The door of my cabin opens, and I rush out and clamber on to the platform.
I look around and find that the tug has penetrated to the interior of Back Cup mountain.
This is the mysterious retreat where Count d’Artigas lives with his companions—out of the world, so to speak.
CHAPTER IX.
INSIDE BACK CUP
The next morning I am able to make a first inspection of the vast cavern of Back Cup. No one seeks to prevent me.
What a night I have passed! What strange visions I have seen! With what impatience I waited for morning!
I was conducted to a grotto about a hundred paces from the edge of the lake where the tug stopped. The grotto, twelve feet by ten, was lighted by an incandescent lamp, and fitted with an entrance door that was closed upon me.
I am not surprised that electricity is employed in lighting the interior of the cavern, as it is also used in the submarine boat. But where is it generated? Where does it come from? Is there a manufactory installed somewhere or other in this vast crypt, with machinery, dynamos and accumulators?