Clipper of the Clouds - Tapa dura

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 edition. Excerpt: ...was all that was to be seen of the French capital. At four o'clock in the morning the Albatross had crossed the whole country obliquely; and so as to lose no time in traversing the Alps or the Pyrenees, she flew over the face of Provence to the cape of Antibes. At nine o'clock next morning the San Pietrini assembled on the terrace of Saint Peter at Rome were astounded to see her pass over the eternal city. Two hours afterwards she crossed the Bay of Naples and hovered for an instant over the fuliginous wreaths of Vesuvius. Then, after cutting obliquely across the the Mediterranean, in the early hours of the afternoon she was signalled by the look-outs at La Goulette on the Tunisian coast. After America, Asia! After Asia, Europe! More than eighteen thousand miles had this wonderful machine accomplished in less than twenty-three days! And now she was off over the known and unknown regions of Africa! It may be interesting to know what had happened to the famous snuff-box after its fall? It had fallen in the Rue de Rivoli, opposite No. 200, when the street was deserted. In the morning it was picked up by an honest sweeper, who took it to the prefecture of police. There it was at first supposed to be an infernal machine. And it was untied, examined, and opened with extreme care. Suddenly a sort of explosion took place. It was a terrific sneeze on the part of the inspector. The document was then extracted from the snuff-box, and, to the general surprise, read as follows: --"Messrs. Prudent and Phil Evans, president and secretary of the Weldon Institute, Philadelphia, have been carried off in the aeronef Albatross belonging to Robur the engineer.. "Please inform our friends and acquaintances." "P. and P. E." Thus was the...