CHAPTER TEN
_THE GREAT SMOKE BARRIER_
At first we rose to a still greater height, in order more effectually toescape the watchful eyes of our enemies, and then, after having movedrapidly several hundred miles toward the west, we dropped down againwithin easy eyeshot of the surface of the planet, and commenced ourinspection.
When we originally reached Mars, as I have related, it was at a point inits southern hemisphere, in latitude 45 degrees south, and longitude 75degrees east, that we first closely approached its surface. Underneathus was the land called "Hellas," and it was over this land of Hellasthat the Martian air fleet had suddenly made its appearance.
Our westward motion, while at a great height above the planet, hadbrought us over another oval-shaped land called "Noachia," surrounded bythe dark ocean, the "Mare Erytraeum." Now approaching nearer the surfaceour course was changed so as to carry us toward the equator of Mars.
We passed over the curious half-drowned continent known to terrestrialastronomers as the Region of Deucalion, then across another sea, orgulf, until we found ourselves floating at a height of perhaps fivemiles, above a great continental land, at least three thousand milesbroad from east to west, and which I immediately recognized as that towhich astronomers had given the various names of "Aeria," "Edom,""Arabia," and "Eden."
Here the spectacle became of breathless interest.
"Wonderful! Wonderful!"
"Who could have believed it!"
Such were the exclamations heard on all sides.
When at first we were suspended above Hellas, looking toward the north,the northeast and the northwest, we had seen at a distance some of thesegreat red regions, and had perceived the curious network of canals bywhich they were intersected. But that was a far-off and imperfect view.
Now, when we were near at hand and straight above one of these singularlands, the magnificence of the panorama surpassed belief.
From the earth about a dozen of the principal canals crossing thecontinent beneath us had been perceived, but we saw hundreds, naythousands of them!
It was a double system, intended both for irrigation and for protection,and far more marvelous in its completeness than the boldest speculativeminds among our astronomers had ever dared to imagine.
"Ha! that's what I always said," exclaimed a veteran from one of ourgreat observatories. "Mars is red because its soil and vegetation arered."
And certainly appearances indicated that he was right.
There were no green trees, and there was no green grass. Both were red,not of a uniform red tint, but presenting an immense variety of shadeswhich produced a most brilliant effect, fairly dazzling our eyes.
But what trees! And what grass! And what flowers!
Our telescopes showed that even the smaller trees must be 200 or 300feet in height, and there were forests of giants, whose average heightwas evidently at least 1,000 feet.
"That's all right," exclaimed the enthusiast I have just quoted. "I knewit would be so. The trees are big for the same reason that the men are,because the planet is small, and they can grow big without becoming tooheavy to stand."
Flashing in the sun on all sides were the roofs of metallic buildings,which were evidently the only kind of edifices which Mars possessed. Atany rate, if stone or wood were employed in their construction both werecompletely covered with metallic plates.
This added immensely to the warlike aspect of the planet. For warlike itwas. Everywhere we recognized fortified stations, glittering with anarray of the polished knobs of the lightning machines, such as we hadseen in the land of Hellas.
From the land of Edom, directly over the equator of the planet, weturned our faces westward, and, skirting the Mare Erytraeum, arrivedabove the place where the broad canal known as the Indus empties intothe sea.
Before us, and stretching away to the northwest, now lay the Continentof Chryse, a vast red land, oval in outline, and surrounded and crossedby innumerable canals. Chryse was not less than 1,600 miles across andit, too, evidently swarmed with giant inhabitants.
But the shadow of night lay upon the greater portion of the land ofChryse. In our rapid motion westward we had outstripped the sun and hadnow arrived at a point where day and night met upon the surface of theplanet beneath us.
Behind all was brilliant with sunshine, but before us the face of Marsgradually disappeared in the deepening gloom. Through the darkness, faraway, we could behold magnificent beams of electric light darting acrossthe curtain of night, and evidently serving to illuminate towns andcities that lay beneath.
We pushed on into the night for two or three hundred miles over thatpart of the continent of Chryse whose inhabitants were doubtlessenjoying the deep sleep that accompanies the dark hours immediatelypreceding the dawn. Still everywhere splendid clusters of light lay likefallen constellations upon the ground, indicating the sites of greattowns, which, like those of the earth never sleep.
But this scene, although weird and beautiful, could give us little ofthe kind of information of which we were in search.
