appearing in the sky of Buddha.
The crew of the "Albatross" troubled themselves very little about
these demonstrations. But the strings which held the kites, and were
tied to fixed pegs in the imperial gardens, were cut or quickly
hauled in; and the kites were either drawn in rapidly, sounding
louder as they sank, or else fell like a bird shot through both
wings, whose song ends with its last sigh.
A noisy fanfare escaped from Tom Turner's trumpet, and drowned the
final notes of the aerial concert. It did not interrupt the
terrestrial fusillade. At last a shell exploded a few feet below the
"Albatross," and then she mounted into the inaccessible regions of
the sky.
Nothing happened during the few following days of which the prisoners
could take advantage. The aeronef kept on her course to the
southwest, thereby showing that it was intended to take her to India.
Twelve hours after leaving Peking, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans
caught a glimpse of the Great Wall in the neighborhood of Chen-Si.
Then, avoiding the Lung Mountains, they passed over the valley of the
Hoangho and crossed the Chinese border on the Tibet side.
Tibet consists of high table-lands without vegetation, with here and
there snowy peaks and barren ravines, torrents fed by glaciers,
depressions with glittering beds of salt, lakes surrounded by
luxurious forests, with icy winds sweeping over all.
The barometer indicated an altitude of thirteen thousand feet above
the level of the sea. At that height the temperature, although it was
in the warmest months of the northern hemisphere, was only a little
above freezing. This cold, combined with the speed of the
"Albatross," made the voyage somewhat trying, and although the
friends had warm traveling wraps, they preferred to keep to their
cabin.
It need hardly be said that to keep the aeronef in this rarefied
atmosphere the suspensory screws had to be driven at extreme speed.
But they worked with perfect regularity, and the sound of their wings
almost acted as a lullaby.
During this day, appearing from below about the size of a carrier
pigeon, she passed over Garlock, a town of western Tibet, the capital
of the province of Cari Khorsum.
On the 27th of June, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans sighted an enormous
barrier, broken here and there by several peaks, lost in the snows
that bounded the horizon.
Leaning against the fore-cabin, so as to keep their places
notwithstanding the speed of the ship, they watched these colossal
masses, which seemed to be running away from the aeronef.
"The Himalayas, evidently," said Phil Evans; "and probably Robur is
going round their base, so as to pass into India."
"So much the worse," answered Uncle Prudent. "On that immense
territory we shall perhaps be able to--"
"Unless he goes round by Burma to the east, or Nepal to the west."
"Anyhow, I defy him to go through them."
"Indeed!" said a voice.
The next day, the 28th of June, the "Albatross" was in front of the
huge mass above the province of Zang. On the other side of the chain
was the province of Nepal. These ranges block the road into India
from the north. The two northern ones, between which the aeronef was
gliding like a ship between enormous reefs are the first steps of the
Central Asian barrier. The first was the Kuen Lung, the other the
Karakorum, bordering the longitudinal valley parallel to the
Himalayas, from which the Indus flows to the west and the
Brahmapootra to the east.
What a superb orographical system! More than two hundred summits have
been measured, seventeen of which exceed twenty-five thousand feet.
In front of the "Albatross," at a height of twenty-nine thousand
feet, towered Mount Everest. To the right was Dhawalagiri, reaching
twenty-six thousand eight hundred feet, and relegated to second place
since the measurement of Mount Everest.
Evidently Robur did not intend to go over the top of these peaks; but
probably he knew the passes of the Himalayas, among others that of
Ibi Ganim, which the brothers Schlagintweit traversed in 1856 at a
height of twenty-two thousand feet. And towards it he went.
Several hours of palpitation, becoming quite painful, followed; and
although the rarefaction of the air was not such as to necessitate
recourse being had to the special apparatus for renewing oxygen in
the cabins, the cold was excessive.
Robur stood in the bow, his sturdy figure wrapped in a great-coat. He
gave the orders, while Tom Turner was at the helm. The engineer kept
an attentive watch on his batteries, the acid in which fortunately
ran no risk of congelation. The screws, running at the full strength
of the current, gave forth a note of intense shrillness in spite of
the trifling density of the air. The barometer showed twenty-three
thousand feet in altitude.
Magnificent was the grouping of the chaos of mountains! Everywhere
were brilliant white summits. There were no lakes, but glaciers
descending ten thousand feet towards the base. There was no herbage,
only a few phanerogams on the limit of vegetable life. Down on the
lower flanks of the range were splendid forests of pines and cedars.
Here were none of the gigantic ferns and interminable parasites
stretching from tree to tree as in the thickets of the jungle. There
were no animals--no wild horses, or yaks, or Tibetan bulls.
Occasionally a scared gazelle showed itself far down the slopes.
There were no birds, save a couple of those crows which can rise to
the utmost limits of the respirable air.
The pass at last was traversed. The "Albatross" began to descend.
Coming from the hills out of the forest region there was now beneath
them an immense plain stretching far and wide.
Then Robur stepped up to his guests, and in a pleasant voice
remarked, "India, gentlemen!"
