Collected Tales (Jerry eBooks)

by Leslie F Stone

  “Come on!” screamed Small through the blood rage that was upon him. “Down with their wall!” And he started toward the barrier we had so painstakingly helped to rear. He paid no heed to the swarms at our feet, bent upon recapturing us. They were like so many ants who ran screaming out of our way as we plowed through them. Then Small was at the wall, pushing, shoving with his double-fold weight.

  Green men ran in all directions, those on the wall, scrambling wildly for the safety of the ground. The wall was staunch, the cement of the Lilliputians as hard as concrete, and though there was an ominous cracking sound as Small’s heavy body fell against it it did not give. He drew back, poised his body for a second rush, and when he threw himself against it for a second time I was beside him, adding my weight. Together, the wall and the pair of us went down in a shower of rubble and dust, forming a breech more than a yard and a half wide!

  For a moment or two we lay where we had fallen, exhausted and bruised. From amid the settling dust of the ruin we could see the invading army gathered before the mountain-pass astounded, but elated, cheering. Naturally, in the rebellion of the slaves of their enemy they saw their own victory. But there was also rebellion within their own ranks. Realizing that we had actually freed ourselves, they in turn were making a strike for liberty, slapping heavily at the Lilliputians swarming their bodies. Their shoulders and chests were covered with the little red people who had, evidently, intended to utilize them as walking towers to repel the green fighters on the wall. No matter where they slapped with their big hands the captives were sure to deal death, for their own numbers were their undoing and the copper men could not escape them.

  I heard Small get to his feet as I started toward the five, but oddly enough he made no move to join me. Instead he struck off at right angles toward the hills on the left, scattering whole regiments of copper men from underfoot as he progressed. They, in turn, discharged clouds of poisoned arrows into his passing body, but they might have been so many gnats as he pushed on, disregarding them, into that welter of broken hills.

  At first I was puzzled, then I remembered the wreck of the Comet. Small was going after that portable regulator. He had lied when he said it wasn’t a regulator, after all; he had known it for what it was at the time, and intended, even then, to get it for himself if the moment presented itself! I was torn between two courses, whether to follow Small or go to the others. But, why, I asked myself, should two go for the machine? Small would bring it, and any other things he found of value to us. My duty lay in helping my fellow men to free themselves of their midget enemy.

  Thus, I continued toward the struggling group at the entrance to the mountain defile. All around them were the crushed bodies of their one-time masters, the others had run from them in panic, clearing a wide space around them. None of the five were a pretty sight with their matted hair, unshaven faces, dirt-encrusted clothes and skin, not to mention the raw sores with which their late captors had inflicted them.

  The girl’s hair, golden in color, hung loosely around her face in thick curls that had not felt a comb in days. She wore an over-sized man’s suit (given her to replace her own flimsy garments at the time of her abduction). In fresh clothing, and after a good scrubbing she would have been pretty, but now she was a rather unhappy appearing specimen of humanity.

  Three of the men appeared, more bearded than the fourth; their clothing was more stained, disheveled, literally hanging from them in rags. Two of them were young, between twenty-five and thirty, but the third was older, his gray hair and heavy beard filthy mats. The fourth was a heavy, short man with a livid scar showing through his five day old beard, and I saw him eyeing the remains of my patrol uniform with scowling disfavor. The others had broad grins for me. The girl was apathetic, sunk in deep despair. One of the younger men had his arm about her shoulder, and she half leaned against him for support.

  Unmolested as we now were by the Lilliputians, I heard the stories of all five. The girl, of course, was Willa March. There had been two pirates who had kidnapped her, but when their ship fell upon Jupiter one of the pair died, having been electrocuted by broken wires when the ship crashed. The second kidnapper was the man with the scar.

