"Ah!" continued Michel, "what I regret is our not being able to take a walk outside. What delight it would be to float in this radiant ether, to bathe in these pure rays of the sun! If Barbicane had only thought of furnishing us with diving-dresses and air-pumps I should have ventured outside, and have assumed the attitude of a flying-horse on the summit of the projectile." "Ah, old fellow!" answered Barbicane, "you would not have stayed there long in spite of your diving-dress; you would have burst like an obus by the expansion of air inside you, or rather like a balloon that goes up too high. So regret nothing, and do not forget this: while we are moving in the void you must do without any sentimental promenade out of the projectile." Michel Ardan allowed himself to be convinced in a certain measure. He agreed that the thing was difficult, but not "impossible;" that was a word he never uttered. The conversation passed from this subject to another, and never languished an instant. It seemed to the three friends that under these conditions ideas came into their heads like leaves in the first warm days of spring. Amidst the questions and answers that crossed each other during this morning, Nicholl asked one that did not get an immediate solution. "I say," said he, "it is all very well to go to the moon, but how shall we get back again?" "What do you mean by that, Nicholl?" asked Barbicane gravely. "It seems to me very inopportune to ask about getting away from a country before you get to it," added Michel. "I don't ask that question because I want to draw back, but I repeat my question, and ask, 'How shall we get back?'" "I have not the least idea," answered Barbicane. "And as for me," said Michel, "if I had known how to come back I should not have gone." "That is what you call answering," cried Nicholl. "I approve of Michel's words, and add that the question has no actual interest. We will think about that later on, when we want to return. Though the Columbiad will not be there, the projectile will." "Much good that will be, a bullet without a gun!" "A gun can be made, and so can powder! Neither metal, saltpetre, nor coal can be wanting in the bowels of the moon. Besides, in order to return you have only the lunar attraction to conquer, and you will only have 8,000 leagues to go so as to fall on the terrestrial globe by the simple laws of weight." "That is enough," said Michel, getting animated. "Let us hear no more about returning. As to communicating with our ancient colleagues upon earth, that will not be difficult." "How are we to do that, pray?" "By means of meteors hurled by the lunar volcanoes." "A good idea, Michel," answered Barbicane. "Laplace has calculated that a force five times superior to that of our cannons would suffice to send a meteor from the moon to the earth. Now there is no volcano that has not a superior force of propulsion."