“It is, of course, the same with us now,” replied the Bonian, “but on our former charts which you see here”—showing a collection—“you will observe our original position, from which our present sun shows in the photograph as an exceedingly fine spot—a star of the twenty-seventh magnitude, as you would class them. Our world and its former sun would then be quite invisible to you, as you say the limit of your instruments is about the twenty-seventh magnitude. From the position shown here we very slowly approached your orbit, for you will see from these various photographs that Neptune was too far away to influence us, as was Uranus, and we crossed the orbit of Saturn at this point, when the planet was here”—showing the position on the map—“Jupiter was far away here with Mars opposite—as you see—and as we were progressing in this direction, you will notice by the position of your world in this photograph that we were travelling straight for it, and the voluminous records of the time state the terrible catastrophe that seemed imminent. However, as opposing forces when equal repel one another, we did not approach near enough to collide, and your somewhat stronger gravity retained us, and we described a new orbit round your Earth which does not seem to have affected our world in any way beyond a slight alteration of the climate, to which the people became accustomed along with the change, which was, of course, gradual.” “We supposed some such cause must have effected the approach of your world,” said Gilbert, “and many theories have been given by Earth scientists, but we are indeed glad to have the matter placed beyond doubt, strange as the explanation seems.” The Bonians were so generous as to give the travellers copies of all the photographs shown them, together with many celestial photographs of the unthinkable space beyond Neptune, which were taken centuries before, when the planet revolved in a different system; also a copy of the ancient records. These constituted priceless gifts, and were of inestimable benefit to the whole world of Earth, giving, as they did, a verified account of the annexation by Earth of a moon.