was rapid, the change from one centre of gravity to
another had of course been slow,--and they had actually
slept through the whole. After the dancers had rested
once, Orcutt continued:--

19. "We cleared E. A. in two seconds, I think. Our
outer surface fused and cracked somewhat. So much the
better for us."

They moved so fast that the heat of their friction
through the air could not propagate itself through the
whole brick surface. Indeed, there could have been but
little friction after the first five or ten miles. By E.
A. he means earth's atmosphere.

His 20th despatch is: "I have no observations of
ascent. But by theory our positive ascent ceased in two
minutes five seconds, when we fell into our proper orbit,
which, as I calculate, is 5,109 miles from your mean
surface."

In all this, observe, George dropped no word of
regret through these five thousand miles.

His 21st despatch is: "Our rotation on our axis is
made once in seven hours, our axis being exactly vertical
to the plane of our own orbit. But in each of your daily
rotations we get sunned all round."

Of course, they never had lost their identity with