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Page 82
But the aeronef, slowing her suspensory screws, came down just as
fast. She ran alongside the "Go-Ahead" when she was not more than
four thousand feet from the ground.
Would Robur destroy her?
No; he was going to save her crew!
And so cleverly did he handle his vessel that the aeronaut jumped on
board.
Would Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans refuse to be saved by him? They
were quite capable of doing so. But the crew threw themselves on them
and dragged them by force from the "Go-Ahead" to the "Albatross."
Then the aeronef glided off and remained stationary, while the
balloon, quite empty of gas, fell on the trees of the clearing and
hung there like a gigantic rag.
An appalling silence reigned on the ground. It seemed as though life
were suspended in each of the crowd; and many eyes had been closed so
as not to behold the final catastrophe. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans
had again become the prisoners of the redoubtable Robur. Now he had
recaptured them, would he carry them off into space, where it was
impossible to follow him?
It seemed so.
However, instead of mounting into the sky the "Albatross" stopped six
feet from the ground. Then, amid profound silence, the engineer's
voice was heard.
"Citizens of the United States," he said, "The president and
secretary of the Weldon Institute are again in my power. In keeping
them I am only within my right. But from the passion kindled in them
by the success of the "Albatross" I see that their minds are not
prepared for that important revolution which the conquest of the air
will one day bring, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, you are free!"
The president, the secretary, and the aeronaut had only to jump down.
Then Robur continued.
"Citizens of the United States, my experiment is finished; but my
advice to those present is to be premature in nothing, not even in
progress. It is evolution and not revolution that we should seek. In
a word, we must not be before our time. I have come too soon today to
withstand such contradictory and divided interests as yours. Nations
are not yet fit for union.
"I go, then; and I take my secret with me. But it will not be lost to
humanity. It will belong to you the day you are educated enough to
profit by it and wise enough not to abuse it. Citizens of the United
States--Good-by!"
And the "Albatross," beating the air with her seventy-four screws,
and driven by her propellers, shot off towards the east amid a
tempest of cheers.
The two colleagues, profoundly humiliated, and through them the whole
Weldon Institute, did the only thing they could. They went home.
And the crowd by a sudden change of front greeted them with
particularly keen sarcasms, and, at their expense, are sarcastic
still.
And now, who is this Robur? Shall we ever know?
We know today. Robur is the science of the future. Perhaps the
science of tomorrow. Certainly the science that will come!
Does the "Albatross" still cruise in the atmosphere in the realm that
none can take from her? There is no reason to doubt it.
Will Robur, the Conqueror, appear one day as he said? Yes! He will
come to declare the secret of his invention, which will greatly
change the social and political conditions of the world.
As for the future of aerial locomotion, it belongs to the aeronef and
not the aerostat.
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