United States or Mongolia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Joy! joy!" shouted Servadac, half beside himself with ecstasy; "we can land at last!" Count Timascheff and the lieutenant were scarcely less impatient than the captain, and little needed his urgent and repeated solicitations: "Come on! Quick! Come on! no time to lose!" It was half-past seven in the morning, when they set their foot upon this untried land.
The professor stamped with vexation. "I believe old Hakkabut has a steelyard on board his tartan," said Ben Zoof, presently. "Then why didn't you say so before, you idiot?" roared the excitable little man. Anxious to pacify him, Servadac assured him that every exertion should be made to procure the instrument, and directed Ben Zoof to go to the Jew and borrow it.
"First of all," resumed the lieutenant, "we will specify the different ways in which the shock may happen." "And the prime fact to be remembered," interposed Servadac, "is that the combined velocity of the two bodies will be about 21,000 miles an hour." "Express speed, and no mistake!" muttered Ben Zoof. "Just so," assented Procope. "Now, the two bodies may impinge either directly or obliquely.
Probably Count Timascheff, Captain Servadac, and Lieutenant Procope were the only members of the community who could bring any scientific judgment to bear upon the uncertainty that was before them, but a general sense of the strangeness of their situation could not fail at times to weigh heavily upon the minds of all.
"It must be eight o'clock, at least," said Ben Zoof, looking at the sun, which was a considerable height above the horizon. "It is almost time for us to start." "To start! what for?" "To keep your appointment with Count Timascheff." "By Jove! I had forgotten all about it!" exclaimed Servadac. Then looking at his watch, he cried, "What are you thinking of, Ben Zoof? It is scarcely two o'clock."
The count resumed: "It was about a month after the great disruption that I was sailing my engine having sustained some damage in the shock along the Algerian coast, and had the pleasure of meeting with my previous acquaintance, Captain Servadac, who was resident upon the island with his orderly, Ben Zoof." "Ben who?" inquired the major. "Zoof!
"A wretched time we have had for the last seven months," said the orderly one day to his master; "but what a comfort little Nina has been to us all!" "Yes, indeed," replied Servadac; "she is a charming little creature. I hardly know how we should have got on without her." "What is to become of her when we arrive back at the earth?"
"In fact, Major Oliphant," he said in conclusion, "I am here to inquire whether you and your friends would be disposed to join us in our present quarters." "I am obliged to you, Captain Servadac," answered the major stiffly; "but we have not the slightest intention of abandoning our post. We have received no government orders to that effect; indeed, we have received no orders at all.
And as she spoke she pointed to the left wing of the bird. The wing bore the faint impress of a postage-stamp, and the one word: "FORMENTERA." Formentera was at once recognized by Servadac and the count as the name of one of the smallest of the Balearic Islands.
The major smiled incredulously; but Servadac, nothing daunted, went on to detail the results of the collision between the comet and the earth, adding that, as there was the almost immediate prospect of another concussion, it had occurred to him that it might be advisable for the whole population of Gallia to unite in taking precautionary measures for the common welfare.
Word Of The Day