Chapter XIII
OVER THE CASPIAN
The engineer had no intention of taking his ship over the wondrous
lands of Hindustan. To cross the Himalayas was to show how admirable
was the machine he commanded; to convince those who would not be
convinced was all he wished to do.
But if in their hearts Uncle Prudent and his colleague could not help
admiring so perfect an engine of aerial locomotion, they allowed none
of their admiration to be visible. All they thought of was how to
escape. They did not even admire the superb spectacle that lay
beneath them as the "Albatross" flew along the river banks of the
Punjab.
At the base of the Himalayas there runs a marshy belt of country, the
home of malarious vapors, the Terai, in which fever is endemic. But
this offered no obstacle to the "Albatross," or, in any way, affected
the health of her crew. She kept on without undue haste towards the
angle where India joins on to China and Turkestan, and on the 29th of
June, in the early hours of the morning, there opened to view the
incomparable valley of Cashmere.
Yes! Incomparable is this gorge between the major and the minor
Himalayas--furrowed by the buttresses in which the mighty range dies
out in the basin of the Hydaspes, and watered by the capricious
windings of the river which saw the struggle between the armies of
Porus and Alexander, when India and Greece contended for Central
Asia. The Hydaspes is still there, although the two towns founded by
the Macedonian in remembrance of his victory have long since
disappeared.
During the morning the aeronef was over Serinuggur, which is better
known under the name of Cashmere. Uncle Prudent and his companion
beheld the superb city clustered along both banks of the river; its
wooden bridges stretching across like threads, its villas and their
balconies standing out in bold outline, its hills shaded by tall
poplars, its roofs grassed over and looking like molehills; its
numerous canals, with boats like nut-shells, and boatmen like ants;
its palaces, temples, kiosks, mosques, and bungalows on the
outskirts; and its old citadel of Hari-Pawata on the slope of the
hill like the most important of the forts of Paris on the slope of
Mont Valerien.
"That would be Venice," said Phil Evans, "if we were in Europe."
"And if we were in Europe," answered Uncle Prudent, "we should know
how to find the way to America."
The "Albatross" did not linger over the lake through which the river
flows, but continued her flight down the valley of the Hydaspes.
For half an hour only did she descend to within thirty feet of the
river and remained stationary. Then, by means of an india-rubber
pipe, Tom Turner and his men replenished their water supply, which
was drawn up by a pump worked by the accumulators. Uncle Prudent and
Phil Evans stood watching the operation. The same idea occurred to
each of them. They were only a few feet from the surface of the
stream. They were both good swimmers. A plunge would give them their
liberty; and once they had reached the river, how could Robur get
them back again? For his propellers to work, he must keep at least
six feet above the ground.
In a moment all the chances pro and con were run over in their heads.
In a moment they were considered, and the prisoners rushed to throw
themselves overboard, when several pairs of hands seized them by the
shoulders.
They had been watched; and flight was utterly impossible.
This time they did not yield without resisting. They tried to throw
off those who held them. But these men of the "Albatross" were no
children.
"Gentlemen," said the engineer, "when people, have the pleasure of
traveling with Robur the Conqueror, as you have so well named him, on
board his admirable "Albatross," they do not leave him in that way. I
may add you never leave him."
Phil Evans drew away his colleague, who was about to commit some act
of violence. They retired to their cabin, resolved to escape, even if
it cost them their lives.
Immediately the "Albatross" resumed her course to the west. During
the day at moderate speed she passed over the territory of
Cabulistan, catching a momentary glimpse of its capital, and crossed
the frontier of the kingdom of Herat, nearly seven hundred miles from
Cashmere.
In these much-disputed countries, the open road for the Russians to
the English possessions in India, there were seen many columns and
convoys, and, in a word, everything that constitutes in men and
material an army on the march. There were heard also the roar of the
cannon and the crackling of musketry. But the engineer never meddled
with the affairs of others where his honor or humanity was not
concerned. He passed above them. If Herat as we are told, is the key
of Central Asia, it mattered little to him if it was kept in an
English or Muscovite pocket. Terrestrial interests were nothing to
him who had made the air his domain.
Besides, the country soon disappeared in one of those sandstorms
which are so frequent in these regions. The wind called the "tebbad"
bears along the seeds of fever in the impalpable dust it raises in
its passage. And many are the caravans that perish in its eddies.
To escape this dust, which might have interfered with the working of
the screws, the "Albatross" shot up some six thousand feet into a
purer atmosphere.
And thus vanished the Persian frontier and the extensive plains. The
speed was not excessive, although there were no rocks ahead, for the
mountains marked on the map are of very moderate altitude. But as the
ship approached the capital, she had to steer clear of Demavend,
whose snowy peak rises some twenty-two thousand feet, and the chain
of Elbruz, at whose foot is built Teheran.
As soon as the day broke on the 2nd of July the peak of Demavend
appeared above the sandstorm, and the "Albatross" was steered so as
to pass over the town, which the wind had wrapped in a mantle of dust.
