"Its mass, compared to ours, was
enormous, and its attraction was undoubtedly sufficiently great to
influence our deviation."
"Hardly enough to be appreciable," urged M'Nicholl.
"Right again, Captain," observed Barbican. "But just remember an
observation of your own made this very afternoon: an inch, a line, even
the tenth part of a hair's breadth wrong at the beginning, in a journey
of 240 thousand miles, would be sufficient to make us miss the Moon!"
CHAPTER X.
THE OBSERVERS OF THE MOON.
Barbican's happy conjecture had probably hit the nail on the head. The
divergency even of a second may amount to millions of miles if you only
have your lines long enough. The Projectile had certainly gone off its
direct course; whatever the cause, the fact was undoubted. It was a
great pity. The daring attempt must end in a failure due altogether to a
fortuitous accident, against which no human foresight could have
possibly taken precaution. Unless in case of the occurrence of some
other most improbable accident, reaching the Moon was evidently now
impossible. To failure, therefore, our travellers had to make up their
minds.
But was nothing to be gained by the trip? Though missing actual contact
with the Moon, might they not pass near enough to solve several problems
in physics and geology over which scientists had been for a long time
puzzling their brains in vain? Even this would be some compensation for
all their trouble, courage, and intelligence.
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