ON THE WRONG SIDE OF VENUS
On Venus, the Radio Planet, nothing was impossible, it seemed to Myles Cabot. He was beginning to get used to the dangerous monsters that inhabited the planet, to know how to deal with them and the even stranger intelligent insects among whom he found himself.
But the insects were his enemies, a race of creatures Cabot had driven from their dominion over Cabot's own people—yet here he was, fighting side by side with the insect leaders in a desperate attempt to defend their queenl
It was strange, unexpected .
. .
but it was the only hope he had of getting back to his own land and rescuing the beautiful Lilla, his young son and his throne.
Author's Foreword
Could you make
a radio set? Don't answer rashly. Don't say that you have already built
several. For note that we did not ask whether you could assemble a set from
parts already manufactured by others, but rather whether you could build the
entire set yourself— from the ground up. That means making every part you
require, including the vacuum tubes, the acid in the batteries, the wires, the
insulation.
If
you think that you could do this, let us ask you one further question. Put
yourself in the place of the hero of the following story, and imagine yourself
stranded amid intelligent savages who have not progressed beyond the wood
age. Under such circumstances, with nothing to guide you but your scientific
memory, with no tools except those of your own creation, and with no materials
save those furnished by nature, could you, though the lives and happiness of
your dear ones depended upon it—could you make
a radio set?
—R. M. F., 1926
THE RADIO PLANET
Ralph Milne Farley
ACE
BOOKS, INC. 1120 Avenue of the Americas New York, N.Y. 10036
the radio planet
Originally published in
1926 as a serial in Argosy All-Story Weekly.
Cover
by John Schoenherr. Illustration by Jack Gdughan.
Ralph Milne Farley is also
the author of
The
Radio Beasts
available now from Ace
Books (F-304)
I
It's
too bad that
Myles Cabot can't see thisl" I exclaimed,
as my eye fell on the following item:
SIGNALS FROM MARS FAIL TO REACH HARVARD
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Wednesday. The Harvard College Radio.
Station has for several weeks been in receipt of
fragmentary signals of
extraordinarily long wave-length, Professor Hammond announced yesterday. So far
as it has been possible to test the direction of
the source of these waves, it appears
that the direction has a twenty-four hour cycle, thus indicating that the
origin of these waves is some point
outside the earth.
The university authorities will express no
opinion as to whether or not these messages come from Mars.
Myles,
alone of all the radio engineers of my acquaintance, was competent to surmount
these diffiiculties, and thus enable the Cambridge savants to receive with
clearness the message from another planet.
Twelve months ago he would have been
available, for he was then quietly visiting at my farm, after five earth-years
spent on the planet Venus, where, by the aid of radio, he had led the Cupians
to victory over their oppressors, a human-brained race of gigantic black ants.
He had driven the last ant from the face of continental Poros, and had won and
wed the Princess Lilla, who had borne him a son to occupy the throne of Cupia.
While
at my farm Cabot had rigged up a huge radio set and a matter-transmitting apparatus,
with which he had (presumably) shot himself back to Poros on the night of the
big October storm which had wrecked his installation.
I
showed the newspaper item to Mrs. Farley, and lamented on Cabot's absence. Her
response opened up an entirely new line of thought.
Said she: "Doesn't the very fact that Mr. Cabot isn't here suggest
to you that this may be a message, not from Mars, but from him? Or perhaps from the
Princess Lilla, inquiring about him in case he has failed in his attempted
return?"
That had never occurred to
me! How stupid!
"What
had I better do about it, if anything?" I asked. "Drop Professor
Hammond a line?"
But
Mrs. Farley was afraid that I would be taken for a crank.
That
evening, when I was over in town, the clerk in the drug store waylaid me to say
that there had been a longdistance phone call for me, and would I please call
a certain Cambridge number.
So,
after waiting an interminable time in the stuffy booth with my hands full of
dimes, nickles, and quarters, I finally got my party.
"Mr. Farley?"
"Speaking."
"This
is Professor Kellogg, O. D. Kellogg," the voice replied.
It
was my friend of the Harvard math faculty, the man who had analyzed the
measurements of the streamline projectile in which Myles Cabot had shot to
earth the account of the first part of his adventures on Venus. Some further
adventures Myles had told me in person during his stay on my farm.
"Professor Hammond thinks that he is
getting Mars on the air," the voice continued.
"Yes,"
I replied. "I judged as much from what I read in this morning's paper. But
what do you think?"
Kellogg's
reply gave my sluggish mind the second jolt which it had received that day.
"Well," he said, "in view of
the fact that I am one of the few people among your readers who take your radio
stories seriously, I think that Hammond is getting Venus. Can you run up here
and help me try and convince him?"
And
so it was that I took the early boat next morning for Boston, and had lunch
with the two professors.
As a result of our conference, a small
committee of engineers returned with me to Edgartown that evening for the
purpose of trying to repair the wrecked radio set which Myles Cabot had left on
my farm.
They
utterly failed to comprehend the matter-transmitting apparatus, and so—after
the fallen tower had been reerected and the rubbish cleared away—they had
devoted their attention to the restoration of the conversational part of the
set.
To
make a long story short, we finally restored it, with the aid of some old blue
prints of Cabot's which Mrs. Farley, like Swiss Family Robinson's wife,
produced from somewhere. I was the first to try the earphones, and was rewarded
by a faint "bzt-bzt" like the song of a north woods blackfly.
In
conventional radioese, I repeated the sounds to the Harvard group:
"Dah-dit-dah-dit
dah-dah-dit-dah. Dah-dit-dah-dit dah-dah-dit-dah. Dah-dit-dah-dit
dah-dah-dit-dah. Dah-dit-dit dit. Dah-dit-dah-dit dit-dah dah-dit dit dit
dah-dah-dah dah. Dah-dit-dah-dit dit-dah dah-dit-dit-dit dah-dah-dah dah.
Dah-dit-dah-dit dit-dah dah-dit-dit-dit-dah dah-dah-dah."
A look of incredulity spread over their
faces. Again came the same message, and again I repeated it.
"You're spoofing us!" one of them
shouted. "Give me the earphones."
And
he snatched them from my head. Adjusting them on his own head, he spelled out
to us, "C-Q C-Q C-Q D-E C-A-B-O-T C-A-B-O-T C-A-B-O-T-"
Seizing
the big leaf-switch, he threw it over. The motor-generator began to hum.
Grasping the key, the Harvard engineer ticked off into space: "Cabot Cabot
Cabot D-E—"
"Has this station a
call letter?" he hurriedly asked me.
"Yes," I answered
quickly, "One-X-X-B."
"One-X-X-B," he
continued the ticking "K."
Interplanetary
communication was an established fact at last! And not with Mars after all
these years of scientific speculations. But what meant more to me was that I
was again in touch with my classmate Myles Standish Cabot, the radio man.
The
next day a party of prominent scientists, accompanied by a telegrapher and two
stenographers, arrived at my farm.
During
the weeks that followed there was recorded Myles's own account of the amazing
adventures on the planet Venus (or Poros, as its own inhabitants call it,)
which befell him upon his return there after his brief visit to the earth. I
have edited those notes into the following coherent story.
II
TOO
MUCH STATIC
Myles Cabot had returned to the earth to study the latest
developments of modem terrestrial science for the benefit of the Cupian nation.
He was the regent of Cupia during the minority of his baby son, King Kew the
Thirteenth. The loyal Prince Toron occupied the throne in his absence. The last
of the ant-men and their ally, the renegade Cupian Prince Yuri, had presumably
perished in an attempt to escape by flying through the steam-clouds which completely
hem in continental Poros. What lay beyond the boiling seas no man knew.
During
his stay on my farm, Cabot had built the matter-transmitting apparatus, with
which he had shot himself off into space on that October night on which he had
received the message from the skies: "S O S, Lilla." A thunderstorm
had been brewing all that evening, and just as Myles had placed himself between
the coordinate axes of his machine and had gathered up the strings which ran
from his control levers to within the apparatus, there had come a blinding flash. Lightning had struck his aerial.
How long his unconsciousness lasted he knew
not. He was some time in regaining his senses. But when he had finally and
fully recovered, he found himself lying on a sandy beach beside a calm and placid lake beneath a silver sky.
He
fell to wondering, vaguely and pleasantly, where he was and how he had got
here.
Suddenly, however, his ears were jarred by a
familiar sound. At once his senses cleared, and he listened intently to the
distant purring of a motor. Yes, there could be no mistake; an airplane was
approaching. Now he could see it, a speck in the sky, far down the beach.
Nearer and nearer it came.
Myles
sprang to his feet. To his intense surprise, he found that the effort threw him
quite a distance into the air. Instantly the idea flashed through his mind:
"I must be on Mars! Or some other strange planet."
This idea was vaguely reminiscent of something.
But while he was trying to catch this vaguely
elusive train of thought, his attention was diverted by the fact that, for some
unaccountable reason, his belt buckle and most of the buttons which had held
his clothes together were missing, so that his clothing came to pieces as he
rose, and that he had to shed it rapidly in order to avoid impeding his
movements. He wondered at the cause of this.
But
his speculations were cut short by the alighting of the plane a hundred yards
down the beach.
What
was his horror when out of it clambered, not men but
antsl Ants, six-footed, and six feet high. Huge ants, four of them, running toward him over the glistening sands.
Gone
was all his languor, as he seized a piece of driftwood and prepared to defend himself.
As
he stood thus expectant, Myles realized that his present position and
condition, the surrounding scenery, and the advance of the ant-men were
exacdy, item for item, like the opening events of his first arrival on the
planet Poros. He even recognized one of the ant-men as old Doggo, who had
befriended him on his previous visit.
Could it be that all his adventures in Cupia
had been naught but a dream; a recurring dream, in fact? Were his dear wife
Lilla and his little son Kew merely figments of his imagination? Horrible
thought!
And
then events began to differ from those of the past; for the three other
Formians halted, and Doggo advanced alone. By the agitation of the beast's
antennae the earth man could see that it was talking to him. But Myles no
longer possessed the wonderful electrical headset which he had contrived and
built during his previous visit to that planet, so as to talk with Cupians and
Formians, both of which races are earless and converse by means of radiations
from their antennae.
So
he picked up two sticks from the beach, and held them projecting from his
forehead; then threw them to the ground with a grimace of disgust and pointed
to his ears.
Doggo
understood, and scratched with his paw in Cupian shorthand on the silver sands
the message: "Myles Cabot, you are our prisoner."
"What,
again?" scratched Myles, then made a sign of
submission.
He
dreaded the paralyzing bite which Formians usually administer to their victims,
and which he had twice experienced in the past; but, fortunately, it was not
now forthcoming.
The other three ants kept away from him as
Doggo led him to the beached airplane, and soon they were scudding along
beneath silver skies, northward as it later turned out.
Far
below them were silver-green fields and tangled tropical woods, interspersed
with rivulets and little ponds.
This was Cupia, his Cupia. He was home once
more, back again upon the planet which held all that was dear to him in two
worlds.
His heart glowed with the warmth of
homecoming. What mattered it that he was now a prisoner, in the hands (or,
rather, claws) of his old enemies, the Formians? He had been their prisoner
before, and had escaped. Once more he could escape, and rescue the Princess
Lilla.
Poor girl! How eager he was to reach her
side, and save her from that peril, whatever it was, which had caused her to
flash that "S O S" a hundred million miles across the solar system
from Poros to the earth.
He
wondered what could have happened in Cupia since his departure, only a few
sangths ago. How was it that the ant-men had survived their airplane journey
across the boiling seas? What had led them to return? Or perhaps these ants
were a group who had hidden somewhere and thus had escaped the general
extermination of their race. In either event, how had they been able to
reconquer Cupia? And where was their former leader, Yuri, the renegade Cupian
prince?
These
and a hundred other similar questions flooded in upon the earth-man, as the
Formian airship carried him, a captive, through the skies.
He
gazed again at the scene below, and now noted one difference from the
accustomed Porovian landscape, for nowhere ran the smooth concrete roads which
bear the swift two-wheeled kerkools of the Cupians to all parts of their
continent. What uninhabited portion of Cupia could this be, over which they
were now passing?
Turning
to Doggo, Myles extended his left palm, and made a motion as though writing on
it with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand. But the ant-man waved a negative with one of his forepaws. It was evident that there were no
writing materials aboard the ship. Myles would have to wait until they reached
their landing place; for doubtless they would soon hover down in some city or
town, though just which one he could not guess, as the country below was wholly
unfamiliar.
Finally
a small settlement loomed ahead. It was of the familiar style of
toy-building-block architecture affected by the ant-men, and, from its
appearance, was very new. On its outskirts further building operations were
actively in progress. Apparently a few survivors of the accursed race of
Formians were consolidating their position and attempting to build up a new
empire in some out-of-the-way portion of the continent.
As
the earth-man was turning these thoughts over in his mind the plane softly
settled down upon one of the flat roofs, and its occupants disembarked. Three
of the ants advanced menacingly toward Myles, but Doggo held them off. Then all
of the party descended down one of the ramps to the lower levels of the
building.
Narrow
slitlike window openings gave onto courtyards, where fountains played and
masses of blue and yellow flowers bloomed, amid gray-branched lichens with red
and purple twig-knobs. It was in just such a garden, through just such a
window, that he had first looked upon the lovely blue-eyed, golden-haired
Lilla, Crown Princess of Cupia.
The earth-man sighed. Where was his beloved
wife now? That she needed his help was certain. He must therefore get busy. So
once again he made motions of writing on the palm of his left hand with the
thumb and forefinger of his right; and this time the sign language produced
results, for Doggo halted the procession and led Cabot into a room.
It was a plain bare room, devoid of any
furniture except a small table, for ant-men have no use for
chairs and couches. The sky outside was already beginning to pinken with the
unseen sun.
With a sweep of his paw, Doggo indicated that
this was to be Cabot's quarters,. Then, with another
wave, he pointed to the table, where lay a pad of paper and stylus, not a
pencil-like stylus as employed by the Cupians, but rather one equipped with
straps for attaching it to the claw of a Formian.
Even
so, it was better than nothing. The earth-man seized it eagerly, but before he
could begin writing an ant entered bearing a Cupian toga, short-sleeved and bordered with Grecian wave designs in
blue. Myles put on this garment, and then quickly filled a sheet with
questions:
"How
is my princess and my son, the baby king? Whence come
all you Formians, whose race I thought had been exterminated? What part of Cupia
is this? What is this city? Where is Prince Yuri? And what do you intend to do
with me this
time?"
Then
he passed the paper and stylus over to his old friend Doggo. They were alone
together at last.
The ant-man's reply consumed sheet after
sheet of paper; but, owning to the rapidity of Porovian shorthand, did not take
so very much more time than speaking would have required. As he completed each
sheet he passed it over to Myles, who read as follows:
"As
to your princess and your son, I know not, for this is not Cupia. Do you
remember how, when your victorious army and air navy swept to the southern
extremity of what had been Formia, a few of our survivors rose in planes from
the ruins of our last stronghold and braved the dangers of the steam clouds
which overhang the boiling seas? Our leader was Prince Yuri, erstwhile
contender for the throne of Cupia, splendid even in defeat.
"It
was his brain that conceived our daring plan of escape. If there were other
lands beyond the boiling seas, the lands which tradition taught were the origin
of the Cupian race, then there we might prosper and raise
up a new empire. At the worst we should merely
meet death in another form, rather than at your hands. So we essayed.
"Your
planes followed us, but turned back as we neared the area of terrific heat.
Soon the vapor closed over us, blotting our enemies and our native land from
view."
For page after page Doggo, the ant-man,
related the harrowing details of that perilous flight across the boiling seas,
ending with the words:
"Here
we are, and here are you, in Yuriana, capitol of New Formia. But how is it that
you, Myles Cabot, have arrived here on this continent in exactly the same
manner and condition in which I discovered you in old Formia eight years ago?"
When
Myles reached the end of reading this narrative, he in turn took the pad and
stylus and related how he had gone to the planet Minos (which we call the
Earth) to learn the latest discoveries and inventions there, and how his
calculations for his return to Poros had been upset by some static conditions
just as he had been about to transmit himself back. Oh, if only he had landed
by chance upon the same beach as on his first journey through the skies!
Wisely
he refrained from mentioning the "S O S" message from Lilla. But his
recollection of her predicament spurred him to be anxious about her rescue.
His immediate problem was to learn what the
ant-men planned for him; so the concluding words which he wrote upon the pad
were: "And, now that you have me in your power, what shall you do with
me?"
"Old
friend," Doggo wrote in reply, "that depends entirely upon Yuri, our
king, whose toga you now have on."
Ill
YURI OR FORMIS?
The
eabth-man grimaced,
but then smiled. Perhaps, his succeeding to the toga of King Yuri might prove
to be an omen.
"So Yuri is king of the ants?" he
asked.
"Yes,"
his captor replied, "for Queen Formis did not survive the trip across the
boiling seas."
"Then
what of your empire?" Myles inquired. "No queen. No eggs. How can
your race continue? For you Formians are like the ants on my own planet
Minos."
Doggo's reply astounded
him.
"Do
you remember back at Wautoosa, I told you that some of us lesser Formians had
occasionally laid eggs? So now behold before you Doggo, Admiral of the Formian
Air Navy, and mother of a new Queen Formis."
This
was truly a surprise! All along Cabot had always regarded the Formians as
mannish. And rightly so, for they performed in their own country the duties
assigned to men among the Cupians. Furthermore, all Formians, save only the
reigning Formis herself, were called by the Porovian pronoun, which corresponds
to "he" in English.
When Myles had somewhat recovered from his
astonishment, he warmly congratulated his friend by patting him on the side of
the head, as is the Porovian custom.
"Doggo," he wrote, "this ought
to constitute you a person of some importance among the Formians."
"It
ought to," the ant-man replied, "but as a
matter of fact, it merely intensifies Yuri's mistrust and hatred of me. Now
that I am mother of the queen, he fears that I may turn against him and
establish Formis in his place as the head of an empire of the Formians, by the
Formians, and for the Formians exclusively."
"Why
don't you?" Myles wrote. It seemed to him to be a bully good idea, and
incidentally a solution of his own difficulties.
But
Doggo wrote in horror, "It would be treason!" Then
tore up all the correspondence. It is difficult to inculcate the thought
of independence in the mind of one reared in an autocracy.
The earth-man, however,
persisted.
"How
many of the council can you count on, if the interests of Yuri should clash
with those of Formis?"
"Only one—Thyself."
And again Doggo tore
up the correspondence.
Myles tactfully changed the
subject.
"Where is the
arch-fiend now?" he asked.
"We know not," the Formian wrote in
reply. "Six days ago he left us in his airship and flew westward. When he
failed to return, we sent out scout planes to search for him, and we have been
hunting ever since. When we sighted you on the beach this morning we thought
that you might be our lost leader, and that is why we landed and approached
you."
At
about this point the conversation was interrupted by a worker ant who brought
food: roast alta and green aphid milk. With what
relish did the earth-man plunge into the feast, his first taste of Porovian
delicacies in many months.
During
the meal conversation lagged, owing to the difficulty of writing and eating at the same time. But now Myles Cabot seized his pad
and stylus and wrote:
"Have
you ever known me to fail in any
undertaking on the planet Poros?"
"No," the ant-man
wrote in reply.
"Have you ever known me to be untrue to
a principle, a cause, or a friend?"
"No," Doggo replied.
"Then,"
Myles wrote, "let us make your daughter queen in fact as well as in name."
"It
is treason," Doggo wrote in reply, but this time he did not tear up the
correspondence.
"Treason?" Myles asked. If he had spoken the word, he would have spoken it with
scorn and derision. "Treason? Is it treason to
support your own queen? What has become of the national pride of the once great
Formians? Lookl I pledge myself to the cause of Formis,
rightful Queen of Formia. Formis, daughter of Doggol What
say you?"
This
time, as he tore up the correspondence, Doggo signified an affirmative. And
thus there resulted further correspondence.
"Doggo," Myles wrote, "can you
get to the antenna of the queen?"
The ant-man indicated that
he could.
"If
she has inherited any of your character," Myles continued, "she will
assert herself, if given half a chance."
So the Pitmanesque conversation continued.
Long since had the pink light of Porovian evening faded from the western sky.
The ceiling vapor-lamps were lit. The night showed velvet-black through the
slit-like windows. And still the two old friends wrote on, Myles Standish
Cabot, the Bostonian, and Doggo, No. 334-2-18, the only really humanlike
ant-man whom Myles had ever known among the once dominant race of Poros.
Finally, as the dials indicated midnight, the
two conspirators ceased their labors. All was arranged for the coup d'
etat.
They
tore into shreds every scrap of used paper, leaving extant merely the ant-man's
concluding words: "Meanwhile you are my prisoner."
Doggo
then rang a soundless bell, which was answered by a worker ant, whom he inaudibly directed to bring sufficient draperies to
form a bed for the earth-man. These brought, the two friends patted each other
a fond good night, and the tired earth-man lay down for the first sleep which
he had had in over forty earth hours.
It
hardly seemed possiblel Night before last he had slept peacefully on a
conventional feather-bed in a little New England farmhouse. Then had come the SOS message from the skies; and here he was
now, millions of miles away through space retiring on matted silver felting on
the concrete floor of a Porovian ant-houSe. Such are the mutations of fortune!
With these thoughts the returned wanderer
lapsed into a deep and dreamless sleep.
When
he awakened in the morning there was a guard posted at the door.
Doggo
did not show up until nearly nooon, when he rattled in, bristling with
excitement.
Seizing the pad he wrote: "A stormy
session of the Council of Twelve! We are all agreed that you must be indicted
for high crimes and misdemeanors. But the great question is as to just what we
can charge you with."
"Sorry
I can't assist you," the earth-man wrote. "How would it be if I were
to slap your daughter's face, or something? Or why not try me for general cussedness?"
"That is just what we finally decided to
do," the ant-man wrote in reply. "We shall try you on general
principles, and let the proper accusation develop from the evidence.
"At
some stage of the proceedings it will inevitably occur to some member of the
council to suggest that you be charged with treason to Yuri, whereupon two
members of the council, whom I have won over to the cause of my daughter, will
raise the objection that Yuri is not our king. This will be the signal for the
proclaiming of Queen Formis. If you will waive counsel the trial can take place
tomorrow."
"I will waive anything," Myles
replied, "counsel, immunity, extradition, anything in order to speed up
my return to Cupia, where Lilla awaits in some dire extremity."
"All right," Doggo wrote, and the
conference was at an end. The morrow would decide the ascendancy of Myles Cabot
or the Prince Yuri over the new continent.
IV
THE
COUP D'ETAT
The
next morning Myles Cabot
was led under guard to the council chamber of the dread thirteen: Formis and
her twelve advisers. The accused was placed in a wicker cage, from which he
surveyed his surroundings as the proceedings opened.
On a raised platform stood the ant queen,
surmounted by a scarlet canopy, which set off the perfect proportions of her
jet-black body. On each side of her stood six refined and
intelligent ant-men, her councillors. One of the twelve was Doggo.
Messenger ants hurried
hither and thither.
First the accusation was read, Myles being
furnished with a written copy.
The
witnesses were then called. They were veterans who had served in the wars in
which Cabot had twice freed Cupia from the domination of its Formian
oppressors. They spoke with bitterness of the downfall of their beloved Formia.
Their testimony was brief.
Then
the accused was asked if he wished to say anything in his own behalf. Myles
rose, then shrugged his shoulders, sat down again, and wrote: "I fully
realize the futility of making an argument through the antennae of
another."
Whereupon the queen and the council went into executive session. Their remarks were not intended for the eyes
of the prisoner, but he soon observed that some kind of a dispute was on
between Doggo, supported by two councillors named Emu and Fum on one side, and
a councillor named Barth on the other.
As
this dispute reached its height, a messenger ant rushed in and held up one paw.
Cabot's interpreter, not deeming this a part of the executive session, obligingly
translated the following into writing:
The
messenger: "Yuri lives and reigns over Cupia. It is his command that Cabot
die."
Barth:
"It is the radio. Know then, O Queen, and ye, members of the council, that
when we fled across the boiling seas under the gallant leadership of Prince
Yuri, the man with the heart of a Formian, he brought with him one of those
powerful radio sets invented by the beast who is our prisoner here to-day.
"Supporters
of Yuri still remained among the Cupians, and he has been in constant
communication with these ever since shortly after our arrival here. From them
he learned of the return of Myles Cabot to the planet Minos.
"Then
Yuri disappeared. Those of us who were closest to him suspected that he had
gone back across the boiling seas to claim as his own the throne of Cupia. But
we hesitated to announce this until we were sure, for we feared that some of
our own people would regard his departure as desertion. Yet who can blame him
for returning to his fatherland and to the throne which is his by
rights?"
To
which the messenger added: "And he offers to give us back our own old
country, if we too. will return across the boiling
seas again."
"It is a lie!" Doggo shouted.
"Yuri, usurper of the thrones of two
continents.
Bahl" shouted Emu.
"Yuri, our rightful
leader," shouted Barth.
"Give us a queen of
our own race," shouted Fum.
"Release the
prisoner," shouted the Queen.
And
that is all that Myles learned of the conversation, for his interpreter at this
juncture stopped writing and obeyed the queen. The earth-man was free!
With
one bound he gained the throne, where fighting was already in progress between
the two factions. Barth and Doggo were rolling over and over on the floor in a death grapple, while the ant-queen had backed
to the rear of the stage, closely guarded by Emu and Fum.
Seizing
one of the pikes which supported the scarlet canopy, Myles wrenched it loose
and drove it into the thorax of Barth. In another instant the earth-man and
Doggo stood beside the queen.
Ant-men
now came pouring into the chamber through all the entrances, taking sides as
they entered and sized up the situation. If it had still been in vogue among
the Formians to be known by numbers rather than names, and to have these
identifying numbers painted on the backs of their abdomens followed by the
numbers of those whom they had defeated in the duels so common among them, then
many a Formian would have "got the number" of many another, that day.
As Myles battled with his pike beside Formis,
queen of the
ants, he could well imagine the conflicting shouts of "Death to the
usurperl" "Formia for the Fonnians!" "Long Live Queen
Formisl" "Long live Prince Yuril" which must have resounded
throughout the chamber; but to him all was silence, for he was without the
antennae wherewith to pick up the radiated speech of the contenders.
So
as he wielded the pike in silence, he had opportunity to reflect on the
incongruity of his position. Here was he, Myles Cabot regent of Cupia, the man
who had driven the ants forever from their dominion over his people, and yet
now fighting side by side with their leaders defending the life of their queen.
Yet was she not the daughter of Doggo his
only friend among the ants? And would not her victory mean the speedy return of
Myles to his own continent?
As the earth-man jabbed to right and left
among the supporters of his enemy Yuri there came to his human ears the sound
of rifle fire. It might prove a godsend or an added menace, according to whose
paw held the rifle. But no chances must be taken on the life of the queen. So
Myles made frantic signs to Doggo of impending danger.
The
queen and her supporters, outnumbered, were fighting with their backs to one of
the walls of the room. A short distance along this wall on the side where Cabot
stood was a door; so he now began edging his way along the wall to this door.
This was not difficult, as the ant-men, having only their mandibles to fight
with, greatly respected his pike.
He
gained the door and passed by, but not through it. The shots came nearer and
nearer. Then Doggo opened the door and slipped through with Formis and the rest
of her immediate supporters; the door closed, and Myles Cabot stood guarding
the exit with his pike—alone against the hordes of antdom.
He had no difficulty in defending himself
from those in front of him, but the ants who began to
close in on him from each side were a different matter.
He received several bad
scratches on his shoulders and hips, and his toga was ripped and torn; but fortunately he was able to
ward off their paralyzing bites. Nevertheless, his enemies pressed so close that
it was difficult for him to manipulate his long weapon. In fact, it was only
the jamming of the ants upon one another and upon the dead bodies of their
slain comrades that kept them from him.
He now was holding his pike by the middle,
with both hands, using one end as a club and the other as a dagger. The black
circle of the ants was steadily closing in on him. A pair of mandibles from the
left snapped angrily within a few inches of his throat. Instantly he drove the
point of his lance home between horrid jaws. But at the same instant its butt
was seized by a pair of jaws to his right. He could not pull it free.
At last he was weaponless, and not only that,
but pinned to the wall by the shaft of his own pike as well.
And then to his surprise the ants hefore him separated as at a command. The butt of his
lance was dropped. As Myles wrenched the point loose from the dead body of the
Formian in which it had been stuck, and gazed expectant down the long aisle
which had opened before him, he saw confronting him at the other end an ant-man
armed with the peculiar type of claw-operated rifle which the Formians had
adapted from those which Myles himself had built for Cupian use in the first
war of liberation.
Briefly the two surveyed each other. Then
slowly the rifle was raised until its aim settled squarely upon the earth-man's
chest.
Instantaneously
the glance of Myles Cabot swept the black hordes which hemmed him in on each
side. There was no escape!
Yet how can man die better, Than facing fearful odds?
With a wild warwhoop, which was utterly lost
on the radio-sense of the assembled Formians, Myles charged down the narrow
way, straight into the muzzle of the rifle of his antagonist. The astonished
ant-man hastily pulled the trigger. A shot rang out. But still the impetuous
rush of Myles continued, and before the rifle could be discharged a second
time, Myles had driven his spear deep into the leering insect face.
The
Formian staggered back. The rifle clattered to the floor. The earth-man, not
waiting to withdraw his own weapon, stooped, seized the fallen firearm, and
wheeled to confront his enemies, who fell back in a snarling arc before this
new menace.
Myles
stood now in one of the entranceways of the council chamber, and thus was
secure against flank attack. But not against an assault from
the rear. In fact, even as he stood thus irresolute, a rattling noise
behind him in the hallways revealed to his human ears the approach of a new
enemy. What was he to do? To remain as he was meant carte blanche to this newcomer, whereas to turn about would
mean that those within the chamber would undoubtedly rush him.
In
this predicament Myles grasped his gun firmly, and wheeled backward to the left
until he was flattened against the wall of the corridor in which he was
standing. From this position he could turn his head slightly to the left and
see into the council chamber, or to the right and look
down the long hall.
Directly
opposite him was one of those narrow, slitlike windows, so typical of Porovian
architecture. It was too narrow for the passage of the huge body of an ant-man,
but a human being could conceivably squeeze through. Thus it offered a means
out, a way of escape.
The lone ant in the corridor was joined by
the others. They and their compatriots within the chamber slowly closed in on
the cornered earth-man.
There was no time to speculate upon the depth
of the drop outside. With a suddenness which caused his aggressors to recoil
momentarily, Myles dashed across to the window, forced his way through, and,
still grasping his rifle, plunged headlong two stories into a clump of gray
lichens in the courtyard below.
Hastily
extricating himself, he looked up at the window which he had just quitted.
There, framed by the masonry, was the head of an ant-man. A quick shot, and the head stared at him no more.
Before
another Formian could take post at the window to observe the direction of
Cabot's departure, the latter ran quickly from the courtyard garden into the
interior of the building again.
His
first thought was to join Doggo, Queen Formis, and their faction; so, taking a
firm hold on his rifle, he hurried in the direction in which they had made
their escape.
The
first ant-man whom he met within the building was Emu, one of the three members
of the council who had been a party to the original conspiracy. This ant was
fleeing from something in very evident terror, so that it was all Cabot could
do to stop him, but the threat of rifle-shooting was finally effective.
Then,
extracting a cartridge from the magazine of his firearm, Cabot scratched upon
the smooth wall the brief question: "What of Doggo and Formis?"
Emu
snatched the cartridge and quickly wrote the reply: "Dead, both dead. The
revolution has collapsed. Flee for your life!"
Then
the ant-man clattered rapidly off down the corridor,,
taking the precious cartridge with him. He had not been too flustered to think
of that.
Myles heaved a sigh of self-reproach at having
brought his friends to this sad end. But then, he reflected, Doggo had been in
a situation in which conflict with the authorities and then execution would
have been inevitable sooner or later. The revolution had been his one best bet,
and it was no one's fault that it had failed.
Now that Doggo and Formis were dead, there
was no longer any obligation binding Myles to stay and fight. In fact, he owed
it to his loved ones in Cupia to preserve his own life until he could find some
way of rejoining them. So he set out to escape from the city.
For
some time he threaded the corridors without meeting any ants, although
occasionally there drifted down to him the sounds of fighting on the upper
levels. But at last, as he rounded a turn, he saw before him a Formian, and it
was one whom he recognized, namely the messenger ant who had brought to the
trial the radiogram from PrinCe Yuri. The ant's back was toward him. Cabot
cautiously withdrew a step; then raising his rifle, he again advanced and fired
full at his enemy.
But the hammer merely clicked. There was no
explosion. The magazine was empty.
Cabot's first impulse was to throw the weapon
away. The he reflected that even an unloaded gun might well serve to awe his
enemies and hold them at a distance; so he retained it.
By this time the messenger ant had
disappeared around a turn farther down the corridor, so Cabot hastened after
him; for it had suddenly occurred to the earth-man that this ant was
undoubtedly returning to the hidden radio set, whence he had come.
Radiol Means of a communication with his own
continent, if he could but reach the instruments!
The
messenger had announced at the trial that Yuri was in Cupia and knew of Cabot's
presence in this new land. Thus it was certain that complete wireless
communication had been established between the two continents. But, equally,
undoubtedly, this communication had been established at a wave-length which
kept the knowledge of Cabot's return pretty much a secret of Prince Yuri and
his own followers. This information would probably induce the renegade prince
to speed up whatever nefarious schemes he had afoot in Cupia.
But
if Cabot could once get on the air and adjust the Formian sending set to the
wave-length of Luno Castle, or run it through all its available wave-lengths,
he could broadcast to the Cupian nation the fact that he was alive and well,
and would return again—though he knew not how-to lead them. Such news should
strengthen the hearts of the loyal Cupians to rally to the cause of his wife,
the Princess Lilla, and his son, the baby king.
So he quickened his pace, and soon caught
sight again of the messenger ant. From then on he stealthily stalked his
quarry, who led him through many a winding passageway, before finally they
emerged from the city into the open fields.
Beyond the fields lay the rocky foothills of
a mountain range. Caution dictated that Cabot remain under the shelter of the
city walls until the Formian disappeared among the rocks. Then he ran lightiy
across the plain to take up the trail once more.
As
he, too, gained the rocks, he glanced back to see if his departure had been
noted. No, there was no sign of life. Evidently the fighting had drawn all the
inhabitants to the interior of the city. So, with a sigh of relief, Myles
hurried after the messenger ant.
At
the place where Myles had noticed the Formian enter the rocks there was the
well-defined beginning of a trail; so up this winding trail he sped, and soon
caught sight of his quarry. From that time on more caution was necessary, but
nevertheless the pursuer was able to keep the pursued always in sight until,
just after a turn in the road had obscured his view, Myles came upon a place
where the way forked.
Pausing,
he scratched his head in dismay, then carefully
examined the ground for evidences of claw marks; but none were apparent.
Dropping to his hands and knees, the earth-man scrutinized the dirt with even
more care; and at last, imagining that he observed some slight scratches to the
right, he took the right-hand branch.
It
was necessary for him to proceed with great rapidity, if he would catch up with
the messenger ant, so Myles broke into a dog trot. On and on he ran; up, into
the rocky mountains.
At
last he sat down exhausted on a large boulder, just as the silvery sky turned
crimson in the west, and darkness crept up out of the east. It was quite
evident that he had taken the wrong road at the fork, and also that he must now
spend the night, half clad and alone amid the rocks of the mountains of this
strange new continent.
V
LOST
AMID THE ROCKS
But
although Myles
Cabot was lost, he was free for the first time since his return to Poros.
So
not disheartened he arose and proceeded along the trail, looking for food and a
place to spend the night; and presently came upon a "green cow," as
he was wont to call the aphids which are kept both by Cupians and For-mians for
the honey-dew which they produce.
It
made no objection to Cabot's approach, nor to his manipulating the two horns
which projected from its back, with the result that the tired man was presently
regaling himself with a satisfying drafts of green
"milk" from a leafy cup.
The
bush, which furnished the leaf to fashion the cup, closely resembled the tartan
bushes of Cupia, whose heart-shaped leaves are put to so many uses in that
country. Myles Cabot accordingly stripped off a considerable portion of the
foliage, and lay down in a bed of warm, thick green for the night.
The
morning dawned silver bright. Myles drew another meal from the grazing aphid
and then pressed on up the rocky defile. He did not dare return for fear of meeting ;int-men; and besides, now that a night's rest had
to some extent tempered his chagrin at not catching up with the particular
ant-man whom he had been purusing, he could not be sure he had taken the wrong
road after all. So on he went, up the rocky path.
Around
noon the path petered out at the top of an eminence which gave Cabot an
opportunity to survey the surrounding scenery. To the westward lay the city
from which he had fled. What had become, he wondered, of the supporters of his
friend Doggo and of Formis, the ant-queen, whose cause
he had espoused? According to Emu, Doggo and Formis were both dead, or Cabot
would never have deserted them.
Cabot
turned his attention next to the northward. To his great joy, on the next peak
to the one where he sat, there stood two rough wooden towers, spanned by an
aerial.
He
decided to cut across country and attempt to approach the installation by
stealth. So he started scrambling down into the intervening valley.
Never
before had the earth-man traveled through such difficult country. As soon as he
had gone a short distance below the summit he encountered a continuous expanse
of boulders, ranging in size from a man's head to twenty feet or more in
diameter, and piled aimlessly together. Lying crossways in every direction,
upon and between the rocks, were the gaunt skeletons of fallen trees in all
stages of decay.
The
sharp edges of the rocks cut and tore the bare feet of the earth-man, while the
splinters of the fallen trees jabbed his body. Time and again he slipped and
nearly fell into one of the chasms which yawned between the boulders, and on
one of these occasions he must have inadvertently let go the ant-rifle which
he had treasured so far so carefully, for presently he noticed that it was
gone.
But
to all this there was one extenuating feature, although Myles did not realize
it at the time, namely that his physical pain and the need for constant
vigilance on his part so occupied his mind as to spare him from the mental pain
which had been his almost constant companion since his return to Poros. The
attention necessary to avoid misjudging a jump, or slipping into a dark deep
hole, or being impaled by a tree-branch, crowded out of his mind even his great
love and anxiety for Princess Lilla and Baby Kew.
Through the maze of
obstacles Cabot toiled all day long.
Oh,
to reach the radio station established by his enemy Yuri, and get into touch
with his own continent. Thus he could learn what was happening in Cupia, and
also give word of his own safe arrival on the planet. Safe, hml He smiled
grimly at the word.
"I must reach that station," he thought, "and then, when I have talked
with Cupia, I must secure a Formian plane by hook or by crook, and brave the
boiling seas. If ants have crossed those seas safely, if Yuri has safely
crossed them twice, then why cannot I, the Minorian?"
As
he communed thus with himself, a faint pink flush appeared in the sky. Slowly,
painfully he continued his way. Gradually the pink light turned to crimson in
the west and then darkened to a royal purple. Gradually the black night crept
up out of the east. But also gradually the boulders became smaller and smaller
as he clambered upward, until just as darkness finally enveloped the planet,
the tired man gained the smooth rocks of the summit, and lay down amid some
leaves.
He
had had nothing to eat or drink since his breakfast of green milk that morning.
He had undergone an exhausting journey. His feet were bruised and cut, his body
covered with innumerable scratches, and he was weary, thirsty and hungry. But
he had almost reached the point which he had been seeking, and this thought
comforted him as his eyes closed in healthy and dreamless sleep.
Next
moming early he was up, rested, parched and ravenous. As the first faint pink
tinged the eastern sky Myles Cabot shook off the leaves and completed the
ascent.
It
only required a few moments for him to reach the top, a narrow plateau, about a
mile in length, near the farther end of which there stood a small cabin with
its two towers and aerial.
With
a cry of joy—which he knew the earless Formiang could not hear—he raced toward
it. The huge chain and lock, which secured its door on the outside, indicated
that it was unoccupied, and a glance through the narrow slitlike windows
confirmed this.
The
glance through the window also revealed the presence of a complete radio
sending and receiving set of the same general hook-up which he himself had
adapted for the use of Cupians and Formians on the other continent.
"Imitation
is the most insulting form of flattery," as Poblath, the Cupian
philosopher, used to say. Yet Cabot was willing to brook the insult, until
suddenly it dawned on him that the set had no earphones nor
microphonel
Of
course not, since it was designed for use by creatures who
possessed neither ears nor vocal speech! Gone then was all hope of news from
home, even if he could succeed in breaking in. At the most, he would merely be
able, by interposing an interrupter in the primary or secondary of that aerial
circuit, to send a dot-dash message across the boiling seas—I use the term
"aerial circuit," because "antenna circuit" would be
ambiguous, as the latter term might have either its conventional earth
significance, or might mean the circuit in which the Formian operator would
place his living antennae in sending and receiving.
Well,
even a chance to send to Cupia a message to the effect that he was free and
safe, would be worth something. Myles Cabot tried the slitlike windows, and
finding them too narrow, slid quickly down the near-by slope, soon to return
laboriously with a twenty-pound rock, which he heaved against the door.
Again
and again he heaved the rock, until he had the satisfaction of seeing the door
crack and then give. Finally a large enough opening was effected
to afford passage for a man, although not for a Formian; and through this
breach Myles Cabot squeezed into the station.
A
few minutes' scrutiny familiarized him with the details of the hook-up, the
generator set, and the trophil-engine. Everything was in running order and the
fuel tank was full. So he fashioned a rude sending key, broke one of the
circuits and tied in the key. Then he warmed-up and cranked the trophil-engine,
clutched-in the generator, threw the main switch, and sat down to flash across
the seas the message which was to hold firm his partisans in Cupia until he
could join them.
But
at that instant an arrow hummed through the hole in the door, and struck
quivering in the bench beside him.
Cabot
sprang to his feet and slid home the huge beam which barred the door on the
inside. This was a precaution which he had neglected to take before. Next he
filled the hole in the door with some boards hastily wrenched from the
work-bench. Then picking up a Formian rifle and bandolier which hung on the
wall, he made his way to one of the slit windows on the same side as the door
and peeped cautiously out.
The result was immediate; an arrow sped through the
window and passed just above his head. But even as he
ducked instinctively, he saw a dark form moving behind a
bush at some distance outside; so quickly rising again, he
discharged the rifle square at the bush. ,
There
came a cry of pain, followed by silence. And there were no more feathered
incursions.
Not knowing whether his enemy had been
disposed of, or whether the cessation of the stream of arrows was merely a ruse
to entice him from his shelter, Myles did not dare venture forth to
investigate.
From
the first time the arrow had struck the work-bench until this final squelching
of the unknown enemy, Myles had been engrossed in action. Now came the reaction, as he realized how narrowly he had twice
escaped from death in the last few minutes. He shuddered at the thought, and
turned pale; not, however, at the danger to himself, but rather at the danger
to his loved ones in Cupia. He must keep himself alive until he could reach and
save them from whatever peril it was that had caused Lilla to send the SOS which had recalled him to Poros.
But being ever the inquisitive scientist, his
attention was soon distracted by the arrow which stood sticking to the bench.
Its shaft was of some hard
and very springy wood. Its tip was of chipped stone resembling flint, and bound
to the shaft by vegetable fibers. Its "feathers" were thin laminae of
wood, doubtless because birds, and hence true feathers, are unknown on Poros.
Why
on earth—or rather, on Poros—were the ant-men employing such crude weapons?
