Jules Verne (12 page)

There was no land in sight, either on the Asiatic or European side.
On the surface of the sea a few white sails were bellying in the
breeze. These were native vessels recognizable by their peculiar
rig—kesebeys, with two masts; kayuks, the old pirate-boats, with one
mast; teimils, and smaller craft for trading and fishing. Here and
there a few puffs of smoke rose up to the "Albatross" from the
funnels of the Ashurada steamers, which the Russians keep as the
police of these Turcoman waters.

That morning Tom Turner was talking to the cook, Tapage, and to a
question of his replied, "Yes; we shall be about forty-eight hours
over the Caspian."

"Good!" said the cook; "Then we can have some fishing."

"Just so."

They were to remain for forty-eight hours over the Caspian, which is
some six hundred and twenty-five miles long and two hundred wide,
because the speed of the "Albatross" had been much reduced, and while
the fishing was going on she would be stopped altogether.

The reply was heard by Phil Evans, who was then in the bow, where
Frycollin was overwhelming him with piteous pleadings to be put "on
the ground."

Without replying to this preposterous request, Evans returned aft to
Uncle Prudent; and there, taking care not to be overheard, he
reported the conversation that had taken place.

"Phil Evans," said Uncle Prudent, "I think there can be no mistake as
to this scoundrel's intention with regard to us."

"None," said Phil Evans. "He will only give us our liberty when it
suits him, and perhaps not at all."

"In that case we must do all we can to get away from the 'Albatross'."

"A splendid craft, she is, I must admit."

"Perhaps so," said Uncle Prudent; "but she belongs to a scoundrel who
detains us on board in defiance of all right. For us and ours she is
a constant danger. If we do not destroy her—"

"Let us begin by saving ourselves" answered Phil Evans; "we can see
about the destruction afterwards."

"Just so," said Uncle Prudent. "And we must avail ourselves of every
chance that comes, along. Evidently the "Albatross" is going to cross
the Caspian into Europe, either by the north into Russia or by the
west into the southern countries. Well, no matter where we stop,
before we get to the Atlantic, we shall be safe. And we ought to be
ready at any moment."

"But," asked Evans, "how are we to get out?"

"Listen to me," said Uncle Prudent. "It may happen during the night
that the "Albatross" may drop to within a few hundred feet of the
ground. Now there are on board several ropes of that length, and,
with a little pluck we might slip down them—"

"Yes," said Evans. "If the case is desperate I don't mind—"

"Nor I. During the night there's no one about except the man at the
wheel. And if we can drop one of the ropes forward without being seen
or heard—"

"Good! I am glad to see you are so cool; that means business. But
just now we are over the Caspian. There are several ships in sight.
The "Albatross" is going down to fish. Cannot we do something now?"

"Sh! They are watching us much more than you think," said Uncle
Prudent. "You saw that when we tried to jump into the Hydaspes."

"And who knows that they don't watch us at night?" asked Evans.

"Well, we must end this; we must finish with this "Albatross" and her
master."

It will be seen how in the excitement of their anger the colleagues—Uncle
Prudent in particular—were prepared to attempt the most
hazardous things. The sense of their powerlessness, the ironical
disdain with which Robur treated them, the brutal remarks he indulged
in—all contributed towards intensifying the aggravation which daily
grew more manifest.

This very day something occurred which gave rise to another most
regrettable altercation between Robur and his guests. This was
provoked by Frycollin, who, finding himself above the boundless sea,
was seized with another fit of terror. Like a child, like the Negro
he was, he gave himself over to groaning and protesting and crying,
and writhing in a thousand contortions and grimaces.

"I want to get out! I want to get out! I am not a bird! Boohoo! I
don't want to fly, I want to get out!"

Uncle Prudent, as may be imagined, did not attempt to quiet him. In
fact, he encouraged him, and particularly as the incessant howling
seemed to have a strangely irritating effect on Robur.

