"Is it one of those particles of meteoric matter you were speaking of just now, caught within the sphere of our Projectile's attraction and accompanying us to the Moon ?" "What I am surprised at," observed the Captain, "is that though the specific gravity of that body is far inferior to that of our Projectile, it moves with exactly the same velocity." "Captain," said Barbican, after a moment's reflection, "I know no more what that object is than you do, but I can understand very well why it keeps abreast with the Projectile." "Very well then, why ?" "Because, my dear Captain, we are moving through a vacuum, and because all bodies fall or move--the same thing--with equal velocity through a vacuum, no matter what may be their shape or their specific gravity.

It is the air alone that makes a difference of weight.

Produce an artificial vacuum in a glass tube and you will see that all objects whatever falling through, whether bits of feather or grains of shot, move with precisely the same rapidity.

Up here, in space, like cause and like effect." "Correct," assented M'Nicholl.

"Everything therefore that we shall throw out of the Projectile is bound to accompany us to the Moon." "Well, we _were_ smart!" cried Ardan suddenly.
"How so, friend Michael ?" asked Barbican.
"Why not have packed the Projectile with ever so many useful objects, books, instruments, tools, et cetera, and fling them out into space once we were fairly started! They would have all followed us safely! Nothing would have been lost! And--now I think on it--why not fling ourselves out through the window?
Shouldn't we be as safe out there as that bolide?
What fun it would be to feel ourselves sustained and upborne in the ether, more highly favored even than the birds, who must keep on flapping their wings continually to prevent themselves from falling!" "Very true, my dear boy," observed Barbican; "but how could we breathe ?" "It's a fact," exclaimed the Frenchman.