“No! a hundred times no!” replied Barbicane.  “An excess of velocity, supposing the direction of the projectile to have been correct, would not have prevented us reaching the moon.  No!  There has been a deviation.  We have deviated!”

“Through whom? through what?” asked Nicholl.

“I cannot tell,” answered Barbicane.

“Well, Barbicane,” then said Michel, “should you like to know what I think about why we have deviated?”

“Say what you think.”

“I would not give half a dollar to know!  We have deviated, that is a fact.  It does not matter much where we are going.  We shall soon find out.  As we are being carried along into space we shall end by falling into some centre of attraction or another.”

Barbicane could not be contented with this indifference of Michel Ardan’s.  Not that he was anxious about the future.  But what he wanted to know, at any price, was why his projectile had deviated.

In the meantime the projectile kept on its course sideways to the moon, and the objects thrown out along with it.  Barbicane could even prove by the landmarks upon the moon, which was only at 2,000 leagues’ distance, that its speed was becoming uniform—­a fresh proof that they were not falling.  Its force of impulsion was prevailing over the lunar attraction, but the trajectory of the projectile was certainly taking them nearer the lunar disc, and it might be hoped that at a nearer point the weight would predominate and provoke a fall.

The three friends, having nothing better to do, went on with their observations.  They could not, however, yet determine the topography of the satellite.  Every relief was levelled under the action of the solar rays.

They watched thus through the lateral windows until 8 p.m.  The moon then looked so large that she hid half the firmament from them.  The sun on one side, and the Queen of Night on the other, inundated the projectile with light.

At that moment Barbicane thought he could estimate at 700 leagues only the distance that separated them from their goal.  The velocity of the projectile appeared to him to be 200 yards a second, or about 170 leagues an hour.  The base of the bullet had a tendency to turn towards the moon under the influence of the centripetal force; but the centrifugal force still predominated, and it became probable that the rectilinear trajectory would change to some curve the nature of which could not be determined.

Barbicane still sought the solution of his insoluble problem.  The hours went by without result.  The projectile visibly drew nearer to the moon, but it was plain that it would not reach her.  The short distance at which it would pass her would be the result of two forces, attractive and repulsive, which acted upon the projectile.

“I only pray for one thing,” repeated Michel, “and that is to pass near enough to the moon to penetrate her secrets.”

“Confound the cause that made our projectile deviate!” cried Nicholl.