hat was possible in their world.

We were fully aware that this was the case, for we were received with
kindness and welcome wherever we went.

Merna's affection for me seemed unbounded, and his love was shown in
every action. Yet, like all the other Martians, he was never obtrusively
demonstrative, everything being done in a quiet and natural manner. When
on the earth his disposition had been very pleasing, but now his Martian
nature seemed to have endowed him with a capacity for loving far
transcending that of his human nature.

He was the same towards John, and we often spoke about it in Merna's
absence, whilst M'Allister had become as much attached to him as we
were.

Just before sunset Merna rejoined us, and we passed out of the city into
the open country to a spot not far from the place where we had landed
from the _Areonal_. Here we found a large concourse of people assembled,
and their numbers were being added to by fresh arrivals every minute. On
looking upwards we saw air-ships speeding towards us from every quarter.
Some brought passengers and landed them, but it was evident that most of
the air-ships were about to take part in the display, as they remained
up in the air instead of coming down to the ground.

We met many Martians whom we knew, and were introduced to others, so the
time passed quickly in interesting conversation.

As soon as darkness fell Merna informed us that the display was about to
commence, adding that he had purposely refrained from giving us any
inkling of its nature, as he thought the unexpected would afford us
greater pleasure.

We were gazing upwards at the vast assemblage of air-ships, which were
lit up by the ordinary lamps used when travelling at night, when
suddenly the whole sky became brilliant with the glow of countless
thousands of coloured lights, and the air-ships began to move into their
allotted positions.

Every ship--and there was a very large number of them--was covered all
over with electric lamps. Some of the ships had all red lights, others
all blue, others yellow, and so on through the whole range of tints
known to us, besides many tints which we had never seen before.

The evolutions began with the formation of simple geometrical designs,
starting with a complete circle of immense diameter. Then, inside this
circle of many-coloured lights other ships took up their position, and,
before we were prepared for anything, a triangle of lights had been
formed.