Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-12-29
CHAPTER Mi.


Immediately he began to shout to at
tract our attention, but in the awful
uproar we could not hear him Getting
together all the ropes that he could lay
his hands on, he steered the ship to a
point directly over Us. and then drop
ped down within q few yards Of the
boiling food.
Now as he hung over our heads and
saw the water up to our very necks and
still swiftly rising he shouted again:
Catch hold, for Gods saker'
The three men who were with him
in the ship seconded his cries.
By the time we had fairly grasp
ed the ropes, so rapidly was the food
rising, we were already afioat. With
the assistance of Tom and his men we
were rapidly drawn up, and Immediate
ly Tom reversed the electric polarity.
and the ship began to rise.
At that same instant, with crash
that shivered the air, the immense me-
tallic power house gave way and was
swept tumbling, like hill torn loose
from IT'S base, over the very spot where
a moment before we had stood One
seconds hesitation on the part OK Tom,
and the electrical ship would have been
battered into shapeless wad Of metal
by the careering mass.
When we had attained a considerable
height, so that We could see to i great
distance On either side, the spectacle
became even more fearful than it was
when We were close to the surface.
On all sides banks and bikes were
going down, trees were being uprooted-
buildings were tumtling, and the ocean
was achieving that victory over the
land which had long been It's due, but
which the ingenuity of the inhabitants
of Mars had postponed for ages.
Far away we could see the front Of
the advancing wave crested with foam
that sparkled in the electric lights. and
as it swept on it changed the entire AS
pect Of the planet-in front of it all
life, behind it all death
Eastward our view extended across
the Syrtis Major toward the land of
Libya and the region of Isidis. On that
side also the dikes were giving way un-
der the tremendous pressure, and tine
floods We're rushing toward the sunrise.
which had just begun to streak the
eastern sky.
The continents that were being over
whelmed on the western side of the
Syrtis were Neroe, Aeria, Arabia,
Edom and Eden.
The water beneath Us continually
deepened. The current from the melting
SHOWS around the southern pole was u
its strongest, and one could hardly hav,
believed that any obstruction put in IT,
path would have been able to arrest /
and turn it into these two all swallow
ing deluges, sweeping east and west
But, a. we now perceived, the level q
the land over u large part of it's suraac,
was hundreds of feet below the ocean
so that the latter, when once the bar
riers were broken, rushed into depres
sions that yawned to receive it.
The point where we had dealt ou
blow was far removed from the grsa
capital of Mars, around the Lake of th
Sun, and we knew that we should hav
TO wait for the floods to reach that poIn
before the desired effect could be PRO
duced. By the nearest way the wa-s
had at least 8, 900 miles to travel "
estimated that its speed where We hun
above it was as much as 100 miles a.
hour. Even if that speed were main
tanned, more than two days and night
would be required for the floods to rsacl
the Lake of the Sun
But as the water rushed on it wGul
break the banks of all the canals intar
secting the country, and these, bein
also elevated above the surface, voUl
add the impetus Of their escaping VI
tiers 20 hasten the advance Of the flood
We calculated, therefore, that ahou
two days would suffice to place th
planet at our mercy
Half way from the Syrtis Major