new certainly in what direction was the tree by whose aid
we had ascended from the electrical ship. We pushed first one way and
then another, staggering through the rushing waters in search of it.
Finally we succeeded in locating it, and with all our strength hurried
toward it.

Then there came a noise as if the globe of Mars had been split asunder,
and another great head of water hurled itself down upon the soil before
us, and, without taking time to spread, bored a vast cavity in the
ground, and scooped out the whole of the grove before our eyes as easily
as a gardener lifts a sod with his spade.

Our last hope was gone. For a moment the level of the water around us
sank again, as it poured into the immense excavation where the grove had
stood, but in an instant it was reinforced from all sides and began once
more rapidly to rise.

We gave ourselves up for lost, and, indeed, there did not seem any
possible hope of salvation.

Even in the extremity I saw Colonel Smith lifting the form of Aina, who
had fainted, above the surface of the surging water, while Sydney
Phillips stood by his side and aided him in supporting the unconscious
girl.

"We stayed a little too long," was the only sound I heard from Mr.
Edison.

The huge bulk of the power house partially protected us against the
force of the current, and the water spun us around in great eddies.
These swept us this way and that, but yet we managed to cling together,
determined not to be separated in death if we could avoid it.

Suddenly a cry rang out directly above our heads:

"Jump for your lives, and be quick!"

At the same instant the ends of several ropes splashed into the water.

We glanced upward, and there, within three or four yards of our heads,
hung the electrical ship, which we had left moored at the top of the
tree.

Tom, the expert electrician from Mr. Edison's shop, who had remained in
charge of the ship, had never once dreamed of such a thing as deserting
us. The moment he saw the water bursting over the dam, and evidently
flooding the building which we had entered, he cast off his moorings, as
we subsequently learned, and hovered over the entrance to the power
house, getting as low down as possible and keeping a sharp watch for us.

But most of the electric lights in the vicinity had been carried down by
the first rush of water, and in the darkness he did not see us when we
emerged from the entrance. It was only after the sweeping away