e not come to regard himself as mightier than the
elements which he had so audaciously defied even when he possessed
only an airship, the "Albatross?" And now, how much more powerful had
he become, when earth, air and water combined to offer him an
infinite field where none might follow him!

Hence I had much to fear from the future, even the most dread
catastrophes. It was impossible for me to escape from the Great
Eyrie, before being dragged into a new voyage. After that, how could
I possibly get away while the "Terror" sped through the air or the
ocean? My only chance must be when she crossed the land, and did so
at some moderate speed. Surely a distant and feeble hope to cling to!

It will be recalled that after our arrival at the Great Eyrie, I had
attempted to obtain some response from Robur, as to his purpose with
me; but I had failed. On this last day I made another attempt.

In the afternoon I walked up and down before the large grotto where
my captors were at work. Robur, standing at the entrance, followed me
steadily with his eyes. Did he mean to address me?

I went up to him. "Captain," said I, "I have already asked you a
question, which you have not answered. I ask it again: What do you
intend to do with me?"

We stood face to face scarce two steps apart. With arms folded, he
glared at me, and I was terrified by his glance. Terrified, that is
the word! The glance was not that of a sane man. Indeed, it seemed to
reflect nothing whatever of humanity within.

I repeated my question in a more challenging tone. For an instant I
thought that Robur would break his silence and burst forth.

"What do you intend to do with me? Will you set me free?"

Evidently my captor's mind was obsessed by some other thought, from
which I had only distracted him for a moment. He made again that
gesture which I had already observed; he raised one defiant arm
toward the zenith. It seemed to me as if some irresistible force drew
him toward those upper zones of the sky, that he belonged no more to
the earth, that he was destined to live in space; a perpetual dweller
in the clouds.

Without answering me, without seeming to have understood me, Robur
reentered the grotto.

How long this sojourn or rather relaxation of the "Terror" in the
Great Eyrie was to last, I did not know. I saw, however, on the
afternoon of this third of August that the repairs and the
embarkation of stores were completed. The hold and lockers of our