it swelled and expanded greatly, and sank away from us slowly. But at
the instant of its expansion the cold thus produced froze the moisture
of the air into a fine fleecy snow, which lasted but a second as it sank
away from us and melted in the heat, which the thermometer showed to be
close upon ninety-five degrees. This miniature snowstorm was seen for an
instant only after each down motion of the pump handle.

"Where is this air going?" I inquired. "The little clouds of it seem to
drop away from us like lead; but that must be because of our speed."

"It is falling back to the Earth, to join the outer layer of rare
atmosphere there. If we had a positive current instead of a negative
one, the air would not leave us, but we should gradually be surrounded
by an atmosphere of our own, which we should retain until some planet,
whose gravitational attraction is vastly stronger than ours, stole it
from us. When we begin to fall into Mars, we shall acquire such an
enveloping atmosphere; and we can draw upon it and re-compress it if our
inner supply should become exhausted."

"If this air is falling home to earth," said I, "we could send messages
back in that manner."

"We can drop them back at any time, regardless of the air," he answered,
and then added suddenly, "but it will make a beautiful experiment to
drop out a bottle now."

He ceased pumping, and opening a bottle of asparagus tips, he placed
them in a bowl, and prepared to drop out the bottle. I took my pencil
and wrote this message to go inside,--"Behold, I have decreed a judgment
upon the Earth; for it shall rain pickle bottles and biscuit tins for
the period of forty days, because of the wickedness of the world, unless
she repent!" And I pictured to myself the perplexity of the poor devil
who should see this message come straight down from heaven!

In order to make his experiment more successful, the doctor put in half
a dozen bullets from one of the rifles, to make the weight more
perceptible. Then he put the bottle into the discharging cylinder, and
preparing to push it out he stooped over the port-hole. At a signal from
him I gave the pump handle several quick, successive motions, and at the
same instant he let drop the bottle. At once he cried out,--

"Beautiful! and just as I thought."

"But I didn't see it!" I protested. "What was it?"

"The instant the bottle was released the discharged air was immediately
attracted toward it, and gradually surrounded it entirely. It was like a
little planet with an atmosphere of its own, as they fell back to the
Earth together."

"But I couldn't see it; I had to pump," I complained. "We must do it
again."

"We shall soon have our bottled things all emptied out on plates to dry
up and spoil," he objected. So I emptied a biscuit tin this time, and
delaying for no message, I put it in the discharging cylinder. Then I
bent over the port-hole and gave the signal for the pumping. As I thrust
out the tin I was astonished to see the lid pop off the first thing. The
quick expansion of the air inside it did that. This air, as well as the
air from the discharge pipe, seemed to flee from it instead of
surrounding it, as the doctor had said. I continued watching so long
that he finally said,--

"Hasn't it fallen out of sight yet?"

"No; it is not falling away swiftly as the air does. It is following the
projectile! It is not gathering any air about it as you said it would.
It does not quite keep up with us; but considering our speed, it is
doing remarkably well!"

The doctor was not inclined to believe me until he had looked for
himself. He watched and pondered for a minute or two. Then his surprise
ceased, and he spoke in that assured way which always irritated me.

"Quite natural, after all," he said. "That biscuit can is made of thin
sheet-iron with a surface coating of tin. The iron has become magnetized
by induction, and the Earth repels the can just as it repels us. It will
follow us to the dead-line, and probably on to Mars, unless the
sheet-iron loses its polarization. If we had cast out a thing of solid
iron, it would rush ahead of us, instead of falling a little behind, as
this does, for it would have no dead weight to carry. But we could not
put such a thing out of the rear end, for no force would make it fall
that way. If we put it out of the forward port-hole, it would beat us in
the race toward Mars."

I remarked to the doctor that the air-pump seemed to be incorrectly
built, for its action was strangely difficult in the reverse manner that
it should have been. The down strokes went by themselves with a quick
snap, but the up strokes were as if against pressure, and the moment the
handle was released it flew down again. He had not tested the pump at
the surface, as it was of a well-known make, but it certainly seemed to
work backwards. Moreover, the more nearly we had a compartment emptied
of air, the more difficult the pumping should become, but here again the
reverse seemed to be the case, for the longer we worked the easier the
up strokes became.

The temperature of the projectile was still fairly comfortable, and the
doctor allowed the condensed air to issue very slowly into the partial
vacuum in his compartment until it produced a barometric pressure of
twenty-seven. Then we pulled back the bulkhead, and when the new
atmosphere had mixed with the old in my compartment, a pressure of
twenty-eight resulted.

"That is about the way the barometer stands during tempests at sea,"
remarked the doctor. I could not notice much difference from the air we
had previously had. Possibly it was fresher and slightly more
exhilarating.

The effort at the pump had made us both hungry again, and I prepared
from meat extracts a warm and rather thick gravy to put over the
asparagus tips. I attempted to pour it, but it was so light that its
sticky consistency prevented it from running. We had a hundred such
examples daily of the changes which lack of weight caused in the
simplest operations. With sandwiches made of biscuits and condensed
meat, we eked out a luncheon. This must have been about noon, for when
it was over I remember noticing that we no longer needed the gas in the
compartment, for there was a gradually increasing mellow light outside.

"Are we already emerging from the shadow?" I inquired eagerly.

"No, not yet," replied the doctor. "But we are now entering its
illuminated core. I must prepare to photograph the strange appearance of
the Sun that we shall see presently."

I hastened to the port-hole, and did not leave until it was all over.
What I then saw was one of the most beautiful things of the whole trip.
The light outside was not bright, but soft and dreamy, like the first
twilight after a rich day of summer. The great corona all around the
outer edge of the Earth was the most magnificent appearance I have ever
seen. It was not at all dazzling, but had the melting shades, first of a
sunrise and then of a gorgeous sunset. We had missed the gradual
appearance of the phenomenon, but we had a good view of its highest
splendour. The colours were continually but slowly changing, and finally
the darker hues gradually suffused and dyed the pinks and crimsons.

The Earth was now about three times the diameter of a rising Full Moon,
and the corona was about a quarter her width, and looked as if twenty
shell-pink suns were set one against the other and overlapping all about
the edge of the dark orb.

"How do you know that is not really the extending edge of the Sun?" I
asked the doctor. "Perhaps we are already far enough away to see it all
about the Earth like that."

"If that were really the Sun, the light from his extending edge would
illuminate the surface of the Earth towards us. The planet's outline
would be irregular and partly glowing, but you see it is quite dull and
dark, and the outline is most plainly visible."

In rapt attention I watched the delicate shell-pink change to a deeper
hue of orange, and then our twilight waned a little and turned a sombre
grey. Presently the corona glowed a rich maroon, gradually dying to a
luminous purple, which slowly deepened and darkened, and finally melted
into the general blackness. And lo! we were in the shadow again, and the
dreamily beautiful panorama was over.

"It must have lasted nearly an hour," said the doctor. "I am sorry we
did not notice the beginning, but it must have commenced with the same
dull shades we saw at the end, and gradually changed to brighter
colours. I secured three negatives when the glow was most intense."

"Then we have had a waxing and a waning twilight coming together in the
middle of our night. And the corona was like a sunrise, followed
immediately by a sunset," I exclaimed.

"And why shouldn't it appear so?" said the matter-of-fact doctor.
"Twilight is the commonest phenomenon of refraction with which we are
acquainted, and sunrise and sunset are merely a mixture of refraction
and reflection. There is nothing new about it."

"Now, Doctor, we must remain friends, but you shall not continually
tarnish my poetry with your accursed science! I thank my Creator that
He made me ignorant enough to admire the beauties of nature. You are
continually peeping behind the scenes, and pointing out the grease
paints, the lime-lights and the sham effects. Let me enjoy the beauty of
the tableau, no matter how it is produced. I would give all of your pat
knowledge for that feeling of profound awe which rises in the untutored
breast at beholding the magnificent grandeur of unfamiliar nature."

"When your ecstasy has quite passed, I shall appreciate a little cold
mutton and biscuits, and then we must pump out again," he replied.

CHAPTER XI

Telling the Time by Geography

After supper I went up into his compartment, and having arranged the
bulkhead, began the tedious operation at the pump handle. It was a
matter of pure muscular strength, as the effort had to be made to lift
the handle, which snapped back sharply when released. I was working
vigorously when I was suddenly struck dumb at seeing the handle break
off just at the point of leverage, so that it was quite impossible to
operate it. The doctor heard the handle fall, and looked around in great
vexation.

"That means asphyxiation within twenty-four hours!" he exclaimed.

"Which is plenty of time to think it over," I answered.

After all, why was this pumping necessary? If a way could be devised to
open a valve, all the air would rush out of my compartment as easily as
beer runs out of a bung-hole. In fact, it did rush out a little at a
time, which is what made the handle go down of itself. But any such new
valve would have to be automatically closed, as it would be manifestly
impossible to enter and shut it. I kept on thinking, and finally began
examining the partition between the compartments. There seemed to be
several long screws that went quite through it.

"Doctor, did you ever hear of those wise people who, after every
freshet, shipped the surplus water down the river in boats? Well, it
strikes me this air-pumping is just about as useless labour. Help me
pull in the bulkhead and I will show you something."

I went at once to the cylinder we used for discharging things from the
projectile. With a pair of pliers I chipped off a small piece of the
edge of the closing lid in two places, one near each end. This made two
little irregular holes into the cylinder about eight inches apart. Then
I pushed it half way out, so that one hole was outside and the other
inside. Of course the air rushed through the inner hole into the
cylinder, and thence through the outer hole to the exterior.

"Shut that thing!" cried the doctor, when he saw what I had done. "Do
you wish to suffocate us? That will let the air out perfectly, but how
are you going to close it to admit the condensed air?"

"People unskilled in these matters are so hasty!" I said rather
sarcastically. "Wait until I have finished and you will see."

I found he had a screw-driver, and I loosened one of the long screws
and enlarged the half of its hole toward my compartment. Then I whittled
a block of soft wood, so that it would slide smoothly into this half of
the hole. Driving the screw home again, I just allowed its tip to enter
the end of the block. Then I fastened a piece of stout twine to the
cylinder and the other end to the block of wood, which was almost
opposite it. Pushing the cylinder half way out, I made the twine taut,
and hastening into the doctor's compartment, I thrust in the bulkhead.
The air was rapidly escaping. Waiting long enough for all of it to have
leaked out, I then unscrewed the long screw, which gradually drew in the
block of wood and the twine, and thus pulled the cylinder into the
projectile so that there was no connection with the exterior. Then the
doctor let in the condensed air to a barometric pressure of twenty-six,
and the whole operation was over in a few minutes. My compartment must
have been almost a complete vacuum. When it was over, I cried rather
triumphantly to the doctor,--

"There, you see, one doesn't need a steam pump to make the water run
over Niagara! At this distance from the surface, nature abhors a gas and
prefers a vacuum!" He was inclined to be rather sulky at first, but he
really did not like pumping any better than I did.

I should say it was about five hours later that we noticed it was
growing gradually lighter outside. Mars lost his ruddiness and grew
pale in a grey field. Our view of the Earth was also becoming more and
more misty.

"We are emerging from the black core of the shadow into the
semi-illuminated penumbra," said the doctor. Then he altered his course
experimentally, and found a slightly darker path, but it soon began
changing again to grey.

"There is no use trying to keep in the umbra any longer. It is growing
too narrow. The penumbra will last quite a long time yet, but it will
gradually get fainter and fainter. We shall not plunge at once into the
dreadful light you fear so much. Keep your eyes glued to the Earth. I
can scarcely see Mars any longer. The whole field is getting blank and
white."

The rear vista was also growing a pale white, and I could distinguish
the form of the Earth as a darker object slightly larger than a full
moon when risen. But it was all growing dimmer and dimmer as the
penumbra faded toward the perfect light.

"Mars is completely gone now," said the doctor. "The field of the
telescope is one pale curtain of light. I have steered to the left to go
ahead of him now, as there is no longer any reason for going behind
him."

I heard him working at the telescope as if loosening it from its
fastenings, but I dared not take my eyes from the Earth to see what he
was doing. Presently he called out to me,--

"Make room down there. I must bring the instrument down and observe the
Earth now. Be careful you don't lose sight of her." But the instant he
removed the telescope from its bearings and uncovered his forward
window, I lost all view of the Earth. The new light now entering by his
window, from behind me, made it impossible to see so far.

"Too late!" I cried; "I have lost her! We are alone in limitless space,
without even the company of the planets!"

But while the doctor was carefully lowering the telescope, my eyes were
still searching, and presently I perceived a thin crescent of faintly
brighter light, growing gradually wider. It was like a new moon dimly
seen in a clear part of the sky when the afternoon sun is cloud-hidden.
The doctor stopped to look where I pointed it out to him, and then
changed the wheel a little.

"That is a thin slice of the illuminated part of the Earth," he said.
"We can no longer see the dark side which has been visible to us while
in the shadow. Fortunately our new course a little ahead of Mars will
give us a constant view of this thin crescent."

