apparently lifeless in the
center, and then with gritted teeth we did our work.

The lines of guards melted before the disintegrators like rows of snow
men before a licking flame.

The discharge of the lightning engines in the hands of the Martians in
that confined space made an uproar so tremendous that it seemed to pass
the bounds of human sense.

More of our men fell before their awful fire, and for the second time
since our arrival on this deadful planet of war our annihilation seemed
inevitable.

But in a moment the whole scene changed. Suddenly there was a discharge
into the room which I knew came from one of the disintegrators of the
electrical ships. It swept through the crowded throng like a destroying
blast. Instantly from another side, swished a second discharge, no less
destructive, and this was quickly followed by a third.

Our ships were firing through the windows.

Almost at the same moment I saw the flagship, which had been moored in
the air close to the entrance and floating only three or four feet above
the ground, pushing its way through the gigantic doorway from the
ante-room, with its great disintegrators pointed upon the crowd like the
muzzles of a cruiser's guns.

And now the Martians saw that the contest was hopeless for them, and
their mad struggle to get out of the range of the disintegrators and to
escape from the death chamber was more appalling to look upon than
anything that had yet occurred.

[Illustration: _"Suddenly there was a discharge into the room which I
knew came from one of the disintegrators of the electrical ships. It
swept through the crowded throng like a destroying blast. It was a panic
of giants!"_]

It was a panic of giants. They trod one another under foot; they yelled
and screamed in their terror; they tore each other with their claw-like
fingers. They no longer thought of resistance. The battle spirit had
been blown out of them by a breath of terror that shivered their marrow.

Still the pitiless disintegrators played upon them until Mr. Edison,
making himself heard, now that the thunder of their engines had ceased
to reverberate through the chamber, commanded that our fire should
cease.

In the meantime the armed Martians outside the palace, hearing the
uproar within, seeing our men pouring their fire through the windows,
and supposing that we were guilty at once of treachery and
assassination, had attempted an attack upon the electrical ships
stationed