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It gave form to a reaction against the sanguine views entertained by Hevelius, Schröter, Herschel and Gruithuisen as to the possibilities of agreeable residence on the moon, and relegated the "Selenites," one of whose cities Schröter thought he had discovered, and of whose festal processions Gruithuisen had not despaired of becoming a spectator, to the shadowy land of the Ivory Gate.
"If there are any Selenites!" answered Nicholl, who under the empire of this inexplicable intoxication became very contradictory. "Who says there are no Selenites?" cried Michel in a threatening tone. "I do!" shouted Nicholl. "Captain," said Michel, "do not repeat that insult or I will knock your teeth down your throat!"
It would keep the Selenites down for a time at any rate. I looked up the cavern again. What on earth were we going to do now? We were cornered in a sort of way already. But these butchers up the cavern had been surprised, they were probably scared, and they had no special weapons, only those little hatchets of theirs. And that way lay escape.
How impatiently after their long nights the Selenites must await the reappearance of the orb of day!" "Yes," answered Michel Ardan, "imbibing, as it were, the brilliant ether, light and heat, all life is in them." At that moment the bottom of the projectile moved slightly from the lunar surface in order to describe a rather long elliptical orbit.
But you must now return, since it was never known, that gross Flesh and Blood ever before breath'd this Air, and that your Stay may be fatal to you, and disturb the Tranquillity of the Selenites. This I prophesy, and my Compassion obliges me to warn you of it."
"And if there are no Selenites?" retorted Nicholl, who, under the influence of this unaccountable intoxication, was very contradictory. "Who said that there were no Selenites?" exclaimed Michel in a threatening tone. "I do," howled Nicholl. "Captain," said Michel, "do not repreat that insolence, or I will knock your teeth down your throat!"
What did that matter now? A sort of languor had possession of my limbs and mind, I did not believe for a moment that we should ever find the sphere in that vast desiccated wilderness. I seemed to lack a motive for effort until the Selenites should come.
"They're all right," said Cavor. I took a sort of provisional aim at the gap in the grating. I could hear now quite distinctly the soft twittering of the ascending Selenites, the dab of their hands against the rock, and the falling of dust from their grips as they clambered.
The two adversaries were going to fall upon each other, and the incoherent discussion threatened to merge into a fight, when Barbicane intervened with one bound. "Stop, miserable men," said he, separating his two companions; "if there are no Selenites, we will do without them." "Yes," exclaimed Michel, who was not particular; "yes, we will do without them. We have only to make Selenites.
At first the thing seemed only reasonably large and near to us, and then I saw how exceedingly little the Selenites upon it seemed, and I realised the full immensity of cavern and machine. I looked from this tremendous affair to the faces of the Selenites with a new respect. I stopped, and Cavor stopped, and stared at this thunderous engine. "But this is stupendous!" I said. "What can it be for?"
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