The captain could not help himself: he was forced to confess that his memory had failed him.
“Well, then,” said the professor, “I must remind you. Taking the attraction on the earth as 1, that on Mercury is 1.15, on Venus it is 0.92, on Mars 0.5, and on Jupiter 2.45; on the moon the attraction is 0.16, whilst on the surface of the sun a terrestrial kilogramme would weigh 28 kilogrammes.”
“Therefore, if a man upon the surface of the sun were to fall down, he would have considerable difficulty in getting up again. A cannon ball, too, would only fly a few yards,” said Lieutenant Procope.
“A jolly battle-field for cowards!” exclaimed Ben Zoof.
“Not so jolly, Ben Zoof, as you fancy,” said his master; “the cowards would be too heavy to run away.”
Ben Zoof ventured the remark that, as the smallness of Gallia secured to its inhabitants such an increase of strength and agility, he was almost sorry that it had not been a little smaller still.
“Though it could not anyhow have been very much smaller,” he added, looking slyly at the professor.
“Idiot!” exclaimed Rosette. “Your head is too light already; a puff of wind would blow it away.”
“I must take care of my head, then, and hold it on,” replied the irrepressible orderly.
Unable to get the last word, the professor was about to retire, when Servadac detained him.