enable us to catch glimpses of the
surface beneath. In that manner we may be able more effectually to
concentrate our fire upon the most vulnerable points."

Everything being prepared, and the entire squadron having assembled to
watch the effect of the opening blow and be ready to follow it up, Mr.
Edison himself poised one of the new disintegrators, which was too large
to be carried in the hand, and, following the direction indicated by the
calculations of the astronomers, launched the vibratory discharge into
the ocean of blackness beneath.

Instantly there opened beneath us a huge well-shaped hole from which the
black clouds rolled violently back in every direction.

Through this opening we saw the gleam of brilliant lights beneath.

We had made a hit.

"It's the Lake of the Sun!" shouted the astronomer who furnished the
calculation by means of which its position had been discovered.

And, indeed, it was the Lake of the Sun. While the opening in the clouds
made by the discharge was not wide, yet it sufficed to give us a view of
a portion of the curving shore of the lake, which was ablaze with
electric lights.

Whether our shot had done any damage, beyond making the circular opening
in the cloud curtain, we could not tell, for almost immediately the
surrounding black smoke masses billowed in to fill up the hole.

But in the brief glimpse we had caught sight of two or three large
airships hovering in space above that part of the Lake of the Sun and
its bordering city which we had beheld. It seemed to me in the brief
glance I had that one ship had been touched by the discharge and was
wandering in an erratic manner. But the clouds closed in so rapidly that
I could not be certain.

Anyhow, we had demonstrated one thing, and that was that we could
penetrate the cloud shield and reach the Martians in their hiding place.

It had been prearranged that the first discharge from the flagship
should be a signal for the concentration of the fire of all the other
ships upon the same spot.

A little hesitation, however, occurred, and a half a minute had elapsed
before the disintegrators from the other members of the squadron were
got into play.

Then, suddenly we saw an immense commotion in the cloud beneath us. It
seemed to be beaten and hurried in every direction and punctured like a
sieve with nearly a hundred great circular holes. Through these gaps we
could see clearly a large region of the planet's surface, wit