<h2 id="sigil_toc_id_53">CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
<h3 id="sigil_toc_id_54">FIRE!</h3>
<p>The first of December had arrived! the fatal day! for, if the
projectile were not discharged that very night at 10h. 46m. 40s.
p.m., more than eighteen years must roll by before the moon would
again present herself under the same conditions of zenith and
perigee.</p>
<p>The weather was magnificent. Despite the approach of winter, the
sun shone brightly, and bathed in its radiant light that earth which
three of its denizens were about to abandon for a new world.</p>
<p>How many persons lost their rest on the night which preceded this
long-expected day! All hearts beat with disquietude, save only the
heart of Michel Ardan. That imperturbable personage came and went
with his habitual business-like air, while nothing whatever denoted
that any unusual matter preoccupied his mind.</p>
<p>After dawn, an innumerable multitude covered the prairie which
extends, as far as the eye can reach, round Stones Hill. Every
quarter of an hour the railway brought fresh accessions of
sightseers; and, according to the statement of the <i>Tampa Town
Observer</i>, not less than five millions of spectators thronged the
soil of Florida.</p>
<p>For a whole month previously, the mass of these persons had
bivouacked round the enclosure, and laid the foundations for a town
which was afterwards called "Ardan's Town." The whole plain was
covered with huts, cottages, and tents. Every nation under the sun
was represented there; and every language might be heard spoken at
the same time. It was a perfect Babel re-enacted. All the various
classes of American society were mingled together in terms of
absolute equality. Bankers, farmers, sailors, cotton-planters,
brokers, merchants, watermen, magistrates, elbowed each other in the
most free-and-easy way. Louisiana Creoles fraternised with farmers
from Indiana; Kentucky and Tennessee gentlemen and haughty Virginians
conversed with trappers and the half-savages of the lakes and
butchers from Cincinnati. Broad-brimmed white hats and Panamas, blue
cotton trowsers, light coloured stockings, cambric frills, were all
here displayed; while upon shirt-fronts, wristbands, and neckties,
upon every finger, even upon the very <i>ears</i>, they wore an
assortment of rings, shirt-pins, brooches, and trinkets, of which the
value only equalled the execrable taste. Women, children, and
servants, in equally expensive dress, surrounded their husbands,
fathers, or masters, who resembled the patriarchs of tribes in the
midst of their immense households.</p>
<p>At meal-times, all fell to work upon the dishes peculiar to the
Southern States, and consumed with an appetite that threatened speedy
exhaustion of the victualling powers of Florida, fricasseed frogs,
stuffed monkey, fish chowder, underdone 'possum, and raccoon steaks.
And as for the liquors which accompanied this indigestible repast!
The shouts, the vociferations that resounded through the bars and
taverns decorated with glasses, tankards, and bottles of marvellous
shape, mortars for pounding sugar, and bundles of straws!
"Mint-julep!" roars one of the barmen; "Claret sangaree!" shouts
another; "Cocktail!" "Brandy-smash!" "Real mint-julep in the new
style!" All these cries intermingled produced a bewildering and
deafening hubbub.</p>
<p>But on this day, 1st December, such sounds were rare. No one
thought of eating or drinking, and at four p.m. there were vast
numbers of spectators who had not even taken their customary lunch!
And, a still more significant fact, even the national passion for
play seemed quelled for the time under the general excitement of the
hour.</p>
<p>Up till nightfall, a dull, noiseless agitation, such as precedes
great catastrophes, ran through the anxious multitude. An
indescribable uneasiness pervaded all minds, an indefinable sensation
which oppressed the heart. Every one wished it was over.</p>
<p>However, about seven o'clock, the heavy silence was dissipated.
The moon rose above the horizon. Millions of hurrahs hailed her
appearance. She was punctual to the rendezvous, and shouts of welcome
greeted her on all sides, as her pale beams shone gracefully in the
clear heavens. At this moment the three intrepid travellers appeared.
