CHAPTER VIII
A FAIR CAPTIVE FROM THE SKY
The third day after the incubator ceremony we set forth toward home,but scarcely had the head of the procession debouched into the openground before the city than orders were given for an immediate andhasty return. As though trained for years in this particularevolution, the green Martians melted like mist into the spaciousdoorways of the nearby buildings, until, in less than three minutes,the entire cavalcade of chariots, mastodons and mounted warriors wasnowhere to be seen.
Sola and I had entered a building upon the front of the city, in fact,the same one in which I had had my encounter with the apes, and,wishing to see what had caused the sudden retreat, I mounted to anupper floor and peered from the window out over the valley and thehills beyond; and there I saw the cause of their sudden scurrying tocover. A huge craft, long, low, and gray-painted, swung slowly overthe crest of the nearest hill. Following it came another, and another,and another, until twenty of them, swinging low above the ground,sailed slowly and majestically toward us.
Each carried a strange banner swung from stem to stern above the upperworks, and upon the prow of each was painted some odd device thatgleamed in the sunlight and showed plainly even at the distance atwhich we were from the vessels. I could see figures crowding theforward decks and upper works of the air craft. Whether they haddiscovered us or simply were looking at the deserted city I could notsay, but in any event they received a rude reception, for suddenly andwithout warning the green Martian warriors fired a terrific volley fromthe windows of the buildings facing the little valley across which thegreat ships were so peacefully advancing.
Instantly the scene changed as by magic; the foremost vessel swungbroadside toward us, and bringing her guns into play returned our fire,at the same time moving parallel to our front for a short distance andthen turning back with the evident intention of completing a greatcircle which would bring her up to position once more opposite ourfiring line; the other vessels followed in her wake, each one openingupon us as she swung into position. Our own fire never diminished, andI doubt if twenty-five per cent of our shots went wild. It had neverbeen given me to see such deadly accuracy of aim, and it seemed asthough a little figure on one of the craft dropped at the explosion ofeach bullet, while the banners and upper works dissolved in spurts offlame as the irresistible projectiles of our warriors mowed throughthem.
The fire from the vessels was most ineffectual, owing, as I afterwardlearned, to the unexpected suddenness of the first volley, which caughtthe ship's crews entirely unprepared and the sighting apparatus of theguns unprotected from the deadly aim of our warriors.
It seems that each green warrior has certain objective points for hisfire under relatively identical circumstances of warfare. For example,a proportion of them, always the best marksmen, direct their fireentirely upon the wireless finding and sighting apparatus of the bigguns of an attacking naval force; another detail attends to the smallerguns in the same way; others pick off the gunners; still others theofficers; while certain other quotas concentrate their attention uponthe other members of the crew, upon the upper works, and upon thesteering gear and propellers.
Twenty minutes after the first volley the great fleet swung trailingoff in the direction from which it had first appeared. Several of thecraft were limping perceptibly, and seemed but barely under the controlof their depleted crews. Their fire had ceased entirely and all theirenergies seemed focused upon escape. Our warriors then rushed up tothe roofs of the buildings which we occupied and followed theretreating armada with a continuous fusillade of deadly fire.
One by one, however, the ships managed to dip below the crests of theoutlying hills until only one barely moving craft was in sight. Thishad received the brunt of our fire and seemed to be entirely unmanned,as not a moving figure was visible upon her decks. Slowly she swungfrom her course, circling back toward us in an erratic and pitifulmanner. Instantly the warriors ceased firing, for it was quiteapparent that the vessel was entirely helpless, and, far from being ina position to inflict harm upon us, she could not even control herselfsufficiently to escape.
As she neared the city the warriors rushed out upon the plain to meether, but it was evident that she still was too high for them to hope toreach her decks. From my vantage point in the window I could see thebodies of her crew strewn about, although I could not make out whatmanner of creatures they might be. Not a sign of life was manifestupon her as she drifted slowly with the light breeze in a southeasterlydirection.
She was drifting some fifty feet above the ground, followed by all butsome hundred of the warriors who had been ordered back to the roofs tocover the possibility of a return of the fleet, or of reinforcements.It soon became evident that she would strike the face of the buildingsabout a mile south of our position, and as I watched the progress ofthe chase I saw a number of warriors gallop ahead, dismount and enterthe building she seemed destined to touch.
As the craft neared the building, and just before she struck, theMartian warriors swarmed upon her from the windows, and with theirgreat spears eased the shock of the collision, and in a few momentsthey had thrown out grappling hooks and the big boat was being hauledto ground by their fellows below.
