The Fire People Page 25

  CHAPTER XXV.

  PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.

  The months that followed were the busiest, I think, of my life. I began bya complete reorganization of this government of which I found myself thehead. For the doddering old councilors of the late king I substituted menwhom I selected from among those of the city's prominent business men whocared to serve.

  The personnel of the police force I allowed to remain, for I soon saw theywere inclined to act very differently under me than under my predecessor.The various other officials of this somewhat vague organization Isubjected to a thorough weeding out.

  The net result was chaos for a time, but, far more quickly than I hadanticipated, I had things running again. I made no radical changes exceptin personnel. I attempted to do nothing that was outside the then existinglaws, and no new laws were passed. But from the very first I made it clearthat I was not one to be trifled with.

  Within a few days after I was put into power I interviewed Fuero and hisscientific confreres. I found them a body of grave men who represented thehighest type of the nation. They made it plain to me at once that theywould not concern themselves in any way with government affairs. Two yearsbefore they had recognized Tao's menace, and had been preparing for it bythe manufacture of large quantities of war material which, in case ofextreme necessity, they would turn over to the government. This armament,as Miela had told me, they guarded themselves, not trusting it even totheir workmen.

  The scientific men, I understood now, were among the richest in thenation, owing to the widespread use of their industrial appliances. It wasonly a portion of this wealth that they were expending in the manufactureof armament.

  I demanded the release to me of this war material. I explained them myplans, and told them in detail of Tao's visit to earth. They held severalconferences over a period of two or three days, but in the end I got whatI asked for.

  So much for affairs in the Great City. I recognized during these days thepossibility of an armed invasion from the Twilight Country. I was betterprepared to meet it now, should it come, and I at once took steps to bewarned as far in advance as possible. To this end I had girls patrollingthe Narrow Sea, not only on our shore, but over in the Twilight Country aswell; and I was satisfied that if Tao made any move we would be notifiedat once. Simultaneously with all this, we devoted ourselves to theunification of the nation, for in very truth it seemed about todisintegrate. Here it was that the girls were of the greatest assistance.

  We organized them into an army which consisted of fifty squads of tengirls each, with a leader for each squad. All of these girls were armedwith the light-ray cylinders. With this "flying army" Mercer and I made atour of the Light Country cities. We wasted no time with formalities, butrounded up Tao's men wherever we could find them, and transported themunceremoniously back to the Twilight Country shore.

  In two or three of the cities--the Water City particularly--there was ashow of rebellion among the people; but our light-rays cowed theminstantly, and in no instance did we have to kill or injure any one.Through Miela I made speeches everywhere. It was not my wish to hold thecountry in sullen subjection, and to that end I appealed to theirpatriotism in this coming war against Tao and the Twilight People. Thisaspect of the matter met with ready response, and everywhere our meetingsended in enthusiastic acclaim.

  We started now to raise an army of young men, which we proposed totransport across the Narrow Sea for land operations in the TwilightCountry. Before a week had passed I saw, by the response that came from myvarious proclamations, that conscription would be unnecessary. With thistangible evidence of the coming war the patriotism of the people grew byleaps and bounds. The fact that the girls of the Great City were not onlyin favor of it, but were actually already in service--a thingunprecedented in the history of the nation--brought the sympathies of allthe women with us strongly.

  Through the governors of each city I raised a separate army of young men,officered by the older men, most of whom had taken part in past fighting.Each of these little armies, as yet without arms, was drilled and held inreadiness for orders from the Great City.

  I had, during all this time, selected as many able men as possible fromamong the Great City's population, and given them over to Fuero and hisassociates for training in the use of the light-ray rockets, the largerprojectors, protective measures against the ray, and many other applianceswhich I understood only vaguely myself.

  It was after our return from the tour of the different cities, and beforethe recruiting of the young men was fairly under way, when like abombshell came the news from our flying patrol that a fleet of armed boatswas coming down the river from the Lone City. The attack from Tao was athand, and our preparations were still far from complete. We had our armyof girls in active operation, and that was all. Tao's boats would reachthe Light Country shore in a few hours. There was no time for anything butthe hastiest of preparations. We decided then to call the army of girlsand meet the boats in the Narrow Sea, turning them back if possible.

  I have now to explain the method of defense against the light-ray. Intheory I only vaguely understood it. In practice it was simple and, likemost defenses, only partially effective.

  Bob Trevor, has already mentioned it--the suits of black cloth he saw inthe Mercutian camp in Wyoming. It was not, as he had afterward supposed, adye for fabrics. Instead, it was the thread of a worm--like our silkworm--which in its natural state was black and was impervious to the ray.By that I mean a substance whose molecules increased their vibration rateonly slightly from a brief contact with the ray.

  It was only partly efficacious, for after an exposure of a minute or morethe intense heat of the ray was communicated. It then became partlypenetrable, and anything close behind it would be destroyed.

  We had under manufacture at this time a number of protective devices bywhich this substance might be used. Boats had, in the past, been equippedwith a sort of shield or hood in front, making them more or lessimpervious to a direct horizontal beam of the light.

  Tao's boats which now threatened us were so protected, I was informed bythe girls who reported them. Recognizing the probability of an attack byus from the air, they also had a covering of the cloth, like a canopyabove them. But as may be readily understood, such protection could bemade only partly effective.

  I had already manufactured, at Miela's suggestion, a number of shields forour girls to carry while in flight. These consisted of the fabric in verylight, almost diaphanous, form, hung upon a flexible frame of very thinstrips of bamboo. It was some twelve feet broad across the top, narrowingrapidly into a long fluttering tail like a kite.

  There was nothing rigid about this shield. Its two or three bamboo ribswere as flexible as a whip, with the veiling--it was hardly more thanthat--fluttering below them almost entirely unsupported. In weight, thewhole approximated one-twelfth that of a girl, not at all a difficultamount to carry.

  Within two hours after the report came--it was near midday--we were readyto start from the Great City to repel Tao's attack. Our forces consistedof some six hundred girls, each armed with a light-ray cylinder and ashield. This was the organization I have already mentioned, fifty squadsof ten, each with a leader; and fifty other girls, the most daring andexpert in the air, who were to act independently.

  We had two platforms, protected by the fabric, and with a sort of canopyaround the sides underneath, over which the girls grasping the handlescould fly. Mercer and Anina rode on one platform, and Miela and I on theother. All of us were dressed in the black garments.

  On each of the platforms we had mounted a projector of higher power thanthe hand cylinders, although of course of much less effective range thanthose the Mercutians had used in Wyoming.

  Thus equipped we rose into the air from the castle grounds in the GreatCity, with a silent, awed multitude watching us--as strange an army,probably, as ever went forth to battle.