the
lake where the Niagara offered her no passage.

Our captain now took the helm. One of the men was at the bow, the
other in the engine room. Would the order be given for me to go down
into the cabin?

It was not, to my extreme satisfaction. To speak frankly, no one paid
any attention to me. It was as if I had not been on board. I watched,
therefore, not without mixed emotions, the approach of the
destroyers. Less than two miles distant now they separated in such a
way as to hold the "Terror" between their fires.

As to the Master of the World, his manner indicated only the most
profound disdain. He seemed sure that these destroyers were powerless
against him. With a touch to his machinery he could distance them, no
matter what their speed! With a few turns of her engine, the "Terror"
would dart beyond their cannon shots! Or, in the depths of the lake,
what projectiles could find the submarine?

Five minutes later, scarcely a mile separated us from the two
powerful fighters which pursued us. Our captain permitted them to
approach still closer. Then he pressed upon a handle. The "Terror,"
doubling the action of her propellers, leaped across the surface of
the lake. She played with the destroyers! Instead of turning in
flight, she continued her forward course. Who knew if she would not
even have the audacity to pass between her two enemies, to coax them
after her, until the hour when, as night closed in, they would be
forced to abandon the useless pursuit!

The city of Buffalo was now in plain view on the border of the lake.
I saw its huge buildings, its church towers, its grain elevators.
Only four or five miles ahead, Niagara river opened to the northward.

Under these new conditions which way should I turn? When we passed in
front of the destroyers, or perhaps between them, should I not throw
myself into the waters I was a good swimmer, and such a chance might
never occur again. The captain could not stop to recapture me. By
diving could I not easily escape, even from a bullet? I should surely
be seen by one or other of the pursuers. Perhaps, even, their
commanders had been warned of my presence on board the "Terror."
Would not a boat be sent to rescue me?

Evidently my chance of success would be even greater, if the "Terror"
entered the narrow waters of Niagara River. At Navy Island I would be
able to set foot on territory that I knew well. But to suppose that
our captain would rush into this river where he