Journey Through the Impossible (17 page)

Maston (angrily): Will you listen to reason?

First Member: How can I listen to reason when you are being so
unreasonable?

Maston: Sir!

First Member: Sir!

Barbicane: Gentlemen, order, please! We are not in parliament here,
for God's sake!

First Member: Name your weapon.

Maston: Name yours.

First Member: A repeating rifle.

Maston: A revolver.

First Member: In an hour!

Maston: Right now!

Barbicane: Gentlemen!

First Member: At fifteen paces.

Maston: At ten paces.

First Member: At five paces.

Maston: At no paces at all.

First Member: Let's go outside.

Maston: No, let's fight here.

First Group: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Second Group: No! No! No!

(Maston and the club member rush at one another with a shout)

Barbicane: Separate them!

First Group: Come on, hurrah for Maston!

Second Group: Come on, down with Maston!

(The members of the club rush to back their supporters. President Barbicane fires his revolver several times, to no effect. The uproar is at its
peak)

The Usher: Silence, gentlemen!

(Enter an usher of the Gun Club in the midst of the confusion. He hands
a letter to the president.)

Barbicane: The reason I have made this proposal to you is that I have
just received this letter from the famous Dr. Ox.

All: The famous Dr. Ox!

Maston: What a doctor, gentlemen, what a doctor!

A Member: And what does the letter say?

All: Let's hear it, let's hear it.

Barbicane (reading): "Distinguished president: Dr. Ox and his young
colleague, George Hatteras, have just arrived in this city, and
request an opportunity to make a proposal to the members of the
Gun Club that will be of keen interest6 to them."

Maston: A proposal?

Barbicane: I think we should hear it. Is Dr. Ox here?

The Usher: He is ready to appear before the members of the Gun
Club.

Barbicane (then everyone): Show him in.

(Enter Ox and George.)

Barbicane: Welcome, distinguished Dr. Ox.

Maston: Three cheers for Dr. Ox.

All: Three cheers for Dr. Ox!

Ox: First of all, gentlemen, allow me to introduce my young colleague, George Hatteras, son of the glorious captain of that name.

Maston: Three cheers for the son of Captain Hatteras!

All: Hip, hip, hurrah!

George: Before you honor me with your acclamations, gentlemen, let
me tell you what I have done and what else I want to accomplish.

All: Tell us!

Ox: You will learn soon enough what he has done. As for what he
wants to undertake, he has come to ask for your help with that
task.

George: Yes, my ambition is to leave this earth, which I have explored
to its deepest recesses. What I want now is to set foot in the infinite, outside our globe altogether.

Barbicane: You can count on our support.

Ox: Here is the proposal we have come to make to you.

Maston (shouting): Silence, gentlemen, silence.

Barbicane: But Mr. Maston, no one is speaking except you.

Maston: Really? In that case, I'm speaking to myself.

Ox: Gentlemen, after your first experiment, which raised the glory of
America to the skies, you decided not to destroy the giant
Columbiad, whose projectile rose more than a hundred thousand
leagues into the air. We ask you to repeat the experiment, but to
correct the aim this time, so as not to miss the target.

(Whispers)

George: Well, gentlemen, do you agree? Will you allow me, on your
behalf, to conquer this satellite of the earth, which even the most
daring among us has only gone round in orbit? Will you let me
finally complete the third stage of my journey through the impossible?

All: Yes! Yes!

Ox: By accepting our proposal, gentlemen, you will have proved once
more that nothing in this world is impossible.

Maston: Impossible is not an American word.

George: Nor English either.

(Enter Volsius, disguised as Ardan)

Volsius: Nor French either, gentlemen.

Maston: Ardan! Our friend Ardan!

All: Hurrah for Ardan!

Barbicane: My worthy friend!

(He has left his presidential desk, and now comes to shake hands with
Ardan, who is surrounded by the members of the club)

Volsius: Yes, my friends, it is I, Michel Ardan. I have arrived just now
on the Labrador. I heard that the Gun Club was holding a
meeting, and I have made this my first visit.

Maston: What a man! Even if he is a Frenchman.

Barbicane: The French are a great people, gentlemen. There's only
one thing they need to make them the greatest people in the
world.

