Page:Biagi - The Centaurians.djvu/109

 LETTING THE RELIEF PARTY KNOW YOUR LOCATION" was written neatly on a card inside the box.

"Old Jordan's trick," muttered Saxe., while I aired my suspicions that the powder had become damp or something equally mysterious had happened to it—there is always something wrong with rockets.

Saxe. scowled, but signified his intention of sending up rockets just to see what effect they would have upon that red globe.

"For," he concluded, "it is not a star, nor a moon, nor a sun. It is nothing belonging to the heavens."

We trooped out, each armed with a rocket, then at the signal simultaneously up they whizzed, bursting with the report into varied-hued sparks and descending in the usual golden shower. The effect upon the bright globe was startling. Like a shot it flashed across the sky, tinging a long, filmy, roseate path; small, and smaller it grew, then vanished in space. Though still mystified we were satisfied with the experiment. The next day dawned clear, warm. Towards noon the heat became so intense we were forced to give up travel till evening. Saxe. and Saunders had covered seven miles during the night, and we made two in the early morning; consequently were nine miles from the point of the phenomenon. We decided to wait a reasonable length of time for its reappearance, and consumed the entire day in arguments. I was thankful when evening approached. Eagerly we scanned