 10. At first we rose to a still greater height, in order more effectively to escape the watchful eyes of our enemies. And then, after having moved rapidly several hundred miles towards the west, we dropped it down again within easy eyeshot of the surface of the planet, and commenced our inspection. When we originally reached Mars, as I have related, it was at a point in its southern hemisphere in latitude 45 degrees south and longitude 75 degrees east, that we first closely approached its surface. Underneath us was a land called Hellas, and it was over this land of Hellas that the Martian air fleet had suddenly made its appearance. Our westward motion, while at a great height above the planet, had brought us over another oval shaped land called Noachia, surrounded by the dark ocean, the Mare Erytaiu. Now approaching nearest the surface, our course was changed, so as to carry us towards the equator of Mars. We passed over the curious half-drowned continent, now into terrestrial astronomers as the region of Deucalion, then across another sea, or gulf, until we found ourselves floating at a height of perhaps five miles above a great continental land, at least three thousand miles broad from east to west, and which I immediately recognized as that to which astronomers had given the various names of Aerea, Edom, Arabia, and Eden. Here the spectacle became of restless interest. Wonderful, wonderful! Who could have believed it? Such were the exclamations heard on all sides. When at first we were suspended above Hellas, looking towards the north, the northeast and the northwest, we had seen at a distance some of these great red regions, and had perceived the curious network of canals, by which they were intersected. But that was a far-off and imperfect view. Now, when we were near at hand and straight above one of these singular lands, the magnificence of the panorama surpassed belief. From the Earth, about a dozen of the principal canals crossing the continent beneath us had been perceived, but we saw hundreds nay thousands of them. It was the double system intended both for irrigation and for protection, and far more marvelous in its completeness than the boldest speculative minds among our astronomers had ever dared to imagine. Ha! That's what I always said, exclaimed a veteran from one of our great observatories. Mars is red because its soil and vegetation are red, and certainly appearances indicated that he was right. There were no green trees and there was no green grass. Both were red, not a uniform red tint, but presenting an immense variety of shades, which produced a most brilliant effect, fairly dazzling our eyes. But what trees, and what grass, and what flowers? Gigantic vegetation. Our telescope showed that even the smaller trees must be two or three hundred feet in height, and there were forests of giants whose average height was evidently at least one thousand feet. That's all right, exclaimed the enthusiast I had just quoted. I knew it would be so. The trees are big for the same reason that the men are, because the planet is small, and they can grow big without becoming too heavy to stand. Flashing in the sun on all sides were the roofs of metallic buildings, which were evidently the only kind of edifices that Mars possessed. At any rate, if stone or wood were employed in their construction, both were completely covered with metallic plates. This added immensely to the warlike aspect of the planet, for warlike it was. Everywhere were recognized fortified stations, glittering with an array of the polished knobs of the lightning machines, such as we had seen in the land of Hellas. From the land of Edom, directly over the equator of the planet, we turned our faces westward, and, skirting the Mare Erutraecum, arrived above the place where the broad canal known as the Indus empties into the sea. Before us, and stretching away towards the northwest, now lies the continent of Criss, a vast red land, oval in outline, and surrounded and crossed by innumerable canals. Criss was not less than 1,600 miles across, and it, too, evidently swarmed with giant inhabitants. But the shadow of night lay upon the greater portion of the land of Criss. In our rapid motion westward, we had outstripped the sun, and had now arrived at a point where day and night met upon the surface of the planet beneath us. Behind all was brilliant with sunshine, but before, as the face of Mars gradually disappeared in the deepening gloom. Through the darkness far away, we could behold magnificent beams of electric light darting across the curtain of night, and evidently serving to illuminate towns and cities that lie beneath. We pushed on into the night for two or three hundred miles over that part of the continent of Criss, whose inhabitants were doubtless enjoying the deep sleep, that accompanied the dark hours immediately preceding the dawn. Still everywhere splendid clusters of light lay like fallen, constellations upon the ground, indicating the sights of great towns, which, like those of the earth, never sleep. But this scene, although weird and beautiful, could give us little of the kind of information we were in search of. Accordingly, it was resolved to turn back eastward, until we had arrived in the twilight space, separating day and night, and then hover over the planet at that point, allowing it to turn beneath us, so that, as we look down, we should see in succession the entire circuit of the globe of Mars, while it rolled under our eyes. The rotation of Mars on its axis is performed in a period very little longer than that of the Earth's rotation, though that the length of the day and night in the world of Mars is only some forty minutes longer than their length upon the Earth. In thus remaining suspended over the planet, on the line of daybreak, so to speak, we believed that we should be peculiarly safe from detection by the eyes of the inhabitants. Even astronomers are not likely to be wide awake just at the peep of dawn. Almost all of the inhabitants, we confidently believed, would still be sound asleep upon that part of the planet passing directly beneath us, and those who were awake would not be likely to watch for unexpected appearances in the sky. Besides, our height was so great that, notwithstanding the numbers of the squadron, we could not easily be seen from the surface of the planet, and if seen at all, we might be mistaken for high-flying birds. Mars passes below us. Here we remained, then, through the entire course of twenty-four hours, and thought in succession as they paused from night into day beneath our feet the land of Cruz, the great continent of Trarsis, the curious region of interesting canals, which puzzled astronomers on the Earth had named the Gordian knot, the continental lands of Memonia, Amazonia, and Aeolia. The mysterious center for hundreds of vast canals came together from every direction, called the Trivium Carontes, the worst circle of Elysium, a thousand miles across, and completely surrounded by a broad green canal, the continent of Libia, which, as I remembered, had been half covered by a tremendous inundation whose effects were visible from the Earth in the year 1889, and finally the long, dark sea of the 30th major lying directly south of the land of Hellas. The excitement and interest which we all experienced were so