ies from the prime conductor.

As we sat in the brilliantly lighted chamber that formed the interior of
the car, and where stores of compressed air had been provided together
with chemical apparatus, by means of which fresh supplies of oxygen
and nitrogen might be obtained for our consumption during the flight
through space, Mr. Edison touched a polished button, thus causing the
generation of the required electrical charge on the exterior of the car,
and immediately we began to rise.

The moment and direction of our flight had been so timed and prearranged,
that the original impulse would carry us straight toward the moon.

A Triumphant Test.

When we fell within the sphere of attraction of that orb it only became
necessary to so manipulate the electrical charge upon our car as nearly,
but not quite, to counterbalance the effect of the moon's attraction
in order that we might gradually approach it and with an easy motion,
settle, without shock, upon its surface.

We did not remain to examine the wonders of the moon, although we could
not fail to observe many curious things therein. Having demonstrated
the fact that we could not only leave the earth, but could journey
through space and safely land upon the surface of another planet, Mr.
Edison's immediate purpose was fulfilled, and we hastened back to the
earth, employing in leaving the moon and landing again upon our own planet
the same means of control over the electrical attraction and repulsion
between the respective planets and our car which I have already described.

Telegraphing the News.

When actual experiment had thus demonstrated the practicability of
the invention, Mr. Edison no longer withheld the news of what he had
been doing from the world. The telegraph lines and the ocean cables
labored with the messages that in endless succession, and burdened with
an infinity of detail, were sent all over the earth. Everywhere the
utmost enthusiasm was aroused.

"Let the Martians come," was the cry. "If necessary, we can quit the
earth as the Athenians fled from Athens before the advancing host of
Xerxes, and like them, take refuge upon our ships--these new ships of
space, with which American inventiveness has furnished us."

And then, like a flash, some genius struck out an idea that fired
the world.

"Why should we wait? Why should we run the risk of having our cities
destroyed and our lands desolated a second time? Let us go to Mars. We
have the mea