"Now, whether should I go to Mars or Venus?" I enquired, fixing my eyes on these planets and trying to estimate their relative distances from the earth.
Gazen made a mental computation, and replied with decision,
"Venus."
"All right," I responded. "Venus let it be."
CHAPTER V.
LEAVING THE EARTH.
"Check!"
I was playing a game of chess with an old acquaintance, Viscount ——, after dinner, one evening, in the luxurious smoking-room of a fashionable club in the West End of London.
Having got his queen into a very tight corner, I sipped a glass of wine, lit a Turkish cigarette, and leaned back in my chair with an agreeable sense of triumph.