“Take 20,000,000 septillions of kiks and multiply by 1,000,000 sextillions; multiply this product by 1,000,000 of quintillions and this by 1,000,000 quadrillions; this by 1,000,000 millions; and finally multiply[256] this by 1,000,000. Now from this inconceivably great sum subtract one kik. That kik is the principal; all the rest is interest. As the whole principal was 1,000,000 kiks, our whole debt is 1,000,000 times the above sum.[5] I have for several days been endeavoring to master the financial principle applicable to this case. Our Lunarian professors have told us that the normal advance of natural modes of motion is by undulation, or the progressive rising and falling of one wave after another, as in the ocean, the movement of heat and light, the ebbing7 and flowing of the tides etc. I have observed that the same law holds in the accumulation of wealth. It undulates. It is lively awhile, then dull. Business men accumulate a pile, then lose it. It is the same with money engaged in business, it sometimes gains, sometimes loses. A man may drink twenty hogsheads of wine, but he cannot accumulate that much inside of him at once.
“It may be possible for one little kik in the course of 7,000 years to earn on Mars all the wealth both real and personal that there is on all the planets in the solar system and much more besides. At any rate it has done it on paper according to the figures and the claim of our Lunarian friends, but evidently it could only be done by its dropping a lot of it occasionally and earning it over again. So the undulatory movement applies here as a physical necessity. But the papers[257] in this case so far, represent only the swelling9 of the wave without the complementary sinking that completes an undulation, and makes its continued movement a physical possibility. These papers relate only to the ascending10 or crescendo11 half of the wave, but fail to provide for the diminuendo side of it. This wave has been swelling for 7,000 years. It is high time it had reached its culmination12 or greatest amplitude13 and I think it has. Seven is a mystic number and in this case evidently marks that epoch14. Time alone was competent to enable a little kik to pile up such an accumulation of debt against us, and what time has done, time can undo15.
“I propose now to issue a diminuendo bond that will in the course of 7,000 years reduce this debt back to the level it started from. Instead of bearing interest, this bond will bear discount. This discount the first year will be precisely16 what the interest was the last, and each year in the descending17 future the bond will be reduced to the same amount to which it was increased in the year as far in the past as it is in the future counting from the date of the bond. So that 1,000 years hence the amount of it will be the same that it was 1,000 years ago and so on. Coupons18 shall be attached, representing the amount of the discount each year which the holders19 of the bonds shall detach and present to the treasurer20 to be cancelled. Thus the debt will be reduced every year and it will cost nobody a kik.
“At the end of 7,000 years all the accumulation of interest will have been dissipated and only the[258] principal will be left. This if not paid then will begin to draw interest again, because by the undulatory theory, the wave having reached its lowest ebb8 must thereafter rise.”
“This was the substance of the king’s speech, and it was highly applauded by the whole assembly, except the Lunarians. They said it looked to them like repudiation21, and they told the king they feared it would hurt his credit not only in the Moon, but on the Earth, and Venus, Juno, Pallas, Ceres, Vesta and all the rest. The King replied that he would be sorry to do anything that would impair22 his credit in the other planets and for that reason would not on any account repudiate23. That was why he gave this bond. If he intended to repudiate he would not need to give any bond. By this arrangement they would get their million kiks in the course of time—would no doubt have got them long ago—if that load of interest had not been piled on top of them. The object of this bond was to remove this interest. According to the undulatory theory of finance that he had just announced, the total amount of loss of money employed in business exactly equals the total amount of gain, since money does not change in amount by being used. But in particular cases there may be net gains at the expense of loss somewhere else. And he said that the shrewdness of the Lunarians would have insured to them a measure of net gain; but by no possibility could it have amounted to many times itself even in the course of ages. “It is labor24, not money, that creates wealth. If you bury 100 kiks[259] in the ground and after a year dig them up you will not find that they have increased to 105.”
