“I think we had best land about five miles beyond the canal belt,” said Professor Palmer. “We ought to be safe there from any sudden attack, should the inhabitants prove hostile. More likely we will there be visited by a cautious few where both parties will have an opportunity to look each other over carefully before making any overtures.” This seeming a sound piece of advice, the _Sphere_ was steered several miles to the north of the belt. Here Robert allowed it to settle slowly. The sun was sinking into the horizon even as the _Sphere_ came to rest in the loose, yellow sand of the desert, about two hundred miles south of the equator. The trip to Mars was a reality! 11 “Hurrah we’re here!” shouted Taggert, executing a hand-spring, and narrowly missing the incandescents in the ceiling because of his unaccustomed light weight. Robert and Professor Palmer accepted their triumph more quietly. To Robert the remarkable trip already seemed as a nightmare. As he looked out on the quiet, desolate scene in the deepening twilight, he could scarcely realize that they were not still on the Earth. For despite the desolation of the vast Martian desert stretching before his eyes, and the fact that he had never before even seen a desert except in pictures, his imagination balked when he tried to believe himself on a strange planet, millions of miles from the Earth. The idea was preposterous, absurd! Robert’s more deliberate self persisted in half suspecting that they had simply miscalculated, and had actually returned to the Earth at some remote spot. “Boys, I’m going to try a whiff of our new atmosphere,” said the professor, unlatching one of the small portholes. Before either of the others could interfere, he had swung the heavy glass slightly inward, and sniffed the Martian atmosphere speculatively. Whatever fears they held were quickly dispelled by the look of relief which came over Professor Palmer’s countenance as he swung the port wide open and eagerly inhaled the outside atmosphere. “It’s all right,” he cried. “The regular stuff! Come on and enjoy some fresh, Martian desert air.” Robert and Taggert did not need to be urged. The air within the _Sphere_ seemed suddenly to have grown unbearably stale. With one accord they opened the other ports and filled their lungs with the sweet, cold air outside. “We’ll have to close up again to keep warm tonight,” shivered Taggert. “Thirty-four degrees above zero,” read Robert from the Fahrenheit thermometer outside. “The air on these deserts cools very rapidly after twilight,” said the professor. “Even in the Sahara, on our own globe, the temperature frequently drops below freezing at night. However, the temperature in the canal belts should be more uniform.” “Let’s get outside and look around a bit,” suggested Robert. “Good idea,” echoed the reporter. “I’d like to see what some of these oafs look like.” “Not likely to be any of them strolling around in the desert at night,” said Robert.