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+Project Gutenberg's Edison's Conquest of Mars, by Garrett Putnam Serviss
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Edison's Conquest of Mars
+
+Author: Garrett Putnam Serviss
+
+Release Date: June 3, 2007 [EBook #21670]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDISON'S CONQUEST OF MARS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
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+
+
+
+
+                        EDISON'S CONQUEST OF MARS
+
+                          BY GARRETT P. SERVISS.
+
+            WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY A. LANGLEY SEARLES, Ph. D.
+
+
+
+
+CARCOSA HOUSE
+1947
+LOS ANGELES
+
+The special contents of this volume are copyright 1947 by CARCOSA HOUSE.
+FIRST EDITION
+
+[Transcriber's note: This is a Rule 6 Clearance. PG has not been able to
+find a U.S. Copyright Renewal]
+
+
+DEDICATED
+to
+GARRETT PUTMAN SERVISS
+
+A COSMOPOLITE IN TIME
+1851-1929
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+    _Introduction_
+
+    CHAPTER ONE
+    _"Let Us Go To Mars"_
+
+    CHAPTER TWO
+    _The Disintegrator_
+
+    CHAPTER THREE
+    _The Congress of Nations_
+
+    CHAPTER FOUR
+    _To Conquer Another World_
+
+    CHAPTER FIVE
+    _The Footprint on the Moon_
+
+    CHAPTER SIX
+    _The Monsters on the Asteroid_
+
+    CHAPTER SEVEN
+    _A Planet of Gold_
+
+    CHAPTER EIGHT
+    _"The Martians are Coming!"_
+
+    CHAPTER NINE
+    _Journey's End_
+
+    CHAPTER TEN
+    _The Great Smoke Barrier_
+
+    CHAPTER ELEVEN
+    _The Earth Girl_
+
+    CHAPTER TWELVE
+    _Retreat to Deimos_
+
+    CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+    _There Were Giants in the Earth_
+
+    CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+    _The Flood Gates of Mars_
+
+    CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+    _Vengeance is Ours_
+
+    CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+    _The Woman From Ceres_
+
+    CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+    _The Fearful Oaths of Colonel Smith_
+
+    CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+    _The Great Ovation_
+
+    _Bibliography_
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+_"Like men, and yet not like men...."_
+
+_"... rising out of the shadow of the globe...."_
+
+_"A consultation in Wizard Edison's laboratory...."_
+
+_"Through this the meteor had passed...."_
+
+_"... the ruins of ... an ancient watch tower."_
+
+_"... another of our ships ... was destroyed."_
+
+_"Two of the Martians were stretched dead upon the ground."_
+
+_"He might have been a match for twenty of us."_
+
+_"... he proceeded to teach us ... words of his language."_
+
+_"... approaching from the eastward a large airship...."_
+
+_"... a human being here on Mars!"_
+
+_"The gigantic statue of their leader is THE GREAT SPHINX!"_
+
+_"It was a panic of giants."_
+
+
+These illustrations are a selection of the best from the original
+newspaper installments and were redrawn for this volume by Bernard
+Manley, Jr., of Chicago, Illinois.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+If you picked up a magazine and read in it a story mentioning a
+passenger-carrying rocket driven by atomic power furnished by a
+substance prepared from uranium, you probably would not be greatly
+surprised. After all, such an invention is today but a step or two ahead
+of cold fact. But you might be surprised to learn that if this story was
+_A Columbus of Space_, the one I happen to have in mind, your
+grand-parents may well have read it before you were born--for _A
+Columbus of Space_ was published in _All-Story_ magazine in 1909, thirty
+years before the potentialities of U235 were realized, and nearly forty
+before the atomic bomb became a problem for people to think about.
+
+Did the author of this story simply make a lucky shot in the dark?
+Perhaps; but let me tell those who are inclined to think so that he was
+a Carnegie lecturer, a member of half-a-dozen learned societies, one of
+the first to write a book on Einstein's theory of relativity, and an
+internationally known figure in his specialty, astronomy. His name is
+Garrett Putman Serviss.
+
+He was born on March 24, 1851, at Sharon Springs, New York, of native
+New England stock. His interest in astronomy began as a boy, and was
+greatly stimulated when he began to examine the beauties of the heavens
+through a small telescope, the gift of his older brother. This
+encouraged his enrolling in the course of science at Cornell University
+in 1868 (its opening year) from which he was graduated in 1872. There
+followed two years at the Columbia College Law School, which he left as
+an LL. B.; and in June, 1874 he was admitted to the bar. He did not
+practice law, however, but turned instead to newspaper reporting.
+
+Whence came this interest in law and journalism? We can only guess,
+tracing its onset to the man's college days. As a Cornell sophomore, he
+was the class poet; as a senior, its historian; and on commencement day
+delivered an oration on "The Perpetuity of the Heroic Element." But
+whatever the origin of the interest, unquestioned ability supported it.
+From the position of reporter and correspondent with the New York
+_Tribune_ he rose to the post of copy editor on the staff of the _Sun_.
+Finally he became night editor, a position which he held for a full
+decade.
+
+During this period we can see the old interest in science gradually
+assert itself. At first it took the form of anonymous articles, mainly
+on matters astronomical. These usually appeared on the editorial page
+and, partly because they were then a novelty, partly because of a quirk
+of fate--editor-in-chief Charles Dana frequently had them set up in bold
+type, believing their logic was a fine counter-irritant for heated
+political campaigns of the day--the attention of subscribers was focused
+on them more sharply than usual. In fact, readers over the entire
+country were soon conjecturing about the identity of "the _Sun's_
+astronomer." Very few knew that it was Garrett Serviss, who successfully
+cloaked his identity for years.
+
+Success in written popularizing of science led him to attempt its
+duplication on the lecture platform. There his triumphs were such as to
+lead him to resign as night editor of the _Sun_ in 1892 and make
+astronomy his life work. Until 1894 he was occupied with "The Urania
+Lectures." These were sponsored by Andrew Carnegie, and dealt with
+geology, astronomy, archeology and similar scientific topics. With them
+Serviss successfully toured the country, and it was only because of the
+great difficulty in transporting the elaborate staging equipment they
+required that they were eventually discontinued. He continued to give
+popular lectures, however, and one of his few biographers has credited
+his greatness on the rostrum to "a pleasant voice, a charming
+personality, and a genuine enthusiasm for his subject."
+
+One cannot doubt this enthusiasm; it shines forth unmistakably from all
+his writings. Probably, too, it played the major part in enabling him to
+reach a wider reading public than any other astronomer before or after
+him. For he never abandoned the pen. Up until his death, which occurred
+on May 25, 1929, he wrote continually, syndicated newspaper columns,
+magazine articles, books on astronomy, fiction.
+
+His first book, _Astronomy with an Opera Glass_, appeared in 1888. He
+was responsible for several other scientific titles (the reader is
+referred to the bibliography at the end of this volume for a detailed
+listing); they include _Einstein's Theory of Relativity_, which is a
+companion work to the motion picture of the same name. He was also
+editor-in-chief of Collier's sixteen-volume _Popular Science Library_.
+It might be added that much of the editing and captioning of the
+Einstein film was his work, and that he collaborated with Leon Barritt
+in the invention of the Barritt-Serviss Star and Planet Finder, a device
+still in use.
+
+In comparison with his other writings his output of fiction is small:
+five novels and a single short story. It is, however, characterized by
+the same logic and interest, this time tossed aloft to soar on the wings
+of romantic imagination. Two of these works deal in some detail with the
+world of the future as he thought it might be--prophetic fiction, if you
+will; another two give us a picture of life on neighboring planets; and
+the final couple, although they maintain a terrestrial locale, show as
+wide a scope of creative invention.
+
+In only one of these does astronomy fail to play at least a supporting
+role. That is _The Sky Pirate_ (1909), which is an adventure story laid
+in the year 1936. Its plot revolves around an abduction for ransom in a
+period which is visualized as rampant with piracy because of the general
+adoption of air transportation. As usual, fact has outmoded prophecy,
+for long before 1936 airplane speeds exceeded the 140 miles per hour
+Serviss predicted. We still need, though, his invention which enables
+badly damaged aircraft to drift slowly down to a safe landing.
+
+_The Moon Metal_ (1900) deals with the problem of a strange, lunar metal
+used as a monetary standard to replace gold when, in 1949, huge new
+deposits of that metal rendered it common as iron. This is of short
+story length, and amply demonstrates the author's mastery of that
+medium.
+
+From the prophetic as well as the entertainment standpoint, one of
+Garrett Serviss' most interesting novels is _A Columbus of Space_. Here
+he visualizes atomic energy liberated and harnessed to drive a rocket to
+the planet Venus. His conception is uncannily close to truth; he names
+uranium as the raw material from which is extracted the vital substance,
+a "crystallized powder" which releases its energy on proper treatment.
+No less intriguing is the description of the intelligent civilizations
+on Venus which explorers from this world find.
+
+Two later novels came from his pen: _The Moon Maiden_ (1915) and _The
+Second Deluge_ (1911). The former is a scientific mystery, and probably
+the least distinguished of his works. The latter, conversely, is
+probably his best. It tells of a watery nebula which collides with the
+earth, flooding it with a second deluge; and of how the human race is
+saved through the wisdom of one man who foresaw the coming disaster in
+time to build a second ark. A new civilization which has mastered the
+secret of atomic energy springs up on the planet as the waters recede.
+The canvas is a broad one, and the author does it full justice.
+
+Serviss' outstanding stories have been published abroad and re-printed
+in this country several times, a deserved tribute to their quality and
+popularity. His very first work of fiction, however, has been shrouded
+in obscurity for nearly half a century. Indeed, among collectors and
+aficionados of the fantastic there was for a time debate as to its
+actual existence. This is hardly surprising, for until its reprinting in
+this book _Edison's Conquest of Mars_ lay buried in the Congressional
+Library's file of the ephemeral New York _Evening Journal_, where it ran
+serially in early 1898.
+
+This is a remarkable work. First of all, as many readers will quickly
+discern, it is in a sense a sequel to H. G. Wells' well known _War of
+the Worlds_. The latter novel was serialized by _Cosmopolitan_ magazine
+in 1897; it caught the public's fickle fancy, and was widely commented
+upon. All evidence indicates that Serviss also read it: he was a regular
+contributor to _Cosmopolitan_. Yet I am inclined to doubt that mere
+reading of _The War of the Worlds_ in itself prompted him to produce a
+work in the same vein. Wells' effort was not concluded until the
+December, 1897 number of the magazine, and _Edison's Conquest of Mars_
+began on the following January 12th--a scant six weeks later. For
+Serviss it was the initial excursion into the realm of fiction, and it
+is hard to conceive his so hastily adopting a new metier on personal
+impulse alone. These circumstances, in conjunction with the context of
+the novel itself, clearly stamp the entire business as clever
+capitalization on already existent publicity. Again, I doubt if he
+thought of it at first in that light; his name was well enough known so
+that he could live by his knowledge, not his wits. But to a newspaper
+editor the prospect of combining the authority of a nationally known and
+reputable astronomer with a work designed to satisfy a reading public's
+waiting appetite for the unusual--in short, presenting legitimatized
+sensationalism at the psychological moment--this must have had
+irresistible appeal. That _Edison's Conquest of Mars_ was written on
+editorial commission, perhaps as fast as it appeared, seems, then, the
+most probable interpretation.
+
+Historically, the work is one of the earliest to employ the
+interplanetary theme. It is the first to portray a battle fought by
+space craft in the airless void; and possibly the first also to propose
+the use of sealed suits that enable men to traverse a vacuum. Of the
+more minor twists of plot initially found here that have since become
+parts of the "pulp" science-fiction writers' standard stock-in-trade,
+there are literally too many to mention.
+
+The novel opens with a description of the ruins of eastern America.
+Although the Martians who survived terrestrial bacteria have left the
+planet, astronomical observations show a recurrence on the red planet of
+the same lights that were a prelude to the first onslaught. The
+conclusion is inevitable: a second invasion is on the way. Serviss
+pictures the gathering together of the most famous scientists of the
+day--Edison, Roentgen, Lord Kelvin and others. The Martian machines and
+weapons left behind are dismantled; their principles of operation are
+discovered and duplicated; and a defense against their forces is
+perfected. Armed with this knowledge and with the "disintegrator," a
+device invented by Edison which is capable of reducing to atoms any
+substance at which it is aimed, the nations of the world pool their
+resources and launch an invasion of Mars across interplanetary space.
+
+More by way of explanation than justification, it should be stated that
+science today is diminishing the number of critics who are wont to label
+plots of this nature "too fantastic." For them to say that the colossal
+has become more important than the rational is, I feel, misleading. For
+this is a branch of literature that is in many respects the most
+rational of all: it is a symptom of progress. These same critics also
+complain that a fantastic plot is frequently developed at the expense of
+characterization. To this, one may answer that at times what happens can
+be more important than the people to whom it happens. In essence, both
+charges derive from laying undue stress upon psychology as the only
+legitimate fibre from which a fictional cloth may be woven. Undoubtedly
+psychology is necessary--but it can be a warp alone if a strong woof is
+supplied. Let me cite two imaginary examples. If a single scientist had
+released atomic energy and was in doubt as to whether he should destroy
+his secret or reveal it, the psychological processes that determine his
+decision become more relevant to consideration than the decision itself.
+But if that same scientist managed by the aid of atomic energy to
+transport himself to Mars, I would unquestionably be more interested in
+what he found on that planet than in why an Oedipus complex drove him
+there in the first place.
+
+In the fiction of Garrett Serviss the sweeping magnitude of events
+described gives them the leading role. Yet within the limits he has set
+for himself he has used human psychology to good advantage. His stories
+do not lack empathy, and they are rich in pictorial detail. Inevitably
+they reflect the mores of the time, but do not emphasize them unduly. As
+a consequence they remain readable and entertaining even to this day.
+
+They show, too, that he was familiar with the works of the few authors
+in the genre who preceeded him. _A Columbus of Space_ was dedicated "to
+the readers of Jules Verne's romances,"
+
+     Not because the author flatters himself that he can walk in the
+     Footsteps of that Immortal Dreamer, but because, like Jules Verne,
+     he believes that the World of Imagination is as legitimate a Domain
+     of the Human Mind as the World of Fact.
+
+Garrett Serviss modestly underestimated his abilities. With the
+perspective we possess today it can be seen that he is easily the equal
+of Verne, standing with him and H. G. Wells as one of the foremost
+science-fiction writers of his day.
+
+
+A. Langley Searles
+_New York, N. Y._
+_May 1947_
+
+
+
+
+EDISON'S CONQUEST OF MARS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+_"LET US GO TO MARS"_
+
+
+It is impossible that the stupendous events which followed the
+disastrous invasion of the earth by the Martians should go without
+record, and circumstances having placed the facts at my disposal, I deem
+it a duty, both to posterity and to those who were witnesses of and
+participants in the avenging counterstroke that the earth dealt back at
+its ruthless enemy in the heavens, to write down the story in a
+connected form.
+
+The Martians had nearly all perished, not through our puny efforts, but
+in consequence of disease, and the few survivors fled in one of their
+projectile cars, inflicting their crudest blow in the act of departure.
+
+They possessed a mysterious explosive, of unimaginable puissance, with
+whose aid they set their car in motion for Mars from a point in Bergen
+County, N. J., just back of the Palisades.
+
+The force of the explosion may be imagined when it is recollected that
+they had to give the car a velocity of more than seven miles per second
+in order to overcome the attraction of the earth and the resistance of
+the atmosphere.
+
+The shock destroyed all of New York that had not already fallen a prey,
+and all the buildings yet standing in the surrounding towns and cities
+fell in one far-circling ruin.
+
+The Palisades tumbled in vast sheets, starting a tidal wave in the
+Hudson that drowned the opposite shore.
+
+The victims of this ferocious explosion were numbered by tens of
+thousands, and the shock, transmitted through the rocky frame of the
+globe, was recorded by seismographic pendulums in England and on the
+Continent of Europe.
+
+The terrible results achieved by the invaders had produced everywhere a
+mingled feeling of consternation and hopelessness. The devastation was
+widespread. The death-dealing engines which the Martians had brought
+with them had proved irresistible and the inhabitants of the earth
+possessed nothing capable of contending against them. There had been no
+protection for the great cities; no protection even for the open
+country. Everything had gone down before the savage onslaught of those
+merciless invaders from space. Savage ruins covered the sites of many
+formerly flourishing towns and villages, and the broken walls of great
+cities stared at the heavens like the exhumed skeletons of Pompeii. The
+awful agencies had extirpated pastures and meadows and dried up the very
+springs of fertility in the earth where they had touched it. In some
+parts of the devastated lands pestilence broke out; elsewhere there was
+famine. Despondency black as night brooded over some of the fairest
+portions of the globe.
+
+Yet all had not been destroyed, because all had not been reached by the
+withering hand of the destroyer. The Martians had not had time to
+complete their work before they themselves fell a prey to the diseases
+that carried them off at the very culmination of their triumph.
+
+From those lands which had, fortunately, escaped invasion, relief was
+sent to the sufferers. The outburst of pity and of charity exceeded
+anything that the world had known. Differences of race and religion were
+swallowed up in the universal sympathy which was felt for those who had
+suffered so terribly from an evil that was as unexpected as it was
+unimaginable in its enormity.
+
+But the worst was not yet. More dreadful than the actual suffering and
+the scenes of death and devastation which overspread the afflicted lands
+was the profound mental and moral depression that followed. This was
+shared even by those who had not seen the Martians and had not witnessed
+the destructive effects of the frightful engines of war that they had
+imported for the conquest of the earth. All mankind was sunk deep in
+this universal despair, and it became tenfold blacker when the
+astronomers announced from their observatories that strange lights were
+visible, moving and flashing upon the red surface of the Planet of War.
+These mysterious appearances could only be interpreted in the light of
+past experience to mean that the Martians were preparing for another
+invasion of the earth, and who could doubt that with the invincible
+powers of destruction at their command they would this time make their
+work complete and final?
+
+This startling announcement was the more pitiable in its effects because
+it served to unnerve and discourage those few of stouter hearts and more
+hopeful temperaments who had already begun the labor of restoration and
+reconstruction amid the embers of their desolated homes. In New York
+this feeling of hope and confidence, this determination to rise against
+disaster and to wipe out the evidences of its dreadful presence as
+quickly as possible, had especially manifested itself. Already a company
+had been formed and a large amount of capital subscribed for the
+reconstruction of the destroyed bridges over the East River. Already
+architects were busily at work planning new twenty-story hotels and
+apartment houses; new churches and new cathedrals on a grander scale
+than before.
+
+Amid this stir of renewed life came the fatal news that Mars was
+undoubtedly preparing to deal us a death blow. The sudden revulsion of
+feeling flitted like the shadow of an eclipse over the earth. The scenes
+that followed were indescribable. Men lost their reason. The
+faint-hearted ended the suspense with self-destruction, the
+stout-hearted remained steadfast, but without hope and knowing not what
+to do.
+
+But there was a gleam of hope of which the general public as yet knew
+nothing. It was due to a few dauntless men of science, conspicuous among
+whom were Lord Kelvin, the great English savant; Herr Roentgen, the
+discover of the famous X-ray, and especially Thomas A. Edison, the
+American genius of science. These men and a few others had examined with
+the utmost care the engines of war, the flying machines, the generators
+of mysterious destructive forces that the Martians had produced, with
+the object of discovering, if possible, the sources of their power.
+
+Suddenly from Mr. Edison's laboratory at Orange flashed the startling
+intelligence that he had not only discovered the manner in which the
+invaders had been able to produce the mighty energies which they
+employed with such terrible effect, but that, going further, he had
+found a way to overcome them.
+
+The glad news was quickly circulated throughout the civilized world.
+Luckily the Atlantic cables had not been destroyed by the Martians, so
+that communication between the Eastern and Western continents was
+uninterrupted. It was a proud day for America. Even while the Martians
+had been upon the earth, carrying everything before them, demonstrating
+to the confusion of the most optimistic that there was no possibility of
+standing against them, a feeling--a confidence had manifested itself in
+France, to a minor extent in England, and particularly in Russia, that
+the Americans might discover means to meet and master the invaders.
+
+Now, it seemed, this hope and expectation was to be realized. Too late,
+it is true, in a certain sense, but not too late to meet the new
+invasion which the astronomers had announced was impending. The effect
+was as wonderful and indescribable as that of the despondency which but
+a little while before had overspread the world. One could almost hear
+the universal sigh of relief which went up from humanity. To relief
+succeeded confidence--so quickly does the human spirit recover like an
+elastic spring, when pressure is released.
+
+"Let them come," was the almost joyous cry. "We shall be ready for them
+now. The Americans have solved the problem. Edison has placed the means
+of victory within our power."
+
+Looking back upon that time now, I recall, with a thrill, the pride that
+stirred me at the thought that, after all, the inhabitants of the earth
+were a match for those terrible men from Mars, despite all the advantage
+which they had gained from their millions of years of prior civilization
+and science.
+
+As good fortunes, like bad, never come singly, the news of Mr. Edison's
+discovery was quickly followed by additional glad tidings from that
+laboratory of marvels in the lap of the Orange mountains. During their
+career of conquest the Martians had astonished the inhabitants of the
+earth no less with their flying machines--which navigated our atmosphere
+as easily as they had that of their native planet--than with their more
+destructive inventions. These flying machines in themselves had given
+them an enormous advantage in the contest. High above the desolation
+that they had caused to reign on the surface of the earth, and, out of
+the range of our guns, they had hung safe in the upper air. From the
+clouds they had dropped death upon the earth.
+
+Now, rumor declared that Mr. Edison had invented and perfected a flying
+machine much more complete and manageable than those of the Martians had
+been. Wonderful stories quickly found their way into the newspapers
+concerning what Mr. Edison had already accomplished with the aid of his
+model electrical balloon. His laboratory was carefully guarded against
+the invasion of the curious, because he rightly felt that a premature
+announcement, which should promise more than could actually be
+fulfilled, would, at this critical juncture, plunge mankind back again
+into the gulf of despair, out of which it had just begun to emerge.
+
+Nevertheless, inklings of the truth leaked out. The flying machine had
+been seen by many persons hovering by night high above the Orange hills
+and disappearing in the faint starlight as if it had gone away into the
+depths of space, out of which it would re-emerge before the morning
+light had streaked the east, and be seen settling down again within the
+walls that surrounded the laboratory of the great inventor. At length
+the rumor, gradually deepening into a conviction, spread that Edison
+himself, accompanied by a few scientific friends, had made an
+experimental trip to the moon. At a time when the spirit of mankind was
+less profoundly stirred, such a story would have been received with
+complete incredulity, but now, rising on the wings of the new hope that
+was buoying up the earth, this extraordinary rumor became a day star of
+truth to the nations.
+
+And it was true. I had myself been one of the occupants of the car of
+the flying Ship of Space on that night when it silently left the earth,
+and rising out of the great shadow of the globe, sped on to the moon. We
+had landed upon the scarred and desolate face of the earth's satellite,
+and but that there are greater and more interesting events, the telling
+of which must not be delayed, I should undertake to describe the
+particulars of this first visit of men to another world.
+
+[Illustration: _I had myself been one of the occupants of the car
+of the flying Ship of Space on that night, when it silently left the
+earth, and, rising out of the great shadow of the globe, sped on to the
+moon._]
+
+But, as I have already intimated, this was only an experimental trip. By
+visiting this little nearby island in the ocean of space, Mr. Edison
+simply wished to demonstrate the practicability of his invention, and to
+convince, first of all, himself and his scientific friends that it was
+possible for men--mortal men--to quit and to revisit the earth at their
+will. That aim this experimental trip triumphantly attained.
+
+It would carry me into technical details that would hardly interest the
+reader to describe the mechanism of Mr. Edison's flying machine. Let it
+suffice to say that it depended upon the principal of electrical
+attraction and repulsion. By means of a most ingenious and complicated
+construction he had mastered the problem of how to produce, in a limited
+space, electricity of any desired potential and of any polarity, and
+that without danger to the experimenter or to the material experimented
+upon. It is gravitation, as everybody knows, that makes man a prisoner
+on the earth. If he could overcome, or neutralize, gravitation he could
+float away, a free creature of interstellar space. Mr. Edison in his
+invention had pitted electricity against gravitation. Nature, in fact,
+had done the same thing long before. Every astronomer knew it, but none
+had been able to imitate or to reproduce this miracle of nature. When a
+comet approaches the sun, the orbit in which it travels indicates that
+it is moving under the impulse of the sun's gravitation. It is in
+reality falling in a great parabolic or elliptical curve through space.
+But, while a comet approaches the sun it begins to display--stretching
+out for millions, and sometimes hundreds of millions of miles on the
+side away from the sun--an immense luminous train called its tail. This
+train extends back into that part of space from which the comet is
+moving. Thus the sun at one and the same time is drawing the comet
+toward itself and driving off from the comet in an opposite direction
+minute particles or atoms which, instead of obeying the gravitational
+force, are plainly compelled to disobey it. That this energy, which the
+sun exercises against its own gravitation, is electrical in its nature,
+hardly anybody will doubt. The head of the comet being comparatively
+heavy and massive, falls on toward the sun, despite the electrical
+repulsion. But the atoms which form the tail, being almost without
+weight, yield to the electrical rather than to the gravitational
+influence, and so fly away from the sun.
+
+Now, what Mr. Edison had done was, in effect, to create an electrified
+particle which might be compared to one of the atoms composing the tail
+of a comet, although in reality it was a kind of car, of metal, weighing
+some hundreds of pounds and capable of bearing some thousands of pounds
+with it in its flight. By producing, with the aid of the electrical
+generator contained in this car, an enormous charge of electricity, Mr.
+Edison was able to counterbalance, and a trifle more than
+counterbalance, the attraction of the earth, and thus cause the car to
+fly off from the earth as an electrified pithball flies from the prime
+conductor.
+
+As we sat in the brilliantly lighted chamber that formed the interior of
+the car, and where stores of compressed air had been provided together
+with chemical apparatus, by means of which fresh supplies of oxygen and
+nitrogen might be obtained for our consumption during the flight through
+space, Mr. Edison touched a polished button, thus causing the generation
+of the required electrical charge on the exterior of the car, and
+immediately we began to rise.
+
+The moment and direction of our flight had been so timed and
+prearranged, that the original impulse would carry us straight toward
+the moon.
+
+When we fell within the sphere of attraction of that orb it only became
+necessary to so manipulate the electrical charge upon our car as nearly,
+but not quite, to counterbalance the effect of the moon's attraction in
+order that we might gradually approach it and with an easy motion,
+settle, without shock, upon its surface.
+
+We did not remain to examine the wonders of the moon, although we could
+not fail to observe many curious things therein. Having demonstrated the
+fact that we could not only leave the earth, but could journey through
+space and safely land upon the surface of another planet, Mr. Edison's
+immediate purpose was fulfilled, and we hastened back to the earth,
+employing in leaving the moon and landing again upon our own planet the
+same means of control over the electrical attraction and repulsion
+between the respective planets and our car which I have already
+described.
+
+When actual experiment had thus demonstrated the practicability of the
+invention, Mr. Edison no longer withheld the news of what he had been
+doing from the world. The telegraph lines and the ocean cables labored
+with the messages that in endless succession, and burdened with an
+infinity of detail, were sent all over the earth. Everywhere the utmost
+enthusiasm was aroused.
+
+"Let the Martians come," was the cry. "If necessary, we can quit the
+earth as the Athenians fled from Athens before the advancing host of
+Xerxes, and like them, take refuge upon our ships--these new ships of
+space, with which American inventiveness has furnished us."
+
+And then, like a flash, some genius struck out an idea that fired the
+world.
+
+"Why should we wait? Why should we run the risk of having our cities
+destroyed and our lands desolated a second time? Let us go to Mars. We
+have the means. Let us beard the lion in his den. Let us ourselves turn
+conquerors and take possession of that detestable planet, and if
+necessary, destroy it in order to relieve the earth of this perpetual
+threat which now hangs over us like the sword of Damocles."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+_THE DISINTEGRATOR_
+
+
+This enthusiasm would have had but little justification had Mr. Edison
+done nothing more than invent a machine which could navigate the
+atmosphere and the regions of interplanetary space.
+
+He had, however, and this fact was generally known, although the details
+had not yet leaked out--invented also machines of war intended to meet
+the utmost that the Martians could do for either offence or defence in
+the struggle which was now about to ensue.
+
+Acting upon the hint which had been conveyed from various investigations
+in the domain of physics, and concentrating upon the problem all those
+unmatched powers of intellect which distinguished him, the great
+inventor had succeeded in producing a little implement which one could
+carry in his hand, but which was more powerful than any battleship that
+ever floated. The details of its mechanism could not be easily
+explained, without the use of tedious technicalities and the employment
+of terms, diagrams and mathematical statements, all of which would lie
+outside the scope of this narrative. But the principle of the thing was
+simple enough. It was upon the great scientific doctrine, which we have
+since seen so completely and brilliantly developed, of the law of
+harmonic vibrations, extending from atoms and molecules at one end of
+the series up to the worlds and suns at the other end, that Mr. Edison
+based his invention.
+
+Every kind of substance has its own vibratory rhythm. That of iron
+differs from that of pine wood. The atoms of gold do not vibrate in the
+same time or through the same range as those of lead, and so on for all
+known substances, and all the chemical elements. So, on a larger scale,
+every massive body has its period of vibration. A great suspension
+bridge vibrates, under the impulse of forces that are applied to it, in
+long periods. No company of soldiers ever crosses such a bridge without
+breaking step. If they tramped together, and were followed by other
+companies keeping the same time with their feet, after a while the
+vibrations of the bridge would become so great and destructive that it
+would fall in pieces. So any structure, if its vibration rate is known,
+could easily be destroyed by a force applied to it in such a way that it
+should simply increase the swing of those vibrations up to the point of
+destruction.
+
+Now Mr. Edison had been able to ascertain the vibratory swing of many
+well known substances, and to produce, by means of the instrument which
+he had contrived, pulsations in the ether which were completely under
+his control, and which could be made long or short, quick or slow, at
+his will. He could run through the whole gamut from the slow vibrations
+of sound in air up to the four hundred and twenty-five millions of
+millions of vibrations per second of the ultra red rays.
+
+Having obtained an instrument of such power, it only remained to
+concentrate its energy upon a given object in order that the atoms
+composing that object should be set into violent undulation, sufficient
+to burst it asunder and to scatter its molecules broadcast. This the
+inventor effected by the simplest means in the world--simply a parabolic
+reflector by which the destructive waves could be sent like a beam of
+light, but invisible, in any direction and focused upon any desired
+point.
+
+I had the good fortune to be present when this powerful engine of
+destruction was submitted to its first test. We had gone upon the roof
+of Mr. Edison's laboratory and the inventor held the little instrument,
+with its attached mirror, in his hand. We looked about for some object
+on which to try its powers. On a bare limb of a tree not far away, for
+it was late in fall, sat a disconsolate crow.
+
+"Good," said Mr. Edison, "that will do." He touched a button at the side
+of the instrument and a soft, whirring noise was heard.
+
+"Feathers," said Mr. Edison, "have a vibration period of three hundred
+and eighty-six million per second."
+
+He adjusted the index as he spoke. Then, through a sighting tube, he
+aimed at the bird.
+
+"Now watch," he said.
+
+Another soft whirr in the instrument, a momentary flash of light close
+around it, and, behold, the crow had turned from black to white!
+
+"Its feathers are gone," said the inventor; "they have been dissipated
+into their constituent atoms. Now, we will finish the crow."
+
+Instantly there was another adjustment of the index, another outshooting
+of vibratory force, a rapid up and down motion of the index to include a
+certain range of vibrations, and the crow itself was gone--vanished in
+empty space! There was the bare twig on which a moment before it had
+stood. Behind, in the sky, was the white cloud against which its black
+form had been sharply outlined, but there was no more crow.
+
+"That looks bad for the Martians, doesn't it?" said the Wizard. "I have
+ascertained the vibration rate of all the materials of which their war
+engines, whose remains we have collected together, are composed. They
+can be shattered into nothingness in the fraction of a second. Even if
+the vibration period were not known, it could quickly be hit upon by
+simply running through the gamut."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried one of the onlookers. "We have met the Martians and they
+are ours."
+
+Such in brief was the first of the contrivances which Mr. Edison
+invented for the approaching war with Mars.
+
+And these facts had become widely known. Additional experiments had
+completed the demonstration of the inventor's ability, with the aid of
+his wonderful instrument, to destroy any given object, or any part of an
+object, provided that that part differed in its atomic constitution, and
+consequently in its vibratory period, from the other parts.
+
+A most impressive public exhibit of the powers of the little
+disintegrator was given amid the ruins of New York. On lower Broadway a
+part of the walls of one of the gigantic buildings, which had been
+destroyed by the Martians, impended in such a manner that it threatened
+at any moment to fall upon the heads of the passersby. The Fire
+Department did not dare touch it. To blow it up seemed a dangerous
+expedient, because already new buildings had been erected in its
+neighborhood, and their safety would be imperilled by the flying
+fragments. The fact happened to come to my knowledge.
+
+"Here is an opportunity," I said to Mr. Edison, "to try the powers of
+your machine on a large scale."
+
+"Capital," he instantly replied. "I shall go at once."
+
+For the work now in hand it was necessary to employ a battery of
+disintegrators, since the field of destruction covered by each was
+comparatively limited. All of the impending portions of the wall must be
+destroyed at once and together, for otherwise the danger would rather be
+accentuated rather than annihilated. The disintegrators were placed upon
+the roof of a neighboring building, so adjusted that their fields of
+destruction overlapped one another upon the wall. Their indexes were all
+set to correspond with the vibration period of the peculiar kind of
+brick of which the wall consisted. Then the energy was turned on, and a
+shout of wonder arose from the multitudes which had assembled at a safe
+distance to witness the experiment.
+
+The wall did not fall; it did not break asunder; no fragments shot this
+way and that and high in the air; there was no explosion; no shock or
+noise disturbed the still atmosphere--only a soft whirr, that seemed to
+pervade everything and to tingle in the nerves of the spectators;
+and--what had been was not! The wall was gone! But high above and all
+around the place where it had hung over the street with its threat of
+death there appeared, swiftly billowing outward in every direction, a
+faint bluish cloud. It was the scattered atoms of the destroyed wall.
+
+And now the cry "On to Mars!" was heard on all sides. But for such an
+enterprise funds were needed--millions upon millions. Yet some of the
+fairest and richest portions of the earth had been impoverished by the
+frightful ravages of those enemies who had dropped down upon them from
+the skies. Still, the money must be had. The salvation of the planet, as
+everyone was now convinced, depended upon the successful negotiation of
+a gigantic war fund, in comparison with which all the expenditures in
+all of the wars that had been waged by the nations for 2,000 years would
+be insignificant. The electrical ships and the vibration engines must be
+constructed by scores and thousands. Only Mr. Edison's immense resources
+and unrivaled equipment had enabled him to make the models whose powers
+had been so satisfactorily shown. But to multiply these upon a war scale
+was not only beyond the resources of any individual--hardly a nation on
+the globe in the period of its greatest prosperity could have undertaken
+such a work. All the nations, then, must now conjoin. They must unite
+their resources, and if necessary, exhaust all their hoards, in order to
+raise the needed sum.
+
+Negotiations were at once begun. The United States naturally took the
+lead, and their leadership was never for a moment questioned abroad.
+
+Washington was selected as the place of meeting for a great congress of
+nations. Washington, luckily, had been one of the places which had not
+been touched by the Martians. But if Washington had been a city composed
+of hotels alone, and every hotel so great as to be a little city in
+itself, it would have been utterly insufficient for the accommodation of
+the innumerable throngs which now flocked to the banks of the Potomac.
+But when was American enterprise unequal to a crisis? The necessary
+hotels, lodging-houses and restaurants were constructed with astounding
+rapidity. One could see the city growing and expanding day by day and
+week after week. It flowed over Georgetown Heights; it leaped the
+Potomac; it spread east and west, south and north; square mile after
+square mile of territory was buried under the advancing buildings, until
+the gigantic city, which had thus grown up like a mushroom in a night,
+was fully capable of accommodating all its expected guests.
+
+At first it had been intended that the heads of the various governments
+should in person attend this universal congress, but as the enterprise
+went on, as the enthusiasm spread, as the necessity for haste became
+more apparent through the warning notes which were constantly sounded
+from the observatories where the astronomers were nightly beholding new
+evidences of threatening preparations in Mars, the kings and queens of
+the old world felt that they could not remain at home; that their proper
+place was at the new focus and center of the whole world--the city of
+Washington. Without concerted action, without interchange of suggestion,
+this impulse seemed to seize all the old world monarchs at once.
+Suddenly cablegrams flashed to the government at Washington, announcing
+that Queen Victoria, the Emperor William, the Czar Nicholas, Alphonso of
+Spain, with his mother, Maria Christina; the old emperor Francis Joseph
+and the empress Elizabeth, of Austria; King Oscar and Queen Sophia, of
+Sweden and Norway; King Humbert and Queen Margherita, of Italy; King
+George and Queen Olga, of Greece; Abdul Hamid, of Turkey; Tsait'ien,
+Emperor of China; Mutsuhito, the Japanese Mikado, with his beautiful
+Princess Haruko; the President of France, the President of Switzerland,
+the First Syndic of the little republic of Andorra, perched on the crest
+of the Pyrenees, and the heads of all the Central and South American
+republics, were coming to Washington to take part in the deliberations,
+which, it was felt, were to settle the fate of earth and Mars.
+
+One day, after this announcement had been received, and the additional
+news had come that nearly all the visiting monarchs had set out,
+attended by brilliant suites and convoyed by fleets of warships, for
+their destination, some coming across the Atlantic to the port of New
+York, others across the Pacific to San Francisco, Mr. Edison said to me:
+
+"This will be a fine spectacle. Would you like to watch it?"
+
+"Certainly," I replied.
+
+The Ship of Space was immediately at our disposal. I think I have not
+yet mentioned the fact that the inventor's control over the electrical
+generator carried in the car was so perfect that by varying the
+potential or changing the polarity he could cause it slowly or swiftly,
+as might be desired, to approach or recede from any object. The only
+practical difficulty was presented when the polarity of the electrical
+charge upon an object in the neighborhood of the car was unknown to
+those in the car, and happened to be opposite to that of the charge to
+which the car, at that particular moment was bearing. In such a case, of
+course, the car would fly toward the object, whatever it might be, like
+a pithball or a feather, attracted to the knob of an electrical machine.
+In this way, considerable danger was occasionally encountered, and a few
+accidents could not be avoided. Fortunately, however, such cases were
+rare. It was only now and then that, owing to some local cause,
+electrical polarities unknown to or unexpected by the navigators,
+endangered the safety of the car. As I shall have occasion to relate
+however, in the course of the narrative, this danger became more acute
+and assumed at times a most formidable phase, when we had ventured
+outside the sphere of the earth and were moving through the unexplored
+regions beyond.
+
+On this occasion, having embarked, we rose rapidly to a height of some
+thousands of feet and directed our course over the Atlantic. When
+half-way to Ireland, we beheld, in the distance, steaming westward, the
+smoke of several fleets. As we drew nearer a marvelous spectacle
+unfolded itself to our eyes. From the northeast, their great guns
+flashing in the sunlight and their huge funnels belching black volumes
+that rested like thunder clouds upon the sea, came the mighty warships
+of England, with her meteor flag streaming red in the breeze, while the
+royal insignia, indicating the presence of the ruler of the British
+Empire, was conspicuously displayed upon the flagship of the squadron.
+
+Following a course more directly westward there appeared, under another
+black cloud of smoke, the hulls and guns and burgeons of another great
+fleet, carrying the tri-color of France, and bearing in its midst the
+head of the magnificent republic of western Europe.
+
+Further south, beating up against the northerly winds came a third fleet
+with the gold and red of Spain fluttering from its masthead. This, too,
+was carrying its King westward, where now, indeed, the star of empire
+had taken its way.
+
+Rising a little higher, so as to extend our horizon, we saw coming down
+the English channel, behind the British fleet, the black ships of
+Russia. Side by side, or following one another's lead, these war fleets
+were on a peaceful voyage that belied their threatening appearance.
+There had been no thought of danger to or from the forts and ports of
+rival nations which they had passed. There was no enmity, and no fear
+between them when the throats of their ponderous guns yawned at one
+another across the waves. They were now, in spirit, all one fleet,
+having one object, bearing against one enemy, ready to defend but one
+country, and that country was the entire earth.
+
+It was some time before we caught sight of the emperor William's fleet.
+It seems that the Kaiser, although at first consenting to the
+arrangement by which Washington had been selected as the assembling
+place for the nations, afterwards objected to it.
+
+"I ought to do this thing myself," he had said. "My glorious ancestors
+would never have consented to allow these upstart Republicans to lead in
+a warlike enterprise of this kind. What would my grandfather have said
+to it? I suspect that it is some scheme aimed at the divine right of
+kings."
+
+But the good sense of the German people would not suffer their ruler to
+place them in a position so false and so untenable. And swept along by
+their enthusiasm the Kaiser had at last consented to embark upon his
+flagship at Kiel, and now he was following the other fleets on their
+great mission to the Western Continent.
+
+Why did they bring their warships when their intentions were peaceable,
+do you ask? Well, it was partly the effect of ancient habit, and partly
+due to the fact that such multitudes of officials and members of ruling
+families wished to embark for Washington that the ordinary means of
+ocean communications would have been utterly inadequate to convey them.
+
+After we had feasted our eyes on this strange sight, Mr. Edison suddenly
+exclaimed: "Now let us see the fellows from the rising sun."
+
+The car was immediately directed toward the west. We rapidly approached
+the American coast, and as we sailed over the Allegheny Mountains and
+the broad plains of the Ohio and the Mississippi, we saw crawling
+beneath us from west, south and north, an endless succession of railway
+trains bearing their multitudes on toward Washington. With marvelous
+speed we rushed westward, rising high to skim over the snow-topped peaks
+of the Rocky Mountains and then the glittering rim of the Pacific was
+before us. Half-way between the American Coast and Hawaii we met the
+fleets coming from China and Japan. Side by side they were plowing the
+main, having forgotten, or laid aside, all the animosities of their
+former wars.
+
+I well remember how my heart was stirred at this impressive exhibition
+of the boundless influence which my country had come to exercise over
+all the people of the world, and I turned to look at the man to whose
+genius this uprising of the earth was due. But Mr. Edison, after his
+wont, appeared totally unconscious of the fact that he was personally
+responsible for what was going on. His mind, seemingly, was entirely
+absorbed in considering problems, the solution of which might be
+essential to our success in the terrific struggle which was soon to
+begin.
+
+"Well, have you seen enough?" he asked. "Then let us go back to
+Washington."
+
+As we speeded back across the continent we beheld beneath us again the
+burdened express trains rushing toward the Atlantic, and hundreds of
+thousands of upturned eyes watched our swift progress, and volleys of
+cheers reached our ears, for everyone knew that this was Edison's
+electrical warship, on which the hope of the nation, and the hopes of
+all the nations, depended. These scenes were repeated again and again
+until the car hovered over the still expanding capitol on the Potomac,
+where the unceasing ring of hammers rose to the clouds.
+
+[Illustration: _A consultation in Wizard Edison's laboratory
+between him and Professor Serviss on the best means of repaying the
+damage wrought upon this planet by the Martians._]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+_THE CONGRESS OF NATIONS_
+
+
+The day appointed for the assembling of the nations in Washington opened
+bright and beautiful. Arrangements had been made for the reception of
+the distinguished guests at the Capitol. No time was to be wasted, and
+having assembled in the Senate Chamber, the business that had called
+them together was to be immediately begun. The scene in Pennsylvania
+Avenue, when the procession of dignitaries and royalties passed up
+toward the Capitol was one never to be forgotten. Bands were playing,
+magnificent equipages flashed in the morning sunlight, the flags of
+every nation on the earth fluttered in the breeze. Queen Victoria, with
+the Prince of Wales escorting her, and riding in an open carriage, was
+greeted with roars of cheers; the emperor William, following in another
+carriage with empress Victoria at his side, condescended to bow and
+smile in response to the greetings of a free people. Each of the other
+monarchs was received in a similar manner. The Czar of Russia proved to
+be an especial favorite with the multitude on account of the ancient
+friendship of his house for America. But the greatest applause of all
+came when the President of France, followed by the President of
+Switzerland and the First Syndic of the little republic of Andorra, made
+their appearance. Equally warm were the greetings extended to the
+representatives of Mexico and the South American States.
+
+The crowd apparently hardly knew at first how to receive the Sultan of
+Turkey, but the universal good feeling was in his favor, and finally
+rounds of hand clapping and cheers greeted his progress along the
+splendid avenue.
+
+A happy idea had apparently occurred to the Emperor of China and the
+Mikado of Japan, for, attended by their intermingled suites, they rode
+together in a single carriage. This object lesson in the unity of
+international feeling immensely pleased the spectators.
+
+The scene in the Senate Chamber stirred everyone profoundly. That it was
+brilliant and magnificent goes without saying, but there was a
+seriousness, an intense feeling of expectancy, pervading both those who
+looked on and those who were to do the work for which these magnates of
+the earth had assembled, which produced an ineradicable impression. The
+President of the United States, of course, presided. Representatives of
+the greater powers occupied the front seats, and some of them were
+honored with special chairs near the President.
+
+No time was wasted in preliminaries. The President made a brief speech.
+
+"We have come together," he said, "to consider a question that equally
+interests the whole earth. I need not remind you that unexpectedly and
+without provocation on our part the people--the monsters, I should
+rather say--of Mars, recently came down upon the earth, attacked us in
+our homes and spread desolation around them. Having the advantage of
+ages of evolution, which for us are yet in the future, they brought with
+them engines of death and destruction against which we found it
+impossible to contend. It is within the memory of every one within reach
+of my voice that it was through the entirely unexpected succor which
+Providence sent us that we were suddenly and effectually freed from the
+invaders. By our own efforts we could have done nothing.
+
+"But, as you all know, the first feeling of relief which followed the
+death of our foes was quickly succeeded by the fearful news which came
+to us from the observatories, that the Martians were undoubtedly
+preparing for a second invasion of our planet. Against this we should
+have had no recourse and no hope but for the genius of one of my
+countrymen, who, as you are all aware, has perfected means which may
+enable us not only to withstand the attack of those awful enemies, but
+to meet them, and, let us hope, to conquer them on their own ground.
+
+"Mr. Edison is here to explain to you what those means are. But we have
+also another object. Whether we send a fleet of interplanetary ships to
+invade Mars or whether we simply confine our attention to works of
+defense, in either case it will be necessary to raise a very large sum
+of money. None of us has yet recovered from the effects of the recent
+invasion. The earth is poor today compared to its position a few years
+ago; yet we can not allow our poverty to stand in the way. The money,
+the means, must be had. It will be part of our business here to raise a
+gigantic war fund by the aid of which we can construct the equipment and
+machinery that we shall require. This, I think, is all I need to say.
+Let us proceed to business."
+
+"Where is Mr. Edison?" cried a voice.
+
+"Will Mr. Edison please step forward?" said the President.
+
+There was a stir in the assembly, and the iron-grey head of the great
+inventor was seen moving through the crowd. In his hand he carried one
+of his marvelous disintegrators. He was requested to explain and
+illustrate its operation. Mr. Edison smiled.
+
+"I can explain its details," he said, "to Lord Kelvin, for instance, but
+if Their Majesties will excuse me, I doubt whether I can make it plain
+to the Crown Heads."
+
+The Emperor William smiled superciliously. Apparently he thought that
+another assault had been committed upon the divine right of kings. But
+the Czar Nicholas appeared to be amused, and the Emperor of China, who
+had been studying English, laughed in his sleeve, as if he suspected
+that a joke had been perpetrated.
+
+"I think," said one of the deputies, "that a simple exhibition of the
+powers of the instrument, without a technical explanation of its method
+of working, will suffice for our purpose."
+
+This suggestion was immediately approved. In response to it, Mr. Edison,
+by a few simple experiments, showed how he could quickly and certainly
+shatter into its constituent atoms any object upon which the vibratory
+force of the disintegrator should be directed. In this manner he caused
+an inkstand to disappear under the very nose of the Emperor William
+without a spot of ink being scattered upon his sacred person, but
+evidently the odor of the disunited atoms was not agreeable to the
+nostrils of the Kaiser.
+
+Mr. Edison also explained in general terms the principle on which the
+instrument worked. He was greeted with round after round of applause,
+and the spirit of the assembly rose high.
+
+Next the workings of the electrical ship were explained, and it was
+announced that after the meeting had adjourned an exhibition of the
+flying powers of the ship would be given in the open air.
+
+These experiments, together with the accompanying explanations, added to
+what had already been disseminated through the public press, were quite
+sufficient to convince all the representatives who had assembled in
+Washington that the problem of how to conquer the Martians had been
+solved. The means were plainly at hand. It only remained to apply them.
+For this purpose, as the President had pointed out, it would be
+necessary to raise a very large sum of money.
+
+"How much will be needed?" asked one of the English representatives.
+
+"At least ten thousand millions of dollars," replied the President.
+
+"It would be safer," said a Senator from the Pacific Coast, "to make it
+twenty five thousand millions."
+
+"I suggest," said the King of Italy, "that the nations be called in
+alphabetical order, and that the representatives of each name a sum
+which he is ready and able to contribute."
+
+"We want the cash or its equivalent," shouted the Pacific Coast Senator.
+
+"I shall not follow the alphabet strictly," said the President, "but
+shall begin with the larger nations first. Perhaps, under the
+circumstances, it is proper that the United States should lead the way.
+Mr. Secretary," he continued, turning to the Secretary of the Treasury,
+"how much can we stand?"
+
+"At least a thousand millions," replied the Secretary of the Treasury.
+
+A roar of applause that shook the room burst from the assembly. Even
+some of the monarchs threw up their hats. The Emperor Tsait'ien smiled
+from ear to ear. One of the Roko Tuis, or native chiefs, from Fiji,
+sprang up and brandished a war club.
+
+The President then proceeded to call the other nations, beginning with
+Austria-Hungary and ending with Zanzibar, whose Sultan, Hamoud bin
+Mahomed, had come to the congress in the escort of Queen Victoria. Each
+contributed liberally.
+
+Germany, coming in alphabetical order just before Great Britain, had
+named, through its chancellor, the sum of $500,000,000, but when the
+First Lord of the British Treasury, not wishing to be behind the United
+States, named double that sum as the contribution of the British Empire,
+the Emperor William looked displeased. He spoke a word in the ear of the
+Chancellor who immediately raised his hand.
+
+"We will give a thousand million dollars," said the Chancellor.
+
+Queen Victoria seemed surprised, though not displeased. The First Lord
+of the Treasury met her eye, and then, rising in his place, said:
+
+"Make it fifteen hundred million for Great Britain."
+
+Emperor William consulted again with his Chancellor, but evidently
+concluded not to increase his bid.
+
+But, at any rate, the fund had benefited to the amount of a thousand
+millions by this little outburst of imperial rivalry.
+
+The greatest surprise of all, however, came when the King of Siam was
+called upon for his contribution. He had not been given a foremost place
+in the Congress, but when the name of his country was pronounced he rose
+by his chair, dressed in a gorgeous specimen of the peculiar attire of
+his country, then slowly pushed his way to the front, stepped up to the
+President's desk and deposited upon it a small box.
+
+"This is our contribution," he said in broken English.
+
+The cover was lifted, and there darted, shimmering in the half-gloom of
+the Chamber, a burst of iridescence from the box.
+
+"My friends of the Western world," continued the King of Siam, "will be
+interested in seeing this gem. Only once before has the eye of a
+European been blessed with the sight of it. Your books will tell you
+that in the seventeenth century a traveller, Tavernier, saw in India an
+unmatched diamond which afterward disappeared like a meteor, and was
+thought to have been lost from the earth. You all know the name of that
+diamond and its history. It is the Great Mogul, and it lies before you.
+How it came into my possession I shall not explain. At any rate, it is
+honestly mine, and I freely contribute it here to aid in protecting my
+native planet against those enemies who appear determined to destroy
+it."
+
+When the excitement which the appearance of this long lost treasure,
+that had been the subject of so many romances and of such long and
+fruitless search, had subsided, the President continued calling the
+list, until he had completed it.
+
+Upon taking the sum of the contributions (the Great Mogul was reckoned
+at three millions) it was found to be still one thousand millions short
+of the required amount.
+
+The secretary of the Treasury was instantly on his feet.
+
+"Mr. President," he said, "I think we can stand that addition. Let it be
+added to the contribution of the United States of America."
+
+When the cheers that greeted the conclusion of the business were over,
+the President announced that the next affair of the Congress was to
+select a director who should have entire charge of the preparations for
+the war. It was the universal sentiment that no man could be so well
+suited for this post as Mr. Edison himself. He was accordingly selected
+by the unanimous and enthusiastic choice of the great assembly.
+
+"How long a time do you require to put everything in readiness?" asked
+the President.
+
+"Give me _carte blanche_," replied Mr. Edison, "and I believe I can have
+a hundred electric ships and three thousand disintegrators ready within
+six months."
+
+A tremendous cheer greeted this announcement.
+
+"Your powers are unlimited," said the President, "draw on the fund for
+as much money as you need," whereupon the Treasurer of the United States
+was made the disbursing officer of the fund, and the meeting adjourned.
+
+Not less than 5,000,000 people had assembled at Washington from all
+parts of the world. Every one of this immense multitude had been able to
+listen to the speeches and the cheers in the Senate Chamber, although
+not personally present there. Wires had been run all over the city, and
+hundreds of improved telephonic receivers provided, so that everyone
+could hear. Even those who were unable to visit Washington, people
+living in Baltimore, New York, Boston, and as far away as New Orleans,
+St. Louis and Chicago, had also listened to the proceedings with the aid
+of these receivers. Upon the whole, probably not less than 50,000,000
+people had heard the deliberations of the great congress of the nations.
+
+The telegraph and the cable had sent the news across the oceans to all
+the capitols of the earth. The exultation was so great that the people
+seemed mad with joy.
+
+The promised exhibition of the electrical ship took place the next day.
+Enormous multitudes witnessed the experiment, and there was a struggle
+for places in the car. Even Queen Victoria, accompanied by the Prince of
+Wales, ventured to take a ride in it, and they enjoyed it so much that
+Mr. Edison prolonged the journey as far as Boston and the Bunker Hill
+monument.
+
+Most of the other monarchs also took a high ride, but when the turn of
+the Emperor of China came he repeated a fable which he said had come
+down from the time of Confucius:
+
+"Once upon a time there was a Chinaman living in the valley of the
+Hoang-Ho River, who was accustomed frequently to lie on his back, gazing
+at, and envying, the birds that he saw flying away in the sky. One day
+he saw a black speck which rapidly grew larger and larger, until as it
+got near he perceived that it was an enormous bird, which overshadowed
+the earth with its wings. It was the elephant of birds, the roc. 'Come
+with me,' said the roc, 'and I will show you the wonders of the kingdom
+of the birds.' The man caught hold of its claw and nestled among its
+feathers, and they rapidly rose high in the air, and sailed away to the
+Kuen-Lun Mountains. Here, as they passed near the top of the peaks,
+another roc made its appearance. The wings of the two great birds
+brushed together, and immediately they fell to fighting. In the midst of
+the melee the man lost his hold and tumbled into the top of a tree,
+where his pigtail caught on a branch, and he remained suspended. There
+the unfortunate man hung helpless, until a rat, which had its home in
+the rocks at the foot of the tree, took compassion upon him, and,
+climbing up, gnawed off the branch. As the man slowly and painfully
+wended his weary way homeward, he said: 'This teaches me that creatures
+to whom nature has given neither feathers nor wings should leave the
+kingdom of the birds to those who are fitted to inhabit it.'"
+
+Having told this story, Tsait'ien turned his back on the electrical
+ship.
+
+After the exhibition was finished, and amid the fresh outburst of
+enthusiasm that followed, it was suggested that a proper way to wind up
+the Congress and give suitable expression to the festive mood which now
+possessed mankind would be to have a grand ball. This suggestion met
+with immediate and universal approval.
+
+But for so gigantic an affair it was, of course, necessary to make
+special preparations. A convenient place was selected on the Virginia
+side of the Potomac; a space of ten acres was carefully levelled and
+covered with a polished floor, rows of columns one hundred feet apart
+were run across it in every direction, and these were decorated with
+electric lights, displaying every color of the spectrum.
+
+Above this immense space, rising in the center to a height of more than
+a thousand feet, was anchored a vast number of balloons, all aglow with
+lights, and forming a tremendous dome, in which brilliant lamps were
+arranged in such a manner as to exhibit, in an endless succession of
+combinations, all the national colors, ensigns and insignia of the
+various countries represented at the Congress. Blazing eagles, lions,
+unicorns, dragons and other imaginary creatures that the different
+nations had chosen for their symbols appeared to hover high above the
+dancers, shedding a brilliant light upon the scene.
+
+Circles of magnificent thrones were placed upon the floor in convenient
+locations for seeing. A thousand bands of music played, and tens of
+thousands of couples, gayly dressed and flashing with gems, whirled
+together upon the polished floor.
+
+The Queen of England led the dance, on the arm of the President of the
+United States.
+
+The Prince of Wales led forth the fair daughter of the President,
+universally admired as the most beautiful woman on the great ballroom
+floor.
+
+The Emperor William, in his military dress, danced with the beauteous
+Princess Masaco, the daughter of the Mikado, who wore for the occasion
+the ancient costume of the women of her country, sparkling with jewels,
+and glowing with quaint combinations of color like a gorgeous butterfly.
+
+The Chinese Emperor, with his pigtail flying high as he spun, danced
+with the Empress of Russia.
+
+The King of Siam essayed a waltz with the Queen Ranavalona of
+Madagascar, while the Sultan of Turkey basked in the smiles of a Chicago
+heiress to a hundred millions.
+
+The Czar chose for his partner a dark-eyed beauty from Peru, but King
+Malietoa, of Samoa, was suspicious of civilized charmers and, avoiding
+all of their allurements, expressed his joy and gave vent to his
+enthusiasm in a _pas seul_. In this he was quickly joined by a band of
+Sioux Indian chiefs, whose whoops and yells so startled the leader of a
+German band on their part of the floor that he dropped his baton, and
+followed by the musicians, took to his heels.
+
+This incident amused the good-natured Emperor of China more than
+anything else that had occurred.
+
+"Make muchee noisee," he said, indicating the fleeing musicians with his
+thumb. "Allee samee muchee flaid noisee," and then his round face
+dimpled into another laugh.
+
+The scene from the outside was even more imposing than that which
+greeted the eye within the brilliantly lighted enclosure. Far away in
+the night, rising high among the stars, the vast dome of illuminated
+balloons seemed, like some supernatural creation, too grand and glorious
+to have been constructed by the inhabitants of the earth.
+
+All around it, and from some of the balloons themselves, rose jets and
+fountains of fire, ceasingly playing, and blotting out the
+constellations of the heavens by their splendor.
+
+The dance was followed by a grand banquet, at which the Prince of Wales
+proposed a toast to Mr. Edison:
+
+"It gives me much pleasure," he said, "to offer, in the name of the
+nations of the Old World, this tribute of our admiration for, and our
+confidence in, the genius of the New World. Perhaps on such an occasion
+as this, when all racial differences and prejudices ought to be, and
+are, buried and forgotten, I should not recall anything that might
+revive them; yet I cannot refrain from expressing my happiness in
+knowing that the champion who is to achieve the salvation of the earth
+has come forth from the bosom of the Anglo-Saxon race."
+
+Several of the great potentates looked grave upon hearing the Prince of
+Wales' words, and the Czar and the Kaiser exchanged glances; but there
+was no interruption to the cheers that followed. Mr. Edison, whose
+modesty and dislike to display and to speechmaking were well known,
+simply said:
+
+"I think we have got the machine that can whip them. But we ought not to
+be wasting any time. Probably they are not dancing on Mars, but are
+getting ready to make us dance."
+
+These words instantly turned the current of feeling in the vast
+assembly. There was no longer any disposition to expend time in vain
+boastings and rejoicings. Everywhere the cry now became, "Let us make
+haste! Let us get ready at once! Who knows but the Martians have already
+embarked, and are now on their way to destroy us?"
+
+Under the impulse of this new feeling, which, it must be admitted, was
+very largely inspired by terror, the vast ballroom was quickly deserted.
+The lights were suddenly put out in the great dome of balloons, for
+someone had whispered:
+
+"Suppose they should see that from Mars? Would they not guess what we
+were about, and redouble their preparations to finish us?"
+
+Upon the suggestion of the President of the United States, an executive
+committee, representing all the principal nations, was appointed, and
+without delay a meeting of this committee was assembled at the White
+House. Mr. Edison was summoned before it, and asked to sketch briefly
+the plan upon which he proposed to work.
+
+I need not enter into the details of what was done at this meeting. Let
+it suffice to say that when it broke up, in the small hours of the
+morning, it had been unanimously resolved that as many thousands of men
+as Mr. Edison might require should be immediately placed at his
+disposal; that as far as possible all the great manufacturing
+establishments of the country should be instantly transformed into
+factories where electrical ships and disintegrators could be built, and
+upon the suggestion of Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson, the celebrated
+English electrical expert, seconded by Lord Kelvin, it was resolved that
+all the leading men of science in the world should place their services
+at the disposal of Mr. Edison in any capacity in which, in his
+judgement, they might be useful to him.
+
+The members of this committee were disposed to congratulate one another
+on the good work which they had so promptly accomplished, when at the
+moment of their adjournment, a telegraphic dispatch was handed to the
+President from Professor George E. Hale, the director of the great
+Yerkes Observatory, in Wisconsin. The telegram read:
+
+"Professor Barnard, watching Mars tonight with the forty-inch telescope,
+saw a sudden outburst of reddish light, which we think indicates that
+something has been shot from the planet. Spectroscopic observations of
+this moving light indicated that it was coming earthward, while visible,
+at the rate of not less than one hundred miles a second."
+
+Hardly had the excitement caused by the reading of this dispatch
+subsided, when others of a similar import came from the Lick
+Observatory, in California; from the branch of the Harvard Observatory
+at Arequipa, in Peru, and from the Royal Observatory, at Potsdam.
+
+When the telegram from this last named place was read the Emperor
+William turned to his Chancellor and said:
+
+"I want to go home. If I am to die I prefer to leave my bones among
+those of my imperial ancestors and not in this vulgar country, where no
+king has ever ruled. I don't like this atmosphere. It makes me limp."
+
+And now, whipped on by the lash of alternate hope and fear, the earth
+sprang to its work of preparation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+_TO CONQUER ANOTHER WORLD_
+
+
+It is not necessary for me to describe the manner in which Mr. Edison
+performed his tremendous task. He was as good as his word, and within
+six months from the first stroke of the hammer, a hundred electrical
+ships, each provided with a full battery of disintegrators, were
+floating in the air above the harbor and the partially rebuilt city of
+New York.
+
+It was a wonderful scene. The polished sides of the huge floating cars
+sparkled in the sunlight, and, as they slowly rose and fell, and swung
+this way and that, upon the tides of the air, as if held by invisible
+cables, the brilliant pennons streaming from their peaks waved up and
+down like the wings of an assemblage of gigantic humming birds.
+
+Not knowing whether the atmosphere of Mars would prove suitable to be
+breathed by inhabitants of the earth, Mr. Edison had made provision, by
+means of an abundance of glass-protected openings, to permit the inmates
+of the electrical ships to survey their surroundings without quitting
+the interior. It was possible by properly selecting the rate of
+undulation, to pass the vibratory impulse from the disintegrators
+through the glass windows of a car without damage to the glass itself.
+The windows were so arranged that the disintegrators could sweep around
+the car on all sides, and could also be directed above or below, as
+necessity might dictate.
+
+To overcome the destructive forces employed by the Martians no
+satisfactory plan had yet been devised, because there was no means to
+experiment with them. The production of those forces was still the
+secret of our enemies. But Mr. Edison had no doubt that if we could not
+resist their efforts we might at least be able to avoid them by the
+rapidity of our motions. As he pointed out, the war machines which the
+Martians had employed in their invasion of the earth, were really very
+awkward and unmanageable affairs. Mr. Edison's electrical ships, on the
+other hand, were marvels of speed and of manageability. They could dart
+about, turn, reverse their course, rise, fall, with the quickness and
+ease of a fish in the water. Mr. Edison calculated that even if
+mysterious bolts should fall upon our ships we could diminish their
+power to cause injury by our rapid evolutions.
+
+We might be deceived in our expectations, and might have overestimated
+our powers, but at any rate we must take our chances and try.
+
+A multitude, exceeding even that which had assembled during the great
+congress in Washington, now thronged New York and its neighborhood to
+witness the mustering and the departure of the ships bound for Mars.
+Nothing further had been heard of the mysterious phenomenon reported
+from the observatories six months before, and which at the time was
+believed to indicate the departure of another expedition from Mars for
+the invasion of the earth. If the Martians had set out to attack us they
+had evidently gone astray; or, perhaps, it was some other world that
+they were aiming at this time.
+
+The expedition had, of course, profoundly stirred the interest of the
+scientific world, and representatives of every branch of science, from
+all the civilized nations, urged their claims to places in the ships.
+Mr. Edison was compelled, from lack of room, to refuse transportation to
+more than one in a thousand of those who now, on the plea that they
+might be able to bring back something of advantage to science, wished to
+embark for Mars.
+
+On the model of the celebrated corps of literary and scientific men
+which Napoleon carried with him in his invasion of Egypt, Mr. Edison
+selected a company of the foremost astronomers, archaeologists,
+anthropologists, botanists, bacteriologists, chemists, physicists,
+mathematicians, mechanics, meteorologists and experts in mining,
+metallurgy and every other branch of practical science, as well as
+artists and photographers. It was but reasonable to believe that in
+another world, and a world so much older than the earth as Mars was,
+these men would be able to gather materials in comparison with which the
+discoveries made among the ruins of ancient empires in Egypt and
+Babylonia would be insignificant indeed.
+
+It was a wonderful undertaking and a strange spectacle. There was a
+feeling of uncertainty which awed the vast multitude whose eyes were
+upturned to the ships. The expedition was not large, considering the
+gigantic character of the undertaking. Each of the electrical ships
+carried about twenty men, together with an abundant supply of compressed
+provisions, compressed air, scientific apparatus and so on. In all,
+there were about 2,000 men, who were going to conquer, if they could,
+another world!
+
+But though few in numbers, they represented the flower of the earth, the
+culmination of the genius of the planet. The greatest leaders in
+science, both theoretical and practical, were there. It was the
+evolution of the earth against the evolution of Mars. It was a planet in
+the hey-day of its strength matched against an aged and decrepit world
+which, nevertheless, in consequence of its long ages of existence, had
+acquired an experience which made it a most dangerous foe. On both sides
+there was desperation. The earth was desperate because it foresaw
+destruction unless it could first destroy its enemy. Mars was desperate
+because nature was gradually depriving it of the means of supporting
+life, and its teeming population was compelled to swarm like the inmates
+of an overcrowded hive of bees, and find new homes elsewhere. In this
+respect the situation on Mars, as we were well aware, resembled what had
+already been known upon the earth, where the older nations overflowing
+with population had sought new lands in which to settle, and for that
+purpose had driven out the native inhabitants, whenever those natives
+had proven unable to resist the invasion.
+
+No man could foresee the issue of what we were about to undertake, but
+the tremendous powers which the disintegrators had exhibited and the
+marvelous efficiency of the electrical ships bred almost universal
+confidence that we should be successful.
+
+The car in which Mr. Edison travelled was, of course, the flagship of
+the squadron, and I had the good fortune to be included among its
+inmates. Here, besides several leading men of science from our own
+country, were Lord Kelvin, Lord Rayleigh, Professor Roentgen, Dr.
+Moissan--the man who first made artificial diamonds--and several others
+whose fame had encircled the world. Each of these men cherished hopes of
+wonderful discoveries, along his line of investigation, to be made in
+Mars.
+
+An elaborate system of signals had, of course, to be devised for the
+control of the squadron. These signals consisted of brilliant electric
+lights displayed at night and so controlled that by their means long
+sentences and directions could be easily and quickly transmitted.
+
+The day signals consisted partly of brightly colored pennons and flags,
+which were to serve only when, shadowed by clouds or other obstructions,
+the full sunlight could not fall upon the ship. This could naturally
+only occur near the surface of the earth or of another planet.
+
+Once out of the shadow of the earth we should have no more clouds and no
+more night until we arrived at Mars. In open space the sun would be
+continually shining. It would be perpetual day for us, except as, by
+artificial means, we furnished ourselves with darkness for the purpose
+of promoting sleep. In this region of perpetual day, then, the signals
+were also to be transmitted by flashes of light from mirrors reflecting
+the rays of the sun.
+
+Yet this perpetual day would be also, in one sense, a perpetual night.
+There would be no more blue sky for us, because without an atmosphere
+the sunlight could not be diffused. Objects would be illuminated only on
+the side toward the sun. Anything that screened off the direct rays of
+sunlight would produce absolute darkness behind it. There would be no
+graduation of shadow. The sky would be as black as ink on all sides.
+
+While it was the intention to remain as much as possible within the
+cars, yet since it was probable that necessity would arise for
+occasionally quitting the interior of the electrical ships, Mr. Edison
+had provided for this emergency by inventing an air-tight dress
+constructed somewhat after the manner of a diver's suit, but of much
+lighter material. Each ship was provided with several of these suits, by
+wearing which one could venture outside the ship even when it was beyond
+the atmosphere of the earth.
+
+Provision had been made to meet the terrific cold which we knew would be
+encountered the moment we had passed beyond the atmosphere--that awful
+absolute zero which men had measured by anticipation, but never yet
+experienced--by a simple system of producing within the air-tight suits
+a temperature sufficiently elevated to counteract the effects of the
+frigidity without. By means of long, flexible tubes, air could be
+continually supplied to the wearers of the suits, and by an ingenious
+contrivance a store of compressed air sufficient to last for several
+hours was provided for each suit, so that in case of necessity the
+wearer could throw off the tubes connecting him with the air tanks in
+the car. Another object which had been kept in view in the preparation
+of these suits was the possible exploration of an airless planet, such
+as the moon.
+
+The necessity of some contrivance by means of which we should be enabled
+to converse with one another while outside the cars in open space, or
+when in an airless world, like the moon, where there would be no medium
+by which the waves of sound could be conveyed as they are in the
+atmosphere of the earth, had been foreseen by our great inventor, and he
+had not found it difficult to contrive suitable devices for meeting the
+emergency.
+
+Inside the headpiece of each of the electrical suits was the mouthpiece
+of a telephone. This was connected to a wire which, when not in use,
+could be conveniently coiled upon the arm of the wearer. Near the ears,
+similarly connected with wires, were telephonic receivers.
+
+When two persons wearing the air-tight dresses wished to converse with
+one another it was only necessary for them to connect themselves by the
+wires, and conversation could then be easily carried on.
+
+Careful calculations of the precise distance of Mars from the earth at
+the time when the expedition was to start had been made by a large
+number of experts in mathematical astronomy. But it was not Mr. Edison's
+intention to go direct to Mars. With the exception of the first
+electrical ship, which he had completed, none had yet been tried in a
+long voyage. It was desirable that the qualities of each of the ships
+should first be carefully tested, and for this reason the leader of the
+expedition determined that the moon should be the first port of space at
+which the squadron would call.
+
+It chanced that the moon was so situated at this time as to be nearly in
+a line between the earth and Mars, which latter was in opposition to the
+sun, and consequently as favorably situated as possible for the purposes
+of the voyage. What would be, then, for 99 out of the 100 ships of the
+squadron, a trial trip would at the same time be a step of a quarter of
+a million of miles gained in the direction of our journey, and so no
+time would be wasted.
+
+The departure from the earth was arranged to occur precisely at
+midnight. The moon near the full was hanging high over head, and a
+marvelous spectacle was presented to the eyes of those below as the
+great squadron of floating ships, with their insignia lights ablaze,
+cast loose and began slowly to move away on their adventurous and
+unprecedented expedition into the great unknown. A tremendous cheer,
+billowing up from the throats of millions of excited men and women,
+seemed to rend the curtain of the night, and made the airships tremble
+with the atmospheric vibrations that were set in motion.
+
+Instantly magnificent fireworks were displayed in honor of our
+departure. Rockets by hundreds of thousands shot heaven-ward, and then
+burst in constellations of firey drops. The sudden illumination thus
+produced, overspreading hundreds of square miles of the surface of the
+earth with a light almost like that of day, must certainly have been
+visible to the inhabitants of Mars, if they were watching us at the
+time. They might, or might not, correctly interpret its significance;
+but, at any rate, we did not care. We were off, and were confident that
+we could meet our enemy on his own ground before he could attack us
+again.
+
+And now, as we slowly rose higher, a marvelous scene was disclosed. At
+first the earth beneath us, buried as it was in night, resembled the
+hollow of a vast cup of ebony blackness, in the center of which, like
+the molten lava run together at the bottom of a volcanic crater, shone
+the light of the illuminations around New York. But when we got beyond
+the atmosphere, and the earth still continued to recede below us, its
+aspect changed. The cup-shaped appearance was gone, and it began to
+round out beneath our eyes in the form of a vast globe--an enormous ball
+mysteriously suspended under us, glimmering over most of its surface,
+with the faint illumination of the moon, and showing toward its eastern
+edge the oncoming light of the rising sun.
+
+When we were still further away, having slightly varied our course so
+that the sun was once more entirely hidden behind the center of the
+earth, we saw its atmosphere completely illuminated, all around it, with
+prismatic lights, like a gigantic rainbow in the form of a ring.
+
+Another shift in our course rapidly carried us out of the shadow of the
+earth and into that all pervading sunshine. Then the great planet
+beneath us hung unspeakable in its beauty. The outlines of several of
+the continents were clearly discernible on its surface, streaked and
+spotted with delicate shades of varying color, and the sunlight flashed
+and glowed in long lanes across the convex surface of the oceans.
+Parallel with the Equator and along the regions of the ever blowing
+trade winds, were vast belts of clouds, gorgeous with crimson and purple
+as the sunlight fell upon them. Immense expanses of snow and ice lay
+like a glittering garment upon both land and sea around the North Pole.
+
+As we gazed upon this magnificent spectacle, our hearts bounded within
+us. This was our earth--this was the planet we were going to defend--our
+home in the trackless wilderness of space. And it seemed to us indeed a
+home for which we might gladly expend our last breath. A new
+determination to conquer or die sprang up in our hearts, and I saw Lord
+Kelvin, after gazing at the beauteous scene which the earth presented
+through his eyeglass, turn about and peer in the direction in which we
+knew that Mars lay, with a sudden frown that caused the glass to lose
+its grip and fall dangling from its string upon his breast. Even Mr.
+Edison seemed moved.
+
+"I am glad I thought of the disintegrator," he said. "I shouldn't like
+to see that world down there laid waste again."
+
+"And it won't be," said Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson, gripping the
+handle of an electric machine, "not if we can help it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+_THE FOOTPRINT ON THE MOON_
+
+
+To prevent accidents, it had been arranged that the ships should keep a
+considerable distance apart. Some of them gradually drifted away, until,
+on account of the neutral tint of their sides, they were swallowed up in
+the abyss of space. Still it was possible to know where every member of
+the squadron was through the constant interchange of signals. These, as
+I have explained, were effected by means of mirrors flashing back the
+light of the sun.
+
+But, although it was now unceasing day for us, yet, there being no
+atmosphere to diffuse the sun's light, the stars were visible to us just
+as at night upon the earth, and they shone with extraordinary splendor
+against the intense black background of the firmament. The lights of
+some of the more distant ships of our squadron were not brighter than
+the stars in whose neighborhood they seemed to be. In some cases it was
+only possible to distinguish between the light of a ship and that of a
+star by the fact that the former was continually flashing while the star
+was steady in its radiance.
+
+The most uncanny effect was produced by the absence of atmosphere around
+us. Inside the car, where there was air, the sunlight, streaming through
+one or more of the windows, was diffused and produced ordinary daylight.
+
+But when we ventured outside we could only see things by halves. The
+side of the car that the sun's rays touched was visible, the other side
+was invisible, the light from the stars not making it bright enough to
+affect the eye in contrast with the sun-illumined half.
+
+As I held up my arm before my eyes, half of it seemed to be shaved off
+lengthwise; a companion on the deck of the ship looked like half a man.
+So the other electrical ships near us appeared as half ships, only the
+illumined sides being visible.
+
+We had now gotten so far away that the earth had taken on the appearance
+of a heavenly body like the moon. Its colors had become all blended into
+a golden-reddish hue, which overspread nearly its entire surface, except
+at the poles, where there were broad patches of white. It was marvelous
+to look at this huge orb behind us, while far beyond it shone the
+blazing sun like an enormous star in the blackest of nights. In the
+opposite direction appeared the silver orb of the moon, and scattered
+all around were millions of brilliant stars, amid which, like fireflies,
+flashed and sparkled the signal lights of the squadron.
+
+A danger that might easily have been anticipated, that perhaps had been
+anticipated, but against which it had been difficult, if not impossible,
+to provide, presently manifested itself.
+
+Looking out of a window toward the right, I suddenly noticed the lights
+of a distant ship darting about in a curious curve. Instantly afterward,
+another member of the squadron, nearer by, behaved in the same
+inexplicable manner. Then two or three of the floating cars seemed to be
+violently drawn from their courses and hurried rapidly in the direction
+of the flagship. Immediately I perceived a small object, luridly
+flaming, which seemed to move with immense speed in our direction.
+
+The truth instantly flashed upon my mind, and I shouted to the other
+occupants of the car:
+
+"A meteor!"
+
+And such indeed it was. We had met this mysterious wanderer in space at
+a moment when we were moving in a direction at right angles to the path
+it was pursuing around the sun. Small as it was, and its diameter
+probably did not exceed a single foot, it was yet an independent little
+world, and as such a member of the solar system. Its distance from the
+sun being so near that of the earth, I knew that its velocity, assuming
+it to be travelling in a nearly circular orbit, must be about eighteen
+miles in a second. With this velocity, then, it plunged like a
+projectile shot by some mysterious enemy in space directly through our
+squadron. It had come and was gone before one could utter a sentence of
+three words. Its appearance, and the effect it had produced upon the
+ships in whose neighborhood it passed, indicated that it bore an intense
+and tremendous charge of electricity. How it had become thus charged I
+cannot pretend to say. I simply record the fact. And this charge, it was
+evident, was opposite in polarity to that which the ships of the
+squadron bore. It therefore exerted an attractive influence upon them
+and thus drew them after it.
+
+I had just time to think how lucky it was that the meteor did not strike
+any of us, when, glancing at a ship just ahead, I perceived that an
+accident had occurred. The ship swayed violently from its course,
+dazzling flashes played around it, and two or three of the men forming
+its crew appeared for an instant on its exterior, wildly gesticulating,
+but almost instantly falling prone.
+
+It was evident at a glance that the car had been struck by the meteor.
+How serious the damage might be we could not instantly determine. The
+course of our ship was immediately altered, the electric polarity was
+changed and we rapidly approached the disabled car.
+
+The men who had fallen lay upon its surface. One of the heavy circular
+glasses covering a window had been smashed to atoms. Through this the
+meteor had passed, killing two or three men who stood in its course.
+Then it had crashed through the opposite side of the car, and, passing
+on, had disappeared into space. The store of air contained in the car
+had immediately rushed out through the openings, and when two or three
+of us, having donned our air-tight suits as quickly as possible, entered
+the wrecked car we found all its inmates stretched upon the floor in a
+condition of asphyxiation. They, as well as those who lay upon the
+exterior, were immediately removed to the flagship, restoratives were
+applied, and, fortunately, our aid had come so promptly that the lives
+of all of them were saved. But life had fled from the mangled bodies of
+those who had stood directly in the path of the fearful projectile.
+
+[Illustration: _"Through this the meteor had passed, killing two or
+three men who stood in its course."_]
+
+This strange accident had been witnessed by several of the members of
+the fleet, and they quickly drew together, in order to inquire for the
+particulars. As the flagship was now overcrowded by the addition of so
+many men to its crew, Mr. Edison had them distributed among the other
+cars. Fortunately it happened that the disintegrators contained in the
+wrecked car were not injured. Mr. Edison thought that it would be
+possible to repair the car itself, and for that purpose he had it
+attached to the flagship in order that it might be carried on as far as
+the moon. The bodies of the dead were transported with it, as it was
+determined, instead of committing them to the fearful deep of space,
+where they would have wandered forever, or else have fallen like meteors
+upon the earth, to give them interment in the lunar soil.
+
+As we now rapidly approached the moon the change which the appearance of
+its surface underwent was no less wonderful than that which the surface
+of the earth had presented in the reverse order while we were receding
+from it. From a pale silver orb, shining with comparative faintness
+among the stars, it slowly assumed the appearance of a vast mountainous
+desert. As we drew nearer its colors became more pronounced; the great
+flat regions appeared darker; the mountain peaks shone more brilliantly.
+The huge chasms seemed bottomless and blacker than midnight. Gradually
+separate mountains appeared. What seemed like expanses of snow and
+immense glaciers streaming down their sides sparkled with great
+brilliancy in the perpendicular rays of the sun. Our motion had now
+assumed the aspect of falling. We seemed to be dropping from an
+immeasurable height, and with an inconceivable velocity, straight down
+upon those giant peaks.
+
+Here and there curious lights glowed upon the mysterious surface of the
+moon. Where the edge of the moon cut the sky behind it, it was broken
+and jagged with mountain masses. Vast crater rings overspread its
+surface, and in some of these I imagined I could perceive a lurid
+illumination coming out of their deepest cavities, and the curling of
+mephitic vapors around their terrible jaws.
+
+We were approaching that part of the moon which is known to the
+astronomers as the Bay of Rainbows. Here a huge semi-circular region, as
+smooth almost as the surface of a prairie, lay beneath our eyes,
+stretching southward into a vast ocean-like expanse, while on the north
+it was enclosed by an enormous range of mountain cliffs, rising
+perpendicularly to a height of many thousands of feet, and rent and
+gashed in every direction by forces which seemed at some remote period
+to have labored at tearing this little world in pieces.
+
+It was a fearful spectacle; a dead and mangled world, too dreadful to
+look upon. The idea of the death of the moon was, of course, not a new
+one to many of us. We had long been aware that the earth's satellite was
+a body which had passed beyond the stage of life, if indeed it had ever
+been a life supporting globe; but none of us were prepared for the
+terrible spectacle which now smote our eyes.
+
+At each end of the semi-circular ridge that encloses the Bay of Rainbows
+there is a lofty promontory. That at the northwestern extremity had long
+been known to the astronomers under the name of Cape Laplace. The other
+promontory, at the southeastern termination, is called Cape Heraclides.
+It was toward the latter that we were approaching, and by interchange of
+signals all the members of the squadron had been informed that Cape
+Heraclides was to be our rendezvous upon the moon.
+
+I may say that I had been somewhat familiar with the scenery of this
+part of the lunar world, for I had often studied it from the earth with
+a telescope, and I had thought that if there was any part of the moon
+where one might, with fair expectation of success, look for inhabitants,
+or if not inhabitants, at least for relics of life no longer existant
+there, this would surely be the place. It was, therefore, with no small
+degree of curiosity, notwithstanding the unexpectedly frightful and
+repulsive appearance that the surface of the moon presented, that I now
+saw myself rapidly approaching the region concerning whose secrets my
+imagination had so often busied itself. When Mr. Edison and I had paid
+our previous trip to the moon on our first experimental trip of the
+electrical ship we had landed at a point on its surface remote from
+this, and, as I have before explained, we then made no effort to
+investigate its secrets. But now it was to be different, and we were at
+length to see something of the wonders of the moon.
+
+I had often on the earth drawn a smile from my friends by showing them
+Cape Heraclides with a telescope, and calling their attention to the
+fact that the outline of the peak terminating the cape was such as to
+present a remarkable resemblance to a human face, unmistakably a
+feminine countenance, seen in profile, and possessing no small degree of
+beauty. To my astonishment, this curious human semblance still remained
+when we had approached so close to the moon that the mountains forming
+the cape filled nearly the whole field of view of the window from which
+I was watching it. The resemblance, indeed, was most startling.
+
+"Can this indeed be Diana herself?" I said half-aloud, but instantly
+afterward I was laughing at my fancy, for Mr. Edison had overhead me and
+exclaimed, "Where is she?"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Diana."
+
+"Why, there," I said, pointing to the moon. But lo! the appearance was
+gone even while I spoke. A swift change had taken place in the line of
+sight by which we were viewing it, and the likeness had disappeared in
+consequence.
+
+A few moments later my astonishment was revived, but the cause this time
+was a very different one. We had been dropping rapidly toward the
+mountains, and the electrician in charge of the car was swiftly and
+constantly changing his potential, and, like a pilot who feels his way
+into an unknown harbor, endeavoring to approach the moon in such a
+manner that no hidden peril should surprise us. As we thus approached I
+suddenly perceived, crowning the very apex of the lofty peak near the
+termination of the cape, the ruins of what appeared to be an ancient
+watch tower. It was evidently composed of Cyclopean blocks larger than
+any that I had ever seen even among the ruins of Greece, Egypt and Asia
+Minor.
+
+[Illustration: _"As we thus approached I suddenly perceived, crowning
+the very apex of the lofty peak near the termination of the cape, the
+ruins of what appeared to be the ancient watch-tower."_]
+
+Here, then, was visible proof that the moon had been inhabited, although
+probably it was not inhabited now. I cannot describe the exultant
+feeling which took possession of me at this discovery. It settled so
+much that learned men had been disputing about for centuries.
+
+"What will they say," I exclaimed, "when I show them a photograph of
+that?"
+
+Below the peak, stretching far to right and left, lay a barren beach
+which had evidently once been washed by sea waves, because it was marked
+by long curved ridges such as the advancing and retiring tide leaves
+upon the shore of the ocean.
+
+This beach sloped rapidly outward and downward toward a profound abyss,
+which had once, evidently, been the bed of a sea, but which now appeared
+to us simply as the empty, yawning shell of an ocean that had long
+vanished.
+
+It was with no small difficulty, and only after the expenditure of
+considerable time, that all the floating ships of the squadron were
+gradually brought to rest on this lone mountain top of the moon. In
+accordance with my request, Mr. Edison had the flagship moored in the
+interior of the great ruined watch tower that I have described. The
+other ships rested upon the slope of the mountain around us.
+
+Although time pressed, for we knew that the safety of the earth depended
+upon our promptness in attacking Mars, yet it was determined to remain
+here at least two or three days in order that the wrecked car might be
+repaired. It was found also that the passage of the highly electrified
+meteor had disarranged the electrical machinery in some of the other
+cars, so that there were many repairs to be made besides those needed to
+restore the wreck.
+
+Moreover, we must bury our unfortunate companions who had been killed by
+the meteor. This, in fact, was the first work that we performed. Strange
+was the sight, and stranger our feelings, as here on the surface of a
+world distant from the earth, and on soil which had never before been
+pressed by the foot of man, we performed that last ceremony of respect
+which mortals pay to mortality. In the ancient beach at the foot of the
+peak we made a deep opening, and there covered forever the faces of our
+friends, leaving them to sleep among the ruins of empires, and among the
+graves of races which had vanished probably ages before Adam and Eve
+appeared in Paradise.
+
+While the repairs were being made several scientific expeditions were
+sent out in various directions across the moon. One went westward to
+investigate the great ring of Plato, and the lunar Alps. Another crossed
+the ancient Sea of Showers toward the inner Appenines.
+
+One started to explore the immense Crater of Copernicus, which, yawning
+fifty miles across, presents a wonderful appearance even from the
+distance of the earth. The ship in which I, myself, had the good fortune
+to embark, was bound for the mysterious inner mountain Aristarchus.
+
+Before these expeditions started, a careful exploration had been made in
+the neighborhood of Cape Heraclides. But, except that the broken walls
+of the watch tower on the peak, composed of blocks of enormous size, had
+evidently been the work of creatures endowed with human intelligence, no
+remains were found indicating the former presence of inhabitants upon
+this part of the moon.
+
+But along the shore of the old sea, just where the so-called Bay of
+Rainbows separates itself from the abyss of the Sea of Showers, there
+were found some stratified rocks in which the fascinated eyes of the
+explorer beheld the clear imprint of a gigantic human foot, measuring
+five feet in length from toe to heel.
+
+The most minute search failed to reveal another trace of the presence of
+the ancient giant, who had left the impress of his foot in the wet sands
+of the beach here so many millions of years ago that even the
+imagination of the geologists shrank from the task of attempting to fix
+the precise period.
+
+Around this gigantic footprint gathered most of the scientific members
+of the expedition, wearing their oddly shaped air-tight suits, connected
+with telephonic wires, and the spectacle, but for the impressiveness of
+the discovery, would have been laughable in the extreme. Bending over
+the mark in the rock, nodding their heads together, pointing with their
+awkwardly accoutered arms, they looked like an assemblage of
+antidiluvian monsters collected around their prey. Their disappointment
+over the fact that no other marks of anything resembling human
+habitation could be discovered was very great.
+
+Still this footprint in itself was quite sufficient, as they all
+declared, to settle the question of the former habitation of the moon,
+and it would serve for the production of many a learned volume after
+their return to earth, even if no further discoveries should be made in
+other parts of the lunar world.
+
+It was the hope of making such other discoveries that led to the
+dispatch of the other various expeditions which I have already named. I
+was chosen to accompany the car that was going to Aristarchus, because,
+as every one who had viewed the moon from the earth was aware, there was
+something very mysterious about that mountain. I knew that it was a
+crater nearly thirty miles in diameter and very deep, although its floor
+was plainly visible.
+
+What rendered it remarkable was the fact that the floor and the walls of
+the crater, particularly on the inner side, glowed with a marvelous
+brightness which rendered them almost blinding when viewed with a
+powerful telescope.
+
+So bright were they, indeed, that the eye was unable to see many of the
+details which the telescope would have made visible but for the flood of
+light which poured from the mountains. Sir William Hershel had been so
+completely misled by this appearance that he supposed he was watching a
+lunar volcano in eruption.
+
+It had always been a difficult question what caused the extraordinary
+luminosity of Aristarchus. No end of hypothesis had been invented to
+account for it. Now I was to assist in settling these questions forever.
+
+From Cape Heraclides to Aristarchus the distance in air line was
+something over 300 miles. Our course lay across the northeastern part of
+the Sea of Showers, with enormous cliffs, mountain masses and peaks
+shining on the right, while in the other direction the view was bounded
+by the distant range of the lunar Appenines, some of whose towering
+peaks, when viewed from our immense elevation, appeared as sharp as the
+Swiss Matterhorn.
+
+When we had arrived within about a hundred miles of our destination we
+found ourselves, floating directly over the so-called Harbinger
+Mountains. The serrated peaks of Aristarchus then appeared ahead of us,
+fairly blazing in the sunshine.
+
+It seemed as if a gigantic string of diamonds, every one as great as a
+mountain peak, had been cast down upon the barren surface of the moon
+and left to waste their brilliance upon the desert air of this abandoned
+world.
+
+As we rapidly approached the dazzling splendor of the mountain became
+almost unbearable to our eyes, and we were compelled to resort to the
+devise, practised by all climbers of lofty mountains, where the glare of
+sunlight on snow surfaces is liable to cause temporary blindness, of
+protecting our eyes with neutral-tinted glasses.
+
+Professor Moissan, the great French chemist and maker of artificial
+diamonds, fairly danced with delight.
+
+"Voila! Voila! Voila!" was all that he could say.
+
+When we were comparatively near, the mountain no longer seemed to glow
+with a uniform radiance, evenly distributed over its entire surface, but
+now innumerable points of light, all as bright as so many little suns,
+blazed away at us. It was evident that we had before us a mountain
+composed of, or at least covered with, crystals.
+
+Without stopping to alight on the outer slopes of the great ring-shaped
+range of peaks which composed Aristarchus, we sailed over their rim and
+looked down into the interior. Here the splendor of the crystals was
+greater than on the outer slopes, and the broad floor of the crater,
+thousands of feet beneath us, shone and sparkled with overwhelming
+radiance, as if it were an immense bin of diamonds, while a peak in the
+center flamed like a stupendous tiara incrusted with selected gems.
+
+Eager to see what these crystals were, the car was now allowed rapidly
+to drop into the interior of the crater. With great caution we brought
+it to rest upon the blazing ground, for the sharp edges of the crystals
+would certainly have torn the metallic sides of the car if it had come
+into violent contact with them.
+
+Donning our air-tight suits and stepping carefully out upon this
+wonderful footing we attempted to detach some of the crystals. Many of
+them were firmly fastened, but a few--some of astonishing size--were
+readily loosened.
+
+A moment's inspection showed that we had stumbled upon the most
+marvelous work of the forces of crystalization that human eyes had ever
+rested upon. Some time in the past history of the moon there had been an
+enormous outflow of molten material from the crater. This had overspread
+the walls and partially filled up the interior, and later its surface
+had flowered into gems, as thick as blossoms in a bed of pansies.
+
+The whole mass flashed prismatic rays of indescribable beauty and
+intensity. We gazed at first speechless with amazement.
+
+"It cannot be, surely it cannot be," said Professor Moissan at length.
+
+"But it is," said another member of the party.
+
+"Are these diamonds?" asked a third.
+
+"I cannot yet tell," replied the Professor. "They have the brilliancy of
+diamonds, but they may be something else."
+
+"Moon jewels," suggested a third.
+
+"And worth untold millions, whatever they are," remarked another. These
+magnificent crystals, some of which appeared to be almost flawless,
+varied in size from the dimensions of a hazelnut to geometrical solids
+several inches in diameter. We carefully selected as many as it was
+convenient to carry and placed them in the car for future examination.
+We had solved another long standing lunar problem and had, perhaps,
+opened up an inexhaustible future mine of wealth which might eventually
+go far toward reimbursing the earth for the damage which it had suffered
+from the invasion of the Martians.
+
+On returning to Cape Heraclides we found that the other expeditions had
+arrived at the rendezvous ahead of us. Their members had wonderful
+stories to tell of what they had seen, but nothing caused quite so much
+astonishment as that which we had to tell and to show.
+
+The party which had gone to visit Plato and the lunar Alps brought back,
+however, information which, in a scientific sense, was no less
+interesting than what we had been able to gather.
+
+They had found within this curious ring of Plato, which is a circle of
+mountains sixty miles in diameter, enclosing a level plain remarkably
+smooth over most of its surface, unmistakable evidences of former
+habitation. A gigantic city had evidently at one time existed near the
+center of this great plain. The outlines of its walls and the foundation
+marks of some of its immense buildings were plainly made out, and
+elaborate plans of this vanished capitol of the moon were prepared by
+several members of the party.
+
+One of them was fortunate enough to discover an even more precious relic
+of the ancient lunarians. It was a piece of petrified skullbone,
+representing but a small portion of the head to which it had belonged,
+but yet sufficient to enable the anthropologists, who immediately fell
+to examining it, to draw ideal representations of the head as it must
+have been in life--the head of a giant of enormous size, which, if it
+had possessed a highly organized brain, of proportionate magnitude, must
+have given to its possessor intellectual powers immensely greater than
+any of the descendants of Adam have ever been endowed with.
+
+Indeed, one of the professors was certain that some little concretions
+found on the interior of the piece of skull were petrified portions of
+the brain matter itself, and he set to work with the microscope to
+examine its organic quality.
+
+In the meantime, the repairs to the electrical ships had been completed,
+and, although these discoveries on the moon had created a most profound
+sensation among the members of the expedition, and aroused an almost
+irresistable desire to continue the explorations thus happily begun, yet
+everybody knew that these things were aside from the main purpose in
+view, and that we should be false to our duty in wasting a moment more
+upon the moon than was absolutely necessary to put the ships in proper
+condition to proceed on their warlike voyage.
+
+Everything being prepared then, we left the moon with great regret, just
+forty-eight hours after we had landed upon its surface, carrying with us
+a determination to revisit it and to learn more of its wonderful secrets
+in case we should survive the dangers which we were now going to face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+_THE MONSTERS ON THE ASTEROID_
+
+
+A day or two after leaving the moon, we had another adventure with a
+wandering inhabitant of space which brought us into far greater peril
+than had our encounter with the meteor.
+
+The airships had been partitioned off so that a portion of the interior
+could be darkened in order to serve as a sleeping chamber, wherein,
+according to the regulations prescribed by the commander of the squadron
+each member of the expedition in his turn passed eight out of every
+twenty-four hours--sleeping if he could, if not, meditating in a more or
+less dazed way, upon the wonderful things that he was seeing and
+doing--things far more incredible than the creations of a dream.
+
+One morning, if I may call by the name morning the time of my periodical
+emergence from the darkened chamber, glancing from one of the windows, I
+was startled to see in the black sky a brilliant comet.
+
+No periodical comet, as I knew, was at this time approaching the
+neighborhood of the sun, and no stranger of that kind had been detected
+from the observatories making its way sunward before we left the earth.
+Here, however, was unmistakably a comet rushing toward the sun, flinging
+out a great gleaming tail behind it and so close to us that I wondered
+to see it remaining almost motionless in the sky. This phenomenon was
+soon explained to me, and the explanation was of a most disquieting
+character.
+
+The stranger had already been perceived, not only from the flagship, but
+from the other members of the squadron, and, as I now learned, efforts
+had been made to get out of the neighborhood, but for some reason the
+electrical apparatus did not work perfectly--some mysterious disturbing
+force acting upon it--and so it had been found impossible to avoid an
+encounter with the comet, not an actual coming into contact with it, but
+a falling into the sphere of its influence.
+
+In fact, I was informed that for several hours the squadron had been
+dragging along in the wake of a comet, very much as boats are sometimes
+towed off by a wounded whale. Every effort had been made to so adjust
+the electric charge upon the ships that they would be repelled from the
+cometic mass, but, owing apparently to electric changes affecting the
+clashing mass of meteoric bodies which constituted the head of the
+comet, we found it impossible to escape from its influence.
+
+At one instant the ships would be repelled; immediately afterward they
+would be attracted again, and thus they were dragged hither and thither,
+but never able to break from the invisible leash which the comet had
+cast upon them. The latter was moving with enormous velocity toward the
+sun, and, consequently, we were being carried back again, away from the
+object of our expedition, with a fair prospect of being dissipated in
+blazing vapors when the comet had dragged us, unwilling prisoners, into
+the immediate neighborhood of the solar furnace.
+
+Even the most cool-headed lost his self control in this terrible
+emergency. Every kind of devise that experience or the imagination could
+suggest was tried, but nothing would do. Still on we rushed with the
+electrified atoms composing the tail of the comet swinging to and fro
+over the members of the squadron, as they shifted their position, like
+the plume of smoke from a gigantic steamer, drifting over the sea birds
+that follow in its course.
+
+Was this to end it all, then? Was this the fate that Providence had in
+store for us? Were the hopes of the earth thus to perish? Was the
+expedition to be wrecked and its fate to remain for ever unknown to the
+planet from which it had set forth? And was our beloved globe, which had
+seemed so fair to us when we last looked upon it nearby, and in whose
+defense we had resolved to spend our last breath, to be left helpless
+and at the mercy of its implacable foe in the sky?
+
+At length we gave ourselves up for lost. There seemed to be no possible
+way to free ourselves from the baleful grip of this terrible and
+unlooked for enemy.
+
+As the comet approached the sun its electrical energy rapidly increased,
+and watching it with telescopes, for we could not withdraw our
+fascinated eyes from it, we could clearly behold the fearful things that
+went on in its nucleus.
+
+This consisted of an immense number of separate meteors of no very great
+size individually, but which were in constant motion among one another,
+darting to and fro, clashing and smashing together, while fountains of
+blazing metallic particles and hot mineral vapours poured out in every
+direction.
+
+As I watched it, unable to withdraw my eyes, I saw imaginary forms
+revealing themselves amid the flaming meteors. They seemed like
+creatures in agony, tossing their arms, bewailing in their attitudes the
+awful fate that had overtaken them, and fairly chilling my blood with
+the pantomime of torture which they exhibited. I thought of an old
+superstition which I had often heard about the earth, and exclaimed:
+
+"Yes, surely, this is a flying hell!"
+
+As the electric activity of the comet increased, its continued changes
+of potential and polarity became more frequent, and the electrical ships
+darted about with even greater confusion than before. Occasionally one
+of them, seized with a sudden impulse, would spring forward toward the
+nucleus of the comet with a sudden access of velocity that would fling
+every one of its crew from his feet, and all would lie sprawling on the
+floor of the car while it rushed, as it seemed, to inevitable and
+instant destruction.
+
+Then, either through the frantic efforts of the electrician struggling
+with the controller or through another change in the polarity of the
+comet, the ship would be saved on the very brink of ruin and stagger
+away out of immediate danger.
+
+Thus the captured squadron was swept, swaying and darting hither and
+thither, but never able to get sufficiently far from the comet to break
+the bond of its fatal attraction.
+
+So great was our excitement and so complete our absorption in the
+fearful peril that we had not noticed the precise direction in which the
+comet was carrying us. It was enough to know that the goal of the
+journey was the furnace of the sun. But presently someone in the
+flagship recalled us to a more accurate sense of our situation in space
+by exclaiming:
+
+"Why, there is the earth!"
+
+And there, indeed, it was, its great globe rolling under our eyes, with
+the contrasted colors of the continents and clouds and the watery gleam
+of the oceans spread beneath us.
+
+"We're going to strike it!" exclaimed somebody. "The comet is going to
+dash us into the earth."
+
+Such a collision at first seemed inevitable, but presently it was
+noticed that the direction of the comet's motion was such that while it
+might graze the earth it would not actually strike it.
+
+And so, like a swarm of giant insects circling about an electric light
+from whose magic influence they could not escape, our ships went on, to
+be whipped against the earth in passing and then to continue their swift
+journey to destruction.
+
+"Thank God, this saves us," suddenly cried Mr. Edison.
+
+"What-what?"
+
+"Why, the earth, of course. Do you not see that as the comet sweeps
+close to the great planet the superior attraction of the latter will
+snatch us from its grasp, and that thus we shall be able to escape."
+
+And it was indeed as Mr. Edison had predicted. In a blaze of falling
+meteors the comet swept the outer limits of the earth's atmosphere and
+passed on, while the swaying ships, having been instructed by signals
+what to do, desperately applied their electrical machinery to reverse
+the attraction and threw themselves into the arms of their mother earth.
+
+In another instant we were all free, settling down through the quiet
+atmosphere with the Atlantic Ocean sparkling in the morning sun far
+below.
+
+We looked at one another in amazement. So this was the end of our
+voyage! This was the completion of our warlike enterprise. We had
+started out to conquer a world, and we had come back ignominiously
+dragged in the train of a comet.
+
+The earth which we were going to defend and protect had herself turned
+protector, and reaching out her strong arm had snatched her foolish
+children from the destruction which they had invited.
+
+It would be impossible to describe the chagrin of every member of the
+expedition.
+
+The electric ships rapidly assembled and hovered high in the air, while
+their commanders consulted about what should be done. A universal
+feeling of shame almost drove them to a decision not to land upon the
+surface of the planet, and if possible not to let its inhabitants know
+what had occurred.
+
+But it was too late for that. Looking carefully beneath us, we saw that
+fate had brought us back to our very starting point, and signals
+displayed in the neighborhood of New York indicated that we had already
+been recognized. There was nothing for us then but to drop down and
+explain the situation.
+
+I shall not delay my narrative by undertaking to describe the
+astonishment and the disappointment of the inhabitants of the earth
+when, within a fortnight from our departure, they saw us back again,
+with no laurels of victory crowning our brows.
+
+At first they had hoped that we were returning in triumph, and we were
+overwhelmed with questions the moment we had dropped within speaking
+distance.
+
+"Have you whipped them?"
+
+"How many are lost?"
+
+"Is there any more danger?"
+
+"Faix, have ye got one of thim men from Mars?"
+
+But their rejoicing and their facetiousness were turned into wailing
+when the truth was imparted.
+
+We made a short story of it, for we had not the heart to go into
+details. We told of our unfortunate comrades whom we had buried upon the
+moon, and there was one gleam of satisfaction when we exhibited the
+wonderful crystals we had collected in the crater of Aristarchus.
+
+Mr. Edison determined to stop only long enough to test the electrical
+machinery of the cars, which had been more or less seriously deranged
+during our wild chase after the comet, and then to start straight back
+for Mars--this time on a through trip.
+
+The astronomers, who had been watching Mars, since our departure, with
+their telescopes, reported that mysterious lights continued to be
+visible, but that nothing indicating the starting of another expedition
+for the earth had been seen.
+
+Within twenty-four hours we were ready for our second start.
+
+The moon was now no longer in a position to help us on our way. It had
+moved out of line between Mars and the earth.
+
+High above us, in the center of the heavens, glowed the red planet which
+was the goal of our journey.
+
+The needed computations of velocity and direction of flight having been
+repeated, and the ships being all in readiness, we started direct for
+Mars.
+
+An enormous charge of electricity was imparted to each member of the
+squadron, in order that as soon as we had reached the upper limits of
+the atmosphere, where the ships could move swiftly, without danger of
+being consumed by the heat developed by the friction of their passage
+through the air, a very great initial velocity could be imparted.
+
+Once started off by this tremendous electrical kick, and with no
+atmosphere to resist our motion, we should be able to retain the same
+velocity, baring incidental encounters, until we arrived near the
+surface of Mars.
+
+When we were free of the atmosphere, and the ships were moving away from
+the earth, with the highest velocity which we were able to impart to
+them, observations on the stars were made in order to determine the rate
+of our speed.
+
+This was found to be ten miles in a second, or 864,000 miles in a day, a
+very much greater speed than that with which we had travelled on
+starting to touch at the moon. Supposing this velocity to remain
+uniform, and, with no known resistance, it might reasonably be expected
+to do so, we should arrive at Mars in a little less than forty-two days,
+the distance of the planet from the earth being at this time, about
+thirty-six million miles.
+
+Nothing occurred for many days to interrupt our journey. We became
+accustomed to our strange surroundings, and many entertainments were
+provided to while away the time. The astronomers in the expedition found
+plenty of occupation in studying the aspects of the stars and the other
+heavenly bodies from their new point of view.
+
+At the expiration of about thirty-five days we had drawn so near to Mars
+that with our telescopes, which, though small, were of immense power, we
+could discern upon its surface features and details which no one had
+been able to glimpse from the earth.
+
+As the surface of this world, that we were approaching as a tiger hunter
+draws near the jungle, gradually unfolded itself to our inspection,
+there was hardly one of us willing to devote to sleep or idleness the
+prescribed eight hours that had been fixed as the time during which each
+member of the expedition must remain in the darkened chamber. We were
+too eager to watch for every new revelation upon Mars.
+
+But something was in store that we had not expected. We were to meet the
+Martians before arriving at the world in which they dwelt.
+
+Among the stars which shone in that quarter of the heavens where Mars
+appeared as the master orb, there was one, lying directly in our path,
+which, to our astonishment, as we continued on, altered from the aspect
+of a star, underwent a gradual magnification, and soon presented itself
+in the form of a little planet.
+
+"It is an asteroid," said somebody.
+
+"Yes, evidently; but how does it come inside the orbit of Mars?"
+
+"Oh, there are several asteroids," said one of the astronomers, "which
+travel inside the orbit of Mars, along a part of their course, and, for
+aught we can tell, there may be many which have not yet been caught
+sight of from the earth, that are nearer to the sun than Mars is."
+
+"This must be one of them."
+
+"Manifestly so."
+
+As we drew nearer the mysterious little planet revealed itself to us as
+a perfectly formed globe not more than five miles in diameter.
+
+"What is that upon it?" asked Lord Kelvin, squinting intently at the
+little world through his glass. "As I live, it moves."
+
+"Yes, yes!" exclaimed several others, "there are inhabitants upon it,
+but what giants!"
+
+"What monsters!"
+
+"Don't you see?" exclaimed an excited savant. "They are the Martians!"
+
+The startling truth burst upon the minds of all. Here upon this little
+planetoid were several of the gigantic inhabitants of the world that we
+were going to attack. There was more than one man in the flagship who
+recognized them well, and who shuddered at the recognition,
+instinctively recalling the recent terrible experience of the earth.
+
+Was this an outpost of the warlike Mars?
+
+Around these monstrous enemies we saw several of their engines of war.
+Some of these appeared to have been wrecked, but at least one, as far as
+we could see, was still in a proper condition for use.
+
+How had these creatures got there?
+
+"Why, that is easy enough to account for," I said, as a sudden
+recollection flashed into my mind. "Don't you remember the report of the
+astronomers more than six months ago, at the end of the conference in
+Washington, that something would seem to indicate the departure of a new
+expedition from Mars had been noticed by them? We have heard nothing of
+that expedition since. We know that it did not reach the earth. It must
+have fallen foul of this asteroid, run upon this rock in the ocean of
+space and been wrecked here."
+
+"We've got 'em, then," shouted our electric steersman, who had been a
+workman in Mr. Edison's laboratory and had unlimited confidence in his
+chief.
+
+The electrical ships were immediately instructed by signal to slow down,
+an operation that was easily affected through the electrical repulsion
+of the asteroid.
+
+The nearer we got the more terrifying was the appearance of the gigantic
+creatures who were riding upon the little world before us like castaway
+sailors upon a block of ice. Like men, and yet not like men, combining
+the human and the beast in their appearance, it required a steady nerve
+to look at them. If we had not known their malignity and their power to
+work evil, it would have been different, but in our eyes their moral
+character shone through their physical aspect and thus rendered them
+more terrible than they would otherwise have been.
+
+When we first saw them their appearance was most forlorn, and their
+attitudes indicated only despair and desperation, but as they caught
+sight of us their malign power of intellect instantly penetrated the
+mystery, and they recognized us for what we were.
+
+Their despair immediately gave place to reawakened malevolence. On the
+instant they were astir, with such heart-chilling movements as those
+that characterize a venomous serpent preparing to strike.
+
+Not imagining that they would be in a position to make serious
+resistance, we had been somewhat incautious in approaching.
+
+Suddenly there was a quicker movement than usual among the Martians, a
+swift adjustment of that one of their engines of war which, as already
+noticed, seemed to be practically uninjured, then there darted from it
+and alighted upon one of the foremost ships, a dazzling lightning stroke
+a mile in length, at whose touch the metallic sides of the car curled
+and withered and, licked for a moment by what seemed lambent flames,
+collapsed into a mere cinder.
+
+For an instant not a word was spoken, so sudden and unexpected was the
+blow.
+
+We knew that every soul in the stricken car had perished.
+
+"Back! Back!" was the signal instantly flashed from the flagship, and
+reversing their polarities the members of the squadron sprang away from
+the little planet as rapidly as the electrical impulse could drive them.
+
+But before we were out of reach a second flaming tongue of death shot
+from the fearful engine, and another of our ships, with all its crew,
+was destroyed.
+
+[Illustration: _"Back! Back!" was the signal instantaneously flashed
+from the flag ship, and the members of the squadron sprang away from the
+little planet. But before we were out of reach a second tongue of death
+shot from the fearful engine, and another of our ships, with all its
+crew, was destroyed._]
+
+It was an inauspicious beginning for us. Two of our electrical ships,
+with their entire crews, had been wiped out of existence, and this
+appalling blow had been dealt by a few stranded and disabled enemies
+floating on an asteroid.
+
+What hope would there be for us when we came to encounter the millions
+of Mars itself on their own ground and prepared for war?
+
+However, it would not do to despond. We had been incautious, and we
+should take good care not to commit the same fault again.
+
+The first thing to do was to avenge the death of our comrades. The
+question whether we were able to meet these Martians and overcome them
+might as well be settled right here and now. They had proved what they
+could do, even when disabled and at a disadvantage. Now it was our turn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+_A PLANET OF GOLD_
+
+
+The squadron had been rapidly withdrawn to a very considerable distance
+from the asteroid. The range of the mysterious artillery employed by the
+Martians was unknown to us. We did not even know the limit of the
+effective range of our own disintegrators. If it should prove that the
+Martians were able to deal their strokes at a distance greater than any
+we could reach, then they would of course have an insuperable advantage.
+
+On the other hand, if it should turn out that our range was greater than
+theirs, the advantage would be on our side. Or--which was perhaps most
+probable--there might be practically no difference in the effective
+range of the engines.
+
+Anyhow, we were going to find out how the case stood, and that without
+delay.
+
+Everything being in readiness, the disintegrators all in working order,
+and the men who were able to handle them, most of whom were experienced
+marksmen, chosen from among the officers of the regular army of the
+United States, and accustomed to the straight shooting and the sure hits
+of the West, standing at their posts, the squadron again advanced.
+
+In order to distract the attention of the Martians, the electrical ships
+had been distributed over a wide space. Some dropped straight down
+toward the asteroid; others approached it by flank attack, from this
+side and that. The flagship moved straight in toward the point where the
+first disaster occurred. Its intrepid commander felt that his post
+should be that of the greatest danger, and where the severest blows
+would be given and received.
+
+The approach of the ships was made with great caution. Watching the
+Martians with our telescopes we could clearly see that they were
+disconcerted by the scattered order of our attack. Even if all of their
+engines of war had been in proper condition for use it would have been
+impossible for them to meet the simultaneous assault of so many enemies
+dropping down upon them from the sky.
+
+But they were made of fighting mettle, as we knew from old experience.
+It was no question of surrender. They did not know how to surrender, and
+we did not know how to demand their surrender. Besides, the destruction
+of the two electrical ships with the forty men, many of whom bore names
+widely known upon the earth, had excited a kind of fury among the
+members of the squadron which called for vengeance.
+
+Suddenly a repetition of the quick movement by the Martians, which had
+been the forerunner of the former coup, was observed; again a blinding
+flash burst from their war engines and instantaneously a shiver ran
+through the frame of the flagship; the air within quivered with strange
+pulsations and seemed suddenly to have assumed the temperature of a
+blast furnace.
+
+We all gasped for breath. Our throats and lungs seemed scorched in the
+act of breathing. Some fell unconscious upon the floor. The marksmen,
+carrying the disintegrators ready for use, staggered, and one of them
+dropped his instrument.
+
+But we had not been destroyed like our comrades before us. In a moment
+the wave of heat passed; those who had fallen recovered from their
+momentary stupor and staggered to their feet.
+
+The electrical steersman stood hesitating at his post.
+
+"Move on," said Mr. Edison sternly, his features set with determination
+and his eyes afire.
+
+"We are still beyond their effective range. Let us get closer in order
+to make sure work when we strike."
+
+The ship moved on. One could hear the heartbeats of its inmates. The
+other members of the squadron, thinking for the moment that disaster had
+overtaken the flagship, had paused and seemed to be meditating flight.
+
+"Signal them to move on," said Mr. Edison.
+
+The signal was given, and the circle of electrical ships closed in upon
+the asteroid.
+
+In the meantime Mr. Edison had been donning his air-tight suit. Before
+we could clearly comprehend his intention he had passed through the
+double trapped door which gave access to the exterior of the car without
+permitting the loss of air, and was standing upon what served as the
+deck of the ship.
+
+In his hand he carried a disintegrator. With a quick motion he sighted
+it.
+
+As quickly as possible I sprang to his side. I was just in time to note
+the familiar blue gleam about the instrument, which indicated that its
+terrific energies were at work. The whirring sound was absent, because
+here, in open space, where there was no atmosphere, there could be no
+sound.
+
+My eyes were fixed upon the Martian's engine, which had just dealt us a
+staggering, but not fatal, blow, and particularly I noticed a polished
+knob projecting from it which seemed to have been the focus from which
+its destructive bolt emanated.
+
+A moment later the knob disappeared. The irresistible vibrations darted
+from the electrical disintegrator and had fallen upon it and
+instantaneously shattered it into atoms.
+
+"That fixes them," said Mr. Edison, turning to me with a smile.
+
+And indeed it did fix them. We had most effectually spiked their gun. It
+would deal no more death blows.
+
+The doings of the flagship had been closely watched throughout the
+squadron. The effect of its blow had been evident to all, and a moment
+later we saw, on some of the nearer ships, men dressed in their air
+suits, appearing upon the deck, swinging their arms and sending forth
+soundless cheers into empty space.
+
+The stroke that we had dealt was taken by several of the electrical
+ships as a signal for a common assault, and we saw two of the Martians
+fall beside the ruins of their engine, their heads having been blown
+from their bodies.
+
+"Signal them to stop firing," commanded Mr. Edison. "We have got them
+down, and we are not going to murder them without necessity."
+
+"Besides," he added, "I want to capture some of them alive."
+
+The signal was given as he had ordered. The flagship then alone dropped
+slowly toward the place on the asteroid where the prostrate Martians
+were.
+
+As we got near them a terrible scene unfolded itself to our eyes. There
+had evidentially been not more than a half dozen of the monsters in the
+beginning. Two of these were stretched headless upon the ground. Three
+others had suffered horrible injuries where the invisible vibratory
+beams from the disintegrators had grazed them, and they could not long
+survive. One only remained apparently uninjured.
+
+[Illustration: _As we got near them a terrible scene unfolded itself.
+Two of the Martians were stretched headless upon the ground. Three
+others had suffered horrible injuries, and only one remained apparently
+unhurt._]
+
+It is impossible for me to describe the appearance of this creature in
+terms that would be readily understood. Was he like a man? Yes and no.
+He possessed many human characteristics, but they were exaggerated and
+monstrous in scale and in detail. His head was of enormous size, and his
+huge projecting eyes gleamed with a strange fire of intelligence. His
+face was like a caricature, but not one to make the beholder laugh.
+Drawing himself up, he towered to a height of at least fifteen feet.
+
+But let the reader not suppose from this inadequate description that the
+Martians stirred in the beholder precisely the sensation that would be
+caused by the sight of a gorilla, or other repulsive inhabitant of our
+terrestrial jungles, suddenly confronting him in its native wilds.
+
+With all his horrible characteristics, and all his suggestions of beast
+and monster, nevertheless the Martian produced the impression of being a
+person and not a mere animal.
+
+I have already referred to the enormous size of his head, and to the
+fact that his countenance bore considerable resemblance to that of a
+man. There was something in his face that sent a shiver through the soul
+of the beholder. One could feel in looking upon it that here was
+intellect, intelligence developed to the highest degree, but in the
+direction of evil instead of good.
+
+The sensations of one who had stood face to face with Satan, when he was
+driven from the battlements of heaven by the swords of his fellow
+archangels, and had beheld him transformed from Lucifer, the Son of the
+Morning, into the Prince of Night and Hell, might not have been unlike
+those which we now experienced as we gazed upon this dreadful personage,
+who seemed to combine the intellectual powers of a man, raised to their
+highest pitch, with some of the physical features of a beast, and all
+the moral depravity of a fiend.
+
+The appearance of the Martian was indeed so threatening and repellent
+that we paused at the height of fifty feet above the ground, hesitating
+to approach nearer. A grin of rage and hate overspread his face. If he
+had been a man I should say he shook his fist at us. What he did was to
+express in even more telling pantomime his hatred and defiance, and his
+determination to grind us to shreds if he could once get us within his
+clutches.
+
+Mr. Edison and I still stood upon the deck of the ship, where several
+others had gathered around us. The atmosphere of the little asteroid was
+so rare that it practically amounted to nothing, and we could not
+possibly have survived if we had not continued to wear our air tight
+suits. How the Martians contrived to live here was a mystery to us. It
+was another of their secrets which we were yet to learn.
+
+Mr. Edison retained his disintegrator in his hand.
+
+"Kill him," said someone. "He is too horrible to live."
+
+"If we do not kill him we shall never be able to land upon the
+asteroid," said another.
+
+"No," said Mr. Edison. "I shall not kill him. We have got another use
+for him. Tom," he continued, turning to one of his assistants, whom he
+had brought from his laboratory, "bring me the anaesthetic."
+
+This was something entirely new to nearly all the members of the
+expedition. Mr. Edison, however, had confided to me before we left the
+earth the fact that he had invented a little instrument by means of
+which a bubble, strongly charged with a powerful anaesthetic agent,
+could be driven to a considerable distance into the face of an enemy,
+where exploding without other damage, it would instantly put him to
+sleep.
+
+When Tom had placed the instrument in his hands Mr. Edison ordered the
+electrical ship to forge slightly ahead and drop a little lower toward
+the Martian, who, with watchful eyes and threatening gestures, noted our
+approach in the attitude of a wild beast on the spring. Suddenly Mr.
+Edison discharged from the instrument in his hand a little gaseous
+globe, which glittered like a ball of tangled rainbows in the sunshine,
+and darted with astonishing velocity straight into the upturned face of
+the Martian. It burst as it touched and the monster fell back senseless
+upon the ground.
+
+"You have killed him!" exclaimed all.
+
+"No," said Mr. Edison. "He is not dead, only asleep. Now we shall drop
+down and bind him tight before he can awake."
+
+When we came to bind our prisoner with strong ropes we were more than
+ever impressed with his gigantic stature and strength. Evidentially in
+single combat with equal weapons he would have been a match for twenty
+of us.
+
+[Illustration: _"When we came to bind our prisoner with strong ropes
+we were more than ever impressed with his gigantic stature and strength.
+He might have been a match for twenty of us."_]
+
+All that I had read of giants had failed to produce upon my mind the
+impression of enormous size and tremendous physical energy which the
+sleeping body of this immense Martian produced. He had fallen on his
+back, and was in a most profound slumber. All his features were relaxed,
+and yet even in that condition there was a devilishness about him that
+made the beholders instinctively shudder.
+
+So powerful was the effect of the anaesthetic which Mr. Edison had
+discharged into his face that he remained perfectly unconscious while we
+turned him half over in order the more securely to bind his muscular
+limbs.
+
+In the meantime the other electrical ships approached, and several of
+them made a landing upon the asteroid. Everybody was eager to see this
+wonderful little world, which, as I have already remarked, was only five
+miles in diameter.
+
+Several of us from the flagship started out hastily to explore the
+miniature planet. And now our attention was recalled to an intensely
+interesting phenomenon which had engaged our thoughts not only when we
+were upon the moon, but during our flight through space. This was the
+almost entire absence of weight.
+
+On the moon, where the force of gravitation is one-sixths as great as
+upon the earth, we had found ourselves astonishingly light. Five-sixths
+of our own weight, and of the weight of the air-tight suits in which we
+were encased, had magically dropped from us. It was therefore
+comparatively easy for us, encumbered, as we were, to make our way about
+on the moon.
+
+But when we were far from both the earth and the moon, the loss of
+weight was more astonishing still--not astonishing because we had not
+known that it would be so, but nevertheless a surprising phenomenon in
+contrast with our lifelong experience on the earth.
+
+In open space we were practically without weight. Only the mass of the
+electrical car in which we were enclosed attracted us, and inside that
+we could place ourselves in any position without falling. We could float
+in the air. There was no up and no down, no top and no bottom for us.
+Stepping outside the car, it would have been easy for us to spring away
+from it and leave it forever.
+
+One of the most startling experiences that I have ever had was one day
+when we were navigating space about half way between the earth and Mars.
+I had stepped outside the car with Lord Kelvin, both of us, of course,
+wearing our air-tight suits. We were perfectly well aware what would be
+the consequence of detaching ourselves from the car as we moved along.
+We should still retain the forward motion of the car, and of course
+accompany it in its flight. There would be no falling one way or the
+other. The car would have a tendency to draw us back again by its
+attraction, but this tendency would be very slight, and practically
+inappreciable at a distance.
+
+"I am going to step off," I suddenly said to Lord Kelvin. "Of course I
+shall keep right along with the car, and step aboard again when I am
+ready."
+
+"Quite right on general principles, young man," replied the great
+savant, "but beware in what manner you step off. Remember, if you give
+your body an impulse sufficient to carry it away from the car to any
+considerable distance, you will be unable to get back again, unless we
+can catch you with a boathook or a fishline. Out there in empty space
+you will have nothing to kick against, and you will be unable to propel
+yourself in the direction of the car, and its attraction is so feeble
+that we should probably arrive at Mars before it had drawn you back
+again."
+
+All this was, of course, perfectly self-evident, yet I believe that but
+for the warning words of Lord Kelvin I should have been rash enough to
+step out into empty space, with sufficient force to have separated
+myself hopelessly from the electrical ship.
+
+As it was, I took good care to retain a hold upon a projecting portion
+of the car. Occasionally cautiously releasing my grip, I experienced for
+a few minutes the delicious, indescribable pleasure of being a little
+planet swinging through space, with nothing to hold me up and nothing to
+interfere with my motion.
+
+Mr. Edison, happening to come upon the deck of the ship at this time,
+and seeing what we were about at once said:
+
+"I must provide against this danger. If I do not, there is a chance that
+we shall arrive at Mars with the ships half empty and the crews floating
+helplessly around us."
+
+Mr. Edison's way of guarding against the danger was by contriving a
+little apparatus, modeled after that which was the governing force of
+the electrical ships themselves, and which, being enclosed in the
+air-tight suits, enabled their wearers to manipulate the electrical
+charge upon them in such a way that they could make excursions from the
+cars into open space like steam launches from a ship, going and
+returning at their will.
+
+These little machines being rapidly manufactured, for Mr. Edison had a
+miniature laboratory aboard, were distributed about the squadron, and
+henceforth we had the pleasure of paying and receiving visits among the
+various members of the fleet.
+
+But to return from this digression to our experience of the asteroid.
+The latter being a body of some mass was, of course, able to impart to
+us a measurable degree of weight. Being five miles in diameter, on the
+assumption that its mean density was the same as that of the earth, the
+weight of bodies on its surface should have borne the same ratio to
+their weight upon the earth that the radius of the asteroid bore to the
+radius of the earth; in other words, as 1 to 1,600.
+
+Having made this mental calculation, I knew that my weight, being 150
+pounds on the earth, should on this asteroid be an ounce and a half.
+
+Curious to see whether fact would bear out theory, I had myself weighed
+with a spring balance. Mr. Edison, Lord Kelvin and the other
+distinguished scientists stood by watching the operation with great
+interest.
+
+To our complete surprise, my weight instead of coming out an ounce and a
+half, as it should have done, on the supposition that the mean density
+of the asteroid resembled that of the earth--a very liberal supposition
+on the side of the asteroid, by the way--actually came out five ounces
+and a quarter!
+
+"What in the world makes me so heavy?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, indeed, what an elephant you have become," said Mr. Edison.
+
+Lord Kelvin screwed his eyeglass in his eye, and carefully inspected the
+balance.
+
+"It's quite right," he said. "You do indeed weigh five ounces and a
+quarter. Too much; altogether too much," he added. "You shouldn't do it,
+you know."
+
+"Perhaps the fault is in the asteroid," suggested Professor Sylvanus P.
+Thompson.
