ntinents were clearly discernible on its surface, streaked and
spotted with delicate shades of varying color, and the sunlight flashed
and glowed in long lanes across the convex surface of the oceans.
Parallel with the Equator and along the regions of the ever blowing
trade winds, were vast belts of clouds, gorgeous with crimson and purple
as the sunlight fell upon them. Immense expanses of snow and ice lay
like a glittering garment upon both land and sea around the North Pole.

As we gazed upon this magnificent spectacle, our hearts bounded within
us. This was our earth--this was the planet we were going to defend--our
home in the trackless wilderness of space. And it seemed to us indeed a
home for which we might gladly expend our last breath. A new
determination to conquer or die sprang up in our hearts, and I saw Lord
Kelvin, after gazing at the beauteous scene which the earth presented
through his eyeglass, turn about and peer in the direction in which we
knew that Mars lay, with a sudden frown that caused the glass to lose
its grip and fall dangling from its string upon his breast. Even Mr.
Edison seemed moved.

"I am glad I thought of the disintegrator," he said. "I shouldn't like
to see that world down there laid waste again."

"And it won't be," said Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson, gripping the
handle of an electric machine, "not if we can help it."

CHAPTER FIVE

_THE FOOTPRINT ON THE MOON_

To prevent accidents, it had been arranged that the ships should keep a
considerable distance apart. Some of them gradually drifted away, until,
on account of the neutral tint of their sides, they were swallowed up in
the abyss of space. Still it was possible to know where every member of
the squadron was through the constant interchange of signals. These, as
I have explained, were effected by means of mirrors flashing back the
light of the sun.

But, although it was now unceasing day for us, yet, there being no
atmosphere to diffuse the sun's light, the stars were visible to us just
as at night upon the earth, and they shone with extraordinary splendor
against the intense black background of the firmament. The lights of
some of the more distant ships of our squadron were not brighter than
the stars in whose neighborhood they seemed to be. In some cases it was
only possible to distinguish between the light of a ship and that of a
star by the fact that the former was continually flashing while the star
was st