Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/84

72 arranged in front of him, and indicated, besides other things, the speed of the vessel, the direction in which it was moving, the approach of any opposing body and its probable distance and mass. All round the room there extended a perfect picture of the heavens outside, which was thrown on to the walls by the telephotoscope. The sky was now as black as ink, and was bespangled by hundreds of thousands of stars, while the sun shone in the middle, and the great belt of the Milky Way surrounded the whole. The earth lay stretched out behind like a great fiery ball that filled up a good part of the sky, but the individual objects on it were now indistinguishable. The sun was gradually approaching to the edge of the earth's disc, so that in a short time there would be complete darkness. In front and around, as far as the eye could reach, were the other ships, which appeared to lie quite motionless and silent in the