Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 4, 1925 — page 103: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE RADIO BEASTS. of communication so successfully used by the.A. E. F. in France.” Toron’s face fell. “Then I am not the inventor?” he said sadly. ‘Cheer up,” replied Cabot. ‘‘ What does it matter that some one anticipated you on my planet, Minos? There is no one on Po- ros who will ever question your priority. And besides, your invention has probably saved the day. Send word to Kuana that Myles Cabot has returned to life and is about to march to do battle with his foes. I guess that that will not give too much in- formation as to our plans. ‘ March’ 3s good, for they will never suspect that it means ‘fly.’ Eh, Portheris?” The bee wiggled his antennie in appre- ciation. Hah Babbuh, Buh Tedn and Poblath were then called in, and the plans were Jaid for the attack. The next morning, as the invisible sun rose over Poros, there rose also the serried ranks of the orange and black air navy cf the bees, led by Myles Cabot, mounted on the back of Portheris, the striped King of the Hvmernians. Each bee carried a Cupian sharpshooter, armed with a rifle and a basket of bombs. The whole formation flew over the hills and ravines which housed the gathering armies of Cupia, then out across the broad valley which divided the two contending forces. The Formians, and the few renegade Cu- pians who fought with them under the ban- ners of Yuri, were, of course, prepared for an attack, by reason of Cabot’s message which had been flashed to the capital, but they were totally unprepared for such an attack as this. The ant sentinels, eagerly scanning the opposing row of hills for the first appearance of the foot troops of Cabot, were picked off by fire from the air almost before they could give warning. Then the animated planes swept on and began bomb- ing the hastily assembling Formians. It was like the first gas attack of the Germans, or the first advance of the British tanks in the World War, but with this dif- ference: the victors in the present instance fully realized their advantage and intend- ed to press it home. 893 Close in the wake of the bees, came the foot troops of Cupia, surging across the plain and easily mopping up the demoral- ized Formians. Soon, however, appeared the battle planes of the ants; but they were surprised and bewildered at the new aerial tactics of their enemies. They had fought against bees before; but never before against bees manned with sharpshooters. And so, al- though the advance of the striped fleet was Stayed and many bees were shot down, yet an equal number of planes fell victims of the encounter. By night the Cupians had consolidated their position to the south of Lake Luno, and Cabot had established his headquarters in the ruins of Luno Castle. That evening, at a conference with his generals, it was decided that it would not do for the advance to continue too precipi- tately. In the first place, the air force ought not to be permitted to get too far ahead of the infantry. And in the second place, the casualties among the bees had been alto- gether too high. Planes could be rebuilt by the Formians, but bees could not be bred to order for Cupia. That was something which Cabot had not figured on. So, now that the first shock attack was over, the advance progressed more slowly in the days that followed, strategy taking the place of brute force. Captured airplanes were repaired and manned by ex-flyers of the old Cupian air navy, and were used whenever possible in place of the bees, but still the mortality of these winged allies con- tinued, until it became evident that, un- Jess something were speedily done, the ant- men would soon regain control of the air. But what was to be done? One day an aviator from a distant point on the front landed at headquarters with a message. As he stood talking to Myles Cabot, he suddenly remarked: ‘“‘ Why, I left my engine running. How careless of me!”’ And he looked intently at his plane for a moment, whereat the motor ceased its purring. “ How did that happen?” asked Cabot. “Was that just coincidence? Or does your engine stop whenever you want it to?” “I merely spoke to it, and it obeyed Conn GIOok