Robur the Conqueror | Page 7

this engine, whose initial velocity as
it left the mouth of the monster cannon had been erroneously calculated,
had flown off at a speed exceeding by sixteen times that of ordinary
projectiles--or about four hundred and fifty miles an hour--that it did

not fall to the ground, and that it passed into an aerolitic stag, so as to
circle for ever round our globe.
"Why should not this be the body in question?"
Very ingenious, Mr. Correspondent on the "New York Herald!" but
how about the trumpet? There was no trumpet in Herr Schulze's
projectile!
So all the explanations explained nothing, and all the observers had
observed in vain. There remained only the suggestion offered by the
director of Zi-Ka-Wey. But the opinion of a Chinaman!
The discussion continued, and there was no sign of agreement. Then
came a short period of rest. Some days elapsed without any object,
aerolite or otherwise, being described, and without any trumpet notes
being heard in the atmosphere. The body then had fallen on some part
of the globe where it had been difficult to trace it; in the sea, perhaps.
Had it sunk in the depths of the Atlantic, the Pacific, or the Indian
Ocean? What was to be said in this matter?
But then, between the 2nd and 9th of June, there came a new series of
facts which could not possibly be explained by the unaided existence of
a cosmic phenomenon.
In a week the Hamburgers at the top of St. Michael's Tower, the Turks
on the highest minaret of St. Sophia, the Rouennais at the end of the
metal spire of their cathedral, the Strasburgers at the summit of their
minister, the Americans on the head of the Liberty statue at the
entrance of the Hudson and on the Bunker Hill monument at Boston,
the Chinese at the spike of the temple, of the Four Hundred Genii at
Canton, the Hindus on the sixteenth terrace of the pyramid of the
temple at Tanjore, the San Pietrini at the cross of St. Peter's at Rome,
the English at the cross of St. Paul's in London, the Egyptians at the
appex of the Great Pyramid of Ghizeh, the Parisians at the lighting
conductor of the iron tower of the Exposition of 1889, a thousand feet
high, all of them beheld a flag floating from some one of these
inaccessible points.

And the flag was black, dotted with stars, and it bore a golden sun in its
center.


Chapter II
AGREEMENT IMPOSSIBLE

"And the first who says the contrary --"
"Indeed! But we will say the contrary so long as there is a place to say
it in!"
"And in spite of your threats --"
"Mind what you are saying, Bat Fynn!"
"Mind what you are saying, Uncle Prudent!"
"I maintain that the screw ought to be behind!"
"And so do we! And so do we!" replied half a hundred voices
confounded in one.
"No! It ought to be in front!" shouted Phil Evans.
"In front!" roared fifty other voices, with a vigor in no whit less
remarkable.
"We shall never agree!"
"Never! Never!"
"Then what is the use of a dispute?"

"It is not a dispute! It is a discussion!"
One would not have thought so to listen to the taunts, objurgations, and
vociferations which filled the lecture room for a good quarter of an
hour.
The room was one of the largest in the Weldon Institute, the
well-known club in Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U. S. A.
The evening before there had been an election of a lamplighter,
occasioning many public manifestations, noisy meetings, and even
interchanges of blows, resulting in an effervescence which had not yet
subsided, and which would account for some of the excitement just
exhibited by the members of the Weldon Institute. For this was merely
a meeting of balloonists, discussing the burning question of the
direction of balloons.
In this great saloon there were struggling, pushing, gesticulating,
shouting, arguing, disputing, a hundred balloonists, all with their hats
on, under the authority of a president, assisted by a secretary and
treasurer. They were not engineers by profession, but simply amateurs
of all that appertained to aerostatics, and they were amateurs in a fury,
and especially foes of those who would oppose to aerostats
"apparatuses heavier than the air," flying machines, aerial ships, or
what not. That these people might one day discover the method of
guiding balloons is possible. There could be no doubt that their
president had considerable difficulty in guiding them.
This president, well known in Philadelphia was the famous Uncle
Prudent, Prudent being his family name. There is nothing surprising in
America in the qualificative uncle, for you can there be uncle without
having either nephew or niece. There they speak of uncle as