"We should only be too glad, my worthy Michel," answered Barbicane, "but we have no means of doing it." "Can we not modify the motion of the projectile?" "No." "Nor diminish its speed?" "No." "Not even by lightening it like they lighten an overloaded ship?" "What can we throw out?" answered Nicholl. "We have no ballast on board. And besides, it seems to me that a lightened projectile would go on more quickly." "Less quickly," said Michel. "More quickly," replied Nicholl. "Neither more nor less quickly," answered Barbicane, wishing to make his two friends agree, "for we are moving in the void where we cannot take specific weight into account." "Very well," exclaimed Michel Ardan in a determined tone; "there is only one thing to do." "What is that?" asked Nicholl. "Have breakfast," imperturbably answered the audacious Frenchman, who always brought that solution to the greatest difficulties. In fact, though that operation would have no influence on the direction of the projectile, it might be attempted without risk, and even successfully from the point of view of the stomach. Decidedly the amiable Michel had only good ideas. They breakfasted, therefore, at 2 a.m., but the hour was not of much consequence. Michel served up his habitual _menu_, crowned by an amiable bottle out of his secret cellar. If ideas did not come into their heads the Chambertin of 1863 must be despaired of. The meal over, observations began again. The objects they had thrown out of the projectile still followed it at the same invariable distance. It was evident that the bullet in its movement of translation round the moon had not passed through any atmosphere, for the specific weight of these objects would have modified their respective distances. There was nothing to see on the side of the terrestrial globe. The earth was only a day old, having been new at midnight the day before, and two days having to go by before her crescent, disengaged from the solar rays, could serve as a clock to the Selenites, as in her movement of rotation each of her points always passes the same meridian of the moon every twenty-four hours. The spectacle was a different one on the side of the moon; the orb was shining in all its splendour amidst innumerable constellations, the rays of which could not trouble its purity. Upon the disc the plains again wore the sombre tint which is seen from the earth. The rest of the nimbus was shining, and amidst the general blaze Tycho stood out like a sun. Barbicane could not manage any way to appreciate the velocity of the projectile, but reasoning demonstrated that this speed must be uniformly diminishing in conformity with the laws of rational mechanics.