great that not one of us took a wink of sleep during the entire twenty-four hours of our marvellous watch. There are one or two things of special interest amid the multitude of wonderful observations that we made, which I must mention here on account of their connection with the important events that followed soon after. Just west of the land of Greece, we thought the smaller land of Ophir, in the midst of which is a singular spot called the Juventae Phones, and this fountain of use, as our astronomers, by a sort of prophetic inspiration, had named it, proved later to be one of the most incredible marvels on the planet Mars. Further to the west and north from the great continent of Tharsis, we beheld the immense oval-shaped land of Tomasia, containing in its center the celebrated lake of the Sun, a circular body of water not less than 500 miles in diameter, with dozens of great canals running away from it, like the spokes of a wheel in every direction, thus connecting it with the ocean which runs it on the south and east, and with the still larger canals that encircle it toward the north and west. This lake of Sun came to play a great part in our subsequent adventures. It was evident to us from the beginning that it was the chief center of the population on the planet. It lies in latitude 25 degrees south and longitude about 90 degrees west. Completing the circuit. Having completed the circuit of the Martian globe, we were moved by the same feeling which every discoverer of new lands experiences, and immediately returned to our original place above the land of Hellas. Because since that was the first part of Mars that we had seen, we felt a greater degree of familiarity with it than with any other portion of the planet, and there in a certain sense we felt at home. Why does it prove our enemies were on the watch for us there? We had almost forgotten them, so absorbed were we by the great spectacles that have been unrolling themselves beneath our feet. We ought of course to have been a little more cautious in approaching the place where the first cold side of us, since we might have known that they would remain on the watch near the spot. But at any rate they had seen us, and it was now too late to think of taking them again by surprise. They on their part had the surprise in store for us, which was greater than any we had yet experienced. We saw their ships assembling once more far down in the atmosphere beneath us, and we thought we could detect evidences of something unusual going on upon the surface of the planet. Suddenly from the ships and from various points on the ground beneath, there rose high in the air, and carried by invisible currents in every direction, immense volumes of black smoke or vapor, which blotted out of sight everything below them. South, north, west and east, the carton of blackness rapidly spread, until the whole face of the planet, as far as our eyes could reach, and the airships thronging under us were all concealed from sight. Mars had played the games of the cuttlefish, which, when pursued by its enemies, darkened the water behind it by a sudden outgush of inky fluid, and thus escapes the eye of its foe. The great smoke cloud. Our warriors find the Martians to be foes force-fearing. The eyes of man had never beheld such a spectacle, where a few minutes before the sunny face of a beautiful and populous planet had been shining beneath us, there was now to be seen nothing, but black billowing clouds swelling up everywhere like the mouse-coloured smoke set forth from a great transatlantic liner, when fresh coal has just been heaped upon her fires. In some places the smoke spouted upward in huge jets to the heights of several miles, elsewhere it added in vast whirlpools of inky blackness. Not a glimpse of the hidden world beneath was anywhere to be seen. Mars wears its warmask. Mars had put on its warmask, and fearful indeed was the aspect of it. After the first pause of surprise the squadron quickly backed away into the sky, rising rapidly, because from one of the swirling eddies beneath us the smoke began suddenly to pile itself up in an enormous aerial mountain, whose peaks should higher and higher with apparently increasing velocity, until they seemed about to engulf us with their tumbling upon masses. Unaware what the nature of this mysterious smoke might be, and fearing it was something more than a shield for the planet, and might be destructive to life, we fled before it, as before the unward sweep of a pestilence. Directly underneath the flagship one of the aspiring smoke peaks grew with most portentous swiftness, and, notwithstanding all our efforts in a little while, it had enveloped us. The Stifling Smoke Several of us were standing on the deck of the electrical ship. We were almost stifled by the smoke, and were compelled to take refuge within the car, where, until the electric lights had been turned on, darkness so black that it oppressed the strained eyeballs prevailed. But in this brief experience, terrifying though it was, we had learned one thing. The smoke would kill by strangulation, but evidently there was nothing especially poisonous in its nature. This fact might be of use to us in our subsequent proceedings. This spoils our plans, said the commander. There is no use of remaining here for the present. Let us see how far this thing extends. At first we rose straight away to a height of two or three hundred miles, thus passing entirely beyond the sensible limits of the atmosphere, and far above the highest points that the smoke would reach. From this commanding point of view, our line of sight extended to an immense distance, over the surface of Mars in all directions. Everywhere the same appearance, the whole planet was evidently covered with smoke. A Wonderful System A complete telegraphic system evidently connected all the strategic points upon Mars, so that, at a signal from the central station, the wonderful curtain could be instantaneously drawn over the entire face of the planet. In order to make certain that no part of Mars remained uncovered, we dropped down again nearer to the upper level of the smoke clouds, and then completely circumnavigated the planet. It was so possible that on the night side no smoke would be found, and that it would be practicable for us to make a descent there. But when we had arrived on that side of Mars, which was turned away from the Sun, we no longer saw beneath us, as we had done on our previous visit to the night, Hemisphere of the Planet, brilliant groups and clusters of electric lights beneath us. All was dark. In fact, so completely did the great shell of smoke conceal the planet, that the place occupied by the latter seemed to be simply a vast black hole in the firmament. The Sun was hidden behind it, and so dense was the smoke that even the solar rays were unable to penetrate it, and consequently, there was no atmospheric hollow visible around the concealed planet. All the sky around was filled with stars, but their countless hosts suddenly disappeared, when our eyes turned in the direction of Mars. The great black globe blotted them out without being visible itself. Attempts to attack baffled. Apparently we can do nothing here, said Mr. Edison. Let us return to the daylight side. When we had arrived near the point where we had been, when the wonderful