"And better than that," said Colonel Smith, "we have destroyed their
clan; we have made them afraid. Their discipline is gone."

But this was only the beginning of our victory. The floods below were
achieving a still greater triumph, and now that we had conquered the
airships we dropped within a few hundred feet of the surface of the
water and then turned our faces westward in order to follow the advance
of the deluge and see whether, as we hoped, it would overwhelm our
enemies in the very center of their power.

In a little while we had overtaken the first wave, which was still
devouring everything. We saw it bursting the banks of the canal,
sweeping away forests of gigantic trees, and swallowing cities and
villages, leaving nothing but a broad expanse of swirling and eddying
waters, which, in consequence of the prevailing red hue of the
vegetation and the soil, looked, as shuddering we gazed down upon it,
like an ocean of blood flecked with foam and steaming with the escaping
life of the planet from whose veins it gushed.

As we skirted the southern borders of the continent the same dreadful
scenes which we had beheld on the coast of Aeria presented themselves.
Crowds of refugees thronged the high borders of the land and struggled
with one another for a foothold against the continually rising flood.

We saw, too, flitting in every direction, but rapidly fleeing before our
approach, many airships, evidently crowded with Martians, but not armed
either for offense or defense. These, of course, we did not disturb, for
merciless as our proceedings seemed even to ourselves, we had no
intention of making war upon the innocent, or upon those who had no
means to resist. What we had done it had seemed to us necessary to do,
but henceforth we were resolved to take no more lives if it could be
avoided.

Thus, during the remainder of that day, all of the following night and
all of the next day, we continued upon the heels of the advancing flood.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

_THE WOMAN FROM CERES_

The second night we could perceive ahead of us the electric lights
covering the land of Thaumasia, in the midst of which lay the Lake of
the Sun. The flood would be upon it by daybreak, and, assuming that the
demoralization produced by the news of the coming of the waters, which
we were aware had hours before been flashed to the capitol of Mars,
would prevent the Martians from effectively manning their forts, we
thought it safe