CHAPTER III.
THEY MAKE THEMSELVES AT HOME AND FEEL QUITE COMFORTABLE.
This curious explanation given, and its soundness immediatelyrecognized, the three friends were soon fast wrapped in the arms ofMorpheus. Where in fact could they have found a spot more favorable forundisturbed repose? On land, where the dwellings, whether in populouscity or lonely country, continually experience every shock that thrillsthe Earth's crust? At sea, where between waves or winds or paddles orscrews or machinery, everything is tremor, quiver or jar? In the air,where the balloon is incessantly twirling, oscillating, on account ofthe ever varying strata of different densities, and even occasionallythreatening to spill you out? The Projectile alone, floating grandlythrough the absolute void, in the midst of the profoundest silence,could offer to its inmates the possibility of enjoying slumber the mostcomplete, repose the most profound.
There is no telling how long our three daring travellers would havecontinued to enjoy their sleep, if it had not been suddenly terminatedby an unexpected noise about seven o'clock in the morning of December2nd, eight hours after their departure.
This noise was most decidedly of barking.
"The dogs! It's the dogs!" cried Ardan, springing up at a bound.
"They must be hungry!" observed the Captain.
"We have forgotten the poor creatures!" cried Barbican.
"Where can they have gone to?" asked Ardan, looking for them in alldirections.
At last they found one of them hiding under the sofa. Thunderstruck andperfectly bewildered by the terrible shock, the poor animal had keptclose in its hiding place, never daring to utter a sound, until at lastthe pangs of hunger had proved too strong even for its fright.
They readily recognized the amiable Diana, but they could not allure theshivering, whining animal from her retreat without a good deal ofcoaxing. Ardan talked to her in his most honeyed and seductive accents,while trying to pull her out by the neck.
"Come out to your friends, charming Diana," he went on, "come out, mybeauty, destined for a lofty niche in the temple of canine glory! Comeout, worthy scion of a race deemed worthy by the Egyptians to be acompanion of the great god, Anubis, by the Christians, to be a friend ofthe good Saint Roch! Come out and partake of a glory before which thestars of Montargis and of St. Bernard shall henceforward pale theirineffectual fire! Come out, my lady, and let me think o'er the countlessmultiplication of thy species, so that, while sailing through theinterplanetary spaces, we may indulge in endless flights of fancy onthe number and variety of thy descendants who will ere long render theSelenitic atmosphere vocal with canine ululation!"
MORE HUNGRY THAN EITHER.]
Diana, whether flattered or not, allowed herself to be dragged out,still uttering short, plaintive whines. A hasty examination satisfyingher friends that she was more frightened than hurt and more hungry thaneither, they continued their search for her companion.
"Satellite! Satellite! Step this way, sir!" cried Ardan. But noSatellite appeared and, what was worse, not the slightest sound indicatedhis presence. At last he was discovered on a ledge in the upper portionof the Projectile, whither he had been shot by the terrible concussion.Less fortunate than his female companion, the poor fellow had received afrightful shock and his life was evidently in great danger.
"The acclimatization project looks shaky!" cried Ardan, handing theanimal very carefully and tenderly to the others. Poor Satellite's headhad been crushed against the roof, but, though recovery seemed hopeless,they laid the body on a soft cushion, and soon had the satisfaction ofhearing it give vent to a slight sigh.
"Good!" said Ardan, "while there's life there's hope. You must not dieyet, old boy. We shall nurse you. We know our duty and shall not shirkthe responsibility. I should rather lose the right arm off my body thanbe the cause of your death, poor Satellite! Try a little water?"
The suffering creature swallowed the cool draught with evident avidity,then sunk into a deep slumber.
The friends, sitting around and having nothing more to do, looked out ofthe window and began once more to watch the Earth and the Moon withgreat attention. The glittering crescent of the Earth was evidentlynarrower than it had been the preceding evening, but its volume wasstill enormous when compared to the Lunar crescent, which was nowrapidly assuming the proportions of a perfect circle.
