The Count d'Artigas is perfectly aware of this mental disposition, having had a proof of it during his visit, and he evidently relies thereon to surprise sooner or later the inventor's secret.

But with what object?
"Thomas Roch!" I exclaim.
My voice seems to strike him, and after gazing at me fixedly for an instant he averts his eyes quickly.
I take his hand and press it.

He withdraws it brusquely and walks away, without having recognized me, in the direction of Captain Spade and Engineer Serko.
Does he think of speaking to one or other of these men, and if they speak to him will he be more reasonable than he was with me, and reply to them?
At this moment his physiognomy lights up with a gleam of intelligence.
His attention, obviously, has been attracted by the queer progress of the schooner.

He gazes at the masts and the furled sails.

Then he turns back and stops at the place where, if the _Ebba_ were a steamer, the funnel ought to be, and which in this case ought to be belching forth a cloud of black smoke.
What appeared so strange to me evidently strikes Thomas Roch as being strange, too.