Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 95: what you’re looking at

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

THE FIRE PEOPLE, crept slowly forward. Sounds in the under- brush reached me now from other direc- tions, and I knew that the men had spread apart and were stalking the boat, expecting Mercer to be in or near it. Had they all come down here? I won- dered. And where was Anina? I looked down at Miela warningly as I felt her move slightly. “ We'll wait till they’re all near the boat,” { whispered to Mercer. I saw Anina a moment later soaring over the bayou just above the treetops. I sighed with relief, for it was a signal to us that everything was all right. We continued ‘to wait until the men had all come into view. They went at the boat with a sudden rush. Several of them climbed into it, with shouts to the others. With a significant glance to Mercer I leaped suddenly to my feet. I was perhaps twenty feet from the boat, and the space between us was fairly clear. A _ single bound landed me beside it, almost among four of the men-who were standing there in a group. Before they had time to face me I was upon them. I scattered them like nine-pins, and two of them went down under my blows. The other two flung themselves upon me. [ stumbled over some inequality of the ground, and we all three fell prone. This was the first time I had come actually to hand grips with any of the Mercutians. I felt now not only their lack of strength, but a curious frailness about their bodies— a seeming absence of solidity that their stocky appearance belied. These two men were like half-grown boys in my hands. I was back on my feet in a moment, leaving one of them lying motionless. The other rose to his knees, his face white with pain and terror. I left him there and looked about me. Miela was fluttering around near by, as I had instructed her—just off the ground and with the whole scene under her eyes. It was she on whom I depended for warning should any of the quarry attempt to es- cape us. At the edge of the water another man was lying, whom I assumed Mercer had felled. ‘There was a great commotion from 885 the boat. I ran toward it. A man was standing beside it—an old man with snow- white hair. He stood still, seeming con- fused and in doubt what to do. As I neared him he turned clumsily to avoid me. I passed him by and bounded over the boat’s gunwale, landing in its bottom. The first thing I saw was Mercer struggling to his feet with four of the Mercutians hanging on him. One had a grip on his throat from behind; another clutched him about the knees. The two others let go of him when they heard me land in the boat. One had evi- dently had enough, for he dived overboard. The other waited warily for my onslaught. As I got within reach I hit at his face, but my blow went wild. He hit me full in the chest, but it was the blow of a child. At that instant I heard Mercer give a choking cry, and out of the corner of my eye saw him go down again. I could waste no more time upon this single antagonist. The man had his hands at my throat now. I seized him about the waist and carried him to the gunwale. He clung to me asa rat might cling to a terrier, but I shook him off and dumped him in the water. I turned to Mercer just as he was strug- gling to his feet again, and in a moment more between us we had felled his two as- sailants. Mercer’s face was very white, and I saw blood streaming from a wound on his head; but he grinned as he faced me. “Have we—got ’em—all?’”’ he gasped. He dashed the blood away from his eyes with the flat of his hand. “I fell—damn it—right at the start, and hit my head. Where are they all? Have we got ’em?”’ Miela alighted in the boat beside us. “‘Two are running,” she said. ‘ They are together. Hasten.” « We jumped out of the boat. Miela flew up, and we followed her guidance through the dense woods. We could make much better speed, I knew, than the Mercutians. “We'll get them all, Ollie,” I shouted at Mercer. ‘‘ They’re not far ahead. See up there—Miela’s evidently over them now.” We came up to them after a few hundred yards. It was the old man, and one of those whom I had first encountered. T aad did not wait for us iu! sheplgage