looking at the people passing before one of the large government
buildings in Washington, I had to keep regulating the instrument in
order to keep this building in view. Moreover, I discovered that I had
to regulate it as fast as I had done with the ocean liner. In fact,
obviously the liner's speed mattered but little; it was the rate at
which the Earth was revolving upon its axis and journeying around the
sun with which I had to contend. Through the telescope this was not
discernible, but now that I had come into such close visual contact with
the Earth's surface, I realized the terrific speed with which it rushed
through space. Hundreds of miles a minute was the speed my instrument
had to be regulated to, in order to keep an object on Earth in view--the
motion of the liner was insignificant!

Moving the current eastward over the Atlantic Ocean, I discovered that
darkness in no way hindered my view of objects on Earth's surface. The
reproduction on the lens, however, presented quite a different
appearance to that which I had witnessed while observing the part of
Earth illuminated by the sun. The beautiful colors which contributed so
much realism to the picture were now replaced by a sombre gray tone,
greatly resembling a photograph in appearance.

So absorbed had I become in all that this wonderful instrument revealed
to me of the different phases of life on Earth, that I forgot all else,
until, with a start, I realized that someone was moving about in the
large room which contained the virator that I had recently left. I was
filled with apprehension. Who could it be? And what was the reason of
this unexpected visit? Almos had not warned me against intrusion of any
kind, and I felt that to meet and converse with a Martian, thus
unprepared, would be impossible. In that room, however, were the
instruments that held two lives within their delicate mechanism, and