They were ablaze with amazing gems, but at first I could not see
the earth among them.
"I know what you are looking for," said Edmund. "Here, look through the
peephole in the bow. From our present position the earth appears but
little elevated above the horizon, but when we reach the caverns, which
are in the center of the dark hemisphere, we shall see her overhead."
I knelt at the peephole, and my heart was in my throat. There was our
glorious planet, oh, so bright! and close beside her the moon. At the
sight, an irrepressible longing arose in me to be once more at home. Jack
and Henry took their turns at looking, and they were no less affected
than I had been. But Edmund retained a perfect self-command:
"Do you know," he asked with an odd smile (for now the lamps were
glowing, and we had plenty of light in the car), "how long we have been
absent from home?"
Not one of us had kept a record.
"It is just six hundred and four days," he continued, "since we left New
York. We were sixteen days on our way to Venus; six days after our
arrival at the caverns occurred the conjunction of the earth, and the
ceremonies that Peter will not forget as long as he refrains from hair
dye; two days later we departed for the sun lands; and since then five
hundred and eighty days have passed.
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