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Off on a Comet-Part46_JULES VERNE(1828-1905)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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to maintaincombustion for a while, and keep up the necessary supply

of heated air.



The sails of the _Dobryna_, which had all been carefully

stowed away in the Hive, were of a textureunusually close,



and quite capable of being made airtight by means of a varnish,

the ingredients of which were rummaged out of the promiscuous stores



of the tartan. The lieutenant himself traced out the pattern

and cut out the strips, and all hands were employed in seaming



them together. It was hardly the work for little fingers,

but Nina persisted in accomplishing her own share of it.



The Russians were quite at home at occupation of this sort,

and having initiated the Spaniards into its mysteries,



the task of joining together the casing was soon complete.

Isaac Hakkabut and the professor were the only two members of



the community who took no part in this somewhat tedious proceeding.

A month passed away, but Servadac found no opportunity of



getting at the information he had pledged himself to gain.

On the sole occasion when he had ventured to broach the subject



with the astronomer, he had received for answer that as there

was no hurry to get back to the earth, there need be no concern



about any dangers of transit.

Indeed, as time passed on, the professor seemed to become



more and more inaccessible. A pleasant temperature enabled

him to live entirely in his observatory, from which intruders



were rigidly shut out. But Servadac bided his time.

He grew more and more impressed with the importance of finding



out the exact moment at which the impact would take place,

but was content to wait for a promising opportunity to put any



fresh questions on the subject to the too reticent astronomer.

Meanwhile, the earth's disc was daily increasing in magnitude;



the comet traveled 50,000,000 leagues during the month,

at the close of which it was not more than 78,000,000 leagues



from the sun.

A thaw had now fairly set in. The breaking up of the frozen ocean



was a magnificentspectacle, and "the great voice of the sea,"

as the whalers graphically describe it, was heard in all its solemnity.



Little streams of water began to trickle down the declivities of

the mountain and along the shelving shore, only to be transformed,



as the melting of the snow continued, into torrents or cascades.

Light vapors gathered on the horizon, and clouds were formed and



carried rapidly along by breezes to which the Gallian atmosphere

had long been unaccustomed. All these were doubtless but the prelude



to atmospheric disturbances of a more startling character;

but as indications of returning spring, they were greeted with a



welcome which no apprehensions for the future could prevent being

glad and hearty.



A double disaster was the inevitableconsequence of the thaw.

Both the schooner and the tartan were entirely destroyed.



The basement of the icy pedestal on which the ships had been upheaved

was gradually undermined, like the icebergs of the Arctic Ocean,



by warm currents of water, and on the night of the 12th the huge

block collapsed _en masse_, so that on the following morning nothing



remained of the _Dobryna_ and the _Hansa_ except the fragments

scattered on the shore.



Although certainly expected, the catastrophe could not fail

to cause a sense of general depression. Well-nigh one of their



last ties to Mother Earth had been broken; the ships were gone,

and they had only a balloon to replace them!



To describe Isaac Hakkabut's rage at the destruction of the

tartan would be impossible. His oaths were simply dreadful;



his imprecations on the accursed race were full of wrath.

He swore that Servadac and his people were responsible for his loss;



he vowed that they should be sued and made to pay him damages;

he asserted that he had been brought from Gourbi Island only



to be plundered; in fact, he became so intolerably abusive,

that Servadac threatened to put him into irons unless he conducted



himself properly; whereupon the Jew, finding that the captain was




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