greater numbers from every direction, many swooping down close to the
flood in order to rescue those who were drowning. Hundreds gathered along
the slip of land which was crowded as I have described, with refugees,
while other hundreds rapidly assembled about us, evidently preparing
for an attack.

We had learned in our previous contests with the airships of the Martians
that our electrical ships had a great advantage over them, not merely in
rapidity and facility of movement, but in the fact that our disintegrators
could sweep in every direction, while it was only with much difficulty
that the Martian airships could discharge their electrical strokes at
an enemy poised directly above their heads.

Accordingly, orders were instantly flashed to all the squadron to rise
vertically to an elevation so great that the rarity of the atmosphere
would prevent the airships from attaining the same level.

Outwitting the Enemy.

This manoeuvre was executed so quickly that the Martians were unable
to deal us a blow before we were poised above them in such a position
that they could not easily reach us. Still they did not mean to give up
the conflict.

Presently we saw one of the largest of their ships manoeuvring in a very
peculiar manner, the purpose of which we did not at first comprehend. Its
forward portion commenced slowly to rise, until it pointed upward like
the nose of a fish approaching the surface of the water. The moment it
was in this position, an electrical bolt was darted from its prow, and
one of our ships received a shock which, although it did not prove fatal
to the vessel itself, killed two or three men aboard it, disarranged
its apparatus, and rendered it for the time being useless.

"Ah, that's their trick, is it?" said Mr. Edison. "We must look out for
that. Whenever you see one of the airships beginning to stick its nose
up after that fashion blaze away at it."

An order to this effect was transmitted throughout the squadron. At the
same time several of the most powerful disintegrators were directed upon
the ship which had executed the stratagem and, reduced to a wreck, it
dropped, whirling like a broken kite until it fell into the flood beneath.

A Thousand Martian Ships.

Still the Martians' ships came flocking in ever greater numbers from all
directions. They made desperate attempts to attain the level at which we
hung above them. This was impossible, but many, getting an impetus by a
swift run