CHAPTER VII MYSTERIOUS STAR, IMPERTURBABLY SHINING! More than twice seventeen months went by. For me and for Dan the progress of the world, it seemed then, must always be in cycles of seventeen months. That is the length of time which Xenephrene took periodically to overtake and pass us in our orbit. Almost between us and the sun, every seventeen months; and at such times she was at her closest points to us, some sixteen to nineteen million miles away. Not very far, in terms of astronomical measurement, but to Dan and me very far indeed. Two of these passings came and went. We had hoped there might be some sign from Xenephrene; even something hostile would had seemed to us better than nothing. Dan and I often sat in the night, gazing at the great purple-white star. Romantic, mysterious world, imperturbably blazing up there! It held captive for Dan the woman he loved; for me, a beloved sister and my dear father. Held them captive--if indeed they were alive, which is the best we could hope--held them, and it gave no sign! Beautiful, mysterious world--and sinister! Gazing up at it, my fancy roamed. What strange sights and sounds and beings were there! We had had but a little glimpse, no more--and then it was snatched away. It is not important now for me to recount what these months brought on earth. The adjustment to new conditions, new climate, new night and day. Volumes of history describe it fully--the myriad shifting events over the world's great surface, the new nations, new mingling of races--everything new, it would seem. Everything but human nature, the old characteristics, love, hate, jealousy, friendship, greed, envy--nothing on earth has ever changed them, and nothing will. We did not know why father, Hulda and Zetta were abducted; but that they were captured by the invaders and with them returned to Xenephrene we felt sure. Why the invaders came at all, and then so hastily withdrew, we could not guess. Zetta knew, and she had told father. But the secret went with them. Perhaps, we decided, the Creator intends this veil of mystery between the worlds. If that thought could be spiritual consolation to Dan and me, we tried to make the most of it. Dan was distracted. Vainly he and I sought some way by which we might get to Xenephrene. It seemed impossible. Before that terrible winter when what they now call the "Great Change" began, any serious talk of going to a neighbor planet was always laughed at. But no one laughed now.