"Terror," Robur watched it
also.

Turner and his companion pushed back into the fire the fragments
which the violence of the flames cast forth. Little by little the
huge bonfire grew less. The flames sank down into a mere mass of
burnt-out ashes; and once more all was silence and blackest night.

Suddenly I felt myself seized by the arm. Turner drew me toward the
"Terror." Resistance would have been useless. And moreover what could
be worse than to be abandoned without resources in this prison whose
walls I could not climb!

As soon as I set foot on the deck, Turner also embarked. His
companion went forward to the look-out; Turner climbed down into the
engine-room, lighted by electric bulbs, from which not a gleam
escaped outside.

Robur himself was at the helm, the regulator within reach of his
hand, so that he could control both our speed and our direction. As
to me, I was forced to descend into my cabin, and the hatchway was
fastened above me. During that night, as on that of our departure
from Niagara, I was not allowed to watch the movements of the
"Terror."

Nevertheless, if I could see nothing of what was passing on board, I
could hear the noises of the machinery. I had first the feeling that
our craft, its bow slightly raised, lost contact with the earth. Some
swerves and balancings in the air followed. Then the turbines
underneath spun with prodigious rapidity, while the great wings beat
with steady regularity.

Thus the "Terror," probably forever, had left the Great Eyrie, and
launched into the air as a ship launches into the waters. Our captain
soared above the double chain of the Alleghanies, and without doubt
he would remain in the upper zones of the air until he had left all
the mountain region behind.

But in what direction would he turn? Would he pass in flight across
the plains of North Carolina, seeking the Atlantic Ocean? Or would he
head to the west to reach the Pacific? Perhaps he would seek, to the
south, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. When day came how should I
recognize which sea we were upon, if the horizon of water and sky
encircled us on every side?

Several hours passed; and how long they seemed to me! I made no
effort to find forgetfulness in sleep. Wild and incoherent thoughts
assailed me. I felt myself swept over worlds of imagination, as I was
swept through space, by an aerial monster. At the speed which the
"Terror" possessed, whither might I not be carried during this