Avon Fantasy Reader No. 14 — page 82: what you’re looking at

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

clared. Just as he did in the Senate, Premier Plautz dominated this body. At once he asked the Chief of the Air Service if his corps was prepared for war. “We are, Your Excellency!” was the unexpected reply from Colonel Van Dort. “We are prepared for war, but we are also prepared for more than the attack. I have in readiness one thousand planes, each manned by two expe- rienced aviators. At your command, the air service will begin the assault, but I warn you in advance that we will lose one thousand planes and two thou- sand men at the first attack. We are prepared—for Death!” “That is the speech of a coward. Are all of the corps like you?” demanded Premier Plautz. “I am informed the Moronians have only a few air craft. Of what are you afraid?” “We fear nothing,” replied Van Dort, white with suppressed anger, “but we know the truth. Since the last war, Moronia has perfected some kind of a lightray. A machine is placed every mile along their entire border, From these machines rays go out, presumably in a fan shape. When the ray strikes an airplane, the engine not only stops but apparently explodes. No one knows how high in the air these rays go—we have never been able to rise above the range of their power. We have been experimenting and have found no way of defending the plane against the ray. So far, twenty of our planes, disguised as commercial machines, have been destroyed and our aviators killed. In every instance the bodies were brought to the frontier by the Moronians, and each time they simply explained that something went wrong with the ma- chinery and the plane dropped in their country. We have every reason to believe that they have pertected some power which will render impossible any attack on the enemy by the air. What happened to twenty planes will happen to a thousand. That is why'l said my corps was prepared for death.” The Premier started to pound the table with his fist, “Why was I not in- formed of this? What has been done to protect our machines? The destruc- tion of one plane was enough to justify a new war. What have you been doing besides skulking in cowardice?” “I made daily reports to the Chief-of-Staff,” retorted Van Dort. “The en- tire matter 3s on record. For a month our Department of Physics and Chemis- try has been working on this problem. They thought they had a satisfactory defense, and the last ten planes were supposed to have been protected, but they crumpled like the first ten.” “Colonel Van Dort is right,” interrupted the Chief-of-Staff, General Hur- Jung. “All reports have been filed regularly and a daily summary has been sent to your office. After all, it is a purely military problem. We still have the other arms of the service, the cavalry, artillery and infantry. With our cavalry alone we could overrun Moronia. We need not worry about the air service.” “Oh! I suppose so. I suppose so!” replied the Premier petulantly. “Still I wanted to blow them into hell with air bombs—all of them, men, women , and children.” “But if you did that you would also destroy property,” argued General Hurlung. “The infantry can wipe out the population just as effectively with- out the loss of a single structure, What worries me is this: They have a powerful ray of some kind which we know can destroy a plane at ten thou- : 80 comiclsooks.com