However, about six o'clock her crew could see the large ditches that
surround it, and the Shah's palace, with its walls covered with
porcelain tiles, and its ornamental lakes, which seemed like huge
turquoises of beautiful blue.
It was but a hasty glimpse. The "Albatross" now headed for the north,
and a few hours afterwards she was over a little hill at the northern
angle of the Persian frontier, on the shores of a vast extent of
water which stretched away out of sight to the north and east.
The town was Ashurada, the most southerly of the Russian stations.
The vast extent of water was a sea. It was the Caspian.
The eddies of sand had been passed. There was a view of a group of
European houses rising along a promontory, with a church tower in the
midst of them.
The "Albatross" swooped down towards the surface of the sea. Towards
evening she was running along the coast--which formerly belonged to
Turkestan, but now belongs to Russia--and in the morning of the 3rd
of July she was about three hundred feet above the Caspian.
There was no land in sight, either on the Asiatic or European side.
On the surface of the sea a few white sails were bellying in the
breeze. These were native vessels recognizable by their peculiar
rig--kesebeys, with two masts; kayuks, the old pirate-boats, with one
mast; teimils, and smaller craft for trading and fishing. Here and
there a few puffs of smoke rose up to the "Albatross" from the
funnels of the Ashurada steamers, which the Russians keep as the
police of these Turcoman waters.
That morning Tom Turner was talking to the cook, Tapage, and to a
question of his replied, "Yes; we shall be about forty-eight hours
over the Caspian."
"Good!" said the cook; "Then we can have some fishing."
"Just so."
They were to remain for forty-eight hours over the Caspian, which is
some six hundred and twenty-five miles long and two hundred wide,
because the speed of the "Albatross" had been much reduced, and while
the fishing was going on she would be stopped altogether.
The reply was heard by Phil Evans, who was then in the bow, where
Frycollin was overwhelming him with piteous pleadings to be put "on
the ground."
Without replying to this preposterous request, Evans returned aft to
Uncle Prudent; and there, taking care not to be overheard, he
reported the conversation that had taken place.
"Phil Evans," said Uncle Prudent, "I think there can be no mistake as
to this scoundrel's intention with regard to us."
"None," said Phil Evans. "He will only give us our liberty when it
suits him, and perhaps not at all."
"In that case we must do all we can to get away from the 'Albatross'."
"A splendid craft, she is, I must admit."
"Perhaps so," said Uncle Prudent; "but she belongs to a scoundrel who
detains us on board in defiance of all right. For us and ours she is
a constant danger. If we do not destroy her--"
"Let us begin by saving ourselves" answered Phil Evans; "we can see
about the destruction afterwards."
"Just so," said Uncle Prudent. "And we must avail ourselves of every
chance that comes, along. Evidently the "Albatross" is going to cross
the Caspian into Europe, either by the north into Russia or by the
west into the southern countries. Well, no matter where we stop,
before we get to the Atlantic, we shall be safe. And we ought to be
ready at any moment."
"But," asked Evans, "how are we to get out?"
"Listen to me," said Uncle Prudent. "It may happen during the night
that the "Albatross" may drop to within a few hundred feet of the
ground. Now there are on board several ropes of that length, and,
with a little pluck we might slip down them--"
"Yes," said Evans. "If the case is desperate I don't mind--"
"Nor I. During the night there's no one about except the man at the
wheel. And if we can drop one of the ropes forward without being seen
or heard--"
"Good! I am glad to see you are so cool; that means business. But
just now we are over the Caspian. There are several ships in sight.
The "Albatross" is going down to fish. Cannot we do something now?"
"Sh! They are watching us much more than you think," said Uncle
Prudent. "You saw that when we tried to jump into the Hydaspes."
"And who knows that they don't watch us at night?" asked Evans.
"Well, we must end this; we must finish with this "Albatross" and her
master."
It will be seen how in the excitement of their anger the colleagues--Uncle
Prudent in particular--were prepared to attempt the most
hazardous things. The sense of their powerlessness, the ironical
disdain with which Robur treated them, the brutal remarks he indulged
in--all contributed towards intensifying the aggravation which daily
grew more manifest.
This very day something occurred which gave rise to another most
regrettable altercation between Robur and his guests. This was
provoked by Frycollin, who, finding himself above the boundless sea,
was seized with another fit of terror. Like a child, like the Negro
he was, he gave himself over to groaning and protesting and crying,
and writhing in a thousand contortions and grimaces.
"I want to get out! I want to get out! I am not a bird! Boohoo! I
don't want to fly, I want to get out!"
Uncle Prudent, as may be imagined, did not attempt to quiet him. In
fact, he encouraged him, and particularly as the incessant howling
seemed to have a strangely irritating effect on Robur.
When Tom Turner and his companions were getting ready for fishing,
the engineer ordered them to shut up Frycollin in his cabin. But the
Negro never ceased his jumping about, and began to kick at the wall
and yell with redoubled power.
It was noon. The "Albatross" was only about fifteen or twenty feet
above the water. A few ships, terrified at the apparition, sought
safety in flight.
