poised, and still awaking its ravishing voice, stood a figure, the sight
of which almost stopped my breath.

It was a slender sylph of a girl!

A girl of my own race; a human being here upon the planet Mars!

[Illustration: _"In the middle of the great floor, holding the instrument
delicately poised, and still awaking its ravishing voice, stood a
figure, the sight of which almost stopped my breath! It was a slender
sylph of a girl! A girl of my own race; a human being here on Mars!"_]

Her hair was loosely coiled and she was attired in graceful white
drapery.

"By God!" cried Colonel Smith, "she's human!"

CHAPTER TWELVE

_RETREAT TO DEIMOS_

Still the Bewildering Strains of the music came to our ears, and yet we
stood there unperceived, though in the full glare of the chandelier.

The girl's face was presented in profile. It was exquisite in beauty,
pale, delicate with a certain pleading sadness which stirred us to the
heart.

An element of romance and a touch of personal interest such as we had
not looked for suddenly entered into our adventure.

Colonel Smith's mind still ran back to the perils of the plains.

"She is a prisoner," he said, "and by the Seven Devils of Dona Ana we'll
not leave her here. But where are the hellhounds themselves?"

Our attention had been so absorbed by the sight of the girl that we had
scarcely thought of looking to see if there was any one else in the
room.

Glancing beyond her, I now perceived sitting in richly decorated chairs
three or four gigantic Martians. They were listening to the music as if
charmed.

The whole story told itself. This girl, if not their slave, was at any
rate under their control, and she was furnishing entertainment for them
by her musical skill. The fact that they could find pleasure in music so
beautiful was, perhaps, an indication that they were not really as
savage as they seemed.

Yet our hearts went out to the girl, and were turned against them with
an uncontrollable hatred.

They were of the same remorseless race with those who had so lately lain
waste our fair earth and who would have completed its destruction had
not Providence interferred in our behalf.

Singularly enough, although we stood full in the light, they had not yet
seen us.

Suddenly the girl, moved by what impulse I know not, turned her face in
our direction. Her eyes fell upon us. She paused abruptly in her
playing, and her instrument dropped to the floor. Then she uttered a
cry, and with extended arms ran toward us.

But when she was near she stopped abruptly, the glad look fading from
her face, and started back with terror-stricken eyes, as if, after all,
she had found us not what she expected.

Then for an instant she looked more intently at us, her countenance
cleared once more, and, overcome by some strange emotion, her eyes
filled with tears, and, drawing a little nearer, she stretched forth her
hands to us appealingly.

Meanwhile the Martians had started to their feet. They looked down upon
us in astonishment. We were like pygmies to them; like little gnomes
which had sprung out of the ground at their feet.

One of the giants seized some kind of a weapon and started forward with
a threatening gesture.

The girl sprang to my side and grasped my arm with a cry of fear.

This seemed to throw the Martian into a sudden frenzy, and he raised his
arms to strike.

But the disintegrator was in my hand.

My rage was equal to his.

I felt the concentrated vengeance of the earth quivering through me as I
pressed the button of the disintegrator and, sweeping it rapidly up and
down, saw the gigantic form that confronted me melt into nothingness.

There were three other giants in the room, and they had been on the
point of following up the attack of their comrade. But when he
disappeared from before their eyes, they paused, staring in amazement at
the place where, but a moment before, he had stood, but where now only
the metal weapon he had wielded lay on the floor.

At first they started back, and seemed on the point of fleeing; then,
with a second glance, perceiving again how small and insignificant we
were, all three together advanced upon us.

The girl sank trembling on her knees.

In the meantime I had readjusted my disintegrator for another discharge,
and Colonel Smith stood by me with the light of battle upon his face.

"Sweep the discharge across the three," I exclaimed. "Otherwise there
will be one left and before we can fire again he will crush us."

The whirr of the two instruments sounded simultaneously, and with a
quick horizontal motion we swept the lines of force around in such a
manner that all three of the Martians were caught by the vibratory
streams and actually cut in two.

Long gaps were opened in the wall of the room behind them, where the
destroying currents had passed, for with wrathful fierceness, we had ran
the vibrations through half a gamut on the index.

The victory was ours. There were no other enemies, that we could see, in
the house.

Yet at any moment others might make their appearance, and what more we
did must be done quickly.

The girl evidently was as much amazed as the Martians had been by the
effects which we had produced. Still she was not terrified, and
continued to cling to us and glance beseechingly into our faces,
expressing in her every look and gesture the fact that she knew we were
of her own race.

But clearly she could not speak our tongue, for the words she uttered
were unintelligible.

Colonel Smith, whose long experience in Indian warfare had made him
intensely practical, did not lose his military instincts, even in the
midst of events so strange.

"It occurs to me," he said, "that we have got a chance at the enemies'
supplies. Suppose we begin foraging right here. Let's see if this girl
can't show us the commissary department."

He immediately began to make signs to the girl to indicate that he was
hungry.

A look of comprehension flitted over her features, and, seizing our
hands, she led us into an adjoining apartment, and pointed to a number
of metallic boxes.

One of these she opened, taking out of it a kind of cake, which she
placed between her teeth, breaking off a very small portion and then
handing it to us, motioning that we should eat, but at the same time
showing us that we ought to take only a small quantity.

"Thank God! It's compressed food," said Colonel Smith. "I thought these
Martians with their wonderful civilization would be up to that. And it's
mighty lucky for us, because, without overburdening ourselves, if we can
find one or two more caches like this we shall be able to reprovision
the entire fleet. But we must get reinforcements before we can take
possession of the fodder."

Accordingly we hurried out into the night, passed into the roadway, and,
taking the girl with us, ran as rapidly as possible to the foot of the
tree where we had made our descent. Then we signalled to the electric
ship to drop down to the level of the ground.

This was quickly done, the girl was taken aboard, and a dozen men, under
our guidance, hastened back to the house, where we loaded ourselves with
the compressed provisions and conveyed them to the ship.

On this second trip to the mysterious house we had discovered another
apartment containing a very large number of the metallic boxes, filled
with compressed food.

"By Jove, it is a storehouse," said Colonel Smith. "We must get more
force and carry it all off. Gracious, but this is a lucky night. We can
reprovision the whole fleet from this room."

"I thought it singular," I said, "that with the exception of the girl
whom we have rescued no women were seen in the house. Evidently the
lights over yonder indicate the location of a considerable town, and it
is quite probable that this building, without windows, and so strongly
constructed, is the common storehouse, where the provisions for the town
are kept. The fellows we killed must have been the watchmen in charge of
the storehouse, and they were treating themselves to a little music from
the slave girl when we happened to come upon them."

With the utmost haste several of the other electrical ships, waiting
above the cloud curtain, were summoned to descend, and, with more than a
hundred men, we returned to the building, and this time almost entirely
exhausted its stores, each man carrying as much as he could stagger
under.

Fortunately our proceedings had been conducted without much noise, and
the storehouse being situated at a considerable distance from other
buildings, none of the Martians, except those who would never tell the
story, had known of our arrival or of our doings on the planet.

"Now, we'll return and surprise Edison with the news," said Colonel
Smith.

Our ship was the last to pass up through the clouds, and it was a
strange sight to watch the others as one after another they rose toward
the great dome, entered it, though from below it resembled a solid vault
of grayish-pink marble, and disappeared.

We quickly followed them, and having penetrated the enormous curtain,
were considerably surprised on emerging at the other side to find that
the sun was shining brilliantly upon us. It will be remembered that it
was night on this side of Mars when we went down, but our adventure had
occupied several hours, and now Mars had so turned upon its axis that
the portion of its surface over which we were had come around into the
sunlight.

We knew that the squadron which we had left besieging the Lake of the
Sun must also have been carried around in a similar manner, passing into
the night while the side of the planet where we were was emerging into
day.

Our shortest way back would be by traveling westward, because then we
should be moving in a direction opposite to that in which the planet
rotated, and the main squadron, sharing that rotation, would be
continually moving in our direction.

But to travel westward was to penetrate once more into the night side of
the planet.

The prows, if I may so call them, of our ships were accordingly turned
in the direction of the vast shadow which Mars was invisibly projecting
into space behind it, and on entering that shadow the sun disappeared
from our eyes, and once more the huge hidden globe beneath us became a
black chasm among the stars.

Now that we were in the neighborhood of a globe capable of imparting
considerable weight to all things under the influence of its attraction
that peculiar condition which I have before described as existing in the
midst of space, where there was neither up nor down for us, had ceased.
Here where we had weight "up" and "down" had resumed their old meanings.
"Down" was toward the center of Mars, and "up" was away from that
center.

Standing on the deck, and looking overhead as we swiftly ploughed our
smooth way at a great height through the now imperceptible atmosphere of
the planet, I saw the two moons of Mars meeting in the sky exactly above
us.

Before our arrival at Mars, there had been considerable discussion among
the learned men as to the advisability of touching at one of their
moons, and when the discovery was made that our provisions were nearly
exhausted, it had been suggested that the Martian satellites might
furnish us with an additional supply.

But it had appeared a sufficient reply to this suggestion that the moons
of Mars are both insignificant bodies, not much larger than the asteroid
we had fallen in with, and that there could not possibly be any form of
vegetation or other edible products upon them.

This view having prevailed, we had ceased to take an interest in the
satellites, further than to regard them as objects of great curiosity on
account of their motions.

The nearer of these moons, Phobos, is only 3,700 miles from the surface
of Mars, and we watched it traveling around the planet three times in
the course of every day. The more distant one, Deimos, 12,500 miles
away, required considerably more than one day to make its circuit.

It now happened that the two had come into conjunction, as I have said,
just over our heads, and, throwing myself down on my back on the deck of
the electrical ship, for a long time I watched the race between the two
satellites, until Phobos, rapidly gaining upon the other, had left its
rival far behind.

Suddenly Colonel Smith, who took very little interest in these
astronomical curiosities, touched me, and pointing ahead, said:

"There they are."

I looked, and sure enough there were the signal lights of the principal
squadron, and as we gazed we occasionally saw, darting up from the vast
cloud mass beneath, an electric bayonet, fiercely thrust into the sky,
which showed that the siege was still actively going on, and that the
Martians were jabbing away at their invisible enemies outside the
curtain.

In a short time the two fleets had joined, and Colonel Smith and I
immediately transferred ourselves to the flagship.

"Well, what have you done?" asked Mr. Edison, while others crowded
around with eager attention.

"If we have not captured their provision train," said Colonel Smith, "we
have done something just about as good. We have foraged on the country,
and have collected a supply that I reckon will last this fleet for at
least a month."

"What's that? What's that?"

"It's just what I say," and Colonel Smith brought out of his pocket one
of the square cakes of compressed food. "Set your teeth in that, and see
what you think of it, but don't take too much, for its powerful strong."

"I say," he continued, "we have got enough of that stuff to last us all
for a month, but we've done more than that; we have got a surprise for
you that will make you open your eyes. Just wait a minute."

Colonel Smith made a signal to the electrical ship which we had just
quitted to draw near. It came alongside, so that one could step from its
deck onto the flagship. Colonel Smith disappeared for a minute in the
interior of his ship, then re-emerged, leading the girl whom we had
found upon the planet.

"Take her inside, quick," he said, "for she is not used to this thin
air."

In fact, we were at so great an elevation that the rarity of the
atmosphere now compelled us all to wear our air-tight suits, and the
girl, not being thus attired, would have fallen unconscious on the deck
if we had not instantly removed her to the interior of the car.

There she quickly recovered from the effects of the deprivation of air
and looked about her, pale, astonished, but yet apparently without fear.

Every motion of this girl convinced me that she not only recognized us
as members of her own race, but that she felt that her only hope lay in
our aid. Therefore, strange as we were to her in many respects,
nevertheless she did not think that she was in danger while among us.

The circumstances under which we had found her were quickly explained.
Her beauty, her strange fate and the impenetrable mystery which
surrounded her excited universal admiration and wonder.

"How did she get on Mars?" was the question that everybody asked, and
that nobody could answer.

But while all were crowding around and overwhelming the poor girl with
their staring, suddenly she burst into tears, and then, with arms
outstretched in the same appealing manner which had so stirred our
sympathies when we first saw her in the house of the Martians, she broke
forth in a wild recitation, which was half a song and half a wail.

As she went on I noticed that a learned professor of languages from the
University of Heidelberg was listening to her with intense attention.
Several times he appeared to be on the point of breaking in with an
exclamation. I could plainly see that he was becoming more and more
excited as the words poured from the girl's lips. Occasionally he nodded
and muttered, smiling to himself.

