_THE FLOOD GATES OF MARS_
It was a curious scene when the momentous interview which was to
determine our fate and that of Mars began. Aina had been warned of what
was coming. We in the flagship had all learned to speak her language
with more or less ease, but it was deemed best that the Heidelberg
professor, assisted by one of his colleagues, should act as interpreter.
The girl, flushed with excitement of the novel situation, fully
appreciating the importance of what was about to occur, and looking more
charming than before, stood at one side of the principal apartment.
Directly facing her were the interpreters, and the rest of us, all with
ears intent and eyes focused upon Aina, stood in a double row behind
them. As heretofore, I am setting down her words translated into our own
tongue, having taken only so much liberty as to connect the sentences
into a stricter sequence than they had when falling from her lips in
reply to the questions which were showered upon her.
"You will never be victorious," she said, "if you attack them openly as
you have been doing. They are too strong and too numerous. They are well
prepared for such attacks, because they have had to resist them before.
"They have waged war with the inhabitants of the asteroid Ceres, whose
people are giants greater than themselves. Their enemies from Ceres have
attacked them here. Hence these fortifications, with weapons pointing
skyward, and the great air fleets which you have encountered."
"But there must be some point," said Mr. Edison, "where we can."
"Yes, yes," interrupted the girl quickly, "there is one blow you can
deal them which they could not withstand."
"What is that?" eagerly inquired the commander.
"You can drown them out."
"How? With the canals?"
"Yes, I will explain to you. I have already told you, and, in fact, you
must have seen for yourselves, that there are almost no mountains on
Mars. A very learned man of my race used to say that the reason was
because Mars is so very old a world that the mountains it once had have
been almost completely leveled, and the entire surface of the planet had
become a great plain. There are depressions, however, most of which are
occupied by the seas. The greater part of the land lies below the level
of the ocean. In order at the same time to irrigate the soil and make it
fruitful, and to protect themselves from overflows by the ocean breaking
in upon them, the Martians have constructed the immense and innumerable
canals which you see running in all directions over the continents.
"There is one period in the year, and that period has now arrived when
there is special danger of a great deluge. Most of the oceans of Mars
lie in the southern hemisphere. When it is Summer in that hemisphere,
the great masses of ice and snow collected around the south pole melt
rapidly away."
"Yes, that is so," broke in one of the astronomers, who was listening
attentively. "Many a time I have seen the vast snow fields around the
southern pole of Mars completely disappear as the Summer sun rose high
upon them."
"With the melting of these snows," continued Aina, "a rapid rise in the
level of the water in the southern oceans occurs. On the side facing
these oceans the continents of Mars are sufficiently elevated to prevent
an overflow, but nearer the equator the level of the land sinks lower.
"With your telescopes you have no doubt noticed that there is a great
bending sea connecting the oceans of the south with those of the north
and running through the midst of the continents."
"Quite so," said the astronomer who had spoken before, "we call it the
Syrtis Major."
"That long narrow sea," Aina went on, "forms a great channel through
which the flood of waters caused by the melting of the southern polar
snows flows swiftly toward the equator and then on toward the north
until it reaches the sea basins which exist there. At that point it is
rapidly turned into ice and snow, because, of course, while it is Summer
in the southern hemisphere it is Winter in the northern.
"The Syrtis Major (I am giving our name to the channel of communication
in place of that by which the girl called it) is like a great safety
valve, which, by permitting the waters to flow northward, saves the
continents from inundation.
"But when mid-Summer arrives, the snows around the pole, having been
completely melted away, the flood ceases and the water begins to recede.
At this time, but for a device which the Martians have employed, the
canals connected with the oceans would run dry, and the vegetation left
without moisture under the Summer sun, would quickly perish.
"To prevent this they have built a series of enormous gates extending
completely across the Syrtis Major at its narrowest point (latitude 25
degrees south). These gates are all controlled by machinery collected at
a single point on the shore of the strait. As soon as the flood in the
Syrtis Major begins to recede, the gates are closed, and, the water
being thus restrained, the irrigating canals are kept full long enough
to mature the harvests."
"The clue! The clue at last!" exclaimed Mr. Edison. "That is the place
where we shall nip them. If we can close those gates now at the moment
of high tide we shall flood the country. Did you say," he continued,
turning to Aina, "that the movement of the gates was all controlled from
a single point?"
"Yes," said the girl. "There is a great building (power house) full of
tremendous machinery which I once entered when my father was taken there
by his master, and where I saw one Martian, by turning a little handle,
cause the great line of gates, stretching a hundred miles across the
sea, to slowly shut in, edge to edge, until the flow of the water toward
the north had been stopped."
"How is the building protected?"
"So completely," said Aina, "that my only fear is that you may not be
able to reach it. On account of the danger from their enemies on Ceres,
the Martians have fortified it strongly on all sides, and have even
surrounded it and covered it overhead with a great electrical network,
to touch which would be instant death."
"Ah," said Mr. Edison, "they have got an electric shield, have they?
Well, I think we shall be able to manage that."
