The Moon Colony

by William Dixon Bell

  CHAPTER XXI

  Crickets Swarming to War

  On and on, fluttering side by side, the two gliders descended,circling hour after hour with sufficient motor power to keep them fromtumbling into a crack up, but continuing steadily downward—slowly butsurely. There was no possible escape. They would go on downwardforever or fall through the moon.

  Through the mysterious cavern lamps which Moawha had taken from theheads of the pigmies who attacked them in the cave they could seequite plainly although everything appeared very strange. For a longtime Epworth watched the red planes of Joan’s glider anxiously butfinally ascertaining that she was following him closely and imitatinghis movements he turned to Billy.

  “Well, young fellow, give an account of yourself. We went to the caveto find you and you had disappeared and taken with you all of oursupplies.”

  “I disappeared but I did not take the supplies,” Billy replied. “Somefairy got the supplies. I expect if you raked his back you would finda cricket.”

  And then he told of what had happened to him. Shortly after Epworthand Joan went to the Aerolite, while he was standing by his gliderworking with the bicycle pedals an army of crickets came out of therear of the cave and surrounded him so stealthily that he did not knowthey were present until they had made him a prisoner. They carried himback into the cave, moved the supplies quickly, and closed up the cavewith heavy boulders. Then they took him on a long journey throughnumerous and winding dark caves, conveying him on the back of two ofthe crickets bound hands and feet.

  “Boy,” Billy whispered in awe, “that journey was ghostly. Two largecrickets lined up on each side of me, and believe it or not theirbacks gave out a phosphorous glow that lighted up that cavern, andmade the journey easy for my captors. I have been wondering all thistime how it was that two crickets could give out a glow and the otherswere black as midnight.”

  “Easy, lad. They had rubbed some of that phosphorous mineral on theirbacks. A mineral powerful enough to light up a whole crater miles incircumference could readily be utilized as a personal light.”

  “I’m handing it to you, boy,” Billy exclaimed admiringly. “You’ve gota brain. I never thought of that.”

  “Go on with your story,” Epworth retorted smiling, “and do not askquestions.”

  “I didn’t ask a single question,” Billy snorted. “You butted in withan answer when I was merely stating a fact. However there is not muchmore to the story. I was carried to a large chamber, dumped on thefloor and left. When I was able to look around Moawha was near mesimilarly trussed up. My hands being small I after a time succeeded inworking the cords over my wrists and then cut myself free, and freedMoawha. So far so good. But it was too good to last. About the time wewere ready to try to sneak out of the chamber two pigmies entered. Ishot at them like a rocket but could not get to them in time to stopthe singing chirp they sent out calling the crickets to theirassistance. Of course I put up all the fight that was in me, andMoawha helped quite a bit but they were too much for us, and again wewere bound and lashed until it was impossible to break loose. In thiscondition we were carried to the chamber where you found us, andshortly after we were thrown on the floor Toplinsky was brought in.Here we were held prisoners until you came, our food consisting ofdried fruits and water. Not so bad but Lady Baltimore cake and hamand—would go mighty fine for a change.”

  He glanced ahead, and jammed the rudder quickly.

  “Watch where you are going,” he bawled out. “You came mighty nearwrecking us on that sharp extension of the crater.”

  The glider turned abruptly, and dropped rapidly for several secondsbefore Epworth could level out.

  “What is getting the matter with these things on my eyes?” Billydemanded petulantly. “It is getting dark. I can’t see a thing belowus, and ten minutes ago I could see the walls of the crater easily.”

  Epworth stared around. It seemed that they had been suddenly engulfedin a gloom that the night spectacles would not penetrate. Had theircavern lamps suddenly grown useless from age, or had they been brokenin some way? It was an annoying interrogation. To go on, and on, andon, through everlasting darkness was appalling, fearful, mentallydestructive.

  “Moawha says remove your cavern lamps,” Joan called out. “We must bedrifting into some kind of a light.”

  When Epworth removed the head gear, and carefully placed it around hisneck so that he could quickly replace it on his head, he discoveredthat the walls of the crater were no longer visible although there wasan eery, mysterious light all around. It was not a phosphorous glowbecause there were no rocks or vegetation to give out such a glow. Itwas a dim light of day, and they were falling through space.

