CHAPTER XXII
GODS!
Some few minutes later, together they approached Pine TreeGate, leading directly out into the Horde.
The girl, rosier than ever, held her Krag loosely in the hollow of herbare, warm right arm. One of Stern's revolvers lay in its holster. Theother balanced itself in his right hand. His left held the preciouswater-pail, so vital now to all their plans and hopes.
Girt in his garb of fur, belted and sandaled, well over six feet talland broad of shoulder, the man was magnificent. His red beard andmustache, close-cropped, gave him a savage air that now well fittedhim. For Stern was mad--mad clear through.
That Beatrice should suffer in any way, even from temporary thirst,raised up a savage resentment in his breast. The thought that perhapsit might _not_ be possible to gain access to the spring at all, thatthese foul Things might try to blockade them and siege them to death,wrought powerfully on him.
For himself he cared nothing. The girl it was who now preoccupied hisevery thought. And as they made their way through the litter of theexplosion, toward the exit, slowly and cautiously, he spied out everyfoot of the place for possible danger.
If fight he must, he knew now it would be a brutal, utterly mercilessfight--slaughter, extermination without any limit, to the end.
But there was scant time for thought. Already they could see daylightglimmering in through the gate, past me massive column of the conifer.Daylight--and with it came a thin and acrid smoke--and sounds of theuproused Horde in Madison Forest.
"Slow! Slow, now!" whispered Stern. "Don't let 'em know a thing untilwe've got 'em covered! If we surprise 'em just right, who knows butthe whole infernal mob may duck and run? Don't shoot till you have to;but when you _do_--!"
"I know!" breathed she.
Then, all at once, there they were at the gate, at the big tree,standing out there in the open, on the thick carpet of pine-spills.
And before them lay the mossy, shaded forest aisles--with what ahorror camped all through that peaceful, wondrous place!
"Oh!" gasped Beatrice. The engineer stopped as though frozen. His handtightened on the revolver-butt till the knuckles whitened. And thus,face to face with the Horde, they stood for a long minute.
Neither of them realized exactly the details of that first impression.The narrow slit of view which they had already got through the crackin the wall had only very imperfectly prepared them for anyunderstanding of what these Things really were, en masse.
But both Beatrice and the engineer understood, even at the firstmoment of their exit there, that they had entered an adventure whereofthe end could not be foreseen; that here before them lay possibilitiesinfinitely more serious than any they had contemplated.
For one thing, they had underestimated the numbers of the Horde. Theyhad thought, perhaps, there might be five hundred in all.
The torches had certainly numbered no more than that. But now theyrealized that the torch-bearers had been but a very small fraction ofthe whole; for, as their eyes swept out through the forest, whence thefog had almost wholly risen, they beheld a moving, swarming mass ofthe creatures on every hand. A mass that seemed to extend on, on toindefinite vistas. A mass that moved, clicked, shifted, grunted,stank, snarled, quarreled. A mass of frightful hideousness, ofinconceivable menace.
The girl's first impulse was to turn, to retreat back into thebuilding once more; but her native courage checked it. For Stern, shesaw, had no such purpose.
Surprised though he was, he stood there like a rock, head up, revolverready, every muscle tense and ready for whatsoever might befall. Andthrough the girl flashed a thrill of admiration for this virile,indomitable man, coping with every difficulty, facing every peril--forher sake.
Yet the words he uttered now were not of classic heroism. They weresimple, colloquial, inelegant. For Stern, his eyes blazing, said only:
"We're in bad, girl! They're on--we've got to bluff--bluff like thedevil!"
Have you ever seen a herd of cattle on the prairie, a herd ofthousands, shift and face and, as by instinct, lower their hornedheads against some enemy--a wolf-pack, maybe?
You know then, how this Horde of dwarfish, blue, warty, misformedlittle horrors woke to the presence of the unknown enemy.
Already half alarmed by the warning given by the one, which, near thecrack in the wall, had sniffed the intruders and had howled, the packnow broke into commotion. Stern and Beatrice saw a confused upheaving,a shifting and a tumult. They heard a yapping outcry. The long, thinspears began to bristle.
And all at once, as a dull, ugly hornet-hum rose through the wood,they knew the moment for quick action was upon them.
"Here goes!" cried Stern, raging. "Let's see how _this_ will strikethe hell-hounds!"
His face white with passion and with loathing hate, he raised theautomatic. He aimed at none of the pack, for angry as he was herealized that the time was not yet come for killing, if other means toreach the spring could possibly avail.
Instead he pointed the ugly blue muzzle up toward the branches of amaple, under which a dense swarm of the Horde had encamped and now wasstaring, apelike, at him.
Then his finger sought the trigger. And five crackling spurts offlame, five shots spat out into the calm and misty air of morning. Afew severed leaves swayed down, idly, with a swinging motion. A brokentwig fell, hung suspended a moment, then detached itself again andcrapped to earth.
"Good Lord! Look a' _that_, will you?" cried Stern.
A startled cry broke from the girl's lips.
Both of them had expected some effect from the sudden fusillade, butnothing like that which actually resulted.
For, as the quick shots echoed to stillness again, and even before thefirst of the falling leaves had spiraled to the ground, an absolute,unbroken silence fell upon that vile rabble of beast-men--the silenceof a numbing, paralyzing, sheer brute terror.
Some stood motionless, crouching on their bandy legs, holding towhatsoever tree or bush was nearest, staring with wild eyes.
Others dropped to their knees.
But by far the greater part, thousands on thousands of the littlemonstrosities, fell prone and grovelling. Their hideous masklike faceshidden, there they lay on the moss and all among the undergrowth, thetrampled, desecrated, befouled undergrowth of Madison Forest.
Then all at once, over and beyond them, Stern saw the blue-curlingsmudge of the remains of the great fire by the spring.
He knew that, for a few brief, all-precious moments, the way mightpossibly be clear to come and go--to get water--to save Beatrice andhimself from the thirst--tortures--to procure the one necessary thingfor the making of his Pulverite.
His heart gave a great, up-bounding leap.
"Look, Beatrice!" cried he, his voice ringing out over theterror-stricken things. "Look--we're gods! While this lasts--_gods!_Come, now's our only chance! _Come on!_--"