t
it dropped like a spark in a keg of gun powder. The first question all
asked was: Is it genuine or bogus? real or got up by the stockbrokers?
But a few flashes backwards and forwards over the wires soon settled
that point. The stunning effects of the new blow were hardly over when
the _Barbicanites_ began to perceive that the wonderful intelligence was
decidedly in their favor. Was it not a distinct contradiction of the
whole story told by their opponents? If Barbican and his friends were
lying at the bottom of the Pacific, they were certainly not
circumgyrating around the Moon. If it was the Projectile that had broken
off the bowsprit of the _Susquehanna_, it could not certainly be the
Projectile that Belfast had seen only the day previous doing the duty
of a satellite. Did not the truth of one incident render the other an
absolute impossibility? If Bloomsbury was right, was not Belfast an ass?
Hurrah!

The new revelation did not improve poor Barbican's fate a bit--no matter
for that! Did not the _party_ gain by it? What would the _Belfasters_
say now? Would not they hold down their heads in confusion and disgrace?

The _Belfasters_, with a versatility highly creditable to human nature,
did nothing of the kind. Rapidly adopting the very line of tactics they
had just been so severely censuring, they simply denied the whole thing.
What! the truth of the Bloomsbury dispatch? Yes, every word of it! Had
not Bloomsbury seen the Projectile? No! Were not his eyes good for
anything? Yes, but not for everything! Did not the Captain know his
business? No! Did they mean to say that the bowsprit of the
_Susquehanna_ had not been broken off? Well, not exactly that, but those
naval gentlemen are not always to be trusted; after a pleasant little
supper, they often see the wrong light-house, or, what is worse, in
their desire to shield their negligence from censure, they dodge the
blame by trying to show that the accident was unavoidable. The
_Susquehanna's_ bowsprit had been snapped off, in all probability, by
some sudden squall, or, what was still more likely, some little aerolite
had struck it and frightened the crew into fits. When answers of this
kind did not lead to blows, the case was an exceptional one indeed. The
contestants were so numerous and so excited that the police at last
began to think of letting them fight it out without any interference.
Marshal O'Kane, though ably assisted by his 12 officers and 500
patrolmen,