Chapter 15 Chapter 15 The Eagle's Nest

Waking up from a deep sleep the next day, I found that the Terror seemed motionless.I don't think it is running on land, nor underwater, nor flying in the air.Could it be that the inventor of this monster has returned to his mysterious hiding place, where no one has ever been there? Now, since he no longer feels any threat from my presence, is it possible for me to learn more about the secret? To my amazement, I fell asleep most of the time the Terror was in the air.What puzzled me was whether, because the captain did not want me to know where the Terror was flying, some medicine had been added to my food at the last meal.All I can recall is that the "Terror" actually has quadruple kinetic energy, it can be converted into a car, boat, submarine, and spaceship at the same time, and can travel on the ground, in the sea, and in the air!What a huge power!Incredible speed!It only needs to be transformed in an instant!Use only one engine for the entire voyage!And I have witnessed the metamorphosis with my own eyes!However, what I still don't understand, but what I may be able to discover is what energy drives the "Terror"; most importantly, I need to know who is the inventor who has such an inspiration?He had created this extraordinary monster with such care and deliberation; he steered the Terror with such stamina, with such daring.

When the "Terror" took off from Niagara Falls in Canada, I was shut in the cabin, but the clear moonlight made me notice the direction of the spacecraft. The Terror traveled along the Niagara River, over a suspension bridge three miles below the falls.It was here that the Niagara River began to grow violent and torrential, before heading inexorably towards Lake Ontario. After the Terror flew over the drawbridge, I am sure she turned eastward.The captain was still at the helm.I didn't say a word to him, I don't know how to speak?Even if I do, he must not answer.I noticed how smoothly the Terror moved through the air.Evidently, it knows the air routes as well as it knows the sea and land.

Faced with such a situation, who can understand the contempt for everything and the immeasurable arrogance of this self-proclaimed "master of the world"?It is he who has mastered the machines that are superior to any humans can create so far, and is against humans, but humans are so helpless in the face of such monsters.In fact, why would he agree to sell the patent rights to this monstrosity?Why would he accept the huge sums of money offered to him?Yes, I get it, he's confident in what he's doing right now, and it shows in his demeanor and speech.But if this arrogance one day drives him mad, how will his ambition drive him to do other stupid things?

Half an hour after the "Terror" was in the air, I was completely unconscious, not knowing where it was going.I said it must be some kind of drug I was taking.Evidently the captain did not want me to know where he was going. So, I'm not sure if Terror's pilots are still flying the ship in the air, or on the sea, on the lake, or on the roads of America.On this night, the 31st of July, I knew nothing of the direction or course of the Terror. How will this adventure end?Especially what will happen to my fate? Where will the "Terror" go? I have said that when I awoke from a deep sleep the Terror seemed to me to be motionless.It's not an illusion, whichever way it's going, I've got to feel it running, even in the air, and I'm lying on my cot in the cabin just as I was dragged aboard the Terror that day on Lake Erie. like the night before.I was imprisoned without my knowing.

My concern now is whether I will be allowed to go on board the Terror, as the Terror must have landed.I tried to push the hatch open, but found it was firmly shut. "What to do!" I said to myself, "shall I be locked up here waiting for the Terror to sail again?" In fact, wasn't this another chance after my unsuccessful escape?You can imagine how worried and impatient I was.I don't know how long this stagnation will last. Before I had waited fifteen minutes, I heard the sound of the hatch latch being moved.The hatches were opened from the deck, and strong light and air came through the hatches.

I got on deck and looked quickly toward the horizon. As I expected, the "Dreadful" lay quietly on the ground, in the middle of a stone cave, about 150 to 180 feet around; Not a single weed in sight. The shape of this cave is a standard ellipse with a diameter in the north-south direction.As for the height of the cave wall and the shape of the top of the wall, I cannot judge.Over our heads there was a thick fog, impenetrable even to the sun's rays.Wisps of thick clouds floated over the gravel.Apparently, just after dawn, the clouds and mist will soon clear up. Although it was the first of August, it was so cold that I concluded that it must be in the north, or already above sea level. The Terror must still be somewhere in North America, though it was hard to say where.However fast the Terror was, she could not have crossed the ocean within twelve hours of leaving Niagara.

