CHAPTER XIII.
GOD BE WITH IT.
_From August 29 to September 10_ .-- Thirteen days have gone by and the _Ebba_ has not returned.

Did she then not make straight for the American coast?
Has she been delayed by a buccaneering cruise in the neighborhood of Back Cup?
It seems to me that Ker Karraje's only desire would be to get back with the sections of Roch's engines as soon as possible.

Maybe the Virginian foundry had not quite finished them.
Engineer Serko does not display the least anxiety or impatience.

He continues to greet me with his accustomed ironical cordiality, and with a kindly air that I distrust--with good reason.

He affects to be solicitous as to my health, urges me to make the best of a bad job, calls me Ali Baba, assures me that there is not, in the whole world, such an enchanting spot as this Arabian Nights cavern, observes that I am fed, warmed, lodged, and clothed, that I have no taxes to pay, and that even the inhabitants of the favored principality of Monaco do not enjoy an existence more free from care.
Sometimes this ironical verbiage brings the blood to my face, and I am tempted to seize this cynical banterer by the throat and choke the life out of him.