midnight
`` They have arrived , sir , '' exclaimed a young midshipman , `` and they are doing what all travellers do in a new country , they are looking about them . '' `` I am certain of it as you say so , my young friend , '' answered Lieutenant Bronsfield , smiling . `` Still , '' said another officer , `` their arrival can not be doubted . The projectile must have reached the moon at the moment she was full , at midnight on the 5th . We are now at the 11th of December ; that makes six days . Now in six times twenty-four hours , with no darkness , they have had time to get comfortably settled . It seems to me that I see our brave countrymen encamped at the bottom of a valley , on the borders of a Selenite stream , near the projectile , half buried by its fall , amidst volcanic remains , Captain Nicholl beginning his levelling operations , President Barbicane putting his travelling notes in order , Michel Ardan performing the lunar solitudes with his Londrès cigar -- '' `` Oh , it must be so ; it is so ! ''