Just then I saw the captain coming out of a cave at the entrance of a stone wall, perhaps from a cave at the bottom of a cloud-hidden cliff.From time to time, above the cliff, there are giant birds flying, and only their piercing calls break the unusual silence.It was hard to say that they were alarmed by the arrival of a gigantic winged monster whose strength and speed were beyond their reach. All this leads me to believe that the Master of the World returns here from time to time after his long voyages in his Terror.Here is the garage for the Terror, the mooring for the Terror, and the hangar for the Terror.

The "Terror" stopped quietly on the ground of the cave at this moment.I finally got a chance to look at it, because its owner didn't seem to want to stop me from doing so.As it was, its owner seemed even less bothered by my presence now than before.His two assistants also appeared at this time, and the three immediately entered the cave I saw.For me, the opportunity is rare.At least I can observe the external structure of the "Terror" spacecraft; as for its internal structure, I may only guess at it, and I will never know. In fact, all the hatches were closed except the one in which I lived; and it must be in vain for me to try to open them.Anyway, it interested me to be able to find out what kind of thrusters were driving the Terror as it transformed so many times.

I jumped to the ground, and there was no one around.I can venture to make my first observations without interruption. As I have said before, the Terror is spindle-shaped, more tapered at the front than at the base.The fuselage is made of aluminum, and I can't tell what material the wings are made of.The fuselage is supported by four wheels, about two feet in diameter, and these pneumatic or compressed-air tires are very thick, so that they can run freely at any high speed.The wheel brake rods open like sculls or paddle-like planks to increase the speed of the Terror once it is on or under water.

However, these wheels are not yet the main thrusters.The propellers are two "Parsons" turbines placed on both sides of the keel of the fuselage.Due to the rapid drive of the engine, the turbine drives a pair of screw propellers forward in the water; however, I even doubt whether these propellers have enough power to propel the "Terror" through the air. Perhaps faster than any giant bird Fly in the sky with much more speed. As for the different variants of the Terror, I have said that its motive force is, and can only be, electricity.Where its accumulators get their power, though, I have no idea.Could it be that a generator is running in one of these caverns?

