Gunpowder vs. Chlorine Gas
When the ranks of crickets dropped back, and established a great camp
within shooting distance of the copper wall, Epworth was puzzled for a
time to understand the object. Finally he concluded that Toplinsky was
not yet ready to start his heavy guns to battering down the wall. This
meant that the guns were not made.
“It will give me several days,” he told himself, “in which to prepare
and take an inventory of the war material on hand.”
“That Toplinsky is hatching something,” Joan said, coming up from the
city and looking over his shoulders as he was peering through the wall
at the encamped crickets.
“Not at this moment,” Epworth reasoned. “He is getting ready to blow
us out with gun cotton but he has not fully completed his
preparations.”
“Let us drive them away from the wall before he gets a chance,” Billy
suggested. “If we can make them draw back, or if we can defeat them
before he is ready to shoot we will be on an equal footing.”
“The only way to drive them off is to kill them!” Epworth replied
slowly, “and honestly, I do not like to do that.”
“They are not human beings,” Joan broke out snappily. “It will not be
any worse than destroying an ant bed. If these Selinites are to be
made happy they must be rid of this terrible menace.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Billy declared breathlessly. “Why not make a lot
of gliders, sail out there over the heads of the fighters and lay them
low with tear guns, spear thrusts, and arrows? True they can shoot a
little but I have an idea that they are not yet sufficient marksmen to
stop an army of men over their heads.”
“Fine idea. Call Moawha.”
Moawha was not far distant, and when Billy called she came running.
“I want five hundred thousand of your best workmen, and as many of
your bravest soldiers,” Epworth announced seriously. “I want them
quickly and I want the material that goes into one hundred thousand
gliders—two hundred thousand if we can get it. Rake your country
quickly.”
Moawha did not know what kind of material went into a glider but when
her scientists and expert mechanics appeared Epworth explained to them
what he wanted, and with the assistance of Billy and Joan, put a
glider together in five hours. When the glider was finished he sailed
it into the air, and explained its workings, how he pedaled it like a
bicycle, and the detail of manufacture. The pigmies proved very apt,
and the day had not closed before they were turning the sailing crafts
out rapidly. In three days they had fifty thousand, and were learning
to sail them.
While the Selinites were making gliders under the instructions and
guided by Billy, Epworth made a thorough search in the neighborhood
for a large salt deposit. He found it—a long stretch of waste land
which he reasoned had once been a small sea. With the help of the
Selinite scientists he extracted from the salt hundreds of tanks of
chlorine gas. By working feverishly he transferred this gas to the
fighting front while he had another body of Selinites making
chloroform guns. They were small and disappointing. When he first
thought of the chlorine gas his heart beat high with hope but this
hope was killed by an inability to construct a gas projectile that
would throw the gas beyond a point where it would not sweep back into
the face of his own men.
He was not certain but he thought that Toplinsky was laboring just as
rapidly as he was but he was quite sure that the scientist was working
entirely along the gun powder idea, and finally he developed an idea
of air attack with the chlorine that he was convinced would put him on
a good fighting footing although it did not promise such effect as
bombing with great airplanes or throwing gas from a swift moving
Zeppelin, or out of a huge cannon.
However he realized that this had narrowed down to a race between him
and Toplinsky, and the moment he felt that he had a successful weapon
he concluded to open the doors of the border wall and make an attack
on the cricket army.
On the evening of the sixth day he had fifty thousand gliders and as
many chloroform guns ready for use. By the end of the next day he
expected to add ten thousand more to his equipment. Of course he
measured time by his watch, which he had managed to keep. With sixty
thousand he would make the attack.
He was seated in a palatial room in the palace of Queen Moawha taking
a brief rest, and talking over his plans with his three companions
when the ground was shaken by a mighty roar—an explosion that
reverberated throughout the underground world. Epworth knew instantly
what it was but Moawha sprang up screaming with fear.
“Take it easy,” Billy soothed, putting his hand gently on her arm. “We
are still here.”
“W-w-what was it?” she cried hysterically. “Is the whole world blowing
up?”
“It is Toplinsky’s first big gun.”
“Run out to the gliders, and get the men in flying shape,” Epworth
commanded quietly. “I will get the gunners and have the gas ready.
Fortunately we have fifty thousand of the gliders armed, and the
aviators have some idea of what we intend to do. We must not waste a
second. Toplinsky will batter down that wire wall in ten minutes.”
“B-b-but,” Moawha hesitated.
“You have the only orders that will save your country. I am going to
make for the borderland, and see if I can keep them from coming in on
the women and children.”
He rushed out of the building, ran hurriedly to the house where the
gun aviators were waiting in case of a call, and sent them hurriedly
to join Billy and Moawha. Then he got one of the largest gliders,
strapped the planes to his shoulders, and lifted into the air. As he
whirled upward in a great circle another glider left the earth and
came rapidly toward him.
