in the ground,
and scooped out the whole of the grove before our eyes as easily as a
gardener lifts a sod with his spade.

Are We, Too, Destroyed?

Our last hope was gone. For a moment the level of the water around us
sank again, as it poured into the immense excavation where the grove had
stood, but in an instant it was reinforced from all sides and began once
more rapidly to rise.

We gave ourselves up for lost, and, indeed, there did not seem any
possible hope of salvation.

Even in the extremity I saw Colonel Smith lifting the form of Aina, who
had fainted, above the surface of the surging water, while Sidney Phillips
stood by his side and aided him in supporting the unconscious girl.

"We stayed a little too long," was the only sound I heard from Mr. Edison.

The huge bulk of the power house partially protected us against the force
of the current, and the water spun around us in great eddies. These swept
us this way and that, but yet we managed to cling together, determined
not to be separated in death if we could avoid it.

Suddenly a cry rang out directly above our heads:

"Jump for your lives, and be quick!"

At the same instant the ends of several ropes splashed into the water.

We glanced upward, and there, within three or four yards of our heads,
hung the electrical ship, which we had left moored at the top of the tree.

Tom, the expert electrician from Mr. Edison's shop, who had remained in
charge of the ship, had never once dreamed of such a thing as deserting
us. The moment he saw the water bursting over the dam, and evidently
flooding the building which we had entered, he cast off his moorings,
as we subsequently learned, and hovered over the entrance to the power
house, getting as low down as possible and keeping a sharp watch for us.

But most of the electric lights in the vicinity had been carried down by
the first rush of water, and in the darkness he did not see us when we
emerged from the entrance. It was only after the sweeping away of the
grove of trees had allowed a flood of light to stream upon the scene
from a cluster of electric lamps on a distant portion of the bank on
the Syrtis that had not yet given way that he caught sight of us.

Mars Is Ruined!

Immediately he began to shout to attract our attention, but in the awful
uproar we could not hear him. Getting together all the ropes that he
could lay his hands on, he steered the ship to a point directly over us,
and then