The Fire People

by Ray Cummings

  CHAPTER VIII.

  THE ESCAPE.

  The Mercutians all regarded me curiously as we came among them. By therespect they accorded Tao, and his attitude toward them, I decided he wasthe leader of the entire party. I stopped, wondering what would happennext. The man guarding me was still close at hand. Tao spoke a few wordsto him and then moved away. My guard immediately sat down. I saw nothingwas required of me at the moment, and sat down also.

  I had opportunity now to examine the strange things and people about memore in detail. The Mercutians all seemed to be of the same short, squat,red-haired type. Tao was, indeed, the only one I saw who had black hair;and he was the tallest, and by far the most commanding looking figure ofthem all.

  They wore several different costumes, although the garment of white furwas the most common. A few were dressed in the black costume of the guardin the gully. Still others were garbed only in short, wide trousers andshirts of a soft leather, with legs bare from the knee down, and withleather buskins on their feet.

  The light-ray was set up near the river, on a metallic structuresupporting a small platform some thirty feet above the ground. A ladderup one side gave access to this platform from below. The light itselfcame from a cubical metallic box, perhaps six feet square, suspendedabove the platform in a balancing mechanism that allowed it to swing inall directions.

  All the metal of this apparatus, the projector, the platform and itsframework, was apparently of the same kind; it had the appearance ofburnished copper. The whole seemed fairly complicated, but not unlike ahuge searchlight would appear if mounted that way.

  Coming out of the projector and running down to the ground were blackwires, which led to a metallic box a few feet away. This box wasrectangular in shape; six feet long, perhaps, two feet broad, and thesame in depth. I judged it to be the dynamo or battery from which theprojector was supplied with the light-ray.

  A short distance back from the river I saw what appeared to be a smallmortar, which I assumed was for the sending of the light-rockets, orbombs. Several other light-ray projectors, sections of their supportingstructures, and the unassembled parts of other apparatus, were lyingscattered about the ground. A considerable number of the Mercutians werelaboriously bringing out of the vehicle still more apparatus.

  It was obvious to me then that they were only just getting started intheir offensive and defensive preparations. This I could easilyunderstand when I had watched for a moment the activities going on. Allof the apparatus which they were engaged in bringing out and assemblingwas of metal, and it was so extremely heavy here on earth that they couldhardly handle it.

  Standing on the platform beside the light-ray projector were two menevidently in charge of it at the moment. They were dressed in black, withblack gloves, although without helmets. I noticed that they had littlepads over their ears, with wires running from them down to a small box atthe waist.

  Once I saw one of them look up sharply, as though he had heard something;and, following the wave of his hand, I saw the tiny black-garbed figureof a man on the higher ground behind the gully through which we had come.I reasoned then that this was a lookout stationed there, and that he wasdirecting the action of the light by some form of wireless telephony.

  For perhaps an hour I sat there, with my guard near by watching me. I wassorry, now that I found myself in the midst of these enemies, that I hadnot made a determined effort to escape earlier in the day, when therewould have been only four of them to cope with.

  I realized that I didn't know any more now about the power this guard hadover me than I had at the beginning. He certainly looked inoffensive,sitting there, but the very calmness with which he watched me made mefeel I would be taking a desperate chance in attempting to escape. Idecided then to wait until nightfall and to watch a favorable opportunityto break away.

  Under cover of darkness, if once I could get out of their sight, I wassatisfied they would never catch me. It was my plan to strike back toGarland. I had noticed carefully the lay of the land coming over, andbelieved I could find my way back. Then, with the car or the plane thatwas there in the garage, I could get back to Billings.

  These thoughts were running through my mind when Tao abruptly presentedhimself before me and ordered me to get up. I did so, smiling in asfriendly a fashion as I could manage. He then made me assist in the workof carrying the heavy pieces of apparatus. Apparently he was determinedthat I, as an earth man, should work hard, since the Mercutians were soheavily handicapped by the gravity of my planet. I concluded that itwould be my best policy to help them all I could--that by so doing theymight relax a little in their watchfulness, and thus enable me to getaway that night.

  I signified to Tao my understanding of what he was after, and made themall see my entire readiness and ability to help. For the rest of theafternoon I was dragging about from place to place, carrying theprojectors to the various positions where they had decided to put themup. It seemed to be their plan to establish some twenty or thirtyprojectors around the vehicle; they were setting them all at points abouta hundred yards away from it. These projectors differed in size andshape. Some were cubical, others pyramid-shaped, open at the base asthough to send out the light in a spreading ray.