+
+"Quite so," exclaimed Lord Kelvin, a look of sudden comprehension
+overspreading his features. "No doubt it is the internal constitution of
+the asteroid which is the cause of the anomaly. We must look into that.
+Let me see? This gentleman's weight is three and one-half times as great
+as it ought to be. What element is there whose density exceeds the mean
+density of the earth in about that proportion?"
+
+"Gold," exclaimed one of the party.
+
+For a moment we were startled beyond expression. The truth had flashed
+upon us.
+
+This must be a golden planet this little asteroid. If it were not
+composed internally of gold it could never have made me weight three
+times more than I ought to weight.
+
+"But where is the gold?" cried one.
+
+"Covered up, of course," said Lord Kelvin. "Buried in Stardust. This
+asteroid could not have continued to travel for millions of years
+through legions of space strewn with meteoric particles without becoming
+covered with the inevitable dust and grime of such a journey. We must
+dig now, and then doubtless we shall find the metal."
+
+This hint was instantly acted upon. Something that would serve as a
+spade was seized by one of the men, and in a few minutes a hole had been
+dug in the comparatively light soil of the asteroid.
+
+I shall never forget the sight, nor the exclamations of wonder that
+broke forth from all of us standing around, when the yellow gleam of the
+precious metal appeared under the "star dust." Collected in huge masses
+it reflected the light of the sun from its hiding place.
+
+Evidently the planet was not a solid ball of gold, formed like a bullet
+run in a mold, but was composed of nuggets of various sizes, which had
+come together here under the influence of their mutual gravitation, and
+formed a little metallic planet.
+
+Judging by the test of weight which we had already tried, and which had
+led to the discovery of the gold, the composition of the asteroid must
+be the same to its very center.
+
+In an assemblage of famous scientific men such as this the discovery of
+course, immediately led to questions as to the origin of this incredible
+phenomenon.
+
+How did these masses of gold come together? How did it chance that, with
+the exception of the thin crust of the asteroid nearly all its substance
+was composed of the precious metal?
+
+One asserted that it was quite impossible that there should be so much
+gold at so great a distance from the sun.
+
+"It is the general law," he said, "that the planets increase in density
+towards the sun. There is every reason to think that the inner planets
+possess the greater amount of dense elements, while the outer ones are
+comparatively light."
+
+But another referred to the old theory that there was once in this part
+of the solar system a planet which had been burst in pieces by some
+mysterious explosion, the fragments forming what we know as the
+asteroids. In his opinion, this planet might have contained, a large
+quantity of gold, and in the course of ages the gold, having, in
+consequence of its superior atomic weight, not being so widely scattered
+by the explosion as some of the other elements of the planet, had
+collected itself together in this body.
+
+But I observed that Lord Kelvin and the other more distinguished men of
+science said nothing during this discussion. The truly learned man is
+the truly wise man. They were not going to set up the theories without
+sufficient facts to substain them. The one fact that the gold was here
+was all they had at present. Until they could learn more they were not
+prepared to theorize as to how the gold got there.
+
+And in truth, it must be confessed, the greater number of us really
+cared less for the explanation of the wonderful fact than we did for the
+fact itself.
+
+Gold is a thing which may make its appearance anywhere and at any time
+without offering any excuses or explanations.
+
+"Phew! Won't we be rich?" exclaimed a voice.
+
+"How are we going to dig it and get it back to earth?" asked another.
+
+"Carry it in your pockets," said one.
+
+"No need of staking claims here," remarked another. "There is enough for
+everybody."
+
+Mr. Edison suddenly turned the current of talk.
+
+"What do you suppose those Martians were doing here?"
+
+"Why, they were wrecked here."
+
+"Not a bit of it," said Mr. Edison. "According to your own showing they
+could not have been wrecked here. This planet hasn't gravitation enough
+to wreck them by a fall, and besides I have been looking at their
+machines and I know there has been a fight."
+
+"A fight?" exclaimed several, pricking up their ears.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Edison. "Those machines bear the marks of the lightning
+of the Martians. They have been disabled, but they are made of some
+metal or some alloy of metals unknown to me, and consequently they have
+withstood the destructive force applied to them, as our electric ships
+were unable to withstand it. It is perfectly plain to me that they have
+been disabled in a battle. The Martians must have been fighting among
+themselves."
+
+"About the gold!" exclaimed one.
+
+"Of course. What else was there to fight about?"
+
+At this instant one of our men came running from a considerable
+distance, waving his arms excitedly, but unable to give voice to his
+story, in the inappreciable atmosphere of the asteroid, until he had
+come up and made telephonic connection with us.
+
+"There are a lot of dead Martians over there," he said. "They've been
+cleaning one another out."
+
+"That's it," said Mr. Edison. "I knew it when I saw the condition of
+those machines."
+
+"Then this is not a wrecked expedition, directed against the earth?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"This must be the great gold mine of Mars," said the president of an
+Australian mining company, opening both his eyes and his mouth as he
+spoke.
+
+"Yes, evidently that's it. Here's where they come to get their wealth."
+
+"And this," I said, "must be their harvest time. You notice that this
+asteroid, being several million miles nearer to the sun than Mars is,
+must have an appreciably shorter period of revolution. When it is in
+conjunction with Mars, or nearly so, as it is at present, the distance
+between the two is not very great, whereas when it is in the opposite
+part of its orbit they are separated by an enormous gap in space and the
+sun is between them.
+
+"Manifestly in the latter case it would be perilous if not entirely
+impossible for the Martians to visit the golden asteroid, but when it is
+near Mars, as it is at present, and as it must be periodically for
+several years at a time, then is their opportunity.
+
+"With their projectile cars sent forth with the aid of the mysterious
+explosives which they possess, it is easy for them under such
+circumstances, to make visits to the asteroid.
+
+"Having obtained all the gold they need or all that they can carry, a
+comparatively slight impulse given to their car, the direction of which
+is carefully calculated, will carry them back again to Mars."
+
+"If that's so," exclaimed a voice, "we had better look out for
+ourselves! We have got into a very hornet's nest! If this is the place
+where the Martians come to dig gold, and if this is the height of their
+season, as you say, they are not likely to leave us here long
+undisturbed."
+
+"These fellows must have been pirates that they had the fight with,"
+said another.
+
+"But what's become of the regulars, then?"
+
+"Gone back to Mars for help, probably, and they'll be here again pretty
+quick, I am afraid!"
+
+Considerable alarm was caused by this view of the case, and orders were
+sent to several of the electrical ships to cruise out to a safe distance
+in the direction of Mars and keep a sharp outlook for the approach of
+enemies.
+
+Meanwhile our prisoner awoke. He turned his eyes upon those standing
+about him, without any appearance of fear, but rather with a look of
+contempt, like that which Gulliver must have felt for the Lilliputians
+who had bound him under similar circumstances.
+
+There were both hatred and defiance in his glance. He attempted to free
+himself, and the ropes strained with the tremendous pressure that he put
+upon them, but he could not break loose.
+
+Satisfied that the Martian was safely bound, we left him where he lay,
+and, while awaiting news from the ships which had been sent to
+reconnoitre, continued the exploration of the little planet.
+
+At a point nearly opposite to that where we had landed we came upon the
+mine which the Martians had been working. They had removed the thin
+coating of soil, laying bare the rich stores of gold beneath, and large
+quantities of the latter had been removed. Some of it was so solidly
+packed that the strokes of the instruments by means of which they had
+detached it were visible like the streaks left by a knife cutting
+cheese.
+
+The more we saw of this golden planet the greater became our
+astonishment. What the Martians had removed was a mere nothing in
+comparison with the entire bulk of the asteroid. Had the celestial mine
+been easier to reach, perhaps they would have removed more, or,
+possibly, their political economists perfectly understood the necessity
+of properly controlling the amount of precious metal in circulation.
+Very likely, we thought, the mining operations were under government
+control in Mars and it might be that the majority of the people there
+knew nothing of this store of wealth floating in the firmament. That
+would account for the battle with the supposed pirates, who, no doubt
+had organized a secret expedition to the asteroid and had been caught
+red-handed at the mine.
+
+There were many detached masses of gold scattered about, and some of the
+men, on picking them up, exclaimed with astonishment at their lack of
+weight, forgetting for the moment that the same law which caused their
+own bodies to weigh so little must necessarily affect everything else in
+a like degree.
+
+A mass of gold that on the earth no man would have been able to lift
+could here be tossed about like a hollow rubber ball.
+
+While we were examining the mine, one of the men left to guard the
+Martian came running to inform us that the latter evidently wished to
+make some communication. Mr. Edison and the others hurried to the side
+of the prisoner. He still lay on his back, from which position he was
+not able to move, notwithstanding all his efforts. But by the motion of
+his eyes, aided by the pantomime with his fingers, he made us understand
+that there was something in a metallic box fastened at his side which he
+wished to reach.
+
+With some difficulty we succeeded in opening the box and in it there
+appeared a number of bright red pellets, as large as an ordinary egg.
+
+When the Martians saw these in our hands he gave us to understand by the
+motion of his lips that he wished to swallow one of them. A pellet was
+accordingly placed in his mouth, and he instantly and with great
+eagerness swallowed it.
+
+While trying to communicate his wishes to us, the prisoner had seemed to
+be in no little distress. He exhibited spasmodic movements which led
+some of the bystanders to think that he was on the point of dying, but
+within a few seconds after he had swallowed the pellet he appeared to be
+completely restored. All evidence of distress vanished, and a look of
+content came over his ugly face.
+
+"It must be a powerful medicine," said one of the bystanders. "I wonder
+what it is?"
+
+"I will explain to you my notion," said Professor Moissan, the great
+French chemist. "I think it was a pill of the air, which he has taken."
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"My meaning is," said Professor Moissan, "that the Martian must have,
+for that he may live, the nitrogen and the oxygen. These can he not
+obtain here, where there is not the atmosphere. Therefore must he get
+them in some other manner. This has he managed to do by combining in
+these pills the oxygen and the nitrogen in the proportions which make
+atmospheric air. Doubtless upon Mars there are the very great chemists.
+They have discovered how this may be done. When the Martian has
+swallowed his little pill, the oxygen and the nitrogen are rendered to
+his blood as if he had breathed them, and so he can live with that air
+which has been distributed to him with the aid of his stomach in place
+of his lungs."
+
+If Monsieur Moissan's explanation was not correct, at any rate it seemed
+the only one which would fit the facts before us. Certainly the Martian
+could not breathe where there was practically no air, yet just as
+certainly after he had swallowed his pill he seemed as comfortable as
+any of us.
+
+Suddenly, while we were gathered around the prisoner, and interested in
+this fresh evidence of the wonderful ingenuity of the Martians, and of
+their control over the processes of nature, one of the electrical ships
+that had been sent off in the direction of Mars was seen rapidly
+returning and displaying signals.
+
+It reported that the Martians were coming!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+_"THE MARTIANS ARE COMING!"_
+
+
+The alarm was spread instantly among those upon the planet and through
+the remainder of the fleet.
+
+One of the men from the returning electrical ship dropped down upon the
+asteroid and gave a more detailed account of what they had seen.
+
+His ship had been the one which had gone to the greatest distance, in
+the direction of Mars. While cruising there, with all eyes intent, they
+had suddenly perceived a glittering object moving from the direction of
+the ruddy planet, and manifestly approaching them. A little inspection
+with the telescope had shown them that it was one of the projectile cars
+used by the Martians.
+
+Our ship had ventured so far from the asteroid that for a moment it
+seemed doubtful whether it would be able to return in time to give
+warning, because the electrical influence of the asteroid was
+comparatively slight at such a distance, and, after they had reversed
+their polarity, and applied their intensifier, so as to make that
+influence effective, their motion was at first exceedingly slow.
+
+Fortunately after a time they got under way with sufficient velocity to
+bring them back to us before the approaching Martians could overtake
+them.
+
+The latter were not moving with great velocity, having evidently
+projected themselves from Mars with only just sufficient force to throw
+them within the feeble sphere of gravitation of the asteroid, so that
+they should very gently land upon its surface.
+
+Indeed, looking out behind the electrical ship which had brought us the
+warning, we immediately saw the projectile of the Martians approaching.
+It sparkled like a star in the black sky as the sunlight fell upon it.
+
+The ships of the squadron whose crews had not landed upon the planet
+were signaled to prepare for action, while those who were upon the
+asteroid made ready for battle there. A number of disintegrators were
+trained upon the approaching Martians, but Mr. Edison gave strict orders
+that no attempt should be made to discharge the vibratory force at
+random.
+
+"They do not know that we are here," he said, "and I am convinced that
+they are unable to control their motions as we can do with our
+electrical ships. They depend simply upon the force of gravitation.
+Having passed the limit of the attraction of Mars, they have now fallen
+within the attraction of the asteroid, and they must slowly sink to its
+surface.
+
+"Having, as I am convinced, no means of producing or controlling
+electrical attraction and repulsion, they cannot stop themselves, but
+must come down upon the asteroid. Having got here, they could never get
+away again, except as we know the survivors got away from earth, by
+propelling their projectile against gravitation with the aid of an
+explosive.
+
+"Therefore, to a certain extent they will be at our mercy. Let us allow
+them quietly to land upon the planet, and then I think, if it becomes
+necessary, we can master them."
+
+Notwithstanding Mr. Edison's reassuring words and manner, the company
+upon the asteroid experienced a dreadful suspense while the projectile
+which seemed very formidable as it drew near, sank with a slow and
+graceful motion toward the surface of the ground. Evidently it was about
+to land very near the spot where we stood awaiting it.
+
+Its inmates had apparently just caught sight of us. They evinced signs
+of astonishment, and seemed at a loss exactly what to do. We could see
+projecting from the fore part of their car at least two of the polished
+knobs, whose fearful use and power we well comprehended.
+
+Several of our men cried out to Mr. Edison in an extremity of terror:
+
+"Why do you not destroy them? Be quick, or we shall all perish."
+
+"No," said Mr. Edison, "there is no danger. You can see that they are
+not prepared. They will not attempt to attack us until they have made
+their landing."
+
+And Mr. Edison was right. With gradually accelerated velocity, and yet
+very, very slowly in comparison with the speed they would have exhibited
+in falling upon such a planet as the earth, the Martians and their car
+came down to the ground.
+
+We stood at a distance of perhaps three hundred feet from the point
+where they touched the asteroid. Instantly a dozen of the giants sprang
+from the car and gazed about for a moment with a look of intense
+surprise. At first it was doubtful whether they meant to attack us at
+all.
+
+We stood on our guard, several carrying disintegrators in our hands,
+while a score more of these terrible engines were turned upon the
+Martians from the electrical ships which hovered near.
+
+Suddenly he who seemed to be the leader of the Martians began to speak
+to them in pantomime, using his fingers after the manner in which they
+are used for conversation by deaf and dumb people.
+
+Of course, we did not know what he was saying, but his meaning became
+perfectly evident a minute later. Clearly they did not comprehend the
+powers of the insignificant looking strangers with whom they had to
+deal. Instead of turning their destructive engines on us, they advanced
+on a run, with the evident purpose of making us prisoners or crushing us
+by main force.
+
+The soft whirr of the disintegrator in the hands of Mr. Edison standing
+near me came to my ears through the telephonic wire. He quickly swept
+the concentrating mirror a little up and down, and instantly the
+foremost Martian vanished! Part of some metallic dress that he wore fell
+upon the ground where he had stood, its vibratory rate not having been
+included in the range imparted to the disintegrator.
+
+His followers paused for a moment, amazed, stared about as if looking
+for their leader, and then hurried back to their projectile and
+disappeared within it.
+
+"Now we've got business on our hands," said Mr. Edison. "Look out for
+yourselves."
+
+As he spoke, I saw the death-dealing knob of the war engine contained in
+the car of the Martians moving around toward us. In another instant it
+would have launched its destroying bolt.
+
+Before that could occur, however, it had been dissipated into space by a
+vibratory stream from a disintegrator.
+
+But we were not to get the victory quite so easily. There was another of
+the war engines in the car, and before we could concentrate our fire
+upon it, its awful flash shot forth, and a dozen of our comrades
+perished before our eyes.
+
+"Quick! Quick!" shouted Mr. Edison to one of his electrical experts
+standing near. "There is something the matter with this disintegrator,
+and I cannot make it work. Aim at the knob, and don't miss it."
+
+But the aim was not well taken, and the vibratory force fell upon a
+portion of the car at a considerable distance from the knob, making a
+great breach, but leaving the engine uninjured.
+
+A section of the side of the car had been destroyed, and the vibratory
+energy had spread no further. To have attempted to sweep the car from
+end to end would have been futile, because the period of action of the
+disintegrators during each discharge did not exceed one second, and
+distributing the energy over so great a space would have seriously
+weakened its power to shatter apart the atoms of the resisting
+substance. The disintegrators were like firearms, in that after each
+discharge they must be readjusted before they could be used again.
+
+Through the breach we saw the Martians inside making desperate efforts
+to train their engine upon us, for after their first disastrous stroke
+we had rapidly shifted our position. Swiftly the polished knob, which
+gleamed like an evil eye, moved round to sweep over us. Instinctively,
+though incautiously, we had collected in a group.
+
+A single discharge would sweep us all into eternity.
+
+"Will no one fire upon them?" exclaimed Mr. Edison, struggling with the
+disintegrator in his hands which still refused to work.
+
+At this fearful moment I glanced around upon our company, and was
+astonished at the spectacle. In the presence of the danger many of them
+had lost all self-command. A half dozen had dropped their disintegrators
+upon the ground. Others stood as if frozen fast in their tracks. The
+expert electrician, whose poor aim had had such disastrous results, held
+in his hand an instrument which was in perfect condition, yet with mouth
+agape, he stood trembling like a captured bird.
+
+It was a disgraceful exhibition. Mr. Edison, however, had not lost his
+head. Again and again he sighted at the dreadful knob with his
+disintegrator, but the vibratory force refused to respond.
+
+The means of safety were in our hands, and yet through a combination of
+ill luck and paralyzing terror, we seemed unable to use them.
+
+In a second more it would be all over with us.
+
+The suspense in reality lasted only during the twinkling of an eye,
+though it seemed ages long.
+
+Unable to endure it, I sharply struck the shoulder of the paralyzed
+electrician. To have attempted to seize the disintegrator from his hands
+would have been a fatal waste of time. Luckily the blow either roused
+him from his stupor or caused an instinctive movement of his hand that
+set the little engine in operation.
+
+I am sure he took no aim, but providentially the vibratory force fell
+upon the desired point, and the knob disappeared.
+
+We were saved!
+
+Instantly half a dozen rushed toward the car of the Martians. We
+bitterly repented their haste; they did not live to repent.
+
+Unknown to us the Martians carried hand engines, capable of launching
+bolts of death of the same character as those which emanated from the
+knobs of their larger machines. With these they fired, so to speak,
+through the breach in their car, and four of our men who were rushing
+upon them fell in heaps of cinders. The effect of the terrible fire was
+like that which the most powerful strokes of lightning occasionally
+produce on earth.
+
+The destruction of the threatening knob had instantaneously relieved the
+pressure upon the terror-stricken nerves of our company, and they had
+all regained their composure and self-command. But this new and
+unexpected disaster, following so close upon the fear which had recently
+overpowered them, produced a second panic, the effect of which was not
+to stiffen them in their tracks as before, but to send them scurrying in
+every direction in search of hiding places.
+
+And now a most curious effect of the smallness of the planet we were on
+began to play a conspicuous part in our adventures. Standing on a globe
+only five miles in diameter was like being on the summit of a mountain
+whose sides sloped rapidly off in every direction, disappearing in the
+black sky on all sides, as if it were some stupendous peak rising out of
+an unfathomable abyss.
+
+In consequence of the quick rounding off of the sides of this globe, the
+line of the horizon was close at hand, and by running a distance of less
+that 250 yards the fugitives disappeared down the sides of the asteroid,
+and behind the horizon, even from the elevation of about fifteen feet
+from which the Martians were able to watch them. From our sight they
+disappeared much sooner.
+
+The slight attraction of the planet and their consequent almost entire
+lack of weight enabled the men to run with immense speed. The result, as
+I have subsequently learned, was that after they had disappeared from
+our view they quitted the planet entirely, the force being sufficient to
+partially free them from its gravitation, so that they sailed out into
+space, whirling helplessly end over end, until the elliptical orbits in
+which they travelled eventually brought them back again to the planet on
+the side nearly opposite to that from which they had departed.
+
+But several of us, with Mr. Edison, stood fast, watching for an
+opportunity to get the Martians within range of the disintegrators.
+Luckily we were enabled, by shifting our position a little to the left,
+to get out of the line of sight of our enemies concealed in the car.
+
+"If we cannot catch sight of them," said Mr. Edison, "we shall have to
+riddle the car on the chance of hitting them."
+
+"It will be like firing into a bush to kill a hidden bear," said one of
+the party.
+
+But help came from a quarter which was unexpected to us, although it
+should not have been so. Several of the electric ships had been hovering
+above us during the fight, their commanders being apparently uncertain
+how to act--fearful, perhaps, of injuring us in the attempt to smite our
+enemy.
+
+But now the situation apparently lightened for them. They saw that we
+were at an immense disadvantage, and several of them immediately turned
+their batteries upon the car of the Martians.
+
+They riddled it far more quickly and effectively than we could have
+done. Every stroke of the vibratory emanation made a gap in the side of
+the car, and we could perceive from the commotion within that our
+enemies were being rapidly massacred in their fortification.
+
+So overwhelming was the force and the advantage of the ships that in a
+little while it was all over. Mr. Edison signaled them to stop firing
+because it was plain that all resistance had ceased and probably not one
+of the Martians remained alive.
+
+We now approached the car, which had been transpierced in every
+direction, and whose remaining portions were glowing with heat in
+consequence of the spreading of the atomic vibrations. Immediately we
+discovered that all our anticipations were correct and that all of our
+enemies had perished.
+
+The effect of the disintegrators upon them had been awful--too
+repulsive, indeed, to be described in detail. Some of the bodies had
+evidently entirely vanished; only certain metal articles which they had
+worn remaining, as in the case of the first Martian killed, to indicate
+that such beings had ever existed. The nature of the metal composing
+these articles was unknown to us. Evidently its vibratory rhythm did not
+correspond with any included in the ordinary range of the
+disintegrators.
+
+Some of the giants had been only partially destroyed, the vibratory
+current having grazed them, in such a manner that the shattering
+undulations had not acted upon the entire body.
+
+One thing that lends a peculiar horror to a terrestrial battlefield was
+absent; there was no bloodshed. The vibratory energy, not only
+completely destroyed whatever it fell upon but it seared the veins and
+arteries of the dismembered bodies so that there was no sanguinary
+exhibition connected with its murderous work.
+
+All this time the shackled Martian had lain on his back where we had
+left him bound. What his feeling must have been may be imagined. At
+times, I caught a glimpse of his eyes, wildly rolling and exhibiting,
+when he saw that the victory was in our hands, the first indications of
+fear and terror shaking his soul that had yet appeared.
+
+"That fellow is afraid at last," I said to Mr. Edison.
+
+"Well, I should think he ought to be afraid," was the reply.
+
+"So he ought, but if I am not mistaken this fear of his may be the
+beginning of a new discovery for us."
+
+"How so?" asked Mr. Edison.
+
+"In this way. When once he fears our power, and perceives that there
+would be no hope of contending against us, even if he were at liberty,
+he will respect us. This change in his mental attitude may tend to make
+him communicative. I do not see why we should despair of learning his
+language from him, and having done that, he will serve as our guide and
+interpreter, and will be of incalculable advantage to us when we have
+arrived at Mars."
+
+"Capital! Capital!" said Mr. Edison. "We must concentrate the linguistic
+genius of our company upon that problem at once."
+
+In the meantime some of the skulkers whose flight I have referred to
+began to return, crestfallen, but rejoicing in the disappearance of the
+danger. Several of them, I am ashamed to say, had been army officers.
+Yet possibly some excuse could be made for the terror by which they had
+been overcome. No man has a right to hold his fellow beings to account
+for the line of conduct they may pursue under circumstances which are
+not only entirely unexampled in their experience, but almost beyond the
+power of the imagination to picture.
+
+Paralyzing terror had evidently seized them with the sudden
+comprehension of the unprecedented singularity of their situation.
+Millions of miles away from the earth, confronted on an asteroid by
+these diabolical monsters from a maleficent planet, who were on the
+point of destroying them with a strange torment of death--perhaps it was
+really more than human nature, deprived of the support of human
+surroundings, could be expected to bear.
+
+Those who, as already described, had run with so great a speed that they
+were projected, all unwilling, into space, rising in elliptical orbits
+from the surface of the planet, describing great curves in what might be
+denominated its sky, and then coming back again to the little globe on
+another side, were so filled with the wonders of their remarkable
+adventure that they had almost forgotten the terror which had inspired
+it.
+
+There was nothing surprising in what had occurred to them the moment one
+considered the laws of gravitation on the asteroid, but their stories
+aroused an intense interest among all who listened to them.
+
+Lord Kelvin was particularly interested, and while Mr. Edison was
+hastening preparations to quit the asteroid and resume our voyage to
+Mars, Lord Kelvin and a number of other scientific men instituted a
+series of remarkable experiments.
+
+It was one of the most laughable things imaginable to see Lord Kelvin,
+dressed in his air-tight suit, making tremendous jumps in empty space.
+It reminded me forcibly of what Lord Kelvin, then plain William
+Thompson, and Professor Blackburn had done when spending a summer
+vacation at the seaside, while they were undergraduates of Cambridge
+University. They had spent all their time, to the surprise of onlookers,
+in spinning rounded stones on the beach, their object being to obtain a
+practical solution of the mathematical problem of "precession."
+
+Immediately Lord Kelvin was imitated by a dozen others. With what seemed
+very slight effort they projected themselves straight upwards, rising to
+a height of four hundred feet or more, and then slowly settling back
+again to the surface of the asteroid. The time of rise and fall combined
+was between three and four minutes.
+
+On this little planet the acceleration of gravity or the velocity
+acquired by a falling body in one second was only four-fifths of an
+inch. A body required an entire minute to fall a distance of only 120
+feet. Consequently, it was more like gradually settling than falling.
+The figures of these men of science, rising and sinking in this manner,
+appeared like so many gigantic marionettes bobbing up and down in a
+pneumatic bottle.
+
+"Let us try that," said Mr. Edison, very much interested in the
+experiments.
+
+Both of us jumped together. At first, with great swiftness, but
+gradually losing speed, we rose to an immense height straight from the
+ground. When we had reached the utmost limit of our flight we seemed to
+come to rest for a moment, and then began slowly, but with accelerated
+velocity, to sink back again to the planet. It was not only a peculiar
+but a delicious sensation, and but for strict orders which were issued
+that the electrical ships should be immediately prepared for departure,
+our entire company might have remained for an indefinite period enjoying
+this new kind of athletic exercise in a world where gravitation had
+become so humble that it could be trifled with.
+
+While the final preparations for departure were being made, Lord Kelvin
+instituted other experiments that were no less unique in their results.
+The experience of those who had taken unpremeditated flights in
+elliptical orbits when they had run from the vicinity of the Martians
+suggested the throwing of solid objects in various directions from the
+surface of the planet in order to determine the distance they would go
+and the curves they would describe in returning.
+
+For these experiments there was nothing more convenient or abundant than
+chunks of gold from the Martians' mine. These, accordingly, were hurled
+in different directions and with every degree of velocity. A little
+calculation had shown that an initial velocity of thirty feet per second
+imparted to one of these chunks, moving at right angles to the radius of
+the asteroid, would, if the resistance of an almost inappreciable
+atmosphere were neglected, suffice to turn the piece of gold into a
+little satellite that would describe an orbit around the asteroid, and
+continue to do so forever, or at least until the slight atmospheric
+resistance should eventually bring it down to the surface.
+
+But a less velocity than thirty feet per second would cause the golden
+missile to fly only part way around, while a greater velocity would give
+it an elliptical instead of a circular orbit, and in this ellipse it
+would continue to revolve around the asteroid in the character of a
+satellite.
+
+If the direction of the original impulse were at more than a right angle
+to the radius of the asteroid, then the flying body would pass out to a
+greater or less distance in space in an elliptical orbit, eventually
+coming back again and falling upon the asteroid, but not at the same
+spot from which it had departed.
+
+So many took part in these singular experiments, which assumed rather
+the appearance of outdoor sports than of scientific demonstrations, that
+in a short time we had provided the asteroid with a very large number of
+little moons, or satellites, of gold, which revolved around it in orbits
+of various degrees of ellipticity, taking, on the average, about
+three-quarters of an hour to complete a circuit. Since, on completing a
+revolution, they must necessarily pass through the point from which they
+started, they kept us constantly on the _qui vive_ to avoid being
+knocked over by them as they swept around in their orbits.
+
+Finally the signal was given for all to embark, and with great regret
+the savants quitted their scientific games, and prepared to return to
+the electric ships.
+
+Just on the moment of departure, the fact was announced by one, who had
+been making a little calculation on a bit of paper, that the velocity
+with which a body must be thrown in order to escape forever the
+attraction of the asteroid, and to pass on to an infinite distance in
+any direction, was only about forty-two feet in a second.
+
+Manifestly it would be quite easy to impart such a speed as that to the
+chunks of gold that we held in our hands.
+
+"Hurrah!" exclaimed one. "Let's send some of this back to the earth."
+
+"Where is the earth?" asked another.
+
+Being appealed to, several astronomers turned their eyes in the
+direction of the sun, where the black firmament was ablaze with stars,
+and in a moment recognized the earth-star shining there, with the moon
+attending close at hand.
+
+"There," said one, "is the earth. Can you throw straight enough to hit
+it?"
+
+"We'll try," was the reply, and immediately several threw huge golden
+nuggets in the direction of our far-away world, endeavoring to impart to
+them at least the required velocity of forty-two feet in a second, which
+would insure their passing beyond the attraction of the asteroid, and if
+there should be no disturbance on the way, and the aim were accurate,
+their eventual arrival upon the earth.
+
+"Here's for you, Old Earth," said one of the throwers, "good luck, and
+more gold to you!"
+
+If these precious missiles ever reached the earth we knew that they
+would plunge into the atmosphere like meteors and that probably the heat
+developed by their passage would melt and dissipate them in golden
+vapors before they could touch the ground.
+
+Yet there was a chance that some of them--if the aim were true--might
+survive the fiery passage through the atmosphere and fall upon the
+surface of our planet where, perhaps, they would afterward be picked up
+by a prospector and lead him to believe that he had struck a new
+bonanza.
+
+But until we returned to the earth it would be impossible for us to tell
+what had become of the golden gifts which we had launched into space for
+our mother planet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+_JOURNEY'S END_
+
+
+"All aboard!" was the signal, and the squadron having assembled under
+the lead of the flagship, we started again for Mars.
+
+This time, as it proved, there was to be no further interruption, and
+when next we paused it was in the presence of the world inhabited by our
+enemies, and facing their frowning batteries.
+
+We did not find it so easy to start from the asteroid as it had been to
+start from the earth; that is to say, we could not so readily generate a
+very high velocity.
+
+In consequence of the comparatively small size of the asteroid, its
+electric influence was very much less than that of the earth, and
+notwithstanding the appliances which we possessed for intensifying the
+electrical effect, it was not possible to produce a sufficient repulsion
+to start us off for Mars with anything like the impulse which we had
+received from the earth on our original departure.
+
+The utmost velocity that we could generate did not exceed three miles in
+a second, and to get this required our utmost efforts. In fact, it had
+not seemed possible that we should attain even so great a speed as that.
+It was far more than we could have expected, and even Mr. Edison was
+surprised, as well as greatly gratified, when he found that we were
+moving with the velocity that I have named.
+
+We were still about 6,000,000 miles from Mars, so that, traveling three
+miles in a second, we should require at least twenty-three days to reach
+the immediate neighborhood of the planet.
+
+Meanwhile we had plenty of occupation to make the time pass quickly. Our
+prisoner was transported along with us, and we now began our attempts to
+ascertain what his language was, and, if possible, to master it
+ourselves.
+
+Before quitting the asteroid we had found that it was necessary for him
+to swallow one of his "air pills," as Professor Moissan had called them,
+at least three times in the course of every twenty-four hours. One of us
+supplied him regularly and I thought that I could detect evidences of a
+certain degree of gratitude in his expression. This was encouraging,
+because it gave additional promise of the possibility of our being able
+to communicate with him in some more effective way than by mere signs.
+But once inside the car, where we had a supply of air kept at the
+ordinary pressure experienced on the earth, he could breathe like the
+rest of us.
+
+The best linguists in the expedition, as Mr. Edison had suggested, were
+now assembled in the flagship, where the prisoner was, and they set to
+work to devise some means of ascertaining the manner in which he was
+accustomed to express his thoughts. We had not heard him speak, because
+until we carried him into our car there was no atmosphere capable of
+conveying any sounds he might attempt to utter.
+
+It seemed a fair assumption that the language of the Martians would be
+scientific in its structure. We had so much evidence of the practical
+bent of their minds, and of the immense progress which they had made in
+the direction of the scientific conquest of nature, that it was not to
+be supposed their medium of communication with one another would be
+lacking in clearness, or would possess any of the puzzling and
+unnecessary ambiguities that characterized the languages spoken on the
+earth.
+
+"We shall not find them making he's and she's of stones, sticks and
+other inanimate objects," said one of the American linguists. "They must
+certainly have gotten rid of all that nonsense long ago."
+
+"Ah," said a French Professor from the Sorbonne, one of the makers of
+the never-to-be-finished dictionary. "It will be like the language of my
+country. Transparent, similar to the diamond, and sparkling as is the
+fountain."
+
+"I think," said a German enthusiast, "that it will be a universal
+language, the Volapuk of Mars, spoken by all the inhabitants of that
+planet."
+
+"But all these speculations," broke in Mr. Edison, "do not help you
+much. Why not begin in a practical manner by finding out what the
+Martian calls himself, for instance."
+
+This seemed a good suggestion, and accordingly several of the bystanders
+began an expressive pantomime, intended to indicate to the giant, who
+was following all their motions with his eyes, that they wished to know
+by what name he called himself. Pointing their fingers to their own
+breast they repeated, one after the other, the word "man."
+
+If our prisoner had been a stupid savage, of course any such attempt as
+this to make him understand would have been idle. But it must be
+remembered that we were dealing with a personage who had presumably
+inherited from hundreds of generations the results of a civilization,
+and an intellectual advance, measured by the constant progress of
+millions of years.
+
+Accordingly we were not very much astonished, when, after a few
+repetitions of the experiment, the Martian--one of whose arms had been
+partially released from its bonds in order to give him a little freedom
+of motion--imitated the action of his interrogators by pressing his
+finger over his heart.
+
+Then, opening his mouth, he gave utterance to a sound which shook the
+air of the car like the hoarse roar of a lion. He seemed himself
+surprised by the noise he made, for he had not been used to speak in so
+dense an atmosphere.
+
+Our ears were deafened and confused, and we recoiled in astonishment,
+not to say, half in terror.
+
+With an ugly grin distorting his face as if he enjoyed our discomfiture,
+the Martian repeated the motion and the sound.
+
+"R-r-r-r-r-r-h!"
+
+It was not articulate to our ears and not to be represented by any
+combination of letters.
+
+"Faith," exclaimed a Dublin University professor, "if that's what they
+call themselves, how shall we ever translate their names when we come to
+write the history of the conquest?"
+
+"Whist, mon," replied a professor from the University of Aberdeen, "let
+us whip the gillravaging villains first, and then we can describe them
+by any intitulation that may suit our deesposition."
+
+The beginning of our linguistic conquest was certainly not promising, at
+least if measured by our acquirement of words, but from another point of
+view it was very gratifying, inasmuch as it was plain that the Martian
+understood what we were trying to do, and was, for the present, at
+least, disposed to aid us.
+
+These efforts to learn the language of Mars were renewed and repeated
+every few hours, all the experience, learning and genius of the squadron
+being concentrated upon the work, and the result was that in the course
+of a few days we had actually succeeded in learning a dozen or more of
+the Martian's words and were able to make him understand us when we
+pronounced them, as well as to understand him when our ears had become
+accustomed to the growling of his voice.
+
+Finally, one day the prisoner, who seemed to be in an unusually cheerful
+frame of mind, indicated that he carried in his breast some object which
+he wished us to see.
+
+With our assistance he pulled out a book!
+
+Actually, it was a book, not very unlike the books which we have upon
+the earth, but printed, of course, in characters that were entirely
+strange and unknown to us. Yet these characters evidently gave
+expression to a highly intellectual language. All those who were
+standing by at the moment uttered a shout of wonder and of delight, and
+the cry of "a book! a book!" ran around the circle, and the good news
+was even promptly communicated to some of the neighboring electric ships
+of the squadron. Several other learned men were summoned in haste from
+them to examine our new treasure.
+
+[Illustration: _Actually, it was a book that the prisoner produced, and
+then he proceeded to teach us, as well as he could, several words of his
+language._]
+
+The Martian, whose good nature had manifestly been growing day after
+day, watched our inspection of his book with evidences of great
+interest, not unmingled with amusement. Finally he beckoned the holder
+of the book to his side, and placing his broad finger upon one of the
+huge letters--if letters they were, for they more nearly resembled the
+characters employed by the Chinese printer--he uttered a sound which we,
+of course, took to be a word, but which was different from any we had
+yet heard. Then he pointed to one after another of us standing around.
+
+"Ah," explained everybody, the truth being apparent, "that is the word
+by which the Martians designate us. They have a name, then, for the
+inhabitants of the earth."
+
+"Or, perhaps, it is rather the name for the earth itself," said one.
+
+But this could not, of course, be at once determined. Anyhow, the word,
+whatever its precise meaning might be, had now been added to our
+vocabulary, although as yet our organs of speech proved unable to
+reproduce it in a recognizable form.
+
+This promising and unexpected discovery of the Martian's book lent added
+enthusiasm to those who were engaged in the work of trying to master the
+language of our prisoner, and the progress that they made in the course
+of the next few days was truly astonishing. If the prisoner had been
+unwilling to aid them, of course, it would have been impossible to
+proceed, but, fortunately for us, he seemed more and more to enter into
+the spirit of the undertaking, and actually to enjoy it himself. So
+bright and quick was his understanding that he was even able to indicate
+to us methods of mastering his language that would otherwise, probably,
+never have occurred to our minds.
+
+In fact, in a very short time he had turned teacher and all these
+learned men, pressing around him with eager attention, had become his
+pupils.
+
+I cannot undertake to say precisely how much of the Martian language had
+been acquired by the chief linguists of the expedition before the time
+when we arrived so near to Mars that it became necessary for most of us
+to abandon our studies in order to make ready for the more serious
+business which now confronted us.
+
+But, at any rate, the acquisition was so considerable as to allow of the
+interchange of ordinary ideas with our prisoner, and there was no longer
+any doubt that he would be able to give us much information when we
+landed on his native planet.
+
+At the end of twenty-three days as measured by terrestrial time, since
+our departure from the asteroid, we arrived in the sky of Mars.
+
+For a long time the ruddy planet had been growing larger and more
+formidable, gradually turning from a huge star into a great red moon,
+and then expanding more and more until it began to shut out from sight
+the constellations behind it. The curious markings on its surface, which
+from the earth can only be dimly glimpsed with a powerful telescope,
+began to reveal themselves clearly to our naked eyes.
+
+I have related how even before we had reached the asteroid, Mars began
+to present a most imposing appearance as we saw it with our telescopes.
+Now, however, that it was close at hand, the naked eye view of the
+planet was more wonderful than anything we had been able to see with
+telescopes when at a greater distance.
+
+We were approaching the southern hemisphere of Mars in about latitude 45
+degrees south. It was near the time of the vernal equinox in that
+hemisphere of the planet, and under the stimulating influence of the
+spring sun, rising higher and higher every day, some such awakening of
+life and activity upon its surface as occurs on the earth under similar
+circumstances was evidently going on.
+
+Around the South Pole were spread immense fields of snow and ice,
+gleaming with great brilliance. Cutting deep into the borders of these
+ice-fields, we could see broad channels of open water, indicating the
+rapid breaking of the grip of the frost.
+
+Almost directly beneath us was a broad oval region, light red in color,
+to which terrestrial astronomers had given the name of Hellas. Toward
+the south, between Hellas and the borders of the polar ice, was a great
+belt of darkness that astronomers had always been inclined to regard as
+a sea. Looking toward the north, we could perceive the immense red
+expanses of the continent of Mars, with the long curved line of the
+Syrtis Major, or "The Hour-glass Sea," sweeping through the midst of
+them toward the north until it disappeared under the horizon.
+
+Crossing and recrossing the red continent, in every direction, were the
+canals of Schiaparelli.
+
+Plentifully sprinkled over the surface we could see brilliant points,
+some of dazzling brightness, outshining the daylight. There was also an
+astonishing variety in the colors of the broad expanses beneath us.
+Activity, vivacity and beauty, such as we were utterly unprepared to
+behold, expressed their presence on all sides.
+
+The excitement on the flagship and among the other members of the
+squadron was immense. It was certainly a thrilling scene. Here, right
+under our feet, lay the world we had come to do battle with. Its
+appearances, while recalling in some of their broader aspects those
+which it had presented when viewed from our observatories, were far more
+strange, complex and wonderful than any astronomer had ever dreamed.
+Suppose all of our anticipations about Mars should prove to have been
+wrong, after all?
+
+There could be no longer any question that it was a world which, if not
+absolutely teeming with inhabitants, like a gigantic ant-hill, at any
+rate bore on every side the marks of their presence and of their
+incredible undertakings and achievements.
+
+Here and there clouds of smoke arose and spread slowly through the
+atmosphere beneath us. Floating higher above the surface of the planet
+were clouds of vapor, assuming the familiar forms of stratus and cumulus
+with which we were acquainted upon the earth.
+
+These clouds, however, seemed upon the whole to be much less dense than
+those to which we were accustomed at home. They had, too, a peculiar
+iridescent beauty as if there was something in their composition or
+their texture which split up the chromatic elements of the sunlight and
+thus produced internal rainbow effects that caused some of the heavier
+cloud masses to resemble immense collections of opals, alive with the
+play of ever-changing colors and magically suspended above the planet.
+
+As we continued to study the phenomena that was gradually unfolded
+beneath us we thought we could detect in many places evidences of the
+existence of strong fortifications. The planet of war appeared to be
+prepared for the attacks of enemies. Since, as our own experience had
+shown, it sometimes waged war with distant planets, it was but natural
+that it should be found prepared to resist foes who might be disposed to
+revenge themselves for injuries suffered at its hands.
+
+As had been expected, our prisoner now proved to be of very great
+assistance to us. Apparently he took a certain pride in exhibiting to
+strangers from a distant world the beauties and wonders of his own
+planet.
+
+We could not understand by any means all that he said, but we could
+readily comprehend, from his gestures, and from the manner in which his
+features lighted up at the recognition of familiar scenes and objects,
+what his sentiments in regard to them were, and, in a general way, what
+part they played in the life of the planet.
+
+He confirmed our opinion that certain of the works which we saw beneath
+us were fortifications, intended for the protection of the planet
+against invaders from outer space. A cunning and almost diabolical look
+came into his eyes as he pointed to one of these strongholds.
+
+His confidence and his mocking looks were not reassuring to us. He knew
+what his planet was capable of, and we did not. He had seen, on the
+asteroid, the extent of our power, and while its display served to
+intimidate him there, yet now that he and we together were facing the
+world of his birth, his fear had evidently fallen from him, and he had
+the manner of one who feels that the shield of an all-powerful protector
+had been extended over him.
+
+But it could not be long now before we could ascertain, by the
+irrevocable test of actual experience, whether the Martians possessed
+the power to annihilate us or not.
+
+How shall I describe our feelings as we gazed at the scene spread
+beneath us? They were not quite the same as those of the discoverer of
+new lands upon the earth. This was a whole new world that we had
+discovered, and it was filled, as we could see, with inhabitants.
+
+But that was not all. We had not come with peaceful intentions.
+
+We were to make war on this new world.
+
+Deducting our losses we had not more than 940 men left. With these we
+were to undertake the conquest of a world containing we could not say
+how many millions!
+
+Our enemies, instead of being below us in the scale of intelligence
+were, we had every reason to believe, greatly our superiors. They had
+proved that they possessed a command over the powers of nature such as
+we, up to the time when Mr. Edison made his inventions, had not even
+dreamed that it was possible for us to obtain.
+
+It was true that at present we appeared to have the advantage, both in
+our electrical ships and in our means of offense. The disintegrator was
+at least as powerful an engine of destruction as any that the Martians
+had yet shown that they possessed. It did not seem that in that respect
+they could possibly excel us.
+
+During the brief war with the Martians upon the earth it had been
+gunpowder against a mysterious force as much stronger than gunpowder as
+the latter was superior to the bows and arrows that preceded it.
+
+There had been no comparison whatever between the offensive means
+employed by the two parties in the struggle on the earth.
+
+But the genius of one man had suddenly put us on the level of our
+enemies in regard to fighting capacity.
+
+Then, too, our electrical ships were far more effective for their
+purpose than the projectile cars used by the Martians. In fact, the
+principle upon which they were based was, at bottom, so simple that it
+seemed astonishing the Martians had not hit upon it.
+
+Mr. Edison himself was never tired of saying in reference to this
+matter:
+
+"I cannot understand why the Martians did not invent these things. They
+have given ample proof that they understand electricity better than we
+do. Why should they have resorted to the comparatively awkward and
+bungling means of getting from one planet to another that they have
+employed when they might have ridden through the solar system in such
+conveyances as ours with perfect ease?"
+
+"And besides," Mr. Edison would add, "I cannot understand why they did
+not employ the principle of harmonic vibrations in the construction of
+their engines of war. The lightning-like strokes which they dealt from
+their machines are no doubt equally powerful, but I think the range of
+destruction covered by the disintegrators is greater."
+
+However, these questions must remain open until we could effect a
+landing on Mars, and learn something of the condition of things there.
+
+The thing that gave us the most uneasiness was the fact that we did not
+yet know what powers the Martians might have in reserve. It was but
+natural to suppose that here, on their own ground, they would possess
+means of defense even more effective than the offensive engines they had
+employed in attacking enemies so many millions of miles from home.
+
+It was important that we should waste no time, and it was equally
+important that we should select the most vulnerable point for attack. It
+was self-evident, therefore, that our first duty would be to reconnoiter
+the surface of the planet and determine its weakest point of defense.
+
+At first Mr. Edison contemplated sending the various ships in different
+directions around the planet in order that the work of exploration might
+be quickly accomplished. But upon second thought it seemed wiser to keep
+the squadron together, thus diminishing the chance of disaster.
+
+Besides, the commander wished to see with his own eyes the exact
+situation of the various parts of the planet, where it might appear
+advisable for us to begin our assault.
+
+Thus far we had remained suspended at so great a height above the planet
+that we had hardly entered into the perceptible limits of its atmosphere
+and there was no evidence that we had been seen by the inhabitants of
+Mars; but before starting on our voyage of exploration it was determined
+to drop down closer to the surface in order that we might the more
+certainly identify the localities over which we passed.
+
+This maneuver nearly got us into serious trouble.
+
+When we had arrived within a distance of three miles from the surface of
+Mars we suddenly perceived approaching from the eastward a large airship
+which was navigating the Martian atmosphere at a height of perhaps half
+a mile above the ground.
+
+[Illustration: _When we arrived within a distance of three miles
+from the surface of Mars we suddenly perceived approaching from the
+eastward a large airship, which was navigating the Martian atmosphere at
+a height of perhaps half a mile above the ground._]
+
+This airship moved rapidly on to a point nearly beneath us, when it
+suddenly paused, reversed its course, and evidently made signals, the
+purpose of which was not at first evident to us.
+
+But in a short time their meaning became perfectly plain, when we found
+ourselves surrounded by at least twenty similar aerostats approaching
+swiftly from different sides.
+
+It was a great mystery to us where so many airships had been concealed
+previous to their sudden appearance in answer to the signals.
+
+But the mystery was quickly solved when we saw detaching itself from the
+surface of the planet beneath us, where, while it remained immovable,
+its color had blended with that of the soil so as to render it
+invisible, another of the mysterious ships.
+
+Then our startled eyes beheld on all sides these formidable-looking
+enemies rising from the ground beneath us like so many gigantic insects,
+disturbed by a sudden alarm.
+
+In a short time the atmosphere a mile or two below us, and to a distance
+of perhaps twenty miles around in every direction, was alive with
+airships of various sizes, and some of most extraordinary forms,
+exchanging signals, rushing to and fro, but all finally concentrating
+beneath the place where our squadron was suspended.
+
+We had poked the hornet's nest with a vengeance!
+
+As yet there had been no sting, but we might quickly expect to feel it
+if we did not get out of range.
+
+Quickly instructions were flashed to the squadrons to rise as rapidly as
+possible to a great height.
+
+It was evident that this maneuver would save us from danger if it were
+quickly effected, because the airships of the Martians were simply
+airships and nothing more. They could only float in the atmosphere, and
+had no means of rising above it, or of navigating empty space.
+
+To have turned our disintegrators upon them, and to have begun a battle
+then and there, would have been folly.
+
+They overwhelmingly outnumbered us, the majority of them were yet at a
+considerable distance and we could not have done battle, even with our
+entire squadron acting together, with more than one-quarter of them
+simultaneously. In the meantime the others would have surrounded and
+might have destroyed us. We must first get some idea of the planet's
+means of defence before we ventured to assail it.
+
+Having risen rapidly to a height of twenty-five or thirty miles, so that
+we could feel confident that our ships had vanished at least from the
+naked eye view of our enemies beneath, a brief consultation was held.
+
+It was determined to adhere to our original program and to
+circumnavigate Mars in every direction before proceeding to open the
+war.
+
+The overwhelming forces shown by the enemy had intimidated even some of
+the most courageous of our men, but still it was universally felt that
+it would not do to retreat without a blow struck.
+
+The more we saw of the power of the Martians, the more we became
+convinced that there would be no hope for the earth, if these enemies
+ever again effected a landing upon its surface, the more especially
+since our squadron contained nearly all of the earth's force that would
+be effective in such a contest.
+
+With Mr. Edison and the other men of science away, they would not be
+able at home to construct such engines as we possessed, or to manage
+them even if they were constructed.
+
+Our planet had staked everything on a single throw.
+
+These considerations again steeled our hearts, and made us bear up as
+bravely as possible in the face of the terrible odds that confronted us.
+
+Turning the noses of our electrical ships toward the west, we began our
+circumnavigation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+_THE GREAT SMOKE BARRIER_
+
+
+At first we rose to a still greater height, in order more effectually to
+escape the watchful eyes of our enemies, and then, after having moved
+rapidly several hundred miles toward the west, we dropped down again
+within easy eyeshot of the surface of the planet, and commenced our
+inspection.
+
+When we originally reached Mars, as I have related, it was at a point in
+its southern hemisphere, in latitude 45 degrees south, and longitude 75
+degrees east, that we first closely approached its surface. Underneath
+us was the land called "Hellas," and it was over this land of Hellas
+that the Martian air fleet had suddenly made its appearance.
+
+Our westward motion, while at a great height above the planet, had
+brought us over another oval-shaped land called "Noachia," surrounded by
+the dark ocean, the "Mare Erytræum." Now approaching nearer the surface
+our course was changed so as to carry us toward the equator of Mars.
+
+We passed over the curious half-drowned continent known to terrestrial
+astronomers as the Region of Deucalion, then across another sea, or
+gulf, until we found ourselves floating at a height of perhaps five
+miles, above a great continental land, at least three thousand miles
+broad from east to west, and which I immediately recognized as that to
+which astronomers had given the various names of "Aeria," "Edom,"
+"Arabia," and "Eden."
+
+Here the spectacle became of breathless interest.
+
+"Wonderful! Wonderful!"
+
+"Who could have believed it!"
+
+Such were the exclamations heard on all sides.
+
+When at first we were suspended above Hellas, looking toward the north,
+the northeast and the northwest, we had seen at a distance some of these
+great red regions, and had perceived the curious network of canals by
+which they were intersected. But that was a far-off and imperfect view.
+
+Now, when we were near at hand and straight above one of these singular
+lands, the magnificence of the panorama surpassed belief.
+
+From the earth about a dozen of the principal canals crossing the
+continent beneath us had been perceived, but we saw hundreds, nay
+thousands of them!
+
+It was a double system, intended both for irrigation and for protection,
+and far more marvelous in its completeness than the boldest speculative
+minds among our astronomers had ever dared to imagine.
+
+"Ha! that's what I always said," exclaimed a veteran from one of our
+great observatories. "Mars is red because its soil and vegetation are
+red."
+
+And certainly appearances indicated that he was right.
+
+There were no green trees, and there was no green grass. Both were red,
+not of a uniform red tint, but presenting an immense variety of shades
+which produced a most brilliant effect, fairly dazzling our eyes.
+
+But what trees! And what grass! And what flowers!
+
+Our telescopes showed that even the smaller trees must be 200 or 300
+feet in height, and there were forests of giants, whose average height
+was evidently at least 1,000 feet.
+
+"That's all right," exclaimed the enthusiast I have just quoted. "I knew
+it would be so. The trees are big for the same reason that the men are,
+because the planet is small, and they can grow big without becoming too
+heavy to stand."
+
+Flashing in the sun on all sides were the roofs of metallic buildings,
+which were evidently the only kind of edifices which Mars possessed. At
+any rate, if stone or wood were employed in their construction both were
+completely covered with metallic plates.
+
+This added immensely to the warlike aspect of the planet. For warlike it
+was. Everywhere we recognized fortified stations, glittering with an
+array of the polished knobs of the lightning machines, such as we had
+seen in the land of Hellas.
+
+From the land of Edom, directly over the equator of the planet, we
+turned our faces westward, and, skirting the Mare Erytræum, arrived
+above the place where the broad canal known as the Indus empties into
+the sea.
+
+Before us, and stretching away to the northwest, now lay the Continent
+of Chryse, a vast red land, oval in outline, and surrounded and crossed
+by innumerable canals. Chryse was not less than 1,600 miles across and
+it, too, evidently swarmed with giant inhabitants.
+
+But the shadow of night lay upon the greater portion of the land of
+Chryse. In our rapid motion westward we had outstripped the sun and had
+now arrived at a point where day and night met upon the surface of the
+planet beneath us.
+
+Behind all was brilliant with sunshine, but before us the face of Mars
+gradually disappeared in the deepening gloom. Through the darkness, far
+away, we could behold magnificent beams of electric light darting across
+the curtain of night, and evidently serving to illuminate towns and
+cities that lay beneath.
+
+We pushed on into the night for two or three hundred miles over that
+part of the continent of Chryse whose inhabitants were doubtless
+enjoying the deep sleep that accompanies the dark hours immediately
+preceding the dawn. Still everywhere splendid clusters of light lay like
+fallen constellations upon the ground, indicating the sites of great
+towns, which, like those of the earth never sleep.
+
+But this scene, although weird and beautiful, could give us little of
+the kind of information of which we were in search.
+
+Accordingly it was resolved to turn back eastward until we had arrived
+in the twilight space separating day and night, and then hover over the
+planet at that point, allowing it to turn beneath us so that, as we
+looked down, we should see in succession the entire circuit of the globe
+of Mars while it rolled under our eyes.
+
+The rotation of Mars on its axis is performed in a period very little
+longer than the earth's rotation, so that the length of the day and
+night in the world of Mars is only some forty minutes longer than their
+length upon the earth.
+
+In thus remaining suspended over the planet, on the line of daybreak, so
+to speak, we believed that we should be peculiarly safe from detection
+by the eyes of the inhabitants. Even astronomers are not likely to be
+wide awake just at the peep of dawn. Almost all of the inhabitants, we
+confidently believed, would still be sound asleep upon that part of the
+planet passing directly beneath us, and those who were awake would not
+be likely to watch for unexpected appearances in the sky.
+
+Besides, our height was so great that notwithstanding the numbers of the
+squadron, we could not easily be seen from the surface of the planet,
+and if seen at all we might be mistaken for high-flying birds.
+
+Here we remained then through the entire course of twenty-four hours and
+saw in succession as they passed from night into day beneath our feet
+the land of Chryse, the great continent of Tharsis, the curious region
+of intersecting canals which puzzled astronomers on the earth had named
+the "Gordian Knot." The continental lands of Memnonia, Amozonia and
+Aeolia, the mysterious center where hundreds of vast canals came
+together from every direction, called the Triviun Charontis; the vast
+circle of Elysium, a thousand miles across, and completely surrounded by
+a broad green canal; the continent of Libya, which, as I remembered, had
+been half covered by a tremendous inundation whose effects were visible
+from the earth in 1889, and finally the long, dark sea of the Syrtis
+Major, lying directly south of the land of Hellas.
+
+The excitement and interest which we all experienced were so great that
+not one of us took a wink of sleep during the entire twenty-four hours
+of our marvelous watch.
+
+There are one or two things of special interest amid the multitude of
+wonderful observations that we made which I must mention here on account
+of their connection with the important events that followed soon after.
+
+Just west of the land of Chryse we saw the smaller land of Ophir, in the
+midst of which is a singular spot called the Juventae Fons, and this
+Fountain of Youth, as our astronomers, by a sort of prophetic
+inspiration, had named it, proved later to be one of the most incredible
+marvels on the planet of Mars.
+
+Further to the west, and north from the great continent of Tharsis, we
+beheld the immense oval-shaped land of Thaumasia containing in its
+center the celebrated "Lake of the Sun," a circular body of water not
+less than five hundred miles in diameter, with dozens of great canals
+running away from it like the spokes of a wheel in every direction, thus
+connecting it with the ocean which surrounds it on the south and east,
+and with the still larger canals that encircle it toward the north and
+west.
+
+This Lake of the Sun came to play a great part in our subsequent
+adventures. It was evident to us from the beginning that it was the
+chief center of population on the planet. It lies in latitude 25 degrees
+south and longitude about 90 degrees west.
+
+Having completed the circuit of the Martian globe, we were moved by the
+same feeling which every discoverer of new lands experiences, and
+immediately returned to our original place above the land of Hellas,
+because since that was the first part of Mars which we had seen, we felt
+a greater degree of familiarity with it than with any portion of the
+planet, and there, in a certain sense, we felt "at home."
+
+But, as it proved, our enemies were on the watch for us there. We had
+almost forgotten them, so absorbed were we by the great spectacles that
+had been unrolling themselves beneath our feet.
+
+We ought, of course, to have been a little more cautious in approaching
+the place where they first caught sight of us, since we might have known
+that they would remain on the watch near that spot.
+
+But at any rate they had seen us, and it was now too late to think of
+taking them again by surprise.
+
+They on their part had a surprise in store for us, which was greater
+than any we had yet experienced.
+
+We saw their ships assembling once more far down in the atmosphere
+beneath us, and we thought we could detect evidences of something
+unusual going on upon the surface of the planet.
+
+Suddenly from the ships, and from various points on the ground beneath,
+there rose high in the air, and carried by invisible currents in every
+direction, immense volumes of black smoke, or vapor, which blotted out
+of sight everything below them!
+
+South, north, west and east, the curtain of blackness rapidly spread,
+until the whole face of the planet as far as our eyes could reach, and
+the airships thronging under us, were all concealed from sight!
+
+Mars had played the game of the cuttlefish, which when pursued by its
+enemies darkens the water behind it by a sudden outgush of inky fluid
+and thus escapes the eye of its foe.
+
+The eyes of man had never beheld such a spectacle!
+
+Where a few minutes before the sunny face of a beautiful and populous
+planet had been shining beneath us, there was now to be seen nothing but
+black, billowing clouds, swelling up everywhere like the mouse-colored
+smoke that pours from a great transatlantic liner when fresh coal has
+just been heaped upon her fires.
+
+In some places the smoke spouted upward in huge jets to the height of
+several miles; elsewhere it eddied in vast whirlpools of inky blackness.
+
+Not a glimpse of the hidden world beneath us was anywhere to be seen.
+
+Mars had put on its war mask, and fearful indeed was the aspect of it!
+
+After the first pause of surprise the squadron quickly backed away into
+the sky, rising rapidly, because, from one of the swirling eddies
+beneath us the smoke began suddenly to pile itself up in an enormous
+aerial mountain, whose peaks shot higher and higher, with apparently
+increasing velocity, until they seemed about to engulf us with their
+tumbling ebon masses.
+
+Unaware what the nature of this mysterious smoke might be, and fearing
+that it was something more than a shield for the planet, and might be
+destructive to life, we fled before it, as before the onward sweep of a
+pestilence.
+
+Directly underneath the flagship, one of the aspiring smoke peaks grew
+with most portentous swiftness, and, notwithstanding all our efforts, in
+a little while it had enveloped us.
+
+Several of us were standing on the deck of the electrical ship. We were
+almost stifled by the smoke, and were compelled to take refuge within
+the car, where, until the electric lights had been turned on, darkness
+so black that it oppressed the strained eyeballs prevailed.
+
+But in this brief experience, terrifying though it was, we had learned
+one thing. The smoke would kill by strangulation, but evidently there
+was nothing especially poisonous in its nature. This fact might be of
+use to us in our subsequent proceedings.
+
+"This spoils our plans," said the commander. "There is no use of
+remaining here for the present; let us see how far this thing extends."
+
+At first we rose straight away to a height of 200 or 300 miles, thus
+passing entirely beyond the sensible limits of the atmosphere, and far
+above the highest point that the smoke could reach.
+
+From this commanding point of view our line of sight extended to an
+immense distance over the surface of Mars in all directions. Everywhere
+the same appearance; the whole planet was evidently covered with the
+smoke.
+
+A complete telegraphic system evidently connected all the strategic
+points upon Mars, so that, at a signal from the central station, the
+wonderful curtain could be instantaneously drawn over the entire face of
+the planet.
+
+In order to make certain that no part of Mars remained uncovered, we
+dropped down again nearer to the upper level of the smoke clouds, and
+then completely circumnavigated the planet. It was thought possible that
+on the night side no smoke would be found and that it would be
+practicable for us to make a descent there.
+
+But when we had arrived on that side of Mars which was turned away from
+the sun, we no longer saw beneath us, as we had done on our previous
+visit to the night hemisphere of the planet, brilliant groups and
+clusters of electric lights beneath us. All was dark.
+
+In fact, so completely did the great shell of smoke conceal the planet
+that the place occupied by the latter seemed to be simply a vast black
+hole in the firmament.
+
+The sun was hidden behind it, and so dense was the smoke that even the
+solar rays were unable to penetrate it, and consequently there was no
+atmospheric halo visible around the concealed planet.
+
+All the sky around was filled with stars, but their countless host
+suddenly disappeared when our eyes turned in the direction of Mars. The
+great black globe blotted them out without being visible itself.
+
+"Apparently we can do nothing here," said Mr. Edison. "Let us return to
+the daylight side."
+
+When we had arrived near the point where we had been when the wonderful
+phenomenon first made its appearance, we paused, and then, at the
+suggestion of one of the chemists, dropped close to the surface of the
+smoke curtain which had now settled down into comparative quiescence, in
+order that we might examine it a little more critically.
+
+The flagship was driven into the smoke cloud so deeply that for a minute
+we were again enveloped in night. A quantity of the smoke was entrapped
+in a glass jar.
+
+Rising again into the sunlight, the chemists began an examination of the
+constitution of the smoke. They were unable to determine its precise
+character, but they found that its density was astonishingly slight.
+This accounted for the rapidity with which it had risen, and the great
+height which it had attained in the comparatively light atmosphere of
+Mars.
+
+"It is evident," said one of the chemists, "that this smoke does not
+extend down to the surface of the planet. From what the astronomers say
+as to the density of the air on Mars, it is probable that a clear space
+of at least a mile in height exists between the surface of Mars and the
+lower limit of the smoke curtain. Just how deep the latter is we can
+only determine by experiment, but it would not be surprising if the
+thickness of this great blanket which Mars has thrown around itself
+should prove to be a quarter or half a mile."
+
+"Anyhow," said one of the United States army officers, "they have dodged
+out of sight, and I don't see why we should not dodge in and get at
+them. If there is clear air under the smoke, as you think, why couldn't
+the ships dart down through the curtain and come to a close tackle with
+the Martians?"
+
+"It would not do at all," said the commander. "We might simply run
+ourselves into an ambush. No; we must stay outside, and if possible
+fight them from here."
+
+"They can't keep this thing up forever," said the officer. "Perhaps the
+smoke will clear off after a while, and then we will have a chance."
+
+"Not much hope of that, I am afraid," said the chemist who had
+originally spoken. "This smoke could remain floating in the atmosphere
+for weeks, and the only wonder to me is how they ever expect to get rid
+of it, when they think their enemies have gone and they want some
+sunshine again."
+
+"All that is mere speculation," said Mr. Edison; "let us get at
+something practical. We must do one of two things; either attack them
+shielded as they are, or wait until the smoke has cleared away. The only
+other alternative, that of plunging blindly down through the curtain is
+at present not to be thought of."
+
+"I am afraid we couldn't stand a very long siege ourselves," suddenly
+remarked the chief commissary of the expedition, who was one of the
+members of the flagship's company.
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Mr. Edison sharply, turning to him.
+
+"Well, sir, you see," said the commissary, stammering, "our provisions
+wouldn't hold out."
+
+"Wouldn't hold out?" exclaimed Mr. Edison, in astonishment, "why we have
+compressed and prepared provisions enough to last this squadron for
+three years."
+
+"We had, sir, when we left the earth," said the commissary, in apparent
+distress, "but I am sorry to say that something has happened."
+
+"Something has happened! Explain yourself!"
+
+"I don't know what it is, but on inspecting some of the compressed
+stores, a short time ago, I found that a large number of them were
+destroyed, whether through leakage of air, or what, I am unable to say.
+I sent to inquire as to the condition of the stores in the other ships
+in the squadron and I found that a similar condition of things prevailed
+there.
+
+"The fact is," continued the commissary, "we have only provisions
+enough, in proper condition, for about ten days' consumption."
+
+"After that we shall have to forage on the country, then," said the army
+officer.
+
+"Why did you not report this before?" demanded Mr. Edison.
+
+"Because, sir," was the reply, "the discovery was not made until after
+we arrived close to Mars, and since then there has been so much
+excitement that I have hardly had time to make an investigation and find
+out what the precise condition of affairs is; besides, I thought we
+should land upon the planet and then we would be able to renew our
+supplies."
+
+I closely watched Mr. Edison's expression in order to see how this most
+alarming news would affect him. Although he fully comprehended its
+fearful significance, he did not lose his self-command.
+
+"Well, well," he said, "then it will become necessary for us to act
+quickly. Evidently we cannot wait for the smoke to clear off, even if
+there was any hope of its clearing. We must get down on Mars now, having
+conquered it first if possible, but anyway we must get down there, in
+order to avoid starvation."
+
+"It is very lucky," he continued, "that we have ten days' supply left. A
+great deal can be done in ten days."
+
+A few hours after this the commander called me aside, and said:
+
+"I have thought it all out. I am going to reconstruct some of our
+disintegrators, so as to increase their range and their power. Then I am
+going to have some of the astronomers of the expedition locate for me
+the most vulnerable points upon the planet, where the population is
+densest and a hard blow would have the most effect, and I am going to
+pound away at them, through the smoke, and see whether we cannot draw
+them out of their shell."
+
+With his expert assistants Mr. Edison set to work at once to transform a
+number of the disintegrators into still more formidable engines of the
+same description. One of these new weapons having been distributed to
+each of the members of the squadron, the next problem was to decide
+where to strike.
+
+When we first examined the surface of the planet it will be remembered
+that we had regarded the Lake of the Sun and its environs as being the
+very focus of the planet. While it might also be a strong point of
+defence, yet an effective blow struck there would go to the enemy's
+heart and be more likely to bring the Martians promptly to terms than
+anything else.
+
+The first thing, then, was to locate the Lake of the Sun on the smoke
+hidden surface of the planet beneath us. This was a problem that the
+astronomers could readily solve.
+
+Fortunately, in the flagship itself there was one of the star-gazing
+gentlemen who had made a specialty of the study of Mars. That planet, as
+I have already explained, was now in opposition to the earth. The
+astronomer had records in his pocket which enabled him, by a brief
+calculation, to say just when the Lakes of the Sun would be on the
+meridian of Mars as seen from the earth. Our chronometers still kept
+terrestrial time; we knew the exact number of days and hours that had
+elapsed since we had departed, and so it was possible by placing
+ourselves in a line between the earth and Mars to be practically in the
+situation of an astronomer in his observatory at home.
+
+Then it was only necessary to wait for the hour when the Lake of the Sun
+would be upon the meridian of Mars in order to be certain what was the
+true direction of the latter from the flagship.
+
+Having thus located the heart of our foe behind its shield of darkness,
+we prepared to strike.
+
+"I have ascertained," said Mr. Edison, "the vibration period of the
+smoke, so that it will be easy for us to shatter it into invisible
+atoms. You will see that every stroke of the disintegrators will open a
+hole through the black curtain. If their field of destruction could be
+made wide enough, we might in that manner clear away the entire covering
+of smoke, but all that we shall really be able to do will be to puncture
+it with holes, which will, perhaps, enable us to catch glimpses of the
+surface beneath. In that manner we may be able more effectually to
+concentrate our fire upon the most vulnerable points."
+
+Everything being prepared, and the entire squadron having assembled to
+watch the effect of the opening blow and be ready to follow it up, Mr.
+Edison himself poised one of the new disintegrators, which was too large
+to be carried in the hand, and, following the direction indicated by the
+calculations of the astronomers, launched the vibratory discharge into
+the ocean of blackness beneath.
+
+Instantly there opened beneath us a huge well-shaped hole from which the
+black clouds rolled violently back in every direction.
+
+Through this opening we saw the gleam of brilliant lights beneath.
+
+We had made a hit.
+
+"It's the Lake of the Sun!" shouted the astronomer who furnished the
+calculation by means of which its position had been discovered.
+
+And, indeed, it was the Lake of the Sun. While the opening in the clouds
+made by the discharge was not wide, yet it sufficed to give us a view of
+a portion of the curving shore of the lake, which was ablaze with
+electric lights.
+
+Whether our shot had done any damage, beyond making the circular opening
+in the cloud curtain, we could not tell, for almost immediately the
+surrounding black smoke masses billowed in to fill up the hole.
+
+But in the brief glimpse we had caught sight of two or three large
+airships hovering in space above that part of the Lake of the Sun and
+its bordering city which we had beheld. It seemed to me in the brief
+glance I had that one ship had been touched by the discharge and was
+wandering in an erratic manner. But the clouds closed in so rapidly that
+I could not be certain.
+
+Anyhow, we had demonstrated one thing, and that was that we could
+penetrate the cloud shield and reach the Martians in their hiding place.
+
+It had been prearranged that the first discharge from the flagship
+should be a signal for the concentration of the fire of all the other
+ships upon the same spot.
+
+A little hesitation, however, occurred, and a half a minute had elapsed
+before the disintegrators from the other members of the squadron were
+got into play.
+
+Then, suddenly we saw an immense commotion in the cloud beneath us. It
+seemed to be beaten and hurried in every direction and punctured like a
+sieve with nearly a hundred great circular holes. Through these gaps we
+could see clearly a large region of the planet's surface, with many
+airships floating above it and the blaze of innumerable electric lights
+illuminating it. The Martians had created an artificial day under the
+curtain.
+
+This time there was no question that the blow had been effective. Four
+or five of the airships, partially destroyed, tumbled headlong toward
+the ground, while even from our great distance there was unmistakable
+evidence that fearful execution had been done among the crowded
+structures along the shore of the lake.
+
+As each of our ships possessed but one of the new disintegrators, and
+since a minute or so was required to adjust them for a fresh discharge,
+we remained for a little while inactive after delivering the blow.
+Meanwhile the cloud curtain, though rent to shreds by the concentrated
+discharge of the disintegrators, quickly became a uniform black sheet
+again, hiding everything.
+
+We had just had time to congratulate ourselves on the successful opening
+of our bombardment, and the disintegrator of the flagship was poised for
+another discharge, when suddenly out of the black expanse beneath,
+quivered immense electric beams, clear cut and straight as bars of
+steel, but dazzling our eyes with unendurable brilliance.
+
+It was the reply of the Martians to our attack.
+
+Three or four of the electrical ships were seriously damaged, and one,
+close beside the flagship, changed color, withered and collapsed, with
+the same sickening phenomena that had made our hearts shudder when the
+first disaster of this kind occurred during our brief battle over the
+asteroid.
+
+Another score of our comrades were gone, and yet we had hardly begun the
+fight.
+
+Glancing at the other ships which had been injured, I saw that the
+damage to them was not so serious, although they were evidently _hors de
+combat_ for the present.
+
+Our fighting blood was now boiling and we did not stop long to count our
+losses.
+
+"Into the smoke!" was the signal, and the ninety and more electric ships
+which still remained in condition for action immediately shot downward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+_THE EARTH GIRL_
+
+
+It was a wild plunge. We kept off the decks while rushing through the
+blinding smoke, but the instant we emerged below, where we found
+ourselves still a mile above the ground, we were out again, ready to
+strike.
+
+I have simply a confused recollection of flashing lights beneath, and a
+great, dark arch of clouds above, out of which our ships seemed dropping
+on all sides, and then the fray burst on and around us, and no man could
+see or notice anything except by half-comprehended glances.
+
+Almost in an instant, it seemed, a swarm of airships surrounded us,
+while from what, for lack of a more descriptive name, I shall call the
+forts about the Lake of the Sun, leaped tongues of electric fire, before
+which some of our ships, were driven like bits of flaming paper in a
+high wind, gleaming for a moment, then curling up and gone forever!
+
+It was an awful sight; but the battle fever was raging within us, and
+we, on our part, were not idle.
+
+Every man carried a disintegrator, and these hand instruments, together
+with those of heavier caliber on the ship poured their resistless
+vibrations in every direction through the quivering air.
+
+The airships of the Martians were destroyed by the score, and yet they
+flocked upon us thicker and faster.
+
+We dropped lower and our blows fell upon the forts, and upon the wide
+spread city bordering the Lake of the Sun. We almost entirely silenced
+the fire of one of the forts; but there were forty more in full action
+within reach of our eyes!
+
+Some of the metallic buildings were partly unroofed by the
+disintegrators and some had their walls riddled and fell with thundering
+crashes, whose sound rose to our ears above the hellish din of battle. I
+caught glimpses of giant forms struggling in the ruins and rushing
+wildly through the streets, but there was no time to see anything
+clearly.
+
+Our flagship seemed charmed. A crowd of airships hung upon it like a
+swarm of angry bees, and, at times, one could not see for the lightning
+strokes--yet we escaped destruction, while ourselves dealing death on
+every hand.
+
+It was a glorious fight, but it was not war; no, it was not war. We
+really had no more chance of ultimate success amid that multitude of
+enemies than a prisoner running the gauntlet in a crowd of savages has
+of escape.
+
+A conviction of the hopelessness of the contest finally forced itself
+upon our minds, and the shattered squadron, which had kept well together
+amid the storm of death, was signalled to retreat.
+
+Shaking off their pursuers, as a hunted bear shakes off the dogs, sixty
+of the electrical ships rose up through the clouds where more than
+ninety had gone down!
+
+Madly we rushed upward through the vast curtain and continued our flight
+to a great elevation, far beyond the reach of the awful artillery of the
+enemy.
+
+Looking back it seemed the very mouth of hell from which we had escaped.
+
+The Martians did not for an instant cease their fire, even when we were
+far beyond their reach. With furious persistence they blazed away
+through the cloud curtain, and the vivid spikes of lightning shuddered
+so swiftly on one another's track that they were like a flaming halo of
+electric lances around the frowning helmet of the War Planet.
+
+But after a while they stopped their terrific sparring, and once more
+the immense globe assumed the appearance of a vast ball of black smoke
+still widely agitated by the recent disturbance, but exhibiting no
+opening through which we could discern what was going on beneath.
+
+Evidently the Martians believed they had finished us.
+
+At no time since the beginning of our adventure had it appeared to me
+quite so hopeless, reckless and mad as it seemed at present.
+
+We had suffered fearful losses, and yet what had we accomplished? We had
+won two fights on the asteroid, it is true, but then we had overwhelming
+numbers on our side.
+
+Now we were facing millions on their own ground, and our very first
+assault had resulted in a disastrous repulse, with the loss of at least
+thirty electric ships and 600 men!
+
+Evidently we could not endure this sort of thing. We must find some
+other means of assailing Mars or else give up the attempt.
+
+But the latter was not to be thought. It was no mere question of
+self-pride, however, and no consideration of the tremendous interests at
+stake, which would compel us to continue our apparently vain attempt.
+
+Our provisions could last only a few days longer. The supply would not
+carry us one-quarter of the way back to earth, and we must therefore
+remain here and literally conquer or die.
+
+In this extremity a consultation of the principal officers was called
+upon the deck of the flagship.
+
+Here the suggestion was made that we should attempt to effect by
+strategy what we had failed to do by force.
+
+An old army officer who had served in many wars against the cunning
+Indians of the West, Colonel Alonzo Jefferson Smith, was the author of
+this suggestion.
+
+"Let us circumvent them," he said. "We can do it in this way. The
+chances are that all of the available fighting force of the planet Mars
+is now concentrated on this side and in the neighborhood of The Lake of
+the Sun.
+
+"Possibly, by some kind of X-ray business, they can only see us dimly
+through the clouds, and if we get a little further away they will not be
+able to see us at all.
+
+"Now, I suggest that a certain number of the electrical ships be
+withdrawn from the squadron to a great distance, while the remainder
+stay here; or, better still, approach to a point just beyond the reach
+of those streaks of lightning, and begin a bombardment of the clouds
+without paying any attention to whether the strokes reach through the
+clouds and do any damage or not.
+
+"This will induce the Martians to believe that we are determined to
+press our attack at this point.
+
+"In the meantime, while these ships are raising a hulabaloo on this side
+of the planet, and drawing their fire, as much as possible, without
+running into any actual danger, let the others which have been selected
+for the purpose, sail rapidly around to the other side of Mars and take
+them in the rear."
+
+It was not perfectly clear what Colonel Smith intended to do after the
+landing had been effected in the rear of the Martians, but still there
+seemed a good deal to be said for his suggestion, and it would, at any
+rate, if carried out, enable us to learn something about the condition
+of things on the planet, and perhaps furnish us with a hint as to how we
+could best proceed in the further prosecution of the siege.
+
+Accordingly it was resolved that about twenty ships should be told off
+for this movement, and Colonel Smith himself was placed in command.
+
+At my desire I accompanied the new commander in his flagship.
+
+Rising to a considerable elevation in order that there might be no risk
+of being seen, we began our flank movement while the remaining ships, in
+accordance with the understanding, dropped nearer the curtain of cloud
+and commenced a bombardment with the disintegrators, which caused a
+tremendous commotion in the clouds, opening vast gaps in them, and
+occasionally revealing a glimpse of the electric lights on the planet,
+although it was evident that the vibratory currents did not reach the
+ground. The Martians immediately replied to this renewed attack, and
+again the cloud covered globe bristled with lightning, which flashed so
+fiercely out of the blackness below that the stoutest hearts among us
+quailed, although we were situated well beyond the danger.
+
+But this sublime spectacle rapidly vanished from our eyes when, having
+attained a proper elevation, we began our course toward the opposite
+hemisphere of the planet.
+
+We guided our flight by the stars, and from our knowledge of the
+rotation period of Mars, and the position which the principal points on
+its surface must occupy at certain hours, we were able to tell what part
+of the planet lay beneath us.
+
+Having completed our semi-circuit we found ourselves on the night side
+of Mars, and determined to lose no time in executing our coup. But it
+was deemed best that an exploration should first be made by a single
+electrical ship, and Colonel Smith naturally wished to undertake the
+adventure with his own vessel.
+
+We dropped rapidly through the black cloud curtain, which proved to be
+at least half a mile in thickness, and then suddenly emerged, as if
+suspended at the apex of an enormous dome, arching above the surface of
+the planet a mile beneath us, which sparkled on all sides with
+innumerable lights.
+
+These lights were so numerous and so brilliant as to produce a faint
+imitation of daylight, even at our immense height above the ground, and
+the dome of cloud out of which we had emerged assumed a soft fawn color
+which produced an indescribably beautiful effect.
+
+For a moment we recoiled from our undertaking, and arrested the motion
+of the electric ship.
+
+But on closely examining the surface beneath us we found that there was
+a broad region, where comparatively few bright lights were to be seen.
+From my knowledge of the geography of Mars I knew that this was a part
+of the Land of Ausonia, situated a few hundred miles northeast of
+Hellas, where we had first seen the planet.
+
+Evidently it was not so thickly populated as some of the other parts of
+Mars, and its comparative darkness was an attraction to us. We
+determined to approach within a few hundred feet of the ground with the
+electric ship, and then, in case no enemies appeared, to visit the soil
+itself.
+
+"Perhaps we shall see or hear something that will be of use to us," said
+Colonel Smith, "and for the purposes of this first reconnaissance it is
+better that we should be few in number. The other ships will await our
+return, and at any rate we shall not be gone long."
+
+As our car approached the ground we found ourselves near the tops of
+some lofty trees.
+
+"This will do," said Colonel Smith to the electrical steersman, "Stay
+right here."
+
+He and I then lowered ourselves into the branches of the trees, each
+carrying a small disintegrator, and cautiously clambered down to the
+ground.
+
+We believed we were the first of the descendants of Adam to set foot on
+the planet of Mars.
+
+At first we suffered somewhat from the effects of the rare atmosphere.
+It was so lacking in density that it resembled the air on the summits of
+the loftiest terrestrial mountains.
+
+Having reached the foot of the tree in safety, we lay down for a moment
+on the ground to recover ourselves and to become accustomed to our new
+surroundings.
+
+A thrill, born half of wonder, half of incredulity, ran through me at
+the touch of the soil of Mars. Here was I, actually on that planet,
+which had seemed so far away, so inaccessible, and so full of mysteries
+when viewed from the earth. And yet, surrounding me, were
+things--gigantic, it is true--but still resembling and recalling the
+familiar sights of my own world.
+
+After a little while our lungs became accustomed to the rarity of the
+atmosphere and we experienced a certain stimulation in breathing.
+
+We then got upon our feet and stepped out from under the shadow of the
+gigantic tree. High above we could faintly see our electrical ship,
+gently swaying in the air close to the tree top.
+
+There were no electric lights in our immediate neighborhood, but we
+noticed that the whole surface of the planet around us was gleaming with
+them, producing an effect like the glow of a great city seen from a
+distance at night. The glare was faintly reflected from the vast dome of
+clouds above, producing the general impression of a moonlight night upon
+the earth.
+
+It was a wonderfully quiet and beautiful spot where we had come down.
+The air had a delicate feel and a bracing temperature, while a soft
+breeze soughed through the leaves of the tree above our heads.
+
+Not far away was the bank of a canal, bordered by a magnificent avenue
+shaded by a double row of immense umbrageous trees.
+
+We approached the canal, and, getting upon the road, turned to the left
+to make an exploration in that direction. The shadow of the trees
+falling upon the roadway produced a dense gloom, in the midst of which
+we felt that we should be safe, unless the Martians had eyes like those
+of cats.
+
+As we pushed along, our hearts, I confess, beating a little quickly, a
+shadow stirred in front of us.
+
+Something darker than the night itself approached.
+
+As it drew near it assumed the appearance of an enormous dog, as tall as
+an ox, which ran swiftly our way with a threatening motion of its head.
+But before it could even utter a snarl, the whirr of Colonel Smith's
+disintegrator was heard and the creature vanished in the shadow.
+
+"Gracious, did you ever see such a beast?" said the Colonel. "Why he was
+as big as a grizzly."
+
+"The people he belonged to must be near by," I said. "Very likely he was
+a watch on guard."
+
+"But I see no signs of a habitation."
+
+"True, but you observe there is a thick hedge on the side of the road
+opposite the canal. If we get through that perhaps we shall catch sight
+of something."
+
+Cautiously we pushed our way through the hedge, which was composed of
+shrubs as large as small trees, and very thick at the bottom, and,
+having traversed it, found ourselves in a great meadow-like expanse
+which might have been a lawn. At a considerable distance, in the midst
+of a clump of trees, a large building towered skyward, its walls of some
+red metal, gleaming like polished copper in the soft light that fell
+from the cloud dome.
+
+There were no lights around the building itself, and we saw nothing
+corresponding to windows on that side which faced us, but toward the
+right a door was evidently open, and out of this streamed a brilliant
+shaft of illumination, which lay bright upon the lawn, then crossed the
+highway through an opening in the hedge, and gleamed on the water of the
+canal beyond.
+
+Where we stood the ground had evidently been recently cleared, and there
+was no obstruction, but as we crept closer to the house--for our
+curiosity had now become irresistible--we found ourselves crawling
+through grass so tall that if we had stood erect it would have risen
+well above our heads.
+
+"This affords good protection," said Colonel Smith, recalling his
+adventures on the western plains. "We can get close in to the Indians--I
+beg pardon, I mean the Martians--without being seen."
+
+Heavens, what an adventure was this! To be crawling about in the night
+on the face of another world and venturing, perhaps, into the jaws of a
+danger which human experience could not measure!
+
+But on we went, and in a little while we had emerged from the tall grass
+and were somewhat startled by the discovery that we had got close to the
+wall of the building.
+
+Carefully we crept around to the open door.
+
+As we neared it we suddenly stopped as if we had been stricken with
+instantaneous paralysis.
+
+Out of the door floated, on the soft night air, the sweetest music to
+which I have ever listened.
+
+It carried me back in an instant to my own world. It was the music of
+the earth. It was the melodious expression of a human soul. It thrilled
+us both to the heart's core.
+
+"My God!" exclaimed Colonel Smith. "What can that be? Are we dreaming,
+or where in heaven's name are we?"
+
+Still the enchanting harmony floated out upon the air.
+
+What the instrument was I could not tell, but the sound seemed more
+nearly to resemble that of a violin than anything else of which I could
+think.
+
+When we first heard it the strains were gentle, sweet, caressing and
+full of an infinite depth of feeling, but in a little while its tone
+changed, and it became a magnificent march, throbbing upon the air in
+stirring notes that set our hearts beating in unison with its stride and
+inspiring in us a courage that we had not felt before.
+
+Then it drifted into a wild fantasia, still inexpressibly sweet, and
+from that changed again into a requiem or lament, whose mellifluous tide
+of harmony swept our thoughts back again to the earth.
+
+"I can endure this no longer," I said. "I must see who it is that makes
+that music. It is the product of a human heart and must come from the
+touch of human fingers."
+
+We carefully shifted our position until we stood in the blaze of light
+that poured out of the door.
+
+The doorway was an immense arched opening, magnificently ornamented,
+rising to a height of, I should say, not less than twenty or twenty-five
+feet and broad in proportion. The door itself stood widely open and it,
+together with all of its fittings and surroundings, was composed of the
+same beautiful red metal.
+
+Stepping out a little way into the light I could see within the door an
+immense apartment, glittering on all sides with metallic ornaments and
+gems and lighted from the center by a great chandelier of electric
+candles.
+
+In the middle of the great floor, holding the instrument delicately
+poised, and still awaking its ravishing voice, stood a figure, the sight
+of which almost stopped my breath.
+
+It was a slender sylph of a girl!
+
+A girl of my own race; a human being here upon the planet Mars!
+
+[Illustration: _"In the middle of the great floor, holding the instrument
+delicately poised, and still awaking its ravishing voice, stood a
+figure, the sight of which almost stopped my breath! It was a slender
+sylph of a girl! A girl of my own race; a human being here on Mars!"_]
+
+Her hair was loosely coiled and she was attired in graceful white
+drapery.
+
+"By God!" cried Colonel Smith, "she's human!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+_RETREAT TO DEIMOS_
+
+
+Still the Bewildering Strains of the music came to our ears, and yet we
+stood there unperceived, though in the full glare of the chandelier.
+
+The girl's face was presented in profile. It was exquisite in beauty,
+pale, delicate with a certain pleading sadness which stirred us to the
+heart.
+
+An element of romance and a touch of personal interest such as we had
+not looked for suddenly entered into our adventure.
+
+Colonel Smith's mind still ran back to the perils of the plains.
+
+"She is a prisoner," he said, "and by the Seven Devils of Dona Ana we'll
+not leave her here. But where are the hellhounds themselves?"
+
+Our attention had been so absorbed by the sight of the girl that we had
+scarcely thought of looking to see if there was any one else in the
+room.
+
+Glancing beyond her, I now perceived sitting in richly decorated chairs
+three or four gigantic Martians. They were listening to the music as if
+charmed.
+
+The whole story told itself. This girl, if not their slave, was at any
+rate under their control, and she was furnishing entertainment for them
+by her musical skill. The fact that they could find pleasure in music so
+beautiful was, perhaps, an indication that they were not really as
+savage as they seemed.
+
+Yet our hearts went out to the girl, and were turned against them with
+an uncontrollable hatred.
+
+They were of the same remorseless race with those who had so lately lain
+waste our fair earth and who would have completed its destruction had
+not Providence interferred in our behalf.
+
+Singularly enough, although we stood full in the light, they had not yet
+seen us.
+
+Suddenly the girl, moved by what impulse I know not, turned her face in
+our direction. Her eyes fell upon us. She paused abruptly in her
+playing, and her instrument dropped to the floor. Then she uttered a
+cry, and with extended arms ran toward us.
+
+But when she was near she stopped abruptly, the glad look fading from
+her face, and started back with terror-stricken eyes, as if, after all,
+she had found us not what she expected.
+
+Then for an instant she looked more intently at us, her countenance
+cleared once more, and, overcome by some strange emotion, her eyes
+filled with tears, and, drawing a little nearer, she stretched forth her
+hands to us appealingly.
+
+Meanwhile the Martians had started to their feet. They looked down upon
+us in astonishment. We were like pygmies to them; like little gnomes
+which had sprung out of the ground at their feet.
+
+One of the giants seized some kind of a weapon and started forward with
+a threatening gesture.
+
+The girl sprang to my side and grasped my arm with a cry of fear.
+
+This seemed to throw the Martian into a sudden frenzy, and he raised his
+arms to strike.
+
+But the disintegrator was in my hand.
+
+My rage was equal to his.
+
+I felt the concentrated vengeance of the earth quivering through me as I
+pressed the button of the disintegrator and, sweeping it rapidly up and
+down, saw the gigantic form that confronted me melt into nothingness.
+
+There were three other giants in the room, and they had been on the
+point of following up the attack of their comrade. But when he
+disappeared from before their eyes, they paused, staring in amazement at
+the place where, but a moment before, he had stood, but where now only
+the metal weapon he had wielded lay on the floor.
+
+At first they started back, and seemed on the point of fleeing; then,
+with a second glance, perceiving again how small and insignificant we
+were, all three together advanced upon us.
+
+The girl sank trembling on her knees.
+
+In the meantime I had readjusted my disintegrator for another discharge,
+and Colonel Smith stood by me with the light of battle upon his face.
+
+"Sweep the discharge across the three," I exclaimed. "Otherwise there
+will be one left and before we can fire again he will crush us."
+
+The whirr of the two instruments sounded simultaneously, and with a
+quick horizontal motion we swept the lines of force around in such a
+manner that all three of the Martians were caught by the vibratory
+streams and actually cut in two.
+
+Long gaps were opened in the wall of the room behind them, where the
+destroying currents had passed, for with wrathful fierceness, we had ran
+the vibrations through half a gamut on the index.
+
+The victory was ours. There were no other enemies, that we could see, in
+the house.
+
+Yet at any moment others might make their appearance, and what more we
+did must be done quickly.
+
+The girl evidently was as much amazed as the Martians had been by the
+effects which we had produced. Still she was not terrified, and
+continued to cling to us and glance beseechingly into our faces,
+expressing in her every look and gesture the fact that she knew we were
+of her own race.
+
+But clearly she could not speak our tongue, for the words she uttered
+were unintelligible.
+
+Colonel Smith, whose long experience in Indian warfare had made him
+intensely practical, did not lose his military instincts, even in the
+midst of events so strange.
+
+"It occurs to me," he said, "that we have got a chance at the enemies'
+supplies. Suppose we begin foraging right here. Let's see if this girl
+can't show us the commissary department."
+
+He immediately began to make signs to the girl to indicate that he was
+hungry.
+
+A look of comprehension flitted over her features, and, seizing our
+hands, she led us into an adjoining apartment, and pointed to a number
+of metallic boxes.
+
+One of these she opened, taking out of it a kind of cake, which she
+placed between her teeth, breaking off a very small portion and then
+handing it to us, motioning that we should eat, but at the same time
+showing us that we ought to take only a small quantity.
+
+"Thank God! It's compressed food," said Colonel Smith. "I thought these
+Martians with their wonderful civilization would be up to that. And it's
+mighty lucky for us, because, without overburdening ourselves, if we can
+find one or two more caches like this we shall be able to reprovision
+the entire fleet. But we must get reinforcements before we can take
+possession of the fodder."
+
+Accordingly we hurried out into the night, passed into the roadway, and,
+taking the girl with us, ran as rapidly as possible to the foot of the
+tree where we had made our descent. Then we signalled to the electric
+ship to drop down to the level of the ground.
+
+This was quickly done, the girl was taken aboard, and a dozen men, under
+our guidance, hastened back to the house, where we loaded ourselves with
+the compressed provisions and conveyed them to the ship.
+
+On this second trip to the mysterious house we had discovered another
+apartment containing a very large number of the metallic boxes, filled
+with compressed food.
+
+"By Jove, it is a storehouse," said Colonel Smith. "We must get more
+force and carry it all off. Gracious, but this is a lucky night. We can
+reprovision the whole fleet from this room."
+
+"I thought it singular," I said, "that with the exception of the girl
+whom we have rescued no women were seen in the house. Evidently the
+lights over yonder indicate the location of a considerable town, and it
+is quite probable that this building, without windows, and so strongly
+constructed, is the common storehouse, where the provisions for the town
+are kept. The fellows we killed must have been the watchmen in charge of
+the storehouse, and they were treating themselves to a little music from
+the slave girl when we happened to come upon them."
+
+With the utmost haste several of the other electrical ships, waiting
+above the cloud curtain, were summoned to descend, and, with more than a
+hundred men, we returned to the building, and this time almost entirely
+exhausted its stores, each man carrying as much as he could stagger
+under.
+
+Fortunately our proceedings had been conducted without much noise, and
+the storehouse being situated at a considerable distance from other
+buildings, none of the Martians, except those who would never tell the
+story, had known of our arrival or of our doings on the planet.
+
+"Now, we'll return and surprise Edison with the news," said Colonel
+Smith.
+
+Our ship was the last to pass up through the clouds, and it was a
+strange sight to watch the others as one after another they rose toward
+the great dome, entered it, though from below it resembled a solid vault
+of grayish-pink marble, and disappeared.
+
+We quickly followed them, and having penetrated the enormous curtain,
+were considerably surprised on emerging at the other side to find that
+the sun was shining brilliantly upon us. It will be remembered that it
+was night on this side of Mars when we went down, but our adventure had
+occupied several hours, and now Mars had so turned upon its axis that
+the portion of its surface over which we were had come around into the
+sunlight.
+
+We knew that the squadron which we had left besieging the Lake of the
+Sun must also have been carried around in a similar manner, passing into
+the night while the side of the planet where we were was emerging into
+day.
+
+Our shortest way back would be by traveling westward, because then we
+should be moving in a direction opposite to that in which the planet
+rotated, and the main squadron, sharing that rotation, would be
+continually moving in our direction.
+
+But to travel westward was to penetrate once more into the night side of
+the planet.
+
+The prows, if I may so call them, of our ships were accordingly turned
+in the direction of the vast shadow which Mars was invisibly projecting
+into space behind it, and on entering that shadow the sun disappeared
+from our eyes, and once more the huge hidden globe beneath us became a
+black chasm among the stars.
+
+Now that we were in the neighborhood of a globe capable of imparting
+considerable weight to all things under the influence of its attraction
+that peculiar condition which I have before described as existing in the
+midst of space, where there was neither up nor down for us, had ceased.
+Here where we had weight "up" and "down" had resumed their old meanings.
+"Down" was toward the center of Mars, and "up" was away from that
+center.
+
+Standing on the deck, and looking overhead as we swiftly ploughed our
+smooth way at a great height through the now imperceptible atmosphere of
+the planet, I saw the two moons of Mars meeting in the sky exactly above
+us.
+
+Before our arrival at Mars, there had been considerable discussion among
+the learned men as to the advisability of touching at one of their
+moons, and when the discovery was made that our provisions were nearly
+exhausted, it had been suggested that the Martian satellites might
+furnish us with an additional supply.
+
+But it had appeared a sufficient reply to this suggestion that the moons
+of Mars are both insignificant bodies, not much larger than the asteroid
+we had fallen in with, and that there could not possibly be any form of
+vegetation or other edible products upon them.
+
+This view having prevailed, we had ceased to take an interest in the
+satellites, further than to regard them as objects of great curiosity on
+account of their motions.
+
+The nearer of these moons, Phobos, is only 3,700 miles from the surface
+of Mars, and we watched it traveling around the planet three times in
+the course of every day. The more distant one, Deimos, 12,500 miles
+away, required considerably more than one day to make its circuit.
+
+It now happened that the two had come into conjunction, as I have said,
+just over our heads, and, throwing myself down on my back on the deck of
+the electrical ship, for a long time I watched the race between the two
+satellites, until Phobos, rapidly gaining upon the other, had left its
+rival far behind.
+
+Suddenly Colonel Smith, who took very little interest in these
+astronomical curiosities, touched me, and pointing ahead, said:
+
+"There they are."
+
+I looked, and sure enough there were the signal lights of the principal
+squadron, and as we gazed we occasionally saw, darting up from the vast
+cloud mass beneath, an electric bayonet, fiercely thrust into the sky,
+which showed that the siege was still actively going on, and that the
+Martians were jabbing away at their invisible enemies outside the
+curtain.
+
+In a short time the two fleets had joined, and Colonel Smith and I
+immediately transferred ourselves to the flagship.
+
+"Well, what have you done?" asked Mr. Edison, while others crowded
+around with eager attention.
+
+"If we have not captured their provision train," said Colonel Smith, "we
+have done something just about as good. We have foraged on the country,
+and have collected a supply that I reckon will last this fleet for at
+least a month."
+
+"What's that? What's that?"
+
+"It's just what I say," and Colonel Smith brought out of his pocket one
+of the square cakes of compressed food. "Set your teeth in that, and see
+what you think of it, but don't take too much, for its powerful strong."
+
+"I say," he continued, "we have got enough of that stuff to last us all
+for a month, but we've done more than that; we have got a surprise for
+you that will make you open your eyes. Just wait a minute."
+
+Colonel Smith made a signal to the electrical ship which we had just
+quitted to draw near. It came alongside, so that one could step from its
+deck onto the flagship. Colonel Smith disappeared for a minute in the
+interior of his ship, then re-emerged, leading the girl whom we had
+found upon the planet.
+
+"Take her inside, quick," he said, "for she is not used to this thin
+air."
+
+In fact, we were at so great an elevation that the rarity of the
+atmosphere now compelled us all to wear our air-tight suits, and the
+girl, not being thus attired, would have fallen unconscious on the deck
+if we had not instantly removed her to the interior of the car.
+
+There she quickly recovered from the effects of the deprivation of air
+and looked about her, pale, astonished, but yet apparently without fear.
+
+Every motion of this girl convinced me that she not only recognized us
+as members of her own race, but that she felt that her only hope lay in
+our aid. Therefore, strange as we were to her in many respects,
+nevertheless she did not think that she was in danger while among us.
+
+The circumstances under which we had found her were quickly explained.
+Her beauty, her strange fate and the impenetrable mystery which
+surrounded her excited universal admiration and wonder.
+
+"How did she get on Mars?" was the question that everybody asked, and
+that nobody could answer.
+
+But while all were crowding around and overwhelming the poor girl with
+their staring, suddenly she burst into tears, and then, with arms
+outstretched in the same appealing manner which had so stirred our
+sympathies when we first saw her in the house of the Martians, she broke
+forth in a wild recitation, which was half a song and half a wail.
+
+As she went on I noticed that a learned professor of languages from the
+University of Heidelberg was listening to her with intense attention.
+Several times he appeared to be on the point of breaking in with an
+exclamation. I could plainly see that he was becoming more and more
+excited as the words poured from the girl's lips. Occasionally he nodded
+and muttered, smiling to himself.
+
+Her song finished, the girl sank half-exhausted upon the floor. She was
+lifted and placed in a reclining position at the side of the car.
+
+Then the Heidelberg professor stepped to the center of the car, in the
+sight of all, and in a most impressive manner said:
+
+"Gentlemen, our sister.
+
+"I have her tongue recognized! The language that she speaks, the roots
+of the great Indo-European, or Aryan stock, contains.
+
+"This girl, gentlemen, to the oldest family of the human race belongs.
+Her language every tongue that now upon the earth is spoken antedates.
+Convinced am I that it that great original speech is from which have all
+the languages of the civilized world sprung.
+
+"How she here came, so many millions of miles from the earth, a great
+mystery is. But it shall be penetrated, and it is from her own lips that
+we shall the truth learn, because not difficult to us shall it be the
+language that she speaks to acquire since to our own it is akin."
+
+This announcement of the Heidelberg professor stirred us all most
+profoundly. It not only deepened our interest in the beautiful girl whom
+we had rescued, but, in a dim way, it gave us reason to hope that we
+should yet discover some means of mastering the Martians by dealing them
+a blow from within.
+
+It had been expected, the reader will remember, that the Martian whom we
+had made prisoner on the asteroid, might be of use to us in a similar
+way, and for that reason great efforts had been made to acquire his
+language, and considerable progress had been effected in that direction.
+
+But from the moment of our arrival at Mars itself, and especially after
+the battles began, the prisoner had resumed his savage and
+uncommunicative disposition, and had seemed continually to be expecting
+that we would fall victims to the prowess of his fellow beings, and that
+he would be released. How an outlaw, such as he evidently was, who had
+been caught in the act of robbing the Martian gold mines, could expect
+to escape punishment on returning to his native planet it was difficult
+to see. Nevertheless, so strong are the ties of race we could plainly
+perceive that all his sympathies were for his own people.
+
+In fact, in consequence of his surly manner, and his attempts to escape,
+he had been more strictly bound than before and to get him out of the
+way had been removed from the flagship, which was already overcrowded,
+and placed in one of the other electric ships, and this ship--as it
+happened--was one of those which were lost in the great battle beneath
+the clouds. So after all, the Martian had perished, by a vengeful stroke
+launched from his native globe.
+
+But Providence had placed in our hands a far better interpreter than he
+could ever have been. This girl of our own race would need no urging, or
+coercion, on our part in order to induce her to reveal any secrets of
+the Martians that might be useful in our further proceedings.
+
+But one thing was first necessary to be done.
+
+We must learn to talk with her.
+
+But for the discovery of the store of provisions it would have been
+impossible for us to spare the time needed to acquire the language of
+the girl, but now that we had been saved from the danger of starvation,
+we could prolong the siege for several weeks, employing the intervening
+time to the best advantage.
+
+The terrible disaster which we had suffered in the great battle above
+the Lake of the Sun, wherein we had lost nearly a third of our entire
+force, had been quite sufficient to convince us that our only hope of
+victory lay in dealing the Martians some paralyzing stroke that at one
+blow would deprive them of the power of resistance. A victory that cost
+us the loss of a single ship would be too dearly purchased now.
+
+How to deal that blow, and first of all, how to discover the means of
+dealing it, were at present the uppermost problems in our minds.
+
+The only hope for us lay in the girl.
+
+If, as there was every reason to believe, she was familiar with the ways
+and secrets of the Martians, then she might be able to direct our
+efforts in such a manner as to render them effective.
+
+"We can spare two weeks for this," said Mr. Edison. "Can you fellows of
+many tongues learn to talk with the girl in that time?"
+
+"We'll try it," said several.
+
+"It shall we do," cried the Heidelberg professor more confidently.
+
+"Then there is no use of staying here," continued the commander. "If we
+withdraw the Martians will think that we have either given up the
+earth's moon, always keep the same face toward their master. By blanket
+and let us see their face once more. That will give us a better
+opportunity to strike effectively when we are again ready."
+
+"Why not rendezvous at one of the moons?" said an astronomer. "Neither
+of the two moons is of much consequence, as far as size goes, but still
+it would serve as sort of an anchorage ground, and while there, if we
+were careful to keep on the side away from Mars, we should escape
+detection."
+
+This suggestion was immediately accepted, and the squadron having been
+signalled to assemble quickly bore off in the direction of the more
+distant moon of Mars, Deimos. We knew that it was slightly smaller than
+Phobos, but its greater distance gave promise that it would better serve
+our purpose of temporary concealment. The moons of Mars, like the
+earth's moon, always kept the same face toward their master. By hiding
+behind Deimos we should escape the prying eyes of the Martians, even
+when they employed telescopes, and thus be able to remain comparatively
+close at hand, ready to pounce down upon them again, after we had
+obtained, as we now had good hope of doing, information that would make
+us masters of the situation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+_THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH_
+
+
+Deimos proved to be, as we had expected, about six miles in diameter.
+Its mean density is not very great so that the acceleration of gravity
+did not exceed one-two-thousandths of the earth's. Consequently the
+weight of a man turning the scales at 150 pounds at home was here only
+about one ounce.
+
+The result was that we could move about with greater ease than on the
+golden asteroid, and some of the scientific men eagerly resumed their
+interrupted experiments.
+
+But the attraction of this little satellite was so slight that we had to
+be very careful not to move too swiftly in going about lest we should
+involuntarily leave the ground and sail out into space, as, it will be
+remembered, happened to the fugitives from the fight on the asteroid.
+
+Not only would such an adventure have been an uncomfortable experience,
+but it might have endangered the success of our scheme. Our present
+distance from the surface of Mars did not exceed 12,500 miles, and we
+had reasons to believe the Martians possessed telescopes powerful enough
+to enable them not merely to see the electrical ships at such a
+distance, but to also catch sight of us individually. Although the cloud
+curtain still rested on the planet it was probable that the Martians
+would send some of their airships up to its surface in order to
+determine what our fate had been. From that point of vantage with their
+exceedingly powerful glasses, we feared that they might be able to
+detect anything unusual upon or in the neighborhood of Deimos.
+
+Accordingly strict orders were given, not only that the ships should be
+moored on that side of the satellite which is perpetually turned away
+from Mars, but that, without orders, no one should venture around on the
+other side of the little globe or even on the edge of it, where he might
+be seen in profile against the sky.
+
+Still, of course, it was essential that we, on our part, should keep a
+close watch, and so a number of sentinels were selected, whose duty it
+was to place themselves at the edge of Deimos, where they could peep
+over the horizon, so to speak, and catch sight of the globe of our
+enemies.
+
+The distance of Mars from us was only about three times its own
+diameter, consequently it shut off a large part of the sky, as viewed
+from our position.
+
+But in order to see its whole surface it was necessary to go a little
+beyond the edge of the satellite, on that side which faced Mars. At the
+suggestion of Colonel Smith, who had so frequently stalked Indians that
+devices of this kind readily occurred to his mind, the sentinels all
+wore garments corresponding in color to that of the soil of the
+asteroid, which was of a dark, reddish brown hue. This would tend to
+conceal them from the prying eyes of the Martians.
+
+The commander himself frequently went around the edge of the planet in
+order to take a look at Mars, and I often accompanied him.
+
+I shall never forget one occasion, when, lying flat on the ground, and
+cautiously worming our way around on the side toward Mars, we had just
+begun to observe it with our telescopes, when I perceived, against the
+vast curtain of smoke, a small, glinting object, which I instantly
+suspected to be an airship.
+
+I called Mr. Edison's attention to it, and we both agreed that it was,
+undoubtedly, one of the Martian's aerial vessels, probably on the
+lookout for us.
+
+A short time afterward a large number of airships made their appearance
+at the upper surface of the clouds, moving to and fro, and although,
+with our glasses, we could only make out the general form of the ships,
+without being able to discern the Martians upon them, yet we had not the
+least doubt but they were sweeping the sky in every direction in order
+to determine whether we had been completely destroyed or had retreated
+to a distance from the planet.
+
+Even when that side of Mars on which we were looking had passed into
+night, we could still see the guardships circling above the clouds,
+their presence being betrayed by the faint twinkling of the electric
+lights that they bore.
+
+Finally, after about a week had passed, the Martians evidently made up
+their minds that they had annihilated us, and that there was no longer
+danger to be feared. Convincing evidence that they believed we should
+not be heard from again was furnished when the withdrawal of the great
+curtain of cloud began.
+
+This phenomenon first manifested itself by a gradual thinning of the
+vaporous shield, until, at length, we began to perceive the red surface
+of the planet dimly shining through it. Thinner and rarer it became,
+and, after the lapse of about eighteen hours, it had completely
+disappeared, and the huge globe shone out again, reflecting the light of
+the sun from its continents and oceans with a brightness that, in
+contrast with the all-enveloping night to which we had so long been
+subjected, seemed unbearable to our eyes.
+
+Indeed, so brilliant was the illumination which fell upon the surface of
+Deimos that the number of persons who had been permitted to pass around
+on the exposed side of the satellite was carefully restricted. In the
+blaze of light which had been suddenly poured upon us we felt somewhat
+like malefactors unexpectedly enveloped in the illumination of a
+policeman's dark lantern.
+
+Meanwhile, the object which we had in view in retreating to the
+satellite was not lost sight of, and the services of the chief linguists
+of the expedition were again called into use for the purpose of
+acquiring a new language. The experiment was conducted in the flagship.
+The fact that this time it was not a monster belonging to an utterly
+alien race upon whom we were to experiment, but a beautiful daughter of
+our common Mother Eve, added zest and interest as well as the most
+confident hopes of success to the efforts of those who were striving to
+understand the accents of her tongue.
+
+Still the difficulty was very great, notwithstanding the conviction of
+the professors that her language would turn out to be a form of the
+great Indo-European speech from which the many tongues of civilized men
+upon the earth had been derived.
+
+The learned men, to tell the truth, gave the poor girl no rest. For
+hours at a time they would ply her with interrogations by voice and by
+gesture, until, at length, wearied beyond endurance, she would fall
+asleep before their faces.
+
+Then she would be left undisturbed for a little while, but the moment
+her eyes opened again the merciless professors flocked about her once
+more, and resumed the tedious iteration of their experiments.
+
+Our Heidelberg professor was the chief inquisitor, and he revealed
+himself to us in a new and entirely unexpected light. No one could have
+anticipated the depth and variety of his resources. He placed himself in
+front of the girl and gestured and gesticulated, bowed, nodded, shrugged
+his shoulders, screwed his face into an infinite variety of expressions,
+smiled, laughed, scowled and accompanied all these dumb shows with
+posturings, exclamations, queries, only half expressed in words and
+cadences which, by some ingenious manipulation of the tones of the
+voice, he managed to make expressive of his desires.
+
+He was a universal actor--comedian, tragedian, buffoon--all in one.
+There was no shade of human emotions to which he did not seem capable of
+giving expression.
+
+His every attitude was a symbol, and all his features became in quick
+succession types of thought and exponents of hidden feelings, while his
+inquisitive nose stood forth in the midst of their ceaseless play like a
+perpetual interrogation point that would have electrified the Sphinx
+into life, and set its stone lips gabbling answers and explanations.
+
+The girl looked on, partly astonished, partly amused, and partly
+comprehending. Sometimes she smiled, and then the beauty of her face
+became most captivating. Occasionally she burst into a cherry laugh when
+the professor was executing some of his extraordinary gyrations before
+her.
+
+It was a marvelous exhibition of what the human intellect, when all its
+powers are concentrated upon a single object, is capable of achieving.
+It seemed to me, as I looked at the performance, that if all the races
+of men, who had been stricken asunder at the foot of the Tower of Babel
+by the miracle which made the tongues of each to speak a language
+unknown to the others, could be brought together again at the foot of
+the same tower, with all the advantages which thousands of years of
+education had in the meantime imparted to them, they would be able,
+without any miracle, to make themselves mutually understood.
+
+And it was evident that an understanding was actually growing between
+the girl and the professor. Their minds were plainly meeting, and when
+both had become focused upon the same point, it was perfectly certain
+that the object of the experiment would be attained.
+
+Whenever the professor got from the girl an intelligent reply to his
+pantomimic inquiries, or whenever he believed that he got such a reply,
+it was immediately jotted down in the ever open note book which he
+carried in his hand.
+
+And then he would turn to us standing by, and with one hand on his
+heart, and the other sweeping grandly through the air, would make a
+profound bow and say:
+
+"The young lady and I great progress make already. I have her words
+comprehended. We shall wondrous mysteries solve. Jawohl! Wunderlich!
+Make yourselves gentlemen easy. Of the human race the ancestral stem
+have I here discovered."
+
+Once I glanced over a page of his notebook and there I read this:
+
+"Mars--Zahmor
+
+"Copper--Hayez
+
+"Sword--Anz
+
+"I jump--Altesna
+
+"I slay--Amoutha
+
+"I cut off a head--Ksutaskofa
+
+"I sleep--Zlcha
+
+"I love--Levza"
+
+When I saw this last entry I looked suspiciously at the professor.
+
+Was he trying to make love without our knowing it to the beautiful
+captive from Mars?
+
+If so, I felt certain that he would get himself into difficulty. She had
+made a deep impression upon every man in the flagship, and I knew that
+there was more than one of the younger men who would promptly have
+called him to account if they had suspected him of trying to learn from
+those beautiful lips the words, "I love."
+
+I pictured to myself the state of mind of Colonel Alonzo Jefferson Smith
+if, in my place, he had glanced over the notebook and read what I had
+read.
+
+And then I thought of another handsome young fellow in the
+flagship--Sydney Phillips--who, if mere actions and looks could make him
+so, had become exceedingly devoted to this long lost and happily
+recovered daughter of Eve.
+
+In fact, I had already questioned within my own mind whether the peace
+would be strictly kept between Colonel Smith and Mr. Phillips, for the
+former had, to my knowledge, noticed the young fellow's adoring glances,
+and had begun to regard him out of the corners of his eyes as if he
+considered him no better than an Apache.
+
+"But what," I asked myself, "would be the vengeance that Colonel Smith
+would take upon this skinny professor from Heidelberg if he thought that
+he, taking advantage of his linguistic powers, had stepped in between
+him and the damsel whom he had rescued?"
+
+However, when I took a second look at the professor, I became convinced
+that he was innocent of any such amorous intentions, and that he had
+learned, or believed he had learned, the word for "love" simply in
+pursuances of the method by which he meant to acquire the language of
+the girl.
+
+There was one thing which gave some of us considerable misgivings, and
+that was the question whether, after all, the language the professor was
+acquiring was really the girl's own tongue or one that she had learned
+from the Martians.
+
+But the professor bade us rest easy on that point. He assured us, in the
+first place, that this girl could not be the only human being living
+upon Mars, but that she must have friends and relatives there. That
+being so, they unquestionably had a language of their own, which they
+spoke when they were among themselves. Here finding herself among beings
+belonging to her own race, she would naturally speak her own tongue and
+not that which she had acquired from the Martians.
+
+"Moreover, gentlemen," he added, "I have in her speech many roots of the
+great Aryan tongue already recognized."
+
+We were greatly relieved by this explanation, which seemed to all of us
+perfectly satisfactory.
+
+Yet, really, there was no reason why one language should be any better
+than the other for our present purpose. In fact, it might be more useful
+to us to know the language of the Martians themselves. Still, we all
+felt that we should prefer to know her language rather than that of the
+monsters among whom she had lived.
+
+Colonel Smith expressed what was in all our minds when, after listening
+to the reasoning of the Professor, he blurted out:
+
+"Thank God, she doesn't speak any of their blamed lingo! By Jove, it
+would soil her pretty lips."
+
+"But also that she speaks, too," said the man from Heidelberg, turning
+to Colonel Smith with a grin. "We shall both of them eventually learn."
+
+Three entire weeks were passed in this manner. After the first week the
+girl herself materially assisted the linguists in their efforts to
+ac-quire her speech.
+
+At length the task was so far advanced that we could, in a certain
+sense, regard it as practically completed. The Heidelberg professor
+declared that he had mastered the tongue of the ancient Aryans. His
+delight was unbounded. With prodigious industry he set to work, scarcely
+stopping to eat or sleep, to form a grammar of the language.
+
+"You shall see," he said, "it will the speculations of my countrymen
+vindicate."
+
+No doubt the Professor had an exaggerated opinion of the extent of his
+acquirements, but the fact remained that enough had been learned of the
+girl's language to enable him and several others to converse with her
+quite as readily as a person of good capacity who has studied under the
+instructions of a native teacher during a period of six months can
+converse in a foreign tongue.
+
+Immediately almost every man in the squadron set vigorously at work to
+learn the language of this fair creature for himself. Colonel Smith and
+Sydney Phillips were neck and neck in the linguistic race.
+
+One of the first bits of information which the Professor had given out
+was the name of the girl.
+
+It was Aina (pronounced Ah-ee-na).
+
+This news was flashed throughout the squadron, and the name of our
+beautiful captive was on the lips of all.
+
+After that came her story. It was a marvelous narrative. Translated into
+our tongue it ran as follows:
+
+"The traditions of my fathers, handed down for generations so many that
+no one can number them, declare that the planet of Mars was not the
+place of our origin.
+
+"Ages and ages ago our forefathers dwelt on another and distant world
+that was nearer the sun than this one is, and enjoyed brighter daylight
+than we have here.
+
+"They dwelt--as I have often heard the story from my father, who had
+learned it by heart from his father, and he from his--in a beautiful
+valley that was surrounded by enormous mountains towering into the
+clouds and white about their tops with snow that never melted. In the
+valley were lakes, around which clustered the dwellings of our race.
+
+"It was, the traditions say, a land wonderful for its fertility, filled
+with all things that the heart could desire, splendid with flowers and
+rich with luscious fruits.
+
+"It was a land of music, and the people who dwelt in it were very
+happy."
+
+While the girl was telling this part of her story the Heidelberg
+professor became visibly more and more excited. Presently he could keep
+quiet no longer, and suddenly exclaimed, turning to us who were
+listening, as the words of the girl were interpreted for us by one of
+the other linguists:
+
+"Gentlemen, it is the Vale of Cashmere! Has not my great countryman,
+Adelung, so declared? Has he not said that the Valley of Cashmere was
+the cradle of the human race already?"
+
+"From the Valley of Cashmere to the planet Mars--what a romance!"
+exclaimed one of the bystanders.
+
+Colonel Smith appeared to be particularly moved, and I heard him humming
+under his breath, greatly to my astonishment, for this rough soldier was
+not much given to poetry or music:
+
+    "Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere,
+      With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave;
+    Its temples, its grottoes, its fountains as clear,
+      As the love-lighted eyes that hang 'oer the wave."
+
+Mr. Sydney Phillips, standing by, and also catching the murmur of
+Colonel Smith's words, showed in his handsome countenance some
+indications of distress, as if he wished he had thought of those lines
+himself.
+
+The girl resumed her narrative:
+
+"Suddenly there dropped down out of the sky strange gigantic enemies,
+armed with mysterious weapons, and began to slay and burn and make
+desolate. Our forefathers could not withstand them. They seemed like
+demons, who had been sent from the abodes of evil to destroy our race.
+
+"Some of the wise men said that this thing had come upon our people
+because they had been very wicked, and the Gods in Heaven were angry.
+Some said they came from the moon, and some from the far-away stars. But
+of these things my forefathers knew nothing for a certainty.
+
+"The destroyers showed no mercy to the inhabitants of the beautiful
+valley. Not content with making it a desert, they swept over other parts
+of the earth.
+
+"The tradition says that they carried off from the valley, which was our
+native land, a large number of our people, taking them first into a
+strange country, where there were oceans of sand, but where a great
+river, flowing through the midst of the sands, created a narrow land of
+fertility. Here, after having slain and driven out the native
+inhabitants, they remained for many years, keeping our people, whom they
+had carried into captivity, as slaves.
+
+"And in this Land of Sand, it is said, they did many wonderful works.
+
+"They had been astonished at the sight of the great mountains which
+surrounded our valley, for on Mars there are no mountains, and after
+they came into the Land of Sand they built there, with huge blocks of
+stone, mountains in imitation of what they had seen, and used them for
+purposes my people did not understand.
+
+"Then, too, it is said they left there at the foot of these mountains
+that they had made a gigantic image of the great chief who led them in
+their conquest of our world."
+
+At this point in the story the Heidelberg professor again broke in,
+fairly trembling with excitement:
+
+"Gentlemen, gentlemen," he cried, "is it that you do not understand?
+This Land of Sand and of a wonderful fertilizing river--what can it be?
+Gentleman, it is Egypt! These mountains of rock that the Martians have
+erected, what are they? Gentlemen, they are the great mystery of the
+land of the Nile, the Pyramids. The gigantic statue of their leader that
+they at the foot of their artificial mountains have set up--gentlemen,
+what is that? It is the Sphinx!"
+
+[Illustration: _"Gentlemen," exclaimed the Professor, "these mountains of
+rock that the Martians built are the Pyramids of Egypt. The gigantic
+statue of their leader is THE GREAT SPHINX!"_]
+
+The professor's agitation was so great that he could not go on further.
+And indeed there was not one of us who did not fully share his
+excitement. To think that we should have come to the planet Mars to
+solve one of the standing mysteries of the earth, which had puzzled
+mankind and defied all their efforts at solution for so many centuries!
+Here, then, was the explanation of how those gigantic blocks that
+constitute the great Pyramid of Cheops had been swung to their lofty
+elevation. It was not the work of puny man, as many an engineer had
+declared that it could not be, but the work of these giants of Mars.
+
+At length, our traditions say, a great pestilence broke out in the Land
+of Sand, and a partial vengeance was granted to us in the destruction of
+the larger number of our enemies. At last the giants who remained,
+fleeing before this scourge of the gods, used the mysterious means at
+their command, and, carrying our ancestors with them, returned to their
+own world, in which we have ever since lived.
+
+"Then there are more of your people in Mars?" said one of the
+professors.
+
+"Alas, no," replied Aina, her eyes filling with tears, "I alone am
+left."
+
+For a few minutes she was unable to speak. Then she continued:
+
+"What fury possessed them I do not know, but not long ago an expedition
+departed from the planet, the purpose of which, as it was noised about
+over Mars, was the conquest of a distant world. After a time a few
+survivors of that expedition returned. The story they told caused great
+excitement among our masters. They had been successful in their battles
+with the inhabitants of the world they had invaded, but as in the days
+of our forefathers, in the Land of Sand, a pestilence smote them, and
+but few survivors escaped.
+
+"Not long after that, you, with your mysterious ships, appeared in the
+sky of Mars. Our masters studied you with their telescopes, and those
+who had returned from the unfortunate expedition declared that you were
+inhabitants of the world which they had invaded, come, doubtless, to
+take vengeance upon them.
+
+"Some of my people who were permitted to look through the telescopes of
+the Martians, saw you also, and recognized you as members of their own
+race. There were several thousand of us all together, and we were kept
+by the Martians to serve them as slaves, and particularly to delight
+their ears with music, for our people have always been especially
+skillful in the playing of musical instruments, and in songs, and while
+the Martians have but little musical skill themselves, they are
+exceedingly fond of these things.
+
+"Although Mars had completed not less than five thousand circuits about
+the sun since our ancestors were brought as prisoners to its surface,
+yet the memory of our distant home had never perished from the hearts of
+our race, and when we recognized you, as we believed, our own brothers,
+come to rescue us from long imprisonment, there was great rejoicing. The
+news spread from mouth to mouth, wherever we were in houses and families
+of our masters. We seemed to be powerless to aid you or to communicate
+with you in any manner. Yet our hearts went out to you, as in your ships
+you hung above the planet, and preparations were secretly made by all
+the members of our race for your reception when, as we believed, would
+occur, you should effect a landing upon the planet and destroy our
+enemies.
+
+"But in some manner the fact that we had recognized you, and were
+preparing to welcome you, came to the ears of the Martians."
+
+At this point the girl suddenly covered her eyes with her hands,
+shuddering and falling back in her seat.
+
+"Oh, you do not know them as I do!" at length she exclaimed. "The
+monsters! Their vengeance was too terrible! Instantly the order went
+forth that we should all be butchered, and that awful command was
+executed!"
+
+"How, then, did you escape?" asked the Heidelberg professor.
+
+Aina seemed unable to speak for a while. Finally mastering her emotion,
+she replied:
+
+"One of the chief officers of the Martians wished me to remain alive.
+He, with his aides, carried me to one of the military depots of
+supplies, where I was found and rescued," and as she said this she
+turned toward Colonel Smith with a smile that reflected on his ruddy
+face and made it glow like a Chinese lantern.
+
+"By God!" muttered Colonel Smith, "that was the fellow we blew into
+nothing! Blast him, he got off too easy!"
+
+The remainder of Aina's story may be briefly told.
+
+When Colonel Smith and I entered the mysterious building which, as it
+now proved, was not a storehouse belonging to a village, as we had
+supposed, but one of the military depots of the Martians, the girl, on
+catching sight of us, immediately recognized us as belonging to the
+strange squadron in the sky. As such she felt that we must be her
+friends, and saw in us her only possible hope of escape. For that reason
+she had instantly thrown herself under our protection. This accounted
+for the singular confidence which she had manifested in us from the
+beginning.
+
+Her wonderful story had so captivated our imaginations that for a long
+time after it was finished we could not recover from the spell. It was
+told over and over again, from mouth to mouth, and repeated from ship to
+ship, everywhere exciting the utmost astonishment.
+
+Destiny seemed to have sent us on this expedition into space for the
+purpose of clearing off mysteries that had long puzzled the minds of
+men. When on the moon we had unexpectedly to ourselves settled the
+question that had been debated from the beginning of astronomical
+history of the former habitability of that globe.
+
+Now, on Mars, we had put to rest no less mysterious questions relating
+to the past history of our own planet. Adelung, as the Heidelberg
+professor asserted, had named the Vale of Cashmere, as the probable site
+of the Garden of Eden, and the place of origin of the human race, but
+later investigators had taken issue with this opinion and the question
+where the Aryans originated on the earth had long been one of the most
+puzzling that science presented.
+
+This question seemed now to have been settled.
+
+Aina had said that Mars had completed 5,000 circuits about the sun since
+her people were brought to it as captives. One circuit of Mars occupies
+687 days. More than 9000 years had therefore elapsed since the first
+invasion of the earth by the Martians.
+
+Another great mystery--that of the origin of those gigantic and
+inexplicable monuments, the great pyramids and the Sphinx, on the banks
+of the Nile, had also apparently been solved by us, although these
+Egyptian wonders had been the furthest things from our thoughts when we
+set out for the planet Mars.
+
+We had traveled more than thirty millions of miles in order to get
+answers to questions which could not be solved at home.
