m to permit the captain to go alone. There
was no delay. The departure was fixed for the following morning, the 2nd
of November.

Although it is not to be questioned that a genuine desire of doing
an act of kindness to his fellow-creatures was a leading motive of
Servadac's proposed visit to Gibraltar, it must be owned that another
idea, confided to nobody, least of all to Count Timascheff, had been
conceived in the brain of the worthy Gascon. Ben Zoof had an inkling
that his master was "up to some other little game," when, just before
starting, he asked him privately whether there was a French tricolor
among the stores. "I believe so," said the orderly.

"Then don't say a word to anyone, but fasten it up tight in your
knapsack."

Ben Zoof found the flag, and folded it up as he was directed. Before
proceeding to explain this somewhat enigmatical conduct of Servadac,
it is necessary to refer to a certain physiological fact, coincident
but unconnected with celestial phenomena, originating entirely in the
frailty of human nature. The nearer that Gallia approached the earth,
the more a sort of reserve began to spring up between the captain and
Count Timascheff. Though they could not be said to be conscious of
it, the remembrance of their former rivalry, so completely buried in
oblivion for the last year and ten months, was insensibly recovering
its hold upon their minds, and the question was all but coming to
the surface as to what would happen if, on their return to earth, the
handsome Madame de L---- should still be free. From companions in peril,
would they not again be avowed rivals? Conceal it as they would, a
coolness was undeniably stealing over an intimacy which, though it could
never be called affectionate, had been uniformly friendly and courteous.

Under these circumstances, it was not surprising that Hector Servadac
should not have confided to the count a project which, wild as it was,
could scarcely have failed to widen the unacknowledged breach that was
opening in their friendship.

The project was the annexation of Ceuta to the French dominion. The
Englishmen, rightly enough, had continued to occupy the fragment of
Gibraltar, and their claim was indisputable. But the island of Ceuta,
which before the shock had commanded the opposite side of the strait,
and had been occupied by Spaniards, had since been abandoned, and was
therefore free to the first occupant who should lay claim to it. To
plant the trico