"The same as here," murmured Mr. Roumann. "I wonder what can cause it?"
He leaned over the motor, and made some calculations. Then he exclaimed:
"I have it!"
"What is the reason?" inquired the professor.
"It is because we are speeding through an atmosphere much less dense than that of our earth. There the motor would only work at a certain speed. Here, in the atmosphere of Mars, it goes more than twice as fast, because there is less resistance."
"Is that good or bad?" asked Jack.
"Good. We shall reach the planet all the sooner now. Boys, get ready to land on Mars in a few hours!"
The news was startling in itself, but so many strange things had happened on the trip that this only produced a momentary impression.
"Yo' say dat we am shortly goin' t' promulgate eurseves inter conjunctionary juxtaposition wid de exterior circumference an' surface ob de planetary sphere commonly called Mars?" asked Washington White.
"If you mean whether or not we are near Mars, why, we are," answered Jack with a laugh. "But, Wash, if you use such language as that I don't know what the Martians will think of you."