Argosy All-Story Weekly, August 9, 1924 — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

292 The girls held their curved white ray steady. And plunging down the beam, following its slightly curved path, were the figures of Azeela and Dee. The Noths saw them coming; a dozen bolts leaped into the air, one upon the other; but they flashed harmlessly to one side of their mark. Within twenty seconds the two girls were close to the barge; yellow-red spurts of flame lept from their weapons—flame that could be hurled thirty feet but no farther. It enveloped the barge—licking, seething, burning liquid gases that withered every- thing they touched. A puff of darkness which the retreating girls had left behind them blotted out the scene; and out of it an instant later Azeela and Dee came safe- ly. The shaft of light from the girls above was extinguished as the two mounted to join them. When light came again around the barge, it was sinking. Soon the swirling water held nothing but black, twisted figures. The maneuver could not be repeated suc- cessfully. From the other barges the Noths would have seen the curved beam—under- stood it and made allowances for it. Azeela and Dee, triumphant and flushed with their success, pleaded to try it again; but Fahn would not let them. The afternoon was waning; the western sky was red; overhead clouds were gather- ing. And then Fahn ordered a general attack on all the barges. The sun had set; the twilight deepened into night—a night of flashing lights, crack- ling artificial thunder; spurts of lurid flame; hissing of fire against water. At intervals, rockets came up; bursting, they cast a blue- white glare that for the space of a minute illumined for the Noths the menacing, dart- ing figures. The atmospheric disturbance of the past hours suddenly brought from the sky an electrical storm. Nature, more powerful than man, shot forth her own bolts to add to the din. They were in character, very different from the harnessed, man-made lightning. Forked, jagged, crackling with their nearness, they leaped downward out of the low-hanging clouds. The storm was brief as it was severe. It ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. swept away. The moon had risen blood- red; it cast now its lurid light over the water—a full moon, transmuted through gold to silver as it mounted higher. Another Noth vessel had been sunk. There were but three of the barges afloat. They were in distress. Many of their swim- ming dogs lay dead in the harness. Aboard all three of them, figures were fighting with flames. They clustered in a group near the center of the channel. Loto had withdrawn his forces, reduced now to half their original number. With ammunition almost exhausted, they hovered out of range above their adversaries. The wounded were still straggling back through the air; a few of them already had arrived at the cavern. Again Fahn ordered his army down. It would be the last attempt. In the cavern room of mirrors, Fahn had not moved from his seat for hours. Often he could not see the battle plainly, for Loto, disobeying orders, had many times cast himself into the thick of it. But now Loto was aloft; by the moon- light and the glare of the rockets and bombs, Fahn saw that another Noth vessel had ap- peared—a very small barge. It was close inshore, coming swiftly forward and from it little objects of gleaming silver were mounting. One after the other they came sailing up. | Fahn rasped an order; Loto’s voice roared it out. The men and girls who were descending to the attack halted, circling about—wondering what had happened. The first of the white objects came sailing horizontally across the channel. It was moving slowly. It seemed to be a whirling white disc some foot or two in diameter. Loto was still some distance away from it when a group of girls passed between him and the disc. ‘The thing seemed to turn toward them. One of the girls became con- fused; it struck her. She fell. The disc, its rotation halted, fell also. Loto saw then what it was—broad, thin, crossed blades of steel, inclined to each other like the blades of a propellor. It had mounted and sustained itself in the air by its rotation. Loto remembered the defeat of the flying thunderbolt platforms which Fahn had sent GOMIIGooOo S (C@) nn