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EDISON'S CONQUEST OF MARS (Copyright, IS9S. by Garrett P. Bervlss.J SYNOPSIS. ... . . Tho Inventive genius of Thomas A. Edi son makes possible an attack of the eurtn upon Mais. This Is done to prevent a sec ond Invasion of tho Martians, who are trying to relieve their ovcrpopululcd plunot; the first having failed through the breaking out of disease and not human ef fort. Edison Invents v practical electrical air ship, and an engine of destruction called the '■Disintegrator." which will lause the constituent particles of any ou ject at which it may bo directed to so vibrate thut the object will be Immediate ly and completely dispersed. A large Heel Bf air ships armed with disintegrators and manned by two thousand men, among whom are many famous scientists, sets out. Tho fleet arrived übove tho hind ol Hellas, on Murs, nnd finds v host of air ships on the watch. Tho Martians, who are of giant stature, human in tor in cut of repulsive aspect, cover tneir planot with a thick cloud of smoke, which thu visitors pierce with tnen disintegrators. Tho Martians launch their thunderbolts, and do much damage to the Edison lleot, which llnally drops beneath the smoke curtuln and engages the enemy, ln their ships, In close com bat. Tho destruction is awful, both on land and ln tho air, and the ships from the earth withdraw but sixty in number. Ihe next move ls a strategic plan pro posed by Colonel Smith, an army officer. The majority ot the ships arc concen trated at a certain point where the at tention of Martians is held, while a few are sent to the other side of the planet to effect a landing, and if possible obtain come much needed provisions for the Beet. Colonel Smith's ship descends near A large building. The Colonel and the narrator, approaching, hear strains of beautiful music Issuing from it. Enter ing, they arc amazed to find a young girl —a human being—playing on a strange In- Itrument for tho amusement of several Martians. The latter are quickly dis patched with disintegrators, and the girl is taken back to thu main squadron, to gether with large quantities of com pressed food that are found in the build ing. Although none can understand the girl, lt is perceived that her language is of human origin. The whole squadron re pairs to tho farther moon of Murs. Dci mos, in order to give the linguists of the party time to acquire the girl's speech, for Mr. Edison believes that she can give them Information that will lend to v suc cessful routing of the enemy. After three Weeks spent on Delmos, out of sight of Mars, the linguists are able to understand Alna's story. Her ancestors were brought from the eartli ln a previous Invasion of the earth by the Martians about 9.000 years ago. From the girl's remarkable narrative It would appear thnt the Mar tians had visited Egypt and bad built the Pyramids and the Sphinx. Aina's forefathers were carried back to Mars, and they and their descendants bad been kept in slavery until, with the exception of Alna. they were all massacred on the arrlvnl of the fleet from the earth. Alna discloses a way by which the Martians can be drowned out. This is to break open the mighty sea gates that hold back the water—used at another season for ir rigating purposes—formed by the melting of tho snows around the South pole. The fleet leaves Delmos for Mars, keeping al ways in the shadow of the planet. The invaders arrive, without being detected, above the power house thut controls the mechanism of the gates. It ls Strongly guarded by an electrical net work and other devices that it would mean death to tamper with, but the narrator. Mr. Edison, Colonel Smith and Sidney Phil lips, of whom these just two have become rivals for the hand of Alna. and the girl herself, descend safely from one of the ships and make their way, disintegrators ln hand, toward the power bouse. XXII. We had one very great advantage. The Martians had evidently placed so much confidence In the electric net work which surrounded the power house that they never dreamed of ene mies' being able to penetrate It—at least without giving warning of their coming. But the hole which we had blown in had been made noiselessly, and Mr. Edison believed, since no enemies had appeared, that our operations had not been betrayed by any automatic sig nal to watchers inside the building. Consequently, we had every reason to think that we now stood within the line of defence, in which they reposed the greatest confidence, without their having the least suspicion of our presence. Aina assured us that on the occasion of her former visit to the power house there had been but two sentinels at the entrance. At the inner end of a long passage leading to the interior, she said, there were two more. Besides these there were three or four Martian engineers watching the machinery in the interior of tho building. A'number of ait ships were supposed to be on guard around the structure, but prob ably their vigilance had been relaxed, because not long ago the Martians sent an expedition against Ceres which had been so successful that the power of that planet to make an attack upon Mars had for the present been de stroyed. Supposing us to have been annihila ted in the recent battle among the clouds, they would have no fear or cause for vigilance on our account. The entrance to the great structure was low —at least when measured by the stature of the Martians. Evidently the intention