Two of the highest-ranking students of the Universal Electrical and Chemical College, Jack Darrow and Mark Sampson, are world travelers -- for they already have trips to the North Pole, South Pole, and the Center of the Earth beneath their belts

Although their college research work is going well, a mysterious summons calls them back to the side of their mentor, Professor Henderson.

"Boys," he says, "you must excuse me for not saying why I sent for you. My guest, Mr. Roumann, has laid a strange proposition before me. I hardly know what to think. Mr. Roumann has proposed a wonderful trip to -- "

"To planet Mars " bursts out Mr. Roumann. "We are going to make the most wonderful journey on record. A trip through space Such an opportunity for reaching it, and proving whether or not there is life there, will not occur again for many years. It is now but thirty-five millions of miles away from us. Soon it will begin to recede -- at the rate of twenty-eight millions of miles a year "