journey. But although I was now able to get on my feet and had
the use of my arms, I had not by any means regained all my strength, and
upon laying my plans before Zarlah, she urged me not to undertake such a
journey until the rays had fully restored me. Therefore it was decided
to postpone our attempt to reach Mars until the following night.

But soon a strange and unforeseen incident warned us of the great danger
to which we were exposed on the surface of this diminutive moon, and
left us no alternative but immediate departure.

CHAPTER XIV.

HURLED FROM THE MOON.

Together we stood gazing in silence out into the abyss over the small
surface of the moon that was visible to us, oppressed with a sense of
awe as the sun dropped from sight, leaving us plunged in darkness.

Suddenly there appeared from out of the inky blackness of the heavens a
huge crescent, stretching across the sky far above us. The sight of it
fascinated us, and, as we stood lost in admiration at the majestic
proportions of the beautiful arch of light, ever growing in width, we
gradually realized that it was the sun-tipped rim of the planet which
our moon was journeying around--the world from which we had been hurled
and to which we must return.

A sense of great reverence overpowered me; I realized that we looked
upon sights, and felt great forces never before bared to mortals.
Through my mind ran lines of Addison's ode:

"The spacious firmament on high
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great _Original_ proclaim.

* * * * *

Forever singing as they shine
The hand that made us is divine."

Slowly the light crept over the planet's surface until the huge
illuminated sphere, almost filling the entire heavens, made a scene of
the most exquisite grandeur that human eyes have ever beheld.

"Dearest!" I exclaimed, with sudden impulse, as a most remarkable and
terrifying fact occurred to me, "wonderful though our deliverance from
death seems to us, it is even more miraculous than we had any conception
of! To meet with this moon in our journey through space, we must have
described an arc, as this satellite never passes over the pole."

"How can such a thing be possible?" returned Zarlah, in tremulous
accents, drawing closer to me as the awfulness of our narrow escape
appalled her.

"Ah, my love, we may never know that!" I answered. "T