CHAPTER XIII.  HOME AGAIN

    “The heaven that rolls around cries aloud to you while it displays
    its eternal harmony, and yet your eyes are fixed upon the earth
    alone.”

    Dante.

    “This truth within thy mind rehearse,
     That in a boundless universe
     Is boundless better, boundless worse.

    “Think you this mould of hopes and fears
     Could find no statelier than his peers
     In yonder hundred million spheres?”

    Tennyson.

A TRIP TO VENUS.

CHAPTER I.

A message from Mars.

While I was glancing at the Times newspaper in a morning train for London my eyes fell on the following item:—­

     A strange light on Mars.—­On Monday afternoon, Dr. Krueger, who is
     in charge of the central bureau at Kiel, telegraphed to his
     correspondents:—­

     “Projection lumineuse dans region australe du terminateur de Mars
     observee par Javelle 28 courant, 16 heures.—­Perrotin.”

In plain English, at 4 a.m., a ray of light had been observed on the disc of the planet Mars in or near the “terminator”; that is to say, the zone of twilight separating day from night.  The news was doubly interesting to me, because a singular dream of “Sunrise in the Moon” had quickened my imagination as to the wonders of the universe beyond our little globe, and because of a never-to-be-forgotten experience of mine with an aged astronomer several years ago.

This extraordinary man, living the life of a recluse in his own observatory, which was situated in a lonely part of the country, had, or at any rate, believed that he had, opened up a communication with the inhabitants of Mars, by means of powerful electric lights, flashing in the manner of a signal-lantern or heliograph.  I had set him down as a monomaniac; but who knows? perhaps he was not so crazy after all.

When evening came I turned to the books, and gathered a great deal about the fiery planet, including the fact that a stout man, a Daniel Lambert, could jump his own height there with the greatest ease.  Very likely; but I was seeking information on the strange light, and as I could not find any I resolved to walk over and consult my old friend, Professor Gazen, the well-known astronomer, who had made his mark by a series of splendid researches with the spectroscope into the constitution of the sun and other celestial bodies.

It was a fine clear night.  The sky was cloudless and of a deep dark blue, which revealed the highest heavens and the silvery lustre of the Milky Way.  The great belt of Orion shone conspicuously in the east, and Sirius blazed a living gem more to the south.  I looked for Mars, and soon found him farther to the north, a large red star, amongst the white of the encircling constellations.