none of her secrets to the scientists who were
gazing at her so intently that night from the platform on the summit of
Long's Peak. But no black spot crawling over her resplendent surface
rewarded their eager gaze. Marston indeed would occasionally utter a
joyful cry announcing some discovery, but in a moment after he was
confessing with groans that it was all a false alarm. Towards morning,
Belfast gave up in despair and went to take a sleep; but no sleep for
Marston. Though he was now quite alone, the assistants having also
retired, he kept on talking incessantly to himself, expressing the most
unbounded confidence in the safety of his friends, and the absolute
certainty of their return. It was not until some hours after the Sun
had risen and the Moon had disappeared behind the snowy peaks of the
west, that he at last withdrew his weary eye from the glass through
which every image formed by the great reflector was to be viewed. The
countenance he turned on Belfast, who had now come back, was rueful in
the extreme. It was the image of grief and despair.

"Did you see nothing whatever during the night, Professor?" he asked of
Belfast, though he knew very well the answer he was to get.

"Nothing whatever."

"But you saw them once, didn't you?"

"Them! Who?"

"Our friends."

"Oh! the Projectile--well--I think I must have made some oversight."

"Don't say that! Did not Mr. M'Connell see it also?"

"No. He only wrote out what I dictated."

"Why, you must have seen it! I have seen it myself!"

"You shall never see it again! It's shot off into space."

"You're as wrong now as you thought you were right yesterday."

"I'm sorry to say I was wrong yesterday; but I have every reason to
believe I'm right to-day."

"We shall see! Wait till to-night!"

"To-night! Too late! As far as the Projectile is concerned, night is now
no better than day."

The learned Professor was quite right, but in a way which he did not
exactly expect. That very evening, after a weary day, apparently a month
long, during which Marston sought in vain for a few hours' repose, just
as all hands, well wrapped up in warm furs, were getting ready to assume
their posts once more near the mouth of the gigantic Telescope, Mr.
M'Connell hastily presented himself with a dispatch for Belfast.

The Professor was listlessly breaking the envelope, when he uttered a
sharp cry of surprise.

"Hey!" cried Marston quickly. "What's up now?"

"Oh!! The Pr