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Page 80
At this moment the aerostat rose a few hundred yards. The maneuver
was understood below. Uncle Prudent and his companions were going in
search of a breeze in the higher zones, so as to complete the
experiment. The system of cellular balloons--analogous to the
swimming bladder in fishes--into which could be introduced a certain
amount of air by pumping, had provided for this vertical motion.
Without throwing out ballast or losing gas the aeronaut was able to
rise or sink at his will. Of course there was a valve in the upper
hemisphere which would permit of a rapid descent if found necessary.
All these contrivances are well known, but they were here fitted in
perfection.
The "Go-Ahead" then rose vertically. Her enormous dimensions
gradually grew smaller to the eye, and the necks of the crowd were
almost cricked as they gazed into the air. Gradually the whale became
a porpoise, and the porpoise became a gudgeon. The ascensional
movement did not cease until the "Go-Ahead" had reached a height of
fourteen thousand feet. But the air was so free from mist that she
remained clearly visible.
However, she remained over the clearing as if she were a fixture. An
immense bell had imprisoned the atmosphere and deprived it of
movement; not a breath of wind was there, high or low. The aerostat
maneuvered without encountering any resistance, seeming very small
owing to the distance, much as if she were being looked at through
the wrong end of a telescope.
Suddenly there was a shout among the crowd, a shout followed by a
hundred thousand more. All hands were stretched towards a point on the
horizon. That point was the northwest. There in the deep azure
appeared a moving body, which was approaching and growing larger. Was
it a bird beating with its wings the higher zones of space? Was it an
aerolite shooting obliquely through the atmosphere? In any case, its
speed was terrific, and it would soon be above the crowd. A suspicion
communicated itself electrically to the brains of all on the clearing.
But it seemed as though the "Go-Ahead" had sighted this strange
object. Assuredly it seemed as though she feared some danger, for her
speed was increased, and she was going east as fast as she could.
Yes, the crowd saw what it meant! A name uttered by one of the
members of the Weldon Institute was repeated by a hundred thousand
mouths:
"The "Albatross!" The "Albatross!""
Chapter XXIII
THE GRAND COLLAPSE
It was indeed the "Albatross!" It was indeed Robur who had reappeared
in the heights of the sky! It was he who like a huge bird of prey was
going to strike the "Go-Ahead."
And yet, nine months before, the aeronef, shattered by the explosion,
her screws broken, her deck smashed in two, had been apparently
annihilated.
Without the prodigious coolness of the engineer, who reversed the
gyratory motion of the fore propeller and converted it into a
suspensory screw, the men of the "Albatross" would all have been
asphyxiated by the fall. But if they had escaped asphyxia, how had
they escaped being drowned in the Pacific?
The remains of the deck, the blades of the propellers, the
compartments of the cabins, all formed a sort of raft. When a wounded
bird falls on the waves its wings keep it afloat. For several hours
Robur and his men remained unhelped, at first on the wreck, and
afterwards in the india-rubber boat that had fallen uninjured. A few
hours after sunrise they were sighted by a passing ship, and a boat
was lowered to their rescue.
Robur and his companions were saved, and so was much of what remained
of the aeronef. The engineer said that his ship had perished in a
collision, and no further questions were asked him.
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