Chapter 17

noise, and I hear the thud of a heavy muffled blow on the doctor's end. Suddenly he pulled away the bulkhead and whispered to me excitedly:--

"They are all about us outside--dozens of them! They are examining the projectile and trying to break it open. If they strike the windows, it will be too easy."

The projectile tottered a little again. There was a heaving noise, and one end rose a little from the ground.

"They are trying to carry us off, Doctor," I cried. "You must turn in the currents and fly away from them."

The projectile was just then lifted awkwardly, and wavered a little and pitched, as if it were being carried by a throng struggling clumsily all about it. The doctor sprang to his apparatus and turned in four batteries at once. We shot up swiftly in a long curve, and from my window I could see the circle of amazed Martians, standing dumbly with their hands still held up in front of them, as they had been when the projectile left them, while they gazed open-mouthed into the sky at us.