do so," I replied. "I would willingly give him my place."

It may be believed that we were all this time anxiously watching the
earth, and it did not lessen our anxiety to realize that we were traveling
very rapidly away from it. I had reached a point now where I did not place
much dependence upon the doctor's science, but to get some expression of
his thoughts I said to him:

"Well, have you any opinion about our fate? Are we doomed to pass the
remainder of our lives circling around our dear old earth, looking upon
her face day by day but never to approach her again?"

"I think you have stated the case about as it is," said he, "if, indeed,
this rate of speed does not carry us entirely beyond the earth's
attraction, out into illimitable space."

The thought of such an additional catastrophe silenced me, especially as I
could not deny its possibility. Life on the moon, if we could only keep
the earth in sight even, seemed almost endurable now, beside the idea that
we might be cast out to shift for ourselves, without a tie save such as
the universal law of gravitation might find for us somewhere.

It must not be imagined that our conversation was carried on with ease or
that we were half enjoying our novel situation. We were simply trying to
make the best of a very bad matter. Not long after we had started the wind
had taken away the balloon part of our air ship, and now threatened every
moment to tear the car from its moorings and end our unhappy career at
once. Besides this impending catastrophe, it was with the greatest
difficulty that we could get air enough to fill our lungs, but the cold
was so intense whenever our side of the moon was turned away from the sun