Still he has already made a few drops of it with which those experiments were made, and he will furnish as with some more to blow a hole through the wall." "But what about our expeditions at sea ?" queried Ker Karraje.
"Patience! We shall end by getting Roch's thunderbolts entirely in our own hand, and then----" "Are you sure, Serko ?" "Quite sure,--by paying the price, Ker Karraje." The conversation dropped at this point, and they strolled off without having seen me--very luckily for me, I guess.

If Engineer Serko spoke up somewhat in defence of a colleague, Ker Karraje is apparently animated with much less benevolent sentiments in regard to me.

On the least suspicion they would throw me into the lake, and if I ever got through the tunnel, it would only be as a corpse carried out by the ebbing tide.
_August 21_ .-- Engineer Serko has been prospecting with a view to piercing the proposed passage through the wall, in such a way that its existence will never be dreamed of outside.

After a minute examination he decided to tunnel through the northern end of the cavern about sixty feet from the first cells of the Beehive.
I am anxious for the passage to be made, for who knows but what it may be the way to freedom for me?
Ah! if I only knew how to swim, perhaps I should have attempted to escape through the submarine tunnel, as since it was disclosed by the lashing back of the waters by the whale in its death-struggle, I know exactly where the orifice is situated.
It seems to me that at the time of the great tides, this orifice must be partly uncovered.

At the full and new moon, when the sea attains its maximum depression below the normal level, it is possible that--I must satisfy myself about this.
I do not know how the fact will help me in any way, even if the entrance to the tunnel is partly uncovered, but I cannot afford to miss any detail that may possibly aid in my escape from Back Cup.
_August 29_ .-- This morning I am witnessing the departure of the tug.
The Count d'Artigas is, no doubt, going off in the _Ebba_ to fetch the sections of Thomas Roch's engines.