los angeles conquest · conquest edison's ofmars garrettp.serviss (copyright, 1858, by garrett...

EDISON'S

CONQUESTOFMARS

GarrettP.Serviss

(Copyright, 1858, by Garrett P. Serviss.}

SYNOI'SIS.The inventive Renins of Thomas A. Edl-

?on makes possible an attack of the earthupon Mars. This is done to prevent a sec-ond invasion of the Martians, who arotrying to relieve their overpopmatedplanet; the first having failed through the

breaking out of disease and not human ex-tort Edison invents a practical electricalair ship, and an engine of destructioncalled the "Disintegrator," which Will

cause the constituent particles of any ou-ject at which it may be directed to sovibrate that the object will be immediate-ly and completely dispersed. A large neeiof airships armed with disintegrators anamanned by two thousand men. amongwhom are many famous scientists, setsout. When several million miles fromMars the expedition comes upon a partyof Martians upon a small heavenly body-

one of the asteroids. The Martians areof giant stature, human in form, but 01somewhat repulsive aspect. The asteroidis of solid gold, and to get the preciousmetal is doubtless the reason of the Mar-tians' presence. Another party lroin

Mars arrives in one of their aerial cars,und an encounter follows, in which, how-ever, the superior efficiency of the disinte-grator over the enemy's engines of waris ably proven, and the tleet leaves forMars after all the Martians have beenkilled, except one. who is taken prisoner.Hut victory has not been won until B6V-eral ships have been destroyed, and manymen killed. During the journey muchprogress is made by the linguists of the

party in acquiring the language of thecaptured Martian, The Meet arrivesabove the land of Hellas, on Mars, andfinds a host of air ships on the watch.The visitors withdraw from reach Whilethe planet revolves beneath them, whenthe land of Hellas is beneath them again,activities begin. The Martians covertheir planet with a thick cloud of smoke,which the visitors pierce with their dis-integrators. The Martians launch theirthunderbolts, and do much damage to theEdison fleet, which finally drops ben. talithe smoke curtain and engages the ene-my, ln their ships. In close combat. Thedestruction is awful, both on land ana Inthe air, and the ships from the earthwithdraw but sixty In number. ColonelSmith, an army officer, proposes strategy.

His plan is to concentrate a majority ofthe ships and engage the attention of theMartians, while a few are sent to theother side of Ihe planet to effect a land-ing. This is of vital importance, becausemost of the provisions have been unac-countably destroyed. Colonel Smith isput ln charge of the ships which repairto a thinly settled region in the land ofAUSOIIta, far from the Lake of the Sun.the most densely populated portion ofthe pluuet. where the great fight hadtaken place. The narrator accompaniesColonel Smith, and they succeed in land-ing upon Mars.

XVII.At first we suffered somewhat from

the effects of the rare atmosphere. Itwas so lacking in density that it resem-bled tne air on the summits of theloftiest terrestrial mountains.

Having reached the foot of the tree insafety, we lay down for a moment onthe ground to recover ourselves and tobecome accustomed to our new sur-roundings.

A thrill, born half of wonder, half ofincredulity, ran through me at thetouch of the soil of Mars. Here was I,actually on that planet, which hadseemed so far away, so inaccessible,and so full of mysteries when viewedfrom the earth. And yet, surroundingme, were things?gigantic, it is true ?

still resembling and recalling the fa-miliar sights of my own world.

After a little while our lungs becameaccustomed to the rarity of the atmos-phere and we experienced a certainstimulation in breathing.

We then got upon our feet andstepped out from under the shadow ofthe gigantic tree. High above we couldfaintly see our electrical ship, gentlyswayin,g in the air close to the treetop.

There were no electric lights in ourimmediate neighborhood, but we no-ticed that the whole surface of theplanet around us was gleaming withthem, producing an effect like the glowof a great city seen from a distance atnight. The glare was faintly reflectedfrom the vast dome of clouds above,producing the general impression of amoonlight night upon the earth.

