United States or Syria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The half-dozen loaves of brine-pulped bread, which the cook had brought, did not count. Then there were three small barrels of water and one small keg of beer. Captain Nicholl frankly admitted that in this uncharted ocean he had no knowledge of any near land.
He proposed to fix the plate within two hundred yards of the gun. Barbicane still obstinate in refusal. A hundred yards? Not even seventy-five! "At fifty then!" roared the captain through the newspapers. "At twenty-five yards! and I'll stand behind!" Barbicane returned for answer that, even if Captain Nicholl would be so good as to stand in front, he would not fire any more.
Therefore, in such a circumstance, and without any restriction being put upon the rights of free citizens, it was one of those cases in which the intervention of government became necessary, and the safety of all must not be endangered for the good pleasure of a single individual. It will be seen to what exaggeration Captain Nicholl allowed himself to be carried. He was alone in his opinion.
"Ah, the joker!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "He hopes! He is not sure! and he waits for the moment when we are encased to make this deplorable admission! I beg to be allowed to get out!" "And how?" asked Barbicane. "Humph!" said Michel Ardan, "it is not easy; we are in the train, and the guard's whistle will sound before twenty-four minutes are over." "Twenty," said Nicholl.
"But it did not even graze us," continued Michel. "What does that matter? Its bulk, compared with that of our projectile, was enormous, and its attraction was sufficient to have an influence upon our direction." "That influence must have been very slight," said Nicholl.
At last it was accomplished, and the little bird flew joyfully away and disappeared. Nicholl lovingly watched its flight, when he heard these words pronounced by a voice full of emotion: "You are indeed a brave man." He turned. Michel Ardan was before him, repeating in a different tone: "And a kindhearted one!" "Michel Ardan!" cried the captain. "Why are you here?"
Michel Ardan looked at his friends with a rueful countenance. "One question presents itself," said Barbicane. "We cannot keep the dead body of this dog with us for the next forty-eight hours." "No! certainly not," replied Nicholl; "but our scuttles are fixed on hinges; they can be let down. We will open one, and throw the body out into space."
"I have lost," said the captain, who forthwith paid President Barbicane the sum of three thousand dollars. Barbicane did not wish to accept the money from one of his fellow-travelers, but gave way at last before the determination of Nicholl, who wished before leaving the earth to fulfill all his engagements. "Now," said Michel Ardan, "I have only one thing more to wish for you, my brave captain."
These bold travelers, Michel Ardan, President Barbicane, and Captain Nicholl, ought to make the passage in ninety-seven hours, thirteen minutes, and twenty seconds. Consequently, their arrival on the lunar disc could not take place until the 5th of December at twelve at night, at the exact moment when the moon should be full, and not on the 4th, as some badly informed journalists had announced.
"Then remember this, Captain Nicholl, what I like in your definition of the hyperbola I was going to say of the hyperhumbug is that it is still less easy to understand than the word you pretend to define." Nicholl and Barbicane paid no attention to Michel Ardan's jokes. They had launched into a scientific discussion. They were eager about what curve the projectile would take.
Word Of The Day