THE GRAND COLLAPSE
It was indeed the “Albatross!” It was indeed Robur who had reappeared
in the heights of the sky! It was he who like a huge bird of prey was
going 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 apparently
annihilated.
Without the prodigious coolness of the engineer, who reversed the
gyratory motion of the fore propeller and converted it into a
suspensory screw, the men of the “Albatross” would all have been
asphyxiated by the fall. But if they had escaped asphyxia, how had they
escaped being drowned in the Pacific?
The remains of the deck, the blades of the propellers, the compartments
of the cabins, all formed a sort of raft. When a wounded bird falls on
the waves its wings keep it afloat. For several hours Robur and his men
remained unhelped, at first on the wreck, and afterwards in the
india-rubber boat that had fallen uninjured. A few hours after sunrise
they were sighted by a passing ship, and a boat was lowered to their
rescue.
Robur and his companions were saved, and so was much of what remained
of the aeronef. The engineer said that his ship had perished in a
collision, and no further questions were asked him.
The ship was an English three-master, the “Two Friends.” bound for
Melbourne, where she arrived a few days afterwards.
Robur was in Australia, but a long way from X Island, to which he
desired to return as soon as possible.
In the ruins of the aftermost cabin he had found a considerable sum of
money, quite enough to provide for himself and companions without
applying to anyone for help. A short time after he arrived in Melbourne
he became the owner of a small brigantine of about a hundred tons, and
in her he sailed for X Island.
There he had but one idea—to be avenged. But to secure his vengeance he
would have to make another “Albatross.” This after all was an easy task
for him who made the first. He used up what he could of the old
material; the propellers and engines he had brought back in the
brigantine. The mechanism was fitted with new piles and new
accumulators, and, in short, in less than eight months, the work was
finished, and a new “Albatross.” identical with the one destroyed by
the explosion, was ready to take flight. And he had the same crew.
The “Albatross” left X Island in the first week of April. During this
aerial passage Robur did not want to be seen from the earth, and he
came along almost always above the clouds. When he arrived over North
America he descended in a desolate spot in the Far West. There the
engineer, keeping a profound incognito, learnt with considerable
pleasure that the Weldon Institute was about to begin its experiments,
and that the “Go-Ahead.” with Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, was going
to start from Philadelphia on the 29th of April.
Here was a chance for Robur and his crew to gratify their longing for
revenge. Here was a chance for inflicting on their foes a terrible
vengeance, which in the “Go-Ahead” they could not escape. A public
vengeance, which would at the same time prove the superiority of the
aeronef 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 had
never before seen her.
The “Go-Ahead” was in full flight; but it soon appeared that she could
not escape horizontally, and so she sought her safety in a vertical
direction, not dropping to the ground, for the aeronef would have cut
her off, but rising to a zone where she could not perhaps be reached.
This was very daring, and at the same time very logical.
But the “Albatross” began to rise after her. Although she was smaller
than 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 few
moments 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 diminishing
radius. She could have annihilated her at a stroke, and Uncle Prudent
and his companions would have been dashed to atoms in a frightful fall.
The people, mute with horror, gazed breathlessly; they were seized with
that sort of fear which presses on the chest and grips the legs when we
see anyone fall from a height. An aerial combat was beginning in 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, for progress is one of
the laws of this world. And if the “Go-Ahead” was flying the American
colors, did not the “Albatross” display the stars and 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 of three
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 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! He will come
to declare the secret of his invention, which will greatly change the
social and political conditions of the world.
As for the future of aerial locomotion, it belongs to the aeronef and
not the aerostat.
It is to the “Albatross” that the conquest of the air will assuredly
fall.
—End of Voyage Extraordinaire—Robur the Conqueror—