We now stood the instrument on end over the port-hole window, which
brought the small end near the aperture between the compartments. When
the doctor had secured a focus, he called me to look. The crescent was
greatly magnified, but the outline of the sphere on the other side could
not be seen, nor could anything be distinguished in the centre. Both
the outer and inner edges of the crescent were ragged and irregular in
places, and there were faint darker spots on its surface. I called the
doctor's attention to the fact that the ragged appearance was always in
the form of extending teeth on the outer side of the crescent, and in
the form of notches eaten into its inner edge. He studied all these
appearances carefully and finally said,--

"This crescent is that part of Earth which is just coming into morning.
It is gradually shifting from east to west with the Earth's rotation of
course. What we see now, however, is _land_ almost from pole to pole.
There is a small sea just above the middle, which might be the
Mediterranean. Moreover, it must be mountainous land to cause the ragged
edges and the shadows inside."

Then he turned away to get his globe, and I took the place at the
instrument. He was slowly turning the globe and examining it
thoughtfully as he said to himself,--

"The only continuous land from pole to pole with one interrupting sea
must be over the two Americas or over Europe and Africa. The American
mountain ranges run from north to south, while through Europe and Africa
they are scarce, and almost uniformly run from east to west. Besides,
the sand of Sahara would be sure to show as a large, bright, regular
spot. A section from longitude 70 to 80 west would include the Green
Mountains and the Alleghanies of North America and the Andes of South
America, and in that case the darker spot in the centre would be the
Caribbean Sea."

"Look here!" I cried. "Toward the lower end the inner outline is growing
darker but more regular, and faint streaks or shadows reach through the
brighter light toward the dark greenish regular surface which looks like
water."

He observed closely and said,--

"Those shadows must be cast to westward by the enormous peaks of the
Andes, and the dark greenish surface they reach toward must be the
Pacific Ocean."

Then he consulted his globe while I looked. "The first two to come into
view," he said, "would be the two great peaks in Bolivia, over
twenty-one thousand feet high."

"There _are_ two of them together," I said, "and now others are rapidly
coming into view. There are five more scattered unequally, and then,
lower down, three near together."

"Then there is not the slightest doubt that we see the Lower Andes," he
said. "These last you mention are scattered just as you say along the
border between Chili and Argentina, and the group of three are near
Valparaiso, the peak of Aconcagua being the tallest. But watch now for
the group in Ecuador, about midway between the top and bottom of the
crescent. There are four very large peaks and numerous smaller ones."

"The middle all looks bright yet, like land, with no shadows or greenish
spots. But a queer thing is happening lower down, where the shadows have
ceased lengthening and are now fading. There are several fine points of
light just beyond the outer edge of the crescent. They are mere bright
specks, but gradually they join with the surface, making a rough toothed
edge."

"Ah, that phenomenon has been observed upon the Moon," said he. "That is
the sun shining on the snow-capped peaks first, and then, when the
diminutive outline of the mountain comes into view, it looks like a
tooth."

"The same is happening all down the coast," I reported. "Now I see it on
the lower group of three."

"Give me the instrument," demanded the doctor. "That can be nothing but
the west coast of South America, and if that be the case, the whole
thing will be repeated for the tall group in Ecuador, dominated by
Chimborazo."

As I surrendered the telescope to him, the whole lower part of the
crescent was dark, but with regular edges. Only in the middle, which
should have been about the Equator, and in the upper part, was there the
bright lustre of land reflection. He watched for fully half an hour
before observing anything remarkable. At last he exclaimed,--

"Now they are beginning! Five streaks near together and just at the
Equator. They are almost equidistant from each other, and the next to
the lowest one is the longest. Now the top one begins to fade! Yes, and
a point of light has appeared detached from the outer edge, and now
another and another! They are growing inward toward the surface. Now
they are all connected like five saw teeth; the bottom one is the
shortest, and that next very high one is old Chimborazo."

"Then it is morning at Quito and also at Pittsburg!" I said, tracing up
the 80th meridian.

"Yes, and we have been one complete day and about five hours more
travelling the nine hundred thousand miles that lie between this and
Earth," replied he.

"That makes us one full meal behind time," I said; "but we have
discovered a way to make the Andes call us for breakfast. When the
Pacific Ocean has passed from view, Japan and Australia shall strike
noon for us, and we will have supper and call it night when the Indian
Ocean is gone and darkest Africa has come into view!"

CHAPTER XII

Space Fever

We counted seven successive returns of the peaks of the Andes, and being
by that time certainly six million miles from the Earth, we could
distinguish them no longer. Then followed what I remember as a very long
and unspeakably monotonous period, without any adequate method of
marking the time. Our days became a full week long, for the only way we
could guess at the time was by the quarterings of the Moon. We could
still see her about the size of a marble in the telescope, and as her
crescent began to wane, and finally her light entirely disappeared, we
knew she was then just between us and the Earth, and shining upon that
planet as a Full Moon. This was due to occur fifteen days after our
departure. Then we watched her grow from a thin crescent to a bright
quarter, and we knew another week had elapsed.

"We shall soon be able to determine one date with absolute certainty," I
said to the doctor, when we must have been some twenty days out. "I have
been reading up your almanack, and I find there is a total eclipse of
the Sun by the Moon on June 29th."

"You might as well try to eclipse him with a straw-hat, as far as we are
concerned," he replied. "The Moon will necessarily be on the further
side of the Earth when that occurs, and the eclipse will barely reach
the Earth. It will fall short of us by a matter of some thirty million
miles!"

It was soon after this that we gave up observing the Earth as a planet,
put on our darkened lens, and proceeded to hold her as a spot in the Sun
a little to the left of his centre. The Moon remained a tiny spot of
light outside for a few days; but finally she entered the Sun also, and
was seen as a faint spot travelling toward the Earth-spot.

Although the dazzling quality of the light, into which we had emerged
after the second day, was finally beginning to wane and pale a little,
Mars was still invisible. In fact, no stars or planets were visible;
only the gleaming Sun with the Earth-spot upon it. Our thermometer was
poorly placed in the glare of the Sun at the rear; but it showed the
heat was decreasing, and from a temperature of thirty-five degrees,
observed at the end of the second day, it had now fallen to twelve, and
was diminishing regularly about two degrees daily as nearly as we could
reckon.

Our appetites were steadily failing, and for two very good reasons: the
unsuitable foods and the impossibility of getting any exercise. There
was no such thing as getting any healthy actions of the body. Nothing
had any weight, and such a thing as physical labour was impossible on
the face of it. I attempted to go through regular courses of gymnastics
at frequent intervals; but as my body and its members weighed nothing,
my muscles found nothing whatever to expend their force upon. I thought
myself worse than Prometheus bound upon his rock, for he could at least
struggle with the birds of prey and pull upon his chains! I might as
well have been utterly paralyzed, and I actually began to fear that I
should lose all my strength, and that my muscles would forget their
cunning.

And our foods could not have been more unsuitable. The light vegetable
diet which this lack of exercise called for was impossible. We had never
had any fresh vegetables or fruits, and our tinned and canned supplies
of these had been rapidly exhausted. We had plenty of solid, meaty foods
and beef essences; but our systems did not require these, and at last
absolutely refused to have them. I lived for days at a time upon beer
and biscuits, and looked longingly at my cigars. I believed I could have
existed comfortably and luxuriously upon smoke alone. My dreams were
filled with visions of ripe, luscious fruits and fresh, crisp
vegetables. When I awoke, I loathed the only foods we had.

I believe I should finally have given up eating, had I not hit upon a
method of exercise at last. It was a sort of rowing or pulling machine,
which I rigged up by running a bar through one end of the doctor's
spring scales, and fastening the other end to the foot of my bed. I
pulled vigorously against this spring for hours at a time, and was
delighted to find that my strength had not left me, and that I could
easily lift as much as these scales had been made to weigh. I remember
the returned appetite with which I enjoyed potted meat and a tinned
pudding, after the first hour of as vigorous exercise as our rarefied
air would permit.

The Moon-spot had disappeared and gone to her eclipse behind the Earth,
when an incident occurred to vary the monotony of our existence a
little, and to suggest to me a diversion that had been hitherto
forbidden. Our supply of water in the outer tank had long ago boiled
away, and I had lighted the gas to heat water for the doctor's coffee. I
had taken the cup up to him and remained chatting with him, when
presently I smelled something burning from the compartment below. I
descended quickly, and saw that my light bedclothes, which now weighed
less than a feather, and often floated from their place, had been drawn
into the flame by the draft of the burning gas. They were floating about
the compartment now, all aflame and threatening to set fire to
everything. We had not a drop of water to spare; but for once I thought
of the right thing to do without hesitation. I pushed out the
ventilating cylinder, hurried back to the doctor's compartment and
thrust in the bulkhead. Within two minutes all the air had escaped from
my room, and the fire had died for lack of oxygen. I waited a few
minutes longer for the smoke to escape, and then we admitted condensed
air, but only to the remarkably low pressure of eighteen. Within five
minutes the compartment was ready again, and there was not a trace of
smoke or smell of fire to be perceived.

"I congratulate you on your quick perception and prompt action," said
the doctor when it was over.

"Quick rubbish!" I exclaimed. "I have been a dundering fool for four
weeks by the Moon! I might just as well have been smoking ever since I
contrived this self-ventilating arrangement. The compartment becomes a
perfectly clean vacuum at each operation, yet I had to wait for this bed
clothing to catch fire before I could think of so simple a thing!"

It was at the meal time just preceding the next changing of air that I
opened the last tin of canned peas, as a sort of treat for the doctor to
offset my expected revel in fragrant tobacco. I prepared half the
quantity for him, but left my portion in the tin until I should be
hungrier. With the prospects of a good smoke before me, I had no
appetite for food. I put in the bulkhead to prevent the smoke from
entering his compartment and lighted my Havana. Then I took Two-spot on
my lap and stretched myself for a reverie. On Earth, smoking time had
been my period for reflection. And far back on that distant planet, what
were they doing now? In that one busy corner that had known me, they had
probably wondered at my disappearance for a day or two; but after the
month that had passed I was certainly forgotten. There were few back
there whom I cared for, and not many had much reason to remember me. My
interests, my desires, my hopes were all ahead of me on a new planet.
And what was waiting for me on Mars? Discovery, riches perhaps, and a
measure of fame when I returned. Then I thought of the numberless
problems that the next few weeks must solve for us. Would there be
intelligent inhabitants on Mars? Would they be in the forms of men or
beasts? Would they be civilized or savage? Would they speak a language,
and how could we learn to communicate with them? Would they have foods
suitable to us; indeed, would the very air they breathed be fit to
sustain our lives? Should we find them peaceable, or, if warlike, should
we be able to cope with them?

These thoughts were interrupted by the doctor, who called feebly to me
to come up. "Don't eat any of the peas," he said weakly. "There was a
queer taste about them, and they have made me deathly sick."

He was very wretched, and grew rapidly worse. I immediately saw that it
was a severe case of poisoning, and I did everything I could to relieve
him, but he groaned in agony for several hours. Finally he fell asleep,
but his rest was disturbed by fits of delirium, in which he raved wildly
in German mixed with English. As he slept I had time to think the matter
over carefully. After all, it was a thing which required only simple
remedies, and I had administered them. It was only a question of a
little nursing and a careful diet, and he would be well again.

But his fever increased and his delirium became more frequent, and I
began to appreciate that the derangement incident to the poisoning had
prepared the way for a more serious illness. During his ravings I caught
a glimpse of the struggling and ambitious side of his nature, which he
always so carefully repressed.

Once I heard him mumble this to himself in German: "Kepler perceived a
little, he saw dimly; Newton comprehended the easy half; but Anderwelt,
Anderwelt of Heidelberg, grasped the hidden meaning!"

In spite of all my attentions (I did not then understand the nature of
Space Fever, of course), he was growing steadily worse, and I was
becoming desperate. I could not afford to have him ill long. The
currents would probably continue to work fairly well until it became
necessary to reverse them, and that time was not far off. Unless they
were reversed exactly at the right moment, we might fall into the
neutral spot and be held there for ever. Even if I managed to stop the
negative current, and succeeded in falling towards Mars, I could not
regulate the positive current so as to temper our fall and make a safe
landing. It was equally dangerous to remain fixed in space, or to fall
headlong upon a planet and be smashed, or be buried miles deep if the
projectile did not collapse.

I had no way of telling how much time passed, but it seemed to me a very
long period, and he grew steadily worse as we approached the neutral
point. I tried to rouse him from his delirium. I addressed him
jocularly, then commandingly, then beseechingly. And he answered me
always with reflections from that other side of his nature which one
rarely saw when he was well.

"Hast thou seen red ants crawling upon a cherry? Such are the mere
circumnavigators of a globe! What! Hath not the world forgotten a
Columbus? How long, then, will it remember---- Hast thou no cooler
water? This is tepid and bitter!"

