Of odors and scents there were plenty—most of them very delightful flower perfumes which the wind brought to us from the other side of the mountain ranges ahead. Occasionally a very disagreeable one would come, mixed up with the pleasant scents. But none of them, except that of the moon-bells the moth had brought with us, could we recognize. On and on we went for miles, crossing ridge after ridge and still no glimpse did we get of the Doctor’s tree. Of course crossing the ranges was not nearly as hard traveling as it would have been on Earth. Jumping and bounding both upward and downward was extraordinarily easy. Still we had brought a good deal of baggage with us and all of us were pretty heavy-laden; and after two and a half hours of travel we began to feel a little discouraged. Polynesia then volunteered to fly ahead and reconnoiter but this the Doctor was loath to have her do. For some reason he wanted us all to stick together for the present. [Illustration: “_Jumping was extraordinarily easy_”] However, after another half hour of going he consented to let her fly straight up so long as she remained in sight, to see if she could spy out the tree’s position from a greater height. THE THIRD CHAPTER Thirst! So we rested on our bundles a spell while Polynesia gave an imitation of a soaring vulture and straight above our heads climbed and climbed. At about a thousand feet she paused and circled. Then slowly came down again. The Doctor, watching her, grew impatient at her speed. I could not quite make out why he was so unwilling to have her away from his side but I asked no questions. Yes, she had seen the tree, she told us, but it still seemed a long way off. The Doctor wanted to know why she had taken so long in coming down and she said she had been making sure of her bearings so that she would be able to act as guide. Indeed, with the usual accuracy of birds, she had a very clear idea of the direction we should take. And we set off again, feeling more at ease and confident. The truth of it was of course that seen from a great height, as the tree had first appeared to us, the distance had seemed much less than it actually was. Two more things helped to mislead us. One, that the Moon air, as we now discovered, made everything look nearer than it actually was in spite of the soft dim light. And the other was that we had supposed the tree to be one of ordinary earthly size and had made an unconscious guess at its distance in keeping with a fair-sized oak or elm. Whereas when we did actually reach it we found it to be unimaginably huge. [Illustration: “_It was different from any tree I have ever seen_”]