Freddie's voice was calling: "Hurry up, there!" I turned away. But Dan lingered. From the doorway I had a glimpse of him as with his big arms he caught his mother up to kiss her good-by, while his father clung to him. Then Dan was with us. The small heavy door swung closed and locked upon us. Eleven fifty-nine! Freddie sat at his table, his fingers on the row of buttons. In the gloom, the only light was a glow upon the chronometer face with its second-hand making the last circle. Noon! There was a vague hum as the Reet current went on. The floor beneath my feet stirred slightly, then steadied. Through the windows I caught a glimpse of the room outside. It was silently slipping downward! We had started! * * * * * Had our voyage been an adventure unique in modern history, I should be constrained to describe it here in detail. But since these few stirring years which I am describing, Interplanetary voyaging has become a common thing. Father and Hulda were the first to leave the earth; Freddie, Dan and I were next. Pioneers! We afterward gave the secret to our world; the history of Interplanetary travel will make that plain. Space-voyaging soon will no longer seem an extraordinary thing; already, the mere account of an uneventful trip is not worth the reading. But an account of Xenephrene? Ah! That is a different matter. I doubt if any world will ever be found comparable to Xenephrene. As every one knows now, Mars is nothing like it; nor Venus; nor Mercury. They talk already of going to Jupiter; to Uranus; to Neptune. It is possible, of course. And in a few lifetimes beyond my own, they will be striving to reach the distant stars, for the spirit of adventure in man is insatiable. Our voyage to Xenephrene was remarkable only that we were pioneers in Space-travel. To lay stress upon it here would be out of place. Those days upon earth when the climate changed were more extraordinary. And Xenephrene herself! The Wanderer unique! And those other terrible days when we returned to earth--our world harried, wounded, bleeding, all but beaten! But with spirit unbroken, fighting-- So I hasten on. Our voyage was unmarked by any untoward incident. Our sensations at first, the novelty of it, stirred us all as we had never been stirred before. The first plunge into the dead blackness of space with the stars and the sun and all the worlds blazing like torches, is an experience never to be forgotten. The first look backward upon a dull-red crescent earth!