windows! Watching the
+house, waiting for you to go out.”
+
+I went to the window and raising just an edge of the shade, so as not
+to give any warning, I saw two men on the pavement.
+
+They were rather fine-looking men, broad-shouldered and vigorous, aged
+somewhat under forty, dressed in the ordinary fashion of the day, with
+slouched hats, heavy woolen suits, stout walking shoes and sticks in
+hand. Undoubtedly, they were staring persistently at my apparently
+unwatchful house. Then, having exchanged a few words, they strolled off
+a little way, and returned again.
+
+“Are you sure these are the same men you saw before?”
+
+“Yes, sir.”
+
+Evidently, I could no longer dismiss her warning as a hallucination;
+and I promised myself to clear up the matter. As to following the men
+myself, I was presumably too well known to them. To address them
+directly would probably be of no use. But that very day, one of our
+best men should be put on watch, and if the spies returned on the
+morrow, they should be tracked in their turn, and watched until their
+identity was established.
+
+At the moment, were they waiting to follow me to police headquarters?
+For it was there that I was bound, as usual. If they accompanied me I
+might be able to offer them a hospitality for which they would scarce
+thank me.
+
+I took my hat; and while the housekeeper remained peeping from the
+window, I went down stairs, opened the door, and stepped into the
+street.
+
+The two men were no longer there.
+
+Despite all my watchfulness, that day I saw no more of them as I passed
+along the streets. From that time on, indeed, neither my old servant
+nor I saw them again before the house, nor did I encounter them
+elsewhere. Their appearance, however, was stamped upon my memory, I
+would not forget them.
+
+Perhaps after all, admitting that I had been the object of their
+espionage, they had been mistaken in my identity. Having obtained a
+good look at me, they now followed me no more. So in the end, I came to
+regard this matter as of no more importance than the letter with the
+initials, M. o. W.
+
+Then, on the twenty-fourth of June, there came a new event, to further
+stimulate both my interest and that of the general public in the
+previous mysteries of the automobile and the boat. The Washington
+Evening Star published the following account, which was next morning
+copied by every paper in the country.
+
+“Lake Kirdall in Kansas, forty miles west of Topeka, is little known.
+It deserves wider knowledge, and doubtless will have it hereafter, for
+attention is now drawn to it in a very remarkable way.
+
+“This lake, deep among the mountains, appears to have no outlet. What
+it loses by evaporation, it regains from the little neighboring
+streamlets and the heavy rains.
+
+“Lake Kirdall covers about seventy-five square miles, and its level is
+but slightly below that of the heights which surround it. Shut in among
+the mountains, it can be reached only by narrow and rocky gorges.
+Several villages, however, have sprung up upon its banks. It is full of
+fish, and fishing-boats cover its waters.
+
+“Lake Kirdall is in many places fifty feet deep close to shore. Sharp,
+pointed rocks form the edges of this huge basin. Its surges, roused by
+high winds, beat upon its banks with fury, and the houses near at hand
+are often deluged with spray as if with the downpour of a hurricane.
+The lake, already deep at the edge, becomes yet deeper toward the
+center, where in some places soundings show over three hundred feet of
+water.
+
+“The fishing industry supports a population of several thousands, and
+there are several hundred fishing boats in addition to the dozen or so
+of little steamers which serve the traffic of the lake. Beyond the
+circle of the mountains lie the railroads which transport the products
+of the fishing industry throughout Kansas and the neighboring states.
+
+“This account of Lake Kirdall is necessary for the understanding of the
+remarkable facts which we are about to report.”
+
+And this is what the Evening Star then reported in its startling
+article. “For some time past, the fishermen have noticed a strange
+upheaval in the waters of the lake. Sometimes it rises as if a wave
+surged up from its depths. Even in perfectly calm weather, when there
+is no wind whatever, this upheaval sometimes arises in a mass of foam.
+
+“Tossed about by violent waves and unaccountable currents, boats have
+been swept beyond all control. Sometimes they have been dashed one
+against another, and serious damage has resulted.
+
+“This confusion of the waters evidently has its origin somewhere in the
+depths of the lake; and various explanations have been offered to
+account for it. At first, it was suggested that the trouble was due to
+seismic forces, to some volcanic action beneath the lake; but this
+hypothesis had to be rejected when it was recognized that the
+disturbance was not confined to one locality, but spread itself over
+the entire surface of the lake, either at one part or another, in the
+center or along the edges, traveling along almost in a regular line and
+in a way to exclude entirely all idea of earthquake or volcanic action.
+
+“Another hypothesis suggested that it was a marine monster who thus
+upheaved the waters. But unless the beast had been born in the lake and
+had there grown to its gigantic proportions unsuspected, which was
+scarce possible, he must have come there from outside. Lake Kirdall,
+however, has no connection with any other waters. If this lake were
+situated near any of the oceans, there might be subterranean canals;
+but in the center of America, and at the height of some thousands of
+feet above sea-level, this is not possible. In short, here is another
+riddle not easy to solve, and it is much easier to point out the
+impossibility of false explanations, than to discover the true one.
+
+“Is it possible that a submarine boat is being experimented with
+beneath the lake? Such boats are no longer impossible today. Some years
+ago, at Bridgeport, Connecticut, there was launched a boat, The
+Protector, which could go on the water, under the water, and also upon
+land. Built by an inventor named Lake, supplied with two motors, an
+electric one of seventy-five horse power, and a gasoline one of two
+hundred and fifty horse power, it was also provided with wheels a yard
+in diameter, which enabled it to roll over the roads, as well as swim
+the seas.
+
+“But even then, granting that the turmoil of Lake Kirdall might be
+produced by a submarine, brought to a high degree of perfection, there
+remains as before the question how could it have reached Lake Kirdall?
+The lake, shut in on all sides by a circle of mountains, is no more
+accessible to a submarine than to a sea-monster.
+
+“In whatever way this last puzzling question may be solved, the nature
+of this strange appearance can no longer be disputed since the
+twentieth of June. On that day, in the afternoon, the schooner ‘Markel’
+while speeding with all sails set, came into violent collision with
+something just below the water level. There was no shoal nor rock near;
+for the lake in this part is eighty or ninety feet deep. The schooner
+with both her bow and her side badly broken, ran great danger of
+sinking. She managed, however, to reach the shore before her decks were
+completely submerged.
+
+“When the ‘Markel’ had been pumped out and hauled up on shore, an
+examination showed that she had received a blow near the bow as if from
+a powerful ram.
+
+“From this it seems evident that there is actually a submarine boat
+which darts about beneath the surface of Lake Kirdall with most
+remarkable rapidity.
+
+“The thing is difficult to explain. Not only is there a question as to
+how did the submarine get there? But why is it there? Why does it never
+come to the surface? What reason has its owner for remaining unknown?
+Are other disasters to be expected from its reckless course?”
+
+The article in the Evening Star closed with this truly striking
+suggestion: “After the mysterious automobile, came the mysterious boat.
+Now comes the mysterious submarine.
+
+“Must we conclude that the three engines are due to the genius of the
+same inventor, and that the three vehicles are in truth but one?”
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+AT ANY COST
+
+
+The suggestion of the Star came like a revelation. It was accepted
+everywhere. Not only were these three vehicles the work of the same
+inventor; they were the same machine!
+
+It was not easy to see how the remarkable transformation could be
+practically accomplished from one means of locomotion to the other. How
+could an automobile become a boat, and yet more, a submarine? All the
+machine seemed to lack was the power of flying through the air.
+Nevertheless, everything that was known of the three different
+machines, as to their size, their shape, their lack of odor or of
+steam, and above all their remarkable speed, seemed to imply their
+identity. The public, grown blase with so many excitements, found in
+this new marvel a stimulus to reawaken their curiosity.
+
+The newspapers dwelt now chiefly on the importance of the invention.
+This new engine, whether in one vehicle or three, had given proofs of
+its power. What amazing proofs! The invention must be bought at any
+price. The United States government must purchase it at once for the
+use of the nation. Assuredly, the great European powers would stop at
+nothing to be beforehand with America, and gain possession of an engine
+so invaluable for military and naval use. What incalculable advantages
+would it give to any nation, both on land and sea! Its destructive
+powers could not even be estimated, until its qualities and limitations
+were better known. No amount of money would be too great to pay for the
+secret; America could not put her millions to better use.
+
+But to buy the machine, it was necessary to find the inventor; and
+there seemed the chief difficulty. In vain was Lake Kirdall searched
+from end to end. Even its depths were explored with a sounding-line
+without result. Must it be concluded that the submarine no longer
+lurked beneath its waters? But in that case, how had the boat gotten
+away? For that matter, how had it come? An insoluble problem!
+
+The submarine was heard from no more, neither in Lake Kirdall nor
+elsewhere. It had disappeared like the automobile from the roads, and
+like the boat from the shores of America. Several times in my
+interviews with Mr. Ward, we discussed this matter, which still filled
+his mind. Our men continued everywhere on the lookout, but as
+unsuccessfully as other agents.
+
+On the morning of the twenty-seventh of June, I was summoned into the
+presence of Mr. Ward.
+
+“Well, Strock,” said he, “here is a splendid chance for you to get your
+revenge.”
+
+“Revenge for the Great Eyrie disappointment?”
+
+“Of course.”
+
+“What chance?” asked I, not knowing if he spoke seriously, or in jest.
+
+“Why, here,” he answered. “Would not you like to discover the inventor
+of this three-fold machine?”
+
+“I certainly should, Mr. Ward. Give me the order to take charge of the
+matter, and I will accomplish the impossible, in order to succeed. It
+is true, I believe it will be difficult.”
+
+“Undoubtedly, Strock. Perhaps even more difficult than to penetrate
+into the Great Eyrie.”
+
+It was evident that Mr. Ward was intent on rallying me about my
+unsuccess. He would not do that, I felt assured, out of mere
+unkindness. Perhaps then he meant to rouse my resolution. He knew me
+well; and realized that I would have given anything in the world to
+recoup my defeat. I waited quietly for new instructions.
+
+Mr. Ward dropped his jesting and said to me very generously, “I know,
+Strock, that you accomplished everything that depended on human powers;
+and that no blame attaches to you. But we face now a matter very
+different from that of the Great Eyrie. The day the government decides
+to force that secret, everything is ready. We have only to spend some
+thousands of dollars, and the road will be open.”
+
+“That is what I would urge.”
+
+“But at present,” said Mr. Ward, shaking his head, “it is much more
+important to place our hands on this fantastic inventor, who so
+constantly escapes us. That is work for a detective, indeed; a master
+detective!”
+
+“He has not been heard from again?”
+
+“No; and though there is every reason to believe that he has been, and
+still continues, beneath the waters of Lake Kirdall, it has been
+impossible to find any trace of him anywhere around there. One would
+almost fancy he had the power of making himself invisible, this Proteus
+of a mechanic!”
+
+“It seems likely,” said I, “that he will never be seen until he wishes
+to be.”
+
+“True, Strock. And to my mind there is only one way of dealing with
+him, and that is to offer him such an enormous price that he cannot
+refuse to sell his invention.”
+
+Mr. Ward was right. Indeed, the government had already made the effort
+to secure speech with this hero of the day, than whom surely no human
+being has ever better merited the title. The press had widely spread
+the news, and this extraordinary individual must assuredly know what
+the government desired of him, and how completely he could name the
+terms he wished.
+
+“Surely,” added Mr. Ward, “this invention can be of no personal use to
+the man, that he should hide it from the rest of us. There is every
+reason why he should sell it. Can this unknown be already some
+dangerous criminal who, thanks to his machine, hopes to defy all
+pursuit?”
+
+My chief then went on to explain that it had been decided to employ
+other means in search of the inventor. It was possible after all that
+he had perished with his machine in some dangerous maneuver. If so, the
+ruined vehicle might prove almost as valuable and instructive to the
+mechanical world as the man himself. But since the accident to the
+schooner “Markel” on Lake Kirdall, no news of him whatever had reached
+the police.
+
+On this point Mr. Ward did not attempt to hide his disappointment and
+his anxiety. Anxiety, yes, for it was manifestly becoming more and more
+difficult for him to fulfill his duty of protecting the public. How
+could we arrest criminals, if they could flee from justice at such
+speed over both land and sea? How could we pursue them under the
+oceans? And when dirigible balloons should also have reached their full
+perfection, we would even have to chase men through the air! I asked
+myself if my colleagues and I would not find ourselves some day reduced
+to utter helplessness? If police officials, become a useless
+incumbrance, would be definitely discarded by society?
+
+Here, there recurred to me the jesting letter I had received a
+fortnight before, the letter which threatened my liberty and even my
+life. I recalled, also, the singular espionage of which I had been the
+subject. I asked myself if I had better mention these things to Mr.
+Ward. But they seemed to have absolutely no relation to the matter now
+in hand. The Great Eyrie affair had been definitely put aside by the
+government, since an eruption was no longer threatening. And they now
+wished to employ me upon this newer matter. I waited, then, to mention
+this letter to my chief at some future time, when it would be not so
+sore a joke to me.
+
+Mr. Ward again took up our conversation. “We are resolved by some means
+to establish communication with this inventor. He has disappeared, it
+is true; but he may reappear at any moment, and in any part of the
+country. I have chosen you, Strock, to follow him the instant he
+appears. You must hold yourself ready to leave Washington on the
+moment. Do not quit your house, except to come here to headquarters
+each day; notify me, each time by telephone, when you start from home,
+and report to me personally the moment you arrive here.”
+
+“I will follow orders exactly, Mr. Ward,” I answered. “But permit me
+one question. Ought I to act alone, or will it not be better to join
+with me?”
+
+“That is what I intend,” said the chief, interrupting me. “You are to
+choose two of our men whom you think the best fitted.”
+
+“I will do so, Mr. Ward. And now, if some day or other I stand in the
+presence of our man, what am I to do with him?”
+
+“Above all things, do not lose sight of him. If there is no other way,
+arrest him. You shall have a warrant.”
+
+“A useful precaution, Mr. Ward. If he started to jump into his
+automobile and to speed away at the rate we know of, I must stop him at
+any cost. One cannot argue long with a man making two hundred miles an
+hour!”
+
+“You must prevent that, Strock. And the arrest made, telegraph me.
+After that, the matter will be in my hands.”
+
+“Count on me, Mr. Ward; at any hour, day or night, I shall be ready to
+start with my men. I thank you for having entrusted this mission to me.
+If it succeeds, it will be a great honor—”
+
+“And of great profit,” added my chief, dismissing me.
+
+Returning home, I made all preparations for a trip of indefinite
+duration. Perhaps my good housekeeper imagined that I planned a return
+to the Great Eyrie, which she regarded as an ante-chamber of hell
+itself. She said nothing, but went about her work with a most
+despairing face. Nevertheless, sure as I was of her discretion, I told
+her nothing. In this great mission I would confide in no one.
+
+My choice of the two men to accompany me was easily made. They both
+belonged to my own department, and had many times under my direct
+command given proofs of their vigor, courage and intelligence. One,
+John Hart, of Illinois, was a man of thirty years; the other, aged
+thirty-two, was Nab Walker, of Massachusetts. I could not have had
+better assistants.
+
+Several days passed, without news, either of the automobile, the boat,
+or the submarine. There were rumors in plenty; but the police knew them
+to be false. As to the reckless stories that appeared in the
+newspapers, they had most of them, no foundation whatever. Even the
+best journals cannot be trusted to refuse an exciting bit of news on
+the mere ground of its unreliability.
+
+Then, twice in quick succession, there came what seemed trustworthy
+reports of the “man of the hour.” The first asserted that he had been
+seen on the roads of Arkansas, near Little Rock. The second, that he
+was in the very middle of Lake Superior.
+
+Unfortunately, these two notices were absolutely unreconcilable; for
+while the first gave the afternoon of June twenty-sixth, as the time of
+appearance, the second set it for the evening of the same day. Now,
+these two points of the United States territory are not less than eight
+hundred miles apart. Even granting the automobile this unthinkable
+speed, greater than any it had yet shown, how could it have crossed all
+the intervening country unseen? How could it traverse the States of
+Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin, from end to end without any one
+of our agents giving us warning, without any interested person rushing
+to a telephone?
+
+After these two momentary appearances, if appearances they were, the
+machine again dropped out of knowledge. Mr. Ward did not think it worth
+while to dispatch me and my men to either point whence it had been
+reported.
+
+Yet since this marvelous machine seemed still in existence, something
+must be done. The following official notice was published in every
+newspaper of the United States under July 3d. It was couched in the
+most formal terms.
+
+“During the month of April, of the present year, an automobile
+traversed the roads of Pennsylvania, of Kentucky, of Ohio, of
+Tennessee, of Missouri, of Illinois; and on the twenty-seventh of May,
+during the race held by the American Automobile Club, it covered the
+course in Wisconsin. Then it disappeared.
