ut, so long as we kept in view of the place, we could
see the people still waving their adieus to us, and I frequently
responded to their signals.

At last, when these lovable and hospitable Martians were lost to sight,
I went into the _Areonal_, closing and bolting the outer door, which was
never again to be opened until we reached our destination--our home in
old England.

I have no doubt that, long after we lost sight of them, many of the
Martians kept the _Areonal_ in view with their telescopes, and followed
its course far into space.

I then directed M'Allister to set our course for our own world; and when
he had done so, he looked up at me and said, "Heh, mon, yon Martians are
rare good folk, and I'm right sorry to leave them!"

"Yes, so am I, M'Allister," I answered. He again looked at me keenly,
with a queer smile on his face; and remarked, "Mon, I'm thinking you are
that, and that you have left something behind you!"

I knew he meant that I had left my heart behind me, for I was thinking
the very same thing; but I turned away from him with a sigh, without
answering. The matter was not one about which I cared to speak just
then, for I felt very sad and heartsore.

Our journey passed off without any exciting incidents, everything on the
_Areonal_ working most satisfactorily. On the 4th February, 1910, we
passed within forty-one million miles of the sun, and the heat at this
stage of our journey was terrific, but we had a magnificent view of the
sunspots, the corona, and other solar surroundings. In spite of all
precautions for counteracting the tremendous pull of the sun, we were
drawn considerably out of our direct course, so the journey occupied
three days longer than we had anticipated. A large proportion of our
time was spent in the air-chamber, in order to prepare us for breathing
the atmosphere of our native world.

We passed across the orbit of Venus on two occasions, and had a near
view of this splendid planet (and also of Mercury), for many days; but
apart from its larger apparent size and intense brilliancy, we did not
see anything more than we could from the earth with a good telescope.
The dense atmosphere and its glowing light prevented us from seeing any
definite details upon its surface.

Only three days late, we arrived at our home at Norbury on Monday the
21st March 1910, about an hour before daylight. We descended quite
unobserved, and having stowed away our good ship _Areonal_ in its s