"Not altogether. I am positive that there is life on Mars, and where there is life there must be things to sustain it. Perhaps the food there will not be such as we are used to, but when our supply, runs short we will have to depend on what we will get there." "How long do you expect to stay?" asked Mark. "It is hard to say. When I get what I want I shall be ready to return--that is, after having studied the inhabitants and made some scientific observations." "Maybe the Martians will like us so that they let us come back," suggested Jack with a laugh. "Oh, I fancy we will be able to get away," said Mr. Roumann. "But now I must get back to the shop. I am having a little more trouble with my Etherium motor than I anticipated." "I don't exactly understand how that works," said Jack. "The plans don't call for any opening the stern of the Annihilator for a propeller to project from, and there is no provision for a tube, such as we used to send compressed air from the Flying Mermaid. Nor is there anything in front to pull the Annihilator along." "We need nothing like that," explained the German scientist. "The powerful force which I discovered does not need a tube or a propeller to enable it to be used. The simplest explanation of it is that it consists of waves of energy, which pass from certain square surfaces attached to the motor. The force flows from the plates right through the stern of the ship, passing through the metal without the necessity for any openings. The wireless waves, as they may be called, act on the ether, and, by pushing against it send the projectile forward, just as if it was a stream of compressed air acting on the atmosphere, or a propeller in the water. Of course, that is to be used when we pass beyond the atmosphere. In the latter space I shall use a different force, as I also shall when we approach Mars." "Then you can't see this force?" asked Mark. "No more than you can see the wireless impulses that flow from the wires of an aerial station." "Yet it's there, just the same," spoke Jack. "Indeed, it is," answered the scientist. "But, now I must get back to my motor." "Yes," added Professor Henderson, "we must, all get busy. What are you going to do, Andy?" "Well, I thought I'd go off hunting. I'm no good at building machinery. I thought you might like something for dinner--say a brace of ducks." "Good!" cried Jack, who was fond of eating, which, perhaps, accounted for his stoutness. It was a fine day, just right for hunting, and Andy set off with his gun over his shoulder. "I wonder if there'll be any game on Mars," said Mark. "I think I'd like to hunt there with Andy." "If other things are in proportion, the game there will be very different from that on this earth," said the scientist. "We may find monsters there which you never dreamed of." "That'll be just the stuff for you, Andy," cried Jack.