+
+But from these speculations and retrospects we were recalled by the
+commander of the expedition.
+
+"This is all very interesting and very romantic, gentlemen," he said,
+"but now let us get at the practical side of it. We have learned Aina's
+language and heard her story. Let us next ascertain whether she can not
+place in our hands some key which will place Mars at our mercy. Remember
+what we came here for, and remember that the earth expects every man of
+us to do his duty."
+
+This Nelson-like summons again changed the current of our thoughts, and
+we instantly set to work to learn from Aina if Mars, like Achilles, had
+not some vulnerable point where a blow would be mortal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+_THE FLOOD GATES OF MARS_
+
+
+It was a curious scene when the momentous interview which was to
+determine our fate and that of Mars began. Aina had been warned of what
+was coming. We in the flagship had all learned to speak her language
+with more or less ease, but it was deemed best that the Heidelberg
+professor, assisted by one of his colleagues, should act as interpreter.
+
+The girl, flushed with excitement of the novel situation, fully
+appreciating the importance of what was about to occur, and looking more
+charming than before, stood at one side of the principal apartment.
+Directly facing her were the interpreters, and the rest of us, all with
+ears intent and eyes focused upon Aina, stood in a double row behind
+them. As heretofore, I am setting down her words translated into our own
+tongue, having taken only so much liberty as to connect the sentences
+into a stricter sequence than they had when falling from her lips in
+reply to the questions which were showered upon her.
+
+"You will never be victorious," she said, "if you attack them openly as
+you have been doing. They are too strong and too numerous. They are well
+prepared for such attacks, because they have had to resist them before.
+
+"They have waged war with the inhabitants of the asteroid Ceres, whose
+people are giants greater than themselves. Their enemies from Ceres have
+attacked them here. Hence these fortifications, with weapons pointing
+skyward, and the great air fleets which you have encountered."
+
+"But there must be some point," said Mr. Edison, "where we can."
+
+"Yes, yes," interrupted the girl quickly, "there is one blow you can
+deal them which they could not withstand."
+
+"What is that?" eagerly inquired the commander.
+
+"You can drown them out."
+
+"How? With the canals?"
+
+"Yes, I will explain to you. I have already told you, and, in fact, you
+must have seen for yourselves, that there are almost no mountains on
+Mars. A very learned man of my race used to say that the reason was
+because Mars is so very old a world that the mountains it once had have
+been almost completely leveled, and the entire surface of the planet had
+become a great plain. There are depressions, however, most of which are
+occupied by the seas. The greater part of the land lies below the level
+of the ocean. In order at the same time to irrigate the soil and make it
+fruitful, and to protect themselves from overflows by the ocean breaking
+in upon them, the Martians have constructed the immense and innumerable
+canals which you see running in all directions over the continents.
+
+"There is one period in the year, and that period has now arrived when
+there is special danger of a great deluge. Most of the oceans of Mars
+lie in the southern hemisphere. When it is Summer in that hemisphere,
+the great masses of ice and snow collected around the south pole melt
+rapidly away."
+
+"Yes, that is so," broke in one of the astronomers, who was listening
+attentively. "Many a time I have seen the vast snow fields around the
+southern pole of Mars completely disappear as the Summer sun rose high
+upon them."
+
+"With the melting of these snows," continued Aina, "a rapid rise in the
+level of the water in the southern oceans occurs. On the side facing
+these oceans the continents of Mars are sufficiently elevated to prevent
+an overflow, but nearer the equator the level of the land sinks lower.
+
+"With your telescopes you have no doubt noticed that there is a great
+bending sea connecting the oceans of the south with those of the north
+and running through the midst of the continents."
+
+"Quite so," said the astronomer who had spoken before, "we call it the
+Syrtis Major."
+
+"That long narrow sea," Aina went on, "forms a great channel through
+which the flood of waters caused by the melting of the southern polar
+snows flows swiftly toward the equator and then on toward the north
+until it reaches the sea basins which exist there. At that point it is
+rapidly turned into ice and snow, because, of course, while it is Summer
+in the southern hemisphere it is Winter in the northern.
+
+"The Syrtis Major (I am giving our name to the channel of communication
+in place of that by which the girl called it) is like a great safety
+valve, which, by permitting the waters to flow northward, saves the
+continents from inundation.
+
+"But when mid-Summer arrives, the snows around the pole, having been
+completely melted away, the flood ceases and the water begins to recede.
+At this time, but for a device which the Martians have employed, the
+canals connected with the oceans would run dry, and the vegetation left
+without moisture under the Summer sun, would quickly perish.
+
+"To prevent this they have built a series of enormous gates extending
+completely across the Syrtis Major at its narrowest point (latitude 25
+degrees south). These gates are all controlled by machinery collected at
+a single point on the shore of the strait. As soon as the flood in the
+Syrtis Major begins to recede, the gates are closed, and, the water
+being thus restrained, the irrigating canals are kept full long enough
+to mature the harvests."
+
+"The clue! The clue at last!" exclaimed Mr. Edison. "That is the place
+where we shall nip them. If we can close those gates now at the moment
+of high tide we shall flood the country. Did you say," he continued,
+turning to Aina, "that the movement of the gates was all controlled from
+a single point?"
+
+"Yes," said the girl. "There is a great building (power house) full of
+tremendous machinery which I once entered when my father was taken there
+by his master, and where I saw one Martian, by turning a little handle,
+cause the great line of gates, stretching a hundred miles across the
+sea, to slowly shut in, edge to edge, until the flow of the water toward
+the north had been stopped."
+
+"How is the building protected?"
+
+"So completely," said Aina, "that my only fear is that you may not be
+able to reach it. On account of the danger from their enemies on Ceres,
+the Martians have fortified it strongly on all sides, and have even
+surrounded it and covered it overhead with a great electrical network,
+to touch which would be instant death."
+
+"Ah," said Mr. Edison, "they have got an electric shield, have they?
+Well, I think we shall be able to manage that."
+
+"Anyhow," he continued, "we have got to get into that power house, and
+we have got to close those gates, and we must not lose much time in
+making up our minds how it is to be done. Evidently this is our only
+chance. We have not force enough to contend in open battle with the
+Martians, but if we can flood them out, and thereby render the engines
+contained in their fortifications useless, perhaps we shall be able to
+deal with the airships, which will be all the means of defense that will
+then remain to them."
+
+This idea commended itself to all the leaders of the expedition. It was
+determined to make a reconnaissance at once.
+
+But it would not do for us to approach the planet too hastily, and we
+certainly could not think of landing upon it in broad daylight. Still,
+as long as we were yet a considerable distance from Mars, we felt that
+we should be safe from observation because so much time had elapsed
+while we were hidden behind Deimos that the Martians had undoubtedly
+concluded that we were no longer in existance.
+
+So we boldly quitted the little satellite with our entire squadron and
+once more rapidly approached the red planet of war. This time it was to
+be a death grapple and our chances of victory still seemed good.
+
+As soon as we arrived so near the planet that there was danger of our
+being actually seen, we took pains to keep continually in the shadow of
+Mars, and the more surely to conceal our presence all lights upon the
+ships were extinguished. The precaution of the commander even went so
+far as to have the smooth metallic sides of the cars blackened over so
+that they should not reflect light, and thus become visible to the
+Martians as shining specks, moving suspiciously among the stars.
+
+The precise location of the great power house on the shores of the
+Syrtis Major having been carefully ascertained, the squadron dropped
+down one night into the upper limits of the Martian atmosphere, directly
+over the gulf.
+
+Then a consultation was called on the flagship and a plan of campaign
+was quickly devised.
+
+It was deemed wise that the attempt should be made with a single
+electric ship, but that the others should be kept hovering near, ready
+to respond on the instant to any signal for aid which might come from
+below. It was thought that, notwithstanding the wonderful defences,
+which, according to Aina's account surrounded the building, a small
+party would have a better chance of success than a large one.
+
+Mr. Edison was certain that the electrical network which was described
+as covering the power house would not prove a serious obstruction to us,
+because by carefully sweeping the space where we intended to pass with
+the disintegrators before quitting the ship, the netting could be
+sufficiently cleared away to give us uninterrupted passage.
+
+At first the intention was to have twenty men, each armed with two
+disintegrators (that being the largest number one person could carry to
+advantage) descend from the electrical ship and make the venture. But,
+after further discussion, this number was reduced; first to a dozen, and
+finally, to only four. These four consisted of Mr. Edison, Colonel
+Smith, Mr. Sydney Phillips and myself.
+
+Both by her own request and because we could not help feeling that her
+knowledge of the locality would be indispensable to us, Aina was also
+included in our party, but not, of course, as a fighting member of it.
+
+It was about an hour after midnight when the ship in which we were to
+make the venture parted from the remainder of the squadron and dropped
+cautiously down. The blaze of electric lights running away in various
+directions indicated the lines of innumerable canals with habitations
+crowded along their banks, which came to a focus at a point on the
+continent of Aeria, westward from the Syrtis Major.
+
+We stopped the electrical ship at an elevation of perhaps three hundred
+feet above the vast roof of a structure which Aina assured us was the
+building of which we were in search.
+
+Here we remained for a few minutes, cautiously reconnoitering. On that
+side of the power house which was opposite to the shore of the Syrtis
+Major there was a thick grove of trees, lighted beneath, as was apparent
+from the illumination which here and there streamed up through the cover
+of leaves, but, nevertheless, dark and gloomy above the tree tops.
+
+"The electric network extends over the grove as well as over the
+building," said Aina.
+
+This was lucky for us, because we wished to descend among the trees,
+and, by destroying part of the network over the tree tops, we could
+reach the shelter we desired and at the same time pass within the line
+of electric defenses.
+
+With increased caution, and almost holding our breath lest we should
+make some noise that might reach the ears of the sentinels below, we
+caused the car to settle gently down until we caught sight of a metallic
+net stretched in the air between us and the trees.
+
+After our first encounter with the Martians on the asteroid, where, as I
+have related, some metal which was included in their dress resisted the
+action of the disintegrators, Mr. Edison had readjusted the range of
+vibrations covered by the instruments, and since then we had found
+nothing that did not yield to them. Consequently, we had no fear that
+the metal of the network would not be destroyed.
+
+There was danger, however, of arousing attention by shattering holes
+through the tree tops. This could be avoided by first carefully
+ascertaining how far away the network was and then with the adjustable
+mirrors attached to the disintegrators focusing the vibratory discharge
+at that distance.
+
+So successful were we that we opened a considerable gap in the network
+without doing any perceptible damage to the trees beneath.
+
+The ship was cautiously lowered through the opening and brought to rest
+among the upper branches of one of the tallest trees. Colonel Smith, Mr.
+Phillips, Mr. Edison and myself at once clambered out upon a strong
+limb.
+
+For a moment I feared our arrival had been betrayed on account of the
+altogether too noisy contest that arose between Colonel Smith and Mr.
+Phillips as to which of them should assist Aina. To settle the dispute I
+took charge of her myself.
+
+At length we were all safely in the tree.
+
+Then followed the still more dangerous undertaking of descending from
+this great height to the ground. Fortunately, the branches were very
+close together and they extended down within a short distance of the
+soil. So the actual difficulties of the descent were not very great
+after all. The one thing that we had particularly to bear in mind was
+the absolute necessity of making no noise.
+
+At length the descent was successfully accomplished, and we all five
+stood together in the shadow at the foot of the great tree. The grove
+was so thick around that while there was an abundance of electric lights
+among the trees, their illumination did not fall upon us where we stood.
+
+Peering cautiously through the vistas in various directions, we
+ascertained our location with respect to the wall of the building. Like
+all the structures which we had seen on Mars, it was composed of
+polished red metal.
+
+"Where is the entrance?" inquired Mr. Edison, in a whisper.
+
+"Come softly this way, and look out for the sentinel," replied Aina.
+
+Gripping our disintegrators firmly, and screwing up our courage, with
+noiseless steps we followed the girl among the shadows of the trees.
+
+We had one-very great advantage. The Martians had evidently placed so
+much confidence in the electric network which surrounded the power house
+that they never dreamed of enemies being able to penetrate it--at least,
+without giving warning of their coming.
+
+But the hole which we had blown in this network with the disintegrators
+had been made noiselessly, and Mr. Edison believed, since no enemies had
+appeared, that our operations had not been betrayed by any automatic
+signal to watchers inside the building.
+
+Consequently, we had every reason to think that we now stood within the
+line of defense, in which they reposed the greatest confidence, without
+their having the least suspicion of our presence.
+
+Aina assured us that on the occasion of her former visit to the power
+house there had been but two sentinels on guard at the entrance. At the
+inner end of a long passage leading to the interior, she said, there
+were two more. Besides these there were three or four Martian engineers
+watching the machinery in the interior of the building. A number of
+airships were supposed to be on guard around the structure, but possibly
+their vigilance had been relaxed, because not long ago the Martians had
+sent an expedition against Ceres which had been so successful that the
+power of that planet to make any attack upon Mars had, for the present
+been destroyed.
+
+Supposing us to have been annihilated in the recent battle among the
+clouds, they would have no fear or cause for vigilance on our account.
+
+The entrance to the great structure was low--at least, when measured by
+the stature of the Martians. Evidently the intention was that only one
+person at a time should find room to pass through it.
+
+Drawing cautiously near, we discerned the outlines of two gigantic
+forms, standing in the darkness, one on either side of the door. Colonel
+Smith whispered to me:
+
+"If you will take the fellow on the right, I will attend to the other
+one."
+
+Adjusting our aim as carefully as was possible in the gloom, Colonel
+Smith and I simultaneously discharged our disintegrators, sweeping them
+rapidly up and down in the manner which had become familiar to us when
+endeavoring to destroy one of the gigantic Martians with a single
+stroke. And so successful were we that the two sentinels disappeared as
+if they were ghosts of the night.
+
+Instantly we all hurried forward and entered the door. Before us
+extended a long, straight passage, brightly illuminated by a number of
+electric candles. Its polished sides gleamed with blood-red reflections,
+and the gallery terminated, at a distance of two or three hundred feet,
+with an opening into a large chamber beyond, on the further side of
+which we could see part of a gigantic and complicated mass of machinery.
+
+Making as little noise as possible, we pushed ahead along the passage,
+but when we had arrived within the distance of a dozen paces from the
+inner end, we stopped, and Colonel Smith, getting down upon his knees,
+crept forward, until he had reached the inner end of the passage. There
+he peered cautiously around the edge into the chamber, and, turning his
+head a moment later, beckoned us to come forward. We crept to his side,
+and, looking out into the vast apartment, could perceive no enemies.
+
+What had become of the sentinels supposed to stand at the inner end the
+passage we could not imagine. At any rate, they were not at their posts.
+
+The chamber was an immense square room at least a hundred feet in height
+and 400 feet on a side, and almost filling the wall opposite to us was
+an intricate display of machinery, wheels, levers, rods and polished
+plates. This we had no doubt was one end of the engine which opened and
+shut the great gates that could dam an ocean.
+
+"There is no one in sight," said Colonel Smith.
+
+"Then we must act quickly," said Mr. Edison.
+
+"Where," he said, turning to Aina, "is the handle by turning which you
+saw the Martian close the gates?"
+
+Aina looked about in bewilderment. The mechanism before us was so
+complicated that even an expert mechanic would have been excusable for
+finding himself unable to understand it. There were scores of knobs and
+handles, all glistening in the electric light, any one of which, so far
+as the uninstructed could tell, might have been the master key that
+controlled the whole complex apparatus.
+
+"Quick," said Mr. Edison, "where is it?"
+
+The girl in her confusion ran this way and that, gazing hopelessly upon
+the machinery, but evidently utterly unable to help us.
+
+To remain here inactive was not merely to invite destruction for
+ourselves, but was sure to bring certain failure upon the purpose of the
+expedition. All of us began instantly to look about in search of the
+proper handle, seizing every crank and wheel in sight and striving to
+turn it.
+
+"Stop that!" shouted Mr. Edison, "you may set the whole thing wrong.
+Don't touch anything until we have found the right lever."
+
+But to find that seemed to most of us now utterly beyond the power of
+man.
+
+It was at this critical moment that the wonderful depth and reach of Mr.
+Edison's mechanical genius displayed itself. He stepped back, ran his
+eyes quickly over the whole immense mass of wheels, handles, bolts, bars
+and levers, paused for an instant, as if making up his mind, then said
+decidedly, "There it is," and stepping quickly forward, selected a small
+wheel amid a dozen others, all furnished at the circumference with
+handles like those of a pilot's wheel, and giving it a quick wrench,
+turned it half-way around.
+
+At this instant, a startling shout fell upon our ears. There was a
+thunderous clatter behind us, and, turning, we saw three gigantic
+Martians rushing forward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+_VENGEANCE IS OURS_
+
+
+"Sweep them! sweep them!" shouted Colonel Smith, as he brought his
+disintegrator to bear. Mr. Phillips and I instantly followed his
+example, and thus we swept the Martians into eternity, while Mr. Edison
+coolly continued his manipulations of the wheel.
+
+The effect of what he was doing became apparent in less than half a
+minute. A shiver ran through the mass of machinery and shook the entire
+building.
+
+"Look! Look!" cried Sydney Phillips, who had stepped a little apart from
+the others.
+
+We all ran to his side and found ourselves in front of a great window
+which opened through the side of the engine, giving a view of what lay
+in front of it. There, gleaming in the electric lights, we saw Syrtis
+Major, its waters washing high against the walls of the vast power
+house. Running directly out from the shore, there was an immense
+metallic gate at least 400 yards in length and rising three hundred feet
+above the present level of the water.
+
+This great gate was slowly swinging upon an invisible hinge in such a
+manner that in a few minutes it would evidently stand across the current
+of the Syrtis Major at right angles.
+
+Beyond was a second gate, which was moving in the same manner. Further
+on was a third gate, and then another, and another, as far as the eye
+could reach, evidently extending in an unbroken series completely across
+the great strait.
+
+As the gates, with accelerated motion when the current caught them,
+clanged together, we beheld a spectacle that almost stopped the beating
+of our hearts.
+
+The great Syrtis seemed to gather itself for a moment, and then it
+leaped upon the obstruction and buried its waters into one vast foaming
+geyser that seemed to shoot a thousand feet skyward.
+
+But the metal gates withstood the shock, though buried from our sight in
+the seething white mass, and the baffled waters instantly swirled around
+in ten thousand gigantic eddies, rising to the level of our window and
+beginning to inundate the power house before we fairly comprehended our
+peril.
+
+"We have done the work," said Mr. Edison, smiling grimly. "Now we had
+better get out of this before the flood bursts upon us."
+
+The warning came none too soon. It was necessary to act upon it at once
+if we would save our lives. Even before we could reach the entrance to
+the long passage through which we had come into the great engine room,
+the water had risen half-way to our knees. Colonel Smith, catching Aina
+under his arm, led the way. The roar of the maddened torrent behind
+deafened us.
+
+As we ran through the passage the water followed us, with a wicked
+swishing sound, and within five seconds it was above our knees; in ten
+seconds up to our waists.
+
+The great danger now was that we should be swept from our feet, and once
+down in that torrent there would have been little chance of our ever
+getting our heads above its level. Supporting ourselves as best we could
+with the aid of the walls, we partly ran, and were partly swept along,
+until when we reached the outer end of the passage and emerged into the
+open air, the flood was swirling about our shoulders.
+
+Here there was an opportunity to clutch some of the ornamental work
+surrounding the doorway, and thus we managed to stay our mad progress,
+and gradually to work out of the current until we found that the water,
+having now an abundance of room to spread, had fallen again as low as
+our knees.
+
+But suddenly we heard the thunder of the banks tumbling behind us, and
+to the right and left, and the savage growl of the released water as it
+sprang through the breaches.
+
+To my dying day, I think, I shall not forget the sight of a great fluid
+column that burst through the dike at the edge of the grove of trees,
+and, by the tremendous impetus of its rush, seemed turned into a solid
+thing.
+
+Like an enormous ram, it plowed the soil to a depth of twenty feet,
+uprooting acres of the immense trees like stubble turned over by the
+plowshare.
+
+The uproar was so awful that for an instant the coolest of us lost our
+self-control. Yet we knew that we had not the fraction of a second to
+waste. The breaking of the banks had caused the water again rapidly to
+rise about us. In a little while it was once more as high as our waists.
+
+In the excitement and confusion, deafened by the noise and blinded by
+the flying foam, we were in danger of becoming separated in the flood.
+We no longer knew certainly in what direction was the tree by whose aid
+we had ascended from the electrical ship. We pushed first one way and
+then another, staggering through the rushing waters in search of it.
+Finally we succeeded in locating it, and with all our strength hurried
+toward it.
+
+Then there came a noise as if the globe of Mars had been split asunder,
+and another great head of water hurled itself down upon the soil before
+us, and, without taking time to spread, bored a vast cavity in the
+ground, and scooped out the whole of the grove before our eyes as easily
+as a gardener lifts a sod with his spade.
+
+Our last hope was gone. For a moment the level of the water around us
+sank again, as it poured into the immense excavation where the grove had
+stood, but in an instant it was reinforced from all sides and began once
+more rapidly to rise.
+
+We gave ourselves up for lost, and, indeed, there did not seem any
+possible hope of salvation.
+
+Even in the extremity I saw Colonel Smith lifting the form of Aina, who
+had fainted, above the surface of the surging water, while Sydney
+Phillips stood by his side and aided him in supporting the unconscious
+girl.
+
+"We stayed a little too long," was the only sound I heard from Mr.
+Edison.
+
+The huge bulk of the power house partially protected us against the
+force of the current, and the water spun us around in great eddies.
+These swept us this way and that, but yet we managed to cling together,
+determined not to be separated in death if we could avoid it.
+
+Suddenly a cry rang out directly above our heads:
+
+"Jump for your lives, and be quick!"
+
+At the same instant the ends of several ropes splashed into the water.
+
+We glanced upward, and there, within three or four yards of our heads,
+hung the electrical ship, which we had left moored at the top of the
+tree.
+
+Tom, the expert electrician from Mr. Edison's shop, who had remained in
+charge of the ship, had never once dreamed of such a thing as deserting
+us. The moment he saw the water bursting over the dam, and evidently
+flooding the building which we had entered, he cast off his moorings, as
+we subsequently learned, and hovered over the entrance to the power
+house, getting as low down as possible and keeping a sharp watch for us.
+
+But most of the electric lights in the vicinity had been carried down by
+the first rush of water, and in the darkness he did not see us when we
+emerged from the entrance. It was only after the sweeping away of the
+grove of trees had allowed a flood of light to stream upon the scene
+from a cluster of electric lamps on a distant portion of the bank on the
+Syrtis that had not yet given way that he caught sight of us.
+
+Immediately he began to shout to attract our attention, but in the awful
+uproar we could not hear him. Getting together all the ropes that he
+could lay his hands on, he steered the ship to a point directly over us,
+and then dropped down within a few yards of the boiling flood.
+
+Now as he hung over our heads, and saw the water up to our very necks
+and still swiftly rising, he shouted again:
+
+"Catch hold, for God's sake!"
+
+The three men who were with him in the ship seconded his cries.
+
+But by the time we had fairly grasped the ropes, so rapidly was the
+flood rising, we were already afloat. With the assistance of Tom and his
+men we were rapidly drawn up, and immediately Tom reversed the electric
+polarity, and the ship began to rise.
+
+At that same instant, with a crash that shivered the air, the immense
+metallic power house gave way and was swept tumbling, like a hill torn
+loose from its base, over the very spot where a moment before we had
+stood. One second's hesitation on the part of Tom, and the electrical
+ship would have been battered into a shapeless wad of metal by the
+careening mass.
+
+When we had attained a considerable height, so that we could see a great
+distance on either side, the spectacle became even more fearful than it
+was when we were close to the surface.
+
+On all sides banks and dykes were going down; trees were being uprooted;
+buildings were tumbling, and the ocean was achieving that victory over
+the land which had long been its due, but which the ingenuity of the
+inhabitants of Mars had postponed for ages.
+
+Far away we could see the front of the advancing wave crested with foam
+that sparkled in the electric lights, and as it swept on it changed the
+entire aspect of the planet--in front of it all life, behind it all
+death.
+
+Eastward our view extended across the Syrtis Major toward the land of
+Libya and the region of Isidis. On that side also the dykes were giving
+way under the tremendous pressure, and the floods were rushing toward
+the sunrise, which had just began to streak the eastern sky.
+
+The continents that were being overwhelmed on the western side of the
+Syrtis were Meroc, Aeria, Arabia, Edom and Eden.
+
+The water beneath us continually deepened. The current from the melting
+snows around the southern pole was at its strongest, and one could
+hardly have believed that any obstruction put in its path would have
+been able to arrest it and turn it into these two all-swallowing
+deluges, sweeping east and west. But, as we now perceived, the level of
+the land over a large part of its surface was hundreds of feet below the
+ocean, so that the latter, when once the barriers were broken, rushed
+into depressions that yawned to receive it.
+
+The point where we had dealt our blow was far removed from the great
+capitol of Mars, around the Lake of the Sun, and we knew that we should
+have to wait for the floods to reach that point before the desired
+effect could be produced. By the nearest way, the water had at least
+5,000 miles to travel. We estimated that its speed where we hung above
+it was as much as a hundred miles an hour. Even if that speed were
+maintained, more than two days and nights would be required for the
+floods to reach the Lake of the Sun.
+
+But as the water rushed on it would break the banks of all the canals
+intersecting the country, and these, being also elevated above the
+surface, would add the impetus of their escaping waters to hasten the
+advance of the flood. We calculated, therefore, that about two days
+would suffice to place the planet at our mercy.
+
+Half way from the Syrtis Major to the Lake of the Sun another great
+connecting link between the Southern and Northern ocean basins, called
+on our maps of Mars the Indus, existed, and through this channel we knew
+that another great current must be setting from the south toward the
+north. The flood that we had started would reach and break the banks of
+the Indus within one day.
+
+The flood traveling in the other direction, toward the east, would have
+considerably further to go before reaching the neighborhood of the Lake
+of the Sun. It, too, would involve hundreds of great canals as it
+advanced and would come plunging upon the Lake of the Sun and its
+surrounding forts and cities, probably about half a day later than the
+arrival of the deluge that traveled toward the west.
+
+Now that we had let the awful destroyer loose we almost shrank from the
+thought of the consequences which we had produced. How many millions
+would perish as the result of our deed we could not even guess. Many of
+the victims, so far as we knew, might be entirely innocent of enmity
+toward us, or of the evil which had been done to our native planet. But
+this was a case in which the good--if they existed--must suffer with the
+bad on account of the wicked deeds of the latter.
+
+I have already remarked that the continents of Mars were higher on their
+northern and southern borders where they faced the great oceans. These
+natural barriers bore to the main mass of land somewhat the relation of
+the edge of a shallow dish to its bottom. Their rise on the land side
+was too gradual to give them the appearance of hills, but on the side
+toward the sea they broke down in steep banks and cliffs several hundred
+feet in height. We guessed that it would be in the direction of these
+elevations that the inhabitants would flee, and those who had timely
+warning might thus be able to escape in case the flood did not--as it
+seemed possible it might in its first mad rush--overtop the highest
+elevations on Mars.
+
+As day broke and the sun slowly rose upon the dreadful scene beneath us,
+we began to catch sight of some of the fleeing inhabitants. We had
+shifted the position of the fleet toward the south, and were now
+suspended above the southeastern corner of Aeria. Here a high bank of
+reddish rock confronted the sea, whose waters ran lashing and roaring
+along the bluffs to supply the rapid drought produced by the emptying of
+Syrtis Major. Along the shore there was a narrow line of land, hundreds
+of miles in length, but less than a quarter of a mile broad, which still
+rose slightly above the surface of the water, and this land of refuge
+was absolutely packed with the monstrous inhabitants of the planet who
+had fled hither on the first warning that the water was coming.
+
+In some places it was so crowded that the later comers could not find
+standing ground on dry land, but were continually slipping back and
+falling into the water. It was an awful sight to look at them. It
+reminded me of pictures I had seen of the deluge in the days of Noah,
+when the waters had risen to the mountain tops, and men, women and
+children were fighting for a foothold upon the last dry spots the earth
+contained.
+
+We were all moved by a desire to help our enemies, for we were
+overwhelmed with feelings of pity and remorse, but to aid them was now
+utterly beyond our power. The mighty floods were out, and the end was in
+the hands of God.
+
+Fortunately, we had little time for these thoughts, because no sooner
+had the day begun to dawn around us than the airships of the Martians
+appeared. Evidently the people in them were dazed by the disaster and
+uncertain what to do. It is doubtful whether at first they comprehended
+the fact that we were the agents who had produced the cataclysm.
+
+But as the morning advanced the airships came flocking in greater and
+greater numbers from every direction, many swooping down close to the
+flood in order to rescue those who were drowning. Hundreds gathered
+along the slip of land which was crowded as I have described, with
+refugees, while other hundreds rapidly assembled about us, evidently
+preparing for an attack.
+
+We had learned in our previous contests with the airships of the
+Martians that our electrical ships had a great advantage over them, not
+merely in rapidity and facility of movement, but in the fact that our
+disintegrators could sweep in every direction, while it was only with
+much difficulty that the Martian airships could discharge their
+electrical strokes at an enemy poised directly above their heads.
+
+Accordingly, orders were instantly flashed to all the squadrons to rise
+vertically to an elevation so great that the rarity of the atmosphere
+would prevent the airships from attaining the same level.
+
+This maneuver was executed so quickly that the Martians were unable to
+deal us a blow before we were poised above them in such a position that
+they could not easily reach us. Still they did not mean to give up the
+conflict.
+
+Presently we saw one of the largest of their ships maneuvering in a very
+peculiar manner, the purpose of which we did not at first comprehend.
+Its forward portion commenced slowly to rise, until it pointed upward
+like the nose of a fish approaching the surface of the water. The moment
+it was in this position, an electrical bolt was darted from its prow,
+and one of our ships received a shock which, although it did not prove
+fatal to the vessel itself, killed two or three men aboard it,
+disarranged its apparatus, and rendered it for the time being useless.
+
+"Ah, that's their trick, is it?" said Mr. Edison. "We must look out for
+that. Whenever you see one of the airships beginning to stick its nose
+up after that fashion blaze away at it."
+
+An order to this effect was transmitted throughout the squadron. At the
+same time several of the most powerful disintegrators were directed upon
+the ship which had executed the stratagem and, reduced to a wreck, it
+dropped, whirling like a broken kite until it fell into the flood
+beneath.
+
+Still the Martian ships came flocking in ever greater numbers from all
+directions. They made desperate attempts to attain the level at which we
+hung above them. This was impossible, but many, getting an impetus by a
+swift run in the denser portion of the atmosphere beneath, succeeded in
+rising so high that they could discharge their electric artillery with
+considerable effect. Others, with more or less success, repeated the
+maneuver of the ship which had first attacked us, and thus the battle
+gradually became more general and more fierce, until, in the course of
+an hour or two, our squadron found itself engaged with probably a
+thousand airships, which blazed with incessant lightning strokes, and
+were able, all too frequently, to do us serious damage.
+
+But on our part the battle was waged with a cool determination and a
+consciousness of insuperable advantage which boded ill for the enemy.
+Only three or four of our sixty electrical ships were seriously damaged,
+while the work of the disintegrators upon the crowded fleet that floated
+beneath us was terrible to look upon.
+
+Our strokes fell thick and fast on all sides. It was like firing into a
+flock of birds that could not get away. Notwithstanding all their
+efforts they were practically at our mercy. Shattered into
+unrecognizable fragments, hundreds of the airships continually dropped
+from their great height to be swallowed up in the boiling waters.
+
+Yet they were game to the last. They made every effort to get at us, and
+in their frenzy they seemed to discharge their bolts without much regard
+to whether friends or foes were injured. Our eyes were nearly blinded by
+the ceaseless glare beneath us, and the uproar was indescribable.
+
+At length, after this fearful contest had lasted for at least three
+hours, it became evident that the strength of the enemy was rapidly
+weakening. Nearly the whole of their immense fleet of airships had been
+destroyed, or so far damaged that they were barely able to float. Just
+so long, however, as they showed signs of resistance we continued to
+pour our merciless fire upon them, and the signal to cease was not given
+until the airships, which had escaped serious damage began to flee in
+every direction.
+
+"Thank God, the thing is over," said Mr. Edison. "We have got the
+victory at last, but how we shall make use of it is something that at
+present I do not see."
+
+"But will they not renew the attack?" asked someone.
+
+"I do not think they can," was the reply. "We have destroyed the very
+flower of their fleet."
+
+"And better than that," said Colonel Smith, "we have destroyed their
+clan; we have made them afraid. Their discipline is gone."
+
+But this was only the beginning of our victory. The floods below were
+achieving a still greater triumph, and now that we had conquered the
+airships we dropped within a few hundred feet of the surface of the
+water and then turned our faces westward in order to follow the advance
+of the deluge and see whether, as we hoped, it would overwhelm our
+enemies in the very center of their power.
+
+In a little while we had overtaken the first wave, which was still
+devouring everything. We saw it bursting the banks of the canal,
+sweeping away forests of gigantic trees, and swallowing cities and
+villages, leaving nothing but a broad expanse of swirling and eddying
+waters, which, in consequence of the prevailing red hue of the
+vegetation and the soil, looked, as shuddering we gazed down upon it,
+like an ocean of blood flecked with foam and steaming with the escaping
+life of the planet from whose veins it gushed.
+
+As we skirted the southern borders of the continent the same dreadful
+scenes which we had beheld on the coast of Aeria presented themselves.
+Crowds of refugees thronged the high borders of the land and struggled
+with one another for a foothold against the continually rising flood.
+
+We saw, too, flitting in every direction, but rapidly fleeing before our
+approach, many airships, evidently crowded with Martians, but not armed
+either for offense or defense. These, of course, we did not disturb, for
+merciless as our proceedings seemed even to ourselves, we had no
+intention of making war upon the innocent, or upon those who had no
+means to resist. What we had done it had seemed to us necessary to do,
+but henceforth we were resolved to take no more lives if it could be
+avoided.
+
+Thus, during the remainder of that day, all of the following night and
+all of the next day, we continued upon the heels of the advancing flood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+_THE WOMAN FROM CERES_
+
+
+The second night we could perceive ahead of us the electric lights
+covering the land of Thaumasia, in the midst of which lay the Lake of
+the Sun. The flood would be upon it by daybreak, and, assuming that the
+demoralization produced by the news of the coming of the waters, which
+we were aware had hours before been flashed to the capitol of Mars,
+would prevent the Martians from effectively manning their forts, we
+thought it safe to hasten on with the flagship, and one or two others,
+in advance of the waters, and to hover over the Lake of the Sun, in the
+darkness, in order that we might watch the deluge perform its awful work
+in the morning.
+
+Thaumasia, as we have before remarked, was a broad, oval-shaped land,
+about 1,800 miles across, having the Lake of the Sun exactly in its
+center. From this lake, which was four or five hundred miles in
+diameter, and circular in outline, many canals radiated, as straight as
+the spokes of a wheel, in every direction, and connected it with the
+surrounding seas.
+
+Like all the other Martian continents, Thaumasia lay below the level of
+the sea, except toward the south, where it fronted the ocean.
+
+Completely surrounding the lake was a great ring of cities constituting
+the capitol of Mars. Here the genius of the Martians had displayed
+itself to the full. The surrounding country was irrigated until it
+fairly bloomed with gigantic vegetation and flowers; the canals were
+carefully regulated with locks so that the supply of water was under
+complete control; the display of magnificent metallic buildings of all
+kinds and sizes produced a most dazzling effect, and the protection
+against enemies afforded by the innumerable fortifications surrounding
+the ringed city, and guarding the neighboring lands, seemed complete.
+
+Suspended at a height of perhaps two miles from the surface, near the
+southern edge of the lake, we waited for the oncoming flood. With the
+dawn of day we began to perceive more clearly the effects which the news
+of the drowning of the planet had produced. It was evident that many of
+the inhabitants of the cities had already fled. Airships on which the
+fugitives hung as thick as swarms of bees were seen, elevated but a
+short distance above the ground, and making their way rapidly toward the
+south.
+
+The Martians knew that their only hope of escape lay in reaching the
+high southern border of the land before the floods were upon them. But
+they must have known also that that narrow beach would not suffice to
+contain one in ten of those who sought refuge there. The density of the
+population around the Lake of the Sun seemed to us incredible. Again our
+hearts sank within us at the sight of the fearful destruction of life
+for which we were responsible. Yet we comforted ourselves with the
+reflection that it was unavoidable. As Colonel Smith put it:
+
+"You couldn't trust these coyotes. The only thing to do was to drown
+them out. I am sorry for them, but I guess there will be as many left as
+will be good for us, anyhow."
+
+We had not long to wait for the flood. As the dawn began to streak the
+east, we saw its awful crest moving out of the darkness, bursting across
+the canals and plowing its way into the direction of the crowded shores
+of the Lake of the Sun. The supply of water behind that great wave
+seemed inexhaustible. Five thousand miles it had traveled, and yet its
+power was as great as when it started from the Syrtis Major.
+
+We caught sight of the oncoming water before it was visible to the
+Martians beneath us. But while it was yet many miles away, the roar of
+it reached them, and then arose a chorus of terrified cries, the effect
+of which, coming to our ears out of the half gloom of the morning, was
+most uncanny and horrible. Thousands upon thousands of the Martians
+still remained here to become victims of the deluge. Some, perhaps, had
+doubted the truth of the reports that the banks were down and the floods
+were out; others, for one reason or another had been unable to get away;
+others, like the inhabitants of Pompeii, had lingered too long, or had
+returned after beginning their flight to secure abandoned treasures, and
+now it was too late to get away.
+
+With a roar that shook the planet the white wall rushed upon the great
+city beneath our feet, and in an instant it had been engulfed. On went
+the flood, swallowing up the Lake of the Sun itself, and in a little
+while, as far as our eyes could range, the land of Thaumasia had been
+turned into a raging sea.
+
+We now turned our ships toward the southern border of the land,
+following the direction of the airships carrying the fugitives, a few of
+which were still navigating the atmosphere a mile beneath us. In their
+excitement and terror the Martians paid little attention to us,
+although, as the morning brightened, they must have been aware of our
+presence over their heads. But, apparently, they no longer thought of
+resistance; their only object was escape from the immediate and
+appalling danger.
+
+When we had progressed to a point about half way from the Lake of the
+Sun to the border of the sea, having dropped down within a few hundred
+feet of the surface, there suddenly appeared, in the midst of the raging
+waters, a sight so remarkable that at first I rubbed my eyes in
+astonishment, not crediting their report of what they beheld.
+
+Standing on the apex of a sandy elevation, which still rose a few feet
+above the gathering flood, was a figure of a woman, as perfect in form
+and in classic beauty of feature as the Venus of Milo--a magnified human
+being not less than forty feet in height!
+
+But for her swaying and the wild motions of her arms, we should have
+mistaken her for a marble statue.
+
+Aina, who happened to be looking, instantly exclaimed:
+
+"It is the woman from Ceres. She was taken prisoner by the Martians
+during their last invasion of that world, and since then has been a
+slave in the palace of the emperor."
+
+Apparently her great stature had enabled her to escape, while her
+masters had been drowned. She had fled like the others, toward the
+south, but being finally surrounded by the rising waters, had taken
+refuge on the hillock of sand, where we saw her. This was fast giving
+way under the assault of the waves, and even while we watched the water
+rose to her knees.
+
+"Drop lower," was the order of the electrical steersman of the flagship,
+and as quickly as possible we approached the place where the towering
+figure stood.
+
+She had realized the hopelessness of her situation, and quickly ceased
+those appalling and despairing gestures, which had at first served to
+convince us that it was indeed a living being on whom we were looking.
+
+There she stood, with a light, white garment thrown about her, erect,
+half-defiant, half yielding to her fear, more graceful than any Greek
+statue, her arms outstretched, yet motionless, and her eyes upcast, as
+if praying to her God to protect her. Her hair, which shone like gold in
+the increasing light of day, streamed over her shoulders, and her great
+eyes were astare between terror and supplication. So wildly beautiful a
+sight not one of us had ever beheld.
+
+For a moment sympathy was absorbed in admiration. Then:
+
+"Save her! Save her!" was the cry that arose throughout the ship.
+
+Ropes were instantly thrown out, and one or two men prepared to let
+themselves down in order better to aid her.
+
+But when we were almost within reach, and so close that we could see the
+very expression of her eyes, which appeared to take no note of us, but
+to be fixed, with a far away look upon something beyond human ken,
+suddenly the undermined bank on which she stood gave way, the blood red
+flood swirled in from right to left, and then:
+
+    "The waters closed above her face
+    With many a ring."
+
+"If but for that woman's sake, I am sorry we drowned the planet,"
+exclaimed Sydney Phillips. But a moment afterward I saw that he
+regretted what he had said, for Aina's eyes were fixed upon him.
+Perhaps, however, she did not understand his remark, and perhaps if she
+did it gave her no offence.
+
+After this episode we pursued our way rapidly until we arrived at the
+shore of the Southern Ocean. There, as we had expected, was to be seen a
+narrow strip of land with the ocean on one side and the raging flood
+seeking to destroy it on the other. In some places it had already broken
+through, so that the ocean was flowing in to assist in the drowning of
+Thaumasia.
+
+But some parts of the coast were evidently so elevated that no matter
+how high the flood might rise it would not completely cover them. Here
+the fugitives had gathered in dense throngs and above them hovered most
+of the airships, loaded down with others who were unable to find room
+upon the dry land.
+
+On one of the loftiest and broadest of these elevations we noticed
+indications of military order in the alignment of the crowds and the
+shore all around was guarded by gigantic pickets, who mercilessly shoved
+back into the flood all the later comers, and thus prevented too great
+crowding upon the land. In the center of this elevation rose a palatial
+structure of red metal which Aina informed us was one of the residences
+of the Emperor, and we concluded that the monarch himself was now
+present there.
+
+The absence of any signs of resistance on the part of the airships, and
+the complete drowning of all of the formidable fortifications on the
+surface of the planet, convinced us that all we had to do in order to
+complete our conquest was to get possession of the person of the chief
+ruler.
+
+The fleet was, accordingly, concentrated, and we rapidly approached the
+great Martian palace. As we came down within a hundred feet of them and
+boldly made our way among their airships, which retreated at our
+approach, the Martians gazed at us with mingled fear and astonishment.
+
+We were their conquerors and they knew it. We were coming to demand
+their surrender, and they evidently understood that also. As we
+approached the palace signals were made from it with brilliant colored
+banners which Aina informed us were intended as a token of truce.
+
+"We shall have to go down and have a confab with them, I suppose," said
+Mr. Edison. "We can't kill them off now that they are helpless, but we
+must manage somehow to make them understand that unconditional surrender
+is their only chance."
+
+"Let us take Aina with us," I suggested, "and since she can speak the
+language of the Martians we shall probably have no difficulty in
+arriving at an understanding."
+
+Accordingly the flagship was carefully brought further down in front of
+the entrance to the palace, which had been kept clear by the Martian
+guards, and while the remainder of the squadron assembled within a few
+feet directly over our heads with the disintegrators turned upon the
+palace and the crowd below, Mr. Edison and myself, accompanied by Aina,
+stepped out upon the ground.
+
+There was a forward movement in the immense crowd, but the guards
+sternly kept everybody back. A party of a dozen giants, preceded by one
+who seemed to be their commander, gorgeously attired in jewelled
+garments, advanced from the entrance of the palace to meet us. Aina
+addressed a few words to the leader, who replied sternly, and then,
+beckoning us to follow, retraced his steps into the palace.
+
+Notwithstanding our confidence that all resistance had ceased, we did
+not deem it wise actually to venture into the lion's den without having
+taken every precaution against a surprise. Accordingly, before following
+the Martian into the palace, we had twenty of the electrical ships
+moored around it in such a position that they commanded not only the
+entrance but all of the principal windows, and then a party of forty
+picked men, each doubly armed with powerful disintegrators, were
+selected to attend us into the building. This party was placed under the
+command of Colonel Smith, and Sydney Phillips insisted on being a member
+of it.
+
+In the meantime the Martian with his attendants who had first invited us
+to enter, finding that we did not follow him, had returned to the front
+of the palace. He saw the disposition that we had made of our forces,
+and instantly comprehended its significance, for his manner changed
+somewhat, and he seemed more desirous than before to conciliate us.
+
+When he again beckoned us to enter, we unhesitatingly followed him, and
+passing through the magnificent entrance, found ourselves in a vast
+ante-chamber, adorned after the manner of the Martians in the most
+expensive manner. Thence we passed into a great circular apartment, with
+a dome painted in imitation of the sky, and so lofty that to our eyes it
+seemed like the firmament itself. Here we found ourselves approaching an
+elevated throne situated in the center of the apartment, while long rows
+of brilliantly armored guards flanked us on either side, and grouped
+around the throne, some standing and others reclining upon the flights
+of steps which appeared to be of solid gold, was an array of Martian
+woman, beautifully and becomingly attired, all of whom greatly
+astonished us by the singular charm of their faces and bearing, so
+different from the aspect of most of the Martians whom we had
+encountered.
+
+Despite their stature--for these women averaged twelve or thirteen feet
+in height--the beauty of their complexions--of a dark olive tint--was no
+less brilliant than that of the women of Italy or Spain.
+
+At the top of the steps on a magnificent golden throne, sat the Emperor
+himself. There are some busts of Caracalla which I have seen that are
+almost as ugly as the face of the Martian ruler. He was of gigantic
+stature, larger than the majority of his subjects, and as near as I
+could judge must have been between fifteen and sixteen feet in height.
+
+As I looked at him I understood a remark which had been made by Aina to
+the effect that the Martians were not all alike, and that the
+peculiarities of their minds were imprinted on their faces and expressed
+in their forms in a very wonderful, and sometimes terrible manner.
+
+I had also learned from her that Mars was under a military government,
+and that the military class had absolute control of the planet. I was
+somewhat startled, then, in looking at the head and center of the great
+military system of Mars, to find in his appearance a striking
+conformation of the speculations of our terrestrial phrenologists. His
+broad, mis-shapen head bulged in those parts where they had placed the
+so-called organs of combativeness, destructiveness, etc.
+
+Plainly, this was an effect of his training and education. His very
+brain had become a military engine; and the aspect of his face, the
+pitiless lines of his mouth and chin, the evil glare of his eyes, the
+attitude and carriage of his muscular body, all tended to complete the
+warlike ensemble.
+
+He was magnificently dressed in some vesture that had the luster of a
+polished plate of gold, and the suppleness of velvet. As we approached
+he fixed his immense, deep-set eyes sternly upon our faces.
+
+The contrast between his truly terrible countenance and the Eve-like
+features of the women which surrounded his throne was as great as if
+Satan after his fall had here re-enthroned himself in the midst of
+angels.
+
+Mr. Edison, Colonel Smith, Sydney Phillips, Aina and myself advanced at
+the head of the procession, our guard following in close order behind
+us. It had been evident from the moment that we entered the palace that
+Aina was regarded with aversion by all of the Martians. Even the women
+about the throne gazed scowlingly at her as we drew near. Apparently,
+the bitterness of feeing which had led to the massacre of all of her
+race had not yet vanished. And, indeed, since the fact that she remained
+alive could have been known only to the Martian who had abducted her and
+to his immediate companions, her reappearance with us must have been a
+great surprise to all those who now looked upon her.
+
+It was clear to me that the feeling aroused by her appearance was every
+moment becoming more intense. Still, the thought of a violent outbreak
+did not occur to me, because our recent triumph had seemed so complete
+that I believed the Martians would be awed by our presence, and would
+not undertake actually to injure the girl.
+
+I think we all had the same impression, but as the event proved, we were
+mistaken.
+
+Suddenly one of the gigantic guards, as if actuated by a fit of
+ungovernable hatred, lifted his foot and kicked Aina. With a loud shriek
+she fell to the floor.
+
+The blow was so unexpected that for a second we all stood riveted to the
+spot. Then I saw Colonel Smith's face turn livid, and at the same
+instant heard the whirr of his disintegrator, while Sydney Phillips,
+forgetting the deadly instrument he carried in his hand, sprung madly
+toward the brute who had kicked Aina, as if he intended to throttle him,
+colossus that he was.
+
+But Colonel Smith's aim, though instantaneously taken, as he had been
+accustomed to shoot on the plains, was true, and Phillips, plunging
+madly forward, seemed wreathed in a faint blue mist--all that the
+disintegrator had left of the gigantic Martian.
+
+Who could adequately describe the scene that followed?
+
+I remember that the Martian emperor sprang to his feet, looking tenfold
+more terrible than before. I remember that there instantly burst from
+the line of guards on either side crinkling beams of death-fire that
+seemed to sear the eyeballs. I saw a half a dozen of our men fall in
+heaps of ashes, and even at that terrible moment I had time to wonder
+that a single one of us remained alive.
+
+Rather by instinct than in consequence of any order given, we formed
+ourselves in a hollow square, with Aina lying apparently lifeless in the
+center, and then with gritted teeth we did our work.
+
+The lines of guards melted before the disintegrators like rows of snow
+men before a licking flame.
+
+The discharge of the lightning engines in the hands of the Martians in
+that confined space made an uproar so tremendous that it seemed to pass
+the bounds of human sense.
+
+More of our men fell before their awful fire, and for the second time
+since our arrival on this deadful planet of war our annihilation seemed
+inevitable.
+
+But in a moment the whole scene changed. Suddenly there was a discharge
+into the room which I knew came from one of the disintegrators of the
+electrical ships. It swept through the crowded throng like a destroying
+blast. Instantly from another side, swished a second discharge, no less
+destructive, and this was quickly followed by a third.
+
+Our ships were firing through the windows.
+
+Almost at the same moment I saw the flagship, which had been moored in
+the air close to the entrance and floating only three or four feet above
+the ground, pushing its way through the gigantic doorway from the
+ante-room, with its great disintegrators pointed upon the crowd like the
+muzzles of a cruiser's guns.
+
+And now the Martians saw that the contest was hopeless for them, and
+their mad struggle to get out of the range of the disintegrators and to
+escape from the death chamber was more appalling to look upon than
+anything that had yet occurred.
+
+[Illustration: _"Suddenly there was a discharge into the room which I
+knew came from one of the disintegrators of the electrical ships. It
+swept through the crowded throng like a destroying blast. It was a panic
+of giants!"_]
+
+It was a panic of giants. They trod one another under foot; they yelled
+and screamed in their terror; they tore each other with their claw-like
+fingers. They no longer thought of resistance. The battle spirit had
+been blown out of them by a breath of terror that shivered their marrow.
+
+Still the pitiless disintegrators played upon them until Mr. Edison,
+making himself heard, now that the thunder of their engines had ceased
+to reverberate through the chamber, commanded that our fire should
+cease.
+
+In the meantime the armed Martians outside the palace, hearing the
+uproar within, seeing our men pouring their fire through the windows,
+and supposing that we were guilty at once of treachery and
+assassination, had attempted an attack upon the electrical ships
+stationed round the building. But fortunately they had none of their
+larger engines at hand, and with their hand arms alone they had not been
+able to stand up against the disintegrators. They were blown away before
+the withering fire of the ships by the hundreds until, fleeing from
+destruction, they rushed madly, driving their unarmed companions before
+them into the seething waters of the flood close at hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+
+_THE FEARFUL OATHS OF COLONEL SMITH_
+
+
+Through all this terrible contest the emperor of the Martians had
+remained standing upon his throne, gazing at the awful spectacle, and
+not moving from the spot. Neither he nor the frightened woman gathered
+upon the steps of the throne had been injured by the disintegrators.
+Their immunity was due to the fact that the position and elevation of
+the throne were such that, it was not within the range of fire of the
+electrical ships which had poured their vibratory discharges through the
+windows, and we inside had only directed our fire toward the warriors
+who had attacked us.
+
+Now that the struggle was over we turned our attention to Aina.
+Fortunately the girl had not been seriously injured and she was quickly
+restored to consciousness. Had she been killed, we would have been
+practically helpless in attempting further negotiations, because the
+knowledge which we had acquired of the language of the Martians from the
+prisoner captured on the golden asteroid, was not sufficient to meet the
+requirements of the occasion.
+
+When the Martian monarch saw that we ceased the work of death, he sank
+upon his throne. There he remained, leaning his chin upon his two hands
+and staring straight before him like that terrible doomed creature who
+fascinates the eyes of every beholder standing in the Sistine Chapel and
+gazing at Micheal Angeleo's dreadful painting of "The Last Judgement."
+
+This wicked Martian also felt that he was in the grasp of pitiless and
+irresistible fate, and that a punishment too well deserved, and from
+which there was no possible escape, now confronted him.
+
+There he remained in a hopelessness which almost compelled our sympathy,
+until Aina had so far recovered that she was once more able to act as
+our interpreter. Then we made short work of the negotiations. Speaking
+through Aina, the commander said:
+
+"You know who we are. We have come from the earth, which, by your
+command, was laid waste. Our commission was not revenge, but
+self-protection. What we have done has been accomplished with that in
+view. You have just witnessed an example of our power, the exercise of
+which was not dictated by our wish, but compelled by the attack wantonly
+made upon a helpless member of our own race under our protection.
+
+"We have laid waste your planet, but it is simply a just retribution for
+what you did with ours. We are prepared to complete the destruction,
+leaving not a living being in this world of yours, or to grant you
+peace, at your choice. Our condition of peace is simply this: All
+resistance must cease absolutely."
+
+"Quite right," broke in Colonel Smith; "let the scorpion pull out his
+sting or we shall do it for him."
+
+"Nothing that we could do now," continued the commander, "would in my
+opinion save you from ultimate destruction. The forces of nature which
+we have been compelled to let loose upon you will complete their own
+victory. But we do not wish, unnecessarily, to stain our hands further
+with your blood. We shall leave you in possession of your lives.
+Preserve them if you can. But, in case the flood recedes before you have
+all perished from starvation, remember that you here take an oath,
+solemnly binding yourself and your descendants forever never again to
+make war upon the earth."
+
+"That's really the best we can do," said Mr. Edison, turning to us. "We
+can't possibly murder these people in cold blood. The probability is
+that the flood has hopelessly ruined all their engines of war. I do not
+believe that there is one chance in ten that the waters will drain off
+in time to enable them to get at their stores of provisions before they
+have perished from starvation."
+
+"It is my opinion," said Lord Kelvin, who had joined us (his pair of
+disintegrators hanging by his side, attached to a strap running over the
+back of his neck, very much as a farmer sometimes carries his big
+mittens), "it is my opinion that the flood will recede more rapidly than
+you think, and that the majority of these people will survive. But I
+quite agree with your merciful view of the matter. We must be guilty of
+no wanton destruction. Probably more than nine-tenths of the inhabitants
+of Mars have perished in the deluge. Even if all the others survived
+ages would elapse before they could regain the power to injure us."
+
+I need not describe in detail how our propositions were received by the
+Martian monarch. He knew, and his advisors, some of whom he had called
+in consultation, also knew, that everything was in our hands to do as we
+pleased. They readily agreed, therefore, that they would make no more
+resistance and that we and our electrical ships should be undisturbed
+while we remained upon Mars. The monarch took the oath prescribed after
+the manner of his race; thus the business was completed. But through it
+all there had been a shadow of a sneer on the emperor's face which I did
+not like. But I said nothing.
+
+And now we began to think of our return home, and of the pleasure we
+should have in recounting our adventures to our friends on the earth,
+who undoubtedly were eagerly awaiting news from us. We knew that they
+had been watching Mars with powerful telescopes, and we were also eager
+to learn how much they had seen and how much they had been able to guess
+of our proceedings.
+
+But a day or two at least would be required to overhaul the electrical
+ships and examine the state of our provisions. Those which we had
+brought from the earth, it will be remembered, had been spoiled and we
+had been compelled to replace them from the compressed provisions found
+in the Martian's storehouse. This compressed food had proved not only
+exceedingly agreeable to the taste, but very nourishing, and all of us
+had grown extremely fond of it. A new supply, however, would be needed
+in order to carry us back to the earth. At least sixty days would be
+required for the homeward journey, because we could hardly expect to
+start from Mars with the same initial velocity which we had been able to
+generate on leaving home.
+
+In considering the matter of provisioning the fleet it finally became
+necessary to take an account of our losses. This was a thing that we had
+all shrunk from, because they had seemed to us almost too terrible to be
+borne. But now the facts had to be faced. Out of the one hundred ships,
+carrying something more than two thousand souls, with which we had
+quitted the earth, there remained only fifty-five ships and 1085 men!
+All the others had been lost in our terrible encounters with the
+Martians, and particularly in our first disastrous battle beneath the
+clouds.
+
+Among the lost were many men whose names were famous upon the earth, and
+whose death would be widely deplored when the news of it was received
+upon their native planet. Fortunately this number did not include any of
+those whom I have had occasion to mention in the course of this
+narrative. The venerable Lord Kelvin, who, notwithstanding his age, and
+his pacific disposition, proper to a man of science, had behaved with
+the courage and coolness of a veteran in every crisis; Monsieur Moissan,
+the eminent chemist; Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson, and the Heidelberg
+professor, to whom we all felt under special obligations because he had
+opened to our comprehension the charming lips of Aina--all these had
+survived, and were about to return with us to the earth.
+
+It seemed to some of us almost heartless to deprive the Martians who
+still remained alive of any of the provisions which they themselves
+would require to tide them over the long period which must elapse before
+the recession of the flood should enable them to discover the sites of
+their ruined homes, and to find the means of sustenance. But necessity
+was now our only law. We learned from Aina that there must be stores of
+provisions in the neighborhood of the palace, because it was the custom
+of the Martians to lay up such stores during the harvest time in each
+Martian year in order to provide against the contingency of an
+extraordinary drought.
+
+It was not with very good grace that the Martian emperor acceded to our
+demands that one of the storehouses should be opened, but resistance was
+useless and of course we had our way.
+
+The supplies of water which we brought from the earth, owing to a
+peculiar process invented by Monsieur Moissan, had been kept in
+exceedingly good condition, but they were now running low and it became
+necessary to replenish them also. This was easily done from the Southern
+Ocean, for on Mars, since the levelling of the continental elevations,
+brought about many years ago, there is comparatively little salinity in
+the sea waters.
+
+While these preparations were going on Lord Kelvin and the other men of
+science entered with the utmost eagerness upon those studies, the
+prosecution of which had been the principal inducement leading them to
+embark on the expedition. But, almost all of the face of the planet
+being covered with the flood, there was comparatively little that they
+could do. Much, however, could be learned with the aid of Aina from the
+Martians, now crowded on the land above the palace.
+
+The results of these discoveries will in due time appear, fully
+elaborated in learned and authoratative treatises prepared by these
+savants' themselves. I shall only call attention to one, which seemed to
+me very remarkable. I have already said that there were astonishing
+differences in the personal appearance of the Martians evidently arising
+from differences of character and education, which had impressed
+themselves in the physical aspect of the individuals. We now learned
+that these differences were more completely the result of education than
+we had at first supposed.
+
+Looking about among the Martians by whom we were surrounded, it soon
+became easy for us to tell who were the soldiers and who were the
+civilians, simply by the appearance of their bodies, and particularly of
+their heads. All members of the military class resembled, to a greater
+or less extent, the monarch himself, in that those parts of their skulls
+which our phrenologists had designated as the bumps of destructiveness,
+combativeness and so on were enormously and disproportionately
+developed.
+
+And all this, we were assured, was completely under the control of the
+Martians themselves. They had learned, or invented, methods by which the
+brain itself could be manipulated, so to speak, and any desired portions
+of it could be especially developed, while other parts of it were left
+to their normal growth. The consequence was that in the Martian schools
+and colleges there was no teaching in our sense of the word. It was all
+brain culture.
+
+A Martian youth selected to be a soldier had his fighting faculties
+especially developed, together with those parts of the brain which
+impart courage and steadiness of nerve. He who was intended for
+scientific investigation had his brain developed into a mathematical
+machine, or an instrument of observation. Poets and literary men had
+their heads bulging with the imaginative faculties. The heads of the
+inventors were developed into a still different shape.
+
+"And so," said Aina, translating for us the words of a professor in the
+Imperial University of Mars, from whom we derived the greater part of
+our information on this subject, "the Martian boys do not study a
+subject; they do not have to learn it, but, when their brains have been
+sufficiently developed in the proper direction, they comprehend it
+instantly, by a kind of divine instinct."
+
+But among the women of Mars, we saw none of these curious, and to our
+eyes, monstrous differences of development. While the men received, in
+addition to their special education, a broad general culture also, with
+the women there was no special education. It was all general in its
+character, yet thorough enough in that way. The consequence was that
+only female brains upon Mars were entirely well balanced. This was the
+reason why we invariably found the Martian women to be remarkably
+charming creatures, with none of those physical exaggerations and
+uncouth developments which disfigured their masculine companions.
+
+All the books of the Martians, we ascertained, were books of history and
+of poetry. For scientific treatises they had no need, because, as I have
+explained, when the brains of those intended for scientific pursuits had
+been developed in the proper way the knowledge of nature's laws came to
+them without effort, as a spring bubbles from the rocks.
+
+One word of explanation may be needed concerning the failure of the
+Martians, with all their marvelous powers, to invent electrical ships
+like those of Mr. Edison's and engines of destruction comparable with
+our disintegrators. This failure was simply due to the fact that on Mars
+there did not exist the peculiar metals by the combination of which Mr.
+Edison had been able to effect his wonders. The theory involved by our
+inventions was perfectly understood by them and had they possessed the
+means, doubtless they would have been able to carry it into practice
+even more effectively than we had done.
+
+After two or three days all the preparations having been completed the
+signal was given for our departure. The men of science were still
+unwilling to leave this strange world, but Mr. Edison decided we could
+linger no longer.
+
+At the moment of starting a most tragic event occured. Our fleet was
+assembled around the palace, and the signal was given to rise slowly to
+a considerable height before imparting a great velocity to the
+electrical ships. As we slowly rose we saw the immense crowd of giants
+beneath us, with upturned faces, watching our departure. The Martian
+monarch and all his suite had come out upon the terrace of the palace to
+look at us. At a moment when he probably supposed himself to be
+unwatched he shook his fist at the retreating fleet. My eyes and those
+of several others in the flagship chanced to be fixed upon him. Just as
+he made the gesture one of the women of his suite, in her eagerness to
+watch us, apparently lost her balance and stumbled against him. Without
+a moment's hesitation, with a tremendous blow, he felled her like an ox
+at his feet.
+
+A fearful oath broke from the lips of Colonel Smith, who was one of
+those looking on. It chanced that he stood near the principal
+disintegrator of the flagship. Before anybody could interfere he had
+sighted and discharged it. The entire force of the terrible engine,
+almost capable of destroying a fort, fell upon the Martian emperor and
+not merely blew him into a cloud of atoms but opened a great cavity in
+the ground on the spot where he had stood.
+
+A shout arose from the Martians, but they were too much astounded at
+what had occurred to make any hostile demonstrations, and, anyhow, they
+knew well that they were completely at our mercy.
+
+Mr. Edison was on the point of rebuking Colonel Smith for what he had
+done, but Aina interposed.
+
+"I am glad it was done," said she "for now only can you be safe. That
+monster was more directly responsible than any other inhabitant of Mars
+for all the wickedness of which they have been guilty.
+
+"The expedition against the earth was inspired solely by him. There is a
+tradition among the Martians--which my people, however, could never
+credit--that he possessed a kind of immortality. They declared that it
+was he who led the former expedition against the earth when my ancestors
+were brought away prisoners from their happy home, and that it was his
+image which they had set up in stone in the midst of the Land of Sand.
+He prolonged his existence, according to this legend, by drinking the
+waters of a wonderful fountain, the secret of whose precise location was
+known to him alone but which was situated at that point where in your
+maps of Mars the name of the Fons Juventae occurs. He was personified
+wickedness, that I know; and he never would have kept his oath if power
+had returned to him again to injure the earth. In destroying him, you
+have made your victory secure."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+
+_THE GREAT OVATION_
+
+
+When at length we once more saw our native planet, with its
+well-remembered features of land and sea, rolling beneath our eyes, the
+feeling of joy that came over us transcended all powers of expression.
+
+In order that all the nations which had united in sending out the
+expedition should have visual evidence of its triumphal return, it was
+decided to make the entire circuit of the earth before seeking our
+starting point and disembarking. Brief accounts in all known languages,
+telling the story of what we had done was accordingly prepared, and then
+we dropped down through the air until again we saw the well-loved blue
+dome over our heads, and found ourselves suspended directly above the
+white topped cone of Fujiyama, the sacred mountain of Japan. Shifting
+our position toward the northeast, we hung above the city of Tokyo and
+dropped down into the crowds which had assembled to watch us, the
+prepared accounts of our journey, which, the moment they had been read
+and comprehended, led to such an outburst of rejoicing as it would be
+quite impossible to describe.
+
+One of the ships containing the Japanese members of the expedition,
+dropped to the ground, and we left them in the midst of their rejoicing
+countrymen. Before we started--and we remained but a short time
+suspended above the Japanese capitol--millions had assembled to greet us
+with their cheers.
+
+We now repeated what we had done during our first examination of the
+surface of Mars. We simply remained suspended in the atmosphere,
+allowing the earth to turn beneath us. As Japan receded in the distance
+we found China beginning to appear. Shifting our position a little
+toward the south, we again came to rest over the city of Pekin, where
+once more we parted with some of our companions, and where the outburst
+of universal rejoicing was repeated.
+
+From Asia, crossing the Caspian Sea, we passed over Russia, visiting in
+turn Moscow and St. Petersburg.
+
+Still the great globe rolled steadily beneath, and still we kept the sun
+with us. Now Germany appeared, and now Italy, and then France, and
+England, as we shifted our position, first north then south, in order to
+give all the world the opportunity to see that its warriors had returned
+victorious from its far conquest. And in each country as it passed
+beneath our feet, we left some of the comrades who had shared our perils
+and our adventures.
+
+At length the Atlantic had rolled away under us, and we saw the spires
+of the new New York.
+
+The news of our coming had been flashed ahead from Europe and our
+countrymen were prepared to welcome us. We had originally started, it
+will be remembered, at midnight, and now again as we approached the new
+capitol of the world the curtain of night was just beginning to be drawn
+over it. But our signal lights were ablaze, and through these they were
+aware of our approach.
+
+Again the air was filled with bursting rockets and shaken with the roar
+of cannon, and with volleying cheers, poured from millions of throats,
+as we came to rest directly above the city.
+
+Three days after the landing of the fleet, and when the first enthusiasm
+of our reception had a little passed, I received a beautifully engraved
+card inviting me to be present in Trinity Church at the wedding of Aina
+and Sydney Phillips.
+
+When I arrived at the church, which had been splendidly decorated, I
+found there Mr. Edison, Lord Kelvin, and all the other members of the
+crew of the flagship, and, considerably to my surprise, Colonel Smith,
+appropriately attired, and with a grace for the possession of which I
+had not given him credit, gave away the beautiful bride.
+
+But Alonzo Jefferson Smith was a man and a soldier, every inch of him.
+
+"I asked her for myself," he whispered to me after the ceremony,
+swallowing a great lump in his throat, "but she has had the desire of
+her heart. I am going back to the plains. I can get a command again, and
+I still know how to fight."
+
+And thus was united, for all future time, the first stem of the Aryan
+race, which had been long lost, but not destroyed, with the latest
+offspring of that great family, and the link which had served to bring
+them together was the far-away planet of Mars.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+_BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GARRETT PUTMAN SERVISS_
+
+Compiled by Elizabeth Dew Searles
+
+
+_Non-Fiction: Magazine Articles_
+
+    Achievements of astronomical photography. Outlook _79_, 787-96
+    (April 1, 1905)
+
+    Alexander Graham Bell. Cosmopolitan _33_, 42-44 (May 1902)
+
+    Alpha Centauri. Harper's Weekly _38_, 413 (May 5, 1894)
+
+    Among the stars with an opera-glass. Sidereal Messenger _10_, 244-47
+    (May 1891)
+
+    Another theory about Mars. Harper's Weekly _41_, 518-19 (May 22,
+    1897)
+
+    Arcturus, the greatest of all suns. Scientific American _70_, 327
+    (May 26, 1894)
+
+    Are there planets among the stars? Popular Science Monthly _52_,
+    171-77 (December 1897)
+
+    Artificial creation of life. Cosmopolitan _39_, 459-68 (September
+    1905)
+
+    Astronomy with an opera-glass: (This series was enlarged and
+    published in book form; see the following section.)
+
+      Stars of spring. Popular Science Monthly _30_, 743-56 (April 1887)
+      Stars of summer. ibid. _31_, 187-207 (June 1887)
+      Moon and the sun. ibid. _31_, 478-92 (August 1887)
+      Stars of autumn. ibid. _32_, 53-71 (November 1887)
+      Stars of winter. ibid. _32_, 511-29 (February 1888)
+
+
+    Astronomy in the 20th century. Popular Astronomy _9_, 286-87 (May
+    1901)
+
+    Auriga's wonderful star. Harper's Weekly _41_, 471 (May 8, 1897)
+
+    A Belt of sun-spots. Popular Science Monthly _24_, 180-86 (December
+    1883)
+
+    Can we always count upon the sun? Popular Science Monthly _39_,
+    658-64 (September 1891)
+
+    Celebrated American astronomers. Harper's Weekly _38_, 1143-46 (Dec.
+    1, 1894)
+
+    Digging up Cæsar's camp. Harper's Weekly _54_, 12-13 (Dec. 31, 1910)
+
+    The Dimensions of the universe. Chautaquan _21_, 143-48 (May 1895)
+
+    Edelweiss. Nature Magazine _10_, 25 (July 1927)
+
+    Facts and fancies about Mars. Harper's Weekly _40_, 926 (Sept. 19,
+    1896)
+
+    From chaos to man; illustrated lecture in the Urania scientific
+    theater, at Carnegie Hall. Scientific American _66_, 399, 405-07
+    (June 25, 1892)
+
+    Greenland's icy mountains. Mentor _15_, 33-34 (February 1927)
+
+    How Burbank produces new flowers and fruit. Cosmopolitan _40_,
+    163-70 (December 1905)
+
+    Is Mars inhabited? Harper's Weekly _39_, 712 (July 27, 1895)
+
+    The Kite principle in aerial navigation. Scientific American
+    _88_, 484 (June 27, 1903)
+
+    Latest marvels of astronomy. Mentor _9_, 2-12 (October 1921)
+
+    Luther Burbank. Chautaquan _50_, 406-16 (May 1908)
+
+    New conquest of the heavens. Cosmopolitan _52_, 584-93 (April 1912)
+
+    New light on a lunar mystery. Popular Science Monthly _34_, 158-61
+    (December 1888)
+
+    New philosopher's stone. Cosmopolitan _44_, 632-36 (May 1908)
+
+    New Shakespeare--Bacon controversy. Cosmopolitan _32_, 554-58
+    (March 1902)
+
+    Opposition of Mars. Harper's Weekly _36_, 810 (Aug. 20, 1892)
+
+    Pleasures of the telescope: (Cf. the book "_Pleasures of the
+    Telescope_" listed in the following section.)
+
+      The selection and testing of a glass. Popular Science Monthly _45_,
+        213-24 (June 1894)
+      In the starry heavens. ibid. _46_, 289-301 (January 1895)
+      The starry heavens (cont'd). ibid. _46_, 466-78 (February 1895)
+      Virgo and her neighbors. ibid. _46_, 738-50 (April 1895)
+      In summer starlands. ibid. _47_, 194-208 (June 1895)
+      From Lyra to Eridanus. ibid. _47_, 508-21 (August 1895)
+      Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and the northern stars. ibid. _47_, 783-97
+        (October 1895)
+
+    Progress of science. Cosmopolitan _33_, 357-60 (July 1902)
+
+    Recent magnetic storms and sun-spots. Popular Science Monthly _23_,
+    163-69 (June 1883)
+
+    Riding through space. Mentor _11_, 3-16 (November 1923)
+
+    Rome of the gravel walk. Harper's Weekly _54_, 9-11 (July 30, 1910)
+
+    Scenes on the planets. Popular Science Monthly _56_, 337-49 (January
+    1900)
+
+    The Sky from Pike's Peak. Astronomy and Astrophysics _13_, 150-51
+    (February 1894)
+
+    Soaring flight. Scientific American _90_, 345 (April 30, 1904)
+
+    Solving the mystery of the stars. Cosmopolitan _39_, 395-404 (August
+    1905)
+
+    Star streams and nebulæ. Popular Science Monthly _38_, 338-41
+    (January 1891)
+
+    Strange markings on Mars. Popular Science Monthly _35_, 41-56 (May
+    1889)
+
+    Studies in astronomy. Chautaquan _12_, 38-43, 184-88, 330-34, 463-67,
+    596-601, 735-39; _13_, 34-39, 170-75, 304-09 (October 1890-June 1891)
+
+    The Sun and his family. Outlook _200_, 656-65 (March 23, 1912)
+
+    Transforming the world of plants. Cosmopolitan _40_, 63-70 (November
+    1905)
+
+    What a five-inch telescope will show. Popular Astronomy _1_, 372-73
+    (April 1894)
+
+    What is astronomy? Chautaquan _18_, 541-45 (February 1894)
+
+    What is the music of the spheres? Mentor _15_, 18-20 (December 1927)
+
+    What the stars are made of. Chautaquan _21_, 9-13 (April 1895)
+
+    What we know about the planets. Chautaquan _20_, 526-31 (February
+    1895)
+
+    When shall we have another glacial epoch? Publications of the
+    Astronomical Society of the Pacific 4, 15-19 (Jan. 30, 1892)
+
+
+_Non-Fiction: Books, Pamphlets, Etc._
+
+    Astronomy in a nutshell, the chief facts and principles explained in
+    popular language for the general reader and for schools. New
+    York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1912. xi, 261p. front.,
+    illus., plates, diagrs. 19cm.
+
+    Astronomy with an opera-glass: a popular introduction to the study
+    of the starry heavens with the simplest of optical instruments, with
+    maps and directions to facilitate the recognition of the
+    constellations and the principal stars visible to the naked eye. New
+    York and London: D. Appleton and Co., 1888. vi, 154 p. incl. illus.,
+    maps. 23cm. (Enlarged from a series of articles in _Popular Science
+    Monthly_; see the preceding section.)
+
+    Astronomy with the naked eye; a new geography of the heavens, with
+    descriptions and charts of constellations, stars, and planets. New
+    York and London: Harper and brothers, 1908. xiii, (l)p., 1 1.,
+    246p., 1 1. illus., xiv charts (12 double). 21cm.
+
+    Curiosities of the sky; a popular presentation of the great riddles
+    and mysteries of astronomy. New York and London: Harper & brothers,
+    1909. xvi p., 2 1., 267, (1) p. incl. front., plates, charts. 21cm.
+
+    The Einstein theory of relativity ... with illustrations and photos
+    taken directly from the Einstein relativity film, illustrations by
+    R. D. Crandall. New York: E. M. Fadman, inc., (c1923). 96p.
+    front., illus. 19cm.
+
+    ----. London: American Book Supply, 1923. 96p. 19cm.
+
+    Eloquence, counsel on the art of public speaking; with many
+    illustrative examples showing the style and method of famous orators.
+    New York and London: Harper & brothers, 1912. iv p., 31., 2l4p.
+    front, (port.). 19-1/2cm.
+
+    How to use the Popular science library ... (and) History of science,
+    by Arthur Selwyn-Brown; General index. New York: P. F. Collier
+    & son co., (c1922). 2p.l., 3-384p. front., plates, ports. 20-1/2cm.
+    (added t.-p.: Popular science library, editor-in-chief, G. P.
+    Serviss, vol. XVI).
+
+    The Moon; a popular treatise. New York: D. Appleton and co.,
+    1907. xii, 248p. front., illus., 26 pl. 20cm.
+
+    ----. London: D. Appleton and co., 1908. 260p. illus. 20cm.
+
+    The Moon _in_ Frederick H. Law (ed.), Science in literature. New
+    York: Harper and brothers, 1929. p. 69-83.
+
+    Napoleon Bonaparte _in_ Thomas B. Reed (ed.), Modern eloquence.
+    Philadelphia: John D. Morris and co., 1901. vol. 6, p. 983-1009.
+
+    Other worlds; their nature, possibilities and habitability in the
+    light of the latest discoveries. New York: D. Appleton and co., 1901.
+    xv, 282p. front. (chart), illus., plates. 19-1/2cm.
+
+    ----. London: Hirschfeld brothers, 1902. 298p. charts, illus.
+    19-1/2cm.
+
+    Pleasures of the telescope; an illustrated guide for amateur
+    astronomers and a popular description of the chief wonders of the
+    heavens for general readers. New York: D. Appleton and co., 1901.
+    viii, 200p. illus. (incl. maps). 23cm.
+
+    ----. London: Hirschfeld brothers, 1901. 208p. 23cm.
+
+    Round the year with the stars; the chief beauties of the starry
+    heavens as seen with the naked eye ... with maps showing the
+    aspect of the sky in each of the four seasons and charts revealing
+    the outlines of the constellations. New York and London: Harper &
+    brothers, 1910. 19, (1) p., 1 1., 21-146, (1) p. incl. charts. 21cm.
+
+    Solar and planetary evolution _in_ Evolution; popular lectures and
+    discussions before the Brooklyn ethical association. Boston: James H.
+    West, 1889. p. 55-70; discussion, p. 71-75.
+
+    The Story of the moon; a description of the scenery of the lunar
+    world as it would appear to a visitor spending a month on the moon
+    ... illustrated with a complete series of photographs taken at the
+    Yerkes observatory. New York, London: D. Appleton and co.,
+    (c1928). xii, 247, (1) p. front., illus., plates, diagrs. 20cm.
+    (First published under the title: The Moon)
+
+    Wonders of the lunar world, or A Trip to the moon. (New York):
+    publisher not given, c1892. 20p. 201/2cm. (Urania series. No.l)
+
+
+_Fiction_
+
+    A Columbus of space. New York and London: D. Appleton and co.,
+    1911. vii p., 1 1., 297, (1) p. col. front., col. plates. 20cm.
+
+    ----. All-Story _13_, 1-16, 238-57, 418-32, 644-58; 14, 79-89, 300-12
+    (January-June 1909)
+
+    ----. Amazing Stories _1_, 388-409, 474-75, 490-509, 596-615, 669
+   (August-October 1926)
+
+    Edison's conquest of Mars. New York Evening Journal, Jan. 12-Feb.
+    10, 1898.
+
+    The Moon Maiden. Argosy _79_, 258-351 (May 1915)
+
+    The Moon metal. New York and London: Harper & brothers, 1900.
+    2 p.l., 163, (1) p. 17-1/2cm.
+
+    ----. All-Story _2_, 118-53 (May 1905)
+
+    ----. Amazing Stories _1_, 322-45, 381 (July 1926)
+
+    ----. Famous Fantastic Mysteries _1_, 40-74 (November 1939).
+
+    The Second deluge. New York: McBride, Nast & co., 1912. 6p.l.,
+    3-399p. front., plates. 191/2cm.
+
+    ----. London: Grant Richards, 1912. 410p. 191/2cm.
+
+    ----. Amazing Stories _1_, 676-701, 767-68, 844-66, 944-67, 1059-73
+    (November 1926-February 1927).
+
+    ----. Amazing Stories Quarterly _7_, 2-73 (Winter 1933).
+
+    ----. Cavalier _9_, 193-210, 481-501, 693-708; _10_, 88-103, 300-15,
+    546-58, 739-52 (July 1911-January 1912).
+
+    The Sky pirate. Scrap Book _7_, 595-606, 835-45, 1079-91; _8_,
+    105-17, 294-304, 562-70 (April-September 1909).
+
+
+     Note: In addition to his books and magazine articles, Garrett P.
+     Serviss wrote extensively for newspapers, having been a staff
+     writer on the New York _Sun_ at the beginning of his career and
+     having written later for a newspaper syndicate. This bibliography
+     does not include any of Serviss' newspaper writings, with the
+     exception of _Edison's Conquest of Mars_, since the effort involved
+     in compiling a list of his writings from so ephemeral a medium
+     would not be warranted by the questionable completeness of such a
+     list, much of his writing for newspapers having been anonymous.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Edison's Conquest of Mars, by 
+Garrett Putnam Serviss
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDISON'S CONQUEST OF MARS ***
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+
+Project Gutenberg's Edison's Conquest of Mars, by Garrett Putnam Serviss
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Edison's Conquest of Mars
+
+Author: Garrett Putnam Serviss
+
+Release Date: June 3, 2007 [EBook #21670]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDISON'S CONQUEST OF MARS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/il005.jpg"><img src="images/il005.jpg" alt=""/></a>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<h1>EDISON'S CONQUEST OF MARS</h1>
+
+<h2>BY GARRETT P. SERVISS.</h2>
+
+<h3>WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY A. LANGLEY SEARLES, Ph. D.</h3>
+
+<h4>CARCOSA HOUSE<br />
+1947<br />
+LOS ANGELES</h4>
+
+<h4>The special contents of this volume are copyright 1947 by CARCOSA HOUSE.</h4>
+
+<h4>FIRST EDITION</h4>
+
+<h5>[Transcriber's note: This is a Rule 6 Clearance. PG has not been able to
+find a U.S. Copyright Renewal]</h5>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h4>DEDICATED<br />
+to<br />
+GARRETT PUTMAN SERVISS<br /><br />
+A COSMOPOLITE IN TIME<br />
+1851-1929</h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<p>
+<a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_ONE">CHAPTER ONE <i>"Let Us Go To Mars"</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_TWO">CHAPTER TWO <i>The Disintegrator</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_THREE">CHAPTER THREE <i>The Congress of Nations</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FOUR">CHAPTER FOUR <i>To Conquer Another World</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FIVE">CHAPTER FIVE <i>The Footprint on the Moon</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_SIX">CHAPTER SIX <i>The Monsters on the Asteroid</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_SEVEN">CHAPTER SEVEN <i>A Planet of Gold</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_EIGHT">CHAPTER EIGHT <i>"The Martians are Coming!"</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_NINE">CHAPTER NINE <i>Journey's End</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_TEN">CHAPTER TEN <i>The Great Smoke Barrier</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_ELEVEN">CHAPTER ELEVEN <i>The Earth Girl</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_TWELVE">CHAPTER TWELVE <i>Retreat to Deimos</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_THIRTEEN">CHAPTER THIRTEEN <i>There Were Giants in the Earth</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FOURTEEN">CHAPTER FOURTEEN <i>The Flood Gates of Mars</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTEEN">CHAPTER FIFTEEN <i>Vengeance is Ours</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_SIXTEEN">CHAPTER SIXTEEN <i>The Woman From Ceres</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_SEVENTEEN">CHAPTER SEVENTEEN <i>The Fearful Oaths of Colonel Smith</i></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_EIGHTEEN">CHAPTER EIGHTEEN<i>The Great Ovation</i></a><br />
+<a href="#BIBLIOGRAPHY"><i>Bibliography</i></a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="il004" id="il004"></a>
+<img src="images/il004.jpg" alt=""/>
+
+<h3><i>"Like men, and yet not like men...."</i></h3>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+<p><a href="#il004"><i>"Like men, and yet not like men...."</i></a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#il027"><i>"... rising out of the shadow of the globe...."</i></a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#il039"><i>"A consultation in Wizard Edison's laboratory...."</i></a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#il057"><i>"Through this the meteor had passed...."</i></a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#il063"><i>"... the ruins of ... an ancient watch tower."</i></a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#il075"><i>"... another of our ships ... was destroyed."</i></a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#il081"><i>"Two of the Martians were stretched dead upon the ground."</i></a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#il087"><i>"He might have been a match for twenty of us."</i></a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#il107"><i>"... he proceeded to teach us ... words of his language."</i></a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#il117"><i>"... approaching from the eastward a large airship...."</i></a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#il139"><i>"... a human being here on Mars!"</i></a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#il161"><i>"The gigantic statue of their leader is THE GREAT SPHINX!"</i></a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#il191"><i>"It was a panic of giants."</i></a></p>
+
+
+<p>These illustrations are a selection of the best from the original
+newspaper installments and were redrawn for this volume by Bernard
+Manley, Jr., of Chicago, Illinois.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+
+
+<p>If you picked up a magazine and read in it a story mentioning a
+passenger-carrying rocket driven by atomic power furnished by a
+substance prepared from uranium, you probably would not be greatly
+surprised. After all, such an invention is today but a step or two ahead
+of cold fact. But you might be surprised to learn that if this story was
+<i>A Columbus of Space</i>, the one I happen to have in mind, your
+grand-parents may well have read it before you were born&mdash;for <i>A
+Columbus of Space</i> was published in <i>All-Story</i> magazine in 1909, thirty
+years before the potentialities of U235 were realized, and nearly forty
+before the atomic bomb became a problem for people to think about.</p>
+
+<p>Did the author of this story simply make a lucky shot in the dark?
+Perhaps; but let me tell those who are inclined to think so that he was
+a Carnegie lecturer, a member of half-a-dozen learned societies, one of
+the first to write a book on Einstein's theory of relativity, and an
+internationally known figure in his specialty, astronomy. His name is
+Garrett Putman Serviss.</p>
+
+<p>He was born on March 24, 1851, at Sharon Springs, New York, of native
+New England stock. His interest in astronomy began as a boy, and was
+greatly stimulated when he began to examine the beauties of the heavens
+through a small telescope, the gift of his older brother. This
+encouraged his enrolling in the course of science at Cornell University
+in 1868 (its opening year) from which he was graduated in 1872. There
+followed two years at the Columbia College Law School, which he left as
+an LL. B.; and in June, 1874 he was admitted to the bar. He did not
+practice law, however, but turned instead to newspaper reporting.</p>
+
+<p>Whence came this interest in law and journalism? We can only guess,
+tracing its onset to the man's college days. As a Cornell sophomore, he
+was the class poet; as a senior, its historian; and on commencement day
+delivered an oration on "The Perpetuity of the Heroic Element." But
+whatever the origin of the interest, unquestioned ability supported it.
+From the position of reporter and correspondent with the New York
+<i>Tribune</i> he rose to the post of copy editor on the staff of the <i>Sun</i>.
+Finally he became night editor, a position which he held for a full
+decade.</p>
+
+<p>During this period we can see the old interest in science gradually
+assert itself. At first it took the form of anonymous articles, mainly
+on matters astronomical. These usually appeared on the editorial page
+and, partly because they were then a novelty, partly because of a quirk
+of fate&mdash;editor-in-chief Charles Dana frequently had them set up in bold
+type, believing their logic was a fine counter-irritant for heated
+political campaigns of the day&mdash;the attention of subscribers was focused
+on them more sharply than usual. In fact, readers over the entire
+country were soon conjecturing about the identity of "the <i>Sun's</i>
+astronomer." Very few knew that it was Garrett Serviss, who successfully
+cloaked his identity for years.</p>
+
+<p>Success in written popularizing of science led him to attempt its
+duplication on the lecture platform. There his triumphs were such as to
+lead him to resign as night editor of the <i>Sun</i> in 1892 and make
+astronomy his life work. Until 1894 he was occupied with "The Urania
+Lectures." These were sponsored by Andrew Carnegie, and dealt with
+geology, astronomy, archeology and similar scientific topics. With them
+Serviss successfully toured the country, and it was only because of the
+great difficulty in transporting the elaborate staging equipment they
+required that they were eventually discontinued. He continued to give
+popular lectures, however, and one of his few biographers has credited
+his greatness on the rostrum to "a pleasant voice, a charming
+personality, and a genuine enthusiasm for his subject."</p>
+
+<p>One cannot doubt this enthusiasm; it shines forth unmistakably from all
+his writings. Probably, too, it played the major part in enabling him to
+reach a wider reading public than any other astronomer before or after
+him. For he never abandoned the pen. Up until his death, which occurred
+on May 25, 1929, he wrote continually, syndicated newspaper columns,
+magazine articles, books on astronomy, fiction.</p>
+
+<p>His first book, <i>Astronomy with an Opera Glass</i>, appeared in 1888. He
+was responsible for several other scientific titles (the reader is
+referred to the bibliography at the end of this volume for a detailed
+listing); they include <i>Einstein's Theory of Relativity</i>, which is a
+companion work to the motion picture of the same name. He was also
+editor-in-chief of Collier's sixteen-volume <i>Popular Science Library</i>.
+It might be added that much of the editing and captioning of the
+Einstein film was his work, and that he collaborated with Leon Barritt
+in the invention of the Barritt-Serviss Star and Planet Finder, a device
+still in use.</p>
+
+<p>In comparison with his other writings his output of fiction is small:
+five novels and a single short story. It is, however, characterized by
+the same logic and interest, this time tossed aloft to soar on the wings
+of romantic imagination. Two of these works deal in some detail with the
+world of the future as he thought it might be&mdash;prophetic fiction, if you
+will; another two give us a picture of life on neighboring planets; and
+the final couple, although they maintain a terrestrial locale, show as
+wide a scope of creative invention.</p>
+
+<p>In only one of these does astronomy fail to play at least a supporting
+role. That is <i>The Sky Pirate</i> (1909), which is an adventure story laid
+in the year 1936. Its plot revolves around an abduction for ransom in a
+period which is visualized as rampant with piracy because of the general
+adoption of air transportation. As usual, fact has outmoded prophecy,
+for long before 1936 airplane speeds exceeded the 140 miles per hour
+Serviss predicted. We still need, though, his invention which enables
+badly damaged aircraft to drift slowly down to a safe landing.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Moon Metal</i> (1900) deals with the problem of a strange, lunar metal
+used as a monetary standard to replace gold when, in 1949, huge new
+deposits of that metal rendered it common as iron. This is of short
+story length, and amply demonstrates the author's mastery of that
+medium.</p>
+
+<p>From the prophetic as well as the entertainment standpoint, one of
+Garrett Serviss' most interesting novels is <i>A Columbus of Space</i>. Here
+he visualizes atomic energy liberated and harnessed to drive a rocket to
+the planet Venus. His conception is uncannily close to truth; he names
+uranium as the raw material from which is extracted the vital substance,
+a "crystallized powder" which releases its energy on proper treatment.
+No less intriguing is the description of the intelligent civilizations
+on Venus which explorers from this world find.</p>
+
+<p>Two later novels came from his pen: <i>The Moon Maiden</i> (1915) and <i>The
+Second Deluge</i> (1911). The former is a scientific mystery, and probably
+the least distinguished of his works. The latter, conversely, is
+probably his best. It tells of a watery nebula which collides with the
+earth, flooding it with a second deluge; and of how the human race is
+saved through the wisdom of one man who foresaw the coming disaster in
+time to build a second ark. A new civilization which has mastered the
+secret of atomic energy springs up on the planet as the waters recede.
+The canvas is a broad one, and the author does it full justice.</p>
+
+<p>Serviss' outstanding stories have been published abroad and re-printed
+in this country several times, a deserved tribute to their quality and
+popularity. His very first work of fiction, however, has been shrouded
+in obscurity for nearly half a century. Indeed, among collectors and
+aficionados of the fantastic there was for a time debate as to its
+actual existence. This is hardly surprising, for until its reprinting in
+this book <i>Edison's Conquest of Mars</i> lay buried in the Congressional
+Library's file of the ephemeral New York <i>Evening Journal</i>, where it ran
+serially in early 1898.</p>
+
+<p>This is a remarkable work. First of all, as many readers will quickly
+discern, it is in a sense a sequel to H. G. Wells' well known <i>War of
+the Worlds</i>. The latter novel was serialized by <i>Cosmopolitan</i> magazine
+in 1897; it caught the public's fickle fancy, and was widely commented
+upon. All evidence indicates that Serviss also read it: he was a regular
+contributor to <i>Cosmopolitan</i>. Yet I am inclined to doubt that mere
+reading of <i>The War of the Worlds</i> in itself prompted him to produce a
+work in the same vein. Wells' effort was not concluded until the
+December, 1897 number of the magazine, and <i>Edison's Conquest of Mars</i>
+began on the following January 12th&mdash;a scant six weeks later. For
+Serviss it was the initial excursion into the realm of fiction, and it
+is hard to conceive his so hastily adopting a new metier on personal
+impulse alone. These circumstances, in conjunction with the context of
+the novel itself, clearly stamp the entire business as clever
+capitalization on already existent publicity. Again, I doubt if he
+thought of it at first in that light; his name was well enough known so
+that he could live by his knowledge, not his wits. But to a newspaper
+editor the prospect of combining the authority of a nationally known and
+reputable astronomer with a work designed to satisfy a reading public's
+waiting appetite for the unusual&mdash;in short, presenting legitimatized
+sensationalism at the psychological moment&mdash;this must have had
+irresistible appeal. That <i>Edison's Conquest of Mars</i> was written on
+editorial commission, perhaps as fast as it appeared, seems, then, the
+most probable interpretation.</p>
+
+<p>Historically, the work is one of the earliest to employ the
+interplanetary theme. It is the first to portray a battle fought by
+space craft in the airless void; and possibly the first also to propose
+the use of sealed suits that enable men to traverse a vacuum. Of the
+more minor twists of plot initially found here that have since become
+parts of the "pulp" science-fiction writers' standard stock-in-trade,
+there are literally too many to mention.</p>
+
+<p>The novel opens with a description of the ruins of eastern America.
+Although the Martians who survived terrestrial bacteria have left the
+planet, astronomical observations show a recurrence on the red planet of
+the same lights that were a prelude to the first onslaught. The
+conclusion is inevitable: a second invasion is on the way. Serviss
+pictures the gathering together of the most famous scientists of the
+day&mdash;Edison, Roentgen, Lord Kelvin and others. The Martian machines and
+weapons left behind are dismantled; their principles of operation are
+discovered and duplicated; and a defense against their forces is
+perfected. Armed with this knowledge and with the "disintegrator," a
+device invented by Edison which is capable of reducing to atoms any
+substance at which it is aimed, the nations of the world pool their
+resources and launch an invasion of Mars across interplanetary space.</p>
+
+<p>More by way of explanation than justification, it should be stated that
+science today is diminishing the number of critics who are wont to label
+plots of this nature "too fantastic." For them to say that the colossal
+has become more important than the rational is, I feel, misleading. For
+this is a branch of literature that is in many respects the most
+rational of all: it is a symptom of progress. These same critics also
+complain that a fantastic plot is frequently developed at the expense of
+characterization. To this, one may answer that at times what happens can
+be more important than the people to whom it happens. In essence, both
+charges derive from laying undue stress upon psychology as the only
+legitimate fibre from which a fictional cloth may be woven. Undoubtedly
+psychology is necessary&mdash;but it can be a warp alone if a strong woof is
+supplied. Let me cite two imaginary examples. If a single scientist had
+released atomic energy and was in doubt as to whether he should destroy
+his secret or reveal it, the psychological processes that determine his
+decision become more relevant to consideration than the decision itself.
+But if that same scientist managed by the aid of atomic energy to
+transport himself to Mars, I would unquestionably be more interested in
+what he found on that planet than in why an Oedipus complex drove him
+there in the first place.</p>
+
+<p>In the fiction of Garrett Serviss the sweeping magnitude of events
+described gives them the leading role. Yet within the limits he has set
+for himself he has used human psychology to good advantage. His stories
+do not lack empathy, and they are rich in pictorial detail. Inevitably
+they reflect the mores of the time, but do not emphasize them unduly. As
+a consequence they remain readable and entertaining even to this day.</p>
+
+<p>They show, too, that he was familiar with the works of the few authors
+in the genre who preceeded him. <i>A Columbus of Space</i> was dedicated "to
+the readers of Jules Verne's romances,"</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Not because the author flatters himself that he can walk in the
+Footsteps of that Immortal Dreamer, but because, like Jules Verne,
+he believes that the World of Imagination is as legitimate a Domain
+of the Human Mind as the World of Fact.</p></div>
+
+<p>Garrett Serviss modestly underestimated his abilities. With the
+perspective we possess today it can be seen that he is easily the equal
+of Verne, standing with him and H. G. Wells as one of the foremost
+science-fiction writers of his day.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A. Langley Searles<br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>New York, N. Y.</i><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>May 1947</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>EDISON'S CONQUEST OF MARS</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_ONE" id="CHAPTER_ONE"></a>CHAPTER ONE</h2>
+
+<h3><i>"LET US GO TO MARS"</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>It is impossible that the stupendous events which followed the
+disastrous invasion of the earth by the Martians should go without
+record, and circumstances having placed the facts at my disposal, I deem
+it a duty, both to posterity and to those who were witnesses of and
+participants in the avenging counterstroke that the earth dealt back at
+its ruthless enemy in the heavens, to write down the story in a
+connected form.</p>
+
+<p>The Martians had nearly all perished, not through our puny efforts, but
+in consequence of disease, and the few survivors fled in one of their
+projectile cars, inflicting their crudest blow in the act of departure.</p>
+
+<p>They possessed a mysterious explosive, of unimaginable puissance, with
+whose aid they set their car in motion for Mars from a point in Bergen
+County, N. J., just back of the Palisades.</p>
+
+<p>The force of the explosion may be imagined when it is recollected that
+they had to give the car a velocity of more than seven miles per second
+in order to overcome the attraction of the earth and the resistance of
+the atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>The shock destroyed all of New York that had not already fallen a prey,
+and all the buildings yet standing in the surrounding towns and cities
+fell in one far-circling ruin.</p>
+
+<p>The Palisades tumbled in vast sheets, starting a tidal wave in the
+Hudson that drowned the opposite shore.</p>
+
+<p>The victims of this ferocious explosion were numbered by tens of
+thousands, and the shock, transmitted through the rocky frame of the
+globe, was recorded by seismographic pendulums in England and on the
+Continent of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The terrible results achieved by the invaders had produced everywhere a
+mingled feeling of consternation and hopelessness. The devastation was
+widespread. The death-dealing engines which the Martians had brought
+with them had proved irresistible and the inhabitants of the earth
+possessed nothing capable of contending against them. There had been no
+protection for the great cities; no protection even for the open
+country. Everything had gone down before the savage onslaught of those
+merciless invaders from space. Savage ruins covered the sites of many
+formerly flourishing towns and villages, and the broken walls of great
+cities stared at the heavens like the exhumed skeletons of Pompeii. The
+awful agencies had extirpated pastures and meadows and dried up the very
+springs of fertility in the earth where they had touched it. In some
+parts of the devastated lands pestilence broke out; elsewhere there was
+famine. Despondency black as night brooded over some of the fairest
+portions of the globe.</p>
+
+<p>Yet all had not been destroyed, because all had not been reached by the
+withering hand of the destroyer. The Martians had not had time to
+complete their work before they themselves fell a prey to the diseases
+that carried them off at the very culmination of their triumph.</p>
+
+<p>From those lands which had, fortunately, escaped invasion, relief was
+sent to the sufferers. The outburst of pity and of charity exceeded
+anything that the world had known. Differences of race and religion were
+swallowed up in the universal sympathy which was felt for those who had
+suffered so terribly from an evil that was as unexpected as it was
+unimaginable in its enormity.</p>
+
+<p>But the worst was not yet. More dreadful than the actual suffering and
+the scenes of death and devastation which overspread the afflicted lands
+was the profound mental and moral depression that followed. This was
+shared even by those who had not seen the Martians and had not witnessed
+the destructive effects of the frightful engines of war that they had
+imported for the conquest of the earth. All mankind was sunk deep in
+this universal despair, and it became tenfold blacker when the
+astronomers announced from their observatories that strange lights were
+visible, moving and flashing upon the red surface of the Planet of War.
+These mysterious appearances could only be interpreted in the light of
+past experience to mean that the Martians were preparing for another
+invasion of the earth, and who could doubt that with the invincible
+powers of destruction at their command they would this time make their
+work complete and final?</p>
+
+<p>This startling announcement was the more pitiable in its effects because
+it served to unnerve and discourage those few of stouter hearts and more
+hopeful temperaments who had already begun the labor of restoration and
+reconstruction amid the embers of their desolated homes. In New York
+this feeling of hope and confidence, this determination to rise against
+disaster and to wipe out the evidences of its dreadful presence as
+quickly as possible, had especially manifested itself. Already a company
+had been formed and a large amount of capital subscribed for the
+reconstruction of the destroyed bridges over the East River. Already
+architects were busily at work planning new twenty-story hotels and
+apartment houses; new churches and new cathedrals on a grander scale
+than before.</p>
+
+<p>Amid this stir of renewed life came the fatal news that Mars was
+undoubtedly preparing to deal us a death blow. The sudden revulsion of
+feeling flitted like the shadow of an eclipse over the earth. The scenes
+that followed were indescribable. Men lost their reason. The
+faint-hearted ended the suspense with self-destruction, the
+stout-hearted remained steadfast, but without hope and knowing not what
+to do.</p>
+
+<p>But there was a gleam of hope of which the general public as yet knew
+nothing. It was due to a few dauntless men of science, conspicuous among
+whom were Lord Kelvin, the great English savant; Herr Roentgen, the
+discover of the famous X-ray, and especially Thomas A. Edison, the
+American genius of science. These men and a few others had examined with
+the utmost care the engines of war, the flying machines, the generators
+of mysterious destructive forces that the Martians had produced, with
+the object of discovering, if possible, the sources of their power.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly from Mr. Edison's laboratory at Orange flashed the startling
+intelligence that he had not only discovered the manner in which the
+invaders had been able to produce the mighty energies which they
+employed with such terrible effect, but that, going further, he had
+found a way to overcome them.</p>
+
+<p>The glad news was quickly circulated throughout the civilized world.
+Luckily the Atlantic cables had not been destroyed by the Martians, so
+that communication between the Eastern and Western continents was
+uninterrupted. It was a proud day for America. Even while the Martians
+had been upon the earth, carrying everything before them, demonstrating
+to the confusion of the most optimistic that there was no possibility of
+standing against them, a feeling&mdash;a confidence had manifested itself in
+France, to a minor extent in England, and particularly in Russia, that
+the Americans might discover means to meet and master the invaders.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it seemed, this hope and expectation was to be realized. Too late,
+it is true, in a certain sense, but not too late to meet the new
+invasion which the astronomers had announced was impending. The effect
+was as wonderful and indescribable as that of the despondency which but
+a little while before had overspread the world. One could almost hear
+the universal sigh of relief which went up from humanity. To relief
+succeeded confidence&mdash;so quickly does the human spirit recover like an
+elastic spring, when pressure is released.</p>
+
+<p>"Let them come," was the almost joyous cry. "We shall be ready for them
+now. The Americans have solved the problem. Edison has placed the means
+of victory within our power."</p>
+
+<p>Looking back upon that time now, I recall, with a thrill, the pride that
+stirred me at the thought that, after all, the inhabitants of the earth
+were a match for those terrible men from Mars, despite all the advantage
+which they had gained from their millions of years of prior civilization
+and science.</p>
+
+<p>As good fortunes, like bad, never come singly, the news of Mr. Edison's
+discovery was quickly followed by additional glad tidings from that
+laboratory of marvels in the lap of the Orange mountains. During their
+career of conquest the Martians had astonished the inhabitants of the
+earth no less with their flying machines&mdash;which navigated our atmosphere
+as easily as they had that of their native planet&mdash;than with their more
+destructive inventions. These flying machines in themselves had given
+them an enormous advantage in the contest. High above the desolation
+that they had caused to reign on the surface of the earth, and, out of
+the range of our guns, they had hung safe in the upper air. From the
+clouds they had dropped death upon the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Now, rumor declared that Mr. Edison had invented and perfected a flying
+machine much more complete and manageable than those of the Martians had
+been. Wonderful stories quickly found their way into the newspapers
+concerning what Mr. Edison had already accomplished with the aid of his
+model electrical balloon. His laboratory was carefully guarded against
+the invasion of the curious, because he rightly felt that a premature
+announcement, which should promise more than could actually be
+fulfilled, would, at this critical juncture, plunge mankind back again
+into the gulf of despair, out of which it had just begun to emerge.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, inklings of the truth leaked out. The flying machine had
+been seen by many persons hovering by night high above the Orange hills
+and disappearing in the faint starlight as if it had gone away into the
+depths of space, out of which it would re-emerge before the morning
+light had streaked the east, and be seen settling down again within the
+walls that surrounded the laboratory of the great inventor. At length
+the rumor, gradually deepening into a conviction, spread that Edison
+himself, accompanied by a few scientific friends, had made an
+experimental trip to the moon. At a time when the spirit of mankind was
+less profoundly stirred, such a story would have been received with
+complete incredulity, but now, rising on the wings of the new hope that
+was buoying up the earth, this extraordinary rumor became a day star of
+truth to the nations.</p>
+
+<p>And it was true. I had myself been one of the occupants of the car of
+the flying Ship of Space on that night when it silently left the earth,
+and rising out of the great shadow of the globe, sped on to the moon. We
+had landed upon the scarred and desolate face of the earth's satellite,
+and but that there are greater and more interesting events, the telling
+of which must not be delayed, I should undertake to describe the
+particulars of this first visit of men to another world.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="il027" id="il027"></a>
+<img src="images/il027.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3><i>I had myself been one of the occupants of the car
+of the flying Ship of Space on that night, when it silently left the
+earth, and, rising out of the great shadow of the globe, sped on to the
+moon.</i></h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<p>But, as I have already intimated, this was only an experimental trip. By
+visiting this little nearby island in the ocean of space, Mr. Edison
+simply wished to demonstrate the practicability of his invention, and to
+convince, first of all, himself and his scientific friends that it was
+possible for men&mdash;mortal men&mdash;to quit and to revisit the earth at their
+will. That aim this experimental trip triumphantly attained.</p>
+
+<p>It would carry me into technical details that would hardly interest the
+reader to describe the mechanism of Mr. Edison's flying machine. Let it
+suffice to say that it depended upon the principal of electrical
+attraction and repulsion. By means of a most ingenious and complicated
+construction he had mastered the problem of how to produce, in a limited
+space, electricity of any desired potential and of any polarity, and
+that without danger to the experimenter or to the material experimented
+upon. It is gravitation, as everybody knows, that makes man a prisoner
+on the earth. If he could overcome, or neutralize, gravitation he could
+float away, a free creature of interstellar space. Mr. Edison in his
+invention had pitted electricity against gravitation. Nature, in fact,
+had done the same thing long before. Every astronomer knew it, but none
+had been able to imitate or to reproduce this miracle of nature. When a
+comet approaches the sun, the orbit in which it travels indicates that
+it is moving under the impulse of the sun's gravitation. It is in
+reality falling in a great parabolic or elliptical curve through space.
+But, while a comet approaches the sun it begins to display&mdash;stretching
+out for millions, and sometimes hundreds of millions of miles on the
+side away from the sun&mdash;an immense luminous train called its tail. This
+train extends back into that part of space from which the comet is
+moving. Thus the sun at one and the same time is drawing the comet
+toward itself and driving off from the comet in an opposite direction
+minute particles or atoms which, instead of obeying the gravitational
+force, are plainly compelled to disobey it. That this energy, which the
+sun exercises against its own gravitation, is electrical in its nature,
+hardly anybody will doubt. The head of the comet being comparatively
+heavy and massive, falls on toward the sun, despite the electrical
+repulsion. But the atoms which form the tail, being almost without
+weight, yield to the electrical rather than to the gravitational
+influence, and so fly away from the sun.</p>
+
+<p>Now, what Mr. Edison had done was, in effect, to create an electrified
+particle which might be compared to one of the atoms composing the tail
+of a comet, although in reality it was a kind of car, of metal, weighing
+some hundreds of pounds and capable of bearing some thousands of pounds
+with it in its flight. By producing, with the aid of the electrical
+generator contained in this car, an enormous charge of electricity, Mr.
+Edison was able to counterbalance, and a trifle more than
+counterbalance, the attraction of the earth, and thus cause the car to
+fly off from the earth as an electrified pithball flies from the prime
+conductor.</p>
+
+<p>As we sat in the brilliantly lighted chamber that formed the interior of
+the car, and where stores of compressed air had been provided together
+with chemical apparatus, by means of which fresh supplies of oxygen and
+nitrogen might be obtained for our consumption during the flight through
+space, Mr. Edison touched a polished button, thus causing the generation
+of the required electrical charge on the exterior of the car, and
+immediately we began to rise.</p>
+
+<p>The moment and direction of our flight had been so timed and
+prearranged, that the original impulse would carry us straight toward
+the moon.</p>
+
+<p>When we fell within the sphere of attraction of that orb it only became
+necessary to so manipulate the electrical charge upon our car as nearly,
+but not quite, to counterbalance the effect of the moon's attraction in
+order that we might gradually approach it and with an easy motion,
+settle, without shock, upon its surface.</p>
+
+<p>We did not remain to examine the wonders of the moon, although we could
+not fail to observe many curious things therein. Having demonstrated the
+fact that we could not only leave the earth, but could journey through
+space and safely land upon the surface of another planet, Mr. Edison's
+immediate purpose was fulfilled, and we hastened back to the earth,
+employing in leaving the moon and landing again upon our own planet the
+same means of control over the electrical attraction and repulsion
+between the respective planets and our car which I have already
+described.</p>
+
+<p>When actual experiment had thus demonstrated the practicability of the
+invention, Mr. Edison no longer withheld the news of what he had been
+doing from the world. The telegraph lines and the ocean cables labored
+with the messages that in endless succession, and burdened with an
+infinity of detail, were sent all over the earth. Everywhere the utmost
+enthusiasm was aroused.</p>
+
+<p>"Let the Martians come," was the cry. "If necessary, we can quit the
+earth as the Athenians fled from Athens before the advancing host of
+Xerxes, and like them, take refuge upon our ships&mdash;these new ships of
+space, with which American inventiveness has furnished us."</p>
+
+<p>And then, like a flash, some genius struck out an idea that fired the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should we wait? Why should we run the risk of having our cities
+destroyed and our lands desolated a second time? Let us go to Mars. We
+have the means. Let us beard the lion in his den. Let us ourselves turn
+conquerors and take possession of that detestable planet, and if
+necessary, destroy it in order to relieve the earth of this perpetual
+threat which now hangs over us like the sword of Damocles."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWO" id="CHAPTER_TWO"></a>CHAPTER TWO</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE DISINTEGRATOR</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>This enthusiasm would have had but little justification had Mr. Edison
+done nothing more than invent a machine which could navigate the
+atmosphere and the regions of interplanetary space.</p>
+
+<p>He had, however, and this fact was generally known, although the details
+had not yet leaked out&mdash;invented also machines of war intended to meet
+the utmost that the Martians could do for either offence or defence in
+the struggle which was now about to ensue.</p>
+
+<p>Acting upon the hint which had been conveyed from various investigations
+in the domain of physics, and concentrating upon the problem all those
+unmatched powers of intellect which distinguished him, the great
+inventor had succeeded in producing a little implement which one could
+carry in his hand, but which was more powerful than any battleship that
+ever floated. The details of its mechanism could not be easily
+explained, without the use of tedious technicalities and the employment
+of terms, diagrams and mathematical statements, all of which would lie
+outside the scope of this narrative. But the principle of the thing was
+simple enough. It was upon the great scientific doctrine, which we have
+since seen so completely and brilliantly developed, of the law of
+harmonic vibrations, extending from atoms and molecules at one end of
+the series up to the worlds and suns at the other end, that Mr. Edison
+based his invention.</p>
+
+<p>Every kind of substance has its own vibratory rhythm. That of iron
+differs from that of pine wood. The atoms of gold do not vibrate in the
+same time or through the same range as those of lead, and so on for all
+known substances, and all the chemical elements. So, on a larger scale,
+every massive body has its period of vibration. A great suspension
+bridge vibrates, under the impulse of forces that are applied to it, in
+long periods. No company of soldiers ever crosses such a bridge without
+breaking step. If they tramped together, and were followed by other
+companies keeping the same time with their feet, after a while the
+vibrations of the bridge would become so great and destructive that it
+would fall in pieces. So any structure, if its vibration rate is known,
+could easily be destroyed by a force applied to it in such a way that it
+should simply increase the swing of those vibrations up to the point of
+destruction.</p>
+
+<p>Now Mr. Edison had been able to ascertain the vibratory swing of many
+well known substances, and to produce, by means of the instrument which
+he had contrived, pulsations in the ether which were completely under
+his control, and which could be made long or short, quick or slow, at
+his will. He could run through the whole gamut from the slow vibrations
+of sound in air up to the four hundred and twenty-five millions of
+millions of vibrations per second of the ultra red rays.</p>
+
+<p>Having obtained an instrument of such power, it only remained to
+concentrate its energy upon a given object in order that the atoms
+composing that object should be set into violent undulation, sufficient
+to burst it asunder and to scatter its molecules broadcast. This the
+inventor effected by the simplest means in the world&mdash;simply a parabolic
+reflector by which the destructive waves could be sent like a beam of
+light, but invisible, in any direction and focused upon any desired
+point.</p>
+
+<p>I had the good fortune to be present when this powerful engine of
+destruction was submitted to its first test. We had gone upon the roof
+of Mr. Edison's laboratory and the inventor held the little instrument,
+with its attached mirror, in his hand. We looked about for some object
+on which to try its powers. On a bare limb of a tree not far away, for
+it was late in fall, sat a disconsolate crow.</p>
+
+<p>"Good," said Mr. Edison, "that will do." He touched a button at the side
+of the instrument and a soft, whirring noise was heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Feathers," said Mr. Edison, "have a vibration period of three hundred
+and eighty-six million per second."</p>
+
+<p>He adjusted the index as he spoke. Then, through a sighting tube, he
+aimed at the bird.</p>
+
+<p>"Now watch," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Another soft whirr in the instrument, a momentary flash of light close
+around it, and, behold, the crow had turned from black to white!</p>
+
+<p>"Its feathers are gone," said the inventor; "they have been dissipated
+into their constituent atoms. Now, we will finish the crow."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly there was another adjustment of the index, another outshooting
+of vibratory force, a rapid up and down motion of the index to include a
+certain range of vibrations, and the crow itself was gone&mdash;vanished in
+empty space! There was the bare twig on which a moment before it had
+stood. Behind, in the sky, was the white cloud against which its black
+form had been sharply outlined, but there was no more crow.</p>
+
+<p>"That looks bad for the Martians, doesn't it?" said the Wizard. "I have
+ascertained the vibration rate of all the materials of which their war
+engines, whose remains we have collected together, are composed. They
+can be shattered into nothingness in the fraction of a second. Even if
+the vibration period were not known, it could quickly be hit upon by
+simply running through the gamut."</p>
+
+<p>"Hurrah!" cried one of the onlookers. "We have met the Martians and they
+are ours."</p>
+
+<p>Such in brief was the first of the contrivances which Mr. Edison
+invented for the approaching war with Mars.</p>
+
+<p>And these facts had become widely known. Additional experiments had
+completed the demonstration of the inventor's ability, with the aid of
+his wonderful instrument, to destroy any given object, or any part of an
+object, provided that that part differed in its atomic constitution, and
+consequently in its vibratory period, from the other parts.</p>
+
+<p>A most impressive public exhibit of the powers of the little
+disintegrator was given amid the ruins of New York. On lower Broadway a
+part of the walls of one of the gigantic buildings, which had been
+destroyed by the Martians, impended in such a manner that it threatened
+at any moment to fall upon the heads of the passersby. The Fire
+Department did not dare touch it. To blow it up seemed a dangerous
+expedient, because already new buildings had been erected in its
+neighborhood, and their safety would be imperilled by the flying
+fragments. The fact happened to come to my knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is an opportunity," I said to Mr. Edison, "to try the powers of
+your machine on a large scale."</p>
+
+<p>"Capital," he instantly replied. "I shall go at once."</p>
+
+<p>For the work now in hand it was necessary to employ a battery of
+disintegrators, since the field of destruction covered by each was
+comparatively limited. All of the impending portions of the wall must be
+destroyed at once and together, for otherwise the danger would rather be
+accentuated rather than annihilated. The disintegrators were placed upon
+the roof of a neighboring building, so adjusted that their fields of
+destruction overlapped one another upon the wall. Their indexes were all
+set to correspond with the vibration period of the peculiar kind of
+brick of which the wall consisted. Then the energy was turned on, and a
+shout of wonder arose from the multitudes which had assembled at a safe
+distance to witness the experiment.</p>
+
+<p>The wall did not fall; it did not break asunder; no fragments shot this
+way and that and high in the air; there was no explosion; no shock or
+noise disturbed the still atmosphere&mdash;only a soft whirr, that seemed to
+pervade everything and to tingle in the nerves of the spectators;
+and&mdash;what had been was not! The wall was gone! But high above and all
+around the place where it had hung over the street with its threat of
+death there appeared, swiftly billowing outward in every direction, a
+faint bluish cloud. It was the scattered atoms of the destroyed wall.</p>
+
+<p>And now the cry "On to Mars!" was heard on all sides. But for such an
+enterprise funds were needed&mdash;millions upon millions. Yet some of the
+fairest and richest portions of the earth had been impoverished by the
+frightful ravages of those enemies who had dropped down upon them from
+the skies. Still, the money must be had. The salvation of the planet, as
+everyone was now convinced, depended upon the successful negotiation of
+a gigantic war fund, in comparison with which all the expenditures in
+all of the wars that had been waged by the nations for 2,000 years would
+be insignificant. The electrical ships and the vibration engines must be
+constructed by scores and thousands. Only Mr. Edison's immense resources
+and unrivaled equipment had enabled him to make the models whose powers
+had been so satisfactorily shown. But to multiply these upon a war scale
+was not only beyond the resources of any individual&mdash;hardly a nation on
+the globe in the period of its greatest prosperity could have undertaken
+such a work. All the nations, then, must now conjoin. They must unite
+their resources, and if necessary, exhaust all their hoards, in order to
+raise the needed sum.</p>
+
+<p>Negotiations were at once begun. The United States naturally took the
+lead, and their leadership was never for a moment questioned abroad.</p>
+
+<p>Washington was selected as the place of meeting for a great congress of
+nations. Washington, luckily, had been one of the places which had not
+been touched by the Martians. But if Washington had been a city composed
+of hotels alone, and every hotel so great as to be a little city in
+itself, it would have been utterly insufficient for the accommodation of
+the innumerable throngs which now flocked to the banks of the Potomac.
+But when was American enterprise unequal to a crisis? The necessary
+hotels, lodging-houses and restaurants were constructed with astounding
+rapidity. One could see the city growing and expanding day by day and
+week after week. It flowed over Georgetown Heights; it leaped the
+Potomac; it spread east and west, south and north; square mile after
+square mile of territory was buried under the advancing buildings, until
+the gigantic city, which had thus grown up like a mushroom in a night,
+was fully capable of accommodating all its expected guests.</p>
+
+<p>At first it had been intended that the heads of the various governments
+should in person attend this universal congress, but as the enterprise
+went on, as the enthusiasm spread, as the necessity for haste became
+more apparent through the warning notes which were constantly sounded
+from the observatories where the astronomers were nightly beholding new
+evidences of threatening preparations in Mars, the kings and queens of
+the old world felt that they could not remain at home; that their proper
+place was at the new focus and center of the whole world&mdash;the city of
+Washington. Without concerted action, without interchange of suggestion,
+this impulse seemed to seize all the old world monarchs at once.
+Suddenly cablegrams flashed to the government at Washington, announcing
+that Queen Victoria, the Emperor William, the Czar Nicholas, Alphonso of
+Spain, with his mother, Maria Christina; the old emperor Francis Joseph
+and the empress Elizabeth, of Austria; King Oscar and Queen Sophia, of
+Sweden and Norway; King Humbert and Queen Margherita, of Italy; King
+George and Queen Olga, of Greece; Abdul Hamid, of Turkey; Tsait'ien,
+Emperor of China; Mutsuhito, the Japanese Mikado, with his beautiful
+Princess Haruko; the President of France, the President of Switzerland,
+the First Syndic of the little republic of Andorra, perched on the crest
+of the Pyrenees, and the heads of all the Central and South American
+republics, were coming to Washington to take part in the deliberations,
+which, it was felt, were to settle the fate of earth and Mars.</p>
+
+<p>One day, after this announcement had been received, and the additional
+news had come that nearly all the visiting monarchs had set out,
+attended by brilliant suites and convoyed by fleets of warships, for
+their destination, some coming across the Atlantic to the port of New
+York, others across the Pacific to San Francisco, Mr. Edison said to me:</p>
+
+<p>"This will be a fine spectacle. Would you like to watch it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>The Ship of Space was immediately at our disposal. I think I have not
+yet mentioned the fact that the inventor's control over the electrical
+generator carried in the car was so perfect that by varying the
+potential or changing the polarity he could cause it slowly or swiftly,
+as might be desired, to approach or recede from any object. The only
+practical difficulty was presented when the polarity of the electrical
+charge upon an object in the neighborhood of the car was unknown to
+those in the car, and happened to be opposite to that of the charge to
+which the car, at that particular moment was bearing. In such a case, of
+course, the car would fly toward the object, whatever it might be, like
+a pithball or a feather, attracted to the knob of an electrical machine.
+In this way, considerable danger was occasionally encountered, and a few
+accidents could not be avoided. Fortunately, however, such cases were
+rare. It was only now and then that, owing to some local cause,
+electrical polarities unknown to or unexpected by the navigators,
+endangered the safety of the car. As I shall have occasion to relate
+however, in the course of the narrative, this danger became more acute
+and assumed at times a most formidable phase, when we had ventured
+outside the sphere of the earth and were moving through the unexplored
+regions beyond.</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion, having embarked, we rose rapidly to a height of some
+thousands of feet and directed our course over the Atlantic. When
+half-way to Ireland, we beheld, in the distance, steaming westward, the
+smoke of several fleets. As we drew nearer a marvelous spectacle
+unfolded itself to our eyes. From the northeast, their great guns
+flashing in the sunlight and their huge funnels belching black volumes
+that rested like thunder clouds upon the sea, came the mighty warships
+of England, with her meteor flag streaming red in the breeze, while the
+royal insignia, indicating the presence of the ruler of the British
+Empire, was conspicuously displayed upon the flagship of the squadron.</p>
+
+<p>Following a course more directly westward there appeared, under another
+black cloud of smoke, the hulls and guns and burgeons of another great
+fleet, carrying the tri-color of France, and bearing in its midst the
+head of the magnificent republic of western Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Further south, beating up against the northerly winds came a third fleet
+with the gold and red of Spain fluttering from its masthead. This, too,
+was carrying its King westward, where now, indeed, the star of empire
+had taken its way.</p>
+
+<p>Rising a little higher, so as to extend our horizon, we saw coming down
+the English channel, behind the British fleet, the black ships of
+Russia. Side by side, or following one another's lead, these war fleets
+were on a peaceful voyage that belied their threatening appearance.
+There had been no thought of danger to or from the forts and ports of
+rival nations which they had passed. There was no enmity, and no fear
+between them when the throats of their ponderous guns yawned at one
+another across the waves. They were now, in spirit, all one fleet,
+having one object, bearing against one enemy, ready to defend but one
+country, and that country was the entire earth.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before we caught sight of the emperor William's fleet.
+It seems that the Kaiser, although at first consenting to the
+arrangement by which Washington had been selected as the assembling
+place for the nations, afterwards objected to it.</p>
+
+<p>"I ought to do this thing myself," he had said. "My glorious ancestors
+would never have consented to allow these upstart Republicans to lead in
+a warlike enterprise of this kind. What would my grandfather have said
+to it? I suspect that it is some scheme aimed at the divine right of
+kings."</p>
+
+<p>But the good sense of the German people would not suffer their ruler to
+place them in a position so false and so untenable. And swept along by
+their enthusiasm the Kaiser had at last consented to embark upon his
+flagship at Kiel, and now he was following the other fleets on their
+great mission to the Western Continent.</p>
+
+<p>Why did they bring their warships when their intentions were peaceable,
+do you ask? Well, it was partly the effect of ancient habit, and partly
+due to the fact that such multitudes of officials and members of ruling
+families wished to embark for Washington that the ordinary means of
+ocean communications would have been utterly inadequate to convey them.</p>
+
+<p>After we had feasted our eyes on this strange sight, Mr. Edison suddenly
+exclaimed: "Now let us see the fellows from the rising sun."</p>
+
+<p>The car was immediately directed toward the west. We rapidly approached
+the American coast, and as we sailed over the Allegheny Mountains and
+the broad plains of the Ohio and the Mississippi, we saw crawling
+beneath us from west, south and north, an endless succession of railway
+trains bearing their multitudes on toward Washington. With marvelous
+speed we rushed westward, rising high to skim over the snow-topped peaks
+of the Rocky Mountains and then the glittering rim of the Pacific was
+before us. Half-way between the American Coast and Hawaii we met the
+fleets coming from China and Japan. Side by side they were plowing the
+main, having forgotten, or laid aside, all the animosities of their
+former wars.</p>
+
+<p>I well remember how my heart was stirred at this impressive exhibition
+of the boundless influence which my country had come to exercise over
+all the people of the world, and I turned to look at the man to whose
+genius this uprising of the earth was due. But Mr. Edison, after his
+wont, appeared totally unconscious of the fact that he was personally
+responsible for what was going on. His mind, seemingly, was entirely
+absorbed in considering problems, the solution of which might be
+essential to our success in the terrific struggle which was soon to
+begin.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, have you seen enough?" he asked. "Then let us go back to
+Washington."</p>
+
+<p>As we speeded back across the continent we beheld beneath us again the
+burdened express trains rushing toward the Atlantic, and hundreds of
+thousands of upturned eyes watched our swift progress, and volleys of
+cheers reached our ears, for everyone knew that this was Edison's
+electrical warship, on which the hope of the nation, and the hopes of
+all the nations, depended. These scenes were repeated again and again
+until the car hovered over the still expanding capitol on the Potomac,
+where the unceasing ring of hammers rose to the clouds.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="il039" id="il039"></a>
+<img src="images/il039.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3><i>A consultation in Wizard Edison's laboratory
+between him and Professor Serviss on the best means of repaying the
+damage wrought upon this planet by the Martians.</i></h3>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THREE" id="CHAPTER_THREE"></a>CHAPTER THREE</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE CONGRESS OF NATIONS</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The day appointed for the assembling of the nations in Washington opened
+bright and beautiful. Arrangements had been made for the reception of
+the distinguished guests at the Capitol. No time was to be wasted, and
+having assembled in the Senate Chamber, the business that had called
+them together was to be immediately begun. The scene in Pennsylvania
+Avenue, when the procession of dignitaries and royalties passed up
+toward the Capitol was one never to be forgotten. Bands were playing,
+magnificent equipages flashed in the morning sunlight, the flags of
+every nation on the earth fluttered in the breeze. Queen Victoria, with
+the Prince of Wales escorting her, and riding in an open carriage, was
+greeted with roars of cheers; the emperor William, following in another
+carriage with empress Victoria at his side, condescended to bow and
+smile in response to the greetings of a free people. Each of the other
+monarchs was received in a similar manner. The Czar of Russia proved to
+be an especial favorite with the multitude on account of the ancient
+friendship of his house for America. But the greatest applause of all
+came when the President of France, followed by the President of
+Switzerland and the First Syndic of the little republic of Andorra, made
+their appearance. Equally warm were the greetings extended to the
+representatives of Mexico and the South American States.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd apparently hardly knew at first how to receive the Sultan of
+Turkey, but the universal good feeling was in his favor, and finally
+rounds of hand clapping and cheers greeted his progress along the
+splendid avenue.</p>
+
+<p>A happy idea had apparently occurred to the Emperor of China and the
+Mikado of Japan, for, attended by their intermingled suites, they rode
+together in a single carriage. This object lesson in the unity of
+international feeling immensely pleased the spectators.</p>
+
+<p>The scene in the Senate Chamber stirred everyone profoundly. That it was
+brilliant and magnificent goes without saying, but there was a
+seriousness, an intense feeling of expectancy, pervading both those who
+looked on and those who were to do the work for which these magnates of
+the earth had assembled, which produced an ineradicable impression. The
+President of the United States, of course, presided. Representatives of
+the greater powers occupied the front seats, and some of them were
+honored with special chairs near the President.</p>
+
+<p>No time was wasted in preliminaries. The President made a brief speech.</p>
+
+<p>"We have come together," he said, "to consider a question that equally
+interests the whole earth. I need not remind you that unexpectedly and
+without provocation on our part the people&mdash;the monsters, I should
+rather say&mdash;of Mars, recently came down upon the earth, attacked us in
+our homes and spread desolation around them. Having the advantage of
+ages of evolution, which for us are yet in the future, they brought with
+them engines of death and destruction against which we found it
+impossible to contend. It is within the memory of every one within reach
+of my voice that it was through the entirely unexpected succor which
+Providence sent us that we were suddenly and effectually freed from the
+invaders. By our own efforts we could have done nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"But, as you all know, the first feeling of relief which followed the
+death of our foes was quickly succeeded by the fearful news which came
+to us from the observatories, that the Martians were undoubtedly
+preparing for a second invasion of our planet. Against this we should
+have had no recourse and no hope but for the genius of one of my
+countrymen, who, as you are all aware, has perfected means which may
+enable us not only to withstand the attack of those awful enemies, but
+to meet them, and, let us hope, to conquer them on their own ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Edison is here to explain to you what those means are. But we have
+also another object. Whether we send a fleet of interplanetary ships to
+invade Mars or whether we simply confine our attention to works of
+defense, in either case it will be necessary to raise a very large sum
+of money. None of us has yet recovered from the effects of the recent
+invasion. The earth is poor today compared to its position a few years
+ago; yet we can not allow our poverty to stand in the way. The money,
+the means, must be had. It will be part of our business here to raise a
+gigantic war fund by the aid of which we can construct the equipment and
+machinery that we shall require. This, I think, is all I need to say.