Rifles they had aplenty, and powder was easy to manufacture. Besides what did
they know of bows and arrows, which had never been used by them, even in the
days before Cabot the Minorian introduced firearms upon the planet?
Thus
these arrows presented a perplexing problem. But a practical job remained to be
performed before Myles was to have any time for abstract questions. The message
to Cupia must be sent off.
The
earth-man returned to the radio set. The trophil-engine and the generator were
still running. The whole apparatus appeared to be functioning properly. And so
Myles ticked off into space the following message:
CQ, CQ, CQ, DE, Cabot, Cabot, Cabot. I have
returned to Poros from Minos. I am on the continent of the Formians. I am in
complete control there.
That was a lie, but it would serve to hearten
his supporters, or throw the fear of the Supreme Builder into the partisans of
Yuri, whichever it reached. The message continued:
Do not expect me soon, for first I must
consolidate what I have gained here. But when I do come, Yuri beware! My friends, hold out until
then. I have spoken.
DE,
Cabot.
This message he sent again and again, at
every wavelength of which the installation was capable. He repeated and
repeated it until he was tired.
And
then, for the first time, he remembered his thirst and his hunger. Fortunately
there was both food and drink in the shack; so Cabot satisfied his wants, and then
went at his message again.
When
at last he paused once more for a rest, and shut off the trophil-engine, his
human ears caught a familiar rattling sound. Instantly he realized the
situation; one or more ant-men were approaching. Sure enough, as he looked out
of a window in the direction of the sound, he saw two of these creatures
trotting toward him across the plateau.
Both
carried rifles slung at their backs; so without waiting for their nearer
approach Myles opened fire. One of the Formians dropped, but the other turned
and fled; and in spite of the hail of bullets which the earth-man sent after
it, reached the crest in apparent safety, and disappeared from view.
Cabot
knew what that meant to him. It portended the early return of the fugitive ant
with scores of his fellows, to lay siege to the radio station. Then a doubt
occurred to him. What if these ants were members of Doggo's faction,
and he had killed a friend?
And
so at the risk of his life, he unbarred the door and rushed out to inspect the
dead body. But it was no ant whom he knew. Time would
tell whether the surviving ant would return with friends or foes. Meanwhile
Cabot must get busy with his message. So at it again he went, first barring the
door again.
From
time to time he rested and listened for the approach of Formians. Occasionally
he ate and drank. During his longer rests, he carted the rifle, the ammunition
and some provisions to a point quite a distance down the mountainside, and
cached them there; for he had formulated a plan of escape. But mostly he stuck
to his signaling. All Cupia, or such of it as might still possess long-distance
radio sets in spite of the renewed dominion of Yuri, must be made to know of
the return of Myles Cabot from the earth.
Night
fell, and with it came a respite from the danger of Formian attack; for these
creatures would never venture forth in the darkness without lights, and lights
would betray them. Myles spent part of the night in sending his message, part
in watching for approaching lights, and part in dozing.
Finally along toward morning he set about
wrecking the set, for he did not wish the Formians to get into communication
with Cupia and undo the effect of his own message by pointing out its falsity.
Accordingly he smashed the tubes, unwound the inductances and transformers, cut
all the wiring into little bits, bent the plates of the condensers, chiseled
through the coils of the generator, pounded the trophil-engine to pieces, and
drained the trophil tank. It would be many sangths before a new radio set could
be built, if indeed these Formians knew enough of the art to ever build
another.
His
work of destruction completed, he sat down to wait; but the inaction palled on
him, and before he knew it he had fallen sound asleep.
He awakened with a start. It was broad
daylight. He listened. There was much rattling outside. So he walked to the
door, unbarred it, and stepped out.
He
was not afraid; for on the evening before he had nailed above the door two
crossed sticks, the Porovian equivalent of a flag of truce.
At
a short distance stood a band of thirty or forty ant-men, their leader holding
a pair of crossed sticks. Accordingly the ragged earth-man advanced. Not one of
them did he recognize, but this was no indication of their identity.
Were
these members of the Yuri faction, he wondered, or of the faction recently
captained by the now deceased Doggo? If the former, they were
conquerors intent on adding him to their list of conquests; but if the latter,
then they might be fugitives like himself. It behooved him to find out.
So
he proceeded to a slight depression in the mountain-top, very near the group of
Formians. This depression contained soil, and in it he scratched in Porovian
shorthand the words: "Yuri or Doggo?" Then pointed to his message and
withdrew for a slight distance.
One of the ^ant-men advanced alone to the
depression, stared at the words, rubbed one part of them, and returned to his
comrades, at which Cabot in turn advanced.
The one word remaining written in the dirt
was "Yuril" So these were victorious enemies, rather than fugitive
friends.
Waving
a signal that the interview was at an end, Myles Cabot returned with dignity to
the shack and pulled down his crossed sticks.
But
then, instead of entering, he suddenly dashed around the house and slid down
the mountainside amid a shower of pebbles.
Instantly
the Formian pack rushed after him, but they were too late; for by the time they
had gained the crest he was safely under cover of the bushes, making his way
down the slope with his rifle, ammunition, and provision. The ant-men evidently
feared an ambush, for they did not follow.
This side"of the mountain (the eastern)
was wooded, instead of the almost impassable boulders over which he had climbed
up the other side two days ago. Accordingly the descent was easy, almost
pleasant. Soon he struck a path beside a little brook, and followed it until it
led out onto the fertile eastern plains which he had observed when first he had
topped this range of hills.
Beneath
a large tree beside the brook, at the edge of the plain, Myles Cabot stopped
and sat down for lunch; and it was while seated thus, with his back against the
tree trunk, that an arrow suddenly whistled through the woods and imbedded
itself in the bark just above his head.
Startled, he sprang to his feet, seized his
rifle, and looked around.
A
second arrow sped through the air, and this one did not miss him.
In
due course of time, Myles regained consciousness. He was lying on the ground
beneath the same tree. There was an ugly gash in his head. His rifle,. ammunition, and food were gone.
His face and body were covered with clotted blood, and he felt very faint.
With difficulty he dragged himself to the
stream, tore off a piece of his ragged toga, and washed away some of the gore.
But it required an almost superhuman effort. He lay on the bank and panted. His
head swam. His surroundings began to blur and dance about. And then he swooned
again.
After
what seemed an interminable time he became dimly conscious that he was lying on
something less hard than the ground. Soft arms were around him. Some one was
crooning to him sweet words and low.
Was
this a dream? Or was he back once more in Cupia with his loved ones?
VI
THE
VAIRKINGS
Myles
Cabot opened his weary eyes. Around
him hung barbaric tapestries. He was lying on a couch covered by the
same materials.
Seated on the couch beside him was a creature
human in form, but covered with short golden-brown fur. It seemed to be a young
woman of some species. But of what species?
Myles
threw back his head and studied the creature's face, expecting to see the
prognathous features of some anthropoid ape. But no; for eyes, nose, mouth,
ears, and all were human, distinctly human, and of high type. They might have
been the features of an earth-girl, except for the fact that the short brown
fur persisted on the face as on the rest of the body. The general effect
reminded Cabot for all the world of a teddy bear. Yes, that is what this
creature was, an animated human teddy bear.
Seeing
Cabot looking at her, the creature smiled down at him, and murmured some
strange words in a soothing musical voice. Also she stroked his cheek with one
of her furry paws.
At this moment the hangings parted, and there
stepped into their presence a man of the species, wearing a leather tunic and
leather helmet, and carrying a wooden spear. Bowing low before the furry lady,
he spoke to her in the same soft tongue which she had employed in addressing
Myles.
Not
a single syllable was familiar to the earth-man, but he caught the words
"Roy" and "Vairking" repeated a number of times, and also
made out that the furry man had addressed the furry lady as "Arkilu."
Arkilu now arose from the couch and, taking a
tablet and a stick of charcoal from a near-by stand, wrote some characters upon
a sheet of paper and handed it to the man, who bowed and withdrew.
The
pad and charcoal gave Myles an idea. If he was to stay any length of time with
these creatures he had better start in at once learning both their written and
their spoken language.
And perhaps, when he had mastered it, he
could persuade these kindly yet warlike folk to assist him against the
Formians. He judged that they were kindly, because of the actions of the furry
lady; and they were warlike, because of the habiliments of the furry man.
Putting
his idea into action, Myles sat up, gathering a gaudy blanket about his
shoulders, and pointed to the writing materials. With a furry smile Arkilu
brought them to him.
Having been through this game once before, he
knew just where to begin. He pointed to the couch, and handed her the pad and charcoal.
Whereupon
the lady spoke some absolutely unintelligible sound, and wrote upon the pad, in
unmistakable Cupian shorthand, the familiar Cupian word for couchl
Myles
could hardly believe his senses. He stared at the paper, rubbed his eyes, and
then stared again. How was it that this creature employed a written character
identical
with the 'word used by another race, far across the impassable boiling seas,
to designate the same thing? But perhaps this was merely a coincidence.
So
he pointed to another object. Again there came a strange sound, coupled with the familiar Cupian symbol.
The
experiment was repeated and repeated, always with the same result.
Then
Cabot himself took the writing materials and inscribed a number of words which
sounded somewhat alike in Porovian antenna speech. To these words Arkilu gave
an entirely different set of similar sounds.
"Aha,"
said Cabot to himself, "this language employs exactly the same words as
are used on our continent, but translates the sound-symbols of these words into
entirely different sounds!"
Cabot's interpretation of the situation
proved correct in the main, which fact made it extremely easy for him to master
the new language, Already he could carry on a written conversation with his benefactress; and before long it became
possible, by dint of great care, for him to talk aloud in simple sentences.
Of
course, all this progress was not made at one sitting, for Arkilu insisted that
her patient take frequent rests. From time to time meals were served by female
attendants, meals abounding in strange meats, mostly lobsterlike, but some
resembling fish and flesh. Each night Arkilu departed, leaving a furry
man-creature on guard, with leather armor and wooden spear.
As
he mastered the language, Myles learned the following facts from Arkilu. Her
people were called the Vairkings, and she was the eldest daughter of Theoph,
their ruler. The Vairkings were a primitive race. Apparently they knew nothing
of any of the metals, but had made considerable progress in the arts of
tanning, weaving and carpentry.
The fact that they had made cloth accounted for the fact that they had
paper.
Their leather they had obtained from the hides of a large variety of nocturnal
reptiles, known indiscriminately as "gnoopers," and ranging in size
from that of a cat to that of an elephant, though all possessed the common characteristics
of small heads, long necks, stumpy legs, and long heavy tails.
She
explained as follows to her guest how he had been rescued: "Our home is in
the city of Vairkingi, far away, a little east of north from here. We Vairkings
stick pretty close to the cities, for the great open spaces of our land are
inhabited by predatory tribes of wild creatures very like ourselves, called
Roies. The leader of one of the largest tribes of these, Att the Terrible,
sought alliance with my father, and, as the price of this alliance, a union
between Att and myself. But I spurned him.
"His
hordes then attacked Vairkingi, but we repulsed them and drove them to the
southward. At present we are on a punitive expedition into their territory. Our
warriors are under the command of Jud the Excusemaker; and my father
(Theoph--the Grim) and I have accompanied the headquarters, so as to witness
the downfall of Att the Terrible.
"It
was undoubtedly one of the Roies who wounded you, but the approach of our men
drove them off before they had time to dp you further
harm. It was I myself who found you lying beside the brook, and I would fain
possess you as my own, you who are unlike any man whom I have ever seen. Whence
come you?"
"I
am from the planet Minos, O Arkilu the Beautiful," replied Cabot.
But
the princess incredulously shook her head, saying, "I know not wherepf you
speak, nor know I the meaning of the word 'planet.'
There are no other worlds than this continent which we inhabit, surrounded by
boiling seas on all sides; though rumor says that strange beasts from somewhere
have landed 'and are building a city to the eastward of the mountains."
"Rumor has it right," Myles
laconically interjected, "for I had just escaped from those beasts when I
was wounded by the arrow of the Roies." . Arkilu
opened her eyes in wonder.
"Tell me about
them," she breathed.
So
the earth-man sat up, swathed in the gaudy tapestries of the Vairkings, and
related to the furry princess the story of his adventures on the planet Poros.
It was difficult to put it all into words within her comprehension, for neither
she nor. her people could know anything of radio, of
the solar system, of airplanes, or of rifles. Accordingly his account ran about
as follows:
"Know,
O Princess, that there is another land called 'Minos', or in our own language
'the earth', far above those silver clouds, one million times the distance from
here to your capital city, Vairkingi. Also there is, beyond the boiling seas,
another land much like this, where dwell hairless men called 'Cupians', and
also the black beasts to whom you have referred. These
beasts are called 'For-mians'.
"Cupians
and Formians cannot talk with their mouths as you and I. Nor do they have ears
to hear with. Instead, they communicate by a kind of soundless magic, called
'radio'. But they write the same language as do you Vairkings.
"On
the earth I was master of this magic, radio. But one day my own magic proved
too strong for me, and shot me through the skies, to Formia, where the Formians
captured me. I found that the Cupians were the slaves of the Formians.
"By
means of radio I was able to talk with both races. I escaped from the Formians.
By other magic, which could throw small black stones faster than arrows and
with more deadly results, I led the Cupians to victory over their oppressors.
Their princess, Lilla, became my bride, and our son, Kew, now sits on the
throne of Cupia. But Prince Yuri, a renegade Cupian, rebelled against us, for
he too loved Lilla!"
Myles
continued: "Yuri and his allies possessed magic wagons which could fly
through the air—"
"What is 'fly'?" Arkilu iinterrupted. "If you mean 'swim' it is
impossible, for no creature ever lived which could swim in air."
"Ah,
but this is magic, you must remember," he assured her. "Have you
Vairkings never seen any peculiar black objects sailing through the sky since
the rumored arrival of the Formians on your continent?"
Arkilu
pursed her lips in thought. "Yes," she admitted, "there have
been rumors of that too."
"Well,"
he continued, "those were the flying wagons of the Formians. When we
finally defeated them and drove them across the boiling seas in these wagons, I
revisited the planet earth by means of the radio magic of which I have told
you. But on my attempted return to Cupia I landed on your continent instead, by
mistake, and was again captured by my Formian enemies. Of my escape from them,
my wounding by the Roy arrow, and my rescue by you, you already know."
Arkilu
smiled ingratiatingly. "You are a pretty spinner of tales. Therefore I
shall keep you to amuse me. Methinks that even Theoph the Grim will revel in
your fantasies."
And she leaned over and caressed Cabot's
cheek with one furry hand. He cringed at the touch, yet strove not to offend
her, whose continued friendship might mean so much toward his return to his own
country.
He
wanted her good will and her influence; but, out of loyalty to Lilla, he
dreaded her love.
To
change the subject he inquired: "When shall I be well enough to get
up?"
"You are well enough
now," she replied "Try to stand."
At
Myles's insistence, a leather suit was sent for; he soon found himself dressed
like a soldier of the Vairkings.- Thus arrayed he stood and walked about a
little inside the tent, but Arkilu would not permit him to venture outside
until he should be stronger.
Before
leaving for the night Arkilu announced: "Tomorrow our expedition starts
back for Vairkingi. When we reach the city I shall marry you, for I have
decided that I love you."
VII
RADIO
ONCE MORE
So arkilu, the furry beauty, planned to marry Myles
Cabot, the earth-man, he who already loved and was wed to Lilla of Cupia! A
happy prospect indeed! Yet he dared not repulse the Vairkingian" maiden,
lest thereby he lose his chance of returning to his home and family.
For
at last he had formulated a plan of action, namely to arm the hordes of
Vairkingia, lead them against the ant-men, seize an ant-plane and with it fly
back to Cupia. So, for the present, he appeared to fall in with the matrimonial
whim of the princess.
Early
the next morning, however, as he was prowling around inside the tent, testing
his weak legs, he overheard a conversation on the outside, which changed the
situation considerably.
"But, father," remonstrated
a voice which Myles recognized as that of Arkilu, "I found him, and
therefore he is mine. I want him. He is beautiful!"
"Beautiful? Humph!" a stern male
voice sarcastically replied. "He must be,
without any fur! Oh, to think that my royal daughter would
wish to wed a freak of nature, and a common soldier at that!"
"He's
not a common soldier!" asserted the voice of
Arkilu. "He wears clothes merely so as to preserve his health for my
sake."
"Well,
a sickly cripple then," answered her father's
voice, "which is just as bad. At all events, Jud is the leader of this
expedition, and therefore this captive belongs to him. You can have him only if
Jud so wills. It is the law."
Myles Cabot stealthily crossed the tent and
put his eye to an opening between the curtains at the tent opening. There stood
the familiar figure of Arkilu, and confronting her was a massive male Vairking.
His fur, however, was snow white, so that his
general appearance resembled that of a polar bear. His face was appropriately
harsh and cold. This was Theoph the Grim, ruler of the Vairkingsl The dispute
continued. And then there approached another man of the species. The newcomer,
black-furred, was short, squat, and gnarled, yet possessed of unquestionable
intelligence and a certain dignity which clearly indicated that he was of noble
rank. He wore a leather helmet and carried a wooden lance.
Theoph
the Grim hailed him with: "Ho, Jud, what brings1 you
here?"
Jud
raised his spear diagonally across his chest as a salute, and replied: "A
change of plans, excellency. Upon reaching the river, I decided that it would
be wiser not to return to Vairkingi by that route."
"Really
meaning," Arkilu interposed, with a laugh, "that you found it
impossible to throw a bridge across at that point."
"Why
do you always doubt the reasons for my actions?" Jud asked in an aggrieved
tone.
"You
wrong me," she replied, "I never doubt your reasons. Your reasons are always of the best. What I doubt is your excuses."
"Enough,
enough!" the king shouted. "For I wish to discuss
more immediate matters than nice distinctions of language. Jud's
reasons or excuses, or whatever, are good enough for me. Jud, I wish to inform
you that my daughter has recently captured a strange furless being, whom it is
my pleasure to turn over to you. I have not yet seen this oddity—"
"Father, please!" Arkilu begged,
but at this juncture, Myles, exasperated by Theoph's remarks, parted the tent
curtains and stepped out.
"Look
well, oh, king!" he shouted. "Here stands Myles Cabot, the Minorian,
beast from another world, freak of nature, sickly cripple, common soldier, and
all that. Look well, O king!"
"A bit loud mouthed, I should say,"
Theoph the Grim sniffed, not one whit abashed.
"Watch him crumple at the presence of a
real man," added Jud the Excuse-Maker.
Suiting
the action to the word, the latter stepped over to Myles and suddenly slapped
him on the face.
As a boy, the earth-man had often seen larger
boys point to their cheek or shoulder, with the words: "There is an
electric button there. Touch it and something will fly out and hit you."
But never as a boy had he dared to press the magic button, for he could well
imagine the result.
Such
a result now occurred to Jud; for, the instant his fingers touched Cabot's
cheek, out flew Cabot's clenched fist smack to the point of Jud's jaw, and
tumbled him in the dust.
Jud
picked himself up snarling, shook himself, and then rushed bull-like at the
earth-man, who stood his ground, ducked the flying arms of his antagonist, and
tackled him as in the old football days at college. Jud was thrown for a
four-yard loss with much of the breath knocked out of his body.
Theoph
the Grim, with a worried frown, and Akilu the Beautiful, with an entranced
smile, stood by and watched the contest.
The
Vairking noble lay motionless on his back as Myles scrambled to his knees
astride the other's body and placed his hands on the other's shoulders. But
suddenly, the underdog threw up his left leg, caught Myles on the right
shoulder and pushed him backward. In an instant both men were on their feet
again, glaring at each other.
Then
they clinched and went down once more, this time with Jud on top. Theoph's look
changed to a smile, and Arkilu became worried. But
before Jud had time to follow up his advantage, Cabot secured a hammerlock
around his neck and shoulders, and then slowly forced him to one side until
their positions were reversed, and the shoulders and hips of the furry one were
squarely touching the ground.
In
a wrestling match, this would have constituted a victory for Myles Cabot, but
this was a fight and not a mere wrestling match; so the earth-man secured a
hammer-lock again and turned Jud the Excuse-Maker over until he lay prone,
whereupon the victor rubbed the nose of the vanquished back and forth in the
dirt, until he heard a muffled sound which he took to be the Vairkingian equivalent
of the '"nuff" so familiar to every pugnacious American schoolboy.
His honor satisfied, Cabot arose, brushed
himself off, and bowed to the two spectators. Jud sheepishly got to his feet as
well, all the fight knocked out of him. Theoph stared at the victor with
displeasure and at his own countryman with disgust, but Arkilu rushed over to
Cabot with a little cry, flung her arms around him, and drew him within the
tent.
As they passed through the curtains, Myles
heard Jud the Excuse-Maker explaining to the king: "I decided to let him
beat me, so that thereby I might give pleasure to her whom I love."
Inside
the tent, Arkilu bathed the scratches and bruises of the earth-man, and hovered
around him and fussed over him as though he had accomplished something much
more wonderful than merely to have come out on top in a schoolboy
rough-and-tumble fight.
Myles
was very sorry that it all had happened. In the first place, he had lost his
temper, which was to his discredit. In the second place, he had made a hero of
himself in the eyes of the lady whose love he was most anxious to avoid. And in
the third place, he had fought the man who was best calculated to protect him
from that undesired love. Altogether, he had made a mess of things, and all he
could do about it was meekly submit to the
ministrations of the furry princess. What a lifel
Finally
Arkilu departed, leaving Cabot alone with recriminations for his rashness,
longings for his own Princess Lilla, and worries for her safety.
The next day the. expedition took up its delayed start homeward,
Jud having found a route which required no alibis. The tents were struck, and
were piled with the other impedimenta on two-wheeled carts, which the common
soldiers pulled with long ropes.
In spite of Arkilu's pleadings, Myles was
assigned to one of these gangs, Theoph grimly remarking: "If the hairless
one is well enough to vanquish Jud, he is well enough to do his share of the
work."
Jud explained to Arkilu that the real reason
why he had suggested this was that he sincerely believed that the exercise
would be good for Cabot's health.
During one of the halts, when Jud happened to
be near Cabot's gang, the earthman strode over to the commander, who
instinctively cringed at his approach.
"I'm
not fighting to-day," Myles assured the Vairking with an engaging smile,
"but may I have a word with you?"
So
the two withdrew a short distance out of earshot of the rest, and Myles
continued: "I do not love Arkilu the Beautiful. You do. Let us understand
one another, and help one another. You assist me to keep away from the princess, and I shall assist you by keeping away from the princess. Later I shall make further suggestions
as to how we can cooperate to mutual advantage. I have spoken."
Jud stared at him with
perplexed admiration.
"Who are you?" he asked, "who
stands unabashed in the presence of kings and nobles, who addresses a superior
without permission, and yet without offensive familiarity?"
"I
am Cabot the Minorian," the other replied, "ruler over Cupia, a
nation larger and more powerful than yours. A race of
fearsome beasts have landed on the western shores of your continent.
They are enemies of mine, and will become enemies of yours as they extend their
civilization and run counter to yours."
"Impossible!"
Jud exclaimed. "For how could these mythical creatures cross the boiling
seas to land on our shores?"
"By magic," answered Myles,
"magic which they stole from me. And they held me prisoner until I
overthrew their magic and escaped, to be found by your expedition."
"Then you are a
magician?"
"Yes."
"Ah, that explains how you defeated me
in combat yesterday," Jud asserted with a relieved sigh.
"We
will let it go at that," Myles agreed, smiling. "But to continue, let
me frankly warn you that unless you destroy these Formians, they will
eventually destroy you.
"They
now possess magic against which you Vairkings would be powerless; magic methods
of soundless speech; magic devices for transmitting that speech as far as from
here to Vairkingi; magic wagons which can travel through the air and at such a
speed that they could go from here to Vairkingi and back in a twelfth part of a
day; and magic bows which shoot death-dealing pellets faster than the speed of
sound, and which can outrange your bows and arrows ten to one.
"But
if you will give a workroom and materials—and keep Arkilu away from me—I can
devise magic which will overcome their magic,
and which will make Vairkingi the unquestioned master of this whole continent,
in spite of the Roies and the Formians. Then I shall seize one of the For-mian
magic wagons, fly back in it to my own country, and leave you in peaceful
dominion over this continent. What do you say?"
"I
say," the Vairking replied, "that you are an amusing fellow, and an
able spinner of yarns. But you talk with evident earnestness and sincerity. Therefore
I shall give you your workshop and your materials; but on one condition,
namely, that you entertain us likewise. I have spoken."
And
thus it came to pass that Jud the Excuse-Maker attached the earth-man to his
personal retinue, and placed a laboratory at his disposal upon the return
arrival of the expedition at Vairkingi.
This
city was built entirely of wood. It was surrounded by a high stockade, and was
divided by stockades into sections, each presided over
by a noble, save only the central section which housed the retinue of Theoph
himself. Within the sections, each family had its own walled-off enclosure. All
streets and alleys passed between high wooded walls. The buildings and fences
were carved and gaudily colored.
As the returning expedition approached the
great wall, they were met by blasts of trumpet music from the parapets. Then a
huge gate opened, and they passed inside. Here they quickly separated, and each
detachment hastened to the quarter of the nobleman from whom they had been
drawn. Jud and his detachment proceeded down many a
high-walled street until they came to a gate bearing the insignia of Jud
himself.
Inside there were more streets of the same
character through which Jud's retinue dispersed to the gates of their own
little inclosures until Jud and Myles Cabot were left alone.
The noble led his new
acquisition to a gate.
"This
inclosure is vacant," Jud explained. "It will be yours. Enter and
take possession. Within, you will find a small house and a shop. Serving maids
will be sent from my own household to make you comfortable. Repair to my palace
to-night and tell me some more stories. Meanwhile good-by for
the present."
And
he strode off and disappeared around a bend in the street.
Cabot
passed in through the gate. /
He found a well, from which he drew water to
fill a carefully fashioned wooden pool. Scarce had he finished bathing, when a
group of furry girls arrived from the house of his patron bearing brooms and
blankets and food. One of them also bore a note which
read as follows:
If you love me you will find a way to reach
me.
Arkilu.
"And if not,
what?" said Myles to himself.
After
he had rested and dined, and the place had been made thoroughly neat, all the
girls withdrew save the one who had brought the note. She informed him that her
name was "Quivven" and that she had been ordered to remain in the
inclosure as his servant.
She was small and lithe.
Her hair was a brilliant yellowgold, and her eyes were blue. If it had not
been for her fur, she would have passed for a twin to his own Lilla. This fact
brought an intense pang to him and caused such a wave of homesickness that he
sat down on a couch and hid his face in his hands.
But
the pretty creature made no attempt to comfort him. Instead, she merely
remarked half aloud to herself: "I wonder what Arkilu can possibly see in
him. Even Att the Terrible is much more handsome."
Finally, Myles arose with more determination
and courage than he had felt at any time since his return to Poros.
Guided
by Quiwen, he set out for Jud's dwelling, firmly resolved to take steps that
very night, which should result eventually in his reaching Cupia, and rescuing
his family from the renegade Yuri.
Jud's
palace was elaborate and barbaric. Jud himself was seated on a divan surrounded
by Vairkingian beauties. They all were frankly inquisitive to see. this hairless creature from another world, yet they rather
turned up their pretty noses at him when they found him dressed like a common
soldier.
Cabot regaled the gathering with an account
of his first arrival on Poros and of the two wars of liberation which had freed
Cupia from the domination of the ants. AH the while he was most eager to get
down to business with the noble; yet he realized that he had been employed for
a definite purpose, namely story-telling, and that his first duty was to please
his patron.
Finally',
the ladies withdrew, and Myles Cabot, the radio man, began the first discussion
of radio that he had undertaken since his return to Poros.
VIII
BUT
WHY RADIO?
Three fields of "magic" were open to him, rifle-fire, aviation, and radio. The opportunity for
building a workable airplane among people who knew no metal arts was obviously
slight. To make a radio set should be possible, if he could find certain
minerals and other natural products, which ought to be available in almost any
country. But easiest of all would be to extract iron from the ore which he had
observed on his journey across the mountains, forge rifle barrels and simple
breech mechanisms, and make gunpowder and bullets.
Therefore it is plain why he did not attempt
to build airships, but it is hard to see why he did not make firearms rather
than a radio set. Firearms would have enabled him to equip the Vairkings for
battle against the Formians, whereas radio could serve no useful purpose at the
moment.
Yet,
he took up radio. I think the explanation lies in two facts: first, he wanted
above all to get in touch with his home in Cupia, find out the status of
affairs there, and give courage to his wife and his supporters, if any of them
remained; and secondly, he was primarily a radio engineer, and so his thoughts
natually turned to radio and minimized its difficulties. There would be plenty
of time to arm the Vairkings after he found out how affairs stood at home.
So
he broached to Jud his project of constructing a radio set, which would
necessitate extended journeys in search of materials. But the Vairking noble
was singularly uninterested.
"I
know that you can spin interesting yarns," he said, "but I do not
know whether you can do magic. Why, then, should I deprive myself of the
pleasure of listening to your stories, just for the sake of letting you amuse
yourself in a probably impossible pursuit? First, you must convince me that you
are a magician; then perhaps I may consent to your attempting further
magic."
"Very
well," the earth-man replied. "Tomorrow evening I shall display to
you some of the more simple examples of my art. Meanwhile, I shall spend my
time concocting mystic spells in preparation for the occasion."
Then he bowed and withdrew,
thanking his lucky stars that he had learned a few tricks of sleight-of-hand
while at college.
Myles
now recalled several of these, and devoted most of the succeeding day to
preparing a few simple bits of apparatus. Then he practiced his tricks before
the golden-furred Quiwen, to her complete mystification.
That
evening, he went again to the quarters of Jud the Excuse-Maker. The same group
was there as on the evening before, and in addition, several other Vairking men
and their wives.
After
an introduction by his host, the earth-man started in. First he did, in rapid
succession, some simple variations of sleight-of-hand.
He
had wanted to perform the well-known "restoration of the cut
handkerchief," but unfortunately the Vairkings possessed neither
handkerchiefs nor scissors, and he was forced to improvise a variant. Taking a
piece of stick, which he had brought with him for a wand, he stuffed a small
part of one of the gaudy hangings through his closed left fist between the thumb
and forefinger, so that it projected in a gathered-up point about two inches
beyond his hand. Then pulling the curtain over toward one of the stone
open-wick lamps which illuminated the chamber, he completely burned off the
projecting bit of cloth.
Evidently,
this was one of Jud's choicest tapestries, for the noble emitted a howl of
grief and rage, and leaped from his divan, scattering the reclining beauties in
both directions. If he had interfered in time to prevent the burning, it would
have spoiled the trick, but as it was, the confusion caused by his onrush
played right into Cabot's hands.
Myles
stepped back in apparent terror as Jud seized his precious curtain and hunted
for the scorched hole. But there was no hole there; the curtain was intact.
Jud
looked up sheepishly into the triumphant face of his protégé, who thereupon stated: "You did not need to worry about your
property in the hands of a true magician."
"Oh, I was not afraid," Jud the
Excuse-Maker explained.
"I
merely pretended fear, so as to try and confuse your magic."
"Please
do not do it again," the earth-man sternly admonished him.
The
Vairking noble seated himself again. His guests were enthralled.
This was a fitting climax for the evening.
The amateur conjurer bowed low and withdrew.
Quiwen
Was waiting for him at his house, and reported that some one had torn a
small piece out of one of the tapestries. Several days later she found the
piece, but alas, there was a hole burnt in the middle of it.
The
next morning Jud the Excuse-Maker called at the quarters of Cabot, the furless.
It was a rare honor, so Cabot answered the door in person. Jud expressed his
conviction that the earth-man really was a magician, after all, and that
therefore he—Jud—was agreeable to an expedition to the mountains in search of
rocks whose mystical properties would enable the performing of even greater
magic. It was soon arranged that Cabot, with a bodyguard of some twenty
Vairking soldiers and a low-ranking officer, should start on the morrow.
Myles
was thrilled. Now he was getting somewhere at last! The rest of the day he
devoted to preparing a list of the materials for which he must hunt.
To make a radio-telephone sending and
receiving set, he would need dielectrics, copper wire, batteries, tubes, and
iron. For dielectrics, wood and mica would suffice. Wood was common,
and the Vairkings were skilled carpenters and carvers. For fine insulation,
mica would be ideal; and this mineral ought to be procurable somewhere in the
mountains, whose general nature he had observed to be granitic.
To
make copper wire, he would need copper ore— preferably pyrites—quartz,
limestone, and fuel. The necessary furnaces he would built
of brick; any one can bake clay into bricks.
For cement, Myles finally hit upon using a
baked and ground mixture of limestone and clay, both of which ingredients he
would have at hand for other purposes.
The
Vairkings used charcoal in their open fires, and this would do nicely for his
fuel.
For the wire-drawing dies he would use steel.
This disposed of the copper questions, and brought him to a consideration of
iron, which he would need at various places in his apparatus. This metal could
be smelted from the slag of the copper furnaces, using an appropriate flux, such
as fluorspar.
Cabot next urned his attention to his power source. For some time he debated the question of
whether or not to build a dynamo. But how about the storage
batteries? He wasn't quite sure how to find or make the necessary red
and yellow lead salts for the packing plates.
Thus
by the time that Cabot reached the contemplation of having either to find or
make his lead compounds he decided to turn his attention to primary cells. The
jars could be made of pottery, or from the glass which was going to be
necessary for his tubes anyhow. Charcoal would furnish the carbon elements.
Zinc could easily be distilled from zincspar, if that particular form of ore
were found. Sal ammoniac solution could be made from the ammonia of animal
refuse, common salt, and sulphuric acid.
Mass
production of zinc carbon batteries should thus be an easy matter, and they
would serve perfectly satisfactorily, as neither compactness
nor portability was a requisite. The radio man accordingly abandoned the idea
of dynamos and accumulators in favor of large quantities of wet cells.
The
tubes, it appeared to Myles, would present the greatest problem. Platinum for
the filaments, grids, and plates had been fairly common in nugget form in
Cupia, and so presumably could be found in Vairkingia. Glass, of course, would
be easy to make.
Alcohol for laboratory burners could be
distilled from decayed fruit.
But the chief stumbling block was how to
exhaust the air from his tubes, and how to secure magnesium to use in
completing the vacuum. These matters he would have to leave to the future in
the hope of a chance idea. For the present there were enough elements to be
collected so that he would be kept busy for a great many days. Accordingly he
copied off the following two lists:
Materials readily
available:
Wood Common salt
Wood ashes White sand
Charcoal Animal refuse
Clay Decayed fruit
Materials to hunt for:
Mica
Copper
ore Quartz Limestone Fluorspar
Galena
Zinc ore Platinum Chalk Magnesium
But that afternoon all his plans were
disrupted by a message
reading:
To
The Furless One:
You
are directed to appear for my amusement at my palace to-morrow. Fail not.
Theoph
The Grim.
"That puts an end to my trip," he
said to Quiwen. "How do you suppose his majesty got wind that I am a
conjurer?"
"One
of the guests at the show last night must have told him," she replied.
But
something in her tone of voice caused Myles to look at her intently, and
something in her expression caused him to say, "You know more than you
tell. Out with itl"
Whereat
Quiwen shrugged her pretty golden shoulders, and replied, "Why deceive
you? Though you are so stupid that it is very easy.
Who brought you the note from Arkilu the night of your arrival here?"
"You
did," Cabot answered. "Why didn't I put two and two together before?
Then you, are connected in some way with Arkilu?"
She
laughed contemptuously. "How did you guess it?" she taunted.
"Yes, one would rather say I am connected in some way with Arkilu; for I
am her sister, set here to spy on you by connivance with the chief woman of
Jud's servants, who is an old nurse of ours. I am Quiwen the Golden Flame,
daughter of Theoph the Grim, and it is from me that he learned of your mystic abilities. What do you think of that, beast?"
"I
think," Myles said noncommittally, "that although you truly are a
golden flame, you ought to have been named 'Quiwen the Pepper Pot'."
Whereat
she suddenly burst into tears and rushed out of the room.
"Funny
girl," Myles commented to himself, as he laid aside the list prepared for
his prospecting trip, and set about the concoction of some stage properties for
his forthcoming command performance before the King.
It
was a sulky Quiwen who served his meal that evening, so much so that Cabot
playfully accused her of putting poison in his stew. This did not render her
any more gracious, however.
"If
I did not love my sister very much," she asserted, "I would not stand
for you for one moment."
The
rest of the meal was eaten in silence during which Cabot had an idea.
So
when the food had been cleared away he asked the aureate maiden, "Can you
smuggle a note to your sister for me?"
"Yes,"
she assented gloomily, "and I shall tell her how you are treating
me."
At which
he could not refrain from remarking, "Do you know, Quiwen, I believe that
you are falling in love with me."
"You beast!" she cried at him.
"Oh, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" And she turned her face to
the wall.
"Come,
come!" said Cabot soothingly. "I don't
mean to tease you, and we must both think of your sister. The
note. How long will it take you to deliver it and return?"
"Shall I hurry?" she asked guardedly.
"Yes."
"Then it will take me less than
one-twelfth of a day." That would be quite sufficient for his plans.
Accordingly he wrote:
Arkilu The
Beautiful:
Send word how I can see you after the performance. But beware of Jud.
Cabot The Magician.
This
note he folded up, placed it in the palm of Quiwen, and closed her golden
fingers over it.
Whereat
she sprang back with, "Don't you dare touch me like that!" and rushed
out of the house, sobbing angrily.
Really,
he must be more careful with this delicate creature; for although her intense
hatred furnished him considerable amusement, yet it was possible to go too
far. He must at least be polite to the sister of his benefactress.
But
there was no time to be given over to worrying about Quiwen's sensitive
feelings; for the note had been sent merely to give him a slight respite from
her prying eyes, in order that he might sneak out for a conference with Jud; of
course he had no intention of any secret tryst with Arkilu. Heaven forbid, when
he loved his own distant Lilla so intensely!
So he hurried to the quarters of the
Vairkingian noble, who received him gladly, being most interested in learning
whether there was any rational explanation to be given to the various magic
tricks of the evening before. But Myles blocked his inquisitiveness by the
flat assertion that all were due to mystic spells and talismans alone, and then
got rapidly down to business, for there was no time to be lost.
Myles told Jud of the note from Theoph the
Grim requiring his presence at the royal palace, and
how he suspected that Princess Arkilu was responsible. Also, he related his
discovery that his maidservant was Quivven the Golden Flame; but he had the
decency to refrain from implicating the head of Jud's menage.
"I shall have her
removed at once," the Vairking asserted.
"No, no," Myles hastily interposed,
"that would never do; for now that we know she is a spy, it will be easy
to outwit her. But a new one we never could be sure of."
Then
he told how he had gotten rid of Quiwen for the evening by sending her with a note to Arkilu. Jud's brow darkened.
"But," Myles insisted, "that
note will serve a three-fold purpose; first, it has enabled me undetected to
pay this visit to you; secondly, it will allay Arkilu's suspicions; and
thirdly, it will stir you to block my appearance before Theoph to-morrow."
"Oh,
I would have done that anyhow," Jud insisted. "My plans are all made.
I shall send a runner to Theoph, and warn him to search Arkilu's room for your
note. When he finds the note he will certainly cancel the arrangements for your
performance. Thus will the note serve a fourth purpose.
"Return now to your quarters, and I will send you word
of the outcome." /
"I
wouldn't if I were you," Myles admonished. "For a message from you would reveal to our fair
young spy the fact of my secret interview with you this evening. Let Theoph
himself send the word."
"So
be it. You may count on starting on your expedition to-morrow as planned. Good
luck to you."
"Good
luck to you,
Jud the Great, and may you
win Arkilu the Beautiful."
So
the earth-man hastened back to his quarters, where Quivven, on her return,
found him placidly reclining on a divan.
For a few minutes they chatted playfully
together, and then she suddenly narrowed her eyelids, looked at him with a
peculiar expression, and asked: "Aren't you the least bit anxious to know
what answer Arkilu made to your note?"
That
was so; he had written Arkilu a note; but now that it had
served its purpose he had completely forgottten about it. How could he square
himself with little Quivven? By flattery?
"Of course I'm anxious to know," he
asserted, "but I was so glad to have you come back again that for the
moment I neglected to ask you."
Quiwen the Golden Flame
pouted.
"Now
you're teasing me again," she said, "and I won't stand for it."
"But I really want to know," he
continued with mock eagerness. "Please do tell me about your sister."
"I gave her the note—"
Just
then there came a loud pounding on the gate outside; so loud, in fact, that the sound penetrated within the house. Quivven stopped
talking. She and Myles listened intently. The pounding continued.
"Evidently
we are to have company this evening," he remarked, glad to change the
subject.
Quiwen
replied, "Such a racket at this time of night can mean naught but ill. Let
us approach the gate with care, and question the intruders."
So
saying, she took down one of the hanging stone lamps and opened the outside
door. It was a typical dark, silent, fragrant Porovian evening, except for the
fact that the darkness was broken by the glare of the torches beyond the wall,
and that the silence was broken by the pounding on the gate, and that the
fragrance was marred by the smoke of Quiwen's lamp.
"Who is there?"
Quiwen called.
To
this there came back the peremptory shout: "Open quickly, in the name of
Theoph the Grim!"
The golden girl recoiled. Even Cabot himself
shuddered as he realized the evident cause of the disturbance; his plot with
Jud had produced results beyond what they had planned; and Theoph upon seizing
the note, had decided not merely to cancel the sleight-of-hand performance, but
also to place his daughter's supposed sweetheart under arrest.
"I
am afraid your father has intercepted my letter to your sister," Cabot
explained. "I tell you what! You leave
by the rear door, make your way quickly to Arkilu, and see if the two of you
can intercede for me with your stern parent."
So saying, he released her. The slim princess
handed him the light, and sped into the interior of the house.
"Cease your noise!" he shouted.
"For I, Myles Cabot the Minorian, come to unbar
the gate in person!"
He
strode down the path. Quickly he slid the huge wooden bolts, swung the gate
open, and stepped outside, shielding the lamp with one hand to get a view of
the disturbers. But his lamp was instantly dashed from him and his arms bound
behind him.
His
captors were about a dozen Vairking soldiers in leather tunics and helmets,
some carrying wooden spears and some holding torches, while their evident
leader was similarly clothed but armed with a sharp wooden rapier.
As
soon as the prisoner was securely bound the guard hustled him roughly off down
the street.
Thus were his plans rudely dashed to the ground. On the preceding night all had been arranged for his
trip to secure the elements for the construction of a radio set with which to
communicate with Cupia and his Lilla. That morning he had been forced to
postpone his trip, in order to perform before Theoph the Grim. And this evening
he was Theoph's prisoner, slated for—what?
The
squad of Vairking
soldiers, with Myles Cabot as their prisoner, had traversed nowhere near the
distance to the palace, when they turned from the street through a gate.
"Where are they going
to take me now?" Myles wondered.
This
question was soon answered, for the party entered a building which was evidently a dwelling of the better class. The hall
was well lighted, so that Miles blinked at the sudden glare.
The leader of the party placed himself
squarely in front of his prisoner, with hands on his hips, and remarked with
apparent irrelevance: "Well, we fooled Quivven, didn't we?"
The
prisoner stared at him in surprise. It was JudI Jud, disguised as a common
soldier.
Cabot laughed with relief.
"You
certainly gave me a bad hundred-and-forty-fourth part of a day," he
asserted. "I didn't recognize you in your street clothes. What is the
great idea?"
