our moon. The nearer moon of Mars makes a complete revolution
around the planet in a little over seven and one-half hours, so that
she may be seen hurtling through the sky like some huge meteor two
or three times each night, revealing all her phases during each
transit of the heavens.

The further moon revolves about Mars in something over thirty and
one-quarter hours, and with her sister satellite makes a nocturnal
Martian scene one of splendid and weird grandeur. And it is well
that nature has so graciously and abundantly lighted the Martian
night, for the green men of Mars, being a nomadic race without
high intellectual development, have but crude means for artificial
lighting; depending principally upon torches, a kind of candle, and
a peculiar oil lamp which generates a gas and burns without a wick.

This last device produces an intensely brilliant far-reaching white
light, but as the natural oil which it requires can only be obtained
by mining in one of several widely separated and remote localities
it is seldom used by these creatures whose only thought is for
today, and whose hatred for manual labor has kept them in a
semi-barbaric state for countless ages.

After Sola had replenished my coverings I again slept, nor did I
awaken until daylight. The other occupants of the room, five in
number, were all females, and they were still sleeping, piled high
with a motley array of silks and furs. Across the threshold lay
stretched the sleepless guardian brute, just as I had last seen him
on the preceding day; apparently he had not moved a muscle; his eyes
were fairly glued upon me, and I fell to wondering just what might
befall me should I endeavor to escape.