As may be guessed, a sharp look-out was kept on the prisoners, whose
temptation to escape could not but be intensified. Even supposing
they jumped overboard they would have been picked up by the
india-rubber boat. As there was nothing to do during the fishing, in
which Phil Evans intended to take part, Uncle Prudent, raging
furiously as usual, retired to his cabin.
The Caspian Sea is a volcanic depression. Into it flow the waters of
the Volga, the Ural, the Kour, the Kouma, the Jemba, and others.
Without the evaporation which relieves it of its overflow, this
basin, with an area of 17,000 square miles, and a depth of from sixty
to four hundred feet, would flood the low marshy ground to its north
and east. Although it is not in communication with the Black Sea or
the Sea of Aral, being at a much lower level than they are, it
contains an immense number of fish--such fish, be it understood, as
can live in its bitter waters, the bitterness being due to the naphtha
which pours in from the springs on the south.
The crew of the "Albatross" made no secret of their delight at the
change in their food the fishing would bring them.
"Look out!" shouted Turner, as he harpooned a good-size fish, not
unlike a shark.
It was a splendid sturgeon seven feet long, called by the Russians
beluga, the eggs of which mixed up with salt, vinegar, and white wine
form caviar. Sturgeons from the river are, it may be, rather better
than those from the sea; but these were welcomed warmly enough on
board the "Albatross."
But the best catches were made with the drag-nets, which brought up
at each haul carp, bream, salmon, saltwater pike, and a number of
medium-sized sterlets, which wealthy gourmets have sent alive to
Astrakhan, Moscow, and Petersburg, and which now passed direct from
their natural element into the cook's kettle without any charge for
transport.
An hour's work sufficed to fill up the larders of the aeronef, and
she resumed her course to the north.
During the fishing Frycollin had continued shouting and kicking at
his cabin wall, and making a tremendous noise.
"That wretched nigger will not be quiet, then?" said Robur, almost
out of patience.
"It seems to me, sir, he has a right to complain," said Phil Evans.
"Yes, and I have a right to look after my ears," replied Robur.
"Engineer Robur!" said Uncle Prudent, who had just appeared on deck.
"President of the Weldon Institute!"
They had stepped up to one another, and were looking into the whites
of each other's eyes. Then Robur shrugged his shoulders. "Put him at
the end of a line," he said.
Turner saw his meaning at once. Frycollin was dragged out of his
cabin. Loud were his cries when the mate and one of the men seized
him and tied him into a tub, which they hitched on to a rope--one of
those very ropes, in fact, that Uncle Prudent had intended to use as
we know.
The Negro at first thought he was going to be hanged. Not he was only
going to be towed!
The rope was paid out for a hundred feet and Frycollin found himself
hanging in space.
He could then shout at his ease. But fright contracted his larynx,
and he was mute.
Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans endeavored to prevent this performance.
They were thrust aside.
"It is scandalous! It is cowardly!" said Uncle Prudent, quite beside
himself with rage.
"Indeed!" said Robur.
"It is an abuse of power against which I protest."
"Protest away!"
"I will be avenged, Mr. Robur."
"Avenge when you like, Mr. Prudent."
"I will have my revenge on you and yours."
The crew began to close up with anything but peaceful intentions.
Robur motioned them away.
"Yes, on you and yours!" said Uncle Prudent, whom his colleague in
vain tried to keep quiet.
"Whenever you please!" said the engineer.
"And in every possible way!"
"That is enough now," said Robur, in a threatening tone. "There are
other ropes on board. And if you don't be quiet I'll treat you as I
have done your servant!"
Uncle Prudent was silent, not because he was afraid, but because his
wrath had nearly choked him; and Phil Evans led him off to his cabin.
During the last hour the air had been strangely troubled. The
symptoms could not be mistaken. A storm was threatening. The electric
saturation of the atmosphere had become so great that about half-past
two o'clock Robur witnessed a phenomenon that was new to him.
In the north, whence the storm was traveling, were spirals of
half-luminous vapor due to the difference in the electric charges of
the various beds of cloud. The reflections of these bands came
running along the waves in myriads of lights, growing in intensity as
the sky darkened.
The "Albatross" and the storm were sure to meet, for they were
exactly in front of each other.
And Frycollin? Well! Frycollin was being towed--and towed is exactly
the word, for the rope made such an angle, with the aeronef, now
going at over sixty knots an hour, that the tub was a long way behind
her.
The crew were busy in preparing for the storm, for the "Albatross"
would either have to rise above it or drive through its lowest
layers. She was about three thousand feet above the sea when a clap
of thunder was heard. Suddenly the squall struck her. In a few
seconds the fiery clouds swept on around her.
Phil Evans went to intercede for Frycollin, and asked for him to be
taken on board again. But Robur had already given orders to that
effect, and the rope was being hauled in, when suddenly there took
place an inexplicable slackening in the speed of the screws.
The engineer rushed to the central deck-house. "Power! More power!"
he shouted. "We must rise quickly and get over the storm!"
