Of course they could keep it! what an absurd thing to write about! and it was handed round as they descended, but just as the owner was passing it to his wife it slipped out of his hand and went fluttering upwards, then suddenly stopped and remained floating, as before. Elevating the vessel again they took it in and descended, and again it floated back the instant the close grip on it was relaxed. Again they secured it and this time took it into the cabin to examine more closely, but it flew up to the ceiling and getting in the current of air there, was wafted out of the window and they saw it float up to its former position. This was most annoying, and the owner was not going to trouble further when his wife, recalling the chief secret of the _Regina_, suggested that the gravity of the paper had been altered to coincide with the particular pressure of the atmosphere at which it was found. This being the case, and his being the highest ship afloat, it was no longer a mere slip of paper, but a precious souvenir. He therefore rose, and just when he could rise no more he saw the paper a few yards away, floating as before. This time he placed it under glass, which he screwed to his table and, descending, proudly exhibited it to his friends. In the meantime, the _Regina_, once away from her audience, increased speed rapidly, and in a few minutes was outside the earth’s atmosphere, when she shot forward straight at Bona, watched by thousands of eyes; and through the most powerful telescopes she was seen to settle down as a tiny spot of light, like a mote in sunbeam, in the very centre of the still-luminous Bona, in the ‘heart’ of the “Kidney.” CHAPTER IV _MUSCÆ VOMITORIÆ_ “I saw three insects alight ... and after careful consideration I classed them as _Musca Vomitoria_ (blue-bottle flies) ... of exceptional size.”—_Insect Life._ “How is the air, Gilbert?” inquired Dennis, as Gilbert emerged from the laboratory where he had been testing a collected sample. “Excellent,” he replied; “about the same as ours but a little drier, though not much; it will suit us admirably.” “What about the gravity?” observed Ross, at the same time walking across to the gravitometer. “I see it is almost the same as Earth has now and exactly what she used to have. It measures a speed of thirty-two feet per second of a falling substance for each second of motion.” “That makes a unit force of half an ounce, then,” remarked Dennis. “Roughly, yes,” replied Gilbert, “about one-thirty-secondth of a pound, so it will be rather better for us than Earth.” “Then it is no use waiting any longer, we might as well land,” said Dennis. “Right you are!” exclaimed Gilbert, at the same time moving the ventilator-switch and closing the artificial air apparatus. “We may as well save our breath,” he observed. “What about our meeting any possible people?”