le imagine! Why, I've read
that the need of water here must be so great that the people, driven to
desperation, must be fighting each other to extermination in order to
get it."

"That is an entirely erroneous idea, sir," replied Merna; "and you may
be quite sure that such a state of affairs will never be witnessed upon
this planet. We know the time must come when our water supply will
cease to be, but your people are needlessly pessimistic, and imagine
terrors where we see none.

"In actual time, the end of Mars is still far distant; but, as compared
with that of your world, it is very near. It will be possible, later on,
to forecast, by means of our records of the rate of decrease, the time
when our water supply will come to an end; but even now it is well
understood how the crisis will be met. As the final period draws nearer,
families will become smaller and smaller, and in the last Martian
century no children will be born; so the diminishing water supply will
suffice for the needs of the dwindling population. Thus the race will
gradually die out naturally, and become extinct long before the
conditions of our world can make life a terror. There will, therefore,
be no self-slaughter, nor murderous extermination, amongst ourselves--we
shall simply die out naturally.

"The planet will roll on, devoid of all life, so the loss of water and
air will then be of no consequence. It will be a dead world; until,
perhaps aeons hence, a collision with some other large body may transform
both into a nebula; and thus once more start them on the way to develop
into a world capable of sustaining life. Thus nothing in the Universe
really dies; the apparent death is only the preparation for a newer and
higher life.

"We Martians have no fear or dread of death, such as I have heard you
say is so prevalent in your world even amongst religious people. With us
death, in the ordinary way, is merely like going to sleep; and it is
only the portal through which we pass to another life on another
planet. Why, then, should we dread it? It is simply a removal to another
dwelling-place!"

"I quite agree with that view, Merna," said John; "and our religion
teaches us a somewhat similar idea; yet few of its professors look
forward with anything but dread to the time when they must pass from
their present life."

"Yes, John," said Merna. "What your people really only profess to
believe we Martians accept as an actual certainty, for we know i