"My stake is deposited at the bank in Baltimore,"replied Barbicane simply; "and if Nicholl is not there,it will go to his heirs."
"Ah, you practical men!" exclaimed Michel Ardan; "I admire you the more for not being able to understand you."
"Forty-two minutes past ten!" said Nicholl.
"Only five minutes more!" answered Barbicane
"Yes, five little minutes!" replied Michel Ardan;"and we are enclosed in a projectile, at the bottom of a gun 900 feet long! And under this projectile are rammed 400,000 pounds of gun-cotton, which is equal to 1,600,000 pounds of ordinary powder! And friend Murchison, with his chronometer in hand, his eye fixed on the needle, his finger on the electric apparatus is counting the seconds preparatory to launching us into interplanetary space."