"We have not done it yet, and we could not do it as we passed the neutral point, because the projectile was still animated with too much velocity." "Well reasoned out," said Nicholl. "We must wait patiently," said Barbicane, "and put every chance on our side; then, after having despaired so long, I again begin to think we shall reach our goal." This conclusion provoked hurrahs from Michel Ardan. No one of these daring madmen remembered the question they had all answered in the negative--No, the moon is not inhabited! No, the moon is probably not inhabitable! And yet they were going to do all they could to reach it. One question only now remained to be solved: at what precise moment would the projectile reach that point of equal attraction where the travellers would play their last card? In order to calculate that moment to within some seconds Barbicane had only to have recourse to his travelling notes, and to take the different altitudes from lunar parallels. Thus the time employed in going over the distance between the neutral point and the South Pole must be equal to the distance which separates the South Pole from the neutral point. The hours representing the time it took were carefully noted down, and the calculation became easy. Barbicane found that this point would be reached by the projectile at 1 a.m. on the 8th of December. It was then 3 a.m. on the 7th of December. Therefore, if nothing intervened, the projectile would reach the neutral point in twenty-two hours. The rockets had been put in their places to slacken the fall of the bullet upon the moon, and now the bold fellows were going to use them to provoke an exactly contrary effect. However that may be, they were ready, and there was nothing to do but await the moment for setting fire to them. "As there is nothing to do," said Nicholl, "I have a proposition to make." "What is that?" asked Barbicane. "I propose we go to sleep." "That is a nice idea!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "It is forty hours since we have closed our eyes," said Nicholl. "A few hours' sleep would set us up again." "Never!" replied Michel. "Good," said Nicholl; "every man to his humour--mine is to sleep." And lying down on a divan, Nicholl was soon snoring like a forty-eight pound bullet. "Nicholl is a sensible man," said Barbicane soon. "I shall imitate him." A few minutes after he was joining his bass to the captain's baritone. "Decidedly," said Michel Ardan, when he found himself alone, "these practical people sometimes do have opportune ideas." And stretching out his long legs, and folding his long arms under his head, Michel went to sleep too. But this slumber could neither be durable nor peaceful. Too many preoccupations filled the minds of these three men, and a few hours after, at about 7 a.m., they all three awoke at once.