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- Author: Roy Rockwood
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indicates.” Jack hurried off, and soon returned.
“We’re heading right for Mars, as indicated on the chart,” he
said, for there was an arrangement whereby the projectile could
be automatically steered.
“What speed does the gage there show?” asked the German
scientist.
“Two hundred miles a second.”
“The same as here,” murmured Mr. Roumann. “I wonder what can
cause it?”
He leaned over the motor, and made some calculations. Then he
exclaimed:
“I have it!”
“What is the reason?” inquired the professor.
“It is because we are speeding through an atmosphere much less
dense than that of our earth. There the motor would only work at
a certain speed. Here, in the atmosphere of Mars, it goes more
than twice as fast, because there is less resistance.”
“Is that good or bad?” asked Jack.
“Good. We shall reach the planet all the sooner now. Boys, get
ready to land on Mars in a few hours!”
The news was startling in itself, but so many strange things had
happened on the trip that this only produced a momentary
impression.
“Yo’ say dat we am shortly goin’ t’ promulgate eurseves inter
conjunctionary juxtaposition wid de exterior circumference an’
surface ob de planetary sphere commonly called Mars?” asked
Washington White.
“If you mean whether or not we are near Mars, why, we are,”
answered Jack with a laugh. “But, Wash, if you use such language
as that I don’t know what the Martians will think of you.”
“I knows,” answered the colored man with great dignity. “Dey’ll
take me fo’ jest what I am—a mostest profundity educationalized
specimen ob de human fambly. But I’se glad we’s so neah Mars.”
“Why? Are you tired of being cooped up here?” asked Mark.
“Not prexactly, but mah Shanghai rooster am. He’s dat lonesome
dat’s he’s homesick for t’ git out an’ do a bit ob scratchin’ on
de ground.”
“Look out that he doesn’t fly away when he gets on Mars,”
cautioned Jack. “Things there are twice as light as they are on
the earth, and he’ll only weigh a pound or so, instead of two or
three.”
Washington grunted, but said nothing. He served a meal, probably
the last one that would be eaten before their arrival.
“We have been just twelve days, so far, on our journey,” declared
Mr. Roumann. “That is a little longer than I calculated, but it
was due to unexpected troubles.”
“Well, we’ve been very comfortable here,” commented Mr.
Henderson.
And indeed they had. Except for the rather cramped quarters, and
the absence of scenery, they had lived as well as they could have
done at home. They had plenty to eat and drink during their
marvelous trip through space, they had enjoyed the reading of
books, had listened to fine music, and had been traveling in
perpetual sunlight.
What was before them? Every one asked himself that question.
On and on the projectile sped. Mr. Roumann, who had taken charge
of the steering wheel called the attention of the boys to a
small, dark object off to the right.
“What is it?” asked Jack. “It looks like a bright ball of fire.”
“One of the moons of Mars,” was the answer. “That is Deimos, and
we are now but ten thousand miles from the planet, for that is
the moon distance from Mars.”
“How small it is!” commented Mark.
“Yes, it isn’t much like our moon, but I suppose it answers for
the Martians.”
“But if we’re only ten thousand miles away from Mars, and are
traveling at two hundred miles a second, we’ll be there in less
than a minute!” cried Jack.
“We would, only I have shut down the motor. We are now
approaching only from the force of the attraction of gravitation,
and that, I find, is much less than on our earth. At the proper
time I will reverse the motor, to make our landing easy.”
The indicators showed that the Annihilator was now traveling
along at about the rate of a fast automobile.
“We’re almost there!” cried Mark.
Mr. Roumann adjusted the machinery. Sometimes he speeded it up,
and again he slowed it down. He found he had the projectile
under perfect control. Once again he set the motor in motion,
approaching Mars at a fast rate.
They shot past another shining body.
“The second moon!” he called to the boys. “We are but sixteen
hundred miles away now.”
“Get ready to land!” cried Jack. “All ashore that’s going
ashore!”
“Maybe we’ll land in the water,” spoke Mark.
“No, I can so regulate the projectile that such a thing won’t
happen,” declared Mr. Roumann.
“I will send it ahead for a few seconds, and then see what
happens.”
They sped forward. Suddenly there loomed up before them a great
mass. It seemed to be rushing to meet them. It looked something
like the earth, as seen from a balloon at a great height.
“Mars!” cried Mr. Roumann. “There is the planet we aimed for!
Mars at last!”
He reversed the motor. The motion of the projectile became less.
Nearer and nearer it approached the wonderful planet on which all
their thoughts were centered.
“But it isn’t red!” objected Jack.
“Wait until night,” said the German. “We are approaching it from
the daylight side.”
“Am we goin’ t’ ram it hard?” asked Washington.
“I trust not,” was Mr. Roumann’s reply.
He reversed the atmospheric motor still more. They were so near
the planet now that they could distinguish land and water, great
buildings, patches of woodland and open spaces.
