he did not feel the indifference, which he himself experienced;
but his advice was received with so angry a rebuff that he
retired in all haste, abashed, to résumé his watchman's duty,
which he performed with exemplary perseverance.
Day and night, with the shortest possible intervals of rest,
despite wind, rain, and storm, he mounted guard upon the cliff--
but all in vain. Not a speck appeared upon the desolate horizon.
To say the truth, no vessel could have stood against the weather.
The hurricane raged with tremendous fury, and the waves rose to a
height that seemed to defy calculation. Never, even in the second
era of creation, when, under the influence of internal heat,
the waters rose in vapor to descend in deluge back upon
the world, could meteorological phenomena have been developed
with more impressive intensity.

But by the night of the 13th the tempest appeared to have spent its fury;
the wind dropped; the rain ceased as if by a spell; and Servadac,
who for the last six days had confined himself to the shelter
of his roof, hastened to join Ben Zoof at his post upon the cliff.
Now, he thought, there might be a chance of solving his perplexity;
perhaps now the huge disc, of which he had had an imperfect glimpse
on the night of the 31st of December, might again reveal itself;
at any rate, he hoped for an opportunity of observing the constellations
in a clear firmament above.

The night was magnificent. Not a cloud dimmed the luster of the stars,
which spangled the heavens in surpassing brilliancy, and several nebulae
which hitherto no astronomer had been able to discern without the aid
of a telescope were clearly visible to the naked eye.