Her song finished, the girl sank half-exhausted upon the floor. She was
lifted and placed in a reclining position at the side of the car.

Then the Heidelberg professor stepped to the center of the car, in the
sight of all, and in a most impressive manner said:

"Gentlemen, our sister.

"I have her tongue recognized! The language that she speaks, the roots
of the great Indo-European, or Aryan stock, contains.

"This girl, gentlemen, to the oldest family of the human race belongs.
Her language every tongue that now upon the earth is spoken antedates.
Convinced am I that it that great original speech is from which have all
the languages of the civilized world sprung.

"How she here came, so many millions of miles from the earth, a great
mystery is. But it shall be penetrated, and it is from her own lips that
we shall the truth learn, because not difficult to us shall it be the
language that she speaks to acquire since to our own it is akin."

This announcement of the Heidelberg professor stirred us all most
profoundly. It not only deepened our interest in the beautiful girl whom
we had rescued, but, in a dim way, it gave us reason to hope that we
should yet discover some means of mastering the Martians by dealing them
a blow from within.

It had been expected, the reader will remember, that the Martian whom we
had made prisoner on the asteroid, might be of use to us in a similar
way, and for that reason great efforts had been made to acquire his
language, and considerable progress had been effected in that direction.

But from the moment of our arrival at Mars itself, and especially after
the battles began, the prisoner had resumed his savage and
uncommunicative disposition, and had seemed continually to be expecting
that we would fall victims to the prowess of his fellow beings, and that
he would be released. How an outlaw, such as he evidently was, who had
been caught in the act of robbing the Martian gold mines, could expect
to escape punishment on returning to his native planet it was difficult
to see. Nevertheless, so strong are the ties of race we could plainly
perceive that all his sympathies were for his own people.

In fact, in consequence of his surly manner, and his attempts to escape,
he had been more strictly bound than before and to get him out of the
way had been removed from the flagship, which was already overcrowded,
and placed in one of the other electric ships, and this ship--as it
happened--was one of those which were lost in the great battle beneath
the clouds. So after all, the Martian had perished, by a vengeful stroke
launched from his native globe.

But Providence had placed in our hands a far better interpreter than he
could ever have been. This girl of our own race would need no urging, or
coercion, on our part in order to induce her to reveal any secrets of
the Martians that might be useful in our further proceedings.

But one thing was first necessary to be done.

We must learn to talk with her.

But for the discovery of the store of provisions it would have been
impossible for us to spare the time needed to acquire the language of
the girl, but now that we had been saved from the danger of starvation,
we could prolong the siege for several weeks, employing the intervening
time to the best advantage.

The terrible disaster which we had suffered in the great battle above
the Lake of the Sun, wherein we had lost nearly a third of our entire
force, had been quite sufficient to convince us that our only hope of
victory lay in dealing the Martians some paralyzing stroke that at one
blow would deprive them of the power of resistance. A victory that cost
us the loss of a single ship would be too dearly purchased now.

How to deal that blow, and first of all, how to discover the means of
dealing it, were at present the uppermost problems in our minds.

The only hope for us lay in the girl.

If, as there was every reason to believe, she was familiar with the ways
and secrets of the Martians, then she might be able to direct our
efforts in such a manner as to render them effective.

"We can spare two weeks for this," said Mr. Edison. "Can you fellows of
many tongues learn to talk with the girl in that time?"

"We'll try it," said several.

"It shall we do," cried the Heidelberg professor more confidently.

"Then there is no use of staying here," continued the commander. "If we
withdraw the Martians will think that we have either given up the
earth's moon, always keep the same face toward their master. By blanket
and let us see their face once more. That will give us a better
opportunity to strike effectively when we are again ready."

"Why not rendezvous at one of the moons?" said an astronomer. "Neither
of the two moons is of much consequence, as far as size goes, but still
it would serve as sort of an anchorage ground, and while there, if we
were careful to keep on the side away from Mars, we should escape
detection."

This suggestion was immediately accepted, and the squadron having been
signalled to assemble quickly bore off in the direction of the more
distant moon of Mars, Deimos. We knew that it was slightly smaller than
Phobos, but its greater distance gave promise that it would better serve
our purpose of temporary concealment. The moons of Mars, like the
earth's moon, always kept the same face toward their master. By hiding
behind Deimos we should escape the prying eyes of the Martians, even
when they employed telescopes, and thus be able to remain comparatively
close at hand, ready to pounce down upon them again, after we had
obtained, as we now had good hope of doing, information that would make
us masters of the situation.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

_THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH_

Deimos proved to be, as we had expected, about six miles in diameter.
Its mean density is not very great so that the acceleration of gravity
did not exceed one-two-thousandths of the earth's. Consequently the
weight of a man turning the scales at 150 pounds at home was here only
about one ounce.

The result was that we could move about with greater ease than on the
golden asteroid, and some of the scientific men eagerly resumed their
interrupted experiments.

But the attraction of this little satellite was so slight that we had to
be very careful not to move too swiftly in going about lest we should
involuntarily leave the ground and sail out into space, as, it will be
remembered, happened to the fugitives from the fight on the asteroid.

Not only would such an adventure have been an uncomfortable experience,
but it might have endangered the success of our scheme. Our present
distance from the surface of Mars did not exceed 12,500 miles, and we
had reasons to believe the Martians possessed telescopes powerful enough
to enable them not merely to see the electrical ships at such a
distance, but to also catch sight of us individually. Although the cloud
curtain still rested on the planet it was probable that the Martians
would send some of their airships up to its surface in order to
determine what our fate had been. From that point of vantage with their
exceedingly powerful glasses, we feared that they might be able to
detect anything unusual upon or in the neighborhood of Deimos.

Accordingly strict orders were given, not only that the ships should be
moored on that side of the satellite which is perpetually turned away
from Mars, but that, without orders, no one should venture around on the
other side of the little globe or even on the edge of it, where he might
be seen in profile against the sky.

Still, of course, it was essential that we, on our part, should keep a
close watch, and so a number of sentinels were selected, whose duty it
was to place themselves at the edge of Deimos, where they could peep
over the horizon, so to speak, and catch sight of the globe of our
enemies.

The distance of Mars from us was only about three times its own
diameter, consequently it shut off a large part of the sky, as viewed
from our position.

But in order to see its whole surface it was necessary to go a little
beyond the edge of the satellite, on that side which faced Mars. At the
suggestion of Colonel Smith, who had so frequently stalked Indians that
devices of this kind readily occurred to his mind, the sentinels all
wore garments corresponding in color to that of the soil of the
asteroid, which was of a dark, reddish brown hue. This would tend to
conceal them from the prying eyes of the Martians.

The commander himself frequently went around the edge of the planet in
order to take a look at Mars, and I often accompanied him.

I shall never forget one occasion, when, lying flat on the ground, and
cautiously worming our way around on the side toward Mars, we had just
begun to observe it with our telescopes, when I perceived, against the
vast curtain of smoke, a small, glinting object, which I instantly
suspected to be an airship.

I called Mr. Edison's attention to it, and we both agreed that it was,
undoubtedly, one of the Martian's aerial vessels, probably on the
lookout for us.

A short time afterward a large number of airships made their appearance
at the upper surface of the clouds, moving to and fro, and although,
with our glasses, we could only make out the general form of the ships,
without being able to discern the Martians upon them, yet we had not the
least doubt but they were sweeping the sky in every direction in order
to determine whether we had been completely destroyed or had retreated
to a distance from the planet.

Even when that side of Mars on which we were looking had passed into
night, we could still see the guardships circling above the clouds,
their presence being betrayed by the faint twinkling of the electric
lights that they bore.

Finally, after about a week had passed, the Martians evidently made up
their minds that they had annihilated us, and that there was no longer
danger to be feared. Convincing evidence that they believed we should
not be heard from again was furnished when the withdrawal of the great
curtain of cloud began.

This phenomenon first manifested itself by a gradual thinning of the
vaporous shield, until, at length, we began to perceive the red surface
of the planet dimly shining through it. Thinner and rarer it became,
and, after the lapse of about eighteen hours, it had completely
disappeared, and the huge globe shone out again, reflecting the light of
the sun from its continents and oceans with a brightness that, in
contrast with the all-enveloping night to which we had so long been
subjected, seemed unbearable to our eyes.

Indeed, so brilliant was the illumination which fell upon the surface of
Deimos that the number of persons who had been permitted to pass around
on the exposed side of the satellite was carefully restricted. In the
blaze of light which had been suddenly poured upon us we felt somewhat
like malefactors unexpectedly enveloped in the illumination of a
policeman's dark lantern.

Meanwhile, the object which we had in view in retreating to the
satellite was not lost sight of, and the services of the chief linguists
of the expedition were again called into use for the purpose of
acquiring a new language. The experiment was conducted in the flagship.
The fact that this time it was not a monster belonging to an utterly
alien race upon whom we were to experiment, but a beautiful daughter of
our common Mother Eve, added zest and interest as well as the most
confident hopes of success to the efforts of those who were striving to
understand the accents of her tongue.

Still the difficulty was very great, notwithstanding the conviction of
the professors that her language would turn out to be a form of the
great Indo-European speech from which the many tongues of civilized men
upon the earth had been derived.

The learned men, to tell the truth, gave the poor girl no rest. For
hours at a time they would ply her with interrogations by voice and by
gesture, until, at length, wearied beyond endurance, she would fall
asleep before their faces.

Then she would be left undisturbed for a little while, but the moment
her eyes opened again the merciless professors flocked about her once
more, and resumed the tedious iteration of their experiments.

Our Heidelberg professor was the chief inquisitor, and he revealed
himself to us in a new and entirely unexpected light. No one could have
anticipated the depth and variety of his resources. He placed himself in
front of the girl and gestured and gesticulated, bowed, nodded, shrugged
his shoulders, screwed his face into an infinite variety of expressions,
smiled, laughed, scowled and accompanied all these dumb shows with
posturings, exclamations, queries, only half expressed in words and
cadences which, by some ingenious manipulation of the tones of the
voice, he managed to make expressive of his desires.

He was a universal actor--comedian, tragedian, buffoon--all in one.
There was no shade of human emotions to which he did not seem capable of
giving expression.

His every attitude was a symbol, and all his features became in quick
succession types of thought and exponents of hidden feelings, while his
inquisitive nose stood forth in the midst of their ceaseless play like a
perpetual interrogation point that would have electrified the Sphinx
into life, and set its stone lips gabbling answers and explanations.

The girl looked on, partly astonished, partly amused, and partly
comprehending. Sometimes she smiled, and then the beauty of her face
became most captivating. Occasionally she burst into a cherry laugh when
the professor was executing some of his extraordinary gyrations before
her.

It was a marvelous exhibition of what the human intellect, when all its
powers are concentrated upon a single object, is capable of achieving.
It seemed to me, as I looked at the performance, that if all the races
of men, who had been stricken asunder at the foot of the Tower of Babel
by the miracle which made the tongues of each to speak a language
unknown to the others, could be brought together again at the foot of
the same tower, with all the advantages which thousands of years of
education had in the meantime imparted to them, they would be able,
without any miracle, to make themselves mutually understood.

And it was evident that an understanding was actually growing between
the girl and the professor. Their minds were plainly meeting, and when
both had become focused upon the same point, it was perfectly certain
that the object of the experiment would be attained.

Whenever the professor got from the girl an intelligent reply to his
pantomimic inquiries, or whenever he believed that he got such a reply,
it was immediately jotted down in the ever open note book which he
carried in his hand.

And then he would turn to us standing by, and with one hand on his
heart, and the other sweeping grandly through the air, would make a
profound bow and say:

"The young lady and I great progress make already. I have her words
comprehended. We shall wondrous mysteries solve. Jawohl! Wunderlich!
Make yourselves gentlemen easy. Of the human race the ancestral stem
have I here discovered."

Once I glanced over a page of his notebook and there I read this:

"Mars--Zahmor

"Copper--Hayez

"Sword--Anz

"I jump--Altesna

"I slay--Amoutha

"I cut off a head--Ksutaskofa

"I sleep--Zlcha

"I love--Levza"

When I saw this last entry I looked suspiciously at the professor.

Was he trying to make love without our knowing it to the beautiful
captive from Mars?

If so, I felt certain that he would get himself into difficulty. She had
made a deep impression upon every man in the flagship, and I knew that
there was more than one of the younger men who would promptly have
called him to account if they had suspected him of trying to learn from
those beautiful lips the words, "I love."

I pictured to myself the state of mind of Colonel Alonzo Jefferson Smith
if, in my place, he had glanced over the notebook and read what I had
read.

