Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space

by Jules Verne

  CHAPTER XVII. THE VENTURE MADE

  What would be the consequences of this sudden and complete disruption,Servadac and his people hardly dared to think.

  The first change that came under their observation was the rapidity ofthe sun's appearances and disappearances, forcing them to the convictionthat although the comet still rotated on its axis from east to west, yetthe period of its rotation had been diminished by about one-half. Onlysix hours instead of twelve elapsed between sunrise and sunrise; threehours after rising in the west the sun was sinking again in the east.

  "We are coming to something!" exclaimed Servadac. "We have got a year ofsomething like 2,880 days."

  "I shouldn't think it would be an easy matter to find saints enough forsuch a calendar as that!" said Ben Zoof.

  Servadac laughed, and remarked that they should have the professortalking about the 238th of June, and the 325th of December.

  It soon became evident that the detached portion was not revolvinground the comet, but was gradually retreating into space. Whether ithad carried with it any portion of atmosphere, whether it possessedany other condition for supporting life, and whether it was likely everagain to approach to the earth, were all questions that there were nomeans of determining. For themselves the all-important problem was--whateffect would the rending asunder of the comet have upon its rate ofprogress? and as they were already conscious of a further increase ofmuscular power, and a fresh diminution of specific gravity, Servadac andhis associates could not but wonder whether the alteration in the massof the comet would not result in its missing the expected coincidencewith the earth altogether.

  Although he professed himself incompetent to pronounce a decidedopinion, Lieutenant Procope manifestly inclined to the belief that noalteration would ensue in the rate of Gallia's velocity; but Rosette, nodoubt, could answer the question directly, and the time had nowarrived in which he must be compelled to divulge the precise moment ofcollision.

  But the professor was in the worst of tempers. Generally taciturn andmorose, he was more than usually uncivil whenever any one ventured tospeak to him. The loss of his telescope had doubtless a great deal to dowith his ill-humor; but the captain drew the most favorable conclusionsfrom Rosette's continued irritation. Had the comet been in any wayprojected from its course, so as to be likely to fail in coming intocontact with the earth, the professor would have been quite unableto conceal his satisfaction. But they required to know more than thegeneral truth, and felt that they had no time to lose in getting at theexact details.

  The opportunity that was wanted soon came.

  On the 18th, Rosette was overheard in furious altercation with Ben Zoof.The orderly had been taunting the astronomer with the mutilation of hislittle comet. A fine thing, he said, to split in two like a child's toy.It had cracked like a dry nut; and mightn't one as well live upon anexploding bomb?--with much more to the same effect. The professor, byway of retaliation, had commenced sneering at the "prodigious" mountainof Montmartre, and the dispute was beginning to look serious whenServadac entered.

  Thinking he could turn the wrangling to some good account, so as toarrive at the information he was so anxiously seeking, the captainpretended to espouse the views of his orderly; he consequently broughtupon himself the full force of the professor's wrath.

  Rosette's language became more and more violent, till Servadac, feigningto be provoked beyond endurance, cried:

  "You forget, sir, that you are addressing the Governor-General ofGallia."

  "Governor-General! humbug!" roared Rosette. "Gallia is my comet!"

  "I deny it," said Servadac. "Gallia has lost its chance of getting backto the earth. Gallia has nothing to do with you. Gallia is mine; and youmust submit to the government which I please to ordain."

  "And who told you that Gallia is not going back to the earth?" asked theprofessor, with a look of withering scorn.

  "Why, isn't her mass diminished? Isn't she split in half? Isn't hervelocity all altered?" demanded the captain.

  "And pray who told you this?" again said the professor, with a sneer.

  "Everybody. Everybody knows it, of course," replied Servadac.

  "Everybody is very clever. And you always were a very clever scholartoo. We remember that of old, don't we?"

  "Sir!"

  "You nearly mastered the first elements of science, didn't you?"

  "Sir!"

  "A credit to your class!"

  "Hold your tongue, sir!" bellowed the captain again, as if his anger wasuncontrollable.

  "Not I," said the professor.

  "Hold your tongue!" repeated Servadac.

  "Just because the mass is altered you think the velocity is altered?"

  "Hold your tongue!" cried the captain, louder than ever.

  "What has mass to do with the orbit? Of how many comets do you know themass, and yet you know their movements? Ignorance!" shouted Rosette.

  "Insolence!" retorted Servadac.

