Fire!

: From The Earth To The Moon

The first of December had arrived! the fatal day! for, if the

projectile were not discharged that very night at 10h. 48m. 40s.

P.M., more than eighteen years must roll by before the moon

would again present herself under the same conditions of zenith

and perigee.



The weather was magnificent. Despite the approach of winter,

the sun shone brightly, and bathed in its radiant light that

earth wh ch three of its denizens were about to abandon for a

new world.



How many persons lost their rest on the night which preceded

this long-expected day! All hearts beat with disquietude, save

only the heart of Michel Ardan. That imperturbable personage

came and went with his habitual business-like air, while nothing

whatever denoted that any unusual matter preoccupied his mind.



After dawn, an innumerable multitude covered the prairie which

extends, as far as the eye can reach, round Stones Hill. Every

quarter of an hour the railway brought fresh accessions of

sightseers; and, according to the statement of the Tampa Town

Observer, not less than five millions of spectators thronged

the soil of Florida.



For a whole month previously, the mass of these persons had

bivouacked round the enclosure, and laid the foundations for a

town which was afterward called "Ardan's Town." The whole plain

was covered with huts, cottages, and tents. Every nation under

the sun was represented there; and every language might be heard

spoken at the same time. It was a perfect Babel re-enacted.

All the various classes of American society were mingled

together in terms of absolute equality. Bankers, farmers,

sailors, cotton-planters, brokers, merchants, watermen,

magistrates, elbowed each other in the most free-and-easy way.

Louisiana Creoles fraternized with farmers from Indiana;

Kentucky and Tennessee gentlemen and haughty Virginians

conversed with trappers and the half-savages of the lakes and

butchers from Cincinnati. Broad-brimmed white hats and Panamas,

blue-cotton trousers, light-colored stockings, cambric frills,

were all here displayed; while upon shirt-fronts, wristbands,

and neckties, upon every finger, even upon the very ears, they

wore an assortment of rings, shirt-pins, brooches, and trinkets,

of which the value only equaled the execrable taste. Women, children,

and servants, in equally expensive dress, surrounded their husbands,

fathers, or masters, who resembled the patriarchs of tribes in the

midst of their immense households.



At meal-times all fell to work upon the dishes peculiar to the

Southern States, and consumed with an appetite that threatened

speedy exhaustion of the victualing powers of Florida,

fricasseed frogs, stuffed monkey, fish chowder, underdone

'possum, and raccoon steaks. And as for the liquors which

accompanied this indigestible repast! The shouts, the

vociferations that resounded through the bars and taverns

decorated with glasses, tankards, and bottles of marvelous

shape, mortars for pounding sugar, and bundles of straws!

"Mint-julep" roars one of the barmen; "Claret sangaree!"

shouts another; "Cocktail!" "Brandy-smash!" "Real mint-julep

in the new style!" All these cries intermingled produced a

bewildering and deafening hubbub.



But on this day, 1st of December, such sounds were rare. No one

thought of eating or drinking, and at four P.M. there were vast

numbers of spectators who had not even taken their customary

lunch! And, a still more significant fact, even the national

passion for play seemed quelled for the time under the general

excitement of the hour.



Up till nightfall, a dull, noiseless agitation, such as

precedes great catastrophes, ran through the anxious multitude.

An indescribable uneasiness pervaded all minds, an indefinable

sensation which oppressed the heart. Every one wished it was over.



However, about seven o'clock, the heavy silence was dissipated.

The moon rose above the horizon. Millions of hurrahs hailed

her appearance. She was punctual to the rendezvous, and shouts

of welcome greeted her on all sides, as her pale beams shone

gracefully in the clear heavens. At this moment the three

intrepid travelers appeared. This was the signal for renewed

cries of still greater intensity. Instantly the vast

assemblage, as with one accord, struck up the national hymn of

the United States, and "Yankee Doodle," sung by five million of

hearty throats, rose like a roaring tempest to the farthest

limits of the atmosphere. Then a profound silence reigned

throughout the crowd.



The Frenchman and the two Americans had by this time entered the

enclosure reserved in the center of the multitude. They were

accompanied by the members of the Gun Club, and by deputations

sent from all the European Observatories. Barbicane, cool and

collected, was giving his final directions. Nicholl, with

compressed lips, his arms crossed behind his back, walked with

a firm and measured step. Michel Ardan, always easy, dressed in

thorough traveler's costume, leathern gaiters on his legs, pouch

by his side, in loose velvet suit, cigar in mouth, was full of

inexhaustible gayety, laughing, joking, playing pranks with J.

T. Maston. In one word, he was the thorough "Frenchman" (and

worse, a "Parisian") to the last moment.



Ten o'clock struck! The moment had arrived for taking their

places in the projectile! The necessary operations for the

descent, and the subsequent removal of the cranes and

scaffolding that inclined over the mouth of the Columbiad,

required a certain period of time.



Barbicane had regulated his chronometer to the tenth part of a

second by that of Murchison the engineer, who was charged with

the duty of firing the gun by means of an electric spark.

Thus the travelers enclosed within the projectile were enabled

to follow with their eyes the impassive needle which marked the

precise moment of their departure.



The moment had arrived for saying "good-by!" The scene was a

touching one. Despite his feverish gayety, even Michel Ardan

was touched. J. T. Maston had found in his own dry eyes one

ancient tear, which he had doubtless reserved for the occasion.

He dropped it on the forehead of his dear president.



"Can I not go?" he said, "there is still time!"



"Impossible, old fellow!" replied Barbicane. A few moments

later, the three fellow-travelers had ensconced themselves in

the projectile, and screwed down the plate which covered the

entrance-aperture. The mouth of the Columbiad, now completely

disencumbered, was open entirely to the sky.



The moon advanced upward in a heaven of the purest clearness,

outshining in her passage the twinkling light of the stars.

She passed over the constellation of the Twins, and was now

nearing the halfway point between the horizon and the zenith.

A terrible silence weighed upon the entire scene! Not a breath of

wind upon the earth! not a sound of breathing from the countless

chests of the spectators! Their hearts seemed afraid to beat!

All eyes were fixed upon the yawning mouth of the Columbiad.



Murchison followed with his eye the hand of his chronometer.

It wanted scarce forty seconds to the moment of departure, but

each second seemed to last an age! At the twentieth there was

a general shudder, as it occurred to the minds of that vast

assemblage that the bold travelers shut up within the projectile

were also counting those terrible seconds. Some few cries here

and there escaped the crowd.



"Thirty-five!-- thirty-six!-- thirty-seven!-- thirty-eight!--

thirty-nine!-- forty! FIRE!!!"



Instantly Murchison pressed with his finger the key of the

electric battery, restored the current of the fluid, and

discharged the spark into the breech of the Columbiad.



An appalling unearthly report followed instantly, such as can be

compared to nothing whatever known, not even to the roar of

thunder, or the blast of volcanic explosions! No words can

convey the slightest idea of the terrific sound! An immense

spout of fire shot up from the bowels of the earth as from a crater.

The earth heaved up, and with great difficulty some few spectators

obtained a momentary glimpse of the projectile victoriously

cleaving the air in the midst of the fiery vapors!