The _Astronef_ dropped swiftly down through the crimson-tinged clouds, and a few minutes later they saw that the rest of the fleet had scattered in units in all directions, apparently with the intention of getting as far as possible out of reach of that terrible ram.

Only one of them, the largest, which carried what looked like a flag of woven gold at the top of its centre mast, remained in sight after a few minutes.

It was almost immediately below them when they had passed through the clouds, and they could see it sinking straight down towards the centre of what appeared to be the principal square of the bigger of the two cities which Zaidie had named New York and Brooklyn.
"That fellow has gone to report, evidently," said Redgrave.

"We'll follow him just to see what he's up to, but I don't think we'd better open the ports even then.

There's no telling when they might give us a whiff of that poison-mist, or whatever it is." "But how are you going to talk to them, then, if they can talk ?--I mean, if they know any language that we do ?" "They're something like men, and so I suppose they understand the language of signs, at any rate.