“Women are always getting in the way,” he ejaculated, somewhat annoyed. “I am going on a dangerous task, and you increase the danger.”
“I am no weakling,” she answered sharply. “I am thrown into a strange world without any friends except my brother. If he is killed I am left alone. I do not want to be alone. I am sticking right by your side until we find a resting spot where we can live without a constant threat of death.”
They arrived at the summit of the pass. Before them, huddled together like sheep, were many Selinite soldiers speeding toward their homes, and throwing away their arms as they hurried along.
“Hold! Stop!” Epworth shouted from the air. “Do you want your women and children to fall into the hands of these flesh-eating crickets? Turn back, and be men. Help me hold the wall.”
“A demon is belching at us,” one of the men cried out in broken English. “He is hiding behind an immense block of rock and with each breath he blows away our wall.”
“If you are men face the danger. If you are cowards run away. If you conclude to stay, pause behind this mountain side and if the crickets come in stay them if you can until re-enforcements arrive.”
The Selinites stopped, turned around and gathered up their weapons. Slowly but determinedly they backed against the mountain Epworth pointed out, and waited to see if their enemies came in. Here they were protected from the big guns, and Epworth and Joan topped the summit and sailed toward the copper wall. The defenders had departed as one man but the crickets had made no attempt to enter. They were waiting orders which were to come later.
Epworth had been bothered during his flight up to the wall about getting out. He had been rushed to an extent that he had had little time for the details of battle, and now he found that there were no Selinites to open and close the wall gates for the gliders, which he expected to shove out and start into the air on the other side.
However there was no necessity to open the gates. Toplinsky’s big gun, fired only twice, had ripped the wall in a dozen places, and just as they came up another discharge rent the air. The gun scattered and the heavy slugs of rock, which Toplinsky was using instead of lead, whistled by on all sides. While another strip of wall fell the explosion only served to direct Epworth’s gaze to its hidden resting spot.
“I am going to silence that gun,” he called to Joan in a low voice. “Go back.”