Robur the Conqueror by Jules Verne

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In an instant a majestic sound, a roar as of the tempest, mounted
towards them and, as if a humid fog had been projected into the air,
the atmosphere sensibly freshened. Below were the liquid masses. They
seemed like an enormous flowing sheet of crystal amid a thousand
rainbows due to refraction as it decomposed the solar rays. The sight
was sublime.

Before the falls a foot-bridge, stretching like a thread, united one
bank to the other. Three miles below was a suspension-bridge, across
which a train was crawling from the Canadian to the American bank.

"The falls of Niagara!" exclaimed Phil Evans. And as the exclamation
escaped him, Uncle Prudent was doing all could do to admire nothing
of these wonders.

A minute afterwards the "Albatross" had crossed the river which
separates the United States from Canada, and was flying over the vast
territories of the West.

Chapter IX

ACROSS THE PRAIRIE

In one, of the cabins of the after-house Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans
had found two excellent berths, with clean linen, change of clothes,
and traveling-cloaks and rugs. No Atlantic liner could have offered
them more comfort. If they did not Sleep soundly it was that they did
not wish to do so, or rather that their very real anxiety prevented
them. In what adventure had they embarked? To what series of
experiments had they been invited? How would the business end? And
above all, what was Robur going to do with them?

Frycollin, the valet, was quartered forward in a cabin adjoining that
of the cook. The neighborhood did not displease him; he liked to rub
shoulders with the great in this world. But if he finally went to
sleep it was to dream of fall after fall, of projections through
space, which made his sleep a horrible nightmare.

However, nothing could be quieter than this journey through the
atmosphere, whose currents had grown weaker with the evening. Beyond
the rustling of the blades of the screws there was not a sound,
except now and then the whistle from some terrestrial locomotive, or
the calling of some animal. Strange instinct! These terrestrial
beings felt the aeronef glide over them, and uttered cries of terror
as it passed. On the morrow, the 14th of June, at five o'clock, Uncle
Prudent and Phil Evans were walking on the deck of the "Albatross."

Nothing had changed since the evening; there was a lookout forward,
and the helmsman was in his glass cage. Why was there a look-out? Was
there any chance of collision with another such machine? Certainly
not. Robur had not yet found imitators. The chance of encountering an
aerostat gliding through the air was too remote to be regarded. In
any case it would be all the worse for the aerostat--the earthen pot
and the iron pot. The "Albatross" had nothing to fear from the
collision.

But what could happen? The aeronef might find herself like a ship on
a lee shore if a mountain that could not be outflanked or passed
barred the way. These are the reefs of the air, and they have to be
avoided as a ship avoids the reefs of the sea. The engineer, it is
true, had given the course, and in doing so had taken into account
the altitude necessary to clear the summits of the high lands in the
district. But as the aeronef was rapidly nearing a mountainous
country, it was only prudent to keep a good lookout, in case some
slight deviation from the course became necessary.

Looking at the country beneath them, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans
noticed a large lake, whose lower southern end the "Albatross" had
just reached. They concluded, therefore, that during the night the
whole length of Lake Erie had been traversed, and that, as they were
going due west, they would soon be over Lake Michigan. "There can be
no doubt of it," said Phil Evans, "and that group of roofs on the
horizon is Chicago."

He was right. It was indeed the city from which the seventeen
railways diverge, the Queen of the West, the vast reservoir into
which flow the products of Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, and
all the States which form the western half of the Union.

Uncle Prudent, through an excellent telescope he had found in his
cabin, easily recognized the principal buildings. His colleague
pointed out to him the churches and public edifices, the numerous
"elevators" or mechanical, granaries, and the huge Sherman Hotel,
whose windows seemed like a hundred glittering points on each of its
faces.

"If that is Chicago," said Uncle Prudent, "it is obvious that we are
going farther west than is convenient for us if we are to return to
our starting-place."

And, in fact, the "Albatross" was traveling in a straight line from
the Pennsylvania capital.

But if Uncle Prudent wished to ask Robur to take him eastwards he
could not then do so. That morning the engineer did not leave his
cabin. Either he was occupied in some work, or else he was asleep,
and the two colleagues sat down to breakfast without seeing him.

