“The new cable was run up alongside of the old and the upper end fastened to Deimos while the eye in the lower end was placed over the shaft. The cable was then deprived of weight and the 700 miles of slack floated about in space like a big cobweb. It was now supposed that if the old cable was cut Deimos would rapidly move out to his old position. But he did nothing of the kind. He seemed to be satisfied with his new route, and for several months he persistently kept on without getting any further away, his slack cable sagging out behind. They now undertook to compel him, and they succeeded in this way. They gave the cable full weight repulsion. This caused it to straighten out upward, and the slack went on up 350 miles above Deimos curving back to him. The whole thing looked like a fish pole and line with Deimos dangling at the end of it. It had the desired effect, however, for its strain upward exerted considerable power on Deimos disturbing the equilibrium that had been established between the centripetal and centrifugal forces that controlled his motion. It took about two years, however, to get him back to his old route. He was tipped over twice in the process, on account of the cable having been fastened on the underside; first while the loop of the cable was above it, and second when it got out to the end of the cable it was canted back again.” “It was a funny experience, the little moon had,” I observed. “I suppose it got down to its former gait so as to allow of the old retrograde speed of cable at the Mars end?” “Yes of course, the speed of Deimos decreased with its distance from Mars. It has occurred to them since, that they ought to have had a still longer cable, so as to have got him still further off with a still slower movement. They would have got more power by it.