"By Jove," suddenly exclaimed Ardan, "why didn't we start at the momentof Full Earth?--that is when our globe and the Sun were in opposition?"
"Why _should_ we!" growled M'Nicholl.
"Because in that case we should be now looking at the great continentsand the great seas in a new light--the former glittering under the solarrays, the latter darker and somewhat shaded, as we see them on certainmaps. How I should like to get a glimpse at those poles of the Earth, onwhich the eye of man has never yet lighted!"
"True," replied Barbican, "but if the Earth had been Full, the Moonwould have been New, that is to say, invisible to us on account of solarirradiation. Of the two it is much preferable to be able to keep thepoint of arrival in view rather than the point of departure."
"You're right, Barbican," observed the Captain; "besides, once we're inthe Moon, the long Lunar night will give us plenty of time to gaze ourfull at yonder great celestial body, our former home, and stillswarming with our fellow beings."
"Our fellow beings no longer, dear boy!" cried Ardan. "We inhabit a newworld peopled by ourselves alone, the Projectile! Ardan is Barbican'sfellow being, and Barbican M'Nicholl's. Beyond us, outside us, humanityends, and we are now the only inhabitants of this microcosm, and so weshall continue till the moment when we become Selenites pure andsimple."
"Which shall be in about eighty-eight hours from now," replied theCaptain.
"Which is as much as to say--?" asked Ardan.
"That it is half past eight," replied M'Nicholl.
"My regular hour for breakfast," exclaimed Ardan, "and I don't see theshadow of a reason for changing it now."
The proposition was most acceptable, especially to the Captain, whofrequently boasted that, whether on land or water, on mountain summitsor in the depths of mines, he had never missed a meal in all his life.In escaping from the Earth, our travellers felt that they had by nomeans escaped from the laws of humanity, and their stomachs now calledon them lustily to fill the aching void. Ardan, as a Frenchman, claimedthe post of chief cook, an important office, but his companions yieldedit with alacrity. The gas furnished the requisite heat, and theprovision chest supplied the materials for their first repast. Theycommenced with three plates of excellent soup, extracted from _Liebig's_precious tablets, prepared from the best beef that ever roamed over thePampas.
To this succeeded several tenderloin beefsteaks, which, though reducedto a small bulk by the hydraulic engines of the _American DessicatingCompany_, were pronounced to be fully as tender, juicy and savory as ifthey had just left the gridiron of a London Club House. Ardan even sworethat they were "bleeding," and the others were too busy to contradicthim.
Preserved vegetables of various kinds, "fresher than nature," accordingto Ardan, gave an agreeable variety to the entertainment, and these werefollowed by several cups of magnificent tea, unanimously allowed to bethe best they had ever tasted. It was an odoriferous young hysongathered that very year, and presented to the Emperor of Russia by thefamous rebel chief Yakub Kushbegi, and of which Alexander had expressedhimself as very happy in being able to send a few boxes to his friend,the distinguished President of the Baltimore Gun Club. To crown themeal, Ardan unearthed an exquisite bottle of _Chambertin_, and, inglasses sparkling with the richest juice of the _Cote d'or,_ thetravellers drank to the speedy union of the Earth and her satellite.
And, as if his work among the generous vineyards of Burgundy had notbeen enough to show his interest in the matter, even the Sun wished tojoin the party. Precisely at this moment, the Projectile beginning toleave the conical shadow cast by the Earth, the rays of the gloriousKing of Day struck its lower surface, not obliquely, butpe
rpendicularly, on account of the slight obliquity of the Moon's orbitwith that of the Earth.
TO THE UNION OF THE EARTH AND HER SATELLITE.]
"The Sun," cried Ardan.
"Of course," said Barbican, looking at his watch, "he's exactly up totime."
"How is it that we see him only through the bottom light of ourProjectile?" asked Ardan.
"A moment's reflection must tell you," replied Barbican, "that when westarted last night, the Sun was almost directly below us; therefore, aswe continue to move in a straight line, he must still be in our rear."