Ever since the last quarter of the Moon, which must have been ten days
ago, there had not been the slightest perceptible evidence of movement.
The standards by which we judge motion on the Earth had failed ever
since we left the atmosphere. There was no rushing or whizzing; we
passed nothing; all the ordinary evidences of speed were absent. When
you lie in the state-room of a smoothly moving steamer, no forward
motion is perceptible. If you see another ship pass near by, you get a
sudden surprising idea of the speed. If you watch the receding water,
you appear to be going forward slowly; and if you watch the spray at the
bow or the wake astern, you appreciate the movement more fully. But if
the waves or the tide happen to be running with the ship, she has
apparently almost stopped, when really her speed has been somewhat
accelerated. If you watch the distant stars, you can scarcely perceive
any motion at all; and if the clouds should be moving in the same
direction as the ship, her motion appears reversed.

We had none of these things by which to judge, and we appeared to be
hanging perfectly still in space, though the doctor had assured me we
were travelling at least five hundred miles a minute. This was rational,
as it agreed with the diminishing size of the Earth; but it required an
effort of faith on my part to believe that we had been moving at all.

But suppose we should gradually lose our speed and stop in a neutral
point, how should I know it? The Earth now was, and had been for ten
days, a mere spot on the Sun. While Mars had been visible, he had never
increased in size in the telescope, and he was now invisible. The only
way I could tell would be to wait until after many days had elapsed, and
if Mars did not finally come into view, I should know something was
wrong. But it would be too late then; there would be no winds or tides,
no weight or buoyancy, nothing to move us out of that dreadful calm
where even gravity does not exist. That must be avoided at every cost!
But might we not be very near it now? Weight had been practically
nothing for a month, within an hour it might be positively nothing,
and----

The doctor's mutterings interrupted these thoughts. "The power with
which to travel was so simple and so vast! It all lay hidden in that
elementary law of magnetism, like poles repel and unlike poles attract.
But the road to travel and the problems by the way, those were the hard
things!"

He was putting them all in the past tense, as if he had already solved
them! But what was that law of magnetism he mentioned? Perhaps he would
reveal his secrets to me in his ravings! I must mark every word he said;
for it was clear I must solve the problem, he would not be well in time.
I must brush the cobwebs from my meagre science and struggle with his
invention.

"Unlike poles attract," he had said. Then Earth and matter must normally
have unlike poles, and to make Earth repel matter it would only be
necessary to change the polarization of the matter. Yes, he had told me
it was all accomplished by polarizing the steel and iron of the
projectile! When they were made the same pole as the Earth, then she
repelled them. But if the whole thing were so simple, why had it never
been discovered before? Ah, that is the strong shield behind which
incredulity always takes refuge!

I ventured near the gravity apparatus and examined it carefully. There
was a small thing which looked like the switchboard of a telegraph
office. The perforations in it were all in a row, and the ten holes were
now filled with little brass pegs, which were suspended from above on
small spiral springs. These were evidently the points of communication
of the negative current to the framework of the projectile. It certainly
would do no harm to pull out one of these pegs, as that would only
slightly diminish the current. At least I would risk it. My fingers had
scarcely closed upon the brass, when I was given such a violent shock as
to be thrown powerfully across the compartment; and had my body weighed
anything, my bones would certainly have been broken by the concussion.
My arm and shoulder did not recover from the stinging and deadening
sensation for some time. I noted the little peg I had pulled out hanging
by its spiral spring just above the hole it had filled. It would be
worth my life to remove the other nine in the same way.

Besides, how would I know when the time came to remove them? My eyes
fell upon the two large leaden balls suspended from short copper
chains. I had seen these before, but now I thought I understood them.
They would swing whichever way gravity attracted. They hung down toward
my compartment now, and if we ever passed the dead line, they would hang
forward toward Mars. But in the neutral point what would they do? When
the gravity of planets neutralized each other, the steel of the
projectile would repel these balls towards its centre, which would tend
to put them both in the same spot and thus bring them together.
Moreover, they would slightly attract each other. Yes, it was quite
certain that these had been devised as a Gravity Indicator, and they
would tell me when we were approaching a dead line, when we were in it,
and when it was safely passed. But all that would do me but little good
unless I could manage the currents.

I sat thinking this over a long time, when it suddenly occurred to me
that the doctor would recognise, even in his delirium, the importance of
action when these two balls came together. As soon as they had
approached each other, I must lift him up and show them to him. The
brain that had made them would know their meaning, and know how to act
even in illness! Perhaps I was like a drowning man clutching at a straw;
but from the moment I thought of this I believed firmly that the
solution of the whole problem would come in this manner. My hopes were
ready to hang on the slightest peg. It consoled me to remember some
instances where men temporarily insane had been brought to consciousness
by impending danger, or by the sight of what last weighed upon their
mind.

When I glanced at the balls next, I saw that their chains lacked an inch
of being parallel. They were already moving slowly inward toward each
other. I noted that the chains, which ran through the balls and were
connected with a small copper plate on the bottom of each, were just
long enough to allow the bottom edges to touch, if they were drawn as
far toward each other as possible.

The doctor's fever was at its very worst, but that did not dampen my
hopes. The balls were gradually drawing nearer together. I wished them
to be quite close before I made the supreme trial which was to liberate
us or leave us prisoners in space for ever! Presently I loosened the
knotted sheets which held him to his bed, and lifted the feverish man,
as I might have carried a doll, and brought him in full view of the
approaching balls.

"Doctor, listen now and look," I said firmly and commandingly.

"Always stubborn and unbelieving!" he raved. "I must take it to a new
country, to America, where they invent things themselves, and are
willing to listen, and anxious to try!"

"Doctor, don't you know me? It is I, Werner, who helped you. This is a
crisis for us! Do you see those approaching balls? You know what they
mean! You must save us."

"Thou'rt too busy, like all the rest! Why, then, remember that to-morrow
will despise those who are so busy with to-day! Opportunity has knocked
and listened for thee and thou hast bade her begone!"

"Listen, Doctor. I am he who heard you and gave you the pink cheque. I
am he who refused three times to go with you and then came at last. I am
he who was afraid of the light, who dodged the Moon, and chaffed you
about the pump. Do you not remember it all? Come, you are no longer ill.
There is work to do. Have you forgotten the leaden balls? See! they are
touching each other now, and we are in the dead-line, the neutral spot,
the one danger of the trip which you acknowledged."

But it was useless. He remembered nothing, his eyes were dim and vacant,
and the great brain that had planned all this was overthrown by fever.
The experiment had failed and we were lost!

I tied him gently back on his bed and turned in desperation to the
apparatus, deciding to risk my life to pull out those nine pegs with my
hands, one after another.

My God! they were already out! Every one of them was hanging by its
spiral spring, just above the hole it had filled. The switchboard had
opened a little and released them. It was all automatic! The contact of
the copper surface of the balls had completed a short circuit which cut
the negative current. He had thought of it all, even to this emergency,
and the machine could take care of itself!

And in the wave of thankfulness and rejoicing which swept over me, I
sank on my knees and kissed the forehead of the feverish old man again
and again!

CHAPTER XIII

The Mystery of a Minus Weight

It was the doctor himself who gave the name Space Fever (now so
generally adopted) to the peculiar malady from which he suffered in that
long period when weight was very slight or nothing at all. A little
reflection on the physiological bearings of the conditions we were
passing through, will serve to explain the illness.

For the period of a month, owing to the impossibility of effort, there
was scarcely any wasting of our bodily tissues, and very little need for
oxydization of the blood. The limbs, which the heart really works
hardest to serve, did scarcely any labour and needed very little blood.
But the heart had its stubborn habits the same as the other muscles. It
is a high-pressure engine, and there is no way of slowing it down
materially. It kept up its vigorous pumping and driving just as if the
great muscles of the limbs had wasted and needed building up, and just
as if it had the task of forcing the blood through those parts of the
body usually compressed by its weight or strained by the effort of
carrying it. The result was much the same as if your heart now should
suddenly begin to beat much too fast, the blood was heated into a state
of fever, which naturally increased as we lost weight, culminated at the
dead-line and began decreasing as soon as we commenced having a weight
toward Mars. It was only my fortunate invention of a method of exercise,
and my religious adherence to it, which saved me from a similar attack.

But many things happened before the doctor recovered consciousness. The
Moon had re-appeared on the other side of the Earth-spot, the light
about us had grown less dazzling than sunlight on Earth, and the
temperature had fallen to four degrees. It was perhaps two days after
passing the dead-line that, as I was gazing carefully out of the forward
window, I saw far to the right of us a large circular patch of faintly
redder light in the general curtain of white. Its size quite startled
me, for it was rather larger than a full moon, and I had expected Mars
to re-appear as a very bright star before we could distinguish any disc
with the naked eye. This misapprehension probably arose from the fact
that I had thought the dead-line about half way between the two planets,
which upon reflection I saw to be impossible, as it must be much nearer
the smaller planet.

The outline of the planet was not clearly visible yet, but I could not
have missed seeing that red glow long before, had it been more directly
in front of us. Evidently we were steering much ahead of the planet,
which indicated that we were arriving before opposition. I immediately
changed our course so as to go more nearly toward it, but yet to keep a
little ahead. Then I hastily brought the telescope back to the forward
compartment, which was now the bottom of the projectile. The lenses
easily pierced the curtain of light that seemed to be hung in front of
the new planet, and I could distinguish the outline of the greatly
magnified orb very clearly.

Judging from appearances, it could not be farther from us than twice the
distance of the Moon from the Earth. I resorted to the scales at once,
and found that weight was beginning slowly to return, for I weighed a
little less than an ounce. From a rule the doctor had explained to me, I
calculated that this indicated a distance from the planet of about four
hundred thousand miles, if it really was Mars. But I had some doubts
about its really being that planet; for a clear white, irregular-shaped
spot upon it, which I had noticed as soon as the telescope was focussed,
did not appear to move at all, as it should have done had it been upon a
rotating planet. Upon closer observation, I detected a dull, greenish
spot, just coming upon the lower edge. But when I looked again a bright
white and perfectly circular spot had appeared in the same place and
covered it up. But this new white spot travelled much more rapidly, and
soon uncovered the greenish spot, which seemed to move in the same path,
but much more slowly. This was something I could not understand. The
white circle was too bright and regular to be a cloud, yet if they were
both on the surface how could one travel faster over the same path?

Very soon the white circle passed entirely across the greater orb, and
then I was surprised to see it detach itself from the planet and remain
for a few moments as a separate small orb in the sky! Could this be
another freak of refraction? But before I could determine, the little
orb disappeared behind the greater disc and was gone. The greenish spot,
which I judged to be truly on the surface and caused by an ocean or
great sea, was about three times as long in crossing the disc. I next
turned my attention to the immovable and irregular white spot, and
discovered that its edges seemed to be revolving slowly around its
centre. Then it occurred to me that this spot must be located at one of
the poles and be caused by polar ice and snows. The doctor had expected
such on Mars, and I no longer doubted that this was our objective
planet.

It was like a great holiday for me when the doctor regained
consciousness. Almost as soon as his fever abated he was well enough to
perform his customary duties. His illness had not made him appreciably
weak, because as yet scarcely any effort was required to move about. He
was quite as anxious to hear all my experiences as I was eager to
relate them. I gave him a full account of my struggle passing the
dead-line, of my discovery of Mars, and the various spots I had noted.

"From the time it took the greenish spot to cross, I should judge a
Martian day to be about fifty hours long," I said.

"Then you _must_ have been very lonely," he replied. "For a Martian day
is just forty-one minutes longer than an Earthly day, unless a great
number of our scientists have continually made the same mistake in
observing him."

"When we arrive, we shall be able to determine the point exactly if our
watches commence running again," I answered. "But I think I know one
reason why I have misjudged the time. Ever since you have been ill I
have slept very little. I have hardly felt the need of rest since I lost
my weight. I have been growing more and more wakeful, and I rarely sleep
more than an hour at a time. That seems quite sufficient to refresh me."

"As we regain our weight we shall feel the need of sleep again," he
said. "But on Mars we may need but one-third as much as we had on Earth,
unless we exert ourselves proportionately more."

Then I told him about the circular spot which had seemed to slip off the
upper edge of Mars, and asked his explanation of it.

"That must have been Phobos, one of the moons of Mars," he said.

"One of his moons!" I exclaimed; "I didn't know he had _any_."

"You are an American, and say that!" he answered in surprise. "It is one
of the astronomical glories of your people that they discovered the two
moons of Mars, during the favourable opposition of 1877."

"This is the first case I remember where we have left it to a foreigner
to tell us how great we have been!" I laughed.

"These two moons of Mars also furnish a most interesting example of how
fiction may forestall and pre-figure actual scientific discovery. Dr.
Swift made Gulliver, in his wonderful travels, discover two moons of
Mars, revolving at a speed which he must have thought ridiculously fast.
Many years afterward the American telescopes really found two moons, but
actually revolving more rapidly than Dr. Swift had dared to boast! If
your white circle was really Phobos, you have seen the freak among
satellites. She is the smallest, swiftest moon ever discovered, and
travels so much more swiftly than the revolution of her primary that she
appears to go opposite to everything else in the Martian sky, rising
where the Sun sets and crossing the heavens from west to east!"