“This talk of the king convinced the Lunarians that he did not intend to pay the interest on their claim and as they could not afford to quarrel with him, they proposed a compromise, and it was finally settled that they should receive 1,000,000 kiks in addition to the property they had taken on the foreclosure, and a bond for ten million kiks to be paid at the option of the government without interest or security. They did not regard this bond as very valuable, and as a matter of fact it has not been paid off to this day, but still constitutes a “claim.” After all, however, they did well enough notwithstanding their astounding26 loss.
“They were now recognized as men who through no fault of their own had sunk the most stupendous sum of money ever known to exist in one fund, and this circumstance gave them as much notoriety and almost as much influence and importance, as if they still had to their credit the sum of 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kiks.”
Deimos and the Great Cable.
These financial questions being settled the Lunarians went to work to improve their new property.[260] They commenced work on the south polar region, opening extensive mines of coal and iron and starting furnaces and rolling mills. It soon became known what they were up to, which proved to be nothing less than the capture of Jack27-Deimos and setting him to work. The first thing to do was to construct a cable long enough to reach from the pole of Mars to Deimos. Deimos is 14,547 miles from the center of Mars and a little further from the pole viz 14,690 miles. The cable was made about 25 miles longer than that. It was composed of a vast number of strands29 of tremendously tough steel wire and put together in the most marvelous way, for they were in small bundles insulated from each other as to the attraction of gravitation and also insulated by sections of their length. By this construction a part of the strands might be made to be subject to the attraction of gravitation, others alongside of them to repulsion, also a strand28 might be made subject to attraction in one part while in another it could be subject to repulsion, and these conditions could be reversed, or all the parts could be caused to be in the same state. The effect of this was very remarkable30. When the cable was completed it was stretched out a section of one to two hundred miles at a time, and tested, an alternating electrical battery being used to alter the gravitational conditions. By proper manipulation, the cable could be made to rise bodily from the ground, or it could be made to rise by sections, one section on the ground and another humped up like the back of an angry cat, or when lying down straight it[261] could be made to roll over, by causing one side to be attractive and the other repelling31.
“This cable was eight inches in diameter. The lower end was doubled on itself to form an eye five feet in diameter. The other end for 25 miles was left free, the wires all being separate and loose with balls of iron attached to their ends. When this end of the cable was tested, a considerable section, by being subjected to repulsion, rose from the ground and assumed a perpendicular32 position, the loose ends of the wire parting and repelling each other like the hairs on the head of an electrified33 person. This was what was required and the test was pronounced a perfect success.
“Over the south pole of Mars is a mountain some 8,000 feet above the sea level. They found the exact pole not far from the highest part of this mountain which was a lucky circumstance. Here they planted a great steel shaft34 deep in the hard rock, its end sticking up so as to receive the eye of the cable. A good deal of grading and leveling off of obstructions35 that stood up above the proposed sweep of the cable, had to be removed. But the largest part of the work was the construction of the circular railway. This railway was built in a circle around the pole and 285 miles distant from it. The diameter of this circle was 570 and the length of the road was 1,791 miles. There were two purposes to be served by this road. A person standing25 at the pole of Mars cannot see Deimos on account of the bulge36 or convex surface of the globe. And it is only when he gets 285 miles from the pole that he can look over the bulge[262] and see the little moon. So a rope drawn37 taut38 from Deimos to the pole of the planet, would drag on the ground for the 285 miles next the pole, but outside of the 285 miles the line would gradually leave the ground. A large heavy car was made to travel on the railroad to hold up the cable as it swept around. Attached to this car there was to be a train holding the dynamos in which the power was to be turned into electricity.
