s
of potential and polarity became more frequent, and the electrical ships
darted about with even greater confusion than before. Occasionally one
of them, seized with a sudden impulse, would spring forward toward the
nucleus of the comet with a sudden access of velocity that would fling
every one of its crew from his feet, and all would lie sprawling on the
floor of the car while it rushed, as it seemed, to inevitable and
instant destruction.

Then, either through the frantic efforts of the electrician struggling
with the controller or through another change in the polarity of the
comet, the ship would be saved on the very brink of ruin and stagger
away out of immediate danger.

Thus the captured squadron was swept, swaying and darting hither and
thither, but never able to get sufficiently far from the comet to break
the bond of its fatal attraction.

So great was our excitement and so complete our absorption in the
fearful peril that we had not noticed the precise direction in which the
comet was carrying us. It was enough to know that the goal of the
journey was the furnace of the sun. But presently someone in the
flagship recalled us to a more accurate sense of our situation in space
by exclaiming:

"Why, there is the earth!"

And there, indeed, it was, its great globe rolling under our eyes, with
the contrasted colors of the continents and clouds and the watery gleam
of the oceans spread beneath us.

"We're going to strike it!" exclaimed somebody. "The comet is going to
dash us into the earth."

Such a collision at first seemed inevitable, but presently it was
noticed that the direction of the comet's motion was such that while it
might graze the earth it would not actually strike it.

And so, like a swarm of giant insects circling about an electric light
from whose magic influence they could not escape, our ships went on, to
be whipped against the earth in passing and then to continue their swift
journey to destruction.

"Thank God, this saves us," suddenly cried Mr. Edison.

"What-what?"

"Why, the earth, of course. Do you not see that as the comet sweeps
close to the great planet the superior attraction of the latter will
snatch us from its grasp, and that thus we shall be able to escape."

And it was indeed as Mr. Edison had predicted. In a blaze of falling
meteors the comet swept the outer limits of the earth's atmosphere and
passed on, while the swaying ships, having been instructed by signals