trails and soon
disappeared.

CHAPTER III

The Armies of Mars

As the two returning birds passed the marching soldiers, their riders
evidently delivered some message to the captains, for the soldiers
suddenly broke forward in a run, using their long cross-bows with great
dexterity as jumping staves. Placing the outer end upon the ground ahead
of them as they ran, they leaped and hung upon the cross-piece with
their hands. The springy resistance of this tough wood imparted to them
a forward motion with its rebound, and they scaled great distances at
each jump. The whole company did it in concert, and they made almost as
great speed as if they had been riding bicycles. The slingers were
consequently left far in the rear.

Less than half way up the incline the archers stopped, arranged their
bow-thongs, and selected feathered arrows from a pouch slung over their
shoulders.

"They can never hit us from that distance!" I exclaimed; "a rifle would
not carry so far."

"You forget the weak gravity which will bend their course down very
little, and the thin air which will barely resist their flight; this is
a model planet for archery," he answered. "Quick! drop behind your
shield! They have fired the first volley!"

A torrent of the shafts fell all about us, and many pelted against our
shields. Those which struck the soft earth of the bank sank into it and
stuck there, but those which struck our steel were shivered and broken.

"Sit still and let them shoot away their arrows," I whispered. "This
will soon be over."

The next volley came with a little more force, as if they had marched
further up the hill. One or two arrows fell very near me, and I reached
for them to examine their construction. They were made of the hollow,
filmy stock of a rather tough reed, and were pointed with a chipped
stone tip, which was brittle, but not harder than porous chalk.

"That stuff wouldn't pierce my two coats, to say nothing of the linked
steel shirt," I sneered. "I will show them what fools they are!" and I
walked boldly out to the brink and faced them. They let fly a quick
volley with a concerted shout. As I saw the arrows start, I turned my
back and bent down my head quickly. Perhaps a dozen of the slim reeds
pelted me, and then I stooped over and gathered up as many as I could
find, and broke them all in my hands before their eyes.

This sent a hum of excited jabbering through their ranks, and they fired
no more. I