We guided our course by the stars, and
for me one of the most interesting things was to see the earth sinking
toward the horizon, accompanied by the stars, as if the heavens were
revolving in a direction opposed to our line of travel. We smoked and
talked and ate and slept in the old way, while the marvelous mouths in
the wall resumed their strange deglutition. Thus the time passed, without
ennui, until, unexpectedly, a new phenomenon captured our attention.
Ahead, through the peephole, Edmund had descried again the flaming spires
which had so astonished us on our approach to Venus. But now their
appearance was splendid and imposing beyond words. Above them rose an arc
of pearly light which grew higher every hour. And with the arc of light
rose the flames also. At the same time they seemed to spread to the right
and the left, until they were simultaneously visible from both of the
side windows of the car. Their colors were wonderful--red, green, purple,
orange--all the hues of the prism.
"There is the old mystery again," exclaimed Edmund, "and I can no more
explain it now than I could when we first saw it on nearing the planet.
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