The _savants_, after all, should never speculate on my bones.
I saw the ruddy disk of Mars, and the glinting of his icy poles, as the beautiful planet rolled far below me.

"If I could only get there," I thought, "I should know what those canals of Schiaparelli are, and even if I could never return to the earth, I should doubtless meet with a warm welcome among the Martians.

What a lion I should be!" I looked longingly at the distant planet, the outlines of whose continents and seas appeared most enticing, but when I tried to propel myself in that direction I only kicked against nothingness.

I groaned in desperation.
Suddenly something darted by me flying sunward; then another and another.

In a minute I was surrounded by strange projectiles.