And then I thought of another handsome young fellow in the
flagship--Sydney Phillips--who, if mere actions and looks could make him
so, had become exceedingly devoted to this long lost and happily
recovered daughter of Eve.

In fact, I had already questioned within my own mind whether the peace
would be strictly kept between Colonel Smith and Mr. Phillips, for the
former had, to my knowledge, noticed the young fellow's adoring glances,
and had begun to regard him out of the corners of his eyes as if he
considered him no better than an Apache.

"But what," I asked myself, "would be the vengeance that Colonel Smith
would take upon this skinny professor from Heidelberg if he thought that
he, taking advantage of his linguistic powers, had stepped in between
him and the damsel whom he had rescued?"

However, when I took a second look at the professor, I became convinced
that he was innocent of any such amorous intentions, and that he had
learned, or believed he had learned, the word for "love" simply in
pursuances of the method by which he meant to acquire the language of
the girl.

There was one thing which gave some of us considerable misgivings, and
that was the question whether, after all, the language the professor was
acquiring was really the girl's own tongue or one that she had learned
from the Martians.

But the professor bade us rest easy on that point. He assured us, in the
first place, that this girl could not be the only human being living
upon Mars, but that she must have friends and relatives there. That
being so, they unquestionably had a language of their own, which they
spoke when they were among themselves. Here finding herself among beings
belonging to her own race, she would naturally speak her own tongue and
not that which she had acquired from the Martians.

"Moreover, gentlemen," he added, "I have in her speech many roots of the
great Aryan tongue already recognized."

We were greatly relieved by this explanation, which seemed to all of us
perfectly satisfactory.

Yet, really, there was no reason why one language should be any better
than the other for our present purpose. In fact, it might be more useful
to us to know the language of the Martians themselves. Still, we all
felt that we should prefer to know her language rather than that of the
monsters among whom she had lived.

Colonel Smith expressed what was in all our minds when, after listening
to the reasoning of the Professor, he blurted out:

"Thank God, she doesn't speak any of their blamed lingo! By Jove, it
would soil her pretty lips."

"But also that she speaks, too," said the man from Heidelberg, turning
to Colonel Smith with a grin. "We shall both of them eventually learn."

Three entire weeks were passed in this manner. After the first week the
girl herself materially assisted the linguists in their efforts to
ac-quire her speech.

At length the task was so far advanced that we could, in a certain
sense, regard it as practically completed. The Heidelberg professor
declared that he had mastered the tongue of the ancient Aryans. His
delight was unbounded. With prodigious industry he set to work, scarcely
stopping to eat or sleep, to form a grammar of the language.

"You shall see," he said, "it will the speculations of my countrymen
vindicate."

No doubt the Professor had an exaggerated opinion of the extent of his
acquirements, but the fact remained that enough had been learned of the
girl's language to enable him and several others to converse with her
quite as readily as a person of good capacity who has studied under the
instructions of a native teacher during a period of six months can
converse in a foreign tongue.

Immediately almost every man in the squadron set vigorously at work to
learn the language of this fair creature for himself. Colonel Smith and
Sydney Phillips were neck and neck in the linguistic race.

One of the first bits of information which the Professor had given out
was the name of the girl.

It was Aina (pronounced Ah-ee-na).

This news was flashed throughout the squadron, and the name of our
beautiful captive was on the lips of all.

After that came her story. It was a marvelous narrative. Translated into
our tongue it ran as follows:

"The traditions of my fathers, handed down for generations so many that
no one can number them, declare that the planet of Mars was not the
place of our origin.

"Ages and ages ago our forefathers dwelt on another and distant world
that was nearer the sun than this one is, and enjoyed brighter daylight
than we have here.

"They dwelt--as I have often heard the story from my father, who had
learned it by heart from his father, and he from his--in a beautiful
valley that was surrounded by enormous mountains towering into the
clouds and white about their tops with snow that never melted. In the
valley were lakes, around which clustered the dwellings of our race.

"It was, the traditions say, a land wonderful for its fertility, filled
with all things that the heart could desire, splendid with flowers and
rich with luscious fruits.

"It was a land of music, and the people who dwelt in it were very
happy."

While the girl was telling this part of her story the Heidelberg
professor became visibly more and more excited. Presently he could keep
quiet no longer, and suddenly exclaimed, turning to us who were
listening, as the words of the girl were interpreted for us by one of
the other linguists:

"Gentlemen, it is the Vale of Cashmere! Has not my great countryman,
Adelung, so declared? Has he not said that the Valley of Cashmere was
the cradle of the human race already?"

"From the Valley of Cashmere to the planet Mars--what a romance!"
exclaimed one of the bystanders.

Colonel Smith appeared to be particularly moved, and I heard him humming
under his breath, greatly to my astonishment, for this rough soldier was
not much given to poetry or music:

    "Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere,
      With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave;
    Its temples, its grottoes, its fountains as clear,
      As the love-lighted eyes that hang 'oer the wave."

Mr. Sydney Phillips, standing by, and also catching the murmur of
Colonel Smith's words, showed in his handsome countenance some
indications of distress, as if he wished he had thought of those lines
himself.

The girl resumed her narrative:

"Suddenly there dropped down out of the sky strange gigantic enemies,
armed with mysterious weapons, and began to slay and burn and make
desolate. Our forefathers could not withstand them. They seemed like
demons, who had been sent from the abodes of evil to destroy our race.

"Some of the wise men said that this thing had come upon our people
because they had been very wicked, and the Gods in Heaven were angry.
Some said they came from the moon, and some from the far-away stars. But
of these things my forefathers knew nothing for a certainty.

"The destroyers showed no mercy to the inhabitants of the beautiful
valley. Not content with making it a desert, they swept over other parts
of the earth.

"The tradition says that they carried off from the valley, which was our
native land, a large number of our people, taking them first into a
strange country, where there were oceans of sand, but where a great
river, flowing through the midst of the sands, created a narrow land of
fertility. Here, after having slain and driven out the native
inhabitants, they remained for many years, keeping our people, whom they
had carried into captivity, as slaves.

"And in this Land of Sand, it is said, they did many wonderful works.

"They had been astonished at the sight of the great mountains which
surrounded our valley, for on Mars there are no mountains, and after
they came into the Land of Sand they built there, with huge blocks of
stone, mountains in imitation of what they had seen, and used them for
purposes my people did not understand.

"Then, too, it is said they left there at the foot of these mountains
that they had made a gigantic image of the great chief who led them in
their conquest of our world."

At this point in the story the Heidelberg professor again broke in,
fairly trembling with excitement:

"Gentlemen, gentlemen," he cried, "is it that you do not understand?
This Land of Sand and of a wonderful fertilizing river--what can it be?
Gentleman, it is Egypt! These mountains of rock that the Martians have
erected, what are they? Gentlemen, they are the great mystery of the
land of the Nile, the Pyramids. The gigantic statue of their leader that
they at the foot of their artificial mountains have set up--gentlemen,
what is that? It is the Sphinx!"

[Illustration: _"Gentlemen," exclaimed the Professor, "these mountains of
rock that the Martians built are the Pyramids of Egypt. The gigantic
statue of their leader is THE GREAT SPHINX!"_]

The professor's agitation was so great that he could not go on further.
And indeed there was not one of us who did not fully share his
excitement. To think that we should have come to the planet Mars to
solve one of the standing mysteries of the earth, which had puzzled
mankind and defied all their efforts at solution for so many centuries!
Here, then, was the explanation of how those gigantic blocks that
constitute the great Pyramid of Cheops had been swung to their lofty
elevation. It was not the work of puny man, as many an engineer had
declared that it could not be, but the work of these giants of Mars.

At length, our traditions say, a great pestilence broke out in the Land
of Sand, and a partial vengeance was granted to us in the destruction of
the larger number of our enemies. At last the giants who remained,
fleeing before this scourge of the gods, used the mysterious means at
their command, and, carrying our ancestors with them, returned to their
own world, in which we have ever since lived.

"Then there are more of your people in Mars?" said one of the
professors.

"Alas, no," replied Aina, her eyes filling with tears, "I alone am
left."

For a few minutes she was unable to speak. Then she continued:

"What fury possessed them I do not know, but not long ago an expedition
departed from the planet, the purpose of which, as it was noised about
over Mars, was the conquest of a distant world. After a time a few
survivors of that expedition returned. The story they told caused great
excitement among our masters. They had been successful in their battles
with the inhabitants of the world they had invaded, but as in the days
of our forefathers, in the Land of Sand, a pestilence smote them, and
but few survivors escaped.

"Not long after that, you, with your mysterious ships, appeared in the
sky of Mars. Our masters studied you with their telescopes, and those
who had returned from the unfortunate expedition declared that you were
inhabitants of the world which they had invaded, come, doubtless, to
take vengeance upon them.

"Some of my people who were permitted to look through the telescopes of
the Martians, saw you also, and recognized you as members of their own
race. There were several thousand of us all together, and we were kept
by the Martians to serve them as slaves, and particularly to delight
their ears with music, for our people have always been especially
skillful in the playing of musical instruments, and in songs, and while
the Martians have but little musical skill themselves, they are
exceedingly fond of these things.

"Although Mars had completed not less than five thousand circuits about
the sun since our ancestors were brought as prisoners to its surface,
yet the memory of our distant home had never perished from the hearts of
our race, and when we recognized you, as we believed, our own brothers,
come to rescue us from long imprisonment, there was great rejoicing. The
news spread from mouth to mouth, wherever we were in houses and families
of our masters. We seemed to be powerless to aid you or to communicate
with you in any manner. Yet our hearts went out to you, as in your ships
you hung above the planet, and preparations were secretly made by all
the members of our race for your reception when, as we believed, would
occur, you should effect a landing upon the planet and destroy our
enemies.

"But in some manner the fact that we had recognized you, and were
preparing to welcome you, came to the ears of the Martians."

At this point the girl suddenly covered her eyes with her hands,
shuddering and falling back in her seat.

"Oh, you do not know them as I do!" at length she exclaimed. "The
monsters! Their vengeance was too terrible! Instantly the order went
forth that we should all be butchered, and that awful command was
executed!"

"How, then, did you escape?" asked the Heidelberg professor.

Aina seemed unable to speak for a while. Finally mastering her emotion,
she replied:

"One of the chief officers of the Martians wished me to remain alive.
He, with his aides, carried me to one of the military depots of
supplies, where I was found and rescued," and as she said this she
turned toward Colonel Smith with a smile that reflected on his ruddy
face and made it glow like a Chinese lantern.

"By God!" muttered Colonel Smith, "that was the fellow we blew into
nothing! Blast him, he got off too easy!"

The remainder of Aina's story may be briefly told.

When Colonel Smith and I entered the mysterious building which, as it
now proved, was not a storehouse belonging to a village, as we had
supposed, but one of the military depots of the Martians, the girl, on
catching sight of us, immediately recognized us as belonging to the
strange squadron in the sky. As such she felt that we must be her
friends, and saw in us her only possible hope of escape. For that reason
she had instantly thrown herself under our protection. This accounted
for the singular confidence which she had manifested in us from the
beginning.

Her wonderful story had so captivated our imaginations that for a long
time after it was finished we could not recover from the spell. It was
told over and over again, from mouth to mouth, and repeated from ship to
ship, everywhere exciting the utmost astonishment.

Destiny seemed to have sent us on this expedition into space for the
purpose of clearing off mysteries that had long puzzled the minds of
men. When on the moon we had unexpectedly to ourselves settled the
question that had been debated from the beginning of astronomical
history of the former habitability of that globe.

Now, on Mars, we had put to rest no less mysterious questions relating
to the past history of our own planet. Adelung, as the Heidelberg
professor asserted, had named the Vale of Cashmere, as the probable site
of the Garden of Eden, and the place of origin of the human race, but
later investigators had taken issue with this opinion and the question
where the Aryans originated on the earth had long been one of the most
puzzling that science presented.

This question seemed now to have been settled.

Aina had said that Mars had completed 5,000 circuits about the sun since
her people were brought to it as captives. One circuit of Mars occupies
687 days. More than 9000 years had therefore elapsed since the first
invasion of the earth by the Martians.

Another great mystery--that of the origin of those gigantic and
inexplicable monuments, the great pyramids and the Sphinx, on the banks
of the Nile, had also apparently been solved by us, although these
Egyptian wonders had been the furthest things from our thoughts when we
set out for the planet Mars.

We had traveled more than thirty millions of miles in order to get
answers to questions which could not be solved at home.

But from these speculations and retrospects we were recalled by the
commander of the expedition.

