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"The other method," interrupted M'Nicholl laying down his telescope to rest his eyes, and now joining in the conversation to give himself something to do, "is called that of the tangent rays. A solar ray, barely passing the edge of the Moon's surface, is caught on the peak of a mountain the rest of which lies in shadow.
"By Jove," suddenly exclaimed Ardan, "why didn't we start at the moment of 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 continents and the great seas in a new light the former glittering under the solar rays, the latter darker and somewhat shaded, as we see them on certain maps.
"He's welcome to any number of terms he pleases!" vociferated M'Nicholl. "Hurrah for President Barbican of the Lunatic I mean of the Lunar Republic!" screamed Ardan. "Long may he wave, and may his shadow never grow less!" shouted Captain M'Nicholl, his eyes almost out of their sockets.
"That it is half past eight," replied M'Nicholl. "My regular hour for breakfast," exclaimed Ardan, "and I don't see the shadow of a reason for changing it now." The proposition was most acceptable, especially to the Captain, who frequently boasted that, whether on land or water, on mountain summits or in the depths of mines, he had never missed a meal in all his life.
I could listen to you with delight all day long!" cried Ardan, enthusiastically, though with some embarrassment, for he felt a twinge of conscience in acting so falsely towards his beloved friend. "The fact is," he went on, "such a rational conversation as the present, on such an absorbing subject, with such a perfect master " "The Sun!" cried M'Nicholl starting up and cheering.
As for M'Nicholl, he was apparently too much absorbed in Doerfel and Leibnitz to mind anything else. These mountains rose from plains of moderate extent, bounded by an indefinite succession of walled hollows and ring ramparts.
Even these brave adventurers had not the courage to suppose the contrary! "Five minutes to one o'clock," said M'Nicholl, his eyes never quitting his watch. "Ready?" asked Barbican of Ardan. "Ay, ay, sir!" was Ardan's reply, as he made sure that the electric apparatus to discharge the rockets was in perfect working order. "Wait till I give the word," said Barbican, pulling out his chronometer.
Even Barbican and M'Nicholl could detect some regularity and semblance of order in the arrangement of these rocks, but this, of course, they looked on as a mere freak of nature, like the Lurlei Rock, the Giant's Causeway, or the Old Man of the Franconia Mountains. Ardan, however, would not accept such an easy mode of getting rid of a difficulty.
"You'll not give us an answer when we ask you a reasonable question?" "Never!" cried Ardan, with great determination. "I'll never answer a question reasonable or unreasonable, unless it is asked in a proper manner!" "None of your French airs here!" exclaimed M'Nicholl, by this time almost completely out of himself between anger and excitement.
Ardan hardly exaggerated when he called it the scene of a battle fought thousands of years ago but still white with the hideous bones of overthrown peaks, slaughtered mountains and mutilated precipices! "Hills amid the air encountered hills, Hurled to and fro in jaculation dire," murmured M'Nicholl, who could quote you Milton quite as readily as the Bible.
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