of which Thornhad warned them, crashed into an invisible barrier and explodedwithout cracking it.
* * * * *
It was August 24th, 2037. For three days, now, seven of the eightgreat combat-squadrons of the United Nations Fighting Forces had beenprisoners inside a monstrous transparent dome of force. There was afinancial panic of unprecedented proportions in the great financialdistricts of New York and London and Paris. Martial law was in forcein Chicago, in Prague, in Madrid, and in Buenos Aires. The Com-Pubswere preparing an ultimatum to be delivered to the government of theUnited Nations. Thorn and Sylva were hunted fugitives within the innerdome of force, which protected the red rocket-ship from the sevencombat squadrons it had imprisoned. Newspaper vendor-units wereshrieking, "Air Fleet Still Trapped!" and a prominent Americanpolitician was promising his constituents that if a foreign nationdared invade the sacred territories of the United Nations, a millionembattled private planes would take the air. And he seemed not eventrying to be humorous! Scientists were wringing their hands in utterhelplessness before the incredible resistance of the dome. It had beendetermined that the dome was a force-field which caused particlescharged with positive electricity to attempt to move in a right-handdirection about the source of the field, and particles charged withnegative electricity to attempt to move in a left-hand direction. Theresult was that any effort to thrust an external object into the fieldof force was an attempt to tear the negatively charged electrons ofevery atom of that substance, free from the positively charged protonsof nuclei. An object could only be passed through the field of forceif it ceased to exist as matter--which was not an especially helpfuldiscovery. And--Thorn Hard and Sylva were still hunted fugitivesinside the inner dome.
* * * * *
The sun was an hour high when the helicopter appeared to hunt for themby day. After the first time they had never dared light a fire,because Kreynborg in the helicopter searched the hills for a glow oflight. But this day he came searching for them by day. Thorn hadspeared a fish for Sylva with a stick he had sharpened by rubbing iton a crumbling rock. He was working discouragedly on a littlecontrivance made out of a forked stick and the elastic from hisparachute-pack. He was haggard and worn and desperate. Sylva wasbeginning to look like a hunted wild thing.
Two hundred yards from them the most formidable fighting force theworld had ever seen littered the earth with gossamer-seeming cellatewings and streamlined bodies at all angles to each other. And it wascompletely useless. The least of the weapons of the air-fleet wouldhave been a godsend to Thorn and Sylva. To have had one ship, even thesmallest, where they were would have been a godsend to the fleet. Buttwo hundred yards, with the dome of force between, made the fleet justexactly as much protection for Sylva as if it had been a million milesaway.
The droning hum of the helicopter came across the broken ground. Nowlouder, now momentarily muted, its moments of loudness grew steadilymore strong. It was coming nearer. Thorn gripped his spear in aninstinctive, utterly futile gesture of defense. Sylva touched hishand.
"We'd better hide."
They hid. Thick brush concealed them utterly. The helicopter wentslowly overhead, and they saw Kreynborg gazing down at the earth belowhim. Nearly overhead he paused. And suddenly Thorn groaned under hisbreath.
"It's the flagship!" he whispered hoarsely to Sylva. "Oh, what foolswe were! The flagship! He knows the General would have brought it toearth opposite us, to question us!"
* * * * *
The flagship was nearly opposite. To find the flagship was more orless to find where Thorn and Sylva hid. But they had not realized ituntil now.
The speaker in the helicopter boomed above their heads.
"Ah, my friends! I think you hear me. Answer me. I haff an offer tomake."
Shivering, Sylva pressed close to Thorn.
"Der Com-Pub fleet is on der way," said Kreynborg, chuckling."Sefen-eights of der United Nations fleet is just outside. You haffobserved it. In six hours der Com-Pub fleet begins der conquest of dercountry and der execution of persons most antagonistic to our regime.But I haff still weary weeks of keeping der air fleet prisoner, untilits personnel iss too weak from starfation to offer resistance to oursoldiers. So I make der offer. Come and while away der weary hours forme, and I except you both from der executions I shall findt itnecessary to decree. Refuse, and I get you anyhow, and you willregret your refusal fery much."