"This is all very interesting and very romantic, gentlemen," he said,
"but now let us get at the practical side of it. We have learned Aina's
language and heard her story. Let us next ascertain whether she can not
place in our hands some key which will place Mars at our mercy. Remember
what we came here for, and remember that the earth expects every man of
us to do his duty."

This Nelson-like summons again changed the current of our thoughts, and
we instantly set to work to learn from Aina if Mars, like Achilles, had
not some vulnerable point where a blow would be mortal.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

_THE FLOOD GATES OF MARS_

It was a curious scene when the momentous interview which was to
determine our fate and that of Mars began. Aina had been warned of what
was coming. We in the flagship had all learned to speak her language
with more or less ease, but it was deemed best that the Heidelberg
professor, assisted by one of his colleagues, should act as interpreter.

The girl, flushed with excitement of the novel situation, fully
appreciating the importance of what was about to occur, and looking more
charming than before, stood at one side of the principal apartment.
Directly facing her were the interpreters, and the rest of us, all with
ears intent and eyes focused upon Aina, stood in a double row behind
them. As heretofore, I am setting down her words translated into our own
tongue, having taken only so much liberty as to connect the sentences
into a stricter sequence than they had when falling from her lips in
reply to the questions which were showered upon her.

"You will never be victorious," she said, "if you attack them openly as
you have been doing. They are too strong and too numerous. They are well
prepared for such attacks, because they have had to resist them before.

"They have waged war with the inhabitants of the asteroid Ceres, whose
people are giants greater than themselves. Their enemies from Ceres have
attacked them here. Hence these fortifications, with weapons pointing
skyward, and the great air fleets which you have encountered."

"But there must be some point," said Mr. Edison, "where we can."

"Yes, yes," interrupted the girl quickly, "there is one blow you can
deal them which they could not withstand."

"What is that?" eagerly inquired the commander.

"You can drown them out."

"How? With the canals?"

"Yes, I will explain to you. I have already told you, and, in fact, you
must have seen for yourselves, that there are almost no mountains on
Mars. A very learned man of my race used to say that the reason was
because Mars is so very old a world that the mountains it once had have
been almost completely leveled, and the entire surface of the planet had
become a great plain. There are depressions, however, most of which are
occupied by the seas. The greater part of the land lies below the level
of the ocean. In order at the same time to irrigate the soil and make it
fruitful, and to protect themselves from overflows by the ocean breaking
in upon them, the Martians have constructed the immense and innumerable
canals which you see running in all directions over the continents.

"There is one period in the year, and that period has now arrived when
there is special danger of a great deluge. Most of the oceans of Mars
lie in the southern hemisphere. When it is Summer in that hemisphere,
the great masses of ice and snow collected around the south pole melt
rapidly away."

"Yes, that is so," broke in one of the astronomers, who was listening
attentively. "Many a time I have seen the vast snow fields around the
southern pole of Mars completely disappear as the Summer sun rose high
upon them."

"With the melting of these snows," continued Aina, "a rapid rise in the
level of the water in the southern oceans occurs. On the side facing
these oceans the continents of Mars are sufficiently elevated to prevent
an overflow, but nearer the equator the level of the land sinks lower.

"With your telescopes you have no doubt noticed that there is a great
bending sea connecting the oceans of the south with those of the north
and running through the midst of the continents."

"Quite so," said the astronomer who had spoken before, "we call it the
Syrtis Major."

"That long narrow sea," Aina went on, "forms a great channel through
which the flood of waters caused by the melting of the southern polar
snows flows swiftly toward the equator and then on toward the north
until it reaches the sea basins which exist there. At that point it is
rapidly turned into ice and snow, because, of course, while it is Summer
in the southern hemisphere it is Winter in the northern.

"The Syrtis Major (I am giving our name to the channel of communication
in place of that by which the girl called it) is like a great safety
valve, which, by permitting the waters to flow northward, saves the
continents from inundation.

"But when mid-Summer arrives, the snows around the pole, having been
completely melted away, the flood ceases and the water begins to recede.
At this time, but for a device which the Martians have employed, the
canals connected with the oceans would run dry, and the vegetation left
without moisture under the Summer sun, would quickly perish.

"To prevent this they have built a series of enormous gates extending
completely across the Syrtis Major at its narrowest point (latitude 25
degrees south). These gates are all controlled by machinery collected at
a single point on the shore of the strait. As soon as the flood in the
Syrtis Major begins to recede, the gates are closed, and, the water
being thus restrained, the irrigating canals are kept full long enough
to mature the harvests."

"The clue! The clue at last!" exclaimed Mr. Edison. "That is the place
where we shall nip them. If we can close those gates now at the moment
of high tide we shall flood the country. Did you say," he continued,
turning to Aina, "that the movement of the gates was all controlled from
a single point?"

"Yes," said the girl. "There is a great building (power house) full of
tremendous machinery which I once entered when my father was taken there
by his master, and where I saw one Martian, by turning a little handle,
cause the great line of gates, stretching a hundred miles across the
sea, to slowly shut in, edge to edge, until the flow of the water toward
the north had been stopped."

"How is the building protected?"

"So completely," said Aina, "that my only fear is that you may not be
able to reach it. On account of the danger from their enemies on Ceres,
the Martians have fortified it strongly on all sides, and have even
surrounded it and covered it overhead with a great electrical network,
to touch which would be instant death."

"Ah," said Mr. Edison, "they have got an electric shield, have they?
Well, I think we shall be able to manage that."

"Anyhow," he continued, "we have got to get into that power house, and
we have got to close those gates, and we must not lose much time in
making up our minds how it is to be done. Evidently this is our only
chance. We have not force enough to contend in open battle with the
Martians, but if we can flood them out, and thereby render the engines
contained in their fortifications useless, perhaps we shall be able to
deal with the airships, which will be all the means of defense that will
then remain to them."

This idea commended itself to all the leaders of the expedition. It was
determined to make a reconnaissance at once.

But it would not do for us to approach the planet too hastily, and we
certainly could not think of landing upon it in broad daylight. Still,
as long as we were yet a considerable distance from Mars, we felt that
we should be safe from observation because so much time had elapsed
while we were hidden behind Deimos that the Martians had undoubtedly
concluded that we were no longer in existance.

So we boldly quitted the little satellite with our entire squadron and
once more rapidly approached the red planet of war. This time it was to
be a death grapple and our chances of victory still seemed good.

As soon as we arrived so near the planet that there was danger of our
being actually seen, we took pains to keep continually in the shadow of
Mars, and the more surely to conceal our presence all lights upon the
ships were extinguished. The precaution of the commander even went so
far as to have the smooth metallic sides of the cars blackened over so
that they should not reflect light, and thus become visible to the
Martians as shining specks, moving suspiciously among the stars.

The precise location of the great power house on the shores of the
Syrtis Major having been carefully ascertained, the squadron dropped
down one night into the upper limits of the Martian atmosphere, directly
over the gulf.

Then a consultation was called on the flagship and a plan of campaign
was quickly devised.

It was deemed wise that the attempt should be made with a single
electric ship, but that the others should be kept hovering near, ready
to respond on the instant to any signal for aid which might come from
below. It was thought that, notwithstanding the wonderful defences,
which, according to Aina's account surrounded the building, a small
party would have a better chance of success than a large one.

Mr. Edison was certain that the electrical network which was described
as covering the power house would not prove a serious obstruction to us,
because by carefully sweeping the space where we intended to pass with
the disintegrators before quitting the ship, the netting could be
sufficiently cleared away to give us uninterrupted passage.

At first the intention was to have twenty men, each armed with two
disintegrators (that being the largest number one person could carry to
advantage) descend from the electrical ship and make the venture. But,
after further discussion, this number was reduced; first to a dozen, and
finally, to only four. These four consisted of Mr. Edison, Colonel
Smith, Mr. Sydney Phillips and myself.

Both by her own request and because we could not help feeling that her
knowledge of the locality would be indispensable to us, Aina was also
included in our party, but not, of course, as a fighting member of it.

It was about an hour after midnight when the ship in which we were to
make the venture parted from the remainder of the squadron and dropped
cautiously down. The blaze of electric lights running away in various
directions indicated the lines of innumerable canals with habitations
crowded along their banks, which came to a focus at a point on the
continent of Aeria, westward from the Syrtis Major.

We stopped the electrical ship at an elevation of perhaps three hundred
feet above the vast roof of a structure which Aina assured us was the
building of which we were in search.

Here we remained for a few minutes, cautiously reconnoitering. On that
side of the power house which was opposite to the shore of the Syrtis
Major there was a thick grove of trees, lighted beneath, as was apparent
from the illumination which here and there streamed up through the cover
of leaves, but, nevertheless, dark and gloomy above the tree tops.

"The electric network extends over the grove as well as over the
building," said Aina.

This was lucky for us, because we wished to descend among the trees,
and, by destroying part of the network over the tree tops, we could
reach the shelter we desired and at the same time pass within the line
of electric defenses.

With increased caution, and almost holding our breath lest we should
make some noise that might reach the ears of the sentinels below, we
caused the car to settle gently down until we caught sight of a metallic
net stretched in the air between us and the trees.

After our first encounter with the Martians on the asteroid, where, as I
have related, some metal which was included in their dress resisted the
action of the disintegrators, Mr. Edison had readjusted the range of
vibrations covered by the instruments, and since then we had found
nothing that did not yield to them. Consequently, we had no fear that
the metal of the network would not be destroyed.

There was danger, however, of arousing attention by shattering holes
through the tree tops. This could be avoided by first carefully
ascertaining how far away the network was and then with the adjustable
mirrors attached to the disintegrators focusing the vibratory discharge
at that distance.

So successful were we that we opened a considerable gap in the network
without doing any perceptible damage to the trees beneath.

The ship was cautiously lowered through the opening and brought to rest
among the upper branches of one of the tallest trees. Colonel Smith, Mr.
Phillips, Mr. Edison and myself at once clambered out upon a strong
limb.

For a moment I feared our arrival had been betrayed on account of the
altogether too noisy contest that arose between Colonel Smith and Mr.
Phillips as to which of them should assist Aina. To settle the dispute I
took charge of her myself.

At length we were all safely in the tree.

Then followed the still more dangerous undertaking of descending from
this great height to the ground. Fortunately, the branches were very
close together and they extended down within a short distance of the
soil. So the actual difficulties of the descent were not very great
after all. The one thing that we had particularly to bear in mind was
the absolute necessity of making no noise.

At length the descent was successfully accomplished, and we all five
stood together in the shadow at the foot of the great tree. The grove
was so thick around that while there was an abundance of electric lights
among the trees, their illumination did not fall upon us where we stood.

Peering cautiously through the vistas in various directions, we
ascertained our location with respect to the wall of the building. Like
all the structures which we had seen on Mars, it was composed of
polished red metal.

"Where is the entrance?" inquired Mr. Edison, in a whisper.

"Come softly this way, and look out for the sentinel," replied Aina.

Gripping our disintegrators firmly, and screwing up our courage, with
noiseless steps we followed the girl among the shadows of the trees.

We had one-very great advantage. The Martians had evidently placed so
much confidence in the electric network which surrounded the power house
that they never dreamed of enemies being able to penetrate it--at least,
without giving warning of their coming.

But the hole which we had blown in this network with the disintegrators
had been made noiselessly, and Mr. Edison believed, since no enemies had
appeared, that our operations had not been betrayed by any automatic
signal to watchers inside the building.

Consequently, we had every reason to think that we now stood within the
line of defense, in which they reposed the greatest confidence, without
their having the least suspicion of our presence.

Aina assured us that on the occasion of her former visit to the power
house there had been but two sentinels on guard at the entrance. At the
inner end of a long passage leading to the interior, she said, there
were two more. Besides these there were three or four Martian engineers
watching the machinery in the interior of the building. A number of
airships were supposed to be on guard around the structure, but possibly
their vigilance had been relaxed, because not long ago the Martians had
sent an expedition against Ceres which had been so successful that the
power of that planet to make any attack upon Mars had, for the present
been destroyed.

Supposing us to have been annihilated in the recent battle among the
clouds, they would have no fear or cause for vigilance on our account.

The entrance to the great structure was low--at least, when measured by
the stature of the Martians. Evidently the intention was that only one
person at a time should find room to pass through it.

Drawing cautiously near, we discerned the outlines of two gigantic
forms, standing in the darkness, one on either side of the door. Colonel
Smith whispered to me:

"If you will take the fellow on the right, I will attend to the other
one."

Adjusting our aim as carefully as was possible in the gloom, Colonel
Smith and I simultaneously discharged our disintegrators, sweeping them
rapidly up and down in the manner which had become familiar to us when
endeavoring to destroy one of the gigantic Martians with a single
stroke. And so successful were we that the two sentinels disappeared as
if they were ghosts of the night.

