Robur the Conqueror

s companion was astonished. But neither of them would a

t finding himself borne through space on such a

ld have to triple their speed if the "Albatross" was to ascend to higher zones. The two

ke a mere brook through a varied country amid the gleaming of many lagoons obliquely struck by the rays of the sun. The brook

are?" asked Uncle Prudent, in

to teach you,"

s where we are going

ugh s

ong will t

l it

the world?" asked Ph

han that,"

does not suit us?"

have to s

them time to cool down, to admire the marvelous apparatus which was bearing them through the air, and doubtless to compliment the inventor. And so he went off to the other end of t

lying over Central Canada. That river in the northwest is t

sun. The "Albatross" must thus have reached the forty-sixth degree of north latitude, and th

with its citadel, the Gibraltar of North America. There are the cathedral

before the Canadian city beg

light clouds, which gradually

ention to the external arrangements of the "Albatross," walked up to them and said: "Well, ge

succumb to the evidence. But Uncle P

ut if I undertook to carry you through the air, I did not think of feeding yo

they did not care to stand upon ceremony. A meal would commit them to nothing; an

g the voyage. There were different preserves; and, among other things, was a sort of bread made of equal parts of flour and meat reduced to powder

e very hungry to eat at all, for his jaws shook with fear, and almost refused to work. "If it was to break! If it was to break!" sai

onger there. At the stem the man at the wheel in his glass cage, his eyes fixed on t

them from their posts. An assistant engineer, exami

estimate it imperfectly, for the "Albatross" had passed through t

believe it," s

ent. And going to the bow they look

own," said

recogn

ms to me to

e only left Queb

be going at a speed of s

because they were going with the wind. In a calm such speed would have been difficult and the r

St. Lawrence like the railway viaduct over the Venice lagoon. Soon they could distinguish the town's wide streets, its huge shops, its palatial b

hout asking Robur. After Montreal they passed Ottawa, whose falls, seen from above, lo

the Parlia

architecture resembled the House of Parliament in London much as the Montreal cathedral resem

s the horizon, and formed but

to the two assistant engineers in the fore and aft engine-houses. At a sign the helmsman changed the-direction of the "Albatross" a cou

knots an hour; railway trains do their sixty miles an hour; the ice-boats on the frozen Hudson do their sixty-five miles an hour; a machine built by t

speed is that of the storm which tears up trees by the roots. It is the mean speed of the carrier pigeon, and

the whole force of her screws, could make the tour of

f of the engineer. The trumpet which blared its startling fanfares through the air was that of the mate, Tom Turner. Th

e zones above the clouds, he seemed now to have no wish to keep his secret hidden. And if he had come to Philadelphia and presented himself at the meeting of the Weldon Institute, was it not that they m

y saw, of what had succeeded in spite of them. Evidently beneath the cranium of these two

thing particular, and coolly continued the co

solid support to me, and it is. I saw that to struggle against the wind I must be stronger than the wind, and I am. I had no need of sails to drive me, nor oars nor wheels to push me, nor rails to give me a faster road. Air is what I wanted, that w

his interrogative style, "Perhaps you ask if to this power of the "Albatross" to move horizontally there is added an equal power of vertical movement-in a wo

r shoulders. That was probably w

mmediately stopped, and after running for

ren in acoustical experiments. Their f-r-r-r-r rose nearly an octave in the scale of sound, diminishing gradually i

uted Frycollin. "See

ross" had attained the height of 8,700 feet, and extended the range of

iminution of oxygen in the air, and consequently in the blood. This has been the cause of sever

she seemed to prefer, and her propellers beg

ou can reply." Then, leaning over the ra

sident and secretary of the Wel

imself, "we have nothing to ask about what you seem to believe, but we

pe

? By what right did you shut us up in that prison? By what right h

ou insult and threaten me in your club in such a

," said Phil Evans, "and

wish t

ou pl

e right of t

is cyn

it is

ncle Prudent, who was nearly exploding, "for

me such a question when you have only to cast down you

e country so poetically described by Cooper. Then she followed the southern shore and headed for the

ted into the air, the atmosphere sensibly freshened. Below were the liquid masses. They seemed like an enormous flowi

bank to the other. Three miles below was a suspension-bridge, acros

s the exclamation escaped him, Uncle Prudent was do

river which separates the United States from Canada,