" 'The great idea'," the noble replied,
"to quote your phrase, is that I did truly represent Theoph the Grim. He
authorized me to arrest you in his name. The pretty little spy will report your
capture to Arkilu, and her father will stonily refuse to reveal where you are
imprisoned.
"Meanwhile
I shall give the golden one time to escape, and shall then send a second squad
to seize your effects. Your expedition will start immediately. Come, unbind the
prisoner."
As
soon as his bonds were loosed, Myles warmly grasped the hand of his benefactor.
"You
are all right!" he exclaimed. "You have completely succeeded without
leaving anything to explain."
"I
always succeed, and never have to explain
anything!" Jud replied a bit coldly.
And
so, late that night, the Radio Man, dressed in leather tunic and helmet, and armed with a tempered wood rapier, set out with his bodyguard for the
western mountains. In silence, and with the minimum of lights, they threaded
the streets of Jud's compound and then the streets of the city until they came
to the west gate, where a pass signed by Theoph the Grim gave them free exit.
Thence they moved due westward across the plain, with scouts thrown out to
guard against contact with any roving Roies.
By daybreak they had reached the cover of the
wooded foothills, and there they camped for a full day of much needed rest.
Finally, on the second morning following their stealthy departure from
Vairkingi, their journey really started.
The
commander of the bodyguard was an intelligent youth named Crota. During the
meals at the first encampment, Myles described to Crota in considerable detail
the particular form of copper pyrites which furnish the bulk of the copper used
for electrical purposes on the continent of Cupia.
After listening intently to this description
for about the fifth time, Crota smiled and said, "We Vairkings place no
stock in pretty stones, except as playthings for our children, but I do recall
the little golden cubes with which the children of one of the hill villages are
accustomed to play tum-tum. This village, Sur by name, is only a day's journey
to the southward. Let us turn our steps thither and learn from the children
where they get their toys."
" 'Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,'
" the earth-
man quoted to himself. ,
And
so they set out to the southward, following a trail which wound in and out
between the fertile silver-green hills, which were for the most part scantily
wooded.
Toward the close of the day, Crota's scouts
established contact with the outposts of the village which they were seeking;
and after an exchange of communications by runner, the expedition was given
free passage to proceed. Shortly thereafter they came in sight of the village
itself.
From
among the surrounding verdant rolling terrain there arose one rocky eminence
with precipitous sides, and with a flat summit on which stood the village of Sur surrounded by a strong
wooden palisade.
Up
the face of the cliff there ran a narrow zigzag path, cut in the living rock,
and overhung by many a bastion from which huge stones could be tumbled or
molten pitch poured on any invaders so rash as to attempt the ascent.
Along
this path the expedition crawled in single file with many pauses to draw their
breath; and before they reached the summit Cabot realized full well how it was
that Sur, the southernmost outpost of Vairkingian civilization, had so long
and so successfully withstood the onslaughts of the wild and savage Roies.
The
inhabitants, furry Vairkings, turned out in large numbers to greet the visitors
and especially to inspect the furless body and the much overfurred chin of the
earthman. Guides led the expedition to a large public hall where, after a
speech of welcome by the headman of the village, they were fed and quartered
for the night.
Between
the meal and bedtime the visiting soldiers strolled out to see the sights by
the pale pink light of the unseen setting sun. Cabot and Crota together walked
to the west wall to observe the sunset.
As
the two of them leaned on the parapet, a rattling noise on the rocky walk
beside them disturbed their reverie. Looking down, they saw three furry
children rolling some small objects along the ground. With a slight exclamation
of surprise and pleasure, the Vairking soldier swooped down, upon the
youngsters, scooped up one. of the toys, and handed it
to the earth-man.
"Tum-tum,"
Crota laconically announced, and sure enough it was one of the small
game-cubes, which he had described to his companion.
But
before the latter had had the slightest opportunity to examine it, the
bespoiled infant let out a howl of childish rage, and commenced to assail Myles
with fists and teeth and feet.
"Stop
that!" Crota shouted, grabbing him by one arm and pulling him away.
"We don't want to keep your tum-tum; we merely want to look at it. This gentleman has never seen a
tum-tum."
"Gentleman?" the boy replied from a
safe distance. "Common soldierl Bah!"
But Myles Cabot was too engrossed to notice
the insult. The small cube in his hand was undoubtedly a metallic crystal, but
whether chalcopyrite or not he could not tell in the fading light'. In fact, it
might be the sunset which gave the stone its coppery tinge.
Taking a small flint knife from a leather
sheath that hung from his belt, Myles offered it to the child in exchange for
the toy, in spite of Crota's gasping protest at the extravagance.
The boy eagerly accepted the offer,
remarking: "Thank you, sir. You should take off those clothes."
It
was a very neat and subtle compliment. Gentlemen Vairkings never wore clothes.
Cabot was impressed.
"Your
name, my son?" he asked, patting the furry little creature on the head.
"Tomo the Brief,"
was^the reply.
"I shall remember
it."
Then he hurried back to the public hall,
eager to examine his purchase by the light of the oil flares.
Sure
enough, it turned out to be really pyrites, and by its deep color probably a pyrites rich in copper. To the Radio Man it meant the
first tangible step toward the accomplishment of the greatest radio feat ever
undertaken on two worlds; namely the construction of a complete sending and
receiving set out of nothing but basic materials in their natural state without
the aid of a single previously fabricated man-made tool, utensil, or chemical.
To this day Myles wears this cube as a pendant charm in commemoration of that
momentous occasion.
As
he lay on the floor of the public building that night, the earth-man reviewed
the events of the day until he came to the episode óf the purchase of the
cubical pyrite crystal from little Tomo.
Tour name, my son?"
Cabot had asked him.
'My son'," thought Cabot. "I have a
son of my own across the boiling seas on the continent of Cupia, and a wife,
the most beautiful and sweetest lady in Poros. They are in dire danger, or were
many months ago when I received the SOS
which led me to return through the skies to this planet. Oh,
how I wish that I could learn what' that danger was, and what has happened to
them since then!"
Thus
he mused; and yet when he came to figure up the time since his capture he was
able to account for less than three weeks of earth time. Perhaps there was
still a chance of rescue, if he would but hurry.
The
danger which had inspired his Lilla's call for help was undoubtedly due to the
return of Prince Yuri across the boiling seas. For all that Myles knew, Princess Lilla and the loyal Cupians were still holding
out against their renegade prince.
The
message which Cabot had ticked out into the ether from the radio station of the
ants had been sent only a few days after the S O S. If received by Lilla or any
of her friends, it had undoubtedly served to encourage them to stiffen their
resistance to the usurper; and if received by Yuri, it had undoubtedly thrown
into him the fear of the Great Builder.
Musing and hoping thus, the earth-man fell
into a troubled sleep, through which there swirled a tangled phantasmagoria of
ant-men, Cupians, whistling bees, and Vair-kings, with occasional glimpses of a
little blue-eyed blond head, sometimes surmounted by golden curls and two
dainty antennae, but sometimes completely covered with golden fur.
Shortly
after sunrise he awoke, and aroused Crota. No time must be lost! The Princess
Lilla must be saved!
But there was nothing they could do until
their hosts brought the food for the morning meal. From the bearers they now
ascertained that the tum-tum cubes were gathered in a cleft in the rocks only a
short distance from the village; and that, although the perfect cubes were rare
and quite highly prized, the imperfect specimens were present in great
quantities. In fact, hundreds of cartioads had been mined and picked over in
search of perfect cubes, and thus all this ore would be available in return for
the mere trouble of shoveling it into carts.
As
soon as arrangements could be made with the headman of Sur, Cabot and his
party, accompanied by guides, crept down the narrow zigzag path to the plain
below the village, and proceeded up a ravine to. the
quarry, where they verified all that had been told them.
It
was a beautiful sight; a rocky wall out of a cleft in which there seemed to
pour a waterfall of gold.
But
on close inspection, every cube was seen to be nicked or bent or out of
proportion, or jammed part way through or into some other cube.
The soldiers, both those from Vairkingi and
those from Sur, scrambled up the golden cascade and started hacking the crystals
out of the solid formation, in search for perfect cubes, while their two
leaders watched them with amusement from below.
All
at once there came a shriek, and one of the Vairkings toppled the whole length
of the pile, almost at Cabot's feet, where he lay perfectly still, the wooden shaft of an arrow projecting from one eyeball.
"Roies!" Crota shouted.
Instantly
every member of the party took cover with military precision behind some rock
or tree.
They
had not long to wait, for a shower of missiles from up the valley soon apprised
them of the location of the enemy. So the Vairkings thereafter remained alert.
Those who had bows drew them and discharged a flint-tipped arrow at every stir
of grass or bush in the locality whence the missiles of the enemy had come.
"We
know not their number," Crota whispered to Cabot. "And since we have
accomplished our mission let us return to Sur as speedily as possible."
"Agreed," the earth-man replied.
The
withdrawal was accomplished as follows. Crota first dispatched runners to the
village to inform the inhabitants of the situation. Then, leaving a small rear
guard of archers and slingers to cover their retreat, he formed the remainder
of the expedition in open order, and set out for Sur as rapidly as the cover
would permit.
The enemy kept pretty well hidden, but it was
evident from the increase of arrows and pebbles that their numbers were
steadily augmenting. Noting this, Crota sent another runner ahead with this
information.
It now became necessary to replenish and relieve
the rear guard, of which several were dead, several more wounded and the rest
tired and out of ammunition. This done, Crota ordered the main body of his
force to leave cover and take up the double quick.
The result was unexpected. A hundred or more Roies
charged yelling down the ravine through the Vairking rear guard, and straight
at Cabot's men, who at once ran to cover again and took deadly toll of the
oncoming enemy.
But
the Roies so greatly outnumbered the Vairkings that the tide could not be stemmed,
and soon the two groups were mingled together in a seething mass. The first
rush was met, spear on spear. Then the sharp wooden swords were drawn, and
Cabot found himself lunging and parrying aginst three naked furry warriors.
The
neck was the vulnerable spot of the Vairkings, and it was this point which the
Roies strove to reach, as Cabot soon noted. That simplified matters, for
guarding one's neck against such crude swordsmen as these furry aborigines was
easy for a skilled fencer such as he. Accordingly, one
by one, he ran three antagonists through the body.
Just
as he was withdrawing his blade from his last victim, he noted that Crota was
being hard pressed by a burly Roy swordsman; so he hastened to his friend's
assistance. And he was just in time, for even as Cabot approached, the naked
Roy knocked the leather-clad Vairking's weapon from his hand with a
particularly dexterous sideswipe, and thus had Crota at his mercy.
But before the naked one could follow up his
advantage, the earthman hurled his own sword like a spear, and down went the
Roy, impaled through the back, carrying Crota with him as he fell.
Cabot
paused to draw breath, and was just viewing with satisfaction the lucky results
of his chance throw, when a peremptory command of "Yield!" behind him
caused him to wheel about and confront a new enemy. The author of the shout was
a massive furry warrior with a placid, almost bovine, face, which nevertheless
betokened considerable intellect.
"And to whom would I yield, if I did
yield?" Myles asked, facing unarmed the poised
sword of his new enemy.
"Grod
the Silent, King of the Roies," was the dignified reply.
"I
thought that Art the Terrible was king of your people," the earth-man
returned sparring for time.
"That is what Art thinks too," the
other answered with a slight smile.
But
the smile was short-lived, for Myles Cabot, having momentarily distracted his
opponent's attention by this conversation, stepped suddenly under the guard of
the furry Grod, and planted his fist square on Grod's fat chin. Down crashed
the king, his sword clattering from his nerveless hand. In an instant Myles
snatched up the blade and bestrode his prostrate foe.
Just
as he was about to plunge its point into Grod's vitals, there occurred to him
the proverb of Poblath: "While enemies dispute, the realm is at peace."
With
Grod the Silent and Art the Terrible both contending for the leadership of the
Roies, Vairkingia might enjoy a respite from the depredations of this wild and
lawless race. He would leave the fallen Roy for dead, rather than put him
actually in that condition. Accordingly, he sprang to the aid of his
companions.
Crota
was already back in the fray, his own sword in his hands once more, and the
sword of his late burly opponent slung at his side. Quite evidently he did not
intend to be disarmed again.
Three Vairking common soldiers and Crota and
Myles now confronted seven Roies. This constituted a fairly even match, for the
superior intelligence and the leather armor of the men of Vairkingi and Sur,
offset the greater numbers of their aboriginal antagonists. What the outcome
would have been can never be known, for at that moment, the reinforcements from
the village came charging up the ravine; and at the same instant, the tops of
the cliffs were lined with Roies, who sent a shower of arrows upon those below.
The
contending twelve immediately separated. Cabot and his followers passed within
the protection of his rescuers and the return to Sur was renewed. The commander
of the rescue party threw out a strong rear guard, and the Vairking archers on
both flanks peppered the cliff tops with sling shots and arrows, but the
marauding Roies harassed every step of the retreat.
There was some respite when Cabot's party
reached the plain where stood the rocky peak with the village of Sur on its
summit, for arrows could not carry from the cover of the surrounding woods to
the foot of the rocks. But, as the tired party began the ascent of the narrow
path on the face of the cliff, they noted that the Roies were forming solid
banks of wooden shields and were advancing across the plain.
Arrows
now began to fly from below at the ascending Vairking party, several of whom
toppled and fell down the face of the cliff. And then the warrior just above
Myles on the narrow path clutched his breast with a gasp and dropped square
upon the earth-man, who braced himself and caught the body, thus preventing it
from being dashed to pieces at the foot of the rocks.
Whether
or not the furry soldier was dead could not be ascertained until Myles should
have reached the summit, so up he toiled with his burden until he gained the
protection of the palisade, where he laid the Vairking gently on the ground
and tore open his leather tunic to see if any life were present.
The wounded man still breathed, through
hoarsely, and his heart still beat; but there was a gaping hole in one side of
his chest.
No
arrow protruding from this hole. Myles tenderly turned the man over to see if
the wound extended clear through. It did—almost. And from the man's side there
projected the tip of a bullet, the steel-sheathed tip of a leaden rifle bulled
X
THE
SIEGE OF SUR
Myi.es
quickly extracted
the bullet from the back of the wounded Vairking. Then tender furry female
hands bore the victim away, as the earth-man stood in thoughtful contemplation
of his find.
There
could be no doubt óf
it. This was a
steel-jacketed bullet, identical with those used in the rifles of the ant-men.
How came such a weapon in the hands of the savage and untrained Roies?
It
was inconceivable that these uncultured brutes had overwhelmed New Formia and
captured the weapons of the ant-men. No, the only possible explanation was that
the For-mians had formed an alliance with the Roies, and were either fighting
beside them or at least had furnished them with a few firearms, the use of
which they had taught them.
But this last idea was improbable, due to the
well-known shortage of rifles and ammunition at Yuriana, capital of the new ant
empire. No, if the ant-men were in alliance with these furry savages, there
must be ant-men present with the besiegers, and the shot in question must have
been fired by the claw of a Formian.
This
opened up new terrors for the village of Sur and
its inhabitants. Myles glanced apprehensively at the southern sky, half
expecting to see and hear the approach of a Formian plane, but the radiant
silver expanse was unmarred by any black speck. Sur was safe for the moment.
His musings thus completed, Myles hurried to
the public hall to communicate this discovery to Crota and the village
authorities. He found the headman already there in conference with Crota.
Said Myles, exhibiting the bullet: "Here
is one of the magic stones thrown by one of my own magic sling-shots, which is
capable of shooting from the ground to thé top of your cliffs and even
penetrating your palisade. It is big magic! With its aid, the Roies can overcome us. Without it, I
am powerless. Therefore, we must secure possession of it. What do you
suggest?"
Crota
replied: "It is now sunset. Let us select a squad of picked scouts and try
to stalk the camp of the enemy."
"No, no!" the headman of Sur exclaimed
in horror. "Never have our men dared to attack the Roies by dark."
"Do the Roies know
this?" Myles asked with interest.
"Most certainly,"
was the reply,
"Then," he said, "all the more
reason for attempting it. They will be unprepared."
• The magistrate shrugged his furry shoulders with: "If you can
persuade any men of Sur to attempt anything so foolhardy, I shall interpose no
objection."
Within
a twelfth of a day, Crota had enrolled twenty scouts, and with Myles Cabot,
they had all begun the stealthy descent of the narrow winding path down the
face of the cliff. Before starting, they had observed the direction of the Roy
camp-fires on one of the surrounding hills; so now they crept quietly toward
that hill, and then slowly up to its crest.
In spite of the dense blackness of the
Porovian night, they were able to find their way, first by starting in the
correct direction and then by keeping the lights of their own village always
behind them.
As
Cabot had expected from the remarks of the headman, there were no sentinels on
post, for the enemy were quite evidently relying on the well-known Vairking
fear of the unknown terrors of the dark. Indeed, it spoke volumes for the
individual courage of the twenty-one members of this venture, and for their
confidence in their earth-man leader, that they had dared to come.
Finally,
the party emerged from the underbrush at the top of the hill, a few score of
feet from the tents and camp-fires of the Roies. There, motioning the others to
remain where they were until he gave a signal, Myles crawled forward, always
keeping in the shadow of some tent, until he was able to peek through a small
bush beside one of the tents, directly at the group around one of the
camp-fires.
Just
as Cabot arrived at this observation post, a Roy warrior was declaiming:
"I told you it would work, for had I not seen it demonstrated fully to me?
You yourselves saw it kill. Now will you not believe me?"
Another
spoke: "I cannot understand its principle. How can a weapon kill afar, and
yet not resemble either a sling or a bow?"
And another: "Show us how it works,
friend. Then perhaps we may be persuaded."
And a third: "I do not
believe that he has it."
Whereat,
the original speaker, nettled, spoke again: "It is in my tent there, you
doubters," indicating the one beside which Cabot crouched.
Quick
as a flash, Cabot wriggled beneath the back of the tent into its interior. The
campfire light, penetrating through the slit opening in front, revealed nothing
but rumpled blankets on the floor, and ordinary weapons slung to the tent pole;
so the intruder commenced rummaging among the _ bedding. The conversation
outside continued.
"Prove, or be
silent!" said a voice.
"You
saw the Vairking fall, did you not?" the original speaker replied.
"True, but I did not
see you sling any pebble."
Meanwhile, Cabot continued his frantic
search. At last, it was rewarded. In one corner of the tent, his groping
fingers closed upon a Formian rifle and a bandolier of cartridges. A thrill ran
through him at the touch.
"To prove it to
you," the voice outside was saying, angrily,
"I
will get it for you; and if you do not believe me, I shall slingshot you with
it. That ought to be proof enough even for a stupid one like you. I have said
it!"
"The signal for my exit," Myles
said to himself, as he hastened to crawl out through the back of the tent, but
then he reflected: "No, I want more than this gun and ammunition; I want
information."
So he remained.
As the Roy entered the tent and felt for the
rifle, the crouching earth-man flung himself upon him; and before the startled
furry one could utter even a gasp, strong fingers closed upon his windpipe,
throttling off all sound. The struggle was over in a few moments.
When Myles Cabot finally crept out of the
enemy tent, it was with a limp form under one arm, and a bandolier and a rifle
slung across his shoulders.
The conversation at the
camp fire continued.
One
of the warriors was saying: "Our friend takes long to find his wonderful
sling-shot. Methinks he was lying and does not dare to face us."
Said another voice: "Let us pull him from his tent and confront him
with his perfidy."
At this, Myles sprang to his feet and ran to
the cover which concealed his followers.
"Rush
in among them as we planned," he urged, "while you two come with
me."
Then
on he sped down the hillside towards the lights of Sur with his captive and
trophies and two previously-picked members of the band, while Crota and the remaining
eighteen charged yelling into the midst of the Roy camp, upsetting tents,
scattering camp fires, and laying about them with their swords. Straight
through the camp they charged, shouting: "Make way for Art the
Terrible!" Then they circled the hill under cover of the darkness and
rejoined Myles.
The
startled Roies were taken completely by surprise. From the cries of Crota and
his followers, they assumed that the intruders were Roies, partisans of Att the
Terrible, attacking them for being partisans of Grod the Silent- As they came
rushing out of their standing tents, or crawled from beneath such tents as had
been wrecked, they met others of their own camp, similarly rushing or crawling,
and mistaking them for enemies, started to fight.
The confusion was complete, and never for a
moment did the naked furry savages suspect that the whole trouble had been
caused by a mere handful of Vairkings.
Truly, as Poblath the Philosopher has said,
"While enemies dispute, the realm is at peace."
While
the Roy followers of Grod the Silent fought among themselves until they
gradually discovered that there was no one there except themselves, Myles Cabot
and his Vairkings safely regained the Village of Sur with the rifle, the
ammunition, and the still unconscious Roy warrior.
In
the public hall, under the tender ministrations of Vair-king maidens—who would
far rather have plunged a flint knife into him—the captive finally regained his
senses and looked around him in bewilderment.
"Where am I?" he
asked, rubbing his eyes.
"In Sur," some
one replied.
"Then are we victorious? For never
before has a Roy set foot in Sur."
"No,
your forces are not victorious," Crota answered. "You are a prisoner.
And it is only by the grace of Cabot the Minorian that you are permitted to
come here even as a prisoner. For the men of Sur take no prisoners, and give no
quarter."
In reply, Myles himself
stepped forward.
"I myself,
am Cabot the Minorian," he said.
To
which Crota added impressively: "The greatest magician of two
worlds!"
The prisoner shook his
head.
"I
know of only one world," he asserted, "and this man before me is
dressed as a mere common soldier, as are all of you."
"Know
then, O scum of Poros," the earth-man admonished, "that there are
other worlds beyond the silver skies, and that in the world from which I come,
all soldiers are gentlemen."
But
the Roy warrior was not to be subdued by language. "How did I come here?"
he asked.
Tou did not come here," Myles answered.
"You were brought. I brought you." "But
how?" "By magic." "What
magic?"
"My magic cart which swims through the
air as a reptile swims through the waters of a lake."
"True,"
the Roy mused, "there be such aerial wagons, for
I have seen them near the city of the beasts of the south."
"Mark
well!" Myles interjected to the assembled Vair-kings, then to the prisoner
again: "I captured you because you possessed the magic sling-shot, and
presumed to use it on one of my own men. This effrontery could not be permitted
to go unpunished; hence your capture. The offending weapon is now mine, and you
are my prisoner."
"What do you propose to do with
me?" the captive asked.
"I
propose to ask you some questions," Myles evaded. "First where did
you get the magic sling-shot?"
"The
great magician knows everything," the Roy replied, with a sneer. "Why, then, should I presume to tell him anything?"
But
the earth-man remained unruffled. 'Tou are correct," he countered. "I
ask, not because I do not already know, but because I wish to test whether it
is possible for one of your degraded race to tell the truth."
"Why
test that?" came back the brazen Roy, "for doubtless you, who know
everything, know that, too."
Myles
could not help admiring the insulting calm with which this furry man of
inferior race confronted his relentless captors.
"Who are you, rash one?" he asked.
The prisoner drew himself up proudly, with
folded arms, and answered: "I am Otto the Bold, son of Grod the Silent."
"Ah,"
Myles said, "the son of a king. And I am the father of a king. Well, then,
as one man to another, tell me where you got this gun."
"Gun?" Otto queried. "Is that the name of this
weapon of bad omen? Know then that I got it from you yourself when I wounded
you beneath the tree beside the brook at the foot of the mountains, before the
Vairkings of Jud the Excuse-Maker drove me off. I have spoken!"
"And
spoken truly," Cabot replied, concealing his surprise with difficulty. Of course. Why had he not guessed it before? But there were
still some more points to clear up, so he continued: "Why did you shoot
those two arrows at me in the house at the top of the mountains?"
"Because we wished to explore the house. But you killed my companion, whereupon I
resolved to kill you in revenge, and to capture the
noisy 'gun'—and is that the right word? So I trailed you. The rest you
know."
"Remember,
I know everything," Myles said, grinning. "But did you ever
see any one but me shoot the gun?"
"You
know I never did," was the reply. "No one on Poros, save Cabot the
Magician and Otto the Bold, has ever done this big magic. I saw the results,
but not the means, when you killed my companion; so I experimented for myself
after I had stolen your gun, and soon I learned how, after which I carefully
conserved the magic stones until last night when I shot one of the Vairkings of
Sur, so as to give visible proof of my magic powers to my doubting
comrades."
The
earth-man heaved a sigh of relief. There existed as yet no alliance between the
Formians and the Roies. Pray Heaven that such a calamity would never suggest
itself to the minds of either race; for if so, then woe to Vairkingial
"Son
of a king," he said, "return to your people
and your father. Give him my greetings, and tell them that you are the friend
of a great magician, who lent you his 'gun', who transported you through the
air within the walls of Sur, where no Roy has ever stood or will ever stand,
and who last night caused phantom warriors to attack your camp under the guise
of followers of Att the Terrible. Go now. My men will give you safe conduct to
the plain below."
"And
what is the price of this freedom?" Otto disdainfully inquired.
"The
friendship of a king's father for a king's son," Myles Cabot replied with
dignity.
The two drew themselves up proudly and
regarded each other eye-to-eye for a moment.
"It is well," Otto the Bold
declared. "Good-by." And he departed under the escort of a Vairking
guard.
"The
master knows best," Crota remarked, sadly shaking his head, "but I
should have run the wretch through the body."
The
next morning Cabot thanked the headman of Sur for his hospitality, and took up
the return trail for Vairkingi, the vacancies in his ranks being filled by the
loan of soldiers from Sur. The party had gone but a short distance when they
found the way barred by a formidable body of Roies. But before these came
within bow-shot a bullet from Cabot's rifle brought two of them to the ground,
whereupon the rest turned and fled precipitately.
Later
in the day a bend in the road brought them suddenly upon a furry warrior.
Myles fired, and the man instantly fell to the ground. But when they reached
the body there was not even a scratch to be found on it; the bullet had missed.
"Dead
of fright," Myles thought; but no, for the heart was still beating,
although faintly, and the lungs were still functioning.
"Sit up therel"
Myles ordered.
"Can't," The Roy
replied. "I'm dead."
"Then
I'll make you alive again," his captor declared, placing his hands on the
head of the Roy. "Abra cadabra camunya."
Thereat
the soldier sat up with a sigh of relief, and opened his eyes.
"Stand upl" Myles ordered.
For
reply the Roy jumped to his feet and started running for cover.
"Haiti" the earth-man commanded.
"Halt, or I'll kill you again I"
The man stopped. "Return!"
The man returned, like a sleep walker.
"What do you mean by running away? Now listen intently. Are you one of the
men of Grod?" "Yes."
"Then
go to Otto, the son of Grod, and tell him that it is the order of Cabot the
Magician that Vairking expeditions into these mountains, in search of golden
cubes and other minerals, be unmolested. Tell Otto that he can recognize my
expedition by the blue flags which they will carry hereafter. Now go. I have
spoken."
The
Roy warrior ran up the trail and this time was not halted.
"Another
mistake," Crota remarked, half to himself.
The
rest of the return to Vairkingi was without event. On the way the radio man
made notes of the best deposits of quartz, limestone, and fluorspar. Also he
carried with him a few large sheets of mica. But he found no traces of galena,
zinc ore, or platinum. These would require at least one further expedition.
Crota
spared no extravagant language in relating to Jud the exploits of Cabot the
Minorian in raising the siege of the village of Sur; and Jud repeated the story
with embellishments to Theoph the Grim. Also the long deferred sleight-of-hand
performance was held at the palace, to the great mystification of the
white-furred king.
Arkilu
did not show up to mar the occasion. In fact, little Quiwen reported that her
sister was very indignant at the earth-man for trifling with her affections,
and had turned to Jud in her pique. Needless to say, Jud had taken every
possible advantage of Cabot's absence to reinstate himself
with the chestnut-furred princess. But neither Myles nor Quivven appeared to
exhibit any very great sorrow at this turn of affairs.
So long as Arkilu's hostility did not become
active, the support of Jud and Theoph ought to prove quite sufficient.
The
standing of Cabot the Minorian as a magician was now well established, and
accordingly Jud the Excuse-Maker and even Theoph the Grim were willing to
accord him all possible assistance in the gathering of the materials with which
he was to perform his further magic, namely radio.
Theoph
made a levy upon all the nobles, and turned over to the earth-man upward of
five hundred soldiers with their proper carts and equipment. Jud (himself,)
Quivven (still unknown to her father), and Crota (the soldier who had
demonstrated on the expedition an intelligence far above his social class),
were enrolled as laboratory assistants. Several inclosures adjoining Cabot's
yard were vacated and converted into factories, in one of which were mounted a
pair of huge millstones such as the Vairkings use in grinding certain of their
food.
Myles
divided his men roughly into three groups. One group, under Crota, he
established at the clay deposits to the northeast of the city, to make bricks
and charcoal.
The second group, under Jud, were engaged in
the mining operations, digging copper ore, quartz rock, fluorspar, limestone,
and sand, at various points in the mountains, and carting some of the limestone
to the brickyard, and the rest with the other products to Vairkingi. The carters
carried back with them to the mountains all the necessary supplies for the
expeditions.
The
third group, under Quivven, were engaged in setting up
the grist mill, and in other building and preparatory operations.
At
the claypits the first operation was to scrape off the surface clay and spread
it out thin in the open air, so it would age fast.
The
limestone, upon its arrival at the brickyard, was burned in raw brick ovens,
and then carted to Vairkingi, to be ground at the mill. It was then shipped
back to the brick plant, where it was mixed with the aged clay—first screened
—molded into bricks, baked, burned, and carted to Vair-kingi, to be ground into
cement.
Some of the ground limestone was retained at
Vairkingi for use in later glass-making, and some of the unground for smelting
purposes.
Other
aged clay was screened, moistened, molded, and baked to form ordinary brick.
Fire-brick was similarly made by the addition of white sand finely ground at
Vairkingi, but this kind of brick had to be baked much more slowly.
Thus
only a week or two after this whole huge industrial undertaking had begun, the radio man was in possession of fire-brick and
fire-clay with which to start the building of the smelting furnaces.
Meanwhile
-Myles Cabot, with a small bodyguard, kept traveling from one job to another,
giving general superintendence to the work. And when everything was well under
way he set out on another exploring expedition in search of galena, zinc ore,
and platinum.
Quiwen
had furnished the inspiration for this trip by suggesting that the sparkling
sands of a large river, which ran from west to east, about a day's journey
north of Vairkingi, might contain the silver grains which he sought. So
thither he set out one morning, with camping equipment and a detachment of
soldiers.
All day they marched northward across the level plains. Toward evening they reached a small estuary
of the main stream, and there they camped.
As
the silver sky pinkened in the west Myles Cabot ran quickly down this brook to
inspect the sands of the river, which lay but a short distance away.
The
pink turned to crimson, and then purple. The darkness crept up out of the
east, and plunged the whole face of the planet into velvet and impenetrable
black. But Myles Cabot did not return to the camping place.
XI
ATT
THE TERRIBLE
When
Myles Cabot left his encampment beside the little
brook, he hastened down stream to where the brook joined the big river, along
the edge of which there stretched a sandy beach. Falling on his knees, he
picked up handful after handful of the silver sands.
There was still plenty of daylight left for
him to examine the multitude of shiny metallic particles.
There could be no doubt of it, these sands
held some metal which could be separated out in much the same manner as that in
which the California gold miners of 1849 used to wash for gold, but only time
would tell whether or not this metal was the much-to-be-desired platinum which
the radio man needed for the grids, filaments, plates, and wires of his vacuum
tubes.
On
the morrow he would wash for this metal, using the wooden pans which he had
brought for that purpose. The precious dust he would carry back to Vairkingi,
melt it into small lumps if possible, and then try to analyze its composition
in his laboratory.
As
he sat on the sandy beach and thus laid his plans, his thoughts gradually
wandered away from scientific lines, and he began again to worry about Lilla.
It was many days since she had sent the SOS which had recalled him from earth to
Poros. Whatever she had feared must have happened by now. It was possible that
he would never be able to effect a return to Cupia.
Why not then accept the inevitable, settle down permanently among the
Vairkings, and solace himself as best he could?
Even
an ordinarily stalwart soul would have done his best and have been satisfied
with that. But Myles Standish Cabot possessed that indomitable will which had
given rise to the Porovian proverb: "You cannot kill a Minorian."
To such a man, defeat was
impossible He would
rescue the Princess Lilla
in the end; that was all there was to it.
So
he laid his plans with precision, as he sat on the sandy shore of the Porovian river in the crimsoning twilight.
Before
the velvet darkness completely enveloped the planet, the earth-man arose from
the sands, and began his return up the valley of the little estuary. But, as he
was hurrying along, and was passing through a small grove of trees, a dark form
noiselessly dropped on him from above.
The
creature lit squarely upon his back, wrapping its furry legs around his abdomen
and its furry arms around his neck. Although taken completely by surprise,
Cabot wrenched the creature's feet apart and then threw it over his head as a
bucking broncho would throw a rider, a jiu-jitsu trick which he had learned
from one of the Jap gymnasts at college.
The
Roy, for that is what Cabot's assailant proved to be, scrambled quickly to his
feet, although a bit stunned, and crouched, ready to spring at him again. The
earth-man planted his feet firmly apart, clenched his fists, and awaited the
onslaught; then, when the creature charged, he met him on the point of the jaw
with a well-aimed blow. Down crashed the furry one!
Cabot
was rubbing his bruised knuckles and viewing his fallen antagonist with some
satisfaction, when suddenly he was seized around the knees from behind, and was
hurled prone by one of the neatest football tackles he had ever experienced.
Squirming
quickly to a sitting position, he dealt the Roy who held his legs a stinging
blow beside the ear. The grip on his knees loosened, and he was just about to
scramble erect, when a third assailant caught him around the throat and pulled
him over backward. Then scores of these furry savages swarmed upon him from
every side. Yet still he fought, until his elbows were pinioned behind his
back, his eyes were blindfolded, and a gag was placed between his teeth.
Thereupon,
he ceased struggling, not because there was no fight left in him, but rather
because he wisely decided to save his strength for some time when he might
really need it. So he offered no further resistance when he was picked up and
thrown across a pair of brawny shoulders, and carried off, he knew not whither.
Finally, after what seemed many hours, he was
unceremoniously dumped onto the ground, and then jerked roughly to his feet.
His bandage was snatched off, and he found
himself standing in the center of a circle of flares, confronting a large, squat, and particularly repulsive
gray-furred Roy, who sat with some pretense of dignity upon a round boulder in
front of him. Beside him stood another Roy, evidently the one who had brought
him thither.
This
one now spoke. "See the pretty Vairking which I have brought you."
"If
that's a Vairking," the fat one remarked, "then I'm my own
father."
"If
he isn't a Vairking," the other countered,
"then why does he wear Vairking leather armor? Answer me that."
"Vairking
or not," the fat one declared, "he will do
very nicely to string up by the heels and shoot arrows at. For
quite evidently, he is no Roy. What say you to that, my fine
target?"
The guard removed the gag.
"I
say," Myles evenly replied, "that you had better not take any such
liberties with me."
"And why not,
furless?" the seated Roy sneered.
"First, let me ask you a question," Myles said. "Who is King of the Roies, Grod the
Silent or Att the Terrible?"
"Grod
the Silent, most assuredly. Why do you ask?"
"And do you know
Prince Otto, his son?"
"Otto
the Bold? Most assuredly."
"Know
then," the captive asserted, "that I am no Vairking, but rather a
Minorian, which is a sort of creature I'll venture you have never met before.
Furthermore, I am a particular
personal friend of Otto the Bold. He will not thank you to string up Cabot the
Minorian by the heels, and shoot arrows into him. I demand that I be taken
before Prince Otto."
Thereat
the fat Roy smiled a crafty smile. "I shall take you before Att the Terrible,"
he said.
It
thus became evident that this fat chieftain had falsely asserted his belief in
the kingship of Grod for the purpose of securing from Myles an admission as to
which side the earth-man favored.
The
rest of the night Myles spent on a pile of smelly bedding in a tent. He was
still bound, and was kept under constant surveillance by a frequently changing
guard. By morning, his arms below the elbows had become completely numb, in
spite of his having loosened his bonds somewhat by straining against them.
When the velvet night had given place to
silver day, the guard brought some coarse porridge in a rough stone howl, which
he held to the prisoner's lips until it was all consumed. Myles thanked him
politely, and then asked if he would mind chafing the numbed arms.
For reply, the soldier
kicked him savagely.
"Get
up!" he ordered. "The time is here to start the march. You'll wish
the rest of you were numb, too, when Att the Terrible starts shooting arrows
into your inverted carcass."
Presently,
Myles was driven into the open, the tents were struck and loaded onto
carts—probably stolen from the Vairkings—and the furry warriors took up the
march, with their prisoner in their midst. The fat chief alone rode in a cart;
all the others walked.
By straining at the thongs which bound his arms. Myles further loosened them sufficiently to
relieve the pressure on his blood vessels, and then by wiggling his fingers, he
managed finally to restore the circulation.
After that he began to take some interest in
his surroundings.
His
captors were a coarse-looking lot of brutes, with long gangling arms, thickset
necks, low foreheads, and prognathous jaws. In general, they more closely
resembled the anthropoid apes of the earth than they resembled the really
human, although furred Vairkings.
Their
weapons—wooden spears and swords, and flint knives—were like those of the
Vairkings, only cruder. They marched without any particular order or
discipline, and jested coarsely with each other as they ambled along.
After taking in all this, Myles next turned
his attention to the country through which they were passing. The trail led
upward into mountains. This at once aroused his interest. Here and there he
noted what he felt sure must be zinc-blende. Yes, and cropping out of the rocks
on the left was an unmistakable rosette of galena crystal!
The
radio man was sincerely glad that he had been captured. And so he even joked
jovially with the soldiers around him, until they became quite friendly.
At
one point, their route lay across a foaming mountain stream, by means of a log
bridge. As they were crossing over, one of the furry soldiers had the
misfortune to stumble, and in another instant completely lost his footing and
plunged headlong into the stream below. He happened to be one who had recently
become particularly chummy with the captive.
"Poor
fellow," one of the guard casually remarked.
"It's too bad he can't swim."
"I can," Myles shouted. "Quick, some
one cut my cords!"
And,
before any one could interfere, a young and impetuous Roy had drawn his knife
and severed the earth-man's bonds, thus permitting him to dive after the poor
creature who was rapidly being washed down stream by
the swift current.
It had all happened in an instant. A few
swift strokes brought Myles up to* the other. But it became no easy matter to
reach the shore. However, the troop of Roies showed much more interest in
regaining their captive, than they had shown in rescuing their comrade; and
thus, by the aid of their spears, finally dragged the two ashore.
Then
Cabot was bound again, and the march resumed. The carts had detoured, and so
the fat chief had not seen the episode.
"Better not tell him, any one," one
of the guard admonished, "or it will go hard
with the youngster. Our leader would not relish any chance of not being able to
present this furless Vairking to Art the Terrible."
"And will Att shoot
arrows into me?" Myles asked.
"Most
assuredly."
Myles thought to himself:
"I guess they are right, especially if Att knows how I was befriended by
Arkilu, whom he covets I"
Then he asked: "And
when am I to see the Terrible One?"
"To-morrow
morning," was the reply.
However, Myles Cabot fell asleep at the
encampment that night wondering when he would get that radio set finished for a
talk with Lilla and wondering whether that really was galena crystal which he
had passed on the road.
But
galena crystal wasn't going to help him any with Att the Terrible.
XII
COMPANIONS
IN MISERY
In the morning Myles Cabot was to be brought before Att the
Terrible, king of the Roies—for execution in the diabolical manner common to
these furry aborigines, namely by being strung up by the heels and then used as
a target for the archery of the king.
In
spite of this, he slept soundly and dreamed of radio sets and blast furnaces
and galena mines, until he was awakened by a soft furry paw shaking his
shoulder.
A voice spoke close to his
ear: "A life for a life."
"So
you have that proverb on this continent as well as in Cupia?" was his
reply. "Who are you, and what do you want?"
"I am the soldier whom
you saved from the raging mountain torrent, and what I want is to repay that
favor. It is really true that you are a friend of Otto the Bold?"
"Yes."
"Then come. The forces of Grod the
Silent, Prince Otto's father, are encamped but a short distance from here. I am
on guard over you for the moment. Come, while there is yet time."
.Cabot arose in haste. The other promptly
severed the cords which bound his elbows. Oh, how good it felt to have his arms
free once morel He held them aloft, and flexed and reflexed the lame and
bloodless muscles. Excruciating pain shot through the nerves of his forearm,
but it was pleasant pain, easy to bear, for it portended peace and rest to his
tired members.
He
wiggled all his fingers rapidly, and the pain gave way to a prickly tingling,
which in turn gradually faded off as the blood coursed freely through his veins
and arteries once more. He drew a deep sigh of relief.
"Cornel" the
guard commanded.
Together
the two left the tent, and threaded their way among the other tents out of the
camp, and down a rocky hillside path, the Roy in advance, with Myles following,
holding the other's hand for guidance.
Myles
lost all sense of direction in the jet black starless night, but the other,
born and reared on Poros, and hence used to the daily recurrences of twelve
hours of absolute darkness, walked sure-footedly ahead, and seemed to know
where he was going.
Finally, after about two hours of this
groping treadmill progress lights appeared ahead, and presently there came the
sentry's challenge: "Haiti Who is there?"
"Two messengers with word for Grod the
Silent," Cabot's conductor replied.
In
an aside, Cabot interestedly inquired: "How does it happen that this camp
is guarded, whereas the camp which besieged the village of Sur was not?"
"There is no need to post sentinels when
fighting against the Vairkings, for Vairkings never go
out in the dark, but we Roies are different."
"Why,
then, did we meet no sentinels when leaving your camp?"
"Because we were going out. We passed one but he did not challenge us. Coming back would be different."
At
this point the hostile guard interposed: "Stop that whispering among yourselves. Ho there, a light!"
Whereat a small detachment arrived on the double quick, with torches. The leader shaded his eyes with one palm,
and inspected Myles and his companion carefully.
"This
is a Vairking," he said in surprise, noting the leather trappings of the
earth-man. "You are spies. Seize them!"
In an instant they were seized and bound, and
thrown into separate tents under guard.
When morning came, Myles was fed and then led
before Grod the Silent. The earth-man smiled ingratiatingly as he entered, but
there was no sign of recognition on the stern face of the King of the Roies.
"Who
are you?" the latter asked, "and what are you doing here?"
"I am Cabot the Minorian," was the
reply, "a recently
escaped prisoner of Art the Terrible." ^
"Do not mention that accursed name in my
presencel" thundered the king; then: "I do not seem to recall your
name, but your face looks familiar. Where have I seen you before?"
"In
the ravine near Sur."
Grod's brow clouded.
"I
remember. You felled me with your fist," said he, darkly; then
brightening a bit: "But you spared me. Why?"
"Because
your death would please the Roy whose name you do not permit me to
mention."
"You
improve," Grod declared, smiling. "Know, then, that we Roies hold to
the maxim, 'A life for a life.' Accordingly, I shall set you free, and shall
content myself with shooting arrows into merely the soldier who brought you
here."
"You give me a life for a life
unconditionally?" asked Myles. "Yes."
"Then give me the life of the poor
soldier who saved me from the unmentionable one. Shoot your arrows into my body
instead."
