CHAPTER XVI
THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
The projectile had just escaped a terrible danger, and a veryunforseen one. Who would have thought of such an encounterwith meteors? These erring bodies might create serious perilsfor the travelers. They were to them so many sandbanks uponthat sea of ether which, less fortunate than sailors, they couldnot escape. But did these adventurers complain of space? No, notsince nature had given them the splendid sight of a cosmicalmeteor bursting from expansion, since this inimitable firework,which no Ruggieri could imitate, had lit up for some seconds theinvisible 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 againsthuman curiousity!
It was then half-past three in the afternoon. The projectilewas following its curvilinear direction round the moon. Had itscourse again been altered by the meteor? It was to be feared so.But the projectile must describe a curve unalterably determinedby the laws of mechanical reasoning. Barbicane was inclined tobelieve that this curve would be rather a parabola than a hyperbola.But admitting the parabola, the projectile must quickly havepassed through the cone of shadow projected into space oppositethe sun. This cone, indeed, is very narrow, the angular diameterof the moon being so little when compared with the diameter ofthe orb of day; and up to this time the projectile had beenfloating in this deep shadow. Whatever had been its speed(and it could not have been insignificant), its period ofoccultation continued. That was evident, but perhaps that wouldnot have been the case in a supposedly rigidly parabolicaltrajectory-- a new problem which tormented Barbicane's brain,imprisoned as he was in a circle of unknowns which he couldnot unravel.
Neither of the travelers thought of taking an instant's repose.Each one watched for an unexpected fact, which might throw somenew light on their uranographic studies. About five o'clock,Michel Ardan distributed, under the name of dinner, some piecesof bread and cold meat, which were quickly swallowed withouteither of them abandoning their scuttle, the glass of which wasincessantly encrusted by the condensation of vapor.
About forty-five minutes past five in the evening, Nicholl,armed with his glass, sighted toward the southern border of themoon, and in the direction followed by the projectile, somebright points cut upon the dark shield of the sky. They lookedlike a succession of sharp points lengthened into a tremulous line.They were very bright. Such appeared the terminal line of themoon 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 avolcano in eruption. And Barbicane did not hesitate topronounce 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 thesummit of the mountains situated on the southern borders ofthe moon. We are evidently nearing the south pole."
"After having passed the north pole," replied Michel. "We havemade the circuit of our satellite, then?"
"Yes, my good Michel."
"Then, no more hyperbolas, no more parabolas, no more opencurves to fear?"
"No, but a closed curve."
"Which is called----"
"An ellipse. Instead of losing itself in interplanetary space,it is probable that the projectile will describe an ellipticalorbit around the moon."
"Indeed!"
"And that it will become _her_ satellite."
"Moon of the moon!" cried Michel Ardan.
"Only, I would have you observe, my worthy friend," repliedBarbicane, "that we are none the less lost for that."
"Yes, in another manner, and much more pleasantly," answered thecareless Frenchman with his most amiable smile.