When Tom Turner and his companions were getting ready for fishing,
the engineer ordered them to shut up Frycollin in his cabin. But the
Negro never ceased his jumping about, and began to kick at the wall
and yell with redoubled power.

It was noon. The "Albatross" was only about fifteen or twenty feet
above the water. A few ships, terrified at the apparition, sought
safety in flight.

As may be guessed, a sharp look-out was kept on the prisoners, whose
temptation to escape could not but be intensified. Even supposing
they jumped overboard they would have been picked up by the
india-rubber boat. As there was nothing to do during the fishing, in
which Phil Evans intended to take part, Uncle Prudent, raging
furiously as usual, retired to his cabin.

The Caspian Sea is a volcanic depression. Into it flow the waters of
the Volga, the Ural, the Kour, the Kouma, the Jemba, and others.
Without the evaporation which relieves it of its overflow, this
basin, with an area of 17,000 square miles, and a depth of from sixty
to four hundred feet, would flood the low marshy ground to its north
and east. Although it is not in communication with the Black Sea or
the Sea of Aral, being at a much lower level than they are, it
contains an immense number of fish—such fish, be it understood, as
can live in its bitter waters, the bitterness being due to the naphtha
which pours in from the springs on the south.

The crew of the "Albatross" made no secret of their delight at the
change in their food the fishing would bring them.

"Look out!" shouted Turner, as he harpooned a good-size fish, not
unlike a shark.

It was a splendid sturgeon seven feet long, called by the Russians
beluga, the eggs of which mixed up with salt, vinegar, and white wine
form caviar. Sturgeons from the river are, it may be, rather better
than those from the sea; but these were welcomed warmly enough on
board the "Albatross."

But the best catches were made with the drag-nets, which brought up
at each haul carp, bream, salmon, saltwater pike, and a number of
medium-sized sterlets, which wealthy gourmets have sent alive to
Astrakhan, Moscow, and Petersburg, and which now passed direct from
their natural element into the cook's kettle without any charge for
transport.

An hour's work sufficed to fill up the larders of the aeronef, and
she resumed her course to the north.

During the fishing Frycollin had continued shouting and kicking at
his cabin wall, and making a tremendous noise.

"That wretched nigger will not be quiet, then?" said Robur, almost
out of patience.

"It seems to me, sir, he has a right to complain," said Phil Evans.

"Yes, and I have a right to look after my ears," replied Robur.

"Engineer Robur!" said Uncle Prudent, who had just appeared on deck.

"President of the Weldon Institute!"

They had stepped up to one another, and were looking into the whites
of each other's eyes. Then Robur shrugged his shoulders. "Put him at
the end of a line," he said.

Turner saw his meaning at once. Frycollin was dragged out of his
cabin. Loud were his cries when the mate and one of the men seized
him and tied him into a tub, which they hitched on to a rope—one of
those very ropes, in fact, that Uncle Prudent had intended to use as
we know.

The Negro at first thought he was going to be hanged. Not he was only
going to be towed!

The rope was paid out for a hundred feet and Frycollin found himself
hanging in space.

He could then shout at his ease. But fright contracted his larynx,
and he was mute.

Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans endeavored to prevent this performance.
They were thrust aside.

"It is scandalous! It is cowardly!" said Uncle Prudent, quite beside
himself with rage.

"Indeed!" said Robur.

"It is an abuse of power against which I protest."

"Protest away!"

"I will be avenged, Mr. Robur."

"Avenge when you like, Mr. Prudent."

"I will have my revenge on you and yours."

The crew began to close up with anything but peaceful intentions.
Robur motioned them away.

"Yes, on you and yours!" said Uncle Prudent, whom his colleague in
vain tried to keep quiet.

"Whenever you please!" said the engineer.

"And in every possible way!"

"That is enough now," said Robur, in a threatening tone. "There are
other ropes on board. And if you don't be quiet I'll treat you as I
have done your servant!"

Uncle Prudent was silent, not because he was afraid, but because his
wrath had nearly choked him; and Phil Evans led him off to his cabin.

