M'Nicholl's discovery, a luminous gleam flickering on the distant verge
of the black disc, at once engrossed the complete attention of our
travellers and set them to divining its course. It could not possibly be
confounded with a star. Its glare was reddish, like that of a distant
furnace on a dark night; it kept steadily increasing in size and
brightness, thus showing beyond a doubt how the Projectile was
moving--in the direction of the luminous point, and _not_ vertically
falling towards the Moon's surface.
"It's a volcano!" cried the Captain, in great excitement; "a volcano in
full blast! An outlet of the Moon's internal fires! Therefore she can't
be a burnt out cinder!"
"It certainly looks like a volcano," replied Barbican, carefully
investigating this new and puzzling phenomenon with his night-glass. "If
it is not one, in fact, what can it be?"
"To maintain combustion," commenced Ardan syllogistically and
sententiously, "air is necessary. An undoubted case of combustion lies
before us. Therefore, this part of the Moon _must_ have an atmosphere!"
"Perhaps so," observed Barbican, "but not necessarily so. The volcano,
by decomposing certain substances, gunpowder for instance, may be able
to furnish its own oxygen, and thus explode in a vacuum.
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