Off on a Comet

he Shelif, appeared to have suffered little change. It is true that indentations were perceptible in the fertile plain, and the surface of the sea was ruffled w

ittle injury; but the gourbi, like a house of cards destroyed by an infant’s breath, had

he had some trouble to collect his thoughts, and the first sounds that escaped his

t ever I

ant .

ushed aside the broken thatch, so that his head appeared above the debris. “The gourbi

he had sustained, but not a sprain nor a scratch cou

ry promptitude a second head

tion what has ha

aptain, that it’s

of; it is nothing

ical reply, immediately followed by

ver,” said

earance of the ruins, beneath which they found that their arms, c

o’clock is it?” a

looking at the sun, which was a considerable height a

rt! wha

pointment with C

vadac. Then looking at his watch, he cried, “What are

n the afternoon?” asked Ben Z

he; “but, by all the wines of Medoc, I am puzzled. Don’t

e a conscript at the sound of the reveille. It i

t usually sank for the latter portion of its daily round. They were utterly bewildered. Some mysterious phenomenon must not only have altered

’s newspapers, and turned his attention to what was to him of more immediate importance. “Come, let us be

honor of running him throu

t New Year’s night. As they descended the steep footpath leading from the cliff towards the Shelif, they were unconscious that their respiration became forced and rapid, like that of a mountaineer when he has reached an altitude where the

singular tint, and was soon covered with lowering clouds that completely hid the sun. There were, indeed,

he gray monotony of water and sky. The limits of the horizon, too, had become much circumscribed. On land, as well as on s

vous. They did not exchange a word, but each was conscious of an unusual buoyancy, which appeared to lift up their bodies and give as it were, wings to their feet. If Ben Zoof had expressed his se

nged to an African species distinguished by a black spotted skin, and a black line down the front of the legs. At night-time, when they scour the country in herds, the creatures are somewhat formidable, but singly they are no more dangerous than a dog. Though by no means afraid of them, Ben Zoof had a pa

Zoof, “that leap must have

ed the captain; “I n

Ben Zoof’s forbearance, and stooping down he caught up a huge stone, when to his surprise, he found that it was no heavier than a piece of pet

and hedges with a series of bounds, which could only be likened to those that might be made by an india-rubber kangaroo. Ben Zoof was sure that his own powers of pro

and about ten feet wide. With the intention of clearing it, he made a spring, when a loud c

the other side of the ditch in time to break his fall. But the muscular effort that he made carried him in his turn to an altitude of thirty feet; in his ascent he passed Ben Zoof, who had already commenced his downward

ughter. “Bravo!” he said, “we sh

For a few seconds he stood lost in thought, then said solemnly, “Ben Z

asionally dreamed that I was a swallow flying over the Montmartre, but I never exp

the mystery. He was not, however, the man to puzzle himself for long over any insoluble problem. “Come

“and, first of all, let us settle ou

licious herbage carpeted the soil, whilst trees formed a charming framework to the whole.

nd. No one was in sight. “We are

f that, sir,”

ch, which he had set as nearly as possible by the sun

” and as Ben Zoof spoke, he pointed directly overhead to where

an the sun be in the zenith, in the mo

rate he has been traveling, I would lay my cap to a dish o

t means all this?” he murmured. “Laws of gravity disturbed! Points of the compass reversed! The length of day reduced one half

phenomenon, however extraordinary, would have drawn from him a single exclam

ted the captain, “my seconds would have waited, and not seeing me, would have come on towards the

ed that, although the wind was calm, the waters were unusually agitated, and seethed and foamed as though they were boiling. It was very certain that the yacht would have found a difficulty in holding her own in such a swell. Another thing that now struck Servadac was the extraordinary contraction of the horizon. Under

, and from his lofty perch was surveying the country to the south, as well as towards bot

river, and get over into Mo

ghtfall. Though still hidden by heavy clouds, the sun was evidently declining fast; and what was equally inexplicable, it was not followin

eption of the alteration in its convexity, in this part of Africa at least, seemed to have undergone no change of any very great importance. As far as the eye could reach, the shore was, as it had ever been, a succession of cliffs, beach, and arid rocks, tinged

e to an oblique ray of light that clearly

say when he receives a telegram informing him that his African colony has become, not morally, but physically disorganized; that the c

olony should be put under the surveillance of the police, that the cardinal points sho

f the footpath, they went as a crow would fly across the country. Hedges, trees, and streams were cleared at a bound, and under these conditions Ben Zoof felt that he could have overstepped Montmartre at a single stride. The earth seemed

ch on the previous evening had bounded the yellow stream, as it murmured peacefully along the fertile plain, had now become the shore of a tumultuous ocean, its azure waters extending westwards far as the eye could reach, and annihilating the tract of country which had hitherto formed th

erhung the shore, took up some water in the hollow of his hand, and carried it to his lips. “Salt as brine!” he

” said Ben Zoof. “It is, pro

plied with emotion. “It is a catastrophe that may have very serious co

lf inclined to receive these phenomena with philosophic indifference, his notions of

tern horizon, and just as though it were crossing the ecliptic under the tropics, it sank like a cannon ball into the sea. Witho