s or with the unaided eye, the great cracks and craters showed
with the utmost clearness, sweeping past them almost as the landscape
flies past a railway train. There was something awe-inspiring in the
vast antiquity of that furrowed lunar surface, by far the oldest thing
that mortal eye can see, since, while observing the ceaseless political
or geological changes on earth, the face of this dead satellite, on
account of the absence of air and water and consequent erosion, has
remained unchanged for bygone ages, as it doubtless will for many more.

They closely watched the Callisto's course. At first it did not seem
to deflect from a straight line, and they stood ready to turn on the
apergetic force again, when the car very slowly began to show the
effect of the moon's near pull; but not till they had so far passed it
that the dark side was towards them were they heading straight for
Jupiter. Then they again turned on full power and got a send-off shove
on the moon and earth combined, which increased their speed so rapidly
that they felt they could soon shut off the current altogether and save
their supply.

"We must be ready to watch the signals from the arctic circle," said
Bearwarden. "At midnight, if the calculations are finished, the result
will be flashed by the searchlight." It was then ten minutes to
twelve, and the earth was already over four hundred thousand miles
away. Focusing their glasses upon the region near the north pole,
which, being turned from the sun, was towards them and in darkness,
they waited.

"In this blaze of sunlight," said Cortlandt, "I am afraid we can see
nothing."

Fortunately, at this moment the Callisto entered the moon's tapering
shadow.

"This," said Ayrault, "is good luck. We could of course have gone into
the shadow; but to change our course would have delayed us, and we
might have lost part of the chance of increasing our speed."

"There will be no danger from, meteors or sub-satellites here," said
Bearwarden, "for anything revolving about the moon at this distance
would be caught by the earth."

The sun had apparently set behind the moon, and they were eclipsed.
The stars shone with the utmost splendour against the dead-black sky,
and the earth appeared as a large crescent, still considerably larger
than the satellite to which they were accustomed. Exactly at midnight
a faint phosphorescent light, like that of a glow-worm, appeared in the
region of Greenland on th