"Just so," said Nicholl.
"Then," replied Michel Ardan, ready to suit the action to the word, "let us put our heads down and our feet in the air, like the clowns in the grand circus."
"No," said Barbicane, "let us stretch ourselves on our sides; we shall resist the shock better that way.Remember that, when the projectile starts, it matters little whether we are in it or before it; it amounts to much the same thing."
"If it is only 'much the same thing,' I may cheer up," said Michel Ardan.