Instantly we all hurried forward and entered the door. Before us
extended a long, straight passage, brightly illuminated by a number of
electric candles. Its polished sides gleamed with blood-red reflections,
and the gallery terminated, at a distance of two or three hundred feet,
with an opening into a large chamber beyond, on the further side of
which we could see part of a gigantic and complicated mass of machinery.

Making as little noise as possible, we pushed ahead along the passage,
but when we had arrived within the distance of a dozen paces from the
inner end, we stopped, and Colonel Smith, getting down upon his knees,
crept forward, until he had reached the inner end of the passage. There
he peered cautiously around the edge into the chamber, and, turning his
head a moment later, beckoned us to come forward. We crept to his side,
and, looking out into the vast apartment, could perceive no enemies.

What had become of the sentinels supposed to stand at the inner end the
passage we could not imagine. At any rate, they were not at their posts.

The chamber was an immense square room at least a hundred feet in height
and 400 feet on a side, and almost filling the wall opposite to us was
an intricate display of machinery, wheels, levers, rods and polished
plates. This we had no doubt was one end of the engine which opened and
shut the great gates that could dam an ocean.

"There is no one in sight," said Colonel Smith.

"Then we must act quickly," said Mr. Edison.

"Where," he said, turning to Aina, "is the handle by turning which you
saw the Martian close the gates?"

Aina looked about in bewilderment. The mechanism before us was so
complicated that even an expert mechanic would have been excusable for
finding himself unable to understand it. There were scores of knobs and
handles, all glistening in the electric light, any one of which, so far
as the uninstructed could tell, might have been the master key that
controlled the whole complex apparatus.

"Quick," said Mr. Edison, "where is it?"

The girl in her confusion ran this way and that, gazing hopelessly upon
the machinery, but evidently utterly unable to help us.

To remain here inactive was not merely to invite destruction for
ourselves, but was sure to bring certain failure upon the purpose of the
expedition. All of us began instantly to look about in search of the
proper handle, seizing every crank and wheel in sight and striving to
turn it.

"Stop that!" shouted Mr. Edison, "you may set the whole thing wrong.
Don't touch anything until we have found the right lever."

But to find that seemed to most of us now utterly beyond the power of
man.

It was at this critical moment that the wonderful depth and reach of Mr.
Edison's mechanical genius displayed itself. He stepped back, ran his
eyes quickly over the whole immense mass of wheels, handles, bolts, bars
and levers, paused for an instant, as if making up his mind, then said
decidedly, "There it is," and stepping quickly forward, selected a small
wheel amid a dozen others, all furnished at the circumference with
handles like those of a pilot's wheel, and giving it a quick wrench,
turned it half-way around.

At this instant, a startling shout fell upon our ears. There was a
thunderous clatter behind us, and, turning, we saw three gigantic
Martians rushing forward.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

_VENGEANCE IS OURS_

"Sweep them! sweep them!" shouted Colonel Smith, as he brought his
disintegrator to bear. Mr. Phillips and I instantly followed his
example, and thus we swept the Martians into eternity, while Mr. Edison
coolly continued his manipulations of the wheel.

The effect of what he was doing became apparent in less than half a
minute. A shiver ran through the mass of machinery and shook the entire
building.

"Look! Look!" cried Sydney Phillips, who had stepped a little apart from
the others.

We all ran to his side and found ourselves in front of a great window
which opened through the side of the engine, giving a view of what lay
in front of it. There, gleaming in the electric lights, we saw Syrtis
Major, its waters washing high against the walls of the vast power
house. Running directly out from the shore, there was an immense
metallic gate at least 400 yards in length and rising three hundred feet
above the present level of the water.

This great gate was slowly swinging upon an invisible hinge in such a
manner that in a few minutes it would evidently stand across the current
of the Syrtis Major at right angles.

Beyond was a second gate, which was moving in the same manner. Further
on was a third gate, and then another, and another, as far as the eye
could reach, evidently extending in an unbroken series completely across
the great strait.

As the gates, with accelerated motion when the current caught them,
clanged together, we beheld a spectacle that almost stopped the beating
of our hearts.

The great Syrtis seemed to gather itself for a moment, and then it
leaped upon the obstruction and buried its waters into one vast foaming
geyser that seemed to shoot a thousand feet skyward.

But the metal gates withstood the shock, though buried from our sight in
the seething white mass, and the baffled waters instantly swirled around
in ten thousand gigantic eddies, rising to the level of our window and
beginning to inundate the power house before we fairly comprehended our
peril.

"We have done the work," said Mr. Edison, smiling grimly. "Now we had
better get out of this before the flood bursts upon us."

The warning came none too soon. It was necessary to act upon it at once
if we would save our lives. Even before we could reach the entrance to
the long passage through which we had come into the great engine room,
the water had risen half-way to our knees. Colonel Smith, catching Aina
under his arm, led the way. The roar of the maddened torrent behind
deafened us.

As we ran through the passage the water followed us, with a wicked
swishing sound, and within five seconds it was above our knees; in ten
seconds up to our waists.

The great danger now was that we should be swept from our feet, and once
down in that torrent there would have been little chance of our ever
getting our heads above its level. Supporting ourselves as best we could
with the aid of the walls, we partly ran, and were partly swept along,
until when we reached the outer end of the passage and emerged into the
open air, the flood was swirling about our shoulders.

Here there was an opportunity to clutch some of the ornamental work
surrounding the doorway, and thus we managed to stay our mad progress,
and gradually to work out of the current until we found that the water,
having now an abundance of room to spread, had fallen again as low as
our knees.

But suddenly we heard the thunder of the banks tumbling behind us, and
to the right and left, and the savage growl of the released water as it
sprang through the breaches.

To my dying day, I think, I shall not forget the sight of a great fluid
column that burst through the dike at the edge of the grove of trees,
and, by the tremendous impetus of its rush, seemed turned into a solid
thing.

Like an enormous ram, it plowed the soil to a depth of twenty feet,
uprooting acres of the immense trees like stubble turned over by the
plowshare.

The uproar was so awful that for an instant the coolest of us lost our
self-control. Yet we knew that we had not the fraction of a second to
waste. The breaking of the banks had caused the water again rapidly to
rise about us. In a little while it was once more as high as our waists.

In the excitement and confusion, deafened by the noise and blinded by
the flying foam, we were in danger of becoming separated in the flood.
We no longer knew certainly in what direction was the tree by whose aid
we had ascended from the electrical ship. We pushed first one way and
then another, staggering through the rushing waters in search of it.
Finally we succeeded in locating it, and with all our strength hurried
toward it.

Then there came a noise as if the globe of Mars had been split asunder,
and another great head of water hurled itself down upon the soil before
us, and, without taking time to spread, bored a vast cavity in the
ground, and scooped out the whole of the grove before our eyes as easily
as a gardener lifts a sod with his spade.

Our last hope was gone. For a moment the level of the water around us
sank again, as it poured into the immense excavation where the grove had
stood, but in an instant it was reinforced from all sides and began once
more rapidly to rise.

We gave ourselves up for lost, and, indeed, there did not seem any
possible hope of salvation.

Even in the extremity I saw Colonel Smith lifting the form of Aina, who
had fainted, above the surface of the surging water, while Sydney
Phillips stood by his side and aided him in supporting the unconscious
girl.

"We stayed a little too long," was the only sound I heard from Mr.
Edison.

The huge bulk of the power house partially protected us against the
force of the current, and the water spun us around in great eddies.
These swept us this way and that, but yet we managed to cling together,
determined not to be separated in death if we could avoid it.

Suddenly a cry rang out directly above our heads:

"Jump for your lives, and be quick!"

At the same instant the ends of several ropes splashed into the water.

We glanced upward, and there, within three or four yards of our heads,
hung the electrical ship, which we had left moored at the top of the
tree.

Tom, the expert electrician from Mr. Edison's shop, who had remained in
charge of the ship, had never once dreamed of such a thing as deserting
us. The moment he saw the water bursting over the dam, and evidently
flooding the building which we had entered, he cast off his moorings, as
we subsequently learned, and hovered over the entrance to the power
house, getting as low down as possible and keeping a sharp watch for us.

But most of the electric lights in the vicinity had been carried down by
the first rush of water, and in the darkness he did not see us when we
emerged from the entrance. It was only after the sweeping away of the
grove of trees had allowed a flood of light to stream upon the scene
from a cluster of electric lamps on a distant portion of the bank on the
Syrtis that had not yet given way that he caught sight of us.

Immediately he began to shout to attract our attention, but in the awful
uproar we could not hear him. Getting together all the ropes that he
could lay his hands on, he steered the ship to a point directly over us,
and then dropped down within a few yards of the boiling flood.

Now as he hung over our heads, and saw the water up to our very necks
and still swiftly rising, he shouted again:

"Catch hold, for God's sake!"

The three men who were with him in the ship seconded his cries.

But by the time we had fairly grasped the ropes, so rapidly was the
flood rising, we were already afloat. With the assistance of Tom and his
men we were rapidly drawn up, and immediately Tom reversed the electric
polarity, and the ship began to rise.

At that same instant, with a crash that shivered the air, the immense
metallic power house gave way and was swept tumbling, like a hill torn
loose from its base, over the very spot where a moment before we had
stood. One second's hesitation on the part of Tom, and the electrical
ship would have been battered into a shapeless wad of metal by the
careening mass.

When we had attained a considerable height, so that we could see a great
distance on either side, the spectacle became even more fearful than it
was when we were close to the surface.

On all sides banks and dykes were going down; trees were being uprooted;
buildings were tumbling, and the ocean was achieving that victory over
the land which had long been its due, but which the ingenuity of the
inhabitants of Mars had postponed for ages.

Far away we could see the front of the advancing wave crested with foam
that sparkled in the electric lights, and as it swept on it changed the
entire aspect of the planet--in front of it all life, behind it all
death.

Eastward our view extended across the Syrtis Major toward the land of
Libya and the region of Isidis. On that side also the dykes were giving
way under the tremendous pressure, and the floods were rushing toward
the sunrise, which had just began to streak the eastern sky.

The continents that were being overwhelmed on the western side of the
Syrtis were Meroc, Aeria, Arabia, Edom and Eden.

The water beneath us continually deepened. The current from the melting
snows around the southern pole was at its strongest, and one could
hardly have believed that any obstruction put in its path would have
been able to arrest it and turn it into these two all-swallowing
deluges, sweeping east and west. But, as we now perceived, the level of
the land over a large part of its surface was hundreds of feet below the
ocean, so that the latter, when once the barriers were broken, rushed
into depressions that yawned to receive it.

The point where we had dealt our blow was far removed from the great
capitol of Mars, around the Lake of the Sun, and we knew that we should
have to wait for the floods to reach that point before the desired
effect could be produced. By the nearest way, the water had at least
5,000 miles to travel. We estimated that its speed where we hung above
it was as much as a hundred miles an hour. Even if that speed were
maintained, more than two days and nights would be required for the
floods to reach the Lake of the Sun.

But as the water rushed on it would break the banks of all the canals
intersecting the country, and these, being also elevated above the
surface, would add the impetus of their escaping waters to hasten the
advance of the flood. We calculated, therefore, that about two days
would suffice to place the planet at our mercy.

Half way from the Syrtis Major to the Lake of the Sun another great
connecting link between the Southern and Northern ocean basins, called
on our maps of Mars the Indus, existed, and through this channel we knew
that another great current must be setting from the south toward the
north. The flood that we had started would reach and break the banks of
the Indus within one day.

The flood traveling in the other direction, toward the east, would have
considerably further to go before reaching the neighborhood of the Lake
of the Sun. It, too, would involve hundreds of great canals as it
advanced and would come plunging upon the Lake of the Sun and its
surrounding forts and cities, probably about half a day later than the
arrival of the deluge that traveled toward the west.

Now that we had let the awful destroyer loose we almost shrank from the
thought of the consequences which we had produced. How many millions
would perish as the result of our deed we could not even guess. Many of
the victims, so far as we knew, might be entirely innocent of enmity
toward us, or of the evil which had been done to our native planet. But
this was a case in which the good--if they existed--must suffer with the
bad on account of the wicked deeds of the latter.

I have already remarked that the continents of Mars were higher on their
northern and southern borders where they faced the great oceans. These
natural barriers bore to the main mass of land somewhat the relation of
the edge of a shallow dish to its bottom. Their rise on the land side
was too gradual to give them the appearance of hills, but on the side
toward the sea they broke down in steep banks and cliffs several hundred
feet in height. We guessed that it would be in the direction of these
elevations that the inhabitants would flee, and those who had timely
warning might thus be able to escape in case the flood did not--as it
seemed possible it might in its first mad rush--overtop the highest
elevations on Mars.

