"Well!" said Michel Ardan, "it would be difficult. We are in the train, and the guard's whistle will be heard in twenty-four minutes." "Twenty!" ejaculated Nicholl. The three travellers looked at one another for a few seconds. Then they examined all the objects imprisoned with them. "Everything is in its place," said Barbicane. "The question now is where we can place ourselves so as best to support the departing shock. The position we assume must be important too--we must prevent the blood rushing too violently to our heads." "That is true," said Nicholl. "Then," answered Michel Ardan, always ready to suit the action to the word, "we will stand on our heads like the clowns at the circus." "No," said Barbicane; "but let us lie on our sides; we shall thus resist the shock better. When the bullet starts it will not much matter whether we are inside or in front." "If it comes to 'not much matter' I am more reassured," answered Michel Ardan. "Do you approve of my idea, Nicholl?" asked Barbicane. "Entirely," answered the captain. "Still thirteen minutes and a-half." "Nicholl is not a man," exclaimed Michel; "he is a chronometer marking the seconds, and with eight holes in--" But his companions were no longer listening to him, and they were making their last preparations with all the coolness imaginable. They looked like two methodical travellers taking their places in the train and making themselves as comfortable as possible. One wonders, indeed, of what materials these American hearts are made, to which the approach of the most frightful danger does not add a single pulsation. Three beds, thick and solidly made, had been placed in the projectile. Nicholl and Barbicane placed them in the centre of the disc that formed the movable flooring. There the three travellers were to lie down a few minutes before their departure. In the meanwhile Ardan, who could not remain quiet, turned round his narrow prison like a wild animal in a cage, talking to his friends and his dogs, Diana and Satellite, to whom it will be noticed he had some time before given these significant names. "Up, Diana! up, Satellite!" cried he, exciting them. "You are going to show to the Selenite dogs how well-behaved the dogs of the earth can be! That will do honour to the canine race. If we ever come back here I will bring back a cross-breed of 'moon-dogs' that will become all the rage." "If there are any dogs in the moon," said Barbicane. "There are some," affirmed Michel Ardan, "the same as there are horses, cows, asses, and hens. I wager anything we shall find some hens." "I bet a hundred dollars we find none," said Nicholl. "Done, captain," answered Ardan, shaking hands with Nicholl. "But, by-the-bye, you have lost three bets with the president, for the funds necessary for the enterprise were provided, the casting succeeded, and lastly, the Columbiad was loaded without accident--that makes six thousand dollars."