Over-garments like the stolla, tunica and the dalmatica were worn for one week, or less; when soiled, they were also fabricated over again. But all garments, new or worn, were sun rayed and disinfected every day before being worn. Our own clothes, which by this time were also disinfected and sun-ray sterilized, were stored away, excepting my log book papers, diary books and shorthand notebooks. Our clothes were to be given to us when we returned to earth. We were relieved at the time to learn our stay was to be only temporary. After dressing, he again assured us that our captors were friendly and that we must not be afraid; they had a motive for their actions which they would fully explain to our satisfaction. Later we consulted among ourselves and decided that since we were entirely at the mercy of these strange men, we had no choice but to obey. He then guided us into an antechamber where he told us to leave our firearms, parachutes, breathing suits, and other accoutrements. Then mentioned us to follow him. He assured us our property would be held safely and returned to us. The attendant puzzled me by anticipating my wish in suggesting that I take out my pencil and notebook from the disinfector and take them along so that I could take down notes on what took place. Then, with great ceremony, he ushered us into a large, high ceilinged, beautifully decorated sunlit room, where about fifty men were seated, all dressed in Roman style. They wore their hair cut short, with a mass of short, wavy curls around the ears, bound around with a one inch lavender ribbon. They were all clean shaven, with hair parted on the right or left side. Facing us at the far end of the room, standing near a large desk, was their leader, who wore a distinctive over-garment called the toga; a loose, long, sleeveless wrapper, gracefully thrown over the left shoulder and arm, girdled around the waist, decorated at the edges with a filet of gold. He also wore a one inch wide gold filet ribbon around his head. With great courtesy he bowed low to us and greeted each of us by our full name. "We welcome you to our ship," he began, "even though you may be unwilling guests at this moment. But after you have heard our reasons for capturing you, and see what we want to show you, you will only be too glad that we took these means to get you here. "We are Martians from the planet Mars, which is today about fifty-eight million miles away from your earth. Since this is the day of the year when our two worlds are the closest together, we planned to use it in some way to contact you. We wanted to land on your globe and deliver our message, but its invincible gravitational attraction is so powerful that once we landed, we could not, under any circumstances, overcome and detach ourselves from it. Therefore, we have brought you into our orbit, and we shall now explain our reasons.