“But if it did not fail, Michel, your density being inferior to that of the projectile, you would soon remain behind.”

“Then it is a vicious circle.”

“All that is most vicious.”

“And we must remain imprisoned in our vehicle.”

“Yes, we must.”

“Ah!” cried Michel in a formidable voice.

“What is the matter with you?” asked Nicholl.

“I know, I guess what this pretended asteroid is!  It is not a broken piece of planet!”

“What is it, then?” asked Nicholl.

“It is our unfortunate dog!  It is Diana’s husband!”

In fact, this deformed object, reduced to nothing, and quite unrecognisable, was the body of Satellite flattened like a bagpipe without wind, and mounting, for ever mounting!

CHAPTER VII.

A MOMENT OF INTOXICATION.

Thus a curious but logical, strange yet logical phenomenon took place under these singular conditions.  Every object thrown out of the projectile would follow the same trajectory and only stop when it did.  That furnished a text for conversation which the whole evening could not exhaust.  The emotion of the three travellers increased as they approached the end of their journey.  They expected unforeseen incidents, fresh phenomena, and nothing would have astonished them under present circumstances.  Their excited imagination outdistanced the projectile, the speed of which diminished notably without their feeling it.  But the moon grew larger before their eyes, and they thought they had only to stretch out their hands to touch it.

The next day, the 5th of December, they were all wide awake at 5 a.m.  That day was to be the last of their journey if the calculations were exact.  That same evening, at midnight, within eighteen hours, at the precise moment of full moon, they would reach her brilliant disc.  The next midnight would bring them to the goal of their journey, the most extraordinary one of ancient or modern times.  At early dawn, through the windows made silvery with her rays, they saluted the Queen of Night with a confident and joyful hurrah.

The moon was sailing majestically across the starry firmament.  A few more degrees and she would reach that precise point in space where the projectile was to meet her.  According to his own observations, Barbicane thought that he should accost her in her northern hemisphere, where vast plains extend and mountains are rare—­a favourable circumstance if the lunar atmosphere was, according to received opinion, stored up in deep places only.

“Besides,” observed Michel Ardan, “a plain is more suitable for landing upon than a mountain.  A Selenite landed in Europe on the summit of Mont Blanc, or in Asia on a peak of the Himalayas, would not be precisely at his destination!”

“What is more,” added Nicholl, “on a plain the projectile will remain motionless after it has touched the ground, whilst it would roll down a hill like an avalanche, and as we are not squirrels we should not come out safe and sound.  Therefore all is for the best.”