ntlemen, gentlemen," he cried, "is it that you do not understand?
This Land of Sand and of a wonderful fertilizing river--what can it be?
Gentleman, it is Egypt! These mountains of rock that the Martians have
erected, what are they? Gentlemen, they are the great mystery of the
land of the Nile, the Pyramids. The gigantic statue of their leader that
they at the foot of their artificial mountains have set up--gentlemen,
what is that? It is the Sphinx!"

[Illustration: _"Gentlemen," exclaimed the Professor, "these mountains of
rock that the Martians built are the Pyramids of Egypt. The gigantic
statue of their leader is THE GREAT SPHINX!"_]

The professor's agitation was so great that he could not go on further.
And indeed there was not one of us who did not fully share his
excitement. To think that we should have come to the planet Mars to
solve one of the standing mysteries of the earth, which had puzzled
mankind and defied all their efforts at solution for so many centuries!
Here, then, was the explanation of how those gigantic blocks that
constitute the great Pyramid of Cheops had been swung to their lofty
elevation. It was not the work of puny man, as many an engineer had
declared that it could not be, but the work of these giants of Mars.

At length, our traditions say, a great pestilence broke out in the Land
of Sand, and a partial vengeance was granted to us in the destruction of
the larger number of our enemies. At last the giants who remained,
fleeing before this scourge of the gods, used the mysterious means at
their command, and, carrying our ancestors with them, returned to their
own world, in which we have ever since lived.

"Then there are more of your people in Mars?" said one of the
professors.

"Alas, no," replied Aina, her eyes filling with tears, "I alone am
left."

For a few minutes she was unable to speak. Then she continued:

"What fury possessed them I do not know, but not long ago an expedition
departed from the planet, the purpose of which, as it was noised about
over Mars, was the conquest of a distant world. After a time a few
survivors of that expedition returned. The story they told caused great
excitement among our masters. They had been successful in their battles
with the inhabitants of the world they had invaded, but as in the days
of our forefathers, in the Land of Sand, a pestilence smote them, and
but few survivors escaped.

"Not long after that, you, with your mysterious ships