was that only one person at a time should find room to pass through it. Drawing cautiously near, we dis cerned the outlines of two gigantic forms standing in the darkness, one on either side of the door. Colonel Smith whispered to me: "If you will take the fellow on the right, I will attend to the other one." Adjusting our aim as carefully as was possible in the gloom. Colonel Smith and I simultaneously discharged our disintegrators, sweeping them rap- idly up and down in the manner which become familiar to us when en (itttvorlng to destroy one of the'gigan tic Martians with a single stroke. And so successful were we that the two sentinels disappeared 03 if they had been ghosts of the night. Instantly we all hurried forward and entered the door. Before us extended a long straight passage, brightly il luminated by a number of electric can dles. Its polished sides gleamed with blood-red reflections, and the gallery terminated, at a distance of two or three hundred feet, with an opening Into a large chamber beyond, on the farther side of which we could see part Df a gigantic and complicated mass of machinery. Garrett P.Serviss Making as little noise as possible, we pushed ahead along the passage, but when we had arrived within a distance of a dozen paces from the Inner end, we stopped, and Colonel Smith, getting down upon his knees, crept forward until he had reached the inner end of tho pussage. There he peered cautious ly around the edge Into the chamber, and, turning his head a moment later, beckoned us to come forward. We crept to his side, and, looking out into the vast apartment, could perceive no enemies. What had become of the sentinels supposed to stand at the Inner end of the passage, we could not imagine. At any rate, they were not ut their posts. The chamber was an Immense square room at least a hundred feet in height and 400 feet on a side, and almost fill ing the wall opposite t- us was an in tricate display of wheels, levers, rods and polished plates. This we had no doubt was one end of the great engine which opened and shut the great gates that could dam an ocean. "There Is no one in sight," said Col onel Smith. "Then we must act quickly," said Mr. Edison, "Where," he said, turning to Aina, "is the handle by turning which you saw the Martian close the gates?" Aina looked about in bewilderment. The mechanism before us was so com plicated that even an expert mechani cian would have been excusable for finding himself unable to understand it. There were scores of knobs and bandies, all glistening ln the electric light, any one of which, as far as the uninstructed could tell, might have been the master key that controlled the whole complex apparatus. "Quick," said Mr. Edison, "where is It?" The girl in her confusion ran this way and that, gazing hopelessly upon the machinery, but evidently utterly unable to help us. To remain here inactive was not merely to invite destruction for our selves, but was sure to bring certain failure upon the purpose of the expe dition. All of us began instantly to look about ln search of the proper ban die, seizing every crank and wheel in sight and striving to turn it. "Stop that!" shouted Mr. Edison, "you may set the whole thing wrong. Don't touch anything until we have found the right lever." But to find thnt seemed to most of us now utterly beyond the power of man. It was at this critical moment that the wonderful depth and reach of Mr. Edison's mechanical genius displayed itself. He stepped back, ran his eye quickly over the whole immense mass of wheels, handles, bolts, bars and lev ers, paused for an instant, as if making up hlB mind,. then said decidedly, "There it is," and stepping quickly forward, selected a small wheel amid a dozen others, nil furnished at the clr- eumference with handles like those of a pilot's wheel, and, giving it a quick wrench, turned it half way around. At that instant a startling shout fell upon our ears. There was a thunder ous clatter behind us, and, turning, we saw three gigantic Martians rushing forward. "Sweep them! Sweep them!" cried Colonel Smith, as he brought his dis integrator to bear. Mr. Phillips and I instantly followed his example, and thus we swept the Martians into eter nity, while Mr. Edison coolly continued his manipulations of the wheel. The effect of what he was doing be came apparent in less than half a min ute. A shiver ran through the mass of machinery and shook the entire build ing. "Look! look!" cried Sidney Phillips, who had stepped a little apart from the others. We all ran to this side, and found ourselves in front of a great window which opened through the side of the house, giving a view of what lay in front of it. There, gleaming in the electric lights, we saw the Syrtis Ma jor, its waters washing high against the walls of the vast power house. Run ning directly oi>t from the shore, there was an immense metallic gate at least 400 yards in length and rising 300 feet above the present level of the water. This great gate was slowly swinging upon an invisible hinge in such a man ner that in a few minutes it would evi dently stand across the current of the Syrtis Major at right angles. Beyond was a second gate, which was moving in the same manner. Further on was a third gate, and then another, and another, as far as the eye could reach, evidently extending in an un broken series completely across the great strait. As the gates, with accelerated motion when the current caught