Jules Verne

All Around the Moon Jules Verne

The moment that the great clock belonging to the works at Stony Hill had struck ten, Barbican, Ardan and M'Nicholl began to take their last farewells of the numerous friendssurrounding them. The two dogs intended to accompany them had been already depositedin the Projectile. The three travellers approached the mouth of the enormous cannon, seated themselves in the flying car, and once more took leave for the last time of the vastthrong standing in silence around them. The windlass creaked, the car started, and thethree daring men disappeared in the yawning gulf. The trap-hole giving them ready access to the interior of the Projectile, the car soon cameback empty; the great windlass was presently rolled away; the tackle and scaffolding wereremoved, and in a short space of time the great mouth of the Columbiad was completely ridof all obstructions. M'Nicholl took upon himself to fasten the door of the trap on the inside by means of apowerful combination of screws and bolts of his own invention. He also covered up verycarefully the glass lights with strong iron plates of extreme solidity and tightly fitting joints. Ardan's first care was to turn on the gas, which he found burning rather low; but he lit nomore than one burner, being desirous to economize as much as possible their store of lightand heat, which, as he well knew, could not at the very utmost last them longer than a fewweek