The Venture Made
: BOOK IIWhat would be the consequences of this sudden and complete disruption,
Servadac and his people hardly dared to think.
The first change that came under their observation was the rapidity of
the sun's appearances and disappearances, forcing them to the conviction
that although the comet still rotated on its axis from east to west, yet
the period of its rotation had been diminished by about one-half. Only
si
hours after rising in the west the sun was sinking again in the east.
"We are coming to something!" exclaimed Servadac. "We have got a year of
something like 2,880 days."
"I shouldn't think it would be an easy matter to find saints enough for
such a calendar as that!" said Ben Zoof.
Servadac laughed, and remarked that they should have the professor
talking about the 238th of June, and the 325th of December.
It soon became evident that the detached portion was not revolving
round the comet, but was gradually retreating into space. Whether it
had carried with it any portion of atmosphere, whether it possessed
any other condition for supporting life, and whether it was likely ever
again to approach to the earth, were all questions that there were no
means of determining. For themselves the all-important problem was--what
effect would the rending asunder of the comet have upon its rate of
progress? and as they were already conscious of a further increase of
muscular power, and a fresh diminution of specific gravity, Servadac and
his associates could not but wonder whether the alteration in the mass
of the comet would not result in its missing the expected coincidence
with the earth altogether.
Although he professed himself incompetent to pronounce a decided
opinion, Lieutenant Procope manifestly inclined to the belief that no
alteration would ensue in the rate of Gallia's velocity; but Rosette, no
doubt, could answer the question directly, and the time had now
arrived in which he must be compelled to divulge the precise moment of
collision.
But the professor was in the worst of tempers. Generally taciturn and
morose, he was more than usually uncivil whenever any one ventured to
speak to him. The loss of his telescope had doubtless a great deal to do
with his ill-humor; but the captain drew the most favorable conclusions
from Rosette's continued irritation. Had the comet been in any way
projected from its course, so as to be likely to fail in coming into
contact with the earth, the professor would have been quite unable
to conceal his satisfaction. But they required to know more than the
general truth, and felt that they had no time to lose in getting at the
exact details.
The opportunity that was wanted soon came.
On the 18th, Rosette was overheard in furious altercation with Ben Zoof.
The orderly had been taunting the astronomer with the mutilation of his
little comet. A fine thing, he said, to split in two like a child's toy.
It had cracked like a dry nut; and mightn't one as well live upon an
exploding bomb?--with much more to the same effect. The professor, by
way of retaliation, had commenced sneering at the "prodigious" mountain
of Montmartre, and the dispute was beginning to look serious when
Servadac entered.
Thinking he could turn the wrangling to some good account, so as to
arrive at the information he was so anxiously seeking, the captain
pretended to espouse the views of his orderly; he consequently brought
upon himself the full force of the professor's wrath.
Rosette's language became more and more violent, till Servadac, feigning
to be provoked beyond endurance, cried:
"You forget, sir, that you are addressing the Governor-General of
Gallia."
"Governor-General! humbug!" roared Rosette. "Gallia is my comet!"
"I deny it," said Servadac. "Gallia has lost its chance of getting back
to the earth. Gallia has nothing to do with you. Gallia is mine; and you
must submit to the government which I please to ordain."
"And who told you that Gallia is not going back to the earth?" asked the
professor, with a look of withering scorn.
"Why, isn't her mass diminished? Isn't she split in half? Isn't her
velocity all altered?" demanded the captain.
"And pray who told you this?" again said the professor, with a sneer.
"Everybody. Everybody knows it, of course," replied Servadac.
"Everybody is very clever. And you always were a very clever scholar
too. We remember that of old, don't we?"
"Sir!"
"You nearly mastered the first elements of science, didn't you?"
"Sir!"
"A credit to your class!"
"Hold your tongue, sir!" bellowed the captain again, as if his anger was
uncontrollable.
"Not I," said the professor.
"Hold your tongue!" repeated Servadac.
"Just because the mass is altered you think the velocity is altered?"
"Hold your tongue!" cried the captain, louder than ever.
"What has mass to do with the orbit? Of how many comets do you know the
mass, and yet you know their movements? Ignorance!" shouted Rosette.
"Insolence!" retorted Servadac.
Ben Zoof, really thinking that his master was angry, made a threatening
movement towards the professor.
"Touch me if you dare!" screamed Rosette, drawing himself up to the
fullest height his diminutive figure would allow. "You shall answer for
your conduct before a court of justice!"
"Where? On Gallia?" asked the captain.
"No; on the earth."
"The earth! Pshaw! You know we shall never get there; our velocity is
changed."
"On the earth," repeated the professor, with decision.
"Trash!" cried Ben Zoof. "The earth will be too far off!"
"Not too far off for us to come across her orbit at 42 minutes and 35.6
seconds past two o'clock on the morning of this coming 1st of January."
