Supposing!--but supposing the contrary!
--Even these brave adventurers had not the courage to suppose the
contrary!
"Five minutes to one o'clock," said M'Nicholl, his eyes never quitting
his watch.
"Ready?" asked Barbican of Ardan.
"Ay, ay, sir!" was Ardan's reply, as he made sure that the electric
apparatus to discharge the rockets was in perfect working order.
"Wait till I give the word," said Barbican, pulling out his chronometer.
The moment was now evidently close at hand. The objects lying around had
no weight. The travellers felt their bodies to be as buoyant as a
hydrogen balloon. Barbican let go his chronometer, but it kept its place
as firmly in empty space before his eyes as if it had been nailed to the
wall!
"One o'clock!" cried Barbican in a solemn tone.
Ardan instantly touched the discharging key of the little electric
battery. A dull, dead, distant report was immediately heard,
communicated probably by the vibration of the Projectile to the internal
air. But Ardan saw through the window a long thin flash, which vanished
in a second. At the same moment, the three friends became
instantaneously conscious of a slight shock experienced by the
Projectile.
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