Accordingly the Cardite motor was slowed down, and the projectile shot through space at slightly reduced speed, while the two scientists made several observations, and did some intricate calculating about ether pressure, the distance of heavenly bodies and other matters of interest only to themselves. It was on the afternoon of the third day following the turning turtle of the _Annihilator_ that Mark, who was looking through a telescope in the pilot-house, called out: "I say, Jack, look here!" "What's the matter?" asked his chum. "Why, we're rushing right at the moon! I can see the mountains and craters on it as plain as though we were but five miles away!" "Then we must be nearly there," observed Jack. "Let's tell the others, Mark." They hurried to inform the two professors, who at once left their tables of figures and entered the steering chamber. Then, after gazing through the glass, Mr. Henderson announced: "Friends, we will land on the moon in half an hour. Get ready." "Are we really going to be walking around the moon inside of thirty minutes?" asked Mark. "I don't know about walking around on it," answered the German. "We first have to see if there is an atmosphere there for us to breathe, and whether the temperature is such as we can stand. But the Annihilator will soon be there." The speed of the Cardite motor was increased, and so rapidly did the projectile approach Luna that glasses were no longer needed to distinguish the surface of the moon. There she floated in space, a great, silent ball, but not like the earth, pleasantly green, with lakes and rivers scattered about in verdant forests. No, for the moon presented a desolate surface to the gaze of the travellers. Great, rugged mountain peaks arose all about immense caverns that seemed hundreds of miles deep. The surface was cracked and seamed, as if by a moonquake. Silence and terrible loneliness seemed to confront them. "Maybe it's better on some other part of the surface," said Jack, in a low voice. "Perhaps," agreed Mark. "It's certainly not inviting there." Nearer and nearer they came to the moon. It no longer looked like a great sphere, for they were so close that their vision could only take in part of the surface, and it began to flatten out, as the earth does to a balloonist. And the nearer they came to it the more rugged, the more terrible, the more desolate did it appear. Would they be able to find a place to land, or would they go hurtling down into some awful crater, or be dashed upon the sharp peak of some mountain of the moon? It was a momentous question, and anxious were the faces of the two professors. "Mr. Henderson, if you will undertake to steer to some level place, I will take charge of the motor," suggested Mr. Roumann. "I will gradually reduce the speed, and get the repelling machine in readiness, so as to render our landing gentle." "Very well," responded the aged scientist, as he grasped the steering wheel.