The great works undertaken by the Gun Club had now virtually come to an end；and two months still remained before the day for the discharge of the shot to the moon. To the general impatience these two months appeared as long as years！Hitherto the smallest details of the operation had been daily chronicled by the journals, which the public devoured with eager eyes.

Just at this moment a circumstance, the most unexpected, the most extraordinary and incredible, occurred to rouse afresh their panting spirits, and to throw every mind into a state of the most violent excitement.

One day, the 30th of September, at 3：47 P. M.，a telegram, transmitted by cable from Valentia（Ireland）to Newfoundland and the American Mainland, arrived at the address of President Barbicane.

The president tore open the envelope, read the dispatch, and, despite his remarkable powers of self-control, his lips turned pale and his eyes grew dim, on reading the twenty words of this telegram.

Here is the text of the dispatch, which figures now in the archives of the Gun Club：

FRANCE, PARIS，

30 September，4 A. M.

Barbicane, Tampa Town, Florida, United States.

Substitute for your spherical shell a cylinder-conical projectile. I shall go inside.Shall arrive by steamer Atlanta.MICHEL ARDAN.

大炮俱乐部的那些重大工程可以说已经结束了，但是，离向月球发射炮弹的时间还有两个月。对于全世界翘首以待的人们来说，两个月宛如数年一般漫长！在炮弹发射那一天之前，报纸每天都连篇累牍地刊登关于发射的哪怕是最微小的细节，人们以热情而贪婪的目光研读着报纸。

其实，这是根本不会出现的情况：最出乎意料的、最新奇特别的、最难以置信的、最像是不真实的一件事又重新刺激了焦躁不安的人们的神经，让全世界都为之震惊，兴奋不已。

九月三十日这一天，凌晨三点四十七分，巴比凯恩主席接到了一封通过爱尔兰瓦伦西亚、纽芬兰岛和美洲大陆的海底电缆传来的电报。

巴比凯恩主席立即打开了电报，尽管他自制力很强，但嘴唇仍然发白，视力逐渐模糊不清。其实电报的字数并不多。

这封电报现保存在大炮俱乐部的档案馆里，全文如下：

美国佛罗里达州坦帕城　巴比凯恩收

应用锥形圆柱体炮弹代替圆形炮弹。本人愿置身于炮弹之内随

之飞往月球。我将乘“亚特兰大”号轮船抵美。

米歇尔·阿尔当

于法国巴黎

九月三十日晨四点[45]