“When everything was ready to hook on to the little moon, the cable was caused to erect39 itself by repulsion. It tended to stand directly out in line with the pole as if it were a continuation of the axis40, and care had to be taken to prevent it slipping off its shaft and going off bodily into space. This had been anticipated and provided against however. After standing a few hours under the influence of repulsion it became rigid41 and perfectly42 straight. One-half of the strands throughout the whole length of the cable except the last twenty miles were now placed under the influence of attraction and the other half under repulsion. This left it still rigid, but indifferent and movable in any direction by a very small force like a water soaked log in the water. Attraction was now turned on a very small portion of the lower end of the cable and it began slowly to incline toward the ground. When it got down almost to the ground it was found that the ground where the railroad was built was running under the cable from west to east at the rate of 72? miles an hour. Some very delicate manipulation was required here. The cable by having been erected43 at the[263] pole had no rotary44 motion as the planet had. The planet revolved45 from west to east at the rate of 521.4 miles an hour at the equator, but, at the circular railroad this was reduced to 72.6 miles. At the pole of course it was nothing. As the railroad track and the car for carrying the cable were whirling along at that rate while the cable itself was stationary46, it became necessary to give the cable a rotary sweep corresponding in direction with the diurnal47 revolution of the planet, and at somewhere near the same speed. This was accomplished48 by compelling work to be done by the revolution of the planet. Several little circular tracks were laid around the pole and close to it on which were placed cars carrying heavy steel beams that projected on either side and dragged cutting and scraping tools. The cars being attached to the cable, as the planet revolved they were made to pare down the mountain, and as this process continued long after the successful attachment49 of the cable to Deimos the part of the mountain immediately at the pole became shaped like an immense pin or capstan. The doing of this work by this steady pulling on the cable gradually set the cable to revolving50 around the shaft at the pole, the speed constantly increasing until at the railway the cable had developed a speed of 60 miles an hour or within 12.6 miles an hour of the rate the surface of the planet at the railway was traveling. A locomotive was now attached to the car or truck that was to carry the cable, and by running it from east to west at the rate of[264] 12.6 miles an hour it could be kept directly under the cable. Before lowering it, however, it was necessary to hump or raise up that part of it extending from the pole to the railway, to keep it from dragging on the ground which if straight it would do on account of the rounding of the globe of Mars. That was done by turning on repulsion over that part of it, and simultaneously51 putting on attraction in the region of the railway. This tended to cant6 the loose end of the cable toward the plane of the planet’s equator and brought it very near to the orbit of Deimos. The cable was settled upon its truck without trouble. This truck with the cable now had an apparent motion from east to west of 12.6 miles an hour its real motion being from west to east 60 miles an hour and that of the railway track also from west to east 72.6 miles an hour. The loose end of the cable swept around with a speed proportional with its distance from the pole of Mars. This speed was 3,062? miles per hour which is 46 miles faster than that of Deimos which is 3,016? as I mentioned before. Of course it was now only necessary to tip the cable over a little more so as to get it into the equatorial plane of Mars in order to bring it into contact with Deimos. This was done by applying attraction to a short section of the cable just outside of the railway track. The cable slowly moved at the switch end and came into line with Deimos about 43 days after having passed him. So as it gained on him only 46 miles an hour, it took about 40 days after this to catch up. This gave ample time to get the cable into exact position so there would be[265] no danger of missing him. This most exciting race was now closely watched by every body on Mars that could get near a telescope—and our folks had introduced some very excellent ones. The cable gradually crept up on Jack—so the spectators said—like an old woman with a broom. As the final moment approached the excitement became intense. The cable like a vast arm terminated by an immense hand with extended fingers came up threateningly behind and at the fated instant gave Jack a spank52 on the rear with a shock of 46 miles an hour which sent all the fingers flying around him and clasping him with a tremendous grasp.
“At that moment full attraction was turned on to these clasping strands of wire and their hug was made permanent by the attraction with which Deimos held them down to his surface. This was considered by the Lunarians the greatest feat53 in engineering that had ever been accomplished up to that time.”
“Or since that time either I should imagine,” said I, “it was wonderful! What else has ever been achieved to compare with it?”
“O, I forgot about Lucy-Phobos. What did they do with her or him?—Did they hitch55 Phobos to the other pole of Mars?”
