Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 146 No. 4 — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

THE T had learned from hearing his men address him. I do not know why that smile reas- sured me, but it did. It seemed somehow to make these enemies less inhuman—less supernatural—in my mind. Indeed, I was fast losing my first fear of them, although I still had a great respect for the way in which they had killed Mercer. Tao told his men to wait, and motioned me toward the house. The bodies of Mer- cer and the man I had struck down were still lying where they had fallen on the porch. We found food and water in the kitchen, and I sat down and made a meal, while Tao stood watching me. When I had finished I put several slices of bread and meat in my coat. He signified that it was unnecessary, but I insisted, and he smiled again and let me have my way. Again we started off. This walk of four miles of desert that lay between Garland aid the point on the Shoshone River where the invaders were established was about all I could manage, for I was almost exhaust- ed. I realized then how great an exertion the Mercutians were put to, for they seemed nearly as tired as I. We stopped frequent- ly to rest, and it was well after noon when we approached the hollow through which the Shoshone River ran. Several times I noticed where the Mer- cutian Light had burned off the scrubby desert vegetation. As we got closer I could ‘see it now in the sunlight, standing verti- cally up in the air, motionless. There were signs all about now where the light had burned. We were passing along a little gully—the country here was somewhat rough and broken up—when something came abruptly from behind arock. Its ex- traordinary appearance startled me so I stared at it in amazement and fear. It came closer, and I saw it was one of the Mercutians. He was completely incased in a suit of dull black cloth, or rubber, or something of the kind. On his head was a helmet of the same material, with a mask over his face having two huge circular openings covered with a flexible, transparent substance. On his back was a sort of tank with a pipe leading to his mouth. He looked, indeed, TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK... A FIRE PEOPLE. 499 something like a man in a diving suit, and _ still more like the pictures I had seen of soldiers in the World War with gas masks: on. He pulled off his helmet as he came up to us, and I saw he was: similar in ap- pearance to the red-haired Mercutians who had captured me. After a short conversation with Tao he went back to his station by the rock, and we proceeded onward down the gully to the river bank. I saw a number of Mercu- tians dressed this way during the afternoon. They seemed to be guarding the approaches to the camp, and I decided later this cos- tume was for protection against the effects of the light-ray. The Shoshone River was at this point about two hundred feet wide, and-at this season of the year a swift-moving, icy stream some two or three feet deep. There were small trees at intervals along its banks. All about me now I could see where they had been burned by the action of the light. The vehicle in which the invaders had arrived lay on the near side of the river, some five hundred feet below where we came out of the gully. It was similar in appearance to the one Alan had found in Florida, only many times larger. It lay there now, with its pyramid-shaped top pointing up into the air, close beside the river, and gleaming a dazzling white under the rays of the afternoon sun. There were perhaps a hundred Mercu- tians in sight altogether. Most of them were down by the vehicle; all of them were on this side of the river. In fact, as I soon realized, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for them to have crossed. ‘The desert on the opposite side of the Shoshone was level and unbroken. It was swept clear of everything, apparently, by the light-ray. We turned down the river bank, and soon were close to the shining vehicle that had brought these strange invaders from space. What would I see in this camp of the first beings to reach earth from another planet? What fate awaited me there? These ques- : tions hammered at my brain as we ap- proached the point where so much death and destruction had been dealt out to the surrounding country. nmoiclboooks Conn