Accordingly it was resolved to turn back eastward until we had arrivedin the twilight space separating day and night, and then hover over theplanet at that point, allowing it to turn beneath us so that, as welooked down, we should see in succession the entire circuit of the globeof Mars while it rolled under our eyes.
The rotation of Mars on its axis is performed in a period very littlelonger than the earth's rotation, so that the length of the day andnight in the world of Mars is only some forty minutes longer than theirlength upon the earth.
In thus remaining suspended over the planet, on the line of daybreak, soto speak, we believed that we should be peculiarly safe from detectionby the eyes of the inhabitants. Even astronomers are not likely to bewide awake just at the peep of dawn. Almost all of the inhabitants, weconfidently believed, would still be sound asleep upon that part of theplanet passing directly beneath us, and those who were awake would notbe likely to watch for unexpected appearances in the sky.
Besides, our height was so great that notwithstanding the numbers of thesquadron, we could not easily be seen from the surface of the planet,and if seen at all we might be mistaken for high-flying birds.
Here we remained then through the entire course of twenty-four hours andsaw in succession as they passed from night into day beneath our feetthe land of Chryse, the great continent of Tharsis, the curious regionof intersecting canals which puzzled astronomers on the earth had namedthe "Gordian Knot." The continental lands of Memnonia, Amozonia andAeolia, the mysterious center where hundreds of vast canals cametogether from every direction, called the Triviun Charontis; the vastcircle of Elysium, a thousand miles across, and completely surrounded bya broad green canal; the continent of Libya, which, as I remembered, hadbeen half covered by a tremendous inundation whose effects were visiblefrom the earth in 1889, and finally the long, dark sea of the SyrtisMajor, lying directly south of the land of Hellas.
The excitement and interest which we all experienced were so great thatnot one of us took a wink of sleep during the entire twenty-four hoursof our marvelous watch.
There are one or two things of special interest amid the multitude ofwonderful observations that we made which I must mention here on accountof their connection with the important events that followed soon after.
Just west of the land of Chryse we saw the smaller land of Ophir, in themidst of which is a singular spot called the Juventae Fons, and thisFountain of Youth, as our astronomers, by a sort of propheticinspiration, had named it, proved later to be one of the most incrediblemarvels on the planet of Mars.
Further to the west, and north from the great continent of Tharsis, webeheld the immense oval-shaped land of Thaumasia containing in itscenter the celebrated "Lake of the Sun," a circular body of water notless than five hundred miles in diameter, with dozens of great canalsrunning away from it like the spokes of a wheel in every direction, thusconnecting it with the ocean which surrounds it on the south and
east,and with the still larger canals that encircle it toward the north andwest.
This Lake of the Sun came to play a great part in our subsequentadventures. It was evident to us from the beginning that it was thechief center of population on the planet. It lies in latitude 25 degreessouth and longitude about 90 degrees west.
Having completed the circuit of the Martian globe, we were moved by thesame feeling which every discoverer of new lands experiences, andimmediately returned to our original place above the land of Hellas,because since that was the first part of Mars which we had seen, we felta greater degree of familiarity with it than with any portion of theplanet, and there, in a certain sense, we felt "at home."
But, as it proved, our enemies were on the watch for us there. We hadalmost forgotten them, so absorbed were we by the great spectacles thathad been unrolling themselves beneath our feet.
We ought, of course, to have been a little more cautious in approachingthe place where they first caught sight of us, since we might have knownthat they would remain on the watch near that spot.
But at any rate they had seen us, and it was now too late to think oftaking them again by surprise.
They on their part had a surprise in store for us, which was greaterthan any we had yet experienced.
We saw their ships assembling once more far down in the atmospherebeneath us, and we thought we could detect evidences of somethingunusual going on upon the surface of the planet.
Suddenly from the ships, and from various points on the ground beneath,there rose high in the air, and carried by invisible currents in everydirection, immense volumes of black smoke, or vapor, which blotted outof sight everything below them!
South, north, west and east, the curtain of blackness rapidly spread,until the whole face of the planet as far as our eyes could reach, andthe airships thronging under us, were all concealed from sight!
Mars had played the game of the cuttlefish, which when pursued by itsenemies darkens the water behind it by a sudden outgush of inky fluidand thus escapes the eye of its foe.
The eyes of man had never beheld such a spectacle!
