Air Wonder Stories, May 1930 — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

_ Diain at a low level, searching for Alicia and her captors, * There below it lay the huddled masses of dead’ Bat-men, but nowhere was there a sign of life of any kind, The surviving Bat-men had disappeared as completely as though they had deserted the craters. CHAPTER VI An Elemental Copbat LICIA, surprised by the sudden essa t, had been too ter- Av to think of using-the automatic still in the holster at her belt, although she had-seen the dreadful shapes in time to haye accounted for at least one. But the next moment it- was impossible, She had. -been lifted from the ground with a:Bat-man on either side cruelly clutching her arms. Alicia was.a girl of courage, but the horror of her plight-was too great, what with the-nearness-of the repulsive creatures and the pain their talons inflicted, and she swooned as she was bortie over the plain, At Jast she openéd her eyes and found herself in the presence of the two monsters, which, squatting on their haunches, were looking at her. Pretending to swoon again, she-closed her eyes, shutting the loathsome beasts from-her-yision,. Meanwhile she took inven- tory of herself, She had. suffered nothing. Apparently she was unhurt, although her art were sore where her captors’ talons had gripped'them. ~ As though in sleep, the girl rolled over on her side, moving her right hand as she did so, and touched the automatic, Then she lay still. Nothing happened, Now she stole a glance at the Bat-men through half-opened lids, They had not moved, but she saw them grimacing at each other. Then one lifted his great, hairy arm with its blue- black membrane closed and waved a gnarled thing of a hand at her. Fascinated, she observed the creatures, studying them and wondering if she might have.a chance to escape. The Bat-men for the moment did not appear -to beso inter- ested-in her as in-each other, The one that had made the gesture snarled ina guttural tone at which the other bared his powerful teeth, Alicia. did not know that at that moment they were disputing the matter of her proprietorship, The girl and the Bat-men were inside what appeared to be a grotto; at least, she could see that it was a kind of enclosure, Light streamed through broken, shapeless openings in the wall that extended upward'some seven or eight feet. Alicia moved her hand gently over the ground on which she lay. It was smooth in slight undulations, She- guessed: it to be stone, or, perhaps, lava, for she remembered that the pro- jectile had descended-into what obviously was a gigantic crater. But the Bat-men held her attention. The controversy between them was increasing. Fiercer and fiercer grew the snarling of the creatures, which seemed. quite to have forgotten her. The one nearer to Alicia suddenly leaped upon the other. in a furious attack, uttering a:roar that startled her into a sitting posture. Ajl at once the two beasts were: struggling. on the floor of the grotto, snarling horribly and-rending each other with tooth and talon. © icia was in a panic of fear and horror, for now she knew intuitively that. the conflict was because of her, The realiza- tion was sickening, but, spellbound, she witnessed the. struggle, praying that the creatures might destroy each other, thus per- mitting her to escape. The gitl backed deeper into the grotto asthe fighting Bat- men tilled around in a circle, foam flying from:their distended lips and blood streaming from their wounds. Never had she witnessed anything like this atavistic strugele. The din of the beasts’ roars in the close confines of the grotto ‘was deafening. Meanwhile, the girl was nauseated by a musklike stench that tose from the creatures’ writhing bodies. HE wondered, as the beasts fought, whether she might escape their notice and edge ‘around to the opening used THE BAT-MEN OF MARS as an entrance, She determined to attempt it. Moving with the utmost caution in the hope of attracting no attention to herself, She edged closer to the opening, one hand feeling the way along-the lava wall and the-other gripping her automatic. Not once, however, did she take her eyes off the brutes who- were teating at each other in n what was evidently a fight to the death, Alicia gained the opening and, stopping: slightly, backed: out of it-as the two creatures fell-to the floor, writhing in their agony and fury. And then, with the sunlight upon her and the sweet, fresh air in her nostrils, she:turned from the grotto and fled, ‘her automatic ready at hand, She ran at first blindly, choosing-no course, but she- soon observed that she was running parallel to a long tier of -grottoes. So-she ttrned sharply away from the habitations of the Bat- men and courageously struck out for the open plain. Alicia, as she ran, looked for the projectile, but without- seeing it. Her captors no doubt had taken her a long distance, she reasoned, continuing her frenzied flight. She could not know that at that moment her friends were still struggling with the hairy hordes that had attacked them, Exhausted by her efforts and her-terrible experience, Alicia at last: fell headlong in the soft, heavy grass, and lay panting ina dazed condition of mind: She had put more thana mile between herself and the grotto from which “she had escaped. The girl lay flat on her back, arms and legs. extended-in almost complete exhaustion, Dimly she was conscious that she was looking up at the pale sky in which no cloud ~appeared. Beneath her the soft, cool grass was asa bed. Before she realized it, Alicia grew drowsy. It was-with the greatest effort that she was able to keep awake. In spite of herself, her eyes closed, but she did not sleep, She meant to lie there and rest awhile . . . then to struggle on . . . away from the horrible grottoes of the Bat-men. Alicia thought, when she opened her eyes, that she saw a speck in the sky, And it seemed. to her, too, that she could hear the faint, distant drone of a motor; but that. was fot possible, of course, But, yes, it was possible, she reasoned. She knew of-the: plane carried: on the projectile. Perhaps Leonard and Randolph were out’searching for her and were using the plane instead of the projectile, Earnestly scanning the heavens, she could see nothing, but the idea. persisted: that she-could. heat a humming noise as of a motor. It was distant:and faint and irregular in that it came and went. Then at last she told herself it was fancy, so she closed her eyes again, resting. As the girl’s strength returned, her. faculties grew more alert, She tried to think what might happen, what course the two men might pursue in an effort to rescue her. She prayed that they had not been overwhelmed by the Bat-men- but had been able-to fight them off. Then:she remembered the open window and: feared the worst, Randolph, himself, powerful as she knew him to be, would still be-no match for.one of the Bat-men, nor could their weapons save them once the creatures gained en- trance to the projectile, If still-alive, she knew, her friends would do everything in their power to_reach her. And while at times she doubted that they: had survived, she continued to hope and pray for their safety. Now the drone of a motor again came to her straining ears. And it seemed to be closer. It was more distinct than it-had been. Also it was continuous, Alicia sat up suddenly, looking overhead. Then, as-she half reclined°on the grass with her elbow on the ground, she saw it. There it was, a sort of airplane, and it was rapidly descending. She watched its approach, never doubting it was-her friends from the projectile, But in a little while she saw that that was impossible, For the approaching plane. was tnlike anything she had ever seen!