TAKING POSSESSION.

This curious but certainly correct explanation once given, the three friends fell again into a profound sleep.  Where would they have found a calmer or more peaceful place to sleep in?  Upon earth, houses in the town or cottages in the country feel every shock upon the surface of the globe.  At sea, ships, rocked by the waves, are in perpetual movement.  In the air, balloons incessantly oscillate upon the fluid strata of different densities.  This projectile alone, travelling in absolute void amidst absolute silence, offered absolute repose to its inhabitants.

The sleep of the three adventurers would have, perhaps, been indefinitely prolonged if an unexpected noise had not awakened them about 7 a.m. on the 2nd of December, eight hours after their departure.

This noise was a very distinct bark.

“The dogs!  It is the dogs!” cried Michel Ardan, getting up immediately.

“They are hungry,” said Nicholl.

“I should think so,” answered Michel; “we have forgotten them.”

“Where are they?” asked Barbicane.

One of the animals was found cowering under the divan.  Terrified and stunned by the first shock, it had remained in a corner until the moment it had recovered its voice along with the feeling of hunger.

It was Diana, still rather sheepish, that came from the retreat, not without urging.  Michel Ardan encouraged her with his most gracious words.

“Come, Diana,” he said—­“come, my child; your destiny will be noted in cynegetic annals!  Pagans would have made you companion to the god Anubis, and Christians friend to St. Roch!  You are worthy of being carved in bronze for the king of hell, like the puppy that Jupiter gave beautiful Europa as the price of a kiss!  Your celebrity will efface that of the Montargis and St. Bernard heroes.  You are rushing through interplanetary space, and will, perhaps, be the Eve of Selenite dogs!  You will justify up there Toussenel’s saying, ’In the beginning God created man, and seeing how weak he was, gave him the dog!’ Come, Diana, come here!”

Diana, whether flattered or not, came out slowly, uttering plaintive moans.

“Good!” said Barbicane.  “I see Eve, but where is Adam?”

“Adam,” answered Michel Ardan, “can’t be far off.  He is here somewhere.  He must be called!  Satellite! here, Satellite!”

But Satellite did not appear.  Diana continued moaning.  It was decided, however, that she was not wounded, and an appetising dish was set before her to stop her complaining.

As to Satellite, he seemed lost.  They were obliged to search a long time before discovering him in one of the upper compartments of the projectile, where a rather inexplicable rebound had hurled him violently.  The poor animal was in a pitiable condition.

“The devil!” said Michel.  “Our acclimatisation is in danger!”

The unfortunate dog was carefully lowered.  His head had been fractured against the roof, and it seemed difficult for him to survive such a shock.  Nevertheless, he was comfortably stretched on a cushion, where he sighed once.