by Jules Verne
CHAPTER XXVII.
FOUL WEATHER.
At the moment when that pyramid of fire rose to a prodigious height intothe air, the glare of the flame lit up the whole of Florida; and for amoment day superseded night over a considerable extent of the country.This immense canopy of fire was perceived at a distance of 100 milesout at sea, and more than one ship's captain entered in his log theappearance of this gigantic meteor.
The discharge of the Columbiad was accompanied by a perfect earthquake.Florida was shaken to its very depths. The gases of the powder, expandedby heat, forced back the atmospheric strata with tremendous violence,and this artificial hurricane rushed like a waterspout through the air.
Not a single spectator remained on his feet! Men, women, children, alllay prostrate like ears of corn under a tempest. There ensued a terribletumult; a large number of persons were seriously injured. J. T. Maston,who, despite of all dictates of prudence had kept in advance of the mass,was pitched back 120 feet, shooting like a projectile over the heads ofhis fellow-citizens. Three hundred thousand persons remained deaf for atime, and as though struck stupefied.
As soon as the first effects were over, the injured, the deaf, and lastly,the crowd in general, woke up with frenzied cries. "Hurrah for Ardan!Hurrah for Barbicane! Hurrah for Nicholl!" rose to the skies. Thousandsof persons, noses in air, armed with telescopes and race-glasses, werequestioning space, forgetting all contusions and emotions in the one ideaof watching for the projectile. They looked in vain! It was no longer tobe seen, and they were obliged to wait for telegrams from Long's Peak.The Director of the Cambridge Observatory was at his post on the RockyMountains; and to him, as a skilful and persevering astronomer, allobservations had been confided.
Illustration: EFFECT OF THE EXPLOSION.
Illustration: THE DIRECTOR AT HIS POST.
But an unforeseen phenomenon came in to subject the public impatience toa severe trial.
The weather, hitherto so fine, suddenly changed; the sky became heavy withclouds. It could not have been otherwise after the terrible derangementof the atmospheric strata, and the dispersion of the enormous quantityof vapour arising from the combustion of 200,000 lbs. ofpyroxyle!
On the morrow the horizon was covered with clouds--a thick andimpenetrable curtain between earth and sky, which unhappily extended asfar as the Rocky Mountains. It was a fatality! But since man had chosenso to disturb the atmosphere, he was bound to accept the consequences ofhis experiment.
Supposing, now, that the experiment had succeeded, the travellers havingstarted on the 1st of December, at 10h. 46m. 40s. p.m., were due onthe 4th at 0h. p.m. at their destination. So that up to that time itwould have been very difficult after all to have observed, under suchconditions, a body so small as the shell. Therefore they waited with whatpatience they might.
From the 4th to the 6th of December inclusive, the weather remaining muchthe same in America, the great European instruments of Herschel, Rosse,and Foucault, were constantly directed towards the moon, for the weatherwas then magnificent; but the comparative weakness of their glassesprevented any trustworthy observations being made.
On the 7th the sky seemed to lighten. They were in hopes now, but theirhope was of but short duration, and at night again thick clouds hid thestarry vault from all eyes.
Matters were now becoming serious, when on the 9th, the sun reappearedfor an instant, as if for the purpose of teasing the Americans. It wasreceived with hisses; and wounded, no doubt, by such a reception, showeditself very sparing of its rays.
On the 10th, no change! J. T. Maston went nearly mad, and great fearswere entertained regarding the brain of this worthy individual, whichhad hitherto been so well preserved within his gutta-percha cranium.
But on the 11th one of those inexplicable tempests peculiar to thoseintertropical regions was let loose in the atmosphere. A terrific eastwind swept away the groups of clouds which had been so long gathering,and at night the semi-disc of the orb of night rode majestically amidstthe soft constellations of the sky.
