Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space

  CHAPTER XVI. A BOLD PROPOSITION

  On his return Servadac communicated to the count the result of hisexpedition, and, though perfectly silent on the subject of his personalproject, did not conceal the fact that the Spaniards, without thesmallest right, had sold Ceuta to the English.

  Having refused to quit their post, the Englishmen had virtually excludedthemselves from any further consideration; they had had their warning,and must now take the consequences of their own incredulity.

  Although it had proved that not a single creature either at GourbiIsland, Gibraltar, Ceuta, Madalena, or Formentera had received anyinjury whatever at the time of the first concussion, there was nothingin the least to make it certain that a like immunity from harm wouldattend the second. The previous escape was doubtless owing to someslight, though unaccountable, modification in the rate of motion; butwhether the inhabitants of the earth had fared so fortunately, was aquestion that had still to be determined.

  The day following Servadac's return, he and the count and LieutenantProcope met by agreement in the cave, formally to discuss what would bethe most advisable method of proceeding under their present prospects.Ben Zoof was, as a matter of course, allowed to be present, andProfessor Rosette had been asked to attend; but he declined on the pleaof taking no interest in the matter. Indeed, the disappearance of hismoon had utterly disconcerted him, and the probability that he shouldsoon lose his comet also, plunged him into an excess of grief which hepreferred to bear in solitude.

  Although the barrier of cool reserve was secretly increasing between thecaptain and the count, they scrupulously concealed any outward token oftheir inner feelings, and without any personal bias applied their bestenergies to the discussion of the question which was of such mutual,nay, of such universal interest.

  Servadac was the first to speak. "In fifty-one days, if ProfessorRosette has made no error in his calculations, there is to be arecurrence of collision between this comet and the earth. The inquirythat we have now to make is whether we are prepared for the comingshock. I ask myself, and I ask you, whether it is in our power, byany means, to avert the evil consequences that are only too likely tofollow?"

  Count Timascheff, in a voice that seemed to thrill with solemnity, said:"In such events we are at the disposal of an over-ruling Providence;human precautions cannot sway the Divine will."

  "But with the most profound reverence for the will of Providence,"replied the captain, "I beg to submit that it is our duty to devisewhatever means we can to escape the threatening mischief. Heaven helpsthem that help themselves."

  "And what means have you to suggest, may I ask?" said the count, with afaint accent of satire.

  Servadac was forced to acknowledge that nothing tangible had hithertopresented itself to his mind.

  "I don't want to intrude," observed Ben Zoof, "but I don't understandwhy such learned gentlemen as you cannot make the comet go where youwant it to go."

  "You are mistaken, Ben Zoof, about our learning," said the captain;"even Professor Rosette, with all his learning, has not a shadow ofpower to prevent the comet and the earth from knocking against eachother."

  "Then I cannot see what is the use of all this learning," the orderlyreplied.

  "One great use of learning," said Count Timascheff with a smile, "is tomake us know our own ignorance."

  While this conversation had been going on, Lieutenant Procope had beensitting in thoughtful silence. Looking up, he now said, "Incident tothis expected shock, there may be a variety of dangers. If, gentlemen,you will allow me, I will enumerate them; and we shall, perhaps, bytaking them _seriatim_, be in a better position to judge whether wecan successfully grapple with them, or in any way mitigate theirconsequences."

  There was a general attitude of attention. It was surprising how calmlythey proceeded to discuss the circumstances that looked so threateningand ominous.

  "First of all," resumed the lieutenant, "we will specify the differentways in which the shock may happen."

  "And the prime fact to be remembered," interposed Servadac, "is that thecombined velocity of the two bodies will be about 21,000 miles an hour."

  "Express speed, and no mistake!" muttered Ben Zoof.

