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.