“My boy,” he said, softly, “whatever the _Sphere_ accomplishes, it has at least brought us together. To me, our perfect companionship has come to mean more than anything else. I did not realize what a lonely old man I was before you came.” “Old man!” chided Robert. “Fifty-seven years young.” “It is well for me that you had the _Sphere_ to occupy you, or some sweet young vision would have taken you in hand ere now. But forgive an old codger’s selfishness, Robert.” “Time enough to think about that, professor,” smiled Robert. “Careful. Don’t let them make a bachelor out of you. An old bachelor is a superfluity for which no one really cares. Even an old maid has her cat.” “Very well. We’ll each make love to a moon-maiden,” laughed Robert, and Professor Palmer joined him heartily. The following day the small ingots were melted and forced into the big, flattish, circular, platinum-lined and studded mold. Before the pouring was attempted, the mold was securely fastened down as a precaution against the lifting power of the mythonite when freed from the earth’s gravity by the interruption of the platinum beneath it. As an additional precaution, a disk of platinum was suspended over the mass, thereby neutralizing the attraction of heavenly bodies. With great care, the platinum-incased mass of mythonite was installed in the _Sphere_. A stout steel rod and universal joint connected it to the gyrostatic center, and the wiring and other details of its proper control were quickly completed. The petrol and oxygen tanks were partly filled, the gyrostats tuned up, and the _Sphere_ at last was ready for a trial trip. 5 Henry Simms, much interested, but skeptical to the last, was shown the interior of the _Sphere_ on the afternoon set for the first trial. He crawled through the manhole after Robert and the professor, firmly convinced that he was about to witness a flat failure of the _Sphere_ for which the professor claimed so much. To do him justice, though, it should be stated that Henry’s expectations were not without keen sympathy for the disappointment to which he felt certain the professor was doomed. “She looks more like a submarine than a blimp, professor,” was his first comment as they reached the main compartment. Indeed, the interior of the _Sphere_, with its intricate mass of machinery and its bull’s-eye windows, its riveted partitions and curved walls, and the incandescent lamps, did suggest a typical underseas craft. “She goes up, Henry, not down,” the professor laughed. “Deal me out, then,” cried Henry. “I am not prepared to go up for keeps yet!” “Rest easy,” said Robert. “It will be much easier to drop back, if in doubt, than to continue upward.” Robert proceeded to explain the _Sphere’s_ important features for Henry’s benefit.