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When the sun appeared, and Robur had taken his observations, they would know; but although they could not trust to the indications of the compass there was reason to think they were in the Pacific. At this height one hundred and fifty feet the island which measured about fifteen miles round, was like a three-pointed star in the sea. Off the southwest point was an islet and a range of rocks.
Then the balloon, being at length entirely empty, fell to its destruction among the trees of Fairmount Park. The public was overwhelmed with astonishment, with fear! Now that Robur had recaptured his prisoners, how would he avenge himself? Would they be carried away, this time, forever? The "Albatross" continued to descend, as if to land in the clearing at Fairmount Park.
The English Oak, grand tree that it is, grows well in America, as everything English should by right, and there are fine trees of this Quercus Robur on Long Island. The acorns are of unusual elegance, as the photograph which shows them will prove.
It could abandon the sky where the elements were in battle and descend to the surface of the sea; and if the waves beat against it there too heavily, it could always find calm in the tranquil depths. Doubtless, however, there were some signs by which Robur, who must be experienced in judging, decided that the storm would not burst until the next day.
It was the text of the document found at Paris in a snuff-box revealing what had happened to the two personages for whom the Union was in mourning. So, then, the perpetrator of this kidnapping "was" Robur the engineer, come expressly to Philadelphia to destroy in its egg the theory of the balloonists. He it was who commanded the "Albatross!"
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.
That Robur spent his life in the air on board the aeronef and never came to the ground was impossible. How could he make up his stock of provisions and the materials required for working his machines? He must have some retreat, some harbor of refuge in some unknown and inaccessible spot where the "Albatross" could revictual.
And it was this lightness and solidity which Robur availed himself of in building his aerial locomotive. Everything framework, hull, houses, cabins were made of straw-paper turned hard as metal by compression, and what was not to be despised in an apparatus flying at great heights incombustible.
Chrysanthus was cast; and there, and probably in other cities, it was nothing short of the public cesspool. It may be noticed that the Prophet Jeremiah seems to have had personal acquaintance with Vestibule, Robur, and Barathrum.
"Phil Evans," began Uncle Prudent, "if, when we came away from our meeting, instead of indulging in amenities to which we need not recur, we had kept our eyes more open, this would not have happened. Had we remained in the streets of Philadelphia there would have been none of this. Evidently Robur foresaw what would happen at the club, and had placed some of his bandits on guard at the door.
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