It was a cannon¹ that hurled² the projectile³ up to the Moon; it was to be a cannon that was to change the terrestrial axis⁴! The cannon! Always the cannon! Barbicane and Co. evidently suffered from chronic⁵ attacks of aggravated⁶ “cannonism”! Was a cannon the ultima ratio of the 92world? was it to be the brutal⁷ sovereign of the universe? The canon rules theology, was the cannon to give the law to commerce and cosmology?  
A cannon was the engine Barbicane & Co. were to bring into action. They had not devoted⁸ their lives to ballistics for nothing. After the Columbiad of Tampa Town there was to come the monster cannon of—of—the place x! And already there were people who could hear the sonorous⁹ command.
 
“No. 1! Aim at the Moon! Fire!”
 
“No. 2! Change the Earth’s axis! Fire!”
 
And then for the “general upset” predicted by Sulphuric Alcide!
 
The publication of the report of the Commission produced an effect of which it is impossible even to give an idea. There was nothing in it of a soothing¹⁰ tendency, it must be admitted. By J. T. Maston’s calculations, the problem had evidently been solved. The operation to be attempted by Barbicane & Co. would, it was only too clear, introduce a most regrettable modification¹¹ in the diurnal¹² movement. A new axis would be substituted for the old. And we know what would be the consequences of that substitution.
 
The enterprise of Barbicane & Co. was thus judged, cursed, and demitted to general reprobation¹³. Barbicane and Co. were dangers to society. If they retained a few partisans¹⁴ in the United States, the partisans were few indeed.
 
From the point of view of their own personal safety, Impey Barbicane and Captain Nicholl had certainly done wisely to clear out. They would assuredly have come to grief if they had not done so. It was not with impunity¹⁵ 93that they could menace fourteen hundred millions of people, upset their habits and customs, and disturb their very existence by provoking a general catastrophe¹⁶.
 
But how had these two men managed to disappear without leaving a trace? How could they have got away unperceived with the men and material necessary for their project? Hundreds of waggons¹⁷, if they went by railway, and hundreds of ships, if they went by sea, would be required for the transport of the metal, the fuel, and the meli-melonite. It was quite incomprehensible how the departure could have taken place incognito¹⁸. But it had taken place nevertheless.
 
Inquiries¹⁹ were made, but nothing was discovered as to any order being sent to any of the metallurgical or chemical works of the world. It was inexplicable²⁰! But the explanation would come—some day!
 
Barbicane and Nicholl having mysteriously disappeared, were beyond immediate²¹ danger. But J. T. Maston! He was under lock and key; but were not public reprisals²² to be feared? Bah! He did not trouble himself about that in the least! Admirably obstinate²³ was the calculator! He was of iron—like his fore-arm! At nothing did he quail²⁴!
 
From the depths of his cell in the gaol²⁵ of Baltimore the secretary of the Gun Club became more and more absorbed in the distant contemplation of the colleagues he had not accompanied. In his mind’s eye he could see Barbicane and Nicholl preparing their gigantic enterprise in that unknown region where no one could interfere²⁶ with them. He saw them making the cannon, mixing the meli-melonite, casting the projectile which the Sun would soon count among its minor²⁷ asteroids²⁸! That new star which was to 94bear the name of Scorbitta, as a delicate compliment to the millionaire of New Park! and J. T. Maston began to count the days that would elapse before the word to fire was given.
 
It was the month of April. In two months and a half the Sun would halt at the solstice on the Tropic of Cancer and retrograde towards the Tropic of Capricorn. Three months later he would cross the Equator at the autumnal equinox. And with that would finish the seasons that for millions of ages had alternated with such regularity²⁹ in every terrestrial year. For the last time the spheroid would submit to the inequality of its days and nights. For the future the number of hours between sunrise and sunset would be equal all over the globe.
 
In truth it was a magnificent work! J. T. Maston forgot all about the Polar coal-field in contemplating³⁰ the cosmographical consequences of his labours. The principal object of the Association had been forgotten in the transformations³¹ the face of the earth would undergo—notwithstanding that the earth did not care about these magnificent transformations.
 
J. T. Maston, alone and defenceless in his cell, resisted every pressure brought to bear on him. The members of the Commission of Inquiry³² visited him daily, and obtained nothing. It occurred at last to John Prestice to make use of an influence that might succeed better than his—that of Mrs. Scorbitt. No one was ignorant of the lengths to which the widow would go when the celebrated³³ calculator was in peril³⁴.
 
There was a meeting of the Commission, and Mrs. Scorbitt was authorized³⁵ to visit the prisoner as often as she thought fit. Was not she threatened with the danger 95from the <............