nt of my life."

"If I were not afraid of leaving Stillman here to his own devices, I'd
ask for a berth as well," said Deepwaters.

"I am afraid," said Stillman, "if you take any more, you will be
overcrowded."

"Modesty forbids his saying," said Deepwaters, "that it wouldn't do for
the country to have all its eggs in one basket."

"Are you not afraid you will find the surface hot, or even molten?"
asked Vice-President Dumby. "With its eighty-six thousand five hundred
mile diameter, the amount of original internal heat must have been
terrific."

"No," said Cortlandt, "it cannot be molten, or even in the least degree
luminous, for, if it were, its satellites would be visible when they
enter its shadow, whereas they entirely disappear."

"I do not believe Jupiter's surface is even perceptibly warm," said
Bearwarden. "We know that Algol, known to the ancients as the 'Demon
Star,' and several other variable stars, are accompanied by a dark
companion, with which they revolve about a common centre, and which
periodically obscures part of their light. Now, some of these
non-luminaries are nearly as large as our sun, and, of course, many
hundred times the size of Jupiter. If these bodies have lost enough
heat to be invisible, Jupiter's surface at least must be nearly cold."

"In the phosphorescence of seawater," said Cortlandt, "and in other
instances in Nature, we find light without heat, and we may soon be
able to produce it in the arts by oxidizing coal without the
intervention of the steam engine; but we never find any considerable
heat without light."

"I am convinced," said Bearwarden, "that we shall find Jupiter
habitable for intelligent beings who have been developed on a more
advanced sphere than itself, though I do not believe it has progressed
far enough in its evolution to produce them. I expect to find it in
its Palaeozoic or Mesozoic period, while over a hundred years ago the
English astronomer, Chambers, thought that on Saturn there was good
reason for suspecting the presence of snow."

"What sort of spaceship do you propose to have?" asked the
vice-president.

"As you have to pass through but little air," said Deepwaters, "I
should suggest a short-stroke cylinder of large diameter, with a flat
base and dome roof, composed of aluminum, or, still better, of glucinum
or beryllium as it is sometimes called, which is twice as good a
conductor of electricity as aluminum, four times as strong, and is