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If the commanders propose to land storming parties and the ships advance into the zone of danger there will soon be nothing left of them but bits of shapeless floating wreckage. Here comes Thomas Roch accompanied by Engineer Serko. On issuing from the passage both go to the trestle that is pointing towards the leading warship. Ker Karraje and Captain Spade are awaiting them.
How will this adventure end? Shall I ever be able to escape from Back Cup, denounce the false Count d'Artigas and rid the seas of Ker Karraje's pirates? And if Ker Karraje is terrible as it is, how much more so will he become if he ever obtains possession of Roch's fulgurator! His power will be increased a hundred-fold?
It is autopropulsive, it projects itself, and no ship within a certain zone when the engine explodes could escape utter destruction. With such a weapon as this at his command Ker Karraje would be invincible. From August 11 to August 17. During the past week Thomas Roch has been working without intermission. Every morning the inventor goes to his laboratory and does not issue therefrom till night.
Ker Karraje at once saw the practical nature of the proposition, and as they had no lack of money the idea was soon carried out. While the so-called Count d'Artigas ordered the construction of the schooner Ebba at the shipyards of Gotteborg, in Sweden, he gave to the Cramps of Philadelphia, in America, the plans of a submarine boat whose construction excited no suspicion.
"Answer me, Count d'Artigas or rather, for I know who you are answer me, Ker Karraje!" I shout. "The Count d'Artigas is Ker Karraje," he coolly replies, "just as Warder Gaydon is Engineer Simon Hart; and Ker Karraje will never restore to liberty Engineer Simon Hart, who knows his secrets." The situation is plain. Ker Karraje knows who I am.
"Now," I say to myself, "I know his real name and that of his lair Ker Karraje and Back Cup;" and I surmise that if Engineer Serko has let me into the secret he must have been authorized to do so. Am I not meant to understand from this that I must give up all hope of ever recovering my liberty? Engineer Serko had manifestly remarked the impression created upon me by this revelation.
I now know into whose hands I have fallen. With what I already knew, with what I have learned since my arrival in Back Cup from Engineer Serko, this is what I am able to tell about the past and present of Ker Karraje: Eight or nine years ago, the West Pacific was infested by pirates who acted with the greatest audacity.
All the pirates were making for the passage, in front of which were Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, Boatswain Effrondat, Engine-driver Gibson and the Count d'Artigas' big Malay attendant. I soon learn the reason for the tumult, for the sentries rush in with shouts of alarm. Several vessels have been sighted to the northwest warships steaming at full speed in the direction of Back Cup.
These details I have learned from Engineer Serko, who is very proud of his handiwork, and also very positive that the prisoner of Back Cup will never be able to disclose the secret. It will easily be realized how powerful was the offensive weapon Ker Karraje now possessed. During the night the tug would rush at a merchant vessel, and bore a hole in her with its powerful ram.
If it did impress him, it was only momentarily. "I do not know this Ker Karraje," he says, pointing towards the door to order me out. "I only know the Count d'Artigas." "Thomas Roch," I persist, in a final effort, "the Count d'Artigas and Ker Karraje are one and the same person.