"I"ll do my best, Jim," I replied. "Since you have told me their plans I am itching to get at them."
I edged over toward the knife, but as I did so I saw a better weapon. On the floor lay a bar of silvery metal about thirty inches long and an inch in diameter. I picked it up and toyed with it idly, meanwhile edging around to get behind the insect which I had marked for my first attentions. Jim was talking again by means of the notebook with his beetle friend. They walked around the ship, examining everything in it.
"Are you ready, Pete?" came Jim"s voice at last.
"All set," I replied, getting a firmer grasp on my bar and edging toward one of the insects.
"Well, don"t start until I fire. You notice the bug I am talking to?
Don"t kill him unless you have to. This ship is a little too complicated for me to fathom, so I want this fellow taken prisoner. We"ll use him as our engineer when we take control."
"I understand."
"All right, get ready."
I kept my eye on Jim. He had drawn the beetle with whom he was talking to a position where they were behind the rest. Jim pointed at something behind the insect"s back and the beetle turned. As it did so, Jim whipped out his pistol and, taking careful aim, fired at one of the insects.
As the sound of the shot rang out I raised my bar and leaped forward. I brought it down with crushing force on the head of the nearest beetle.
My victim fell forward, and I heard Jim"s pistol bark again; but I had no time to watch him. As the beetle I struck fell the others turned and I had two of them coming at me with outstretched arms, ready to grasp me. I swung my bar, and the arm of one of them fell limp; but the other seized me with both its hands, and I felt the cruel hooks of its lower arms against the small of my back.
One of my arms was still free; I swung my bar again, and it struck my captor on the back of the head. It was stunned by the blow and fell. I seized the knife from the floor, and threw myself down beside it and struck at its eyes, trying to roll it over so as to protect me from the other who was trying to grasp me.
I felt hands clutch me from behind; I was wrenched loose from the body of my victim and lifted into the air. I was turned about and stared hard into the implacable crystalline eyes of one of the insects. For a moment my senses reeled and then, without volition, I dropped my bar. I remembered the children and realized that I was being hypnotized. I fought against the feeling, but my senses reeled and I almost went limp, when the sound of a pistol shot, almost in my ear, roused me. The spell of the beetle was momentarily broken. I thrust the knife which I still grasped at the eyes before me. My blow went home, but the insect raised me and bent me toward him until my head lay on top of his and the huge horns which adorned his head began to close. Another pistol shot sounded, and I was suddenly dropped.
I grasped my bar as I fell and leaped up. The flyer was a shambles. Dead insects lay on all sides while Jim, smoking pistol in hand, was staring as though fascinated into the eyes of one of the surviving beetles. I ran forward and brought my bar down on the insect"s head, but as I did so I was grasped from behind.
"Jim, help!" I cried as I was swung into the air. The insect whirled me around and then threw me to the floor. I had an impression of falling; then everything dissolved in a flash of light. I was unconscious only for a moment, and I came to to find Jim Carpenter standing over me, menacing my a.s.sailant with his gun.
"Thanks, Jim," I said faintly.
"If you"re conscious again, get up and get your bar," he replied. "My pistol is empty and I don"t know how long I can run a bluff on this fellow."
I scrambled to my feet and grasped the bar. Jim stepped behind me and reloaded his pistol.
"All right," he said when he had finished. "I"ll take charge of this fellow. Go around and see if the rest are dead. If they aren"t when you find them, see that they are when you leave them. We"re taking no prisoners."
I went the rounds of the prostrate insects. None of them were beyond moving except two whose heads had been crushed by my bar, but I obeyed Jim"s orders. When I rejoined him with my b.l.o.o.d.y bar, the only beetle left alive was the commander, whom Jim was covering with his pistol.
"Take the gun," he said when I reported my actions, "and give me the bar."
We exchanged weapons and Jim turned to the captive.
"Now, old fellow," he said grimly, "either you run this ship as I want you to, or you"re a dead Indian. Savvy?"
He took his pencil and notebook from his pocket and drew a sketch of our Hadley s.p.a.ce ship. On the other end of the sheet he drew a picture of the Mercurian ship, and then drew a line connecting the two. The insect looked at the sketch but made no movement.
"All right, if that"s the way you feel about it," said Jim. He raised the bar and brought it down with crushing force on one of the insect"s lower arms. The arm fell as though paralyzed and a blue light played across the beetle"s eyes. Jim extended the sketch again and raised the bar threateningly. The beetle moved over to the control board, Jim following closely, and set the ship in motion. Ten minutes later it rested on the ground beside the ship in which we had first taken the air.
Following Jim"s pictured orders the beetle opened the door of the Mercurian ship and followed Jim into the Hadley. As we emerged from the Mercurian ship I looked back. It had vanished completely.
"The children, Jim!" I gasped.
"I haven"t forgotten them," he replied, "but they are all right for the present. If we turned them loose now, we"d have ninety reporters around us in ten minutes. I want to get our generators modified first."
He pointed toward the spot where the Mercurian ship had stood and then toward our generators. The beetle hesitated, but Jim swung his bar against the insect"s side in a vicious blow. Again came the play of blue light over the eyes; the beetle bent over our generaters and set to work. Jim handed me the bar and bent over to help. They were both mechanics of a high order and they worked well together; in an hour the beetle started the generators and swung one of the searchlights toward his old ship. It leaped into view on the radium coated screen.
"Good business!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jim. "We"ll repair this door; then we"ll be ready to release the children and start out."
We followed the beetle into the Mercurian ship, which it seemed to be able to see. It opened a door leading into another compartment of the flyer, and before us lay the bodies of eight children. The beetle lifted the first one, a little girl, up until his many-faceted eyes looked full into the closed ones of the child. There was a flicker of an eyelash, a trace of returning color, and then a scream of terror from the child.
The beetle set the girl down and Jim bent over her.
"It"s all right now, little lady," he said, clumsily smoothing her hair.
"You"re safe now. Run along to your mother. First Mortgage, take charge of her and take her outside. It isn"t well for children to see these things."
The child clung to my hand: I led her out of the ship, which promptly vanished as we left it. One by one, seven other children joined us, the last one, a miss of not over eight, in Jim"s arms. The beetle followed behind him.
"Do any of you know where you are?" asked Jim as he came out.
"I do, sir," said one of the boys. "I live close to here."
"All right, take these youngsters to your house and tell your mother to telephone their parents to come and get them. If anyone asks you what happened, tell them to see Jim Carpenter to-morrow. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir."
"All right, run along then. Now, First Mortgage, let"s go hunting."
We wired our captive up so securely that I felt that there was no possible chance of his escape; then, with Jim at the controls and me at the guns, we fared forth in search of the invaders. Back and forth over the city we flew without sighting another s.p.a.ceship in the air. Jim gave an exclamation of impatience and swung on a wider circle, which took us out over the water. I kept the searchlights working. Presently, far ahead over the water, a dark spot came into view. I called to Jim and we approached it at top speed.
"Don"t shoot until we are within four hundred yards," cautioned Jim.
I held my fire until we were within the specified distance. The newcomer was another of the Mercurian s.p.a.ce-ships; with a feeling of joy I swung my beam until the cross-hairs of the screen rested full on the invader.
"All ready!" I sung out.
"If you are ready, Gridley, you may fire!" replied Jim. I pressed the gun b.u.t.ton. The crash of the gun was followed by another report from outside as the radite sh.e.l.l burst against the Mercurian flyer. The deadly explosive did its work, and the shattered remains of the wreck fell, to be engulfed in the sea below.