+Let us proceed to business."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Mr. Edison?" cried a voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Will Mr. Edison please step forward?" said the President.</p>
+
+<p>There was a stir in the assembly, and the iron-grey head of the great
+inventor was seen moving through the crowd. In his hand he carried one
+of his marvelous disintegrators. He was requested to explain and
+illustrate its operation. Mr. Edison smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I can explain its details," he said, "to Lord Kelvin, for instance, but
+if Their Majesties will excuse me, I doubt whether I can make it plain
+to the Crown Heads."</p>
+
+<p>The Emperor William smiled superciliously. Apparently he thought that
+another assault had been committed upon the divine right of kings. But
+the Czar Nicholas appeared to be amused, and the Emperor of China, who
+had been studying English, laughed in his sleeve, as if he suspected
+that a joke had been perpetrated.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," said one of the deputies, "that a simple exhibition of the
+powers of the instrument, without a technical explanation of its method
+of working, will suffice for our purpose."</p>
+
+<p>This suggestion was immediately approved. In response to it, Mr. Edison,
+by a few simple experiments, showed how he could quickly and certainly
+shatter into its constituent atoms any object upon which the vibratory
+force of the disintegrator should be directed. In this manner he caused
+an inkstand to disappear under the very nose of the Emperor William
+without a spot of ink being scattered upon his sacred person, but
+evidently the odor of the disunited atoms was not agreeable to the
+nostrils of the Kaiser.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edison also explained in general terms the principle on which the
+instrument worked. He was greeted with round after round of applause,
+and the spirit of the assembly rose high.</p>
+
+<p>Next the workings of the electrical ship were explained, and it was
+announced that after the meeting had adjourned an exhibition of the
+flying powers of the ship would be given in the open air.</p>
+
+<p>These experiments, together with the accompanying explanations, added to
+what had already been disseminated through the public press, were quite
+sufficient to convince all the representatives who had assembled in
+Washington that the problem of how to conquer the Martians had been
+solved. The means were plainly at hand. It only remained to apply them.
+For this purpose, as the President had pointed out, it would be
+necessary to raise a very large sum of money.</p>
+
+<p>"How much will be needed?" asked one of the English representatives.</p>
+
+<p>"At least ten thousand millions of dollars," replied the President.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be safer," said a Senator from the Pacific Coast, "to make it
+twenty five thousand millions."</p>
+
+<p>"I suggest," said the King of Italy, "that the nations be called in
+alphabetical order, and that the representatives of each name a sum
+which he is ready and able to contribute."</p>
+
+<p>"We want the cash or its equivalent," shouted the Pacific Coast Senator.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not follow the alphabet strictly," said the President, "but
+shall begin with the larger nations first. Perhaps, under the
+circumstances, it is proper that the United States should lead the way.
+Mr. Secretary," he continued, turning to the Secretary of the Treasury,
+"how much can we stand?"</p>
+
+<p>"At least a thousand millions," replied the Secretary of the Treasury.</p>
+
+<p>A roar of applause that shook the room burst from the assembly. Even
+some of the monarchs threw up their hats. The Emperor Tsait'ien smiled
+from ear to ear. One of the Roko Tuis, or native chiefs, from Fiji,
+sprang up and brandished a war club.</p>
+
+<p>The President then proceeded to call the other nations, beginning with
+Austria-Hungary and ending with Zanzibar, whose Sultan, Hamoud bin
+Mahomed, had come to the congress in the escort of Queen Victoria. Each
+contributed liberally.</p>
+
+<p>Germany, coming in alphabetical order just before Great Britain, had
+named, through its chancellor, the sum of $500,000,000, but when the
+First Lord of the British Treasury, not wishing to be behind the United
+States, named double that sum as the contribution of the British Empire,
+the Emperor William looked displeased. He spoke a word in the ear of the
+Chancellor who immediately raised his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"We will give a thousand million dollars," said the Chancellor.</p>
+
+<p>Queen Victoria seemed surprised, though not displeased. The First Lord
+of the Treasury met her eye, and then, rising in his place, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Make it fifteen hundred million for Great Britain."</p>
+
+<p>Emperor William consulted again with his Chancellor, but evidently
+concluded not to increase his bid.</p>
+
+<p>But, at any rate, the fund had benefited to the amount of a thousand
+millions by this little outburst of imperial rivalry.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest surprise of all, however, came when the King of Siam was
+called upon for his contribution. He had not been given a foremost place
+in the Congress, but when the name of his country was pronounced he rose
+by his chair, dressed in a gorgeous specimen of the peculiar attire of
+his country, then slowly pushed his way to the front, stepped up to the
+President's desk and deposited upon it a small box.</p>
+
+<p>"This is our contribution," he said in broken English.</p>
+
+<p>The cover was lifted, and there darted, shimmering in the half-gloom of
+the Chamber, a burst of iridescence from the box.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends of the Western world," continued the King of Siam, "will be
+interested in seeing this gem. Only once before has the eye of a
+European been blessed with the sight of it. Your books will tell you
+that in the seventeenth century a traveller, Tavernier, saw in India an
+unmatched diamond which afterward disappeared like a meteor, and was
+thought to have been lost from the earth. You all know the name of that
+diamond and its history. It is the Great Mogul, and it lies before you.
+How it came into my possession I shall not explain. At any rate, it is
+honestly mine, and I freely contribute it here to aid in protecting my
+native planet against those enemies who appear determined to destroy
+it."</p>
+
+<p>When the excitement which the appearance of this long lost treasure,
+that had been the subject of so many romances and of such long and
+fruitless search, had subsided, the President continued calling the
+list, until he had completed it.</p>
+
+<p>Upon taking the sum of the contributions (the Great Mogul was reckoned
+at three millions) it was found to be still one thousand millions short
+of the required amount.</p>
+
+<p>The secretary of the Treasury was instantly on his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. President," he said, "I think we can stand that addition. Let it be
+added to the contribution of the United States of America."</p>
+
+<p>When the cheers that greeted the conclusion of the business were over,
+the President announced that the next affair of the Congress was to
+select a director who should have entire charge of the preparations for
+the war. It was the universal sentiment that no man could be so well
+suited for this post as Mr. Edison himself. He was accordingly selected
+by the unanimous and enthusiastic choice of the great assembly.</p>
+
+<p>"How long a time do you require to put everything in readiness?" asked
+the President.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me <i>carte blanche</i>," replied Mr. Edison, "and I believe I can have
+a hundred electric ships and three thousand disintegrators ready within
+six months."</p>
+
+<p>A tremendous cheer greeted this announcement.</p>
+
+<p>"Your powers are unlimited," said the President, "draw on the fund for
+as much money as you need," whereupon the Treasurer of the United States
+was made the disbursing officer of the fund, and the meeting adjourned.</p>
+
+<p>Not less than 5,000,000 people had assembled at Washington from all
+parts of the world. Every one of this immense multitude had been able to
+listen to the speeches and the cheers in the Senate Chamber, although
+not personally present there. Wires had been run all over the city, and
+hundreds of improved telephonic receivers provided, so that everyone
+could hear. Even those who were unable to visit Washington, people
+living in Baltimore, New York, Boston, and as far away as New Orleans,
+St. Louis and Chicago, had also listened to the proceedings with the aid
+of these receivers. Upon the whole, probably not less than 50,000,000
+people had heard the deliberations of the great congress of the nations.</p>
+
+<p>The telegraph and the cable had sent the news across the oceans to all
+the capitols of the earth. The exultation was so great that the people
+seemed mad with joy.</p>
+
+<p>The promised exhibition of the electrical ship took place the next day.
+Enormous multitudes witnessed the experiment, and there was a struggle
+for places in the car. Even Queen Victoria, accompanied by the Prince of
+Wales, ventured to take a ride in it, and they enjoyed it so much that
+Mr. Edison prolonged the journey as far as Boston and the Bunker Hill
+monument.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the other monarchs also took a high ride, but when the turn of
+the Emperor of China came he repeated a fable which he said had come
+down from the time of Confucius:</p>
+
+<p>"Once upon a time there was a Chinaman living in the valley of the
+Hoang-Ho River, who was accustomed frequently to lie on his back, gazing
+at, and envying, the birds that he saw flying away in the sky. One day
+he saw a black speck which rapidly grew larger and larger, until as it
+got near he perceived that it was an enormous bird, which overshadowed
+the earth with its wings. It was the elephant of birds, the roc. 'Come
+with me,' said the roc, 'and I will show you the wonders of the kingdom
+of the birds.' The man caught hold of its claw and nestled among its
+feathers, and they rapidly rose high in the air, and sailed away to the
+Kuen-Lun Mountains. Here, as they passed near the top of the peaks,
+another roc made its appearance. The wings of the two great birds
+brushed together, and immediately they fell to fighting. In the midst of
+the melee the man lost his hold and tumbled into the top of a tree,
+where his pigtail caught on a branch, and he remained suspended. There
+the unfortunate man hung helpless, until a rat, which had its home in
+the rocks at the foot of the tree, took compassion upon him, and,
+climbing up, gnawed off the branch. As the man slowly and painfully
+wended his weary way homeward, he said: 'This teaches me that creatures
+to whom nature has given neither feathers nor wings should leave the
+kingdom of the birds to those who are fitted to inhabit it.'"</p>
+
+<p>Having told this story, Tsait'ien turned his back on the electrical
+ship.</p>
+
+<p>After the exhibition was finished, and amid the fresh outburst of
+enthusiasm that followed, it was suggested that a proper way to wind up
+the Congress and give suitable expression to the festive mood which now
+possessed mankind would be to have a grand ball. This suggestion met
+with immediate and universal approval.</p>
+
+<p>But for so gigantic an affair it was, of course, necessary to make
+special preparations. A convenient place was selected on the Virginia
+side of the Potomac; a space of ten acres was carefully levelled and
+covered with a polished floor, rows of columns one hundred feet apart
+were run across it in every direction, and these were decorated with
+electric lights, displaying every color of the spectrum.</p>
+
+<p>Above this immense space, rising in the center to a height of more than
+a thousand feet, was anchored a vast number of balloons, all aglow with
+lights, and forming a tremendous dome, in which brilliant lamps were
+arranged in such a manner as to exhibit, in an endless succession of
+combinations, all the national colors, ensigns and insignia of the
+various countries represented at the Congress. Blazing eagles, lions,
+unicorns, dragons and other imaginary creatures that the different
+nations had chosen for their symbols appeared to hover high above the
+dancers, shedding a brilliant light upon the scene.</p>
+
+<p>Circles of magnificent thrones were placed upon the floor in convenient
+locations for seeing. A thousand bands of music played, and tens of
+thousands of couples, gayly dressed and flashing with gems, whirled
+together upon the polished floor.</p>
+
+<p>The Queen of England led the dance, on the arm of the President of the
+United States.</p>
+
+<p>The Prince of Wales led forth the fair daughter of the President,
+universally admired as the most beautiful woman on the great ballroom
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>The Emperor William, in his military dress, danced with the beauteous
+Princess Masaco, the daughter of the Mikado, who wore for the occasion
+the ancient costume of the women of her country, sparkling with jewels,
+and glowing with quaint combinations of color like a gorgeous butterfly.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese Emperor, with his pigtail flying high as he spun, danced
+with the Empress of Russia.</p>
+
+<p>The King of Siam essayed a waltz with the Queen Ranavalona of
+Madagascar, while the Sultan of Turkey basked in the smiles of a Chicago
+heiress to a hundred millions.</p>
+
+<p>The Czar chose for his partner a dark-eyed beauty from Peru, but King
+Malietoa, of Samoa, was suspicious of civilized charmers and, avoiding
+all of their allurements, expressed his joy and gave vent to his
+enthusiasm in a <i>pas seul</i>. In this he was quickly joined by a band of
+Sioux Indian chiefs, whose whoops and yells so startled the leader of a
+German band on their part of the floor that he dropped his baton, and
+followed by the musicians, took to his heels.</p>
+
+<p>This incident amused the good-natured Emperor of China more than
+anything else that had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>"Make muchee noisee," he said, indicating the fleeing musicians with his
+thumb. "Allee samee muchee flaid noisee," and then his round face
+dimpled into another laugh.</p>
+
+<p>The scene from the outside was even more imposing than that which
+greeted the eye within the brilliantly lighted enclosure. Far away in
+the night, rising high among the stars, the vast dome of illuminated
+balloons seemed, like some supernatural creation, too grand and glorious
+to have been constructed by the inhabitants of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>All around it, and from some of the balloons themselves, rose jets and
+fountains of fire, ceasingly playing, and blotting out the
+constellations of the heavens by their splendor.</p>
+
+<p>The dance was followed by a grand banquet, at which the Prince of Wales
+proposed a toast to Mr. Edison:</p>
+
+<p>"It gives me much pleasure," he said, "to offer, in the name of the
+nations of the Old World, this tribute of our admiration for, and our
+confidence in, the genius of the New World. Perhaps on such an occasion
+as this, when all racial differences and prejudices ought to be, and
+are, buried and forgotten, I should not recall anything that might
+revive them; yet I cannot refrain from expressing my happiness in
+knowing that the champion who is to achieve the salvation of the earth
+has come forth from the bosom of the Anglo-Saxon race."</p>
+
+<p>Several of the great potentates looked grave upon hearing the Prince of
+Wales' words, and the Czar and the Kaiser exchanged glances; but there
+was no interruption to the cheers that followed. Mr. Edison, whose
+modesty and dislike to display and to speechmaking were well known,
+simply said:</p>
+
+<p>"I think we have got the machine that can whip them. But we ought not to
+be wasting any time. Probably they are not dancing on Mars, but are
+getting ready to make us dance."</p>
+
+<p>These words instantly turned the current of feeling in the vast
+assembly. There was no longer any disposition to expend time in vain
+boastings and rejoicings. Everywhere the cry now became, "Let us make
+haste! Let us get ready at once! Who knows but the Martians have already
+embarked, and are now on their way to destroy us?"</p>
+
+<p>Under the impulse of this new feeling, which, it must be admitted, was
+very largely inspired by terror, the vast ballroom was quickly deserted.
+The lights were suddenly put out in the great dome of balloons, for
+someone had whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose they should see that from Mars? Would they not guess what we
+were about, and redouble their preparations to finish us?"</p>
+
+<p>Upon the suggestion of the President of the United States, an executive
+committee, representing all the principal nations, was appointed, and
+without delay a meeting of this committee was assembled at the White
+House. Mr. Edison was summoned before it, and asked to sketch briefly
+the plan upon which he proposed to work.</p>
+
+<p>I need not enter into the details of what was done at this meeting. Let
+it suffice to say that when it broke up, in the small hours of the
+morning, it had been unanimously resolved that as many thousands of men
+as Mr. Edison might require should be immediately placed at his
+disposal; that as far as possible all the great manufacturing
+establishments of the country should be instantly transformed into
+factories where electrical ships and disintegrators could be built, and
+upon the suggestion of Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson, the celebrated
+English electrical expert, seconded by Lord Kelvin, it was resolved that
+all the leading men of science in the world should place their services
+at the disposal of Mr. Edison in any capacity in which, in his
+judgement, they might be useful to him.</p>
+
+<p>The members of this committee were disposed to congratulate one another
+on the good work which they had so promptly accomplished, when at the
+moment of their adjournment, a telegraphic dispatch was handed to the
+President from Professor George E. Hale, the director of the great
+Yerkes Observatory, in Wisconsin. The telegram read:</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Barnard, watching Mars tonight with the forty-inch telescope,
+saw a sudden outburst of reddish light, which we think indicates that
+something has been shot from the planet. Spectroscopic observations of
+this moving light indicated that it was coming earthward, while visible,
+at the rate of not less than one hundred miles a second."</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had the excitement caused by the reading of this dispatch
+subsided, when others of a similar import came from the Lick
+Observatory, in California; from the branch of the Harvard Observatory
+at Arequipa, in Peru, and from the Royal Observatory, at Potsdam.</p>
+
+<p>When the telegram from this last named place was read the Emperor
+William turned to his Chancellor and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I want to go home. If I am to die I prefer to leave my bones among
+those of my imperial ancestors and not in this vulgar country, where no
+king has ever ruled. I don't like this atmosphere. It makes me limp."</p>
+
+<p>And now, whipped on by the lash of alternate hope and fear, the earth
+sprang to its work of preparation.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FOUR" id="CHAPTER_FOUR"></a>CHAPTER FOUR</h2>
+
+<h3><i>TO CONQUER ANOTHER WORLD</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>It is not necessary for me to describe the manner in which Mr. Edison
+performed his tremendous task. He was as good as his word, and within
+six months from the first stroke of the hammer, a hundred electrical
+ships, each provided with a full battery of disintegrators, were
+floating in the air above the harbor and the partially rebuilt city of
+New York.</p>
+
+<p>It was a wonderful scene. The polished sides of the huge floating cars
+sparkled in the sunlight, and, as they slowly rose and fell, and swung
+this way and that, upon the tides of the air, as if held by invisible
+cables, the brilliant pennons streaming from their peaks waved up and
+down like the wings of an assemblage of gigantic humming birds.</p>
+
+<p>Not knowing whether the atmosphere of Mars would prove suitable to be
+breathed by inhabitants of the earth, Mr. Edison had made provision, by
+means of an abundance of glass-protected openings, to permit the inmates
+of the electrical ships to survey their surroundings without quitting
+the interior. It was possible by properly selecting the rate of
+undulation, to pass the vibratory impulse from the disintegrators
+through the glass windows of a car without damage to the glass itself.
+The windows were so arranged that the disintegrators could sweep around
+the car on all sides, and could also be directed above or below, as
+necessity might dictate.</p>
+
+<p>To overcome the destructive forces employed by the Martians no
+satisfactory plan had yet been devised, because there was no means to
+experiment with them. The production of those forces was still the
+secret of our enemies. But Mr. Edison had no doubt that if we could not
+resist their efforts we might at least be able to avoid them by the
+rapidity of our motions. As he pointed out, the war machines which the
+Martians had employed in their invasion of the earth, were really very
+awkward and unmanageable affairs. Mr. Edison's electrical ships, on the
+other hand, were marvels of speed and of manageability. They could dart
+about, turn, reverse their course, rise, fall, with the quickness and
+ease of a fish in the water. Mr. Edison calculated that even if
+mysterious bolts should fall upon our ships we could diminish their
+power to cause injury by our rapid evolutions.</p>
+
+<p>We might be deceived in our expectations, and might have overestimated
+our powers, but at any rate we must take our chances and try.</p>
+
+<p>A multitude, exceeding even that which had assembled during the great
+congress in Washington, now thronged New York and its neighborhood to
+witness the mustering and the departure of the ships bound for Mars.
+Nothing further had been heard of the mysterious phenomenon reported
+from the observatories six months before, and which at the time was
+believed to indicate the departure of another expedition from Mars for
+the invasion of the earth. If the Martians had set out to attack us they
+had evidently gone astray; or, perhaps, it was some other world that
+they were aiming at this time.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition had, of course, profoundly stirred the interest of the
+scientific world, and representatives of every branch of science, from
+all the civilized nations, urged their claims to places in the ships.
+Mr. Edison was compelled, from lack of room, to refuse transportation to
+more than one in a thousand of those who now, on the plea that they
+might be able to bring back something of advantage to science, wished to
+embark for Mars.</p>
+
+<p>On the model of the celebrated corps of literary and scientific men
+which Napoleon carried with him in his invasion of Egypt, Mr. Edison
+selected a company of the foremost astronomers, archaeologists,
+anthropologists, botanists, bacteriologists, chemists, physicists,
+mathematicians, mechanics, meteorologists and experts in mining,
+metallurgy and every other branch of practical science, as well as
+artists and photographers. It was but reasonable to believe that in
+another world, and a world so much older than the earth as Mars was,
+these men would be able to gather materials in comparison with which the
+discoveries made among the ruins of ancient empires in Egypt and
+Babylonia would be insignificant indeed.</p>
+
+<p>It was a wonderful undertaking and a strange spectacle. There was a
+feeling of uncertainty which awed the vast multitude whose eyes were
+upturned to the ships. The expedition was not large, considering the
+gigantic character of the undertaking. Each of the electrical ships
+carried about twenty men, together with an abundant supply of compressed
+provisions, compressed air, scientific apparatus and so on. In all,
+there were about 2,000 men, who were going to conquer, if they could,
+another world!</p>
+
+<p>But though few in numbers, they represented the flower of the earth, the
+culmination of the genius of the planet. The greatest leaders in
+science, both theoretical and practical, were there. It was the
+evolution of the earth against the evolution of Mars. It was a planet in
+the hey-day of its strength matched against an aged and decrepit world
+which, nevertheless, in consequence of its long ages of existence, had
+acquired an experience which made it a most dangerous foe. On both sides
+there was desperation. The earth was desperate because it foresaw
+destruction unless it could first destroy its enemy. Mars was desperate
+because nature was gradually depriving it of the means of supporting
+life, and its teeming population was compelled to swarm like the inmates
+of an overcrowded hive of bees, and find new homes elsewhere. In this
+respect the situation on Mars, as we were well aware, resembled what had
+already been known upon the earth, where the older nations overflowing
+with population had sought new lands in which to settle, and for that
+purpose had driven out the native inhabitants, whenever those natives
+had proven unable to resist the invasion.</p>
+
+<p>No man could foresee the issue of what we were about to undertake, but
+the tremendous powers which the disintegrators had exhibited and the
+marvelous efficiency of the electrical ships bred almost universal
+confidence that we should be successful.</p>
+
+<p>The car in which Mr. Edison travelled was, of course, the flagship of
+the squadron, and I had the good fortune to be included among its
+inmates. Here, besides several leading men of science from our own
+country, were Lord Kelvin, Lord Rayleigh, Professor Roentgen, Dr.
+Moissan&mdash;the man who first made artificial diamonds&mdash;and several others
+whose fame had encircled the world. Each of these men cherished hopes of
+wonderful discoveries, along his line of investigation, to be made in
+Mars.</p>
+
+<p>An elaborate system of signals had, of course, to be devised for the
+control of the squadron. These signals consisted of brilliant electric
+lights displayed at night and so controlled that by their means long
+sentences and directions could be easily and quickly transmitted.</p>
+
+<p>The day signals consisted partly of brightly colored pennons and flags,
+which were to serve only when, shadowed by clouds or other obstructions,
+the full sunlight could not fall upon the ship. This could naturally
+only occur near the surface of the earth or of another planet.</p>
+
+<p>Once out of the shadow of the earth we should have no more clouds and no
+more night until we arrived at Mars. In open space the sun would be
+continually shining. It would be perpetual day for us, except as, by
+artificial means, we furnished ourselves with darkness for the purpose
+of promoting sleep. In this region of perpetual day, then, the signals
+were also to be transmitted by flashes of light from mirrors reflecting
+the rays of the sun.</p>
+
+<p>Yet this perpetual day would be also, in one sense, a perpetual night.
+There would be no more blue sky for us, because without an atmosphere
+the sunlight could not be diffused. Objects would be illuminated only on
+the side toward the sun. Anything that screened off the direct rays of
+sunlight would produce absolute darkness behind it. There would be no
+graduation of shadow. The sky would be as black as ink on all sides.</p>
+
+<p>While it was the intention to remain as much as possible within the
+cars, yet since it was probable that necessity would arise for
+occasionally quitting the interior of the electrical ships, Mr. Edison
+had provided for this emergency by inventing an air-tight dress
+constructed somewhat after the manner of a diver's suit, but of much
+lighter material. Each ship was provided with several of these suits, by
+wearing which one could venture outside the ship even when it was beyond
+the atmosphere of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Provision had been made to meet the terrific cold which we knew would be
+encountered the moment we had passed beyond the atmosphere&mdash;that awful
+absolute zero which men had measured by anticipation, but never yet
+experienced&mdash;by a simple system of producing within the air-tight suits
+a temperature sufficiently elevated to counteract the effects of the
+frigidity without. By means of long, flexible tubes, air could be
+continually supplied to the wearers of the suits, and by an ingenious
+contrivance a store of compressed air sufficient to last for several
+hours was provided for each suit, so that in case of necessity the
+wearer could throw off the tubes connecting him with the air tanks in
+the car. Another object which had been kept in view in the preparation
+of these suits was the possible exploration of an airless planet, such
+as the moon.</p>
+
+<p>The necessity of some contrivance by means of which we should be enabled
+to converse with one another while outside the cars in open space, or
+when in an airless world, like the moon, where there would be no medium
+by which the waves of sound could be conveyed as they are in the
+atmosphere of the earth, had been foreseen by our great inventor, and he
+had not found it difficult to contrive suitable devices for meeting the
+emergency.</p>
+
+<p>Inside the headpiece of each of the electrical suits was the mouthpiece
+of a telephone. This was connected to a wire which, when not in use,
+could be conveniently coiled upon the arm of the wearer. Near the ears,
+similarly connected with wires, were telephonic receivers.</p>
+
+<p>When two persons wearing the air-tight dresses wished to converse with
+one another it was only necessary for them to connect themselves by the
+wires, and conversation could then be easily carried on.</p>
+
+<p>Careful calculations of the precise distance of Mars from the earth at
+the time when the expedition was to start had been made by a large
+number of experts in mathematical astronomy. But it was not Mr. Edison's
+intention to go direct to Mars. With the exception of the first
+electrical ship, which he had completed, none had yet been tried in a
+long voyage. It was desirable that the qualities of each of the ships
+should first be carefully tested, and for this reason the leader of the
+expedition determined that the moon should be the first port of space at
+which the squadron would call.</p>
+
+<p>It chanced that the moon was so situated at this time as to be nearly in
+a line between the earth and Mars, which latter was in opposition to the
+sun, and consequently as favorably situated as possible for the purposes
+of the voyage. What would be, then, for 99 out of the 100 ships of the
+squadron, a trial trip would at the same time be a step of a quarter of
+a million of miles gained in the direction of our journey, and so no
+time would be wasted.</p>
+
+<p>The departure from the earth was arranged to occur precisely at
+midnight. The moon near the full was hanging high over head, and a
+marvelous spectacle was presented to the eyes of those below as the
+great squadron of floating ships, with their insignia lights ablaze,
+cast loose and began slowly to move away on their adventurous and
+unprecedented expedition into the great unknown. A tremendous cheer,
+billowing up from the throats of millions of excited men and women,
+seemed to rend the curtain of the night, and made the airships tremble
+with the atmospheric vibrations that were set in motion.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly magnificent fireworks were displayed in honor of our
+departure. Rockets by hundreds of thousands shot heaven-ward, and then
+burst in constellations of firey drops. The sudden illumination thus
+produced, overspreading hundreds of square miles of the surface of the
+earth with a light almost like that of day, must certainly have been
+visible to the inhabitants of Mars, if they were watching us at the
+time. They might, or might not, correctly interpret its significance;
+but, at any rate, we did not care. We were off, and were confident that
+we could meet our enemy on his own ground before he could attack us
+again.</p>
+
+<p>And now, as we slowly rose higher, a marvelous scene was disclosed. At
+first the earth beneath us, buried as it was in night, resembled the
+hollow of a vast cup of ebony blackness, in the center of which, like
+the molten lava run together at the bottom of a volcanic crater, shone
+the light of the illuminations around New York. But when we got beyond
+the atmosphere, and the earth still continued to recede below us, its
+aspect changed. The cup-shaped appearance was gone, and it began to
+round out beneath our eyes in the form of a vast globe&mdash;an enormous ball
+mysteriously suspended under us, glimmering over most of its surface,
+with the faint illumination of the moon, and showing toward its eastern
+edge the oncoming light of the rising sun.</p>
+
+<p>When we were still further away, having slightly varied our course so
+that the sun was once more entirely hidden behind the center of the
+earth, we saw its atmosphere completely illuminated, all around it, with
+prismatic lights, like a gigantic rainbow in the form of a ring.</p>
+
+<p>Another shift in our course rapidly carried us out of the shadow of the
+earth and into that all pervading sunshine. Then the great planet
+beneath us hung unspeakable in its beauty. The outlines of several of
+the continents were clearly discernible on its surface, streaked and
+spotted with delicate shades of varying color, and the sunlight flashed
+and glowed in long lanes across the convex surface of the oceans.
+Parallel with the Equator and along the regions of the ever blowing
+trade winds, were vast belts of clouds, gorgeous with crimson and purple
+as the sunlight fell upon them. Immense expanses of snow and ice lay
+like a glittering garment upon both land and sea around the North Pole.</p>
+
+<p>As we gazed upon this magnificent spectacle, our hearts bounded within
+us. This was our earth&mdash;this was the planet we were going to defend&mdash;our
+home in the trackless wilderness of space. And it seemed to us indeed a
+home for which we might gladly expend our last breath. A new
+determination to conquer or die sprang up in our hearts, and I saw Lord
+Kelvin, after gazing at the beauteous scene which the earth presented
+through his eyeglass, turn about and peer in the direction in which we
+knew that Mars lay, with a sudden frown that caused the glass to lose
+its grip and fall dangling from its string upon his breast. Even Mr.
+Edison seemed moved.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad I thought of the disintegrator," he said. "I shouldn't like
+to see that world down there laid waste again."</p>
+
+<p>"And it won't be," said Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson, gripping the
+handle of an electric machine, "not if we can help it."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIVE" id="CHAPTER_FIVE"></a>CHAPTER FIVE</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE FOOTPRINT ON THE MOON</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>To prevent accidents, it had been arranged that the ships should keep a
+considerable distance apart. Some of them gradually drifted away, until,
+on account of the neutral tint of their sides, they were swallowed up in
+the abyss of space. Still it was possible to know where every member of
+the squadron was through the constant interchange of signals. These, as
+I have explained, were effected by means of mirrors flashing back the
+light of the sun.</p>
+
+<p>But, although it was now unceasing day for us, yet, there being no
+atmosphere to diffuse the sun's light, the stars were visible to us just
+as at night upon the earth, and they shone with extraordinary splendor
+against the intense black background of the firmament. The lights of
+some of the more distant ships of our squadron were not brighter than
+the stars in whose neighborhood they seemed to be. In some cases it was
+only possible to distinguish between the light of a ship and that of a
+star by the fact that the former was continually flashing while the star
+was steady in its radiance.</p>
+
+<p>The most uncanny effect was produced by the absence of atmosphere around
+us. Inside the car, where there was air, the sunlight, streaming through
+one or more of the windows, was diffused and produced ordinary daylight.</p>
+
+<p>But when we ventured outside we could only see things by halves. The
+side of the car that the sun's rays touched was visible, the other side
+was invisible, the light from the stars not making it bright enough to
+affect the eye in contrast with the sun-illumined half.</p>
+
+<p>As I held up my arm before my eyes, half of it seemed to be shaved off
+lengthwise; a companion on the deck of the ship looked like half a man.
+So the other electrical ships near us appeared as half ships, only the
+illumined sides being visible.</p>
+
+<p>We had now gotten so far away that the earth had taken on the appearance
+of a heavenly body like the moon. Its colors had become all blended into
+a golden-reddish hue, which overspread nearly its entire surface, except
+at the poles, where there were broad patches of white. It was marvelous
+to look at this huge orb behind us, while far beyond it shone the
+blazing sun like an enormous star in the blackest of nights. In the
+opposite direction appeared the silver orb of the moon, and scattered
+all around were millions of brilliant stars, amid which, like fireflies,
+flashed and sparkled the signal lights of the squadron.</p>
+
+<p>A danger that might easily have been anticipated, that perhaps had been
+anticipated, but against which it had been difficult, if not impossible,
+to provide, presently manifested itself.</p>
+
+<p>Looking out of a window toward the right, I suddenly noticed the lights
+of a distant ship darting about in a curious curve. Instantly afterward,
+another member of the squadron, nearer by, behaved in the same
+inexplicable manner. Then two or three of the floating cars seemed to be
+violently drawn from their courses and hurried rapidly in the direction
+of the flagship. Immediately I perceived a small object, luridly
+flaming, which seemed to move with immense speed in our direction.</p>
+
+<p>The truth instantly flashed upon my mind, and I shouted to the other
+occupants of the car:</p>
+
+<p>"A meteor!"</p>
+
+<p>And such indeed it was. We had met this mysterious wanderer in space at
+a moment when we were moving in a direction at right angles to the path
+it was pursuing around the sun. Small as it was, and its diameter
+probably did not exceed a single foot, it was yet an independent little
+world, and as such a member of the solar system. Its distance from the
+sun being so near that of the earth, I knew that its velocity, assuming
+it to be travelling in a nearly circular orbit, must be about eighteen
+miles in a second. With this velocity, then, it plunged like a
+projectile shot by some mysterious enemy in space directly through our
+squadron. It had come and was gone before one could utter a sentence of
+three words. Its appearance, and the effect it had produced upon the
+ships in whose neighborhood it passed, indicated that it bore an intense
+and tremendous charge of electricity. How it had become thus charged I
+cannot pretend to say. I simply record the fact. And this charge, it was
+evident, was opposite in polarity to that which the ships of the
+squadron bore. It therefore exerted an attractive influence upon them
+and thus drew them after it.</p>
+
+<p>I had just time to think how lucky it was that the meteor did not strike
+any of us, when, glancing at a ship just ahead, I perceived that an
+accident had occurred. The ship swayed violently from its course,
+dazzling flashes played around it, and two or three of the men forming
+its crew appeared for an instant on its exterior, wildly gesticulating,
+but almost instantly falling prone.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident at a glance that the car had been struck by the meteor.
+How serious the damage might be we could not instantly determine. The
+course of our ship was immediately altered, the electric polarity was
+changed and we rapidly approached the disabled car.</p>
+
+<p>The men who had fallen lay upon its surface. One of the heavy circular
+glasses covering a window had been smashed to atoms. Through this the
+meteor had passed, killing two or three men who stood in its course.
+Then it had crashed through the opposite side of the car, and, passing
+on, had disappeared into space. The store of air contained in the car
+had immediately rushed out through the openings, and when two or three
+of us, having donned our air-tight suits as quickly as possible, entered
+the wrecked car we found all its inmates stretched upon the floor in a
+condition of asphyxiation. They, as well as those who lay upon the
+exterior, were immediately removed to the flagship, restoratives were
+applied, and, fortunately, our aid had come so promptly that the lives
+of all of them were saved. But life had fled from the mangled bodies of
+those who had stood directly in the path of the fearful projectile.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="il057" id="il057"></a>
+<img src="images/il057.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3><i>"Through this the meteor had passed, killing two or
+three men who stood in its course."</i></h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>This strange accident had been witnessed by several of the members of
+the fleet, and they quickly drew together, in order to inquire for the
+particulars. As the flagship was now overcrowded by the addition of so
+many men to its crew, Mr. Edison had them distributed among the other
+cars. Fortunately it happened that the disintegrators contained in the
+wrecked car were not injured. Mr. Edison thought that it would be
+possible to repair the car itself, and for that purpose he had it
+attached to the flagship in order that it might be carried on as far as
+the moon. The bodies of the dead were transported with it, as it was
+determined, instead of committing them to the fearful deep of space,
+where they would have wandered forever, or else have fallen like meteors
+upon the earth, to give them interment in the lunar soil.</p>
+
+<p>As we now rapidly approached the moon the change which the appearance of
+its surface underwent was no less wonderful than that which the surface
+of the earth had presented in the reverse order while we were receding
+from it. From a pale silver orb, shining with comparative faintness
+among the stars, it slowly assumed the appearance of a vast mountainous
+desert. As we drew nearer its colors became more pronounced; the great
+flat regions appeared darker; the mountain peaks shone more brilliantly.
+The huge chasms seemed bottomless and blacker than midnight. Gradually
+separate mountains appeared. What seemed like expanses of snow and
+immense glaciers streaming down their sides sparkled with great
+brilliancy in the perpendicular rays of the sun. Our motion had now
+assumed the aspect of falling. We seemed to be dropping from an
+immeasurable height, and with an inconceivable velocity, straight down
+upon those giant peaks.</p>
+
+<p>Here and there curious lights glowed upon the mysterious surface of the
+moon. Where the edge of the moon cut the sky behind it, it was broken
+and jagged with mountain masses. Vast crater rings overspread its
+surface, and in some of these I imagined I could perceive a lurid
+illumination coming out of their deepest cavities, and the curling of
+mephitic vapors around their terrible jaws.</p>
+
+<p>We were approaching that part of the moon which is known to the
+astronomers as the Bay of Rainbows. Here a huge semi-circular region, as
+smooth almost as the surface of a prairie, lay beneath our eyes,
+stretching southward into a vast ocean-like expanse, while on the north
+it was enclosed by an enormous range of mountain cliffs, rising
+perpendicularly to a height of many thousands of feet, and rent and
+gashed in every direction by forces which seemed at some remote period
+to have labored at tearing this little world in pieces.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fearful spectacle; a dead and mangled world, too dreadful to
+look upon. The idea of the death of the moon was, of course, not a new
+one to many of us. We had long been aware that the earth's satellite was
+a body which had passed beyond the stage of life, if indeed it had ever
+been a life supporting globe; but none of us were prepared for the
+terrible spectacle which now smote our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>At each end of the semi-circular ridge that encloses the Bay of Rainbows
+there is a lofty promontory. That at the northwestern extremity had long
+been known to the astronomers under the name of Cape Laplace. The other
+promontory, at the southeastern termination, is called Cape Heraclides.
+It was toward the latter that we were approaching, and by interchange of
+signals all the members of the squadron had been informed that Cape
+Heraclides was to be our rendezvous upon the moon.</p>
+
+<p>I may say that I had been somewhat familiar with the scenery of this
+part of the lunar world, for I had often studied it from the earth with
+a telescope, and I had thought that if there was any part of the moon
+where one might, with fair expectation of success, look for inhabitants,
+or if not inhabitants, at least for relics of life no longer existant
+there, this would surely be the place. It was, therefore, with no small
+degree of curiosity, notwithstanding the unexpectedly frightful and
+repulsive appearance that the surface of the moon presented, that I now
+saw myself rapidly approaching the region concerning whose secrets my
+imagination had so often busied itself. When Mr. Edison and I had paid
+our previous trip to the moon on our first experimental trip of the
+electrical ship we had landed at a point on its surface remote from
+this, and, as I have before explained, we then made no effort to
+investigate its secrets. But now it was to be different, and we were at
+length to see something of the wonders of the moon.</p>
+
+<p>I had often on the earth drawn a smile from my friends by showing them
+Cape Heraclides with a telescope, and calling their attention to the
+fact that the outline of the peak terminating the cape was such as to
+present a remarkable resemblance to a human face, unmistakably a
+feminine countenance, seen in profile, and possessing no small degree of
+beauty. To my astonishment, this curious human semblance still remained
+when we had approached so close to the moon that the mountains forming
+the cape filled nearly the whole field of view of the window from which
+I was watching it. The resemblance, indeed, was most startling.</p>
+
+<p>"Can this indeed be Diana herself?" I said half-aloud, but instantly
+afterward I was laughing at my fancy, for Mr. Edison had overhead me and
+exclaimed, "Where is she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who?"</p>
+
+<p>"Diana."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, there," I said, pointing to the moon. But lo! the appearance was
+gone even while I spoke. A swift change had taken place in the line of
+sight by which we were viewing it, and the likeness had disappeared in
+consequence.</p>
+
+<p>A few moments later my astonishment was revived, but the cause this time
+was a very different one. We had been dropping rapidly toward the
+mountains, and the electrician in charge of the car was swiftly and
+constantly changing his potential, and, like a pilot who feels his way
+into an unknown harbor, endeavoring to approach the moon in such a
+manner that no hidden peril should surprise us. As we thus approached I
+suddenly perceived, crowning the very apex of the lofty peak near the
+termination of the cape, the ruins of what appeared to be an ancient
+watch tower. It was evidently composed of Cyclopean blocks larger than
+any that I had ever seen even among the ruins of Greece, Egypt and Asia
+Minor.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="il063" id="il063"></a>
+<img src="images/il063.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3><i>"As we thus approached I suddenly perceived, crowning
+the very apex of the lofty peak near the termination of the cape, the
+ruins of what appeared to be the ancient watch-tower."</i></h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<p>Here, then, was visible proof that the moon had been inhabited, although
+probably it was not inhabited now. I cannot describe the exultant
+feeling which took possession of me at this discovery. It settled so
+much that learned men had been disputing about for centuries.</p>
+
+<p>"What will they say," I exclaimed, "when I show them a photograph of
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>Below the peak, stretching far to right and left, lay a barren beach
+which had evidently once been washed by sea waves, because it was marked
+by long curved ridges such as the advancing and retiring tide leaves
+upon the shore of the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>This beach sloped rapidly outward and downward toward a profound abyss,
+which had once, evidently, been the bed of a sea, but which now appeared
+to us simply as the empty, yawning shell of an ocean that had long
+vanished.</p>
+
+<p>It was with no small difficulty, and only after the expenditure of
+considerable time, that all the floating ships of the squadron were
+gradually brought to rest on this lone mountain top of the moon. In
+accordance with my request, Mr. Edison had the flagship moored in the
+interior of the great ruined watch tower that I have described. The
+other ships rested upon the slope of the mountain around us.</p>
+
+<p>Although time pressed, for we knew that the safety of the earth depended
+upon our promptness in attacking Mars, yet it was determined to remain
+here at least two or three days in order that the wrecked car might be
+repaired. It was found also that the passage of the highly electrified
+meteor had disarranged the electrical machinery in some of the other
+cars, so that there were many repairs to be made besides those needed to
+restore the wreck.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, we must bury our unfortunate companions who had been killed by
+the meteor. This, in fact, was the first work that we performed. Strange
+was the sight, and stranger our feelings, as here on the surface of a
+world distant from the earth, and on soil which had never before been
+pressed by the foot of man, we performed that last ceremony of respect
+which mortals pay to mortality. In the ancient beach at the foot of the
+peak we made a deep opening, and there covered forever the faces of our
+friends, leaving them to sleep among the ruins of empires, and among the
+graves of races which had vanished probably ages before Adam and Eve
+appeared in Paradise.</p>
+
+<p>While the repairs were being made several scientific expeditions were
+sent out in various directions across the moon. One went westward to
+investigate the great ring of Plato, and the lunar Alps. Another crossed
+the ancient Sea of Showers toward the inner Appenines.</p>
+
+<p>One started to explore the immense Crater of Copernicus, which, yawning
+fifty miles across, presents a wonderful appearance even from the
+distance of the earth. The ship in which I, myself, had the good fortune
+to embark, was bound for the mysterious inner mountain Aristarchus.</p>
+
+<p>Before these expeditions started, a careful exploration had been made in
+the neighborhood of Cape Heraclides. But, except that the broken walls
+of the watch tower on the peak, composed of blocks of enormous size, had
+evidently been the work of creatures endowed with human intelligence, no
+remains were found indicating the former presence of inhabitants upon
+this part of the moon.</p>
+
+<p>But along the shore of the old sea, just where the so-called Bay of
+Rainbows separates itself from the abyss of the Sea of Showers, there
+were found some stratified rocks in which the fascinated eyes of the
+explorer beheld the clear imprint of a gigantic human foot, measuring
+five feet in length from toe to heel.</p>
+
+<p>The most minute search failed to reveal another trace of the presence of
+the ancient giant, who had left the impress of his foot in the wet sands
+of the beach here so many millions of years ago that even the
+imagination of the geologists shrank from the task of attempting to fix
+the precise period.</p>
+
+<p>Around this gigantic footprint gathered most of the scientific members
+of the expedition, wearing their oddly shaped air-tight suits, connected
+with telephonic wires, and the spectacle, but for the impressiveness of
+the discovery, would have been laughable in the extreme. Bending over
+the mark in the rock, nodding their heads together, pointing with their
+awkwardly accoutered arms, they looked like an assemblage of
+antidiluvian monsters collected around their prey. Their disappointment
+over the fact that no other marks of anything resembling human
+habitation could be discovered was very great.</p>
+
+<p>Still this footprint in itself was quite sufficient, as they all
+declared, to settle the question of the former habitation of the moon,
+and it would serve for the production of many a learned volume after
+their return to earth, even if no further discoveries should be made in
+other parts of the lunar world.</p>
+
+<p>It was the hope of making such other discoveries that led to the
+dispatch of the other various expeditions which I have already named. I
+was chosen to accompany the car that was going to Aristarchus, because,
+as every one who had viewed the moon from the earth was aware, there was
+something very mysterious about that mountain. I knew that it was a
+crater nearly thirty miles in diameter and very deep, although its floor
+was plainly visible.</p>
+
+<p>What rendered it remarkable was the fact that the floor and the walls of
+the crater, particularly on the inner side, glowed with a marvelous
+brightness which rendered them almost blinding when viewed with a
+powerful telescope.</p>
+
+<p>So bright were they, indeed, that the eye was unable to see many of the
+details which the telescope would have made visible but for the flood of
+light which poured from the mountains. Sir William Hershel had been so
+completely misled by this appearance that he supposed he was watching a
+lunar volcano in eruption.</p>
+
+<p>It had always been a difficult question what caused the extraordinary
+luminosity of Aristarchus. No end of hypothesis had been invented to
+account for it. Now I was to assist in settling these questions forever.</p>
+
+<p>From Cape Heraclides to Aristarchus the distance in air line was
+something over 300 miles. Our course lay across the northeastern part of
+the Sea of Showers, with enormous cliffs, mountain masses and peaks
+shining on the right, while in the other direction the view was bounded
+by the distant range of the lunar Appenines, some of whose towering
+peaks, when viewed from our immense elevation, appeared as sharp as the
+Swiss Matterhorn.</p>
+
+<p>When we had arrived within about a hundred miles of our destination we
+found ourselves, floating directly over the so-called Harbinger
+Mountains. The serrated peaks of Aristarchus then appeared ahead of us,
+fairly blazing in the sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed as if a gigantic string of diamonds, every one as great as a
+mountain peak, had been cast down upon the barren surface of the moon
+and left to waste their brilliance upon the desert air of this abandoned
+world.</p>
+
+<p>As we rapidly approached the dazzling splendor of the mountain became
+almost unbearable to our eyes, and we were compelled to resort to the
+devise, practised by all climbers of lofty mountains, where the glare of
+sunlight on snow surfaces is liable to cause temporary blindness, of
+protecting our eyes with neutral-tinted glasses.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Moissan, the great French chemist and maker of artificial
+diamonds, fairly danced with delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Voila! Voila! Voila!" was all that he could say.</p>
+
+<p>When we were comparatively near, the mountain no longer seemed to glow
+with a uniform radiance, evenly distributed over its entire surface, but
+now innumerable points of light, all as bright as so many little suns,
+blazed away at us. It was evident that we had before us a mountain
+composed of, or at least covered with, crystals.</p>
+
+<p>Without stopping to alight on the outer slopes of the great ring-shaped
+range of peaks which composed Aristarchus, we sailed over their rim and
+looked down into the interior. Here the splendor of the crystals was
+greater than on the outer slopes, and the broad floor of the crater,
+thousands of feet beneath us, shone and sparkled with overwhelming
+radiance, as if it were an immense bin of diamonds, while a peak in the
+center flamed like a stupendous tiara incrusted with selected gems.</p>
+
+<p>Eager to see what these crystals were, the car was now allowed rapidly
+to drop into the interior of the crater. With great caution we brought
+it to rest upon the blazing ground, for the sharp edges of the crystals
+would certainly have torn the metallic sides of the car if it had come
+into violent contact with them.</p>
+
+<p>Donning our air-tight suits and stepping carefully out upon this
+wonderful footing we attempted to detach some of the crystals. Many of
+them were firmly fastened, but a few&mdash;some of astonishing size&mdash;were
+readily loosened.</p>
+
+<p>A moment's inspection showed that we had stumbled upon the most
+marvelous work of the forces of crystalization that human eyes had ever
+rested upon. Some time in the past history of the moon there had been an
+enormous outflow of molten material from the crater. This had overspread
+the walls and partially filled up the interior, and later its surface
+had flowered into gems, as thick as blossoms in a bed of pansies.</p>
+
+<p>The whole mass flashed prismatic rays of indescribable beauty and
+intensity. We gazed at first speechless with amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"It cannot be, surely it cannot be," said Professor Moissan at length.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is," said another member of the party.</p>
+
+<p>"Are these diamonds?" asked a third.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot yet tell," replied the Professor. "They have the brilliancy of
+diamonds, but they may be something else."</p>
+
+<p>"Moon jewels," suggested a third.</p>
+
+<p>"And worth untold millions, whatever they are," remarked another. These
+magnificent crystals, some of which appeared to be almost flawless,
+varied in size from the dimensions of a hazelnut to geometrical solids
+several inches in diameter. We carefully selected as many as it was
+convenient to carry and placed them in the car for future examination.
+We had solved another long standing lunar problem and had, perhaps,
+opened up an inexhaustible future mine of wealth which might eventually
+go far toward reimbursing the earth for the damage which it had suffered
+from the invasion of the Martians.</p>
+
+<p>On returning to Cape Heraclides we found that the other expeditions had
+arrived at the rendezvous ahead of us. Their members had wonderful
+stories to tell of what they had seen, but nothing caused quite so much
+astonishment as that which we had to tell and to show.</p>
+
+<p>The party which had gone to visit Plato and the lunar Alps brought back,
+however, information which, in a scientific sense, was no less
+interesting than what we had been able to gather.</p>
+
+<p>They had found within this curious ring of Plato, which is a circle of
+mountains sixty miles in diameter, enclosing a level plain remarkably
+smooth over most of its surface, unmistakable evidences of former
+habitation. A gigantic city had evidently at one time existed near the
+center of this great plain. The outlines of its walls and the foundation
+marks of some of its immense buildings were plainly made out, and
+elaborate plans of this vanished capitol of the moon were prepared by
+several members of the party.</p>
+
+<p>One of them was fortunate enough to discover an even more precious relic
+of the ancient lunarians. It was a piece of petrified skullbone,
+representing but a small portion of the head to which it had belonged,
+but yet sufficient to enable the anthropologists, who immediately fell
+to examining it, to draw ideal representations of the head as it must
+have been in life&mdash;the head of a giant of enormous size, which, if it
+had possessed a highly organized brain, of proportionate magnitude, must
+have given to its possessor intellectual powers immensely greater than
+any of the descendants of Adam have ever been endowed with.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, one of the professors was certain that some little concretions
+found on the interior of the piece of skull were petrified portions of
+the brain matter itself, and he set to work with the microscope to
+examine its organic quality.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, the repairs to the electrical ships had been completed,
+and, although these discoveries on the moon had created a most profound
+sensation among the members of the expedition, and aroused an almost
+irresistable desire to continue the explorations thus happily begun, yet
+everybody knew that these things were aside from the main purpose in
+view, and that we should be false to our duty in wasting a moment more
+upon the moon than was absolutely necessary to put the ships in proper
+condition to proceed on their warlike voyage.</p>
+
+<p>Everything being prepared then, we left the moon with great regret, just
+forty-eight hours after we had landed upon its surface, carrying with us
+a determination to revisit it and to learn more of its wonderful secrets
+in case we should survive the dangers which we were now going to face.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SIX" id="CHAPTER_SIX"></a>CHAPTER SIX</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE MONSTERS ON THE ASTEROID</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>A day or two after leaving the moon, we had another adventure with a
+wandering inhabitant of space which brought us into far greater peril
+than had our encounter with the meteor.</p>
+
+<p>The airships had been partitioned off so that a portion of the interior
+could be darkened in order to serve as a sleeping chamber, wherein,
+according to the regulations prescribed by the commander of the squadron
+each member of the expedition in his turn passed eight out of every
+twenty-four hours&mdash;sleeping if he could, if not, meditating in a more or
+less dazed way, upon the wonderful things that he was seeing and
+doing&mdash;things far more incredible than the creations of a dream.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, if I may call by the name morning the time of my periodical
+emergence from the darkened chamber, glancing from one of the windows, I
+was startled to see in the black sky a brilliant comet.</p>
+
+<p>No periodical comet, as I knew, was at this time approaching the
+neighborhood of the sun, and no stranger of that kind had been detected
+from the observatories making its way sunward before we left the earth.
+Here, however, was unmistakably a comet rushing toward the sun, flinging
+out a great gleaming tail behind it and so close to us that I wondered
+to see it remaining almost motionless in the sky. This phenomenon was
+soon explained to me, and the explanation was of a most disquieting
+character.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger had already been perceived, not only from the flagship, but
+from the other members of the squadron, and, as I now learned, efforts
+had been made to get out of the neighborhood, but for some reason the
+electrical apparatus did not work perfectly&mdash;some mysterious disturbing
+force acting upon it&mdash;and so it had been found impossible to avoid an
+encounter with the comet, not an actual coming into contact with it, but
+a falling into the sphere of its influence.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, I was informed that for several hours the squadron had been
+dragging along in the wake of a comet, very much as boats are sometimes
+towed off by a wounded whale. Every effort had been made to so adjust
+the electric charge upon the ships that they would be repelled from the
+cometic mass, but, owing apparently to electric changes affecting the
+clashing mass of meteoric bodies which constituted the head of the
+comet, we found it impossible to escape from its influence.</p>
+
+<p>At one instant the ships would be repelled; immediately afterward they
+would be attracted again, and thus they were dragged hither and thither,
+but never able to break from the invisible leash which the comet had
+cast upon them. The latter was moving with enormous velocity toward the
+sun, and, consequently, we were being carried back again, away from the
+object of our expedition, with a fair prospect of being dissipated in
+blazing vapors when the comet had dragged us, unwilling prisoners, into
+the immediate neighborhood of the solar furnace.</p>
+
+<p>Even the most cool-headed lost his self control in this terrible
+emergency. Every kind of devise that experience or the imagination could
+suggest was tried, but nothing would do. Still on we rushed with the
+electrified atoms composing the tail of the comet swinging to and fro
+over the members of the squadron, as they shifted their position, like
+the plume of smoke from a gigantic steamer, drifting over the sea birds
+that follow in its course.</p>
+
+<p>Was this to end it all, then? Was this the fate that Providence had in
+store for us? Were the hopes of the earth thus to perish? Was the
+expedition to be wrecked and its fate to remain for ever unknown to the
+planet from which it had set forth? And was our beloved globe, which had
+seemed so fair to us when we last looked upon it nearby, and in whose
+defense we had resolved to spend our last breath, to be left helpless
+and at the mercy of its implacable foe in the sky?</p>
+
+<p>At length we gave ourselves up for lost. There seemed to be no possible
+way to free ourselves from the baleful grip of this terrible and
+unlooked for enemy.</p>
+
+<p>As the comet approached the sun its electrical energy rapidly increased,
+and watching it with telescopes, for we could not withdraw our
+fascinated eyes from it, we could clearly behold the fearful things that
+went on in its nucleus.</p>
+
+<p>This consisted of an immense number of separate meteors of no very great
+size individually, but which were in constant motion among one another,
+darting to and fro, clashing and smashing together, while fountains of
+blazing metallic particles and hot mineral vapours poured out in every
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>As I watched it, unable to withdraw my eyes, I saw imaginary forms
+revealing themselves amid the flaming meteors. They seemed like
+creatures in agony, tossing their arms, bewailing in their attitudes the
+awful fate that had overtaken them, and fairly chilling my blood with
+the pantomime of torture which they exhibited. I thought of an old
+superstition which I had often heard about the earth, and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, surely, this is a flying hell!"</p>
+
+<p>As the electric activity of the comet increased, its continued changes
+of potential and polarity became more frequent, and the electrical ships
+darted about with even greater confusion than before. Occasionally one
+of them, seized with a sudden impulse, would spring forward toward the
+nucleus of the comet with a sudden access of velocity that would fling
+every one of its crew from his feet, and all would lie sprawling on the
+floor of the car while it rushed, as it seemed, to inevitable and
+instant destruction.</p>
+
+<p>Then, either through the frantic efforts of the electrician struggling
+with the controller or through another change in the polarity of the
+comet, the ship would be saved on the very brink of ruin and stagger
+away out of immediate danger.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the captured squadron was swept, swaying and darting hither and
+thither, but never able to get sufficiently far from the comet to break
+the bond of its fatal attraction.</p>
+
+<p>So great was our excitement and so complete our absorption in the
+fearful peril that we had not noticed the precise direction in which the
+comet was carrying us. It was enough to know that the goal of the
+journey was the furnace of the sun. But presently someone in the
+flagship recalled us to a more accurate sense of our situation in space
+by exclaiming:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, there is the earth!"</p>
+
+<p>And there, indeed, it was, its great globe rolling under our eyes, with
+the contrasted colors of the continents and clouds and the watery gleam
+of the oceans spread beneath us.</p>
+
+<p>"We're going to strike it!" exclaimed somebody. "The comet is going to
+dash us into the earth."</p>
+
+<p>Such a collision at first seemed inevitable, but presently it was
+noticed that the direction of the comet's motion was such that while it
+might graze the earth it would not actually strike it.</p>
+
+<p>And so, like a swarm of giant insects circling about an electric light
+from whose magic influence they could not escape, our ships went on, to
+be whipped against the earth in passing and then to continue their swift
+journey to destruction.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God, this saves us," suddenly cried Mr. Edison.</p>
+
+<p>"What-what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, the earth, of course. Do you not see that as the comet sweeps
+close to the great planet the superior attraction of the latter will
+snatch us from its grasp, and that thus we shall be able to escape."</p>
+
+<p>And it was indeed as Mr. Edison had predicted. In a blaze of falling
+meteors the comet swept the outer limits of the earth's atmosphere and
+passed on, while the swaying ships, having been instructed by signals
+what to do, desperately applied their electrical machinery to reverse
+the attraction and threw themselves into the arms of their mother earth.</p>
+
+<p>In another instant we were all free, settling down through the quiet
+atmosphere with the Atlantic Ocean sparkling in the morning sun far
+below.</p>
+
+<p>We looked at one another in amazement. So this was the end of our
+voyage! This was the completion of our warlike enterprise. We had
+started out to conquer a world, and we had come back ignominiously
+dragged in the train of a comet.</p>
+
+<p>The earth which we were going to defend and protect had herself turned
+protector, and reaching out her strong arm had snatched her foolish
+children from the destruction which they had invited.</p>
+
+<p>It would be impossible to describe the chagrin of every member of the
+expedition.</p>
+
+<p>The electric ships rapidly assembled and hovered high in the air, while
+their commanders consulted about what should be done. A universal
+feeling of shame almost drove them to a decision not to land upon the
+surface of the planet, and if possible not to let its inhabitants know
+what had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>But it was too late for that. Looking carefully beneath us, we saw that
+fate had brought us back to our very starting point, and signals
+displayed in the neighborhood of New York indicated that we had already
+been recognized. There was nothing for us then but to drop down and
+explain the situation.</p>
+
+<p>I shall not delay my narrative by undertaking to describe the
+astonishment and the disappointment of the inhabitants of the earth
+when, within a fortnight from our departure, they saw us back again,
+with no laurels of victory crowning our brows.</p>
+
+<p>At first they had hoped that we were returning in triumph, and we were
+overwhelmed with questions the moment we had dropped within speaking
+distance.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you whipped them?"</p>
+
+<p>"How many are lost?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any more danger?"</p>
+
+<p>"Faix, have ye got one of thim men from Mars?"</p>
+
+<p>But their rejoicing and their facetiousness were turned into wailing
+when the truth was imparted.</p>
+
+<p>We made a short story of it, for we had not the heart to go into
+details. We told of our unfortunate comrades whom we had buried upon the
+moon, and there was one gleam of satisfaction when we exhibited the
+wonderful crystals we had collected in the crater of Aristarchus.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edison determined to stop only long enough to test the electrical
+machinery of the cars, which had been more or less seriously deranged
+during our wild chase after the comet, and then to start straight back
+for Mars&mdash;this time on a through trip.</p>
+
+<p>The astronomers, who had been watching Mars, since our departure, with
+their telescopes, reported that mysterious lights continued to be
+visible, but that nothing indicating the starting of another expedition
+for the earth had been seen.</p>
+
+<p>Within twenty-four hours we were ready for our second start.</p>
+
+<p>The moon was now no longer in a position to help us on our way. It had
+moved out of line between Mars and the earth.</p>
+
+<p>High above us, in the center of the heavens, glowed the red planet which
+was the goal of our journey.</p>
+
+<p>The needed computations of velocity and direction of flight having been
+repeated, and the ships being all in readiness, we started direct for
+Mars.</p>
+
+<p>An enormous charge of electricity was imparted to each member of the
+squadron, in order that as soon as we had reached the upper limits of
+the atmosphere, where the ships could move swiftly, without danger of
+being consumed by the heat developed by the friction of their passage
+through the air, a very great initial velocity could be imparted.</p>
+
+<p>Once started off by this tremendous electrical kick, and with no
+atmosphere to resist our motion, we should be able to retain the same
+velocity, baring incidental encounters, until we arrived near the
+surface of Mars.</p>
+
+<p>When we were free of the atmosphere, and the ships were moving away from
+the earth, with the highest velocity which we were able to impart to
+them, observations on the stars were made in order to determine the rate
+of our speed.</p>
+
+<p>This was found to be ten miles in a second, or 864,000 miles in a day, a
+very much greater speed than that with which we had travelled on
+starting to touch at the moon. Supposing this velocity to remain
+uniform, and, with no known resistance, it might reasonably be expected
+to do so, we should arrive at Mars in a little less than forty-two days,
+the distance of the planet from the earth being at this time, about
+thirty-six million miles.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing occurred for many days to interrupt our journey. We became
+accustomed to our strange surroundings, and many entertainments were
+provided to while away the time. The astronomers in the expedition found
+plenty of occupation in studying the aspects of the stars and the other
+heavenly bodies from their new point of view.</p>
+
+<p>At the expiration of about thirty-five days we had drawn so near to Mars
+that with our telescopes, which, though small, were of immense power, we
+could discern upon its surface features and details which no one had
+been able to glimpse from the earth.</p>
+
+<p>As the surface of this world, that we were approaching as a tiger hunter
+draws near the jungle, gradually unfolded itself to our inspection,
+there was hardly one of us willing to devote to sleep or idleness the
+prescribed eight hours that had been fixed as the time during which each
+member of the expedition must remain in the darkened chamber. We were
+too eager to watch for every new revelation upon Mars.</p>
+
+<p>But something was in store that we had not expected. We were to meet the
+Martians before arriving at the world in which they dwelt.</p>
+
+<p>Among the stars which shone in that quarter of the heavens where Mars
+appeared as the master orb, there was one, lying directly in our path,
+which, to our astonishment, as we continued on, altered from the aspect
+of a star, underwent a gradual magnification, and soon presented itself
+in the form of a little planet.</p>
+
+<p>"It is an asteroid," said somebody.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, evidently; but how does it come inside the orbit of Mars?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there are several asteroids," said one of the astronomers, "which
+travel inside the orbit of Mars, along a part of their course, and, for
+aught we can tell, there may be many which have not yet been caught
+sight of from the earth, that are nearer to the sun than Mars is."</p>
+
+<p>"This must be one of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Manifestly so."</p>
+
+<p>As we drew nearer the mysterious little planet revealed itself to us as
+a perfectly formed globe not more than five miles in diameter.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that upon it?" asked Lord Kelvin, squinting intently at the
+little world through his glass. "As I live, it moves."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes!" exclaimed several others, "there are inhabitants upon it,
+but what giants!"</p>
+
+<p>"What monsters!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you see?" exclaimed an excited savant. "They are the Martians!"</p>
+
+<p>The startling truth burst upon the minds of all. Here upon this little
+planetoid were several of the gigantic inhabitants of the world that we
+were going to attack. There was more than one man in the flagship who
+recognized them well, and who shuddered at the recognition,
+instinctively recalling the recent terrible experience of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Was this an outpost of the warlike Mars?</p>
+
+<p>Around these monstrous enemies we saw several of their engines of war.
+Some of these appeared to have been wrecked, but at least one, as far as
+we could see, was still in a proper condition for use.</p>
+
+<p>How had these creatures got there?</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that is easy enough to account for," I said, as a sudden
+recollection flashed into my mind. "Don't you remember the report of the
+astronomers more than six months ago, at the end of the conference in
+Washington, that something would seem to indicate the departure of a new
+expedition from Mars had been noticed by them? We have heard nothing of
+that expedition since. We know that it did not reach the earth. It must
+have fallen foul of this asteroid, run upon this rock in the ocean of
+space and been wrecked here."</p>
+
+<p>"We've got 'em, then," shouted our electric steersman, who had been a
+workman in Mr. Edison's laboratory and had unlimited confidence in his
+chief.</p>
+
+<p>The electrical ships were immediately instructed by signal to slow down,
+an operation that was easily affected through the electrical repulsion
+of the asteroid.</p>
+
+<p>The nearer we got the more terrifying was the appearance of the gigantic
+creatures who were riding upon the little world before us like castaway
+sailors upon a block of ice. Like men, and yet not like men, combining
+the human and the beast in their appearance, it required a steady nerve
+to look at them. If we had not known their malignity and their power to
+work evil, it would have been different, but in our eyes their moral
+character shone through their physical aspect and thus rendered them
+more terrible than they would otherwise have been.</p>
+
+<p>When we first saw them their appearance was most forlorn, and their
+attitudes indicated only despair and desperation, but as they caught
+sight of us their malign power of intellect instantly penetrated the
+mystery, and they recognized us for what we were.</p>
+
+<p>Their despair immediately gave place to reawakened malevolence. On the
+instant they were astir, with such heart-chilling movements as those
+that characterize a venomous serpent preparing to strike.</p>
+
+<p>Not imagining that they would be in a position to make serious
+resistance, we had been somewhat incautious in approaching.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there was a quicker movement than usual among the Martians, a
+swift adjustment of that one of their engines of war which, as already
+noticed, seemed to be practically uninjured, then there darted from it
+and alighted upon one of the foremost ships, a dazzling lightning stroke
+a mile in length, at whose touch the metallic sides of the car curled
+and withered and, licked for a moment by what seemed lambent flames,
+collapsed into a mere cinder.</p>
+
+<p>For an instant not a word was spoken, so sudden and unexpected was the
+blow.</p>
+
+<p>We knew that every soul in the stricken car had perished.</p>
+
+<p>"Back! Back!" was the signal instantly flashed from the flagship, and
+reversing their polarities the members of the squadron sprang away from
+the little planet as rapidly as the electrical impulse could drive them.</p>
+
+<p>But before we were out of reach a second flaming tongue of death shot
+from the fearful engine, and another of our ships, with all its crew,
+was destroyed.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="il075" id="il075"></a>
+<img src="images/il075.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3><i>"Back! Back!" was the signal instantaneously flashed
+from the flag ship, and the members of the squadron sprang away from the
+little planet. But before we were out of reach a second tongue of death
+shot from the fearful engine, and another of our ships, with all its
+crew, was destroyed.</i></h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<p>It was an inauspicious beginning for us. Two of our electrical ships,
+with their entire crews, had been wiped out of existence, and this
+appalling blow had been dealt by a few stranded and disabled enemies
+floating on an asteroid.</p>
+
+<p>What hope would there be for us when we came to encounter the millions
+of Mars itself on their own ground and prepared for war?</p>
+
+<p>However, it would not do to despond. We had been incautious, and we
+should take good care not to commit the same fault again.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing to do was to avenge the death of our comrades. The
+question whether we were able to meet these Martians and overcome them
+might as well be settled right here and now. They had proved what they
+could do, even when disabled and at a disadvantage. Now it was our turn.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SEVEN" id="CHAPTER_SEVEN"></a>CHAPTER SEVEN</h2>
+
+<h3><i>A PLANET OF GOLD</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The squadron had been rapidly withdrawn to a very considerable distance
+from the asteroid. The range of the mysterious artillery employed by the
+Martians was unknown to us. We did not even know the limit of the
+effective range of our own disintegrators. If it should prove that the
+Martians were able to deal their strokes at a distance greater than any
+we could reach, then they would of course have an insuperable advantage.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, if it should turn out that our range was greater than
+theirs, the advantage would be on our side. Or&mdash;which was perhaps most
+probable&mdash;there might be practically no difference in the effective
+range of the engines.</p>
+
+<p>Anyhow, we were going to find out how the case stood, and that without
+delay.</p>
+
+<p>Everything being in readiness, the disintegrators all in working order,
+and the men who were able to handle them, most of whom were experienced
+marksmen, chosen from among the officers of the regular army of the
+United States, and accustomed to the straight shooting and the sure hits
+of the West, standing at their posts, the squadron again advanced.</p>
+
+<p>In order to distract the attention of the Martians, the electrical ships
+had been distributed over a wide space. Some dropped straight down
+toward the asteroid; others approached it by flank attack, from this
+side and that. The flagship moved straight in toward the point where the
+first disaster occurred. Its intrepid commander felt that his post
+should be that of the greatest danger, and where the severest blows
+would be given and received.</p>
+
+<p>The approach of the ships was made with great caution. Watching the
+Martians with our telescopes we could clearly see that they were
+disconcerted by the scattered order of our attack. Even if all of their
+engines of war had been in proper condition for use it would have been
+impossible for them to meet the simultaneous assault of so many enemies
+dropping down upon them from the sky.</p>
+
+<p>But they were made of fighting mettle, as we knew from old experience.
+It was no question of surrender. They did not know how to surrender, and
+we did not know how to demand their surrender. Besides, the destruction
+of the two electrical ships with the forty men, many of whom bore names
+widely known upon the earth, had excited a kind of fury among the
+members of the squadron which called for vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a repetition of the quick movement by the Martians, which had
+been the forerunner of the former coup, was observed; again a blinding
+flash burst from their war engines and instantaneously a shiver ran
+through the frame of the flagship; the air within quivered with strange
+pulsations and seemed suddenly to have assumed the temperature of a
+blast furnace.</p>
+
+<p>We all gasped for breath. Our throats and lungs seemed scorched in the
+act of breathing. Some fell unconscious upon the floor. The marksmen,
+carrying the disintegrators ready for use, staggered, and one of them
+dropped his instrument.</p>
+
+<p>But we had not been destroyed like our comrades before us. In a moment
+the wave of heat passed; those who had fallen recovered from their
+momentary stupor and staggered to their feet.</p>
+
+<p>The electrical steersman stood hesitating at his post.</p>
+
+<p>"Move on," said Mr. Edison sternly, his features set with determination
+and his eyes afire.</p>
+
+<p>"We are still beyond their effective range. Let us get closer in order
+to make sure work when we strike."</p>
+
+<p>The ship moved on. One could hear the heartbeats of its inmates. The
+other members of the squadron, thinking for the moment that disaster had
+overtaken the flagship, had paused and seemed to be meditating flight.</p>
+
+<p>"Signal them to move on," said Mr. Edison.</p>
+
+<p>The signal was given, and the circle of electrical ships closed in upon
+the asteroid.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Mr. Edison had been donning his air-tight suit. Before
+we could clearly comprehend his intention he had passed through the
+double trapped door which gave access to the exterior of the car without
+permitting the loss of air, and was standing upon what served as the
+deck of the ship.</p>
+
+<p>In his hand he carried a disintegrator. With a quick motion he sighted
+it.</p>
+
+<p>As quickly as possible I sprang to his side. I was just in time to note
+the familiar blue gleam about the instrument, which indicated that its
+terrific energies were at work. The whirring sound was absent, because
+here, in open space, where there was no atmosphere, there could be no
+sound.</p>
+
+<p>My eyes were fixed upon the Martian's engine, which had just dealt us a
+staggering, but not fatal, blow, and particularly I noticed a polished
+knob projecting from it which seemed to have been the focus from which
+its destructive bolt emanated.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later the knob disappeared. The irresistible vibrations darted
+from the electrical disintegrator and had fallen upon it and
+instantaneously shattered it into atoms.</p>
+
+<p>"That fixes them," said Mr. Edison, turning to me with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>And indeed it did fix them. We had most effectually spiked their gun. It
+would deal no more death blows.</p>
+
+<p>The doings of the flagship had been closely watched throughout the
+squadron. The effect of its blow had been evident to all, and a moment
+later we saw, on some of the nearer ships, men dressed in their air
+suits, appearing upon the deck, swinging their arms and sending forth
+soundless cheers into empty space.</p>
+
+<p>The stroke that we had dealt was taken by several of the electrical
+ships as a signal for a common assault, and we saw two of the Martians
+fall beside the ruins of their engine, their heads having been blown
+from their bodies.</p>
+
+<p>"Signal them to stop firing," commanded Mr. Edison. "We have got them
+down, and we are not going to murder them without necessity."</p>
+
+<p>"Besides," he added, "I want to capture some of them alive."</p>
+
+<p>The signal was given as he had ordered. The flagship then alone dropped
+slowly toward the place on the asteroid where the prostrate Martians
+were.</p>
+
+<p>As we got near them a terrible scene unfolded itself to our eyes. There
+had evidentially been not more than a half dozen of the monsters in the
+beginning. Two of these were stretched headless upon the ground. Three
+others had suffered horrible injuries where the invisible vibratory
+beams from the disintegrators had grazed them, and they could not long
+survive. One only remained apparently uninjured.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="il081" id="il081"></a>
+<img src="images/il081.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3><i>As we got near them a terrible scene unfolded itself.
+Two of the Martians were stretched headless upon the ground. Three
+others had suffered horrible injuries, and only one remained apparently
+unhurt.</i></h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<p>It is impossible for me to describe the appearance of this creature in
+terms that would be readily understood. Was he like a man? Yes and no.
+He possessed many human characteristics, but they were exaggerated and
+monstrous in scale and in detail. His head was of enormous size, and his
+huge projecting eyes gleamed with a strange fire of intelligence. His
+face was like a caricature, but not one to make the beholder laugh.
+Drawing himself up, he towered to a height of at least fifteen feet.</p>
+
+<p>But let the reader not suppose from this inadequate description that the
+Martians stirred in the beholder precisely the sensation that would be
+caused by the sight of a gorilla, or other repulsive inhabitant of our
+terrestrial jungles, suddenly confronting him in its native wilds.</p>
+
+<p>With all his horrible characteristics, and all his suggestions of beast
+and monster, nevertheless the Martian produced the impression of being a
+person and not a mere animal.</p>
+
+<p>I have already referred to the enormous size of his head, and to the
+fact that his countenance bore considerable resemblance to that of a
+man. There was something in his face that sent a shiver through the soul
+of the beholder. One could feel in looking upon it that here was
+intellect, intelligence developed to the highest degree, but in the
+direction of evil instead of good.</p>
+
+<p>The sensations of one who had stood face to face with Satan, when he was
+driven from the battlements of heaven by the swords of his fellow
+archangels, and had beheld him transformed from Lucifer, the Son of the
+Morning, into the Prince of Night and Hell, might not have been unlike
+those which we now experienced as we gazed upon this dreadful personage,
+who seemed to combine the intellectual powers of a man, raised to their
+highest pitch, with some of the physical features of a beast, and all
+the moral depravity of a fiend.</p>
+
+<p>The appearance of the Martian was indeed so threatening and repellent
+that we paused at the height of fifty feet above the ground, hesitating
+to approach nearer. A grin of rage and hate overspread his face. If he
+had been a man I should say he shook his fist at us. What he did was to
+express in even more telling pantomime his hatred and defiance, and his
+determination to grind us to shreds if he could once get us within his
+clutches.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edison and I still stood upon the deck of the ship, where several
+others had gathered around us. The atmosphere of the little asteroid was
+so rare that it practically amounted to nothing, and we could not
+possibly have survived if we had not continued to wear our air tight
+suits. How the Martians contrived to live here was a mystery to us. It
+was another of their secrets which we were yet to learn.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edison retained his disintegrator in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Kill him," said someone. "He is too horrible to live."</p>
+
+<p>"If we do not kill him we shall never be able to land upon the
+asteroid," said another.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Mr. Edison. "I shall not kill him. We have got another use
+for him. Tom," he continued, turning to one of his assistants, whom he
+had brought from his laboratory, "bring me the anaesthetic."</p>
+
+<p>This was something entirely new to nearly all the members of the
+expedition. Mr. Edison, however, had confided to me before we left the
+earth the fact that he had invented a little instrument by means of
+which a bubble, strongly charged with a powerful anaesthetic agent,
+could be driven to a considerable distance into the face of an enemy,
+where exploding without other damage, it would instantly put him to
+sleep.</p>
+
+<p>When Tom had placed the instrument in his hands Mr. Edison ordered the
+electrical ship to forge slightly ahead and drop a little lower toward
+the Martian, who, with watchful eyes and threatening gestures, noted our
+approach in the attitude of a wild beast on the spring. Suddenly Mr.
+Edison discharged from the instrument in his hand a little gaseous
+globe, which glittered like a ball of tangled rainbows in the sunshine,
+and darted with astonishing velocity straight into the upturned face of
+the Martian. It burst as it touched and the monster fell back senseless
+upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"You have killed him!" exclaimed all.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Mr. Edison. "He is not dead, only asleep. Now we shall drop
+down and bind him tight before he can awake."</p>
+
+<p>When we came to bind our prisoner with strong ropes we were more than
+ever impressed with his gigantic stature and strength. Evidentially in
+single combat with equal weapons he would have been a match for twenty
+of us.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="il087" id="il087"></a>
+<img src="images/il087.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3><i>"When we came to bind our prisoner with strong ropes
+we were more than ever impressed with his gigantic stature and strength.
+He might have been a match for twenty of us."</i></h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<p>All that I had read of giants had failed to produce upon my mind the
+impression of enormous size and tremendous physical energy which the
+sleeping body of this immense Martian produced. He had fallen on his
+back, and was in a most profound slumber. All his features were relaxed,
+and yet even in that condition there was a devilishness about him that
+made the beholders instinctively shudder.</p>
+
+<p>So powerful was the effect of the anaesthetic which Mr. Edison had
+discharged into his face that he remained perfectly unconscious while we
+turned him half over in order the more securely to bind his muscular
+limbs.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the other electrical ships approached, and several of
+them made a landing upon the asteroid. Everybody was eager to see this
+wonderful little world, which, as I have already remarked, was only five
+miles in diameter.</p>
+
+<p>Several of us from the flagship started out hastily to explore the
+miniature planet. And now our attention was recalled to an intensely
+interesting phenomenon which had engaged our thoughts not only when we
+were upon the moon, but during our flight through space. This was the
+almost entire absence of weight.</p>
+
+<p>On the moon, where the force of gravitation is one-sixths as great as
+upon the earth, we had found ourselves astonishingly light. Five-sixths
+of our own weight, and of the weight of the air-tight suits in which we
+were encased, had magically dropped from us. It was therefore
+comparatively easy for us, encumbered, as we were, to make our way about
+on the moon.</p>
+
+<p>But when we were far from both the earth and the moon, the loss of
+weight was more astonishing still&mdash;not astonishing because we had not
+known that it would be so, but nevertheless a surprising phenomenon in
+contrast with our lifelong experience on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>In open space we were practically without weight. Only the mass of the
+electrical car in which we were enclosed attracted us, and inside that
+we could place ourselves in any position without falling. We could float
+in the air. There was no up and no down, no top and no bottom for us.
+Stepping outside the car, it would have been easy for us to spring away
+from it and leave it forever.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most startling experiences that I have ever had was one day
+when we were navigating space about half way between the earth and Mars.
+I had stepped outside the car with Lord Kelvin, both of us, of course,
+wearing our air-tight suits. We were perfectly well aware what would be
+the consequence of detaching ourselves from the car as we moved along.
+We should still retain the forward motion of the car, and of course
+accompany it in its flight. There would be no falling one way or the
+other. The car would have a tendency to draw us back again by its
+attraction, but this tendency would be very slight, and practically
+inappreciable at a distance.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to step off," I suddenly said to Lord Kelvin. "Of course I
+shall keep right along with the car, and step aboard again when I am
+ready."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right on general principles, young man," replied the great
+savant, "but beware in what manner you step off. Remember, if you give
+your body an impulse sufficient to carry it away from the car to any
+considerable distance, you will be unable to get back again, unless we
+can catch you with a boathook or a fishline. Out there in empty space
+you will have nothing to kick against, and you will be unable to propel
+yourself in the direction of the car, and its attraction is so feeble
+that we should probably arrive at Mars before it had drawn you back
+again."</p>
+
+<p>All this was, of course, perfectly self-evident, yet I believe that but
+for the warning words of Lord Kelvin I should have been rash enough to
+step out into empty space, with sufficient force to have separated
+myself hopelessly from the electrical ship.</p>
+
+<p>As it was, I took good care to retain a hold upon a projecting portion
+of the car. Occasionally cautiously releasing my grip, I experienced for
+a few minutes the delicious, indescribable pleasure of being a little
+planet swinging through space, with nothing to hold me up and nothing to
+interfere with my motion.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edison, happening to come upon the deck of the ship at this time,
+and seeing what we were about at once said:</p>
+
+<p>"I must provide against this danger. If I do not, there is a chance that
+we shall arrive at Mars with the ships half empty and the crews floating
+helplessly around us."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edison's way of guarding against the danger was by contriving a
+little apparatus, modeled after that which was the governing force of
+the electrical ships themselves, and which, being enclosed in the
+air-tight suits, enabled their wearers to manipulate the electrical
+charge upon them in such a way that they could make excursions from the
+cars into open space like steam launches from a ship, going and
+returning at their will.</p>
+
+<p>These little machines being rapidly manufactured, for Mr. Edison had a
+miniature laboratory aboard, were distributed about the squadron, and
+henceforth we had the pleasure of paying and receiving visits among the
+various members of the fleet.</p>
+
+<p>But to return from this digression to our experience of the asteroid.
+The latter being a body of some mass was, of course, able to impart to
+us a measurable degree of weight. Being five miles in diameter, on the
+assumption that its mean density was the same as that of the earth, the
+weight of bodies on its surface should have borne the same ratio to
+their weight upon the earth that the radius of the asteroid bore to the
+radius of the earth; in other words, as 1 to 1,600.</p>
+
+<p>Having made this mental calculation, I knew that my weight, being 150
+pounds on the earth, should on this asteroid be an ounce and a half.</p>
+
+<p>Curious to see whether fact would bear out theory, I had myself weighed
+with a spring balance. Mr. Edison, Lord Kelvin and the other
+distinguished scientists stood by watching the operation with great
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>To our complete surprise, my weight instead of coming out an ounce and a
+half, as it should have done, on the supposition that the mean density
+of the asteroid resembled that of the earth&mdash;a very liberal supposition
+on the side of the asteroid, by the way&mdash;actually came out five ounces
+and a quarter!</p>
+
+<p>"What in the world makes me so heavy?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, what an elephant you have become," said Mr. Edison.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Kelvin screwed his eyeglass in his eye, and carefully inspected the
+balance.</p>
+
+<p>"It's quite right," he said. "You do indeed weigh five ounces and a
+quarter. Too much; altogether too much," he added. "You shouldn't do it,
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps the fault is in the asteroid," suggested Professor Sylvanus P.
+Thompson.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite so," exclaimed Lord Kelvin, a look of sudden comprehension
+overspreading his features. "No doubt it is the internal constitution of
+the asteroid which is the cause of the anomaly. We must look into that.
+Let me see? This gentleman's weight is three and one-half times as great
+as it ought to be. What element is there whose density exceeds the mean
+density of the earth in about that proportion?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gold," exclaimed one of the party.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment we were startled beyond expression. The truth had flashed
+upon us.</p>
+
+<p>This must be a golden planet this little asteroid. If it were not
+composed internally of gold it could never have made me weight three
+times more than I ought to weight.</p>
+
+<p>"But where is the gold?" cried one.</p>
+
+<p>"Covered up, of course," said Lord Kelvin. "Buried in Stardust. This
+asteroid could not have continued to travel for millions of years
+through legions of space strewn with meteoric particles without becoming
+covered with the inevitable dust and grime of such a journey. We must
+dig now, and then doubtless we shall find the metal."</p>
+
+<p>This hint was instantly acted upon. Something that would serve as a
+spade was seized by one of the men, and in a few minutes a hole had been
+dug in the comparatively light soil of the asteroid.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget the sight, nor the exclamations of wonder that
+broke forth from all of us standing around, when the yellow gleam of the
+precious metal appeared under the "star dust." Collected in huge masses
+it reflected the light of the sun from its hiding place.</p>
+
+<p>Evidently the planet was not a solid ball of gold, formed like a bullet
+run in a mold, but was composed of nuggets of various sizes, which had
+come together here under the influence of their mutual gravitation, and
+formed a little metallic planet.</p>
+
+<p>Judging by the test of weight which we had already tried, and which had
+led to the discovery of the gold, the composition of the asteroid must
+be the same to its very center.</p>
+
+<p>In an assemblage of famous scientific men such as this the discovery of
+course, immediately led to questions as to the origin of this incredible
+phenomenon.</p>
+
+<p>How did these masses of gold come together? How did it chance that, with
+the exception of the thin crust of the asteroid nearly all its substance
+was composed of the precious metal?</p>
+
+<p>One asserted that it was quite impossible that there should be so much
+gold at so great a distance from the sun.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the general law," he said, "that the planets increase in density
+towards the sun. There is every reason to think that the inner planets
+possess the greater amount of dense elements, while the outer ones are
+comparatively light."</p>
+
+<p>But another referred to the old theory that there was once in this part
+of the solar system a planet which had been burst in pieces by some
+mysterious explosion, the fragments forming what we know as the
+asteroids. In his opinion, this planet might have contained, a large
+quantity of gold, and in the course of ages the gold, having, in
+consequence of its superior atomic weight, not being so widely scattered
+by the explosion as some of the other elements of the planet, had
+collected itself together in this body.</p>
+
+<p>But I observed that Lord Kelvin and the other more distinguished men of
+science said nothing during this discussion. The truly learned man is
+the truly wise man. They were not going to set up the theories without
+sufficient facts to substain them. The one fact that the gold was here
+was all they had at present. Until they could learn more they were not
+prepared to theorize as to how the gold got there.</p>
+
+<p>And in truth, it must be confessed, the greater number of us really
+cared less for the explanation of the wonderful fact than we did for the
+fact itself.</p>
+
+<p>Gold is a thing which may make its appearance anywhere and at any time
+without offering any excuses or explanations.</p>
+
+<p>"Phew! Won't we be rich?" exclaimed a voice.</p>
+
+<p>"How are we going to dig it and get it back to earth?" asked another.</p>
+
+<p>"Carry it in your pockets," said one.</p>
+
+<p>"No need of staking claims here," remarked another. "There is enough for
+everybody."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edison suddenly turned the current of talk.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you suppose those Martians were doing here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, they were wrecked here."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit of it," said Mr. Edison. "According to your own showing they
+could not have been wrecked here. This planet hasn't gravitation enough
+to wreck them by a fall, and besides I have been looking at their
+machines and I know there has been a fight."</p>
+
+<p>"A fight?" exclaimed several, pricking up their ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mr. Edison. "Those machines bear the marks of the lightning
+of the Martians. They have been disabled, but they are made of some
+metal or some alloy of metals unknown to me, and consequently they have
+withstood the destructive force applied to them, as our electric ships
+were unable to withstand it. It is perfectly plain to me that they have
+been disabled in a battle. The Martians must have been fighting among
+themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"About the gold!" exclaimed one.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. What else was there to fight about?"</p>
+
+<p>At this instant one of our men came running from a considerable
+distance, waving his arms excitedly, but unable to give voice to his
+story, in the inappreciable atmosphere of the asteroid, until he had
+come up and made telephonic connection with us.</p>
+
+<p>"There are a lot of dead Martians over there," he said. "They've been
+cleaning one another out."</p>
+
+<p>"That's it," said Mr. Edison. "I knew it when I saw the condition of
+those machines."</p>
+
+<p>"Then this is not a wrecked expedition, directed against the earth?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all."</p>
+
+<p>"This must be the great gold mine of Mars," said the president of an
+Australian mining company, opening both his eyes and his mouth as he
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, evidently that's it. Here's where they come to get their wealth."</p>
+
+<p>"And this," I said, "must be their harvest time. You notice that this
+asteroid, being several million miles nearer to the sun than Mars is,
+must have an appreciably shorter period of revolution. When it is in
+conjunction with Mars, or nearly so, as it is at present, the distance
+between the two is not very great, whereas when it is in the opposite
+part of its orbit they are separated by an enormous gap in space and the
+sun is between them.</p>
+
+<p>"Manifestly in the latter case it would be perilous if not entirely
+impossible for the Martians to visit the golden asteroid, but when it is
+near Mars, as it is at present, and as it must be periodically for
+several years at a time, then is their opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>"With their projectile cars sent forth with the aid of the mysterious
+explosives which they possess, it is easy for them under such
+circumstances, to make visits to the asteroid.</p>
+
+<p>"Having obtained all the gold they need or all that they can carry, a
+comparatively slight impulse given to their car, the direction of which
+is carefully calculated, will carry them back again to Mars."</p>
+
+<p>"If that's so," exclaimed a voice, "we had better look out for
+ourselves! We have got into a very hornet's nest! If this is the place
+where the Martians come to dig gold, and if this is the height of their
+season, as you say, they are not likely to leave us here long
+undisturbed."</p>
+
+<p>"These fellows must have been pirates that they had the fight with,"
+said another.</p>
+
+<p>"But what's become of the regulars, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gone back to Mars for help, probably, and they'll be here again pretty
+quick, I am afraid!"</p>
+
+<p>Considerable alarm was caused by this view of the case, and orders were
+sent to several of the electrical ships to cruise out to a safe distance
+in the direction of Mars and keep a sharp outlook for the approach of
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile our prisoner awoke. He turned his eyes upon those standing
+about him, without any appearance of fear, but rather with a look of
+contempt, like that which Gulliver must have felt for the Lilliputians
+who had bound him under similar circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>There were both hatred and defiance in his glance. He attempted to free
+himself, and the ropes strained with the tremendous pressure that he put
+upon them, but he could not break loose.</p>
+
+<p>Satisfied that the Martian was safely bound, we left him where he lay,
+and, while awaiting news from the ships which had been sent to
+reconnoitre, continued the exploration of the little planet.</p>
+
+<p>At a point nearly opposite to that where we had landed we came upon the
+mine which the Martians had been working. They had removed the thin
+coating of soil, laying bare the rich stores of gold beneath, and large
+quantities of the latter had been removed. Some of it was so solidly
+packed that the strokes of the instruments by means of which they had
+detached it were visible like the streaks left by a knife cutting
+cheese.</p>
+
+<p>The more we saw of this golden planet the greater became our
+astonishment. What the Martians had removed was a mere nothing in
+comparison with the entire bulk of the asteroid. Had the celestial mine
+been easier to reach, perhaps they would have removed more, or,
+possibly, their political economists perfectly understood the necessity
+of properly controlling the amount of precious metal in circulation.
+Very likely, we thought, the mining operations were under government
+control in Mars and it might be that the majority of the people there
+knew nothing of this store of wealth floating in the firmament. That
+would account for the battle with the supposed pirates, who, no doubt
+had organized a secret expedition to the asteroid and had been caught
+red-handed at the mine.</p>
+
+<p>There were many detached masses of gold scattered about, and some of the
+men, on picking them up, exclaimed with astonishment at their lack of
+weight, forgetting for the moment that the same law which caused their
+own bodies to weigh so little must necessarily affect everything else in
+a like degree.</p>
+
+<p>A mass of gold that on the earth no man would have been able to lift
+could here be tossed about like a hollow rubber ball.</p>
+
+<p>While we were examining the mine, one of the men left to guard the
+Martian came running to inform us that the latter evidently wished to
+make some communication. Mr. Edison and the others hurried to the side
+of the prisoner. He still lay on his back, from which position he was
+not able to move, notwithstanding all his efforts. But by the motion of
+his eyes, aided by the pantomime with his fingers, he made us understand
+that there was something in a metallic box fastened at his side which he
+wished to reach.</p>
+
+<p>With some difficulty we succeeded in opening the box and in it there
+appeared a number of bright red pellets, as large as an ordinary egg.</p>
+
+<p>When the Martians saw these in our hands he gave us to understand by the
+motion of his lips that he wished to swallow one of them. A pellet was
+accordingly placed in his mouth, and he instantly and with great
+eagerness swallowed it.</p>
+
+<p>While trying to communicate his wishes to us, the prisoner had seemed to
+be in no little distress. He exhibited spasmodic movements which led
+some of the bystanders to think that he was on the point of dying, but
+within a few seconds after he had swallowed the pellet he appeared to be
+completely restored. All evidence of distress vanished, and a look of
+content came over his ugly face.</p>
+
+<p>"It must be a powerful medicine," said one of the bystanders. "I wonder
+what it is?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will explain to you my notion," said Professor Moissan, the great
+French chemist. "I think it was a pill of the air, which he has taken."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by that?"</p>
+
+<p>"My meaning is," said Professor Moissan, "that the Martian must have,
+for that he may live, the nitrogen and the oxygen. These can he not
+obtain here, where there is not the atmosphere. Therefore must he get
+them in some other manner. This has he managed to do by combining in
+these pills the oxygen and the nitrogen in the proportions which make
+atmospheric air. Doubtless upon Mars there are the very great chemists.
+They have discovered how this may be done. When the Martian has
+swallowed his little pill, the oxygen and the nitrogen are rendered to
+his blood as if he had breathed them, and so he can live with that air
+which has been distributed to him with the aid of his stomach in place
+of his lungs."</p>
+
+<p>If Monsieur Moissan's explanation was not correct, at any rate it seemed
+the only one which would fit the facts before us. Certainly the Martian
+could not breathe where there was practically no air, yet just as
+certainly after he had swallowed his pill he seemed as comfortable as
+any of us.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, while we were gathered around the prisoner, and interested in
+this fresh evidence of the wonderful ingenuity of the Martians, and of
+their control over the processes of nature, one of the electrical ships
+that had been sent off in the direction of Mars was seen rapidly
+returning and displaying signals.</p>
+
+<p>It reported that the Martians were coming!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_EIGHT" id="CHAPTER_EIGHT"></a>CHAPTER EIGHT</h2>
+
+<h3><i>"THE MARTIANS ARE COMING!"</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The alarm was spread instantly among those upon the planet and through
+the remainder of the fleet.</p>
+
+<p>One of the men from the returning electrical ship dropped down upon the
+asteroid and gave a more detailed account of what they had seen.</p>
+
+<p>His ship had been the one which had gone to the greatest distance, in
+the direction of Mars. While cruising there, with all eyes intent, they
+had suddenly perceived a glittering object moving from the direction of
+the ruddy planet, and manifestly approaching them. A little inspection
+with the telescope had shown them that it was one of the projectile cars
+used by the Martians.</p>
+
+<p>Our ship had ventured so far from the asteroid that for a moment it
+seemed doubtful whether it would be able to return in time to give
+warning, because the electrical influence of the asteroid was
+comparatively slight at such a distance, and, after they had reversed
+their polarity, and applied their intensifier, so as to make that
+influence effective, their motion was at first exceedingly slow.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately after a time they got under way with sufficient velocity to
+bring them back to us before the approaching Martians could overtake
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The latter were not moving with great velocity, having evidently
+projected themselves from Mars with only just sufficient force to throw
+them within the feeble sphere of gravitation of the asteroid, so that
+they should very gently land upon its surface.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, looking out behind the electrical ship which had brought us the
+warning, we immediately saw the projectile of the Martians approaching.
+It sparkled like a star in the black sky as the sunlight fell upon it.</p>
+
+<p>The ships of the squadron whose crews had not landed upon the planet
+were signaled to prepare for action, while those who were upon the
+asteroid made ready for battle there. A number of disintegrators were
+trained upon the approaching Martians, but Mr. Edison gave strict orders
+that no attempt should be made to discharge the vibratory force at
+random.</p>
+
+<p>"They do not know that we are here," he said, "and I am convinced that
+they are unable to control their motions as we can do with our
+electrical ships. They depend simply upon the force of gravitation.
+Having passed the limit of the attraction of Mars, they have now fallen
+within the attraction of the asteroid, and they must slowly sink to its
+surface.</p>
+
+<p>"Having, as I am convinced, no means of producing or controlling
+electrical attraction and repulsion, they cannot stop themselves, but
+must come down upon the asteroid. Having got here, they could never get
+away again, except as we know the survivors got away from earth, by
+propelling their projectile against gravitation with the aid of an
+explosive.</p>
+
+<p>"Therefore, to a certain extent they will be at our mercy. Let us allow
+them quietly to land upon the planet, and then I think, if it becomes
+necessary, we can master them."</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding Mr. Edison's reassuring words and manner, the company
+upon the asteroid experienced a dreadful suspense while the projectile
+which seemed very formidable as it drew near, sank with a slow and
+graceful motion toward the surface of the ground. Evidently it was about
+to land very near the spot where we stood awaiting it.</p>
+
+<p>Its inmates had apparently just caught sight of us. They evinced signs
+of astonishment, and seemed at a loss exactly what to do. We could see
+projecting from the fore part of their car at least two of the polished
+knobs, whose fearful use and power we well comprehended.</p>
+
+<p>Several of our men cried out to Mr. Edison in an extremity of terror:</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you not destroy them? Be quick, or we shall all perish."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Mr. Edison, "there is no danger. You can see that they are
+not prepared. They will not attempt to attack us until they have made
+their landing."</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. Edison was right. With gradually accelerated velocity, and yet
+very, very slowly in comparison with the speed they would have exhibited
+in falling upon such a planet as the earth, the Martians and their car
+came down to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>We stood at a distance of perhaps three hundred feet from the point
+where they touched the asteroid. Instantly a dozen of the giants sprang
+from the car and gazed about for a moment with a look of intense
+surprise. At first it was doubtful whether they meant to attack us at
+all.</p>
+
+<p>We stood on our guard, several carrying disintegrators in our hands,
+while a score more of these terrible engines were turned upon the
+Martians from the electrical ships which hovered near.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he who seemed to be the leader of the Martians began to speak
+to them in pantomime, using his fingers after the manner in which they
+are used for conversation by deaf and dumb people.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, we did not know what he was saying, but his meaning became
+perfectly evident a minute later. Clearly they did not comprehend the
+powers of the insignificant looking strangers with whom they had to
+deal. Instead of turning their destructive engines on us, they advanced
+on a run, with the evident purpose of making us prisoners or crushing us
+by main force.</p>
+
+<p>The soft whirr of the disintegrator in the hands of Mr. Edison standing
+near me came to my ears through the telephonic wire. He quickly swept
+the concentrating mirror a little up and down, and instantly the
+foremost Martian vanished! Part of some metallic dress that he wore fell
+upon the ground where he had stood, its vibratory rate not having been
+included in the range imparted to the disintegrator.</p>
+
+<p>His followers paused for a moment, amazed, stared about as if looking
+for their leader, and then hurried back to their projectile and
+disappeared within it.</p>
+
+<p>"Now we've got business on our hands," said Mr. Edison. "Look out for
+yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, I saw the death-dealing knob of the war engine contained in
+the car of the Martians moving around toward us. In another instant it
+would have launched its destroying bolt.</p>
+
+<p>Before that could occur, however, it had been dissipated into space by a
+vibratory stream from a disintegrator.</p>
+
+<p>But we were not to get the victory quite so easily. There was another of
+the war engines in the car, and before we could concentrate our fire
+upon it, its awful flash shot forth, and a dozen of our comrades
+perished before our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Quick! Quick!" shouted Mr. Edison to one of his electrical experts
+standing near. "There is something the matter with this disintegrator,
+and I cannot make it work. Aim at the knob, and don't miss it."</p>
+
+<p>But the aim was not well taken, and the vibratory force fell upon a
+portion of the car at a considerable distance from the knob, making a
+great breach, but leaving the engine uninjured.</p>
+
+<p>A section of the side of the car had been destroyed, and the vibratory
+energy had spread no further. To have attempted to sweep the car from
+end to end would have been futile, because the period of action of the
+disintegrators during each discharge did not exceed one second, and
+distributing the energy over so great a space would have seriously
+weakened its power to shatter apart the atoms of the resisting
+substance. The disintegrators were like firearms, in that after each
+discharge they must be readjusted before they could be used again.</p>
+
+<p>Through the breach we saw the Martians inside making desperate efforts
+to train their engine upon us, for after their first disastrous stroke
+we had rapidly shifted our position. Swiftly the polished knob, which
+gleamed like an evil eye, moved round to sweep over us. Instinctively,
+though incautiously, we had collected in a group.</p>
+
+<p>A single discharge would sweep us all into eternity.</p>
+
+<p>"Will no one fire upon them?" exclaimed Mr. Edison, struggling with the
+disintegrator in his hands which still refused to work.</p>
+
+<p>At this fearful moment I glanced around upon our company, and was
+astonished at the spectacle. In the presence of the danger many of them
+had lost all self-command. A half dozen had dropped their disintegrators
+upon the ground. Others stood as if frozen fast in their tracks. The
+expert electrician, whose poor aim had had such disastrous results, held
+in his hand an instrument which was in perfect condition, yet with mouth
+agape, he stood trembling like a captured bird.</p>
+
+<p>It was a disgraceful exhibition. Mr. Edison, however, had not lost his
+head. Again and again he sighted at the dreadful knob with his
+disintegrator, but the vibratory force refused to respond.</p>
+
+<p>The means of safety were in our hands, and yet through a combination of
+ill luck and paralyzing terror, we seemed unable to use them.</p>
+
+<p>In a second more it would be all over with us.</p>
+
+<p>The suspense in reality lasted only during the twinkling of an eye,
+though it seemed ages long.</p>
+
+<p>Unable to endure it, I sharply struck the shoulder of the paralyzed
+electrician. To have attempted to seize the disintegrator from his hands
+would have been a fatal waste of time. Luckily the blow either roused
+him from his stupor or caused an instinctive movement of his hand that
+set the little engine in operation.</p>
+
+<p>I am sure he took no aim, but providentially the vibratory force fell
+upon the desired point, and the knob disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>We were saved!</p>
+
+<p>Instantly half a dozen rushed toward the car of the Martians. We
+bitterly repented their haste; they did not live to repent.</p>
+
+<p>Unknown to us the Martians carried hand engines, capable of launching
+bolts of death of the same character as those which emanated from the
+knobs of their larger machines. With these they fired, so to speak,
+through the breach in their car, and four of our men who were rushing
+upon them fell in heaps of cinders. The effect of the terrible fire was
+like that which the most powerful strokes of lightning occasionally
+produce on earth.</p>
+
+<p>The destruction of the threatening knob had instantaneously relieved the
+pressure upon the terror-stricken nerves of our company, and they had
+all regained their composure and self-command. But this new and
+unexpected disaster, following so close upon the fear which had recently
+overpowered them, produced a second panic, the effect of which was not
+to stiffen them in their tracks as before, but to send them scurrying in
+every direction in search of hiding places.</p>
+
+<p>And now a most curious effect of the smallness of the planet we were on
+began to play a conspicuous part in our adventures. Standing on a globe
+only five miles in diameter was like being on the summit of a mountain
+whose sides sloped rapidly off in every direction, disappearing in the
+black sky on all sides, as if it were some stupendous peak rising out of
+an unfathomable abyss.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of the quick rounding off of the sides of this globe, the
+line of the horizon was close at hand, and by running a distance of less
+that 250 yards the fugitives disappeared down the sides of the asteroid,
+and behind the horizon, even from the elevation of about fifteen feet
+from which the Martians were able to watch them. From our sight they
+disappeared much sooner.</p>
+
+<p>The slight attraction of the planet and their consequent almost entire
+lack of weight enabled the men to run with immense speed. The result, as
+I have subsequently learned, was that after they had disappeared from
+our view they quitted the planet entirely, the force being sufficient to
+partially free them from its gravitation, so that they sailed out into
+space, whirling helplessly end over end, until the elliptical orbits in
+which they travelled eventually brought them back again to the planet on
+the side nearly opposite to that from which they had departed.</p>
+
+<p>But several of us, with Mr. Edison, stood fast, watching for an
+opportunity to get the Martians within range of the disintegrators.
+Luckily we were enabled, by shifting our position a little to the left,
+to get out of the line of sight of our enemies concealed in the car.</p>
+
+<p>"If we cannot catch sight of them," said Mr. Edison, "we shall have to
+riddle the car on the chance of hitting them."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be like firing into a bush to kill a hidden bear," said one of
+the party.</p>
+
+<p>But help came from a quarter which was unexpected to us, although it
+should not have been so. Several of the electric ships had been hovering
+above us during the fight, their commanders being apparently uncertain
+how to act&mdash;fearful, perhaps, of injuring us in the attempt to smite our
+enemy.</p>
+
+<p>But now the situation apparently lightened for them. They saw that we
+were at an immense disadvantage, and several of them immediately turned
+their batteries upon the car of the Martians.</p>
+
+<p>They riddled it far more quickly and effectively than we could have
+done. Every stroke of the vibratory emanation made a gap in the side of
+the car, and we could perceive from the commotion within that our
+enemies were being rapidly massacred in their fortification.</p>
+
+<p>So overwhelming was the force and the advantage of the ships that in a
+little while it was all over. Mr. Edison signaled them to stop firing
+because it was plain that all resistance had ceased and probably not one
+of the Martians remained alive.</p>
+
+<p>We now approached the car, which had been transpierced in every
+direction, and whose remaining portions were glowing with heat in
+consequence of the spreading of the atomic vibrations. Immediately we
+discovered that all our anticipations were correct and that all of our
+enemies had perished.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of the disintegrators upon them had been awful&mdash;too
+repulsive, indeed, to be described in detail. Some of the bodies had
+evidently entirely vanished; only certain metal articles which they had
+worn remaining, as in the case of the first Martian killed, to indicate
+that such beings had ever existed. The nature of the metal composing
+these articles was unknown to us. Evidently its vibratory rhythm did not
+correspond with any included in the ordinary range of the
+disintegrators.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the giants had been only partially destroyed, the vibratory
+current having grazed them, in such a manner that the shattering
+undulations had not acted upon the entire body.</p>
+
+<p>One thing that lends a peculiar horror to a terrestrial battlefield was
+absent; there was no bloodshed. The vibratory energy, not only
+completely destroyed whatever it fell upon but it seared the veins and
+arteries of the dismembered bodies so that there was no sanguinary
+exhibition connected with its murderous work.</p>
+
+<p>All this time the shackled Martian had lain on his back where we had
+left him bound. What his feeling must have been may be imagined. At
+times, I caught a glimpse of his eyes, wildly rolling and exhibiting,
+when he saw that the victory was in our hands, the first indications of
+fear and terror shaking his soul that had yet appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"That fellow is afraid at last," I said to Mr. Edison.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I should think he ought to be afraid," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"So he ought, but if I am not mistaken this fear of his may be the
+beginning of a new discovery for us."</p>
+
+<p>"How so?" asked Mr. Edison.</p>
+
+<p>"In this way. When once he fears our power, and perceives that there
+would be no hope of contending against us, even if he were at liberty,
+he will respect us. This change in his mental attitude may tend to make
+him communicative. I do not see why we should despair of learning his
+language from him, and having done that, he will serve as our guide and
+interpreter, and will be of incalculable advantage to us when we have
+arrived at Mars."</p>
+
+<p>"Capital! Capital!" said Mr. Edison. "We must concentrate the linguistic
+genius of our company upon that problem at once."</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime some of the skulkers whose flight I have referred to
+began to return, crestfallen, but rejoicing in the disappearance of the
+danger. Several of them, I am ashamed to say, had been army officers.
+Yet possibly some excuse could be made for the terror by which they had
+been overcome. No man has a right to hold his fellow beings to account
+for the line of conduct they may pursue under circumstances which are
+not only entirely unexampled in their experience, but almost beyond the
+power of the imagination to picture.</p>
+
+<p>Paralyzing terror had evidently seized them with the sudden
+comprehension of the unprecedented singularity of their situation.
+Millions of miles away from the earth, confronted on an asteroid by
+these diabolical monsters from a maleficent planet, who were on the
+point of destroying them with a strange torment of death&mdash;perhaps it was
+really more than human nature, deprived of the support of human
+surroundings, could be expected to bear.</p>
+
+<p>Those who, as already described, had run with so great a speed that they
+were projected, all unwilling, into space, rising in elliptical orbits
+from the surface of the planet, describing great curves in what might be
+denominated its sky, and then coming back again to the little globe on
+another side, were so filled with the wonders of their remarkable
+adventure that they had almost forgotten the terror which had inspired
+it.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing surprising in what had occurred to them the moment one
+considered the laws of gravitation on the asteroid, but their stories
+aroused an intense interest among all who listened to them.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Kelvin was particularly interested, and while Mr. Edison was
+hastening preparations to quit the asteroid and resume our voyage to
+Mars, Lord Kelvin and a number of other scientific men instituted a
+series of remarkable experiments.</p>
+
+<p>It was one of the most laughable things imaginable to see Lord Kelvin,
+dressed in his air-tight suit, making tremendous jumps in empty space.
+It reminded me forcibly of what Lord Kelvin, then plain William
+Thompson, and Professor Blackburn had done when spending a summer
+vacation at the seaside, while they were undergraduates of Cambridge
+University. They had spent all their time, to the surprise of onlookers,
+in spinning rounded stones on the beach, their object being to obtain a
+practical solution of the mathematical problem of "precession."</p>
+
+<p>Immediately Lord Kelvin was imitated by a dozen others. With what seemed
+very slight effort they projected themselves straight upwards, rising to
+a height of four hundred feet or more, and then slowly settling back
+again to the surface of the asteroid. The time of rise and fall combined
+was between three and four minutes.</p>
+
+<p>On this little planet the acceleration of gravity or the velocity
+acquired by a falling body in one second was only four-fifths of an
+inch. A body required an entire minute to fall a distance of only 120
+feet. Consequently, it was more like gradually settling than falling.
+The figures of these men of science, rising and sinking in this manner,
+appeared like so many gigantic marionettes bobbing up and down in a
+pneumatic bottle.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us try that," said Mr. Edison, very much interested in the
+experiments.</p>
+
+<p>Both of us jumped together. At first, with great swiftness, but
+gradually losing speed, we rose to an immense height straight from the
+ground. When we had reached the utmost limit of our flight we seemed to
+come to rest for a moment, and then began slowly, but with accelerated
+velocity, to sink back again to the planet. It was not only a peculiar
+but a delicious sensation, and but for strict orders which were issued
+that the electrical ships should be immediately prepared for departure,
+our entire company might have remained for an indefinite period enjoying
+this new kind of athletic exercise in a world where gravitation had
+become so humble that it could be trifled with.</p>
+
+<p>While the final preparations for departure were being made, Lord Kelvin
+instituted other experiments that were no less unique in their results.
+The experience of those who had taken unpremeditated flights in
+elliptical orbits when they had run from the vicinity of the Martians
+suggested the throwing of solid objects in various directions from the
+surface of the planet in order to determine the distance they would go
+and the curves they would describe in returning.</p>
+
+<p>For these experiments there was nothing more convenient or abundant than
+chunks of gold from the Martians' mine. These, accordingly, were hurled
+in different directions and with every degree of velocity. A little
+calculation had shown that an initial velocity of thirty feet per second
+imparted to one of these chunks, moving at right angles to the radius of
+the asteroid, would, if the resistance of an almost inappreciable
+atmosphere were neglected, suffice to turn the piece of gold into a
+little satellite that would describe an orbit around the asteroid, and
+continue to do so forever, or at least until the slight atmospheric
+resistance should eventually bring it down to the surface.</p>
+
+<p>But a less velocity than thirty feet per second would cause the golden
+missile to fly only part way around, while a greater velocity would give
+it an elliptical instead of a circular orbit, and in this ellipse it
+would continue to revolve around the asteroid in the character of a
+satellite.</p>
+
+<p>If the direction of the original impulse were at more than a right angle
+to the radius of the asteroid, then the flying body would pass out to a
+greater or less distance in space in an elliptical orbit, eventually
+coming back again and falling upon the asteroid, but not at the same
+spot from which it had departed.</p>
+
+<p>So many took part in these singular experiments, which assumed rather
+the appearance of outdoor sports than of scientific demonstrations, that
+in a short time we had provided the asteroid with a very large number of
+little moons, or satellites, of gold, which revolved around it in orbits
+of various degrees of ellipticity, taking, on the average, about
+three-quarters of an hour to complete a circuit. Since, on completing a
+revolution, they must necessarily pass through the point from which they
+started, they kept us constantly on the <i>qui vive</i> to avoid being
+knocked over by them as they swept around in their orbits.</p>
+
+<p>Finally the signal was given for all to embark, and with great regret
+the savants quitted their scientific games, and prepared to return to
+the electric ships.</p>
+
+<p>Just on the moment of departure, the fact was announced by one, who had
+been making a little calculation on a bit of paper, that the velocity
+with which a body must be thrown in order to escape forever the
+attraction of the asteroid, and to pass on to an infinite distance in
+any direction, was only about forty-two feet in a second.</p>
+
+<p>Manifestly it would be quite easy to impart such a speed as that to the
+chunks of gold that we held in our hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurrah!" exclaimed one. "Let's send some of this back to the earth."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the earth?" asked another.</p>
+
+<p>Being appealed to, several astronomers turned their eyes in the
+direction of the sun, where the black firmament was ablaze with stars,
+and in a moment recognized the earth-star shining there, with the moon
+attending close at hand.</p>
+
+<p>"There," said one, "is the earth. Can you throw straight enough to hit
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll try," was the reply, and immediately several threw huge golden
+nuggets in the direction of our far-away world, endeavoring to impart to
+them at least the required velocity of forty-two feet in a second, which
+would insure their passing beyond the attraction of the asteroid, and if
+there should be no disturbance on the way, and the aim were accurate,
+their eventual arrival upon the earth.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's for you, Old Earth," said one of the throwers, "good luck, and
+more gold to you!"</p>
+
+<p>If these precious missiles ever reached the earth we knew that they
+would plunge into the atmosphere like meteors and that probably the heat
+developed by their passage would melt and dissipate them in golden
+vapors before they could touch the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was a chance that some of them&mdash;if the aim were true&mdash;might
+survive the fiery passage through the atmosphere and fall upon the
+surface of our planet where, perhaps, they would afterward be picked up
+by a prospector and lead him to believe that he had struck a new
+bonanza.</p>
+
+<p>But until we returned to the earth it would be impossible for us to tell
+what had become of the golden gifts which we had launched into space for
+our mother planet.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_NINE" id="CHAPTER_NINE"></a>CHAPTER NINE</h2>
+
+<h3><i>JOURNEY'S END</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>"All aboard!" was the signal, and the squadron having assembled under
+the lead of the flagship, we started again for Mars.</p>
+
+<p>This time, as it proved, there was to be no further interruption, and
+when next we paused it was in the presence of the world inhabited by our
+enemies, and facing their frowning batteries.</p>
+
+<p>We did not find it so easy to start from the asteroid as it had been to
+start from the earth; that is to say, we could not so readily generate a
+very high velocity.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of the comparatively small size of the asteroid, its
+electric influence was very much less than that of the earth, and
+notwithstanding the appliances which we possessed for intensifying the
+electrical effect, it was not possible to produce a sufficient repulsion
+to start us off for Mars with anything like the impulse which we had
+received from the earth on our original departure.</p>
+
+<p>The utmost velocity that we could generate did not exceed three miles in
+a second, and to get this required our utmost efforts. In fact, it had
+not seemed possible that we should attain even so great a speed as that.
+It was far more than we could have expected, and even Mr. Edison was
+surprised, as well as greatly gratified, when he found that we were
+moving with the velocity that I have named.</p>
+
+<p>We were still about 6,000,000 miles from Mars, so that, traveling three
+miles in a second, we should require at least twenty-three days to reach
+the immediate neighborhood of the planet.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile we had plenty of occupation to make the time pass quickly. Our
+prisoner was transported along with us, and we now began our attempts to
+ascertain what his language was, and, if possible, to master it
+ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>Before quitting the asteroid we had found that it was necessary for him
+to swallow one of his "air pills," as Professor Moissan had called them,
+at least three times in the course of every twenty-four hours. One of us
+supplied him regularly and I thought that I could detect evidences of a
+certain degree of gratitude in his expression. This was encouraging,
+because it gave additional promise of the possibility of our being able
+to communicate with him in some more effective way than by mere signs.
+But once inside the car, where we had a supply of air kept at the
+ordinary pressure experienced on the earth, he could breathe like the
+rest of us.</p>
+
+<p>The best linguists in the expedition, as Mr. Edison had suggested, were
+now assembled in the flagship, where the prisoner was, and they set to
+work to devise some means of ascertaining the manner in which he was
+accustomed to express his thoughts. We had not heard him speak, because
+until we carried him into our car there was no atmosphere capable of
+conveying any sounds he might attempt to utter.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed a fair assumption that the language of the Martians would be
+scientific in its structure. We had so much evidence of the practical
+bent of their minds, and of the immense progress which they had made in
+the direction of the scientific conquest of nature, that it was not to
+be supposed their medium of communication with one another would be
+lacking in clearness, or would possess any of the puzzling and
+unnecessary ambiguities that characterized the languages spoken on the
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall not find them making he's and she's of stones, sticks and
+other inanimate objects," said one of the American linguists. "They must
+certainly have gotten rid of all that nonsense long ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said a French Professor from the Sorbonne, one of the makers of
+the never-to-be-finished dictionary. "It will be like the language of my
+country. Transparent, similar to the diamond, and sparkling as is the
+fountain."</p>
+
+<p>"I think," said a German enthusiast, "that it will be a universal
+language, the Volapuk of Mars, spoken by all the inhabitants of that
+planet."</p>
+
+<p>"But all these speculations," broke in Mr. Edison, "do not help you
+much. Why not begin in a practical manner by finding out what the
+Martian calls himself, for instance."</p>
+
+<p>This seemed a good suggestion, and accordingly several of the bystanders
+began an expressive pantomime, intended to indicate to the giant, who
+was following all their motions with his eyes, that they wished to know
+by what name he called himself. Pointing their fingers to their own
+breast they repeated, one after the other, the word "man."</p>
+
+<p>If our prisoner had been a stupid savage, of course any such attempt as
+this to make him understand would have been idle. But it must be
+remembered that we were dealing with a personage who had presumably
+inherited from hundreds of generations the results of a civilization,
+and an intellectual advance, measured by the constant progress of
+millions of years.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly we were not very much astonished, when, after a few
+repetitions of the experiment, the Martian&mdash;one of whose arms had been
+partially released from its bonds in order to give him a little freedom
+of motion&mdash;imitated the action of his interrogators by pressing his
+finger over his heart.</p>
+
+<p>Then, opening his mouth, he gave utterance to a sound which shook the
+air of the car like the hoarse roar of a lion. He seemed himself
+surprised by the noise he made, for he had not been used to speak in so
+dense an atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>Our ears were deafened and confused, and we recoiled in astonishment,
+not to say, half in terror.</p>
+
+<p>With an ugly grin distorting his face as if he enjoyed our discomfiture,
+the Martian repeated the motion and the sound.</p>
+
+<p>"R-r-r-r-r-r-h!"</p>
+
+<p>It was not articulate to our ears and not to be represented by any
+combination of letters.</p>
+
+<p>"Faith," exclaimed a Dublin University professor, "if that's what they
+call themselves, how shall we ever translate their names when we come to
+write the history of the conquest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whist, mon," replied a professor from the University of Aberdeen, "let
+us whip the gillravaging villains first, and then we can describe them
+by any intitulation that may suit our deesposition."</p>
+
+<p>The beginning of our linguistic conquest was certainly not promising, at
+least if measured by our acquirement of words, but from another point of
+view it was very gratifying, inasmuch as it was plain that the Martian
+understood what we were trying to do, and was, for the present, at
+least, disposed to aid us.</p>
+
+<p>These efforts to learn the language of Mars were renewed and repeated
+every few hours, all the experience, learning and genius of the squadron
+being concentrated upon the work, and the result was that in the course
+of a few days we had actually succeeded in learning a dozen or more of
+the Martian's words and were able to make him understand us when we
+pronounced them, as well as to understand him when our ears had become
+accustomed to the growling of his voice.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, one day the prisoner, who seemed to be in an unusually cheerful
+frame of mind, indicated that he carried in his breast some object which
+he wished us to see.</p>
+
+<p>With our assistance he pulled out a book!</p>
+
+<p>Actually, it was a book, not very unlike the books which we have upon
+the earth, but printed, of course, in characters that were entirely
+strange and unknown to us. Yet these characters evidently gave
+expression to a highly intellectual language. All those who were
+standing by at the moment uttered a shout of wonder and of delight, and
+the cry of "a book! a book!" ran around the circle, and the good news
+was even promptly communicated to some of the neighboring electric ships
+of the squadron. Several other learned men were summoned in haste from
+them to examine our new treasure.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="il107" id="il107"></a>
+<img src="images/il107.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3><i>Actually, it was a book that the prisoner produced, and
+then he proceeded to teach us, as well as he could, several words of his
+language.</i></h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>The Martian, whose good nature had manifestly been growing day after
+day, watched our inspection of his book with evidences of great
+interest, not unmingled with amusement. Finally he beckoned the holder
+of the book to his side, and placing his broad finger upon one of the
+huge letters&mdash;if letters they were, for they more nearly resembled the
+characters employed by the Chinese printer&mdash;he uttered a sound which we,
+of course, took to be a word, but which was different from any we had
+yet heard. Then he pointed to one after another of us standing around.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," explained everybody, the truth being apparent, "that is the word
+by which the Martians designate us. They have a name, then, for the
+inhabitants of the earth."</p>
+
+<p>"Or, perhaps, it is rather the name for the earth itself," said one.</p>
+
+<p>But this could not, of course, be at once determined. Anyhow, the word,
+whatever its precise meaning might be, had now been added to our
+vocabulary, although as yet our organs of speech proved unable to
+reproduce it in a recognizable form.</p>
+
+<p>This promising and unexpected discovery of the Martian's book lent added
+enthusiasm to those who were engaged in the work of trying to master the
+language of our prisoner, and the progress that they made in the course
+of the next few days was truly astonishing. If the prisoner had been
+unwilling to aid them, of course, it would have been impossible to
+proceed, but, fortunately for us, he seemed more and more to enter into
+the spirit of the undertaking, and actually to enjoy it himself. So
+bright and quick was his understanding that he was even able to indicate
+to us methods of mastering his language that would otherwise, probably,
+never have occurred to our minds.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, in a very short time he had turned teacher and all these
+learned men, pressing around him with eager attention, had become his
+pupils.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot undertake to say precisely how much of the Martian language had
+been acquired by the chief linguists of the expedition before the time
+when we arrived so near to Mars that it became necessary for most of us
+to abandon our studies in order to make ready for the more serious
+business which now confronted us.</p>
+
+<p>But, at any rate, the acquisition was so considerable as to allow of the
+interchange of ordinary ideas with our prisoner, and there was no longer
+any doubt that he would be able to give us much information when we
+landed on his native planet.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of twenty-three days as measured by terrestrial time, since
+our departure from the asteroid, we arrived in the sky of Mars.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time the ruddy planet had been growing larger and more
+formidable, gradually turning from a huge star into a great red moon,
+and then expanding more and more until it began to shut out from sight
+the constellations behind it. The curious markings on its surface, which
+from the earth can only be dimly glimpsed with a powerful telescope,
+began to reveal themselves clearly to our naked eyes.</p>
+
+<p>I have related how even before we had reached the asteroid, Mars began
+to present a most imposing appearance as we saw it with our telescopes.
+Now, however, that it was close at hand, the naked eye view of the
+planet was more wonderful than anything we had been able to see with
+telescopes when at a greater distance.</p>
+
+<p>We were approaching the southern hemisphere of Mars in about latitude 45
+degrees south. It was near the time of the vernal equinox in that
+hemisphere of the planet, and under the stimulating influence of the
+spring sun, rising higher and higher every day, some such awakening of
+life and activity upon its surface as occurs on the earth under similar
+circumstances was evidently going on.</p>
+
+<p>Around the South Pole were spread immense fields of snow and ice,
+gleaming with great brilliance. Cutting deep into the borders of these
+ice-fields, we could see broad channels of open water, indicating the
+rapid breaking of the grip of the frost.</p>
+
+<p>Almost directly beneath us was a broad oval region, light red in color,
+to which terrestrial astronomers had given the name of Hellas. Toward
+the south, between Hellas and the borders of the polar ice, was a great
+belt of darkness that astronomers had always been inclined to regard as
+a sea. Looking toward the north, we could perceive the immense red
+expanses of the continent of Mars, with the long curved line of the
+Syrtis Major, or "The Hour-glass Sea," sweeping through the midst of
+them toward the north until it disappeared under the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>Crossing and recrossing the red continent, in every direction, were the
+canals of Schiaparelli.</p>
+
+<p>Plentifully sprinkled over the surface we could see brilliant points,
+some of dazzling brightness, outshining the daylight. There was also an
+astonishing variety in the colors of the broad expanses beneath us.