It was a wonderful quiet and beauti-ful spot where we had come down. Theair had a delicate feel and a bracingtemperature, while a soft breezesoughed through the leaves of the treeabove our head.

Not far away was the bank of acanal, bordered by a double row of im-mense umbrageous trees.

We approached the canal, and, get-ting up the road, turned to the left tomake an exploration in that direction.The shadow of the trees fating uponthe roadway produced a dense gloom,in the midst of which we felt that weshould be safe, unless the Martians hadeyes like those of cats.

As we pushed along, our hearts, Iconfess, beating a little quickly, ashadow stirred in front of us.

Something darker than tho night it-self approached.

As it drew near it assumed the ap-pearance of an enormous dog, as tallas an ox, which ran swiftly our waywith a threatening motion of its head.But before it could even utter a snarlthe whirr of Colonel Smith's disinte-grator was heard and the creature van-ished In the shadow.

"Gracious, did you ever see such abeast?" said the colonel. "Why, hewas as big ns a grizzly."

"The people be belonged to mustbe near by." I said. "Very likely hewas a watch on guard."

"But I see no signs of a habitation.""True, but you observe there is a

thick hedge on the side of the road op-posite the canal. If we get throughthat perhaps we shall catch sight ofsomething."

Cautiously we pushed our waythrough the hedge.whlch was composedof shrubs as large as small trees, andvery thick at the bottom, and, havingtraversed it, found ourselves in a great

meadow-liko expanse which might havebeen a lawn. At a considerable dis-tance, in the midst of a clump of trees,a large building towered skyward. Itswalls of some red metal gleaming likepolished copper in the soft light thatfell from the cloud dome.

There were no lights around thebuilding itself, and we saw nothing cor-responding to windows on that sidewhich faced us. but toward the right a

door was evidently open, and out olthis streamed a brilliant shaft of il-lumination, which lay bright upon thelawn, then crossed the blghwa]through an opening i" the hedge, amgleamed on the water of the canal be-yond.

Where we stood tho ground had evi-dently been recently cleared, and therewas no obstruction, but as we crept

closer to tho house ?for our curiosity

had now become irresistible ?we foundourselves crawling through grass sctall that if wo had stood erect it wouldhave risen well over our heads.

"This affords good protection," saidColonel Smith, recalling' his adventureson the western plains. "We can get

close in to the Indians ?I beg pardon

I mean the Martians?without beingseen."

Heavens, what an adventure wasthis! To be crawling about in the nighton the face of another world, and ven-turing, perhaps, into th? jaws of a dan-ger which human experience could notmeasure!

But on we went, and in a little whilewe had emerged from the tall grassand were somew hat startled by the discovery that we had got close to thewall of the building.

Carefully we crept around toward theopen door.

As we neared it we suddenly stoppedas if we had been stricken with in-stantaneous paralysis.

Out of the door lioated, on the softnight air, the sweetest music I haveever listened to.

It carried mo back in an Instant tomy own world. It was the music ofthe earth. It was tho melodious ex-pression of a human soul. It thrilledus both to the heart's core.

"My God!" exclaimed Colonel Smith."What can that be? Are we dre'iming,or where in heaven's name aye we?"

Still the enchanting harmony lioated4pt upon the air.

What the instrument was I could nottell, but the sound seemed more nearlyto resemble that of a violin than ofanything else I could think of.

Wr nen we first heard it the strainswere gentle, sweet, caressing and fullof an Infinite depth of feeling, but in alittle while its tone changed, and it be-came a magnificent march, throbbingupon the air in stirring notes that setour hearts beating in unison with itsstride and inspiring in us a couragethat we had not felt before.

Then It drifted into a wild fantasiastill inexpressibly sweet, and from thatchanged again Into a requiem or la-ment, whose mellifluous tide of har-mony swept our thoughts back again tothe earth.

"Ican endure this no long'T," I said."I must see who it is that makes thatmusic. It is the product of a humanheart and must come from the touchof human fingers."

