No subterranean forces whatever were battling within the
bowels of the mountains. No crater had arisen in this corner of the
Alleghanies. The Great Eyrie served merely as the retreat of Robur
the Conqueror. This impenetrable hiding-place where he stored his
materials and provisions, had without doubt been discovered by him
during one of his aerial voyages in the "Albatross." It was a retreat
probably even more secure than that as yet undiscovered Island X in
the Pacific.
This much I knew of him; but of this marvelous machine of his, of the
secrets of its construction and propelling force, what did I really
know? Admitting that this multiple mechanism was driven by
electricity, and that this electricity was, as we knew it had been in
the "Albatross," extracted directly from the surrounding air by some
new process, what were the details of its mechanism? I had not been
permitted to see the engine; doubtless I should never see it.
On the question of my liberty I argued thus: Robur evidently intends
to remain unknown. As to what he intends to do with his machine, I
fear, recalling his letter, that the world must expect from it more
of evil than of good. At any rate, the incognito which he has so
carefully guarded in the past he must mean to preserve in the future.
Now only one man can establish the identity of the Master of the
World with Robur the Conqueror.
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