it could not be,
but the work of these giants of Mars.

Aina's Wonderful Story.

The Martians' Beautiful Prisoner Recounts Her Marvellous
Adventures.

Aina resumed her story.

"At length, our traditions say, a great pestilence broke out in the Land
of Sand, and a partial vengeance was granted to us in the destruction
of the larger number of our enemies. At last the giants who remained,
fleeing before this scourge of the gods, used the mysterious means at
their command, and, carrying our ancestors with them, returned to their
own world, in which we have ever since lived."

"Then there are more of your people in Mars?" said one of the professors.

"Alas, no," replied Aina, her eyes filling with tears, "I alone am left."

For a few minutes she was unable to speak. Then she continued:

An Ancient Martian Conquest.

"What fury possessed them I do not know, but not long ago an expedition
departed from the planet, the purpose of which, as it was noised about
over Mars, was the conquest of a distant world. After a time a few
survivors of that expedition returned. The story they told caused great
excitement among our masters. They had been successful in their battles
with the inhabitants of the world they had invaded, but as in the days
of our forefathers, in the Land of Sand, a pestilence smote them, and
but few survivors escaped."

"Not long after that, you, with your mysterious ships, appeared in the
sky of Mars. Our masters studied you with their telescopes, and those
who had returned from the unfortunate expedition declared that you
were inhabitants of the world which they had invaded, come, doubtless,
to take vengeance upon them."

"Some of my people who were permitted to look through the telescopes of
the Martians, saw you also, and recognized you as members of their own
race. There were several thousand of us, altogether, and we were kept by
the Martians to serve them as slaves, and particularly to delight their
ears with music, for our people have always been especially skilful in
the playing of musical instruments, and in songs, and while the Martians
have but little musical skill themselves, they are exceedingly fond of
these things."

Awaiting a Rescue.

"Although Mars had completed not less than five thousand circuits about
the sun since our ancestors were brought as prisoners to its surface, yet
the memory of our distant home had never perished from the hearts of our
race, and when we recogn