“If Toplinsky had only a few projectiles of liquid air,” Billy observed regretfully, “he might teach these Things something about war.”
“As it is he and his men are going to have the fight of their lives,” Epworth replied soberly.
“Look at their leaders!” Joan exclaimed in amazement. “They have some kind of marvelous growth on their backs.”
Epworth, who never went without a pair of binoculars, put the glasses to his eyes, and studied the things she pointed out. The things he saw on top of the crickets were more wonderful than the huge insects.
They were men-shaped humps riding on the back of the crickets. At least their small bodies, legs and arms were shaped like men but their heads were enormous knotty projections with eye openings an inch and a half in diameter.
“Do I see properly?” the young man inquired, handing the glasses to Joan. “Do I see some kind of a man with a metallic-like head?”
Joan examined the riders thoughtfully. They were now approaching with incredible rapidity and she got a better view of them.
CHAPTER XV
Battling with Crickets
“They are little men with some kind of a device over their heads,” she asserted with assurance. “And they are acting as the general and commanding officers of the cricket army.”
“You’ve hit it,” Epworth declared excitedly. “They are wearing a headgear to protect them from this outside atmosphere that has been suddenly sent down upon them. At least——”