Part 20 (2/2)
”Sir,” I say, ”you are now acquainted with the composition of Thomas Roch's explosive. Does it really possess the destructive power that the inventor attributes to it? Has it ever been tried? May you not have purchased a composition as inert as a pinch of snuff?”
”You are doubtless better informed upon this point than you pretend, Mr. Hart. Nevertheless, I thank you for the interest you manifest in our affairs, and am able to rea.s.sure you. The other night we made a series of decisive experiments. With only a few grains of this substance great blocks of rock were reduced to impalpable dust!”
This explanation evidently applies to the detonation I heard.
”Thus, my dear colleague,” continues Engineer Serko, ”I can a.s.sure you that our expectations have been answered. The effects of the explosive surpa.s.s anything that could have been imagined. A few thousand tons of it would burst our spheroid and scatter the fragments into s.p.a.ce. You can be absolutely certain that it is capable of destroying no matter what vessel at a distance considerably greater than that attained by present projectiles and within a zone of at least a mile. The weak point in the invention is that rather too much time has to be expended in regulating the firing.”
Engineer Serko stops short, as though reluctant to give any further information, but finally adds:
”Therefore, I end as I began, Mr. Hart. Resign yourself to the inevitable. Accept your new existence without reserve. Give yourself up to the tranquil delights of this subterranean life. If one is in good health, one preserves it; if one has lost one's health, one recovers it here. That is what is happening to your fellow countryman.
Yes, the best thing you can do is to resign yourself to your lot.”
Thereupon this giver of good advice leaves me, after saluting me with a friendly gesture, like a man whose good intentions merit appreciation. But what irony there is in his words, in his glance, in his att.i.tude. Shall I ever be able to get even with him?
I now know that at any rate it is not easy to regulate the aim of Roch's auto-propulsive engine. It is probable that it always bursts at the same distance, and that beyond the zone in which the effects of the fulgurator are so terrible, and once it has been pa.s.sed, a s.h.i.+p is safe from its effects. If I could only inform the world of this vital fact!
_August 20_.--For two days no incident worth recording has occurred. I have explored Back Cup to its extreme limits. At night when the long perspective of arched columns are illuminated by the electric lamps, I am almost religiously impressed when I gaze upon the natural wonders of this cavern, which has become my prison. I have never given up hope of finding somewhere in the walls a fissure of some kind of which the pirates are ignorant and through which I could make my escape. It is true that once outside I should have to wait till a pa.s.sing s.h.i.+p hove in sight. My evasion would speedily be known at the Beehive, and I should soon be recaptured, unless--a happy thought strikes me--unless I could get at the _Ebba's_ boat that was drawn up high and dry on the little sandy beach in the creek. In this I might be able to make my way to St. George or Hamilton.
This evening--it was about nine o'clock--I stretched myself on a bed of sand at the foot of one of the columns, about one hundred yards to the east of the lagoon. Shortly afterwards I heard footsteps, then voices. Hiding myself as best I could behind the rocky base of the pillar, I listened with all my ears.
I recognized the voices as those of Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko.
The two men stopped close to where I was lying, and continued their conversation in English--which is the language generally used in Back Cup. I was therefore able to understand all that they said.
They were talking about Thomas Roch, or rather his fulgurator.
”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 cut a tunnel through the wall of the cavern.”
”Through the wall of the cavern?”
”Oh! nothing but a narrow pa.s.sage through which only one man at a time could squeeze, a hole easy enough to block, and the outside end of which would be hidden among the rocks.”
”Of what use could it be to us, Serko?”
”I have often thought about the utility of having some other way of getting out besides the submarine tunnel. We never know what the future may have in store for us.”
”But the walls are so thick and hard,” objected Ker Karraje.
”Oh, with a few grains of Roch's explosive I undertake to reduce the rock to such fine powder that we shall be able to blow it away with our breath,” Serko replied.
It can easily be imagined with what interest and eagerness I listened to this. Here was a ray of hope. It. was proposed to open up communication with the outside by a tunnel in the wall, and this held out the possibility of escape.
As this thought flashed through my mind, Ker Karraje said:
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