d repulsion
between the respective planets and our car which I have already
described.

When actual experiment had thus demonstrated the practicability of the
invention, Mr. Edison no longer withheld the news of what he had been
doing from the world. The telegraph lines and the ocean cables labored
with the messages that in endless succession, and burdened with an
infinity of detail, were sent all over the earth. Everywhere the utmost
enthusiasm was aroused.

"Let the Martians come," was the cry. "If necessary, we can quit the
earth as the Athenians fled from Athens before the advancing host of
Xerxes, and like them, take refuge upon our ships--these new ships of
space, with which American inventiveness has furnished us."

And then, like a flash, some genius struck out an idea that fired the
world.

"Why should we wait? Why should we run the risk of having our cities
destroyed and our lands desolated a second time? Let us go to Mars. We
have the means. Let us beard the lion in his den. Let us ourselves turn
conquerors and take possession of that detestable planet, and if
necessary, destroy it in order to relieve the earth of this perpetual
threat which now hangs over us like the sword of Damocles."

CHAPTER TWO

_THE DISINTEGRATOR_

This enthusiasm would have had but little justification had Mr. Edison
done nothing more than invent a machine which could navigate the
atmosphere and the regions of interplanetary space.

He had, however, and this fact was generally known, although the details
had not yet leaked out--invented also machines of war intended to meet
the utmost that the Martians could do for either offence or defence in
the struggle which was now about to ensue.

Acting upon the hint which had been conveyed from various investigations
in the domain of physics, and concentrating upon the problem all those
unmatched powers of intellect which distinguished him, the great
inventor had succeeded in producing a little implement which one could
carry in his hand, but which was more powerful than any battleship that
ever floated. The details of its mechanism could not be easily
explained, without the use of tedious technicalities and the employment
of terms, diagrams and mathematical statements, all of which would lie
outside the scope of this narrative. But the principle of the thing was
simple enough. It was upon the great scientific doctrine, which we have
since seen so completely and brilliantly