"God bless you." And atthe head of every column, on exuberant steeds, that seemed as if theywould leap out of their very skins with the mere delight of living,rode handsome officers, smiling and bowing to the ladies at thewindows;--for was it not simply holiday work to slay the_canaille_--the insolent _canaille_--the unreasonable dogs--whodemanded some share in the world's delights--who were not willing totoil and die that others might live and be happy? And the very musichad a revengeful, triumphant ring and sting to it, as if everyinstrument cried out: "Ah, we will give it to them!"
But it was splendid! It was the very efflorescence of the art ofwar--the culmination of the evolution of destruction--the perfectflower of ten thousand years of battle and blood.
But I heard one officer cry out to another, as they passed below me:
"What's the matter with the Demons? Why are they not here?"
"I can't say," replied the one spoken to; "but they will be here ingood time."
The grand and mighty stream of men poured on. They halted close tothe high barricade. It was a formidable structure at least fifteenfeet high and many feet in thickness. The gray of dawn had turnedinto red, and a pale, clear light spread over all nature. I heardsome sparrows, just awakened, twittering and conversing in a talltree near me. They, too, wondered, doubtless, what it all meant, andtalked it over in their own language.
The troops deployed right and left, and soon the insurgent mass wasclosely surrounded in every direction and every outlet closed. The"rat-trap" was set. Where were the rat-killers? I could see many aneck craned, and many a face lifted up, looking toward the west, fortheir terrible allies of the air. But they came not.
There was a dead pause. It was the stillness before the thunder.
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE RAT-TRAP
Some of the troops advanced toward the barricade. Instantly the longline of its top bristled with fire; the fire was returned; the rattlewas continuous and terrible, mingled with the rapid, grinding noiseof the machine guns. The sound spread in every direction. Thebarricades were all attacked.
Suddenly the noise began to decrease. It was as if some noble oratorhad begun to speak in the midst of a tumultuous assembly. Thosenearest him catch his utterances first, and become quiet; the wave ofsilence spreads like a great ripple in the water; until at last thewhole audience is as hushed as death. So something--someextraordinary thing--had arrested the battle; down, down, dropped thetumult; and at last there were only a few scattering shots to beheard, here and there; and then these, too, ceased.
I could see the soldiers looking to the west. I swept the sky with myglass. Yes, something portentous had indeed happened! Instead of thewhole dark flight of thousands of airships for which the soldiers hadbeen looking, there came, athwart the sky, like a great black bird, asingle Demon.
As it approached it seemed to be signaling some one. Little flags ofdifferent colors were run up and taken down. I turned and looked tothe barricaded district. And there on the top of a very highbuilding, in its midst, I could see a group of men. They, too, wereraising and lowering little flags. Nearer and nearer swept the greatbird; every eye and many a field-glass in all that great throng werefastened upon it, with awe-struck interest--the insurgents rejoicing;the soldiers perplexed. Nearer and nearer it comes.
Now it pauses right over the tall building; it begins to descend,like a sea-gull about to settle in the waves. Now it is but a shortdistance above the roof. I could see against the bright sky thegossamer traces of a rope ladder, falling down from the ship to theroof. The men below take hold of it and steady it. A man descends.Something about him glitters in the rising sun. He is probably anofficer. He reaches the roof. They bow and shake hands. I can see himwave his hand to those above him. A line of men descend; theydisappear in the building; they reappear; they mount the ladder;again and again they come and go.
"They are removing the treasure," I explain to our party, gatheringaround me.
Then the officer shakes hands again with the men on the roof; theybow to each other; he reascends the ladder; the air-ship rises in theair, higher and higher, like an eagle regaining its element; and awayit sails, back into the west.
An age of bribery terminates in one colossal crime of corruption!
I can see the officers gathering in groups and taking counseltogether. They are alarmed. Then they write. They must tell theOligarchy of this singular scene, and their suspicions, and put themon their guard. There is danger in the air. In a moment orderliesdash down the street in headlong race, bearing dispatches. In alittle while they come back, hurrying, agitated. I took to the north.I can see a black line across the street. It is a high barricade. Ithas been quietly constructed while the fight raged. And beyond, faras my eyes can penetrate, there are dark masses of armed men.
