chlorate. He also put the receptacle for hydrogen gas there and the jars containing caustic potash, reserving the table for chemical and culinary operations.
Finally, under the table he deposited all the fishing equipment and three-diving suits, indispensable to the travelers for descending from their boat into the sea.
At the other extremity of the cabin, below the lever controlling the rudder, next to the compass, Trinitus placed another small table, which served as a desk for a portable compass, a sextant, and excellent microscope, a few books and several large maps of the Atlantic and Oceania. He also suspended a mercury barometer at that location, and three good thermometers for the air and for the water.
Two folding chairs, two hammocks and a basket containing a few clothes completed the ship’s equipment.
All the preparations having been completed, the departure was set for the next day, at nightfall.
The excited voyagers met up again at two o’clock in the afternoon in Trinitus’ house. The scientist had spent the morning loading the enormous Daniel piles that were to power the boat with acidulated copper sulfate, and he had checked all his calculations one last time.
When Nicaise and Marcel presented themselves, dressed in woolen clothes and shod in tarred gaiters, the skillful technologist shook their hands effusively, and could not help a tear rolling down his cheek.
“My dear friends,” he said, “You have no fear of exposing yourselves, with me, to the thousand dangers that might perhaps await us; let me express all my gratitude, and to regard you from now on as beloved brothers.”
Nicaise and Marcel, their hearts swelling, stammered a few words and went back in with the scientist.
It had been decided that they would eat dinner before leaving, but their emotion was stronger than their appetite. At table, they only talked about the voyage, and especially the dear absentees of whom they were going in search.
Nicaise reminisced about the good Madame Thérèse; he recalled her excellent qualities one by one, saying how gentle, charitable and generous she was.
Marcel, for his part, spoke admiringly about Alice. What a charming child! What pretty eyes she had! What beautiful blonde hair! What a gracious smile!
Trinitus only contrived a few remarks through his tears. Where were they now, those poor beloved women? Had they survived the shipwreck? Perhaps, alas, fallen into the hands of some savage tribe, they were enduring the most atrocious torments!
At that terrible thought, the scientist’s face took on an expression of the most profound dolor. His fists clenched convulsively. He became annoyed with himself for not having left yet.
However, as dusk gradually fell, the three men got up, locked up the house and went to the laboratory.
Trinitus opened a huge door with two battens, separated from the sea by a terrace about thirty meters broad, and the scientist’s two companions understood that it was only necessary to push the machine to set it afloat immediately.
“The way is open!” said Trinitus. “There are little wheels under the boat; we only have to push.…”
“Come on, hard!” exclaimed Nicaise, and ran forward to be the first to lean on the propeller to launch the ship.”
“Off we go!” replied Trinitus and Marcel.
Immediately, a kind of frenzy took hold of the three travelers. The boat, pushed out of the laboratory with an incredible energy, traversed the terrace and slid gently on to the surface of the waves.…
Marcel and Nicaise, transported by enthusiasm, uttered a cry of admiration and surprise, and even Trinitus stood still momentarily in amazement.
“It’s splendid!” he cried.
At that moment, in fact, the moon illuminated the dome of the machine, making it shine like a ruby sphere, and the sky, reflected in the glass of its portholes, was reproduced there with its thousands of stars.
“I’ll embark first!” said Marcel.
“You next, Nicaise,” said Trinitus.
“I’d like that—but before then, I want to baptize the ship.”
“So be it!” said the scientist.
“Let’s call her the Éclair, since lightning is powering her.”
“That name suits her marvelously. We’ll make twenty-five leagues an hour, and tomorrow evening, God willing, we’ll be in the Azores.…”
1. The meat extract produced by Justus von Liebig’s Meat Extract Company, founded in 1865, was eventually trademarked as “Oxo.”
CHAPTER TWO
AT SEA
When Nicaise had taken his place in the boat beside Marcel, Trinitus went inside in his turn, carefully sealed the porthole and put his hand on the lever that served to direct the electric current into the mechanisms of the ship.
“No one will miss the land?” he asked.
“No, no—let’s go,” replied Nicaise and Marcel, simultaneously.
“Well, may God preserve us!” exclaimed Trinitus.
There was a slight shock; the lamp fixed in the ceiling of the cabin suddenly projected a bright light, and the Éclair shot across the surface of the waves with the rapidity of a shooting star traversing the sky.
“We’re flying like a swallow!” said Nicaise.
“Not yet,” Trinitus replied, “but we’ll travel much faster under water. I’m trying to reach the middle of the Channel. There are two sand-banks to avoid: the Varne Bank, where the Dutch three-master Maria Jacoba ran aground a few years ago; and the Colbart Bank, which is no less dangerous.…”
“How will you navigate?” asked Marcel.
“By means of the lighthouse on Cap Gris-Nez, which I can see through the window,” the scientist replied.
“I can see it too,” said Nicaise, “and I think that we ought to be level with the Colbart Bank now.”
“That’s my opinion…let’s go a little bit further.…”
“There—now!”
“We’re there. Pay attention.…”
“One moment!” said Marcel, hastening to the window that looked out upon France.
The boat stopped, and the three voyagers turned their gazes toward the gray and misty ribbon that limited the southern horizon.
“This is it!” murmured Marcel, sighing.
Trinitus’ eyes filled with tears. Nicaise felt, to his surprise, that his heart was beating faster.
“What is it?” he said. “I’ve almost drowned twenty times over; I’ve been frozen fishing for cod off the coast of Iceland; I’ve fought polar bears without ever flinching, and now I go weak! Come on, come on—let’s light a pipe and get on with it!”
No matter how much effort he made to master his emotion, however, the old mariner allowed a tear to leak from his eye when Trinitus shook his hand and said to him: “I’m hopeful, Nicaise, that our wishes will be granted. We’ll find my dear Thérèse and my beloved Alice! I have a feeling that tells me so. If anything bad were going to happen to us, the sky would not have that purity—a good augury, which inspires me and revives my courage!”
The sky was, indeed, displayed in all its splendor that evening. Not one cloud could be seen; the moon and stars had never shone more brightly. The sea, ordinarily choppy off the Pas-de-Calais, was calm and tranquil; it had doubtless come to an understanding with the sky. Only a few soft and tender waves swayed the boat very slightly at intervals, and their crests could be seen breaking in the distance,