“What is the matter?” asked Robur.
“Don’t you smell something? Isn’t it burning powder?”
“So it is, Tom.”
“And it comes from that cabin.”
“Yes, the very cabin—”
“Have those scoundrels set it on fire?”
“Suppose it is something else!” exclaimed Robur. “Force the door, Tom; drive in the door!”
But the mate had not made one step towards it when a fearful explosion shook the “Albatross.” The cabins flew into splinters. The lamps went out. The electric current suddenly failed. The darkness was complete. Most of the suspensory screws were twisted or broken, but a few in the bow still revolved.
At the same instant the hull of the aeronef opened just behind the first deck-house, where the engines for the fore-screw were placed; and the after-part of the deck collapsed in space.
Immediately the last suspensory screw stopped spinning, and the “Albatross” dropped into the abyss.