CHAPTER V
_The Fight in the Marsh_
Twice, within the next two hours, the Ragged Men mustered the courageto charge. They came racing across the semi-solid ooze like the madmenthey were. Their yells and shouts were maniacal howls of blood-lust orworse. And twice Tommy broke their rush with a savage ruthlessness.The sub-machine-gun's first magazine was nearly empty. It was anunhandy weapon for single-shot work but it was loaded with explosiveshells. The second rush he stopped with an automatic pistol. Therewere half-naked bodies partly buried in the ooze all the way from thejungle's edge to within ten yards of the hillock on which he andEvelyn had taken refuge.
It was hot there, terribly hot. The air was stifling. It fairly reekedof moisture and the smells from the swamp behind them were sickening.Tommy began to transfer the shells from the spare bent magazine to theone he had carried with the gun.
"We've a couple of reasons to be thankful," he observed. "One is thatthere's a bit of shade overhead. The other is that we had the bigmagazines for this gun. We still have nearly ninety shells, besidesthe ones for the pistols."
Evelyn said soberly:
"We're going to be killed, don't you think, Tommy?"
Tommy frowned.
"I'm rather afraid we are," he said irritably. "Confound it, and I'dthought of such excellent arguments to use in the City back yonder!Smithers said the Death Mist was two miles across, to-day, and stillgrowing. The people in the city are still pouring the stuff downthrough Jacaro's Tube."
Evelyn smiled faintly. She touched his hand.
"Trying to keep me from worrying? Tommy...." She hesitated until hegrowled a question. "Please--remember that when Daddy and I were inthe jungle before, we saw what these Ragged Men do to prisoners theytake. I just want you to promise that--well, you won't wait too long,in hopes of somehow saving me."
Tommy stared at her. Then he decisively reached forward and put hishand over her mouth.
"Keep quiet," he said gently. "They shan't capture you. I promisethat. Now keep quiet."
* * * * *
There was only silence for a long time. Now and again a hidden figurescreamed in rage at them. Now and again some flapping thing spedtoward the jungle's edge. Once a naked arm thrust one of the goldentruncheons from behind its cover, pointing at a flying thing a fewyards overhead. The flying thing suddenly toppled, turning over andover before it crashed to the ground. There were howls of glee.
"They seem mad," said Tommy meditatively, "and they act like lunatics,but I've got a hunch of some sort about them. But what?"
Sunlight gleamed on something golden beyond the jungle's edge. Nakedfigures went running to the spot. An exultant tumult arose.
"Now they try another trick," Tommy observed dispassionately. "Iremember that at the Tube they had pushed something on wheels...."
The sub-machine gun was unhandy for accurate single shots, and nopistol can be used to effect at long ranges. To conserve ammunition,Tommy had been shooting only at relatively close targets, allowing theRagged Men immunity at over two hundred yards. But now he flung overthe continuous-fire stud. He watched grimly.
The foliage at the edge of the jungle parted. A crude wagon appeared.Its axles were lesser tree-trunks. Its wheels were clumsy and crudebeyond belief. But mounted upon it there was a queer mass of goldenmetal which looked strangely beautiful and strangely deadly.
"That's the thing," said Tommy dispassionately, "which made the flareof light last night. It blew up the Tube. And Von Holtz toldme--hm--his friends, in the City...."
He sighted carefully. The wagon and its contents were surrounded by aleaping, capering mob. They shook their fists in an insane hatred.
A storm of bullets burst upon them. Tommy was traversing the littlegun with the trigger pressed down. His lips were set tightly. Andsuddenly it seemed as if the solid earth burst asunder! There had beenan instant in which the bullet-bursts were visible. They tore andshattered the howling mob of Ragged Men. But then they struck thegolden weapon. A sheet of blue-white flame leaped skyward and roundabout. A blast of blistering, horrible heat smote upon the beleagueredpair. The moisture of the ooze between them and the jungle flashedinto steam. A section of the jungle itself, a hundred yards across,shriveled and died.
