leaving you we would willingly risk an unpleasant reception from the
natives. Prison for prison, we would rather be in Timbuktu than on
the "Albatross.""
"That is a matter of taste," answered the engineer. "Anyhow, I shall
not try the adventure, for I am responsible for the safety of the
guests who do me the honor to travel with me."
"And so," said Uncle Prudent, explosively, "you are not content with
being our jailer, but you insult us."
"Oh! a little irony, that is all!"
"Are there any weapons on board?"
"Oh, quite an arsenal."
"Two revolvers will do, if I hold one and you the other."
"A duel!" exclaimed Robur, "a duel, which would perhaps cause the
death of one of us."
"Which certainly would cause it."
"Well! No, Mr. President of the Weldon Institute, I very much prefer
keeping you alive."
"To be sure of living yourself. That is wise."
"Wise or not, it suits me. You are at liberty to think as you like,
and to complain to those who have the power to help you--if you can."
"And that we have done, Mr. Robur."
"Indeed!"
"Was it so difficult when we were crossing the inhabited part of
Europe to drop a letter overboard?"
"Did you do that?" said Robur, in a paroxysm of rage.
"And if we have done it?"
"If you have done it--you deserve--"
"What, sir?"
"To follow your letter overboard."
"Throw us over, then. We did do it."
Robur stepped towards them. At a gesture from him Tom Turner and some
of the crew ran up. The engineer was seriously tempted to put his
threat into execution, and, fearful perhaps of yielding to it, he
precipitately rushed into his cabin.
"Good!" exclaimed Phil Evans.
"And what he will dare not do," said Uncle Prudent, "I Will do! Yes,
I Will do!"
At the moment the population of Timbuktu were crowding onto the
squares and roads and the terraces built like amphitheaters. In the
rich quarters of Sankere and Sarahama, as in the miserable huts at
Raguidi, the priests from the minarets were thundering their loudest
maledictions against the aerial monster. These were more harmless
than the rifle-bullets; though assuredly, if the aeronef had come to
earth she would have certainly been torn to pieces.
For some miles noisy flocks of storks, francolins, and ibises
escorted the "Albatross" and tried to race her, but in her rapid
flight she soon distanced them.
The evening came. The air was troubled by the roarings of the
numerous herds of elephants and buffaloes which wander over this
land, whose fertility is simply marvelous. For forty-eight hours the
whole of the region between the prime meridian and the second degree,
in the bend of the Niger, was viewed from the "Albatross."
If a geographer had only such an apparatus at his command, with what
facility could he map the country, note the elevations, fix the
courses of the rivers and their affluents, and determine the
positions of the towns and villages! There would then be no huge
blanks on the map of Africa, no dotted lines, no vague designations
which are the despair of cartographers.
In the morning of the 11th the "Albatross" crossed the mountains of
northern Guinea, between the Sudan and the gulf which bears their
name. On the horizon was the confused outline of the Kong mountains
in the kingdom of Dahomey.
Since the departure from Timbuktu Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans
noticed that the course had been due south. If that direction was
persisted in they would cross the equator in six more degrees. The
"Albatross" would then abandon the continents and fly not over the
Bering Sea, or the Caspian Sea, or the North Sea, or the
Mediterranean, but over the Atlantic Ocean.
This look-out was not particularly pleasing to the two friends, whose
chances of escape had sunk to below zero. But the "Albatross" had
slackened speed as though hesitating to leave Africa behind. Was
Robur thinking of going back? No; but his attention had been
particularly attracted to the country which he was then crossing.
We know--and he knew--that the kingdom of Dahomey is one of the
most powerful on the West Coast of Africa. Strong enough to hold its
own with its neighbor Ashantee, its area is somewhat small, being
contained within three hundred and sixty leagues from north to south,
and one hundred and eighty from east to west. But its population
numbers some seven or eight hundred thousand, including the
neighboring independent territories of Whydah and Ardrah.
If Dahomey is not a large country, it is often talked about. It is
celebrated for the frightful cruelties which signalize its annual
festivals, and by its human sacrifices--fearful hecatombs intended
to honor the sovereign it has lost and the sovereign who has
succeeded him. It is even a matter of politeness when the King of
Dahomey receives a visit from some high personage or some foreign
ambassador to give him a surprise present of a dozen heads, cut off
in his honor by the minister of justice, the "minghan," who is
wonderfully skillful in that branch of his duties.
When the "Albatross" came flying over Dahomey, the old King Bahadou
had just died, and the whole population was proceeding to the
enthronization of his successor. Hence there was great agitation all
over the country, and it did not escape Robur that everybody was on
the move.
Long lines of Dahomians were hurrying along the roads from the
country into the capital, Abomey. Well kept roads radiating among
vast plains clothed with giant trees, immense fields of manioc,
magnificent forests of palms, cocoa-trees, mimosas, orange-trees,
mango-trees--such was the country whose perfumes mounted to the
"Albatross," while many parrots and cardinals swarmed among the trees.
