as the sailors get rid of a dead body by throwing it into the sea. Only
in this operation they had to act, as Barbican recommended, with the
utmost care and dispatch, so as to lose as little as possible of the
internal air, which, by its great elasticity, would violently strive to
escape. The bolts of the floor-light, which was more than a foot in
diameter, were carefully unscrewed, while Ardan, a good deal affected,
prepared to launch his dog's body into space. The glass, worked by a
powerful lever which enabled it to overcome the pressure of the enclosed
air, turned quickly on its hinges, and poor Satellite was dropped out.
The whole operation was so well managed that very little air escaped,
and ever afterwards Barbican employed the same means to rid the
Projectile of all the litter and other useless matter by which it was
occasionally encumbered.

The evening of this third of December wore away without further
incident. As soon as Barbican had announced that the Projectile was
still winging its way, though with retarded velocity, towards the lunar
disc, the travellers quietly retired to rest.

[Illustration: POOR SATELLITE WAS DROPPED OUT.]




CHAPTER VI.

INSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATION.


On the fourth of December, the Projectile chronometers marked five