which the good--if they existed--must suffer with the
bad on account of the wicked deeds of the latter.

I have already remarked that the continents of Mars were higher on their
northern and southern borders where they faced the great oceans. These
natural barriers bore to the main mass of land somewhat the relation of
the edge of a shallow dish to its bottom. Their rise on the land side
was too gradual to give them the appearance of hills, but on the side
toward the sea they broke down in steep banks and cliffs several hundred
feet in height. We guessed that it would be in the direction of these
elevations that the inhabitants would flee, and those who had timely
warning might thus be able to escape in case the flood did not--as it
seemed possible it might in its first mad rush--overtop the highest
elevations on Mars.

As day broke and the sun slowly rose upon the dreadful scene beneath us,
we began to catch sight of some of the fleeing inhabitants. We had
shifted the position of the fleet toward the south, and were now
suspended above the southeastern corner of Aeria. Here a high bank of
reddish rock confronted the sea, whose waters ran lashing and roaring
along the bluffs to supply the rapid drought produced by the emptying of
Syrtis Major. Along the shore there was a narrow line of land, hundreds
of miles in length, but less than a quarter of a mile broad, which still
rose slightly above the surface of the water, and this land of refuge
was absolutely packed with the monstrous inhabitants of the planet who
had fled hither on the first warning that the water was coming.

In some places it was so crowded that the later comers could not find
standing ground on dry land, but were continually slipping back and
falling into the water. It was an awful sight to look at them. It
reminded me of pictures I had seen of the deluge in the days of Noah,
when the waters had risen to the mountain tops, and men, women and
children were fighting for a foothold upon the last dry spots the earth
contained.

We were all moved by a desire to help our enemies, for we were
overwhelmed with feelings of pity and remorse, but to aid them was now
utterly beyond our power. The mighty floods were out, and the end was in
the hands of God.

Fortunately, we had little time for these thoughts, because no sooner
had the day begun to dawn around us than the airships of the Martians
appeared. Evidently the people in them were dazed by the disaster