Jules Verne (21 page)

Never before had either of them been so calm. To look at them it did
not seem as though anything abnormal had happened since the memorable
sitting of the 12th of June. Three months and a half had gone, and
seemed to be counted as nothing. After the first round of cheers,
which both received without showing the slightest emotion, Uncle
Prudent took off his hat and spoke.

"Worthy citizens," said he, "the meeting is now open."

Tremendous applause. And properly so, for if it was not extraordinary
that the meeting was open, it was extraordinary that it should be
opened by Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans.

The president allowed the enthusiasm to subside in shouts and
clappings; then he continued: "At our last meeting, gentlemen, the
discussion was somewhat animated—(hear, hear)—between the
partisans of the screw before and those of the screw behind for our
balloon the "Go-Ahead." (Marks of surprise.) We have found a way to
bring the beforists and the behindists in agreement. That way is as
follows: we are going to use two screws, one at each end of the
car." Silence, and complete stupefaction.

That was all.

Yes, all! Of the kidnapping of the president and secretary of the
Weldon Institute not a word! Not a word of the "Albatross" nor of
Robur! Not a word of the voyage! Not a word of the way in which the
prisoners had escaped! Not a word of what had become of the aeronef,
if it still flew through space, or if they were to be prepared for
new reprisals on the member's of the club!

Of course the balloonists were longing to ask Uncle Prudent and the
secretary about all these things, but they looked so close and so
serious that they thought it best to respect their attitude. When
they thought fit to speak they would do so, and it would be an honor
to hear. After all, there might be in all this some secret which
would not yet be divulged.

And then Uncle Prudent, resuming his speech amid a silence up to then
unknown in the meetings of the Weldon Institute, said, "Gentlemen, it
now only remains for us to finish the aerostat 'Go-Ahead.' It is left
to her to effect the conquest of the air! The meeting is at an end!"

On the following 19th of April, seven months after the unexpected
return of Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, Philadelphia was in a state
of unwonted excitement. There were neither elections nor meetings
this time. The aerostat "Go-Ahead," built by the Weldon Institute,
was to take possession of her natural element.

The celebrated Harry W. Tinder, whose name we mentioned at the
beginning of this story, had been engaged as aeronaut. He had no
assistant, and the only passengers were to be the president and
secretary of the Weldon Institute.

Did they not merit such an honor? Did it not come to them
appropriately to rise in person to protest against any apparatus that
was heavier than air?

During the seven months, however, they had said nothing of their
adventures; and even Frycollin had not uttered a whisper of Robur and
his wonderful clipper. Probably Uncle Prudent and his friend desired
that no question should arise as to the merits of the aeronef, or any
other flying machine.

Although the "Go-Ahead" might not claim the first place among aerial
locomotives, they would have nothing to say about the inventions of
other aviators. They believed, and would always believe, that the
true atmospheric vehicle was the aerostat, and that to it alone
belonged the future.

Besides, he on whom they had been so terribly—and in their idea so
justly—avenged, existed no longer. None of those who accompanied
him had survived. The secret of the "Albatross" was buried in the
depths of the Pacific!

That Robur had a retreat, an island in the middle of that vast ocean,
where he could put into port, was only a hypothesis; and the
colleagues reserved to themselves the right of making inquiries on
the subject later on. The grand experiment which the Weldon Institute
had been preparing for so long was at last to take place. The
"Go-Ahead" was the most perfect type of what had up to then been
invented in aerostatic art—she was what an "Inflexible" or a
"Formidable" is in ships of war.

She possessed all the qualities of a good aerostat. Her dimensions
allowed of her rising to the greatest height a balloon could attain;
her impermeability enabled her to remain for an indefinite time in
the atmosphere; her solidity would defy any dilation of gas or
violence of wind or rain; her capacity gave her sufficient
ascensional force to lift with all their accessories an electric
engine that would communicate to her propellers a power superior to
anything yet obtained. The "Go-Ahead" was of elongated form, so as to
facilitate her horizontal displacement. Her car was a platform
somewhat like that of the balloon used by Krebs and Renard; and it
carried all the necessary outfit, instruments, cables, grapnels,
guide-ropes, etc., and the piles and accumulators for the mechanical
power. The car had a screw in front, and a screw and rudder behind.
But probably the work done by the machines would be very much less
than that done by the machines of the "Albatross."

The "Go-Ahead" had been taken to the clearing in Fairmount Park, to
the very spot where the aeronef had landed for a few hours.

