From August 29 to September 10.—Thirteen days have gone by and the Ebba has not returned. Did she then not make straight for the American coast? Has she been delayed by a buccaneering cruise in the neighborhood of Back Cup? It seems to me that Ker Karraje’s only desire would be to get back with the sections of Roch’s engines as soon as possible. Maybe the Virginian foundry had not quite finished them.  
Engineer Serko does not display the least anxiety or impatience². He continues to greet me with his accustomed ironical³ cordiality, and with a kindly⁴ air that I distrust—with good reason. He affects to be solicitous⁵ as to my health, urges me to make the best of a bad job, calls me Ali Baba, assures me that there is not, in the whole world, such an enchanting⁶ spot as this Arabian Nights cavern⁷, observes that I am fed, warmed, lodged⁸, and clothed, that I have no taxes to pay, and that even the inhabitants of the favored principality of Monaco do not enjoy an existence more free from care.
 
Sometimes this ironical verbiage⁹ brings the blood to my face, and I am tempted¹⁰ to seize this cynical¹¹ banterer¹² by the throat and choke the life out of him. They would kill me afterwards. Still, what would that matter! Would it not be better to end in this way than to spend years and years amid these infernal and infamous¹³ surroundings? However, while there is life there is hope, I reflect, and this thought restrains me.
 
I have scarcely set eyes upon Thomas Roch since the Ebba went away. He shuts himself up in his laboratory and works unceasingly. If he utilizes¹⁵ all the substances placed at his disposition¹⁶ there will be enough to blow up Back Cup and the whole Bermudan archipelago with it!
 
I cling to the hope that he will never consent to give up the secret of his deflagrator, and that Engineer Serko’s efforts to acquire it will remain futile¹⁷.
 
September 3.—To-day I have been able to witness with my own eyes the power of Roch’s explosive, and also the manner in which the fulgurator is employed.
 
During the morning the men began to pierce the passage through the wall of the cavern at the spot fixed¹⁸ upon by Engineer Serko, who superintended the work in person. The work began at the base, where the rock is as hard as granite¹⁹. To have continued it with pickaxes would have entailed²⁰ long and arduous²¹ labor¹⁴, inasmuch as the wall at this place is not less than from twenty to thirty yards in thickness, but thanks to Roch’s fulgurator the passage will be completed easily and rapidly.
 
I may well be astonished at what I have seen. The pickaxes hardly made any impression on the rock, but its disaggregation was effected with really remarkable²² facility by means of the fulgurator.
 
A few grains of this explosive shattered the rocky mass and reduced it to almost impalpable powder that one’s breath could disperse²³ as easily as vapor²⁴. The explosion produced an excavation²⁵ measuring fully²⁶ a cubic yard. It was accompanied by a sharp detonation²⁷ that may be compared to the report of a cannon²⁸.
 
The first charge used, although a very small one, a mere²⁹ pinch, blew the men in every direction, and two of them were seriously injured. Engineer Serko himself was projected several yards, and sustained some rather severe contusions.
 
Here is how this substance, whose bursting force surpasses anything hitherto conceived, is employed.
 
A small hole about an inch and a half in length is pierced obliquely³⁰ in the rock. A few grains of the explosive are then inserted, but no wad is used.
 
Then Thomas Roch steps forward. In his hand is a little glass phial containing a bluish, oily liquid that congeals³¹ almost as soon as it comes in contact with the air. He pours one drop on the entrance of the hole, and draws back, but not with undue³² haste. It takes a certain time—about thirty-five seconds, I reckon—before the combination of the fulgurator and deflagrator is effected. But when the explosion does take place its power of disaggregation is such—I repeat—that it may be regarded as unlimited³³. It is at any rate a thousand times superior to that of any known explosive.
 
Under these circumstances it will probably not take more than a week to complete the tunnel.
 
September 19.—For some time past I have observed that the tide rises and falls twice every twenty-four hours, and that the ebb¹ and flow produce a rather swift current through the submarine tunnel. It is pretty certain therefore that a floating object thrown into the lagoon³⁴ when the top of the orifice is uncovered would be carried out by the receding³⁵ tide. It is just possible that during the lowest equinoctial tides the top of the orifice is uncovered. This I shall be able to ascertain³⁶, as this is precisely³⁷ the time they occur. To-day, September 19, I could almost distinguish the summit of the hole under the water. The day after to-morrow, if ever, it will be uncovered.
 
Very well then, if I cannot myself attempt to get through, may be a bottle thrown into the lagoon might be carried out during the last few minutes of the ebb. And might not this bottle by chance—an ultra-providential chance, I must avow—be picked up by a ship passing near Back Cup? Perhaps even it might be borne away by a friendly current and cast upon one of the Bermudan beaches. What if that bottle contained a letter?
 
I cannot get this thought out of my mind, and it works me up into a great state of excitement. Then objections crop up—this one among others............