"Impossible, sir!"
"What is the matter?"
"The currents are troubled! They are intermittent!" And, in fact, the
"Albatross" was falling fast.
As with the telegraph wires on land during a storm, so was it with
the accumulators of the aeronef. But what is only an inconvenience in
the case of messages was here a terrible danger.
"Let her down, then," said Robur, "and get out of the electric zone!
Keep cool, my lads!"
He stepped on to his quarter-deck and his crew went to their stations.
Although the "Albatross" had sunk several hundred feet she was still
in the thick of the cloud, and the flashes played across her as if
they were fireworks. It seemed as though she was struck. The screws
ran more and more slowly, and what began as a gentle descent
threatened to become a collapse.
In less than a minute it was evident they would get down to the
surface of the sea. Once they were immersed no power could drag them
from the abyss.
Suddenly the electric cloud appeared above them. The "Albatross" was
only sixty feet from the crest of the waves. In two or three seconds
the deck would be under water.
But Robur, seizing the propitious moment, rushed to the central house
and seized the levers. He turned on the currents from the piles no
longer neutralized by the electric tension of the surrounding
atmosphere. In a moment the screws had regained their normal speed
and checked the descent; and the "Albatross" remained at her slight
elevation while her propellers drove her swiftly out of reach of the
storm.
Frycollin, of course, had a bath--though only for a few seconds.
When he was dragged on deck he was as wet as if he had been to the
bottom of the sea. As may be imagined, he cried no more.
In the morning of the 4th of July the "Albatross" had passed over the
northern shore of the Caspian.
Chapter XIV
THE AERONEF AT FULL SPEED
If ever Prudent and Evans despaired on escaping from the "Albatross"
it was during the two days that followed. It may be that Robur
considered it more difficult to keep a watch on his prisoners while
he was crossing Europe, and he knew that they had made up their minds
to get away.
But any attempt to have done so would have been simply committing
suicide. To jump from an express going sixty miles an hour is to risk
your life, but to jump from a machine going one hundred and twenty
miles an hour would be to seek your death.
And it was at this speed, the greatest that could be given to her,
that the "Albatross" tore along. Her speed exceeded that of the
swallow, which is one hundred and twelve miles an hour.
At first the wind was in the northeast, and the "Albatross" had it
fair, her general course being a westerly one. But the wind began to
drop, and it soon became impossible for the colleagues to remain on
the deck without having their breath taken away by the rapidity of
the flight. And on one occasion they would have been blown overboard
if they had not been dashed up against the deck-house by the pressure
of the wind.
Luckily the steersman saw them through the windows of his cage, and
by the electric bell gave the alarm to the men in the fore-cabin.
Four of them came aft, creeping along the deck.
Those who have been at sea, beating to windward in half a gale of
wind, will understand what the pressure was like. But here it was the
"Albatross" that by her incomparable speed made her own wind.
To allow Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans to get back to their cabin the
speed had to be reduced. Inside the deck-house the "Albatross" bore
with her a perfectly breathable atmosphere. To stand such driving the
strength of the apparatus must have been prodigious. The propellers
spun round so swiftly that they seemed immovable, and it was with
irresistible power that they screwed themselves through the air.
The last town that had been noticed was Astrakhan, situated at the
north end of the Caspian Sea. The Star of the Desert--it must have
been a poet who so called it--has now sunk from the first rank to
the fifth or sixth. A momentary glance was afforded at its old walls,
with their useless battlements, the ancient towers in the center of
the city, the mosques and modern churches, the cathedral with its
five domes, gilded and dotted with stars as if it were a piece of the
sky, as they rose from the bank of the Volga, which here, as it joins
the sea, is over a mile in width.
Thenceforward the flight of the "Albatross" became quite a race
through the heights of the sky, as if she had been harnessed to one
of those fabulous hippogriffs which cleared a league at every sweep
of the wing.
At ten o'clock in the morning, of the 4th of July the aeronef,
heading northwest, followed for a little the valley of the Volga. The
steppes of the Don and the Ural stretched away on each side of the
river. Even if it had been possible to get a glimpse of these vast
territories there would have been no time to count the towns and
villages. In the evening the aeronef passed over Moscow without
saluting the flag on the Kremlin. In ten hours she had covered the
twelve hundred miles which separate Astrakhan from the ancient
capital of all the Russias.
From Moscow to St. Petersburg the railway line measures about seven
hundred and fifty miles. This was but a half-day's journey, and the
"Albatross," as punctual as the mail, reached St. Petersburg and the
banks of the Neva at two o'clock in the morning.
Then came the Gulf of Finland, the Archipelago of Abo, the Baltic,
Sweden in the latitude of Stockholm, and Norway in the latitude of
Christiania. Ten hours only for these twelve hundred miles! Verily it
might be thought that no human power would henceforth be able to
check the speed of the "Albatross," and as if the resultant of her
force of projection and the attraction of the earth would maintain
her in an unvarying trajectory round the globe.
