Chapter 8 chapter eight

"It's it, Omicron, it's it!" cried Mr. Dean Forsyth as soon as he put his eye on the eyepiece. "That's it," Omicron announced.He added: "By God, Dr. Hudson won't be on his square tower just now!" "Or even on it, don't find this bolide!" "Our bolide." Omi clone made it clear. "My bolide," Mr. Dean Forsyth corrected. They were both wrong.Dr. Hudson's telescope was now pointing towards the southeast, and the fireball was passing through this part of the sky.It was caught by his telescope as soon as it appeared, and, like the round tower, the men in the square tower kept watching it until it disappeared into the cloud to the south.

Plus, Weston's astronomers weren't the only ones seeing bolides.It was also seen by the Pittsburgh Observatory, which, together with the Boston Observatory, made three consecutive observations. The return of this bolide is a very interesting event - if the meteor itself is indeed worthy of interest.Since it has been seen in the area between the moon and the earth, it must be moving along a closed orbit.This is not the kind of meteor that passes through the uppermost layers of the atmosphere and then disappears, or the kind of asteroid that disappears in the depths of the universe as soon as it is exposed, or the kind of meteor that falls shortly after being exposed.No, it came back, this meteor, it orbits the earth and becomes a second earth satellite.It therefore deserves to be asked, and Mr. Dean Forsyth and Dr. Hudson are to be forgiven for fighting so fiercely over it.

Since the meteor follows a certain law, there is nothing incomputable about its data.Desperate calculations were being made almost everywhere, but nowhere, it goes without saying, was as active as in Weston.But in order to fully solve the problem, it will take a few good observations. Forty-eight hours later, the first point settled by mathematicians who were neither Dean Forsyth nor Huddleson was the orbit of the bolide.This orbit is due north and due south.The deviation of 3° 31' pointed out by Mr. Dean Forsyth in his letter to the Pittsburgh Observatory is a superficial deviation arising from the rotation of the earth.

This bolide is 400 kilometers away from the ground, and its astonishing speed is no less than 69067 meters per second.Therefore, it circles the earth once every hour, forty-one minutes, forty-one ninety-three seconds. It was a delightful discovery, and one that would reassure the inhabitants of the city who feared the fall of the hapless bolide.Even if it falls, it will never fall on their heads. "But does it look like it's going to fall?" asked the Weston Morning Post. "There's no reason to think it's going to bump into an obstacle in the way or stop in motion." That's obvious.

"Of course, some meteors have fallen and are about to fall. Others, usually smaller, wander through space and only fall when they are caught by Earth's gravity as they pass by. " This interpretation is correct and does not appear to apply to the current bolide.It moves so regularly that there is no fear of it falling, just as there is no fear of the moon falling. This point has been confirmed, but there are still several points that need to be clarified, so that everyone can think that they have a complete understanding of this small star that has become the second satellite of the earth anyway.

How big is it?What is the quality?What is the nature? To the first question, the Weston Standard replied as follows: "According to the height and surface size of this meteor, its diameter should be 500 meters, at least this is what the previous observations have allowed to draw. But its nature cannot be determined yet. The reason why it can be seen People see (of course, must have a fairly powerful telescope), because it emits a very strong light, which is probably due to the friction between it and the atmosphere, although the density of the air is very small at that altitude. Now it seems that Is this meteor just a cloud of gas? Or is it on the contrary composed of a solid core surrounded by a luminous coma? In the latter case, what are the size and properties of the core? People know, maybe never know.

"In short, there is nothing extremely unusual about its size or speed. Its only characteristic is that it has a closed orbit. Since when has it orbited our planet like this? Nor can the licensed astronomers tell us, for they would not have been able to tell us without our two countrymen, Mr. Dean Forsyth and Dr. Sidney Hudson, to whom this brilliant discovery is due. It may never be caught in a telescope." There was nothing (as the Weston Standard rightly noted) unusual in all this, save the eloquence of the editor.The academic world, therefore, only intervenes within the usual limits of what interests the venerable paper, and the ignorant are not interested in it.

Only the townspeople of Weston were eager to learn all about the meteor, for its discovery was attributed to two venerable men of the town. Besides, if the newspapers had not fed the gossip by revealing, with increasingly explicit hints, the rivalry between Dean Forsyth and Hudson, they would have ended up as ignorant of the This cosmic event, which the Punch stubbornly called "ludicrous," grew indifferent.Everyone quickly seized the opportunity to argue, and gradually the whole city was divided into two camps. Meanwhile, the day of the wedding draws near.Mrs. Hudson's end, and Frances Gordon and Mitz's, were all living with increasing anxiety.They are always afraid of a quarrel when two opponents meet, like two oppositely charged clouds meeting and releasing a thunderbolt.It is known that Mr. Dean Forsyth was smoldering, while Mr. Hudson was on the verge of burning.