As day broke and the sun slowly rose upon the dreadful scene beneath us,
we began to catch sight of some of the fleeing inhabitants. We had
shifted the position of the fleet toward the south, and were now
suspended above the southeastern corner of Aeria. Here a high bank of
reddish rock confronted the sea, whose waters ran lashing and roaring
along the bluffs to supply the rapid drought produced by the emptying of
Syrtis Major. Along the shore there was a narrow line of land, hundreds
of miles in length, but less than a quarter of a mile broad, which still
rose slightly above the surface of the water, and this land of refuge
was absolutely packed with the monstrous inhabitants of the planet who
had fled hither on the first warning that the water was coming.

In some places it was so crowded that the later comers could not find
standing ground on dry land, but were continually slipping back and
falling into the water. It was an awful sight to look at them. It
reminded me of pictures I had seen of the deluge in the days of Noah,
when the waters had risen to the mountain tops, and men, women and
children were fighting for a foothold upon the last dry spots the earth
contained.

We were all moved by a desire to help our enemies, for we were
overwhelmed with feelings of pity and remorse, but to aid them was now
utterly beyond our power. The mighty floods were out, and the end was in
the hands of God.

Fortunately, we had little time for these thoughts, because no sooner
had the day begun to dawn around us than the airships of the Martians
appeared. Evidently the people in them were dazed by the disaster and
uncertain what to do. It is doubtful whether at first they comprehended
the fact that we were the agents who had produced the cataclysm.

But as the morning advanced the airships came flocking in greater and
greater numbers from every direction, many swooping down close to the
flood in order to rescue those who were drowning. Hundreds gathered
along the slip of land which was crowded as I have described, with
refugees, while other hundreds rapidly assembled about us, evidently
preparing for an attack.

We had learned in our previous contests with the airships of the
Martians that our electrical ships had a great advantage over them, not
merely in rapidity and facility of movement, but in the fact that our
disintegrators could sweep in every direction, while it was only with
much difficulty that the Martian airships could discharge their
electrical strokes at an enemy poised directly above their heads.

Accordingly, orders were instantly flashed to all the squadrons to rise
vertically to an elevation so great that the rarity of the atmosphere
would prevent the airships from attaining the same level.

This maneuver was executed so quickly that the Martians were unable to
deal us a blow before we were poised above them in such a position that
they could not easily reach us. Still they did not mean to give up the
conflict.

Presently we saw one of the largest of their ships maneuvering in a very
peculiar manner, the purpose of which we did not at first comprehend.
Its forward portion commenced slowly to rise, until it pointed upward
like the nose of a fish approaching the surface of the water. The moment
it was in this position, an electrical bolt was darted from its prow,
and one of our ships received a shock which, although it did not prove
fatal to the vessel itself, killed two or three men aboard it,
disarranged its apparatus, and rendered it for the time being useless.

"Ah, that's their trick, is it?" said Mr. Edison. "We must look out for
that. Whenever you see one of the airships beginning to stick its nose
up after that fashion blaze away at it."

An order to this effect was transmitted throughout the squadron. At the
same time several of the most powerful disintegrators were directed upon
the ship which had executed the stratagem and, reduced to a wreck, it
dropped, whirling like a broken kite until it fell into the flood
beneath.

Still the Martian ships came flocking in ever greater numbers from all
directions. They made desperate attempts to attain the level at which we
hung above them. This was impossible, but many, getting an impetus by a
swift run in the denser portion of the atmosphere beneath, succeeded in
rising so high that they could discharge their electric artillery with
considerable effect. Others, with more or less success, repeated the
maneuver of the ship which had first attacked us, and thus the battle
gradually became more general and more fierce, until, in the course of
an hour or two, our squadron found itself engaged with probably a
thousand airships, which blazed with incessant lightning strokes, and
were able, all too frequently, to do us serious damage.

But on our part the battle was waged with a cool determination and a
consciousness of insuperable advantage which boded ill for the enemy.
Only three or four of our sixty electrical ships were seriously damaged,
while the work of the disintegrators upon the crowded fleet that floated
beneath us was terrible to look upon.

Our strokes fell thick and fast on all sides. It was like firing into a
flock of birds that could not get away. Notwithstanding all their
efforts they were practically at our mercy. Shattered into
unrecognizable fragments, hundreds of the airships continually dropped
from their great height to be swallowed up in the boiling waters.

Yet they were game to the last. They made every effort to get at us, and
in their frenzy they seemed to discharge their bolts without much regard
to whether friends or foes were injured. Our eyes were nearly blinded by
the ceaseless glare beneath us, and the uproar was indescribable.

At length, after this fearful contest had lasted for at least three
hours, it became evident that the strength of the enemy was rapidly
weakening. Nearly the whole of their immense fleet of airships had been
destroyed, or so far damaged that they were barely able to float. Just
so long, however, as they showed signs of resistance we continued to
pour our merciless fire upon them, and the signal to cease was not given
until the airships, which had escaped serious damage began to flee in
every direction.

"Thank God, the thing is over," said Mr. Edison. "We have got the
victory at last, but how we shall make use of it is something that at
present I do not see."

"But will they not renew the attack?" asked someone.

"I do not think they can," was the reply. "We have destroyed the very
flower of their fleet."

"And better than that," said Colonel Smith, "we have destroyed their
clan; we have made them afraid. Their discipline is gone."

But this was only the beginning of our victory. The floods below were
achieving a still greater triumph, and now that we had conquered the
airships we dropped within a few hundred feet of the surface of the
water and then turned our faces westward in order to follow the advance
of the deluge and see whether, as we hoped, it would overwhelm our
enemies in the very center of their power.

In a little while we had overtaken the first wave, which was still
devouring everything. We saw it bursting the banks of the canal,
sweeping away forests of gigantic trees, and swallowing cities and
villages, leaving nothing but a broad expanse of swirling and eddying
waters, which, in consequence of the prevailing red hue of the
vegetation and the soil, looked, as shuddering we gazed down upon it,
like an ocean of blood flecked with foam and steaming with the escaping
life of the planet from whose veins it gushed.

As we skirted the southern borders of the continent the same dreadful
scenes which we had beheld on the coast of Aeria presented themselves.
Crowds of refugees thronged the high borders of the land and struggled
with one another for a foothold against the continually rising flood.

We saw, too, flitting in every direction, but rapidly fleeing before our
approach, many airships, evidently crowded with Martians, but not armed
either for offense or defense. These, of course, we did not disturb, for
merciless as our proceedings seemed even to ourselves, we had no
intention of making war upon the innocent, or upon those who had no
means to resist. What we had done it had seemed to us necessary to do,
but henceforth we were resolved to take no more lives if it could be
avoided.

Thus, during the remainder of that day, all of the following night and
all of the next day, we continued upon the heels of the advancing flood.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

_THE WOMAN FROM CERES_

The second night we could perceive ahead of us the electric lights
covering the land of Thaumasia, in the midst of which lay the Lake of
the Sun. The flood would be upon it by daybreak, and, assuming that the
demoralization produced by the news of the coming of the waters, which
we were aware had hours before been flashed to the capitol of Mars,
would prevent the Martians from effectively manning their forts, we
thought it safe to hasten on with the flagship, and one or two others,
in advance of the waters, and to hover over the Lake of the Sun, in the
darkness, in order that we might watch the deluge perform its awful work
in the morning.

Thaumasia, as we have before remarked, was a broad, oval-shaped land,
about 1,800 miles across, having the Lake of the Sun exactly in its
center. From this lake, which was four or five hundred miles in
diameter, and circular in outline, many canals radiated, as straight as
the spokes of a wheel, in every direction, and connected it with the
surrounding seas.

Like all the other Martian continents, Thaumasia lay below the level of
the sea, except toward the south, where it fronted the ocean.

Completely surrounding the lake was a great ring of cities constituting
the capitol of Mars. Here the genius of the Martians had displayed
itself to the full. The surrounding country was irrigated until it
fairly bloomed with gigantic vegetation and flowers; the canals were
carefully regulated with locks so that the supply of water was under
complete control; the display of magnificent metallic buildings of all
kinds and sizes produced a most dazzling effect, and the protection
against enemies afforded by the innumerable fortifications surrounding
the ringed city, and guarding the neighboring lands, seemed complete.

Suspended at a height of perhaps two miles from the surface, near the
southern edge of the lake, we waited for the oncoming flood. With the
dawn of day we began to perceive more clearly the effects which the news
of the drowning of the planet had produced. It was evident that many of
the inhabitants of the cities had already fled. Airships on which the
fugitives hung as thick as swarms of bees were seen, elevated but a
short distance above the ground, and making their way rapidly toward the
south.

The Martians knew that their only hope of escape lay in reaching the
high southern border of the land before the floods were upon them. But
they must have known also that that narrow beach would not suffice to
contain one in ten of those who sought refuge there. The density of the
population around the Lake of the Sun seemed to us incredible. Again our
hearts sank within us at the sight of the fearful destruction of life
for which we were responsible. Yet we comforted ourselves with the
reflection that it was unavoidable. As Colonel Smith put it:

"You couldn't trust these coyotes. The only thing to do was to drown
them out. I am sorry for them, but I guess there will be as many left as
will be good for us, anyhow."

We had not long to wait for the flood. As the dawn began to streak the
east, we saw its awful crest moving out of the darkness, bursting across
the canals and plowing its way into the direction of the crowded shores
of the Lake of the Sun. The supply of water behind that great wave
seemed inexhaustible. Five thousand miles it had traveled, and yet its
power was as great as when it started from the Syrtis Major.

We caught sight of the oncoming water before it was visible to the
Martians beneath us. But while it was yet many miles away, the roar of
it reached them, and then arose a chorus of terrified cries, the effect
of which, coming to our ears out of the half gloom of the morning, was
most uncanny and horrible. Thousands upon thousands of the Martians
still remained here to become victims of the deluge. Some, perhaps, had
doubted the truth of the reports that the banks were down and the floods
were out; others, for one reason or another had been unable to get away;
others, like the inhabitants of Pompeii, had lingered too long, or had
returned after beginning their flight to secure abandoned treasures, and
now it was too late to get away.

With a roar that shook the planet the white wall rushed upon the great
city beneath our feet, and in an instant it had been engulfed. On went
the flood, swallowing up the Lake of the Sun itself, and in a little
while, as far as our eyes could range, the land of Thaumasia had been
turned into a raging sea.

We now turned our ships toward the southern border of the land,
following the direction of the airships carrying the fugitives, a few of
which were still navigating the atmosphere a mile beneath us. In their
excitement and terror the Martians paid little attention to us,
although, as the morning brightened, they must have been aware of our
presence over their heads. But, apparently, they no longer thought of
resistance; their only object was escape from the immediate and
appalling danger.

When we had progressed to a point about half way from the Lake of the
Sun to the border of the sea, having dropped down within a few hundred
feet of the surface, there suddenly appeared, in the midst of the raging
waters, a sight so remarkable that at first I rubbed my eyes in
astonishment, not crediting their report of what they beheld.

Standing on the apex of a sandy elevation, which still rose a few feet
above the gathering flood, was a figure of a woman, as perfect in form
and in classic beauty of feature as the Venus of Milo--a magnified human
being not less than forty feet in height!

But for her swaying and the wild motions of her arms, we should have
mistaken her for a marble statue.

Aina, who happened to be looking, instantly exclaimed:

"It is the woman from Ceres. She was taken prisoner by the Martians
during their last invasion of that world, and since then has been a
slave in the palace of the emperor."

Apparently her great stature had enabled her to escape, while her
masters had been drowned. She had fled like the others, toward the
south, but being finally surrounded by the rising waters, had taken
refuge on the hillock of sand, where we saw her. This was fast giving
way under the assault of the waves, and even while we watched the water
rose to her knees.

"Drop lower," was the order of the electrical steersman of the flagship,
and as quickly as possible we approached the place where the towering
figure stood.

She had realized the hopelessness of her situation, and quickly ceased
those appalling and despairing gestures, which had at first served to
convince us that it was indeed a living being on whom we were looking.

There she stood, with a light, white garment thrown about her, erect,
half-defiant, half yielding to her fear, more graceful than any Greek
statue, her arms outstretched, yet motionless, and her eyes upcast, as
if praying to her God to protect her. Her hair, which shone like gold in
the increasing light of day, streamed over her shoulders, and her great
eyes were astare between terror and supplication. So wildly beautiful a
sight not one of us had ever beheld.

