Chapter XI

The Astronef dropped swiftly down through the crimson-tinged clouds, and a few minutes later they saw that the rest of the fleet had scattered in units in all directions, apparently with the intention of getting as far as possible out of reach of that terrible ram. Only one of them, the largest, which carried what looked like a flag of woven gold at the top of its centre mast, remained in sight after a few minutes. It was almost immediately below them when they had passed through the clouds, and they could see it sinking straight down towards the centre of what appeared to be the principal square of the bigger of the two cities which Zaidie had named New York and Brooklyn.

“That fellow has gone to report, evidently,” said Redgrave. “We’ll follow him just to see what he’s up to, but I don’t think we’d better open the ports even then. There’s no telling when they might give us a whiff of that poison-mist, or whatever it is.”

“But how are you going to talk to them, then, if they can talk?--I mean, if they know any language that we do?”

“They’re something like men, and so I suppose they understand the language of signs, at any rate. Still, if you don’t fancy it, we’ll go somewhere else.”

“No, thanks,” she said. “That’s not my father’s daughter. I haven’t come a hundred million miles from home to go away before the first act’s finished. We’ll go down to see if we can make them understand.”

By this time the Astronef was hanging suspended over an enormous square about half the size of Hyde Park. It was laid out just as a terrestrial park would be, in grass land, flower-beds, and avenues, and patches of trees, only the grass was a reddish yellow, the leaves of the trees were like those of a beech in autumn, and the flowers were nearly all a deep violet, or a bright emerald green.

As they descended they saw that the square, or Central Park, as Zaidie at once christened it, was flanked by enormous blocks of buildings, palaces built of a dazzlingly white stone, and topped by domed roofs and lofty cupolas of glass.

“Isn’t that just lovely!” she said, swinging her binoculars in every direction. “Talk about your Park Lane and the houses round Central Park; why, it’s the Chicago Exposition, and the Paris one, and your Crystal Palace, multiplied by about ten thousand, and all spread out just round this one place. If we don’t find these people nice, I guess we’d better go back and build a fleet like this, and come and take it.”

“There spoke the new American imperialism,” laughed Redgrave. “Well, we’ll go and see what they’re like first, shall we?”

The Astronef dropped a little more slowly than the air-ship had done, and remained suspended a hundred feet or so above her after she had reached the ground. Swarms of human figures but of more than human stature, clad in tunics and trousers or knickerbockers, came out of the glass-domed palaces from all sides into the park. They were nearly all of the same stature, and there appeared to be no difference whatever between the sexes. Their dress was absolutely plain; there was no attempt at ornament or decoration of any kind.

“If there are any of the Martian women among those people,” said her ladyship, “they’ve taken to rationals, and they’ve grown about as big as the men.”

“That’s exactly what’s happening on earth, you know, dear. I don’t mean about the rationals, but the women growing up, especially in America. I come of a pretty long family----but, look!”

“Well, I only come to your ear,” she said.

“And our descendants of ten thousand years hence----”

“Oh, don’t bother about them!” she said. “Look; there’s some one who seems to want to communicate with us. Why, they’re all bald! They haven’t got a hair among them--and what a size their heads are!”

“That’s brains--too much brains, in fact. These people have lived too long. I daresay they’ve ceased to be animals--civilised themselves out of everything in the way of passions and emotions, and are just purely intellectual beings, with as much human nature about them as Russian diplomacy or those things we saw at the bottom of the Newton Crater. I don’t like the look of them.”

The orderly swarms of figures, which were rapidly filling the park, divided as he was speaking, making a broad lane from one of its entrances to where the Astronef was hanging above the air-ship. A light four-wheeled vehicle, whose framework and wheels glittered like burnished gold, sped towards them, driven by some invisible agency.

Its only occupant was a huge man, dressed in the universal costume, saving only a scarlet sash in place of the cord-girdle which the others wore round their waists. The vehicle stopped near the air-ship, over which the Astronef was hanging, and, as the figure dismounted, a door opened in the side of the vessel and three other figures, similar both in stature and attire, came out and entered into conversation with him.

“The Admiral of the Fleet is evidently making his report,” said Redgrave. “Meanwhile, the crowd seems to be taking a considerable amount of interest in us.”

“And very naturally, too!” replied Zaidie. “Don’t you think we might go down now and see if we can make ourselves understood in any way? You can have the guns ready in case of accidents, but I don’t think they’ll try and hurt us now. Look, the gentleman with the red sash is making signs.”