  "Just so," assented Procope. "Now, the two bodies may impinge eitherdirectly or obliquely. If the impact is sufficiently oblique, Gallia maydo precisely what she did before: she may graze the earth; she may,or she may not, carry off a portion of the earth's atmosphere andsubstance, and so she may float away again into space; but her orbitwould undoubtedly be deranged, and if we survive the shock, weshall have small chance of ever returning to the world of ourfellow-creatures."

  "Professor Rosette, I suppose," Ben Zoof remarked, "would pretty soonfind out all about that."

  "But we will leave this hypothesis," said the lieutenant; "ourown experience has sufficiently shown us its advantages and itsdisadvantages. We will proceed to consider the infinitely more seriousalternative of direct impact; of a shock that would hurl the cometstraight on to the earth, to which it would become attached."

  "A great wart upon her face!" said Ben Zoof, laughing.

  The captain held up his finger to his orderly, making him understandthat he should hold his tongue.

  "It is, I presume, to be taken for granted," continued LieutenantProcope, "that the mass of the earth is comparatively so large that, inthe event of a direct collision, her own motion would not be sensiblyretarded, and that she would carry the comet along with her, as part ofherself."

  "Very little question of that, I should think," said Servadac.

  "Well, then," the lieutenant went on, "what part of this comet of ourswill be the part to come into collision with the earth? It may be theequator, where we are; it may be at the exactly opposite point, at ourantipodes; or it may be at either pole. In any case, it seems hard toforesee whence there is to come the faintest chance of deliverance."

  "Is the case so desperate?" asked Servadac.

  "I will tell you why it seems so. If the side of the comet on which weare resident impinges on the earth, it stands to reason that we must becrushed to atoms by the violence of the concussion."

  "Regular mincemeat!" said Ben Zoof, whom no admonitions could quitereduce to silence.

  "And if," said the lieutenant, after a moment's pause, and the slightestpossible frown at the interruption--"and if the collision should occurat our antipodes, the sudden check to the velocity of the comet would bequite equivalent to a shock _in situ_; and, another thing, we should runthe risk of being suffocated, for all our comet's atmosphere would beassimilated with the terrestrial atmosphere, and we, supposing we werenot dashed to atoms, should be left as it were upon the summit of anenormous mountain (for such to all intents and purposes Gallia wouldbe), 450 miles above the level of the surface of the globe, without aparticle of air to breathe."

  "But would not our chances of escape be considerably better," askedCount Timascheff, "in the event of either of the comet's poles being thepoint of contact?"

  "Taking the combined velocity into account," answered the lieutenant,"I confess that I fear the violence of the shock will be too great topermit our destruction to be averted."

  A general silence ensued, which was broken by the lieutenant himself."Even if none of these contingencies occur in the way we havecontemplated, I am driven to the suspicion that we shall be burntalive."

  "Burnt alive!" they all exclaimed in a chorus of horror.

  "Yes. If the deductions of modern science be true, the speed of thecomet, when suddenly checked, will be transmuted into heat, and thatheat will be so intense that the temperature of the comet will be raisedto some millions of degrees."

  No one having anything definite to allege in reply to LieutenantProcope's forebodings, they all relapsed into silence. Presently BenZoof asked whether it was not possible for the comet to fall into themiddle of the Atlantic.

  Procope shook his head. "Even so, we should only be adding the fate ofdrowning to the list of our other perils."

&nbs
p; "Then, as I understand," said Captain Servadac, "in whatever way orin whatever place the concussion occurs, we must be either crushed,suffocated, roasted, or drowned. Is that your conclusion, lieutenant?"

  "I confess I see no other alternative," answered Procope, calmly.

  "But isn't there another thing to be done?" said Ben Zoof.

  "What do you mean?" his master asked.

  "Why, to get off the comet before the shock comes."

  "How could you get off Gallia?"

  "That I can't say," replied the orderly.

  "I am not sure that that could not be accomplished," said thelieutenant.

