We waited till the portable fort was a quarter of the way up, then Mark opened his mouth and gave the two screeches. They were better than the sample he had given us before. At that we both pushed and down rushed and bumped and clattered the barrel. It got under way and began to jump. The last five steps before it reached the movable fort never were touched at all. The barrel just seemed to come to life and leap at the enemy like it was trained. Maybe it was. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mark had found some way to train it.
Anyhow, it jumped at those Japs and hit their shelter just above the center. Maybe it didn’t hit it. Wow! That barrel and the things in it must have weighed a couple of hundred pounds and it was going fast.
“Scoot!” says Mark to Plunk and me.
I stopped just long enough to see the shelter smash backward and break away from the two-by-four that pushed it. The barrel went right over it, and you should have seen those Japanese hop out of the way. Then I headed up like I’d been sent for in a hurry. Plunk beat me, Binney was right at my heels, next came Motu, and Mark brought up the rear.
“Quick!” says he. “Haul up the r-r-rope.”
We grabbed her and pulled. It wasn’t a second too soon for The Man himself came bounding up the stairs below and made a jump for the end of the stairs we were pulling up. He caught it, too, and hung there.
“Motu,” says Mark, “ask him to g-g-get off.”
Motu grinned and grabbed his lance. You could see he had a job he liked. He went to where he could reach The Man, whose hands were now on a level with our floor, and reached under. I saw him draw back his lance for a jab, and the jab went home. Right into The Man’s stummick it went.
“Wourgh!” says The Man, or something that sounded like it, and dropped like a stone. He sat where he fell, or rather rolled over on his side with both arms folded across his beltline, and there he stayed till a couple of his men came and picked him up. He didn’t act very chipper for ten minutes.
“Here we are,” says Mark, fastening the wire that held up the stairs. “They can’t cut this, and they can’t g-g-get to us with l-ladders. If they come they’ve got to come through the floor, in an airship, or up these s-stairs.”