I opened my eyes upon a strange and weird landscape. Iknew that I was on Mars; not once did I question either mysanity or my wakefulness. I was not asleep, no need for pinchinghere; my inner consciousness told me as plainly that I wasupon Mars as your conscious mind tells you that you are uponEarth. You do not question the fact; neither did I.

I found myself lying prone upon a bed of yellowish,mosslike vegetation which stretched around me in all directionsfor interminable miles. I seemed to be lying in a deep, circularbasin, along the outer verge of which I could distinguish theirregularities of low hills.

It was midday, the sun was shining full upon me and theheat of it was rather intense upon my naked body, yet nogreater than would have been true under similar conditions onan Arizona desert. Here and there were slight outcroppingsof quartz-bearing rock which glistened in the sunlight; anda little to my left, perhaps a hundred yards, appeared a low,walled enclosure about four feet in height. No water, andno other vegetation than the moss was in evidence, and as Iwas somewhat thirsty I determined to do a little exploring.

Springing to my feet I received my first Martian surprise,for the effort, which on Earth would have brought me standingupright, carried me into the Martian air to the height of aboutthree yards. I alighted softly upon the ground, however, withoutappreciable shock or jar. Now commenced a series ofevolutions which even then seemed ludicrous in the extreme.I found that I must learn to walk all over again, as the muscularexertion which carried me easily and safely upon Earth playedstrange antics with me upon Mars.

Instead of progressing in a sane and dignified manner, myattempts to walk resulted in a variety of hops which took meclear of the ground a couple of feet at each step and landedme sprawling upon my face or back at the end of each secondor third hop. My muscles, perfectly attuned and accustomedto the force of gravity on Earth, played the mischief with mein attempting for the first time to cope with the lesser gravitationand lower air pressure on Mars.

I was determined, however, to explore the low structurewhich was the only evidence of habitation in sight, and so Ihit upon the unique plan of reverting to first principles inlocomotion, creeping. I did fairly well at this and in a fewmoments had reached the low, encircling wall of the enclosure.

There appeared to be no doors or windows upon the sidenearest me, but as the wall was but about four feet high Icautiously gained my feet and peered over the top upon thestrangest sight it had ever been given me to see.

The roof of the enclosure was of solid glass about four orfive inches in thickness, and beneath this were several hundredlarge eggs, perfectly round and snowy white. The eggs werenearly uniform in size being about two and one-half feet indiameter.

Five or six had already hatched and the grotesque caricatureswhich sat blinking in the sunlight were enough to causeme to doubt my sanity. They seemed mostly head, with littlescrawny bodies, long necks and six legs, or, as I afterwardlearned, two legs and two arms, with an intermediary pair oflimbs which could be used at will either as arms or legs. Theireyes were set at the extreme sides of their heads a trifle abovethe center and protruded in such a manner that they couldbe directed either forward or back and also independently ofeach other, thus permitting this queer animal to look in anydirection, or in two directions at once, without the necessityof turning the head.

The ears, which were slightly above the eyes and closer together,were small, cup-shaped antennae, protruding not more than an inch onthese young specimens. Their noses were but longitudinal slits inthe center of their faces, midway between their mouths and ears.

There was no hair on their bodies, which were of a verylight yellowish-green color. In the adults, as I was to learnquite soon, this color deepens to an olive green and is darkerin the male than in the female. Further, the heads of theadults are not so out of proportion to their bodies as in thecase of the young.

The iris of the eyes is blood red, as in Albinos, while thepupil is dark. The eyeball itself is very white, as are the teeth.These latter add a most ferocious appearance to an otherwisefearsome and terrible countenance, as the lower tuskscurve upward to sharp points which end about where the eyesof earthly human beings are located. The whiteness of theteeth is not that of ivory, but of the snowiest and most gleamingof china. Against the dark background of their oliveskins their tusks stand out in a most striking manner, makingthese weapons present a singularly formidable appearance.

Most of these details I noted later, for I was given but littletime to speculate on the wonders of my new discovery. I hadseen that the eggs were in the process of hatching, and as Istood watching the hideous little monsters break from theirshells I failed to note the approach of a score of full-grownMartians from behind me.

Coming, as they did, over the soft and soundless moss,which covers practically the entire surface of Mars with theexception of the frozen areas at the poles and the scatteredcultivated districts, they might have captured me easily, buttheir intentions were far more sinister. It was the rattling ofthe accouterments of the foremost warrior which warned me.

On such a little thing my life hung that I often marvel thatI escaped so easily. Had not the rifle of the leader of theparty swung from its fastenings beside his saddle in such away as to strike against the butt of his great metal shod spearI should have snuffed out without ever knowing that death wasnear me. But the little sound caused me to turn, and thereupon me, not ten feet from my breast, was the point of thathuge spear, a spear forty feet long, tipped with gleamingmetal, and held low at the side of a mounted replica of thelittle devils I had been watching.

But how puny and harmless they now looked beside thishuge and terrific incarnation of hate, of vengeance and ofdeath. The man himself, for such I may call him, was fullyfifteen feet in height and, on Earth, would have weighed somefour hundred pounds. He sat his mount as we sit a horse,grasping the animal's barrel with his lower limbs, while thehands of his two right arms held his immense spear low at theside of his mount; his two left arms were outstretched laterallyto help preserve his balance, the thing he rode having neitherbridle or reins of any description for guidance.

And his mount! How can earthly words describe it! Ittowered ten feet at the shoulder; had four legs on eitherside; a broad flat tail, larger at the tip than at the root, andwhich it held straight out behind while running; a gapingmouth which split its head from its snout to its long, massiveneck.