Thorn's teeth ground together. Sylva pressed close to him.
"Don't let him get me, Thorn," she panted hysterically. "Don't let himget me...."
* * * * *
The droning, monotonous hum of the helicopter over their headscontinued. The little flying-machine was motionless. The air wasstill. There was no other sound in the world.
Silence, save for the droning hum of the helicopter. Then somethingdropped. It went off with an inadequate sort of an explosion and acloud of misty white vapor reared upward on a hillside and began tosettle slowly, spreading out.... The helicopter moved and other thingsdropped, making a pattern....
"The air's still," said Thorn quite grimly. "That stuff seems to beheavier than air. It's flowing downhill, toward the dome-wall. It willbe here in five minutes. We've got to move."
Sylva seemed to be stricken with terror. He helped her to her feet.They began to move toward higher ground. They moved with infinitecaution. In the utter silence of this inner dome, even the rustling ofa leaf might betray them.
It was the presence of the air fleet within clear view that made thething so horrible. The defenders of a nation were watching the enemyof a nation, and they were helpless to offer battle. The helicopterhummed and droned, and Kreynborg grinned and searched the earth belowhim for a sign of the man and girl who had been the only danger to hisplan and now were unarmed fugitives. And there were fourair-dreadnaughts in plain sight and five thousand men watching, andKreynborg hunted, for sport, a comrade of the five thousand men and awoman every one of them would have risked or sacrificed his life toprotect.
He seemed certain that they were below him. Presently he droppedanother gas-bomb, and another. And then Sylva stumbled and caught atsomething, and there was a crashing sound as a sapling wavered in hergrasp.... And Thorn picked her up and fled madly. But billowing whitevapor spouted upward before him. He dodged it, and the helicopter wasjust overhead and more smoke spouted, and more, and more.... They werehemmed in, and Sylva clung close to Thorn and sobbed....
* * * * *
Five thousand men, in a thousand grounded aircraft, shouted cursesthat made no sound. They waved weapons that were utterly futile. Theywere as impotent as so many ghosts. Their voices made not even thehalf-heard whisper one may attribute to a phantom.
The fog-vapor closed over Thorn and Sylva as Kreynborg grinnedmockingly at the raging men without the dome of force. He swept thehelicopter to a position above the last view of Thorn and Sylva, andthe downward-beating screws swept away the foggy gas. Thorn and Sylvalay motionless, though Thorn had instinctively placed himself in aposition of defense above her.
The Fighting Force of the United Nations watched, raging, whileKreynborg descended deliberately into the area the helicopter-screwskept clear. While he searched Thorn's pockets reflectively and foundnothing more deadly than small pebbles which might strike sparks, anda small forked stick. While he grinned mockingly at the raging armedmen and made triumphant gesticulations before carrying Sylva's limpfigure to the helicopter. While the little ship rose and swept awaytoward the rocket-plane.
It descended and was lost to view. Thorn lay motionless on the earth.Seven-eighths of the fighting force of the United Nations wasimprisoned within the space between two domes of force no matter couldpenetrate. A ring two miles across and ten miles in outer diameterheld the whole fleet of the United Nations paralyzed.
There was sheer panic through the Americas and Europe and the fewoutlying possessions of
the United Nations.... And it was at thistime, with a great fleet already half-way across the Pacific, that theCom-Pubs declared war in a fine gesture of ironic politeness. It waswithin half an hour of this time that the Seventh Combat Squadron--theonly one left unimprisoned--dived down from fifty thousand feet intothe middle of the Com-Pub fleet and went out of existence in twentyminutes of such carnage as is still stuff for epics.
The Seventh Squadron died, but with it died not less than three timesas many of the foe. And then the Com-Pub fleet came on. Most of theoriginal force remained; surely enough to devastate an undefendednation, to shatter its cities and butcher its people; to slaughter itsmen and enslave its women and leave a shambles and smoking ash-heapswhere the very backbone of resistance to the red flag had been.
* * * * *
It was twenty minutes before Thorn Hard stirred. His lungs seemed onfire. His limbs seemed lead.