  The three others were all that remained of a ten-man scientific expedition that had landed three months previous on Jupiter. Their ship, likewise, was a battered wreck, and had gone up in flames when it landed. Four of them had escaped, and were immediately captured by the Lilliputians; then the other member of their party had died from wounds sustained in the fall of their flyer. Twice, they had managed to escape their jailers, but each time the copper men had recaptured them.

  Standing in a huddle we discussed our strange situation. The ship of the kidnappers, it seemed, was not totally wrecked. It had come down in a bog-like swamp, and its fall was cushioned by mud. But for the untoward accident to the second pirate it would have been whole. His fall against the generator had short-circuited the whole system, and neither the girl nor the pirate knew enough to repair it. They had left the flyer after a rude burial of the third member of the party and had crept from the bog hoping to find some means to repair the damage to their ship. Not having any gravity regulators aboard the pirate they were in a bad way when they came upon the cultivated fields of the copper men. At first they were treated as honored guests, but only long enough for the Lilliputians to successfully imprison them.

  Then they were coralled with the three who had come before them, and made to do the heavy work of the community to which they were attached.

  CHAPTER VI

  Revenge!

  l As soon as the older man told me his name, I recognized him as one of the Federation’s foremost physicists, Brandon Thail. The second man was Timson Bevel, a biologist, while the third was Jerry Treat, their navigator. The last name was oddly familiar to me; then I recalled that Small had spoken of his being lost on Jupiter. He was just the sort of man I expected to be a pal of Jim Small, a sullen-faced individual who had little to say for himself. I did not like his light blue eyes that were set deeply in his head under beetling sandy eyebrows. I guessed immediately that there was bad blood between him and his companions as he stood a little apart from the others. I told him that my companion was someone he should be glad to see, and his face brightened when I mentioned Small’s name.

  “And,” I added, glancing in the direction taken by Small, “he should be back here any moment. He’s gone to get a regulator in a wreck back there in the mountains.”

  At my mention of the regulator everyone in the party brightened. Thail spoke up, “And we’d better be moving out of this territory before our erstwhile jailers recover from their surprise and attempt to take us again. If only we had a gun or two . . .” Of course, when their ship had caught fire they were unable to save anything of value.

  As we talked I was aware of movement around us. The two armies at our feet appeared to be settling for the night, their battle forgotten for the while, due to the unexpected developments upon our part. The green men were building tiny fires behind the remainder of their wall, while the others seemed for the most part to have retreated back through the Pass where they also had established a camp. Evidently they intended to continue their fight with the new day, at the same time keeping an eye upon us.

  Night was coming rapidly, and yet there was no sign from Small. We had no desire to push through the Lilliputian hordes. I suggested we move over into the hills toward the wreck of the Comet to learn what was delaying Small. Lumberingly we essayed to climb the nearest hill, Bevel doing what he could to help the girl, and then we were all on top breathing heavily with the exertion.

  Suddenly Treat broke into a cheering cry. He pointed down the valley from the direction of the stone quarries, and in the darkening shadows we saw Small coming toward us. He no longer struggled against the pull of Jupiter, but walked as if on air, and there was a smile on his face. In one arm he carried two gravity-regulator cases, and in the other hand was a rapid-fire gun. At the end of the v
alley he had paused, and I saw him point his gun toward the ground. There came the rat-tat-tat of his gun fire, and sudden shrieks from the campfires of the Lilliputians, as he fired into their midst. One bullet was enough to explode the body of a Jovian, and it was an ugly sight as four or five bodies flew into the air, their shattered parts spewing in all direction.

  The whole camp was aroused. The little men wanted to run, but there stood Small blocking their way. Some scattered up the hillsides, but the majority moved toward the wall, huddling there. Small had had enough for the time being. He had heard Treat’s call, and now yelled for him to come down and join him. Treat went slithering and sliding down the hill we had so painfully mounted, the rest of us following more slowly. Treat reached Small several minutes before we did, but as soon as his friend was beside him the big man’s ugly voice rang out, “Stand where you are, all of you, if you know what’s good for you!” And he was pointing his gun at us. Small had the whip-hand, and he was going to use it!

