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Updated: May 23, 2025
"In a week's time," said Ker Karraje, "I shall put to sea in the Ebba, and fetch the sections of the engines that are being cast in that Virginian foundry." "And when they are here," observed Engineer Serko, "I will piece them together and fix up the frames for firing them. But beforehand, there is a job to be done which it seems to me is indispensable." "What is that?"
To live hero is all very well for rustic fishermen, but not for the Count d'Artigas, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade and his crew. Back Cup is now only half a mile off, and the seaweed thrown up on its rocky base is plainly discernible. The only living things upon it are the sea-gulls and other birds that circle in clouds around the smoking crater.
We were in the neighborhood of Thomas Roch's laboratory, and had been conversing for some time, when Engineer Serko touched upon the extraordinary apparition of an English submarine boat in the lagoon. On this occasion he seemed to incline to the view that it might have been a premeditated expedition against Ker Karraje.
Thomas Roch is not a prey to one of the fits to which he was formerly subject. He is perfectly sane. When he found himself facing the flag he understood and drew back. A few pirates approach to lead him to the trestle again. He struggles and pushes them from him. Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko run up. They point to the rapidly advancing ship. They order him to launch his engines.
If I am not to share it with Thomas Roch, I presume the latter's cell is not far off, for in order that Warder Gaydon may continue to care for the ex-patient of Healthful House, their respective apartments will have to be contiguous. However, I suppose I shall soon be enlightened on this point. Captain Spade and Engineer Serko reside separately in proximity to D'Artigas' mansion. Mansion?
"If God permits you to, you wretches," I muttered to myself, while my heart thumped against my ribs. And yet, without the intervention of Providence, what hope is there for me? The conversation then took another direction. "Now that we know the composition of the explosive, Serko," said Ker Karraje, "we must, at all cost, get that of the deflagrator from Thomas Roch."
Engineer Serko installed an electric power house, without having recourse to machines whose construction abroad might have aroused suspicion, simply employing piles that could be easily mounted and required but metal plates and chemical substances that the Ebba procured during her visits to the American coast. What happened on the night of the 19th inst. can easily be divined.
However this might have been, an hour after the return of the expedition, every soul on board save the watch the Count d'Artigas, Serko, and Captain Spade in their respective cabins, and the crew in the fore-castle, were sound asleep. It was not till the next morning, and then very leisurely, that the Ebba began to make preparations for her departure.
If I could but breathe for awhile the bracing air of the Atlantic, of which the interior of Back Cup only receives attenuated puffs, so to speak. From September 26 to October 10. Fifteen days have elapsed. Under the directions of Engineer Serko and Thomas Roch the sections of the engines have been fitted together. Then the construction of their supports is begun.
"Thus, my dear colleague," continues Engineer Serko, "I can assure you that our expectations have been answered. The effects of the explosive surpass anything that could have been imagined. A few thousand tons of it would burst our spheroid and scatter the fragments into space.
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