“Only a miracle can save us!” Lilla exclaimed.
“True, too true! But there will be no miracle,” Nan-nan asserted positively.
And Cabot added: “We must trust to the brains and patriotism of Cupia, and to them alone.”
[XX]
THE TABLES TURNED
But the men in charge of the kerkools in the street below, the kerkools which bore the machinery for the short-circuiting ray, busied themselves about their outfits as though they did not realize that their rays were impotent against the trophil engines of the enemy.
The vanguard of the Formian fleet arrived over the city. The watchers on the terrace could distinctly see the low-flying-point-plane. But, to get a clearer view, Cabot removed the black light filters from the binoculars which had dropped beside him the night before, and focused the glasses on the oncoming flyer. He noted her black crew. He noted that she carried the black pennant of the ant empire, rather than the yellow pennant of Yuri. And then he uttered an exclamation of surprise.
“She is a bomber,” he cried, “and is about to bomb the palace!”
At these words Lilla started to rush down into the interior; but Nan-nan put out a restraining hand. “You are safer here,” he said, “and what the Great Builder wills let us accept.”