doubt the Professor had an exaggerated opinion of the extent of his
acquirements, but the fact remained that enough had been learned of the
girl's language to enable him and several others to converse with her
quite as readily as a person of good capacity who has studied under the
instructions of a native teacher during a period of six months can
converse in a foreign tongue.

Immediately almost every man in the squadron set vigorously at work to
learn the language of this fair creature for himself. Colonel Smith and
Sydney Phillips were neck and neck in the linguistic race.

One of the first bits of information which the Professor had given out
was the name of the girl.

It was Aina (pronounced Ah-ee-na).

This news was flashed throughout the squadron, and the name of our
beautiful captive was on the lips of all.

After that came her story. It was a marvelous narrative. Translated into
our tongue it ran as follows:

"The traditions of my fathers, handed down for generations so many that
no one can number them, declare that the planet of Mars was not the
place of our origin.

"Ages and ages ago our forefathers dwelt on another and distant world
that was nearer the sun than this one is, and enjoyed brighter daylight
than we have here.

"They dwelt--as I have often heard the story from my father, who had
learned it by heart from his father, and he from his--in a beautiful
valley that was surrounded by enormous mountains towering into the
clouds and white about their tops with snow that never melted. In the
valley were lakes, around which clustered the dwellings of our race.

"It was, the traditions say, a land wonderful for its fertility, filled
with all things that the heart could desire, splendid with flowers and
rich with luscious fruits.

"It was a land of music, and the people who dwelt in it were very
happy."

While the girl was telling this part of her story the Heidelberg
professor became visibly more and more excited. Presently he could keep
quiet no longer, and suddenly exclaimed, turning to us who were
listening, as the words of the girl were interpreted for us by one of
the other linguists:

"Gentlemen, it is the Vale of Cashmere! Has not my great countryman,
Adelung, so declared? Has he not said that the Valley of Cashmere was
the cradle of the human race already?"

"From the Valley of Cashmere to the planet Mars--what a romance!"
exclaimed one of the bystanders.

Colonel Smith appeared to