CHAPTER III.
THEY MAKE THEMSELVES AT HOME AND FEEL QUITE COMFORTABLE.
This curious explanation given, and its soundness immediately recognized, the three friends were soon fast wrapped in the arms of Morpheus.

Where in fact could they have found a spot more favorable for undisturbed repose?
On land, where the dwellings, whether in populous city or lonely country, continually experience every shock that thrills the Earth's crust?
At sea, where between waves or winds or paddles or screws or machinery, everything is tremor, quiver or jar?
In the air, where the balloon is incessantly twirling, oscillating, on account of the ever varying strata of different densities, and even occasionally threatening to spill you out?
The Projectile alone, floating grandly through the absolute void, in the midst of the profoundest silence, could offer to its inmates the possibility of enjoying slumber the most complete, repose the most profound.
There is no telling how long our three daring travellers would have continued to enjoy their sleep, if it had not been suddenly terminated by an unexpected noise about seven o'clock in the morning of December 2nd, eight hours after their departure.
This noise was most decidedly of barking.
"The dogs! It's the dogs!" cried Ardan, springing up at a bound.
"They must be hungry!" observed the Captain.
"We have forgotten the poor creatures!" cried Barbican.
"Where can they have gone to ?" asked Ardan, looking for them in all directions.
At last they found one of them hiding under the sofa.

Thunderstruck and perfectly bewildered by the terrible shock, the poor animal had kept close in its hiding place, never daring to utter a sound, until at last the pangs of hunger had proved too strong even for its fright.
They readily recognized the amiable Diana, but they could not allure the shivering, whining animal from her retreat without a good deal of coaxing.

Ardan talked to her in his most honeyed and seductive accents, while trying to pull her out by the neck.
"Come out to your friends, charming Diana," he went on, "come out, my beauty, destined for a lofty niche in the temple of canine glory! Come out, worthy scion of a race deemed worthy by the Egyptians to be a companion of the great god, Anubis, by the Christians, to be a friend of the good Saint Roch! Come out and partake of a glory before which the stars of Montargis and of St.Bernard shall henceforward pale their ineffectual fire! Come out, my lady, and let me think o'er the countless multiplication of thy species, so that, while sailing through the interplanetary spaces, we may indulge in endless flights of fancy on the number and variety of thy descendants who will ere long render the Selenitic atmosphere vocal with canine ululation!" [Illustration: MORE HUNGRY THAN EITHER.] Diana, whether flattered or not, allowed herself to be dragged out, still uttering short, plaintive whines.

A hasty examination satisfying her friends that she was more frightened than hurt and more hungry than either, they continued their search for her companion.
"Satellite! Satellite! Step this way, sir!" cried Ardan.