"What I saw did travel in the same direction as the rotation of the
planet, and much more rapidly," I exclaimed.

"Then it was Phobos without a doubt, and she is due to appear again in
the west in three hours and fifty minutes after she sets in the east. We
must watch closely, for I wish to land upon her and make a flying trip
all around Mars with her. Do you realize what a glorious view we shall
have of the great planet, sailing around him on this satellite in a
period of a little over seven and a half hours, and at a distance of
only about four thousand miles? There will be no night, for if one side
of the little moon is heavier than the other, the heavier side will
always be turned toward Mars. Therefore, when the Sun does not shine on
Phobos, Mars will do so, and keep her continually illuminated, except
for the brief period of the regular eclipse during each revolution. And
one-fourth of the entire heavens, as seen from Phobos, will be filled
with the glowing orb of Mars! The great planet will exhibit to us at a
near range all the configurations of his surface, his oceans and his
clouds. We will survey and photograph him to our hearts' content."

The doctor was justly enthusiastic on this subject, and I felt that such
a landing would, in some measure, compensate for my disappointment in
not being able to visit the Moon.

As I watched carefully, the satellite finally came into view, but very
much more distant from Mars than before. Also, it moved very slowly now,
and seemed to grow larger as it approached the disc. I pointed it out to
the doctor, and remarked that it was acting quite differently. Just as
it entered upon the orb of Mars, another moon, somewhat smaller, mounted
hurriedly from the under side of the planet and began hastily ploughing
her way over the ruddy disc.

"That last one is the one I saw before, that is my Phobos!" I cried
excitedly.

"Then the other slow one is Deimos, the outer moon. She appears the
larger to us now, because her greater distance from Mars makes her
nearer to us, but she appears to the Martians as the smaller. We must
observe closely, and we may discover some new and lesser satellites
which Earthly telescopes have never found."

"Time enough for that when we land on Mars," I answered. "If we get in
past these two without being hit, I shall be satisfied. You dare not
venture in front of that Phobos, and I don't see how you can ever
overtake her if you approach from behind."

"That reminds me to slacken speed, for we must be getting very near," he
said. "Please weigh yourself every few minutes and note your increasing
weight. You should weigh seventy-two pounds on Mars, and eight pounds at
the distance of Phobos."

He immediately reversed currents, and when I reported that I weighed
almost a pound, it frightened him, and he turned in the full power of
the negative currents to overcome our momentum. And it proved that the
repelling power of Mars at the distance of 15,000 miles, which this
indicated, was not at all strong against the great velocity we had been
daily acquiring. I hung upon the scales every few minutes, and reported
a steadily increasing weight up to three pounds.

"That shows a distance of eight thousand miles," he figured. "Almost
exactly in the orbit of Deimos, but she has safely passed, and will not
return for thirty hours. We must turn the rudder hard over to the right,
and sail around the planet in a circle until Phobos overtakes us; then,
if we approach her travelling in the same direction at almost the same
rate of speed, her gravitational attraction will pick us up and draw us
safely ashore."

Mars was already an enormous orb ahead of us, and many of his features,
such as oceans, ice-caps, and continents, could easily be distinguished;
but we paid little attention to them, being occupied with making a safe
landing on Phobos, and expecting to make a systematic study of him from
there.

"We must not attempt a landing on the outer side of the satellite," the
doctor reflected, "for we should have no way of getting around to the
inner side to make our observations. We must go within her orbit, and
then as she comes past allow her attraction to draw us gently toward
her."

We had quickly overtaken and passed Deimos, far within her orbit. I was
keeping a close watch for Phobos out of the rear window as we circled
about Mars at a distance which we calculated, from my weight on the
scales, must be within the path of the satellite. We were circling in
the same direction that the great planet was rotating, and yet we passed
by things on his surface, which proved that we were travelling faster
than his rotation. The doctor noticed, with his telescope, a brilliant
snow-capped peak of a great mountain towering up from a small island.
The contrast of the snow peak, with the darkish green waters all around
it, was the most pronounced thing visible on the great planet, and he
decided this must be the white spot detached from the polar ice which
our astronomers have frequently observed at about twenty-five degrees
south latitude, and to which they have given the name Hall's Island.

"I am afraid we have not appreciated the speed at which we have been
travelling," remarked the doctor. "Phobos is very slow in overtaking
us;" and he was just beginning to slacken speed still more, when he
suddenly cried out,--

"Here she is ahead of us now! We have overtaken her, instead of waiting
for her to catch us!"

And, true enough, we were gradually approaching a small brownish mass,
feebly illuminated on its outer half by the sun, and more faintly still
on its inner half by reflected light from Mars.

And how shall I describe that queer little toy-world which we were
gradually overtaking? Imagine, if you can, a little island, less than a
third the size of the Isle of Wight, tossed a few thousand miles into
space, and circling there rapidly to avoid falling back upon the greater
sphere. Imagine that flying island devoid of soil, of trees or
vegetation, of water or air, of everything but barren, uncrumbled,
homogeneous rock, and you have some idea of the unadorned desolation of
Phobos, into which we were slowly sailing, or falling. There was not
even the slightest trace of sand or scraps of rock, such as time must
have abraded from even the hardest surfaces, but the reason for this
soon became apparent.

The doctor feared steering directly against her as we approached, lest
we should land with a crash. We had already reached her and were
travelling along her inner side. Although we were very near her, she
seemed to have very little attraction for us. Then he turned very much
closer, but as soon as the influence of the rudder was released, we
seemed to leave her instead of falling upon her as we expected. We were
still travelling faster than she was, and had we steered directly
against her, we would have crashed and bumped against her protuberances.
Still there seemed to be no other way to make a landing. In order to
estimate the amount of such a shock, the doctor calculated, from the
best information he had of her size and a guess at her density, that she
would attract the projectile and its entire load with a force of only
two pounds. That was not enough to cause any very great shock, and he
decided to take chances at once, before we had entirely passed her. He
turned the rudder hard over toward the satellite, and we came against
her with scarcely any crash, but with a bumping and grating that
continued until the rudder was eased back. Then, to our great surprise,
we did not remain on the surface, but rose from it and sailed inward
towards Mars.

"Something wrong here!" exclaimed the doctor. "She has no attraction for
us."

"Well, how do you explain this?" I asked. "You say the whole projectile
weighs only two pounds toward Phobos, when, just a short time ago, I
weighed nearly eight pounds myself on the scales."

"True enough!" he cried; "the gravity of Mars must be dominant." He
began figuring rapidly, and then exclaimed: "We weigh one hundred and
thirty pounds toward Mars, and only two pounds toward the satellite.
Small wonder that we could not make a landing, with Mars pulling us away
sixty-five times harder than Phobos attracted us! But this is very
strange! I remember no mention of this in any of the astronomical
writings, and it is as easily calculable on Earth as it is here.
Moreover, this must cause everything that is loose upon Phobos to fall
upon Mars. The great planet is tugging at everything the satellite has
with a force sixty-five times stronger than her own!"

"Now, I am afraid those figures won't do, Doctor," I put in. "For, if
what you say is true, what prevents the whole satellite from tumbling
into Mars at once?"

"She would do so were it not for centrifugal force. The speed with which
she whirls around the planet must just balance the force with which he
attracts her, and thus she is kept in her orbit. But stones and loose
things on this side of her centre are attracted more strongly by Mars
than they are repelled by the whirling, so they must all have fallen to
the planet. That is why the surface was perfectly barren. If Phobos
always keeps the same side turned toward Mars, there may be rocks and
soil on the outer side, and we could land there with a positive current;
but we could not see the great planet, as I had hoped."

"I have had quite enough of this moon-chasing," I said; "let us be off
for the large game at once!" and the doctor agreeing, we turned directly
toward Mars.

BOOK II

Other World Life

CHAPTER I

Why Mars gives a Red Light

Our telescope was now pointed exactly at Mars, and we were observing
every feature as we approached him. Compared with the illuminated
crescent of the Earth, which we had studied when we were observing the
Andes, our present view was infinitely vaster and more comprehensive. We
were approaching the illuminated side of a planet, whereas we had then
been rapidly receding from the dark side of one partly lighted at its
edge. In our new vista there were remarkably few clouds. There were a
few pale mists here and there over the seas, but no such heavy, black
masses as had frequently obscured the Earth.

On Mars there were fewer large bodies of water, and a very much greater
proportion of land. In fact, about the Equator, whither we were
steering, there seemed to be a broad, uninterrupted zone of land, with
occasional bays or inlets cutting into it, but never crossing it. An
open sea of considerable proportions surrounded the great ice-cap at
each pole, and it was apparently thus possible to travel entirely
around the globe, either by sea or by land, as one might choose.

"Behold again the infinite wisdom of the Creator!" cried the doctor.
"Although Mars is a much smaller planet than our own, it is fitted for
almost as large a population. The land is nearly all grouped about the
Equator, where it is warm enough to live comfortably. On the contrary,
on Earth there is no important civilization under the Equator, and most
of the land is favourably located in the north temperate zone. On Earth
the intervention of great oceans between the continents kept the
population restricted to Asia and Egypt for centuries, and to the Old
World for a still longer time. But here, this band of continuous land
has made it easy and natural to explore the whole globe, and its
inhabitants have had ample time and opportunity to distribute
themselves."

But by far the most wonderful thing that we had been observing for a
long time, and which became more remarkable as we approached, was that
the entire planet, seas and continents alike, gave off a reddish light.
This tinge of red had been visible ever since we had left the Earth.
Much further back we had observed that it seemed to extend a little
beyond the outline of Mars, and we now saw that even the white light
from the snow-caps had a faint tinge of red.

"For centuries the ruddy light of this planet has been remarked," said
the doctor. "His very name was given him because of his gory, warlike
appearance. Scientists have attempted to explain it by supposing that
his vegetation is uniformly red, instead of green like ours. Still
others, objecting that his vegetation could not possibly be rank or
plentiful, or continue the same colour through all seasons, have
supposed that his soil or primæval rock is of a deep red colour. But
neither of these suppositions explain why his seas should give off a
reddish light mixed with their green, or why the pure white of polar
snows should be tinged with crimson."

We must have been still two hundred miles above the surface when the
barometer began to rise feebly, indicating that we were already entering
the Martian atmosphere; and, as we proceeded, the reddish glow spread
all around us, and was even dimly visible behind as well as in front. We
were still travelling too rapidly to plunge into the denser atmosphere
or attempt a landing. Besides, we wished to explore the planet, and find
life and civilization before choosing a landing place. And as we drew
nearer, in a constantly narrowing circle, that red haze was all about us
everywhere.

"There can be but one explanation of it," said the doctor at last. "This
red is a colour in the Martian atmosphere. It seems very strange and
almost impossible to us; but we must prepare ourselves for extremely
unusual and even apparently impossible things."

But this seemed to disturb the doctor greatly, as also did the fact that
we could no longer breathe with comfort the rare air which we had not
found objectionable far back in space. Our returning weight made
physical effort again necessary, and we were able to exert ourselves but
little without panting and gasping. The rarest air we had used had shown
a pressure of fourteen, and we were now compelled to increase this to
eighteen in order to be comfortable.

"This Martian air is sure to give us trouble," the doctor said to me
after considerable reflection. "In the first place, its red colour makes
me fear it is not composed of the same gases that our air is. If it
should turn out to be a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, like ours, there
is the possibility that this red matter which gives it colour will be
poisonous to us. And even if it is not harmful, I do not think the air
will have a pressure above ten or eleven, and we seem to need eighteen
or twenty for comfort. I shall be very sorry if we have to return at
once; but our supply of air is limited, you know."

"You keep a close watch through your telescope for those flying men you
promised to show me," I answered. "If they can live in this air, I think
we can manage it somehow. I will not go back while there is a breath
left in me."

But as we drew nearer and nearer to the surface we did not discover the
slightest sign of habitation. As far as we could see there was a great
desert, barren of all vegetation, and apparently unwatered since
creation. Our telescope did not detect the existence even of animals or
creeping things.

"The wisdom of the Creator is probably quite as profound, but certainly
not as apparent just here as it was somewhat farther back," I ventured.

"We must search over the whole surface of the globe until we find smoke
rising," said the doctor. "That is the sure sign of intelligent life on
Earth. There has hardly been a tribe of the lowest savages there which
did not know how to light a fire, and this knowledge would be far more
essential on a cold planet like this. Wherever we find smoke we shall
find those intellectual creatures, corresponding to men on our planet."

Presently, far ahead of us, we discerned a small black cloud rapidly
crossing our path. As we approached we examined it through the
telescope, and soon saw that it was nothing less than an enormous flock
of swiftly-flying small grey birds. This was our first acquaintance with
what we afterwards found to be the predominating form of animal life on
the planet. But the swift-winged cloud bore away from us, as if fleeing
from the desert, and was soon lost to view.

