Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 146 No. 4 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

492 : away, the burning town could be seen plainly. “What are we going to do?” Mercer asked after a moment. I was pretty weak and badly bruised all over. Mercer seemed to have fared better than I. We talked over our situation at length. Finally we decided to rest where we were until daybreak, I would feel bet- ter then, and we could start back on foot for Mantua and Frannie. I lay down’again—my head was coing round like a top—and Mercer sat beside me. It was pretty cold, but we were warm- ly dressed and not uncomfortable. The fact that we were so close to the Mercu- tians—not much over seven or eight miles— worried us a little. But we reasoned that we were in no great danger. We could still see their light-ray standing vertically in the air. Occasionally it would swing slowly to one side or the other. Once it swung toward us, but as its base was in a hollow, it was cut off by the higher ground between as it swung down, and we knew it could not reach us from that position. After a while I fell asleep. When Mercer woke me up it was dawn. “ Let’s get started,” he said. gry as the devil.” I felt much better now. I was nuaey myself, and stiff, and chilled. “You'll feel better walking,” he added, “Come on. It ’ll take us a deuce of a while over this sand.” We decided to strike fer the railroad at its closest point to us. The State auto- mobile road to Cody ran along near the railroad, and we planned to follow that up to Mantua. After a last look at our plane, which was hopelessly demolished, we started off, head- ing north of Garland. We had been walk- ing along a few minutes when Mercer sud- denly gripped me by the arm, I followed the direction of his glance. Another rock- et was rising from the Mercutian base. It was still dark enough for us to see its flare as it rose and curved in a long, graceful arc. We stopped stock still and stood watching. “Tm hun- The rocket arched over to the north. As it came down we lost sight of it. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “That. went into Mantua,” said Mercer in a horrified whisper. A moment later we saw, in the direction of Mantua, that brief, silent, smokeless red and green flash. Then the sky lighted up a lurid red, and we knew Mantua was burn- ing. We stood looking at each other for a time, too frightened and horrified for words. The thing was not like modern: warfare. It was uncanny in its silent deadliness, and there seemed a surety about it that was appalling. “We're cut off,” said Mercer finally. His face was white and his voice trem- bled. We were both pretty much diimenved! but after a moment we got ourselves together and talked ealny about what was nent me us to do. . | We concluded finally to go ‘ahead to in road. We calculated we were not over two miles from the nearest part of it. We would strike it about halfway between Garland and Mantua, and we thought it just possi- ble we would find passing along it some. refugees from the two towns. I couldn’t quite see how meeting them could help us any, unless we encountered some vehicle that would give us a lift. However, the walking would be easier, and when we got to the road we could decide which way to go—north to Frannie, or south around Gar- fend to Powell. The sun was just rising when we started again. It took us nearly an hour to reach the road. As far as we could see it was deserted. We stopped here and held an- other consultation. © “ Tt’s easily twelve miles up to Frannie,” — I said, “and I don’t believe more than eight to Powell. Let’s go that way. We can get down to Cody from there. I guess there are still people left in Powell.” We started down the road toward Gar- land. It seemed the sensible thing to do. We were both famished by now and thirsty also. I had an idea that, since the fires in Garland were about burned out, there might be an isolated house unharmed, where we could find food and water. I sometimes wonder now at our temerity in venturing so calmly to face, this unknown ONNICLOOOKS CONN