The squadron had been rapidly withdrawn to a very considerable distance
from the asteroid. The range of the mysterious artillery employed by
the Martians was unknown to us. We did not even know the limit of the
effective range of our own disintegrators. If it should prove that the
Martians were able to deal their strokes at a distance greater than any
we could reach, then they would of course have an insuperable advantage.
On the other hand, if it should turn out that our range was greater
than theirs, the advantage would be on our side. Or--which was perhaps
most probable--there might be practically no difference in the effective
range of the engines.
Anyhow, we were going to find out how the case stood, and that without
delay.
Ready with the Disintegrator.
Everything being in readiness, the disintegrators all in working order,
and the men who were able to handle them, most of whom were experienced
marksmen, chosen from among the officers of the regular army of the
United States, and accustomed to the straight shooting and the sure hits
of the West, standing at their posts, the squadron again advanced.
In order to distract the attention of the Martians, the electrical ships
had been distributed over a wide space. Some dropped straight down toward
the asteroid; others approached it by flank attack, from this side and
that. The flagship moved straight in toward the point where the first
disaster occurred. Its intrepid commander felt that his post should be
that of the greatest danger, and where the severest blows would be given
and received.
A Strategic Advance.
The approach of the ships was made with great caution. Watching
the Martians with our telescopes we could clearly see that they were
disconcerted by the scattered order of our attack. Even if all of their
engines of war had been in proper condition for use it would have been
impossible for them to meet the simultaneous assault of so many enemies
dropping down upon them from the sky.
But they were made of fighting metal, as we knew from old experience. It
was no question of surrender. They did not know how to surrender, and we
did not know how to demand a surrender. Besides, the destruction of the
two electrical ships with the forty men, many of whom bore names widely
known upon the earth, had excited a kind of fury among the members of
the squadron which called for vengeance.
Another Attack.
Suddenly a repetition of the quick movement by the Martians, which had
been the forerunner of the former coup, was observed; again a blinding
flash burst from their war engine and instantaneously a shiver ran through
the frame of the flagship; the air within quivered with strange pulsations
and seemed suddenly to have assumed the temperature of a blast furnace.
We all gasped for breath. Our throats and lungs seemed scorched in the
act of breathing. Some fell unconscious upon the floor. The marksmen,
carrying the disintegrators ready for use, staggered, and one of them
dropped his instrument.
But we had not been destroyed like our comrades before us. In a moment the
wave of heat passed; those who had fallen recovered from their momentary
stupor and staggered to their feet.
The electrical steersman stood hesitating at his post.
"Move on," said Mr. Edison sternly, his features set with determination
and his eyes afire. "We are still beyond their effective range. Let us
get closer in order to make sure work when we strike."
The ship moved on. One could hear the heartbeats of its inmates. The
other members of the squadron, thinking for the moment that disaster
had overtaken the flagship, had paused and seemed to be meditating flight.
"Signal them to move on," said Mr. Edison.
The Battle Commences.
The signal was given, and the circle of electrical ships closed in upon
the asteroid.
In the meantime Mr. Edison had been donning his air-tight suit. Before
we could clearly comprehend his intention he had passed through the
double-trapped door which gave access to the exterior of the car without
permitting the loss of air, and was standing upon what served as the
deck of the ship.
In his hand he carried a disintegrator. With a quick motion he sighted it.
As quickly as possible I sprang to his side. I was just in time to note
the familiar blue gleam about the instrument, which indicated that its
terrific energies were at work. The whirring sound was absent, because
here, in open space, where there was no atmosphere, there could be
no sound.
The Disintegrator's Power.
My eyes were fixed upon the Martians' engine, which had just dealt us a
staggering, but not fatal, blow, and particularly I noticed a polished
knob projecting from it, which seemed to have been the focus from which
its destructive bolt emanated.
A moment later the knob disappeared. The irresistible vibrations
darted from the electrical disintegrator and had fallen upon it and
instantaneously shattered it into atoms.
"That fixes them," said Mr. Edison, turning to me with a smile.
And indeed it did fix them. We had most effectually spiked their gun. It
would deal no more death blows.
The doings of the flagship had been closely watched throughout the
squadron. The effect of its blow had been evident to all, and a moment
later we saw, on some of the nearer ships, men dressed in their air suits,
appearing upon the deck, swinging their arms and sending forth noiseless
cheers into empty space.
