What Has Gone Before
THE story opens in Africa—in Algeria―near the capital. An officer in the French army―Captain Servadac—and a Russian nobleman—Count Timascheff—are preparing to fight a duel about a lady. Servadac occupies part of the time before the encounter in an attempt to write a poem to the lady. Just when he was getting to an end of his attempt, a sudden convulsion occurred and a great change in the universe was noted. The sun rose in the West, the day was one-half its former duration, gravity was reduced so that they could jump to a height of 3O or 40 feet with hardly any effort. There was a change in the contour of the country and an atmosphere of utter mystery prevailed. The line of the shore was changed. Everything was altered. The hero, Servadac, is alone in his explorations with his servant, Ben Zoof. An unknown satellite is seen in the sky. The heat is extreme.
The Russian nobleman owned a yacht, the "Dobryna." And now Captain Servadac and his servant see this on the distant ocean. She reaches the shore and finds a safe harbor. Her owner leaves her and meets Captain Servadac. The duel under these strange circumstances is forgotten. The "Dobryna" is put to work to explore the surroundings and to try to find France. A light is seen and on a little island is discovered the tomb of Louis IX. On taking soundings, a strange mineral is always brought up by the grease-cup on the bottom of the lead. Nothing else can be found as forming the ocean bed. Some English officers are found on an isolated spot, which was supposed to be all that was left of the Rock of Gibraltar. Presently a sealed tube is found floating on the water—an old leather telescope case—with a message from some student of astronomy. Now apprehensions rise that the temperature, which has been very high, may fall to that of inter-stellar space. Later, in the midst of these fears, some more inhabitants are found—one a charming little girl. Then another message from the supposed astronomer is found floating on the ocean—this time in a meat-can. The next arrival is a trading Jew in his "Tartan"—as this Mediterranean craft is called. As the weather gets colder and colder, they betake themselves to a cave in the side of a volcano, where the temperature is kept warm by a lava flow. Next, a carrier pigeon brings them a third message from the astronomer. The ocean now is frozen over. They put metal sleigh-runners under the boat and go off with almost ice-boat speed and find an island, on which there is a monument—a surveyor's pylon—and there they also find a man, apparently dead, but who proves to have some vestage of life in him still. Thirty-six hours later, the ice-boat brings them all back to their volcano-home.
Off On a Comet
Or Hector Servadac
By JULES VERNE
Book II
CHAPTER I
THE ASTRONOMER
Y THE return of the expedition, conveying its contribution from Formentera, the known population of Gallia was raised to a total of thirty-six.
On learning the details of his friends' discoveries, Count Timascheff did not hesitate in believing that the exhausted individual who was lying before him was the author alike of the two unsigned documents picked up at sea, and of the third statement so recently brought to hand by the carrier-pigeon. Manifestly, he had arrived at some knowledge of Gallia's movements: he had estimated her distance from the sun; he had calculated the diminution of her tangential speed; but there was nothing to show that he had arrived at the conclusions which were of the most paramount interest to them all. Had he ascertained the true character of her orbit? had he established any data from which it would be possible to reckon what time must elapse before she would again approach the earth?
IN the first book, Jules Verne told us what happened to one specific part of the Earth, and gave hypothetical reasons for these astounding conclusions and their natural consequences. But into this book, the author brings the astronomer—a scientific genius in his particular field. It is he who explains scientifically (though temperamentally, to be sure) just what happened, how it happened and why it happened. By exact calculation, he predicts with correctness, the very minute in which their return to Earth could be effected. Though this story is the product of a fantastic imagination, it is not without the realms of possibility that similar calculations may sometime be made for actual, practical purposes.
The only intelligible words which the astronomer had uttered had been, "My comet!"
To what could the exclamation refer? Was it to be conjectured that a fragment of the earth had been chipped off by the collision of a comet? and if so, was it implied that the name of the comet itself was Gallia, and were they mistaken in supposing that such was the name given by the savant to the little world that had been so suddenly launched into space? Again and again they discussed these questions; but no satisfactory answer could be found. The only man who was able to throw any light upon the subject was lying amongst them in an unconscious and half-dying condition.
Apart from motives of humanity, motives of self-interest made it a matter of the deepest concern to restore animation to that senseless form. Ben Zoof, after making the encouraging remark that savants have as many lives as a cat, proceeded, with Negrete's assistance, to give the body such a vigorous rubbing as would have threatened serious injury to any ordinary mortal, whilst they administered cordials and restoratives from