"Thanks, my dear professor--many thanks. You have given me all the
information I required;" and, with a low bow and a gracious smile, the
captain withdrew. The orderly made an equally polite bow, and followed
his master. The professor, completely nonplussed, was left alone.
Thirteen days, then--twenty-six of the original Gallian days, fifty-two
of the present--was all the time for preparation that now remained.
Every preliminary arrangement was hurried on with the greatest
earnestness.
There was a general eagerness to be quit of Gallia. Indifferent to
the dangers that must necessarily attend a balloon ascent under such
unparalleled circumstances, and heedless of Lieutenant Procope's warning
that the slightest check in their progress would result in instantaneous
combustion, they all seemed to conclude that it must be the simplest
thing possible to glide from one atmosphere to another, so that they
were quite sanguine as to the successful issue of their enterprise.
Captain Servadac made a point of showing himself quite enthusiastic in
his anticipations, and to Ben Zoof the going up in a balloon was the
supreme height of his ambition. The count and the lieutenant, of colder
and less demonstrative temperament, alike seemed to realize the possible
perils of the undertaking, but even they were determined to put a bold
face upon every difficulty.
The sea had now become navigable, and three voyages were made to Gourbi
Island in the steam launch, consuming the last of their little reserve
of coal.
The first voyage had been made by Servadac with several of the sailors.
They found the gourbi and the adjacent building quite uninjured by
the severity of the winter; numbers of little rivulets intersected the
pasture-land; new plants were springing up under the influence of the
equatorial sun, and the luxuriant foliage was tenanted by the birds
which had flown back from the volcano. Summer had almost abruptly
succeeded to winter, and the days, though only three hours long, were
intensely hot.
Another of the voyages to the island had been to collect the dry grass
and straw which was necessary for inflating the balloon. Had the balloon
been less cumbersome it would have been conveyed to the island,
whence the start would have been effected; but as it was, it was more
convenient to bring the combustible material to the balloon.
The last of the coal having been consumed, the fragments of the
shipwrecked vessels had to be used day by day for fuel. Hakkabut began
making a great hubbub when he found that they were burning some of the
spars of the Hansa; but he was effectually silenced by Ben Zoof, who
told him that if he made any more fuss, he should be compelled to pay
50,000 francs for a balloon-ticket, or else he should be left behind.
By Christmas Day everything was in readiness for immediate departure.
The festival was observed with a solemnity still more marked than the
anniversary of the preceding year. Every one looked forward to spending
New Year's Day in another sphere altogether, and Ben Zoof had already
promised Pablo and Nina all sorts of New Year's gifts.
It may seem strange, but the nearer the critical moment approached, the
less Hector Servadac and Count Timascheff had to say to each other on
the subject. Their mutual reserve became more apparent; the experiences
of the last two years were fading from their minds like a dream; and the
fair image that had been the cause of their original rivalry was ever
rising, as a vision, between them.
The captain's thoughts began to turn to his unfinished rondo; in
his leisure moments, rhymes suitable and unsuitable, possible and
impossible, were perpetually jingling in his imagination. He labored
under the conviction that he had a work of genius to complete. A poet he
had left the earth, and a poet he must return.
Count Timascheff's desire to return to the world was quite equaled by
Lieutenant Procope's. The Russian sailors' only thought was to follow
their master, wherever he went. The Spaniards, though they would have
been unconcerned to know that they were to remain upon Gallia, were
nevertheless looking forward with some degree of pleasure to revisiting
the plains of Andalusia; and Nina and Pablo were only too delighted
at the prospect of accompanying their kind protectors on any fresh
excursion whatever.
The only malcontent was Palmyrin Rosette. Day and night he persevered
in his astronomical pursuits, declared his intention of never abandoning
his comet, and swore positively that nothing should induce him to set
foot in the car of the balloon.
The misfortune that had befallen his telescope was a never-ending theme
of complaint; and just now, when Gallia was entering the narrow zone of
shooting-stars, and new discoveries might have been within his reach,
his loss made him more inconsolable than ever. In sheer desperation, he
endeavored to increase the intensity of his vision by applying to his
eyes some belladonna which he found in the Dobryna's medicine chest;
with heroic fortitude he endured the tortures of the experiment, and
gazed up into the sky until he was nearly blind. But all in vain; not a
single fresh discovery rewarded his sufferings.
No one was quite exempt from the feverish excitement which prevailed
during the last days of December. Lieutenant Procope superintended his
final arrangements. The two low masts of the schooner had been erected
firmly on the shore, and formed supports for the montgolfier, which had
been duly covered with the netting, and was ready at any moment to
be inflated. The car was close at hand. Some inflated skins had been
attached to its sides, so that the balloon might float for a time, in
the event of its descending in the sea at a short distance from the
shore. If unfortunately, it should come down in mid-ocean, nothing but
the happy chance of some passing vessel could save them all from the
certain fate of being drowned.
