ep them! Sweep them!" cried Colonel Smith, as he brought his
disintegrator to bear. Mr. Phillips and I instantly followed his example,
and thus we swept the Martians into eternity, while Mr. Edison coolly
continued his manipulations of the wheel.

The effect of what he was doing became apparent in less than half a
minute. A shiver ran through the mass of machinery and shook the entire
building.

"Look! look!" cried Sidney Phillips, who had stepped a little apart from
the others.

The Grand Canal.

We all ran to his side and found ourselves in front of a great window
which opened through the side of the engine, giving a view of what lay
in front of it. There, gleaming in the electric lights, we saw the
Syrtis Major, its waters washing high against the walls of the vast
power house. Running directly out from the shore, there was an immense
metallic gate at least 400 yards in length and rising 300 feet above
the present level of the water.

This great gate was slowly swinging upon an invisible hinge in such a
manner that in a few minutes it would evidently stand across the current
of the Syrtis Major at right angles.

Beyond was a second gate, which was moving in the same manner. Further
on was a third gate, and then another, and another, as far as the eye
could reach, evidently extending in an unbroken series completely across
the great strait.

As the gates, with accelerated motion when the current caught them,
clanged together, we beheld a spectacle that almost stopped the beating
of our hearts.

A Great Rush of Waters.

The great Syrtis seemed to gather itself for a moment, and then it leaped
upon the obstruction and hurled its waters into one vast foaming geyser
that seemed to shoot a thousand feet skyward.

But the metal gates withstood the shock, though buried from our sight
in the seething white mass, and the baffled waters instantly swirled
round in ten thousand gigantic eddies, rising to the level of our window
and beginning to inundate the power house before we fairly comprehended
our peril.

"We have done the work," said Mr. Edison, smiling grimly. "Now we had
better get out of this before the flood bursts upon us."

The warning came none too soon. It was necessary to act upon it at once
if we would save our lives. Even before we could reach the entrance to
the long passage through which we had come into the great engine room, the
water had risen half way to our knees. Colonel Smith, catchin