the equator.

"Hallo!" I exclaimed, involuntarily. "There's a light!"

"Really!" responded Gazen, in a tone of surprise, not unmingled with
doubt. "Are you sure?"

"Quite. There is a distinct light on one of the continents."

"Let me see it, will you?" he rejoined, hastily; and I yielded up my
place to him.

"Why, so there is," he declared, after a pause. "I suspect it has been
hidden under a cloud till now."

We turned and looked at each other in silence.

"It can't be the light Javelle saw," ejaculated Gazen at length. "That
was on Hellas Land."

"Should the Martians be signalling they would probably use a system of
lights. I daresay they possess an electric telegraph to work it."

The professor put his eye to the glass again, and I awaited the result
of his observation with eager interest.

"It's as steady as possible," said he.

"The steadiness puzzles me," I replied. "If it would only flash I should
call it a signal."