We carefully shifted our position un-til we stood in the blaze of light thatpoured out of the door.

The doorway was an immense archedopening, magnificently ornamented,rising to a height of, I should say, notless than twenty or twenty-five feetand broad in proportion. The door it-self stood widely open and ii. togetherwith all its fittings and surroundings,

was composed of the same beautifulred metal.

Stepping out a little way into thelight, I could see within the door animmense apartment, glittering on allsides with metallic ornaments andgems and lighted from the center by agreat chandelier of electric candles.

In the middle of the great floor, hold-ing the instrument delicately poised,and still awaking its ravishing vole's,stood a figure, the sight of which al-most stopped my breath.It was a slender sylph of a girl!A girl of my own race; a human be-

ing here upon the planet of Mars!Her hair was loosely coiled and she

was attired in graceful white drapery."By 1" cried Colonel Smith, "she's

human!"Still the bewildering strains of the

music came to our ears, and yet westood there unpercelved, though in thefull glare of the chandelier.

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

An element of romance and a touclof personal interest such as we had nolooked for suddenly entered into ouadventure.

Colonel Smith's mind still ran baclto the perils of tho plains.

"She is a prisoner." he said, "and b;the Seven Devils of Dona Anna wrVlnot leave her here. But where are thlellhounds themselves?"

Our attention had been so absorbeijy the sight of the girl that we ha<scarcely thought of looking to see 1.here was any one else In the room.(Ilancing beyond her, I now perceive!

sitting In richly decorated chair:hree or four gigantic Martians. The;,vere listening to the music as i?harmed.

Tho whole story told itself. This girlf not their slave, was at any rate unler their control, and she was furnishng entertainment for them by her mvlical skill. The fact that they couliInd pleasure in music so beautiful waslerhapa, an indication that thoy wenlot really so savage as they seemed.Yet our hearts went out to the girl

md were turned against them with artncontrollable hatred.They were of the same remorseless

ace with those who so lately had laircaste our fair earth and who woultlave completed its destruction had not'rovidence interfered in our behalf.Singularly enough, although we stooc

till In the light, they had not yet seenis.Suddenly the girl, moved by what im-

lulse I know not, turned her face Iriur direction. Her eyes fell upon us.ihe paused abruptly in her playing,

and her instrument dropped to thefloor. Then she uttered a cry, and withextended arms ran toward us.

But when she was near she stoppedabruptly, the glad look fading fromher face, and started back with terror-stricken eyes, as If, after all, she hadfound us not what she expected.

Then for an instant she looked moreintently at us, her countenance clearedonce more, and, overcome by somestrange emotion, her eyes filled withtears, and, drawing a little nearer, shestretched forth her hands to us appeal-ingly.

Meanwhile the Martians had startedto their feet. They looked down uponus in astonishment. Wo were like pig-mies to them; like little gnomes whichhad sprung out of the ground at theirfeet.

One of the giants seized some kind ofa weapon and started forward with athreatening gesture.

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

This seemed to throw the Martianinto a sudden frenzy, and he raised hisarms to strike.

But the disintegrator was In myhand. My rage was equal to his.

1 felt the concentrated vengeance ofthe earth quivering through me as Ipressed the button of the disintegratorand. sweeping it rapidly up and down,

I saw the gigantic form that had con-I fronted me melt into nothingness.

Ther? were three other giants in theroom, and they had been on the pointof following up the attack of their

jcomrade. But when he disappearedjfrom before their eyes, they paused,| staring' in amazement at the place

! whero, but a moment before, he hadstood, but Where now only the metal

! weapon he had wielded lay on the floor.At first they started back, and

jseemed on the point of fleeing; then,jwith a second glance, perceiving againhow small and insignificant, we were,all three together advanced upon us.

The girl sank trembling on her knees.In the meantime I had readjusted my

disintegrator for another discharge,and Colonel Smith stood by mo withthe light of battle upon his face.

"Sweep the discharge acros3 thethree," I exclaimed. "Otherwise therewill be one left and before we can lireagain he will crush us."

