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SO
HECTOR SERVADAC.
eighty-eight millions of leagues from the sun, and at
the most distant point two hundred and seven millions.
It remains to speak of the four moons, which, some-
times united on the same horizon, sometimes separated,
illumine magnificently the Jovian nights.
Of these four satellites, one revolves around Jupiter
at a distance almost equal to that which separates the
moon from the earth. Another is a little smaller than
the star of the night. But all accomplish their revolu-
tion with much greater rapidity than the moon; the
first, in one day, eighteen hours, twenty-eight minutes;
the second, in three days, thirteen hours, forty min-
utes; the third, in seven days, three hours, foftyh-tree
minutes; and the fourth in sixteen days, sixteen hours,
and thirty-two minutes. The most distant revolves at
a distance of four hundred and sixty-five thousand,
one hundred and thirty leagues from the surface of the
planet. It is known that it was by the observation of
these satellites, whose movements are known with ab-
solute precision, that the velocity of light was first de-
termined. They may also serve in the calculation of
terrestrial longitude.
"We may, then, represent Jupiter to ourselves,"
said Lieutenant Procope, one day, "as an enormous
watch, of which the satellites form the hands, and
which measures time with perfect exactness."
'A watch a little too large for my watch-pocket,"
eplied Ben-Zouf.
KIwil
vill add," said the lieutenant, " that if our watches
have at the most three hands, that one has four."
"Let us take care that it may not soon have a fifth,"
replied Captain Servadac, thinking of the danger which
Gallia ran of being changed into a satellite of the
Jovian System.
It may well De supposed that this world, which to
their eyes grew larger each day, was the only object of
conversation with Captain Servadac and his com-
panions. They could not take their eyes off of it; they
could not speak of anything else.
One day the conversation was on the age that these
different planets must have, and Lieutenant Procope
could not reply better than by reading this passage
from the " Recitals of the Infinite," by Flammarion, of
which he had the Russian translation:
" The most distant (of these stars) are the oldest and
the most advanced in the way of progress. -Neptune,
situated at eleven hundred millions of leagues
from the sun, was sent forth first from the
solar nebula billions of centuries ago. Uranus,
which gravitates seven hundred million of leagues
from the common center of planetary orbits,
is several hundred million of centuries old. Jupiter,
colossus, soaring at a hundred and ninety millions of
leagues, is seventy millions of centuries old. Mars
counts ten times a hundred million of years in its exist-
ence; its distance from the sun is flxty-six millions of
leagues. The earth, at thirty-seven millions of leagues
from the sun, was sent forth from its burning bosom a
hundred million of years ago. It is, perhaps, only fifty
millions of years since Venus was sent from the sun—
it gravitates at a distance of twenty-six millions of
leagues—and only ten millions of years since Mercury
(distance, fourteen million) was born of the same
origin, while the moon was brought forth by the earth."
Such was the new theory which brought this reflection
from Captain Servadac: "That, taking everything
into consideration, better be captured by Minerva than
by Jupiter. We would then serve a master younger,
and probably less difficult to pleasel"
During the last fortnight or the month of September,
Gallia and Jupiter continued to approach each other.
It was on the first of this month that the comet had
crossed the orbit of the planet, and it was on the first
day of the following month that the two stars would
be at their shortest distance from each other. A direct
collision was not to be feared, because the planes of
the orbits of Jupiter and Gallia did not coincide; mean-
while they were slightly inclined to each other. In
fact, the plane in which Jupiter moved only made an
angle 1° 19' with the ecliptic ; and we have not forgotten
that the ecliptic and the orbit of the comet, since the
collision, were projected in the same plane.
During these fifteen days, for an observer more dis-
interested than the Gallians, Jupiter would have been
worthy of all admiration. Its disc, illumined by the
solar rays, reflected them on Gallia with a certain in-
tensity. Objects more illumined on its surface took
new tints. Narina, itself, when it was found in opposi-
tion with Jupiter, and consequently in conjunction with
the sun, was faintly visible during the night. Palmyrin
Rosette, immovably installed in his observatoiy, his
telescope directed toward the marvelous star, seemed
eager to penetrate the last mysteries of the Jovian
world. This planet, which a terrestrial astronomer has
never seen nearer than one hundred and fifty millions
of leagues, was going to approach to a distance of only
thirteen millions of leagues from the enthusiastic pro-
fessor.