A Telling Stroke.
The stroke that we had dealt was taken by several of the electrical
ships as a signal for a common assault, and we saw two of the Martians
fall beside the ruin of their engine, their heads having been blown from
their bodies.
"Signal them to stop firing," commanded Mr. Edison. "We have got them
down, and we are not going to murder them without necessity."
"Besides," he added, "I want to capture some of them alive."
The signal was given as he had ordered. The flagship then alone dropped
slowly toward the place on the asteroid where the prostrate Martians were.
A Terrible Scene.
As we got near them a terrible scene unfolded itself to our eyes. There
had evidently been not more than half a dozen of the monsters in the
beginning. Two of these were stretched headless upon the ground. Three
others had suffered horrible injuries where the invisible vibratory
beams from the disintegrators had grazed them, and they could not long
survive. One only remained apparently uninjured.
The Gigantic Martian.
It is impossible for me to describe the appearance of this creature
in terms that would be readily understood. Was he like a man? Yes and
no. He possessed many human characteristics, but they were exaggerated and
monstrous in scale and in detail. His head was of enormous size, and his
huge projecting eyes gleamed with a strange fire of intelligence. His face
was like a caricature, but not one to make the beholder laugh. Drawing
himself up, he towered to a height of at least fifteen feet.
But let the reader not suppose from this inadequate description that the
Martians stirred in the beholder precisely the sensation that would be
caused by the sight of a gorilla, or other repulsive inhabitant of one
of our terrestrial jungles, suddenly confronting him in its native wilds.
With all his horrible characteristics, and all his suggestions of beast
and monster, nevertheless the Martian produced the impression of being
a person and not a mere animal.
His Frightened Aspect.
I have already referred to the enormous size of his head, and to the
fact that his countenance bore considerable resemblance to that of a
man. There was something in this face that sent a shiver through the
soul of the beholder. One could feel in looking upon it that here was
intellect, intelligence developed to the highest degree, but in the
direction of evil instead of good.
The sensations of one who had stood face to face with Satan, when he
was driven from the battlements of heaven by the swords of his fellow
archangels, and had beheld him transformed from Lucifer, the Son of the
Morning, into the Prince of Night and Hell, might not have been unlike
those which we now experienced as we gazed upon this dreadful personage,
who seemed to combine the intellectual powers of a man, raised to their
highest pitch, with some of the physical features of a beast, and all
the moral depravity of a fiend.
The Martian's Rage.
The appearance of the Martian was indeed so threatening and repellent
that we paused at the height of fifty feet above the ground, hesitating
to approach nearer. A grin of rage and hate overspread his face. If he
had been a man I should say he shook his fist at us. What he did was
to express in even more telling pantomime his hatred and defiance, and
his determination to grind us to shreds if he could once get us within
his clutches.
Mr. Edison and I still stood upon the deck of the ship, where several
others had gathered around us. The atmosphere of the little asteroid
was so rare that it practically amounted to nothing, and we could not
possibly have survived if we had not continued to wear our air-tight
suits. How the Martians contrived to live here was a mystery to us. It
was another of their secrets which we were yet to learn.
Mr. Edison retained his disintegrator in his hand.
"Kill him," said someone. "He is too horrible to live."
"If we do not kill him we shall never be able to land upon the asteroid,"
said another.
Shall We Kill Him?
"No," said Mr. Edison, "I shall not kill him. We have got another use
for him. Tom," he continued, turning to one of his assistants, whom he
had brought from his laboratory, "bring me the anaesthetizer."
This was something entirely new to nearly all the members of the
expedition. Mr. Edison, however, had confided to me before we left
the earth the fact that he had invented a little instrument by means of
which a bubble, strongly charged with a powerful anaesthetic agent, could
be driven to a considerable distance into the face of an enemy, where,
exploding without other damage, it would instantly put him to sleep.
When Tom had placed the instrument in his hands Mr. Edison ordered the
electrical ship to forge slightly ahead and drop a little lower toward
the Martian, who, with watchful eyes and threatening gestures, noted
our approach in the attitude of a wild beast on the spring. Suddenly
Mr. Edison discharged from the instrument in his hand a little gaseous
globe, which glittered like a ball of tangled rainbows in the sunshine,
and darted with astonishing velocity straight into the upturned face of
the Martian. It burst as it touched and the monster fell back senseless
upon the ground.