+Activity, vivacity and beauty, such as we were utterly unprepared to
+behold, expressed their presence on all sides.</p>
+
+<p>The excitement on the flagship and among the other members of the
+squadron was immense. It was certainly a thrilling scene. Here, right
+under our feet, lay the world we had come to do battle with. Its
+appearances, while recalling in some of their broader aspects those
+which it had presented when viewed from our observatories, were far more
+strange, complex and wonderful than any astronomer had ever dreamed.
+Suppose all of our anticipations about Mars should prove to have been
+wrong, after all?</p>
+
+<p>There could be no longer any question that it was a world which, if not
+absolutely teeming with inhabitants, like a gigantic ant-hill, at any
+rate bore on every side the marks of their presence and of their
+incredible undertakings and achievements.</p>
+
+<p>Here and there clouds of smoke arose and spread slowly through the
+atmosphere beneath us. Floating higher above the surface of the planet
+were clouds of vapor, assuming the familiar forms of stratus and cumulus
+with which we were acquainted upon the earth.</p>
+
+<p>These clouds, however, seemed upon the whole to be much less dense than
+those to which we were accustomed at home. They had, too, a peculiar
+iridescent beauty as if there was something in their composition or
+their texture which split up the chromatic elements of the sunlight and
+thus produced internal rainbow effects that caused some of the heavier
+cloud masses to resemble immense collections of opals, alive with the
+play of ever-changing colors and magically suspended above the planet.</p>
+
+<p>As we continued to study the phenomena that was gradually unfolded
+beneath us we thought we could detect in many places evidences of the
+existence of strong fortifications. The planet of war appeared to be
+prepared for the attacks of enemies. Since, as our own experience had
+shown, it sometimes waged war with distant planets, it was but natural
+that it should be found prepared to resist foes who might be disposed to
+revenge themselves for injuries suffered at its hands.</p>
+
+<p>As had been expected, our prisoner now proved to be of very great
+assistance to us. Apparently he took a certain pride in exhibiting to
+strangers from a distant world the beauties and wonders of his own
+planet.</p>
+
+<p>We could not understand by any means all that he said, but we could
+readily comprehend, from his gestures, and from the manner in which his
+features lighted up at the recognition of familiar scenes and objects,
+what his sentiments in regard to them were, and, in a general way, what
+part they played in the life of the planet.</p>
+
+<p>He confirmed our opinion that certain of the works which we saw beneath
+us were fortifications, intended for the protection of the planet
+against invaders from outer space. A cunning and almost diabolical look
+came into his eyes as he pointed to one of these strongholds.</p>
+
+<p>His confidence and his mocking looks were not reassuring to us. He knew
+what his planet was capable of, and we did not. He had seen, on the
+asteroid, the extent of our power, and while its display served to
+intimidate him there, yet now that he and we together were facing the
+world of his birth, his fear had evidently fallen from him, and he had
+the manner of one who feels that the shield of an all-powerful protector
+had been extended over him.</p>
+
+<p>But it could not be long now before we could ascertain, by the
+irrevocable test of actual experience, whether the Martians possessed
+the power to annihilate us or not.</p>
+
+<p>How shall I describe our feelings as we gazed at the scene spread
+beneath us? They were not quite the same as those of the discoverer of
+new lands upon the earth. This was a whole new world that we had
+discovered, and it was filled, as we could see, with inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>But that was not all. We had not come with peaceful intentions.</p>
+
+<p>We were to make war on this new world.</p>
+
+<p>Deducting our losses we had not more than 940 men left. With these we
+were to undertake the conquest of a world containing we could not say
+how many millions!</p>
+
+<p>Our enemies, instead of being below us in the scale of intelligence
+were, we had every reason to believe, greatly our superiors. They had
+proved that they possessed a command over the powers of nature such as
+we, up to the time when Mr. Edison made his inventions, had not even
+dreamed that it was possible for us to obtain.</p>
+
+<p>It was true that at present we appeared to have the advantage, both in
+our electrical ships and in our means of offense. The disintegrator was
+at least as powerful an engine of destruction as any that the Martians
+had yet shown that they possessed. It did not seem that in that respect
+they could possibly excel us.</p>
+
+<p>During the brief war with the Martians upon the earth it had been
+gunpowder against a mysterious force as much stronger than gunpowder as
+the latter was superior to the bows and arrows that preceded it.</p>
+
+<p>There had been no comparison whatever between the offensive means
+employed by the two parties in the struggle on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>But the genius of one man had suddenly put us on the level of our
+enemies in regard to fighting capacity.</p>
+
+<p>Then, too, our electrical ships were far more effective for their
+purpose than the projectile cars used by the Martians. In fact, the
+principle upon which they were based was, at bottom, so simple that it
+seemed astonishing the Martians had not hit upon it.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edison himself was never tired of saying in reference to this
+matter:</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot understand why the Martians did not invent these things. They
+have given ample proof that they understand electricity better than we
+do. Why should they have resorted to the comparatively awkward and
+bungling means of getting from one planet to another that they have
+employed when they might have ridden through the solar system in such
+conveyances as ours with perfect ease?"</p>
+
+<p>"And besides," Mr. Edison would add, "I cannot understand why they did
+not employ the principle of harmonic vibrations in the construction of
+their engines of war. The lightning-like strokes which they dealt from
+their machines are no doubt equally powerful, but I think the range of
+destruction covered by the disintegrators is greater."</p>
+
+<p>However, these questions must remain open until we could effect a
+landing on Mars, and learn something of the condition of things there.</p>
+
+<p>The thing that gave us the most uneasiness was the fact that we did not
+yet know what powers the Martians might have in reserve. It was but
+natural to suppose that here, on their own ground, they would possess
+means of defense even more effective than the offensive engines they had
+employed in attacking enemies so many millions of miles from home.</p>
+
+<p>It was important that we should waste no time, and it was equally
+important that we should select the most vulnerable point for attack. It
+was self-evident, therefore, that our first duty would be to reconnoiter
+the surface of the planet and determine its weakest point of defense.</p>
+
+<p>At first Mr. Edison contemplated sending the various ships in different
+directions around the planet in order that the work of exploration might
+be quickly accomplished. But upon second thought it seemed wiser to keep
+the squadron together, thus diminishing the chance of disaster.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, the commander wished to see with his own eyes the exact
+situation of the various parts of the planet, where it might appear
+advisable for us to begin our assault.</p>
+
+<p>Thus far we had remained suspended at so great a height above the planet
+that we had hardly entered into the perceptible limits of its atmosphere
+and there was no evidence that we had been seen by the inhabitants of
+Mars; but before starting on our voyage of exploration it was determined
+to drop down closer to the surface in order that we might the more
+certainly identify the localities over which we passed.</p>
+
+<p>This maneuver nearly got us into serious trouble.</p>
+
+<p>When we had arrived within a distance of three miles from the surface of
+Mars we suddenly perceived approaching from the eastward a large airship
+which was navigating the Martian atmosphere at a height of perhaps half
+a mile above the ground.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="il117" id="il117"></a>
+<img src="images/il117.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3><i>When we arrived within a distance of three miles
+from the surface of Mars we suddenly perceived approaching from the
+eastward a large airship, which was navigating the Martian atmosphere at
+a height of perhaps half a mile above the ground.</i></h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<p>This airship moved rapidly on to a point nearly beneath us, when it
+suddenly paused, reversed its course, and evidently made signals, the
+purpose of which was not at first evident to us.</p>
+
+<p>But in a short time their meaning became perfectly plain, when we found
+ourselves surrounded by at least twenty similar aerostats approaching
+swiftly from different sides.</p>
+
+<p>It was a great mystery to us where so many airships had been concealed
+previous to their sudden appearance in answer to the signals.</p>
+
+<p>But the mystery was quickly solved when we saw detaching itself from the
+surface of the planet beneath us, where, while it remained immovable,
+its color had blended with that of the soil so as to render it
+invisible, another of the mysterious ships.</p>
+
+<p>Then our startled eyes beheld on all sides these formidable-looking
+enemies rising from the ground beneath us like so many gigantic insects,
+disturbed by a sudden alarm.</p>
+
+<p>In a short time the atmosphere a mile or two below us, and to a distance
+of perhaps twenty miles around in every direction, was alive with
+airships of various sizes, and some of most extraordinary forms,
+exchanging signals, rushing to and fro, but all finally concentrating
+beneath the place where our squadron was suspended.</p>
+
+<p>We had poked the hornet's nest with a vengeance!</p>
+
+<p>As yet there had been no sting, but we might quickly expect to feel it
+if we did not get out of range.</p>
+
+<p>Quickly instructions were flashed to the squadrons to rise as rapidly as
+possible to a great height.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident that this maneuver would save us from danger if it were
+quickly effected, because the airships of the Martians were simply
+airships and nothing more. They could only float in the atmosphere, and
+had no means of rising above it, or of navigating empty space.</p>
+
+<p>To have turned our disintegrators upon them, and to have begun a battle
+then and there, would have been folly.</p>
+
+<p>They overwhelmingly outnumbered us, the majority of them were yet at a
+considerable distance and we could not have done battle, even with our
+entire squadron acting together, with more than one-quarter of them
+simultaneously. In the meantime the others would have surrounded and
+might have destroyed us. We must first get some idea of the planet's
+means of defence before we ventured to assail it.</p>
+
+<p>Having risen rapidly to a height of twenty-five or thirty miles, so that
+we could feel confident that our ships had vanished at least from the
+naked eye view of our enemies beneath, a brief consultation was held.</p>
+
+<p>It was determined to adhere to our original program and to
+circumnavigate Mars in every direction before proceeding to open the
+war.</p>
+
+<p>The overwhelming forces shown by the enemy had intimidated even some of
+the most courageous of our men, but still it was universally felt that
+it would not do to retreat without a blow struck.</p>
+
+<p>The more we saw of the power of the Martians, the more we became
+convinced that there would be no hope for the earth, if these enemies
+ever again effected a landing upon its surface, the more especially
+since our squadron contained nearly all of the earth's force that would
+be effective in such a contest.</p>
+
+<p>With Mr. Edison and the other men of science away, they would not be
+able at home to construct such engines as we possessed, or to manage
+them even if they were constructed.</p>
+
+<p>Our planet had staked everything on a single throw.</p>
+
+<p>These considerations again steeled our hearts, and made us bear up as
+bravely as possible in the face of the terrible odds that confronted us.</p>
+
+<p>Turning the noses of our electrical ships toward the west, we began our
+circumnavigation.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TEN" id="CHAPTER_TEN"></a>CHAPTER TEN</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE GREAT SMOKE BARRIER</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>At first we rose to a still greater height, in order more effectually to
+escape the watchful eyes of our enemies, and then, after having moved
+rapidly several hundred miles toward the west, we dropped down again
+within easy eyeshot of the surface of the planet, and commenced our
+inspection.</p>
+
+<p>When we originally reached Mars, as I have related, it was at a point in
+its southern hemisphere, in latitude 45 degrees south, and longitude 75
+degrees east, that we first closely approached its surface. Underneath
+us was the land called "Hellas," and it was over this land of Hellas
+that the Martian air fleet had suddenly made its appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Our westward motion, while at a great height above the planet, had
+brought us over another oval-shaped land called "Noachia," surrounded by
+the dark ocean, the "Mare Erytr&aelig;um." Now approaching nearer the surface
+our course was changed so as to carry us toward the equator of Mars.</p>
+
+<p>We passed over the curious half-drowned continent known to terrestrial
+astronomers as the Region of Deucalion, then across another sea, or
+gulf, until we found ourselves floating at a height of perhaps five
+miles, above a great continental land, at least three thousand miles
+broad from east to west, and which I immediately recognized as that to
+which astronomers had given the various names of "Aeria," "Edom,"
+"Arabia," and "Eden."</p>
+
+<p>Here the spectacle became of breathless interest.</p>
+
+<p>"Wonderful! Wonderful!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who could have believed it!"</p>
+
+<p>Such were the exclamations heard on all sides.</p>
+
+<p>When at first we were suspended above Hellas, looking toward the north,
+the northeast and the northwest, we had seen at a distance some of these
+great red regions, and had perceived the curious network of canals by
+which they were intersected. But that was a far-off and imperfect view.</p>
+
+<p>Now, when we were near at hand and straight above one of these singular
+lands, the magnificence of the panorama surpassed belief.</p>
+
+<p>From the earth about a dozen of the principal canals crossing the
+continent beneath us had been perceived, but we saw hundreds, nay
+thousands of them!</p>
+
+<p>It was a double system, intended both for irrigation and for protection,
+and far more marvelous in its completeness than the boldest speculative
+minds among our astronomers had ever dared to imagine.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! that's what I always said," exclaimed a veteran from one of our
+great observatories. "Mars is red because its soil and vegetation are
+red."</p>
+
+<p>And certainly appearances indicated that he was right.</p>
+
+<p>There were no green trees, and there was no green grass. Both were red,
+not of a uniform red tint, but presenting an immense variety of shades
+which produced a most brilliant effect, fairly dazzling our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>But what trees! And what grass! And what flowers!</p>
+
+<p>Our telescopes showed that even the smaller trees must be 200 or 300
+feet in height, and there were forests of giants, whose average height
+was evidently at least 1,000 feet.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," exclaimed the enthusiast I have just quoted. "I knew
+it would be so. The trees are big for the same reason that the men are,
+because the planet is small, and they can grow big without becoming too
+heavy to stand."</p>
+
+<p>Flashing in the sun on all sides were the roofs of metallic buildings,
+which were evidently the only kind of edifices which Mars possessed. At
+any rate, if stone or wood were employed in their construction both were
+completely covered with metallic plates.</p>
+
+<p>This added immensely to the warlike aspect of the planet. For warlike it
+was. Everywhere we recognized fortified stations, glittering with an
+array of the polished knobs of the lightning machines, such as we had
+seen in the land of Hellas.</p>
+
+<p>From the land of Edom, directly over the equator of the planet, we
+turned our faces westward, and, skirting the Mare Erytr&aelig;um, arrived
+above the place where the broad canal known as the Indus empties into
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Before us, and stretching away to the northwest, now lay the Continent
+of Chryse, a vast red land, oval in outline, and surrounded and crossed
+by innumerable canals. Chryse was not less than 1,600 miles across and
+it, too, evidently swarmed with giant inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>But the shadow of night lay upon the greater portion of the land of
+Chryse. In our rapid motion westward we had outstripped the sun and had
+now arrived at a point where day and night met upon the surface of the
+planet beneath us.</p>
+
+<p>Behind all was brilliant with sunshine, but before us the face of Mars
+gradually disappeared in the deepening gloom. Through the darkness, far
+away, we could behold magnificent beams of electric light darting across
+the curtain of night, and evidently serving to illuminate towns and
+cities that lay beneath.</p>
+
+<p>We pushed on into the night for two or three hundred miles over that
+part of the continent of Chryse whose inhabitants were doubtless
+enjoying the deep sleep that accompanies the dark hours immediately
+preceding the dawn. Still everywhere splendid clusters of light lay like
+fallen constellations upon the ground, indicating the sites of great
+towns, which, like those of the earth never sleep.</p>
+
+<p>But this scene, although weird and beautiful, could give us little of
+the kind of information of which we were in search.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly it was resolved to turn back eastward until we had arrived
+in the twilight space separating day and night, and then hover over the
+planet at that point, allowing it to turn beneath us so that, as we
+looked down, we should see in succession the entire circuit of the globe
+of Mars while it rolled under our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The rotation of Mars on its axis is performed in a period very little
+longer than the earth's rotation, so that the length of the day and
+night in the world of Mars is only some forty minutes longer than their
+length upon the earth.</p>
+
+<p>In thus remaining suspended over the planet, on the line of daybreak, so
+to speak, we believed that we should be peculiarly safe from detection
+by the eyes of the inhabitants. Even astronomers are not likely to be
+wide awake just at the peep of dawn. Almost all of the inhabitants, we
+confidently believed, would still be sound asleep upon that part of the
+planet passing directly beneath us, and those who were awake would not
+be likely to watch for unexpected appearances in the sky.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, our height was so great that notwithstanding the numbers of the
+squadron, we could not easily be seen from the surface of the planet,
+and if seen at all we might be mistaken for high-flying birds.</p>
+
+<p>Here we remained then through the entire course of twenty-four hours and
+saw in succession as they passed from night into day beneath our feet
+the land of Chryse, the great continent of Tharsis, the curious region
+of intersecting canals which puzzled astronomers on the earth had named
+the "Gordian Knot." The continental lands of Memnonia, Amozonia and
+Aeolia, the mysterious center where hundreds of vast canals came
+together from every direction, called the Triviun Charontis; the vast
+circle of Elysium, a thousand miles across, and completely surrounded by
+a broad green canal; the continent of Libya, which, as I remembered, had
+been half covered by a tremendous inundation whose effects were visible
+from the earth in 1889, and finally the long, dark sea of the Syrtis
+Major, lying directly south of the land of Hellas.</p>
+
+<p>The excitement and interest which we all experienced were so great that
+not one of us took a wink of sleep during the entire twenty-four hours
+of our marvelous watch.</p>
+
+<p>There are one or two things of special interest amid the multitude of
+wonderful observations that we made which I must mention here on account
+of their connection with the important events that followed soon after.</p>
+
+<p>Just west of the land of Chryse we saw the smaller land of Ophir, in the
+midst of which is a singular spot called the Juventae Fons, and this
+Fountain of Youth, as our astronomers, by a sort of prophetic
+inspiration, had named it, proved later to be one of the most incredible
+marvels on the planet of Mars.</p>
+
+<p>Further to the west, and north from the great continent of Tharsis, we
+beheld the immense oval-shaped land of Thaumasia containing in its
+center the celebrated "Lake of the Sun," a circular body of water not
+less than five hundred miles in diameter, with dozens of great canals
+running away from it like the spokes of a wheel in every direction, thus
+connecting it with the ocean which surrounds it on the south and east,
+and with the still larger canals that encircle it toward the north and
+west.</p>
+
+<p>This Lake of the Sun came to play a great part in our subsequent
+adventures. It was evident to us from the beginning that it was the
+chief center of population on the planet. It lies in latitude 25 degrees
+south and longitude about 90 degrees west.</p>
+
+<p>Having completed the circuit of the Martian globe, we were moved by the
+same feeling which every discoverer of new lands experiences, and
+immediately returned to our original place above the land of Hellas,
+because since that was the first part of Mars which we had seen, we felt
+a greater degree of familiarity with it than with any portion of the
+planet, and there, in a certain sense, we felt "at home."</p>
+
+<p>But, as it proved, our enemies were on the watch for us there. We had
+almost forgotten them, so absorbed were we by the great spectacles that
+had been unrolling themselves beneath our feet.</p>
+
+<p>We ought, of course, to have been a little more cautious in approaching
+the place where they first caught sight of us, since we might have known
+that they would remain on the watch near that spot.</p>
+
+<p>But at any rate they had seen us, and it was now too late to think of
+taking them again by surprise.</p>
+
+<p>They on their part had a surprise in store for us, which was greater
+than any we had yet experienced.</p>
+
+<p>We saw their ships assembling once more far down in the atmosphere
+beneath us, and we thought we could detect evidences of something
+unusual going on upon the surface of the planet.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly from the ships, and from various points on the ground beneath,
+there rose high in the air, and carried by invisible currents in every
+direction, immense volumes of black smoke, or vapor, which blotted out
+of sight everything below them!</p>
+
+<p>South, north, west and east, the curtain of blackness rapidly spread,
+until the whole face of the planet as far as our eyes could reach, and
+the airships thronging under us, were all concealed from sight!</p>
+
+<p>Mars had played the game of the cuttlefish, which when pursued by its
+enemies darkens the water behind it by a sudden outgush of inky fluid
+and thus escapes the eye of its foe.</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of man had never beheld such a spectacle!</p>
+
+<p>Where a few minutes before the sunny face of a beautiful and populous
+planet had been shining beneath us, there was now to be seen nothing but
+black, billowing clouds, swelling up everywhere like the mouse-colored
+smoke that pours from a great transatlantic liner when fresh coal has
+just been heaped upon her fires.</p>
+
+<p>In some places the smoke spouted upward in huge jets to the height of
+several miles; elsewhere it eddied in vast whirlpools of inky blackness.</p>
+
+<p>Not a glimpse of the hidden world beneath us was anywhere to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>Mars had put on its war mask, and fearful indeed was the aspect of it!</p>
+
+<p>After the first pause of surprise the squadron quickly backed away into
+the sky, rising rapidly, because, from one of the swirling eddies
+beneath us the smoke began suddenly to pile itself up in an enormous
+aerial mountain, whose peaks shot higher and higher, with apparently
+increasing velocity, until they seemed about to engulf us with their
+tumbling ebon masses.</p>
+
+<p>Unaware what the nature of this mysterious smoke might be, and fearing
+that it was something more than a shield for the planet, and might be
+destructive to life, we fled before it, as before the onward sweep of a
+pestilence.</p>
+
+<p>Directly underneath the flagship, one of the aspiring smoke peaks grew
+with most portentous swiftness, and, notwithstanding all our efforts, in
+a little while it had enveloped us.</p>
+
+<p>Several of us were standing on the deck of the electrical ship. We were
+almost stifled by the smoke, and were compelled to take refuge within
+the car, where, until the electric lights had been turned on, darkness
+so black that it oppressed the strained eyeballs prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>But in this brief experience, terrifying though it was, we had learned
+one thing. The smoke would kill by strangulation, but evidently there
+was nothing especially poisonous in its nature. This fact might be of
+use to us in our subsequent proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>"This spoils our plans," said the commander. "There is no use of
+remaining here for the present; let us see how far this thing extends."</p>
+
+<p>At first we rose straight away to a height of 200 or 300 miles, thus
+passing entirely beyond the sensible limits of the atmosphere, and far
+above the highest point that the smoke could reach.</p>
+
+<p>From this commanding point of view our line of sight extended to an
+immense distance over the surface of Mars in all directions. Everywhere
+the same appearance; the whole planet was evidently covered with the
+smoke.</p>
+
+<p>A complete telegraphic system evidently connected all the strategic
+points upon Mars, so that, at a signal from the central station, the
+wonderful curtain could be instantaneously drawn over the entire face of
+the planet.</p>
+
+<p>In order to make certain that no part of Mars remained uncovered, we
+dropped down again nearer to the upper level of the smoke clouds, and
+then completely circumnavigated the planet. It was thought possible that
+on the night side no smoke would be found and that it would be
+practicable for us to make a descent there.</p>
+
+<p>But when we had arrived on that side of Mars which was turned away from
+the sun, we no longer saw beneath us, as we had done on our previous
+visit to the night hemisphere of the planet, brilliant groups and
+clusters of electric lights beneath us. All was dark.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, so completely did the great shell of smoke conceal the planet
+that the place occupied by the latter seemed to be simply a vast black
+hole in the firmament.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was hidden behind it, and so dense was the smoke that even the
+solar rays were unable to penetrate it, and consequently there was no
+atmospheric halo visible around the concealed planet.</p>
+
+<p>All the sky around was filled with stars, but their countless host
+suddenly disappeared when our eyes turned in the direction of Mars. The
+great black globe blotted them out without being visible itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Apparently we can do nothing here," said Mr. Edison. "Let us return to
+the daylight side."</p>
+
+<p>When we had arrived near the point where we had been when the wonderful
+phenomenon first made its appearance, we paused, and then, at the
+suggestion of one of the chemists, dropped close to the surface of the
+smoke curtain which had now settled down into comparative quiescence, in
+order that we might examine it a little more critically.</p>
+
+<p>The flagship was driven into the smoke cloud so deeply that for a minute
+we were again enveloped in night. A quantity of the smoke was entrapped
+in a glass jar.</p>
+
+<p>Rising again into the sunlight, the chemists began an examination of the
+constitution of the smoke. They were unable to determine its precise
+character, but they found that its density was astonishingly slight.
+This accounted for the rapidity with which it had risen, and the great
+height which it had attained in the comparatively light atmosphere of
+Mars.</p>
+
+<p>"It is evident," said one of the chemists, "that this smoke does not
+extend down to the surface of the planet. From what the astronomers say
+as to the density of the air on Mars, it is probable that a clear space
+of at least a mile in height exists between the surface of Mars and the
+lower limit of the smoke curtain. Just how deep the latter is we can
+only determine by experiment, but it would not be surprising if the
+thickness of this great blanket which Mars has thrown around itself
+should prove to be a quarter or half a mile."</p>
+
+<p>"Anyhow," said one of the United States army officers, "they have dodged
+out of sight, and I don't see why we should not dodge in and get at
+them. If there is clear air under the smoke, as you think, why couldn't
+the ships dart down through the curtain and come to a close tackle with
+the Martians?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would not do at all," said the commander. "We might simply run
+ourselves into an ambush. No; we must stay outside, and if possible
+fight them from here."</p>
+
+<p>"They can't keep this thing up forever," said the officer. "Perhaps the
+smoke will clear off after a while, and then we will have a chance."</p>
+
+<p>"Not much hope of that, I am afraid," said the chemist who had
+originally spoken. "This smoke could remain floating in the atmosphere
+for weeks, and the only wonder to me is how they ever expect to get rid
+of it, when they think their enemies have gone and they want some
+sunshine again."</p>
+
+<p>"All that is mere speculation," said Mr. Edison; "let us get at
+something practical. We must do one of two things; either attack them
+shielded as they are, or wait until the smoke has cleared away. The only
+other alternative, that of plunging blindly down through the curtain is
+at present not to be thought of."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid we couldn't stand a very long siege ourselves," suddenly
+remarked the chief commissary of the expedition, who was one of the
+members of the flagship's company.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by that?" asked Mr. Edison sharply, turning to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, you see," said the commissary, stammering, "our provisions
+wouldn't hold out."</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't hold out?" exclaimed Mr. Edison, in astonishment, "why we have
+compressed and prepared provisions enough to last this squadron for
+three years."</p>
+
+<p>"We had, sir, when we left the earth," said the commissary, in apparent
+distress, "but I am sorry to say that something has happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Something has happened! Explain yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what it is, but on inspecting some of the compressed
+stores, a short time ago, I found that a large number of them were
+destroyed, whether through leakage of air, or what, I am unable to say.
+I sent to inquire as to the condition of the stores in the other ships
+in the squadron and I found that a similar condition of things prevailed
+there.</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is," continued the commissary, "we have only provisions
+enough, in proper condition, for about ten days' consumption."</p>
+
+<p>"After that we shall have to forage on the country, then," said the army
+officer.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you not report this before?" demanded Mr. Edison.</p>
+
+<p>"Because, sir," was the reply, "the discovery was not made until after
+we arrived close to Mars, and since then there has been so much
+excitement that I have hardly had time to make an investigation and find
+out what the precise condition of affairs is; besides, I thought we
+should land upon the planet and then we would be able to renew our
+supplies."</p>
+
+<p>I closely watched Mr. Edison's expression in order to see how this most
+alarming news would affect him. Although he fully comprehended its
+fearful significance, he did not lose his self-command.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," he said, "then it will become necessary for us to act
+quickly. Evidently we cannot wait for the smoke to clear off, even if
+there was any hope of its clearing. We must get down on Mars now, having
+conquered it first if possible, but anyway we must get down there, in
+order to avoid starvation."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very lucky," he continued, "that we have ten days' supply left. A
+great deal can be done in ten days."</p>
+
+<p>A few hours after this the commander called me aside, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have thought it all out. I am going to reconstruct some of our
+disintegrators, so as to increase their range and their power. Then I am
+going to have some of the astronomers of the expedition locate for me
+the most vulnerable points upon the planet, where the population is
+densest and a hard blow would have the most effect, and I am going to
+pound away at them, through the smoke, and see whether we cannot draw
+them out of their shell."</p>
+
+<p>With his expert assistants Mr. Edison set to work at once to transform a
+number of the disintegrators into still more formidable engines of the
+same description. One of these new weapons having been distributed to
+each of the members of the squadron, the next problem was to decide
+where to strike.</p>
+
+<p>When we first examined the surface of the planet it will be remembered
+that we had regarded the Lake of the Sun and its environs as being the
+very focus of the planet. While it might also be a strong point of
+defence, yet an effective blow struck there would go to the enemy's
+heart and be more likely to bring the Martians promptly to terms than
+anything else.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing, then, was to locate the Lake of the Sun on the smoke
+hidden surface of the planet beneath us. This was a problem that the
+astronomers could readily solve.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, in the flagship itself there was one of the star-gazing
+gentlemen who had made a specialty of the study of Mars. That planet, as
+I have already explained, was now in opposition to the earth. The
+astronomer had records in his pocket which enabled him, by a brief
+calculation, to say just when the Lakes of the Sun would be on the
+meridian of Mars as seen from the earth. Our chronometers still kept
+terrestrial time; we knew the exact number of days and hours that had
+elapsed since we had departed, and so it was possible by placing
+ourselves in a line between the earth and Mars to be practically in the
+situation of an astronomer in his observatory at home.</p>
+
+<p>Then it was only necessary to wait for the hour when the Lake of the Sun
+would be upon the meridian of Mars in order to be certain what was the
+true direction of the latter from the flagship.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus located the heart of our foe behind its shield of darkness,
+we prepared to strike.</p>
+
+<p>"I have ascertained," said Mr. Edison, "the vibration period of the
+smoke, so that it will be easy for us to shatter it into invisible
+atoms. You will see that every stroke of the disintegrators will open a
+hole through the black curtain. If their field of destruction could be
+made wide enough, we might in that manner clear away the entire covering
+of smoke, but all that we shall really be able to do will be to puncture
+it with holes, which will, perhaps, enable us to catch glimpses of the
+surface beneath. In that manner we may be able more effectually to
+concentrate our fire upon the most vulnerable points."</p>
+
+<p>Everything being prepared, and the entire squadron having assembled to
+watch the effect of the opening blow and be ready to follow it up, Mr.
+Edison himself poised one of the new disintegrators, which was too large
+to be carried in the hand, and, following the direction indicated by the
+calculations of the astronomers, launched the vibratory discharge into
+the ocean of blackness beneath.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly there opened beneath us a huge well-shaped hole from which the
+black clouds rolled violently back in every direction.</p>
+
+<p>Through this opening we saw the gleam of brilliant lights beneath.</p>
+
+<p>We had made a hit.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the Lake of the Sun!" shouted the astronomer who furnished the
+calculation by means of which its position had been discovered.</p>
+
+<p>And, indeed, it was the Lake of the Sun. While the opening in the clouds
+made by the discharge was not wide, yet it sufficed to give us a view of
+a portion of the curving shore of the lake, which was ablaze with
+electric lights.</p>
+
+<p>Whether our shot had done any damage, beyond making the circular opening
+in the cloud curtain, we could not tell, for almost immediately the
+surrounding black smoke masses billowed in to fill up the hole.</p>
+
+<p>But in the brief glimpse we had caught sight of two or three large
+airships hovering in space above that part of the Lake of the Sun and
+its bordering city which we had beheld. It seemed to me in the brief
+glance I had that one ship had been touched by the discharge and was
+wandering in an erratic manner. But the clouds closed in so rapidly that
+I could not be certain.</p>
+
+<p>Anyhow, we had demonstrated one thing, and that was that we could
+penetrate the cloud shield and reach the Martians in their hiding place.</p>
+
+<p>It had been prearranged that the first discharge from the flagship
+should be a signal for the concentration of the fire of all the other
+ships upon the same spot.</p>
+
+<p>A little hesitation, however, occurred, and a half a minute had elapsed
+before the disintegrators from the other members of the squadron were
+got into play.</p>
+
+<p>Then, suddenly we saw an immense commotion in the cloud beneath us. It
+seemed to be beaten and hurried in every direction and punctured like a
+sieve with nearly a hundred great circular holes. Through these gaps we
+could see clearly a large region of the planet's surface, with many
+airships floating above it and the blaze of innumerable electric lights
+illuminating it. The Martians had created an artificial day under the
+curtain.</p>
+
+<p>This time there was no question that the blow had been effective. Four
+or five of the airships, partially destroyed, tumbled headlong toward
+the ground, while even from our great distance there was unmistakable
+evidence that fearful execution had been done among the crowded
+structures along the shore of the lake.</p>
+
+<p>As each of our ships possessed but one of the new disintegrators, and
+since a minute or so was required to adjust them for a fresh discharge,
+we remained for a little while inactive after delivering the blow.
+Meanwhile the cloud curtain, though rent to shreds by the concentrated
+discharge of the disintegrators, quickly became a uniform black sheet
+again, hiding everything.</p>
+
+<p>We had just had time to congratulate ourselves on the successful opening
+of our bombardment, and the disintegrator of the flagship was poised for
+another discharge, when suddenly out of the black expanse beneath,
+quivered immense electric beams, clear cut and straight as bars of
+steel, but dazzling our eyes with unendurable brilliance.</p>
+
+<p>It was the reply of the Martians to our attack.</p>
+
+<p>Three or four of the electrical ships were seriously damaged, and one,
+close beside the flagship, changed color, withered and collapsed, with
+the same sickening phenomena that had made our hearts shudder when the
+first disaster of this kind occurred during our brief battle over the
+asteroid.</p>
+
+<p>Another score of our comrades were gone, and yet we had hardly begun the
+fight.</p>
+
+<p>Glancing at the other ships which had been injured, I saw that the
+damage to them was not so serious, although they were evidently <i>hors de
+combat</i> for the present.</p>
+
+<p>Our fighting blood was now boiling and we did not stop long to count our
+losses.</p>
+
+<p>"Into the smoke!" was the signal, and the ninety and more electric ships
+which still remained in condition for action immediately shot downward.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_ELEVEN" id="CHAPTER_ELEVEN"></a>CHAPTER ELEVEN</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE EARTH GIRL</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>It was a wild plunge. We kept off the decks while rushing through the
+blinding smoke, but the instant we emerged below, where we found
+ourselves still a mile above the ground, we were out again, ready to
+strike.</p>
+
+<p>I have simply a confused recollection of flashing lights beneath, and a
+great, dark arch of clouds above, out of which our ships seemed dropping
+on all sides, and then the fray burst on and around us, and no man could
+see or notice anything except by half-comprehended glances.</p>
+
+<p>Almost in an instant, it seemed, a swarm of airships surrounded us,
+while from what, for lack of a more descriptive name, I shall call the
+forts about the Lake of the Sun, leaped tongues of electric fire, before
+which some of our ships, were driven like bits of flaming paper in a
+high wind, gleaming for a moment, then curling up and gone forever!</p>
+
+<p>It was an awful sight; but the battle fever was raging within us, and
+we, on our part, were not idle.</p>
+
+<p>Every man carried a disintegrator, and these hand instruments, together
+with those of heavier caliber on the ship poured their resistless
+vibrations in every direction through the quivering air.</p>
+
+<p>The airships of the Martians were destroyed by the score, and yet they
+flocked upon us thicker and faster.</p>
+
+<p>We dropped lower and our blows fell upon the forts, and upon the wide
+spread city bordering the Lake of the Sun. We almost entirely silenced
+the fire of one of the forts; but there were forty more in full action
+within reach of our eyes!</p>
+
+<p>Some of the metallic buildings were partly unroofed by the
+disintegrators and some had their walls riddled and fell with thundering
+crashes, whose sound rose to our ears above the hellish din of battle. I
+caught glimpses of giant forms struggling in the ruins and rushing
+wildly through the streets, but there was no time to see anything
+clearly.</p>
+
+<p>Our flagship seemed charmed. A crowd of airships hung upon it like a
+swarm of angry bees, and, at times, one could not see for the lightning
+strokes&mdash;yet we escaped destruction, while ourselves dealing death on
+every hand.</p>
+
+<p>It was a glorious fight, but it was not war; no, it was not war. We
+really had no more chance of ultimate success amid that multitude of
+enemies than a prisoner running the gauntlet in a crowd of savages has
+of escape.</p>
+
+<p>A conviction of the hopelessness of the contest finally forced itself
+upon our minds, and the shattered squadron, which had kept well together
+amid the storm of death, was signalled to retreat.</p>
+
+<p>Shaking off their pursuers, as a hunted bear shakes off the dogs, sixty
+of the electrical ships rose up through the clouds where more than
+ninety had gone down!</p>
+
+<p>Madly we rushed upward through the vast curtain and continued our flight
+to a great elevation, far beyond the reach of the awful artillery of the
+enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Looking back it seemed the very mouth of hell from which we had escaped.</p>
+
+<p>The Martians did not for an instant cease their fire, even when we were
+far beyond their reach. With furious persistence they blazed away
+through the cloud curtain, and the vivid spikes of lightning shuddered
+so swiftly on one another's track that they were like a flaming halo of
+electric lances around the frowning helmet of the War Planet.</p>
+
+<p>But after a while they stopped their terrific sparring, and once more
+the immense globe assumed the appearance of a vast ball of black smoke
+still widely agitated by the recent disturbance, but exhibiting no
+opening through which we could discern what was going on beneath.</p>
+
+<p>Evidently the Martians believed they had finished us.</p>
+
+<p>At no time since the beginning of our adventure had it appeared to me
+quite so hopeless, reckless and mad as it seemed at present.</p>
+
+<p>We had suffered fearful losses, and yet what had we accomplished? We had
+won two fights on the asteroid, it is true, but then we had overwhelming
+numbers on our side.</p>
+
+<p>Now we were facing millions on their own ground, and our very first
+assault had resulted in a disastrous repulse, with the loss of at least
+thirty electric ships and 600 men!</p>
+
+<p>Evidently we could not endure this sort of thing. We must find some
+other means of assailing Mars or else give up the attempt.</p>
+
+<p>But the latter was not to be thought. It was no mere question of
+self-pride, however, and no consideration of the tremendous interests at
+stake, which would compel us to continue our apparently vain attempt.</p>
+
+<p>Our provisions could last only a few days longer. The supply would not
+carry us one-quarter of the way back to earth, and we must therefore
+remain here and literally conquer or die.</p>
+
+<p>In this extremity a consultation of the principal officers was called
+upon the deck of the flagship.</p>
+
+<p>Here the suggestion was made that we should attempt to effect by
+strategy what we had failed to do by force.</p>
+
+<p>An old army officer who had served in many wars against the cunning
+Indians of the West, Colonel Alonzo Jefferson Smith, was the author of
+this suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us circumvent them," he said. "We can do it in this way. The
+chances are that all of the available fighting force of the planet Mars
+is now concentrated on this side and in the neighborhood of The Lake of
+the Sun.</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly, by some kind of X-ray business, they can only see us dimly
+through the clouds, and if we get a little further away they will not be
+able to see us at all.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I suggest that a certain number of the electrical ships be
+withdrawn from the squadron to a great distance, while the remainder
+stay here; or, better still, approach to a point just beyond the reach
+of those streaks of lightning, and begin a bombardment of the clouds
+without paying any attention to whether the strokes reach through the
+clouds and do any damage or not.</p>
+
+<p>"This will induce the Martians to believe that we are determined to
+press our attack at this point.</p>
+
+<p>"In the meantime, while these ships are raising a hulabaloo on this side
+of the planet, and drawing their fire, as much as possible, without
+running into any actual danger, let the others which have been selected
+for the purpose, sail rapidly around to the other side of Mars and take
+them in the rear."</p>
+
+<p>It was not perfectly clear what Colonel Smith intended to do after the
+landing had been effected in the rear of the Martians, but still there
+seemed a good deal to be said for his suggestion, and it would, at any
+rate, if carried out, enable us to learn something about the condition
+of things on the planet, and perhaps furnish us with a hint as to how we
+could best proceed in the further prosecution of the siege.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly it was resolved that about twenty ships should be told off
+for this movement, and Colonel Smith himself was placed in command.</p>
+
+<p>At my desire I accompanied the new commander in his flagship.</p>
+
+<p>Rising to a considerable elevation in order that there might be no risk
+of being seen, we began our flank movement while the remaining ships, in
+accordance with the understanding, dropped nearer the curtain of cloud
+and commenced a bombardment with the disintegrators, which caused a
+tremendous commotion in the clouds, opening vast gaps in them, and
+occasionally revealing a glimpse of the electric lights on the planet,
+although it was evident that the vibratory currents did not reach the
+ground. The Martians immediately replied to this renewed attack, and
+again the cloud covered globe bristled with lightning, which flashed so
+fiercely out of the blackness below that the stoutest hearts among us
+quailed, although we were situated well beyond the danger.</p>
+
+<p>But this sublime spectacle rapidly vanished from our eyes when, having
+attained a proper elevation, we began our course toward the opposite
+hemisphere of the planet.</p>
+
+<p>We guided our flight by the stars, and from our knowledge of the
+rotation period of Mars, and the position which the principal points on
+its surface must occupy at certain hours, we were able to tell what part
+of the planet lay beneath us.</p>
+
+<p>Having completed our semi-circuit we found ourselves on the night side
+of Mars, and determined to lose no time in executing our coup. But it
+was deemed best that an exploration should first be made by a single
+electrical ship, and Colonel Smith naturally wished to undertake the
+adventure with his own vessel.</p>
+
+<p>We dropped rapidly through the black cloud curtain, which proved to be
+at least half a mile in thickness, and then suddenly emerged, as if
+suspended at the apex of an enormous dome, arching above the surface of
+the planet a mile beneath us, which sparkled on all sides with
+innumerable lights.</p>
+
+<p>These lights were so numerous and so brilliant as to produce a faint
+imitation of daylight, even at our immense height above the ground, and
+the dome of cloud out of which we had emerged assumed a soft fawn color
+which produced an indescribably beautiful effect.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment we recoiled from our undertaking, and arrested the motion
+of the electric ship.</p>
+
+<p>But on closely examining the surface beneath us we found that there was
+a broad region, where comparatively few bright lights were to be seen.
+From my knowledge of the geography of Mars I knew that this was a part
+of the Land of Ausonia, situated a few hundred miles northeast of
+Hellas, where we had first seen the planet.</p>
+
+<p>Evidently it was not so thickly populated as some of the other parts of
+Mars, and its comparative darkness was an attraction to us. We
+determined to approach within a few hundred feet of the ground with the
+electric ship, and then, in case no enemies appeared, to visit the soil
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps we shall see or hear something that will be of use to us," said
+Colonel Smith, "and for the purposes of this first reconnaissance it is
+better that we should be few in number. The other ships will await our
+return, and at any rate we shall not be gone long."</p>
+
+<p>As our car approached the ground we found ourselves near the tops of
+some lofty trees.</p>
+
+<p>"This will do," said Colonel Smith to the electrical steersman, "Stay
+right here."</p>
+
+<p>He and I then lowered ourselves into the branches of the trees, each
+carrying a small disintegrator, and cautiously clambered down to the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>We believed we were the first of the descendants of Adam to set foot on
+the planet of Mars.</p>
+
+<p>At first we suffered somewhat from the effects of the rare atmosphere.
+It was so lacking in density that it resembled the air on the summits of
+the loftiest terrestrial mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Having reached the foot of the tree in safety, we lay down for a moment
+on the ground to recover ourselves and to become accustomed to our new
+surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>A thrill, born half of wonder, half of incredulity, ran through me at
+the touch of the soil of Mars. Here was I, actually on that planet,
+which had seemed so far away, so inaccessible, and so full of mysteries
+when viewed from the earth. And yet, surrounding me, were
+things&mdash;gigantic, it is true&mdash;but still resembling and recalling the
+familiar sights of my own world.</p>
+
+<p>After a little while our lungs became accustomed to the rarity of the
+atmosphere and we experienced a certain stimulation in breathing.</p>
+
+<p>We then got upon our feet and stepped out from under the shadow of the
+gigantic tree. High above we could faintly see our electrical ship,
+gently swaying in the air close to the tree top.</p>
+
+<p>There were no electric lights in our immediate neighborhood, but we
+noticed that the whole surface of the planet around us was gleaming with
+them, producing an effect like the glow of a great city seen from a
+distance at night. The glare was faintly reflected from the vast dome of
+clouds above, producing the general impression of a moonlight night upon
+the earth.</p>
+
+<p>It was a wonderfully quiet and beautiful spot where we had come down.
+The air had a delicate feel and a bracing temperature, while a soft
+breeze soughed through the leaves of the tree above our heads.</p>
+
+<p>Not far away was the bank of a canal, bordered by a magnificent avenue
+shaded by a double row of immense umbrageous trees.</p>
+
+<p>We approached the canal, and, getting upon the road, turned to the left
+to make an exploration in that direction. The shadow of the trees
+falling upon the roadway produced a dense gloom, in the midst of which
+we felt that we should be safe, unless the Martians had eyes like those
+of cats.</p>
+
+<p>As we pushed along, our hearts, I confess, beating a little quickly, a
+shadow stirred in front of us.</p>
+
+<p>Something darker than the night itself approached.</p>
+
+<p>As it drew near it assumed the appearance of an enormous dog, as tall as
+an ox, which ran swiftly our way with a threatening motion of its head.
+But before it could even utter a snarl, the whirr of Colonel Smith's
+disintegrator was heard and the creature vanished in the shadow.</p>
+
+<p>"Gracious, did you ever see such a beast?" said the Colonel. "Why he was
+as big as a grizzly."</p>
+
+<p>"The people he belonged to must be near by," I said. "Very likely he was
+a watch on guard."</p>
+
+<p>"But I see no signs of a habitation."</p>
+
+<p>"True, but you observe there is a thick hedge on the side of the road
+opposite the canal. If we get through that perhaps we shall catch sight
+of something."</p>
+
+<p>Cautiously we pushed our way through the hedge, which was composed of
+shrubs as large as small trees, and very thick at the bottom, and,
+having traversed it, found ourselves in a great meadow-like expanse
+which might have been a lawn. At a considerable distance, in the midst
+of a clump of trees, a large building towered skyward, its walls of some
+red metal, gleaming like polished copper in the soft light that fell
+from the cloud dome.</p>
+
+<p>There were no lights around the building itself, and we saw nothing
+corresponding to windows on that side which faced us, but toward the
+right a door was evidently open, and out of this streamed a brilliant
+shaft of illumination, which lay bright upon the lawn, then crossed the
+highway through an opening in the hedge, and gleamed on the water of the
+canal beyond.</p>
+
+<p>Where we stood the ground had evidently been recently cleared, and there
+was no obstruction, but as we crept closer to the house&mdash;for our
+curiosity had now become irresistible&mdash;we found ourselves crawling
+through grass so tall that if we had stood erect it would have risen
+well above our heads.</p>
+
+<p>"This affords good protection," said Colonel Smith, recalling his
+adventures on the western plains. "We can get close in to the Indians&mdash;I
+beg pardon, I mean the Martians&mdash;without being seen."</p>
+
+<p>Heavens, what an adventure was this! To be crawling about in the night
+on the face of another world and venturing, perhaps, into the jaws of a
+danger which human experience could not measure!</p>
+
+<p>But on we went, and in a little while we had emerged from the tall grass
+and were somewhat startled by the discovery that we had got close to the
+wall of the building.</p>
+
+<p>Carefully we crept around to the open door.</p>
+
+<p>As we neared it we suddenly stopped as if we had been stricken with
+instantaneous paralysis.</p>
+
+<p>Out of the door floated, on the soft night air, the sweetest music to
+which I have ever listened.</p>
+
+<p>It carried me back in an instant to my own world. It was the music of
+the earth. It was the melodious expression of a human soul. It thrilled
+us both to the heart's core.</p>
+
+<p>"My God!" exclaimed Colonel Smith. "What can that be? Are we dreaming,
+or where in heaven's name are we?"</p>
+
+<p>Still the enchanting harmony floated out upon the air.</p>
+
+<p>What the instrument was I could not tell, but the sound seemed more
+nearly to resemble that of a violin than anything else of which I could
+think.</p>
+
+<p>When we first heard it the strains were gentle, sweet, caressing and
+full of an infinite depth of feeling, but in a little while its tone
+changed, and it became a magnificent march, throbbing upon the air in
+stirring notes that set our hearts beating in unison with its stride and
+inspiring in us a courage that we had not felt before.</p>
+
+<p>Then it drifted into a wild fantasia, still inexpressibly sweet, and
+from that changed again into a requiem or lament, whose mellifluous tide
+of harmony swept our thoughts back again to the earth.</p>
+
+<p>"I can endure this no longer," I said. "I must see who it is that makes
+that music. It is the product of a human heart and must come from the
+touch of human fingers."</p>
+
+<p>We carefully shifted our position until we stood in the blaze of light
+that poured out of the door.</p>
+
+<p>The doorway was an immense arched opening, magnificently ornamented,
+rising to a height of, I should say, not less than twenty or twenty-five
+feet and broad in proportion. The door itself stood widely open and it,
+together with all of its fittings and surroundings, was composed of the
+same beautiful red metal.</p>
+
+<p>Stepping out a little way into the light I could see within the door an
+immense apartment, glittering on all sides with metallic ornaments and
+gems and lighted from the center by a great chandelier of electric
+candles.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of the great floor, holding the instrument delicately
+poised, and still awaking its ravishing voice, stood a figure, the sight
+of which almost stopped my breath.</p>
+
+<p>It was a slender sylph of a girl!</p>
+
+<p>A girl of my own race; a human being here upon the planet Mars!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="il139" id="il139"></a>
+<img src="images/il139.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3><i>"In the middle of the great floor, holding the instrument
+delicately poised, and still awaking its ravishing voice, stood a
+figure, the sight of which almost stopped my breath! It was a slender
+sylph of a girl! A girl of my own race; a human being here on Mars!"</i></h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<p>Her hair was loosely coiled and she was attired in graceful white
+drapery.</p>
+
+<p>"By God!" cried Colonel Smith, "she's human!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWELVE" id="CHAPTER_TWELVE"></a>CHAPTER TWELVE</h2>
+
+<h3><i>RETREAT TO DEIMOS</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Still the Bewildering Strains of the music came to our ears, and yet we
+stood there unperceived, though in the full glare of the chandelier.</p>
+
+<p>The girl's face was presented in profile. It was exquisite in beauty,
+pale, delicate with a certain pleading sadness which stirred us to the
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>An element of romance and a touch of personal interest such as we had
+not looked for suddenly entered into our adventure.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Smith's mind still ran back to the perils of the plains.</p>
+
+<p>"She is a prisoner," he said, "and by the Seven Devils of Dona Ana we'll
+not leave her here. But where are the hellhounds themselves?"</p>
+
+<p>Our attention had been so absorbed by the sight of the girl that we had
+scarcely thought of looking to see if there was any one else in the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>Glancing beyond her, I now perceived sitting in richly decorated chairs
+three or four gigantic Martians. They were listening to the music as if
+charmed.</p>
+
+<p>The whole story told itself. This girl, if not their slave, was at any
+rate under their control, and she was furnishing entertainment for them
+by her musical skill. The fact that they could find pleasure in music so
+beautiful was, perhaps, an indication that they were not really as
+savage as they seemed.</p>
+
+<p>Yet our hearts went out to the girl, and were turned against them with
+an uncontrollable hatred.</p>
+
+<p>They were of the same remorseless race with those who had so lately lain
+waste our fair earth and who would have completed its destruction had
+not Providence interferred in our behalf.</p>
+
+<p>Singularly enough, although we stood full in the light, they had not yet
+seen us.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the girl, moved by what impulse I know not, turned her face in
+our direction. Her eyes fell upon us. She paused abruptly in her
+playing, and her instrument dropped to the floor. Then she uttered a
+cry, and with extended arms ran toward us.</p>
+
+<p>But when she was near she stopped abruptly, the glad look fading from
+her face, and started back with terror-stricken eyes, as if, after all,
+she had found us not what she expected.</p>
+
+<p>Then for an instant she looked more intently at us, her countenance
+cleared once more, and, overcome by some strange emotion, her eyes
+filled with tears, and, drawing a little nearer, she stretched forth her
+hands to us appealingly.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Martians had started to their feet. They looked down upon
+us in astonishment. We were like pygmies to them; like little gnomes
+which had sprung out of the ground at their feet.</p>
+
+<p>One of the giants seized some kind of a weapon and started forward with
+a threatening gesture.</p>
+
+<p>The girl sprang to my side and grasped my arm with a cry of fear.</p>
+
+<p>This seemed to throw the Martian into a sudden frenzy, and he raised his
+arms to strike.</p>
+
+<p>But the disintegrator was in my hand.</p>
+
+<p>My rage was equal to his.</p>
+
+<p>I felt the concentrated vengeance of the earth quivering through me as I
+pressed the button of the disintegrator and, sweeping it rapidly up and
+down, saw the gigantic form that confronted me melt into nothingness.</p>
+
+<p>There were three other giants in the room, and they had been on the
+point of following up the attack of their comrade. But when he
+disappeared from before their eyes, they paused, staring in amazement at
+the place where, but a moment before, he had stood, but where now only
+the metal weapon he had wielded lay on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>At first they started back, and seemed on the point of fleeing; then,
+with a second glance, perceiving again how small and insignificant we
+were, all three together advanced upon us.</p>
+
+<p>The girl sank trembling on her knees.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime I had readjusted my disintegrator for another discharge,
+and Colonel Smith stood by me with the light of battle upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Sweep the discharge across the three," I exclaimed. "Otherwise there
+will be one left and before we can fire again he will crush us."</p>
+
+<p>The whirr of the two instruments sounded simultaneously, and with a
+quick horizontal motion we swept the lines of force around in such a
+manner that all three of the Martians were caught by the vibratory
+streams and actually cut in two.</p>
+
+<p>Long gaps were opened in the wall of the room behind them, where the
+destroying currents had passed, for with wrathful fierceness, we had ran
+the vibrations through half a gamut on the index.</p>
+
+<p>The victory was ours. There were no other enemies, that we could see, in
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>Yet at any moment others might make their appearance, and what more we
+did must be done quickly.</p>
+
+<p>The girl evidently was as much amazed as the Martians had been by the
+effects which we had produced. Still she was not terrified, and
+continued to cling to us and glance beseechingly into our faces,
+expressing in her every look and gesture the fact that she knew we were
+of her own race.</p>
+
+<p>But clearly she could not speak our tongue, for the words she uttered
+were unintelligible.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Smith, whose long experience in Indian warfare had made him
+intensely practical, did not lose his military instincts, even in the
+midst of events so strange.</p>
+
+<p>"It occurs to me," he said, "that we have got a chance at the enemies'
+supplies. Suppose we begin foraging right here. Let's see if this girl
+can't show us the commissary department."</p>
+
+<p>He immediately began to make signs to the girl to indicate that he was
+hungry.</p>
+
+<p>A look of comprehension flitted over her features, and, seizing our
+hands, she led us into an adjoining apartment, and pointed to a number
+of metallic boxes.</p>
+
+<p>One of these she opened, taking out of it a kind of cake, which she
+placed between her teeth, breaking off a very small portion and then
+handing it to us, motioning that we should eat, but at the same time
+showing us that we ought to take only a small quantity.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God! It's compressed food," said Colonel Smith. "I thought these
+Martians with their wonderful civilization would be up to that. And it's
+mighty lucky for us, because, without overburdening ourselves, if we can
+find one or two more caches like this we shall be able to reprovision
+the entire fleet. But we must get reinforcements before we can take
+possession of the fodder."</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly we hurried out into the night, passed into the roadway, and,
+taking the girl with us, ran as rapidly as possible to the foot of the
+tree where we had made our descent. Then we signalled to the electric
+ship to drop down to the level of the ground.</p>
+
+<p>This was quickly done, the girl was taken aboard, and a dozen men, under
+our guidance, hastened back to the house, where we loaded ourselves with
+the compressed provisions and conveyed them to the ship.</p>
+
+<p>On this second trip to the mysterious house we had discovered another
+apartment containing a very large number of the metallic boxes, filled
+with compressed food.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, it is a storehouse," said Colonel Smith. "We must get more
+force and carry it all off. Gracious, but this is a lucky night. We can
+reprovision the whole fleet from this room."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it singular," I said, "that with the exception of the girl
+whom we have rescued no women were seen in the house. Evidently the
+lights over yonder indicate the location of a considerable town, and it
+is quite probable that this building, without windows, and so strongly
+constructed, is the common storehouse, where the provisions for the town
+are kept. The fellows we killed must have been the watchmen in charge of
+the storehouse, and they were treating themselves to a little music from
+the slave girl when we happened to come upon them."</p>
+
+<p>With the utmost haste several of the other electrical ships, waiting
+above the cloud curtain, were summoned to descend, and, with more than a
+hundred men, we returned to the building, and this time almost entirely
+exhausted its stores, each man carrying as much as he could stagger
+under.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately our proceedings had been conducted without much noise, and
+the storehouse being situated at a considerable distance from other
+buildings, none of the Martians, except those who would never tell the
+story, had known of our arrival or of our doings on the planet.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, we'll return and surprise Edison with the news," said Colonel
+Smith.</p>
+
+<p>Our ship was the last to pass up through the clouds, and it was a
+strange sight to watch the others as one after another they rose toward
+the great dome, entered it, though from below it resembled a solid vault
+of grayish-pink marble, and disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>We quickly followed them, and having penetrated the enormous curtain,
+were considerably surprised on emerging at the other side to find that
+the sun was shining brilliantly upon us. It will be remembered that it
+was night on this side of Mars when we went down, but our adventure had
+occupied several hours, and now Mars had so turned upon its axis that
+the portion of its surface over which we were had come around into the
+sunlight.</p>
+
+<p>We knew that the squadron which we had left besieging the Lake of the
+Sun must also have been carried around in a similar manner, passing into
+the night while the side of the planet where we were was emerging into
+day.</p>
+
+<p>Our shortest way back would be by traveling westward, because then we
+should be moving in a direction opposite to that in which the planet
+rotated, and the main squadron, sharing that rotation, would be
+continually moving in our direction.</p>
+
+<p>But to travel westward was to penetrate once more into the night side of
+the planet.</p>
+
+<p>The prows, if I may so call them, of our ships were accordingly turned
+in the direction of the vast shadow which Mars was invisibly projecting
+into space behind it, and on entering that shadow the sun disappeared
+from our eyes, and once more the huge hidden globe beneath us became a
+black chasm among the stars.</p>
+
+<p>Now that we were in the neighborhood of a globe capable of imparting
+considerable weight to all things under the influence of its attraction
+that peculiar condition which I have before described as existing in the
+midst of space, where there was neither up nor down for us, had ceased.
+Here where we had weight "up" and "down" had resumed their old meanings.
+"Down" was toward the center of Mars, and "up" was away from that
+center.</p>
+
+<p>Standing on the deck, and looking overhead as we swiftly ploughed our
+smooth way at a great height through the now imperceptible atmosphere of
+the planet, I saw the two moons of Mars meeting in the sky exactly above
+us.</p>
+
+<p>Before our arrival at Mars, there had been considerable discussion among
+the learned men as to the advisability of touching at one of their
+moons, and when the discovery was made that our provisions were nearly
+exhausted, it had been suggested that the Martian satellites might
+furnish us with an additional supply.</p>
+
+<p>But it had appeared a sufficient reply to this suggestion that the moons
+of Mars are both insignificant bodies, not much larger than the asteroid
+we had fallen in with, and that there could not possibly be any form of
+vegetation or other edible products upon them.</p>
+
+<p>This view having prevailed, we had ceased to take an interest in the
+satellites, further than to regard them as objects of great curiosity on
+account of their motions.</p>
+
+<p>The nearer of these moons, Phobos, is only 3,700 miles from the surface
+of Mars, and we watched it traveling around the planet three times in
+the course of every day. The more distant one, Deimos, 12,500 miles
+away, required considerably more than one day to make its circuit.</p>
+
+<p>It now happened that the two had come into conjunction, as I have said,
+just over our heads, and, throwing myself down on my back on the deck of
+the electrical ship, for a long time I watched the race between the two
+satellites, until Phobos, rapidly gaining upon the other, had left its
+rival far behind.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Colonel Smith, who took very little interest in these
+astronomical curiosities, touched me, and pointing ahead, said:</p>
+
+<p>"There they are."</p>
+
+<p>I looked, and sure enough there were the signal lights of the principal
+squadron, and as we gazed we occasionally saw, darting up from the vast
+cloud mass beneath, an electric bayonet, fiercely thrust into the sky,
+which showed that the siege was still actively going on, and that the
+Martians were jabbing away at their invisible enemies outside the
+curtain.</p>
+
+<p>In a short time the two fleets had joined, and Colonel Smith and I
+immediately transferred ourselves to the flagship.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what have you done?" asked Mr. Edison, while others crowded
+around with eager attention.</p>
+
+<p>"If we have not captured their provision train," said Colonel Smith, "we
+have done something just about as good. We have foraged on the country,
+and have collected a supply that I reckon will last this fleet for at
+least a month."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that? What's that?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's just what I say," and Colonel Smith brought out of his pocket one
+of the square cakes of compressed food. "Set your teeth in that, and see
+what you think of it, but don't take too much, for its powerful strong."</p>
+
+<p>"I say," he continued, "we have got enough of that stuff to last us all
+for a month, but we've done more than that; we have got a surprise for
+you that will make you open your eyes. Just wait a minute."</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Smith made a signal to the electrical ship which we had just
+quitted to draw near. It came alongside, so that one could step from its
+deck onto the flagship. Colonel Smith disappeared for a minute in the
+interior of his ship, then re-emerged, leading the girl whom we had
+found upon the planet.</p>
+
+<p>"Take her inside, quick," he said, "for she is not used to this thin
+air."</p>
+
+<p>In fact, we were at so great an elevation that the rarity of the
+atmosphere now compelled us all to wear our air-tight suits, and the
+girl, not being thus attired, would have fallen unconscious on the deck
+if we had not instantly removed her to the interior of the car.</p>
+
+<p>There she quickly recovered from the effects of the deprivation of air
+and looked about her, pale, astonished, but yet apparently without fear.</p>
+
+<p>Every motion of this girl convinced me that she not only recognized us
+as members of her own race, but that she felt that her only hope lay in
+our aid. Therefore, strange as we were to her in many respects,
+nevertheless she did not think that she was in danger while among us.</p>
+
+<p>The circumstances under which we had found her were quickly explained.
+Her beauty, her strange fate and the impenetrable mystery which
+surrounded her excited universal admiration and wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"How did she get on Mars?" was the question that everybody asked, and
+that nobody could answer.</p>
+
+<p>But while all were crowding around and overwhelming the poor girl with
+their staring, suddenly she burst into tears, and then, with arms
+outstretched in the same appealing manner which had so stirred our
+sympathies when we first saw her in the house of the Martians, she broke
+forth in a wild recitation, which was half a song and half a wail.</p>
+
+<p>As she went on I noticed that a learned professor of languages from the
+University of Heidelberg was listening to her with intense attention.
+Several times he appeared to be on the point of breaking in with an
+exclamation. I could plainly see that he was becoming more and more
+excited as the words poured from the girl's lips. Occasionally he nodded
+and muttered, smiling to himself.</p>
+
+<p>Her song finished, the girl sank half-exhausted upon the floor. She was
+lifted and placed in a reclining position at the side of the car.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Heidelberg professor stepped to the center of the car, in the
+sight of all, and in a most impressive manner said:</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, our sister.</p>
+
+<p>"I have her tongue recognized! The language that she speaks, the roots
+of the great Indo-European, or Aryan stock, contains.</p>
+
+<p>"This girl, gentlemen, to the oldest family of the human race belongs.
+Her language every tongue that now upon the earth is spoken antedates.
+Convinced am I that it that great original speech is from which have all
+the languages of the civilized world sprung.</p>
+
+<p>"How she here came, so many millions of miles from the earth, a great
+mystery is. But it shall be penetrated, and it is from her own lips that
+we shall the truth learn, because not difficult to us shall it be the
+language that she speaks to acquire since to our own it is akin."</p>
+
+<p>This announcement of the Heidelberg professor stirred us all most
+profoundly. It not only deepened our interest in the beautiful girl whom
+we had rescued, but, in a dim way, it gave us reason to hope that we
+should yet discover some means of mastering the Martians by dealing them
+a blow from within.</p>
+
+<p>It had been expected, the reader will remember, that the Martian whom we
+had made prisoner on the asteroid, might be of use to us in a similar
+way, and for that reason great efforts had been made to acquire his
+language, and considerable progress had been effected in that direction.</p>
+
+<p>But from the moment of our arrival at Mars itself, and especially after
+the battles began, the prisoner had resumed his savage and
+uncommunicative disposition, and had seemed continually to be expecting
+that we would fall victims to the prowess of his fellow beings, and that
+he would be released. How an outlaw, such as he evidently was, who had
+been caught in the act of robbing the Martian gold mines, could expect
+to escape punishment on returning to his native planet it was difficult
+to see. Nevertheless, so strong are the ties of race we could plainly
+perceive that all his sympathies were for his own people.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, in consequence of his surly manner, and his attempts to escape,
+he had been more strictly bound than before and to get him out of the
+way had been removed from the flagship, which was already overcrowded,
+and placed in one of the other electric ships, and this ship&mdash;as it
+happened&mdash;was one of those which were lost in the great battle beneath
+the clouds. So after all, the Martian had perished, by a vengeful stroke
+launched from his native globe.</p>
+
+<p>But Providence had placed in our hands a far better interpreter than he
+could ever have been. This girl of our own race would need no urging, or
+coercion, on our part in order to induce her to reveal any secrets of
+the Martians that might be useful in our further proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>But one thing was first necessary to be done.</p>
+
+<p>We must learn to talk with her.</p>
+
+<p>But for the discovery of the store of provisions it would have been
+impossible for us to spare the time needed to acquire the language of
+the girl, but now that we had been saved from the danger of starvation,
+we could prolong the siege for several weeks, employing the intervening
+time to the best advantage.</p>
+
+<p>The terrible disaster which we had suffered in the great battle above
+the Lake of the Sun, wherein we had lost nearly a third of our entire
+force, had been quite sufficient to convince us that our only hope of
+victory lay in dealing the Martians some paralyzing stroke that at one
+blow would deprive them of the power of resistance. A victory that cost
+us the loss of a single ship would be too dearly purchased now.</p>
+
+<p>How to deal that blow, and first of all, how to discover the means of
+dealing it, were at present the uppermost problems in our minds.</p>
+
+<p>The only hope for us lay in the girl.</p>
+
+<p>If, as there was every reason to believe, she was familiar with the ways
+and secrets of the Martians, then she might be able to direct our
+efforts in such a manner as to render them effective.</p>
+
+<p>"We can spare two weeks for this," said Mr. Edison. "Can you fellows of
+many tongues learn to talk with the girl in that time?"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll try it," said several.</p>
+
+<p>"It shall we do," cried the Heidelberg professor more confidently.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there is no use of staying here," continued the commander. "If we
+withdraw the Martians will think that we have either given up the
+earth's moon, always keep the same face toward their master. By blanket
+and let us see their face once more. That will give us a better
+opportunity to strike effectively when we are again ready."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not rendezvous at one of the moons?" said an astronomer. "Neither
+of the two moons is of much consequence, as far as size goes, but still
+it would serve as sort of an anchorage ground, and while there, if we
+were careful to keep on the side away from Mars, we should escape
+detection."</p>
+
+<p>This suggestion was immediately accepted, and the squadron having been
+signalled to assemble quickly bore off in the direction of the more
+distant moon of Mars, Deimos. We knew that it was slightly smaller than
+Phobos, but its greater distance gave promise that it would better serve
+our purpose of temporary concealment. The moons of Mars, like the
+earth's moon, always kept the same face toward their master. By hiding
+behind Deimos we should escape the prying eyes of the Martians, even
+when they employed telescopes, and thus be able to remain comparatively
+close at hand, ready to pounce down upon them again, after we had
+obtained, as we now had good hope of doing, information that would make
+us masters of the situation.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTEEN" id="CHAPTER_THIRTEEN"></a>CHAPTER THIRTEEN</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Deimos proved to be, as we had expected, about six miles in diameter.
+Its mean density is not very great so that the acceleration of gravity
+did not exceed one-two-thousandths of the earth's. Consequently the
+weight of a man turning the scales at 150 pounds at home was here only
+about one ounce.</p>
+
+<p>The result was that we could move about with greater ease than on the
+golden asteroid, and some of the scientific men eagerly resumed their
+interrupted experiments.</p>
+
+<p>But the attraction of this little satellite was so slight that we had to
+be very careful not to move too swiftly in going about lest we should
+involuntarily leave the ground and sail out into space, as, it will be
+remembered, happened to the fugitives from the fight on the asteroid.</p>
+
+<p>Not only would such an adventure have been an uncomfortable experience,
+but it might have endangered the success of our scheme. Our present
+distance from the surface of Mars did not exceed 12,500 miles, and we
+had reasons to believe the Martians possessed telescopes powerful enough
+to enable them not merely to see the electrical ships at such a
+distance, but to also catch sight of us individually. Although the cloud
+curtain still rested on the planet it was probable that the Martians
+would send some of their airships up to its surface in order to
+determine what our fate had been. From that point of vantage with their
+exceedingly powerful glasses, we feared that they might be able to
+detect anything unusual upon or in the neighborhood of Deimos.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly strict orders were given, not only that the ships should be
+moored on that side of the satellite which is perpetually turned away
+from Mars, but that, without orders, no one should venture around on the
+other side of the little globe or even on the edge of it, where he might
+be seen in profile against the sky.</p>
+
+<p>Still, of course, it was essential that we, on our part, should keep a
+close watch, and so a number of sentinels were selected, whose duty it
+was to place themselves at the edge of Deimos, where they could peep
+over the horizon, so to speak, and catch sight of the globe of our
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p>The distance of Mars from us was only about three times its own
+diameter, consequently it shut off a large part of the sky, as viewed
+from our position.</p>
+
+<p>But in order to see its whole surface it was necessary to go a little
+beyond the edge of the satellite, on that side which faced Mars. At the
+suggestion of Colonel Smith, who had so frequently stalked Indians that
+devices of this kind readily occurred to his mind, the sentinels all
+wore garments corresponding in color to that of the soil of the
+asteroid, which was of a dark, reddish brown hue. This would tend to
+conceal them from the prying eyes of the Martians.</p>
+
+<p>The commander himself frequently went around the edge of the planet in
+order to take a look at Mars, and I often accompanied him.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget one occasion, when, lying flat on the ground, and
+cautiously worming our way around on the side toward Mars, we had just
+begun to observe it with our telescopes, when I perceived, against the
+vast curtain of smoke, a small, glinting object, which I instantly
+suspected to be an airship.</p>
+
+<p>I called Mr. Edison's attention to it, and we both agreed that it was,
+undoubtedly, one of the Martian's aerial vessels, probably on the
+lookout for us.</p>
+
+<p>A short time afterward a large number of airships made their appearance
+at the upper surface of the clouds, moving to and fro, and although,
+with our glasses, we could only make out the general form of the ships,
+without being able to discern the Martians upon them, yet we had not the
+least doubt but they were sweeping the sky in every direction in order
+to determine whether we had been completely destroyed or had retreated
+to a distance from the planet.</p>
+
+<p>Even when that side of Mars on which we were looking had passed into
+night, we could still see the guardships circling above the clouds,
+their presence being betrayed by the faint twinkling of the electric
+lights that they bore.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, after about a week had passed, the Martians evidently made up
+their minds that they had annihilated us, and that there was no longer
+danger to be feared. Convincing evidence that they believed we should
+not be heard from again was furnished when the withdrawal of the great
+curtain of cloud began.</p>
+
+<p>This phenomenon first manifested itself by a gradual thinning of the
+vaporous shield, until, at length, we began to perceive the red surface
+of the planet dimly shining through it. Thinner and rarer it became,
+and, after the lapse of about eighteen hours, it had completely
+disappeared, and the huge globe shone out again, reflecting the light of
+the sun from its continents and oceans with a brightness that, in
+contrast with the all-enveloping night to which we had so long been
+subjected, seemed unbearable to our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, so brilliant was the illumination which fell upon the surface of
+Deimos that the number of persons who had been permitted to pass around
+on the exposed side of the satellite was carefully restricted. In the
+blaze of light which had been suddenly poured upon us we felt somewhat
+like malefactors unexpectedly enveloped in the illumination of a
+policeman's dark lantern.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the object which we had in view in retreating to the
+satellite was not lost sight of, and the services of the chief linguists
+of the expedition were again called into use for the purpose of
+acquiring a new language. The experiment was conducted in the flagship.
+The fact that this time it was not a monster belonging to an utterly
+alien race upon whom we were to experiment, but a beautiful daughter of
+our common Mother Eve, added zest and interest as well as the most
+confident hopes of success to the efforts of those who were striving to
+understand the accents of her tongue.</p>
+
+<p>Still the difficulty was very great, notwithstanding the conviction of
+the professors that her language would turn out to be a form of the
+great Indo-European speech from which the many tongues of civilized men
+upon the earth had been derived.</p>
+
+<p>The learned men, to tell the truth, gave the poor girl no rest. For
+hours at a time they would ply her with interrogations by voice and by
+gesture, until, at length, wearied beyond endurance, she would fall
+asleep before their faces.</p>
+
+<p>Then she would be left undisturbed for a little while, but the moment
+her eyes opened again the merciless professors flocked about her once
+more, and resumed the tedious iteration of their experiments.</p>
+
+<p>Our Heidelberg professor was the chief inquisitor, and he revealed
+himself to us in a new and entirely unexpected light. No one could have
+anticipated the depth and variety of his resources. He placed himself in
+front of the girl and gestured and gesticulated, bowed, nodded, shrugged
+his shoulders, screwed his face into an infinite variety of expressions,
+smiled, laughed, scowled and accompanied all these dumb shows with
+posturings, exclamations, queries, only half expressed in words and
+cadences which, by some ingenious manipulation of the tones of the
+voice, he managed to make expressive of his desires.</p>
+
+<p>He was a universal actor&mdash;comedian, tragedian, buffoon&mdash;all in one.
+There was no shade of human emotions to which he did not seem capable of
+giving expression.</p>
+
+<p>His every attitude was a symbol, and all his features became in quick
+succession types of thought and exponents of hidden feelings, while his
+inquisitive nose stood forth in the midst of their ceaseless play like a
+perpetual interrogation point that would have electrified the Sphinx
+into life, and set its stone lips gabbling answers and explanations.</p>
+
+<p>The girl looked on, partly astonished, partly amused, and partly
+comprehending. Sometimes she smiled, and then the beauty of her face
+became most captivating. Occasionally she burst into a cherry laugh when
+the professor was executing some of his extraordinary gyrations before
+her.</p>
+
+<p>It was a marvelous exhibition of what the human intellect, when all its
+powers are concentrated upon a single object, is capable of achieving.
+It seemed to me, as I looked at the performance, that if all the races
+of men, who had been stricken asunder at the foot of the Tower of Babel
+by the miracle which made the tongues of each to speak a language
+unknown to the others, could be brought together again at the foot of
+the same tower, with all the advantages which thousands of years of
+education had in the meantime imparted to them, they would be able,
+without any miracle, to make themselves mutually understood.</p>
+
+<p>And it was evident that an understanding was actually growing between
+the girl and the professor. Their minds were plainly meeting, and when
+both had become focused upon the same point, it was perfectly certain
+that the object of the experiment would be attained.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever the professor got from the girl an intelligent reply to his
+pantomimic inquiries, or whenever he believed that he got such a reply,
+it was immediately jotted down in the ever open note book which he
+carried in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>And then he would turn to us standing by, and with one hand on his
+heart, and the other sweeping grandly through the air, would make a
+profound bow and say:</p>
+
+<p>"The young lady and I great progress make already. I have her words
+comprehended. We shall wondrous mysteries solve. Jawohl! Wunderlich!
+Make yourselves gentlemen easy. Of the human race the ancestral stem
+have I here discovered."</p>
+
+<p>Once I glanced over a page of his notebook and there I read this:</p>
+
+<p>"Mars&mdash;Zahmor</p>
+
+<p>"Copper&mdash;Hayez</p>
+
+<p>"Sword&mdash;Anz</p>
+
+<p>"I jump&mdash;Altesna</p>
+
+<p>"I slay&mdash;Amoutha</p>
+
+<p>"I cut off a head&mdash;Ksutaskofa</p>
+
+<p>"I sleep&mdash;Zlcha</p>
+
+<p>"I love&mdash;Levza"</p>
+
+<p>When I saw this last entry I looked suspiciously at the professor.</p>
+
+<p>Was he trying to make love without our knowing it to the beautiful
+captive from Mars?</p>
+
+<p>If so, I felt certain that he would get himself into difficulty. She had
+made a deep impression upon every man in the flagship, and I knew that
+there was more than one of the younger men who would promptly have
+called him to account if they had suspected him of trying to learn from
+those beautiful lips the words, "I love."</p>
+
+<p>I pictured to myself the state of mind of Colonel Alonzo Jefferson Smith
+if, in my place, he had glanced over the notebook and read what I had
+read.</p>
+
+<p>And then I thought of another handsome young fellow in the
+flagship&mdash;Sydney Phillips&mdash;who, if mere actions and looks could make him
+so, had become exceedingly devoted to this long lost and happily
+recovered daughter of Eve.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, I had already questioned within my own mind whether the peace
+would be strictly kept between Colonel Smith and Mr. Phillips, for the
+former had, to my knowledge, noticed the young fellow's adoring glances,
+and had begun to regard him out of the corners of his eyes as if he
+considered him no better than an Apache.</p>
+
+<p>"But what," I asked myself, "would be the vengeance that Colonel Smith
+would take upon this skinny professor from Heidelberg if he thought that
+he, taking advantage of his linguistic powers, had stepped in between
+him and the damsel whom he had rescued?"</p>
+
+<p>However, when I took a second look at the professor, I became convinced
+that he was innocent of any such amorous intentions, and that he had
+learned, or believed he had learned, the word for "love" simply in
+pursuances of the method by which he meant to acquire the language of
+the girl.</p>
+
+<p>There was one thing which gave some of us considerable misgivings, and
+that was the question whether, after all, the language the professor was
+acquiring was really the girl's own tongue or one that she had learned
+from the Martians.</p>
+
+<p>But the professor bade us rest easy on that point. He assured us, in the
+first place, that this girl could not be the only human being living
+upon Mars, but that she must have friends and relatives there. That
+being so, they unquestionably had a language of their own, which they
+spoke when they were among themselves. Here finding herself among beings
+belonging to her own race, she would naturally speak her own tongue and
+not that which she had acquired from the Martians.</p>
+
+<p>"Moreover, gentlemen," he added, "I have in her speech many roots of the
+great Aryan tongue already recognized."</p>
+
+<p>We were greatly relieved by this explanation, which seemed to all of us
+perfectly satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, really, there was no reason why one language should be any better
+than the other for our present purpose. In fact, it might be more useful
+to us to know the language of the Martians themselves. Still, we all
+felt that we should prefer to know her language rather than that of the
+monsters among whom she had lived.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Smith expressed what was in all our minds when, after listening
+to the reasoning of the Professor, he blurted out:</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God, she doesn't speak any of their blamed lingo! By Jove, it
+would soil her pretty lips."</p>
+
+<p>"But also that she speaks, too," said the man from Heidelberg, turning
+to Colonel Smith with a grin. "We shall both of them eventually learn."</p>
+
+<p>Three entire weeks were passed in this manner. After the first week the
+girl herself materially assisted the linguists in their efforts to
+ac-quire her speech.</p>
+
+<p>At length the task was so far advanced that we could, in a certain
+sense, regard it as practically completed. The Heidelberg professor
+declared that he had mastered the tongue of the ancient Aryans. His
+delight was unbounded. With prodigious industry he set to work, scarcely
+stopping to eat or sleep, to form a grammar of the language.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall see," he said, "it will the speculations of my countrymen
+vindicate."</p>
+
+<p>No doubt the Professor had an exaggerated opinion of the extent of his
+acquirements, but the fact remained that enough had been learned of the
+girl's language to enable him and several others to converse with her
+quite as readily as a person of good capacity who has studied under the
+instructions of a native teacher during a period of six months can
+converse in a foreign tongue.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately almost every man in the squadron set vigorously at work to
+learn the language of this fair creature for himself. Colonel Smith and
+Sydney Phillips were neck and neck in the linguistic race.</p>
+
+<p>One of the first bits of information which the Professor had given out
+was the name of the girl.</p>
+
+<p>It was Aina (pronounced Ah-ee-na).</p>
+
+<p>This news was flashed throughout the squadron, and the name of our
+beautiful captive was on the lips of all.</p>
+
+<p>After that came her story. It was a marvelous narrative. Translated into
+our tongue it ran as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"The traditions of my fathers, handed down for generations so many that
+no one can number them, declare that the planet of Mars was not the
+place of our origin.</p>
+
+<p>"Ages and ages ago our forefathers dwelt on another and distant world
+that was nearer the sun than this one is, and enjoyed brighter daylight
+than we have here.</p>
+
+<p>"They dwelt&mdash;as I have often heard the story from my father, who had
+learned it by heart from his father, and he from his&mdash;in a beautiful
+valley that was surrounded by enormous mountains towering into the
+clouds and white about their tops with snow that never melted. In the
+valley were lakes, around which clustered the dwellings of our race.</p>
+
+<p>"It was, the traditions say, a land wonderful for its fertility, filled
+with all things that the heart could desire, splendid with flowers and
+rich with luscious fruits.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a land of music, and the people who dwelt in it were very
+happy."</p>
+
+<p>While the girl was telling this part of her story the Heidelberg
+professor became visibly more and more excited. Presently he could keep
+quiet no longer, and suddenly exclaimed, turning to us who were
+listening, as the words of the girl were interpreted for us by one of
+the other linguists:</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, it is the Vale of Cashmere! Has not my great countryman,
+Adelung, so declared? Has he not said that the Valley of Cashmere was
+the cradle of the human race already?"</p>
+
+<p>"From the Valley of Cashmere to the planet Mars&mdash;what a romance!"
+exclaimed one of the bystanders.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Smith appeared to be particularly moved, and I heard him humming
+under his breath, greatly to my astonishment, for this rough soldier was
+not much given to poetry or music:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Its temples, its grottoes, its fountains as clear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">As the love-lighted eyes that hang 'oer the wave."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Sydney Phillips, standing by, and also catching the murmur of
+Colonel Smith's words, showed in his handsome countenance some
+indications of distress, as if he wished he had thought of those lines
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>The girl resumed her narrative:</p>
+
+<p>"Suddenly there dropped down out of the sky strange gigantic enemies,
+armed with mysterious weapons, and began to slay and burn and make
+desolate. Our forefathers could not withstand them. They seemed like
+demons, who had been sent from the abodes of evil to destroy our race.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of the wise men said that this thing had come upon our people
+because they had been very wicked, and the Gods in Heaven were angry.
+Some said they came from the moon, and some from the far-away stars. But
+of these things my forefathers knew nothing for a certainty.</p>
+
+<p>"The destroyers showed no mercy to the inhabitants of the beautiful
+valley. Not content with making it a desert, they swept over other parts
+of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>"The tradition says that they carried off from the valley, which was our
+native land, a large number of our people, taking them first into a
+strange country, where there were oceans of sand, but where a great
+river, flowing through the midst of the sands, created a narrow land of
+fertility. Here, after having slain and driven out the native
+inhabitants, they remained for many years, keeping our people, whom they
+had carried into captivity, as slaves.</p>
+
+<p>"And in this Land of Sand, it is said, they did many wonderful works.</p>
+
+<p>"They had been astonished at the sight of the great mountains which
+surrounded our valley, for on Mars there are no mountains, and after
+they came into the Land of Sand they built there, with huge blocks of
+stone, mountains in imitation of what they had seen, and used them for
+purposes my people did not understand.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, too, it is said they left there at the foot of these mountains
+that they had made a gigantic image of the great chief who led them in
+their conquest of our world."</p>
+
+<p>At this point in the story the Heidelberg professor again broke in,
+fairly trembling with excitement:</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen, gentlemen," he cried, "is it that you do not understand?
+This Land of Sand and of a wonderful fertilizing river&mdash;what can it be?
+Gentleman, it is Egypt! These mountains of rock that the Martians have
+erected, what are they? Gentlemen, they are the great mystery of the
+land of the Nile, the Pyramids. The gigantic statue of their leader that
+they at the foot of their artificial mountains have set up&mdash;gentlemen,
+what is that? It is the Sphinx!"</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="il161" id="il161"></a>
+<img src="images/il161.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3><i>"Gentlemen," exclaimed the Professor, "these mountains of
+rock that the Martians built are the Pyramids of Egypt. The gigantic
+statue of their leader is THE GREAT SPHINX!"</i></h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<p>The professor's agitation was so great that he could not go on further.
+And indeed there was not one of us who did not fully share his
+excitement. To think that we should have come to the planet Mars to
+solve one of the standing mysteries of the earth, which had puzzled
+mankind and defied all their efforts at solution for so many centuries!
+Here, then, was the explanation of how those gigantic blocks that
+constitute the great Pyramid of Cheops had been swung to their lofty
+elevation. It was not the work of puny man, as many an engineer had
+declared that it could not be, but the work of these giants of Mars.</p>
+
+<p>At length, our traditions say, a great pestilence broke out in the Land
+of Sand, and a partial vengeance was granted to us in the destruction of
+the larger number of our enemies. At last the giants who remained,
+fleeing before this scourge of the gods, used the mysterious means at
+their command, and, carrying our ancestors with them, returned to their
+own world, in which we have ever since lived.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there are more of your people in Mars?" said one of the
+professors.</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, no," replied Aina, her eyes filling with tears, "I alone am
+left."</p>
+
+<p>For a few minutes she was unable to speak. Then she continued:</p>
+
+<p>"What fury possessed them I do not know, but not long ago an expedition
+departed from the planet, the purpose of which, as it was noised about
+over Mars, was the conquest of a distant world. After a time a few
+survivors of that expedition returned. The story they told caused great
+excitement among our masters. They had been successful in their battles
+with the inhabitants of the world they had invaded, but as in the days
+of our forefathers, in the Land of Sand, a pestilence smote them, and
+but few survivors escaped.</p>
+
+<p>"Not long after that, you, with your mysterious ships, appeared in the
+sky of Mars. Our masters studied you with their telescopes, and those
+who had returned from the unfortunate expedition declared that you were
+inhabitants of the world which they had invaded, come, doubtless, to
+take vengeance upon them.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of my people who were permitted to look through the telescopes of
+the Martians, saw you also, and recognized you as members of their own
+race. There were several thousand of us all together, and we were kept
+by the Martians to serve them as slaves, and particularly to delight
+their ears with music, for our people have always been especially
+skillful in the playing of musical instruments, and in songs, and while
+the Martians have but little musical skill themselves, they are
+exceedingly fond of these things.</p>
+
+<p>"Although Mars had completed not less than five thousand circuits about
+the sun since our ancestors were brought as prisoners to its surface,
+yet the memory of our distant home had never perished from the hearts of
+our race, and when we recognized you, as we believed, our own brothers,
+come to rescue us from long imprisonment, there was great rejoicing. The
+news spread from mouth to mouth, wherever we were in houses and families
+of our masters. We seemed to be powerless to aid you or to communicate
+with you in any manner. Yet our hearts went out to you, as in your ships
+you hung above the planet, and preparations were secretly made by all
+the members of our race for your reception when, as we believed, would
+occur, you should effect a landing upon the planet and destroy our
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p>"But in some manner the fact that we had recognized you, and were
+preparing to welcome you, came to the ears of the Martians."</p>
+
+<p>At this point the girl suddenly covered her eyes with her hands,
+shuddering and falling back in her seat.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you do not know them as I do!" at length she exclaimed. "The
+monsters! Their vengeance was too terrible! Instantly the order went
+forth that we should all be butchered, and that awful command was
+executed!"</p>
+
+<p>"How, then, did you escape?" asked the Heidelberg professor.</p>
+
+<p>Aina seemed unable to speak for a while. Finally mastering her emotion,
+she replied:</p>
+
+<p>"One of the chief officers of the Martians wished me to remain alive.
+He, with his aides, carried me to one of the military depots of
+supplies, where I was found and rescued," and as she said this she
+turned toward Colonel Smith with a smile that reflected on his ruddy
+face and made it glow like a Chinese lantern.</p>
+
+<p>"By God!" muttered Colonel Smith, "that was the fellow we blew into
+nothing! Blast him, he got off too easy!"</p>
+
+<p>The remainder of Aina's story may be briefly told.</p>
+
+<p>When Colonel Smith and I entered the mysterious building which, as it
+now proved, was not a storehouse belonging to a village, as we had
+supposed, but one of the military depots of the Martians, the girl, on
+catching sight of us, immediately recognized us as belonging to the
+strange squadron in the sky. As such she felt that we must be her
+friends, and saw in us her only possible hope of escape. For that reason
+she had instantly thrown herself under our protection. This accounted
+for the singular confidence which she had manifested in us from the
+beginning.</p>
+
+<p>Her wonderful story had so captivated our imaginations that for a long
+time after it was finished we could not recover from the spell. It was
+told over and over again, from mouth to mouth, and repeated from ship to
+ship, everywhere exciting the utmost astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>Destiny seemed to have sent us on this expedition into space for the
+purpose of clearing off mysteries that had long puzzled the minds of
+men. When on the moon we had unexpectedly to ourselves settled the
+question that had been debated from the beginning of astronomical
+history of the former habitability of that globe.</p>
+
+<p>Now, on Mars, we had put to rest no less mysterious questions relating
+to the past history of our own planet. Adelung, as the Heidelberg
+professor asserted, had named the Vale of Cashmere, as the probable site
+of the Garden of Eden, and the place of origin of the human race, but
+later investigators had taken issue with this opinion and the question
+where the Aryans originated on the earth had long been one of the most
+puzzling that science presented.</p>
+
+<p>This question seemed now to have been settled.</p>
+
+<p>Aina had said that Mars had completed 5,000 circuits about the sun since
+her people were brought to it as captives. One circuit of Mars occupies
+687 days. More than 9000 years had therefore elapsed since the first
+invasion of the earth by the Martians.</p>
+
+<p>Another great mystery&mdash;that of the origin of those gigantic and
+inexplicable monuments, the great pyramids and the Sphinx, on the banks
+of the Nile, had also apparently been solved by us, although these
+Egyptian wonders had been the furthest things from our thoughts when we
+set out for the planet Mars.</p>
+
+<p>We had traveled more than thirty millions of miles in order to get
+answers to questions which could not be solved at home.</p>
+
+<p>But from these speculations and retrospects we were recalled by the
+commander of the expedition.</p>
+
+<p>"This is all very interesting and very romantic, gentlemen," he said,
+"but now let us get at the practical side of it. We have learned Aina's
+language and heard her story. Let us next ascertain whether she can not
+place in our hands some key which will place Mars at our mercy. Remember
+what we came here for, and remember that the earth expects every man of
+us to do his duty."</p>
+
+<p>This Nelson-like summons again changed the current of our thoughts, and
+we instantly set to work to learn from Aina if Mars, like Achilles, had
+not some vulnerable point where a blow would be mortal.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FOURTEEN" id="CHAPTER_FOURTEEN"></a>CHAPTER FOURTEEN</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE FLOOD GATES OF MARS</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>It was a curious scene when the momentous interview which was to
+determine our fate and that of Mars began. Aina had been warned of what
+was coming. We in the flagship had all learned to speak her language
+with more or less ease, but it was deemed best that the Heidelberg
+professor, assisted by one of his colleagues, should act as interpreter.</p>
+
+<p>The girl, flushed with excitement of the novel situation, fully
+appreciating the importance of what was about to occur, and looking more
+charming than before, stood at one side of the principal apartment.
+Directly facing her were the interpreters, and the rest of us, all with
+ears intent and eyes focused upon Aina, stood in a double row behind
+them. As heretofore, I am setting down her words translated into our own
+tongue, having taken only so much liberty as to connect the sentences
+into a stricter sequence than they had when falling from her lips in
+reply to the questions which were showered upon her.</p>
+
+<p>"You will never be victorious," she said, "if you attack them openly as
+you have been doing. They are too strong and too numerous. They are well
+prepared for such attacks, because they have had to resist them before.</p>
+
+<p>"They have waged war with the inhabitants of the asteroid Ceres, whose
+people are giants greater than themselves. Their enemies from Ceres have
+attacked them here. Hence these fortifications, with weapons pointing
+skyward, and the great air fleets which you have encountered."</p>
+
+<p>"But there must be some point," said Mr. Edison, "where we can."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," interrupted the girl quickly, "there is one blow you can
+deal them which they could not withstand."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?" eagerly inquired the commander.</p>
+
+<p>"You can drown them out."</p>
+
+<p>"How? With the canals?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I will explain to you. I have already told you, and, in fact, you
+must have seen for yourselves, that there are almost no mountains on
+Mars. A very learned man of my race used to say that the reason was
+because Mars is so very old a world that the mountains it once had have
+been almost completely leveled, and the entire surface of the planet had
+become a great plain. There are depressions, however, most of which are
+occupied by the seas. The greater part of the land lies below the level
+of the ocean. In order at the same time to irrigate the soil and make it
+fruitful, and to protect themselves from overflows by the ocean breaking
+in upon them, the Martians have constructed the immense and innumerable
+canals which you see running in all directions over the continents.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one period in the year, and that period has now arrived when
+there is special danger of a great deluge. Most of the oceans of Mars
+lie in the southern hemisphere. When it is Summer in that hemisphere,
+the great masses of ice and snow collected around the south pole melt
+rapidly away."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is so," broke in one of the astronomers, who was listening
+attentively. "Many a time I have seen the vast snow fields around the
+southern pole of Mars completely disappear as the Summer sun rose high
+upon them."</p>
+
+<p>"With the melting of these snows," continued Aina, "a rapid rise in the
+level of the water in the southern oceans occurs. On the side facing
+these oceans the continents of Mars are sufficiently elevated to prevent
+an overflow, but nearer the equator the level of the land sinks lower.</p>
+
+<p>"With your telescopes you have no doubt noticed that there is a great
+bending sea connecting the oceans of the south with those of the north
+and running through the midst of the continents."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite so," said the astronomer who had spoken before, "we call it the
+Syrtis Major."</p>
+
+<p>"That long narrow sea," Aina went on, "forms a great channel through
+which the flood of waters caused by the melting of the southern polar
+snows flows swiftly toward the equator and then on toward the north
+until it reaches the sea basins which exist there. At that point it is
+rapidly turned into ice and snow, because, of course, while it is Summer
+in the southern hemisphere it is Winter in the northern.</p>
+
+<p>"The Syrtis Major (I am giving our name to the channel of communication
+in place of that by which the girl called it) is like a great safety
+valve, which, by permitting the waters to flow northward, saves the
+continents from inundation.</p>
+
+<p>"But when mid-Summer arrives, the snows around the pole, having been
+completely melted away, the flood ceases and the water begins to recede.
+At this time, but for a device which the Martians have employed, the
+canals connected with the oceans would run dry, and the vegetation left
+without moisture under the Summer sun, would quickly perish.</p>
+
+<p>"To prevent this they have built a series of enormous gates extending
+completely across the Syrtis Major at its narrowest point (latitude 25
+degrees south). These gates are all controlled by machinery collected at
+a single point on the shore of the strait. As soon as the flood in the
+Syrtis Major begins to recede, the gates are closed, and, the water
+being thus restrained, the irrigating canals are kept full long enough
+to mature the harvests."</p>
+
+<p>"The clue! The clue at last!" exclaimed Mr. Edison. "That is the place
+where we shall nip them. If we can close those gates now at the moment
+of high tide we shall flood the country. Did you say," he continued,
+turning to Aina, "that the movement of the gates was all controlled from
+a single point?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the girl. "There is a great building (power house) full of
+tremendous machinery which I once entered when my father was taken there
+by his master, and where I saw one Martian, by turning a little handle,
+cause the great line of gates, stretching a hundred miles across the
+sea, to slowly shut in, edge to edge, until the flow of the water toward
+the north had been stopped."</p>
+
+<p>"How is the building protected?"</p>
+
+<p>"So completely," said Aina, "that my only fear is that you may not be
+able to reach it. On account of the danger from their enemies on Ceres,
+the Martians have fortified it strongly on all sides, and have even
+surrounded it and covered it overhead with a great electrical network,
+to touch which would be instant death."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said Mr. Edison, "they have got an electric shield, have they?
+Well, I think we shall be able to manage that."</p>
+
+<p>"Anyhow," he continued, "we have got to get into that power house, and
+we have got to close those gates, and we must not lose much time in
+making up our minds how it is to be done. Evidently this is our only
+chance. We have not force enough to contend in open battle with the
+Martians, but if we can flood them out, and thereby render the engines
+contained in their fortifications useless, perhaps we shall be able to
+deal with the airships, which will be all the means of defense that will
+then remain to them."</p>
+
+<p>This idea commended itself to all the leaders of the expedition. It was
+determined to make a reconnaissance at once.</p>
+
+<p>But it would not do for us to approach the planet too hastily, and we
+certainly could not think of landing upon it in broad daylight. Still,
+as long as we were yet a considerable distance from Mars, we felt that
+we should be safe from observation because so much time had elapsed
+while we were hidden behind Deimos that the Martians had undoubtedly
+concluded that we were no longer in existance.</p>
+
+<p>So we boldly quitted the little satellite with our entire squadron and
+once more rapidly approached the red planet of war. This time it was to
+be a death grapple and our chances of victory still seemed good.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as we arrived so near the planet that there was danger of our
+being actually seen, we took pains to keep continually in the shadow of
+Mars, and the more surely to conceal our presence all lights upon the
+ships were extinguished. The precaution of the commander even went so
+far as to have the smooth metallic sides of the cars blackened over so
+that they should not reflect light, and thus become visible to the
+Martians as shining specks, moving suspiciously among the stars.</p>
+
+<p>The precise location of the great power house on the shores of the
+Syrtis Major having been carefully ascertained, the squadron dropped
+down one night into the upper limits of the Martian atmosphere, directly
+over the gulf.</p>
+
+<p>Then a consultation was called on the flagship and a plan of campaign
+was quickly devised.</p>
+
+<p>It was deemed wise that the attempt should be made with a single
+electric ship, but that the others should be kept hovering near, ready
+to respond on the instant to any signal for aid which might come from
+below. It was thought that, notwithstanding the wonderful defences,
+which, according to Aina's account surrounded the building, a small
+party would have a better chance of success than a large one.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edison was certain that the electrical network which was described
+as covering the power house would not prove a serious obstruction to us,
+because by carefully sweeping the space where we intended to pass with
+the disintegrators before quitting the ship, the netting could be
+sufficiently cleared away to give us uninterrupted passage.</p>
+
+<p>At first the intention was to have twenty men, each armed with two
+disintegrators (that being the largest number one person could carry to
+advantage) descend from the electrical ship and make the venture. But,
+after further discussion, this number was reduced; first to a dozen, and
+finally, to only four. These four consisted of Mr. Edison, Colonel
+Smith, Mr. Sydney Phillips and myself.</p>
+
+<p>Both by her own request and because we could not help feeling that her
+knowledge of the locality would be indispensable to us, Aina was also
+included in our party, but not, of course, as a fighting member of it.</p>
+
+<p>It was about an hour after midnight when the ship in which we were to
+make the venture parted from the remainder of the squadron and dropped
+cautiously down. The blaze of electric lights running away in various
+directions indicated the lines of innumerable canals with habitations
+crowded along their banks, which came to a focus at a point on the
+continent of Aeria, westward from the Syrtis Major.</p>
+
+<p>We stopped the electrical ship at an elevation of perhaps three hundred
+feet above the vast roof of a structure which Aina assured us was the
+building of which we were in search.</p>
+
+<p>Here we remained for a few minutes, cautiously reconnoitering. On that
+side of the power house which was opposite to the shore of the Syrtis
+Major there was a thick grove of trees, lighted beneath, as was apparent
+from the illumination which here and there streamed up through the cover
+of leaves, but, nevertheless, dark and gloomy above the tree tops.</p>
+
+<p>"The electric network extends over the grove as well as over the
+building," said Aina.</p>
+
+<p>This was lucky for us, because we wished to descend among the trees,
+and, by destroying part of the network over the tree tops, we could
+reach the shelter we desired and at the same time pass within the line
+of electric defenses.</p>
+
+<p>With increased caution, and almost holding our breath lest we should
+make some noise that might reach the ears of the sentinels below, we
+caused the car to settle gently down until we caught sight of a metallic
+net stretched in the air between us and the trees.</p>
+
+<p>After our first encounter with the Martians on the asteroid, where, as I
+have related, some metal which was included in their dress resisted the
+action of the disintegrators, Mr. Edison had readjusted the range of
+vibrations covered by the instruments, and since then we had found
+nothing that did not yield to them. Consequently, we had no fear that
+the metal of the network would not be destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>There was danger, however, of arousing attention by shattering holes
+through the tree tops. This could be avoided by first carefully
+ascertaining how far away the network was and then with the adjustable
+mirrors attached to the disintegrators focusing the vibratory discharge
+at that distance.</p>
+
+<p>So successful were we that we opened a considerable gap in the network
+without doing any perceptible damage to the trees beneath.</p>
+
+<p>The ship was cautiously lowered through the opening and brought to rest
+among the upper branches of one of the tallest trees. Colonel Smith, Mr.
+Phillips, Mr. Edison and myself at once clambered out upon a strong
+limb.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment I feared our arrival had been betrayed on account of the
+altogether too noisy contest that arose between Colonel Smith and Mr.
+Phillips as to which of them should assist Aina. To settle the dispute I
+took charge of her myself.</p>
+
+<p>At length we were all safely in the tree.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed the still more dangerous undertaking of descending from
+this great height to the ground. Fortunately, the branches were very
+close together and they extended down within a short distance of the
+soil. So the actual difficulties of the descent were not very great
+after all. The one thing that we had particularly to bear in mind was
+the absolute necessity of making no noise.</p>
+
+<p>At length the descent was successfully accomplished, and we all five
+stood together in the shadow at the foot of the great tree. The grove
+was so thick around that while there was an abundance of electric lights
+among the trees, their illumination did not fall upon us where we stood.</p>
+
+<p>Peering cautiously through the vistas in various directions, we
+ascertained our location with respect to the wall of the building. Like
+all the structures which we had seen on Mars, it was composed of
+polished red metal.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the entrance?" inquired Mr. Edison, in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"Come softly this way, and look out for the sentinel," replied Aina.</p>
+
+<p>Gripping our disintegrators firmly, and screwing up our courage, with
+noiseless steps we followed the girl among the shadows of the trees.</p>
+
+<p>We had one-very great advantage. The Martians had evidently placed so
+much confidence in the electric network which surrounded the power house
+that they never dreamed of enemies being able to penetrate it&mdash;at least,
+without giving warning of their coming.</p>
+
+<p>But the hole which we had blown in this network with the disintegrators
+had been made noiselessly, and Mr. Edison believed, since no enemies had
+appeared, that our operations had not been betrayed by any automatic
+signal to watchers inside the building.</p>
+
+<p>Consequently, we had every reason to think that we now stood within the
+line of defense, in which they reposed the greatest confidence, without
+their having the least suspicion of our presence.</p>
+
+<p>Aina assured us that on the occasion of her former visit to the power
+house there had been but two sentinels on guard at the entrance. At the
+inner end of a long passage leading to the interior, she said, there
+were two more. Besides these there were three or four Martian engineers
+watching the machinery in the interior of the building. A number of
+airships were supposed to be on guard around the structure, but possibly
+their vigilance had been relaxed, because not long ago the Martians had
+sent an expedition against Ceres which had been so successful that the
+power of that planet to make any attack upon Mars had, for the present
+been destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>Supposing us to have been annihilated in the recent battle among the
+clouds, they would have no fear or cause for vigilance on our account.</p>
+
+<p>The entrance to the great structure was low&mdash;at least, when measured by
+the stature of the Martians. Evidently the intention was that only one
+person at a time should find room to pass through it.</p>
+
+<p>Drawing cautiously near, we discerned the outlines of two gigantic
+forms, standing in the darkness, one on either side of the door. Colonel
+Smith whispered to me:</p>
+
+<p>"If you will take the fellow on the right, I will attend to the other
+one."</p>
+
+<p>Adjusting our aim as carefully as was possible in the gloom, Colonel
+Smith and I simultaneously discharged our disintegrators, sweeping them
+rapidly up and down in the manner which had become familiar to us when
+endeavoring to destroy one of the gigantic Martians with a single
+stroke. And so successful were we that the two sentinels disappeared as
+if they were ghosts of the night.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly we all hurried forward and entered the door. Before us
+extended a long, straight passage, brightly illuminated by a number of
+electric candles. Its polished sides gleamed with blood-red reflections,
+and the gallery terminated, at a distance of two or three hundred feet,
+with an opening into a large chamber beyond, on the further side of
+which we could see part of a gigantic and complicated mass of machinery.</p>
+
+<p>Making as little noise as possible, we pushed ahead along the passage,
+but when we had arrived within the distance of a dozen paces from the
+inner end, we stopped, and Colonel Smith, getting down upon his knees,
+crept forward, until he had reached the inner end of the passage. There
+he peered cautiously around the edge into the chamber, and, turning his
+head a moment later, beckoned us to come forward. We crept to his side,
+and, looking out into the vast apartment, could perceive no enemies.</p>
+
+<p>What had become of the sentinels supposed to stand at the inner end the
+passage we could not imagine. At any rate, they were not at their posts.</p>
+
+<p>The chamber was an immense square room at least a hundred feet in height
+and 400 feet on a side, and almost filling the wall opposite to us was
+an intricate display of machinery, wheels, levers, rods and polished
+plates. This we had no doubt was one end of the engine which opened and
+shut the great gates that could dam an ocean.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no one in sight," said Colonel Smith.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we must act quickly," said Mr. Edison.</p>
+
+<p>"Where," he said, turning to Aina, "is the handle by turning which you
+saw the Martian close the gates?"</p>
+
+<p>Aina looked about in bewilderment. The mechanism before us was so
+complicated that even an expert mechanic would have been excusable for
+finding himself unable to understand it. There were scores of knobs and
+handles, all glistening in the electric light, any one of which, so far
+as the uninstructed could tell, might have been the master key that
+controlled the whole complex apparatus.</p>
+
+<p>"Quick," said Mr. Edison, "where is it?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl in her confusion ran this way and that, gazing hopelessly upon
+the machinery, but evidently utterly unable to help us.</p>
+
+<p>To remain here inactive was not merely to invite destruction for
+ourselves, but was sure to bring certain failure upon the purpose of the
+expedition. All of us began instantly to look about in search of the
+proper handle, seizing every crank and wheel in sight and striving to
+turn it.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop that!" shouted Mr. Edison, "you may set the whole thing wrong.
+Don't touch anything until we have found the right lever."</p>
+
+<p>But to find that seemed to most of us now utterly beyond the power of
+man.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this critical moment that the wonderful depth and reach of Mr.
+Edison's mechanical genius displayed itself. He stepped back, ran his
+eyes quickly over the whole immense mass of wheels, handles, bolts, bars
+and levers, paused for an instant, as if making up his mind, then said
+decidedly, "There it is," and stepping quickly forward, selected a small
+wheel amid a dozen others, all furnished at the circumference with
+handles like those of a pilot's wheel, and giving it a quick wrench,
+turned it half-way around.</p>
+
+<p>At this instant, a startling shout fell upon our ears. There was a
+thunderous clatter behind us, and, turning, we saw three gigantic
+Martians rushing forward.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTEEN" id="CHAPTER_FIFTEEN"></a>CHAPTER FIFTEEN</h2>
+
+<h3><i>VENGEANCE IS OURS</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>"Sweep them! sweep them!" shouted Colonel Smith, as he brought his
+disintegrator to bear. Mr. Phillips and I instantly followed his
+example, and thus we swept the Martians into eternity, while Mr. Edison
+coolly continued his manipulations of the wheel.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of what he was doing became apparent in less than half a
+minute. A shiver ran through the mass of machinery and shook the entire
+building.</p>
+
+<p>"Look! Look!" cried Sydney Phillips, who had stepped a little apart from
+the others.</p>
+
+<p>We all ran to his side and found ourselves in front of a great window
+which opened through the side of the engine, giving a view of what lay
+in front of it. There, gleaming in the electric lights, we saw Syrtis
+Major, its waters washing high against the walls of the vast power
+house. Running directly out from the shore, there was an immense
+metallic gate at least 400 yards in length and rising three hundred feet
+above the present level of the water.</p>
+
+<p>This great gate was slowly swinging upon an invisible hinge in such a
+manner that in a few minutes it would evidently stand across the current
+of the Syrtis Major at right angles.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond was a second gate, which was moving in the same manner. Further
+on was a third gate, and then another, and another, as far as the eye
+could reach, evidently extending in an unbroken series completely across
+the great strait.</p>
+
+<p>As the gates, with accelerated motion when the current caught them,
+clanged together, we beheld a spectacle that almost stopped the beating
+of our hearts.</p>
+
+<p>The great Syrtis seemed to gather itself for a moment, and then it
+leaped upon the obstruction and buried its waters into one vast foaming
+geyser that seemed to shoot a thousand feet skyward.</p>
+
+<p>But the metal gates withstood the shock, though buried from our sight in
+the seething white mass, and the baffled waters instantly swirled around
+in ten thousand gigantic eddies, rising to the level of our window and
+beginning to inundate the power house before we fairly comprehended our
+peril.</p>
+
+<p>"We have done the work," said Mr. Edison, smiling grimly. "Now we had
+better get out of this before the flood bursts upon us."</p>
+
+<p>The warning came none too soon. It was necessary to act upon it at once
+if we would save our lives. Even before we could reach the entrance to
+the long passage through which we had come into the great engine room,
+the water had risen half-way to our knees. Colonel Smith, catching Aina
+under his arm, led the way. The roar of the maddened torrent behind
+deafened us.</p>
+
+<p>As we ran through the passage the water followed us, with a wicked
+swishing sound, and within five seconds it was above our knees; in ten
+seconds up to our waists.</p>
+
+<p>The great danger now was that we should be swept from our feet, and once
+down in that torrent there would have been little chance of our ever
+getting our heads above its level. Supporting ourselves as best we could
+with the aid of the walls, we partly ran, and were partly swept along,
+until when we reached the outer end of the passage and emerged into the
+open air, the flood was swirling about our shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Here there was an opportunity to clutch some of the ornamental work
+surrounding the doorway, and thus we managed to stay our mad progress,
+and gradually to work out of the current until we found that the water,
+having now an abundance of room to spread, had fallen again as low as
+our knees.</p>
+
+<p>But suddenly we heard the thunder of the banks tumbling behind us, and
+to the right and left, and the savage growl of the released water as it
+sprang through the breaches.</p>
+
+<p>To my dying day, I think, I shall not forget the sight of a great fluid
+column that burst through the dike at the edge of the grove of trees,
+and, by the tremendous impetus of its rush, seemed turned into a solid
+thing.</p>
+
+<p>Like an enormous ram, it plowed the soil to a depth of twenty feet,
+uprooting acres of the immense trees like stubble turned over by the
+plowshare.</p>
+
+<p>The uproar was so awful that for an instant the coolest of us lost our
+self-control. Yet we knew that we had not the fraction of a second to
+waste. The breaking of the banks had caused the water again rapidly to
+rise about us. In a little while it was once more as high as our waists.</p>
+
+<p>In the excitement and confusion, deafened by the noise and blinded by
+the flying foam, we were in danger of becoming separated in the flood.
+We no longer knew certainly in what direction was the tree by whose aid
+we had ascended from the electrical ship. We pushed first one way and
+then another, staggering through the rushing waters in search of it.
+Finally we succeeded in locating it, and with all our strength hurried
+toward it.</p>
+
+<p>Then there came a noise as if the globe of Mars had been split asunder,
+and another great head of water hurled itself down upon the soil before
+us, and, without taking time to spread, bored a vast cavity in the
+ground, and scooped out the whole of the grove before our eyes as easily
+as a gardener lifts a sod with his spade.</p>
+
+<p>Our last hope was gone. For a moment the level of the water around us
+sank again, as it poured into the immense excavation where the grove had
+stood, but in an instant it was reinforced from all sides and began once
+more rapidly to rise.</p>
+
+<p>We gave ourselves up for lost, and, indeed, there did not seem any
+possible hope of salvation.</p>
+
+<p>Even in the extremity I saw Colonel Smith lifting the form of Aina, who
+had fainted, above the surface of the surging water, while Sydney
+Phillips stood by his side and aided him in supporting the unconscious
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>"We stayed a little too long," was the only sound I heard from Mr.
+Edison.</p>
+
+<p>The huge bulk of the power house partially protected us against the
+force of the current, and the water spun us around in great eddies.
+These swept us this way and that, but yet we managed to cling together,
+determined not to be separated in death if we could avoid it.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a cry rang out directly above our heads:</p>
+
+<p>"Jump for your lives, and be quick!"</p>
+
+<p>At the same instant the ends of several ropes splashed into the water.</p>
+
+<p>We glanced upward, and there, within three or four yards of our heads,
+hung the electrical ship, which we had left moored at the top of the
+tree.</p>
+
+<p>Tom, the expert electrician from Mr. Edison's shop, who had remained in
+charge of the ship, had never once dreamed of such a thing as deserting
+us. The moment he saw the water bursting over the dam, and evidently
+flooding the building which we had entered, he cast off his moorings, as
+we subsequently learned, and hovered over the entrance to the power
+house, getting as low down as possible and keeping a sharp watch for us.</p>
+
+<p>But most of the electric lights in the vicinity had been carried down by
+the first rush of water, and in the darkness he did not see us when we
+emerged from the entrance. It was only after the sweeping away of the
+grove of trees had allowed a flood of light to stream upon the scene
+from a cluster of electric lamps on a distant portion of the bank on the
+Syrtis that had not yet given way that he caught sight of us.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately he began to shout to attract our attention, but in the awful
+uproar we could not hear him. Getting together all the ropes that he
+could lay his hands on, he steered the ship to a point directly over us,
+and then dropped down within a few yards of the boiling flood.</p>
+
+<p>Now as he hung over our heads, and saw the water up to our very necks
+and still swiftly rising, he shouted again:</p>
+
+<p>"Catch hold, for God's sake!"</p>
+
+<p>The three men who were with him in the ship seconded his cries.</p>
+
+<p>But by the time we had fairly grasped the ropes, so rapidly was the
+flood rising, we were already afloat. With the assistance of Tom and his
+men we were rapidly drawn up, and immediately Tom reversed the electric
+polarity, and the ship began to rise.</p>
+
+<p>At that same instant, with a crash that shivered the air, the immense
+metallic power house gave way and was swept tumbling, like a hill torn
+loose from its base, over the very spot where a moment before we had
+stood. One second's hesitation on the part of Tom, and the electrical
+ship would have been battered into a shapeless wad of metal by the
+careening mass.</p>
+
+<p>When we had attained a considerable height, so that we could see a great
+distance on either side, the spectacle became even more fearful than it
+was when we were close to the surface.</p>
+
+<p>On all sides banks and dykes were going down; trees were being uprooted;
+buildings were tumbling, and the ocean was achieving that victory over
+the land which had long been its due, but which the ingenuity of the
+inhabitants of Mars had postponed for ages.</p>
+
+<p>Far away we could see the front of the advancing wave crested with foam
+that sparkled in the electric lights, and as it swept on it changed the
+entire aspect of the planet&mdash;in front of it all life, behind it all
+death.</p>
+
+<p>Eastward our view extended across the Syrtis Major toward the land of
+Libya and the region of Isidis. On that side also the dykes were giving
+way under the tremendous pressure, and the floods were rushing toward
+the sunrise, which had just began to streak the eastern sky.</p>
+
+<p>The continents that were being overwhelmed on the western side of the
+Syrtis were Meroc, Aeria, Arabia, Edom and Eden.</p>
+
+<p>The water beneath us continually deepened. The current from the melting
+snows around the southern pole was at its strongest, and one could
+hardly have believed that any obstruction put in its path would have
+been able to arrest it and turn it into these two all-swallowing
+deluges, sweeping east and west. But, as we now perceived, the level of
+the land over a large part of its surface was hundreds of feet below the
+ocean, so that the latter, when once the barriers were broken, rushed
+into depressions that yawned to receive it.</p>
+
+<p>The point where we had dealt our blow was far removed from the great
+capitol of Mars, around the Lake of the Sun, and we knew that we should
+have to wait for the floods to reach that point before the desired
+effect could be produced. By the nearest way, the water had at least
+5,000 miles to travel. We estimated that its speed where we hung above
+it was as much as a hundred miles an hour. Even if that speed were
+maintained, more than two days and nights would be required for the
+floods to reach the Lake of the Sun.</p>
+
+<p>But as the water rushed on it would break the banks of all the canals
+intersecting the country, and these, being also elevated above the
+surface, would add the impetus of their escaping waters to hasten the
+advance of the flood. We calculated, therefore, that about two days
+would suffice to place the planet at our mercy.</p>
+
+<p>Half way from the Syrtis Major to the Lake of the Sun another great
+connecting link between the Southern and Northern ocean basins, called
+on our maps of Mars the Indus, existed, and through this channel we knew
+that another great current must be setting from the south toward the
+north. The flood that we had started would reach and break the banks of
+the Indus within one day.</p>
+
+<p>The flood traveling in the other direction, toward the east, would have
+considerably further to go before reaching the neighborhood of the Lake
+of the Sun. It, too, would involve hundreds of great canals as it
+advanced and would come plunging upon the Lake of the Sun and its
+surrounding forts and cities, probably about half a day later than the
+arrival of the deluge that traveled toward the west.</p>
+
+<p>Now that we had let the awful destroyer loose we almost shrank from the
+thought of the consequences which we had produced. How many millions
+would perish as the result of our deed we could not even guess. Many of
+the victims, so far as we knew, might be entirely innocent of enmity
+toward us, or of the evil which had been done to our native planet. But
+this was a case in which the good&mdash;if they existed&mdash;must suffer with the
+bad on account of the wicked deeds of the latter.</p>
+
+<p>I have already remarked that the continents of Mars were higher on their
+northern and southern borders where they faced the great oceans. These
+natural barriers bore to the main mass of land somewhat the relation of
+the edge of a shallow dish to its bottom. Their rise on the land side
+was too gradual to give them the appearance of hills, but on the side
+toward the sea they broke down in steep banks and cliffs several hundred
+feet in height. We guessed that it would be in the direction of these
+elevations that the inhabitants would flee, and those who had timely
+warning might thus be able to escape in case the flood did not&mdash;as it
+seemed possible it might in its first mad rush&mdash;overtop the highest
+elevations on Mars.</p>
+
+<p>As day broke and the sun slowly rose upon the dreadful scene beneath us,
+we began to catch sight of some of the fleeing inhabitants. We had
+shifted the position of the fleet toward the south, and were now
+suspended above the southeastern corner of Aeria. Here a high bank of
+reddish rock confronted the sea, whose waters ran lashing and roaring
+along the bluffs to supply the rapid drought produced by the emptying of
+Syrtis Major. Along the shore there was a narrow line of land, hundreds
+of miles in length, but less than a quarter of a mile broad, which still
+rose slightly above the surface of the water, and this land of refuge
+was absolutely packed with the monstrous inhabitants of the planet who
+had fled hither on the first warning that the water was coming.</p>
+
+<p>In some places it was so crowded that the later comers could not find
+standing ground on dry land, but were continually slipping back and
+falling into the water. It was an awful sight to look at them. It
+reminded me of pictures I had seen of the deluge in the days of Noah,
+when the waters had risen to the mountain tops, and men, women and
+children were fighting for a foothold upon the last dry spots the earth
+contained.</p>
+
+<p>We were all moved by a desire to help our enemies, for we were
+overwhelmed with feelings of pity and remorse, but to aid them was now
+utterly beyond our power. The mighty floods were out, and the end was in
+the hands of God.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, we had little time for these thoughts, because no sooner
+had the day begun to dawn around us than the airships of the Martians
+appeared. Evidently the people in them were dazed by the disaster and
+uncertain what to do. It is doubtful whether at first they comprehended
+the fact that we were the agents who had produced the cataclysm.</p>
+
+<p>But as the morning advanced the airships came flocking in greater and
+greater numbers from every direction, many swooping down close to the
+flood in order to rescue those who were drowning. Hundreds gathered
+along the slip of land which was crowded as I have described, with
+refugees, while other hundreds rapidly assembled about us, evidently
+preparing for an attack.</p>
+
+<p>We had learned in our previous contests with the airships of the
+Martians that our electrical ships had a great advantage over them, not
+merely in rapidity and facility of movement, but in the fact that our
+disintegrators could sweep in every direction, while it was only with
+much difficulty that the Martian airships could discharge their
+electrical strokes at an enemy poised directly above their heads.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, orders were instantly flashed to all the squadrons to rise
+vertically to an elevation so great that the rarity of the atmosphere
+would prevent the airships from attaining the same level.</p>
+
+<p>This maneuver was executed so quickly that the Martians were unable to
+deal us a blow before we were poised above them in such a position that
+they could not easily reach us. Still they did not mean to give up the
+conflict.</p>
+
+<p>Presently we saw one of the largest of their ships maneuvering in a very
+peculiar manner, the purpose of which we did not at first comprehend.
+Its forward portion commenced slowly to rise, until it pointed upward
+like the nose of a fish approaching the surface of the water. The moment
+it was in this position, an electrical bolt was darted from its prow,
+and one of our ships received a shock which, although it did not prove
+fatal to the vessel itself, killed two or three men aboard it,
+disarranged its apparatus, and rendered it for the time being useless.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that's their trick, is it?" said Mr. Edison. "We must look out for
+that. Whenever you see one of the airships beginning to stick its nose
+up after that fashion blaze away at it."</p>
+
+<p>An order to this effect was transmitted throughout the squadron. At the
+same time several of the most powerful disintegrators were directed upon
+the ship which had executed the stratagem and, reduced to a wreck, it
+dropped, whirling like a broken kite until it fell into the flood
+beneath.</p>
+
+<p>Still the Martian ships came flocking in ever greater numbers from all
+directions. They made desperate attempts to attain the level at which we
+hung above them. This was impossible, but many, getting an impetus by a
+swift run in the denser portion of the atmosphere beneath, succeeded in
+rising so high that they could discharge their electric artillery with
+considerable effect. Others, with more or less success, repeated the
+maneuver of the ship which had first attacked us, and thus the battle
+gradually became more general and more fierce, until, in the course of
+an hour or two, our squadron found itself engaged with probably a
+thousand airships, which blazed with incessant lightning strokes, and
+were able, all too frequently, to do us serious damage.</p>
+
+<p>But on our part the battle was waged with a cool determination and a
+consciousness of insuperable advantage which boded ill for the enemy.
+Only three or four of our sixty electrical ships were seriously damaged,
+while the work of the disintegrators upon the crowded fleet that floated
+beneath us was terrible to look upon.</p>
+
+<p>Our strokes fell thick and fast on all sides. It was like firing into a
+flock of birds that could not get away. Notwithstanding all their
+efforts they were practically at our mercy. Shattered into
+unrecognizable fragments, hundreds of the airships continually dropped
+from their great height to be swallowed up in the boiling waters.</p>
+
+<p>Yet they were game to the last. They made every effort to get at us, and
+in their frenzy they seemed to discharge their bolts without much regard
+to whether friends or foes were injured. Our eyes were nearly blinded by
+the ceaseless glare beneath us, and the uproar was indescribable.</p>
+
+<p>At length, after this fearful contest had lasted for at least three
+hours, it became evident that the strength of the enemy was rapidly
+weakening. Nearly the whole of their immense fleet of airships had been
+destroyed, or so far damaged that they were barely able to float. Just
+so long, however, as they showed signs of resistance we continued to
+pour our merciless fire upon them, and the signal to cease was not given
+until the airships, which had escaped serious damage began to flee in
+every direction.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God, the thing is over," said Mr. Edison. "We have got the
+victory at last, but how we shall make use of it is something that at
+present I do not see."</p>
+
+<p>"But will they not renew the attack?" asked someone.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think they can," was the reply. "We have destroyed the very
+flower of their fleet."</p>
+
+<p>"And better than that," said Colonel Smith, "we have destroyed their
+clan; we have made them afraid. Their discipline is gone."</p>
+
+<p>But this was only the beginning of our victory. The floods below were
+achieving a still greater triumph, and now that we had conquered the
+airships we dropped within a few hundred feet of the surface of the
+water and then turned our faces westward in order to follow the advance
+of the deluge and see whether, as we hoped, it would overwhelm our
+enemies in the very center of their power.</p>
+
+<p>In a little while we had overtaken the first wave, which was still
+devouring everything. We saw it bursting the banks of the canal,
+sweeping away forests of gigantic trees, and swallowing cities and
+villages, leaving nothing but a broad expanse of swirling and eddying
+waters, which, in consequence of the prevailing red hue of the
+vegetation and the soil, looked, as shuddering we gazed down upon it,
+like an ocean of blood flecked with foam and steaming with the escaping
+life of the planet from whose veins it gushed.</p>
+
+<p>As we skirted the southern borders of the continent the same dreadful
+scenes which we had beheld on the coast of Aeria presented themselves.
