about me, Miela said: "Go there, Alan."

She was smiling and pointing to a little rise of ground near by. I looked
at her blankly.

"Jump, Alan," she added.

The spot to which she pointed was perhaps forty feet away. I knew what she
meant, and, stepping back a few paces, came running forward and leaped
into the air. I cleared the intervening space with no more effort than I
could have jumped less than half that distance on earth.

Miela flew over beside me.

"You see, Alan, my husband, it is not so bad, perhaps, that I can fly."

She was smiling whimsically, but I could see her eyes were full of pride.

"There is no other man on Mercury who could do that, Alan," she added.

I tried successive leaps then, always with the same result. I calculated
that here the pull of gravity must be something less than one-half that on
the earth. It was far more than father had believed.

Miela watched my antics, laughing and clapping her hands with delight. I
found I tired very quickly--that is, I was winded. This I attributed to
the greater density of the air I was breathing.

In five minutes I was back at Miela's side, panting heavily.

"If I can--ever get so I breathe right--" I said.

She nodded. "A very little time, I think."

I sat down for a moment to recover my breath. Miela explained then that we
were some ten miles from the fertile country surrounding the city in which
her mother lived, and about fifteen miles from the outskirts of the city
itself. I give these distances as they would be measured on earth. We
decided to start at once. We took nothing with us. The journey would be a
short one, and we could easily return at some future time for what we had
left behind. We needed no food for so short a trip, and plenty of water
was at hand.

Only one thing Miela would not part with--the single memento she had
brought from earth to her mother. She refused to let me touch it, but
insisted on carrying it herself, guarding it jealously.

It was Beth's little ivory hand mirror!

We started off. Miela had wound the filmy scarf about her shoulders again
with a pretty little gesture.

"I need not use wings, Alan, when I am with you. We shall go together, you
and I--on the ground."

And then, as I started off vigorously, she added plaintively from behind
me: "If--if you will go slow, my husband, or will wait for me."

I altered my pace to suit hers. I had quite recovered my breath now, and
for the moment felt that