The whirr of the two instrumentssounded simultaneously, and with aquick, horizontal motion we swept thelines of force around in such a mannerthat all three of the Martians werecaught by the vibratory streams, andactually cut in two.

Long saps were opened in the wall of!the room behind them, where the de-Stroylng currents had passed, for withWrathful fierceness, we had run the vi-bratlona through half a gamut on the jindex.

Tho victory was ours. There were noother enemies, that we could see, in thehouse.

Yet at any moment others might

'imake their appearance, and what more'| we did must be done quickly.

The girl evidently was as muchIamazed as the Martians had been by

jthe effects which we had produced.; Still she was not terrified, and contin-i ued to cling to us and to glance be-(seechingly 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 wereunintelligible.

Colonel Smith, whose long experienceIn Indian warfare had made him in-tensely practical, did not lose his mili-tary instincts, even in the midst ofevents so strange.

"it occurs to me," he said "that wehave got a chance at the enemies' sup-plies. Suppose we begin foraging righthere. Let's see if this girl can't showus the commissary department."

He immediately began to make signsto the girl to indicate that he was

'hungry.i A look of comprehension flitted over'her features, and, seizing our hands,She led us into an adjoining apartment

Jand pointed to a number of metallicboxes, i >ne Of these she opened, takingout of it a kind of cake, which sheplaced between her teeth, breaking off

la very small portion and then handingllt to us. motioning that we should eat,but at the same time showing us thatwe ought to take only a small quantity.

"Thank God! It's compressed food,"said Colonel Smith. "1 thought theseMartians with their wonderful civiliza-tion would be up to that. And it'smighty lucky for us, because, withoutoverburdening ourselves, if we can findone or two more caches like this weshall be able to re-provision the entirefleet. But we must gel reinforcementsbefore we can take possession of thefodder."

Accordingly we hurried out into the

night, passed Into the roadway, and,taking the girl with us ran as quicklyas possible to the foot of the tree wherewe had made our descent. Then wesignaled to the electric ship to dropdown to the level of the ground.

This was quickly done, the girl wastaken aboard, and a dozen men, underour guidance, hastened back to thehouse, where we loaded ourselves withthe compressed provisions and con-veyed them to the ship.

XVIII.On this second trip to the mysteri-

ous house we had discovered anotherapartment containing a very large

number of the metallic boxes, tilledwith compressed food.

"By Jove, it ls a store house," saidColonel Smith. "We must get moreforce and carry it all off. Gracious, butthis Is a lucky night. We can re-provi-sion our whole fleet from this room."

"I thought It singular," I said, "thatwith the exception of the girl whom wehave rescued, no women were seen inthe house. Evidently the lights overyonder indicate the location of a con-siderable town, and It is quite prob-

able that this building, without win-dows, and so strongly constructed, isthe common storehouse, where the pro-visions for the town are kept. Thefollows we killed must have been thewatchmen ln charge of the storehouse,and they were treating themselves toa little music from the slave girl whenwe happened to come upon them."

With the utmost haste several of theother electrical ships, waiting abovethe cloud curtain, were summoned todescend, and, with more than a hun-dred men, we returned to the building

and this time almost entirely exhaust-ed Its stores, each man carrying asmuch as he could stagger under.

Fortunately our proceedings had beenconducted without much noise, and thestorehouse being situated at a consid-erable distance from other buildings,none of the Martians, except those whowould never tell the story, had knownof our arrival or of our doings on theplanet.

"Now, we'll return and surprise Edi-son with tho news." said Colonel Smith.

Our ship was the last to pass upthrough the clouds, and it was astrange sight to watch the others asone after another they rose toward thegreat dome, entered It, though from be-low it resembled a solid vault of gray-ish-pink marble, and disappeared.

