CHAPTER XI
_Caucasia Falls Silent_
As the scores of amphibian monsters came lumbering forth upon dry landit became instantly apparent why the aero-subs had returned to themother ships. For a few moments, out of the water, the amphibians werealmost helpless, with practically no way of attack or defense--ashelpless as huge turtles turned legs up.
But as each aero-sub entered its proper slot in the side of the motheramphibian, it was turned about and the nose thrust back into theopening, which closed down to fit tightly about the nose of theaero-sub, so that those flame-breathing monsters protruded from thesides of the amphibians in many places--transforming the amphibians intomonsters with hundreds of golden, licking tongues!
As, with each and every aero-sub in place, the amphibians started movinginland, Professor Maniel made his first move. With the tiny apparatusupon which he had been working, he stepped to the table before theSound-and-Vision apparatus and spoke softly to his compatriots.
"Gentlemen," he said, "I have finished, and it will work effectively!"
Though Maniel spoke softly, it was plain to be seen that he was proud ofhis accomplishment, which remained only to be attached to startperformance.
A matter of seconds....
Yet during those seconds was the real might, the real power for utterdevastation, of Moyen fully exposed!
* * * * *
The amphibians got under way as the airplanes of the Americas swept intothe fight.
From the sides of the monsters licked out those golden tongues offlame--and from the front.
Half a dozen amphibians slipped into New York from the harbor side andstarted into the heart of the city. And between the time when Maniel hadsaid he was ready and the moment when he made his first active moveagainst Moyen, a half-dozen skyscrapers vanished into nothingness, thespots where they had stood swept as clear of debris as though the landhad never been reclaimed from Nature!
None was ever destined to know how many lives were lost in that firstattack of the monsters of the golden, myriad tongues; but the monstersstruck in the midst of a working day when the skyscrapers were filledwith office workers.
And resolve struck deep into the hearts of the Secret Agents: if Moyenwere turned back, he must be made to pay for the slaughter.
A matter of seconds....
* * * * *
Then a moment of deathly silence as Munson gave way at the screen forthe gnomelike little Professor Maniel.
"Now, gentlemen!" snapped Maniel. "If my theory is correct,"manipulating instruments with lightning speed as he talked, "thereversion of the principle of my Vibration-Retarder--which capturesvibrations speeding outward from the earth and transforms them onceagain into sound and pictures audible and visible to the human ear--thisapparatus will disintegrate the monsters as our boats and planes weredisintegrated!
"In this I have even been compelled to manipulate in the matter oftime! I must not only defeat and annihilate the minions of Moyen, butmust work from a mathematical absurdity, so that at the moment of impactthat moment itself must become part of the past, sufficiently remote toremove the monsters at such distance from the earth that not even themighty genius of Moyen can return them!"
The whirring, gentle as the whirring of doves' wings. In the center ofthe picture on the screen were those half-dozen amphibians laying wasteManhattan. Maniel set his intricate, delicate machinery into motion.
Instantly the amphibians there seemed to become misty, shadowy, and tolift out of Manhattan up above the roof-tops of skyscrapers stillremaining, nebulous and wraithlike as ghost-shrouds--yet swingingoutward from the earth with speed almost too swift for the eye todetect.
But where the amphibians had rested there stood, reclined--in all sortsof postures, surprising and even a bit ridiculous--the men of Moyen whohad operated the monsters of Moyen!
* * * * *
From the Central Radio tower went forth a mighty voice of command to theplanes which had been engaging the aero-subs off the coast.
"Slay! Slay!"
Down flashed the planes of the Americas, and their guns were blazing,inaudibly, but none the less deadly of aim and of purpose, straight intothe midst of the men of Moyen who had thus been left marooned and almosthelpless with the vanishing of their amphibians.
And, noting how they fell in strangled, huddled heaps before thevengeful fire of the American planes, the Secret Agents sighed, andManiel, his face alight with the pride of accomplishment, switched toanother point along the coast.
And as a new group of the monsters of Moyen came into view, and Manielbent to his labors afresh, the hated voice of the master mobster brokeonce more in the Secret Room.
"Enough, Kleig! Enough! We will surrender to save lives! I stipulateonly that my own life be spared!"
To which Prester Kleig made instant reply.
"Did you offer us choice of surrender? Did you spare the lives of ourpeople which, with your control of your golden rays, you could easilyhave done? No! Nor will we spare lives, least of all the life of Moyen!"
The whirring again, as of the whirring of doves' wings. More metalmonsters, even as golden tongues spewed forth from their many sides,vanished from view, leaping skyward, while the operators of them wereleft to the mercies of the remaining airmen of the Americans.
* * * * *
Voicelessly the word went forth:
"Slay! Slay!"
It was Charmion who begged for mercy for the vanquished as, one by one,as surely as fate, the monsters with their contained aero-subs wereblotted out, leaving pilots and operators behind them. Down upon thesedropped the airmen of the West, slaying without mercy....
"Please, lover!" Charmion whispered. "Spare them!"
"Even...?" he began, thinking of Moyen, who would have taken Charmion.He felt her shudder as she read his mind, understood what he would haveasked.
"There he is!" came softly from Munson.
An amphibian had just been disintegrated, had just climbed mistily,swiftly, into invisibility in the skies. And there in the midst of theconquerors left behind, his angel's face set in a moody mask, his paleeyes awful with fear, his misshapen body sagging, terrible in itsrealization of failure, was Moyen!
Even as Kleig prepared to give the mercy signal, a plane dived down onthe group about Moyen, and the Secret Agents could see the hand of thepilot, lifted high, as though he signaled.
The plane was a Mayther! The pilot was Carlos Kane!
* * * * *
Just as Kane went into action, and the noiseless bullets from his shipcrashed into that twisted body, causing it to jump and twitch with themight of them, Prester Kleig gave the signal.
Even as the figure of Moyen crashed to the soil and the man's soulquitted its mortal casement, Kleig commanded:
"Spare all who surrender! Make them prisoners, to be used to repair thedamage they have done to our country! Guards will be instantly placedover the amphibians and the aero-subs--for the day may come when weshall need to know their secrets!"
And, as men, hands lifted high in token of surrender, quitted the nowmotionless amphibians, and flyers dropped down to make them prisoners,Maniel sighed, pressed various buttons on his apparatus, and the madscene of carnage they had witnessed for hours faded slowly out, anddarkness and silence filled the Secret Room.
But darkness is the joy of lovers, and in the midst of silence that wasalmost appalling by contrast, Kleig and Charmion were received into eachother's arms.
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