The engineer, leaning over the rail, seemed deep in thought, and
exchanged but a few words with Tom Turner. It did not look as though
the "Albatross" had attracted the attention of those moving masses,
which were often invisible under the impenetrable roof of trees. This
was doubtless due to her keeping at a good altitude amid a bank of
light cloud.
About eleven o'clock in the morning the capital was sighted,
surrounded by its walls, defended by a fosse measuring twelve miles
round, with wide, regular streets on the flat plain, and a large
square on the northern side occupied by the king's palace. This huge
collection of buildings is commanded by a terrace not far from the
place of sacrifice. During the festival days it is from this high
terrace that they throw the prisoners tied up in wicker baskets, and
it can be imagined with what fury these unhappy wretches are cut in
pieces.
In one of the courtyards which divide the king's palace there were
drawn up four thousand warriors, one of the contigents of the royal
army--and not the least courageous one. If it is doubtful if there
are any Amazons an the river of that name, there is no doubt of there
being Amazons at Dahomey. Some have a blue shirt with a blue or red
scarf, with white-and-blue striped trousers and a white cap; others,
the elephant-huntresses, have a heavy carbine, a short-bladed dagger,
and two antelope horns fixed to their heads by a band of iron. The
artillery-women have a blue-and-red tunic, and, as weapons,
blunderbusses and old cast cannons; and another brigade, consisting
of vestal virgins, pure as Diana, have blue tunics and white
trousers. If we add to these Amazons, five or six thousand men in
cotton drawers and shirts, with a knotted tuft to increase their
stature, we shall have passed in review the Dahomian army.
Abomey on this day was deserted. The sovereign, the royal family, the
masculine and feminine army, and the population had all gone out of
the capital to a vast plain a few miles away surrounded by
magnificent forests.
On this plain the recognition of the new king was to take place. Here
it was that thousands of prisoners taken during recent razzias were
to be immolated in his honor.
It was about two o'clock when the "Albatross" arrived over the plain
and began to descend among the clouds which still hid her from the
Dahomians.
There were sixteen thousand people at least come from all parts of
the kingdom, from Whydah, and Kerapay, and Ardrah, and Tombory, and
the most distant villages.
The new king--a sturdy fellow named Bou-Nadi--some five-and-twenty
years old, was seated on a hillock shaded by a group of wide-branched
trees. Before him stood his male army, his Amazons, and his people.
At the foot of the mound fifty musicians were playing on their
barbarous instruments, elephants' tusks giving forth a husky note,
deerskin drums, calabashes, guitars, bells struck with an iron
clapper, and bamboo flutes, whose shrill whistle was heard over all.
Every other second came discharges of guns and blunderbusses,
discharges of cannons with the carriages jumping so as to imperil the
lives of the artillery-women, and a general uproar so intense that
even the thunder would be unheard amidst it.
In one corner of the plain, under a guard of soldiers, were grouped
the prisoners destined to accompany the defunct king into the other
world. At the obsequies of Ghozo, the father of Bahadou, his son had
dispatched three thousand, and Bou-Nadi could not do less than his
predecessor. For an hour there was a series of discourses, harangues,
palavers and dances, executed not only by professionals, but by the
Amazons, who displayed much martial grace.
But the time for the hecatomb was approaching. Robur, who knew the
customs of Dahomey, did not lose sight of the men, women, and
children reserved for butchery.
The minghan was standing at the foot of the hillock. He was
brandishing his executioner's sword, with its curved blade surmounted
by a metal bird, whose weight rendered the cut more certain.
This time he was not alone. He could not have performed the task.
Near him were grouped a hundred executioners, all accustomed to cut
off heads at one blow.
The "Albatross" came slowly down in an oblique direction. Soon she
emerged from the bed of clouds which hid her till she was within
three hundred feet of the ground, and for the first time she was
visible from below.
Contrary to what had hitherto happened, the savages saw in her a
celestial being come to render homage to King Baha-dou. The
enthusiasm was indescribable, the shouts were interminable, the
prayers were terrific--prayers addressed to this supernatural
hippogriff, which "had doubtless come to" take the king's body to the
higher regions of the Dahomian heaven. And now the first head fell
under the minghan's sword, and the prisoners were led up in hundreds
before the horrible executioners.
Suddenly a gun was fired from the "Albatross." The minister of
justice fell dead on his face!
"Well aimed, Tom!" said Robur,
His comrades, armed as he was, stood ready to fire when the order was
given.
But a change came over the crowd below. They had understood. The
winged monster was not a friendly spirit, it was a hostile spirit.
And after the fall of the minghan loud shouts for revenge arose on
all sides. Almost immediately a fusillade resounded over the plain.
These menaces did not prevent the "Albatross" from descending boldly
to within a hundred and fifty feet of the ground. Uncle Prudent and
Phil Evans, whatever were their feelings towards Robur, could not
help joining him in such a work of humanity.
"Let us free the prisoners!" they shouted.
"That is what I am going to do!" said the engineer.
