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prevented them from getting at the lower light. This disc, though it had
been dashed to the bottom of the Projectile with great violence, was
still as strong as ever, and, being made in compartments fastened by
screws, to dismount it was no easy matter. Barbican, however, with the
help of the others, soon had it all taken apart, and put away the pieces
carefully, to serve again in case of need. A round hole about a foot and
a half in diameter appeared, bored through the floor of the Projectile.
It was closed by a circular pane of plate-glass, which was about six
inches thick, fastened by a ring of copper. Below, on the outside, the
glass was protected by an aluminium plate, kept in its place by strong
bolts and nuts. The latter being unscrewed, the bolts slipped out by
their own weight, the shutter fell, and a new communication was
established between the interior and the exterior.

Ardan knelt down, applied his eye to the light, and tried to look out.
At first everything was quite dark and gloomy.

"I see no Earth!" he exclaimed at last.

"Don't you see a fine ribbon of light?" asked Barbican, "right beneath
us? A thin, pale, silvery crescent?"

"Of course I do. Can that be the Earth?"

"_Terra Mater_ herself, friend Ardan. That fine fillet of light, now
hardly visible on her eastern border, will disappear altogether as soon
as the Moon is full. Then, lying as she will be between the Sun and the
Moon, her illuminated face will be turned away from us altogether, and
for several days she will be involved in impenetrable darkness."

"And that's the Earth!" repeated Ardan, hardly able to believe his eyes,
as he continued to gaze on the slight thread of silvery white light,
somewhat resembling the appearance of the "Young May Moon" a few hours
after sunset.

Barbican's explanation was quite correct. The Earth, in reference to the
Moon or the Projectile, was in her last phase, or octant as it is
called, and showed a sharp-horned, attenuated, but brilliant crescent
strongly relieved by the black background of the sky. Its light,
rendered a little bluish by the density of the atmospheric envelopes,
was not quite as brilliant as the Moon's. But the Earth's crescent,
compared to the Lunar, was of dimensions much greater, being fully 4
times larger. You would have called it a vast, beautiful, but very thin
bow extending over the sky. A few points, brighter than the rest,
particularly in its concave part, revealed the presence of lofty
mountains, probably the Himalayahs. But they disappeared every now and
then under thick vapory spots, which are never seen on the Lunar disc.
They were the thin concentric cloud rings that surround the terrestrial
sphere.

However, the travellers' eyes were soon able to trace the rest of the
Earth's surface not only with facility, but even to follow its outline
with absolute delight. This was in consequence of two different
phenomena, one of which they could easily account for; but the other

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