Journey Through the Impossible by Jules Verne & Edward Baxter

Author:Jules Verne & Edward Baxter [Verne, Jules & Baxter, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1591020794
Amazon: B0030T1D40
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2003-04-30T07:00:00+00:00

END OF ACT II

A room at the Gun Club in the United States, specially decorated with panoplies. Columns made up of cannons are supported by mortars. On the walls hang strings of bombs, necklaces of missiles, garlands of shells. On the right, Barbicane,i the club president, is sitting at his desk, on which there is an array of revolvers which he uses as a bell to restore order by firing shots in the air from time to time. Maston2 and other club members occupy the benches downstage. It is daytime. As the curtain rises, the uproar in the assembly is at its peak.

First Group: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Second Group: No! No! No!

Barbicane: My dear colleagues....

First Group: To hell with the motion!

Second Group: And with the people who moved it.

Barbicane: A little silence, if you please!

First Group: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Second Group: No! No! No!

(Barbicane fires a revolver)

An Usher: Silence, gentlemen.

Maston: Let President Barbicane speak. What a president, gentlemen, what a president!

Barbicane: Gentlemen, the question is very simple, and it would have been settled already if you had not been making so much noise.

First Member: But here at the Gun Club, we are all artillerymen.

Maston: And what artillerymen, gentlemen! Artillerymen and Americans!

First Member: That means we are doubly entitled to make a noise.

First Group: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Second Group: No! No! No!

Barbicane: Gentlemen, I do not believe I have gone too far....

First Member: An artilleryman could never go too far.

Maston: No farther than his projectile will carry.

Barbicane: Gentlemen!

First Group: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Second Group: No! No! No!

(Barbicane fires his revolver)

The Usher: Silence, gentlemen!

(Silence is restored.)

Barbicane: Gentlemen, you remember the circumstances under which our original experiment was carried out. A gigantic cannon, a Columbiad,3 was set up on the ground in Florida.4 A projectile was placed in it, in which three travellers took their places: my friend Captain Nicholl.5 .. .

Maston: What a captain, gentlemen, what a captain!

Barbicane: Our friend Ardan, the French interpreter....

Maston: What a Frenchman, gentlemen, what a Frenchman!

Barbicane: And myself, your president.

Maston: What a president!

Barbicane: But because it was not aimed accurately, we did not reach our objective. Our projectile merely circled the Moon, then came back and fell into the Pacific Ocean. Now, the Columbiad is still there. All we have to do is reload it. Should we resume the experiment and send a second projectile toward the Moon-and make sure we reach it this time?

First Group: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Second Group: No! No! No!

Barbicane: I believe I understood you to say yes?

Second Group: No! No! No!

Barbicane: Or maybe it was no.

First Group: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Both Groups Together: No! No! No! Yes! Yes! Yes!

(General uproar: Barbicane fires his revolver

The Usher: Silence, gentlemen!

Maston: For the honor of the club, the experiment must be repeated.

All: Call the question!

Maston (to his neighbor): I forbid you to vote against the motion!

First Member: I forbid you to vote for it.

Maston (angrily): Will you listen to reason?

First Member: How can I listen to reason when you are being so unreasonable?

Maston: Sir!

First Member: Sir!

Barbicane: Gentlemen, order, please! We are not in parliament here, for God's sake!

First Member: Name your weapon.

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