phenomenon first made its appearance, we posed, and then, at the suggestion of one of the chemists, dropped close to the surface of the smoke curtain, which had now settled down into comparative biosense, in order that we might examine it a little more critically. The flagship was driven into the smoke cloud so deeply, that for a minute we were again enveloped in night. A quantity of the smoke was entrapped in a glass jar. Examining the smoke. Rising again into the sunlight, the chemists began an examination of the constitution of the smoke. They were unable to determine its precise character, but they found that its density was astonishingly slight. This accounted for the rapidity with which it had risen, and the great height which it had attained in the comparatively light atmosphere of Mars. It is evident, said one of the chemists, that this smoke does not extend down to the surface of the planet. From what the astronomers say as to the density of the air on Mars, it's probable, that a clear space of at least a mile in height exists between the surface of Mars and the lower limit of the smoke curtain. Just how deep the latter is we can only determine by experiment. But it would not be surprising if the thickness of this great blanket, which Mars has thrown around itself, should prove to be a quarter or half a mile. Anyhow, said one of the United States Army officers, they have dodged out of sight, and I don't see why we should not dodge in and get at them. If there is clear air under the smoke, as you think, why couldn't the ship start down through the curtain and come to a close tackle with the Martians? It would not do at all, said the commander. We might simply run ourselves into an ambush. No, we must stay outside, and if possible, fight them from here. Strategic measures employed. They can't keep this thing up forever, said the officer. Perhaps the smoke will clear off after a while, and then we will have a chance. Not much hope of that, I'm afraid, said the chemist, who had originally spoken. This smoke could remain floating in the atmosphere for weeks, and the only wonder to me is how they ever expect to get rid of it when they think their enemies have gone, and they want some sunshine again. All that is mere speculation, said Mr. Edison. Let us get at something practical. We must do one of the two things. Either attack some shielded as they are, or wait until the smoke had slared away. The only other alternative, that of plunging blindly down through the curtain, is at present not to be thought of. I'm afraid we couldn't stand a very long siege ourselves. Suddenly remarked the chief commissary of the expedition, who was one of the members of the flagships company. What do you mean by that? Asked Mr. Edison sharply, turning to him. Well, sir, you see, said the commissary's tenoring. Our provisions wouldn't hold out. Wouldn't hold out? exclaimed Mr. Edison in astonishment. Why? We have compressed and prepared provisions enough to last this squadron for three years. Oh, we had, sir, when we left the earth, said the commissary, in apparent distress. But I'm sorry to say that something has happened. Something has happened? Explain yourself. Accident to the stores. I don't know what it is, but on inspecting some of the compressed stores, a short time ago, I found that a large number of them were destroyed, whether through leakage of air or what I am unable to say. I said to inquire as to the condition of the stores and the other ships in the squadron, and I found that a similar condition of things prevailed there. The fact is, continued the commissary. We have only provisions enough in proper condition. For about ten days' consumption. After that we shall have to forage on the country, then, said the army officer. Why did you not report this before? demanded Mr. Edison. Because, sir, was the reply, the discovery was not made until after we arrived close to Mars. And since then there has been so much excitement that I have hardly had time to make an investigation and find out what the precise condition of affairs is. Besides, I thought we should land upon the planet, and then we would be able to renew our supplies. I closely watched Mr. Edison's expression, in order to see how this most alarming news would affect him. Although he fully comprehended its fearful significance, he did not lose his self-command. We must act quickly. Well, well, he said, then it will become necessary for us to act quickly. Evidently we cannot wait for the smoke to clear off, even if there were any hope of its clearing. We must get down on Mars now, having conquered it first if possible, but anyway we must get down there, in order to avoid starvation. It's very lucky, he continued, that we have ten days' supply left. A great deal can be done in ten days. A few hours after this, the commander called me aside and said, I have thought it all out. I am going to reconstruct some of our disintegrators, so as to increase their range and their power. Then I am going to have some of the astronomers of the expedition locate for me the most vulnerable points upon the planet, where the population is densest, and the hard blow would have the most effect, and I am going to pound away at them, through the smoke, and see whether we cannot draw them out of their shell. A plan arranged. With his expert assistance, Mr. Edison said to work at once, to transform a number of the disintegrators, and to steal more formidable engines of the same description. One of these new weapons having been distributed to each of the members of the squadron, the next problem was to decide where to strike. When we first examined the surface of the planet, it will be remembered that we had regarded the lake of the sun and its environs as being the very focus of the planet. While it might also be a strong point of defense, yet an effective blow struck there would go to the enemy's heart, and be more likely to bring the Martians promptly to terms than anything else. The first thing then was to locate the lake of the sun and the smoke hidden surface of the planet beneath us. This was a problem that the astronomers could readily solve. Fortunately, in the flagship itself, there was one of the stargazing gentlemen who had made a specialty of the study of Mars. That planet, as I have already explained, was now in opposition to the Earth. The astronomer had records in his pocket which enabled him, by a brief calculation, to say, just when the lake of the sun would be on the meridian of Mars as seen from the Earth. Our chronometers still kept terrestrial time, we knew the exact number of days and hours that had elapsed since we had departed, and so it was possible by placing ourselves in a line between the Earth and Mars to be practically in the situation of an astronomer in his observatory at home. Then it was only necessary to wait for the hour when the lake of the sun would be upon the meridian of Mars in order to be certain what the true direction of the latter from the flagship was. Having thus located the heart of our foe, behind its shield of darkness, we prepared to strike. The smoke must be shattered. I have a certain, said Mr. Edison, the vibration period of the smoke, so that it will be easy for us to shatter it into invisible atoms. You will see that every stroke of the disintegrators will open a