But she did stop nevertheless, and that was over the famous fall of
the Rjukanfos in Norway. Gousta, whose summit dominates this
wonderful region of Tellermarken, stood in the west like a gigantic
barrier apparently impassable. And when the "Albatross" resumed her
journey at full speed her head had been turned to the south.
And during this extraordinary flight what was Frycollin doing? He
remained silent in a corner of his cabin, sleeping as well as he
could, except at meal times.
Tapage then favored him with his company and amused himself at his
expense. "Eh! eh! my boy!" said he. "So you are not crying any more?
Perhaps it hurt you too much? That two hours hanging cured you of it?
At our present rate, what a splendid air-bath you might have for your
rheumatics!"
"It seems to me we shall soon go to pieces!"
"Perhaps so; but we shall go so fast we shan't have time to fall!
That is some comfort!"
"Do you think so?"
"I do."
To tell the truth, and not to exaggerate like Tapage, it was only
reasonable that owing to the excessive speed the work of the
suspensory screws should be somewhat lessened. The "Albatross" glided
on its bed of air like a Congreve rocket.
"And shall we last long like that?" asked Frycollin.
"Long? Oh, no, only as long as we live!"
"Oh!" said the Negro, beginning his lamentations.
"Take care, Fry, take care! For, as they say in my country, the
master may send you to the seesaw!" And Frycollin gulped down his
sobs as he gulped down the meat which, in double doses, he was
hastily swallowing.
Meanwhile Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, who were not men to waste
time in wrangling when nothing could come of it, agreed upon doing
something. It was evident that escape was not to be thought of. But
if it was impossible for them to again set foot on the terrestrial
globe, could they not make known to its inhabitants what had become
of them since their disappearance, and tell them by whom they had
been carried off, and provoke--how was not very clear--some
audacious attempt on the part of their friends to rescue them from
Robur?
Communicate? But how? Should they follow the example of sailors in
distress and enclose in a bottle a document giving the place of
shipwreck and throw it into the sea? But here the sea was the
atmosphere. The bottle would not swim. And if it did not fall on
somebody and crack his skull it might never be found.
The colleagues were about to sacrifice one of the bottles on board
when an idea occurred to Uncle Prudent. He took snuff, as we know,
and we may pardon this fault in an American, who might do worse. And
as a snuff-taker he possessed a snuff-box, which was now empty. This
box was made of aluminum. If it was thrown overboard any honest
citizen that found it would pick it up, and, being an honest citizen,
he would take it to the police-office, and there they would open it
and discover from the document what had become of the two victims of
Robur the Conqueror!
And this is what was done. The note was short, but it told all, and
it gave the address of the Weldon Institute, with a request that it
might be forwarded. Then Uncle Prudent folded up the note, shut it in
the box, bound the box round with a piece of worsted so as to keep it
from opening it as it fell. And then all that had to be done was to
wait for a favorable opportunity.
During this marvelous flight over Europe it was not an easy thing to
leave the cabin and creep along the deck at the risk of being
suddenly and secretly blown away, and it would not do for the
snuff-box to fall into the sea or a gulf or a lake or a watercourse,
for it would then perhaps be lost. At the same time it was not
impossible that the colleagues might in this way get into
communication with the habitable globe.
It was then growing daylight, and it seemed as though it would be
better to wait for the night and take advantage of a slackening speed
or a halt to go out on deck and drop the precious snuff-box into some
town.
When all these points had been thought over and settled, the
prisoners, found they could not put their plan into execution--on
that day, at all events--for the "Albatross," after leaving Gousta,
had kept her southerly course, which took her over the North Sea,
much to the consternation of the thousands of coasting craft engaged
in the English, Dutch, French, and Belgian trade. Unless the
snuff-box fell on the deck of one of these vessels there was every
chance of its going to the bottom of the sea, and Uncle Prudent and
Phil Evans were obliged to wait for a better opportunity. And, as we
shall immediately see, an excellent chance was soon to be offered
them.
At ten o'clock that evening the "Albatross" reached the French coast
near Dunkirk. The night was rather dark. For a moment they could see
the lighthouse at Grisnez cross its electric beam with the lights
from Dover on the other side of the strait. Then the "Albatross" flew
over the French territory at a mean height of three thousand feet.
There was no diminution in her speed. She shot like a rocket over the
towns and villages so numerous in northern France. She was flying
straight on to Paris, and after Dunkirk came Doullens, Amiens, Creil,
Saint Denis. She never left the line; and about midnight she was over
the "city of light," which merits its name even when its inhabitants
are asleep or ought to be.
By what strange whim was it that she was stopped over the city of
Paris? We do not know; but down she came till she was within a few
hundred feet of the ground. Robur then came out of his cabin, and the
crew came on to the deck to breathe the ambient air.
Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans took care not to miss such an excellent
opportunity. They left their deck-house and walked off away from the
others so as to be ready at the propitious moment. It was important
their action should not be seen.