We quickly followed ihem, and hay-

Iing penetrated, the enormous curtain,jwere considerably surprised on emorg-

jing at the upper side to find that thejsun was shining brilliantly upon us. ItIwill be remembered that It was nighton this side of Mars, when we wentjdown, but our adventure had occupied| several hours, and now Mars had sofar turned upon its axis that the por-

Ition of its surface over which wo were1had come around into the sunlight.

We knew that the squadron whichwe had left besieging the Lake ot theSun must also have been carriedaround in a similar manner, passinginto the night while the side of theplanet where we wero was emerging In-

!to day.

Our shortest way back would be by

I traveling westward, because then weshould be moving ln a direction oppo-jsite to that in which the planet rotated,and the main squadron, sharing thatrotation, would be continually moving

!In our direction.Hut lo travei westward was to pene-

trate once mote into the night side ofthe planet.

The prows, If Imay so call them, of

Iour ships were accordingly turned In! the direction of the vast shadow whichMars was invisibly projecting intospace behind it, and on entering thatshadow the sun disappeared from oureyes, and once more the huge hiddenglobe beneath us became a black chasmamong the stars.

Now that we were In the neighbor-hood of a globe capable of Impartingconsiderable weight to all things underthe Influence of its attraction, thatpeculiar condition which I have beforedescribed as existing ln the midst ofspace, where there was neither up nordown from us, had ceased. Here wherewe had weight "up" and "down" hadresumed their old meanings. "Down"was toward the centre of Mars, and"up" was away from that centre.

Standing on the deck, and looking

overhead as we swiftly ploughed oursmooth way at a great height through

the now imperceptible atmosphere ofthe planet, I saw the two moons ofMars meeting In the sky exactly overus.

Before our arrival at Mars, there hadbeen considerable discussion among thelearned men as to the advisability ottouching at one of their moons, andwhen the discovery was made that ourprovisions were nearly exhausted, ithad been suggested that the Martiansatellites might furnish us with an ad-ditional supply.

But It had appeared a sufficient replyto this suggestion that the moons ofMars arc both insignificant bodies, notmuch larger than the asteroid we hadfallen ln with, and that there could notpossibly be any form of vegetation orother edible products upon them.

This view having prevailed, we hadceased to take an interest In thesatellites, further than to regard themas objects of great curiosity on accountof their motions.

The nearer of these moons, Phobos.is only 3,700 miles from the surface ofMars, and wo watched it travelingnrouifd the planet three times In thecourse of every day. The more distantone. Deimos, 12,500 miles away, requiredconsiderably more than one day tomake its circuit.

It now happened that the two hadcome Into conjunction, as I have said,Just over our heads, and, throwing my-self down on my back on the deck ofthe electrical ship, for a long time Iwatched the race between the two

1satellites, until Phobos, rapidly gainingupon the other, had. left its rival farbehind.

Suddenly Colonel Smith, who tookvery little interest in these astronom-ical curiosities, touched mo, and point-ing ahead, said:

"There they are."I looked, and sure enough there were

the signal lights of the principalsquadron, and as we gazed we occa-sionally saw, darting up from the vastcloud mass beneath, an electric bay-onet, fiercely thrust into the sky, which

\u25a0showed that the siege was still active-jly going on, and that the Martians werejjabbing away at their invisible enemies1outside the curtain.

In a short time tho two lleets hadjoined, and Colonel Smith and I imme-diately transferred ourselves to thellagship.

"Well, what have you done?" askedMr. Edison, while others crowdedaround With eager attention.

"If we have not captured their pro-vision train," said Colonel Smith, "wejhave done something just about as! good. We have foraged on the country,'and have collected a supply that I

'reckon will last this fleet tor at leasta month."

"What's that? What's that?""It's just what 1 say," and Colonel

Smith brought out of his pocket one ofthe square cakes of compressed food."Set your teeth on that and see whatyou think of it, but don't take toomuch, for It's powerful strong.

"I say." he continued, "we have gotenough of that stuff to lost us all fora month, but we've done more thanthat: we have got a surprise for youthat will make you open your eyes.Just wait a minute."

