“Yes, my good Michel.”
“Then, no more hyperbolas, no more parabolas, no more open curves to fear?”
“No, but a closed curve.”
“Which is called—”
“An ellipse. Instead of losing itself in interplanetary space, it is probable that the projectile will describe an elliptical orbit around the moon.”
“Indeed!”
“And that it will become her satellite.”
“Moon of the moon!” cried Michel Ardan.
“Only, I would have you observe, my worthy friend,” replied Barbicane, “that we are none the less lost for that.”
“Yes, in another manner, and much more pleasantly,” answered the careless Frenchman with his most amiable smile.