This was the signal for renewed cries of still greater intensity.
Instantly the vast assemblage, as with one accord, struck up the
national hymn of the United States, and "Yankee Doodle," sung by five
millions of hearty throats, rose like a roaring tempest to the
farthest limits of the atmosphere. Then a profound silence reigned
throughout the crowd.</p>
<p>The Frenchman and the two Americans had by this time entered the
enclosure reserved in the centre of the multitude. They were
accompanied by the members of the Gun Club, and by deputations sent
from all the European Observatories. Barbicane, cool and collected,
was giving his final directions. Nicholl, with compressed lips, his
arms crossed behind his back, walked with a firm and measured step.
Michel Ardan, always easy, dressed in thorough traveller's costume,
leathern gaiters on his legs, pouch by his side, in loose velvet
suit, cigar in mouth, was full of inexhaustible gaiety, laughing,
joking, playing pranks with J. T. Maston. In one word, he was the
thorough "Frenchman" (and worse, a "Parisian") to the last
moment.</p>
<p>Ten o'clock struck! The moment had arrived for taking their places
in the projectile! The necessary operations for the descent, and the
subsequent removal of the cranes and scaffolding that inclined over
the mouth of the Columbiad, required a certain period of time.</p>
<p>Barbicane had regulated his chronometer to the tenth part of a
second by that of Murchison the engineer, who was charged with the
duty of firing the gun by means of an electric spark. Thus the
travellers enclosed within the projectile were enabled to follow with
their eyes the impassive needle which marked the precise moment of
their departure.</p>
<p>The moment had arrived for saying "Good-bye!" The scene was a
touching one. Despite his feverish gaiety, even Michel Ardan was
touched. J. T. Maston had found in his own dry eyes one ancient tear,
which he had doubtless reserved for the occasion. He dropped it on
the forehead of his dear president.</p>
<p>"Can I not go?" he said, "there is still time!"</p>
<p>"Impossible, old fellow!" replied Barbicane. A few moments later,
the three fellow-travellers had ensconced themselves in the
projectile, and screwed down the plate which covered the
entrance-aperture. The mouth of the Columbiad, now completely
disencumbered, was open entirely to the sky.</p>
<p>The moon advanced upwards in a heaven of the purest clearness,
outshining in her passage the twinkling light of the stars. She
passed over the constellation of the Twins, and was now nearing the
halfway point between the horizon and the zenith. A terrible silence
weighed upon the entire scene! Not a breath of wind upon the earth!
not a sound of breathing from the countless chests of the spectators!
Their hearts seemed afraid to beat! All eyes were fixed upon the
yawning mouth of the Columbiad.</p>
<p>Murchison followed with his eye the hand of his chronometer. It
wanted scarce forty seconds to the moment of departure, but each
second seemed to last an age! At the twentieth there was a general
shudder, as it occurred to the minds of that vast assemblage that the
bold travellers shut up within the projectile were also counting
those terrible seconds. Some few cries here and there escaped the
crowd.</p>
<p>"Thirty-five!—thirty-six!—thirty-seven!—thirty-eight!—thirty-nine!
—forty! <span class="smallcap">Fire</span>!!!"</p>
<div class="illus"><ANTIMG alt="Illustration: FIRE." id="fire" src=
"images/fire.jpg" /></div>
<div class="caption">FIRE.</div>
<p>Instantly Murchison pressed with his finger the key of the
electric battery, restored the current of the fluid, and discharged
the spark into the breach of the Columbiad.</p>
<p>An appalling unearthly report followed instantly, such as can be
compared to nothing whatever known, not even to the roar of thunder,
or the blast of volcanic explosions! No words can convey the
slightest idea of the terrific sound! An immense spout of fire shot
up from the bowels of the earth as from a crater. The earth heaved
up, and with great difficulty some few spectators obtained a
momentary glimpse of the projectile victoriously cleaving the air in
the midst of the fiery vapours!</p>
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