your spirit would undoubtedly escape upon leaving the body and be lost
forever.

"After taking every possible precaution to safeguard against any
movement of the body, place the cone securely over your mouth and nose.
Within a short time your spirit will leave the body and will instantly
be caught up by the super-radium current, on its return flow to Mars.
Entering the receiving apparatus and thus passing into the virator, the
flow will come into direct contact with my body, into which it will
discharge your spirit."

Almos stopped abruptly, consternation written on his face. A moment
later, I realized the cause--the two planets were passing out of wave
contact. At such a critical moment nothing could be more unfortunate,
and I was about hastily to suggest a postponement, when Almos exclaimed:
"It is all right!--I shall leave----"

Wave contact ceased before he had time to finish the sentence, and I was
left standing before the instrument in a state of irresolution.

How could I arrive on Mars totally unprepared to meet the conditions?
Upon my regaining consciousness these might present themselves in the
most urgent form, demanding immediate attention and a thorough knowledge
of Martian sciences. Almos' life, indeed, might depend upon just such a
condition.

Undetermined upon the course I should pursue the next day, my mind
filled with the most formidable fancies of so strange an undertaking, I
at last sought repose, hoping that with the morrow would come clearer
thought.