  He seemed to read my mind. “Yah!” he added. “I’m boss ’round here now, and you guys are going to listen to me, get me?”

  I glanced sideways at Brandon Thail whose breath came hissing through his teeth. The scarred pirate said something nasty under his breath, and Timson Bevel let out a grunt of disgust. The girl sighed, and I saw her fingers clutch Bevel’s arm. She realized she had more to fear than the rest of us—as if she hadn’t been through enough already.

  Small spoke in low tones to Treat, then he called out again, “You, with the scar, wanna throw in with us?”

  “You bet!” was the answer, and the man, whose name turned out to be Beale, went scrambling awkwardly to join the pair of renegades. I saw Small hand Treat a duplicate of the gun he had gotten from the 354, my gun, for he had been to our ship. That was the reason for his delay. Finding only one gravity-regulator in the wreck of the Comet, he had hurried onward to salvage our ship. Treat was also given a regulator, and the third one went to the pirate, but Beale did not get a gun.

  With trembling hands the two donned their machines, and Small condescended to help them with the wires and plates. The rest of us could only watch them longingly. All seven of us could not have hoped to wear the regulators, but had I had my way one of the three would have gone to the girl. As it was we had to stand by and watch Treat and Beale cavort mincingly before our eyes, enjoying our envy.

  “Well,” I called to my late companion-in-arms. “What you going to do with us?”

  “Mind your own business. You’ll know soon enough. Stay there in the valley.”

  Shrugging my shoulders I turned to Thail, Bevel and the girl. For the next few moments Small conferred with Treat and Beale, and soon the latter came toward us. Beale stayed beside the four of us while Treat went on through the pass and toward the army encamped in the narrow valley there. Shortly we heard his gun fire. Small stayed beyond the broken wall a few moments, and I could hear him saying a few strange words to the frightened Lilliputians. Evidently, Treat had learned to speak the language of the Jovians and had chosen such words as he needed to make them understand what he wanted of them.

  l Now Small came toward us. “Denny Martin, you and that young fellow, go through the Pass and bring back the stuff the copper men will give you. Beale, you stand here in the wall breach and make faces if these blankety-blank mites don’t hustle fast enough. We’re going to eat, folks!”

  That in itself was good news and Bevel and I made no objection to pushing through the defile to where the copper men were camped. We saw that Treat had them moving. A long line of tiny bearers heavily burdened with their small baskets were coming toward us. Their baskets were filled with the inevitable brown pellets, but some carried over their shoulder the bodies of the deerlike creatures of their world. I had not known that the Jovians were meat eaters, but evidently Treat was aware of it, and had seen to it that the Lilliputians should not hold out on us.

  Shortly the ground at our feet was piled with tiny baskets and a low pile of meat, a great store of provender for the Lilliputians, but scarcely enough to feed two of our size. Treat got on his knees and brandished his gun, demanding more of the same. Again another line of carriers formed and the piles grew, but still it was not enough. One of the chieftains of the copper men tried to remonstrate against Treat’s emptying their camp of food, but his answer was a bullet through his body, his flesh and blood spattering those who had gathered around him, to uphold him.

  Treat stalked among them, threatening the rest of the army with his gun and shortly another line of bearers came with food. Treat ordered Bevel and myself to pick up as many baskets as we could carry back to the other valley. And we were not to eat anything under pain of death. I knew Small was trying to show his power over us, by making us carry the stuff through the Pass, since he could just as well ordered the little men to carry it all the way. But Treat’s gun was for us as well as the Lilliputians if we were to rebel.

  I filled my tunic pockets with deer carcasses, then carefully stacked my left hand with baskets of pellets, taking care that none should spill. Bevel who had somehow managed to keep a cap on his head during the months of his captivity, emptied dozens of baskets into it, and after I had picked up as many more baskets as I could carry we started back for the others while Treat stayed behind to inveigle more food out of the little men.

