"I have it all figured out," replied the German.
"I hope our projectile will stand it," remarked Mr. Henderson. "We did not have to make such terrific speed on our other voyages."
"I think that the Annihilator, as we have planned it, will not suffer from the strain of speed," when on Mr. Roumann, looking up from his study of some blue–prints. "You may be astonished when I tell you we shall have to travel at the rate of one hundred miles a second."
"One hundred miles a second!" exclaimed Jack. "That's pretty fast, isn't it?"
"It's at the rate of eight million six hundred and forty thousand miles a day," came from Mark, who was a rapid figurer.
"And to cover thirty–five million miles would take us less than five days," said Jack. "But such an enormous speed—"
"We must travel at about that speed," interrupted Mr. Roumann, "though I fancy we will be nearer ten days than five in reaching Mars."
"Why?" asked Jack.
"Because we will not dare travel at such terrific speed as one hundred miles a second through the atmosphere of the earth. We would be burned into cinders by the mere friction of the air. Therefore, I shall send the Annihilator comparatively slowly through the earth's atmosphere, and perhaps I will find that I shall have to do the same thing when we near Mars. But while traveling through the ether, or the space that is between the two can go as fast as we like, which will as Mark has said, eight million miles per day."
"But even that rate," began Jack, "is going to pretty fast."