  All eyes in a moment were riveted upon him, as, with his head restingon his hands, he was manifestly cogitating a new idea. "Yes, I thinkit could be accomplished," he repeated. "The project may appearextravagant, but I do not know why it should be impossible. Ben Zoof hashit the right nail on the head; we must try and leave Gallia before theshock."

  "Leave Gallia! How?" said Count Timascheff.

  The lieutenant did not at once reply. He continued pondering for a time,and at last said, slowly and distinctly, "By making a balloon!"

  Servadac's heart sank.

  "A balloon!" he exclaimed. "Out of the question! Balloons are explodedthings. You hardly find them in novels. Balloon, indeed!"

  "Listen to me," replied Procope. "Perhaps I can convince you that myidea is not so chimerical as you imagine." And, knitting his brow, heproceeded to establish the feasibility of his plan. "If we can ascertainthe precise moment when the shock is to happen, and can succeedin launching ourselves a sufficient time beforehand into Gallia'satmosphere, I believe it will transpire that this atmosphere willamalgamate with that of the earth, and that a balloon whirled along bythe combined velocity would glide into the mingled atmosphere and remainsuspended in mid-air until the shock of the collision is overpast."

  Count Timascheff reflected for a minute, and said, "I think, lieutenant,I understand your project. The scheme seems tenable; and I shall beready to co-operate with you, to the best of my power, in putting itinto execution."

  "Only, remember," continued Procope, "there are many chances to oneagainst our success. One instant's obstruction and stoppage in ourpassage, and our balloon is burnt to ashes. Still, reluctant as I am toacknowledge it, I confess that I feel our sole hope of safety rests inour getting free from this comet."

  "If the chances were ten thousand to one against us," said Servadac, "Ithink the attempt ought to be made."

  "But have we hydrogen enough to inflate a balloon?" asked the count.

  "Hot air will be all that we shall require," the lieutenant answered;"we are only contemplating about an hour's journey."

  "Ah, a fire-balloon! A montgolfier!" cried Servadac. "But what are yougoing to do for a casing?"

  "I have thought of that. We must cut it out of the sails of the_Dobryna_; they are both light and strong," rejoined the lieutenant.Count Timascheff complimented the lieutenant upon his ingenuity, and BenZoof could not resist bringing the meeting to a conclusion by a ringingcheer.

  Truly daring was the plan of which Lieutenant Procope had thus becomethe originator; but the very existence of them all was at stake, and thedesign must be executed resolutely. For the success of the enterprise itwas absolutely necessary to know, almost to a minute, the precise timeat which the collision would occur, and Captain Servadac undertook thetask, by gentle means or by stern, of extracting the secret from theprofessor.

  To Lieutenant Procope himself was entrusted the superintendence of theconstruction of the montgolfier, and the work was begun at once. It wasto be large enough to carry the whole of the twenty-three residents inthe volcano, and, in order to provide the means of floating aloftlong enough to give time for selecting a proper place for descent, thelieutenant was anxious to make it carry enough hay or straw to maintaincombustion for a while, and keep up the necessary supply of heated air.

  The sails of the _Dobryna_, which had all been carefully stowed away inthe Hive, were of a texture unusually close, and quite capable of beingmade airtight by means of a varnish, the ingredients of which wererummaged out of the promiscuous stores of the tartan. The lieutenanthimself traced out the pattern and cut out the strips, and all handswere employed in seaming them together. It was hardly the work forlittle fingers, but Nina persisted in accomplishing her own share of it.The Russians were quite at home at occupation of this sort, and havinginitiated the Spaniards into its mysteries, the task of joining togetherthe casing was soon complete. Isaac Hakkabut and the professor werethe only two members of the community who took no part in this somewhattedious proceeding.

  A month passed away, but Servadac found no opportunity of getting at theinformation he had pledged himself to gain. On the sole occasion when hehad ventured to broach the subject with the astronomer, he had receivedfor answer that as there was no hurry to get back to the earth, thereneed be no concern about any dangers of transit.

