第93章 BOOK III.(33)

"As soon as you can get ready,"replied Ayrault."I would not risk running short of enough current to generate the apergy needed to get us back.I dare say when I have been on earth a few years,and have done something for the good of my soul--which,as I take it,can be accomplished as well by advancing science as in any other way--I shall pine for another journey in space as I now do to return.""How I wish I were engaged,"said Bearwarden,glancing at Cortlandt,and overjoyed at Ayrault's recovery.

Accordingly,they resumed their march in the direction in which they had been going when they found Ayrault,and were soon beside the Callisto.Cortlandt worked the combination lock of the lower entrance,through which they crawled.Going to the second story,they opened a large window and let down a ladder,on which the spirit ascended at their invitation.

Bearwarden and Ayrault immediately set about combining the chemicals that were to produce the force necessary to repel them from Saturn.Bubbles of hydrogen were given off from the lead and zinc plates,and the viscous primary batteries quickly had the wires passing through a vacuum at a white heat.

"I see you are nearly ready to start,"said the spirit,"so Imust say farewell."

"Will you not come with us?"asked Ayrault.

"No,"replied the spirit."I do not wish to be away as long as it will take you to reach the earth.The Callisto's atmosphere could not absorb my body,so that,should I leave you before your arrival,you would be burdened with a corpse.I may visit you in the spirit,though the desire and effort for communion with spirits,to be of most good,must needs come from the earth.Ere long,my intuition tells me,we shall meet again.

"The vision of your own grave,"he continued,addressing Cortlandt,"may not come true for many years,but however long your lives may be,according to earthly reckoning,remember that when they are past they will seem to have been hardly more than a moment,for they are the personification of frailty and evanescence."He held up his hands and blessed them;and then repeating,"Farewell and a happy return!"descended as he had come up.

The air was filled with misty shadows,and the pulsating hearts,luminous brains,and centres of spiritual activity quivered with motion.They surrounded the incarnate spirit of the bishop and set up the soft,musical hum the travellers had heard so often since their arrival on Saturn.

"I now understand,"thought Ayrault,"why the spirits I met kept repeating that I should be happy.They perceived I was to be translated,and though they doubtless knew what suffering it would cause,they also knew I should be awakened to a sense of great realities,of which I understood but little."They drew up the ladder and turned on the current,and the Callisto slowly began to rise,while the three friends crowded the window.

"Good-bye!"called the spirit's pleasant voice,to which the men replied in chorus.

The sun had set on the surface of the planet while they made their preparations;but as the Callisto rose higher,it seemed to rise again,making the sides of their car shine like silver,and,carefully closing the two open windows,they watched the fast-receding world,so many times larger and more magnificent than their own.

CHAPTER XV.

MOTHER EARTH.

"There is something sad,"said Cortlandt,"about the end of everything,but I am more sorry to leave Saturn than I have ever been in taking leave of any other place."When beyond the limits of the atmosphere they applied the full current,and were soon once more cleaving the ether at cometary speed,their motion towards the sun being aided by that great body itself.

They quickly passed beyond the outer edge of the vast silvery rings,and then crossed one after another the orbits of the moons,from the last of which,Iapetus,they obtained their final course in the direction of the earth.They had an acute feeling of homesickness for the mysterious planet on which,while yet mortal,they had found paradise,and had communed with spirits as no modern men ever did.

Without deviating from their almost straight line,they passed within a million miles of Jupiter,which had gained in its smaller orbit on Saturn,and a few days later crossed the track of Mars.

As the earth had completed nearly half a revolution in its orbit since their departure,they here turned somewhat to the right by attracting the ruddy planet,in order to avoid passing too near the sun.