that his teeth hurt him. And when the bandaged figure did speak, it was
in mumbling tones, very different from Mark's usually cheerful ones.

"Well," remarked Professor Roumann, after a final inspection of the big
Cardite motor--the one that was to be depended on to carry them to the
moon--"I think we are about ready to leave this earth. How about it,
Professor Henderson?"

"Yes, I think so. Have you made any calculation as to speed?"

"Yes, we will not have to move nearly as fast as we did when we went to
Mars. We only have to cover a quarter of a million of miles at the
most, and probably less than that. The motor will send us along at the
rate of about a mile a second, which is three thousand six hundred
miles an hour, or eighty-six thousand four hundred miles a--day. At
that rate we would be at the moon in less than three days.

"But I don't want to travel as fast as that," the German went on. "I
want time to make some scientific observations on the way, and so I
have reduced the speed of the Cardite motor by half, though should we
need to hasten our trip we can do so."

"Then we'll be about a week on the way?" asked Jack.

"About that, yes," assented Mr. Roumann.

"And could we go farther than to the moon if we wanted to?" inquired
the bandaged figure mumblingly.

"Farther? What do you mean?" asked Professor Henderson quickly.