"
"Thomas Roch," I persist, in a final effort, "the Count d'Artigas and
Ker Karraje are one and the same person. If this man has purchased
your secret, it is with the intention of ensuring impunity for his
crimes and facilities for committing fresh ones. He is the chief of
these pirates."
"Pirates!" cries Roch, whose irritation increases the more I press
him. "The real pirates are those who dare to menace me even in this
retreat, who tried it on with the _Sword_--for Serko has told me
everything--who sought to steal in my own home what belongs to me,
what is but the just price of my discovery."
"No, Thomas Roch, the pirates are those who have imprisoned you in
this cavern of Back Cup, who will utilize your genius to defend it,
and who will get rid of you when they are in entire possession of your
secrets!"
Thomas Roch here interrupts me. He does not appear to listen to what I
say. He has a fixed idea, that of vengeance, which has been skilfully
worked upon by Engineer Serko, and in which his hatred is concentrated
to the exclusion of everything else.
"The bandits," he hisses, "are those who spurned me without a hearing,
who heaped injustice and ignominy upon me, who drove me from country
to country, whereas I offered them superiority, invincibleness,
omnipotence!"
It is the eternal story of the unappreciated inventor, to whom the
indifferent or envious refuse the means of testing his inventions, to
pay him the value he sets upon them.
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