  Ben Zoof, really thinking that his master was angry, made a threateningmovement towards the professor.

  "Touch me if you dare!" screamed Rosette, drawing himself up to thefullest height his diminutive figure would allow. "You shall answer foryour conduct before a court of justice!"

  "Where? On Gallia?" asked the captain.

  "No; on the earth."

  "The earth! Pshaw! You know we shall never get there; our velocity ischanged."

  "On the earth," repeated the professor, with decision.

  "Trash!" cried Ben Zoof. "The earth will be too far off!"

  "Not too far off for us to come across her orbit at 42 minutes and 35.6seconds past two o'clock on the morning of this coming 1st of January."

  "Thanks, my dear professor--many thanks. You have given me all theinformation I required;" and, with a low bow and a gracious smile, thecaptain withdrew. The orderly made an equally polite bow, and followedhis master. The professor, completely nonplussed, was left alone.

  Thirteen days, then--twenty-six of the original Gallian days, fifty-twoof the present--was all the time for preparation that now remained.Every preliminary arrangement was hurried on with the greatestearnestness.

  There was a general eagerness to be quit of Gallia. Indifferent tothe dangers that must necessarily attend a balloon ascent under suchunparalleled circumstances, and heedless of Lieutenant Procope's warningthat the slightest check in their progress would result in instantaneouscombustion, they all seemed to conclude that it must be the simplestthing possible to glide from one atmosphere to another, so that theywere quite sanguine as to the successful issue of their enterprise.Captain Servadac made a point of showing himself quite enthusiastic inhis anticipations, and to Ben Zoof the going up in a balloon was thesupreme height of his ambition. The count and the lieutenant, of colderand less demonstrative temperament, alike seemed to realize the possibleperils of the undertaking, but even they were determined to put a boldface upon every difficulty.

  The sea had now become navigable, and three voyages were made to GourbiIsland in the steam launch, consuming the last of their little reserveof coal.

  The first voyage had been made by Servadac with several of the sailors.They found the gourbi and the adjacent building quite uninjured bythe severity of the winter; numbers of little rivulets intersected thepasture-land; new plants were springing up under the influence of theequatorial sun, and the luxuriant foliage was tenanted by the birdswhich had flown back from the volcano. Summer had almost abruptlysucceeded to winter, and the days, though only three hours long, wereintensely hot.

  Another of the voyages to the island had been to collect the dry grassand straw which was necessary for inflating the balloon. Had the balloonbeen less cumbersome it would have been conveyed to the island,whence the start would have been effected; but as it was, it was moreconvenient to bring the combustible material to the balloon.

  The last of the coal having been consumed, the fragments of theshipwrecked vessels had to be used day by day for fuel. Hakkabut beganmaking a
great hubbub when he found that they were burning some of thespars of the _Hansa_; but he was effectually silenced by Ben Zoof, whotold him that if he made any more fuss, he should be compelled to pay50,000 francs for a balloon-ticket, or else he should be left behind.

  By Christmas Day everything was in readiness for immediate departure.The festival was observed with a solemnity still more marked than theanniversary of the preceding year. Every one looked forward to spendingNew Year's Day in another sphere altogether, and Ben Zoof had alreadypromised Pablo and Nina all sorts of New Year's gifts.

  It may seem strange, but the nearer the critical moment approached, theless Hector Servadac and Count Timascheff had to say to each other onthe subject. Their mutual reserve became more apparent; the experiencesof the last two years were fading from their minds like a dream; and thefair image that had been the cause of their original rivalry was everrising, as a vision, between them.

  The captain's thoughts began to turn to his unfinished rondo; inhis leisure moments, rhymes suitable and unsuitable, possible andimpossible, were perpetually jingling in his imagination. He laboredunder the conviction that he had a work of genius to complete. A poet hehad left the earth, and a poet he must return.

  Count Timascheff's desire to return to the world was quite equaled byLieutenant Procope's. The Russian sailors' only thought was to followtheir master, wherever he went. The Spaniards, though they would havebeen unconcerned to know that they were to remain upon Gallia, werenevertheless looking forward with some degree of pleasure to revisitingthe plains of Andalusia; and Nina and Pablo were only too delightedat the prospect of accompanying their kind protectors on any freshexcursion whatever.

  The only malcontent was Palmyrin Rosette. Day and night he perseveredin his astronomical pursuits, declared his intention of never abandoninghis comet, and swore positively that nothing should induce him to setfoot in the car of the balloon.

