He it was who carried off by way of reprisal Uncle Prudent, Phil Evans and Frycollin; and they might be considered lost for ever. At least until some means were found of constructing an engine capable of contending with this powerful machine their terrestrial friends would never bring them back to earth.
What excitement!
What stupor!
The telegram from Paris had been addressed to the members of the Weldon Institute.
The members of the club were immediately informed of it.
Ten minutes later all Philadelphia received the news through its telephones, and in less than an hour all America heard of it through the innumerable electric wires of the new continent.
No one would believe it!
"It is an unseasonable joke," said some. "It is all smoke," said others.
How could such a thing be done in Philadelphia, and so secretly, too?
How could the
"Albatross" have been beached in Fairmount Park without its appearance having been signaled all over Pennsylvania?
Very good. These were the arguments.
The incredulous had the right of doubting.
But the right did not last long.
Seven days after the receipt of the telegram the French mail-boat
"Normandie" came into the Hudson, bringing the famous snuff-box.
The railway took it in all haste from New York to Philadelphia.
It was indeed the snuff-box of the President of the Weldon Institute.
Jem Chip would have done on at day to take some more substantial nourishment, for he fell into a swoon when he recognized it.
How many a time had he taken from it the pinch of friendship!
And Miss Doll and Miss Mat also recognized it, and so did William T. Forbes, Truck Milnor, Bat T. Fynn, and many other members.
And not only was it the president's snuff-box, it was the president's writing!
Then did the people lament and stretch out their hands in despair to the skies.
Uncle Prudent and his colleague carried away in a flying machine, and no one able to deliver them!
The Niagara Falls Company, in which Uncle Prudent was the largest shareholder, thought of suspending its business and turning off its cataracts.
The Wheelton Watch Company thought of winding up its machinery, now it had lost its manager.
Nothing more was heard of the aeronef. July passed, and there was no news. August ran its course, and the uncertainty on the subject of Robur's prisoners was as great as ever.
Had he, like Icarus, fallen a victim to his own temerity?
The first twenty-seven days of September went by without result, but on the 28th a rumor spread through Philadelphia that Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans had during the afternoon quietly walked into the president's house.
And, what was more extraordinary, the rumor was true, although very few believed it.
They had, however, to give in to the evidence.
There could be no doubt these were the two men, and not their shadows. And Frycollin also had come back!
The members of the club, then their friends, then the crowd, swarmed into the president's house, and shook hands with the president and secretary, and cheered them again and again.
Jem Chip was there, having left his luncheons joint of boiled lettuces, and William T. Forbes and his daughters, and all the members of the club.
It is a mystery how Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans emerged alive from the thousands who welcomed them.
On that evening was the weekly meeting of the Institute.
It was expected that the colleagues would take their places at the desk.
As they had said nothing of their adventures, it was thought they would then speak, and relate the impressions of their voyage.
But for some reason or other both were silent.
And so also was Frycollin, whom his congeners in their delirium had failed to dismember.
But though the colleagues did not tell what had happened to them, that is no reason why we should not.
We know what occurred on the night of the 27th and 28th of July; the daring escape to the earth, the scramble among the rocks, the bullet fired at Phil Evans, the cut cable, and the
"Albatross" deprived of her propellers, drifting off to the northeast at a great altitude.
Her electric lamps rendered her visible for some time. And then she disappeared.
The fugitives had little to fear.
Now could Robur get back to the island for three or four hours if his screws were out of gear?
By that time the
"Albatross" would have been destroyed by the explosion, and be no more than a wreck floating on the sea; those whom she bore would be mangled corpses, which the ocean would not even give up again.
The act of vengeance would be accomplished.
Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans looked upon it as an act of legitimate self-defence, and felt no remorse whatever.