below zero to 500 deg. above it, or the point
at which tin melts. Subjected to these extremes, the glassy rocks crack,
shiver and crumble away; enormous land slides occur; peaks topple over;
and tons of debris, crashing down the mountains, are swallowed up
forever in the yawing chasms of the bottomless craters."
"Bravo!" cried Ardan, clapping his hands softly: "our President is
sublime! He reminds me of the overture of _Guillaume Tell_!"
"Souvenir de Marston!" growled M'Nicholl.
"These phenomena," continued Barbican, heedless of interruption and his
voice betraying a slight glow of excitement, "these phenomena going on
without interruption from month to month, from year to year, from age to
age, from _eon_ to _eon_, have finally convinced me that--what?" he
asked his hearers, interrupting himself suddenly.
--"That the existence at the present time--" answered M'Nicholl.
--"Of either animal or vegetable life--" interrupted Ardan.
--"In the Moon is hardly possible!" cried both in one voice.
"Besides?" asked Barbican: "even if there _is_ any life--?"
--"That to live on the dark side would be much more inconvenient than on
the light side!" cried M'Nicholl promptly.
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