"Going to Venus!" we all cried in a breath.

"To be sure. Why not? We've got the proper sort of conveyance, haven't
we?"

There was no denying that. Our conveyance had already brought us some
millions of miles out into space; why, indeed, should it not be able to
carry us to Venus, or any other planet?

"How far is it to Venus?" asked Jack.

"When we quit the earth," Edmund answered, "Venus was rapidly approaching
inferior conjunction. You know what that is," addressing me, "it's when
the planet comes between the sun and the earth. The distance from the
earth is not always the same at such a conjunction, but I figured out
that on this occasion, after allowing for the circuit we should have to
make, there would be just twenty-seven million miles to travel. At an
average speed of twenty miles a second we could do that distance in
fifteen days, fourteen and one half hours. But, of course, I had to lose
some time going slow through the earth's atmosphere, for otherwise the
car would have taken fire, like a meteor, on account of the friction.
Then, too, I shall have to slow up on entering the atmosphere of Venus,
which appears to be very deep and dense; so, upon the whole, I don't
count on landing upon Venus in less than sixteen days from the time of
our departure. We've already been out five days, and within eleven more I
expect to introduce you to the inhabitants of another world."

The inhabitants of another world! Again Edmund had thrown out an idea
which took us all aback.