The captain was inexorable. "Very sorry, you know, Hakkabut. It is
not my fault that the packet is short weight; but I cannot pay

for a kilogramme except I have a kilogramme."
Hakkabut pleaded for some consideration.

"A bargain is a bargain," said Servadac. "You must complete your contract."
And, moaning and groaning, the miserable man was driven to make

up the full weight as registered by his own steelyard.
He had to repeat the process with the sugar and coffee:

for every kilogramme he had to weigh seven. Ben Zoof and
the Russians jeered him most unmercifully.

"I say, old Mordecai, wouldn't you rather give your goods away,
than sell them at this rate? I would."

"I say, old Pilate, a monopoly isn't always a good thing, is it?"
"I say, old Sepharvaim, what a flourishing trade you're driving!"

Meanwhile seventy kilogrammes of each of the articles required were weighed,
and the Jew for each seventy had to take the price of ten.

All along Captain Servadac had been acting only in jest. Aware that
old Isaac was an utter hypocrite, he had no compunction in turning

a business transaction with him into an occasion for a bit of fun.
But the joke at an end, he took care that the Jew was properly paid

all his legitimate due.
CHAPTER X

FAR INTO SPACE
A month passed away. Gallia continued its course, bearing its little

population onwards, so far removed from the ordinary influence of human
passions that it might almost be said that its sole ostensible vice

was represented by the greed and avarice of the miserable Jew.
After all, they were but making a voyage--a strange, yet a transient,

excursion through solar regions hitherto untraversed;
but if the professor's calculations were correct--and why

should they be doubted?--their little vessel was destined,
after a two years' absence, once more to return "to port."

The landing, indeed, might be a matter of difficulty;
but with the good prospect before them of once again standing

on terrestrial shores, they had nothing to do at present
except to make themselves as comfortable as they could in

their present quarters.
Thus confident in their anticipations, neither the captain,

the count, nor the lieutenant felt under any serious
obligation to make any extensive provisions for the future;

they saw no necessity for expending the strength of the people,
during the short summer that would intervene upon the long

severity of winter, in the cultivation or the preservation
of their agricultural resources. Nevertheless, they often found

themselves talking over the measures they would have been driven
to adopt, if they had found themselves permanently attached

to their present home.
Even after the turning-point in their career, they knew that at least nine

months would have to elapse before the sea would be open to navigation;
but at the very first arrival of summer they would be bound to arrange for

the _Dobryna_ and the _Hansa_ to retransport themselves and all their animals
to the shores of Gourbi Island, where they would have to commence their

agricultural labors to secure the crops that must form their winter store.
During four months or thereabouts, they would lead the lives of farmers and

of sportsmen; but no sooner would their haymaking and their corn harvest have
been accomplished, than they would be compelled again, like a swarm of bees,

to retire to their semi-troglodyte existence in the cells of Nina's Hive.
Now and then the captain and his friends found themselves speculating whether,

in the event of their having to spend another winter upon Gallia,
some means could not be devised by which the dreariness of a second

residence in the recesses of the volcano might be escaped.
Would not another exploring expedition possibly result in the discovery

of a vein of coal or other combustible matter, which could be turned
to account in warming some erection which they might hope to put up?

A prolonged existence in their underground quarters was felt to be
monotonous and depressing, and although it might be all very well

for a man like Professor Rosette, absorbed in astronomical studies,
it was ill suited to the temperaments of any of themselves for any longer

period than was absolutelyindispensable.
One contingency there was, almost too terrible to be taken into account.

Was it not to be expected that the time might come when the internal
fires of Gallia would lose their activity, and the stream of lava

would consequently cease to flow? Why should Gallia be exempt
from the destiny that seemed to await every other heavenly body?

Why should it not roll onwards, like the moon, a dark cold mass in space?
In the event of such a cessation of the volcanic eruption,

whilst the comet was still at so great a distance from the sun,
they would indeed be at a loss to find a substitute for what

alone had served to render life endurable at a temperature
of 60 degrees below zero. Happily, however, there was at

present no symptom of the subsidence of the lava's stream;
the volcano continued its regular and unchanging discharge,

and Servadac, ever sanguine, declared that it was useless
to give themselves any anxiety upon the matter.

On the l5th of December, Gallia was 276,000,000 leagues from the sun,
and, as it was approximately to the extremity of its axis major,

would travel only some 11,000,000 or 12,000,000 leagues during the month.
Another world was now becoming a conspicuous object in the heavens,

and Palmyrin Rosette, after rejoicing in an approach nearer to
Jupiter than any other mortal man had ever attained, was now to be

privileged to enjoy a similar opportunity of contemplating the
planet Saturn. Not that the circumstances were altogether so favorable.

Scarcely 31,000,000 miles had separated Gallia from Jupiter;
the minimum distance of Saturn would not be less than 415,000,000 miles;

but even this distance, although too great to affect the comet's
progress more than had been duly reckoned on, was considerably shorter

than what had ever separated Saturn from the earth.
To get any information about the planet from Rosette appeared

quite impossible. Although equally by night and by day he never
seemed to quit his telescope, he did not evince the slightest

inclination to impart the result of his observations.
It was only from the few astronomical works that happened

to be included in the _Dobryna's_ library that any details could
be gathered, but these were sufficient to give a large amount

of interesting information.
Ben Zoof, when he was made aware that the earth would be invisible

to the naked eye from the surface of Saturn, declared that he then,
for his part, did not care to learn any more about such a planet;

to him it was indispensable that the earth should remain in sight,
and it was his great consolation that hitherto his native sphere

had never vanished from his gaze.
At this date Saturn was revolving at a distance of 420,000,000

miles from Gallia, and consequently 874,440,000 miles
from the sun, receiving only a hundredth part of the light

and heat which that luminary bestows upon the earth.
On consulting their books of reference, the colonists found

that Saturn completes his revolution round the sun in a period
of 29 years and 167 days, traveling at the rate of more than

21,000 miles an hour along an orbit measuring 5,490 millions
of miles in length. His circumference is about 220,000 miles;

his superficies, 144,000 millions of square miles; his volume,
143,846 millions of cubic miles. Saturn is 735 times larger

than the earth, consequently he is smaller than Jupiter;
in mass he is only 90 times greater than the earth,

which gives him a density less than that of water.
He revolves on his axis in 10 hours 29 minutes, causing his own

year to consist of 86,630 days; and his seasons, on account
of the great inclination of his axis to the plane of his orbit,

are each of the length of seven terrestrial years.
Although the light received from the sun is comparatively feeble,

the nights upon Saturn must be splendid. Eight satellites--
Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, and Japetus--

accompany the planet; Mimas, the nearest to its primary, rotating on its
axis in 221/2 hours, and revolving at a distance of only 120,800 miles,

whilst Japetus, the most remote, occupies 79 days in its rotation,
and revolves at a distance of 2,314,000 miles.

Another most important contribution to the magnificence of the nights
upon Saturn is the triple ring with which, as a brilliantsetting,

the planet is encompassed. To an observer at the equator, this ring,