Profound silence reigned in the boats. All hearts
stopped beating. Eyes no longer performed their
office. One of the port-lights of the projectile
was opened. Some pieces of glass remaining in
the frame proved that it had been broken. This
port-light was situated actually five feet above water.
A boat drew alongside—that of J.T.
Maston. He rushed to the broken window.
At that moment the joyful and clear voice of Michel
Ardan was heard exclaiming in the accents of victory—“Double
blank, Barbicane, double blank!”
Barbicane, Michel Ardan, and Nicholl were playing
at dominoes.
THE END.
It will be remembered that immense sympathy accompanied
the three travellers upon their departure. If
the beginning of their enterprise had caused such
excitement in the old and new world, what enthusiasm
must welcome their return! Would not those millions
of spectators who had invaded the Floridian peninsula
rush to meet the sublime adventurers? Would those
legions of foreigners from all points of the globe,
now in America, leave the Union without seeing Barbicane,
Nicholl, and Michel Ardan once more? No, and the
ardent passion of the public would worthily respond
to the grandeur of the enterprise. Human beings
who had left the terrestrial spheroid, who had returned
after their strange journey into celestial space,
could not fail to be received like the prophet Elijah
when he returned to the earth. To see them first,
to hear them afterwards, was the general desire.
This desire was to be very promptly realised by almost
all the inhabitants of the Union.
Barbicane, Michel Ardan, Nicholl, and the delegates
of the Gun Club returned without delay to Baltimore,
and were there received with indescribable enthusiasm.
The president’s travelling notes were ready to
be given up for publicity. The New York Herald
bought this manuscript at a price which is not yet
known, but which must have been enormous. In
fact, during the publication of the Journey to the
Moon they printed 5,000,000 copies of that newspaper.
Three days after the travellers’ return to the
earth the least details of their expedition were known.
The only thing remaining to be done was to see the
heroes of this superhuman enterprise.
The exploration of Barbicane and his friends around
the moon had allowed them to control the different
theories about the terrestrial satellite. These
savants had observed it de visu and under
quite peculiar circumstances. It was now known
which systems were to be rejected, which admitted,
upon the formation of this orb, its origin, and its
inhabitability. Its past, present, and future
had given up their secrets. What could be objected
to conscientious observations made at less than forty
miles from that curious mountain of Tycho, the strangest
mountain system of lunar orography? What answers
