This can be disconnected easily, and the projecting apparatus
substituted, from which I have also removed the image surface. Thus we
may have a free current of super-radium flowing from the radioscope to
Earth and returning into the virator, and by substituting the projecting
apparatus, we have a current flowing from the virator to Earth and
returning into the receiving apparatus.

"This is exactly the condition that exists in a virator in ordinary use
with these exceptions: the current of super-radium is made to flow
either in or out of the bottom chamber, as well as the top; instead of
being local, the current is between Earth and Mars, and consequently
much more powerful. The currents from both the top and bottom chambers
are controlled by clockwork which I have devised for that purpose, and
in place of an operating table in the virator I have substituted a
couch.

"And now I enjoin you to summon all your courage, for in this
undertaking nothing but nerves of steel will carry you safely through."

"I shall faithfully carry out your instructions, Almos," I responded,
trying to appear perfectly calm, though my being fifteen hundred years
behind Martian times never seemed so much a handicap as now.

"Follow me, then, word for word," resumed Almos. "Understand all I say,
for in the error of a second, the misconception of a word, the hesitancy
of a moment, there is death!

"To-morrow, when that part of the Earth's surface on which Paris is
situated appears, I shall attach the receiving apparatus of the
radioscope to the lower chamber of the virator, so that the return