"Oh! I am sure of that, if you tell me so, my young friend," said Lieutenant Bronsfield, smiling. "But," continued another officer, "their arrival cannot be doubted. The projectile was to reach the moon when full on the 5th at midnight. We are now at the 11th of December, which makes six days. And in six times twenty-four hours, without darkness, one would have time to settle comfortably. I fancy I see my brave countrymen encamped at the bottom of some valley, on the borders of a Selenite stream, near a projectile half buried by its fall amidst volcanic rubbish, Captain Nicholl beginning his levelling operations, President Barbicane writing out his notes, and Michel Ardan embalming the lunar solitudes with the perfume of his—" "Yes! it must be so, it is so!" exclaimed the young midshipman, worked up to a pitch of enthusiasm by this ideal description of his superior officer. "I should like to believe it," replied the lieutenant, who was quite unmoved. "Unfortunately direct news from the lunar world is still wanting." "Beg pardon, lieutenant," said the midshipman, "but cannot President Barbicane write?" A burst of laughter greeted this answer. "No letters!" continued the young man quickly. "The postal administration has something to see to there." "Might it not be the telegraphic service that is at fault?" asked one of the officers ironically. "Not necessarily," replied the midshipman, not at all confused. "But it is very easy to set up a graphic communication with the earth." "And how?" "By means of the telescope at Long's Peak. You know it brings the moon to within four miles of the Rocky Mountains, and that it shows objects on its surface of only nine feet in diameter. Very well; let our industrious friends construct a gigantic alphabet; let them write words three fathoms long, and sentences three miles long, and then they can send us news of themselves?" The young midshipman, who had a certain amount of imagination, was loudly applauded; Lieutenant Bronsfield allowing that the idea was possible, but observing that if by these means they could _receive_ news from the lunar world they could not send any from the terrestrial, unless the Selenites had instruments fit for taking distant observations at their disposal. "Evidently," said one of the officers; "but what has become of the travellers? what they have done, what they have seen, that above all must interest us. Besides, if the experiment has succeeded (which I do not doubt), they will try it again. The Columbiad is still sunk in the soil of Florida. It is now only a question of powder and shot; and every time the moon is at her zenith a cargo of visitors may be sent to her." "It is clear," replied Lieutenant Bronsfield, "that J. T. Maston will one day join his friends." "If he will have me," cried the midshipman, "I am ready!" "Oh! volunteers will not be wanting," answered Bronsfield; "and if it were allowed, half of the earth's inhabitants would emigrate to the moon!"