+Crowds of refugees thronged the high borders of the land and struggled
+with one another for a foothold against the continually rising flood.</p>
+
+<p>We saw, too, flitting in every direction, but rapidly fleeing before our
+approach, many airships, evidently crowded with Martians, but not armed
+either for offense or defense. These, of course, we did not disturb, for
+merciless as our proceedings seemed even to ourselves, we had no
+intention of making war upon the innocent, or upon those who had no
+means to resist. What we had done it had seemed to us necessary to do,
+but henceforth we were resolved to take no more lives if it could be
+avoided.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, during the remainder of that day, all of the following night and
+all of the next day, we continued upon the heels of the advancing flood.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SIXTEEN" id="CHAPTER_SIXTEEN"></a>CHAPTER SIXTEEN</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE WOMAN FROM CERES</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The second night we could perceive ahead of us the electric lights
+covering the land of Thaumasia, in the midst of which lay the Lake of
+the Sun. The flood would be upon it by daybreak, and, assuming that the
+demoralization produced by the news of the coming of the waters, which
+we were aware had hours before been flashed to the capitol of Mars,
+would prevent the Martians from effectively manning their forts, we
+thought it safe to hasten on with the flagship, and one or two others,
+in advance of the waters, and to hover over the Lake of the Sun, in the
+darkness, in order that we might watch the deluge perform its awful work
+in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>Thaumasia, as we have before remarked, was a broad, oval-shaped land,
+about 1,800 miles across, having the Lake of the Sun exactly in its
+center. From this lake, which was four or five hundred miles in
+diameter, and circular in outline, many canals radiated, as straight as
+the spokes of a wheel, in every direction, and connected it with the
+surrounding seas.</p>
+
+<p>Like all the other Martian continents, Thaumasia lay below the level of
+the sea, except toward the south, where it fronted the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Completely surrounding the lake was a great ring of cities constituting
+the capitol of Mars. Here the genius of the Martians had displayed
+itself to the full. The surrounding country was irrigated until it
+fairly bloomed with gigantic vegetation and flowers; the canals were
+carefully regulated with locks so that the supply of water was under
+complete control; the display of magnificent metallic buildings of all
+kinds and sizes produced a most dazzling effect, and the protection
+against enemies afforded by the innumerable fortifications surrounding
+the ringed city, and guarding the neighboring lands, seemed complete.</p>
+
+<p>Suspended at a height of perhaps two miles from the surface, near the
+southern edge of the lake, we waited for the oncoming flood. With the
+dawn of day we began to perceive more clearly the effects which the news
+of the drowning of the planet had produced. It was evident that many of
+the inhabitants of the cities had already fled. Airships on which the
+fugitives hung as thick as swarms of bees were seen, elevated but a
+short distance above the ground, and making their way rapidly toward the
+south.</p>
+
+<p>The Martians knew that their only hope of escape lay in reaching the
+high southern border of the land before the floods were upon them. But
+they must have known also that that narrow beach would not suffice to
+contain one in ten of those who sought refuge there. The density of the
+population around the Lake of the Sun seemed to us incredible. Again our
+hearts sank within us at the sight of the fearful destruction of life
+for which we were responsible. Yet we comforted ourselves with the
+reflection that it was unavoidable. As Colonel Smith put it:</p>
+
+<p>"You couldn't trust these coyotes. The only thing to do was to drown
+them out. I am sorry for them, but I guess there will be as many left as
+will be good for us, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>We had not long to wait for the flood. As the dawn began to streak the
+east, we saw its awful crest moving out of the darkness, bursting across
+the canals and plowing its way into the direction of the crowded shores
+of the Lake of the Sun. The supply of water behind that great wave
+seemed inexhaustible. Five thousand miles it had traveled, and yet its
+power was as great as when it started from the Syrtis Major.</p>
+
+<p>We caught sight of the oncoming water before it was visible to the
+Martians beneath us. But while it was yet many miles away, the roar of
+it reached them, and then arose a chorus of terrified cries, the effect
+of which, coming to our ears out of the half gloom of the morning, was
+most uncanny and horrible. Thousands upon thousands of the Martians
+still remained here to become victims of the deluge. Some, perhaps, had
+doubted the truth of the reports that the banks were down and the floods
+were out; others, for one reason or another had been unable to get away;
+others, like the inhabitants of Pompeii, had lingered too long, or had
+returned after beginning their flight to secure abandoned treasures, and
+now it was too late to get away.</p>
+
+<p>With a roar that shook the planet the white wall rushed upon the great
+city beneath our feet, and in an instant it had been engulfed. On went
+the flood, swallowing up the Lake of the Sun itself, and in a little
+while, as far as our eyes could range, the land of Thaumasia had been
+turned into a raging sea.</p>
+
+<p>We now turned our ships toward the southern border of the land,
+following the direction of the airships carrying the fugitives, a few of
+which were still navigating the atmosphere a mile beneath us. In their
+excitement and terror the Martians paid little attention to us,
+although, as the morning brightened, they must have been aware of our
+presence over their heads. But, apparently, they no longer thought of
+resistance; their only object was escape from the immediate and
+appalling danger.</p>
+
+<p>When we had progressed to a point about half way from the Lake of the
+Sun to the border of the sea, having dropped down within a few hundred
+feet of the surface, there suddenly appeared, in the midst of the raging
+waters, a sight so remarkable that at first I rubbed my eyes in
+astonishment, not crediting their report of what they beheld.</p>
+
+<p>Standing on the apex of a sandy elevation, which still rose a few feet
+above the gathering flood, was a figure of a woman, as perfect in form
+and in classic beauty of feature as the Venus of Milo&mdash;a magnified human
+being not less than forty feet in height!</p>
+
+<p>But for her swaying and the wild motions of her arms, we should have
+mistaken her for a marble statue.</p>
+
+<p>Aina, who happened to be looking, instantly exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"It is the woman from Ceres. She was taken prisoner by the Martians
+during their last invasion of that world, and since then has been a
+slave in the palace of the emperor."</p>
+
+<p>Apparently her great stature had enabled her to escape, while her
+masters had been drowned. She had fled like the others, toward the
+south, but being finally surrounded by the rising waters, had taken
+refuge on the hillock of sand, where we saw her. This was fast giving
+way under the assault of the waves, and even while we watched the water
+rose to her knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Drop lower," was the order of the electrical steersman of the flagship,
+and as quickly as possible we approached the place where the towering
+figure stood.</p>
+
+<p>She had realized the hopelessness of her situation, and quickly ceased
+those appalling and despairing gestures, which had at first served to
+convince us that it was indeed a living being on whom we were looking.</p>
+
+<p>There she stood, with a light, white garment thrown about her, erect,
+half-defiant, half yielding to her fear, more graceful than any Greek
+statue, her arms outstretched, yet motionless, and her eyes upcast, as
+if praying to her God to protect her. Her hair, which shone like gold in
+the increasing light of day, streamed over her shoulders, and her great
+eyes were astare between terror and supplication. So wildly beautiful a
+sight not one of us had ever beheld.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment sympathy was absorbed in admiration. Then:</p>
+
+<p>"Save her! Save her!" was the cry that arose throughout the ship.</p>
+
+<p>Ropes were instantly thrown out, and one or two men prepared to let
+themselves down in order better to aid her.</p>
+
+<p>But when we were almost within reach, and so close that we could see the
+very expression of her eyes, which appeared to take no note of us, but
+to be fixed, with a far away look upon something beyond human ken,
+suddenly the undermined bank on which she stood gave way, the blood red
+flood swirled in from right to left, and then:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The waters closed above her face<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With many a ring."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"If but for that woman's sake, I am sorry we drowned the planet,"
+exclaimed Sydney Phillips. But a moment afterward I saw that he
+regretted what he had said, for Aina's eyes were fixed upon him.
+Perhaps, however, she did not understand his remark, and perhaps if she
+did it gave her no offence.</p>
+
+<p>After this episode we pursued our way rapidly until we arrived at the
+shore of the Southern Ocean. There, as we had expected, was to be seen a
+narrow strip of land with the ocean on one side and the raging flood
+seeking to destroy it on the other. In some places it had already broken
+through, so that the ocean was flowing in to assist in the drowning of
+Thaumasia.</p>
+
+<p>But some parts of the coast were evidently so elevated that no matter
+how high the flood might rise it would not completely cover them. Here
+the fugitives had gathered in dense throngs and above them hovered most
+of the airships, loaded down with others who were unable to find room
+upon the dry land.</p>
+
+<p>On one of the loftiest and broadest of these elevations we noticed
+indications of military order in the alignment of the crowds and the
+shore all around was guarded by gigantic pickets, who mercilessly shoved
+back into the flood all the later comers, and thus prevented too great
+crowding upon the land. In the center of this elevation rose a palatial
+structure of red metal which Aina informed us was one of the residences
+of the Emperor, and we concluded that the monarch himself was now
+present there.</p>
+
+<p>The absence of any signs of resistance on the part of the airships, and
+the complete drowning of all of the formidable fortifications on the
+surface of the planet, convinced us that all we had to do in order to
+complete our conquest was to get possession of the person of the chief
+ruler.</p>
+
+<p>The fleet was, accordingly, concentrated, and we rapidly approached the
+great Martian palace. As we came down within a hundred feet of them and
+boldly made our way among their airships, which retreated at our
+approach, the Martians gazed at us with mingled fear and astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>We were their conquerors and they knew it. We were coming to demand
+their surrender, and they evidently understood that also. As we
+approached the palace signals were made from it with brilliant colored
+banners which Aina informed us were intended as a token of truce.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall have to go down and have a confab with them, I suppose," said
+Mr. Edison. "We can't kill them off now that they are helpless, but we
+must manage somehow to make them understand that unconditional surrender
+is their only chance."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us take Aina with us," I suggested, "and since she can speak the
+language of the Martians we shall probably have no difficulty in
+arriving at an understanding."</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly the flagship was carefully brought further down in front of
+the entrance to the palace, which had been kept clear by the Martian
+guards, and while the remainder of the squadron assembled within a few
+feet directly over our heads with the disintegrators turned upon the
+palace and the crowd below, Mr. Edison and myself, accompanied by Aina,
+stepped out upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>There was a forward movement in the immense crowd, but the guards
+sternly kept everybody back. A party of a dozen giants, preceded by one
+who seemed to be their commander, gorgeously attired in jewelled
+garments, advanced from the entrance of the palace to meet us. Aina
+addressed a few words to the leader, who replied sternly, and then,
+beckoning us to follow, retraced his steps into the palace.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding our confidence that all resistance had ceased, we did
+not deem it wise actually to venture into the lion's den without having
+taken every precaution against a surprise. Accordingly, before following
+the Martian into the palace, we had twenty of the electrical ships
+moored around it in such a position that they commanded not only the
+entrance but all of the principal windows, and then a party of forty
+picked men, each doubly armed with powerful disintegrators, were
+selected to attend us into the building. This party was placed under the
+command of Colonel Smith, and Sydney Phillips insisted on being a member
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the Martian with his attendants who had first invited us
+to enter, finding that we did not follow him, had returned to the front
+of the palace. He saw the disposition that we had made of our forces,
+and instantly comprehended its significance, for his manner changed
+somewhat, and he seemed more desirous than before to conciliate us.</p>
+
+<p>When he again beckoned us to enter, we unhesitatingly followed him, and
+passing through the magnificent entrance, found ourselves in a vast
+ante-chamber, adorned after the manner of the Martians in the most
+expensive manner. Thence we passed into a great circular apartment, with
+a dome painted in imitation of the sky, and so lofty that to our eyes it
+seemed like the firmament itself. Here we found ourselves approaching an
+elevated throne situated in the center of the apartment, while long rows
+of brilliantly armored guards flanked us on either side, and grouped
+around the throne, some standing and others reclining upon the flights
+of steps which appeared to be of solid gold, was an array of Martian
+woman, beautifully and becomingly attired, all of whom greatly
+astonished us by the singular charm of their faces and bearing, so
+different from the aspect of most of the Martians whom we had
+encountered.</p>
+
+<p>Despite their stature&mdash;for these women averaged twelve or thirteen feet
+in height&mdash;the beauty of their complexions&mdash;of a dark olive tint&mdash;was no
+less brilliant than that of the women of Italy or Spain.</p>
+
+<p>At the top of the steps on a magnificent golden throne, sat the Emperor
+himself. There are some busts of Caracalla which I have seen that are
+almost as ugly as the face of the Martian ruler. He was of gigantic
+stature, larger than the majority of his subjects, and as near as I
+could judge must have been between fifteen and sixteen feet in height.</p>
+
+<p>As I looked at him I understood a remark which had been made by Aina to
+the effect that the Martians were not all alike, and that the
+peculiarities of their minds were imprinted on their faces and expressed
+in their forms in a very wonderful, and sometimes terrible manner.</p>
+
+<p>I had also learned from her that Mars was under a military government,
+and that the military class had absolute control of the planet. I was
+somewhat startled, then, in looking at the head and center of the great
+military system of Mars, to find in his appearance a striking
+conformation of the speculations of our terrestrial phrenologists. His
+broad, mis-shapen head bulged in those parts where they had placed the
+so-called organs of combativeness, destructiveness, etc.</p>
+
+<p>Plainly, this was an effect of his training and education. His very
+brain had become a military engine; and the aspect of his face, the
+pitiless lines of his mouth and chin, the evil glare of his eyes, the
+attitude and carriage of his muscular body, all tended to complete the
+warlike ensemble.</p>
+
+<p>He was magnificently dressed in some vesture that had the luster of a
+polished plate of gold, and the suppleness of velvet. As we approached
+he fixed his immense, deep-set eyes sternly upon our faces.</p>
+
+<p>The contrast between his truly terrible countenance and the Eve-like
+features of the women which surrounded his throne was as great as if
+Satan after his fall had here re-enthroned himself in the midst of
+angels.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edison, Colonel Smith, Sydney Phillips, Aina and myself advanced at
+the head of the procession, our guard following in close order behind
+us. It had been evident from the moment that we entered the palace that
+Aina was regarded with aversion by all of the Martians. Even the women
+about the throne gazed scowlingly at her as we drew near. Apparently,
+the bitterness of feeing which had led to the massacre of all of her
+race had not yet vanished. And, indeed, since the fact that she remained
+alive could have been known only to the Martian who had abducted her and
+to his immediate companions, her reappearance with us must have been a
+great surprise to all those who now looked upon her.</p>
+
+<p>It was clear to me that the feeling aroused by her appearance was every
+moment becoming more intense. Still, the thought of a violent outbreak
+did not occur to me, because our recent triumph had seemed so complete
+that I believed the Martians would be awed by our presence, and would
+not undertake actually to injure the girl.</p>
+
+<p>I think we all had the same impression, but as the event proved, we were
+mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly one of the gigantic guards, as if actuated by a fit of
+ungovernable hatred, lifted his foot and kicked Aina. With a loud shriek
+she fell to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>The blow was so unexpected that for a second we all stood riveted to the
+spot. Then I saw Colonel Smith's face turn livid, and at the same
+instant heard the whirr of his disintegrator, while Sydney Phillips,
+forgetting the deadly instrument he carried in his hand, sprung madly
+toward the brute who had kicked Aina, as if he intended to throttle him,
+colossus that he was.</p>
+
+<p>But Colonel Smith's aim, though instantaneously taken, as he had been
+accustomed to shoot on the plains, was true, and Phillips, plunging
+madly forward, seemed wreathed in a faint blue mist&mdash;all that the
+disintegrator had left of the gigantic Martian.</p>
+
+<p>Who could adequately describe the scene that followed?</p>
+
+<p>I remember that the Martian emperor sprang to his feet, looking tenfold
+more terrible than before. I remember that there instantly burst from
+the line of guards on either side crinkling beams of death-fire that
+seemed to sear the eyeballs. I saw a half a dozen of our men fall in
+heaps of ashes, and even at that terrible moment I had time to wonder
+that a single one of us remained alive.</p>
+
+<p>Rather by instinct than in consequence of any order given, we formed
+ourselves in a hollow square, with Aina lying apparently lifeless in the
+center, and then with gritted teeth we did our work.</p>
+
+<p>The lines of guards melted before the disintegrators like rows of snow
+men before a licking flame.</p>
+
+<p>The discharge of the lightning engines in the hands of the Martians in
+that confined space made an uproar so tremendous that it seemed to pass
+the bounds of human sense.</p>
+
+<p>More of our men fell before their awful fire, and for the second time
+since our arrival on this deadful planet of war our annihilation seemed
+inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>But in a moment the whole scene changed. Suddenly there was a discharge
+into the room which I knew came from one of the disintegrators of the
+electrical ships. It swept through the crowded throng like a destroying
+blast. Instantly from another side, swished a second discharge, no less
+destructive, and this was quickly followed by a third.</p>
+
+<p>Our ships were firing through the windows.</p>
+
+<p>Almost at the same moment I saw the flagship, which had been moored in
+the air close to the entrance and floating only three or four feet above
+the ground, pushing its way through the gigantic doorway from the
+ante-room, with its great disintegrators pointed upon the crowd like the
+muzzles of a cruiser's guns.</p>
+
+<p>And now the Martians saw that the contest was hopeless for them, and
+their mad struggle to get out of the range of the disintegrators and to
+escape from the death chamber was more appalling to look upon than
+anything that had yet occurred.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="il191" id="il191"></a>
+<img src="images/il191.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3><i>"Suddenly there was a discharge into the room which I
+knew came from one of the disintegrators of the electrical ships. It
+swept through the crowded throng like a destroying blast. It was a panic
+of giants!"</i></h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<p>It was a panic of giants. They trod one another under foot; they yelled
+and screamed in their terror; they tore each other with their claw-like
+fingers. They no longer thought of resistance. The battle spirit had
+been blown out of them by a breath of terror that shivered their marrow.</p>
+
+<p>Still the pitiless disintegrators played upon them until Mr. Edison,
+making himself heard, now that the thunder of their engines had ceased
+to reverberate through the chamber, commanded that our fire should
+cease.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the armed Martians outside the palace, hearing the
+uproar within, seeing our men pouring their fire through the windows,
+and supposing that we were guilty at once of treachery and
+assassination, had attempted an attack upon the electrical ships
+stationed round the building. But fortunately they had none of their
+larger engines at hand, and with their hand arms alone they had not been
+able to stand up against the disintegrators. They were blown away before
+the withering fire of the ships by the hundreds until, fleeing from
+destruction, they rushed madly, driving their unarmed companions before
+them into the seething waters of the flood close at hand.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SEVENTEEN" id="CHAPTER_SEVENTEEN"></a>CHAPTER SEVENTEEN</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE FEARFUL OATHS OF COLONEL SMITH</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>Through all this terrible contest the emperor of the Martians had
+remained standing upon his throne, gazing at the awful spectacle, and
+not moving from the spot. Neither he nor the frightened woman gathered
+upon the steps of the throne had been injured by the disintegrators.
+Their immunity was due to the fact that the position and elevation of
+the throne were such that, it was not within the range of fire of the
+electrical ships which had poured their vibratory discharges through the
+windows, and we inside had only directed our fire toward the warriors
+who had attacked us.</p>
+
+<p>Now that the struggle was over we turned our attention to Aina.
+Fortunately the girl had not been seriously injured and she was quickly
+restored to consciousness. Had she been killed, we would have been
+practically helpless in attempting further negotiations, because the
+knowledge which we had acquired of the language of the Martians from the
+prisoner captured on the golden asteroid, was not sufficient to meet the
+requirements of the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>When the Martian monarch saw that we ceased the work of death, he sank
+upon his throne. There he remained, leaning his chin upon his two hands
+and staring straight before him like that terrible doomed creature who
+fascinates the eyes of every beholder standing in the Sistine Chapel and
+gazing at Micheal Angeleo's dreadful painting of "The Last Judgement."</p>
+
+<p>This wicked Martian also felt that he was in the grasp of pitiless and
+irresistible fate, and that a punishment too well deserved, and from
+which there was no possible escape, now confronted him.</p>
+
+<p>There he remained in a hopelessness which almost compelled our sympathy,
+until Aina had so far recovered that she was once more able to act as
+our interpreter. Then we made short work of the negotiations. Speaking
+through Aina, the commander said:</p>
+
+<p>"You know who we are. We have come from the earth, which, by your
+command, was laid waste. Our commission was not revenge, but
+self-protection. What we have done has been accomplished with that in
+view. You have just witnessed an example of our power, the exercise of
+which was not dictated by our wish, but compelled by the attack wantonly
+made upon a helpless member of our own race under our protection.</p>
+
+<p>"We have laid waste your planet, but it is simply a just retribution for
+what you did with ours. We are prepared to complete the destruction,
+leaving not a living being in this world of yours, or to grant you
+peace, at your choice. Our condition of peace is simply this: All
+resistance must cease absolutely."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right," broke in Colonel Smith; "let the scorpion pull out his
+sting or we shall do it for him."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing that we could do now," continued the commander, "would in my
+opinion save you from ultimate destruction. The forces of nature which
+we have been compelled to let loose upon you will complete their own
+victory. But we do not wish, unnecessarily, to stain our hands further
+with your blood. We shall leave you in possession of your lives.
+Preserve them if you can. But, in case the flood recedes before you have
+all perished from starvation, remember that you here take an oath,
+solemnly binding yourself and your descendants forever never again to
+make war upon the earth."</p>
+
+<p>"That's really the best we can do," said Mr. Edison, turning to us. "We
+can't possibly murder these people in cold blood. The probability is
+that the flood has hopelessly ruined all their engines of war. I do not
+believe that there is one chance in ten that the waters will drain off
+in time to enable them to get at their stores of provisions before they
+have perished from starvation."</p>
+
+<p>"It is my opinion," said Lord Kelvin, who had joined us (his pair of
+disintegrators hanging by his side, attached to a strap running over the
+back of his neck, very much as a farmer sometimes carries his big
+mittens), "it is my opinion that the flood will recede more rapidly than
+you think, and that the majority of these people will survive. But I
+quite agree with your merciful view of the matter. We must be guilty of
+no wanton destruction. Probably more than nine-tenths of the inhabitants
+of Mars have perished in the deluge. Even if all the others survived
+ages would elapse before they could regain the power to injure us."</p>
+
+<p>I need not describe in detail how our propositions were received by the
+Martian monarch. He knew, and his advisors, some of whom he had called
+in consultation, also knew, that everything was in our hands to do as we
+pleased. They readily agreed, therefore, that they would make no more
+resistance and that we and our electrical ships should be undisturbed
+while we remained upon Mars. The monarch took the oath prescribed after
+the manner of his race; thus the business was completed. But through it
+all there had been a shadow of a sneer on the emperor's face which I did
+not like. But I said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>And now we began to think of our return home, and of the pleasure we
+should have in recounting our adventures to our friends on the earth,
+who undoubtedly were eagerly awaiting news from us. We knew that they
+had been watching Mars with powerful telescopes, and we were also eager
+to learn how much they had seen and how much they had been able to guess
+of our proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>But a day or two at least would be required to overhaul the electrical
+ships and examine the state of our provisions. Those which we had
+brought from the earth, it will be remembered, had been spoiled and we
+had been compelled to replace them from the compressed provisions found
+in the Martian's storehouse. This compressed food had proved not only
+exceedingly agreeable to the taste, but very nourishing, and all of us
+had grown extremely fond of it. A new supply, however, would be needed
+in order to carry us back to the earth. At least sixty days would be
+required for the homeward journey, because we could hardly expect to
+start from Mars with the same initial velocity which we had been able to
+generate on leaving home.</p>
+
+<p>In considering the matter of provisioning the fleet it finally became
+necessary to take an account of our losses. This was a thing that we had
+all shrunk from, because they had seemed to us almost too terrible to be
+borne. But now the facts had to be faced. Out of the one hundred ships,
+carrying something more than two thousand souls, with which we had
+quitted the earth, there remained only fifty-five ships and 1085 men!
+All the others had been lost in our terrible encounters with the
+Martians, and particularly in our first disastrous battle beneath the
+clouds.</p>
+
+<p>Among the lost were many men whose names were famous upon the earth, and
+whose death would be widely deplored when the news of it was received
+upon their native planet. Fortunately this number did not include any of
+those whom I have had occasion to mention in the course of this
+narrative. The venerable Lord Kelvin, who, notwithstanding his age, and
+his pacific disposition, proper to a man of science, had behaved with
+the courage and coolness of a veteran in every crisis; Monsieur Moissan,
+the eminent chemist; Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson, and the Heidelberg
+professor, to whom we all felt under special obligations because he had
+opened to our comprehension the charming lips of Aina&mdash;all these had
+survived, and were about to return with us to the earth.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to some of us almost heartless to deprive the Martians who
+still remained alive of any of the provisions which they themselves
+would require to tide them over the long period which must elapse before
+the recession of the flood should enable them to discover the sites of
+their ruined homes, and to find the means of sustenance. But necessity
+was now our only law. We learned from Aina that there must be stores of
+provisions in the neighborhood of the palace, because it was the custom
+of the Martians to lay up such stores during the harvest time in each
+Martian year in order to provide against the contingency of an
+extraordinary drought.</p>
+
+<p>It was not with very good grace that the Martian emperor acceded to our
+demands that one of the storehouses should be opened, but resistance was
+useless and of course we had our way.</p>
+
+<p>The supplies of water which we brought from the earth, owing to a
+peculiar process invented by Monsieur Moissan, had been kept in
+exceedingly good condition, but they were now running low and it became
+necessary to replenish them also. This was easily done from the Southern
+Ocean, for on Mars, since the levelling of the continental elevations,
+brought about many years ago, there is comparatively little salinity in
+the sea waters.</p>
+
+<p>While these preparations were going on Lord Kelvin and the other men of
+science entered with the utmost eagerness upon those studies, the
+prosecution of which had been the principal inducement leading them to
+embark on the expedition. But, almost all of the face of the planet
+being covered with the flood, there was comparatively little that they
+could do. Much, however, could be learned with the aid of Aina from the
+Martians, now crowded on the land above the palace.</p>
+
+<p>The results of these discoveries will in due time appear, fully
+elaborated in learned and authoratative treatises prepared by these
+savants' themselves. I shall only call attention to one, which seemed to
+me very remarkable. I have already said that there were astonishing
+differences in the personal appearance of the Martians evidently arising
+from differences of character and education, which had impressed
+themselves in the physical aspect of the individuals. We now learned
+that these differences were more completely the result of education than
+we had at first supposed.</p>
+
+<p>Looking about among the Martians by whom we were surrounded, it soon
+became easy for us to tell who were the soldiers and who were the
+civilians, simply by the appearance of their bodies, and particularly of
+their heads. All members of the military class resembled, to a greater
+or less extent, the monarch himself, in that those parts of their skulls
+which our phrenologists had designated as the bumps of destructiveness,
+combativeness and so on were enormously and disproportionately
+developed.</p>
+
+<p>And all this, we were assured, was completely under the control of the
+Martians themselves. They had learned, or invented, methods by which the
+brain itself could be manipulated, so to speak, and any desired portions
+of it could be especially developed, while other parts of it were left
+to their normal growth. The consequence was that in the Martian schools
+and colleges there was no teaching in our sense of the word. It was all
+brain culture.</p>
+
+<p>A Martian youth selected to be a soldier had his fighting faculties
+especially developed, together with those parts of the brain which
+impart courage and steadiness of nerve. He who was intended for
+scientific investigation had his brain developed into a mathematical
+machine, or an instrument of observation. Poets and literary men had
+their heads bulging with the imaginative faculties. The heads of the
+inventors were developed into a still different shape.</p>
+
+<p>"And so," said Aina, translating for us the words of a professor in the
+Imperial University of Mars, from whom we derived the greater part of
+our information on this subject, "the Martian boys do not study a
+subject; they do not have to learn it, but, when their brains have been
+sufficiently developed in the proper direction, they comprehend it
+instantly, by a kind of divine instinct."</p>
+
+<p>But among the women of Mars, we saw none of these curious, and to our
+eyes, monstrous differences of development. While the men received, in
+addition to their special education, a broad general culture also, with
+the women there was no special education. It was all general in its
+character, yet thorough enough in that way. The consequence was that
+only female brains upon Mars were entirely well balanced. This was the
+reason why we invariably found the Martian women to be remarkably
+charming creatures, with none of those physical exaggerations and
+uncouth developments which disfigured their masculine companions.</p>
+
+<p>All the books of the Martians, we ascertained, were books of history and
+of poetry. For scientific treatises they had no need, because, as I have
+explained, when the brains of those intended for scientific pursuits had
+been developed in the proper way the knowledge of nature's laws came to
+them without effort, as a spring bubbles from the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>One word of explanation may be needed concerning the failure of the
+Martians, with all their marvelous powers, to invent electrical ships
+like those of Mr. Edison's and engines of destruction comparable with
+our disintegrators. This failure was simply due to the fact that on Mars
+there did not exist the peculiar metals by the combination of which Mr.
+Edison had been able to effect his wonders. The theory involved by our
+inventions was perfectly understood by them and had they possessed the
+means, doubtless they would have been able to carry it into practice
+even more effectively than we had done.</p>
+
+<p>After two or three days all the preparations having been completed the
+signal was given for our departure. The men of science were still
+unwilling to leave this strange world, but Mr. Edison decided we could
+linger no longer.</p>
+
+<p>At the moment of starting a most tragic event occured. Our fleet was
+assembled around the palace, and the signal was given to rise slowly to
+a considerable height before imparting a great velocity to the
+electrical ships. As we slowly rose we saw the immense crowd of giants
+beneath us, with upturned faces, watching our departure. The Martian
+monarch and all his suite had come out upon the terrace of the palace to
+look at us. At a moment when he probably supposed himself to be
+unwatched he shook his fist at the retreating fleet. My eyes and those
+of several others in the flagship chanced to be fixed upon him. Just as
+he made the gesture one of the women of his suite, in her eagerness to
+watch us, apparently lost her balance and stumbled against him. Without
+a moment's hesitation, with a tremendous blow, he felled her like an ox
+at his feet.</p>
+
+<p>A fearful oath broke from the lips of Colonel Smith, who was one of
+those looking on. It chanced that he stood near the principal
+disintegrator of the flagship. Before anybody could interfere he had
+sighted and discharged it. The entire force of the terrible engine,
+almost capable of destroying a fort, fell upon the Martian emperor and
+not merely blew him into a cloud of atoms but opened a great cavity in
+the ground on the spot where he had stood.</p>
+
+<p>A shout arose from the Martians, but they were too much astounded at
+what had occurred to make any hostile demonstrations, and, anyhow, they
+knew well that they were completely at our mercy.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Edison was on the point of rebuking Colonel Smith for what he had
+done, but Aina interposed.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad it was done," said she "for now only can you be safe. That
+monster was more directly responsible than any other inhabitant of Mars
+for all the wickedness of which they have been guilty.</p>
+
+<p>"The expedition against the earth was inspired solely by him. There is a
+tradition among the Martians&mdash;which my people, however, could never
+credit&mdash;that he possessed a kind of immortality. They declared that it
+was he who led the former expedition against the earth when my ancestors
+were brought away prisoners from their happy home, and that it was his
+image which they had set up in stone in the midst of the Land of Sand.
+He prolonged his existence, according to this legend, by drinking the
+waters of a wonderful fountain, the secret of whose precise location was
+known to him alone but which was situated at that point where in your
+maps of Mars the name of the Fons Juventae occurs. He was personified
+wickedness, that I know; and he never would have kept his oath if power
+had returned to him again to injure the earth. In destroying him, you
+have made your victory secure."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_EIGHTEEN" id="CHAPTER_EIGHTEEN"></a>CHAPTER EIGHTEEN</h2>
+
+<h3><i>THE GREAT OVATION</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>When at length we once more saw our native planet, with its
+well-remembered features of land and sea, rolling beneath our eyes, the
+feeling of joy that came over us transcended all powers of expression.</p>
+
+<p>In order that all the nations which had united in sending out the
+expedition should have visual evidence of its triumphal return, it was
+decided to make the entire circuit of the earth before seeking our
+starting point and disembarking. Brief accounts in all known languages,
+telling the story of what we had done was accordingly prepared, and then
+we dropped down through the air until again we saw the well-loved blue
+dome over our heads, and found ourselves suspended directly above the
+white topped cone of Fujiyama, the sacred mountain of Japan. Shifting
+our position toward the northeast, we hung above the city of Tokyo and
+dropped down into the crowds which had assembled to watch us, the
+prepared accounts of our journey, which, the moment they had been read
+and comprehended, led to such an outburst of rejoicing as it would be
+quite impossible to describe.</p>
+
+<p>One of the ships containing the Japanese members of the expedition,
+dropped to the ground, and we left them in the midst of their rejoicing
+countrymen. Before we started&mdash;and we remained but a short time
+suspended above the Japanese capitol&mdash;millions had assembled to greet us
+with their cheers.</p>
+
+<p>We now repeated what we had done during our first examination of the
+surface of Mars. We simply remained suspended in the atmosphere,
+allowing the earth to turn beneath us. As Japan receded in the distance
+we found China beginning to appear. Shifting our position a little
+toward the south, we again came to rest over the city of Pekin, where
+once more we parted with some of our companions, and where the outburst
+of universal rejoicing was repeated.</p>
+
+<p>From Asia, crossing the Caspian Sea, we passed over Russia, visiting in
+turn Moscow and St. Petersburg.</p>
+
+<p>Still the great globe rolled steadily beneath, and still we kept the sun
+with us. Now Germany appeared, and now Italy, and then France, and
+England, as we shifted our position, first north then south, in order to
+give all the world the opportunity to see that its warriors had returned
+victorious from its far conquest. And in each country as it passed
+beneath our feet, we left some of the comrades who had shared our perils
+and our adventures.</p>
+
+<p>At length the Atlantic had rolled away under us, and we saw the spires
+of the new New York.</p>
+
+<p>The news of our coming had been flashed ahead from Europe and our
+countrymen were prepared to welcome us. We had originally started, it
+will be remembered, at midnight, and now again as we approached the new
+capitol of the world the curtain of night was just beginning to be drawn
+over it. But our signal lights were ablaze, and through these they were
+aware of our approach.</p>
+
+<p>Again the air was filled with bursting rockets and shaken with the roar
+of cannon, and with volleying cheers, poured from millions of throats,
+as we came to rest directly above the city.</p>
+
+<p>Three days after the landing of the fleet, and when the first enthusiasm
+of our reception had a little passed, I received a beautifully engraved
+card inviting me to be present in Trinity Church at the wedding of Aina
+and Sydney Phillips.</p>
+
+<p>When I arrived at the church, which had been splendidly decorated, I
+found there Mr. Edison, Lord Kelvin, and all the other members of the
+crew of the flagship, and, considerably to my surprise, Colonel Smith,
+appropriately attired, and with a grace for the possession of which I
+had not given him credit, gave away the beautiful bride.</p>
+
+<p>But Alonzo Jefferson Smith was a man and a soldier, every inch of him.</p>
+
+<p>"I asked her for myself," he whispered to me after the ceremony,
+swallowing a great lump in his throat, "but she has had the desire of
+her heart. I am going back to the plains. I can get a command again, and
+I still know how to fight."</p>
+
+<p>And thus was united, for all future time, the first stem of the Aryan
+race, which had been long lost, but not destroyed, with the latest
+offspring of that great family, and the link which had served to bring
+them together was the far-away planet of Mars.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<h2><a name="BIBLIOGRAPHY" id="BIBLIOGRAPHY"></a>BIBLIOGRAPHY <i>OF GARRETT PUTMAN SERVISS</i></h2>
+
+
+
+<h3>Compiled by Elizabeth Dew Searles</h3>
+
+
+<h4><i>Non-Fiction: Magazine Articles</i></h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Achievements of astronomical photography. Outlook <i>79</i>, 787-96 (April 1, 1905)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Alexander Graham Bell. Cosmopolitan <i>33</i>, 42-44 (May 1902)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Alpha Centauri. Harper's Weekly <i>38</i>, 413 (May 5, 1894)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Among the stars with an opera-glass. Sidereal Messenger <i>10</i>, 244-47 (May 1891)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Another theory about Mars. Harper's Weekly <i>41</i>, 518-19 (May 22, 1897)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Arcturus, the greatest of all suns. Scientific American <i>70</i>, 327 (May 26, 1894)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Are there planets among the stars? Popular Science Monthly <i>52</i>, 171-77 (December 1897)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Artificial creation of life. Cosmopolitan <i>39</i>, 459-68 (September 1905)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Astronomy with an opera-glass: (This series was enlarged and published in book form; see the following section.)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Stars of spring. Popular Science Monthly <i>30</i>, 743-56 (April 1887)<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Stars of summer. ibid. <i>31</i>, 187-207 (June 1887)<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Moon and the sun. ibid. <i>31</i>, 478-92 (August 1887)<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Stars of autumn. ibid. <i>32</i>, 53-71 (November 1887)<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Stars of winter. ibid. <i>32</i>, 511-29 (February 1888)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+
+<span class="i0">Astronomy in the 20th century. Popular Astronomy <i>9</i>, 286-87 1901)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Auriga's wonderful star. Harper's Weekly <i>41</i>, 471 (May 8, 1897)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A Belt of sun-spots. Popular Science Monthly <i>24</i>, 180-86 (December 1883)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Can we always count upon the sun? Popular Science Monthly <i>39</i>,658-64 (September 1891)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Celebrated American astronomers. Harper's Weekly <i>38</i>, 1143-46 (Dec. 1, 1894)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Digging up C&aelig;sar's camp. Harper's Weekly <i>54</i>, 12-13 (Dec. 31, 1910)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Dimensions of the universe. Chautaquan <i>21</i>, 143-48 (May 1895)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Edelweiss. Nature Magazine <i>10</i>, 25 (July 1927)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Facts and fancies about Mars. Harper's Weekly <i>40</i>, 926 (Sept. 19, 1896)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">From chaos to man; illustrated lecture in the Urania scientific theater, at Carnegie Hall.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0"> Scientific American <i>66</i>, 399, 405-07 (June 25, 1892)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Greenland's icy mountains. Mentor <i>15</i>, 33-34 (February 1927)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">How Burbank produces new flowers and fruit. Cosmopolitan <i>40</i>, 163-70 (December 1905)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Is Mars inhabited? Harper's Weekly <i>39</i>, 712 (July 27, 1895)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Kite principle in aerial navigation. Scientific American <i>88</i>, 484 (June 27, 1903)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Latest marvels of astronomy. Mentor <i>9</i>, 2-12 (October 1921)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Luther Burbank. Chautaquan <i>50</i>, 406-16 (May 1908)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">New conquest of the heavens. Cosmopolitan <i>52</i>, 584-93 (April 1912)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">New light on a lunar mystery. Popular Science Monthly <i>34</i>, 158-61 (December 1888)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">New philosopher's stone. Cosmopolitan <i>44</i>, 632-36 (May 1908)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">New Shakespeare&mdash;Bacon controversy. Cosmopolitan <i>32</i>, 554-58 (March 1902)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Opposition of Mars. Harper's Weekly <i>36</i>, 810 (Aug. 20, 1892)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Pleasures of the telescope: (Cf. the book "<i>Pleasures of the Telescope</i>"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">listed in the following section.)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2"><i>The selection and testing of a glass.</i> Popular Science Monthly <i>45</i>, 213-24 (June 1894)<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In the starry heavens. ibid. <i>46</i>, 289-301 (January 1895)<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The starry heavens (cont'd). ibid. <i>46</i>, 466-78 (February 1895)<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Virgo and her neighbors. ibid. <i>46</i>, 738-50 (April 1895)<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In summer starlands. ibid. <i>47</i>, 194-208 (June 1895)<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From Lyra to Eridanus. ibid. <i>47</i>, 508-21 (August 1895)<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and the northern stars. ibid. <i>47</i>, 783-97<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">(October 1895)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Progress of science. Cosmopolitan <i>33</i>, 357-60 (July 1902)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Recent magnetic storms and sun-spots. Popular Science Monthly <i>23</i>, 163-69 (June 1883)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Riding through space. Mentor <i>11</i>, 3-16 (November 1923)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Rome of the gravel walk. Harper's Weekly <i>54</i>, 9-11 (July 30, 1910)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Scenes on the planets. Popular Science Monthly <i>56</i>, 337-49 (January<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">1900)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Sky from Pike's Peak. Astronomy and Astrophysics <i>13</i>, 150-51 (February 1894)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Soaring flight. Scientific American <i>90</i>, 345 (April 30, 1904)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Solving the mystery of the stars. Cosmopolitan <i>39</i>, 395-404 (August 1905)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Star streams and nebul&aelig;. Popular Science Monthly <i>38</i>, 338-41 (January 1891)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Strange markings on Mars. Popular Science Monthly <i>35</i>, 41-56 (May 1889)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Studies in astronomy. Chautaquan <i>12</i>, 38-43, 184-88, 330-34, 463-67,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">596-601, 735-39; <i>13</i>, 34-39, 170-75, 304-09 (October 1890-June 1891)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Sun and his family. Outlook <i>200</i>, 656-65 (March 23, 1912)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Transforming the world of plants. Cosmopolitan <i>40</i>, 63-70 (November 1905)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What a five-inch telescope will show. Popular Astronomy <i>1</i>, 372-73 (April 1894)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What is astronomy? Chautaquan <i>18</i>, 541-45 (February 1894)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What is the music of the spheres? Mentor <i>15</i>, 18-20 (December 1927)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What the stars are made of. Chautaquan <i>21</i>, 9-13 (April 1895)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What we know about the planets. Chautaquan <i>20</i>, 526-31 (February 1895)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When shall we have another glacial epoch? Publications of the<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Astronomical Society of the Pacific 4, 15-19 (Jan. 30, 1892)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<h4><i>Non-Fiction: Books, Pamphlets, Etc.</i></h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Astronomy in a nutshell, the chief facts and principles explained in<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">popular language for the general reader and for schools. New<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1912. xi, 261p. front.,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">illus., plates, diagrs. 19cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Astronomy with an opera-glass: a popular introduction to the study<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">of the starry heavens with the simplest of optical instruments, with<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">maps and directions to facilitate the recognition of the<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">constellations and the principal stars visible to the naked eye. New<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">York and London: D. Appleton and Co., 1888. vi, 154 p. incl. illus.,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">maps. 23cm. (Enlarged from a series of articles in <i>Popular Science</i><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Monthly</i>; see the preceding section.)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Astronomy with the naked eye; a new geography of the heavens, with<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">descriptions and charts of constellations, stars, and planets. New<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">York and London: Harper and brothers, 1908. xiii, (l)p., 1 1.,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">246p., 1 1. illus., xiv charts (12 double). 21cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Curiosities of the sky; a popular presentation of the great riddles<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">and mysteries of astronomy. New York and London: Harper &amp; brothers,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">1909. xvi p., 2 1., 267, (1) p. incl. front., plates, charts. 21cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Einstein theory of relativity ... with illustrations and photos<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">taken directly from the Einstein relativity film, illustrations by<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">R. D. Crandall. New York: E. M. Fadman, inc., (c1923). 96p.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">front., illus. 19cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;. London: American Book Supply, 1923. 96p. 19cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Eloquence, counsel on the art of public speaking; with many<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">illustrative examples showing the style and method of famous orators.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">New York and London: Harper &amp; brothers, 1912. iv p., 31., 2l4p.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">front, (port.). 19-1/2cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">How to use the Popular science library ... (and) History of science,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">by Arthur Selwyn-Brown; General index. New York: P. F. Collier<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&amp; son co., (c1922). 2p.l., 3-384p. front., plates, ports. 20-1/2cm.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(added t.-p.: Popular science library, editor-in-chief, G. P.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Serviss, vol. XVI).<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Moon; a popular treatise. New York: D. Appleton and co.,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">1907. xii, 248p. front., illus., 26 pl. 20cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;. London: D. Appleton and co., 1908. 260p. illus. 20cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Moon <i>in</i> Frederick H. Law (ed.), Science in literature. New<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">York: Harper and brothers, 1929. p. 69-83.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Napoleon Bonaparte <i>in</i> Thomas B. Reed (ed.), Modern eloquence.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Philadelphia: John D. Morris and co., 1901. vol. 6, p. 983-1009.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Other worlds; their nature, possibilities and habitability in the<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">light of the latest discoveries. New York: D. Appleton and co., 1901.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">xv, 282p. front. (chart), illus., plates. 19-1/2cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;. London: Hirschfeld brothers, 1902. 298p. charts, illus.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">19-1/2cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Pleasures of the telescope; an illustrated guide for amateur<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">astronomers and a popular description of the chief wonders of the<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">heavens for general readers. New York: D. Appleton and co., 1901.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">viii, 200p. illus. (incl. maps). 23cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;. London: Hirschfeld brothers, 1901. 208p. 23cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Round the year with the stars; the chief beauties of the starry<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">heavens as seen with the naked eye ... with maps showing the<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">aspect of the sky in each of the four seasons and charts revealing<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">the outlines of the constellations. New York and London: Harper &amp;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">brothers, 1910. 19, (1) p., 1 1., 21-146, (1) p. incl. charts. 21cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Solar and planetary evolution <i>in</i> Evolution; popular lectures and<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">discussions before the Brooklyn ethical association. Boston: James H.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">West, 1889. p. 55-70; discussion, p. 71-75.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Story of the moon; a description of the scenery of the lunar<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">world as it would appear to a visitor spending a month on the moon<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">... illustrated with a complete series of photographs taken at the<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yerkes observatory. New York, London: D. Appleton and co.,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(c1928). xii, 247, (1) p. front., illus., plates, diagrs. 20cm.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(First published under the title: The Moon)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Wonders of the lunar world, or A Trip to the moon. (New York):<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">publisher not given, c1892. 20p. 201/2cm. (Urania series. No.l)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<h4><i>Fiction</i></h4>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A Columbus of space. New York and London: D. Appleton and co.,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">1911. vii p., 1 1., 297, (1) p. col. front., col. plates. 20cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;. All-Story <i>13</i>, 1-16, 238-57, 418-32, 644-58; 14, 79-89, 300-12<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(January-June 1909)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;. Amazing Stories <i>1</i>, 388-409, 474-75, 490-509, 596-615, 669<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(August-October 1926)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Edison's conquest of Mars. New York Evening Journal, Jan. 12-Feb.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">10, 1898.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Moon Maiden. Argosy <i>79</i>, 258-351 (May 1915)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Moon metal. New York and London: Harper &amp; brothers, 1900.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">2 p.l., 163, (1) p. 17-1/2cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;. All-Story <i>2</i>, 118-53 (May 1905)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;. Amazing Stories <i>1</i>, 322-45, 381 (July 1926)<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;. Famous Fantastic Mysteries <i>1</i>, 40-74 (November 1939).<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Second deluge. New York: McBride, Nast &amp; co., 1912. 6p.l.,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">3-399p. front., plates. 191/2cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;. London: Grant Richards, 1912. 410p. 191/2cm.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;. Amazing Stories <i>1</i>, 676-701, 767-68, 844-66, 944-67, 1059-73<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(November 1926-February 1927).<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;. Amazing Stories Quarterly <i>7</i>, 2-73 (Winter 1933).<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&mdash;&mdash;. Cavalier <i>9</i>, 193-210, 481-501, 693-708; <i>10</i>, 88-103, 300-15,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">546-58, 739-52 (July 1911-January 1912).<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Sky pirate. Scrap Book <i>7</i>, 595-606, 835-45, 1079-91; <i>8</i>,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">105-17, 294-304, 562-70 (April-September 1909).<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Note: In addition to his books and magazine articles, Garrett P.
+Serviss wrote extensively for newspapers, having been a staff
+writer on the New York <i>Sun</i> at the beginning of his career and
+having written later for a newspaper syndicate. This bibliography
+does not include any of Serviss' newspaper writings, with the
+exception of <i>Edison's Conquest of Mars</i>, since the effort involved
+in compiling a list of his writings from so ephemeral a medium
+would not be warranted by the questionable completeness of such a
+list, much of his writing for newspapers having been anonymous.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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@@ -0,0 +1,8436 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Edison's Conquest of Mars, by Garrett Putnam Serviss
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Edison's Conquest of Mars
+
+Author: Garrett Putnam Serviss
+
+Release Date: June 3, 2007 [EBook #21670]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDISON'S CONQUEST OF MARS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                        EDISON'S CONQUEST OF MARS
+
+                          BY GARRETT P. SERVISS.
+
+            WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY A. LANGLEY SEARLES, Ph. D.
+
+
+
+
+CARCOSA HOUSE
+1947
+LOS ANGELES
+
+The special contents of this volume are copyright 1947 by CARCOSA HOUSE.
+FIRST EDITION
+
+[Transcriber's note: This is a Rule 6 Clearance. PG has not been able to
+find a U.S. Copyright Renewal]
+
+
+DEDICATED
+to
+GARRETT PUTMAN SERVISS
+
+A COSMOPOLITE IN TIME
+1851-1929
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+    _Introduction_
+
+    CHAPTER ONE
+    _"Let Us Go To Mars"_
+
+    CHAPTER TWO
+    _The Disintegrator_
+
+    CHAPTER THREE
+    _The Congress of Nations_
+
+    CHAPTER FOUR
+    _To Conquer Another World_
+
+    CHAPTER FIVE
+    _The Footprint on the Moon_
+
+    CHAPTER SIX
+    _The Monsters on the Asteroid_
+
+    CHAPTER SEVEN
+    _A Planet of Gold_
+
+    CHAPTER EIGHT
+    _"The Martians are Coming!"_
+
+    CHAPTER NINE
+    _Journey's End_
+
+    CHAPTER TEN
+    _The Great Smoke Barrier_
+
+    CHAPTER ELEVEN
+    _The Earth Girl_
+
+    CHAPTER TWELVE
+    _Retreat to Deimos_
+
+    CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+    _There Were Giants in the Earth_
+
+    CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+    _The Flood Gates of Mars_
+
+    CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+    _Vengeance is Ours_
+
+    CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+    _The Woman From Ceres_
+
+    CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+    _The Fearful Oaths of Colonel Smith_
+
+    CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+    _The Great Ovation_
+
+    _Bibliography_
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+_"Like men, and yet not like men...."_
+
+_"... rising out of the shadow of the globe...."_
+
+_"A consultation in Wizard Edison's laboratory...."_
+
+_"Through this the meteor had passed...."_
+
+_"... the ruins of ... an ancient watch tower."_
+
+_"... another of our ships ... was destroyed."_
+
+_"Two of the Martians were stretched dead upon the ground."_
+
+_"He might have been a match for twenty of us."_
+
+_"... he proceeded to teach us ... words of his language."_
+
+_"... approaching from the eastward a large airship...."_
+
+_"... a human being here on Mars!"_
+
+_"The gigantic statue of their leader is THE GREAT SPHINX!"_
+
+_"It was a panic of giants."_
+
+
+These illustrations are a selection of the best from the original
+newspaper installments and were redrawn for this volume by Bernard
+Manley, Jr., of Chicago, Illinois.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+If you picked up a magazine and read in it a story mentioning a
+passenger-carrying rocket driven by atomic power furnished by a
+substance prepared from uranium, you probably would not be greatly
+surprised. After all, such an invention is today but a step or two ahead
+of cold fact. But you might be surprised to learn that if this story was
+_A Columbus of Space_, the one I happen to have in mind, your
+grand-parents may well have read it before you were born--for _A
+Columbus of Space_ was published in _All-Story_ magazine in 1909, thirty
+years before the potentialities of U235 were realized, and nearly forty
+before the atomic bomb became a problem for people to think about.
+
+Did the author of this story simply make a lucky shot in the dark?
+Perhaps; but let me tell those who are inclined to think so that he was
+a Carnegie lecturer, a member of half-a-dozen learned societies, one of
+the first to write a book on Einstein's theory of relativity, and an
+internationally known figure in his specialty, astronomy. His name is
+Garrett Putman Serviss.
+
+He was born on March 24, 1851, at Sharon Springs, New York, of native
+New England stock. His interest in astronomy began as a boy, and was
+greatly stimulated when he began to examine the beauties of the heavens
+through a small telescope, the gift of his older brother. This
+encouraged his enrolling in the course of science at Cornell University
+in 1868 (its opening year) from which he was graduated in 1872. There
+followed two years at the Columbia College Law School, which he left as
+an LL. B.; and in June, 1874 he was admitted to the bar. He did not
+practice law, however, but turned instead to newspaper reporting.
+
+Whence came this interest in law and journalism? We can only guess,
+tracing its onset to the man's college days. As a Cornell sophomore, he
+was the class poet; as a senior, its historian; and on commencement day
+delivered an oration on "The Perpetuity of the Heroic Element." But
+whatever the origin of the interest, unquestioned ability supported it.
+From the position of reporter and correspondent with the New York
+_Tribune_ he rose to the post of copy editor on the staff of the _Sun_.
+Finally he became night editor, a position which he held for a full
+decade.
+
+During this period we can see the old interest in science gradually
+assert itself. At first it took the form of anonymous articles, mainly
+on matters astronomical. These usually appeared on the editorial page
+and, partly because they were then a novelty, partly because of a quirk
+of fate--editor-in-chief Charles Dana frequently had them set up in bold
+type, believing their logic was a fine counter-irritant for heated
+political campaigns of the day--the attention of subscribers was focused
+on them more sharply than usual. In fact, readers over the entire
+country were soon conjecturing about the identity of "the _Sun's_
+astronomer." Very few knew that it was Garrett Serviss, who successfully
+cloaked his identity for years.
+
+Success in written popularizing of science led him to attempt its
+duplication on the lecture platform. There his triumphs were such as to
+lead him to resign as night editor of the _Sun_ in 1892 and make
+astronomy his life work. Until 1894 he was occupied with "The Urania
+Lectures." These were sponsored by Andrew Carnegie, and dealt with
+geology, astronomy, archeology and similar scientific topics. With them
+Serviss successfully toured the country, and it was only because of the
+great difficulty in transporting the elaborate staging equipment they
+required that they were eventually discontinued. He continued to give
+popular lectures, however, and one of his few biographers has credited
+his greatness on the rostrum to "a pleasant voice, a charming
+personality, and a genuine enthusiasm for his subject."
+
+One cannot doubt this enthusiasm; it shines forth unmistakably from all
+his writings. Probably, too, it played the major part in enabling him to
+reach a wider reading public than any other astronomer before or after
+him. For he never abandoned the pen. Up until his death, which occurred
+on May 25, 1929, he wrote continually, syndicated newspaper columns,
+magazine articles, books on astronomy, fiction.
+
+His first book, _Astronomy with an Opera Glass_, appeared in 1888. He
+was responsible for several other scientific titles (the reader is
+referred to the bibliography at the end of this volume for a detailed
+listing); they include _Einstein's Theory of Relativity_, which is a
+companion work to the motion picture of the same name. He was also
+editor-in-chief of Collier's sixteen-volume _Popular Science Library_.
+It might be added that much of the editing and captioning of the
+Einstein film was his work, and that he collaborated with Leon Barritt
+in the invention of the Barritt-Serviss Star and Planet Finder, a device
+still in use.
+
+In comparison with his other writings his output of fiction is small:
+five novels and a single short story. It is, however, characterized by
+the same logic and interest, this time tossed aloft to soar on the wings
+of romantic imagination. Two of these works deal in some detail with the
+world of the future as he thought it might be--prophetic fiction, if you
+will; another two give us a picture of life on neighboring planets; and
+the final couple, although they maintain a terrestrial locale, show as
+wide a scope of creative invention.
+
+In only one of these does astronomy fail to play at least a supporting
+role. That is _The Sky Pirate_ (1909), which is an adventure story laid
+in the year 1936. Its plot revolves around an abduction for ransom in a
+period which is visualized as rampant with piracy because of the general
+adoption of air transportation. As usual, fact has outmoded prophecy,
+for long before 1936 airplane speeds exceeded the 140 miles per hour
+Serviss predicted. We still need, though, his invention which enables
+badly damaged aircraft to drift slowly down to a safe landing.
+
+_The Moon Metal_ (1900) deals with the problem of a strange, lunar metal
+used as a monetary standard to replace gold when, in 1949, huge new
+deposits of that metal rendered it common as iron. This is of short
+story length, and amply demonstrates the author's mastery of that
+medium.
+
+From the prophetic as well as the entertainment standpoint, one of
+Garrett Serviss' most interesting novels is _A Columbus of Space_. Here
+he visualizes atomic energy liberated and harnessed to drive a rocket to
+the planet Venus. His conception is uncannily close to truth; he names
+uranium as the raw material from which is extracted the vital substance,
+a "crystallized powder" which releases its energy on proper treatment.
+No less intriguing is the description of the intelligent civilizations
+on Venus which explorers from this world find.
+
+Two later novels came from his pen: _The Moon Maiden_ (1915) and _The
+Second Deluge_ (1911). The former is a scientific mystery, and probably
+the least distinguished of his works. The latter, conversely, is
+probably his best. It tells of a watery nebula which collides with the
+earth, flooding it with a second deluge; and of how the human race is
+saved through the wisdom of one man who foresaw the coming disaster in
+time to build a second ark. A new civilization which has mastered the
+secret of atomic energy springs up on the planet as the waters recede.
+The canvas is a broad one, and the author does it full justice.
+
+Serviss' outstanding stories have been published abroad and re-printed
+in this country several times, a deserved tribute to their quality and
+popularity. His very first work of fiction, however, has been shrouded
+in obscurity for nearly half a century. Indeed, among collectors and
+aficionados of the fantastic there was for a time debate as to its
+actual existence. This is hardly surprising, for until its reprinting in
+this book _Edison's Conquest of Mars_ lay buried in the Congressional
+Library's file of the ephemeral New York _Evening Journal_, where it ran
+serially in early 1898.
+
+This is a remarkable work. First of all, as many readers will quickly
+discern, it is in a sense a sequel to H. G. Wells' well known _War of
+the Worlds_. The latter novel was serialized by _Cosmopolitan_ magazine
+in 1897; it caught the public's fickle fancy, and was widely commented
+upon. All evidence indicates that Serviss also read it: he was a regular
+contributor to _Cosmopolitan_. Yet I am inclined to doubt that mere
+reading of _The War of the Worlds_ in itself prompted him to produce a
+work in the same vein. Wells' effort was not concluded until the
+December, 1897 number of the magazine, and _Edison's Conquest of Mars_
+began on the following January 12th--a scant six weeks later. For
+Serviss it was the initial excursion into the realm of fiction, and it
+is hard to conceive his so hastily adopting a new metier on personal
+impulse alone. These circumstances, in conjunction with the context of
+the novel itself, clearly stamp the entire business as clever
+capitalization on already existent publicity. Again, I doubt if he
+thought of it at first in that light; his name was well enough known so
+that he could live by his knowledge, not his wits. But to a newspaper
+editor the prospect of combining the authority of a nationally known and
+reputable astronomer with a work designed to satisfy a reading public's
+waiting appetite for the unusual--in short, presenting legitimatized
+sensationalism at the psychological moment--this must have had
+irresistible appeal. That _Edison's Conquest of Mars_ was written on
+editorial commission, perhaps as fast as it appeared, seems, then, the
+most probable interpretation.
+
+Historically, the work is one of the earliest to employ the
+interplanetary theme. It is the first to portray a battle fought by
+space craft in the airless void; and possibly the first also to propose
+the use of sealed suits that enable men to traverse a vacuum. Of the
+more minor twists of plot initially found here that have since become
+parts of the "pulp" science-fiction writers' standard stock-in-trade,
+there are literally too many to mention.
+
+The novel opens with a description of the ruins of eastern America.
+Although the Martians who survived terrestrial bacteria have left the
+planet, astronomical observations show a recurrence on the red planet of
+the same lights that were a prelude to the first onslaught. The
+conclusion is inevitable: a second invasion is on the way. Serviss
+pictures the gathering together of the most famous scientists of the
+day--Edison, Roentgen, Lord Kelvin and others. The Martian machines and
+weapons left behind are dismantled; their principles of operation are
+discovered and duplicated; and a defense against their forces is
+perfected. Armed with this knowledge and with the "disintegrator," a
+device invented by Edison which is capable of reducing to atoms any
+substance at which it is aimed, the nations of the world pool their
+resources and launch an invasion of Mars across interplanetary space.
+
+More by way of explanation than justification, it should be stated that
+science today is diminishing the number of critics who are wont to label
+plots of this nature "too fantastic." For them to say that the colossal
+has become more important than the rational is, I feel, misleading. For
+this is a branch of literature that is in many respects the most
+rational of all: it is a symptom of progress. These same critics also
+complain that a fantastic plot is frequently developed at the expense of
+characterization. To this, one may answer that at times what happens can
+be more important than the people to whom it happens. In essence, both
+charges derive from laying undue stress upon psychology as the only
+legitimate fibre from which a fictional cloth may be woven. Undoubtedly
+psychology is necessary--but it can be a warp alone if a strong woof is
+supplied. Let me cite two imaginary examples. If a single scientist had
+released atomic energy and was in doubt as to whether he should destroy
+his secret or reveal it, the psychological processes that determine his
+decision become more relevant to consideration than the decision itself.
+But if that same scientist managed by the aid of atomic energy to
+transport himself to Mars, I would unquestionably be more interested in
+what he found on that planet than in why an Oedipus complex drove him
+there in the first place.
+
+In the fiction of Garrett Serviss the sweeping magnitude of events
+described gives them the leading role. Yet within the limits he has set
+for himself he has used human psychology to good advantage. His stories
+do not lack empathy, and they are rich in pictorial detail. Inevitably
+they reflect the mores of the time, but do not emphasize them unduly. As
+a consequence they remain readable and entertaining even to this day.
+
+They show, too, that he was familiar with the works of the few authors
+in the genre who preceeded him. _A Columbus of Space_ was dedicated "to
+the readers of Jules Verne's romances,"
+
+     Not because the author flatters himself that he can walk in the
+     Footsteps of that Immortal Dreamer, but because, like Jules Verne,
+     he believes that the World of Imagination is as legitimate a Domain
+     of the Human Mind as the World of Fact.
+
+Garrett Serviss modestly underestimated his abilities. With the
+perspective we possess today it can be seen that he is easily the equal
+of Verne, standing with him and H. G. Wells as one of the foremost
+science-fiction writers of his day.
+
+
+A. Langley Searles
+_New York, N. Y._
+_May 1947_
+
+
+
+
+EDISON'S CONQUEST OF MARS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+_"LET US GO TO MARS"_
+
+
+It is impossible that the stupendous events which followed the
+disastrous invasion of the earth by the Martians should go without
+record, and circumstances having placed the facts at my disposal, I deem
+it a duty, both to posterity and to those who were witnesses of and
+participants in the avenging counterstroke that the earth dealt back at
+its ruthless enemy in the heavens, to write down the story in a
+connected form.
+
+The Martians had nearly all perished, not through our puny efforts, but
+in consequence of disease, and the few survivors fled in one of their
+projectile cars, inflicting their crudest blow in the act of departure.
+
+They possessed a mysterious explosive, of unimaginable puissance, with
+whose aid they set their car in motion for Mars from a point in Bergen
+County, N. J., just back of the Palisades.
+
+The force of the explosion may be imagined when it is recollected that
+they had to give the car a velocity of more than seven miles per second
+in order to overcome the attraction of the earth and the resistance of
+the atmosphere.
+
+The shock destroyed all of New York that had not already fallen a prey,
+and all the buildings yet standing in the surrounding towns and cities
+fell in one far-circling ruin.
+
+The Palisades tumbled in vast sheets, starting a tidal wave in the
+Hudson that drowned the opposite shore.
+
+The victims of this ferocious explosion were numbered by tens of
+thousands, and the shock, transmitted through the rocky frame of the
+globe, was recorded by seismographic pendulums in England and on the
+Continent of Europe.
+
+The terrible results achieved by the invaders had produced everywhere a
+mingled feeling of consternation and hopelessness. The devastation was
+widespread. The death-dealing engines which the Martians had brought
+with them had proved irresistible and the inhabitants of the earth
+possessed nothing capable of contending against them. There had been no
+protection for the great cities; no protection even for the open
+country. Everything had gone down before the savage onslaught of those
+merciless invaders from space. Savage ruins covered the sites of many
+formerly flourishing towns and villages, and the broken walls of great
+cities stared at the heavens like the exhumed skeletons of Pompeii. The
+awful agencies had extirpated pastures and meadows and dried up the very
+springs of fertility in the earth where they had touched it. In some
+parts of the devastated lands pestilence broke out; elsewhere there was
+famine. Despondency black as night brooded over some of the fairest
+portions of the globe.
+
+Yet all had not been destroyed, because all had not been reached by the
+withering hand of the destroyer. The Martians had not had time to
+complete their work before they themselves fell a prey to the diseases
+that carried them off at the very culmination of their triumph.
+
+From those lands which had, fortunately, escaped invasion, relief was
+sent to the sufferers. The outburst of pity and of charity exceeded
+anything that the world had known. Differences of race and religion were
+swallowed up in the universal sympathy which was felt for those who had
+suffered so terribly from an evil that was as unexpected as it was
+unimaginable in its enormity.
+
+But the worst was not yet. More dreadful than the actual suffering and
+the scenes of death and devastation which overspread the afflicted lands
+was the profound mental and moral depression that followed. This was
+shared even by those who had not seen the Martians and had not witnessed
+the destructive effects of the frightful engines of war that they had
+imported for the conquest of the earth. All mankind was sunk deep in
+this universal despair, and it became tenfold blacker when the
+astronomers announced from their observatories that strange lights were
+visible, moving and flashing upon the red surface of the Planet of War.
+These mysterious appearances could only be interpreted in the light of
+past experience to mean that the Martians were preparing for another
+invasion of the earth, and who could doubt that with the invincible
+powers of destruction at their command they would this time make their
+work complete and final?
+
+This startling announcement was the more pitiable in its effects because
+it served to unnerve and discourage those few of stouter hearts and more
+hopeful temperaments who had already begun the labor of restoration and
+reconstruction amid the embers of their desolated homes. In New York
+this feeling of hope and confidence, this determination to rise against
+disaster and to wipe out the evidences of its dreadful presence as
+quickly as possible, had especially manifested itself. Already a company
+had been formed and a large amount of capital subscribed for the
+reconstruction of the destroyed bridges over the East River. Already
+architects were busily at work planning new twenty-story hotels and
+apartment houses; new churches and new cathedrals on a grander scale
+than before.
+
+Amid this stir of renewed life came the fatal news that Mars was
+undoubtedly preparing to deal us a death blow. The sudden revulsion of
+feeling flitted like the shadow of an eclipse over the earth. The scenes
+that followed were indescribable. Men lost their reason. The
+faint-hearted ended the suspense with self-destruction, the
+stout-hearted remained steadfast, but without hope and knowing not what
+to do.
+
+But there was a gleam of hope of which the general public as yet knew
+nothing. It was due to a few dauntless men of science, conspicuous among
+whom were Lord Kelvin, the great English savant; Herr Roentgen, the
+discover of the famous X-ray, and especially Thomas A. Edison, the
+American genius of science. These men and a few others had examined with
+the utmost care the engines of war, the flying machines, the generators
+of mysterious destructive forces that the Martians had produced, with
+the object of discovering, if possible, the sources of their power.
+
+Suddenly from Mr. Edison's laboratory at Orange flashed the startling
+intelligence that he had not only discovered the manner in which the
+invaders had been able to produce the mighty energies which they
+employed with such terrible effect, but that, going further, he had
+found a way to overcome them.
+
+The glad news was quickly circulated throughout the civilized world.
+Luckily the Atlantic cables had not been destroyed by the Martians, so
+that communication between the Eastern and Western continents was
+uninterrupted. It was a proud day for America. Even while the Martians
+had been upon the earth, carrying everything before them, demonstrating
+to the confusion of the most optimistic that there was no possibility of
+standing against them, a feeling--a confidence had manifested itself in
+France, to a minor extent in England, and particularly in Russia, that
+the Americans might discover means to meet and master the invaders.
+
+Now, it seemed, this hope and expectation was to be realized. Too late,
+it is true, in a certain sense, but not too late to meet the new
+invasion which the astronomers had announced was impending. The effect
+was as wonderful and indescribable as that of the despondency which but
+a little while before had overspread the world. One could almost hear
+the universal sigh of relief which went up from humanity. To relief
+succeeded confidence--so quickly does the human spirit recover like an
+elastic spring, when pressure is released.
+
+"Let them come," was the almost joyous cry. "We shall be ready for them
+now. The Americans have solved the problem. Edison has placed the means
+of victory within our power."
+
+Looking back upon that time now, I recall, with a thrill, the pride that
+stirred me at the thought that, after all, the inhabitants of the earth
+were a match for those terrible men from Mars, despite all the advantage
+which they had gained from their millions of years of prior civilization
+and science.
+
+As good fortunes, like bad, never come singly, the news of Mr. Edison's
+discovery was quickly followed by additional glad tidings from that
+laboratory of marvels in the lap of the Orange mountains. During their
+career of conquest the Martians had astonished the inhabitants of the
+earth no less with their flying machines--which navigated our atmosphere
+as easily as they had that of their native planet--than with their more
+destructive inventions. These flying machines in themselves had given
+them an enormous advantage in the contest. High above the desolation
+that they had caused to reign on the surface of the earth, and, out of
+the range of our guns, they had hung safe in the upper air. From the
+clouds they had dropped death upon the earth.
+
+Now, rumor declared that Mr. Edison had invented and perfected a flying
+machine much more complete and manageable than those of the Martians had
+been. Wonderful stories quickly found their way into the newspapers
+concerning what Mr. Edison had already accomplished with the aid of his
+model electrical balloon. His laboratory was carefully guarded against
+the invasion of the curious, because he rightly felt that a premature
+announcement, which should promise more than could actually be
+fulfilled, would, at this critical juncture, plunge mankind back again
+into the gulf of despair, out of which it had just begun to emerge.
+
+Nevertheless, inklings of the truth leaked out. The flying machine had
+been seen by many persons hovering by night high above the Orange hills
+and disappearing in the faint starlight as if it had gone away into the
+depths of space, out of which it would re-emerge before the morning
+light had streaked the east, and be seen settling down again within the
+walls that surrounded the laboratory of the great inventor. At length
+the rumor, gradually deepening into a conviction, spread that Edison
+himself, accompanied by a few scientific friends, had made an
+experimental trip to the moon. At a time when the spirit of mankind was
+less profoundly stirred, such a story would have been received with
+complete incredulity, but now, rising on the wings of the new hope that
+was buoying up the earth, this extraordinary rumor became a day star of
+truth to the nations.
+
+And it was true. I had myself been one of the occupants of the car of
+the flying Ship of Space on that night when it silently left the earth,
+and rising out of the great shadow of the globe, sped on to the moon. We
+had landed upon the scarred and desolate face of the earth's satellite,
+and but that there are greater and more interesting events, the telling
+of which must not be delayed, I should undertake to describe the
+particulars of this first visit of men to another world.
+
+[Illustration: _I had myself been one of the occupants of the car
+of the flying Ship of Space on that night, when it silently left the
+earth, and, rising out of the great shadow of the globe, sped on to the
+moon._]
+
+But, as I have already intimated, this was only an experimental trip. By
+visiting this little nearby island in the ocean of space, Mr. Edison
+simply wished to demonstrate the practicability of his invention, and to
+convince, first of all, himself and his scientific friends that it was
+possible for men--mortal men--to quit and to revisit the earth at their
+will. That aim this experimental trip triumphantly attained.
+
+It would carry me into technical details that would hardly interest the
+reader to describe the mechanism of Mr. Edison's flying machine. Let it
+suffice to say that it depended upon the principal of electrical
+attraction and repulsion. By means of a most ingenious and complicated
+construction he had mastered the problem of how to produce, in a limited
+space, electricity of any desired potential and of any polarity, and
+that without danger to the experimenter or to the material experimented
+upon. It is gravitation, as everybody knows, that makes man a prisoner
+on the earth. If he could overcome, or neutralize, gravitation he could
+float away, a free creature of interstellar space. Mr. Edison in his
+invention had pitted electricity against gravitation. Nature, in fact,
+had done the same thing long before. Every astronomer knew it, but none
+had been able to imitate or to reproduce this miracle of nature. When a
+comet approaches the sun, the orbit in which it travels indicates that
+it is moving under the impulse of the sun's gravitation. It is in
+reality falling in a great parabolic or elliptical curve through space.
+But, while a comet approaches the sun it begins to display--stretching
+out for millions, and sometimes hundreds of millions of miles on the
+side away from the sun--an immense luminous train called its tail. This
+train extends back into that part of space from which the comet is
+moving. Thus the sun at one and the same time is drawing the comet
+toward itself and driving off from the comet in an opposite direction
+minute particles or atoms which, instead of obeying the gravitational
+force, are plainly compelled to disobey it. That this energy, which the
+sun exercises against its own gravitation, is electrical in its nature,
+hardly anybody will doubt. The head of the comet being comparatively
+heavy and massive, falls on toward the sun, despite the electrical
+repulsion. But the atoms which form the tail, being almost without
+weight, yield to the electrical rather than to the gravitational
+influence, and so fly away from the sun.
+
+Now, what Mr. Edison had done was, in effect, to create an electrified
+particle which might be compared to one of the atoms composing the tail
+of a comet, although in reality it was a kind of car, of metal, weighing
+some hundreds of pounds and capable of bearing some thousands of pounds
+with it in its flight. By producing, with the aid of the electrical
+generator contained in this car, an enormous charge of electricity, Mr.
+Edison was able to counterbalance, and a trifle more than
+counterbalance, the attraction of the earth, and thus cause the car to
+fly off from the earth as an electrified pithball flies from the prime
+conductor.
+
+As we sat in the brilliantly lighted chamber that formed the interior of
+the car, and where stores of compressed air had been provided together
+with chemical apparatus, by means of which fresh supplies of oxygen and
+nitrogen might be obtained for our consumption during the flight through
+space, Mr. Edison touched a polished button, thus causing the generation
+of the required electrical charge on the exterior of the car, and
+immediately we began to rise.
+
+The moment and direction of our flight had been so timed and
+prearranged, that the original impulse would carry us straight toward
+the moon.
+
+When we fell within the sphere of attraction of that orb it only became
+necessary to so manipulate the electrical charge upon our car as nearly,
+but not quite, to counterbalance the effect of the moon's attraction in
+order that we might gradually approach it and with an easy motion,
+settle, without shock, upon its surface.
+
+We did not remain to examine the wonders of the moon, although we could
+not fail to observe many curious things therein. Having demonstrated the
+fact that we could not only leave the earth, but could journey through
+space and safely land upon the surface of another planet, Mr. Edison's
+immediate purpose was fulfilled, and we hastened back to the earth,
+employing in leaving the moon and landing again upon our own planet the
+same means of control over the electrical attraction and repulsion
+between the respective planets and our car which I have already
+described.
+
+When actual experiment had thus demonstrated the practicability of the
+invention, Mr. Edison no longer withheld the news of what he had been
+doing from the world. The telegraph lines and the ocean cables labored
+with the messages that in endless succession, and burdened with an
+infinity of detail, were sent all over the earth. Everywhere the utmost
+enthusiasm was aroused.
+
+"Let the Martians come," was the cry. "If necessary, we can quit the
+earth as the Athenians fled from Athens before the advancing host of
+Xerxes, and like them, take refuge upon our ships--these new ships of
+space, with which American inventiveness has furnished us."
+
+And then, like a flash, some genius struck out an idea that fired the
+world.
+
+"Why should we wait? Why should we run the risk of having our cities
+destroyed and our lands desolated a second time? Let us go to Mars. We
+have the means. Let us beard the lion in his den. Let us ourselves turn
+conquerors and take possession of that detestable planet, and if
+necessary, destroy it in order to relieve the earth of this perpetual
+threat which now hangs over us like the sword of Damocles."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+_THE DISINTEGRATOR_
+
+
+This enthusiasm would have had but little justification had Mr. Edison
+done nothing more than invent a machine which could navigate the
+atmosphere and the regions of interplanetary space.
+
+He had, however, and this fact was generally known, although the details
+had not yet leaked out--invented also machines of war intended to meet
+the utmost that the Martians could do for either offence or defence in
+the struggle which was now about to ensue.
+
+Acting upon the hint which had been conveyed from various investigations
+in the domain of physics, and concentrating upon the problem all those
+unmatched powers of intellect which distinguished him, the great
+inventor had succeeded in producing a little implement which one could
+carry in his hand, but which was more powerful than any battleship that
+ever floated. The details of its mechanism could not be easily
+explained, without the use of tedious technicalities and the employment
+of terms, diagrams and mathematical statements, all of which would lie
+outside the scope of this narrative. But the principle of the thing was
+simple enough. It was upon the great scientific doctrine, which we have
+since seen so completely and brilliantly developed, of the law of
+harmonic vibrations, extending from atoms and molecules at one end of
+the series up to the worlds and suns at the other end, that Mr. Edison
+based his invention.
+
+Every kind of substance has its own vibratory rhythm. That of iron
+differs from that of pine wood. The atoms of gold do not vibrate in the
+same time or through the same range as those of lead, and so on for all
+known substances, and all the chemical elements. So, on a larger scale,
+every massive body has its period of vibration. A great suspension
+bridge vibrates, under the impulse of forces that are applied to it, in
+long periods. No company of soldiers ever crosses such a bridge without
+breaking step. If they tramped together, and were followed by other
+companies keeping the same time with their feet, after a while the
+vibrations of the bridge would become so great and destructive that it
+would fall in pieces. So any structure, if its vibration rate is known,
+could easily be destroyed by a force applied to it in such a way that it
+should simply increase the swing of those vibrations up to the point of
+destruction.
+
+Now Mr. Edison had been able to ascertain the vibratory swing of many
+well known substances, and to produce, by means of the instrument which
+he had contrived, pulsations in the ether which were completely under
+his control, and which could be made long or short, quick or slow, at
+his will. He could run through the whole gamut from the slow vibrations
+of sound in air up to the four hundred and twenty-five millions of
+millions of vibrations per second of the ultra red rays.
+
+Having obtained an instrument of such power, it only remained to
+concentrate its energy upon a given object in order that the atoms
+composing that object should be set into violent undulation, sufficient
+to burst it asunder and to scatter its molecules broadcast. This the
+inventor effected by the simplest means in the world--simply a parabolic
+reflector by which the destructive waves could be sent like a beam of
+light, but invisible, in any direction and focused upon any desired
+point.
+
+I had the good fortune to be present when this powerful engine of
+destruction was submitted to its first test. We had gone upon the roof
+of Mr. Edison's laboratory and the inventor held the little instrument,
+with its attached mirror, in his hand. We looked about for some object
+on which to try its powers. On a bare limb of a tree not far away, for
+it was late in fall, sat a disconsolate crow.
+
+"Good," said Mr. Edison, "that will do." He touched a button at the side
+of the instrument and a soft, whirring noise was heard.
+
+"Feathers," said Mr. Edison, "have a vibration period of three hundred
+and eighty-six million per second."
+
+He adjusted the index as he spoke. Then, through a sighting tube, he
+aimed at the bird.
+
+"Now watch," he said.
+
+Another soft whirr in the instrument, a momentary flash of light close
+around it, and, behold, the crow had turned from black to white!
+
+"Its feathers are gone," said the inventor; "they have been dissipated
+into their constituent atoms. Now, we will finish the crow."
+
+Instantly there was another adjustment of the index, another outshooting
+of vibratory force, a rapid up and down motion of the index to include a
+certain range of vibrations, and the crow itself was gone--vanished in
+empty space! There was the bare twig on which a moment before it had
+stood. Behind, in the sky, was the white cloud against which its black
+form had been sharply outlined, but there was no more crow.
+
+"That looks bad for the Martians, doesn't it?" said the Wizard. "I have
+ascertained the vibration rate of all the materials of which their war
+engines, whose remains we have collected together, are composed. They
+can be shattered into nothingness in the fraction of a second. Even if
+the vibration period were not known, it could quickly be hit upon by
+simply running through the gamut."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried one of the onlookers. "We have met the Martians and they
+are ours."
+
+Such in brief was the first of the contrivances which Mr. Edison
+invented for the approaching war with Mars.
+
+And these facts had become widely known. Additional experiments had
+completed the demonstration of the inventor's ability, with the aid of
+his wonderful instrument, to destroy any given object, or any part of an
+object, provided that that part differed in its atomic constitution, and
+consequently in its vibratory period, from the other parts.
+
+A most impressive public exhibit of the powers of the little
+disintegrator was given amid the ruins of New York. On lower Broadway a
+part of the walls of one of the gigantic buildings, which had been
+destroyed by the Martians, impended in such a manner that it threatened
+at any moment to fall upon the heads of the passersby. The Fire
+Department did not dare touch it. To blow it up seemed a dangerous
+expedient, because already new buildings had been erected in its
+neighborhood, and their safety would be imperilled by the flying
+fragments. The fact happened to come to my knowledge.
+
+"Here is an opportunity," I said to Mr. Edison, "to try the powers of
+your machine on a large scale."
+
+"Capital," he instantly replied. "I shall go at once."
+
+For the work now in hand it was necessary to employ a battery of
+disintegrators, since the field of destruction covered by each was
+comparatively limited. All of the impending portions of the wall must be
+destroyed at once and together, for otherwise the danger would rather be
+accentuated rather than annihilated. The disintegrators were placed upon
+the roof of a neighboring building, so adjusted that their fields of
+destruction overlapped one another upon the wall. Their indexes were all
+set to correspond with the vibration period of the peculiar kind of
+brick of which the wall consisted. Then the energy was turned on, and a
+shout of wonder arose from the multitudes which had assembled at a safe
+distance to witness the experiment.
+
+The wall did not fall; it did not break asunder; no fragments shot this
+way and that and high in the air; there was no explosion; no shock or
+noise disturbed the still atmosphere--only a soft whirr, that seemed to
+pervade everything and to tingle in the nerves of the spectators;
+and--what had been was not! The wall was gone! But high above and all
+around the place where it had hung over the street with its threat of
+death there appeared, swiftly billowing outward in every direction, a
+faint bluish cloud. It was the scattered atoms of the destroyed wall.
+
+And now the cry "On to Mars!" was heard on all sides. But for such an
+enterprise funds were needed--millions upon millions. Yet some of the
+fairest and richest portions of the earth had been impoverished by the
+frightful ravages of those enemies who had dropped down upon them from
+the skies. Still, the money must be had. The salvation of the planet, as
+everyone was now convinced, depended upon the successful negotiation of
+a gigantic war fund, in comparison with which all the expenditures in
+all of the wars that had been waged by the nations for 2,000 years would
+be insignificant. The electrical ships and the vibration engines must be
+constructed by scores and thousands. Only Mr. Edison's immense resources
+and unrivaled equipment had enabled him to make the models whose powers
+had been so satisfactorily shown. But to multiply these upon a war scale
+was not only beyond the resources of any individual--hardly a nation on
+the globe in the period of its greatest prosperity could have undertaken
+such a work. All the nations, then, must now conjoin. They must unite
+their resources, and if necessary, exhaust all their hoards, in order to
+raise the needed sum.
+
+Negotiations were at once begun. The United States naturally took the
+lead, and their leadership was never for a moment questioned abroad.
+
+Washington was selected as the place of meeting for a great congress of
+nations. Washington, luckily, had been one of the places which had not
+been touched by the Martians. But if Washington had been a city composed
+of hotels alone, and every hotel so great as to be a little city in
+itself, it would have been utterly insufficient for the accommodation of
+the innumerable throngs which now flocked to the banks of the Potomac.
+But when was American enterprise unequal to a crisis? The necessary
+hotels, lodging-houses and restaurants were constructed with astounding
+rapidity. One could see the city growing and expanding day by day and
+week after week. It flowed over Georgetown Heights; it leaped the
+Potomac; it spread east and west, south and north; square mile after
+square mile of territory was buried under the advancing buildings, until
+the gigantic city, which had thus grown up like a mushroom in a night,
+was fully capable of accommodating all its expected guests.
+
+At first it had been intended that the heads of the various governments
+should in person attend this universal congress, but as the enterprise
+went on, as the enthusiasm spread, as the necessity for haste became
+more apparent through the warning notes which were constantly sounded
+from the observatories where the astronomers were nightly beholding new
+evidences of threatening preparations in Mars, the kings and queens of
+the old world felt that they could not remain at home; that their proper
+place was at the new focus and center of the whole world--the city of
+Washington. Without concerted action, without interchange of suggestion,
+this impulse seemed to seize all the old world monarchs at once.
+Suddenly cablegrams flashed to the government at Washington, announcing
+that Queen Victoria, the Emperor William, the Czar Nicholas, Alphonso of
+Spain, with his mother, Maria Christina; the old emperor Francis Joseph
+and the empress Elizabeth, of Austria; King Oscar and Queen Sophia, of
+Sweden and Norway; King Humbert and Queen Margherita, of Italy; King
+George and Queen Olga, of Greece; Abdul Hamid, of Turkey; Tsait'ien,
+Emperor of China; Mutsuhito, the Japanese Mikado, with his beautiful
+Princess Haruko; the President of France, the President of Switzerland,
+the First Syndic of the little republic of Andorra, perched on the crest
+of the Pyrenees, and the heads of all the Central and South American
+republics, were coming to Washington to take part in the deliberations,
+which, it was felt, were to settle the fate of earth and Mars.
+
+One day, after this announcement had been received, and the additional
+news had come that nearly all the visiting monarchs had set out,
+attended by brilliant suites and convoyed by fleets of warships, for
+their destination, some coming across the Atlantic to the port of New
+York, others across the Pacific to San Francisco, Mr. Edison said to me:
+
+"This will be a fine spectacle. Would you like to watch it?"
+
+"Certainly," I replied.
+
+The Ship of Space was immediately at our disposal. I think I have not
+yet mentioned the fact that the inventor's control over the electrical
+generator carried in the car was so perfect that by varying the
+potential or changing the polarity he could cause it slowly or swiftly,
+as might be desired, to approach or recede from any object. The only
+practical difficulty was presented when the polarity of the electrical
+charge upon an object in the neighborhood of the car was unknown to
+those in the car, and happened to be opposite to that of the charge to
+which the car, at that particular moment was bearing. In such a case, of
+course, the car would fly toward the object, whatever it might be, like
+a pithball or a feather, attracted to the knob of an electrical machine.
+In this way, considerable danger was occasionally encountered, and a few
+accidents could not be avoided. Fortunately, however, such cases were
+rare. It was only now and then that, owing to some local cause,
+electrical polarities unknown to or unexpected by the navigators,
+endangered the safety of the car. As I shall have occasion to relate
+however, in the course of the narrative, this danger became more acute
+and assumed at times a most formidable phase, when we had ventured
+outside the sphere of the earth and were moving through the unexplored
+regions beyond.
+
+On this occasion, having embarked, we rose rapidly to a height of some
+thousands of feet and directed our course over the Atlantic. When
+half-way to Ireland, we beheld, in the distance, steaming westward, the
+smoke of several fleets. As we drew nearer a marvelous spectacle
+unfolded itself to our eyes. From the northeast, their great guns
+flashing in the sunlight and their huge funnels belching black volumes
+that rested like thunder clouds upon the sea, came the mighty warships
+of England, with her meteor flag streaming red in the breeze, while the
+royal insignia, indicating the presence of the ruler of the British
+Empire, was conspicuously displayed upon the flagship of the squadron.
+
+Following a course more directly westward there appeared, under another
+black cloud of smoke, the hulls and guns and burgeons of another great
+fleet, carrying the tri-color of France, and bearing in its midst the
+head of the magnificent republic of western Europe.
+
+Further south, beating up against the northerly winds came a third fleet
+with the gold and red of Spain fluttering from its masthead. This, too,
+was carrying its King westward, where now, indeed, the star of empire
+had taken its way.
+
+Rising a little higher, so as to extend our horizon, we saw coming down
+the English channel, behind the British fleet, the black ships of
+Russia. Side by side, or following one another's lead, these war fleets
+were on a peaceful voyage that belied their threatening appearance.
+There had been no thought of danger to or from the forts and ports of
+rival nations which they had passed. There was no enmity, and no fear
+between them when the throats of their ponderous guns yawned at one
+another across the waves. They were now, in spirit, all one fleet,
+having one object, bearing against one enemy, ready to defend but one
+country, and that country was the entire earth.
+
+It was some time before we caught sight of the emperor William's fleet.
+It seems that the Kaiser, although at first consenting to the
+arrangement by which Washington had been selected as the assembling
+place for the nations, afterwards objected to it.
+
+"I ought to do this thing myself," he had said. "My glorious ancestors
+would never have consented to allow these upstart Republicans to lead in
+a warlike enterprise of this kind. What would my grandfather have said
+to it? I suspect that it is some scheme aimed at the divine right of
+kings."
+
+But the good sense of the German people would not suffer their ruler to
+place them in a position so false and so untenable. And swept along by
+their enthusiasm the Kaiser had at last consented to embark upon his
+flagship at Kiel, and now he was following the other fleets on their
+great mission to the Western Continent.
+
+Why did they bring their warships when their intentions were peaceable,
+do you ask? Well, it was partly the effect of ancient habit, and partly
+due to the fact that such multitudes of officials and members of ruling
+families wished to embark for Washington that the ordinary means of
+ocean communications would have been utterly inadequate to convey them.
+
+After we had feasted our eyes on this strange sight, Mr. Edison suddenly
+exclaimed: "Now let us see the fellows from the rising sun."
+
+The car was immediately directed toward the west. We rapidly approached
+the American coast, and as we sailed over the Allegheny Mountains and
+the broad plains of the Ohio and the Mississippi, we saw crawling
+beneath us from west, south and north, an endless succession of railway
+trains bearing their multitudes on toward Washington. With marvelous
+speed we rushed westward, rising high to skim over the snow-topped peaks
+of the Rocky Mountains and then the glittering rim of the Pacific was
+before us. Half-way between the American Coast and Hawaii we met the
+fleets coming from China and Japan. Side by side they were plowing the
+main, having forgotten, or laid aside, all the animosities of their
+former wars.
+
+I well remember how my heart was stirred at this impressive exhibition
+of the boundless influence which my country had come to exercise over
+all the people of the world, and I turned to look at the man to whose
+genius this uprising of the earth was due. But Mr. Edison, after his
+wont, appeared totally unconscious of the fact that he was personally
+responsible for what was going on. His mind, seemingly, was entirely
+absorbed in considering problems, the solution of which might be
+essential to our success in the terrific struggle which was soon to
+begin.
+
+"Well, have you seen enough?" he asked. "Then let us go back to
+Washington."
+
+As we speeded back across the continent we beheld beneath us again the
+burdened express trains rushing toward the Atlantic, and hundreds of
+thousands of upturned eyes watched our swift progress, and volleys of
+cheers reached our ears, for everyone knew that this was Edison's
+electrical warship, on which the hope of the nation, and the hopes of
+all the nations, depended. These scenes were repeated again and again
+until the car hovered over the still expanding capitol on the Potomac,
+where the unceasing ring of hammers rose to the clouds.
+
+[Illustration: _A consultation in Wizard Edison's laboratory
+between him and Professor Serviss on the best means of repaying the
+damage wrought upon this planet by the Martians._]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+_THE CONGRESS OF NATIONS_
+
+
+The day appointed for the assembling of the nations in Washington opened
+bright and beautiful. Arrangements had been made for the reception of
+the distinguished guests at the Capitol. No time was to be wasted, and
+having assembled in the Senate Chamber, the business that had called
+them together was to be immediately begun. The scene in Pennsylvania
+Avenue, when the procession of dignitaries and royalties passed up
+toward the Capitol was one never to be forgotten. Bands were playing,
+magnificent equipages flashed in the morning sunlight, the flags of
+every nation on the earth fluttered in the breeze. Queen Victoria, with
+the Prince of Wales escorting her, and riding in an open carriage, was
+greeted with roars of cheers; the emperor William, following in another
+carriage with empress Victoria at his side, condescended to bow and
+smile in response to the greetings of a free people. Each of the other
+monarchs was received in a similar manner. The Czar of Russia proved to
+be an especial favorite with the multitude on account of the ancient
+friendship of his house for America. But the greatest applause of all
+came when the President of France, followed by the President of
+Switzerland and the First Syndic of the little republic of Andorra, made
+their appearance. Equally warm were the greetings extended to the
+representatives of Mexico and the South American States.
+
+The crowd apparently hardly knew at first how to receive the Sultan of
+Turkey, but the universal good feeling was in his favor, and finally
+rounds of hand clapping and cheers greeted his progress along the
+splendid avenue.
+
+A happy idea had apparently occurred to the Emperor of China and the
+Mikado of Japan, for, attended by their intermingled suites, they rode
+together in a single carriage. This object lesson in the unity of
+international feeling immensely pleased the spectators.
+
+The scene in the Senate Chamber stirred everyone profoundly. That it was
+brilliant and magnificent goes without saying, but there was a
+seriousness, an intense feeling of expectancy, pervading both those who
+looked on and those who were to do the work for which these magnates of
+the earth had assembled, which produced an ineradicable impression. The
+President of the United States, of course, presided. Representatives of
+the greater powers occupied the front seats, and some of them were
+honored with special chairs near the President.
+
+No time was wasted in preliminaries. The President made a brief speech.
+
+"We have come together," he said, "to consider a question that equally
+interests the whole earth. I need not remind you that unexpectedly and
+without provocation on our part the people--the monsters, I should
+rather say--of Mars, recently came down upon the earth, attacked us in
+our homes and spread desolation around them. Having the advantage of
+ages of evolution, which for us are yet in the future, they brought with
+them engines of death and destruction against which we found it
+impossible to contend. It is within the memory of every one within reach
+of my voice that it was through the entirely unexpected succor which
+Providence sent us that we were suddenly and effectually freed from the
+invaders. By our own efforts we could have done nothing.
+
+"But, as you all know, the first feeling of relief which followed the
+death of our foes was quickly succeeded by the fearful news which came
+to us from the observatories, that the Martians were undoubtedly
+preparing for a second invasion of our planet. Against this we should
+have had no recourse and no hope but for the genius of one of my
+countrymen, who, as you are all aware, has perfected means which may
+enable us not only to withstand the attack of those awful enemies, but
+to meet them, and, let us hope, to conquer them on their own ground.
+
+"Mr. Edison is here to explain to you what those means are. But we have
+also another object. Whether we send a fleet of interplanetary ships to
+invade Mars or whether we simply confine our attention to works of
+defense, in either case it will be necessary to raise a very large sum
+of money. None of us has yet recovered from the effects of the recent
+invasion. The earth is poor today compared to its position a few years
+ago; yet we can not allow our poverty to stand in the way. The money,
+the means, must be had. It will be part of our business here to raise a
+gigantic war fund by the aid of which we can construct the equipment and
+machinery that we shall require. This, I think, is all I need to say.
+Let us proceed to business."
+
+"Where is Mr. Edison?" cried a voice.
+
+"Will Mr. Edison please step forward?" said the President.
+
+There was a stir in the assembly, and the iron-grey head of the great
+inventor was seen moving through the crowd. In his hand he carried one
+of his marvelous disintegrators. He was requested to explain and
+illustrate its operation. Mr. Edison smiled.
+
+"I can explain its details," he said, "to Lord Kelvin, for instance, but
+if Their Majesties will excuse me, I doubt whether I can make it plain
+to the Crown Heads."
+
+The Emperor William smiled superciliously. Apparently he thought that
+another assault had been committed upon the divine right of kings. But
+the Czar Nicholas appeared to be amused, and the Emperor of China, who
+had been studying English, laughed in his sleeve, as if he suspected
+that a joke had been perpetrated.
+
+"I think," said one of the deputies, "that a simple exhibition of the
+powers of the instrument, without a technical explanation of its method
+of working, will suffice for our purpose."
+
+This suggestion was immediately approved. In response to it, Mr. Edison,
+by a few simple experiments, showed how he could quickly and certainly
+shatter into its constituent atoms any object upon which the vibratory
+force of the disintegrator should be directed. In this manner he caused
+an inkstand to disappear under the very nose of the Emperor William
+without a spot of ink being scattered upon his sacred person, but
+evidently the odor of the disunited atoms was not agreeable to the
+nostrils of the Kaiser.
+
+Mr. Edison also explained in general terms the principle on which the
+instrument worked. He was greeted with round after round of applause,
+and the spirit of the assembly rose high.
+
+Next the workings of the electrical ship were explained, and it was
+announced that after the meeting had adjourned an exhibition of the
+flying powers of the ship would be given in the open air.
+
+These experiments, together with the accompanying explanations, added to
+what had already been disseminated through the public press, were quite
+sufficient to convince all the representatives who had assembled in
+Washington that the problem of how to conquer the Martians had been
+solved. The means were plainly at hand. It only remained to apply them.
+For this purpose, as the President had pointed out, it would be
+necessary to raise a very large sum of money.
+
+"How much will be needed?" asked one of the English representatives.
+
+"At least ten thousand millions of dollars," replied the President.
+
+"It would be safer," said a Senator from the Pacific Coast, "to make it
+twenty five thousand millions."
+
+"I suggest," said the King of Italy, "that the nations be called in
+alphabetical order, and that the representatives of each name a sum
+which he is ready and able to contribute."
+
+"We want the cash or its equivalent," shouted the Pacific Coast Senator.
+
+"I shall not follow the alphabet strictly," said the President, "but
+shall begin with the larger nations first. Perhaps, under the
+circumstances, it is proper that the United States should lead the way.
+Mr. Secretary," he continued, turning to the Secretary of the Treasury,
+"how much can we stand?"
+
+"At least a thousand millions," replied the Secretary of the Treasury.
+
+A roar of applause that shook the room burst from the assembly. Even
+some of the monarchs threw up their hats. The Emperor Tsait'ien smiled
+from ear to ear. One of the Roko Tuis, or native chiefs, from Fiji,
+sprang up and brandished a war club.
+
+The President then proceeded to call the other nations, beginning with
+Austria-Hungary and ending with Zanzibar, whose Sultan, Hamoud bin
+Mahomed, had come to the congress in the escort of Queen Victoria. Each
+contributed liberally.
+
+Germany, coming in alphabetical order just before Great Britain, had
+named, through its chancellor, the sum of $500,000,000, but when the
+First Lord of the British Treasury, not wishing to be behind the United
+States, named double that sum as the contribution of the British Empire,
+the Emperor William looked displeased. He spoke a word in the ear of the
+Chancellor who immediately raised his hand.
+
+"We will give a thousand million dollars," said the Chancellor.
+
+Queen Victoria seemed surprised, though not displeased. The First Lord
+of the Treasury met her eye, and then, rising in his place, said:
+
+"Make it fifteen hundred million for Great Britain."
+
+Emperor William consulted again with his Chancellor, but evidently
+concluded not to increase his bid.
+
+But, at any rate, the fund had benefited to the amount of a thousand
+millions by this little outburst of imperial rivalry.
+
+The greatest surprise of all, however, came when the King of Siam was
+called upon for his contribution. He had not been given a foremost place
+in the Congress, but when the name of his country was pronounced he rose
+by his chair, dressed in a gorgeous specimen of the peculiar attire of
+his country, then slowly pushed his way to the front, stepped up to the
+President's desk and deposited upon it a small box.
+
+"This is our contribution," he said in broken English.
+
+The cover was lifted, and there darted, shimmering in the half-gloom of
+the Chamber, a burst of iridescence from the box.
+
+"My friends of the Western world," continued the King of Siam, "will be
+interested in seeing this gem. Only once before has the eye of a
+European been blessed with the sight of it. Your books will tell you
+that in the seventeenth century a traveller, Tavernier, saw in India an
+unmatched diamond which afterward disappeared like a meteor, and was
+thought to have been lost from the earth. You all know the name of that
+diamond and its history. It is the Great Mogul, and it lies before you.
+How it came into my possession I shall not explain. At any rate, it is
+honestly mine, and I freely contribute it here to aid in protecting my
+native planet against those enemies who appear determined to destroy
+it."
+
+When the excitement which the appearance of this long lost treasure,
+that had been the subject of so many romances and of such long and
+fruitless search, had subsided, the President continued calling the
+list, until he had completed it.
+
+Upon taking the sum of the contributions (the Great Mogul was reckoned
+at three millions) it was found to be still one thousand millions short
+of the required amount.
+
+The secretary of the Treasury was instantly on his feet.
+
+"Mr. President," he said, "I think we can stand that addition. Let it be
+added to the contribution of the United States of America."
+
+When the cheers that greeted the conclusion of the business were over,
+the President announced that the next affair of the Congress was to
+select a director who should have entire charge of the preparations for
+the war. It was the universal sentiment that no man could be so well
+suited for this post as Mr. Edison himself. He was accordingly selected
+by the unanimous and enthusiastic choice of the great assembly.
+
+"How long a time do you require to put everything in readiness?" asked
+the President.
+
+"Give me _carte blanche_," replied Mr. Edison, "and I believe I can have
+a hundred electric ships and three thousand disintegrators ready within
+six months."
+
+A tremendous cheer greeted this announcement.
+
+"Your powers are unlimited," said the President, "draw on the fund for
+as much money as you need," whereupon the Treasurer of the United States
+was made the disbursing officer of the fund, and the meeting adjourned.
+
+Not less than 5,000,000 people had assembled at Washington from all
+parts of the world. Every one of this immense multitude had been able to
+listen to the speeches and the cheers in the Senate Chamber, although
+not personally present there. Wires had been run all over the city, and
+hundreds of improved telephonic receivers provided, so that everyone
+could hear. Even those who were unable to visit Washington, people
+living in Baltimore, New York, Boston, and as far away as New Orleans,
+St. Louis and Chicago, had also listened to the proceedings with the aid
+of these receivers. Upon the whole, probably not less than 50,000,000
+people had heard the deliberations of the great congress of the nations.
+
+The telegraph and the cable had sent the news across the oceans to all
+the capitols of the earth. The exultation was so great that the people
+seemed mad with joy.
+
+The promised exhibition of the electrical ship took place the next day.
+Enormous multitudes witnessed the experiment, and there was a struggle
+for places in the car. Even Queen Victoria, accompanied by the Prince of
+Wales, ventured to take a ride in it, and they enjoyed it so much that
+Mr. Edison prolonged the journey as far as Boston and the Bunker Hill
+monument.
+
+Most of the other monarchs also took a high ride, but when the turn of
+the Emperor of China came he repeated a fable which he said had come
+down from the time of Confucius:
+
+"Once upon a time there was a Chinaman living in the valley of the
+Hoang-Ho River, who was accustomed frequently to lie on his back, gazing
+at, and envying, the birds that he saw flying away in the sky. One day
+he saw a black speck which rapidly grew larger and larger, until as it
+got near he perceived that it was an enormous bird, which overshadowed
+the earth with its wings. It was the elephant of birds, the roc. 'Come
+with me,' said the roc, 'and I will show you the wonders of the kingdom
+of the birds.' The man caught hold of its claw and nestled among its
+feathers, and they rapidly rose high in the air, and sailed away to the
+Kuen-Lun Mountains. Here, as they passed near the top of the peaks,
+another roc made its appearance. The wings of the two great birds
+brushed together, and immediately they fell to fighting. In the midst of
+the melee the man lost his hold and tumbled into the top of a tree,
+where his pigtail caught on a branch, and he remained suspended. There
+the unfortunate man hung helpless, until a rat, which had its home in
+the rocks at the foot of the tree, took compassion upon him, and,
+climbing up, gnawed off the branch. As the man slowly and painfully
+wended his weary way homeward, he said: 'This teaches me that creatures
+to whom nature has given neither feathers nor wings should leave the
+kingdom of the birds to those who are fitted to inhabit it.'"
+
+Having told this story, Tsait'ien turned his back on the electrical
+ship.
+
+After the exhibition was finished, and amid the fresh outburst of
+enthusiasm that followed, it was suggested that a proper way to wind up
+the Congress and give suitable expression to the festive mood which now
+possessed mankind would be to have a grand ball. This suggestion met
+with immediate and universal approval.
+
+But for so gigantic an affair it was, of course, necessary to make
+special preparations. A convenient place was selected on the Virginia
+side of the Potomac; a space of ten acres was carefully levelled and
+covered with a polished floor, rows of columns one hundred feet apart
+were run across it in every direction, and these were decorated with
+electric lights, displaying every color of the spectrum.
+
+Above this immense space, rising in the center to a height of more than
+a thousand feet, was anchored a vast number of balloons, all aglow with
+lights, and forming a tremendous dome, in which brilliant lamps were
+arranged in such a manner as to exhibit, in an endless succession of
+combinations, all the national colors, ensigns and insignia of the
+various countries represented at the Congress. Blazing eagles, lions,
+unicorns, dragons and other imaginary creatures that the different
+nations had chosen for their symbols appeared to hover high above the
+dancers, shedding a brilliant light upon the scene.
+
+Circles of magnificent thrones were placed upon the floor in convenient
+locations for seeing. A thousand bands of music played, and tens of
+thousands of couples, gayly dressed and flashing with gems, whirled
+together upon the polished floor.
+
+The Queen of England led the dance, on the arm of the President of the
+United States.
+
+The Prince of Wales led forth the fair daughter of the President,
+universally admired as the most beautiful woman on the great ballroom
+floor.
+
+The Emperor William, in his military dress, danced with the beauteous
+Princess Masaco, the daughter of the Mikado, who wore for the occasion
+the ancient costume of the women of her country, sparkling with jewels,
+and glowing with quaint combinations of color like a gorgeous butterfly.
+
+The Chinese Emperor, with his pigtail flying high as he spun, danced
+with the Empress of Russia.
+
+The King of Siam essayed a waltz with the Queen Ranavalona of
+Madagascar, while the Sultan of Turkey basked in the smiles of a Chicago
+heiress to a hundred millions.
+
+The Czar chose for his partner a dark-eyed beauty from Peru, but King
+Malietoa, of Samoa, was suspicious of civilized charmers and, avoiding
+all of their allurements, expressed his joy and gave vent to his
+enthusiasm in a _pas seul_. In this he was quickly joined by a band of
+Sioux Indian chiefs, whose whoops and yells so startled the leader of a
+German band on their part of the floor that he dropped his baton, and
+followed by the musicians, took to his heels.
+
+This incident amused the good-natured Emperor of China more than
+anything else that had occurred.
+
+"Make muchee noisee," he said, indicating the fleeing musicians with his
+thumb. "Allee samee muchee flaid noisee," and then his round face
+dimpled into another laugh.
+
+The scene from the outside was even more imposing than that which
+greeted the eye within the brilliantly lighted enclosure. Far away in
+the night, rising high among the stars, the vast dome of illuminated
+balloons seemed, like some supernatural creation, too grand and glorious
+to have been constructed by the inhabitants of the earth.
+
+All around it, and from some of the balloons themselves, rose jets and
+fountains of fire, ceasingly playing, and blotting out the
+constellations of the heavens by their splendor.
+
+The dance was followed by a grand banquet, at which the Prince of Wales
+proposed a toast to Mr. Edison:
+
+"It gives me much pleasure," he said, "to offer, in the name of the
+nations of the Old World, this tribute of our admiration for, and our
+confidence in, the genius of the New World. Perhaps on such an occasion
+as this, when all racial differences and prejudices ought to be, and
+are, buried and forgotten, I should not recall anything that might
+revive them; yet I cannot refrain from expressing my happiness in
+knowing that the champion who is to achieve the salvation of the earth
+has come forth from the bosom of the Anglo-Saxon race."
+
+Several of the great potentates looked grave upon hearing the Prince of
+Wales' words, and the Czar and the Kaiser exchanged glances; but there
+was no interruption to the cheers that followed. Mr. Edison, whose
+modesty and dislike to display and to speechmaking were well known,
+simply said:
+
+"I think we have got the machine that can whip them. But we ought not to
+be wasting any time. Probably they are not dancing on Mars, but are
+getting ready to make us dance."
+
+These words instantly turned the current of feeling in the vast
+assembly. There was no longer any disposition to expend time in vain
+boastings and rejoicings. Everywhere the cry now became, "Let us make
+haste! Let us get ready at once! Who knows but the Martians have already
+embarked, and are now on their way to destroy us?"
+
+Under the impulse of this new feeling, which, it must be admitted, was
+very largely inspired by terror, the vast ballroom was quickly deserted.
+The lights were suddenly put out in the great dome of balloons, for
+someone had whispered:
+
+"Suppose they should see that from Mars? Would they not guess what we
+were about, and redouble their preparations to finish us?"
+
+Upon the suggestion of the President of the United States, an executive
+committee, representing all the principal nations, was appointed, and
+without delay a meeting of this committee was assembled at the White
+House. Mr. Edison was summoned before it, and asked to sketch briefly
+the plan upon which he proposed to work.
+
+I need not enter into the details of what was done at this meeting. Let
+it suffice to say that when it broke up, in the small hours of the
+morning, it had been unanimously resolved that as many thousands of men
+as Mr. Edison might require should be immediately placed at his
+disposal; that as far as possible all the great manufacturing
+establishments of the country should be instantly transformed into
+factories where electrical ships and disintegrators could be built, and
+upon the suggestion of Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson, the celebrated
+English electrical expert, seconded by Lord Kelvin, it was resolved that
+all the leading men of science in the world should place their services
+at the disposal of Mr. Edison in any capacity in which, in his
+judgement, they might be useful to him.
+
+The members of this committee were disposed to congratulate one another
+on the good work which they had so promptly accomplished, when at the
+moment of their adjournment, a telegraphic dispatch was handed to the
+President from Professor George E. Hale, the director of the great
+Yerkes Observatory, in Wisconsin. The telegram read:
+
+"Professor Barnard, watching Mars tonight with the forty-inch telescope,
+saw a sudden outburst of reddish light, which we think indicates that
+something has been shot from the planet. Spectroscopic observations of
+this moving light indicated that it was coming earthward, while visible,
+at the rate of not less than one hundred miles a second."
+
+Hardly had the excitement caused by the reading of this dispatch
+subsided, when others of a similar import came from the Lick
+Observatory, in California; from the branch of the Harvard Observatory
+at Arequipa, in Peru, and from the Royal Observatory, at Potsdam.
+
+When the telegram from this last named place was read the Emperor
+William turned to his Chancellor and said:
+
+"I want to go home. If I am to die I prefer to leave my bones among
+those of my imperial ancestors and not in this vulgar country, where no
+king has ever ruled. I don't like this atmosphere. It makes me limp."
+
+And now, whipped on by the lash of alternate hope and fear, the earth
+sprang to its work of preparation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+_TO CONQUER ANOTHER WORLD_
+
+
+It is not necessary for me to describe the manner in which Mr. Edison
+performed his tremendous task. He was as good as his word, and within
+six months from the first stroke of the hammer, a hundred electrical
+ships, each provided with a full battery of disintegrators, were
+floating in the air above the harbor and the partially rebuilt city of
+New York.
+
+It was a wonderful scene. The polished sides of the huge floating cars
+sparkled in the sunlight, and, as they slowly rose and fell, and swung
+this way and that, upon the tides of the air, as if held by invisible
+cables, the brilliant pennons streaming from their peaks waved up and
+down like the wings of an assemblage of gigantic humming birds.
+
+Not knowing whether the atmosphere of Mars would prove suitable to be
+breathed by inhabitants of the earth, Mr. Edison had made provision, by
+means of an abundance of glass-protected openings, to permit the inmates
+of the electrical ships to survey their surroundings without quitting
+the interior. It was possible by properly selecting the rate of
+undulation, to pass the vibratory impulse from the disintegrators
+through the glass windows of a car without damage to the glass itself.
+The windows were so arranged that the disintegrators could sweep around
+the car on all sides, and could also be directed above or below, as
+necessity might dictate.
+
+To overcome the destructive forces employed by the Martians no
+satisfactory plan had yet been devised, because there was no means to
+experiment with them. The production of those forces was still the
+secret of our enemies. But Mr. Edison had no doubt that if we could not
+resist their efforts we might at least be able to avoid them by the
+rapidity of our motions. As he pointed out, the war machines which the
+Martians had employed in their invasion of the earth, were really very
+awkward and unmanageable affairs. Mr. Edison's electrical ships, on the
+other hand, were marvels of speed and of manageability. They could dart
+about, turn, reverse their course, rise, fall, with the quickness and
+ease of a fish in the water. Mr. Edison calculated that even if
+mysterious bolts should fall upon our ships we could diminish their
+power to cause injury by our rapid evolutions.
+
+We might be deceived in our expectations, and might have overestimated
+our powers, but at any rate we must take our chances and try.
+
+A multitude, exceeding even that which had assembled during the great
+congress in Washington, now thronged New York and its neighborhood to
+witness the mustering and the departure of the ships bound for Mars.
+Nothing further had been heard of the mysterious phenomenon reported
+from the observatories six months before, and which at the time was
+believed to indicate the departure of another expedition from Mars for
+the invasion of the earth. If the Martians had set out to attack us they
+had evidently gone astray; or, perhaps, it was some other world that
+they were aiming at this time.
+
+The expedition had, of course, profoundly stirred the interest of the
+scientific world, and representatives of every branch of science, from
+all the civilized nations, urged their claims to places in the ships.
+Mr. Edison was compelled, from lack of room, to refuse transportation to
+more than one in a thousand of those who now, on the plea that they
+might be able to bring back something of advantage to science, wished to
+embark for Mars.
+
+On the model of the celebrated corps of literary and scientific men
+which Napoleon carried with him in his invasion of Egypt, Mr. Edison
+selected a company of the foremost astronomers, archaeologists,
+anthropologists, botanists, bacteriologists, chemists, physicists,
+mathematicians, mechanics, meteorologists and experts in mining,
+metallurgy and every other branch of practical science, as well as
+artists and photographers. It was but reasonable to believe that in
+another world, and a world so much older than the earth as Mars was,
+these men would be able to gather materials in comparison with which the
+discoveries made among the ruins of ancient empires in Egypt and
+Babylonia would be insignificant indeed.
+
+It was a wonderful undertaking and a strange spectacle. There was a
+feeling of uncertainty which awed the vast multitude whose eyes were
+upturned to the ships. The expedition was not large, considering the
+gigantic character of the undertaking. Each of the electrical ships
+carried about twenty men, together with an abundant supply of compressed
+provisions, compressed air, scientific apparatus and so on. In all,
+there were about 2,000 men, who were going to conquer, if they could,
+another world!
+
+But though few in numbers, they represented the flower of the earth, the
+culmination of the genius of the planet. The greatest leaders in
+science, both theoretical and practical, were there. It was the
+evolution of the earth against the evolution of Mars. It was a planet in
+the hey-day of its strength matched against an aged and decrepit world
+which, nevertheless, in consequence of its long ages of existence, had
+acquired an experience which made it a most dangerous foe. On both sides
+there was desperation. The earth was desperate because it foresaw
+destruction unless it could first destroy its enemy. Mars was desperate
+because nature was gradually depriving it of the means of supporting
+life, and its teeming population was compelled to swarm like the inmates
+of an overcrowded hive of bees, and find new homes elsewhere. In this
+respect the situation on Mars, as we were well aware, resembled what had
+already been known upon the earth, where the older nations overflowing
+with population had sought new lands in which to settle, and for that
+purpose had driven out the native inhabitants, whenever those natives
+had proven unable to resist the invasion.
+
+No man could foresee the issue of what we were about to undertake, but
+the tremendous powers which the disintegrators had exhibited and the
+marvelous efficiency of the electrical ships bred almost universal
+confidence that we should be successful.
+
+The car in which Mr. Edison travelled was, of course, the flagship of
+the squadron, and I had the good fortune to be included among its
+inmates. Here, besides several leading men of science from our own
+country, were Lord Kelvin, Lord Rayleigh, Professor Roentgen, Dr.
+Moissan--the man who first made artificial diamonds--and several others
+whose fame had encircled the world. Each of these men cherished hopes of
+wonderful discoveries, along his line of investigation, to be made in
+Mars.
+
+An elaborate system of signals had, of course, to be devised for the
+control of the squadron. These signals consisted of brilliant electric
+lights displayed at night and so controlled that by their means long
+sentences and directions could be easily and quickly transmitted.
+
+The day signals consisted partly of brightly colored pennons and flags,
+which were to serve only when, shadowed by clouds or other obstructions,
+the full sunlight could not fall upon the ship. This could naturally
+only occur near the surface of the earth or of another planet.
+
+Once out of the shadow of the earth we should have no more clouds and no
+more night until we arrived at Mars. In open space the sun would be
+continually shining. It would be perpetual day for us, except as, by
+artificial means, we furnished ourselves with darkness for the purpose
+of promoting sleep. In this region of perpetual day, then, the signals
+were also to be transmitted by flashes of light from mirrors reflecting
+the rays of the sun.
+
+Yet this perpetual day would be also, in one sense, a perpetual night.
+There would be no more blue sky for us, because without an atmosphere
+the sunlight could not be diffused. Objects would be illuminated only on
+the side toward the sun. Anything that screened off the direct rays of
+sunlight would produce absolute darkness behind it. There would be no
+graduation of shadow. The sky would be as black as ink on all sides.
+
+While it was the intention to remain as much as possible within the
+cars, yet since it was probable that necessity would arise for
+occasionally quitting the interior of the electrical ships, Mr. Edison
+had provided for this emergency by inventing an air-tight dress
+constructed somewhat after the manner of a diver's suit, but of much
+lighter material. Each ship was provided with several of these suits, by
+wearing which one could venture outside the ship even when it was beyond
+the atmosphere of the earth.
+
+Provision had been made to meet the terrific cold which we knew would be
+encountered the moment we had passed beyond the atmosphere--that awful
+absolute zero which men had measured by anticipation, but never yet
+experienced--by a simple system of producing within the air-tight suits
+a temperature sufficiently elevated to counteract the effects of the
+frigidity without. By means of long, flexible tubes, air could be
+continually supplied to the wearers of the suits, and by an ingenious
+contrivance a store of compressed air sufficient to last for several
+hours was provided for each suit, so that in case of necessity the
+wearer could throw off the tubes connecting him with the air tanks in
+the car. Another object which had been kept in view in the preparation
+of these suits was the possible exploration of an airless planet, such
+as the moon.
+
+The necessity of some contrivance by means of which we should be enabled
+to converse with one another while outside the cars in open space, or
+when in an airless world, like the moon, where there would be no medium
+by which the waves of sound could be conveyed as they are in the
+atmosphere of the earth, had been foreseen by our great inventor, and he
+had not found it difficult to contrive suitable devices for meeting the
+emergency.
+
+Inside the headpiece of each of the electrical suits was the mouthpiece
+of a telephone. This was connected to a wire which, when not in use,
+could be conveniently coiled upon the arm of the wearer. Near the ears,
+similarly connected with wires, were telephonic receivers.
+
+When two persons wearing the air-tight dresses wished to converse with
+one another it was only necessary for them to connect themselves by the
+wires, and conversation could then be easily carried on.
+
+Careful calculations of the precise distance of Mars from the earth at
+the time when the expedition was to start had been made by a large
+number of experts in mathematical astronomy. But it was not Mr. Edison's
+intention to go direct to Mars. With the exception of the first
+electrical ship, which he had completed, none had yet been tried in a
+long voyage. It was desirable that the qualities of each of the ships
+should first be carefully tested, and for this reason the leader of the
+expedition determined that the moon should be the first port of space at
+which the squadron would call.
+
+It chanced that the moon was so situated at this time as to be nearly in
+a line between the earth and Mars, which latter was in opposition to the
+sun, and consequently as favorably situated as possible for the purposes
+of the voyage. What would be, then, for 99 out of the 100 ships of the
+squadron, a trial trip would at the same time be a step of a quarter of
+a million of miles gained in the direction of our journey, and so no
+time would be wasted.
+
+The departure from the earth was arranged to occur precisely at
+midnight. The moon near the full was hanging high over head, and a
+marvelous spectacle was presented to the eyes of those below as the
+great squadron of floating ships, with their insignia lights ablaze,
+cast loose and began slowly to move away on their adventurous and
+unprecedented expedition into the great unknown. A tremendous cheer,
+billowing up from the throats of millions of excited men and women,
+seemed to rend the curtain of the night, and made the airships tremble
+with the atmospheric vibrations that were set in motion.
+
+Instantly magnificent fireworks were displayed in honor of our
+departure. Rockets by hundreds of thousands shot heaven-ward, and then
+burst in constellations of firey drops. The sudden illumination thus
+produced, overspreading hundreds of square miles of the surface of the
+earth with a light almost like that of day, must certainly have been
+visible to the inhabitants of Mars, if they were watching us at the
+time. They might, or might not, correctly interpret its significance;
+but, at any rate, we did not care. We were off, and were confident that
+we could meet our enemy on his own ground before he could attack us
+again.
+
+And now, as we slowly rose higher, a marvelous scene was disclosed. At
+first the earth beneath us, buried as it was in night, resembled the
+hollow of a vast cup of ebony blackness, in the center of which, like
+the molten lava run together at the bottom of a volcanic crater, shone
+the light of the illuminations around New York. But when we got beyond
+the atmosphere, and the earth still continued to recede below us, its
+aspect changed. The cup-shaped appearance was gone, and it began to
+round out beneath our eyes in the form of a vast globe--an enormous ball
+mysteriously suspended under us, glimmering over most of its surface,
+with the faint illumination of the moon, and showing toward its eastern
+edge the oncoming light of the rising sun.
+
+When we were still further away, having slightly varied our course so
+that the sun was once more entirely hidden behind the center of the
+earth, we saw its atmosphere completely illuminated, all around it, with
+prismatic lights, like a gigantic rainbow in the form of a ring.
+
+Another shift in our course rapidly carried us out of the shadow of the
+earth and into that all pervading sunshine. Then the great planet
+beneath us hung unspeakable in its beauty. The outlines of several of
+the continents were clearly discernible on its surface, streaked and
+spotted with delicate shades of varying color, and the sunlight flashed
+and glowed in long lanes across the convex surface of the oceans.
+Parallel with the Equator and along the regions of the ever blowing
+trade winds, were vast belts of clouds, gorgeous with crimson and purple
+as the sunlight fell upon them. Immense expanses of snow and ice lay
+like a glittering garment upon both land and sea around the North Pole.
+
+As we gazed upon this magnificent spectacle, our hearts bounded within
+us. This was our earth--this was the planet we were going to defend--our
+home in the trackless wilderness of space. And it seemed to us indeed a
+home for which we might gladly expend our last breath. A new
+determination to conquer or die sprang up in our hearts, and I saw Lord
+Kelvin, after gazing at the beauteous scene which the earth presented
+through his eyeglass, turn about and peer in the direction in which we
+knew that Mars lay, with a sudden frown that caused the glass to lose
+its grip and fall dangling from its string upon his breast. Even Mr.
+Edison seemed moved.
+
+"I am glad I thought of the disintegrator," he said. "I shouldn't like
+to see that world down there laid waste again."
+
+"And it won't be," said Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson, gripping the
+handle of an electric machine, "not if we can help it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+_THE FOOTPRINT ON THE MOON_
+
+
+To prevent accidents, it had been arranged that the ships should keep a
+considerable distance apart. Some of them gradually drifted away, until,
+on account of the neutral tint of their sides, they were swallowed up in
+the abyss of space. Still it was possible to know where every member of
+the squadron was through the constant interchange of signals. These, as
+I have explained, were effected by means of mirrors flashing back the
+light of the sun.
+
+But, although it was now unceasing day for us, yet, there being no
+atmosphere to diffuse the sun's light, the stars were visible to us just
+as at night upon the earth, and they shone with extraordinary splendor
+against the intense black background of the firmament. The lights of
+some of the more distant ships of our squadron were not brighter than
+the stars in whose neighborhood they seemed to be. In some cases it was
+only possible to distinguish between the light of a ship and that of a
+star by the fact that the former was continually flashing while the star
+was steady in its radiance.
+
+The most uncanny effect was produced by the absence of atmosphere around
+us. Inside the car, where there was air, the sunlight, streaming through
+one or more of the windows, was diffused and produced ordinary daylight.
+
+But when we ventured outside we could only see things by halves. The
+side of the car that the sun's rays touched was visible, the other side
+was invisible, the light from the stars not making it bright enough to
+affect the eye in contrast with the sun-illumined half.
+
+As I held up my arm before my eyes, half of it seemed to be shaved off
+lengthwise; a companion on the deck of the ship looked like half a man.
+So the other electrical ships near us appeared as half ships, only the
+illumined sides being visible.
+
+We had now gotten so far away that the earth had taken on the appearance
+of a heavenly body like the moon. Its colors had become all blended into
+a golden-reddish hue, which overspread nearly its entire surface, except
+at the poles, where there were broad patches of white. It was marvelous
+to look at this huge orb behind us, while far beyond it shone the
+blazing sun like an enormous star in the blackest of nights. In the
+opposite direction appeared the silver orb of the moon, and scattered
+all around were millions of brilliant stars, amid which, like fireflies,
+flashed and sparkled the signal lights of the squadron.
+
+A danger that might easily have been anticipated, that perhaps had been
+anticipated, but against which it had been difficult, if not impossible,
+to provide, presently manifested itself.
+
+Looking out of a window toward the right, I suddenly noticed the lights
+of a distant ship darting about in a curious curve. Instantly afterward,
+another member of the squadron, nearer by, behaved in the same
+inexplicable manner. Then two or three of the floating cars seemed to be
+violently drawn from their courses and hurried rapidly in the direction
+of the flagship. Immediately I perceived a small object, luridly
+flaming, which seemed to move with immense speed in our direction.
+
+The truth instantly flashed upon my mind, and I shouted to the other
+occupants of the car:
+
+"A meteor!"
+
+And such indeed it was. We had met this mysterious wanderer in space at
+a moment when we were moving in a direction at right angles to the path
+it was pursuing around the sun. Small as it was, and its diameter
+probably did not exceed a single foot, it was yet an independent little
+world, and as such a member of the solar system. Its distance from the
+sun being so near that of the earth, I knew that its velocity, assuming
+it to be travelling in a nearly circular orbit, must be about eighteen
+miles in a second. With this velocity, then, it plunged like a
+projectile shot by some mysterious enemy in space directly through our
+squadron. It had come and was gone before one could utter a sentence of
+three words. Its appearance, and the effect it had produced upon the
+ships in whose neighborhood it passed, indicated that it bore an intense
+and tremendous charge of electricity. How it had become thus charged I
+cannot pretend to say. I simply record the fact. And this charge, it was
+evident, was opposite in polarity to that which the ships of the
+squadron bore. It therefore exerted an attractive influence upon them
+and thus drew them after it.
+
+I had just time to think how lucky it was that the meteor did not strike
+any of us, when, glancing at a ship just ahead, I perceived that an
+accident had occurred. The ship swayed violently from its course,
+dazzling flashes played around it, and two or three of the men forming
+its crew appeared for an instant on its exterior, wildly gesticulating,
+but almost instantly falling prone.
+
+It was evident at a glance that the car had been struck by the meteor.
+How serious the damage might be we could not instantly determine. The
+course of our ship was immediately altered, the electric polarity was
+changed and we rapidly approached the disabled car.
+
+The men who had fallen lay upon its surface. One of the heavy circular
+glasses covering a window had been smashed to atoms. Through this the
+meteor had passed, killing two or three men who stood in its course.
+Then it had crashed through the opposite side of the car, and, passing
+on, had disappeared into space. The store of air contained in the car
+had immediately rushed out through the openings, and when two or three
+of us, having donned our air-tight suits as quickly as possible, entered
+the wrecked car we found all its inmates stretched upon the floor in a
+condition of asphyxiation. They, as well as those who lay upon the
+exterior, were immediately removed to the flagship, restoratives were
+applied, and, fortunately, our aid had come so promptly that the lives
+of all of them were saved. But life had fled from the mangled bodies of
+those who had stood directly in the path of the fearful projectile.
+
+[Illustration: _"Through this the meteor had passed, killing two or
+three men who stood in its course."_]
+
+This strange accident had been witnessed by several of the members of
+the fleet, and they quickly drew together, in order to inquire for the
+particulars. As the flagship was now overcrowded by the addition of so
+many men to its crew, Mr. Edison had them distributed among the other
+cars. Fortunately it happened that the disintegrators contained in the
+wrecked car were not injured. Mr. Edison thought that it would be
+possible to repair the car itself, and for that purpose he had it
+attached to the flagship in order that it might be carried on as far as
+the moon. The bodies of the dead were transported with it, as it was
+determined, instead of committing them to the fearful deep of space,
+where they would have wandered forever, or else have fallen like meteors
+upon the earth, to give them interment in the lunar soil.
