A blaze of greenish flame and a huge cloud of steamy smoke showed that the projectile had done its work, and, when the smoke drifted away, the spot on which the air-ship had lain was only a deep, red, jagged gash in the ground.

There was not even a fragment of the ship to be seen.
This done, Redgrave went and turned the starboard Maxim on to another swarm which was approaching the _Astronef_ from that side.

When he had got the range he swung the gun slowly from side to side.

The moving throng stopped, as the other one had done, and sank down to the red grass, now dyed with a deeper red.
Meanwhile, Zaidie had been holding the Martian at something more than arm's length with her revolver.

He seemed to understand perfectly that, if she pulled the trigger, the revolver would do something like what the Maxims had done.