that there was no lack of water on the moon’s surface. As to
provisions, doubtless the inhabitants of the _earth_ would find
nourishment somewhere in the _moon_. Ardan never questioned
this; indeed, had he done so, he would never have undertaken
the journey.
“Besides,” he said one day to his friends, “we shall not be
completely abandoned by our terrestrial friends; they will take
care not to forget us.”
“No, indeed!” replied J. T. Maston.
“Nothing would be simpler,” replied Ardan; “the Columbiad will
be always there. Well! whenever the moon is in a favorable
condition as to the zenith, if not to the perigee, that is to
say about once a year, could you not send us a shell packed
with provisions, which we might expect on some appointed day?”
“Hurrah! hurrah!” cried J. T. Matson; “what an ingenious fellow!
what a splendid idea! Indeed, my good friends, we shall not
forget you!”
“I shall reckon upon you! Then, you see, we shall receive news
regularly from the earth, and we shall indeed be stupid if we
hit upon no plan for communicating with our good friends here!”
These words inspired such confidence, that Michel Ardan carried
all the Gun Club with him in his enthusiasm. What he said
seemed so simple and so easy, so sure of success, that none
could be so sordidly attached to this earth as to hesitate to
follow the three travelers on their lunar expedition.
All being ready at last, it remained to place the projectile in
the Columbiad, an operation abundantly accompanied by dangers
and difficulties.
The enormous shell was conveyed to the summit of Stones Hill.
There, powerful cranes raised it, and held it suspended over the
mouth of the cylinder.
It was a fearful moment! What if the chains should break under
its enormous weight? The sudden fall of such a body would
inevitably cause the gun-cotton to explode!
Fortunately this did not happen; and some hours later the
projectile-vehicle descended gently into the heart of the cannon
and rested on its couch of pyroxyle, a veritable bed of
explosive eider-down. Its pressure had no result, other than
the more effectual ramming down of the charge in the Columbiad.
“I have lost,” said the captain, who forthwith paid President
Barbicane the sum of three thousand dollars.
Barbicane did not wish to accept the money from one of his
fellow-travelers, but gave way at last before the determination
of Nicholl, who wished before leaving the earth to fulfill all
his engagements.
“Now,” said Michel Ardan, “I have only one thing more to wish
for you, my brave captain.”
“What is that?” asked Nicholl.
“It is that you may lose your two other bets! Then we shall be
sure not to be stopped on our journey!”
CHAPTER XXVI
FIRE!
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 which 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