+
+“During the first week of June, a boat maneuvering at great speed
+appeared off the coast of New England between Cape Cod and Cape Sable,
+and more particularly around Boston. Then it disappeared.
+
+“In the second fortnight of the same month, a submarine boat was run
+beneath the waters of Lake Kirdall, in Kansas. Then it disappeared.
+
+“Everything points to the belief that the same inventor must have built
+these three machines, or perhaps that they are the same machine,
+constructed so as to travel both on land and water.
+
+“A proposition is therefore addressed to the said inventor, whoever he
+be, with the aim of acquiring the said machine.
+
+“He is requested to make himself known and to name the terms upon which
+he will treat with the United States government. He is also requested
+to answer as promptly as possible to the Department of Federal Police,
+Washington, D. C., United States of America.”
+
+Such was the notice printed in large type on the front page of every
+newspaper. Surely it could not fail to reach the eye of him for whom it
+was intended, wherever he might be. He would read it. He could scarce
+fail to answer it in some manner. And why should he refuse such an
+unlimited offer? We had only to await his reply.
+
+One can easily imagine how high the public curiosity rose. From morning
+till night, an eager and noisy crowd pressed about the bureau of
+police, awaiting the arrival of a letter or a telegram. The best
+reporters were on the spot. What honor, what profit would come to the
+paper which was first to publish the famous news! To know at last the
+name and place of the undiscoverable unknown! And to know if he would
+agree to some bargain with the government! It goes without saying that
+America does things on a magnificent scale. Millions would not be
+lacking for the inventor. If necessary all the millionaires in the
+country would open their inexhaustible purses!
+
+The day passed. To how many excited and impatient people it seemed to
+contain more than twenty-four hours! And each hour held far more than
+sixty minutes! There came no answer, no letter, no telegram! The night
+following, there was still no news. And it was the same the next day
+and the next.
+
+There came, however another result, which had been fully foreseen. The
+cables informed Europe of what the United States government had done.
+The different Powers of the Old World hoped also to obtain possession
+of the wonderful invention. Why should they not struggle for an
+advantage so tremendous? Why should they not enter the contest with
+their millions?
+
+In brief, every great Power took part in the affair, France, England,
+Russia, Italy, Austria, Germany. Only the states of the second order
+refrained from entering, with their smaller resources, upon a useless
+effort. The European press published notices identical with that of the
+United States. The extraordinary “chauffeur” had only to speak, to
+become a rival to the Vanderbilts, the Astors, the Goulds, the Morgans,
+and the Rothschilds of every country of Europe.
+
+And, when the mysterious inventor made no sign, what attractive offers
+were held forth to tempt him to discard the secrecy in which he was
+enwrapped! The whole world became a public market, an auction house
+whence arose the most amazing bids. Twice a day the newspapers would
+add up the amounts, and these kept rising from millions to millions.
+The end came when the United States Congress, after a memorable
+session, voted to offer the sum of twenty million dollars. And there
+was not a citizen of the States of whatever rank, who objected to the
+amount, so much importance was attached to the possession of this
+prodigious engine of locomotion. As for me, I said emphatically to my
+old housekeeper: “The machine is worth even more than that.”
+
+Evidently the other nations of the world did not think so, for their
+bids remained below the final sum. But how useless was this mighty
+struggle of the great rivals! The inventor did not appear! He did not
+exist! He had never existed! It was all a monstrous pretense of the
+American newspapers. That, at least, became the announced view of the
+Old World.
+
+And so the time passed. There was no further news of our man, there was
+no response from him. He appeared no more. For my part, not knowing
+what to think, I commenced to lose all hope of reaching any solution to
+the strange affair.
+
+Then on the morning of the fifteenth of July, a letter without postmark
+was found in the mailbox of the police bureau. After the authorities
+had studied it, it was given out to the Washington journals, which
+published it in facsimile, in special numbers. It was couched as
+follows:
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+THE SECOND LETTER
+
+
+On Board the Terror
+
+July 15.
+
+
+To the Old and New World,
+
+
+The propositions emanating from the different governments of Europe, as
+also that which has finally been made by the United States of America,
+need expect no other answer than this:
+
+
+I refuse absolutely and definitely the sums offered for my invention.
+
+
+My machine will be neither French nor German, nor Austrian nor Russian,
+nor English nor American.
+
+
+The invention will remain my own, and I shall use it as pleases me.
+
+
+With it, I hold control of the entire world, and there lies no force
+within the reach of humanity which is able to resist me, under any
+circumstances whatsoever.
+
+
+Let no one attempt to seize or stop me. It is, and will be, utterly
+impossible. Whatever injury anyone attempts against me, I will return a
+hundredfold.
+
+
+As to the money which is offered me, I despise it! I have no need of
+it. Moreover, on the day when it pleases me to have millions, or
+billions, I have but to reach out my hand and take them.
+
+
+Let both the Old and the New World realize this: They can accomplish
+nothing against me; I can accomplish anything against them.
+
+
+I sign this letter:
+The Master of the World.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+OUTSIDE THE LAW
+
+
+Such was the letter addressed to the government of the United States.
+As to the person who had placed it in the mail-box of the police, no
+one had seen him.
+
+The sidewalk in front of our offices had probably not been once vacant
+during the entire night. From sunset to sunrise, there had always been
+people, busy, anxious, or curious, passing before our door. It is true,
+however, that even then, the bearer of the letter might easily have
+slipped by unseen and dropped the letter in the box. The night had been
+so dark, you could scarcely see from one side of the street to the
+other.
+
+I have said that this letter appeared in facsimile in all the
+newspapers to which the government communicated it. Perhaps one would
+naturally imagine that the first comment of the public would be, “This
+is the work of some practical joker.” It was in that way that I had
+accepted my letter from the Great Eyrie, five weeks before.
+
+But this was not the general attitude toward the present letter,
+neither in Washington, nor in the rest of America. To the few who would
+have maintained that the document should not be taken seriously, an
+immense majority would have responded: “This letter has not the style
+nor the spirit of a jester. Only one man could have written it; and
+that is the inventor of this unapproachable machine.”
+
+To most people this conclusion seemed indisputable owing to a curious
+state of mind easily explainable. For all the strange facts of which
+the key had hitherto been lacking, this letter furnished an
+explanation. The theory now almost universally accepted was as follows.
+The inventor had hidden himself for a time, only in order to reappear
+more startlingly in some new light. Instead of having perished in an
+accident, he had concealed himself in some retreat where the police
+were unable to discover him. Then to assert positively his attitude
+toward all governments he had written this letter. But instead of
+dropping it in the post in any one locality, which might have resulted
+in its being traced to him, he had come to Washington and deposited it
+himself in the very spot suggested by the government’s official notice,
+the bureau of police.
+
+Well! If this remarkable personage had reckoned that this new proof of
+his existence would make some noise in two worlds, he certainly figured
+rightly. That day, the millions of good folk who read and re-read their
+daily paper could to employ a well-known phrase, scarcely believe their
+eyes.
+
+As for myself, I studied carefully every phrase of the defiant
+document. The hand-writing was black and heavy. An expert at
+chirography would doubtless have distinguished in the lines traces of a
+violent temperament, of a character stern and unsocial. Suddenly, a cry
+escaped me—a cry that fortunately my housekeeper did not hear. Why had
+I not noticed sooner the resemblance of the handwriting to that of the
+letter I had received from Morganton?
+
+Moreover, a yet more significant coincidence, the initials with which
+my letter had been signed, did they not stand for the words “Master of
+the World?”
+
+And whence came the second letter? “On Board the ‘Terror.’” Doubtless
+this name was that of the triple machine commanded by the mysterious
+captain. The initials in my letter were his own signature; and it was
+he who had threatened me, if I dared to renew my attempt on the Great
+Eyrie.
+
+I rose and took from my desk the letter of June thirteenth. I compared
+it with the facsimile in the newspapers. There was no doubt about it.
+They were both in the same peculiar hand-writing.
+
+My mind worked eagerly. I sought to trace the probable deductions from
+this striking fact, known only to myself. The man who had threatened me
+was the commander of this “Terror”—startling name, only too well
+justified! I asked myself if our search could not now be prosecuted
+under less vague conditions. Could we not now start our men upon a
+trail which would lead definitely to success? In short, what relation
+existed between the “Terror” and the Great Eyrie? What connection was
+there between the phenomena of the Blueridge Mountains, arid the no
+less phenomenal performances of the fantastic machine?
+
+I knew what my first step should be; and with the letter in my pocket,
+I hastened to police headquarters. Inquiring if Mr. Ward was within and
+receiving an affirmative reply, I hastened toward his door, and rapped
+upon it with unusual and perhaps unnecessary vigor. Upon his call to
+enter, I stepped eagerly into the room.
+
+The chief had spread before him the letter published in the papers, not
+a facsimile, but the original itself which had been deposited in the
+letter-box of the department.
+
+“You come as if you had important news, Strock?”
+
+“Judge for yourself, Mr. Ward;” and I drew from my pocket the letter
+with the initials.
+
+Mr. Ward took it, glanced at its face, and asked, “What is this?”
+
+“A letter signed only with initials, as you can see.”
+
+“And where was it posted?”
+
+“In Morganton, in North Carolina.”
+
+“When did you receive it?”
+
+“A month ago, the thirteenth of June.”
+
+“What did you think of it then?”
+
+“That it had been written as a joke.”
+
+“And now Strock?”
+
+“I think, what you will think, Mr. Ward, after you have studied it.”
+
+My chief turned to the letter again and read it carefully. “It is
+signed with three initials,” said he.
+
+“Yes, Mr. Ward, and those initials belong to the words, ‘Master of the
+World,’ in this facsimile.”
+
+“Of which this is the original,” responded Mr. Ward, taking it up.
+
+“It is quite evident,” I urged, “that the two letters are by the same
+hand.”
+
+“It seems so.”
+
+“You see what threats are made against me, to protect the Great Eyrie.”
+
+“Yes, the threat of death! But Strock, you have had this letter for a
+month. Why have you not shown it to me before?”
+
+“Because I attached no importance to it. Today, after the letter from
+the ‘Terror,’ it must be taken seriously.”
+
+“I agree with you. It appears to me most important. I even hope it may
+prove the means of tracking this strange personage.”
+
+“That is what I also hope, Mr. Ward.”
+
+“Only what connection can possibly exist between the ‘Terror’ and the
+Great Eyrie?”
+
+“That I do not know. I cannot even imagine.”
+
+“There can be but one explanation,” continued Mr. Ward, “though it is
+almost inadmissible, even impossible.”
+
+“And that is?”
+
+“That the Great Eyrie was the spot selected by the inventor, where he
+gathered his material.”
+
+“That is impossible!” cried I. “In what way would he get his material
+in there? And how get his machine out? After what I have seen, Mr.
+Ward, your suggestion is impossible.”
+
+“Unless, Strock—”
+
+“Unless what?” I demanded.
+
+“Unless the machine of this Master of the World has also wings, which
+permit it to take refuge in the Great Eyrie.”
+
+At the suggestion that the “Terror,” which had searched the deeps of
+the sea, might be capable also of rivaling the vultures and the eagles,
+I could not restrain an expressive shrug of incredulity. Neither did
+Mr. Ward himself dwell upon the extravagant hypothesis.
+
+He took the two letters and compared them afresh. He examined them
+under a microscope, especially the signatures, and established their
+perfect identity. Not only the same hand, but the same pen had written
+them.
+
+After some moments of further reflection, Mr. Ward said, “I will keep
+your letter, Strock. Decidedly, I think, that you are fated to play an
+important part in this strange affair or rather in these two affairs.
+What thread attaches them, I cannot yet see; but I am sure the thread
+exists. You have been connected with the first, and it will not be
+surprising if you have a large part in the second.”
+
+“I hope so, Mr. Ward. You know how inquisitive I am.”
+
+“I do, Strock. That is understood. Now, I can only repeat my former
+order; hold yourself in readiness to leave Washington at a moment’s
+warning.”
+
+All that day, the public excitement caused by the defiant letter
+mounted steadily higher. It was felt both at the White House and at the
+Capitol that public opinion absolutely demanded some action. Of course,
+it was difficult to do anything. Where could one find this Master of
+the World? And even if he were discovered, how could he be captured? He
+had at his disposal not only the powers he had displayed, but
+apparently still greater resources as yet unknown. How had he been able
+to reach Lake Kirdall over the rocks; and how had he escaped from it?
+Then, if he had indeed appeared on Lake Superior, how had he covered
+all the intervening territory unseen?
+
+What a bewildering affair it was altogether! This, of course, made it
+all the more important to get to the bottom of it. Since the millions
+of dollars had been refused, force must be employed. The inventor and
+his invention were not to be bought. And in what haughty and menacing
+terms he had couched his refusal! So be it! He must be treated as an
+enemy of society, against whom all means became justified, that he
+might be deprived of his power to injure others. The idea that he had
+perished was now entirely discarded. He was alive, very much alive; and
+his existence constituted a perpetual public danger!
+
+Influenced by these ideas, the government issued the following
+proclamation:
+
+“Since the commander of the ‘Terror’ has refused to make public his
+invention, at any price whatever, since the use which he makes of his
+machine constitutes a public menace, against which it is impossible to
+guard, the said commander of the ‘Terror’ is hereby placed beyond the
+protection of the law. Any measures taken in the effort to capture or
+destroy either him or his machine will be approved and rewarded.”
+
+It was a declaration of war, war to the death against this “Master of
+the World” who thought to threaten and defy an entire nation, the
+American nation!
+
+Before the day was over, various rewards of large amounts were promised
+to anyone who revealed the hiding place of this dangerous inventor, to
+anyone who could identify him, and to anyone who should rid the country
+of him.
+
+Such was the situation during the last fortnight of July. All was left
+to the hazard of fortune. The moment the outlaw re-appeared he would be
+seen and signaled, and when the chance came he would be arrested. This
+could not be accomplished when he was in his automobile on land or in
+his boat on the water. No; he must be seized suddenly, before he had
+any opportunity to escape by means of that speed which no other machine
+could equal.
+
+I was therefore all alert, awaiting an order from Mr. Ward to start out
+with my men. But the order did not arrive for the very good reason that
+the man whom it concerned remained undiscovered. The end of July
+approached. The newspapers continued the excitement. They published
+repeated rumors. New clues were constantly being announced. But all
+this was mere idle talk. Telegrams reached the police bureau from every
+part of America, each contradicting and nullifying the others. The
+enormous rewards offered could not help but lead to accusations,
+errors, and blunders, made, many of them, in good faith. One time it
+would be a cloud of dust, which must have contained the automobile. At
+another time, almost any wave on any of America’s thousand lakes
+represented the submarine. In truth, in the excited state of the public
+imagination, apparitions assailed us from every side.
+
+At last, on the twenty-ninth of July, I received a telephone message to
+come to Mr. Ward on the instant. Twenty minutes later I was in his
+cabinet.
+
+“You leave in an hour, Strock,” said he.
+
+“Where for?”
+
+“For Toledo.”
+
+“It has been seen?”
+
+“Yes. At Toledo you will get your final orders.”
+
+“In an hour, my men and I will be on the way.”
+
+“Good! And, Strock, I now give you a formal order.”
+
+“What is it, Mr. Ward?”
+
+“To succeed! This time to succeed!”
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+THE CAMPAIGN
+
+
+So the undiscoverable commander had reappeared upon the territory of
+the United States! He had never shown himself in Europe either on the
+roads or in the seas. He had not crossed the Atlantic, which apparently
+he could have traversed in three days. Did he then intend to make only
+America the scene of his exploits? Ought we to conclude from this that
+he was an American?
+
+Let me insist upon this point. It seemed clear that the submarine might
+easily have crossed the vast sea which separates the New and the Old
+World. Not only would its amazing speed have made its voyage short, in
+comparison to that of the swiftest steamship, but also it would have
+escaped all the storms that make the voyage dangerous. Tempests did not
+exist for it. It had but to abandon the surface of the waves, and it
+could find absolute calm a few score feet beneath.
+
+But the inventor had not crossed the Atlantic, and if he were to be
+captured now, it would probably be in Ohio, since Toledo is a city of
+that state.
+
+This time the fact of the machine’s appearance had been kept secret,
+between the police and the agent who had warned them, and whom I was
+hurrying to meet. No journal—and many would have paid high for the
+chance—was printing this news. We had decided that nothing should be
+revealed until our effort was at an end. No indiscretion would be
+committed by either my comrades or myself.
+
+The man to whom I was sent with an order from Mr. Ward was named Arthur
+Wells. He awaited us at Toledo. The city of Toledo stands at the
+western end of Lake Erie. Our train sped during the night across West
+Virginia and Ohio. There was no delay; and before noon the next day the
+locomotive stopped in the Toledo depot.
