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Page 70
"No," said Phil Evans, "we must escape!"
"Escape?"
"Yes! down the cable! Fifty yards is nothing!"
"Nothing, of course, Phil Evans, and we should be fools not to take
the chance now it has come."
But first they went back to the cabin and took away all they could
carry, with a view to a more or less prolonged stay on the Chatham
Islands. Then they shut the door and noiselessly crept forward,
intending to wake Frycollin and take him with them.
The darkness was intense. The clouds were racing up from the
southwest, and the aeronef was tugging at her anchor and thus
throwing the cable more and more out of the vertical. There would be
no difficulty in slipping down it.
The colleagues made their way along the deck, stopping in the shadow
of the deckhouses to listen if there was any sound. The silence was
unbroken. No light shone from the portholes. The aeronef was not only
silent; she was asleep.
Uncle Prudent was close to Frycollin's cabin when Phil Evans stopped
him. "The look-out!" he said.
A man was crouching near the deck-house. He was only half asleep. All
flight would be impossible if he were to give the alarm. Close by
were a few ropes, and pieces of rag and waste used in the work at the
screw.
An instant afterwards the man was gagged and blindfolded and lashed
to the rail unable to utter a sound or move an inch. This was done
almost without a whisper.
Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans listened. All was silent within the
cabins. Every one on board was asleep. They reached Frycollin's
cabin. Tapage was snoring away in a style worthy of his name, and
that promised well.
To his great surprise, Uncle Prudent had not even to push Frycollin's
door. It was open. He stepped into the doorway and looked around.
"Nobody here!" he said.
"Nobody! Where can he be?" asked Phil Evans.
They went into the bow, thinking Frycollin might perhaps be asleep in
the corner. Still they found nobody.
"Has the fellow got the start of us?" asked Uncle Prudent.
"Whether he has or not," said Phil Evans, "we can't wait any longer.
Down you go."
Without hesitation the fugitives one after the other clambered over
the side and, seizing the cable with hands and feet slipped down it
safe and sound to the ground.
Think of their joy at again treading the earth they had lost for so
long--at walking on solid ground and being no longer the playthings
of the atmosphere!
They were staring up the creek to the interior of the island when
suddenly a form rose in front of them. It was Frycollin. The Negro
had had the same idea as his master and the audacity to start without
telling him. But there was no time for recriminations, and Uncle
Prudent was in search of a refuge in some distant part of the island
when Phil Evans stopped him.
"Uncle Prudent," said he. "Here we are safe from Robur. He is doomed
like his companions to a terrible death. He deserves it, we know. But
if he would swear on his honor not to take us prisoners again--"
"The honor of such a man--"
Uncle Prudent did not finish his sentence.
There was a noise on the "Albatross." Evidently, the alarm had been
given. The escape was discovered.
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