And the magazine rifles of the "Albatross" in the hands of the
colleagues, as in the hands of the crew, began to rain down the
bullets, of which not one was lost in the masses below. And the
little gun shot forth its shrapnel, which really did marvels.
The prisoners, although they did not understand how the help had come
to them, broke their bonds, while the soldiers were firing at the
aeronef. The stern screw was shot through by a bullet, and a few
holes were made in the hull. Frycollin, crouching in his cabin,
received a graze from a bullet that came through the deck-house.
"Ah! They will have them!" said Tom Turner. And, rushing to the
magazine, he returned with a dozen dynamite cartridges, which he
distributed to the men. At a sign from Robur, these cartridges were
fired at the hillock, and as they reached the ground exploded like so
many small shells.
The king and his court and army and people were stricken with fear at
the turn things had taken. They fled under the trees, while the
prisoners ran off without anybody thinking of pursuing them.
In this way was the festival interfered with. And in this way did
Uncle Prudent and, Phil Evans recognize the power of the aeronef and
the services it could render to humanity.
Soon the "Albatross" rose again to a moderate height, and passing
over Whydah lost to view this savage coast which the southwest wind
hems round with an inaccessible surf. And she flew out over the
Atlantic.
Chapter XVI
OVER THE ATLANTIC
Yes, the Atlantic! The fears of the two colleagues were realized; but
it did not seem as though Robur had the least anxiety about venturing
over this vast ocean. Both he and his men seemed quite unconcerned
about it and had gone back to their stations.
Whither was the "Albatross" bound? Was she going more than round the
world as Robur had said? Even if she were, the voyage must end
somewhere. That Robur spent his life in the air on board the aeronef
and never came to the ground was impossible. How could he make up his
stock of provisions and the materials required for working his
machines? He must have some retreat, some harbor of refuge--in some
unknown and inaccessible spot where the "Albatross" could revictual.
That he had broken off all connections with the inhabitants of the
land might be true, but with every point on the surface of the earth,
certainly not.
That being the case, where was this point? How had the engineer come
to choose it? Was he expected by a little colony of which he was the
chief? Could he there find a new crew?
What means had he that he should be able to build so costly a vessel
as the "Albatross" and keep her building secret? It is true his
living was not expensive. But, finally, who was this Robur? Where did
he come from? What had been his history? Here were riddles impossible
to solve; and Robur was not the man to assist willingly in their
solution.
It is not to be wondered at that these insoluble problems drove the
colleagues almost to frenzy. To find themselves whipped off into the
unknown without knowing what the end might be doubting even if the
adventure would end, sentenced to perpetual aviation, was this not
enough to drive the President and secretary of the Weldon Institute
to extremities?
Meanwhile the "Albatross" drove along above the Atlantic, and in the
morning when the sun rose there was nothing to be seen but the
circular line where earth met sky. Not a spot of land was insight in
this huge field of vision. Africa had vanished beneath the northern
horizon.
When Frycollin ventured out of his cabin and saw all this water
beneath him, fear took possession of him.
Of the hundred and forty-five million square miles of which the area
of the world's waters consists, the Atlantic claims about a quarter;
and it seemed as though the engineer was in no hurry to cross it.
There was now no going at full speed, none of the hundred and twenty
miles an hour at which the "Albatross" had flown over Europe. Here,
where the southwest winds prevail, the wind was ahead of them, and
though it was not very strong, it would not do to defy it and the
"Albatross" was sent along at a moderate speed, which, however,
easily outstripped that of the fastest mail-boat.
On the 13th of July she crossed the line, and the fact was duly
announced to the crew. It was then that Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans
ascertained that they were bound for the southern hemisphere. The
crossing of the line took place without any of the Neptunian
ceremonies that still linger on certain ships. Tapage was the only
one to mark the event, and he did so by pouring a pint of water down
Frycollin's neck.
On the 18th of July, when beyond the tropic of Capricorn, another
phenomenon was noticed, which would have been somewhat alarming to a
ship on the sea. A strange succession of luminous waves widened out
over the surface of the ocean with a speed estimated at quite sixty
miles an hour. The waves ran along at about eight feet from one
another, tracing two furrows of light. As night fell a bright
reflection rose even to the "Albatross," so that she might have been
taken for a flaming aerolite. Never before had Robur sailed on a sea
of fire--fire without heat--which there was no need to flee from as
it mounted upwards into the sky.
The cause of this light must have been electricity; it could not be
attributed to a bank of fish spawn, nor to a crowd of those
animalculae that give phosphorescence to the sea, and this showed
that the electrical tension of the atmosphere was considerable.
In the morning an ordinary ship would probably have been lost. But
the "Albatross" played with the winds and waves like the powerful
bird whose name she bore. If she did not walk on their surface like
the petrels, she could like the eagles find calm and sunshine in the
higher zones.
They had now passed the forty-seventh parallel. The day was but
little over seven hours long, and would become even less as they
approached the Pole.