As to the sun, from the distance at which Gallia was
then revolving, it appeared only under the form of a
disc, measuring five minutes and forty-six seconds in
diameter. Some days before Jupiter and Gallia had
arrived at their shortest distance, the satellites of the
planet were visible to the naked eye. It is known that,
without a telescope, it is impossible to perceive from
the earth the moons of the Jovian world. Meanwhile,
a few privileged ones, gifted with exceptional power of
vision, have seen the satellites of Jupiter without the
help of instruments. Among others, the scientific an-
nals cite Moestlin, the professor of Kepler, a Siberian
hunter, according to Wrangel, and according to Bogu-
lawski, director of the Observatory at Breslau, a master
tailor of that city. In admitting this penetration of
sight with which these mortals were gifted, they would
have had numerous rivals if they had, at this epoch,
inhabited Hot-Land and the cells of Nina-Hive. The
satellites were visible to all eyes. They could even ob-
serve that the first was white, more or less clear; the
second slightly bluish, the third of an immaculate
whiteness, the fourth sometimes orange, sometimes
reddish. It must also be added that Jupiter at this dis-
tance seemed to be entirely destitute of scintillation.
If Palmyrin Rosette continued to observe the planet
as an astronomer purely disinterested, his companions
feared always a delay or an attraction that might be
changed into a fall.
The days meanwhile glided by, without justifying
these last apprehensions. Would, then, the disturbing
star have no other effect than to produce on Gallia the
perturbations indicated by the calculations? If a direct
fall was not to be feared, on account of the initial im-
pulse given to the comet, would this impulse suffice to
maintain it within the limits of these perturbations,
which, all calculations made, should allow it to accom-
plish its revolution around the sun in two years? This
was, without doubt,what Palmyrin Rosette was observ-
ing, but it would have been difficult to draw from him
the secret of his observations.
Sometimes Hector Servadac and his companions
talked about it.
" Bah !" replied Captain Servadac; "if the duration
of the Gallian revolution were modified, if Gallia ex-
perienced unforeseen delays, my professor could not
conceal his satisfaction. He would be too happy to
plague us, and, without directly questioning him, we
know well what we are in for!"
" God grant, after all," said Count Timascheff, " that
he has made no error in his first calculations!"
" He—Palmyrin Rosette—commit an error!" replied
Hector Servadac: "that seems to me improbable. It
cannot be denied that he is an observer of the greatest
merit. I believe in the exactness of'his first calculations
touching the revolution of Gallia, as I shall believe in
the exactness of his second ones, if he affirms that we
must renounce all hope of returning to the earth."
"Well, captain," then said Ben-Zouf, "do you wish
me to tell you what puzzles me?"
" Tell us what puzzles you, Ben-Zouf."
" Your savant spends all his time in his observatory,
does he not?" asked the orderly, in the tone of a man
who has reflected profoundly.
" Yes, without doubt," replied Hector Servadac.
" And day and night," went on Ben-Zouf, " his infer-
nal glass is pointed at this Mr. Jupiter who wishes to
swallow us."
" Yes—what then?"
" Are you very sure, captain, that your old professor
does not attract it, little by little, with his cursed teles-
cope?"
Ali, quite sure 1" replied Captain Servadac, with a
burst of laughter.
" Enough, captain, enoughl"said Ben-Zouf, who bent
his head with an air of not being convinced. " That
does not seem as sure to me as to you, and I have to
bind myself hand and foot, so as-----"
" Well?" asked Hector Servadac.
" So as not to demolish his instrument of misfor-
tune."
" Break his telescope, Ben-Zouf?"
"In a thousand pieces!"
" Well, try, and I will have you hung."
"Oh! hung?"
"Am I not Governor-General of Gallia?"
"Yes, captain," replied Ben-Zouf.
And, in fact, had he been condemned, he would have
put the rope around his own neck rather than deny for
an instant the power of life And death to " his excel-
lency."
On the first of October the distance between Jupiter
and Gallia was no more than eighteen millions of
leagues. The planet then found itself at a distance
from the comet one hundred and eighty times greater
than the moon is from the earth at its greatest devia-
tion. Now, we know that, if Jupiter were brought to
the distance which separates the moon fronrthe ter-
restrial sphere, its disc would présenta diameter thir-
ty-four times as large as that of the moon—say, on the
surface, twelve hundred times the lunar disc. To the
eyes of the observer on Gallia, it showed, even at that
time, a disc of immense area.
