"And who told you that Gallia is not going back to the earth?" asked the professor, with a look of withering scorn.
"Why, isn't her mass diminished? Isn't she split in half? Isn't her velocity all altered?" demanded the captain.
"And pray who told you this?" again said the professor, with a sneer.
"Everybody. Everybody knows it, of course," replied Servadac.
"Everybody is very clever. And you always were a very clever scholar too. We remember that of old, don't we?"
"You nearly mastered the first elements of science, didn't you?"
"Hold your tongue, sir!" bellowed the captain again, as if his anger was uncontrollable.
" Hold your tongue!" repeated Servadac.
