CHAPTER VII

_The Red Swarm_

It was a matter of a half hour later when Harkness ordered them all

outside. He had accepted Kreiss as an addition to their ranks and had

made himself plain to Schwartzmann.

To the scientist he said. "You remarked that no ship could hold two

commanding pilots: that goes for an expedition like this, too. I am in

command. If you will take orders we will be mighty glad to have you with

us."

And to Schwartzmann, in a different tone: "I am sparing you and your

men. I ought to shoot you down, but I won't. And I don't expect you to

understand why; any decency such as that would beyond you.

"But I am letting you live. This world is big enough to hold us both,

and pretty soon I will tell you what part of it you can live in. And

then remember this one thing, Schwartzmann--get this straight!--you keep

out of my way. I will show you a valley where you and your men can stay.

And if ever you leave that valley I will hunt you down as I would one of

the beasts that you will see in this world."

Chet had to repress a little smile that was twitching at his lips; it

always amused him hugely to see Harkness when roused.

"Turn us out to starve?" Schwartzmann was demanding. "You would do

that?"

"There will be food there," said Harkness curtly: "suit yourself about

starving. Only stay where I put you!"

Back of the others of Schwartzmann's men, the pilot, Max, was stooping.

Half-hidden he moved toward the doorway to the rear cabin and to the

storage-room and gun-rooms beyond. Chet glimpsed him in his silent

retreat.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Max," he advised quietly.

"Personally, I think you're all getting off too well; as for myself, I'm

sort of itching for an excuse to let off this gun."

It was here that Harkness turned to the open port.

"Put them out!" he snapped. "You, Chet, go out first and line them up as

they come--but, no, wait: there may be gas out there."

* * * * *

Chet was beside the port; a breath from outside came to him sweetly

fragrant. A shadow was moving across the smooth lava rock. "A bird!" he

thought. Then a flash of red in startling vividness swept past the open

door: it was like a quick flicker of living flame. He could not see what

it was, but it was alive--and this answered his question.

"Send 'em along," he said; "it seems all right now." He stepped through

the opening in the heavily insulated walls.

It was early morning, yet the sun was already hot upon the smooth

expanse of the lava flow. Some ancient eruption from the distant peaks

that hemmed in the valley had sent out this flood of molten rock; it was

hard and black now. But, to the right, where the valley went on and up,

and rose gently and widened as it rose, a myriad of red flames and jets

of steam told of the inner fires that still raged.

These were the fumeroles where only a month before he and Harkness and

Diane had found clustering savages who were more apes than men; they had

been roasting meat at these flames. And below, where the lava stopped,

was the open glade where the little stream splashed and sparkled: in the

high rock walls that hemmed the glade the caves showed black. And,

beyond the open ground, was the weird forest, where tree-trunks of

ghostly white were laced with a network of red veining. They grew close,

those spectral columns, in a shadow-world beneath the high roof of

greenery they supported.

Here was the scene of an earlier adventure. Chet was swept up in the

flood of recollections born of familiar sights and scents. Herr

Schwartzmann, cursing steadily in a guttural tongue, came from the ship

to bring Chet's thoughts back to the more immediate problem.

* * * * *

There were five others who followed--the pilot and Schwartzmann's four

men. There had been another, but his body lay huddled upon the bare

lava. He had followed his master far--and here, for him, was the end.

Kreiss' pistol was still in his hand as he came after. Harkness and

Diane were last.

Harkness pointed with his gun. "Over there!" he ordered. "Get them away

from the ship, Chet. Line them up down below there; all the ape-men have

cleared out since we had our last fight. Get them down by the stream.

Diane and I will bring them some supplies, and then we can send them off

for good."

Chet sent Kreiss down first, where an easy slope made the descent a

simple matter; it had been the bow-wave of the molten lava--here was the

end of that inundation of another age--and the slope was wrinkled and

creased. Schwartzmann followed; then the others. The last man was ready

to descend when Diane and Walt came back.

They had packages of compressed foods. This was all right with Chet, but

he raised his eyebrows inquiringly at sight of several boxes of

ammunition and an extra gun. Harkness smiled good-naturedly.

"I will give them one pistol," Walt told him, "and a good supply of

shells. We don't need to be afraid of them with only one gun, and we

can't leave the poor devils at the mercy of every wild beast."

"You're the boss," said Chet briefly; "but, for me, I'd sooner give this

Schwartzmann just one bullet--right where it would do the most good.

"Let's make him work for it," he suggested, and called to the men below:

"Come back up here, Schwartzmann! A little present for you--and I'm

saying you don't deserve it."

He watched the return trip as Schwartzmann dragged his heavy bulk up the

slope; he was enjoying the man's explosive, panted curses. Beside him

were Diane and Walt. With them, it was as it had been with him at first.

They had eyes only for the familiar ground below: the stream, the open

ground, the trees....

* * * * *

Each of them was looking down at that lower ground.

It was Kreiss standing down there who first caught Chet's attention.

Kreiss was trying to shout. Chet saw his waving arms; he stared,

puzzled, at the facial contortions--the working lips from which no sound

came. He knew that something was wrong. It was a moment or two before he

realized that Kreiss could not speak, that the throat, injured by the

choking fumes, had failed him. Then he heard the strangled croak that

Kreiss forced from his lips: "_Behind you!--look behind you!_"

Schwartzmann was scrambling to the top where they stood; every man was

accounted for. What had they to fear? And suddenly it was borne in upon

Chet's consciousness that he had been hearing a sound--a sound that was

louder now--a rustling!--a clashing of dry, rasping things! The very air

seemed to hold something ominous.

