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 luncheon's 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 explo