CHAPTER XXVII
A FRIEND INDEED
Though the giants, man for man, were no match for the travelers,collectively the horde proved too much. They had swarmed about the ship,and, by passing the big cables over her, effectively held her down.
"Let me get out and I'll cut 'em!" cried Andy. "We must get away fromthese savages!"
"No, no, don't go out!" exclaimed the professor. "They would eventuallykill you, though you might fight them off for a time. We must wait andsee what develops. They can have no object in harming us, as we have notinjured them."
"I'd rather fight 'em," insisted the old hunter.
But the professor had his way and Andy was forced to obey. The giantshad withdrawn their big feet from the side door and Washington hadclosed it. But nothing else had been accomplished, and the ship couldnot rise. The gas and negative gravity machines were stopped, as theywere only under a useless strain.
Suddenly, the colored lights which had been growing dimmer and dimmer,with the approach of night, went out altogether. Almost as suddenly,Mark, who was watching the giants from the conning tower, as they madefast the loose ends of the cables, saw them make a dash for the moundhouses.
"They're afraid of the dark!" he cried. "Come on! We can go out now andloosen the ropes!"
He hurried to tell the professor what he had noticed.
"Good!" exclaimed Mr. Henderson. "Perhaps we can escape now!"
They waited a few minutes, listening to the sound of many big feetrunning away from the ship, and then, Bill cautiously opened the sidedoor. The others were behind him, waiting, with knives and hatchets intheir hands, to rush out and cut the restraining cables.
"All ready!" called Bill. "There doesn't seem to be a one in sight!"
He stepped out but no sooner had he set foot on the ground than therecame a thud, and Bill went down as if some one had knocked his feet fromunder him.
"Go back! Go back!" he cried. "They hit me with something. I'm beingsmothered!"
"Bring a light!" cried the professor, for the sally had been started inthe dark.
Jack brought the portable electric it having been repaired and flashedit out of the door. In the gleam of it, Bill was seen lying prostrate,half covered by an orange, about half as big as himself. The fruit wasas soft and mushy as some of the giants themselves, or Bill would nothave fared so easily.
Then, as the others stood watching, and while Bill arose and wiped someof the juice from his face, there came a regular shower of the monstrousoranges.
"Get inside quick! We'll be smothered under them!" Mr. Henderson cried.
Pausing only to rescue Bill, the adventurers retreated inside the ship,and made fast the door. Outside they could hear the thud as the orangeswere thrown, some hitting the _Flying Mermaid_ and many dropping allabout her.
"I guess they are going to have things their own way," observed Bill, ashe gazed down on his clothes, which were covered with juice from thefruit.
The night was one of anxiety. The travelers took turns standing guard,but nothing more occurred. The giants remained in their houses, and theheavy ropes still held the ship fast.
"We must hold a council of war," the professor decided as they gatheredat breakfast, which was far from a cheerful meal.
With the return of the colored lights the giants again made theirappearance. They came swarming from the mound houses, and a great crowdthey proved to be. Several thousand at least, Jack estimated, and whenhe went up into the conning tower and took a survey he could see thestrange and terrible creatures pouring in from the surrounding country.
"I'm afraid there will be trouble," he said, as he came down andreported what he had seen.
"We must hold a council of war," repeated the professor. "Has any oneanything to suggest?"
"Get a lot of powder and blow 'em up!" cried Andy.
"Arrange electric wires and shock 'em to death!" was Bill's plan.
"Can't we slip the ropes in some way and escape?" asked Jack. "I don'tbelieve we can successfully fight the giants. They are too many, even ifthey are weak, individually."
"I think you're right there," Mr. Henderson said. "We must try some sortof strategy, but what? That is the question."
For a few minutes no one spoke. They were all thinking deeply, for theirlives might hang in the balance.
"I think I have a plan," said Mark, at length. "Did we bring any divingsuits with us?"
"There may be one or two," the professor replied. "But what good willthey do?"
"Two of us could put them on," continued Mark, "and, as they afford goodprotection from any missiles like fruit, we could crawl out on the deckof the ship. From there, armed with hatchets or knives we could cut theropes. Then the ship could rise."
"That's a good plan!" cried the scientist. "We'll try it at once!"
Search revealed that two diving suits were among the stores of the_Mermaid_. Jack and Mark wanted to be the ones to don them, but as thesuits were rather large, and as the professor thought it would take morestrength than the boys had to do the work, it was decided that Andy andWashington should make the attempt to cut the ropes.
The hunter and colored man lost little time in getting into the modernarmor. In the meanwhile Jack, who had been posted as a lookout, reportedthat there seemed to be some activity among the giants. They wererunning here and there, and some seemed to be going off toward thewoods, that were not far away.
"Now work quickly," urged the professor. "We will be on the watch, andas soon as the last rope is cut we will start the machinery and send theship up. We will not wait for you to come back inside, so hold fast asbest you can when the _Mermaid_ rises."
"We will," answered Andy, just before the big copper helmet was fastenedon his head, and Washington nodded to show he understood.
The two who were to attempt the rescue of their comrades were soon ondeck. In the conning tower Jack and the professor kept anxious watch,while Mark, Bill and Tom were at the various machines, ready, at thesignal, to start the engines.
