r--I tell you the fact for your good--there is not
the least particle of air on the surface of the moon."

At this affirmation Ardan shook his red mane; he understood that a
struggle was coming with this man on the real question. He looked at him
fixedly in his turn, and said--

"Ah! there is no air in the moon! And who says so, pray?"

"The _savants_."

"Indeed?"

"Indeed."

"Sir," resumed Michel, "joking apart, I have a profound respect for
_savants_ who know, but a profound contempt for _savants_ who do not
know."

"Do you know any who belong to the latter category?"

"Yes; in France there is one who maintains that, 'mathematically,' a
bird cannot fly, and another who demonstrates that a fish is not made to
live in water."

"There is no question of those two, sir, and I can quote in support of
my proposition names that you will not object to."

"Then, sir, you would greatly embarrass a poor ignorant man like me!"

"Then why do you meddle with scientific questions which you have never
studied?" asked the unknown brutally.

"Why?" answered Ardan; "because the man who does not suspect danger is
always brave! I know nothing, it is true, but it is precisely my
weakness that makes my strength."

"Your weakness goes as far as madness," exclaimed the unknown in a
bad-tempered tone.

"So much the better," replied the Frenchman, "if my madness takes me to
the moon!"

Barbicane and his colleagues stared at the intruder who had come so
boldly to stand in the way of their enterprise. None of them knew him,
and the president, not reassured upon the upshot of such a discussion,
looked at his new friend with some apprehension. The assembly was
attentive and slightly uneasy, for this struggle called attention to the
dangers and impossibilities of the expedition.

"Sir," resumed Michel Ardan's adversary, "the reasons that prove the
absence of all atmosphere round the moon are numerous and indisputable.
I may say, even, that, _a priori_ if that atmosphere had ever existed,
it must have been drawn away by the earth, but I would rather oppose you
with incontestable facts."

"Oppose, sir," answered Michel Ardan, with perfect gallantry--oppose as
much as you like."

"You know," said the unknown, "that when the sun's rays traverse a
medium like air they are deviated from a straight line, or, in other
words, they are refracted. Well, when stars are occulted by the moon
their rays, on grazing the edge of her disc, do