*

Most of the time of the trip was spent by Larner in listening to
explanations of customs and traditions of the people of the brightest
planet in the universe.

There was a question Larner had desired to ask Nern Bela, yet he
hesitated to do so. Finally one evening during the journey to Venus,
when the travelers had been occupying themselves in a scientific
discussion of comparative evolution on the two planets, Larner saw his
opportunity.

"Why," he asked rather hesitatingly, "did the people of Venus always
remain so small? Why did you not strive more for height? The Japanese,
who are the shortest in stature of earth people, always wanted to be
tall."

"Without meaning any offense," replied Nern, "I must say that it is
characteristic of earth dwellers to want something without knowing any
good reason why they want it. It is perfectly all right for you people
to be tall, but for us it is not so fitting. You see, Venus is smaller
than the earth. Size is comparative. You think we are not tall because
you are used to taller people. Comparatively we are tall enough. In
proportion to the size of our planet we are exactly the right size. We
keep our population at 900,000,000, and that is the perfectly exact
number of people who can live comfortably on our planet."

* * * * *

Arriving on Venus, Larner was assigned a laboratory and office in one of
the Government buildings. It was a world seemingly made of glass.
Quartz, of rose, white and crystal coloring, Larner found, was the
commonest country rock of the planet. In many cases it was shot full of
splinters of gold which the natives had not taken the trouble to
recover. This quartz was of a terrific hardness and was used in
building, paving, and public works generally. The effect was
bewildering. It was a world of shimmering crystal.

The atmosphere of Venus had long puzzled Larner. While not an astronomer
in the largest sense of the word, yet he had a keen interest in the
heavens as a giant puzzle picture, and he had given some spare time to
the study.

He knew that from all indications Venus had a most unusual atmosphere.
He had read that the atmosphere was considerably denser than that of the
earth, and that its presence made observation difficult. The actual
surface of the planet he knew could hardly be seen due, either to this
atmosphere, or seemingly perpetual cloud banks.

He had read that the presence of atmosphere surr