It was not long after this that we perceived a broad stripe of
brilliant green extending down into the dull expanse of the desert. In
the middle of this verdant zone there was a weaving silver ribbon, which
could be nothing else than a great river, along whose banks we could
discern hundreds of hovering or wading birds, hopping lugubriously, or
spreading their broad wings in a low flight.

As we now lowered rapidly to examine the soil more closely, we saw that
we were approaching some great geometrical masses of hewn rock, whose
regularity of design indicated that they were buildings of some sort. We
at once decided to land and investigate these, even if we had to take up
our search for intelligent life later.

We remarked that none of these enormous structures were square, or with
right-angled corners, such as we were used to. They all seemed to be a
combination or multiplication of a single design, which was nothing more
than a massive triangular wall, with its right angle on the ground and
its acute angle at the top. Sometimes two were built together, with
their perpendicular surfaces joining; again, four were joined in the
same manner, and one very large one was composed of twelve of these,
radiating from a common centre, which, if they had quite joined each
other, would have formed a gigantic cone.

I took another look at the tall, slender birds down the river, and
remarked to the doctor,--

"These great structures are no birds' nests! You can't make me believe
winged men would build with stone. These look more like giants'
playthings than anything else."

"They appear to me like the gnomons of enormous sundials," remarked the
doctor; "and, indeed, their uses must certainly be astronomical. With
these one can not only tell the time, but the ascension and meridian of
the sun and stars, and therefore the months and seasons."

We lowered and circled about above the largest one, which had twelve of
the triangular walls built in circular form, with their common
perpendicular line in the centre and their acute angles at the
circumference. On closer observation, the twelve slanting sides, which
radiated from the common peak, had a tubular appearance, and we were
soon able to look down through almost a hundred great cylindrical
chambers, which ran from a common opening at the top, slanting at every
different angle down to the surface.

"These are nothing more than great, immovable masonry telescopes, for
watching the stars in their courses!" cried the doctor. "Look, there is
one perpendicular cylinder for observing just when a star or planet
comes directly overhead, and these scores of other cylinders, at
different angles, successively afford a view of a given constellation as
it rises and then declines."

"Then they have built a separate masonry telescope, pointing in almost
every conceivable direction, instead of having one movable telescope to
take any direction," said I.

The wonderful size and massive construction of these was very striking,
rivalling the pyramids of Egypt in their ponderous and enduring
character. They were located on a raised plateau, whence the view in all
directions was quite unobstructed. We came gently to land in the midst
of them. To the rear, whence we had come, I could see the desolate waste
of the desert. From the forward window we observed that the peaceful
river kept a straight course from the cataract where it plunged over the
plateau, through the green valley, between level banks, as far as we
could see; and just at the foot of our plateau restfully nestled a city,
whose massive and towering structures reached almost to our level. With
the aid of the telescope we saw beings moving slowly about. Their form
was upright and unwinged, but more than this we could not see. The
deliberation and stately dignity of their movements comported perfectly
with the majestic city wherein they dwelt.

"At last we have arrived at the boundaries of Martian civilization,"
exclaimed the doctor. "We will rest here and test the atmosphere; and if
it permits us, we will then venture forth to measure our skill and
knowledge against this race of builders. I hazard a guess that we will
excel them in many things, for they are apparently only at the
perfection of their Stone Age, while we finished that long ago, and have
since passed through the Ages of Iron and of Steam, and are now at the
dawn of the Era of Magnetism and Gravitation. Our minds are more fertile
and elastic, for with this little movable telescope we probably obtain
better results than they have done with their years of toiling
calculation and patient building."

"You will be sadly disappointed if they so far excel us that they eat us
up at two mouthfuls," said I. "As they move about yonder, they impress
me as being full of power."

"They are as sluggish as elephants," he replied. "We are certainly more
rapid in thought and action, and it is highly probable that we shall
excel them in physical strength, as we have been built for three times
as heavy muscular tasks as they."

"Still, if we cannot make them understand that we come peaceably as
friends, they may attempt to kill us as the quickest solution of the
question. And they are a whole race against two of us," said I, just
beginning to realize all the difficulties that were yet ahead of us.

"Unless they are a very intelligent and magnanimous race, they will
probably attempt to take us prisoners," he answered. "It is the mark of
an enlightened nation to welcome strangers whose powers are unknown. A
primitive race fears everything it does not understand, and force is
its only argument against a superior intelligence."

Thereupon I immediately began a thorough overhauling of all the arms and
ammunition, while the doctor prepared to test the air. There was a tone
of confident exultation in his voice when he spoke again.

"This redness of the air will not trouble us a whit. Look! you can see
no tinge of red between here and that huge wall yonder, nor anywhere
along the ground as far as you can see. It is so slight a colouring that
it is only noticeable in vast reaches of atmosphere, like the blue
colour in our own air. See here, where a small cloud obscures the sky
there is no ruddy tinge. There is no more colouring-matter in this than
there is indigo in our own air. The amount of it is so infinitely small
that it will never trouble us. Now, if it only contains oxygen enough,
we are sure of life in it."

"Yes, if they will leave us alive to breathe it," I added, counting out
seventeen cartridges for each rifle.

"The air outside shows a pressure of only eleven, while we have eighteen
inside," he said. "I will bring in the discharging cylinder full of the
outer air, and by keeping it upside down the lighter air will remain in
it. Then, if a candle flame will burn steadily in it, the oxygen we need
is there."

Suiting the action to the word, he carefully drew in the inverted
cylinder, and cautiously brought a lighted candle into it. To our great
delight the flame burned for a moment with a brighter, stronger light
than it did in the air of the compartment.

"Hurrah!" cried the doctor, as happily as if he had just earned the
right to live. "It seems to have more oxygen than our own air, which
will make up for the lesser density."

Then he put the lighted candle in the cylinder, and quickly discharged
it outside upon the ground where we could see it. The flame had almost
twice the brilliancy that it had had inside.

"Our scientists who have sneered at the possibility of life on Mars,
because of its rare atmosphere, have overlooked the simplicity of the
problem. They delight in propounding posers for Omnipotence. If a
Creator dilutes oxygen with three parts of nitrogen on one planet where
conditions make a dense atmosphere, why should He not dilute oxygen with
an equal part of nitrogen on a planet where the air is rare? Air is not
a chemical compound, but a simple mixture. When a stronger, more
life-giving atmosphere is needed, let there be less of the diluting gas.
The nitrogen is of no known use, except to weaken the oxygen."

"Let me out into it, if you say it is all right," I cried. "I am tired
of this bird-cage."

"Put on the diver's suit and helmet, and I will weaken the pressure of
the air gradually, to prevent bleeding at the nose and ears which a
sudden change might cause. When you are used to the low pressure, you
can throw off the helmet and try the Martian double-oxygenated air."

I hurriedly donned the queer, baggy suit and the enormous helmet with
the bulging glass eyes, and then connected the two long rubber tubes
which sprang from the top with the air pipes which led to the doctor's
compartment. He put in the bulkhead, and I went to the port-hole to
unseal it. As I glanced out the little window, I thought I saw a light
very near the mica. Was it our candle flame that something had lifted?
The thick glass of the helmet blinded me a little, and I approached the
window and peered out, coming face to face with a Martian, whose nose
was pressed against the mica! What a rounded, smooth, and expressionless
face! But what large, deep, luminous eyes!

I sprang back from the window in surprise, but not more quickly than he
did. Just then the projectile rolled over slightly with a crunching
noise, and I hear the thud of a heavy muffled blow on the doctor's end.
Suddenly he pulled away the bulkhead and whispered to me excitedly:--

"They are all about us outside--dozens of them! They are examining the
projectile and trying to break it open. If they strike the windows, it
will be too easy."

The projectile tottered a little again. There was a heaving noise, and
one end rose a little from the ground.

"They are trying to carry us off, Doctor," I cried. "You must turn in
the currents and fly away from them."

The projectile was just then lifted awkwardly, and wavered a little and
pitched, as if it were being carried by a throng struggling clumsily all
about it. The doctor sprang to his apparatus and turned in four
batteries at once. We shot up swiftly in a long curve, and from my
window I could see the circle of amazed Martians, standing dumbly with
their hands still held up in front of them, as they had been when the
projectile left them, while they gazed open-mouthed into the sky at us.

CHAPTER II

The Terror Birds

"They must have thought the projectile was another chunk fallen from
Phobos!" I exclaimed; "and now they can't make out why it should fly
back to the satellite again."

"The more we mystify them, the more they will fear us," said the doctor.
"I am going to make a swift downward swoop now, as if we would crash
through the midst of them. Then perhaps they will let us alone till we
are ready for them."

He had scarcely finished speaking when we shot down in a long curve,
like the swing of a pendulum, apparently making directly for the group
of Martians. They were not seized by any quick panic; they were too
phlegmatic for that. But just as the projectile threatened to smash into
them, they seemed to realize the danger, and to grasp the idea that it
was being operated and directed by some power and mind inside. Then they
turned, scrambling clumsily over each other, and fled with the awkward
precipitation of a rhinoceros in a hurry. Our pendulum motion swung us
up a little before we would have struck them, but they had scattered and
were scurrying to hiding-places behind the walls of the masonry
telescopes. We continued our flight to the edge of the plateau, whence
we could get a better view of the city and hold a more commanding
position.

"None of these who have seen our aerial evolutions are likely to trouble
us again," remarked the doctor. "But they will quickly spread the news
to the city, and we must be where we can watch everything that goes on
there, and hurriedly prepare for the worst they can do to us. We will
seek the principal approach to the plateau and defend it."

His ideas had suddenly become altogether warlike. I liked the excitement
of it so far, and hastened to agree with him. We came to land in a
sheltered part of the main road leading to the plateau, and prepared to
emerge and set up our telescope where it would sweep the city.

"Shall we try this air on the dog before you go out?" inquired the
doctor in all seriousness.

"Try it on the rabbit if you wish, but not on Two-spot."

He put Bunny into the discharging cylinder and pushed him out. The meek
little animal seemed quite delighted at being released. He hopped about
playfully, skipping much higher and farther at each hop than I had ever
seen him do before.

This reassured me, and I put on the helmet again, and opened the
port-hole. As the rarer Martian air swept in, my suit swelled and puffed
to its fullest capacity, by the expansion of the denser air within it. I
was so blown up that I could scarcely squeeze myself out of the
port-hole. It was like a red misty day outside, though there were no
clouds. The sky was a perfectly cloudless dull red, and the coppery sun
was shining almost overhead. His orb looked less than two-thirds the
size it did from the Earth, and one could look at its duller light
fixedly without hurting the eyes. Phobos was also faintly visible,
steering his backward course across the ruddy sky. The thermometer
showed a temperature just above freezing, but I was perfectly warm
within the diver's suit and its envelope of air. The red haze and utter
lack of breeze added a deceptive appearance of sultry heat.

I was gazing back toward the Gnomons, when suddenly a group of the
Martians we had first seen came around a turn of the road and over a
knoll into full view of us. They were plainly surprised beyond all
measure by my strange appearance. My puffed and corpulent figure, my
bulging face of glass, my two long rubber tentacles extending back into
my shell, must have made them think I was a very curious animal! Also
they were probably surprised at seeing any living thing come out of the
mass, which they must have thought had fallen from their moon, for she
was always shying things at them. And I now had my first chance to
study their appearance closely.

"Doctor," I said softly, to see if he could hear me through the
connecting tubes. As I had hoped, they proved to be very good
speaking-trumpets, and I heard his answer noisily.

"Speak lower; I hear you easily," I said. "There is a party of them
coming down this road to descend to the city. They have stopped upon
seeing me. They are nothing but men like ourselves. I see no wings,
horns, tails, or other appendages that we have not. They are just fat,
puffy, sluggish men, very white and pale in colour, and covered with a
peculiar clothing that looks like feathers. I seem to be a far greater
freak to them than they are to me."

Had he been a million miles away, I should have known that it was the
doctor answering, from his unsurprised and matter-of-fact tone. I
imagined I could see the exact expression of his face as he said,--

"After all, then, man is the most perfect animal the Creator could make.
From a mechanical standpoint he needs nothing that he has not, and has
nothing that he does not need. However you change him, you would make
him imperfect. Physiologically he may be much the same on all the
planets, but there is room for the widest variations on the intellectual
and spiritual side."

"Do not forget that my patriarchal ancestors record that God made man
in His own image, upon which there could be no improvement," I put in.

"Yes, but modern scientists would have us believe that your patriarchs
would have written a different fable if they had understood the theory
of evolution. It appears that man is really a little lower than the
angels, by being material and ponderable and visible, but the general
image may be the same. Perhaps upon the various planets it may be that
the same lines of differences prevail, as between the heathen tribes and
the civilized people on earth. There at least we are sure that
physiologically no marked difference exists between the lowest savage
and the wisest sage."

