Epworth saw the blast of gun fire with passionate anger. It looked to him like firing cannons at little children. Nevertheless he shouted and made a desperate effort to rally the Selinites. But they would not stop. Never before had they heard the report of a gun and although the guns being used were small and of rifle character they had no inclination to stay long to hear another discharge.
Urged on by their pigmy generals the crickets charged the wall. In their long feelers, extending from their mouths were strong wire cutters, and in their front arms they carried rifles and spears. For the safety of the Selinites Epworth had turned on the electric current only to see that it was in working condition and had turned it off again. Now he gave the signal to charge the wall.
The signal was answered from the city just as the first ranks of crickets slammed against the copper wire. The charge caught them and hurled tons of them backward against their fellows, who crowded against them with their wire cutters.
Again Epworth signaled to the city, and the juice was cut off.
Not understanding this mysterious power flashed against them a number of Taunan officers approached the wire wall, and placed their hands on it. Nothing happened, and with puzzled faces they commanded another charge. Again Epworth signaled for the juice; again tons of crickets butted against the wall only to be hurled back by the invisible force of electricity.
For the second time the pigmy officers investigated the wall. It still seemed perfectly harmless, and they mustered up their courage to the point of ordering another attack. This time they threw an army of crickets against the wall, pushing the nearest crickets forward to the danger point with regiment after regiment.
The force of the movement was so severe that it bent the wall inward but the electric current still held them back.
The pigmy leaders now became genuinely alarmed at the fall of so many crickets, and drew the belligerent army back sullenly several hundred yards. For a time they stood in battle array just beyond the reach of the arrows from the wall, and waited until a messenger could be sent back inland to Toplinsky.
“Ah, ha,” Toplinsky muttered to himself when he heard the news, “these Selinites have recently received some scientific advice on war. I wonder if it is possible that those two Americans escaped from the caves, and landed here? If so——”
He clenched his right hand and put his left arm around Queen Carza’s waist.