The Connecticut labor news., 1921-04-29
CHAPTER II.
My Advent on Mars.

MY A0VenT on MdFS
 opened my eyes upon a strange and weird landscape. I knew that was on Mars; not once did question either my sanity or my wakefulness
 It was midday, the sun was shining full upon me and the heat of it was rather intense upon my naked body yet no greater than would have been true under similar conditions on an Arizona desert.
 A little to my left, perhaps a hun dred yards, appeared a low, walled enclosure about four feet in height No water, and no other vegetation than moss was in evidence, and as was somewhat thirsty I determined to do a little exploring
 Springing to my feet I received my
 first Martian surprise, for the effort, which on Earth would have brought me standing upright, carried me into the Martian air to the height of about three yards. I alighted softly upon the ground, however, without appre- ciable shock or jar. Now commenced a series of evOlutiOns which even then seemed ludicrous in the extreme. My muscles, perfectly attuned and accus- toned to the force of gravity on Earth, played the mischief with me in attempting for the first time to cope with the lesser gravitation and lower air pressure on Mars.
 I was determined however, to eX- plore the low structure which was the only evidence of habftation in sight, and I hit thn nnin1Q T1on Of reverting to first principles in locomo- tion, creeping. I did fairly we'll at this and in a few moments had reached the low, encircling wall of the enclosure. I cautiously gained my feet and peered over the top upon the strangest sight 1t had ever been given me to see.
 The roof of the enclosure was solid glass about four or five inches in thickness, and beneath this were several hundred large eggs, perfectly round and snowy white. The eggs were nearly uniform in size. being about two and one-half feet in diame- ter.
 Five or six had already matched and the grOteSQue caricatures which sat blinking in the sunlight were enough to cause me to doubt my san ity. They seemed mostly head, with little scrawny bodies, long necks and six legs, or, as I afterward learned, two legs and two arms, with an inter- mediary pair of limbs which could be used at will either as arms or legs. Their eyes were set at the extreme sides of their heads a trif1e above the center and protruded in such a man. ner that they could be directed either forward or back and also independent ly of each other, thus permitting this queer animal to look in any direction or in two directions at once, without the necessity of turning the head.
 There was no hair on their bodies, which were of a very light yellow green color. Tn the adults, as I was to learn quite soon. this color deepens to an olive green and is darker in the male than in the female.
 The iris of the eyes is blood red, as in Albinos, while the pupil is dark. The eyeball itself Is very white, as are the teeth. These latter add most ferOciOuS appearance to an otherwise fearsOme and terrible cOuntenance, as the lower tusks curve upward to sharp points which end about where the eyes of earthly human beings are located. The Whiteness of the teeth is not that of ivory, but of the snowiest and most gleaming of china.
 I was given but little time to specu- late on the wonders of my new dis covery. I had seen that the eggs were in the process of matching, and as stood watching the hideous little mon- sters break from their shells I failed to note the approach of score of full-grOWn Martians from behind me.
 They might have captured me easily, but their intentions were far more sinister. It was the rattling of the accOutrements of the foremost war riOr which warned me. Had not the rifle of the leader of the party swung from it's faStenings beside his saddle in such a way as to strike against the butt of his great metal-shOd spear I should have snuffed out without ever knowing that death was near me. But the little sound caused me to turn and there upon me- not ten feet from my breast. was the point of that huge spear, a spear forty feet long, tipped with gleaming metal and held low at the side of a mounted replica of the little devils I had been watching.
 But how puny and harmless they now looked beside this huge and ter rife incarnation of hate, of vengeance, and of death. The man himself for such I may call him, was fully fifteen feet in height and, on earth, would have weighed some four hundred pounds.
 And his mount! How can earthly words describe 1t! It lowered ten feet at the shoulder; had four legs on either side; a broad fiat tail, larger at the tip than at the root, and which it held straight out behind while run ming; q gaping mouth which split it's head from its snout to its long, mas siVe neck.