For a moment sympathy was absorbed in admiration. Then:

"Save her! Save her!" was the cry that arose throughout the ship.

Ropes were instantly thrown out, and one or two men prepared to let
themselves down in order better to aid her.

But when we were almost within reach, and so close that we could see the
very expression of her eyes, which appeared to take no note of us, but
to be fixed, with a far away look upon something beyond human ken,
suddenly the undermined bank on which she stood gave way, the blood red
flood swirled in from right to left, and then:

    "The waters closed above her face
    With many a ring."

"If but for that woman's sake, I am sorry we drowned the planet,"
exclaimed Sydney Phillips. But a moment afterward I saw that he
regretted what he had said, for Aina's eyes were fixed upon him.
Perhaps, however, she did not understand his remark, and perhaps if she
did it gave her no offence.

After this episode we pursued our way rapidly until we arrived at the
shore of the Southern Ocean. There, as we had expected, was to be seen a
narrow strip of land with the ocean on one side and the raging flood
seeking to destroy it on the other. In some places it had already broken
through, so that the ocean was flowing in to assist in the drowning of
Thaumasia.

But some parts of the coast were evidently so elevated that no matter
how high the flood might rise it would not completely cover them. Here
the fugitives had gathered in dense throngs and above them hovered most
of the airships, loaded down with others who were unable to find room
upon the dry land.

On one of the loftiest and broadest of these elevations we noticed
indications of military order in the alignment of the crowds and the
shore all around was guarded by gigantic pickets, who mercilessly shoved
back into the flood all the later comers, and thus prevented too great
crowding upon the land. In the center of this elevation rose a palatial
structure of red metal which Aina informed us was one of the residences
of the Emperor, and we concluded that the monarch himself was now
present there.

The absence of any signs of resistance on the part of the airships, and
the complete drowning of all of the formidable fortifications on the
surface of the planet, convinced us that all we had to do in order to
complete our conquest was to get possession of the person of the chief
ruler.

The fleet was, accordingly, concentrated, and we rapidly approached the
great Martian palace. As we came down within a hundred feet of them and
boldly made our way among their airships, which retreated at our
approach, the Martians gazed at us with mingled fear and astonishment.

We were their conquerors and they knew it. We were coming to demand
their surrender, and they evidently understood that also. As we
approached the palace signals were made from it with brilliant colored
banners which Aina informed us were intended as a token of truce.

"We shall have to go down and have a confab with them, I suppose," said
Mr. Edison. "We can't kill them off now that they are helpless, but we
must manage somehow to make them understand that unconditional surrender
is their only chance."

"Let us take Aina with us," I suggested, "and since she can speak the
language of the Martians we shall probably have no difficulty in
arriving at an understanding."

Accordingly the flagship was carefully brought further down in front of
the entrance to the palace, which had been kept clear by the Martian
guards, and while the remainder of the squadron assembled within a few
feet directly over our heads with the disintegrators turned upon the
palace and the crowd below, Mr. Edison and myself, accompanied by Aina,
stepped out upon the ground.

There was a forward movement in the immense crowd, but the guards
sternly kept everybody back. A party of a dozen giants, preceded by one
who seemed to be their commander, gorgeously attired in jewelled
garments, advanced from the entrance of the palace to meet us. Aina
addressed a few words to the leader, who replied sternly, and then,
beckoning us to follow, retraced his steps into the palace.

Notwithstanding our confidence that all resistance had ceased, we did
not deem it wise actually to venture into the lion's den without having
taken every precaution against a surprise. Accordingly, before following
the Martian into the palace, we had twenty of the electrical ships
moored around it in such a position that they commanded not only the
entrance but all of the principal windows, and then a party of forty
picked men, each doubly armed with powerful disintegrators, were
selected to attend us into the building. This party was placed under the
command of Colonel Smith, and Sydney Phillips insisted on being a member
of it.

In the meantime the Martian with his attendants who had first invited us
to enter, finding that we did not follow him, had returned to the front
of the palace. He saw the disposition that we had made of our forces,
and instantly comprehended its significance, for his manner changed
somewhat, and he seemed more desirous than before to conciliate us.

When he again beckoned us to enter, we unhesitatingly followed him, and
passing through the magnificent entrance, found ourselves in a vast
ante-chamber, adorned after the manner of the Martians in the most
expensive manner. Thence we passed into a great circular apartment, with
a dome painted in imitation of the sky, and so lofty that to our eyes it
seemed like the firmament itself. Here we found ourselves approaching an
elevated throne situated in the center of the apartment, while long rows
of brilliantly armored guards flanked us on either side, and grouped
around the throne, some standing and others reclining upon the flights
of steps which appeared to be of solid gold, was an array of Martian
woman, beautifully and becomingly attired, all of whom greatly
astonished us by the singular charm of their faces and bearing, so
different from the aspect of most of the Martians whom we had
encountered.

Despite their stature--for these women averaged twelve or thirteen feet
in height--the beauty of their complexions--of a dark olive tint--was no
less brilliant than that of the women of Italy or Spain.

At the top of the steps on a magnificent golden throne, sat the Emperor
himself. There are some busts of Caracalla which I have seen that are
almost as ugly as the face of the Martian ruler. He was of gigantic
stature, larger than the majority of his subjects, and as near as I
could judge must have been between fifteen and sixteen feet in height.

As I looked at him I understood a remark which had been made by Aina to
the effect that the Martians were not all alike, and that the
peculiarities of their minds were imprinted on their faces and expressed
in their forms in a very wonderful, and sometimes terrible manner.

I had also learned from her that Mars was under a military government,
and that the military class had absolute control of the planet. I was
somewhat startled, then, in looking at the head and center of the great
military system of Mars, to find in his appearance a striking
conformation of the speculations of our terrestrial phrenologists. His
broad, mis-shapen head bulged in those parts where they had placed the
so-called organs of combativeness, destructiveness, etc.

Plainly, this was an effect of his training and education. His very
brain had become a military engine; and the aspect of his face, the
pitiless lines of his mouth and chin, the evil glare of his eyes, the
attitude and carriage of his muscular body, all tended to complete the
warlike ensemble.

He was magnificently dressed in some vesture that had the luster of a
polished plate of gold, and the suppleness of velvet. As we approached
he fixed his immense, deep-set eyes sternly upon our faces.

The contrast between his truly terrible countenance and the Eve-like
features of the women which surrounded his throne was as great as if
Satan after his fall had here re-enthroned himself in the midst of
angels.

Mr. Edison, Colonel Smith, Sydney Phillips, Aina and myself advanced at
the head of the procession, our guard following in close order behind
us. It had been evident from the moment that we entered the palace that
Aina was regarded with aversion by all of the Martians. Even the women
about the throne gazed scowlingly at her as we drew near. Apparently,
the bitterness of feeing which had led to the massacre of all of her
race had not yet vanished. And, indeed, since the fact that she remained
alive could have been known only to the Martian who had abducted her and
to his immediate companions, her reappearance with us must have been a
great surprise to all those who now looked upon her.

It was clear to me that the feeling aroused by her appearance was every
moment becoming more intense. Still, the thought of a violent outbreak
did not occur to me, because our recent triumph had seemed so complete
that I believed the Martians would be awed by our presence, and would
not undertake actually to injure the girl.

I think we all had the same impression, but as the event proved, we were
mistaken.

Suddenly one of the gigantic guards, as if actuated by a fit of
ungovernable hatred, lifted his foot and kicked Aina. With a loud shriek
she fell to the floor.

The blow was so unexpected that for a second we all stood riveted to the
spot. Then I saw Colonel Smith's face turn livid, and at the same
instant heard the whirr of his disintegrator, while Sydney Phillips,
forgetting the deadly instrument he carried in his hand, sprung madly
toward the brute who had kicked Aina, as if he intended to throttle him,
colossus that he was.

But Colonel Smith's aim, though instantaneously taken, as he had been
accustomed to shoot on the plains, was true, and Phillips, plunging
madly forward, seemed wreathed in a faint blue mist--all that the
disintegrator had left of the gigantic Martian.

Who could adequately describe the scene that followed?

I remember that the Martian emperor sprang to his feet, looking tenfold
more terrible than before. I remember that there instantly burst from
the line of guards on either side crinkling beams of death-fire that
seemed to sear the eyeballs. I saw a half a dozen of our men fall in
heaps of ashes, and even at that terrible moment I had time to wonder
that a single one of us remained alive.

Rather by instinct than in consequence of any order given, we formed
ourselves in a hollow square, with Aina lying apparently lifeless in the
center, and then with gritted teeth we did our work.

The lines of guards melted before the disintegrators like rows of snow
men before a licking flame.

The discharge of the lightning engines in the hands of the Martians in
that confined space made an uproar so tremendous that it seemed to pass
the bounds of human sense.

More of our men fell before their awful fire, and for the second time
since our arrival on this deadful planet of war our annihilation seemed
inevitable.

But in a moment the whole scene changed. Suddenly there was a discharge
into the room which I knew came from one of the disintegrators of the
electrical ships. It swept through the crowded throng like a destroying
blast. Instantly from another side, swished a second discharge, no less
destructive, and this was quickly followed by a third.

Our ships were firing through the windows.

Almost at the same moment I saw the flagship, which had been moored in
the air close to the entrance and floating only three or four feet above
the ground, pushing its way through the gigantic doorway from the
ante-room, with its great disintegrators pointed upon the crowd like the
muzzles of a cruiser's guns.

And now the Martians saw that the contest was hopeless for them, and
their mad struggle to get out of the range of the disintegrators and to
escape from the death chamber was more appalling to look upon than
anything that had yet occurred.

[Illustration: _"Suddenly there was a discharge into the room which I
knew came from one of the disintegrators of the electrical ships. It
swept through the crowded throng like a destroying blast. It was a panic
of giants!"_]

It was a panic of giants. They trod one another under foot; they yelled
and screamed in their terror; they tore each other with their claw-like
fingers. They no longer thought of resistance. The battle spirit had
been blown out of them by a breath of terror that shivered their marrow.

Still the pitiless disintegrators played upon them until Mr. Edison,
making himself heard, now that the thunder of their engines had ceased
to reverberate through the chamber, commanded that our fire should
cease.

In the meantime the armed Martians outside the palace, hearing the
uproar within, seeing our men pouring their fire through the windows,
and supposing that we were guilty at once of treachery and
assassination, had attempted an attack upon the electrical ships
stationed round the building. But fortunately they had none of their
larger engines at hand, and with their hand arms alone they had not been
able to stand up against the disintegrators. They were blown away before
the withering fire of the ships by the hundreds until, fleeing from
destruction, they rushed madly, driving their unarmed companions before
them into the seething waters of the flood close at hand.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

_THE FEARFUL OATHS OF COLONEL SMITH_

Through all this terrible contest the emperor of the Martians had
remained standing upon his throne, gazing at the awful spectacle, and
not moving from the spot. Neither he nor the frightened woman gathered
upon the steps of the throne had been injured by the disintegrators.
Their immunity was due to the fact that the position and elevation of
the throne were such that, it was not within the range of fire of the
electrical ships which had poured their vibratory discharges through the
windows, and we inside had only directed our fire toward the warriors
who had attacked us.

Now that the struggle was over we turned our attention to Aina.
Fortunately the girl had not been seriously injured and she was quickly
restored to consciousness. Had she been killed, we would have been
practically helpless in attempting further negotiations, because the
knowledge which we had acquired of the language of the Martians from the
prisoner captured on the golden asteroid, was not sufficient to meet the
requirements of the occasion.

When the Martian monarch saw that we ceased the work of death, he sank
upon his throne. There he remained, leaning his chin upon his two hands
and staring straight before him like that terrible doomed creature who
fascinates the eyes of every beholder standing in the Sistine Chapel and
gazing at Micheal Angeleo's dreadful painting of "The Last Judgement."

This wicked Martian also felt that he was in the grasp of pitiless and
irresistible fate, and that a punishment too well deserved, and from
which there was no possible escape, now confronted him.

There he remained in a hopelessness which almost compelled our sympathy,
until Aina had so far recovered that she was once more able to act as
our interpreter. Then we made short work of the negotiations. Speaking
through Aina, the commander said:

"You know who we are. We have come from the earth, which, by your
command, was laid waste. Our commission was not revenge, but
self-protection. What we have done has been accomplished with that in
view. You have just witnessed an example of our power, the exercise of
which was not dictated by our wish, but compelled by the attack wantonly
made upon a helpless member of our own race under our protection.

