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 with her.
This time it was a fall.
The gas had dilated in the higher zones of the atmosphere and had burst the balloon, which, half inflated still, was falling rapidly.
But the aeronef, slowing her suspensory screws, came down just as fast.
She ran alongside the
"Go-Ahead" when she was not more than four 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 on board.
Would Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans refuse to be saved by him?
They were quite capable of doing so.
But the crew threw themselves on them and dragged them by force from the "Go-Ahead" to the "Albatross."
Then the aeronef glided off and remained stationary, while the balloon, quite empty of gas, fell on the trees of the clearing and hung there like a gigantic rag.
An appalling silence reigned on the ground.
It seemed as though life were suspended in each of the crowd; and many eyes had been closed so as not to behold the final catastrophe.
Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans had again become the prisoners of the redoubtable Robur.
Now he had recaptured them, would he carry them off into space, where it was impossible to follow him?
It seemed so.
However, instead of mounting into the sky the
"Albatross" stopped six feet from the ground.
Then, amid profound silence, the engineer's voice was heard.
"Citizens of the United States," he said, "The president and secretary of the Weldon Institute are again in my power.
In keeping them I am only within my right.
But from the passion kindled in them by the success of the
"Albatross" I see that their minds are not prepared for that important revolution which the conquest of the air will 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 my advice to those present is to be premature in nothing, not even in progress.
It is evolution and not revolution that we should seek.
In a word, we must not be before our time.
I have come too soon today to withstand such contradictory and divided interests as yours.
Nations are not yet fit for union.
"I go, then; and I take my secret with me. But it will not be lost to humanity.
It will belong to you the day you are educated enough to profit by it and wise enough not to abuse it.
Citizens of the United States--Good-by!"
And the
"Albatross," beating the air with her seventy-four screws, and driven by her propellers, shot off towards the east amid a tempest of cheers.
The two colleagues, profoundly humiliated, and through them the whole Weldon Institute, did the only thing they could. They went home.
And the crowd by a sudden change of front greeted them with particularly keen sarcasms, and, at their expense, are sarcastic still.
And now, who is this Robur?
Shall we ever know?
We know today.
Robur is the science of the future. Perhaps the science of tomorrow.
Certainly the science that will come!
Does the "Albatross" still cruise in the atmosphere in the realm that none can take from her?
There is no reason to doubt it.
Will Robur, the Conqueror, appear one day as he said?
Yes!