Mr. Edison, "we shall have to
riddle the car on the chance of hitting them."

"It will be like firing into a bush to kill a hidden bear," said one of
the party.

But help came from a quarter which was unexpected to us, although it
should not have been so. Several of the electric ships had been hovering
above us during the fight, their commanders being apparently uncertain
how to act--fearful, perhaps, of injuring us in the attempt to smite our
enemy.

But now the situation apparently lightened for them. They saw that we
were at an immense disadvantage, and several of them immediately turned
their batteries upon the car of the Martians.

They riddled it far more quickly and effectively than we could have
done. Every stroke of the vibratory emanation made a gap in the side of
the car, and we could perceive from the commotion within that our
enemies were being rapidly massacred in their fortification.

So overwhelming was the force and the advantage of the ships that in a
little while it was all over. Mr. Edison signaled them to stop firing
because it was plain that all resistance had ceased and probably not one
of the Martians remained alive.

We now approached the car, which had been transpierced in every
direction, and whose remaining portions were glowing with heat in
consequence of the spreading of the atomic vibrations. Immediately we
discovered that all our anticipations were correct and that all of our
enemies had perished.

The effect of the disintegrators upon them had been awful--too
repulsive, indeed, to be described in detail. Some of the bodies had
evidently entirely vanished; only certain metal articles which they had
worn remaining, as in the case of the first Martian killed, to indicate
that such beings had ever existed. The nature of the metal composing
these articles was unknown to us. Evidently its vibratory rhythm did not
correspond with any included in the ordinary range of the
disintegrators.

Some of the giants had been only partially destroyed, the vibratory
current having grazed them, in such a manner that the shattering
undulations had not acted upon the entire body.

One thing that lends a peculiar horror to a terrestrial battlefield was
absent; there was no bloodshed. The vibratory energy, not only
completely destroyed whatever it fell upon but it seared the veins and
arteries of the dismembered bodies so that there was no sanguinary
exhibition connected with its murderous work.