The speed was the same as that during last evening. The wind being
easterly the rate was not interfered with at all, and as the
thermometer only falls a degree centigrade for every seventy meters
of elevation the temperature was not insupportable. And so, in
chatting and thinking and waiting for the engineer, Uncle Prudent and
Phil Evans walked about beneath the forest of screws, whose gyratory
movement gave their arms the appearance of semi-diaphanous disks.

The State of Illinois was left by its northern frontier in less than
two hours and a half; and they crossed the Father of Waters, the
Mississippi, whose double-decked steam-boats seemed no bigger than
canoes. Then the "Albatross" flew over Iowa after having sighted Iowa
City about eleven o'clock in the morning.

A few chains of hills, "bluffs" as they are called, curved across the
face of the country trending from the south to the northwest, whose
moderate height necessitated no rise in the course of the aeronef.
Soon the bluffs gave place to the large plains of western Iowa and
Nebraska--immense prairies extending all the way to the foot of the
Rocky Mountains. Here and there were many rios, affluents or minor
affluents of the Missouri. On their banks were towns and villages,
growing more scattered as the "Albatross" sped farther west.

Nothing particular happened during this day. Uncle Prudent and Phil
Evans were left entirely to themselves. They hardly noticed Frycollin
sprawling at full length in the bow, keeping his eyes shut so that he
could see nothing. And they were not attacked by vertigo, as might
have been expected. There was no guiding mark, and there was nothing
to cause the vertigo, as there would have been on the top of a lofty
building. The abyss has no attractive power when it is gazed at from
the car of a balloon or deck of an aeronef. It is not an abyss that
opens beneath the aeronaut, but an horizon that rises round him on
all sides like a cup.

In a couple of hours the "Albatross" was over Omaha, on the Nebraskan
frontier--Omaha City, the real head of the Pacific Railway, that
long line of rails, four thousand five hundred miles in length,
stretching from New York to San Francisco. For a moment they could
see the yellow waters of the Missouri, then the town, with its houses
of wood and brick in the center of a rich basin, like a buckle in the
iron belt which clasps North America round the waist. Doubtless,
also, as the passengers in the aeronef could observe all these
details, the inhabitants of Omaha noticed the strange machine. Their
astonishment at seeing it gliding overhead could be no greater than
that of the president and secretary of the Weldon Institute at
finding themselves on board.

Anyhow, the journals of the Union would be certain to notice the
fact. It would be the explanation of the astonishing phenomenon which
the whole world had been wondering over for some time.

In an hour the "Albatross" had left Omaha and crossed the Platte
River, whose valley is followed by the Pacific Railway in its route
across the prairie. Things looked serious for Uncle Prudent and Phil
Evans.

"It is serious, then, this absurd project of taking us to the
Antipodes."

"And whether we like it or not!" exclaimed the other.

"Robur had better take care! I am not the man to stand that sort of
thing."

"Nor am I!" replied Phil Evans. "But be calm, Uncle Prudent, be calm."

"Be calm!"

"And keep your temper until it is wanted."

By five o'clock they had crossed the Black Mountains covered with
pines and cedars, and the "Albatross" was over the appropriately
named Bad Lands of Nebraska--a chaos of ochre-colored hills, of
mountainous fragments fallen on the soil and broken in their fall. At
a distance these blocks take the most fantastic shapes. Here and
there amid this enormous game of knucklebones there could be traced
the imaginary ruins of medieval cities with forts and dungeons,
pepper-box turrets, and machicolated towers. And in truth these Bad
Lands are an immense ossuary where lie bleaching in the sun myriads
of fragments of pachyderms, chelonians, and even, some would have us
believe, fossil men, overwhelmed by unknown cataclysms ages and ages
ago.

When evening came the whole basin of the Platte River had been
crossed, and the plain extended to the extreme limits of the horizon,
which rose high owing to the altitude of the "Albatross."

During the night there were no more shrill whistles of locomotives or
deeper notes of the river steamers to trouble the quiet of the starry
firmament. Long bellowing occasionally reached the aeronef from the
herds of buffalo that roamed over the prairie in search of water and
pasturage. And when they ceased, the trampling of the grass under
their feet produced a dull roaring similar to the rushing of a flood,
and very different from the continuous f-r-r-r-r of the screws.

Then from time to time came the howl of a wolf, a fox, a wild cat, or
a coyote, the "Canis latrans," whose name is justified by his
sonorous bark.

Occasionally came penetrating odors of mint, and sage, and absinthe,
mingled with the more powerful fragrance of the conifers which rose
floating. through the night air.