"Very magnanimous of you," Grod
said. "And really, it makes but little difference to me just whom I
practice archery upon. Ho guard! Bring the other prisoner in
"
One of the soldiery accordingly withdrew, and
presently returned with—Quivven! Quiwen, of all persons!
Cabot gasped, and so did the golden-furred
Vairking maiden; then both uttered simultaneously the single word,
"You!"
The savage chief smiled. Said he, "A
slight mistake, guard; I meant you to bring the Roy soldier who was captured
with this furless one early this morning. But evidently it has turned out to be
a fortunate mistake, for it has brought to my attention the fact that this
common Vairking man and this noble Vairking lady are acquainted."
While
the Roy was speaking an idea occurred to Cabot; He was entitled by the code of
honor of this savage race to save a life. Chivalry demanded that he save the
life of this maiden rather than that of himself, or even the soldier who had
rescued him from Art the Terrible. Yet what would Lilla think?
Did
he not owe it to Lilla to save his own life in order that he might some day
return across the boiling seas to save her from
the unknown peril which menaced her? For him to sacrifice himself and her, or
even merely himself, for the sake of some strange woman, would fill Lilla with
consuming jealousy.
Luckily
Lilla was not here to see him make his choice. He was an officer and a
gentleman, to whom but one course lay open. And if he
decided in the way that would displease Lilla, then that very decision would forever
prevent Lilla from knowing.
So, his mind made up, he spoke: "O king,
you still owe me a life. Inasmuch as your guard has made the mistake of
substituting this young lady for the Roy warrior, whose life I had elected to
save, I now accept the substitution, and elect that you shall spare her life in
place of mine."
Quiwen the Golden Flame stared at him with
tears of gratitude and appreciation in her azure eyes. Grod the Silent smiled
knowingly in a manner which infuriated Myles, but fortunately Quiwen did not
notice this, so Myles let it pass.
Then
the Roy king spoke: "We shall see about that later. Meanwhile, guard,
bring in the right
prisoner."
The
guard sheepishly withdrew, and soon returned with the soldier who had
befriended Myles.
"Why
did you rescue this furless Vairking, who was a prisoner of your forces?" Grod asked the
newcomer.
"Because
he rescued me from a mountain torrent, O king," was the reply. "A life for a
life."
"Quite true," Grod admitted,
nodding his head contemplatively. "But was it altogether necessary to
that end that you leave your own forces?"
"No,
O king," the soldier replied, "but I fain would battle on your side.
I have had quite enough of the fat one who commands our outfit."
"Good!" cried Grod, clapping his
hands. "We shall need every man we can muster. Thus have ybu bought your
own life and freedom. Unbind him, guards, and give him weapons, so that he may
fight for us. As for you, you yellow minx, the quicker you get out of here the
better it will suit me. We are at war, and women have
no place in warfare. Therefore I gladly give you your life, which this furless
one had purchased.
"Do
not think," he continued, "that I do not know who you are, or that I do not
realize that I could hold you for high ransom. But for the
present it suits my purposes to release you; for my mind is a one-cart road,
and at present I am engaged in an important and highly
personal war.
"Besides, if I were to
keep you, my enemy might get hold of
you and collect the ransom himself, which would never do. Twelve days from now,
if I should be in need of carts, a messenger from me will
call at the palace of Theoph the Grim; and if you are at all grateful, you will
make me a present of about twenty sturdy wagons.
"As for you," turning to Myles,
"your life is mine, since you failed
to redeem it. Some day I may call upon you for it, but for the present I wish
to use it. You are detailed, as my personal representative, to escort this fady
safely to Vairkingi. Now both of you get out of here, for I have more important
things to do. I must put my army on the march."
One of the guards stepped up to Myles and cut
his bonds. Quiwen had not been bound.
"May I have arms, O king, so that I can
fulfill your mission with credit to you?" Myles asked, with a twinkle in
his gray eyes.
"You keep on improving," Grod
replied. "Yes, you may. Here, take my own sword. You are a brave man and
an able warrior, as my chin well remembers. May the Builder grant that some day
we shall fight side by side."
This gave Cabot an idea. "Why can that
not be now?" he Suggested. "Why not form an alliance with Vairkingi against the unmentionable one?"
But
Grod the Silent shook his head. "No," he said positively, "it
cannot be. In the first place, the unmentionable one is himself seeking to make such an alliance against me; and in the second place, Jhis is
my own private fight. I have spoken."
The Cabot had a further idea. "About the
wagons," he said, "would you mind sending for them to my brickyard
north of Vairkingi? That would be more convenient."
"Very well," Grod
replied.
Roy warriors then supplied the two prisoners
with portable rations, and escorted them for quite a distance from the camp, until they
struck a mountain trail.
This, the escort informed
them, led to Vairkingi. There the Roies left Myles and Quiwen alone.
The first thing that she asked was,
"With all these mountains full of warring Roies, do you believe that we
shall be safe?"
"I
think so," Myles replied. "The very fact that they are at war will
keep them much too busy to bother about us. Come on."
As
they hurried down the trail, each related his or her adventures to the other.
Cabot's have already been set down. As for Quiwen, she had gone with a few
soldiers to hunt for Myles after his prospecting party had returned and
reported his disappearance by the river; but her party had been killed, and she
had been taken prisoner.
"Did
Grod treat you with respect?" Myles asked, with clenched fists.
"Absolutely,"
she replied, tossing her pretty head. "I never knew a man so impersonal. I
am accustomed to have men recognize my presence and pay some attention to my
existence. But this brute—why, I might just as well have been a piece of
furniture or one of his servants. I don't believe he knows now what color my
eyes are, or whether I'm pretty or not. And you're just as bad as he is,"
she added somewhat irrelevantly.
"Your
eyes are blue, and you are very pretty," Cabot replied. "In fact, you
closely resemble my own wife, the beautiful Princess Lilla, who waits for me
far across the boiling seas."
"Which
reminds me to ask," Quiwen said abruptly. "How successful was your
expedition, apart from your being captured and getting yourself into all kinds
of trouble?"
So
he told her about the glistening metalic particles in the sands of the river.
Also how he had found what were probably zinc-blende and galena. Then they
discussed in detail his plans for his various factories. From time to time they
munched some of the food which had been given them.
The
day quickly sped, and evening drew near, yet still diey were upon the mountain
road with no sight of Vairldngi or of any landmark familiar to either of them.
Quiwen was for stopping and resting, but Myles urged her on.
"No
matter how tired you are," he said, "it is not safe to stop in this
strange country."
So still she struggled on. The sky darkened
without the usual pinkening of the west. All too well they knew what that
portended—one of the heaven-splitting tropical storms so common on Poros. And
they were right. The storm broke, the thunder roared
in one continuous volume of sound, the lightning and the rain alike poured down
in continuous sheets. The trail became a mountain torrent, so that they had to
cease their journey and crawl upon a huge boulder, in order to avoid being
engulfed by the water.
The
rain stopped as abruptly as it had begun. Again the silver sky appeared
overhead. The extempore brook rapidly disappeared, but left in its wake a wet,
muddy, and slippery trail, down which the two took up their journey once more.
Several
times Quiwen stumbled and fell, until at last her companion had to help her in
order to keep her going at all. But, in spite of this assistance, she finally
broke down and cried.
"I shall not go one
step farther," she asserted.
Myles
seated himself beside her and talked to her as one would soothe a child. And
that was what she was, a tired little child.
"You
can't stay here," he urged, "the ground is damp, the night is coming
on, and your fur is sopping wet."
"I
don't care anything about anything," she sobbed. "All that I know is
that I positively cannot go on."
So he decided that it would be necessary to
change his tactics. "I am ashamed of you," he replied, "You, the
daughter of a king, and can't stand a little exercise! Why, I believe you are just plain lazy."
For
reply she jumped to her feet in a sudden rage. "Oh, you beast!" she
cried. "You insulting beast! You common soldier,
you! I'll show you that I can stand as much hardship as the pampered womenfolk
of your Cupia, though the men of my country, even our common soldiers, would be
gentlemanly enough not to force a lady to endure any more than is absolutely
necessary. Oh, I hate you, I hate you, I hate
you!"
"You are not being forced to endure more
than is necessary," her escort harshly replied. "In the first place
it is necessary to go on; and, in the second place,
I am not forcing you. You can go on or not, just as you see fit, but as
for me, I don't intend to spend the night here in this wet valley. Good-by!"
For reply Quiwen raced ahead of him with,
"Oh, how I hate you!" and disappeared around a turn in the trail.
XIII
FURTHER
PROGRESS
His
change of tactics had worked, although it made him feel like a brute. But only by
arousing Quivven's anger could he stir her to continue the journey; and to
remain would have menaced her safety and her health.
She
had a good head start of him. The silver sky was turning crimson in the west.
Night was coming on. So he hurried after her down the wet and slippery trail.
At
last it became so dark that he had to slow down and walk; and finally merely
grope his way, shoving his feet ahead, one after the other, in order to be sure
to keep to the trail and not to stumble.
Time
and again his foot would touch something soft, which he would picture as some
strange and weird Porovian animal, a gnooper for instance. Quickly he would
withdraw the foot. Then waiting in suspense for the creature either to go away
or to spring upon him, at last he would cautiously push his foot forward, touch
the object again, kick it slightly, and find that it was only a clump of
Porovian grass or a rotted piece of lichen log.
Poor
Quiwen! How terrified she must be at such encounters!
After a while he got a bit used to these
occurrences, and accordingly each succeeding one of them delayed him less than
the preceding.
"You know," he said to himself,
"this will keep on until finally one of these obstacles will actually turn
out to be a gnooper, and it will eat me alive before I can get out of the
way."
Just
then his groping foot touched another of these soft objects.
"Get
out of my way," Cabot shouted, and gave it a kick. But this time it was
not attached to the soil. It yielded and wriggled a bit. Then it gave a
peculiar groaning sound.
Myles
leaped backward and waited. But nothing happened; so he tried to circle the
creature. Again the groan. His scientific curiosity
got the better of his caution. He approached once more and investigated more
closely, reaching down with his hand. The animal was covered with wet and muddy
fur.
It was Quiwenf
Tenderly
he raised the crumpled form in his arms, and groped on down the treacherous
trail.
Myles
wondered how long he could bear up with this dead weight in his arms. But just
as he was beginning to stagger, the road gave a turn and flattened out, and
there before him were lights, the flares and bonfires of a city! They had
reached the plain.
"Quiwen!"
he cried joyfully. "This is homel There ahead
lies Vairkingi!"
But she made no reply. Her
body was cold and still.
Quickly
he laid her on the ground and placed one ear to her chest. Thank the Great
Builderl Her heart still beat. So he chafed her hands
and feet, and worked her arms violently back and forth until she began to groan
protestingly.
"Quiwen!" he
cried. "Wake up! We are home!"
"Are you here,
Myles?" she murmured faintly,
"Yes."
"And you won't make me walk any
more?" "No."
"Then I'll wake up for you," she
murmured cheerfully, and promptly fell fast asleep.
Again
lifting her tenderly in his arms, he resumed the journey.
On
reaching the city he circled the wall until he came to one of the gates, where
he stood the girl on the ground and shook her gently into consciousness.
"Where am I?" she asked.
"At the gates of
Vairkingi," Myles answered.
She ran her hands rapidly over her mud-caked
fur.
"Oh,
but I can't go in like this," she wailed, "I'm covered with mud from
head to footl Think how I must lookl No, I refuse to go in."
"If
you stay here," he urged mildly, "then when morning comes every one
will see you, the Princess Quiwen, bedraggled with mud, hanging around outside
the city gates. Better far to go in now, and take a chance of
being seen by only one sentinel."
"Oh, you beast, you beastl" she
sobbed, beating him futilely with her tiny paws.
For
reply he seized her in his arms, swung her across one hip, and shouted:
"Open wide the gates of Vairkingi for Cabot the Minorian, magician to Jud
the Excuse-Maker, and to his Excellency Theoph the Grim!"
The
gates swung open, and the sentinel stared at them with surprise and some
amusement. Myles whipped out his sword, and the smile
froze on the soldier's face.
"Thus
do I teach men not to laugh at Myles Cabot," the earth-man growled.
"Remember that you have seen nothing."
And
he handed the soldier the choice blade of Grod the Silent. The soldier smiled
again.
"I
have seen nothing but a Roy, whom I robbed of his sword and drove off into the
darkness. It is a fine sword, and I will remember that I have seen nothing. May
the Great Builder bless Myles Cabot the Minorian."
Cabot glanced at his burden, Quiwen, the
beautiful. No wonder she did not want to be seen. It always humiliates a lady
not to look her best in public. But by the same token, no one could
possibly recognize her. He might perfectly well have saved the sword.
So
he passed on through the city streets. Finally he had to put the girl down, and ask her to help him find the way, which she did
grudgingly. At the gate of Jud's compound, Myles again swung her across his
hip, before he demanded entrance. No swords this time, for diplomacy would take
the place of payment.
"Myles Cabot demanding
entrance," he cried.
The
local guard inspected them carefully by the light of his torch.
"It
is Cabot all right," he replied, "and you look as though you had seen
some hard fighting. But who is this with you?
"A
girl of the Roies," answered Myles. "That is what the fighting was
about."
"Not
for mine!" the soldier asserted, grimacing. "Though there is no
accounting for tastes. They are filthy little beasts,
and spitfires as well, so I'm told. My advice to you, sir, is to throw it down a well."
Quiwen wriggled
protestingly.
"Perhaps I will,"
Myles laughed.
At
their own gate at last, he placed her once more on her feet, whereat she shook
herself free, raced into the house, slammed the door of her room.
Cabot
himself went right to bed, without waiting to wash or anything, and dropped
instantly to sleep the moment he touched his pile of bedding; yet, so intent
was he on wasting no time in getting Cupia on the air that he was up early the
next morning.
He found his laboratory force sadly
demoralized, owing to the absence of Quiwen and himself, but he quickly brought
order out of chaos, and set the men to work on their first real construction
job, to which all the other work had been mere preliminary steps.
Quiwen kept to her rooms, but one of the other maids roguishly informed
him: "The Golden One says she hates you."
Now
that his fire-bricks were ready, Myles Cabot laid out on paper the plans for
his smelting plant, all the units of which were to be lined with fire-brick.
First
he designed a furnace for roasting his ore. This furnace was to be in two
sections, one above the other, the lower holding the charcoal fire, and the
upper holding the ore. Later he planned to use the sulphur fumes of this
roaster to make sulphuric acid, which in turn he would use to make sal ammoniac
for his batteries. But at present he had not yet figured out this process in detail.
The smelting furnace, for smelting the
roasted ore into copper-matter, was to consist of a chimney about two feet in
diameter, sloping sharply outward for about two feet, and thence sloping
gradually inward again for a height of about ten feet. Near the bottom were to
be a number of small holes leading from an air passage.
This
air passage and the vent for the hot flames from the top of the smelter were to
run in parallel pipes made of hollow brick tile, to two chambers containing a
checker-work design of fire-brick. The two pipes were to be interchangeable;
so that, when the exhaust had heated one of of the checkerwork grids to a red
heat, the pipes could be switched, and the incoming air would be warmed by
passing through the heated grid. From gnooper hide and wood he could easily
construct bellows to pump in the air for the blast.
Molten
copper-matte and slag would be separately run off through two separate openings
at different levels near the bottom of the blast furnace.
To
further refine the matte, he designed a Bessemer converter, that is to say, a
barrel-shaped box of layers of fire clay, the inner layer being very rich in
quartz sand. This barrel, when filled with molten matte, would be laid on its
side; and a hot blast introduced through holes near this side would convert the
matte into pure copper in about two hours.
The first converter which he made was rather
small, as he expected that it would not last very well without metal
reinforcements, and of course he would have no metal for reenforcing purposes
until after he had run off at least one heat.
For the extraction of iron, he made crucibles
of fireclay, which he set in deep holes in the ground.
On the second morning after the unpleasant
homecoming, Quivven appeared. All her rage had burned out, and she was meek and
subdued.
With
downcast eyes she reported to Myles: "I am ready to go to work now."
With
a welcoming smile he patted her golden-furred shoulder, whereat her old anger
started to flare, again, but this one remaining ember merely flickered and died
out, and she submitted with a shrug of resignation.
So
the Radio Man explained to her his plans for the furnaces; then, leaving her in
charge of the work, he set out once more to the river of the silver sands, this
time accompanied by a heavy guard of Vairking soldiers, and flying a blue flag,
as agreed on with Prince Otto of the Roies.
As
he was departing, Quiwen flung her arms around him and begged him not to go to
certain destruction, but he gently disengaged himself, smiling indulgently at
this show of childish affection.
"My
dear little girl," he admonished, "most of our troubles last time
came from your following me. This time I warn you that I shall be very
displeased if you fail to stick closely to home and complete my two magic
furnaces for me. Promise me that you will."
So,
with tears of dread in her blue eyes, she promised; and the expedition set
forth. They were gone about five days. The trip proved uneventful from any
except a scientific viewpoint. They returned, bearing several pounds of
silvery grains, placermined from the river sands; also some large lumps of
galena crystal, and nearly a ton of zinc blende. They found that, under the skillful direction of little
Quivven, the furnaces were nearly completed.
Quivven
the Golden Flame was overjoyed at Cabot's safe return, while even he had to
confess considerable relief. He complimented her warmly on the progress of the
furnaces, and noted her pleasure at his expressions of approval.
A
few details which had perplexed her were quickly straightened out, and the work
was rushed to completion.
He
next tested the silver grains which he had brought fom the river. His method
was a very simple one, invented by himself. It
consisted in filling a clay cup with water and weighing it, then weighing a
quantity of the metal, and then putting this metal in the water and weighing
the whole. A simple mathematical calculation from these three weights gave him
the specific gravity of the metal. This process was repeated a number of times
to avoid error, and gave as an average the figure 21.5, which he remembered to
be the specific gravity of pure platinum.
As a further test he hammered some of the
supposed platinum into a.thin sheet,
and attempted, without success, to melt it. Then he laid a sliver of one of his
lead bullets on it, and tried again, with the result that the lead melted and
burned a hole through the metal sheet. This test convinced him that he truly
had found platinum.
Cabot
next turned his attention to glass making. For ordinary glass he would need
quartz, soda, potash, and limestone.
The
reason for his employing both soda and potash instead of merely one or the
other, was that together they would have a lower fusing point, and thus be
easier for him to handle with his crude equipment. For glass for his tubes he
would use litharge in place of the limestone.
The
quartz and the limestone were already available. Soda would be a byproduct of
his sal ammoniac when he got around to making it, but this would not be until
he had made sulphuric acid from his copper ore, which was a most complicated
process as he remembered it.
Potash could be got simply by dripping water
through wood-ashes,
evaporating the water, roasting the sediment, dissolving again in water,
letting the impurities settle, and then evaporating the clear liquid, and
roasting again. He started this process at once.
But
he had no idea how to make litharge. Furthermore, he could not blow his glass
until he had metal tubes, so he abandoned further steps for the present.
While
he was pondering over these problems a messenger arrived, demanding his
immediate presence at the quarters of Jud the Excuse-Maker.
Jud
was in a state of great excitement when the earth-man arrived.
Said
Jud: "Do you remember what you told me about the beasts of the south, who
swim through the air, talk soundless speech, and use magic slingshots like
yours which you captured from the Roies near Sur?"
"Yes,"
Cabot replied. "I hope that by this time I have given sufficient
demonstration of my truthfulness so that you now believe the story."
"Oh,
I believed it at the time," Jud hastily explained, "But now I have
proof of it, for we have captured one of these beasts. That is, we think it is one of them. I want you to see and identify it, before we present
it to Theoph the Grim."
"Thereby
displaying commendable foresight," Myles commented. "Where is this
Formian?"
"In
a cage in the zoo," the Vairking noble replied. "Come; I will take
you there."
So together the two threaded the streets of
Vairkingi to the zoo. This was part of the city which the earth-man had never before visited.
Its denizens fascinated him.
There were huge water snakes with humanlike
hands. There were spherical beasts with a row of legs around the equator, a row
of eyes around the tropic of cancer, and a circular mouth rimmed with teeth at
the north pole. There were—
But at this point Jud urged
him on into another room, where he promptly forgot all the other creatures in the
sight which met his eyes.
In a large wooden cage in the center of the
room was an enraged ant-man gnawing at the bars, while a score or so of
Vairking warriors stood around and prodded him with spears.
"Stop!" Jud shouted at the soldiery, whereat they
all fell back obediently.
This called the attention of the imprisoned
beast to the newcomers, so he looked up and stared at them. Cabot stared back.
Then he rushed forward to the cage!
XIV
OLD FRIENDS
"Doggo!"
he cried. "Doggo! They told me you were dead!"
But
of course all this was lost on the radio speech sense of the prisoner. Vairking
soldiers interposed their spears between Myles Cabot and what they believed
was sure destruction at the jaws of the black beast. Cabot recoiled.
"Jud," he called out, "order
off your henchmen! I am not crazy, nor do I court
death. This creature is the only one of the Formians whom I can control. He
will prove a valuable ally for us, if I can persuade him to forgive the
indignities which your men have already heaped upon him."
"I
do not believe you," Jud replied, "for how can men communicate with
beasts, especially with strange beasts such as this, the like of which man
ne'er set eyes on before?"
"Remember that I am a magician,"
Myles returned somewhat testily. Then seeing that Jud was still obdurate, he
addressed the guards. "You know me for a magician?"
"Yes," they
sullenly admitted.
"And you know the magic on which I am
now engaged, and to which all of my recent expeditions relate?"
"Yes," one replied. "You seek
to call down the lightnings of heaven, and harness them to transport your words
across the boiling seas."
"Rightly spoken!" the Radio Man
asserted. "Therefore, if you do not stand aside, I shall call those
lightnings down for another purpose, namely, to blast you. Stand aside!"
One
of the guards spoke to another, "Why should we risk our lives to save his?
Let the magician save himself!"
So
they stood aside. Myles stepped up to the cage, and he and Doggo each patted
the other's cheek through the bars.
Jud the Excuse-Maker sheepishly explained,
"I knew that you were speaking the truth, but I wished to learn what
method you would use to handle the soldiers. You did nobly."
"Bunk!" the earth-man ejaculated,
well knowing that the Vairking would not understand him.
"What means that word?" Jud
inquired, much interested.
"That,"
Myles replied, grinning, "is a complimentary term often applied on my own
planet, the earth, to the remarks of our great leaders."
Jud, highly complimented, let it go at that.
Myles now ordered paper and a charcoal pencil, and began a conversation with
his ant friend.
"They told me you were dead," he
wrote. "Or I never would have left the city of Yuriana or deserted your
cause."
"My
cause died with my daughter, the queen," Doggo replied. "I alone
survive. I escaped by plane, and have been flitting around the country ever
since, until my alcohol gave out. Then these furry Cupians captured me. They
got me with a net so that I could not fight back.
"Also, I was distant from my airship at
the time, or it would have gone hard with them for the ship is well stocked
with bombs, and rifle cartridges, and one rifle. Now tell me of yourself. How
do you stand with these furry Cupians?"
"They are not Cupians." Myles
wrote. "They are Vair-kings, a race much like myself,
who send messages with their mouths and with their ears, instead of using their
antennae
for both, as the Cupians and you Formians do. Do you remember the old legend of
Cupia, that creatures like me dwell beyond the boiling seas? Well, it appears
to have been true, though how any one could have known or even suspected it, is
a mystery to me."
"You
have not yet told me how you stand," the ant-man reminded him.
"They
recognize me as a great magician," Myles answered, "and I have
promised to build them a radio set, and to lead them,to
victory over the Formians."
"Just as you did for the Cupians,"
Doggo mused. "But you will have a harder task here, for these furry
creatures appear to know no metals, nor any of the arts save
wood-carving."
They
patted each other's cheeks again. Then, before any one could interfere, Myles
Cabot unbolted the door of the cage, and out walked Doggo, a free ant once
more.
The
soldiery, and Jud with them, promptly scattered to the four walls of the room.
"Come
over here, Jud," Myles invited, "and meet my friend—that is, unless
you are afraid."
"Oh,
no, I do not fear him," Jud the Excuse-Maker replied, "but I do not
consider it consistent with the dignity of my position to be seen fraternizing
with a wild beast."
It was typical. Myles laughed. Then he led
the huge ant home with him to his quarters.
Quivven
was amazed, but not at all frightened, at the great black creature; and when an
introduction had been effected on paper, she and Doggo developed quite a strong
liking for each other.
As
soon as the Formian had been fed and assigned to a room in the ménage—some improvement over the menagerie, by the way—his host and hostess
took him on a tour of inspection of their laboratory.
With the true scientific spirit so
characteristic of the cultured but warlike race which once dominated Cupia,
Doggo plunged at once into the spirit of the almost super-
Porovian
task which Myles had undertaken; and it soon became evident that the new comer
would prove to be an invaluable accession. His scientific training would dovetail
exactly with that of the earth-man, and would supplement it at every point.
Almost
at the very start he suggested a solution of the problems which had been
puzzling Myles.
Cabot's recollection of the process of
sulphuric acid manufacture had been that it required a complicated roasting
furnace, two filtering towers, and a tunnel about two hundred feet long made
of lead, and into which nitric acid fumes had to be injected. His recollection
of nitric acid manufacture was that it required sulphuric acid among other
ingredients. So how was he to make either acid without first having the other?
And furthermore, where was he to procure enough lead to build a
two-hundred-foot tunnel?
Doggo solved these problems very nicely—by avoiding them.
"What
do you need sulphuric acid for?" he wrote. "Merely to use in making
hydrochloric acid," wrote the earth-man in reply. "And
that?"
"To use in making sal ammoniac for my batteries." "Do you need nitric acid for anything
except the manufacture of sulphuric?" "No."
"Then,"
Doggo suggested, "let us make our sal ammoniac directly from its elements.
We shall build a series of about twenty vertical cast-iron retorts, as soon as
you have smelted your iron. These we shall fill with damp salt, pressed into
blocks and dried. We shall heat these retorts with charcoal fires, and through
them we shall pass then, air, and the sulphur fumes of your ore-roasting.
"After about fifteen days we shall daily
cut out the first retort, dump out the soda which has formed in it, refill it,
and place it at the farther end of the series. The liquid, which condenses at
the end of the series, will be diluted hydrocholoric acid. By passing the fumes
of roast animalrefuse through it we shall convert it into sal ammoniac
solution."
Accordingly, the quicker they started their
foundry operations, the better.
By this time chalcopyrite, quartz, and
charcoal were present at Vairkingi in large quantities. The ore was first
roasted, and then was piled into the smelter with the quartz and charcoal; the
air-bellows were started, fire was inserted through the slaghole, and soon a
raging pillar of flame served notice on all Vairkingi that the devil-furnace of
the great magician was in full blast. By this time it was night, but no one
thought of stopping.
Of course, there were complications. The
furry soldiers deserted the pumps at the first roar of green-tinged flame, but
Doggo instantly stepped into the breach and operated all of the bellows with
his various legs. Finally the warriors, on seeing that Myles and Quivven had
survived the ordeal of fire, sheepishly returned to their posts, and were soon
loudly boasting of their own bravery and of how their fellows would envy them
on the morrow when they should relate their experiences.
Along
toward morning Cabot drew his first heat of molten matter into a brick ladle
and poured it into the converter. It was an impressive sight. The shadowy
wooden-walled inclosure, lit by the waving greenish
flare of a pillar of fire, which metamorphosed the white skin of the earth-man
into that of a jaundiced Oriental, tinged Quivven with green-gold, and glinted
off the shiny carapace of Doggo as off the facets of a bloodstone. In the
darkness of the background, toiled the workers at their pumps.
Then
there came a change. The fires died down, the pumping ceased, oil lamps were
lit, and the ghostly glare gave place to a faint but healthy light, although
over all hung the ominous silence of expectancy.
The
ladle was brought up, a hand-hole-cover removed, and
out flowed a crimson liquid, tinting all the eager surrounding faces with a
sinister ruddiness.
Again the red glare, as the ladle was poured
into the barrel-shaped converter. Then the pumps were started again, and the
blast from the converter replaced that of the furnace with its ghostly light.
Two hours later the converter was tipped, and pure molten copper was poured out
into the ladle. Once more the sinister ruddiness.
Quickly the molds were filled, the red light
was gone, the spell was broken, conversation was
resumed. The first metallurgy of Vairkingi was an accomplished fact.
Day came, and with it loud pounding on the
gate. Cabot answered it, carelessly and abstractedly sliding back
the bolt before inquiring who was outside. The gate swung open with a bang,
almost knocking Myles into a flower bed, and in rushed a Vairking youth with
drawn sword and panting .heavily.
"You beast!" he cried, lunging at
the earth-man as he spoke.
But
in his haste and anger he lunged too hard and too far; so that Cabot, although
unarmed, was able to step under his guard and grasp him by the wrist before he
recovered. Quick as lightning the boy's sword arm was bent up behind his back,
and he was "in chancery", to use the wrestling term.
Slowly,
grimly, Cabot forced the imprisoned hand upward between the shoulder-blades of
his opponent, until with a groan the latter relinquished the sword, and it fell
clattering to the ground.
Smiling,
Cabot stooped down and picked it up, and forced the young intruder against the
wall.
"Now," said the
earth-man, "explain yourself."
The boy faced Myles like a cornered panther.
"It's Quivven,"
he snarled. "You have stolen my Quiwen."
"Nonsense!" Myles exclaimed. "What do you
mean?"
"I
am Tipi the Steadfast," the youth replied. "Long have I loved the
Golden Flame, and she me, until you came to this city. When you arrived I was
away on a military expedition, winning distinctions to lay
at the tiny feet of my fair one. Last night I returned to find her working at
your laboratory. One or the other, you or I, must die."
"You are absurd!"
"In
my country," Tipi returned, looking the earth-man straight in the eye,
"no common soldier is permitted to dictate manners to a gentleman. I
repeat that Quivven—"
But at this point, Myles cuffed the young
Vairking over one ear, knocking him flat upon the walk; and, as he scrambled
sputtering to his feet, dealt him another blow which sent him reeling into the
street. Then Myles barred the gate, and turned toward the house.
In the doorway stood Quiwen, shaking with laughter. Myles was immediately embarrassed. He hadn't
known that his encounter had been observed. He hated to show off, and was
afraid that his actions had appeared very melodramatic.
"Isn't Tipi silly?" she asked.
"But he may make trouble with your
father," Myles said, with a worried frown.
"Oh, I'm not afraid of
father."
"But he will put an end to my
experiments."
So
Quiwen went home to chat with her father before young Tipi could get there to
stir up possible trouble. She returned later in the day to resume her work.
While she was gone, Cabot conferred with Doggo.
"Why are you building this radio
set?" the ant-man wrote. "I did not ask you before in the presence of
the lady, for I felt that perhaps you did not wish her to know your
plans."
"Doggo,
you show remarkable intuition," Myles wrote in reply. "It is true
that I do not wish any of the Vairkings to know. My idea is to communicate with
Cupia, learn how Lilla is getting along, and encourage my supporters there to
hold out until in some way I can secure a Formian airship and return across the
boiling seas."
"Then
cease your work," Doggo wrote, "for my plane, in perfect condition,
lies carefully hidden in a wood not a full day's journey from this city. All
that we need is alcohol for the trophil-engines."
XV
PLANS
FOR ESCAPE
"We
can make the
alcohol in a few days in my laboratory," Cabot wrote, "but it will
not do for us to escape too precipitately, lest our plans be discovered and
blocked. The Vairkings like sleight-of-hand, and wish to keep me with them as
their court magician. Let us bide our time until they become sufficiently
accustomed to you, so that they will not question your accompanying me on an
expedition. Then, away to the plane, and off to Cupia!"
The
ant-man assented. It seemed logical. And yet I wonder if this logic would not
have done credit to Jud the Excuse-Maker. I wonder if Cabot was not subconsciously
influenced by a scientific desire to complete his radio set in this land of
people who used only wood and flint. I wonder.
At all events, the work
proceeded.
He had planned to use the slag from the
copper furnace as the "ore" for his iron, but the more he thought
about it, the more he realized that its high sulphur content would probably
ruin any steel which he produced. Fortunately, however, he ran across a deposit
of magnetic iron ore near Vairkingi.
This
he ground and placed in his crucibles with charcoal, and they built charcoal
fires in the pits around them. The slag he skimmed off with copper—later
iron—ladles. The melting had to be repeated many times in order to purify the
iron sufficiently, and further in order to secure just the right carbon content
for cast-iron, steel, or wrought-iron, according to which he needed for any
particular purpose. This securing the proper carbon content was largely a
matter of cut-and-try.
With
iron and steel available, he now made pots, retorts, hammers, anvils, drills,
wire-drawing dies, and a decent Bessemer converter.
Copper tubes for glass-blowing,
and copper wire were drawn. A simple wooden lathe was made for winding thread
around the wires. This thread, by the way, was the only Vairkingian product
which the earth-man found ready to his hand.
As soon as the iron retorts were available,
the joint manufacture of sal ammoniac and soda was started, as already
outlined by Doggo.
In iron pots, Cabot melted together finely
ground white sand, with lime, soda, and potash, and blew the resulting glass
into bottles, retorts, test tubes, and other laboratory apparatus; also jars
for his electric batteries. He used both soda and potash, as this would render
the glass more fusible than if made with either alone.
Lead was melted from galena crystal in small
quantities for solder. Thus was suggested to Doggo, the manufacture, on the
side, of bullets, gunpowder, and cartridges, for the rifle which Myles had in
his quarters, and for the one which lay in the concealed airplane.
Tales of the copper-smelting had spread among
the populace, who evinced such great interest that double guards had to be
placed and maintained about the laboratory inclosure. And every returning
military expedition brought with it samples of unusual minerals.
Meanwhile,
Cabot instituted a regular campaign of getting Vairkingi accustomed to Doggo.
Every day, Doggo would parade the high-walled streets, with Quiwen the Golden
Flame perched upon his back. The ten-foot ant inspired great interest and
considerable fear.
She
enjoyed her rides thoroughly, not only for the novelty of the thing, but also
because her seat on his six-foot-high back brought her head above the level of
the fence palings, and thus enabled her to survey the private yards of
everyone.
Tipi had not been seen or heard from..
Arkilu the Beautiful thoroughly made up with
the earth-man, and even admitted that her love for him had been a mistake. Plans for her wedding with Jud
proceeded rapidly.
When
this coming marriage was publicly announced, Art the Terrible sent in a Roy
runner with the message that he didn't in the least care.
. Quivven now lived in the palace, so as to be near her father, but
came to work regularly each day. Theoph the Grim interposed no objection
to this, and, in fact, frequently accompanied his daughter to the laboratory.
He loved to mess around the bottles and retorts, and lost much of the grimness
when engaged in this childish meddlesomeness.
So every one was happy except Tipi the
Steadfast and Att the Terrible.
Jud continued the operation of the brickyard,
even though Cabot had no more need of bricks, for Jud planned to build himself
a brick palace which would outshine even the palace of King Theoph.
Melting the platinum for the wires presented
a problem, until Myles thought of electrolizing some ordinary water into its
constituent hydrogen and oxygen, and then burning these two materials together
in a double blow-pipe, much like that used in oxyacetylene welding.
But
to do this he had to make batteries. To this end he already had sal ammoniac
and jars. He needed carbon and zinc. For carbon he pressed charcoal into
compact blocks. To extract zinc from the blend ore he made long cylindrical
retorts of clay, with a long clay pipe for a vent. The ore, after being
thoroughly roasted in the copper-roasting furnace to remove all sulphur, was
ground, mixed with half its weight of powered charcoal, and then charged into
the retorts, where it was baked. The result was to distill the pure zinc,
which condensed on the walls of the tubes.
Cabot
now at last had all the elements for his batteries, and so was able, by
employing about seventy cells in multiple, to get the two volts, three hundred
fifty amperes, necessary to electrolize the oxygen and hydrogen for melting
his platinum.
The
platinum proved to be quite free of iridium, and so was easily drawn into
wires.
Needless to state, the distilling of alcohol
in large quantities, ostensibly for the laboratory burners, but actually for
Doggo's airplane, was commenced as soon as they had blown their first glass
retorts.
Myles was going strong!
One
day, in the midst of all this technical progress, as Myles was passing through
one of the streets of Vairkingi on some errand or other, and admiring the
quaint and brightly colored wood carvings on the high walls which lined the
way, his attention was arrested by the design over one of the gateways.
It
was a crimson swastika within a crimson triangle, the insignia of the priests
of the lost religion of Cupia, the priests who had befriended him in their
hidden refuge of the Caves of Kar, when he was a fugitive during the dark days
of his second war against the ant-men.
Could it be that the lost religion was also
implanted upon this
continent? Myles had never discussed religion with Arkilu, or Jud, or Quiwen,
or Crota, or any of his Vairking friends. Somehow the subject had never
come up. Full of curiosity, Cabot knocked in the door.
Immediately
a small round aperture opened and a voice from within inquired "Whence
come you?"
For
reply, the earth-man gave one of the passwords of the Cupian religion. To his
surprise, the gate swung open, and he was admitted into the presence of a
long-robed priest, clad exactly like his friends of the Caves of Kar.
"What do you
wish?" asked the guardian of the gate.
Having
made his way so far, Myles decided to continue, on the analogy of the religion
of his own continent. Accordingly, he boldly replied, "I wish to speak
with the Holy Leader."
"Very
well," said the guard; and closing the gate and barring it, he led Myles
through many winding passages, to a door on which he knocked three times.
The
knock was repeated from within, the door opened, and Myles entered to gaze upon
a strangely familiar scene. The room was richly carved and colored. On three sides hung the stone lamps of the Vairkings. Around
the walls sat a score or more of long-robed priests, some on the level and some
on slightly raised platforms. On the highest platform of all, directly
opposite the point where Cabot had entered, sat the only hooded figure in the
chamber, quite evidently the leader of the faith.
Him the earth-man
approached, and bowed low.
Whereat, there came the unexpected words:
"Welcome to Vairkingi, Myles Cabot."
Then the priest descended, took the visitor
by the hand, and led him to a seat at his own left. A few minutes later, the
assembly had been temporarily suspended, and Myles and his host were chatting
together like old friends.
Myles told the venerable prelate the complete
history of all his adventures on both continents of the planet Poros, not
omitting to dwell with considerable detail upon the vicissitudes of the lost
religion of Cupia. This interested the priest greatly, and he asked numerous
questions in that connection.
"Strange! Strange!" he ruminated.
"It is undoubtedly the same religion as ours. So there must at some time
have been some connection between the two continents."
"Yes, there must have been," the
earth-man assented, "for the written language of both Cupia and Vairkingi
is the same. Yet the totally different flora and fauna of the two continents
negatives this history."
"Where did the Cupians originate, if you
know?" the priest inquired.
."We
do not know," Myles replied, "but there are two conflicting legends.
One is that the forerunners of the race came from across the boiling seas. The
other is that they sprang, fully formed, from the soil. There is also a legend
that creatures like me dwell beyond the boiling seas; and this legend, at least, appears to be borne out by the existence of your
Vairkings."
"Strange!
Still more strange!" the prelate declared. "For we
have but one story
of our origin.
The race of Vairkings descended from another world above the skies. Who knows
but that we, like you, came from that place which you call the planet—Minos, I
think, you said?"
After some further conversation, the conclave
was called to order again, and Myles took this as the signal for his departure.
He was given a warm invitation to return.
Truly,
a new avenue of speculation had been opened up to him by his chance meeting
with the Holy Leader. Myles firmly resolved to return again at the earliest
opportunity. But, from this time on, events moved with such
rapidity that never again did he enter the sacred precincts.
First,
he was stumped by his radio tubes. How was he to make a vacuum-pump which would
exhaust the air?
The
solution, when it finally occurred to him, was absurdly simple; he utilized
atmospheric pressure.
He
made a glass tube thirty feet long, and sealed his grid, his plates and his
lead-wires into one end, closing that end off hermetically. Then he fashioned a
piston of waterproof cloth fiber so as to fit into the closed end, almost
touching these elements and yet free to move away from them without tearing
them. Then he filled the tube with water, and inverted it. But the water did
not drop away to a height of about twenty-eight feet, as it would have done on
Earth.
Of
course not, for this was Venus—Venus of an atmospheric pressure practically
equal to that of earth, holding the water up; and yet with a
gravity much less than that of Earth, tendingrto pull the water down!
But,
by lengthning the pipe sufficiently, Cabot finally got the proper balance, the
fiber piston was pulled down, and a partial vacuum, practically free of
water-vapor had been created. He then sealed off the upper portion of the glass
tube with his blow-torch, and had his radio triad.
For
these radio tubes, the glass was made according to a special formula. Of this
same glass, Cabot fashioned lenses for the goggles which he and Doggo planned
to wear on their trip home across the boiling seas.
One of the constituents of this special glass
is lead monoxide, commonly known as litharge. This gave the Radio Man some
concern, until Doggo suggested melting lead in a rotating cylindrical iron drum
with spiral ribs. By pumping cold air in one end of this drum, fine particles
of litharge were driven out through the other, where they accumulated in a
stationary container.
About this time the king and Jud began
clamoring for results, so Cabot made a few electric lights with platinum
filaments. And entirely apart from pacifying his two patrons it was well that
he did this, for the speedy burning out of these lights showed him that he had
a new problem to face, namely: the elimination of all traces of oxygen in his
tubes. He got rid of considerable by placing tubes in a strong magnetic field
while exhausting, but this was not quite enough.
It looked as though his experiments would
have to end at this point; for with an immense quantity of alcohol completed,
and with pyrex glass for their goggles, everything was all set for the
conspirators to locate Doggo's hidden plane and fly across the boiling seas to
Cupia.
The
Vairkings were by now sufficiently used to the huge ant-man and to his
participation in Cabot's scientific experiments, so that no objection would be
raised to his accompanying the radio man on one of the latter's expeditions in
search of certain minerals which he believed could be found in the country.
Two
carts, laden with tents, food and bedding, were taken along, and beneath these
supplies he placed the alcohol and goggles. There was no need to conceal them,
for none of the Vairkings, except Quiwen, ever had any very distinct knowledge
of what he was about, and to her he explained that the alcohol was for the
purpose of loosening certain materials from the solid rocks, and that the
goggles were to protect his and Doggo's eyes from the fumes.
A
squad of soldiers pulled the carts. Doggo had demurred at this, suggesting that
the soldiers be left behind, and offering to pull them himself, but Myles
pointed out how easily he could scatter the Vairkings when the time came, by
threatening them with his "magic sling-shot" (i. e., rifle).
Early
in the morning they set forth, just as the unseen rising sun began to tint the
eastern sky with purple. When the time came to say farewell to Quiwen Myles
found to his surprise that his voice was positively choked with emotion.
"Good:by, Golden Flame," he said. "Please
wish me a safe journey."
"Of course I do," she said,
"But why so sad? You sound as though you never expected to see me
again." "One never can tell," he replied.
"Your
food has disagreed with you," she bantered. "I feel confident that
you will-return. For have you not often quoted to me: "They cannot kill a
Minorian?" Run along now, and come back safely."
Thus he left her, a smile on her face and a
tear in his eye. He hated to deceive Quiwen, who had been a good little pal, in
spite of her occasional flare-ups of temper. He looked back and waved to her
where she stood like a golden statue upon the city wall; it would be his last
glimpse of a true friend. Then he set his face resolutely to the eastward.
Not
only did he feel a pang at leaving Quiwen, but he felt even more of a pang at
leaving his radio-set half finished. The scientist always predominated in his
makeup; and besides, like the good workman that he was, he hated an unfinished
job.