Who was following him without orders? He frowned. He had set a task
for himself. If he was killed Billy and Moawha could go on with their
fight and possibly win the war. This party who was following him was
getting in the way.
“Why are you trailing me?” he broke out angrily, slowing up a little
in his pedaling. “I gave explicit orders to——”
“I happen to be an individual who does not take orders.” He looked
around and found his sister, Joan, grinning at him. “I know that you
are flying off at a tangent for some purpose, and I want to help.”
“Women are always getting in the way,” he ejaculated, somewhat
annoyed. “I am going on a dangerous task, and you increase the
danger.”
“I am no weakling,” she answered sharply. “I am thrown into a strange
world without any friends except my brother. If he is killed I am left
alone. I do not want to be alone. I am sticking right by your side
until we find a resting spot where we can live without a constant
threat of death.”
They arrived at the summit of the pass. Before them, huddled together
like sheep, were many Selinite soldiers speeding toward their homes,
and throwing away their arms as they hurried along.
“Hold! Stop!” Epworth shouted from the air. “Do you want your women
and children to fall into the hands of these flesh-eating crickets?
Turn back, and be men. Help me hold the wall.”
“A demon is belching at us,” one of the men cried out in broken
English. “He is hiding behind an immense block of rock and with each
breath he blows away our wall.”
“If you are men face the danger. If you are cowards run away. If you
conclude to stay, pause behind this mountain side and if the crickets
come in stay them if you can until re-enforcements arrive.”
The Selinites stopped, turned around and gathered up their weapons.
Slowly but determinedly they backed against the mountain Epworth
pointed out, and waited to see if their enemies came in. Here they
were protected from the big guns, and Epworth and Joan topped the
summit and sailed toward the copper wall. The defenders had departed
as one man but the crickets had made no attempt to enter. They were
waiting orders which were to come later.
Epworth had been bothered during his flight up to the wall about
getting out. He had been rushed to an extent that he had had little
time for the details of battle, and now he found that there were no
Selinites to open and close the wall gates for the gliders, which he
expected to shove out and start into the air on the other side.
However there was no necessity to open the gates. Toplinsky’s big gun,
fired only twice, had ripped the wall in a dozen places, and just as
they came up another discharge rent the air. The gun scattered and the
heavy slugs of rock, which Toplinsky was using instead of lead,
whistled by on all sides. While another strip of wall fell the
explosion only served to direct Epworth’s gaze to its hidden resting
spot.
“I am going to silence that gun,” he called to Joan in a low voice.
“Go back.”
“Not me,” Joan replied bravely. “I am going to aid you.”
“It is probably manned by Taunans.”
“Unlucky for them. I have my chloroform gun.”
* * * * *
The Taunans and crickets did not see the camouflaged gliders slip
softly out of the border gap, and sail slowly toward the smoking gun
nest. They were ramming another load into the breech when suddenly
from above them came a stream of greenish gas. When they looked up a
strange bird-like animal was hanging over their heads, and sprinkling
their faces with some mysterious fluid that smelt——
This was as far as they got in their cogitations. Under the powerful
stroke of chlorine gas they fell on the ground unconscious, and
Epworth dropped silently by the side of the monstrous cannon. Around
him were scattered numerous cartridges stuffed with stones and gun
cotton, and separating himself from his glider, with desperate haste
he began to tear the roughly made cartridges to bits. Presently he had
a large pile of gun cotton beneath the breech of the gun and stretched
along the barrel. Then he strapped on his glider and took to the air,
circled slowly around the gun and dropped a lighted match in the gun
cotton.
It was a reckless act, and he knew it. The second the match left his
hand he whirled his bicycle motor rapidly and pedaled with all of his
strength.
He was lucky. The gun cotton did not blow up until he was out of the
danger zone, and the explosion destroyed the usefulness of the cannon.
With a grim smile Epworth sailed back to the borderland. He was just
in time to meet an army of planes headed by Moawha and Billy.
His orders were for the pigmies to fight in pairs. One soldier, armed
with a chlorine gun, was to fly over a cricket, discharge his gun into
his face, and another Selinite was instructed to lean out of his
glider as he passed over and spear the crickets as they staggered. The
gliders, it is well to state, were made large enough to carry two of
the small Selinites, and the soldiers were equipped with gas masks.
Epworth had hoped to assault the crickets at a time when they were not
expecting a battle but in this he was unsuccessful. Toplinsky had
already begun the battle. However, in compliance with his orders when
the gun was put out of commission a horde of Selinite soldiers rushed
up to aid in the defense of the wall.
