According to the velocity with which it was endowed at a certain moment, it must follow either the one or the other; but this velocity I do not consider myself just now able to calculate." "Exactly so," chimed in M'Nicholl; "it must describe and keep on describing either a parabola or a hyperbola." "Precisely," said Barbican; "at a certain velocity it would take a parabolic curve; with a velocity considerably greater it should describe a hyperbolic curve." "I always did like nice corpulent words," said Ardan, trying to laugh; "bloated and unwieldy, they express in a neat handy way exactly what you mean.

Of course, I know all about the high--high--those high curves, and those low curves.

No matter.

Explain them to me all the same.

Consider me most deplorably ignorant on the nature of these curves." "Well," said the Captain, a little bumptiously, "a parabola is a curve of the second order, formed by the intersection of a cone by a plane parallel to one of its sides." "You don't say so!" cried Ardan, with mouth agape.