To employ it I must first be free.

And after what I knew--little as that really was--the Master of the World would never release me.
There remained, it is true, the chance of escape.

But would an opportunity ever present itself?
If there could be none during the voyages of the "Terror," might there possibly be, while we remained in this retreat?
The first question to be solved was the location of this hollow.

What communication did it have with the surrounding region?
Could one only depart from it by a flying-machine?
And in what part of the United States were we?
Was it not reasonable to estimate, that our flight through the darkness had covered several hundred leagues?
There was one very natural hypothesis which deserved to be considered, if not actually accepted.

What more natural harbor could there be for the "Terror" than the Great Eyrie?
Was it too difficult a flight for our aviator to reach the summit?
Could he not soar anywhere that the vultures and the eagles could?
Did not that inaccessible Eyrie offer to the Master of the World just such a retreat as our police had been unable to discover, one in which he might well believe himself safe from all attacks?
Moreover, the distance between Niagara Falls and this part of the Blueridge Mountains, did not exceed four hundred and fifty miles, a flight which would have been easy for the "Terror." Yes, this idea more and more took possession of me.