The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1901-12-12

"There is O. lot of dead Martians over
there" he said.
planet hasn't gravitation enough to
wreck them by a fall, and, besides, I
have been looking at their machines,
and know there has been fight.
GA fight?" exclaimed several, prick
ing up their ears.
"Yes," said Mr.. Edison; "those ma
chimes bear the marks of the lightning
of the Martians. They have been dis
abled, but they are made of some metal
or some alloy Of metals unknown to me
and consequently they have withstood
the destructive force applied to them
as our electric ships were unable to
withstand it. 1t is perfectly plain to me
that they have been disabled in a bat
tie The Martians must have been fight
ing among themselves.
About the goldI" exclaimed one.
"Of course. What else was there to
fight about?"
At this instant one Of our men came
running from a considerable distance
waving his arms excitedly, but unable
to give voice to his story in the inap-
preciable atmosphere of the asteroid
until he had come up and made tele-
phonic connection with us.
"There is II lot of dead Martians over
there, " he said. They've been clean
ing one another out
''That's it," said Mr.. Edison. "I
knew it when 1 saw the condition of
those machines.
ft1hQn fhic 10
ton, directed against the earth?"
"Not at all. "
"This must be the great gold mine of
Mars, 3" said the president of an Aus
tralian mining company, opening both
his eyes and mouth as he spoke.
eyes, evidently that's it. Here's
where they come to get their wealth. -
And this, said, "must be their
harvest time; You notice that this as
teroid, being several million miles near
er to the sun than Mars is, must have
an appreciably shorter period of revolu-
ton. When it is in conjunction with
Mars, or nearly SO, as it is at present,
the distance between the two is not
very great, whereas when it is in the
opposite part of it's orbit they are sepa-
rated by an enormous gap of space and
the sun is between them.
"Manifestly in the latter case it
would be perilous if not entirely impos.
sible for the Martians to visit the golden
asteroid, but when it is near Mars as it
is at present and as it must be period
ically for several years at time then
is their opportunity
With their projectile cars sent forth
with the aid of the mysterious explo-
sives which they possess it is easy for
them under such circumstances to make
visits to the asteroid.
Having obtained all the gold they
need, or all that they can carry, com
paratively slight impulse given to their
car, the direction of which is carefully
calculated, will carry them back again
to Mars. "
If that's so," exclaimed a voice,
I'VE had better look out for ourselves.
We have got into very hornets nest.
II this is the place where the Martians
come to dig gold and if this is the height
OF their season, as you say, they are not
likely to leave US here long undisturb-
ed.''
These fellows must have been pi-
rates that they had the fight with"
said another.
but what's become of the regulars,
them"
"Gone back to Mars for help proba-
bly,, and they'll be here again pretty
quick, | am afraid
Considerable alarm was caused by
this view of the case, and orders were
sent to several of the electrical ships
to cruise out to safe distance in the
direction Of Mars and keep sharp out
look for the approach Of enemies.
Meanwhile our prisoner awoke. He
turned his eyes upon those standing
about him without any appearance of
fear, but rather with look of contempt,
like that which CULVER must have felt
for the Lilliputians who had bound him
under similar circumstances.
There were both hatred and defiance
fContinuad On Eiohth paoe