"Except, perhaps, that the savage may have the best digestion," I added.
"Those look as if they had but few troubles and plenty to eat. I see no
wrinkles or hard lines. Their forms and features are gracefully rounded.
Their eyes are larger and stronger, with a liquid depth suited to this
soft and weaker light. None of them wear beards, and very little hair is
visible. I must say they do not look at all warlike. If we could only
make them understand that we are friendly, I think they would gladly bid
us to a feast of freshly-cooked meats and good wines, and ask us,
chuckling, for the latest after-dinner stories that are current on
Earth."

"Make friendly signs to them, and see how they behave," he suggested.

I slowly waved my hand to them to approach, and extended my arm as if to
shake hands. While talking with the doctor I had stood perfectly still,
and they had been warily watching me all the time. When I moved and
stretched out my arm, they took fright and fled precipitately.

"I have scared them away, as if they were a lot of roe deer!" I
exclaimed.

"Then let us hasten preparations while they are gone," he replied. "If
you can stand the pressure I have given you, it will be safe to throw
off the helmet and suit."

Upon lifting the cover from my head, I caught a draught of fresh cold
air that was unspeakably invigorating. I drank it in deep breaths, and
felt like skipping about for joy. Kicking off the suit that trammelled
me, I put it and the helmet back inside and closed the port-hole. Then
the doctor pulled away the bulkhead and breathed the mixed atmosphere,
half-Martian from my compartment and half-Earthly from his. He suffered
no inconvenience from the sudden half-way step toward a lower density,
and presently he emerged into the exhilarating air with me.

"This atmosphere has a stimulation in it like thin wine, and it gives me
an appetite. I feel strong and virile enough to tip Mars topsy-turvy," I
said. "At least, let me get some cigars to smoke while we are arming our
stronghold."

When I went in for the guns, I put a handful of Havanas in my vest
pocket, and emerging, I laid the rifles handy and proceeded to light a
weed. I was watching the bright flame of the match, and puffing with
gusto at the fragrant smoke, when from another direction a second squad
of Martians came into view very near us. They immediately halted and
gazed at us in open-mouthed wonder, which soon changed to a look of
horror. Remembering the pipe of peace among the American Indians, I drew
out a cigar, and hastily striking a match upon my trousers, I held the
weed and flame toward them. Not a man of them stayed to see any more.
Their flight was more precipitate than the other party's had been.

"It was your smoke they were afraid of," said the doctor. "Whenever you
puffed, I saw them looking at each other blankly and dropping back a
little. They have taken you for a fire-eater and a smoke-breather, and
when you drew the flame from your lungs it was too much for them. But
all this serves our purpose of frightening them. They will spread
strange stories in the city below!"

I helped him carry out the telescope, and we placed it in a commanding
position. Then we propped up the broad shields, so that each of us could
crouch behind one, and I laid a broadsword and rifle handy to each. Then
we put on the linked-wire shirts under our coats, buckled the revolvers
about us, and, as it was rather cold, we each put on a thick pair of
gloves and a heavy topcoat.

The doctor, who was carefully watching things down in the city through
the telescope, cried out to me presently,--

"There is wild commotion and great excitement down yonder by the great
palace. The news has reached them! They are preparing to come in force
to take us!"

"I wish I knew what their sign of peace is, we might save a conflict,"
said I. "Perhaps our fire-arms won't harm them."

"More likely they will blow them all to pieces," answered the doctor.
"But we must not fire unless it becomes absolutely necessary to defend
ourselves, for if we kill any of them, they will then have cause to deal
with us as dreadfully as they can. We cannot hope to overcome them all.
It will be enough to demonstrate our supremacy, so that they will allow
us to live among them. Therefore, let us simply defend ourselves and do
nothing offensive, thus showing that we are peaceably disposed."

"You cry peace, but look at the great army they are sending against us!"
I exclaimed. "There are four companies of foot soldiers marching through
the streets, and each man is armed with a very long cross-bow and wears
a brightly-coloured bird-wing on his forehead. The streets are filling
with people to see them pass. Now three more companies wheel out of the
palace, but they have no cross-bows. They are whirling something around
their heads."

The doctor anxiously awaited his turn at the telescope, and as he looked
he clutched his pistol though they were still several miles away.

"Those are slings they are whirling about their heads," he said. "And
the commander of each company rides an ambling donkey, and wears a heavy
plaited beard and long braided hair, without head covering."

"But look further back, coming out of the palace now!" I cried. "What
are those strange, stately animals far behind the soldiers? I can see
them with the naked eye."

"_Donnerwetter!_ what towering birds!" he muttered under his breath.
"Like ostriches in form, but as tall and graceful as a giraffe! There is
a man riding astride the neck of each of them, yet he could scarcely
reach half-way to their heads!"

"Are those monstrous things birds?" I demanded. "Let me look. What long
and bony legs they have! They would stride over us without touching our
heads; but how they could kick!"

"And how they could run!" put in the doctor. "See, they stride easily
over seven or eight feet with a single step. They must be messenger
birds, for there are only four of them, and their riders are not
armed."

"They may have hundreds more of them in reserve, and they could fight
far more viciously than the men. See what a wicked beak and what a long
muscular neck they have. They could crush a skull in a twinkling with
one swift swoop of that head! I will fight the men, but I will take no
chances with those birds!"

Although these strange, small-winged creatures had started long after
the soldiers, they had quickly passed them, and were now beginning to
mount toward our plateau. They were making swift detours at intervals,
as if to reconnoitre. We were hidden behind our rocks and shields, and
the riders could not see us, and they had evidently not yet seen the
brass barrel of our telescope. It would be folly for them to attempt to
come up the road we were guarding, for we could easily heave boulders
over and crush them. I had already put my shoulder to an immense rock
near the brink, to see if it was as heavy as it looked. I found it
porous and crumbly, and no heavier than so much chalk. Up the roadway
the great birds climbed with wonderful ease. Their riders were evidently
looking for us without any idea where we were.

"I won't see those elephantine bipeds come any nearer to me!" I
exclaimed, and rushing to the boulder, which was certainly four feet in
diameter, I toppled it over the brink, and expected to see it carry
everything down before it. It rolled slowly down the steep bank, with
hardly a third the force and speed of the same mass on Earth. This
discouraged me, but I watched for it to reach the foremost bird. He was
surprised by it, but made one step sideways, and, lifting his great
right leg, the stone rolled under him without any damage. He gave a
queer, guttural croak, accompanied by a most violent motion of the head
and neck. The other birds, thus warned, dodged quickly sidewise, and
avoided the slowly rolling boulder; but all three of the riders were
thrown by the swift lateral movement of the birds. The astonished men
picked themselves up slowly from the bushes and approached their birds.
But they could scarcely reach with their hands the lower part of the
neck where they had sat.

"Unless they are good jumpers, they cannot mount again without a
ladder!" said the doctor.

"Jumping is easier than standing still here," I interrupted. "I can jump
ten feet high with no trouble."

"Yes; but these Martian boobies haven't your muscles. _Aber Blitzen!_
did you see that fellow mount his bird again?"

I had seen it, and I do not remember anything more wonderful than this
operation, which was repeated for each rider. The man went in front of
his bird, turned his back, and stooped forward. The bird then curved his
long neck to the ground, and put his head and neck between the legs of
the rider, who clutched tightly with his arms and legs. With a swift,
graceful swing, the bird lifted its head on high, carrying the rider as
if he were nothing. When the great neck was again erect, the man slid
carefully down it to his place, much as one might slip down a telegraph
pole. Then two of the birds turned back to the city as swiftly as they
could go, and the other two took separate side trails and soon
disappeared.

The Armies of Mars

As the two returning birds passed the marching soldiers, their riders
evidently delivered some message to the captains, for the soldiers
suddenly broke forward in a run, using their long cross-bows with great
dexterity as jumping staves. Placing the outer end upon the ground ahead
of them as they ran, they leaped and hung upon the cross-piece with
their hands. The springy resistance of this tough wood imparted to them
a forward motion with its rebound, and they scaled great distances at
each jump. The whole company did it in concert, and they made almost as
great speed as if they had been riding bicycles. The slingers were
consequently left far in the rear.

Less than half way up the incline the archers stopped, arranged their
bow-thongs, and selected feathered arrows from a pouch slung over their
shoulders.

"They can never hit us from that distance!" I exclaimed; "a rifle would
not carry so far."

"You forget the weak gravity which will bend their course down very
little, and the thin air which will barely resist their flight; this is
a model planet for archery," he answered. "Quick! drop behind your
shield! They have fired the first volley!"

A torrent of the shafts fell all about us, and many pelted against our
shields. Those which struck the soft earth of the bank sank into it and
stuck there, but those which struck our steel were shivered and broken.

"Sit still and let them shoot away their arrows," I whispered. "This
will soon be over."

The next volley came with a little more force, as if they had marched
further up the hill. One or two arrows fell very near me, and I reached
for them to examine their construction. They were made of the hollow,
filmy stock of a rather tough reed, and were pointed with a chipped
stone tip, which was brittle, but not harder than porous chalk.

"That stuff wouldn't pierce my two coats, to say nothing of the linked
steel shirt," I sneered. "I will show them what fools they are!" and I
walked boldly out to the brink and faced them. They let fly a quick
volley with a concerted shout. As I saw the arrows start, I turned my
back and bent down my head quickly. Perhaps a dozen of the slim reeds
pelted me, and then I stooped over and gathered up as many as I could
find, and broke them all in my hands before their eyes.

This sent a hum of excited jabbering through their ranks, and they fired
no more. I stood watching them, and presently I grasped my two hands
together and shook hands with myself, to try to convey to them the idea
that we were friendly; but it must have carried no meaning to them. By
this time the slingers had come up, and I retired behind my shield to
await their action. The archers seemed very glad of their arrival, and
yielded the foremost place to them. I noted their operations carefully,
and saw them place something, which did not look like a round stone, in
the pocket of their slings, and then they whirled it long and
cautiously. Suddenly they discharged it with a swift movement of their
bodies backward, which landed them on one knee.

"Wide of the mark!" I cried, as the missiles sailed off far to the right
of us. But just before landing they bent a sharp, surprising curve, and
lacked but little of hitting us behind the shields! The things they had
thrown were the thin, concave shells of a large nut, and the trick of
discharging them gave them their peculiar flight.

"I don't like this throwing around the corner!" exclaimed the doctor.
"With a little truer aim they will be able to hit us behind anything."

"Hurry, bring your shield over behind mine, and face it the other way,"
said I; "then we will crouch between the two in safety."

He did this just in time, for some of the next volley actually curved
around and hit his shield, but none struck mine in front. However, the
shells which fell near us were of light weight, and would not have
bruised us much with heavy clothing on. Presently their pelting ceased,
and we concluded that they were planning something new. We decided to
let them know that we were not hurt, so we emerged; and I tried throwing
the shells back with my hand, but I could not control their erratic
course. When they saw this they jeered at me, and I itched to treat them
to just one pistol shot, only to show them what child's play their
fighting was! Presently we saw what they were waiting for. Far down the
road the two great birds were returning harnessed together, and dragging
behind them an enormous catapult. Tied across their backs were two stout
darts, seemingly twelve feet long and three inches square. Each of them
had a wicked-looking barbed tip.

There was a pleased and confident jabber among the slingers and archers
below as the birds arrived. The catapult was turned about toward us, and
lashed tightly to stakes driven in front and behind. Then the birds were
hitched to the cord of the immense bow, and they pulled it far back,
until the men made it fast in a notch. The cross-piece had now become
almost a half-circle, quite ten feet in diameter. The captain of a
company of archers acted as gunner, and carefully adjusted the catapult,
aiming it evidently at our shield. Upon seeing this we placed the two
shields together, and leaned them both inward toward us, so as to make
their angle with the upward course of the dart more obtuse, and thus
cause a glancing blow instead of a solid impact. Crouching under the
steel shelters, we awaited the dart.

Whiz-z-z it whistled up through the thin air! Bimm-m! it struck the top
of our outer shield, and glanced off as we had hoped. The outer steel
rattled and banged against the inner, and both shields pressed hard over
against us, but not the slightest damage was done.

We went out to watch them load the second dart. They evidently saw the
impotence of the glancing blow, and were noisily discussing it. A
captain of the slingers was arguing hotly with the gunner, who was
finally persuaded to take his aim a little lower. Then a hum of approval
went through the throng.

"They do think a little, but they are not secretive!" I sneered,
flopping our inner shield over flat on the ground. "Come, sit on this,
Doctor, and we will lean the outer shield over us, and snuggle in
between them as cosy as two oysters! Let them fondly imagine they can
shoot us through this pasty soil, and keep their own counsel better
after this!"

It was not a bad guess on my part; for the second dart struck the edge
of the cliff, bored through the loose soil, and thumped our lower shield
with a dull thud that lifted us from the ground. But the point and
edges of the dart were blunted, and crumbled with the blow, and I could
find no dent in the shield.

"See, the birds are returning to the city in haste for more darts!" said
the doctor. But I was interested in examining the first dart, which had
fallen a few hundred feet behind us. Its shaft was of roughly-hewn,
spongy wood, and it weighed far less than half the mass of soft pine
would on Earth. Its tip was not metal, but chipped stone--crumbly, like
the arrow-heads. Either they did not know the metals, or they were too
rare to be used in their arts. And it was to be supposed that they would
use the hardest stone they had for arrow-heads and dart-tips.