About one o'clock in the afternoon the "Albatross" was floating along
in a lower current than usual, about a hundred feet from the level of
the sea. The air was calm, but in certain parts of the sky were thick
black clouds, massed in mountains, on their upper surface, and ruled
off below by a sharp horizontal line. From these clouds a few lengthy
protuberances escaped, and their points as they fell seemed to draw
up hills of foaming water to meet them.
Suddenly the water shot up in the form of a gigantic hourglass, and
the "Albatross" was enveloped in the eddy of an enormous waterspout,
while twenty others, black as ink, raged around her. Fortunately the
gyratory movement of the water was opposite to that of the suspensory
screws, otherwise the aeronef would have been hurled into the sea.
But she began to spin round on herself with frightful rapidity. The
danger was immense, and perhaps impossible to escape, for the
engineer could not get through the spout which sucked him back in
defiance of his propellers. The men, thrown to the ends of the deck
by centrifugal force, were grasping the rail to save themselves from
being shot off.
"Keep cool!" shouted Robur.
They wanted all their coolness, and their patience, too. Uncle
Prudent and Phil Evans, who had just come out of their cabin, were
hurled back at the risk of flying overboard. As she spun the
"Albatross" was carried along by the spout, which pirouetted along
the waves with a speed enough to make the helices jealous. And if she
escaped from the spout she might be caught by another, and jerked to
pieces with the shock.
"Get the gun ready!" said Robur.
The order was given to Tom Turner, who was crouching behind the
swivel amidships where the effect of the centrifugal force was least
felt. He understood. In a moment he had opened the breech and slipped
a cartridge from the ammunition-box at hand. The gun went off, and the
waterspouts collapsed, and with them vanished the platform of cloud
they seemed to bear above them.
"Nothing broken on board?" asked Robur.
"No," answered Tom Turner. "But we don't want to have another game of
humming-top like that!"
For ten minutes or so the "Albatross" had been in extreme peril. Had
it not been for her extraordinary strength of build she would have
been lost.
During this passage of the Atlantic many were the hours whose
monotony was unbroken by any phenomenon whatever. The days grew
shorter and shorter, and the cold became keen. Uncle Prudent and Phil
Evans saw little of Robur. Seated in his cabin, the engineer was busy
laying out his course and marking it on his maps, taking his
observations whenever he could, recording the readings of his
barometers, thermometers, and chronometers, and making full entries
in his log-book.
The colleagues wrapped themselves well up and eagerly watched for the
sight of land to the southward. At Uncle Prudent's request Frycollin
tried to pump the cook as to whither the engineer was bound, but what
reliance could be placed on the information given by this Gascon?
Sometimes Robur was an ex-minister of the Argentine Republic,
sometimes a lord of the Admiralty, sometimes an ex-President of the
United States, sometimes a Spanish general temporarily retired,
sometimes a Viceroy of the Indies who had sought a more elevated
position in the air. Sometimes he possessed millions, thanks to
successful razzias in the aeronef, and he had been proclaimed for
piracy. Sometimes he had been ruined by making the aeronef, and had
been forced to fly aloft to escape from his creditors. As to knowing
if he were going to stop anywhere, no! But if he thought of going to
the moon, and found there a convenient anchorage, he would anchor
there! "Eh! Fry! My boy! That would just suit you to see what was
going on up there."
"I shall not go! I refuse!" said the Negro, who took all these things
seriously.
"And why, Fry, why? You might get married to some pretty bouncing
Lunarian!"
Frycollin reported this conversation to his master, who saw it was
evident that nothing was to be learnt about Robur. And so he thought
still more of how he could have his revenge on him.
"Phil," said he one day, "is it quite certain that escape is
impossible?"
"Impossible."
"Be it so! But a man is always his own property; and if necessary, by
sacrificing his life--"
"If we are to make that sacrifice," said Phil Evans, "the sooner the
better. It is almost time to end this. Where is the "Albatross"
going? Here we are flying obliquely over the Atlantic, and if we keep
on we shall get to the coast of Patagonia or Tierra del Fuego. And
what are we to do then? Get into the Pacific, or go to the continent
at the South Pole? Everything is possible with this Robur. We shall
be lost in the end. It is thus a case of legitimate self-defence, and
if we must perish--"
"Which we shall not do," answered Uncle Prudent, "without being
avenged, without annihilating this machine and all she carries."
The colleagues had reached a stage of impotent fury, and were
prepared to sacrifice themselves if they could only destroy the
inventor and his secret. A few months only would then be the life of
this prodigious aeronef, of whose superiority in aerial locomotion
they had such convincing proofs! The idea took such hold of them that
they thought of nothing else but how to put it into execution. And
how? By seizing on some of the explosives on board and simply blowing
her up. But could they get at the magazines?
Fortunately for them, Frycollin had no suspicion of their scheme. At
the thought of the "Albatross" exploding in midair, he would not have
shrunk from betraying his master.
It was on the 23rd of July that the land reappeared in the southwest
near Cape Virgins at the entrance of the Straits of Magellan. Under
the fifty-second parallel at this time of year the night was eighteen
hours long and the temperature was six below freezing.