Colonel Smith made a signal to theelectrical ship which we had just quit-

ited to draw near. It came alongside,|so that one could step from its deckon the flagship. Colonel Smith disap-

| peared for a minute in the interior of! his ship, then re-emerged, leading thegirl whom he had found upon theplanet.

"Take her inside quick, for she is notIused to this thin air."

In fact we were at so great an ele-vation that the rarity of the atmos-phere now compelled us all to wear ourair-tight suits, and the girl, not beingthus attired, would have fallen uncon-scious on the deck If we had not in-stantly removed her to the Interior ofthe car.

There she quickly recovered from theeffects of the deprivation of air andlooked about her, pale, astonished, butyet apparently without fear.

Every motion of this girl convincedme that she not only recognized us asmembers of her own race, but that shefelt that her only*hope lay in our aid.Therefore, strange as we were to herin many respects, nevertheless she didnot think that she was in danger whileamong us.

The circumstances under which wehad found her were quickly explained.Her beauty, her strange fate and theimpenetrable mystery which surround-ed her excited universal admirationand wonder.

"How did she get on Mars?" was thequestion that everybody asked, andthat nobody could answer.

But while all were crowding aroundand overwhelming the poor girl withtheir staring, she burst Into tears, andthen, with arms outstretched ln thesame manner which had so stirred oursympathies when we first saw her inthe house of the Martians, she brokeforth in a wild recitation, which waß

half a song and half a wall.As she went on I noticed that a

learned professor of languages fromthe University of Heidelberg was list-ening to her with Intense attention.Several times he appeared to be on thepoint of breaking ln with an exclama-tion. I could plainly see that he wasbecoming more and rhore excited as thewords poured from the girl's Hps. Oc-casionally he nodded and muttered,smiling to himself.

Her song finished, the girl Bank half-exhausted upon the floor. She waslifted and placed In a reclining position

at the side of the car.Then the Heidelberg professor

stepped to the centre of the car, In thesight of all, and in a most Impressivemanner said:

"Gentlemen, our sister! I have hertongue recognized! The language thatshe speaks, the roots of the great Indo-European, or Aryan stock, contains.

"This girl, gentlemen, to the oldestfamily of the human race belongs. Herlanguage every tongue that now uponthe earth is spoken antedates. Con-vinced am I that it that great originalspeech Is from which have all the lan-guages of the civilized world sprung.

"How she here came, so many mil-lions of miles from the earth, a greatmystery Is. But It shall be penetrated,and It ls from her own lips that wethe truth shall le"arn, because not diffi-cult to us shall it be the language thatshe speaks to acquire since to our ownit is akin."

This announcement of the Heidelbergprofessor stirred us all most profound-ly. It not only deepened our interestIn the beautiful girl whom we had res-cued, but, in a dim way, it gave us rea-son to hope that we should yet discoversome means of mastering the Martiansby dealing them a blow from within.

It had been expected, the reader willremember, that the Martian whom wehad made prisoner on the asteroid,might be of use to us in a similar way,and for that reason great efforts hadbeen made to acquire his language, andconslderable progress had been effectedin that direction.

But from the moment of our arrivalat Mars Itself, and especially after thebattles began, the prisoner had re-sumed his savage and uncommunica-tive disposition, and had seemed con-tinually to be expecting that we wouldfall victims to the prowess of his fel-low beings, and that he would be re-leased. How an outlaw, such as heevidently was, who had been caught lnthe act of robbing the Martian goldmines, could expect to escape punish-ment on returning to his native planet,it was difficult to see. Nevertheless,so strong are the ties of race we couldplainly perceive that all his sympa-thies were lor his own people.

in fact, ln consequence ot his surlymanner, and his attempts to escape,he had been more strictly bound thanbefore, and to get him out of the wayhe had been removed from the flag-ship, which was already overcrowded,and placed in one of the other electricships, and this ship?as It happened?was one of those which were lost ln thegreat battle under the clouds. So afterall, the Martian had perished, by avengeful stroke launched from his na-tive globe.

