ROBUR THE CONQUEROR By Jules Verne Contents CHAPTER I Mysterious sounds CHAPTER II Agreement Impossible CHAPTER III A Visitor is Announced CHAPTER IV In Which a New Character Appears CHAPTER V Another Disappearance CHAPTER VI The President and Secretary Suspend Hostilities CHAPTER VII On board the Albatross CHAPTER VIII The Balloonists Refuse to be Convinced CHAPTER IX Across the Prairie CHAPTER X Westward—but Whither? CHAPTER XI The Wide Pacific CHAPTER XII Through the Himalayas CHAPTER XIII Over the Caspian CHAPTER XIV The Aeronef at Full Speed CHAPTER XV A Skirmish in Dahomey CHAPTER XVI Over the Atlantic CHAPTER XVII The Shipwrecked Crew CHAPTER XVIII Over the Volcano CHAPTER XIX Anchored at Last CHAPTER XX The Wreck of the Albatross CHAPTER XXI The Institute Again CHAPTER XXII The Go-Ahead is Launched CHAPTER XXIII The Grand Collapse Chapter I MYSTERIOUS SOUNDS BANG! Bang! The pistol shots were almost simultaneous. A cow peacefully grazing fifty yards away received one of the bullets in her back. She had nothing to do with the quarrel all the same. Neither of the adversaries was hit. Who were these two gentlemen? We do not know, although this would be an excellent opportunity to hand down their names to posterity. All we can say is that the elder was an Englishman and the younger an American, and both of them were old enough to know better. So far as recording in what locality the inoffensive ruminant had just tasted her last tuft of herbage, nothing can be easier. It was on the left bank of Niagara, not far from the suspension bridge which joins the American to the Canadian bank three miles from the falls. The Englishman stepped up to the American. “I contend, nevertheless, that it was ‘Rule Britannia!’” “And I say it was ‘Yankee Doodle!’” replied the young American. The dispute was about to begin again when one of the seconds—doubtless in the interests of the milk trade—interposed. “Suppose we say it was ‘Rule Doodle’ and ‘Yankee Britannia’ and adjourn to breakfast?” This compromise between the national airs of Great Britain and the United States was adopted to the general satisfaction. The Americans and Englishmen walked up the left bank of the Niagara on their way to Goat Island, the neutral ground between the falls. Let us leave them in the presence of the boiled eggs and traditional ham, and floods enough of tea to make the cataract jealous, and trouble ourselves no more about them. It is extremely unlikely that we shall again meet with them in this story. Which was right; the Englishman or the American? It is not easy to say. Anyhow the duel shows how great was the excitement, not only in the new but also in the old world, with regard to an inexplicable phenomenon which for a month or more had driven everybody to distraction.