Slanting through the crystal dome was the huge black barrel of a telescope, with ponderous equatorial mounting. Electric motors whirred silently in its mechanism, and little lights winked about it. A man was seated at the eyepiece—he was Dr. Trainor, Bill saw—he was dwarfed by the huge size of the instrument.
There was no other person in the room, no other instrument of importance. The massive bulk of the telescope dominated it.
Trainor rose and came to meet Bill. A friendly smile spread over his placid face. Blue eyes twinkled with mild kindliness. The subdued light in the room glistened on the bald dome of his head.
"Mr. Windsor, of the Herald-Sun, I suppose?" Bill nodded, and produced a notebook. "I am very glad you came. I have something interesting to show you. Something on the planet Mars."
"What——"
"No. No questions, please. They can wait until you see Mr. Cain again."
Reluctantly, Bill closed his notebook. Trainor seated himself at the telescope, and Bill waited while he peered into the tube, and pressed buttons and moved bright levers. Motors whirred, and the great barrel swung about.
"Now look," Trainor commanded.
Bill took the seat, and peered into the eyepiece. He saw a little circle of a curious luminous blue-blackness, with a smaller disk of light hanging in it, slightly swaying. The disk was an ocherous red, with darker splotches and brilliantly white polar markings.
"That is Mars—as the ordinary astronomer sees it," Trainor said. "Now I will change eyepieces, and you will see it as no man has ever seen it except through this telescope."