"Do tell!" "It is pretty nearly the path taken by a shell shot from a mortar." "Well now!" observed Ardan, apparently much surprised; "who'd have thought it?
Now for the high--high--bully old curve!" "The hyperbola," continued the Captain, not minding Ardan's antics, "the hyperbola is a curve of the second order, formed from the intersection of a cone by a plane parallel to its axis, or rather parallel to its two _generatrices_, constituting two separate branches, extending indefinitely in both directions." "Oh, what an accomplished scientist I'm going to turn out, if only left long enough at your feet, illustrious _maestro_!" cried Ardan, with effusion.

"Only figure it to yourselves, boys; before the Captain's lucid explanations, I fully expected to hear something about the high curves and the low curves in the back of an Ancient Thomas! Oh, Michael, Michael, why didn't you know the Captain earlier ?" But the Captain was now too deeply interested in a hot discussion with Barbican to notice that the Frenchman was only funning him.

Which of the two curves had been the one most probably taken by the Projectile?
Barbican maintained it was the parabolic; M'Nicholl insisted that it was the hyperbolic.

Their tempers were not improved by the severe cold, and both became rather excited in the dispute.

They drew so many lines on the table, and crossed them so often with others, that nothing was left at last but a great blot.