"We must try to escape," he said, "as soon as possible. I know now exactly how to work and steer the cars, and I know, too, how to lay my hands on a second battery."
"What do we want with a second battery?" said I.
"Well," said he, "I don't know what these batteries are made of; they are of solid stuff, not fluid, and yet they all waste very quickly. I doubt if any one of them will carry us as far as we may want to go; indeed, I am not sure that any two of them will be enough."
"But how are we to get away," said I; "we are so closely watched?"
"I'll tell you what I propose," he said. "We shall not retire to-night until an hour after dark, nor the next night, then we may hope that they will take it as a matter of course that we shall not retire on the third night until the same hour. But on the third night, immediately after dark, we shall make a bolt of it, and so we may hope for an hour's start."
"In the car?"
"Well, so I propose. I am aware that there is much to be said in favour of an attempt to escape on foot. These lozenges of theirs are meat and drink. We have had nothing else for several days, and we want nothing