“I think we can go down now all right,” replied Redgrave, “because it’s quite certain they can’t use the poison-guns on us without killing themselves as well. Still, we may as well have our own ready. Andrew, get that port Maxim ready. I hope we shan’t want it, but we may. I don’t quite like the look of these people.”

“They’re very ugly, aren’t they?” said Zaidie; “and really you can’t tell which are men and which are women. I suppose they’ve civilised themselves out of everything that’s nice, and are just scientific and utilitarian and everything that’s horrid.”

“I shouldn’t wonder. They look to me as if they’ve just got common sense, as we call it, and hadn’t any other sense; but, at any rate, if they don’t behave themselves, we shall be able to teach them manners of a sort, though we may possibly have done that to some extent already.”

As he said this Redgrave went into the conning-tower, and the Astronef moved from above the air-ship, and dropped gently into the crimson grass about a hundred feet from her. Then the ports were opened, the guns, which Murgatroyd had loaded, were swung into position, and they armed themselves with a brace of revolvers each, in case of accident.

“What delicious air this is!” said her ladyship, as the ports were opened and she took her first breath of the Martian atmosphere. “It’s ever so much nicer than ours. Oh, Lenox, it’s just like breathing champagne.”

Redgrave looked at her with an admiration which was tempered by a sudden apprehension. Even in his eyes she had never seemed so lovely before. Her cheeks were glowing and her eyes were gleaming with a brightness that was almost feverish, and he was himself sensible of a strange feeling of exultation, both mental and physical, as his lungs filled with the Martian air.

“Oxygen,” he said, shortly, “and too much of it! Or I shouldn’t wonder if it was something like nitrous-oxide--you know, laughing gas.”

“Don’t!” she laughed; “it may be very nice to breathe, but it reminds one of other things which aren’t a bit nice. Still, if it is anything of that sort it might account for these people having lived so fast. I know I feel just now as if I was living at the rate of thirty-six hours a day, and so, I suppose, the fewer hours we stop here the better.”

“Exactly!” said Redgrave, with another glance of apprehension at her. “Now, there’s his Royal Highness, or whatever he is, coming. How are we going to talk to him? Are you all ready, Andrew?”

“Yes, my Lord, all ready,” replied the old Yorkshireman, dropping his huge, hairy hand on the breech of the Maxim.

“Very well, then, shoot the moment you see them doing anything suspicious, and don’t let any one except his Royal Highness come nearer than a hundred yards.”

As he said this Redgrave went to the door, from which the gangway steps had been lowered, and, in reply to a singularly expressive gesture from the huge Martian, who seemed to stand nearly nine feet high, he beckoned to him to come up on to the deck.

As he mounted the steps the crowd closed round the Astronef and the Martian air-ship; but, as though in obedience to orders which had already been given, they kept at a respectful distance of a little over a hundred yards away from the strange vessel which had wrought such havoc with their fleet. When the Martian reached the deck, Redgrave held out his hand and the giant recoiled, as a man on earth might have done if, instead of the open palm, he had seen a clenched hand gripping a knife.

“Take care, Lenox,” exclaimed Zaidie, taking a couple of steps towards him, with her right hand on the butt of one of her revolvers. The movement brought her close to the open door, and in full view of the crowd outside.

If a seraph had come on earth and presented itself thus before a throng of human beings, there might have happened some such miracle as was wrought when the swarm of Martians beheld the strange beauty of this radiant daughter of the earth.

As it seemed to the space-voyagers, when they discussed it afterwards, ages of purely utilitarian civilisation had brought all conditions of Martian life up--or down--to the same level. There was no apparent difference between the males and females in stature; their faces were all the same, with features of mathematical regularity, pale skin, bloodless cheeks, and an expression, if such it could be called, utterly devoid of emotion.

But still these creatures were human, or at least their forefathers had been. Hearts beat in their breasts, blood of a sort still flowed through their veins, and so the magic of this marvellous vision instantly awoke the long-slumbering elementary instincts of a bygone age. A low murmur ran through the vast throng, a murmur half-human, half-brutish, which swiftly rose to a hoarse screaming roar.

“Look out, my Lord! Quick! Shut the door, they’re coming! It’s her ladyship they want; she must look like an angel from Heaven to them. Shall I fire?”