“I have lost.” said Nicholl.

“I congratulate you upon it,” answered Ardan.

“Here are nine thousand dollars,” said the captain, taking a bundle of notes out of his pocket.

“Will you have a receipt?” asked Barbicane as he took the money.

“If you do not mind,” answered Nicholl; “it is more regular.”

And as seriously and phlegmatically as if he had been in his counting-house, President Barbicane drew out his memorandum-book and tore out a clear page, wrote a receipt in pencil, dated it, signed it, and gave it to the captain, who put it carefully into his pocket-book.

Michel Ardan took off his hat and bowed to his two companions without speaking a word.  Such formality under such circumstances took away his power of speech.  He had never seen anything so American.

Once their business over, Barbicane and Nicholl went back to the light-port and looked at the constellations.  The stars stood out clearly upon the dark background of the sky.  But from this side the moon could not be seen, as she moves from east to west, rising gradually to the zenith.  Her absence made Ardan say—­

“And the moon?  Is she going to fail us?”

“Do not frighten yourself,” answered Barbicane, “Our spheroid is at her post, but we cannot see her from this side.  We must open the opposite light-port.”

At the very moment when Barbicane was going to abandon one window to set clear the opposite one, his attention was attracted by the approach of a shining object.  It was an enormous disc the colossal dimensions of which could not be estimated.  Its face turned towards the earth was brilliantly lighted.  It looked like a small moon reflecting the light of the large one.  It advanced at prodigious speed, and seemed to describe round the earth an orbit right across the passage of the projectile.  To the movement of translation of this object was added a movement of rotation upon itself.  It was therefore behaving like all celestial bodies abandoned in space.

“Eh!” cried Michel Ardan.  “Whatever is that?  Another projectile?”

Barbicane did not answer.  The apparition of this enormous body surprised him and made him uneasy.  A collision was possible which would have had deplorable results, either by making the projectile deviate from its route and fall back upon the earth, or be caught up by the attractive power of the asteroid.

President Barbicane had rapidly seized the consequences of these three hypotheses, which in one way or other would fatally prevent the success of his attempt.  His companions were silently watching the object, which grew prodigiously larger as it approached, and through a certain optical illusion it seemed as if the projectile were rushing upon it.

“Ye gods!” cried Michel Ardan; “there will be a collision on the line!”

The three travellers instinctively drew back.  Their terror was extreme, but it did not last long, hardly a few seconds.  The asteroid passed at a distance of a few hundred yards from the projectile and disappeared, not so much on account of the rapidity of its course, but because its side opposite to the moon was suddenly confounded with the absolute darkness of space.