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Page 49
To allow Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans to get back to their cabin the
speed had to be reduced. Inside the deck-house the "Albatross" bore
with her a perfectly breathable atmosphere. To stand such driving the
strength of the apparatus must have been prodigious. The propellers
spun round so swiftly that they seemed immovable, and it was with
irresistible power that they screwed themselves through the air.
The last town that had been noticed was Astrakhan, situated at the
north end of the Caspian Sea. The Star of the Desert--it must have
been a poet who so called it--has now sunk from the first rank to
the fifth or sixth. A momentary glance was afforded at its old walls,
with their useless battlements, the ancient towers in the center of
the city, the mosques and modern churches, the cathedral with its
five domes, gilded and dotted with stars as if it were a piece of the
sky, as they rose from the bank of the Volga, which here, as it joins
the sea, is over a mile in width.
Thenceforward the flight of the "Albatross" became quite a race
through the heights of the sky, as if she had been harnessed to one
of those fabulous hippogriffs which cleared a league at every sweep
of the wing.
At ten o'clock in the morning, of the 4th of July the aeronef,
heading northwest, followed for a little the valley of the Volga. The
steppes of the Don and the Ural stretched away on each side of the
river. Even if it had been possible to get a glimpse of these vast
territories there would have been no time to count the towns and
villages. In the evening the aeronef passed over Moscow without
saluting the flag on the Kremlin. In ten hours she had covered the
twelve hundred miles which separate Astrakhan from the ancient
capital of all the Russias.
From Moscow to St. Petersburg the railway line measures about seven
hundred and fifty miles. This was but a half-day's journey, and the
"Albatross," as punctual as the mail, reached St. Petersburg and the
banks of the Neva at two o'clock in the morning.
Then came the Gulf of Finland, the Archipelago of Abo, the Baltic,
Sweden in the latitude of Stockholm, and Norway in the latitude of
Christiania. Ten hours only for these twelve hundred miles! Verily it
might be thought that no human power would henceforth be able to
check the speed of the "Albatross," and as if the resultant of her
force of projection and the attraction of the earth would maintain
her in an unvarying trajectory round the globe.
But she did stop nevertheless, and that was over the famous fall of
the Rjukanfos in Norway. Gousta, whose summit dominates this
wonderful region of Tellermarken, stood in the west like a gigantic
barrier apparently impassable. And when the "Albatross" resumed her
journey at full speed her head had been turned to the south.
And during this extraordinary flight what was Frycollin doing? He
remained silent in a corner of his cabin, sleeping as well as he
could, except at meal times.
Tapage then favored him with his company and amused himself at his
expense. "Eh! eh! my boy!" said he. "So you are not crying any more?
Perhaps it hurt you too much? That two hours hanging cured you of it?
At our present rate, what a splendid air-bath you might have for your
rheumatics!"
"It seems to me we shall soon go to pieces!"
"Perhaps so; but we shall go so fast we shan't have time to fall!
That is some comfort!"
"Do you think so?"
"I do."
To tell the truth, and not to exaggerate like Tapage, it was only
reasonable that owing to the excessive speed the work of the
suspensory screws should be somewhat lessened. The "Albatross" glided
on its bed of air like a Congreve rocket.
"And shall we last long like that?" asked Frycollin.
"Long? Oh, no, only as long as we live!"
"Oh!" said the Negro, beginning his lamentations.
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