I carried the shaft easily upon my shoulder forward to the edge of the
cliff. This surprised even the doctor a little, for four Martians had
been necessary to put it in place upon the catapult. It must have
astonished them still more, for they were staring at me so blankly that
I was tempted to toss the dart down their gaping throats!

"Give them just one dose of their own medicine!" suggested the doctor.

"Perhaps I had better teach them to keep their dangerous weapons at
home," I said; and, balancing the dart easily above my head, I aimed it
carefully at a dense group around the catapult. I threw my whole force
into the thrust, and sent the shaft whizzing down at them. Then I
staggered back, quite exhausted by the effort and gasping for breath.

"Good God! You have impaled two of them upon the dart!" cried the
doctor, "and it is causing a panic in the whole army!"

And when I sprang up to look, I saw two writhing Martians, much shrunken
in size and dying upon the dart. The terror-stricken archers and
slingers were scattering and scurrying in every direction, regardless of
the shouted orders of their captains. The foremost of the impaled men
wore a beard, and was no other than the gunner of the catapult.

"I am sorry for the poor devils!" I exclaimed. "I had no idea they were
so soft and tender. They have shrunk like a pricked balloon!"

"They thought they could prick us like that, and let the life ooze out,"
said the doctor. "There is no danger that they will shoot any more at
us. The whole army is afraid that you will throw down the other dart."

Nevertheless, other companies of archers and slingers were seen leaving
the palace, and the birds were already returning with two more darts.
And the soldiers below were gaining courage and responding to the
rallying cries of the captains, who were halloing and pointing toward
the edge of the cliff, down in the direction of the cataract. I looked
quickly that way, and instantly shouted,--

"To the rifles, quick, doctor! The other two birds have ascended the
cliff, and are racing toward us along its edge. Take careful aim at the
head of that front one. Afterward, let drive two random bullets into his
body!"

Urged on by their riders, who with their hands swayed the long necks of
the birds in unison with their rhythmical stride, these two-legged
giraffes, with the wild look and sharp beak of an eagle, swept
menacingly toward us.

"Ready now!" I cried, as the foremost came within fifty feet of us.
"Fire!"

Two sharp reports almost simultaneous, with a less thunderous explosion
than on Earth, but singing in a higher key and flaming vastly more,
startled and terrified the Martians. Then crack! crack! bang! bang! four
other shots in swift succession, followed by the terrific croaking of
the wounded Terror-bird, which fell ponderously forward, kicking
violently and beating the ground wildly with its head.

Seizing my broadsword in a flash, I dealt it such a blow upon the neck
as quite to sever the head from the body. There was a gush of red blood;
and those who have seen the antics of a decapitated chicken, may
correspondingly multiply the corpse and imagine the confusion that now
ensued.

"Stand ready for the second bird!" I shouted to the doctor; but on
looking, I saw that the other animal refused to be urged forward, after
seeing the fate of his companion. His rider was half-hearted in his
efforts, and was watching the forward rider, who had been severely
thrown with the bird's fall, and badly bruised by the kicking and
threshing. He seemed to realize that he was in our power, and was
thoroughly desperate. With a wailing cry he rushed at me with open arms,
as if to embrace death, for I still held the sword. Dropping the weapon,
I grappled with him, catching him about the wrists, which shrank under
my grasp. He seemed to have scarcely the strength of a child; and
everywhere I touched him, his flesh yielded like the flabby muscles of a
fat baby. I bent him over backwards, then swung him around and caught
him by the shoulders, and whirled him around my head. Finally, I tossed
him over the edge of the cliff, where he landed among some bushes, and
scrambled down as fast as he could, glad to have saved his life. The
other rider had turned his bird back toward the cataract with all
possible despatch.

"The whole army below us is now thoroughly demoralized!" said the
jubilant doctor. "Many of them fled dismayed on hearing the firing, and
others screamed and ran away when they saw you decapitate the bird. But
your wrestling with the rider, and flinging him about like an infant,
was an object lesson none of them could stay to see repeated. I saw one
trembling fool slink back to cut the thong of the catapult, so that we
could not use it on them. They have wholly abandoned the attack!"

"If this is the worst they can do, I will undertake to make myself king,
and you prime minister here, within twenty-four hours!" I ejaculated,
decidedly pleased with the idea. "And I will maintain supremacy with a
standing army of a thousand Terror-birds!"

"The consciousness of superior strength always brings that desire for
conquest," answered the doctor. "We must not allow it to master us, but
we must push our advantage. Look! the panic of the first ones reaching
the city is spreading to the new companies marching out. They are
trampled over by the fleeing host, they turn and mingle with the
frightened mob in one struggling, terror-stricken mass! Come, let us be
into the projectile and after them. With a few booming shots above their
heads, we will make them think their Thunder-gods have come!"

CHAPTER IV

The Strange Bravery of Miss Blank

Telescope, rifles, and shields were tumbled into the projectile
pell-mell, and without stopping to close the port-hole, we steered
towards the city as we mounted rapidly. When the soldiers, weary of
running, saw us start, they were stricken with a new fear, and made all
possible haste for shelter. When they perceived that we were rising into
the red haze, they took a little courage, but still hastened.

"Perhaps they think we are mounting to the sky for more thunder and
lightning," I suggested. "Little do they know the destruction we could
do them with the handful of ammunition we have, if we really meant war
as much as they at first desired it and now fear it!"

By this time we were almost above the thickest crowd of the fleeing
army, while the most energetic runners and the Terror-bird that had
turned back had reached the heart of the city; and we could see the
alarm spreading like wild-fire to all its inhabitants. I was busy
loading the rifles with the cartridges which the doctor had robbed of
their bullets for the pickle-bottle experiment soon after our start.

"We will execute a little _coup_, to show them the difficulties of
retreat when the enemy is armed with gravity projectiles," said the
doctor. "Do you see that great gate of the city they are all making for?
We will drop down there, just in front of them, and prevent their
entrance. It will be better to keep the whole army outside the walls, if
possible, for its absence and disorganization will make the rulers all
the more tractable when we are ready to drop down into their city and
make peace with them on our own terms."

"I must say you are a good general, Doctor!" I exclaimed. "You plan the
campaign, and I will do the fighting."

The blank dismay of the soldiers when they saw us descending again, and
their abject desperation when they perceived that we should land in
front of them and cut off their entrance to the city, was pitiful to
see.

"Doctor, do you remember the grand display and the proud strength with
which these soldiers marched forth? Look at the difference now!"

"Oh, war! war!" he exclaimed. "The glory of its beginning! The terror of
its prosecution! The misery of its end! Would that it could always be
carried on by terrorizing the mind instead of by slaying the body!"

As we were about to come to land in front of the straggling multitude of
soldiers, I fired a dozen blank cartridges as rapidly as I could work
the rifle. This was at very near range, and although the explosions
sounded weak to me, the excessive flaming of the powder added a new
terror. The disorganized army stopped in dread; the stragglers pushing
up from behind, and the frightened turning of those in front, crushed
the multitude together and increased the confusion. Throngs of people,
whose curiosity was still stronger than their fear, were coming out from
the city. As they saw us float down and land, and then heard the firing,
they turned and rushed within the gates again, ready to believe far
worse stories than they had yet heard.

"We must scatter this rabble army and put it wholly to rout," insisted
the doctor. "I will swing amongst them and over their heads, while you
burn powder for them. If they won't scatter, use your revolver and wound
one or two of them."

"No, I will not harm another man," I answered. "They are too weak and
defenceless a foe, and are no match for us. Hereafter I will fight only
with the birds."

We rose and sailed slantingly toward them, but they had already started
to disperse. Those who had jumping-staves disentangled themselves from
the crowd and scattered into the bushy wastes. I continued firing until
my blank cartridges were gone, and then we landed just outside the
entrance and emerged from the projectile to examine the gates and see if
we could close and fasten them.

Within the wall those who had gained entrance during our last movements
were rapidly retreating toward the centre of the city, warning all whom
they passed. One single stately figure showed no fear, and paid no heed
to the exclamations of the runners. The ampler dress and flowing flaxen
hair indicated that it was a woman, and to our surprise, though she was
well clothed, she seemed to be demanding alms of every one as she
approached us. No one gave her anything, and occasionally a runner
seized her arm and tried to persuade her to return. But she caught none
of their excitement, and composedly pursued her course.

"Egad! This beautiful girl is braver than the whole Martian army!" I
exclaimed in amazement, as she calmly approached where I was standing by
the gate and extended her fair, plump hand. If she was asking alms, I
had nothing to give her; but here, at least, was one pacific, composed,
and reasonable person. Perhaps it was the queen, or a diplomatic envoy
of the ruler!

"Now is the time to demonstrate our friendliness," I exclaimed, and
reaching forth my hand I grasped hers in a warm clasp of welcome.

She looked up at me blankly. Her beautiful face carried no expression of
satisfaction or surprise. Her transparent complexion was neither paled
by fear nor flushed by pleasure. Her great dreamy eyes, of a deep liquid
blue, wandered unfixedly in their languid gaze. Still holding her soft
hand, which was far warmer than my own, I opened her fingers with my
other hand and pointed at her pink extended palm as if to inquire what
she wished. I watched her closely, but she made no sign, said nothing,
looked nothing.

"Since I do not know you, I can think of no more fitting name to call
you by than Miss Blank," I said, more to express my thought in
articulate sounds than anything else, for I had no idea she would
understand me. From her expression I could not judge whether she had
even heard me, to say nothing of comprehending. She was looking beyond
me, through the gate, as if searching others from whom she might ask
alms. Seeing none, she wheeled slowly about to return. Unwillingly I
released her hand, and stood unspeakably puzzled by the whole matter.
She was commanding in appearance, being taller than I by a few inches,
not slim, but well proportioned. She had the stately serenity of a
dreaming queen, but the blank, unresponsive soul of one who dwelt within
herself; and though she saw, she did not realize the existence or
meaning of anything outside.

"Doctor, will all your learning solve this riddle for me!" I exclaimed.
"Can all the Martian women be like this? She is beautiful of body and
strangely warm and winning to the touch, but as cold of heart as the
drifting snow that suffocates a poor lost lamb. She has had a strange
influence over me; a puzzling, baffling attraction. A suggestion of
something delicate and subtlely charming, which, when one seeks to seize
and to define, retires icily behind the drawn curtain of her soul."

"I hope you won't play the lost lamb to her snowdrift!" he sneered, in a
way that I resented. "One would think she had hypnotized you on the
spot! And she must be in a trance herself, for she had not sense enough
to fear us."

"Those who have the most sense fear us the least!" I retorted.

"But fear is our sharp weapon now," he answered; "and some of the
stragglers, looking back, saw you stand there holding her hand in a
manner far from warlike. They will report this to the rulers unless we
forestall them. Come, fasten the gates tightly upon the inside to keep
the soldiers out, and I will sail over the wall to pick you up."

"Doctor, we make our peace at once, and fight no more with the brothers
of this girl," I said with decision.

The massive gates were of hewn stone, turning in sockets at their outer
corners above and below. They swung as easily as if hung upon hinges,
and when closed a slab of stone came down to bar them. I made them
fast, and then called out to the doctor,--

"Don't come for me. I have found a jumping-staff, and I think I can leap
to the top of the wall."

It was a sheer fifteen feet of solid masonry, but my chief delight since
landing on Martian soil was the inordinate springiness of my leg muscles
against the feeble gravity. I ran and sprang lustily with the aid of the
cross-bow, and I remember the doctor's surprised look when he saw me
clear the entire wall without touching the top and land safely with a
very mild jolt on his side.

A short oblique ascent of the projectile brought us over the city, and
revealed to us the condition of desperate panic into which the wild
reports of the soldiers and the bird-rider had thrown the frantic
populace. The soldiers still within the walls could not restrain the
people, or did not try. If there was any government, it lacked a head or
could not command attention. The stubborn instinct of self-preservation
was king. Distracted throngs surged out at one gate, to separate and
waver and hesitate, and finally to fight for a speedy entrance at
another. On one side soldiers were apparently ordering people down from
the wall, while on another the excited populace was hauling sentinel
soldiers from the same elevation, lest our attention should be
attracted. Within, strong men were weeping and wailing; without, nervous
men were haranguing the vacillating multitude; but more were stolidly
pushing with the rabble or being hustled by it.

Only one sign of order and forethought was apparent. Evidently for
better safety and for an easier defence, the women and children had been
taken to a central park or pleasure ground, and left there with a small
guard of soldiers. The men to whom they belonged had apparently all gone
elsewhere.

"Doctor, we must put an end to this fear and frenzy at the earliest
possible moment. If we are not destroying those people, we are exciting
them to destroy each other, which is equally blameworthy. We must go
down at once, but we had best avoid the frantic men. The women seem far
more reposeful. Let us drop quietly into that open field in the park,
and I will make friendly signs to the women, pat the children on the
head, and give them all to understand that we mean no harm."