+
+John Hart, Nab Walker and I stepped out with traveling bags in our
+hands, and revolvers in our pockets. Perhaps we should need weapons for
+an attack, or even to defend ourselves. Scarcely had I stepped from the
+train when I picked out the man who awaited us. He was scanning the
+arriving passengers impatiently, evidently as eager and full of haste
+as I.
+
+I approached him. “Mr. Wells?” said I.
+
+“Mr. Strock?” asked he.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“I am at your command,” said Mr. Wells.
+
+“Are we to stop any time in Toledo?” I asked.
+
+“No; with your permission, Mr. Strock. A carriage with two good horses
+is waiting outside the station; and we must leave at once to reach our
+destination as soon as possible.”
+
+“We will go at once,” I answered, signing to my two men to follow us.
+“Is it far?”
+
+“Twenty miles.”
+
+“And the place is called?”
+
+“Black Rock Creek.”
+
+Having left our bags at a hotel, we started on our drive. Much to my
+surprise I found there were provisions sufficient for several days
+packed beneath the seat of the carriage. Mr. Wells told me that the
+region around Black Rock Creek was among the wildest in the state.
+There was nothing there to attract either farmers or fishermen. We
+would find not an inn for our meals nor a room in which to sleep.
+Fortunately, during the July heat there would be no hardship even if we
+had to lie one or two nights under the stars.
+
+More probably, however, if we were successful, the matter would not
+occupy us many hours. Either the commander of the “Terror” would be
+surprised before he had a chance to escape, or he would take to flight
+and we must give up all hope of arresting him.
+
+I found Arthur Wells to be a man of about forty, large and powerful. I
+knew him by reputation to be one of the best of our local police
+agents. Cool in danger and enterprising always, he had proven his
+daring on more than one occasion at the peril of his life. He had been
+in Toledo on a wholly different mission, when chance had thrown him on
+the track of the “Terror.”
+
+We drove rapidly along the shore of Lake Erie, toward the southwest.
+This inland sea of water is on the northern boundary of the United
+States, lying between Canada on one side and the States of Ohio,
+Pennsylvania and New York on the other. If I stop to mention the
+geographical position of this lake, its depth, its extent, and the
+waters nearest around, it is because the knowledge is necessary for the
+understanding of the events which were about to happen.
+
+The surface of Lake Erie covers about ten thousand square miles. It is
+nearly six hundred feet above sea level. It is joined on the northwest,
+by means of the Detroit River, with the still greater lakes to the
+westward, and receives their waters. It has also rivers of its own
+though of less importance, such as the Rocky, the Cuyahoga, and the
+Black. The lake empties at its northeastern end into Lake Ontario by
+means of Niagara River and its celebrated falls.
+
+The greatest known depth of Lake Erie is over one hundred and thirty
+feet. Hence it will be seen that the mass of its waters is
+considerable. In short, this is a region of most magnificent lakes. The
+land, though not situated far northward, is exposed to the full sweep
+of the Arctic cold. The region to the northward is low, and the winds
+of winter rush down with extreme violence. Hence Lake Erie is sometimes
+frozen over from shore to shore.
+
+The principal cities on the borders of this great lake are Buffalo at
+the east, which belongs to New York State, and Toledo in Ohio, at the
+west, with Cleveland and Sandusky, both Ohio cities, at the south.
+Smaller towns and villages are numerous along the shore. The traffic is
+naturally large, its annual value being estimated at considerably over
+two million dollars.
+
+Our carriage followed a rough and little used road along the borders of
+the lake; and as we toiled along, Arthur Wells told me, what he had
+learned.
+
+Less than two days before, on the afternoon of July twenty-seventh
+Wells had been riding on horseback toward the town of Herly. Five miles
+outside the town, he was riding through a little wood, when he saw, far
+up across the lake, a submarine which rose suddenly above the waves. He
+stopped, tied his horse, and stole on foot to the edge of the lake.
+There, from behind a tree he had seen with his own eyes, seen this
+submarine advance toward him, and stop at the mouth of Black Rock
+Creek. Was it the famous machine for which the whole world was seeking,
+which thus came directly to his feet?
+
+When the submarine was close to the rocks, two men climbed out upon its
+deck and stepped ashore. Was one of them this Master of the World, who
+had not been seen since he was reported from Lake Superior? Was this
+the mysterious “Terror” which had thus risen from the depths of Lake
+Erie?
+
+“I was alone,” said Wells. “Alone on the edge of the Creek. If you and
+your assistants, Mr. Strock, had been there, we four against two, we
+would have been able to reach these men and seize them before they
+could have regained their boat and fled.”
+
+“Probably,” I answered. “But were there no others on the boat with
+them? Still, if we had seized the two, we could at least have learned
+who they were.”
+
+“And above all,” added Wells, “if one of them turned out to be the
+captain of the ‘Terror!’”
+
+“I have only one fear, Wells; this submarine, whether it is the one we
+seek or another, may have left the creek since your departure.”
+
+“We shall know about that in a few hours, now. Pray Heaven they are
+still there! Then when night comes?”
+
+“But,” I asked, “did you remain watching in the wood until night?”
+
+“No; I left after an hour’s watching, and rode straight for the
+telegraph station at Toledo. I reached there late at night and sent
+immediate word to Washington.”
+
+“That was night before last. Did you return yesterday to Black Rock
+Creek?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“The submarine was still there?”
+
+“In the same spot.”
+
+“And the two men?”
+
+“The same two men. I judge that some accident had happened, and they
+came to this lonely spot to repair it.”
+
+“Probably so,” said I. “Some damage which made it impossible for them
+to regain their usual hiding-place. If only they are still here!”
+
+“I have reason to believe they will be, for quite a lot of stuff was
+taken out of the boat, and laid about upon the shore; and as well as I
+could discern from a distance they seemed to be working on board.”
+
+“Only the two men?”
+
+“Only the two.”
+
+“But,” protested I, “can two be sufficient to handle an apparatus of
+such speed, and of such intricacy, as to be at once automobile, boat
+and submarine?”
+
+“I think not, Mr. Strock; but I only saw the same two. Several times
+they came to the edge of the little wood where I was hidden, and
+gathered sticks for a fire which they made upon the beach. The region
+is so uninhabited and the creek so hidden from the lake that they ran
+little danger of discovery. They seemed to know this.”
+
+“You would recognize them both again?”
+
+“Perfectly. One was of middle size, vigorous, and quick of movement,
+heavily bearded. The other was smaller, but stocky and strong.
+Yesterday, as before, I left the wood about five o’clock and hurried
+back to Toledo. There I found a telegram from Mr. Ward, notifying me of
+your coming; and I awaited you at the station.”
+
+Summed up, then, the news amounted to this: For forty hours past a
+submarine, presumably the one we sought, had been hidden in Black Rock
+Creek, engaged in repairs. Probably these were absolutely necessary,
+and we should find the boat still there. As to how the “Terror” came to
+be in Lake Erie, Arthur Wells and I discussed that, and agreed that it
+was a very probable place for her. The last time she had been seen was
+on Lake Superior. From there to Lake Erie the machine could have come
+by the roads of Michigan, but since no one had remarked its passage and
+as both the police and the people were specially aroused and active in
+that portion of the country, it seemed more probable, that the “Terror”
+had come by water. There was a clear route through the chain of the
+Great Lakes and their rivers, by which in her character of a submarine
+she could easily proceed undiscovered.
+
+And now, if the “Terror” had already left the creek, or if she escaped
+when we attempted to seize her, in what direction would she turn? In
+any case, there was little chance of following her. There were two
+torpedo-destroyers at the port of Buffalo, at the other extremity of
+Lake Erie. By treaty between the United States and Canada, there are no
+vessels of war whatever on the Great Lakes. These might, however, have
+been little launches belonging to the customs service. Before I left
+Washington Mr. Ward had informed me of their presence; and a telegram
+to their commanders would, if there were need, start them in pursuit of
+the “Terror.” But despite their splendid speed, how could they vie with
+her! And if she plunged beneath the waters, they would be helpless.
+Moreover Arthur Wells averred that in case of a battle, the advantage
+would not be with the destroyers, despite their large crews, and many
+guns. Hence, if we did not succeed this night, the campaign would end
+in failure.
+
+Arthur Wells knew Black Rock Creek thoroughly, having hunted there more
+than once. It was bordered in most places with sharp rocks against
+which the waters of the lake beat heavily. Its channel was some thirty
+feet deep, so that the “Terror” could take shelter either upon the
+surface or under water. In two or three places the steep banks gave way
+to sand beaches which led to little gorges reaching up toward the
+woods, two or three hundred feet.
+
+It was seven in the evening when our carriage reached these woods.
+There was still daylight enough for us to see easily, even in the shade
+of the trees. To have crossed openly to the edge of the creek would
+have exposed us to the view of the men of the “Terror,” if she were
+still there, and thus give her warning to escape.
+
+“Had we better stop here?” I asked Wells, as our rig drew up to the
+edge of the woods.
+
+“No, Mr. Strock,” said he. “We had better leave the carriage deeper in
+the woods, where there will be no chance whatever of our being seen.”
+
+“Can the carriage drive under these trees?”
+
+“It can,” declared Wells. “I have already explored these woods
+thoroughly. Five or six hundred feet from here, there is a little
+clearing, where we will be completely hidden, and where our horses may
+find pasture. Then, as soon as it is dark, we will go down to the
+beach, at the edge of the rocks which shut in the mouth of the creek.
+Thus if the ‘Terror’ is still there, we shall stand between her and
+escape.”
+
+Eager as we all were for action, it was evidently best to do as Wells
+suggested and wait for night. The intervening time could well be
+occupied as he said. Leading the horses by the bridle, while they
+dragged the empty carriage, we proceeded through the heavy woods. The
+tall pines, the stalwart oaks, the cypress scattered here and there,
+made the evening darker overhead. Beneath our feet spread a carpet of
+scattered herbs, pine needles and dead leaves. Such was the thickness
+of the upper foliage that the last rays of the setting sun could no
+longer penetrate here. We had to feel our way; and it was not without
+some knocks that the carriage reached the clearing ten minutes later.
+
+This clearing, surrounded by great trees, formed a sort of oval,
+covered with rich grass. Here it was still daylight, and the darkness
+would scarcely deepen for over an hour. There was thus time to arrange
+an encampment and to rest awhile after our hard trip over the rough and
+rocky roads.
+
+Of course, we were intensely eager to approach the Creek and see if the
+“Terror” was still there. But prudence restrained us. A little
+patience, and the night would enable us to reach a commanding position
+unsuspected. Wells urged this strongly; and despite my eagerness, I
+felt that he was right.
+
+The horses were unharnessed, and left to browse under the care of the
+coachman who had driven us. The provisions were unpacked, and John Hart
+and Nab Walker spread out a meal on the grass at the foot of a superb
+cypress which recalled to me the forest odors of Morganton and Pleasant
+Garden. We were hungry and thirsty; and food and drink were not
+lacking. Then our pipes were lighted to calm the anxious moments of
+waiting that remained.
+
+Silence reigned within the wood. The last song of the birds had ceased.
+With the coming of night the breeze fell little by little, and the
+leaves scarcely quivered even at the tops of the highest branches. The
+sky darkened rapidly after sundown and twilight deepened into
+obscurity.
+
+I looked at my watch, it was half-past eight. “It is time, Wells.”
+
+“When you will, Mr. Strock.”
+
+“Then let us start.”
+
+We cautioned the coachman not to let the horses stray beyond the
+clearing. Then we started. Wells went in advance, I followed him, and
+John Hart and Nab Walker came behind. In the darkness, we three would
+have been helpless without the guidance of Wells. Soon we reached the
+farther border of the woods; and before us stretched the banks of Black
+Rock Creek.
+
+All was silent; all seemed deserted. We could advance without risk. If
+the “Terror” was there, she had cast anchor behind the rocks. But was
+she there? That was the momentous question! As we approached the
+denouement of this exciting affair, my heart was in my throat.
+
+Wells motioned to us to advance. The sand of the shore crunched beneath
+our steps. The two hundred feet between us and the mouth of the Creek
+were crossed softly, and a few minutes sufficed to bring us to the
+rocks at the edge of the lake.
+
+There was nothing! Nothing!
+
+The spot where Wells had left the “Terror” twenty-four hours before was
+empty. The “Master of the World” was no longer at Black Rock Creek.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+BLACK ROCK CREEK
+
+
+Human nature is prone to illusions. Of course, there had been all along
+a probability that the “Terror” had deserted the locality, even
+admitting that it was she Wells had seen the previous day. If some
+damage to her triple system of locomotion had prevented her from
+regaining either by land or by water her usual hiding-place, and
+obliged her to seek refuge in Black Rock Creek, what ought we to
+conclude now upon finding her here no longer? Obviously, that, having
+finished her repairs, she had continued on her way, and was already far
+beyond the waters of Lake Erie.
+
+But probable as this result had been from the first, we had more and
+more ignored it as our trip proceeded. We had come to accept as a fact
+that we should meet the “Terror,” that we should find her anchored at
+the base of the rocks where Wells had seen her.
+
+And now what disappointment! I might even say, what despair! All our
+efforts gone for nothing! Even if the “Terror” was still upon the lake,
+to find her, reach her and capture her, was beyond our power, and it
+might as well be fully recognized beyond all human power.
+
+We stood there, Wells and I, completely crushed, while John Hart and
+Nab Walker, no less chagrined, went tramping along the banks of the
+Creek, seeking any trace that had been left behind.
+
+Posted there, at the mouth of the Creek, Wells and I exchanged scarcely
+a word. What need was there of words to enable us to understand each
+other! After our eagerness and our despair, we were now exhausted.
+Defeated in our well-planned attempt, we felt as unwilling to abandon
+our campaign, as we were unable to continue it.
+
+Nearly an hour slipped by. We could not resolve to leave the place. Our
+eyes still sought to pierce the night. Sometimes a glimmer, due to the
+sparkle of the waters, trembled on the surface of the lake. Then it
+vanished, and with it the foolish hope that it had roused. Sometimes
+again, we thought we saw a shadow outlined against the dark, the
+silhouette of an approaching boat. Yet again some eddies would swirl up
+at our feet, as if the Creek had been stirred within its depths. These
+vain imaginings were dissipated one after the other. They were but the
+illusions raised by our strained fancies.
+
+At length our companions rejoined us. My first question was, “Nothing
+new?”
+
+“Nothing,” said John Hart.
+
+“You have explored both banks of the Creek?”
+
+“Yes,” responded Nab Walker, “as far as the shallow water above; and we
+have not seen even a vestige of the things which Mr. Wells saw laid on
+the shore.”
+
+“Let us wait awhile,” said I, unable to resolve upon a return to the
+woods.
+
+At that moment our attention was caught by a sudden agitation of the
+waters, which swelled upward at the foot of the rocks.
+
+“It is like the swell from a vessel,” said Wells.
+
+“Yes,” said I, instinctively lowering my voice. “What has caused it?
+The wind has completely died out. Does it come from something on the
+surface of the lake?”
+
+“Or from something underneath,” said Wells, bending forward, the better
+to determine.
+
+The commotion certainly seemed as if caused by some boat, whether from
+beneath the water, or approaching the creek from outside upon the lake.
+
+Silent, motionless, we strained eyes and ears to pierce the profound
+obscurity. The faint noise of the waves of the lake lapping on the
+shore beyond the creek, came to us distinctly through the night. John
+Hart and Nab Walker drew a little aside upon a higher ridge of rocks.
+As for me, I leaned close to the water to watch the agitation. It did
+not lessen. On the contrary it became momentarily more evident, and I
+began to distinguish a sort of regular throbbing, like that produced by
+a screw in motion.
+
+“There is no doubt,” declared Wells, leaning close to me, “there is a
+boat coming toward us.”
+
+“There certainly is,” responded I, “unless they have whales or sharks
+in Lake Erie.”
+
+“No, it is a boat,” repeated Wells. “Is she headed toward the mouth of
+the creek, or is she going further up it?”
+
+“This is just where you saw the boat twice before?”
+
+“Yes, just here.”
+
+“Then if this is the same one, and it can be no other, she will
+probably return to the same spot.”
+
+“There!” whispered Wells, extending his hand toward the entrance of the
+creek.
+
+Our companions rejoined us, and all four, crouching low upon the bank,
+peered in the direction he pointed.
+
+We vaguely distinguished a black mass moving through the darkness. It
+advanced very slowly and was still outside the creek, upon the lake,
+perhaps a cable’s length to the northeast. We could scarcely hear even
+now the faint throbbing of its engines. Perhaps they had stopped and
+the boat was only gliding forward under their previous impulse.
+
+It seemed, then, that this was indeed the submarine which Wells had
+watched, and it was returning to pass this night, like the last, within
+the shelter of the creek.
+
+Why had it left the anchorage, if only to return? Had it suffered some
+new disaster, which again impaired its power? Or had it been before
+compelled to leave, with its repairs still unfinished? What cause
+constrained it to return here? Was there some imperious reason why it
+could no longer be turned into an automobile, and go darting away
+across the roads of Ohio?
