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have
waited, and not seeing me, would have come on towards the gourbi. I can
only conclude that they have been unable to get here; and as for Count
Timascheff—"
    Without finishing his sentence. Captain Servadac, thinking it just
probable that the count, as on the previous evening, might come by
water, walked to the ridge of rock that overhung the shore, in order
to ascertain if the
Dobryna
were anywhere in sight. But the sea was
deserted, and for the first time the captain noticed that, although
the wind was calm, the waters were unusually agitated, and seethed and
foamed as though they were boiling. It was very certain that the yacht
would have found a difficulty in holding her own in such a swell.
Another thing that now struck Servadac was the extraordinary contraction
of the horizon. Under ordinary circumstances, his elevated position
would have allowed him a radius of vision at least five and twenty miles
in length; but the terrestrial sphere seemed, in the course of the last
few hours, to have become considerably reduced in volume, and he could
now see for a distance of only six miles in every direction.
    Meantime, with the agility of a monkey, Ben Zoof had clambered to the
top of a eucalyptus, and from his lofty perch was surveying the
country to the south, as well as towards both Tenes and Mostaganem. On
descending, be informed the captain that the plain was deserted.
    "We will make our way to the river, and get over into Mostaganem," said
the captain.
    The Shelif was not more than a mile and a half from the meadow, but
no time was to be lost if the two men were to reach the town before
nightfall. Though still hidden by heavy clouds, the sun was evidently
declining fast; and what was equally inexplicable, it was not following
the oblique curve that in these latitudes and at this time of year might
be expected, but was sinking perpendicularly on to the horizon.
    As he went along, Captain Servadac pondered deeply. Perchance some
unheard-of phenomenon had modified the rotary motion of the globe; or
perhaps the Algerian coast had been transported beyond the equator
into the southern hemisphere. Yet the earth, with the exception of the
alteration in its convexity, in this part of Africa at least, seemed to
have undergone no change of any very great importance. As far as the eye
could reach, the shore was, as it had ever been, a succession of
cliffs, beach, and arid rocks, tinged with a red ferruginous hue. To
the south—if south, in this inverted order of things, it might still
be called—the face of the country also appeared unaltered, and some
leagues away, the peaks of the Merdeyah mountains still retained their
accustomed outline.
    Presently a rift in the clouds gave passage to an oblique ray of light
that clearly proved that the sun was setting in the east.
    "Well, I am curious to know what they think of all this at Mostaganem,"
said the captain. "I wonder, too, what the Minister of War will say when
he receives a telegram informing him that his African colony has become,
not morally, but physically disorganized; that the cardinal points
are at variance with ordinary rules, and that the sun in the month of
January is shining down vertically upon our heads."
    Ben Zoof, whose ideas of discipline were extremely rigid, at once
suggested that the colony should be put under the surveillance of the
police, that the cardinal points should be placed under restraint, and
that the sun should be shot for breach of discipline.
    Meantime, they were both advancing with the utmost speed. The
decompression of the atmosphere made the specific gravity of their
bodies extraordinarily light, and they ran like hares and leaped like
chamois. Leaving the devious windings of the footpath, they went as
a crow would fly across the country. Hedges, trees, and streams were
cleared at a bound, and under these conditions Ben Zoof felt that he
could have overstepped Montmartre at a single stride. The earth seemed
as elastic as the springboard of