"That's clear enough," said the Captain, "but another consideration, I'mfree to say, rather perplexes me. Since our Earth lies between us andthe Sun, why don't we see the sunlight forming a great ring around theglobe, in other words, instead of the full Sun that we plainly see therebelow, why do we not witness an annular eclipse?"
"Your cool, clear head has not yet quite recovered from the shock, mydear Captain;" replied Barbican, with a smile. "For two reasons we can'tsee the ring eclipse: on account of the angle the Moon's orbit makeswith the Earth, the three bodies are not at present in a direct line;we, therefore, see the Sun a little to the west of the earth; secondly,even if they were exactly in a straight line, we should still be farfrom the point whence an annular eclipse would be visible."
"That's true," said Ardan; "the cone of the Earth's shadow must extendfar beyond the Moon."
"Nearly four times as far," said Barbican; "still, as the Moon's orbitand the Earth's do not lie in exactly the same plane, a Lunar eclipsecan occur only when the nodes coincide with the period of the Full Moon,which is generally twice, never more than three times in a year. If wehad started about four days before the occurrence of a Lunar eclipse, weshould travel all the time in the dark. This would have been obnoxiousfor many reasons."
"One, for instance?"
"An evident one is that, though at the present moment we are movingthrough a vacuum, our Projectile, steeped in the solar rays, revels intheir light and heat. Hence great saving in gas, an important point inour household economy."
In effect, the solar rays, tempered by no genial medium like ouratmosphere, soon began to glare and glow with such intensity, that theProjectile under their influence, felt like suddenly passing from winterto summer. Between the Moon overhead and the Sun beneath it was actuallyinundated with fiery rays.
"One feels good here," cried the Captain, rubbing his hands.
"A little too good," cried Ardan. "It's already like a hot-house. With alittle garden clay, I could raise you a splendid crop of peas intwenty-four hours. I hope in heaven the walls of our Projectile won'tmelt like wax!"
"Don't be alarmed, dear friend," observed Barbican, quietly. "TheProjectile has seen the worst as far as heat is concerned; when tearingthrough the atmosphere, she endured a temperature with which what she isliable to at present stands no comparison. In fact, I should not beastonished if, in the eyes of our friends at Stony Hill, it hadresembled for a moment or two a red-hot meteor."
"Poor Marston must have looked on us as roasted alive!" observed Ardan.
"What could have saved us I'm sure I can't tell," replied Barbican. "Imust acknowledge that against such a danger, I had made no provisionwhatever."
"I knew all about it," said the Captain, "and on the strength of it, Ihad laid my fifth wager."
"Probably," laughed Ardan, "there was not time enough to get grilled in:I have heard of men who dipped their fingers into molten iron withimpunity."
Whilst Ardan and the Captain were arguing the point, Barbican beganbusying himself in making everything as comfortable as if, instead of afour days' journey, one of four years was contemplated. The reader, nodoubt, remembers that the floor of the Projectile contained about 50square feet; that the chamber was nine feet high; that space waseconomized as much as possible, nothing but the most absolutenecessities being admitted, of which each was kept strictly in its ownplace; therefore, the travellers had room enough to move around in witha certain liberty. The thick glass window in the floor was quite assolid as any other part of it; but the Sun, streaming in from below,lit up the Projectile strangely, producing some very singular andstartling effects of light appearing to come in by the wrong way.
The first thing now to be done was to see after the water cask and theprovision chest. They were not injured in the slightest respect, thanksto the means taken to counteract the shock. The provisions were in goodcondition, and abundant enough to supply the travellers for a wholeyear--Barbican having taken care to be on the safe side, in case theProjectile might land in a deserted region of the Moon. As for the waterand the other liquors, the travellers had enough only for two months.Relying on the latest observations of astronomers, they had convincedthemselves that the Moon's atmosphere, being heavy, dense and thick inthe deep valleys, springs and streams of water could hardly fail to showthemselves there. During the journey, therefore, and for the first yearof their installation on the Lunar continent, the daring travellerswould be pretty safe from all danger of hunger or thirst.
