"Ah," said Edmund, laughing, "that's the _inertia of mass_. Your mass is
the same, although your weight has almost disappeared. Weight depends
upon the distance from the attracting body, but mass is independent of
everything."

"Do you mean to say that angels are massive?"

"They may be as massive as they like provided they keep well away from
great centers of gravitation."

"But Venus is such a center--then there can't be any angels there."

"I hope to find something better than angels," was Edmund's smiling
reply.

Now, as we drew near to Venus, the truth of Edmund's statements became
apparent. We felt that our weight was returning, and our muscular
activity sinking back to the normal again. We imagined that every minute
we could feel our feet pressing more heavily upon the floor.

Our approach was so rapid that the immense black circle grew visibly
minute by minute. Soon it was so large that we could no longer see its
boundaries through the peephole in the floor.

"We're now within a thousand miles," said Edmund, "and must be close to
the upper limits of the atmosphere. I'll have to slow down, or else we'll
be burnt up by the heat of friction."

He proceeded to slow down a little more rapidly than was comfortable. It
was jerk after jerk, as he dropped off the power, and put on the brakes,