It came suddenly, a little over twenty-four hours later, and strangely enough, caught the defenders completely off their guard.
After surveying the bare rounded wall before them for a night and a day, they lost their fear of it, and under permission from the commander, a stocky, blunt fellow with more courage than strategy, a small group went forward to make a closer inspection. They took hammers with them to see if they could break off a piece of the metal for examination in the government laboratories, and pounded away on the structure for several hours without result.
The hammers proving useless, they sent back to the base for an electric drill, and when it had been brought attempted to bore a hole in the fortress, setting up a great clatter and shouting among themselves, like boys on a picnic.
Without warning a window suddenly opened toward the top of the wall. The squad of mechanics and the handful of uniformed men who had accompanied them stared upward in amazement, for they had pounded that very spot not an hour earlier and had found it as solid and unyielding as the rest of the structure.
The little door slid open as easily as a pantry window, and out of it came a long, movable nozzle. It was then that hesitation proved fatal to the squad and its guard. Without further warning a jet of steamy vapor, hot and scalding, poured from the nozzle on the Americans. Shouting, they dropped their tools and began to run, but it was too late. Horrified observers farther away saw the hurrying figures go down one by one, writhing and screaming in pain and terror. A moment later large portions of the metal fortress, forming a complete row of square portholes near the top of the wall, had opened, and thin nozzles were searching the whole hillside with the scalding vapor.
The commander, who had witnessed the performance from his station half a mile away, clapped his aide on the shoulder.
“So they think they can drive us out with steam, do they?” he shouted. “They must think the whole army is as dumb as that squad of mechanics!”
Searching the terrain again with his glasses, he was about to order a round of shrapnel fired into the upper portion of the fortress when he saw something that amazed him. The rounded metal surface of the causeway head was moving. slowly turning, as if on a pivot. A rift appeared at one side, where the circular wall had turned past an overlapping plate to make a gateway, and behind the opening there appeared the vanguard of an army of metallic monsters, bearing a resemblance to old-fashioned military tanks, but much larger and showing at the front certain terrifying and mysterious features. When the deliberate gate had opened sufficiently, the first of them came out, lumbering across the broken ground at the head 01" the causeway with the hum of well-made machinery. Behind it came the others, spreading out fan-wise and falling automatically into a curious staggered war formation, like teeth in a gigantic harrow.
It was the beginning of the first Asian assault. The terrible armored tanks of the invaders were at last on the continent, the vanguard of that weird and bloody brood which later laid waste to cities and forests and blackened the meadows where cattle had once fed and tortured and captured the thousands of luckless men and women who were unable to get out of their way. As if with some realization, as they gazed at the ghoulish faces of these gleaming monsters, of the horror that was to come, the officers of the pitiful garrison which had been drawn up along the shore to defend the Americas stood spellbound. The artillerymen, acting upon impulse without the orders which their commanders had been too stupefied to give, opened up a wild and undirected fire at the foremost of the approaching tanks.
The shells crashed as they struck or went zooming off to burst in mid-air harmlessly over the armored causeway. Still the tanks came on, their high turrets glistening brightly in the sun, their broad cleated treads churning the muddy earth as they climbed steadily the rising ground toward the entrenched Americans.
The ray-guns, higher than the artillery, concentrated upon the foremost of the monsters, which flickered with heat and reflected light, but did not hesitate. Thirty of the metal fortresses had issued from the causeway before the sleevelike, rounded gate, working on smooth bearings in a groove at top and bottom, closed again. With the dull clash of the closing gate, the commander regained control of himself and ordered a full retreat. The Asian tanks, in full formation and moving at a moderate pace, plowed after the frenzied army as it crawled from its entrenched position to form hastily in line for marching.
Upon the top of each tank there were three guns mounted, operating independently upon a revolving turret. The central gun, higher and longer than the other two, was shaped not unlike the nozzle-end of a common garden hose. From this weapon only did the approaching monsters shoot as they bore down upon the now defenseless artillery. They jetted from the nozzles such tremendous clouds of the vapor which had overcome the mechanics at the wall that the hillside was all but obscured; they sent it searching after the scurrying figures of the retreat with a force that carried it nearly a quarter of a mile.
As the tanks approached the gun placements in their deliberate fashion, the ineffectual shell fire ceased. The guns were swallowed up by the clouds of bluish-white vapor. There was suddenly a clatter as the artillery was overthrown and demolished by the weight of the attackers, and the Pan-American troops, thrown into a panic, broke formation and ran for safety in all directions. It was then that the tanks, for the first time, bestirred themselves to great activity, themselves breaking formation to charge with great ferocity among the helpless fighting men. Man after man came into contact with puffs of the whirling vapor. Like insects caught suddenly in the mist of certain volatile oils, the victims seemed immediately to lose muscular control, to fall grotesquely, writhing and screaming. It was not as if they had been scalded by steam, but rather as if they had been entangled in the air, snarled in invisible bonds which held them all the tighter as they struggled to be free.