One of the Bellicose Martians Falls Into the Hands of the
Worldians.
"You have killed him!" exclaimed all.
"No," said Mr. Edison, "he is not dead, only asleep. Now we shall drop
down and bind him tight before he can awake."
When we came to bind our prisoner with strong ropes we were more than
ever impressed with his gigantic stature and strength. Evidently in single
combat with equal weapons he would have been a match for twenty of us.
All that I had read of giants had failed to produce upon my mind the
impression of enormous size and tremendous physical energy which the
sleeping body of this immense Martian produced. He had fallen on his
back, and was in a most profound slumber. All his features were relaxed,
and yet even in that condition there was a devilishness about him that
made the beholders instinctively shudder.
The Unconscious Martian.
So powerful was the effect of the anaesthetic which Mr. Edison had
discharged into his face that he remained perfectly unconscious while
we turned him half over in order the more securely to bind his muscular
limbs.
In the meantime the other electrical ships approached, and several of
them made a landing upon the asteroid. Everybody was eager to see this
wonderful little world, which, as I have already remarked, was only five
miles in diameter.
Exploring the Planet.
Several of us from the flagship started out hastily to explore the
miniature planet. And now our attention was recalled to an intensely
interesting phenomenon which had engaged our thoughts not only when we
were upon the moon, but during our flight through space. This was the
almost entire absence of weight.
On the moon, where the force of gravitation is one-sixth as great as upon
the earth, we had found ourselves astonishingly light. Five-sixths of our
own weight, and of the weight of the air-tight suits in which we were
incased, had magically dropped from us. It was therefore comparatively
easy for us, encumbered as we were, to make our way about on the moon.
But when we were far from both the earth and the moon, the loss of
weight was more astonishing still--not astonishing because we had not
known that it would be so, but nevertheless a surprising phenomenon in
contrast with our lifelong experience on the earth.
Men Without Weight.
In open space we were practically without weight. Only the mass of
the electrical car in which we were enclosed attracted us, and inside
that we could place ourselves in any position without falling. We could
float in the air. There were no up and no down, no top and no bottom for
us. Stepping outside the car, it would have been easy for us to spring
away from it and leave it forever.
One of the most startling experiences that I have ever had was one
day when we were navigating space about half way between the earth
and Mars. I had stepped outside the car with Lord Kelvin, both of us,
of course, wearing our air-tight suits. We were perfectly well aware
what would be the consequence of detaching ourselves from the car as
we moved along. We should still retain the forward motion of the car,
and of course accompany it in its flight. There would be no falling one
way or the other. The car would have a tendency to draw us back again by
its attraction, but this tendency would be very slight, and practically
inappreciable at a distance.
Stepping Into Space.
"I am going to step off," I suddenly said to Lord Kelvin. "Of course
I shall keep right along with the car, and step aboard again when I
am ready."
"Quite right on general principles, young man," replied the great savant,
"but beware in what manner you step off. Remember, if you give your body
an impulse sufficient to carry it away from the car to any considerable
distance, you will be unable to get back again, unless we can catch you
with a boathook or a fishline. Out there in empty space you will have
nothing to kick against, and you will be unable to propel yourself in
the direction of the car, and its attraction is so feeble that we should
probably arrive at Mars before it had drawn you back again."
All this was, of course, perfectly self-evident, yet I believe that
but for the warning word of Lord Kelvin, I should have been rash enough
to step out into empty space with sufficient force to have separated
myself hopelessly from the electrical ship.
A Reckless Experiment.
As it was, I took good care to retain a hold upon a projecting portion
of the car. Occasionally cautiously releasing my grip, I experienced for
a few minutes the delicious, indescribable pleasure of being a little
planet swinging through space, with nothing to hold me up and nothing
to interfere with my motion.
Mr. Edison, happening to come upon the deck of the ship at this time,
and seeing what we were about, at once said:
"I must provide against this danger. If I do not, there is a chance that
we shall arrive at Mars with the ships half empty and the crews floating
helplessly around us."
Edison Always Prepared.