+
+To all these questions which came crowding upon me, I could give no
+answer. Furthermore both Wells and I kept reasoning under the
+assumption that this was really the “Terror” commanded by the “Master
+of the World” who had dated from it his letter of defiance to the
+government. Yet this premise was still unproven, no matter how
+confident we might feel of it.
+
+Whatever boat this was, that stole so softly through the night, it
+continued to approach us. Assuredly its captain must know perfectly the
+channels and shores of Black Rock Creek, since he ventured here in such
+darkness. Not a light showed upon the deck. Not a single ray from
+within the cabin glimmered through any crevice.
+
+A moment later, we heard some machinery moving very softly. The swell
+of the eddies grew stronger, and in a few moments the boat touched the
+quay.
+
+This word “quay,” only used in that region, exactly describes the spot.
+The rocks at our feet formed a level, five or six feet above the water,
+and descending to it perpendicularly, exactly like a landing wharf.
+
+“We must not stop here,” whispered Wells, seizing me by the arm.
+
+“No,” I answered, “they might see us. We must lie crouched upon the
+beach! Or we might hide in some crevice of the rocks.”
+
+“We will follow you.”
+
+There was not a moment to lose. The dark mass was now close at hand,
+and on its deck, but slightly raised above the surface of the water, we
+could trace the silhouettes of two men.
+
+Were there, then, really only two on board?
+
+We stole softly back to where the ravines rose toward the woods above.
+Several niches in the rocks were at hand. Wells and I crouched down in
+one, my two assistants in another. If the men on the “Terror” landed,
+they could not see us; but we could see them, and would be able to act
+as opportunity offered.
+
+There were some slight noises from the boat, a few words exchanged in
+our own language. It was evident that the vessel was preparing to
+anchor. Then almost instantly, a rope was thrown out, exactly on the
+point of the quay where we had stood.
+
+Leaning forward, Wells could discern that the rope was seized by one of
+the mariners, who had leaped ashore. Then we heard a grappling-iron
+scrape along the ground.
+
+Some moments later, steps crunched upon the sand. Two men came up the
+ravine, and went onward toward the edge of the woods, guiding their
+steps by a ship lantern.
+
+Where were they going? Was Black Rock Creek a regular hiding place of
+the “Terror?” Had her commander a depot here for stores or provisions?
+Did they come here to restock their craft, when the whim of their wild
+voyaging brought them to this part of the continent? Did they know this
+deserted, uninhabited spot so well, that they had no fear of ever being
+discovered here?
+
+“What shall we do?” whispered Wells.
+
+“Wait till they return, and then—” My words were cut short by a
+surprise. The men were not thirty feet from us, when, one of them
+chancing to turn suddenly, the light of their lantern fell full upon
+his face.
+
+He was one of the two men who had watched before my house in Long
+Street! I could not be mistaken! I recognized him as positively as my
+old servant had done. It was he; it was assuredly one of the spies of
+whom I had never been able to find any further traces! There was no
+longer any doubt, my warning letter had come from them. It was
+therefore from the “Master of the World”; it had been written from the
+“Terror” and this was the “Terror.”  Once more I asked myself what
+could be the connection between this machine and the Great Eyrie!
+
+In whispered words, I told Wells of my discovery. His only comment was,
+“It is all incomprehensible!”
+
+Meanwhile the two men had continued on their way to the woods, and were
+gathering sticks beneath the trees. “What if they discover our
+encampment?” murmured Wells.
+
+“No danger, if they do not go beyond the nearest trees.”
+
+“But if they do discover it?”
+
+“They will hurry back to their boat, and we shall be able to cut off
+their retreat.”
+
+Toward the creek, where their craft lay, there was no further sound. I
+left my hiding-place; I descended the ravine to the quay; I stood on
+the very spot where the grappling-iron was fast among the rocks.
+
+The “Terror” lay there, quiet at the end of its cable. Not a light was
+on board; not a person visible, either on the deck, or on the bank. Was
+not this my opportunity? Should I leap on board and there await the
+return of the two men?
+
+“Mr. Strock!” It was Wells, who called to me softly from close at hand.
+
+I drew back in all haste and crouched down beside him. Was it too late
+to take possession of the boat? Or would the attempt perhaps result in
+disaster from the presence of others watching on board?
+
+At any rate, the two men with the lantern were close at hand returning
+down the ravine. Plainly they suspected nothing. Each carrying a bundle
+of wood, they came forward and stopped upon the quay.
+
+Then one of them raised his voice, though not loudly. “Hullo! Captain!”
+
+“All right,” answered a voice from the boat.
+
+Wells murmured in my ear, “There are three!”
+
+“Perhaps four,” I answered, “perhaps five or six!”
+
+The situation grew more complicated. Against a crew so numerous, what
+ought we to do? The least imprudence might cost us dear! Now that the
+two men had returned, would they re-embark with their faggots? Then
+would the boat leave the creek, or would it remain anchored until day?
+If it withdrew, would it not be lost to us? It could leave the waters
+of Lake Erie, and cross any of the neighboring states by land; or it
+could retrace its road by the Detroit River which would lead it to Lake
+Huron and the Great Lakes above. Would such an opportunity as this, in
+the narrow waters of Black Rock Creek, ever occur again!
+
+“At least,” said I to Wells, “we are four. They do not expect attack;
+they will be surprised. The result is in the hands of Providence.”
+
+I was about to call our two men, when Wells again seized my arm.
+“Listen!” said he.
+
+One of the men hailed the boat, and it drew close up to the rocks. We
+heard the Captain say to the two men ashore, “Everything is all right,
+up there?”
+
+“Everything, Captain.”
+
+“There are still two bundles of wood left there?”
+
+“Two.”
+
+“Then one more trip will bring them all on board the ‘Terror.’”
+
+The “Terror!”  It WAS she!
+
+“Yes; just one more trip,” answered one of the men.
+
+“Good; then we will start off again at daybreak.”
+
+Were there then but three of them on board? The Captain, this Master of
+the World, and these two men?
+
+Evidently they planned to take aboard the last of their wood. Then they
+would withdraw within their machine, and go to sleep. Would not that be
+the time to surprise them, before they could defend themselves?
+
+Rather than to attempt to reach and capture the ship in face of this
+resolute Captain who was guarding it, Wells and I agreed that it was
+better to let his men return unassailed, and wait till they were all
+asleep.
+
+It was now half an hour after ten. Steps were once more heard upon the
+shore. The man with a lantern and his companion, again remounted the
+ravine toward the woods. When they were safely beyond hearing, Wells
+went to warn our men, while I stole forward again to the very edge of
+the water.
+
+The “Terror” lay at the end of a short cable. As well as I could judge,
+she was long and slim, shaped like a spindle, without chimney, without
+masts, without rigging, such a shape as had been described when she was
+seen on the coast of New England.
+
+I returned to my place, with my men in the shelter of the ravine; and
+we looked to our revolvers, which might well prove of service.
+
+Five minutes had passed since the men reached the woods, and we
+expected their return at any moment. After that, we must wait at least
+an hour before we made our attack; so that both the Captain and his
+comrades might be deep in sleep. It was important that they should have
+not a moment either to send their craft darting out upon the waters of
+Lake Erie, or to plunge it beneath the waves where we would have been
+entrapped with it.
+
+In all my career I have never felt such impatience. It seemed to me
+that the two men must have been detained in the woods. Something had
+barred their return.
+
+Suddenly a loud noise was heard, the tumult of run-away horses,
+galloping furiously along the shore!
+
+They were our own, which, frightened, and perhaps neglected by the
+driver, had broken away from the clearing, and now came rushing along
+the bank.
+
+At the same moment, the two men reappeared, and this time they were
+running with all speed. Doubtless they had discovered our encampment,
+and had at once suspected that there were police hidden in the woods.
+They realized that they were watched, they were followed, they would be
+seized. So they dashed recklessly down the ravine, and after loosening
+the cable, they would doubtless endeavor to leap aboard. The “Terror”
+would disappear with the speed of a meteor, and our attempt would be
+wholly defeated!
+
+“Forward,” I cried. And we scrambled down the sides of the ravine to
+cut off the retreat of the two men.
+
+They saw us and, on the instant, throwing down their bundles, fired at
+us with revolvers, hitting John Hart in the leg.
+
+We fired in our turn, but less successfully. The men neither fell nor
+faltered in their course. Reaching the edge of the creek, without
+stopping to unloose the cable, they plunged overboard, and in a moment
+were clinging to the deck of the “Terror.”
+
+Their captain, springing forward, revolver in hand, fired. The ball
+grazed Wells.
+
+Nab Walker and I seizing the cable, pulled the black mass of the boat
+toward shore. Could they cut the rope in time to escape us?
+
+Suddenly the grappling-iron was torn violently from the rocks. One of
+its hooks caught in my belt, while Walker was knocked down by the
+flying cable. I was entangled by the iron and the rope and dragged
+forward—
+
+The “Terror,” driven by all the power of her engines, made a single
+bound and darted out across Black Rock Creek.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+ON BOARD THE TERROR
+
+
+When I came to my senses it was daylight. A half light pierced the
+thick glass port-hole of the narrow cabin wherein someone had placed
+me—how many hours ago, I could not say! Yet it seemed to me by the
+slanting rays, that the sun could not be very far above the horizon.
+
+I was resting in a narrow bunk with coverings over me. My clothes,
+hanging in a corner, had been dried. My belt, torn in half by the hook
+of the iron, lay on the floor.
+
+I felt no wound nor injury, only a little weakness. If I had lost
+consciousness, I was sure it had not been from a blow. My head must
+have been drawn beneath the water, when I was tangled in the cable. I
+should have been suffocated, if someone had not dragged me from the
+lake.
+
+Now, was I on board the “Terror?” And was I alone with the Captain and
+his two men? This seemed probable, almost certain. The whole scene of
+our encounter rose before my eyes, Hart lying wounded upon the bank;
+Wells firing shot after shot, Walker hurled down at the instant when
+the grappling hook caught my belt! And my companions? On their side,
+must not they think that I had perished in the waters of Lake Erie?
+
+Where was the “Terror” now, and how was it navigating? Was it moving as
+an automobile? Speeding across the roads of some neighboring State? If
+so, and if I had been unconscious for many hours, the machine with its
+tremendous powers must be already far away. Or, on the other hand, were
+we, as a submarine, following some course beneath the lake?
+
+No, the “Terror” was moving upon some broad liquid surface. The
+sunlight, penetrating my cabin, showed that the window was not
+submerged. On the other hand, I felt none of the jolting that the
+automobile must have suffered even on the smoothest highway. Hence the
+“Terror” was not traveling upon land.
+
+As to deciding whether she was still traversing Lake Erie, that was
+another matter. Had not the Captain reascended the Detroit River, and
+entered Lake Huron, or even Lake Superior beyond? It was difficult to
+say.
+
+At any rate I decided to go up on deck. From there I might be able to
+judge. Dragging myself somewhat heavily from the bunk, I reached for my
+clothes and dressed, though without much energy. Was I not probably
+locked within this cabin?
+
+The only exit seemed by a ladder and hatchway above my head. The hatch
+rose readily to my hand, and I ascended half way on deck.
+
+My first care was to look forward, backward, and on both sides of the
+speeding “Terror.”  Everywhere a vast expanse of waves! Not a shore in
+sight! Nothing but the horizon formed by sea and sky!
+
+Whether it was a lake or the ocean I could easily settle. As we shot
+forward at such speed the water cut by the bow, rose furiously upward
+on either side, and the spray lashed savagely against me.
+
+I tasted it. It was fresh water, and very probably that of Lake Erie.
+The sun was but midway toward the zenith so it could scarcely be more
+than seven or eight hours since the moment when the “Terror” had darted
+from Black Rock Creek.
+
+This must therefore be the following morning, that of the thirty-first
+of July.
+
+Considering that Lake Erie is two hundred and twenty miles long, and
+over fifty wide, there was no reason to be surprised that I could see
+no land, neither that of the United States to the southeast nor of
+Canada to the northwest.
+
+At this moment there were two men on the deck, one being at the bow on
+the look-out, the other in the stern, keeping the course to the
+northeast, as I judged by the position of the sun. The one at the bow
+was he whom I had recognized as he ascended the ravine at Black Rock.
+The second was his companion who had carried the lantern. I looked in
+vain for the one whom they had called Captain. He was not in sight.
+
+It will be readily appreciated how eager was my desire to stand in the
+presence of the creator of these prodigious machines of this fantastic
+personage who occupied and preoccupied the attention of all the world,
+the daring inventor who did not fear to engage in battle against the
+entire human race, and who proclaimed himself “Master of the World.”
+
+I approached the man on the look-out, and after a minute of silence I
+asked him, “Where is the Captain?”
+
+He looked at me through half-closed eyes. He seemed not to understand
+me. Yet I knew, having heard him the night before, that he spoke
+English. Moreover, I noticed that he did not appear surprised to see me
+out of my cabin. Turning his back upon me, he continued to search the
+horizon.
+
+I stepped then toward the stern, determined to ask the same question
+about the Captain. But when I approached the steersman, he waved me
+away with his hand, and I obtained no other response.
+
+It only remained for me to study this craft, from which we had been
+repelled with revolver shots, when we had seized upon its anchor rope.
+
+I therefore set leisurely to work to examine the construction of this
+machine, which was carrying me—whither? The deck and the upper works
+were all made of some metal which I did not recognize. In the center of
+the deck, a scuttle half raised covered the room where the engines were
+working regularly and almost silently. As I had seen before, neither
+masts, nor rigging! Not even a flagstaff at the stern! Toward the bow
+there arose the top of a periscope by which the “Terror” could be
+guided when beneath the water.
+
+On the sides were folded back two sort of outshoots resembling the
+gangways on certain Dutch boats. Of these I could not understand the
+use.
+
+In the bow there rose a third hatch-way which presumably covered the
+quarters occupied by the two men when the “Terror” was at rest.
+
+At the stern a similar hatch gave access probably to the cabin of the
+captain, who remained unseen. When these different hatches were shut
+down, they had a sort of rubber covering which closed them hermetically
+tight, so that the water could not reach the interior when the boat
+plunged beneath the ocean.
+
+As to the motor, which imparted such prodigious speed to the machine, I
+could see nothing of it, nor of the propeller. However, the fast
+speeding boat left behind it only a long, smooth wake. The extreme
+fineness of the lines of the craft, caused it to make scarcely any
+waves, and enabled it to ride lightly over the crest of the billows
+even in a rough sea.
+
+As was already known, the power by which the machine was driven, was
+neither steam nor gasoline, nor any of those similar liquids so well
+known by their odor, which are usually employed for automobiles and
+submarines. No doubt the power here used was electricity, generated on
+board, at some high power. Naturally I asked myself whence comes this
+electricity, from piles, or from accumulators? But how were these piles
+or accumulators charged? Unless, indeed, the electricity was drawn
+directly from the surrounding air or from the water, by processes
+hitherto unknown. And I asked myself with intense eagerness if in the
+present situation, I might be able to discover these secrets.
+
+Then I thought of my companions, left behind on the shore of Black Rock
+Creek. One of them, I knew, was wounded; perhaps the others were also.
+Having seen me dragged overboard by the hawser, could they possibly
+suppose that I had been rescued by the “Terror?”  Surely not! Doubtless
+the news of my death had already been telegraphed to Mr. Ward from
+Toledo. And now who would dare to undertake a new campaign against this
+“Master of the World”?
+
+These thoughts occupied my mind as I awaited the captain’s appearance
+on the deck. He did not appear.
+
+I soon began to feel very hungry; for I must have fasted now nearly
+twenty-four hours. I had eaten nothing since our hasty meal in the
+woods, even if that had been the night before. And judging by the pangs
+which now assailed my stomach, I began to wonder if I had not been
+snatched on board the “Terror” two days before,—or even more.
+
+Happily the question if they meant to feed me, and how they meant to
+feed me, was solved at once. The man at the bow left his post,
+descended, and reappeared. Then, without saying a word, he placed some
+food before me and returned to his place. Some potted meat, dried fish,
+sea-biscuit, and a pot of ale so strong that I had to mix it with
+water, such was the meal to which I did full justice. My fellow
+travelers had doubtless eaten before I came out of the cabin, and they
+did not join me.
+
+There was nothing further to attract my eyes, and I sank again into
+thought. How would this adventure finish? Would I see this invisible
+captain at length, and would he restore me to liberty? Could I regain
+it in spite of him? That would depend on circumstances! But if the
+“Terror” kept thus far away from the shore, or if she traveled beneath
+the water, how could I escape from her? Unless we landed, and the
+machine became an automobile, must I not abandon all hope of escape?
+
+Moreover—why should I not admit it?—to escape without having learned
+anything of the “Terror’s” secrets would not have contented me at all.
