Produced by Anne Soulard, Suzanne Shell, William Craig, Robert Laporte, Steen Christensen and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team DAYBREAK A ROMANCE OF AN OLD WORLD By James Cowan [Illustration: “HE MADE THE STARS ALSO”] CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. AN ASTRONOMER ROYAL. CHAPTER II. A FALLEN SATELLITE. CHAPTER III. TWO MEN IN THE MOON. CHAPTER IV. AND ONE WOMAN. CHAPTER V. OUR INTRODUCTION TO MARS. CHAPTER VI. A REMARKABLE PEOPLE. CHAPTER VII. RAPID TRANSIT ON MARS. CHAPTER VIII. THORWALD PUZZLED. CHAPTER IX. THORWALD AS A PROPHET. CHAPTER X. MORE WORLDS THAN TWO. CHAPTER XI MARS AS IT IS. CHAPTER XII. WE REACH THORWALD’S HOME. CHAPTER XIII. A MORNING TALK. CHAPTER XIV. PROCTOR SHOWS US THE EARTH. CHAPTER XV. A NIGHT ADVENTURE. CHAPTER XVI. AN UNLIKELY STORY. CHAPTER XVII. THE DOCTOR IS CONVINCED. CHAPTER XVIII. STRUCK BY A COMET. CHAPTER XIX. I DISCOVER THE SINGER. CHAPTER XX. A WONDERFUL REVELATION. CHAPTER XXI. A LITTLE ANCIENT HISTORY. CHAPTER XXII. AGAIN THE MOON. CHAPTER XXIII. WE SEARCH FOR MONA. CHAPTER XXIV. THE PICTURE TELEGRAPH. CHAPTER XXV. AN UNSATISFACTORY LOVER. CHAPTER XXVI. AN ENVIABLE CONDITION. CHAPTER XXVII. THE CHILDREN’S DAY. CHAPTER XXVIII. BUSINESS ETHICS. CHAPTER XXIX. THE INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM. CHAPTER XXX. ATTEMPTS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM. CHAPTER XXXI. WINE-DRINKING IN MARS. CHAPTER XXXII. A GENUINE ACCIDENT. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMAN. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE EMANCIPATION OF MAN. CHAPTER XXXV. AN EXALTED THEME. CHAPTER XXXVI. VANQUISHED AGAIN BY A VOICE. CHAPTER XXXVII. UNTIL THE DAY BREAK. CHAPTER XXXVIII. AND THE SHADOWS FLEE AWAY. CHAPTER XXXIX. A SUDDEN RETURN TO THE EARTH. POSTSCRIPT. DAYBREAK: A ROMANCE OF AN OLD WORLD CHAPTER I. AN ASTRONOMER ROYAL. It was an evening in early autumn in the last year of the nineteenth century. We were nearing the close of a voyage as calm and peaceful as our previous lives. Margaret had been in Europe a couple of years and I had just been over to bring her home, and we were now expecting to reach New York in a day or two. Margaret and I were the best of friends. Indeed, we had loved each other from our earliest recollection. No formal words of betrothal had ever passed between us, but for years we had spoken of our future marriage as naturally as if we were the most regularly engaged couple in the world. “Walter,” asked Margaret in her impulsive way, “at what temperature does mercury melt?” “Well, to hazard a guess,” I replied, “I should say about one degree above its freezing point. Why, do you think of making an experiment?”