constantly on the _qui vive_ to avoid being
knocked over by them as they swept around in their orbits.

Finally the signal was given for all to embark, and with great regret
the savants quitted their scientific games, and prepared to return to
the electric ships.

Just on the moment of departure, the fact was announced by one, who had
been making a little calculation on a bit of paper, that the velocity
with which a body must be thrown in order to escape forever the
attraction of the asteroid, and to pass on to an infinite distance in
any direction, was only about forty-two feet in a second.

Manifestly it would be quite easy to impart such a speed as that to the
chunks of gold that we held in our hands.

"Hurrah!" exclaimed one. "Let's send some of this back to the earth."

"Where is the earth?" asked another.

Being appealed to, several astronomers turned their eyes in the
direction of the sun, where the black firmament was ablaze with stars,
and in a moment recognized the earth-star shining there, with the moon
attending close at hand.

"There," said one, "is the earth. Can you throw straight enough to hit
it?"

"We'll try," was the reply, and immediately several threw huge golden
nuggets in the direction of our far-away world, endeavoring to impart to
them at least the required velocity of forty-two feet in a second, which
would insure their passing beyond the attraction of the asteroid, and if
there should be no disturbance on the way, and the aim were accurate,
their eventual arrival upon the earth.

"Here's for you, Old Earth," said one of the throwers, "good luck, and
more gold to you!"

If these precious missiles ever reached the earth we knew that they
would plunge into the atmosphere like meteors and that probably the heat
developed by their passage would melt and dissipate them in golden
vapors before they could touch the ground.

Yet there was a chance that some of them--if the aim were true--might
survive the fiery passage through the atmosphere and fall upon the
surface of our planet where, perhaps, they would afterward be picked up
by a prospector and lead him to believe that he had struck a new
bonanza.

But until we returned to the earth it would be impossible for us to tell
what had become of the golden gifts which we had launched into space for
our mother planet.

CHAPTER NINE

_JOURNEY'S END_

"All aboard!" was the signal, and the squadron having assembled under
the lea