them, clanged together, we beheld a spectacle that almost stopped the beating of our hearts. The great Syrtis seemed to gather it self for a moment, and then it leaped upon the obstruction and hurried its waters into one vast foaming geyser that seemed to shoot a thousand feet skyward. But the metal gates withstood the shock, though buried from our sight in the seething white mass, and the baf fled waters instantly swirled round In ten thousand gigantic eddies, rising to the level of our window and beginning to inundate the power house before we fairly comprehended our peri). "We have done the work," said Mr. Edison, smiling grimly. "Now we had better get. out of this before the flood bursts upon us." The warning came none too soon. It was necessary to act upon it at once if we would have our lives. Even before we could reach the entrance to the long .passage through which we had come LOS ANGELES HERALDi SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 3, 1898, Into the great engine room, the water had risen half way to our knees. Col onel Smith, catching Aina under his arm, led the way. The roar of the mad dened torrent behind deafened us. As we ran through the passage, the water followed us, with a wicked swishing sound, and In five seconds it was above our knees, in ten seconds up to our waists. The great danger now was that we should be swept from our feet, and once down ln that torrent there would have been little chance of our ever getting our heads above its level. Supporting ourselves as best we could with the aid of the walls, we partly ran and Were partly swept along, until we reached the outer end of the passage and emerged Into the open air, the lloud swirling about our shoulders. Here there was an opportunity to clutch some of the ornamental work surrounding the doorway, and thus we managed to stay our mad progress, and gradually to work out of the cur rent until we found that the water, having now an abundance of room to spread, had fallen again as low as our knees. But suddenly we heard the thunder of the banks, tumbling behind us, ami to the right and left, and the savage growl of the released water as it sprang through the bleaches. To my dying day, I think, I shall not forget the sight of a great fluid column that burst through the dike at the edge of the grove of trees and, by the tre mendous impetus of Its rush, seemed turned into a solid thing. Like an enormous ram, it plowed the soil to a depth of twenty feet, uproot ing acres of the immense trees like stubble turned over by the plowshare, The uproar was so awful that for an instant the coolest of us lost his Belt control. Yet we knew we bad not the fraction of a second to waste. The breaking of the banks had caused the water again rapidly to rise about us. In a little while it was once more as high as our waists. In the excitement and confusion, deafened by the noise and blinded by the Hying foam, we were in danger of becoming separated in the flood. We no longer knew certainly in whut direc tion was the tree by whose aid we had descended from the electrical ship. We pushed first one way und then another, staggering through the rushing waters in search of it. Finally we succeeded in locating it, and with all our strength hurried toward it. Then there came a noise as if the globe of Mars had been split asunder, and another great head of water hurled itself down upon the soil before us, and, without taking time to spread, bored a vast cavity in the ground, and scooped out the whole of the grove before our eyes as easily as a gardener lifts a sod with his spade. Our last hope was gone. For a mo ment the level of the water around us sank again, as it poured into the im mense excavation where the grove had stood, but in an instant it was rein forced from all sides and began once more rapidly to rise. Wo gave ourselves up for lost, and. Indeed, there did not seem any possible hope of salvation. Even in this extremity I saw Colonel At That instant the Immense Power House Gave Way. Smith lifting the form of Aina, who hurl fainted, above the surface of the Surging water, while Sidney Phillips stood by his side and aided him in sup porting the unconscious girl. "We stayed a little too long," was the only sound I heard from Mr. Edi son. The huge bulk of the power house partially protected us against the force of the current, and the water spun around us in great eddies. These swept us this way and that, but yet we man aged to cling together, determined not to be separated in death if we could avoid it. Suddenly a cry rang out directly above our heads: "Jump for your lives, and be quick!" At the same instant the ends of sev eral ropes splashed into the water. We glanced upward, and there, within three or four yards of our heads, hung the electrical ship, which we had left moored at the top of the tree. Tom, the expert electrician from Mr. Edison's shop, who had remained in charge of the ship, had never once dreamed of such a thing- as deserting us. Tho moment he saw the water bursting over the dam, and evidently flooding the building which we had entered, he cast off his moorings, as we subsequently learned, and hovered over the entrance to the power house, getting as low down as possible and keeping a sharp watch for us. But most of the electric light in the vicinity had been carried down by the first, rush of the water, and in the darkness he did not see us when we emerged from the entrance. It was only after the sweeping