Robur-le-conquerant. English Read online

  Chapter XXIII

  THE GRAND COLLAPSE

  It was indeed the "Albatross!" It was indeed Robur who had reappearedin the heights of the sky! It was he who like a huge bird of prey wasgoing to strike the "Go-Ahead."

  And yet, nine months before, the aeronef, shattered by the explosion,her screws broken, her deck smashed in two, had been apparentlyannihilated.

  Without the prodigious coolness of the engineer, who reversed thegyratory motion of the fore propeller and converted it into asuspensory screw, the men of the "Albatross" would all have beenasphyxiated by the fall. But if they had escaped asphyxia, how hadthey escaped being drowned in the Pacific?

  The remains of the deck, the blades of the propellers, thecompartments of the cabins, all formed a sort of raft. When a woundedbird falls on the waves its wings keep it afloat. For several hoursRobur and his men remained unhelped, at first on the wreck, andafterwards in the india-rubber boat that had fallen uninjured. A fewhours after sunrise they were sighted by a passing ship, and a boatwas lowered to their rescue.

  Robur and his companions were saved, and so was much of what remainedof the aeronef. The engineer said that his ship had perished in acollision, and no further questions were asked him.

  The ship was an English three-master, the "Two Friends," bound forMelbourne, where she arrived a few days afterwards.

  Robur was in Australia, but a long way from X Island, to which hedesired to return as soon as possible.

  In the ruins of the aftermost cabin he had found a considerable sumof money, quite enough to provide for himself and companions withoutapplying to anyone for help. A short time after he arrived inMelbourne he became the owner of a small brigantine of about ahundred tons, and in her he sailed for X Island.

  There he had but one idea--to be avenged. But to secure hisvengeance he would have to make another "Albatross." This after allwas an easy task for him who made the first. He used up what he couldof the old material; the propellers and engines he had brought backin the brigantine. The mechanism was fitted with new piles and newaccumulators, and, in short, in less than eight months, the work wasfinished, and a new "Albatross," identical with the one destroyed bythe explosion, was ready to take flight. And he had the same crew.

  The "Albatross" left X Island in the first week of April. During thisaerial passage Robur did not want to be seen from the earth, and hecame along almost always above the clouds. When he arrived over NorthAmerica he descended in a desolate spot in the Far West. There theengineer, keeping a profound incognito, learnt with considerablepleasure that the Weldon Institute was about to begin itsexperiments, and that the "Go-Ahead," with Uncle Prudent and PhilEvans, was going to start from Philadelphia on the 29th of April.

  Here was a chance for Robur and his crew to gratify their longing forrevenge. Here was a chance for inflicting on their foes a terriblevengeance, which in the "Go-Ahead" they could not escape. A publicvengeance, which would at the same time prove the superiority of theaeronef to all aerostats and contrivances of that nature!

  And that is why, on this very day, like a vulture from the clouds,the aeronef appeared over Fairmount Park.

  Yes! It was the "Albatross," easily recognizable by all those who hadnever before seen her.

  The "Go-Ahead" was in full flight; but it soon appeared that shecould not escape horizontally, and so she sought her safety in avertical direction, not dropping to the ground, for the aeronef wouldhave cut her off, but rising to a zone where she could not perhaps bereached. This was very daring, and at the same time very logical.

  But the "Albatross" began to rise after her. Although she was smallerthan the "Go-Ahead," it was a case of the swordfish and the whale.

  This could easily be seen from below and with what anxiety! In a fewmoments the aerostat had attained a height of sixteen thousand feet.

  The "Albatross" followed her as she rose. She flew round her flanks,and maneuvered round her in a circle with a constantly diminishingradius. She could have annihilated her at a stroke, and Uncle Prudentand his companions would have been dashed to atoms in a frightfulfall.

  The people, mute with horror, gazed breathlessly; they were seizedwith that sort of fear which presses on the chest and grips the legswhen we see anyone fall from a height. An aerial combat was beginningin which there were none of the chances of safety as in a sea-fight.It was the first of its kind, but it would not be the last, forprogress is one of the laws of this world. And if the "Go-Ahead" wasflying the American colors, did not the "Albatross" display the starsand golden sun of Robur the Conqueror?

  The "Go-Ahead" tried to distance her enemy by rising still higher.She threw away the ballast she had in reserve; she made a new leap ofthree thousand feet; she was now but a dot in space. The "Albatross,"which followed her round and round at top speed, was now invisible.

  Suddenly a shout of terror rose from the crowd. The "Go-Ahead"increased rapidly in size, and the aeronef appeared dropping withher. This time it was a fall. The gas had dilated in the higher zonesof the atmosphere and had burst the balloon, which, half inflatedstill, was falling rapidly.

  But the aeronef, slowing her suspensory screws, came down just asfast. She ran alongside the "Go-Ahead" when she was not more thanfour thousand feet from the ground.

  Would Robur destroy her?

  No; he was going to save her crew!

  And so cleverly did he handle his vessel that the aeronaut jumped onboard.

  Would Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans refuse to be saved by him? Theywere quite capable of doing so. But the crew threw themselves on themand dragged them by force from the "Go-Ahead" to the "Albatross."

  Then the aeronef glided off and remained stationary, while theballoon, quite empty of gas, fell on the trees of the clearing andhung there like a gigantic rag.

  An appalling silence reigned on the ground. It seemed as though lifewere suspended in each of the crowd; and many eyes had been closed soas not to behold the final catastrophe. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evanshad again become the prisoners of the redoubtable Robur. Now he hadrecaptured them, would he carry them off into space, where it wasimpossible to follow him?

  It seemed so.

  However, instead of mounting into the sky the "Albatross" stopped sixfeet from the ground. Then, amid profound silence, the engineer'svoice was heard.

  "Citizens of the United States," he said, "The president andsecretary of the Weldon Institute are again in my power. In keepingthem I am only within my right. But from the passion kindled in themby the success of the "Albatross" I see that their minds are notprepared for that important revolution which the conquest of the airwill one day bring, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, you are free!"

  The president, the secretary, and the aeronaut had only to jump down.

  Then Robur continued.

  "Citizens of the United States, my experiment is finished; but myadvice to those present is to be premature in nothing, not even inprogress. It is evolution and not revolution that we should seek. Ina word, we must not be before our time. I have come too soon today towithstand such contradictory and divided interests as yours. Nationsare not yet fit for union.

  "I go, then; and I take my secret with me. But it will not be lost tohumanity. It will belong to you the day you are educated enough toprofit by it and wise enough not to abuse it. Citizens of the UnitedStates--Good-by!"

  And the "Albatross," beating the air with her seventy-four screws,and driven by her propellers, shot off towards the east amid atempest of cheers.

  The two colleagues, profoundly humiliated, and through them the wholeWeldon Institute, did the only thing they could. They went home.

  And the crowd by a sudden change of front greeted them withparticularly keen sarcasms, and, at their expense, are sarcasticstill.

  And now, who is this Robur? Shall we ever know?

  We know today. Robur is the science of the future. Perhaps thescience of tomorrow. Certainly the science that will come!

  Does the "Albatross" still cruise in the atmosphe
re in the realm thatnone can take from her? There is no reason to doubt it.

  Will Robur, the Conqueror, appear one day as he said? Yes! He willcome to declare the secret of his invention, which will greatlychange the social and political conditions of the world.

  As for the future of aerial locomotion, it belongs to the aeronef andnot the aerostat.

  It is to the "Albatross" that the conquest of the air will assuredlyfall.

  --End of Voyage Extraordinaire--Robur the Conqueror--