.

"Yes, the sooner the better, with our tails between our legs," rejoined
the orderly, who this time felt no inclination to start off to the march
of the Algerian zephyrs. And so the French tricolor returned as it had
set out--in Ben Zoof's knapsack.

On the eighth evening after starting, the travelers again set foot on
the volcanic promontory just in time to witness a great commotion.

Palmyrin Rosette was in a furious rage. He had completed all his
calculations about Nerina, but that perfidious satellite had totally
disappeared. The astronomer was frantic at the loss of his moon.
Captured probably by some larger body, it was revolving in its proper
zone of the minor planets.

CHAPTER XVI. A BOLD PROPOSITION

On his return Servadac communicated to the count the result of his
expedition, and, though perfectly silent on the subject of his personal
project, did not conceal the fact that the Spaniards, without the
smallest right, had sold Ceuta to the English.

Having refused to quit their post, the Englishmen had virtually excluded
themselves from any further consideration; they had had their warning,
and must now take the consequences of their own incredulity.

Although it had proved that not a single creature either at Gourbi
Island, Gibraltar, Ceuta, Madalena, or Formentera had received any
injury whatever at the time of the first concussion, there was nothing
in the least to make it certain that a like immunity from harm would
attend the second. The previous escape was doubtless owing to some
slight, though unaccountable, modification in the rate of motion; but
whether the inhabitants of the earth had fared so fortunately, was a
question that had still to be determined.

The day following Servadac's return, he and the count and Lieutenant
Procope met by agreement in the cave, formally to discuss what would be
the most advisable method of proceeding under their present prospects.
Ben Zoof was, as a matter of course, allowed to be present, and
Professor Rosette had been asked to attend; but he declined on the plea
of taking no interest in the matter. Indeed, the disappearance of his
moon had utterly disconcerted him, and the probability that he should
soon lose his comet also, plunged him into an excess of grief which he
preferred to bear in solitude.

Although the barrier of cool reserve was secretly increasing between the
captain and the count, they scrupulously concealed any outward token of
their i