Where a few minutes before the sunny face of a beautiful and populousplanet had been shining beneath us, there was now to be seen nothing butblack, billowing clouds, swelling up everywhere like the mouse-coloredsmoke that pours from a great transatlantic liner when fresh coal hasjust been heaped upon her fires.
In some places the smoke spouted upward in huge jets to the height ofseveral miles; elsewhere it eddied in vast whirlpools of inky blackness.
Not a glimpse of the hidden world beneath us was anywhere to be seen.
Mars had put on its war mask, and fearful indeed was the aspect of it!
After the first pause of surprise the squadron quickly backed away intothe sky, rising rapidly, because, from one of the swirling eddiesbeneath us the smoke began suddenly to pile itself up in an enormousaerial mountain, whose peaks shot higher and higher, with apparentlyincreasing velocity, until they seemed about to engulf us with theirtumbling ebon masses.
Unaware what the nature of this mysterious smoke might be, and fearingthat it was something more than a shield for the planet, and might bedestructive to life, we fled before it, as before the onward sweep of apestilence.
Directly underneath the flagship, one of the aspiring smoke peaks grewwith most portentous swiftness, and, notwithstanding all our efforts, ina little while it had enveloped us.
Several of us were standing on the deck of the electrical ship. We werealmost stifled by the smoke, and were compelled to take refuge withinthe car, where, until the electric lights had been turned on, darknessso black that it oppressed the strained eyeballs prevailed.
But in this brief experience, terrifying though it was, we had learnedone thing. The smoke would kill by strangulation, but evidently therewas nothing especially poisonous in its nature. This fact might be ofuse to us in our subsequent proceedings.
"This spoils our plans," said the commander. "There is no use ofremaining here for the present; let us see how far this thing extends."
At first we rose straight away to a height of 200 or 300 miles, thuspassing entirely beyond the sensible limits of the atmosphere, and farabove the highest point that the smoke could reach.
From this commanding point of view our line of sight extended to animmense distance over the surface of Mars in all directions. Everywherethe same appearance; the whole planet was evidently covered with thesmoke.
A complete telegraphic system evidently connected all the strategicpoints upon Mars, so that, at a signal from the central station, thewonderful curtain could be instantaneously drawn over the entire face ofthe planet.
In order to make certain that no part of Mars remained uncovered, wedropped down again nearer to the upper level of the smoke clouds, andthen completely circumnavigated the planet. It was thought possible thaton the night side no smoke would be found and that it would bepracticable for us to make a descent there.
But when we had arrived on that side of Mars which was turned away fromthe sun, we no longer saw beneath us, as we had done on our previousvisit to the night hemisphere of the planet, brilliant groups andclusters of electric lights beneath us. All was dark.
In fact, so completely did the great shell of smoke conceal the planetthat the place occupied by the latter seemed to be simply a vast blackhole in the firmament.
The sun was hidden behind it, and so dense was the smoke that even thesolar rays were unable to penetrate it, and consequently there was noatmospheric halo visible around the concealed planet.
All the sky around was filled with stars, but their countless hostsuddenly disappeared when our eyes turned in the direction of Mars. Thegreat black globe blotted them out without being visible itself.
"Apparently we can do nothing here," said Mr. Edison. "Let us return tothe daylight side."
When we had arrived near the point where we had been when the wonderfulphenomenon first made its appearance, we paused, and then, at thesuggestion of one of the chemists, dropped close to the surface of thesmoke curtain which had now settled down into comparative quiescence, inorder that we might examine it a little more critically.
The flagship was driven into the smoke cloud so deeply that for a minutewe were again enveloped in night. A quantity of the smoke was entrappedin a glass jar.
Rising again into the sunlight, the chemists began an examination of theconstitution of the smoke. They were unable to determine its precisecharacter, but they found that its density was astonishingly slight.This accounted for the rapidity with which it had risen, and the greatheight which it had attained in the comparatively light atmosphere ofMars.
"It is evident," said one of the chemists, "that this smoke does notextend down to the surface of the planet. From what the astronomers sayas to the density of the air on Mars, it is probable that a clear spaceof at least a mile in height exists between the surface of Mars and thelower limit of the smoke curtain. Just how deep the latter is we canonly determine by experiment, but it would not be surprising if thethickness of this great blanket which Mars has thrown around itselfshould prove to be a quarter or half a mile."
