One day (I speak always of "days," because we religiously counted
the passage of time by our clock) he issued alone from the car and was
absent a long time, so that we began to be concerned, and, going outside
looked everywhere for signs of him. At length, to our infinite relief, he
appeared stumbling and crawling along the foot of an icy mountain. As he
drew nearer we saw that he was smiling, and as soon as he was within easy
earshot he called out:
"It's all right. I've found the solution."
Then upon joining us he continued:
"We'll get out all right, but we shall have to be patient for a while
longer."
"What is it?" we asked eagerly. "What have you found out?"
"Peter," he said, turning to me, "you know what libration means; well,
it's libration that is going to save us. As Venus travels round the sun
she turns just once on her axis in making a complete circuit, the
consequence being, as you already know, that she has one side on which
the sun never rises while the other half is in perpetual daylight. But,
since her orbit is not a perfect circle, she travels a little faster than
the average during about half of her year and a little slower during the
other half, but, at the same time, her steady rotation on her axis never
varies.
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