Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 158: what you’re looking at

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

2192 mercy of our guide. He had too much re- spect for the dum-dum bullets, however, and was easily hauled off of me and placed under _ arrest. My men then proceeded to hack their way into the dugeon, and we at once fol- Icwed the trail of the princess. This was not easy, for the city was a total wreck. A hundred ways presented themselves, through which her captor might have crawled. So we withdrew and threw a cordon around the entire city, dispatching a few searching parties again into the in- terior. This was made possible by additional reénforcements from headquarters. As luck would have it, the ant-man finally made his appearance, with Lilla held tightly in his jaws, at the very point in the line of sentries where I happened to be. Instantly a dozen rifles covered him. But he radiated the peremptory com- mand: ‘Stop! Put down your rifles.” ‘Put them down,” I ordered. “‘ Now,” he continued, “ if a rifle is raised again, I bite, and the princess dies. She lives only on condition that I am given safe passage, with her as my prisoner. Once within our lines she will be treated well, for she will prove a valuable hostage to support the demands of Formis for a return to power.” ‘“ Formis is dead,” I objected. “ One Formis is dead,’ he replied. “ But there are always maggots which we can feed up to make a new queen.” At this point Lilla interjected faintly: “ Bite, oh Formian, for I would-die, rather than betray my country.” But I said: ‘“ You may proceed. Nota rifle will be raised against you, for the prin- cess must be saved.” Nothing however was said about re- volvers, and evidently he was unacquainted with that weapon. As he passed through our lines, keeping a careful watch on the rifles of our sentries, I fired my revolver from the hip; and a moment later Lilla was clasped safely in my arms. Tenderly we greeted each other. She was parched and hungry, and our first task was to give her food and drink, which were easily found among the ruins. Thera came explanations. had She ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. awakened to find herself in the dungeon about noon of the cay before. Yuri had in- formed her that the Cupian attack had been met and stopped, and that airplanes were about to destroy Kuana. Then he had been hurriedly called away, and she had seen no one since. She could hardly be- lieve us when we told her that the attack had been a success, that Queen Formis was dead, and that the power of Formia was broken forever. When she had rested, I at once sent her home under guard in a kerkool? and myself proceeded to headquarters to learn how the war was progressing. Much as I longed to accompany her, my first duty was to my country. To Number 356-1-400, before leaving, I gratefully offered an honorable freedom in Cupia, but he scornfully replied that he would rather die fighting for his own country. I respected his attitude, and so gave him a safe-conduct through our lines to rejoin his own troops. Later in the war his number was reported to me as being among the casualties. At headquarters I found Hah Babbuh in fine spirits. The power of Formia was broken indeed! Our troops had slept in the field under tartan leaves, and had been supplied with food by kerkool from Kuana. In the morn- ing they had attacked again, and the slight remaining Formian resistance had complete- ly collapsed. Advance parties of our forces had occupied without resistance all the ant- cities within easy reach by auto, and foot soldiers were now taking over these cities, which would furnish food and shelter for large numbers of our troops. Some air- planes had actually been shot down by rifle fire, as well as by our captured planes and by our lone antiaircraft gun. _Wautoosa had fallen into our hands and with it a number of planes, which thus were added to our steadily growing air-force. Kerkools were patrolling all the roads, shooting ant- men at sight. : Hah was particularly jubilant over what had happened at Mooni. Early on Peace, Day, the Cupian students had somehow received word of what was afoot. Joining with the slaves, they had slightly out- cComicbooks:com