"Why they're
only about thirty or forty miles round, aren't they?"
"About," he said, "but then that's just one of the points I want to
solve; and as for life, it doesn't always mean people, you know. We are
only a few hundred miles away from Deimos, the outer one, and he is
twelve thousand five hundred miles from Mars. I vote we drop on him
first and let him carry us towards Phobos. And then when we've examined
him we'll pay a visit to his brother and take a trip round Mars on him.
Phobos does the journey in about seven hours and a half, and as he's
only three thousand seven hundred miles above the surface, we ought to
get a very good view of our next stopping-place."
"That ought to be quite delightful," said Zaidie. "But how commonplace
you are getting, Lenox. That's so like you Englishmen. We are doing what
has only been dreamt of before, and here you are talking about moons and
planets as if they were railway stations."
"Well, if your Ladyship prefers it, we will call them undiscovered
islands and continents in the Ocean of Space. That does sound a little
bit better, doesn't it? Now I think I had better go down and see to my
engines."
When he had gone, Zaidie sat down to the telescope again and kept it
focussed on one of the little black spots travelling across the crescent
of Mars. Both it and the other spot rapidly grew larger, and the
features of the planet itself became more distinct.
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