turn back
before we emerged into it. We would have to retrace our path while we
were still in the grateful shadow. Ah, the blessedness of night after
all!

Then slowly and cautiously, so that I might not waken him, I crept down
to the rear window to see how far away the Earth was. We were at so
great a distance that I could see the whole outline of it, as a great
dull globe filling all the view behind us. And as I looked again I
started and uttered a cry! A thin sickle of bright, white light
glimmered over the whole eastern edge of it, like the first glimpse of
the new Moon, but a hundred times larger! It was the sunlight! It must
be creeping around the eastern edge, and would soon engulf us.

The doctor had been aroused by my cry. Not seeing me in his compartment,
he had gone at once to the telescope.

"What is the matter?" he said. "You have lost the course a little." And
as I peered out of my port-hole I saw that narrow sickle of light grow
thinner and thinner, and finally go out. Had I imagined it all? No, I
had seen it.

"Ah, Doctor, I am so glad you have wakened. I am frightened, terrified,
by the light!"

CHAPTER VIII

The Valley of the Shadow

"Light! Where have you seen any light?"

"I saw the Earth begin to shine like a New Moon on the eastern edge,
but----"

"Ah, that _was_ a danger signal. I am glad you awakened me. But you are
actually pale and trembling! There is no danger if you keep the course.
You see, that rim of light has faded and disappeared since I corrected
the course."

"Yes, but you cannot keep in this little Earthly shadow much longer; and
what can we possibly do when we emerge into the fathomless, trackless
effulgence of eternal sunshine? Let us turn back before we plunge into
it," I pleaded.

"So that is what terrified you! Well, you have hit upon one of the
greatest difficulties of the trip; but it is far from insurmountable. We
will not turn back yet, especially as we have started in the most
opportune time. You have mentioned this 'little shadow.' It is eight
thousand miles wide at the surface of the Earth, and gradually, very
gradually, tapers down to nothing far out in space. Have you ever
calculated how far it reaches?"

"No," I answered. "But we moved out of it and back into it at the
surface very easily, and besides, as the Earth moves forward in its
orbit, the shadow will leave us."

"This little shadow is eight hundred and fifty-six thousand miles long,
a