But
he realized that his radio project had been only a means to an end—the end
being to get in touch with his friends and family in Cupia—and that this end
was about to be accomplished more directly. Just think, to-morrow night he
would be home, ready to do battle for his loved ones against the usurper Yuri!
The thought thrilled him, and all regrets passed away.
Lilla!
He was to see his beautiful dainty Lilla once more; and his baby son, Kew,
rightful ruler of Cupia! He resolved that, once back with them again, he would
never more leave them. Lilla had been right; his return to Earth had been a
foolhardy venture; results had proved it. As Poblath, the Cupian philosopher,
used to say, "The test of a plan is how it works out."
Cabot was eager, even impatient, to see the
ant-plane which was to carry him home. He was bubbling over with questions to
ask his ant-man companion; the condition of the plane, its exact location, how
well it had been concealed, and so forth. But his only means of communication
with Doggo was in writing, and it would never do to delay the expedition for
the purpose of indulging in a written conversation. So he merely fretted and
fumed, and urged the Vairking pullers of the carts to greater speed.
But
along toward evening a calm settled over him, a joyous
calm. He was going home, going home! The words sang in his ears. He was going
to Cupia, to baby Kew, and Princess Lilla. A nervous
warmth flooded through his being, and tingled at his fingertips. He felt the
strength to overcome any obstacles which might confront him. He was going home!
Just
before sunset the party encamped on the outskirts of a small grove of trees,
which Doggo indicated as the hiding-place of his plane and other supplies. It
had already been agreed that they should not inspect the machine before morning
for they did not wish to give even the slow brains of Vairking soldiers a
chance to figure out their ulterior purpose, and perhaps to dispatch a runner
to Vairkingi with a warning to Theoph and Jud.
So
Myles was forced to possess his soul in patience, and await the dawn. To keep
his mind off his troubles he sat with the furry warriors about their camp fire,
and told them tales of Cupia and the planet Earth.
Never
before, in their experience, had this strange furless leader of theirs been so
graciously condescending or so sociable. It was an evening which they would
long remember.
Finally
they all turned in for the night. The earth-man slept fitfully, and dreamed of
encounters in which, with his back to the wall, he fought with a wooden sword
alone against Prince Yuri, and ant-men, and Vairkings, and Cupians, and
whistling bees, in defense of Lilla and her son.
Yet
such is the strange alchemy of dreams that sometimes Lilla's face seemed to be
covered with golden fur.
With
the first red flush of morning Cabot and Doggo bestirred themselves, and
informed their campmates that they intended to do a bit of prospecting before
breakfast. Then they set out into the interior of the wood, the ant-man leading
the way. At last they came to a small clearing and beyond it a thicket, which
Doggo indicated with one paw as being the spot which they sought. There was to
be the plane!.
Parting
the foliage, they looked inside. But the thicket was empty!
On
the farther side the bushes had been recently chopped down, and thence there
lay a wide swath of cut trees clear out of the woods. It was only too evident
that the precious plane had been stolen!
XVI
AFTERTHOUGHTS
There
could be no doubt of it. Doggo's plane was gone, and
with it had vanished all hopes of a speedy return to Cupia. Sadly the two
returned to camp, and gave directions to start back to Vairkingi.
But
Myles Cabot was not a^ man to
despair or he would have yielded to fate many times in the past during his
radio adventures on the silver planet. Already, as the porters were loading the
carts, his agile mind was busy seeking some way whereby to snatch victory from
defeat.
So
when the expedition was ready to start he led it around the woods until he
picked up the trail of the stolen airship. Quite evidently the theft had not
been made by ant-men, for they would have flown the machine away, upon clearing the woods. No, it had obviously been
taken by either Roies or Vairkings, who had wheeled or dragged it away. If he
and Doggo could follow its path, they might yet be able to locate and recover
the stolen property.
The
trail led north until it struck, at right angles, a broad and much-rutted road
which ran from Vairkingi to the northeast territory of the Vairkings. And at
this point the trail completely vanished.
Myles held a written conference with Doggo,
at which it was decided to return at once to the city and make inquiries there
as to the stolen plane. If no one there knew of it, Doggo was to be dispatched on
a new expedition into the northeast territory, and in the meantime Cabot was to
rush the completion of his radio set. So they turned to the left and took up
the march to Vairkingi.
It
was a tired and disgusted human who returned that evening to the quarters which
he had never expected to set eyes on again. Myles Cabot gave himself up to a
few moments of unrestrained grief.
As
he sat thus a soft, sympathetic voice said: "Didn't you succeed in finding
that which you sought? I am so sorryl At least you came back safely to
me."
But
the blandishments of little Quiwen, his pal, failed to comfort him.
That
evening when Jud returned from the brickyard, Myles sought an audience with him
and demanded news of the plane. Said Myles: "This beast
friend of mine came near here in a magic wagon which travels through the air.
Possession of this magic wagon would mean much to Vairkingi in your wars, and
especially if the beasts ever take it into their heads to attack you, as they
undoubtedly will do sooner or later.
"Yesterday
Doggo and I embarked on a secret expedition to bring this magic wagon as a
surprise to you and Theoph. But we find that it has been stolen. We have traced
it to the northeast road, and there the trail ends. It must be either in this
city or in the northeast territory. Will you help me to find it?"
But
Jud smiled a crafty smile, and said: "It is not in Vairkingi—of that I am
certain. Nor will I send into the northeast territory to find it for you; for I well know that you would
use it to return to your own land beyond the boiling seas. We wish you to stay
with us and do wonders for us. We believe that we can make your lot among us a
happy one.
"But remember that, although you are
treated with great honors, you are nevertheless still my slave. Any attempt on
your part to locate the magic wagon will be met with severe punishment, and an
end will be put to your experiments. I have spoken."
Myles Cabot met the other's eye squarely.
"You have spoken, Jud," he said.
Myles was now convinced that Jud knew more
about the missing plane than he was willing to admit; so the only thing to do
was to lie low, bide his time, keep an ear out for news of the plane, and
continue the manufacture of the radio set. Thus the earth-man ruminated as he
walked slowly back to his quarters.
And then the linking of radio and airplanes
in his mind gave him an idea. He had felt all along that he was doing the
correct thing in building a radio set rather than in manufacturing firearms
with which to attack the Formians, or in trying to fabricate an airplane for a
flight across the boiling seas.
His
intuition had been correct; his subconscious mind must have guided him to make
the radio in
order to phone Cupia for a plane to come over to Vairkingi and get him. Why hadn't he realized this before? It gave
him new heart.
With
a laugh he reflected that this afterthought was pretty much like those so
characteristic of the man whom he had just left. Jud the Excuse-Maker, always
bungling, and always with a perfectly good excuse or alibi, thought up
afterward to explain why he did something which, when he did it, was absolutely
pointless. Myles had always looked down on the Vairking noble because of this
failing.
But
now what he found himself going through exactly the same mental processes, he
began to wonder if perhaps Jud were not guided by a fairly high-grade
intuition. Perhaps Jud's afterthoughts and excuses were but the breaking
through of a realization of some real forethoughts on
the part of Jud's subconscious mind. Myles wondered. He was still wondering
when he fell asleep that night.
The next morning he plunged into his work
with renewed vigor. He now had copper wire, copper plates, wood, mica, solder,
platinum, glass, and batteries—everything that he needed for his radio set
except a better vacuum for his tubes; but without that he was as far from
success as when he started.
Of course he knew what he needed—magnesium.
But it was one thing to step into a drug store on the earth, or into a chemical
laboratory in Cupia, and take magnesium off the shelves, and quite another
matter to pick this elusive element out of thin air in Vairkingi.
Nevertheless,
in spite of this lack, Myles kept on working. He wound his inductances,
transformers, earphones, and rheostats. He assembled his variable condensers
and microphones. He fashioned his sockets and lamp bases. He strung his antennae. He wired
up his baseboard
and panel.
Small
sets were installed in Quivven's rooms at the palace, at Jud's house, and at
the brickyard. Each of these was equipped with a transformer-coupling for
Doggo's antennae, as well as with mouthpieces for the others, so that now at
last oral conversation was possible with his Formian friend. Later he would
prepare a portable head-set such as he had worn in
Cupia.
Laboratory
experiments demonstrated the success of his sets in everything except
durability of tubes. Yet in spite of this drawback he was able to communicate
across his laboratory, and even with Jud's house, and under favorable
conditions with Quivven at the palace by using a cold-tube hookup. But this was
not powerful enough to send as far as the brickyard, let alone Cupia.
At
this juncture there appeared one morning at his gate a Vairking soldier in leather tunic and helmet, requesting entrance with
important secret news. Myles grudgingly left his work-bench and gave audience.
The fellow had a strangely familiar appearance and smiled in a quizzical
manner; yet Myles could not place him.
"Who are you?" Myles asked.
"Do you not know
me?" the other asked in reply.
"No."
The soldier doffed his leather cap. "Do
you know me now?" "No."
"A life for a
life?"
"Now I know you!" Cabot excliamed. "You are Otto the Bold, son of Grod
the Silent, who is King of the Roies. To paraphrase one of the proverbs of my
own country, 'A face that is familiar in Sur is oft a stranger in Vairkingi.' I
did hot recognize you away from the surroundings in which we met. What good
fortune brings you here?"
"Not
good fortune, but bad," the Roy replied. "It is true that Grod,
my father, is our king, but it is also true that Att the Terrible likewise
claims the kingship. Att loves Arkilu, and is even at this moment on the march
against Vairkingi with the largest army of Roies ever gathered."
Myles
smiled. "We are grateful for the information," he said. "With
this forewarning we are secure against attack."
"If you will pardon me," Otto
continued, "I think that you are not secure.
For one of your own Vairkings, Tipi by name, marches with Att. Att has promised
Tipi the glorious golden Quivven in return for Tipi's support. And Tipi has
many partisans within this city."
Myles
continued to smile. "We can deal with traitors," he asserted smugly.
"There are many lamp-posts in our city."
But Otto kept on: "Sur
has fallen."
"What!" the earth-man shouted, at
last shocked out of his complacency. "The rock-bound impregnable fortress
of Sur fallen? Impossible!"
"Not impossible to those who travel
through the skies and drop black stones which fly to pieces with a loud
noise," Otto calmly replied. "The beasts of the south have made
alliance with Att the Terrible, and Tipi the Steadfast, and are marching with
them. Good Builder! They are upon us even now. Quick, the beasts enter this
very room. Come, draw, defend yourself!"
Wheeling quickly, Cabot confronted Doggo
standing in the doorway. Much relieved, he explained to Otto who this newcomer
was; then, seizing a pad and a lead stylus of his own manufacture, he hurriedly
sketched the situation to his Formian friend.
In reply Doggo wrote: "At last I have
magnesium ore. Some soldiers brought it in, attracted by its pretty red color.
There is no time to be lost. To the laboratory. You
must complete our set and summon aid from Cupia. Meanwhile I will get Jud on
the air, and call him here for a conference. We have no time to wait upon him,
or even Theoph, in this emergency."
Myles read the message aloud to Otto.
"It is well," the latter commented.
"Now, if you will excuse me, I must be running along. My disguise as a
Vairking soldier will get me safely out of your city, and I must join my
father, who is planning to counter-attack, if a fit opportunity presents
itself. Till we meet again."
"Till
we meet again, in this life or beyond the waves," the earth-man replied.
"And may the Builder bless you for your help this day." Then he
rushed to the laboratory.'
Doggo
was already tuning the set. "Jud is not at home," he wrote.
"Shall I waste a tube on the brickyard?"
"No,"
Myles signified with a shake of his head; then seizing the pad and stylus
again, he wrote: "I will try and get Jud. You meanwhile attempt to extract
magnesium from this piece of camallite."
The ant-man knew exactly how to proceed.
Grinding the ore, he mixed it with salt and melted the mass in an iron pot,
which he connected electrically with the carbon terminal of a line of electric
batteries. In the boiling pot he placed a copper plate connected with the zinc
elements of his cells.
By the time the earth-man returned from
calling Jud on the radio, a coating of pure magnesium had begun to form on the
copper anode.
An
hour or so later he scraped off his first yield of the precious metal, the
final necessity of his projected radio set.
At
this stage Jud appeared. "Pardon the delay," he started to explain.
"You see. I—"
But
Myles cut him short with: "Never mind explanations now. It is enough that
you are here. Sur has fallen. The beasts of the south and Att the Terrible are
on the warpath. They seek to rob you of your Arkilu. With their aerial wagons
they will drop magic rocks upon this city and destroy it. Give Doggo back his
plane, and he will try to combat them."
But
Jud shook his head. "You would merely escape," he replied, "and
then we would be worse off than now."
"Then you admit that you know the
whereabouts of Doggo's plane?" Myles eagerly asked.
"Not
at all, not at all," the Vairking suavely
replied. "I was merely stating that, even if I knew where this 'plane,' as
you call it, is—"
"For Builder's sake, man!" Cabot cut in. "This is no time to
quibble over words! Give us the plane, if- you would save Theoph, yourself, and
Arkilu."
"It's
hardly necessary," Jud asserted, unruffled. "Don't get so excited! If
Att wants Arkilu, he certainly won't drop things on the palace. And we can
defend the palace against all the Roies in Vairkingi."
"But not against magic
slingshots," replied the earth-man.
"Perhaps
not," the noble said with a crafty smile; "but we shall see. Now I go
to prepare the defense. You are at liberty to come with us, if you will, or
putter around your tubes if you had rather. Good-by."
"Shift
for yourselves then!" Myles shouted after him, and frantically resumed his
work. His attempt to get the plane by stratagem had failed. Perhaps Jud did not
know anything about the plane after all. It would be typical of him.
Myles had plenty of sets of grids, plates,
and filaments all prepared. Also plenty of long tubes of pyrex
glass. All that remained necessary was to coat the platinum elements with
magnesium, fuse them into the tube, exhaust the air by the water method as
before, seal the tube, and his radio set would be complete.
"Where is Quivven?" He wrote to
Doggo. "She ought to be here helping with this."
"On
her way from the palace," the ant-man replied. "I
radio-phoned her there."
Presently she entered, and jauntily inquired
what all the excitement was about. Myles explained as briefly as possible.
Her
only answer was to shrug her golden shoulders and remark, "Tipi is a Jitde
fool. He can have me if he can get me."
Then she took her seat at
the workbench.
After
a while she inqured, "Why the rush with the radio set, when Vairkingi is
in peril?"
Myles
replied, "Our only hope now is to get Cupia on the air, and persuade my
followers there to send across the boiling seas enough aerial wagons to defeat
the beasts of the south, or 'Formians,' as we call them."
"And will you talk
with your Lilla?" she asked innocently.
"Yes,
if the Builder wills," he eagerly and reverently replied.
To
his surprise, Quiwen jumped to her feet with flashing eyes, and, seizing a
small iron anvil from the workbench, she held it over the precious pile of
platinum elements.
"And
if I drop this anvil, you will not talk
to her. Is not that so?"
Myles, horrified, sat rooted to his seat,
unable to move. XVII
THE BATTLE FOR VAIRKINGI
But the flaming Quiwen did not drop the anvil on the precious tube elements. Instead she
flung it from her to the floor and sank limply into her seat, her golden head
on her arms on the workbench.
"I couldn't do it," she moaned
between sobs, "for I too know what it is to love. Talk to her, Myles, and
I will help you."
He gasped with relief. "You wouldn't
spoil all our days and days of labor, I am sure," he said. "What was
the matter? I don't understand you."
"You wouldn't," was her reply, as she shook
herself together and resumed work.
After a while one of the soldiers attached to
the laboratory brought in word that the Roies and Formians were attacking the
walls, and that "planes" were sailing around in the sky overhead.
Cabot gave word to mass his men to defend the laboratory at all costs and went
on working.
One by one the tubes were
completed and tested.
From time to time Quivven would step into the
yard, glance at the sky, and then report back to Myles. The Formian planes were
scouting low, but were not dropping bombs. Jud had apparently been right in one
thing—that the beasts would not risk injuring the expected prizes of war,
namely Arkilu and Quivven.
From time to time runners brought word of the
fighting at the outer wall of the city. It would have been an easy matter for
the ant-men to' bomb the gates, and thus let in their Roy allies, but evidently
they were playing safe even there. At last, however, word came
that traitors— presumably friends of Tipi—had opened one of the gates, and that
the enemy was now within the city.
Still Myles worked steadily on.
Suddenly
Quivven returned from one of her scouting trips in the yard with the cry,
"One of the air wagons has seen me, and is coming down!"
At
that the Radio Man permitted himself to leave his bench for a few moments and
go to the door. True, the plane was hovering down, eagerly awaited by a a score or so of Cabot's Vairking soldiers armed with
swords, spears and bows. As the Formians came within bowshot they were met with a shower of arrows, most of which,
however, glanced harmlessly off the metallic bottom of the fuselage.
The
ant-men at once retaliated with a shower of bullets. Two Vairkings dropped to
the ground, and the others frantically rushed to cover within the buildings,
forcing back Myles and his two companions, as the fugitives crowded through the
door.
"Where
is your magic slingshot?" one of them taunted him as they swept by.
The earth-man shook himself
and passed the back of one hand across his tired brow, then hurried to his
living room. Seizing his rifle, he cautiously approached one of the slit
windows which overlooked the yard, and peeked out. The plane was on the ground.
Four ants were disembarking.
Here at last was a chance to secure
transportation! Myles opened fire.
The
Formians were taken completely by surprise. Oh, how it did Cabot's heart good
to see those ancient enemies drop and squirm as he pumped lead into them! They
made no attempt to return his fire, but scuttled toward their beached plane.
Only one of them reached it; but one was
enough to deprive the earth-man of his booty. Up shot the
craft, followed by a parting bullet from Myles. Then he proceeded to
the yard once more. His furry soldiers, brave now that all danger was over,
were already there before him, putting an end to the three wounded ant-men,
with swords and spears.
A
strong and pungent odor filled the air. Myles sniffed. It was alcohol in large
quantities. The plane could not last long, for he had punctured its fuel tank.
Each of the dead enemies had been fully
armed, so that, although Myles failed in his plan to secure the airship, the
encounter had at least netted him three rifles and three bandoleers of
cartridges. These he bestowed on Doggo," Quivven, and the captain of his
guards, saying, "You three, with four or five others, had better go at
once to Jud's compound before the fighting reaches here; for, now that the
Formians have located Quivven, they are sure to attack again, sooner or
later."
But the golden-furried princess remonstrated
with him: "Let us stay together, fight together, and, if need be, die
together."
"For
the Builder's sake, run along," he replied testily. "We are wasting
valuable time. I will join you if the fighting gets too thick hereabouts."
"But how can
you?"
"By
the back way which you taught me."
"But you need the help
of Doggo and myself."
"No
longer, for the set is complete. All that remains to be done is to tune in and
either get Cupia on the air or not. Now, as you are my
true friends, please run along!"
So,
with a shrug and a pout, she left him. And with her went Doggo, and the
captain, and five of the guard. Much relieved, the Radio Man returned to his
workbench. Although the move truly was wise for the safety of Quiwen, the real
motive which actuated Myles was a desire to have her absent, when and if he
should talk to his Lilla.
He leaned his rifle against the bench, hung
the bandoleer handily near by, and set to work. A few more connections and his
hookup was complete. He surveyed the assembled set
with a great deal of satisfaction; for, although it really was a means to an
end, yet it was a considerable end in itself after all, as any radio fan can
appreciate.
Once more Myles Standish Cabot, electrical
engineer, had demonstrated his premiership on two worlds. He had made a
complete radio set out of basic natural elements, without the assistance of a
single previously fabricated tool, or material! It was an unbelievable feat.
Yet it had been completed successfully.
With
trembling hands, he adjusted the controls, and listened. Gradually he tuned in
a station. It seemed a nearby station.
A voice was saying: "We could not report
before, O master, for we have only just repaired! the
set which this Cabot wrecked. The Minorian lied when he told you that he had
affairs well in hand, for even at that moment he was a fugitive.
"He
is now with the furry Cupians who live to the north of New Formia. Today our
forces are attacking their city. It is only a matter of a few parths before he
will be in our hands. I have spoken, and shall now stand by to receive."
This
was the supreme test. Could Myles Cabot hear the reply? Adjusting his set to
the extreme limit of its sensitivity, he waited, his
hands on the wave-length dials.
Faintly
but distinctly came the answer in the well-known voice of Yuri the usurper:
"You have done well. Now I will hand the antenna-phones to the Princess
Lilla, and I wish you to repeat to her what you have just told me, so that she
may hear it with her own antennae and believe."
A
pause and then Cabot heard the ant-man stationed at the shack on the mountains
near Yuriana recount the tale of Doggo's abortive revolution and flight, of
Cabot's wrecking the radio set and disappearing, of the Formian alliance with
Att the Terrible, of the fall of Sur, and of the attack on Vairkingi, ending
with the words which he had already caught.
As
he listened to this narration, the earth-man was rapidly making up his mind
what to do, and, as soon as the ant-man signed off, Cabot cut in with:
"Lilla, dearest, do not show any sign of surprise, but listen intently, as
though the Formian were still speaking. This is your own Myles. I am sending
from a station which I have only just completed after many sangths of intensive
work.
"It is true that the Formians are now
attacking our city but they cannot win. Sur fell because we were taken by surprise,
but we were warned in time to defend Vairkingi. Already I, myself, have driven
off one plane and killed three Formians.
"As
yet I have been unable to secure an airship, or I should have flown back to
you. Please get in touch with
Toron,
or some other of my friends, and persuade them to fly across the boiling seas
and bring me back.
"Yuri has made it twice, and 'what man
has done, that can man do.' Now I am about to finish. When I sign off, please
request Yuri for permission to talk to the Formian at Yuriana, to ask him some
questions. Then tell me as much as you can of yourself, our baby, and the
situation in Cupia, before Yuri shuts you off. I have spoken, dearest."
And Myles stood by to
receive.
With
what a thrill did he hear his own Lilla's voice answer: "Oh, Formian, I
have Prince Yuri's permission to speak to you. You may
answer what I ask you, and reply to what I tell you, but he himself will
receive, lest I hear something which I ought not. This leads me to believe that
affairs are not so bad with Cabot as you report."
"She
is doing fine," Myles remarked to himself, admiringly. "So far, Yuri
will not suspect that she is talking to me."
Lilla's
voice continued: "You and the other Formians may be interested to know
that Prince Yuri is in complete control here. Baby Kew and I are well, and are
being respectfully treated by Prince Yuri as his guests in the palace at
Kuana. He has promised me that if I will marry him, Kew can have the succession
after his death. And this I might have accepted for the baby's sake, but now
that I know that you still live, this cannot be."
"She has made a
slip," Cabot moaned.
Evidently
she realized it herself, for her voice hurried on: "You see, the whistling
bees—"
Then
Yuri's voice cut in abruptly with: "Congratulations, Cabot. I don't see
how you did it. Your ex-wife would have gotten across a lot more information to
you if she hadn't inadvertently let me know to whom she was talking by her
careless use of the word 'you'. I don't know what you said to her, but I shall
be on my guard. No more radio for the Princess Lilla, until my henchmen in New
Formia report your death, which I hope will be soon. Good-by, you cursed spot
of sunshine. Yuri, king of Cupia, signing off for the night."
So that was that. Myles switched off the set,
and sat submerged in thought. Lilla and his baby were safe. He doubted not that
she would sooner or later find means to send him a plane. He had given Yuri
cause to doubt the glorious story told by the Formian radio operator. The new
set had fulfilled its mission.
But how had Yuri succeeded in climbing into
power again in Cupia, nine-tenths of the inhabitants of which were loyal to
Princess Lilla and the baby king?
Then
Myles remembered her closing words: "The whistling bees—" It was as
little Jacqueline Farley had prophesied on her father's New England farm,
during Cabot's brief revisit to the earth. Cabot had stated: "There can be
no peace on any continent which is inhabited by more than one race of
intelligent beings"; whereat little Jacqueline had pointed out that the
whistling bees were intelligent beings.
Doubtless, Yuri had stirred up trouble
between the bees and their Cupian allies, and had ridden to the throne on the
crest of this trouble. Portheris, king of the bees, had undoubtedly been
deposed; for he was too loyal to Myles to stand for this.
The
earth-man's reverie was rudely interrupted at this point by one of his soldiers
who rushed into the laboratory shouting: "Sir,
there is fighting in your very yard!"
Cabot slipped the bandoleer over his
shoulders, adjusted the straps, picked up his rifle, and hurried to the door,
in the yard, his guards were struggling in hand-to-hand combat with a superior
force of Roies.
He
could tell them apart, not only by the contrast between the fine features of
his own men and apelike faces of the intruders, but more easily by the contrast
between the leather tunics of the Vairkings and the nakedness of the Roies.
So, standing calmly in the doorway, Myles began picking off the enemy, one by
one, with his rifle. It was too easy; almost like trap-shooting.
But it didn't last long, for the Roies soon
learned what was up, and, breaking away from their opponents, crowded out
through the gate, followed by a shower of missiles and maledictions.
Cabot's Vairkings were for following, but
their master peremptorily called them back, and directed them to barricade the
laboratory. It was well that he did so, for presently the heads of the enemy
began to appear above the top of the fence. Evidently they had built a platform
in the street.
Soon
arrows and pebbles began to fly at the windows of the house. The Vairkings
replied with a volley, but Cabot cautioned them to conserve their ammunition,
and watch him pick off with his rifle, one by one, the heads which showed themselves above the paling.
This
soon ceased to be interesting. So, giving the rifle and bandoleer to one of the
more intelligent of his men, and instructing them to hold the laboratory at all
costs, the earth-man set out, sword in hand, by the back way to rejoin Doggo
and Quiwen.
The
alleys which he threaded were deserted. He reached the rear of Jud's compound
without event, and passed in to one of the inclosures through a small and well
concealed gate in the face of the wall. Quiwen had pointed this route out to
him before, but never had he traversed it farther than this point. He looked
cautiously around him. The he rubbed Tiis eyes, and looked again! He could
hardly believe his senses!
There
stood a Formian airplane in apparently perfect condition. Approaching it
gingerly with drawn sword, he circled it carefully to make sure that it
contained no enemies. But it was deserted. A hasty inspection disclosed that
everything was in working order, except that the fuel tank was empty.
Probably
then, this was the plane at which he had fired. But no, for
this plane did not even smell
of alcohol. The tank had evidendy been dry for some time,
and there was no sign of any bullet hole in it. Gradually the fact dawned on
him that this was Doggo's plane, which Jud had concealed from them for so
long. He must reach Doggo and tell him.
At the farther side of the inclosure from the
side at which he had entered, there was a door. Myles raced toward it, and
flung it open. Beyond it there was a second inclosure similar to the first.
Myles raced across this one as well, and flung open another door, whereupon out
poured a crowd of Roies, upsetting him and throwing him sprawling upon the
ground.
But
they were as surprised as he was at the encounter, and this fact enabled him to
regain his sword and scramble to his feet before they were upon him again, with
parry and thrust.
Good swordsman as he was, they had soon
forced him, his back against the wall, to defend his life with his trusty
wooden blade. Time and again one of their points would reach his tunic, but he
kept his neck well guarded, and so was able to stand them off.
When
he had drawn his breath and got his bearings, and his defense had become
slightly a matter of routine, he recognized the leader of the enemy as none
other than the traitor Tipi. His first throught was to run Tipi through for his
treachery. But then he reflected that quite likely Quiwen really loved Tipi
after all. It would be a shame to kill this boy merely because his unrequited
love had caused him to lose his head.
From
then on, Myles had no time to reflect on anything, for he was engaged in the
difficult task of trying to defend himself without hurting Tipi.
The
young Vairking had recognized the earth-man, and was hurling vituperations at
him, but Myles saved his breath for his sword-play. Even so, he gradually
tired. His sword hand no longer instantly responded to every command of his
agile brain, and even his brain itself became less agile. It was only a matter
of time when he would be certain to make a misplay, and go down before his
opponents. Yet, still he struggled on.
And
then suddenly a new complication entered the game, for he was seized from
behind the arms and was lifted struggling and kicking off the ground.
XVIII
THE FALL OF VAIRKINGI
As Miles was lifted from the ground by the unknown force behind which had seized him
beneath the armpits, his Roy opponents fell back away from him in surprise. But
immediately their expressions changed to intense pleasure. Quite evidently
they regarded this mysterious new power as an ally.
Myles could not squirm around to see what was
holding him; so still grasping his sword in his right hand, he felt with his
left hand under his right armpit, and found there—the claw of a Formian! In
another moment he would be within reach of its horrid jaws, and then would come
the paralyzing bite which he knew so well from past experience. Nevertheless
he could die fighting.
Shifting
his sword quickly, so that he held it point upward, he struck backward with it
across his shoulder, and had the satisfaction of hearing and feeling it glint
on the carapace of his captor. A few more strokes, and by lucky chance his
blade might find a joint in the black shell of the ant-man.
But just as he was about to strike again a
familiar voice behind him called out, "Stop, Myles, for Builder's sake,
stopl It is Doggo who holds you, and is rescuing you from your enemies."
It was the voice of Quiwen. Tipi and the
Roies instantly understood and made a rush at their late victim; but they were
too late, for Doggo had lifted the earth-man safely over the wall. There stood
Quiwen and the members of their guard.
"Quick,
Doggo, the rifles!" Myles shouted. "Your missing plane is in the next
inclosure. We must reach it before the enemy does."
Of
course, this was all lost on the radio-sense of the Formian, but the other
members of the party acted at once.
On
their side of the wall there was a platform near the top. Springingly lightly
onto this, the furry maid and the captain of the guard covered the Roies with
their rifles. "You!" exclaimed Tipi in surprise.
"What
did you expect?" Quiwen taunted. "You attacked this city in search of
me. Here I am. You can have me, if you can catch me. But you had better not try
it just now, for I and my friends have these magic sling-shots, which can kill
at almost any distance. Go quickly before I try it on you. For old times' sake,
go!"
But
Tipi and his Roies stood steadfast. The captain and Quiwen fired; two Roies
dropped, and the others fled precipitately out through the gates by which they
entered. Tipi the Steadfast was left alone confronting Cabot and his
companions. But he never budged.
Over the fence vaulted the five Vairking
guardsmen in their leather armor, and attacked their renegade countryman, who,
being a noble, wore only a leather helmet. The unequal contest could have but
one result. Yet Quiwen looked on complacently at the impending downfall of her
former sweetheart.
Cabot,
however, had more heart. Running along the platform within the wall, he
vaulted over at a point distant from the contest, sneaked steadily up on Tipi,
and suddenly throttled him from behind, at the same time shouting to his own
henchmen to desist. The five Vairkings obediently dropped their swords, and
then trussed up the young noble with his own leather belt and sword-sling by
placing him in a sitting posture, tying his ankles together, slipping a piece
of stick beneath his knees, placing his elbows under the ends of this stick,
and tying his wrists together in front of his shins. Also they gagged him. And
thus they left the traitor, rolled ignominiously into a comer, his eyes blazing
with a piteous hate.
Meanwhile
Doggo, exploring the exits, had seen his planel He
returned to the group, bristling with excitement, and made signs to them to
follow him. Out of respect for his joy, none of the party let on that Cabot had
been the first to find the airship and had already informed them of it. So they
followed Doggo and gave every indication of being much impressed.
With loving touch the huge black ant-man
caressed each strut and brace, and guy, and joint, and lever, as he made a
thorough inspection of his long-lost craft. All appeared to be in perfect
condition. Even the bombs, the rifle, and the ammunition were intact.
From
somewhere 'in the interior of the fusilage Doggo produced a pad of paper and a Formian stylus, and wrote: "Alcohol. We must have alcohol. Then
away from these accursed shores forever."
Seizing the writing materials Myles replied,
"You have four rifles. Let me take one of them. Protect this plane with
the other three, while I return alone by the back way and bring the alcohol
here under convoy of the entire laboratory guard."
Then, giving no time for dissent, he seized
the rifle and bandoleer from the plane, and was gone. Out through the next
inclosure he went, slid open the secret door in the wall, and peered cautiously
out. One lone ant-man with rifle and bandoleer was parading the alley.
Myles
fired, but missed. The Formian promptly took cover behind a pile of rubbish,
and fired back. Myles hastily withdrew, then cautiously put his head through
the opening again in order to take a shot at his enemy. But the enemy fired
first, the bullet grazing the leather helmet of the earthman and stunning him
considerably. So he sat on the ground within the inclosure, and rubbed his sore
head for a few minutes. What a narrow
escapel
Then
he had an idea. He propped his hat on a stick, so that it would sway gently in
the breeze, its rim just projecting through the opening in the wall, giving
every indication of life. Then he ran quickly along inside the wall, until he
came to a corner, which he judged must be about opposite the rubbish heap which
sheltered the Formian. Climbing quietly up the studding at this point, he
peered carefully over. There lay his black enemy, only a few feet away,
steadily watching the bobbing edge of the helmet.
Two
shots from Cabot's rifle, and the vigil was over; and
soon the earth-man, his helmet regained, and with an extra rifle and cartridge
belt flung across his shoulders, was proceeding unmolested down the alley.
He reached the laboratory without further
adventure, and found everything as he had left it. The guard, however, reported
that they had had to repulse three assaults by Roies, the last of which had
been led by a Formian armed with a rifle.
"If it had not been for this magic
sling-shot which you left with us," said the guardsman, "we should
have been beaten. But the surprise of the savage ones at finding us thus armed
was so great that even their leader could not rally them, though the beast did
kill several of our men before he finally fled with his Roy henchmen."
The
Radio Man then informed them of his intention to cart the alcohol to Jud's
inclosure, where new wonders would be performed. Accordingly, all except a few
sentinels withdrew into the laboratory to load up.
First
Myles sorted out the bottles which were small enough to carry conveniently, and
then filled these bottles with alcohol from the large carboys in which it was
stored. This left a dozen or so carboys still unemptied. It would be a pity to
leave these behind, but it would be impossible to get a cart out by the back
way.
So
the Radio Man gave hasty directions to take an empty cart through his front
gate under guard, and attempt to get it around by the various winding streets
into the alley without its being captured by the enemy. Meanwhile all the
alcohol was moved to the alley gate, and heavily guarded there.
While
this was being done Myles Cabot took a few minutes' time for a farewell glance
around his laboratory, which he was about to quit for the last time. He had enjoyed
working here, for there is no human pleasure greater than the joy of
accomplishment, and here he had accomplished the almost superhuman task of
building up a complete sending and receiving radio set out of its basic
elements. Even though he was at last about to journey home to his Lilla and his
baby son in Cupia, he hated to leave this precious set.
An
irrestible impulse drew him to it, as a loadstone draws a magnet. He placed his
fingers on the controls. He tuned to the same wave length in which he had
talked and received earlier in the day.
A
voice was speaking in the language of Formia and Cupia: "Vairkingi is
about to fall, O master, and with it the Minorian must certainly get into our
hands, for our scout fliers are circling the outer walls to the city to prevent
his escape."
So
that was why the ant planes hadn't bothered them recently.
"But
O master," the voice of the ant-man continued. "I have bad news to
report along with the good; for while practically our entire populace was
engaged with the hordes of our ally, Att the Terrible, in besieging Vairkingi,
other hordes of furry savages under Grod the Silent have attacked and captured
our own city of Yuriana, and with it have seized our reserve planes and
supplies of ammunition. I have—"
But
before the Formian could complete his signing off, Myles slammed over the leaf
switch, and cut in with: "Cabot speaking. Cabot
speaking. Know then, O Yuri, that Vairkingi
will not fall. My arms are victorious here as at your ant city of Yuriana.
Presently you will cease to receive any further messages from either here or
your own mountain station, and then you will know that the last of your
Formians has perished off the face of this continent.
"Soon
you may expect me and my furry allies to fly across the boiling seas to redeem
Cupia, but of our coming we shall give you no further warning. Tremble and
await us. Meanwhile believe none of the stories which your henchmen will
falsely send you to keep up your courage.
Answer
me now, and tell me that you have received my message. I have spoken."
Then he set the switches to
receive.
Back came the answer, but it was from the
mountain station to the south, and it came from Prince Yuri in Cupia: "It
is a he. The Minorian lies."
Of course it was a he, but it was war; and
Yuri would not know which version to credit. If anything should happen to the
sending set near the city of the ants, Yuri certainly would believe the worst
from that time on. Cabot smiled to himself. The Formian continued denying, and
explaining, and apologizing. Finally he signed off, and then Prince Yuri got on
the air. "Listen, O Formian," he said, "and you, O Cabot. I
received both of your messages. Naturally, I believe my own man. Call me again
when you have something further to report. I have spoken."
"He
may believe his own henchman now" Cabot
muttered to himself, "but later he will begin to doubt."
Then,
shutting off his set, he penned a hurried note in duplicate to Otto the Bold.
Congratulations on the capture of the city of
the black beasts. Destroy their hut in the mountains, where you first shot
arrows at me, and first saw me use the magic slingshot. Destroy it at all
costs, for with it ends the power of the beasts.
Cabot
the Minorian.
One copy he gave to each of two of the most
trusted of his laboratory guards, and adjured them at all costs to break
through the lines separately and get the message to the prince of the friendly
faction of the Roies.
"If
either of my Vairkings succeeds in reaching Prince Otto," Myles said to
himself, "it will mean the end of Yuri's reports from this
continent."
Then
with a sigh the Radio Man picked up an iron mallet and demolished his own radio
set, the work of so many hours of care. When he had finished, there was not a
fragment left intact.
"This, too, must
pass," he quoted sadly.
At
this point one of his Vairlangs rushed in upon him with a shout: "A party
of Roies is attacking the alley gate."
Shaking himself together, the Radio Man bade
farewell to his beloved laboratory, picked up his two rifles and his
ammunition, and hastened to take command of his forces. He found that his cart
had safely got around to the gate, but that a hand-to-hand conflict for its
possession was now in progress between the guard and a large force of Roies. So
inter-mingled were the contestants that the leader of the Vairkings had not
dared to use the rifle.
Cabot, however, had the confidence of greater
experience. A few well placed shots fired by him from the gate, and the enemy
broke away and retreated down the alley. Myles handed out one of his own two
rifles, thus raising the number of his riflemen to two. These, with several
bowmen, took cover down the alley to hold off any counterattack by the enemy.
The carboys of alcohol were then quickly
loaded into the cart, along with all the reserve ammunition which Doggo had
manufactured, and the expedition set forth. Cabot with his rifle in the lead,
the other two riflemen and the archers forming a rear guard, closely followed
by the hostile band of Roies. But, in spite of this pursuit, all went well
until the party turned into the alley of the secret door to Jud's enclosure.
Here they found the way blocked by a
formidable body of the furry savages, led by half a dozen ant-men armed with
rifles. Luckily there was plenty of rubbish in the alley behind which to take
cover from those ahead. Those behind were not much of a problem, not having any
firearms other than bows and arrows.
But
it was aggravating to be stopped within sight of one's goal. Furthermore, three
of the rifle-armed ants promptly departed, doubtless for the purpose either of
bringing up reenforcements, or of joining the Roies who were on the other side
of Cabot's party.
There was no time to be lost. The rifles were
now three to three. Accordingly the earth-man called his archers from the rear
and ordered a charge. Of course, his porters could not fight while carrying a
bottle of alcohol under each arm, so all the bottles were piled around the cart
and left with a small guard.
The
attack proved temporarily successful. Step by step the three ants and their Roy
allies were driven back. But, just as Cabot and his Vairkings were about to
gain the secret opening in the wall, word was brought that the Roies in the
rear were attacking the cart; so Cabot had to order a speedy retreat to save
his precious alcohol, thus giving up in an instant the ground which it had
taken so long to gain.
The
Roies were readily repulsed from the cart and retreated down the alley in
disorder, but the party with whom Cabot and his Vairkings had just been
fighting formed at once for a counter-attack.
At
this juncture a row of heads suddenly and unexpectedly appeared over the top
of the wall, Quiwen the Golden Flame, Doggo the ant-man, and six Vairking
guardsmen. Quiwen and two guardsmen held rifles with which they promptly
covered the approaches to the alley, while Doggo started hurling airplane bombs
into the group of Roies led by his three countrymen.
When
the smoke cleared the alley was cleared as well. Here and there were arms and
legs and other anatomical sections of Roies and Formians. All the survivors had
fled. Myles picked up two ant rifles and the twisted remains of a third, and
hurriedly passed what was left of his precious liquid fuel in through the
little gate in the wall.
Nearly half the bottles and carboys had been
broken during the fighting. The Vairking dead numbered about a dozen, with
several more wounded. These were brought within the inclosure and ministered
to by Quiwen.
By this time the pink twilight had begun to
settle over
the
planet Poros. Departure that day was now out of the question. Accordingly
guards were posted, and the rest of the party prepared to spend the night close
to the plane, on tapestries filched from the palace of Jud the Excuse-Maker.
The
Radio Man himself was nearly exhausted, having worked steadily for thirty-six
hours on the completion of his set and the subsequent fighting. Yet before he
turned in he inquired about the state of the battle.
It
appeared that little was known, save that the city was overrun by ant-men and
the furry savages of Art the Terrible, and that isolated groups of Vairkings
were defending as best they could their respective inclosures against the
invaders. Cabot reported the capture of the ant city by Grod the Silent, which
news served to hearten his own little band considerably.
The
mention of the radio set, whereby he had obtained this information, suggested
to him to ask: "Have you tried to get the palace of Theoph the Grim with
the small set in Jud's quarters?"
"Yes,"
Quiwen replied, "repeatedly, but no one answers. You see, the palace set
is in my own rooms, and it has probably not occured to anyone to go
there."
Then they lay down for a fitful night of
shouts and shots and flares. But no one attacked the inclosure which they occupied.
Along
toward morning the earth-man fell into a soundless sleep, only to be awakened
by one of his Vairking soldiers shaking him roughly by the shoulders.
"Awake!"
the leather-clad warrior shouted. "Awakel Vair-Idngi is
in flames. The
fire is rapidly eating its way toward us."
It
was true. All around them was the uncanny red of the conflagration. Overhead
there sped flocks of sparks against a background of billowy clouds of smoke,
and a further background of jet-black sky. Immediate steps were necessary to
protect their airship from the flying embers.
Accordingly the bottles and carboys of
alcohol were emptied into the fuel tank of the craft, and then filled with
water. Brooms of brush were brought and used to beat out such sparks as
endangered the plane. Doggo tested the motors, and found them in good order.
The tapestries were loaded on board. Then
there remained nothing they could do except keep watch, guard the plane, and
await the dawn; although, of course, if the holocaust should approach too near
it would become necessary for them to fly, night or no night.
Meanwhile it occurred to Myles to try once
more to get the palace on the air; so, with rifle and ammunition slung over his
shoulders, and carrying a torch, he proceeded to Jud's quarters.
On
the way he espied a dark form crouching in a corner of the fence of one of the
inclosures.
XIX
THE BATTLE IN THE AIR
Cabot unslung his rifle, held his torch high above him, and approached the crouching
figure.
The
crouching figure groaned. It was Tipi, still trussed up, forgotten by all.
Myles cut his bonds and helped him to his feet, but he collapsed again with a
groan. So, leaving him lying there, the earth-man
hastened back to the plane, and then returned with one of his Vairkings, whom
he instructed to take charge of the young noble until he was able to walk, and
then turn him loose through the secret gate into the alley. There was no point
in leaving even an enemy to be burned to death, trussed up in a corner.
