We had landed on Venus!
"It's unquestionably frightfully cold outside," said Edmund, "and we'll
now put on these things."
He dragged out of one of his many lockers four suits of thick fur
garments, and as many pairs of fur gloves, together with caps and shields
for the face, leaving only narrow openings for the eyes. When we had got
them on we looked like so many Esquimaux. Finally Edmund handed each of
us a pair of small automatic pistols, telling us to put them where they
would be handy in our side pockets.
"Boarders all!" cried the irrepressible Jack. "Pirates, do your duty!"
Our preparations being made, we opened the door. The air that rushed in
almost hardened us into icicles!
"It won't hurt you," said Edmund in a whisper. "It can't be down to
absolute zero on account of the dense atmosphere. You'll get used to it
in a few minutes. Come on."
His whispering gave us a sense of imminent danger, but nevertheless we
followed as he led the way straight toward the shaft of light. On nearing
it we saw that it came out of an irregularly round hole in the ground.
When we got yet nearer we were astonished to see rough steps which led
down into the pit.
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