At Uncle Prudent's request Frycollin tried to pump the cook as to whither the engineer was bound, but what reliance could be placed on the information given by this Gascon?
Sometimes Robur was an ex-minister of the Argentine Republic, sometimes a lord of the Admiralty, sometimes an ex-President of the United States, sometimes a Spanish general temporarily retired, sometimes a Viceroy of the Indies who had sought a more elevated position in the air.

Sometimes he possessed millions, thanks to successful razzias in the aeronef, and he had been proclaimed for piracy.

Sometimes he had been ruined by making the aeronef, and had been forced to fly aloft to escape from his creditors.

As to knowing if he were going to stop anywhere, no! But if he thought of going to the moon, and found there a convenient anchorage, he would anchor there! "Eh! Fry! My boy! That would just suit you to see what was going on up there." "I shall not go! I refuse!" said the Negro, who took all these things seriously.
"And why, Fry, why?
You might get married to some pretty bouncing Lunarian!" Frycollin reported this conversation to his master, who saw it was evident that nothing was to be learnt about Robur.

And so he thought still more of how he could have his revenge on him.
"Phil," said he one day, "is it quite certain that escape is impossible ?" "Impossible." "Be it so! But a man is always his own property; and if necessary, by sacrificing his life--" "If we are to make that sacrifice," said Phil Evans, "the sooner the better.