Mr. Edison's way of guarding against the danger was by contriving a
little apparatus, modeled after that which was the governing force of the
electrical ships themselves, and which, being enclosed in the air-tight
suits, enabled their wearers to manipulate the electrical charge upon
them in such a way that they could make excursions from the cars into open
space like steam launches from a ship, going and returning at their will.
These little machines being rapidly manufactured, for Mr. Edison had a
miniature laboratory aboard, were distributed about the squadron, and
henceforth we had the pleasure of paying and receiving visits among the
various members of the fleet.
But to return from this digression to our experience of the asteroid. The
latter being a body of some mass was, of course, able to impart to us
a measurable degree of weight. Being five miles in diameter, on the
assumption that its mean density was the same as that of the earth,
the weight of bodies on its surface should have borne the same ratio to
their weight upon the earth that the radius of the asteroid bore to the
radius of the earth; in other words, as 1 to 1,600.
Having made this mental calculation, I knew that my weight, being 150
pounds on the earth, should on this asteroid be an ounce and a half.
Curious to see whether fact would bear out theory, I had myself weighed
with a spring balance. Mr. Edison, Lord Kelvin and the other distinguished
scientists stood by watching the operation with great interest.
To our complete surprise, my weight, instead of coming out an ounce and
a half, as it should have done, on the supposition that the mean density
of the asteroid resembled that of the earth--a very liberal supposition
on the side of the asteroid, by the way--actually came out five ounces
and a quarter!
"What in the world makes me so heavy?" I asked.
"Yes, indeed, what an elephant you have become," said Mr. Edison.
Lord Kelvin screwed his eyeglass in his eye, and carefully inspected
the balance.
Weight, Five and a Quarter Ounces.
"It's quite right," he said. "You do indeed weigh five ounces and a
quarter. Too much; altogether too much," he added. "You shouldn't do it,
you know."
"Perhaps the fault is in the asteroid," suggested Professor Sylvanus
P. Thompson.
"Quite so," exclaimed Lord Kelvin, a look of sudden comprehension
overspreading his features. "No doubt it is the internal constitution
of the asteroid which is the cause of the anomaly. We must look into
that. Let me see? This gentleman's weight is three and one-half times
as great as it ought to be. What element is there whose density exceeds
the mean density of the earth in about that proportion?"
"Gold," exclaimed one of the party.
The Golden Asteroid!
For a moment we were startled beyond expression. The truth had flashed
upon us.
This must be a golden planet--this little asteroid. If it were not
composed internally of gold it could never have made me weigh three
times more than I ought to weigh.
"But where is the gold?" cried one.
"Covered up, of course," said Lord Kelvin. "Buried in star dust. This
asteroid could not have continued to travel for millions of years through
regions of space strewn with meteoric particles without becoming covered
with the inevitable dust and grime of such a journey. We must dig down,
and then doubtless we shall find the metal."
This hint was instantly acted upon. Something that would serve for a
spade was seized by one of the men, and in a few minutes a hole had been
dug in the comparatively light soil of the asteroid.
The Precious Metal Discovered.
I shall never forget the sight, nor the exclamations of wonder that
broke forth from all of us standing around, when the yellow gleam of the
precious metal appeared under the "star dust." Collected in huge masses
it reflected the light of the sun from its hiding place.
Evidently the planet was not a solid ball of gold, formed like a bullet
run in a mould, but was composed of nuggets of various sizes, which
had come together here under the influence of their mutual gravitation,
and formed a little metallic planet.
Judging by the test of weight which we had already tried, and which had
led to the discovery of the gold, the composition of the asteroid must
be the same to its very centre.
An Incredible Phenomenon.
In an assemblage of famous scientific men such as this the discovery of
course immediately led to questions as to the origin of this incredible
phenomenon.
How did these masses of gold come together? How did it chance that,
with the exception of the thin crust of the asteroid, nearly all its
substance was composed of the precious metal?
One asserted that it was quite impossible that there should be so much
gold at so great a distance from the sun.
"It is the general law," he said, "that the planets increase in density
toward the sun. There is every reason to think that the inner planets
possess the greater amount of dense elements, while the outer ones are
comparatively light."
Whence Came the Treasure?
