strike the earth with a velocity of only six or seven miles a second,
while the meteorites come at the rate of twenty to thirty miles a second,
the earth's rate of revolution being nineteen miles in the same time. It
is found that a necessary consequence of these velocities is that the
meteors move about the sun, and not the earth, as the controlling body.
Our latest study points to the conclusion that they are of cometary
origin, and, as comets have been known to divide, some scientists believe
the meteorites are fragments of exploded comets. At any rate, they are
found in the company of these mysterious bodies, and appear to have
similarly eccentric orbits."

"Your studies are leading you in the right direction," said Thorwald. "The
meteorites do indeed come from the regions of space, and if they have any
story to tell it is a story of those distant parts of the universe about
which any testimony is valuable. Let us look again at the fragment we are
supposed to hold in our hand. Can we tell of what it is composed, or is
its substance something entirely new? I am sure you must have analyzed it
down to its minutest particle, and if so you have found it contains
nothing foreign to the earth. There is not a single element in the
meteorite that does not exist also in the crust of the earth. Tell me,
Doctor, how many elements have you discovered in them?"

"Nearly thirty," answered the doctor. "And one interesting fact is, that
the three elements most common in the earth--iron, silicon, and oxygen--
are also found most widely distributed among the meteorites."

"That is an exceedingly significant fact," said Thorwald; "and now do you
not see how strongly the meteorites confirm the story of the spectrum, and
how everything tells us the universe is one in its physical structure? By
these two widely different sources of information you find that beyond