st on and around us, and no man could
see or notice anything except by half-comprehended glances.

Almost in an instant, it seemed, a swarm of airships surrounded us,
while from what, for lack of a more descriptive name, I shall call the
forts about the Lake of the Sun, leaped tongues of electric fire, before
which some of our ships, were driven like bits of flaming paper in a
high wind, gleaming for a moment, then curling up and gone forever!

It was an awful sight; but the battle fever was raging within us, and
we, on our part, were not idle.

Every man carried a disintegrator, and these hand instruments, together
with those of heavier caliber on the ship poured their resistless
vibrations in every direction through the quivering air.

The airships of the Martians were destroyed by the score, and yet they
flocked upon us thicker and faster.

We dropped lower and our blows fell upon the forts, and upon the wide
spread city bordering the Lake of the Sun. We almost entirely silenced
the fire of one of the forts; but there were forty more in full action
within reach of our eyes!

Some of the metallic buildings were partly unroofed by the
disintegrators and some had their walls riddled and fell with thundering
crashes, whose sound rose to our ears above the hellish din of battle. I
caught glimpses of giant forms struggling in the ruins and rushing
wildly through the streets, but there was no time to see anything
clearly.

Our flagship seemed charmed. A crowd of airships hung upon it like a
swarm of angry bees, and, at times, one could not see for the lightning
strokes--yet we escaped destruction, while ourselves dealing death on
every hand.

It was a glorious fight, but it was not war; no, it was not war. We
really had no more chance of ultimate success amid that multitude of
enemies than a prisoner running the gauntlet in a crowd of savages has
of escape.

A conviction of the hopelessness of the contest finally forced itself
upon our minds, and the shattered squadron, which had kept well together
amid the storm of death, was signalled to retreat.

Shaking off their pursuers, as a hunted bear shakes off the dogs, sixty
of the electrical ships rose up through the clouds where more than
ninety had gone down!

Madly we rushed upward through the vast curtain and continued our flight
to a great elevation, far beyond the reach of the awful artillery of the
enemy.

Looking back it seemed the very mouth of hell fro