When all these points had been thought over and settled, the
prisoners, found they could not put their plan into execution--on
that day, at all events--for the "Albatross," after leaving Gousta,
had kept her southerly course, which took her over the North Sea,
much to the consternation of the thousands of coasting craft engaged
in the English, Dutch, French, and Belgian trade. Unless the
snuff-box fell on the deck of one of these vessels there was every
chance of its going to the bottom of the sea, and Uncle Prudent and
Phil Evans were obliged to wait for a better opportunity. And, as we
shall immediately see, an excellent chance was soon to be offered
them.

At ten o'clock that evening the "Albatross" reached the French coast
near Dunkirk. The night was rather dark. For a moment they could see
the lighthouse at Grisnez cross its electric beam with the lights
from Dover on the other side of the strait. Then the "Albatross" flew
over the French territory at a mean height of three thousand feet.

There was no diminution in her speed. She shot like a rocket over the
towns and villages so numerous in northern France. She was flying
straight on to Paris, and after Dunkirk came Doullens, Amiens, Creil,
Saint Denis. She never left the line; and about midnight she was over
the "city of light," which merits its name even when its inhabitants
are asleep or ought to be.

By what strange whim was it that she was stopped over the city of
Paris? We do not know; but down she came till she was within a few
hundred feet of the ground. Robur then came out of his cabin, and the
crew came on to the deck to breathe the ambient air.