Chapter 18 Chapter 18 Epilogue

I woke up after being unconscious for many hours, lying on a bed in one of the cabins, and was rescued by a group of sailors who were standing around me now.An officer sat next to my pillow.He asked me many questions, and as my consciousness gradually recovered, I answered them one by one. I told them everything I knew about the situation.Yes, everything!Apparently, in their view, they had rescued a sympathetic but not yet fully recovered man. At this moment, I am already on the "Ottawa" steamer.The ship sailing on the Gulf of Mexico will sail to the port of New Orleans. The "Ottawa" found the wreck of the "Terror" sinking at sea after escaping the storm that brought disaster to the "Terror".My dying body was fortunately supported by fragments of wreckage.

Thus again I survived; while Roble the Conqueror and his two companions were swallowed up by the waves of the Gulf of Mexico, and ended their adventure.The ruler of the world was hit by lightning, and before the moment, he dared to rush into the area where the lightning is most concentrated and can show its power the most.He has since disappeared forever, and all the secrets of his incredible invention have never been found.Never a clue. Five days later, the "Ottawa" was approaching the Louisiana coast.Arriving at the port on the morning of August 10, I reluctantly said goodbye to the sailors who rescued me, and then immediately took the train to Washington.More than once, I have despaired, thinking that it would never be possible to return to its side.

I went first to the Federal Police, hoping to get an early presence with Mr. Ward. You can imagine my superiors' astonishment when the door of Mr. Ward's office opened.He stared at me blankly, almost in disbelief that this was real, but then turned from surprise to joy.Yes, from my companion's report he had every reason to believe that I had been killed on Lake Erie. I told him everything that had happened since my disappearance: the chase by the destroyer on Lake Erie, the flight of the Terror over Niagara Falls and her stay on the summit of Mount Airy, the fires, the storms, and the Mexican disaster. encounter.

From my report, he knew for the first time that the "Terror" was invented by a genius named Roble, and that it could fly in the air just as it traveled on land and sea. In fact, isn't it a matter of course that a man with such a perfect and wondrous machine is called a "master of the world"?Undoubtedly, by his presence, the happiness and life of the public is forever threatened, and all measures of protection for it must be impotent and vulnerable. But I saw with my own eyes the haughtiness growing and developing in the heart of this mighty man, which drove him to an equal challenge to all the most terrible powers in the world, and it is needless to say that I could recover from that dreadful disaster. Escape was also a miracle.

Mr. Ward could hardly believe what I was telling. "Well, my dear Strack," he said at last, "you're back at last, and that's better than anything else. You'll be the most conspicuous person at the moment, except this notorious Roble. I hope you Don't be like this blind inventor, who is driven by vanity to fantasies." "Of course I don't, Mr. Ward," I replied; "but you must agree with me that no inquisitive man is ever willing to go into a corner to satisfy his curiosity." "Strucker, I agree. You have discovered the secret of Mount Airi, how the 'Terror' was transformed! Unfortunately, however, the most important secret of this 'World Master' is Gone forever with his death."

In the evening of the same day, various newspapers published accounts of my adventures, the veracity of which cannot be doubted.Then, as Mr. Ward had predicted, I became a household name. One newspaper wrote: "Thanks to Inspector Strucker, the American police are invincible in the world. Its officers and related personnel have performed their duties on land and at sea, no matter how great or small they are; No effort was spared in intercepting this criminal from the skies," But, as I have said, will what I have done in the pursuit of the interception of the Terror be obligatory at the end of the century to those who succeed me?

Imagine my old housekeeper's delight when I returned to my lodgings on Long Street.The moment my phantom--that's the right word for her--stood before her, I feared that the good-natured woman had fainted from terror.After listening to my story, her eyes were filled with tears, and she thanked God for bringing me back from a desperate situation. "You don't think, sir," she said, "that—I'm so wrong?" "What? Why do you say that?" "Did I say that Mount Airi is a den of devils?" "Nonsense, this Roble is not a devil!" "Well, you mean," replied the old butler, "but this fellow is a devil."