A Columbus of Space

A Columbus of Space, by Garrett
P. Serviss

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Title: A Columbus of Space
Author: Garrett P. Serviss

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A COLUMBUS OF SPACE
BY GARRETT P. SERVISS

[Illustration: "Standing on the steps ... was a creature shaped like a man,
but more savage than a gorilla."]
TO THE READERS OF JULES VERNE'S ROMANCES THIS
STORY IS DEDICATED
Not because the author flatters himself that he can walk in the
Footsteps of that Immortal Dreamer, but because, like Jules Verne, he
believes that the World of Imagination is as legitimate a Domain of the
Human Mind as the World of Fact.

CONTENTS

I. A MARVELOUS INVENTION
II. A TRIP OF TERROR
III. THE PLANETARY LIMITED
IV. THE CAVERNS OF VENUS
V. OFF FOR THE SUN LANDS
VI. LOST IN THE CRYSTAL MOUNTAINS
VII. THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN
VIII. LANGUAGE WITHOUT SPEECH
IX. AN AMAZING METROPOLIS
X. IMPRISONMENT AND A WONDERFUL ESCAPE
XI. BEFORE THE THRONE OF VENUS
XII. MORE MARVELS
XIII. WE FALL INTO TROUBLE AGAIN
XIV. THE SUN GOD
XV. AT THE MERCY OF FEARFUL ENEMIES
XVI. DREADFUL CREATURES OF THE GLOOM
XVII. EARTH MAGIC ON VENUS
XVIII. WILD EDEN
XIX. THE SECRET OF THE CAR
XX. THE CORYBANTIA OF THE SUN

XXI. THE EARTH
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"Standing on the steps ... was a creature shaped like a man, but more
savage than a gorilla"
"We were in the heart of the Crystal Mountains!"
"'Who and what are you, and whence do you come?'"
"It curled itself over the edge of the hovering air ship and drew it
down"
CHAPTER I
A MARVELOUS INVENTION
I am a hero worshiper; an insatiable devourer of biographies; and I say
that no man in all the splendid list ever equaled Edmund Stonewall.
You smile because you have never heard his name, for, until now, his
biography has not been written. And this is not truly a biography; it is
only the story of the crowning event in Stonewall's career.
Really it humbles one's pride of race to see how ignorant the world is of
its true heroes. Many a man who cuts a great figure in history is, after
all, a poor specimen of humanity, slavishly following old ruts, destitute
of any real originality, and remarkable only for some exaggeration of
the commonplace. But in the case of Edmund Stonewall the world
cannot be blamed for its ignorance, because, as I have already said, his
story remains to be written, and hitherto it has been guarded as a
profound secret.
I do not wish to exaggerate; yet I cannot avoid seeming to do so in
simply telling the facts. If Stonewall's proceedings had become Matter
of common knowledge the world would have been--I must speak
plainly--revolutionized. He held in his hands the means of realizing the
wildest dreams of power, wealth, and human mastery over the forces of

nature, that any enthusiast ever treasured in his prophetic soul. It was a
part of his originality that he never entertained the thought of
employing his advantage in any such way. His character was entirely
free from the ordinary forms of avidity. He cared nothing for wealth in
itself, and as little for fame. All his energies were concentrated upon
the attainment of ends which nobody but himself would have regarded
as of any practical importance. Thus it happened that, having made an
invention which would have put every human industry upon a new
footing, and multiplied beyond the limits of calculation the activities
and