  Indeed, as time passed on, the professor seemed to become more and moreinaccessible. A pleasant temperature enabled him to live entirely in hisobservatory, from which intruders were rigidly shut out. But Servadacbided his time. He grew more and more impressed with the importance offinding out the exact moment at which the impact would take place,but was content to wait for a promising opportunity to put any freshquestions on the subject to the too reticent astronomer.

  Meanwhile, the earth's disc was daily increasing in magnitude; the comettraveled 50,000,000 leagues during the month, at the close of which itwas not more than 78,000,000 leagues from the sun.

  A thaw had now fairly set in. The breaking up of the frozen ocean was amagnificent spectacle, and "the great voice of the sea," as the whalersgraphically describe it, was heard in all its solemnity. Little streamsof water began to trickle down the declivities of the mountain and alongthe shelving shore, only to be transformed, as the melting of the snowcontinued, into torrents or cascades. Light vapors gathered on thehorizon, and clouds were formed and carried rapidly along by breezes towhich the Gallian atmosphere had long been unaccustomed. All thesewere doubtless but the prelude to atmospheric disturbances of a morestartling character; but as indications of returning spring, they weregreeted with a welcome which no apprehensions for the future couldprevent being glad and hearty.

  A double disaster was the inevitable consequence of the thaw. Both theschooner and the tartan were entirely destroyed. The basement of the icypedestal on which the ships had been upheaved was gradually undermined,like the icebergs of the Arctic Ocean, by warm currents of water, andon the night of the 12th the huge block collapsed _en masse_, so that onthe following morning nothing remained of the _Dobryna_ and the _Hansa_except the fragments scattered on the shore.

  Although certainly expected, the catastrophe could not fail to cause asense of general depression. Well-nigh one of their last ties to MotherEarth had been broken; the ships were gone, and they had only a balloonto replace them!

  To describe Isaac Hakkabut's rage at the destruction of the tartan wouldbe impossible. His oaths were simply dreadful; his imprecations on theaccursed race were full of wrath. He swore that Servadac and his peoplewere responsible for his loss; he vowed that they should be sued andmade to pay him damages; he asserted that he had been brought fromGourbi Island only to be plundered; in fact, he became so intolerablyabusive, that Servadac threatened to put him into irons unless heconducted himself properly; whereupon the Jew, finding that the captainwas in earnest, and would not hesitate to carry the threat into effect,was fain to hold his tongue, and slunk back into his dim hole.

  By the 14th the balloon was finished, and, carefully sewn and wellvarnished as it had been, it was really a very substantial structure. Itwas covered with a network that had been made from the light riggingof the yacht, and the car, composed of wicker-work that had formedpartitions in the hold of the _Hansa_, was quite commodious enough tohold the twenty-three passengers it was intended to convey. No thoughthad been bestowed upon comfort or convenience,
as the ascent was tolast for so short a time, merely long enough for making the transit fromatmosphere to atmosphere.

  The necessity was becoming more and more urgent to get at the truehour of the approaching contact, but the professor seemed to grow moreobstinate than ever in his resolution to keep his secret.

  On the 15th the comet crossed the orbit of Mars, at the safe distanceof 56,000,000 leagues; but during that night the community thoughtthat their last hour had taken them unawares. The volcano rocked andtrembled with the convulsions of internal disturbance, and Servadac andhis companions, convinced that the mountain was doomed to some suddendisruption, rushed into the open air.

  The first object that caught their attention as they emerged upon theopen rocks was the unfortunate professor, who was scrambling downthe mountain-side, piteously displaying a fragment of his shatteredtelescope.

  It was no time for condolence.

  A new marvel arrested every eye. A fresh satellite, in the gloom ofnight, was shining conspicuously before them.

  That satellite was a part of Gallia itself!

  By the expansive action of the inner heat, Gallia, like Gambart's comet,had been severed in twain; an enormous fragment had been detached andlaunched into space!

  The fragment included Ceuta and Gibraltar, with the two Englishgarrisons!