“Your request will be communicated to the emperor at once through the generalissimo,” he answered presently.
The minutes seemed like hours as Robert and Taggert anxiously awaited the reappearance of the official. Meanwhile the Sphere very slowly settled lower and lower. Taggert’s efforts to start the engine had availed nothing. They could but wait idly with what patience they could summon. To have attempted utilizing part of the disk’s power to carry them beyond the enemy’s lines would but have resulted in disaster, for their present buoyancy was maintained only with the aid of the disk’s power (directed absolutely perpendicularly).
A small group moving toward them heralding the probable approach of the emperor or generalissimo revived hope in their breasts. They might yet maintain their strategic position long enough to drive home a bargain that the Martians would honor when they were obliged to descend and attempt to bluff their way through a difficult situation somehow.
“The old boy himself,” ejaculated Taggert as the group drew near.
Robert recognized the emperor in a car pulling up below. Seated opposite him was the officer to whom they had first talked, while beside the emperor was a much decorated and bedecked individual who he hoped was the generalissimo himself.
The latter stepped out of the car after the officer, and assisted the emperor to alight. The three of them slowly paced beneath the Sphere as it drifted lightly with the soft morning breeze. The emperor was plainly angered and making a poor attempt to conceal the fact.
“What means this rude summons which his Highness, the emperor, has chosen to humor?” said the generalissimo; for that this was the generalissimo they quickly discovered. His voice carried up to them clearly. Barely thirty feet separated them now.
“I will speak directly with the emperor himself,” Robert began. “As emissary of his Highness, the Governor of Svergad, I demand the immediate withdrawal of all forces from this region. Unless such a movement is begun without delay, we are prepared to wipe out your entire army by means of the terrible weapon which you have seen.”
The emperor raised a countenance dark with passion. The generalissimo checked him with a nervous grip on his arm as he was about to speak, addressing him earnestly in an undertone.
The emperor calmed himself with evident effort.