At last came a menacing yell, which was not due to the coyote. It was
the shout of a Redskin, which no Tenderfoot would confound with the
cry of a wild beast.

Chapter X

WESTWARD--BUT WHITHER?

The next day, the 15th of June, about five o'clock in the morning,
Phil Evans left his cabin. Perhaps he would today have a chance of
speaking to Robur? Desirous of knowing why he had not appeared the
day before, Evans addressed himself to the mate, Tom Turner.

Tom Turner was an Englishman of about forty-five, broad in the
shoulders and short in the legs, a man of iron, with one of those
enormous characteristic heads that Hogarth rejoiced in.

Shall we see Mr. Robur to-day?" asked Phil Evans.

"I don't know," said Turner.

"I need not ask if he has gone out."

"Perhaps he has."

"And when will he come back?"

"When he has finished his cruise."

And Tom went into his cabin.

With this reply they had to be contented. Matters did not look
promising, particularly as on reference to the compass it appeared
that the "Albatross" was still steering southwest.

Great was the contrast between the barren tract of the Bad Lands
passed over during the night and the landscape then unrolling beneath
them.

The aeronef was now more than six hundred miles from Omaha, and over
a country which Phil Evans could not recognize because he had never
been there before. A few forts to keep the Indians in order crowned
the bluffs with their geometric lines, formed oftener of palisades
than walls. There were few villages, and few inhabitants, the country
differing widely from the auriferous lands of Colorado many leagues
to the south.

In the distance a long line of mountain crests, in great confusion as
yet, began to appear. They were the Rocky Mountains.

For the first time that morning Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans were
sensible of a certain lowness of temperature which was not due to a
change in the weather, for the sun shone in superb splendor.

"It is because of the "Albatross" being higher in the air," said Phil
Evans.

In fact the barometer outside the central deck-house had fallen 540
millimeters, thus indicating an elevation of about 10,000 feet above
the sea. The aeronef was at this altitude owing to the elevation of
the ground. An hour before she had been at a height of 13,000 feet,
and behind her were mountains covered with perpetual snow.

There was nothing Uncle Prudent and his companion could remember
which would lead them to discover where they were. During the night
the "Albatross" had made several stretches north and south at
tremendous speed, and that was what had put them out of their
reckoning.

After talking over several hypotheses more or less plausible they
came to the conclusion that this country encircled with mountains
must be the district declared by an Act of Congress in March, 1872,
to be the National Park of the United States. A strange region it
was. It well merited the name of a park--a park with mountains for
hills, with lakes for ponds, with rivers for streamlets, and with
geysers of marvelous power instead of fountains.

In a few minutes the "Albatross" glided across the Yellowstone River,
leaving Mount Stevenson on the right, and coasting the large lake
which bears the name of the stream. Great was the variety on the
banks of this basin, ribbed as they were with obsidian and tiny
crystals, reflecting the sunlight on their myriad facets. Wonderful
was the arrangement of the islands on its surface; magnificent were
the blue reflections of the gigantic mirror. And around the lake, one
of the highest in the globe, were multitudes of pelicans, swans,
gulls and geese, bernicles and divers. In places the steep banks were
clothed with green trees, pines and larches, and at the foot of the
escarpments there shot upwards innumerable white fumaroles, the vapor
escaping from the soil as from an enormous reservoir in which the
water is kept in permanent ebullition by subterranean fire.

The cook might have seized the opportunity of securing an ample
supply of trout, the only fish the Yellowstone Lake contains in
myriads. But the "Albatross" kept on at such a height that there was
no chance of indulging in a catch which assuredly would have been
miraculous.

In three quarters of an hour the lake was overpassed, and a little
farther on the last was seen of the geyser region, which rivals the
finest in Iceland. Leaning over the rail, Uncle Prudent and Phil
Evans watched the liquid columns which leaped up as though to furnish
the aeronef with a new element. There were the Fan, with the jets
shot forth in rays, the Fortress, which seemed to be defended by
waterspouts, the Faithful Friend, with her plume crowned with the
rainbows, the Giant, spurting forth a vertical torrent twenty feet
round and more than two hundred feet high.

