The Earth-Tube (30 page)

The American gunners, frozen with awe for a moment by the majesty and power and the threat of the monsters, stood inactive by their guns. It took the shouted commands of their leaders, many times repeated, to hurl them into activity. Closing in, the Asians had approached a great way into the fortifications. Some of the leading tanks were already in the pockets which had been made to catch them before the gunners fell to their work.

A liquid-air howitzer roared suddenly. The graceful shell
²⁸
, almost visible in the bright air, struck the foremost Asian tank directly upon the turret, where were mounted the three weapons and the apparatus for guiding the monster. The shell burst with a small, crashing noise, disappointingly feeble, as if a bottle or a lamp bulb had popped. There was a momentary trickle of liquid, foaming about the monster’s head. Then, with a swish of vapor like a weary sigh, the tank came to a full stop. Its turret began to melt away; the guns fell off. A startled Asian thrust his head into the air and quickly drew it back again in horror and alarm.

A long cry, like a scream, went up from the American lines. Electrified, the gunners threw themselves to their work. The air was suddenly filled with liquid air, which fell in showers upon the metal tanks. Field-gunners reenforced the icy rain with flame and shell. The far-flung, bulky line of Asians paused uncertainly. The whippets, barking at the heels of the heavier attackers, dared not approach the enbankments whence had come this doom upon their overseers. The attack stopped, but the defenders’ fire, instead of slacking, grew stronger and reached out to get the little tanks as well.

The result was unbelievable, even to King, who had anticipated it. The Asian tanks, which had withstood the rigors of thousands of miles, the battles with water and fire and shell, the heat and wet of the jungle, and the constant vibration of travel began to fall apart suddenly like bergs of ice exposed to furnace heat. The giants and their smaller guides and tenders met the same fate. Unable either to advance upon the Americans or to escape, the tanks of the Asians were melting away, leaving their occupants defenseless upon the flats before New Orleans!

First went the outer shells of the metal saurians where the liquid air had struck, exposing the inner rooms of control, the intricate machinery for driving and power, and the crews who engineered the machines. Asians, with their laughing teeth, raised their hands to the skies and died in flames, screaming for vengeance. And underneath, in moving dungeons near the ground, were liberated at the last hundreds of chained slaves, half paralyzed, who had lain there days, awaiting death.

The tanks seemed to bear literally thousands of men, some Asians, others subjugated or enlisted slaves, who fought back with the fury of madmen. Deprived of their weapons, they seized axes and knives; they charged with demoniac fury the American breastworks. It was a development the defenders had been half expecting. At a command the shelling ceased. Infantrymen, moving at first in ordered ranks from behind the shelter, met this new thrust with bayonets, hand to hand.

Many of the Asians were armed with their terrible short-range pistols. The first lines of the infantrymen were blown to pieces as they approached, and the horse-faces, shouting defiance to the barracks, swarmed onward to attack the gunners at their posts. The Americans descended upon them like a cloud. Perceiving that every tank had been put out of commission, the gunners met the challenge. Armed with hatchets, knives, clubs. anything they could lay hand to, they leaped out into the open ground to join the fight.

Like a struggle between unorganized mobs the battle closed. Here in a day of scientific weapons and long-range warfare, the first real contest for the defense of the Americas went back to the primordial brutality of strength and muscle, of hacking and blood. A fever of victory swept the Americans. Bare-handed many of the gunners attacked the enemy. Asians were throttled by sheer strength, outwitted and beaten by the greater skill of the men with lips and human eyes. Their intense longing of many months to get at these strange monsters who had invaded the West, to feel their flesh give beneath clutching fingers, to strike and wound and torture and retaliate in blood for blood made the case hopeless for the attackers from the first. Out-spirited, they were rolled back to the shelter of their ruined tanks, and there were hunted down until not a single Asian was left alive.

