"By means of bolides ejected from the lunar volcanoes," replied the
Frenchman without an instant's hesitation.
"Well said, friend Ardan," exclaimed Barbican. "I am quite disposed to
acknowledge the feasibility of your plan. Laplace has calculated that a
force five times greater than that of an ordinary cannon would be
sufficient to send a bolide from the Moon to the Earth. Now there is no
cannon that can vie in force with even the smallest volcano."
"Hurrah!" cried Ardan, delighted at his success; "just imagine the
pleasure of sending our letters postage free! But--oh! what a splendid
idea!--Dolts that we were for not thinking of it sooner!"
"Let us have the splendid idea!" cried the Captain, with some of his old
acrimony.
"Why didn't we fasten a wire to the Projectile?" asked Ardan,
triumphantly, "It would have enabled us to exchange telegrams with the
Earth!"
"Ho! ho! ho!" roared the Captain, rapidly recovering his good humor;
"decidedly the best joke of the season! Ha! ha! ha! Of course you have
calculated the weight of a wire 240 thousand miles long?"
"No matter about its weight!" cried the Frenchman impetuously; "we
should have laughed at its weight! We could have tripled the charge of
the Columbiad; we could have quadrupled it!--aye, quintupled it, if
necessary!" he added in tones evidently increasing in loudness and
violence.
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