Chapter 15 Chapter fifteen

The blunders of Mr. Dean Forsyth and Dr. Sidney Hudson were unmasked by J. B. K. Lovinsey, their first misadventure, and what followed It suffered another ignominious defeat at the International Congress.From then on, they feel that life is no fun.They were forgotten and relegated to the ranks of ordinary, insignificant citizens.They were once intoxicated with glory, and the indifference of the public was simply too much for them to bear. In conversation with the last few faithful, they vehemently denounced the blindness of the masses, and added powerful arguments in defense of their own cause.Even if they are wrong, can they be blamed?Had not their stern critic, J. B. K. Lovinsey himself, been equally mistaken, and declared himself helpless?How else can one conclude that their bolides are special and anomalous?In this case, isn't a fault taken for granted and completely excusable?

"Of course it is!" agreed the last faithful. As for the International Congress, who could think of a more unjust one?Well, let it take every deliberate measure to preserve the financial good order of the world!But how dare to obliterate the rights of meteor discoverers?Had it not been for the discoverer to point it out and thus bring the world to its attention, the bolide would have remained unknown, and no one would have foreseen its fall, even if it should have finally fallen to the earth! "And I am the discoverer!" Mr. Dean Forsyth declared vigorously. "It's me!" declared Dr. Sidney Hudson's side with no less vigor.

"Of course!" The last believers agreed again. No matter how much encouragement this approval gave the two astronomers, it could never replace the enthusiastic applause of the crowd.However, it is impossible in terms of manpower and material resources to carry out batches of propaganda to all passers-by and convince them, so they have to be satisfied with the meager flattery and flattery of sparse and scattered admirers. . Their despondency did not dampen their spirits one bit.The more people want to deny their rights to the Bolide, the more eager they are to claim these rights; the less others take their claims seriously, the more they insist on their identity as the unique Lord of the Bolide .

In such a state of mind, reconciliation is almost impossible.So don't even think about it.On the contrary, two unhappy fiancées seem to be being torn apart more and more by the day. Mr. Forsyth and Dr. Hudson loudly declared that they would condemn to the last breath the plunder of which they felt they had been the victims.Moreover, they have to sue all levels of institutions with judicial power to the end.In this way, there will be a good show to watch!Mr. Forsyth is on the one hand, Dr. Hudson is on the other, and the rest of the world is their opposite.It would be a great lawsuit if a court with jurisdiction could be found! ...

The two old friends who had become bitter enemies stayed in their respective homes for the time being, staying at home, shy of seeing people, and living alone on the round tower terrace or the square tower terrace.From the platform they could watch the shooting star that had driven them mad, and, several times a day, watch it continue its glorious curve across the depths of the sky.They rarely come down from high places.There at least you can hide from your close relatives around you.They feel deeply that they are immersed in pain, and the hostility expressed by those people adds another layer of pain to them.

Francis Gordon's head was full of childhood memories, and he couldn't keep the family on Elizabeth Road from his mind.However, he no longer speaks to his uncle now.Whether it was lunch or dinner, no one said a word.Mitz also stopped talking, stopped opening her relishing chatterbox.The house was silent and desolate, like a monastery. In the Huddleson household, family relations were not necessarily happier.Little Lulu, ignoring her father's pleading looks, gambled and looked ruthless; Jenny, in spite of her mother's advice, wept endlessly; This panacea brings a turn for the ugly and ridiculous situation.

Mrs. Hudson was right, for it was said that the timing would work out as it should.Admittedly, however, it doesn't seem eager to improve the situation for these two unfortunate families this time around.Mr. Dean Forsyth and Dr. Huddleson's blame for their loved ones was not insensitive, but it did not cause the pain they felt elsewhere.Their fixed mind makes them completely indifferent and cold to any other emotion that has nothing to do with Bolide.what!This bolide! ... All the love in their hearts, all their thoughts, all their desires to live in the world belong to it! With what emotion did they read J. B. K. Lovinsey's Daily Chronicle and the Bulletins of the International Congresses!Those people are their common enemy, and they are finally fighting against each other, and they are united to the outside world.

