reconnoiter a little, and can approach the inhabitants on the other side
so much the more safely."

"That sounds all right enough," said Jack, "but if Venus is correctly
named, I'm for getting where the inhabitants are as quick as possible."

When we swung round into the shadow of the planet we got her between the
sun and ourselves, and as she completely hid the sun, we now had
perpetual night about the car. Out of the peephole she looked like a
stupendous black circle, blacker than the sky itself, but round the rim
was a beautiful ring of light.

"That's her atmosphere," Edmund explained, "lighted up by the sun from
behind. But, for the life of me, I cannot tell what those immense flames
mean."

He referred to a vast circle of many-colored spires that blazed and
flickered like a burning rainbow at the inner edge of the ring of light.
It was one of the most awful, and yet beautiful, sights that I had ever
gazed upon.

"That's something altogether outside my calculations," Edmund added. "I
can't account for it at all."

"Perhaps they are already celebrating our arrival with fireworks,"
suggested Jack, always ready to take the humorous view of everything.

"That's not fire," Edmund responded earnestly. "But what it is I confess
I can't imagine. We'll find out, however, for I haven't come all this
distance to be scared off."