But Providence had placed in ourhands a far better interpreter than hecould ever have been. This girl of ourown race would need no urging, orcoercion, on our part, In order to Induceher to reveal any secrets of the Mar-tians that might be useful in our fur-ther proceedings.

But one thing was first necessary tobe done.

We must learn to talk with her.But for the discovery of the store of

provisions It would have been impos-sible for us to spare the time needed toacquire the language of the girl, butnow that we had been saved from thedanger of starvation, we could prolong

the siege for several weeks, employing (the intervening time to the best ad-vantage.

The terrible disaster which we hadsuffered in the great battle above theLake of the Sun, wherein we had lostnearly a third of our entire force, hadbeen quite sufficient to convince usthat our only hope of victory lay lndealing the Martians some paralyzingstroke that at one blow would deprive

them of the power of resistance. Avictory that cost us the loss of a singleship would be too dearly purchased

now.How to deal that blow, and first of

all, how to discover the means of deal-ing it, were at present the uppermostproblems before our minds.

The only hope for U3 lay in the girl.

If. as there was every reason to be-lieve, she was familiar with the waysand secrets of the Martians, then shemight be able to direct our efforts insuch a manner as to render them ef-fective.

"We can spare two weeks for this,"

said Mr. Edison. "Can you fellows ofmany tongues learn to talk with thegirl in that time?"

"We'll try," said several."Itshall we do," cried the Heidelberg

professor, more confidently.

"Then there is no use of stayinghere," continued the commander. "Ifwe withdraw, the Martians will thinkthat we have either given up the con-test or been destroyed. Perhaps they

will then pull off their blanket and letus see their face once more. That willgive us a better opportunity to strikeeffectively when we arc again ready."

"Why not rendezvous at one of themoons?" said an astronomer. "Neitherof the two moons is of much conse-quence, as far as size goes, but still itwould serve an a sort of anchorageground, and while there. If we werecareful to keep on the side away fromMars, we should escape detection."

This suggestion was immediately ac-cepted, and the squadron, having beensignaled to assemble quickly, bore offln the direction of the more distantmoon of Mars, Delmos. We knew Itwas slightly smaller than Phobos, butits greater distance gave promise thatIt would better serve pur purpose oftemporary concealment. The moonsof Mars, like tho earth's moon, always

keep the Bame face toward their mas-ter. By hiding behind Deimos weshould escape the prying eyeß of theMartians, even when they employedtelescopes, and thus be able tn remain'comparatively close at hand, ready topounce down upon them again after wehad obtained, as we now had good hopeof doing, information that would makeus masters of the situation.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Lucky Girls of Borneo.AH the suitors for the girl's hand In

Borneo are expected to be generous lntheir presents to her. These presentsare never returned; therefore the wilyyoung lady defers as long as possible apositive selection of the happy man.

Tax on Whiskers.Beards are taxed 10 yen a year ln a

Japanese village in Awa county, ChibaKen-

She Littered a Cry and Ran Toward Us.

INDIANS LEAVING

Nearly 50,000 of Them WillDesert the Indian Territory

for Old Mexico.

TO SELL THEIR LANDS.

.Believe That Their Territory WillScon Be Invaded and That Con*

gresa Will Abolish TheirGovernment

LED BY INDIANAGENT WISDOM

The extraordinary spectacle of nearly50,000 full-blood Indians migrating fromIndian Territory to old Mexico, is to belooked for about April. The commit-tees sent to Mexico last Decemberhave Just returned and made their re-port. There were eight delegates, andthey all agree that the plan of emigra-tion Is entirely feasible and declare thatit will certainly be carried out.

The Indians who are to emigrate willcome from tho Choctaw, Chickasaw,

Creek, and Cherokee Nations of IndianTerritory. Their wealth exceeds $2,000,-

--000, and their »hare of lands ln IndianTerritory amounts to 4,800,000 acres.