  I saw now, when I had a chance to inspect the projectors closer, thatthey were black outside and like burnished copper inside, to reflect thelight. I judged that this black covering must have been like the blacksuits worn by some of the men, and that it was impervious to thelight-ray. Near the center of each projector was a coil of wire. Thewires from outside ran to it, and across the open face of the projectora large number of fine lateral wires ran parallel, very close together.

  These were about all the details I noticed. I wanted to remember them,although they conveyed very little to me, because I realized all this Iwas seeing might prove of immense help to the authorities when I got backto Billings.

  Night came, and I was still at work. Tao seemed tremendously pleased atwhat I was doing, and I noticed with satisfaction that his attitudetoward me seemed gradually changing. My guard still followed me about,but he did not watch me quite so closely now, I thought.

  My help, that afternoon, was considerable. I was by far the strongest manin the camp; and, more than that, I was able to move about so much fasterthan they that I could do things in a few moments that would have takenthem many times as long.

  Tao personally directed most of my efforts. He told me where to take thethings, and I took them, smilingly, and always coming back to him for neworders. I moved so fast, indeed, that my guard had difficulty in keepingclose to me. Several times I experimented and found that I could get awayfrom him quite a little distance without a protest, either from him orfrom Tao.

  As it began to grow dark, they lighted up the camp. This was accomplishedby little metallic posts that had been set around at intervals. Each hada tiny coil of wire suspended at its top, which became incandescent andthrew out a reddish-green light. Around each light was a square blackwire cage some three feet in diameter. I conjectured that these lightsused the same ray as the projectors, only in a different form, and thatthe cage was to protect any one from going too close. The light fromthese illuminators was much the same in aspect as the ray, except that itseemed to diffuse itself readily and carried only a comparatively shortdistance.

  The scene now, under this red-green glare, was weird in the extreme. Thework all about me went on steadily. The Mercutians were all dressed inwhite furry garments now--I concluded because of the cold--with theexception of those who had on the suits and helmets of black.

  The reddish-green light made them all appear like little gnomes at work.Indeed, the whole scene, with its points of color in the darkness, and thehuge monstrous shadows all about, was more like some fantastic picture outof a fairy book than a scene on this earth.

  Soon after nightfall Tao stopped me, and one of his men brought mesomething to eat. I still had the slices of bread and meat in my pocket,but, thinking I might need them later on, I kept
them there. Tao and I satdown near one of the lights and ate together. We were served by one of themen. My guard still kept close at hand.

  The food was nothing more than hard pieces of baked dough and a form ofsweet something like chocolate. For drink there was a hot liquid quitecomparable to tea. This was served us in small metal cups with handlesthat seemed to be insulated from the heat.

  This meal was brought to us from inside the vehicle. While we were eatingI could see many of the Mercutians going inside and coming out with piecesof this food in their hands, eating as they worked. Quite obviously thebusiness of assembling their apparatus was uppermost in the minds of allof them.

  The whole atmosphere about the place, I realized now, in spite of theopposite effect their dragging footsteps gave, was one of feverishactivity. When we had eaten Tao seemed willing to sit quiet for a while.My efforts to talk to him amused us both greatly, and I noticed withsatisfaction that he seemed to trust me more and more.

  Finally my guard spoke, asking permission, I judged, to leave us and gohave his dinner. My heart leaped into my throat as I saw him go, leavingme alone with Tao. I concluded that now, if ever, was my opportunity. Taotrusted me--seemed to like me, in fact. No one else in the camp was payingthe least attention to us. If only I could, on some pretext, get myself areasonable distance away from him I would make a run for it.

  I was turning this problem over in my mind when it was unexpectedly solvedfor me. A low throbbing, growing momentarily louder, sounded from theair--the hum of an airplane motor. I think Tao noticed it first--I saw himcock his head to one side, listening.

  After a moment, as the sound increased, he climbed to his feet and shoutedan order to the man nearest us.

  The night had clouded over; it was unusually dark. I knew that a planewithout lights was approaching. Work about the camp stopped; every onestood listening. I looked up at the light-ray platform. The two men therewere swinging the light back and forth, sweeping the sky.

  Suddenly the sound ceased; the plane's motor had been shut off. Almost atthe same instant the light-ray picked up the plane. It was severalthousand feet in the air and almost over our heads, coming down in aspiral. A moment more and the light-ray swung away.

  The plane burst into flame, and I knew it was falling. An explosionsounded near at hand. The camp was in chaos immediately. I faced about tolook at Tao; he had disappeared.

  I waited no longer. Turning back from the river, I ran at full speed.