The sea was as rough as ever, and the symptoms became alarming. The barometer¹ fell several millimeters. The wind came in violent gusts², and then for a moment or so failed altogether. Under such circumstances a sailing vessel³ would have had to reef in her topsails and her foresail. Everything showed that the wind was rising in the northwest. The storm-glass became much troubled and its movements were most disquieting⁴.  
At one o'clock in the morning the wind came on again with extreme violence. Although the aeronef was going right in its teeth she was still making progress at a rate of from twelve to fifteen miles an hour. But that was the utmost she could do.
 
Evidently preparations must be made for a cyclone⁵, a very rare occurrence in these latitudes⁷. Whether it be called a hurricane, as in the Atlantic, a typhoon, as in Chinese waters a simoom, as in the Sahara, or a tornado⁸, as on the western coast, such a storm is always a gyratory one, and most dangerous for any ship caught in the current which increases from the circumference⁹ to the center, and has only one spot of calm, the middle of the vortex.
 
Robur knew this. He also knew it was best to escape from the cyclone and get beyond its zone of attraction by ascending¹¹ to the higher strata¹³. Up to then he had always succeeded in doing this, but now he had not an hour, perhaps not a minute, to lose.
 
In fact the violence of the wind sensibly increased. The crests¹⁴ of the waves were swept off as they rose and blown into white dust on the surface of the sea. It was manifest that the cyclone was advancing with fearful velocity¹⁵ straight towards the regions of the pole.
 
"Higher!" said Robur.
 
"Higher it is," said Tom Tumor¹⁶.
 
An extreme ascensional power was communicated to the aeronef, and she shot up slantingly as if she was traveling on a plane sloping downwards¹⁷ from the southwest. Suddenly the barometer fell more than a dozen millimeters and the "Albatross" paused in her ascent¹⁸.
 
What was the cause of the stoppage? Evidently she was pulled back by the air; some formidable current had diminished the resistance to the screws. When a steamer travels upstream more work is got out of her screw than when the water is running between the blades. The recoil¹⁹ is then considerable, and may perhaps be as great as the current. It was thus with the "Albatross" at this moment.
 
But Robur was not the man to give in. His seventy-four screws, working perfectly²⁰ together, were driven at their maximum speed. But the aeronef could not escape; the attraction of the cyclone was irresistible²¹. During the few moments of calm she began to ascend¹², but the heavy pull soon drew her back, and she sunk like a ship as she founders²².
 
Evidently if the violence of the cyclone went on increasing the "Albatross" would be but as a straw caught in one of those whirlwinds that root up the trees, carry off roofs, and blow down walls.
 
Robur and Tom could only speak by signs. Uncle Prudent²³ and Phil Evans clung to the rail and wondered if the cyclone was not playing their game in destroying the aeronef and with her the inventor—and with the inventor the secret of his invention.
 
But if the "Albatross" could not get out of the cyclone vertically²⁵ could she not do something else? Could she not gain the center, where it was comparatively calm, and where they would have more control over her? Quite so, but to do this she would have to break through the circular currents which were sweeping²⁶ her round with them. Had she sufficient mechanical power to escape through them?
 
Suddenly the upper part of the cloud fell in. The vapor²⁷ condensed in torrents²⁸ of rain. It was two o'clock in the morning. The barometer, oscillating over a range of twelve millimeters, had now fallen to 27.91, and from this something should be taken on account of the height of the aeronef above the level of the sea.
 
Strange to say, the cyclone was out of the zone to which such storms are generally restricted, such zone being bounded by the thirtieth parallel of north latitude⁶ and the twenty-sixth parallel of south latitude. This may perhaps explain why the eddying²⁹ storm suddenly turned into a straight one. But what a hurricane! The tempest in Connecticut on the 22nd of March, 1882, could only have been compared to it, and the speed of that was more than three hundred miles an hour.
 
The "Albatross" had thus to fly before the wind or rather she had to be left to be driven by the current, from which she could neither mount nor escape. But in following this unchanging trajectory³⁰ she was bearing due south, towards those polar regions which Robur had endeavored to avoid. And now he was no longer master of her course; she would go where the hurricane took her.
 
Tom Turner was at the helm, and it required all his skill to keep her straight. In the first hours of the morning—if we can so call the vague tint³¹ which began to rise over the horizon—the "Albatross" was fifteen degrees below Cape¹⁰ Horn; twelve hundred miles more and she would cross the antarctic circle. Where she was, in this month of July, the night lasted nineteen hours and a half. The sun's disk—without warmth, without light—only appeared above the horizon to disappear almost immediately. At the pole the night lengthened³² into one of a hundred and seventy-nine days. Everything showed that the "Albatross" was about to plunge³³ into an abyss.
 
During the day an observation, had it been possible, would have given 66° 40' south latitude. The aeronef was within fourteen hundred miles of the pole.
 
Irresistibly³⁴ was she drawn³⁵ towards this inaccessible³⁶ corner of the globe, her speed eating up, so to speak, her weight, although she weighed less than before, owing to the flattening³⁷ of the earth at the pole. It seemed as though she could have dispensed³⁸ altogether with her suspensory screws. And soon the fury of the storm reached such a height that Robur thought it best to reduce the speed of her helices as much as possible, so as to avoid disaster. And only enough speed was given to keep the aeronef under control of the rudder.
 
Amid these dangers the engineer retained his imperturbable³⁹ coolness, and the crew obeyed him as if their leader's mind had entered into them. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans had not for a moment left the deck; they could remain without being disturbed. The air made but slight resistance. The aeronef was like an aerostat, which drifts with the fluid masses in which it is plunged⁴⁰.
 
Is the domain⁴¹ of the southern pole a continent or an archipelago? Or is it a palaeocrys............