But they said very little; even Ardan was silent, and continued to look out of the window.

Barbican surrendered himself up to a reverie regarding the mysterious destinies of the lunar world.

Was its present condition a foreshadowing of what our Earth is to become?
M'Nicholl, too, was lost in speculation.

Was the Moon older or younger than the Earth in the order of Creation?
Had she ever been a beautiful world of life, and color, and magnificent variety?
If so, had her inhabitants-- Great Mercy, what a cry from Ardan! It sounded human, so seldom do we hear a shriek so expressive at once of surprise and horror and even terror! It brought back his startled companions to their senses in a second.

Nor did they ask him for the cause of his alarm.