The air supply proved also to be quite satisfactory. The _Reiset_ and_Regnault_ apparatus for producing oxygen contained a supply of chlorateof potash sufficient for two months. As the productive material had tobe maintained at a temperature of between 7 and 8 hundred degrees Fahr.,a steady consumption of gas was required; but here too the supply farexceeded the demand. The whole arrangement worked charmingly, requiringonly an odd glance now and then. The high temperature changing thechlorate into a chloride, the oxygen was disengaged gradually butabundantly, every eighteen pounds of chlorate of potash, furnishing theseven pounds of oxygen necessary for the daily consumption of theinmates of the Projectile.
Still--as the reader need hardly be reminded--it was not sufficient torenew the exhausted oxygen; the complete purification of the airrequired the absorption of the carbonic acid, exhaled from the lungs.For nearly 12 hours the atmosphere had been gradually becoming more andmore charged with this deleterious gas, produced from the combustion ofthe blood by the inspired oxygen. The Captain soon saw this, by noticingwith what difficulty Diana was panting. She even appeared to besmothering, for the carbonic acid--as in the famous _Grotto del Cane_ onthe banks of Lake Agnano, near Naples--was collecting like water on thefloor of the Projectile, on account of its great specific gravity. Italready threatened the poor dog's life, though not yet endangering thatof her masters. The Captain, seeing this state of things, hastily laidon the floor one or two cups containing caustic potash and water, andstirred the mixture gently: this substance, having a powerful affinityfor carbonic acid, greedily absorbed it, and after a few moments the airwas completely purified.
The others had begun by this time to check off the state of theinstruments. The thermometer and the barometer were all right, exceptone self-recorder of which the glass had got broken. An excellentaneroid barometer, taken safe and sound out of its wadded box, wascarefully hung on a hook in the wall. It marked not only the pressure ofthe air in the Projectile, but also the quantity of the watery vaporthat it contained. The needle, oscillating a little beyond thirty,pointed pretty steadily at "_Fair_."
The mariner's compasses were also found to be quite free from injury. Itis, of course, hardly necessary to say that the needles pointed in noparticular direction, the magnetic pole of the Earth being unable atsuch a distance to exercise any appreciable influence on them. But whenbrought to the Moon, it was expected that these compasses, once moresubjected to the influence of the current, would attest certainphenomena. In any case, it would be interesting to verify if the Earthand her satellite were similarly affected by the magnetic forces.
A hypsometer, or instrument for ascertaining the heights of the Lunarmountains by the barometric pressure under which water boils, a sextantto measure the altitude of the Sun, a theodolite for taking horizontalor vertical angles, telescopes, of indispensable necessity when thetravellers should approach the Moon,--all these instruments, carefullyexamined, were found to be still in perf
ect working order,notwithstanding the violence of the terrible shock at the start.
As to the picks, spades, and other tools that had been carefullyselected by the Captain; also the bags of various kinds of grain andthe bundles of various kinds of shrubs, which Ardan expected totransplant to the Lunar plains--they were all still safe in their placesaround the upper corners of the Projectile.
Some other articles were also up there which evidently possessed greatinterest for the Frenchman. What they were nobody else seemed to know,and he seemed to be in no hurry to tell. Every now and then, he wouldclimb up, by means of iron pins fixed in the wall, to inspect histreasures; whatever they were, he arranged them and rearranged them withevident pleasure, and as he rapidly passed a careful hand throughcertain mysterious boxes, he joyfully sang in the falsest possible offalse voices the lively piece from _Nicolo_:
_Le temps est beau, la route est belle, La promenade est un plaisir_.
