At a distance, it looked like a dusky moon, but the side turned towards the Earth blazed with a bright light, which every moment became more intense.

It came towards them with prodigious velocity and, what was worse, its path lay so directly in the course of the Projectile that a collision seemed inevitable.

As it moved onward, from west to east, they could easily see that it rotated on its axis, like all heavenly bodies; in fact, it somewhat resembled a Moon on a small scale, describing its regular orbit around the Earth.
"_Mille tonerres!_" cried Ardan, greatly excited; "what is that?
Can it be another projectile ?" M'Nicholl, wiping his spectacles, looked again, but made no reply.

Barbican looked puzzled and uneasy.

A collision was quite possible, and the results, even if not frightful in the highest degree, must be extremely deplorable.