.

I now realized that my first actions, upon becoming conscious, had
simply been carrying out the instructions Almos had left for me. Strange
to the conditions in those first few minutes, I had instinctively done
what the brain dictated. In this remarkable way had Almos completed the
instructions he was about to give me when interrupted by the cessation
of wave contact.

Having thus arrived at what I felt to be the true relation of my mind
with Almos' body, I now turned my attention to the objects surrounding
me.

I stood in a room about the size of my laboratory on Earth. There were
no windows to admit light, but the ceiling, which was fully twenty feet
high, emitted a beautifully diffused white light, which filled every
corner of the room, leaving absolutely no shadows. Its effect was that
of daylight, and so closely did it resemble the sky, that, had I not
been supplied with Almos' knowledge of Martian science, I would have
naturally supposed that there was no ceiling to the room. Immediately
upon the question coming into my mind, however, I became aware that the
ceiling was coated with a composition, one of the component parts of
which was radium in a highly developed state. Its action upon the other
elements that composed this substance resulted in a perpetual light
without heat, which was equal in every way to daylight.

The tourist, finding himself in a new country, has but one thought, one
ambition, that of seeing all he can; yet, strange to say, although a
whole new world lay before me, my first thought was of Mother Earth. A
desire to view my old habitat as Martians see it seemed almost
irresistible.

To touch the radioscope that was trained on Earth, would result in an
instant change taking place in my body as it lay in the laboratory, and
this would be disastrous. It was only the regenerating properties of the
super-radium current that kept it in a state acceptable to my return,
and the delicate mechanism of this instrument was regulated so as to
keep the current exactly in position, as long as that part of the
Earth's surface was exposed to Mars. To interfere then with this
current, for a moment, would mean certain death.

Immediately I became conscious of the presence of another instrument,
which was in a room adjoining, and, feeling absolutely familiar with
every inch of the way, I proceeded thence. The room was a small one,
just large enough, indeed, to operate the radioscope, which was exactly