Three Martian-duped Earth-men swing open the gates of space that for so long had barred the greedy hordes of the Red Planet.
';To Mars!' he repeated. ';Have you gone crazy, Miltonor is this some joke you've put up with Lanier and Nelson here?'
Milton shook his head gravely. ';It is not a joke, Allan. Lanier and I are actually going to flash out over the gulf to the planet Mars to-night. Nelson must stay here, and since we wanted three to go I wired you as the most likely of my friends to make the venture.'
';But good God!' Randall exploded, rising. ';You, Milton, as a physicist ought to know better. Space-ships and projectiles and all that are but fictionists' dreams.'
';We are not going in either space-ship or projectile,' said Milton calmly. And then as he saw his friend's bewilderment he rose and led the way to a door at the room's end, th
