"The atmospheric motor is running much faster than I ever saw it go before. I wonder if that crazy machinist could have gotten loose and meddled with it?"

"I'll look," volunteered Jack, but he soon ascertained that the man was still securely bound.

The motor was humming and snapping away, and a gage connected with it showed that it was forcing the Annihilator along at the rate of two hundred miles a second.

"That is faster even than we moved when the Etherium machine was working at its best," said Mr. Roumann with a puzzled look. "Can I have made a mistake in my calculations? I hardly think so."

"Jack, run to the pilot house, and see if the automatic steering apparatus is all right. Also see what the speed gage there indicates." Jack hurried off, and soon returned.

"We're heading right for Mars, as indicated on the chart," he said, for there was an arrangement whereby the projectile could be automatically steered.

"What speed does the gage there show?" asked the German scientist.

"Two hundred miles a second."

"The same as here," murmured Mr. Roumann. "I wonder what can cause it?"

He leaned over the motor, and made some calculations. Then he exclaimed:

"I have it!"

"What is the reason?" inquired the professor.

"It is because we are speeding through an atmosphere much less dense than that of our earth. There the motor would only work at a certain speed. Here, in the atmosphere of Mars, it goes more than twice as fast, because there is less resistance."

"Is that good or bad?" asked Jack.

"Good. We shall reach the planet all the sooner now. Boys, get ready to land on Mars in a few hours!"

The news was startling in itself, but so many strange things had happened on the trip that this only produced a momentary impression.

"Yo' say dat we am shortly goin' t' promulgate eurseves inter conjunctionary juxtaposition wid de exterior circ.u.mference an'

surface ob de planetary sphere commonly called Mars?" asked Washington White.

"If you mean whether or not we are near Mars, why, we are,"

answered Jack with a laugh. "But, Wash, if you use such language as that I don't know what the Martians will think of you."

"I knows," answered the colored man with great dignity. "Dey'll take me fo' jest what I am--a mostest profundity educationalized specimen ob de human fambly. But I'se glad we's so neah Mars."

"Why? Are you tired of being cooped up here?" asked Mark.

"Not prexactly, but mah Shanghai rooster am. He's dat lonesome dat's he's homesick for t' git out an' do a bit ob scratchin' on de ground."

"Look out that he doesn't fly away when he gets on Mars,"

cautioned Jack. "Things there are twice as light as they are on the earth, and he'll only weigh a pound or so, instead of two or three."

Washington grunted, but said nothing. He served a meal, probably the last one that would be eaten before their arrival.

"We have been just twelve days, so far, on our journey," declared Mr. Roumann. "That is a little longer than I calculated, but it was due to unexpected troubles."

"Well, we've been very comfortable here," commented Mr.

Henderson.

And indeed they had. Except for the rather cramped quarters, and the absence of scenery, they had lived as well as they could have done at home. They had plenty to eat and drink during their marvelous trip through s.p.a.ce, they had enjoyed the reading of books, had listened to fine music, and had been traveling in perpetual sunlight.

What was before them? Every one asked himself that question.

On and on the projectile sped. Mr. Roumann, who had taken charge of the steering wheel called the attention of the boys to a small, dark object off to the right.

"What is it?" asked Jack. "It looks like a bright ball of fire."

"One of the moons of Mars," was the answer. "That is Deimos, and we are now but ten thousand miles from the planet, for that is the moon distance from Mars."

"How small it is!" commented Mark.

"Yes, it isn't much like our moon, but I suppose it answers for the Martians."

"But if we're only ten thousand miles away from Mars, and are traveling at two hundred miles a second, we'll be there in less than a minute!" cried Jack.

"We would, only I have shut down the motor. We are now approaching only from the force of the attraction of gravitation, and that, I find, is much less than on our earth. At the proper time I will reverse the motor, to make our landing easy."

The indicators showed that the Annihilator was now traveling along at about the rate of a fast automobile.

"We're almost there!" cried Mark.

Mr. Roumann adjusted the machinery. Sometimes he speeded it up, and again he slowed it down. He found he had the projectile under perfect control. Once again he set the motor in motion, approaching Mars at a fast rate.

They shot past another shining body.

"The second moon!" he called to the boys. "We are but sixteen hundred miles away now."

"Get ready to land!" cried Jack. "All ash.o.r.e that's going ash.o.r.e!"

"Maybe we'll land in the water," spoke Mark.

"No, I can so regulate the projectile that such a thing won't happen," declared Mr. Roumann.

"I will send it ahead for a few seconds, and then see what happens."

They sped forward. Suddenly there loomed up before them a great ma.s.s. It seemed to be rushing to meet them. It looked something like the earth, as seen from a balloon at a great height.

"Mars!" cried Mr. Roumann. "There is the planet we aimed for!

Mars at last!"

He reversed the motor. The motion of the projectile became less.

Nearer and nearer it approached the wonderful planet on which all their thoughts were centered.

"But it isn't red!" objected Jack.