by Jules Verne
But an unforeseen, though easily foreseeable phenomenon, about which nothing could be done, soon put the public’s patience to a harsh test.
The clear weather suddenly changed: the sky darkened and became covered with clouds. How could it have been otherwise, after the terrible displacement of atmospheric layers, and the dispersion of the enormous quantity of vapor that came from the explosion of 400,000 pounds of guncotton. The whole natural order had been disturbed. There is nothing surprising about this, since it has often been observed that the weather can be abruptly modified by the firing of big guns in a naval battle.
The next day the sun rose above a horizon laden with thick clouds, a heavy, impenetrable curtain between the sky and the earth. Unfortunately it extended all the way to the Rocky Mountains. It was a disaster. A chorus of protests arose from all over the globe. But nature paid no heed to it; since men had troubled the atmosphere with their detonation, they would have to take the consequences.
During this first day, everyone tried to see through the thick clouds, but to no avail. Furthermore, everyone was mistaken in looking up, for as a result of the earth’s rotation the projectile was now moving away from the antipodes.
When deep, impenetrable darkness enveloped the earth and the moon rose above the horizon, it could not be seen; it seemed to be deliberately hiding from the audacious men who had shot at it. No observations were possible, and telegrams from Longs Peak confirmed this regrettable fact.
The explorers had left at forty-six minutes and forty seconds past ten o’clock on the evening of December 1; if the experiment was successful, they would arrive on December 4 at midnight. The world resigned itself to waiting till then, especially since it would have been quite difficult to observe an object as small as the projectile under those conditions.
On December 4, between eight o’clock and midnight, it would have been possible to follow the path of the projectile, which would have appeared as a black dot on the bright surface of the moon. But the weather remained mercilessly cloudy. The public’s exasperation knew no bounds. Some people went so far as to shout insults at the moon for not showing itself. A sad turn of events!
J. T. Maston went to Longs Peak in despair. He wanted to see for himself. He had no doubt that his friends had arrived safely. There had been no word that the projectile had fallen on any of the earth’s continents or islands, and J. T. Maston refused to admit the possibility that it might have fallen into one of the oceans that cover three-quarters of the surfaces of the globe.
On December 5 the weather was still unchanged. The great telescopes of the Old World, those of Herschel, Rosse, and Foucault, were constantly aimed at the moon, for the weather was clear in Europe, but their relative weakness made any useful observation impossible.
December 6: same weather. Three-quarters of the world was consumed with impatience. Wild schemes were proposed for dissipating the clouds that had accumulated in the air.
On December 7 the sky seemed to change a little. There was hope, but it did not last long. By evening the thick clouds were again defending the starry firmament against all eyes.
The matter was now becoming serious. On December 11, at eleven minutes past nine in the morning, the moon was to enter its last quarter. After that it would be waning, and even if the sky should clear, the chances of observation would be greatly lessened, for the moon would show a constantly decreasing portion of its surface, and would finally become new: that is, it would rise and set with the sun, whose rays would make it invisible. It would not be full again until January 3, at forty-seven minutes past midnight, and observations could not be resumed until then.
The newspapers published these facts with endless commentaries, and did not conceal from the public that it would have to have angelic patience.
December 8: nothing. On the ninth, the sun came out briefly, as though to taunt the Americans. It was greeted with jeers; apparently offended by this reception, it was extremely stingy with its rays.
On the tenth, there was no change. J. T. Maston nearly went mad, and there were fears for his brain, which had hitherto been so well preserved beneath his rubber skull.
But on the eleventh a great tropical storm arose. Strong east winds swept away the clouds that had been piled up for so long, and that evening the half-consumed disk of the moon passed majestically among the bright constellations of the sky.
CHAPTER 28
A NEW HEAVENLY BODY
THAT SAME night, the exciting news that had been so impatiently awaited burst like a bombshell over every state in the Union, then raced across the ocean and sped along every telegraph wire in the world. The projectile had been sighted, thanks to the gigantic telescope on Longs Peak.
Here is the report drawn up by the director of the Cambridge Observatory. It contains the scientific conclusion of the Gun Club’s great experiment.
Longs Peak, December 12
To the staff of the Cambridge Observatory.
The projectile launched by the cannon at Stone Hill was seen by J. M. Belfast and J. T. Maston on December 12, at 8:47 PM., with the moon in its last quarter.
The projectile has not reached its goal. It passed to one side of it, but near enough to be held by the moon’s gravity. Its rectilinear motion was changed to an extremely rapid circular motion. It has now become a satellite of the moon and is moving in an elliptical orbit around it.
