Three Martian-duped Earth-men swing open the gates of space that for so long had barred the greedy hordes of the Red Planet. âTo Mars!â he repeated. âHave you gone crazy, Miltonâor is this some joke youâve put up with Lanier and Nelson here?â Milton shook his head gravely. âIt is not a joke, Allan. Lanier and I are actually going to flash out over the gulf to the planet Mars to-night. Nelson must stay here, and since we wanted three to go I wired you as the most likely of my friends to make the venture.â âBut good God!â Randall exploded, rising. âYou, Milton, as a physicist ought to know better. Space-ships and projectiles and all that are but fictionistsâ dreams.â âWe are not going in either space-ship or projectile,â said Milton calmly. And then as he saw his friendâs bewilderment he rose and led the way to a door at the roomâs end, the other three following him into the room beyond.