Young Visitor to Mars

A Young Heroes Library Volume
By RICHARD M. ELAM, Jr.
ILLUSTRATED BY CHARLES H. GEER
GROSSET & DUNLAP NEW YORK
Copyright 1953 By Lantern Press, Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 53-10375 MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
The rocket ship Shooting Star powered through the black deeps of space like a silver bullet. Inside a room of their parents’ suite aboard the vessel, Ted Kenton and his sister Jill sat before a large window looking out at the wonders of space in the year A.D. 2003.
“It doesn’t seem as if we’re moving at all, does it, Sis?” Ted asked.
Jill shook her auburn head. “No, but it scares me to know how fast we’re going!” she replied.
Ted straightened his sturdy young shoulders and shook strands of brown hair out of his eyes. It was natural that girls should be scared of things connected with space travel, he thought. “Thousands of miles an hour isn’t much,” he said lightly.
“But what if we should hit something!” Jill complained. “It would be an awful crash!”
“The only things we have to worry about hitting are meteors,” Ted told her. “The Shooting Star has radar instruments that tell us when they’re headed straight at us.”
“Father says that sometimes meteors come so fast that space ships can’t get out of the way of them,” Jill returned, with solemn eyes.