; yet we find the base of this material
projectile uncomfortably warm, though, should we expose a thermometer
in the shade in front, we know it would show a temperature of three
hundred to four hundred degrees below zero--were the instrument capable
of recording it."

Artificial darkness having been obtained, the travellers were soon
asleep, Bearwarden's dreams being regaled with thoughts of his
company's triumph; Ayrault's, naturally, with visions of Sylvia; while
Cortlandt frequently started up, thinking he had already made some
great astronomical discovery.

About 9 A. M., according to seventy-fifth meridian time, the explorers
awoke feeling greatly refreshed. The tank in which the liquefied
oxygen was kept automatically gave off its gas so evenly that the air
remained normal, while the lime contained in cups absorbed the carbon
dioxide as fast as they exhaled it. They had darkened those windows
through which the sun was actually pouring, for, on account of the
emptiness of the surrounding ether and consequent absence of diffusion
of light, nothing but the inky blackness of space and the bright stars
looked in at the rest. On raising the shades they got an idea of their
speed. A small crescent, smaller than the familiar moon, accompanied
by one still tinier, was all that could be seen of the earth and its
satellite.

"We must," said Bearwarden, "be moving at the rate of nearly a million
miles an hour, from the way we have travelled."

"We must be doing fully a million," replied Cortlandt, "for by this
time we are pretty well in motion, having got a tremendous start when
so near the moon, with it and the earth in line."

By steering straight for Jupiter, instead of for the place it would
occupy ten days later, they knew they would swing past, for the giant
planet, being in rapid motion, would advance; but they did not object
to this, since it would give them a chance to examine their new world
in case they wished to do so before alighting; while, if they preferred
to land at once, they could easily change their course by means of the
moons, the fourth, from which their car was named, being the one that
they knew would be of most use. Their tremendous speed showed them
they should have time for exploration on their arrival, and that they
would reach their destination sooner than they had expected. The
apergetic force being applied, as we have seen, only to the Callisto,
just as power in starting is exerted