CHAPTER XXVIII
In the Armory
Carza stamped her foot with imperial authority. The Taunans graspedJoan and lifted her in their arms.
“Hold! Drop the girl.”
Billy and Moawha, both of whom had grown anxious over the prolongedabsence of Epworth and Joan, thrust their faces through the hole inthe wall. The second Billy saw his friend he understood the situation,and shouted loudly. But he was not satisfied with calling out.
Thrusting his chloroform gun through the wall he sprayed the sixTaunans who were carrying Joan toward the fire. The chloroformstupified them instantly, and Joan fell to the floor. ImmediatelyBilly, Moawha and many Selinite soldiers crowded into the chamber.Moawha and her soldiers used their guns on the dwarfs and while theywere doing this Billy rushed to the aid of Joan and Epworth. Slashingthe cords that held them he grabbed some gas masks from two of theSelinite soldiers and brought them down over Epworth’s and Joan’sheads.
This was an infinite relief to Epworth and Joan. Already they werefeeling the effects of the chlorine, and as soon as they experiencedthe relief they sprang to their feet, and shot their eyes around insearch of Toplinsky and Queen Carza. They were in time to see the twoleaders dashing toward an open door.
“This way!” Epworth called out hurriedly. “Toplinsky and the queen arerushing to organize the crickets. We must beat them to it.”
Followed by Joan and many Selinite soldiers Epworth pursued Toplinskyand the queen. As they passed corridor after corridor of caves QueenCarza sent out her chirping warning to the crickets.
While Epworth and Joan chased anxiously after Toplinsky, Billy andMoawha stopped many of the Selinite soldiers, and began to pourchloroform at the insects. But not all of the soldiers followed them.Several thousand rushed after Epworth and Joan.
Suddenly Toplinsky and the queen, who had been dimly visible down thecorridor, disappeared. When Epworth and Joan arrived at the pointwhere they had disappeared they found themselves looking down a longincline into an immense chamber. The moment he saw this chamberEpworth realized that he was looking at the magazine and armory thatToplinsky had prepared for the crickets. The space was teeming withcrickets, multiplied thousands of them. Toplinsky was standing on akeg of powder bellowing commands, which were translated to thecrickets by the queen in the chirping voice of the crickets.
As Epworth stopped he looked behind him, and discovered that he wasfollowed by Selinite soldiers ready to attack the crickets. AlreadyToplinsky was forming gun troops to shoot heavy cannon balls down thecorridor he was standing in. If Toplinsky could get his big guns intooperation he would annihilate the small army of Selinites in thecorridor.
Epworth was worried. What should he do? His entire scheme of surprisehad fallen flat before he could get his chloroform guns battering atthe center of the cricket population.
A blundering cricket solved his problem for him. A dwarf wasexplaining to the cricket the method of firing a cannon with a torch.The cricket fumbled the torch, and the flame fell on a powder fuse.
The fuse was Toplinsky’s fatal mistake.
He had placed it and connected it with all of the powder andexplosives he had made with the intention of trapping invaders in thearmory, and blowing them up. It was a good idea of defense properlymanaged.
Now the torch fired the fuse, and the blaze spluttered along towardthe great magazine like a swiftly crawling snake. Toplinsky saw it,and dashed recklessly at the fuse to stamp it out. He did not pause tolower the queen, who was sitting on his shoulders.
He ran like the wind. Swiftly spluttered the fuse. Great beads ofsweat slipped out of the giant’s face. It was a race with death.
Faster and faster raced the fuse. Toplinsky, in his hurry, forgot thegravity of the moon. He lifted his foot as if running in an Olympicmeet. The act caused him to topple over although it carried him nearerthe goal. Staggering to his feet, with the queen still clinging to hisshoulders, he made another attempt.
Now the spluttering fire was almost to the magazine. Epworth shudderedand jerked Joan back. If Toplinsky failed——
The giant was almost on the fuse; he lifted his foot upward to stampout the fire. Again in his excitement he overlooked the moon’s lightgravity. His foot came down on the opposite side of the splutteringfire.
There came a terrific explosion. It sounded like an inside volcanoblowing off the top of the moon.
Epworth and Joan were lucky. They were standing in a corridorToplinsky had set apart as a safety valve for the men who fired thefuse if commanded. Crouching down they saw the interior of thetremendous cavern shoot upward. Then rocks and debris began to fallwith loud crashes.
The sides and roof of the cavern had caved in, and the debris wasshowering down like falling snow.
The vast horde of crickets that had been rushing around armingthemselves and pushing guns forward to drive out the Selinitesdisappeared as if by magic.
Toplinsky, their scientific leader, had brought annihilation tohimself and his whole colony of crickets by his shrewd attempts toslay others.
The living remnants of crickets, hidden in their secret nests, werehunted down by the Selinite soldiers, who rooted them out forever.
Moawha, kind-hearted and troubled, granted amnesty to the Taunandwarfs when they pledged allegiance to the Selinite nation.
The Moon Colony Page 28
