"How have we forgotten them?"
"I'm sure I can't tell," answered Barbican, "unless, perhaps, because we
had too many other things to think about. Your thought, my dear friend,
is a most happy one, and, of course, we shall utilize it."
"When? How soon?"
"At the first favorable opportunity, not sooner. For you can see for
yourselves, dear friends," he went on explaining, "that with the present
obliquity of the Projectile with regard to the lunar disc, a discharge
of our rockets would be more likely to send us away from the Moon than
towards her. Of course, you are both still desirous of reaching the
Moon?"
"Most emphatically so!"
"Then by reserving our rockets for the last chance, we may possibly get
there after all. In consequence of some force, to me utterly
inexplicable, the Projectile still seems disposed to turn its base
towards the Earth. In fact, it is likely enough that at the neutral
point its cone will point vertically to the Moon. That being the moment
when its velocity will most probably be _nil_, it will also be the
moment for us to discharge our rockets, and the possibility is that we
may force a direct fall on the lunar disc."
"Good!" cried Ardan, clapping hands.
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