those of several others in
the flagship chanced to be fixed upon him. Just as he made the gesture
one of the women of his suite, in her eagerness to watch us, apparently
lost her balance and stumbled against him. Without a moment's hesitation,
with a tremendous blow, he felled her like an ox at his feet.

A fearful oath broke from the lips of Colonel Smith, who was one of those
looking on. It chanced that he stood near the principal disintegrator
of the flagship. Before anybody could interfere he had sighted and
discharged it. The entire force of the terrible engine, almost capable
of destroying a fort, fell upon the Martian Emperor, and not merely blew
him into a cloud of atoms, but opened a great cavity in the ground on
the spot where he had stood.

A shout arose from the Martians, but they were too much astounded at
what had occurred to make any hostile demonstrations, and, anyhow,
they knew well that they were completely at our mercy.

Mr. Edison was on the point of rebuking Colonel Smith for what he had
done, but Aina interposed.

"I am glad it was done," said she, "for now only can you be safe. That
monster was more directly responsible than any other inhabitant of Mars
for all the wickedness of which they have been guilty."

"The expedition against the earth was inspired solely by him. There is
a tradition among the Martians--which my people, however, could never
credit--that he possessed a kind of immortality. They declared that it
was he who led the former expedition against the earth when my ancestors
were brought away prisoners from their happy home, and that it was his
image which they had set up in stone in the midst of the Land of Sand. He
prolonged his existence, according to this legend, by drinking the waters
of a wonderful fountain, the secret of whose precise location was known
to him alone, but which was situated at that point where in your maps of
Mars the name of the Fons Juventae occurs. He was personified wickedness,
that I know; and he never would have kept his oath if power had returned
to him again to injure the earth. In destroying him, you have made your
victory secure."

Chapter XVIII.

When at length we once more saw our native planet, with its
well-remembered features of land and sea, rolling beneath our eyes,
the feeling of joy that came over us transcended all powers of expression.

In order that all the nations which had united in sending out the
expedition should have