The "Albatross," like a huge coleopter, glided gently over the mighty
city. She took the line of the boulevards, then brilliantly lighted
by the Edison lamps. Up to her there floated the rumble of the
vehicles as they drove along the streets, and the roll of the trains
on the numerous railways that converge into Paris. Then she glided
over the highest monuments as if she was going to knock the ball off
the Pantheon or the cross off the Invalides. She hovered over the two
minarets of the Trocadero and the metal tower of the Champ de Mars,
where the enormous reflector was inundating the whole capital with
its electric rays.
This aerial promenade, this nocturnal loitering, lasted for about an
hour. It was a halt for breath before the voyage was resumed.
And probably Robur wished to give the Parisians the sight of a meteor
quite unforeseen by their astronomers. The lamps of the "Albatross"
were turned on. Two brilliant sheaves of light shot down and moved
along over the squares, the gardens, the palaces, the sixty thousand
houses, and swept the space from one horizon to the other.
Assuredly the "Albatross" was seen this time--and not only well seen
but heard, for Tom Turner brought out his trumpet and blew a rousing
tarantaratara.
At this moment Uncle Prudent leant over the rail, opened his hand,
and let his snuff-box fall.
Immediately the "Albatross" shot upwards, and past her, higher still,
there mounted the noisy cheering of the crowd then thick on the
boulevards--a hurrah of stupefaction to greet the imaginary meteor.
The lamps of the aeronef were turned off, and the darkness and the
silence closed in around as the voyage was resumed at the rate of one
hundred and twenty miles an hour.
This was all that was to be seen of the French capital. At four
o'clock in the morning the "Albatross" had crossed the whole country
obliquely; and so as to lose no time in traversing the Alps or the
Pyrenees, she flew over the face of Provence to the cape of Antibes.
At nine o'clock next morning the San Pietrini assembled on the
terrace of St. Peter at Rome were astounded to see her pass over the
eternal city. Two hours afterwards she crossed the Bay of Naples and
hovered for an instant over the fuliginous wreaths of Vesuvius. Then,
after cutting obliquely across the Mediterranean, in the early hours
of the afternoon she was signaled by the look-outs at La Goulette on
the Tunisian coast.
After America, Asia! After Asia, Europe! More than eighteen thousand
miles had this wonderful machine accomplished in less than
twenty-three days!
And now she was off over the known and unknown regions of Africa!
It may be interesting to know what had happened to the famous
snuff-box after its fall?
It had fallen in the Rue de Rivoli, opposite No. 200, when the street
was deserted. In the morning it was picked up by an honest sweeper,
who took it to the prefecture of police. There it was at first
supposed to be an infernal machine. And it was untied, examined, and
opened with care.
Suddenly a sort of explosion took place. It was a terrific sneeze on
the part of the inspector.
The document was then extracted from the snuff-box, and to the
general surprise, read as follows:
"Messrs. Prudent and Evans, president and secretary of the Weldon
Institute, Philadelphia, have been carried off in the aeronef
Albatross belonging to Robur the engineer."
"Please inform our friends and acquaintances."
"P. and P. E."
Thus was the strange phenomenon at last explained to the people of
the two worlds. Thus was peace given to the scientists of the
numerous observatories on the surface of the terrestrial globe.
Chapter XV
A SKIRMISH IN DAHOMEY
At this point in the circumnavigatory voyage of the "Albatross" it is
only natural that some such questions as the following should be
asked. Who was this Robur, of whom up to the present we know nothing
but the name? Did he pass his life in the air? Did his aeronef never
rest? Had he not some retreat in some inaccessible spot in which, if
he had need of repose or revictualing, he could betake himself? It
would be very strange if it were not so. The most powerful flyers
have always an eyrie or nest somewhere.
And what was the engineer going to do with his prisoners? Was he
going to keep them in his power and condemn them to perpetual
aviation? Or was he going to take them on a trip over Africa, South
America, Australasia, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic and the Pacific,
to convince them against their will, and then dismiss them with, "And
now gentlemen, I hope you will believe a little more in heavier than
air?"
To these questions, it is now impossible to reply. They are the
secrets of the future. Perhaps the answers will be revealed. Anyhow
the bird-like Robur was not seeking his nest on the northern frontier
of Africa. By the end of the day he had traversed Tunis from Cape Bon
to Cape Carthage, sometimes hovering, and sometimes darting along at
top speed. Soon he reached the interior, and flew down the beautiful
valley of Medjeida above its yellow stream hidden under its luxuriant
bushes of cactus and oleander; and scared away the hundreds of
parrots that perch on the telegraph wires and seem to wait for the
messages to pass to bear them away beneath their wings.
Two hours after sunset the helm was put up and the "Albatross" bore
off to the southeast; and on the morrow, after clearing the Tell
Mountains, she saw the rising of the morning star over the sands of
the Sahara.
On the 30th of July there was seen from the aeronef the little
village of Geryville, founded like Laghouat on the frontier of the
desert to facilitate the future conquest of Kabylia. Next, not
without difficulty, the peaks of Stillero were passed against a
somewhat boisterous wind. Then the desert was crossed, sometimes
leisurely over the Ksars or green oases, sometimes at terrific speed
that far outstripped the flight of the vultures. Often the crew had
to fire into the flocks of these birds which, a dozen or so at a
time, fearlessly hurled them selves on to the aeronef to the extreme
terror of Frycollin.
