soon shut off the current altogether and save their supply.

"We must be ready to watch the signals from the arctic circle,"
said Bearwarden. "At midnight, if the calculations are finished,
the result will be flashed by the searchlight." It was then ten
minutes to twelve, and the earth was already over four hundred
thousand miles away. Focusing their glasses upon the region near
the north pole, which, being turned from the sun, was towards
them and in darkness, they waited.

"In this blaze of sunlight," said Cortlandt, "I am afraid we can
see nothing."

Fortunately, at this moment the Callisto entered the moon's
tapering shadow.

"This," said Ayrault, "is good luck. We could of course have
gone into the shadow; but to change our course would have delayed
us, and we might have lost part of the chance of increasing our
speed."

"There will be no danger from, meteors or sub-satellites here,"
said Bearwarden, "for anything revolving about the moon at this
distance would be caught by the earth."

The sun had apparently set behind the moon, and they were
eclipsed. The stars shone with the utmost splendour against the
dead-black sky, and the earth appeared as a large crescent, still
considerably larger than the satellite to which they were
accustomed. Exactly at midnight a faint phosphorescent light,