The weather was generally fine, the air was pure, and the view of Weston was excellent.As a result, the two astronomers were able to step up their observations.Observing opportunities abounded, bolides occurred more than fourteen times every twenty-four hours, and thanks to those observatory calculations, the pair now knew exactly where their lenses should be aimed each time the meteor passed. Undoubtedly, the fireball was at different heights on the horizon, and so was the difficulty of observing it.But bolides pass by so many times, so these inconveniences don't matter.Though it never came back to Weston's zenith, and it was a miraculous chance to see it that day the first time, it grazed the zenith so close each day that it was practically equal to a yard. It's over.

In fact, two avid astronomers could now revel in the spectacle of a meteor streaking across the sky in a brilliant halo. They devoured it with their eyes, caressed it with their eyes, each called it by a different name: the Forsyth bolide, the Huddleson bolide.This is their child, their own flesh and blood.It belongs to them as a child belongs to its parents, and even as everything belongs to the Creator.Seeing it always thrilled them.Huddleson sent to the Cincinnati Observatory and Forsyth to the Pittsburgh Observatory their records of observations, their hypotheses from its motion and surface shape, and they never forgot to claim the right to first discovery.

This somewhat peaceful struggle soon became insufficient for their enmity.It wasn't enough for them to break off diplomatic relations and to stop their personal contacts, they had to do it openly, they had to declare war officially. One day a slightly offensive account appeared in the Weston Standard, which was said to have been written by Mr. Dean Forsyth.The Chronicle says: Some people have such good eyes when they look through other people's telescopes that they see too easily what other people have seen. In reply to this account, the next day's Weston Evening Post said: "As regards the telescopes, some of them were probably not wiped clean, and the lenses were full of speckles, which it would be incompetent to call meteors." At the same time, Punch published a cartoon of the two adversaries.In the comics they have huge wings and scramble to chase their shooting star, which is drawn as the head of a zebra sticking out its tongue at them. But while the feud between the two rivals has grown since those articles and irritating hints were published, they have not yet had the opportunity to intervene in the marriage.Although they avoided mentioning it, they let it go, and there was nothing to suggest that Frances Gordon and Jenny Hudson would not tie their lives with golden bonds on the appointed day. As in an old Breton song. In the last few days of April, nothing happened.However, if the situation is not getting worse, it is not improving.At the Huddleson's the meteor was not mentioned at dinner, and Lulu, obliged by her mother to keep silent, was terribly angry at not being able to vent her anger at him.Just by the way she sliced ​​the ribs, you could tell she was thinking about the shooting star, and wanted to slice it so thin that it couldn't even be seen.As for Jenny, she did not try to hide her distress, which the Doctor did not want to find out.Maybe he really didn't notice, because he was engrossed in his literary business. Of course, Francis Gordon wasn't at dinner at all.He allowed himself only to make his daily visits after Dr. Hudson returned to the square tower. At the house on Elizabeth Road the atmosphere at dinner was no more lively.Mr. Dean Forsyth didn't talk much, and when he spoke to Mitz, the latter gave a "yes" or "no," as dryly as the weather. Only once, on April 28, when he left the table after lunch, did he say to his nephew: "Do you still go to the Hudson's all the time?" "Of course, uncle," replied Francis firmly. "Why doesn't he go to the Hudson's?" Mitz asked, already sullen. "I didn't talk to you, Mitz!" muttered Mr. Forsyth. "But I've answered you, sir. Even a dog can 'talk' to a bishop!" Mr. Forsyth shrugged and turned to Francis. "I answered you too, uncle. Yes, I go every day," said Francis. "After what the Doctor has done to me!" cried Mr. Dean Forsyth. "What did he do to you?" "How dare he find out..." "Discovering what you will discover yourself, and what everyone has a right to discover... After all, what is it for? For one of the thousands of shooting stars that can be seen in Weston." "You're wasting time, my boy," Mitz sneered. "Didn't you see your uncle 'stunned' by his own stone? No more stone than the cornerstone of our house. worthy of attention." Thus Mitz spoke in her own language, and Mr. Dean Forsyth, exasperated by the answer, declared with fury: "Well, Francis, I forbid you to set foot in the doctor's door again." "I regret not being able to obey your orders, my uncle," declared Francis Gordon.This excessive request made him so upset, but he tried to keep calm and said, "I'm still going." "Yes, he's going," cried old Mitz, "even if you chop us all up!" Mr. Forsyth ignores this risky assertion. "So you still stick to your plan?" he asked his nephew. "Yes, uncle," replied the latter. "You still want to marry the thief's daughter?" "Yes, nothing in the world can stop me." "Let's wait and see." With this first expression of his objection to the marriage, Mr. Dean Forsyth left the hall, went up the round tower stairs, and shut the door behind him. There was no question that Francis Gordon was determined to go to the Hudson's as usual.But what if the Doctor followed Mr. Dean