Over so small a distance as that, the force would move so
instantaneously that no trace of the interruption would be perceptible
in the motion of the Astronaut. Even now the total interruption of the
action of apergy for a considerable time would not affect the rate at
which I was already moving. It was possible, however, that if the
current had been hitherto wholly intercepted by the Earth, it might
take so long a time in reaching the Sun that the interval between the
movement of the helm and the response of the Astronaut's course
thereto might afford some indication of the time occupied by the
current in traversing the 96-1/2 millions of miles which parted me
from the Sun. My hope, however, was wholly disappointed. I could
neither be sure that the action was instantaneous, nor that it was
otherwise.
At the close of the third day I had gained, as was indicated by the
instruments, something more than two millions of miles in a direct
line from the Sun; and for the future I might, and did, reckon on a
steady progress of about one and a quarter million miles daily under
the apergic force alone--a gain in a line directly outward from the
Sun of about one million.
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