limits of the atmosphere. Then a profound silence reigned
throughout the crowd.
The Frenchman and the two Americans had by this time entered the enclosure reserved in the center of the multi- tude. They were accompanied by the members of the Gun Club, and by deputations sent from all the European Observatories. Barbicane, cool and collected, was giving his final directions. Nicholl, with compressed lips, his arms crossed behind his back, walked with a firm and measured step. Michel Ardan, always easy, dressed in thorough traveler's costume, leathern gaiters on his legs, pouch by his side, in loose velvet suit, cigar in mouth, was full of inexhaustible gayety, laughing, joking, playing pranks with J. T. Maston. In one word he was the thorough "Frenchman (and worse, a "Parisian") to the last moment.
Ten o'clock struck! The moment had arrived for tak- ing their places in the projectile! The necessary opera- tions for the descent, and the subsequent removal of the cranes and scaffolding that inclined over the mouth of the Columbiad, required a certain period of time. Barbicane had regulated his chronometer to the tenth part of a second by that of Murchison the engineer, who was charged with the duty of firing the gun by means of an electric spark. Thus the travelers enclosed within the projectile, were enabled to follow with their eyes the impas- sive needle which marked the precise moment of their de- parture.
The moment had arrived for saying "Good-bye!" The scene was a touching one. Despite his feverish gayety, even Michel Ardan was touched. J. T. Maston had found in his own dry eyes one ancient tear, which he had doubtless reserved for the occasion. He dropped it on the forehead of his dear president.
"Can I not go?" he said, "there is still time!"
"Impossible, old fellow!" replied Barbicane. A few moments later, the three fellow-travelers had ensconced themselves in the projectile, and screwed down the plate which covered the entrance-aperture. The mouth of the Columbiad, now completely disencumbered, was open en- tirely to the sky.
The moon advanced upwards in a heaven of the purest