As abruptly as they had begun the attack, the tanks, as if in accordance with a prescribed plan, wheeled and gave up the chase. They turned, instead, toward Montevideo, and struck off across the country in a long curved line, back some distance from the shore, but following it. Villages, farmsteads, and trees crumpled like paper before them; they were turned aside by nothing.
Overhead a single military observation plane reported their progress. In five minutes the pilot had aroused the world with his vehement messages.
“Thirty Asian tanks now bearing down on Montevideo,” he radioed. “They are about five hundred feet long and more than a hundred broad.7 They have crushed our artillery and routed the small defense force sent to guard the head of the causeway. Shell fire and ray-guns useless. Send help for Montevideo and Buenos Aires!”
The messages were relayed from the South American capital to Washington, the capital of North America and the seat of the Pan-American Government. The Secretary of War received notification of the Asian advance. All available troops were placed on fast transports and sent to give aid to the doomed cities. Montevideo’s police force and local military guard were rapidly mustered, and civilians equipped themselves with a variety of weapons for the defense of their homes.
A fleet of airplanes was sent out to bomb the approaching enemy and to send full reports of the size and strength. The air over the crawling fortresses of the Asians was soon filled with hostile craft, which kept up a steady but useless shower of explosive. The Asians made no effort to reply, but like great, dignified dogs assailed by gnats, they continued their advance upon Montevideo without checking their movement or speeding it.
“The tanks appear to be exceedingly heavy,” was the report radioed by the observation planes. “They move in formation, rolling out a broad path, deeply scored in the ground.”
The defenders demanded more accurate information as to the size of the machines, with the idea of digging a trench large enough and deep enough to trap them. But when they had been apprised that such a trench would have to be at least a tenth of a mile wide, a hundred feet deep, and long enough to entirely surround the city on the land side, they
abandoned the plan. A steel wall was suggested instead. something against which it was” hoped the monsters would butt their heads in vain. But it was found that so much steel was not available.
Gradually the fine spirit of the defenders melted away. As the planes reported the enemy drawing closer and closer, great numbers of people began to leave the city, by rail and on foot, running for safety to the hills. Toward evening whole sections of Montevideo had been deserted, and part of it was on fire. A troop of disheartened gunners first sighted the approaching tanks from a point outside the city and greeted them with a fusillade of shells which had no effect. The object of explosive attack from above and on the surface, the enemy monsters approached as through a haze. They loomed up at Montevideo suddenly, like casual and horrendous creatures of the ocean floor, weird and unreal. The useless guns of the defenders were rooted off their mountings after they had fired only three or four rounds of shots. One of the tanks turned aside abruptly from its course to sweep them away with a contemptuous gesture.
Before dark the whole city was in flames, and the last of the inhabitants who had not found safety outside the city was dead or a captive of the Asians. The tanks seemed to make it a game, to hunt the last of the frightened citizens down into the holes and crannies and by-paths of the ruined and burning city and to ensnarl them there in paralyzing vapor, to be taken prisoner afterward at the pleasure of the conquerors.
So brutal, so devoid of spectacle or strategy was the conquest of this first American city that fear smote the entire hemisphere. That Buenos Aires would be next was a foregone conclusion, though the defenders there counted on a brief respite because of the water which lay between them and Montevideo. Hastily they set to work blasting a broad and deep moat around the entire city to protect it, if possible, from the tanks until some better way of combat could be devised.
IV
Dr. Scott paced his laboratory. It was late at night,8 and the noises of the city were dim and far away. In a chair by the huge earth model sat King Henderson, gazing at the clay globe with concentration, making calculations from time to time on a pad which he held in his hand.
“At every hour the problem grows more acute,” muttered the old scientist. “Angell, by his colossal blundering, has now lost the world for us, I’m afraid. He mistakes deliberateness on the part of the Asians for inactivity, slowness for fear. They will conquer South America without a struggle if he doesn’t wake up soon.”
King nodded, turning the globe slowly with his hand.
“Perhaps we’ll be able to get some action out of him at the conference to-night,” he suggested.
“That’s it. but what can we advise him to do? The calculations by which I was able to forecast this invasion give us absolutely no suggestions as to a means of combating it. What can our troops do against the armor plate? It is necessary to face the situation. We are helpless!”
There was a ring at the door.
“There they are now, King,” said the scientist, recovering himself.
King arose and went to the door, which opened into the street from a hall communicating with the laboratory. Outside stood the Secretary, and with him was a short, important-appearing man, whom King recognized from his pictures. Preceded by two armed attendants in uniform and followed by another who continually glanced around as if suspicious of every one and everything, the two men stepped briskly into the laboratory. King closed the door. When he joined the group again, the Secretary was going through the formality of introductions.
“Mr. President,” he was saying, with a grand manner, “this is Dr. Scott, and this, King Henderson. Gentlemen. the President of the Pan-Americas!”
The President broke in upon these flourishes quickly, smiling appreciatively at Dr. Scott and King. “We have come for a council of war as we explained over the telephone,” he remarked. “To-night we must decide some course of defense.”
“We are honored by this visit from you,” said Dr. Scott with evident respect. “It is not often that the President of so powerful a state comes to the humble home of a scientist to speak of war and national defense.”