He evidently saw that we had quite overdone the scare, and was as much
impressed by the terrible picture below as I was. We turned down without
delay, and landed quietly behind a clump of trees. I took a tin of sweet
biscuits under my arm, and the doctor following me, with a generous
handful of his trinkets and tinsel toys, we left the projectile, and
rounding the grove of dwarfed trees we approached the romping children
first. I patted their flaxen curls, lightly pinched their cheeks, and
handed each of them a sweet biscuit. Then, while the doctor distributed
strange toys amongst them, I put on my most courtly ways and addressed
myself to the women. Their first impulses of fear had been somewhat
allayed by our attentions to the children, and I bowed profusely and
made bold to kiss the hands of a few of the youngest of them. Each of
these looked to see if I had left anything visible or harmful on her
hand, from which I judged the custom was wholly strange to them. The
others looked on askance and whispered excitedly among themselves.

One of the soldiers who had seen us approach, but offered no resistance,
had now started to run, as fast as his jumping-staff would carry him,
toward the palace. I knew at once that this meant some new development,
and I hoped it meant a report of our friendly actions and a truce all
around. But the doctor reminded me that we must be prepared for
surprises and treachery. Therefore we re-entered the projectile, and out
of the sight of all the Martians I re-loaded the rifles, and then we
waited a long time.

Our patience was finally rewarded, for we saw the soldier returning,
slowly leading a woman. In her left arm, which the soldier held, she
carried something white which wriggled occasionally. All this we
considered so favourable a development that we went out again, bowing to
the women about us, petting the children, and looking as peaceable and
amiable as the politest of Earth's people. But it may have passed for
imbecility, or worse, on Mars.

When I looked toward the soldier again, my heart began a queer thumping,
for he was leading no other than the woman who had met us at the gate,
and she was carrying our white rabbit, which we had released early that
morning a long way from this spot.

"By all that is wonderful!" I exclaimed to the doctor, "if we have not
fallen upon a country which is ruled by yon dumb queen, and she brings
to us as a peace offering the only thing that we have lost!"

"Since when have potentates learned to beg, and forgotten to command and
to exact?" he answered with half a sneer. "See, she still extends her
hand to every one she passes."

And as the soldier, trained to revere a beard, led the woman directly up
to the doctor, she stretched forth her pretty palm again; but if he had
presumed to take it I could have struck him! To my cordial grasp I added
a kiss this time, and then I raised my eyes slowly to her face, fearing
to see that blank look again. There _was_ no look in her eyes; they did
not look, they only wandered!

The soldier, who still held her other arm, waved his cross-bow toward
the palace meaningly, and a hush fell upon the murmuring crowd. I
ignored him and spoke to her,--

"If thou art the queen, command me but by a look or sign, and I obey.
And if thou art not the queen, then they should make thee one. Dost thou
wish us to follow thee to yon palace?" said I; but the only mind that
understood scoffed at my rapturous declamation.

The woman merely drew her hand from my warm clasp and stretched it out
to the people, who crowded about and paid her no attention. Then the
soldier, as if suddenly remembering, took the rabbit from her arm and
handed it to me. She looked about at this, as if missing the snuggling
animal, and I stared hard at the meddling soldier to reprove him for
interfering with his queen, and gently restored the rabbit to her arm.

"The soldier wishes us to go to the palace," put in the doctor. "But we
must not go unarmed. He may be leading us into an ambush. Let us take
all of our arms and follow him."

Accordingly, we buckled on the swords, and took the rifles on our
shoulders. As we dragged out the heavy shields, the soldier pointed to a
group of donkeys laden with bags of something like grain. I waved
assent, and the muleteer unburdened one of them and loaded the shields
upon him.

"Why not take the telescope?" I suggested; "it is big and bright, and
perhaps they may fear it too. Or we may wish to show its wondrous use."
As I drew it out the crowd started back, but the soldier and the
muleteer gingerly loaded it upon another donkey. Then the soldier took
the woman's arm again, and pushed her extended palm around toward me, as
if I would be unwilling to go unless I had it. My right hand held my
rifle, but I was secretly glad that my left was free to clasp the
woman's hand. The doctor walked behind to watch the muleteer, and thus
we marched to the palace.

CHAPTER V

Zaphnath, Ruler of the Kemi

Two hieroglyph-bearing columns of red sandstone, strong and broad enough
to have supported a Tower of Babel, formed the portals of the outer gate
of the palace. A pair of Terror-birds, whose plumage was a pearly grey,
stood sleepily on guard. Our soldier, who could scarcely have reached to
the backs of the birds, lifted up his cross-bow and tapped upon their
long necks. Acting perfectly in concert, the animals each engaged with
its beak a wooden ring suspended high in front of them, and then,
bending down their necks, the hempen ropes, to which the rings were
fastened, hauled up a ponderous portcullis, made of slabs of stone, and
thus afforded us an entrance.

As this stone gate rumbled slowly down again, we saw that we were shut
into a vast courtyard, surrounded by a colonnade, whence cavernous
passages led circuitously to the various compartments of the palace.
Within the courtyard were drawn up in expectant readiness four companies
of archers and three of slingers, in all, perhaps, seven hundred men,
who gaped and stared at us.

The doctor touched my elbow, and whispered: "We should have landed in
here with the projectile, which would have given us a means of ready
escape."

"Remember the saying of General Grant," I answered. "'When you are
frightened, don't forget that the enemy may be far more so.' These
soldiers have heard enough to make them believe us capable of anything.
They would tear down the very walls, if we were to open fire on them.
Besides, I could leap that courtyard wall and drag you with me."

Unsheathing our swords, as an object lesson to the soldiers, we followed
our guide to the blind end of a long passage, which apparently gave
entrance only to a small stone chamber. Following the soldier and
muleteer, who were now carrying our shields and telescope, we crowded
into this and waited. Presently the entire chamber, operated in some
unseen manner, turned slowly half way round, so that its door now gave
entrance directly to a vast but gloomy and tomb-like audience chamber,
where we were evidently expected.

Upon a massive throne of richly-chiselled stone a youth of scarcely more
than five-and-twenty years (if judged by earthly standards) sat
gorgeously arrayed in vestments of richly coloured feathers, woven
skilfully into the meshes of coarse cloth. Longer plumes of changeable
colours radiated from a wide collar which he wore, covering his breast
and back, and extending over his shoulders. The peach-blow of his fair
cheeks was partly hidden by a heavy false beard, plaited into stubby
braids, which hung to an even line a little below the chin. His own
soft, flaxen hair peeped meekly out from under a wig of tightly curled
grey strands, cropped all round to a level with the beard. His feet and
arms were bare, except for thin ribbons of downy, purple feathers, which
circled the wrists and ankles. No crown was on his head, but among the
stringy wig-curls the sinuous body of an asp bent in and out, and the
curved neck and threatening head surmounted his clear brow.

To his right, round an oval table of highly polished stone, sat twelve
wrinkled men, not one of whom but had seen three times his years. They
wore their own white beards, unplaited, and their feather clothing was
less elaborate and of simple grey, like the plumage of the Terror-bird.

Our soldier placed his right hand upon his cheek, and inclined his head
slightly forward and to the right, as a salutation to the ruler, and,
leaving the woman standing by me, he and the muleteer retired. She
seemed neither surprised at, nor accustomed to, these surroundings. She
made no salutation or obeisance to the ruler or to the old men, and they
made none to her. Withdrawing her hand from mine, she stretched it
toward them, as she had toward the commonest man outside. They paid her
no attention, but the oldest of the men signalled to an attendant, who
led her back and placed her hand in mine again. That soldiers and
counsellors alike should consider this necessary or fitting seemed
strange to me. The doctor jokingly suggested that they wished to keep me
permanently hypnotized, lest I should become dangerous again.

Having laid off our rifles, swords, and outer coats, I lifted my cap and
made a low bow to the youth and to the old men, but the doctor tried the
salute of the right hand upon the cheek, as he had seen the soldier do.
In answer the youth simply looked toward the twelve, waving his hand
towards us in a way which seemed to say to them, "Gentlemen, behold the
enigma!" Then, beginning with the eldest, the twelve jabbered at us in
turn, apparently in different tongues, some sibilant, some guttural, and
others with the musical cadence of frequent vowel sounds. Needless to
say, each was equally incomprehensible to us, and we did not think it
worth while to try German or English upon them. When they had finished,
they looked much vexed, and slowly wagged their beards. Then the youth
spoke something to them with a confident gesture toward himself. He
arose, and began addressing us. I suddenly stopped short in the middle
of a sentence I was whispering to the doctor. It seemed as if the youth
had ceased making mere sounds, and had begun to speak a coherent
language, a tongue which has lived ages while others have languished
into forgetfulness; a language whose words I understood, but yet the
words carried little clear meaning to me.

"Listen, Doctor! The boy is speaking Hebrew! Ancient and archaic in
form, but yet Hebrew which I understand!" And this is what he had said:

"Oh ye, who speak among yourselves, but understand only those who speak
not at all, I, Zaphnath, revealer of God's hidden things, will address
ye in my native tongue, which none but me in all the land of Kem hath
any knowledge of."

"There be two of us in Kem, O Zaphnath, who understand that tongue.
Speak on!" I cried.

But the boy stripped off his wig and beard, and, leaving the throne,
hastened toward me and laid his soft right cheek against my own with
gentle pressure.

"Comest thou, then, from the land of my father, a stranger wandering
into Kem, even as I came?" he asked.

"Nay, gentle youth, we came a vastly farther way, from another world, so
distant that thou seest it from here only as a twinkling star in the
night. But if, indeed, thou camest a wandering stranger into Kem, art
thou then the king?" He had resumed his wig and beard, and his proud
seat upon the throne, and after he had translated my words for the
twelve old men, he answered me,--

"I am Zaphnath, ruler over all the land of Kem, without whom the
Pharaoh doeth not, nor sayeth anything. These are his twelve wise men,
who do not believe what thou hast said, for there is no other world
large enough for the abode of two men, except the Day-Giver, whence they
think ye have come. The Pharaoh may believe them, but I will believe
what ye tell me. He hath given me full power to treat with you, and hath
taken refuge with all his women in his tomb, and will not come forth
until ye be appeased. Tell me in truth, then, are ye men, or gods? Ye
look not half so warlike as all the soldiers have described you."

I translated this to the doctor, but replied without waiting to consult
with him,--

"We know but one God, who hath made all the stars, and all who dwell
upon them. We are men to whom it hath been given to travel the infinite
distances which reach from one of His stars to another, and we are come
to this one, not to make war but to find peace. We would have sought
thee peacefully as friends, had not thine armies made war upon us on the
plateau yonder. But our means of warfare proved far more terrible and
dreadful here than on our proper star. Thus have we unwittingly slain
two of thy soldiers and frightened all the army. We have with us the
means to kill them all, but we seek a peaceable life here for a brief
time, that we may learn your ways and test your wisdom, when we shall be
gone again."

"The Pharaoh could have better spared a thousand men than the bird
which thy lightning hath killed. For are not his slaves as the plenteous
grain of a rich harvest, while his birds are but as the fingers of his
hands. If ye came but to learn, 'tis well ye know these wise men,
though, since I came to Kem, their profession hath fallen somewhat into
disrepute. I doubt not but they could learn far more from thee than thou
from them, but they will not do it. Whatever they do not know is not
true in Kem, but what they know continues true long after common men
know better. Now, wilt thou explain to me the mysteries the soldiers
have reported to us? But first tell us which of all the stars it is thou
comest from."

"Know then, O Zaphnath, that we call our star the Earth, and in her
wanderings she hath now approached so near to the great Orb of Day that
her rays are paled by his brighter light; she sets with him, and shines
no more by night. But yet a few days now, and she shall triumph even
over him, and, entering on his glowing disc, she shall be seen at
mid-day, obscuring his light and travelling as a spot across his glory."

The old men wagged their beards as the boy translated, but he sprang to
his feet with no little excitement, and exclaimed,--

"Meanest thou that blue star with its attendant speck of white, which
but a little while ago shone with great brightness as a Twilight Star?"

"That is the Earth, O Zaphnath, the world from whence we came," I
exclaimed; and the youth again threw off his wig and beard, and rushing
toward me, pressed first his right cheek and then his left cheek against
mine, and then against the doctor's.

"Then ye are most welcome to the land of Kem, and we shall be friends
for ever. For ye should know that my mother was barren all the years of
her life until this same Blue Star came to shine wondrously, even in the
presence of the Day-Giver, before his setting. It was then, under the
beneficent influence of this star, that she gave birth to me. And when
the star paled and wandered again I tarried not in the land of my
father, but came strangely hither, to be ruler in a great land which my
people had never known."

When he had resumed his seat again, I said, "All that I have told thee
shalt thou see come to pass, and through this Larger Eye, which we have
made to pierce the deep of space, thou shalt see more clearly that the