Moon, was still swaying it on its return to the Earth.
A well known law of motion required that, in the path which it was now
about to describe, _it should repass, on its return through all the
points through which it had already passed during its departure_.

No wonder that our friends were struck almost senseless when the fearful
fall they were now about to encounter, flashed upon them in all its
horror. They were to fall a clear distance of nearly 200 thousand miles!
To lighten or counteract such a descent, the most powerful springs,
checks, rockets, screens, deadeners, even if the whole Earth were
engaged in their construction--would produce no more effect than so many
spiderwebs. According to a simple law in Ballistics, _the Projectile was
to strike the Earth with a velocity equal to that by which it had been
animated when issuing from the mouth of the Columbiad_--a velocity of at
least seven miles a second!

To have even a faint idea of this enormous velocity, let us make a
little comparison. A body falling from the summit of a steeple a hundred
and fifty feet high, dashes against the pavement with a velocity of
fifty five miles an hour. Falling from the summit of St. Peter's, it
strikes the earth at the rate of 300 miles an hour, or five times
quicker than the rapidest express train. Falling from the neutral
point, the Projectile should strike the Earth with a velocity of more
than 25,000 miles an hour!

"We are lost!" said M'Nicholl gloomily, his philosophy yielding to
despair.

"One consolation, boys!" cried Ardan, genial to the last. "We shall die
together!"

"If we die," said Barbican calmly, but with a kind of suppressed
enthusiasm, "it will be only to remove to a more extended sphere of our
investigations. In the other world, we can pursue our inquiries under
far more favorable auspices. There the wonders of our great Creator,
clothed in brighter light, shall be brought within a shorter range. We
shall require no machine, nor projectile, nor material contrivance of
any kind to be enabled to contemplate them in all their grandeur and to
appreciate them fully and intelligently. Our souls, enlightened by the
emanations of the Eternal Wisdom, shall revel forever in the blessed
rays of Eternal Knowledge!"

"A grand view to take of it, dear friend Barbican;" replied Ardan, "and
a consoling one too. The privilege of roaming at will through God's
great universe should make ample amends for missing the Moon!"