Now they were fighting the colonists hand to hand. It was apparent however that one colonist was more than a match for ten crickets, and they were thrown back on their second rank, only to be pushed forward again.
Nevertheless it was patent that in time the little band of colonists would be wiped out. Epworth was of the opinion that the crickets would eat them. This however was merely a hunch.
“I do not like those colonists,” he remarked, “but the idea of human beings being cornered by enormous strange insects and turned into a lunch does not appeal to me. These Things look as if they may be of the Orthoptera family but one cannot tell. I’m for butting in.”
“Me too,” Billy agreed, “but how?”
“Follow me and we will see.”
Epworth ran to his newly constructed glider, fastened the plane around his shoulders, and started down the mountainside for a take-off.
“Where are you going?” Joan inquired anxiously.
“We must get to the Aerolite storeroom, and see if we can unlimber some of the heavy gas guns and nitroglycerine weapons. No time to lose.”
All three ran down the mountainside, got into the air, and with the bicycle motors they had attached to the planes directed their course to the Aerolite. Finally they landed on top of the machine as gently as birds. Entering the storeroom, the two men hastily put together one of the large nitroglycerine guns, a big cannon, and a powder gatlin gun Toplinsky had brought along as a measure of defense. These weapons they rolled to the side of the machine from whence came the attack, and both began a bombardment of the cricket army.
The result was startling.