ld yet discover some means of mastering the Martians by dealing
them a blow from within.

It had been expected, the reader will remember, that the Martian whom we
had made prisoner on the asteroid, might be of use to us in a similar way,
and for that reason great efforts had been made to acquire his language,
and considerable progress had been effected in that direction.

But from the moment of our arrival at Mars itself, and especially after
the battles began, the prisoner had resumed his savage and uncommunicative
disposition, and had seemed continually to be expecting that we would
fall victims to the prowess of his fellow beings, and that he would
be released. How an outlaw, such as he evidently was, who had been
caught in the act of robbing the Martian gold mines, could expect to
escape punishment on returning to his native planet it was difficult
to see. Nevertheless, so strong are the ties of race we could plainly
perceive that all his sympathies were for his own people.

In fact, in consequence of his surly manner, and his attempts to escape,
he had been more strictly bound than before and to get him out of the
way had been removed from the flagship, which was already overcrowded,
and placed in one of the other electric ships, and this ship--as it
happened--was one of those which were lost in the great battle beneath
the clouds. So after all, the Martian had perished, by a vengeful stroke
launched from his native globe.

But Providence had placed in our hands a far better interpreter than he
could ever have been. This girl of our own race would need no urging,
or coercion, on our part in order to induce her to reveal any secrets
of the Martians that might be useful in our further proceedings.

But one thing was first necessary to be done.

We must learn to talk with her.

Learning Her Language.

But for the discovery of the store of provisions it would have been
impossible for us to spare the time needed to acquire the language of
the girl, but now that we had been saved from the danger of starvation,
we could prolong the siege for several weeks, employing the intervening
time to the best advantage.

The terrible disaster which we had suffered in the great battle above
the Lake of the Sun, wherein we had lost nearly a third of our entire
force, had been quite sufficient to convince us that our only hope of
victory lay in dealing the Martians some paralyzing stroke that at one
blow would deprive them