Then soon we were hovering over Varnal. When the city discovered who we were, it went mad with joy and we were received with great ceremony. The betrothal was fixed for the following day and I went to my old room that night in a state of tremendous happiness.

But after all this came the bitterest blow of all. It was as if Fate had decided to make me go through all those trials simply to snatch away my reward at the final moment—for, in the night, I felt a strange, familiar sensation come over me.

I felt my body seeming to break apart, felt as if, once again, I was drawn across space and time at fantastic speed. Then it was over and I was lying down again. I smiled, thinking that it had been a dream. I felt a light on my eyes and thought it must be morning—the morning of my betrothal.

I opened my eyes and looked into the smiling face of Doctor Logan—my chief assistant at the laboratories!

"Logan!" I gasped. "Where am I—what has happened?"

"I don't know, professor," he said. "Your body is a mass of scars—but you've put on extra muscle from somewhere. How do you feel?"

"What has happened!" I repeated loudly.

"You mean this end? Well, it took us about seven hours, but we finally picked you up again on some funny wavelength—we thought we'd lost you altogether. Something went wrong with the transmitter. Some jamming, perhaps—I don't know."

I got up and seized him by his lab coat.

"You've got to send me back! You've got to send me back!"

"Hey—your experiences haven't done you any good, prof," one of the technicians said. "You're lucky to be alive at all. We've been working for seven hours—you were as good as dead!"

"I still am," I said, my shoulders sagging. I let go of Logan's coat and stood there looking at the equipment. It had taken me to a place of high adventure and a lovely woman—and it had brought me back to this drab world.

I was hustled away to the sick bay and they wouldn't let me out for weeks what with the doctors and psychologists trying to discover what had 'really' happened to me. I was judged unfit for work and they'd never let me get near the transmitter, of course—though I tried several times. Finally they sent me to Europe—on extended leave.

And here I am.

Epilogue

AND that, substantially, was the testament of Professor Michael Kane, physicist and swordsmanscientist on Earth, warrior on Mars.

Believe it, as I believed it, if you will. Do not believe it if you can.

After hearing Kane's story I asked his permission to do two things.

He wanted to know what they were.

"Let me publish this remarkable story of yours," I said, "so that the whole world might judge your sanity and truthfulness."