And in the air King had given the signal which unleashed the American battalions on the wing. Over ten miles of front they suddenly hurled themselves upon the Asian ships, which had drawn a little distance off as though hesitating between charging and retreat. When they saw the Americans coming they broke formation and fled, every man for himself in a long, running free-for-all above the battle ground. Some of them were chased as far as Houston and the Mexican border. Others sought escape across the Gulf and came down in flames to spread their wreckage on the heaving sea.

Like magic the word went outward through Mexico and South America that the invincible vanguard of the Tal Majod, the indestructible monsters of gleaming undulal, had met defeat at the hands of the Americans. It was shocking, unbelievable news to the hundreds of thousands of Asians who were already engaged in the settlement of the South American continent. Everywhere the works of the invaders came to a sudden stop. Without the indestructibility of undulal, what protection had they from the winged creatures of American warfare?

Frightened, unable to guard themselves, the mighty convoy tanks which had been forwarding the Asian penetration of Mexico fled southward toward the Isthmus. The Tal Majod had been too sure that his banner meant success; he had neglected to supply fighting men and battle tanks to guard his cities on the way. In South America, also, the followers of the Asian emperor were uneasy, stricken suddenly with a terrible fear at learning that their strength and their shield could be depended upon no more.

Swiftly the order came from Tiplis to the leaders of all the tanks, the commanders of all the cities. Faith must be maintained in Tal Majod. For the moment let the American forces have the North and Mexico. The arms of Tal Majod would concentrate anew at the Isthmus, and, brave in numbers, try again to roll their way into the northern continent.

The Tal Majod is crafty, came the order; the Tal Majod is wise. Let not his subjects leave this land or run in fear, for victory would once again march with the tanks.

IV

Somewhat rested and strongly reenforced, the American fleet arose from the Mississippi flats and headed southward through the night. It was a full week after the battle of New Orleans. For seven days the triumphant defenders had rested from the fight, awaiting the slow production of more liquid air and other munitions for the continuance of the war. Now observation planes and bands of refugees had given word that Asian tanks were concentrating strongly at Panama. The battle so decisively won at New Orleans might be lost again if the defenders were too slow to strike, for the resources of the new America were limited and her resistance low.

As the planes circled slowly above New Orleans, before their final departure across the Gulf, they saw the lights of the saved and rejoicing city twinkling below. It had been a gala week throughout America. In the streets and along the waterfronts of New Orleans the torchlights and parades were still going on. Celebrating like children at their narrow escape, Americans everywhere were demonstrating their happiness.

Diane, in the cabin, twirled the little knob which tuned in the radio from the United States. The throbbing, pleading, triumphant voice of the Secretary of War was on the air, expostulating, explaining, singing out panegyrics and patriotism.

“America has risen in her might,” he said, his voice rolling through the amplifier like the distant beating of a mighty sea. “America has swept her enemies ahead of her, and before another night the world will know that neither rains of gold nor metal monsters from the deep, nor threats, nor pain, nor death itself can hold America. Where we’ve been bruised we will rebuild; where we’ve been injured we will repay our punishers ten thousand fold. There is no force that can defeat aroused America!”

King smiled. He kissed Diane. “The war will be over by this time to-morrow,” he said tenderly. “And then, Diane. !”

She looked up at him dreamily. Her lips met his again.

“To-morrow. “ she said.

All night the fleet moved out across the Gulf, and at dawn the planes came circling over the Isthmus, like aroused birds of prey, ready to pounce and strike. From little camps of scattered refugees in the hills came the thin wail of cheers. Friends were in sight at last and retribution for the Asians.

But where were the Asians? King swept the entire terrain with powerful glasses. Here, where the narrow neck of the Isthmus joined the broader lands of South America a great depot of enemy tanks had lain not long before. Now .they were gone, and with them every trace and sign of the invaders, except the havoc and desolation they had left behind. Gone! In full retreat! The Asians had not dared to join in further battle with these new defenders and their liquid destruction. Like frightened cattle the metal tanks had turned their backs upon the North and were clattering for safety toward the earth-tube, intent alone upon escape!