+Although I could not thus far flatter myself upon the success of my
+campaign, and though I had come within a hairbreadth of losing my life
+and though the future promised far more of evil than of good, yet after
+all, a step forward had been attained. To be sure, if I was never to be
+able to re-enter into communication with the world, if, like this
+Master of the World who had voluntarily placed himself outside the law,
+I was now placed outside humanity, then the fact that I had reached the
+“Terror” would have little value.
+
+The craft continued headed to the northeast, following the longer axis
+of Lake Erie. She was advancing at only half speed; for, had she been
+doing her best, she must some hours before have reached the
+northeastern extremity of the lake.
+
+At this end Lake Erie has no other outlet than the Niagara River, by
+which it empties into Lake Ontario. Now, this river is barred by the
+famous cataract some fifteen miles beyond the important city of
+Buffalo. Since the “Terror” had not retreated by the Detroit River,
+down which she had descended from the upper lakes, how was she to
+escape from these waters, unless indeed she crossed by land?
+
+The sun passed the meridian. The day was beautiful; warm but not
+unpleasantly so, thanks to the breeze made by our passage. The shores
+of the lake continued invisible on both the Canadian and the American
+side.
+
+Was the captain determined not to show himself? Had he some reason for
+remaining unknown? Such a precaution would indicate that he intended to
+set me at liberty in the evening, when the “Terror” could approach the
+shore unseen.
+
+Toward two o’clock, however, I heard a slight noise; the central
+hatchway was raised. The man I had so impatiently awaited appeared on
+deck.
+
+I must admit he paid no more attention to me, than his men had done.
+Going to the stern, he took the helm. The man whom he had relieved,
+after a few words in a low tone, left the deck, descending by the
+forward hatchway. The captain, having scanned the horizon, consulted
+the compass, and slightly altered our course. The speed of the “Terror”
+increased.
+
+This man, so interesting both to me and to the world, must have been
+some years over fifty. He was of middle height, with powerful shoulders
+still very erect; a strong head, with thick hair rather gray than
+white, smooth shaven cheeks, and a short, crisp beard. His chest was
+broad, his jaw prominent, and he had that characteristic sign of
+tremendous energy, bushy eyebrows drawn sharply together. Assuredly he
+possessed a constitution of iron, splendid health, and warm red blood
+beneath his sun burned skin.
+
+Like his companions the captain was dressed in sea-clothes covered by
+an oil-skin coat, and with a woolen cap which could be pulled down to
+cover his head entirely, when he so desired.
+
+Need I add that the captain of the “Terror” was the other of the two
+men, who had watched my house in Long street. Moreover, if I recognized
+him, he also must recognize me as chief-inspector Strock, to whom had
+been assigned the task of penetrating the Great Eyrie.
+
+I looked at him curiously. On his part, while he did not seek to avoid
+my eyes, he showed at least a singular indifference to the fact that he
+had a stranger on board.
+
+As I watched him, the idea came to me, a suggestion which I had not
+connected with the first view of him in Washington, that I had already
+seen this characteristic figure. Was it in one of the photographs held
+in the police department, or was it merely a picture in some shop
+window? But the remembrance was very vague. Perhaps I merely imagined
+it.
+
+Well, though his companions had not had the politeness to answer me,
+perhaps he would be more courteous. He spoke the same language as I,
+although I could not feel quite positive that he was of American birth.
+He might indeed have decided to pretend not to understand me, so as to
+avoid all discussion while he held me prisoner.
+
+In that case, what did he mean to do with me? Did he intend to dispose
+of me without further ceremony? Was he only waiting for night to throw
+me overboard? Did even the little which I knew of him, make me a danger
+of which he must rid himself? But in that case, he might better have
+left me at the end of his anchor line. That would have saved him the
+necessity of drowning me over again.
+
+I turned, I walked to the stern, I stopped full in front of him. Then,
+at length, he fixed full upon me a glance that burned like a flame.
+
+“Are you the captain?” I asked.
+
+He was silent.
+
+“This boat! Is it really the ‘Terror?’”
+
+To this question also there was no response. Then I reached toward him;
+I would have taken hold of his arm.
+
+He repelled me without violence, but with a movement that suggested
+tremendous restrained power.
+
+Planting myself again before him, I demanded in a louder tone, “What do
+you mean to do with me?”
+
+Words seemed almost ready to burst from his lips, which he compressed
+with visible irritation. As though to check his speech he turned his
+head aside. His hand touched a regulator of some sort, and the machine
+rapidly increased its speed.
+
+Anger almost mastered me. I wanted to cry out “So be it! Keep your
+silence! I know who you are, just as I know your machine, recognized at
+Madison, at Boston, at Lake Kirdall. Yes; it is you, who have rushed so
+recklessly over our roads, our seas and our lakes! Your boat is the
+‘Terror’ and you her commander, wrote that letter to the government. It
+is you who fancy you can fight the entire world. You, who call yourself
+the Master of the World!”
+
+And how could he have denied it! I saw at that moment the famous
+initials inscribed upon the helm!
+
+Fortunately I restrained myself; and despairing of getting any response
+to my questions, I returned to my seat near the hatchway of my cabin.
+
+For long hours, I patiently watched the horizon in the hope that land
+would soon appear. Yes, I sat waiting! For I was reduced to that!
+Waiting! No doubt, before the day closed, the “Terror” must reach the
+end of Lake Erie, since she continued her course steadily to the
+northeast.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+NIAGARA
+
+
+The hours passed, and the situation did not change. The steersman
+returned on deck, and the captain, descending, watched the movement of
+the engines. Even when our speed increased, these engines continued
+working without noise, and with remarkable smoothness. There was never
+one of those inevitable breaks, with which in most motors the pistons
+sometimes miss a stroke. I concluded that the “Terror,” in each of its
+transformations must be worked by rotary engines. But I could not
+assure myself of this.
+
+For the rest, our direction did not change. Always we headed toward the
+northeast end of the lake, and hence toward Buffalo.
+
+Why, I wondered, did the captain persist in following this route? He
+could not intend to stop at Buffalo, in the midst of a crowd of boats
+and shipping of every kind. If he meant to leave the lake by water,
+there was only the Niagara River to follow; and its Falls would be
+impassable, even to such a machine as this. The only escape was by the
+Detroit River, and the “Terror” was constantly leaving that farther
+behind.
+
+Then another idea occurred to me. Perhaps the captain was only waiting
+for night to return to the shore of the lake. There, the boat, changed
+to an automobile, would quickly cross the neighboring States. If I did
+not succeed in making my escape, during this passage across the land,
+all hope of regaining my liberty would be gone.
+
+True, I might learn where this Master of the World hid himself. I might
+learn what no one had yet been able to discover, assuming always that
+he did not dispose of me at one time or another—and what I expected his
+“disposal” would be, is easily comprehended.
+
+I knew the northeast end of Lake Erie well, having often visited that
+section of New York State which extends westward from Albany to
+Buffalo. Three years before, a police mission had led me to explore
+carefully the shores of the Niagara River, both above and below the
+cataract and its Suspension Bridge. I had visited the two principal
+islands between Buffalo and the little city of Niagara Falls, I had
+explored Navy Island and also Goat Island, which separates the American
+falls from those of the Canadian side.
+
+Thus if an opportunity for flight presented itself, I should not find
+myself in an unknown district. But would this chance offer? And at
+heart, did I desire it, or would I seize upon it? What secrets still
+remained in this affair in which good fortune or was it evil
+fortune—had so closely entangled me!
+
+On the other hand, I saw no real reason to suppose that there was any
+chance of my reaching the shores of the Niagara River. The “Terror”
+would surely not venture into this trap which had no exit. Probably she
+would not even go to the extremity of the lake.
+
+Such were the thoughts that spun through my excited brain, while my
+eyes remained fixed upon the empty horizon.
+
+And always one persistent question remained insolvable. Why had the
+captain written to me personally that threatening letter? Why had he
+spied upon me in Washington? What bond attached him to the Great Eyrie?
+There might indeed be subterranean canals which gave him passage to
+Lake Kirdall, but could he pierce the impenetrable fortress of the
+Eyrie? No! That was beyond him!
+
+Toward four o’clock in the afternoon, reckoning by the speed of the
+“Terror” and her direction, I knew we must be approaching Buffalo; and
+indeed, its outlines began to show some fifteen miles ahead. During our
+passage, a few boats had been seen, but we had passed them at a long
+distance, a distance which our captain could easily keep as great as he
+pleased. Moreover, the “Terror” lay so low upon the water, that at even
+a mile away it would have been difficult to discover her.
+
+Now, however, the hills encircling the end of Lake Erie, came within
+vision, beyond Buffalo, forming the sort of funnel by which Lake Erie
+pours its waters into the channel of the Niagara river. Some dunes rose
+on the right, groups of trees stood out here and there. In the
+distance, several freight steamers and fishing smacks appeared. The sky
+became spotted with trails of smoke, which were swept along by a light
+eastern breeze.
+
+What was our captain thinking of in still heading toward the port of
+Buffalo! Did not prudence forbid him to venture further? At each
+moment, I expected that he would give a sweep of the helm and turn away
+toward the western shore of the lake. Or else, I thought, he would
+prepare to plunge beneath the surface. But this persistence in holding
+our bow toward Buffalo was impossible to understand!
+
+At length the helmsman, whose eyes were watching the northeastern
+shore, made a sign to his companion. The latter, leaving the bow, went
+to the central hatchway, and descended into the engine room. Almost
+immediately the captain came on deck, and joining the helmsman, spoke
+with him in a low voice.
+
+The latter, extending his hand toward Buffalo, pointed out two black
+spots, which showed five or six miles distant on the starboard side.
+The captain studied them attentively. Then shrugging his shoulders, he
+seated himself at the stern without altering the course of the
+“Terror.”
+
+A quarter of an hour later, I could see plainly that there were two
+smoke clouds at the point they had studied so carefully. Little by
+little the black spots beneath these became more defined. They were two
+long, low steamers, which, coming from the port of Buffalo, were
+approaching rapidly.
+
+Suddenly it struck me that these were the two torpedo destroyers of
+which Mr. Ward had spoken, and which I had been told to summon in case
+of need.
+
+These destroyers were of the newest type, the swiftest boats yet
+constructed in the country. Driven by powerful engines of the latest
+make, they had covered almost thirty miles an hour. It is true, the
+“Terror” commanded an even greater speed, and always, if she were
+surrounded so that flight was impossible, she could submerge herself
+out of reach of all pursuit. In truth, the destroyers would have had to
+be submarines to attack the “Terror” with any chance of success. And I
+know not, if even in that case, the contest would have been equal.
+
+Meanwhile, it seemed to me evident that the commanders of the two ships
+had been warned, perhaps by Mr. Wells who, returning swiftly to Toledo,
+might have telegraphed to them the news of our defeat. It appeared,
+moreover, that they had seen the “Terror,” for they were headed at full
+speed toward her. Yet our captain, seemingly giving them no thought
+whatever, continued his course toward the Niagara River.
+
+What would the torpedo destroyers do? Presumably, they would maneuver
+so as to seek to shut the “Terror” within the narrowing end of the lake
+where the Niagara offered her no passage.
+
+Our captain now took the helm. One of the men was at the bow, the other
+in the engine room. Would the order be given for me to go down into the
+cabin?
+
+It was not, to my extreme satisfaction. To speak frankly, no one paid
+any attention to me. It was as if I had not been on board. I watched,
+therefore, not without mixed emotions, the approach of the destroyers.
+Less than two miles distant now they separated in such a way as to hold
+the “Terror” between their fires.
+
+As to the Master of the World, his manner indicated only the most
+profound disdain. He seemed sure that these destroyers were powerless
+against him. With a touch to his machinery he could distance them, no
+matter what their speed! With a few turns of her engine, the “Terror”
+would dart beyond their cannon shots! Or, in the depths of the lake,
+what projectiles could find the submarine?
+
+Five minutes later, scarcely a mile separated us from the two powerful
+fighters which pursued us. Our captain permitted them to approach still
+closer. Then he pressed upon a handle. The “Terror,” doubling the
+action of her propellers, leaped across the surface of the lake. She
+played with the destroyers! Instead of turning in flight, she continued
+her forward course. Who knew if she would not even have the audacity to
+pass between her two enemies, to coax them after her, until the hour
+when, as night closed in, they would be forced to abandon the useless
+pursuit!
+
+The city of Buffalo was now in plain view on the border of the lake. I
+saw its huge buildings, its church towers, its grain elevators. Only
+four or five miles ahead, Niagara river opened to the northward.
+
+Under these new conditions which way should I turn? When we passed in
+front of the destroyers, or perhaps between them, should I not throw
+myself into the waters? I was a good swimmer, and such a chance might
+never occur again. The captain could not stop to recapture me. By
+diving could I not easily escape, even from a bullet? I should surely
+be seen by one or other of the pursuers. Perhaps, even, their
+commanders had been warned of my presence on board the “Terror.” Would
+not a boat be sent to rescue me?
+
+Evidently my chance of success would be even greater, if the “Terror”
+entered the narrow waters of Niagara River. At Navy Island I would be
+able to set foot on territory that I knew well. But to suppose that our
+captain would rush into this river where he might be swept over the
+great cataract! That seemed impossible! I resolved to await the
+destroyers’ closest approach and at the last moment I would decide.
+
+Yet my resolution to escape was but half-hearted. I could not resign
+myself thus to lose all chance of following up this mystery. My
+instincts as a police official revolted. I had but to reach out my hand
+in order to seize this man who had been outlawed! Should I let him
+escape me! No! I would not save myself! Yet, on the other hand, what
+fate awaited me, and where would I be carried by the “Terror,” if I
+remained on board?
+
+It was a quarter past six. The destroyers, quivering and trembling
+under the strain of their speed, gained on us perceptibly. They were
+now directly astern, leaving between them a distance of twelve or
+fifteen cable lengths. The “Terror,” without increasing her speed, saw
+one of them approach on the port side, the other to starboard.
+
+I did not leave my place. The man at the bow was close by me. Immovable
+at the helm, his eyes burning beneath his contracted brows, the captain
+waited. He meant, perhaps, to finish the chase by one last maneuver.
+
+Suddenly, a puff of smoke rose from the destroyer on our left. A
+projectile, brushing the surface of the water, passed in front of the
+“Terror,” and sped beyond the destroyer on our right.
+
+I glanced around anxiously. Standing by my side, the lookout seemed to
+await a sign from the captain. As for him, he did not even turn his
+head; and I shall never forget the expression of disdain imprinted on
+his visage.
+
+At this moment, I was pushed suddenly toward the hatchway of my cabin,
+which was fastened above me. At the same instant the other hatchways
+were closed; the deck became watertight. I heard a single throb of the
+machinery, and the plunge was made, the submarine disappeared beneath
+the waters of the lake.
+
+Cannon shot still boomed above us. Their heavy echo reached my ear;
+then everything was peace. Only a faint light penetrated through the
+porthole into my cabin. The submarine, without the least rolling or
+pitching, sped silently through the deeps.
+
+I had seen with what rapidity, and also with what ease the
+transformation of the “Terror” had been made. No less easy and rapid,
+perhaps, would be her change to an automobile.
+
+And now what would this Master of the World do? Presumably he would
+change his course, unless, indeed, he preferred to speed to land, and
+there continue his route along the roads. It still seemed more
+probable, however, that he would turn back toward the west, and after
+distancing the destroyers, regain the Detroit River. Our submersion
+would probably only last long enough to escape out of cannon range, or
+until night forbade pursuit.
+
+Fate, however, had decreed a different ending to this exciting chase.
+Scarce ten minutes had passed when there seemed some confusion on
+board. I heard rapid words exchanged in the engine room. The steadily
+moving machinery became noisy and irregular. At once I suspected that
+some accident compelled the submarine to reascend.
+
+I was not mistaken. In a moment, the semi-obscurity of my cabin was
+pierced by sunshine. The “Terror” had risen above water. I heard steps
+on the deck, and the hatchways were re-opened, including mine. I sprang
+up the ladder.
+
+The captain had resumed his place at the helm, while the two men were
+busy below. I looked to see if the destroyers were still in view. Yes!
+Only a quarter of a mile away! The “Terror” had already been seen, and
+the powerful vessels which enforced the mandates of our government were
+swinging into position to give chase. Once more the “Terror” sped in
+the direction of Niagara River.
+
+I must confess, I could make nothing of this maneuver. Plunging into a
+cul-de-sac, no longer able to seek the depths because of the accident,
+the “Terror” might, indeed, temporarily distance her pursuers; but she
+must find her path barred by them when she attempted to return. Did she
+intend to land, and if so, could she hope to outrun the telegrams which
+would warn every police agency of her approach?