How elated they were, therefore, when they learned of the difficulties of the preparations for the conference; and how elated they were when they learned how slowly and with what twists and turns the International Congress was going to reach a shaky and questionable agreement! In layman's terms, the International Congress in Washington is nothing more than a lottery! From the second session of the International Congress, it seems that it will not be able to complete its tasks smoothly.Despite intensive research within the subcommittee, it became clear from the outset that that rapport would be difficult to achieve.

The first proposal insisted that ownership of the bolide bequeathed to the nation that took over the bolide that fell from the sky, which was tantamount to a lottery.In this lottery, there will only be one jackpot, and it's a big jackpot! The proposal was put forward by Russia and supported by Britain and China.These are huge countries.The proposal sparked what was called a parliamentary "variety of actions".All other countries are vacillating.So I had to experience it temporarily.During the experience period, conspiracies and tricks are indispensable... Finally, in order to postpone an embarrassing vote, Switzerland proposed a motion to postpone the vote and won a majority of votes.

Only when the problem of fair sharing cannot be solved will everyone come back to discuss such a solution. But what is justice and what is injustice in such matters?This is an extremely delicate question.If a clear opinion cannot be reached in this regard through discussion, a lot of meetings of the International Congress will be wasted.Some of the meetings were so chaotic that Mr. Harvey had to put on his hat and leave the chair. Although his method can calm down the noisy conference at present, will it continue to be so effective in the future?People's emotions are so excited, and their speeches are so fierce, it seems that things are hard to say.In fact, the excitement has reached such a point that resorting to force is imminent.And such an act would do great harm to the prestige of the majority of the countries represented at the General Assembly.

