Part 46 (1/2)

Then immense s.p.a.ces, no longer arid plains, but real seas, oceans, widely distributed, reflecting on their liquid surface all the dazzling magic of the fires of s.p.a.ce; and, lastly, on the surface of the continents, large dark ma.s.ses, looking like immense forests under the rapid illumination of a brilliance.

Was it an illusion, a mistake, an optical illusion? Could they give a scientific a.s.sent to an observation so superficially obtained?

Dared they p.r.o.nounce upon the question of its habitability after so slight a glimpse of the invisible disc?

But the lightnings in s.p.a.ce subsided by degrees; its accidental brilliancy died away; the asteroids dispersed in different directions and were extinguished in the distance.

The ether returned to its accustomed darkness; the stars, eclipsed for a moment, again twinkled in the firmament, and the disc, so hastily discerned, was again buried in impenetrable night.

CHAPTER XVI

THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

The projectile had just escaped a terrible danger, and a very unforseen one. Who would have thought of such an encounter with meteors? These erring bodies might create serious perils for the travelers. They were to them so many sandbanks upon that sea of ether which, less fortunate than sailors, they could not escape. But did these adventurers complain of s.p.a.ce? No, not since nature had given them the splendid sight of a cosmical meteor bursting from expansion, since this inimitable firework, which no Ruggieri could imitate, had lit up for some seconds the invisible glory of the moon. In that flash, continents, seas, and forests had become visible to them. Did an atmosphere, then, bring to this unknown face its life-giving atoms?

Questions still insoluble, and forever closed against human curiousity!

It was then half-past three in the afternoon. The projectile was following its curvilinear direction round the moon. Had its course again been altered by the meteor? It was to be feared so.

But the projectile must describe a curve unalterably determined by the laws of mechanical reasoning. Barbicane was inclined to believe that this curve would be rather a parabola than a hyperbola.

But admitting the parabola, the projectile must quickly have pa.s.sed through the cone of shadow projected into s.p.a.ce opposite the sun. This cone, indeed, is very narrow, the angular diameter of the moon being so little when compared with the diameter of the orb of day; and up to this time the projectile had been floating in this deep shadow. Whatever had been its speed (and it could not have been insignificant), its period of occultation continued. That was evident, but perhaps that would not have been the case in a supposedly rigidly parabolical trajectory-- a new problem which tormented Barbicane's brain, imprisoned as he was in a circle of unknowns which he could not unravel.

Neither of the travelers thought of taking an instant's repose.

Each one watched for an unexpected fact, which might throw some new light on their uranographic studies. About five o'clock, Michel Ardan distributed, under the name of dinner, some pieces of bread and cold meat, which were quickly swallowed without either of them abandoning their scuttle, the gla.s.s of which was incessantly encrusted by the condensation of vapor.

About forty-five minutes past five in the evening, Nicholl, armed with his gla.s.s, sighted toward the southern border of the moon, and in the direction followed by the projectile, some bright points cut upon the dark s.h.i.+eld of the sky. They looked like a succession of sharp points lengthened into a tremulous line.

They were very bright. Such appeared the terminal line of the moon when in one of her octants.

They could not be mistaken. It was no longer a simple meteor.

This luminous ridge had neither color nor motion. Nor was it a volcano in eruption. And Barbicane did not hesitate to p.r.o.nounce upon it.

”The sun!” he exclaimed.

”What! the sun?” answered Nicholl and Michel Ardan.

”Yes, my friends, it is the radiant orb itself lighting up the summit of the mountains situated on the southern borders of the moon. We are evidently nearing the south pole.”

”After having pa.s.sed the north pole,” replied Michel. ”We have made the circuit of our satellite, then?”

”Yes, my good Michel.”

”Then, no more hyperbolas, no more parabolas, no more open curves to fear?”

”No, but a closed curve.”

”Which is called----”