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Page 47
The Negro at first thought he was going to be hanged. Not he was only
going to be towed!
The rope was paid out for a hundred feet and Frycollin found himself
hanging in space.
He could then shout at his ease. But fright contracted his larynx,
and he was mute.
Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans endeavored to prevent this performance.
They were thrust aside.
"It is scandalous! It is cowardly!" said Uncle Prudent, quite beside
himself with rage.
"Indeed!" said Robur.
"It is an abuse of power against which I protest."
"Protest away!"
"I will be avenged, Mr. Robur."
"Avenge when you like, Mr. Prudent."
"I will have my revenge on you and yours."
The crew began to close up with anything but peaceful intentions.
Robur motioned them away.
"Yes, on you and yours!" said Uncle Prudent, whom his colleague in
vain tried to keep quiet.
"Whenever you please!" said the engineer.
"And in every possible way!"
"That is enough now," said Robur, in a threatening tone. "There are
other ropes on board. And if you don't be quiet I'll treat you as I
have done your servant!"
Uncle Prudent was silent, not because he was afraid, but because his
wrath had nearly choked him; and Phil Evans led him off to his cabin.
During the last hour the air had been strangely troubled. The
symptoms could not be mistaken. A storm was threatening. The electric
saturation of the atmosphere had become so great that about half-past
two o'clock Robur witnessed a phenomenon that was new to him.
In the north, whence the storm was traveling, were spirals of
half-luminous vapor due to the difference in the electric charges of
the various beds of cloud. The reflections of these bands came
running along the waves in myriads of lights, growing in intensity as
the sky darkened.
The "Albatross" and the storm were sure to meet, for they were
exactly in front of each other.
And Frycollin? Well! Frycollin was being towed--and towed is exactly
the word, for the rope made such an angle, with the aeronef, now
going at over sixty knots an hour, that the tub was a long way behind
her.
The crew were busy in preparing for the storm, for the "Albatross"
would either have to rise above it or drive through its lowest
layers. She was about three thousand feet above the sea when a clap
of thunder was heard. Suddenly the squall struck her. In a few
seconds the fiery clouds swept on around her.
Phil Evans went to intercede for Frycollin, and asked for him to be
taken on board again. But Robur had already given orders to that
effect, and the rope was being hauled in, when suddenly there took
place an inexplicable slackening in the speed of the screws.
The engineer rushed to the central deck-house. "Power! More power!"
he shouted. "We must rise quickly and get over the storm!"
"Impossible, sir!"
"What is the matter?"
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