Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
Chapter XI.
Chapter XII.
Chapter XIII.
Chapter XIV.
Chapter XV.
Chapter XVI.
Chapter XVII.
Chapter XVIII.
Chapter I.
It
is impossible that the stupendous events which followed the
disastrous invasion of the earth by the Martians should go without
record, and circumstances having placed the facts at my disposal, I
deem it a duty, both to posterity and to those who were witnesses of
and participants in the avenging counterstroke that the earth dealt
back at its ruthless enemy in the heavens, to write down the story in
a connected form.The
Martians had nearly all perished, not through our puny efforts, but
in consequence of disease, and the few survivors fled in one of their
projectile cars, inflicting their cruelest blow in the act of
departure.Their
Mysterious Explosive.They
possessed a mysterious explosive, of unimaginable puissance, with
whose aid they set their car in motion for Mars from a point in
Bergen County, N. J., just back of the Palisades.The
force of the explosion may be imagined when it is recollected that
they had to give the car a velocity of more than seven miles per
second in order to overcome the attraction of the earth and the
resistance of the atmosphere.The
shock destroyed all of New York that had not already fallen a prey,
and all the buildings yet standing in the surrounding towns and
cities fell in one far-circling ruin.The
Palisades tumbled in vast sheets, starting a tidal wave in the Hudson
that drowned the opposite shore.Thousands
of Victims.The
victims of this ferocious explosion were numbered by tens of
thousands, and the shock, transmitted through the rocky frame of the
globe, was recorded by seismographic pendulums in England and on the
Continent of Europe.The
terrible results achieved by the invaders had produced everywhere a
mingled feeling of consternation and hopelessness. The devastation
was widespread. The death-dealing engines which the Martians had
brought with them had proved irresistible and the inhabitants of the
earth possessed nothing capable of contending against them. There had
been no protection for the great cities; no protection even for the
open country. Everything had gone down before the savage onslaught of
those merciless invaders from space. Savage ruins covered the sites
of many formerly flourishing towns and villages, and the broken walls
of great cities stared at the heavens like the exhumed skeletons of
Pompeii. The awful agencies had extirpated pastures and meadows and
dried up the very springs of fertility in the earth where they had
touched it. In some parts of the devastated lands pestilence broke
out; elsewhere there was famine. Despondency black as night brooded
over some of the fairest portions of the globe.All
Not Yet Destroyed.Yet
all had not been destroyed, because all had not been reached by the
withering hand of the destroyer. The Martians had not had time to
complete their work before they themselves fell a prey to the
diseases that carried them off at the very culmination of their
triumph.From
those lands which had, fortunately, escaped invasion, relief was sent
to the sufferers. The outburst of pity and of charity exceeded
anything that the world had known. Differences of race and religion
were swallowed up in the universal sympathy which was felt for those
who had suffered so terribly from an evil that was as unexpected as
it was unimaginable in its enormity.But
the worst was not yet. More dreadful than the actual suffering and
the scenes of death and devastation which overspread the afflicted
lands was the profound mental and moral depression that followed.
This was shared even by those who had not seen the Martians and had
not witnessed the destructive effects of the frightful engines of war
that they had imported for the conquest of the earth. All mankind was
sunk deep in this universal despair, and it became tenfold blacker
when the astronomers announced from their observatories that strange
lights were visible, moving and flashing upon the red surface of the
Planet of War. These mysterious appearances could only be interpreted
in the light of past experience to mean that the Martians were
preparing for another invasion of the earth, and who could doubt that
with the invincible powers of destruction at their command they would
this time make their work complete and final?A
Startling Announcement.This
startling announcement was the more pitiable in its effects because
it served to unnerve and discourage those few of stouter hearts and
more hopeful temperaments who had already begun the labor of
restoration and reconstruction amid the embers of their desolated
homes. In New York this feeling of hope and confidence, this
determination to rise against disaster and to wipe out the evidences
of its dreadful presence as quickly as possible, had especially
manifested itself. Already a company had been formed and a large
amount of capital subscribed for the reconstruction of the destroyed
bridges over the East River. Already architects were busily at work
planning new twenty-story hotels and apartment houses; new churches
and new cathedrals on a grander scale than before.The
Martians Returning.Amid
this stir of renewed life came the fatal news that Mars was
undoubtedly preparing to deal us a death blow. The sudden revulsion
of feeling flitted like the shadow of an eclipse over the earth. The
scenes that followed were indescribable. Men lost their reason. The
faint-hearted ended the suspense with self-destruction, the
stout-hearted remained steadfast, but without hope and knowing not
what to do.But
there was a gleam of hope of which the general public as yet knew
nothing. It was due to a few dauntless men of science, conspicuous
among whom were Lord Kelvin, the great English savant; Herr Roentgen,
the discoverer of the famous X ray, and especially Thomas A. Edison,
the American genius of science. These men and a few others had
examined with the utmost care the engines of war, the flying
machines, the generators of mysterious destructive forces that the
Martians had produced, with the object of discovering, if possible,
the sources of their power.Suddenly
from Mr. Edison's laboratory at Orange flashed the startling
intelligence that he had not only discovered the manner in which the
invaders had been able to produce the mighty energies which they
employed with such terrible effect, but that, going further, he had
found a way to overcome them.The
glad news was quickly circulated throughout the civilized world.
