My
fellow travelers had doubtless eaten before I came out of the cabin,
and they did not join me.
There was nothing further to attract my eyes, and I sank again into
thought. How would this adventure finish? Would I see this invisible
captain at length, and would he restore me to liberty? Could I regain
it in spite of him? That would depend on circumstances! But if the
"Terror" kept thus far away from the shore, or if she traveled
beneath the water, how could I escape from her? Unless we landed, and
the machine became an automobile, must I not abandon all hope of
escape?
Moreover--why should I not admit it?--to escape without having
learned anything of the "Terror's" secrets would not have contented
me at all. Although I could not thus far flatter myself upon the
success of my campaign, and though I had come within a hairbreadth of
losing my life and though the future promised far more of evil than
of good, yet after all, a step forward had been attained. To be sure,
if I was never to be able to re-enter into communication with the
world, if, like this Master of the World who had voluntarily placed
himself outside the law, I was now placed outside humanity, then the
fact that I had reached the "Terror" would have little value.
The craft continued headed to the northeast, following the longer
axis of Lake Erie.
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