away of the grove of trees had allowed a flood of light to stream upon the scene from a cluster of electric lumps on a distant portion of the bank on the Syrtis that had not yet given way that he caught Bight of us. Immediately he began to shout to at tract our attention, but in the awful uproar we could not hear him. Getting together all the ropes that he could lay his hands on, he steered the ship to a point directly over us, and then dropped down within a few yards of the boiling flood. Now as he hung over our heads, and saw the water tip to our very necks and still swiftly rising, he shouted again: "Catch hold, for Cod's sake!" The three men who were with him ln tile BhiP seconded bis cries. But by the time we had fairly grasped the ropes, so rapidly was the Hood rising, we were already afloat, With the assistance of Tom and his men we were rapidly drawn up, and immediately Tom reversed the electric polarity, and the ship began to rise. At that same Instant, with a crash that shivered the air, the immense metallic power house gave way and was swept tumbling, like a hill torn loose from its base, over the very spot uhero a moment before we had stood. One second's hesitation on tho part of Tom, and the electrical ship would bave been battered into a shapeless wad of metal by the careering mass, AXIII, When we had attained a considerable height, so that we could Bee to a great distance on either side, the spectacle became even more fearful than it was when we were close to the surface. On all sides banks and dykes were go ing down; trees were being uprooted; buildings were tumbling: and the ocean was achieving that victory over the land which had long been its due, but which the ingenuity of the inhabitants of Mars had postponed for ages. Far away we could see the front of the advancing wave crested with foam that sparkled in the electric lights, and as it swept on it changed the entire aspect of the planet—in front of it all life, behind it all death. Eastward our view extended across the Syrtls Major toward the land of Libya nnd the region of Isidis. On that side also the dykes were giving way under the tremendous pressure, and the Hoods were rushing toward the sun rise, which had just begun to streak the eastern sky. The continents that were being over whelmed on the western side of the Syrtls were Meroe, Aeria, Arabia, Eiiom and Eden. • The water beneath us continually deepened. The current from the melt ing snows around the southern pole was at its strongest, and one could hardly have believed that any obstruc tion put in its path would have been able to arrest it and turn it into these two ail-swallowing deluges, sweeping east and west. But, as we now per ceived, the level of the land over a large part of its surface was hundreds of feet, below the ocean, so that the latter, when once the barriers were broken, lushed into depressions that yawned to receive it. The point where we had dealt our blow was far removed from the great capital of Mars, around the Lake of the Sun, and we knew that we should have to wait for the floods to reach that point before the desired effect could be produced. By the nearest way, the water had at least 5,000 miles to travel. We estimated that its speed where we hung above it was as much as a hun dred miles an hour. Even if that speed were maintained, more than two days and nights would be required for the floods to reach the Lake of the Sun. But as the water rushed on it would break the banks of all the canals inter secting the country, and these, being also elevated above the surface, would add the impetus of their escaping wa ters to hasten the advance of the flood. We calculated, therefore, that about two duys would suffice to place the planet at our mercy. Half way from the Syrt'l3 Major to the Lake of the Sun another great con necting link between the Southern and Northern ocean basins, called on our maps of Mars the Indus, existed, and through this channel we knew that an other great current must be setting from the south toward the north. The flood that we bad started would reach and break the banks of tho Indus with in one day. The Hood traveling in the other, dl rcction, toward the east, would have considerably farther to go before reach ing tho neighborhood of the Lake of the Sun. It, too, would involve hun dreds of great canals as it advanced, and would come plunging upon the Lake of the Sun and its surrounding forts and cities, probably about half v day later than the arrival of the deluge that traveled toward the west. Now that we had let the awful de stroyer loose we almost shrank from the thought of the consequences which we had produced. How many millions Would perish as the result of our deed, we could not even guess. Many of the victims, as far as we knew, might be entirely innocent of enmity toward us, or of the evil which had been done to our native planet. But this was a case in which the good—if they existed— must suffer with the bad on account of the wicked deeds of the latter. , I have already remarked that the continents of Mars were higher on their northern and southern border* where they faced the great oceans. These natural barriers bore to the main mass of the land somewhat the relation of the edge of a shallow dish to its bot tom. Their rise on the land side was too gradual to give them the appear ance of hills, but on the side toward the sea they broke down in steep banks and cliffs several hundred feet in