Like its master, it was entirely devoid of hair, but was of adark slate color and exceeding smooth and glossy. Its bellywas white, and its legs shaded from the slate of its shouldersand hips to a vivid yellow at the feet. The feet themselves wereheavily padded and nailless, which fact had also contributedto the noiselessness of their approach, and, in commonwith a multiplicity of legs, is a characteristic feature of thefauna of Mars. The highest type of man and one other animal,the only mammal existing on Mars, alone have well-formednails, and there are absolutely no hoofed animals in existencethere.

Behind this first charging demon trailed nineteen others,similar in all respects, but, as I learned later, bearingindividual characteristics peculiar to themselves; precisely asno two of us are identical although we are all cast in a similarmold. This picture, or rather materialized nightmare, whichI have described at length, made but one terrible and swiftimpression on me as I turned to meet it.

Unarmed and naked as I was, the first law of nature manifesteditself in the only possible solution of my immediate problem,and that was to get out of the vicinity of the point ofthe charging spear. Consequently I gave a very earthly and atthe same time superhuman leap to reach the top of theMartian incubator, for such I had determined it must be.

My effort was crowned with a success which appalled meno less than it seemed to surprise the Martian warriors, for itcarried me fully thirty feet into the air and landed me ahundred feet from my pursuers and on the opposite side ofthe enclosure.

I alighted upon the soft moss easily and without mishap,and turning saw my enemies lined up along the further wall.Some were surveying me with expressions which I afterwarddiscovered marked extreme astonishment, and the others wereevidently satisfying themselves that I had not molested theiryoung.

They were conversing together in low tones, andgesticulating and pointing toward me. Their discovery that I hadnot harmed the little Martians, and that I was unarmed, must havecaused them to look upon me with less ferocity; but, as I wasto learn later, the thing which weighed most in my favor wasmy exhibition of hurdling.

While the Martians are immense, their bones are very largeand they are muscled only in proportion to the gravitationwhich they must overcome. The result is that they are infinitelyless agile and less powerful, in proportion to their weight,than an Earth man, and I doubt that were one of them suddenlyto be transported to Earth he could lift his own weight fromthe ground; in fact, I am convinced that he could not do so.

My feat then was as marvelous upon Mars as it would havebeen upon Earth, and from desiring to annihilate me theysuddenly looked upon me as a wonderful discovery to becaptured and exhibited among their fellows.

The respite my unexpected agility had given me permittedme to formulate plans for the immediate future and to notemore closely the appearance of the warriors, for I could notdisassociate these people in my mind from those otherwarriors who, only the day before, had been pursuing me.

I noted that each was armed with several other weapons inaddition to the huge spear which I have described. Theweapon which caused me to decide against an attempt atescape by flight was what was evidently a rifle of somedescription, and which I felt, for some reason, they werepeculiarly efficient in handling.

These rifles were of a white metal stocked with wood, whichI learned later was a very light and intensely hard growthmuch prized on Mars, and entirely unknown to us denizensof Earth. The metal of the barrel is an alloy composedprincipally of aluminum and steel which they have learnedto temper to a hardness far exceeding that of the steel withwhich we are familiar. The weight of these rifles is comparativelylittle, and with the small caliber, explosive, radium projectileswhich they use, and the great length of the barrel, they aredeadly in the extreme and at ranges which would be unthinkableon Earth. The theoretic effective radius of this rifle isthree hundred miles, but the best they can do in actualservice when equipped with their wireless finders andsighters is but a trifle over two hundred miles.

This is quite far enough to imbue me with great respect forthe Martian firearm, and some telepathic force must havewarned me against an attempt to escape in broad daylightfrom under the muzzles of twenty of these death-dealingmachines.

The Martians, after conversing for a short time, turned androde away in the direction from which they had come, leavingone of their number alone by the enclosure. When they hadcovered perhaps two hundred yards they halted, and turningtheir mounts toward us sat watching the warrior by theenclosure.

He was the one whose spear had so nearly transfixed me,and was evidently the leader of the band, as I had noted thatthey seemed to have moved to their present position at hisdirection. When his force had come to a halt he dismounted,threw down his spear and small arms, and came around theend of the incubator toward me, entirely unarmed and asnaked as I, except for the ornaments strapped upon his head,limbs, and breast.

When he was within about fifty feet of me he unclasped anenormous metal armlet, and holding it toward me in theopen palm of his hand, addressed me in a clear, resonantvoice, but in a language, it is needless to say, I could notunderstand. He then stopped as though waiting for my reply,pricking up his antennae-like ears and cocking his strange-lookingeyes still further toward me.

As the silence became painful I concluded to hazard a littleconversation on my own part, as I had guessed that he wasmaking overtures of peace. The throwing down of his weaponsand the withdrawing of his troop before his advance towardme would have signified a peaceful mission anywhere onEarth, so why not, then, on Mars!

Placing my hand over my heart I bowed low to the Martianand explained to him that while I did not understand hislanguage, his actions spoke for the peace and friendship thatat the present moment were most dear to my heart. Of courseI might have been a babbling brook for all the intelligencemy speech carried to him, but he understood the action withwhich I immediately followed my words.

Stretching my hand toward him, I advanced and took thearmlet from his open palm, clasping it about my arm above theelbow; smiled at him and stood waiting. His wide mouthspread into an answering smile, and locking one of hisintermediary arms in mine we turned and walked back towardhis mount. At the same time he motioned his followers toadvance. They started toward us on a wild run, but were checkedby a signal from him. Evidently he feared that were I to bereally frightened again I might jump entirely out of the landscape.

He exchanged a few words with his men, motioned to methat I would ride behind one of them, and then mounted hisown animal. The fellow designated reached down two orthree hands and lifted me up behind him on the glossyback of his mount, where I hung on as best I could by thebelts and straps which held the Martian's weapons and ornaments.

The entire cavalcade then turned and galloped away towardthe range of hills in the distance.