Robur must evidently have been familiar with this incomparable
spectacle, unique in the world, for he did not appear on deck. Was
it, then, for the sole pleasure of his guests that he had brought the
aeronef above the national domain? If so, he came not to receive
their thanks. He did not even trouble himself during the daring
passage of the Rocky Mountains, which the "Albatross" approached at
about seven o'clock.

By increasing the speed of her wings, as a bird rising in its flight,
the "Albatross" would clear the highest ridges of the chain, and sink
again over Oregon or Utah, But the maneuver was unnecessary. The
passes allowed the barrier to be crossed without ascending for the
higher ridges. There are many of these canyons, or steep valleys,
more or less narrow, through which they could glide, such as Bridger
Gap, through which runs the Pacific Railway into the Mormon
territory, and others to the north and south of it.

It was through one of these that the "Albatross" headed, after
slackening speed so as not to dash against the walls of the canyon.
The steersman, with a sureness of hand rendered more effective by the
sensitiveness of the rudder, maneuvered his craft as if she were a
crack racer in a Royal Victoria match. It was really extraordinary.
In spite of all the jealousy of the two enemies of "lighter than
air," they could not help being surprised at the perfection of this
engine of aerial locomotion.

In less than two hours and a half they were through the Rockies, and
the "Albatross" resumed her former speed of sixty-two miles an hour.
She was steering southwest so as to cut across Utah diagonally as she
neared the ground. She had even dropped several hundred yards when
the sound of a whistle attracted the attention of Uncle Prudent and
Phil Evans. It was a train on the Pacific Railway on the road to Salt
Lake City.

And then, in obedience to an order secretly given, the "Albatross"
dropped still lower so as to chase the train, which was going at full
speed. She was immediately sighted. A few heads showed themselves at
the doors of the cars. Then numerous passengers crowded the gangways.
Some did not hesitate to climb on the roof to get a better view of
the flying machine. Cheers came floating up through the air; but no
Robur appeared in answer to them.

The "Albatross" continued her descent, slowing her suspensory screws
and moderating her speed so as not to leave the train behind. She
flew about it like an enormous beetle or a gigantic bird of prey. She
headed off, to the right and left, and swept on in front, and hung
behind, and proudly displayed her flag with the golden sun, to which
the conductor of the train replied by waving the Stars and Stripes.

In vain the prisoners, in their desire to take advantage of the
opportunity, endeavored to make themselves known to those below. In
vain the president of the Weldon Institute roared forth at the top of
his voice, "I am Uncle Prudent of Philadelphia!" And the secretary
followed suit with, "I am Phil Evans, his colleague!" Their shouts
were lost in the thousand cheers with which the passengers greeted
the aeronef.

Three or four of the crew of the "Albatross" had appeared on the
deck, and one of them, like sailors when passing a ship less speedy
than their own, held out a rope, an ironical way of offering to tow
them.

And then the "Albatross" resumed her original speed, and in half an
hour the express was out of sight. About one o'clock there appeared a
vast disk, which reflected the solar rays as if it were an immense
mirror.

"That ought to be the Mormon capital, Salt Lake City," said Uncle
Prudent. And so it was, and the disk was the roof of the Tabernacle,
where ten thousand saints can worship at their ease. This vast dome,
like a convex mirror, threw off the rays of the sun in all directions.

It vanished like a shadow, and the "Albatross" sped on her way to the
southwest with a speed that was not felt, because it surpassed that
of the chasing wind. Soon she was in Nevada over the silver regions,
which the Sierra separates from the golden lands of California.

"We shall certainly reach San Francisco before night," said Phil
Evans.

"And then?" asked Uncle Prudent.

It was six o'clock precisely when the Sierra Nevada was crossed by
the same pass as that taken by the railway. Only a hundred and eighty
miles then separated them from San Francisco, the Californian capital.

At the speed the "Albatross" was going she would be over the dome by
eight o'clock.

At this moment Robur appeared on deck. The colleagues walked up to
him.

"Engineer Robur," said Uncle Prudent, "we are now on the very
confines of America! We think the time has come for this joke to end."

"I never joke," said Robur.

He raised his hand. The "Albatross" swiftly dropped towards the
ground, and at the same time such speed was given her as to drive the
prisoners into their cabin. As soon as the door was shut, Uncle
Prudent exclaimed,

"I could strangle him!"

"We must try to escape." said Phil Evans.

"Yes; cost what it may!"

A long murmur greeted their ears. It was the beating of the surf on
the seashore. It was the Pacific Ocean!

