"I think not," replied Barbicane. "So, then, in place of 1,600,000 lbs. of powder, we shall have but 400,000 lbs. of fulminating cotton; and since we can, without danger, compress 500 lbs. of cotton into 27 cubic feet, the whole quantity will not occupy a height of more than 180 feet within the bore of the Columbiad. In this way the shot will have more than 700 feet of bore to traverse under a force of 6,000,000,000 litres of gas before taking its flight towards the moon."
At this junction J. T. Maston could not repress his emotion; he flung himself into the arms of his friend with the violence of a projectile, and Barbicane would have been stove in if he had not been bomb-proof.
This incident terminated the third meeting of the Committee.
Barbicane and his bold colleagues, to whom nothing seemed impossible, had succeeded in solving the complex problems of projectile, cannon, and powder. Their plan was drawn up, and it only remained to put it in execution.
"A mere matter of detail, a bagatelle," said J. T. Maston.
CAPTAIN NICHOLL
CHAPTER X.
ONE ENEMY v. TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS OF FRIENDS.
The American public took a lively interest in the smallest details of the enterprise of the Gun Club. It followed day by day the discussions of the committee. The most simple preparation for the great experiment, the questions of figures which it involved, the mechanical difficulties to be resolved—in one word, the entire plan of work—roused the popular excitement to the highest pitch.