height. We guessed that it would be in the direction of these elevations that the inhabitants would flee, and those who had timely warning' might thus be able to escape in case the flood did not —as it seemed possible it might in its first mad rush—overtop the highest elevation on Mars. As day broke and the sun slowly rose upon the dreadful scene beneath us. we began to catch sight of some of the fleeing inhabitants. We had shift ed the position of the fleet toward the south, and were now suspended above the southeastern corner of Aeria. Here a high bank of reddish lock confronted the sea, whose waters ran lashing and roaring along the bluffs to supply the rapid draught produced by the empty ing of the Syrtls Major. Along the shore there was a narrow line of land, hundreds of miles in length, but less than a quarter of a mile broad, which still rose slightly above the surface of the water, and this land of refuge was absolutely packed with the monstrous inhabitants of the planet, who had lied hither on the first warning that the wa ter was coming. In some places it was so crowded that the late comers could not find standing ground on dry land, but were continu ally slipping back and falling into the water. It was an awful sight to look at them. It reminded me of pictures that I had seen of the deluge in the days of Noah, when the waters had risen to the mountain tops, and men, women and children were fighting for a foothold upon the last dry spots that the earth contained. We were all moved by a desire to help our enemies, for we were overwhelmed With feelings of pity and remorse, but to aid them was now utterly beyond our power. The mighty floods were out, and the end was in the hands of God. Fortunately, we had little time for these thoughts, because no sooner had the day begun to dawn around us than the airships of the Martians appeared. Evidently the people in them were dazed by the disaster and uncertain what to do. It is doubtful whether at first they comprehended the fact that we were the agents who had produced the catacyism. But as the morning advanced the air ships came flocking in greater and greater numbers from every direction, many swooping down close to the flood in order to rescue those who were drowning. Hundreds gathered along the slip of land which was crowded, as I have described, with refugees, while other hundreds rapidly assembled about us, evidently preparing for an attack. We had learned in our previous con tests with the airships of the Martians that our electrical ships had a great advantage over them, not merely in rapidity and facility of movement, but in the fact that our disintegrators could sweep in every direction, while it was only with much difficulty that the Martian airships could discharge their electrical strokes at an enemy poised directly above their heads. Accordingly, orders were instantly flashed to all the squadron to rise ver tically to an elevation so great that the rarity of the atmosphere would prevent the airships from attaining the same level. This manoeuvre was executed so quickly that the Martians were unable to deal us a blow before we were poised above them in such a position that they could not easily reach us. Still they did not mean to give up the conflict. Presently we saw one of the largest of their ships manoeuvring in a very peculiar manner, the purpose of which we did not at first comprehend. Its for ward portion commenced slowly to rise, until it pointed upward like the nose of a fish approaching the surface of the water. The moment it was in this po sition, an electrical bolt was darted from its prow, and one of our ships re ceived a shock which, although it did not prove fatal to the vessel Itself, killed two or three men aboard it. dis arranged its apparatus, and rendered It for the time being useless. "Ah, that's their trick, is it?" said Mr. Edison. "We must look out for that. Whenever you see one of the air ships beginning to stick its nose up af ter that fashion, blaze away at it." An older to this effect was transmit ted throughout the squadron. At the same time several of the most power ful disintegrators were directed upon the ship which had executed the strat egem and, reduced to a wreck, it dropped, whirling like a broken kite until it fell into the flood beneath. Ktill the .Martians' ships came flock ing in ever greater numbers from all directions. They made desperate at tempts to attain the level at which we bung above them. This was impossible, but many, getting an impetus by a swift run in the denser portion of the atmosphere beneath, succeeded in ris ing so high that they could discharge j their electric artillery with consider able effect. Others, with more or less success, repeated the manoeuvre of the ship which had first attacked us, and thus the battle became gradually more general and more fierce, until, in the course of an hour or two, our squadron found itself engaged with probably a thousand airships, which blazed with incessant lightning strokes, and were able, all too frequently, to do us seri ous damage. But on our part the battle was waged with a cool determination and a con sciousness of insuperable advantage which boded ill for the enemy. Only three or four of our sixty electrical ships were seriously damaged, while the work of the disintegrators upon the crowded fleet that floated beneath us was terrible to look upon. Our strokes fell thick and fast on all sides. It was like firing into