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 whic