the president and secretary, and cheered them again and again. Jem
Chip was there, having left his luncheons joint of boiled lettuces,
and William T. Forbes and his daughters, and all the members of the
club. It is a mystery how Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans emerged alive
from the thousands who welcomed them.

On that evening was the weekly meeting of the Institute. It was
expected that the colleagues would take their places at the desk. As
they had said nothing of their adventures, it was thought they would
then speak, and relate the impressions of their voyage. But for some
reason or other both were silent. And so also was Frycollin, whom his
congeners in their delirium had failed to dismember.

But though the colleagues did not tell what had happened to them,
that is no reason why we should not. We know what occurred on the
night of the 27th and 28th of July; the daring escape to the earth,
the scramble among the rocks, the bullet fired at Phil Evans, the cut
cable, and the "Albatross" deprived of her propellers, drifting off
to the northeast at a great altitude. Her electric lamps rendered her
visible for some time. And then she disappeared.

The fugitives had little to fear. How could Robur get back to the
island for three or four hours if his screws were out of gear? By
that time the "Albatross" would have been destroyed by the explosion,
and be no more than a wreck floating on the sea; those whom she bore
would be mangled corpses, which the ocean would not even give up
again. The act of vengeance would be accomplished.

Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans looked upon it as an act of legitimate
self-defence, and felt no remorse whatever. Evans was but slightly