  The misfortune that had befallen his telescope was a never-ending themeof complaint; and just now, when Gallia was entering the narrow zone ofshooting-stars, and new discoveries might have been within his reach,his loss made him more inconsolable than ever. In sheer desperation, heendeavored to increase the intensity of his vision by applying to hiseyes some belladonna which he found in the _Dobryna's_ medicine chest;with heroic fortitude he endured the tortures of the experiment, andgazed up into the sky until he was nearly blind. But all in vain; not asingle fresh discovery rewarded his sufferings.

  No one was quite exempt from the feverish excitement which prevailedduring the last days of December. Lieutenant Procope superintended hisfinal arrangements. The two low masts of the schooner had been erectedfirmly on the shore, and formed supports for the montgolfier, which hadbeen duly covered with the netting, and was ready at any moment tobe inflated. The car was close at hand. Some inflated skins had beenattached to its sides, so that the balloon might float for a time, inthe event of its descending in the sea at a short distance from theshore. If unfortunately, it should come down in mid-ocean, nothing butthe happy chance of some passing vessel could save them all from thecertain fate of being drowned.

  The 31st came. Twenty-four hours hence and the balloon, with its largeliving freight, would be high in the air. The atmosphere was lessbuoyant than that of the earth, but no difficulty in ascending was to beapprehended.

  Gallia was now within 96,000,000 miles of the sun, consequently not muchmore than 4,000,000 miles from the earth; and this interval was beingdiminished at the rate of nearly 208,000 miles an hour, the speed of theearth being about 70,000 miles, that of the comet being little less than138,000 miles an hour.

  It was determined to make the start at two o'clock, three-quarters ofan hour, or, to speak correctly 42 minutes 35.6 seconds, before the timepredicted by the professor as the instant of collision. The modifiedrotation of the comet caused it to be daylight at the time.

  An hour previously the balloon was inflated with perfect success,and the car was securely attached to the network. It only awaited thestowage of the passengers.

  Isaac Hakkabut was the first to take his place in the car. But scarcelyhad he done so, when Servadac noticed that his waist was encompassedby an enormous girdle that bulged out to a very extraordinary extent."What's all this, Hakkabut?" he asked.

  "It's only my little bit of money, your Excellency; my modest littlefortune--a mere bagatelle," said the Jew.

  "And what may your little fortune weigh?" inquired the captain.

  "Only about sixty-six pounds!" said Isaac.

  "Sixty-six pounds!" cried Servadac. "We haven't reckoned for this."

  "Merciful heavens!" began the Jew.

  "Sixty-six pounds!" repeated Servadac. "We can hardly carry ourselves;we can't have any dead weight here. Pitch it out, man, pitch it out!"

  "God of Israel!" whined Hakkabut.

  "Out with it, I say!" cried Servadac.

  "What, all my money, which I have saved so long, and toiled for sohard?"

  "It can't be helped," said the captain, unmoved.

  "Oh, your Excellency!" cried the Jew.

  "Now, old Nicodemus, listen to me," interposed Ben Zoof; "you just getrid of that pouch of yours, or we will get rid of you. Take your choice.Quick, or out you go!"

  The avaricious old man was found to value his life above his money; hemade a lamentable outcry about it, but he unfastened his girdle at last,and put it out of the car.

  Very different was the case with Palmyrin Rosette. He avowed over andover again his intention of never quitting the nucleus of his comet. Whyshould he trust himself to a balloon, that would blaze up like a pieceof paper? Why should he leave the comet? Why should he not go once againupon its surface into the far-off realms of space?

  His volubility was brought to a sudden check by Servadac's bidding twoof the sailors, without more ado, to take him in their arms and put himquietly down at the bottom of the car.

  To the great regret of their owners, the two horses and Nina's pet goatwere obliged to be left behind. The only creature for which there wasfound a place was the carrier-pigeon that had brought the professor'smessage to the Hive. Servadac thought it might probably be of service incarrying some communication to the earth.

  When every one, except the captain and his orderly, had taken theirplaces, Servadac said, "Get in, Ben Zoof."

  "After you, sir," said Ben Zoof, respectfully.

  "No, no!" insisted Servadac; "the captain must be the last to leave theship!"

  A moment's hesitation and the orderly clambered over the side of thecar. Servadac followed. The cords were cut. The balloon rose withstately calmness into the air.