d avarice of the miserable Jew.

After all, they were but making a voyage--a strange, yet a transient,
excursion through solar regions hitherto untraversed; but if the
professor's calculations were correct--and why should they be
doubted?--their little vessel was destined, after a two years' absence,
once more to return "to port." The landing, indeed, might be a matter
of difficulty; but with the good prospect before them of once again
standing on terrestrial shores, they had nothing to do at present
except to make themselves as comfortable as they could in their present
quarters.

Thus confident in their anticipations, neither the captain, the count,
nor the lieutenant felt under any serious obligation to make any
extensive provisions for the future; they saw no necessity for expending
the strength of the people, during the short summer that would intervene
upon the long severity of winter, in the cultivation or the preservation
of their agricultural resources. Nevertheless, they often found
themselves talking over the measures they would have been driven to
adopt, if they had found themselves permanently attached to their
present home.

Even after the turning-point in their career, they knew that at least
nine months would have to elapse before the sea would be open to
navigation; but at the very first arrival of summer they would be bound
to arrange for the _Dobryna_ and the _Hansa_ to retransport themselves
and all their animals to the shores of Gourbi Island, where they would
have to commence their agricultural labors to secure the crops that must
form their winter store. During four months or thereabouts, they would
lead the lives of farmers and of sportsmen; but no sooner would their
haymaking and their corn harvest have been accomplished, than they
would be compelled again, like a swarm of bees, to retire to their
semi-troglodyte existence in the cells of Nina's Hive.

Now and then the captain and his friends found themselves speculating
whether, in the event of their having to spend another winter upon
Gallia, some means could not be devised by which the dreariness of a
second residence in the recesses of the volcano might be escaped. Would
not another exploring expedition possibly result in the discovery of
a vein of coal or other combustible matter, which could be turned to
account in warming some erection which they might hope to put up?
A prolonged existence in their underground quarters was felt to be