Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 156: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

790 and presently high explosive bombs began dropping with frightful havoc among my as- tounded troops, who once more broke and ran. In a few paraparths the planes would be over the city. I dispatched Poblath on the run to the university, and soon my human sense of hearing was rewarded by a sharp crack- crack-crack from the Mechanics building. The first plane toppled and fell. The second. And then the third. The others, sensing a power beyond their ability to combat, wheeled and withdrew. Our armies reformed and once more advanced toward Formia. The first of my huge secret ma- chines, an antiaircraft gun, had spoken. Soon messengers brought word that in- tense fighting was in progress for the pos- session of the Third Gate. Of course it would be many days before our forces could reach the western two, but the bulk of the populations of both countries lived near the Third Gate, due to the mountainous nature of the country to the west. Then came news that the Formians at the Third Gate had been flanked by some of our men who had surmounted the pale with scaling ladders. The Third Gate fell into the hands of Cupia. Our victorious armies were on enemy soil. This was far better than the last advance, just before the armistice, in the war against Germany, for now there was to be no armistice. It was war to the hilt! And it satisfied the sporting sense of all Cupia, that the Formians had invaded and at- tacked first. A special detachment of Mooni trained aviators and mechanics had gone at once to the three planes as soon as we had shot them down, and now one of them arose into the air fully repaired. The moment had arrived for the final master stroke in the Cupian national game of war. For the second huge machine in the courtyard of the Department of Me- chanics was a sixteen inch barbette coast artillery rifle, which had been trained upon the Imperial City of the ant queen, by exact elevation and azimuth, carefully com- puted by Buh Tedn. The huge gun boomed forth. Again and again it boomed, as our spotting plane re- ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ported for adjustment of fire. Finally, just at nightfall, the signal came to cease firing. The Imperial City, from which Queen For- mis had been directing her troops, was totally destroyed, and with it presumably the queen and her friend and ally, the rene- gade Yuri. Our armies still pressed forward into For- mia, guarded from air attack by the three repaired planes and by the antiaircraft gun, which had been sent fcrward by kerkool. I was jubilant. But not so, apparently, King Kew. “What is the matter, sire?” I asked. ‘““Why do you look so sad on this glorious day of deliverance? Are you thinking of our poor boys who have fallen?” “No,” he replied, ‘I did not dare tell you before, for fear that your well known impetuousity would disrupt our plans. But now you can know. The Princess Lilla has been missing since morning. The fact that all of her clothes are intact, except her sleeping robe, leads me to think that she must have been kidnaped during the night.” “My God!” I ejaculated in English. Then turning the command over to Hah Babbuh, and instructing him to move his headquarters to the Third Gate in the morn- ing, I hastened to the apartments of my sweetheart. Bthuh met me there in tears and said: ‘“ My princess is dead, my princess is dead! Last night, through connivance with me, Prince Yuri drugged her with saffra root and spirited her away to the Imperial City of Formia. I knew all your plans, except the purposes of your two huge cannons, or I should have warned Yuri of those, too. I thought merely to spoil your victory and so gain my revenge. The old king, too, had spurned my amorous advances, and so I de- clared war on Cupia. But Cupia has won in spite of me, and as a punishment for my perfidy my beloved mistress has perished.”’ There could be no doubt of it. Every living thing in the city of the queen had been destroyed. My victory was turned to ashes. In despair I sank upon a couch and buried my face in my hands. But comforting arms stole arownd my shoulders, and @ soft voice spoke in my antenna: “‘ Cabot, can you ever forgive me? Eomicbooks (S@)