[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
into view, then Riverside
Drive and the procession of docks with the rusting liners lying beside them.
Ben waggled the machine-gun, tried to adjust its sights and squeezed the
trigger. A little line of smoke-puffs leaped forth. Tracer bullets but nowhere
near the birds. On and on lower New
York the Battery.
Wham!
The water beneath and behind them boiled. Ben looked up. The birds were above
them, too high to be reached, dropping bombs.
"All right, old soaks," he muttered, "keep that up. You'll never hit us that
way."
Again something struck the water beneath them. The airplane pitched and
swerved as the pilot
changed course to disturb the aim of the bombers. In the distance the cruiser
could be seen now, heading
toward them. As he watched there was a flash from her foredeck. Up in the blue
above them appeared the white burst of a shell, then another and another.
One of the dodos suddenly dived out of the formation, sweeping down more
swiftly than Ben would have believed possible. He swung the gun this way and
that, sending out streams of tracers, but the bird did not appear to heed.
Closer closer and then with a crash something burst right behind him. The
airplane gyrated the water rushed upward. The end he thought and wondered
inconsequentially whether his teeth would rust.
The next moment the water struck them.
WHEN Ben Ruby came to, he beheld a ceiling which moved jerkily to and fro and
stared lazily at it, wondering what it was. Then memory returned with a snap.
He sat up and looked about him. He was in one of those cubbyholes which are
called cabins on warships, alone.
Page 33
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Beneath him he could hear the steady throb of the engines. At his side was a
small table with a wooden rack on it. In one compartment stood a glass, whose
contents on inspection proved to be oil. He drank it, looked at and felt of
himself. Finding nothing wrong he got out of the hammock and stepped to the
door. A seaman was on guard in the corridor.
"Where is everybody?"
"On deck, sir. I hope you are feeling all right now, sir."
"Top of the world, thanks. Is the aviator okay?"
"Yes, sir. This way."
He ascended to the bridge, to be greeted riotously by the assembled company.
The
Brisbane was steaming steadily along in the open sea with no speck of land in
sight and no traces of the giant birds.
"What happened?" Ben asked. "Did you get rid of 'em?"
"I think so. We shot down two and the rest made off after trying to bomb us.
What did you two find out?"
Ben briefly described their experiences. "I thought there was something wrong
with one of your wing-tips," said the captain, "but your plane sank so quickly
after being hit that we didn't have time to examine it. That light-ray cannon
of theirs sounds serious. Do you suppose the dodos managed it?"
"Can't tell," said Ben. "From what I could make out through the glasses it
didn't look like birds that were handling it."
"But what could they be?"
"Ask me! Delirium tremens, I guess. Nothing in this world is what it ought to
be any more. Where did those birds come from how did we get this way, all of
us who is it up there in the Catskills that don't like am? Answer me those and
I'll tell you who was handling the gun."
"Message, sir," said a sailor, touching his cap and offering a folded paper.
The captain read it,
frowning.
"There you are." He extended the sheet to Ben. "My government is recalling all
ships. Our sister-ship, the
Melbourne, has been attacked off San Francisco and severely damaged by
bomb-dropping dodos and they have made a mass descent on Sumatra. Gentlemen,
this has all the characteristics of a formal war."
He strode off to give the necessary orders to hurry the cruiser home but
Walter Beeville, who had joined the group at the bridge, said under his
breath, "If those birds have enough intelligence to plan out anything like
that I'll eat my hat."
* * *
"If you were not before my eyes," said Sir George Graham Harris, president of
the Australian
Scientific Commission, "as living proof of what you say and if our biological
and metallurgical experts did not report that your physiology is utterly
beyond their comprehension I do not know but that I would believe you some
cleverly constructed machines, actuated in some way by radio.
"However, that is not the point.
I have here a series of reports from different quarters on such explorations
as have been made since the arrival of the comet and our recovery from its
effects. We are, it appears, confronted with a menace of considerable gravity
in the form of these birds.