a flock of birds that could not get away. Not withstanding all their efforts they were practically at our mercy. Shattered in to unrecognizable fragments, hundreds of the airships continually dropped from their great height to be swal lowed up in the boiling waters. Yet they were game to the last. They made every effort to get at us, and in their frenzy they seemed to discharge their bolts without, much regard as to whether friends or foes were injured. Our eyes were nearly blinded by the ceaseless glare beneath us, and the up roar was indescribable. At length, after the fearful contest had lasted for at least three hours, It became evident that the strength of the enemy was rapidly weakening. Nearly tbe whole of their immense fleet of airships had been destroyed, or so far damaged that they were barely able to tloat. Just so long, however, as they showed signs of resistance we continued to pour our merciless fire up on them, and the signal to cease was not given until the airships which had escaped serious damage began to llee in every direction. "Thank God, the thing is over," said Mr. Edison. "We have got the victory at last, but how we shall make use of it is something that at present I do not see." "But will they not renew the at tack?" asked some one. "I do not think they can," was the reply. "We have destroyed the very flower of their fleet." "And better than that," said Col onel Smith, "we have destroyed their elan; we have made them afraid. Their discipline is gone." But this was only the beginning of our victory. The floods below were achieving a still greater triumph, and now that we had conquered the air ships, we dropped within a few hundred feet of the surface of the water and then turned our faces westward in or der to follow the advance of the deluge and see whether, as we had hoped, it would overwhelm our enemies in the very centre of their power. In a little while we had overtaken the front wave, which was still devour ing everything. We saw it bursting the bunks of the canals, sweeping away forests of gigantic trees, and swallow ing cities and villages, leaving behind nothing but a broad expanse of swirl ing and eddying waters, which, in con sequence of the prevailing red hue of the vegetation and the soil, looked, as, shuddering, we gazed down up it, like an ocean of blood, ilecked with foam and steaming with the escaping life of the planet from whose veins it gushed. As we skirted the southern borders of the continent the same dreadful scenes which we had beheld on the coast of Aeria presented themselves. Crowds of refugees thronged the high border of the land and struggled with one another for a foothold against the continually rising Hood. We saw, too. Hitting in every direc tion, but rapidly fleeing before our ap proach, many airships, evidently crowded with Martians, but not armed either for offence or defence. These, of course, we did not disturb, for merci less as our proceedings seemed even to ourselves, we had no intention of mak ing war upon the innocent, or upon those who had no means to resist. What we had done it had seemed to us necessary to do, but henceforth we were resolved to take no more lives if it could be avoided. Thus, during the remainder of that day. all of the following night and all of the next day, we continued upon the heels of the advancing flood. The second night we could perceive ahead of us the electric lights cover ing the land of Thaumasia, in the midst of which lay the Lake of the Sun. The flood would be upon It by daybreak, and, assuming that the de moralization produced by the news of the coming of the waters, which we were aware had hours before been flashed to the capital of Mars, would prevent the Martians from effectively manning' their forts, we thought it safe to hasten on with the flagship, and one or two others, in advance of the water, and to hover over the Lake of the Sun in the darkness, in order that we might watch the deluge perform its awful work in the morning. Thaumasia, as I have before re marked, was a broad, oval land, about 1,800 miles across, having the Lake of the Sun exactly in its centre. From this lake, which was four or five hun dred miles in diameter, and circular in outline, many canals radiated, as straight as the spokes of a wheel, in every direction, and connected it with the surrounding seas. Like all the other Martian continents, Thaumasia lay below the level of the sea, except toward the south, where it fronted the ocean. Completely surrounding the lake was a great ring of cities constituting the capital of Mars. Here the genius of the Martians had displayed itself to the full. The surrounding- country was lr« rlgated until it fairly bloomed with gi gantic vegetation and flowers; the canals were carefully regulated with locks so that the supply of water was under complete control; the display of magnificent metallic buildings of all kinds and sizes produced a most daz zling effect, and the protection against enemies afforded by tho innumerable fortifications surrounding the ringed city, and guarding the neighboring lands, seemed complete. Suspended at a height of perhaps two miles from the surface, near the south ern edge of the lake, we waited for the oncoming flood. With the dawn of day we began to perceive more clearly the effect which the news of the drowning of the planet had produced. It was evi dent that many of the inhabitants ot the cities had already fled. Airships on which the