Through Space to Mars | Page 4

classroom.
The two lads, whom some of my readers have met before in the previous books of this
series, were friends who had become acquainted under peculiar circumstances. They
were orphans, and, after having had many trying experiences, each of them had left his

cruel employers, and, unknown to each other previously, had met in a certain village,
where they were obliged to beg for food. They decided to cast their lots together, and,
boarding a freight train, started West.
The train, as told in the first volume to this series, called "Through the Air to the North
Pole," was wrecked near a place where a certain Professor Amos Henderson, and his
colored helper, Washington White, lived. Mr. Henderson was a learned scientist who was
constantly building new wonderful machines. He was working on an airship, in which to
set out and locate the North Pole, when he discovered Jack and Mark, injured in the
freight wreck. He and Washington White carried the lads to the inventor's workshop, and
there the boys recovered. When they were well enough, the professor invited them to live
with him, and, more than that, to take a trip with him North Pole.
They went, in company with Washington and an old hunter, named Andy Sudds, and
some other men, whom the professor took along to help him.
Many adventures befell the party. They had battles with wild beasts in the far north, and
were attacked by savage Esquimaux. Once they were caught in a terrible storm. They
actually passed over the exact location of the North Pole, and Professor Henderson made
some interesting scientific observations.
In the second volume of this series, entitled "Under the Ocean to the South Pole,"
Professor Henderson, Jack, Mark, Washington and old Andy Sudds, made even a more
remarkable trip. The professor had a theory that there was an open sea at the South Pole,
and he wanted to prove it. He decided that the best way to get there was to go under the
ocean in a submarine boat, and he and the boys built a very fine, craft, called the Porpoise,
which was capable of being propelled under water at a great depth.
The voyagers had rather a hard time of it. They were caught in a great sea of Sargasso
grass, monstrous suckers held the boat in immense arms, and it required hard fighting to
get free. The boys and the others had the novel experience of walking about on the
bottom of the sea in new kinds of diving suits invented by the professor.
On their journey to the South Pole, the adventurers came upon a strange island in the
Atlantic, far from the coast of South America. On it was a great whirlpool, into which the
Porpoise was nearly sucked by a powerful current. They managed to escape, and had a
glimpse of unfathomable depths. They passed on, but could not forget the strange hole in
the island.
Mark suggested that it might lead to the center of the earth, which is hollow, according to
some scientists, and after some consideration, Professor Henderson, on his return from
the South Pole, decided to go down the immense shaft.
To do this required a different kind of vessel from any he had yet built. He would need
one that could sail on the water, and yet float in the air like a balloon or aeroplane.
How he built this queer craft and took a most remarkable voyage, you will find set down
in the third book of this series, entitled "Five Thousand Miles Underground."

In their new craft, called the Flying Mermaid, the professor, the boys, Washington and
Andy, sailed until they came to the great shaft leading downward. Then the ship rose in
the air and descended through clouds of vapor. After many perils they reached the center
of the earth, where they found a strange race of beings.
One day, to their horror, an earthquake dosed the shaft by which they had come to the
center of the earth. The boys were in despair of ever getting to the surface again, but the
professor had been prepared for this emergency, and he had built a strong cylinder, into
which all the travelers placed themselves. Then it was projected into a powerful upward
shooting column of water, which Professor Henderson hoped would take them to the
surface of the earth. Nor was he mistaken. They had a terrible journey, but came safely
out of it.
They opened the cylinder, to find themselves floating on the sea, and they were rescued
by a passing vessel. Of course, they had abandoned the Mermaid, leaving the craft in the
center of the earth, but they had brought back with them some valuable diamonds, which
formed their fortune.
This ended, for