“If you take my advice you will keep to the earth altogether.”

“Surely, if we can ascend into the higher regions of the atmosphere, we can traverse empty space.  You would have me stop within sight of the goal.  The end of travel is to reach the other planets.”

“Why not say the fixed stars when you are about it?”

“That’s impossible.”

“On the contrary, with a vessel large enough to contain the necessaries of life, a select party of ladies and gentlemen might start for the Milky Way, and if all went right, their descendants would arrive there in the course of a few million years.”

“Rather a long journey, I’m afraid.”

“What would you have?  A million years quotha! nay, not so much.  It depends on the speed and the direction taken.  If they were able to cover, say, the distance from Liverpool to New York in a tenth of a second, they would get to Alpha in the constellation Centaur, perhaps the nearest of the fixed stars, in twenty or thirty years—­a mere bagatelle.  But why should we stop there?” went on Gazen.  “Why should we not build large vessels for the navigation of the ether—­artificial planets in fact—­and go cruising about in space, from universe to universe, on a celestial Cook’s excursion—­”

“We are doing that now, I believe.”

“Yes, but in tow of the Sun.  Not at our own sweet will, like gipsies in a caravan.  Independent, free of rent and taxes, these hollow planetoids would serve for schools, hotels, dwelling-houses—­”

“And lunatic asylums.”

“They would relieve the surplus population of the globe,” continued Gazen, warming to his theme.  “It is an idea of the first political importance—­especially to British statesmen.  The Empire is only in its infancy.  With a fleet of ethereal gunboats we might colonise the solar system, and annex the stars.  What a stroke of business!”

“Another illusion gone,” I observed “Think of Manchester cotton in the Pleiades!  Of Scotch whiskey in Orion!  However, I am afraid your policy would lead to international complications.  The French would set up a claim for ‘Ancient Lights.’  The Germans would discover a nebulous Hinterland under their protection.  The Americans would protest in the name of the Monroe Doctrine.  It is necessary to be modest.  Let us return to our muttons.”

“Everybody will be able to pick a world that suits him,” pursued Gazen, still on the trail of his thought.  “If he grows tired of one he can look round for a better.  Criminals will be weeded out and sent to Coventry, I mean transplanted into a worse.  When a planet is dying of old age, the inhabitants will flit to another.”

“Seriously, if Carmichael’s machine turns out all right, will you join me in a trip?”

“Thanks, no.  I believe I shall wait and see how you get on first.”

“And where would you advise me to go, Mars or Venus?”

The professor smiled, but I was quite in earnest.