The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1902-01-09

| which faced Mars AT TIC suggestion OF
Colonel Smith, who had SO frequently
stalked Indians that devices of this kind
readily occurred to his mind, the senti
! nes all wore garments corresponding in
/ color to that of the soil Of the asteroid,
which was Of a dark, reddish brown hue.
This would tend to conceal them from
the prying Eyes Of the Martians.
The commander himself frequently
went around the edge of the planet in
order to take look at Mars and often
accompanied him
/ shall never forget one occasion,
when, lying fiat on the ground and
cautiously worming our way around on
the side toward Mars, we had just be-
gun TO observe it with our telescopes,
when | perceived, against the vast cur
tain of smoke, small, glinting object,
which instantly suspected to be an
airship
| called Mr. Edison S attention to it,
and we both agreed that it was I'M
doubtedly one of the Martians' aerial
vessels, probably on the lookout for u.s.
A short time afterward large num-
Der of airships made their appearance
at the upper surface of the clouds, NOV
! ing to and fro, and although with our
| glasses we could only make out the
general form of the ships, without being
able to discern the Martians upon them,
yet we had not the least doubt but they
were sweeping the sky in every direc-
tion in order to determine whether we
had been completely destroyed or had
retreated to a distance from the planet
Meanwhile the object which we had
in view in retreating to the satellite
was not lost sight Of and the services
of the chief linguists Of the expedition
were again called into use for the pur-
pose OF acquiring a new language. The
experiment was conducted in the flag
ship. The fact that this time it was not
monster belonging TO an utterly alien
race upon whom we were to experiment,
but beautiful daughter of our common
Mother Eve, added zest and interest as
well as the most confident hopes of sue
cess to the efforts of those who were
striving to understand the accents of
her tongue.
Still the difficulty was very great,
Notwithstanding the conviction of the
professors that her language would turn
out to be form of the great Indo- Eu-
ropean speech from which the many
tongues of civilized men upon the earth
had been derived.
The learned men, TO tell the truth,
gave the poor girl no rest, For hours at
time they would ply her with inter-
rogations by voice and by gesture, until
at length, wearied beyond endurance,
she would fall asleep before their faces
Then she would be left undisturbed
for little while, but the moment her
eyes opened again the merciless profess
ors focked about her once more and re-
sumed the tedious iteration of their ex-
periments.
Our Heidelberg professor was the
chief inquisitor, and he revealed him
self to us in a new and entirely unex-
pected light. No one could have antioi-
pated the depth and variety of his re-
sources. He placed himself in front of
the girl and gestured and gesticulated
bowed, nodded shrugged his shoulders
screwed his face into N infinite variety
of expressions, smiled, laughed, scowled
and accompanied all these dumb shows
with posturings, exclamations, queries
only half expressed in words, and ca
dences which by some ingenious manip-
ulation of the tones Of his voice he man
aged to make marvelously expressive of
his desires
lie was universal actor-comedian
tragedian, buffoon-all in one. There
was no shade of human emotion which
he did not seem capable of giving ex-
/ preston to-
HIS every attitude was a symbol, and
all his features became in quick success
sion types of thought and opponents of
Even when that side of Mars on which
We were looking had passed into night
we could still see the guardships cir
cling above the clouds, their presence
being betrayed by the faint twinkling
OF the electric lights that they bore.
Finally, after about week had pass
ed, the Martians evidently made up
their minds that they had annihilated
us and that there was no longer danger
to be feared Convincing evidence that
they believed we should not be heard
from again was furnished when the
withdrawal of the great curtain of cloud
began.
This phenomenon first manifested it
self by a gradual thinning of the vapor.
GUS shield until at length we began TO
perceive the red surface of the planet
dimly shining through it, Thinner and
rarer it became, and after the lapse of
about is hours it had completely dis
appeared, and the huge globe shone out
again, rejecting the light of the sun
from its continents and oceans with a
brightness that, in contrast with the all
enyeloping night to which we had SO
long been subjected, seemed unbearable
TO our eyes
Indeed, so brilliant was the iI,umipa.
ton which fell upon the surface of
DEMOS that the number of persons who
had been permitted to pass around upon
the exposed side of the satellite was
carefully restricted. In the blaze of
light which had been suddenly poured
upon us we felt somewhat like malefao.
tors unexpectedly enveloped in the Il.
Elimination of policeman's dark Ian.