hole through the black curtain. If there are a field of destruction could be made wide enough, we might in that manner clear away the entire covering of smoke. But all that we shall really be able to do will be to puncture it with holes, which will, perhaps, enable us to catch glimpses of the surface beneath. In that manner we may be able more effectively to concentrate our fire upon the most vulnerable points. The blow and its effect Everything being prepared and the entire squadron having assembled to watch the effect of the opening blow and to be ready to follow it up, Mr. Edison himself voiced one of the newest integrators, which was too large to be carried in the hand, and, following the direction indicated by the calculations of the astronomers, launched the vibratory discharge into the ocean of blackness beneath. A terrible encounter. The Martians and our warriors fight a battle to the death. Instantly they're open beneath us a huge well-shaped hole, from which the black clouds rolled violently back in every direction. Through this opening we saw the gleam of brilliant lights beneath. We had made a hit. It is the lake of the sun, shouted the astronomer, who furnished the calculation by means of which its position had been discovered. And indeed it was the lake of the sun. While the opening in the clouds made by the discharge was not wide, yet it suffice to give us a view of a portion of the curving shore of the lake, which was ablaze with electric lights. Whether our shot had done any damage beyond making the circular opening in the cloud curtain, we could not tell, for almost immediately the surrounding black smoke masses billowed in to fill up the hole. But in the brief glimpse we had caught sight of two or three large airships, hovering in space above that part of the lake of the sun, and its bordering city which we had beheld. It seemed to me in the brief glance I had that one ship had been touched by the discharge, and was wandering in an erratic manner. But the clouds closed in so rapidly that I not be certain. Penetrating the cloud. Anyhow we had demonstrated one thing, and that was that we could penetrate the cloud's shield and reach the Martians in their hiding place. It had been pre-arranged that the first discharge from the flagship should be a signal for the concentration of the fire of all the other ships upon the same spot. A little hesitation have ever occurred, and a half a minute had elapsed before the disintegrators from the other members of the squadron were got into a play. The Martians artificial day. Then suddenly we saw an immense commotion in the cloud beneath us. It seemed to be beaten and hurled in every direction and punctured like a seal with nearly a hundred great circular holes. Through these gaps we could see clearly a large region of the planet's surface, with many airships floating above it, and the blaze of innumerable electric lights illuminating it. The Martians had created an artificial day under the curtain. This time there was no questions the blow had been effective. Four or five of the airships partially destroyed, camped headlong towards the ground, while even from our great distance there was unmistakable evidence that fearful execution had been done among the crowded structures along the shores of the lake. As each of our ships possessed but one of the new disintegrators, and since a minute or so was required to adjust them for a fresh discharge, we remained for a little while inactive after delivering the blow. Meanwhile the cloud curtain, though ran to shreds by the concentrated discharge of the disintegrators, quickly became a uniform black sheet again, hiding everything. We had just had time to congratulate ourselves on the successful opening of our bombardment, and the disintegrator of the flagship was poised for another discharge. When suddenly out of the black expanse beneath, quivered immense electric beams, clear-coach and straight as bars of steel, but dazzling our eyes with unendurable brilliance, it was the reply of the Martians to our attack, devastating our army. Three or four of the electrical ships were seriously damaged, and one close beside the flagship changed color, wizard and collapsed, with the same sickening phenomena that had made our hearts shudder when the first disaster of this kind occurred during our brief battle over the asteroid. Another score of our comrades were gone, and yet we had hardly begun the fight. Glancing at other ships which had been injured, I thought that the damage to them was not so serious, although they were evidently horse the combat for the present. Our fighting blood was now boiling, and we did not stop long to count our losses. Into the smoke was the signal, and the ninety and more electric ships, which still remained in condition for action, immediately shot downward. It was a wild plunge. We kept off the decks while rushing through the blinding smoke, but the instant we emerged below, where we found ourselves still a mile above the ground, we were out again, ready to strike. I have simply a confused recollection of flashing lights beneath, and a great dark arch of clouds above, out of which our ships seemed to be dropping on all sides, and then the fray burst upon and around us, and no man could see or notice anything, except by half-comprehended glances. Almost in an instant it seemed, a swarm of airships surrounded us, while from what, for lack of a more descriptive name, I shall call the forts about the lake of the sun, leapt tongues of electric fire, before which some of our ships were driven like bits of flaming paper in a high wind, gleaming for a moment, then curling up, and gone forever. Never was such a conflict. It was an awful sight, but the battle-fever was raging in us, and we, on our part, were not idle. Every man carried a disintegrator, and these hand-instruments, together with those of heavier caliber on the ships, poured their relentless vibrations in every direction through the quivering air. The airships of the Martians were destroyed by the score, but yet they flocked upon us thicker and faster. We dropped lower, and our blows fell upon the forts, and upon the widespread city bordering the lake of the sun. We almost entirely silenced the fire of one of the forts, but there were forty more in full action within reach of our eyes. Some of the metallic buildings were partly unroofed by the disintegrators, and some of their walls riddled and fell with thundering crashes, whose sound rose to our ears above the hellish den of battle. I caught glimpses of giant forms, struggling in the midst of the battle, giant forms struggling in the ruins and rushing wildly through the streets, but there was no time to see anything clearly. The flagship charmed. Our flagship seemed charmed. A crowd of airships hung upon it like a swarm of angry bees, and at times one could not see for the lightning strokes, yet we escaped destruction while ourselves dealing death on every hand. It was a glorious fight, but it was not war. No, it was not war. We really had no more chance of ultimate success amid that multitude of enemies than a prisoner running the gauntlet and a crowd of savages as of escape. A conviction of the hopelessness of the contest finally forced itself upon our minds, and the shattered squadron, which had kept well together amid