+
+As we now rapidly approached the moon the change which the appearance of
+its surface underwent was no less wonderful than that which the surface
+of the earth had presented in the reverse order while we were receding
+from it. From a pale silver orb, shining with comparative faintness
+among the stars, it slowly assumed the appearance of a vast mountainous
+desert. As we drew nearer its colors became more pronounced; the great
+flat regions appeared darker; the mountain peaks shone more brilliantly.
+The huge chasms seemed bottomless and blacker than midnight. Gradually
+separate mountains appeared. What seemed like expanses of snow and
+immense glaciers streaming down their sides sparkled with great
+brilliancy in the perpendicular rays of the sun. Our motion had now
+assumed the aspect of falling. We seemed to be dropping from an
+immeasurable height, and with an inconceivable velocity, straight down
+upon those giant peaks.
+
+Here and there curious lights glowed upon the mysterious surface of the
+moon. Where the edge of the moon cut the sky behind it, it was broken
+and jagged with mountain masses. Vast crater rings overspread its
+surface, and in some of these I imagined I could perceive a lurid
+illumination coming out of their deepest cavities, and the curling of
+mephitic vapors around their terrible jaws.
+
+We were approaching that part of the moon which is known to the
+astronomers as the Bay of Rainbows. Here a huge semi-circular region, as
+smooth almost as the surface of a prairie, lay beneath our eyes,
+stretching southward into a vast ocean-like expanse, while on the north
+it was enclosed by an enormous range of mountain cliffs, rising
+perpendicularly to a height of many thousands of feet, and rent and
+gashed in every direction by forces which seemed at some remote period
+to have labored at tearing this little world in pieces.
+
+It was a fearful spectacle; a dead and mangled world, too dreadful to
+look upon. The idea of the death of the moon was, of course, not a new
+one to many of us. We had long been aware that the earth's satellite was
+a body which had passed beyond the stage of life, if indeed it had ever
+been a life supporting globe; but none of us were prepared for the
+terrible spectacle which now smote our eyes.
+
+At each end of the semi-circular ridge that encloses the Bay of Rainbows
+there is a lofty promontory. That at the northwestern extremity had long
+been known to the astronomers under the name of Cape Laplace. The other
+promontory, at the southeastern termination, is called Cape Heraclides.
+It was toward the latter that we were approaching, and by interchange of
+signals all the members of the squadron had been informed that Cape
+Heraclides was to be our rendezvous upon the moon.
+
+I may say that I had been somewhat familiar with the scenery of this
+part of the lunar world, for I had often studied it from the earth with
+a telescope, and I had thought that if there was any part of the moon
+where one might, with fair expectation of success, look for inhabitants,
+or if not inhabitants, at least for relics of life no longer existant
+there, this would surely be the place. It was, therefore, with no small
+degree of curiosity, notwithstanding the unexpectedly frightful and
+repulsive appearance that the surface of the moon presented, that I now
+saw myself rapidly approaching the region concerning whose secrets my
+imagination had so often busied itself. When Mr. Edison and I had paid
+our previous trip to the moon on our first experimental trip of the
+electrical ship we had landed at a point on its surface remote from
+this, and, as I have before explained, we then made no effort to
+investigate its secrets. But now it was to be different, and we were at
+length to see something of the wonders of the moon.
+
+I had often on the earth drawn a smile from my friends by showing them
+Cape Heraclides with a telescope, and calling their attention to the
+fact that the outline of the peak terminating the cape was such as to
+present a remarkable resemblance to a human face, unmistakably a
+feminine countenance, seen in profile, and possessing no small degree of
+beauty. To my astonishment, this curious human semblance still remained
+when we had approached so close to the moon that the mountains forming
+the cape filled nearly the whole field of view of the window from which
+I was watching it. The resemblance, indeed, was most startling.
+
+"Can this indeed be Diana herself?" I said half-aloud, but instantly
+afterward I was laughing at my fancy, for Mr. Edison had overhead me and
+exclaimed, "Where is she?"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Diana."
+
+"Why, there," I said, pointing to the moon. But lo! the appearance was
+gone even while I spoke. A swift change had taken place in the line of
+sight by which we were viewing it, and the likeness had disappeared in
+consequence.
+
+A few moments later my astonishment was revived, but the cause this time
+was a very different one. We had been dropping rapidly toward the
+mountains, and the electrician in charge of the car was swiftly and
+constantly changing his potential, and, like a pilot who feels his way
+into an unknown harbor, endeavoring to approach the moon in such a
+manner that no hidden peril should surprise us. As we thus approached I
+suddenly perceived, crowning the very apex of the lofty peak near the
+termination of the cape, the ruins of what appeared to be an ancient
+watch tower. It was evidently composed of Cyclopean blocks larger than
+any that I had ever seen even among the ruins of Greece, Egypt and Asia
+Minor.
+
+[Illustration: _"As we thus approached I suddenly perceived, crowning
+the very apex of the lofty peak near the termination of the cape, the
+ruins of what appeared to be the ancient watch-tower."_]
+
+Here, then, was visible proof that the moon had been inhabited, although
+probably it was not inhabited now. I cannot describe the exultant
+feeling which took possession of me at this discovery. It settled so
+much that learned men had been disputing about for centuries.
+
+"What will they say," I exclaimed, "when I show them a photograph of
+that?"
+
+Below the peak, stretching far to right and left, lay a barren beach
+which had evidently once been washed by sea waves, because it was marked
+by long curved ridges such as the advancing and retiring tide leaves
+upon the shore of the ocean.
+
+This beach sloped rapidly outward and downward toward a profound abyss,
+which had once, evidently, been the bed of a sea, but which now appeared
+to us simply as the empty, yawning shell of an ocean that had long
+vanished.
+
+It was with no small difficulty, and only after the expenditure of
+considerable time, that all the floating ships of the squadron were
+gradually brought to rest on this lone mountain top of the moon. In
+accordance with my request, Mr. Edison had the flagship moored in the
+interior of the great ruined watch tower that I have described. The
+other ships rested upon the slope of the mountain around us.
+
+Although time pressed, for we knew that the safety of the earth depended
+upon our promptness in attacking Mars, yet it was determined to remain
+here at least two or three days in order that the wrecked car might be
+repaired. It was found also that the passage of the highly electrified
+meteor had disarranged the electrical machinery in some of the other
+cars, so that there were many repairs to be made besides those needed to
+restore the wreck.
+
+Moreover, we must bury our unfortunate companions who had been killed by
+the meteor. This, in fact, was the first work that we performed. Strange
+was the sight, and stranger our feelings, as here on the surface of a
+world distant from the earth, and on soil which had never before been
+pressed by the foot of man, we performed that last ceremony of respect
+which mortals pay to mortality. In the ancient beach at the foot of the
+peak we made a deep opening, and there covered forever the faces of our
+friends, leaving them to sleep among the ruins of empires, and among the
+graves of races which had vanished probably ages before Adam and Eve
+appeared in Paradise.
+
+While the repairs were being made several scientific expeditions were
+sent out in various directions across the moon. One went westward to
+investigate the great ring of Plato, and the lunar Alps. Another crossed
+the ancient Sea of Showers toward the inner Appenines.
+
+One started to explore the immense Crater of Copernicus, which, yawning
+fifty miles across, presents a wonderful appearance even from the
+distance of the earth. The ship in which I, myself, had the good fortune
+to embark, was bound for the mysterious inner mountain Aristarchus.
+
+Before these expeditions started, a careful exploration had been made in
+the neighborhood of Cape Heraclides. But, except that the broken walls
+of the watch tower on the peak, composed of blocks of enormous size, had
+evidently been the work of creatures endowed with human intelligence, no
+remains were found indicating the former presence of inhabitants upon
+this part of the moon.
+
+But along the shore of the old sea, just where the so-called Bay of
+Rainbows separates itself from the abyss of the Sea of Showers, there
+were found some stratified rocks in which the fascinated eyes of the
+explorer beheld the clear imprint of a gigantic human foot, measuring
+five feet in length from toe to heel.
+
+The most minute search failed to reveal another trace of the presence of
+the ancient giant, who had left the impress of his foot in the wet sands
+of the beach here so many millions of years ago that even the
+imagination of the geologists shrank from the task of attempting to fix
+the precise period.
+
+Around this gigantic footprint gathered most of the scientific members
+of the expedition, wearing their oddly shaped air-tight suits, connected
+with telephonic wires, and the spectacle, but for the impressiveness of
+the discovery, would have been laughable in the extreme. Bending over
+the mark in the rock, nodding their heads together, pointing with their
+awkwardly accoutered arms, they looked like an assemblage of
+antidiluvian monsters collected around their prey. Their disappointment
+over the fact that no other marks of anything resembling human
+habitation could be discovered was very great.
+
+Still this footprint in itself was quite sufficient, as they all
+declared, to settle the question of the former habitation of the moon,
+and it would serve for the production of many a learned volume after
+their return to earth, even if no further discoveries should be made in
+other parts of the lunar world.
+
+It was the hope of making such other discoveries that led to the
+dispatch of the other various expeditions which I have already named. I
+was chosen to accompany the car that was going to Aristarchus, because,
+as every one who had viewed the moon from the earth was aware, there was
+something very mysterious about that mountain. I knew that it was a
+crater nearly thirty miles in diameter and very deep, although its floor
+was plainly visible.
+
+What rendered it remarkable was the fact that the floor and the walls of
+the crater, particularly on the inner side, glowed with a marvelous
+brightness which rendered them almost blinding when viewed with a
+powerful telescope.
+
+So bright were they, indeed, that the eye was unable to see many of the
+details which the telescope would have made visible but for the flood of
+light which poured from the mountains. Sir William Hershel had been so
+completely misled by this appearance that he supposed he was watching a
+lunar volcano in eruption.
+
+It had always been a difficult question what caused the extraordinary
+luminosity of Aristarchus. No end of hypothesis had been invented to
+account for it. Now I was to assist in settling these questions forever.
+
+From Cape Heraclides to Aristarchus the distance in air line was
+something over 300 miles. Our course lay across the northeastern part of
+the Sea of Showers, with enormous cliffs, mountain masses and peaks
+shining on the right, while in the other direction the view was bounded
+by the distant range of the lunar Appenines, some of whose towering
+peaks, when viewed from our immense elevation, appeared as sharp as the
+Swiss Matterhorn.
+
+When we had arrived within about a hundred miles of our destination we
+found ourselves, floating directly over the so-called Harbinger
+Mountains. The serrated peaks of Aristarchus then appeared ahead of us,
+fairly blazing in the sunshine.
+
+It seemed as if a gigantic string of diamonds, every one as great as a
+mountain peak, had been cast down upon the barren surface of the moon
+and left to waste their brilliance upon the desert air of this abandoned
+world.
+
+As we rapidly approached the dazzling splendor of the mountain became
+almost unbearable to our eyes, and we were compelled to resort to the
+devise, practised by all climbers of lofty mountains, where the glare of
+sunlight on snow surfaces is liable to cause temporary blindness, of
+protecting our eyes with neutral-tinted glasses.
+
+Professor Moissan, the great French chemist and maker of artificial
+diamonds, fairly danced with delight.
+
+"Voila! Voila! Voila!" was all that he could say.
+
+When we were comparatively near, the mountain no longer seemed to glow
+with a uniform radiance, evenly distributed over its entire surface, but
+now innumerable points of light, all as bright as so many little suns,
+blazed away at us. It was evident that we had before us a mountain
+composed of, or at least covered with, crystals.
+
+Without stopping to alight on the outer slopes of the great ring-shaped
+range of peaks which composed Aristarchus, we sailed over their rim and
+looked down into the interior. Here the splendor of the crystals was
+greater than on the outer slopes, and the broad floor of the crater,
+thousands of feet beneath us, shone and sparkled with overwhelming
+radiance, as if it were an immense bin of diamonds, while a peak in the
+center flamed like a stupendous tiara incrusted with selected gems.
+
+Eager to see what these crystals were, the car was now allowed rapidly
+to drop into the interior of the crater. With great caution we brought
+it to rest upon the blazing ground, for the sharp edges of the crystals
+would certainly have torn the metallic sides of the car if it had come
+into violent contact with them.
+
+Donning our air-tight suits and stepping carefully out upon this
+wonderful footing we attempted to detach some of the crystals. Many of
+them were firmly fastened, but a few--some of astonishing size--were
+readily loosened.
+
+A moment's inspection showed that we had stumbled upon the most
+marvelous work of the forces of crystalization that human eyes had ever
+rested upon. Some time in the past history of the moon there had been an
+enormous outflow of molten material from the crater. This had overspread
+the walls and partially filled up the interior, and later its surface
+had flowered into gems, as thick as blossoms in a bed of pansies.
+
+The whole mass flashed prismatic rays of indescribable beauty and
+intensity. We gazed at first speechless with amazement.
+
+"It cannot be, surely it cannot be," said Professor Moissan at length.
+
+"But it is," said another member of the party.
+
+"Are these diamonds?" asked a third.
+
+"I cannot yet tell," replied the Professor. "They have the brilliancy of
+diamonds, but they may be something else."
+
+"Moon jewels," suggested a third.
+
+"And worth untold millions, whatever they are," remarked another. These
+magnificent crystals, some of which appeared to be almost flawless,
+varied in size from the dimensions of a hazelnut to geometrical solids
+several inches in diameter. We carefully selected as many as it was
+convenient to carry and placed them in the car for future examination.
+We had solved another long standing lunar problem and had, perhaps,
+opened up an inexhaustible future mine of wealth which might eventually
+go far toward reimbursing the earth for the damage which it had suffered
+from the invasion of the Martians.
+
+On returning to Cape Heraclides we found that the other expeditions had
+arrived at the rendezvous ahead of us. Their members had wonderful
+stories to tell of what they had seen, but nothing caused quite so much
+astonishment as that which we had to tell and to show.
+
+The party which had gone to visit Plato and the lunar Alps brought back,
+however, information which, in a scientific sense, was no less
+interesting than what we had been able to gather.
+
+They had found within this curious ring of Plato, which is a circle of
+mountains sixty miles in diameter, enclosing a level plain remarkably
+smooth over most of its surface, unmistakable evidences of former
+habitation. A gigantic city had evidently at one time existed near the
+center of this great plain. The outlines of its walls and the foundation
+marks of some of its immense buildings were plainly made out, and
+elaborate plans of this vanished capitol of the moon were prepared by
+several members of the party.
+
+One of them was fortunate enough to discover an even more precious relic
+of the ancient lunarians. It was a piece of petrified skullbone,
+representing but a small portion of the head to which it had belonged,
+but yet sufficient to enable the anthropologists, who immediately fell
+to examining it, to draw ideal representations of the head as it must
+have been in life--the head of a giant of enormous size, which, if it
+had possessed a highly organized brain, of proportionate magnitude, must
+have given to its possessor intellectual powers immensely greater than
+any of the descendants of Adam have ever been endowed with.
+
+Indeed, one of the professors was certain that some little concretions
+found on the interior of the piece of skull were petrified portions of
+the brain matter itself, and he set to work with the microscope to
+examine its organic quality.
+
+In the meantime, the repairs to the electrical ships had been completed,
+and, although these discoveries on the moon had created a most profound
+sensation among the members of the expedition, and aroused an almost
+irresistable desire to continue the explorations thus happily begun, yet
+everybody knew that these things were aside from the main purpose in
+view, and that we should be false to our duty in wasting a moment more
+upon the moon than was absolutely necessary to put the ships in proper
+condition to proceed on their warlike voyage.
+
+Everything being prepared then, we left the moon with great regret, just
+forty-eight hours after we had landed upon its surface, carrying with us
+a determination to revisit it and to learn more of its wonderful secrets
+in case we should survive the dangers which we were now going to face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+_THE MONSTERS ON THE ASTEROID_
+
+
+A day or two after leaving the moon, we had another adventure with a
+wandering inhabitant of space which brought us into far greater peril
+than had our encounter with the meteor.
+
+The airships had been partitioned off so that a portion of the interior
+could be darkened in order to serve as a sleeping chamber, wherein,
+according to the regulations prescribed by the commander of the squadron
+each member of the expedition in his turn passed eight out of every
+twenty-four hours--sleeping if he could, if not, meditating in a more or
+less dazed way, upon the wonderful things that he was seeing and
+doing--things far more incredible than the creations of a dream.
+
+One morning, if I may call by the name morning the time of my periodical
+emergence from the darkened chamber, glancing from one of the windows, I
+was startled to see in the black sky a brilliant comet.
+
+No periodical comet, as I knew, was at this time approaching the
+neighborhood of the sun, and no stranger of that kind had been detected
+from the observatories making its way sunward before we left the earth.
+Here, however, was unmistakably a comet rushing toward the sun, flinging
+out a great gleaming tail behind it and so close to us that I wondered
+to see it remaining almost motionless in the sky. This phenomenon was
+soon explained to me, and the explanation was of a most disquieting
+character.
+
+The stranger had already been perceived, not only from the flagship, but
+from the other members of the squadron, and, as I now learned, efforts
+had been made to get out of the neighborhood, but for some reason the
+electrical apparatus did not work perfectly--some mysterious disturbing
+force acting upon it--and so it had been found impossible to avoid an
+encounter with the comet, not an actual coming into contact with it, but
+a falling into the sphere of its influence.
+
+In fact, I was informed that for several hours the squadron had been
+dragging along in the wake of a comet, very much as boats are sometimes
+towed off by a wounded whale. Every effort had been made to so adjust
+the electric charge upon the ships that they would be repelled from the
+cometic mass, but, owing apparently to electric changes affecting the
+clashing mass of meteoric bodies which constituted the head of the
+comet, we found it impossible to escape from its influence.
+
+At one instant the ships would be repelled; immediately afterward they
+would be attracted again, and thus they were dragged hither and thither,
+but never able to break from the invisible leash which the comet had
+cast upon them. The latter was moving with enormous velocity toward the
+sun, and, consequently, we were being carried back again, away from the
+object of our expedition, with a fair prospect of being dissipated in
+blazing vapors when the comet had dragged us, unwilling prisoners, into
+the immediate neighborhood of the solar furnace.
+
+Even the most cool-headed lost his self control in this terrible
+emergency. Every kind of devise that experience or the imagination could
+suggest was tried, but nothing would do. Still on we rushed with the
+electrified atoms composing the tail of the comet swinging to and fro
+over the members of the squadron, as they shifted their position, like
+the plume of smoke from a gigantic steamer, drifting over the sea birds
+that follow in its course.
+
+Was this to end it all, then? Was this the fate that Providence had in
+store for us? Were the hopes of the earth thus to perish? Was the
+expedition to be wrecked and its fate to remain for ever unknown to the
+planet from which it had set forth? And was our beloved globe, which had
+seemed so fair to us when we last looked upon it nearby, and in whose
+defense we had resolved to spend our last breath, to be left helpless
+and at the mercy of its implacable foe in the sky?
+
+At length we gave ourselves up for lost. There seemed to be no possible
+way to free ourselves from the baleful grip of this terrible and
+unlooked for enemy.
+
+As the comet approached the sun its electrical energy rapidly increased,
+and watching it with telescopes, for we could not withdraw our
+fascinated eyes from it, we could clearly behold the fearful things that
+went on in its nucleus.
+
+This consisted of an immense number of separate meteors of no very great
+size individually, but which were in constant motion among one another,
+darting to and fro, clashing and smashing together, while fountains of
+blazing metallic particles and hot mineral vapours poured out in every
+direction.
+
+As I watched it, unable to withdraw my eyes, I saw imaginary forms
+revealing themselves amid the flaming meteors. They seemed like
+creatures in agony, tossing their arms, bewailing in their attitudes the
+awful fate that had overtaken them, and fairly chilling my blood with
+the pantomime of torture which they exhibited. I thought of an old
+superstition which I had often heard about the earth, and exclaimed:
+
+"Yes, surely, this is a flying hell!"
+
+As the electric activity of the comet increased, its continued changes
+of potential and polarity became more frequent, and the electrical ships
+darted about with even greater confusion than before. Occasionally one
+of them, seized with a sudden impulse, would spring forward toward the
+nucleus of the comet with a sudden access of velocity that would fling
+every one of its crew from his feet, and all would lie sprawling on the
+floor of the car while it rushed, as it seemed, to inevitable and
+instant destruction.
+
+Then, either through the frantic efforts of the electrician struggling
+with the controller or through another change in the polarity of the
+comet, the ship would be saved on the very brink of ruin and stagger
+away out of immediate danger.
+
+Thus the captured squadron was swept, swaying and darting hither and
+thither, but never able to get sufficiently far from the comet to break
+the bond of its fatal attraction.
+
+So great was our excitement and so complete our absorption in the
+fearful peril that we had not noticed the precise direction in which the
+comet was carrying us. It was enough to know that the goal of the
+journey was the furnace of the sun. But presently someone in the
+flagship recalled us to a more accurate sense of our situation in space
+by exclaiming:
+
+"Why, there is the earth!"
+
+And there, indeed, it was, its great globe rolling under our eyes, with
+the contrasted colors of the continents and clouds and the watery gleam
+of the oceans spread beneath us.
+
+"We're going to strike it!" exclaimed somebody. "The comet is going to
+dash us into the earth."
+
+Such a collision at first seemed inevitable, but presently it was
+noticed that the direction of the comet's motion was such that while it
+might graze the earth it would not actually strike it.
+
+And so, like a swarm of giant insects circling about an electric light
+from whose magic influence they could not escape, our ships went on, to
+be whipped against the earth in passing and then to continue their swift
+journey to destruction.
+
+"Thank God, this saves us," suddenly cried Mr. Edison.
+
+"What-what?"
+
+"Why, the earth, of course. Do you not see that as the comet sweeps
+close to the great planet the superior attraction of the latter will
+snatch us from its grasp, and that thus we shall be able to escape."
+
+And it was indeed as Mr. Edison had predicted. In a blaze of falling
+meteors the comet swept the outer limits of the earth's atmosphere and
+passed on, while the swaying ships, having been instructed by signals
+what to do, desperately applied their electrical machinery to reverse
+the attraction and threw themselves into the arms of their mother earth.
+
+In another instant we were all free, settling down through the quiet
+atmosphere with the Atlantic Ocean sparkling in the morning sun far
+below.
+
+We looked at one another in amazement. So this was the end of our
+voyage! This was the completion of our warlike enterprise. We had
+started out to conquer a world, and we had come back ignominiously
+dragged in the train of a comet.
+
+The earth which we were going to defend and protect had herself turned
+protector, and reaching out her strong arm had snatched her foolish
+children from the destruction which they had invited.
+
+It would be impossible to describe the chagrin of every member of the
+expedition.
+
+The electric ships rapidly assembled and hovered high in the air, while
+their commanders consulted about what should be done. A universal
+feeling of shame almost drove them to a decision not to land upon the
+surface of the planet, and if possible not to let its inhabitants know
+what had occurred.
+
+But it was too late for that. Looking carefully beneath us, we saw that
+fate had brought us back to our very starting point, and signals
+displayed in the neighborhood of New York indicated that we had already
+been recognized. There was nothing for us then but to drop down and
+explain the situation.
+
+I shall not delay my narrative by undertaking to describe the
+astonishment and the disappointment of the inhabitants of the earth
+when, within a fortnight from our departure, they saw us back again,
+with no laurels of victory crowning our brows.
+
+At first they had hoped that we were returning in triumph, and we were
+overwhelmed with questions the moment we had dropped within speaking
+distance.
+
+"Have you whipped them?"
+
+"How many are lost?"
+
+"Is there any more danger?"
+
+"Faix, have ye got one of thim men from Mars?"
+
+But their rejoicing and their facetiousness were turned into wailing
+when the truth was imparted.
+
+We made a short story of it, for we had not the heart to go into
+details. We told of our unfortunate comrades whom we had buried upon the
+moon, and there was one gleam of satisfaction when we exhibited the
+wonderful crystals we had collected in the crater of Aristarchus.
+
+Mr. Edison determined to stop only long enough to test the electrical
+machinery of the cars, which had been more or less seriously deranged
+during our wild chase after the comet, and then to start straight back
+for Mars--this time on a through trip.
+
+The astronomers, who had been watching Mars, since our departure, with
+their telescopes, reported that mysterious lights continued to be
+visible, but that nothing indicating the starting of another expedition
+for the earth had been seen.
+
+Within twenty-four hours we were ready for our second start.
+
+The moon was now no longer in a position to help us on our way. It had
+moved out of line between Mars and the earth.
+
+High above us, in the center of the heavens, glowed the red planet which
+was the goal of our journey.
+
+The needed computations of velocity and direction of flight having been
+repeated, and the ships being all in readiness, we started direct for
+Mars.
+
+An enormous charge of electricity was imparted to each member of the
+squadron, in order that as soon as we had reached the upper limits of
+the atmosphere, where the ships could move swiftly, without danger of
+being consumed by the heat developed by the friction of their passage
+through the air, a very great initial velocity could be imparted.
+
+Once started off by this tremendous electrical kick, and with no
+atmosphere to resist our motion, we should be able to retain the same
+velocity, baring incidental encounters, until we arrived near the
+surface of Mars.
+
+When we were free of the atmosphere, and the ships were moving away from
+the earth, with the highest velocity which we were able to impart to
+them, observations on the stars were made in order to determine the rate
+of our speed.
+
+This was found to be ten miles in a second, or 864,000 miles in a day, a
+very much greater speed than that with which we had travelled on
+starting to touch at the moon. Supposing this velocity to remain
+uniform, and, with no known resistance, it might reasonably be expected
+to do so, we should arrive at Mars in a little less than forty-two days,
+the distance of the planet from the earth being at this time, about
+thirty-six million miles.
+
+Nothing occurred for many days to interrupt our journey. We became
+accustomed to our strange surroundings, and many entertainments were
+provided to while away the time. The astronomers in the expedition found
+plenty of occupation in studying the aspects of the stars and the other
+heavenly bodies from their new point of view.
+
+At the expiration of about thirty-five days we had drawn so near to Mars
+that with our telescopes, which, though small, were of immense power, we
+could discern upon its surface features and details which no one had
+been able to glimpse from the earth.
+
+As the surface of this world, that we were approaching as a tiger hunter
+draws near the jungle, gradually unfolded itself to our inspection,
+there was hardly one of us willing to devote to sleep or idleness the
+prescribed eight hours that had been fixed as the time during which each
+member of the expedition must remain in the darkened chamber. We were
+too eager to watch for every new revelation upon Mars.
+
+But something was in store that we had not expected. We were to meet the
+Martians before arriving at the world in which they dwelt.
+
+Among the stars which shone in that quarter of the heavens where Mars
+appeared as the master orb, there was one, lying directly in our path,
+which, to our astonishment, as we continued on, altered from the aspect
+of a star, underwent a gradual magnification, and soon presented itself
+in the form of a little planet.
+
+"It is an asteroid," said somebody.
+
+"Yes, evidently; but how does it come inside the orbit of Mars?"
+
+"Oh, there are several asteroids," said one of the astronomers, "which
+travel inside the orbit of Mars, along a part of their course, and, for
+aught we can tell, there may be many which have not yet been caught
+sight of from the earth, that are nearer to the sun than Mars is."
+
+"This must be one of them."
+
+"Manifestly so."
+
+As we drew nearer the mysterious little planet revealed itself to us as
+a perfectly formed globe not more than five miles in diameter.
+
+"What is that upon it?" asked Lord Kelvin, squinting intently at the
+little world through his glass. "As I live, it moves."
+
+"Yes, yes!" exclaimed several others, "there are inhabitants upon it,
+but what giants!"
+
+"What monsters!"
+
+"Don't you see?" exclaimed an excited savant. "They are the Martians!"
+
+The startling truth burst upon the minds of all. Here upon this little
+planetoid were several of the gigantic inhabitants of the world that we
+were going to attack. There was more than one man in the flagship who
+recognized them well, and who shuddered at the recognition,
+instinctively recalling the recent terrible experience of the earth.
+
+Was this an outpost of the warlike Mars?
+
+Around these monstrous enemies we saw several of their engines of war.
+Some of these appeared to have been wrecked, but at least one, as far as
+we could see, was still in a proper condition for use.
+
+How had these creatures got there?
+
+"Why, that is easy enough to account for," I said, as a sudden
+recollection flashed into my mind. "Don't you remember the report of the
+astronomers more than six months ago, at the end of the conference in
+Washington, that something would seem to indicate the departure of a new
+expedition from Mars had been noticed by them? We have heard nothing of
+that expedition since. We know that it did not reach the earth. It must
+have fallen foul of this asteroid, run upon this rock in the ocean of
+space and been wrecked here."
+
+"We've got 'em, then," shouted our electric steersman, who had been a
+workman in Mr. Edison's laboratory and had unlimited confidence in his
+chief.
+
+The electrical ships were immediately instructed by signal to slow down,
+an operation that was easily affected through the electrical repulsion
+of the asteroid.
+
+The nearer we got the more terrifying was the appearance of the gigantic
+creatures who were riding upon the little world before us like castaway
+sailors upon a block of ice. Like men, and yet not like men, combining
+the human and the beast in their appearance, it required a steady nerve
+to look at them. If we had not known their malignity and their power to
+work evil, it would have been different, but in our eyes their moral
+character shone through their physical aspect and thus rendered them
+more terrible than they would otherwise have been.
+
+When we first saw them their appearance was most forlorn, and their
+attitudes indicated only despair and desperation, but as they caught
+sight of us their malign power of intellect instantly penetrated the
+mystery, and they recognized us for what we were.
+
+Their despair immediately gave place to reawakened malevolence. On the
+instant they were astir, with such heart-chilling movements as those
+that characterize a venomous serpent preparing to strike.
+
+Not imagining that they would be in a position to make serious
+resistance, we had been somewhat incautious in approaching.
+
+Suddenly there was a quicker movement than usual among the Martians, a
+swift adjustment of that one of their engines of war which, as already
+noticed, seemed to be practically uninjured, then there darted from it
+and alighted upon one of the foremost ships, a dazzling lightning stroke
+a mile in length, at whose touch the metallic sides of the car curled
+and withered and, licked for a moment by what seemed lambent flames,
+collapsed into a mere cinder.
+
+For an instant not a word was spoken, so sudden and unexpected was the
+blow.
+
+We knew that every soul in the stricken car had perished.
+
+"Back! Back!" was the signal instantly flashed from the flagship, and
+reversing their polarities the members of the squadron sprang away from
+the little planet as rapidly as the electrical impulse could drive them.
+
+But before we were out of reach a second flaming tongue of death shot
+from the fearful engine, and another of our ships, with all its crew,
+was destroyed.
+
+[Illustration: _"Back! Back!" was the signal instantaneously flashed
+from the flag ship, and the members of the squadron sprang away from the
+little planet. But before we were out of reach a second tongue of death
+shot from the fearful engine, and another of our ships, with all its
+crew, was destroyed._]
+
+It was an inauspicious beginning for us. Two of our electrical ships,
+with their entire crews, had been wiped out of existence, and this
+appalling blow had been dealt by a few stranded and disabled enemies
+floating on an asteroid.
+
+What hope would there be for us when we came to encounter the millions
+of Mars itself on their own ground and prepared for war?
+
+However, it would not do to despond. We had been incautious, and we
+should take good care not to commit the same fault again.
+
+The first thing to do was to avenge the death of our comrades. The
+question whether we were able to meet these Martians and overcome them
+might as well be settled right here and now. They had proved what they
+could do, even when disabled and at a disadvantage. Now it was our turn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+_A PLANET OF GOLD_
+
+
+The squadron had been rapidly withdrawn to a very considerable distance
+from the asteroid. The range of the mysterious artillery employed by the
+Martians was unknown to us. We did not even know the limit of the
+effective range of our own disintegrators. If it should prove that the
+Martians were able to deal their strokes at a distance greater than any
+we could reach, then they would of course have an insuperable advantage.
+
+On the other hand, if it should turn out that our range was greater than
+theirs, the advantage would be on our side. Or--which was perhaps most
+probable--there might be practically no difference in the effective
+range of the engines.
+
+Anyhow, we were going to find out how the case stood, and that without
+delay.
+
+Everything being in readiness, the disintegrators all in working order,
+and the men who were able to handle them, most of whom were experienced
+marksmen, chosen from among the officers of the regular army of the
+United States, and accustomed to the straight shooting and the sure hits
+of the West, standing at their posts, the squadron again advanced.
+
+In order to distract the attention of the Martians, the electrical ships
+had been distributed over a wide space. Some dropped straight down
+toward the asteroid; others approached it by flank attack, from this
+side and that. The flagship moved straight in toward the point where the
+first disaster occurred. Its intrepid commander felt that his post
+should be that of the greatest danger, and where the severest blows
+would be given and received.
+
+The approach of the ships was made with great caution. Watching the
+Martians with our telescopes we could clearly see that they were
+disconcerted by the scattered order of our attack. Even if all of their
+engines of war had been in proper condition for use it would have been
+impossible for them to meet the simultaneous assault of so many enemies
+dropping down upon them from the sky.
+
+But they were made of fighting mettle, as we knew from old experience.
+It was no question of surrender. They did not know how to surrender, and
+we did not know how to demand their surrender. Besides, the destruction
+of the two electrical ships with the forty men, many of whom bore names
+widely known upon the earth, had excited a kind of fury among the
+members of the squadron which called for vengeance.
+
+Suddenly a repetition of the quick movement by the Martians, which had
+been the forerunner of the former coup, was observed; again a blinding
+flash burst from their war engines and instantaneously a shiver ran
+through the frame of the flagship; the air within quivered with strange
+pulsations and seemed suddenly to have assumed the temperature of a
+blast furnace.
+
+We all gasped for breath. Our throats and lungs seemed scorched in the
+act of breathing. Some fell unconscious upon the floor. The marksmen,
+carrying the disintegrators ready for use, staggered, and one of them
+dropped his instrument.
+
+But we had not been destroyed like our comrades before us. In a moment
+the wave of heat passed; those who had fallen recovered from their
+momentary stupor and staggered to their feet.
+
+The electrical steersman stood hesitating at his post.
+
+"Move on," said Mr. Edison sternly, his features set with determination
+and his eyes afire.
+
+"We are still beyond their effective range. Let us get closer in order
+to make sure work when we strike."
+
+The ship moved on. One could hear the heartbeats of its inmates. The
+other members of the squadron, thinking for the moment that disaster had
+overtaken the flagship, had paused and seemed to be meditating flight.
+
+"Signal them to move on," said Mr. Edison.
+
+The signal was given, and the circle of electrical ships closed in upon
+the asteroid.
+
+In the meantime Mr. Edison had been donning his air-tight suit. Before
+we could clearly comprehend his intention he had passed through the
+double trapped door which gave access to the exterior of the car without
+permitting the loss of air, and was standing upon what served as the
+deck of the ship.
+
+In his hand he carried a disintegrator. With a quick motion he sighted
+it.
+
+As quickly as possible I sprang to his side. I was just in time to note
+the familiar blue gleam about the instrument, which indicated that its
+terrific energies were at work. The whirring sound was absent, because
+here, in open space, where there was no atmosphere, there could be no
+sound.
+
+My eyes were fixed upon the Martian's engine, which had just dealt us a
+staggering, but not fatal, blow, and particularly I noticed a polished
+knob projecting from it which seemed to have been the focus from which
+its destructive bolt emanated.
+
+A moment later the knob disappeared. The irresistible vibrations darted
+from the electrical disintegrator and had fallen upon it and
+instantaneously shattered it into atoms.
+
+"That fixes them," said Mr. Edison, turning to me with a smile.
+
+And indeed it did fix them. We had most effectually spiked their gun. It
+would deal no more death blows.
+
+The doings of the flagship had been closely watched throughout the
+squadron. The effect of its blow had been evident to all, and a moment
+later we saw, on some of the nearer ships, men dressed in their air
+suits, appearing upon the deck, swinging their arms and sending forth
+soundless cheers into empty space.
+
+The stroke that we had dealt was taken by several of the electrical
+ships as a signal for a common assault, and we saw two of the Martians
+fall beside the ruins of their engine, their heads having been blown
+from their bodies.
+
+"Signal them to stop firing," commanded Mr. Edison. "We have got them
+down, and we are not going to murder them without necessity."
+
+"Besides," he added, "I want to capture some of them alive."
+
+The signal was given as he had ordered. The flagship then alone dropped
+slowly toward the place on the asteroid where the prostrate Martians
+were.
+
+As we got near them a terrible scene unfolded itself to our eyes. There
+had evidentially been not more than a half dozen of the monsters in the
+beginning. Two of these were stretched headless upon the ground. Three
+others had suffered horrible injuries where the invisible vibratory
+beams from the disintegrators had grazed them, and they could not long
+survive. One only remained apparently uninjured.
+
+[Illustration: _As we got near them a terrible scene unfolded itself.
+Two of the Martians were stretched headless upon the ground. Three
+others had suffered horrible injuries, and only one remained apparently
+unhurt._]
+
+It is impossible for me to describe the appearance of this creature in
+terms that would be readily understood. Was he like a man? Yes and no.
+He possessed many human characteristics, but they were exaggerated and
+monstrous in scale and in detail. His head was of enormous size, and his
+huge projecting eyes gleamed with a strange fire of intelligence. His
+face was like a caricature, but not one to make the beholder laugh.
+Drawing himself up, he towered to a height of at least fifteen feet.
+
+But let the reader not suppose from this inadequate description that the
+Martians stirred in the beholder precisely the sensation that would be
+caused by the sight of a gorilla, or other repulsive inhabitant of our
+terrestrial jungles, suddenly confronting him in its native wilds.
+
+With all his horrible characteristics, and all his suggestions of beast
+and monster, nevertheless the Martian produced the impression of being a
+person and not a mere animal.
+
+I have already referred to the enormous size of his head, and to the
+fact that his countenance bore considerable resemblance to that of a
+man. There was something in his face that sent a shiver through the soul
+of the beholder. One could feel in looking upon it that here was
+intellect, intelligence developed to the highest degree, but in the
+direction of evil instead of good.
+
+The sensations of one who had stood face to face with Satan, when he was
+driven from the battlements of heaven by the swords of his fellow
+archangels, and had beheld him transformed from Lucifer, the Son of the
+Morning, into the Prince of Night and Hell, might not have been unlike
+those which we now experienced as we gazed upon this dreadful personage,
+who seemed to combine the intellectual powers of a man, raised to their
+highest pitch, with some of the physical features of a beast, and all
+the moral depravity of a fiend.
+
+The appearance of the Martian was indeed so threatening and repellent
+that we paused at the height of fifty feet above the ground, hesitating
+to approach nearer. A grin of rage and hate overspread his face. If he
+had been a man I should say he shook his fist at us. What he did was to
+express in even more telling pantomime his hatred and defiance, and his
+determination to grind us to shreds if he could once get us within his
+clutches.
+
+Mr. Edison and I still stood upon the deck of the ship, where several
+others had gathered around us. The atmosphere of the little asteroid was
+so rare that it practically amounted to nothing, and we could not
+possibly have survived if we had not continued to wear our air tight
+suits. How the Martians contrived to live here was a mystery to us. It
+was another of their secrets which we were yet to learn.
+
+Mr. Edison retained his disintegrator in his hand.
+
+"Kill him," said someone. "He is too horrible to live."
+
+"If we do not kill him we shall never be able to land upon the
+asteroid," said another.
+
+"No," said Mr. Edison. "I shall not kill him. We have got another use
+for him. Tom," he continued, turning to one of his assistants, whom he
+had brought from his laboratory, "bring me the anaesthetic."
+
+This was something entirely new to nearly all the members of the
+expedition. Mr. Edison, however, had confided to me before we left the
+earth the fact that he had invented a little instrument by means of
+which a bubble, strongly charged with a powerful anaesthetic agent,
+could be driven to a considerable distance into the face of an enemy,
+where exploding without other damage, it would instantly put him to
+sleep.
+
+When Tom had placed the instrument in his hands Mr. Edison ordered the
+electrical ship to forge slightly ahead and drop a little lower toward
+the Martian, who, with watchful eyes and threatening gestures, noted our
+approach in the attitude of a wild beast on the spring. Suddenly Mr.
+Edison discharged from the instrument in his hand a little gaseous
+globe, which glittered like a ball of tangled rainbows in the sunshine,
+and darted with astonishing velocity straight into the upturned face of
+the Martian. It burst as it touched and the monster fell back senseless
+upon the ground.
+
+"You have killed him!" exclaimed all.
+
+"No," said Mr. Edison. "He is not dead, only asleep. Now we shall drop
+down and bind him tight before he can awake."
+
+When we came to bind our prisoner with strong ropes we were more than
+ever impressed with his gigantic stature and strength. Evidentially in
+single combat with equal weapons he would have been a match for twenty
+of us.
+
+[Illustration: _"When we came to bind our prisoner with strong ropes
+we were more than ever impressed with his gigantic stature and strength.
+He might have been a match for twenty of us."_]
+
+All that I had read of giants had failed to produce upon my mind the
+impression of enormous size and tremendous physical energy which the
+sleeping body of this immense Martian produced. He had fallen on his
+back, and was in a most profound slumber. All his features were relaxed,
+and yet even in that condition there was a devilishness about him that
+made the beholders instinctively shudder.
+
+So powerful was the effect of the anaesthetic which Mr. Edison had
+discharged into his face that he remained perfectly unconscious while we
+turned him half over in order the more securely to bind his muscular
+limbs.
+
+In the meantime the other electrical ships approached, and several of
+them made a landing upon the asteroid. Everybody was eager to see this
+wonderful little world, which, as I have already remarked, was only five
+miles in diameter.
+
+Several of us from the flagship started out hastily to explore the
+miniature planet. And now our attention was recalled to an intensely
+interesting phenomenon which had engaged our thoughts not only when we
+were upon the moon, but during our flight through space. This was the
+almost entire absence of weight.
+
+On the moon, where the force of gravitation is one-sixths as great as
+upon the earth, we had found ourselves astonishingly light. Five-sixths
+of our own weight, and of the weight of the air-tight suits in which we
+were encased, had magically dropped from us. It was therefore
+comparatively easy for us, encumbered, as we were, to make our way about
+on the moon.
+
+But when we were far from both the earth and the moon, the loss of
+weight was more astonishing still--not astonishing because we had not
+known that it would be so, but nevertheless a surprising phenomenon in
+contrast with our lifelong experience on the earth.
+
+In open space we were practically without weight. Only the mass of the
+electrical car in which we were enclosed attracted us, and inside that
+we could place ourselves in any position without falling. We could float
+in the air. There was no up and no down, no top and no bottom for us.
+Stepping outside the car, it would have been easy for us to spring away
+from it and leave it forever.
+
+One of the most startling experiences that I have ever had was one day
+when we were navigating space about half way between the earth and Mars.
+I had stepped outside the car with Lord Kelvin, both of us, of course,
+wearing our air-tight suits. We were perfectly well aware what would be
+the consequence of detaching ourselves from the car as we moved along.
+We should still retain the forward motion of the car, and of course
+accompany it in its flight. There would be no falling one way or the
+other. The car would have a tendency to draw us back again by its
+attraction, but this tendency would be very slight, and practically
+inappreciable at a distance.
+
+"I am going to step off," I suddenly said to Lord Kelvin. "Of course I
+shall keep right along with the car, and step aboard again when I am
+ready."
+
+"Quite right on general principles, young man," replied the great
+savant, "but beware in what manner you step off. Remember, if you give
+your body an impulse sufficient to carry it away from the car to any
+considerable distance, you will be unable to get back again, unless we
+can catch you with a boathook or a fishline. Out there in empty space
+you will have nothing to kick against, and you will be unable to propel
+yourself in the direction of the car, and its attraction is so feeble
+that we should probably arrive at Mars before it had drawn you back
+again."
+
+All this was, of course, perfectly self-evident, yet I believe that but
+for the warning words of Lord Kelvin I should have been rash enough to
+step out into empty space, with sufficient force to have separated
+myself hopelessly from the electrical ship.
+
+As it was, I took good care to retain a hold upon a projecting portion
+of the car. Occasionally cautiously releasing my grip, I experienced for
+a few minutes the delicious, indescribable pleasure of being a little
+planet swinging through space, with nothing to hold me up and nothing to
+interfere with my motion.
+
+Mr. Edison, happening to come upon the deck of the ship at this time,
+and seeing what we were about at once said:
+
+"I must provide against this danger. If I do not, there is a chance that
+we shall arrive at Mars with the ships half empty and the crews floating
+helplessly around us."
+
+Mr. Edison's way of guarding against the danger was by contriving a
+little apparatus, modeled after that which was the governing force of
+the electrical ships themselves, and which, being enclosed in the
+air-tight suits, enabled their wearers to manipulate the electrical
+charge upon them in such a way that they could make excursions from the
+cars into open space like steam launches from a ship, going and
+returning at their will.
+
+These little machines being rapidly manufactured, for Mr. Edison had a
+miniature laboratory aboard, were distributed about the squadron, and
+henceforth we had the pleasure of paying and receiving visits among the
+various members of the fleet.
+
+But to return from this digression to our experience of the asteroid.
+The latter being a body of some mass was, of course, able to impart to
+us a measurable degree of weight. Being five miles in diameter, on the
+assumption that its mean density was the same as that of the earth, the
+weight of bodies on its surface should have borne the same ratio to
+their weight upon the earth that the radius of the asteroid bore to the
+radius of the earth; in other words, as 1 to 1,600.
+
+Having made this mental calculation, I knew that my weight, being 150
+pounds on the earth, should on this asteroid be an ounce and a half.
+
+Curious to see whether fact would bear out theory, I had myself weighed
+with a spring balance. Mr. Edison, Lord Kelvin and the other
+distinguished scientists stood by watching the operation with great
+interest.
+
+To our complete surprise, my weight instead of coming out an ounce and a
+half, as it should have done, on the supposition that the mean density
+of the asteroid resembled that of the earth--a very liberal supposition
+on the side of the asteroid, by the way--actually came out five ounces
+and a quarter!
+
+"What in the world makes me so heavy?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, indeed, what an elephant you have become," said Mr. Edison.
+
+Lord Kelvin screwed his eyeglass in his eye, and carefully inspected the
+balance.
+
+"It's quite right," he said. "You do indeed weigh five ounces and a
+quarter. Too much; altogether too much," he added. "You shouldn't do it,
+you know."
+
+"Perhaps the fault is in the asteroid," suggested Professor Sylvanus P.
+Thompson.
+
+"Quite so," exclaimed Lord Kelvin, a look of sudden comprehension
+overspreading his features. "No doubt it is the internal constitution of
+the asteroid which is the cause of the anomaly. We must look into that.
+Let me see? This gentleman's weight is three and one-half times as great
+as it ought to be. What element is there whose density exceeds the mean
+density of the earth in about that proportion?"
+
+"Gold," exclaimed one of the party.
+
+For a moment we were startled beyond expression. The truth had flashed
+upon us.
+
+This must be a golden planet this little asteroid. If it were not
+composed internally of gold it could never have made me weight three
+times more than I ought to weight.
+
+"But where is the gold?" cried one.
+
+"Covered up, of course," said Lord Kelvin. "Buried in Stardust. This
+asteroid could not have continued to travel for millions of years
+through legions of space strewn with meteoric particles without becoming
+covered with the inevitable dust and grime of such a journey. We must
+dig now, and then doubtless we shall find the metal."
+
+This hint was instantly acted upon. Something that would serve as a
+spade was seized by one of the men, and in a few minutes a hole had been
+dug in the comparatively light soil of the asteroid.
+
+I shall never forget the sight, nor the exclamations of wonder that
+broke forth from all of us standing around, when the yellow gleam of the
+precious metal appeared under the "star dust." Collected in huge masses
+it reflected the light of the sun from its hiding place.
+
+Evidently the planet was not a solid ball of gold, formed like a bullet
+run in a mold, but was composed of nuggets of various sizes, which had
+come together here under the influence of their mutual gravitation, and
+formed a little metallic planet.
+
+Judging by the test of weight which we had already tried, and which had
+led to the discovery of the gold, the composition of the asteroid must
+be the same to its very center.
+
+In an assemblage of famous scientific men such as this the discovery of
+course, immediately led to questions as to the origin of this incredible
+phenomenon.
+
+How did these masses of gold come together? How did it chance that, with
+the exception of the thin crust of the asteroid nearly all its substance
+was composed of the precious metal?
+
+One asserted that it was quite impossible that there should be so much
+gold at so great a distance from the sun.
+
+"It is the general law," he said, "that the planets increase in density
+towards the sun. There is every reason to think that the inner planets
+possess the greater amount of dense elements, while the outer ones are
+comparatively light."
+
+But another referred to the old theory that there was once in this part
+of the solar system a planet which had been burst in pieces by some
+mysterious explosion, the fragments forming what we know as the
+asteroids. In his opinion, this planet might have contained, a large
+quantity of gold, and in the course of ages the gold, having, in
+consequence of its superior atomic weight, not being so widely scattered
+by the explosion as some of the other elements of the planet, had
+collected itself together in this body.
+
+But I observed that Lord Kelvin and the other more distinguished men of
+science said nothing during this discussion. The truly learned man is
+the truly wise man. They were not going to set up the theories without
+sufficient facts to substain them. The one fact that the gold was here
+was all they had at present. Until they could learn more they were not
+prepared to theorize as to how the gold got there.
+
+And in truth, it must be confessed, the greater number of us really
+cared less for the explanation of the wonderful fact than we did for the
+fact itself.
+
+Gold is a thing which may make its appearance anywhere and at any time
+without offering any excuses or explanations.
+
+"Phew! Won't we be rich?" exclaimed a voice.
+
+"How are we going to dig it and get it back to earth?" asked another.
+
+"Carry it in your pockets," said one.
+
+"No need of staking claims here," remarked another. "There is enough for
+everybody."
+
+Mr. Edison suddenly turned the current of talk.
+
+"What do you suppose those Martians were doing here?"
+
+"Why, they were wrecked here."
+
+"Not a bit of it," said Mr. Edison. "According to your own showing they
+could not have been wrecked here. This planet hasn't gravitation enough
+to wreck them by a fall, and besides I have been looking at their
+machines and I know there has been a fight."
+
+"A fight?" exclaimed several, pricking up their ears.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Edison. "Those machines bear the marks of the lightning
+of the Martians. They have been disabled, but they are made of some
+metal or some alloy of metals unknown to me, and consequently they have
+withstood the destructive force applied to them, as our electric ships
+were unable to withstand it. It is perfectly plain to me that they have
+been disabled in a battle. The Martians must have been fighting among
+themselves."
+
+"About the gold!" exclaimed one.
+
+"Of course. What else was there to fight about?"
+
+At this instant one of our men came running from a considerable
+distance, waving his arms excitedly, but unable to give voice to his
+story, in the inappreciable atmosphere of the asteroid, until he had
+come up and made telephonic connection with us.
+
+"There are a lot of dead Martians over there," he said. "They've been
+cleaning one another out."
+
+"That's it," said Mr. Edison. "I knew it when I saw the condition of
+those machines."
+
+"Then this is not a wrecked expedition, directed against the earth?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"This must be the great gold mine of Mars," said the president of an
+Australian mining company, opening both his eyes and his mouth as he
+spoke.
+
+"Yes, evidently that's it. Here's where they come to get their wealth."
+
+"And this," I said, "must be their harvest time. You notice that this
+asteroid, being several million miles nearer to the sun than Mars is,
+must have an appreciably shorter period of revolution. When it is in
+conjunction with Mars, or nearly so, as it is at present, the distance
+between the two is not very great, whereas when it is in the opposite
+part of its orbit they are separated by an enormous gap in space and the
+sun is between them.
+
+"Manifestly in the latter case it would be perilous if not entirely
+impossible for the Martians to visit the golden asteroid, but when it is
+near Mars, as it is at present, and as it must be periodically for
+several years at a time, then is their opportunity.
+
+"With their projectile cars sent forth with the aid of the mysterious
+explosives which they possess, it is easy for them under such
+circumstances, to make visits to the asteroid.
+
+"Having obtained all the gold they need or all that they can carry, a
+comparatively slight impulse given to their car, the direction of which
+is carefully calculated, will carry them back again to Mars."
+
+"If that's so," exclaimed a voice, "we had better look out for
+ourselves! We have got into a very hornet's nest! If this is the place
+where the Martians come to dig gold, and if this is the height of their
+season, as you say, they are not likely to leave us here long
+undisturbed."
+
+"These fellows must have been pirates that they had the fight with,"
+said another.
+
+"But what's become of the regulars, then?"
+
+"Gone back to Mars for help, probably, and they'll be here again pretty
+quick, I am afraid!"
+
+Considerable alarm was caused by this view of the case, and orders were
+sent to several of the electrical ships to cruise out to a safe distance
+in the direction of Mars and keep a sharp outlook for the approach of
+enemies.
+
+Meanwhile our prisoner awoke. He turned his eyes upon those standing
+about him, without any appearance of fear, but rather with a look of
+contempt, like that which Gulliver must have felt for the Lilliputians
+who had bound him under similar circumstances.
+
+There were both hatred and defiance in his glance. He attempted to free
+himself, and the ropes strained with the tremendous pressure that he put
+upon them, but he could not break loose.
+
+Satisfied that the Martian was safely bound, we left him where he lay,
+and, while awaiting news from the ships which had been sent to
+reconnoitre, continued the exploration of the little planet.
+
+At a point nearly opposite to that where we had landed we came upon the
+mine which the Martians had been working. They had removed the thin
+coating of soil, laying bare the rich stores of gold beneath, and large
+quantities of the latter had been removed. Some of it was so solidly
+packed that the strokes of the instruments by means of which they had
+detached it were visible like the streaks left by a knife cutting
+cheese.
+
+The more we saw of this golden planet the greater became our
+astonishment. What the Martians had removed was a mere nothing in
+comparison with the entire bulk of the asteroid. Had the celestial mine
+been easier to reach, perhaps they would have removed more, or,
+possibly, their political economists perfectly understood the necessity
+of properly controlling the amount of precious metal in circulation.
+Very likely, we thought, the mining operations were under government
+control in Mars and it might be that the majority of the people there
+knew nothing of this store of wealth floating in the firmament. That
+would account for the battle with the supposed pirates, who, no doubt
+had organized a secret expedition to the asteroid and had been caught
+red-handed at the mine.
+
+There were many detached masses of gold scattered about, and some of the
+men, on picking them up, exclaimed with astonishment at their lack of
+weight, forgetting for the moment that the same law which caused their
+own bodies to weigh so little must necessarily affect everything else in
+a like degree.
+
+A mass of gold that on the earth no man would have been able to lift
+could here be tossed about like a hollow rubber ball.
+
+While we were examining the mine, one of the men left to guard the
+Martian came running to inform us that the latter evidently wished to
+make some communication. Mr. Edison and the others hurried to the side
+of the prisoner. He still lay on his back, from which position he was
+not able to move, notwithstanding all his efforts. But by the motion of
+his eyes, aided by the pantomime with his fingers, he made us understand
+that there was something in a metallic box fastened at his side which he
+wished to reach.
+
+With some difficulty we succeeded in opening the box and in it there
+appeared a number of bright red pellets, as large as an ordinary egg.
+
+When the Martians saw these in our hands he gave us to understand by the
+motion of his lips that he wished to swallow one of them. A pellet was
+accordingly placed in his mouth, and he instantly and with great
+eagerness swallowed it.
+
+While trying to communicate his wishes to us, the prisoner had seemed to
+be in no little distress. He exhibited spasmodic movements which led
+some of the bystanders to think that he was on the point of dying, but
+within a few seconds after he had swallowed the pellet he appeared to be
+completely restored. All evidence of distress vanished, and a look of
+content came over his ugly face.
+
+"It must be a powerful medicine," said one of the bystanders. "I wonder
+what it is?"
+
+"I will explain to you my notion," said Professor Moissan, the great
+French chemist. "I think it was a pill of the air, which he has taken."
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"My meaning is," said Professor Moissan, "that the Martian must have,
+for that he may live, the nitrogen and the oxygen. These can he not
+obtain here, where there is not the atmosphere. Therefore must he get
+them in some other manner. This has he managed to do by combining in
+these pills the oxygen and the nitrogen in the proportions which make
+atmospheric air. Doubtless upon Mars there are the very great chemists.
+They have discovered how this may be done. When the Martian has
+swallowed his little pill, the oxygen and the nitrogen are rendered to
+his blood as if he had breathed them, and so he can live with that air
+which has been distributed to him with the aid of his stomach in place
+of his lungs."
+
+If Monsieur Moissan's explanation was not correct, at any rate it seemed
+the only one which would fit the facts before us. Certainly the Martian
+could not breathe where there was practically no air, yet just as
+certainly after he had swallowed his pill he seemed as comfortable as
+any of us.
+
+Suddenly, while we were gathered around the prisoner, and interested in
+this fresh evidence of the wonderful ingenuity of the Martians, and of
+their control over the processes of nature, one of the electrical ships
+that had been sent off in the direction of Mars was seen rapidly
+returning and displaying signals.
+
+It reported that the Martians were coming!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+_"THE MARTIANS ARE COMING!"_
+
+
+The alarm was spread instantly among those upon the planet and through
+the remainder of the fleet.
+
+One of the men from the returning electrical ship dropped down upon the
+asteroid and gave a more detailed account of what they had seen.
+
+His ship had been the one which had gone to the greatest distance, in
+the direction of Mars. While cruising there, with all eyes intent, they
+had suddenly perceived a glittering object moving from the direction of
+the ruddy planet, and manifestly approaching them. A little inspection
+with the telescope had shown them that it was one of the projectile cars
+used by the Martians.
+
+Our ship had ventured so far from the asteroid that for a moment it
+seemed doubtful whether it would be able to return in time to give
+warning, because the electrical influence of the asteroid was
+comparatively slight at such a distance, and, after they had reversed
+their polarity, and applied their intensifier, so as to make that
+influence effective, their motion was at first exceedingly slow.
+
+Fortunately after a time they got under way with sufficient velocity to
+bring them back to us before the approaching Martians could overtake
+them.
+
+The latter were not moving with great velocity, having evidently
+projected themselves from Mars with only just sufficient force to throw
+them within the feeble sphere of gravitation of the asteroid, so that
+they should very gently land upon its surface.
+
+Indeed, looking out behind the electrical ship which had brought us the
+warning, we immediately saw the projectile of the Martians approaching.
+It sparkled like a star in the black sky as the sunlight fell upon it.
+
+The ships of the squadron whose crews had not landed upon the planet
+were signaled to prepare for action, while those who were upon the
+asteroid made ready for battle there. A number of disintegrators were
+trained upon the approaching Martians, but Mr. Edison gave strict orders
+that no attempt should be made to discharge the vibratory force at
+random.
+
+"They do not know that we are here," he said, "and I am convinced that
+they are unable to control their motions as we can do with our
+electrical ships. They depend simply upon the force of gravitation.
+Having passed the limit of the attraction of Mars, they have now fallen
+within the attraction of the asteroid, and they must slowly sink to its
+surface.
+
+"Having, as I am convinced, no means of producing or controlling
+electrical attraction and repulsion, they cannot stop themselves, but
+must come down upon the asteroid. Having got here, they could never get
+away again, except as we know the survivors got away from earth, by
+propelling their projectile against gravitation with the aid of an
+explosive.
+
+"Therefore, to a certain extent they will be at our mercy. Let us allow
+them quietly to land upon the planet, and then I think, if it becomes
+necessary, we can master them."
+
+Notwithstanding Mr. Edison's reassuring words and manner, the company
+upon the asteroid experienced a dreadful suspense while the projectile
+which seemed very formidable as it drew near, sank with a slow and
+graceful motion toward the surface of the ground. Evidently it was about
+to land very near the spot where we stood awaiting it.
+
+Its inmates had apparently just caught sight of us. They evinced signs
+of astonishment, and seemed at a loss exactly what to do. We could see
+projecting from the fore part of their car at least two of the polished
+knobs, whose fearful use and power we well comprehended.
+
+Several of our men cried out to Mr. Edison in an extremity of terror:
+
+"Why do you not destroy them? Be quick, or we shall all perish."
+
+"No," said Mr. Edison, "there is no danger. You can see that they are
+not prepared. They will not attempt to attack us until they have made
+their landing."
+
+And Mr. Edison was right. With gradually accelerated velocity, and yet
+very, very slowly in comparison with the speed they would have exhibited
+in falling upon such a planet as the earth, the Martians and their car
+came down to the ground.
+
+We stood at a distance of perhaps three hundred feet from the point
+where they touched the asteroid. Instantly a dozen of the giants sprang
+from the car and gazed about for a moment with a look of intense
+surprise. At first it was doubtful whether they meant to attack us at
+all.
+
+We stood on our guard, several carrying disintegrators in our hands,
+while a score more of these terrible engines were turned upon the
+Martians from the electrical ships which hovered near.
+
+Suddenly he who seemed to be the leader of the Martians began to speak
+to them in pantomime, using his fingers after the manner in which they
+are used for conversation by deaf and dumb people.
+
+Of course, we did not know what he was saying, but his meaning became
+perfectly evident a minute later. Clearly they did not comprehend the
+powers of the insignificant looking strangers with whom they had to
+deal. Instead of turning their destructive engines on us, they advanced
+on a run, with the evident purpose of making us prisoners or crushing us
+by main force.
+
+The soft whirr of the disintegrator in the hands of Mr. Edison standing
+near me came to my ears through the telephonic wire. He quickly swept
+the concentrating mirror a little up and down, and instantly the
+foremost Martian vanished! Part of some metallic dress that he wore fell
+upon the ground where he had stood, its vibratory rate not having been
+included in the range imparted to the disintegrator.
+
+His followers paused for a moment, amazed, stared about as if looking
+for their leader, and then hurried back to their projectile and
+disappeared within it.
+
+"Now we've got business on our hands," said Mr. Edison. "Look out for
+yourselves."
+
+As he spoke, I saw the death-dealing knob of the war engine contained in
+the car of the Martians moving around toward us. In another instant it
+would have launched its destroying bolt.
+
+Before that could occur, however, it had been dissipated into space by a
+vibratory stream from a disintegrator.
+
+But we were not to get the victory quite so easily. There was another of
+the war engines in the car, and before we could concentrate our fire
+upon it, its awful flash shot forth, and a dozen of our comrades
+perished before our eyes.
+
+"Quick! Quick!" shouted Mr. Edison to one of his electrical experts
+standing near. "There is something the matter with this disintegrator,
+and I cannot make it work. Aim at the knob, and don't miss it."
+
+But the aim was not well taken, and the vibratory force fell upon a
+portion of the car at a considerable distance from the knob, making a
+great breach, but leaving the engine uninjured.
+
+A section of the side of the car had been destroyed, and the vibratory
+energy had spread no further. To have attempted to sweep the car from
+end to end would have been futile, because the period of action of the
+disintegrators during each discharge did not exceed one second, and
+distributing the energy over so great a space would have seriously
+weakened its power to shatter apart the atoms of the resisting
+substance. The disintegrators were like firearms, in that after each
+discharge they must be readjusted before they could be used again.
+
+Through the breach we saw the Martians inside making desperate efforts
+to train their engine upon us, for after their first disastrous stroke
+we had rapidly shifted our position. Swiftly the polished knob, which
+gleamed like an evil eye, moved round to sweep over us. Instinctively,
+though incautiously, we had collected in a group.
+
+A single discharge would sweep us all into eternity.
+
+"Will no one fire upon them?" exclaimed Mr. Edison, struggling with the
+disintegrator in his hands which still refused to work.
+
+At this fearful moment I glanced around upon our company, and was
+astonished at the spectacle. In the presence of the danger many of them
+had lost all self-command. A half dozen had dropped their disintegrators
+upon the ground. Others stood as if frozen fast in their tracks. The
+expert electrician, whose poor aim had had such disastrous results, held
+in his hand an instrument which was in perfect condition, yet with mouth
+agape, he stood trembling like a captured bird.
+
+It was a disgraceful exhibition. Mr. Edison, however, had not lost his
+head. Again and again he sighted at the dreadful knob with his
+disintegrator, but the vibratory force refused to respond.
+
+The means of safety were in our hands, and yet through a combination of
+ill luck and paralyzing terror, we seemed unable to use them.
+
+In a second more it would be all over with us.
+
+The suspense in reality lasted only during the twinkling of an eye,
+though it seemed ages long.
+
+Unable to endure it, I sharply struck the shoulder of the paralyzed
+electrician. To have attempted to seize the disintegrator from his hands
+would have been a fatal waste of time. Luckily the blow either roused
+him from his stupor or caused an instinctive movement of his hand that
+set the little engine in operation.
+
+I am sure he took no aim, but providentially the vibratory force fell
+upon the desired point, and the knob disappeared.
+
+We were saved!
+
+Instantly half a dozen rushed toward the car of the Martians. We
+bitterly repented their haste; they did not live to repent.
+
+Unknown to us the Martians carried hand engines, capable of launching
+bolts of death of the same character as those which emanated from the
+knobs of their larger machines. With these they fired, so to speak,
+through the breach in their car, and four of our men who were rushing
+upon them fell in heaps of cinders. The effect of the terrible fire was
+like that which the most powerful strokes of lightning occasionally
+produce on earth.
+
+The destruction of the threatening knob had instantaneously relieved the
+pressure upon the terror-stricken nerves of our company, and they had
+all regained their composure and self-command. But this new and
+unexpected disaster, following so close upon the fear which had recently
+overpowered them, produced a second panic, the effect of which was not
+to stiffen them in their tracks as before, but to send them scurrying in
+every direction in search of hiding places.
+
+And now a most curious effect of the smallness of the planet we were on
+began to play a conspicuous part in our adventures. Standing on a globe
+only five miles in diameter was like being on the summit of a mountain
+whose sides sloped rapidly off in every direction, disappearing in the
+black sky on all sides, as if it were some stupendous peak rising out of
+an unfathomable abyss.
+
+In consequence of the quick rounding off of the sides of this globe, the
+line of the horizon was close at hand, and by running a distance of less
+that 250 yards the fugitives disappeared down the sides of the asteroid,
+and behind the horizon, even from the elevation of about fifteen feet
+from which the Martians were able to watch them. From our sight they
+disappeared much sooner.
+
+The slight attraction of the planet and their consequent almost entire
+lack of weight enabled the men to run with immense speed. The result, as
+I have subsequently learned, was that after they had disappeared from
+our view they quitted the planet entirely, the force being sufficient to
+partially free them from its gravitation, so that they sailed out into
+space, whirling helplessly end over end, until the elliptical orbits in
+which they travelled eventually brought them back again to the planet on
+the side nearly opposite to that from which they had departed.
+
+But several of us, with Mr. Edison, stood fast, watching for an
+opportunity to get the Martians within range of the disintegrators.
+Luckily we were enabled, by shifting our position a little to the left,
+to get out of the line of sight of our enemies concealed in the car.
+
+"If we cannot catch sight of them," said Mr. Edison, "we shall have to
+riddle the car on the chance of hitting them."
+
+"It will be like firing into a bush to kill a hidden bear," said one of
+the party.
+
+But help came from a quarter which was unexpected to us, although it
+should not have been so. Several of the electric ships had been hovering
+above us during the fight, their commanders being apparently uncertain
+how to act--fearful, perhaps, of injuring us in the attempt to smite our
+enemy.
+
+But now the situation apparently lightened for them. They saw that we
+were at an immense disadvantage, and several of them immediately turned
+their batteries upon the car of the Martians.
+
+They riddled it far more quickly and effectively than we could have
+done. Every stroke of the vibratory emanation made a gap in the side of
+the car, and we could perceive from the commotion within that our
+enemies were being rapidly massacred in their fortification.
+
+So overwhelming was the force and the advantage of the ships that in a
+little while it was all over. Mr. Edison signaled them to stop firing
+because it was plain that all resistance had ceased and probably not one
+of the Martians remained alive.
+
+We now approached the car, which had been transpierced in every
+direction, and whose remaining portions were glowing with heat in
+consequence of the spreading of the atomic vibrations. Immediately we
+discovered that all our anticipations were correct and that all of our
+enemies had perished.
+
+The effect of the disintegrators upon them had been awful--too
+repulsive, indeed, to be described in detail. Some of the bodies had
+evidently entirely vanished; only certain metal articles which they had
+worn remaining, as in the case of the first Martian killed, to indicate
+that such beings had ever existed. The nature of the metal composing
+these articles was unknown to us. Evidently its vibratory rhythm did not
+correspond with any included in the ordinary range of the
+disintegrators.
+
+Some of the giants had been only partially destroyed, the vibratory
+current having grazed them, in such a manner that the shattering
+undulations had not acted upon the entire body.
+
+One thing that lends a peculiar horror to a terrestrial battlefield was
+absent; there was no bloodshed. The vibratory energy, not only
+completely destroyed whatever it fell upon but it seared the veins and
+arteries of the dismembered bodies so that there was no sanguinary
+exhibition connected with its murderous work.
+
+All this time the shackled Martian had lain on his back where we had
+left him bound. What his feeling must have been may be imagined. At
+times, I caught a glimpse of his eyes, wildly rolling and exhibiting,
+when he saw that the victory was in our hands, the first indications of
+fear and terror shaking his soul that had yet appeared.
+
+"That fellow is afraid at last," I said to Mr. Edison.
+
+"Well, I should think he ought to be afraid," was the reply.
+
+"So he ought, but if I am not mistaken this fear of his may be the
+beginning of a new discovery for us."
+
+"How so?" asked Mr. Edison.
+
+"In this way. When once he fears our power, and perceives that there
+would be no hope of contending against us, even if he were at liberty,
+he will respect us. This change in his mental attitude may tend to make
+him communicative. I do not see why we should despair of learning his
+language from him, and having done that, he will serve as our guide and
+interpreter, and will be of incalculable advantage to us when we have
+arrived at Mars."
+
+"Capital! Capital!" said Mr. Edison. "We must concentrate the linguistic
+genius of our company upon that problem at once."
+
+In the meantime some of the skulkers whose flight I have referred to
+began to return, crestfallen, but rejoicing in the disappearance of the
+danger. Several of them, I am ashamed to say, had been army officers.
+Yet possibly some excuse could be made for the terror by which they had
+been overcome. No man has a right to hold his fellow beings to account
+for the line of conduct they may pursue under circumstances which are
+not only entirely unexampled in their experience, but almost beyond the
+power of the imagination to picture.
+
+Paralyzing terror had evidently seized them with the sudden
+comprehension of the unprecedented singularity of their situation.
+Millions of miles away from the earth, confronted on an asteroid by
+these diabolical monsters from a maleficent planet, who were on the
+point of destroying them with a strange torment of death--perhaps it was
+really more than human nature, deprived of the support of human
+surroundings, could be expected to bear.
+
+Those who, as already described, had run with so great a speed that they
+were projected, all unwilling, into space, rising in elliptical orbits
+from the surface of the planet, describing great curves in what might be
+denominated its sky, and then coming back again to the little globe on
+another side, were so filled with the wonders of their remarkable
+adventure that they had almost forgotten the terror which had inspired
+it.
+
+There was nothing surprising in what had occurred to them the moment one
+considered the laws of gravitation on the asteroid, but their stories
+aroused an intense interest among all who listened to them.
+
+Lord Kelvin was particularly interested, and while Mr. Edison was
+hastening preparations to quit the asteroid and resume our voyage to
+Mars, Lord Kelvin and a number of other scientific men instituted a
+series of remarkable experiments.
+
+It was one of the most laughable things imaginable to see Lord Kelvin,
+dressed in his air-tight suit, making tremendous jumps in empty space.
+It reminded me forcibly of what Lord Kelvin, then plain William
+Thompson, and Professor Blackburn had done when spending a summer
+vacation at the seaside, while they were undergraduates of Cambridge
+University. They had spent all their time, to the surprise of onlookers,
+in spinning rounded stones on the beach, their object being to obtain a
+practical solution of the mathematical problem of "precession."
+
+Immediately Lord Kelvin was imitated by a dozen others. With what seemed
+very slight effort they projected themselves straight upwards, rising to
+a height of four hundred feet or more, and then slowly settling back
+again to the surface of the asteroid. The time of rise and fall combined
+was between three and four minutes.
+
+On this little planet the acceleration of gravity or the velocity
+acquired by a falling body in one second was only four-fifths of an
+inch. A body required an entire minute to fall a distance of only 120
+feet. Consequently, it was more like gradually settling than falling.
+The figures of these men of science, rising and sinking in this manner,
+appeared like so many gigantic marionettes bobbing up and down in a
+pneumatic bottle.
+
+"Let us try that," said Mr. Edison, very much interested in the
+experiments.
+
+Both of us jumped together. At first, with great swiftness, but
+gradually losing speed, we rose to an immense height straight from the
+ground. When we had reached the utmost limit of our flight we seemed to
+come to rest for a moment, and then began slowly, but with accelerated
+velocity, to sink back again to the planet. It was not only a peculiar
+but a delicious sensation, and but for strict orders which were issued
+that the electrical ships should be immediately prepared for departure,
+our entire company might have remained for an indefinite period enjoying
+this new kind of athletic exercise in a world where gravitation had
+become so humble that it could be trifled with.
+
+While the final preparations for departure were being made, Lord Kelvin
+instituted other experiments that were no less unique in their results.
+The experience of those who had taken unpremeditated flights in
+elliptical orbits when they had run from the vicinity of the Martians
+suggested the throwing of solid objects in various directions from the
+surface of the planet in order to determine the distance they would go
+and the curves they would describe in returning.
+
+For these experiments there was nothing more convenient or abundant than
+chunks of gold from the Martians' mine. These, accordingly, were hurled
+in different directions and with every degree of velocity. A little
+calculation had shown that an initial velocity of thirty feet per second
+imparted to one of these chunks, moving at right angles to the radius of
+the asteroid, would, if the resistance of an almost inappreciable
+atmosphere were neglected, suffice to turn the piece of gold into a
+little satellite that would describe an orbit around the asteroid, and
+continue to do so forever, or at least until the slight atmospheric
+resistance should eventually bring it down to the surface.
+
+But a less velocity than thirty feet per second would cause the golden
+missile to fly only part way around, while a greater velocity would give
+it an elliptical instead of a circular orbit, and in this ellipse it
+would continue to revolve around the asteroid in the character of a
+satellite.
+
+If the direction of the original impulse were at more than a right angle
+to the radius of the asteroid, then the flying body would pass out to a
+greater or less distance in space in an elliptical orbit, eventually
+coming back again and falling upon the asteroid, but not at the same
+spot from which it had departed.
+
+So many took part in these singular experiments, which assumed rather
+the appearance of outdoor sports than of scientific demonstrations, that
+in a short time we had provided the asteroid with a very large number of
+little moons, or satellites, of gold, which revolved around it in orbits
+of various degrees of ellipticity, taking, on the average, about
+three-quarters of an hour to complete a circuit. Since, on completing a
+revolution, they must necessarily pass through the point from which they
+started, they kept us constantly on the _qui vive_ to avoid being
+knocked over by them as they swept around in their orbits.
+
+Finally the signal was given for all to embark, and with great regret
+the savants quitted their scientific games, and prepared to return to
+the electric ships.
+
+Just on the moment of departure, the fact was announced by one, who had
+been making a little calculation on a bit of paper, that the velocity
+with which a body must be thrown in order to escape forever the
+attraction of the asteroid, and to pass on to an infinite distance in
+any direction, was only about forty-two feet in a second.
+
+Manifestly it would be quite easy to impart such a speed as that to the
+chunks of gold that we held in our hands.
+
+"Hurrah!" exclaimed one. "Let's send some of this back to the earth."
+
+"Where is the earth?" asked another.
+
+Being appealed to, several astronomers turned their eyes in the
+direction of the sun, where the black firmament was ablaze with stars,
+and in a moment recognized the earth-star shining there, with the moon
+attending close at hand.
+
+"There," said one, "is the earth. Can you throw straight enough to hit
+it?"
+
+"We'll try," was the reply, and immediately several threw huge golden
+nuggets in the direction of our far-away world, endeavoring to impart to
+them at least the required velocity of forty-two feet in a second, which
+would insure their passing beyond the attraction of the asteroid, and if
+there should be no disturbance on the way, and the aim were accurate,
+their eventual arrival upon the earth.
+
+"Here's for you, Old Earth," said one of the throwers, "good luck, and
+more gold to you!"
+
+If these precious missiles ever reached the earth we knew that they
+would plunge into the atmosphere like meteors and that probably the heat
+developed by their passage would melt and dissipate them in golden
+vapors before they could touch the ground.
+
+Yet there was a chance that some of them--if the aim were true--might
+survive the fiery passage through the atmosphere and fall upon the
+surface of our planet where, perhaps, they would afterward be picked up
+by a prospector and lead him to believe that he had struck a new
+bonanza.
+
+But until we returned to the earth it would be impossible for us to tell
+what had become of the golden gifts which we had launched into space for
+our mother planet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+_JOURNEY'S END_
+
+
+"All aboard!" was the signal, and the squadron having assembled under
+the lead of the flagship, we started again for Mars.
+
+This time, as it proved, there was to be no further interruption, and
+when next we paused it was in the presence of the world inhabited by our
+enemies, and facing their frowning batteries.
+
+We did not find it so easy to start from the asteroid as it had been to
+start from the earth; that is to say, we could not so readily generate a
+very high velocity.
+
+In consequence of the comparatively small size of the asteroid, its
+electric influence was very much less than that of the earth, and
+notwithstanding the appliances which we possessed for intensifying the
+electrical effect, it was not possible to produce a sufficient repulsion
+to start us off for Mars with anything like the impulse which we had
+received from the earth on our original departure.
+
+The utmost velocity that we could generate did not exceed three miles in
+a second, and to get this required our utmost efforts. In fact, it had
+not seemed possible that we should attain even so great a speed as that.
+It was far more than we could have expected, and even Mr. Edison was
+surprised, as well as greatly gratified, when he found that we were
+moving with the velocity that I have named.
+
+We were still about 6,000,000 miles from Mars, so that, traveling three
+miles in a second, we should require at least twenty-three days to reach
+the immediate neighborhood of the planet.
+
+Meanwhile we had plenty of occupation to make the time pass quickly. Our
+prisoner was transported along with us, and we now began our attempts to
+ascertain what his language was, and, if possible, to master it
+ourselves.
+
+Before quitting the asteroid we had found that it was necessary for him
+to swallow one of his "air pills," as Professor Moissan had called them,
+at least three times in the course of every twenty-four hours. One of us
+supplied him regularly and I thought that I could detect evidences of a
+certain degree of gratitude in his expression. This was encouraging,
+because it gave additional promise of the possibility of our being able
+to communicate with him in some more effective way than by mere signs.
+But once inside the car, where we had a supply of air kept at the
+ordinary pressure experienced on the earth, he could breathe like the
+rest of us.
+
+The best linguists in the expedition, as Mr. Edison had suggested, were
+now assembled in the flagship, where the prisoner was, and they set to
+work to devise some means of ascertaining the manner in which he was
+accustomed to express his thoughts. We had not heard him speak, because
+until we carried him into our car there was no atmosphere capable of
+conveying any sounds he might attempt to utter.
+
+It seemed a fair assumption that the language of the Martians would be
+scientific in its structure. We had so much evidence of the practical
+bent of their minds, and of the immense progress which they had made in
+the direction of the scientific conquest of nature, that it was not to
+be supposed their medium of communication with one another would be
+lacking in clearness, or would possess any of the puzzling and
+unnecessary ambiguities that characterized the languages spoken on the
+earth.
+
+"We shall not find them making he's and she's of stones, sticks and
+other inanimate objects," said one of the American linguists. "They must
+certainly have gotten rid of all that nonsense long ago."
+
+"Ah," said a French Professor from the Sorbonne, one of the makers of
+the never-to-be-finished dictionary. "It will be like the language of my
+country. Transparent, similar to the diamond, and sparkling as is the
+fountain."
+
+"I think," said a German enthusiast, "that it will be a universal
+language, the Volapuk of Mars, spoken by all the inhabitants of that
+planet."
+
+"But all these speculations," broke in Mr. Edison, "do not help you
+much. Why not begin in a practical manner by finding out what the
+Martian calls himself, for instance."
+
+This seemed a good suggestion, and accordingly several of the bystanders
+began an expressive pantomime, intended to indicate to the giant, who
+was following all their motions with his eyes, that they wished to know
+by what name he called himself. Pointing their fingers to their own
+breast they repeated, one after the other, the word "man."
+
+If our prisoner had been a stupid savage, of course any such attempt as
+this to make him understand would have been idle. But it must be
+remembered that we were dealing with a personage who had presumably
+inherited from hundreds of generations the results of a civilization,
+and an intellectual advance, measured by the constant progress of
+millions of years.
+
+Accordingly we were not very much astonished, when, after a few
+repetitions of the experiment, the Martian--one of whose arms had been
+partially released from its bonds in order to give him a little freedom
+of motion--imitated the action of his interrogators by pressing his
+finger over his heart.
+
+Then, opening his mouth, he gave utterance to a sound which shook the
+air of the car like the hoarse roar of a lion. He seemed himself
+surprised by the noise he made, for he had not been used to speak in so
+dense an atmosphere.
+
+Our ears were deafened and confused, and we recoiled in astonishment,
+not to say, half in terror.
+
+With an ugly grin distorting his face as if he enjoyed our discomfiture,
+the Martian repeated the motion and the sound.
+
+"R-r-r-r-r-r-h!"
+
+It was not articulate to our ears and not to be represented by any
+combination of letters.
+
+"Faith," exclaimed a Dublin University professor, "if that's what they
+call themselves, how shall we ever translate their names when we come to
+write the history of the conquest?"
+
+"Whist, mon," replied a professor from the University of Aberdeen, "let
+us whip the gillravaging villains first, and then we can describe them
+by any intitulation that may suit our deesposition."
+
+The beginning of our linguistic conquest was certainly not promising, at
+least if measured by our acquirement of words, but from another point of
+view it was very gratifying, inasmuch as it was plain that the Martian
+understood what we were trying to do, and was, for the present, at
+least, disposed to aid us.
+
+These efforts to learn the language of Mars were renewed and repeated
+every few hours, all the experience, learning and genius of the squadron
+being concentrated upon the work, and the result was that in the course
+of a few days we had actually succeeded in learning a dozen or more of
+the Martian's words and were able to make him understand us when we
+pronounced them, as well as to understand him when our ears had become
+accustomed to the growling of his voice.
+
+Finally, one day the prisoner, who seemed to be in an unusually cheerful
+frame of mind, indicated that he carried in his breast some object which
+he wished us to see.
+
+With our assistance he pulled out a book!
+
+Actually, it was a book, not very unlike the books which we have upon
+the earth, but printed, of course, in characters that were entirely
+strange and unknown to us. Yet these characters evidently gave
+expression to a highly intellectual language. All those who were
+standing by at the moment uttered a shout of wonder and of delight, and
+the cry of "a book! a book!" ran around the circle, and the good news
+was even promptly communicated to some of the neighboring electric ships
+of the squadron. Several other learned men were summoned in haste from
+them to examine our new treasure.
+
+[Illustration: _Actually, it was a book that the prisoner produced, and
+then he proceeded to teach us, as well as he could, several words of his
+language._]
+
+The Martian, whose good nature had manifestly been growing day after
+day, watched our inspection of his book with evidences of great
+interest, not unmingled with amusement. Finally he beckoned the holder
+of the book to his side, and placing his broad finger upon one of the
+huge letters--if letters they were, for they more nearly resembled the
+characters employed by the Chinese printer--he uttered a sound which we,
+of course, took to be a word, but which was different from any we had
+yet heard. Then he pointed to one after another of us standing around.
+
+"Ah," explained everybody, the truth being apparent, "that is the word
+by which the Martians designate us. They have a name, then, for the
+inhabitants of the earth."
+
+"Or, perhaps, it is rather the name for the earth itself," said one.
+
+But this could not, of course, be at once determined. Anyhow, the word,
+whatever its precise meaning might be, had now been added to our
+vocabulary, although as yet our organs of speech proved unable to
+reproduce it in a recognizable form.
+
+This promising and unexpected discovery of the Martian's book lent added
+enthusiasm to those who were engaged in the work of trying to master the
+language of our prisoner, and the progress that they made in the course
+of the next few days was truly astonishing. If the prisoner had been
+unwilling to aid them, of course, it would have been impossible to
+proceed, but, fortunately for us, he seemed more and more to enter into
+the spirit of the undertaking, and actually to enjoy it himself. So
+bright and quick was his understanding that he was even able to indicate
+to us methods of mastering his language that would otherwise, probably,
+never have occurred to our minds.
+
+In fact, in a very short time he had turned teacher and all these
+learned men, pressing around him with eager attention, had become his
+pupils.
+
+I cannot undertake to say precisely how much of the Martian language had
+been acquired by the chief linguists of the expedition before the time
+when we arrived so near to Mars that it became necessary for most of us
+to abandon our studies in order to make ready for the more serious
+business which now confronted us.
+
+But, at any rate, the acquisition was so considerable as to allow of the
+interchange of ordinary ideas with our prisoner, and there was no longer
+any doubt that he would be able to give us much information when we
+landed on his native planet.
+
+At the end of twenty-three days as measured by terrestrial time, since
+our departure from the asteroid, we arrived in the sky of Mars.
+
+For a long time the ruddy planet had been growing larger and more
+formidable, gradually turning from a huge star into a great red moon,
+and then expanding more and more until it began to shut out from sight
+the constellations behind it. The curious markings on its surface, which
+from the earth can only be dimly glimpsed with a powerful telescope,
+began to reveal themselves clearly to our naked eyes.
+
+I have related how even before we had reached the asteroid, Mars began
+to present a most imposing appearance as we saw it with our telescopes.
+Now, however, that it was close at hand, the naked eye view of the
+planet was more wonderful than anything we had been able to see with
+telescopes when at a greater distance.
+
+We were approaching the southern hemisphere of Mars in about latitude 45
+degrees south. It was near the time of the vernal equinox in that
+hemisphere of the planet, and under the stimulating influence of the
+spring sun, rising higher and higher every day, some such awakening of
+life and activity upon its surface as occurs on the earth under similar
+circumstances was evidently going on.
+
+Around the South Pole were spread immense fields of snow and ice,
+gleaming with great brilliance. Cutting deep into the borders of these
+ice-fields, we could see broad channels of open water, indicating the
+rapid breaking of the grip of the frost.
+
+Almost directly beneath us was a broad oval region, light red in color,
+to which terrestrial astronomers had given the name of Hellas. Toward
+the south, between Hellas and the borders of the polar ice, was a great
+belt of darkness that astronomers had always been inclined to regard as
+a sea. Looking toward the north, we could perceive the immense red
+expanses of the continent of Mars, with the long curved line of the
+Syrtis Major, or "The Hour-glass Sea," sweeping through the midst of
+them toward the north until it disappeared under the horizon.
+
+Crossing and recrossing the red continent, in every direction, were the
+canals of Schiaparelli.
+
+Plentifully sprinkled over the surface we could see brilliant points,
+some of dazzling brightness, outshining the daylight. There was also an
+astonishing variety in the colors of the broad expanses beneath us.
+Activity, vivacity and beauty, such as we were utterly unprepared to
+behold, expressed their presence on all sides.
+
+The excitement on the flagship and among the other members of the
+squadron was immense. It was certainly a thrilling scene. Here, right
+under our feet, lay the world we had come to do battle with. Its
+appearances, while recalling in some of their broader aspects those
+which it had presented when viewed from our observatories, were far more
+strange, complex and wonderful than any astronomer had ever dreamed.
+Suppose all of our anticipations about Mars should prove to have been
+wrong, after all?
+
+There could be no longer any question that it was a world which, if not
+absolutely teeming with inhabitants, like a gigantic ant-hill, at any
+rate bore on every side the marks of their presence and of their
+incredible undertakings and achievements.
+
+Here and there clouds of smoke arose and spread slowly through the
+atmosphere beneath us. Floating higher above the surface of the planet
+were clouds of vapor, assuming the familiar forms of stratus and cumulus
+with which we were acquainted upon the earth.
+
+These clouds, however, seemed upon the whole to be much less dense than
+those to which we were accustomed at home. They had, too, a peculiar
+iridescent beauty as if there was something in their composition or
+their texture which split up the chromatic elements of the sunlight and
+thus produced internal rainbow effects that caused some of the heavier
+cloud masses to resemble immense collections of opals, alive with the
+play of ever-changing colors and magically suspended above the planet.
+
+As we continued to study the phenomena that was gradually unfolded
+beneath us we thought we could detect in many places evidences of the
+existence of strong fortifications. The planet of war appeared to be
+prepared for the attacks of enemies. Since, as our own experience had
+shown, it sometimes waged war with distant planets, it was but natural
+that it should be found prepared to resist foes who might be disposed to
+revenge themselves for injuries suffered at its hands.
+
+As had been expected, our prisoner now proved to be of very great
+assistance to us. Apparently he took a certain pride in exhibiting to
+strangers from a distant world the beauties and wonders of his own
+planet.
+
+We could not understand by any means all that he said, but we could
+readily comprehend, from his gestures, and from the manner in which his
+features lighted up at the recognition of familiar scenes and objects,
+what his sentiments in regard to them were, and, in a general way, what
+part they played in the life of the planet.
+
+He confirmed our opinion that certain of the works which we saw beneath
+us were fortifications, intended for the protection of the planet
+against invaders from outer space. A cunning and almost diabolical look
+came into his eyes as he pointed to one of these strongholds.
+
+His confidence and his mocking looks were not reassuring to us. He knew
+what his planet was capable of, and we did not. He had seen, on the
+asteroid, the extent of our power, and while its display served to
+intimidate him there, yet now that he and we together were facing the
+world of his birth, his fear had evidently fallen from him, and he had
+the manner of one who feels that the shield of an all-powerful protector
+had been extended over him.
+
+But it could not be long now before we could ascertain, by the
+irrevocable test of actual experience, whether the Martians possessed
+the power to annihilate us or not.
+
+How shall I describe our feelings as we gazed at the scene spread
+beneath us? They were not quite the same as those of the discoverer of
+new lands upon the earth. This was a whole new world that we had
+discovered, and it was filled, as we could see, with inhabitants.
+
+But that was not all. We had not come with peaceful intentions.
+
+We were to make war on this new world.
+
+Deducting our losses we had not more than 940 men left. With these we
+were to undertake the conquest of a world containing we could not say
+how many millions!
+
+Our enemies, instead of being below us in the scale of intelligence
+were, we had every reason to believe, greatly our superiors. They had
+proved that they possessed a command over the powers of nature such as
+we, up to the time when Mr. Edison made his inventions, had not even
+dreamed that it was possible for us to obtain.
+
+It was true that at present we appeared to have the advantage, both in
+our electrical ships and in our means of offense. The disintegrator was
+at least as powerful an engine of destruction as any that the Martians
+had yet shown that they possessed. It did not seem that in that respect
+they could possibly excel us.
+
+During the brief war with the Martians upon the earth it had been
+gunpowder against a mysterious force as much stronger than gunpowder as
+the latter was superior to the bows and arrows that preceded it.
+
+There had been no comparison whatever between the offensive means
+employed by the two parties in the struggle on the earth.
+
+But the genius of one man had suddenly put us on the level of our
+enemies in regard to fighting capacity.
+
+Then, too, our electrical ships were far more effective for their
+purpose than the projectile cars used by the Martians. In fact, the
+principle upon which they were based was, at bottom, so simple that it
+seemed astonishing the Martians had not hit upon it.
+
+Mr. Edison himself was never tired of saying in reference to this
+matter:
+
+"I cannot understand why the Martians did not invent these things. They
+have given ample proof that they understand electricity better than we
+do. Why should they have resorted to the comparatively awkward and
+bungling means of getting from one planet to another that they have
+employed when they might have ridden through the solar system in such
+conveyances as ours with perfect ease?"
+
+"And besides," Mr. Edison would add, "I cannot understand why they did
+not employ the principle of harmonic vibrations in the construction of
+their engines of war. The lightning-like strokes which they dealt from
+their machines are no doubt equally powerful, but I think the range of
+destruction covered by the disintegrators is greater."
+
+However, these questions must remain open until we could effect a
+landing on Mars, and learn something of the condition of things there.
+
+The thing that gave us the most uneasiness was the fact that we did not
+yet know what powers the Martians might have in reserve. It was but
+natural to suppose that here, on their own ground, they would possess
+means of defense even more effective than the offensive engines they had
+employed in attacking enemies so many millions of miles from home.
+
+It was important that we should waste no time, and it was equally
+important that we should select the most vulnerable point for attack. It
+was self-evident, therefore, that our first duty would be to reconnoiter
+the surface of the planet and determine its weakest point of defense.
+
+At first Mr. Edison contemplated sending the various ships in different
+directions around the planet in order that the work of exploration might
+be quickly accomplished. But upon second thought it seemed wiser to keep
+the squadron together, thus diminishing the chance of disaster.
+
+Besides, the commander wished to see with his own eyes the exact
+situation of the various parts of the planet, where it might appear
+advisable for us to begin our assault.
+
+Thus far we had remained suspended at so great a height above the planet
+that we had hardly entered into the perceptible limits of its atmosphere
+and there was no evidence that we had been seen by the inhabitants of
+Mars; but before starting on our voyage of exploration it was determined
+to drop down closer to the surface in order that we might the more
+certainly identify the localities over which we passed.
+
+This maneuver nearly got us into serious trouble.
+
+When we had arrived within a distance of three miles from the surface of
+Mars we suddenly perceived approaching from the eastward a large airship
+which was navigating the Martian atmosphere at a height of perhaps half
+a mile above the ground.
+
+[Illustration: _When we arrived within a distance of three miles
+from the surface of Mars we suddenly perceived approaching from the
+eastward a large airship, which was navigating the Martian atmosphere at
+a height of perhaps half a mile above the ground._]
+
+This airship moved rapidly on to a point nearly beneath us, when it
+suddenly paused, reversed its course, and evidently made signals, the
+purpose of which was not at first evident to us.
+
+But in a short time their meaning became perfectly plain, when we found
+ourselves surrounded by at least twenty similar aerostats approaching
+swiftly from different sides.
+
+It was a great mystery to us where so many airships had been concealed
+previous to their sudden appearance in answer to the signals.
+
+But the mystery was quickly solved when we saw detaching itself from the
+surface of the planet beneath us, where, while it remained immovable,
+its color had blended with that of the soil so as to render it
+invisible, another of the mysterious ships.
+
+Then our startled eyes beheld on all sides these formidable-looking
+enemies rising from the ground beneath us like so many gigantic insects,
+disturbed by a sudden alarm.
+
+In a short time the atmosphere a mile or two below us, and to a distance
+of perhaps twenty miles around in every direction, was alive with
+airships of various sizes, and some of most extraordinary forms,
+exchanging signals, rushing to and fro, but all finally concentrating
+beneath the place where our squadron was suspended.
+
+We had poked the hornet's nest with a vengeance!
+
+As yet there had been no sting, but we might quickly expect to feel it
+if we did not get out of range.
+
+Quickly instructions were flashed to the squadrons to rise as rapidly as
+possible to a great height.
+
+It was evident that this maneuver would save us from danger if it were
+quickly effected, because the airships of the Martians were simply
+airships and nothing more. They could only float in the atmosphere, and
+had no means of rising above it, or of navigating empty space.
+
+To have turned our disintegrators upon them, and to have begun a battle
+then and there, would have been folly.
+
+They overwhelmingly outnumbered us, the majority of them were yet at a
+considerable distance and we could not have done battle, even with our
+entire squadron acting together, with more than one-quarter of them
+simultaneously. In the meantime the others would have surrounded and
+might have destroyed us. We must first get some idea of the planet's
+means of defence before we ventured to assail it.
+
+Having risen rapidly to a height of twenty-five or thirty miles, so that
+we could feel confident that our ships had vanished at least from the
+naked eye view of our enemies beneath, a brief consultation was held.
+
+It was determined to adhere to our original program and to
+circumnavigate Mars in every direction before proceeding to open the
+war.
+
+The overwhelming forces shown by the enemy had intimidated even some of
+the most courageous of our men, but still it was universally felt that
+it would not do to retreat without a blow struck.
+
+The more we saw of the power of the Martians, the more we became
+convinced that there would be no hope for the earth, if these enemies
+ever again effected a landing upon its surface, the more especially
+since our squadron contained nearly all of the earth's force that would
+be effective in such a contest.
+
+With Mr. Edison and the other men of science away, they would not be
+able at home to construct such engines as we possessed, or to manage
+them even if they were constructed.
+
+Our planet had staked everything on a single throw.
+
+These considerations again steeled our hearts, and made us bear up as
+bravely as possible in the face of the terrible odds that confronted us.
+
+Turning the noses of our electrical ships toward the west, we began our
+circumnavigation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+_THE GREAT SMOKE BARRIER_
+
+
+At first we rose to a still greater height, in order more effectually to
+escape the watchful eyes of our enemies, and then, after having moved
+rapidly several hundred miles toward the west, we dropped down again
+within easy eyeshot of the surface of the planet, and commenced our
+inspection.
+
+When we originally reached Mars, as I have related, it was at a point in
+its southern hemisphere, in latitude 45 degrees south, and longitude 75
+degrees east, that we first closely approached its surface. Underneath
+us was the land called "Hellas," and it was over this land of Hellas
+that the Martian air fleet had suddenly made its appearance.
+
+Our westward motion, while at a great height above the planet, had
+brought us over another oval-shaped land called "Noachia," surrounded by
+the dark ocean, the "Mare Erytraeum." Now approaching nearer the surface
+our course was changed so as to carry us toward the equator of Mars.
+
+We passed over the curious half-drowned continent known to terrestrial
+astronomers as the Region of Deucalion, then across another sea, or
+gulf, until we found ourselves floating at a height of perhaps five
+miles, above a great continental land, at least three thousand miles
+broad from east to west, and which I immediately recognized as that to
+which astronomers had given the various names of "Aeria," "Edom,"
+"Arabia," and "Eden."
+
+Here the spectacle became of breathless interest.
+
+"Wonderful! Wonderful!"
+
+"Who could have believed it!"
+
+Such were the exclamations heard on all sides.
+
+When at first we were suspended above Hellas, looking toward the north,
+the northeast and the northwest, we had seen at a distance some of these
+great red regions, and had perceived the curious network of canals by
+which they were intersected. But that was a far-off and imperfect view.
+
+Now, when we were near at hand and straight above one of these singular
+lands, the magnificence of the panorama surpassed belief.
+
+From the earth about a dozen of the principal canals crossing the
+continent beneath us had been perceived, but we saw hundreds, nay
+thousands of them!
+
+It was a double system, intended both for irrigation and for protection,
+and far more marvelous in its completeness than the boldest speculative
+minds among our astronomers had ever dared to imagine.
+
+"Ha! that's what I always said," exclaimed a veteran from one of our
+great observatories. "Mars is red because its soil and vegetation are
+red."
+
+And certainly appearances indicated that he was right.
+
+There were no green trees, and there was no green grass. Both were red,
+not of a uniform red tint, but presenting an immense variety of shades
+which produced a most brilliant effect, fairly dazzling our eyes.
+
+But what trees! And what grass! And what flowers!
+
+Our telescopes showed that even the smaller trees must be 200 or 300
+feet in height, and there were forests of giants, whose average height
+was evidently at least 1,000 feet.
+
+"That's all right," exclaimed the enthusiast I have just quoted. "I knew
+it would be so. The trees are big for the same reason that the men are,
+because the planet is small, and they can grow big without becoming too
+heavy to stand."
+
+Flashing in the sun on all sides were the roofs of metallic buildings,
+which were evidently the only kind of edifices which Mars possessed. At
+any rate, if stone or wood were employed in their construction both were
+completely covered with metallic plates.
+
+This added immensely to the warlike aspect of the planet. For warlike it
+was. Everywhere we recognized fortified stations, glittering with an
+array of the polished knobs of the lightning machines, such as we had
+seen in the land of Hellas.
+
+From the land of Edom, directly over the equator of the planet, we
+turned our faces westward, and, skirting the Mare Erytraeum, arrived
+above the place where the broad canal known as the Indus empties into
+the sea.
+
+Before us, and stretching away to the northwest, now lay the Continent
+of Chryse, a vast red land, oval in outline, and surrounded and crossed
+by innumerable canals. Chryse was not less than 1,600 miles across and
+it, too, evidently swarmed with giant inhabitants.
+
+But the shadow of night lay upon the greater portion of the land of
+Chryse. In our rapid motion westward we had outstripped the sun and had
+now arrived at a point where day and night met upon the surface of the
+planet beneath us.
+
+Behind all was brilliant with sunshine, but before us the face of Mars
+gradually disappeared in the deepening gloom. Through the darkness, far
+away, we could behold magnificent beams of electric light darting across
+the curtain of night, and evidently serving to illuminate towns and
+cities that lay beneath.
+
+We pushed on into the night for two or three hundred miles over that
+part of the continent of Chryse whose inhabitants were doubtless
+enjoying the deep sleep that accompanies the dark hours immediately
+preceding the dawn. Still everywhere splendid clusters of light lay like
+fallen constellations upon the ground, indicating the sites of great
+towns, which, like those of the earth never sleep.
+
+But this scene, although weird and beautiful, could give us little of
+the kind of information of which we were in search.
+
+Accordingly it was resolved to turn back eastward until we had arrived
+in the twilight space separating day and night, and then hover over the
+planet at that point, allowing it to turn beneath us so that, as we
+looked down, we should see in succession the entire circuit of the globe
+of Mars while it rolled under our eyes.
+
+The rotation of Mars on its axis is performed in a period very little
+longer than the earth's rotation, so that the length of the day and
+night in the world of Mars is only some forty minutes longer than their
+length upon the earth.
+
+In thus remaining suspended over the planet, on the line of daybreak, so
+to speak, we believed that we should be peculiarly safe from detection
+by the eyes of the inhabitants. Even astronomers are not likely to be
+wide awake just at the peep of dawn. Almost all of the inhabitants, we
+confidently believed, would still be sound asleep upon that part of the
+planet passing directly beneath us, and those who were awake would not
+be likely to watch for unexpected appearances in the sky.
+
+Besides, our height was so great that notwithstanding the numbers of the
+squadron, we could not easily be seen from the surface of the planet,
+and if seen at all we might be mistaken for high-flying birds.
+
+Here we remained then through the entire course of twenty-four hours and
+saw in succession as they passed from night into day beneath our feet
+the land of Chryse, the great continent of Tharsis, the curious region
+of intersecting canals which puzzled astronomers on the earth had named
+the "Gordian Knot." The continental lands of Memnonia, Amozonia and
+Aeolia, the mysterious center where hundreds of vast canals came
+together from every direction, called the Triviun Charontis; the vast
+circle of Elysium, a thousand miles across, and completely surrounded by
+a broad green canal; the continent of Libya, which, as I remembered, had
+been half covered by a tremendous inundation whose effects were visible
+from the earth in 1889, and finally the long, dark sea of the Syrtis
+Major, lying directly south of the land of Hellas.
+
+The excitement and interest which we all experienced were so great that
+not one of us took a wink of sleep during the entire twenty-four hours
+of our marvelous watch.
+
+There are one or two things of special interest amid the multitude of
+wonderful observations that we made which I must mention here on account
+of their connection with the important events that followed soon after.
+
+Just west of the land of Chryse we saw the smaller land of Ophir, in the
+midst of which is a singular spot called the Juventae Fons, and this
+Fountain of Youth, as our astronomers, by a sort of prophetic
+inspiration, had named it, proved later to be one of the most incredible
+marvels on the planet of Mars.
+
+Further to the west, and north from the great continent of Tharsis, we
+beheld the immense oval-shaped land of Thaumasia containing in its
+center the celebrated "Lake of the Sun," a circular body of water not
+less than five hundred miles in diameter, with dozens of great canals
+running away from it like the spokes of a wheel in every direction, thus
+connecting it with the ocean which surrounds it on the south and east,
+and with the still larger canals that encircle it toward the north and
+west.
+
+This Lake of the Sun came to play a great part in our subsequent
+adventures. It was evident to us from the beginning that it was the
+chief center of population on the planet. It lies in latitude 25 degrees
+south and longitude about 90 degrees west.
+
+Having completed the circuit of the Martian globe, we were moved by the
+same feeling which every discoverer of new lands experiences, and
+immediately returned to our original place above the land of Hellas,
+because since that was the first part of Mars which we had seen, we felt
+a greater degree of familiarity with it than with any portion of the
+planet, and there, in a certain sense, we felt "at home."
+
+But, as it proved, our enemies were on the watch for us there. We had
+almost forgotten them, so absorbed were we by the great spectacles that
+had been unrolling themselves beneath our feet.
+
+We ought, of course, to have been a little more cautious in approaching
+the place where they first caught sight of us, since we might have known
+that they would remain on the watch near that spot.
+
+But at any rate they had seen us, and it was now too late to think of
+taking them again by surprise.
+
+They on their part had a surprise in store for us, which was greater
+than any we had yet experienced.
+
+We saw their ships assembling once more far down in the atmosphere
+beneath us, and we thought we could detect evidences of something
+unusual going on upon the surface of the planet.
+
+Suddenly from the ships, and from various points on the ground beneath,
+there rose high in the air, and carried by invisible currents in every
+direction, immense volumes of black smoke, or vapor, which blotted out
+of sight everything below them!
+
+South, north, west and east, the curtain of blackness rapidly spread,
+until the whole face of the planet as far as our eyes could reach, and
+the airships thronging under us, were all concealed from sight!
+
+Mars had played the game of the cuttlefish, which when pursued by its
+enemies darkens the water behind it by a sudden outgush of inky fluid
+and thus escapes the eye of its foe.
+
+The eyes of man had never beheld such a spectacle!
+
+Where a few minutes before the sunny face of a beautiful and populous
+planet had been shining beneath us, there was now to be seen nothing but
+black, billowing clouds, swelling up everywhere like the mouse-colored
+smoke that pours from a great transatlantic liner when fresh coal has
+just been heaped upon her fires.
+
+In some places the smoke spouted upward in huge jets to the height of
+several miles; elsewhere it eddied in vast whirlpools of inky blackness.
+
+Not a glimpse of the hidden world beneath us was anywhere to be seen.
+
+Mars had put on its war mask, and fearful indeed was the aspect of it!
+
+After the first pause of surprise the squadron quickly backed away into
+the sky, rising rapidly, because, from one of the swirling eddies
+beneath us the smoke began suddenly to pile itself up in an enormous
+aerial mountain, whose peaks shot higher and higher, with apparently
+increasing velocity, until they seemed about to engulf us with their
+tumbling ebon masses.
+
+Unaware what the nature of this mysterious smoke might be, and fearing
+that it was something more than a shield for the planet, and might be
+destructive to life, we fled before it, as before the onward sweep of a
+pestilence.
+
+Directly underneath the flagship, one of the aspiring smoke peaks grew
+with most portentous swiftness, and, notwithstanding all our efforts, in
+a little while it had enveloped us.
+
+Several of us were standing on the deck of the electrical ship. We were
+almost stifled by the smoke, and were compelled to take refuge within
+the car, where, until the electric lights had been turned on, darkness
+so black that it oppressed the strained eyeballs prevailed.
+
+But in this brief experience, terrifying though it was, we had learned
+one thing. The smoke would kill by strangulation, but evidently there
+was nothing especially poisonous in its nature. This fact might be of
+use to us in our subsequent proceedings.
+
+"This spoils our plans," said the commander. "There is no use of
+remaining here for the present; let us see how far this thing extends."
+
+At first we rose straight away to a height of 200 or 300 miles, thus
+passing entirely beyond the sensible limits of the atmosphere, and far
+above the highest point that the smoke could reach.
+
+From this commanding point of view our line of sight extended to an
+immense distance over the surface of Mars in all directions. Everywhere
+the same appearance; the whole planet was evidently covered with the
+smoke.
+
+A complete telegraphic system evidently connected all the strategic
+points upon Mars, so that, at a signal from the central station, the
+wonderful curtain could be instantaneously drawn over the entire face of
+the planet.
+
+In order to make certain that no part of Mars remained uncovered, we
+dropped down again nearer to the upper level of the smoke clouds, and
+then completely circumnavigated the planet. It was thought possible that
+on the night side no smoke would be found and that it would be
+practicable for us to make a descent there.
+
+But when we had arrived on that side of Mars which was turned away from
+the sun, we no longer saw beneath us, as we had done on our previous
+visit to the night hemisphere of the planet, brilliant groups and
+clusters of electric lights beneath us. All was dark.
+
+In fact, so completely did the great shell of smoke conceal the planet
+that the place occupied by the latter seemed to be simply a vast black
+hole in the firmament.
+
+The sun was hidden behind it, and so dense was the smoke that even the
+solar rays were unable to penetrate it, and consequently there was no
+atmospheric halo visible around the concealed planet.
+
+All the sky around was filled with stars, but their countless host
+suddenly disappeared when our eyes turned in the direction of Mars. The
+great black globe blotted them out without being visible itself.
+
+"Apparently we can do nothing here," said Mr. Edison. "Let us return to
+the daylight side."
+
+When we had arrived near the point where we had been when the wonderful
+phenomenon first made its appearance, we paused, and then, at the
+suggestion of one of the chemists, dropped close to the surface of the
+smoke curtain which had now settled down into comparative quiescence, in
+order that we might examine it a little more critically.
+
+The flagship was driven into the smoke cloud so deeply that for a minute
+we were again enveloped in night. A quantity of the smoke was entrapped
+in a glass jar.
+
+Rising again into the sunlight, the chemists began an examination of the
+constitution of the smoke. They were unable to determine its precise
+character, but they found that its density was astonishingly slight.
+This accounted for the rapidity with which it had risen, and the great
+height which it had attained in the comparatively light atmosphere of
+Mars.
+
+"It is evident," said one of the chemists, "that this smoke does not
+extend down to the surface of the planet. From what the astronomers say
+as to the density of the air on Mars, it is probable that a clear space
+of at least a mile in height exists between the surface of Mars and the
+lower limit of the smoke curtain. Just how deep the latter is we can
+only determine by experiment, but it would not be surprising if the
+thickness of this great blanket which Mars has thrown around itself
+should prove to be a quarter or half a mile."
+
+"Anyhow," said one of the United States army officers, "they have dodged
+out of sight, and I don't see why we should not dodge in and get at
+them. If there is clear air under the smoke, as you think, why couldn't
+the ships dart down through the curtain and come to a close tackle with
+the Martians?"
+
+"It would not do at all," said the commander. "We might simply run
+ourselves into an ambush. No; we must stay outside, and if possible
+fight them from here."
+
+"They can't keep this thing up forever," said the officer. "Perhaps the
+smoke will clear off after a while, and then we will have a chance."
+
+"Not much hope of that, I am afraid," said the chemist who had
+originally spoken. "This smoke could remain floating in the atmosphere
+for weeks, and the only wonder to me is how they ever expect to get rid
+of it, when they think their enemies have gone and they want some
+sunshine again."
+
+"All that is mere speculation," said Mr. Edison; "let us get at
+something practical. We must do one of two things; either attack them
+shielded as they are, or wait until the smoke has cleared away. The only
+other alternative, that of plunging blindly down through the curtain is
+at present not to be thought of."
+
+"I am afraid we couldn't stand a very long siege ourselves," suddenly
+remarked the chief commissary of the expedition, who was one of the
+members of the flagship's company.
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Mr. Edison sharply, turning to him.
+
+"Well, sir, you see," said the commissary, stammering, "our provisions
+wouldn't hold out."
+
+"Wouldn't hold out?" exclaimed Mr. Edison, in astonishment, "why we have
+compressed and prepared provisions enough to last this squadron for
+three years."
+
+"We had, sir, when we left the earth," said the commissary, in apparent
+distress, "but I am sorry to say that something has happened."
+
+"Something has happened! Explain yourself!"
+
+"I don't know what it is, but on inspecting some of the compressed
+stores, a short time ago, I found that a large number of them were
+destroyed, whether through leakage of air, or what, I am unable to say.
+I sent to inquire as to the condition of the stores in the other ships
+in the squadron and I found that a similar condition of things prevailed
+there.
+
+"The fact is," continued the commissary, "we have only provisions
+enough, in proper condition, for about ten days' consumption."
+
+"After that we shall have to forage on the country, then," said the army
+officer.
+
+"Why did you not report this before?" demanded Mr. Edison.
+
+"Because, sir," was the reply, "the discovery was not made until after
+we arrived close to Mars, and since then there has been so much
+excitement that I have hardly had time to make an investigation and find
+out what the precise condition of affairs is; besides, I thought we
+should land upon the planet and then we would be able to renew our
+supplies."
+
+I closely watched Mr. Edison's expression in order to see how this most
+alarming news would affect him. Although he fully comprehended its
+fearful significance, he did not lose his self-command.
+
+"Well, well," he said, "then it will become necessary for us to act
+quickly. Evidently we cannot wait for the smoke to clear off, even if
+there was any hope of its clearing. We must get down on Mars now, having
+conquered it first if possible, but anyway we must get down there, in
+order to avoid starvation."
+
+"It is very lucky," he continued, "that we have ten days' supply left. A
+great deal can be done in ten days."
+
+A few hours after this the commander called me aside, and said:
+
+"I have thought it all out. I am going to reconstruct some of our
+disintegrators, so as to increase their range and their power. Then I am
+going to have some of the astronomers of the expedition locate for me
+the most vulnerable points upon the planet, where the population is
+densest and a hard blow would have the most effect, and I am going to
+pound away at them, through the smoke, and see whether we cannot draw
+them out of their shell."
+
+With his expert assistants Mr. Edison set to work at once to transform a
+number of the disintegrators into still more formidable engines of the
+same description. One of these new weapons having been distributed to
+each of the members of the squadron, the next problem was to decide
+where to strike.
+
+When we first examined the surface of the planet it will be remembered
+that we had regarded the Lake of the Sun and its environs as being the
+very focus of the planet. While it might also be a strong point of
+defence, yet an effective blow struck there would go to the enemy's
+heart and be more likely to bring the Martians promptly to terms than
+anything else.
+
+The first thing, then, was to locate the Lake of the Sun on the smoke
+hidden surface of the planet beneath us. This was a problem that the
+astronomers could readily solve.
+
+Fortunately, in the flagship itself there was one of the star-gazing
+gentlemen who had made a specialty of the study of Mars. That planet, as
+I have already explained, was now in opposition to the earth. The
+astronomer had records in his pocket which enabled him, by a brief
+calculation, to say just when the Lakes of the Sun would be on the
+meridian of Mars as seen from the earth. Our chronometers still kept
+terrestrial time; we knew the exact number of days and hours that had
+elapsed since we had departed, and so it was possible by placing
+ourselves in a line between the earth and Mars to be practically in the
+situation of an astronomer in his observatory at home.
+
+Then it was only necessary to wait for the hour when the Lake of the Sun
+would be upon the meridian of Mars in order to be certain what was the
+true direction of the latter from the flagship.
+
+Having thus located the heart of our foe behind its shield of darkness,
+we prepared to strike.
+
+"I have ascertained," said Mr. Edison, "the vibration period of the
+smoke, so that it will be easy for us to shatter it into invisible
+atoms. You will see that every stroke of the disintegrators will open a
+hole through the black curtain. If their field of destruction could be
+made wide enough, we might in that manner clear away the entire covering
+of smoke, but all that we shall really be able to do will be to puncture
+it with holes, which will, perhaps, enable us to catch glimpses of the
+surface beneath. In that manner we may be able more effectually to
+concentrate our fire upon the most vulnerable points."
+
+Everything being prepared, and the entire squadron having assembled to
+watch the effect of the opening blow and be ready to follow it up, Mr.
+Edison himself poised one of the new disintegrators, which was too large
+to be carried in the hand, and, following the direction indicated by the
+calculations of the astronomers, launched the vibratory discharge into
+the ocean of blackness beneath.
+
+Instantly there opened beneath us a huge well-shaped hole from which the
+black clouds rolled violently back in every direction.
+
+Through this opening we saw the gleam of brilliant lights beneath.
+
+We had made a hit.
+
+"It's the Lake of the Sun!" shouted the astronomer who furnished the
+calculation by means of which its position had been discovered.
+
+And, indeed, it was the Lake of the Sun. While the opening in the clouds
+made by the discharge was not wide, yet it sufficed to give us a view of
+a portion of the curving shore of the lake, which was ablaze with
+electric lights.
+
+Whether our shot had done any damage, beyond making the circular opening
+in the cloud curtain, we could not tell, for almost immediately the
+surrounding black smoke masses billowed in to fill up the hole.
+
+But in the brief glimpse we had caught sight of two or three large
+airships hovering in space above that part of the Lake of the Sun and
+its bordering city which we had beheld. It seemed to me in the brief
+glance I had that one ship had been touched by the discharge and was
+wandering in an erratic manner. But the clouds closed in so rapidly that
+I could not be certain.
+
+Anyhow, we had demonstrated one thing, and that was that we could
+penetrate the cloud shield and reach the Martians in their hiding place.
+
+It had been prearranged that the first discharge from the flagship
+should be a signal for the concentration of the fire of all the other
+ships upon the same spot.
+
+A little hesitation, however, occurred, and a half a minute had elapsed
+before the disintegrators from the other members of the squadron were
+got into play.
+
+Then, suddenly we saw an immense commotion in the cloud beneath us. It
+seemed to be beaten and hurried in every direction and punctured like a
+sieve with nearly a hundred great circular holes. Through these gaps we
+could see clearly a large region of the planet's surface, with many
+airships floating above it and the blaze of innumerable electric lights
+illuminating it. The Martians had created an artificial day under the
+curtain.
+
+This time there was no question that the blow had been effective. Four
+or five of the airships, partially destroyed, tumbled headlong toward
+the ground, while even from our great distance there was unmistakable
+evidence that fearful execution had been done among the crowded
+structures along the shore of the lake.
+
+As each of our ships possessed but one of the new disintegrators, and
+since a minute or so was required to adjust them for a fresh discharge,
+we remained for a little while inactive after delivering the blow.
+Meanwhile the cloud curtain, though rent to shreds by the concentrated
+discharge of the disintegrators, quickly became a uniform black sheet
+again, hiding everything.
+
+We had just had time to congratulate ourselves on the successful opening
+of our bombardment, and the disintegrator of the flagship was poised for
+another discharge, when suddenly out of the black expanse beneath,
+quivered immense electric beams, clear cut and straight as bars of
+steel, but dazzling our eyes with unendurable brilliance.
+
+It was the reply of the Martians to our attack.
+
+Three or four of the electrical ships were seriously damaged, and one,
+close beside the flagship, changed color, withered and collapsed, with
+the same sickening phenomena that had made our hearts shudder when the
+first disaster of this kind occurred during our brief battle over the
+asteroid.
+
+Another score of our comrades were gone, and yet we had hardly begun the
+fight.
+
+Glancing at the other ships which had been injured, I saw that the
+damage to them was not so serious, although they were evidently _hors de
+combat_ for the present.
+
+Our fighting blood was now boiling and we did not stop long to count our
+losses.
+
+"Into the smoke!" was the signal, and the ninety and more electric ships
+which still remained in condition for action immediately shot downward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+_THE EARTH GIRL_
+
+
+It was a wild plunge. We kept off the decks while rushing through the
+blinding smoke, but the instant we emerged below, where we found
+ourselves still a mile above the ground, we were out again, ready to
+strike.
+
+I have simply a confused recollection of flashing lights beneath, and a
+great, dark arch of clouds above, out of which our ships seemed dropping
+on all sides, and then the fray burst on and around us, and no man could
+see or notice anything except by half-comprehended glances.
+
+Almost in an instant, it seemed, a swarm of airships surrounded us,
+while from what, for lack of a more descriptive name, I shall call the
+forts about the Lake of the Sun, leaped tongues of electric fire, before
+which some of our ships, were driven like bits of flaming paper in a
+high wind, gleaming for a moment, then curling up and gone forever!
+
+It was an awful sight; but the battle fever was raging within us, and
+we, on our part, were not idle.
+
+Every man carried a disintegrator, and these hand instruments, together
+with those of heavier caliber on the ship poured their resistless
+vibrations in every direction through the quivering air.
+
+The airships of the Martians were destroyed by the score, and yet they
+flocked upon us thicker and faster.
+
+We dropped lower and our blows fell upon the forts, and upon the wide
+spread city bordering the Lake of the Sun. We almost entirely silenced
+the fire of one of the forts; but there were forty more in full action
+within reach of our eyes!
+
+Some of the metallic buildings were partly unroofed by the
+disintegrators and some had their walls riddled and fell with thundering
+crashes, whose sound rose to our ears above the hellish din of battle. I
+caught glimpses of giant forms struggling in the ruins and rushing
+wildly through the streets, but there was no time to see anything
+clearly.
+
+Our flagship seemed charmed. A crowd of airships hung upon it like a
+swarm of angry bees, and, at times, one could not see for the lightning
+strokes--yet we escaped destruction, while ourselves dealing death on
+every hand.
+
+It was a glorious fight, but it was not war; no, it was not war. We
+really had no more chance of ultimate success amid that multitude of
+enemies than a prisoner running the gauntlet in a crowd of savages has
+of escape.
+
+A conviction of the hopelessness of the contest finally forced itself
+upon our minds, and the shattered squadron, which had kept well together
+amid the storm of death, was signalled to retreat.
+
+Shaking off their pursuers, as a hunted bear shakes off the dogs, sixty
+of the electrical ships rose up through the clouds where more than
+ninety had gone down!
+
+Madly we rushed upward through the vast curtain and continued our flight
+to a great elevation, far beyond the reach of the awful artillery of the
+enemy.
+
+Looking back it seemed the very mouth of hell from which we had escaped.
+
+The Martians did not for an instant cease their fire, even when we were
+far beyond their reach. With furious persistence they blazed away
+through the cloud curtain, and the vivid spikes of lightning shuddered
+so swiftly on one another's track that they were like a flaming halo of
+electric lances around the frowning helmet of the War Planet.
+
+But after a while they stopped their terrific sparring, and once more
+the immense globe assumed the appearance of a vast ball of black smoke
+still widely agitated by the recent disturbance, but exhibiting no
+opening through which we could discern what was going on beneath.
+
+Evidently the Martians believed they had finished us.
+
+At no time since the beginning of our adventure had it appeared to me
+quite so hopeless, reckless and mad as it seemed at present.
+
+We had suffered fearful losses, and yet what had we accomplished? We had
+won two fights on the asteroid, it is true, but then we had overwhelming
+numbers on our side.
+
+Now we were facing millions on their own ground, and our very first
+assault had resulted in a disastrous repulse, with the loss of at least
+thirty electric ships and 600 men!
+
+Evidently we could not endure this sort of thing. We must find some
+other means of assailing Mars or else give up the attempt.
+
+But the latter was not to be thought. It was no mere question of
+self-pride, however, and no consideration of the tremendous interests at
+stake, which would compel us to continue our apparently vain attempt.
+
+Our provisions could last only a few days longer. The supply would not
+carry us one-quarter of the way back to earth, and we must therefore
+remain here and literally conquer or die.
+
+In this extremity a consultation of the principal officers was called
+upon the deck of the flagship.
+
+Here the suggestion was made that we should attempt to effect by
+strategy what we had failed to do by force.
+
+An old army officer who had served in many wars against the cunning
+Indians of the West, Colonel Alonzo Jefferson Smith, was the author of
+this suggestion.
+
+"Let us circumvent them," he said. "We can do it in this way. The
+chances are that all of the available fighting force of the planet Mars
+is now concentrated on this side and in the neighborhood of The Lake of
+the Sun.
+
+"Possibly, by some kind of X-ray business, they can only see us dimly
+through the clouds, and if we get a little further away they will not be
+able to see us at all.
+
+"Now, I suggest that a certain number of the electrical ships be
+withdrawn from the squadron to a great distance, while the remainder
+stay here; or, better still, approach to a point just beyond the reach
+of those streaks of lightning, and begin a bombardment of the clouds
+without paying any attention to whether the strokes reach through the
+clouds and do any damage or not.
+
+"This will induce the Martians to believe that we are determined to
+press our attack at this point.
+
+"In the meantime, while these ships are raising a hulabaloo on this side
+of the planet, and drawing their fire, as much as possible, without
+running into any actual danger, let the others which have been selected
+for the purpose, sail rapidly around to the other side of Mars and take
+them in the rear."
+
+It was not perfectly clear what Colonel Smith intended to do after the
+landing had been effected in the rear of the Martians, but still there
+seemed a good deal to be said for his suggestion, and it would, at any
+rate, if carried out, enable us to learn something about the condition
+of things on the planet, and perhaps furnish us with a hint as to how we
+could best proceed in the further prosecution of the siege.
+
+Accordingly it was resolved that about twenty ships should be told off
+for this movement, and Colonel Smith himself was placed in command.
+
+At my desire I accompanied the new commander in his flagship.
+
+Rising to a considerable elevation in order that there might be no risk
+of being seen, we began our flank movement while the remaining ships, in
+accordance with the understanding, dropped nearer the curtain of cloud
+and commenced a bombardment with the disintegrators, which caused a
+tremendous commotion in the clouds, opening vast gaps in them, and
+occasionally revealing a glimpse of the electric lights on the planet,
+although it was evident that the vibratory currents did not reach the
+ground. The Martians immediately replied to this renewed attack, and
+again the cloud covered globe bristled with lightning, which flashed so
+fiercely out of the blackness below that the stoutest hearts among us
+quailed, although we were situated well beyond the danger.
+
+But this sublime spectacle rapidly vanished from our eyes when, having
+attained a proper elevation, we began our course toward the opposite
+hemisphere of the planet.
+
+We guided our flight by the stars, and from our knowledge of the
+rotation period of Mars, and the position which the principal points on
+its surface must occupy at certain hours, we were able to tell what part
+of the planet lay beneath us.
+
+Having completed our semi-circuit we found ourselves on the night side
+of Mars, and determined to lose no time in executing our coup. But it
+was deemed best that an exploration should first be made by a single
+electrical ship, and Colonel Smith naturally wished to undertake the
+adventure with his own vessel.
+
+We dropped rapidly through the black cloud curtain, which proved to be
+at least half a mile in thickness, and then suddenly emerged, as if
+suspended at the apex of an enormous dome, arching above the surface of
+the planet a mile beneath us, which sparkled on all sides with
+innumerable lights.
+
+These lights were so numerous and so brilliant as to produce a faint
+imitation of daylight, even at our immense height above the ground, and
+the dome of cloud out of which we had emerged assumed a soft fawn color
+which produced an indescribably beautiful effect.
+
+For a moment we recoiled from our undertaking, and arrested the motion
+of the electric ship.
+
+But on closely examining the surface beneath us we found that there was
+a broad region, where comparatively few bright lights were to be seen.
