{"product_id":"2940013758919","title":"A Glimpse of the Sinless Star","description":"For their honeymoon Rollo Lenox Smeaton Aubrey, Earl of Redgrave,\u003cbr\u003eand his bride, Lilla Zaidie, leave the earth on a visit to the moon\u003cbr\u003eand the principal planets, their sole companion being Andrew\u003cbr\u003eMurgatroyd, an old engineer who had superintended the building of the\u003cbr\u003eAstronef, in which the journey is made. By means of the \"R.Force,\" or\u003cbr\u003eAnti-Gravitational Force, of the secret of which Lord Redgrave is the\u003cbr\u003esole possessor, they are able to navigate with precision and safety\u003cbr\u003ethe limitless ocean of space. Their adventures on the moon and on Mars\u003cbr\u003ehave been described in the first two stories of the series.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"How very different Venus looks now to what it does from the earth,\"\u003cbr\u003esaid Zaidie as she took her eye away from the telescope, through which\u003cbr\u003eshe had been examining the enormous crescent, almost approaching to\u003cbr\u003ewhat would be called upon earth a half-moon, which spanned the dark\u003cbr\u003evault of space ahead of the Astronef.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I wonder what she'll be like. All the authorities are agreed that on\u003cbr\u003eVenus, having her axis of revolution very much inclined to the plane\u003cbr\u003eof her orbit, the seasons are so severe that for half the year its\u003cbr\u003etemperate zone and its tropics have a summer about twice as hot as our\u003cbr\u003etropics and the other half they have a winter twice as cold as our\u003cbr\u003ecoldest. I'm afraid, after all, we shall find the Love-Star a world of\u003cbr\u003esalamanders and seals; things that can live in a furnace and bask on\u003cbr\u003ean iceberg; and when we get back home it will be our painful duty, as\u003cbr\u003ethe first explorers of the fields of space, to dispel another dearly-\u003cbr\u003echerished popular delusion.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I'm not so very sure about that,\" said Lenox, glancing from the\u003cbr\u003erapidly growing crescent, which was still so far away, to the sweet\u003cbr\u003esmiling face that was so near to his. \"Don't you see something very\u003cbr\u003edifferent there to what we saw either on the moon or Mars? Now just go\u003cbr\u003eback to your telescope and let us take an observation.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Well,\" said Zaidie, \"as our trip is partly, at least, in the interest\u003cbr\u003eof science, I will.\" and then, when she had got her own telescope into\u003cbr\u003efocus again--for the distance between the Astronef and the new world\u003cbr\u003ethey were about to visit was rapidly lessening--she took a long look\u003cbr\u003ethrough it, and said:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Yes, I think I see what you mean. The outer edge of the crescent is\u003cbr\u003ebright, but it gets greyer and dimmer towards the inside of the curve.\u003cbr\u003eOf course Venus has an atmosphere. So had Mars; but this must be very\u003cbr\u003edense. There's a sort of halo all round it. Just fancy that splendid\u003cbr\u003ething being the little black spot we saw going across the face of the\u003cbr\u003eSun a few days ago! It makes one feel rather small, doesn't it?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"That is one of the things which a woman says when she doesn't want to\u003cbr\u003ebe answered; but, apart from that, your ladyship was saying?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What a very unpleasant person you can be when you like! I was going\u003cbr\u003eto say that on the moon we saw nothing but black and white, light and\u003cbr\u003edarkness. There was no atmosphere, except in those awful places I\u003cbr\u003edon't want to think about. Then, as we got near Mars, we saw a pinky\u003cbr\u003eatmosphere, but not very dense; but this, you see, is a sort of pearl-\u003cbr\u003egrey white shading from silver to black. But look--what are those tiny\u003cbr\u003ebright spots? There are hundreds of them.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Do you remember, as we were leaving the earth, how bright the\u003cbr\u003emountain ranges looked; how plainly we could see the Rockies and the\u003cbr\u003eAndes?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Oh, yes, I see; they're mountains; thirty-seven miles high some of\u003cbr\u003ethem, they say; and the rest of the silver-grey will be clouds, I\u003cbr\u003esuppose. Fancy living under clouds like those.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Only another case of the adaptation of life to natural conditions, I\u003cbr\u003eexpect. When we get there, I daresay we shall find that these clouds\u003cbr\u003eare just what make it possible for the inhabitants of Venus to stand\u003cbr\u003ethe extremes of heat and cold. Given elevations, three or four times\u003cbr\u003eas high as the Himalayas, it would be quite possible for them to\u003cbr\u003echoose their temperature by shifting their altitude.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"But I think it's about time to drop theory and see to the practice,\"\u003cbr\u003ehe continued, getting up from his chair and going to the signal board\u003cbr\u003ein the conning-tower. \"Whatever the planet Venus may be like, we don't\u003cbr\u003ewant to charge it at the rate of sixty miles a second. That's about\u003cbr\u003ethe speed now, considering how fast she's travelling towards us.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"And considering that, whether it is a nice world or not, it's about\u003cbr\u003eas big as the earth, and so we should get rather the worst of the\u003cbr\u003echarge,\" laughed Zaidie, as she went back to her telescope.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083225022704,"sku":"2940013758919","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013758919_p0.jpg?v=1763589857","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013758919","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}