  On the steel plate I had used as my sledge dozens of green men were piling more baskets of food and carcasses. Small was seated on the ground beside his improvised table. He had started a small fire of dead trees and brush and Miss March and Thail were roasting the dressed carcasses of deer. Bevel and I had to make a second trip through the Pass and when we returned Treat came with us.

  The pile of pellets was fairly high, and there must have been almost a hundred deer. I am sure that the little people did not dine that night, for with a certainty we had cleaned out their commissary departments.

  Treat put Bevel and me to roasting the meat with Miss March and Thail, and as it did not take long to roast the diminutive deer a second pile was rapidly growing upon the sheet. Small invited Treat and Beale to dine with him. We others were ordered not to touch a thing until the three had had all they wanted. We had to watch them thrust grimy hands into the tray of pellets and gulp down the deer. One animal was but a mouthful, and the bones were so small and delicate they could be chewed without troubling to remove them. It was surprising how quickly that pile of food diminished under the inroads of the three renegades.

  During our short stay among the green men they had not once given Small or me enough to really fill our stomachs, and it must have been the same with the others, judging by their stringy flesh. But the trio at the dinner table were intent upon stuffing themselves. They each ate about thirty deer apiece, not to mention the innumerable handfuls of pellets they took. Hungrily we waited our turn, and at last we were ordered to “fall to.” Brandon suggested we divide the number of deer that were left, but I saw Bevel surreptitiously slip two or three from his share to the pile before Willa March when she reached for a handful of pellets.

  By the time all the food was gone the four of us were half satisfied. Looking up, I saw Small leering at me, but I decided then not to allow the big fellow to gloat over me. He had won the first round, but who could tell what the morrow was going to bring? Wiping the back of my hand over my mouth in lieu of a napkin, I heaved a heavy sigh to indicate that I had dined well.

  Water, we all wanted, and Small sent Treat behind the wall to demand that we be supplied. First the green men brought us several skins of the tasteless liquid that seemed to be their sole drink, but Small would not have it. He ordered Treat to have the Lilliputians empty the skins of their contents and bring us water from a lake beyond the stone quarries. Small brought out his collapsible cup, but neither Treat nor Beale had one of them. The green men had to climb upon a rock so as to pour the water from their containers into the cup, and it was slow business. Each of the three had two cups full before Small permitted my c
up and that of Thail’s filled. I gave my cup to the girl first, then one by one the rest of us had our drink, but Small only permitted us to have one cupful apiece. I was thoroughly disgusted with the man’s pettiness, and thought with regret of the many favors I had allowed him in the past.

  l Half the night was over, but now we were ordered to get some sleep. Treat was left on guard. I had only slept about an hour when I was awakened by a terrific hubbub from beyond the mountain defile. I raised myself on my elbow to listen better, and when I recognized the bellowing tones of Small’s voice above the treble tones of the army camped there, I knew he was up to something. I started to rise, but thought better of it. I certainly didn’t want to inject myself into any new devilments of that beast.

  The others heard, too, and glancing around we found that Beale and Treat were likewise missing from our group. Now I heard gun-fire from beyond the wall, together with frightened scurryings of the little people. Later, we learned that both armies had decided to decamp during the night as a better part of valor, especially since the situation had developed into such an impasse for themselves. But Small had heard, since he had not slept too well after his gigantic dinner, and had gone to investigate. Appearing in the midst of the copper men, while Treat descending among the green, they had ordered them all to stay where they were, murdering many before they convinced them they were not to leave their encampment.

  In a few hours we were to learn why Small did not want them to depart. As soon as it was daylight he again ordered food and water for us. Water was plentiful, but there was a scarcity of brown pellets, and no meat at all. Through Treat we learned that both army camps were empty of food, that unless Small permitted the little men to return to their villages they would all go hungry although they had come to war with food for three days if not more . . .