that momentary silence there came
in to them from the outside night the distant pounding of the Atlantic
upon the beach. It was Randall who first spoke again.

"To Mars!" he repeated. "Have you gone crazy, Milton--or is this some
joke you've put up with Lanier and Nelson here?"

[Illustration]

Milton shook his head gravely. "It is not a joke, Allan. Lanier and I
are actually going to flash out over the gulf to the planet Mars
to-night. Nelson must stay here, and since we wanted three to go I
wired you as the most likely of my friends to make the venture."

"But good God!" Randall exploded, rising. "You, Milton, as a physicist
ought to know better. Space-ships and projectiles and all that are but
fictionists' dreams."

"We are not going in either space-ship or projectile," said Milton
calmly. And then as he saw his friend's bewilderment he rose and led
the way to a door at the room's end, the other three following him
into the room beyond.

* * * * *

It was a long laboratory of unusual size in which Randall found
himself, one in which every variety of physical and electrical
apparatus seemed represented. Three huge dynamo-motor arrangements
took up the room's far end, and from them a tangle of wiring led
through square black condensers and transformers to a battery of great
tubes. Most remarkable, though, was the object at the room's center.

It was like a great double cube of dull metal, being in effect two
metal cubes each twelve feet square, supported a few feet above the
floor by insulated standards. One side of each cube was open, exposing
the hollow interiors of the two cubical chambers. Other wiring led
from the big electronic tubes and from the dynamos to the sides of the
two cubes.

The four men gazed at the enigmatic thing for a time in silence.
Milton's strong, capable face showed only in its steady eyes what
feelings were his, but Lanier's younger countenance was alight with
excitement; and so too to some degree was that of Nelson. Randall
simply stared at the thing, until Milton nodded toward it.

"That," he said, "is what will flash us out to Mars to-night."

Randall could only turn his stare upon the other, and Lanier chuckled.
"Can't take it in yet, Randall? Well, neither could I when the idea
was first sprung on us."

* * * * *

Milton nodded to seats behind them, and as the half-dazed Randall sank
into one the physicist fa