standing almost
entirely. In fact, on board the _Astronef_ just then it was almost as
easy to stand as it was to lie down.

There was of course very little sleep for the travellers on this first
night of their wonderful voyage, but towards the sixth hour after
leaving the earth, Zaidie, overcome as much by the emotions which had
been awakened within her as by physical fatigue, went to bed, after
making her husband promise that he would wake her in good time to see
the descent upon the moon. Two hours later she was awake and drinking
the coffee which he had prepared for her. Then she went on to the upper
deck.

To her astonishment she found, on one hand, day more brilliant than she
had ever seen it before, and on the other hand darkness blacker than the
blackest earthly night. On the right was an intensely brilliant orb,
about half as large again as the full moon seen from the earth, shining
with inconceivable brightness out of a sky black as midnight and
thronged with stars. It was the Sun; the Sun shining in the midst of
airless Space.

The tiny atmosphere enclosed in the glass-domed deck-space was lighted
brilliantly, but it was not perceptibly warmer, though Redgrave warned
her not to touch anything upon which the sun's rays fell directly, as
she might find it uncomfortably hot. On the other side was the same
black immensity which she had seen the night before, an ocean of
darkness clustered with islands of light. High above in the zenith
floated the great silver-grey disc of earth, a good deal smaller now.
But there was another object beneath them which was at present of far
more interest to her.

Looking down to the left, she saw a vast semi-luminous area in which not
a star was to be seen. It was the earth-lit portion of the long familiar
and yet mysterious orb which was to be their resting place for the next
few hours.

"The sun hasn't risen over there yet," said Redgrave, as she was peering
down into the void. "It's earth-light still. Now look at the other
side."

She crossed the deck, and saw the strangest scene she had yet beheld.
Apparently only a few miles below her was a huge crescent-shaped plain
arching away for hundreds of miles on either side. The outer edge had a
ragged look, and little excrescences, which soon took the shape of
flat-topped mountains, projected from it and stood out bright and sharp
against the black void beneath, out of which the stars shone up, as it
seemed, a few feet beyon