immortalize his name.
The task he had undertaken demanded the utmost patience.

Night after night, in order to fix the apex of his triangle,
he had to linger on the watch for the assistant's signal-light,

but he did not forget that his predecessors, Arago and Biot,
had had to wait sixty-one days for a similar purpose.

What retarded the work was the dense fog which, it has been
already mentioned, at that time enveloped not only that part

of Europe, but almost the entire world.
Never failing to turn to the best advantage the few intervals

when the mist lifted a little, the astronomer would at the same
time cast an inquiring glance at the firmament, as he was

greatly interested in the revision of the chart of the heavens,
in the region contiguous to the constellation Gemini.

To the naked eye this constellation consists of only six stars, but through
a telescope ten inches in diameter, as many as six thousand are visible.

Rosette, however, did not possess a reflector of this magnitude,
and was obliged to content himself with the good but comparatively small

instrument he had.
On one of these occasions, whilst carefully gauging the recesses

of Gemini, he espied a bright speck which was unregistered in the chart,
and which at first he took for a small star that had escaped being

entered in the catalogue. But the observation of a few separate nights
soon made it manifest that the star was rapidly changing its position

with regard to the adjacent stars, and the astronomer's heart began
to leap at the thought that the renown of the discovery of a new planet

would be associated with his name.
Redoubling his attention, he soon satisfied himself that what

he saw was not a planet; the rapidity of its displacement
rather forced him to the conjecture that it must be a comet,

and this opinion was soon strengthened by the appearance of a coma,
and subsequently confirmed, as the body approached the sun,

by the development of a tail.
A comet! The discovery was fatal to all further progress

in the triangulation. However conscientiously the assistant
on the Spanish coast might look to the kindling of the beacon,

Rosette had no glances to spare for that direction;
he had no eyes except for the one object of his notice,

no thoughts apart from that one quarter of the firmament.
A comet! No time must be lost in calculating its elements.

Now, in order to calculate the elements of a comet, it is always
deemed the safest mode of procedure to assume the orbit to be

a parabola. Ordinarily, comets are conspicuous at their perihelia,
as being their shortest distances from the sun, which is the focus

of their orbit, and inasmuch as a parabola is but an ellipse with its
axis indefinitely produced, for some short portion of its pathway

the orbit may be indifferently considered either one or the other;
but in this particular case the professor was right in adopting

the supposition of its being parabolic.
Just as in a circle, it is necessary to know three points to determine

the circumference; so in ascertaining the elements of a comet,
three different positions must be observed before what astronomers

call its "ephemeris" can be established.
But Professor Rosette did not content himself with three positions;

taking advantage of every rift in the fog he made ten, twenty,
thirty observations both in right ascension and in declination,

and succeeded in working out with the most minute accuracy the five
elements of the comet which was evidently advancing with astounding

rapidity towards the earth.
These elements were:

l. The inclination of the plane of the cometary orbit to the plane
of the ecliptic, an angle which is generally considerable,

but in this case the planes were proved to coincide.
2. The position of the ascending node, or the point where the comet

crossed the terrestrial orbit.
These two elements being obtained, the position in space of the comet's

orbit was determined.
3. The direction of the axis major of the orbit, which was found

by calculating the longitude of the comet's perihelion.
4. The perihelion distance from the sun, which settled the precise form

of the parabola.
5. The motion of the comet, as being retrograde, or, unlike the planets,

from east to west.
Rosette thus found himself able to calculate the date at which the comet

would reach its perihelion, and, overjoyed at his discovery,
without thinking of calling it Palmyra or Rosette,

after his own name, he resolved that it should be known as Gallia.
His next business was to draw up a formal report.

Not only did he at once recognize that a collision with the earth
was possible, but he soon foresaw that it was inevitable,

and that it must happen on the night of the 31st of December;
moreover, as the bodies were moving in opposite directions,

the shock could hardly fail to be violent.
To say that he was elated at the prospect was far below the truth;

his delight amounted almost to delirium. Anyone else would have hurried
from the solitude of Formentera in sheer fright; but, without communicating

a word of his startling discovery, he remained resolutely at his post.
From occasional newspapers which he had received, he had learnt that fogs,

dense as ever, continued to envelop both hemispheres, so that he was
assured that the existence of the comet was utterly unknown elsewhere;

and the ignorance of the world as to the peril that threatened it averted
the panic that would have followed the publication of the facts, and left

the philosopher of Formentera in sole possession of the great secret.
He clung to his post with the greater persistency, because his calculations

had led him to the conclusion that the comet would strike the earth somewhere
to the south of Algeria, and as it had a solid nucleus, he felt sure that,

as he expressed it, the effect would be "unique," and he was anxious to be
in the vicinity.

The shock came, and with it the results already recorded.
Palmyrin Rosette was suddenly separated from his servant Joseph,

and when, after a long period of unconsciousness, he came to himself,
he found that he was the solitaryoccupant of the only fragment

that survived of the Balearic Archipelago.
Such was the substance of the narrative which the professor gave

with sundry repetitions and digressions; while he was giving it,
he frequently paused and frowned as if irritated in a way that seemed

by no means justified by the patient and good-humored demeanor
of his audience.

"But now, gentlemen," added the professor, "I must tell you something more.
Important changes have resulted from the collision; the cardinal points

have been displaced; gravity has been diminished: not that I ever
supposed for a minute, as you did, that I was still upon the earth.

No! the earth, attended by her moon, continued to rotate along
her proper orbit. But we, gentlemen, have nothing to complain of;

our destiny might have been far worse; we might all have been crushed
to death, or the comet might have remained in adhesion to the earth;

and in neither of these cases should we have had the satisfaction
of making this marvelousexcursion through untraversed solar regions.

No, gentlemen, I repeat it, we have nothing to regret."
And as the professor spoke, he seemed to kindle with the emotion of such

supreme contentment that no one had the heart to gainsay his assertion.
Ben Zoof alone ventured an unlucky remark to the effect that if the comet

had happened to strike against Montmartre, instead of a bit of Africa,
it would have met with some resistance.

"Pshaw!" said Rosette, disdainfully. "A mole-hill like Montmartre
would have been ground to powder in a moment."

"Mole-hill!" exclaimed Ben Zoof, stung to the quick.
"I can tell you it would have caught up your bit of a comet

and worn it like a feather in a cap."
The professor looked angry, and Servadac having imposed silence

upon his orderly, explained the worthy soldier's sensitiveness
on all that concerned Montmartre. Always obedient to his master,

Ben Zoof held his tongue; but he felt that he could never forgive
the slight that had been cast upon his beloved home.

It was now all-important to learn whether the astronomer had been able
to continue his observations, and whether he had learned sufficient