m there!"

"What on earth do you mean?" I exclaimed, interrupting. "Land on a
satellite which has no atmosphere, and carry this projectile, weighing
over a ton, half-way around the globe?"

"But the point is, it isn't on the Earth, but on the Moon! Think it over
a little, and see how easily we could do it now. In the first place, we
shall always carry divers' suits and helmets, to use in going ashore on
planets having no atmosphere. Air will be furnished through tubes from
inside the compartments. In the second place, the projectile in its
natural state will hardly weigh two hundred pounds on the Moon, since
the mass of that satellite is so much less than the Earth's, and weight
therefore proportionately less. But you must remember I can make the
projectile weigh nothing at all, so one of us could run ahead and tow
it, as a child would play with its toy balloon."

"I perceive you have already made this trip several times, and are quite
familiar with everything. But in case the Moon's surface is not suitable
for foot passengers, what then? I understand it to be rough, jagged,
mountainous, and even crossed by immense, yawning, unbridged fissures."

"That is most likely true, and for that reason we must carry a jointed
punt-pole, and take turns standing on the back, landing and punting
along through space just above the surface. Do you remember how far you
can send a slightly shrunk toy balloon with one light blow? And how it
finally stops with the resistance of the air? Without any resisting
atmosphere, how far and how easily could it be sent along?"

"I can quite imagine you, astride the rudder of this thing, with a
punt-pole as long as a ship's mast and as light as a broom-straw,
bumping and skipping along in the utter darkness on the other side of
the Moon; scaling mountains, bridging yawning chasms, and skimming over
sombre sea-beds!" I laughed, for it aroused my active sense of the
ridiculous.

"And the Moon may be well worth the exploration," exclaimed the always
serious doctor. "Who knows what treasure of gold and silver, or other
metals, rare and precious here, may not be found there? Why was the Moon
ever created without an atmosphere, and therefore probably without the
possibility of ever being inhabited? Is it put there only to illume our
nights? Remember, we do the same service for her fourteen times as well;
and if she has inhabitants they may think the Earth exists only for that
purpose. Is it not more