tance from the planet.

Even when that side of Mars on which we were looking had passed into
night, we could still see the guardships circling above the clouds,
their presence being betrayed by the faint twinkling of the electric
lights that they bore.

Finally, after about a week had passed, 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 itself by a gradual thinning of the
vaporous 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 eighteen hours, it had completely
disappeared, and the huge globe shone out again, reflecting the light of
the sun from its continents and oceans with a brightness that, in
contrast with the all-enveloping night to which we had so long been
subjected, seemed unbearable to our eyes.

Indeed, so brilliant was the illumination which fell upon the surface of
Deimos that the number of persons who had been permitted to pass around
on 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 malefactors unexpectedly enveloped in the illumination of a
policeman's dark lantern.

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 purpose of
acquiring a new language. The experiment was conducted in the flagship.
The fact that this time it was not a monster belonging to an utterly
alien race upon whom we were to experiment, but a beautiful daughter of
our common Mother Eve, added zest and interest as well as the most
confident hopes of success 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 a form of the
great Indo-European 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 a time they would ply her with interrogations by voice and by
gesture, until