He only wrote out what I dictated." "Why, you must have seen it! I have seen it myself!" "You shall never see it again! It's shot off into space." "You're as wrong now as you thought you were right yesterday." "I'm sorry to say I was wrong yesterday; but I have every reason to believe I'm right to-day." "We shall see! Wait till to-night!" "To-night! Too late! As far as the Projectile is concerned, night is now no better than day." The learned Professor was quite right, but in a way which he did not exactly expect.

That very evening, after a weary day, apparently a month long, during which Marston sought in vain for a few hours' repose, just as all hands, well wrapped up in warm furs, were getting ready to assume their posts once more near the mouth of the gigantic Telescope, Mr.
M'Connell hastily presented himself with a dispatch for Belfast.
The Professor was listlessly breaking the envelope, when he uttered a sharp cry of surprise.
"Hey!" cried Marston quickly.

"What's up now ?" "Oh!! The Pro--pro--projectile!!" "What of it?
What?
Oh what?
?
Speak!!" "IT'S BACK!!" Marston uttered a wild yell of mingled horror, surprise, and joy, jumped a little into the air, and then fell flat and motionless on the platform.

Had Belfast shot him with a ten pound weight, right between the two eyes, he could not have knocked him flatter or stiffer.

Having neither slept all night, nor eaten all day, the poor fellow's system had become so weak that such unexpected news was really more than he could bear.