craft must have been completely crowded with the provisions taken
from the grottoes of the Eyrie.

Then the chief of the two assistants, a man whom I now recognized as
that John Turner who had been mate of the "Albatross," began another
labor. With the help of his companion, he dragged to the center of
the hollow all that remained of their materials, empty cases,
fragments of carpentry, peculiar pieces of wood which clearly must
have belonged to the "Albatross," which had been sacrificed to this
new and mightier engine of locomotion. Beneath this mass there lay a
great quantity of dried grasses. The thought came to me that Robur
was preparing to leave this retreat forever!

In fact, he could not be ignorant that the attention of the public
was now keenly fixed upon the Great Eyrie; and that some further
attempt was likely to be made to penetrate it. Must he not fear that
some day or other the effort would be successful, and that men would
end by invading his hiding-place? Did he not wish that they should
find there no single evidence of his occupation?

The sun disappeared behind the crests of the Blueridge. His rays now
lighted only the very summit of Black Dome towering in the northwest.
Probably the "Terror" awaited only the night in order to begin her
flight. The world did not yet know that the automobile and boat could
also transform itself into a flying machine. Until now, it had never
been seen in the air. And would not this fourth transformation be
carefully concealed, until the day when the Master of the World chose
to put into execution his insensate menaces?

Toward nine o'clock profound obscurity enwrapped the hollow. Not a
star looked down on us. Heavy clouds driven by a keen eastern wind
covered the entire sky. The passage of the "Terror" would be
invisible, not only in our immediate neighborhood, but probably
across all the American territory and even the adjoining seas.

At this moment Turner, approaching the huge stack in the middle of
the eyrie, set fire to the grass beneath.

The whole mass flared up at once. From the midst of a dense smoke,
the roaring flames rose to a height which towered above the walls of
the Great Eyrie. Once more the good folk of Morganton and Pleasant
Garden would believe that the crater had reopened. These flames would
announce to them another volcanic upheaval.

I watched the conflagration. I heard the roarings and cracklings
which filled the air. From the deck of the