"Eh! eh! my boy!" said he.

"So you are not crying any more?
Perhaps it hurt you too much?
That two hours hanging cured you of it?
At our present rate, what a splendid air-bath you might have for your rheumatics!" "It seems to me we shall soon go to pieces!" "Perhaps so; but we shall go so fast we shan't have time to fall! That is some comfort!" "Do you think so ?" "I do." To tell the truth, and not to exaggerate like Tapage, it was only reasonable that owing to the excessive speed the work of the suspensory screws should be somewhat lessened.

The "Albatross" glided on its bed of air like a Congreve rocket.
"And shall we last long like that ?" asked Frycollin.
"Long?
Oh, no, only as long as we live!" "Oh!" said the Negro, beginning his lamentations.
"Take care, Fry, take care! For, as they say in my country, the master may send you to the seesaw!" And Frycollin gulped down his sobs as he gulped down the meat which, in double doses, he was hastily swallowing.
Meanwhile Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans, who were not men to waste time in wrangling when nothing could come of it, agreed upon doing something.

It was evident that escape was not to be thought of.

But if it was impossible for them to again set foot on the terrestrial globe, could they not make known to its inhabitants what had become of them since their disappearance, and tell them by whom they had been carried off, and provoke--how was not very clear--some audacious attempt on the part of their friends to rescue them from Robur?
Communicate?
But how?
Should they follow the example of sailors in distress and enclose in a bottle a document giving the place of shipwreck and throw it into the sea?
But here the sea was the atmosphere.