Notwithstanding the absence of any collision with my body, the overpowering attraction of the whole mass of meteors was overcoming my tangential force and bearing me in their direction.

At first I rejoiced at this circumstance, for at any rate the comet would save me from the dreadful fate of becoming an asteroid.

A little further reflection, however, showed me that I had gone from the frying-pan into the fire.

The direction of my expulsion from Menippe had been such that I had fallen into an orbit that would have carried me around the sun without passing very close to the solar body.

Now, being swept along by the comet, whose perihelion probably lay in the immediate neighborhood of the sun, I saw no way of escape from the frightful fate of being broiled alive.