Tipi
attended to, Myles proceeded to Jud's quarters, where he tuned in the palace.
The result was immediate.
"Jud
speaking," said a voice. "Answer, Cabot. For Builder's
sake, answer!"
"Cabot
speaking," he replied. "I am at your quarters, O Jud. With me are
Quiwen, Doggo, and about two dozen of the laboratory guards. We have eight
magic slingshots now, and also the magic aerial wagon, which you have so long
concealed from me. As soon as day breaks we shall rise in the air and do battle
with the beasts. If you had let me have this wagon before, I could have
prevented the fall of Vairkingi. Now it may be too late. How are things with
you?"
Back came the answer. "Theoph the Grim,
Arkilu the Beautiful, and I are safe in the palace, with most of the army of the
Vairkings. So far we have repulsed every assault of the beasts and their Roy
allies, but their magic slingshots do frightful havoc. Come and rescue us, O
magician."
To which Cabot replied:
"With daylight I shall come."
As he came out of the house he looked up at
the sky. The background, against which swirled the smoke clouds, now showed
faintly purple. By the time he rejoined his party by the plane, day had come.
And it was well, for the buildings in the next inclosure had started to burn.
Cabot gave his parting instructions to the
captain of the guard: "Take six of these eight rifles. Convoy the Princess
Quiwen to her father's palace."
"But am I not going
with you?" she interrupted in surprise.
"I am afraid not, my dear," Myles
sadly replied. "You have been a good little pal, and I hate to leave you,
but you would be entirely out of place among the Cupians. Besides
there is every chance of our perishing in crossing the boiling seas."
"Then you are going home?" she
wailed. "You are planning to desert us in our extremity?"
"No,"
he answered, "I shall first fight the ant-men, and do all that I can to
save Vairkingi. When I am done, you will be safer here than'you would be with
me."
But she sank to the ground by his side and
buried her head on her arms, sobbing: "Myles, Myles, I love you. Can't you
see that I loved you all this time? Oh, you are so blind. You must take me with you. Your Quiwen. Your own little Golden Flame."
The earth-man sternly put her In the care of one of the guards, saying grimly: "This
makes it more impossible for you to go with me, Quiwen, for I have a wife and
child in that other land across the seas. I am sorry, sorrier than I can say, that you have come to love me. Can't you see, Quiwen,
that this effectually seals the question? If it had not been for this, I might
have yielded to your entreaties, but now it is impossible."
Then to the captain of the guards: "With
these six rifles, march to the palace and join the forces of Theopb, and Jud. I
will endeavor to destroy as many of the beasts as possible before I finally
leave you and depart for my own country. Start at once, leaving only two or
three of your number to help us."
So the guard marched away, dragging a reproachful
and tear-stained Quiwen with them. Three leather-clad Vair-kings remained, and
these shortly were joined by a fourth. Cabot half consciously
noticed this new arrival, but paid little attention in the bustle of his
preparations.
The tapestries which were to serve in place
of fire-worm fur to swathe himself and Doggo in their flight across the boiling
seas were rearranged so as to take up less room. The goggles, which he had
brought from the laboratory, were packed with them. The bombs and rifle ammunition
were placed in handy positions. A small quantity of
provisions were added. Everything was lashed down.
Then
Myles drew Doggo to one side for a conference and wrote: "I plan first- to
attack those Formians and RoieS who are besieging Theoph's palace; then to
dispose of as many as possible of the scout planes. How many of these are
there?"
"We
had seven airships in our city in the south," wrote Doggo
in reply. "This is one of them here. One is probably temporarily disabled
by the shots which you fired in the laboratory yard. That should leave
five."
"Can we fight
five?"
"Most
assuredly," Doggo wrote, agitating his antennae eagerly.
Then let's go!" wrote
Cabot.
With
a quick take-off diagonally down the fnclosure, the huge bombing plane rose
slowly into the air amid shouts from the Vairking soldiers below. It was now
broad daylight. Myles glanced over the rail, and noted that there were now
only three leather-clad warriors. He vaguely wondered what had become of the
fourth, but it was too late to inquire.
Up
through the swirling sparks and smoke they rose, up, up, until they could get a
bird's-eye view of the whole city of Vairkingi. There, on a slight eminence in
the center, stood the palace and inclosures of the white-furred king, its walls
manned by leather-clad Vairking warriors, surrounded by savage besiegers. The
flames had not yet reached that part of the city, and with a change in the
wind, appeared to be sweeping past it.
As Myles and Doggo circled the palace they
noted that practically all the ant-men within sight were massing in a side
street, evidently preparing for an assault. How convenient! Myles took the
levers and swooped low, while Doggo deluged his fellow countrymen with .'bombs. When their sudden attack was over, fully half
of the Formian menace to the city had been wiped out.
Now for the scout planes. These, five in number, could be seen circling the outskirts of the
city. The two friends were able to approach one of these without being
suspected of being an enemy. Before its flyers realized the peril it had gone
down in flames from one well-placed bomb.
The
other four scout planes at once realized that their own countryman, Doggo, had returned to do them battle, and accordingly
converged upon him. Again the two friends exchanged places. And then there took
place one of the finest examples of aerial warfare which the earth-man had ever
witnessed.
This
was not like the battles with the whistling bees before the advent of
Cabot-made rifles on the planet Poros, when the fighting tail of the plane was
pitted against the sting of the bee. For now it. was rifle against rifle, bomb against bomb.
One by one the enemy planes crashed to the
ground, as Doggo spiraled, looped, tailspun, and
side-slipped. At last there was only one Fonnian opponent left.
Doggo maneuvered to a position just above it,
and Cabot reached for a bomb to give it the coup de grdce.
But
the bombs were all gonel And the ant-men in the plane
below were raising their rifles, watching for a good opening.
What was to be done? With Doggo's deafness to
sound waves, it would be impossible to explain the situation to him in time for
him to veer away. He naturally assumed that, as he maneuvered the ship into
this position of advantage, Cabot would at once put an end to the fight.
In this extremity the earth-man suddenly
thought of the obsolete fighting tail. Its levers were there. Was it still in
operation? He would see.
Grasping
its levers, he manipulated them swiftly, and drove the tip of the tail through
the fuel tank of the enemy. Two bullets zipped by him. Then the machine below
careened and soared to earth—or rather, Poros—followed by a stream of shots
from the earth-man's rifle. The battle was over.
Cabot relieved Doggo at the controls, and
circled the palace once more. His own squad of laboratory
guards were just entering one of the palace gates. The captain waved to
him. But he noted that Quiwen was not among them. Poor girl! What could have
become of the poor little golden creature?
But
there was no time to ask. With so many of the ants killed, all their aircraft
disabled and the Vairkings firmly entrenched in the palace and supplied with at
least six ant-rifles, Quiwen's people were in as good a position as possible.
For
Cabot to stop now might mean not only renewed complications with the golden
maid, but also possibly the confiscation of his plane by Jud. It would not pay
to take any chances; he must hasten home to Lilla, leaving the ants, the Roies,
and the Vairkings to contend for the possession of the burning city.
As
he turned the nose of the airship upward and began the ascent preparatory to
flying across the western mountains to the sea, he observed a large marching
body of troops far to the south. These might change his responsibility with
respect to his late hosts; it would only take a few minutes to investigate; so
southward he turned the plane.
The
marching troops were Roies, as he judged by their absence of leather armor.
Swooping low he picked out the face of their leader. It was Otto the Bold, son
of Grod the Silent, the leader of the friendly faction of the furry wild-men of
the hills. Having captured and sacked the city of the ants, they were now
evidently on their way to relieve Vairkingi.
The
last feeling of obligation passed from the earth-man, as, waving to his savage
friend, he turned the nose of his plane upward once more. Then it occurred to
him that, having flown so far south, he might just as well take a final look at
the ant-city. Besides, this would place him in exactly the location where the
ant-men had landed when they flew east across the boiling seas from Cupia to
found New Formia, and thus would be a good point for him to take off in his
flight westward.
Accordingly,
he turned to the right until he topped the mountain range, then turned to the. left again, and followed the range southward.
But
a tropical thunderstorm forced him to descend in a cleft of hills. Myles hoped
that this rain extended to Vairkingi, and would serve to quench its fires.
After several hours, the weather cleared once
more. The two companions compared notes on the adventures which had befallen
them since their first hop-off that morning. Then they embarked once more, and
continued their course southward. Soon they passed over the smoking ruins of
the once-impregnable Sur, and at last came to the little radio hut of the
Formians.
This, too, was in ruins; Otto had received
his note. Wireless communication between Cupia, and Vairkingia and New Formia
was at an end. Yuri would now believe the worst that Cabot had told him over
the air. And that worst was likely to prove to be the truth after all.
Swinging to the westward, Myles passed over
the deserted city of the ants, patrolled by a handful of Otto's Roies; and
thence on and on until there loomed before him a solid wall of steam. It was
the boiling sea, over which he must pass in order to rejoin his loved ones.
Hovering
gently down on a little silver-green meadow about five miles inland, the two
fugitives prepared for the trip. First they pulled off some of the tapestries
to pad the fuel tank.
And
there before them lay a figure in leather Vairking armor, a golden figure
smiling up at them, little Quiwen, whom they thought they had left behind.
"You!" Myles exclaimed, scowling.
"Yes,"
she replied. "I usually accomplish what I set out to do. When you sent me
away, I persuaded one of the guards to lend me his suit. Then I returned,
helped with the loading, and hid myself while you and Doggo were writing notes
to each other. But I nearly died of fright when you were turning me over and
over, up there in the sky."
Myles sighed resignedly. "I can't send
you back now,"
he said, "though what I shall do with you in Cupia, the
Builders only knows!" <
So the three friends completed the
preparations, and then sat down together for a meal.
It was too late to start their flight that
day and, besides, a rest would do them all good; so they encamped for the
remainder of the afternoon and the night.
The next morning, as the first faint flush of
pink tinged the eastern sky, they took their farewell meal on Vairkingian soil.
Then, swathed in tapestries and with goggles in place, they took their stations
in the plane, and headed straight for the bankxjf steam.
As they passed within its clouds, all sight
was blotted out.
They
had decked the fusilage over like an Eskimo kayack, only Cabot's well-wrapped
head protruding. Within, Doggo manipulated the levers
and watched the altimeter and gyrocompass by the light of a Vairking stone
lamp; strange mingling of modernity and archaism. Cabot's
vigil was for the purpose of guarding against flying too high, and thus piercing
the cloud envelope and exposing them to the fatal glare of the sun.
On and on they went. Cabot could see nothing.
The hot vapor condensed on his wrappings, seeped through, and scalded his head
and shoulders unbearably. Finally, he could stand it no longer. He pulled in
his head and tore off the bandages. The relief was instantaneous. He seized the
levers, and Doggo took his place at the opening.
But at last even Doggo succumbed. Having
braved the heat too long, he collapsed weakly on the floor of the cockpit.
"It's
my turn," Quiwen shouted, above the noise of the motors. "Now aren't
you glad you brought me along?"
And in spite of Cabot's remonstrances, she
swathed her golden head and stuck it through the opening.
By
this time, scalding water was leaking through all the covering of the cockpit.
It was only a question of minutes before it would soak through the
body-coverings of those within.
But
just then the girl cried out, "Land. Land, once more; and clear silver sky."
Doggo
revived and tore off the covers. True, the steam bank of the boiling seas lay
behind them. Below them was the silver-green land.
What did it hold in store?
XX
THE WHOOMANGS
Thoroughly
exhausted by their flight
across the boiling seas, the Radio Man and his two strange companions—the huge
ant-man, Doggo, and. the beautiful, golden-furred
Vairking
maiden, Quiwen—wished to land at once, without waiting to ascertain what
particular section of Cupia lay beneath them. But the entire area below appeared
to be thickly wooded.
Accordingly
the fugitives hovered down to a short distance above the ground and then just
skimmed the treetops at a slow rate of speed, keeping a careful watch for a
landing place. They had not long to wait, for presently they espied a road
running beneath the trees; and, after putting on more speed and following this
road for a couple of stads, they finally came to a sufficiently large clearing
a short distance from the road, to enable them to settle down quietly to the
ground.
The
party quickly disembarked upon the silver-green sward, and the three companions
then broke through the bushes to the road, which proved to be of dirt, although
well-traveled.
Myles
remarked, "This must be some very out-of-the-way part of my country; for
practically all of our roads are built of concrete, a material similar to the
cement with which I fastened the bricks together in making our furnaces in
Vairkingi."
Quiwen
shuddered. "Please don't remind me of my poor city," she begged
piteously; then in a more resigned tone: "But that is behind us. Let us
forget it and face the future. You were speaking of cement roads?"
"Yes,"
Myles replied. "The fact, that this road is not
made of concrete indicates that it is not a main highway, but the fact that it
is well-worn shows that it is traveled considerably. Let us therefore wait for
some passer-by who can tell us where we are."
At this point Doggo
produced a pad and stylus, and wrote, "Let me in on this."
Cabot
obligingly transcribed, in Porovian short-hand, an account of the conversation.
Meanwhile the golden girl abstractedly examined the foliage beside the road.
While Doggo
was reading the manuscript, Quiwen called
Cabot's attention to the-trees and shrubs. "How different they are from those in
Vairkingia," she remarked.
"That is to be expected," Myles
answered, "for your land and mine are separated by boiling seas across which
no seeds or spores could pass and live. Thus it is surprising that the two
continents support even the same general classes of life. Come, I will point
out to you some of the more common forms of our flora."
He
had in mind to show her the red-knobbed gray lichen-tree; and the tartan bush,
the heart-shaped leaves of which are put to so many uses by the Cupians; and
the saffra herb, the roots of which are used for anaesthesia; and the blue and
yellow dandelionlike wild flowers. But although he searched for a hundred paces
or so along the road, he was unable to locate a single specimen of these very
common bits of Porovian vegetation.
"It is strange," he muttered half
to himself. "When I want to show the common plants of Cupia, I find
nothing but unfamiliar plants, and yet I'll bet that if I were to go out in
search of rare specimens for my castle garden at Lake Luno, I should find
nothing but tartan, saffra, lichen-trees, and blue dandelions."
The
mention of Luno Castle turned his thoughts homeward with a jerk. Here he was
at last, after many adventures, on the same continent with his Lilla and his
baby Kew. He had come here to rescue them, if it were not too late, from Yuri
the usurper and his whistling bees. Now that he was apparently within reach of
his loved ones, he began to worry about their safety a great deal more than
ever before.
But this fear for Lilla. was completely
out-weighed by a growing fear of Lilla.
What would she say to his two allies? Doggo, the ant-man,
was a representative of a race which Cabot had vowed to exterminate from the
face of Poros; for, as he had repeatedly asserted, there can be no lasting
peace on any continent, which is inhabited by more than one race of intelligent
beings.
And Quiwen, the golden-furred Vairking
maiden, would be even more difficult to explain. She was beautiful, even by
Cupian standards. She was more nearly the same race as Myles than was his own
wife, Lilla,. She and Myles could talk together,
unheard by the radio-sense of Lilla. In these circumstances, it was hardly
possible that the Princess Lilla would receive Quiwen with open arms, or even
be passably decent to her.
At
this point, his reveries was interrupted by Doggo
handing him the following note:
If we are to await passers-by, do you not
think it would be well to return to the plane and secure our rifles, so as to
protect ourselves in case the passers-by should prove to be hostile?
Myles
nodded his assent, and informed Quiwen of their intentions. She, being nearer
to the point where they had entered the road, plunged through the bushes at
once, and they hastened after her.
Just
as Myles and Doggo were breaking through the bushes in the wake of the golden
one, they heard an agonized scream ahead. Redoubling their efforts, they reached
the clearing in an instant, and beheld a most unexpected sightl
Perched
upon the airship, like a flock of enormous vultures, were about a dozen huge, bat-winged,
pale green reptiles, each with a wing-spread of fully ten-feet; and one of
these loathsome creatures held the writhing form of Quiwen tight in its claws.
Without
a moment's thought for his own safety, the intrepid
earth-man drew the Vairkingian sword which hung at his side, and rushed
straight at the beast which held the girl. Doggo followed close behind,
clicking his mandibles angrily.
But
before they could reach the plane, the noisome flock flapped heavily into the
air and disappeared over the trees to the northward, Quiwen's childish face an
agony of despair, and one little furry paw waving a forlorn farewell.
The
next move was obvious. Myles and Doggo sprang to their places in the aircraft
and soared after. It was an easy matter to overtake the clumsy-winged saurians,
but not so easy to decide what to do after reaching them. The reptiles flew so
close together their pursuers were afraid to fire on them for fear of hitting
Quiwen. The girl was as yet apparently unharmed, so the only thing to do
seemed to be to follow and watch for some opportunity to effect
a rescue.
Thus the chase continued for several stads
without event. Myles was in an agony for the safety of his little friend, but
even his deep concern did not keep his scientific mind from speculating about
the pale green dragons which he was following. He had read about such beasts in
books on paleontology as a child. These were undoubtedly pterodactyls.
He
had seen somewhat similar stuffed specimens in the imperial museum at Kuana,
capital of Cupia. He had encountered swarms of tiny pterosaurs, the size of
sparrows, in the caves of Kar. But he had been informed by Cupian scientists
that the larger species had long since become extinct on Poros.
Whence then these captors
of Quiwen?
While
engaged thus in speculations, he flew a bit closer to the flock, whereat two of
them suddenly turned and simultaneously attacked the plane from both sides.
Doggo instantly dispatched his assailant
with a rifle shot; but Myles did not dare let go of the control levers, as he
was flying too close to the tree tops for safety as it was. Accordingly his assailant got a clawhold on the side of the fusilage, furled its wings
and started to crawl in.
But
the earth-man steered the machine high into the air, as his companion swung
around and fired at the intruder, which promptly let go its hold, and, falling
with a shriek of pain, crashed through the tree tops and disappeared from view.
Myles
drew a deep breath of relief, and once more swooped down on the flock of pterosaurs.
But this time he kept at a safe distance from them; and they, warned by the
fate of their two comrades, did not attempt any further sallies at the plane.
So the pursuit continued. Occasionally,
between the green wings, the two in the airship could catch a glimpse of the
form of Quiwen, held fast in the talons of her captor. She was still alive. She
did not seem to be in pain. Once she waved feebly to her friends above. What
would those beasts do with her?
The question was soon to be answered. But first
it was to be succeeded by many other questions, for a large and prosperous
looking city loomed ahead. Its appearance was unfamiliar to Cabot. Strange, he
thought that he knew all the principal settlements of Cupial Its architecture
was of an unknown type, not the pueblolike piles of exaggerated toy building
blocks affected by the Formians, nor the red-tiled spires and minarets of the
Cupians, but rather a style somewhat resembling classical Greek or Roman.
The architecture was immaterial, however, compared
with the fact that this was a city of some sort, a city of a high degree of
civilization. The beasts were apparently headed straight for it, and thus there
was every prospect of the inhabitants—presumably Cupians—rescuing Quiwen.
Suppose,
however, it was a deserted city. Its unfamiliar style and remote location
suggested as much. Perhaps this was the long forgotten court of some Cupian
Jamshyd, now kept by lion and lizard, or rather by woofus and pterodactyl.
This
was not so, however; for, as Cabot drew nearer, he could clearly see that the
buildings were in an excellent state of repair, with not a crumbling ruin among
them. No, this was an inhabited
city, to which the green
dragons were bringing their prey. Could it be that the Cupian inhabitants kept
these creatures as pets, and that this fact was unknown to the scientists at
the Cupian metropolis?
Cabot's cogitations were again cut short by
his arrival over the city. The dragons made straight for an imposing
centrally-located domed edifice, which they entered by one of the upper
windows. The plane promptly dropped into a near-by plaza. Making a sign to the
ant-man to guard the ship, Myles seized a rifle and cartridges, and rushed down
a street which led toward the building which the green beasts had entered.
On the way he met several pterosaurs, four or
five four-legged slate-colored reptiles ranging in size from that of a small
dog to that of a horse, one large snake about thirty feet in length, various
sorts of insects, and a few catlike furry creatures; but not a single Cupian.
If these were the pets of the city, where were their masters?
The strange creatures did not offer to molest
him. In fact, they gave way to him with every indication of respect and not a
little fear. This seemed to indicate that they were all thoroughly
domesticated, so he made no effort to hurt them.
At last he arrived at the building which he
sought. A wide incline led from the street up to its arched doorway. This
smacked of Formia, for the ant-men before they were driven off the continent
had used ramps everywhere instead of the flight of stairs employed by the
Cupians.
Over the door was an inscription in
unmistakable Porovian characters: "The Palace of the City of Yat."
This must be Cupia,
or old Formia—now occupied by the Cupians—for this was the language of those
two races. But then, he reflected, it had also been the written language of the Vairkings, far across the
boiling seas.
Putting
an end to his speculations, he rushed up the ramp and entered the building.
The
splendidly arched and vaulted interior was crowded with the strangest
assortment of animals the earth-man had ever set eyes upon. Picture to yourself
Frank Buck's circus, the New York zoo, and the gr-ool of Kuana, all turned
loose in one hall, and then you wouldn't imagine one-half of it; for very few
of these assembled beasts bore the slightest resemblance to anything which you,
or even Myles Cabot, had ever seen. He paused aghast and surveyed the
assemblage. There was not a human or Cupian present, not even an ant-manl
At
the farther side of the chamber, on a raised platform, there sat—or, rather,
squatted—a gigantic pterosaur, whose wingspread must have been at least twenty
feet from tip to tip. This beast, unlike those which had kidnapped Quiwen, was
pale slate-blue rather than green. His head was square, with a sharp crested
beak, large circular lidless eyes, and earholes, but no ears.
Four
legs he had, very much like those of a toad, except that the fifth finger of
each hand, the finger which should have been the "little" finger,
extended backward over his hips to a distance of about six feet, and served as
the other supporting edge of his leathery wings, which now lay furled at his
side.
In
front of this creature stood Quiwen the Golden Flame, guarded by two of the
smaller pterodactyls, and seemingly unhurt and unafraid. None of the animals
appeared to have noticed Cabot's entrance, so he decided to wait a few moments
and size up the situation before doing anything rash.
As
he watched the scene, a huge snake some thirty feet in length and at least half
a yard in diameter squirmed on to the platform beside the slate-colored dragon.
This snake had two rudimentary legs and two small arms, none of which it used
to help its progression; but in one hand it carried what appeared to be a sheet
of paper, which it handed with a hiss to the dragon, who hissed in reply, and
taking the paper appeared to read it.
This called the attention of the earth-man to
the fact that each of the Alice-in-Wonderland animals about him was equipped
with a pad and stylus. Occasionally one would scratch something on its pad, and
then make two sharp clicks with its mouth, at which a small winged lizard would
take the missive and fly with it to some other part of the chamber.
Standing very near Myles there was a small
and particularly inoffensive-looking furry animal somewhat resembling a beaver.
In Cupia Myles would have assumed that it was1 some species of
mathlab, except for its lack of antennae.
This looked like a good safe specimen to
experiment upon, so he reached for its pad, which, to his great surprise, the
creature promptiy handed him without demur, together with its stylus.
Remembering the inscription above the arched
doorway, Myles wrote in Porovian shorthand: "Most Excellent King— Myles
Cabot, a weary sojourner, craves protection for himself and the golden one who
now stands before you. We are from Cupia and Vairkingi respectively. What
country is this?"
Then
he folded the paper and clicked twice with his tongue against the roof of his
mouth. Instantly a fluttering messenger was at his side. Indicating the
platform with a gesture, he handed the note to the little winged reptile, who flew away with it. Myles passed the pad and stylus back
to the furry creature from whom he had borrowed it,
and then watched the great dragon to whom he had written.
This beast received and read the note, while
the messenger hovered nigh. Then, steadying a pad against the floor with one
front claw, he wrote on it with a stylus held in the other. What he had written
he showed to the snake which lay coiled beside him, and upon obtaining a hiss
of approval, folded the note and gave it to the little bat, who
flew back with it to Myles.
On the paper, written in unmistakable
Porovian characters, were the words: "Welcome to Yat, Myles Cabot. You and
your mate are our guests. We know of no country of either Cupia or Vairkingi.
This is the land of the Whoomangs, and I am Boomalayla, their king. You have
permission to approach the throne."
So that explained
the strange plants, the dirt roads, the unfamiliar architecture, and the
absence of Cupians and Vairkmgs! This must be a third continent intermediate between the other two. Well, the plane was
intact, and King Boomalayla had assured him that they were guests, so that it
was just as well that they had landed on this Azores of the boiling seas.
Reassured, the earth-man made his way through the strange throng to the foot of
the throne where he bowed low before the hideous 'reptile monarch.
Little Quiwen, with a cry of glad surprise,
rushed over to him and nestled confidingly by his side. Placing one arm protectingly around her, he
boldly confronted the winged king.
This beast, after some penciled conversation
with his serpent adviser, handed Myles a note reading as follows: "Our
nation was founded many years ago by a creature closely resembling yourself. Therefore you are an honored guest among us. We
have long awaited this day. It is true that you have
killed the bodies of two of my subjects, and thereby subjected their souls to a
premature birth. The penalty for this would ordinarily be to have a similar
death imposed upon your own body. But because of your resemblance to our great
originator, Namllup, I shall spare your body. Furthermore, I fear that, like
him, you may perhaps have no soul, although this deficiency can easily be
supplied."
Myles
read the note and handed it to Quiwen, then pointed to
the writing materials of the saurian. Instantly two of the
tiny winged messengers brought him a pad and stylus.
Thus
supplied, he asked the king: "Great ruler, does your offer of protection
include my wings and the black creature who guards
them in the public square outside?"
"And
how about little me?" asked Quiwen, reading over his shoulder.
"He
has already pledged his friendship to both of us," replied Myles, handing
the note to one of the tiny pterosaurs.
Back
came the answer from the king: "You and yours shall all be protected. I
will now send guards to relieve your guard at the wings, and to summon him into my presence."
But the earth-man held up one hand in a
gesture of protest, and hurriedly wrote: "Better
not, your majesty, unless you wish a fight. I will send a note, explaining all.
You can then follow it in a few paraparths with your detachment of
guards."
To
this proposal the huge saurian assented, so Myles dispatched to Doggo by one of
the tiny pterosaurs a long written explanation of the situation. A few minutes
later, under orders from the reptile king, the flock of green pterodactyls who
had been the original captors of Quiwen departed with much leathery flapping through
one of the windows overhead, and presently one of them returned on foot with
Doggo.
"What
kind of a gr-ool is this we have got into?" were the ant-man's first
words, as Cabot handed him the pad and stylus.
"The
Great Builder only knows," his friend replied. "Anyhow they claim to
possess souls, and have offered us protection."
Doggo looked skeptical. Just then a messenger flitted over with a note from Boomalayla,
reading: "The session is at an end. You will please follow me to the royal
apartments for a conference."
The
king clicked sharply. Instantly all was silence in the huge hall. Solemnly the
king clicked three times. In unison the assembled Whoomangs clicked back a
triple answer. Then all was bustle and confusion as those without wings crowded
through the doors and those with wings departed through the windows in the dome
above.
Boomalayla and his snake adviser,
and the three travelers from Vairkingi were the only persons—if you can call
them all "persons"—left in the vaulted chamber. Whereupon the snake,
gliding ahead, led the way to an anteroom, gorgeously jeweled and draped. There
the five reclined on soft tapestries, attended by a swarm of little messengers
and engaged in the following written conversation. Due to the speed of Porovian
shorthand, the "talk" progressed practically as rapidly as if it had
been spoken, although Doggo was somewhat handicapped by not having a stylus
which was properly adapted to his claw.
"Who are your companions?" the king
asked.
So Myles introduced Quivven the Vairking
maiden, and Doggo the Formian. Boomalayla explained that the snake was Queekle
Mukki, prime minister of the Whoomangs, and wise beyond all his countrymen.
"His
soul is brother to my soul, although our bodies are unrelated," the king
wrote.
Myles was much perplexed. "How is
it," he inquired, "that such diversified animals as you Whoomangs are
able to live at peace with each other?"
"It
was not so before the days of Namllup," the huge pterosaur replied,
"but he gave us souls and made us one people. Our bodies may be unrelated,
but our souls are the same. You and your two companions are as unalike as any
of us; perhaps the three of you have
a common type of soul."
Myles
was even more perplexed. "Who was Namllup?" he asked. "And what
means all this talk of souls?"
XXI SOULS?
In reply to Cabot's question, the huge winged saurian, Boomalayla, King of the
Whoomangs, wrote the following reply, "All that I am about to tell you of the traditional beginning
of our race is shrouded in the mists of antiquity. The legend is as follows:
"Many
hundreds of years ago this fertile continent was inhabited by warring beasts of
every conceivable size and form; and they were but brute creatures, for they
had no souls. Souls existed, it is true, but inasmuch as they inhabited no
bodies, they had no learning, experience, or background. They were of but
little use to themselves, each other, or the planet.
"Then one day there
was born out of the ground a creature much like youself. His name was Namllup. He it was who
discovered how to introduce souls into bodies by making a slight incision at
the base of the brain and inserting there a young soul.
"First he captured some very tame wild
creatures and gave them souls. With their aid he "captured others, more fierce, and so on, until there was hardly a beast left
soulless on this continent. Thus did he make of one race all the creatures of
Poros to dwell together on the face of the continent.
This industry we have kept up to this day.
"It is reported, however, that Namllup
himself had no soul. There was no scar at the back of his head, and no soul
issued from his body after death. Others he gave soul to, himself he could not.
This is the general belief."
All
this was as clear as mud to Myles Cabot. He could not make head nor tail out of it. Boomalayla appeared to be talking in riddles, or allegories.
Nevertheless,
Myles determined to try and make a beginning somewhere in order to understand
what this mass of verbiage was all about, so he wrote, "How can you tell?
Surely you cannot see souls!"
"Surely
we can," the reptile king replied; "for souls are
creatures just as real as \ve are, and have an independent existence from the
day they hatch until they are inserted in the brain of somebody. From the way
you talk, I cannot believe that you have
any soul."
"Of course I
have," Myles remonstrated.
"Prove
it to me," Boomalayla demanded. "Let me see the back of your
head."
Myles complied.
"No,"
the winged king continued, "you have no soul. There is no scar."
This
conversation was irritating in the extreme. It led nowhere. Quiwen and Doggo
read all the correspondence, and were equally perplexed.
The
huge pterosaur continued writing. "I can see that you do not believe
me," he wrote.
"This is not to be
wondered at, since you yourself are soulless. Though I cannot understand how a beast like you, without a
soul, can be as intelligent as you seem to be. Come to our temple, and I will
show you souls."
So saying, Boomalayla, accompanied by Queekle
Mukki, the serpent, led Cabot and his two companions out of the buildings and
through the streets of the city to another edifice, which they entered.
What a travesty on the lost
religion of Cupial
Within the temple there moved about a score
or more of assorted beasts—pterodactyls, reptiles, huge insects, furry
creatures, and so forth—bearing absolutely no resemblance to each other except
the fact that each and every one of them wore a long robe emblazoned with a
crimson triangle and swastika, emblem of the true religion of Poros.
Among
them was one enormous slate-colored pterosaur, almost the exact counterpart of
Boomalayla, the king, who introduced this beast to his guests by means of the
following note: "This is the chief priest of the true religion. She is my
mate. But come, let me show you some souls."
The chief priest then led the party into an
adjoining room, the walls of which were lined with tiny cages, most of which
contained pairs of moths.
The
dragon king explained as follows: "When a Whoo-mang dies, his body is
brought to the temple and is watched day and night by a priest, net in hand, to
catch the soul when it emerges."
What it had to do with souls Cabot couldn't see for the life of him. Neither could Quivven nor Doggo.
Having made a complete tour of inspection the
party then returned to the palace, where they discussed the glories of
Vairkingi and Cupia with the king and Queekle Mukki, and then dined on cereal
cakes and a flesh resembling fish.
"Be
not afraid to eat this," Boomalayla urged. "It is fresh flesh. We
breed these water reptiles especially for food."
After
the meal the three travelers were assigned rooms in the palace.
At
Cabot's request, tapestries were brought from the plane, and the party
severally retired for the night.
The
next morning they were up early, and assembled in Cabot's room. The night had
proved uneventful, but Doggo wrote in great excitement that he had talked with
the green guards, who had refused to disclose the whereabouts of the plane, and
had said that this was the king's order.
Immediately
after breakfast, which consisted of cakes and sweetened water, they requested
an audience with the king—and, when it was granted, demanded news of the plane.
But Boomalayla waved them off with an evasive answer.
"Tarrry
but a day or so," he wrote, "and then your wings shall be returned to
you, and you shall be permitted to depart. I promise it, on the word of honor
of a king."
So
there was nothing but to wait, for it would not do to antagonize this powerful
beast, and thus perhaps lose forever the chance to return which he had
promised them.
The
day was spent in a personally-conducted tour of the city, with Boomalayla as a
most courteous and attentive guide and host. The Whoomangs appeared to be a
highly cultivated race, if you can call them a "race"—a "congeries"
would perhaps be the most accurate term. Objects of all the arts abounded, and
the tour would have been most pleasurable if the three travelers had not been
so anxious to be on their way once more to Cupia.
The night was spent as before, uneventfully,
but the next day Doggo was missing. In reply to all inquiries, the Whoomangs
returned evasive answers.
"He
is gone on business of his own," was all they would say.
This
day Queekle Mukki, the serpent, was their host and guide. He used every effort
to outdo Boomalayla in courtesy, but his two guests were strangely uneasy. Some
impending calamity seemed to hang over them.
Late
that evening, when they were in their quarters, Doggo rushed in bristling with
excitement. He had something to tell them, and wanted to tell it quickly, but
had mislaid his pad and stylus. Strange to relate, Cabot could not find his own writing materials either. Quiwen
finally found her stylus but no pad.
Seizing
the lead-tipped stick, Doggo scratched on the pavement
of the room, "Quick, give me paper! Quick! Your lives depend upon it!
Quick, before it is too latel"
Cabot rushed into the hall and clicked twice
with his tongue against the roof of his mouth, but nothing happened. Again and
again he repeated the call, until finally one of the little winged messengers
flitted into sight. To him the earthman indicated his wants by going through
the motions of writing with the index finger of his right hand upon the palm of
his left. The little creature flitted away, and after what seemed an
interminable wait returned with pad and stylus.
Myles
snatched them and rushed back to Doggo. "What is the matter?" he
wrote.
But
Doggo replied, "Nothing. It was just a joke, to frighten you. We are all perfectly safe here, and Booma-layla has a
wonderful plan to facilitate our departure three days from
now."
It was not like Doggo, or any other member of the serious minded race of ant-men, to play a
practical joke like this. Myles could swear that his friend had been genuinely
agitated a few moments ago. What could have happened in the meantime to change
him?
The
earth-man looked at the Formian steadily through narrowed lids. His friend
appeared to act strangely. Could this, in truth, be Doggo?
If they had been on any other continent Myles
would have sworn that some other ant-man, closely resembling his friend, was
attempting an impersonation, but that could not be the case here, for Doggo was
certainly the only Formian on this continent.
It was Doggo's body, all right, yet it did
not act or look like Doggo.
Even
Quiwen noticed that something was wrong. Nervously she said good night, and
Cabot followed shortly after. Instead of retiring he went to Quivven's room, where
the
two puzzled together for some time, trying to guess what had come over their
friend. What at last they parted for the night the mystery was no nearer
solution than before. In fact, they had practically made up their minds that
no mystery existed, after all; and that the strange, surroundings, and strange
events, and strange talk of souls, had merely cast an aura of strangeness, even
over their friend.
The next morning Doggo
was on hand bright and early, but this time it was Quiwen who was missing.
"My
turn next," thought Myles, "and then perhaps I shall find out what it
is all about."
As before, the Whoomangs were evasive as to
the whereabouts of the golden one, and even Doggo was singularly unresponsive
and devoid of ideas on the subject.
This
day the she-dragon high-priestess was their guide, but although she outdid both Boomalayla and Queekle Mukki, Cabot fretted, and
worried, and merely put on an external show of interest.
Late
that afternoon—the fourth of their stay among the Whoomangs—as soon as the tour
was over, Cabot left Doggo and withdrew to his own
room.
Where was Quiwen all this
time, he wondered.
His
question was answered by the Golden Flame herself bursting into the room full
of excitement.
"Thank
the Builder I can talk to you with my mouth, and do not have to wait for pencil
and paper," she exclaimed. "The Whoomangs overlooked our powers of
vocal speech when they hid our writing materials as before."
It was true; their pads and styluses had
miraculously disappeared again.
"Where
have you been?" Cabot asked, somewhat testily. "I suppose that in a
few moments you will say that all your excitement
has been a mere practical joke on me, the same as Doggo's was."
"Yes," she replied seriously.
"I shall—undoubtedly. And therefore listen while there is yet time—while I
am still Quivven."
"What do you
mean?" Myles exclaimed, staring at her.
"This," she said.
"In a few moments I shall be Whoomang."
He started to interrupt, but she stopped him
with a peremptory gesture, and continued: "Know, then, the secret of all
this talk of souls. The grubs which they breed from their moths are strong
personalities, potential devils, needing only a highly-developed body in order
to become devils incarnate. Namllup, whoever he was, discovered this, ages
ago.
"By
a simple operation, the Whoomangs can insert one of these larvae at the base of
a creature's brain, where in a few hours the personality of the larva overcomes
the proper personality of the creature, and henceforth rules the creature until
the creature dies. The larva then flutters free, a moth, to propagate other
devil-souls for this nefarious usage.
"Yesterday
these fiends operated upon Doggo. For a time, his own soul .and this
brain-maggot struggled for supremacy. While his own personality remained
ascendant, and yet had imbibed sufficient knowledge to understand the
situation, he tried to warn us of our danger. Would that he had been in time!
But when the pad of paper had arrived, dear old Doggo was dead. His body had
become a Whoomang, dominated by one of their moth-grubs, 'souls' as they call
them.
"This afternoon they
operated on me!"
Myles shuddered, but Quiwen went relentlessly
on: "Two personalities are now contending within me for mastery. There can
be but one outcome. Quiwen must die, and her brain and body must become the
vehicle for the thoughts and schemes of an alien mind. My will is strong. At
present it is in control. But any moment now, it may snap. So I adjure you,
by> the Great Builder and your loved ones, refuse stonily and absolutely to
listen to any denial which my mouth may give you.
"Now,
while there is yet time, I must tell you their plans. Boomalayla sighs for more
worlds to conquer. He was captivated by your tales of your country. To-morrow
he will operate on you. Then, when the bodies of you and Doggo and I are all
Whoomangs, and yet retain a certain amount of our own knowledge and skill, he
plans to send us on to Cupia with a plane-load of moths, to operate on your
countrymen, and build up a second empire of Whoomangs there."
Myles gasped at the dastardliness of the
plan, a plan which might yet succeed; for, even if he escaped, Doggo's body might still carry the plan into
execution.
"Where is our
plane?" he asked.-
"Yes," Quiwen sadly replied,
"I must lead you to the plane, while I am yet me. Come quickly." "But. can we leave Doggo?"
"Yes," she replied. "Not only
must you leave Doggo, but you must leave me, too; for Doggo is no longer Doggo, and I shall not be Quiwen in a few minutes from now,
for I feel the Whoomang soul struggling for ascendency within me. Cornel"
Quickly she led him out of the room, and down several hallways to a courtyard of the
palace, where stood the plane, guarded by a green dragon. This beast interposed
no objection to their approach. Quiwen smiled wanly.
"He
will not stop you," she said, ""for already they regard me as
one of them, and count on me to inveigle you. And now, Myles,
good-by. I feel myself slipping. In a minute or two your Quiwen will be
no more. Whether my own soul will then go to the happy land, as though I had
normally died, or whether it will simply be blotted out, I know not; but one
thing I do know, and that is that I love you with all my
heart."
She flung her arms around
his neck and kissed him.
Then
suddenly she cried, "I've won! I made you love me. It was all a scheme,
cooked up by Doggo and myself to trap you out of your complacency and force you
to admit your love. The story of the moth-grubs souls is a lie, woven out of
the weird philosophizing of Boomalayla. From now on, I know that you love me.
From now on, I am confident that I can compete with that Lilla of yours."
He
stood aghast. Could this be so? He was half inclined to believe. Then he
remembered her words: "Refuse
stonily and absolutely to listen to any denial which my mouth may give you," Also he reflected that Doggo
certainly would never have been a party to a trick to betray Lilla.
So
he thrust the golden maid to one side, and strode toward the plane.
But she rushed after him and clung to him,
wailing piteously, "Myles, Myles, surely you aren't going to desert us
just because of this trick which we played on you. Surely you don't intend to
leave us to the mercy of these terrible beasts."
He did not know what to believe. There was a
possibility that her story about the souls was the truth. If so, then the
safety of the whole continent of Cupia was at stake. And yet, if not, what an
awful country to leave her and Doggo in!
He
vaulted into the plane, then stood irresolute at the
levers. He looked intently at the golden maid, who clung to the side of the
car. There was something strange about her face, something clearly un-Quiwen.
And yet, as he gazed, he became certain that it was Quiwen after all. And he
was right.
"Myles,"
she shouted, letting go the plane, "Quick! By the grace of the Builder, my
own spirit is again in the ascendency for an instant. The story I told you is
true! Flee, before it is too late." Then suddenly she changed again and shouted
to the guardian
pterosaur, "Quick, stop himl''
Her
expression altered as she spoke, but Myles slammed on the power, and the
machine rose quickly, leaving behind the frantic golden form of little Quiwen.
After
him trailed a swarm of winged creatures of all sorts, but his fast airship soon
outdistanced them as it sped due west toward a sky that had already begun to
turn pink with the unseen setting sun. On and on he sped until his pursuers
dropped from view. Then he turned northward to throw them off the trail; and
then, after a while, due west again, until, as night was about to fall, the
steam-bank of the boiling sea loomed ahead.
Whereupon he landed. He must wait until morning before
attempting the passage. But as he prepared to spend the night he noticed that all
the tapestries were gone from the cockpit.
How could he brave the steam clouds without
wrappings of some sort? And was he certain, after all, that he was not leaving
two perfectly good friends in the lurch?
XXII
FLIGHT
There must be something in
the airship in which he could swathe himself for the trip across the boiling
seas. With this in view he made a frantic search of the entire cockpit. Doggo's
rifle and the ammunition were still there, but his own he had left in his room
on his hurried departure. Here, too, was the little stone lamp, by the light of
which they had watched their instruments beneath the kayack covering. Even some
of their provisions were left.
Finally he came upon some boxes which he did
not recognize. A rank smell became evident upon closer examination. Gingerly
he opened one of those boxes.
It
contained flesh, finely ground and putrid. And in this carrion there wriggled
and swarmed scores of small white grubs! The last of Cabot's doubts vanished.
These were the devil-souls which he and Doggo and Quiwen had been expected to
carry to Cupia, to found there a new empire of Whoomangs. Evidently his hosts
had expected some possible trouble from him, and therefore had prepared the
plane for a quick get-away by Doggo and Quiwen.
Indignantly
the lonely earth-man emptied out box after box onto the ground, and mashed the
contents into the dirt with his sandaled feet.