* * * * *
Steam shot upward in a monstrous cloud--miles high, it seemed. Then,almost instantly, there was nothing left of the Ragged Men about thegolden weapon, or of the weapon itself, but an unbearable blue-whitelight which poured away and trickled here and there and seemed to growin volume as it flamed.
From the rest of the jungle a howl arose. It was a howl of such loss,and of such unspeakable rage, that the hair at the back of Tommy'sneck lifted, as a dog's hackles lift at sight of an enemy.
"Keep your head down, Evelyn," said Tommy composedly. "I have an ideathat the burning stuff gives off a lot of ultra-violet. Von Holtz wasbadly burned, you remember."
Naked figures flashed forward from the jungle beyond the burned area.Tommy shot them down grimly. He discarded the sub-machine gun with itsexplosive shells for the automatics. Some of his targets were onlywounded. Those wounded men dragged themselves forward, screaming theirrage. Tommy felt sickened, as if he were shooting down madmen. A voiceroared a rage-thickened order from the jungle. The assault slackened.
Five minutes later it began again, and this time the attackers wadedout into the softer ooze and flung themselves down, and then began ahalf-swimming, half-crawling progress behind bits of tree-fern stump,or merely pushing walls of the jellylike mud before them. The whitelight expanded and grew huge--but it dulled as it expanded, andpresently seemed no hotter than molten steel, and later still it wasno more than a dull-red heat, and later yet....
Tommy shot savagely. Some of the Ragged Men died. More did not.
"I'm afraid," he said coolly, "they're going to get us. It seemsrather purposeless, but I'm afraid they're going to win."
Evelyn thrust a shaking hand skyward. "There, Tommy!"
* * * * *
A strange, angular flying thing was moving steadily across the marsh,barely above the steamlike haze that hung in thinning layers about itsfoulness. The flying thing moved with a machinelike steadiness, andthe sun twinkled upon something bright and shining before it.
"A flying machine," said Tommy shortly. His mind leaped ahead and hislips parted in a mirthless smile. "Get your gas mask ready, Evelyn.The explosion of that thermit-thrower made them curious in the City.They sent a ship to see."
The flying thing grew closer, grew distinct. A wail arose from theRagged Men. Some of them leaped to their feet and fled. A man came outinto the open and shook his fists at the angular thing in the air. Hescreamed at it, and such ghastly hatred was in the sound that Evelynshuddered.
Tommy could see it plainly, now. Its single wing was thick and queerlyunlike the air-foils of Earth. A framework hung below it, but it hadno balancing tail. And there was a glittering something before it thatobviously was its propelling mechanism, but as obviously was not ascrew propeller. It swept overhead, with a man in it looking downward.Tommy watched coolly. It was past him, sweeping toward the jungle. Itswung sharply to the right, banking steeply. Smoking things droppedfrom it, which expanded into columns of swiftly-descending vapor. Theyreached the jungle and blotted it out. The flying machine swung againand swept back to the left. More smoking things dropped. Ragged Menerupted from the jungle's edge in screaming groups, only to writhe andfall and lie still. But a group of five of them sped toward Tommy,shrieking their rage upon him as the cause of disaster. Tommy held hisfire, looking upward. A hundred yards, fifty yards, twenty-five....
* * * * *
The flying machine soared in easy, effortless circles. The man in itwas watching, making no effort to interfere.
Tommy shot down the five men, one after the other, with a curiouslydetached feeling that their vice-brutalized faces would haun
t himforever. Then he stood up.
The flying machine banked, turned, and swept toward him, and a smokingthing dropped toward the earth. It was a gas bomb like those that hadwiped out the Ragged Men. It would strike not ten yards away.
"Your mask!" snapped Tommy.
He helped Evelyn adjust it. The billowing white cloud rolled aroundhim. He held his breath, clapped on his mask, exhaled until his lungsached, and was breathing comfortably. The mask was effectiveprotection. And then he held Evelyn comfortably close.
