CHAPTER XXI
DRIVEN BACK
What the travelers had heard regarding the fierceness and courage ofthe red pygmies had not been one bit exaggerated. Never had suchdesperate fighting ever taken place. The red dwarfs, scarcely one ofwhom was more than three feet high, were strongly built, and therewere so many of them, and they battled together with such singlenessof purpose, that they were more formidable than a tribe of ordinary-sizedsavages would have been.
And their purpose was to utterly annihilate the enemy that had sounexpectedly come upon them. It did not matter to them that Tom andthe others had arrived in an airship. The strange craft had nosuperstitious terror for them, as it had for the simpler blacks.
"Bless my multiplication tables!" cried Mr. Damon. "What a mob ofthem!"
"Almost too many!" murmured Tom Swift, who was rapidly firing hiselectric rifle at them. "We can never hope to drive them back, I'mafraid."
Indeed from every side of the plain, and even from the depths of thejungle the red dwarfs were now pouring. They yelled most horribly,screaming in rage, brandishing their spears and clubs, and keepingup an incessant fire of big arrows from their bows, and smaller onesfrom the blowguns.
As yet none of our friends had been hit, for they were sheltered inthe airship, and as the windows were covered with a mesh of wire, tokeep out insects, this also served to prevent the arrows fromentering. There were loopholes purposely made to allow the rifles tobe thrust out.
Mercifully, Tom and the others fired only to disable, and not tokill the red pygmies. Wounded in the arms or legs, the littlesavages would be incapable of fighting, and this plan was followed.But so fierce were they that some, who were wounded twice, stillkept up the attack.
Tom's electric rifle was well adapted for this work, as he couldregulate the charge to merely stun, no matter at what part of thebody it was directed. So he could fire indiscriminantly, whereas theothers had to aim carefully. And Tom's fire was most effective. Hedisabled scores of the red imps, but scores of others sprang up totake their places.
After their first rush the pygmies had fallen back before thewell-directed fire of our friends, but as their chiefs and head menurged them to the attack again, they came back with still fiercerenergy. Some, more bold than the others, even leaped to the deck of theairship, and tried to tear the screens from the windows. They partlysucceeded, and in one casement from which Ned was firing they made ahole.
Into this they shot a flight of arrows, and one slightly wounded thebank clerk on the arm. The wound was at once treated withantiseptics, after the window had been barricaded, and Ned declaredthat he was ready to renew the fight. Tom, too, got an arrow scratchon the neck, and one of the barbs entered Mr. Durban's leg, but thesturdy elephant hunter would not give up, and took his place againafter the wound had been bandaged.
From time to time as he worked his electric gun, which had beencharged to its utmost capacity, Tom glanced at the hut where themissionaries were prisoners. There was no movement noticed about it,and no sound came from it. Tom wondered what had happened inside--hewondered what was happening as the battle progressed.
Fiercely the fight was kept up. Now the red imps would be drivenback, and again they would swarm about the airship, until it seemedas if they must overwhelm it. Then the fire of the white adventurerswas redoubled. The electric rifle did great work, and Tom did nothave to stop and refill the magazine, as did the others.
Suddenly, above the noise of the conflict, Tom Swift heard anominous sound. It was a hissing in the air, and well he knew what itwas.
"The gas bag!" he cried. "They've punctured it! The vapor isescaping. If they put too many holes in the bag it will be all upwith us!"
"What's to be done?" asked Mr. Durban.
"If we can't drive them back we must retreat ourselves!" declaredTom desperately. "Our only hope is to keep the airship safe fromharm."
Once more came a rush of the savages. They had discovered that thegas bag was vulnerable, and were directing their arrows againstthat. It was punctured in several more places. The gas was rapidlyescaping.
"We've got to retreat!" yelled Tom. He hurried to the engine-room,and turned on the power. The great propellers revolved, and sent theBlack Hawk scudding across the level plain. With yells of surprisethe red dwarfs scattered and made way for it.
Up into the air it mounted on the broad wings. For the time beingour friends has been driven back, and the missionaries whom they hadcome to rescue were still in the hands of the savages.
Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle; Or, Daring Adventures in Elephant Land Page 21