However, such a scandal is in line with the logic of things.Nothing could calm the frenzy.On the contrary, it seems to be intensifying by the day, because according to the J. B. K. Lovinsey Daily Chronicle, the probability of a bolide falling should be considered to be increasing by the day. A dozen or so excited bulletins were issued, reporting the jaw-dropping saraband dances of the meteors, and the despair and anguish of the observers.After the publication of these communiqués, the observer seemed to regain his composure.Suddenly, during the night of June 11th to 12th, he found that the shooting star had stopped its wayward wandering, and was pulled by a regular and constant force again.This gravitational force, though unknown, is no longer against the rules.From this moment J. B. K. Lovinsey regained the equanimity proper to a mathematician, and waited to inquire at a later date what had caused this celestial body to appear to have been insane for the past ten days. The world soon learned from him that the meteor had returned to normal.And since that day, the slow disturbance of the meteor has been recorded in his daily chronicle.The orbit of the meteor began to deviate to the north-east-south-west again, and its distance from the earth gradually decreased according to a gradual law that J. B. K. Lovinsey could not determine.So the possibility of falling becomes more and more likely.If you're not quite sure yet, it's getting closer by the day. What an impetus this has been for the International Congress, which hastened the fulfillment of its tasks. The director and scholar of the Boston Observatory made still bolder predictions in his last accounts from July 5 to 14.He unequivocally announced new and important changes in the meteor's course, and predicted the final result, which the public will probably understand in the near future. It was precisely on July 14th that the International Congress came to a complete deadlock.Everything discussed has been rejected one after another, and there is now nothing left to discuss.The representatives looked at each other, dumbfounded.What is the purpose of revisiting a question that has been explored on all sides without any result? The proposal to share Meteor's billions of gold among countries according to their territorial size was rejected from the first few meetings.However, this approach is consistent with the principle of fairness that people are looking for.Because a country with a vast territory needs a larger amount.In addition, since they agree to apportion the share, they have lost the opportunity to monopolize it, and this opportunity is much more than that of small countries, and they should be rewarded.But this approach was inevitably opposed by densely populated countries, and was eventually rejected. Densely populated countries immediately proposed that the distribution be made not in proportion to the number of square kilometers, but in proportion to the number of inhabitants. This approach is also quite fair, because it conforms to the principle of equality of human rights.But it has come under fire from Russia, Brazil, Argentina and several other sparsely populated areas.Chairman Harvey, a convincing believer in the Monroe Doctrine, could only side with the views expressed by the two American republics, and his influence was decisive in the vote.With 20 abstentions and 19 against, the balance was tipped to the negative side. Then some financially constrained nations—it is better not to be named—suggested that the distribution of the gold that fell from the sky would be just and reasonable in such a way that the fortunes of all the inhabitants of the earth should be as even as possible.Immediate objections were raised, saying that the system would encourage idleness and lead to a very complicated distribution method that would not work in practice.Still, several other speakers delivered speeches calling for a more sophisticated approach.They advocated the way of revision and improvement, paying attention to the following three factors: area, population and wealth, and giving each of them a proportion in line with the principle of fairness. fair!It's just talking on the lips, but it's not very reliable in the bottom of my heart.So, unsurprisingly, time was counting on some good, and the solutions to the problem were, as always, dismissed one by one. The last vote was on July 14th.At that time, the representatives looked at each other, dumbfounded, and faced with a void. Estimating that the time had come, Russia and China unearthed the old proposal that had been buried by the motion to postpone the vote from the beginning, and only moderated the content that was too sharp.These two countries proposed that the ownership of the billions of gold in the sky should be awarded to the country with a unique territory, provided that this country paid other countries a large indemnity calculated at the rate of one thousand francs per person. Because everyone is so tired, maybe this compromise solution will be voted on that night if there is no interference from the Republic of Valtanga.M. Lamondo, the representative of Valtandal, delivered an interminable speech which might have continued had the chairman, seeing that all the seats were empty, decided to call the meeting adjourned.Thus, the discussion was postponed until the next day. The Republic of Valtanga would prefer a distribution based solely on numbers.If it thinks that it is right and strategic to block the vote on the Russian proposal, it is very wrong.In any case, the Russian proposal would guarantee it a considerable profit, while it would probably not get even a dime.Mr. Ramondo did not expect to end up in such an unfortunate situation. He should have kept silent, but he let this wonderful opportunity pass away. From the next day, July 15th, a momentous event was about to take place which would discredit the International Congress and ultimately render it useless.As long as the place where the fireball fell is unknown, people can continue to discuss various feasible distribution methods, but once this state of ignorance is over, can they continue to discuss?After the lottery, doesn't anyone force the winners of the big jackpot to share it? In any case, one thing is certain, and that is that such apportionment will never again be conducted in harmony.Blessed nations will never agree to this voluntarily.From now on, Mr. de Schneck, the representative of the State of Greenland, will never be seen coming to the meeting and participating in the work of the Congress, because this country is a lucky lottery winner, J. B. K. Lowen In his daily chronology that morning, Sai had announced that he was the owner of the billions of gold floating in space. "In the past ten days," wrote the director and scholar of the Boston Observatory, "I have spoken many times of sudden and significant changes in the course of meteors. Today I will repeat it with more accuracy. The definite nature of this change is firmly believed, and calculation enables us to determine the consequences of this change. "The change is simply that the force that has been pulling the bolide since July 5th is no longer present. From that day on, the bolide is no longer seen to deviate from its orbit. It is only within the strict limits imposed by the conditions of its activity. Close to the Earth. Today it is about fifty kilometers away from the Earth. "If the force acting on the bolide disappeared a few days earlier, it might leave the earth due to centrifugal force until it regains its original distance from the earth. But in the future, this situation will never happen again The speed of the meteor is reduced due to friction with the denser atmosphere, which is only enough to maintain its current orbit. Therefore, if the reason for the slowing down of the meteor's speed-air resistance is excluded, it will remain the same forever. But This reason has always existed, so it can be considered that the bolide will definitely land. "Furthermore, since air resistance is a well-studied and well-understood phenomenon, the curves of meteor falls can be drawn from today. Except for unexpected complications--nor have the previous complications overturned Our assumptions - from now on, the following can be concluded: "1. The bolide is about to fall. "2. The time of the fall was between 2:00 am and 11:00 am on August 19th. "3. The bolide will fall within ten kilometers around the capital of the Republic of Greenland, Ubernivik." If banker Robert Legere had any chance of knowing J. B. K. Lovinsay's account, he would have been delighted.Sure enough, as soon as the news spread, prices plummeted in all markets, and gold mining stocks in the Old World and New World lost four-fifths of their value.