The fight began with a clear sky but the explosion of the heavy gun
seemed to shake the air and send clouds of blackened powder upward,
and long before the gliders were in good action a dark cloud spread
across the sky. This aided the men in the air, and they sailed over
the cricket army with very few fatalities. Their execution was
terrible.
When the gliders reached the end of the cricket army they sent up
rockets, and then darted hither and yon over the rear ranks shooting
chloroform in great quantities on all sides. Thousands of crickets
began to rush pell mell to and fro. While they were ready to obey
their masters and fight anything on the ground this mysterious smell
that came out of the air above them from winged birds that did not
flap their wings was something they could not understand, and they
threw down their arms and began to seek safety.
When this movement was completed and Epworth discovered that they had
the crickets frightened he sent up more orders in the way of rockets
which brought the Selinites in vast numbers charging down the side of
the mountain with chloroform guns and spears in their hands.
And it was then that Toplinsky awoke to a bedlam of defeat around him.
Everywhere his army was seeking safety; everywhere crickets were
chirping wildly, demoralized, frightened; rushing over each other and
crushing their pigmy officers. Toplinsky waved his arms and howled,
cursed loudly, and hammered crickets with his great fists to force
them back into battle; promised them victory, wheeled, fought and
anathematized. But it was all in vain. A swarm of hopping insects shot
by him on their way to the dark caves of Agrippa.
Presently the giant paused in manhandling his men, and sniffed the
air. At the moment a Selinite glided by and shot a stream of wet stuff
into his face. He closed his nostrils, and struck a mighty blow at the
Selinite who was trying to gas him from the glider. Instantly he was
surrounded by men, and recognizing the fact that he had been
chloroformed he suppressed his breath and charged into the Selinites
who were upon him.
Toplinsky was in truth a mighty fighter—a giant of matchless courage,
and single handed he stemmed the tide of opposition.
“Ah, ha, ho, ho,” he howled like a madman. “That cursed American! He
is smart. How I hate him. Come out of the air, you coward, and fight
like a man.”
Epworth, who was sailing near by, heard him.
“I am here, Toplinsky, and this is final.”
He dropped out of the air by the side of the giant, releasing his
glider. Toplinsky charged with a bellow like a stuck bull. Epworth
side stepped and slammed a terrific right into the giant’s face, and
then a left into his side.
“Same old tactics,” sneered the scientist, “but you can’t get me that
way.”
He jerked his gun. But he was destined never to fire. Moawha, with a
host of her fighting men swept between them, and brandished their
spears in the giant’s face.
“Hold!” Epworth shouted loudly. “Do not kill him. Take him alive. He
is the only man who can pilot a ship back to the earth.”
“Ha, ha, ho, ho, the bantam wishes to return. He shall not.”
With a laugh like a demon the giant swept the small figures aside,
whirled, and lifting Queen Carza upon his shoulders, leaped away into
the night.
The rout of the crickets was complete. When the morning came and the
clouds rolled away the field was a shambles and crickets lay gassed in
piles. And Moawha and her soldiers were chasing the crickets in every
direction. Across the arid wastes of Carza’s kingdom, on to her
capital, a handsome city of twenty thousand inhabitants, and up to the
mouth of the great crater that shot upward out of the inner world of
the moon toward the unknown skies, Moawha’s soldiers followed the
crickets.
But now the crickets were in the air, and when they came to the
Agrippa Crater the little people were stopped. True they had been able
to capture the entire land of the Taunans, and make prisoners of the
leading military commanders but Carza and Toplinsky, convoyed by a
band of winged crickets, had deserted the field of action and were
flying rapidly toward the crater. Epworth, Joan and Moawha chased them
to the opening, and stopped. Their gliders, while strong enough to
support them in the inner atmosphere, were not able to fly up through
that dark forbidding hole.
Toplinsky, although defeated for the moment, discovered this, and
stopped his band of crickets at the entrance.
“Ah, ha, ho! ho!” he shouted in his shrill loud voice that carried far
into the inner world. “For the moment the American bantam triumphs.
But the war has only begun. Soon I shall come again. The next time my
valiant crickets and brave Taunans shall be armed with gases and guns
that will slay millions. Until that time——”
Epworth and Moawha saw him wave his hands as if in high spirits. His
action cast a damper over Moawha’s spirits, and Joan also was
troubled.
“W-w-what would you advise?” Moawha asked of Epworth with much
anxiety. “Never before have my soldiers been this far, and it seems to
me if the crickets pour out of that hole over our heads, armed as that
giant asserts they will be, they can creep upon us when we are asleep,
and totally annihilate my forces.”
“It is a serious problem,” Epworth replied thoughtfully. “You say that
you have a million fighting men?”
“About that number.”
“Then we’ve got to go up into that hole, and clean out that nest
before Toplinsky has time to arm them. Give him three weeks and he
will certainly destroy your country.”