At first the "Albatross," instead of keeping on to the south,
followed the windings of the coast as if to enter the Pacific. After
passing Lomas Bay, leaving Mount Gregory to the north and the
Brecknocks to the west, they sighted Puerto Arena, a small Chilean
village, at the moment the churchbells were in full swing; and a few
hours later they were over the old settlement at Port Famine.
If the Patagonians, whose fires could be seen occasionally, were
really above the average in stature, the passengers in the aeronef
were unable to say, for to them they seemed to be dwarfs. But what a
magnificent landscape opened around during these short hours of the
southern day! Rugged mountains, peaks eternally capped with snow,
with thick forests rising on their flanks, inland seas, bays deep set
amid the peninsulas, and islands of the Archipelago. Clarence Island,
Dawson Island, and the Land of Desolation, straits and channels,
capes and promontories, all in inextricable confusion, and bound by
the ice in one solid mass from Cape Forward, the most southerly point
of the American continent, to Cape Horn the most southerly point of
the New World.
When she reached Fort Famine the "Albatross" resumed her course to
the south. Passing between Mount Tam on the Brunswick Peninsula and
Mount Graves, she steered for Mount Sarmiento, an enormous peak
wrapped in snow, which commands the Straits of Magellan, rising six
thousand four hundred feet from the sea. And now they were over the
land of the Fuegians, Tierra del Fuego, the land of fire. Six months
later, in the height of summer, with days from fifteen to sixteen
hours long, how beautiful and fertile would most of this country be,
particularly in its northern portion! Then, all around would be seen
valleys and pasturages that could form the feeding-grounds of
thousands of animals; then would appear virgin forests, gigantic
trees-birches, beeches, ash-trees, cypresses, tree-ferns--and broad
plains overrun by herds of guanacos, vicunas, and ostriches. Now
there were armies of penguins and myriads of birds; and, when the
"Albatross" turned on her electric lamps the guillemots, ducks, and
geese came crowding on board enough to fill Tapage's larder a hundred
times and more.
Here was work for the cook, who knew how to bring out the flavor of
the game and keep down its peculiar oiliness. And here was work for
Frycollin in plucking dozen after dozen of such interesting feathered
friends.
That day, as the sun was setting about three o'clock in the
afternoon, there appeared in sight a large lake framed in a border of
superb forest. The lake was completely frozen over, and a few natives
with long snowshoes on their feet were swiftly gliding over it.
At the sight of the "Albatross," the Fuegians, overwhelmed with
terror--scattered in all directions, and when they could not get
away they hid themselves, taking, like the animals, to the holes in
the ground.
The "Albatross" still held her southerly course, crossing the Beagle
Channel, and Navarin Island and Wollaston Island, on the shores of
the Pacific. Then, having accomplished 4,700 miles since she left
Dahomey, she passed the last islands of the Magellanic archipelago,
whose most southerly outpost, lashed by the everlasting surf, is the
terrible Cape Horn.
Chapter XVII
THE SHIPWRECKED CREW
Next day was the 24th of July; and the 24th of July in the southern
hemisphere corresponds to the 24th of January in the northern. The
fifty-sixth degree of latitude had been left behind. The similar
parallel in northern Europe runs through Edinburgh.
The thermometer kept steadily below freezing, so that the machinery
was called upon to furnish a little artificial heat in the cabins.
Although the days begin to lengthen after the 21st day of June in the
southern hemisphere, yet the advance of the "Albatross" towards the
Pole more than neutralized this increase, and consequently the
daylight became very short. There was thus very little to be seen. At
night time the cold became very keen; but as there was no scarcity of
clothing on board, the colleagues, well wrapped up, remained a good
deal on deck thinking over their plans of escape, and watching for an
opportunity. Little was seen of Robur; since the high words that had
been exchanged in the Timbuktu country, the engineer had left off
speaking to his prisoners. Frycollin seldom came out of the
cook-house, where Tapage treated him most hospitably, on condition
that he acted as his assistant. This position was not without its
advantages, and the Negro, with his master's permission, very
willingly accepted it. Shut up in the galley, he saw nothing of what
was passing outside, and might even consider himself beyond the reach
of danger. He was, in fact, very like the ostrich, not only in his
stomach, but in his folly.
But whither went the "Albatross?" Was she in mid-winter bound for the
southern seas or continents round the Pole? In this icy atmosphere,
even granting that the elements of the batteries were unaffected by
such frost, would not all the crew succumb to a horrible death from
the cold? That Robur should attempt to cross the Pole in the warm
season was bad enough, but to attempt such a thing in the depth of
the winter night would be the act of a madman.
Thus reasoned the President and Secretary of the Weldon Institute,
now they had been brought to the end of the continent of the New
World, which is still America, although it does not belong to the
United States.
What was this intractable Robur going to do? Had not the time arrived
for them to end the voyage by blowing up the ship?
It was noticed that during the 24th of July the engineer had frequent
consultations with his mate. He and Tom Turner kept constant watch on
the barometer--not so much to keep themselves informed of the height
at which they were traveling as to be on the look-out for a change in
the weather. Evidently some indications had been observed of which it
was necessary to make careful note.
