ing propellers that made no sound as they spun along.
They dropped downward with a slow, gliding motion. As they came nearer, Bob noticed that each flier held in his grasp a peculiar wand-like tube no less than a foot long and about as thick as a man's thumb. They were too high up yet for him to make out their features. But he observed that they were unlike any living thing of intelligence he had ever seen before.
They appeared menacingly hostile in the manner in which they cautiously descended. They held their tubes in front of them as a man would a pistol. Bob slid his rifle forward silently and elevated the muzzle so that it was in line with the foremost creature. But he had no intention of pulling the trigger without ample cause. Yet in his excitement and bewilderment at the appearance of the fliers, his finger tightened unconsciously on the trigger.
Out of the corners of his eyes he saw Norton stealthily bring his rifle into line with a descending creature.
"Hold your fire, Norton!" he hissed at him. "They may want to talk. Don't shoot until they start something."
"Oh, Bob," Patti whispered as if suddenly sensing something untoward. "I'm so afraid!"
"I don't like their looks," said Bob grimly. "We're ready for them!"
He hissed again at Norton.
"Pass word along to the men, Norton," he urged quietly, "to shoot the minute they start anything."
Dr. Marsden was silent. He watched closely every move of the strange fliers. They were coming ominously near now. He quickly counted their number and discovered that his party was outnumbered twenty to one. But for the peculiar wand each flier carried, they seemed unarmed.
Yet, Dr. Marsden was too shrewd to be fooled in that respect. He understood that creatures, with the intelligence and genius to build and fly aircraft, must also be reasonably skilled in the making of deadly weapons. He was not deceived into believing the wand-like tubes were to be offered as proverbial olive branches, though there had been no indication yet betraying that they were weapons of any kind.
He became interested in their uncanny ability to hover so unconcernedly in the air. They had no wings; nothing to hold them aloft except the tiny flight devices. He saw, as they came closer, that they resembled men, but in caricature only.
They were near enough now for him to observe their physical aspects. They had two legs, extremely long and skinny like those of a stork. Their arms were as long as their legs and as lithe and sinuous. They had very small backs, the torso ending abruptly under the shoulder-blades. Their shoulders were broad and thick and they had the bulging chest of a blower pigeon. On their head they wore dunce-like hats held in place by a wide chin-stay. Though he could not yet see their faces, he felt they were as grotesque as their bodies.
Suddenly they spread out in a line and then as if by signal, plunged downward in a burst of speed. As they came they held their wand-like tubes thrust out before them, menacingly. Bob felt his blood tingle, expecting some terrible death to come from the tubes. He realized at a glance the futility of resisting the creatures because of their numbers. But Norton did not seem to realize it, for without warning he pressed the trigger of his rifle. The explosion broke the taut silence like a peal of thunder, echoing and re-echoing across the deep abyss.
Instantly the excited sailors began firing at the rapidly descending horde. Bob watched, cursing, for the effect of the bullets, and was amazed that not a flier betrayed the slightest indication of having been hit. Then he raised his own rifle and took deliberate aim at the bulging chest of a creature nearest to him. He held his cheek grimly to the stock of the gun and was perfectly confident that he would not miss.
Then he deliberately pulled the trigger. The gun kicked against his shoulder as it sent its messenger of hate into the air. But the flier he had fired upon did not throw up his hands and tumble out of the air as he had anticipated. Instead he saw the creature jerk its tube in direct line with his head. Then from the thing shot an inconceivably brilliant beam of light. It struck him squarely in the eyes. His head spun and his senses reeled as if he had been hit on the forehead with a heavy club.
He let go his rifle and reeled sideways, dimly aware that Patti was screaming fearfully. Mingled with her cries he thought he heard rifle shots, but was not certain, for his head seemed filled with strange noises. His hands automatically went to his eyes. He rubbed them vigorously as if to allay the stinging, burning sensation that had mounted in them from the effects of the flier’s ray. Then suddenly he realized that he was as blind as a bat!
He arose to his feet and stumbled backward, blindly, away from the abyss. His eyes burned like fire; his head ached with maddening violence. He stumbled over a rock and fell headlong. He heard Patti scream again. Then all became silent. He fought desperately to see what was happening to her. But the world had suddenly become dark. He saw nothing but blackness. He groaned pitifully, rubbing fiercely at his blinded eyes.
Suddenly he felt something, like a pair of strong hands, clutching him under the arm-pits. He was jerked roughly to his feet. Hopefully, desperately his sightless eyes searched around him. But he saw nothing through the curtain of Stygian blackness that had spread over him.
"Is that you, Dr. Marsden?" he mumbled, vaguely aware that he was being lifted clear of the ground and into the air. There was no reply. His senses were reeling like those of a man coming out of an anesthetic. After what seemed eternities of flying through space, he felt a vivid sensation of falling rapidly.
At length he thought he felt his feet touch solid ground again. He was not sure. His legs were alarmingly weak. He felt them buckle under him. The pain in his eyes was intense, almost beyond endurance. From his parched lips came great gasps. Sweat stood out in beads on his face.
Again he felt himself picked up, this time, it seemed, by the legs and shoulders. He felt something or someone push open his flaming eye-lids. He imagined he caught the smell of an odorous liquid. Then he felt a warm substance trickling into his open eyes. For a moment he was stunned almost to insensibility by the overpowering pain. He thought suddenly that his eyes had been plucked from their sockets. The pain increased in its maddening intensity until he screamed,