“No, I’ll tell you; but let me finish with Deimos first. When the cable struck Deimos of course its speed was at once checked. The shock caused quite a wave to pass down the whole length of the cable, but no damage was done, and when things[266] got steadied down again it was found the truck that carried the cable was making a speed of 13? miles an hour from east to west instead of 12.6 which it was doing before the cable struck Deimos. The reason of this was that Deimos was slower than the cable and Mars dragged the track out from under the car 13? miles faster than Deimos dragged it forward. It was no trouble after this to go up to Deimos by way of the cable. A car was built around the cable consisting of four stories, one above another. Friction56 rollers pressed the cable on all sides to steady the car and there were brakes to hold it when necessary. Its chambers57 were air tight and it carried compressed air for the use of its passengers together with all the modern conveniences. Of course it ascended58 by repulsion and came back by attraction. It entirely59 obviated60 the trouble they first experienced in making a landing on the little moon, since the cable traveled as fast as it did. Frequent trips were made to Deimos and it was always quite the trip for the strong nerved traveler to take. But the main advantage of this work of course came from the enormous power that it afforded for industrial purposes. A long train of trucks were attached to the one carrying the cable, and these contained dynamos driven by gearing connections with their axles. The electricity generated in this way was carried to wires running parallel with the circular railroad, and from these, radiating wires running north, convey the power to all parts of the south temperate61 zone.”
“They made considerable and remarkable changes[267] in Deimos itself. One thing they did was to import a large stock of air. As I mentioned before the air was very light and thin, and visitors at first had to depend on their flasks62 of compressed air to a great extent. But after they got to making such frequent trips, it became a rule to always take up large flasks of compressed oxygen which was prepared and kept on hand to be carried up whenever a trip should be made. This was set free on the little moon. In that way in the course of time the air has been made quite passable. In order that visitors might not consume it and replace it with carbonic acid gas, they built several lines of tiny railroads reaching around Deimos on which they built movable gardens. These moved around the whole circuit of the little globe every 30 hours and 18 minutes, that being its period of revolution around Mars. These little gardens thus kept themselves directly under the sun all the time, and were thus always in a tropical climate. Their growth consumed the carbonic gas that accumulated there, and so kept the air pure. The power that moved the gardens was electricity generated by sun light. A large number of machines were placed at intervals63 all around the little moon so that the sun should always be shining on several of them.”
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1
compute
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| v./n.计算，估计 | |
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appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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annexing
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| 并吞( annex的现在分词 )； 兼并； 强占； 并吞（国家、地区等） | |
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ciphers
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| n.密码( cipher的名词复数 )；零；不重要的人；无价值的东西 | |
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insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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cant
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| n.斜穿，黑话，猛扔 | |
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ebbing
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的现在分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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9
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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crescendo
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| n.(音乐)渐强，高潮 | |
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12
culmination
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| n.顶点；最高潮 | |
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13
amplitude
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| n.广大；充足；振幅 | |
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epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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15
undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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coupons
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| n.礼券( coupon的名词复数 )；优惠券；订货单；参赛表 | |
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holders
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| 支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物 | |
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treasurer
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| n.司库，财务主管 | |
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repudiation
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| n.拒绝；否认；断绝关系；抛弃 | |
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impair
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| v.损害，损伤；削弱，减少 | |
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repudiate
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| v.拒绝，拒付，拒绝履行 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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strands
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| n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 ) | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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repelling
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| v.击退( repel的现在分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开 | |
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perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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electrified
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| v.使电气化( electrify的过去式和过去分词 )；使兴奋 | |
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shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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obstructions
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| n.障碍物( obstruction的名词复数 )；阻碍物；阻碍；阻挠 | |
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bulge
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| n.突出，膨胀，激增；vt.突出，膨胀 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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axis
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| n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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43
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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44
rotary
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| adj.(运动等)旋转的；轮转的；转动的 | |
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45
revolved
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| v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想 | |
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46
stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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47
diurnal
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| adj.白天的，每日的 | |
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48
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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49
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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50
revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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51
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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52
spank
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| v.打，拍打(在屁股上) | |
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53
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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54
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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55
hitch
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| v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉 | |
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56
friction
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| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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57
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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58
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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obviated
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| v.避免，消除（贫困、不方便等）( obviate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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temperate
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| adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的 | |
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62
flasks
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| n.瓶，长颈瓶， 烧瓶( flask的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
参考例句： |
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