"Jules Verne. Off on a Comet. WORKS" - читать интересную книгу автора

which had been so startling in their consequences.

"We must inquire into this to-morrow," he exclaimed, as darkness
fell suddenly upon him. Then, after a pause, he added:
"That is to say, if there is to be a to-morrow; for if I were
to be put to the torture, I could not tell what has become
of the sun."

"May I ask, sir, what we are to do now?" put in Ben Zoof.

"Stay where we are for the present; and when daylight appears--
if it ever does appear--we will explore the coast to the west and south,
and return to the gourbi. If we can find out nothing else,
we must at least discover where we are."

"Meanwhile, sir, may we go to sleep?"

"Certainly, if you like, and if you can."

Nothing loath to avail himself of his master's permission, Ben Zoof
crouched down in an angle of the shore, threw his arms over his eyes,
and very soon slept the sleep of the ignorant, which is often sounder
than the sleep of the just. Overwhelmed by the questions that crowded
upon his brain, Captain Servadac could only wander up and down the shore.
Again and again he asked himself what the catastrophe could portend.
Had the towns of Algiers, Oran, and Mostaganem escaped the inundation?
Could he bring himself to believe that all the inhabitants, his friends,
and comrades had perished; or was it not more probable that the Mediterranean
had merely invaded the region of the mouth of the Shelif? But this
supposition did not in the least explain the other physical disturbances.
Another hypothesis that presented itself to his mind was that the African
coast might have been suddenly transported to the equatorial zone.
But although this might get over the difficulty of the altered altitude
of the sun and the absence of twilight, yet it would neither account
for the sun setting in the east, nor for the length of the day being
reduced to six hours.

"We must wait till to-morrow," he repeated; adding, for he had become
distrustful of the future, "that is to say, if to-morrow ever comes."

Although not very learned in astronomy, Servadac was acquainted
with the position of the principal constellations. It was
therefore a considerable disappointment to him that, in consequence
of the heavy clouds, not a star was visible in the firmament.
To have ascertained that the pole-star had become displaced
would have been an undeniable proof that the earth was revolving
on a new axis; but not a rift appeared in the lowering clouds,
which seemed to threaten torrents of rain.

It happened that the moon was new on that very day; naturally, therefore,