CHAPTER XXXV

_Attack on the Power House_

Stricken with surprise and awe, Elza and I sat there motionless. Our

encampment was in a turmoil of confusion--chaos, out of which very soon

order came. The skeleton figures in the air--I saw now that there were

nearer two hundred than one hundred--were perhaps two thousand feet

away, and at an altitude of about the cliff-ledge where Elza and I were

sitting.

They swept forward, bathed in the Zed-ray with all our other

search-beams darkened to give it full sway. Momentarily I saw them

clearer; metallic cylinders in bony fingers, and a metal mechanism of

flight encasing, yet not touching the ribs.

"Jac! Why don't our rays--"

As though to answer Elza's unfinished question, one of our towers turned

a disintegrating ray upon them. A narrow pencil-point of light, barely

visible in this flat daylight. It swung up into our Zed-ray, searched

and clung to one of the skeleton figures. Had it penetrated, the man

would have been dissipated like a puff of vapor. But it did not; and

then I knew that for that distance at least, this enemy's isolation

power--individual barrage--was too great.

Yet the assailed figure wavered! Our amplifier gave out his shout--half

fear, half admonition. The line of skeletons swung upward. Came on, but

mounted so that I saw that they were making for the summit of the cliff

above us--above our power house.

Their defense--invisibility, and a mere isolation barrage so that we

could not harm them with our tower rays while they kept beyond range.

But what was their means of attack? Why would Tarrano....

"The power house," Elza answered; and I realized then that she had read

my thoughts. The power house, if they could demolish it....

Our thoughts, questions and answers unspoken, flew fast; but the drama

before us unfolded faster. With the knowledge that we could see them,

these invaders cast aside a portion of their equipment to give them

greater freedom. We could see the metal portions of the trappings

falling like plummets. The skeleton images faded; and then as our tower

withdrew the Zed-ray and our search-beams picked them up, we saw our

enemies as they really were. Men clothed in a casing of cylindrical

garments with the flying mechanisms strapped to their chests; some with

visors and headpieces, nearly all with small weapons in their hands.

Keeping well away, they continued to mount. They were striving for the

pinnacle of cliff-tops above us; but as our rays darted at them they

halted, wavered; and now when nearly above the camp, they began mounting

straight up.

"Jac! Look there!"

One of our tower vehicles was preparing to rise. Its ray, following the

search-beams upward, was aimed at the invaders, but they were beyond its

effective range. Their weapons of attack? I knew now.

"Suicides!"

Whether Elza said it, or merely thought it I do not know. One of the

figures came down as though falling. A few seconds only; but though our

search-beam showed it, the smaller rays for those seconds missed it.

Down--until no more than five hundred feet above us it checked its fall.

A giant of a man; and with his hand cylinder--in range now--he shot a

bolt at our power house. It struck; I could see the flash, saw an aerial

shatter before the charge went harmlessly into the body of the building.

Then one of our rays caught the man; his figure crumpled; the shower of

sparks as his barrage was broken, exploded like a tiny bursting bomb;

and as the sparks died, there was nothing where the man had been.

A suicide; but one of our aerials was shattered. And then others came

down--not many, for it was grim business and the courage of them must

have failed at the last. Falling bodies; tiny bolts striking the power

house; the sparks--then empty air where living men had been.

Our tower left the ground. Some of our men, with small flying platforms

strapped to them, were crowding its top. Its beams preceded it--but I

saw the beams breaking intermittently as the bolts struck the power

house. The invaders wavered with indecision. Some of them came down to

voluntary death; others strove for the cliff-top; some took flight. Our

tower swept into them; one of them, injured but not annihilated, fell

with a crash into the encampment.

Above Elza and me was a maze of flashing beams; futile bolts; the puffs

of myriad sparks. A bolt seemed to strike quite near where we were

sitting; I drew Elza back and we crouched in the hollow of a rock. A

body came hurtling down, crashed to the cliff-ledge almost at our feet

with the sickening thump of mangled flesh and broken bones--hung an

instant to give me a momentary glimpse of a face contorted in death

agony; then rolled over and fell further down the jagged cliff.

Then above us presently there was silence and the drab empty sky. Our

tower was back beyond the cliff-top. Soon it appeared; apparently

unharmed, it came dropping down to its former place on the ground.

The first attack was over. And off in the distance a few solitary

figures were winging their way back to the City of Ice.