"Anyhow," he continued, "we have got to get into that power house, and
we have got to close those gates, and we must not lose much time in
making up our minds how it is to be done. Evidently this is our only
chance. We have not force enough to contend in open battle with the
Martians, but if we can flood them out, and thereby render the engines
contained in their fortifications useless, perhaps we shall be able to
deal with the airships, which will be all the means of defense that will
then remain to them."
This idea commended itself to all the leaders of the expedition. It was
determined to make a reconnaissance at once.
But it would not do for us to approach the planet too hastily, and we
certainly could not think of landing upon it in broad daylight. Still,
as long as we were yet a considerable distance from Mars, we felt that
we should be safe from observation because so much time had elapsed
while we were hidden behind Deimos that the Martians had undoubtedly
concluded that we were no longer in existance.
So we boldly quitted the little satellite with our entire squadron and
once more rapidly approached the red planet of war. This time it was to
be a death grapple and our chances of victory still seemed good.
As soon as we arrived so near the planet that there was danger of our
being actually seen, we took pains to keep continually in the shadow of
Mars, and the more surely to conceal our presence all lights upon the
ships were extinguished. The precaution of the commander even went so
far as to have the smooth metallic sides of the cars blackened over so
that they should not reflect light, and thus become visible to the
Martians as shining specks, moving suspiciously among the stars.
The precise location of the great power house on the shores of the
Syrtis Major having been carefully ascertained, the squadron dropped
down one night into the upper limits of the Martian atmosphere, directly
over the gulf.
Then a consultation was called on the flagship and a plan of campaign
was quickly devised.
It was deemed wise that the attempt should be made with a single
electric ship, but that the others should be kept hovering near, ready
to respond on the instant to any signal for aid which might come from
below. It was thought that, notwithstanding the wonderful defences,
which, according to Aina's account surrounded the building, a small
party would have a better chance of success than a large one.
Mr. Edison was certain that the electrical network which was described
as covering the power house would not prove a serious obstruction to us,
because by carefully sweeping the space where we intended to pass with
the disintegrators before quitting the ship, the netting could be
sufficiently cleared away to give us uninterrupted passage.
At first the intention was to have twenty men, each armed with two
disintegrators (that being the largest number one person could carry to
advantage) descend from the electrical ship and make the venture. But,
after further discussion, this number was reduced; first to a dozen, and
finally, to only four. These four consisted of Mr. Edison, Colonel
Smith, Mr. Sydney Phillips and myself.
Both by her own request and because we could not help feeling that her
knowledge of the locality would be indispensable to us, Aina was also
included in our party, but not, of course, as a fighting member of it.
It was about an hour after midnight when the ship in which we were to
make the venture parted from the remainder of the squadron and dropped
cautiously down. The blaze of electric lights running away in various
directions indicated the lines of innumerable canals with habitations
crowded along their banks, which came to a focus at a point on the
continent of Aeria, westward from the Syrtis Major.
We stopped the electrical ship at an elevation of perhaps three hundred
feet above the vast roof of a structure which Aina assured us was the
building of which we were in search.
Here we remained for a few minutes, cautiously reconnoitering. On that
side of the power house which was opposite to the shore of the Syrtis
Major there was a thick grove of trees, lighted beneath, as was apparent
from the illumination which here and there streamed up through the cover
of leaves, but, nevertheless, dark and gloomy above the tree tops.
"The electric network extends over the grove as well as over the
building," said Aina.
This was lucky for us, because we wished to descend among the trees,
and, by destroying part of the network over the tree tops, we could
reach the shelter we desired and at the same time pass within the line
of electric defenses.
With increased caution, and almost holding our breath lest we should
make some noise that might reach the ears of the sentinels below, we
caused the car to settle gently down until we caught sight of a metallic
net stretched in the air between us and the trees.
After our first encounter with the Martians on the asteroid, where, as I
have related, some metal which was included in their dress resisted the
action of the disintegrators, Mr. Edison had readjusted the range of
vibrations covered by the instruments, and since then we had found
nothing that did not yield to them. Consequently, we had no fear that
the metal of the network would not be destroyed.
There was danger, however, of arousing attention by shattering holes
through the tree tops. This could be avoided by first carefully
ascertaining how far away the network was and then with the adjustable
mirrors attached to the disintegrators focusing the vibratory discharge
at that distance.
So successful were we that we opened a considerable gap in the network
without doing any perceptible damage to the trees beneath.
The ship was cautiously lowered through the opening and brought to rest
among the upper branches of one of the tallest trees. Colonel Smith, Mr.
Phillips, Mr. Edison and myself at once clambered out upon a strong
limb.
For a moment I feared our arrival had been betrayed on account of the
altogether too noisy contest that arose between Colonel Smith and Mr.
Phillips as to which of them should assist Aina. To settle the dispute I
took charge of her myself.
At length we were all safely in the tree.
Then followed the still more dangerous undertaking of descending from
this great height to the ground. Fortunately, the branches were very
close together and they extended down within a short distance of the
soil. So the actual difficulties of the descent were not very great
after all. The one thing that we had particularly to bear in mind was
the absolute necessity of making no noise.
At length the descent was successfully accomplished, and we all five
stood together in the shadow at the foot of the great tree. The grove
was so thick around that while there was an abundance of electric lights
among the trees, their illumination did not fall upon us where we stood.