Forsyth's example and refused to let him in?Shouldn't there be some misgivings about these two sworn enemies, blindly at the mercy of their mutual jealousy and a certain inventor's enmity, the worst of all enmities? How difficult it was for Frances Gordon to hide his grief that day in the presence of Mrs. Huddleson and her two daughters!He would not say anything about the quarrel he had just endured.Now that he has made up his mind not to obey his uncle's orders, why bother to make the family more anxious? Indeed, for a reasonable person, how could he have thought that the union of two fiancées could be hindered or delayed by a bolide?Assuming Mr. Dean Forsyth and Dr. Hudson would not meet in the ceremony at all, they might as well be absent.Their presence is not necessarily indispensable after all.The most important thing is that they will not go back on their decision... At least the doctor will not disagree, because Francis Gordon is only his uncle's nephew, and Jenny is her father's good daughter, she will never disobey married at his will.If these two lunatics had consented and wanted to devour each other, the venerable Bishop Augart would not have prevented the wedding at St. Andrew's. A few days passed without any new developments, which seemed to justify these optimistic reasonings.The weather was always so good, and the sky in Weston had never been so clear.Except for some mist in the morning and evening, which dissipate after sunrise or sunset, there is no wisp of cloud or mist that destroys the purity of the atmosphere, and the bolide moves normally in such an atmosphere. Does it need to be repeated that Mr. Forsyth and Mr. Hudson go on devouring it with their eyes, their arms outstretched as if to catch it, their whole lungs breathing it?Surely the shooting star would have been better off hiding behind thick clouds to escape their gaze, for the sight of it would only make them more frenzied.That's why Mitz shakes his fist at the sky every night before he goes to bed.This threat is useless.The shooting star still kept drawing a bright arc across the starry sky. Gradually aggravating the situation was the increasingly obvious public intervention in this private discord.The papers, some subtly, some violently, sided with Dean Forsyth or Hudson, respectively.No one stood by.Although logically there is no question of who comes first, but no one is willing to give up their views.This quarrel developed from the round tower and the square tower to the editing room, and it was foreseeable that things would be greatly complicated.It has been announced that a general meeting will be called to discuss the matter.For the tempers of American citizens are very violent, and it can be imagined how intemperate it would be. Mrs. Huddleson and Jenny were terribly anxious at the sight of the frenzy, Lulu tried to comfort her mother, and Frances his fiancée, but to no avail.The fact that the heads of the two adversaries were getting hotter and hotter under the influence of these repulsive incitements was something one could not hide from oneself.The words of Mr. Dean Forsyth, true or false, were passed on; the words of Mr. Hudson, true or not, were passed on.Day by day, hour by hour, the situation became more and more dangerous. In this situation, a bolt from the blue happened, which can be said to have shaken the whole world. Could it be that the bolide exploded, and the sky reflected the echo of the explosion? No, it was only a most curious piece of news, carried at the speed of electricity by telegraph and telephone, through all the republics and kingdoms of the Old and New Worlds. The message did not come from Mr. Hudson's square tower or Mr. Dean Forsyth's round tower, nor from the observatories of Pittsburgh, Boston, or Cincinnati.This time, it was the Paris Observatory that sent a chronicle to the press on May 2, which shocked the entire civilized world. The content of the chronicle is as follows: "Two venerable citizens of Weston, Virginia, to the Cincinnati Observatory that the meteor arc across the sky. And the Pittsburgh Observatory reported that the hitherto normal bolide orbiting the Earth is now being carried out by It is studied day and night by an eminent group of astronomers in various observatories of the world, a level of astronomers rivaled only by their admirable devotion to the science. "If, in spite of such careful study, some questions remained to be resolved, the Paris Observatory solved at least one of them, determining the nature of the meteor. "Spectral analysis has been carried out on the light emitted by meteors, and according to the distribution of spectral lines, we can know exactly what kind of substance the luminous body is. "The light from its core wrapped in a luminous coma, which we observe, is not gaseous at all, but solid. It is not naturally iron like many meteorites, nor is it wandering The celestial bodies are composed of compounds. "This bolide is gold, pure gold. If it is not possible to point out its real value, it is because we have not yet been able to accurately measure the volume of its core." Such was the Chronicle which was revealed to the whole world.What effect that account produced is easier to imagine than to describe.A planet of gold, a massive block of precious metals worth billions orbiting the Earth!Such a sensational event will arouse so many people's dreams!How many people in the world will salivate, especially in the city of Weston, which bears the honor of this discovery, and more especially in the presence of her two immortals named Dean Forsyth and Sidney Hurt. The hearts of the citizens of Delson!