"Our engines are now completed, and when the fine weather returns we shall resume offensive operations." "Against unfortunate merchantmen." "As unfortunate as they are richly laden." "Acts of piracy, whose impunity will, I trust, not always be assured," I cried..
"Calm yourself, dear colleague, be calm! Be calm! No one, you know, can ever discover our retreat, and none can ever disclose the secret! Besides, with these engines, which are so easily handled and are of such terrible power, it would be easy for us to blow to pieces any ship that attempted to get within a certain radius of the island." "Providing," I said, "that Thomas Roch has sold you the composition of his deflagrator as he has sold you that of his fulgurator." "That he has done, Mr.Hart, and it behooves me to set your mind at rest upon that point." From this categorical response I ought to have concluded that the misfortune had been consummated, but a certain hesitation in the intonation of his voice warned me that implicit reliance was not to be placed upon Engineer Serko's assertions.
_October 25_ .-- What a frightful adventure I have just been mixed up in, and what a wonder I did not lose my life! It is only by a miracle that I am able to resume these notes, which have been interrupted for forty-eight hours.

With a little luck, I should have been delivered! I should now be in one of the Bermudan ports--St.George or Hamilton.
The mysteries of Back Cup would have been cleared up.

The description of the schooner would have been wired all over the world, and she would not dare to put into any port.

The provisioning of Back Cup would be impossible, and Ker Karraje's bandits would be condemned to starve to death! This is what occurred: At eight o'clock in the evening on October 23, I quitted my cell in an indefinable state of nervousness, and with a presentiment that a serious event was imminent.

In vain I had tried to seek calmness in sleep.