the storm of death, was signaled to retreat. Shaking off their pursuers as a hunted bear shakes off the dogs, sixty of the electrical ships rose up through the clouds where more than ninety had gone down. Madly we rushed upward through the vast curtain and continued our flight to a great elevation, far beyond the reach of the awful artillery of the enemy. Forced to retreat. Looking back it seemed the very mouth of hell that we had escaped from. The Martians did not for an instant cease their fire even when we were far beyond their reach. With furious persistence they blazed away through the cloud curtains, and the vivid spikes of lightning shuddered so swiftly on one another's track that they were like flaming halo of electric lances around the frowning helmet of the war planet. But after a while they stopped their terrific sparring, and once more the immense globe assumed the appearance of a vast ball of black smoke, still wildly agitated by the recent disturbance, but exhibiting no opening through which we could discern what was going on beneath. Evidently the Martians believed they had finished us. Despair seizes us. At no time since the beginning of our adventure had it appeared to me quite so hopeless, reckless, and mad as it seemed at present. We had suffered fearful losses, and yet what had we accomplished? We had won two fights on the asteroid, it's true, but then we had overwhelming numbers on our side. Now we were facing millions on their own ground, and our very first assault had resulted in a disastrous repulse, with the loss of at least thirty electric ships and six hundred men. Evidently we could not endure this sort of thing. We must find some other means of assailing Mars, or else give up the attempt. But the latter was not to be thought of. It was no mere question of self-pride, however, and no consideration of the tremendous interests at stake, which would compel us to continue our apparently vain attempt. No hope in sight. Our provisions could last only a few days longer. The supply would not carry us one quarter of the way back to the earth, and we must therefore remain here and literally conquer or die. In this extremity a consultation of the principal officers was called upon the deck of the flagship. Here the suggestion was made that we should attempt to affect by strategy what we had failed to do by force. An old army officer who had served in many wars against the cunning Indians of the West, Colonel Alonso Jefferson Smith, was the author of this suggestion. Let us circumvent them, he said. We can do it in this way. The chances are that all of the available fighting force of the planet Mars is now concentrated on this side and in the neighborhood of the Lake of the Sun. Formulating a last hope. Possibly by some kind of x-ray business they can only see us dimly through the clouds, and if we get a little further away they will not be able to see us at all. Now I suggest that a certain number of the electrical ships be withdrawn from the squadron to a great distance while the remainder stay here, or better still approach to a point just beyond the reach of those streaks of lightning, and begin a bombardment of the clouds without paying any attention to whether the strokes reach through the clouds and do any damage or not. This will induce the Martians to believe that we are determined to press our attack at this point. In the meantime, while these ships are raising a hullabaloo on this side of the planet and drawing their fire as much as possible without running into any actual danger, let the others which have been selected for this purpose sail rapidly around to the other side of Mars and take them in the rear. It was not perfectly clear what Colonel Smith intended to do after the landing had been effected in the rear of the Martians, but still there seemed a good deal to be said for his suggestion, and it would, at any rate, if carried out, enable us to learn something about the condition of things on the planet, and perhaps furnish us with a hint as to how we could best proceed in the further prosecution of the siege. Accordingly it was resolved that about twenty ships should be told off for this movement, and Colonel Smith himself was placed in command. At my desire I accompanied the new commander in his flagship, Flank Movements. Rising to a considerable elevation in order that there may be no risk of being seen, we began our flank movement while the remaining ships, in accordance with the understanding, dropped nearer the curtain of cloud and commenced a bombardment with the disintegrators, which caused a tremendous commotion in the clouds, opening vast gaps in them, and occasionally revealing a glimpse of the electric lights on the planet, although it was evident that the vibratory currents did not reach the ground. The Martians immediately replied to this renewed attack, and again the cloud-covered globe bristled with lightning, which flashed so fiercely out of the blackness below that the stoutest hearts among us quailed, although we were situated well beyond the danger. But this sublime spectacle rapidly vanished from our eyes when, having attained a proper elevation, we began our course toward the opposite hemisphere of the planet. We guided our flight by the stars, and from our knowledge of the rotation period of Mars and the position which the principal points on its surface must occupy a certain hours, we were able to tell what part of the planet lay beneath us. Having completed our semi-circuit, we found ourselves on the night side of Mars, and determined to lose no time in executing our coup. But it was deemed best that an exploration should be made by a single electrical ship, and Colonel Smith naturally wished to undertake the adventure with his own vessel. Dropping to the planet, we dropped rapidly through the black cloud curtain, which proved to be at least half a mile in thickness, and then suddenly emerged, as if suspended at the apex of an enormous dome, arching above the surface of the planet a mile beneath us, which sparkled on all sides with innumerable lights. These lights were so numerous and so brilliant as to produce a faint imitation of daylight, even at our immense height above the ground, and the dome of cloud out of which we had emerged assumed a soft fawn color that produced an indescribably beautiful effect. For a moment we recoiled from our undertaking, and arrested the motion of the electric ship. But on closely examining the surface beneath us, we found that there was a broad region, where comparatively few bright lights were to be seen. From my knowledge of the geography of Mars, I knew that this was a part of the land of Asonia, situated a few hundred miles northeast of Helas, where we had first seen the planet. Evidently it was not so thickly populated as some of the other parts of Mars, and its comparative darkness was an attraction to us. We determined to approach within a few hundred feet of the ground with the electric ship, and then, in case no enemies appeared, to visit the soil itself. Perhaps we shall see or hear something that will be of use to us, said Colonel Smith, and for the purposes of this first reconnaissance it is better that we should be few in number. The other ships will await our return, and at any rate we shall not be gone long. As our car approached the