CHAPTER XVII
A TELEGRAPHIC DISPATCH
The great works undertaken by the Gun Club had now virtuallycome to an end; and two months still remained before the day forthe discharge of the shot to the moon. To the general impatiencethese two months appeared as long as years! Hitherto the smallestdetails of the operation had been daily chronicled by the journals,which the public devoured with eager eyes.
Just at this moment a circumstance, the most unexpected, themost extraordinary and incredible, occurred to rouse afreshtheir panting spirits, and to throw every mind into a state ofthe most violent excitement.
One day, the 30th of September, at 3:47 P.M., a telegram,transmitted by cable from Valentia (Ireland) to Newfoundland andthe American Mainland, arrived at the address of President Barbicane.
The president tore open the envelope, read the dispatch, and,despite his remarkable powers of self-control, his lips turnedpale and his eyes grew dim, on reading the twenty words ofthis telegram.
Here is the text of the dispatch, which figures now in thearchives of the Gun Club:
FRANCE, PARIS, 30 September, 4 A.M. Barbicane, Tampa Town, Florida, United States.
Substitute for your spherical shell a cylindro-conical projectile.I shall go inside. Shall arrive by steamer Atlanta. MICHEL ARDAN.