"In the light of your closer acquaintance with them and with conditions
generally in the devastated areas they may be more suggestive to you than to
us." He stopped and ruffled over the papers piled beside him at the big
conference table.
He was a kindly old gentleman, whose white Van Dyke and pale blue lips
Page 34
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
contrasted oddly with the almost indigo tint of his visage. Before the comet
it had been a rich wine-red, the result of a lifelong devotion to brandy and
soda. Smiling round the table at his scientific colleagues and at Ben, Murray,
Gloria and Beeville, who occupied the positions of honor, he went on.
"I give you mainly excerpts. The first is from the South African government.
They have hm, hm sent an aerial expedition northward, all lines of
communication appearing to be broken. At Nairobi, they report for the first
time, finding a town entirely unoccupied and its inhabitants turned into
cast-metal statues.
"Addis Ababa the same Wadi Hafa likewise. Twenty miles north of Wadi Hafa they
noted the first sign of life a bird of some kind at a considerable distance to
the west of them and flying parallel with them and very rapidly."
THE scientist looked up. "It would appear beyond doubt that this bird belonged
to the species we call dodos and to which Dr. Beeville has given the excellent
scientific name, tetrapteryx.
"As the expedition proceeded northward, they encountered more of
them sometimes as many as four being in sight at one time. At Alexandria,
where they halted for supplies, the dodos closed in. When the expedition took
the air again with the object of flying to Crete and thence to Europe these
remarkable avians came very close, apparently trying to turn the expedition
back.
"They reached Crete that afternoon in spite of the interference of the birds
but that night were actively attacked on the ground. The phenomena that
accompanied all other attacks were observed. The birds used incendiary bombs
of great intensity. One machine was entirely destroyed with its aviators. The
others, since their object was exploration, at once took to the air and
returned.
"Any comments, gentlemen? No? Well, the next is the report of the Dutch ship [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szamanka888.keep.pl
into view, then Riverside
Drive and the procession of docks with the rusting liners lying beside them.
Ben waggled the machine-gun, tried to adjust its sights and squeezed the
trigger. A little line of smoke-puffs leaped forth. Tracer bullets but nowhere
near the birds. On and on lower New
York the Battery.
Wham!
The water beneath and behind them boiled. Ben looked up. The birds were above
them, too high to be reached, dropping bombs.
"All right, old soaks," he muttered, "keep that up. You'll never hit us that
way."
Again something struck the water beneath them. The airplane pitched and
swerved as the pilot
changed course to disturb the aim of the bombers. In the distance the cruiser
could be seen now, heading
toward them. As he watched there was a flash from her foredeck. Up in the blue
above them appeared the white burst of a shell, then another and another.
One of the dodos suddenly dived out of the formation, sweeping down more
swiftly than Ben would have believed possible. He swung the gun this way and
that, sending out streams of tracers, but the bird did not appear to heed.
Closer closer and then with a crash something burst right behind him. The
airplane gyrated the water rushed upward. The end he thought and wondered
inconsequentially whether his teeth would rust.
The next moment the water struck them.
WHEN Ben Ruby came to, he beheld a ceiling which moved jerkily to and fro and
stared lazily at it, wondering what it was. Then memory returned with a snap.
He sat up and looked about him. He was in one of those cubbyholes which are
called cabins on warships, alone.
Page 33
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Beneath him he could hear the steady throb of the engines. At his side was a
small table with a wooden rack on it. In one compartment stood a glass, whose
contents on inspection proved to be oil. He drank it, looked at and felt of
himself. Finding nothing wrong he got out of the hammock and stepped to the
door. A seaman was on guard in the corridor.
"Where is everybody?"
"On deck, sir. I hope you are feeling all right now, sir."
"Top of the world, thanks. Is the aviator okay?"
"Yes, sir. This way."
