cups
keep getting off the saucers. I suppose we're turning upside down
again."

Redgrave stepped somewhat gingerly on to the deck, for his body had so
little weight under the double attraction of Saturn and the Rings that a
very slight effort would have sent him flying up to the roof of the
deck-chamber.

"That's exactly as you please," he said, "just hold that table steady a
minute. We shall have our centre of gravity back soon. And now, as to
the main question, suppose we take a trip across the sunlit hemisphere
of Saturn to, what I suppose we should call on Earth, the South Pole. We
can get resistance from the Rings, and as we are here we may as well see
what the rest of Saturn is like. You see, if our theory is correct as to
the Rings gathering up most of the atmosphere of Saturn about its
equator, we shall get to higher latitudes where the air is thinner and
more like our own, and therefore it's quite possible that we shall find
different forms of life in it too--or if you've had enough of Saturn and
would prefer a trip to Uranus----"

"No, thanks," said Zaidie quickly. "To tell you the truth, Lenox, I've
had almost enough star-wandering for one honeymoon, and though we've
seen nice things as well as horrible things--especially those ghastly,
slimy creatures down there--I'm beginning to feel a bit homesick for
good old Mother Earth. You see, we're nearly a thousand million miles
from home, and, even with you, it makes one feel a bit lonely. I vote we
explore the rest of this hemisphere up to the pole, and then, as they
say at sea--I mean our sea--'bout ship, and try if we can find our own
old world again. After all, it _is_ more homelike than any of these,
isn't it?"

"Just take our telescope and look at it," said Redgrave, pointing
towards the Sun, with its little cluster of attendant planets. "It looks
something like one of Jupiter's little moons down there, doesn't it,
only not quite as big?"

"Yes, it does, but that doesn't matter. The fact is that it's there, and
we know what it's like, and it's _home_, if it _is_ a thousand million
miles away, and that's everything."

By this time they had passed through the outer band of clouds. The vast,
sunlit arch of the Rings towered up to the zenith, apparently spanning
the whole visible heavens. Below and in front of them lay the enormous
semicircle of the hemisphere which was turned towards the Sun, shrouded
by its many-coloured bands of clouds. The R. Force