“There are people there! I see people!” cried Jack.
Indeed, there did seem to be a mass of beings looking up at the
approaching projectile.
Very gently the Annihilator came nearer and nearer. There was no
doubt now but that Mars was inhabited—but by what a strange
race! Before those in the projectile had time to wonder at the
inhabitants, they felt a sudden jar. The Annihilator came to
rest. It had landed in a soft bed of sand.
“Welcome to Mars!” cried Mr. Roumann, opening a door in the side
of the craft and stepping out, followed by his companions. They
were at once surrounded by a throng of the queerest people that
they had ever imagined.
A great shout arose, and as the adventurers stood in a group near
their craft, they suddenly found themselves being moved forward
toward the crowd by some strange, mysterious force.
QUEER PEOPLE
“Hear! Hold on! Quit shovin’ me!” cried Washington White.
“Stop, Massa Jack!”
“I’m not pushing you,” replied the boy, who, with the others, was
being moved forward against his will. “I can’t seem to stop!”
Nor could the rest of them. It was just as if some one had
commanded them to walk forward toward the crowd that stood
waiting for them, and they could no more avoid obeying than they
could had they been pulled by wire cables.
“What can it be?” murmured Mr. Roumann. “Hold back, all of you.
They must have attached invisible wires to us, and are going to
make prisoners of us!”
“There are no wires on me,” observed Mark, carefully feeling
about him.
“Nor me, either,” added Jack.
“I’ll soon make ‘em stop!” exclaimed Andy Sudds, and raising his
gun to his shoulder, he fired over the heads of the Martians,
intending to frighten them.
To the surprise of the adventurers the gun only made a faint
sound, about half as loud as it usually did, and they saw
something small and black pop out of the muzzle, and sail lazily
through the air for a short distance, then fall.
“Would you look at that!” exclaimed the hunter in great disgust.
“Look how my bullet flew! First time I ever saw a bullet come
from a gun! We’re in a strange land, friends!”
“I have it!” cried Professor Henderson. “The attraction of
gravitation on Mars is a third of that on the earth. The
atmosphere is also less dense. Your gun only makes half the
noise, Andy, and the bullet doesn’t go nearly as fast, nor with
nearly so much force. That’s why you could see the bullet. It
went very slowly. Your gun is of no use here.”
“And is that what makes us move?” asked Jack. “Because we’re so
light?”
For they continued to advance toward the crowd, which seemed to
be anxiously awaiting them.
“That’s partly the reason, I guess,” replied the professor. “The
other part is that they are exerting some strange force upon us.
We’ll find out later what it is.”
“I wish dey’d let me be!” exclaimed Washington, vainly struggling
to hold himself back.
“What queer people!” exclaimed Jack. “Look at what large heads
they have!”
“And what small bodies!” added Mark.
It was indeed so. They found Mars, at least the portion where
they had landed, to be inhabited with a strange race of beings.
There were men and boys and a few women in the crowd, but they
were unlike any men, boys or women they had ever seen. Their
heads were about three times as large as those of the ordinary
person, and the eyes, ears and nose were of extraordinary size.
Indeed, the eyes bulged out in quite an unpleasant fashion, and
the ears of the Martians were not unlike those of an elephant in
proportion, though they were shaped more like those of a human
being. As for a Martian nose, it was elongated, and capable of
being moved in any direction, as were also the ears.
As the adventurers felt themselves being urged forward, by what
means they knew not, they noted that the Martians were staring at
them with their great, protruding eyes, that they were listening
to their talk with their great ears thrust forward, and were
lifting their flexible noses toward the travelers as if to get
wind of them, as wild beasts do.
“They’re certainly sizing us up in great shape,” observed Jack.
“But whatever kind of clothes have they got on?”
Well might he ask, for the Martians seemed to be covered with a
combination of fur and feathers. They wore no garments that
could be put on or taken off, but seemed to be provided by either
Nature or skill with suits that were a part of themselves. Men,
women and children were all attired alike.
Suddenly the travelers felt themselves come to a stop. A murmur
arose from the crowd, and from the midst of the assemblage there
stepped forth a man, who seemed to be a sort of leader. On his
head was a golden band, and attached to it was a small,
glittering triangle. He approached quite close to the little
party, and the boys noticed that he seemed to float along, rather
than to walk, and that his progress was very swift. He looked
searchingly at the strangers with his big eyes, and then
addressed them in a queer language. By the tones of his voice it
was easily guessed that he was asking them questions, and it did
not take much of an imagination to guess that he was inquiring
whence they came, how they had arrived, and what they wanted.
“I can’t understand his language,” remarked Mr. Henderson,
turning to his friends. “Can any of you?”
They all shook their heads.
“Let me try him in German,” suggested Mr. Roumann, and he gave a
brief explanation, in that language, of their trip from the
earth. The man with the glittering
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