The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 139: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A MONTH IN THE MOON. 331 had only articulated his words without pronouncing them. The voice was not audible; or, to speak more accurately, there was no voice or sound of any kind on the moon, because the tenuity of the atmosphere precluded all vibration. , ‘Poor old Bucephalus! And I suspected him of childish sulking,’’ thought Norbert. ‘‘ He has taken his mask off twice or thrice. Perhaps he has asked me several questions without getting any reply ; and maybe he is now wondering what is amiss on my side. How on earth, or rather on the moon, am I to explain matters? ‘There is nothing for it but to wait till we get back.’’ es CHAPTER XXVIII.—MOoN STRUCK. THERE was nothing to be done under such circumstances but to continue their silent observations of the strange geological conditions around them. They had now reached a depth of five thousand feet beneath the observ- atory, and yet this was not half the distance separating them from the plain.. The zigzag road ended in a gentle slope which continued to the plain, and did not look difficult of descent, although there was no beaten track. Nothing could be more striking than the contrast between the rock of Tehbali and the said slope. The soil of Tehbali was of a dull red hue, cov- ered with yellow grass and various kinds of shrubs ; that of the slope was bright green, interspersed with glistening mauve and gray streaks of color, without the least trace of vegetation. , There were thus two perfectly distinct zones: the upper one, belonging to Tehbali; the other, that of the lunar mountain. Beneath, again, in a yet lower region, was a series of small craters, forming, as it were, a kind of rug- ged plateau. _ Instead of descending the slope, Norbert chose to skirt it horizontally for two or three miles round the base of the peak. He made a discovery there- bye : ‘“No doubt about it,’’? he thought. ‘‘It is clear now that the whole mountain.of 'Telbali was taken up and thrown on its base. ‘This seems rather odd at first sight. But, given an explosion of subterranean force, caused by the sudden backward recoil of the moon, it appears only natural that the Peak should have been uprooted, torn, like a tooth from its socket, out of the sandy soil that had been its bed. Once launched into space, the solid nature of the rock would keep it together, and by the force of the shock it was brought near enough to the moon to be attracted by her (which is intel- ligible since our satellite almost touched the earth). The conical shape of the mountain made it inevitable that it should fall on its own base. ‘Tt, was, indeed, od/iged to fall on its base. ‘There is no exception to the laws of gravity. ‘The rule is invariably the same, whether it concerns a mag- netic mountain weighing millions of tons, or only cogged dice. Tehbali re- sembles the latter, inasmuch as, once launched into space, it was bound to fall on the heaviest side, that is, on its base. ‘“ Now what was it that softened the shock of the fall to a certain extent? GComichbookssco |