"Wait until night," said the German. "We are approaching it from the daylight side."

"Am we goin' t' ram it hard?" asked Washington.

"I trust not," was Mr. Roumann's reply.

He reversed the atmospheric motor still more. They were so near the planet now that they could distinguish land and water, great buildings, patches of woodland and open s.p.a.ces.

"There are people there! I see people!" cried Jack.

Indeed, there did seem to be a ma.s.s of beings looking up at the approaching projectile.

Very gently the Annihilator came nearer and nearer. There was no doubt now but that Mars was inhabited--but by what a strange race! Before those in the projectile had time to wonder at the inhabitants, they felt a sudden jar. The Annihilator came to rest. It had landed in a soft bed of sand.

"Welcome to Mars!" cried Mr. Roumann, opening a door in the side of the craft and stepping out, followed by his companions. They were at once surrounded by a throng of the queerest people that they had ever imagined.

A great shout arose, and as the adventurers stood in a group near their craft, they suddenly found themselves being moved forward toward the crowd by some strange, mysterious force.

CHAPTER XXII

QUEER PEOPLE

"Hear! Hold on! Quit shovin' me!" cried Washington White.

"Stop, Ma.s.sa Jack!"

"I'm not pushing you," replied the boy, who, with the others, was being moved forward against his will. "I can't seem to stop!"

Nor could the rest of them. It was just as if some one had commanded them to walk forward toward the crowd that stood waiting for them, and they could no more avoid obeying than they could had they been pulled by wire cables.

"What can it be?" murmured Mr. Roumann. "Hold back, all of you.

They must have attached invisible wires to us, and are going to make prisoners of us!"

"There are no wires on me," observed Mark, carefully feeling about him.

"Nor me, either," added Jack.

"I'll soon make 'em stop!" exclaimed Andy Sudds, and raising his gun to his shoulder, he fired over the heads of the Martians, intending to frighten them.

To the surprise of the adventurers the gun only made a faint sound, about half as loud as it usually did, and they saw something small and black pop out of the muzzle, and sail lazily through the air for a short distance, then fall.

"Would you look at that!" exclaimed the hunter in great disgust.

"Look how my bullet flew! First time I ever saw a bullet come from a gun! We're in a strange land, friends!"

"I have it!" cried Professor Henderson. "The attraction of gravitation on Mars is a third of that on the earth. The atmosphere is also less dense. Your gun only makes half the noise, Andy, and the bullet doesn't go nearly as fast, nor with nearly so much force. That's why you could see the bullet. It went very slowly. Your gun is of no use here."

"And is that what makes us move?" asked Jack. "Because we're so light?"

For they continued to advance toward the crowd, which seemed to be anxiously awaiting them.

"That's partly the reason, I guess," replied the professor. "The other part is that they are exerting some strange force upon us.

We'll find out later what it is."

"I wish dey'd let me be!" exclaimed Washington, vainly struggling to hold himself back.

"What queer people!" exclaimed Jack. "Look at what large heads they have!"

"And what small bodies!" added Mark.

It was indeed so. They found Mars, at least the portion where they had landed, to be inhabited with a strange race of beings.

There were men and boys and a few women in the crowd, but they were unlike any men, boys or women they had ever seen. Their heads were about three times as large as those of the ordinary person, and the eyes, ears and nose were of extraordinary size.

Indeed, the eyes bulged out in quite an unpleasant fashion, and the ears of the Martians were not unlike those of an elephant in proportion, though they were shaped more like those of a human being. As for a Martian nose, it was elongated, and capable of being moved in any direction, as were also the ears.

As the adventurers felt themselves being urged forward, by what means they knew not, they noted that the Martians were staring at them with their great, protruding eyes, that they were listening to their talk with their great ears thrust forward, and were lifting their flexible noses toward the travelers as if to get wind of them, as wild beasts do.

"They're certainly sizing us up in great shape," observed Jack.

"But whatever kind of clothes have they got on?"

Well might he ask, for the Martians seemed to be covered with a combination of fur and feathers. They wore no garments that could be put on or taken off, but seemed to be provided by either Nature or skill with suits that were a part of themselves. Men, women and children were all attired alike.

Suddenly the travelers felt themselves come to a stop. A murmur arose from the crowd, and from the midst of the a.s.semblage there stepped forth a man, who seemed to be a sort of leader. On his head was a golden band, and attached to it was a small, glittering triangle. He approached quite close to the little party, and the boys noticed that he seemed to float along, rather than to walk, and that his progress was very swift. He looked searchingly at the strangers with his big eyes, and then addressed them in a queer language. By the tones of his voice it was easily guessed that he was asking them questions, and it did not take much of an imagination to guess that he was inquiring whence they came, how they had arrived, and what they wanted.

"I can't understand his language," remarked Mr. Henderson, turning to his friends. "Can any of you?"

They all shook their heads.

"Let me try him in German," suggested Mr. Roumann, and he gave a brief explanation, in that language, of their trip from the earth. The man with the glittering triangle on his head did not comprehend.

"I can speak several languages," remarked Amos Henderson. "Let me tackle him."

Accordingly, the professor spoke in several languages, including the Esquimau, which he had picked up on his journey north, and in the language used by the inhabitants in the center of the earth.

But to all these the leader only shook his head.

"Suppose we try Latin?" suggested Mark, who was a proficient pupil in that language. "Latin is a very old language. Maybe he understands that."

"Go ahead," said Jack.

Mark accordingly began to recite part of the first book of Caesar, beginning: "All Gaul is divided into three parts," which every schoolboy knows. But this was no better.

"Let me try a bit of Greek on him," said Mr. Roumann. "I used to be a pretty good Greek scholar."'

But Greek appeared to be an unknown tongue to Mars. The leader, however, seeing that the strangers had arrived at the end of their resources, called to some persons in the crowd, and these, coming forward, addressed the world-dwellers in different dialects. But they were no more understandable than had been the first speech of the man with the glittering triangle.

"Guess we'll have to resort to first principles, and draw pictures for them," said Mark.