advantage. Now it was our turn.

Chapter VII.

The squadron had been rapidly withdrawn to a very considerable distance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.

Anot