"We have laid waste your planet, but it is simply a just retribution for
what you did with ours. We are prepared to complete the destruction,
leaving not a living being in this world of yours, or to grant you
peace, at your choice. Our condition of peace is simply this: All
resistance must cease absolutely."

"Quite right," broke in Colonel Smith; "let the scorpion pull out his
sting or we shall do it for him."

"Nothing that we could do now," continued the commander, "would in my
opinion save you from ultimate destruction. The forces of nature which
we have been compelled to let loose upon you will complete their own
victory. But we do not wish, unnecessarily, to stain our hands further
with your blood. We shall leave you in possession of your lives.
Preserve them if you can. But, in case the flood recedes before you have
all perished from starvation, remember that you here take an oath,
solemnly binding yourself and your descendants forever never again to
make war upon the earth."

"That's really the best we can do," said Mr. Edison, turning to us. "We
can't possibly murder these people in cold blood. The probability is
that the flood has hopelessly ruined all their engines of war. I do not
believe that there is one chance in ten that the waters will drain off
in time to enable them to get at their stores of provisions before they
have perished from starvation."

"It is my opinion," said Lord Kelvin, who had joined us (his pair of
disintegrators hanging by his side, attached to a strap running over the
back of his neck, very much as a farmer sometimes carries his big
mittens), "it is my opinion that the flood will recede more rapidly than
you think, and that the majority of these people will survive. But I
quite agree with your merciful view of the matter. We must be guilty of
no wanton destruction. Probably more than nine-tenths of the inhabitants
of Mars have perished in the deluge. Even if all the others survived
ages would elapse before they could regain the power to injure us."

I need not describe in detail how our propositions were received by the
Martian monarch. He knew, and his advisors, some of whom he had called
in consultation, also knew, that everything was in our hands to do as we
pleased. They readily agreed, therefore, that they would make no more
resistance and that we and our electrical ships should be undisturbed
while we remained upon Mars. The monarch took the oath prescribed after
the manner of his race; thus the business was completed. But through it
all there had been a shadow of a sneer on the emperor's face which I did
not like. But I said nothing.

And now we began to think of our return home, and of the pleasure we
should have in recounting our adventures to our friends on the earth,
who undoubtedly were eagerly awaiting news from us. We knew that they
had been watching Mars with powerful telescopes, and we were also eager
to learn how much they had seen and how much they had been able to guess
of our proceedings.

But a day or two at least would be required to overhaul the electrical
ships and examine the state of our provisions. Those which we had
brought from the earth, it will be remembered, had been spoiled and we
had been compelled to replace them from the compressed provisions found
in the Martian's storehouse. This compressed food had proved not only
exceedingly agreeable to the taste, but very nourishing, and all of us
had grown extremely fond of it. A new supply, however, would be needed
in order to carry us back to the earth. At least sixty days would be
required for the homeward journey, because we could hardly expect to
start from Mars with the same initial velocity which we had been able to
generate on leaving home.

In considering the matter of provisioning the fleet it finally became
necessary to take an account of our losses. This was a thing that we had
all shrunk from, because they had seemed to us almost too terrible to be
borne. But now the facts had to be faced. Out of the one hundred ships,
carrying something more than two thousand souls, with which we had
quitted the earth, there remained only fifty-five ships and 1085 men!
All the others had been lost in our terrible encounters with the
Martians, and particularly in our first disastrous battle beneath the
clouds.

Among the lost were many men whose names were famous upon the earth, and
whose death would be widely deplored when the news of it was received
upon their native planet. Fortunately this number did not include any of
those whom I have had occasion to mention in the course of this
narrative. The venerable Lord Kelvin, who, notwithstanding his age, and
his pacific disposition, proper to a man of science, had behaved with
the courage and coolness of a veteran in every crisis; Monsieur Moissan,
the eminent chemist; Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson, and the Heidelberg
professor, to whom we all felt under special obligations because he had
opened to our comprehension the charming lips of Aina--all these had
survived, and were about to return with us to the earth.

It seemed to some of us almost heartless to deprive the Martians who
still remained alive of any of the provisions which they themselves
would require to tide them over the long period which must elapse before
the recession of the flood should enable them to discover the sites of
their ruined homes, and to find the means of sustenance. But necessity
was now our only law. We learned from Aina that there must be stores of
provisions in the neighborhood of the palace, because it was the custom
of the Martians to lay up such stores during the harvest time in each
Martian year in order to provide against the contingency of an
extraordinary drought.

It was not with very good grace that the Martian emperor acceded to our
demands that one of the storehouses should be opened, but resistance was
useless and of course we had our way.

The supplies of water which we brought from the earth, owing to a
peculiar process invented by Monsieur Moissan, had been kept in
exceedingly good condition, but they were now running low and it became
necessary to replenish them also. This was easily done from the Southern
Ocean, for on Mars, since the levelling of the continental elevations,
brought about many years ago, there is comparatively little salinity in
the sea waters.

While these preparations were going on Lord Kelvin and the other men of
science entered with the utmost eagerness upon those studies, the
prosecution of which had been the principal inducement leading them to
embark on the expedition. But, almost all of the face of the planet
being covered with the flood, there was comparatively little that they
could do. Much, however, could be learned with the aid of Aina from the
Martians, now crowded on the land above the palace.

The results of these discoveries will in due time appear, fully
elaborated in learned and authoratative treatises prepared by these
savants' themselves. I shall only call attention to one, which seemed to
me very remarkable. I have already said that there were astonishing
differences in the personal appearance of the Martians evidently arising
from differences of character and education, which had impressed
themselves in the physical aspect of the individuals. We now learned
that these differences were more completely the result of education than
we had at first supposed.

Looking about among the Martians by whom we were surrounded, it soon
became easy for us to tell who were the soldiers and who were the
civilians, simply by the appearance of their bodies, and particularly of
their heads. All members of the military class resembled, to a greater
or less extent, the monarch himself, in that those parts of their skulls
which our phrenologists had designated as the bumps of destructiveness,
combativeness and so on were enormously and disproportionately
developed.

And all this, we were assured, was completely under the control of the
Martians themselves. They had learned, or invented, methods by which the
brain itself could be manipulated, so to speak, and any desired portions
of it could be especially developed, while other parts of it were left
to their normal growth. The consequence was that in the Martian schools
and colleges there was no teaching in our sense of the word. It was all
brain culture.

A Martian youth selected to be a soldier had his fighting faculties
especially developed, together with those parts of the brain which
impart courage and steadiness of nerve. He who was intended for
scientific investigation had his brain developed into a mathematical
machine, or an instrument of observation. Poets and literary men had
their heads bulging with the imaginative faculties. The heads of the
inventors were developed into a still different shape.

"And so," said Aina, translating for us the words of a professor in the
Imperial University of Mars, from whom we derived the greater part of
our information on this subject, "the Martian boys do not study a
subject; they do not have to learn it, but, when their brains have been
sufficiently developed in the proper direction, they comprehend it
instantly, by a kind of divine instinct."

But among the women of Mars, we saw none of these curious, and to our
eyes, monstrous differences of development. While the men received, in
addition to their special education, a broad general culture also, with
the women there was no special education. It was all general in its
character, yet thorough enough in that way. The consequence was that
only female brains upon Mars were entirely well balanced. This was the
reason why we invariably found the Martian women to be remarkably
charming creatures, with none of those physical exaggerations and
uncouth developments which disfigured their masculine companions.

All the books of the Martians, we ascertained, were books of history and
of poetry. For scientific treatises they had no need, because, as I have
explained, when the brains of those intended for scientific pursuits had
been developed in the proper way the knowledge of nature's laws came to
them without effort, as a spring bubbles from the rocks.

One word of explanation may be needed concerning the failure of the
Martians, with all their marvelous powers, to invent electrical ships
like those of Mr. Edison's and engines of destruction comparable with
our disintegrators. This failure was simply due to the fact that on Mars
there did not exist the peculiar metals by the combination of which Mr.
Edison had been able to effect his wonders. The theory involved by our
inventions was perfectly understood by them and had they possessed the
means, doubtless they would have been able to carry it into practice
even more effectively than we had done.

After two or three days all the preparations having been completed the
signal was given for our departure. The men of science were still
unwilling to leave this strange world, but Mr. Edison decided we could
linger no longer.

At the moment of starting a most tragic event occured. Our fleet was
assembled around the palace, and the signal was given to rise slowly to
a considerable height before imparting a great velocity to the
electrical ships. As we slowly rose we saw the immense crowd of giants
beneath us, with upturned faces, watching our departure. The Martian
monarch and all his suite had come out upon the terrace of the palace to
look at us. At a moment when he probably supposed himself to be
unwatched he shook his fist at the retreating fleet. My eyes and those
of several others in the flagship chanced to be fixed upon him. Just as
he made the gesture one of the women of his suite, in her eagerness to
watch us, apparently lost her balance and stumbled against him. Without
a moment's hesitation, with a tremendous blow, he felled her like an ox
at his feet.

A fearful oath broke from the lips of Colonel Smith, who was one of
those looking on. It chanced that he stood near the principal
disintegrator of the flagship. Before anybody could interfere he had
sighted and discharged it. The entire force of the terrible engine,
almost capable of destroying a fort, fell upon the Martian emperor and
not merely blew him into a cloud of atoms but opened a great cavity in
the ground on the spot where he had stood.

A shout arose from the Martians, but they were too much astounded at
what had occurred to make any hostile demonstrations, and, anyhow, they
knew well that they were completely at our mercy.

Mr. Edison was on the point of rebuking Colonel Smith for what he had
done, but Aina interposed.

"I am glad it was done," said she "for now only can you be safe. That
monster was more directly responsible than any other inhabitant of Mars
for all the wickedness of which they have been guilty.

"The expedition against the earth was inspired solely by him. There is a
tradition among the Martians--which my people, however, could never
credit--that he possessed a kind of immortality. They declared that it
was he who led the former expedition against the earth when my ancestors
were brought away prisoners from their happy home, and that it was his
image which they had set up in stone in the midst of the Land of Sand.
He prolonged his existence, according to this legend, by drinking the
waters of a wonderful fountain, the secret of whose precise location was
known to him alone but which was situated at that point where in your
maps of Mars the name of the Fons Juventae occurs. He was personified
wickedness, that I know; and he never would have kept his oath if power
had returned to him again to injure the earth. In destroying him, you
have made your victory secure."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

_THE GREAT OVATION_

When at length we once more saw our native planet, with its
well-remembered features of land and sea, rolling beneath our eyes, the
feeling of joy that came over us transcended all powers of expression.

In order that all the nations which had united in sending out the
expedition should have visual evidence of its triumphal return, it was
decided to make the entire circuit of the earth before seeking our
starting point and disembarking. Brief accounts in all known languages,
telling the story of what we had done was accordingly prepared, and then
we dropped down through the air until again we saw the well-loved blue
dome over our heads, and found ourselves suspended directly above the
white topped cone of Fujiyama, the sacred mountain of Japan. Shifting
our position toward the northeast, we hung above the city of Tokyo and
dropped down into the crowds which had assembled to watch us, the
prepared accounts of our journey, which, the moment they had been read
and comprehended, led to such an outburst of rejoicing as it would be
quite impossible to describe.

One of the ships containing the Japanese members of the expedition,
dropped to the ground, and we left them in the midst of their rejoicing
countrymen. Before we started--and we remained but a short time
suspended above the Japanese capitol--millions had assembled to greet us
with their cheers.

We now repeated what we had done during our first examination of the
surface of Mars. We simply remained suspended in the atmosphere,
allowing the earth to turn beneath us. As Japan receded in the distance
we found China beginning to appear. Shifting our position a little
toward the south, we again came to rest over the city of Pekin, where
once more we parted with some of our companions, and where the outburst
of universal rejoicing was repeated.

From Asia, crossing the Caspian Sea, we passed over Russia, visiting in
turn Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Still the great globe rolled steadily beneath, and still we kept the sun
with us. Now Germany appeared, and now Italy, and then France, and
England, as we shifted our position, first north then south, in order to
give all the world the opportunity to see that its warriors had returned
victorious from its far conquest. And in each country as it passed
beneath our feet, we left some of the comrades who had shared our perils
and our adventures.

At length the Atlantic had rolled away under us, and we saw the spires
of the new New York.

The news of our coming had been flashed ahead from Europe and our
countrymen were prepared to welcome us. We had originally started, it
will be remembered, at midnight, and now again as we approached the new
capitol of the world the curtain of night was just beginning to be drawn
over it. But our signal lights were ablaze, and through these they were
aware of our approach.

Again the air was filled with bursting rockets and shaken with the roar
of cannon, and with volleying cheers, poured from millions of throats,