He seemed to me under the dominance of a continuous excitement.

What was it that his ever-seething brain now meditated?
What projects was he forming for the future?
Toward what region would he now turn?
Would he put in execution the menaces expressed in his letter--the menaces of a madman! The night of that first day, I slept on a couch of dry grass in one of the grottoes of the Great Eyrie.

Food was set for me in this grotto each succeeding day.

On the second and third of August, the three men continued at their work scarcely once, however, exchanging any words, even in the midst of their labors.

When the engines were all repaired to Robur's satisfaction, the men began putting stores aboard their craft, as if expecting a long absence.