The giant was like an ox but the blow knocked him out.
By this time Toplinsky’s men were stumbling over each other to get to the fight, and pausing only for a second to get the direction in which Joan and Billy had gone, Epworth adopted Toplinsky’s method of travel, and departed with a hop-skip-and-jump. The progress he made was startling, and very soon he was some distance away from the pirate band, and had caught up with his companions.
“Do this,” he instructed. “Make it snappy. The giant will be after us shortly.”
But again Toplinsky proved wise. When he discovered that his companions could not master the art of advance, he did not give chase. He knew now that Epworth had a gun, and he was not anxious to push a contest where the gun would have to be used. Thus the three fugitives reached the mountains, and found refuge in a cave, the entrance of which they blocked with a large boulder.
“We’re sitting pretty now,” Billy remarked as he rolled a cigarette, “but I am wondering what we are going to eat and drink?”
The three Americans looked gravely out at the dreary waste land. Not a sprig of green grass, not a tree, not a sign of a spring—only barren white sand dunes, climbing cliffs with crater-like holes in them, and the food and water supply in the hands of men who would kill.
CHAPTER XIV
A Moon Army
The fact that they were physically comfortable gave the Americans much satisfaction. They were not too warm, and not cold. Toplinsky had been exceedingly wise in selecting a deep shaded valley for his colonizing idea, and after being two days of twenty-four hours’ duration each, in a cave hidden from the giant, Epworth concluded that Toplinsky’s scheme of heating the valley by solar heat during the long night and withdrawing the heat during the day might prove successful, and that the air created by firing the projectiles from the earth might in the course of time, provided the bombardment continued indefinitely, spread all over the face of the moon.
He did not attempt to get food and water during this time, feeling sure that Toplinsky would keep a careful watch, but after forty-eight hours the necessity for water prompted action. He started out with Billy to go to the Aerolite and attempt to steal into the storeroom. They waited until the Aerolite seemed in a state of rest, and its crew, Epworth reasoned, slept.
They had to be careful of footsteps because of the Lunar attraction.