  When he looked downward he saw no land.

  “Heavens,” he muttered, “we have dropped entirely through the moon,and are we now sailing out into space?”

  They fell a mile before the interrogation was answered. Then the lightgrew brighter and they saw beneath them trees, rivers, green rollinghills.

  “Heaven be praised!” Joan cried out with a shout of joy. “At last weare getting somewhere. It must be Moawha’s home. She was laughing,chattering, and cooing to me in an unknown tongue.”

  They landed gently on a high hill overlooking a large valley but themoment she got out of the glider and looked around, Moawha lost herenthusiasm, and grasping Joan by the arm ran hurriedly to a densethicket of undergrowth to hide.

  “Come with us,” she called in a low tone to Epworth and Billy. “Hidethe gliders and then hunt cover.”

  They followed her instructions, and when they were hidden in theundergrowth, she caught Epworth by the arm, tiptoed to the edge of thethicket and pointed down into a part of the valley he had not seen.His eyes opened wide at what he saw.

  Ten thousand pigmy men were marching across the field in militaryformation, drilling, shouldering arms, charging an imaginary foe, andpracticing all the arts of war preparatory to engaging in a shambattle.

  “Queen Carza’s soldiers,” Moawha explained briefly. “If we arecaptured we will be taken back to the cricket hive. Carza’s soldiershave succeeded in gaining a complete mastery over the crickets. Theyfight us, kill us, and give our bodies to the crickets to eat, andthey pay the crickets by giving them fruits and vegetables. Forthousands of years they have been doing this, and when they succeededin kidnaping me they probably demoralized my fighting men, and are nowpreparing to make a bold attack on them. With the help of this greatgiant that came with you I am fearfully afraid they will make mypeople slaves, although there are not more than fifty thousandpigmies, and there are two million Selinites. With the crickets to aidthem, however, they have a larger fighting force than we have.”

  Without replying Epworth returned to the gliders, and pushed themdeeper beneath the foliage of the thicket and planted limbs over, andaround them.

  “First,” he remarked, “we must eat, and then sleep. Nature can go verylittle farther.”

  They lunched from the supplies left in the gliders, and then stretchedout beneath the undergrowth. Joan thought she would never sleep againbecause of the nervous strain but in this she was mistaken. She was,in fact, the first to close her eyes.

  They were awakened by a loud chirping of crickets and a whizzing soundin the air. Moawha started to jump up excitedly but Epworth stoppedher.

  “No,” he commanded in a low voice, “lie still. We may be discovered.”Moawha burst out into tears.

  “What is the matter?” Joan asked solicitously.

  “The crickets are coming out of the caverns in swarms to attack mypeople.”

  She pointed upward. When Joan looked up she saw a black cloud sweepingdown from above and shooting far out over the land.

  “They are all armed,” Epworth observed thoughtfully, “and to——”

  “Get to my people we will have to pass through them, over them oraround them,” Moawha finished, and then added naively: “May I notexpect you two gallant soldiers to aid me in defending my people?”

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bsp; “You can sure count on me,” Billy asserted quickly. “I am for you,Moawha, as long as there is life in my body.”

  Epworth grinned, and glanced at Joan. Joan’s eyes twinkled merrily.

  “Most assuredly, Moawha, we will help you,” she replied for Epworth.“To the bitter end but we will hope that it will be a happy end.”

  “If your king will help me my people will win,” Moawha declaredemphatically. “He is a greater man than the giant.”

  She put her hand timidly on Epworth’s shoulder, and looked into hiseyes inquiringly. The young man turned his head in embarrassment.

  “You can count on me,” he replied soberly. “But when you put me upagainst Toplinsky you are making a mistake. He is unquestionably thegreatest scientist, and the most ruthless robber and scoundrel thatever lived.”

  “And that is where Julian has him beat,” Joan put in. “God is on theside of right, and Julian is the kind of man who fights always on theside of right so we are bound to win.”

  “G’wan, Joan, you embarrass me. Look upward, and note what we are upagainst.”

  Another cloud of crickets was shooting across the sky, and now theycould see Toplinsky and Queen Carza riding in state on the backs offour of the largest insects.