After making her fast, they swarmed the sides and searched the vesselfrom stem to stern. I could see them examining the dead sailors,evidently for signs of life, and presently a party of them appearedfrom below dragging a little figure among them. The creature wasconsiderably less than half as tall as the green Martian warriors, andfrom my balcony I could see that it walked erect upon two legs andsurmised that it was some new and strange Martian monstrosity withwhich I had not as yet become acquainted.
They removed their prisoner to the ground and then commenced asystematic rifling of the vessel. This operation required severalhours, during which time a number of the chariots were requisitioned totransport the loot, which consisted in arms, ammunition, silks, furs,jewels, strangely carved stone vessels, and a quantity of solid foodsand liquids, including many casks of water, the first I had seen sincemy advent upon Mars.
After the last load had been removed the warriors made lines fast tothe craft and towed her far out into the valley in a southwesterlydirection. A few of them then boarded her and were busily engaged inwhat appeared, from my distant position, as the emptying of thecontents of various carboys upon the dead bodies of the sailors andover the decks and works of the vessel.
This operation concluded, they hastily clambered over her sides,sliding down the guy ropes to the ground. The last warrior to leavethe deck turned and threw something back upon the vessel, waiting aninstant to note the outcome of his act. As a faint spurt of flame rosefrom the point where the missile struck he swung over the side and wasquickly upon the ground. Scarcely had he alighted than the guy ropeswere simultaneously released, and the great warship, lightened by theremoval of the loot, soared majestically into the air, her decks andupper works a mass of roaring flames.
Slowly she drifted to the southeast, rising higher and higher as theflames ate away her wooden parts and diminished the weight upon her.Ascending to the roof of the building I watched her for hours, untilfinally she was lost in the dim vistas of the distance. The sight wasawe-inspiring in the extreme as one contemplated this mighty floatingfuneral pyre, drifting unguided and unmanned through the lonely wastesof the Martian heavens; a derelict of death and destruction, typifyingthe life story of these strange and ferocious creatures into whoseunfriendly hands fate had carried it.
Much depressed, and, to me, unaccountably so, I slowly descended to thestreet. The scene I had witnessed seemed to mark the defeat andannihilation of the forces of a kindred people, rather than the routingby our green warriors of a horde of similar, though unfriendly,creatures. I could not fathom the seeming hallucination, nor could Ifree myself from it; but somewhere in the innermost recesses of my soulI felt a strange yearning toward these unknown foemen, and a mightyhope surged through me that the fl
eet would return and demand areckoning from the green warriors who had so ruthlessly and wantonlyattacked it.
Close at my heel, in his now accustomed place, followed Woola, thehound, and as I emerged upon the street Sola rushed up to me as thoughI had been the object of some search on her part. The cavalcade wasreturning to the plaza, the homeward march having been given up forthat day; nor, in fact, was it recommenced for more than a week, owingto the fear of a return attack by the air craft.
Lorquas Ptomel was too astute an old warrior to be caught upon the openplains with a caravan of chariots and children, and so we remained atthe deserted city until the danger seemed passed.
As Sola and I entered the plaza a sight met my eyes which filled mywhole being with a great surge of mingled hope, fear, exultation, anddepression, and yet most dominant was a subtle sense of relief andhappiness; for just as we neared the throng of Martians I caught aglimpse of the prisoner from the battle craft who was being roughlydragged into a nearby building by a couple of green Martian females.
And the sight which met my eyes was that of a slender, girlish figure,similar in every detail to the earthly women of my past life. She didnot see me at first, but just as she was disappearing through theportal of the building which was to be her prison she turned, and hereyes met mine. Her face was oval and beautiful in the extreme, herevery feature was finely chiseled and exquisite, her eyes large andlustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair,caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Her skin was of alight reddish copper color, against which the crimson glow of hercheeks and the ruby of her beautifully molded lips shone with astrangely enhancing effect.
She was as destitute of clothes as the green Martians who accompaniedher; indeed, save for her highly wrought ornaments she was entirelynaked, nor could any apparel have enhanced the beauty of her perfectand symmetrical figure.
As her gaze rested on me her eyes opened wide in astonishment, and shemade a little sign with her free hand; a sign which I did not, ofcourse, understand. Just a moment we gazed upon each other, and thenthe look of hope and renewed courage which had glorified her face asshe discovered me, faded into one of utter dejection, mingled withloathing and contempt. I realized I had not answered her signal, andignorant as I was of Martian customs, I intuitively felt that she hadmade an appeal for succor and protection which my unfortunate ignorancehad prevented me from answering. And then she was dragged out of mysight into the depths of the deserted edifice.