They distinctly saw the bands, of various shades,
which striped it parallelly to the equator—bands gray-
ish to the north and to the south, alternately dark or
luminous at the poles, while leaving in a more intense
light the extreme rim of the star. Some spots, easily
recognizable, marred here and there the purity of
these bands, transversal and varied in form and gran-
deur.
These bands and these spots—were they not the pro-
duct of the atmospheric disturbances of Jupiter? Their
presence, their nature, their displacement—could these
be explained by the accumulation of vapors, by the
formation of clouds carried on serial currents, which,
like the trade-winds, are spread in a direction inverse
to the rotation of the planet on its axis? It was some-
thing that Palmyrin Rosette could no more affirm than
his colleagues of earthly observatories. If he should
return to the earth, he would not have had even the
consolation of having surprised one of the most inter-
esting secrets of the Jovian world.
During the second week of October the fears were
greater than ever. Gallia would arrive at full speed
at the dangerous point. Count Timascheff and Cap-
tain Servadac, generally a little reserved, if not cold, in
regard to each other, felt themselves drawn nearer by
this common danger. They kept up a constant inter-
change of ideas. When, at times, they considered the
party as lost, the return to earth as impossible, they
then allowed themselves to explore this future which
awaited them in the solar system—perhaps, even, in
the sidereal system. They resigned themselves in ad-
vance to this fate. They saw themselves transported
into a new humanity, and inspired with a large philos-
ophy, which, refusing the narrow conception of a
world made solely for man, embraces the whole extent
of an inhabited universe.
But at the bottom, when they closely examined
themselves, they felt that all hope could not abandon
them, and that they could not renounce seeing the
earth again, even though she might appear on the
horizon of Gallia, in the midst of thousands of stars in
the firmament. Besides, should fhey escape the
dangers caused by the vicinity of Jupiter—Lieutenant
Procope had often repeated it to them—Gallia would
no longer have anything to fear, neither from Saturn,
too far away ; nor from Mars, whose orbit she would
reçut in returning toward the sun. Therefore, what a
hurry they were all in to have, like William Tell,
" cleared the fatal passage!"
On the fifteenth of October, the two stars were at the
shortest interval which should separate them, if it did
not produce new perturbations. The distance was
only thirteen millions of leagues. Then, would the at-
tractive power of Jupiter carry it away, or would
Gallia continue to follow its own orbit, without ex-
Ïreriencing any delays but those that had been calcu-
ated?
Gallia passed.
And they saw it well the next day, to the fearful dis-
appointment of Palmyrin Rosette. If he triumphed as
a calculator, he was vanquished as a seeker of adven-
tures. He who should have been the most satisfied of
astronomers, he was the most unhappy of Gallians !
Gallia, following its immutable trajectory, continued
to gravitate around the sun, and, consequently, to
travel toward the earth.
CHAPTER X
IN WHICH IT WILL BE CLEARLY ESTABLISHED THAT IT IS
WORTH MORE TO TRAFFIC ON THE EARTH THAN ON
GALLIA.
"Hurrah! I think we have escaped beautifully!"
cried Captain Servadac, when the disappointment of
the professor had shown him that all perils had van-
ished. Then, addressing his companions, no less satis-
fled than he was:
" What shall we have done, on the whole? Made a
simple voyage in the solar system—a voyage of two
years? But they make them on the earth which last
longer. Then, so far, we have nothing to complain
about, and if all goes well henceforth, before fifteen
months we shall be reinstated in our habitual spher-
oid."
" And see Montmartre again?" added Ben-Zouf.
In truth, it was fortunate that the Gallians had
"cleared this boarding," as a sailor would'say. In
effect, admitting even that, under the influence of Ju-
piter, the comet had suffered a delay of an hour only,
the earth would have been nearly a hundred thousand
leagues from the precise point where it ought to en-
counter her. In what lapse of tim» would these con-
ditions be again produced? Centuries—milleniums I—
might they not elapse before a second meeting could
be possible? Yes, without doubt. Besides, if Jupiter
had disturbed Gallia to the extent of changing either
the plane or the shape of its orbit, it might be forever,
perhaps, that it would continue to gravitate either in
the solar system or in sidereal space.
