rce as a tiger, had
rushed at the Jew, had seized him by the throat, and was shaking him
till he was black in the face.

"Help! help!" screamed Hakkabut. "I shall be strangled."

"Rascal! consummate rascal! thief! villain!" the professor reiterated,
and continued to shake the Jew furiously.

Ben Zoof looked on and laughed, making no attempt to interfere; he had
no sympathy with either of the two.

The sound of the scuffling, however, drew the attention of Servadac,
who, followed by his companions, hastened to the scene. The combatants
were soon parted. "What is the meaning of all this?" demanded the
captain.

As soon as the professor had recovered his breath, exhausted by his
exertions, he said, "The old reprobate, the rascal has cheated us! His
steelyard is wrong! He is a thief!"

Captain Servadac looked sternly at Hakkabut.

"How is this, Hakkabut? Is this a fact?"

"No, no--yes--no, your Excellency, only--"

"He is a cheat, a thief!" roared the excited astronomer. "His weights
deceive!"

"Stop, stop!" interposed Servadac; "let us hear. Tell me, Hakkabut--"

"The steelyard lies! It cheats! it lies!" roared the irrepressible
Rosette.

"Tell me, Hakkabut, I say," repeated Servadac.

The Jew only kept on stammering, "Yes--no--I don't know."

But heedless of any interruption, the professor continued, "False
weights! That confounded steelyard! It gave a false result! The mass was
wrong! The observations contradicted the calculations; they were wrong!
She was out of place! Yes, out of place entirely."

"What!" cried Servadac and Procope in a breath, "out of place?"

"Yes, completely," said the professor.

"Gallia out of place?" repeated Servadac, agitated with alarm.

"I did not say Gallia," replied Rosette, stamping his foot impetuously;
"I said Nerina."

"Oh, Nerina," answered Servadac. "But what of Gallia?" he inquired,
still nervously.

"Gallia, of course, is on her way to the earth. I told you so. But that
Jew is a rascal!"

CHAPTER XV. A JOURNEY AND A DISAPPOINTMENT

It was as the professor had said. From the day that Isaac Hakkabut had
entered upon his mercantile career, his dealings had all been carried
on by a system of false weight. That deceitful steelyard had been the
mainspring of his fortune. But when it had become his lot to be the
purchaser instead of the vendor, his spirit had groaned within him at
being compelled to reap the fruits of his own dishonesty. No one who had
s