



Produced by Anne Soulard, Suzanne Shell, William Craig,
Robert Laporte, Steen Christensen and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team








DAYBREAK

A ROMANCE OF AN OLD WORLD


By James Cowan


[Illustration: "HE MADE THE STARS ALSO"]



CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I. AN ASTRONOMER ROYAL.

CHAPTER II. A FALLEN SATELLITE.

CHAPTER III. TWO MEN IN THE MOON.

CHAPTER IV. AND ONE WOMAN.

CHAPTER V. OUR INTRODUCTION TO MARS.

CHAPTER VI. A REMARKABLE PEOPLE.

CHAPTER VII. RAPID TRANSIT ON MARS.

CHAPTER VIII. THORWALD PUZZLED.

CHAPTER IX. THORWALD AS A PROPHET.

CHAPTER X. MORE WORLDS THAN TWO.

CHAPTER XI MARS AS IT IS.

CHAPTER XII. WE REACH THORWALD'S HOME.

CHAPTER XIII. A MORNING TALK.

CHAPTER XIV. PROCTOR SHOWS US THE EARTH.

CHAPTER XV. A NIGHT ADVENTURE.

CHAPTER XVI. AN UNLIKELY STORY.

CHAPTER XVII. THE DOCTOR IS CONVINCED.

CHAPTER XVIII. STRUCK BY A COMET.

CHAPTER XIX. I DISCOVER THE SINGER.

CHAPTER XX. A WONDERFUL REVELATION.

CHAPTER XXI. A LITTLE ANCIENT HISTORY.

CHAPTER XXII. AGAIN THE MOON.

CHAPTER XXIII. WE SEARCH FOR MONA.

CHAPTER XXIV. THE PICTURE TELEGRAPH.

CHAPTER XXV. AN UNSATISFACTORY LOVER.

CHAPTER XXVI. AN ENVIABLE CONDITION.

CHAPTER XXVII. THE CHILDREN'S DAY.

CHAPTER XXVIII. BUSINESS ETHICS.

CHAPTER XXIX. THE INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM.

CHAPTER XXX. ATTEMPTS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM.

CHAPTER XXXI. WINE-DRINKING IN MARS.

CHAPTER XXXII. A GENUINE ACCIDENT.

CHAPTER XXXIII. THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMAN.

CHAPTER XXXIV. THE EMANCIPATION OF MAN.

CHAPTER XXXV. AN EXALTED THEME.

CHAPTER XXXVI. VANQUISHED AGAIN BY A VOICE.

CHAPTER XXXVII. UNTIL THE DAY BREAK.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. AND THE SHADOWS FLEE AWAY.

CHAPTER XXXIX. A SUDDEN RETURN TO THE EARTH.

POSTSCRIPT.




DAYBREAK:

A ROMANCE OF AN OLD WORLD




CHAPTER I.

AN ASTRONOMER ROYAL.


It was an evening in early autumn in the last year of the nineteenth
century. We were nearing the close of a voyage as calm and peaceful as
our previous lives.

Margaret had been in Europe a couple of years and I had just been over
to bring her home, and we were now expecting to reach New York in a day
or two.

Margaret and I were the best of friends. Indeed, we had loved each other
from our earliest recollection. No formal words of betrothal had ever
passed between us, but for years we had spoken of our future marriage as
naturally as if we were the most regularly engaged couple in the world.

"Walter," asked Margaret in her impulsive way, "at what temperature does
mercury melt?"

"Well, to hazard a guess," I replied, "I should say about one degree
above its freezing point. Why, do you think of making an experiment?"

"Yes, on you. And I am going to begin by being very frank with you. You
have made me a number of hurried visits during my stay in Europe, but we
have seen more of each other in the course of this voyage than for two
long years. I trust you will not be offended when I say I hoped to find
you changed. I have never spoken to you about this, even in my letters,
and it is only because I am a little older now, and because my love for
you has increased with every day of life, that I have the courage to
frame these words."

"Do tell me what it is," I exclaimed, thoroughly alarmed at her serious
manner. "Let me know how I have disappointed you and I will make what
amends I can. Tell me the nature of the change you have been looking for
and I will begin the transformation at once, before my character becomes
fixed."

"Alas! and if it should be already fixed," she replied, without a smile.
"Perhaps it is unreasonable in me to expect it in you as a man, when you
had so little of it as a boy; but I used to think it was only shyness
then, and always hoped you would outgrow that and gradually become an
ideal lover. You have such a multitude of other perfections, however,
that it may be nature has denied