For what seemed a long, long while they were surrounded by the whitemist. The cloud was so dense, indeed, that the light about them fadedto a gray twilight. But gradually, bit by bit, the mist grew thinner.Then it moved aside. It drifted before the wind toward the tree-fernforest and was lost to sight.
The flying machine was circling and soaring silently overhead. As themist drew aside, the pilot dived down and down. And Tommy emptied hisautomatic at the glittering thing which drew it. There was a crashingbolt of blue light. The machine canted, spun about with one wingalmost vertical, that wing-tip struck the marsh, and it settled with amonstrous splashing of mud. All was still.
Tommy reloaded, watching it keenly.
"The framework isn't smashed up, anyhow," he observed grimly. "Thepilot thinks we're some of Jacaro's gang. My guns were proof, to him.So, since the Ragged Men didn't get us, he gassed us." He watchedagain, his eyes narrow. The pilot was utterly still. "He may beknocked out. I hope so! I'm going to see."
* * * * *
Automatic held ready, Tommy moved toward the crashed machine. It hadsplashed into the ooze less than a hundred yards away. Tommy movedcautiously. Twenty yards away, the pilot moved feebly. He had knockedhis head against some part of his machine. A moment later he openedhis eyes and stared about. The next instant he had seen Tommy andmoved convulsively. A glittering thing appeared in his hand--and Tommyfired. The glittering thing flew to one side and the pilot clapped hishand to a punctured forearm. He went white, but his jaw set. He staredat Tommy, waiting for death.
"For the love of Pete," said Tommy irritably, "I'm not going to killyou! You tried to kill me, and it was very annoying, but I have somethings I want to tell you."
He stopped and felt foolish because his words were, of course,unintelligible. The pilot was staring amazedly at him. Tommy's tonehad been irritated, certainly, but there was neither hatred nortriumph in it. He waved his hand.
"Come on and I'll bandage you up and see if we can make you understanda few things."
Evelyn came running through the muck.
"He didn't hurt you, Tommy?" she gasped. "I saw you shoot--"
The pilot fairly jumped. At first glance he had recognized her as awoman. Tommy growled that he'd had to "shoot the damn fool through thearm." The pilot spoke, curiously. Evelyn looked at his arm andexclaimed. He was holding it above the wound to stop the bleeding.Evelyn looked about helplessly for something with which to bandage it.
"Make pads with your handkerchief," grunted Tommy. "Take my tie tohold them in place."
The prisoner looked curiously from one to the other. His color wasreturning. As Evelyn worked on his arm he seemed to grow excited atsome inner thought. He spoke again, and looked at once puzzled andconfirmed in some conviction when they were unable to comprehend. WhenEvelyn finished her first-aid task he smiled suddenly, flashing whiteteeth at them. He even made a little speech which was humorouslyapologetic, to judge by its tone. When they turned to go back to theirfortress he went with them without a trace of hesitation.
"Now what?" asked Evelyn.
"They'll be looking for him in a little while," said Tommy curtly. "Ifwe can convince him we're not enemies, he'll keep them from giving usmore gas."
* * * * *
The pilot was fumbling at a belt about the curious tunic he wore.Tommy watched him warily. But a pad of what seemed to be black metalcame out, with a silvery-white stylus attached to it. The pilot satdown the instant they stopped and began to draw in white lines on theblack surface. He drew a picture of a man and an angular flyingmachine, and then a sketchy, impressionistic outline of a city'stowers. He drew a circle to enclose all three drawings and indicatedhimself, the machine, and the distant city. Tommy nodded comprehensionas the pilot looked up. Then came a picture of a half-naked manshaking his fists at the three encircled sketches. The half-naked manstood beneath a roughly indicated tree-fern.
"Clever," said Tommy, as a larger circle enclosed that with the cityand the machine. "He's identifying himself, and saying the Ragged Menare enemies of himself and his Golden City, too. That much is not hardto get."
