CHAPTER IV.

THE ELECTRIC ORRERY.

"Half-moon Junction! Change here for Venus, Mercury, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Ura.n.u.s, Neptune!"

So I called in the style of a Clapham railway porter, as I entered the observatory of Professor Gazen on the following night.

"What is the matter?" said he with a smile. "Are you imitating the officials of the Universal Navigation Company in the distant future?"

"Not so distant as you may imagine," I responded significantly; and then I told him all that I had seen and heard of the new flying machine.

The professor listened with serious attention, but manifested neither astonishment nor scepticism.

"What do you think about it?" I asked. "What should I do in the case?"

"Well, I hardly know," he replied doubtfully. "It is rather out of my line, and after my experience with Mars the other night, I am not inclined to dogmatise. At all events, I should like to see and try the machine before giving an opinion."

"I will arrange for that with the inventor."

"Possibly I can find out something about him from my American friends--if he is genuine. What's his name again?"

"Carmichael--Nasmyth Carmichael."

"Nasmyth Carmichael," repeated Gazen, musingly. "It seems to me I've heard the name somewhere. Yes, now I recollect. When I was a student at Cambridge, I remember reading a textbook on physics by Professor Nasmyth Carmichael, an American, and a capital book it was--beautifully simple, clear, and profound like Nature herself. Professors, as a rule, and especially professors of science, are not the best writers in the world.

Pity they can't teach the economy of energy without wasting that of their readers. Carmichael's book was not a dead system of mathematics and figures, but rather a living tale, with ill.u.s.trations drawn from every part of the world. I got far more help from it than the prescribed treatises, and the best of that was a liking for the subject. I believe I should have been plucked without it."

"The very man, no doubt."

"He was remarkably sane when he wrote that book, whatever he is now. As to his character, that is another question. Given a work of science, to find the character of the author. Problem."

"I shall proceed cautiously in the affair. Before I commit myself, I must be satisfied by inspection and trial that there is neither trickery nor self-delusion on his part. We can make some trial trips, and gain experience before we attempt to leave the world."

"If you take my advice you will keep to the earth altogether."

"Surely, if we can ascend into the higher regions of the atmosphere, we can traverse empty s.p.a.ce. You would have me stop within sight of the goal. The end of travel is to reach the other planets."

"Why not say the fixed stars when you are about it?"

"That's impossible."

"On the contrary, with a vessel large enough to contain the necessaries of life, a select party of ladies and gentlemen might start for the Milky Way, and if all went right, their descendants would arrive there in the course of a few million years."

"Rather a long journey, I'm afraid."

"What would you have? A million years quotha! nay, not so much. It depends on the speed and the direction taken. If they were able to cover, say, the distance from Liverpool to New York in a tenth of a second, they would get to Alpha in the constellation Centaur, perhaps the nearest of the fixed stars, in twenty or thirty years--a mere bagatelle. But why should we stop there?" went on Gazen. "Why should we not build large vessels for the navigation of the ether--artificial planets in fact--and go cruising about in s.p.a.ce, from universe to universe, on a celestial Cook's excursion--"

"We are doing that now, I believe."

"Yes, but in tow of the Sun. Not at our own sweet will, like gipsies in a caravan. Independent, free of rent and taxes, these hollow planetoids would serve for schools, hotels, dwelling-houses--"

"And lunatic asylums."

"They would relieve the surplus population of the globe," continued Gazen, warming to his theme. "It is an idea of the first political importance--especially to British statesmen. The Empire is only in its infancy. With a fleet of ethereal gunboats we might colonise the solar system, and annex the stars. What a stroke of business!"

"Another illusion gone," I observed "Think of Manchester cotton in the Pleiades! Of Scotch whiskey in Orion! However, I am afraid your policy would lead to international complications. The French would set up a claim for 'Ancient Lights.' The Germans would discover a nebulous Hinterland under their protection. The Americans would protest in the name of the Monroe Doctrine. It is necessary to be modest. Let us return to our muttons."

"Everybody will be able to pick a world that suits him," pursued Gazen, still on the trail of his thought. "If he grows tired of one he can look round for a better. Criminals will be weeded out and sent to Coventry, I mean transplanted into a worse. When a planet is dying of old age, the inhabitants will flit to another."

"Seriously, if Carmichael's machine turns out all right, will you join me in a trip?"

"Thanks, no. I believe I shall wait and see how you get on first."

"And where would you advise me to go, Mars or Venus?"

The professor smiled, but I was quite in earnest.

"Well," he replied, "Mars is evidently inhabited; but so is Venus, probably, and of the two I think you will find her the more hospitable and the nearest. When do you propose to start?"

"Perhaps within six months."

"We must consider their relative distances from the earth. By the way, I don't think you have seen my new electrical orrery."

"An electrical orrery," I exclaimed. "Surely that is something new!"

"So far as I am aware; but you never know in these days. There is nothing new under the sun, or even above it."

So saying, he opened a small door in the side of the observatory, and, ushering me into a very dark apartment, closed it behind us.

"Follow me, there is no danger," said he, taking me by the arm, and guiding me for several paces into the darkness.

At length we halted, and I looked all around me, but was unable to perceive a single object.

"Where are we?" I enquired; "in the realms of Chaos and Old Night?"

"You are now in the centre of the Universe," replied Gazen; "or, to speak more correctly, at a point in s.p.a.ce overlooking the solar system."

"Well, I can't see it," said I. "Have you got such a thing as a match about you?"

"Let there be light!" responded Gazen in a reverent manner, and instantly a soft, weird radiance was over all. The contrast of that sudden illumination with the preceding darkness was electrical in more senses than one, and I could not repress a cry of genuine admiration.

A kind of twilight still reigned, and after the first moment of surprise, I perceived that we were standing on a light metal gangway in the middle of a great hollow cell of a luminous black or dark blue colour, relieved by innumerable bright points, and resembling the night sky in miniature.

"I need hardly say that is a model of the celestial sphere," whispered Gazen, indicating the starry vault.