By this time it was nearly pitch dark, but of
course, this
would make no difference while flying through steam clouds, for visibility
under such circumstances would be impossible even in daylight. If he only had
some covering for the cockpit to keep out the steam, he could fly just as well
at night as by day, except for one danger; how could he be warned of flying too
high, passing through the circumambient cloud envelope, and being shrivled to
a crisp by the close proximity of the sun.
In
despair the earth-man sat beside his beached airship, as the velvet blackness
crept out of the east and enveloped the planet. So near, and yet so far! He
Jhad successfully transmitted himself through millions of miles of space from
the earth to Poros. He had escaped the clutches of' the Formians and the Roies.
He had built a complete radio set out of
nothing, and had talked with Cupia across the boiling seas. He had traversed
those seas once without accident. He had eluded the machinations of the
Whoomangs, with their moth grub "souls". And yet here he was, with
only a few miles of ocean separating him from his loved ones, and, nevertheless,
blocked effectually by the lack of a few yards of cloth. What fate! "
As
the last purple flush died on the western horizon, Myles suddenly jumped to his
feet, and laughed aloud. The solution was so obvious that it had completely
escaped him until now. It was the setting sun that had suggested the escape
from his dilemma.
There is no sun at night!
Of course not!
Therefore why not soar straight up, pierce
the cloud envelope and fly above it to Cupia, letting the clouds protect him
from the heat of the boiling seas, as they normally protect the planet from the
light and heat of the sun? At any rate, it was worth trying. To remain where he
was would mean either eventual starvation, or recapture by the terrible
Whoomangs.
So,
by the light of his little Vairking stone lamp, he made a hasty lunch from his
few remaining provisions, and then took his stand at the levers for a new experiment in Porovian
navigation.
Up, up, he shot through the dense blackness,
up to a height which in earth would have filled his blood with air bubbles, and
have suffocated his lungs. But on Poros, with its thicker atmospheric shell and
its lesser gravity, the change was not so evident.
Far
to the eastward he saw the lights of Yat, the city of the beasts; but this was
his only landmark. There was nothing but his gyro compass to tell him exactly
which was north, and south, and east, and west; nothing but his clinometer to
indicate whether he was going up or down; nothing but his altimeter to indicate
his approximate height above the surface of the planet. And these instruments
he must read by the flickering light of a primitive open wick stone lamp on the
floor of the cockpit.
What if this faint illuminator should become
extinguished? He certainly could not leave the controls for long enough to use
flint and steel to rekindle it.
During
the early part of his stay in Vairkingi he had always gone to some one of the
constantly burning lamps which were the primitive fire source of the furry
Vair-kings. Later he had found several pieces of flint, when investigating a
small chalk deposit as a possible alternative for limestone in his smelting
operations. After the manufacture of steel had begun he had practiced striking
a light in this more modern method, and thereafter had always carried flint and
steel and tinder with him in one of the pouch pockets of his leather tunic. It
was with these crude implements that he had kindled his oil lamp for the
present flight.
But
this fire source would avail him little if a gust of wind should extinguish his
primitive lamp. In such event, what could he do?
This
question was immediately put to the test, for his ship struck a small air
pocket and dipped. Out went the lightl Now he could no longer read his compass
nor his altimeter, but—happy
thought—he could determine
the inchnation of the plane from
time to time by touching
his clinometer. So, on
upward he kept.
Presently he found it difficult to breath, and this difficulty was soon increased by a damp
fog, which choked his nostrils and windpipe, causing him to cough and sneeze.
The water condensed on the airship, and dropped off the rigging onto the matted
hair and beard of the earth-man. Yet still he kept on up.
Finally he breathed clear air once more. He
pushed back the dripping locks from his forehead, and wiped out his
water-filled eyes with the back of one wrist. All was still jet darkness, yet
in front of him and above him there glowed some tiny points of light. Rubbing
his eyes, he looked again. Stars! The first stars he had ever seen on Poros—a sky full of stars!
With
some surprise Myles Cabot noted that above him were swung the same
constellations with which he had been familiar on earth, among them the two
dippers, Orion and Cassiopea.
He strove to recall the inclination of the
axis of Venus to the ecliptic, but all that he could remember was that it did
not differ appreciably from that of the earth. This information was enough for
his present purposes, however, for it meant that the star which we call the
pole star on earth was approximately north on Poros, and that its altitude
above the northern horizon would give approximately the latitude of the
location of the observer.
The
pole star, which he readily identified by means of the two pointers of the
great dipper, now hung about twenty degrees above the horizon, thus showing
that Cabot was opposite the southern tip of that part of the continent of Cupia
which formerly was Formia; so he leveled out the plane and, turning its nose
northwest by the stars, scudded along above the cloud envelope of the planet.
It
was not long before he noticed a quite appreciable increase of temperature.
Gusts and swirls of hot vapor assailed him from below; so that if it had not
been for the
gyroscopic steadying apparatus, he must surely have foundered. Even as it was,
it took all his efforts to control the ship. He suffered fearfully from the
heat, but it was not absolutely unbearable.
Navigation so compelled his entire attention
that he lost all track of time; he struggled on as in a dream, and had not the
slightest idea whether he had been flying for hours or only for minutes.
On and on he drove through the terrific heat
until at last he got so used to it that it actually seemed cooler. By Jove, he
could almost believe that the air really was cooler!
So
cautiously he tipped the nose of the plane downward, and entered the clouds
below him. Feeling his way at a low rate of speed, and ever ready to slam on
the full force of his trophil engines and shoot upward once more, he gradually
penetrated the cloud envelope which surrounds the planet. Yet the heat did not
increase.
At
last he was through. And below him twinkled lights,
the lights of a small city or town. Throwing the plane level once more, he
hovered down in true Porovian fashion.
The light of the town showed closer. Cabot's
heart beat fast, there was a lump in his throat, and his hands trembled at the
controls. Was this Cupia, his own kingdom of Cupia at last? Was he home?
Or—and
his heart sank within him—was this some still new continent, with other
nightmare beasts, and horrible adventures?
Whichever it was, he ought not to land too
near the town. His trophil motor was making a loud racket, but he was not
afraid of being heard, for Cupians have no ears, and their antennae can receive
only radio waves. So he skimmed low over the houses, straining his eyes to try and
make out their style of architecture. But it was no use; the jet blackness of
Porovian night obscured all below. Accordingly he planned to land about half a
stad from the village, and then reconnoiter at
daybreak.
This was to be accomplished as follows. His
distance from the ground he could gauge from the lights of the houses. Therefore he would hold his craft as
nearly as possible level, and hover softly down, taking a chance of landing on
some bush or tree.
The plan worked to perfection. After just
about the expected drop, he felt the skids grate on solid ground. Land once
more, after his sensational flight above the cloudsl Exhausted
and relaxed, he shut off his motor, and proceeded to crawl over the edge of
the cockpit.
Of course he could not even see his own
machine in the intense darkness. As he started to clamber out the plane
suddenly tilted a bit under his weight, then gave a lurch, and slid out from
under him, dislodging him as it did so.
He
struck the ground, but it crumbled beneath him, and he felt himself slipping
and sliding down a steep gravel bank until finally some sort of a projection
stopped his descent. To this projection he frantically clung. During his slide
he had heard the loud splash of the airplane below him, so he knew that there
was water there.
As
he hung to the projection on the side of the steep sand bank, he looked about
him in the jet black night; and, as he looked, he noticed the edge of the bank
above him, just showing against the sky. The edge become
more and more distinct. The sky above turned to slate, then purple, then red,
then pink, then silver. Day had come once more.
Cabot
found himself clinging, to a sharp spur of rock which stuck out from the bank.
So he hauled himself into a comfortable position upon it and stared around at
his surroundings.
His
location was halfway down the precipitous side of a craterlike hole about a
quarter of a stad in diameter and three parastads deep, the banks of which were
of coarse black sand. At the bottom a clear pool of water reflected the silver
sky. There was no sign of either his rifle, his
cartridge belt, or his plane. He possessed nothing save his leather tunic, his
wooden Vairking sword, a steel sheath knife which he had made in his foundries
at Vairkingi, and the contents of his pockets.
Even his leather helmet was gone. He espied
it, floating like a little boat, far out upon the pond; but even as he looked,
some denizen of the deep snapped at it, and it disappeared beneath the surface.
This was a forewarning of what might happen to Myles if he should have the misfortune
to slip into the pool below.
Well,
he must risk it in an attempt to get out, for even a sudden death beneath the
waters was preferable to starvation on a rocky perch. So, carefully and
laboriously, he attempted the ascent. Many times he slipped back, losing nearly
all that he had gained; but fortunately the bank was rather firm in spots and
was dotted with large jagged rocks which afforded a good handhold, so that eventually
Myles reached the top.
Here he found a flat plateau, flanked by a
continuous hedge of bushes about thirty paces from the edge. These bushes were
too high to see over, and grew so thickly together that Myles was unable to
penetrate them. Round and round the top of the pit he walked, repeatedly trying
to force his way out, but with no success.
The day wore on. Myles became tired, and
hungry, and thirsty, and disgusted. By placing a small pebble in his mouth, he
relieved the thirst for awhile, but this had no effect on his other symptoms.
Finally even his thirst returned.
The
thirst was aggravated by the presence, almost at his feet, of the clear pool of
water within the pit. He almost decided to slide down and try it, until he
remembered what had happened to his leather hat.
So
instead he began systematically to hack at the bushes with his knife and tear
them up by the roots at one given spot. At the end of an hour he had progressed
only about a yard, so he gave this up, too. He sat down, wrapped his arms
around his knees, gazed at the silver sky, and thought of nothing for a while.
Then he thought of Lilla and the Baby Kew.
Here he was, presumably in
Cupia, perhaps within a few stads of them; and yet what good did it do him?
It seemed to him as though the nearer he got
to his loved ones, the more effectually he was
separated from them. On the Farley farm, in Edgartown, Massachusetts, when he
had received the SOS message from the
skies, it had appeared but a simple matter to step within the coordinate axes
of his matter-transmitting apparatus, and throw a lever, in order to
materialize on Poros.
In
Vairkingi there had been the more difficult task of securing an ant plane,
before essaying to cross the boiling seas. In the land of the Whoomangs, he had
been confronted with the almost insuperable lack of swathing materials for
such a flight. And now, in Cupia at last, he was hemmed in by an impenetrable
wall of trees.
Yet,
he reflected, he had surmounted in turn each of these successively more
difficult difficulties; so why not this? With renewed determination he arose,
and resumed his grubbing operations. Another hour passed and another yard of
path had been completed. This was encouraging, and yet he had no means of
knowing how much farther there still remained for him to go.
As
he paused for breath, he heard a crashing noise almost directly across the
pit. Concealing himself as well as he could in the recess which he had formed
in the bushes, he watched expectantly. Presently the thick growth on the other
side parted neatly, and the sharp edge of a wedge appeared. This wedge
continued to divide the bushes until finally it came completely through. All
curiosity to see what was pushing the wedge, Myles craned forward, but there was
nothing behind it; it had been pushing itself.
As
the bushes slowly closed together again, the wedge stood up on six sturdy legs
and trotted around the top of the pit, until it came to a stop directly
opposite the hiding place of the earth-man. This gave him a good opportunity to
observe it.
Apparently it was some sort of insect. Its
head came to a sharp cutting edge in the front about five feet high;
and lateral projections extended diagonally
backward from the edge, like the wings on a snow-plow, to a point well beyond
the rear end of the animal.
These
two sides were covered with stiff backward-pointing bristles, which evidently
served to catch on the bushes through which the creature passed, and thus to
hold whatever gains it made. Its eyes, like those of a crab, were located on
long jointed arms, which it could raise whenever it wanted to look around. The
lower edge of the sides of the wedge were serrated,
and Myles soon learned what this was for. After wiggling its eyes about for a
while, the creature walked to the edge of the bank, thus giving the watcher a
good view of the body and legs within the projecting wedge, and slid off into
the pit, where a splashing sound indicated that it was probably drinking.
Soon
it reappeared over the top of the pit. Evidently the saw teeth on its sides
were to hold its progress up the face of the sand bank in much the same way as
its spines held its progress through the bushes.
The
wedge insect, upon topping the bank, made a bee-line for the edge of the
clearing, thrust its nose between two saplings, furled its eyes, braced it feet
against the ground, and started forcing its way through. Quick as a flash,
Myles Cabot darted from his hiding place and followed.
The
creature, rolling its eyes to the rear, saw him and tried to back out; for what
purpose he could not tell, but probably either to attack him or at least to
prevent him from attacking its vulnerable body. But it was already in too far,
and its spines held it securely.
It tried to kick at him, whereat he followed
not quite so close. Then it stubbornly stopped moving, pulled in its eyes and
its legs and lay down within its projecting headpiece, whereat he gave it a
prick in the tail with his Vairking sword. The effect was immediate and sudden.
The creature leaped to its feet and tore its way through the trees like a
cyclone, plunging high in air like a frantic horse. This left such an erratic
and only partially spread path that the earth-man had difficulty in following,
and soon fell far behind.
But
just as he was about to despair, the branches which he parted ahead of him
revealed a meadow of silver-green sward. He had reached the end of the wood.
Beyond
the field was a grove of gray-branched lichen trees, through which he could see
the steep red-tiled roofs of a village. Just short of the grove there grazed a
herd of those pale-green aphids, the size of sheep, which the Cupians call
"anks," and which Myles was wont to call "green cows."
Close by his right hand was a large shrub with heart-shaped leaves, unmistakably
a tartan bush.
Steep
red roofs, gray lichen trees, anks and tartans! This must be Cupia! He was
home!
Myles quoted aloud:
"Breathes
there a man with soul so dead Who never to himself has
said 'This is my own, my native land'?"
Cupia
might not be his native
land, but it was his own, the land of his wife and child, the land of which his son was rightful
king, the land whose armies he had twice led to victory. And now he had
returned to lead them yet again.
Drawing a deep breath of Cupian air into his
lungs, Myles raced across the meadow to the shelter of the grove of trees. From
that point of vantage he inspected the village. The architecture was
undoubtedly Cupian. In fact, its character was So clear he was even able to
judge by it just what part of Cupia he was in, for this architecture was
typical of the southeastern foothills of the Okarze Mountains, a thousand
stads or so north of Kuana, the capital city.
These
foothills held, among other spots of interest, Lake Luno, on an island of which
he and Lilla had~ built their country home. And the inhabitants of these
mountains had always been intensely loyal to the earth-man, his golden-haired
wife, and royal son.
On the outskirts of the village Cabot could
see figures moving—figures in white togas with colored edges, figures with tiny
vestigial wings projecting from their backs, figures with butterflylike
antennae rising from their foreheads. These were Cupians, his own adopted
countrymen.
Yet they never would recognize him in his
present condition, with shaggy hair, massive beard, and leather tunic, and
without the artificial wings and antennae which he had been accustomed to wear
among them. Therefore he could not yet reveal himself. He must first restore
his appearance to normal and also find and put on one of the small portable
radio sets which he had contrived years ago in his laboratories of Moorii, in
order to talk with these folk who have neither ears nor voice.
So, turning his back on the alluring village,
he made a meal
of the green milk of the grazing anks, and then set out to circle the
settlement and find a road.
When he did reach the road he recognized it.
And now he knew exactly what village that was. For the moment he could not
recall its name; but he knew it to be a little town which he and Lilla had
often visited, scarcely twenty stads from Luno Castle.
As
he strode on toward Luno Castle, his thoughts raced ahead of him, sometimes
picturing a happy homecoming with Lilla and Baby Kew standing in the great
arched doorway to greet him, and sometimes desolation and destruction with
Prince Yuri, the murderer of the baby king, and the kidnaper of Princess Lilla.
What
would Myles Cabot find on the beautiful island in Lake Luno?
XXIII
LUNO AND BEYOND
With no weapons except a steel knife and wooden rapier, the unkempt and bearded
earth-man set out resolutely along the twenty-stad road which led to Lake Luno.
All the rest of the afternoon he tramped along, avoiding the
towns, and taking cover whenever a kerkool approached.
Night fell—the velvet, fragrant,
tropic-scented night of Poros; yet, still he kept on, for he knew the road.
As he trudged along he tried to picture to
himself the state of affairs in Cupia. Back in Vairkingi, when at last he had
succeeded in getting the Princess Lilla on the air, she had mentioned the
whistling bees, just before Prince Yuri had cut her off.
These bees were called "whistling"
because of the heterodyne squeal with which they appeared to converse; but
Myles had discovered, by means of the greater range and selectivity of his own
artificial radio speech-organs, that this whistle was due to the bees sending
simultaneously on two interfering wave lengths, for signal purposes. When
simply talking they used a wave length beyond the range of Cupian speechl
Cabot had been able to adjust his portable
set to this wave length, and had talked with the bees. As a result of this
conversation an alliance had been formed between Cupia and the Hymernians—as
the bee-people called themselves—which had driven Yuri and his ants from the
continent. Thereafter the bees had lived at peace with the Cupians, a special
ration of green cows being bred for their benefit.
What, wondered Cabot, had the returned Yuri
done to disturb this state of affairs? If Portheris, the king of the bees,
still lived, Cabot could not imagine him siding with Yuri.
But,
whatever had happened, it was clear that the bees were at the bottom of it.
Time would tell very speedily.
Traveling
on foot at night on the planet Poros is
necessarily slow and tedious, for the blackness of the Porovian night is dense
beyond anything conceivable on earth. On earth even the light of a few stars
would enable a man to distinguish between a concrete road and the adjoining
fields and woods and bushes, but on Poros no
stars aré
visible. Accordingly Myles
had to feel his way with his feet, and fell off the road many times before he
reached his destination. Due to the mountainous character of the country, most
of these falls were extremely painful, and some were positively dangerous.
Yet
on he kept, and before long the lights of Luno village loomed ahead. Even here
it would not do to reveal himself in his present state of appearance, so he
skirted the town and made his way down the steep path which led to the shore of
the lake.
If
his island dwelling had been disturbed, he half expected to find that his
boats were gone from this landing place; but upon groping about in the dark he
came across several of them, tied up just where they ought to be. This cheered
him immensely.
But
when he stared across toward the island and saw no sign of any light there, his
spirits fell again. It was not the custom at Luno Castle to go through the
night totally unillumined.
He
would soon find out what the trouble was. So stepping into one of the boats he
cast off, and paddled vigorously toward the middle of the lake. Keeping his
bearings was difficult in the jet-black darkness, but he was guided somewhat by
the faint illumination sent skyward by the little village.
Finally he bumped against the rocky and
precipitous sides of the island, but misjudging his location he had to paddle
nearly clear around the island before he came to the landing beach. This
gained, he pulled his craft ashore, and groped his way up the narrow path to
the summit, thence across the lawns, which sloped gently down toward the center
of the island, where lay a little pond with Luno Castle standing beside it.
Myles ran into several shrubs, got completely
mixed up as to his directions, and finally fell into the pond. This gave him a
new starting point from which to orient- himself. Walking around its edge, with
one foot in the water, he would diverge outward from time to time, until at
last his groping hand touched a wall of masonry. It was his castlel He was
home! But what did that home hold? His heart beat tumultuously with
anticipation.
Feeling his way along the wall, he came to
the steps, and crawled up them to the great arched doorway. The door was
closed, but not locked. Myles flung it open softly, and entered, closing it
behind him. Then closing his eyes, he turned an electric switch, flooding the
hall with the light of many vapor-lamps.
Gradually
opening his eyelids, he glanced around him. Everywhere was the musty odor of
unoccupancy. He had expected either his family or a sacked and ruined castle;
he had found neither.
It
would not do for the surrounding populace to discover his return until he was
ready; so he hastily found a .flashlight, and then switched off the
vapor-lamps again.
Flash-light
in hand, he made a tour of the castle. Everything was
in perfect order. Lilla was a good housekeeper, and had evidently been given
plenty of time by Yuri to prepare for her departure. This spoke volumes for her
safety and that of the baby king.
Myles even found his own rooms undisturbed. This sur-
prised him greatly. He had not expected this much con-
sideration from Yuri. But then he reflected that Yuri must
have been pretty sure that he would not return from the
earth, and had wanted to do nothing to antagonize Lilla
any more than absolutely necessary. This time Yuri had
been playing the game of love-and-empire with a little more
finesse than usual. v
Myles, in his own dressing room, switched on
the light;
this
was safe, as its windows opened only onto the courtyard. Then he bathed,
shaved, trimmed his hair, and donned a blue-bordered toga, in place of his
leather Vairking tunic. On his head he placed a radio headset of the sort which
he had devised shortly after his first advent on Poros, to enable him to talk
with the earless and voiceless Cupians and Formians.
Artificial
antennae projected from his forhead. His earphones and ears were concealed by
locks of hair, his tiny microphone—between his collar-bones—by a fold of his
toga. Artificial wings strapped to his back protruded through slits in his
garment. Around his waist, beneath his gown, was the belt which carried his
batteries, tubes, and the sending and receiving apparatus itself.
Thus equipped, he surveyed himself
complacently in the glass. Barring the absence of a sixth finger on each hand
and a sixth toe on each foot, he looked a Cupian of the Cupians.
Then he proceeded to the radio room. The long
distance radio-set was in perfect condition, but there was nothing on the air.
One of the three-dialed Porovian clocks showed the time to be 1025; that is, a
half hour after midnight, earth time. There was nothing further he could do
before morning; so he lay down for a few hours of much needed rest.
When
he awoke it was broad daylight, 310 o'clock. The pink flush of sunrise was just
fading from the eastern sky. Less than three parths—six hours—of sleep! And
then he realized that he must have slept the clock around, and more; A day's growth of beard confirmed this. It was now the
beginning of his third
day in Cupia. He had been
dead to Poros for fifteen parths.
So
he shaved, bathed, and breakfasted on some dried twig knobs—which was all he
could find in the house. The courtyard garden was full of weeds. The lawns
which surrounded the castle and the pond were uncut. Everything bespoke an abandonment many sangths ago.
After a complete tour of the premises Myles
hastened to the radio room, and tuned-in the palace at Kuana. The result was
the voice of the usurper Yuri, testily calling the ant-station in New Formia,
far across the boiling seas. From time to time there would be silence, during
which the prince was evidently waiting for a reply; but none came. Otto the
Bold had done his work of destruction too well.
Myles
chuckled. Yuri's frantic voice, coming in over the air, was a radio program
much to Cabot's liking. Even the best earth-station of Columbia, National or
Mutual could not surpass it. The only thing he would rather hear would be his
own sweet Lilla.
His
recollection of Otto the Bold led him to wonder how the battle for Vairkingi
had progressed. Roies and Vairkings on one side against Roies
and ants on the other. It was a toss-up.
It seemed years since he had left the land of
the furry ones—Otto, Grod, Att, Jud, Theoph, Crota, Arkilu. They all resembled
mere shadows of a dream. The only real feature that stood out in his memory was
the radio set which he had fabricated.
Then
his thoughts flew to Yat, the city of the Whoomangs, with it strange assortment
of creatures, including Boomalayla, the winged dragon, and Queekle Mukki, the
serpent. Cabot shed a tear for Doggo and little golden furred Quiwen, and then
came down to the present with a jerk.
He was back in Cupia, clean, clothed, shaved,
equipped, fed, and rested. It was now up to him to rescue the Princess Lilla
from her traitor cousin. First he must find firearms. But of these the castle
had been looted; for not a trace of a rifle, an automatic, or even a single
cartridge could he find, though he searched high and low. So reluctantly he
strapped on merely his Vairking sword and knife, and ran down the path to the
beach.
In
the boat once more, he paddled rapidly toward the shore. At the landing place,
sitting on one of the boats was a Cupian, but as this man seemed to be unarmed,
Cabot approached him without fear. As he came within antennaeshot the man sang
out: "Welcome back to Cupia, Myles Cabot, defender
of the faith!"
Myles shaded his eyes from the silver glare
of the sky, "Nan-nan!" he exclaimed; for the Cupian before him was
none other than the young cleric of the lost religion who had helped rebuild
his radio head-set in the Caves of Kar during the Second War of Liberation.
As the boat grated on the beach the earth-man
leaped out, and the two friends were soon warmly patting each other's cheek.
These
greetings over, Cabot asked: "What good fortune brings you here?"
He
found it easy to slip back again into the language of this continent.
"The
Holy Leader detailed two of us," Nan-nan replied, "to watch Luno
Castle, for you know he must be kept informed of everything, as he waits
within his caves for the promised day. Night before last my colleague saw
lights for a night, so this morning I decided to reconnoiter."
"Is Owva still Holy
Leader?" Myles asked politely.
"Yes," the cleric
replied. "The grand old man still lives."
"The
Builder be praised! But," changing the subject,
"how are my family?"
"Both
well," Nan-nan answered, "though for the past six or nine days the
princess has not been permitted to communicate with anyone."
Myles smiled.
"Why?" he innocently asked.
"I know not," the
young cleric admitted.
Myles
laughed. "I thought that the Holy Leader knew everything," he said.
"Well, as it happens, I can
tell you. It is because I communicated with her a few
days ago and informed her that I was about to return. Has no news of this got
out from the palace?"
"No,"
Nan-nan replied, "but it explains why Yuri has kept a large squadron of
whistling bees patrolling the eastern coast all day long every day. How did you
get by them?"
"Came over at night," the earth-man
answered. "But what about the bees?"
"I'll
tell you," Nan-nan said. "Shortly after you left on your visit to
your own planet Minos, Prince Yuri flew back alone from his exile with the
Formians beyond the boiling seas. This was the first that we of Cupia had known
that any of them survived.
"Yuri
kept his return a secret for some time, but got in touch with some old
supporters of his. First he contrived to cut off the allowance of anks which
are doled out to the bees for food. Then he stirred up trouble among the bees
because of this.
"The
bees imprisoned Portheris, their king, and, under promise of an increased
allowance of food, seized the arsenal at Kuana, the air base at Wautoosa, and
Luno Castle. As you know, the air navy has been practically disbanded, because
there was nothing for it to fight. The rifles of the marching clubs had fallen
into disuse because other newer games had superseded archery. Most of the
rifles were stored at various central places, which the bees succeeded in
seizing.
s
"Some of the hill towns still had arms, but they surrendered these under
threat of Yuri to kill the Princess Lilla and the little king.
"All
the arms are now stored in the arsenal at the capital under guard of Yuri's
most trusted henchmen. A new treaty was made with the bees, giving them an
increase in food. But even so they are restive and are held in check merely by
fear of the anti-aircraft guns at Kuana.
"The
general belief of the populace is that you are dead. Yuri is ruling strictly,
and has dissolved the Popular Assembly. The pinquis everywhere are his personal
appointees. These facts and the burden of supplying anks to the Hymernians irk
the people; but they are impotent. 'Can a mathlab
struggle in the jaws of a woofus?'
"Lilla
he treated well. If he had not done so, the populace would rise against him,
bees or no bees. And he has promised the succession to little Kew, if Lilla
will marry him. But your dot-dash message many sangths ago stopped that, for it
showed that you still lived and had returned to Poros, although not to this
continent.
"That is all. Now tell
me of your adventures."
But
before complying with this request, the earth-man asked: "What has become
of the loyal Prince Toron and my chief of staff, Hah Babbuh, and Poblath the
Philosopher, and all my other friends and supporters?"
"Every
one of them, so far as I know, is safe," the young cleric replied.
"Most of them are hiding in the hill towns. Yuri has not risked the wrath
of the populace by molesting them, and' in fact has given notice that so long
as they behave they will be let alone."
Then Cabot related all that had occurred to him
from the time he transmitted himself earthward through Poros down to the
present date.
When
he concluded he remarked: "That will be an antenna-full for the Holy
Leader. But now to get to work. On whom
can I best depend in this vicinity?"
"On
Emsul, the veterinary," Nan-nan replied. "He lives in the village
now. Return to the island, and I will bring him to you."
Myles did so, and in a short time the three
were in conference in the castle. It seemed to Myles that the first thing to do
was to recover his airplane, rifle, and ammunition from the waters of the pit,
but Emsul demurred.
Said he: "Huge dark-green water-insects
inhabit the pool.
They are very like the red parasites which cling to the sides of the anks, and
which we roast for food, but they are much larger and the bite of their claws
means death."
The parasites to which the veterninary
alluded had always tasted to Cabot exactly like earth-born lobsters. The description of these new beasts were further suggestive of
lobsters. He asked Emsul for a more detailed description, and found that this
tallied still further with the earthly prototype.
This reminded Myles of an
interesting experiment which he had seen tried in the Harvard zoological
laboratory, and which he now hoped to put to a practical use.
So he asked: "Have these creatures a
gravitational sense organ?"
"Yes," the Cupian veterinary
replied, "although it is unlike ours. We Cupians, and I suppose you
Minorians, have inside the skull on each side of the head a group of three tubes
like the spirit levels of a carpenter.
"The corresponding organ of the
scissor-clawed beast is different, although serving the same end. On each side
of the thorax of these creatures there is a spherical cavity, with a small
opening to the outside. This opening is just large enough to admit a grain of
sand at a time.
"The membrane which lines the cavity, exudes a liquid cement which unites into a little
ball the grains of sand which enter. The cavity is lined with nerve ends; and,
as the ball always rolls to the bottom side of the cavity, the beast is able to
tell which direction is up, and which is down."
Cabot
clapped his hands in glee. This was exactly as in the case of earth-born
lobsters.
"They won't know which is up and which
is down when I get through with them," he exclaimed cryptically. J
It
was quickly arranged that Nan-nan should go at once to the village near the
lobster pool, and engage a gang of Cupian men to cut a swath through the thick
woods which hem in the pool. When this was completed, he was to send a
messenger to Luno Castle to summon Cabot, who, meanwhile, would be engaged in
preparing certain mysterious electrical apparatus. For the present, the
earth-man's return was a secret.
The
plan worked to perfection. Only one day was consumed in chopping the path
through the woods. On the second day after his meeting with Nan-nan and Emsul,
Myles proceeded to the lobster pool by the kerkool, with his electrical
equipment and several boats.
XXIV
THE LOBSTEROID CIRCUIT
Myles could not help comparing his present ease of passage down the swath cut by the
Cupians with his difficult grubbing through the shrubs a few feet an hour, or
even with forcing his way behind the wedge-faced insect.
Upon
his arrival at the brink of the abyss, his first act was to test the black sand
with an electric coil. As he had expected, it was magnetite, the only iron ore
which will respond to a magnet. It was the same ore as he had used in his
crucibles while making his radio set in Vairkingi.
This preliminary disposed of, cables were
quickly stretched back and forth across the pit, and from these cables large
electro-magnets were hung close to the surface of the water. Wires were run
from the lighting system of the near-by town to a master controller at the top of
the cliff.
When
all was in readiness, the earth-man threw the current into all the circuits.
The result was immediate. To the surface of the water there floated bottom side
up, a score or more of lobsterlike creatures, each the size of a freight car. Poor
beasts I
The
pellets of sand and cement, in the cavities of their gravity-sense organs, were
composed of magnetite; and this being attracted upwardly by the suspended
electro-magnets, gave the poor creatures the impression that up was down, and
down was up. Consequently, reversing their position and floating to the
surface, they imagined—with what little imagination their primitive brains were
capable of—that they were resting peacefully at the bottom of the lake.
Next
there were turned on, in place of the suspended magnets, a number of magnets
lying against the steep side of the pit near the surface of the water; and
instantly all the lobsteroids rolled over, with their bellies toward that side
of the pit. The experiment was a complete success.
Grappling hooks and blocks and tackle were
then brought, and dragging was begun for the airplane, the ant-rifle, and the
bandoleer of cartridges which Myles had lost on the night of his landing in
Cupia.
The
radio man himself, stationed at his switchboard, manipulated the instruments.
Presumably all three of the sought articles were near the bank where Cabot had
landed, so fishing was begun at that point, while energized magnets, across the
pond, drew the huge crustaceans away. Even so, several of them swam back and
snapped at the grappling hooks.
This
gave Myles an opportunity to practice his controls. Whenever one of the
monsters of the deep would approach any of the dredging apparatus, the radio
man would close the switch which controlled some near-by magnet, whereat the
bewildered beast would be thrown completely off his balance, and would require
several paraparths before he could orient himself to the new lines of force. By
the time that this had been accomplished, Cabot would have switched on some
other magnet, thus again upsetting the beast's equilibrium.
It
was truly a weird and novel tune which this electrical genius of two worlds
played upon his keyboard, while huge green shapes moved at his command.
Finally
Myles got so expert at this strange game, that it became safe for his workmen
to descend into the pit without fear of the denizens of the deep. At last the
ropes were securely fastened to the ant-plane, and it was drawn up the bank to
safety. The fire-arm and ammunition followed shortly thereafter.
The
forces of the true king—Baby Kew—were now armed with one small airship, one
rifle, and one bandoleer of cartridges.
"You
must attack at once!" Nan-nan asserted. The earth-man looked at the Cupian
in surprise. "Why?" he asked.
"Because," the young cleric explained,
"if you don't some one of this village is going to get word to Prince Yuri
of your return.
Although no announcement has yet been made of your identity, this feat of yours
of overcoming the scissor-beasts is as good as a verbal introduction. Runners
will soon be notifying the usurper."
"Why
runners?"
Myles asked. "Why not radio?"
"Because," Nan-nan replied. "I
took the precaution to throw an adjusting-tool into the local motor-generator
set early this morning. One of the solenoids is hopelessly jammed, and it will
take several days and nights of steady work to restore it."
"Great
are the ramifications of the lost religion," Cabot murmured approvingly.
But the young cleric pouted, in spite of the
tone of approval. Said he: "There were no ramifications
to this accomplishment.
I did it all myself."
"Have
it your own way," Myles returned conciliatorily. "But to get back to
what we were discussing, how am I to attack the usurper with no troops, and
only one plane, and one rifle?"
"But
you must attack!" Nan-nan objected. "As for
planes, every plane in the kingdom, save only yours, is under lock and key at
Wautoosa, the old naval air base, which now is the headquarters of the
whistling bees. Every firearm, save two, your rifle and Prince Yuri's automatic,
is under heavy guard at the Kuana arsenal. Only the pretender himself and the
arsenal guards—who are trusted henchmen of his—are permitted to be armed."
"And I suppose," the earth-man
interjected, with a shrug, "that you expect me, alone and single-handed,
to seize the Kuana arsenal, and distribute arms to my people."
"Not exactly,"
the priest replied. "You see—"
At
which point the converstation was interrupted by a body of troops, four
abreast, which came marching toward them down the aisle which had been cut
through the trees.
Cabot
stepped back aghast. Trapped! The soldiers swung along in the perfect cadence
which had been taught them by generations spent in the marching clubs—or
"hundreds"—of Cupia. True, they were unarmed, but what could one
armed human do against such numbers? Cabot glanced down the path, and
saw hundred after hundred turn into it at the farther end.
There was only one possibility of escape, his
plane. But the plane was still dripping from its submergence in the pond. Would its trophil-engine start while wet? Had enough water
leaked into the alcohol tanks to damage the fuel? He would see.
Shouting to Nan-nan and Emsul to follow, he
started toward his craft; but the young cleric blocked his way. Treachery.
No. For the young priest cried: "Fear
not, defender of the faith. These be friends! They are
the armies which you are to lead against Yuri. They are marching clubs of the
loyal hill towns, which have been called together here, ostensibly for an
athletic tournament."
Cabot stopped his mad scramble of retreat,
and smiled. With such men he would reconquer Cupia, Yuri or no Yuri, bees or no
beesl
The foremost hundred debouched and formed in
company-front. Then from the ranks there stepped a Cupian, who snatched off
his blond wig, revealing ruddy locks beneath. Onto his own right breast he
pinned a red circle, the insignia of Field Marshal. It was Hah Babbuh, Chief of
Staff of the Armies of Cupia, who had been Cabot's right-hand man in the two
wars of liberation.
Facing the troops he gave a crisp command. Up
shot every left hand. Then, wheeling about, he held his own hand aloft and
shouted: "Yahoo, Myles Cabot! We are ready to follow where you lead!"
"Yahoo!" the troops echoed in
unison.
Then,
giving his men the order "at ease," Hah strode up to the earth-man.
Warmly, the two friends patted each other on the cheek. It was many sangths
since they had seen each other, and much had happened in the meantime.
A council of war was immediately held between
Myles, Hah, Nan-nan, and Emsul, at the plane.
"Won't this gathering
come to the attention of Yuri?"
Myles asked. "And won't he at once
suspect its cause, in view of its nearness to Luno Castle, and in view of my
recent radio announcements from Vairkingi?"
"I
doubt it," the Babbuh replied, "for we have wrecked every radio set
in the vicinity."
But,
this did not reassure the earth-man as much as it might.
"It
would seem to me," he asserted, "that this very fact would put Prince
Yuri on his guard."
"Possibly
so," Nan-nan ruefully admitted, "but it will take four days for
investigators to cover the thousand stads from Kuana to here by kerkool, two
days by bee."
"And
in the meantime," Myles countered, "it will take our plane two days
to reach Kuana, and our kerkools four."
"Then,"
Emsul suggested, "had we not better march openly
and at once?"
This
suggestion was accepted, with the reservation, however, that the return of
Cabot and the existence of their plane were to be kept as secret as possible.
Accordingly
the main body of the troops were put on the march
toward Kuana, under Emsul, with instructions to requisition every available
kerkool, wreck every radio set, and place every settlement under martial law.
The kerkools, as fast as seized, were to be manned by the best sharpshooters,
and sent ahead.
The
local village and the lobster pond were placed under heavy guard, and the
earth-man with his plane and rifle remained under cover.
That
night, just at sunset, he started forth. The airship had been stripped to its
lightest, and in it were crowded Myles Cabot, Hah Babbuh, Nan-nan, and half a
dozen sharpshooters. Long before morning, they came up with the lights of the
foremost kerkools, and so were forced to cease their advance, whereupon they
landed, and encamped for the rest of the night and the following day.
All
day long, kerkools passed them on the road, stopping to report as they passed.
Apparentiy a surprising number of these swift two-wheeled Porovian autos had
been captured.
The following night the plane again took
wing, and continued until it caught up once more with the advance guard of the
"taxi-cab army." These men reported that, at the last radio station
seized, they had learned that Prince Yuri had put censorship on the air, thus
showing conclusively that the usurper had learned something of what was going
on. Then the kerkools swept ahead, and Cabot encamped as before. He was now
halfway to Kuana, his loved ones, and Prince Yuri.
Toward the end of the day which followed, the
advancing kerkools met a bombing squadron of whistling bees, and were forced to
halt and take cover as best they could. Most of the men escaped, but many of
the machines had to be left on the road, where they were demolished by the
bombs of the enemy.
During all this confusion, a kerkool from the
capital, bearing crossed sticks as a flag of truce, drew up at the vanguard,
with the following message: "King Yuri cannot but regard the steady
procession of kerkools toward Kuana as a menace directed against him. If it is
not so intended, then let a delegation in one kerkool proceed under crossed
sticks to convince him of your sincerity. From now on, if more than one kerkool
advances, it will be taken as a hostile act, and Prince Kew, the heir to the
throne, will be sacrificed as a hostage."
Upon
receiving this message, Emsul at once directed his followers to stay where they
were until Myles Cabot should catch up with them. Then, with a picked body of
men, in one kerkool, under crossed sticks, he took up the road toward Kuana,
preceded by the delegation which had brought the message from Yuri.
Not
a word would he give them as to the purpose of the advance.
"Your
message was from Prince Yuri," he said, "and therefore to Prince Yuri
shall be the reply. But it does seem a bit thoughtless of the Hymernians to
drop bombs on our men, before even attempting to ascertain whether or not our
advance was intended to be peaceful." To this, they in turn made no
answer.
About
midnight, Myles Cabot, in his airplane, reached the point where the kerkools
had halted. He found the Cupians confused and more or less leaderless. He, as
they, was horrified at the threat which the usurper Yuri held over the head of
the little king.
But
while he and Nan-nan and Hah Babbuh were conferring on the situation, word was
brought in, by a party who had just demolished a near-by radio set, that they
had picked the following unaddressed and unsigned message out of the air:
Fear not. Baby Kew has been
kidnaped from the palace, and is safe.
Somehow this news carried conviction. The
longer they considered it, the more authentic it appeared. Certainly, it could
not have emanated from Yuri, for he could have no possible object in deceiving
them into thinking that the little king was safe, and thus encouraging them to
proceed with whatever they might have afoot.
But
they could not imagine who was their informant. It
might be any one of a number of the leaders in Cabot's two wars of liberation,
Poblath the Philosopher, mango of the Kuana jail; Ja Babbuh, Oya Buh, and Buh
Tedn, professors at the Royal University; Count Kamel of Ktuh, the ex-radical;
or even the loyal Prince Toron, Yuri's younger brother, whom Cabot had left in
charge as regent, upon embarking on his ill-fated visit to the earth.
All these loyal Cupians had been driven into
hiding, when the renegade Yuri had returned across the boiling seas and had
usurped the throne with the aid of the Hymernians. Where they now were, no one
knew. This message might be from any one of them—or it might not.
Anyhow, it served to hearten Cabot and his
two companions.
Said Myles: "Undoubtedly there were some
of Yuri's Cupian henchmen on the backs of the bees which bombed our kerkools. These have probably reported by wireless
that our advance has stopped. I do not believe that Yuri yet knows that we have
a plane; accordingly, he will not expect immediate trouble, so long as our
vanguard remains here, four hundred stads from Kuana.
"You,
Hah Babbuh, remain here in charge of our troops. I seriously doubt if the
usurper will attack you, for he does not dare trust enough Cupians with rifles
for that purpose. Nan-nan and I and our sharpshooters will proceed as rapidly
as possible in the plane, until daybreak, when we will encamp as usual.
"To-morrow afternoon, send scouts ahead
to destroy the wireless and start your whole kerkool army on the move at
sunset.
Bend every effort to join me as soon as possible at the capital, where I expect
to arrive some time tomorrow night. Beyond that, I have no definite plans. May
the Great Builder speed our cause."
Then he said good-night, and took off once
more in his plane. As he soared aloft with his noisy trophil-motor, earth-men
would have heard it for stads in every direction, but these Cupians were
earless and hence possessed no sense of hearing as we know it. The noisy plane
could make no impression upon their antenna-sense, for its engines being of the
trophil variety—or Diesel, as we call a somewhat similar device on earth—had
no electrical ignition.
Throughout the remainder of the night the
plane sped southward, deviating from its course only when whistling sounds
warned them of the presence of bees. With the first faint tinge of pink in the
east, they landed and hid their airship at the edge of a wood, two hundred and
sixty stads from Kuana.
A small town lay near by. To it went several
of the crew in search of food and information, while the rest took turns
guarding the plane and sleeping.
During
Cabot's turn at watch, he noted a figure slinking across a neighboring field.
There was something strangely familiar about this figure, so Myles hid himself
in a tartan bush and awaited its approach.
It walked with a peculiar limp, very much
like that which had characterized Buh Tedn, ever since he recovered from the
shell wound which he had received in the Second War of Liberation. But the face
and the hair of the approaching Cupian bore no resemblance to that of
Professor Tedn. Nevertheless, Cabot took a chance.
Stepping suddenly from his place of
concealment, he shouted: "Buh Tedn!"
Thereat, the Cupian emitted a shriek of
terror from his antennae, and started running away across the fields.
"Stop!" the
earth-man called. "I am Myles Cabot."
The
fleeing man halted abruptly and peered at Myles inquisitively; then he smiled
and snatched off his wig, and straightened out his expression. It was none
other than Buh Tedn!
"So you are the cause of all the rumpus," he ejaculated, returning and patting
his friend warmly on the cheek.