+
+We were now not half a mile ahead. The destroyers pursued us at top
+speed, though being now directly behind, they were in poor position for
+using their guns. Our captain seemed content to keep this distance;
+though it would have been easy for him to increase it, and then at
+nightfall, to dodge back behind the enemy.
+
+Already Buffalo had disappeared on our right, and a little after seven
+o’clock the opening of the Niagara River appeared ahead. If he entered
+there, knowing that he could not return, our captain must have lost his
+mind! And in truth was he not insane, this man who proclaimed himself,
+who believed himself, Master of the World?
+
+I watched him there, calm, impassive not even turning his head to note
+the progress of the destroyers and I wondered at him.
+
+This end of the lake was absolutely deserted. Freight steamers bound
+for the towns on the banks of the upper Niagara are not numerous, as
+its navigation is dangerous. Not one was in sight. Not even a
+fishing-boat crossed the path of the “Terror.” Even the two destroyers
+would soon be obliged to pause in their pursuit, if we continued our
+mad rush through these dangerous waters.
+
+I have said that the Niagara River flows between New York and Canada.
+Its width, of about three quarters of a mile, narrows as it approaches
+the falls. Its length, from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, is about fifteen
+leagues. It flows in a northerly direction, until it empties the waters
+of Lake Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie into Ontario, the last lake
+of this mighty chain. The celebrated falls, which occur in the midst of
+this great river have a height of over a hundred and fifty feet. They
+are called sometimes the Horse-shoe Falls, because they curve inward
+like the iron shoe. The Indians have given them the name of “Thunder of
+Waters,” and in truth a mighty thunder roars from them without
+cessation, and with a tumult which is heard for several miles away.
+
+Between Lake Erie, and the little city of Niagara Falls, two islands
+divide the current of the river, Navy Island, a league above the
+cataract, and Goat Island, which separates the American and the
+Canadian Falls. Indeed, on the lower point of this latter isle stood
+once that “Terrapin Tower” so daringly built in the midst of the
+plunging waters on the very edge of the abyss. It has been destroyed;
+for the constant wearing away of the stone beneath the cataract makes
+the ledge move with the ages slowly up the river, and the tower has
+been drawn into the gulf.
+
+The town of Fort Erie stands on the Canadian shore at the entrance of
+the river. Two other towns are set along the banks above the falls,
+Schlosser on the right bank, and Chippewa on the left, located on
+either side of Navy Island. It is at this point that the current, bound
+within a narrower channel, begins to move at tremendous speed, to
+become two miles further on, the celebrated cataract.
+
+The “Terror” had already passed Fort Erie. The sun in the west touched
+the edge of the Canadian horizon, and the moon, faintly seen, rose
+above the mists of the south. Darkness would not envelop us for another
+hour.
+
+The destroyers, with huge clouds of smoke streaming from their funnels,
+followed us a mile behind. They sped between banks green with shade
+trees and dotted with cottages which lay among lovely gardens.
+
+Obviously the “Terror” could no longer turn back. The destroyers shut
+her in completely. It is true their commanders did not know, as I did,
+that an accident to her machinery had forced her to the surface, and
+that it was impossible for her to escape them by another plunge.
+Nevertheless, they continued to follow, and would assuredly maintain
+their pursuit to the very last.
+
+I marveled at the intrepidity of their chase through these dangerous
+waters. I marveled still more at the conduct of our captain. Within a
+half hour now, his course would be barred by the cataract. No matter
+how perfect his machine, it could not escape the power of the great
+falls. If the current once mastered our engines, we should inevitably
+disappear in the gulf nearly two hundred feet deep which the waters
+have dug at the base of the falls! Perhaps, however, our captain had
+still power to turn to one of the shores and flee by the automobile
+routes.
+
+In the midst of this excitement, what action should I take personally?
+Should I attempt to gain the shores of Navy Island, if we indeed
+advanced that far? If I did not seize this chance, never, after what I
+had learned of his secrets, never would the Master of the World restore
+me to liberty.
+
+I suspected, however, that my flight was no longer possible. If I was
+not confined within my cabin, I no longer remained unwatched. While the
+captain retained his place at the helm, his assistant by my side never
+removed his eyes from me. At the first movement, I should be seized and
+locked within my room. For the present, my fate was evidently bound up
+with that of the “Terror.”
+
+The distance which separated us from the two destroyers was now growing
+rapidly less. Soon they were but a few cable-lengths away. Could the
+motor of the “Terror,” since the accident, no longer hold its speeds?
+Yet the captain showed not the least anxiety, and made no effort to
+reach land!
+
+We could hear the hissing of the steam which escaped from the valves of
+the destroyers, to mingle with the streamers of black smoke. But we
+heard, even more plainly, the roar of the cataract, now less than three
+miles away.
+
+The “Terror” took the left branch of the river in passing Navy Island.
+At this point, she was within easy reach of the shore, yet she shot
+ahead. Five minutes later, we could see the first trees of Goat Island.
+The current became more and more irresistible. If the “Terror” did not
+stop, the destroyers could not much longer follow her. If it pleased
+our accursed captain to plunge us into the vortex of the falls, surely
+they did not mean to follow into the abyss!
+
+Indeed, at this moment they signaled each other, and stopped the
+pursuit. They were scarce more than six hundred feet from the cataract.
+Then their thunders burst on the air and several cannon shot swept over
+the “Terror” without hitting its low-lying deck.
+
+The sun had set, and through the twilight the moon’s rays shone upon us
+from the south. The speed of our craft, doubled by the speed of the
+current, was prodigious! In another moment, we should plunge into that
+black hollow which forms the very center of the Canadian Falls.
+
+With an eye of horror, I saw the shores of Goat Island flashed by, then
+came the Isles of the Three Sisters, drowned in the spray from the
+abyss.
+
+I sprang up; I started to throw myself into the water, in the desperate
+hope of gaining this last refuge. One of the men seized me from behind.
+
+Suddenly a sharp noise was heard from the mechanism which throbbed
+within our craft. The long gangways folded back on the sides of the
+machine, spread out like wings, and at the moment when the “Terror”
+reached the very edge of the falls, she arose into space, escaping from
+the thundering cataract in the center of a lunar rainbow.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+THE EAGLE’S NEST
+
+
+On the morrow, when I awoke after a sound sleep, our vehicle seemed
+motionless. It seemed to me evident that we were not running upon land.
+Yet neither were we rushing through or beneath the waters; nor yet
+soaring across the sky. Had the inventor regained that mysterious
+hiding-place of his, where no human being had ever set foot before him?
+
+And now, since he had not disembarrassed himself of my presence, was
+his secret about to be revealed to me?
+
+It seemed astonishing that I had slept so profoundly during most of our
+voyage through the air. It puzzled me and I asked if this sleep had not
+been caused by some drug, mixed with my last meal, the captain of the
+“Terror” having wished thus to prevent me from knowing the place where
+we landed. All that I can recall of the previous night is the terrible
+impression made upon me by that moment when the machine, instead of
+being caught in the vortex of the cataract rose under the impulse of
+its machinery like a bird with its huge wings beating with tremendous
+power!
+
+So this machine actually fulfilled a four-fold use! It was at the same
+time automobile, boat, submarine, and airship. Earth, sea and air,—it
+could move through all three elements! And with what power! With what
+speed! A few instants sufficed to complete its marvelous
+transformations. The same engine drove it along all its courses! And I
+had been a witness of its metamorphoses! But that of which I was still
+ignorant, and which I could perhaps discover, was the source of the
+energy which drove the machine, and above all, who was the inspired
+inventor who, after having created it, in every detail, guided it with
+so much ability and audacity!
+
+At the moment when the “Terror” rose above the Canadian Falls, I was
+held down against the hatchway of my cabin. The clear, moonlit evening
+had permitted me to note the direction taken by the air-ship. It
+followed the course of the river and passed the Suspension Bridge three
+miles below the falls. It is here that the irresistible rapids of the
+Niagara River begin, where the river bends sharply to descend toward
+Lake Ontario.
+
+On leaving this point, I was sure that we had turned toward the east.
+The captain continued at the helm. I had not addressed a word to him.
+What good would it do? He would not have answered. I noted that the
+“Terror” seemed to be guided in its course through the air with
+surprising ease. Assuredly the roads of the air were as familiar to it
+as those of the seas and of the lands!
+
+In the presence of such results, could one not understand the enormous
+pride of this man who proclaimed himself Master of the World? Was he
+not in control of a machine infinitely superior to any that had ever
+sprung from the hand of man, and against which men were powerless? In
+truth, why should he sell this marvel? Why should he accept the
+millions offered him? Yes, I comprehended now that absolute confidence
+in himself which was expressed in his every attitude. And where might
+not his ambition carry him, if by its own excess it mounted some day
+into madness!
+
+A half hour after the “Terror” soared into the air, I had sunk into
+complete unconsciousness, without realizing its approach. I repeat, it
+must have been caused by some drug. Without doubt, our commander did
+not wish me to know the road he followed.
+
+Hence I cannot say whether the aviator continued his flight through
+space, or whether the mariner sailed the surface of some sea or lake,
+or the chauffeur sped across the American roads. No recollection
+remains with me of what passed during that night of July thirty-first.
+
+Now, what was to follow from this adventure? And especially concerning
+myself, what would be its end?
+
+I have said that at the moment when I awoke from my strange sleep, the
+“Terror” seemed to me completely motionless. I could hardly be
+mistaken; whatever had been her method of progress, I should have felt
+some movement, even in the air. I lay in my berth in the cabin, where I
+had been shut in without knowing it, just as I had been on the
+preceding night which I had passed on board the “Terror” on Lake Erie.
+
+My business now was to learn if I would be allowed to go on deck here
+where the machine had landed. I attempted to raise the hatchway. It was
+fastened.
+
+“Ah!” said I, “am I to be kept here until the ‘Terror’ recommences its
+travels?” Was not that, indeed, the only time when escape was hopeless?
+
+My impatience and anxiety may be appreciated. I knew not how long this
+halt might continue.
+
+I had not a quarter of an hour to wait. A noise of bars being removed
+came to my ear. The hatchway was raised from above. A wave of light and
+air penetrated my cabin.
+
+With one bound I reached the deck. My eyes in an instant swept round
+the horizon.
+
+The “Terror,” as I had thought, rested quiet on the ground. She was in
+the midst of a rocky hollow measuring from fifteen to eighteen hundred
+feet in circumference. A floor of yellow gravel carpeted its entire
+extent, unrelieved by a single tuft of herbage.
+
+This hollow formed an almost regular oval, with its longer diameter
+extending north and south. As to the surrounding-wall, what was its
+height, what the character of its crest, I could not judge. Above us
+was gathered a fog so heavy, that the rays of the sun had not yet
+pierced it. Heavy trails of cloud drifted across the sandy floor.
+Doubtless the morning was still young, and this mist might later be
+dissolved.
+
+It was quite cold here, although this was the first day of August. I
+concluded therefore that we must be far in the north, or else high
+above sea-level. We must still be somewhere on the New Continent;
+though where, it was impossible to surmise. Yet no matter how rapid our
+flight had been, the air-ship could not have traversed either ocean in
+the dozen hours since our departure from Niagara.
+
+At this moment, I saw the captain come from an opening in the rocks,
+probably a grotto, at the base of this cliff hidden in the fog.
+Occasionally, in the mists above, appeared the shadows of huge birds.
+Their raucous cries were the sole interruption to the profound silence.
+Who knows if they were not affrighted by the arrival of this
+formidable, winged monster, which they could not match either in might
+or speed.
+
+Everything led me to believe that it was here that the Master of the
+World withdrew in the intervals between his prodigious journeys. Here
+was the garage of his automobile; the harbor of his boat; the hangar of
+his air-ship.
+
+And now the “Terror” stood motionless at the bottom of this hollow. At
+last I could examine her; and it looked as if her owners had no
+intention of preventing me. The truth is that the commander seemed to
+take no more notice of my presence than before. His two companions
+joined him, and the three did not hesitate to enter together into the
+grotto I had seen. What a chance to study the machine, at least its
+exterior! As to its inner parts, probably I should never get beyond
+conjecture.
+
+In fact, except for that of my cabin, the hatchways were closed; and it
+would be vain for me to attempt to open them. At any rate, it might be
+more interesting to find out what kind of propeller drove the “Terror”
+in these many transformations.
+
+I jumped to the ground and found I was left at leisure, to proceed with
+this first examination.
+
+The machine was as I have said spindle-shaped. The bow was sharper than
+the stern. The body was of aluminium, the wings of a substance whose
+nature I could not determine. The body rested on four wheels, about two
+feet in diameter. These had pneumatic tires so thick as to assure ease
+of movement at any speed. Their spokes spread out like paddles or
+battledores; and when the “Terror” moved either on or under the water,
+they must have increased her pace.
+
+These wheels were not however, the principal propeller. This consisted
+of two “Parsons” turbines placed on either side of the keel. Driven
+with extreme rapidity by the engine, they urged the boat onward in the
+water by twin screws, and I even questioned if they were not powerful
+enough to propel the machine through the air.
+
+The chief aerial support, however, was that of the great wings, now
+again in repose, and folded back along the sides. Thus the theory of
+the “heavier than air” flying machine was employed by the inventor, a
+system which enabled him to dart through space with a speed probably
+superior to that of the largest birds.
+
+As to the agent which set in action these various mechanisms, I repeat,
+it was, it could be, no other than electricity. But from what source
+did his batteries get their power? Had he somewhere an electric
+factory, to which he must return? Were the dynamos, perhaps working in
+one of the caverns of this hollow?
+
+The result of my examination was that, while I could see that the
+machine used wheels and turbine screws and wings, I knew nothing of
+either its engine, nor of the force which drove it. To be sure, the
+discovery of this secret would be of little value to me. To employ it I
+must first be free. And after what I knew—little as that really was—the
+Master of the World would never release me.
+
+There remained, it is true, the chance of escape. But would an
+opportunity ever present itself? If there could be none during the
+voyages of the “Terror,” might there possibly be, while we remained in
+this retreat?
+
+The first question to be solved was the location of this hollow. What
+communication did it have with the surrounding region? Could one only
+depart from it by a flying-machine? And in what part of the United
+States were we? Was it not reasonable to estimate, that our flight
+through the darkness had covered several hundred leagues?
+
+There was one very natural hypothesis which deserved to be considered,
+if not actually accepted. What more natural harbor could there be for
+the “Terror” than the Great Eyrie? Was it too difficult a flight for
+our aviator to reach the summit? Could he not soar anywhere that the
+vultures and the eagles could? Did not that inaccessible Eyrie offer to
+the Master of the World just such a retreat as our police had been
+unable to discover, one in which he might well believe himself safe
+from all attacks? Moreover, the distance between Niagara Falls and this
+part of the Blueridge Mountains, did not exceed four hundred and fifty
+miles, a flight which would have been easy for the “Terror.”
+
+Yes, this idea more and more took possession of me. It crowded out a
+hundred other unsupported suggestions. Did not this explain the nature
+of the bond which existed between the Great Eyrie and the letter which
+I had received with our commander’s initials? And the threats against
+me if I renewed the ascent! And the espionage to which I had been
+subjected! And all the phenomena of which the Great Eyrie had been the
+theater, were they not to be attributed to this same cause—though what
+lay behind the phenomena was not yet clear? Yes, the Great Eyrie! The
+Great Eyrie!
+
+But since it had been impossible for me to penetrate here, would it not
+be equally impossible for me to get out again, except upon the
+“Terror?”  Ah, if the mists would but lift! Perhaps I should recognize
+the place. What was as yet a mere hypothesis, would become a starting
+point to act upon.
+
+However, since I had freedom to move about, since neither the captain
+nor his men paid any heed to me, I resolved to explore the hollow. The
+three of them were all in the grotto toward the north end of the oval.
+Therefore I would commence my inspection at the southern end.
+
+Reaching the rocky wall, I skirted along its base and found it broken
+by many crevices; above, arose more solid rocks of that feldspar of
+which the chain of the Alleghanies largely consists. To what height the
+rock wall rose, or what was the character of its summit, was still
+impossible to see. I must wait until the sun had scattered the mists.
+
+In the meantime, I continued to follow along the base of the cliff.
+None of its cavities seemed to extend inward to any distance. Several
+of them contained debris from the hand of man, bits of broken wood,
+heaps of dried grasses. On the ground were still to be seen the
+footprints that the captain and his men must have left, perhaps months
+before, upon the sand.
+
+My jailers, being doubtless very busy in their cabin, did not show
+themselves until they had arranged and packed several large bundles.
+Did they purpose to carry those on board the “Terror?”  And were they
+packing up with the intention of permanently leaving their retreat?
+
+In half an hour my explorations were completed and I returned toward
+the center. Here and there were heaped up piles of ashes, bleached by
+weather. There were fragments of burned planks and beams; posts to
+which clung rusted iron-work; armatures of metal twisted by fire; all
+the remnants of some intricate mechanism destroyed by the flames.
