ld fly
back to the satellite again."

"The more we mystify them, the more they will fear us," said the doctor.
"I am going to make a swift downward swoop now, as if we would crash
through the midst of them. Then perhaps they will let us alone till we
are ready for them."

He had scarcely finished speaking when we shot down in a long curve,
like the swing of a pendulum, apparently making directly for the group
of Martians. They were not seized by any quick panic; they were too
phlegmatic for that. But just as the projectile threatened to smash into
them, they seemed to realize the danger, and to grasp the idea that it
was being operated and directed by some power and mind inside. Then they
turned, scrambling clumsily over each other, and fled with the awkward
precipitation of a rhinoceros in a hurry. Our pendulum motion swung us
up a little before we would have struck them, but they had scattered and
were scurrying to hiding-places behind the walls of the masonry
telescopes. We continued our flight to the edge of the plateau, whence
we could get a better view of the city and hold a more commanding
position.

"None of these who have seen our aerial evolutions are likely to trouble
us again," remarked the doctor. "But they will quickly spread the news
to the city, and we must be where we can watch everything that goes on
there, and hurriedly prepare for the worst they can do to us. We will
seek the principal approach to the plateau and defend it."

His ideas had suddenly become altogether warlike. I liked the excitement
of it so far, and hastened to agree with him. We came to land in a
sheltered part of the main road leading to the plateau, and prepared to
emerge and set up our telescope where it would sweep the city.

"Shall we try this air on the dog before you go out?" inquired the
doctor in all seriousness.

"Try it on the rabbit if you wish, but not on Two-spot."

He put Bunny into the discharging cylinder and pushed him out. The meek
little animal seemed quite delighted at being released. He hopped about
playfully, skipping much higher and farther at each hop than I had ever
seen him do before.

This reassured me, and I put on the helmet again, and opened the
port-hole. As the rarer Martian air swept in, my suit swelled and puffed
to its fullest capacity, by the expansion of the denser air within it. I
was so blown up that I could scarcely squeeze myself out of the
port-hole. It was like a red misty day out