Uncle Prudent also remarked that Robur had been taking stock of the
provisions and stores, and everything seemed to show that he was
contemplating turning back.
"Turning back!" said Phil Evans. "But where to?"
"Where he can reprovision the ship," said Uncle Prudent.
"That ought to be in some lonely island in the Pacific with a colony
of scoundrels worthy of their chief."
"That is what I think. I fancy he is going west, and with the speed
he can get up it would not take, him long to get home."
"But we should not be able to put our plan into execution. If we get
there--"
"We shall not get there!"
The colleagues had partly guessed the engineer's intentions. During
the day it became no longer doubtful that when the "Albatross"
reached the confines of the Antarctic Sea her course was to be
changed. When the ice has formed about Cape Horn the lower regions of
the Pacific are covered with icefields and icebergs. The floes then
form an impenetrable barrier to the strongest ships and the boldest
navigators. Of course, by increasing the speed of her wings the
"Albatross" could clear the mountains of ice accumulated on the ocean
as she could the mountains of earth on the polar continent--if it is
a continent that forms the cap of the southern pole. But would she
attempt it in the middle of the polar night, in an atmosphere of
sixty below freezing?
After she had advanced about a hundred miles to the south the
"Albatross" headed westerly, as if for some unknown island of the
Pacific. Beneath her stretched the liquid plain between Asia and
America. The waters now had assumed that singular color which has
earned for them the name of the Milky Sea. In the half shadow, which
the enfeebled rays of the sun were unable to dissipate, the surface
of the Pacific was a milky white. It seemed like a vast snowfield,
whose undulations were imperceptible at such a height. If the sea had
been solidified by the cold, and converted into an immense icefield,
its aspect could not have been much different. They knew that the
phenomenon was produced by myriads of luminous particles of
phosphorescent corpuscles; but it was surprising to come across such
an opalescent mass beyond the limits of the Indian Ocean.
Suddenly the barometer fell after keeping somewhat high during the
earlier hours of the day. Evidently the indications were such as a
shipmaster might feel anxious at, though the master of an aeronef
might despise them. There was every sign that a terrible storm had
recently raged in the Pacific.
It was one o'clock in the afternoon when Tom Turner came up to the
engineer and said, "Do you see that black spot on the horizon, sir--there
away to due north of us? That is not a rock?"
"No, Tom; there is no land out there."
"Then it must be a ship or a boat."
Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, who were in the bow, looked in the
direction pointed out by the mate.
Robur asked for the glass and attentively observed the object.
"It is a boat," said he, "and there are some men in it."
"Shipwrecked?" asked Tom.
"Yes! They have had to abandon their ship, and, knowing nothing of
the nearest land, are perhaps dying of hunger and thirst! Well, it
shall not be said that the "Albatross" did not come to their help!"
The orders were given, and the aeronef began to sink towards the sea.
At three hundred yards from it the descent was stopped, and the
propellers drove ahead full speed towards the north.
It was a boat. Her sail flapped against the mast as she rose and fell
on the waves. There was no wind, and she was making no progress.
Doubtless there was no one on board with strength enough left to work
the oars. In the boat were five men asleep or helpless, if they were
not dead.
The "Albatross" had arrived above them, and slowly descended. On the
boat's stern was the name of the ship to which she belonged--the
"Jeannette" of Nantes.
"Hallo, there!" shouted Turner, loud enough for the men to hear, for
the boat was only eighty feet below him.
There was no answer. "Fire a gun!" said Robur.
The gun was fired and the report rang out over the sea.
One of the men looked up feebly. His eyes were haggard and his face
was that of a skeleton. As he caught sight of the "Albatross" he made
a gesture as of fear.
"Don't be afraid," said Robur in French, "we have come to help you.
Who are you?"
"We belong to the barque "Jeannette," and I am the mate. We left her
a fortnight ago as she was sinking. We have no water and no food."
The four other men had now sat up. Wan and exhausted, in a terrible
state of emaciation, they lifted their hands towards the "Albatross."
"Look-out!" shouted Robur.
A line was let down, and a pail of fresh water was lowered into the
boat. The men snatched at it and drank it with an eagerness awful to
see.
"Bread, bread!" they exclaimed.
Immediately a basket with some food and five pints of coffee
descended towards them. The mate with difficulty restrained them in
their ravenousness.
"Where are we?" asked the mate at last.
"Fifty miles from the Chili coast and the Chonos Archipelago,"
answered Robur.
"Thanks. But we are becalmed, and--?"
"We are going to tow you."
"Who are you?"
"People who are glad to be of assistance to you," said Robur.
The mate understood that the incognito was to be respected. But had
the flying machine sufficient power to tow them through the water?
Yes; and the boat, attached to a hundred feet of rope, began to move
off towards the east. At ten o'clock at night the land was
sighted--or rather they could see the lights which indicated its position.
This rescue from the sky had come just in time for the survivors of
the "Jeannette," and they had good reason to believe it miraculous.