+
+Clearly at some period not very remote the hollow had been the scene of
+a conflagration, accidental or intentional. Naturally I connected this
+with the phenomena observed at the Great Eyrie, the flames which rose
+above the crest, the noises which had so frightened the people of
+Pleasant Garden and Morganton. But of what mechanisms were these the
+fragments, and what reason had our captain for destroying them?
+
+At this moment I felt a breath of air; a breeze came from the east. The
+sky swiftly cleared. The hollow was filled with light from the rays of
+the sun which appeared midway between the horizon and the zenith.
+
+A cry escaped me! The crest of the rocky wall rose a hundred feet above
+me. And on the eastern side was revealed that easily recognizable
+pinnacle, the rock like a mounting eagle. It was the same that had held
+the attention of Mr. Elias Smith and myself, when we had looked up at
+it from the outer side of the Great Eyrie.
+
+Thus there was no further doubt. In its flight during the night the
+airship had covered the distance between Lake Erie and North Carolina.
+It was in the depth of this Eyrie that the machine had found shelter!
+This was the nest, worthy of the gigantic and powerful bird created by
+the genius of our captain! The fortress whose mighty walls none but he
+could scale! Perhaps even, he had discovered in the depths of some
+cavern, some subterranean passage by which he himself could quit the
+Great Eyrie, leaving the “Terror” safely sheltered within.
+
+At last I saw it all! This explained the first letter sent me from the
+Great Eyrie itself with the threat of death. If we had been able to
+penetrate into this hollow, who knows if the secrets of the Master of
+the World might not have been discovered before he had been able to set
+them beyond our reach?
+
+I stood there, motionless; my eyes fixed on that mounting eagle of
+stone, prey to a sudden, violent emotion. Whatsoever might be the
+consequences to myself, was it not my duty to destroy this machine,
+here and now, before it could resume its menacing flight of mastery
+across the world!
+
+Steps approached behind me. I turned. The inventor stood by my side,
+and pausing looked me in the face.
+
+I was unable to restrain myself; the words burst forth—“The Great
+Eyrie! The Great Eyrie!”
+
+“Yes, Inspector Strock.”
+
+“And you! You are the Master of the World?”
+
+“Of that world to which I have already proved myself to be the most
+powerful of men.”
+
+“You!” I reiterated, stupefied with amazement.
+
+“I,” responded he, drawing himself up in all his pride, “I,
+Robur—Robur, the Conqueror!”
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+ROBUR, THE CONQUEROR
+
+
+Robur, the Conqueror! This then was the likeness I had vaguely
+recalled. Some years before the portrait of this extraordinary man had
+been printed in all the American newspapers, under date of the
+thirteenth of June, the day after this personage had made his
+sensational appearance at the meeting of the Weldon Institute at
+Philadelphia.
+
+I had noted the striking character of the portrait at the time; the
+square shoulders; the back like a regular trapezoid, its longer side
+formed by that geometrical shoulder line; the robust neck; the enormous
+spheroidal head. The eyes at the least emotion, burned with fire, while
+above them were the heavy, permanently contracted brows, which
+signified such energy. The hair was short and crisp, with a glitter as
+of metal in its lights. The huge breast rose and fell like a
+blacksmith’s forge; and the thighs, the arms and hands, were worthy of
+the mighty body. The narrow beard was the same also, with the smooth
+shaven cheeks which showed the powerful muscles of the jaw.
+
+And this was Robur the Conqueror, who now stood before me, who revealed
+himself to me, hurling forth his name like a threat, within his own
+impenetrable fortress!
+
+Let me recall briefly the facts which had previously drawn upon Robur
+the Conqueror the attention of the entire world. The Weldon Institute
+was a club devoted to aeronautics under the presidency of one of the
+chief personages of Philadelphia, commonly called Uncle Prudent. Its
+secretary was Mr. Phillip Evans. The members of the Institute were
+devoted to the theory of the “lighter than air” machine; and under
+their two leaders were constructing an enormous dirigible balloon, the
+“Go-Ahead.”
+
+At a meeting in which they were discussing the details of the
+construction of their balloon, this unknown Robur had suddenly appeared
+and, ridiculing all their plans, had insisted that the only true
+solution of flight lay with the heavier than air machines, and that he
+had proven this by constructing one.
+
+He was in this turn doubted and ridiculed by the members of the club,
+who called him in mockery Robur the Conqueror. In the tumult that
+followed, revolver shots were fired; and the intruder disappeared.
+
+That same night he had by force abducted the president and the
+secretary of the club, and had taken them, much against their will upon
+a voyage in the wonderful air-ship, the “Albatross,” which he had
+constructed. He meant thus to prove to them beyond argument the
+correctness of his assertions. This ship, a hundred feet long, was
+upheld in the air by a large number of horizontal screws and was driven
+forward by vertical screws at its bow and stern. It was managed by a
+crew of at least half a dozen men, who seemed absolutely devoted to
+their leader, Robur.
+
+After a voyage almost completely around the world, Mr. Prudent and Mr.
+Evans managed to escape from the “Albatross” after a desperate
+struggle. They even managed to cause an explosion on the airship,
+destroying it, and involving the inventor and all his crew in a
+terrific fall from the sky into the Pacific ocean.
+
+Mr. Prudent and Mr. Evans then returned to Philadelphia. They had
+learned that the “Albatross” had been constructed on an unknown isle of
+the Pacific called Island X; but since the location of this
+hiding-place was wholly unknown, its discovery lay scarcely within the
+bounds of possibility. Moreover, the search seemed entirely
+unnecessary, as the vengeful prisoners were quite certain that they had
+destroyed their jailers.
+
+Hence the two millionaires, restored to their homes, went calmly on
+with the construction of their own machine, the “Go-Ahead.”  They hoped
+by means of it to soar once more into the regions they had traversed
+with Robur, and to prove to themselves that their lighter than air
+machine was at least the equal of the heavy “Albatross.” If they had
+not persisted, they would not have been true Americans.
+
+On the twentieth of April in the following year the “Go-Ahead” was
+finished and the ascent was made, from Fairmount Park in Philadelphia.
+I myself was there with thousands of other spectators. We saw the huge
+balloon rise gracefully; and, thanks to its powerful screws, it
+maneuvered in every direction with surprising ease. Suddenly a cry was
+heard, a cry repeated from a thousand throats. Another airship had
+appeared in the distant skies and it now approached with marvelous
+rapidity. It was another “Albatross,” perhaps even superior to the
+first. Robur and his men had escaped death in the Pacific; and, burning
+for revenge, they had constructed a second airship in their secret
+Island X.
+
+Like a gigantic bird of prey, the “Albatross” hurled itself upon the
+“Go-Ahead.”  Doubtless, Robur, while avenging himself wished also to
+prove the immeasurable superiority of the heavier than air machines.
+
+Mr. Prudent and Mr. Evans defended themselves as best they could.
+Knowing that their balloon had nothing like the horizontal speed of the
+“Albatross,” they attempted to take advantage of their superior
+lightness and rise above her. The “Go-Ahead,” throwing out all her
+ballast, soared to a height of over twenty thousand feet. Yet even
+there the “Albatross” rose above her, and circled round her with ease.
+
+Suddenly an explosion was heard. The enormous gas-bag of the
+“Go-Ahead,” expanding under the dilation of its contents at this great
+height, had finally burst.
+
+Half-emptied, the balloon fell rapidly.
+
+Then to our universal astonishment, the “Albatross” shot down after her
+rival, not to finish the work of destruction but to bring rescue. Yes!
+Robur, forgetting his vengeance, rejoined the sinking “Go-Ahead,” and
+his men lifted Mr. Prudent, Mr. Evans, and the aeronaut who accompanied
+them, onto the platform of his craft. Then the balloon, being at length
+entirely empty, fell to its destruction among the trees of Fairmount
+Park.
+
+The public was overwhelmed with astonishment, with fear! Now that Robur
+had recaptured his prisoners, how would he avenge himself? Would they
+be carried away, this time, forever?
+
+The “Albatross” continued to descend, as if to land in the clearing at
+Fairmount Park. But if it came within reach, would not the infuriated
+crowd throw themselves upon the airship, tearing both it and its
+inventor to pieces?
+
+The “Albatross” descended within six feet of the ground. I remember
+well the general movement forward with which the crowd threatened to
+attack it. Then Robur’s voice rang out in words which even now I can
+repeat almost as he said them:
+
+“Citizens of the United States, the president and the secretary of the
+Weldon Institute are again in my power. In holding them prisoners I
+would but be exercising my natural right of reprisal for the injuries
+they have done me. But the passion and resentment which have been
+roused both in them and you by the success of the ‘Albatross,’ show
+that the souls of men are not yet ready for the vast increase of power
+which the conquest of the air will bring to them. Uncle Prudent,
+Phillip Evans, you are free.”
+
+The three men rescued from the balloon leaped to the ground. The
+airship rose some thirty feet out of reach, and Robur recommenced:
+
+“Citizens of the United States, the conquest of the air is made; but it
+shall not be given into your hands until the proper time. I leave, and
+I carry my secret with me. It will not be lost to humanity, but shall
+be entrusted to them when they have learned not to abuse it. Farewell,
+Citizens of the United States!”
+
+Then the “Albatross” rose under the impulse of its mighty screws, and
+sped away amidst the hurrahs of the multitude.
+
+I have ventured to remind my readers of this last scene somewhat in
+detail, because it seemed to reveal the state of mind of the remarkable
+personage who now stood before me. Apparently he had not then been
+animated by sentiments hostile to humanity. He was content to await the
+future; though his attitude undeniably revealed the immeasurable
+confidence which he had in his own genius, the immense pride which his
+almost superhuman powers had aroused within him.
+
+It was not astonishing, moreover, that this haughtiness had little by
+little been aggravated to such a degree that he now presumed to enslave
+the entire world, as his public letter had suggested by its significant
+threats. His vehement mind had with time been roused to such
+over-excitement that he might easily be driven into the most violent
+excesses.
+
+As to what had happened in the years since the last departure of the
+“Albatross,” I could only partly reconstruct this even with my present
+knowledge. It had not sufficed the prodigious inventor to create a
+flying machine, perfect as that was! He had planned to construct a
+machine which could conquer all the elements at once. Probably in the
+workshops of Island X, a selected body of devoted workmen had
+constructed, one by one, the pieces of this marvelous machine, with its
+quadruple transformation. Then the second “Albatross” must have carried
+these pieces to the Great Eyrie, where they had been put together,
+within easier access of the world of men than the far-off island had
+permitted. The “Albatross” itself had apparently been destroyed,
+whether by accident or design, within the eyrie. The “Terror” had then
+made its appearance on the roads of the United States and in the
+neighboring waters. And I have told under what conditions, after having
+been vainly pursued across Lake Erie, this remarkable masterpiece had
+risen through the air carrying me a prisoner on board.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+IN THE NAME OF THE LAW
+
+
+What was to be the issue of this remarkable adventure? Could I bring it
+to any denouement whatever, either sooner or later? Did not Robur hold
+the results wholly in his own hands? Probably I would never have such
+an opportunity for escape as had occurred to Mr. Prudent and Mr. Evans
+amid the islands of the Pacific. I could only wait. And how long might
+the waiting last!
+
+To be sure, my curiosity had been partly satisfied. But even now I knew
+only the answer to the problems of the Great Eyrie. Having at length
+penetrated its circle, I comprehended all the phenomena observed by the
+people of the Blueridge Mountains. I was assured that neither the
+country-folk throughout the region, nor the townfolk of Pleasant Garden
+and Morganton were in danger of volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. No
+subterranean forces whatever were battling within the bowels of the
+mountains. No crater had arisen in this corner of the Alleghanies. The
+Great Eyrie served merely as the retreat of Robur the Conqueror. This
+impenetrable hiding-place where he stored his materials and provisions,
+had without doubt been discovered by him during one of his aerial
+voyages in the “Albatross.”  It was a retreat probably even more secure
+than that as yet undiscovered Island X in the Pacific.
+
+This much I knew of him; but of this marvelous machine of his, of the
+secrets of its construction and propelling force, what did I really
+know? Admitting that this multiple mechanism was driven by electricity,
+and that this electricity was, as we knew it had been in the
+“Albatross,” extracted directly from the surrounding air by some new
+process, what were the details of its mechanism? I had not been
+permitted to see the engine; doubtless I should never see it.
+
+On the question of my liberty I argued thus: Robur evidently intends to
+remain unknown. As to what he intends to do with his machine, I fear,
+recalling his letter, that the world must expect from it more of evil
+than of good. At any rate, the incognito which he has so carefully
+guarded in the past he must mean to preserve in the future. Now only
+one man can establish the identity of the Master of the World with
+Robur the Conqueror. This man is I his prisoner, I who have the right
+to arrest him, I, who ought to put my hand on his shoulder, saying, “In
+the Name of the Law—”
+
+On the other hand, could I hope for a rescue from without? Evidently
+not. The police authorities must know everything that had happened at
+Black Rock Creek. Mr. Ward, advised of all the incidents, would have
+reasoned on the matter as follows: when the “Terror” quitted the creek
+dragging me at the end of her hawser, I had either been drowned or,
+since my body had not been recovered, I had been taken on board the
+“Terror,” and was in the hands of its commander.
+
+In the first case, there was nothing more to do than to write
+“deceased” after the name of John Strock, chief inspector of the
+federal police in Washington.
+
+In the second case, could my confreres hope ever to see me again? The
+two destroyers which had pursued the “Terror” into the Niagara River
+had stopped, perforce, when the current threatened to drag them over
+the falls. At that moment, night was closing in, and what could be
+thought on board the destroyers but that the “Terror” had been engulfed
+in the abyss of the cataract? It was scarce possible that our machine
+had been seen when, amid the shades of night, it rose above the
+Horseshoe Falls, or when it winged its way high above the mountains on
+its route to the Great Eyrie.
+
+With regard to my own fate, should I resolve to question Robur? Would
+he consent even to appear to hear me? Was he not content with having
+hurled at me his name? Would not that name seem to him to answer
+everything?
+
+That day wore away without bringing the least change to the situation.
+Robur and his men continued actively at work upon the machine, which
+apparently needed considerable repair. I concluded that they meant to
+start forth again very shortly, and to take me with them. It would,
+however, have been quite possible to leave me at the bottom of the
+Eyrie. There would have been no way by which I could have escaped, and
+there were provisions at hand sufficient to keep me alive for many
+days.
+
+What I studied particularly during this period was the mental state of
+Robur. He seemed to me under the dominance of a continuous excitement.
+What was it that his ever-seething brain now meditated? What projects
+was he forming for the future? Toward what region would he now turn?
+Would he put in execution the menaces expressed in his letter—the
+menaces of a madman!
+
+The night of that first day, I slept on a couch of dry grass in one of
+the grottoes of the Great Eyrie. Food was set for me in this grotto
+each succeeding day. On the second and third of August, the three men
+continued at their work scarcely once, however, exchanging any words,
+even in the midst of their labors. When the engines were all repaired
+to Robur’s satisfaction, the men began putting stores aboard their
+craft, as if expecting a long absence. Perhaps the “Terror” was about
+to traverse immense distances; perhaps even, the captain intended to
+regain his Island X, in the midst of the Pacific.
+
+Sometimes I saw him wander about the Eyrie buried in thought, or he
+would stop and raise his arm toward heaven as if in defiance of that
+God with Whom he assumed to divide the empire of the world. Was not his
+overweening pride leading him toward insanity? An insanity which his
+two companions, hardly less excited than he, could do nothing to
+subdue! Had he not come to regard himself as mightier than the elements
+which he had so audaciously defied even when he possessed only an
+airship, the “Albatross?”  And now, how much more powerful had he
+become, when earth, air and water combined to offer him an infinite
+field where none might follow him!
+
+Hence I had much to fear from the future, even the most dread
+catastrophes. It was impossible for me to escape from the Great Eyrie,
+before being dragged into a new voyage. After that, how could I
+possibly get away while the “Terror” sped through the air or the ocean?
+My only chance must be when she crossed the land, and did so at some
+moderate speed. Surely a distant and feeble hope to cling to!
+
+It will be recalled that after our arrival at the Great Eyrie, I had
+attempted to obtain some response from Robur, as to his purpose with
+me; but I had failed. On this last day I made another attempt.
+
+In the afternoon I walked up and down before the large grotto where my
+captors were at work. Robur, standing at the entrance, followed me
+steadily with his eyes. Did he mean to address me?
+
+I went up to him. “Captain,” said I, “I have already asked you a
+question, which you have not answered. I ask it again: What do you
+intend to do with me?”
+
+We stood face to face scarce two steps apart. With arms folded, he
+glared at me, and I was terrified by his glance. Terrified, that is the
+word! The glance was not that of a sane man. Indeed, it seemed to
+reflect nothing whatever of humanity within.
