Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 07.djvu/23

598 tion of the metropolis, had its little group of aerial towers, with fluttering banners. Occasionally we saw a few airships at a distance, traveling in various directions, and these became more numerous as we approached the capital.

Our approach was not unobserved, and a crowd of planes and airships came to meet and escort us as we drew near. Our reception at the principal landing of the great tower was most joyous.

HE aerial part of the city seemed suddenly to swarm with inhabitants, and the air was filled with excited excursionists rushing together from all sides.

On approaching the landing-stage, I saw a throng of brilliantly dressed people and officials awaiting us with welcoming smiles and gestures, and among them, to my great pleasure, I noticed Juba, standing in the foremost rank, treated with evident respect, and showing every sign of joy on his broad, hairy face. We had been absent not more than twenty-four hours, but we were greeted as warmly as if our stay had been a year.

No sooner was the car well over the landing than Edmund brought it to rest upon the broad platform, and threw open the door. Jack and Henry were the first to alight. The maid followed them, and I came next.

Edmund lingered a moment to secure something in the mechanism, and Ala stayed near him, while Ingra was behind them.

During the trip I had not liked Ingra's conduct; though, I confess, I do not know exactly how he could have pleased me in his bearing. But, at any rate, I felt an indefinite sense of anxiety whenever I glanced at him. He remained all the while in moody silence, occasionally looking at Ala in a way I did not fancy, but most of the time fixing his eyes covertly upon Edmund, whose every movement he watched as he manipulated the controllers.

Somehow, he impressed me with the idea that he was planning a stroke against us, and when I stepped from the car my anxiety suddenly flashed into a vivid apprehension of evil, and I could not resist turning back and saying to Edmund:

"Look out for Ingra, Edmund. He means no good."

"Don't worry. I'll take care of him," Edmund replied, glancing with a smile over his shoulder as he tightened a little hand-wheel.

A moment later Edmund approached the door, beckoned to Ala to follow. I saw now that he intended to leave Ingra in the ear until he could explain the situation, and provide for his incarceration.

What followed was like a liglitning-stroke.

SAW Edmund pitch forward, propelled from the car-door as if he had been shot out, and an instant afterward the door was slammed to, and I heard the bars fall into place.

Edmund recovered himself in a moment, and together we sprang at the closed door and threw ourselves against it. Of course, we made no impression. Edmund's face was as pale as a sheet.

"Quick—for Heaven's sake!" he cried. "Get something! Get me a bar! I must break it somehow. This is awful! Ala—inside! Can nobody get me a bar of steel?"

The crowd pressed round us, without comprehending what was going on. Nobody except ourselves knew that Ingra was in the car. Edmund ran to one of the windows, but even as he reached it the steel shutter was closed with a bang from within, and we heard the bolts shoot into their sockets.

It was the only time in my acquaintance with him that I ever saw Edmund Stonewall for an instant lose his wits. He seemed not to know what to do.

His face was dreadful to look upon. He pounded with his fists upon the steel walls of the car until his knuckles reddened.

As for the rest of us, we knew no more than he what to do. The excitement spread to the crowd, and they pressed upon us with wondering looks and exclamations.

A minute or two passed in this helpless agitation, and then the car gave a lurch, and a second later it rose from the platform!

Edmund cried out in helpless, passionate fear.

In a moment the car was a yard above the platform, and gathering speed. I felt my heart sink. Edmund became, if possible, paler than before.

"Hold it! Hold it!" he shouted, and with him I tried to grasp the smooth, polished walls that slipped away from our hands.

At this moment there was a rush in the crowd. People were flung aside, and to my amazement, as the ear rose in the air, I saw Juba make a mighty leap, seize the steel grating covering one of the windows, and soar away with the machine like a huge baboon hanging on the outside of a cage.

Then the car shot toward the sky!

LOW exclamation, magnified by the multitude of strange voices into a mighty murmur, rose from the crowd, and every eye followed the retreating car.

In this emergency all of Edmund's sagacity and self-command instantly came back. He was once more the cool, resourceful master of the situation.

"An aeroplane!" he shouted, and at the word sprang toward one of the floating machines beside the landing.

Brushing aside the engineer, in a moment he had the machine in control. Jack and I were upon his heels, but Henry was not quick enough, and was left behind. There were only four or five men, the crew of the plane, on the craft.

With a skill and rapidity that astonished me, well as I knew his capacity, Edmund swung the huge machine round and, with reckless disregard of consequences, set the driving-screws whirring at their highest speed. The great tower seemed to melt away behind us, so quickly did we leave it.

But it was a mad chase.

HAT could this air-driven craft do against the car impelled by the mysterious interatomic force? Already the latter was rapidly diminishing