He nodded vigorously as the pilot looked up again. And then he watchedas a lively, tiny sketch grew on the black slab, showing half a dozenmen, garbed almost as Tommy was, using weapons which could only besub-machine guns and automatic pistols. They were obviously Jacaro'sgangsters. The pilot handed over the plate and watched absorbedly asTommy fumbled with the stylus. He drew, not well but well enough, anoutline of the towers of New York. The difference in architecture wasstriking. There followed tiny figures of himself and Evelyn--with adrily murmured, "This isn't a flattering portrait of you,Evelyn!"--and a circle enclosing them with the towers of New York.
The pilot nodded in his turn. And then Tommy encircled the previouslydrawn figures of the gangsters with New York, just as the Ragged Menhad been linked with the other city. And a second circle linkedgangsters and Ragged Men together.
* * * * *
"I'm saying," observed Tommy, "that Jacaro and his mob are the RaggedMen of our world, which may not be wrong, at that."
There was no question but that the pilot took his meaning. He grinnedin a friendly fashion, and winced as his wounded arm hurt him.Ruefully, he looked down at his bandage. Then he pressed a tiny studat the top of the black-metal pad and all the white lines vanishedinstantly. He drew a new circle, with tree-ferns scattered about itsupper third--a tiny sketch of a city's towers. He pointed to that andto the city visible through the mist--a second city, and a third, inother places. He waved his hand vaguely about, then impatientlyscribbled over the middle third of the circle and handed it back toTommy.
Tommy grinned ruefully.
"A map," he said amusedly. "He's pointed out his own city and a coupleof others, and he wants us to tell him where we come from.Evelyn--er--how are we going to explain a trip through five dimensionsin a sketch?"
Evelyn shook her head. But a shadow passed over their heads. The pilotleaped to his feet and shouted. There were three planes soaring abovethem, and the pilot in the first was in the act of releasing a smokingobject over the side. At the grounded pilot's shout, he flung his shipinto a frantic dive, while behind him the smoking thing billowed out athicker and thicker cloud. His plane was nearly hidden by the vaporwhen he released it. It fell two hundred yards and more away, and thewhite mist spread and spread. But it fell short of the little hillock.
* * * * *
"Quick thinking," said Tommy coolly. "He thought we had this man aprisoner, and he'd be better off dead. But--"
Their captive was shouting again. His head thrown back, he calledsentence after sentence aloft while the three ships soared back andforth above their heads, soundless as bats. One of the three rosesteeply and soared away toward the city. Their captive, grinning,turned and nodded his head satisfiedly. Then he sat down to wait.
Twenty minutes later a monstrous machine with ungainly flapping wingscame heavily over the swamp. It checked and settled with a terrificflapping and an even more terrific din. Half a dozen armed men waitedwarily for the three to approach. The golden weapons lifted alertly asthey drew near. The wounded man explained at some length. Hisexplanation was dismissed brusquely. A man advanced and held out hishands for Tommy's weapons.
"I don't like it," growled Tommy, "but we've got to think of Earth. Ifyou get a chance hide your gun, Evelyn."
He pushed on the safety catches and passed over his guns. The pilot hehad shot down led them onto the fenced-in deck of the monstrousornithopter. Machinery roared. The wings began to beat. They werenearly invisible from the speed of their flapping when the ship liftedvertically from the ground. It rose straight up for fifty feet, themotion of the wings changed subtly, and it swept forward.
It swung in a vast half circle and headed back across the marsh forthe Golden City. Five minutes of noisy flight during which the machineflapped its way higher and higher above the marsh--which seemed morenoisome and horrible still from above--and then the golden towers ofthe city were below. Strange and tapering and beautiful, they were. Nosingle line was perfectly straight, nor was any form ungraceful. Thesetowers sprang upward in clean-soaring curves toward the sky. Bridgesbetween them were gossamerlike things that seemed lace spun out inmetal. And as Tommy looked keenly and saw the jungle crowding closeagainst the city's metal walls, the flapping of the ornithopter'swings changed again and it seemed to plunge downward like a stonetoward a narrow landing place amid the great city's toweringbuildings.