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Page 69
"When I got the cartridge," said he to Phil Evans, "I took some
gunpowder as well. With the powder I will make a fuse that will take
some time to burn, and which will lead into the fulminate. My idea is
to light it about midnight, so that the explosion will take place
about three or four o'clock in the morning."
"Well planned!" said Phil Evans.
The colleagues, as we see, had arrived at such a stage as to look with
the greatest nonchalance on the awful destruction in which they were
about to perish. Their hatred against Robur and his people had so
increased that they would sacrifice their own lives to destroy the
"Albatross" and all she bore. The act was that of madmen, it was
horrible; but at such a pitch had they arrived after five weeks of
anger that could not vent itself, of rage that could not be gratified.
"And Frycollin?" asked Phil Evans, "have we the right to dispose of
his life?"
"We shall sacrifice ours as well!" said Uncle Prudent. But it is
doubtful if Frycollin would have thought the reason sufficient.
Immediately Uncle Prudent set to work, while Evans kept watch in the
neighborhood of the cabin. The crew were all at work forward. There
was no fear of being surprised. Uncle Prudent began by rubbing a
small quantity of the powder very fine; and then, having slightly
moistened it, he wrapped it up in a piece of rag in the shape of a
match. When it was lighted he calculated it would burn about an inch
in five minutes, or a yard in three hours. The match was tried and
found to answer, and was then wound round with string and attached to
the cap of the cartridge. Uncle Prudent had all finished about ten
o'clock in the evening without having excited the least suspicion.
During the day the work on the fore screw had been actively carried
on, but it had had to be taken on board to adjust the twisted blades.
Of the piles and accumulators and the machinery that drove the ship
nothing was damaged.
When night fell Robur and his men knocked off work. The fore
propeller not been got into place, and to finish it would take
another three hours. After some conversation with Tom Turner it was
decided to give the crew a rest, and postpone what required to be
done to the next morning.
The final adjustment was a matter of extreme nicety, and the electric
lamps did not give so suitable a light for such work as the daylight.
Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans were not aware of this. They had
understood that the screw would be in place during the night, and
that the "Albatross" would be on her way to the north.
The night was dark and moonless. Heavy clouds made the darkness
deeper. A light breeze began to rise. A few puffs came from the
southwest, but they had no effect on the "Albatross." She remained
motionless at her anchor, and the cable stretched vertically downward
to the ground.
Uncle Prudent and his colleague, imagining they were under way again,
sat shut up in their cabin, exchanging but a few words, and listening
to the f-r-r-r-r of the suspensory screws, which drowned every other
sound on board. They were waiting till the time of action arrived.
A little before midnight Uncle Prudent said, "It is time!" Under the
berths in the cabin was a sliding box, forming a small locker, and in
this locker Uncle Prudent put the dynamite and the slow-match. In
this way the match would burn without betraying itself by its smoke
or spluttering. Uncle Prudent lighted the end and pushed back the box
under the berth with "Now let us go aft, and wait."
They then went out, and were astonished not to find the steersman at
his post.
Phil Evans leant out over the rail.
"The "Albatross" is where she was," said he in a low voice. "The work
is not finished. They have not started!"
Uncle Prudent made a gesture of disappointment. "We shall have to put
out the match," said he.
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