My fellow travelers had doubtless eaten before I came out of the cabin, and they did not join me.
There was nothing further to attract my eyes, and I sank again into thought.

How would this adventure finish?
Would I see this invisible captain at length, and would he restore me to liberty?
Could I regain it in spite of him?
That would depend on circumstances! But if the "Terror" kept thus far away from the shore, or if she traveled beneath the water, how could I escape from her?
Unless we landed, and the machine became an automobile, must I not abandon all hope of escape?
Moreover--why should I not admit it ?--to escape without having learned anything of the "Terror's" secrets would not have contented me at all.

Although I could not thus far flatter myself upon the success of my campaign, and though I had come within a hairbreadth of losing my life and though the future promised far more of evil than of good, yet after all, a step forward had been attained.

To be sure, if I was never to be able to re-enter into communication with the world, if, like this Master of the World who had voluntarily placed himself outside the law, I was now placed outside humanity, then the fact that I had reached the "Terror" would have little value.
The craft continued headed to the northeast, following the longer axis of Lake Erie.

She was advancing at only half speed; for, had she been doing her best, she must some hours before have reached the northeastern extremity of the lake.
At this end Lake Erie has no other outlet than the Niagara River, by which it empties into Lake Ontario.