ground we found ourselves near the tops of some lofty trees. This will do, said Colonel Smith, to the electrical steersman. Stay right here. He and I then lowered ourselves into the branches of the trees, each carrying a small disintegrator, and cautiously clamber down to the ground. Landing on Mars. We believed we were the first of the descendants of Adam to set foot on the planet of Mars. An experience on Mars. The great planet exhibits its wonders to our warriors. At first we suffered somewhat from the effects of the rare atmosphere. It was so lacking in density that it resembled the air on the summits of the loftiest terrestrial mountains. Having reached the foot of the tree in safety, we lay down for a moment on the ground to recover ourselves, and to become accustomed to our new surroundings. A thrill, born half of wonder, half of incredulity, ran through me at the touch of the soil of Mars. Here was I, actually, on that planet, which it seemed so far away, so inaccessible, and so full of mysteries when viewed from the earth. And yet surrounding me were things gigantic, it is true, but still resembling and recalling the familiar sights of my own world. After a little while our lungs became accustomed to the rarity of the atmosphere, and we experienced a certain stimulation in breathing, starting on our travels. We then got upon our feet and stepped out from under the shadow of the gigantic tree. High above we could faintly see our electrical ship, gently swaying in the air close to the treetop. There were no electric lights in our immediate neighbourhood, but we noticed that the whole surface of the planet around us was gleaming with them, producing an effect like the glow of a great city seemed from a distance at night. The glare was faintly reflected from the vast domes of clouds above, producing the general impression of a moonlight night upon the earth. It was a wonderfully quiet and beautiful spot where we had come down. The air had a delicate feel and a bracing temperature, while a soft breeze sewed through the leaves of the trees above our heads. Not far away was the bank of a canal, bordered by a magnificent avenue shaded by a double row of immense, umbrageous trees. We approached the canal, and getting upon the road turned to the left to make an exploration in that direction. The shadow of the trees falling upon the roadway produced a dense gloom in the midst of which we felt that we should be safe, unless the Martians had eyes like those of cats. An alarming encounter. As we pushed along, our hearts I confess, beating a little quickly, a shadow stirred in front of us, something darker than the night itself approached. As it drew near, it assumed the appearance of an enormous dog, as tall as an ox, which ran swiftly our way with a threatening motion of its head. But before it could even utter a snarl, the whir of Colonel Smith's disintegrator was heard, and the creature vanished in the shadow. Gracious, did you ever see such a beast? said the Colonel. Why, he was as big as a grizzly. The people he belonged to must be nearby, I said. Very likely he was a watch on guard. But I see no signs of habitation. True, but you observe, there is a thick hedge on the side of the road opposite the canal. If we get through that, perhaps we shall catch sight of something. A palace in view. Cautiously, we pushed our way through the hedge, which was composed of shrubs as large as small trees, and very thick at the bottom, and, having traversed it, found ourselves in a great metal-like expanse, which might have been a lawn. At a considerable distance in the midst of a clump of trees, a large building towered skyward, its walls of some red metal, gleaming like polished copper in the soft light that fell from the cloud-dome. There were no lights around the building itself, and we saw nothing corresponding to windows on that side which faced us. But toward the right a door was evidently open, and out of this streamed a brilliant shaft of illumination which lay bright upon the lawn, then crossed the highway through an opening in the hedge, and gleamed on the water of the canal beyond. Where we stood on the ground had evidently been recently cleared, and there was no obstruction, but as we crept closer to the house, for our curiosity had now become irresistible, we found ourselves crawling through grass so tall that, if we had stood erect, it would have risen well above our heads. Taking precautions. This affords good protection, said Colonel Smith, recalling his adventures on the western plains. We can get close in to the Indians, I beg pardon, I mean the Martians, without being seen. Heavens, what an adventure was this! To be crawling about in the night on the face of another world, and venturing perhaps into the jaws of a danger which human experience could not measure. But on we went, and in a little while we had emerged from the tall grass, and were somewhat startled by the discovery that we had got close to the wall of the building. Carefully we crept around toward the open door. As we neared it, we suddenly stopped, as if we had been stricken with instantaneous paralysis. Out of the door floated, on the soft night air, the sweetest music I have ever listened to. A monstrous surprise. It carried me back in an instant to my own world. It was the music of the earth. It was the melodious expression of a human soul. It thrilled us both to the heart's core. My God! exclaimed Colonel Smith. What can that be? Are we dreaming? Or where in heaven's name are we? Still the enchanting harmony floated out upon the air. What the instrument was, I could not tell. But the sound seemed more nearly to resemble that of a violin than of anything else I could think of. Magnificent music. When we first heard it the strains were gentle, sweet, caressing, and full of an infinite depth of feeling. But in a while its tone changed, and it became a magnificent march, throbbing upon the air and stirring notes that set our hearts beating in unison with its stride, and inspiring in us a courage that we had not felt before. Then it drifted into a wild Fantasia, still inexpressibly sweet, and from that changed again into a requiem or lament whose mellifluous tide of harmony swept our thoughts back again to the earth. I can endure this no longer, I said. I must see who it is that makes this music. It is the product of a human heart and must come from the touch of human fingers. We carefully shifted our position until we stood in the blaze of light that poured out of the door. The doorway was an immense arched opening, magnificently ornamented, rising to a height of, I should say, not less than twenty or twenty-five feet, and broad in proportion. The door itself stood widely open, and it, together with all of its fittings and surroundings, was composed of the same beautiful red metal. A beautiful girl. Stepping out a little way into the light, I could see within the door an immense apartment, glittering on all sides with metallic ornaments and gems, and lighted from the centre by a great chandelier of electric candles. In the middle of the great floor, holding the instrument delicately poised, and still awaking its ravishing voice, stood a figure, the sight of which almost stopped my breath. It was a slender sliff of a girl, a girl of my own race, a human being here upon the planet Mars. Her hair was loosely coiled, and she was attired in graceful white drapery. Bye! cried Colonel Smith. Edison's Conquest of Mars. Chapter 12. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Conquest of Mars by Garrett P. Service. Read by Seth Adam Schur. Chapter 12. 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 planes. A human prisoner. She is a prisoner, he said, and by the seven devils of Donna Anna will 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 anyone 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 so lately had lain waste our fair earth and who would have completed its destruction had not providence interfered in our behalf. Singularly enough, although we stood full in the light, they had not yet seen us. Martians guarding her. 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 appeals to us. 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 arm 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 to her knees. In the meantime I had readjusted my disintegrator for another discharge, and Colonel Smith stood by me with a light of battle upon his face. Sweets of discharge across the three, I exclaimed, otherwise there'll be one left, and before we can fire again, he'll crush us. The Martians are killed. The whir of the two instruments sounded simultaneously, and with 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 run 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 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 a 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 enemy's 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. The girl understands us. 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. The prisoner is rescued. 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 signaled 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. Beautiful girl prisoner, establishing the identity of the Martians captive. 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 Joe, 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. A new food supply. With the almost 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. Sunshine again. We quickly followed them, and having penetrated the enormous curtain, were considerably surprised on emerging at the upper 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 far turned upon its axis that the portion of the 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 in today. Our shortest way back would be by traveling westward, because then we would 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. 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. The Two Moons of Mars Standing on the deck and looking overhead as we swiftly plowed 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 the 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, rejoining the fleet. 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 forged on the country, and have collected a supply that I reckon will last this fleet for at least a month. What is 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've got enough of that stuff to last us all for a month, but we've done more than that. We've got a surprise for you that will make you open your eyes. Just wait a minute, caring for the rescued girl. Colonel Smith made a signal to the electrical ship 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 reemerged, 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 airtight 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 came she on Mars? How did she get on Mars? was the question that everybody asked, and that nobody could answer. But while all were crowding around in 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, entodates. Convinced am I that it, that great original speech is from which have all the languages of the civilized world sprung. How she came here, 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 the truth shall learn, because not difficult to us shall it be, the language that she speaks, to acquire, since to our skin it is akin. The professor's astonishing statement. 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 affected 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 it 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 were 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 electrical 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 eventual 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. Learning her language. 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 Zervil. It shall we do, cried the Hadelberg 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 contest or been destroyed. Perhaps they will then pull off their blanket and let us see their face once more. That will give us a better opportunity to strike effectively when we are again ready, preparing a rendezvous. 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 a sort of anchorage ground, and, while there, if we were careful to keep on the side away from Mars, we should escape detection. The suggestion was immediately accepted, and the squadron, having been signaled 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 keep the same face toward their master. Behinding 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. One of Mars's moons. 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 a hundred and fifty 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 one of the fugitives during 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 twelve-thousand five-hundred miles, and we had reason to believe that Martians possessed telescopes powerful enough to enable them not merely to see the electrical ships at such a distance, but also to catch sight of us individually. Although the curtain cloud 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. The ships are moored. 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 round 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, its shut-off a large part of the sky is 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 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. Marvelous Discoveries The Martians were the builders of the Great Sphinx and the Pyramids. I shall never forget one occasion, when, lying flat on the ground and cautiously worming our way around on the side towards Mars, we had just begun to observe it with our telescopes, when I perceived, against the vast curtain of smoke, a small glittering 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 Martians' aerial vessels, probably on the lookout for us. A short time afterwards, 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 that 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 guard ships 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. A great phenomenon. 