When they had been taken to the mouth of the channel leading among
the Chonos Islands, Robur shouted to them to cast off the tow-line.
This, with many a blessing to those who had saved them, they did, and
the "Albatross" headed out to the offing.
Certainly there was some good in this aeronef, which could thus help
those who were lost at sea! What balloon, perfect as it might be,
would be able to perform such a service? And between themselves Uncle
Prudent and Phil Evans could not but admire it, although they were
quite disposed to deny the evidence of their senses.
Chapter XVIII
OVER THE VOLCANO
The sea was as rough as ever, and the symptoms became alarming. The
barometer fell several millimeters. The wind came in violent gusts,
and then for a moment or so failed altogether. Under such
circumstances a sailing vessel would have had to reef in her topsails
and her foresail. Everything showed that the wind was rising in the
northwest. The storm-glass became much troubled and its movements
were most disquieting.
At one o'clock in the morning the wind came on again with extreme
violence. Although the aeronef was going right in its teeth she was
still making progress at a rate of from twelve to fifteen miles an
hour. But that was the utmost she could do.
Evidently preparations must be made for a cyclone, a very rare
occurrence in these latitudes. Whether it be called a hurricane, as
in the Atlantic, a typhoon, as in Chinese waters a simoom, as in the
Sahara, or a tornado, as on the western coast, such a storm is always
a gyratory one, and most dangerous for any ship caught in the current
which increases from the circumference to the center, and has only
one spot of calm, the middle of the vortex.
Robur knew this. He also knew it was best to escape from the cyclone
and get beyond its zone of attraction by ascending to the higher
strata. Up to then he had always succeeded in doing this, but now he
had not an hour, perhaps not a minute, to lose.
In fact the violence of the wind sensibly increased. The crests of
the waves were swept off as they rose and blown into white dust on
the surface of the sea. It was manifest that the cyclone was
advancing with fearful velocity straight towards the regions of the
pole.
"Higher!" said Robur.
"Higher it is," said Tom Tumor.
An extreme ascensional power was communicated to the aeronef, and she
shot up slantingly as if she was traveling on a plane sloping
downwards from the southwest. Suddenly the barometer fell more than a
dozen millimeters and the "Albatross" paused in her ascent.
What was the cause of the stoppage? Evidently she was pulled back by
the air; some formidable current had diminished the resistance to the
screws. When a steamer travels upstream more work is got out of her
screw than when the water is running between the blades. The recoil
is then considerable, and may perhaps be as great as the current. It
was thus with the "Albatross" at this moment.
But Robur was not the man to give in. His seventy-four screws,
working perfectly together, were driven at their maximum speed. But
the aeronef could not escape; the attraction of the cyclone was
irresistible. During the few moments of calm she began to ascend, but
the heavy pull soon drew her back, and she sunk like a ship as she
founders.
Evidently if the violence of the cyclone went on increasing the
"Albatross" would be but as a straw caught in one of those whirlwinds
that root up the trees, carry off roofs, and blow down walls.
Robur and Tom could only speak by signs. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans
clung to the rail and wondered if the cyclone was not playing their
game in destroying the aeronef and with her the inventor--and with
the inventor the secret of his invention.
But if the "Albatross" could not get out of the cyclone vertically
could she not do something else? Could she not gain the center, where
it was comparatively calm, and where they would have more control
over her? Quite so, but to do this she would have to break through
the circular currents which were sweeping her round with them. Had
she sufficient mechanical power to escape through them?
Suddenly the upper part of the cloud fell in. The vapor condensed in
torrents of rain. It was two o'clock in the morning. The barometer,
oscillating over a range of twelve millimeters, had now fallen to
27.91, and from this something should be taken on account of the
height of the aeronef above the level of the sea.
Strange to say, the cyclone was out of the zone to which such storms
are generally restricted, such zone being bounded by the thirtieth
parallel of north latitude and the twenty-sixth parallel of south
latitude. This may perhaps explain why the eddying storm suddenly
turned into a straight one. But what a hurricane! The tempest in
Connecticut on the 22nd of March, 1882, could only have been compared
to it, and the speed of that was more than three hundred miles an
hour.
The "Albatross" had thus to fly before the wind or rather she had to
be left to be driven by the current, from which she could neither
mount nor escape. But in following this unchanging trajectory she was
bearing due south, towards those polar regions which Robur had
endeavored to avoid. And now he was no longer master of her course;
she would go where the hurricane took her.
Tom Turner was at the helm, and it required all his skill to keep her
straight. In the first hours of the morning--if we can so call the
vague tint which began to rise over the horizon--the "Albatross" was
fifteen degrees below Cape Horn; twelve hundred miles more and she
would cross the antarctic circle. Where she was, in this month of
July, the night lasted nineteen hours and a half. The sun's disk--without
warmth, without light--only appeared above the horizon to
disappear almost immediately. At the pole the night lengthened into
one of a hundred and seventy-nine days. Everything showed that the
"Albatross" was about to plunge into an abyss.
