PREPARATION FOR WAR.
In less than a week, as measured by the time bells of Kioram, the
ships began to arrive with troops from various parts of the coast of
Atvatabar, bringing volunteers for either branch of the service of her
majesty. In ten days one hundred thousand volunteers had arrived, and
these were quartered in the city, pending their equipment as wayleals
and bockhockids. As might be expected, a great many were deserters
from the royal army, and these were of great assistance in organizing
the troops, being already skilled in the tactics of aerial warfare.
General Rackiron had turned the entire fortress into an arsenal of
war. Fires blazed everywhere for forging guns and magnic spears, and a
thousand hammers were shaping the limbs of bockhockids. The department
for making ammunition was busiest of all, furnishing the elements on
whose efficiency depended success or defeat.
A vast quantity of hand mitrailleuses, or gigantic revolvers, were
made, and being of but little weight, these blew showers of bullets
from magazines attached to the tubes. Each wayleal carried a thousand
cartridges.
The cell in the case of the wayleals had to furnish a double current,
viz., the current that moved the wings and the death-dealing current
of the spear. For each bockhockid two powerful cells were necessary,
one for the rider and the other to work the bockhockid he rode or flew
upon. The strongest cell was contained in the body of the mechanical
bird, which moved both its wings and legs, and also furnished its
claws with a deadly current, so that when a detachment of bockhockids
dashed into a mass of wayleals, legs foremost, the greatest possible
havoc could be made with the least possible risk to the mounted
riders.
The object of having each cell separate in the case of the bockhockids
was apparent. In case a mounted wayleal got unhorsed he was able to
join the wayleals, or infantry, having the same equipment as they.
Our superiority in arms when compared with the royal army, which
possessed only magnic spears and shields, was apparent.
Of course, the enemy also made the legs and claws of the bockhockids
magnic spears in themselves.
It seemed remarkable that a people so inventive, and who possessed the
best of all means for manufacturing firearms, should not have thought
of a better device than their naval air guns. It was but a further
illustration of the fact that the keenest minds are constantly
color-blind to the simplest combinations visible to lookers-on while
they are pursuing their elaborate researches.
But the royal army, if inferior in arms, possessed the superiority of
numbers. It outnumbered us three to one.
Our total forces consisted of 175,000 wayleals and 42,000 bockhockids,
making a total of 217,000 troops, which included 5,000 amazons.
We at first expected a much larger army, believing the priests of
invention, under Grasnagallipas, would certainly espouse the cause of
the queen, but it was a terrible blow to our enthusiasm when we
learned that the priests of invention, making a total of 50,000
wayleals, had joined the royal army and would fight against their late
goddess.
Calnogor being the headquarters of the royal army, it would have been
particularly dangerous for the priests of invention to have espoused
our cause, surrounded as they were by the enormously more powerful
enemy. To our loss, they had chosen to continue part of the army of
the king, which at the lowest computation numbered half a million men.
The king seemed strangely reluctant to begin the attack, although he
knew the extent of our forces in Kioram. It was evident the protection
given the city by the fleet allowed us to complete the arming and
drilling of our forces without molestation.
Supreme General Hushnoly reported that, thanks to the indefatigable
energy of General Rackiron and his colleagues, Generals Starbottle,
Goldrock and Flathootly, assisted by Generals Charka, Yermoul, Pra and
Nototherboc, he had been able to fully equip the wayleals with
mitrailleuses, wings, electric spears and uniforms. The bockhockids,
in addition, were mounted on mechanical birds that could either fly,
trot or walk with tremendous speed.
I instructed Hushnoly to make his appointment of officers without
delay, as we might take the field any moment.
General Rackiron informed us that he was hard at work on a portable
terrorite gun for aerial warfare. He hoped to have a battery of these
guns ready in time to decide the war in our favor. I thanked the
general for his extraordinary exertions, and informed him I felt sure
of his success. With terrorite guns we would be invincible.
Our spies, who had been despatched in all directions, informed us that
the royal army was in a state of activity not inferior to our own. A
daily review was being held in the air above Calnogor, and it was
discovered that Coltonobory was about to make a descent on our ships,
particularly to seize the _Polar King_, and by thus silencing her
guns, have Kioram and the army of the queen at his mercy. The plan was
approved of by the king, and might be put in operation at any moment.
This was most important news, and we decided to take the initiative at
once.
"We will attack the enemy even if he is a million strong," I said.
"Everything calls for an immediate advance," said Hushnoly.
We also learned from trusty couriers that Lyone had been brought
before the Borodemy, and the legislative assembly in full conclave,
after hearing the evidence, had found her guilty of treason, impiety
and sacrilege to her faith, of treason to the king, and had, by
encouraging insurrection, caused her adherents to take up arms against
both king and law, thereby endangering the lives and property of the
inhabitants of the kingdom. There was no one to recommend Lyone to
mercy, and she was condemned to death. The king had already signed her
death-warrant.
She might be executed any moment!
It was a dreadful crisis to contemplate. Our first duty was to save
the life of our queen at any sacrifice. I at once called a council of
war to consider this all-important question. We had only assembled
when a royal courier arrived at the fortress with an important
despatch addressed, "To His Excellency Lexington White,
Commander-in-Chief of the Insurrectionary Army at Kioram."