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 bright was the illumination which fell upon the surface of Deimos that the number of persons who had been permitted to pass round 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 linguist 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 time. Linguel Difficulties Ahead 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 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 gesture, until, at length, weary 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 around 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, smile, laugh, scowled, and accompanied all these dumb shows with posturings, exclamations, inquiries, only half expressed in words, and cadences which, by some ingenious manipulation of the tones of the voice, he managed to make as marvelous expressive of his desires. He was a universal actor, comedian, tragedy and buffoon, all in one. There was no shade of human emotion which he did not seem capable of giving expression to. The professor does his best. His every attitude was assembled, 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 said 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 cheery 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 man who had been strick 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 pantominic inquiries, or whenever he believed that he got such a reply, it was immediately jotted down in the ever-open notebook 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, Yawo! Wunderlich! Make yourselves, gentlemen, easy. Of the human race the ancestral stem have I here discovered. Once I glanced over page of his notebook, and there I read this, Mars, Zomor, Copper, Haze, Sword, Anz, I Jump, Altesna, I Slay, Amalfa, I Cut Off ahead, Kutsa Koffa, I Sleep, Zitsha, I Love, Levza, Aha! Professor Heinberg. 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 have promptly 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, Sidney 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 piece 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 or a Mexican greaser. Jealousy Crops Out. But what, I asked myself, would be the vengeance that Colonel Smith would take upon the 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 intention, and that he had learned, or believed he had learned, the word for love simply in pursuit of the method by which he meant to acquire the language of the girl. There was one thing which gave some of us considerable misgiving, 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 made us rest easy on that point. He assured us, in the first place, that this girl could not be the only human being 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 with 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. A tedious language lesson. Three entire weeks were passed in this manner. After the first week, the girl herself materially assisted the linguists in their efforts to acquire 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 tongue. 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 to work to learn the language of this fair creature for himself. Colonel Smith and Sidney 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. We learn her name. It was Aina. 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 our place of origin. Ages and ages ago our forefathers dwelt on another and distant world that was nearer to 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 interrupted for us by one of the other linguists, gentlemen, it is the veil of Kashmir. Has not my great countrymen, Adlong so declared, has he not said that the valley of Kashmir was the cradle of the human race already? From the valley of Kashmir to the planet of 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 veil of Kashmir, with its roses the brightest the earth ever gave, its temples, its grottoes, its fountains as clear as the love-lighted eyes that hang over the wave. Mr. Sidney 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. Aina tells her story. 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 that gods in heaven were angry. Some said that they came from the moon, and some from the faraway stars. But of these things my forefathers knew nothing for uncertainty. 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 that our people did not understand. Then, too, it is said that they left there at the foot of these mountains that they had made, a gigantic image of the great chief who had led them in their conquest of our world. At this point in the story, the Heidelberg Professor again broke in, fairly trembling with excitement. The Wonders of the Martians 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? Gentlemen, it is Egypt, those 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. The Professor's agitation was so great he could go no 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 Chiops had 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. Aina's wonderful story. The Martian's beautiful prisoner recounts her marvellous adventures. Aina resumed her story. 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 the scourge of the gods, used the mysterious means of 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. An ancient Martian conquest. But 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 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 altogether, 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 plain of musical instruments. And in songs. And while the Martians have but little musical skill themselves, they are exceedingly fond of these things. Awaiting a rescue. 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 the 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 affect 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, shuttering 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, as the Heidelberg Professor? Aina seemed unable to speak for a while. Finally, mastering her emotion, she replied. Her fortunate escape. One of the chief officers of the Martians wished me to remain alive. He, with his aids, carried me to one of the military depots of supplies where I was found and rescued. And, as she said this, she turned towards Colonel Smith with a smile that reflected on his ready face and made it glow like a Chinese lantern. By, muttered Colonel Smith, that was the fellow we blew into nothingness. 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 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 when 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 a question that had been debated from the beginning of astronomical history of the former inhabitation of that globe. A question settled. Now, on Mars, we had put to rest no less mysterious questions relating to the past history of our own planet. Adelang, as the Heidelberg Professor asserted, had named the Vale of Kashmir as the probable site of the Garden of Eden, and the place of origin of the human race. But later investigations had taken issue with this opinion, and the question where the Arians originated upon the Earth had long been one of the most puzzling that science presented. This question now seemed to have been settled. Aeana had said that Mars had completed five thousand circuits about the sun, since her people were brought to it as captives. One circuit of Mars occupies six hundred eighty-seven days. More than nine thousand years had therefore elapsed since the first invasion of the Earth by the Martians. Another great mystery, that of the origin of the 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 of 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. Does Aeana hold a secret? 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 Aeana's language and have heard her story. Let us next ascertain whether she cannot 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 Aeana if Mars, like Achilles, had not some vulnerable point where a blow would be mortal.