DRIVEN BACK
What the travelers had heard regarding the fierceness and courage of
the red pygmies had not been one bit exaggerated. Never had such
desperate fighting ever taken place. The red dwarfs, scarcely one of
whom was more than three feet high, were strongly built, and there
were so many of them, and they battled together with such singleness
of purpose, that they were more formidable than a tribe of ordinary-sized
savages would have been.
And their purpose was to utterly annihilate the enemy that had so
unexpectedly come upon them. It did not matter to them that Tom and
the others had arrived in an airship. The strange craft had no
superstitious terror for them, as it had for the simpler blacks.
"Bless my multiplication tables!" cried Mr. Damon. "What a mob of
them!"
"Almost too many!" murmured Tom Swift, who was rapidly firing his
electric rifle at them. "We can never hope to drive them back, I'm
afraid."
Indeed from every side of the plain, and even from the depths of the
jungle the red dwarfs were now pouring. They yelled most horribly,
screaming in rage, brandishing their spears and clubs, and keeping
up an incessant fire of big arrows from their bows, and smaller ones
from the blowguns.
As yet none of our friends had been hit, for they were sheltered in
the airship, and as the windows were covered with a mesh of wire, to
keep out insects, this also served to prevent the arrows from
entering. There were loopholes purposely made to allow the rifles to
be thrust out.
Mercifully, Tom and the others fired only to disable, and not to
kill the red pygmies. Wounded in the arms or legs, the little
savages would be incapable of fighting, and this plan was followed.
But so fierce were they that some, who were wounded twice, still
kept up the attack.
Tom's electric rifle was well adapted for this work, as he could
regulate the charge to merely stun, no matter at what part of the
body it was directed. So he could fire indiscriminantly, whereas the
others had to aim carefully. And Tom's fire was most effective. He
disabled scores of the red imps, but scores of others sprang up to
take their places.
After their first rush the pygmies had fallen back before the
well-directed fire of our friends, but as their chiefs and head men
urged them to the attack again, they came back with still fiercer
energy. Some, more bold than the others, even leaped to the deck of the
airship, and tried to tear the screens from the windows. They partly
succeeded, and in one casement from which Ned was firing they made a
hole.
Into this they shot a flight of arrows, and one slightly wounded the
bank clerk on the arm. The wound was at once treated with
antiseptics, after the window had been barricaded, and Ned declared
that he was ready to renew the fight. Tom, too, got an arrow scratch
on the neck, and one of the barbs entered Mr. Durban's leg, but the
sturdy elephant hunter would not give up, and took his place again
after the wound had been bandaged.
From time to time as he worked his electric gun, which had been
charged to its utmost capacity, Tom glanced at the hut where the
missionaries were prisoners. There was no movement noticed about it,
and no sound came from it. Tom wondered what had happened inside--he
wondered what was happening as the battle progressed.
Fiercely the fight was kept up. Now the red imps would be driven
back, and again they would swarm about the airship, until it seemed
as if they must overwhelm it. Then the fire of the white adventurers
was redoubled. The electric rifle did great work, and Tom did not
have to stop and refill the magazine, as did the others.
Suddenly, above the noise of the conflict, Tom Swift heard an
ominous sound. It was a hissing in the air, and well he knew what it
was.
"The gas bag!" he cried. "They've punctured it! The vapor is
escaping. If they put too many holes in the bag it will be all up
with us!"
"What's to be done?" asked Mr. Durban.
"If we can't drive them back we must retreat ourselves!" declared
Tom desperately. "Our only hope is to keep the airship safe from
harm."
Once more came a rush of the savages. They had discovered that the
gas bag was vulnerable, and were directing their arrows against
that. It was punctured in several more places. The gas was rapidly
escaping.
"We've got to retreat!" yelled Tom. He hurried to the engine-room,
and turned on the power. The great propellers revolved, and sent the
Black Hawk scudding across the level plain. With yells of surprise
the red dwarfs scattered and made way for it.
Up into the air it mounted on the broad wings. For the time being
our friends has been driven back, and the missionaries whom they had
come to rescue were still in the hands of the savages.