The following morning, on awakening, they went at once to their observatory, and found that Jupiter's disk was plainly visible to the naked eye, and before night it seemed as large as the full moon.
They then prepared to check the Callisto's headlong speed, which Jupiter's attraction was beginning to increase. When about two million miles from the great planet, which was considerably on their left, they espied Callisto ahead and slightly on their right, as Deepwaters had calculated it would be. Applying a mild repulsion to this--which was itself quite a world, with its diameter of over three thousand miles, though evidently as cold and dead as the earth's old moon--they retarded their forward rush, knowing that the resulting motion towards Jupiter would be helped by the giant's pull. Wishing to be in good condition for their landing, they divided the remainder of the night into watches, two going to sleep at a time, the man on duty standing by to control the course and to get photographic negatives, on which, when they were developed, they found two crescent-shaped continents, a speckled region, and a number of islands. By 7 A. M., according to Eastern standard time, they were but fifty thousand miles from Jupiter's surface, the gigantic globe filling nearly one side of the sky. In preparation for a sally, they got their guns and accoutrements ready, and then gave a parting glance at the car. Their charge of electricity for developing the repulsion seemed scarcely touched, and they had still an abundant supply of oxygen and provisions. The barometer registered twenty-nine inches, showing that they had not lost much air in the numerous openings of the vestibule. The pressure was about what would be found at an altitude of a few hundred feet, part of the rarefaction being no doubt due to the fact that they did not close the windows until at a considerable height above Van Cortlandt Park.
They saw they should alight in a longitude on which the sun had just risen, the rocky tops of the great mountains shining like helmets in its rays. Soon they felt a sharp checking of their forward motion, and saw, from the changed appearance of the stars and the sun, that they had entered the atmosphere of their new home.
Not even did Columbus, standing at the prow of the Santa Maria, with the New World before him, feel the exultation and delight experienced by these latter-day explorers of the twenty-first century. Their first adventures on landing the reader already knows.
Chapter V.[Contents]
EXPLORATION AND EXCITEMENT.
When they awoke, the flowers were singing with the volume of a cathedral organ, the chant rising from all around them, and the sun was already above the horizon. Finding a deep natural spring, in which the water was at about blood-heat, they prepared for breakfast by taking a bath, and then found they had brought nothing to eat.
"It was stupid of us not to think of it," said Bearwarden, "yet it will be too much out of our way to return to the Callisto."
"We have two rifles and a gun," said Ayrault, "and have also plenty of water, and wood for a fire. All we need is game."