The doctor waited until she was all through; then, "While you were having that experience I was in touch with young Ernol again. The boy has recovered and is still in jail, but they let him have his books now. And I've been helping him study geography."
"Well?" eagerly.
"Very simple. Capellete is a double world!"
"Double!"
"Yes! There are two globes, instead of one. They're twins, and
Siamese twins at that!" He drew a figure on his knee, thus:
[Illustration: two circles touching each other]
"Just imagine the earth and Venus of the same size, and so near to one another that their combined gravity has brought them together! That's Capellette! And the contact is the place where they touch!"
They considered this in wondering silence for a while. Then the doctor continued:
"It's just as we had deduced; each of the planets is larger than the earth. I saw the figures in that geography.
"But astronomically they are one. They revolve around Capella together; the rotate about a common center daily, just as the earth rotates on its axis. This common center is, of course, in the contact."