"Yes, I will," replied Morey, Senior, seriously, "for I think it's worth
doing."
The four young men climbed into the ship, to start for their apartment.
Arcot was piloting, and under his sure touch the ship sped out into the
cold night air, then up through the atmosphere, till they hung poised at
a height of fifty miles on the upper edge of the airy blanket. They
looked out in silent thought at the magnificent blazing stars of space.
Here, where the dust-laden air could no longer mask their true colors,
the stars shone unwinkingly, steadily, and in a glory that earth-bound
men had never seen before. They shone in a wonderous riot of color, as
varied and as beautiful as the display of colored floodlights in some
great city. They were tiny pinpoints of radiance, red, green, orange,
and yellow, shining with intense brilliance.
Slowly Arcot let the machine settle to the blazing city miles below.
"I love to come out here and look at those cold, pinpoint lights; they
seem to draw me--the lure of other worlds. I've always had a sense of
unfulfilled longing--the desire to go out there--and it's always been so
hopeless. Now--I'll be out there by next spring!" Arcot paused and
looked up at the mighty field of stars that arched over his head to be
lost on either horizon. A wonderful night!
"Where shall we go first, Dick?" asked Wade softly as he gazed out at
the far-off suns of space, his voice unconsciously hushed by the
grandeur of the spectacle.
"I've thought of that for the last four months, and now that we are
definitely going to go, we'll have to make a decision. Actually, it
won't be too hard to decide. Of course we can't leave the solar system.
And the outer planets are so far away that I think we had better wait
till later trips. That leaves the choice really between Mars, Venus, and
Mercury. Mercury isn't practical since it's so close to the sun. We know
a fair bit about Mars from telescopic observation, while Venus, wrapped
in perpetual cloud, is a mystery. What do you vote?"
"Well," said Morey, "it seems to me it's more fun to explore a
completely unknown planet than one that can be observed telescopically.
I vote Venus." Each of the others agreed with Morey that Venus was the
logical choice.
By this time the machine had sunk to the roof of their apartment, and
the men disembarked and entered. The next day they were to start the
actual work of designing the space ship.