A Honeymoon in Space

A Honeymoon in Space, by
George Griffith,

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Title: A Honeymoon in Space
Author: George Griffith

Release Date: October 5, 2006 [eBook #19476]
Language: English
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A HONEYMOON IN SPACE
by
GEORGE GRIFFITH
Author of "Valdar the Oft-Born," "The Virgin of the Sun," "The Rose
of Judah," &c., &c.
Illustrated by Stanley Wood and Harold Piffard

London C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. Henrietta Street 1901
Arno Press A New York Times Company New York--1975 Reprint
Edition 1974 by Arno Press Inc.
Reprinted from a copy in The Library of the University of California,
Riverside

A Honeymoon in Space

[Illustration: "The Earth, the Earth--thank God, the Earth!"]

Contents
PROLOGUE--The First Cruise of the Astronef

Chapter I.

Chapter II.

Chapter III.

Chapter IV.

Chapter V.

Chapter VI.

Chapter VII.

Chapter VIII.

Chapter IX.

Chapter X.

Chapter XI.

Chapter XII.

Chapter XIII.

Chapter XIV.

Chapter XV.

Chapter XVI.

Chapter XVII.

Chapter XVIII.

Chapter XIX.

Chapter XX.
Epilogue

List of Illustrations
"THE EARTH, THE EARTH--THANK GOD, THE EARTH!"
A HIDEOUS SHAPE ROSE OUT OF THE WATER BEHIND THEM
IT TOOK THE STRANGE-WINGED CRAFT AMIDSHIPS
SNOW PEAKS AND CLOUD SEAS
CAME FORWARD TO MEET THEM WITH BOTH HANDS
OUTSTRETCHED
WHOLE MOUNTAIN RANGES OF GLOWING LAVA WERE
HURLED UP MILES HIGH
WITHOUT ANY APPARENT EFFORT HE RAISED HER ABOUT
FIVE FEET FROM THE FLOOR
THE HUGE PALELY LUMINOUS EYES LOOKED IN UPON
THEM

PROLOGUE
THE FIRST CRUISE OF THE ASTRONEF
About eight o'clock on the morning of the 5th of November, 1900,
those of the passengers and crew of the American liner St. Louis who
happened, whether from causes of duty or of their own pleasure, to be
on deck, had a very strange--in fact a quite unprecedented experience.
The big ship was ploughing her way through the long, smooth rollers at

her average twenty-one knots towards the rising sun, when the officer
in charge of the navigating bridge happened to turn his glasses straight
ahead. He took them down from his eyes, rubbed the two object-glasses
with the cuff of his coat, and looked again. The sun was shining
through a haze which so far dimmed the solar disc that it was possible
to look straight at it without inconvenience to the eyes.
The officer took another long squint, put his glasses down, rubbed his
eyes and took another, and murmured, "Well I'm damned!"
Just then the Fourth Officer came up on to the bridge to relieve his
senior while he went down for a cup of coffee and a biscuit. The
Second took him away to the other end of the bridge, out of hearing of
the helmsman and the quartermaster standing by, and said almost in a
whisper:
"Say, Norton, there's something ahead there that I can't make out. Just
as the sun got clear above the horizon I saw a black spot go straight
across it, right through the upper and lower limbs. I looked again, and it
was plumb in the middle of the disc. Look," he went on, speaking
louder in his growing excitement, "there it is again! I can see it without
the glasses now. See?"
The Fourth did not reply at once. He had the glasses close to his eyes,
and was moving them slowly about as though he were following some
shifting object in the sky. Then he handed them back, and said:
"If I didn't believe the thing was impossible I should say that's an
air-ship; but, for the present, I guess I'd rather wait till it gets a bit
nearer, if it's coming. Still, there is something. Seems to be getting
bigger pretty fast, too. Perhaps it would be as well to notify the old man.
What do you think?"
"Guess we'd better," said the Second. "S'pose you go down. Don't say
anything except to him. We don't want any more excitement among the
people than we can help."
The Fourth nodded and went down the steps, and the Second began

walking up and down the bridge, every now and then taking another
squint ahead. Again and