Argosy, Volume XXIII — Index Page, 1897 — page 186: what you’re looking at

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

os 756 A MONTH IN THE MOON. no one has ever seen yet! The whole of Africa in the field of vision at once !”’ With the addition of half Asia and Europe,’’ said Norbert, going towards the observatory, followed by all the others. Here, seated in a comfortable armchair in front of the telescope, Gertrude enjoyed the great happiness of seeing not only Africa, but the region bounded by the Red Sea, the Soudan itself. There it was spread out like a map drawn in bright lines on a background of black clouds. The black clouds were the ocean. ‘It is really wonderful !’’ said Gertrude. ‘‘ How clearly and distinctly we can see it! And to think that my dear father is there, grieving over the loss of his daughter! Oh! Monsieur Norbert, you who are so learned, can you not devise some means of sending him a message ?”’ ~ Alas! it is perhaps not impossible, but it would in any case entail very long preparations, without any strong probability of being understood, or even seen,’’ answered the young man, deeply grieved to see tears in the girl’s eyes. ‘‘ But I beg you,” he continued, ‘‘not to be so wretched. You shall see him again soon, I promise. Courage, Mademoiselle Gertrude! You have been so brave hitherto !’’ ‘I will try,’’ she said, with a faint attempt at a smile. ‘‘ But you have no idea what I feel in seeing the world that contains my father, hanging as it were in the sky. It seems to me that I must be déad and looking down on him; or else that he is dead! Never did I realize till now the terrible distance between us !’’ ‘“What matters the distance, since we can traverse it? We have done so already, and we will again by means of a machine that will not tarry on the way, and will travel twice as quick as a cannon ball.’’ But Gertrude could not recover herself at once. Her voice was broken with sobs; she leaned disconsolately on Fatima’s shoulder, and they wept together for some little time. ‘“Come ! come !’’ said the doctor brusquely. ‘‘ You are not reasonable, dear child! Kersain is not any farther off because we are looking at the moonlight, or rather the earthlight, without him! He sees us in the same way when the night is fine at Khartoum.’’ ‘“Do you think he sees us now ?’’ said Gertrude. "’ Perhaps he does,’’ evasively answered the doctor, making a sign to stop Norbert from expressing his opinion of the extreme improbability of this being the case. The idea amused Gertrude, and somewhat diverted her from her grief, ““ If he could but know I am here !’? she murmured. ‘‘I could then fancy that our spirits communed one with the other across the intervening space ; and, yet, perhaps, it is best that he should remain in ignorance,’’ she added in a melancholy tone. . “There is something else to see besides the Soudan,’’ cried the doctor, to rouse her. ‘‘Isee,’’ he continued, ‘‘a strip of country down there that looks like France. She comes out well, seated comfortably between the Alps and the Pyrenees, holding out her arms to the Atlantic.’’ Comicbooks (E(e)