FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  
eir appearance, and what more we did must be done quickly. The girl evidently was as much amazed as the Martians had been by the effects which we had produced. Still she was not terrified, and continued to cling to us and to glance beseechingly 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 were unintelligible. Colonel Smith, whose long experience in Indian warfare had made him intensely practical, did not lose his military instincts, even in the midst of events so strange. "It occurs to me," he said, "that we have got a chance at the enemies' supplies. Suppose we begin foraging right here. Let's see if this girl can't show us the commissary department." He immediately began to make signs to the girl to indicate that he was hungry. The Girl Understands Us. A look of comprehension flitted over her features, and, seizing our hands, she led us into an adjoining apartment and pointed to a number of metallic boxes. One of these she opened, taking out of it a kind of cake, which she placed between her teeth, breaking off a very small portion and then handing it to us, motioning that we should eat, but at the same time showing us that we ought to take only a small quantity. "Thank God! It's compressed food," said Colonel Smith. "I thought these Martians with their wonderful civilization would be up to that. And it's mighty lucky for us, because, without overburdening ourselves, if we can find one or two more caches like this we shall be able to reprovision the entire fleet. But we must get reinforcements before we can take possession of the fodder." The Prisoner Is Rescued. Accordingly we hurried out into the night, passed into the roadway, and, taking the girl with us, ran as rapidly as possible to the foot of the tree where we had made our descent. Then we signalled to the electric ship to drop down to the level of the ground. This was quickly done, the girl was taken aboard, and a dozen men, under our guidance, hastened back to the house, where we loaded ourselves with the compressed provisions and conveyed them to the ship. Beautiful Girl Prisoner. Establishing the Identity of the Martians' Captive. On this second trip to the mysterious house we had discovered another apartment containing a very large number of the metallic boxes, filled with compressed food.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
compressed
 

Martians

 

Prisoner

 
quickly
 
Colonel
 
apartment
 

taking

 

metallic

 

number

 

overburdening


caches
 
motioning
 

showing

 

quantity

 

reprovision

 

mighty

 

civilization

 

wonderful

 

thought

 

rapidly


loaded
 

provisions

 

conveyed

 
hastened
 

guidance

 
aboard
 
Beautiful
 

Establishing

 

discovered

 

filled


mysterious

 

Identity

 
Captive
 
ground
 

Accordingly

 
Rescued
 

hurried

 

passed

 

fodder

 

reinforcements


possession

 

roadway

 
electric
 

signalled

 
descent
 
handing
 

entire

 

features

 
unintelligible
 

experience