CHAPTER XIX.
A MEETING.
The next day the sun did not rise early enough to satisfy public impatience.

Barbicane, fearing that indiscreet questions would be put to Michel Ardan, would like to have reduced his auditors to a small number of adepts, to his colleagues for instance.

But it was as easy as to dam up the Falls at Niagara.

He was, therefore, obliged to renounce his project, and let his friend run all the risks of a public lecture.

The new Town Hall of Tampa Town, notwithstanding its colossal dimensions, was considered insufficient for the occasion, which had assumed the proportions of a public meeting.
The place chosen was a vast plain, situated outside the town.