As I said at the beginning of this narrative the sole purpose of writing
it has been to place before the reading public an account of the
adventures experienced by Lord Redgrave and his beautiful Countess from
the time of their departure from the Earth to the hour of their return
to it. Therefore there is no need to re-tell a tale already told, and
one that has been read and re-read a thousand times. Every one who has
read his or her newspaper from Chamskatska to Cape Horn, and from Alaska
to South Australia, knows how the Commander of the _Astronef_ so nursed
the remains which were left to him of the R. Force after overcoming the
attraction of the Sun, that he was able to steer an oblique course
between the Moon and the Earth, and to counteract what Zaidie called the
all too-loving attraction of the Mother Planet, and, after sixty hours
of agonising suspense, at last re-entered their native atmosphere.
The expenditure of the last few units of the R. Force enabled them to
just clear the summits of the Bolivian Andes, to cross the foothills and
western slopes of Peru, and finally to let the _Astronef_ drop quietly
on to the bosom of the broad Pacific about twenty miles westward of the
Port of Mollendo.
All this time thousands of anxious eyes had been peering through
telescopes every night in quest of the wanderers who must now be
returning if ever they were to return, and a reward of ten thousand
dollars, offered conjointly by the British and United States Governments
for the first authentic tidings of the _Astronef_, was won by a smart
young Californian, who was Assistant Astronomer at the Harvard
University Observatory at Arequipa.
Pages:
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262