Melbourne, where she arrived a few days afterwards.

Robur was in Australia, but a long way from X Island, to which he
desired to return as soon as possible.

In the ruins of the aftermost cabin he had found a considerable sum
of money, quite enough to provide for himself and companions without
applying to anyone for help. A short time after he arrived in
Melbourne he became the owner of a small brigantine of about a
hundred tons, and in her he sailed for X Island.

There he had but one idea--to be avenged. But to secure his
vengeance he would have to make another "Albatross." This after all
was an easy task for him who made the first. He used up what he could
of the old material; the propellers and engines he had brought back
in the brigantine. The mechanism was fitted with new piles and new
accumulators, and, in short, in less than eight months, the work was
finished, and a new "Albatross," identical with the one destroyed by
the explosion, was ready to take flight. And he had the same crew.

The "Albatross" left X Island in the first week of April. During this
aerial passage Robur did not want to be seen from the earth, and he
came along almost always above the clouds. When he arrived over North
America he descended in a desolate spot in the Far West. There the
engineer, keeping a profound incognito, learnt with considerable
pleasure that the Weldon Institute was about to begin its
experiments, and that the "Go-Ahead," with Uncle Prudent and Phil
Evans, was going to start from Philadelphia on the 29th of April.

Here was a chance for Robur and his crew to gratify their longing for