Flying Legion

by George Allan England

  CHAPTER XXXI

  EAST AGAINST WEST

  The major, peering down through the trap, swore luridly. Leclairmuttered something to himself, with wrinkled brow. "Captain Alden's"eyes blinked strangely, through the holes of the mask. The othersstared in frank astonishment.

  "What the devil, sir--?" began the major; but the chief held uphis hand for silence. Again he spoke whisperingly into the strangeapparatus. This time a murmur rose to him; a murmur increasing to aconfused tumult, that in an angry wave of malediction beat up aboutNissr as she hung there with spinning helicopters, over the city.

  The Master smiled as he put up the receiver in the little box andclosed the door with a snap. Regretfully he shook his head.

  "These Arabic gentlemen, _et al_," he remarked, "don't seem agreeablydisposed to treat with us on a basis of exchanging the Sheik Abd elRahman for what we want from them. My few remarks in Arabic, via thisetheric megaphone, seem to have met a rebuff. Every man in the Haram,the minarets, the arcade, and the radiating streets heard every word Isaid, gentlemen, as plainly as if I had spoken directly into his ear.Yet no sound at all developed here."

  "The principle is parallel to that of an artillery shell that onlybursts when it strikes, and might be extremely useful in warfare,if properly developed--as I haven't had time, yet, to develop it. Nomatter about that, though. My proposal has been rejected. Peace havingbeen declined, we have no alternative but to use other, means.There is positively no way of coming to an agreement with our Moslemfriends, below."

  As if to corroborate his statement, a rifle-bullet whistled throughthe open trap and flattened itself against the metal underbody of thefuselage, over their heads. It fell almost at "Captain Alden's" feet.She picked it up and pocketed it.

  "My first bit of Arabia," said she. "Worth keeping."

  The firing, below, had now become more general than ever. Shrill criesrose to Allah for the destruction of these infidel flying dogs. TheMaster paid no more heed to them than to the buzzing of so many bees.

  "I think, Major," said he, "we shall have to use one of the twokappa-ray bombs on these Arabic gentry. It's rather too bad we haven'tmore of them, and that the capsules are all gone."

  "Pardon me, my Captain," put in Leclair, "but theparalysis-vibrations, eh? As you did to me, why not to them?"

  "Impossible. The way we're crippled, now, I haven't the equipment. ButI shall nevertheless be able to show you something, Lieutenant. Majorwill you kindly drop one of the kappa-rays?"

  He gestured at two singular-looking objects that stood on the metalfloor of the lower gallery, about six feet from the trap. Cubicalobjects they were, some five inches on the edge, each enclosed in whatseemed a tough, black, leather-like substance netted with stout whitecords that were woven together into a handle at the top.

  Strong as Bohannan was, his face grew red, with swollen veins inforehead and neck, as he tried to lift this small object. Nothing inthe way of any known substance could possibly have weighed so much;not even solid lead or gold.

  "Faith!" grunted the major. "What the devil? These two little metalboxes didn't weigh a pound apiece when--ugh!--when we packed 'em inour bags. How about it, chief?"

  The Master smiled with amusement.

  "They weren't magnetized then, Major," he answered. "Shall I havesomeone help you?"

  "No, by God! I'll either lift this thing or die, right here!" the Celtpanted, redder still. But he did not lift the little cube. The best hecould do was to drag it, against mighty resistance, to the edge of thetrap; and with a last, mighty heave, project it into space.

  As it left the trap, _Nissr_ rocked and swayed, showing how great aweight had been let drop. Down sped the little, netted cube, whirlingin the sunlight. Its speed was almost that of a rifle-ball--so far inexcess of anything that could have been produced by gravitation as tosuggest that some strange, magnetic force was hurling it earthward,like a metal-filing toward an electro-magnet. It dwindled to nothing,in a second, and vanished.

  All peered over the rail, eager with anticipation. No explosionfollowed, but the most astonishing thing happened. All at once,without any preliminary disturbance, the ground became white. Aperfect silence fell on the Haram and the city for perhaps half a mileon all sides of the sacred enclosure Haram and streets, roof-tops,squares all looked as if suddenly covered with deep snow.

  This whiteness, however, was not snow, but was produced by the_ihrams_ of the pilgrims now coming wholly to view.

  Instead of gazing down on the heads of the multitude--all bare heads,as the Prophet commands for pilgrims--the Legionaries now foundthemselves looking at their whole bodies. Every pilgrim in sighthad instantaneously fallen to the earth, on the gravel of the Haram,along the raised walks from the porticoes to the Ka'aba, on the marbletiling about the Ka'aba itself, even in the farthest visible streets.

  The white-clad figures lay piled on each other in grotesque attitudesand heaps. Even the stone tank at the north-west side of the Ka'aba,under the famous Myzab, or Golden Waterspout on the Ka'aba roof, washeaped full of them; and all round the sacred Zem Zem well they lay insilent windrows, reaped down by some silent, invisible force.

  In the remote suburbs and out on the plain, the Legionaries'binoculars could still see a swarming of white figures; but all theimmediate vicinity was now wholly silent, motionless. To and fro theMaster swept his glasses, and nodded with satisfaction.

  "You have now fifteen minutes, men," said he, "before the paralyzingshock of that silent detonation--that noiseless release of molecularenergies which does not kill nor yet destroy consciousness in theleast--will pass away. So--"

  "You mean to tell me, my Captain, _those pilgrims are stillconscious?_" demanded Leclair, amazed.

  "Perfectly. They will see, hear, and know all you do. I wish them to.The effect will be salutary, later. But they cannot move or interfere.All you have to look out for is the incoming swarm of fanatics alreadyon the move. So there is no time to be lost. Into the nacelle, anddown with you!"

  "But if they try to rush us you can drop the other bomb, can't you?"demanded the major, as they all clambered into the nacelle.

  The Master smiled, as he laid his hands on top of the basket andcast his eyes over the equipment there, noting that machine-guns,pick-axes, crowbars, and all were in position.

  "The idea does you credit, Major," said he. "The fact that the otherbomb would of course completely paralyze you and your men, here, isnaturally quite immaterial. Let us have no more discussion, please.Only fourteen minutes, thirty seconds now remain before the _Hujjaj_will begin to recover their muscular control. You have your work cutout for you, the next quarter-hour!"

  The Master raised his hand in signal to Grison, at the electric winchA turn of a lever, and the nacelle rose from the metals of the lowergallery. It swung over the trap and was steadied there, a moment, bymany hands. The raiding-party leaped in.

  "Lower away!" commanded the chief

  Smoothly the winch released the fine steel cable, with a purringsound. Down shot the nacelle, steadily, swiftly, with the major,Leclair, and the others now engaged in the most perilous, dare-devilundertaking imaginable.

  Down, swiftly down, to raid the _Bayt Ullah_, the sacred Ka'aba, holyof holies to more than two hundred million Moslem fanatics, each ofwhom would with joy have died to keep the hand of the unbelievingdog from so much as touching that hoar structure or the earth of theinviolate Haram.

  Down, swiftly down with picks and crowbars. Down, into the midst ofall that paralyzed but still conscious hate, to the very place of thesupremely sacred Black Stone, itself.