ear that of the earth, I knew that its velocity,
assuming it to be travelling in a nearly circular orbit, must be about
eighteen miles in a second. With this velocity, then, it plunged like a
projectile shot by some mysterious enemy in space directly through our
squadron. It had come and was gone before one could utter a sentence
of three words. Its appearance, and the effect it had produced upon the
ships in whose neighborhood it passed, indicated that it bore an intense
and tremendous charge of electricity. How it had become thus charged
I cannot pretend to say. I simply record the fact. And this charge,
it was evident, was opposite in polarity to that which the ships of the
squadron bore. It therefore exerted an attractive influence upon them
and thus drew them after it.

I had just time to think how lucky it was that the meteor did not
strike any of us, when, glancing at a ship just ahead, I perceived that
an accident had occurred. The ship swayed violently from its course,
dazzling flashes played around it, and two or three of the men forming
its crew appeared for an instant on its exterior, wildly gesticulating,
but almost instantly falling prone.

It was evident at a glance that the car had been struck by the meteor. How
serious the damage might be we could not instantly determine. The course
of our ship was immediately altered, the electric polarity was changed,
and we rapidly approached the disabled car.

The men who had fallen lay upon its surface. One of the heavy circular
glasses covering a window had been smashed to atoms. Through this the
meteor had passed, killing two or three men who stood in its course. Then
it had crashed through the opposite side of the car, and, passing on,
disappeared into space. The store of air contained in the car had
immediately rushed out through the openings, and when two or three of
us, having donned our air-tight suits as quickly as possible, entered
the wrecked car we found all its inmates stretched upon the floor in
a condition of asphyxiation. They, as well as those who lay upon the
exterior, were immediately removed to the flagship, restoratives were
applied, and, fortunately, our aid had come so promptly that the lives
of all of them were saved. But life had fled from the mangled bodies of
those who had stood directly in the path of the fearful projectile.

This strange accident had been witnessed by several of the members
of the fleet, and they quickly drew together