“Then if you have the exact position of the heavens when they were dumped on this moon, could you not calculate its present position from its previous movement?” “That we have done,” replied Rollsborough, “and taking into account the progress, the attraction of Venus, that of the sun, its own gravity, and the influence and positions of the other members of the solar family, the previous movement still brings it an attendant on Venus, and every calculation we make gives that result, yet you see it is not there! I have tried everything I can think of, so have Sorrel and several others, but all our results come to Venus, and nowhere else—so we are nonplussed.” “You know the attractive power of the world, Oakland?” said Coombes, “Could you not draw it here?” Dennis shook his head without answering. “Would not that be possible?” Coombes persisted. “No, quite impossible! to attempt to do that would upset the balance of the whole solar system and bring inconceivable disaster. We should also attract millions of planetoids, meteor-swarms, and everything of less power to resist, and be crowded with them on all sides for thousands of miles.” “Then what _can_ we do, Oakland?” asked Rowland. “It would take hundreds of years to go to all the planets we see from here, and every mile we go brings new ones into view.” “I am done, Rowland!” replied Dennis, despairingly, “so are we all. You tell us something, Rollsborough!” “I am quite in the dark like yourselves, Oakland, and anything I can suggest must, of necessity, be wild and perhaps reckless, but I recognise that we ought not to speed along home and perhaps be leaving the planet we want further afield every second. I have an idea that we are in some way the cause of the disappearance, and I would like to work out the world’s present position, taking it to have flown off at a tangent after we left.” After what seemed an interminable time, though in reality but a few minutes, Rollsborough continued,—“This calculation I have made would show the star to have taken a course directly to a few degrees to the left of the way we are travelling, and it points to one of these two stars which we see here on the last photograph, but invisible through our glasses till we get nearer. I propose that we alter our course slightly and proceed to one of these uncharted stars lying somewhat to our left, and trust to chance to find the right one. This will entail the alteration of but a few degrees, and would not, perhaps, lessen the ship’s speed appreciably; would it, Oakland?” “That would not be sufficient to affect it in any way,” answered Dennis; and a moment later they were heading for a distant star, and after some days had passed, drew sufficiently near to form some idea of its orbit. It was travelling rapidly from them, in the same direction, which accounted for the long time taken to approach its mass, they, fortunately, travelling at a much greater speed.