ion should occur
at our antipodes, the sudden check to the velocity of the comet would be
quite equivalent to a shock _in situ_; and, another thing, we should run
the risk of being suffocated, for all our comet's atmosphere would be
assimilated with the terrestrial atmosphere, and we, supposing we were
not dashed to atoms, should be left as it were upon the summit of an
enormous mountain (for such to all intents and purposes Gallia would
be), 450 miles above the level of the surface of the globe, without a
particle of air to breathe."

"But would not our chances of escape be considerably better," asked
Count Timascheff, "in the event of either of the comet's poles being the
point of contact?"

"Taking the combined velocity into account," answered the lieutenant,
"I confess that I fear the violence of the shock will be too great to
permit our destruction to be averted."

A general silence ensued, which was broken by the lieutenant himself.
"Even if none of these contingencies occur in the way we have
contemplated, I am driven to the suspicion that we shall be burnt
alive."

"Burnt alive!" they all exclaimed in a chorus of horror.

"Yes. If the deductions of modern science be true, the speed of the
comet, when suddenly checked, will be transmuted into heat, and that
heat will be so intense that the temperature of the comet will be raised
to some millions of degrees."

No one having anything definite to allege in reply to Lieutenant
Procope's forebodings, they all relapsed into silence. Presently Ben
Zoof asked whether it was not possible for the comet to fall into the
middle of the Atlantic.

Procope shook his head. "Even so, we should only be adding the fate of
drowning to the list of our other perils."

"Then, as I understand," said Captain Servadac, "in whatever way or
in whatever place the concussion occurs, we must be either crushed,
suffocated, roasted, or drowned. Is that your conclusion, lieutenant?"

"I confess I see no other alternative," answered Procope, calmly.

"But isn't there another thing to be done?" said Ben Zoof.

"What do you mean?" his master asked.

"Why, to get off the comet before the shock comes."

"How could you get off Gallia?"

"That I can't say," replied the orderly.

"I am not sure that that could not be accomplished," said the
lieutenant.

All eyes in a moment were riveted upon him, as, with his head resting
on his hands, he was manifestly cogitating a new idea. "Yes, I