Off on a Comet - Jules Verne (classic english novels .TXT) 📗

CHAPTER XIII

DREARY MONTHS

 

Henceforth, then, with a velocity ever increasing, Gallia would

re-approach the sun.

 

Except the thirteen Englishmen who had been left at Gibraltar,

every living creature had taken refuge in the dark abyss

of the volcano’s crater.

 

And with those Englishmen, how had it fared?

 

“Far better than with ourselves,” was the sentiment that would

have been universally accepted in Nina’s Hive. And there was every

reason to conjecture that so it was. The party at Gibraltar,

they all agreed, would not, like themselves, have been compelled

to have recourse to a stream of lava for their supply of heat;

they, no doubt, had had abundance of fuel as well as food;

and in their solid casemate, with its substantial walls,

they would find ample shelter from the rigor of the cold.

The time would have been passed at least in comfort, and perhaps

in contentment; and Colonel Murphy and Major Oliphant would have

had leisure more than sufficient for solving the most abstruse

problems of the chessboard. All of them, too, would be happy

in the confidence that when the time should come, England would

have full meed of praise to award to the gallant soldiers

who had adhered so well and so manfully to their post.

 

It did, indeed, more than once occur to the minds both of

Servadac and his friends that, if their condition should become

one of extreme emergency, they might, as a last resource,

betake themselves to Gibraltar, and there seek a refuge;

but their former reception had not been of the kindest,

and they were little disposed to renew an acquaintanceship

that was marked by so little cordiality. Not in the least

that they would expect to meet with any inhospitable rebuff.

Far from that; they knew well enough that Englishmen,

whatever their faults, would be the last to abandon their

fellow-creatures in the hour of distress. Nevertheless, except the

necessity became far more urgent than it had hitherto proved,

they resolved to endeavor to remain in their present quarters.

Up till this time no casualties had diminished their original number,

but to undertake so long a journey across that unsheltered

expanse of ice could scarcely fail to result in the loss of some

of their party.

 

However great was the desire to find a retreat for every living thing

in the deep hollow of the crater, it was found necessary to slaughter

almost all the domestic animals before the removal of the community

from Nina’s Hive. To have stabled them all in the cavern below would

have been quite impossible, whilst to have left them in the upper

galleries would only have been to abandon them to a cruel death;

and since meat could be preserved for an indefinite time in the original

store-places, now colder than ever, the expedient of killing the animals

seemed to recommend itself as equally prudent and humane.

 

Naturally the captain and Ben Zoof were most anxious that their favorite

horses should be saved, and accordingly, by dint of the greatest care,

all difficulties in the way were overcome, and Zephyr and Galette

were conducted down the crater, where they were installed in a large

hole and provided with forage, which was still abundant.

 

Birds, subsisting only on scraps thrown out to them did not cease

to follow the population in its migration, and so numerous did they

become that multitudes of them had repeatedly to be destroyed.

 

The general re-arrangement of the new residence was no easy business,

and occupied so much time that the end of January arrived before

they could be said to be fairly settled. And then began a life

of dreary monotony. Then seemed to creep over everyone a kind

of moral torpor as well as physical lassitude, which Servadac,

the count, and the lieutenant did their best not only to combat

in themselves, but to counteract in the general community.

They provided a variety of intellectual pursuits; they instituted

debates in which everybody was encouraged to take part; they read aloud,

and explained extracts from the elementary manuals of science,

or from the books of adventurous travel which their library supplied;

and Russians and Spaniards, day after day, might be seen gathered

round the large table, giving their best attention to instruction

which should send them back to Mother Earth less ignorant than they

had left her.

 

Selfish and morose, Hakkabut could never be induced to be present

at these social gatherings. He was far too much occupied in his own

appropriated corner, either in conning his accounts, or in counting

his money. Altogether, with what he had before, he now possessed

the round sum of 150,000 francs, half of which was in sterling gold;

but nothing could give him any satisfaction while he knew that the days

were passing, and that he was denied the opportunity of putting out his

capital in advantageous investments, or securing a proper interest.

 

Neither did Palmyrin Rosette find leisure to take any share in

the mutual intercourse. His occupation was far too absorbing for him

to suffer it to be interrupted, and to him, living as he did perpetually

in a world of figures, the winter days seemed neither long nor wearisome.

Having ascertained every possible particular about his comet,

he was now devoting himself with equal ardor to the analysis of all

the properties of the satellite Nerina, to which he appeared to assert

the same claim of proprietorship.

 

In order to investigate Nerina it was indispensable that he should

make several actual observations at various points of the orbit;

and for this purpose he repeatedly made his way up to the grotto above,

where, in spite of the extreme severity of the cold, he would

persevere in the use of his telescope till he was all but paralyzed.

But what he felt more than anything was the want of some retired apartment,

where he could pursue his studies without hindrance or intrusion.

 

It was about the beginning of February, when the professor brought

his complaint to Captain Servadac, and begged him to assign

him a chamber, no matter how small, in which he should be free

to carry on his task in silence and without molestation.

So readily did Servadac promise to do everything in his power

to provide him with the accommodation for which he asked,

that the professor was put into such a manifest good temper

that the captain ventured to speak upon the matter that was ever

uppermost in his mind.

 

“I do not mean,” he began timidly, “to cast the least imputation

of inaccuracy upon any of your calculations, but would you

allow me, my dear professor, to suggest that you should revise

your estimate of the duration of Gallia’s period of revolution.

It is so important, you know, so all important; the difference

of one half minute, you know, would so certainly mar the expectation

of reunion with the earth—”

 

And seeing a cloud gathering on Rosette’s face, he added:

 

“I am sure Lieutenant Procope would be only too happy to render

you any assistance in the revision.”

 

“Sir,” said the professor, bridling up, “I want no assistant;

my calculations want no revision. I never make an error.

I have made my reckoning as far as Gallia is concerned.

I am now making a like estimate of the elements of Nerina.”

 

Conscious how impolitic it would be to press this matter further, the captain

casually remarked that he should have supposed that all the elements

of Nerina had been calculated long since by astronomers on the earth.

It was about as unlucky a speech as he could possibly have made.

The professor glared at him fiercely.

 

“Astounding, sir!” he exclaimed. “Yes! Nerina was a planet then;

everything that appertained to the planet was determined;

but Nerina is a moon now. And do you not think, sir, that we have

a right to know as much about our moon as those terrestrials“—

and he curled his lip as he spoke with a contemptuous

emphasis—“know of theirs?”

 

“I beg pardon,” said the corrected captain.

 

“Well then, never mind,” replied the professor, quickly appeased;

“only will you have the goodness to get me a proper place for study?”

 

“I will, as I promised, do all I can,” answered Servadac.

 

“Very good,” said the professor. “No immediate hurry;

an hour hence will do.”

 

But in spite of this condescension on the part of the man of science,

some hours had to elapse before any place of retreat could be discovered

likely to suit his requirements; but at length a little nook was found

in the side of the cavern just large enough to hold an armchair and a table,

and in this the astronomer was soon ensconced to his entire satisfaction.

 

Buried thus, nearly 900 feet below ground, the Gallians

ought to have had unbounded mental energy to furnish an

adequate reaction to the depressing monotony of their existence;

but many days would often elapse without any one of them ascending

to the surface of the soil, and had it not been for the necessity

of obtaining fresh water, it seemed almost probable that there

would never have been an effort made to leave the cavern at all.

 

A few excursions, it is true, were made in the downward direction.

The