+
+I repeated my question in a more challenging tone. For an instant I
+thought that Robur would break his silence and burst forth.
+
+“What do you intend to do with me? Will you set me free?”
+
+Evidently my captor’s mind was obsessed by some other thought, from
+which I had only distracted him for a moment. He made again that
+gesture which I had already observed; he raised one defiant arm toward
+the zenith. It seemed to me as if some irresistible force drew him
+toward those upper zones of the sky, that he belonged no more to the
+earth, that he was destined to live in space; a perpetual dweller in
+the clouds.
+
+Without answering me, without seeming to have understood me, Robur
+reentered the grotto.
+
+How long this sojourn or rather relaxation of the “Terror” in the Great
+Eyrie was to last, I did not know. I saw, however, on the afternoon of
+this third of August that the repairs and the embarkation of stores
+were completed. The hold and lockers of our craft must have been
+completely crowded with the provisions taken from the grottoes of the
+Eyrie.
+
+Then the chief of the two assistants, a man whom I now recognized as
+that John Turner who had been mate of the “Albatross,” began another
+labor. With the help of his companion, he dragged to the center of the
+hollow all that remained of their materials, empty cases, fragments of
+carpentry, peculiar pieces of wood which clearly must have belonged to
+the “Albatross,” which had been sacrificed to this new and mightier
+engine of locomotion. Beneath this mass there lay a great quantity of
+dried grasses. The thought came to me that Robur was preparing to leave
+this retreat forever!
+
+In fact, he could not be ignorant that the attention of the public was
+now keenly fixed upon the Great Eyrie; and that some further attempt
+was likely to be made to penetrate it. Must he not fear that some day
+or other the effort would be successful, and that men would end by
+invading his hiding-place? Did he not wish that they should find there
+no single evidence of his occupation?
+
+The sun disappeared behind the crests of the Blueridge. His rays now
+lighted only the very summit of Black Dome towering in the northwest.
+Probably the “Terror” awaited only the night in order to begin her
+flight. The world did not yet know that the automobile and boat could
+also transform itself into a flying machine. Until now, it had never
+been seen in the air. And would not this fourth transformation be
+carefully concealed, until the day when the Master of the World chose
+to put into execution his insensate menaces?
+
+Toward nine o’clock profound obscurity enwrapped the hollow. Not a star
+looked down on us. Heavy clouds driven by a keen eastern wind covered
+the entire sky. The passage of the “Terror” would be invisible, not
+only in our immediate neighborhood, but probably across all the
+American territory and even the adjoining seas.
+
+At this moment Turner, approaching the huge stack in the middle of the
+eyrie, set fire to the grass beneath.
+
+The whole mass flared up at once. From the midst of a dense smoke, the
+roaring flames rose to a height which towered above the walls of the
+Great Eyrie. Once more the good folk of Morganton and Pleasant Garden
+would believe that the crater had reopened. These flames would announce
+to them another volcanic upheaval.
+
+I watched the conflagration. I heard the roarings and cracklings which
+filled the air. From the deck of the “Terror,” Robur watched it also.
+
+Turner and his companion pushed back into the fire the fragments which
+the violence of the flames cast forth. Little by little the huge
+bonfire grew less. The flames sank down into a mere mass of burnt-out
+ashes; and once more all was silence and blackest night.
+
+Suddenly I felt myself seized by the arm. Turner drew me toward the
+“Terror.”  Resistance would have been useless. And moreover what could
+be worse than to be abandoned without resources in this prison whose
+walls I could not climb!
+
+As soon as I set foot on the deck, Turner also embarked. His companion
+went forward to the look-out; Turner climbed down into the engine-room,
+lighted by electric bulbs, from which not a gleam escaped outside.
+
+Robur himself was at the helm, the regulator within reach of his hand,
+so that he could control both our speed and our direction. As to me, I
+was forced to descend into my cabin, and the hatchway was fastened
+above me. During that night, as on that of our departure from Niagara,
+I was not allowed to watch the movements of the “Terror.”
+
+Nevertheless, if I could see nothing of what was passing on board, I
+could hear the noises of the machinery. I had first the feeling that
+our craft, its bow slightly raised, lost contact with the earth. Some
+swerves and balancings in the air followed. Then the turbines
+underneath spun with prodigious rapidity, while the great wings beat
+with steady regularity.
+
+Thus the “Terror,” probably forever, had left the Great Eyrie, and
+launched into the air as a ship launches into the waters. Our captain
+soared above the double chain of the Alleghanies, and without doubt he
+would remain in the upper zones of the air until he had left all the
+mountain region behind.
+
+But in what direction would he turn? Would he pass in flight across the
+plains of North Carolina, seeking the Atlantic Ocean? Or would he head
+to the west to reach the Pacific? Perhaps he would seek, to the south,
+the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. When day came how should I recognize
+which sea we were upon, if the horizon of water and sky encircled us on
+every side?
+
+Several hours passed; and how long they seemed to me! I made no effort
+to find forgetfulness in sleep. Wild and incoherent thoughts assailed
+me. I felt myself swept over worlds of imagination, as I was swept
+through space, by an aerial monster. At the speed which the “Terror”
+possessed, whither might I not be carried during this interminable
+night? I recalled the unbelievable voyage of the “Albatross,” of which
+the Weldon Institute had published an account, as described by Mr.
+Prudent and Mr. Evans. What Robur, the Conqueror, had done with his
+first airship, he could do even more readily with this quadruple
+machine.
+
+At length the first rays of daylight brightened my cabin. Would I be
+permitted to go out now, to take my place upon the deck, as I had done
+upon Lake Erie?
+
+I pushed upon the hatchway: it opened. I came half way out upon the
+deck.
+
+All about was sky and sea. We floated in the air above an ocean, at a
+height which I judged to be about a thousand or twelve hundred feet. I
+could not see Robur, so he was probably in the engine room. Turner was
+at the helm, his companion on the look-out.
+
+Now that I was upon the deck, I saw what I had not been able to see
+during our former nocturnal voyage, the action of those powerful wings
+which beat upon either side at the same time that the screws spun
+beneath the flanks of the machine.
+
+By the position of the sun, as it slowly mounted from the horizon, I
+realized that we were advancing toward the south. Hence if this
+direction had not been changed during the night this was the Gulf of
+Mexico which lay beneath us.
+
+A hot day was announced by the heavy livid clouds which clung to the
+horizon. These warnings of a coming storm did not escape the eye of
+Robur when toward eight o’clock he came on deck and took Turner’s place
+at the helm. Perhaps the cloud-bank recalled to him the waterspout in
+which the “Albatross” had so nearly been destroyed, or the mighty
+cyclone from which he had escaped only as if by a miracle above the
+Antarctic Sea.
+
+It is true that the forces of Nature which had been too strong for the
+“Albatross,” might easily be evaded by this lighter and more versatile
+machine. It could abandon the sky where the elements were in battle and
+descend to the surface of the sea; and if the waves beat against it
+there too heavily, it could always find calm in the tranquil depths.
+
+Doubtless, however, there were some signs by which Robur, who must be
+experienced in judging, decided that the storm would not burst until
+the next day.
+
+He continued his flight; and in the afternoon, when we settled down
+upon the surface of the sea, there was not a sign of bad weather. The
+“Terror” is a sea bird, an albatross or frigate-bird, which can rest at
+will upon the waves! Only we have this advantage, that fatigue has
+never any hold upon this metal organism, driven by the inexhaustible
+electricity!
+
+The whole vast ocean around us was empty. Not a sail nor a trail of
+smoke was visible even on the limits of the horizon. Hence our passage
+through the clouds had not been seen and signaled ahead.
+
+The afternoon was not marked by any incident. The “Terror” advanced at
+easy speed. What her captain intended to do, I could not guess. If he
+continued in this direction, we should reach some one of the West
+Indies, or beyond that, at the end of the Gulf, the shore of Venezuela
+or Colombia. But when night came, perhaps we would again rise in the
+air to clear the mountainous barrier of Guatemala and Nicaragua, and
+take flight toward Island X, somewhere in the unknown regions of the
+Pacific.
+
+Evening came. The sun sank in a horizon red as blood. The sea glistened
+around the “Terror,” which seemed to raise a shower of sparks in its
+passage. There was a storm at hand. Evidently our captain thought so.
+Instead of being allowed to remain on deck, I was compelled to re-enter
+my cabin, and the hatchway was closed above me.
+
+In a few moments from the noises that followed, I knew that the machine
+was about to be submerged. In fact, five minutes later, we were moving
+peacefully forward through the ocean’s depths.
+
+Thoroughly worn out, less by fatigue than by excitement and anxious
+thought, I fell into a profound sleep, natural this time and not
+provoked by any soporific drug. When I awoke, after a length of time
+which I could not reckon, the “Terror” had not yet returned to the
+surface of the sea.
+
+This maneuver was executed a little later. The daylight pierced my
+porthole; and at the same moment I felt the pitching and tossing to
+which we were subjected by a heavy sea.
+
+I was allowed to take my place once more outside the hatchway; where my
+first thought was for the weather. A storm was approaching from the
+northwest. Vivid lightning darted amid the dense, black clouds. Already
+we could hear the rumbling of thunder echoing continuously through
+space. I was surprised—more than surprised, frightened!—by the rapidity
+with which the storm rushed upward toward the zenith. Scarcely would a
+ship have had time to furl her sails to escape the shock of the blast,
+before it was upon her! The advance was as swift as it was terrible.
+
+Suddenly the wind was unchained with unheard of violence, as if it had
+suddenly burst from this prison of cloud. In an instant a frightful sea
+uprose. The breaking waves, foaming along all their crests, swept with
+their full weight over the “Terror.”  If I had not been wedged solidly
+against the rail, I should have been swept overboard!
+
+There was but one thing to do—to change our machine again into a
+submarine. It would find security and calm at a few dozen feet beneath
+the surface. To continue to brave the fury of this outrageous sea was
+impossible.
+
+Robur himself was on deck, and I awaited the order to return to my
+cabin—an order which was not given. There was not even any preparation
+for the plunge. With an eye more burning than ever, impassive before
+this frightful storm, the captain looked it full in the face, as if to
+defy it, knowing that he had nothing to fear.
+
+It was imperative that the “Terror” should plunge below without losing
+a moment. Yet Robur seemed to have no thought of doing so. No! He
+preserved his haughty attitude as of a man who in his immeasurable
+pride, believed himself above or beyond humanity.
+
+Seeing him thus I asked myself with almost superstitious awe, if he
+were not indeed a demoniac being, escaped from some supernatural world.
+
+A cry leaped from his mouth, and was heard amid the shrieks of the
+tempest and the howlings of the thunder. “I, Robur! Robur!—The master
+of the world!”
+
+He made a gesture which Turner and his companions understood. It was a
+command; and without any hesitation these unhappy men, insane as their
+master, obeyed it.
+
+The great wings shot out, and the airship rose as it had risen above
+the falls of Niagara. But if on that day it had escaped the might of
+the cataract, this time it was amidst the might of the hurricane that
+we attempted our insensate flight.
+
+The air-ship soared upward into the heart of the sky, amid a thousand
+lightning flashes, surrounded and shaken by the bursts of thunder. It
+steered amid the blinding, darting lights, courting destruction at
+every instant.
+
+Robur’s position and attitude did not change. With one hand on the
+helm, the other on the speed regulators while the great wings beat
+furiously, he headed his machine toward the very center of the storm,
+where the electric flashes were leaping from cloud to cloud.
+
+I must throw myself upon this madman to prevent him from driving his
+machine into the very middle of this aerial furnace! I must compel him
+to descend, to seek beneath the waters, a safety which was no longer
+possible either upon the surface of the sea or in the sky! Beneath, we
+could wait until this frightful outburst of the elements was at an end!
+
+Then amid this wild excitement my own passion, all my instincts of
+duty, arose within me! Yes, this was madness! Yet must I not arrest
+this criminal whom my country had outlawed, who threatened the entire
+world with his terrible invention? Must I not put my hand on his
+shoulder and summon him to surrender to justice! Was I or was I not
+Strock, chief inspector of the federal police? Forgetting where I was,
+one against three, uplifted in mid-sky above a howling ocean, I leaped
+toward the stern, and in a voice which rose above the tempest, I cried
+as I hurled myself upon Robur:
+
+“In the name of the law, I—”
+
+Suddenly the “Terror” trembled as if from a violent shock. All her
+frame quivered, as the human frame quivers under the electric fluid.
+Struck by the lightning in the very middle of her powerful batteries,
+the air-ship spread out on all sides and went to pieces.
+
+With her wings fallen, her screws broken, with bolt after bolt of the
+lightning darting amid her ruins, the “Terror” fell from the height of
+more than a thousand feet into the ocean beneath.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+THE OLD HOUSEKEEPER’S LAST COMMENT
+
+
+When I came to myself after having been unconscious for many hours, a
+group of sailors whose care had restored me to life surrounded the door
+of a cabin in which I lay. By my pillow sat an officer who questioned
+me; and as my senses slowly returned, I answered to his questioning.
+
+I told them everything. Yes, everything! And assuredly my listeners
+must have thought that they had upon their hands an unfortunate whose
+reason had not returned with his consciousness.
+
+I was on board the steamer Ottawa, in the Gulf of Mexico, headed for
+the port of New Orleans. This ship, while flying before the same
+terrific thunder-storm which destroyed the “Terror,” had encountered
+some wreckage, among whose fragments was entangled my helpless body.
+Thus I found myself back among humankind once more, while Robur the
+Conqueror and his two companions had ended their adventurous careers in
+the waters of the Gulf. The Master of the World had disappeared
+forever, struck down by those thunder-bolts which he had dared to brave
+in the regions of their fullest power. He carried with him the secret
+of his extraordinary machine.
+
+Five days later the Ottawa sighted the shores of Louisiana; and on the
+morning of the tenth of August she reached her port. After taking a
+warm leave of my rescuers, I set out at once by train for Washington,
+which more than once I had despaired of ever seeing again.
+
+I went first of all to the bureau of police, meaning to make my
+earliest appearance before Mr. Ward.
+
+What was the surprise, the stupefaction, and also the joy of my chief,
+when the door of his cabinet opened before me! Had he not every reason
+to believe, from the report of my companions, that I had perished in
+the waters of Lake Erie?
+
+I informed him of all my experiences since I had disappeared, the
+pursuit of the destroyers on the lake, the soaring of the “Terror” from
+amid Niagara Falls, the halt within the crater of the Great Eyrie, and
+the catastrophe, during the storm, above the Gulf of Mexico.
+
+He learned for the first time that the machine created by the genius of
+this Robur, could traverse space, as it did the earth and the sea.
+
+In truth, did not the possession of so complete and marvelous a machine
+justify the name of Master of the World, which Robur had taken to
+himself? Certain it is that the comfort and even the lives of the
+public must have been forever in danger from him; and that all methods
+of defence must have been feeble and ineffective.
+
+But the pride which I had seen rising bit by bit within the heart of
+this prodigious man had driven him to give equal battle to the most
+terrible of all the elements. It was a miracle that I had escaped safe
+and sound from that frightful catastrophe.
+
+Mr. Ward could scarcely believe my story. “Well, my dear Strock,” said
+he at last, “you have come back; and that is the main thing. Next to
+this notorious Robur, you will be the man of the hour. I hope that your
+head will not be turned with vanity, like that of this crazy inventor!”
+
+“No, Mr. Ward,” I responded, “but you will agree with me that never was
+inquisitive man put to greater straits to satisfy his curiosity.”
+
+“I agree, Strock; and the mysteries of the Great Eyrie, the
+transformations of the “Terror,” you have discovered them! But
+unfortunately, the still greater secrets of this Master of the World
+have perished with him.”
+
+The same evening the newspapers published an account of my adventures,
+the truthfulness of which could not be doubted. Then, as Mr. Ward had
+prophesied, I was the man of the hour.
+
+One of the papers said, “Thanks to Inspector Strock the American police
+still lead the world. While others have accomplished their work, with
+more or less success, by land and by sea, the American police hurl
+themselves in pursuit of criminals through the depths of lakes and
+oceans and even through the sky.”
+
+Yet, in following, as I have told, in pursuit of the “Terror,” had I
+done anything more than by the close of the present century will have
+become the regular duty of my successors?
+
+It is easy to imagine what a welcome my old housekeeper gave me when I
+entered my house in Long Street. When my apparition—does not the word
+seem just—stood before her, I feared for a moment she would drop dead,
+poor woman! Then, after hearing my story, with eyes streaming with
+tears, she thanked Providence for having saved me from so many perils.
+
+“Now, sir,” said she, “now—was I wrong?”
+
+“Wrong? About what?”
+
+“In saying that the Great Eyrie was the home of the devil?”
+
+“Nonsense; this Robur was not the devil!”
+
+“Ah, well!” replied the old woman, “he was worthy of being so!”
+
+
+
+
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