So I said:

"But I thought the lunar volcanoes were all dead ages ago. I hope we
haven't camped in the crater of one that is likely to go off again."

"My opinion is," answered the doctor, "that there is still water inside
the moon which is gradually freezing. That operation would sometimes crack
the surface, and this has probably caused the quaking that we have felt."

While we were talking the wind began to blow, and soon, although it was
long before time for the sun to rise, we suddenly emerged from darkness
into bright sunlight. We sprang up instinctively to look about us and try
to discover what this could mean, when what was our consternation to find
ourselves adrift!

There, in full view of our wondering eyes, was the whole, round earth,
hanging in space, and where were we? Then we began to realize gradually
that the trembling of the ground was the grating of the moon against the
earth as it left its resting place, and the wind was caused by our motion.

The novelty of the situation took away for a time the sense of fear, and I
exclaimed:

"Another scientific certainty gone to smash! I thought you said the moon
could never get away from the earth. What are we going to do now?"

"Well," replied the doctor, "this is certainly something I never dreamed
of in my philosophy. I didn't see how the moon could be drawn away from
the earth when once actually attached to it, but I suppose the sun and