The giants had now become so interested in whatever plan they had afoot,that they paid little attention to the ship. Consequently Washington andAndy, crawling along the deck in their diving suits, did not, at firstattract any attention.
In fact they had cut several of the big ropes, and it began to look asif the plan would succeed, particularly as they were partly hidden fromview by the upper gas holder. They were working with feverish haste,sawing away at the big cables with keen knives.
"I guess we'll beat 'em yet!" cried Jack.
"I hope so," replied the professor. "It looks----"
He stopped short, for at that moment a cry arose from the midst of thegiants, and one of them pointed toward the ship. An instant later theair was darkened with a flight of big oranges, which the queer creaturesseemed to favor as missiles. Probably they found stones too heavy.
"Well, those things can't hurt 'em much with those heavy suits on,"observed Mr. Henderson. "There, Washington got one right on the headthat time, and it didn't bother him a bit."
Jack had seen the fruit strike the big copper helmet and observed thatthe colored man only moved his head slightly in order to get rid of theorange.
In fact the giants, seeing for themselves that this mode of warfare wasnot going to answer, since the two men on the ship continued to cut therestraining cables, gave it up. There was a good deal of shouting amongthem, and a number ran here and there, seemingly gathering up longpoles.
"I wonder if they are going to try the flailing method, and beat poorAndy and Washington," said Mr. Henderson. "It looks so."
The two rescuers were now about a quarter through their hard task. Thethrowing of the oranges had ceased. But the giants were up to a newtrick. They divided into two sections, one taking up a position on oneside of the ship, and the other on the opposite. There were about twohundred in each crowd, while the others in the horde drew some distanceback.
"They're
up to some queer dodge," observed Jack. "What are they placingthose sticks to their mouths for?"
The professor observed the throng curiously for a few seconds. Then heexclaimed:
"They are using blow-guns! They are going to shoot arrows at Washingtonand Andy! We must get them in at once!"
He darted toward a door that opened from the conning tower out on thedeck.
"Don't go!" cried Jack. "It's too late! They are beginning to blow!"
He pointed to the throng of giants. The professor could see their cheekspuffed out as the big creatures filled their lungs with air and preparedto expel it through the hollow tubes.
Then there came a sound as if a great wind was blowing. It howled androared over the ship, not unlike a hurricane in its fury. But there wasno flight of arrows through the air, such as would have come fromregular blow guns.
"That is strange," said the professor. He thought for a moment. "I haveit!" he cried, "They are trying to blow Washington and Andy off the shipby the power of their breaths! They are not blowing arrows at them! My,but they, must have strong lungs!"
And, in truth, that was the plan of the giants. The hollow tubes, madefrom some sort of big weed, sent a blast of air at the two men on theship's deck, that made them lie flat and cling with both hands to avoidbeing sent flying into the midst of the giants, on one side or theother. But the giants had reckoned without the weight of the divingsuits, and it was those, with the big lead soles of the shoes, thathelped to hold Washington and Andy in place.
"Come back! Come back!" cried the professor, opening the conning towerdoor and calling to the two brave men. "Come back, both of you! Do youhear?"
As the portal slid back the rush of air was almost like that of acyclone. Then it suddenly ceased, as the giants saw their plan was notlikely to succeed.
But now there arose from the outer circle of the horde a shout oftriumph. It was caused by the return of those who had, a little whilebefore, hurried off to the woods. They came back bearing big trees, talland slender, stripped of their branches, so that they resembled flagstaffs. It took a dozen giants to carry each one.
The whole throng was soon busy laying the poles in a row in front of theship.
"What can they be up to now?" asked Jack.
"It looks as if they were going to slide the ship along on rollers," theprofessor replied.
Sure enough this was the giant's plan. A few minutes later those in the_Mermaid_ felt her moving forward, as the giants, massed behind, shoved.On to the poles she slid. The ropes were loosened to permit this, butnot enough to enable the boat to rise.
Then the travelers felt the ship being lifted up.
"They are going to carry us away, with the poles for a big stretcher!"cried the professor.
Looking from the side windows the boys saw that a great crowd of the bigmen were on either side of the _Mermaid_, each giant grasping a pole,and lifting. Farther out were others, holding the ends of the cableswhich Washington and Andy had not succeeded in cutting.
The ship was being carried along by a thousand or more giants, as theancient warriors, slain in battle, were carried home on the spears oftheir comrades.
"This is the end of the _Mermaid_!" murmured Mr. Henderson in sorrowfultones.
As they looked from the conning tower the professor and the two boysobserved a commotion among the leaders of the giants. They seemed to bewavering. Suddenly the forward part of the ship sank, as those aheadlaid their poles down on the ground. Then those behind did the same, andthe _Mermaid_, came to a stop, and once more rested on the earth.
"What does this mean?" asked the scientist in wonder.
All at once the entire crowd of giants threw themselves down on theirfaces, and there, standing at the bow of the ship, was a giant, halfagain as large as any of the others. He was clad in a complete suit ofgolden armor on which the changing lights played with beautiful effect,and in his hand he held an immense golden sword. He pointed the weaponat the ship as if he had raised it in protection, and his hand wasstretched in commanding gesture over the prostrate giants.
"Perhaps he has come to save us!" cried Mark.