Chapter XI

THE WIDE PACIFIC

Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans had quite made up their minds to escape.
If they had not had to deal with the eight particularly vigorous men
who composed the crew of the aeronef they might have tried to succeed
by main force. But as they were only two--for Frycollin could only
be considered as a quantity of no importance--force was not to be
thought of. Hence recourse must be had to strategy as soon as the
"Albatross" again took the ground. Such was what Phil Evans
endeavored to impress on his irascible colleague, though he was in
constant fear of Prudent aggravating matters by some premature
outbreak.

In any case the present was not the time to attempt anything of the
sort. The aeronef was sweeping along over the North Pacific. On the
following morning, that of June 16th, the coast was out of sight. And
as the coast curves off from Vancouver Island up to the Aleutians--
belonging to that portion of America ceded by Russia to the United
States in 1867--it was highly probable that the "Albatross" would
cross it at the end of the curve, if her course remained unchanged.

How long the night appeared to be to the two friends! How eager they
were to get out of their cabins! When they came on deck in the
morning the dawn had for some hours been silvering the eastern
horizon. They were nearing the June solstice, the longest day of the
year in the northern hemisphere, when there is hardly any night along
the sixtieth parallel.

Either from custom or intention Robur was in no hurry to leave his
deck-house, When he came out this morning be contented himself with
bowing to his two guests as he passed them in the stern of the
aeronef.

And now Frycollin ventured out of his cabin. His eyes red with
sleeplessness, and dazed in their look, he tottered along, like a man
whose foot feels it is not on solid ground. His first glance was at
the suspensory screws, which were working with gratifying regularity
without any signs of haste. That done, the Negro stumbled along to
the rail, and grasped it with both hands, so as to make sure of his
balance. Evidently he wished to view the country over which the
"Albatross" was flying at the height of seven hundred feet or more.

At first he kept himself well back behind the rail. Then he shook it
to make sure it was firm; then he drew himself up; then he bent
forward; then he stretched out his head. It need not be said that
while he was executing these different maneuvers he kept his eyes
shut. At last he opened them.

What a shout! And how quickly he fled! And how deeply his head sank
back into his shoulders! At the bottom of the abyss he had seen the
immense ocean. His hair would have risen on end--if it had not been
wool.

"The sea! The sea!" he cried. And Frycollin would have fallen on the
deck had not the cook opened his arms to receive him.

This cook was a Frenchman, and probably a Gascon, his name being
Francois Tapage. If he was not a Gascon he must in his infancy have
inhaled the breezes of the Garonne. How did this Francois Tapage find
himself in the service of the engineer? By what chain of accidents
had be become one of the crew of the "Albatross?" We can hardly say;
but in any case be spoke English like a Yankee. "Eh, stand up!" he
said, lifting the Negro by a vigorous clutch at the waist.

"Master Tapage!" said the poor fellow, giving a despairing look at
the screws.

"At your service, Frycollin."

"Did this thing ever smash?"

"No, but it will end by smashing."

"Why? Why?"

"Because everything must end.

"And the sea is beneath us!"

"If we are to fall, it is better to fall in the sea."

"We shall be drowned."

"We shall be drowned, but we shall not be smashed to a jelly."

The next moment Frycollin was on all fours, creeping to the back of
his cabin.

During this day the aeronef was only driven at moderate speed. She
seemed to skim the placid surface of the sea, which lay beneath.
Uncle Prudent and his companion remained in their cabin, so that they
did not meet with Robur, who walked about smoking alone or talking to
the mate. Only half the screws were working, yet that was enough to
keep the apparatus afloat in the lower zones of the atmosphere,

The crew, as a change from the ordinary routine, would have
endeavored to catch a few fish had there been any sign of them; but
all that could be seen on the surface of the sea were a few of those
yellow-bellied whales which measure about eighty feet in length.
These are the most formidable cetaceans in the northern seas, and
whalers are very careful in attacking them, for their strength is
prodigious. However, in harpooning one of these whales, either with
the ordinary harpoon, the Fletcher fuse, or the javelin-bomb, of
which there was an assortment on board, there would have been danger
to the men of the "Albatross."

But what was the good of such useless massacre? Doubtless to show off
the powers of the aeronef to the members of the Weldon Institute. And
so Robur gave orders for the capture of one of these monstrous
cetaceans.

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