er the building, we slowly descended and in a few seconds we had
reached the balcony.

Thanking my companion with a hearty handshake (which came perfectly
natural even on Mars), I bade him adieu, and, stepping on to the
balcony, made my way into the observatory with all haste. Everything was
in the condition I had left it, and I was greatly relieved to find that
the necessary time for the process of departure still remained, before
wave contact with Paris ceased. My heart now went out in true gratitude
and love to her who, in the simple desire to do what was right, had
placed duty before her love, and had thus been of such inestimable
service to me.

Immediately upon my arrival, I had prepared the virator for my journey
back to Earth by substituting the projecting apparatus of the radioscope
for the receiving apparatus. It was only necessary now to start the
clockwork that would shut off the current to earth in half an hour, and
would start the current flowing through the upper chamber of the
virator.

After having written a brief note to Almos, saying that I wished to
communicate with him the following evening before making another visit,
I made a hasty examination of the current of super-radium which now
flowed through the virator to Earth from the projecting apparatus. The
instant my spirit was released, it would be caught up in this current
and conveyed to my body, where it lay in my rooms in Paris. In half an
hour the clockwork would shut off the current flowing to Earth, and
would then turn on the current which flowed through the upper chamber of
the virator, thus transferring Almos' spirit back to the body, as it lay
in the lower chamber.

All was in perfect order, but it was not without a feeling of reluctance
and anxiety that I stepped into the virator and, after carefully
fastening the door, prepared the cone of chloroform. I realized that
there were many dangers attending the return journey that were not
present in my journey to Mars. If I had erred in my calculation of the
time the super-radium current could be kept on my body in Paris, or if
my body had moved in that time, it would undoubtedly mean death to me;
and the thought of whether Almos, in such a case, would learn of my
fate on the morrow flashed through my mind. Realizing the danger of such
apprehensions, not only from the loss of valuable time which they
occupied, but also from the fact that they tended to unnerve me at the
moment when hesita