ll in working order,
and the men who were able to handle them, most of whom were experienced
marksmen, chosen from among the officers of the regular army of the
United States, and accustomed to the straight shooting and the sure hits
of the West, standing at their posts, the squadron again advanced.

In order to distract the attention of the Martians, the electrical ships
had been distributed over a wide space. Some dropped straight down
toward the asteroid; others approached it by flank attack, from this
side and that. The flagship moved straight in toward the point where the
first disaster occurred. Its intrepid commander felt that his post
should be that of the greatest danger, and where the severest blows
would be given and received.

The approach of the ships was made with great caution. Watching the
Martians with our telescopes we could clearly see that they were
disconcerted by the scattered order of our attack. Even if all of their
engines of war had been in proper condition for use it would have been
impossible for them to meet the simultaneous assault of so many enemies
dropping down upon them from the sky.

But they were made of fighting mettle, as we knew from old experience.
It was no question of surrender. They did not know how to surrender, and
we did not know how to demand their surrender. Besides, the destruction
of the two electrical ships with the forty men, many of whom bore names
widely known upon the earth, had excited a kind of fury among the
members of the squadron which called for vengeance.

Suddenly a repetition of the quick movement by the Martians, which had
been the forerunner of the former coup, was observed; again a blinding
flash burst from their war engines and instantaneously a shiver ran
through the frame of the flagship; the air within quivered with strange
pulsations and seemed suddenly to have assumed the temperature of a
blast furnace.

We all gasped for breath. Our throats and lungs seemed scorched in the
act of breathing. Some fell unconscious upon the floor. The marksmen,
carrying the disintegrators ready for use, staggered, and one of them
dropped his instrument.

But we had not been destroyed like our comrades before us. In a moment
the wave of heat passed; those who had fallen recovered from their
momentary stupor and staggered to their feet.

The electrical steersman stood hesitating at his post.

"Move on," said Mr. Edison sternly, his features set with determinat