"What rumpus?"
Miles inquired with interest.
"Wireless won't work," the other
replied, "and no messages on the air anyhow. Nothing but bees; the air is
full of them
anyhow—also full of vague
rumors of all sorts. As Poblath would say: 'Where there's
wind, there's a storm'."
"Speaking
of Poblath," Myles said, "where is the philosopher?"
"Kuana,
the last I heard," Buh Tedn replied. "Ja
Babbuh and Oya Buh are somewhere in the west. Prince Toron has disappeared
completely. Hah Babbuh and Emsul are supposed to be in the northern part of
the Okarze Mountains. Kamel Bar-Sarkar has gone over to Yuri. I am here. That
about completes the list of our former leaders."
"Hah
Babbuh is in charge of my unarmed forces one hundred and sixty stads north of
here," Cabot answered.
"Emsul is on his way to Yuri under
crossed sticks. I am here in a plane, with one rifle, Nan-nan the cleric, and
six unarmed sharpshooters."
"What is the
idea?" Tedn asked.
"The idea is to fly to Kuana
to-night," the earth-man replied, "and raise as much rough-house as
possible for Prince Yuri. Will you come with us? There is one vacant place in
the plane."
The Cupian looked at him admiringly, and
said: "You are still the same old Myles CabotI You propose to capture
Kuana practically without arms and single-handed. And the joke is that you will
probably succeed. How do you do it?"
"It's
a gift!" Myles laughed. "But 'trees have antennae', as Poblath would
say. Let us proceed to the plane and wait for evening."
At the plane, Cabot awakened one of the
Cupians to take his place on guard. Then, in low tones, he and Buh Tedh each
related to the other all that had occurred since the matter-transmitting
apparatus had shot the radio man earthward.
Along
toward night the absentees returned from the village, bringing provision, but
scarcely any news except that the place was seething with suppressed
excitement, and that they had succeeded in getting into the radio station and
"pying" the apparatus.
"Let us start then at once," Buh
Tedn counseled. "No one can now get word to Yuri, and perhaps they will
mistake us for a Hymemian, anyhow."
But impatient as he was,
Myles would hear none of this.
"They
could easily dispatch a runner to some near-by town to send the message from
there," he said. "Furthermore, a plane looks very little like a
whistling bee."
So
the group feasted, and waited until the last streaks of red had died in the
west, before they shot into the air and southward. The plane was driven to its
utmost, but it was later than 1:00 o'clock before the lights of Kuana loomed
ahead.
Turning to the right, Cabot skirted the city
and landed near the arsenal.
Nan-nan promptly left them.
"I have church affairs
to attend to," he explained.
"Great
are the ramifications of the lost religion," the earth-man replied,
laughing, "and I hope that you pick up some
useful information."
After the young cleric had
gone Buh Tedn asked:
"Surely you don't plan for us to attack
the arsenal? It is heavily guarded by the only men whom Yuri permits to carry
fire-arms in this entire kingdom."
XXV
ALL KINDS OF TROUBLE
"We must reconnoiter first," Cabot replied, "for as yet I have no
definite plans."
Accordingly
they made their way to a grove of trees near the arsenal. Where they stood they
were completely enveloped by foliage and tropical darkness, but the arsenal was
in a flood of light which emanated from large floodlights on poles a short
distance outside the surrounding wall. Along the top of the high wall walked
sentinels armed with rifles.
Cabot quickly formed his
plans.
Turning his rifle and bandoleer over to the
best shot in the party, he instructed the sharpshooter as follows: "When I
raise my hand so, then shoot the sentinel to whom I am talking. Follow that by
a shot at the nearest light. Then, under cover of the darkness, slink across
the plain and join me at the wall."
Without
any further explanation he walked boldly out into the light.
As he approached the arsenal there rang out
the cry of "Halt!" He halted. "Who is there?"
"Not
so loud!" he cautioned. "You see I am unarmed. Let me approach near
the wall so that I may explain my mission, which is for your antennae
alone."
The sentinel signified his
assent, and Cabot drew nearer.
"Halt!"
The Cupian on the wall repeated, but this time in a low tone.
Cabot
halted again, this time almost direcdy under the light.
"Stand
where you are," said the soldier, "while I let down a ladder. Make
any attempt to flee, and I shall fire."
Myles
remained where he was, with every indication of extreme terror, as the Cupian
let down a rope ladder from the top of the wall, and descended.
"Hold up your
hands!"
Up shot Cabot's right hand. It was the signal
agreed on with the concealed sharpshooter. Ping! The sentinel dropped to the ground without a sound. Pingt The light went out. Hastily the earth-man exchanged his white toga for
the black toga of his fallen enemy, and picked up the latter's rifle and
cartridge-belt. It felt good to have a real rifle-shaped rifle in his hands
once more in place of the buttless firearms of the ants.
Just then a voice hailed him from the top of
the wall. "What's the trouble?"
Out of the dim twilight
below Myles called back:
"I
shot a sutler, and just as I was about to search his body the light went out.
Have you your flash light with you?"
"Yes."
"Then come on down and
help me search."
The
second sentinel, eager for a taste of sutler's food after weeks of garrison
rations, started to scramble down the rope ladder; but as he neared the ground
Cabot stepped to his side and put a single bullet through his brain.
Out
of the semidarkness around him there arose seven forms. They were Buh Tedn and
the six Cupian marksmen from the hills. Buh Tedn started to change clothes with
the fallen guard, but Cabot stopped him, saying, "No; your limp would give
you away. Let one of the others assume the personality
of this sentry."
One of the others made the exchange.
Then
said their leader: "Two of the posts of - the guard are now cleared. Do
you, marksman, ascend the ladder and walk this beat, impersonating Yuri's
guardsman."
The
man did so, while those below cowered close to the wall. Soon Cabot heard a
shot to the extreme right of the beat. Then a voice from above called softly:
"One less guard, O Cabot. Three sections of the wall are now cleared.
I have the body up here."
Myles
and one more sharpshooter mounted the parapet; soon all three were walking post
with the precision of old war-time practice, while the other five members of
the party clung to the rope ladder under the shadow of the wall. Cabot himself
walked the leftermost post, and took pains never to meet the adjoining sentry.
Thus nearly half a parth of time passed.
Finally
an officer with a squad approached along the top of the wall to the left. Cabot
promptly crowded to the extreme right-hand end of his beat, and cautioned his
own adjoining sentinel to remain close at hand.
As the squad drew near he sang out,
"Haiti"
The squad halted.
"Who is there?" the earth-man
demanded. "Relief."
"Advance
one and be recognized." The officer stepped forward. "Advance
relief."
The
officer brought the relief forward, halted it again, and called out,
"Number four!"
Thereat
one of the squad stepped from the ranks at port-arms. Cabot himself came to
port in unison.
At
this point the routine ended. Tilting his gun slightly from its position, Myles
suddenly fired two shots, and the officer and the new Number Four sank down
upon the parapet.
Instantly the whole squad was in confusion,
but before
they could raise their rifles to reply Myles and his companions riddled them
with bullets.
One of them, more quick-thinking than the
rest, dropped prone without being hit, and then cautiously drew a bead on Myles
Cabot, who, seeing his enemies all down, had just paused to breathe. Neither he
nor his companion saw his hostile move, and Myles's other man was walking his
post, far to the right, in a military manner, so as to attract no attention
from the guardsmen farther on.
Everything was all set for the tragedy which
would forever put an end to the hope of the redemption of Cupia from the renegade
Yuri and his bee allies.
But just as the soldier was about to pull the
trigger, a brawny arm slipped across his throat and yanked him backward, so
that his gun went off in the air. It was Buh Tedn, who had crawled to the top
of the wall in the rear of the squad. A shot from Cabot's companion promptly
put an end to this last enemy.
Then the seven conspirators searched the
bodies and equipped themselves, Cabot pinning on the insignia of the officer.
There were eight bodies, but some had undoubtedly fallen from the wall in the
struggle. No time could be spared to hunt for these, and eight was more than
enough for the present purposes.
Myles formed his men in two ranks, counted
them off, faced them to the right, and proceeded along the parapet, picking up
his one already posted man as he went.
Number
Six was relieved in true military form. He was too glad of getting off duty to
notice the unfamiliarity of the officer who relieved him. Similarly with
Numbers Seven, Eight, Nine, and so on.
As
he came to Number Eleven, Cabot began to worry for fear that his supply of new
sentinels might run out. Why hadn't he made some arrangement to have his own
men rejoin him after being posted? But then he reflected that that would never
do, for it certainly would have been noticed by the others. He was in a fix.
Number
Twelve was relieved, all seven of his own men were gone, and Myles Cabot found
himself at the head of a squad composed entirely of the enemy. What could he do
at Number Thirteen?
But just as he .was
frantically turning this question over in his mind, he came to a long ramp
leading inward from the wall, down to a small building between the wall and the
main arsenal. He stepped back as though to inspect the squad; and they, without
command, marched past him, turned, and proceeded past
Number One down the ramp. This was the guard-quarters; there were no more
sentinels to relieve.
Inside the buildings he gave the commands:
"Relief—haltl Left—face! Port—arms! Open—chambersl Close—chambers!
Dismissed! Hands up!"
The last was not in the Manual. The tired
men, on their way to the gun rack, stopped in surprise. Up shot their hands,
some first dropping their rifles, but some retaining them.
"It is Cabot the
Minorian!" one of them shouted.
The
situation was ticklish in the extreme. The Cupians were scattered throughout
the room, so that it was impossible for Myles to cover then all simultaneously
with his rifle. They were desperate characters, thugs of the worst type, typical henchmen of Prince Yuri. If they started any
trouble, Myles could expect to get one, or at most two, of the seven before the
rest would get him. Furthermore, they knew it.
"Back up, all of you, into that corner! Quickly!" he directed.
But
they did not budge. Gradually smiles began to break over their ugly visages.
They realized that they had him at bay, rather than he them. And what a prize
he would be for presentation to King Yuri! Why, the king might even blow them
to a beefsteak party.
The
earth-man confronted them, unafraid. He still had the drop on them, and he
intended to press his advantage to the limit.
"You fat one over by the rack, back into
the comer," he ordered, "or I'll shoot you first."
The Cupian addressed obeyed with alacrity.
"You with the scar! Lay down your gun! Now you back into the corner!"
The second soldier did so. Things were
progressing nicely. One by one he could subdue the Cupians confronting him.
But, just as he was exulting in his triumph, his gun was seized from behind.
Turning, he saw Number One leering at him.
One
blow from his fist in that leering face and the newcomer crashed
to the floor. But before Myles could wheel to confront those in the guardroom,
they had rushed him and borne him to the ground.
"Capture
him alive!" some one shouted, and that was the last that he heard, for
something snapped in his portable radio set, and from then on he was deaf to
antennae-emanations. All that he could hear was an occasional rifle shot.
In spite of the overwhelming numbers upon
him, he fought with feet and fists, until at last, the weight seemed to lessen.
Finally he struggled to his feet and confronted his tormentors. Could it be that single-handed, he had.vanquished eight brawny
Cupians?
But
no, for the figures he confronted were Buh Tedn and his own men. The eight
enemies lay dead on the floor.
The
mutual congratulations were silently given. A quick inspection showed that the
head-set and the apparatus-belt were hopelessly damaged, so the radio man found
a stylus and paper and wrote: "My artificial antennae and the accompanying
apparatus were ruined during the fight. Luckily there is another set in the airplane. One of you go quickly and fetch
it."
One of the party
accordingly withdrew. The others, rifle in hand, proceeded to search the
building, but not a soul did they find, although the couches had evidently been
recently occupied.
It seemed likely that, during the struggle in
the guardroom,
the rest of the guard, being unable to reach the arms racks, had stealthily
left the building.
So Myles and his party hurried on to the door
which led from the building into the arsenal yard. As they emerged they were
met with a volley from the arsenal, and three of their number went down. The
rest beat a hasty retreat and barred the door.
Then
they made their way to the windows which faced the main arsenal, but two more
of them were picked off before they realized how perfectly they were
silhouetted by the lighted rooms within. One of these two was Buh Tedn. Myles
Cabot and one Cupian sharpshooter were all that were left of the party.
As
rapidly as possible the two survivors extinguished all the lights in the
guardhouse, and then mounted to the roof, which was flat and surrounded by a
low parapet which protected them from showing themselves against the illumination
of the surrounding vapor lamps.
Crawling along the roof to the edge nearest
the arsenal, they peered cautiously over. The whistle of a bullet caused Myles
to duck his head, and he pulled his companion to cover as well. With his
artificial antennae gone, he could not explain orally and it was too dark to
write. But the other followed him to the opposite edge, where they succeeded in
potting the sentinels at Posts Two and Three, which were the only occupied
posts within sight.
There appearing to be nothing further to be
accomplished up there, they crawled down into the building
and took up their station at windows of the upper story,
from which they fired at every sign of movement in the direction of the
arsenal, taking care to drop to the floor and then change windows after each
shot.
Finally
their ammunition gave out, and Cabot went down to the guardroom for more. But a
long and careful search revealed only a few rounds.
Myles
returned to the upper story and groped through the rooms to find his friend.
But it was his foot, rather than his out-stretched hand, which finally found
him. The Cupian sharpshooter lay dead.
Myles
Cabot alone, with only about a dozen cartridges, was the sole remaining defense
of the captured building. No life seemed to be stirring on the arsenal side, so
he crossed the building and looked out at the wall.
Dark
figures were stealthily creeping along where Post No. 12 should have been. The
earth-man let them have it with rapid fire, and they quickly disappeared.
He
now heard firing in that direction, and then the lights there went out, so that
the wall no longer showed against the sky. From time to time he fired where he
judged the wall was, so as to keep back the invaders, and thus soon entirely
exhausted his ammunition.
"Thank heaven,"
he said to himself, "the downstairs door is barred!"
But as he said this he realized that he had
omitted to bar the door which opened toward the wall; and even as he realized
this there came a rush of many feet down the ramp which led from the wall to
this door.
XXVI
THE DEBACLE
Myles drew his knife, crouched in a comer of the dark room, and prepared to sell his
life dearly. He was ready for searchers who might come groping through the
room, but he was wholly unprepared for the sudden switching on of the electric
lights. As he sprang to his feet and rubbed his eyes, he saw before him Nan-nan
and the sharpshooter whom he had sent back to the plane to get his second radio
set. Behind them in the doorway were a score or more of Cupians.
Snatching
the new set, he fastened it in place, while the others waited. Then, articulate
once more, "You have come in the nick of time. How did it happen?"
The young priest replied,
"Through spies of our religion
I
located Oya Buh; he rounded up a number of his followers, and we hastened
hither. The wall we found unguarded, with a rope ladder hanging down, and at
its foot six dead soldiers in black togas. We took their arms and mounted the
wall, only to be driven back by shots." "My shots," Myles
interjected.
"Not all," Nan-nan replied,
"for some came from the arsenal; we could tell by the flashes. Several of
our party were hit—although not by you, so your
conscience may feel clear—before we put a stop to this by shooting out all the
outside lights. Then we rushed the guardhouse, and here we are. But where are your men?"
"Dead—all dead," the earth-man
sadly replied. "Even Buh Tedn."
Oya
Buh then stepped forward and greeted his former chief.
"Yahoo,
CabotI" he cried. "May the dead rest beyond the waves.
We, the living, have work to do. Look—the sky turns pink and silver in the
eastl Morning has come. What do you propose?"
"Morning means that the whistling bees
will soon be upon us," Myles answered. "We must capture the arsenal
before they arrive."
The
party then took inventory of their supplies. There were thirty-eight rifles,
forty Cupians, and Myles Cabot. One man was promptly sent to the roof with
crossed sticks. When these were recognized, thirty-eight men under arms were
marched up onto the roof as well. It was considered advisable for Cabot himself
to keep under cover. Then Oya Buh unbarred the door and stepped out. An officer
from the arsenal advanced to meet him. The two gravely patted each other's
cheek.
The officer, whose rank was
that of pootah, inquired:
"What is the idea of
defying your king, professor?"
"The
idea," Oya replied, "is that we have come to restore Kew XIII to the
throne and the Cupians to their proper dominion over the bees. The guardhouse,
as you see, is manned by sharpshooters, fully armed. A vast force, unarmed but
determined, awaits outside the walls. If you
surrender, we shall spare your lives. If not, we shall rush the gates while our
sharpshooters pick off any one who opposes, and shall kill all whom we find
within. What say you?"
The
pootah shrugged his shoulders. "What is there to say?" he replied.
"We surrender, provided we are given safe conduct."
"Safe
conduct without arms?"
"Agreed."
So the guard, about a hundred in number, in
their black togas, filed out of the arsenal, through the guardhouse, onto the
wall, along it, and down the rope ladder. The ladder was then hauled up again.
The pootah looked around him.
"Where is your vast army?" he
asked.
"On
the other side of the wall," Oya Buh replied, with a smile. "Now run
along away from here, like a good little boy."
But the officer and his followers started
circling the wall to investigate. Before he gained the main gate, however, it
had been opened and, for all he could tell, the "vast army" had
passed inside. A guard stationed there advised him to get out of rifle range as
speedily as possible, and twelve sentinels, who by now had manned the wall,
bore out this menace; so, grumbling somewhat the pootah led his men off toward
the city.
Thus
did Myles Cabot and forty-seven practically unarmed followers capture the
Kuana arsenal from its hundred defenders.
Straggling
Cupians now began to drift in from the city. These were put to work carting
arms and ammunition out of the arsenal and stacking it up in widely separated
piles wherever cover could be found. Every Cupian who reported was issued a
rifle and a full bandoleer of cartridges.
"We may perhaps thus arm some
enemies," Myles admitted, "but we must take the risk. The majority
will be friends."
It was well that they removed all the
ammunition which they could. It would have been better if they could have removed
more. They all worked feverishly for half the morning, even taking the guards
off the wall for this purpose, but they had scarcely made a dent in the
supplies stored in the arsenal when a fleet of bees appeared on the southern
horizon.
In spite of
the approaching menace, Myles and his men continued to work. The Hymernians
flew low straight at the arsenal, until a volley from Cabot's men brought down
two of them and caused the rest to soar into the sky. Whereupon
they started dropping bombs on the arsenal, and on the men carting materials
therefrom.
Naturally, this put an abrupt end to Cabot's
operations. His men scattered as rapidly as possible; and individually made for
the city with small quantities of arms, keeping to cover
as well as they could. Cupians from Kuana helped themselves to the rest, and by
nightfall the captured supplies were pretty well distributed. The arsenal was a
smoking ruin.
All
through the afternoon the bees, flying low, harassed whoever they saw moving on
the streets, especially such as were carrying rifles; but these retaliated by
firing at all bees that came within range, in spite of which very few bees were
killed. Night brought a cessation of this sort of warfare.
Emsul
arrived and of course at once gave up the idea of his projected peace mission
to Yuri. He and Cabot and Nan-nan and Oya Buh spent the night under heavy guard
at separated points throughout the city, securing much-needed sleep. Under
cover of the darkness, many of their followers foraged in the ruins of the
arsenal and secured a surprising quantity of undamaged material, being joined
in the morning by the army in kerkools from the north.
Before
daybreak a resolute band of several thousand loyal Cupians had gathered in the
streets and houses surrounding the palace, and promptly at sunrise they
launched an attack. They had expected to find the palace guard unarmed; but
evidently a large quantity of the rifles and ammunition, which had been
distributed throughout the city, had found their way to the palace, for the
assault was at once repulsed by heavy fire from the palace guards.
As Cabot's forces reformed for a second
attack, they were deluged with explosives from above. The bee-people had
evidently not returned to their base at Wautoosa, but had spent the night near
by, so as to be on hand to protect the palace.
Whenever
they sighted even a small group of Cupians, or wherever they had reason to
suspect that some building was hostilely occupied, there they would drop one of
their devastating bombs. Cabot's forces were completely at the mercy of the
Hymernians. There was but one thing to donee.
In vain, the earth-man and his able
lieutenants tried to rally their troops. What was the use in assembling, when
assembly was the signal for a bomb from above? What was the use of attacking
the invincible bees?
Myles
Cabot stood irresolute in one of the public squares. He was as near to
despairing as he had ever been in his many vicissitudes on the planet Poros,
since his first arrival there five earth-years ago. Oh, if only he had
airplanes with which to subdue the Hymernians as in the days of old! Almost was
he tempted to return to the vicinity of the arsenal, ascertain whether his one
plane was intact, and if so fly alone in a last desperate attempt to give
battle to his winged enemies.
The more he thought of the plan, the more it
appealed to him. There seemed to be no other way out. His bravely engineered
revolution had crumbled. If he stayed where he was, he would undoubtedly be
tracked down, and put to some ignominious end by the usurper. How much better,
then, to die bravely fighting for his Lilla and his adopted country.
And his baby? He wondered where the little darling had
disappeared to. At least the infant king was out of Yuri's clutches.
So, his mind made up, Myles set out on a run
for the
wood
overlooking the arsenal. After a few paraparths he reached it. There stood his
plane. Rapidly he went over all the struts, and stays, and engine parts.
Everything appeared to be in first class order. The fuel tanks contained plenty
of alcohol. How this machine had escaped capture or destruction was a marvel,
but probably the bees had been too busy bombing groups of Cupians, to take the
time to explore the apparently deserted grove.
Myles sprang aboard and was just about to
start the trophil engine, when a familiar sound, smiting upon his earthborn
ears, caused him to delay for a moment. From the southward came the purr of
many motors.
Was
the wish the father to the thought? His longing for an air fleet, with which to
vanquish the bees, had been so intense; had it affected his mind and caused him
to hear things which did not exist? Impossible, for the purr of the motors was
unmistakable.
He strained his eyes toward the southern
horizon, so that they might see what his ears heard; but there was nothing
there. The radiant silver sky was untouched save by an occasional small cloud.
The bees still kept up their bombing of the
city. He could see them flying low over the housetops, and up and down the
principal thoroughfares, ferreting out any groups of Cupians who dared to
gather in Cabot's cause, dropping bombs on any houses which presumed to fly the
blue pennant of the Kew dynasty in place of the yellow of Yuri.
The
bees did not heed the approaching planes from the south. Of course notl For the whistling bees of Poros had no ears. They heard with
their antennae, and heard only radio waves at that, in fact only short-length
radio waves.
The
noise of a large fleet of airships swept on out of the south. Nearer and nearer
it came, until it was right over the city, and still not a single plane
appeared in sight. Meanwhile the bees continued their depredations, and the
earth-man sat in his own plane and watched and waited.
As he watched, he saw one of the bees who
happened to be flying higher than the rest, suddenly vanish in a puff of smoke.
And then another and another.
The
Hymernians, too, saw this and rose to investigate, whereat there came the shut-off whir of descending planes.
Fascinated, Myles stared into the sky, whence
came these sounds, and saw occasionally, against
gathering clouds, a glint of silver light.
Several
more of the ascending bees exploded. And now Myles was able to see from time to
time, silhouetted on a background of cloud, the ghostly form of an airship. The
bees, too, saw, and flew to the attack. What was this shadow fleet? Had the
spirits of the brave Cupian aviators of the past returned to free their beloved
country from Hymernian
domination?
The
two fleets, bees and ghostly planes, had now completely joined battle, and
were drifting slowly to the southeast. Myles came out of his trance, started
his engine, and rose into the air, intent on joining the fray.
On
his way, he circled over the city, and gave it a glance in passing. Then he
gave it a second glance, for the Cupians, relieved of the menace of the bees,
were forming for a second attack on the palace.
Instantly
his plans changed. What business had he running off to watch however
interesting a sky battle when right here before him lay a chance to do what he
had braved so many' misfortunes to accomplish, namely free his Lilla from the
unspeakable Yuri! Veering sharply, he landed on one of the upper terraces of
the palace.
He
still wore his bandoleer of cartridges, and still carried his rifle. Filling
the magazine, he boldly descended into the building. No one guarded the
approaches from the air, for they depended on their aerial allies to do that
for them. The upper rooms were deserted, doubtless because the womenfolk were
cowering in the basements and because the palace guards and Yuri's other
henchmen were resisting the attack of Cabot's Cupians at the ground levels.
Cabot himself explored the place unimpeded
and unchallenged. Here he
was at last at his journey's end, but where was Lilla? Lilla the blue-eyed
princess, Lilla of the golden curls, his Lilla!
The
rooms which he and she had occupied showed every sign of continued and present
occupancy, even to the crib of the baby king, emblazoned with the arms of the
House of Kew. Cabot looked reverently around the living rooms of his wife and
child, and then swept on into the lower levels of the palace.
Occasionally
he would come upon groups of defenders; but they, naturally assuming that he
was one Of them— especially as he still wore the black
toga of the arsenal guard—gave him but little heed. Whenever the group was not
too numerous he would shoot them. He hated to do this, but he knew he had to in
order to save his loved ones.
Thus
he traversed practically the whole of the upper reaches of the palace without
encountering his arch enemy Yuri, or any of the womenfolk. Yuri was no coward.
However much of a scoundrel he might be, no one would ever accuse him of that.
Therefore he was not in hiding. He was apparently not in command of the
defense. Therefore he must be either away from the palace, or concocting some
devilment.
Figuring
thus, Cabot continued to descend to levels below the ground floor. While
treading these subterranean passages, searching, ever searching for either
Lilla or Yuri, he came upon one of the palace guards. The fellow was unarmed,
so Cabot did not shoot.
Instead he ordered,
"Up with your hands."
The guard promptly obeyed.
"Now," said his captor, "the price of your life is to
lead me
to your king." '
"Indeed,
I will with pleasure," the soldier replied with a sneer, "for King
Yuri will make short work of one who turns traitor to his black garb."
The
earth-man smiled. "I am no traitor," he announced, "and this
black toga is mere borrowed fur. Do you not know Cabot the Minorian?"
The other blanched. "Good Builder!"
he exclaimed. "We did not believe the story that you had returned from the
planet Minos. But I am at your orders, for I am one of the old guard who served
under King Kew the Twelfth, the father of Princess Lilla, may he rest beyond
the waves."
"Lead on, and no treachery," Myles
curtly replied. "I trust no one who has ever worn the livery of Prince
Yuri."
So
the guard led the way through many winding passages, down into the very bowels
of the subterranean labyrinths of the palace. What could Prince Yuri be doing
way down here unless he was hiding, which seemed unlikely? Cabot became very
suspicious, and, rifle in hand and finger on trigger, watched his guide with
eagle eye.
Finally
they came upon a form in an elaborate yellow toga, huddled in a corner.
"King Yuri," said
the soldier laconically.
At
the sound of the voice the usurper looked around; and now it became evident
that he was crouching there not for fear, but rather because he was engaged in
repairing something with a set of typical Porovian queer-looking tools.
Apparently not at all surprised, he hailed
his deadliest enemy and rival as though the latter were a long lost friend,
"Yahoo, Cabot the Minorian. I rather expected you would turn up sooner or
later. Just a minute until I fix this wire, and then I will be at your service.
You see, one of my mines wouldn't explode; no one else seemed able to get at
the cause of the trouble, and so I had to come down here in person."
And
so saying he turned back to his work. Myles stepped forward to see what Prince
Yuri was doing. For a brief moment the earth-man's scientific curiosity got the
better of his caution. But that moment, brief as it was, proved long enough for
the watchful soldier, who had led him hither, to snatch Myle's rifle from his
hand, and cover him with its muzzle.
"Up
with your hands!" the soldier peremptorily commanded.
Cabot obeyed. Not to do so
would have been suicide.
Yuri, still unperturbed, remarked, "Well
done, Tobo; you shall be promoted for this."
"Shall I shoot him,
sire?" Tobo eagerly asked.
"N-no," the usurper ruminated,
waving his antennae thoughtfully, "not just now. Wait until I finish with
this wire. In the meantime you might let the Minorian lean against the wall, so
that he will be more comfortable."
So Myles leaned against the wall and waited,
his hands still held high, while the prince puttered around in the corner.
Finally, after a seemingly interminable period, Yuri arose, slung his tools
together, brushed one hand against the other, and looked at his victim with a
cruel smile.
"Shall I kill him now?" asked Tobo.
"No.
I am reserving that pleasure for myself," the prince replied. Then to
Cabot: "At last, you are in my power. I intend to shoot you myself. I
intend to shoot you down, unarmed."
Turning
to Tobo, the prince asked, "How is our battle going?"
"Very well, sire," the soldier
replied. "We are repulsing all assaults, in spite of the departure of the
bees to the southward."
A momentary cloud of doubt spread over the
sinister handsome visage of Prince Yuri. Then he smiled and said,
"Doubtless the beesv know what they are about, and will soon
return to the fray. So let us proceed with the execution. Follow me!"
Myles followed.' Almost was he tempted to
spring upon his enemy and attempt to throttle him before the inevitable bullet
from Tobo could do its work. It would be well worth
the sacrifice of his own life to rid Cupia of this incubus. But what if Yuri
should survive? No, it would never do to risk this. So he meekly followed.
The prince led the way up several levels,
until they came to a small circular chamber hung with curtains. At one side was
a dais. An electric vapor-lamp on the ceiling furnished the light.
Prince
Yuri took the rifle from the guard, stood Myles in the center of the room, and
sat down himself on the dais.
Then
he directed Tobo, "Go and summon the Princess Lilla hither, for I wish her
to see me kill this lover of hers, this beast from another world."
Myles
winced at the mention of his beloved, and thereat his tormentors smiled.
The soldier departed on his errand. Yuri
toyed with the weapon, and watched his victim, with a sneer on his handsome
lips. Myles returned his stare without flinching.
"You
can put down your hands now, if you wish, you fur-faced mathlab," the
prince remarked.
Cabot
did so, and instinctively felt of his face. The insult
was unwarranted, for he had shaved only that morning.
"Don't
go too far!" he admonished his captor. "Remember Poblath's proverb:
'You cannot kill a Minorian'."
"I've a mind to kill you right
now," the prince replied, "just to prove to you that your friend is
wrong."
"Go
ahead and try it," Myles challenged, half hoping that Yuri would take him
at his word, and thus spare Lilla the pain of attending the execution.
A grim look settled on the usurper's face as
he slowly raised the rifle and pointed it at the earth-man's right side.
"Left
side," Myles admonished. "Remember that my heart is on the other side
than is the case with you Cupians."
"My,
but you are a cool one!" Yuri admired, shifting his arm as directed.
"Now, are you prepared to die?"
"Yes," Myles
replied.
It
all seemed like a dream. It couldn't be possible that he was really going to
die on the far-away planet Venus. Perhaps all his adventures in the skies had
been a mere dream, and he was now about to be awakened.
"Thus
do I bring peace to Poros!" the Cupian sententiously declaimed.
His finger closed upon the
trigger.
The rifle spat fire.
T H E R A D I
O
PLANET
XXVII
PEACE ON POROS
Myles felt a sharp warm pain in his shoulder. But he still stood erect. He was not
dead. Could it be that Yuri had missed? Shaking himself together and blinking
his eyes, Myles stared at the prince.
The
prince stared back with an open-mouthed expression of surprise. His eyes were
fishlike. His body was no longer erect. The rifle lay in his lap, and he seemed
to be feebly trying to raise it and point it at Cabot.
Then,
with a gurgle, some blood welled from the prince's mouth and trickled down his
chin.
With
one supreme effort his antennae radiated the words, "Curse you!"
Then the rifle dropped clattering from his
nerveless hands, and his body slouched forward prone on the floor at the foot
of the dais. From the right side of his back there protruded the jewelled hilt
of a dagger.
Behind
the couch, between parted curtains, stood a wild-eyed Cupian woman, her face
hideous with pent-up hate and triumph.
For
a moment Myles stood rooted to the spot; then, tearing his feet freer
he rushed to his fallen enemy and plucked out the dagger. From the wound there
gushed bright cerise-colored blood, foamy with white bubbles. Myles turned the
body over, and listened at the right side of the chest. Not a sound. Then, the
Prince's chest collapsed, with a sigh, a little more blood welled out of the
mouth, and all was still once more.
Prince
Yuri, the most highly developed specimen of Cupian manhood—but a renegade,
traitor, rejected wooer of the Princess Lilla, pretender to the throne of
Cupia— Prince Yuri was dead!
And
such an ignominious death for one of his high spirit to die! Stabbed
in the back by a woman.
Cabot rose and faced her,
the jeweled dagger still in his hand. "Who are you?" he asked.
"And why did you do it?"
"I
am Okapa," she replied in a strained voice—"Okapa from the mountain
village of Pronth. Do you remember how in the Second War of Liberation you
found Luno Castle deserted and a slain infant lying on the royal bier?"
"Can
I ever forget it?" he answered, his mind going back into the past.
"Naturally I thought it was my baby son, whom I had never seen. Therefore
I fought all the harder against the usurper Yuri until I drove him and his ant
allies southward, rejoined Lilla in Kuana, and learned that little Kew was
safe, and that the dead child was but an orphan baby whom Lilla had substituted
for our own baby for fear of just such an outcome."
"It
was no orphan!" Okapa shrieked. "It was mine-mine! The dead child was
mine! Yuri stabbed my child and now I have stabbed him with the selfsame
dagger. Yuri killed my baby, and I have slain him, and now I must die myself
for killing a king."
So
saying, her anger spent, she flung herself upon the couch and wept silently, as
is the habit of Cupians.
Just
then the Princess Lilla in a black gown swept into the room.
"They
told me the king wished to see me here," she said. "Where is the
king?"
She
stopped abruptly as she saw the body on the floor. Then her eyes rose until
they rested on Myles Cabot. With a glad cry she rushed toward his outstretched
arms.
But
a peremptory shout of "Hands up!" from the doorway caused her to
halt. She was between Myles and the door. He still held the jeweled dagger in
his hand. Stepping quickly to one side, he cast it straight at Tobo who stood by
the entrance, a rifle in his hands; and before the Cupian soldier could raise
his weapon to fire, the missile had penetrated his heart. Down he went with a
crash.
While
this had been going on, Okapa, the madwoman, had crept stealthily toward Yuri's
body with a view to securing the rifle which he had dropped. Seizing it, she
leaped to her feet with a shriek.
"You too!" she cried, pointing at
Lilla with one skinny finger. "For it was you who took
my babe from the orphanage and exposed him to danger. You are joint
murderer with Yuri. Him I have slain, and now it is your turn."
But
Myles stepped between her and the princess and wrenched the gun from her poor
mad hands, whereat she flung herself upon him, clawing and biting like a demon.
It was only the work of a few minutes, however, to get both her wrists behind
her back.
Lilla,
sensing the need, ripped some strips from the hanging draperies; together they
tied the woman and seated her to one side. Then once more the long separated
earth-man and his Cupian beloved started to embrace, while Okapa glared at them
with baleful eyes.
This was too much for
Myles.
"Just one paraparth!" he said; and,
stepping over to Okapa, he spun her around until she faced the wall.
Then he clasped his
princess to him in a long embrace.
But
at last a pang intruded in his bliss. "Lilla dearest," he asked,
"where is our little son?"
She shook herself together.
"I
know not," she replied, "They would not let me know, for fear that
the usurper—may he rest beyond the waves-might force the secret from me. But
our country is more important than our child. While we tarry
here the battle rages. Quick, to the upper levels, and let us take control."
"We
cannot do so without a message from their king," her husband asserted.
"Let us therefore bring them one."
Stooping
down, he picked up the dead body of Prince Yuri and flung it across his
shoulder.
"Lead on!" he
said.
As
they emerged up a flight of stairs into the main hall of the palace they saw a
frantic throng of palace guards piling tables, chairs, and other furniture into
a barricade across one of the doorways. Evidently the troops of Emsul and Hah
Babbuh had penetrated the palace and had driven the defenders back to this
point.
The golden-curled Lilla,
standing straight and slim in her black gown, stopped all this work of
fortification with an imperious gesture.
"Desistí" she cried. "I, your princess, command
it. The war is over. Yuri, the usurper, is dead."
"Prove
it," snarled back the guards like a pack at bay, recoiling from her regal
presence.
"Here
is your proofl" Myles Cabot shouted, stepping forward and casting Yuri's
body down before them. "Your king is dead."
"
'Tis
true," one replied. "The king is dead."
"Yuri is dead,"
another echoed. "Long live King Kew!"
"Long
live King Kew!" shouted all the palace thugs, just as the besiegers
stormed over the barricade with leveled rifles.
But at the shouts within, and at the sight of
their princess and their intrepid earth-man leader, they grounded their arms
and, holding their left hands aloft, gave the Poro-vian greetings:
"Yahoo, Myles Cabotl Our regent has
returned from Minos to rule over us!"
Then
one guardsman had an idea. "Come," he said, "let us mount to the
upper terraces, haul down the yellow pennant of King Yuri, and restore the red
banner of the Kew dynasty."
From
one of the balconies above came a boyish voice: "It has already been done,
Myles Cabot."
Every
one looked up, and there stood Yuri's younger brother, the loyal Prince Toron,
wearing the insignia of admiral of the Cupian Air Navy.
"I
hope you don't mind, Myles," he said as he descended. "I made myself
admiral on my own hook. You see, while all the bees were here at Kuana bombing
your men, I captured the air base at Wautoosa with a crowd of ex-aviators whom
I had assembled for that purpose.
"We
had been hiding in the woods for several sangths, with spies at Wautoosa to
inform us when there was an opening. When the time came we walked right in,
killed a few old bees who were on guard, reconditioned the planes which have
lain in storage ever since my brother seized the throne, painted them with
silver paint, flew up here to Kuana, and put the bees out of business.
"The silver paint was my own idea, and I
must say it seemed to work. The bees couldn't see us at all against the silver
sky. The plaza and the fields beyond are strewn with dead and dying Hymernians,
and my men are tracking down the survivors."
And he would have chattered on in his boyish
excitement, had not one of the soldiers brutally interrupted with: "Thy
brother lies dead, O Toron."
The
young prince followed the pointing finger of the guard until his eyes rested on
the crumpled body in its blood-stained yellow toga. Then he flung his arm
across his face to blot out the sight. For a few moments he stood thus, while
all respectfully kept silent. At last he uncovered his eyes and addressed the
earth-man.
"May
he rest beyond the waves!" he said. "I crave the corpse so that I can
give my brother a decent funeral."
"He
shall be buried with full royal honors," Myles Cabot replied, "for he
was a brave and regal Cupian who would have served his country well if his
inordinate ambition had not blinded his judgment."
"My
cousin shall have royal burial," echoed the Princess Lilla. "It would
be due you, Toron, for your share in the victory, if for no other reason."
"I
appreciate this courtesy more than words can express," Toron replied.
The news of the capitulation had rapidly
spread, and the huge hall was filling with Cupians from without. Among them
came Emsul, Nan-nan, Hah Babbuh, Oya Buh, and even Poblath the Philosopher.
Warm were the greetings between the friends.
"But where is our king?" Myles
asked, as soon as he could free himself from all the congratulation.
"Now
it can be told," Poblath replied "He is safe in the care of my wife
Bthuh, in our villa at Lai."
"The darling! I shall go to him at once," Lilla announced. "And I
too," Myles added.
"But no," Hah Babbuh interposed,
"for the populace are already gathering in the stadium and are demanding a
speech from the great liberator."
"So be it," Myles said with a shrug
of resignation. "Affairs of state cannot wait even the presence of the
king, it seems."
"But
shall these black-togaed guards be permitted to retain their arms?" Emsul
asked.
"Why not?" the earth-man replied. "Their only crime is that they fought
loyally for their leader. Besides, this is a free country. One of our
grievances against the usurper was that he deprived us of our rifles."
Then, to the palace soldiery: "Care
tenderly for the body of Prince Yuri, and lay it out in state pending our
return. Oh, and I almost forgot—there is a crazy woman bound in one of the
celler rooms. Turn her over to the mango of Kuano for incarceration in the mangool, and under peril of your lives do not permit her to
escape."
"All hail our regent! And our most
beautiful and beloved princess!" shouted the guards, as Myles and Lilla
left the palace.
A
kerkool awaited them at the gate. Getting into this, they proceeded at a slow
rate through the city and across the plaza toward the stadium through lanes of
cheering Cupians. Prince Toron, Emsul, Hah Babbuh, Oya Buh, and others of their
retinue followed them.
The plaza and the fields beyond were strewn
with bodies —mostly in fragments—of the once great race of the Hym-ernians. One
of these bees, as they passed it, gave sign of still possessing some life. A
faint whistling noise assailed the antennae of the passing procession.
Cabot
gave one look in the direction of the sound, then signed the kerkools to stop,
dismounted, and approached the dying creature.
Adjusting
his control to the wave length of bee speech, he sadly said, "Portheris,
once my friend, whom I made king of the bees, it grieves me to see you lying
thus, struck down in a war against my people."
Raising
himself feebly, the dying Portheris replied, "I
bear you no malice, Myles Cabot, and I pray that you will bear me none.
Although I opposed the war, yet when it came to a fight of race against race I
was loyal to my own, as any honorable individual would have been under like circumstances.
Perhaps it is just as well; for do you not remember that when you were driving
the ant-men off the face of Cupia, you said: 'There is no room on any given
planet for more than one race of intelligent beings? Now the last Formian is
gone, and the last of my own people is gone. May Cupia be at peace.
It is the sincere wish of your old friend."
The
huge bee fell back, quivered a moment, and lay still. Thus
died Portheris, the last of the Hymernians.
"May
you rest beyond the waves, dear friend," the earth-man murmured as he
returned sadly to his car.
They
found the stadium packed with cheering throngs in gala attire. Everywhere fluttered flags of the Kew dynasty.
After
Lilla had been comfortably seated and Marshal Hah and the others had arrived, Myles
stepped to the transmitter and was about to broadcast some appropriate remarks
to the assembled multitude, when an airplane arrived overhead and settled
softly into the arena.
From
the plane there stepped Poblath the Philosopher, followed by Bthuh, his dark
and beautiful wife. Both were smiling, and Bthuh held in her arms a baby
Cupian.
Then Cabot spoke into the microphone:
"Behold your long!"
It
was the shortest speech he had ever made—and the best.
Thus came Kew XIII into his own. There is not
much more to tell.
Prince
Toron retained his self-given title of Admiral of the Air Navy. Hah Babbuh was
restored to his professorship at the Royal University. Oya Buh was promoted to
full professorship. Poblath the Philosopher again became mangool of Kuana, and
his wife was made governess of the infant king. Emsul, the veterinary, was
given the title of court physician.
Owva,
the Holy Leader, died shortly after this, and Nan-nan was selected by the Great
White Lodge as the fit person to reestablish the lost religion publicly
throughout Cupia.
Myles
and Lilla, leaving their friends to reconstruct the capital, departed for a
vacation at Luno Castle.
Thus
end the story of the adventure of Myles Cabot, the radio man, on his return to
the silver planet Venus, as received by the Harvard scientists and myself over
the long distance radio-set at my farm on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts.
Ralph
Milne Fabxey.
\
THE RADIO PLANET
When
Myles Cabot, inventor of radio transmission of matter, returned to Venus he
found himself alone on an unknown continent on that alien planet. To get back
to his old headquarters and his loved ones presented some apparently impossible
problems.
He'd
have to settle a war between the near-primitive natives and an unholy alliance
of monsters, dinosaurs, and giant insects. He'd have to build an electronic
device from raw rocks and untapped resources. And if he could succeed in all
that, he'd still have to find his way home and fight off a usurper's diabolic
conspiracy.
But
Myles Cabot didn't know the meaning of the word impossible!