The 31st came. Twenty-four hours hence and the balloon, with its large
living freight, would be high in the air. The atmosphere was less
buoyant than that of the earth, but no difficulty in ascending was to be
apprehended.
Gallia was now within 96,000,000 miles of the sun, consequently not much
more than 4,000,000 miles from the earth; and this interval was being
diminished at the rate of nearly 208,000 miles an hour, the speed of the
earth being about 70,000 miles, that of the comet being little less than
138,000 miles an hour.
It was determined to make the start at two o'clock, three-quarters of
an hour, or, to speak correctly 42 minutes 35.6 seconds, before the time
predicted by the professor as the instant of collision. The modified
rotation of the comet caused it to be daylight at the time.
An hour previously the balloon was inflated with perfect success,
and the car was securely attached to the network. It only awaited the
stowage of the passengers.
Isaac Hakkabut was the first to take his place in the car. But scarcely
had he done so, when Servadac noticed that his waist was encompassed
by an enormous girdle that bulged out to a very extraordinary extent.
"What's all this, Hakkabut?" he asked.
"It's only my little bit of money, your Excellency; my modest little
fortune--a mere bagatelle," said the Jew.
"And what may your little fortune weigh?" inquired the captain.
"Only about sixty-six pounds!" said Isaac.
"Sixty-six pounds!" cried Servadac. "We haven't reckoned for this."
"Merciful heavens!" began the Jew.
"Sixty-six pounds!" repeated Servadac. "We can hardly carry ourselves;
we can't have any dead weight here. Pitch it out, man, pitch it out!"
"God of Israel!" whined Hakkabut.
"Out with it, I say!" cried Servadac.
"What, all my money, which I have saved so long, and toiled for so
hard?"
"It can't be helped," said the captain, unmoved.
"Oh, your Excellency!" cried the Jew.
"Now, old Nicodemus, listen to me," interposed Ben Zoof; "you just get
rid of that pouch of yours, or we will get rid of you. Take your choice.
Quick, or out you go!"
The avaricious old man was found to value his life above his money; he
made a lamentable outcry about it, but he unfastened his girdle at last,
and put it out of the car.
Very different was the case with Palmyrin Rosette. He avowed over and
over again his intention of never quitting the nucleus of his comet. Why
should he trust himself to a balloon, that would blaze up like a piece
of paper? Why should he leave the comet? Why should he not go once again
upon its surface into the far-off realms of space?
His volubility was brought to a sudden check by Servadac's bidding two
of the sailors, without more ado, to take him in their arms and put him
quietly down at the bottom of the car.
To the great regret of their owners, the two horses and Nina's pet goat
were obliged to be left behind. The only creature for which there was
found a place was the carrier-pigeon that had brought the professor's
message to the Hive. Servadac thought it might probably be of service in
carrying some communication to the earth.
When every one, except the captain and his orderly, had taken their
places, Servadac said, "Get in, Ben Zoof."
"After you, sir," said Ben Zoof, respectfully.
"No, no!" insisted Servadac; "the captain must be the last to leave the
ship!"
A moment's hesitation and the orderly clambered over the side of the
car. Servadac followed. The cords were cut. The balloon rose with
stately calmness into the air.
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Lincoln awaited Graham in an apartment beneath the flying stages. He seemed curious to learn all that had happened, pleased to hear of the extraordinary delight and interest which Graham took in flying Graham was in a mood of enthusiasm. "I must... Through Carnage To Joy
Sometime later Tars Tarkas and Kantos Kan returned to report that Zodanga had been completely reduced. Her forces were entirely destroyed or captured, and no further resistance was to be expected from within. Several battleships had escaped, but... Through Flood And Flame
Yersted's information convinced me that there was no time to be lost. I must reach the Temple of Issus secretly before the forces under Tars Tarkas assaulted at dawn. Once within its hated walls I was positive that I could overcome the guards of ... Through Space Into The Carboniferous
Seaton opened his eyes and gazed about him wonderingly. Only half conscious, bruised and sore in every part of his body, he could not at first realize what had happened. Instinctively drawing a deep breath, he coughed and choked as the undiluted o... Through The Carrion Caves
Straight toward the north, day and night, our destination compass led us after the fleeing flier upon which it had remained set since I first attuned it after leaving the thern fortress. Early in the second night we noticed the air becoming perc... Thuvia
It was the sound of conflict that aroused me once more to the realities of life. For a moment I could neither place my surroundings nor locate the sounds which had aroused me. And then from beyond the blank wall beside which I lay I heard the sh... Thyma Castle
Soon afterwards the hollow sound of the warden's horn, from the watch over the gate of the wall, proclaimed the hour of noon, and they all assembled for dinner in the banqueting chamber. The apartment was on the ground floor, and separated from th...