Ker Karraje and Engineer Serko had not gone yesterday, as I supposed, for I saw them in the evening.
To-day, however, I have reason to believe that they really have gone away in the tug with Captain Spade and the crew of the _Ebba_, and that the latter must be sailing away.
Have they set out on a piracy expedition?
Very likely.

It is equally likely that Ker Karraje, become once more the Count d'Artigas, travelling for pleasure on board his yacht, intends to put into some port on the American coast to procure the substances necessary to the preparation of Roch's fulgurator.
Ah! if it had only been possible for me to hide in the tug, to slip into the _Ebba's_ hold, and stow myself away there until the schooner arrived in port! Then perchance I might have escaped and delivered the world from this band of pirates.
It will be seen how tenaciously I cling to the thought of escape--of fleeing--fleeing at any cost from this lair.

But flight is impossible, except through the tunnel, by means of a submarine boat.

Is it not folly to think of such a thing?
Sheer folly, and yet what other way is there of getting out of Back Cup?
While I give myself up to these reflections the water of the lagoon opens a few yards from me and the tug appears.

The lid is raised and Gibson, the engineer, and the men issue on to the platform.