It has not yet been possible to ascertain the movements of this new satellite: neither its speed of rotation nor its speed of revolution is known. Its distance from the surface of the moon may be estimated at approximately 2,830 miles.
There are two possibilities: either lunar gravity will eventually draw the projectile to the surface of the moon and the explorers will reach their destination, or the projectile will be held in a fixed orbit and will continue to move around the moon until the end of time.
Observation will some day determine which is the case, but so far the only result of the Gun Club’s project has been to add a new heavenly body to our solar system.
J. M. Belfast
What a multitude of questions this unexpected outcome raised! What mysteries lay in store for scientific investigation! Thanks to the courage and devotion of three men, the enterprise of sending a projectile to the moon, which at first might have seemed somewhat frivolous, had been an enormous result whose consequences were incalculable. Although the explorers, imprisoned in their new satellite, had not reached their goal, they were at least part of the lunar world: they were circling the moon and, for the first time, human eyes were able to penetrate all its mysteries. The names of Nicholl, Barbicane, and Ardan would be forever famous in the annals of astronomy, for those bold explorers, eager to broaden human knowledge, had fearlessly flung themselves into space and risked their lives in the strangest undertaking of modern times.
When the Longs Peak report became known, there was a feeling of surprise and fear all over the world. Was it possible to go to the aid of those brave inhabitants of the earth? No, because they had placed themselves outside of mankind by going beyond the limits which God had imposed on earthly creatures. They had enough air for two months and enough food for a year. But afterward? Even the most insensitive hearts palpitated at this terrible question.
There was one man who would not grant that the situation was hopeless, who still had confidence. That man was the explorers’ devoted friend, as daring and resolute as they were: the brave J. T. Maston.
He was keeping his eye on them. His residence was now the Longs Peak station, his horizon was the mirror of the huge reflector. As soon as the moon rose each night, he framed it in the field of the telescope, kept it in sight at every moment and assiduously followed it in its movement through space. With unremitting patience he watched the projectile pass across its silvery surface, and thus he remained in constant communion with his three friends, whom he still hoped to see again some day.
“We’ll communicate with them,” he said to anyone who would listen, “as soo
n as circumstances permit. They’ll hear from us and we’ll hear from them! I know them: they’re ingenious men. Among the three of them they’ve taken into space all the resources of art, science, and industry. With that, you can do anything you want! They’ll find a way, you’ll see!”
ASK YOUR BOOKSELLER FOR
THESE BANTAM CLASSICS
BEOWULF AND OTHER ENGLISH POEMS, 978-0-553-21347-8
THE BHAGAVAD-GITA: KRISHNA’S COUNSEL IN TIME OF WAR, 978-0-553-21365-2
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, 978-0-553-21482-6
THE FEDERALIST PAPERS, 978-0-553-21340-9
FOUR GREAT AMERICAN CLASSICS (THE SCARLET LETTER; THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN; THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE; BILLY BUDD, SAILOR), 978-0-553-21362-1
GREEK DRAMA, 978-0-553-21221-1
JO’S BOYS, Louisa May Alcott, 978-0-553-21449-9
LITTLE WOMEN, Louisa May Alcott, 978-0-553-21275-4
WINESBURG, OHIO, Sherwood Anderson, 978-0-553-21439-0
THE COMPLETE PLAYS, Aristophanes, 978-0-553-21343-0
EMMA, Jane Austen, 978-0-553-21273-0
MANSFIELD PARK, Jane Austen, 978-0-553-21276-1
NORTHANGER ABBEY, Jane Austen, 978-0-553-21197-9
PERSUASION, Jane Austen, 978-0-553-21137-5
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Jane Austen, 978-0-553-21310-2
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, Jane Austen, 978-0-553-21334-8
PETER PAN, J. M. Barrie, 978-0-553-21178-8
BRADBURY CLASSIC STORIES, Ray Bradbury, 978-0-553-28637-3
THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, Ray Bradbury, 978-0-553-27822-4