But another referred to the old theory that there was once in this
part of the solar system a planet which had been burst in pieces by
some mysterious explosion, the fragments forming what we know as
the asteroids. In his opinion, this planet might have contained a
large quantity of gold, and in the course of ages the gold, having,
in consequence of its superior atomic weight, not being so widely
scattered by the explosion as some of the other elements of the planet,
had collected itself together in this body.
But I observed that Lord Kelvin and the other more distinguished men
of science said nothing during this discussion. The truly learned man
is the truly wise man. They were not going to set up theories without
sufficient facts to sustain them. The one fact that the gold was here
was all they had at present. Until they could learn more they were not
prepared to theorize as to how the gold got there.
And in truth, it must be confessed, the greater number of us really
cared less for the explanation of the wonderful fact than we did for
the fact itself.
Gold is a thing which may make its appearance anywhere and at any time
without offering any excuses or explanations.
Visions of Mighty Fortunes.
"Phew! Won't we be rich?" exclaimed a voice.
"How are we going to dig it and get it back to earth?" asked another.
"Carry it in your pockets," said one.
"No need of staking claims here," remarked another. "There is enough
for everybody."
Mr. Edison suddenly turned the current of talk.
"What do you suppose those Martians were doing here?"
"Why, they were wrecked here."
"Not a bit of it," said Mr. Edison. "According to your own showing they
could not have been wrecked here. This planet hasn't gravitation enough
to wreck them by a fall, and besides I have been looking at their machines
and I know there has been a fight."
"A fight?" exclaimed several, pricking up their ears.
"Yes," said Mr. Edison; "those machines bear the marks of the lightning of
the Martians. They have been disabled, but they are made of some metal or
some alloy of metals unknown to me, and consequently they have withstood
the destructive force applied to them, as our electric ships were unable
to withstand it. It is perfectly plain to me that they have been disabled
in a battle. The Martians must have been fighting among themselves."
A Martian Civil War!
"About the gold!" exclaimed one.
"Of course. What else was there to fight about?"
At this instant one of our men came running from a considerable distance,
waving his arms excitedly, but unable to give voice to his story, in the
inappreciable atmosphere of the asteroid, until he had come up and made
telephonic connection with us.
"There is a lot of dead Martians over there," he said. "They've been
cleaning one another out."
"That's it," said Mr. Edison. "I knew it when I saw the condition of
those machines."
"Then this is not a wrecked expedition, directed against the earth?"
"Not at all."
"This must be the great gold mine of Mars," said the president of
an Australian mining company, opening both his eyes and his mouth as
he spoke.
"Yes, evidently that's it. Here's where they come to get their wealth."
"And this," I said, "must be their harvest time. You notice that this
asteroid, being several million miles nearer to the sun than Mars is,
must have an appreciably shorter period of revolution. When it is in
conjunction with Mars, or nearly so, as it is at present, the distance
between the two is not very great, whereas when it is in the opposite
part of its orbit they are separated by an enormous gap of space and
the sun is between them."
"Manifestly in the latter case it would be perilous if not entirely
impossible for the Martians to visit the golden asteroid, but when it
is near Mars, as it is at present, and as it must be periodically for
several years at a time, then is their opportunity."
"With their projectile cars sent forth with the aid of the mysterious
explosives which they possess, it is easy for them under such
circumstances, to make visits to the asteroid."
"Having obtained all the gold they need, or all that they can carry,
a comparatively slight impulse given to their car, the direction of
which is carefully calculated, will carry them back again to Mars."
"If that's so," exclaimed a voice, "we had better look out for
ourselves! We have got into a very hornet's nest! If this is the place
where the Martians come to dig gold, and if this is the height of
their season, as you say, they are not likely to leave us here long
undisturbed."
"These fellows must have been pirates that they had the fight with,"
said another.
"But what's become of the regulars, then?"
"Gone back to Mars for help, probably, and they'll be here again pretty
quick, I am afraid!"
Considerable alarm was caused by this view of the case, and orders were
sent to several of the electrical ships to cruise out to a safe distance
in the direction of Mars and keep a sharp outlook for the approach
of enemies.
Discovery That the Asteroid is a Solid Mass of Gold.
Meanwhile our prisoner awoke. He turned his eyes upon those standing
about him, without any appearance of fear, but rather with a look of
contempt, like that which Gulliver must have felt for the Lilliputians
who had bound him under similar circumstances.
