in the darkness and
silence, wondering what had become of me. I asked myself, "How in the
world can I ever get back there again?" Then I smiled to think of the
ridiculous figure I cut, out here in space, exposed to the eyes of the
universe, a rotating, gyrating, circumambulating astronomer, an
animated teetotum lost in the sky. I saw no reason to hope that I should
not go on thus forever, revolving around the sun until my bones,
whitening among the stars, might be revealed to the superlative powers
of some future telescope, and become a subject of absorbing interest,
the topic of many a learned paper for the astronomers of a future age.
Afterward I was comforted by the reflection that in airless space,
although I might die and my body become desiccated, yet there could be
no real decay; even my garments would probably last forever. The
_savants_, after all, should never speculate on my bones.

I saw the ruddy disk of Mars, and the glinting of his icy poles, as the
beautiful planet rolled far below me. "If I could only get there," I
thought, "I should know what those canals of Schiaparelli are, and even
if I could never return to the earth, I should doubtless meet with a
warm welcome among the Martians. What a lion I should be!" I looked
longingly at the distant planet, the outlines of whose continents and
seas appeared most enticing, but when I tried to propel myself in that
direction I only kicked against nothingness. I groaned in desperation.

Suddenly something darted by me flying sunward; then another and
another. In a minute I was surrounded by strange projectiles. Every
instant I expected to be dashed in pieces by them. They sped with the
velocity of lightning. Hundreds, thousands of them were all about me. My
chance of not being hit was not one in a million, and yet I escaped. The
sweat of terror was upon me, but I did not lose my head. "A comet has
met me," I said. "These missiles are the meteoric stones of which it is
composed." And now I noticed that as they rushed along collisions took
place, and flashes of electricity darted from one to another. A pale
luminosity dimmed the stars. I did not doubt that, as seen from the
earth, the comet was already flinging the splendors of its train upon
the bosom of the night.

While I was wondering at my immunity amid such a rain of
death-threatening bolts, I became aware that their velocity was sensibly
diminishing. This fact I explained by supposing that I was drawn a