Luckily the Atlantic cables had not been destroyed by the Martians,
so that communication between the Eastern and Western continents was
uninterrupted. It was a proud day for America. Even while the
Martians had been upon the earth, carrying everything before them,
demonstrating to the confusion of the most optimistic that there was
no possibility of standing against them, a feeling—a confidence had
manifested itself in France, to a minor extent in England, and
particularly in Russia, that the Americans might discover means to
meet and master the invaders.Now,
it seemed, this hope and expectation were to be realized. Too late,
it is true, in a certain sense, but not too late to meet the new
invasion which the astronomers had announced was impending. The
effect was as wonderful and indescribable as that of the despondency
which but a little while before had overspread the world. One could
almost hear the universal sigh of relief which went up from humanity.
To relief succeeded confidence—so quickly does the human spirit
recover like an elastic spring, when pressure is released."We
Are Ready for Them!""Let
them come," was the almost joyous cry. "We shall be ready
for them now. The Americans have solved the problem. Edison has
placed the means of victory within our power."Looking
back upon that time now, I recall, with a thrill, the pride that
stirred me at the thought that, after all, the inhabitants of the
Earth were a match for those terrible men from Mars, despite all the
advantage which they had gained from their millions of years of prior
civilization and science.As
good fortunes, like bad, never come singly, the news of Mr. Edison's
discovery was quickly followed by additional glad tidings from that
laboratory of marvels in the lap of the Orange mountains. During
their career of conquest the Martians had astonished the inhabitants
of the earth no less with their flying machines—which navigated our
atmosphere as easily as they had that of their native planet—than
with their more destructive inventions. These flying machines in
themselves had given them an enormous advantage in the contest. High
above the desolation that they had caused to reign on the surface of
the earth, and, out of the range of our guns, they had hung safe in
the upper air. From the clouds they had dropped death upon the earth.Edison's
Flying Machine.Now,
rumor declared that Mr. Edison had invented and perfected a flying
machine much more complete and manageable than those of the Martians
had been. Wonderful stories quickly found their way into the
newspapers concerning what Mr. Edison had already accomplished with
the aid of his model electrical balloon. His laboratory was carefully
guarded against the invasion of the curious, because he rightly felt
that a premature announcement, which should promise more than could
be actually fulfilled, would, at this critical juncture, plunge
mankind back again into the gulf of despair, out of which it had just
begun to emerge.Nevertheless,
inklings of the truth leaked out. The flying machine had been seen by
many persons hovering by night high above the Orange hills and
disappearing in the faint starlight as if it had gone away into the
depths of space, out of which it would re-emerge before the morning
light had streaked the east, and be seen settling down again within
the walls that surrounded the laboratory of the great inventor. At
length the rumor, gradually deepening into a conviction, spread that
Edison himself, accompanied by a few scientific friends, had made an
experimental trip to the moon. At a time when the spirit of mankind
was less profoundly stirred, such a story would have been received
with complete incredulity, but now, rising on the wings of the new
hope that was buoying up the earth, this extraordinary rumor became a
day star of truth to the nations.Edison's
Wonderful Invention Appears.Wonderful
InventionThe flying
machine had been seen by many persons, hovering by night high above
the Orange Hills and disappearing in the faint starlight.A
Trip to the Moon.And
it was true. I had myself been one of the occupants of the car of the
flying Ship of Space on that night when it silently left the earth,
and rising out of the great shadow of the globe, sped on to the moon.
