"Babes! Only babes!" It was Ruth--"BABES!"
"Bits of metal"--d.i.c.k"s gaze sought mine, held it--"and they looked for each other, they worked with each other--THINKINGLY, CONSCIOUSLY--they were deliberate, purposeful--little things--and with the force of a score of dynamos--living, THINKING--"
"Don"t!" Ruth laid white hands over his eyes. "Don"t--don"t YOU be frightened!"
"Frightened?" he echoed. "I"M not afraid--yes, I AM afraid--"
He arose, stiffly--and stumbled toward me.
Afraid? Drake afraid. Well--so was I. Bitterly, TERRIBLY afraid.
For what we had beheld in the dusk of that dragoned, ruined chamber was outside all experience, beyond all knowledge or dream of science. Not their shapes--that was nothing. Not even that, being metal, they had moved.
But that being metal, they had moved consciously, thoughtfully, deliberately.
They were metal things with--MINDS!
That--that was the incredible, the terrifying thing. That--and their power.
Thor compressed within Hop-o"-my-thumb--and thinking. The lightnings incarnate in metal minacules--and thinking.
The inert, the immobile, given volition, movement, cognoscence--thinking.
Metal with a brain!
CHAPTER V. THE SMITING THING
Silently we looked at each other, and silently we pa.s.sed out of the courtyard. The dread was heavy upon me. The twilight was stealing upon the close-cl.u.s.tered peaks. Another hour, and their amethyst-and-purple mantles would drop upon them; snowfields and glaciers sparkle out in irised beauty; nightfall.
As I gazed upon them I wondered to what secret place within their brooding immensities the little metal mysteries had fled. And to what myriads, it might be, of their kind? And these hidden hordes--of what shapes were they? Of what powers? Small like these, or--or--
Quick on the screen of my mind flashed two pictures, side by side--the little four-rayed print in the great dust of the crumbling ruin and its colossal twin on the breast of the poppied valley.
I turned aside, crept through the shattered portal and looked over the haunted hollow.
Unbelieving, I rubbed my eyes; then leaped to the very brim of the bowl.
A lark had risen from the roof of one of the shattered heaps and had flown caroling up into the shadowy sky.
A flock of the little willow warblers flung themselves across the valley, scolding and gossiping; a hare sat upright in the middle of the ancient roadway.
The valley itself lay serenely under the ambering light, smiling, peaceful--emptied of horror!
I dropped over the side, walked cautiously down the road up which but an hour or so before we had struggled so desperately; paced farther and farther with an increasing confidence and a growing wonder.
Gone was that soul of loneliness; vanished the whirlpool of despair that had striven to drag us down to death.
The bowl was nothing but a quiet, smiling lovely little hollow in the hills. I looked back. Even the ruins had lost their sinister shape; were time-worn, crumbling piles--nothing more.
I saw Ruth and Drake run out upon the ledge and beckon me; made my way back to them, running.
"It"s all right," I shouted. "The place is all right."
I stumbled up the side; joined them.
"It"s empty," I cried. "Get Martin and Chiu-Ming quick! While the way"s open--"
A rifle-shot rang out above us; another and another. From the portal scampered Chiu-Ming, his robe tucked up about his knees.
"They come!" he gasped. "They come!"
There was a flashing of spears high up the winding mountain path. Down it was pouring an avalanche of men. I caught the glint of helmets and corselets. Those in the van were mounted, galloping two abreast upon sure-footed mountain ponies. Their short swords, lifted high, flickered.
After the hors.e.m.e.n swarmed foot soldiers, a forest of shining points and dully gleaming pikes above them. Clearly to us came their battlecries.
Again Ventnor"s rifle cracked. One of the foremost riders went down; another stumbled over him, fell. The rush was checked for an instant, milling upon the road.
"d.i.c.k," I cried, "rush Ruth over to the tunnel mouth. We"ll follow. We can hold them there. I"ll get Martin. Chiu-Ming, after the pony, quick."
I pushed the two over the rim of the hollow. Side by side the Chinaman and I ran back through the gateway. I pointed to the animal and rushed back into the fortress.
"Quick, Mart!" I shouted up the shattered stairway. "We can get through the hollow. Ruth and Drake are on their way to the break we came through. Hurry!"
"All right. Just a minute," he called.
I heard him empty his magazine with almost machine-gun quickness.
There was a short pause, and down the broken steps he leaped, gray eyes blazing.
"The pony?" He ran beside me toward the portal. "All my ammunition is on him."
"Chiu-Ming"s taking care of that," I gasped.
We darted out of the gateway. A good five hundred yards away were Ruth and Drake, running straight to the green tunnel"s mouth. Between them and us was Chiu-Ming urging on the pony.
As we sped after him I looked back. The hors.e.m.e.n had recovered, were now a scant half-mile from where the road swept past the fortress. I saw that with their swords the hors.e.m.e.n bore great bows. A little cloud of arrows sparkled from them; fell far short.
"Don"t look back," grunted Ventnor. "Stretch yourself, Walter. There"s a surprise coming. Hope to G.o.d I judged the time right."
We turned off the ruined way; raced over the sward.
"If it looks as though--we can"t make it," he panted, "YOU beat it after the rest. I"ll try to hold "em until you get into the tunnel. Never do for "em to get Ruth."
"Right." My own breathing was growing labored, "WE"LL hold them. Drake can take care of Ruth."
"Good boy," he said. "I wouldn"t have asked you. It probably means death."