There were both hatred and defiance in his glance. He attempted to free
himself, and the ropes strained with the tremendous pressure that he
put upon them, but he could not break loose.
The Martian Safely Bound.
Satisfied that the Martian was safely bound, we left him where he
lay, and, while awaiting news from the ships which had been sent to
reconnoitre, continued the exploration of the little planet.
At a point nearly opposite to that where we had landed we came upon
the mine which the Martians had been working. They had removed the thin
coating of soil, laying bare the rich stores of gold beneath, and large
quantities of the latter had been removed. Some of it was so solidly
packed that the strokes of the instruments by means of which they had
detached it were visible like the streaks left by a knife cutting cheese.
Reason for Astonishment.
The more we saw of this golden planet the greater became our
astonishment. What the Martians had removed was a mere nothing in
comparison with the entire bulk of the asteroid. Had the celestial mine
been easier to reach, perhaps they would have removed more, or, possibly,
their political economists perfectly understood the necessity of properly
controlling the amount of precious metal in circulation. Very likely,
we thought, the mining operations were under government control in Mars
and it might be that the majority of the people there knew nothing of
this store of wealth floating in the firmament. That would account for
the battle with the supposed pirates, who, no doubt, had organized a
secret expedition to the asteroid and been caught red-handed at the mine.
Richer Than the Klondike.
There were many detached masses of gold scattered about, and some of the
men, on picking them up, exclaimed with astonishment at their lack of
weight, forgetting for the moment that the same law which caused their
own bodies to weigh so little must necessarily affect everything else
in like degree.
A mass of gold that on the earth no man would have been able to lift
could here be tossed about like a hollow rubber ball.
While we were examining the mine, one of the men left to guard the
Martian came running to inform us that the latter evidently wished to
make some communication. Mr. Edison and others hurried to the side of the
prisoner. He still lay on his back, from which position he was not able
to move, notwithstanding all his efforts. But by the motion of his eyes,
aided by a pantomime with his fingers, he made us understand that there
was something in a metallic box fastened at his side which he wished
to reach.
The Martian's Treasure Box.
With some difficulty we succeeded in opening the box and in it there
appeared a number of bright red pellets, as large as an ordinary egg.
When the Martian saw these in our hands he gave us to understand by
the motion of his lips that he wished to swallow one of them. A pellet
was accordingly placed in his mouth, and he instantly and with great
eagerness swallowed it.
The Mysterious Pellets.
While trying to communicate his wishes to us, the prisoner had seemed
to be in no little distress. He exhibited spasmodic movements which
led some of the bystanders to think that he was on the point of dying,
but within a few seconds after he had swallowed the pellet he appeared
to be completely restored. All evidences of distress vanished, and a
look of content came over his ugly face.
"It must be a powerful medicine," said one of the bystanders. "I wonder
what it is."
"I will explain to you my notion," said Professor Moissan, the great
French chemist. "I think it was a pill of the air, which he has taken."
"What do you mean by that?"
Artificial Atmosphere.
"My meaning is," said Professor Moissan, "that the Martian must have, for
that he may live, the nitrogen and the oxygen. These can he not obtain
here, where there is not the atmosphere. Therefore must he get them in
some other manner. This has he managed to do by combining in these pills
the oxygen and the nitrogen in the proportions which make atmospheric
air. Doubtless upon Mars there are the very great chemists. They have
discovered how this may be done. When the Martian has swallowed his
little pill, the oxygen and the nitrogen are rendered to his blood as
if he had breathed them, and so he can live with that air which has been
distributed to him with the aid of his stomach in the place of his lungs."
If Monsieur Moissan's explanation was not correct, at any rate it
seemed the only one that would fit the facts before us. Certainly the
Martian could not breathe where there was practically no air, yet just
as certainly after he had swallowed his pill he seemed as comfortable
as any of us.
Signals from a Ship.
Suddenly, while we were gathered around the prisoner, and interested
in this fresh evidence of the wonderful ingenuity of the Martians, and
of their control over the processes of nature, one of the electrical
ships that had been sent off in the direction of Mars was seen rapidly
returning and displaying signals.
The Martians Are Coming.
It reported that the Martians were coming!