This land they expect to sell or leaseto a syndicate ln Topeka, Kansas, andwith the proceeds purchase lands insouthern portion of the Mexican coun-try. The delegates, just returned, be-lieve that they can get good land at$2.50 per acre. They add that the cli-mate there is much better suited thanthat of Kansas to the Indian physique,and that the soil is extremely fertile.Fruits, especially, can be raised inabundance with little trouble, and tothe prospectors it seems almost anideal land for men of their race.

Their chief reason, however, forabandoning Indian Territory, is a con-viction that the whit.* man will soonbe permitted to Invade it, and thatCongress is bent on abolishing theirIndian governments. In Mexico theypropose to establish laws of their ownand live in a manner pleasing to them-selves and modeled after the habits ottheir forefathers.

AU the Five Tribe Indians have beenliving in their present Territory andhave had laws to suit themselves forover a half century; white men can ob-tain no right in Indian Territory exceptby marrying Indian women; but thisgives an opportunity of which manyhave availed themselves. Indeed, theyhave taken advantage of it to such anextent that two-thirds of tbe Indianterritory Indians are "White Indians;"yet there still remain about 50,000 full-bloods, and these are the men who haveresolved to migrate. To "white In-dians" no Invitation will be extended.In the fullblood vernacular, they are"white-hearted and double-tongued."

The full-bloods dwell with sad heartsupon the undermining of their institu-tions, and it cannot be doubted thatthey mean business. They have select-ed U. S. Indian Agent Wisdom to leadthem on to the promised land. Wisdomhas won great popularity among theFive Tribe Indians, having been theiragent for about five years. They cantrust him, they say, even though "hisheart Is white." Wisdom is an old con-federate veteran, and Dears the titleof colonel. He puts great faith In theplan, and is dubbed "the Indian Moses"all over the Territory. Colonel Wisdomsays:

"Ibelieve the emigration scheme willbe carried out. It is merely an attempton the Indian's part to carry Into effectthe 'doctrine of isolation' so long ap-plied by the Federal government to theIndians here. When they moved herethe United States agreed to protecttheir rights as long as grass grew andwater ran. The treaties have been vio-lated, whether rightly or wrongly, inthe Interests of civilization, I am un-prepared to say; and there will soonbe nothing left for the Indian whowants to preserve his tribal traditions."

Chief S. H. Mayes, of the Cherokees,

does not favor the scheme; but he is ahalf-breed, and half-breeds are exclud-ed from the scheme anyhow.

Chief Isparbecker, a full-blood, of theCreeks, does not disapprove of it, andsays that If he can do no better he willgo. But "Splechy," as he ls called, nowhas a little plan of his own,?that offorming all the Indians Into one state

and defying the United States courts toprosecute him. No doubt he will failln this, as he is alone, and will event-ually become a powerful factor in thenew Indian country under the southernsunny sky of old Mexico.Copyright, 1898, by Bacheller Syndicate.

Curious Experiment.In Vienna a condemned criminal was

kept ln complete darkness for severalhours previous to his execution, as a

preliminary to an experiment that wasto be tried upon him for the purpose

of ascertaining whether or not- theretina of the human eye ls of sufficientsensitiveness to hold the image of theobject to which It had last been ex-posed for any length of time. He wasInstructed to fixhis gaze intently on abuilding facing the place of execution,on which a very bright light fell. Whenthe black cap was pulled over his head,the eye was prevented from acceptingany fresh image or picture; the execu-tion followed immediately and the ex-amination held on the eyes within afew minutes thereafter resulted ln find-ing the building as an outlined objecton the. retina. The details, however,were wanting, and the picture fadedrapidly.

Fossil FueLIt Is said that the earliest mention

made of the use of coal as a fuel is Inthe records of the Abbey of Peterbor-ough, in the year 850 A. D., where isfound an entry of 12 cart loads of "fos-sil fuel."

In One Family,There Is a tobacco store in the Hay-

market, London, which has been con-ducted in the same building withoutchange and by the same family, sonsucceeding father, since the reign otCharles II

LOS ANGELES HERALD. SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 20, 1898.