I now realized that my first actions, upon becoming conscious, had simply been carrying out the instructions Almos had left for me.  Strange to the conditions in those first few minutes, I had instinctively done what the brain dictated.  In this remarkable way had Almos completed the instructions he was about to give me when interrupted by the cessation of wave contact.

Having thus arrived at what I felt to be the true relation of my mind with Almos’ body, I now turned my attention to the objects surrounding me.

I stood in a room about the size of my laboratory on Earth.  There were no windows to admit light, but the ceiling, which was fully twenty feet high, emitted a beautifully diffused white light, which filled every corner of the room, leaving absolutely no shadows.  Its effect was that of daylight, and so closely did it resemble the sky, that, had I not been supplied with Almos’ knowledge of Martian science, I would have naturally supposed that there was no ceiling to the room.  Immediately upon the question coming into my mind, however, I became aware that the ceiling was coated with a composition, one of the component parts of which was radium in a highly developed state.  Its action upon the other elements that composed this substance resulted in a perpetual light without heat, which was equal in every way to daylight.

The tourist, finding himself in a new country, has but one thought, one ambition, that of seeing all he can; yet, strange to say, although a whole new world lay before me, my first thought was of Mother Earth.  A desire to view my old habitat as Martians see it seemed almost irresistible.

To touch the radioscope that was trained on Earth, would result in an instant change taking place in my body as it lay in the laboratory, and this would be disastrous.  It was only the regenerating properties of the super-radium current that kept it in a state acceptable to my return, and the delicate mechanism of this instrument was regulated so as to keep the current exactly in position, as long as that part of the Earth’s surface was exposed to Mars.  To interfere then with this current, for a moment, would mean certain death.

Immediately I became conscious of the presence of another instrument, which was in a room adjoining, and, feeling absolutely familiar with every inch of the way, I proceeded thence.  The room was a small one, just large enough, indeed, to operate the radioscope, which was exactly the same as the one in the room I had just quitted.

With a perfect knowledge of the mechanism of the instrument, I was soon at work adjusting the projecting and receiving apparatus.  An ordinary telescope was attached to the huge tube of the radioscope, and with Almos’ dexterity I soon located Earth through it, thus sighting the radioscope for that planet.

I had now but to turn on the current to see the people on Earth and watch their doings, as had done Martians for hundreds of years, but, with my hand on the lever that controlled the current, I paused.