During the last hour the air had been strangely troubled. The
symptoms could not be mistaken. A storm was threatening. The electric
saturation of the atmosphere had become so great that about half-past
two o'clock Robur witnessed a phenomenon that was new to him.

In the north, whence the storm was traveling, were spirals of
half-luminous vapor due to the difference in the electric charges of
the various beds of cloud. The reflections of these bands came
running along the waves in myriads of lights, growing in intensity as
the sky darkened.

The "Albatross" and the storm were sure to meet, for they were
exactly in front of each other.

And Frycollin? Well! Frycollin was being towed—and towed is exactly
the word, for the rope made such an angle, with the aeronef, now
going at over sixty knots an hour, that the tub was a long way behind
her.

The crew were busy in preparing for the storm, for the "Albatross"
would either have to rise above it or drive through its lowest
layers. She was about three thousand feet above the sea when a clap
of thunder was heard. Suddenly the squall struck her. In a few
seconds the fiery clouds swept on around her.

Phil Evans went to intercede for Frycollin, and asked for him to be
taken on board again. But Robur had already given orders to that
effect, and the rope was being hauled in, when suddenly there took
place an inexplicable slackening in the speed of the screws.

The engineer rushed to the central deck-house. "Power! More power!"
he shouted. "We must rise quickly and get over the storm!"

"Impossible, sir!"

"What is the matter?"

"The currents are troubled! They are intermittent!" And, in fact, the
"Albatross" was falling fast.

As with the telegraph wires on land during a storm, so was it with
the accumulators of the aeronef. But what is only an inconvenience in
the case of messages was here a terrible danger.

"Let her down, then," said Robur, "and get out of the electric zone!
Keep cool, my lads!"

He stepped on to his quarter-deck and his crew went to their stations.

Although the "Albatross" had sunk several hundred feet she was still
in the thick of the cloud, and the flashes played across her as if
they were fireworks. It seemed as though she was struck. The screws
ran more and more slowly, and what began as a gentle descent
threatened to become a collapse.

In less than a minute it was evident they would get down to the
surface of the sea. Once they were immersed no power could drag them
from the abyss.

Suddenly the electric cloud appeared above them. The "Albatross" was
only sixty feet from the crest of the waves. In two or three seconds
the deck would be under water.

But Robur, seizing the propitious moment, rushed to the central house
and seized the levers. He turned on the currents from the piles no
longer neutralized by the electric tension of the surrounding
atmosphere. In a moment the screws had regained their normal speed
and checked the descent; and the "Albatross" remained at her slight
elevation while her propellers drove her swiftly out of reach of the
storm.

Frycollin, of course, had a bath—though only for a few seconds.
When he was dragged on deck he was as wet as if he had been to the
bottom of the sea. As may be imagined, he cried no more.

In the morning of the 4th of July the "Albatross" had passed over the
northern shore of the Caspian.

If ever Prudent and Evans despaired on escaping from the "Albatross"
it was during the two days that followed. It may be that Robur
considered it more difficult to keep a watch on his prisoners while
he was crossing Europe, and he knew that they had made up their minds
to get away.

But any attempt to have done so would have been simply committing
suicide. To jump from an express going sixty miles an hour is to risk
your life, but to jump from a machine going one hundred and twenty
miles an hour would be to seek your death.

And it was at this speed, the greatest that could be given to her,
that the "Albatross" tore along. Her speed exceeded that of the
swallow, which is one hundred and twelve miles an hour.

At first the wind was in the northeast, and the "Albatross" had it
fair, her general course being a westerly one. But the wind began to
drop, and it soon became impossible for the colleagues to remain on
the deck without having their breath taken away by the rapidity of
the flight. And on one occasion they would have been blown overboard
if they had not been dashed up against the deck-house by the pressure
of the wind.

Luckily the steersman saw them through the windows of his cage, and
by the electric bell gave the alarm to the men in the fore-cabin.
Four of them came aft, creeping along the deck.