e mine, one of the men left to guard the
Martian came running to inform us that the latter evidently wished to
make some communication. Mr. Edison and the others hurried to the side
of the prisoner. He still lay on his back, from which position he was
not able to move, notwithstanding all his efforts. But by the motion of
his eyes, aided by the pantomime with his fingers, he made us understand
that there was something in a metallic box fastened at his side which he
wished to reach.

With some difficulty we succeeded in opening the box and in it there
appeared a number of bright red pellets, as large as an ordinary egg.

When the Martians saw these in our hands he gave us to understand by the
motion of his lips that he wished to swallow one of them. A pellet was
accordingly placed in his mouth, and he instantly and with great
eagerness swallowed it.

While trying to communicate his wishes to us, the prisoner had seemed to
be in no little distress. He exhibited spasmodic movements which led
some of the bystanders to think that he was on the point of dying, but
within a few seconds after he had swallowed the pellet he appeared to be
completely restored. All evidence of distress vanished, and a look of
content came over his ugly face.

"It must be a powerful medicine," said one of the bystanders. "I wonder
what it is?"

"I will explain to you my notion," said Professor Moissan, the great
French chemist. "I think it was a pill of the air, which he has taken."

"What do you mean by that?"

"My meaning is," said Professor Moissan, "that the Martian must have,
for that he may live, the nitrogen and the oxygen. These can he not
obtain here, where there is not the atmosphere. Therefore must he get
them in some other manner. This has he managed to do by combining in
these pills the oxygen and the nitrogen in the proportions which make
atmospheric air. Doubtless upon Mars there are the very great chemists.
They have discovered how this may be done. When the Martian has
swallowed his little pill, the oxygen and the nitrogen are rendered to
his blood as if he had breathed them, and so he can live with that air
which has been distributed to him with the aid of his stomach in place
of his lungs."

If Monsieur Moissan's explanation was not correct, at any rate it seemed
the only one which would fit the facts before us. Certainly the Martian
could not breathe where there was practically no air, yet just as
certainly after he ha