A gentle
little fellow, this Mars man. Queer and brooding, with strange thoughts
not to be fathomed. He added as though to himself: "I have often
wondered--" Then stopped.

Elza and I had discussed it. We felt sure that Georg and Maida had been
taken to Venus. They could have had only a few hours' start of
ourselves. Yet this vessel we were in was unusually slow. We felt
convinced that they had already arrived on Venus--had been there perhaps
already for a day.

We discussed it now with Wolfgar as the Great City came under us; but
soon we fell silent, gazing down into this beautiful capital of the
Central State.

It lay in a broad hollow, a large, irregular circular bowl surrounded by
gently sloping hillsides. The bowl was entirely filled by water--a broad
flat lake of silver which from this height showed us its pearly bottom.
On the water--seen from above--the houses seemed floating--clusters of
lily pads on a placid shining pool. They were, in reality, flat cubical
buildings solidly built of rectangular blocks of stone, standing just
above the water level on solid stone foundations. Always green and
white--stones like blocks of smooth, polished marble, set in green and
white patterns. Balconies and cornices of what might have been gleaming,
beaten copper. Flat roofs, edged with scarlet flowers.

Some of the buildings were low and small. Others of several stories,
pretentious and ornate. One very large, like a palace, standing alone on
its verdant island.

The houses were mostly gathered in clusters of various shapes and sizes.
Yet a semblance of order prevailed. Winding streets of open water lay
between the groups. There were trellised walks and arching spider
bridges, sometimes over the streets, sometimes joining one house to
another.

Here and there I saw lagoons of open water, dotted with small green
islands like parks--islands on which the vegetation grew far higher and
more luxuriant than any even in the tropics of our Earth. Vegetation
always under careful training and control. Profuse with flowers, vivid
and gigantic. The houses too, were roofed with gardens--sometimes
with pergolas and trellises of the aerial scarlet blossoms.
Occasionally--these latter details I observed as we descended close upon
the city--I saw houses with a tiny swimming pool on the roof--a private
pool hidden in masses of colored flowers.

A playground--the playground of Venus. It seemed very
backward--uncivilized. And then Wolf