Therefore it will be only a question of mere
powder and bullets if a cargo of visitors is not sent to the Moon every
time she passes our zenith.
"Marston would be one of the first of them," observed Brownson, lighting
his cigar.
"Oh, he would have plenty of company!" cried the Midshipman. "I should
be delighted to go if he'd only take me."
"No doubt you would, Mr. Midshipman," said Brownson, "the wise men, you
know, are not all dead yet."
"Nor the fools either, Lieutenant," growled old Frisby, the fourth
officer, getting tired of the conversation.
"There is no question at all about it," observed another; "every time a
Projectile started, it would take off as many as it could carry."
"I wish it would only start often enough to improve the breed!" growled
old Frisby.
"I have no doubt whatever," added the Chief Engineer, "that the thing
would get so fashionable at last that half the inhabitants of the Earth
would take a trip to the Moon."
"I should limit that privilege strictly to some of our friends in
Washington," said old Frisby, whose temper had been soured probably by a
neglect to recognize his long services; "and most of them I should by
all means insist on sending to the Moon.
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