{The day is bright, our hearts are light.} {How sweet to rove through wood and dell.}
or the well known air in _Mignon_:
_Legeres hirondelles, Oiseaux benis de Dieu, Ouvrez-ouvrez vos ailes, Envolez-vous! adieu!_
{Farewell, happy Swallows, farewell!} {With summer for ever to dwell} {Ye leave our northern strand} {For the genial southern land} {Balmy with breezes bland.} {Return? Ah, who can tell?} {Farewell, happy Swallows, farewell!}
Barbican was much gratified to find that his rockets and other fireworkshad not received the least injury. He relied upon them for theperformance of a very important service as soon as the Projectile,having passed the point of neutral attraction between the Earth and theMoon, would begin to fall with accelerated velocity towards the Lunarsurface. This descent, though--thanks to the respective volumes of theattracting bodies--six times less rapid than it would have been on thesurface of the Earth, would still be violent enough to dash theProjectile into a thousand pieces. But Barbican confidently expected bymeans of his powerful rockets to offer very considerable obstruction tothe violence of this fall, if not to counteract its terrible effectsaltogether.
The inspection having thus given general satisfaction, the travellersonce more set themselves to watching external space through the lightsin the sides and the floor of the Projectile.
Everything still appeared to be in the same state as before. Nothing waschanged. The vast arch of the celestial dome glittered with stars, andconstellations blazed with a light clear and pure enough to throw anastronomer into an ecstasy of admiration. Below them shone the Sun, likethe mouth of a white-hot furnace, his dazzling disc defined sharply onthe pitch-black back-ground of the sky. Above them the Moon, reflectingback his rays from her glowing surface, appeared to stand motionless inthe midst of the starry host.
A little to the east of the Sun, they could see a pretty large darkspot, like a hole in the sky, the broad silver fringe on one edge fadingoff into a faint glimmering mist on the other--it was the Earth. Hereand there in all directions, nebulous masses gleamed like large flakesof star dust, in which, from nadir to zenith, the eye could tracewithout a break that vast ring of impalpable star powder, the famous_Milky Way_, through the midst of which the beams of our glorious Sunstruggle with the dusky pallor of a star of only the fourth magnitude.
Our observers were never weary of gazing on this magnificent and novelspectacle, of the grandeur of which, it is hardly necessary to say, nodescription can give an adequate idea. What profound reflections itsuggested to their understandings! What vivid emotions it enkindled intheir imaginations! Barbican, desirous of commenting the story of thejourney while still influenced by these inspiring impressions, notedcarefully hour by hour every fact that signalized the beginning of hisenterprise. He wrote out his notes very carefully and systematically,his round full hand, as business-like as ever, never betraying theslightest emotion.
The Captain was quite as busy, but in a different way. Pulling out histablets, he reviewed his calculations regarding the motion ofprojectiles, their velocities, ranges and paths, their retardations andtheir accelerations, jotting down the figures with a rapidity wonderfulto behold. Ardan neither wrote nor calculated, but kept up an incessantfire of small talk, now with Barbican, who hardly ever answered him,now with M'Nicholl, who never heard him, occasionally with Diana, whonever understood him, but oftenest with himself, because, as he said, heliked not only to talk to a sensible man but also to hear what asensible man had to say. He never stood still for a moment, but kept"bobbing around" with the effervescent briskness of a bee, at one timeroosting at the top of the ladder, at another peering through the floorlight, now to the right, then to the left, always humming scraps fromthe _Opera Bouffe_, but never changing the air. In the small space whichwas then a whole world to the travellers, he represented to the life theanimation and loquacity of the French, and I need hardly say he playedhis part to perfection.
The eventful day, or, to speak more correctly, the space of twelve hourswhich with us forms a day, ended for our travellers with an abundantsupper, exquisitely cooked. It was highly enjoyed.
No incident had yet occurred of a nature calculated to shake theirconfidence. Apprehending none therefore, full of hope rather and alreadycertain of success, they were soon lost in a peaceful slumber, whilstthe Projectile, moving rapidly, though with a velocity uniformlyretarding, still cleaved its way through the pathless regions of theempyrean.