st three."

"All the better. It would suit us best to get back while it is dark,
and even beach the "Albatross" if we can. Those fellows will fancy we
are a long way off to the northward, and never think of keeping a
look-out. If we have to stop a day or two on the island--"

"We'll stop, and if we have to fight an army of natives?"

"We'll fight," said Robur. "We'll fight then for our "Albatross.""

The engineer went forward to the men, who were waiting for orders.
"My lads," he said to them, "we cannot knock off yet. We must work
till day comes."

They were all ready to do so. The stern-screw had now to be treated
as the other had been. The damage was the same, a twisting from the
violence of the hurricane during the passage across the southern pole.

But to get the screw on board it seemed best to stop the progress of
the aeronef for a few minutes, and even to drive her backwards. The
engines were reversed. The aeronef began to fall astern, when Tom
Turner was surprised by a peculiar odor.

This was from the gas given off by the match, which had accumulated
in the box, and was now escaping from the cabin. "Hallo!" said the
mate, with a sniff.

"What is the matter?" asked Robur.

"Don't you smell something? Isn't it burning powder?"

"So it is, Tom."

"And it comes from that cabin."

"Yes, the very cabin--"

"Have those scoundrels set it on fire?"

"Suppose it is something else!" exclaimed Robur. "Force the door,
Tom; drive in the door!"

But the mate had not made one step towards it when a fearful
explosion shook the "Albatross." The cabins flew into splinters. The
lamps went out. The electric current suddenly failed. The darkness
was complete. Most of the suspensory screws were twisted or broken,
but a few in the bow still revolved.

At the same instant the hull of the aeronef opened just behind the
first deck-house, where the engines for the fore-screw were placed;
and the after-part of the deck collapsed in space.

Immediately the last suspensory screw stopped spinning, and the
"Albatross" dropped into the abyss.

It was a fall of ten thousand feet for the eight men who were
clinging to the wreck; and the fall was even faster than it might
have been, for the fore propeller was vertical in the air and still
working!

It was then that Robur, with extraordinary coolness, climbed up to
the broken deck-house, and seizing the lever reversed the rotation,
so that the propeller became a suspender