Maston: Yes, only one.

Volsius: And that is ... ?

Maston: They need to be Americans.

Volsius: Thank you!

Barbicane: My dear friend, you come at an opportune time. Our first
experiment has had its imitators.

Volsius: Imitators! Do you mean to say that there are madmen under
the dome of Heaven who are even madder than we are?

Maston: Madmen?

Ox: That doesn't sound to me like the language of the daring Ardan.
Volsius: What did you say, sir?

Barbicane: This is Dr. Ox, and this is his young colleague, George
Hatteras.

George: Who is determined, sir, to take possession of a world that
has eluded you.

Volsius: What do you mean, young man? Don't stand on ceremony.
The Moon belongs to the first person who occupies it. What
then? What will you do with the Moon?

George: We will....

Maston: Present it to the United States. It will be one more state for
the Union.

All: Yes! Yes!

Volsius: The Moon? Why, it's a worn-out star, finished, out of date,
even a little ridiculous. She's had her day, that old Astarte,7 the
mummified sister of the radiant Apollo.' People will laugh at your
journey, and when you come back they'll shout, "So you saw the
Moon, my lad, did you?"

Ox: Is this really the famous Ardan speaking like this?

Volsius: And the day will come when everyone will go to the Moon,
and even farther. Aerial trains will ply the airways. Instead of
railway cars running on rails, projectiles will be attached together
and launched into space. Trains bound for all the planets. An
express for Mercury, Uranus, and Neptune. But the Moon! Bah!
The Moon! It will soon be nothing but a suburb of the earth,
where people will go to spend Sunday, as Parisians go to Chatou
or Vesinet.9

Maston: Well said, Ardan my friend.

Volsius: Take my advice, George Hatteras. Give up this plan and go
quietly back home.

George: You mean give up the idea of leaving the earth?

Volsius: Oh, you'll leave it soon enough, my dear fellow.

Ox: Ah! You think, Mr. Ardan, that the Moon is not worth exploring?

Volsius: That is my opinion, Dr. Ox.

Ox: Well then, you have made a convert.

George: Can that be possible?

Ox: Yes! Yes! We must forget about that humble planet, that cold
satellite of the earth. We must start out toward a nobler and more
distant goal.

Volsius and All: What is he saying?

George: Towards the Sun, then.

Ox: Farther yet.

George: Jupiter? Uranus?

Ox: Still farther! Farther, outside our solar system.

George (in great excitement): Ah! I understand, doctor. Yes! Yes! To
lose oneself in the infinite, to travel among the stars, through
those groups illuminated by three or four suns orbiting under the
influence of their mutual attraction. Ah! What a splendid sight!
Stars shining in a thousand different shades. Days made of every
color, of every hue of the rainbow, rising radiant on the horizon.

(Murmurs of admiration)

Ox: That is our destination, gentlemen, and your Columbiad, which
was used to fire a projectile to the Moon, will certainly be able to
send that projectile over billions of leagues.

Barbicane: Yes! If you know the secret of making gunpowder that can
generate a high enough velocity.

Ox: I have found a limitless expansive force, and soon, propelled by
its all-powerful impetus, our projectile will have left the solar
system behind.

Maston: Bravo, Dr. Ox! What a doctor, gentlemen, what a doctor!

Barbicane: And at what point in outer space will you aim the
Columbiad?

Ox: At a new heavenly body, recently discovered by astronomers at
the Cambridge Observatory,10 the planet Altor.

All: Altor!

George: Yes! Altor! Altor!

Barbicane: All honor to the daring men who will undertake this conquest!

All: Hurrah! Hurrah!

Ox (sarcastically): Well, what do you say to that, Mr. Ardan?

Volsius: What do I say? I say nothing, Dr. Ox.

Ox: Not a word of blame or criticism of this daring undertaking by
Hatteras?

Volsius: Why should I blame him, when it is my intention to go with
him?

All: Ah!

Ox: What? You have the nerve ... ?

Volsius: To be your companion, with your permission, Hatteras.

George: Oh, of course. You will go with us. You will share our glory.

Ox (aside): We'll see about that.

Volsius: We'll meet in Florida, gentlemen, right beside the
Columbiad.

Barbicane: We'll all be there.

All: Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!