“Unusual situations, such as this one certainly is, must be met by unusual measures,” replied the President, smiling again. “Besides, Dr. Angell has told me many interesting things about you and Mr. Henderson here. It is a pleasure to meet you in your own home and to see the curious laboratory you have built here.”
Dr. Scott piloted the group to easy chairs before the open fire in the library. This room and the laboratory were both on the ground floor, communicating with each other through enormous folding doors. In these two rooms, the one fitted with the most modern apparatus for physical, chemical, and other research, the other equipped with those quiet luxuries for body and mind which make association with good books doubly pleasant, Dr. Scott spent most of his waking hours. The little world in which he lived was stamped indelibly with his personality. Secluded and peaceful, separated completely in many ways from contact with the outer world, it was nevertheless a place where the affairs of that world and the universe were most closely studied and analyzed.
The President glanced about him appreciatively, smiling particularly at Anna as she came in with coffee for every one, while Dr. Scott stirred up the fire. The War Secretary arose and bowed. He remained standing until the girl had gone out of the room again.
“You have a most charming daughter,” he commented to Dr. Scott.
It was King who turned the discussion to the problem of defense.
“Is there anything new in South America?” he asked.
The Secretary shook his head.
“Not a thing,” he replied. “The fact is, I believe we have them completely bluffed. They haven’t stirred out of Montevideo, and it’s ten days now since they took the town. Aside from the defenses they’ve thrown up there and along the coast at intervals clear to the head of the causeway, they appear to have been completely inactive. Why they haven’t, by some roundabout route, marched their tanks on Buenos Aires I have not been able to figure out, but it is probable that they have learned in some way of the deep moats we have built there and know that they cannot cross with their moving forts.”
Dr. Angell put his fingertips together in a large gesture of satisfaction.
“It seems like a return to ancient methods of warfare, in a way,” he continued, “but so far it has worked.”
Dr. Scott stirred angrily.
“It’s a return to ancient methods on your part,” he declared, “but what of their methods? A resourceful people will not be stopped long by your moats and your medieval fighting equipment!”
“They have been stopped for ten days by it.”
“Perhaps. and perhaps also they have merely been playing with you.”
“Well, there’ll be no playing when they do come. I have sent eighty thousand additional troops to guard the city and more than half the big flame-throwers in South America. They will find the city garrisoned and ready for their attack.
“And as for their weapons. !” the voice of the Secretary was contemptuous. “Their attack on Montevideo showed beyond a doubt that all they have is their armor and jets of steam. Steam is all they had to shoot us with. Steam!” Dr. Angell spat vigorously into the fire.
“In the attack upon Montevideo, at least,” put in Dr. Scott mildly, “their armor and their steam seemed sufficient. At least your defenders thought so.”
The Secretary retorted hotly. “You seem to think you have to take the part of these Asians,” he declared. “You discovered them; you have to stick up for them!”
“Gentlemen,” remarked the President quietly, “we all agree that the invasion is serious, and we have come here to-night to ask Dr. Scott if there is any way, in his opinion, by which these people may be driven back to the other side of the world, where they belong.”
He looked at the scientist inquiringly, with evident sincerity and respect. Dr. Scott was silent for a moment, going over the matter carefully in his mind.
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“We will come directly to the point,” he replied at length. “I could delude you with certain vague promises, but I prefer to face the truth. I know of no way to make effective resistance against this invasion.”
The Secretary sat stiffly in his chair, making no comment. The President, however, leaned forward, speaking with great intensity.
“But have you no suggestions, no theories upon which we could work? Dr. Scott, we have tried to battle with these men in our own way with methods we have worked out for ordinary wars. and we have failed. The best military heads in the country have conferred on the matter and admit themselves unable to cope with the new foe. Do you realize that Mr. Henderson and yourself are, therefore, our only hope; that on you depends the safety of the Western Hemisphere, and it may be, that of the world itself?”
Dr. Scott nodded.
“Yes,” he said, “but knowledge of the need alone will never solve the problem. The whole crux of the matter lies in that metallic substance which these people make and use, which defies alike unlimited heat and explosive force. It appears to have many of the properties of steel, in that it can be used for engines and moving cars, and yet it has none of the weaknesses of the strongest metals we know.
“If we had any idea what that substance is and how it is made, we might be saved, for not only could we make similar armor for ourselves, but we could also learn some method of destroying theirs.”
“Without an actual sample to work on, is it possible to draw any conclusions about the nature of the substance?” asked the President.
Dr. Scott considered.
“I’ve been thinking about it quite a little,” he replied, “and it seems logical to conclude certain things. It is apparent, for instance, that the substance is not a chemical element, but a compound. If it were an element and existed in such quantities, it is unlikely that it would have remained so long undiscovered in the Western Hemisphere. Further, if it were an element, and as it appears, virtually heat-proof, how could the Asians melt it and work it up into armor? They can produce no greater heat than we can; at least that statement was certainly true before they had made their boring through the earth; yet they had this armor more than five years ago, and with it conquered all the East.
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