JANE EYRE, Charlotte Brontë, 978-0-553-21140-5
VILLETTE, Charlotte Brontë, 978-0-553-21243-3
WUTHERING HEIGHTS, Emily Brontë, 978-0-553-21258-7
THE SECRET GARDEN, Frances Hodgson Burnett, 978-0-553-21201-3
ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND and THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, Lewis Carroll, 978-0-553-21345-4
MY ÁNTONIA, Willa Cather, 978-0-553-21418-5
O PIONEERS!, Willa Cather, 978-0-553-21358-4
THE CANTERBURY TALES, Geoffrey Chaucer, 978-0-553-21082-8
STORIES, Anton Chekhov, 978-0-553-38100-9
THE AWAKENING, Kate Chopin, 978-0-553-21330-0
THE WOMAN IN WHITE, Wilkie Collins, 978-0-553-21263-1
HEART OF DARKNESS and THE SECRET SHARER, Joseph Conrad, 978-0-553-21214-3
LORD JIM, Joseph Conrad, 978-0-553-21361-4
THE DEERSLAYER, James Fenimore Cooper, 978-0-553-21085-9
THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, James Fenimore Cooper, 978-0-553-21329-4
MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS AND OTHER SHORT FICTION, Stephen Crane, 978-0-553-21355-3
THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, Stephen Crane, 978-0-553-21011-8
THE INFERNO, Dante, 978-0-553-21339-3
PARADISO, Dante, 978-0-553-21204-4
PURGATORIO, Dante, 978-0-553-21344-7
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, Charles Darwin, 978-0-553-21463-5
MOLL FLANDERS, Daniel Defoe, 978-0-553-21328-7
ROBINSON CRUSOE, Daniel Defoe, 978-0-553-21373-7
BLEAK HOUSE, Charles Dickens, 978-0-553-21223-5
A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Charles Dickens, 978-0-553-21244-0
DAVID COPPERFIELD, Charles Dickens, 978-0-553-21189-4
GREAT EXPECTATIONS, Charles Dickens, 978-0-553-21342-3
HARD TIMES, Charles Dickens, 978-0-553-21016-3
OLIVER TWIST, Charles Dickens, 978-0-553-21102-3
THE PICKWICK PAPERS, Charles Dickens, 978-0-553-21123-8
A TALE OF TWO CITIES, Charles Dickens, 978-0-553-21176-4
THREE SOLDIERS, John Dos Passos, 978-0-553-21456-7
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 978-0-553-21216-7
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 978-0-553-21175-7
THE ETERNAL HUSBAND AND OTHER STORIES, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 978-0-553-21444-4
THE IDIOT, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 978-0-553-21352-2
NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 978-0-553-21144-3
SHERLOCK HOLMES VOL I, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 978-0-553-21241-9
SHERLOCK HOLMES VOL II, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 978-0-553-21242-6
SISTER CARRIE, Theodore Dreiser, 978-0-553-21374-4
THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK, W. E. B. Du Bois, 978-0-553-21336-2
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, Alexandre Dumas, 978-0-553-21350-8
THE THREE MUSKETEERS, Alexandre Dumas, 978-0-553-21337-9
MIDDLEMARCH, George Eliot, 978-0-553-21180-1
SILAS MARNER, George Eliot, 978-0-553-21229-7
SELECTED ESSAYS, LECTURES, AND POEMS, Ralph Waldo Emerson, 978-0-553-21388-1
TEN PLAYS BY EURIPIDES, Euripides, 978-0-553-21363-8
APRIL MORNING, Howard Fast, 978-0-553-27322-9
MADAME BOVARY, Gustave Flaubert, 978-0-553-21341-6
HOWARDS END, E. M. Forster, 978-0-553-21208-2
A ROOM WITH A VIEW, E. M. Forster, 978-0-553-21323-2
THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL, Anne Frank, 978-0-553-57712-9
ANNE FRANK’S TALES FROM THE SECRET ANNEX, Anne Frank, 978-0-553-58638-1
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND OTHER WRITINGS, Benjamin Franklin, 978-0-553-21075-0
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER AND OTHER WRITINGS, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 978-0-553-21375-1
FAUST: FIRST PART, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 978-0-553-21348-5
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, Kenneth Grahame, 978-0-553-21368-3
THE COMPLETE FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM, translated by Jack Zipes, 978-0-553-38216-7
ROOTS, Alex Haley, 978-0-440-17464-6
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, Thomas Hardy, 978-0-553-21331-7
JUDE THE OBSCURE, Thomas Hardy, 978-0-553-21191-7
THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE, Thomas Hardy, 978-0-553-21024-8
THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE, Thomas Hardy, 978-0-553-21269-3
TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES, Thomas Hardy, 978-0-553-21168-9
THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 978-0-553-21270-9
THE SCARLET LETTER, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 978-0-553-21009-5
THE FAIRY TALES OF HERMANN HESSE, Hermann Hesse, 978-0-553-37776-7
SIDDHARTHA, Hermann Hesse, 978-0-553-20884-9
THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER, Homer, 978-0-553-21399-7
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, Victor Hugo, 978-0-553-21370-6
FOUR GREAT PLAYS: A DOLL’S HOUSE, GHOSTS, AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, and THE WILD DUCK, Henrik Ibsen, 978-0-553-21280-8
THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Henry James, 978-0-553-21127-6
THE TURN OF THE SCREW AND OTHER SHORT FICTION, Henry James, 978-0-553-21059-0
A COUNTRY DOCTOR, Sarah Orne Jewett, 978-0-553-21498-7
DUBLINERS, James Joyce, 978-0-553-21380-5
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN, James Joyce, 978-0-553-21404-8
THE METAMORPHOSIS, Franz Kafka, 978-0-553-21369-0
THE STORY OF MY LIFE, Helen Keller, 978-0-553-21387-4
CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS, Rudyard Kipling, 978-0-553-21190-0
THE JUNGLE BOOK, Rudyard Kipling, 978-0-553-21199-3
KIM, Rudyard Kipling, 978-0-553-21332-4
LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER, D. H. Lawrence, 978-0-553-21262-4
SONS AND LOVERS, D. H. Lawrence, 978-0-553-21192-4
WOMEN IN LOVE, D. H. Lawrence, 978-0-553-21454-3
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Gaston Leroux, 978-0-553-21376-8
BABBITT, Sinclair Lewis, 978-0-553-21486-4
MAIN STREET, Sinclair Lewis, 978-0-553-21451-2
THE CALL OF THE WILD and WHITE FANG, Jack London, 978-0-553-21233-4
THE SEA WOLF, Jack London, 978-0-553-21225-9
TO BUILD A FIRE AND OTHER STORIES, Jack London, 978-0-553-21335-5
THE PRINCE, Niccolò Machiavelli, 978-0-553-21278-5
DEATH IN VENICE AND OTHER STORIES, Thomas Mann, 978-0-553-21333-1
THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 978-0-553-21406-2
OF HUMAN BONDAGE, W. Somerset Maugham, 978-0-55
3-21392-8
THE BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFÉ AND OTHER STORIES, Carson McCullers, 978-0-553-27254-3
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, Carson McCullers, 978-0-553-26963-5
THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, Carson McCullers, 978-0-553-25051-0
BILLY BUDD, SAILOR AND OTHER STORIES, Herman Melville, 978-0-553-21274-7
MOBY-DICK, Herman Melville, 978-0-553-21311-9
ON LIBERTY and UTILITARIANISM, John Stuart Mill, 978-0-553-21414-7
THE ANNOTATED MILTON, John Milton, 978-0-553-58110-2
THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, 978-0-553-21402-4
COMMON SENSE, Thomas Paine, 978-0-553-21465-9
THE DIALOGUES OF PLATO, Plato, 978-0-553-21371-3
THE TELL-TALE HEART AND OTHER WRITINGS, Edgar Allan Poe, 978-0-553-21228-0
CYRANO DE BERGERAC, Edmond Rostand, 978-0-553-21360-7
IVANHOE, Sir Walter Scott, 978-0-553-21326-3
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE (29 vols.), William Shakespeare
PYGMALION and MAJOR BARBARA, George Bernard Shaw, 978-0-553-21408-6
FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley, 978-0-553-21247-1
THE JUNGLE, Upton Sinclair, 978-0-553-21245-7
THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, Adam Smith, 978-0-553-58597-1
ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 978-0-553-24777-0
THE COMPLETE PLAYS OF SOPHOCLES, Sophocles, 978-0-553-21354-6
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, Robert Louis Stevenson, 978-0-553-21277-8
KIDNAPPED, Robert Louis Stevenson, 978-0-553-21260-0
TREASURE ISLAND, Robert Louis Stevenson, 978-0-553-21249-5
DRACULA, Bram Stoker, 978-0-553-21271-6
UNCLE TOM’S CABIN, Harriet Beecher Stowe, 978-0-553-21218-1
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS AND OTHER WRITINGS, Jonathan Swift, 978-0-553-21232-7
VANITY FAIR, William Makepeace Thackeray, 978-0-553-21462-8
WALDEN AND OTHER WRITINGS, Henry David Thoreau, 978-0-553-21246-4
DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, Alexis de Tocqueville, 978-0-553-21464-2
ANNA KARENINA, Leo Tolstoy, 978-0-553-21346-1
THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH, Leo Tolstoy, 978-0-553-21035-4