“You unbelieving sinner! you’re as bad as the rest!” laughed Dennis, and having wound the last of the cord, he attached another soft-wire terminal so that it should be ready for any similar purpose at a moment’s notice, and passed on to another part of the ship, leaving Godfrey examining the wire reel. Whilst he was standing there Gilbert passed on his way to the ‘wave’ apparatus and cautioned Godfrey, “Don’t touch that, old man, or there’ll be trouble!” “Oh, I know all about these things, Gilbert. I shall come to no harm,” responded Godfrey, smiling confidently, and walking away. A few minutes later, a blinding flash of light went across the room, accompanied by the peculiar crackle of a powerful short-circuit, immediately followed by a yell of pain and terror from Godfrey. “You idiot!” shouted Ross, “why can’t you keep your fingers out of mischief? Didn’t you promise us faithfully that you’d touch nothing?” “I’m awfully sorry, Ross, I am indeed!” said Godfrey, contritely, but whether from the broken promise, or from the pain he felt, only he knew, as he turned away nursing his badly blistered hand. “I only moved that switch on the roller to see what it would do.” “Well, you’ve seen now! and if you do any more of your monkey tricks we’ll put you in a cabin and keep you prisoner. You don’t know what you’re doing when you move switches here, and you might kill us all. Now don’t let it occur again!” and highly incensed Ross attached another terminal on the wire, and the other two running up gave the culprit a few forcible admonitions; after which Godfrey humbly apologised, saying he would not transgress again, at the same time protesting they were throwing his kindness in his face, when electricity was his forte and he wanted to assist in order to relieve them. Tranquillity being restored, Godfrey strolled to a window to look out, and very shortly he cried: “Oh! do look here, ‘triad’” (which word he used when referring to the three), calling his friends to the window, where they saw far behind them a great dark mass, getting slowly smaller as they left it in the distance. “What is it? It has a halo of light round it,” he cried, excitedly. “It’s our Earth,” said Gilbert, quietly. “That!” vociferated Godfrey. “Do you mean to say that we are now, so soon, outside the Earth’s atmosphere?” They all laughed at his surprise, and Gilbert went on, “At this moment we are about fifty thousand miles distant from Earth, and what you see is the illumined atmosphere of the further side. If you go to the end window, you will see we are going straight to Jupiter.” “Why straight?” queried Godfrey, staying where he was. “Because we always travel in a straight line.” “But can you not turn aside?” “Certainly, but after turning, by our own desire or the force of some other body, the original normal position—the straight line—will be resumed and maintained till again altered.” “Really!” exclaimed Godfrey. “But how about speed? How do you get it?”