"I say," said he, "it is all very well to go to the moon, but how shall we get back again?"
"What do you mean by that, Nicholl?" asked Barbicane gravely.
"It seems to me very inopportune to ask about getting away from a country before you get to it," added Michel.
"I don't ask that question because I want to draw back, but I repeat my question, and ask, 'How shall we get back?'"
"I have not the least idea," answered Barbicane.
"And as for me," said Michel, "if I had known how to come back I should not have gone."
"That is what you call answering," cried Nicholl.
"I approve of Michel's words, and add that the question has no actual interest. We will think about that later on, when we want to return. Though the Columbiad will not be there, the projectile will."
"Much good that will be, a bullet without a gun!"
"A gun can be made, and so can powder! Neither metal, saltpetre, nor coal can be wanting in the bowels of the moon. Besides, in order to return you have only the lunar attraction to conquer, and you will only have 8,000 leagues to go so as to fall on the terrestrial globe by the simple laws of weight."