"I will show you your rooms," said Captain Smith. "And in an hour we are off to attack the Martians in Mexico."
CHAPTER IV
Vampires in the Desert
Forty hours later the Red Rover entered the atmosphere of the earth, above northern Mexico.
It was night, the desert was shrouded in blackness. The telescopes revealed only the lights at ranches scattered as thinly as they had been two centuries before.
Bill was in the bridge-room, with Captain Smith.
"The blue globe that destroyed your fleet has already landed here," Smith said. "We saw both of them before they slipped into the shadow of night. They were right together, and it seems that a white metal building has been set up between them."
"The Prince means to attack? In spite of those purple atomic bombs?" Bill seemed surprised.
"Yes. They are below a low mountain ridge. We land on the other side of the hill, a dozen miles off, and give 'em a surprise at dawn."