"It _will_ reach the Moon!" nodded Barbican.

"We shall reach the Moon or know for what!" cried M'Nicholl,
enthusiastically.

"The great American nation must not be disappointed!" continued Ardan.
"They are the only people on Earth capable of originating such an
enterprise! They are the only people capable of producing a Barbican!"

"Hurrah!" cried M'Nicholl.

"That point settled," continued the Frenchman, "another question comes
up to which I have not yet called your attention. When we get to the
Moon, what shall we do there? How are we going to amuse ourselves? I'm
afraid our life there will be awfully slow!"

His companions emphatically disclaimed the possibility of such a thing.

"You may deny it, but I know better, and knowing better, I have laid in
my stores accordingly. You have but to choose. I possess a varied
assortment. Chess, draughts, cards, dominoes--everything in fact, but a
billiard table?"

"What!" exclaimed Barbican; "cumbered yourself with such gimcracks?"

"Such gimcracks are not only good to amuse ourselves with, but are
eminently calculated also to win us the friendship of the Selenites."

"Friend Michael," said Barbican, "if the Moon is inhabited at all, her
inhabitants must have appeared several thousand years before the advent