This modification of the axis was evidently a public danger.
A change of 23° 28′ would produce a considerable displacement in the seas, owing to the flattening at the Poles. The Earth was thus threatened with similar disasters to those that, it is believed, have recently occurred in Mars. There entire continents, among others Libya and Schiaparelli, have been submerged, as shown by the faint blue replacing the faint red. Lake Moeris has disappeared. North and south there have been changes, and the oceans have withdrawn from many localities they formerly occupied. If a few charitable souls have been much affected at the “floods in Mars”—almost as much as to open subscriptions for the sufferers—what would they do for the floods on the Earth?
Protests came in by every post. The United States Government was urged to interfere.
“Look at these Yankees,” said one. “They want to hang the globe on another axletree! As if the old one, after all these centuries, had worn out! But is it not as sound as it was at the beginning?”
And there was Sulphuric Alcide at work trying to find out the nature and direction of the shock that J. T. Maston had arranged. Once master of the secret, he would very soon know what parts of the Earth were in danger.
It was not likely that the United States would suffer. Barbicane & Co. were quite Yankees enough to take care of their own country. Evidently the new Continent between the Arctic Sea and the Gulf of Mexico had nothing to fear. It was even possible that North America would gain a considerable accession of territory.
“That may be,” said the nervous people who only saw the perilous side of things. “But are you sure? Supposing J. T. Maston has made a mistake? Supposing Barbicane makes a mistake when he puts Maston’s theory in practice? Such a thing can happen to the cleverest artillerists! They do not always score a bull’s-eye!”
These fears were sedulously worked upon by the Major and the opposition. Todrin published a number of articles in a leading Canadian newspaper. Harald rushed into print in a Swedish journal. Colonel Boris Karkof tried his hand in a Russian one. The Americans began to take sides. The New York Tribune and the Boston Journal took up their parable against Barbicane. In vain the North Polar Practical Association tried to stem the rising tide. In vain Mrs. Scorbitt paid ten dollars a line for serious articles, humorous articles, and smart, scathing paragraphs treating the dangers as chimerical. In vain the enthusiastic widow endeavoured to show that if ever hypothesis was unjustifiable, it was that which assumed that J. T. Maston was capable of an error!
Neither Barbicane nor his co-directors took the trouble to say anything. They let the talk go on without making any change in their habits. They seemed to be thoroughly absorbed in the immense preparations necessitated by their undertaking. The revulsion of public opinion seemed to concern them not in the least.
But in spite of all Mrs. Scorbitt could do, it soon came about that Impey Barbicane, Captain Nicholl, and J. T. Maston began to be looked upon as dangers to society. So high grew the clamour that the Federal Government had to interfere, and call upon them to declare their intentions. What were their means of action? How did they intend to substitute one axis for another? What would be the consequences of the substitution? What parts of the globe would the substitution endanger?