fugitives hung as thick as swarms of bees were seen, elevated but a short distance above the ground, and making their way rapidly toward the south. The Martians knew that their only hope of escape lay in reaching the high southern border of the land before the Hoods were upon them. But they must have known also that that narrow beach would not suffice to contain one in ten of those who sought refuge there. The density of the population around the Lake of the Sun seemed to us incredible. Again our hearts sank within us at the fearful destruction of life for which we were responsible. Yet we comforted ourselves with the re flection that it was unavoidable. As Colonel Smith put it: "You couldn't trust these coyotes. The only thing to do was to drown them out. i am sorry for them, but I guess there will be as many left as will be good for us, anyhow." We had not long to wait for the flood. As the dawn began to streak the east we saw its awful crest moving out of the darkness, bursting across the canals and plowing its way in the di rection of the crowded shores of the Lake of the Sun. The supply of water behind that great wave seemed inex haustible. Five thousand miles it had traveled, and yet its power was as great as when it started from the Syrtis Major. We caught sight erf the oncoming wa ter before it was visible to the Mar tians beneath us. But while it was yet many miles away, the roar of it reached them, and then arose a chorus of ter rific cries, the effect of which, coming to our ears out of the half gloom of the morning was most uncanny and hor rible. Thousands upon thousands of the Martians still remained here to be come the victims of the deluge. Some, perhaps, doubted the truth of the re port that the banks were down and the floods were out; others, for one rea son or another, had been unable to get away; others, like the inhabitants of Pompeii, had lingered too long, or had returned after beginning the flight, to secure abandoned treasures, and now it was too late to get away. With a roar that shook the planet the white wall rushed upon the great city beneath our feet, and in an in stant it had been engulfed. On went the flood, swallowing up the Lake of the Sun itself, and in a little while, as far as our eyes could range, the land of Thaumasia had been turned Into a, raging sea. TO BE CONCLUDED. MENTAL AFFLICTIONS. A Case of a Man Who Could Write Words and Was Unable to Read Them, Dr. James Hinshelwood, a very dis* tinguished surgeon of Glasgow, Scot land, describes some remarkable cases of mental affliction in the London "Lancet." One would think it almost impossible for a man to get Into a state of mind where he can write words and recognize letters, but Is absolutely un able to read either what he has writ ten himself or any printed language that may be put before him. Dr. Hinshelwood says: "A man, aged fifty-three years, on September 7, 1897, came home from his business about two o'clock in the afternoon saying that he did not feel well and had to give up work in the morning, as he could not see to read or write. Shortly, thereafter, whilst sitting on a chair, he became giddy, fell to the ground, and was unconscious, but only for a mo ment. He soon felt all right again and in the afternoon went out for a walk. In the evening about seven o'clock, without warning, he had a severe fit with general, convulsive movements and complete unconsciousness for about an hour thereafter. He remained in a dazed condition for about two days, but gradually recovered and since then had been able to go about. On the ad vice of his medical adviser he had kept away from business. On test ing him with the distance types, com posed of separate letters, he could read the letters quite fluently, although his visual acuity was not quite up to the normal, being 6-8. On testing him with the reading test typos composed of words and sentences I found he could not read them when made to rely upon vision alone. If allowed to spell out aloud each word letter by letter he could read the words slowly and labori ously, just as a child spells them out when learning to read. When pre vented from doing this he could not read words at all. The only exceptione were in the case of a few short fa miliar words such as "the", "of", "to", etc. These he sometimes picked out with a certain amount of pride. On asking him not to attempt any longer reading the words but to read the let ters only he read them off fluently line after line. His difficulties In reading words were precisely the same with the largest as with the smallest test types. On the other hand, he read the letters of the smallest test types, Jaeger No. 1, without difficulty with suitable glasses. He had precisely the same difficulty in reading written as In read ing printed words. On testing him with figures he could read them rapidly and fluently, not only the individual figures, but when combined Into complicated groups of thousands, hundreds of thou sands and millions, and e\. - fn the form of very complex fractions. He could write to dictation and copy cor rectly, although he could not read what he had written. The patient was strongly urged to abstain ajjitirely from business so as to secure af.polute cerebral rest, and iodide of potassium was recommended on the grounj k that there might be some specific affection of the cerebral vessels, although there was no history or traces of past spec ific disease." Copyright, 1898, by Bacheller Syndicate.