He ascended to the bridge, to be greeted riotously by the assembled company.
The
Brisbane was steaming steadily along in the open sea with no speck of land in
sight and no traces of the giant birds.
"What happened?" Ben asked. "Did you get rid of 'em?"
"I think so. We shot down two and the rest made off after trying to bomb us.
What did you two find out?"
Ben briefly described their experiences. "I thought there was something wrong
with one of your wing-tips," said the captain, "but your plane sank so quickly
after being hit that we didn't have time to examine it. That light-ray cannon
of theirs sounds serious. Do you suppose the dodos managed it?"
"Can't tell," said Ben. "From what I could make out through the glasses it
didn't look like birds that were handling it."
"But what could they be?"
"Ask me! Delirium tremens, I guess. Nothing in this world is what it ought to
be any more. Where did those birds come from how did we get this way, all of
us who is it up there in the Catskills that don't like am? Answer me those and
I'll tell you who was handling the gun."
"Message, sir," said a sailor, touching his cap and offering a folded paper.
The captain read it,
frowning.
"There you are." He extended the sheet to Ben. "My government is recalling all
ships. Our sister-ship, the
Melbourne, has been attacked off San Francisco and severely damaged by
bomb-dropping dodos and they have made a mass descent on Sumatra. Gentlemen,
this has all the characteristics of a formal war."
He strode off to give the necessary orders to hurry the cruiser home but
Walter Beeville, who had joined the group at the bridge, said under his
breath, "If those birds have enough intelligence to plan out anything like
that I'll eat my hat."
* * *
"If you were not before my eyes," said Sir George Graham Harris, president of
the Australian
Scientific Commission, "as living proof of what you say and if our biological
and metallurgical experts did not report that your physiology is utterly
beyond their comprehension I do not know but that I would believe you some
cleverly constructed machines, actuated in some way by radio.
"However, that is not the point.
I have here a series of reports from different quarters on such explorations
as have been made since the arrival of the comet and our recovery from its
effects. We are, it appears, confronted with a menace of considerable gravity
in the form of these birds.
"In the light of your closer acquaintance with them and with conditions
generally in the devastated areas they may be more suggestive to you than to
us." He stopped and ruffled over the papers piled beside him at the big
conference table.
He was a kindly old gentleman, whose white Van Dyke and pale blue lips
Page 34
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
contrasted oddly with the almost indigo tint of his visage. Before the comet
it had been a rich wine-red, the result of a lifelong devotion to brandy and
soda. Smiling round the table at his scientific colleagues and at Ben, Murray,
Gloria and Beeville, who occupied the positions of honor, he went on.
"I give you mainly excerpts. The first is from the South African government.
They have hm, hm sent an aerial expedition northward, all lines of
communication appearing to be broken. At Nairobi, they report for the first
time, finding a town entirely unoccupied and its inhabitants turned into
cast-metal statues.
"Addis Ababa the same Wadi Hafa likewise. Twenty miles north of Wadi Hafa they
noted the first sign of life a bird of some kind at a considerable distance to
the west of them and flying parallel with them and very rapidly."
THE scientist looked up. "It would appear beyond doubt that this bird belonged
to the species we call dodos and to which Dr. Beeville has given the excellent
scientific name, tetrapteryx.
"As the expedition proceeded northward, they encountered more of
them sometimes as many as four being in sight at one time. At Alexandria,
where they halted for supplies, the dodos closed in. When the expedition took
the air again with the object of flying to Crete and thence to Europe these
remarkable avians came very close, apparently trying to turn the expedition
back.
"They reached Crete that afternoon in spite of the interference of the birds
but that night were actively attacked on the ground. The phenomena that
accompanied all other attacks were observed. The birds used incendiary bombs
of great intensity. One machine was entirely destroyed with its aviators. The
others, since their object was exploration, at once took to the air and
returned.
"Any comments, gentlemen? No? Well, the next is the report of the Dutch ship [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]