Wade spoke rather hesitantly. "I come from the west, and have had a good bit of fun with a gun in the Rockies; there are still some mountain lions and some deer there, you know. I also have a sneaking acquaintance with the new gun, which Arcot developed in connection with his molecular motion. But there is so little you know about me--and most of it bad--I don't see how I really get in on this opportunity--but," he added hastily, "I certainly don't intend to keep the old boy knocking--I'm with you, since I'm invited!" Arcot smiled. "Then you'll definitely support us?" "Yes, I will," replied Morey, Senior, seriously, "for I think it's worth doing." The four young men climbed into the ship, to start for their apartment. Arcot was piloting, and under his sure touch the ship sped out into the cold night air, then up through the atmosphere, till they hung poised at a height of fifty miles on the upper edge of the airy blanket. They looked out in silent thought at the magnificent blazing stars of space. Here, where the dust-laden air could no longer mask their true colors, the stars shone unwinkingly, steadily, and in a glory that earth-bound men had never seen before. They shone in a wonderous riot of color, as varied and as beautiful as the display of colored floodlights in some great city. They were tiny pinpoints of radiance, red, green, orange, and yellow, shining with intense brilliance. Slowly Arcot let the machine settle to the blazing city miles below. "I love to come out here and look at those cold, pinpoint lights; they seem to draw me--the lure of other worlds. I've always had a sense of unfulfilled longing--the desire to go out there--and it's always been so hopeless. Now--I'll be out there by next spring!" Arcot paused and looked up at the mighty field of stars that arched over his head to be lost on either horizon. A wonderful night! "Where shall we go first, Dick?" asked Wade softly as he gazed out at the far-off suns of space, his voice unconsciously hushed by the grandeur of the spectacle. "I've thought of that for the last four months, and now that we are definitely going to go, we'll have to make a decision. Actually, it won't be too hard to decide. Of course we can't leave the solar system. And the outer planets are so far away that I think we had better wait till later trips. That leaves the choice really between Mars, Venus, and Mercury. Mercury isn't practical since it's so close to the sun. We know a fair bit about Mars from telescopic observation, while Venus, wrapped in perpetual cloud, is a mystery. What do you vote?" "Well," said Morey, "it seems to me it's more fun to explore a completely unknown planet than one that can be observed telescopically. I vote Venus." Each of the others agreed with Morey that Venus was the logical choice. By this time the machine had sunk to the roof of their apartment, and the men disembarked and entered. The next day they were to start the actual work of designing the space ship.