+From my knowledge of the geography of Mars I knew that this was a part
+of the Land of Ausonia, situated a few hundred miles northeast of
+Hellas, where we had first seen the planet.
+
+Evidently it was not so thickly populated as some of the other parts of
+Mars, and its comparative darkness was an attraction to us. We
+determined to approach within a few hundred feet of the ground with the
+electric ship, and then, in case no enemies appeared, to visit the soil
+itself.
+
+"Perhaps we shall see or hear something that will be of use to us," said
+Colonel Smith, "and for the purposes of this first reconnaissance it is
+better that we should be few in number. The other ships will await our
+return, and at any rate we shall not be gone long."
+
+As our car approached the ground we found ourselves near the tops of
+some lofty trees.
+
+"This will do," said Colonel Smith to the electrical steersman, "Stay
+right here."
+
+He and I then lowered ourselves into the branches of the trees, each
+carrying a small disintegrator, and cautiously clambered down to the
+ground.
+
+We believed we were the first of the descendants of Adam to set foot on
+the planet of Mars.
+
+At first we suffered somewhat from the effects of the rare atmosphere.
+It was so lacking in density that it resembled the air on the summits of
+the loftiest terrestrial mountains.
+
+Having reached the foot of the tree in safety, we lay down for a moment
+on the ground to recover ourselves and to become accustomed to our new
+surroundings.
+
+A thrill, born half of wonder, half of incredulity, ran through me at
+the touch of the soil of Mars. Here was I, actually on that planet,
+which had seemed so far away, so inaccessible, and so full of mysteries
+when viewed from the earth. And yet, surrounding me, were
+things--gigantic, it is true--but still resembling and recalling the
+familiar sights of my own world.
+
+After a little while our lungs became accustomed to the rarity of the
+atmosphere and we experienced a certain stimulation in breathing.
+
+We then got upon our feet and stepped out from under the shadow of the
+gigantic tree. High above we could faintly see our electrical ship,
+gently swaying in the air close to the tree top.
+
+There were no electric lights in our immediate neighborhood, but we
+noticed that the whole surface of the planet around us was gleaming with
+them, producing an effect like the glow of a great city seen from a
+distance at night. The glare was faintly reflected from the vast dome of
+clouds above, producing the general impression of a moonlight night upon
+the earth.
+
+It was a wonderfully quiet and beautiful spot where we had come down.
+The air had a delicate feel and a bracing temperature, while a soft
+breeze soughed through the leaves of the tree above our heads.
+
+Not far away was the bank of a canal, bordered by a magnificent avenue
+shaded by a double row of immense umbrageous trees.
+
+We approached the canal, and, getting upon the road, turned to the left
+to make an exploration in that direction. The shadow of the trees
+falling upon the roadway produced a dense gloom, in the midst of which
+we felt that we should be safe, unless the Martians had eyes like those
+of cats.
+
+As we pushed along, our hearts, I confess, beating a little quickly, a
+shadow stirred in front of us.
+
+Something darker than the night itself approached.
+
+As it drew near it assumed the appearance of an enormous dog, as tall as
+an ox, which ran swiftly our way with a threatening motion of its head.
+But before it could even utter a snarl, the whirr of Colonel Smith's
+disintegrator was heard and the creature vanished in the shadow.
+
+"Gracious, did you ever see such a beast?" said the Colonel. "Why he was
+as big as a grizzly."
+
+"The people he belonged to must be near by," I said. "Very likely he was
+a watch on guard."
+
+"But I see no signs of a habitation."
+
+"True, but you observe there is a thick hedge on the side of the road
+opposite the canal. If we get through that perhaps we shall catch sight
+of something."
+
+Cautiously we pushed our way through the hedge, which was composed of
+shrubs as large as small trees, and very thick at the bottom, and,
+having traversed it, found ourselves in a great meadow-like expanse
+which might have been a lawn. At a considerable distance, in the midst
+of a clump of trees, a large building towered skyward, its walls of some
+red metal, gleaming like polished copper in the soft light that fell
+from the cloud dome.
+
+There were no lights around the building itself, and we saw nothing
+corresponding to windows on that side which faced us, but toward the
+right a door was evidently open, and out of this streamed a brilliant
+shaft of illumination, which lay bright upon the lawn, then crossed the
+highway through an opening in the hedge, and gleamed on the water of the
+canal beyond.
+
+Where we stood the ground had evidently been recently cleared, and there
+was no obstruction, but as we crept closer to the house--for our
+curiosity had now become irresistible--we found ourselves crawling
+through grass so tall that if we had stood erect it would have risen
+well above our heads.
+
+"This affords good protection," said Colonel Smith, recalling his
+adventures on the western plains. "We can get close in to the Indians--I
+beg pardon, I mean the Martians--without being seen."
+
+Heavens, what an adventure was this! To be crawling about in the night
+on the face of another world and venturing, perhaps, into the jaws of a
+danger which human experience could not measure!
+
+But on we went, and in a little while we had emerged from the tall grass
+and were somewhat startled by the discovery that we had got close to the
+wall of the building.
+
+Carefully we crept around to the open door.
+
+As we neared it we suddenly stopped as if we had been stricken with
+instantaneous paralysis.
+
+Out of the door floated, on the soft night air, the sweetest music to
+which I have ever listened.
+
+It carried me back in an instant to my own world. It was the music of
+the earth. It was the melodious expression of a human soul. It thrilled
+us both to the heart's core.
+
+"My God!" exclaimed Colonel Smith. "What can that be? Are we dreaming,
+or where in heaven's name are we?"
+
+Still the enchanting harmony floated out upon the air.
+
+What the instrument was I could not tell, but the sound seemed more
+nearly to resemble that of a violin than anything else of which I could
+think.
+
+When we first heard it the strains were gentle, sweet, caressing and
+full of an infinite depth of feeling, but in a little while its tone
+changed, and it became a magnificent march, throbbing upon the air in
+stirring notes that set our hearts beating in unison with its stride and
+inspiring in us a courage that we had not felt before.
+
+Then it drifted into a wild fantasia, still inexpressibly sweet, and
+from that changed again into a requiem or lament, whose mellifluous tide
+of harmony swept our thoughts back again to the earth.
+
+"I can endure this no longer," I said. "I must see who it is that makes
+that music. It is the product of a human heart and must come from the
+touch of human fingers."
+
+We carefully shifted our position until we stood in the blaze of light
+that poured out of the door.
+
+The doorway was an immense arched opening, magnificently ornamented,
+rising to a height of, I should say, not less than twenty or twenty-five
+feet and broad in proportion. The door itself stood widely open and it,
+together with all of its fittings and surroundings, was composed of the
+same beautiful red metal.
+
+Stepping out a little way into the light I could see within the door an
+immense apartment, glittering on all sides with metallic ornaments and
+gems and lighted from the center by a great chandelier of electric
+candles.
+
+In the middle of the great floor, holding the instrument delicately
+poised, and still awaking its ravishing voice, stood a figure, the sight
+of which almost stopped my breath.
+
+It was a slender sylph of a girl!
+
+A girl of my own race; a human being here upon the planet Mars!
+
+[Illustration: _"In the middle of the great floor, holding the instrument
+delicately poised, and still awaking its ravishing voice, stood a
+figure, the sight of which almost stopped my breath! It was a slender
+sylph of a girl! A girl of my own race; a human being here on Mars!"_]
+
+Her hair was loosely coiled and she was attired in graceful white
+drapery.
+
+"By God!" cried Colonel Smith, "she's human!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+_RETREAT TO DEIMOS_
+
+
+Still the Bewildering Strains of the music came to our ears, and yet we
+stood there unperceived, though in the full glare of the chandelier.
+
+The girl's face was presented in profile. It was exquisite in beauty,
+pale, delicate with a certain pleading sadness which stirred us to the
+heart.
+
+An element of romance and a touch of personal interest such as we had
+not looked for suddenly entered into our adventure.
+
+Colonel Smith's mind still ran back to the perils of the plains.
+
+"She is a prisoner," he said, "and by the Seven Devils of Dona Ana we'll
+not leave her here. But where are the hellhounds themselves?"
+
+Our attention had been so absorbed by the sight of the girl that we had
+scarcely thought of looking to see if there was any one else in the
+room.
+
+Glancing beyond her, I now perceived sitting in richly decorated chairs
+three or four gigantic Martians. They were listening to the music as if
+charmed.
+
+The whole story told itself. This girl, if not their slave, was at any
+rate under their control, and she was furnishing entertainment for them
+by her musical skill. The fact that they could find pleasure in music so
+beautiful was, perhaps, an indication that they were not really as
+savage as they seemed.
+
+Yet our hearts went out to the girl, and were turned against them with
+an uncontrollable hatred.
+
+They were of the same remorseless race with those who had so lately lain
+waste our fair earth and who would have completed its destruction had
+not Providence interferred in our behalf.
+
+Singularly enough, although we stood full in the light, they had not yet
+seen us.
+
+Suddenly the girl, moved by what impulse I know not, turned her face in
+our direction. Her eyes fell upon us. She paused abruptly in her
+playing, and her instrument dropped to the floor. Then she uttered a
+cry, and with extended arms ran toward us.
+
+But when she was near she stopped abruptly, the glad look fading from
+her face, and started back with terror-stricken eyes, as if, after all,
+she had found us not what she expected.
+
+Then for an instant she looked more intently at us, her countenance
+cleared once more, and, overcome by some strange emotion, her eyes
+filled with tears, and, drawing a little nearer, she stretched forth her
+hands to us appealingly.
+
+Meanwhile the Martians had started to their feet. They looked down upon
+us in astonishment. We were like pygmies to them; like little gnomes
+which had sprung out of the ground at their feet.
+
+One of the giants seized some kind of a weapon and started forward with
+a threatening gesture.
+
+The girl sprang to my side and grasped my arm with a cry of fear.
+
+This seemed to throw the Martian into a sudden frenzy, and he raised his
+arms to strike.
+
+But the disintegrator was in my hand.
+
+My rage was equal to his.
+
+I felt the concentrated vengeance of the earth quivering through me as I
+pressed the button of the disintegrator and, sweeping it rapidly up and
+down, saw the gigantic form that confronted me melt into nothingness.
+
+There were three other giants in the room, and they had been on the
+point of following up the attack of their comrade. But when he
+disappeared from before their eyes, they paused, staring in amazement at
+the place where, but a moment before, he had stood, but where now only
+the metal weapon he had wielded lay on the floor.
+
+At first they started back, and seemed on the point of fleeing; then,
+with a second glance, perceiving again how small and insignificant we
+were, all three together advanced upon us.
+
+The girl sank trembling on her knees.
+
+In the meantime I had readjusted my disintegrator for another discharge,
+and Colonel Smith stood by me with the light of battle upon his face.
+
+"Sweep the discharge across the three," I exclaimed. "Otherwise there
+will be one left and before we can fire again he will crush us."
+
+The whirr of the two instruments sounded simultaneously, and with a
+quick horizontal motion we swept the lines of force around in such a
+manner that all three of the Martians were caught by the vibratory
+streams and actually cut in two.
+
+Long gaps were opened in the wall of the room behind them, where the
+destroying currents had passed, for with wrathful fierceness, we had ran
+the vibrations through half a gamut on the index.
+
+The victory was ours. There were no other enemies, that we could see, in
+the house.
+
+Yet at any moment others might make their appearance, and what more we
+did must be done quickly.
+
+The girl evidently was as much amazed as the Martians had been by the
+effects which we had produced. Still she was not terrified, and
+continued to cling to us and glance beseechingly into our faces,
+expressing in her every look and gesture the fact that she knew we were
+of her own race.
+
+But clearly she could not speak our tongue, for the words she uttered
+were unintelligible.
+
+Colonel Smith, whose long experience in Indian warfare had made him
+intensely practical, did not lose his military instincts, even in the
+midst of events so strange.
+
+"It occurs to me," he said, "that we have got a chance at the enemies'
+supplies. Suppose we begin foraging right here. Let's see if this girl
+can't show us the commissary department."
+
+He immediately began to make signs to the girl to indicate that he was
+hungry.
+
+A look of comprehension flitted over her features, and, seizing our
+hands, she led us into an adjoining apartment, and pointed to a number
+of metallic boxes.
+
+One of these she opened, taking out of it a kind of cake, which she
+placed between her teeth, breaking off a very small portion and then
+handing it to us, motioning that we should eat, but at the same time
+showing us that we ought to take only a small quantity.
+
+"Thank God! It's compressed food," said Colonel Smith. "I thought these
+Martians with their wonderful civilization would be up to that. And it's
+mighty lucky for us, because, without overburdening ourselves, if we can
+find one or two more caches like this we shall be able to reprovision
+the entire fleet. But we must get reinforcements before we can take
+possession of the fodder."
+
+Accordingly we hurried out into the night, passed into the roadway, and,
+taking the girl with us, ran as rapidly as possible to the foot of the
+tree where we had made our descent. Then we signalled to the electric
+ship to drop down to the level of the ground.
+
+This was quickly done, the girl was taken aboard, and a dozen men, under
+our guidance, hastened back to the house, where we loaded ourselves with
+the compressed provisions and conveyed them to the ship.
+
+On this second trip to the mysterious house we had discovered another
+apartment containing a very large number of the metallic boxes, filled
+with compressed food.
+
+"By Jove, it is a storehouse," said Colonel Smith. "We must get more
+force and carry it all off. Gracious, but this is a lucky night. We can
+reprovision the whole fleet from this room."
+
+"I thought it singular," I said, "that with the exception of the girl
+whom we have rescued no women were seen in the house. Evidently the
+lights over yonder indicate the location of a considerable town, and it
+is quite probable that this building, without windows, and so strongly
+constructed, is the common storehouse, where the provisions for the town
+are kept. The fellows we killed must have been the watchmen in charge of
+the storehouse, and they were treating themselves to a little music from
+the slave girl when we happened to come upon them."
+
+With the utmost haste several of the other electrical ships, waiting
+above the cloud curtain, were summoned to descend, and, with more than a
+hundred men, we returned to the building, and this time almost entirely
+exhausted its stores, each man carrying as much as he could stagger
+under.
+
+Fortunately our proceedings had been conducted without much noise, and
+the storehouse being situated at a considerable distance from other
+buildings, none of the Martians, except those who would never tell the
+story, had known of our arrival or of our doings on the planet.
+
+"Now, we'll return and surprise Edison with the news," said Colonel
+Smith.
+
+Our ship was the last to pass up through the clouds, and it was a
+strange sight to watch the others as one after another they rose toward
+the great dome, entered it, though from below it resembled a solid vault
+of grayish-pink marble, and disappeared.
+
+We quickly followed them, and having penetrated the enormous curtain,
+were considerably surprised on emerging at the other side to find that
+the sun was shining brilliantly upon us. It will be remembered that it
+was night on this side of Mars when we went down, but our adventure had
+occupied several hours, and now Mars had so turned upon its axis that
+the portion of its surface over which we were had come around into the
+sunlight.
+
+We knew that the squadron which we had left besieging the Lake of the
+Sun must also have been carried around in a similar manner, passing into
+the night while the side of the planet where we were was emerging into
+day.
+
+Our shortest way back would be by traveling westward, because then we
+should be moving in a direction opposite to that in which the planet
+rotated, and the main squadron, sharing that rotation, would be
+continually moving in our direction.
+
+But to travel westward was to penetrate once more into the night side of
+the planet.
+
+The prows, if I may so call them, of our ships were accordingly turned
+in the direction of the vast shadow which Mars was invisibly projecting
+into space behind it, and on entering that shadow the sun disappeared
+from our eyes, and once more the huge hidden globe beneath us became a
+black chasm among the stars.
+
+Now that we were in the neighborhood of a globe capable of imparting
+considerable weight to all things under the influence of its attraction
+that peculiar condition which I have before described as existing in the
+midst of space, where there was neither up nor down for us, had ceased.
+Here where we had weight "up" and "down" had resumed their old meanings.
+"Down" was toward the center of Mars, and "up" was away from that
+center.
+
+Standing on the deck, and looking overhead as we swiftly ploughed our
+smooth way at a great height through the now imperceptible atmosphere of
+the planet, I saw the two moons of Mars meeting in the sky exactly above
+us.
+
+Before our arrival at Mars, there had been considerable discussion among
+the learned men as to the advisability of touching at one of their
+moons, and when the discovery was made that our provisions were nearly
+exhausted, it had been suggested that the Martian satellites might
+furnish us with an additional supply.
+
+But it had appeared a sufficient reply to this suggestion that the moons
+of Mars are both insignificant bodies, not much larger than the asteroid
+we had fallen in with, and that there could not possibly be any form of
+vegetation or other edible products upon them.
+
+This view having prevailed, we had ceased to take an interest in the
+satellites, further than to regard them as objects of great curiosity on
+account of their motions.
+
+The nearer of these moons, Phobos, is only 3,700 miles from the surface
+of Mars, and we watched it traveling around the planet three times in
+the course of every day. The more distant one, Deimos, 12,500 miles
+away, required considerably more than one day to make its circuit.
+
+It now happened that the two had come into conjunction, as I have said,
+just over our heads, and, throwing myself down on my back on the deck of
+the electrical ship, for a long time I watched the race between the two
+satellites, until Phobos, rapidly gaining upon the other, had left its
+rival far behind.
+
+Suddenly Colonel Smith, who took very little interest in these
+astronomical curiosities, touched me, and pointing ahead, said:
+
+"There they are."
+
+I looked, and sure enough there were the signal lights of the principal
+squadron, and as we gazed we occasionally saw, darting up from the vast
+cloud mass beneath, an electric bayonet, fiercely thrust into the sky,
+which showed that the siege was still actively going on, and that the
+Martians were jabbing away at their invisible enemies outside the
+curtain.
+
+In a short time the two fleets had joined, and Colonel Smith and I
+immediately transferred ourselves to the flagship.
+
+"Well, what have you done?" asked Mr. Edison, while others crowded
+around with eager attention.
+
+"If we have not captured their provision train," said Colonel Smith, "we
+have done something just about as good. We have foraged on the country,
+and have collected a supply that I reckon will last this fleet for at
+least a month."
+
+"What's that? What's that?"
+
+"It's just what I say," and Colonel Smith brought out of his pocket one
+of the square cakes of compressed food. "Set your teeth in that, and see
+what you think of it, but don't take too much, for its powerful strong."
+
+"I say," he continued, "we have got enough of that stuff to last us all
+for a month, but we've done more than that; we have got a surprise for
+you that will make you open your eyes. Just wait a minute."
+
+Colonel Smith made a signal to the electrical ship which we had just
+quitted to draw near. It came alongside, so that one could step from its
+deck onto the flagship. Colonel Smith disappeared for a minute in the
+interior of his ship, then re-emerged, leading the girl whom we had
+found upon the planet.
+
+"Take her inside, quick," he said, "for she is not used to this thin
+air."
+
+In fact, we were at so great an elevation that the rarity of the
+atmosphere now compelled us all to wear our air-tight suits, and the
+girl, not being thus attired, would have fallen unconscious on the deck
+if we had not instantly removed her to the interior of the car.
+
+There she quickly recovered from the effects of the deprivation of air
+and looked about her, pale, astonished, but yet apparently without fear.
+
+Every motion of this girl convinced me that she not only recognized us
+as members of her own race, but that she felt that her only hope lay in
+our aid. Therefore, strange as we were to her in many respects,
+nevertheless she did not think that she was in danger while among us.
+
+The circumstances under which we had found her were quickly explained.
+Her beauty, her strange fate and the impenetrable mystery which
+surrounded her excited universal admiration and wonder.
+
+"How did she get on Mars?" was the question that everybody asked, and
+that nobody could answer.
+
+But while all were crowding around and overwhelming the poor girl with
+their staring, suddenly she burst into tears, and then, with arms
+outstretched in the same appealing manner which had so stirred our
+sympathies when we first saw her in the house of the Martians, she broke
+forth in a wild recitation, which was half a song and half a wail.
+
+As she went on I noticed that a learned professor of languages from the
+University of Heidelberg was listening to her with intense attention.
+Several times he appeared to be on the point of breaking in with an
+exclamation. I could plainly see that he was becoming more and more
+excited as the words poured from the girl's lips. Occasionally he nodded
+and muttered, smiling to himself.
+
+Her song finished, the girl sank half-exhausted upon the floor. She was
+lifted and placed in a reclining position at the side of the car.
+
+Then the Heidelberg professor stepped to the center of the car, in the
+sight of all, and in a most impressive manner said:
+
+"Gentlemen, our sister.
+
+"I have her tongue recognized! The language that she speaks, the roots
+of the great Indo-European, or Aryan stock, contains.
+
+"This girl, gentlemen, to the oldest family of the human race belongs.
+Her language every tongue that now upon the earth is spoken antedates.
+Convinced am I that it that great original speech is from which have all
+the languages of the civilized world sprung.
+
+"How she here came, so many millions of miles from the earth, a great
+mystery is. But it shall be penetrated, and it is from her own lips that
+we shall the truth learn, because not difficult to us shall it be the
+language that she speaks to acquire since to our own it is akin."
+
+This announcement of the Heidelberg professor stirred us all most
+profoundly. It not only deepened our interest in the beautiful girl whom
+we had rescued, but, in a dim way, it gave us reason to hope that we
+should yet discover some means of mastering the Martians by dealing them
+a blow from within.
+
+It had been expected, the reader will remember, that the Martian whom we
+had made prisoner on the asteroid, might be of use to us in a similar
+way, and for that reason great efforts had been made to acquire his
+language, and considerable progress had been effected in that direction.
+
+But from the moment of our arrival at Mars itself, and especially after
+the battles began, the prisoner had resumed his savage and
+uncommunicative disposition, and had seemed continually to be expecting
+that we would fall victims to the prowess of his fellow beings, and that
+he would be released. How an outlaw, such as he evidently was, who had
+been caught in the act of robbing the Martian gold mines, could expect
+to escape punishment on returning to his native planet it was difficult
+to see. Nevertheless, so strong are the ties of race we could plainly
+perceive that all his sympathies were for his own people.
+
+In fact, in consequence of his surly manner, and his attempts to escape,
+he had been more strictly bound than before and to get him out of the
+way had been removed from the flagship, which was already overcrowded,
+and placed in one of the other electric ships, and this ship--as it
+happened--was one of those which were lost in the great battle beneath
+the clouds. So after all, the Martian had perished, by a vengeful stroke
+launched from his native globe.
+
+But Providence had placed in our hands a far better interpreter than he
+could ever have been. This girl of our own race would need no urging, or
+coercion, on our part in order to induce her to reveal any secrets of
+the Martians that might be useful in our further proceedings.
+
+But one thing was first necessary to be done.
+
+We must learn to talk with her.
+
+But for the discovery of the store of provisions it would have been
+impossible for us to spare the time needed to acquire the language of
+the girl, but now that we had been saved from the danger of starvation,
+we could prolong the siege for several weeks, employing the intervening
+time to the best advantage.
+
+The terrible disaster which we had suffered in the great battle above
+the Lake of the Sun, wherein we had lost nearly a third of our entire
+force, had been quite sufficient to convince us that our only hope of
+victory lay in dealing the Martians some paralyzing stroke that at one
+blow would deprive them of the power of resistance. A victory that cost
+us the loss of a single ship would be too dearly purchased now.
+
+How to deal that blow, and first of all, how to discover the means of
+dealing it, were at present the uppermost problems in our minds.
+
+The only hope for us lay in the girl.
+
+If, as there was every reason to believe, she was familiar with the ways
+and secrets of the Martians, then she might be able to direct our
+efforts in such a manner as to render them effective.
+
+"We can spare two weeks for this," said Mr. Edison. "Can you fellows of
+many tongues learn to talk with the girl in that time?"
+
+"We'll try it," said several.
+
+"It shall we do," cried the Heidelberg professor more confidently.
+
+"Then there is no use of staying here," continued the commander. "If we
+withdraw the Martians will think that we have either given up the
+earth's moon, always keep the same face toward their master. By blanket
+and let us see their face once more. That will give us a better
+opportunity to strike effectively when we are again ready."
+
+"Why not rendezvous at one of the moons?" said an astronomer. "Neither
+of the two moons is of much consequence, as far as size goes, but still
+it would serve as sort of an anchorage ground, and while there, if we
+were careful to keep on the side away from Mars, we should escape
+detection."
+
+This suggestion was immediately accepted, and the squadron having been
+signalled to assemble quickly bore off in the direction of the more
+distant moon of Mars, Deimos. We knew that it was slightly smaller than
+Phobos, but its greater distance gave promise that it would better serve
+our purpose of temporary concealment. The moons of Mars, like the
+earth's moon, always kept the same face toward their master. By hiding
+behind Deimos we should escape the prying eyes of the Martians, even
+when they employed telescopes, and thus be able to remain comparatively
+close at hand, ready to pounce down upon them again, after we had
+obtained, as we now had good hope of doing, information that would make
+us masters of the situation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+_THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH_
+
+
+Deimos proved to be, as we had expected, about six miles in diameter.
+Its mean density is not very great so that the acceleration of gravity
+did not exceed one-two-thousandths of the earth's. Consequently the
+weight of a man turning the scales at 150 pounds at home was here only
+about one ounce.
+
+The result was that we could move about with greater ease than on the
+golden asteroid, and some of the scientific men eagerly resumed their
+interrupted experiments.
+
+But the attraction of this little satellite was so slight that we had to
+be very careful not to move too swiftly in going about lest we should
+involuntarily leave the ground and sail out into space, as, it will be
+remembered, happened to the fugitives from the fight on the asteroid.
+
+Not only would such an adventure have been an uncomfortable experience,
+but it might have endangered the success of our scheme. Our present
+distance from the surface of Mars did not exceed 12,500 miles, and we
+had reasons to believe the Martians possessed telescopes powerful enough
+to enable them not merely to see the electrical ships at such a
+distance, but to also catch sight of us individually. Although the cloud
+curtain still rested on the planet it was probable that the Martians
+would send some of their airships up to its surface in order to
+determine what our fate had been. From that point of vantage with their
+exceedingly powerful glasses, we feared that they might be able to
+detect anything unusual upon or in the neighborhood of Deimos.
+
+Accordingly strict orders were given, not only that the ships should be
+moored on that side of the satellite which is perpetually turned away
+from Mars, but that, without orders, no one should venture around on the
+other side of the little globe or even on the edge of it, where he might
+be seen in profile against the sky.
+
+Still, of course, it was essential that we, on our part, should keep a
+close watch, and so a number of sentinels were selected, whose duty it
+was to place themselves at the edge of Deimos, where they could peep
+over the horizon, so to speak, and catch sight of the globe of our
+enemies.
+
+The distance of Mars from us was only about three times its own
+diameter, consequently it shut off a large part of the sky, as viewed
+from our position.
+
+But in order to see its whole surface it was necessary to go a little
+beyond the edge of the satellite, on that side which faced Mars. At the
+suggestion of Colonel Smith, who had so frequently stalked Indians that
+devices of this kind readily occurred to his mind, the sentinels all
+wore garments corresponding in color to that of the soil of the
+asteroid, which was of a dark, reddish brown hue. This would tend to
+conceal them from the prying eyes of the Martians.
+
+The commander himself frequently went around the edge of the planet in
+order to take a look at Mars, and I often accompanied him.
+
+I shall never forget one occasion, when, lying flat on the ground, and
+cautiously worming our way around on the side toward Mars, we had just
+begun to observe it with our telescopes, when I perceived, against the
+vast curtain of smoke, a small, glinting object, which I instantly
+suspected to be an airship.
+
+I called Mr. Edison's attention to it, and we both agreed that it was,
+undoubtedly, one of the Martian's aerial vessels, probably on the
+lookout for us.
+
+A short time afterward a large number of airships made their appearance
+at the upper surface of the clouds, moving to and fro, and although,
+with our glasses, we could only make out the general form of the ships,
+without being able to discern the Martians upon them, yet we had not the
+least doubt but they were sweeping the sky in every direction in order
+to determine whether we had been completely destroyed or had retreated
+to a distance from the planet.
+
+Even when that side of Mars on which we were looking had passed into
+night, we could still see the guardships circling above the clouds,
+their presence being betrayed by the faint twinkling of the electric
+lights that they bore.
+
+Finally, after about a week had passed, the Martians evidently made up
+their minds that they had annihilated us, and that there was no longer
+danger to be feared. Convincing evidence that they believed we should
+not be heard from again was furnished when the withdrawal of the great
+curtain of cloud began.
+
+This phenomenon first manifested itself by a gradual thinning of the
+vaporous shield, until, at length, we began to perceive the red surface
+of the planet dimly shining through it. Thinner and rarer it became,
+and, after the lapse of about eighteen hours, it had completely
+disappeared, and the huge globe shone out again, reflecting the light of
+the sun from its continents and oceans with a brightness that, in
+contrast with the all-enveloping night to which we had so long been
+subjected, seemed unbearable to our eyes.
+
+Indeed, so brilliant was the illumination which fell upon the surface of
+Deimos that the number of persons who had been permitted to pass around
+on the exposed side of the satellite was carefully restricted. In the
+blaze of light which had been suddenly poured upon us we felt somewhat
+like malefactors unexpectedly enveloped in the illumination of a
+policeman's dark lantern.
+
+Meanwhile, the object which we had in view in retreating to the
+satellite was not lost sight of, and the services of the chief linguists
+of the expedition were again called into use for the purpose of
+acquiring a new language. The experiment was conducted in the flagship.
+The fact that this time it was not a monster belonging to an utterly
+alien race upon whom we were to experiment, but a beautiful daughter of
+our common Mother Eve, added zest and interest as well as the most
+confident hopes of success to the efforts of those who were striving to
+understand the accents of her tongue.
+
+Still the difficulty was very great, notwithstanding the conviction of
+the professors that her language would turn out to be a form of the
+great Indo-European speech from which the many tongues of civilized men
+upon the earth had been derived.
+
+The learned men, to tell the truth, gave the poor girl no rest. For
+hours at a time they would ply her with interrogations by voice and by
+gesture, until, at length, wearied beyond endurance, she would fall
+asleep before their faces.
+
+Then she would be left undisturbed for a little while, but the moment
+her eyes opened again the merciless professors flocked about her once
+more, and resumed the tedious iteration of their experiments.
+
+Our Heidelberg professor was the chief inquisitor, and he revealed
+himself to us in a new and entirely unexpected light. No one could have
+anticipated the depth and variety of his resources. He placed himself in
+front of the girl and gestured and gesticulated, bowed, nodded, shrugged
+his shoulders, screwed his face into an infinite variety of expressions,
+smiled, laughed, scowled and accompanied all these dumb shows with
+posturings, exclamations, queries, only half expressed in words and
+cadences which, by some ingenious manipulation of the tones of the
+voice, he managed to make expressive of his desires.
+
+He was a universal actor--comedian, tragedian, buffoon--all in one.
+There was no shade of human emotions to which he did not seem capable of
+giving expression.
+
+His every attitude was a symbol, and all his features became in quick
+succession types of thought and exponents of hidden feelings, while his
+inquisitive nose stood forth in the midst of their ceaseless play like a
+perpetual interrogation point that would have electrified the Sphinx
+into life, and set its stone lips gabbling answers and explanations.
+
+The girl looked on, partly astonished, partly amused, and partly
+comprehending. Sometimes she smiled, and then the beauty of her face
+became most captivating. Occasionally she burst into a cherry laugh when
+the professor was executing some of his extraordinary gyrations before
+her.
+
+It was a marvelous exhibition of what the human intellect, when all its
+powers are concentrated upon a single object, is capable of achieving.
+It seemed to me, as I looked at the performance, that if all the races
+of men, who had been stricken asunder at the foot of the Tower of Babel
+by the miracle which made the tongues of each to speak a language
+unknown to the others, could be brought together again at the foot of
+the same tower, with all the advantages which thousands of years of
+education had in the meantime imparted to them, they would be able,
+without any miracle, to make themselves mutually understood.
+
+And it was evident that an understanding was actually growing between
+the girl and the professor. Their minds were plainly meeting, and when
+both had become focused upon the same point, it was perfectly certain
+that the object of the experiment would be attained.
+
+Whenever the professor got from the girl an intelligent reply to his
+pantomimic inquiries, or whenever he believed that he got such a reply,
+it was immediately jotted down in the ever open note book which he
+carried in his hand.
+
+And then he would turn to us standing by, and with one hand on his
+heart, and the other sweeping grandly through the air, would make a
+profound bow and say:
+
+"The young lady and I great progress make already. I have her words
+comprehended. We shall wondrous mysteries solve. Jawohl! Wunderlich!
+Make yourselves gentlemen easy. Of the human race the ancestral stem
+have I here discovered."
+
+Once I glanced over a page of his notebook and there I read this:
+
+"Mars--Zahmor
+
+"Copper--Hayez
+
+"Sword--Anz
+
+"I jump--Altesna
+
+"I slay--Amoutha
+
+"I cut off a head--Ksutaskofa
+
+"I sleep--Zlcha
+
+"I love--Levza"
+
+When I saw this last entry I looked suspiciously at the professor.
+
+Was he trying to make love without our knowing it to the beautiful
+captive from Mars?
+
+If so, I felt certain that he would get himself into difficulty. She had
+made a deep impression upon every man in the flagship, and I knew that
+there was more than one of the younger men who would promptly have
+called him to account if they had suspected him of trying to learn from
+those beautiful lips the words, "I love."
+
+I pictured to myself the state of mind of Colonel Alonzo Jefferson Smith
+if, in my place, he had glanced over the notebook and read what I had
+read.
+
+And then I thought of another handsome young fellow in the
+flagship--Sydney Phillips--who, if mere actions and looks could make him
+so, had become exceedingly devoted to this long lost and happily
+recovered daughter of Eve.
+
+In fact, I had already questioned within my own mind whether the peace
+would be strictly kept between Colonel Smith and Mr. Phillips, for the
+former had, to my knowledge, noticed the young fellow's adoring glances,
+and had begun to regard him out of the corners of his eyes as if he
+considered him no better than an Apache.
+
+"But what," I asked myself, "would be the vengeance that Colonel Smith
+would take upon this skinny professor from Heidelberg if he thought that
+he, taking advantage of his linguistic powers, had stepped in between
+him and the damsel whom he had rescued?"
+
+However, when I took a second look at the professor, I became convinced
+that he was innocent of any such amorous intentions, and that he had
+learned, or believed he had learned, the word for "love" simply in
+pursuances of the method by which he meant to acquire the language of
+the girl.
+
+There was one thing which gave some of us considerable misgivings, and
+that was the question whether, after all, the language the professor was
+acquiring was really the girl's own tongue or one that she had learned
+from the Martians.
+
+But the professor bade us rest easy on that point. He assured us, in the
+first place, that this girl could not be the only human being living
+upon Mars, but that she must have friends and relatives there. That
+being so, they unquestionably had a language of their own, which they
+spoke when they were among themselves. Here finding herself among beings
+belonging to her own race, she would naturally speak her own tongue and
+not that which she had acquired from the Martians.
+
+"Moreover, gentlemen," he added, "I have in her speech many roots of the
+great Aryan tongue already recognized."
+
+We were greatly relieved by this explanation, which seemed to all of us
+perfectly satisfactory.
+
+Yet, really, there was no reason why one language should be any better
+than the other for our present purpose. In fact, it might be more useful
+to us to know the language of the Martians themselves. Still, we all
+felt that we should prefer to know her language rather than that of the
+monsters among whom she had lived.
+
+Colonel Smith expressed what was in all our minds when, after listening
+to the reasoning of the Professor, he blurted out:
+
+"Thank God, she doesn't speak any of their blamed lingo! By Jove, it
+would soil her pretty lips."
+
+"But also that she speaks, too," said the man from Heidelberg, turning
+to Colonel Smith with a grin. "We shall both of them eventually learn."
+
+Three entire weeks were passed in this manner. After the first week the
+girl herself materially assisted the linguists in their efforts to
+ac-quire her speech.
+
+At length the task was so far advanced that we could, in a certain
+sense, regard it as practically completed. The Heidelberg professor
+declared that he had mastered the tongue of the ancient Aryans. His
+delight was unbounded. With prodigious industry he set to work, scarcely
+stopping to eat or sleep, to form a grammar of the language.
+
+"You shall see," he said, "it will the speculations of my countrymen
+vindicate."
+
+No doubt the Professor had an exaggerated opinion of the extent of his
+acquirements, but the fact remained that enough had been learned of the
+girl's language to enable him and several others to converse with her
+quite as readily as a person of good capacity who has studied under the
+instructions of a native teacher during a period of six months can
+converse in a foreign tongue.
+
+Immediately almost every man in the squadron set vigorously at work to
+learn the language of this fair creature for himself. Colonel Smith and
+Sydney Phillips were neck and neck in the linguistic race.
+
+One of the first bits of information which the Professor had given out
+was the name of the girl.
+
+It was Aina (pronounced Ah-ee-na).
+
+This news was flashed throughout the squadron, and the name of our
+beautiful captive was on the lips of all.
+
+After that came her story. It was a marvelous narrative. Translated into
+our tongue it ran as follows:
+
+"The traditions of my fathers, handed down for generations so many that
+no one can number them, declare that the planet of Mars was not the
+place of our origin.
+
+"Ages and ages ago our forefathers dwelt on another and distant world
+that was nearer the sun than this one is, and enjoyed brighter daylight
+than we have here.
+
+"They dwelt--as I have often heard the story from my father, who had
+learned it by heart from his father, and he from his--in a beautiful
+valley that was surrounded by enormous mountains towering into the
+clouds and white about their tops with snow that never melted. In the
+valley were lakes, around which clustered the dwellings of our race.
+
+"It was, the traditions say, a land wonderful for its fertility, filled
+with all things that the heart could desire, splendid with flowers and
+rich with luscious fruits.
+
+"It was a land of music, and the people who dwelt in it were very
+happy."
+
+While the girl was telling this part of her story the Heidelberg
+professor became visibly more and more excited. Presently he could keep
+quiet no longer, and suddenly exclaimed, turning to us who were
+listening, as the words of the girl were interpreted for us by one of
+the other linguists:
+
+"Gentlemen, it is the Vale of Cashmere! Has not my great countryman,
+Adelung, so declared? Has he not said that the Valley of Cashmere was
+the cradle of the human race already?"
+
+"From the Valley of Cashmere to the planet Mars--what a romance!"
+exclaimed one of the bystanders.
+
+Colonel Smith appeared to be particularly moved, and I heard him humming
+under his breath, greatly to my astonishment, for this rough soldier was
+not much given to poetry or music:
+
+    "Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere,
+      With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave;
+    Its temples, its grottoes, its fountains as clear,
+      As the love-lighted eyes that hang 'oer the wave."
+
+Mr. Sydney Phillips, standing by, and also catching the murmur of
+Colonel Smith's words, showed in his handsome countenance some
+indications of distress, as if he wished he had thought of those lines
+himself.
+
+The girl resumed her narrative:
+
+"Suddenly there dropped down out of the sky strange gigantic enemies,
+armed with mysterious weapons, and began to slay and burn and make
+desolate. Our forefathers could not withstand them. They seemed like
+demons, who had been sent from the abodes of evil to destroy our race.
+
+"Some of the wise men said that this thing had come upon our people
+because they had been very wicked, and the Gods in Heaven were angry.
+Some said they came from the moon, and some from the far-away stars. But
+of these things my forefathers knew nothing for a certainty.
+
+"The destroyers showed no mercy to the inhabitants of the beautiful
+valley. Not content with making it a desert, they swept over other parts
+of the earth.
+
+"The tradition says that they carried off from the valley, which was our
+native land, a large number of our people, taking them first into a
+strange country, where there were oceans of sand, but where a great
+river, flowing through the midst of the sands, created a narrow land of
+fertility. Here, after having slain and driven out the native
+inhabitants, they remained for many years, keeping our people, whom they
+had carried into captivity, as slaves.
+
+"And in this Land of Sand, it is said, they did many wonderful works.
+
+"They had been astonished at the sight of the great mountains which
+surrounded our valley, for on Mars there are no mountains, and after
+they came into the Land of Sand they built there, with huge blocks of
+stone, mountains in imitation of what they had seen, and used them for
+purposes my people did not understand.
+
+"Then, too, it is said they left there at the foot of these mountains
+that they had made a gigantic image of the great chief who led them in
+their conquest of our world."
+
+At this point in the story the Heidelberg professor again broke in,
+fairly trembling with excitement:
+
+"Gentlemen, gentlemen," he cried, "is it that you do not understand?
+This Land of Sand and of a wonderful fertilizing river--what can it be?
+Gentleman, it is Egypt! These mountains of rock that the Martians have
+erected, what are they? Gentlemen, they are the great mystery of the
+land of the Nile, the Pyramids. The gigantic statue of their leader that
+they at the foot of their artificial mountains have set up--gentlemen,
+what is that? It is the Sphinx!"
+
+[Illustration: _"Gentlemen," exclaimed the Professor, "these mountains of
+rock that the Martians built are the Pyramids of Egypt. The gigantic
+statue of their leader is THE GREAT SPHINX!"_]
+
+The professor's agitation was so great that he could not go on further.
+And indeed there was not one of us who did not fully share his
+excitement. To think that we should have come to the planet Mars to
+solve one of the standing mysteries of the earth, which had puzzled
+mankind and defied all their efforts at solution for so many centuries!
+Here, then, was the explanation of how those gigantic blocks that
+constitute the great Pyramid of Cheops had been swung to their lofty
+elevation. It was not the work of puny man, as many an engineer had
+declared that it could not be, but the work of these giants of Mars.
+
+At length, our traditions say, a great pestilence broke out in the Land
+of Sand, and a partial vengeance was granted to us in the destruction of
+the larger number of our enemies. At last the giants who remained,
+fleeing before this scourge of the gods, used the mysterious means at
+their command, and, carrying our ancestors with them, returned to their
+own world, in which we have ever since lived.
+
+"Then there are more of your people in Mars?" said one of the
+professors.
+
+"Alas, no," replied Aina, her eyes filling with tears, "I alone am
+left."
+
+For a few minutes she was unable to speak. Then she continued:
+
+"What fury possessed them I do not know, but not long ago an expedition
+departed from the planet, the purpose of which, as it was noised about
+over Mars, was the conquest of a distant world. After a time a few
+survivors of that expedition returned. The story they told caused great
+excitement among our masters. They had been successful in their battles
+with the inhabitants of the world they had invaded, but as in the days
+of our forefathers, in the Land of Sand, a pestilence smote them, and
+but few survivors escaped.
+
+"Not long after that, you, with your mysterious ships, appeared in the
+sky of Mars. Our masters studied you with their telescopes, and those
+who had returned from the unfortunate expedition declared that you were
+inhabitants of the world which they had invaded, come, doubtless, to
+take vengeance upon them.
+
+"Some of my people who were permitted to look through the telescopes of
+the Martians, saw you also, and recognized you as members of their own
+race. There were several thousand of us all together, and we were kept
+by the Martians to serve them as slaves, and particularly to delight
+their ears with music, for our people have always been especially
+skillful in the playing of musical instruments, and in songs, and while
+the Martians have but little musical skill themselves, they are
+exceedingly fond of these things.
+
+"Although Mars had completed not less than five thousand circuits about
+the sun since our ancestors were brought as prisoners to its surface,
+yet the memory of our distant home had never perished from the hearts of
+our race, and when we recognized you, as we believed, our own brothers,
+come to rescue us from long imprisonment, there was great rejoicing. The
+news spread from mouth to mouth, wherever we were in houses and families
+of our masters. We seemed to be powerless to aid you or to communicate
+with you in any manner. Yet our hearts went out to you, as in your ships
+you hung above the planet, and preparations were secretly made by all
+the members of our race for your reception when, as we believed, would
+occur, you should effect a landing upon the planet and destroy our
+enemies.
+
+"But in some manner the fact that we had recognized you, and were
+preparing to welcome you, came to the ears of the Martians."
+
+At this point the girl suddenly covered her eyes with her hands,
+shuddering and falling back in her seat.
+
+"Oh, you do not know them as I do!" at length she exclaimed. "The
+monsters! Their vengeance was too terrible! Instantly the order went
+forth that we should all be butchered, and that awful command was
+executed!"
+
+"How, then, did you escape?" asked the Heidelberg professor.
+
+Aina seemed unable to speak for a while. Finally mastering her emotion,
+she replied:
+
+"One of the chief officers of the Martians wished me to remain alive.
+He, with his aides, carried me to one of the military depots of
+supplies, where I was found and rescued," and as she said this she
+turned toward Colonel Smith with a smile that reflected on his ruddy
+face and made it glow like a Chinese lantern.
+
+"By God!" muttered Colonel Smith, "that was the fellow we blew into
+nothing! Blast him, he got off too easy!"
+
+The remainder of Aina's story may be briefly told.
+
+When Colonel Smith and I entered the mysterious building which, as it
+now proved, was not a storehouse belonging to a village, as we had
+supposed, but one of the military depots of the Martians, the girl, on
+catching sight of us, immediately recognized us as belonging to the
+strange squadron in the sky. As such she felt that we must be her
+friends, and saw in us her only possible hope of escape. For that reason
+she had instantly thrown herself under our protection. This accounted
+for the singular confidence which she had manifested in us from the
+beginning.
+
+Her wonderful story had so captivated our imaginations that for a long
+time after it was finished we could not recover from the spell. It was
+told over and over again, from mouth to mouth, and repeated from ship to
+ship, everywhere exciting the utmost astonishment.
+
+Destiny seemed to have sent us on this expedition into space for the
+purpose of clearing off mysteries that had long puzzled the minds of
+men. When on the moon we had unexpectedly to ourselves settled the
+question that had been debated from the beginning of astronomical
+history of the former habitability of that globe.
+
+Now, on Mars, we had put to rest no less mysterious questions relating
+to the past history of our own planet. Adelung, as the Heidelberg
+professor asserted, had named the Vale of Cashmere, as the probable site
+of the Garden of Eden, and the place of origin of the human race, but
+later investigators had taken issue with this opinion and the question
+where the Aryans originated on the earth had long been one of the most
+puzzling that science presented.
+
+This question seemed now to have been settled.
+
+Aina had said that Mars had completed 5,000 circuits about the sun since
+her people were brought to it as captives. One circuit of Mars occupies
+687 days. More than 9000 years had therefore elapsed since the first
+invasion of the earth by the Martians.
+
+Another great mystery--that of the origin of those gigantic and
+inexplicable monuments, the great pyramids and the Sphinx, on the banks
+of the Nile, had also apparently been solved by us, although these
+Egyptian wonders had been the furthest things from our thoughts when we
+set out for the planet Mars.
+
+We had traveled more than thirty millions of miles in order to get
+answers to questions which could not be solved at home.
+
+But from these speculations and retrospects we were recalled by the
+commander of the expedition.
+
+"This is all very interesting and very romantic, gentlemen," he said,
+"but now let us get at the practical side of it. We have learned Aina's
+language and heard her story. Let us next ascertain whether she can not
+place in our hands some key which will place Mars at our mercy. Remember
+what we came here for, and remember that the earth expects every man of
+us to do his duty."
+
+This Nelson-like summons again changed the current of our thoughts, and
+we instantly set to work to learn from Aina if Mars, like Achilles, had
+not some vulnerable point where a blow would be mortal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+_THE FLOOD GATES OF MARS_
+
+
+It was a curious scene when the momentous interview which was to
+determine our fate and that of Mars began. Aina had been warned of what
+was coming. We in the flagship had all learned to speak her language
+with more or less ease, but it was deemed best that the Heidelberg
+professor, assisted by one of his colleagues, should act as interpreter.
+
+The girl, flushed with excitement of the novel situation, fully
+appreciating the importance of what was about to occur, and looking more
+charming than before, stood at one side of the principal apartment.
+Directly facing her were the interpreters, and the rest of us, all with
+ears intent and eyes focused upon Aina, stood in a double row behind
+them. As heretofore, I am setting down her words translated into our own
+tongue, having taken only so much liberty as to connect the sentences
+into a stricter sequence than they had when falling from her lips in
+reply to the questions which were showered upon her.
+
+"You will never be victorious," she said, "if you attack them openly as
+you have been doing. They are too strong and too numerous. They are well
+prepared for such attacks, because they have had to resist them before.
+
+"They have waged war with the inhabitants of the asteroid Ceres, whose
+people are giants greater than themselves. Their enemies from Ceres have
+attacked them here. Hence these fortifications, with weapons pointing
+skyward, and the great air fleets which you have encountered."
+
+"But there must be some point," said Mr. Edison, "where we can."
+
+"Yes, yes," interrupted the girl quickly, "there is one blow you can
+deal them which they could not withstand."
+
+"What is that?" eagerly inquired the commander.
+
+"You can drown them out."
+
+"How? With the canals?"
+
+"Yes, I will explain to you. I have already told you, and, in fact, you
+must have seen for yourselves, that there are almost no mountains on
+Mars. A very learned man of my race used to say that the reason was
+because Mars is so very old a world that the mountains it once had have
+been almost completely leveled, and the entire surface of the planet had
+become a great plain. There are depressions, however, most of which are
+occupied by the seas. The greater part of the land lies below the level
+of the ocean. In order at the same time to irrigate the soil and make it
+fruitful, and to protect themselves from overflows by the ocean breaking
+in upon them, the Martians have constructed the immense and innumerable
+canals which you see running in all directions over the continents.
+
+"There is one period in the year, and that period has now arrived when
+there is special danger of a great deluge. Most of the oceans of Mars
+lie in the southern hemisphere. When it is Summer in that hemisphere,
+the great masses of ice and snow collected around the south pole melt
+rapidly away."
+
+"Yes, that is so," broke in one of the astronomers, who was listening
+attentively. "Many a time I have seen the vast snow fields around the
+southern pole of Mars completely disappear as the Summer sun rose high
+upon them."
+
+"With the melting of these snows," continued Aina, "a rapid rise in the
+level of the water in the southern oceans occurs. On the side facing
+these oceans the continents of Mars are sufficiently elevated to prevent
+an overflow, but nearer the equator the level of the land sinks lower.
+
+"With your telescopes you have no doubt noticed that there is a great
+bending sea connecting the oceans of the south with those of the north
+and running through the midst of the continents."
+
+"Quite so," said the astronomer who had spoken before, "we call it the
+Syrtis Major."
+
+"That long narrow sea," Aina went on, "forms a great channel through
+which the flood of waters caused by the melting of the southern polar
+snows flows swiftly toward the equator and then on toward the north
+until it reaches the sea basins which exist there. At that point it is
+rapidly turned into ice and snow, because, of course, while it is Summer
+in the southern hemisphere it is Winter in the northern.
+
+"The Syrtis Major (I am giving our name to the channel of communication
+in place of that by which the girl called it) is like a great safety
+valve, which, by permitting the waters to flow northward, saves the
+continents from inundation.
+
+"But when mid-Summer arrives, the snows around the pole, having been
+completely melted away, the flood ceases and the water begins to recede.
+At this time, but for a device which the Martians have employed, the
+canals connected with the oceans would run dry, and the vegetation left
+without moisture under the Summer sun, would quickly perish.
+
+"To prevent this they have built a series of enormous gates extending
+completely across the Syrtis Major at its narrowest point (latitude 25
+degrees south). These gates are all controlled by machinery collected at
+a single point on the shore of the strait. As soon as the flood in the
+Syrtis Major begins to recede, the gates are closed, and, the water
+being thus restrained, the irrigating canals are kept full long enough
+to mature the harvests."
+
+"The clue! The clue at last!" exclaimed Mr. Edison. "That is the place
+where we shall nip them. If we can close those gates now at the moment
+of high tide we shall flood the country. Did you say," he continued,
+turning to Aina, "that the movement of the gates was all controlled from
+a single point?"
+
+"Yes," said the girl. "There is a great building (power house) full of
+tremendous machinery which I once entered when my father was taken there
+by his master, and where I saw one Martian, by turning a little handle,
+cause the great line of gates, stretching a hundred miles across the
+sea, to slowly shut in, edge to edge, until the flow of the water toward
+the north had been stopped."
+
+"How is the building protected?"
+
+"So completely," said Aina, "that my only fear is that you may not be
+able to reach it. On account of the danger from their enemies on Ceres,
+the Martians have fortified it strongly on all sides, and have even
+surrounded it and covered it overhead with a great electrical network,
+to touch which would be instant death."
+
+"Ah," said Mr. Edison, "they have got an electric shield, have they?
+Well, I think we shall be able to manage that."
+
+"Anyhow," he continued, "we have got to get into that power house, and
+we have got to close those gates, and we must not lose much time in
+making up our minds how it is to be done. Evidently this is our only
+chance. We have not force enough to contend in open battle with the
+Martians, but if we can flood them out, and thereby render the engines
+contained in their fortifications useless, perhaps we shall be able to
+deal with the airships, which will be all the means of defense that will
+then remain to them."
+
+This idea commended itself to all the leaders of the expedition. It was
+determined to make a reconnaissance at once.
+
+But it would not do for us to approach the planet too hastily, and we
+certainly could not think of landing upon it in broad daylight. Still,
+as long as we were yet a considerable distance from Mars, we felt that
+we should be safe from observation because so much time had elapsed
+while we were hidden behind Deimos that the Martians had undoubtedly
+concluded that we were no longer in existance.
+
+So we boldly quitted the little satellite with our entire squadron and
+once more rapidly approached the red planet of war. This time it was to
+be a death grapple and our chances of victory still seemed good.
+
+As soon as we arrived so near the planet that there was danger of our
+being actually seen, we took pains to keep continually in the shadow of
+Mars, and the more surely to conceal our presence all lights upon the
+ships were extinguished. The precaution of the commander even went so
+far as to have the smooth metallic sides of the cars blackened over so
+that they should not reflect light, and thus become visible to the
+Martians as shining specks, moving suspiciously among the stars.
+
+The precise location of the great power house on the shores of the
+Syrtis Major having been carefully ascertained, the squadron dropped
+down one night into the upper limits of the Martian atmosphere, directly
+over the gulf.
+
+Then a consultation was called on the flagship and a plan of campaign
+was quickly devised.
+
+It was deemed wise that the attempt should be made with a single
+electric ship, but that the others should be kept hovering near, ready
+to respond on the instant to any signal for aid which might come from
+below. It was thought that, notwithstanding the wonderful defences,
+which, according to Aina's account surrounded the building, a small
+party would have a better chance of success than a large one.
+
+Mr. Edison was certain that the electrical network which was described
+as covering the power house would not prove a serious obstruction to us,
+because by carefully sweeping the space where we intended to pass with
+the disintegrators before quitting the ship, the netting could be
+sufficiently cleared away to give us uninterrupted passage.
+
+At first the intention was to have twenty men, each armed with two
+disintegrators (that being the largest number one person could carry to
+advantage) descend from the electrical ship and make the venture. But,
+after further discussion, this number was reduced; first to a dozen, and
+finally, to only four. These four consisted of Mr. Edison, Colonel
+Smith, Mr. Sydney Phillips and myself.
+
+Both by her own request and because we could not help feeling that her
+knowledge of the locality would be indispensable to us, Aina was also
+included in our party, but not, of course, as a fighting member of it.
+
+It was about an hour after midnight when the ship in which we were to
+make the venture parted from the remainder of the squadron and dropped
+cautiously down. The blaze of electric lights running away in various
+directions indicated the lines of innumerable canals with habitations
+crowded along their banks, which came to a focus at a point on the
+continent of Aeria, westward from the Syrtis Major.
+
+We stopped the electrical ship at an elevation of perhaps three hundred
+feet above the vast roof of a structure which Aina assured us was the
+building of which we were in search.
+
+Here we remained for a few minutes, cautiously reconnoitering. On that
+side of the power house which was opposite to the shore of the Syrtis
+Major there was a thick grove of trees, lighted beneath, as was apparent
+from the illumination which here and there streamed up through the cover
+of leaves, but, nevertheless, dark and gloomy above the tree tops.
+
+"The electric network extends over the grove as well as over the
+building," said Aina.
+
+This was lucky for us, because we wished to descend among the trees,
+and, by destroying part of the network over the tree tops, we could
+reach the shelter we desired and at the same time pass within the line
+of electric defenses.
+
+With increased caution, and almost holding our breath lest we should
+make some noise that might reach the ears of the sentinels below, we
+caused the car to settle gently down until we caught sight of a metallic
+net stretched in the air between us and the trees.
+
+After our first encounter with the Martians on the asteroid, where, as I
+have related, some metal which was included in their dress resisted the
+action of the disintegrators, Mr. Edison had readjusted the range of
+vibrations covered by the instruments, and since then we had found
+nothing that did not yield to them. Consequently, we had no fear that
+the metal of the network would not be destroyed.
+
+There was danger, however, of arousing attention by shattering holes
+through the tree tops. This could be avoided by first carefully
+ascertaining how far away the network was and then with the adjustable
+mirrors attached to the disintegrators focusing the vibratory discharge
+at that distance.
+
+So successful were we that we opened a considerable gap in the network
+without doing any perceptible damage to the trees beneath.
+
+The ship was cautiously lowered through the opening and brought to rest
+among the upper branches of one of the tallest trees. Colonel Smith, Mr.
+Phillips, Mr. Edison and myself at once clambered out upon a strong
+limb.
+
+For a moment I feared our arrival had been betrayed on account of the
+altogether too noisy contest that arose between Colonel Smith and Mr.
+Phillips as to which of them should assist Aina. To settle the dispute I
+took charge of her myself.
+
+At length we were all safely in the tree.
+
+Then followed the still more dangerous undertaking of descending from
+this great height to the ground. Fortunately, the branches were very
+close together and they extended down within a short distance of the
+soil. So the actual difficulties of the descent were not very great
+after all. The one thing that we had particularly to bear in mind was
+the absolute necessity of making no noise.
+
+At length the descent was successfully accomplished, and we all five
+stood together in the shadow at the foot of the great tree. The grove
+was so thick around that while there was an abundance of electric lights
+among the trees, their illumination did not fall upon us where we stood.
+
+Peering cautiously through the vistas in various directions, we
+ascertained our location with respect to the wall of the building. Like
+all the structures which we had seen on Mars, it was composed of
+polished red metal.
+
+"Where is the entrance?" inquired Mr. Edison, in a whisper.
+
+"Come softly this way, and look out for the sentinel," replied Aina.
+
+Gripping our disintegrators firmly, and screwing up our courage, with
+noiseless steps we followed the girl among the shadows of the trees.
+
+We had one-very great advantage. The Martians had evidently placed so
+much confidence in the electric network which surrounded the power house
+that they never dreamed of enemies being able to penetrate it--at least,
+without giving warning of their coming.
+
+But the hole which we had blown in this network with the disintegrators
+had been made noiselessly, and Mr. Edison believed, since no enemies had
+appeared, that our operations had not been betrayed by any automatic
+signal to watchers inside the building.
+
+Consequently, we had every reason to think that we now stood within the
+line of defense, in which they reposed the greatest confidence, without
+their having the least suspicion of our presence.
+
+Aina assured us that on the occasion of her former visit to the power
+house there had been but two sentinels on guard at the entrance. At the
+inner end of a long passage leading to the interior, she said, there
+were two more. Besides these there were three or four Martian engineers
+watching the machinery in the interior of the building. A number of
+airships were supposed to be on guard around the structure, but possibly
+their vigilance had been relaxed, because not long ago the Martians had
+sent an expedition against Ceres which had been so successful that the
+power of that planet to make any attack upon Mars had, for the present
+been destroyed.
+
+Supposing us to have been annihilated in the recent battle among the
+clouds, they would have no fear or cause for vigilance on our account.
+
+The entrance to the great structure was low--at least, when measured by
+the stature of the Martians. Evidently the intention was that only one
+person at a time should find room to pass through it.
+
+Drawing cautiously near, we discerned the outlines of two gigantic
+forms, standing in the darkness, one on either side of the door. Colonel
+Smith whispered to me:
+
+"If you will take the fellow on the right, I will attend to the other
+one."
+
+Adjusting our aim as carefully as was possible in the gloom, Colonel
+Smith and I simultaneously discharged our disintegrators, sweeping them
+rapidly up and down in the manner which had become familiar to us when
+endeavoring to destroy one of the gigantic Martians with a single
+stroke. And so successful were we that the two sentinels disappeared as
+if they were ghosts of the night.
+
+Instantly we all hurried forward and entered the door. Before us
+extended a long, straight passage, brightly illuminated by a number of
+electric candles. Its polished sides gleamed with blood-red reflections,
+and the gallery terminated, at a distance of two or three hundred feet,
+with an opening into a large chamber beyond, on the further side of
+which we could see part of a gigantic and complicated mass of machinery.
+
+Making as little noise as possible, we pushed ahead along the passage,
+but when we had arrived within the distance of a dozen paces from the
+inner end, we stopped, and Colonel Smith, getting down upon his knees,
+crept forward, until he had reached the inner end of the passage. There
+he peered cautiously around the edge into the chamber, and, turning his
+head a moment later, beckoned us to come forward. We crept to his side,
+and, looking out into the vast apartment, could perceive no enemies.
+
+What had become of the sentinels supposed to stand at the inner end the
+passage we could not imagine. At any rate, they were not at their posts.
+
+The chamber was an immense square room at least a hundred feet in height
+and 400 feet on a side, and almost filling the wall opposite to us was
+an intricate display of machinery, wheels, levers, rods and polished
+plates. This we had no doubt was one end of the engine which opened and
+shut the great gates that could dam an ocean.
+
+"There is no one in sight," said Colonel Smith.
+
+"Then we must act quickly," said Mr. Edison.
+
+"Where," he said, turning to Aina, "is the handle by turning which you
+saw the Martian close the gates?"
+
+Aina looked about in bewilderment. The mechanism before us was so
+complicated that even an expert mechanic would have been excusable for
+finding himself unable to understand it. There were scores of knobs and
+handles, all glistening in the electric light, any one of which, so far
+as the uninstructed could tell, might have been the master key that
+controlled the whole complex apparatus.
+
+"Quick," said Mr. Edison, "where is it?"
+
+The girl in her confusion ran this way and that, gazing hopelessly upon
+the machinery, but evidently utterly unable to help us.
+
+To remain here inactive was not merely to invite destruction for
+ourselves, but was sure to bring certain failure upon the purpose of the
+expedition. All of us began instantly to look about in search of the
+proper handle, seizing every crank and wheel in sight and striving to
+turn it.
+
+"Stop that!" shouted Mr. Edison, "you may set the whole thing wrong.
+Don't touch anything until we have found the right lever."
+
+But to find that seemed to most of us now utterly beyond the power of
+man.
+
+It was at this critical moment that the wonderful depth and reach of Mr.
+Edison's mechanical genius displayed itself. He stepped back, ran his
+eyes quickly over the whole immense mass of wheels, handles, bolts, bars
+and levers, paused for an instant, as if making up his mind, then said
+decidedly, "There it is," and stepping quickly forward, selected a small
+wheel amid a dozen others, all furnished at the circumference with
+handles like those of a pilot's wheel, and giving it a quick wrench,
+turned it half-way around.
+
+At this instant, a startling shout fell upon our ears. There was a
+thunderous clatter behind us, and, turning, we saw three gigantic
+Martians rushing forward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+_VENGEANCE IS OURS_
+
+
+"Sweep them! sweep them!" shouted Colonel Smith, as he brought his
+disintegrator to bear. Mr. Phillips and I instantly followed his
+example, and thus we swept the Martians into eternity, while Mr. Edison
+coolly continued his manipulations of the wheel.
+
+The effect of what he was doing became apparent in less than half a
+minute. A shiver ran through the mass of machinery and shook the entire
+building.
+
+"Look! Look!" cried Sydney Phillips, who had stepped a little apart from
+the others.
+
+We all ran to his side and found ourselves in front of a great window
+which opened through the side of the engine, giving a view of what lay
+in front of it. There, gleaming in the electric lights, we saw Syrtis
+Major, its waters washing high against the walls of the vast power
+house. Running directly out from the shore, there was an immense
+metallic gate at least 400 yards in length and rising three hundred feet
+above the present level of the water.
+
+This great gate was slowly swinging upon an invisible hinge in such a
+manner that in a few minutes it would evidently stand across the current
+of the Syrtis Major at right angles.
+
+Beyond was a second gate, which was moving in the same manner. Further
+on was a third gate, and then another, and another, as far as the eye
+could reach, evidently extending in an unbroken series completely across
+the great strait.
+
+As the gates, with accelerated motion when the current caught them,
+clanged together, we beheld a spectacle that almost stopped the beating
+of our hearts.
+
+The great Syrtis seemed to gather itself for a moment, and then it
+leaped upon the obstruction and buried its waters into one vast foaming
+geyser that seemed to shoot a thousand feet skyward.
+
+But the metal gates withstood the shock, though buried from our sight in
+the seething white mass, and the baffled waters instantly swirled around
+in ten thousand gigantic eddies, rising to the level of our window and
+beginning to inundate the power house before we fairly comprehended our
+peril.
+
+"We have done the work," said Mr. Edison, smiling grimly. "Now we had
+better get out of this before the flood bursts upon us."
+
+The warning came none too soon. It was necessary to act upon it at once
+if we would save our lives. Even before we could reach the entrance to
+the long passage through which we had come into the great engine room,
+the water had risen half-way to our knees. Colonel Smith, catching Aina
+under his arm, led the way. The roar of the maddened torrent behind
+deafened us.
+
+As we ran through the passage the water followed us, with a wicked
+swishing sound, and within five seconds it was above our knees; in ten
+seconds up to our waists.
+
+The great danger now was that we should be swept from our feet, and once
+down in that torrent there would have been little chance of our ever
+getting our heads above its level. Supporting ourselves as best we could
+with the aid of the walls, we partly ran, and were partly swept along,
+until when we reached the outer end of the passage and emerged into the
+open air, the flood was swirling about our shoulders.
+
+Here there was an opportunity to clutch some of the ornamental work
+surrounding the doorway, and thus we managed to stay our mad progress,
+and gradually to work out of the current until we found that the water,
+having now an abundance of room to spread, had fallen again as low as
+our knees.
+
+But suddenly we heard the thunder of the banks tumbling behind us, and
+to the right and left, and the savage growl of the released water as it
+sprang through the breaches.
+
+To my dying day, I think, I shall not forget the sight of a great fluid
+column that burst through the dike at the edge of the grove of trees,
+and, by the tremendous impetus of its rush, seemed turned into a solid
+thing.
+
+Like an enormous ram, it plowed the soil to a depth of twenty feet,
+uprooting acres of the immense trees like stubble turned over by the
+plowshare.
+
+The uproar was so awful that for an instant the coolest of us lost our
+self-control. Yet we knew that we had not the fraction of a second to
+waste. The breaking of the banks had caused the water again rapidly to
+rise about us. In a little while it was once more as high as our waists.
+
+In the excitement and confusion, deafened by the noise and blinded by
+the flying foam, we were in danger of becoming separated in the flood.
+We no longer knew certainly in what direction was the tree by whose aid
+we had ascended from the electrical ship. We pushed first one way and
+then another, staggering through the rushing waters in search of it.
+Finally we succeeded in locating it, and with all our strength hurried
+toward it.
+
+Then there came a noise as if the globe of Mars had been split asunder,
+and another great head of water hurled itself down upon the soil before
+us, and, without taking time to spread, bored a vast cavity in the
+ground, and scooped out the whole of the grove before our eyes as easily
+as a gardener lifts a sod with his spade.
+
+Our last hope was gone. For a moment the level of the water around us
+sank again, as it poured into the immense excavation where the grove had
+stood, but in an instant it was reinforced from all sides and began once
+more rapidly to rise.
+
+We gave ourselves up for lost, and, indeed, there did not seem any
+possible hope of salvation.
+
+Even in the extremity I saw Colonel Smith lifting the form of Aina, who
+had fainted, above the surface of the surging water, while Sydney
+Phillips stood by his side and aided him in supporting the unconscious
+girl.
+
+"We stayed a little too long," was the only sound I heard from Mr.
+Edison.
+
+The huge bulk of the power house partially protected us against the
+force of the current, and the water spun us around in great eddies.
+These swept us this way and that, but yet we managed to cling together,
+determined not to be separated in death if we could avoid it.
+
+Suddenly a cry rang out directly above our heads:
+
+"Jump for your lives, and be quick!"
+
+At the same instant the ends of several ropes splashed into the water.
+
+We glanced upward, and there, within three or four yards of our heads,
+hung the electrical ship, which we had left moored at the top of the
+tree.
+
+Tom, the expert electrician from Mr. Edison's shop, who had remained in
+charge of the ship, had never once dreamed of such a thing as deserting
+us. The moment he saw the water bursting over the dam, and evidently
+flooding the building which we had entered, he cast off his moorings, as
+we subsequently learned, and hovered over the entrance to the power
+house, getting as low down as possible and keeping a sharp watch for us.
+
+But most of the electric lights in the vicinity had been carried down by
+the first rush of water, and in the darkness he did not see us when we
+emerged from the entrance. It was only after the sweeping away of the
+grove of trees had allowed a flood of light to stream upon the scene
+from a cluster of electric lamps on a distant portion of the bank on the
+Syrtis that had not yet given way that he caught sight of us.
+
+Immediately he began to shout to attract our attention, but in the awful
+uproar we could not hear him. Getting together all the ropes that he
+could lay his hands on, he steered the ship to a point directly over us,
+and then dropped down within a few yards of the boiling flood.
+
+Now as he hung over our heads, and saw the water up to our very necks
+and still swiftly rising, he shouted again:
+
+"Catch hold, for God's sake!"
+
+The three men who were with him in the ship seconded his cries.
+
+But by the time we had fairly grasped the ropes, so rapidly was the
+flood rising, we were already afloat. With the assistance of Tom and his
+men we were rapidly drawn up, and immediately Tom reversed the electric
+polarity, and the ship began to rise.
+
+At that same instant, with a crash that shivered the air, the immense
+metallic power house gave way and was swept tumbling, like a hill torn
+loose from its base, over the very spot where a moment before we had
+stood. One second's hesitation on the part of Tom, and the electrical
+ship would have been battered into a shapeless wad of metal by the
+careening mass.
+
+When we had attained a considerable height, so that we could see a great
+distance on either side, the spectacle became even more fearful than it
+was when we were close to the surface.
+
+On all sides banks and dykes were going down; trees were being uprooted;
+buildings were tumbling, and the ocean was achieving that victory over
+the land which had long been its due, but which the ingenuity of the
+inhabitants of Mars had postponed for ages.
+
+Far away we could see the front of the advancing wave crested with foam
+that sparkled in the electric lights, and as it swept on it changed the
+entire aspect of the planet--in front of it all life, behind it all
+death.
+
+Eastward our view extended across the Syrtis Major toward the land of
+Libya and the region of Isidis. On that side also the dykes were giving
+way under the tremendous pressure, and the floods were rushing toward
+the sunrise, which had just began to streak the eastern sky.
+
+The continents that were being overwhelmed on the western side of the
+Syrtis were Meroc, Aeria, Arabia, Edom and Eden.
+
+The water beneath us continually deepened. The current from the melting
+snows around the southern pole was at its strongest, and one could
+hardly have believed that any obstruction put in its path would have
+been able to arrest it and turn it into these two all-swallowing
+deluges, sweeping east and west. But, as we now perceived, the level of
+the land over a large part of its surface was hundreds of feet below the
+ocean, so that the latter, when once the barriers were broken, rushed
+into depressions that yawned to receive it.
+
+The point where we had dealt our blow was far removed from the great
+capitol of Mars, around the Lake of the Sun, and we knew that we should
+have to wait for the floods to reach that point before the desired
+effect could be produced. By the nearest way, the water had at least
+5,000 miles to travel. We estimated that its speed where we hung above
+it was as much as a hundred miles an hour. Even if that speed were
+maintained, more than two days and nights would be required for the
+floods to reach the Lake of the Sun.
+
+But as the water rushed on it would break the banks of all the canals
+intersecting the country, and these, being also elevated above the
+surface, would add the impetus of their escaping waters to hasten the
+advance of the flood. We calculated, therefore, that about two days
+would suffice to place the planet at our mercy.
+
+Half way from the Syrtis Major to the Lake of the Sun another great
+connecting link between the Southern and Northern ocean basins, called
+on our maps of Mars the Indus, existed, and through this channel we knew
+that another great current must be setting from the south toward the
+north. The flood that we had started would reach and break the banks of
+the Indus within one day.
+
+The flood traveling in the other direction, toward the east, would have
+considerably further to go before reaching the neighborhood of the Lake
+of the Sun. It, too, would involve hundreds of great canals as it
+advanced and would come plunging upon the Lake of the Sun and its
+surrounding forts and cities, probably about half a day later than the
+arrival of the deluge that traveled toward the west.
+
+Now that we had let the awful destroyer loose we almost shrank from the
+thought of the consequences which we had produced. How many millions
+would perish as the result of our deed we could not even guess. Many of
+the victims, so far as we knew, might be entirely innocent of enmity
+toward us, or of the evil which had been done to our native planet. But
+this was a case in which the good--if they existed--must suffer with the
+bad on account of the wicked deeds of the latter.
+
+I have already remarked that the continents of Mars were higher on their
+northern and southern borders where they faced the great oceans. These
+natural barriers bore to the main mass of land somewhat the relation of
+the edge of a shallow dish to its bottom. Their rise on the land side
+was too gradual to give them the appearance of hills, but on the side
+toward the sea they broke down in steep banks and cliffs several hundred
+feet in height. We guessed that it would be in the direction of these
+elevations that the inhabitants would flee, and those who had timely
+warning might thus be able to escape in case the flood did not--as it
+seemed possible it might in its first mad rush--overtop the highest
+elevations on Mars.
+
+As day broke and the sun slowly rose upon the dreadful scene beneath us,
+we began to catch sight of some of the fleeing inhabitants. We had
+shifted the position of the fleet toward the south, and were now
+suspended above the southeastern corner of Aeria. Here a high bank of
+reddish rock confronted the sea, whose waters ran lashing and roaring
+along the bluffs to supply the rapid drought produced by the emptying of
+Syrtis Major. Along the shore there was a narrow line of land, hundreds
+of miles in length, but less than a quarter of a mile broad, which still
+rose slightly above the surface of the water, and this land of refuge
+was absolutely packed with the monstrous inhabitants of the planet who
+had fled hither on the first warning that the water was coming.
+
+In some places it was so crowded that the later comers could not find
+standing ground on dry land, but were continually slipping back and
+falling into the water. It was an awful sight to look at them. It
+reminded me of pictures I had seen of the deluge in the days of Noah,
+when the waters had risen to the mountain tops, and men, women and
+children were fighting for a foothold upon the last dry spots the earth
+contained.
+
+We were all moved by a desire to help our enemies, for we were
+overwhelmed with feelings of pity and remorse, but to aid them was now
+utterly beyond our power. The mighty floods were out, and the end was in
+the hands of God.
+
+Fortunately, we had little time for these thoughts, because no sooner
+had the day begun to dawn around us than the airships of the Martians
+appeared. Evidently the people in them were dazed by the disaster and
+uncertain what to do. It is doubtful whether at first they comprehended
+the fact that we were the agents who had produced the cataclysm.
+
+But as the morning advanced the airships came flocking in greater and
+greater numbers from every direction, many swooping down close to the
+flood in order to rescue those who were drowning. Hundreds gathered
+along the slip of land which was crowded as I have described, with
+refugees, while other hundreds rapidly assembled about us, evidently
+preparing for an attack.
+
+We had learned in our previous contests with the airships of the
+Martians that our electrical ships had a great advantage over them, not
+merely in rapidity and facility of movement, but in the fact that our
+disintegrators could sweep in every direction, while it was only with
+much difficulty that the Martian airships could discharge their
+electrical strokes at an enemy poised directly above their heads.
+
+Accordingly, orders were instantly flashed to all the squadrons to rise
+vertically to an elevation so great that the rarity of the atmosphere
+would prevent the airships from attaining the same level.
+
+This maneuver was executed so quickly that the Martians were unable to
+deal us a blow before we were poised above them in such a position that
+they could not easily reach us. Still they did not mean to give up the
+conflict.
+
+Presently we saw one of the largest of their ships maneuvering in a very
+peculiar manner, the purpose of which we did not at first comprehend.
+Its forward portion commenced slowly to rise, until it pointed upward
+like the nose of a fish approaching the surface of the water. The moment
+it was in this position, an electrical bolt was darted from its prow,
+and one of our ships received a shock which, although it did not prove
+fatal to the vessel itself, killed two or three men aboard it,
+disarranged its apparatus, and rendered it for the time being useless.
+
+"Ah, that's their trick, is it?" said Mr. Edison. "We must look out for
+that. Whenever you see one of the airships beginning to stick its nose
+up after that fashion blaze away at it."
+
+An order to this effect was transmitted throughout the squadron. At the
+same time several of the most powerful disintegrators were directed upon
+the ship which had executed the stratagem and, reduced to a wreck, it
+dropped, whirling like a broken kite until it fell into the flood
+beneath.
+
+Still the Martian ships came flocking in ever greater numbers from all
+directions. They made desperate attempts to attain the level at which we
+hung above them. This was impossible, but many, getting an impetus by a
+swift run in the denser portion of the atmosphere beneath, succeeded in
+rising so high that they could discharge their electric artillery with
+considerable effect. Others, with more or less success, repeated the
+maneuver of the ship which had first attacked us, and thus the battle
+gradually became more general and more fierce, until, in the course of
+an hour or two, our squadron found itself engaged with probably a
+thousand airships, which blazed with incessant lightning strokes, and
+were able, all too frequently, to do us serious damage.
+
+But on our part the battle was waged with a cool determination and a
+consciousness of insuperable advantage which boded ill for the enemy.
+Only three or four of our sixty electrical ships were seriously damaged,
+while the work of the disintegrators upon the crowded fleet that floated
+beneath us was terrible to look upon.
+
+Our strokes fell thick and fast on all sides. It was like firing into a
+flock of birds that could not get away. Notwithstanding all their
+efforts they were practically at our mercy. Shattered into
+unrecognizable fragments, hundreds of the airships continually dropped
+from their great height to be swallowed up in the boiling waters.
+
+Yet they were game to the last. They made every effort to get at us, and
+in their frenzy they seemed to discharge their bolts without much regard
+to whether friends or foes were injured. Our eyes were nearly blinded by
+the ceaseless glare beneath us, and the uproar was indescribable.
+
+At length, after this fearful contest had lasted for at least three
+hours, it became evident that the strength of the enemy was rapidly
+weakening. Nearly the whole of their immense fleet of airships had been
+destroyed, or so far damaged that they were barely able to float. Just
+so long, however, as they showed signs of resistance we continued to
+pour our merciless fire upon them, and the signal to cease was not given
+until the airships, which had escaped serious damage began to flee in
+every direction.
+
+"Thank God, the thing is over," said Mr. Edison. "We have got the
+victory at last, but how we shall make use of it is something that at
+present I do not see."
+
+"But will they not renew the attack?" asked someone.
+
+"I do not think they can," was the reply. "We have destroyed the very
+flower of their fleet."
+
+"And better than that," said Colonel Smith, "we have destroyed their
+clan; we have made them afraid. Their discipline is gone."
+
+But this was only the beginning of our victory. The floods below were
+achieving a still greater triumph, and now that we had conquered the
+airships we dropped within a few hundred feet of the surface of the
+water and then turned our faces westward in order to follow the advance
+of the deluge and see whether, as we hoped, it would overwhelm our
+enemies in the very center of their power.
+
+In a little while we had overtaken the first wave, which was still
+devouring everything. We saw it bursting the banks of the canal,
+sweeping away forests of gigantic trees, and swallowing cities and
+villages, leaving nothing but a broad expanse of swirling and eddying
+waters, which, in consequence of the prevailing red hue of the
+vegetation and the soil, looked, as shuddering we gazed down upon it,
+like an ocean of blood flecked with foam and steaming with the escaping
+life of the planet from whose veins it gushed.
+
+As we skirted the southern borders of the continent the same dreadful
+scenes which we had beheld on the coast of Aeria presented themselves.
+Crowds of refugees thronged the high borders of the land and struggled
+with one another for a foothold against the continually rising flood.
+
+We saw, too, flitting in every direction, but rapidly fleeing before our
+approach, many airships, evidently crowded with Martians, but not armed
+either for offense or defense. These, of course, we did not disturb, for
+merciless as our proceedings seemed even to ourselves, we had no
+intention of making war upon the innocent, or upon those who had no
+means to resist. What we had done it had seemed to us necessary to do,
+but henceforth we were resolved to take no more lives if it could be
+avoided.
+
+Thus, during the remainder of that day, all of the following night and
+all of the next day, we continued upon the heels of the advancing flood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+_THE WOMAN FROM CERES_
+
+
+The second night we could perceive ahead of us the electric lights
+covering the land of Thaumasia, in the midst of which lay the Lake of
+the Sun. The flood would be upon it by daybreak, and, assuming that the
+demoralization produced by the news of the coming of the waters, which
+we were aware had hours before been flashed to the capitol of Mars,
+would prevent the Martians from effectively manning their forts, we
+thought it safe to hasten on with the flagship, and one or two others,
+in advance of the waters, and to hover over the Lake of the Sun, in the
+darkness, in order that we might watch the deluge perform its awful work
+in the morning.
+
+Thaumasia, as we have before remarked, was a broad, oval-shaped land,
+about 1,800 miles across, having the Lake of the Sun exactly in its
+center. From this lake, which was four or five hundred miles in
+diameter, and circular in outline, many canals radiated, as straight as
+the spokes of a wheel, in every direction, and connected it with the
+surrounding seas.
+
+Like all the other Martian continents, Thaumasia lay below the level of
+the sea, except toward the south, where it fronted the ocean.
+
+Completely surrounding the lake was a great ring of cities constituting
+the capitol of Mars. Here the genius of the Martians had displayed
+itself to the full. The surrounding country was irrigated until it
+fairly bloomed with gigantic vegetation and flowers; the canals were
+carefully regulated with locks so that the supply of water was under
+complete control; the display of magnificent metallic buildings of all
+kinds and sizes produced a most dazzling effect, and the protection
+against enemies afforded by the innumerable fortifications surrounding
+the ringed city, and guarding the neighboring lands, seemed complete.
+
+Suspended at a height of perhaps two miles from the surface, near the
+southern edge of the lake, we waited for the oncoming flood. With the
+dawn of day we began to perceive more clearly the effects which the news
+of the drowning of the planet had produced. It was evident that many of
+the inhabitants of the cities had already fled. Airships on which the
+fugitives hung as thick as swarms of bees were seen, elevated but a
+short distance above the ground, and making their way rapidly toward the
+south.
+
+The Martians knew that their only hope of escape lay in reaching the
+high southern border of the land before the floods were upon them. But
+they must have known also that that narrow beach would not suffice to
+contain one in ten of those who sought refuge there. The density of the
+population around the Lake of the Sun seemed to us incredible. Again our
+hearts sank within us at the sight of the fearful destruction of life
+for which we were responsible. Yet we comforted ourselves with the
+reflection that it was unavoidable. As Colonel Smith put it:
+
+"You couldn't trust these coyotes. The only thing to do was to drown
+them out. I am sorry for them, but I guess there will be as many left as
+will be good for us, anyhow."
+
+We had not long to wait for the flood. As the dawn began to streak the
+east, we saw its awful crest moving out of the darkness, bursting across
+the canals and plowing its way into the direction of the crowded shores
+of the Lake of the Sun. The supply of water behind that great wave
+seemed inexhaustible. Five thousand miles it had traveled, and yet its
+power was as great as when it started from the Syrtis Major.
+
+We caught sight of the oncoming water before it was visible to the
+Martians beneath us. But while it was yet many miles away, the roar of
+it reached them, and then arose a chorus of terrified cries, the effect
+of which, coming to our ears out of the half gloom of the morning, was
+most uncanny and horrible. Thousands upon thousands of the Martians
+still remained here to become victims of the deluge. Some, perhaps, had
+doubted the truth of the reports that the banks were down and the floods
+were out; others, for one reason or another had been unable to get away;
+others, like the inhabitants of Pompeii, had lingered too long, or had
+returned after beginning their flight to secure abandoned treasures, and
+now it was too late to get away.
+
+With a roar that shook the planet the white wall rushed upon the great
+city beneath our feet, and in an instant it had been engulfed. On went
+the flood, swallowing up the Lake of the Sun itself, and in a little
+while, as far as our eyes could range, the land of Thaumasia had been
+turned into a raging sea.
+
+We now turned our ships toward the southern border of the land,
+following the direction of the airships carrying the fugitives, a few of
+which were still navigating the atmosphere a mile beneath us. In their
+excitement and terror the Martians paid little attention to us,
+although, as the morning brightened, they must have been aware of our
+presence over their heads. But, apparently, they no longer thought of
+resistance; their only object was escape from the immediate and
+appalling danger.
+
+When we had progressed to a point about half way from the Lake of the
+Sun to the border of the sea, having dropped down within a few hundred
+feet of the surface, there suddenly appeared, in the midst of the raging
+waters, a sight so remarkable that at first I rubbed my eyes in
+astonishment, not crediting their report of what they beheld.
+
+Standing on the apex of a sandy elevation, which still rose a few feet
+above the gathering flood, was a figure of a woman, as perfect in form
+and in classic beauty of feature as the Venus of Milo--a magnified human
+being not less than forty feet in height!
+
+But for her swaying and the wild motions of her arms, we should have
+mistaken her for a marble statue.
+
+Aina, who happened to be looking, instantly exclaimed:
+
+"It is the woman from Ceres. She was taken prisoner by the Martians
+during their last invasion of that world, and since then has been a
+slave in the palace of the emperor."
+
+Apparently her great stature had enabled her to escape, while her
+masters had been drowned. She had fled like the others, toward the
+south, but being finally surrounded by the rising waters, had taken
+refuge on the hillock of sand, where we saw her. This was fast giving
+way under the assault of the waves, and even while we watched the water
+rose to her knees.
+
+"Drop lower," was the order of the electrical steersman of the flagship,
+and as quickly as possible we approached the place where the towering
+figure stood.
+
+She had realized the hopelessness of her situation, and quickly ceased
+those appalling and despairing gestures, which had at first served to
+convince us that it was indeed a living being on whom we were looking.
+
+There she stood, with a light, white garment thrown about her, erect,
+half-defiant, half yielding to her fear, more graceful than any Greek
+statue, her arms outstretched, yet motionless, and her eyes upcast, as
+if praying to her God to protect her. Her hair, which shone like gold in
+the increasing light of day, streamed over her shoulders, and her great
+eyes were astare between terror and supplication. So wildly beautiful a
+sight not one of us had ever beheld.
+
+For a moment sympathy was absorbed in admiration. Then:
+
+"Save her! Save her!" was the cry that arose throughout the ship.
+
+Ropes were instantly thrown out, and one or two men prepared to let
+themselves down in order better to aid her.
+
+But when we were almost within reach, and so close that we could see the
+very expression of her eyes, which appeared to take no note of us, but
+to be fixed, with a far away look upon something beyond human ken,
+suddenly the undermined bank on which she stood gave way, the blood red
+flood swirled in from right to left, and then:
+
+    "The waters closed above her face
+    With many a ring."
+
+"If but for that woman's sake, I am sorry we drowned the planet,"
+exclaimed Sydney Phillips. But a moment afterward I saw that he
+regretted what he had said, for Aina's eyes were fixed upon him.
+Perhaps, however, she did not understand his remark, and perhaps if she
+did it gave her no offence.
+
+After this episode we pursued our way rapidly until we arrived at the
+shore of the Southern Ocean. There, as we had expected, was to be seen a
+narrow strip of land with the ocean on one side and the raging flood
+seeking to destroy it on the other. In some places it had already broken
+through, so that the ocean was flowing in to assist in the drowning of
+Thaumasia.
+
+But some parts of the coast were evidently so elevated that no matter
+how high the flood might rise it would not completely cover them. Here
+the fugitives had gathered in dense throngs and above them hovered most
+of the airships, loaded down with others who were unable to find room
+upon the dry land.
+
+On one of the loftiest and broadest of these elevations we noticed
+indications of military order in the alignment of the crowds and the
+shore all around was guarded by gigantic pickets, who mercilessly shoved
+back into the flood all the later comers, and thus prevented too great
+crowding upon the land. In the center of this elevation rose a palatial
+structure of red metal which Aina informed us was one of the residences
+of the Emperor, and we concluded that the monarch himself was now
+present there.
+
+The absence of any signs of resistance on the part of the airships, and
+the complete drowning of all of the formidable fortifications on the
+surface of the planet, convinced us that all we had to do in order to
+complete our conquest was to get possession of the person of the chief
+ruler.
+
+The fleet was, accordingly, concentrated, and we rapidly approached the
+great Martian palace. As we came down within a hundred feet of them and
+boldly made our way among their airships, which retreated at our
+approach, the Martians gazed at us with mingled fear and astonishment.
+
+We were their conquerors and they knew it. We were coming to demand
+their surrender, and they evidently understood that also. As we
+approached the palace signals were made from it with brilliant colored
+banners which Aina informed us were intended as a token of truce.
+
+"We shall have to go down and have a confab with them, I suppose," said
+Mr. Edison. "We can't kill them off now that they are helpless, but we
+must manage somehow to make them understand that unconditional surrender
+is their only chance."
+
+"Let us take Aina with us," I suggested, "and since she can speak the
+language of the Martians we shall probably have no difficulty in
+arriving at an understanding."
+
+Accordingly the flagship was carefully brought further down in front of
+the entrance to the palace, which had been kept clear by the Martian
+guards, and while the remainder of the squadron assembled within a few
+feet directly over our heads with the disintegrators turned upon the
+palace and the crowd below, Mr. Edison and myself, accompanied by Aina,
+stepped out upon the ground.
+
+There was a forward movement in the immense crowd, but the guards
+sternly kept everybody back. A party of a dozen giants, preceded by one
+who seemed to be their commander, gorgeously attired in jewelled
+garments, advanced from the entrance of the palace to meet us. Aina
+addressed a few words to the leader, who replied sternly, and then,
+beckoning us to follow, retraced his steps into the palace.
+
+Notwithstanding our confidence that all resistance had ceased, we did
+not deem it wise actually to venture into the lion's den without having
+taken every precaution against a surprise. Accordingly, before following
+the Martian into the palace, we had twenty of the electrical ships
+moored around it in such a position that they commanded not only the
+entrance but all of the principal windows, and then a party of forty
+picked men, each doubly armed with powerful disintegrators, were
+selected to attend us into the building. This party was placed under the
+command of Colonel Smith, and Sydney Phillips insisted on being a member
+of it.
+
+In the meantime the Martian with his attendants who had first invited us
+to enter, finding that we did not follow him, had returned to the front
+of the palace. He saw the disposition that we had made of our forces,
+and instantly comprehended its significance, for his manner changed
+somewhat, and he seemed more desirous than before to conciliate us.
+
+When he again beckoned us to enter, we unhesitatingly followed him, and
+passing through the magnificent entrance, found ourselves in a vast
+ante-chamber, adorned after the manner of the Martians in the most
+expensive manner. Thence we passed into a great circular apartment, with
+a dome painted in imitation of the sky, and so lofty that to our eyes it
+seemed like the firmament itself. Here we found ourselves approaching an
+elevated throne situated in the center of the apartment, while long rows
+of brilliantly armored guards flanked us on either side, and grouped
+around the throne, some standing and others reclining upon the flights
+of steps which appeared to be of solid gold, was an array of Martian
+woman, beautifully and becomingly attired, all of whom greatly
+astonished us by the singular charm of their faces and bearing, so
+different from the aspect of most of the Martians whom we had
+encountered.
+
+Despite their stature--for these women averaged twelve or thirteen feet
+in height--the beauty of their complexions--of a dark olive tint--was no
+less brilliant than that of the women of Italy or Spain.
+
+At the top of the steps on a magnificent golden throne, sat the Emperor
+himself. There are some busts of Caracalla which I have seen that are
+almost as ugly as the face of the Martian ruler. He was of gigantic
+stature, larger than the majority of his subjects, and as near as I
+could judge must have been between fifteen and sixteen feet in height.
+
+As I looked at him I understood a remark which had been made by Aina to
+the effect that the Martians were not all alike, and that the
+peculiarities of their minds were imprinted on their faces and expressed
+in their forms in a very wonderful, and sometimes terrible manner.
+
+I had also learned from her that Mars was under a military government,
+and that the military class had absolute control of the planet. I was
+somewhat startled, then, in looking at the head and center of the great
+military system of Mars, to find in his appearance a striking
+conformation of the speculations of our terrestrial phrenologists. His
+broad, mis-shapen head bulged in those parts where they had placed the
+so-called organs of combativeness, destructiveness, etc.
+
+Plainly, this was an effect of his training and education. His very
+brain had become a military engine; and the aspect of his face, the
+pitiless lines of his mouth and chin, the evil glare of his eyes, the
+attitude and carriage of his muscular body, all tended to complete the
+warlike ensemble.
+
+He was magnificently dressed in some vesture that had the luster of a
+polished plate of gold, and the suppleness of velvet. As we approached
+he fixed his immense, deep-set eyes sternly upon our faces.
+
+The contrast between his truly terrible countenance and the Eve-like
+features of the women which surrounded his throne was as great as if
+Satan after his fall had here re-enthroned himself in the midst of
+angels.
+
+Mr. Edison, Colonel Smith, Sydney Phillips, Aina and myself advanced at
+the head of the procession, our guard following in close order behind
+us. It had been evident from the moment that we entered the palace that
+Aina was regarded with aversion by all of the Martians. Even the women
+about the throne gazed scowlingly at her as we drew near. Apparently,
+the bitterness of feeing which had led to the massacre of all of her
+race had not yet vanished. And, indeed, since the fact that she remained
+alive could have been known only to the Martian who had abducted her and
+to his immediate companions, her reappearance with us must have been a
+great surprise to all those who now looked upon her.
+
+It was clear to me that the feeling aroused by her appearance was every
+moment becoming more intense. Still, the thought of a violent outbreak
+did not occur to me, because our recent triumph had seemed so complete
+that I believed the Martians would be awed by our presence, and would
+not undertake actually to injure the girl.
+
+I think we all had the same impression, but as the event proved, we were
+mistaken.
+
+Suddenly one of the gigantic guards, as if actuated by a fit of
+ungovernable hatred, lifted his foot and kicked Aina. With a loud shriek
+she fell to the floor.
+
+The blow was so unexpected that for a second we all stood riveted to the
+spot. Then I saw Colonel Smith's face turn livid, and at the same
+instant heard the whirr of his disintegrator, while Sydney Phillips,
+forgetting the deadly instrument he carried in his hand, sprung madly
+toward the brute who had kicked Aina, as if he intended to throttle him,
+colossus that he was.
+
+But Colonel Smith's aim, though instantaneously taken, as he had been
+accustomed to shoot on the plains, was true, and Phillips, plunging
+madly forward, seemed wreathed in a faint blue mist--all that the
+disintegrator had left of the gigantic Martian.
+
+Who could adequately describe the scene that followed?
+
+I remember that the Martian emperor sprang to his feet, looking tenfold
+more terrible than before. I remember that there instantly burst from
+the line of guards on either side crinkling beams of death-fire that
+seemed to sear the eyeballs. I saw a half a dozen of our men fall in
+heaps of ashes, and even at that terrible moment I had time to wonder
+that a single one of us remained alive.
+
+Rather by instinct than in consequence of any order given, we formed
+ourselves in a hollow square, with Aina lying apparently lifeless in the
+center, and then with gritted teeth we did our work.
+
+The lines of guards melted before the disintegrators like rows of snow
+men before a licking flame.
+
+The discharge of the lightning engines in the hands of the Martians in
+that confined space made an uproar so tremendous that it seemed to pass
+the bounds of human sense.
+
+More of our men fell before their awful fire, and for the second time
+since our arrival on this deadful planet of war our annihilation seemed
+inevitable.
+
+But in a moment the whole scene changed. Suddenly there was a discharge
+into the room which I knew came from one of the disintegrators of the
+electrical ships. It swept through the crowded throng like a destroying
+blast. Instantly from another side, swished a second discharge, no less
+destructive, and this was quickly followed by a third.
+
+Our ships were firing through the windows.
+
+Almost at the same moment I saw the flagship, which had been moored in
+the air close to the entrance and floating only three or four feet above
+the ground, pushing its way through the gigantic doorway from the
+ante-room, with its great disintegrators pointed upon the crowd like the
+muzzles of a cruiser's guns.
+
+And now the Martians saw that the contest was hopeless for them, and
+their mad struggle to get out of the range of the disintegrators and to
+escape from the death chamber was more appalling to look upon than
+anything that had yet occurred.
+
+[Illustration: _"Suddenly there was a discharge into the room which I
+knew came from one of the disintegrators of the electrical ships. It
+swept through the crowded throng like a destroying blast. It was a panic
+of giants!"_]
+
+It was a panic of giants. They trod one another under foot; they yelled
+and screamed in their terror; they tore each other with their claw-like
+fingers. They no longer thought of resistance. The battle spirit had
+been blown out of them by a breath of terror that shivered their marrow.
+
+Still the pitiless disintegrators played upon them until Mr. Edison,
+making himself heard, now that the thunder of their engines had ceased
+to reverberate through the chamber, commanded that our fire should
+cease.
+
+In the meantime the armed Martians outside the palace, hearing the
+uproar within, seeing our men pouring their fire through the windows,
+and supposing that we were guilty at once of treachery and
+assassination, had attempted an attack upon the electrical ships
+stationed round the building. But fortunately they had none of their
+larger engines at hand, and with their hand arms alone they had not been
+able to stand up against the disintegrators. They were blown away before
+the withering fire of the ships by the hundreds until, fleeing from
+destruction, they rushed madly, driving their unarmed companions before
+them into the seething waters of the flood close at hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+
+_THE FEARFUL OATHS OF COLONEL SMITH_
+
+
+Through all this terrible contest the emperor of the Martians had
+remained standing upon his throne, gazing at the awful spectacle, and
+not moving from the spot. Neither he nor the frightened woman gathered
+upon the steps of the throne had been injured by the disintegrators.
+Their immunity was due to the fact that the position and elevation of
+the throne were such that, it was not within the range of fire of the
+electrical ships which had poured their vibratory discharges through the
+windows, and we inside had only directed our fire toward the warriors
+who had attacked us.
+
+Now that the struggle was over we turned our attention to Aina.
+Fortunately the girl had not been seriously injured and she was quickly
+restored to consciousness. Had she been killed, we would have been
+practically helpless in attempting further negotiations, because the
+knowledge which we had acquired of the language of the Martians from the
+prisoner captured on the golden asteroid, was not sufficient to meet the
+requirements of the occasion.
+
+When the Martian monarch saw that we ceased the work of death, he sank
+upon his throne. There he remained, leaning his chin upon his two hands
+and staring straight before him like that terrible doomed creature who
+fascinates the eyes of every beholder standing in the Sistine Chapel and
+gazing at Micheal Angeleo's dreadful painting of "The Last Judgement."
+
+This wicked Martian also felt that he was in the grasp of pitiless and
+irresistible fate, and that a punishment too well deserved, and from
+which there was no possible escape, now confronted him.
+
+There he remained in a hopelessness which almost compelled our sympathy,
+until Aina had so far recovered that she was once more able to act as
+our interpreter. Then we made short work of the negotiations. Speaking
+through Aina, the commander said:
+
+"You know who we are. We have come from the earth, which, by your
+command, was laid waste. Our commission was not revenge, but
+self-protection. What we have done has been accomplished with that in
+view. You have just witnessed an example of our power, the exercise of
+which was not dictated by our wish, but compelled by the attack wantonly
+made upon a helpless member of our own race under our protection.
+
+"We have laid waste your planet, but it is simply a just retribution for
+what you did with ours. We are prepared to complete the destruction,
+leaving not a living being in this world of yours, or to grant you
+peace, at your choice. Our condition of peace is simply this: All
+resistance must cease absolutely."
+
+"Quite right," broke in Colonel Smith; "let the scorpion pull out his
+sting or we shall do it for him."
+
+"Nothing that we could do now," continued the commander, "would in my
+opinion save you from ultimate destruction. The forces of nature which
+we have been compelled to let loose upon you will complete their own
+victory. But we do not wish, unnecessarily, to stain our hands further
+with your blood. We shall leave you in possession of your lives.
+Preserve them if you can. But, in case the flood recedes before you have
+all perished from starvation, remember that you here take an oath,
+solemnly binding yourself and your descendants forever never again to
+make war upon the earth."
+
+"That's really the best we can do," said Mr. Edison, turning to us. "We
+can't possibly murder these people in cold blood. The probability is
+that the flood has hopelessly ruined all their engines of war. I do not
+believe that there is one chance in ten that the waters will drain off
+in time to enable them to get at their stores of provisions before they
+have perished from starvation."
+
+"It is my opinion," said Lord Kelvin, who had joined us (his pair of
+disintegrators hanging by his side, attached to a strap running over the
+back of his neck, very much as a farmer sometimes carries his big
+mittens), "it is my opinion that the flood will recede more rapidly than
+you think, and that the majority of these people will survive. But I
+quite agree with your merciful view of the matter. We must be guilty of
+no wanton destruction. Probably more than nine-tenths of the inhabitants
+of Mars have perished in the deluge. Even if all the others survived
+ages would elapse before they could regain the power to injure us."
+
+I need not describe in detail how our propositions were received by the
+Martian monarch. He knew, and his advisors, some of whom he had called
+in consultation, also knew, that everything was in our hands to do as we
+pleased. They readily agreed, therefore, that they would make no more
+resistance and that we and our electrical ships should be undisturbed
+while we remained upon Mars. The monarch took the oath prescribed after
+the manner of his race; thus the business was completed. But through it
+all there had been a shadow of a sneer on the emperor's face which I did
+not like. But I said nothing.
+
+And now we began to think of our return home, and of the pleasure we
+should have in recounting our adventures to our friends on the earth,
+who undoubtedly were eagerly awaiting news from us. We knew that they
+had been watching Mars with powerful telescopes, and we were also eager
+to learn how much they had seen and how much they had been able to guess
+of our proceedings.
+
+But a day or two at least would be required to overhaul the electrical
+ships and examine the state of our provisions. Those which we had
+brought from the earth, it will be remembered, had been spoiled and we
+had been compelled to replace them from the compressed provisions found
+in the Martian's storehouse. This compressed food had proved not only
+exceedingly agreeable to the taste, but very nourishing, and all of us
+had grown extremely fond of it. A new supply, however, would be needed
+in order to carry us back to the earth. At least sixty days would be
+required for the homeward journey, because we could hardly expect to
+start from Mars with the same initial velocity which we had been able to
+generate on leaving home.
+
+In considering the matter of provisioning the fleet it finally became
+necessary to take an account of our losses. This was a thing that we had
+all shrunk from, because they had seemed to us almost too terrible to be
+borne. But now the facts had to be faced. Out of the one hundred ships,
+carrying something more than two thousand souls, with which we had
+quitted the earth, there remained only fifty-five ships and 1085 men!
+All the others had been lost in our terrible encounters with the
+Martians, and particularly in our first disastrous battle beneath the
+clouds.
+
+Among the lost were many men whose names were famous upon the earth, and
+whose death would be widely deplored when the news of it was received
+upon their native planet. Fortunately this number did not include any of
+those whom I have had occasion to mention in the course of this
+narrative. The venerable Lord Kelvin, who, notwithstanding his age, and
+his pacific disposition, proper to a man of science, had behaved with
+the courage and coolness of a veteran in every crisis; Monsieur Moissan,
+the eminent chemist; Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson, and the Heidelberg
+professor, to whom we all felt under special obligations because he had
+opened to our comprehension the charming lips of Aina--all these had
+survived, and were about to return with us to the earth.
+
+It seemed to some of us almost heartless to deprive the Martians who
+still remained alive of any of the provisions which they themselves
+would require to tide them over the long period which must elapse before
+the recession of the flood should enable them to discover the sites of
+their ruined homes, and to find the means of sustenance. But necessity
+was now our only law. We learned from Aina that there must be stores of
+provisions in the neighborhood of the palace, because it was the custom
+of the Martians to lay up such stores during the harvest time in each
+Martian year in order to provide against the contingency of an
+extraordinary drought.
+
+It was not with very good grace that the Martian emperor acceded to our
+demands that one of the storehouses should be opened, but resistance was
+useless and of course we had our way.
+
+The supplies of water which we brought from the earth, owing to a
+peculiar process invented by Monsieur Moissan, had been kept in
+exceedingly good condition, but they were now running low and it became
+necessary to replenish them also. This was easily done from the Southern
+Ocean, for on Mars, since the levelling of the continental elevations,
+brought about many years ago, there is comparatively little salinity in
+the sea waters.
+
+While these preparations were going on Lord Kelvin and the other men of
+science entered with the utmost eagerness upon those studies, the
+prosecution of which had been the principal inducement leading them to
+embark on the expedition. But, almost all of the face of the planet
+being covered with the flood, there was comparatively little that they
+could do. Much, however, could be learned with the aid of Aina from the
+Martians, now crowded on the land above the palace.
+
+The results of these discoveries will in due time appear, fully
+elaborated in learned and authoratative treatises prepared by these
+savants' themselves. I shall only call attention to one, which seemed to
+me very remarkable. I have already said that there were astonishing
+differences in the personal appearance of the Martians evidently arising
+from differences of character and education, which had impressed
+themselves in the physical aspect of the individuals. We now learned
+that these differences were more completely the result of education than
+we had at first supposed.
+
+Looking about among the Martians by whom we were surrounded, it soon
+became easy for us to tell who were the soldiers and who were the
+civilians, simply by the appearance of their bodies, and particularly of
+their heads. All members of the military class resembled, to a greater
+or less extent, the monarch himself, in that those parts of their skulls
+which our phrenologists had designated as the bumps of destructiveness,
+combativeness and so on were enormously and disproportionately
+developed.
+
+And all this, we were assured, was completely under the control of the
+Martians themselves. They had learned, or invented, methods by which the
+brain itself could be manipulated, so to speak, and any desired portions
+of it could be especially developed, while other parts of it were left
+to their normal growth. The consequence was that in the Martian schools
+and colleges there was no teaching in our sense of the word. It was all
+brain culture.
+
+A Martian youth selected to be a soldier had his fighting faculties
+especially developed, together with those parts of the brain which
+impart courage and steadiness of nerve. He who was intended for
+scientific investigation had his brain developed into a mathematical
+machine, or an instrument of observation. Poets and literary men had
+their heads bulging with the imaginative faculties. The heads of the
+inventors were developed into a still different shape.
+
+"And so," said Aina, translating for us the words of a professor in the
+Imperial University of Mars, from whom we derived the greater part of
+our information on this subject, "the Martian boys do not study a
+subject; they do not have to learn it, but, when their brains have been
+sufficiently developed in the proper direction, they comprehend it
+instantly, by a kind of divine instinct."
+
+But among the women of Mars, we saw none of these curious, and to our
+eyes, monstrous differences of development. While the men received, in
+addition to their special education, a broad general culture also, with
+the women there was no special education. It was all general in its
+character, yet thorough enough in that way. The consequence was that
+only female brains upon Mars were entirely well balanced. This was the
+reason why we invariably found the Martian women to be remarkably
+charming creatures, with none of those physical exaggerations and
+uncouth developments which disfigured their masculine companions.
+
+All the books of the Martians, we ascertained, were books of history and
+of poetry. For scientific treatises they had no need, because, as I have
+explained, when the brains of those intended for scientific pursuits had
+been developed in the proper way the knowledge of nature's laws came to
+them without effort, as a spring bubbles from the rocks.
+
+One word of explanation may be needed concerning the failure of the
+Martians, with all their marvelous powers, to invent electrical ships
+like those of Mr. Edison's and engines of destruction comparable with
+our disintegrators. This failure was simply due to the fact that on Mars
+there did not exist the peculiar metals by the combination of which Mr.
+Edison had been able to effect his wonders. The theory involved by our
+inventions was perfectly understood by them and had they possessed the
+means, doubtless they would have been able to carry it into practice
+even more effectively than we had done.
+
+After two or three days all the preparations having been completed the
+signal was given for our departure. The men of science were still
+unwilling to leave this strange world, but Mr. Edison decided we could
+linger no longer.
+
+At the moment of starting a most tragic event occured. Our fleet was
+assembled around the palace, and the signal was given to rise slowly to
+a considerable height before imparting a great velocity to the
+electrical ships. As we slowly rose we saw the immense crowd of giants
+beneath us, with upturned faces, watching our departure. The Martian
+monarch and all his suite had come out upon the terrace of the palace to
+look at us. At a moment when he probably supposed himself to be
+unwatched he shook his fist at the retreating fleet. My eyes and those
+of several others in the flagship chanced to be fixed upon him. Just as
+he made the gesture one of the women of his suite, in her eagerness to
+watch us, apparently lost her balance and stumbled against him. Without
+a moment's hesitation, with a tremendous blow, he felled her like an ox
+at his feet.
+
+A fearful oath broke from the lips of Colonel Smith, who was one of
+those looking on. It chanced that he stood near the principal
+disintegrator of the flagship. Before anybody could interfere he had
+sighted and discharged it. The entire force of the terrible engine,
+almost capable of destroying a fort, fell upon the Martian emperor and
+not merely blew him into a cloud of atoms but opened a great cavity in
+the ground on the spot where he had stood.
+
+A shout arose from the Martians, but they were too much astounded at
+what had occurred to make any hostile demonstrations, and, anyhow, they
+knew well that they were completely at our mercy.
+
+Mr. Edison was on the point of rebuking Colonel Smith for what he had
+done, but Aina interposed.
+
+"I am glad it was done," said she "for now only can you be safe. That
+monster was more directly responsible than any other inhabitant of Mars
+for all the wickedness of which they have been guilty.
+
+"The expedition against the earth was inspired solely by him. There is a
+tradition among the Martians--which my people, however, could never
+credit--that he possessed a kind of immortality. They declared that it
+was he who led the former expedition against the earth when my ancestors
+were brought away prisoners from their happy home, and that it was his
+image which they had set up in stone in the midst of the Land of Sand.
+He prolonged his existence, according to this legend, by drinking the
+waters of a wonderful fountain, the secret of whose precise location was
+known to him alone but which was situated at that point where in your
+maps of Mars the name of the Fons Juventae occurs. He was personified
+wickedness, that I know; and he never would have kept his oath if power
+had returned to him again to injure the earth. In destroying him, you
+have made your victory secure."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+
+_THE GREAT OVATION_
+
+
+When at length we once more saw our native planet, with its
+well-remembered features of land and sea, rolling beneath our eyes, the
+feeling of joy that came over us transcended all powers of expression.
+
+In order that all the nations which had united in sending out the
+expedition should have visual evidence of its triumphal return, it was
+decided to make the entire circuit of the earth before seeking our
+starting point and disembarking. Brief accounts in all known languages,
+telling the story of what we had done was accordingly prepared, and then
+we dropped down through the air until again we saw the well-loved blue
+dome over our heads, and found ourselves suspended directly above the
+white topped cone of Fujiyama, the sacred mountain of Japan. Shifting
+our position toward the northeast, we hung above the city of Tokyo and
+dropped down into the crowds which had assembled to watch us, the
+prepared accounts of our journey, which, the moment they had been read
+and comprehended, led to such an outburst of rejoicing as it would be
+quite impossible to describe.
+
+One of the ships containing the Japanese members of the expedition,
+dropped to the ground, and we left them in the midst of their rejoicing
+countrymen. Before we started--and we remained but a short time
+suspended above the Japanese capitol--millions had assembled to greet us
+with their cheers.
+
+We now repeated what we had done during our first examination of the
+surface of Mars. We simply remained suspended in the atmosphere,
+allowing the earth to turn beneath us. As Japan receded in the distance
+we found China beginning to appear. Shifting our position a little
+toward the south, we again came to rest over the city of Pekin, where
+once more we parted with some of our companions, and where the outburst
+of universal rejoicing was repeated.
+
+From Asia, crossing the Caspian Sea, we passed over Russia, visiting in
+turn Moscow and St. Petersburg.
+
+Still the great globe rolled steadily beneath, and still we kept the sun
+with us. Now Germany appeared, and now Italy, and then France, and
+England, as we shifted our position, first north then south, in order to
+give all the world the opportunity to see that its warriors had returned
+victorious from its far conquest. And in each country as it passed
+beneath our feet, we left some of the comrades who had shared our perils
+and our adventures.
+
+At length the Atlantic had rolled away under us, and we saw the spires
+of the new New York.
+
+The news of our coming had been flashed ahead from Europe and our
+countrymen were prepared to welcome us. We had originally started, it
+will be remembered, at midnight, and now again as we approached the new
+capitol of the world the curtain of night was just beginning to be drawn
+over it. But our signal lights were ablaze, and through these they were
+aware of our approach.
+
+Again the air was filled with bursting rockets and shaken with the roar
+of cannon, and with volleying cheers, poured from millions of throats,
+as we came to rest directly above the city.
+
+Three days after the landing of the fleet, and when the first enthusiasm
+of our reception had a little passed, I received a beautifully engraved
+card inviting me to be present in Trinity Church at the wedding of Aina
+and Sydney Phillips.
+
+When I arrived at the church, which had been splendidly decorated, I
+found there Mr. Edison, Lord Kelvin, and all the other members of the
+crew of the flagship, and, considerably to my surprise, Colonel Smith,
+appropriately attired, and with a grace for the possession of which I
+had not given him credit, gave away the beautiful bride.
+
+But Alonzo Jefferson Smith was a man and a soldier, every inch of him.
+
+"I asked her for myself," he whispered to me after the ceremony,
+swallowing a great lump in his throat, "but she has had the desire of
+her heart. I am going back to the plains. I can get a command again, and
+I still know how to fight."
+
+And thus was united, for all future time, the first stem of the Aryan
+race, which had been long lost, but not destroyed, with the latest
+offspring of that great family, and the link which had served to bring
+them together was the far-away planet of Mars.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+_BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GARRETT PUTMAN SERVISS_
+
+Compiled by Elizabeth Dew Searles
+
+
+_Non-Fiction: Magazine Articles_
+
+    Achievements of astronomical photography. Outlook _79_, 787-96
+    (April 1, 1905)
+
+    Alexander Graham Bell. Cosmopolitan _33_, 42-44 (May 1902)
+
+    Alpha Centauri. Harper's Weekly _38_, 413 (May 5, 1894)
+
+    Among the stars with an opera-glass. Sidereal Messenger _10_, 244-47
+    (May 1891)
+
+    Another theory about Mars. Harper's Weekly _41_, 518-19 (May 22,
+    1897)
+
+    Arcturus, the greatest of all suns. Scientific American _70_, 327
+    (May 26, 1894)
+
+    Are there planets among the stars? Popular Science Monthly _52_,
+    171-77 (December 1897)
+
+    Artificial creation of life. Cosmopolitan _39_, 459-68 (September
+    1905)
+
+    Astronomy with an opera-glass: (This series was enlarged and
+    published in book form; see the following section.)
+
+      Stars of spring. Popular Science Monthly _30_, 743-56 (April 1887)
+      Stars of summer. ibid. _31_, 187-207 (June 1887)
+      Moon and the sun. ibid. _31_, 478-92 (August 1887)
+      Stars of autumn. ibid. _32_, 53-71 (November 1887)
+      Stars of winter. ibid. _32_, 511-29 (February 1888)
+
+
+    Astronomy in the 20th century. Popular Astronomy _9_, 286-87 (May
+    1901)
+
+    Auriga's wonderful star. Harper's Weekly _41_, 471 (May 8, 1897)
+
+    A Belt of sun-spots. Popular Science Monthly _24_, 180-86 (December
+    1883)
+
+    Can we always count upon the sun? Popular Science Monthly _39_,
+    658-64 (September 1891)
+
+    Celebrated American astronomers. Harper's Weekly _38_, 1143-46 (Dec.
+    1, 1894)
+
+    Digging up Caesar's camp. Harper's Weekly _54_, 12-13 (Dec. 31, 1910)
+
+    The Dimensions of the universe. Chautaquan _21_, 143-48 (May 1895)
+
+    Edelweiss. Nature Magazine _10_, 25 (July 1927)
+
+    Facts and fancies about Mars. Harper's Weekly _40_, 926 (Sept. 19,
+    1896)
+
+    From chaos to man; illustrated lecture in the Urania scientific
+    theater, at Carnegie Hall. Scientific American _66_, 399, 405-07
+    (June 25, 1892)
+
+    Greenland's icy mountains. Mentor _15_, 33-34 (February 1927)
+
+    How Burbank produces new flowers and fruit. Cosmopolitan _40_,
+    163-70 (December 1905)
+
+    Is Mars inhabited? Harper's Weekly _39_, 712 (July 27, 1895)
+
+    The Kite principle in aerial navigation. Scientific American
+    _88_, 484 (June 27, 1903)
+
+    Latest marvels of astronomy. Mentor _9_, 2-12 (October 1921)
+
+    Luther Burbank. Chautaquan _50_, 406-16 (May 1908)
+
+    New conquest of the heavens. Cosmopolitan _52_, 584-93 (April 1912)
+
+    New light on a lunar mystery. Popular Science Monthly _34_, 158-61
+    (December 1888)
+
+    New philosopher's stone. Cosmopolitan _44_, 632-36 (May 1908)
+
+    New Shakespeare--Bacon controversy. Cosmopolitan _32_, 554-58
+    (March 1902)
+
+    Opposition of Mars. Harper's Weekly _36_, 810 (Aug. 20, 1892)
+
+    Pleasures of the telescope: (Cf. the book "_Pleasures of the
+    Telescope_" listed in the following section.)
+
+      The selection and testing of a glass. Popular Science Monthly _45_,
+        213-24 (June 1894)
+      In the starry heavens. ibid. _46_, 289-301 (January 1895)
+      The starry heavens (cont'd). ibid. _46_, 466-78 (February 1895)
+      Virgo and her neighbors. ibid. _46_, 738-50 (April 1895)
+      In summer starlands. ibid. _47_, 194-208 (June 1895)
+      From Lyra to Eridanus. ibid. _47_, 508-21 (August 1895)
+      Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and the northern stars. ibid. _47_, 783-97
+        (October 1895)
+
+    Progress of science. Cosmopolitan _33_, 357-60 (July 1902)
+
+    Recent magnetic storms and sun-spots. Popular Science Monthly _23_,
+    163-69 (June 1883)
+
+    Riding through space. Mentor _11_, 3-16 (November 1923)
+
+    Rome of the gravel walk. Harper's Weekly _54_, 9-11 (July 30, 1910)
+
+    Scenes on the planets. Popular Science Monthly _56_, 337-49 (January
+    1900)
+
+    The Sky from Pike's Peak. Astronomy and Astrophysics _13_, 150-51
+    (February 1894)
+
+    Soaring flight. Scientific American _90_, 345 (April 30, 1904)
+
+    Solving the mystery of the stars. Cosmopolitan _39_, 395-404 (August
+    1905)
+
+    Star streams and nebulae. Popular Science Monthly _38_, 338-41
+    (January 1891)
+
+    Strange markings on Mars. Popular Science Monthly _35_, 41-56 (May
+    1889)
+
+    Studies in astronomy. Chautaquan _12_, 38-43, 184-88, 330-34, 463-67,
+    596-601, 735-39; _13_, 34-39, 170-75, 304-09 (October 1890-June 1891)
+
+    The Sun and his family. Outlook _200_, 656-65 (March 23, 1912)
+
+    Transforming the world of plants. Cosmopolitan _40_, 63-70 (November
+    1905)
+
+    What a five-inch telescope will show. Popular Astronomy _1_, 372-73
+    (April 1894)
+
+    What is astronomy? Chautaquan _18_, 541-45 (February 1894)
+
+    What is the music of the spheres? Mentor _15_, 18-20 (December 1927)
+
+    What the stars are made of. Chautaquan _21_, 9-13 (April 1895)
+
+    What we know about the planets. Chautaquan _20_, 526-31 (February
+    1895)
+
+    When shall we have another glacial epoch? Publications of the
+    Astronomical Society of the Pacific 4, 15-19 (Jan. 30, 1892)
+
+
+_Non-Fiction: Books, Pamphlets, Etc._
+
+    Astronomy in a nutshell, the chief facts and principles explained in
+    popular language for the general reader and for schools. New
+    York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1912. xi, 261p. front.,
+    illus., plates, diagrs. 19cm.
+
+    Astronomy with an opera-glass: a popular introduction to the study
+    of the starry heavens with the simplest of optical instruments, with
+    maps and directions to facilitate the recognition of the
+    constellations and the principal stars visible to the naked eye. New
+    York and London: D. Appleton and Co., 1888. vi, 154 p. incl. illus.,
+    maps. 23cm. (Enlarged from a series of articles in _Popular Science
+    Monthly_; see the preceding section.)
+
+    Astronomy with the naked eye; a new geography of the heavens, with
+    descriptions and charts of constellations, stars, and planets. New
+    York and London: Harper and brothers, 1908. xiii, (l)p., 1 1.,
+    246p., 1 1. illus., xiv charts (12 double). 21cm.
+
+    Curiosities of the sky; a popular presentation of the great riddles
+    and mysteries of astronomy. New York and London: Harper & brothers,
+    1909. xvi p., 2 1., 267, (1) p. incl. front., plates, charts. 21cm.
+
+    The Einstein theory of relativity ... with illustrations and photos
+    taken directly from the Einstein relativity film, illustrations by
+    R. D. Crandall. New York: E. M. Fadman, inc., (c1923). 96p.
+    front., illus. 19cm.
+
+    ----. London: American Book Supply, 1923. 96p. 19cm.
+
+    Eloquence, counsel on the art of public speaking; with many
+    illustrative examples showing the style and method of famous orators.
+    New York and London: Harper & brothers, 1912. iv p., 31., 2l4p.
+    front, (port.). 19-1/2cm.
+
+    How to use the Popular science library ... (and) History of science,
+    by Arthur Selwyn-Brown; General index. New York: P. F. Collier
+    & son co., (c1922). 2p.l., 3-384p. front., plates, ports. 20-1/2cm.
+    (added t.-p.: Popular science library, editor-in-chief, G. P.
+    Serviss, vol. XVI).
+
+    The Moon; a popular treatise. New York: D. Appleton and co.,
+    1907. xii, 248p. front., illus., 26 pl. 20cm.
+
+    ----. London: D. Appleton and co., 1908. 260p. illus. 20cm.
+
+    The Moon _in_ Frederick H. Law (ed.), Science in literature. New
+    York: Harper and brothers, 1929. p. 69-83.
+
+    Napoleon Bonaparte _in_ Thomas B. Reed (ed.), Modern eloquence.
+    Philadelphia: John D. Morris and co., 1901. vol. 6, p. 983-1009.
+
+    Other worlds; their nature, possibilities and habitability in the
+    light of the latest discoveries. New York: D. Appleton and co., 1901.
+    xv, 282p. front. (chart), illus., plates. 19-1/2cm.
+
+    ----. London: Hirschfeld brothers, 1902. 298p. charts, illus.
+    19-1/2cm.
+
+    Pleasures of the telescope; an illustrated guide for amateur
+    astronomers and a popular description of the chief wonders of the
+    heavens for general readers. New York: D. Appleton and co., 1901.
+    viii, 200p. illus. (incl. maps). 23cm.
+
+    ----. London: Hirschfeld brothers, 1901. 208p. 23cm.
+
+    Round the year with the stars; the chief beauties of the starry
+    heavens as seen with the naked eye ... with maps showing the
+    aspect of the sky in each of the four seasons and charts revealing
+    the outlines of the constellations. New York and London: Harper &
+    brothers, 1910. 19, (1) p., 1 1., 21-146, (1) p. incl. charts. 21cm.
+
+    Solar and planetary evolution _in_ Evolution; popular lectures and
+    discussions before the Brooklyn ethical association. Boston: James H.
+    West, 1889. p. 55-70; discussion, p. 71-75.
+
+    The Story of the moon; a description of the scenery of the lunar
+    world as it would appear to a visitor spending a month on the moon
+    ... illustrated with a complete series of photographs taken at the
+    Yerkes observatory. New York, London: D. Appleton and co.,
+    (c1928). xii, 247, (1) p. front., illus., plates, diagrs. 20cm.
+    (First published under the title: The Moon)
+
+    Wonders of the lunar world, or A Trip to the moon. (New York):
+    publisher not given, c1892. 20p. 201/2cm. (Urania series. No.l)
+
+
+_Fiction_
+
+    A Columbus of space. New York and London: D. Appleton and co.,
+    1911. vii p., 1 1., 297, (1) p. col. front., col. plates. 20cm.
+
+    ----. All-Story _13_, 1-16, 238-57, 418-32, 644-58; 14, 79-89, 300-12
+    (January-June 1909)
+
+    ----. Amazing Stories _1_, 388-409, 474-75, 490-509, 596-615, 669
+   (August-October 1926)
+
+    Edison's conquest of Mars. New York Evening Journal, Jan. 12-Feb.
+    10, 1898.
+
+    The Moon Maiden. Argosy _79_, 258-351 (May 1915)
+
+    The Moon metal. New York and London: Harper & brothers, 1900.
+    2 p.l., 163, (1) p. 17-1/2cm.
+
+    ----. All-Story _2_, 118-53 (May 1905)
+
+    ----. Amazing Stories _1_, 322-45, 381 (July 1926)
+
+    ----. Famous Fantastic Mysteries _1_, 40-74 (November 1939).
+
+    The Second deluge. New York: McBride, Nast & co., 1912. 6p.l.,
+    3-399p. front., plates. 191/2cm.
+
+    ----. London: Grant Richards, 1912. 410p. 191/2cm.
+
+    ----. Amazing Stories _1_, 676-701, 767-68, 844-66, 944-67, 1059-73
+    (November 1926-February 1927).
+
+    ----. Amazing Stories Quarterly _7_, 2-73 (Winter 1933).
+
+    ----. Cavalier _9_, 193-210, 481-501, 693-708; _10_, 88-103, 300-15,
+    546-58, 739-52 (July 1911-January 1912).
+
+    The Sky pirate. Scrap Book _7_, 595-606, 835-45, 1079-91; _8_,
+    105-17, 294-304, 562-70 (April-September 1909).
+
+
+     Note: In addition to his books and magazine articles, Garrett P.
+     Serviss wrote extensively for newspapers, having been a staff
+     writer on the New York _Sun_ at the beginning of his career and
+     having written later for a newspaper syndicate. This bibliography
+     does not include any of Serviss' newspaper writings, with the
+     exception of _Edison's Conquest of Mars_, since the effort involved
+     in compiling a list of his writings from so ephemeral a medium
+     would not be warranted by the questionable completeness of such a
+     list, much of his writing for newspapers having been anonymous.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Edison's Conquest of Mars, by
+Garrett Putnam Serviss
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDISON'S CONQUEST OF MARS ***
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+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
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+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #21670 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21670)