The orderlies report--there is movement--agitation. I can see theimperious motions of an officer. I can read the signs. He is saying,"Back--back--for your lives! Break out through the side streets!"They rush away; they divide; into every street they turn. Alas! in afew minutes, like wounded birds, they come trailing back. There is nooutlet. Every street is blockaded, barricaded, and filled with hugemasses of men. _The rat-trap has another rat-trap outside of it!_
The Oligarchy will wait long for those dispatches. They will neverread them this side of eternity. The pear has ripened. The inevitablehas come. The world is about to shake off its masters.
There is dead silence. Why should the military renew the fight in themidst of the awful doubt that rests upon their souls?
Ah! we will soon know the best or worst; for, far away to the west,dark, portentous as a thundercloud--spread out like the wings ofmighty armies--moving like a Fate over the bright sky, comes on thevast array of the Demons.
"Will they be faithful to their bargain?" I ask myself; "or will oldloyalty and faith to their masters rise up in their hearts?"
No, no, it is a rotten age. Corruption sticks faster than love.
On they come! Thousands of them. They swoop, they circle; they pauseabove the insurgents. The soldiers rejoice! Ah, no! No bombs fall, ameteor of death. They separate; they move north, south, east, west;they are above the streets packed full of the troops of thegovernment!
May God have mercy on them now! The sight will haunt me to my dyingday. I can see, like a great black rain of gigantic drops, the linesof the falling bombs against the clear blue sky.
And, oh, my God! what a scene below, in those close-packed streets,among those gaily dressed multitudes! The dreadful astonishment! Thecrash--the bang--the explosions; the uproar, the confusion; and, mosthorrible of all, the inevitable, invisible death by the poison.
The line of the barricade is alive with fire. With my glass I canalmost see the dynamite bullets exploding in the soldiers, tearingthem to pieces, like internal volcanoes.
An awful terror is upon them. They surge backward and forward; thenthey rush headlong down the streets. The farther barricades open uponthem a hail of death; and the dark shadows above--so well namedDemons--slide slowly after them; and drop, drop, drop, the deadlymissiles fall again among them.
Back they surge. The poison is growing thicker. They scream formercy; they throw away their guns; they are panic-stricken. Theybreak open the doors of houses and hide themselves. But even here thedevilish plan of Prince Cabano is followed out to the very letter.The triumphant mob pour in through the back yards; and they bayonetthe soldiers under beds, or in closets, or in cellars; or toss them,alive and shrieking, from windows or roofs, down into the deadly gulfbelow.
And still the bombs drop and crash, and drop and crash; and thebarricades are furnaces of living fire. The dead lie in heaps andlayers in the invisible, pernicious poison.
But, lo! the fire slackens; the bombs cease to fall; only now andthen a victim flies out of the houses, cast into death. There isnothing left to shoot at. The grand army of the Plutocracy isannihilated; it is not.
"The Demons" moved slowly off. They had earn
ed their money. TheMamelukes of the Air had turned the tables upon the Sultan. Theyretired to their armory, doubtless to divide the fifty millionsequitably between them.
The mob stood still for a few minutes. They could scarcely realizethat they were at last masters of the city. But quickly a full senseof all that their tremendous victory signified dawned upon them. Thecity lay prostrate, chained, waiting to be seized upon.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
"THE OCEAN OVERPEERS ITS LIST"
And then all avenues were open. And like a huge flood, long damnedup, turbulent, turbid, muddy, loaded with wrecks and debris, thegigantic mass broke loose, full of foam and terror, and flowed inevery direction. A foul and brutal and ravenous multitude it was,dark with dust and sweat, armed with the weapons of civilization, butpossessing only the instincts of wild beasts.
At first they were under the control of some species of disciplineand moved toward the houses of the
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