brighter than when at its greatest brilliancy. It was seen far away, shining steadily, but without the scintillating, fiery glow seen from Earth, which, along with other characteristics peculiar to their unique point of sight, caused much friendly discussion amongst the voyagers as the ship sped onward direct for her goal—the star which warms, illumines and governs all the planets and the thousands of planetoids forming the solar system, binding them all together by such close and common ties, as of relationship, that no shock or change of any magnitude can take place in any one of them without affecting all the others, however remote. By this time the _Regina_ had travelled a little over twenty-seven of the ninety-three millions of miles which separate the earth from the sun, and consequently had arrived within the orbit of Venus. The details of the visit the original owners had paid to this “Star of Love” centuries before, were, of course, matters of history, well known to every person on board; notwithstanding which, several of the visitors wished to go out of their course to follow in the wake of the planet, and land, and pressed Dennis to go there, but he refused, saying they must travel direct to the sun and back, and in this decision the rest of the party concurred, seeing that Venus was at the opposite side of the sun to Earth and they would have to go past the sun and then come back. Then for the first time dissension arose, and amongst the few who wished to go to Venus were some of those who first regretted having embarked. These openly expressed their dissatisfaction, and endeavoured to inflame the fears of their more courageous and peace-abiding companions by referring constantly to the now awful-looking sun which, shorn of the protecting veil of Earth atmosphere, glared with terrible power into the vessel, and contrasted his malignancy with the benign, yet distant Venus, rolling onward in stately movement. So effective were these constant comparisons that before many days had passed other faint-hearts saw in the sun and its slowly increasing and awful bulk a doom by the worst of deaths, and they commenced to argue with all the owners in turn, that even if the vessel could withstand the enormous heat and friction, she could not possibly sustain the equally enormous pressure, but would be cracked like a nut as she drew nearer, for a tiny jet of vapour on the sun would strike with a force of thousands, perhaps millions of tons, and shatter the ship like burnt paper. “The vessel can withstand lightning and any other force,” said Dennis, with conviction. “Lightning, may be!” retorted Edgar Holt, who seemed to be regarded by his friends as their spokesman, “but not solar energy. In lightning you have direct electrical energy, and I will admit for argument your sources of power to be greater than lightning, but solar energy is infinitely stronger, and we shall be crushed.”