We had landed upon the scarred and desolate face of the earth's
satellite, and but that there are greater and more interesting
events, the telling of which must not be delayed, I should undertake
to describe the particulars of this first visit of men to another
world.But,
as I have already intimated, this was only an experimental trip. By
visiting this little nearby island in the ocean of space, Mr. Edison
simply wished to demonstrate the practicability of his invention, and
to convince, first of all, himself and his scientific friends that it
was possible for men—mortal men—to quit and to revisit the earth
at their will. That aim this experimental trip triumphantly attained.The
Trial Trip To The Moon.Trial
TripI had myself
been one of the occupants of the car of the flying Ship of Space on
that night, when it silently left the earth, and rising out of the
great shadow of the globe, sped on to the moon.It
would carry me into technical details that would hardly interest the
reader to describe the mechanism of Mr. Edison's flying machine. Let
it suffice to say that it depended upon the principal of electrical
attraction and repulsion. By means of a most ingenious and
complicated construction he had mastered the problem of how to
produce, in a limited space, electricity of any desired potential and
of any polarity, and that without danger to the experimenter or to
the material experimented upon. It is gravitation, as everybody
knows, that makes man a prisoner on the earth. If he could overcome,
or neutralize, gravitation he could float away a free creature of
interstellar space. Mr. Edison in his invention had pitted
electricity against gravitation. Nature, in fact, had done the same
thing long before. Every astronomer knew it, but none had been able
to imitate or to reproduce this miracle of nature. When a comet
approaches the sun, the orbit in which it travels indicates that it
is moving under the impulse of the sun's gravitation. It is in
reality falling in a great parabolic or elliptical curve through
space. But, while a comet approaches the sun it begins to
display—stretching out for millions, and sometimes hundreds of
millions of miles on the side away from the sun—an immense luminous
train called its tail. This train extends back into that part of
space from which the comet is moving. Thus the sun at one and the
same time is drawing the comet toward itself and driving off from the
comet in an opposite direction minute particles or atoms which,
instead of obeying the gravitational force, are plainly compelled to
disobey it. That this energy, which the sun exercises against its own
gravitation, is electrical in its nature, hardly anybody will doubt.
The head of the comet being comparatively heavy and massive, falls on
toward the sun, despite the electrical repulsion. But the atoms which
form the tail, being almost without weight, yield to the electrical
rather than to the gravitational influence, and so fly away from the
sun.Gravity
Overcome.Now,
what Mr. Edison had done was, in effect, to create an electrified
particle which might be compared to one of the atoms composing the
tail of a comet, although in reality it was a kind of car, of metal,
weighing some hundreds of pounds and capable of bearing some
thousands of pounds with it in its flight. By producing, with the aid
of the electrical generator contained in this car, an enormous charge
of electricity, Mr. Edison was able to counterbalance, and a trifle
more than counterbalance, the attraction of the earth, and thus cause
the car to fly off from the earth as an electrified pithball flies
from the prime conductor.As
we sat in the brilliantly lighted chamber that formed the interior of
the car, and where stores of compressed air had been provided
together with chemical apparatus, by means of which fresh supplies of
oxygen and nitrogen might be obtained for our consumption during the
flight through space, Mr. Edison touched a polished button, thus
causing the generation of the required electrical charge on the
exterior of the car, and immediately we began to rise.The
moment and direction of our flight had been so timed and prearranged,
that the original impulse would carry us straight toward the moon.A
Triumphant Test.When
we fell within the sphere of attraction of that orb it only became
necessary to so manipulate the electrical charge upon our car as
nearly, but not quite, to counterbalance the effect of the moon's
attraction in order that we might gradually approach it and with an
easy motion, settle, without shock, upon its surface.We
did not remain to examine the wonders of the moon, although we could
not fail to observe many curious things therein. Having demonstrated
the fact that we could not only leave the earth, but could journey
through space and safely land upon the surface of another planet, Mr.
Edison's immediate purpose was fulfilled, and we hastened back to the
earth, employing in leaving the moon and landing again upon our own
planet the same means of control over the electrical attraction and
repulsion between the respective planets and our car which I have
already described.Telegraphing
the News.When
actual experiment had thus demonstrated the practicability of the
invention, Mr. Edison no longer withheld the news of what he had been
doing from the world. The telegraph lines and the ocean cables
labored with the messages that in endless succession, and burdened
with an infinity of detail, were sent all over the earth. Everywhere
the utmost enthusiasm was aroused."Let
the Martians come," was the cry. "If necessary, we can quit
the earth as the Athenians fled from Athens before the advancing host
of Xerxes, and like them, take refuge upon our ships—these new
ships of space, with which American inventiveness has furnished us."And
then, like a flash, some genius struck out an idea that fired the
world."Why
should we wait? Why should we run the risk of having our cities
destroyed and our lands desolated a second time? Let us go to Mars.
We have the means. Let us beard the lion in his den. Let us ourselves
turn conquerors and take possession of that detestable planet, and if
necessary, destroy it in order to relieve the earth of this perpetual
threat which now hangs over us like the sword of Damocles."The
Wizard and the Astronomer Confer.ConferA
consultation in Wizard Edison's laboratory between him and Professor
Serviss on the best means of repaying the damage wrought upon this
planet by the Martians.