But if the vultures could only reply with cries and blows of beaks
and talons, the natives, in no way less savage, were not sparing of
their musket-shots, particularly when crossing the Mountain of Sel,
whose green and violet slope bore its cape of white. Then the
"Albatross" was at last over the grand Sahara; and at once she rose
into the higher zones so as to escape from a simoom which was
sweeping a wave of ruddy sand along the surface of the ground like a
bore on the surface of the sea.
Then the desolate tablelands of Chetka scattered their ballast in
blackish waves up to the fresh and verdant valley of Ain-Massin. It
is difficult to conceive the variety of the territories which could
be seen at one view. To the green hills covered with trees and shrubs
there succeeded long gray undulations draped like the folds of an
Arab burnous and broken in picturesque masses. In the distance could
be seen the wadys with their torrential waters, their forests of
palm-trees, and blocks of small houses grouped on a hill around a
mosque, among them Metlili, where there vegetates a religious chief,
the grand marabout Sidi Chick.
Before night several hundred miles had been accomplished above a
flattish country ridged occasionally with large sandhills. If the
"Albatross" had halted, she would have come to the earth in the
depths of the Wargla oasis hidden beneath an immense forest of
palm-trees. The town was clearly enough displayed with its three
distinct quarters, the ancient palace of the Sultan, a kind of
fortified Kasbah, houses of brick which had been left to the sun to
bake, and artesian wells dug in the valley--where the aeronef could
have renewed her water supply. But, thanks to her extraordinary
speed, the waters of the Hydaspes taken in the vale of Cashmere still
filled her tanks in the center of the African desert.
Was the "Albatross" seen by the Arabs, the Mozabites, and the Negroes
who share amongst them the town of Wargla? Certainly, for she was
saluted with many hundred gunshot, and the bullets fell back before
they reached her.
Then came the night, that silent night in the desert of which
Felicien David has so poetically told us the secrets.
During the following hours the course lay southwesterly, cutting
across the routes of El Golea, one of which was explored in 1859 by
the intrepid Duveyrier.
The darkness was profound. Nothing could be seen of the Trans-Saharan
Railway constructing on the plans of Duponchel--a long ribbon of
iron destined to bind together Algiers and Timbuktu by way of
Laghouat and Gardaia, and destined eventually to run down into the
Gulf of Guinea.
Then the "Albatross" entered the equatorial region below the tropic
of Cancer. Six hundred miles from the northern frontier of the Sahara
she crossed the route on which Major Laing met his, death in 1846,
and crossed the road of the caravans from Morocco to the Sudan, and
that part of the desert swept by the Tuaregs, where could be heard
what is called "the song of the sand," a soft and plaintive murmur
that seems to escape from the ground.
Only one thing happened. A cloud of locusts came flying along, and
there fell such a cargo of them on board as to threaten to sink the
ship. But all hands set to work to clear the deck, and the locusts
were thrown over except a few hundred kept by Tapage for his larder.
And he served them up in so succulent a fashion that Frycollin forgot
for the moment his perpetual trances and said, "these are as good as
prawns."
The aeronef was then eleven hundred miles from the Wargla oasis and
almost on the northern frontier of the Sudan. About two o'clock in
the afternoon a city appeared in the bend of a large river. The river
was the Niger. The city was Timbuktu.
If, up to then, this African Mecca had only been visited by the
travelers of the ancient world Batouta, Khazan, Imbert, Mungo Park,
Adams, Laing, Caillé, Barth, Lenz, on that day by a most singular
chance the two Americans could boast of having seen, heard, and smelt
it, on their return to America--if they ever got back there.
Of having seen it, because their view included the whole triangle of
three or four miles in circumference; of having heard it, because the
day was one of some rejoicing and the noise was terrible; of having
smelt it, because the olfactory nerve could not but be very
disagreeably affected by the odors of the Youbou-Kamo square, where
the meatmarket stands close to the palace of the ancient Somai kings.
The engineer had no notion of allowing the president and secretary of
the Weldon Institute to be ignorant that they had the honor of
contemplating the Queen of the Sudan, now in the power of the Tuaregs
of Taganet.
"Gentlemen, Timbuktu!" he said, in the same tone as twelve days
before he had said, "Gentlemen, India!" Then he continued, "Timbuktu
is an important city of from twelve to thirteen thousand inhabitants,
formerly illustrious in science and art. Perhaps you would like to
stay there for a day or two?"
Such a proposal could only have been made ironically. "But,"
continued he, "it would be dangerous among the Negroes, Berbers, and
Foullanes who occupy, it--particularly as our arrival in an aeronef
might prejudice them against you."
"Sir," said Phil Evans, in the same tone, "for the pleasure of
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899
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904
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.
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973
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975
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988
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995
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.
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998
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,
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1000