He knew this in the instant while he whirled about; while he heard the

dry rustling change to a humming roar; while he saw, like a cloud of

flame, a great swarm of red, flying things like the one that had flown

past the port--and one, swifter than the rest, that darted from the

swarm and flashed upon him.

[Illustration: _One, swifter than the rest, dashed upon him._]

It was red--vividly, dazzlingly red! The body of a reptile--a wild

phantasm of distorted dreams--was supported by short, quivering wings.

The body was some five feet in length, and it was translucent.

A shell, like the dried husk of some creature long dead!--yet here was

something alive, as its quick attack proved. It had a head of dry scales

which ended in a projecting black-tipped beak that came like a sword,

straight and true for Chet's heart. It seemed an age before he could

bring his pistol up and fire.

* * * * *

Detonite, as everyone knows, does not explode on impact; the cap of

fulminate in the end of each bullet sets it off. But even this requires

some resistance--something more than a dry, red husk to check the

bullet's flight. There was no explosion from the tiny shell that Chet's

pistol fired, but the bullet did its work. The creature fell plunging to

the rocky ground, and its transparent wings sent flurries of dust where

they beat upon the ground. There were others that went down, for the

bullet had gone on and through the great swarm.

And then they attacked.

The very fury of the assault saved the huddle of humans. So close were

the red things pressed together that their vibrating wings beat and

locked the swarm into a mass. They were almost above their prey. Chet

knew that he was firing upward into the swarm, but the sound of his

pistol was lost. The red cloud hung poised in a whirling maelstrom; and

the pandemonium of clashing wings whipped down to them not only the

sound of their dry scraping but a stench from those reptile bodies that

was overpowering.

Sickly sweet, the taste of it was in Chet's mouth; the sound of the

furious swarm was battering at his ears as he knew that his pistol was

empty.

There were red bodies on the bare rock before him. A scaly, scabrous

thing was pressing against his upflung hands that he raised above his

head--a loathsome touch! A beak that was a needle-pointed tube stabbed

his shoulder before he could flinch aside: the quick pain of it was

piercingly sharp....

* * * * *

Other red horrors dropped from the main mass overhead; he saw Harkness

beating at them wildly while he made a shelter of his body above the

crouched figure of Diane. Two of them--two incredible, beastly, flying

things! He saw them so plainly where they hovered, and Harkness striking

at them with a useless, empty gun, while they waited to drive home their

lance-like beaks.

The picture was so plain! His brain was a photographic plate,

super-sensitized by the utter horror of the moment. While the red

monster stabbed its beak into his shoulder, while he drove home one blow

against its parchment body with his empty pistol, while the wild,

beating wings lifted the creature again into the air--he saw it all.

Here were Diane and Harkness! Nearby Schwartzmann was on the ground! His

man--the one who had not yet descended with the others--was running

stumblingly forward. He was wounded, and the blood was streaming from

his back. Chet saw the two monsters hovering above Harkness' head; he

saw their thick-lidded eyes--and he saw those eyes as they detected an

easier prey.

The fleeing man was half-stooped in a shambling run. The winged reptile

Chet had beaten off joined the other two and they were upon the wounded

man in a flurry of red.

Chet saw him go down and took one involuntary step forward to give him

aid--then stopped, transfixed by what he beheld.

The man was down crouching in terror. Above him the three monstrous

things beat each other with their wings; then their long beaks stabbed

downward. The man's body was hidden, but through those transparent beaks

there mounted swiftly a red stream. Plainly visible, Chet saw that vital

current--the living life-blood of a living man--drawn into those beastly

bodies; he saw it spread through a network of canals! And he was held

rigid with horror until a harsh scream from Harkness reached his brain.

"The trees!" Harkness was shouting. "The trees! Down, Chet, for God's

sake! You can't save him!"

* * * * *

Walt was half carrying Diane. Even then Chet was vaguely thankful that

their bodies were between the girl and this gruesome sight. And Walt was

leaping madly down the lava slope.

Beyond him, already on the lower level, was the racing figure of

Schwartzmann. A whirring flash of red pursued him. Another made a

crimson streak through the air toward Walt's back. Chet came with

startling abruptness from the frozen rigidity that held him, and he

crashed his empty pistol in well-directed aim through the body of the

beast. Then he, too, threw himself in great leaps down the slope.

Kreiss was firing from below; Chet knew dimly that this was checking the

attack of the swarm. He saw Walt stagger; saw blood flowing from a slash

on the back of his head, and knew that Kreiss had got the monster just

in time. He sprang toward the stumbling man and got his arms under the

unconscious figure of the girl to help carry the load.

And now it was Kreiss who was shouting. "The trees! We'll be safe in the

trees!" He saw Kreiss drop his pistol and dash headlong for the white

trunks of ghostly trees.

His arm was pierced by a stinging pain; cold eyes, with thick, leathery

lids, were staring into Chet's as he cast one horrified glance over his

shoulder. Then he crashed against the white trunk of a tree and helped

Harkness drag the body of the girl between two twin trunks. He pulled

himself to safety in the shelter of the protecting trees, and held

weakly to one of them.... And the crimson lace-work of the sap-wood that

showed through the white bark was no brighter red than the mark of his

blood-stained hands where they clung for support.