On the first of November, the distance which separ-
ated Jupiter and Gallia measured seventeen millions of
leagues. In two months and a half the comet would
pass its aphelion—that is to say, at its greatest distance
from the sun—and on starting from this point it would
tend to approach him.
The luminous and calorific properties of the radiant
star seemed then singularly weakened. Twilight only
lit up the objects on the surface of the comet. The
light and the heat there were no more than a twenty-
fifth of those that the sun sent to the earth. But the
attractive star was always there. Gallia had not
ceased to be subjected to its power. They would soon
approach it. They were going to renew life in return-
ing toward this flaming center, whose temperature is
estimated at not less than five millions of degrees.
This near prospect would have reanimated the Gallians
morally and physically, had they ever beenmento give
up.
And Isaac Hakhabut? Had the egotist known of the
apprehensions felt by Captain Servadac and his com-
panions during these last months?
"No ; in no manner. Isaac Hakhabut had not left
the " Hansa " since the loan which had been made to
his great profit. The very day after that on which the
professor had finished his operations, Ben-Zouf had
promptly brought back his silver money and his steel-
yard. The hire and the interest were already in his
hands. He had only to return the paper roubles which
served for security, and his relations with the inhabi-
tants of Nina-Hive were thus ended.
But, at the same time, Ben-Zouf told him that the
whole soil of Gallia was composed of good gold, with
no value, itwas true, and, which, seeing its abundance,
would have no more when it should fall on the earth.
Isaac had, naturally, thought that Ben-Zouf was
laughing at him. He had put no faith in these his-
tories, and, more than ever, he dreamed of getting all
the monetary substance of the Gallian Colony,
Thus, Nina-Hive had not been once honored by a
visit from the good Hakhabut. "And it is astonish-
ing," Ben-Zouf would sometimes observe, "how easily
we accustom ourselves to never seeing him !"
Now, at this period, Isaac Hakhabut thought of re-
suming his relations with the Gallians. It was because
his interest required it. For one reason, certain stocks
of his goods commenced to deteriorate. For another,
it was important for him that they should be changed
for silver before the comet should rejoin the earth. In
fact, these goods, brought back to the terrestrial globe,
would only have an ordinary value. On the Gallian
market, on the contrary, they ought to reach high
prices, on account of their scarcity, and on account of
the necessity—Isaac knew it well—that every one would
be under, of applying to him.
Just at this time, different articles of the first neces-
sity—oil, coffee, sugar, tobacco, etc.—were about ex-
hausted in the general storehouse. Ben-Zouf had
brought the subject to his captain's notice. The latter,
faithful to the rule of conduct which he had imposed
on himself with Isaac Hakhabut, took the resolution of
making a requisiton on the merchandise of the
" Hanza," by means of cash.
This concordance of ideas between the seller and the
buyers ought then to lead Isaac to take up again, and
even to establish, regular relations with the inhabitants
of Hot-Land. Thanks to his sales,which would necessa-
rily be high, Isaac Hackhabut might well hope to mon-
opolize before long, all the gold and all the silver of
the colony.
" Only,1' he said to himself, while meditating in his
narrow cabin, "the value of my cargo is greater than
that of the money which those men have to spend.
Now, when I shall have all in my box, how will they be
able to buy the rest of my goods from me?"
Tnis contingency did not cease to disturb the worthy
man. All the time he remembered, quite to the pur-
pose, that he was not only a trader, but also a lender,
or, to use the right word, a usurer. Might he not then
continue on Gallia this lucrative method, which suc-
ceeded so well with him on the earth? The last opera-
tion he had made of this kind had been very enticing.
Now, Isaac Hakhabut—logical mind—was led little
by little to the following reasoning:
" When these men have no more money I shall still
have merchandise, because it will always be held at
high prices. Who will then hinder me from lending to
them; I mean to those whose signature seems to me
good ? Ha ! ha I for having been signed on Gallia, these
notes will be none the less good on the earth. If they
are not paid at maturity, I will have them protestedf,
and the sheriff's officers will come forward. The
Eternal does not forbid men to make the most of their
own. On the contrary, there are there a Captain Ser-
vadac, and above all, a Count Timascheff. who appears
to me solvent, and who will not regard the rate of in-
terest. Ah ! I shall not be sorry to lend those gentle-
men some money, redeemable in the true world!"
Without knowing it, Isaac Hakhabut was about to
imitate a proceeding which the Gauls formerly em-
ployed.   They loaned on notes payable is tbe other