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"What is its breadth?" asked Nicholl. "It is 150 miles," replied Barbicane. "This circle is certainly the most important on the moon, but many others measure 150, 100, or 75 miles." "Ah! my friends," exclaimed Michel, "can you picture to yourselves what this now peaceful orb of night must have been when its craters, filled with thunderings, vomited at the same time smoke and tongues of flame.
"It is understood, captain. Well, before another quarter of an hour you will have to count nine thousand dollars to the president; four thousand because the Columbiad will not burst, and five thousand because the projectile will rise more than six miles in the air." "I have the dollars," replied Nicholl, slapping the pocket of this coat. "I only ask to be allowed to pay." "Come, Nicholl.
Nicholl could not contain himself at this reply; threw out hints of cowardice; that a man who refused to fire a cannon-shot was pretty near being afraid of it; that artillerists who fight at six miles distance are substituting mathematical formulae for individual courage.
Not so with these; they sought for the cause which produced this effect. "So we have become diverted from our route," said Michel; "but why?" "I very much fear," answered Nicholl, "that, in spite of all precautions taken, the Columbiad was not fairly pointed. An error, however small, would be enough to throw us out of the moon's attraction." "Then they must have aimed badly?" asked Michel.
Fine savants, truly! who don't know now what to do after having induced me " "Induced!" cried Barbicane and Nicholl. "Induced! What do you mean by that?" "No recriminations!" said Michel. "I do not complain. The journey pleases me. The bullet suits me. But let us do all that is humanly possible to fall somewhere, if only upon the moon."
He proposed to put his plate 200 yards from the gun. Barbicane still refused. At 100 yards? Not even at 75. "At 50, then," cried the captain, through the newspapers, "at 25 yards from my plate, and I will be behind it." Barbicane answered that even if Captain Nicholl would be in front of it he would not fire any more. On this reply, Nicholl could no longer contain himself.
One wonders, indeed, of what materials these American hearts are made, to which the approach of the most frightful danger does not add a single pulsation. Three beds, thick and solidly made, had been placed in the projectile. Nicholl and Barbicane placed them in the centre of the disc that formed the movable flooring.
He added that it arose simply from a rivalry between iron plates and shot, and, finally, that the scene at the meeting was only the long-wished-for opportunity for Nicholl to pay off an old grudge. Nothing is more dreadful than private duels in America. The two adversaries attack each other like wild beasts.
But this heat, which is sufficient to evaporate the waters, would have formed a thick ring of cloud, which would have modified that excessive temperature; hence the compensation between the cold of the aphelion and the heat of the perihelion." "At how many degrees," asked Nicholl, "is the temperature of the planetary spaces estimated?"
He observed Captain Nicholl closely, asking himself if, once the captain's vengeance satisfied, the unfortunate Barbicane had not been left lying in some bloody thicket. Michel Ardan seemed to have the same thought, and they were both looking questioningly at Captain Nicholl when Maston suddenly stopped.
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