Chapter 14
NIAGARA
The hours passed, and the situation did not change. The steersman
returned on deck, and the captain, descending, watched the movement
of the engines. Even when our speed increased, these engines
continued working without noise, and with remarkable smoothness There
was never one of those inevitable breaks, with which in most motors
the pistons sometimes miss a stroke. I concluded that the "Terror,"
in each of its transformations must be worked by rotary engines. But
I could not assure myself of this.
For the rest, our direction did not change. Always we headed toward
the northeast end of the lake, and hence toward Buffalo.
Why, I wondered, did the captain persist in following this route? He
could not intend to stop at Buffalo, in the midst of a crowd of boats
and shipping of every kind. If he meant to leave the lake by water,
there was only the Niagara River to follow; and its Falls would be
impassable, even to such a machine as this. The only escape was by
the Detroit River, and the "Terror" was constantly leaving that
farther behind.
Then another idea occurred to me. Perhaps the captain was only
waiting for night to return to the shore of the lake. There, the
boat, changed to an automobile, would quickly cross the neighboring
States. If I did not succeed in making my escape, during this passage
across the land, all hope of regaining my liberty would be gone.
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