During the day an observation, had it been possible, would have given
66° 40' south latitude. The aeronef was within fourteen hundred miles
of the pole.
Irresistibly was she drawn towards this inaccessible corner of the
globe, her speed eating up, so to speak, her weight, although she
weighed less than before, owing to the flattening of the earth at the
pole. It seemed as though she could have dispensed altogether with
her suspensory screws. And soon the fury of the storm reached such a
height that Robur thought it best to reduce the speed of her helices
as much as possible, so as to avoid disaster. And only enough speed
was given to keep the aeronef under control of the rudder.
Amid these dangers the engineer retained his imperturbable coolness,
and the crew obeyed him as if their leader's mind had entered into
them. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans had not for a moment left the
deck; they could remain without being disturbed. The air made but
slight resistance. The aeronef was like an aerostat, which drifts
with the fluid masses in which it is plunged.
Is the domain of the southern pole a continent or an archipelago? Or
is it a palaeocrystic sea, whose ice melts not even during the long
summer? We know not. But what we do know is that the southern pole is
colder than the northern one--a phenomenon due to the position of
the earth in its orbit during winter in the antarctic regions.
During this day there was nothing to show that the storm was abating.
It was by the seventy-fifth meridian to the west that the "Albatross"
crossed into the circumpolar region. By what meridian would she come
out--if she ever came out?
As she descended more to the south the length of the day diminished.
Before long she would be plunged in that continuous night which is
illuminated only by the rays of the moon or the pale streamers of the
aurora. But the moon was then new, and the companions of Robur might
see nothing of the regions whose secret has hitherto defied human
curiosity, There was not much inconvenience on board from the cold,
for the temperature was not nearly so low as was expected.
It seemed as though the hurricane was a sort of Gulf Stream, carrying
a certain amount of heat along with it.
Great was the regret that the whole region was in such profound
obscurity. Even if the moon had been in full glory but few
observations could have been made. At this season of the year an
immense curtain of snow, an icy carapace, covers up the polar
surface. There was none of that ice "blink" to be seen, that whitish
tint of which the reflection is absent from dark horizons. Under such
circumstances, how could they distinguish the shape of the ground,
the extent of the seas, the position of the islands? How could they
recognize the hydrographic network of the country or the orographic
configuration, and distinguish the hills and mountains from the
icebergs and floes?
A little after midnight an aurora illuminated the darkness. With its
silver fringes and spangles radiating over space, it seemed like a
huge fan open over half the sky. Its farthest electric effluences
were lost in the Southern Cross, whose four bright stars were
gleaming overhead. The phenomenon was one of incomparable
magnificence, and the light showed the face of the country as a
confused mass of white.
It need not be said that they had approached so near to the pole that
the compass was constantly affected, and gave no precise indication
of the course pursued. Its inclination was such that at one time
Robur felt certain they were passing over the magnetic pole
discovered by Sir James Ross. And an hour later, in calculating the
angle the needle made with the vertical, he exclaimed: "the South
Pole is beneath us!"
A white cap appeared, but nothing could be seen of what it bid under
its ice.
A few minutes afterwards the aurora died away, and the point where
all the world's meridians cross is still to be discovered.
If Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans wished to bury in the most mysterious
solitudes the aeronef and all she bore, the moment was propitious. If
they did not do so it was doubtless because the explosive they
required was still denied to them.
The hurricane still raged and swept along with such rapidity that had
a mountain been met with the aeronef would have been dashed to pieces
like a ship on a lee shore. Not only had the power gone to steer her
horizontally, but the control of her elevation had also vanished.
And it was not unlikely that mountains did exist in these antarctic
lands. Any instant a shock might happen which would destroy the
"Albatross." Such a catastrophe became more probable as the wind
shifted more to the east after they passed the prime meridian. Two
luminous points then showed themselves ahead of the "Albatross."
There were the two volcanos of the Ross Mountains--Erebus and
Terror. Was the "Albatross" to be shriveled up in their flames like a
gigantic butterfly?
An hour of intense excitement followed. One of the volcanoes, Erebus,
seemed to be rushing at the aeronef, which could not move from the
bed of the hurricane. The cloud of flame grew as they neared it. A
network of fire barred their road. A brilliant light shone round over
all. The figures on board stood out in the bright light as if come
from another world. Motionless, without a sound or a gesture, they
waited for the terrible moment when the furnace would wrap them in
its fires.
But the storm that bore the "Albatross" saved them from such a
fearful fate. The flames of Erebus were blown down by the hurricane
as it passed, and the "Albatross" flew over unhurt. She swept through
a hail of ejected material, which was fortunately kept at bay by the
centrifugal action of the suspensory screws. And she harmlessly
passed over the crater while it was in full eruption.
An hour afterwards the horizon hid from their view the two colossal
torches which light the confines of the world during the long polar
night.
At two o'clock in the morning Balleny Island was sighted on the coast
of Discovery Land, though it could not be recognized owing to its
being bound to the mainland by a cement of ice.
And the "Albatross" emerged from the polar circle on the hundred and
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