"And so I will," replied the scientist. "You must know that I
have long been interested in the planet Mars, for several
reasons. Some reasons I will tell you now, and the others I will
disclose at a future time."
"Mars, you know, is the fourth major planet, computing their
positions in distance from the sun. First there is Mercury,
then--"
"I know," interrupted Jack; "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. I learned them at school."
"That's right," said Mr. Roumann. "But, while Mercury is only
about thirty-six millions of miles from the sun at its nearest
point, the closest it ever comes to the earth is fifty-seven
millions of miles, while, as I told you, Mars is now but thirty-five
millions of miles away, a difference in favor of Mars of
twenty-two millions of miles, quite a distance when one has to
travel it. Neptune, the farthest of the major planets, is two
billion eight hundred millions of miles from the sun, and it is
separated from this earth by--"
"By two billion seven hundred and eight million miles," said Mark
quickly.
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