Page 422 (1/1)

Stern was not long in carrying out his plan

Even before Frumnos had returned, with the seventeen men still able to bear arms, he was at work

In Cliff Villa he hastily lashed up half a dozen fireballs, of coarse cloth, thoroughly soaked theht them out to the terrace Old Gesafam, at his command, bolted the door behind him At all hazards, Beta and the child must be protected from any possibility of peril

"Here, Frumnos!" cried Stern

"Yes, est bow in the colony and o,

"Gad! If I only had ht Stern, histo an unfinished experiment down there in his laboratory in the Rapids power-house "They would turn the trick, sure enough! They'd burst and rain fire everywhere But they aren't ready yet; and even if they were, nobody could venture down there now!"

For already, plainly visible on the farther edge of the canyon, scores and hundreds of the hideous little beast- to swarm Their cries, despite the contrary stiff wind, carried across the river; and here and there a dart broke against the cliff

Already a few of the Anthropoids were beginning to scramble down the opposite wall of stone

"Men!" cried Allan coly, "not one of those creatures le shot Every bulletsix of the bestthe parapet with rifles The firing began at once

Irregularly the shots barked from the line of sharpshooters; and the little stabs of s out across the river, blent in a thin blue haze Every moment or two, one of the Horde would writhe, screa, to the cliff, with terrible, wild yells

Stern greeted the return of Fru the arrows a half a dozen men "Bind these fireballs fast to the arrowheads!"

He dealt out cord In a moment the task was done

"Sivad!" he called a man by name "You, the best bowman of all! Here quickly!"

Even as Sivad fitted the first arrow to the string, and Stern was about to apply the torch, a rattling crash fro, ricochetting, thundering, hurtled a great boulder, spurning the cliff-face with a tremendous uproar

It struck the parapet like a thirteen-inch shell, smashed out two yards of wall, and vanished in the depths And after it, sliding, rattling and bouncing down, followed a rain of pebbles, fragments and detritus