It was incredible that the victory had been won so easily. But it was true. Scout planes far in advance of the fleet had sighted the retreating tanks. The Asian fliers who had concentrated at the threshold of North America with the tanks had already disappeared in the direction of Tiplis, outspeeding their slower companions on the ground.

King wired the news triumphantly to Washington, visioning for himself the pleasure of the President, the excitement of Dr. Scott and Anna.

In a few minutes the President had wired an answer. In it there was a strange, ominous note which brought King up short to try to guess the meaning of this non-resisting departure of the enemy.

“Congratulations to you and the fleet,” the President had radioed. “America has gone wild at the news. The seismograph reports indicate that the earth-tube has been working furiously all night. The Asians must contemplate complete abandonment of the invasion.”

Complete abandonment!

Then from all parts of the southern continent the invading forces were converging on the earth-tube. The evacuation of the hemisphere was taking place. ! Not an Asian would be left to oppose the reoccupation of the territory by the Americans.

There was a catch in it somewhere. The Tal Majod would not give up without retaliation, at least.

King had a premonition.

The earth-tube!

“Diane,” he said, showing her the President’s message, “have you had any word. from Tal Majod?”

She shook her head.

“No warning? Nothing?”

“His power over me is broken,” she declared suddenly. “A week ago, when I saw the undulal melt down beneath that cold barrage, I knew that somehow I was free. I had an uncontrollable desire to demonstrate my freedom to myself, so I took off the fabric band and with it my little phone, and threw them overboard!”

King stared at her.

“He might have spoken to you again. and dropped some hint. “

She shook her head.

“I knew he would not,” she replied. “Though he could compel me to listen to him and believe him when he spoke to me before, he saw he could not make me kill you. and that was his desire. Failing, he would not try again.”

King moved uncertainly. The American fleet, awaiting his order, was flying slowly southward over the mountains, the observers watching keenly to sight the first caravan of the departing Asians.

“I’m uneasy, Diane,” he said. “When I was in Tiplis I saw the wonders of Asia. and I saw the horrors, too. What are the evils these men could visit on us still? Their science has created for them strange forces and unusual weapons. They might pour on us even now their stores of precious jewels, their rare metals. or more horrible still, the loathsome diseases

Gun-Tar spoke to me about.

“Perhaps they have still other weapons, which were never mentioned to me. Who knows the resources of the Tal Majod or his cunning and cruelty? It may be that, seeing he cannot capture America, he will destroy it. He still controls the center of the earth!”

“King. King!”

“I will feel better when we are masters of the earth-tube, and not the Tal Majod,” King went on, moving about in his cabin in great perturbation. “I have a feeling that there is no time to lose. We will go straight to Tiplis. If we are quick enough, we may succeed.”

“Perhaps,” exclaimed Diane, her eyes flashing with excitement, “we will even catch the Tal Majod before he gets away!”

King shook his head. “Probably not,” he said. He gave the order. Under full power the command plane leaped ahead, followed by the great fleet. Toward Tiplis the airmen struck, the huge engines roaring defiance to the skies. Three hundred bombers, domed cover of the city seemed to melt away. There was a hideous explosion, and an earth-car, which had apparently been going down the tube toward Asia loaded to capacity with shuddering refugees, came suddenly backwards through the earth and shot into the air above the city like a projectile.

Perhaps an Asian leader, in a moment of despair, had given the order for the earth-tube to be destroyed. Perhaps some unlucky slave, resolved to drag down with him to dissolution the whole race which had degraded him, had weakened the inner walls far down, and let the molten earth midway between America and Asia mingle with the now inrushing sea. Whatever happened, it was as if the earth had been a paper bag, suddenly blown too full of air and smartly whacked. It seemed to swell like a balloon and tremble.

Of a sudden there was a sullen roar. Tiplis and its island disappeared from sight. The mighty waters looked down for a moment into a hollow basin, miles deep, and rushed in from all the corners of the world to fill the hole. Up and up rose the surface, gaining power as it rose. Where there had been a basin now there was a geyser, thrusting to enormous height among the clouds. A natural tower of water was made by the inward thrust of liquid as it came from all the seas.