For hours they continued to gaze with indescribable interest on the
faintly luminous mass so easily distinguishable among the other heavenly
bodies. Jupiter blazed on their right, Mars flashed his ruddy light on
their left, Saturn with his rings looked like a round white spot on a
black wall; even Venus they could see almost directly under them, easily
recognizing her by her soft, sweetly scintillant light. But no planet or
constellation possessed any attraction for the travellers, as long as
their eyes could trace that shadowy, crescent-edged, diamond-girdled,
meteor-furrowed spheroid, the theatre of their existence, the home of so
many undying desires, the mysterious cradle of their race!
Meantime the Projectile cleaved its way upwards, rapidly, unswervingly,
though with a gradually retarding velocity. As the Earth sensibly grew
darker, and the travellers' eyes grew dimmer, an irresistible somnolency
slowly stole over their weary frames. The extraordinary excitement they
had gone through during the last four or five hours, was naturally
followed by a profound reaction.
"Captain, you're nodding," said Ardan at last, after a longer silence
than usual; "the fact is, Barbican is the only wake man of the party,
because he is puzzling over his problem.
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