through which we have been carried so swiftly."

Thorwald smiled a little and led the way through another superb waiting-
room out into the open air. Here the doctor looked in all directions, but
could see nothing of the object for which he was searching.

"You have seen all any of us can see," said Thorwald.

"We merely step into the comfortable car, sit a few minutes, step out
again, and go home. In the meantime we have been carried under ground and
under water, across valleys and through hills, but the way itself, the
tube through which the car flies, is entirely hidden from sight. Where it
is above ground, trees and shrubbery screen it from view, so that it does
not mar the landscape. We think much of this, and should regret
exceedingly if it became necessary for any such utilitarian object to
interfere with our aesthetic enjoyment of nature."

Thorwald's friend now took leave of us, expressing the hope that he would
soon see us again. He had taken some little part in our conversation, but
had left the burden of it to Thorwald, who was older, and who was,
moreover, our first acquaintance.

It seemed singular to the doctor and me that we had attracted so little
attention among the people whom we had encountered since leaving the ship.
To give the reason for this, which we afterwards discovered, is to reveal
one of the pleasantest peculiarities of the Martian character--that is,
the entire absence of a disagreeable curiosity. Our dress and appearance
and the rather novel circumstances connected with our arrival on the
planet, which must quickly have become known, were certainly calculated to
excite their interest, and in a similar situation on the earth there is no