Air Wonder Stories, May 1930 — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

A , Py ™ PY ; < Une Gee AIR WONDER STORIES and ran for home. Tt was. D’Arcy who stated a decisive opinion of: the meaning of that maneuver, Apparently, unaware that the Earthlings were preparing for war, the Venusians had waited only fong enough to discover the result of their experiments with their fifteen’ thousand captives, The resulté had: been good, and they had prepared a half dozen flyers to descend upon Earth again and kidnap six times that number! They were utterly routed on discovering that the Earthlings were on their way to Venus, and they were hurrying back to their planet to warn: their cohorts! Such was D’Arcy's- theory. However, the Venusians did not descend to their: planet, but appeared to be awaiting the arrival of the Earthlings. They were merely keeping themselves a few thousand miles ahead of the round globes! That their ships were capable of a tre- mendons speed’ was proved by. the easy. manner in which they had encircled the Earthlings. Now Ware ordered their own speed increased to its limit of 250,000 miles per hour. Imme- diately the Venusians increased their own, determined, no doubt, to keep their distance! e ( HIS Was vastly puzzling to the Earthlings. Was it that the Venusians were awaiting—reinforcements, since they were outnumbered two to one? Why ‘were they. content just to keep ahead? Why should they wish their planet torn by strife, if remforcements were not forthcoming? Were they leading the Earthlings into a trap? It could scarcely be more -than strategy on-their part! - On, on they continued with the Venusians in full view, -bright dights marking their position. The void was otherwise in- * tensely black with the great shining ball-of- the sun glaring so brilliantly on their left as to blind anyone who dared to gaze directly into it, The mighty corona was plainly visible and great prominences that shot out thousands upon thousands of mifes into space. Professor D’Arcy spent most of- the journey viewing that great star through his dark glasses, This was a year itt which sun-spots were numerous, and through a telescope of his own devising, he watched a great spot that lay close to the latitude of six degrees, He estimated it to be 50,000. miles across, and was vastly put out that he had not ° brought some photographic plates with him. The Earthlings Speak O the rear and-somewhat to the left of-them lay Mother Earth, now a bluish-white globe that to the voyagers ap- peared to be the most beautiful sight in the great Universe, Gradually she had grown smaller-and smaller -as*Venus grew larger. On all sides could be seen the stars, some so’ distant that even our great sum would have: appeared as but a pin- point of light to them. The fact that they could-be seen at all attested to their own-tremendous size, Out in the. void it seenied as though a great many more stars could be observed than from Earth, D’Arcy explained that this was true, since the light of many of them did-not penetrate Earth’s atmosphere. Venus was: now shining with-a clear blue light and in another two days and a half they would reach her, It was then that they saw-a meteor hurtling directly in their path! All through the trip-meteorites had been seen to drop on all sides of the space-flyers, and more than once they had had to swerve from their path-to avoid them. Yoto Murca was even now studying a-method by which the spheres could be warned of their coming, since it became a nerve-racking task for. the outlooks to keep watch- for the speeding missiles. Now as- the meteor appeared pandemonium reigned for: a few minutes in the ships. But as the great mass was seen to pass-hundreds of miles to theirleft all fear was gone and they could only watch-it in awed wonder. It appeared tobe heading directly-into-the great burning globe of the sun, and though-its head did pass through the corona it was seen to pass beyond the star. “ ETER another day had passed Venus lay due ahead, filling the entire prospect before them, And as the Earth ships approached they realized that the Venusian ships had: deliber- ately slowed down ‘and were waiting. for them, planning to follow them into the great swirling cloud masses that were hiding the face of the planet, Against this blanket the ships could plainly be seen. For hours now the spheres had been slackening their speed-so that when they did reach the cloud masses they were not moving at more than five hundred. miles per hour. Then further braking their speed they were swim- ming into the perpetual fogs of Venus and their brightest head- lights were switched on in an effort to cut the mist. Occa- sionally, through the swirls, they-could see one or another of the Venusian machines, and it was noticeable that they were leading them \onward to some specific point of ‘their world. The space-flyers were put in readiness for an attack! They were now dropping steadily, and when they estimated that they were 100 miles above the surface they saw a lake appear below, although the Earthlings did not at first recog- nize the ochraceous yellow. substance as liquid, Only the wave- like motion proved this to be the case. Moving at_an altitude of about five thousand feet.the ship swept along no faster than one hundred and fifty miles per hour. The Venusian vessels were almost wholly visible, for here close to the lake the clouds had cleared perceptibly. It was then that Commander Ware ordered ‘his ships prepared for battle. A double V was formed with |The Mentor in the center. Thefirst two ships of the line were ordered to_let loose'the blue beam upon the-hind- most Venusian. Immediately the ship was seen to waver, to race suddenly ahead, then come to a halt before it plunged nose first down to the lake below. It plunged into the yellow ‘flood to bob back tothe stirface where it rolled and tossed with the waves. The Earthlings had: spoken! A Strange Battle S the single ship dropped to the water the other Venusians / went scurrying into the mists, Immediately Ware sent out the order for four ships to follow and disable them as the first had been disabled. It was then that a strange whistle sounded in the radio amplifiers on a longer. wavelength than the Earth ships had utilized and a friendly voice was heard. “Greetings, friends!” cried the voice, in their own tongue] “On-and at them, but call your ships from the clouds! There the Zoldans have them bested! Keep to sea level.” “Who: is- this speaking?” demanded the operator of The Mentor. “Don’t bother about that now, but call your ships down, or in a minute it will be too late!” Ware, who had been standing close to the amplifier, wisely acted upon the order and hastened to recall-the ships, realizing that here was a-friend who Imew for-a certainty what to ex- pect. A minute thereafter two of the spheres were seen to drop from the clouds. Ware. directed that they return to for- mation, but they did not respond! Instead they were falling straight down to the yellow ocean, They took the. plunge not far from the floating Venusian, throwing up waves-and épray, then-coming to the surface and rolling over and over |! “Sorry, they. got-your ships,” observed the strange voice in the radio. “However, their range is no greater than a mile or two,-so if you can reach them at a greater distance you are safe: Good luck to you.” Tt was evident that there were friends down onthe planet who had managed to construct a radio equal to their own. The two remaining scouts now appeared from the cloud banks and- were being followed by the long cylindrical shapes of the Venusian ships. From -the foremost ship: appeared. the wide blue beam that enveloped the leading cylinder, which imme- diately took its plunge, Again the others ran into the clouds, but this time the Earth ships stayed close to the water, waiting for them to make their appearance, comicReoks com | (ine