"Anyhow," said one of the United States army officers, "they have dodgedout of sight, and I don't see why we should not dodge in and get atthem. If there is clear air under the smoke, as you think, why couldn'tthe ships dart down through the curtain and come to a close tackle withthe Martians?"
"It would not do at all," said the commander. "We might simply runourselves into an ambush. No; we must stay outside, and if possiblefight them from here."
"They can't keep this thing up forever," said the officer. "Perhaps thesmoke will clear off after a while, and then we will have a chance."
"Not much hope of that, I am afraid," said the chemist who hadoriginally spoken. "This smoke could remain floating in the atmospherefor weeks, and the only wonder to me is how they ever expect to get ridof it, when they think their enemies have gone and they want somesunshine again."
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"All that is mere speculation," said Mr. Edison; "let us get atsomething practical. We must do one of two things; either attack themshielded as they are, or wait until the smoke has cleared away. The onlyother alternative, that of plunging blindly down through the curtain isat present not to be thought of."
"I am afraid we couldn't stand a very long siege ourselves," suddenlyremarked the chief commissary of the expedition, who was one of themembers of the flagship's company.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Mr. Edison sharply, turning to him.
"Well, sir, you see," said the commissary, stammering, "our provisionswouldn't hold out."
"Wouldn't hold out?" exclaimed Mr. Edison, in astonishment, "why we havecompressed and prepared provisions enough to last this squadron forthree years."
"We had, sir, when we left the earth," said the commissary, in apparentdistress, "but I am sorry to say that something has happened."
"Something has happened! Explain yourself!"
"I don't know what it is, but on inspecting some of the compressedstores, a short time ago, I found that a large number of them weredestroyed, whether through leakage of air, or what, I am unable to say.I sent to inquire as to the condition of the stores in the other shipsin the squadron and I found that a similar condition of things prevailedthere.
"The fact is," continued the commissary, "we have only provisionsenough, in proper condition, for about ten days' consumption."
"After that we shall have to forage on the country, then," said the armyofficer.
"Why did you not report this before?" demanded Mr. Edison.
"Because, sir," was the reply, "the discovery was not made until afterwe arrived close to Mars, and since then there has been so muchexcitement that I have hardly had time to make an investigation and findout what the precise condition of affairs is; besides, I thought weshould land upon the planet and then we would be able to renew oursupplies."
I closely watched Mr. Edison's expression in order to see how this mostalarming news would affect him. Although he fully comprehended itsfearful significance, he did not lose his self-command.
"Well, well," he said, "then it will become necessary for us to actquickly. Evidently we cannot wait for the smoke to clear off, even ifthere was any hope of its clearing. We must get down on Mars now, havingconquered it first if possible, but anyway we must get down there, inorder to avoid starvation."
"It is very lucky," he continued, "that we have ten days' supply left. Agreat deal can be done in ten days."
A few hours after this the commander called me aside, and said:
"I have thought it all out. I am going to reconstruct some of ourdisintegrators, so as to increase their range and their power. Then I amgoing to have some of the astronomers of the expedition locate for methe most vulnerable points upon the planet, where the population isdensest and a hard blow would have the most effect, and I am going topound away at them, through the smoke, and see whether we cannot drawthem out of their shell."
With his expert assistants Mr. Edison set to work at once to transform anumber of the disintegrators into still more formidable engines of thesame description. One of these new weapons having been distributed toeach of the members of the squadron, the next problem was to decidewhere to strike.
When we first examined the surface of the planet it will be rememberedthat we had regarded the Lake of the Sun and its environs as being thevery focus of the planet. While it might also be a strong point ofdefence, yet an effective blow struck there would go to the enemy'sheart and be more likely to bring the Martians promptly to terms thananything else.
The first thing, then, was to locate the Lake of the Sun on the smokehidden surface of the planet beneath us. This was a problem that theastronomers could readily solve.
Fortunately, in the flagship itself there was one of the star-gazinggentlemen who had made a specialty of the study of Mars. That planet, asI have already explained, was now in opposition to the earth. Theastronomer had records in his pocket which enabled him, by a briefcalculation, to say just when the Lakes of the Sun would be on themeridian of Mars as seen from the earth. Our chronometers still keptterrestrial time; we knew the exact number of days and hours that hadelapsed since we had departed, and so it was possible by placingourselves in a line between the earth and Mars to be practically in thesituation of an astronomer in his observatory at home.
