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 bull.
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 be 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.