The speed of our craft, doubled by the speed of
the current, was prodigious! In another moment, we should plunge into
that black hollow which forms the very center of the Canadian Falls.
With an eye of horror, I saw the shores of Goat Island flashed by,
then came the Isles of the Three Sisters, drowned in the spray from
the abyss.
I sprang up; I started to throw myself into the water, in the
desperate hope of gaining this last refuge. One of the men seized me
from behind.
Suddenly a sharp noise was heard from the mechanism which throbbed
within our craft. The long gangways folded back on the sides of the
machine, spread out like wings, and at the moment when the "Terror"
reached the very edge of the falls, she arose into space, escaping
from the thundering cataract in the center of a lunar rainbow.
Chapter 15
THE EAGLE'S NEST
On the morrow, when I awoke after a sound sleep, our vehicle seemed
motionless. It seemed to me evident that we were not running upon
land. Yet neither were we rushing through or beneath the waters; nor
yet soaring across the sky. Had the inventor regained that mysterious
hiding-place of his, where no human being had ever set foot before
him?
And now, since he had not disembarrassed himself of my presence, was
his secret about to be revealed to me?
It seemed astonishing that I had slept so profoundly during most of
our voyage through the air.
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