My first observation, as above, saw only the wheels, turbo-propellers, and wings; but I knew nothing of the engine it used, or the source of energy that drove it.Of course, this discovery may not be of any use to me, and to know all its secrets I must first be free.But I knew that the Master of the World could never set me free after I had learned some of the Terror's secrets. Of course, I still have the chance to escape, but does that happen automatically?If this opportunity was impossible while the Terror was sailing, is it possible for me to have it while the Terror is here? The first problem to be solved is to understand the location of the cave.How does it communicate with the outside world?Is it possible to leave here only by spaceship?Where the hell are we in America now?Was my judgment sound: the Terror had traveled hundreds of miles in the dark? The only thing worth considering is a perfectly natural inference, if in fact it cannot be accepted; could there be any better place for the Terror to hide than Mount Airi?Is it not obvious that it is not easy for our pilots to reach the summit of Mount Airi?Can pilots fly where only birds of prey or mountain hawks can go?And isn't this unclimbable, unclimbable mountain of Airy just such a hiding place that our policemen find hard to find, and the "master of the world" thinks it can hide from how to attack?Besides, the distance between Niagara Falls and the Blue Ridge Mountains was no more than four hundred and fifty miles, a distance that would have been extremely easy for the Terror to fly. Indeed, the idea grew stronger and stronger, and at the same time many unsubstantiated conjectures flooded into my mind.Could this explain the inevitable connection between Airi Kyoho and the letter I once received with the initials of "World Master"?Also explains the threats directed at me should I ever decide to climb Mount Airi again!And the subsequent surveillance and tracking of me.All these phenomena are planned and carried out in Airi Jufeng.Don't they all come down to the same cause - though what motive behind these phenomena is as yet unclear?Yes, here is Mount Airi!It must be so! But since, as I had not been able to enter the heart of Airi-Korea, was there any possibility for me to leave now but on board the Terror?Ah, if the clouds part, maybe I can make out where I am.What should have been a hypothesis now spurred me into action. In any case, I was still free to go about, for neither the captain himself nor his assistants paid me any attention at this time.I resolved to investigate the cave thoroughly.All three of them are now in a cave at the northern end of the oval cave.I can do it from the south end. I reached the cave, and walked carefully along the bottom, and found that here were many cracks, and there were more solid feldspar strips on it, and it is these feldspars that the rim of the Alakali Mountains is mainly composed of.However, it was still impossible for me to see the height of the stone wall and the shape of the top of the stone wall.I'll have to wait until the sun clears the fog away. Meanwhile, I continued to walk along the base of the wall; none of the grooves in the wall continued to connect to another.Debris left over from manual removal, piles of broken wood, and haystacks can be seen in several gutters.The footprints of the captain and his assistants, perhaps months before, could be seen in the sand on the ground. I'm sure the three of them were busy in the cave at the moment, for they hadn't been seen; they would never have come out without being ready or packing their belongings in bundles.Did they intend to put these things on board the "Terror"?Did they do this with the intention of leaving this hideout forever? Half an hour later, my exploration in the cave was completed and I returned to the center of the cave.Here and there heaps of gray sand, whitened by the effects of the weather; burnt wood and fragments of post and beams, rusted ironwork, metal warped and deformed by the fire, and destroyed by the conflagration The wreckage of some precision parts. Apparently, at some point in the not-too-distant future, there had been an accidental or deliberately planned fire in the cave?Naturally, I thought of what people had witnessed at the Great Peak of Airy; the fire that rose from the top of the mountain, and the strange sound that once made the people of Pleasant Garden Village and Morganton not panic.However, what these machines were, and why the captain wanted to destroy them was difficult to explain. At this moment, I felt a breeze blowing from the east.The sky soon became clear.The cave was filled with the rays of the sun rising from the horizon and between the peaks. I couldn't help being taken aback, and almost cried out!The cave walls were a hundred feet above me.On the east side is the easily recognizable peak of Heiding Mountain, which looks like a flying eagle.This was the very shape which had caught the attention of Mr. Elias Smith and myself, when we looked up at the summit from the outside of Airy. I have, therefore, left no doubt that the ship has indeed flown from Lake Erie to North Carolina during the night voyage.The spaceship landed right at the bottom of the peak of Mount Airi!This is where the captain's ingenious creation of the huge and powerful spaceship resides!Only he can set foot in this strong and dangerous place!And, perhaps he'd discovered some subterranean passage here at the bottom of some cavern by which he could leave Airy-Korea while keeping the Terror safe within it. I finally realized it!This explains the motive of the first letter from Ari Kyoho threatening me with death.If we had been able to enter this cave, we might have discovered all the secrets of the "World Ruler" before he had time to move safely! I stood there blankly, staring at the stone mountain eagle that was about to spread its wings and take off.Is it not my duty to destroy this machine, no matter what it may cost me?Without further ado, the Terror had to be destroyed before she would set off again on her aggressive, world-conquering voyage. Footsteps sounded behind me.I turned around, only to see the captain standing beside me, his eyes resting on my face. I couldn't help myself, and said aloud—— "Airi Giant Peak! Airi Giant Peak!" "Yes, Inspector Strucker!" "You, you are the 'master of the world'?" "I have proven to the world that I am worthy of being the most powerful man in the world!" "You!" I asked back, surprised. "It's me," he replied, unable to hide his domineering, domineering look. "It is I, Roble the Conqueror himself!"