A Voyage to Arcturus

he road, very wild and lonely, ran for the greater part of the way near the edge of rather lofty cliffs, within sight of the North Sea. The sun shone, but a brisk east wind was

erched on the extreme end of the land. There were three buildings: a small, stone-built dwelling house, a low

except on the side facing the sea, where the house itself formed a continuation of the cliff. No one appeared.

he knocker was thick with dust and had obviously not been used for a long time. He put his ear to th

looking for another entrance,

There’s no one here. . . . . Now you try

tower, which stood some way back from the cliff, he found the door heavily padlocked. Gazing up, he saw six windows, one above the other at equal distances, all on the east face — that is, overlooking

ceive an invitation?” dema

d Nightspore, biting his nai

n to camp out till Kra

und floor. The lower pane was completely shattered. Carefully avoiding the broken glass, Maskull thrust his hand through t

utensils and rubbish lay on the floor instead of on the dust heap, everything was covered with a deep deposit of dust. The atmospher

oom, and a storing place for lumber. The same dirt, mustiness, and neglect met their eyes.

is at vanishing point. If this affair isn’t one big practical joke, i

s first,” sai

ad been slept in, evidently a long time ago, and had never been made since. The tumbled, discoloured bed linen actually preserved the impressions o

o you think?” interrogated Ma

ers like ourselves.

aced the sea; the third, the library, the upward-sloping moorland. This library was now the only room left unvisited, and unl

r and dust-laden. Maskull, having flung the window up and down, f

s your opin

le which stood before the window. “He

you mean in this room

ll cupboard, which contained a few old bottles on one of the shelves and nothing else. Masku

e empty and unstoppered, the others contained a colourless liquid, and possessed queer-looking, nozzle-like stoppers that were connected by a thin metal rod with a catch halfway down the side of the bottle. They were labelled, but

ays”; and on the other one, after some doubt, he thought tha

sly at his friend. “Have you

ag would leav

ge, but it means nothing to us, or at a

ck to its source,”

d of light wo

l fixed on him, he brought out: “Unless light pulled, as well as pushed

he point is, what ar

in such a manner that the metal caught against the table. He made a movement to stop it, his hand was actually descending, when —

raised his brows, and turned to Nightspore wi

e open window toward the sun, carrying the bottle with them. But the bottle will be burned

ile faded. “Does anything prevent us fro

. “Arcturus is still below the horizon, and y

fore the window, pensively g

. . My cynicism must seem most amusing to Krag. But why does he leave me to find out all t

xpect,” his friend re