Her ascensional power was due to the very lightest of gaseous bodies.
Ordinary lighting gas possesses an elevating force of about 700 grams
for every cubic meter. But hydrogen possesses an ascensional force
estimated at 1,100 grams per cubic meter. Pure hydrogen prepared
according to the method of the celebrated Henry Gifford filled the
enormous balloon. And as the capacity of the "Go-Ahead" was 40,000
cubic meters, the ascensional power of the gas she contained was
40,000 multiplied by 1,100 or 44,000 kilograms.

On this 29th of April everything was ready. Since eleven o'clock the
enormous aerostat had been floating a few feet from the ground ready
to rise in mid-air. It was splendid weather and seemed to have been
made specially for the experiment, although if the breeze had been
stronger the results might have been more conclusive. There had never
been any doubt that a balloon could be guided in a calm atmosphere;
but to guide it when the atmosphere is in motion is quite another
thing; and it is under such circumstances that the experiment should
be tried.

But there was no wind today, nor any sign of any. Strange to say,
North America on that day omitted to send on to Europe one of those
first-class storms which it seems to have in such inexhaustible
numbers. A better day could not have been chosen for an aeronautic
experiment.

The crowd was immense in Fairmount Park; trains had poured into the
Pennsylvania capital sightseers from the neighboring states;
industrial and commercial life came to a standstill that the people
might troop to the show-master, workmen, women, old men, children,
members of Congress, soldiers, magistrates, reporters, white natives
and black natives, all were there. We need not stop to describe the
excitement, the unaccountable movements, the sudden pushings, which
made the mass heave and swell. Nor need we recount the number of
cheers which rose from all sides like fireworks when Uncle Prudent
and Phil Evans appeared on the platform and hoisted the American
colors. Need we say that the majority of the crowd had come from afar
not so much to see the "Go-Ahead" as to gaze on these extraordinary
men?

Why two and not three? Why not Frycollin? Because Frycollin thought
his campaign in the "Albatross" sufficient for his fame. He had
declined the honor of accompanying his master, and he took no part in
the frenzied declamations that greeted the president and secretary of
the Weldon Institute.

Of the members of the illustrious assembly not one was absent from
the reserved places within the ropes. There were Truck Milnor, Bat T.
Fynn, and William T. Forbes with his two daughters on his arm. All
had come to affirm by their presence that nothing could separate them
from the partisans of "lighter than air."

About twenty minutes past eleven a gun announced the end of the final
preparations. The "Go-Ahead" only waited the signal to start. At
twenty-five minutes past eleven the second gun was fired.

The "Go-Ahead" was about one hundred and fifty feet above the
clearing, and was held by a rope. In this way the platform commanded
the excited crowd. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans stood upright and
placed their left hands on their hearts, to signify how deeply they
were touched by their reception. Then they extended their right hands
towards the zenith, to signify that the greatest of known balloons
was about to take possession of the supra-terrestrial domain.

A hundred thousand hands were placed in answer on a hundred thousand
hearts, and a hundred thousand other hands were lifted to the sky.

The third gun was fired at half-past eleven. "Let go!" shouted Uncle
Prudent; and the "Go-Ahead" rose "majestically"—an adverb
consecrated by custom to all aerostatic ascents.

It really was a superb spectacle. It seemed as if a vessel were just
launched from the stocks. And was she not a vessel launched into the
aerial sea? The "Go-Ahead" went up in a perfectly vertical line—a
proof of the calmness of the atmosphere—and stopped at an altitude
of eight hundred feet.

Then she began her horizontal maneuvering. With her screws going she
moved to the east at a speed of twelve yards a second. That is the
speed of the whale—not an inappropriate comparison, for the balloon
was somewhat of the shape of the giant of the northern seas.

A salvo of cheers mounted towards the skillful aeronauts. Then under
the influence of her rudder, the "Go-Ahead" went through all the
evolutions that her steersman could give her. She turned in a small
circle; she moved forwards and backwards in a way to convince the
most refractory disbeliever in the guiding of balloons. And if there
had been any disbeliever there he would have been simply annihilated.

But why was there no wind to assist at this magnificent experiment?
It was regrettable. Doubtless the spectators would have seen the
"Go-Ahead" unhesitatingly execute all the movements of a
sailing-vessel in beating to windward, or of a steamer driving in the
wind's eye.

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!""

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.