Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-12-15

IdhC Nor tH"idC, Vtifh, nc SHtf.
cloud curtain. were summoned To de
soend, and, with moro than u hundred
men, we returned to the building. and
this time almost entirely exhausted its
stores, each man carrying as much as
he could stagger under.
Fortunately our proceedings lad been
conducted without much noise, and, the
storehouse being situated at n consider.
able distance from other buildings,
none of the Martians, except those who
would never tell the story, had known
of our arrival or Of our doings on the
planet.
Now, we'll return and surprise Ed
ison with the news" SAID Colonel
Smith.
Our ship was the last to pass up
through the clouds, and it wasa strange
sight to watch the others as II after
another they rose toward the great
dome, entered it, though from below 1t
resemblcd Il sulin vault of grayish pink
marble, and disappeared.
We q%ui,kly followed them, and hav-
ing penetrated the enormous curtain
woro considerably surprised on emerg-
ing at the upper side to find that tbs
sun was shining brilliantly upon Us. 1t
will be remembered that it was night
on this side of Mars when we went
down, but our adventure hoSs occupied
several hours, and now Mar had So far
turned upon it axis that tnc PORTION Of
its surface over which We We're had
come around into the Sunlight
We knew that the squadron which
we had LETT heslrging tine Lake of the
sun must also have been carried arOund
in Il similar manner, passing INFO III,
night while the side Of the planet wher,
we Were Was emerging into day.
Our shortest way back would be by
travelling westward, because then VT
should be moving in u direction oppo
site u thar IN which the plnuCtrotutrd
and the main squadron, sharing tina
rotation, would DO continually movin.
in our direction
But to travel westward was to pene
tratc once more into the night SIDE o
the planet,
The prows, if | may so call them, o
our ships were accordingly turned IL
the direction of the vast shadow whicl
Mars was luvisibly projecting into spac
behind it, and on entering that SHADOW
the sun disappeared from our eyes, an
once more the huge hidden globe be
meath us became a black chasm amonI
the stars.
Now that we were in the neighbor
hood of a globe capable Of impartin
a,,,,l,raIl x-~trbt 90 oil thinns nnAo
the influence of its attraction that pecul
lar condition which l have before de
scribed as existing in the midst of space
where there was neither up nor dow
I for us, had ceased. Here where we ha
weight "up" and down" had resume
! their old meanings. Down" was tC
ward the center Of Mars, and up
! vas away from that center.
I Standing on the deck and lookin
> overhead as we swiftly plowed OF
| smooth way at a great height throug
the now imperceptible atmosphere
the planet, | saw the two moons
Mars meeting in the sky exactly aboy
US.
Before our arrival at Mars, there ha
I been considerable discussion among I'll
learned men as to the ACCESSIBILITY
T touching at one of their moons, an
{ when discovery was made that OF
: provis. were nearly exhausted it ha
been suggested that the Marian safe
lites might furnish as with AL additions
t supply.
But it had appeared a sufficient rep
5 to this suggestion that the moons
Q Mars ara both insignificant bodies, n
Q much larger than the asteroid we hi
p ! fallen in with, and that there could "