Peering cautiously through the vistas in various directions, we
ascertained our location with respect to the wall of the building. Like
all the structures which we had seen on Mars, it was composed of
polished red metal.
"Where is the entrance?" inquired Mr. Edison, in a whisper.
"Come softly this way, and look out for the sentinel," replied Aina.
Gripping our disintegrators firmly, and screwing up our courage, with
noiseless steps we followed the girl among the shadows of the trees.
We had one-very great advantage. The Martians had evidently placed so
much confidence in the electric network which surrounded the power house
that they never dreamed of enemies being able to penetrate it--at least,
without giving warning of their coming.
But the hole which we had blown in this network with the disintegrators
had been made noiselessly, and Mr. Edison believed, since no enemies had
appeared, that our operations had not been betrayed by any automatic
signal to watchers inside the building.
Consequently, we had every reason to think that we now stood within the
line of defense, in which they reposed the greatest confidence, without
their having the least suspicion of our presence.
Aina assured us that on the occasion of her former visit to the power
house there had been but two sentinels on guard at the entrance. At the
inner end of a long passage leading to the interior, she said, there
were two more. Besides these there were three or four Martian engineers
watching the machinery in the interior of the building. A number of
airships were supposed to be on guard around the structure, but possibly
their vigilance had been relaxed, because not long ago the Martians had
sent an expedition against Ceres which had been so successful that the
power of that planet to make any attack upon Mars had, for the present
been destroyed.
Supposing us to have been annihilated in the recent battle among the
clouds, they would have no fear or cause for vigilance on our account.
The entrance to the great structure was low--at least, when measured by
the stature of the Martians. Evidently the intention was that only one
person at a time should find room to pass through it.
Drawing cautiously near, we discerned the outlines of two gigantic
forms, standing in the darkness, one on either side of the door. Colonel
Smith whispered to me:
"If you will take the fellow on the right, I will attend to the other
one."
Adjusting our aim as carefully as was possible in the gloom, Colonel
Smith and I simultaneously discharged our disintegrators, sweeping them
rapidly up and down in the manner which had become familiar to us when
endeavoring to destroy one of the gigantic Martians with a single
stroke. And so successful were we that the two sentinels disappeared as
if they were ghosts of the night.
Instantly we all hurried forward and entered the door. Before us
extended a long, straight passage, brightly illuminated by a number of
electric candles. Its polished sides gleamed with blood-red reflections,
and the gallery terminated, at a distance of two or three hundred feet,
with an opening into a large chamber beyond, on the further side of
which we could see part of a gigantic and complicated mass of machinery.
Making as little noise as possible, we pushed ahead along the passage,
but when we had arrived within the distance of a dozen paces from the
inner end, we stopped, and Colonel Smith, getting down upon his knees,
crept forward, until he had reached the inner end of the passage. There
he peered cautiously around the edge into the chamber, and, turning his
head a moment later, beckoned us to come forward. We crept to his side,
and, looking out into the vast apartment, could perceive no enemies.
What had become of the sentinels supposed to stand at the inner end the
passage we could not imagine. At any rate, they were not at their posts.
The chamber was an immense square room at least a hundred feet in height
and 400 feet on a side, and almost filling the wall opposite to us was
an intricate display of machinery, wheels, levers, rods and polished
plates. This we had no doubt was one end of the engine which opened and
shut the great gates that could dam an ocean.
"There is no one in sight," said Colonel Smith.
"Then we must act quickly," said Mr. Edison.
"Where," he said, turning to Aina, "is the handle by turning which you
saw the Martian close the gates?"
Aina looked about in bewilderment. The mechanism before us was so
complicated that even an expert mechanic would have been excusable for
finding himself unable to understand it. There were scores of knobs and
handles, all glistening in the electric light, any one of which, so far
as the uninstructed could tell, might have been the master key that
controlled the whole complex apparatus.
"Quick," said Mr. Edison, "where is it?"
The girl in her confusion ran this way and that, gazing hopelessly upon
the machinery, but evidently utterly unable to help us.
To remain here inactive was not merely to invite destruction for
ourselves, but was sure to bring certain failure upon the purpose of the
expedition. All of us began instantly to look about in search of the
proper handle, seizing every crank and wheel in sight and striving to
turn it.
"Stop that!" shouted Mr. Edison, "you may set the whole thing wrong.
Don't touch anything until we have found the right lever."
But to find that seemed to most of us now utterly beyond the power of
man.
It was at this critical moment that the wonderful depth and reach of Mr.
Edison's mechanical genius displayed itself. He stepped back, ran his
eyes quickly over the whole immense mass of wheels, handles, bolts, bars
and levers, paused for an instant, as if making up his mind, then said
decidedly, "There it is," and stepping quickly forward, selected a small
wheel amid a dozen others, all furnished at the circumference with
handles like those of a pilot's wheel, and giving it a quick wrench,
turned it half-way around.
At this instant, a startling shout fell upon our ears. There was a
thunderous clatter behind us, and, turning, we saw three gigantic
Martians rushing forward.