e "sh-h-h-h, kuhnk!" and
was evidently intended to hurry the animals, but it served them quite as
well as a lullaby. These drivers, who doubtless had just been hearing
stories of me, were a little surprised at coming upon me so soon, but
looked me over deliberately, as if calculating how much iron money I
would make, if there were no waste in the coinage!

But I hastened back to the doctor at the Palace, being obliged to leap
the courtyard wall again, for I was not acquainted with the signal to
command the Terror-birds. He expected no other report of the projectile
than the one I brought.

"The only hope is that the meddling Martian may have turned in but one
battery," he said. "In time this will exhaust itself, and the projectile
will tumble back upon Mars. If it should strike in the water, it may not
be shattered, but of course it might be submerged. The chances that we
will ever see it again are extremely remote. If it should be discovered
anywhere on the planet, it would probably be coined up into money, and
the fortune of the Pharaoh would hardly buy us iron enough to make
another. Well, the unexpected always happens. It was a fatal mistake
ever to have left it."

"If it is gone for good," I answered, "let us hope that this planet may
suit us better than the Earth, anyhow. We are certain of an easy
existence here at least. One shield will coin into money enough to
supply our wants a long time. If we had not been so dreadfully secretive
on Earth, perhaps some one, infringing our ideas, might have built
another projectile and sent a relief expedition!"

Preparations for the banquet were rapidly being made about the Palace by
men servants. We saw no female servants, and we learned afterward that
they did no menial work, except the serving of the meals, which was
rather an artistic duty.

We were conducted to two large ante-chambers, adjoining the banquet
room, where we deposited our armament and proceeded to make ourselves at
home as well as we could. The rooms were gloomy and poorly lighted, but
a great number of servants were busy waiting upon us, and one presently
brought in four portable gas-burners, placing them in a circle about my
head as I reclined on a large pillow of soft down, laid on the floor.
These burners thus furnished both heat and light, and nearly all the
rooms were thus lighted and heated throughout the day. They had windows
and a very thick, coarse, translucent but not transparent glass in th