On and on the projectile sped. Mr. Roumann, who had taken charge
of the steering wheel called the attention of the boys to a
small, dark object off to the right.
"What is it?" asked Jack. "It looks like a bright ball of fire."
"One of the moons of Mars," was the answer. "That is Deimos, and
we are now but ten thousand miles from the planet, for that is
the moon distance from Mars."
"How small it is!" commented Mark.
"Yes, it isn't much like our moon, but I suppose it answers for
the Martians."
"But if we're only ten thousand miles away from Mars, and are
traveling at two hundred miles a second, we'll be there in less
than a minute!" cried Jack.
"We would, only I have shut down the motor. We are now
approaching only from the force of the attraction of gravitation,
and that, I find, is much less than on our earth. At the proper
time I will reverse the motor, to make our landing easy."
The indicators showed that the Annihilator was now traveling
along at about the rate of a fast automobile.
"We're almost there!" cried Mark.
Mr. Roumann adjusted the machinery.
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