Then it was only necessary to wait for the hour when the Lake of the Sunwould be upon the meridian of Mars in order to be certain what was thetrue direction of the latter from the flagship.
Having thus located the heart of our foe behind its shield of darkness,we prepared to strike.
"I have ascertained," said Mr. Edison, "the vibration period of thesmoke, so that it will be easy for us to shatter it into invisibleatoms. You will see that every stroke of the disintegrators will open ahole through the black curtain. If their field of destruction could bemade wide enough, we might in that manner clear away the entire coveringof smoke, but all that we shall really be able to do will be to punctureit with holes, which will, perhaps, enable us to catch glimpses of thesurface beneath. In that manner we may be able more effectually toconcentrate our fire upon the most vulnerable points."
Everything being prepared, and the entire squadron having assembled towatch the effect of the opening blow and be ready to follow it up, Mr.Edison himself poised one of the new disintegrators, which was too largeto be carried in the hand, and, following the direction indicated by thecalculations of the astronomers, launched the vibratory discharge intothe ocean of blackness beneath.
Instantly there opened beneath us a huge well-shaped hole from which theblack clouds rolled violently back in every direction.
Through this opening we saw the gleam of brilliant lights beneath.
We had made a hit.
"It's the Lake of the Sun!" shouted the astronomer who furnished thecalculation by means of which its position had been discovered.
And, indeed, it was the Lake of the Sun. While the opening in the cloudsmade by the discharge was not wide, yet it sufficed to give us a view ofa portion of the curving shore of the lake, which was ablaze withelectric lights.
Whether our shot had done any damage, beyond making the circular openingin the cloud curtain, we could not tell, for almost immediately thesurrounding black smoke masses billowed in to fill up the hole.
But in the brief glimpse we had caught sight of two or three largeairships hovering in space above that part of the Lake of the Sun andits bordering city which we had beheld. It seemed to me in the briefglance I had that one ship had been touched by the discharge and waswandering in an erratic manner. But the clouds closed in so rapidly thatI could not be certain.
Anyhow, we had demonstrated one thing, and that was that we couldpenetrate the cloud shield and reach the Martians in their hiding place.
It had been prearranged that the first discharge from the flagshipshould be a signal for the concentration of the fire of all the otherships upon the same spot.
A little hesitation, however, occurred, and a half a minute had elapsedbefore the disintegrators from the other members of the squadron weregot into play.
Then, suddenly we saw an immense commotion in the cloud beneath us. Itseemed to be beaten and hurried in every direction and punctured like asieve with nearly a hundred great circular holes. Through these gaps wecould see clearly a large region of the planet's surface, with manyairships floating above it and the blaze of innumerable electric lightsilluminating it. The Martians had created an artificial day under thecurtain.
This time there was no question that the blow had been effective. Fouror five of the airships, partially destroyed, tumbled headlong towardthe ground, while even from our great distance there was unmistakableevidence that fearful execution had been done among the crowdedstructures along the shore of the lake.
As each of our ships possessed but one of the new disintegrators, andsince a minute or so was required to adjust them for a fresh dis
charge,we remained for a little while inactive after delivering the blow.Meanwhile the cloud curtain, though rent to shreds by the concentrateddischarge of the disintegrators, quickly became a uniform black sheetagain, hiding everything.
We had just had time to congratulate ourselves on the successful openingof our bombardment, and the disintegrator of the flagship was poised foranother discharge, when suddenly out of the black expanse beneath,quivered immense electric beams, clear cut and straight as bars ofsteel, but dazzling our eyes with unendurable brilliance.
It was the reply of the Martians to our attack.
Three or four of the electrical ships were seriously damaged, and one,close beside the flagship, changed color, withered and collapsed, withthe same sickening phenomena that had made our hearts shudder when thefirst disaster of this kind occurred during our brief battle over theasteroid.
Another score of our comrades were gone, and yet we had hardly begun thefight.
Glancing at the other ships which had been injured, I saw that thedamage to them was not so serious, although they were evidently _hors decombat_ for the present.
Our fighting blood was now boiling and we did not stop long to count ourlosses.
"Into the smoke!" was the signal, and the ninety and more electric shipswhich still remained in condition for action immediately shot downward.