ground," was his terse yet uneasy comment to himself.
He mounted to a height of two hundred meters and watched the country about for a sign of their reappearance.
Ten minutes later he saw them through the binoculars, gliding orderly along, evidently having come from some underground passage. He might be mistaken in their identity, but as there were four, and one larger than the others, he was reasonably confident that these were the spheres he was seeking.
He decided on coming again above the enemy to send a koto[1] bullet ripping down the edge of the smaller sphere bringing up the rear, and watch the effect. Perhaps some sort of porthole would be thrown open and he would know better how to crack these great nuts. He steadied his automatic and fired. The sphere that had been hit slowed up, then stopped, and through his binoculars he could see a slender stream of bluish liquid pouring from its side.
The three other spheres now stopped and, coming back, glided about their injured companion, but no porthole of any kind, so far as he could observe, was thrown open, and no living creature came from the spheres. Yet from the actions of the latter he was positive that there was some living and sympathetic intelligence housed in each one, and these were not merely great metallic balls directed from a distance by wireless or other means.
The larger sphere placed itself about fifteen meters ahead, while the two smaller uninjured spheres ranged themselves close against the sides of their injured companion, as if to guide or bear it along, and they had proceeded scarcely twenty meters in this manner when they vanished completely and instantly in the open, as they had done before, leaving Davidson in amazed despair.
He condemned himself severely for alarming them twice, but what better could he have done under the circumstances? He had not dared drop a j--a-egg[2] on one of the spheres and blow it apart, for his friends might have been in that particular sphere. Since his bullet had penetrated one sphere and crippled it, he decided, should he locate the enemy again, to put a bullet into the outer edges of the three other spheres and cripple them all alike. Then they might not be able to submerge or escape, and the living intelligences within, would be compelled sooner or later to expose themselves.
It was an hour before he picked them up again, after he had become desperate with the fear that he had lost them entirely. He barely glimpsed them along the border of a distant, scattered wood, and giving instant pursuit quickly had them again directly below the speedy H-T plane. They were still proceeding with the larger sphere ahead, and the injured sphere aided along by its two companions. With three shots he ripped a channel down the edge of each of the uninjured spheres. This was the last time he proposed to treat the enemy half-way civilly.
A stream of bluish liquid began to spout from each sphere where his bullet had penetrated the side, and now he gave a shout as a porthole was opened in the largest and a human figure sprang to the ground and made off towards the woods. He gave a second shout as this figure was followed by another human form. He was certain these stark-naked figures were Hal-Al and Bailee, making a break for liberty.
He pressed the siren key, ripping the air with a far-reaching and unmistakable half whistle, half screech. The two runners stopped, looked upwards, waved their arms towards the plane, then vanished completely from view in an astonishing cone or funnel of darkness thrown from the larger sphere, exactly like light from a searchlight. Davidson sent the two men the siren call to turn to the left, but something seemed to detain them in the impenetrable shaft of darkness. He again gave the call, but they did not come from the black ray, and acting with more daring than caution, he dropped directly down to the earth where he had last seen them, forgetting to stop the engine in his haste.
His heedlessness saved him, for the instant he came into the black ray he crumpled up in his seat, unable to move a muscle, like a man stricken with total paralysis. But the still active engine drove the plane along the ground till it was carried beyond the ray. Here he was himself again.
He got to his feet in rage. This sphere had not only smothered his two helpless friends in pitch darkness but had directed on them a ray capable of temporarily paralyzing the man caught in its vibration. But for the mere chance that he had failed to stop his engine he would not have escaped himself. He rose like a flash, before he should again come into the enemy's range, and turning the nose of his plane on the larger sphere played the cyclo-gun[3] directly upon it. The sphere rang like a great bell pounded by a hundred hammers and began to spout all over with little jets of blue liquid, but the black ray continued to issue from its side and conceal everything in its path.
He now directed the cyclo-gun on the three other spheres, riddling each one in turn. While he was about it he proposed to make a thorough business of crippling the enemy. This work accomplished with a dispatch almost equal to the narrating, he awaited the next move of the foe. He hesitated to make another move without some regard to the immediate consequence. These spheres possessed power of the most treacherous nature, little to be suspected from their simple appearance.
The next move came. The three smaller spheres glided rather uncertainly apart in a line behind the largest sphere, as if they proposed to proceed in single file, but when they stood about ten meters apart the black ray issuing from the
larger sphere dimmed, faded, then ceased, and
